Coureal's Ambition

Coureal lashed out, a maddened grab for James' leg, which barely managed to connect, but it managed to bring James down into the mud with him. "You're a pirate," Coureal choked out as he glared at James.

James resisted the urge to say 'duh', instead just simply nodded back at his once proud and powerful opponent, who was currently fighting with everything he had just to stay conscious.

"I-I I was a Marine," Coureal continued, causing James to wonder if he had any possibly brain damage. "Traitors in our midst, attacking our Vice Admiral, men being thrown aside and treated like trash? Only the few, the proud, the strong, ever managing to advance in the ranks, but we fought on regardless."

James paused. Were things not all that great on the Marines side of things either? If that was the case who wasn't getting screwed over in this new world?

"I was 144th in my platoon when I started out of 400," Coureal continued, in a half-dazed like state. James was certain Coureal wasn't sure he was talking to him. If he had been he probably would've used words like 'idiot' or 'kid' or 'worthless scum'. "There were so many other recruits. I think I was in Platoon #67 or something. Without pirates more and more people were turning to becoming Marines. A large influx of people who didn't really deserve to be Marines or even want to be Marines joined."

"After fighting throughout all of those candidates I was finally accepted as a Marine...trying to be a goddamn hero and fighting and working my ass off to prove to everyone I could be one. I was finally a Marine...and they stick me with goddamn chore boy work."

(-7 years ago-)

"Oops!" laughed a Marine as he picked up his glass of wine and spilled it onto the floor, clearly purposeful as he spoiled the just recently cleaned floor that the chore boys had been working on only seconds ago. "Looks like you missed a spot."

The room was filled with some kind of lemon scent from the Marine issued soap and cleaning supplies, however, that was now tainted with some kind of beer scent. Coureal couldn't tell which one made him want to throw up more. His vision was being covered in a thin film of the scents mixing together.

However, he did what all 'good' Marines did and kept his trap shut as he shuffled forward, cleaning up the mess and taking care of it. He was a trooper. That's what they called anybody who could put up with being a chore boy. A real 'trooper'. All Marines here have gone through it, suffered through the same humiliating tasks as they did, and all the while swearing that they would never do something like that when they became a high-ranking Marine officer, if they ever did. However, too few have ever held up to their word.

Yeah, those lying, idiotic, power-abusing Marines always seemed to be the first ones to be promoted. Then again it could've just been a numbers game. There were more of them, so of course more of them would be promoted quicker.

Of course, like in all dark nights there was always one shining star. "You dumb maniacs!" shouted a Marine as he came forward, quickly slapping them both with and sending them both spiraling to the floor. The man had long arms and a big torso to match it. All in all he was a big tall man, not too big though, however, he had a thin veil of muscles all over him. He was also dressed nicely, despite the two jugheads taking full advantage of their ability to wear civilians clothing, dressed like punks and fools, but this man had taken on his Marine uniform and kept it on.

He had the blood of a Marine flowing through him. He also had on a bright clean smile, perfect hygiene, well-swept hair, manicured hands. He was a clean and well-kept person, who obviously treasured cleanliness as well as honor. "Good Marines, horrible people," he explained with a shrug as he moved forward, picking up a handkerchief from the table and bending down, he proceeded to clean up the Marine's mess.

For every twenty jerks there was about one good guy. An uneven ratio that definitely didn't lend itself to being helpful in the future. Marines are going down the toilet and the only people who would benefit from it in the end would be the evil Marines. The good ones, the ones still trying to help people were getting screwed over. The self-serving bastards filling the halls and barracks were the only guys who benefited...figured. Isn't that how it always went?

(-present time-)

"Of course, it never ended there," sputtered Coureal as he rolled his head around about his shoulders. He was obviously distressed, but James was still trying to figure out if it was worth to fire a shot at him.

If the only things James had to deal with was Coureal's reminiscing about how things sucked, it was okay. But if Coureal was trying to bide for time, then James would be better off to get another quick blast at him. However, he couldn't get around it. James breathed deeply as he nodded.

"That Marine...Maurice Starbucks or something like that," muttered Coureal, "he was the worst. He was the goddamn carrot." James lifted an eyebrow at that and he was lost in that fact. It took him a few seconds to realize that he referring to the old tactic called 'carrot-and-the-stick'.

You beat someone to break their spirits with the 'stick' and then you give him the slightest amount of release with the 'carrot'. A fucked sense of acting that probably scared everyone. They relaxed, grew used to and accustomed to the carrot. That grew to a craving for it, a desire, a sick twisted need. They would do anything for that carrot and that was where Maurice twirled his finger around them.

(-6 years ago-)

"Hey, Maurice, everything okay?" asked Coureal as he rushed back up to the old Vice Admiral. Maurice rolled his head back and slowly nodded.

"Yeah, just a problem with some nearby mountain bandit," he nodded forward towards the map. "The guy in charge is lost and quite possibly an idiot, but I have them, I know their location, I have a very good lead, but this isn't my mission and the Marines refuse to allow me in on it. So I can't move on it...but I can't just allow them to do this."

"I can go out and get them," offered Coureal. There were villains out there and he could stop them. With his legs he could be in and out before the Marines even had a hint about it. "I could get them and bring them back!"

"We don't need them," explained Maurice. "They'd be too cumbersome to handle and for you to carry all the way back here. No, we need something smaller...like...like..." Maurice snapped his fingers as he pieced everything together. "A ring! The mountain bandits stole a pure gold ring. Its small and could even fit in your pocket, if we show that to the Marines they'd have to believe that we know where they are! We could convince them that we have these mountain bandits dead to rights!"

Coureal nodded. It took him about thirteen hours, but he managed to do so. Came back bleeding, battered, and broken...and with the ring. Coureal turned it into Maurice just like planned.

It was hard to know what happened after that, but Coureal suddenly had an inkling. He knew what had happened. He had had the wool pulled over his eyes. The ring was worth some couple hundred thousand belies. It was a nice pay-out for Maurice and he loved it. Coureal on the other hand was pissed.

It was a few months later when Coureal and Maurice met in a dark alley by a pure twist of fate. Coureal wasn't happy about what he did to him. He definitely wasn't the Marine's poster boy after that and he would never consider himself that ever again. But at the same hand he considered it a Marine's duty to catch and dispatch villains. That's exactly what Coureal did.

(-Present day-)

Whether it was just or unjust...or just plain fucked up. Coureal did it and he inadvertently created an opening for a new captain. He liked to believe that they promoted him knowing full-well what happened to Maurice, but he had a sinking feeling in his gut that that wasn't the case. Probably just a completely stupid amount of luck and coincidence.

Coureal tried to sputter a few more moments before finally coughing up the last of his breath, burying his face in the mud, passing out. However, right before he did James could've sworn he heard him mutter the words, "And we're supposed to be the good guys."

James slid Coureal's hand down his leg and let it slump all the way into the mud before standing up. James was a little distressed with all of the mud on his clothing, but he pushed those thoughts of cleanliness aside. He supposed ultimately Coureal was much dirtier, however, he supposed ultimately the question was 'Who was right in this twisted scenario?'

Ultimately the only thing James could think of was, "you're just now realizing how wrong you guys were." Right now, however, James supposed he was faced with a bigger problem and possibly an even bigger question than Coureal's moral dilemma.

Was there even such a thing as good guys? Were Marines good guys? Were pirates? Was Coureal? Was James? James wanted to say the answers in order were yes, no, yes, no, yes, but he really didn't think Coureal was a bad guy. Coureal was a Marine. James fought him. He couldn't be caught questioning himself now.

James steeled himself. Life was going to be a hurricane from here on out.

(-on a Marine ship-)

Purupurupuru! Everything on the ship was quiet except for the incessant calling of a Den-Den Mushi receiving a call. The captain, Vice Admiral Joane, didn't really particularly care though. The Den-Den Mushi may have been to her ship and it may have been for her, but she didn't want to waste her time with it unless she knew it was important.

She had the more important matters of tracking down this 'Heaven's Hurricane' fellow. It burned her heart and spirit to even think of a pirate going by that name. Her men would answer the Den-Den Mushi while she poured over the notes she had alongside Phineas Gauge.

The two had been partners for an amount of time longer than either would be willing to admit and either would care to recall. Most people would say it was blind luck that they got paired together, but they were efficient together. So efficient together that when they were paired up with anybody else they looked incompetent.

"Vice Admiral, Vice Admiral!" shouted a young Marine as he rushed into the room with the Den-Den Mushi in his hand. Joane leaned back and took the young boy in. "Its from an island! They were attacked by someone calling himself, Heaven's Hurricane." While Joane may have allowed a slight smile to pierce her cold exterior, Phineas' smile split his face in two, revealing a sinister grin. He was like a wild animal who just got a whiff of his prey.

"Set a course to that island immediately," commanded Joane, standing up and drawing her blade almost just as fast.

"No!" shouted Phineas waving his hand through the air as if silencing any opposing words. "We will get ahead of them! We know their past islands so we'll get ahead of them. Just follow past magnetic fields of their islands and we can find out which island their Log Pose is pointing to. We'll get there a little later than them, but we can come in force!"

"How many men do you think we'll need?" asked Joane as she settled back into her chair. Intrigued in Phineas' proposal.

"Just send a couple of ships," Phineas stated, "anybody who wants a chance to collect on a 40 million belie bounty can come along. I'm sure most Marines are bored out of their skulls during these recent days. They'd appreciate the offer."

James Decision

Okay, a bit anti-climatic I guess. Everybody was all expecting Coureal to come back and kill James I guess, but I wasn't thinking about that. So instead we get a short looksie into Coureal's past. Who despite becoming a fan favorite in probably record time, we know next to nothing about. Phineas also makes a re-appearance.

Anyways! I wanted to say one I didn't mean nothing too much by the complaining about the lack of reviews. I was just kind of annoyed lately by a few turn of events including the lack of reviews and decided to take this matter by the horns. Don't feel the need to review to spare my feelings, I'm okay with it. My decision about the bonus chapters still stand (Although looking back I may lower the limit or something). 10 reviews=1 bonus chapter!

Secondly! I was looking around at a few other stories and one person mentioned that he was using Google Docs (so the readers could correct his spelling errors, he preferred the formatting, a few other miscellaneous things) and I was wondering about doing something like that. I don't know as its something new and I kind of like the PMing (And reviewing) function of fanfiction and I don't want to lose stuff like that, so I was wondering how many people would want it.

Lastly! I updated my profile with a few new things. One I updated all of my stories update times, and bonus updates. Turns out they were WAY out dated. Then I added a 'Random Stories I am Writing For Fun' Section, which contains three stories not up on Fanfiction that I am messing around and writing for fun. Finally I added a twelfth question to my FAQ section regarding chapter length. No need to look at these unless you are interested in any of them, but still might be worth a check.