On the Prowl

While Hiro-Shu, Enma, and Aaron were all in trouble with their own enemy the other predators had also made their move. They quiet stalking occasionally interrupted by an animal-like growl. The hunt had begun and the prey were the Infinity Pirates and Dark Knight Pirates. The quiet steps brought them closer and closer to their preys. So close they could tell Rosa was wearing a delightful lilac perfume, Sage was the cook the scent of spices still strong on her, their noses twitches fiercely, ready to pounce on the two delightful fragrant women...however, there was one thing the caused them pause. Another scent mixed in with them. They lowered their weight and tried to scurry a little bit closer, they were unsure of the scent, but knew they had smelled it before. They paused just before they broke free from the bushes. They had recognized the scent coming off of the third man. A man of a serious build, standing six foot and having a 67 inch blade attached to his waist. He reaked of blood.

"May we help you?" asked Reymundo pausing in his path, trying to tempt them out, but for some reason they didn't make any sudden movements. The three girls behind them (Lily was also there, she just lacked a strong enough scent for the predators to pick up on) also stopped in their tracks It was obvious by the worried look on Lily's face that she had sensed them awhile back, no doubt due to her decent animal instincts that her Devil Fruit gave her. The animal's didn't make a move. Reymundo scoffed and shook his head, "cowards. If you do not live by the bushido code of courage, then you deserve to die by the bushido code of strength."

And that was when it happened. Reymundo drew his blade. The air had changed, thickening in a flash. Forget about the strong stench of blood that was radiating off of him mere seconds ago. That was the very least of their worries. A thick aura of blood lust surrounded him, practically speaking of his leagues of power above the in that instant. A tight and serious smile crossed his face as he noticed all of the animals stopping in their tracks. "And here I was worried for my captain's sake of being all alone." Reymundo brought his sword around, instantly slicing through the air with the speed of a lightning bolt. The trees were brought down in a flash, a loud crashing noise soon filled the forest causing his comrades to jump back and his opponent's to jump out of their skin. The newly fallen forest now had three men standing on top of the trees. They all had a mark on their body from Reymundo's slice. Reymundo seemed slightly surprised as he opened his mouth and said, "I was meaning to take your heads off with that attack." The three animal-like humans, dressed in animal skins and war paint on their faces growled with anger at that remark. They charged him. "Let's see there's three of them and four of us. That means at least one of us will have to sit out..."

"You can take mine," muttered Lily uncertain of her own fighting potential.

"And mine," Rosa said, halfway making a joke. These guys certainly seemed ferocious. Sage nodded fiercely, too. Apparently despite taking a level according to Shane she still lacked the confidence to do anything with it. Reymundo smiled as he walked forward and towards his three opponents.

"You are all so generous," he said...and there wasn't a hint of sarcasm to his voice as if he honestly believed that they were doing this strictly so he could have a work-out. "Maybe now they will at least be able to make me sweat." His sword snapped out at a new-found pace. Instantly mowing them down with a moment of hesitation. The three humans dropped to the ground, their eyes wide and pure white. Their mouth gaping with blood trickling out of them. "Hmm," grumbled Reymundo as he looked down at his blade. He lifted his free hand up and checked his forehead, "damn, couldn't even do that, could you?" He turned around as if signaling to the girls to follow him.

They nodded and followed behind him, Sage seemed to move a little slower then the rest of them as she looked at the fallen opponents. She shook her head, something else must've been up. Maybe Reymundo was right and they really were weak and he really was holding back on them...but still to her it looked as if the entire fight stood still for a brief second. Like they were all moving in slow motion.

(-With Zesiro-)

"Oh, how could Shane betray me!" wailed Suzanne as she trailed a good two to three feet behind her 'almost human shields'. She had been unceremoniously dumped off with Zesiro, Dango Mihara, and Shino...the three Fishmen. They didn't want to have her as much as she wanted to have Shane. The fact that the three Fishman got paired together was nothing more then luck. After everybody had been divided equally into the important squads the leftovers who could do well in any squad were selected via lottery. Zesiro and Suzanne were supposed to be together, probably because Suzanne was the physically weakest amongst Shane's crew and Zesiro was one of the strongest amongst Mikoto's crew. The other two just wound up being selected in this one. A happy coincidence for Dango and Shino as they were happily talking to Zesiro about Fishman island, a place he had never been, but they had both grown up on. Zesiro on the other hand, felt slightly out of place. The only other Fishman he had ever bonded with were the Fishman brothers...and with a heavy sigh. He knew what had happened to them.

The image of Sanada being blown to the ground again made him shiver. Nito and Ichi had left him because they said he reminded them of what happened to their poor little brother...and now Zesiro was just beginning to understand why they wanted to get away from him. He was experiencing the same thing as they did...definitely...his heart panged as the image of Sanada falling into the ocean after the cannon fire shot through his mind. Zesiro paused as he looked into the forest. There was someone out there...waiting to attack them...and right now Zesiro really needed that. "Wait here...I'll be back in two seconds."

Shino and Dango paused, sharing a look, they had to wait for Suzanne to catch up to them anyways. She was a slow runner even when she did put her heart into it...and right now she didn't even have the heart. She was shuffling her feet across the ground, forcing them all to accommodate her slow pace. They had thought about leaving her behind, but they knew she would just start wailing about Shane...believe it or not she was actually holding back her heart break to make them feel better.

"So..." Shino said trying to make small-talk with the man he always made small-talk with...talking about the weather seemed kind of odd when they were launching an assault on a Shichibukai's base. "What do you think Zesiro went off to do?" Dango looked over at him and blinked a couple of time before shrugging. They both knew they were being followed, but neither one of them cared. Hell, they could be followed to the ends of the earth...as long as they weren't attacked, they were fine.

Zesiro came back out, climbing out of the forest and moving towards them, "sorry, I took a little longer then I said...I was venting something out." It was three seconds instead of two, but he still made it back before Suzanne caught up to them. So, they figured they would let it slide.

(-With Hiro-Shu-)

"Damn that bastard bird," Aaron swore, obviously deciding he had enough PG time for the rest of his life. "Kind of sucks, huh? It was nice to be filled in on what happened, but he tore my shirt." Aaron pulled out his shirt and stuck a finger through an obvious hole as if to emphasis his point. Hiro-Shu and Enma remained quiet. The fact was desipte him being over with so easily...this was a very enlightening fight. He could move about as fast as Aaron and actually slice through Hiro-Shu's armor. He was fast and strong! It was just a shame that he was so damn weak when it came to take hitting. It was obvious his strength had been skewed in one direction. If he had better defenses he may have actually been a real challenge. Still it only took a hit or two from Hiro-Shu to knock him down, which in a way was impressive. Hiro-Shu doubted many other people in the world could handle a hit from an iron golem.

"Anyways," Aaron stated, "what's the plan?" Hiro-Shu and Enma looked over at him, was he not listening to Ridley's strategy session. Aaron shrugged, "you try focusing when all the girls in the room are checking you out." For some reason they believed it was actually the other way around.

"We open a hole in the wall." It was simple plan, but they needed to make sure he knew it. "According to our Intel of this island from Kraven this fort has three four gates facing North, South, East, and West. We are going in the North door, Zesiro's group is East, Reymundo's is South, and Ridley's is covering the West. Once we get inside everybody else's job is to storm the front door. Ours is simpler...we are too open a hole in-between the North and East doors and await Mikoto's group. Enma will then check them out while we wait for the signal."

"Signal? What signal? We already broke through the gates! Why can't we just storm the castle?"

"Because after the gates is another layer of gates," Hiro-Shu grumbled, "we need them to lift the gates once more where we and Mikoto's group can cover the ground inside. You should've been paying attention rather then checking out the ladies."

"Hey, did you see what Rosa was wearing during that meeting!" Hiro-Shu rolled his eyes, he did not check out Rosa during the meeting, he listened to Ridley's plan like a good team member should.

"Still things seem too easy," muttered Aaron. Enma just felt the urge to slap him. Saying something like that was like saying 'please, Satan, please make things harder for us' and you do NOT want to ask Satan to do that. He believed any other religion would agree with that. DO NOT ask your god to make things difficult for you.

"Ignore this fool." Enma muttered as he walked swiftly past the said fool. Aaron twisted around and barked at him.

"I'm just saying! We are going up against a Shichibukai! Don't you think things should be more difficult! Like Marines swarming this place, hiding in every hole! Or meteors raining down from the skies or something?"

"Ex-Shichibukai," reminded Hiro-Shu as he pulled another chunk of grass out of his face. "Remember, they quit." Aaron paused for a second as he thought about this. It is true, they did quit. A rather stupid move, I mean, sacrificing Marine protection just to have a chance that a group of (reckless) pirates wouldn't attack you. It seemed like a they purposely stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire. It made no sense.

(-With Mikoto's group-)

"What are you talking about? I only got ten members on my crew...plus Bando," shouted Mikoto. Him, Sage, Ridley, Zesiro, Hiro-Shu, Enma Maria, Rosa, Lily, and Aaron...and Mikoto was still not sure if that last two counted. He paused for a second. They really need to remember to drop Lily off at some nice island and out of the way. It just seemed like they never had the free time. Then again if Lily left would Rosa...did he really have only eight people on his crew.

"I'm telling you! I sensed the presence of twelve people!" shouted Shane as he glared back at Mikoto. "My sixth sense may not be as good as your instincts, but definitely! DE-FIN-ITE-LY! There was another person on your ship! Did you pick someone else up from the prison or something?" Mikoto shook his head.

"I think I would remember getting a wanted criminal on my ship!" While that may not be true, but given the circumstances of fighting Kraven and Shane, it seemed like it should be obvious that somebody would've noticed someone else standing around on their ship! People just don't forget those kind of things! Shane growled, but finally just shrugged it off

"Fine! It looks like everybody is just keeping a secret from me."

"What about me?" shouted Bando opening his arm and looking defenseless, he felt like he was being fairly honest throughout this entire expedition.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU STILL HERE THEN!" shouted Shane, which immediately quieted Bando as he returned to face frontwards. He still wasn't ready to talk about that. Shane sighed. "Things are just getting way too weird for me. I thought you two were honest morons when I joined up with you, but now it turns out that you are keeping secrets from me! Where the hell is this feeling of camaraderie?" Mikoto groaned once more. It seemed like ever since they decided to become a team Shane had become more and more talkative...and quite frankly loud and annoying.

A chill shot up all three of their spines causing them to pause in place. Somebody else was here. They had been too busy being distracted by the others actions that they couldn't move quite as quickly, but now something did seem off. They just sensed a force watching from a distance, keeping a close eye on them as they moved forward. However, despite this feeling they couldn't tell where it was coming from. Whoever it was was obviously keeping their distance and keeping their presence hidden while doing so.

"This island is giving me the creeps," muttered Mikoto as he shivered, "I can't wait to get off it. Seems like a portal to hell itself right now." Bando spun around and lifted Mikoto up and off of the ground.

"DON'T SAY THAT!" Bando growled as he left Mikoto dangling about two feet off of the ground. "This island is a great island! It is the bloody Fox Brothers fault! IF YOU WANT OFF OF THIS LAND SO BADLY, I'LL THROW YOU OFF OF IT AND INTO THE SEA RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" Shane's entire body stiffened up, if Bando was serious about that then they would lose another chunk of their fighting force. They couldn't quite afford that with how things were already turning out.

"Okay, okay!" Mikoto shouted, "I'm sorry about badmouthing it! Just put me down!" Mikoto reached over using a free hand and slugged Bando with some decent force. Mostly out of desperation to not be thrown into the water then anything else. Bando grunted out of pain, but in the end Mikoto's punch did what it needed to do. Bando released him and turned back around, apparently he was the most anxious out of all of them to get this job done.

Shane and Mikoto glanced at each other, hoping the other one may have an idea and be able to fill them in, but neither one did. They shrugged and followed Bando's lead...although admittedly they kept a little more distance in-between them and him...oh, and they kept their mouths shut.

(-With the Fox Brothers-)

"Finally!" laughed Alistair as he moved to the side, "we got the Marines off of our backs! We got the Revolutionaries backing us up with reinforcements on the way! We got the best of both worlds!" He was laughing all the way as he settled into his fluffy seat.

"You seem overly happy about this," muttered Alan, "I mean the only thing we did was switch our useless bodyguards from one source to another. Nothing worth having a fit like that over." Alistair chuckled and shook his head.

"Did you remember how we became Shichibukais?" Alan nodded, how could he forget that day. "Well, you and Albert didn't find much of interest in that Marine Base, just some things about the past and crap like that. But I found a very interesting old document...nay, a very interesting old blueprint hidden away from the times of old." Alan nodded, he remembered Alistair acting rather excited when they left. "Well, one of the lines in the agreement of becoming a Shichibukai was that I could not put the blueprints into action. You know, it would endanger the free world if a pirate had their hands on it. However, I was never big on following orders. So, I've been working on it in secret." Alan lifted an eyebrow, finally his story seemed to be getting truly interesting. "Just imagine how annoyed they'd be knowing I've almost got it completed. As a matter of fact I got my best men working on it at this very instant!" Alistair laughed loudly as he threw his arms up into the air, "the best part is the report they handed in to me recently said it would be done about three hours from now!"

Alan's eyes widened...a new weapon. A birth of a weapon that could possibly endanger all of mankind...and it was in their grasp. No wonder he didn't care about losing Marine protection...he didn't need it any more. Still even if Alistair didn't care for Marine protection or probably Revolutionary protection, that still left for one group unaccounted for. "What about the Infinity Pirates?" Alan asked plain and simple. Alistair stopped laughing and adopted a thoughtful pose, although Alan could tell it was a mock thoughtful pose Alistair had already taken them into account...of course, he would've...he was a genius for a reason!

"They'll be my first test subjects."

Charging Forward

Okay, now I got some 'bad news'. I don't know if you'll actually call it bad news or not, but a little while ago I mentioned something about finishing up Saga. Well, I recently went around and did the math. I created a list of all the villains, rivals, and enemies that have showed up in Saga and the crew needs one last match against (for example Shane, Renvont, and the Admirals). I then hammered out a list of approximate match-ups and how the fights are going to go down. This, of course, means I got a good feel for how many arcs remain. And I got five. This, of course, means very little actually. I have AT LEAST 5 arcs remaining and since my arcs can range from 20-50 chapters that means anywhere from 100 to 250 chapters remain (at least). I doubt I'll be including many filler arcs or additional arcs to this mess just cause. Anyways, I've laid it all for everybody I really would rather prevent having a 1000+ chapter fanfiction in my hands, so yeah, I said it.