First Appearances and First Attacks

"So, that's it, huh?" asked Mikoto eyeing a lush green island with a huge metal dome in the center. "It doesn't look evil." The sun was barely peeking over the island it was still extremely early in the morning. A few calls of wild animals could be heard from the island. Birds seemed to be extremely noisy.

"Ah, appearances can be deceiving," said Sage, "but it does look weird for someone like him to be surrounded by so many livingthings." The story from the other day still plagued her memory in the worst kind of way.

"Okay, guys from here on out we are going to have to be careful," said Zesiro, "we are on our enemies' turf…the last thing we need to do is recklessly charge in there and let them know we are here, got it?"

Hiro-Shu nodded in response. Hiro-Shu remained fixated on the island he couldn't dare to look away. Any second now a cannonball or another kind of projectile could come crashing into their already damaged hull.

"Remember how you guys are up against a possible Shichibukai," said Alfred, "he could prove to be just as dangerous. But we don't have a second to lose if he moves away we may never catch him again…" He seemed tenser then usual, but he didn't seem afraid anymore. That was a good thing.

The five members of the crew stood there at the edge of their ship, alone, watching the ship sail on its predestined course around the island. The crew shared a quick look created from a mixture of adventure, tension, and then at the end annoyance.

"We are missing someone," said Zesiro being the first one to take notice of the lack of crew members. The rest of the crew nodded in agreement. Their heads sulking surprised at his stupidity.

A small single boat was being rowed up onto the island by a man with a green Mohawk. On his back was a guitar and a small rectangular box. He had a determined look on his face. He was going to come face to face with the man who had tortured him and made him what he was today. He was ready for anything and everything. The battle was just about to start.

(-In the large metallic dome-)

Two men were in a blatantly empty room with just one table in the middle and one door on both sides. One of the men was in a chair calmly waiting for his other partner to finish whatever it was he was doing. The other man was just coming in from the door. He was shirtless and shimmering in sweat. He had just finished off another set of 200 bench presses bringing him up to a little more then 15 sets finished today. The sun had still barely rose.

The first man spoke. He was old and withered probably near the age of 80. He was wearing a pure black business suit. He braced himself on his metal bejeweled cane as he tried to stand up. He was very frail and if it wasn't for the cane there was no doubt that he would fall over and would be helpless and unable to get back up. He wore a large, friendly, and, considering his location, slightly creepy smile.

"Its about time you finished Karasu," said the old man, "I've been waiting for a little bit under half an hour, I expect my future partner to be finished sooner. Time is not something I have plenty of."

The muscle bound man rubbed his hair. "Half an hour? It usually only takes me 20. Old age is a burden, isn't it?"

The old man distracted his gaze for an instant. "I'll have you know that the weapons I promised you have just arrived. You can be free to move to another island when you are ready."

"I'm expecting some visitors today," said Karasu, he seemed to be in a good mood despite the older man riding him about time, "I'm going to have some new skeletons to add to my collection. 5 to be exact."

The old man shook his head, he yelled at Karasu "I can't be here when you are having visitors! You may know the real me, but the rest of the world must know me as Hestas Nero, the multi-billion Beli business man! I am famous the world over for being a peaceful, rich trader!" His voice depicted him as being extremely upset and angry, though he was still smiling on the outside even as he glared at Karasu.

"Yes, you are," said Karasu. He shifted and looked at him his muscles ripping and flexing themselves, "which is why I want to know why. Why are you affiliating yourself with pirates? You could just ignore me, but you still choose to do business with me…why?" Karasu was getting fed up with the old man talking to him, if it wasn't for the immense amount of weaponry and money he possessed he would've dismembered him on the spot. But while Karasu enjoyed seeing men perishing at his own hand, he loved having money and weapons more.

"The why's are none of your concern, I have my reasons and you have yours, what could be a better reason?" said Nero, "I must be going now. I have urgent business to attend to. There is someone I need to have wiped off of the map." Even as Nero left the smile he had at the beginning of the day still never left his face.

(-With Mikoto and co.-)

"Okay, I packed everyone lunches," said Sage, treating this excursion more like a field trip then a life-or-death attack on an enemy's base, "so if you get hungry just eat a little, remember we have no idea if any of the food around us is edible so don't eat anything unless I say its okay!" She glared at Mikoto, knowing the half-coyote too well.

Mikoto tried whistling incoherently and acting like he didn't know what she was talking about and failed at it. He shrugged, "I can't whistle."

"Good. Stay quiet," said Zesiro, "so far we have the element of surprise. So stay quiet." He gritted his teeth trying to emphasize his point.

"We have the element surprise that is if he didn't notice our ship," said Hiro-Shu nudging backwards at the banged up large ship, that sailed around nearly half the island until it found a good place to dock.

Zesiro shook his head. "Remember our two goals to defeat him for our new 'friend' here and since Mikoto, insists on it find Ridley before we leave."

Mikoto nodded he turned to a part of the lush green forest, "RIDLEY! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME GET YER BUTT OVER HERE NOW!" shouted Mikoto at the top of his voice.

"We probably just lost the element of surprise," said Hiro-Shu. Sage and Zesiro hand already jumped up on top of Mikoto covering his mouth up just to make sure that he was going to remain quiet.

(-With Ridley-)

Ridley twisted in place. He heard Mikoto shout for him and thought about the crew and Mikoto's wild antics, he prevented himself from going back he had bigger plans for now. He then cursed at Mikoto quietly as now Karasu was probably expecting an attack and was preparing for one. Ridley thought that if he went separately from the large group Karasu would be so distracted with them and their large ship that he would not see nor hear Ridley until Ridley got close enough to take him on.

Ridley cursed himself for a little while longer. He sat down in the woods and took off both the small box and guitar that he had brought with him. He was planning on getting his weapon ready on the inside so that he would spend less time with it and he would be a smaller target. The weapon was small and didn't hinder him at all while it was packed up in its small box, but after taking it out and assembling it would take up a lot more space, making him a bigger target, and it would probably slow him down in this dense forest.

Ridley sighed. He knew what he was doing though, he had planned out several scenarios on how to take out his old man five years ago. Sure none of them involved joining a pirate crew and getting other people involved, but they shouldn't affect his plan at all. He shook the thoughts out of his head and set to work. He couldn't afford to get distracted now.

(-With Mikoto and Co.-)

Hiro-Shu sighed. He was the biggest and the strongest out of the group, but why did he get stuck doing this annoying and tedious job. He got stuck lugging around a large sack that kept squirming and kicking, whatever was in it was desperate to get out. He knew they had to keep him quiet and prevent him from telling Karasu their exact location, but why did he get stuck pulling him. Why couldn't Zesiro?

Their formation of choice was simple. Zesiro took point. He had to with all these trees in the way, his swords made traveling through them easier and much more efficient he could cut down the branches and weeds in the way to help them hurry along. Sage was close behind him maybe just an arm's length apart. Then Alfred trailed behind those two. He seemed the least distracted and uncomfortable as he roamed and directed with ease he probably knew the layout well enough to navigate, but it seemed like he would be scared with Karasu around. Finally in the back was Hiro-Shu trailing even further behind then Alfred. Oh, and Mikoto was in the sack bound and mute.

"Found them!" shouted a single voice. A multitude of voices joined the choir. All of them chirping some useless refrain that all mixed into one intelligible blob of words. Hiro-Shu looked around and noticed instantly that they were surrounded. A large mass had snuck up behind them, it was if they knew where they were even before the person shouted. He picked up Mikoto and trotted at a quickened pace to get together with the rest of the group.

Zesiro had already drawn his swords and was readying for the incoming attacks. Sage was basically useless at this point against one foe she could generate enough pressure to blow their heads up, but against 100 of them fighting, constantly moving around she couldn't generate and adapt fast enough to create the pressure on too many of them. Hiro-Shu was also wondering how well he would fare, he had to keep Mikoto safe and running around fighting men armed with guns and swords wouldn't make it any easier for him.

Hiro-Shu dropped Mikoto onto the ground with a loud thud. Mikoto groaned loudly and a muffled yell followed. Hiro-Shu prepped himself, he knew they didn't have the time to lose the more noise they made the more people would become alert and come out to fight them. "First Stage: Golem Brawler!" Hiro-Shu's arms and legs soon covered themselves in the same heavy iron as usually. He faced the large group of men, he felt the weight dragging him down and preventing movement, but they were close enough that he probably didn't have to move at all.

A group of men quickly fired several bullets at Hiro-Shu, since he was the first to act. Hiro-Shu's heavy iron body deflected most of the reached back with one arm, "Fist of Iron: Golem's Fury!" He slammed his heavy fist into the group of men the sheer force, speed, and density of the punch sent the group flying a ways back. He was panting heavily the simplest movement in this form usually took a large toll on his stamina, but with after walking around for such a long time carrying Mikoto, he was already started to feel worse for the wear.

Zesiro was also busy fighting. A group of men had surrounded him and were swinging their cutlasses and claymores around in his face. He blocked one of the men's swords with his own brilliant and high-class swordsmanship. He spun around, and with the other sharpened katana sliced a man deeply leaving him mortally wounded. The string of heavy swordplay and cuts didn't stop there. His movements sent him hurling straight into the midst of the fighters. His continuous streams of cuts and chops left deep gouges in nearly every one of them. They collapsed on their spots, bleeding profusely.

A small group of nearby enemies were currently suffering symptoms of severe nausea and vertigo. They were collapsing, finding it hard to stand up straight, and then emptying their bowels in the most disgusting of ways, puking. Sage's Osu-Osu no mi struck again! The rapid change in air pressure affected a small group of men, which was enough as Hiro-Shu and Zesiro immediately knocked them out using the small time span that the Osu-Osu no mi granted them.

The crew shared their overwhelming feeling of confidence. Even without the help of two members, Ridley and Mikoto, the three members managed to wipe out a large amount of enemies with the minimalist of efforts. This was including the fact that they had walked for nearly an hour or more now!

A small pain surged through the member's bodies, similar to that of a needle prick. The crew collapsed into the dirt. Their energy was drained and they felt exhausted to no end. The walk and the fight was nothing compared to the fatigue they were feeling right now. The last thing they could recall was a group of men coming out from the bushes and throwing them into bags.

The Start: Pandemonium in the Cells

The crew has officially split up for awhile (I am planning to have them come back together in a few chapters, so if you like Ridley don't cry. He is coming back to the crew). Ridley taking his path, the rest taking a different path. Too bad it ended badly for Mikoto and his crew. I guess its all up to Ridley and whatever it is that he is planning…Mikoto is going to need a lot of luck.