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"I'm sorry Paulie."

The brig was not a hospitable place. Nearly every marine base had one that was intended to hold pirates of significant power. Seastone walls, and seastone bars for the front and side would have weakened Devil Fruit users should they try to escape. Luckily for me, I haven't eaten any devil fruit and didn't plan on it any time soon.

"I had no idea they would go after you." I told the young man in the cell next to me. Hell he was barely 18. He was laying on his cot, holding his ribs and staring at the ceiling.

"You did the right thing by stopping Morgan… Why would Ripper do this to me?" Paulie finally responded. We had already been in the cells for a couple of hours and this was the first time he responded to me.

"It's all my fault. I'll find a way to talk to him and clear your name." I told him, not having an answer as to why Ripper would apprehend the young marine when he didn't do anything besides knowing me.

The front door to the brig opened. It was obnoxiously loud, because it was obnoxiously quiet in the cells below. Another form of torture if you asked me. Leave the criminals alone to their thoughts. It could be deadly.

More than one pair of footsteps could be heard walking down the hallway towards our cell.

I hoped it was Ripper, so that I could clear Paulie's name.

A baton slammed on the bars to my cell. The sound was loud but I refrained from flinching or jumping.

"Shut the fuck up!" Lieutenant Rokkaku, Ripper's right hand man and one of the officers under Morgan, was the first person I saw. He was holding the baton and acting tough at the moment. Of course I wasn't scared of the man. I trashed him on the training fields quite regularly.

Behind him was someone I was very happy to see. It was the town doctor. It didn't take a rocket scientist to work out the reason for his visit. I still had a bullet in my shoulder after all, and it was becoming more and more painful as it stayed there. Ripper has a heart it would seem.

"You're in a good mood, Lieutenant." I commented, trying to get under the man's skin. I succeeded.

He turned to the doctor behind him and immediately pointed toward the direction they just came from. "I've changed my mind, come back later." Rokkaku told the doctor as he began to usher him out of the cells.

"Don't be so hasty, Rokkaku. I got permission from Ripper himself. Robert needs his wound treated." Doc, as that was the only name I knew him by, retorted without moving an inch. He was a skinny middle aged man with more gray hair than his youthful blonde hair. Glasses adorned his face and of course he carried a briefcase with him.

"It'll only take me a couple of minutes to retrieve the bullet and disinfect the wound." Doc continued as he moved past Rokkaku and waited in front of the door. In the end, the good doctor got his way. Rokkaku drew the flintlock pistol on his waist and pointed it at me, before retrieving the keys to the jail cell with his other hand.

"Do me a favor and try something, Hood." Rokkaku told me as he unlocked the jail cell and opened the door.

Of course I wouldn't try anything with the doctor so close to me. He could be shot himself, and I would not risk that. This was probably my best chance to escape. I refused to do that while putting others in danger though. Not to mention that I really really wanted this bullet out of my body.

Instead, I just stared at Rokkaku and the flintlock in his hands. The doctor moved inside my cell and Rokkaku didn't move. I was the one to break off our staring contest and move to one side of the very uncomfortable cot so the doctor could have a place to sit and do his work. That's exactly what he did.

I still didn't have a shirt on since I ripped my uniform off, so all I had to do was turn for the doctor to see the wound.

"Why is Paul here, Rokkaku?" I asked as the doctor began putting gloves on his hands and retrieving some instruments from his briefcase.

"He's an accomplice." The officer answered fairly swiftly. His eyes flickered over to where Paulie was laying down. The young man had yet to speak and I wasn't sure as to why. He should be pleading his case.

"For knowing the wrong person? Come on Rokkaku, he's a fucking kid. We both know he didn't do anything wrong." I responded, trying to get the man to see some reason.

That was when the doctor decided to disinfect the wound on my shoulder. He poured some unknown liquid over the top of it, causing it to enter and then fall down my back. Of course, I was too busy hissing in pain as it began burning the area quite intensely. I shot the man a glare that he promptly ignored before taking gauze and wiping the area away.

"I'll need to go get the bullet. It's not too far, but it won't feel good." Doc told me as he reached into his briefcase and grabbed a metal tong looking thing, with handles like a pair of scissors. I never knew what it was called.

"Knowing the wrong person? We found the letters Robert. Kid was in on it the entire time. All the money you two stole from the treasury. All the marine assets. You think we didn't know about that?" Rokkaku responded, as if I was the one without all the information.

I frowned at his response and looked at Paulie. The boy had his head hung low and was staring at lap now. But when he saw me look at him, his eyes raised and met my stare. He had a guilty look on his face and that told me everything I needed to know. I wasn't the only 'Mr. Hood' that the town knew about. Paulie had been having late night excursions, just like I had.

"Yea, we knew all along Robert. We even knew the reason Paulie enlisted in the first place. This was always his plan. It's all in the letters." Rokkaku continued in an almost mocking tone of voice.

He thinks I knew about Paulie the entire time.

That was when the doctor decided it was time to do surgery. How odd of a sensation it was to feel the biting cold of the metal instrument, and yet to feel it burn as it entered into my body to go retrieve the bullet. I couldn't help the groan that I let out because of the pain.

"Quit being a baby, almost got it." The doctor muttered as if he was concentrating trying to find the bullet.

I felt an odd sensation of something moving inside me. Then without any warning, it was gone and the pain began to fade quickly. Only then did I realize that the doctor was already done, and he was applying a bandage to my wound. I let out a sigh of relief, even though the burning pain still lingered slightly.

"There, all done. I'll be back tomorrow morning to change out the bandage." The doctor said, and then had the audacity to smack me in the back, very close to the wound. Of course, the blow tweaked my wound and I grunted once again at the lance of pain it caused.

It was not painful enough for me to ignore the feeling of something falling into my pocket on my left side. I didn't outwardly react, and I didn't go to feel what it was. Not with Rokkaku staring at me the way he was.

"Thanks Doc." I thanked quietly. He knew I appreciated it, and I knew that he did this out of kindness for what I did for the townsfolk for the last half year.

The doctor knows a little sleight of hand, I see…

"This is the man that took out Morgan, huh? Always knew you were a pussy Robert." Rokkaku said with a chuckle.

It didn't take the doctor long to gather up his things and leave my cell. Of course, I couldn't let Rokkaku have the last word either.

"Have fun sucking Ripper's dick, Rokkaku. Hopefully you've prepared yourself enough that he doesn't 'rip' you when he bends you over his new desk like a good and proper marine." I told the man as I laid on my stomach on my cot. It felt like the perfect time to take a nap. If the contents of my left pocket were actually what I thought they were, I would have an eventful night ahead of me.

"Can't wait to see your head roll Hood." Rokkaku responded as he locked my cell back up once the doctor left. He quickly moved to Paulie's cell, and let the doctor inside of it.

I was asleep before the doctor ever made it to Paulie's bedside.

It's time.

I stood up off of my cot, and reached into my pocket. I had already checked it now that Rokkaku wasn't staring straight at me. Of course, the doctor had made it easy for me to get out of this place. It wasn't a couple of tools to pick the lock or anything.

It was a literal key to the cell block. How he got his hands on it, I'll never know. He also put a note in my pocket to go with the key itself. It was a very simple one, as the parchment was tiny.

'Dock 15. Take him with you.'

I did my best not to make any sounds, but there was only so much I could do when the place was so quiet due to it being night time. My footsteps were silent as I went slowly and had always been light on my feet. However, the sound of the cell unlocking echoed throughout the Brig. In fact, it was loud enough that I heard Paulie jerk up on top of his cot.

The cell door squeaked as I opened it as well. So I did it quickly to get the noise over with. At that point, I didn't even bother to be quiet. I knew that the guards would most likely already be on their way to investigate the sound. Within a few more seconds, I had Paulie's cell open as well.

"Let's go." I whispered as I waved towards him. Luckily for me, he didn't protest and immediately jumped off of his cot to follow me.

Another sound, at the entrance of the brig, about fifty yards down the hallway from our cells hit my ears. It was the guards. But there were no civilians here to save them from my escape. The lights turned on in the hallway.

I didn't wait on Paulie.

With two steps of Soru, I had traversed the entire length of the hallway and was standing beside the entrance door when the guards opened it. Sure enough, there were two of them that walked through the door. They walked right past me, as they were already looking down the hallway at Paulie exiting his cell. I was also slightly hidden by the open door.

"Hey, get back in your fucking cell!" The lead guard yelled down the hallway as he leveled a rifle in Paulie's direction. Paulie froze and put his hands up in the air. Of course, he could see me behind them.

Once I confirmed that there would be no more than two guards coming through the door, I acted. The one closest to me dropped like a sack of potatoes as my fist impacted his temple.

Before he hit the ground, I had my arms wrapped around the throat of the man holding the rifle at Paulie. I squeezed hard so that he couldn't yell and the blood circulation would stop to his brain for just a moment. He flailed around for a moment, but his brain had decided to reset before Paulie could even run the rest of the distance down the hallway. He too dropped to the ground like a ragdoll.

I noticed the first man had a standard issue marine cutlass on his belt, so I quickly relieved him of it before belting it onto my waist. Then I looked at Paulie and pointed towards the rifle now laying on the floor of the hallway.

"You always told me you were a good shot, yeah?" I asked.

"Best in this fucking base." He whispered back as he reached down and grabbed the rifle off the ground. I nodded, and walked through the door that would lead us to freedom.

"Good, let's go!"

As it was so late at night, there was a skeleton crew guarding the base. We stuck to the shadows as I was so accustomed to from the last few months.

We reached the gates that led to the docks without a single interaction with another marine. It was almost too easy. There were another two marines there, but they were facing out towards the docks keeping people out, not keeping people in.

They got the same treatment as the guards from earlier. I tried to be gentle about it, but there was only so much I could do when trying to knock someone out. We decided to relieve them of their pistols before we left.

"Where are we going?" Paulie whispered as I led him down the docks. We could barely see anything with the lanterns lighting up specific parts of the wooden docks. But I could hear the waves lapping against the shore, and the ships currently docked and I smiled.

This body knew how to sail, but since I had merged with it I hadn't been on the open sea yet. I couldn't help the giddy feeling I felt at the prospect of sailing across East Blue. I didn't even know where we would go, but I was excited for the journey. My old body had never been on a sailboat before and rarely got to go on open waters at all.

"Dock 15." I answered as I continued down the docks, reading the numbers as I went. I could have used soru to get there immediately, but Paulie would have been left behind rather swiftly.

13.

14.

Bingo.

Without much hesitation, I turned and began running down the length of the pier that was dock 15. There was a ship already there and it was hard to make out any defining features of the vessel due to the night sky and the lack of light poles on the dock.

What I could tell however, was that it was a decently sized vessel. It was not the size of a standard marine ship that patrolled East Blue. But it was at least the size of the Going Merry from the series, and I suspected it was slightly bigger.

The gang plank was already connected to the vessel and I climbed it with no hesitation. The cutlass was still in my hands and I was prepared for battle in case it turned out to be a trap set by Ripper. When my feet hit the deck with a 'thud', I knew nobody else was on it.

Another 'thud' right behind me told me Paulie had made it as well.

"Let's get this baby out to sea!" I commanded as I turned back to the gangplank and grabbed it off of the deck. It took me a couple of moments to pull it onto the ship. I didn't even bother to stow it in the proper location yet, as it would take some more time to get it out at sea with only two people.

Paulie and I were a flurry of activity getting the ship ready. I untied us from the dock and rolled up the ropes. He began dropping one sail after that, which I eventually helped with. Then we got the second sail dropped as well. Luckily for us, the wind was in our favor, a good luck sign if I had ever seen one before.

'Gong!'

'Gong!'

'Gong!'

We were already pulling away from the docks when the Marine bell sounded in the distance. It was obvious that our escape had been found out. Unfortunately for them, we would be long gone before anyone could ever see us on the horizon. We were quickly gaining top speed and the night sky would protect us from anyone looking out at sea trying to find us or our destination.

"You're too late, Ripper!" I called out as we continued to get farther and farther from the town. I was smiling, because in the back of my mind this was the start of an adventure for me. Despite my pirate status, and a soon to be bounty on my head, I was smiling.

Paulie however, leaned on the railing of the ship looking at the fading town. He was not as excited as I was. He was leaving his home, and could not return to it for a very long time, if ever.

I walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder. I tried to be comforting, but I wasn't sure if I succeeded. I decided that words weren't needed at that moment.

As it turns out, the open sea can be boring.

Once the sun came over the horizon, and it became impossible for me to sleep any longer, I was left with nothing to do. There was no wonder that Zoro slept the entire time between arcs. I pondered the benefits of doing the same thing actually.

"Captain! You should see this!"

I sat up from the crates I was laying down on in a shady part of the deck and looked to where Paulie was waving at me near the stern of the ship.

Captain?

I jumped off of the crates and walked over to where he was standing. With the sun broadcasting its rays over the world, I could finally see the ship and I immediately knew who's ship it was.

Morgan's personal vessel.

The ship was a marine design, but smaller than what was normally seen. It only had two masts. In fact, it looked a lot like Smoker's original ship, but the paint on the side of it was slightly different. The sails still had 'Marine' in big letters painted on them. I made a mental note to change them at the earliest opportunity.

"What is it?" I asked Paulie as I turned my attention to him.

"I've been searching the ship since you decided to take a nap, and it looks like the townsfolk stocked us up… on everything." Paulie told me as he gestured to the grate beneath us, that would lead into the ship.

My eyebrows rose, as I expected us to have to make it to the nearest settlement and find a way to restock on the essentials pretty soon. We were banking on word not spreading fast enough about us, so that we wouldn't be attacked on sight.

That's convenient…

It was then that I realized we had more work to do. We had no idea of the supplies on the ship currently. We needed to do an inventory of every single thing on board, so that I could properly plan our next destination and what we would be doing. I actually already had an idea to try and gather some loot to finance my adventures for the near future. And it was nearby.

"We need to do an inventory." I told him, more thinking out loud than anything.

"I agree." Paulie said as he began to walk downstairs to where the supplies from the Townsfolk would be.

I moved to follow him and get an eye on it myself before he held a hand up to me. "I can handle this, why don't you go look in the Captain's Quarters and see if they left us anything else. I'll need a pencil and paper so we can log the supplies." Paulie told me as he continued descending into the ship.

I nodded at him, as I saw the logic in the thinking before I turned around and looked at the stern of the ship. There was a door that obviously led to the captain's quarters. It literally had a sign that said 'Captain's Quarters' right beside the door.

I walked through, and was immensely surprised and pleased at what I found. Immediately upon entry into the room, there was a wooden table obviously designed to hold maps and paper. Heavy weights were already resting on it, although there was only a single piece of paper there.

Past the table and on the left side of the wall was an actual wooden desk with a chair behind it. Two other chairs were in front of the desk, obviously meant for guests of the captain. Directly past the desk, was a full sized bed, an outlandish comfort on the seas. Of course, for a man of Morgan's size, he would need at least that big of a bed to be comfortable.

Cabinets lined the back wall, along with weapon racks, barrels, and other typical things found on a ship.

Didn't expect such luxury…

I moved forward to the single piece of paper that was weighed down on the first table in the quarters. My eyes began reading almost immediately. I definitely didn't expect it to begin with my name.

'Dear Mr. Hood,

On behalf of the Townsfolk of Shells Town, Rika and I, Ririka, would like to thank you for everything you have done over the past few months. As soon as they arrested you, we knew that we would do everything in our power to get you out of there. As it turns out, the Marine's were so busy trying to cover everything up and blame you, they didn't even notice us loading Morgan's ship full of supplies.

Take this as a token of our gratitude. The ship will hold up on the Four Seas, but I wouldn't test it on the Grand Line! These supplies are enough for a full crew for a month. Or a particularly luxurious two weeks!

We know that your life is going to get infinitely harder from this point on, and we feel responsibility for that. Your selflessness will never be forgotten. Should you ever need anything, in the future, from Shells Town, find your way back to us and we'll help as much as we can. Same goes for Paulie, but he already knows that.

Other than that, I hope you can find that adventure we always spoke about. I had half a mind to come aboard myself, but Rika is my entire world and I can't leave her by herself. I know you understand. When you come back, make sure you have enough stories to last us through the night!

It'll be hard, but I need one last thing from you.

I need you to promise me you won't let the hardship of being labeled a pirate, to turn you into one. Don't compromise on your morals, ever! Stay true to who you are. Don't let them warp you into what they think you are.

I want to tell you to stay out of trouble, but we both know that isn't going to be possible. Just make sure to be careful. The really bad pirates are much worse than Morgan ever was. I know you won't stand for the injustice they bring on the world, just like you didn't for the marines.

Just make sure and take care of yourself.

I've rambled long enough so I'll just say goodbye now.

With love,

Ririka

P.S. We left you a surprise in the Captain's chest!

P.P.S. You better bring me presents Uncle Robert!'

By the time I was done reading the letter from Ririka, I had made my way over to the desk and sat down. I was smiling wide as I read it. I never expected anything nearly as nice as what she said to me.

Captain's chest, huh?

I looked underneath the desk to find a small little chest resting there with a lock and the key inserted into it. I reached down and hauled it onto the desk before I opened it quickly. Sure enough there was a present folded up inside of the chest. I recognized it immediately, and I reached in to grab it.

It was my green cloak that I had worn to deliver money to the Townsfolk. However, when I unfolded it there was a new addition stitched into the back of the cloak.

It was a black jolly roger, with its hood drawn. A play on my last name and what the townsfolk had referred to me as.

I smiled as I pulled the cloak over my shoulders. I went to tie it around my neck, only to find that the strings had also been changed out for a nice golden chain that acted as a clasp. My smile continued to widen as I clasped the cloak to my frame and dropped the hood off of my hair. My heart was full, and so was my ship.

"Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me!"

A/N: Boom!

Was there any doubt that he was going to escape from the brig? I'm sure some of you even predicted that the townsfolk would have done something like this for him!

Robert has his ship and the first member of his crew!

What do we think?!

Let's talk about it in the reviews!