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Honorstar Garrison. What was once just an ordinary Marine base along the border of the South Blue and the East Blue, is now renowned for spelling the demise of the most notorious crew of pirates ever to terrorize the South Blue. And all it took was perseverance on the Marines' end... and a well-timed counter attack of course, just when the raiding Sea Reaver Pirates had least expected it.

It was those brave men that quelled the threat that the Sea Reaver Pirates once brought to the four Blues. And of course, news of this would travel fast, bringing joy to all the towns and villages that the infamous band of pirates had ever terrorized. Chief among those in celebration are the citizens of Shelburgh, home of the original founder of the Sea Reaver Pirates in Carrington Vail. Because of that history, Shelburgh's citizenry had been oppressed for years, and now they have a glimpse of true freedom for the first time.

We begin the tale in a local tavern of Shelburgh, where the vast majority of its occupants, including the beautiful lass that serves as that particular tavern's keeper, are in the midst of such celebration.



Morale had been high as of late, and all the men had a glass of cool ale in hand, whether they be swinging it in their arms as they sang aloud, setting it down on their respective tables whilst they chatted among friends, or even casually sipping it every so often while they took in the atmosphere. Of course, as would be typical of a tavern, the customer base primarily consisted of men, with only a sprinkling of women here and there who had either come to join in with their guy or was primarily there to ensure he didn't overdo himself.

One young lass in a green dress, however, had been serving ale to all these men and the few women that wanted some all night. This young lass, Gloria Provost, breathed a sigh of relief as she got down the last table, consisting of a trio of muscly men, one of whom was fortunate enough to have a voluptuous, rather heavy-chested lady at his side. Gloria came over to the table with five drinks in hand, and one last beaming smile to try and hide her figure.

"Heya, thanks for waiting, guys!" Gloria made herself heard over the noise going on elsewhere in the tavern as she approached the table to set the glasses of ale down, "That's one for you, one for you, one each for this fine couple..."

"...and what, the last one's supposed to be spare, is it?" the one woman at the table asked with mock judgment.

"I'll take it!" one of the two other men raised a finger, but before he could...

"What? No! This one's mine!" Gloria huddled over the glass that she'd poured for herself as if it were her own child, "Trying to rob me of the drink I earned for all the work I did tonight; the hell's wrong you all?"

Gloria had also pouted at the whole trio, but everyone at the table simply laughed it off. It was evident they were only joking about the whole thing.

"Y'know, you could hire a few girls to serve drinks here if you need the help," the male half of the couple suggested.

"I could sure try, but..." Gloria motioned the part of weighing her options, "...it's hard finding a girl my age that has nothing better to do,"

"I imagine it would be," the man mused, "Maybe someone on the mature end of the spectrum?"

"Why, you offering?" Gloria asked.

There was a brief pause in conversation at the table... until everyone realized that Gloria was talking to the other woman that was there, and consequently turned to face her.

"OH!! M-Me?! I-I couldn't possibly do it, h-heavens no," she nervously declined, "I already have a job, and well... no offense, but this seems like a serious downgrade."

"Hmm... oh well," Gloria shrugged her shoulders, "I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. In the mean time, how about we go back to the celebration, huh? Actually, if you don't mind, let's make a toast."

With that, Gloria raised her glass upwards and towards the table, with everyone at the table following suit.

"To freedom," she chanted.

"To freedom," and then they drank their drinks.

...

Little did anyone in the tavern know that the final remnants of the Sea Reaver Pirates, or rather, most of them, had seated themselves at a table in the far corner, lurking, waiting, and watching the citizenry's premature celebration unfold. It would only be a matter of time before a bad omen would befall the quaint town once more; those few remaining pirates knew that more than anything.

While part of Zerry still hoped that other crewmembers would show up, he also knew it was basically a miracle that so many of them had managed to escape. He had had it pretty easy in that regard since he could just swim away from the battle. On the other hand as a Fish-Man he kinda stood out among humans so it was lucky that so much of the planet was covered in water.

Figuring that Shelburgh was just as likely a place for any survivors to try and meet up Zerry decided to head there. It wasn't an easy journey since he could neither travel by ship or ask anyone for directions but after ending on the wrong island a few times he succeeded, and much faster than he had expected.

It looked like Shelburgh was still celebrating the downfall of the Sea Reavers and while Zerry wasn't happy about it it also meant that a stranger wouldn't draw as much as attention as usual. After sneaking around at the edge of town he managed to find a cloak big enough to hide his appearance making the Fish-Man confident enough to head deeper in.

Careful not to draw any attention to himself while not revealing how nervous about being caught he was Zerry made his way to a tavern. The first thing he noticed was a group toasting about something but as he looed around, not expecting to be lucky, he recognized a few of his crew members sitting in a corner.

Zerry casually approached them, moving his hood just enough that the Sea Reavers should be able to tell who he was, and after grabbing an empty chair from a different table joined them. "It's good to see you."

"To Freedom-resu..."

Poppy reluctantly replied. The tavern roared in unison, drowning her out by orders of magnitude. Poppy meekly held her thimble of mead aloft, barely higher her brow, and gazed up at the sorry company she'd found herself with. She glugged her drink with everyone else, to help take the edge off this miserable set back, and sat back down on the door wedge she'd rescued. She studied the faces around her; mostly tired, battleworn mugs, many of whom seemed to be sussing each other out as well. Some eyes were filled with the fires of vengeance, others lost and a couple completely illegible. She didn't know much about them except they were Sea Reavers, they could be trusted and must have been thinking the same thing she was.

Imagine forgetting your bloomin' hat...

She knew where her hat was at all times. At the moment it was off for the stealth bonus, nobody would recognise famous pirate of infamy, Poppy, without her signature hat, making blending in with the locals seemless. Currently, it was up in the rafters with Pi-po who, after dodging the broom a few times, had made peace with the barmaid by tending to her exotic pet collection. He was content enough reloading himself for the next phase in Maggie's masterplan. Her tricorne would be safe up there until it was time for the Sea Reavers to make their presense known, a moment Poppy was very much looking forward to.

A cloaked man descended on the table, heads turned to assess his intentions. Poppy's instincts kicked in immediately and bolted for the nearest tankard, hat or no hat she was still a Tontattan. Safely out of view she could eavesdrop in determine his threat level, strategise and then call in the bird strike.

"It's good to see you."

As it turned out he was pretty friendly, his voice had a strange, familiar quality to it, and the other Sea Reavers seemed pretty accepting of him. Tactical bird combat wouldn't be required, this time. Poppy poked her head out from behind the drink to get a better look at the man but this didn't help as his disguise was impeccable. Perhaps speechcraft was the answer. Convinced it was safe, she stepped out of the shadow of the beer stein and back towards her makeshift stool.

"It's good to see you're safe too,"

she said as she smiled, even if she wasn't entirely sure who "you" was, it was reassuring to find more allies so deep in enemy territory.

"Any word from the Captain-resu?"

Draped in a brown cloak, a figured hurried through the busy streets. A slender white hand, bruised, and scratched, clasped it's hood tightly, as if a sudden breeze would come down at any second, and pull it away. It was on the smaller side, and would go unnoticed by most passerby. The few who did focus on it, didn't think much. Perhaps it was an adolescent, lost, and looking for their parents, or maybe it was a young adult, on the run from their parents.

Behind the rushing wee-one was where most eyes turned. Draped in a similar cloak, walking steadily, came the giant, at least, giant, among normal men. It's steps boomed on the cobbled streets. Occasionally a step would crack the stone, or cause already existing cracks to spread out.

"Where? oh where?" A tiny voice from the smaller cloaked figure mumbled. The red eyes under the hood darted one way and another. "I doubt they got everyone, but enough. Damn marines." She spat marines like bitter poison. "Every time I find somewhere to rest easy, here they come, and sink everything to the bottom."

"Ah!" Her eyes sparkled. There was a bar. She didn't think she'd been to that one, in particular, before, but that was okay. She didn't know all her crew, but she knew enough of them to know they'd head towards the nearest watering hole. Even if they couldn't regroup from the massacre, they could at least drown away their sorrows and sing to the fallen. Quickly, as if a timer had started somewhere, and Sophie only had so much time, Sophie made her way to the bar, and slipped inside.

Everyone was celebrating. Of course they were. From the outside, the pirates were always the enemies and the enemies had just been destroyed. Cheers everyone. Cheers!

Hard as it was not to say anything, Sophie managed and looked around. It didn't take her long to see some familiar faces, gathered at a table.

"Aye." She said, taking a seat and giving a nod to the rest. A few moments later there was pause in the celebrations as the larger fellow in the cloak stepped inside. It didn't bother to survey the room. it headed right in, and took a standing position behind Sophie. "Good to see I wasn't the only one who made it through that mess."

Handel sat at the table, nursing her drink with a tired scowl. As a 'disguise', she had donned her old marine commander's jacket, though this had the unfortunate effect that any reveler that passed by would offer their congratulations on the success of the raid. Handel would offer them a weak smile and wave them off, saying that she had lost a lot of good comrades and would prefer to mourn, which was enough to give her and what remained of the Sea Reavers some much-needed space. Meanwhile she had laid out an array of den den mushi in front of her, asking them to send out messages to any other Sea Reaver numbers that she knew, though all were silent.

The greeting drew her attention up to Zerry, but she just gave him a tired nod, though she welcomed him to join herself and Poppy at the table. Sophie and her mechanical monstrosity soon entered the bar.

"I don't know if the captain had a personal den den mushi or not," Handel said in response to Poppy's question, "but I haven't received a call from her yet." Handel rubbed her temples in frustration, unsure how long to linger in this limbo of waiting for survivors. "Hope we're not the only ones," Handel added, addressing Sophie's greeting.

Handel had not been a prominent member of the Sea Reavers; when she joined, she had made it clear that she was a former member of Cipher Pol, but her honesty was, understandably, met with suspicion and distrust. She had been assigned as an engineer to one of the side ships of one of the lower-ranking members, however during the Garrison Star Raid, when the chatter from her den den mushi assigned to intercept messages alerted her to the existence of marine reinforcements and to their specific tactics, her warning was not properly relayed up the chain of command. She knew what was coming, but nobody had listened. 'Stupid fucking pirates,' Handel thought to herself, though she knew that her rage merely masked her sense of loss and regret.

Handel looked around the bar, at a loss for what to do and how to proceed. They needed to rally. but what would be a safe way to do so without drawing unwanted attention?

As surprising as it might be, it is almost impossible to sneak through town when one is nine meters tall.

He had done his best to hide his appearance, shrouding himself in what was essentially a massive hessian sack and a crude wooden mask. But nothing could be done for his size, or the minute earthquakes resonating briefly with every footstep. And to be frank, he rather felt as if he were drawing more attention by appearing almost as if he were some sort of strange oversized sack-ghost. Certainly, a great many eyes turned to him as he passed, though he ignored them in favour of his eventual goal. The tavern.

He'd heard the crew had started there. If anyone was left, that was where they'd go, surely. Many had fallen even before himself. The chances that anyone remained were... slender.

Perhaps more concerningly, the chances of his getting inside of any of these buildings was even more slender. The boat he'd come in on was fairly large, but with only enough storage space to carry him and the minimum necessary sustenance this far, and he'd been using the food sack itself as cover from the elements. He had no intention of getting back on if he could help it - unless the remainder of the crew was truly a tale. The point being, it became very clear very swiftly that, far from walking into the tavern, he'd be lucky to fit one arm inside without knocking over a table, and the people at the table with it.

Though, inexplicably, his arrival seemed to have gone unnoticed by most inside: as he leaned down to peer in, he realised that they were by and large far too busy celebrating - perhaps the success of the Marines, if fate had a sort of spiteful logic to it. All of them, save for one small group in the corner...

Beneath the mask, he smiled. Might be he had a chance at reuniting with some of the old guard after all.

Creeping around to the nearest window, he looked in again. There, the nervous chap in the cloak: Zerry, the hair-like tentacles unmistakeable once you knew them well enough. And next to him, surly-like and clearly upset with the way things had gone: the, the, she was an engineer right? Different division, never somebody he'd met personally, but he knew she was a Sea Reaver too. And the smallest one: Poppy, the only Dwarf he was aware of in their ranks, but strong for her minute size. And one more lady: he'd recall her name if he let it stew a tad, but the big "person" behind her had to be her robot. Big, not Ōminkumimi big, but still hefty.

But speaking of "big"... no Magdalena. Which, truly, was a pity and a half. If anyone was likely to survive... then again, she'd also been the single biggest target.

Still, it couldn't be helped. What could be helped was how to get their attention; in the end, he settled for gently tapping the glass of the window with the edge of his fingernail, which still rattled it in its frame like a fist trying to knock it down. Should one of them open it up for him, he'd take the opportunity to raise the mask a little, give a cheesy grin, and in his deep baritone utter 'Kept you waiting, didn't I?'

Suddenly, the front door of the tavern swung open and slammed against the wall. This in turn caused everyone's attention to shift towards the one man standing in the doorway, who looked to have been running all that time, and who took that time in particular to catch his breath.

"Pirates..." the man said, through heavy panting, "Pirates are here..."

The other tavern-goers were murmuring amongst themselves, questioning whether to take it seriously. Gloria however, not wanting to take any chances, immediately rushed back over to the bar, where she kept a double-barreled shotgun for emergencies just like this. She also rummaged around for any spare boxes of ammunition that she may have stored nearby, but figured she'd press this man for more information while she was there. It could never hurt, after all, right?

"How many? And where're they coming from?" asked Gloria.

"I uh... From the North, I think," the man took a moment to collect his thoughts, "And she may be on her own, but... she's everywhere..."

"Wait, what?" Gloria was dumbfounded, "What are you on about?"

Everyone else was wondering the same thing, unable to make sense of what this newcomer was trying to say. As they discussed the situation with each other, however, one man rose from his seat and cracked his knuckles.

"You said there was just one, right?" he asked the newcomer for confirmation, "In that case, why don't we pay them a visit? Surely they'll run with their tail between their le-..."

"You don't understand..." the newcomer intervened, "One minute you have her surrounded, and the next... you're all fighting amongst yourselves... and all the while, she has all the time in the world to pick you off. Furthermore, everything you could possibly throw at her just goes straight through her body, like it's not even there. It almost feels like you're... trying to fight a ghost..."

More murmurs spread across the tavern. Evidently, these people have neither seen a Devil Fruit in action nor even so much as heard of the concept. However, this new entrant had seemingly did an awfully good job of describing the Devil Fruit that had been eaten by the infamous captain of the Sea Reaver Pirates, in spite of all of that.

...

Suddenly, screams could be heard outside, followed by pounding footsteps that would louden, quieten, louden and quieten again. From the looks of things, civilians were running southbound, and they'd been running as though their lives depended on it. If they didn't know any better, one would say that an attack on Shelburgh had already begun.

"Shit! I stayed too long," seemingly having gotten a sense of second wind, the new entrant backed away from the door, and prepared to take off, "You guys will... y-you'll have to save yourselves!"

"Wait a sec! We don't even know wha-... HEY!!"

And then he was gone. Trembling in fear, Gloria had gotten into a more frantic search for spare ammunition. Noticing this, one of the men that she'd shared a toast with prior had calmly walked around the bar, and kneeled down at her side, wanting to see how she was holding up.

"Hey. You doing OK?" he asked the barkeeper, before noticing the shotgun at her side, "You know how to handle that thing, right?"

"I, uh... Of course I do," Gloria reluctantly answered, after a brief sigh, "I'm sure you can imagine the type of asshole who'd try to show me up some day. Pirate or otherwise..."

The man nodded in understanding, and stayed by her side for the moment.

...

The meathead that was itching for a fight earlier had just picked his drink again, before noticing the lurkers at the corner table from the corner of his eye. In response to this sighting, he reluctantly set it back down, and pressed it against the table in his frustration.

"Seriously? More pirates?" he asked aloud.

"Calm down, you idiot! Those ones might not have anything to do with that one-man army wreaking havoc out there!" someone else shouted at him, "And even if they do, what would picking a fight with them even do for us here?! Huh?"

"They're still pirates, dumbass!" the meathead shouted back, before returning his attention to the pirates, "Who knows what they're thinking..."

The last Sea Reaver Pirates would have most everyone else's eyes on them as well, some more leery than others. Still, pieces of the puzzle were starting to form; all the pirates would need to do from there was put them together. This sudden attack on Shelburgh would be worth investigating, one way or the other.

Handel perked up at the news. She may not have seen their captain fighting in such a manner, but she had picked up on enough marine intelligence to know a fraction of what she was capable of. If this wasn't a sign to reconvene, then nothing was. Handel lightly kicked the large case that was leaning against the wall behind her seat, causing it to open up and reveal the large, weaponized double bass in side. She began shoving the den den mushi into various snail shaped slots in the foam of the case. "Let's go, we've been summoned," Handel said to the reavers, trying to remain somewhat cryptic, getting up swiftly from her seat as she wheeled the large case behind her.

She didn't get very far before they were confronted by a meathead and a suspicious posse. She smiled and pulled out a marine's cap from within her jacket, placing it on her head slowly to seem more official. "Don't worry, they're with me. Special unit, not your typical marines. Anyways, we'll deal with this threat, whatever it is," Handel lied, an act that was second nature to her after years of Cipher Pol training. Though she did not doubt any among the remaining crew's ability to command, as someone who had specialized in subterfuge and intelligence, she felt it only made sense to lead the way temporarily until they met their captain and their ranks could be more officially assigned. For now, her former rank as a marine commander would be the authority she would be relying on.

After sitting down Zerry inspected the other Sea Reavers, finally spotting Poppy and a little surprised that the Tontattan recognized him. Before he could say anything though Poppy revealed a question of her own.

"Any word from the Captain-resu?" Not a question Zerry had wanted to hear, in fact he had hoped they would know more about Magdalena. Luckily before he could dash their hopes by admitting he didn't know anything either more crewmembers showed up, someone wearing a marine jacket but not showing any hostility, another cloaked figure and the easily recognizable Louis tapping on the window. "Just got here myself."

Not even a minute later news of a pirate attack reached the bar and while Zerry at first only listened to what the messenger had to say out of curiosity his description of the single troublemaker quickly caught not only his interest but, clearly, that of the rest of the group as well. "Should have known the captain would show up sooner or later."

As everyone stood up one of the bar patrons proved to either be a bit smarter or better at guessing than everyone else as he seemed to have picked up on the fact that the group were pirates. Before the serving girl could show if she was lying about her skills with her shotgun though Handel came up with a quick lie about them all being marines. "If that pirate is who we all think it is we're gonna have a fight on our hands. You civilians better stay out of this." Zerry hoped they would listen to his advice, he had no desire to fight civilians but he wasn't gonna just let them hurt any of the remaining Sea Reaver Pirates.

Heh. Of course they had just arrived. Fate had a funny way of working out like that, didn't it? And likewise the words, muffled as they were, of the panicked individual talking about invading pirates... no. A pirate, who moved and fought like a ghost.

Another grin as he lowered his crude mask again. Speak of the Devil, right? He moved around to the front of the tavern, thankfully not having to deal with the meathead's insinuation of piracy by virtue of the fact he was outside already, and pulled out a banana he'd saved, peeling it and, with a slight chuckle, dropping the skin in front of the tavern door for whoever might stumble over it. Of course, if it turned into a fight inside... he was strong enough to lift the whole building out of its foundations if need be, given the proper grip. For now, he'd settle with an easy prank.

The cloaked figure, with the giant standing behind, tensed at the sight of the marines. Her left hand clenched, tight enough to force the veins to show like a declaration of war. Gritting her teeth was all she could do to keep from jumping into her buddy, and making a move towards the marine, yapping about everyone standing back during the fight. It was infuriating.

Then, little by little, the man's words started to meet her. Gears began to turn. mathematical figures danced in her vision. The ghost thing, like a ghost. Could that be the captain? It had to be, right? The odds of everyone regrouping, after the butchery, the ghost stuff. Licking her lips, the figure nodded, and pushed herself off from the chair.

"Oh Well" Sophie sighed. No time for a drink now. "So much for getting together in secret, and figuring out a plan of attack." She shrugged as she started forwards, motioning the large figure to follow.

"Don't worry about us" the voice from the cloak was small, but tight like a bow's string. "My friend and I will make things easy, and just leave, while you big brave marines, hero and all, wait here cowering, and chugging down booze."

She didn't wait for a reply. Nothing the marines said mattered. Not that she didn't hope they would try something. It would give her friend and her a chance to release some of the frustration that was building up inside her.

Just one excuse.