Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.


"FASTER!" Mars yelled at the marines rowing a small boat with the word 'Rescue' painted on the side, "row faster, you pansies! Don't make me do it for you, or no supper for a week!"

None of the marines rowing were too happy about their situation, or Mars' barking through a bullhorn. The new guy, whom they all decided to haze and berate later for lack of better reason, was going to get a Medal of Honor once he was rescued for 'unprecedented bravery in the face of danger,' or some such crap.

Worse yet, Captain Mars wanted to promote him to an Ensign, his direct underling. These men had been working for years without any advancement, and a day-one newbie gets a managerial position over them after several hours.

Araly was also present in the boat, for lack of anything else to do or reason against going. Normally, that would mean she would take a nap at the base, but all Mars heard was that nothing was preventing her from going and decided to take her. She just let her hands run through the water as the boat cut gracefully, if not choppily, through the ocean waters.

This isn't necessary, she thought to herself while staring at the blue water beneath, spotting several fish. Bard can swim. I've seen him do it. Heck, when he gets excited he just runs on the water. He'll survive.


Bard panted as he paddled his way into the horizon, Rezland firmly attached to his back and feigning unconsciousness. He could feel the water briskly rushing along his body, but ignored it to strengthen the illusion of staying KO'd, lest he ebb on the overly-eager monster that was swimming him to freedom.

Bard stopped himself mid-stroke and perked himself up in the water. He couldn't feel or hear any waves, and after looking all around him he couldn't even find any signs of nearby shore. Bards mouth widened across his face in a nearly straight line as he thought apathetically

I may have gone the wrong way. Crap.

He turned his head and raised an arm back behind his to hit Rezland's head in an attempt to wake him up. This spooked Rezland from his feign and brought him to full attention.

"Hey," Bard said in a solid, stone-like tone, "I think we're lost"

Rezland didn't know how to accurately react. His body was drenched with water, his bones were soaked and his brain couldn't stop screaming in anger and fear at the prospect of fighting this maniac again. His face instinctively reacted by shifting quickly from tiredness to boiling, palpable anger and his arm reacted by punching Bard in the face. This eased Rezland and Bard's grip on each other, letting Rezland to float on his own.

"What the hell!? Didn't you look before you swam?" Bard held the cheek that Rezland punched with one hand and shook his head slowly, left to right. Rezland's temper worsened at this answer. He started throwing his arms around, splashing water in many directions. After his tantrum was over, he calmed down and crossed his arms. Then he looked up at Bard, who looked crossly at him for the sucker punch.

"Why'd you hit me?" Bard questioned.

"Isn't that a bit obvious?" Rezland began very sternly. "Why would you take off in some random direction? Or were you trying to dump my body in the distance so you wouldn't have to fight me again?"

"That's a complete lie!" Bard fired back, pointing at him for effect. "If that's what I wanted, I wouldn't have been carrying you!" He calmed down slightly before adding "I can't wait to fight you for real. I don't even consider our last battle a real one, and I won't until you start throwing some punches, got that!?" With those last words he extended his arm into a flex with an open palm towards Rezland. A sign of friendship to Bard, challenge to Rezland.

Whatever feeling Bard put into his offer, Rezland accepted it, although reluctantly. They tightened each other's grip and stiffened their muscles. Both started smiling some rather sneering smile at each other, a smile of rivalry. The sharks beneath them were smiling toothy grins themselves.


"This is how you row, ya wimps!" Mars had grown rather tired of their slow progress and lack of actual searching, so he took over rowing himself, increasing their speed greatly. He also put a few of the marines to the duty of searching for signs of life in the distance with telescopes. It wasn't long before a marine saw something and alerted the Captain.

"What did you see, boy?" The Captain asked, still subconsciously rowing the boat.

"Bard and the pirate," he stopped to catch up to his thoughts, "and a whole school of sharks!"

The other marines turned towards him, the Captain winced, and Araly perked herself and said

"I don't think sharks swim in 'schools'"


Both young men were floating in the water, although barely, when they noticed the hungry looking huge sharks behind each other. Every mouth present was agape, for one reason or another. Bard and Rezland's eyes were white with fear, but both quickly flashed back into reality. They had to do something to survive, so they formulated a plan. Each. Bard's plan went into effect before Rezland's, so they went with his without knowing it.

Bard's plan was, apparently, to hope that Rezland knew his plan, as he just picked him up out of the water and threw him at a shark. Rezland flew through the air screaming until he hit the shark, square on the nose, sending the fish flailing back into the water with pain seething from its eyes. Rezland recovered in time to jump off the nose and into the air, planning his next move.

Bard was content to just wait for a shark or two to charge at him, then punch them right on the nose. This got similar results for a while, but without proper footing it wasn't driving them away for good. He decided, on wild impulse to climb on top of a shark and use it as proper footing, then wait for the others to jump at him. The shark he climbed seemed surprised, but only more so when it felt the dagger-like teeth of his brother shark digging straight into his back.

Rezland pulled out his guns and took aim. When he held his guns the world slowed around him. When he was fighting for his life, or for the life of another, his focus was unbeatable. Less than a second of aiming to him felt like a minute in his world. He fired both guns, and the bullets spiraled in synchronism towards their target, the shark's brain. Bull's eye…rather Shark's eye. One shark was dead and Rezland aimed his body to land on his new platform, taking from Bard's stratagem.

Bard and Rezland fought off the remaining sharks with a flurry of blade-work and taunting, followed by punches and kicks. Three sharks got fed up enough of Bard punching them and headed for Rezland, jumping from the water into the air with bruised snouts. Rezland anticipated this, hell, he had hoped for this, and reached over his shoulder smiling. He grasped a slimmer portion of the object wrapped in tattered cloth, and swung it in a motion to fast for Bard to accurately follow. Whatever he did, it sent the sharks flying backwards, tumbling in the air. Rezland stayed in his after-swing position, kneeling with his instrument of pain at his side pointed behind him.

"Nice pose, brah'!" Bard shouted over to Rezland, giving an authoritative thumbs-up. His smile was beaming with happiness, stretched from ear to ear. Rezland smiled at him from his position, then moved out of it, standing straight with his weapon resting on his shoulder. He took his free arm and made a thumb up with it, brushing it passed his nose and flexing his arm with guile.

"No prob'!"


"Halt! This is the Marines! You are under arrest!" A voice said from a short distance, amplified by a bullhorn.

Rezland never broke his pose, that would be stupid, but his face shifted form significantly. His was a look of pure shock and disdain, aimed at Bard for no apparent reason. Bard caught this in the corner of his eye at the motioned slowly toward the marine boat with his hands in front of his chest, waving them.

"Hold up! This guy and I have a fight to finish! You can't throw him in jail!" His expression changed to that of statue-esque seriousness, "and I'm the only one who can kill him!"

Rezland's face didn't change, still surprised and angry, but he dropped his weapon on the shark he was standing on out of shock.

"That's no problem for me, son," Mars said over the bullhorn, "because you're going with him."

Bard and Araly joined Rezland's look, giving a collective of three overly shocked young people within view of the marines, who just grimaced in surprise rather than let their jaws drop to the floor. Mars however, was dead serious. He sighed and picked the bullhorn back up to his mouth and said.

"You're under arrest…for aiding the escape of a pirate…"


Dead silence followed.