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.
On a remote island, famed for its untouched landscape and its giant wildlife, four Marine battleships approached via the specially calibrated Log Poses on board. The entire island shined with a vibrant aura of life. Bright greens and deep, luscious blues covered the landscape as the amazing colors of the vegetation created the namesake of the stylishly huge island. Ookumaiwa, Great Bear Rock, a giant furry bear's head which stuck up from the waves of the cool sea as if to watch the sky in envy. A huge land devoid of life, save for the various species of bear that lived there. On these four ships a myriad of men traveled, only two of whom bore any significant importance to the future of this particular place.
"Sir" a Pol agent said in his black suit with his face covered by the brim of his hat, "we will arrive shortly. Perhaps you should brace yourself, as we will be docking in the shallows and may come to a sudden stop."
"KURURURU!!!!" the hearty, muscular man in the lab coat laughed, standing on the bowsprit of the huge boat. "What's with you, man? You sound like a recorded message!" Reginald Drakengard, famed researcher of all things living, an omni-biologist, was the first to embark upon this exciting new land in the name of the Marines, but more specifically his superior, Vegapunk. His face had a stern, chiseled look and his beard of lustrous black was cut perfectly to form a point so sharp it could easily pierce through wood. Twenty years ago he set forth on his expedition, a joint project between himself and his employers.
On the ship behind him sat, in a solitary and confining room, another man who worked in greatly repressed frustration over the a stack of papers. This was Rupert Lioncrest, a royal associate of the scientific branch of the Government. His family was in charge of the port from the North Blue which led into the Grand line via the Marinford Headquarters. Not as influential as the people who would regularly pass through, but a name good enough to join in what was deemed one of the single most important missions in research and development for the century.
"Sir" a Pol agent said, this one waring a calming smile and waves of curly blond hair, "we will be arriving quite soon. Would you like any last-minute refreshments?"
"No" Rupert groaned. "ARGH! I can't work like this! It's far too cramped! I need a wider room next time! And besides that, these reports are too boring for me to just sit and do! I'm falling asleep just looking at them! Why can't more exciting things happen in the world, like when they did hundreds of years ago?"
"In any case" the Pol agent repeated "we're arriving soon. Brace for impact." The agent closed the door and jumped across the expanse of blue sea to the other ship. The line of battleships carried not only the official personnel of Rupert's expedition, but each housed nearly a hundred prisoners taken form Government posts and bounty offices from around the Grand Line. The ones that stayed under heavy guard on the fourth boat were all from Impel Down itself, villains of the most extreme caliber, who stayed in tight, thick chains constantly for the sake of the other ships. Several Pol agents stayed on each ship at a time to prevent any unwanted prisoner revolts. Only two of these agents were secretly drafted in from Cipher Pol 9, and only Reginald was permitted to know which ones.
Those particular agents were now fighting at the ship's aft, the stern and sinister one hitting the other in the head with a slipper. "Fool!" he shouted. "What if someone saw you? Just because we have Soru and Geppou here doesn't mean you get to use them at will!"
"Sorry" the man with the high voice and woman's hair apologized. "I keep forgetting that. Besides, no one is really watching us, right?"
"Prepare to dock!" a deckhand announced through the system. The ships all drifted into the nearest bay, the point where the mouth of the bear seemed to open up and the tongue rolled out into a long stretch of ground floating on the ocean surface. 'The Bear Trap' they called it. The first ship stopped short of the formation and the other ships weighed anchor nearby and formed a short line around the green coast of the island. A group of bears, one with a scar over its right eye, shuffled out from the woods and formed a large semi-circle around the Bear Trap's tongue.
"Tell the men" Reginald instructed to a random Marine "to hold their fire. I'll go down there and take care of this myself."
"Yes sir" the Marine said. Reginald marched down the stairs of the deck and discarded his white coat in favor of his black skin-tight shirt underneath. On it were the words 'FIGHT ON' printed in bold yellow bordered with green. His pants were patterned with a snake-like scale of green and blue-green while his boots were standard black.
"You there!" Reginald shouted to a passing, hugely strong looking Marine. "Go to my quarters and bring me the large, metal chest, will you?"
"Yes sir" The Marine replied. Rupert got up long enough to bother looking over the edge of his own ship to see the commotion that caused them to stop. Even in his younger years Rupert looked foul. His face was twisted with marks of aged frowning and his brow was prematurely wrinkled. He was an angry old man at the age of only thirty.
"What now?" Rupert asked as he looked.
The Bears stood firm. The largest bear, the leader with the scar over its eye, seemed to be issuing a challenge directly to the behemoth that blocked its view of the sea. For ages these bears had gone undisturbed and were free to evolve into giants. A single one of these monsters could feed well over twenty average soldiers, or the one hungry combatant who led them all. Reginald repelled down the side of his ship and jumped down onto the grassy extension of mangrove-root growth. It was buoyant, supporting him even with a large metal box strapped to his back. He tightened the straps around each shoulder and moved inland.
"Be careful sir!" a Marine shouted.
"Call for backup anytime!" another called. The stoic Pol agent pulled the Marines back one by one away from the railing.
"Don't disturb that man" he said. "He knows what he's doing better than any of you do!" The wavy-haired agent tittered into his wrist a ways off. Reginald finally reached the threshold of the island as marked by the dirt-growth vines and flowers, and he let his box hit the floor. The bear chief was not amused and began walking forward on its hind legs. Although Reginald was tall this creature was comparatively a monster. Where Drakengard reached the height of just above seven feet, the bear was over ten feet tall standing. It crossed its arms and growled.
"I can see your a busy bear" Reginald said, unlatching his box and rustling through it. "I understand. I myself am a very busy man. So, let's be as gentlemen and come to an understanding. Step aside...and we won't eat you tonight!" Even a bear can tell when a man makes a death threat. The chief bear's eyes became bloodshot with rage and the monster growled a long, earth-shaking growl.
"GAAARUUUUUUUUHHHH!!!!!"
"Is that the best you can do?" Reginald asked as he slammed the case shut. He had equipped himself with simple fingered gauntlets made from the hide of a sea king, scales so big only three were needed to cover his huge arms and clusters of smaller scales layered on top of the knuckles. He also had greaves made from the same hide, only these had tiny toothy claws that stuck out as toes. He had shoulder pads with three short, upward-curving spikes sticking out and a waist-mantle that held two scale-mail pads at his sides and one long stretch of Sea King scale as a loin cloth. Then there was his helmet, crafted from the remnants of a Sea King's skull to resemble the very monster that was slain to create this armor.
"A great friend of mine" Reginald began "made this armor for me when I joined the Marines. Not that you would know who they are, of course." The bear was done talking. In fact, it never wanted to start. It made a huge, desperate swipe down with its paw and tried to drive Reginald into the ground. In his youth, the man named Drakengard was as nimble and agile as the very agents who chose to accompany him, and he had dodged the attack all the way up in the air to the monster's jaw. "Take THIS!" he shouted, delivering a fierce uppercut to the monster's jaw. It's head reeled back and as it came back down Reginald rested the sold of his boot on the creature's nose and then pushed, bruising the delicate nostrils of the bear and forcing it on its back painfully. He then hopped onto its gut, gripped its stretchy flesh and pulled at its chest.
"Had enough?" he asked. The bear wasn't amused with his theatrics and tried to swat him away from his chest. Reginald dodged and laded back where he was. Then the bear tried to roll over but Reginald just ran on its side, digging his boot claws in as he went. "Ready to give up yet?" The bear was in pain, but the unison of its tribe gave it the extra push of strength to get up and swat Reginald away. The man jumped away and landed on his feet, hopping from foot to foot with his fists up, ready to fight. The bear considered its actions carefully and planned its next move.
"Just shoot it!" Rupert demanded of the agents on his boat. "It's a bear! If we don't shoot it it will maul him and then we'll have to leave to bury his body!"
"Reginald" an agent said "gave us explicit instructions to not interfere with the wildlife of this place. It is a research experiment to see the effects of isolated evolution on the Grand Line. If we interfere with his methods the entire expedition will become pointless and we really will have to return."
"And all that paperwork" Rupert groaned "will have to go through me..." After a brief moment of serious thinking, Rupert turned to the battle and shouted out his cheers. "Get him, Reginald! Smack that bear right between the eyes! For science!!!" Reginald was having fun in his battle. The bear made jabs with its claws that pierced the ground while the nimble scientist dodged each hit. When the opportunity arose Reginald would deliver a straight kick with his clawed toes into the bear's paw. The bear roared in pain and made desperate, wild swipes as Reginald retreated close to the shore. Finally the bear had had enough and made a leaping dive for its prey. Reginald jumped up and avoided a crushing swing with one arm but was caught in a dire bear-hug with the other. He struggled to free himself from the bear's grip before it hit the ground but with little avail. The Marines held their breath on the ships and waited anxiously for the results of the battle to finally culminate.
"ORYAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Reginald shouted. He flexed his arms out and broke the bear's hold, then landed on his back just as the bear's huge chest came at him and he rolled away into the sea. The bear crushed the ground and cracked it down to the dirt, then got up and brushed off its fur. Reginald resurfaced from the sea, panting and smiling at his foe, while the bear itself was panting from its own efforts. The chieftain bear rose up its right arm and swung it to the side, then went down on its front paws and began to leave slowly. The rest of the bears went off into the woods with it. Reginald smiled at his apparent victory. Weather it was out of sheer honor or out of pity, the bear had given him the permission and leeway to stay on its land. Reginald turned to his ship with a grin and gave a positive thumb up.
Camp was promptly set up by the prisoners under heavy surveillance. Cheaper slave labor there was not. The criminals mainly used were minor law breakers who had been detained due to general civil disobedience, not murder and pirating like the others, and they were guaranteed a shortened sentence if they cooperated. The prisoners from Impel Down stayed on the ships and were fed minimal rations of food and liquids, all of which were laden with the mind-altering drug that sedated and calmed them, turning them from lions to sheep.
The camp the team set up started off at the bay, but the heavy and aggressive bear traffic from the woods forced the Marines to relocated all the way up the thickly-grown plateau. They rested ironically in the very mouth of the bear, most of which was thickly-formed rocks and blocks of naturally strong limestone caverns. Their base was set, the ships were moved and the experiment went swiftly underway. And all this took only the spring season of the fall isle.
Then the leaves died. From off the coast the island resembled a true, brown-furred bear. The leaves never fell but turned almost scalding shades of autumn and even the grass became a rusted brown color. The steel-blue stone and minerals of the mouth cave made for excellent reinforcements against the wilderness. Reginald's documentations of the vegetation received heavy annotations as the seasons first changed.
As the docile, lovely green of the island fell into the deathly colors of fall so too did the animosity of the wildlife. Moss and vines constantly threatened the safety and sanctuary of the base, coming in waves of pollen and pods to consume the latent nutrients of the Marine building materials. Frequent visits from the chieftain of the 'Warrior Bears' were held and tributes were constantly made. Rupert mocked the practice of negotiating with animals but Reginald obviously saw the importance of maintaining the dominance of the native species.
Eventually winter came. At this point the leaves vanished and the island resembled the rotted head of a bear instead of even the brown one before. It was now a black-bear island. The bears, as any bear would, went into hibernation for the short duration after their long fall and the constant tributes became more purposeful for the Marines accompanying Reginald. The foliage had all but died and left a sick blackness all throughout the island. The marsh waters increased and the bay was consumed by the salty waves of water. The ships had to be resupplied and sent away for the fear of them smashing into the island and being destroyed.
With just enough supplies to last until the spring and summer season came again, Reginald led the consumption to the bare minimal amounts only. The drugs were passed out and constantly produced on a daily basis, but the Marines and researchers noticed that the effects weren't lasting long enough. The subjects were building a tolerance to the drug and some of the stronger inmates were becoming aware that they were being used. One inmate in particular had shown particularly stoic signs since the beginning. A slender woman with a stone-cold gaze and a head of tulip-pink hair. Her record stated that she was a captured member of the Kuja Pirates, a girl who was injured and left behind on one of their nefarious raids during the end of Roger's age. In truth she hadn't taken the drug since day one, eating the scraps and scrubs of food from the forest whenever she could.
Everything was going swimmingly well. Spring came around again and Reginald marked the celebration of the first anniversary of the expedition by holding a huge feast for his crew. He waited at the dock on the scheduled day with a banner of welcome over his head, a beacon for the next throng of eager volunteer Marines who would take a break from the fighting and life-threatening duties against pirates to join in his peaceful research. However, despite days of waiting, no one came. That was the day that Reginald wept in anger, the day he knew he was abandoned by his own conglomerated family, and the beginning of his major exile. The events that followed shook the foundation of the island and the Marines themselves as Rupert took on signs of a totally new madness...
