A month had passed since Smoker and his crew first arrived in Brockton Bay. It had taken a while, but it seemed that they were finally being able to settle in. Mostly. Smoker was usually busy with meetings with Director Piggot, Armsmaster, as well as the heads of the PRT and Protectorate respectively, Chief Director Costa-Brown and Alexandria.

Smoker's eyes hardened slightly. Alexandria looked nothing like her photos in his opinion. A body double most likely, they did have similar features overall, but Smoker was always one to look at details. In the end, Smoker and his men, the ones that decided to stay under his command, would be an independant 'hero' group. Similar to New Wave, except they would be Protectorate sponsored and work closely together. They would also serve as a sort of embassy should they find a way to contact Earth Blue.

They also spent a lot of time acquainting themselves with this new world and its customs. Sadly, Seaman Natsuko decided to leave the crew and accepted the Protectorates offer. He blamed Smoker for everything, not that Smoker blamed him. Last Smoker heard, he was assigned to some city named Los Angeles, but hasn't heard anything else aside from that.

On the plus side, the majority of Smoker's crew sided with him to form the Marines, Brockton Bay's newest heroes. They haven't made their debut though, Smoker was too busy negotiating and didn't care about publicity. Tashigi was his second in command of course and was adapting well, she didn't have many close family members, though she did miss her friends. They did the test that the PRT requested, Smoker held back of course. He wasnt going to reveal all of his secrets.

Marine HQ was now a building in the Dock, with a dock big enough to fit their now repaired ship. The building was big enough to house all of them, but it was still a bit cramped. Attached to the side, a 'garage' held the three metal carriages gifted to them by the PRT. Something called a 'van' along with a 'motorcycle' which was similar to Smoker's billowerbike. Smoker let Tashigi have it.

They owed these people too much. Smoker didnt like it.

"IM GOING TO KILL YOU!" A woman screaming interrupted Smoker's brooding section. That...sounded like Tashigi. Grabbing his new jutte, Smoker hid his older one so no criminal could use the seastone against him somewhere in the building, he followed the screaming.

"I'M SORRY!" A guy's voice screamed back. Was that Alby? Smoker turned his body into smoke and went into the air vents. What was going on here?

Eventually, Smoker reached the garage and reformed his body, jutte in hand, with the back of the vans facing him.

Tashigi had shigure out and was swinging it wildly at Alby. Said marine was attempting to escape her by bobbing and weaving in between the vans, which led to Tashigi tripping several times. Smoker sighed, sheathed his jutte, and filled the room with smoke, grabbed Tashigi and Alby with his two hands appearing from the smoke.

"What is going on here?" Smoker grunted as he eyed both of them. Tashigi's face was bright red, and was glaring daggers at Alby's nervous form.

"H-he drew me on one of the vans!" Tashigi screamed after she took several breaths, pointing at the side of one of their new vans. Smoker raised an eyebrow and looked at Alby who smiled sheepishly. Damn little vandalizer.

"If I let you go, will you promise not to kill him." Smoker said simply sighing. Tashigi seemed like she wanted to protest, but Smoker's impassive face made her back down.

"Yes sir." Tashigi sighed, and Smoker let them both go, reforming his arms back onto his body. By now, a few more Marines had gathered to see what was going on.

Smoker walked to the side of the van Tashigi pointed at. What he saw made his eyes widen.

It was a...rather risque painting of Tashigi adorning the van's wall. Smoker quickly looked away and glared at the perverted vandalizer.

"Clean this up and apologize."

Alby nodded quickly and was about to open his mouth when he was interrupted by a wolf whistle coming from another marine.

"He also drew one of you on the other van sir."

Scratch that, Smoker was going to kill Alby himself.

Tashigi leaned against the wall in her room panting, it took everything they had to keep Captain Smoker from killing Alby. Sure deep down inside, Tashigi wanted to murder that little pervert, but she was going to be the one to do it! Though...he did have some skill in drawing. Tashigi blushed when she remembered Captain Smoker's painting.

Damn it, now she can't take him seriously, always wearing his jacket unbuttoned. Tashigi heard a lot of footsteps outside her door. Marines were walking back and forth, some decorating their barracks to feel a little bit like home, others were cleaning. Alby was now assigned to bathroom duty for the foreseeable future, once he was done cleaning his handiwork. Tashigi shivered when she thought about how Alby got inspired.

Tashigi sat at her new desk, and stared at her new computer and delicately placed shigure next to her. It was...something different. Miss Militia explained to her several times on how to use it, but Tashigi needed more practice. Captain Smoker was simply content to learn how to use a 'cellphone' which was basically a transponder snail. He still didn't know how to text though.

Typing slowly, Tashigi signed onto PHO. It was one of the first websites Tashigi learned how to use. Heh, another hero saved a cat from a tree. Captain Smoker also had an account, along with about half of their crew, but he didn't bother learning how to navigate through the website. Looking out the window, Tashigi saw the sun was starting to go down.

"Where did I put it?" Tashigi asked herself as she looked for the piece of paper she wrote several important websites on. Ah, here it is.

She opened up another tab for a real estate website. Captain Smoker said he wanted her to find an actual house, claiming that she should be able to feel at ease when relaxing or when Tashigi wasn't on patrol. Such a weirdo, she literally lived on their ship surrounded by men when they were at sea. Tashigi knew he just felt guilty over everything, so she followed what he said. Captain Smoker did offer to help with her downpayment after all. Hmm, this was a cute house. It wasn't in the best neighborhood, but it certainly wasn't the worst either. The best part, it wasn't even that far from the docks.

Tashigi's search was put on hold when a large fire went up in the air, a few miles away from Marine HQ. Grabbing shigure, Tashigi's phone started ringing.

"Yes Captain Smoker?" Tashigi said as she rushed out of the room.

"Gather a squad. I'm going to investigate." Captain Smoker ended the call.

A Marine's work never ended.

A/N

Kislev

Im a bit rusty when it comes to One Piece and worm. I believe I said this an A/N or so ago. This has been pretty enjoyable to write. I feel that its a bigger improvement over my previous stories, *cough*Chimera*cough*