The Vices of the Marines

On the horizon numerous tall rock spirals began to appear, all of them jutting out of the water menacingly. A few strong currents yanked in the occasional debris, even sea animals didn't dare to tread closer to the rocks in fear of the massive currents, which would sweep them up and slam them into the rocks.

The rocks at first glance appeared to be in rough shape, many of them just jutting a few feet out of the water before they had been broken off from their own vicious currents smashed a ship into them. However, most of the rocks stood tall and strong, a few cracks and dents, but still they wore even more pieces of ships on themselves like badges of pride.

This was just the rocks that broke free from above the ocean's surface. Many more were resting just beneath it, forcing ships to go over them and breaking apart the bottom of the ships. These rocks, which rested carefully below the ocean's surface had been smoothed off. Polished to a near perfection from the ocean's vicious, twisting waves.

Flags had come to litter the waters around them. Not just pirate flags, but Marine flags as well, even completely unaligned flags, like those of bounty hunters or trading ships had come to decorate the ocean's brutal undulations.

This place haunted the nightmares of every ship, which dared to sail close to it. It was a ship's graveyard, the Jet Stream Terminal.

The Marines in their infinite wisdom had done something intelligent. Stationed in a circle, hovering around the Terminal were dozens of Marine ships as a sort of last defense. Whether they were there to prevent stupid navigators from trying to use this and winding up dying or to prevent smart pirates from using the increased speed this location had come to be known for was unknown. But the bottom line was that they were there and they definitely did not want to see pirates.

All Marines, young, old, strong, weak, were like that. They hated pirates. No matter who they were they probably had at least at one point in time had the dream of beating pirates single-handedly. And here they were stationed on a place only pirates with a death wish dared approach. They've been wanting to rip someone to shreds for awhile.

"Ka ka ka!" laughed a Marine as he approached the edge of his ship, "looks like some foolish pirates are heading our way. Everybody get ready to take them down!" he signaled off to the side with his left hand as his right hand brought a pair of binoculars down to his side.

"Well, we got the monster that is Vice Admiral Selbone," muttered one of the other men, "so we can just sit back and chill. Maybe we should order some pizza from a nearby island and have it delivered here? Actually I'm more in the mood for some Chinese. Know of any good places?"

"Be serious," a third one stated as he came behind him and shook his head, "we can't just slack off like this Selbone would kill us if he knew we weren't handling this duty seriously. Besides if we can get a couple of them we may be able to talk the higher-ups into transferring us."

"Or raising our pay grade! Ka ka ka!"

"Oh, come on," stated the second man, "I'll go pick it up. We order it, I'll be there and back before Selbone's even done handling these pirates. This is the perfect time. I'm thinking Egg Foo Yung and some Sweet and Sour Chicken for me. You guys in?"

"Unless they sell raw pirate hide I'm not in the mood," stated the third man as he strode forward and put one foot up on the railing of their ship, "I'm just going to cook for myself tonight."

"Okay, I'll put Jeanne down as a maybe, what about you Jasper?"

"Put me down as a maybe as well," Jasper replied as he sat down and stared out over the seas and at the ships, "it depends on whether or not I get my fill from the raw pirate hides."

"I know you two are trying to sound all badass and that, but...saying you're going to eat their hides is really making me lose my appetite. And its almost dinner time! If I can't eat because of you two, what am I going to do?"

"Starve."

"You-you could be a little nicer."

"You could try acting more excited about the pirates then you are about dinner," snorted Jasper, "ka ka ka!"

"Like I said Selbone will just take them all out before we can even act," he just shrugged it off before sighing and hanging his head, "I wouldn't mind exercising a bit before dinner either."

Suddenly something seemed to fell off of the ship catching the three of theirs interest. However, rather than falling straight into the ocean with a big splash it curved and suddenly shot out at them instead. They were shocked, things didn't suddenly swing around like that, but it came right at them.

As it grew closer they quickly realized that it wasn't just an item, it was a human! Or something like that. It was a half-coyote, half-human super being apparently. Within seconds the 'Kid Coyote' was already upon them.

Jasper drew his sword, a thin, lithe saber, but he a quick spinning kick to the back of his head, blew him over the sides of the railing and right into the rushing water below. The other two of the Marines quickly drew their pistols, taking aim at Mikoto, who was in-between them, but they were both too slow.

Mikoto's hands flickered up, knocking their respective pistols up into the air, before he quickly shifted his attentions lower. Bringing his body down and launching two simultaneous blows right at their ribs, taking them both down simultaneously.

A few Marines, hearing their yells now raced to the deck only to see the beast man standing amidst two fallen allies. They paused unsure of how to handle this mess as they looked at it now. The man was already beginning to turn and face them.

One of the Marines reacted quickly, turning to the rest of them, "quickly get Selbo-" However, even he, too, with about a good couple of feet in-between them wasn't fast enough. The demonic coyote was already directly upon them, bearing his fangs on them. Mikoto shifted his weight around, taking to the air and suddenly turning around.

A direct power kick came soaring down on top of his head, knocking him out almost instantly. As the rest of them began gathering themselves up to take him down, but they couldn't even react. Mikoto had began to zig-zag through all of his opponents, flowing freely between them and landing several blows right at them. It was smooth, quick, and powerful.

Mikoto's fists flew like firecrackers, all of them smashing into his opponent and knocked them back they were well-placed, knocking him clearly off of his feet. He kept spinning around, moving from there to the next blow, a vicious back-hand. He was clearly moving well taking them all out in a flash.

"We need some help!" shouted one of the Marines as he looked around panicky, "we're way out of our league! We need help! Get all of the Marines on the other ships over here!" They got what they asked for. Suddenly Marines from the other ships were tossed over from those ships, landing right on the deck of their ship, almost completely passed out.

"What's going on those other ships?"

The other ships were in basically the same exact predicament. The monstrous Zesiro had taken up the assault on his own side. The beast was attacking everyone who came at them. His twin swords were swinging around and he was doing an excellent job. He rushed at them, swinging his sword and finishing them all off.

Zesiro ducked beneath one of wild swings, suddenly he went right into the attack. A smooth swing right into his opponent's gut. Before the next opponent could even close in, his hand shot backwards with a powerful slamming hilt. The Marines completely ditched the idea of one-on-one fights. They began chasing him down with their fifty or so additional members.

But it was not enough. Zesiro shot forward right into their midst, letting loose a stream of cuts which mowed down anyone foolish enough to stand in his way. However, the real damage came once he was in the middle of them all. His swords were brought in tight to his sides, but he quickly lashed out, using all of his strength and speed, spinning around and sending a vicious whirlwind-ing slash around him. All of the nearby Marines were thrown back, clear through the air.

Expecting that to be the end of Zesiro's rampage would've been foolish. Zesiro leapt after them, his incredible leg muscles, pretty much launching himself right for them as he took to the air, twisting the two blades around and delivering twin downwards thrust at them. The blasted Marine, hit the floor horribly, before the menacing shark decided to follow up with another series of downwards slashes, ripping the poor man to shreds as Zesiro moved on to the next man.

It was a horrible sight for the Marines as these two monsters, one who had traveled through the air and the other who traveled through the oceans to launch two separate attacks on them. Not to mention the fact that their ship and without doubt reinforcements had begun to slowly sail towards them.

They had stupidly been focusing all of their man-power on the two intruders that they had left their cannons un-manned and sure enough once the ship was in range a boisterous blast of their cannon came roaring out and smashing apart one of the ships.

They were shook to their very core as the ship of the pirates sailed in closer. Their previous lust for a Marine life had suddenly vanished in the face of a real enemy. They began to scramble as the rest of the Infinity Pirates finally made it to board.

Enma and Rosa struck off before any of the others managed to gather their wits. They were both going to truly enjoy beating the rest of these Marines a they both broke off. Enma jumping off of the ground and growing another Hone Spear as he drove the first into a Marine's gut. Rosa followed it up quickly without fear as she weaved her blade through the crowds, slicing several of them off at their feet or hands. She was quick-paced through and through.

The four of these pirates quickly outnumbered the hundreds of Marines as they tried to fight back against what should've been underwhelming odds. Nonetheless the situation just continuously worsened for the Marines as these four pirates charged out into the fray.

Ridley and Rosa's sister, Lily, both sat back and watched. Although both for different reasons. Ridley just didn't care for being mixed up in this fight while Lily didn't care to be mixed up in any fight. They both just patiently rested upon their own ship taking in the sights.

"Heads up 2 o'clock," Ridley muttered making a small nod in one direction causing Lily to look as one of the ships suddenly tilted and lurched forward a bit. Finally a single body leapt free from it, causing the ship rapidly tilt back and forth as the body flew through the air and landed on the same ship Mikoto was on.

"Oh!" Shouted one of the Marines as he raced up to the new man. The new guy was about seven feet tall and rather slender, but had noticeable muscles and basically had his strength oozing out of every pore. His swagger and pride in his duty was obvious. Unlike most of the Marines who wore a coat he had on a skin-tight white suit with the Marine emblems on the side. The suit even had a hood which had been pulled up and snapped down around his head, completely covering his hair, except for a few strands of brown which wafted down in front of his face.

"Vice Admiral Selbone!" shouted the younger Marine as he raced up to the newer one, however, his welcome wasn't nearly as welcomed. The man he called Selbone bent down and picked him up by his leg, then catapulted him backwards and through the air over his shoulder.

"I'm not here to save your pitiful asses," Selbone spoke softly as he approached Mikoto and looked down upon him, "I'm only here to crush the pirates."

Dispatch