Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.


Three men charged, and so three men fell.

"RANKYAAAAKU!" and then with a sweep of his leg, Bard threw them all away. Leg still in the air, Bard took a martial art stand with arms keeping his balance and leg armed like a sword in front.

"What brutish verve" Arthir noted. "Two-fold, entwine him with righteousness!"

"Yes sire!" two soldiers shouted. They charged ahead and split apart, taking Bard from the front and back.

"Flanking me, eh?" Bard noted. "Weak strategy, but effective. I can deal with it." With his log-thick leg tightly wound, he quickly set it horizontal to the ground and kicked it out, letting his foot guide the leg. One tremendous blow to the armored chest that sent the solder away. Then, using his arms, he spun around and let his leg carry into the next kick with a roar. The other soldier went soaring over the ground, stopped by the wooden battlements around the barracks.

"Yo-HO!" Bard shouted, playing into his pirate bit more than necessary. He kicked up his leg to be vertically guarding his body and his face full of fighting spirit. The men were intimidated. Their ranks were cut down by five in less than an instant.

"A seasoned brawler" Arthir observed. "How exciting. I shall commend thee for besting those troops that have fought. I dare say, I may be doning a sort of respect for thee, knave."

"Eh?" Bard grunted. "Speak normal."

"I am!" Arthir shouted. "Forget the pleasantries. We shall make a hasty deal of thee. Manowat! Lancelish! F'ward!"

"Yes , sire!" two men called. Out from the back ranks stepped two heavily armored, battle-beaten men with shaved heads. Manowat had a psychotic crease of anger between his eyes from a constant state of anger. Lancelish was a dark-skinned man with a very relaxed look, his brows slanting up like a sad man's. Both men carried their maces, Manowat's stained with crusted blood and covered in spikes, Lancelish's dutifully cleaned and cube shaped with a perfect shine.

"How tiresome" Manowat growled. "Why must I always fight with thee?"

"Ask me not" Lancelish said. "'Tis the captain's orders. Now, how shalt we deal with this one?"

"Worry not" Manowat growled. "He shall fall by my hammer of Black Dawn before thy manicure is tarnished. Heh." Lancelish blinked at his fellow soldier, then shameful his his nails. Manowat, a big enough man to stare down even at Bard, stomped forward and let his heavy weapon crash through the rocky ground. "How there, knave!" he snarled.

"...How what?" Bard asked.

"'Tis a greeting of ours" Manowat explained. "Say thy name so thy tombstone reads the proper marking."

"...uhhh...Bard D. Samekawa?" Bard said, assuming he asked for his name. "Anyway, are we gonna fight?"

"Indeed" said Manowat, smiling still with his furrowed brow. "But first..." He ran a hand across the magic parchment on the upper handle of his mace and the marks started shining a damp, green light. "Heavenly Fog, pour forth for thy master!" Suddenly, from the paper, a stream of cloudy smoke came out. Bard jumped back and settled on both feet, covering his mouth in case the cloud was toxic.

"What in hell!?" Bard shouted.

"'Tis no such witch-craft!" Manowat sneered through the fog that his him. "This be my heavenly power, the ability to mandate the clouding mist and strike ye down within! Thou shalt ne'er see the sun again!"

He can make a green fog at will? Bard repeated to himself. Is he a fruit user? Bard's instincts flared up. He could sense the air moving to his side with danger!


"Ggggg...." growled the captain in the forest. Zan had urged the crew to take notice of his intentions by taking his hostage with blade close to her throat and proceeded to stoke the bonfire and bring up some light. The captain was an average looking man, considering he had some kind of power. Very lethargic, drooping eyes on a soot-blackened but pale face. His short, stubble beard shined oddly in the light. He was dressed in a myriad of faded robes, clothes and even some parchments as his royal garb.

"Umm..." the hostage girl softly started. "Captain Ramone? Can you wake up now...please?" Nothing happened, and the captain continued to snore.

"Ramone Cervantes?" Zan asked. "I thought he died when he was captured."

"No, he's alive" she stated. "He's just very sleepy because he was up all night scheming."

"Scheming?" Rez repeated.

"Yes" the girl said, bringing her hands up and rapping her fingers together villainously. "Scheming. That's how he says it."

"How helpful" Rez said. "I'mma wake him up myself. I hope he likes guns going off in his ear."

"No, don't!" the girl pleaded. "We never really know when hes awake or sleeping. He growls like that all the time."

"Really?" Zan asked.

"Yeah" she said. "We've all got some kind of sinus problem...this swamp's a terrible place to live in."

"Just poke him a bit, Rez" Zan called. "He'll wake up if he's a real pirate."

"Sure he will" Rez sneered. He picked up a stick and started prodding the veil and the man behind it. "Hey guy, wake up! We're here to mess you up, so show some respect." On his umpteenth poking, a slight buzzing was heard. Rez looked around to see what was making the noise, but a creeped-out looked crossed his face. He looked down at the stick and saw no stick, just a long, wood-colored millipede. Rez pitched the bug and grimaced. Then, a strong hand blasted out from the veil, grabbed Rez's face and threw his toward the fire. Zan stopped him with his leg, although he only got hooked and began tumbling, stopping just short of the fire.

"So you're awake now?" Zan asked. Ramone stood up, his rags falling off like dust. The buzzing grew louder as he walked into the open, and a multitude of flies crowded above him like a halo.

"Unnnh...?" he lazily groaned. "What the hell? Coleen, why's 'at guy holdin' you? You hook up with 'im?"

"No no!" Coleen, as her name seemed to be, demanded. "He's holding me hostage to talk to you."

"Oh" Ramone curiously groaned. "That's too bad."

"Please help me!" Coleen pleaded. Zan pulled her in and Rez got up with his gunblades armed.

"You're not to keen on talking, are you?" Zan said. "I heard some wicked stories about you. You're one of the only people in the world...in history to escape from Impel Down."

"Yeah" Ramone said, showing the side of his face and letting more rags fall off him, "but that was a fluke. I got my power inside Down, so I can't do a repeat performance, 'lright?"

"I'm not asking that, 'Ghost Man'" Zan said, adding particular emphasis to the moniker that Ramone seemed to seethe over. The mystery captain lurched forward, letting the last rags fall and expose his own tattered tunic, raised up a hand and, with one clench the buzzing in the air stopped.

"Interesting" Rez said. "I take it that's part of your ability?"

"Yup" Ramone lazily admitted. "So, which of you's the cap'n? What's your crew...?"

"Our captain isn't present fro this hostage taking" Zan said. "By the way, you can have her back. I just wanted to wake you up." Zan threw the girl at Ramone, thinking he'd catch her, but she bounced off his chest and fell to the ground. "We're here with the recently reformed Buster Pirates under captain Bard D. Samekawa."

"Buster Pirates?" Ramone repeated, taking a silent second to ponder over his thoughts. "I know those guys..."


"Come on, men!" Araly commanded from base camp. "Work those backs!"

"You heard her!" the strongest man said. "Work that ass!"

"That's not what I said!" Araly roared back. The latest expedition to climb the cliff and create a high-altitude camp to build a lift at was in progress. With a higher vantage point and an extra base with a lift system from the ground to the edge of the plateau, the Buster Pirates could relocate to the castle and immediately storm it, just like pirates would.

"It's going well" Marco admitted. "Honestly, I'm surprised you could get those guys organized at all."

"It's all in the voice" Araly said, "and I've got a strong one. Anyway, based on my speculation, the castle should be up there at the northern end of the plateau."

"What if it's not?" Marco asked.

"Then I'm wrong" she said "and we look somewhere else."

"Don't you think it's a bit irresponsible?" another pirate pointed out. "Sending up some grunts to do the captain's job? They'll get slaughtered if they have any defense up there."

"They'll be fine" Araly said. "They don't want to get saved constantly by Bard or Rez. They have to learn to stand on their own two feet." Unfortunately, she left her Den Den Bullhorn on, and the men regarded her analogy as a command. The strongest, although dimmest, pirates lodged their climbing picks firmly into the rock and started scaling on two feet, step by step.

"They're idiots" Marco mused, watching them climb.

"Well, that's good, right?" Araly asked. "Idiots make for great soldiers!"

"Says who?" Marco asked. "Anyway, why don't you take a break? Let me give them orders for a while at least. You've been toiling since we landed."

"I don't want to be lazy" Araly said. "If I'm on land and I'm not vomiting constantly, I'll do whatever I can to help."

"Fair enough" Marco sighed. "Looks like the adventurers need more delegation." Araly blinked at Marco, then turned to the cliff face. Most of the were dangling helplessly, trying to plant both feet and climb, while others had already fallen a good distance. Araly sighed and pushed on her Bullhorn.

"Come on, you scalawags!" Araly shouted, getting into what she thought was a pirate spirit. "Work those picks!" The climbing pirates exchanged some troubled glances.

"You heard her" one of them shouted. "Work those hips!"

"No, no" another began. "She said d-"

"ALL OF YOU" Araly roared, "SHUT IT AND CLIMB!!!"

"Yes ma'am!!" They fearfully shouted back. They stopped fooling around and started climbing the face like crabs along a beach.

"That's better" Araly sighed. "It's gonna be a long stay, isn't it?" Marco just chuckled at her swayed enthusiasm and watched his comrades scale the rocky cliff.