AN: Hay ya! This is the second author of this fan fiction (there are two of us we are sisters, I'm the character and dialogue manager and Jenn is the description and boring stuff manager)
(Jenn: F*** off! I'm the control manager!)
Anyway I would actually like to thank Meenah D. Starcross for her review. You have given us quite an inspiring plot twist just by saying Rhiannon was like Luffy...- this was partly unintentional. So thanks XD and you will read of it soon.
*EVIL LAUGHTER*
Once Cassie had regrouped with the rest of the crew and Crimson had made her way to the galley to start fulfilling the Captain's orders of a party with lots of meat… "Or was it cake?" Crimson let this thought be.
-Did anyone really start to notice the outfit that the first mate was wearing?—
Instead of wearing her usual black nurse outfit that she wears when going on missions, she had donned the marine regulation blue pants and the marine regulation white jacket with a blue seagull on the back with 'MARINE' below it. Along with the regulation Marine cap to complete the look.
"So Cass… why are you dressed up like a Marine?" Rhiannon questioned her first mate as she boarded the ship.
"Simple Captain. Things got complicated in the tunnels so I borrowed it off a nice Marine lad who looked like he had seen a ghost."
"What do you mean complicated? It's not like you to change plans half way through, even if things get tough."
"Captain, please allow me to deal with the cargo first and get changed whilst Crimson is cooking and I'll explained everything over dinner. Okay?"
"Good, I like cake… or was it meat. Either way you better or I'll… I'll… well make you? And that is indeed a threat, so don't take it lightly!"
The Captain looked over her first mate and noticed the strained look in her eyes. She knew something went down it the tunnels but she knew better than to press Cassie on these matters. Especially since Cassie had already promised to explain everything over dinner.
So she let it slide and let Cassie go about her business, even Rhiannon knew the importance of securing the score after every job in order to ensure the crew got paid everything they had asked for. All aside Rhiannon still from threw her first mate a concerned look before returning attention to the rest of the crew.
"…Right Cassie is P. M. Sing right now so… Flame, why are you connecting jumper cables to my ribbon?"
Cassie slipped below deck as a shock of static ripped through the air. She couldn't help but think over the events of the night. She knew that they were all in for a bounty increase after what they had done tonight.
She moved towards the stern where the medical/surgical room was located. It was one of the larger rooms on the ship as it took up nearly a quarter of the deck space there. She had made several alterations to the area; the biggest one was splitting the room in to two sections separated by the Foremast. One side was a bright and spacious recovery room that held two beds and a desk where she would study as her patients recovered. Along the walls runs a shelf that holds all her medical text books and work books along with a couple of fiction books that her crew mates can read as they recover.
On the opposite side of the foremast lies her surgery and work space. This side has a single operating table in the centre and has a large bench that encircles that half of the room with several large sinks built into the bench. This half was also covered in white tile that allowed for easy cleaning after Cassie had finished all of her experiments.
As Cassie entered her work area she lit a lamp to illuminate space. She didn't bother lighting the major lights that she would use for surgery. She knew no one on the crew got injured tonight; she couldn't smell any blood on the air. So there wasn't any point in wasting any fuel on unnecessary lighting.
When her eyes had adjusted to the light, she noticed tonight's loot at the far end of the room. She moved across the familiar room with great ease to access the trap door that lay underneath the loot. The trap door leads down to her private sleeping quarters at the stern end of the hold. That was one good thing about being first mate; she was allowed her own room. It didn't matter if she was at the base of the ship, her devil fruit power allowed her easy access to the main deck if the ship ever became threatened.
Releasing the ladder that leads down in to her room she created a wind tunnel that took up the scrolls and lowered them down into the darkness. Once that was done she lit the lamp that hung beside the entrance and carefully maundered the wind to pick up the blue box and lowered it down into her room. She moved the wind currents and directed the box to her desk that sat in the far corner. With some fancy wind work she managed to remove some of the fabric that was piled on the desk and created a space big enough for her to place the box down. She would examine the contents of the box later.
Whilst manipulating the wind currents she discarded the marine coat and hat and picked up her favourite black trench coat with bright yellow trimming and buttons.
She looked down at the pile of paper at the bottom of the ladder; she decided that it would be safe there for now and would file it later. But, first she needed to get something eat. Turning off the lamp, pulling up the ladder and shutting the door she made her way through the med room and up to the deck. There she was greeted to the smell of freshly seared meat and … was that cake? Probably her Captain having one of her weird hunger swings again.
She was greeted to majority of the crew sitting around the kotatsu that had been placed on the deck in preparation of dinner. They were merrily chatting to each other whilst waiting for the feast that Crimson would have prepared. She smelted charred Captain and took note of Rhiannon's lack of eyebrows. "Weirder things have happened." She was almost shocked with how casual that statement sounded in her head. Cassie also noticed some sea charts lying across the table. Their navigator Milah greeted her with a smile as she took a seat next to her.
"See any decent reefs where we can lay anchor for the night?" Cassie asked taking notice of what was actually on the maps.
"Yes but the currents that run over there are pretty strong and may cause The Never Rain to run aground."
"Yes that would be bad. So what do we do? The log pose has set so we know what direction our next destination is in. Are there any currents that will pull us in our desired direction?"
"Yes and no. Yes there is a current but it's slow moving. Like snail pace slow."
"Good, we could all do with a rest for a day or two. I don't feel any storms brewing any time near us we're all good on that front."
"TALK!" the Captain wasn't normally impatient with Cassie, but the casual conversation her and the mermaid were having was a distraction and Rhiannon knew it.
"Fine… why do you have no eyebrows?"
Flame cleared her throat.
"Turns out her ribbon can conduct electricity..." Silence from the crew, "Meaning the metal state of the different coloured swords remains even when dormant…" every head in the room tilted slightly. "The ribbon is actually metal…" Flame gave up. Defeated. The crew burst out laughing.
"HAHA! You thought we had no idea what you were on about! Jokes on you fool! Serves you right for destroying my eyebrows…" after a few more seconds of laughter and teasing of the now embarrassed Flame, the atmosphere died down and became serious. Cassie started talking without hesitation.
"Look, things went simply enough in the beginning."
BANG!
That was the signal Cassie was waiting for. With that she popped up open the locks of the door and pushed it open.
The corridor behind was dark except for the dimly lit string of bulbs that lined the ceiling. Cassie adjusted her bel checking to make sure she had everything one final time. When she was sure she had everything was good to go she took off into tunnel. From the map they had gathered from the townsfolk showed that this service entrance didn't have any turnoffs for at least a click (1).
She had been running almost a minute when she noticed the tunnel starting to lighten up. She slowed down and pressed her body against the wall when she saw that the tunnel was starting to widen.
"Hey Ellen, you in position yet?" Cassie whispered into her mouth piece.
"Yeah, I'm in the control room. It's clear at the mo. Give me a signal so I know which den den mushi camera is in your area."
"On it." With that Cassie pulled out a small pocket mirror from her belt and reflected the light into the eyes of the snail positioned high on the opposite wall.
"Right, I see your position. You're in the clear on both sides. You can proceed safely through the tunnel system. But be careful entering the central areas of the mountain that there seems to be a large Marine sleeping near the entrance to the library."
"Copy that. Thanks for the heads up, stay safe and keep monitoring the corridors that lead to the north side of the mountain. Make sure nothing takes the girls by surprize, okay?"
"Hear ya loud and clear Cassie and good luck. I'm out."
"I'm out too." Cassie flicked off her mouth piece and proceeded forward through the tunnels; remembering the route that was marked out on the map and headed for the main central library.
She was lucky that didn't run in to any remaining Marines as she made her way through the labyrinth. That meant her Captain was doing a good job of keeping the guard distracted. It wasn't until she neared the library entrance that she remembered Ellen's words about a large man sleeping near the entrance. Keeping close to the wall, she peaked around the final corner to see what she was competing with.
At first glance she saw two men. One standing and the other was lying down. The one standing looked like he was having a panic attack because he couldn't seem to rouse a response out the man lying down. The panicking recruit looked not much bigger than her and she knew that there was no way in hell was he going to be able to move the second man by himself.
Cassie took advantage of the young man's distress to get close to him. Once she was close enough she moved in behind him and clasped a hand over his mouth.
"Any sudden movements and you'll die by my hands tonight," She purred in the young man's ear. "Now you and me are going to walk backwards very slowly and you are going to count backwards from 10 and when you've finished I'll be gone and this will all be over. Nod if you understand." The young recruit nodded slowly and started to walk backwards with Cassie. As they were moving backwards Cassie was slowly sucking all the air from the recruit's lungs. By the time the recruit had reached three he was out like a light.
The reason she even knocked out the young recruit was to strip him down and take his clothes. This was to help disguise herself against the man that was lying on the floor. If he should wake up and see Cassie present in the Marine base he would freak and things would not end well for her. This man was none other than her former Marine Instructor Monkey D. Garp.
Once Cassie had become fully clothed in the Marine attire she took one final look down the corridor to ensure that Garp was still sleeping. When she noticed he still was, she decides to make her move to the library. She decided the best way to about this was to act as normal as possible and cover up her devil fruit powers as long as Garp was in the hallway. Using her usual gate she stepped passed Garp and moved on to her target just beyond him.
As she approached the doors of the library she felt a rather large hand clamp down on her shoulder holding her in place.
"Where did everybody go cadet?" Garps familiar voice asked.
"There was some trouble at the west side of the mountain sir. Apparently 'Four Swords' Rhiannon and her crew are attacking the entrance trying to force their way in it seems." Cassie replied, dropping the baritone of her voice lower as not to be recognised by Garp.
"Really, that little trouble maker here. And to think that her sister was one of the best cadets I've ever had under my wing Bwahahaha. Still not the time to be thinking about the past boy, right?"
"Yes sir," Came Cassie's reply.
"Now where did you say this trouble maker was again?" Grap asked keeping his attention on Cassie.
"West sir."
"Good, keep training cadet. Goodnight." With that Garp took his leave and moved towards the west side of the mountain and failed to notice the ever reducing number of recruits heading to the north entrance.
After that encounter the rest of the mission was simply a breeze for Cassie. She entered the library found what she was looking for as well as several other documents that looked interesting enough. Along with a decent sized blue box that seemed to contain several varying eternal poses. Once she collected the loot she moved through the caving system simply enough to the northern side of the mountain, pass the control room to pick up Ellen (who had been enjoying Rhiannon's fight on the monitors) before exiting out of the main entrance of the Marine Base to meet up with her crew mates.
"And you pretty much know the rest" Cassie concluded, solving the mystery of why Cassie was wearing a marine uniform.
"Really? That's it?" Rhiannon failed to keep the shock out of her voice, not that she was trying to.
"Yeah…" silence followed. The crew could tell that this was going to boil into some sort of argument.
"Your story sucked!" So it began, "There was no violence! No drama! No climax! You idiot! I went angel for this crap! Angel!"
"Sounds like really dull sex, but at least there was roll play!" Crimson -aside.
"Do you know how many men's lives I changed just so you wouldn't die? ... I'll be right back."
"The captain left without so much as a, "You suck Cass!" or a "Your story can suck my dick!" something isn't right." Milah wasn't the only one thinking this.
"Well at least you didn't have to fight Garp… I don't even think Justice would have put that man down." The crew cringed, they all knew of the swords that Rhiannon could wield if she chooses to but they never killed anyone. Justice however…
THUD! Thud…thud…
"What the hell is she is doing?" Milah asked. She had known the Captain for 12 years and over that time when someone asked that question the situation following never ended well.
"Why ask? We are all about to get up and check anyway." Cassie, if anything seemed slightly annoyed that dinner wouldn't be consumed for another however long it took.
The crew stayed seated.
THUD…THUD…Pop.
"*Sigh* Well lets go and get this over with, I could do with some meat… or is it cake?" Cassie questioned Crimson.
"I have no idea I just made both, 50 berries says she'll ask for cake covered meat."
"I'm taking that bet." Flame took her sisters hand in agreement as they made for the stairs to the poop deck where the noises were coming from.
Milah held Cassie back as Ellen left with the twins.
"You know he knew it was you right? And that's why he didn't kill you."
All Cassie could do was nod. She knew alright and that's what concerned her the most. But before another thought was given to that subject, the sound of laughter was heard coming from the poop deck.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Cass you have got to see this." Flame was bent at the waist laughing. Crimson was also grinning like a wild horse.
"What is going-"Milah and Cassie just stood at the top of the stairs and smiled. There dripping wet and learning to tie a reef knot was a giant polar bear in an orange jump suit. The bear probably knew karate. Rhiannon, who was teaching the bear to tie the knot and who was also drenched was in mid conversation with said bear.
"No no no! That's not it at all! Baka! Over, under, under then left! Thank Kami you are cute Bepo because Marimo are attracted to cute things and reef knots. So if we are going to catch them- Oh hay guys. Bepo likes Marimo too!"
"How did I get here?"
In the distance a kettle was boiling.
"Captain, why is Bepo on board our ship?" Cassie asked in astonishment. As they hadn't seen his yellow submarine is several months they thought they were far away. She would very much like to keep it that way.
"Oh, silly Cassie, can't you tell we're going Marimo fishing."
The crew just stared at their Captain. Whither it was in amazement, disbelief or pure wonder, it didn't matter then. All that mattered was getting Bepo of their ship before -.
"WHERE THE HELL IS BEPO!"
"Oh shit… he noticed and he's here." Rhiannon Quickly threw a duvet over Bepo. His feet could still be seen but the thought was there.
All thoughts were discarded when a pissed off Trafalgar Law stepped onto deck of The Never Rain in nothing but a towel and a shower cap. But all Rhiannon noticed was the absence of a rubber-duck.
AN: (1) click= kilometer= 1000 meters
AN: Jenn: I just have to say that in the next few chapters the rating will be upped to M due to graphic violence and rape insinuations. We will let you know what chapters these things are happening in so you can close your eyes and skip chapters if need be. Although some of this content is important to character development and plot. Thanks for reading XD!
- There will not be any graphic descriptions they are insinuations.