The Fifth Day

Things were moving along surprisingly fast. Despite neither Kelda nor Olivia wanting to be here the jobs were decent and they were treated with a certain amount of respect by their fellow workers. Probably cause nearly everyone else here was in the same boat. Kelda and Olivia were capable of holding their heads high and moving through it even if James had vanished to some other place.

Of course, Kelda did not share her little run-in with Morris and she supposed if the same had happened to Olivia she did the same. The two rarely talked to each other as is and with their tensions running so high and no James to be a mediator between them things happened as expected. As a matter of fact is surprised Kelda greatly when Olivia came by to see her, knocking her door down with one swift kick and clamoring on the bed next to her.

Olivia, of course, was not someone for beating around the bush especially with someone who she had open resentment for. "Where do you think James is?" Frank and to the point, Kelda supposed they weren't really friends who would chat about the weather.

"He's around here somewhere," Kelda stated. Olivia rolled her eyes. Kelda supposed it just wasn't in her heart to trust anyone even her captain. She supposed there was such a thing as a healthy dose of skepticism, too...maybe she lacked that just as she felt that Olivia lacked trust.

"We're surrounded by Marines, I hope he understands that this is not the time to be goofing off!" shouted Olivia as she got up and went to kick Kelda's dresser only to find it had been cut in two pieces. "You okay?" Kelda offered her, her best fake smile and nodded.

Olivia pouted, apparently a little upset that Kelda didn't trust her enough to tell her why she destroyed her dresser, but then she shrugged it off and shook her head. "We've been waiting for his magnificent plan since day one and he still hasn't looped us in on it! Unless it involves screwing us over I don't see how not telling us about it helps him out any!"

"Don't say that," Kelda defended, more out of reflex than anything else. She still trusted James, no matter what! Olivia struggled to find some words like she 'didn't mean it' or 'she was just joking' or maybe even 'she believed in James too', but all of those sounded like lies to her. "James'll do something to get us all off of this island." Olivia was about to respond, but a siren cut through the air as the intercoms turned on.

"All hands on deck! The Dismantlers are declaring an attack!" Kelda and Olivia glanced at each other. In all honesty with all of their hardwork they had forgotten about them. They were the ones they had to blame and now they were being given a chance to fight back. The two of them grabbed their weapons and rushed to the gates.

The two of them got there just in time. They burst into the door, barging in like a pack of hounds out of hell. All of them carried a large log, whose sole purpose was for blowing down walls. As soon as they hammered down the front the gates, they all charged in swarming like a nest of bees. All of them were dressed in the similar thick pants and a gas mask to hold off on the horrible smells of the outside world. They struck out.

"Where's the boss!" one of the taller ones shouted. "We want compensation!" He lifted his arm up into the air and was about to bring it down when he was easily brought down by a straight punch from one of the shipwrights.

"We'll let you get to the boss man when you've got through us," stated the shipwright as the rest of the workers all flowed in. "Truth be told all of us have a bone to pick with you guys. After all, you are the ones who dismantled our ships when we first got here...so...it was really stupid of y'all to come here and act like big shots. One of the bosses rules were do not attack the Dismantlers for no reason, but you've finally gave us all a reason!" He pulled his arm back and fired another powerful blow to one of the Dismantlers, sending him flying back. "And we appreciate y'all for that."

Olivia and Kelda rushed forward and soon joined the mad melee and soon the entire ship-building plant was in the fight, forgetting all about its important projects and as a result anybody who wasn't fighting was largely ignored, including one lone dismantler, his face hidden beneath the heavy mask. Due to the ruckus slipping underneath everyone's eyes were fairly easy.

He disappeared from the crowd and into Dock One. The large and open space was completely unguarded with everyone outside fighting back the Dismantlers. "Easy," he stated as he waded through the completely empty room, paying little heed to the loud, yet muffled shouts and war cries of the people outside.

His hands went up to his mask unhooking it from the back of his head and then slinging it promptly over his shoulders, revealing his brown almost mud-colored hair and fair features. It was James. He laughed slightly to himself as he approached the nearly finished ship. He had to admit, it was actually going quicker than he had thought.

The body of the ship was already pretty much built. From what he could see it looked like a decent ship, almost sail worthy, other than the lack of sails and in his opinion a Pirate Flag for Heaven's Pirates! Actually you know what, Heaven's Pirates didn't sound right to him. Maybe Hurricane Pirates? Ah, this was a pickle he know found himself in. What was a good name for his crew?

However, while James had come here for a very specific reason and he would appreciate getting said reason done. He dove behind a large nearby crate at the slightest sound of footsteps. Out appeared Nova, revealing her complete dedication to her trade. "Damn idiots," she swore quietly, revealing just a hint of emotion to her words, "We have a deadline and a ship to build now is not the time for a fight let the other shipwrights handle it."

Nova was hauling some wood up, but froze, lowering the arm holding the wood a few inches as her nose sniffed the air. "Who's there?" she asked, turning around and scanning the ship briefly. Nobody responded, James remained stiff behind his hiding spot. He didn't care to fight with Nova, not now and preferably not ever. "Come on out now or I'll force you out," once more her voice had adopted its normal, middling tone of indifference, with just maybe perhaps a hint of anger if you listened really hard. Her hand went behind her back. "Fine."

"Call of the Hounds!" Black ink exploded from Nova's back, quickly taking the form of three separate nearly horse-sized dogs. Their eyes were a bloody red, a few strands of their inky fur were tinged with the same crimson hue. The one in the middle had a slightly different complexion to it. Bone white eyes and fur tips decorated the slightly larger dog. The three all stepped forward, separating from Nova slightly before turning around awaiting their master's command.

Nova nodded at them, "fetch," she said the one word swiftly and without hesitation nor compassion. The dogs nodded, their tail straightening out and their furs standing on ends. The three inky beasts hulked forward, their shoulders pointing out over their heads, which were stretched down to the floor. Their massive nostrils widened, taking in all the scents of the ship.

It took them a bare few seconds to lock onto a scent. Their mouths stretched backwards, revealing a row of red teeth on the smaller versions and white teeth on the bigger one. They walked quickly, yet quietly. Their feet rarely seeming to linger on the floor for more then half a second.

This sure and stealthy movement seemed to be perfect for them. Their eyes locked onto the crate, their tongues nearly melting out of their mouth, dripping ink onto the floor as they moved forward. James pivoted around, rolling into a crouching position with his Impact Dial ready for the encroaching moment when the hounds were upon him.

James sprang free from behind the crate, sweeping towards his first opponent. He had instantly locked on one of the smaller wolves, bringing his Impact Dial down and into one. Releasing a nearly silent explosion, bringing the beast down in one fell-swoop. The black wolf instantly splashed onto the ground, returning to its ink form. The second wolf, the other small one, leapt toward James.

James rotated around, bringing his Flame Dial around and sending a lance of fire forward, piercing the beast's heart and causing it to vanish into a puddle as well. James sighed. He was lucky he had managed to knock those two down. However, James felt a steady drip of ink fall onto the back of his neck. He turned around to see the largest dog standing behind him. It white ink fang, mere inches from his neck. James turned around slowly, his hand already inching its way into his pocket to ready another Dial.

"Heel," Nova commanded, causing James to flinch. The ink of her animals, included the two James had 'defeated', immediately rushed back to her back, reforming into a tattoo of three hell hounds, which James supposed had always been there and that the wolves actually came from it and it didn't come from the wolves.

"What are you doing here?" asked Nova with fierce intent. This ship was going to be her pride and joy. It was a Marine ship that she was going to spend 8 days laboring over. No breaks, no time off, just work. And she did it gleefully. This ship was going to be her pride and joy just like the Thousand Sunny before her, her ship would sail around the world, braving biting wind and rough waves, her ship would sail faithfully under the command of its captain. A never-faltering ship that was her deepest desire and she would see to it that she made it. Regardless of who got in her way.

"Uh...I was checking the integrity of the ship?" James stated, coming up with a flimsy excuse. Nova narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to lie again. James struggled for a few seconds before coming to the conclusion that lying definitely wouldn't help him.

"I don't trust those Marines," James pointed out being quite clear in his intentions. He was a pirate and a smart person would try to hide such a thing, but as James had pointed out lying probably wouldn't help him at all...especially seeing as how he couldn't do it. His second lie was going to be 'I was trying to build a fort', but that excuse doesn't work either.

"And the guy sneaking around my ship while there's a fight going on in the main hallway is soooo trust-worthy," she stated with a slight sarcastic twist to her last words. James smiled, yet shrugged it off. So, what if she didn't believe him. He'd look into stopping this ship one way or another.

Nova moved her over the top of her right shoulder. The ink spread out from her body, following the flow of her hand, taking the form a large axe. "If you continue to fight with me I will not hesitate to hold back. The Marine are offering a large amount of money for this ship. I don't care if you look down on me for it, but I need the money, so if you don't-" Nova's words were cut off as James interrupted her.

"I wouldn't look down on someone trying to raise money for their little brother."

The look on Nova's face flashed from surprise to worry to a bit of anger at him for finding out about it. She barred her teeth, almost growling like one of her dogs at James, "how did you find out about that?" she moved her axe towards his neck, almost threatening to lop it off unless he spilled the beans.

James chuckled nervously moving his hand forward and pressing on the tip of the blade and pushing it away from his neck where it belonged. To his surprise it left a black residue on his fingers almost definitely indicating it was completely composed of ink.

James lifted his hands up, showing off that he was no threat to her, however, Nova didn't seem to buy it. She slowly approached him as if inspecting every inch of his body. "I just overheard ya when I was running from those Marines," James stated, although that was a half lie. The Tone Dial he had placed on her before she went into Dock One when they got back not only recorded the conversation between the Marines and the boss, but also Nova's quiet conversation by herself.

Nova eyed James like he was some kind of peeping tom, however, James just smiled back, broadly, but his eyes bounced between her axe and her face. James chuckled once more, "I know your eyes are up there, but you have to admit it is very distracting." James joked once more, making light of an otherwise serious situation.

Nova huffed and brought her axe back to her side. She supposed it wasn't exactly an important secret, she hadn't told anyone cause she didn't want anyone to know, but in the end it wasn't worth killing anyone over. Then again she supposed if she was going to kill anyone then this was a fairly good reason, not to mention time. There was a large fight going on outside, saying he got killed defending the ship wouldn't be horribly hard to frame him as. Nova shook her head, she wasn't going to kill him, especially not over something like this.

"You didn't really answer my question," Nova stated once more, getting down to business, "what are you doing here?"

"I plan on stealing this ship," James smiled widely, no hint of hesitation or even the slightest bit of a lie to his voice. Nova looked at him, trying to eye him up and see if she could take him at his word. Now perhaps anybody else wouldn't have thought it as they looked upon the physically weak and young Skypiean, but she saw something and perhaps she didn't really see it either. However, she was fairly certain she did. She saw the brief, yet brilliant flash hiding behind his eyes, indicating not only was he serious about stealing it, but he really thought he could.

Its Not Theft if You Got Permission

Nova's Devil Fruit will be explained in a later chapter and I think I'll do an SBS section on it like I did for Kelda's. Maybe that will become a standard thing like James' Toolbox? DFA: Devil Fruit Analysis! (Maybe?) Anyways, sorry about being late I recently got put on a very good healthcare plan and decided what the hell! I'm going to get all my check-ups done! Dentist, eye care, doctor! Well, of course, when you do that you naturally find...erhm, problems. And those problems need to be taken care of. (Quite a few cavities, suggested new glasses, stuff like that) So I was busy taking care of everything.

Next week promises to be even more chaotic as I got a big (but well-paying) job. Any luck updates are still a go! But, who knows...

Oh by the way, is it slightly insane I just wrote like SSotS chapter 85?