[IC] One Piece: New Age

[Duthguy]

Abi had a good point about staying with the others."Yeah you're right. Especially since the marines will now come after us, and we're stuck on this island until the log pose resets which could take days." He was barely done talking when the ships doctor asked for his pistol. Asus had no idea why the guy would want it, but if the guy could use it he was free to have the weapon. He tossed the firearm towards Satoru. "You want the bullets as well?"

He was a bit surprised when Lenwood ordered them to retreat but he was sure the Captain had his reasons and pretty soon he turned out to bight when he came back running through the treetops. "Using the surroundings to your advantage, pretty clever. I might able to bluff any marines into thinking I'm stronger in the woods than I really am."

---

Total number of hornets in Asus' body is 75. Number of hornets used for combat 50, hornets currently in use 10/50, dead hornets 3/50

[IceHeart]

Zypha was briefly taken by surprise when Lenwood decided to try his little stunt. "What the hell are you-" Zypha started but then Lenwood charged through the trees and passed them up, yelling all the way he went. "DO YOU THINK WE WILL RUN AWAY?! THIS IS NOT YOUR LUCKY DAY! WE ARE HERE TO KICK YOUR ASSES AND RECLAIM WHAT BELONGS TO US"

Zypha had to admit the plan had...some merit, until he decided to yell as he was appoaching the marines making any potential surprise factor completely moot. Zypha had no choice but to play the straight man, or woman in this case. "My ass we're here to reclaim squat! Nothing on this island belongs to us in the first place! Not that I'm complaining about taking stuff mind you."

Then Lenwood told them to hurry up and Zypha snapped. "I'm just waiting for the wind to shift, obviously." She suddenly had the urge to spit, did so, and then charged ahead straight at the lone marine, ignoring the fleeing one. Scythe in both hands she sped forward on a collision course with the marine officer.

When she got close enough she intended to leap at the officer and try swiping at him from two directions. If she was blocked or dodged she intended to put some distance from the marine and then start throwing her scythe one at a time.

[Digizel]

Satoru shook his head at first in response to Asus' question. After all, the bullets were much too small for him to use for his coating ability, and he had no intention of using a pistol to shoot anybody. But as he reached out with his arm and caught the pistol out of the air, he began to reconsider when he realized what other uses pistols could have. If he was using a pistol, he wouldn't have to reveal his ability to do non-combat related tasks. After all, pistols had quite a lot of punch to them. He might find a use for it somewhere.

"Not really sure what I'll use them for," he commented off-handedly to his fellow Devil's Fruit user. "But I may as well have them if I've got the gun." He quickly slipped the gun away behind his back and watched Asus expectantly for the bullets.

When Lenwood called for a retreat, his eyes widened slightly in surprise as he watched the captain run cleanly in the opposite direction. But then he let out a small sigh. This was the guy who was going to be his captain? Of course, he wasn't surprised when the guy came back through the trees...but he had probably just ruined what he was hoping to do. As soon as he'd gotten what he needed from Asus, he had planned to slip into the brush and flank the enemy marines and possibly immobilize the smaller one. After all, if either of them were going to go off on their own to get reinforcements, it would be that one. And that would completely isolate the captain so that he'd be rather easy to take down through teamwork.

But now that Lenwood had pulled his little stunt, he had caused the captain to instruct the smaller one to run away. On top of that, he might have even alerted them to the possibility of potential attacks from the brush.

Well, one thing at a time for now, he supposed. He had to roll with the dice that were cast. He continued waiting for Asus to pass him the bullets while he began thinking about what to do next. He had to rework his entire strategy again now.

[malmshodes]

"So its into the trees we go then?" Abigail said, tilting her head and at the palm trees surrounding them. "Shouldn't be too hard to get in, but I don't know how much cover its going to do for us." She pointed at the tiny organic structures. "Sure, there's no lack of trees, but their growing so sparsely because that's how they do on a beach, that I can't see them doing much in the way to shield us." She turned her attention to her crew mates. "Unless I'm missing something." A short pause. "Am I missing something, anything? I could do with some good news right about now."

She scratched her chin and tapped her foot while she thought. "Hmmm." Her eyes moved and rested on their marine captive. She grabbed her sword and held it up to him. "You know this island pretty well, right? So tell me about this path. Where does it lead, and is there any way we could use to sneak around to the village? I'm sure we could do more good there than over here in these individualist trees."

[Jensoman]

"P-Please, don't kill me!" The Marine shrieked, as Abigail pointed her blade at him. "This path leads to our Navy base...the rest of the island is covered in trees, you can get lost quite easily if you do not stay on the path." He replied.

Suddenly, from behind the tree that Yami was hiding behind before, several small bombs flew out. They rolled in between Yami and the pirate crew, as thick smoke emerged from them, making it impossible to see Yami. Right before Zypha's scythes managed to reach Yami, two figures leapt from behind the tree. They unsheathed their blades, and deflected Zypha's scythes. The smoke began to spread around the entire general area, around everyone. A third figure emerged from behind a tree on the left side of the road, behind the group.

The first two figures charged straight forward. One of them slashed diagonally at Zypha's chest, while the other took a step forward and stabbed at Lenwood's stomach. The third figure that appeared behind the group dashed straight for Satoru, slashing at the back of his neck with his blade.

[Duthguy]

After Asus threw the bullets, he turned to the marine Abigail had been questioning because he felt like adding insult to injury. "Oh yeah, the gun was unloaded the entire time." He couldn't enjoy it long though as all of a sudden a smokescreen appeared, as well as a couple of marines using the element of surprise.

Asus wondered if he should use his Bachi Bachi no Tama to help either Zypha, Lenwood or Satoru out. Ultimately he decided against it, not only because the hornets might end up restricting his allies' vision but also to keep his full abilities a secret from the marines.

---

Total number of hornets in Asus' body is 75. Number of hornets used for combat 50, hornets currently in use 10/50, dead hornets 3/50

[IceHeart]

Her initial assault interrupted by the two interfering marines. Zypha had no choice but push herself off the blades and take some steps back. These marines seemed annoying 'ready' for their arrival and all chances of taking the marines out quickly was vaulting out the window. Smoke swirling around them all was making things rather annoying to deal with and harder to see the enemy.

When fighting in smoke, even if you could not see the enemy you could often tell what they were doing by smoke 'currents' made when movement was made in the smoke. She saw a ripple start toward her and quickly realized it was an attack. Taking her chain in both hands she intercepted the diagonal blade, steels clashed against steel and she quickly tried to wrap the blade around in the chain in an attempt to disarm her opponent. As she attempted to steal the weapon away she would lash out with her foot to connect with her opponent, especially if they tried to desperately hold onto their weapon.

[malmshodes]

"The navy base huh?" Abigail tapped the flat part of her blade on the marine's neck. "Interesting. I bet we could get all the supplies we never from there, and at a fraction of the price we'd spend if we did all our shopping legitimately, right?" She stopped at the sight of the smoke suddenly filling their vision. "What the hells that?" She narrowed her eyes and returned her vision back to the marine prisoner.

"What's going on, exactly?!" She moved forward, keeping the blade pointed at the man's neck, and crouched down while she put her hand behind his head. "And be as exact as possible, please." Her bright eyes narrowed. "Whose attacking, what can they do, and what sort of fail safe plans does your squad or whatever its called have in case of an attack?"

[Jensoman]

Unfortunately, Lenwood didn't react in time as the figures rushed at them. The figure that slashed at Lenwood cut him deep in the chest. Lenwood collapsed into the ground, no longer breathing. At the same time, Satoru failed to notice the third figure in time. His head was cut clean off by the third figure.

Zypha succeeded in disarming her attacker, and kicked him to the ground, making him fall over. The man scrambled back onto his feet and reached for his belt, pulling out a flint lock pistol. He quickly took aim, and fired at Zypha's chest. The second marine dashed towards Zypha's right and slashed his blade at her right side. The third figure who killed Satoru dashed forward at Abigail, who was still holding her blade at the marine. He slashed at her back.

"I...I don't know what plan of attack they have for the forest, exactly. But I believe that these are just regular Marines who guard Yami whenever he goes anywhere. They're slightly faster then regular Marines, but that's it. The smoke bombs are to provide an escape for our Captain if things get out of hand. Captain Yami will be long gone by now." The marine responded to Abigail.

And, indeed. The smoke had dispersed by now, and Yami was no longer there.

[malmshodes]

Abigail's eyes widened in surprise at the prisoner's words. "So after all of that talking the man is just going to turn and run!" That was too much. She moved the blade away and shoved the man face first into the dirt. She opened her mouth, planning to tell the man that, despite all their big talks about honor and justice, nothing more than cowards and he'd better get far away because if she ever saw him again she'd cut him down herself, but what ended up happening was the humming sound of a blade came from behind her and she was barely able to veer out of the way of the attack.

Whoever it was, he didn't give her a fatal blow. The blade hit her, but it just drew a shallow streak across the side of her back. While she was turning to face the new adversary her eyes caught a glimpse of what remained of Satoru. "You cowardly bunch of bastards!" She screamed, doubling her grip on the blade. "I'm going to cut down each and everyone of you!" Suddenly red lightning danced up and down the blade, making a loud crackling sound. Without waiting for the marine to reply she lunged at him and swung her sword at his blade. Blocked it or not he wasn't going to be walking away from this.

[IceHeart]

The smoke was nearly gone by this point but Zypha had little time to take stock of the situation. She had succeeded in disarming her opponent but the little blighter had his pistol still and aimed at her chest. She also managed to notice movement to her right and quickly took action. Zypha was a very athletic individual and thankfully was quite flexible as well which allowed her to move like a gymnast.

Zypha bent over backward, letting the bullet casually pass overhead. Next was the marine who swung at her right side, she continued her maneuver, using the momentum to catapult herself into a back-flip where she caught the approaching blade with her scythe, parrying the blade away from her body, though the tip managed to graze her side. Ignoring the wound and back up on her feet the second attacker was now in a bad position, the advantage of duel wielding soon came apparent as her right scythe parried the swinger, her left was already in motion to strike the marine in the side.

If she succeeded in striking the her opponent her next move was the kick the marine away, and onto the marine who tried to shoot her. A decent way to wrap up the small skirmish to be sure.

[Duthguy]

Asus was more than a bit shocked at how easily the marines killed the crew's captain and doctor. Part of him just wanted to run, but he also knew that on his own he would make an easy target. Staying with the others though meant having to fight so he looked around for any marine he could unleash his hornets on with out bothering Zypha and Abigail.

Speaking of hornets the ten he had sent out to scout ahead finally returned to their nest inside his body. At the same time he noticed that the female shipwright was dealing with two enemies and decided to help her out by trying to blind the gunner to prevent them from shooting her.

---

Total number of hornets in Asus' body is 75. Number of hornets used for combat 50, hornets currently in use 10/50, dead hornets 3/50

[Jensoman]

As the marine's blade collided with Abigail's blade, the red electricity from her blade traveled over to the marine's, which ended up traveling over the marine's arm and his chest. The man was electrocuted, staggered back and collapsed to the ground, covered in burn wounds.

Zypha succesfully struck the closest Marine in the side. As the second Marine took aim at Zypha with his flint lock pistol, Asus's hornets covered his eyes. He staggered back and fired a shot, the bullet missing Zypha completely. Before he could do anything else, Zypha kicked the first marine into him, making both of them collapse on the ground. The first marine lost grip of his flint lock pistol as this happened, and was now stuck under the corpse of the first marine.

The marine that Abigail was holding captive remained face-first in the dirt during these events.

Further ahead, in the distance, the three remaining Pirates were able to see the end of the path. At that end, they were able to see the Navy Base.

[IceHeart]

Zypha glared down at the marine pinned under the corpse who had no weapon left to use. "Hey, you caused me a fair bit of trouble." She stalked over to him and grinned, "I'll send you to a nice place." With that being said, she delivered a quick kick to his head and knocked the marine unconscious. "Dreamland..."

With that accomplished she took a good look at her surroundings and sighed after confirming all the deaths. "Tch, well I knew the ex-captain was a bit special just didn't realize how special. Freaken genius..." Despite her grumbling she had had least some feelings of regret about the two deaths, hadn't known either of them very well but the captain at least had a good heart and losing the doctor was going to hurt the crew, if they were a crew anymore.

"Oh by the way good assist Asus, probably saved my hard ass." Zypha casually complimented the young man as she walked over to Lenwood's corpse, bent over and quickly looted it for all its valuables. "Can't let their sacrifice go to waste after all." Zypha then headed over to Satoru's beheaded corpse and did the same. It was never a pleasant thing to loot a corpse no matter how often she did it but if nothing she was a practical girl.

She gave the two remaining crew mates, Abigail and Asus a quick look over, they seemed like they could keep going though Abigail had taken a cut during the fight. "Well crap, looks like its just the three of us right now, but at this point we've already revealed ourselves and started this fight so we better kick their asses before they can whip ours. I see you two both have some special talents, we'll need them if we want to get the loot and leave this island alive." She hoisted her scythe on her shoulders, blades pointed upwards, and looked over at the Navy Base.

"This is definitely a now or never moment. Also Abigail, either kill that last marine idiot or just knock him out before we go, otherwise we might regret it."

[Duthguy]

Zypha was right, they needed to deal with the marines somehow, especially as the logpose hadn't reset yet which meant they were stuck on Erdol Island for the time being. "Much as I'd like too, we can't leave. So taking the Marines out is our best bet. I just hope the pistol brings you more luck than it did our doctor."

As Asus walked up to the base the ten hornets he used to blind the now unconscious gun wielder went back home. "I might have an idea to find the location of that Captain. but since it would leave me pretty much helpless for a while I have to know if the two of you are willing to protect me if something happens."

---

Total number of hornets in Asus' body is 75. Number of hornets used for combat 50, hornets currently in use 0/50, dead hornets 3/50

[IceHeart]

"Much as I'd like too, we can't leave. So taking the Marines out is our best bet. I just hope the pistol brings you more luck than it did our doctor." Zypha was glad the navigator agreed with her as she decided to double-check the pistol she had pilfered off of Satoru's corpse. She made sure it was fully loaded and ready to discharge whenever she wished, you never knew when something like that was going to come in handy.

"Na, not for luck, I just want to treasure it is a momento." Zypha dripped with sarcasm as she put the loaded pistol in her waistband at the small of her back. Zypha walked along with Asus and studied the base, thankfully it didn't look too big but there were only 3 of them left so they had to be careful. "If we can locate and takeout the leaders; whatever marines are left should quickly give way, marines tend to rely too much on their leaders. As such your plan that makes you Mr. Hapless, frankly is probably our best shot. As soon as we locate them we'll have to strike hard and fast to make it work."

[malmshodes]

"Last marine?" Abigail blinked. The adrenaline from her attacking her crew mate's killer was still flooding her system. She looked around and finally noticed the man, still face down on the dirt, looking like a child, at least the back of his head had taken on a child like appearance to her, but that was probably something else. She decided not to question it.

"Still here?" She muttered. "Should probably kill you, but you didn't stab me in the back when you had your chance and I don't want to live with the guilt of being as a cowardly assassin as the rest of your group." She gave him a hard whack with the flat side of her blade and the man's unconscious body relaxed. Abigail watched him for a moment to make sure he wasn't faking being out like a light and when she felt comfortable he wouldn't get back up turned her attention to the remainder of her pirate mates.

"That's done." She seethed her weapon. "So what's the plan? I know we're going to go after the rest of the marines but what's the best way to go about that?" She put her hands on her hips and looked down at the base. "I hate to say this, but maybe the best way is a three way approach? I'll play the role of a distraction and you two could take different routes into the base and...." A short pause. "Well, that's just my idea."

[Duthguy]

Actually Abi that is not too different than what I was planning, with the exception that I was thinking of using larger numbers. A forty-seven way approach if you will. Asus knew that releasing all of his remaining "combat hornets" would be risky since it meant he only had a few left,the twenty-five he never sent into dangerous situations so that they could repopulate if necessary.

But they should be able to find the Marine captain and be harder to spot than the pirates. Of course any hornets that failed to spot their target would take a long time to return but he was certain that Abigail and Zypha would be able to protect him for a while. So he gave the forty-seven hornets to look for a man wearing a Marine Captain's coat and to return to him immediately once they found their target or after thirty minutes had passed.

---

Total number of hornets in Asus' body is 75. Number of hornets used for combat 50, hornets currently in use 47/50, dead hornets 3/50

[Jensoman]

As the hornets made their way to the Navy Base, they saw a few trees nearby the base. It looked like a rectangular cube of concrete. The entrance gate was shut, with Navy flags nearby to indicate that it was indeed a Navy base. As the hornets looked around the building, they would see several small windows on the sides. There was nothing at the back of the base. As the hornets looked through the windows, they saw the room which the pirates would enter first if they were to go through the main entrance, which was mostly empty. A small room. Further ahead was a small metal door which was shut, not appearing very sturdy. At the windows at the far ends, on both the left and right sides of the building, they would be able to see two large rooms.

They both appeared to be empty and looking exactly the same. There were two doors in both rooms, one at the beginning of the room and one at the end. These doors seemed to be made out of a different metal then the first door that the hornets had seen in the room at the entrance to the base.

The bees that attempted to go to the roof of the Navy base were met by a rain of bullets. Fortunately, none of them were hit. There were 5 marines atop the roof near the entrance, accompanied by two cannons. One on their left side and one on their right. They also had a small wall in front of them to take cover behind. It seemed that, without Asus's hornets, they could have ambushed the pirates and possibly caught them off guard. "Oi, remember what Yami said! If there's hornets around, that means the Hornet devil fruit guy should be, too! Keep a lookout!" A marine shouted. It seemed that the only way into the base was to go through the main entrance. There was no sign of Yami and his officers. Of course, it was possible that there were more rooms within the base, as the bees only had sight on some rooms on the sides of the building.

After Asus's hornets informed Asus, he informed the rest of the crew of the layout of the base. It was clear what needed to be done. If they wanted to get in, they had to get through the main entrance. Of course, the gate was shut, but perhaps there was a way to get past.

[Duthguy]

Asus was surprised how fast his scouts returned but he wasn't gonna complain. "..... and that is all the info I have, nothing about the captain unfortunately. So does anyone ha an idea about how to actually get in?"If he was honest the Hornet Human would still prefer to just run, but that wasn't an option so the crew had no choice but to go on the offensive.

However if he had to fight he was glad he had at least both Zypha and Abigail with him, not only because they were both good fighters but he might get the chance to impress them both.

---

Total number of hornets in Asus' body is 75. Number of hornets used for combat 50, hornets currently in use 0/50, dead hornets 3/50