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.
A small group of four bounty hunters that managed to get away from the majority of the chaos from the town square battle were running down through the dark alleys. Although they were a safe enough distance away at this point, regrouping with the main force at the harbor was a priority for them to adhere to.
"Damn! How'd those pirates get so strong!?" one yelled to his comrades.
"We just didn't expect them to be so organized that's all!" another shouted as they ran.
"Well, we'll be ready this time!" the third answered back. "We know their strategy and we'll tell the boss about their weakest point!" the two men following gave an affirmative shout, and all three skidded to a halt.
"…There were, four of us, and now there is three." One hunter less haltingly pointed out. The eerie-ness of their current location was slowly setting in. Nothing and no one anywhere, just loose debris and some puddles on the ground with clothing lines over head.
"This place is kinda creepy, isn't it?" the bounty hunter asked and turned to his comrade trailing. No one was there.
"HIIIIIIIIIIE!!" The frightened scream echoed briefly through the dampening air, followed by a heavy slap. The leading hunter had the scared one by the collar and was shaking him violently.
"CALM THE HELL DOWN, MAN!" another slap, and this time his coercing grew to a barbarous shouting. "YOU'RE FREAKING OUT!!"
The bounty hunter donned a newly terrified expression and shook his red cheeks. "You're right" he said with a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry." His aggressor let go of him a tunred back around, ready to continue.
"Don't worry about it. Now let's get going, alright?" The bounty hunter was talking to nothing but a wisp of dust in the otherwise barren alley. A rumble of thunder was heard, muting out the shriek the formerly manly man made as he was swept off his feet and into the air.
"And, that's four." Araly said smugly under her breath. Her traps worked perfectly, which was good news being that she already set up numerous traps in the back streets she had been to.
Her traps were laid out with an unnoticeable system of high-tension fabrics and strings that picked up trespassers by the ankle and threw them suddenly into the air. These first four had worked perfectly, and she could hear the screaming of unfortunate bounty hunters from all over the canopy roofs of the city.
"I hope that makes a difference in their numbers for now" she said worriedly as she rushed across the roofs to set up more traps. "Although, as long as I'm trying my best to help, I'm happy. And if the others aren't," she paused for a second and considered the others and how they were holding up. "Well. If they don't like me helping them then it's their problem."
She smiled widely as she leapt across an alley and started running across another roof. "I'm a pirate too, after all!"
The scene in the tavern was much brighter than what Rez had expected. Despite the injured and wounded pirates resting in the lofts above, it was an off-the-wall party down below. Beer and meat flowed through the crowd like water, the wall was being steadily fixed, the barricade was being reinforced with whatever could be found; it was officially a certain victory in Rez's book.
Although the air was hefty with joviality, the pressure of uncertainty weighed Rez down. It could be any time that the bounty hunters would strike back, and they were nowhere near ready. Another present concern was that his co-general Zan was absent, and had been for quite a while. It was doubtful that someone who was that powerful got dragged off by the attacking scoundrels.
"Alright," Rez shouted above the clamor and revelry, "settle down!" The crowd hushed almost immediately and all eyes were on him. Rez worked his way on top of a table and began his announcement.
"First off, I'm happy to say that our defensive strategy was successful!" A loud cheer started up, but Rez waved it down again. "However, we can't just defend. If we're the only honest pirates left in this city then they outnumber us vastly. We'll need to send a scouting party to check if their regrouping or planning something out there," a small hush went out through the crowd with heavy concern, "and if at all possible kill the scoundrels where they stand."
The room became heavy with worry and disbelief. Rezland didn't expect anyone to go along with a scouting mission, and he was waiting for the boos to start from his assassination speech. He looked around with a low shock that irked its way into a crooked smile. Hands were raising above the serious, smiling, and somewhat demented pirate crowd. When all the hands were up, Rez shot his into the air and ignited a firestorm of cheering.
Bard continued to jog down the dampening wooden ground alongside the churning and bobbing ships docked to the main island. With still no Araly in sight from where she could have been, Bard was getting panicky. She wasn't window-shopping or eating at any restaurants. Bard didn't even know why he was at the dock, she hated ships and bobbing water.
"Man, this sucks!" Bard eloquently grunted through his teeth. "I've gotta find Araly and get back to the boat! I can't find anyone!" Bard squinted his eyes and caught a short glimpse of a running man through the rain. If there were people in that direction, there might be a chance that Araly was one of them, so he hurried over across the boats until he caught sight of the gathering.
There were several large boats full of people talking amongst each other most of them wounded. Many unconscious men were also lying on the decks, some strewn in between two floating boats.
Bard eyed the scene form the crow's nest of a nearby ship, but not so near that these men could see him. Chances that they were astray pirates were the same as them being the bounty hunters Sasuke warned him about. Bard decided not to take chances with the latter choice and stayed in the crow's nest for the time being.
Well, if I do see those bounty hunter bastards I'll give 'em what they deserve!…I wonder what they deserve… Bard knocked on the wood of the mast and formed a brilliant idea. Brilliant, that is, in his own mind. The egocentricism of Bard's colossal strength was the only fuel his brain accurately ran off of most of the time.
He stood up and silently climbed down the mast, glancing occasionally to make sure no one was watching him yet, and rushed several boats over to the one he had eyed only momentarily from the top. It was sturdy, barely moving in the ocean waters, and most importantly to Bard's plan of attack: the mast looked sturdy as all hell.
Without considering the logical ramifications or even possibility of his weapon, Bard made his way stealthily across the bobbing road to the heavily armed ship, still unnoticed by the bounty hunters. The hunters in turn nervously stirred at their prospected meeting. The leader of their movement against the city itself was about to reveal himself in person, and rumors were flying like locusts among the savages.
'I heard he ate a man's arm off!' 'I heard his entire body is coated with iron from a horrible accident!' 'Have you heard? He got his name from the weird armor he wears' '…it looks like a prison cell walking at you from a distance' '…and that's why they call him "Lockout" Dean…'
"Alright, soldiers, listen up!" one voice yelled above the rest from a central ship's bowsprit. "The boss is coming here, so get your stories straight! The Pirates ambushed us from within out own ranks. Not only that, but there was a ton of friendly fire on our part, and that's why we lost and why we have so many wounded! Any questions?"
Several men raised their hands, but the man announcing already dismissed himself and hopped over to a smaller ship from the galleon he was standing on.
"Sir," on concerned voice said, "wouldn't it be better to tell the truth?"
"WHAT TRUTH!?" the leading man spat back venomously. "That a single man and a batch of stupid pirates screwed up the whole plan in less than an hour!?" The obviously hystarical man came within an inch of his quizzical partner and continued explaining, this time in a much more frightened and ominous tone.
"'Lockout' is a demon among men! He's the strongest pirate in the region, with a bounty of over 100 million Berries! Do you know what a monster like that would do to maggots like us? Break us apart and use us as spoons to eat his devil soup that's what!!"
The man receiving the fervent rant gulped loudly. Both, and all the bounty hunters, turned at once to a noise of wood splintering thunderously, followed by a loud roar from someone several ships over. In the short distance, the army beheld a ship's mast timbering over on its side and slowly moving away into the fog that closed around the dock.
Sasuke had been following the ship's movement to the smallest increment. With what small amounts of detail he could make out from the silhouette against the dense fog, it seemed to be a warship. Since no marine ships came within the main dock's firing range without a white flag or suicide wish, there was no doubt that this one belonged to the hunters.
Sasuke cursed lightly under his breath and vanished in a shroud of smoke, only to appear a visible distance away. He stood at the top of a stone spire carved from the dense rocks and ocean tides, which jutted from the water between a sheer cliff and an even taller spire. It was here that the Ninpo Pirates, feared throughout the Grand Line by the World Government's highest ranking officers, has set up their ultimate weapon.
Positioning himself perfectly straight, as an extension of the spire itself, Sasuke made his signature hand sign. The waters below him started to churn violently, and the spires both started to rumble and seemingly loosen from the rocky floor. Below the churning tide was a machine bearing the Ninpo Pirate's Jolly Roger, a skull in a black mask with swords in place of crossbones.
Sasuke smiled smugly under his black veil. The underwater whirlpool machine, the Kappa, would make quick enough work of the warship before any major damage could be done. Suddenly, the roar of cannon fire was heard from the docks. The feint whistling of cannonballs through the air, and soon after the shrapnel exploding from the rock tower from where Sasuke once stood. The rock started falling into the water, directly over the water-churning machine.
A grim figure walked silently away from the cannon that was still smoking from the shot he had taken and slipped into the shadows. Were the Ninpo Pirates uncovered? With the whirlpool machine in danger, will the bounty hunters be able to successfully pillage and destroy the rest of the city? What will the outcome of this torrid battle be?
