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.
"Harm! Harm, are you okay?" Maria's worried voice rang in his ears. Harm sat up to look around, where he was met by the gazes of friends from the past. The image that caught his attention the most was that of a shadowy figure in the corner of the room. Harm felt a sharp pain course through his stomach and fell back to quell the pain. Maria hovered over him quickly and held his hands.
"Don't move so much. You took quite a blow back there." Maria bent down to kiss him on the forehead. He let out a quivering breath and opened one eye through the pain.
"What happened to Zan?" he asked almost deafly. His vision started to fade as he slipped nearly out of consciousness. The shadowy figure had made his way to the bedside, and looked down at him. Harm tried his best not to stare at the man lingering over him with a grin on his face.
"Rest for now. You'll need the strength for your de-briefing on what happened. And besides," the man said as he walked to the door, opening it to illuminate the tribal markings across his legendary face,
"Zan is my best assassin. He won't die easily." With that remark, he exited and the door closed behind him. The entire group that had gathered watched their legendary leader leave, remarking in silence on his presence. Harm drifted out of consciousness, the image of the Revolutionary Dragon looming over him haunted his dreams.
Jack's attacks were futile up until now. The assassin was panting hard from his tactics, flying and jumping and phasing in and out of the room to get a surprise attack. Nothing was working, and his concentration was becoming lax.
This guy, the assassin thought to himself, is figuring me out. He knows if I can't see the blow coming, I can't phase through it. It's been far to long for an assassination to be delivered accurately. He posed, with one leg raised knee-up and arms crossed in front of his face.
"Time to die, government dog." The assassin said in a sinister tone. Jack readied himself for the worst and tried to see where he would be able to come out to attack him, but the assassin didn't use his power immediately.
Instead, he sheathed his blades behind his back and took a dash over to Jack by pounding the ground with his raised foot. Once there, he reached out his hand and phased it into Jacks torso. Then stopped. Jack started to feel a burning, moist sensation in his throat.
"That's your stomach, dog." The assassin said as he tightened his grip on the bloody sack in his grip. Jack screamed with great agony and tried to coil back, but the assassin was welded right into his gut. Blood spurted from his mouth before his composure came back to him. He raised his hand up high and sent it crashing into his attackers back. Then his hand slowly drifted through it.
The assassin looked up, then withdrew his hand and leaped back. He grabbed a cape from the floor and wiped the blood from his arm as he watched his prey twitch with pain. Then, the bloodied and gasping man slowly stood up, and eyed down his attacker.
"I…will not…be killed…by you!" Jack said in-between his raspy gasps and quivering breaths.
"I know. This was an attempted assassination." The assassin replied. He pointed his newly cleaned arm at Jack and continued his explanation.
"It wouldn't be fitting to our plans if you were to die already," he crossed his arms smugly, keeping an undying expression of apathy on his tired face, then slowly sank into the floor. Jack stared at him with animosity as he lowered ever so slowly down into the stone, and caught a barely visible smirk streak across his face before he vanished completely.
The marines came into the room just in time to watch as their temporary commander was pounding at the floor of his disheveled office and yelling
"I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN, SCUM! TO THE ENDS OF THE…" Jack turned with a start to the open door, then arose shakily to his feet and straightened his bloody necktie.
"Gentlemen," he said suddenly, "I would like to take a trip to the infirmary, if I may." The pain and blood-loss finally caught up to him, and he collapsed into the outstretched arms of the panicked marines. As they hauled him through the courtyard in a stretcher, the assassin observed him with calculatingly cold stare. He placed a fist to his chin from atop the highest perch at the island and thought to himself.
Dragon said not to kill him, that my destiny would lead me off the road of the Assassin. I'm still a little curious, still thinking, he now stood up straight with arms crossed and stared out to the ocean, but he's never been wrong about anything before. He phased down through his perch and out of a rock wall along a beach that revealed a hidden boat. He hopped in the dinghy and looked at the pose he was given by the leader. His course was re-adjusted, and he sailed off into the darkness.
"LAAAAND HOOOOO!" Bard heard from the deck. All attempts to move the obstacle for either candidate had been futile so far. Rezland tried attacking while bard tried to catch the shovel in mid-swing. All this led to so far was very stingy hands and a disgruntled look on his face.
"Man. I'm missing all the awesome pirate talk." He said with obvious sadness. Araly had long ago fallen asleep for lack of anything better to do. Bard was sitting on the floor next to a crawling Rezland, who refused to give up despite his multi-leveled concussion. Max never opened his eyes that Bard could see.
How can he tell exactly where and when to swing like that? Is he a ninja? That would be awesome! My crew will definitely need a ninja to fight with…wait. What was I thinking? Oh right, the captain challenge. I'll think about extra members after I win.
Bard shot to his feet and grabbed the shovel with his hand, throwing it back at the still sleeping man, who delivered another unseen blow. Marco and four other pirates came into the hallway, making sure to stay clear of Araly on the floor, and peeked into the bedroom. The sight was quite interesting. Bard had caught Max's shovel yet again, this time in his teeth, and refused to let go.
All eyes shifted to the now groaning man in bed. He slowly half-opened one eye to see why his shovel wasn't back to his chest. His mouth opened to a small gap, and not even the sound of the ocean was heard as he spoke in a low and rumbling voice.
"Who are you?" Max asked the golden haired man eating his weapon.
"Mm' frrr ah frr hrr ah haa" Bard said with metal between his teeth. Max withdrew his shovel slowly, moving only his wrist and fingers.
"I'm Bard, Captain of this ship! Now get off of my bed!" Bad yelled triumphantly. Max starred at him with one half-dead eye and then muttered a simple
"Okay" before rolling lazily off the bed. Bard jumped into the now empty goal smiling, but Rezland saw opportunity at the same time and tried to dive in under Bard. Once the two caught each other's actions, a fistfight broke out. Bard elbowed Rezland off the bed and threw his arms behind his head in victory. Then he looked up at the cheering pirates and now waking Araly to give his first order.
"Get that man a chair and seat him in the sun, but don't move him much." The pirates picked up Max and rushed out with their heels nearly clicking in excitement. Marco and his friends were the only one on the ship that bet on Bard, so they were getting paid soon. Araly stared up at Bard through sleepy eyes and gave him a small, innocent smile.
"So," she said with a tired voice, "what are your orders, Captain?" Bard sat up and smiled down at her, then stroked his jaw thoughtfully. After a few seconds, Rezland got up and shook his fist at Bard in contempt before turning to the door.
"First Mate Rezland," Bard shouted, "give these orders to the crew for me!" Rezland looked over his shoulder and perked his eyebrows.
The crew was busy at work steering the ship properly and preparing for a stealthy docking on the island dead ahead. Rezland walked up to the bow and tapped the navigator on the shoulder.
"Where we going?" he asked casually.
"The best place to go after an escape!" Everyone on the deck was looking ecstatic. This island was famous among ne'er do wells like them for being a perfect getaway. No one but pirates were even allowed to know about. The island's inns gave away free rooms to people who showed up with their own wanted posters.
"Ah," Rezland said with a pleasant smirk, "Paradiso Isola."
Off in the distance, beyond the sheet of thin fog that encircled the spring island, was the famed Artefatto Coast, a dock that spanned the island's entire south shore, and was made up of scraps and debris from Marine ships.
"By the way," Rezland added in a roundabout tone to the navigator, "the 'Captain' has an announcement he want to make before we land." As Rezland started away towards the bedroom he left Bard in, he added with a wave. "Get everyone on deck, pronto!"
Zan studied the instructions that Dragon had left for him with a surgical eye.
"Paradiso Isola, eh?" he looked up at the open ocean in front of him, his dinghy swiftly sailing along the currents like it was being pushed along the water's surface. "I guess I'll figure out the old man's plan when I get there."
