In the dead of night, a Marine ship was slowly approaching Scorta Island. The island had become the base for Victual Gotfreed, brother of Michael Gotfreed, who Smoker had previously defeated.
On the deck of the ship many Marines were preparing for the battle.
Smoker had equipped himself with his Nanashaku Jitte and was quiet. Next to him was Tashigi who had Shigure on herself. The sword, one of the Grade Swords was her greatest sword and one she always brought along with her on missions. To Tashigi's side was Nami. After the training Nami had endured with Tashigi, Nami felt comfortable with wielding a yari, and thus had one strapped to her back.
The silence of the crew was only broken up by the occasional exhale of smoke from the three as they were all smoking cigars to calm their nerves. The reports they had been given by headquarters had told them that Victual was Michael's older brother and much stronger than his younger one. There were also unconfirmed reports that he had Devil Fruit powers, but there were no reports on what his powers were.
The ship slowly came into a nook on the island, and they put down the anchor. A small group of ten, including Nami, Tashigi, and Smoker went onto the island. The group was sneaking into what they hoped was the main base when Tashigi put up her hand to tell the group to stop.
Standing in front of them was a man who seemed to be on guard duty. He was leaning against a tree and yawning, bored from a lack of action. Tashigi looked over at Smoker who motioned to Tashigi. Tashigi nodded her head then looked over at Nami. Tashigi put her hand over her mouth. Nami nodded, understanding the signal. Nami then snuck off, nearly silent.
The guard did not see Nami as she approached. He also did not notice as Nami snuck behind him and grabbed his mouth with her hand to make sure he made no noise. Right after she had him, two of the Marines ran out with rope and tied him up to ensure he did not get away.
Smoker decided to leave the two with the guard, then led the rest of the group onward.
Eventually, the crew reached a building where inside they could hear music. Nami, once again signaled by Tashigi to move ahead, checked the window then came back.
"They are partying in there", Nami whispered, then pulled out a sheet of paper and drew the layout of the room and the locations of all the people she saw. "I think as crazy as it sounds, our best course of action is to kick open the front door and just charge them." Nami explained, then drew lines on the layout to show the direction the Marines should rush the occupants. "The only problem I see is here", Nami said, pointing at a corner, "this looked like it might lead to a basement, and I do not know who all maybe down there."
Smoker stared at the map, then back at his crew. He knew they were all capable, and this was the best chance they had to catch Victual and his crew off guard. Finally, he nodded and motioned for the crew to go with Nami's plan. Smoker took the lead, followed by Tashigi, then the rest of the crew, with Nami bringing up the rear. He gave the signal to rush, then turned to smoke and slammed the door open.
The Marines came in and within a minute all the pirates were on the floor in pain. Smoker's initial rush had been enough to cause confusion and the rest of his crew were able to cleanup, each taking two to three pirates on their own. After such a short battle, Smoker walked over to one of the still conscious pirates and pulled him up by his collar.
"Where is Victual Gotfreed?" Smoker asked the man.
The man started to stammer, till Smoker pulled him closer. "I said, WHERE IS GOTFREED?" Smoker asked again, this time more forceful.
"Down, down there", the pirate said, pointing toward the corner that Nami suspected held a cellar. Smoker threw the man down and looked over at Tashigi.
"Make sure that they are all tied up and ready to be moved to the ship." He then pointed towards the cellar. "I am going to go get their captain. If I am not backup in ten minutes, check on me." Tashigi saluted before Smoker started to walk down the steps.
The cellar was a bit further down than Smoker had expected, taking nearly thirty steps till he reached the bottom of the cellar. He walked into the dimly lit room and pulled out his Nanashaku Jitte, ready to use it at a moment's notice. It was a good thing he did, because less than a second later he needed to deflect a sword that was coming right at him.
"Well, who are you?" The man who had swung at Smoker asked. Smoker looked at the man and knew right away this was Michael Gotfreed's brother. The man had a similar build. The only major differences besides seeming older, were that instead of black hair, he had grey, and that his eyes were black.
"I'm Captain Smoker of the Marines, and you are under arrest for piracy Victula Gotfreed."
Gotfreed jumped back after hearing this and stared at the Smoker, sizing him up. "A Marine Captain huh?" Gotfreed said to Smoker. "I was wondering how long it would take the Marines to come after me after you captured my brother. Can you tell me one thing, was it my brother who squealed?"
Smoker saw no reason to lie to the man, so he told the truth. "Truth be told, your brother was so badly beaten, he really did not have a chance to tell us about you. However, we showed what happened to him, and his crew told us everything."
"Everything?" Gotfreed asked back, a grin on his face. "I doubt they told you about him."
"Him?" Smoker repeated, confused, not sure who Gotfreed was referring to.
"Heh", Gotfreed said to himself, then dived at Smoker again.
While it was not easy, Smoker was able to deflect Gotfreed's attack, till they became double. Gotfreed grabbed a second sword and started to attack with both. Smoker had experience fighting dual wielding swordsmen so it took a second, but he adjusted well. Just as Smoker was about to turn to smoke, he was attacked by another pair of blades.
Suddenly Gotfreed was attacking with four blades. It took Smoker a moment to realize how this was possible because of the room's dim lighting, but soon he saw it, out of Gotfreed's sides two tentacles had grown, and they each held a sword. Smoker then watched as two more tentacles grew out of Gotfreed's side, and each of them grabbed a sword as well.
Smoker was now facing six-sword style, something he had never imagined he would have to face. To give himself a moment to plan and compose himself he started to speak again. "So, you ate the Shoka-Shoka Fruit and gain tentacles?" Smoker asked his opponent.
Gotfreed looked down and stared at his tentacles and smiled, "that's right, I'm the tentacle man." Gotfreed then dove at Smoker who was barely able to get out of the way.
Smoker then turned his body into smoke and started to try to approach Gotfreed. "Oh", Gotfreed said to Smoker, "you are a Logia type", Gotfreed then hopped back, then with three of his tentacles started to rotate the swords in them. The wind was pushing Smoker back so he had to re-solidify himself to ensure he was not blown away.
"What now captain?" Gotfreed asked, sarcastically.
Smoker thought about what to do then came up with a plan. He would run at him solid, become smoke when he was close to his defenses, then re-solidify and grab his tentacles and stab them with his Nanashaku Jitte. He prepared himself then dived in, which took Gotfreed by surprise.
The plan worked as well as Smoker could have hoped. He came in and grabbed one of Gotfreed's arms. Just then, Smoker started to feel sluggish. He had no idea why, but he fell to one knee. He looked up at Gotfreed who had a giant smile on his face and started to laugh.
"Did I say Shoka-Shoka Fruit", he explained, laughing, "sorry, I meant to say the Clage-Clage Fruit." He laughed some more and Smoker tried to stay on his one knee and not collapse more.
The Clage-Clage Fruit was the jellyfish fruit, this meant that Smoker had been stung when he grabbed Gotfreed's arm. He tried to decide what to do next when he looked up and saw Tashigi walking down the stairs. He used the last of his strength to explain the situation to her.
"Tashigi", he barked out which caused Gotfreed to realize she was coming down the stairs, something Smoker had to sacrifice to give her the information, "Gotfreed ate the Clage-Clage Fruit, he has the powers of a jellyfish, which means he has extra limbs with his tentacles. He also has poison that can go through items of clothing when he touches you", Smoker explained, looking down at his hand which had a glove on, "the poison is strong, but does not seem to be fatal right away, more like it paralyses its victim."
Smoker then barely pulled himself beside a wall and leaned on it to rest. Tashigi jumped down the remainder of the stairs and put herself between Gotfreed and Smoker.
"Are you okay Smoker?" She asked him, keeping one eye on Gotfreed. She had not been expecting to see Smoker in trouble, she was more expecting to see him interrogating Victula as she had when Smoker had beaten his brother.
Smoker looked up at her with a look that screamed out the word, "really", so Tashigi looked away a little embarrassed.
"So, who are you miss?" Gotfreed asked Tashigi.
"I do not need to give you my name", Tashigi answered back before trying to fight Gotfreed.
Unfortunately, Gotfreed had the advantage on Tashigi as well. While her sword skills were improving, and probably better than Smoker with his weapon, the extra limbs just made it too hard to approach him. Tashigi had been fighting for a few minutes and was already almost worn out.
"Man, the Marines are weaker than I thought." Gotfreed proclaimed to Tashigi and Smoker. "If I had known it was this easy to defeat Marines, I would have done it long ago, not sure why Stormbreaker won't allow us just to attack a Marine base or two?"
"Stormbreaker?" Tashigi asked back, not familiar with the name.
"Oh, well, I shouldn't have said that, but you will be defeated soon anyway, so why not?" Gotfreed chuckled to himself looking at the worn out Tashigi and the weak Smoker. "I am one of the three commanders of the Equal Dealers, led by Klaus Stormbreaker, and we are a group looking to take over East Blue." Gotfreed started to laugh and saw Tashigi nod, "oh you agree with me, that is weird. "Well, besides Stormbreaker all us commanders are... are", suddenly Gotfreed felt a sharp pain in his stomach and looked down.
What he saw was the end of a yari coming out of his stomach. He turned around and saw an orange-haired woman holding it, staring with a fierce angry look in her eyes. His tentacles slowly retracted into his body and he fell to his knees. He started to cough up blood and his vision started to blur. He looked at the orange-haired woman and could only mutter a small phrase. "Who are you?" He said before falling to the ground and his eyes losing their life.
Nami ran over to Tashigi and grabbed her, "are you okay?" She asked and Tashigi nodded then motioned to Smoker.
"Smoker is not though, I will take him up, and I need you to get to the ship and get a doctor.
Smoker, relieved that Gotfreed had been defeated and his crew was safe, allowed himself to slowly lose consciousness while Tashigi was giving Nami her orders.
Smoker awoke in the bed of the medical bay of his ship. He recognized the room right away, having needed to go here to check on his own men when they were injured, he felt a little embarrassed being the one in the bed and started to lean up. As he did, he felt a hand push him back down.
"No, Smoker, you still need your rest." Tashigi, who was in a chair next to the bed, told her captain. Tashigi was sitting there smoking a cigar and Smoker looked over to a table with an ashtray full of cigars next to it. He recognized the setup as one he had done multiple times waiting for crew members to wake up.
"Can I at least have a smoke?" He asked before Tashigi grabbed two cigars out of her pocket and handed them to Smoker. Smoker pulled his lighter out of his own pocket and lit up. He exhaled the smoke and leaned up in the bed, something Tashigi tried to stop, but Smoker put up his hand to stop her.
"What is the situation?" He asked his vice-captain.
"Victula is dead." Tashigi said, then turned around and looked at Nami, who was standing near the entrance, smoking her own cigar. This surprised Smoker who had not even realized that Nami was in the room. "Nami killed him." Tashigi sighed and continued.
"As you can tell by you regaining consciousness, we were able to counter his poison, much as you said, it was more to paralyze his foe, rather than kill them. So, that is good. We have captured Victula's entire crew and are holding them in the brig." Tashigi took the cigar out of her mouth and exhaled, trying to think of what else to say. "We have been ordered to go to the 22nd's Marine Base to receive further orders as well."
Smoker nodded, following everything. "So, everything is alright?" He asked Tashigi, who thought for a moment.
"Yeah, with you healthy, we once again had a fight with zero fatalities." Tashigi answered back.
"That is good to hear", Smoker answered back, his, Nami, and Tashigi's smoke, making the medical bay a smokey room. "I imagine the doctor is probably furious how smokey this room has become so you are dismissed. Head on up to the yeoman and give him the order to take us to Marine Base 22."
"Yes Smoker", Tashigi said, before leaving the room, Nami followed behind leaving Smoker alone with his thoughts.
"Maybe she is ready", Smoker muttered to himself.