The Marine

Chapter 3

Shellstown

It was strange being with Garp without Luffy or Ace. She usually spent most of her time running from the old man on Dawn Island. Once at HQ, most of her training consisted of running away from the Fist of Love and conditioning physically. It was all the rules she had to learn about that killed her.

Garp scoffed. "Brat, I hate the rules too, but to be a Marine, you have to learn it."

Blake groaned, leaning across the table. "But, it's so boring. I can't get motivated." She was glaring at the textbook that listed all the procedures Marines needed to follow.

Garp smirked, a gleam in his eyes. "I have my ways to motivate my grandchildren."

Blake may just be only 15, but she wasn't stupid. She gulped and ran out the door, self preservation taking hold. "Gotta go, bye!" Maybe Rosque could hide her, even if he was usually avoiding her. He was weird like that. Maybe it would be better to not make him mad.

"Get back here, Brat!"

Rosque was safer to annoy. She ran toward his room. She slammed open the door. "What-Dermont, get out of my room!"

She looked around wildly. "Shit, hide me!"

"Get out, jeez, you're annoying."

"C'mon, please. Garp's on my tail!"

He glared for a moment. She found him to be pretty cool to be around, but he was very grumpy. "Fine, you'll owe me."

"Deal!"

They didn't always get along as well as they did.

Dermont Blake was getting off the ship once they docked at Shellstown. She looked around, it was a bustling town and it looked similar to most Marine Base islands. She said to the Lieutenant. "I'm going to look around town. But I'll probably come by the Base before I'm picked up."

Something in her expression made him nervous. It could have been the serious look in her eyes on a face that normally looked calm. He gulped and nodded sharply anyway. "Yes, ma'am!" Any protege of Garp was someone to respect, but be wary of.

Blake nodded, her face changing back to a more laid back look, smiling at him. "Awesome, thanks for the ride." Before he could reply back, she hopped over the railing and landed on the docks with a wave behind her. She straightened her coat, the arms flapping in the wind behind her.

She walked around, but nothing seemed to be going on. Everyone was minding their own business and working either at their stalls, businesses or just walking around. Blake decided to head to a restaurant, to see what exactly happened under Morgan. She might as well while she's waiting for Rosque.

…And she was a little hungry.

She walked inside and noticed it was pretty slow inside. There were only one or two people sitting at tables. Blake sat down, drumming her fingers on the table. She heard a nervous voice say. "I apologize for the wait, ma'am."

She looked up and almost choked. The woman had to have 10 years on her in age and she was glancing at her uniform and the rank that showed her as a Commander nervously. Blake waved her off. "Nah, I just got here. Plus, Blake's fine."

The woman looked surprised. "Are you sure that's alright?"

Blake laughed. "Of course it is. I mean, you have to be older than me, right? You look-"

The woman's eyes narrowed and her lips thinned. She said sweetly. "Yes?"

Blake gulped nervously, feeling sweat roll down the side of her face. She remembered older women in her life and their reactions to being asked about or guessing their age. In Blake's mind, it didn't matter if this woman was a civilian and she a Marine Officer, older women could be scary. She was raised by one.

Blake shrugged. "...great. Can I eat something?"

"We'd be happy to serve you. What would you like?"

"Okay, I'll have three steaks and some mashed potatoes. Please, uh, miss…"

She smiled a bit, after her eyes widened from the amount of food that the girl asked for. She did not look like she could eat that much. "It's Ricka. That's a lot of food."

"Nice to meet ya. I need to eat, afterall, I am going to investigate the Marine Base." It was quiet around the bar.

One older man who looked to be a fisherman by his deeply tanned skin and rougher sea clothes asked gruffly. "That's why you're here?"

Blake looked at him for a moment. "Nope."

The three adults in the bar yelled. "WHAT!?" They were all thinking the same thing, "You just said you were here to do that!"

Blake raised an eyebrow. "Huh? I'm here to wait for my Lieutenant Commander. I don't have a ship right now." Blake was not very secretive, so she didn't see any problem with saying this out loud. To the annoyance of her superiors, she was as bad as Garp about that.

Ricka asked hesitantly. "But, you said you were investigating the Base?"

Blake nodded. "Yep, that's true. But, that's because I want to find out what's going on while I'm here. Figure out what went wrong."

The fisherman scoffed. "It's Morgan's fault!"

"Adler!"

"What? It's true."

Blake crossed her arms over her chest. "Naw, he's right." A hard look crossed her face. "But, the Marines should not have let that happen. They're supposed to protect you. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again. I can't stand corrupt Marines." Blake had some ideas on how to fix this, but she needed to investigate and make a decision. She outranked anyone on the Base anyway. It was annoying when the old man explained how important ranking was. She wasn't a top investigator, but she wasn't as slow as Luffy was on the skill.

The fisherman looked like he wanted to protest her words, but stopped at the look on her face. "Yeah, alright, kid. But, Morgan's gone."

Blake grinned, her bad mood wiped off her face. "Yeah, and I kicked his ass and locked 'im up in the Brig so he won't be a problem."

"You beat up Captain Morgan?!" Ricka looked surprised.

Blake shrugged. "Well, yeah. He was a corrupt Marine. He tried to get away, but didn't get far."

Ricka said. "Well, I will be right back with your food."

Blake waved as she walked away. "Thanks!"

She tapped her fingers on the table, waiting for her food to get here.

"Hi!" She glanced over at voice. Her Haki pinged the presence, but it was nonthreatening, so she ignored it. It was a little girl, with brown hair and eyes with a light sundress on.

Blake waved a little. "Hey." She wasn't used to being around little kids, but they couldn't be too bad. She told that to Ace once and he told her she didn't know how much of a pain in the ass she and Luffy were as kids, which caused them to argue, but she didn't think she was that bad. And probably neither was this kid. "Who're you?"

The girl looked at her from over the table. She beamed. "I'm Rika. My mom owned the bar." Blake guessed that was the woman she was talking to. The names' were familiar and they looked alike. "Is it true that you beat up Captain Morgan?"

Blake brightened. "Sure did. The guy tried to get away, but I got him back after knockin' him out."

She tilted her head. "But, you're a Marine too, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then why did you beat him up?"

Blake frowned, leaning back in her chair. "Well, the ex-Captain was abusing his power. So, I dealt with him. Marines are supposed to protect you guys."

"Like you?"

Blake nodded, grinning a bit. "Yeah, like me."

Rika switched gears in the conversation. "You really beat up Captain, just like Mr. Luffy."

Blake's head jerked up. "Luffy? He beat up Morgan?" She burst into laughter, holding her stomach as her laughter got louder. It got her some looks, but she didn't look and didn't really care.

"Marine lady?"

Blake took a deep breath. "You can call me Blake. It's just…just that Morgan got beat up by my brother and then me. Two family members on different sides."

Rika gaped. "Mr. Luffy is your brother, Miss Blake?"

Blake chuckled. It was strange to hear her brother being called, Mister. "Yup, my little brother." She still ignored the part that they were only a month apart in age, it was the small details that mattered.

"Rika, go and leave the Commander alone."

Blake waved a hand. "It's okay." Her eyes weren't on Rika, but on the juicy steaks and mashed potatoes on the plate she was holding.

Ricka let out a small laugh, eyes amused. "With your appetite, I should've figured he was your brother."

Blake smirked fondly. "Luf eats more than I even could, lucky for your food stores."

Blake then remembered what Gramps said about telling people Ace was her brother when he became a famous pirate. She didn't think about it, but Garp was probably right. She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. She could almost feel the Fist of Love. "I don't think I was supposed to tell ya Luffy was my brother. Just, uh…forget I said anything." She let out a loud laugh.

The few people that were present in the bar stared at her and all thought at the same time.

How do you expect you to forget that!?

Blake laughed at their looks of shock. "Thanks."

After eating at the restaurant and chatting with Rika, Blake decided to get going to the Base. It was nice to hear about her brother's adventures, but she had to get going. Rosque was going to be here with the crew within a day and he would nag her if she wasn't ready.

As she walked through the town to get to the Base, she could feel her anger mounting deeper and deeper on her shoulders as people looked at the Commander insignia on her coat and cringed or cowered back in fear. Blake was seething and grinding her teeth by the time she ended up at the Base's courtyard.

The Marines weren't supposed to be like this. She knew they existed, corrupt Marines, but it pissed her off every time. She growled under her breath. "Damn bastards!" It went against everything she believed in. She would have to do a deep investigation. She hated them, she didn't have the patience for it. That's usually what she had her Unit for, who had the skill and the patience to do it. Especially Rosque, he was her right hand and the one she counted on for things she couldn't do. They worked well together.

She was saluted as she walked through the Base. She called out to one of them. "Yo, where's Morgan's office?"

One of the Marines stood at attention. "Yes, Commander! It's this way." Blake followed him to a room's door. Blake would've been lost if he didn't. This place had many turns. He said. "Ma'am, I don't have the key."

Blake shrugged. "That's fine." She backed up a little, kicked the door down and it crashed to the ground. "There we go, the door's unlocked."

The Marine's eyebrow twitched nervously. "I-I can see that…"

Blake walked in and looked around. It looked like a standard Officer's office. A large desk with papers on the desk, a Transponder Snail on the corner of the desk, the Marine Insignia on the wall, but Blake scoffed at the 10 ft statue of Morgan in his office. "What a jerk." She punched it hard enough to crash the statue to the ground into pieces. She stuck out her tongue. "Bleh."

She sat down and grabbed the snail. It had a Marine coat on its back with a metal piece covering the jaw area. She picked it up and rang her Unit's number. "Yo."

"Commander, why do you answer that way?"

Blake beamed, happy to hear from the other members of her unit. "Hey, Marissa. You guys are almost here?" She ignored her question, which she noticed if the twitching eyebrows on the snail was any indication.

"Uh…based on my calculations, about half a day." She was her main navigator, so she would know best. She barely knew the basics because she was forced to learn, but she was horrible with a map.

"Ah, okay. Just tell Ros I want him and Alistar to come to the Base and the rest of you guys can if you want to for the day."

"Alright, remember to stay out of trouble, Commander." Blake has the beginnings of a plan on how to deal with this problem. She picked up the first piece of paper and focused.

Blake growled to herself, slamming what felt like the 1000th paper on a pile that really only looked to be 30 or pages. She rubbed her eyes tiredly. This was definitely proof he was guilty of corruption, the guy was too prideful to hide it. It was increasing her temper, causing her to growl under her breath through the process.

She felt a familiar presence coming towards the doorway without looking and grinned in relief. There was a clearing of the throat. "Commander."

Blake smirked at seeing Rosque and Alistar. "Why're you being so formal, Ros?"

He gave her a frustrated look. "Someone has to be with you in charge of this Unit."

Blake's mood already felt uplifted. She waved a hand. "Bah, who cares?"

Lieutenant Rake Alistar didn't say anything, but he was biting back a grin, his face full of amusement. He was an older man in his early 30s, He had slicked back red hair, a groomed beard and slightly tanned skin from the sun. He was a quiet, but honorable man. Blake knew he was the perfect person for the job.

Rosque eyed her in disbelief, hands on his hips, under his Marine coat. "And what happened to the door?"

Blake shrugged. "It was locked."

"So you busted down the door?!"

"I needed to get inside!"

"How many times do I tell you not to use brute force?!"

"Gramps might be crazy, but he's right. It's necessary!"

A deep cough cut off Rosque's reply. "Commander, you needed me?" Alistar and the rest of the Unit knew that if they allowed it, Rosque and Blake could argue for hours.

Blake nodded, letting a serious look cross her face. Her men reacted, stiffening their shoulders. "Yeah, so basically Morgan was a corrupt Marine, I kicked his ass and I want to make sure this Base doesn't become corrupt again."

They took her words in and both frowned. Her entire Unit felt the same way about Marine corruption. Alistar asked. "What do you want to do?"

Blake leaned back in her chair, scratching the back of her head. "Well, I can't stay here, I'm a Grand Line Commander. But, Al, I remember you tellin' me you needed Leave 'cause your wife and your kid are around here."

Alistar frowned. "Commander? You remember that?"

Blake eyed him. "Of course I do. You said it was important." Rosque smirked as Alistar seemed to sputter for a moment. They always seemed to doubt Blake. Rosque knew it was probably the dumb ass behavior she gave out.

"You want me to command the Base?."

Blake shrugged. "Yeah, why not? You wanna be with your family, but you can still work with the Marines." After his silence, she said. "Look if you don't wanna do it, that's fine. I trust you a lot to do this, but I know you're a Grand Line Marine too."

Rosque asked. "Why are you this concerned?"

Blake frowned, leaning forward, which caused her bangs to shadow her eyes. "I looked through the paperwork the Captain had, it was enough to show corruption toward the people here. I want one of my own people to make sure it doesn't happen again." At their answering silence, she huffed. "I made them a promise, okay. Who knows if the Marines on Base will fail under another leader?"

Rosque let out a breath. "I should've guessed that was it."

Alistar said. "I'll do it."

Blake brightened. "Really?! That's great. Of course you can contact us by snail and all. I know you're the best guy for the job."

Alistar's eyes flushed, glancing away from her with a cough. "Yeah, well, you're right about being close to home, It's about half a day's sail from my home island." Blake grinned again, happy that the Marine under her command would be happy and she had a good Marine to protect the island.

Rosque leaned against the wall and crossed his arms across his chest. "Wait a minute, you're forgetting something."

Blake blinked in confusion. "What's that?"

"How exactly are you going to get the lead Marine of the Base to agree?"

Blake burst into laughter, leaning back in her chair. "That won't be a problem. I'll get what I want."

Rosque felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance. "Trust me, I know you too well."

Blake smirked. "Aren't you lucky?"

Rosque snapped. "The opposite has been true ever since I met you."

Blake laughed. Alistar couldn't help but think she sounded similar to Garp when he loudly laughed at something. Of course, such a comparison would make Blake shiver in fear.

"Stop laughing, idiot!"

"Stop worrying, Ros. I got this."

"All I do with you is worry!"

"Everything is fine. You worry too much."

"I wonder why!?"

Alistar stared at the door that was on the ground. "Commander."

Blake stopped bickering with Rosque. "What's up, Al?"

"This is to be my office?"

Blake nodded. "Uh-huh. Pretty nice, right?"

Alistar stared at her with a deadpan look. "And that is my door on the floor?"

Blake froze for a second, laughing awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head. "Uh, yeah, well…"

Alistar gave her a bright grin, wide enough that it was obviously fake. "Well, Commander, that's fine because you'll fix it, right?"

Blake replied. "Well, uh, we were going to sail soon…"

Alistar's grin got wider. "Is that so?" Rosque held back a laugh at his tone and the sweating he could see on Blake's face.

"I suppose I could fix it."

Alistar's grin softened into something more genuine. "Thanks, Commander. By the way, before you leave…" He reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a wallet. "Have you seen the new pictures of my daughter yet? She is the cutest!" Rosque and Blake bit back a groan. It was the main reason Alistar wanted Leave, he was a very proud and doting father, showing his pictures of his daughter to everyone he could. Even Garp was not spared from this treatment.

"Yeah, sure."

After fixing the door and looking at Alistar's pictures for 20 minutes, they bid him farewell, going to the docks. Rosque said as they walked down the street. "Blake, you have to tell the commanding Marine in charge of the new change."

Blake waved a hand, not even concerned. "Yeah, don't worry about it. I got it."

They walked to the docks to see the Marines still disembarking from their ship, bringing down supplies. Blake's fond grin at her ship next to it was automatic. It was bigger than the other Marine vessel. She could see some of her Unit members walking across the ship, even waving at a couple of them who noticed her.

Blake saw the Marine Lieutenant of this Base and said. "Whelp, here I go."

"I'm coming with you."

Blake sent Rosque a look. "You don't think I can handle it?"

"To get what you're looking for, absolutely. Professionally? Not in this lifetime." She made a face at him, but conceded his point. She was not very diplomatic.

She walked over to him. "Hey. Lieutenant!"

Rosque asked lowly. "Do you remember his name?"

"Nope."

"This is gonna be good."

He came over and saluted them. "Commander. Lieutenant Commander." Rosque gave him a salute back and Blake nodded, wondering how she should go about this. Then she realized her usual way was probably best. "I brought my Lieutenant to command the Base so he'll be in charge." Bluntness.

Rosque choked, ignoring his professional formality in his shock. "Blake! What the hell?"

"What?"

"Too damn blunt!"

"You know I don't beat around the bush."

"I didn't think-"

"Ma'am." They shut up. The Marine was holding himself stiffly, the offense clear on his face. Blake didn't care, lax judgment allowed for Morgan to take over. They should have called HQ. "That is not necessary. I am well enough to command the Base."

Blake frowned, leveling him with a sharp look. "You might have meant no harm, but civilians got hurt. The files speak for themselves of what Morgan did." Her teeth bared in anger. " The people he executed. Roronoa Zoro wasn't the first attempt. I get you guys needed help, but Al will make sure it doesn't happen." Rosque stared in surprise. She wasn't much for long speeches. Blake finished. "Alistar's a great guy, he won't be bad."

The lieutenant in front of her saluted sharply, looking unhappy, but realized he couldn't do anything. "Yes, ma'am."

As they left him, Rosque said. "Aren't you worried they'll take it out on Alistar."

Blake burst out laughing. "You think Al can't handle the East Blue?"

Rosque smirked. "You got a point."

Blake smirked back. "I always-ow!"

Rosque punched her arm. "Don't be a dumbass. Of all the times you've gotten me in trouble…" He was grumbling towards the end. It just made Blake laugh as they boarded the ship.

Blake walked away from Rosque. "Hey, everyone." The crew waved at her, calling out greetings. "Alistar is staying here at the base." At the cries of shock, she said. "He's gonna protect everyone here." After another moment, she asked. "Where's Marissa?"

A couple of the crew pointed towards the navigation office. Which made sense since Marissa was a navigator. She opened the door and ducked or something was thrown at her head, triggering her Observation. "Oh, it's you. Took you long enough."

Blake huffed. "Rude. "

Marissa chuckled. "Making a mess of things?" Marissa was a woman in her early 20s with long blue hair and brown eyes. She had a sharp tongue, and had to be to wrangle this crew. Even Blake knew not to cause her wrath.

Blake replied. "Of course not, so where are we going?"

"You talk to the Lieutenant Commander about that?"

"Nope."

"Of course. Well it's not far from the beginning of the Beginning of the Grand Line. A criminal organization is terrorizing a island. HQ requested you." Everyone knows that she's been known to do this before. It was her speciality and how she ranked up so quickly in the past few years.

"Cool..how long?"

Marissa sent her a warning look. "Commander…"

Blake rolled her eyes, raising her hands in front of her. "This is the first time I asked."

"This time." After Blake's expectant look, she relented. " A few days. Don't keep on asking."

"I won't!" Blake left after reminding her to take a break. She could get so focused on reading maps and planning that she would forget to leave. The rest of the crew reminded her all the time to eat and rest.

Blake ran into Rosque. "Hey, Blake, I do have a question."

"Yeah?"

"How do you think HQ is going to take you appointing someone at the base without permission?"

Blake shrugged, laughing. "It's fine. I did the right thing."

A Few Weeks Later

"Garp! Garp!" Sengoku felt like slamming his head on his desk. Garp came into his office with a grin, chomping on some rice crackers from a box.

"What? What do you want?"

"Your Granddaughter is causing problems again!"

Garp roared in laughter. "She's a great Marine. What'd she do?"

Sengoku slammed his hands on the desk. "Your brat took one of her own men and put him in command of the Base at Shellstown in the East Blue."

Garp scratched the back of his head in confusion. "What's the problem? That Morgan guy was a piece of work."

"She did it without permission!"

"Ah, don't worry about it! It'll work out." Garp laughed again.

Sengoku groaned, rubbing his forehead. This kid was like dealing with Garp from the past. She was going to be a major headache, he could just tell. He thought having this kid in the Marines would make her less of a headache than Garp's other grandchild. He should've known a family member of Garp was going to cause problems, even if they were on the same side. "Rein her in dammit!"

"And what fun would that be?!"

As Garp continued to laugh, Sengoku gave into the urge and slammed his head down on his desk.