Ordered Chaos - The Valhalla Pirates Meet!

[PlatonSkull]

It was obvious to Odin as he sailed in his small boat towards Winchester Island, that his destination hadn't changed a lot over the years. He had read the book on West Blue Islands that he bought a while ago on Stetson Island, and it spoke of a country divided between civilized life and low criminals. He knew how that looked, and how it felt, but one glance at the city in the distance told him that Winchester Island had taken the divide to a whole new level.
Smoke caught the morning sun from the low-lying town in the west, but the light could not penetrate to the one story buildings below.
The shadow of a wall as tall as a giant separated the East from the West. In East Winchester, the windows were lit, the air clean, the houses almost sparkling from the pure effort put into the architecture. As he drifted closer, attempting to rig his sails, he noticed that ships were circling the island. Not very big, barely noticeable until you yourself get noticed. He pulled forth a compact telescope and observed the ships.
As he thought, they were marine ships. Were they patrolling to find pirates? If so, he might be in trouble even if he didn't have a bounty yet.
He looked over his caped shoulder at the barrel of food he had left. He couldn't afford the risk of passing the island. He could just head for the western part of the island, where it was relatively safe to wear an eye patch.
But as soon as he changed his course, so did a patrolling ship - it had spotted him, and was drawing nearer. There was no avoiding it, and Cyrus wasn't stupid enough to pick a fight with a marine base. He had to let their vessels meet.

"State your business," a man said when Odin came within shouting range.
"I'm just travelling, sir," he politely (and truthfully) replied, "running out of food and drink, I wish to stock up in the city"
"Why are you headed for the West then?"
"Well, I honestly thought that part would be easier to access, so I could be on my way as fast as possible," this was a small lie, but he kept a straight face.
The marine scout looked him up and down, then noticed the flag he had lied at the floor of the boat. "Sorry, you're going to have to come with me. There's no entry to West Winchester allowed at the moment, so we'll escort your ship to East and hold you somewhere safe until we know you're telling the truth,"
Odin reluctantly agreed. He was worried that him not being a World Government Citizen would turn out to be a problem. One step at a time, he thought, as the island grew nearer, and the wall taller, that's how you get through life. One step at a time

One question still lingered in the back of his head: Why were the marines blockading West Winchester?

--

The harbour was the biggest one he had docked at yet. Fishing boats everywhere, transporting their catch to be sold on the market, and marine vessels prepared for their shift at the blockade. The city was busy and filled with life, people talking, shouting, laughing, bargaining, and whispering of persons in capes and eye patches being taken custody by the marines.
Odin's mind was racing, trying to figure a way out of this mess. All he had wanted was a bit of rest, some food, some rum, and some directions.

He was completely clueless to the trials he would soon face, the friends he would make, and the decisions that would soon be taken. He was just bothered by the inconvenience.

[rocko52 (Drago)]

The sun rose over a gray morning in the West Blue, with a foggy haze lingering over the waters. Rays of light peaked tentatively through it, as if hesitating for a moment. Gulls flew around the area, droning and chirping mindlessly. An island had to be near by if there were gulls here!

Yawning, a rotund, pink haired pirate stretched his chubby, yet muscled arms out from the confines of the small rowboat, letting his mouth open wide. Striking tattoos were on display from each arm, a cross on the left and a gumdrop on the right. The sniper was just waking up, having sailed all night long. Finally, he had reached West Blue!

He threw a bunch of gumdrops in his mouth, his first of the day. He slowly chewed them up, taking in their sugary, delectable taste. After swallowing he let out a pleased sigh, before breaking out into a wide grin. Today he’d find an island for sure! The pirate grabbed for the oars, and sat down in the Sugar May, his pride and joy at the moment. It was his pirate ship.

A laughable one at that. The Sugar May was a rowboat that could at most fit three people, and nearly all that space was taken up by the large sugar addict. Some small modifications had been made to the boat, but nothing that enhanced it in any way. It had a small post hammered into the back which bore the man’s Jolly Roger, which was a large, purple gumdrops that had black, hollow eyes like a pirate skull, and a mouth which left its tongue hanging out. The flag was colored black, and also had a set of crossbones behind the gumdrop. Aside from that, there wasn’t much different between the boat and your average fishing boat. Well, there also was a Den Den Mushi nailed to the floor, but that was used so little it had begun to collect dust. The pirate’s bag of belongings also was in the boat, but that was it.

The pudgy pirate’s name was Gumdrops, and he was following his dream. The first thing to do was find a satisfactory captain, which wouldn’t be too hard. He’d only been looking for what, a year? But hey, East Blue was a pretty weak place, there was no way he would find the world’s strongest captain there. Well, that Monkey guy, and the old Pirate King had come from there, but that was mostly irrelevant. They were certainly the exception and not the rule. Besides, West Blue surely had a wider selection of pirates, being a tougher sea by nature. Not to mention that, having never been outside of East Blue in his life, this was Gumdrops’ first real adventure. He was giddy with excitement.

He started to row in a rhythm, not going so fast that he would tire himself out, but enough so that he would be able to actually make progress in the little boat he was using. The plump dreamer looked around the ocean, looking for any signs of an island. As soon as he was one, he’d do his best to head towards it. It would take hours to reach an island once it was spotted, so he had to make sure he started towards it as soon as he noticed one.

Breathing in, he tasted the sea salt of West Blue. It had a slightly warmer, less dense taste to it than East Blue water. Very refreshing. As the morning wore on, the fog that had cloaked the ocean a few hours earlier had all but vanished. The sun bore down on the sea, lighting it up gorgeously. In his lonesome, he took in the sights all around him. Fishes of all colors and shapes swimming in schools here and there. Gulls calling out overhead, the sun beating down on the waves, letting the waters sparkle and shimmer. A deep sense of serenity spread over his heart. The true beauty of the ocean was all around him. It almost made one forget about his dreams, goals, or destination.

His sense of relaxation turned instantly in excitement as he laid his eyes upon what surely was an island on the horizon. Eyes bulging, he started to increase his pace of rowing rapidly, despite the fact that regardless of how fast he went, it would still be a few hours in a rowboat. Determination coursed through him, as unlikely as it was, he would strive to find his captain on this island. If he wasn’t here, and had to look elsewhere, that’d be fine. He’d keep searching. But deep down, the plump sniper felt like this island was where he’d find the man. Then again, he felt that way about almost any island.

Looking down at the rosary he kept in his satchel, he reaffirmed his long term goal. “Don’t worry Sister,” he thought inwardly. “You’re death wasn’t in vain. Soon I’ll have the means to bring about justice to this world. This ocean holds the key to those means, I’m sure.” Grinning he then spoke aloud, “And the prospect of meeting new people, seeing new places, and befriending my future captain is beyond exciting!”

As the morning turned to noon, the skies and seas became a deeper shade of blue, and the sun’s glare became harsher. The heat was far more intense than his home, East Blue. It was like nothing he’d experienced before, and he loved it. The warm feeling on his skin perfectly matched the fire burning in his heart.

Finally, after a few more hours of spirited rowing, the pathetic sailboat neared the shore. Unfortunately, this was just about the time he noticed the Marines.

Putting his sailing to a complete halt, was a large marine vessel, which his puny boat had just bumped into. A ladder was lowered from the deck of the ship, which towered above the Sugar May. Standing at the top of the deck, staring straight down towards the fat man, was a tall, mustached officer.

“Oi you? What do you think yo’ doin’ flyin’ dat flag of yo’s, eh?” The soldier demanded. All around him were several simply dressed men, wearing caps, uniforms, and bearing muskets. Gumdrops rolled his eyes. These idiots again? The Loguetown Marines might’ve been alright in the end, but these West Blue Marines already were making a poor impression. Then again he was a pirate.

“That’s my Jolly Roger, I’m a pirate,” he quite bluntly admitted. The officer’s mouth dropped open and his eyes bulged, before he replied indignantly, “Dis ain’t a game yo know, flyin’ dat flag is punishable by lifetime imprisonment or death!”

“I know. And I’m a pirate,” he said again, bluntly. “And what are you gonna do about it?” He said. While he was trying to sound cocky, fear was slowly building as he started to pick out more and more marine ships from the corners of his eyes. This island was evidently well under the thumb of the World Government, no doubt about it.

“Well Imma arrest yo, dats what! An’ if you go thinkin’ ya can get away in dat bucket of nails, I don think yo’ll be makin’ it long in dis world!”

While the stupidly rebellious side of him urged him to fight back, just a look around this ship full of marines, and all the others filling the waters, convinced him there was no way he was getting out of this easily. Sighing, he admitted defeat.

“Fine, I’ll come with you scum,” as he climbed up the ladder, the officer gaped for the second time in under a minute. “Jus who are yo callin’ scum?!” He spat.

Once he reached the deck above him, the pink-haired man was instantly targeted by at least a dozen Marines, all training their rifles on him. Slowly raising his hands in the air, he placed his rifle down with a scowl. Glancing down at his ragtag ship he grunted, “Take care of her.”

The mustached soldier chuckled, “An’ why should I do dat?” Responding with a glare of hatred, the sniper replied, “You corrupt bastards better not lay a single greasy finger on the Sugar May!”

The officer’s hair stood on end for a moment before he called out, “'Andcuff him!” In an obedient response, a young, redhead ran up to the pirate with a sly grin. The youth cuffed Gumdrops eagerly, showing no fear at all, amusement more than anything.

“We shall be takin’ ya to the base fo questionin’, tho I doubt dat’ll take too long,” came the Marine Officer, who eyed the Jolly Roger.

Sighing as he listened to a man belonging to the one group he hated the most in the world, Gumdrops asked, “Can you at least tell me where I am?” He looked down at the shackles restraining his hands with contempt.

With a grin the officer replied, “Welcome to Winchester Island. Dis here’ll prolly be the last isle you lay eyes on.”

---

Meanwhile, out on the other side of the island, a large, golden pirate ship sailed into view. It was captained by El Drago, manned by the El Drago Pirates. Her name was the Golden Drago, an onboard she carried a very interesting "prisoner."

[BlacKitten]

Revenge was poison to the heart; that was what his mentor once told him. Killing a life for a life, the cycle of hatred bred more hatred, embracing the evil within him. How can he just sit here as a disgraceful prisoner while he could just slaughter all of these unscrupulous pirates with his bare hands? Self-control was at its limits; he wanted to kill. Master had told him that martial arts should not be used to kill, but… there was one technique that he knew of, one that was designed to deal great harm. However, there were some techniques in the martial world that should not be used at all.

His level as a martial artist was high enough that he never had to kill anyone in his life. Killing was for the weak, only for those who weren’t strong enough to win without causing deaths. However, some things weren’t that simple. Perhaps, killing was necessary but for what reason? Did he want to kill these pirates simply to avenge her life?

Poking, pushing, and pulling with the needle, Maru sewed up his disguise, using the torn-up sleeve of his shirt as his supply of yarn. It helped him pass the time and not once had he accidently stabbed himself with the needle because he was the creator of this disguise from the very start. He was quite careless, letting someone slash across the fur that tore apart the fluff and cotton.
By roleplaying as a talking panda, he can suppress his human self, completely changing his personality. With the white fur covering up the slash mark on his chest, he was as good as new, appearance-wise. He shouted at the top of his lungs with enthusiasm, “I’M BAAAAAACCCK!” Then, he sighed as if nothing in the past several hours had happened. His feet strode towards his only hope of escape as his hands wrapped around the vertical metallic prison bars. Innocently glaring towards two slacking guards, he initiated the conversation, “Hello little humans! Could you let me out? Keeping animals in captivity is not healthy for them.”

Both of the men peered towards the bane of their existence, “Shut up! Go back in the corner in depression; you were a lot quieter a while ago.”

“Is it really alright for you two to just sit there playing cards?”

“Of course! No one is going to rescue you, and you can’t escape this ship either. We’re in the middle of the ocean; you have nowhere to run off to.”

Maru brought his fist down like a hammer on an open palm, “Ah! That’s true!” For the next minute, he was deep in through with his arms crossed. He still stood in the same spot, observing his protectors playing a game involving a deck of cards. From his angle, he could tell what cards the guard on the left has in his hands, so he slip his paw between the bars and held out two fingers.

The guard on the right furtively glanced at the signal and asked, “You have any two’s?”

His opponent gave out three two’s while grumbling out the word ‘lucky’ towards the opposing player. Thanks to the panda’s assistance, the game ended shortly, just in time for Maru to brandish his paws and ask: “I WANNA PLAY TOO! I WANNA PLAY TOO!”

Minutes later…

Guard on the left slipped a guard through the bars for Maru to add onto his hands. When the guard on the right asked if the panda had any fours, the prisoner replied, “Goldfish!”

The game was soon interrupted by the sound of creaking door. Another dirty pirate with a cutlass held in his belt entered into the scene. He saw the two guards sitting

Swinging his arms out towards the panda while scolding the two guards, he yelled, “WHY ARE YOU PLAYING GOLDFISH WITH THE PRISONER?”

The prisoner turned his head towards the loud figure, smiling deviously while holding up two fingers to symbolize peace. Even in jail, Maru still managed to find ways to entertain himself!

[PlatonSkull]

It was with a dignified pace that Odin walked himself from the docking bay to the stone jail cell, old-fashioned right down to thick wooden doors and giant metal keys hanging from hooks on the wall. He kept a brisk and calm strode in spite of the marine footmen's attempts to act tough and keep a hold on him. Odin was not physically stronger or better armed than the two, but he was taller and walked with the attitude of a defeated king rather than the small-time criminal the Marines thought him to be.
From the corner of his one good eye, he saw his sword being taken to another part of the rather small custody building, separated from the jail cells by four meters and one scrawny looking guard polishing his rifle.

"Well this doesn't look particularly welcoming," Odin noted. He did know of his unorthodox method of travelling (i.e. without permission, papers, or citizenry), but the Marines were judging a book by its admittedly eccentric cover.
"Don't worry 'bout it" said one of the marines in a friendly tone, "it's just close to the water is all. Soon as they find out you okay, they let you go"
"And if not?"
"Good question, buddy"
The cell door was closed behind him and it took Odin a while to adjust to the relative dimness of the surprisingly spacey cell, illuminated by a metal barred window and a small eye-height peep hole on the door. How to get out of this predicament?
Getting to his sword was easy, but getting out of the door and past the armed guards seemed like something of a task. At least it was only a temporary confinement, even if they didn't want to let him go.

He walked over to the window, looking out at the water. Lots of ships were coming and going, and everything seemed relatively calm. Was it for the purposes of keeping up this calm exterior that a marine blockade had been set up to catch and question even the smallest vessels? He wanted to go to the western part of the island, the one with all the filth and scrawny bastards running about and doing illegal stuff. If they wanted to keep the city clean why catch people that want to go there, and aren't welcome in East Winchester, and then force them to East Winchester.
There was something fishy going on, at it didn't have anything to do with the semi-fresh pile of fish lying outside his window. Though that probably influenced his wording a bit. Maybe you could call it suspicious or puzzling or peculiar, but fishy was fine.
It also kept Odin from taking his situation too seriously. Sure, he was locked up by Marines with no weapon while waiting for them to realize he should be moved to a more permanent jail, but as all these things were entirely out of his control, he found it in himself to keep calm and focus on what he could do. He inhaled and exhaled slowly.
It was very silent in the big cell
A little company might be nice.

[rocko52 (Drago)]

The rotund scallywag Gumdrops soon found himself being led through the passageways of a small holding shack. Although the rest of the city had looked pristine and refined from the outside, this miserable little building felt very aged. Not much had happened since the pirate had been brought aboard the patrol boat, as he stopped his banter with the rather strangely accented officer. He had been escorted down onto the docks by two soldiers, while the officer’s ship cast off from the shore to resume patrol. From what he had gathered, his little sailboat was being moored just outside this tiny building, held in some sort of small, sectioned off docking area. Currently, his Gumdrop Rifle and satchel were being carried by the men flanking him on both sides.

This was bad, he had been caught by Marines on a Marine controlled island, about to be thrown in a Marine base, and most likely would receive a harsh sentence rather quickly, due to his blunt admittal of being a pirate. Perhaps that small act of passive aggressive defiance wasn’t too smart. Then again, he’d done a lot of stupid things against the Marines in the past, but sheer dumb luck usually was a major factor in him still being in one piece. Now, however, it seemed as though fate wasn’t quite on his side.

As he was led into the main room, he was struck by how ramshackled the whole place felt. On his left were two crusty, but large cells with fully covered and locked doors save for a little peephole. To his right was a counter where a rifle brandishing guard sat back and whistled, twirling a ring of keys to amuse himself. Behind him was a pair of doors. In the thin space between the cells and the counter was another hall, and door, most likely the exit into the streets. The old stone place felt very cramped.

The Marine at the counter’s bored fixation on spinning some keys quickly vanished when he saw the gumdrop rifle in the hands of the chubby guy’s captors. “Oooh, that’s a custom model. Mind if I take a peek at that one Sharl?”

Chuckling, the man immediately to Gumdrops’ left said, “Sure, just be sure to put it with the other’s when you’re done, I know how much of a gun enthusiast you are.”

His face contorting with anger, the sniper spoke out harshly, “That’s mine! I designed it myself!”

The rifle-loving sailor grinned at him. “Not anymore scum, pirates don’t get to own things once we’ve got ya. I doubt it’ll take long to have you hauled off the main base. Though I must say, this looks excellently designed, even just by the external look of it. Wait till I pull it apart!” His voice was filled with glee.

The marine evidently named Sharl easily handed the rifle over to the man behind the counter, before heading towards a door in back with Gumdrops’ sack of belongings. This was really, really bad. How had a bunch of disgusting, corrupt animals like the Marines caught him so easily? Well he knew how, but that wasn’t the point.

The escort still in the room spoke to his prisoner. “Well then son, they should be here for ya in a few hours. While ya wait, ya can share this cell here.” He snickered. “Some stupid smuggler or something’s in there. ‘Least you’ll have some company.”

A large, heavy wood door was opened before his eyes, a push, and he was locked in. Cursing, he slammed a large fist to the ground. This wasn’t supposed to happen! He was here to find his captain! That’s all he wanted! If he never found his crew, how would he stop the marines? If he didn’t stop the marines, how would justice be carried out? As these questions raced through his head, his blood boiled. Those idiots thought they could hold him? No, they couldn’t, he had to escape, because no one else was doing anything about these scum, these damned scum who held the world under their thumb!

Sighing slowly, he took a deep breath to calm down. He’d never get out of this mess if he didn’t stop and work out a plan. He needed to take in his surroundings a bit. Although he couldn’t see out of the door now, he had gathered enough. There were only three, rather weak marines in the building. He was almost certain that he could take them with just his physical strength, but with his rifle it’d be even easier. The gun-aholic had his rifle for the moment, but would probably put it back with other confiscated items. Speaking of which, those were in a door to the back. Of course, even if he got out of his cell, at least one of the marines had a rifle on him, the counter-boy. That left open the possibility of being blasted in the stomach as soon as he escaped. He had a few hours before more men came to question him, if he thought of a plan he could be gone by then.

He looked around the cell he had been thrown in and saw the other man they had referenced in passing. The man was slim, but fit, and had a clean face with long, silver hair. His face was roughly covered with an eye-patch, but that was the only thing crude in his appearance. He was clean, and almost feminine, and had deep, engaging blue eyes. His attire consisted of a striking cloak, and a leather vest, shorts, and boots. He seemed a bit younger than Gumdrops, but not by much. There was something very distinct and noteworthy about the prisoner, an air of something greater and nobler than anyone the fatman had met before. An indescribable quality seemed to exude from the stranger, something it seemed like only he could feel.

“Hey, there, since we seem to be in the same unfortunate circumstance, could I have your name?” The sniper asked, curiously.

“Would you happen to be an enemy of the Marines as well?”

[BlacKitten]

After a good scolding, the card game was rudely curtailed. The guards went further back in the room, acting all mighty and studious doing their job overseeing the panda that had nowhere to run off to. It was a pointless job in their eyes; what were they supposed to do? It wasn’t like Maru could just slip through walls and fly away. However, during the game of Goldfish, the panda’s devious paws snatched the keys of one of the guards by pretending that he was leaning closer to whisper a secret cheat tactic. While the guards were either preoccupied looking at the cards in their hands or interested in what the panda had to say, the three of them were quite close to each other. The guards were practically right in front of the bars, so it was the best opportunity for Maru to make his move.

Not long afterwards, the third pirate, who ruined the card game, stepped up right in front of the prison bars, arrogantly patronizing the prisoner. The panda bluntly countered each verbal attack with utter randomness. However, when the girl’s death was mentioned and Maru’s failure to protect her, something clicked inside the panda’s brain.

Underneath his façade, he peered straight at the provocative pirate as his teeth grinded in anger. Just the reminder of that incident caused bloodlust to ooze out of his presence with no one being able to sense it. “Do you know why animals are kept in cages at a zoo? …Because their dangerous,” with a swing of his arm, he vertically swiped with his claw-shaped hand, unleashing five thin slashes of air that originated from each of his fingertips, “Phantom Claw!”

The thin slices of air slipped through between the gaps of the prison door, effectively leaving the pirate to collapse in a puddle of his own acrid blood. Five markings could be seen in his torn up chest as the two guards were alerted cautiously by the screams, “!”

Maru slipped the keys on at a time through the keyhole, and through trial and error, he unlocked the gates, sliding it open. He remained silent as he stepped out with an oppressing presence as if a cranky tiger was just awoken.

The guard on the left quickly patted his empty pockets, “MY KEYS!” It was too late to realize that he had been pickpocketed now, but with his partner, two guards charged forth in unison, wielding a knife and a sword.

“Do not test my patience,” the unarmed figure warned in a serious tone while swiveling on the balls of his foot, circling around the man and facing in the same direction from where he first spun. During that circular spin, he disarmed the unskilled swordsman before a swift slash on his back when facing towards the front again. Raising his sword over his head, he slashed diagonally across the knife-user without direct contact. The Sonic Slash technique attacked with the air; it was a distance attack that released a crescent-shaped wind slash.

The pirate, who was slashed in the back, spun around to attack the crazy animal with his bare hands.

“You just don’t get it; humans are inferior to monsters,” Maru coldly swung his blade horizontally as an unarmed weakling had no business in challenging him.

More and more pirates barged into the room after hearing all the screams and cussing. Maru stride towards the exit that was blocked by men, but he continued to slash anyone in his way, “Try as much as you want, but you’re still stuck at a pathetic human level of combat. Even if I slaughter this entire crew, all of your lives still won’t add up to the value of that girl’s life. Perhaps revenge really is pointless. But still…,” with another swipe of his tiger-claw, he scarred another figure with a slash mark as if a carnivorous creature just clawed him, “…how can you guys follow such a captain? How can you guys not feel any remorse or guilt?”

“Are humans really this evil? Have I been born in the wrong category of species?”

A trail of several bleeding bodies lied on the floor, yet all of them continued on groaning, growling, and squirming. They were all alive! Maru had failed to kill them. He just couldn’t bring himself to slay a human life despite using the most gruesome technique in his arsenal.

[PlatonSkull]

Odin heard a bit of talking and shuffling outside the thick door, but jumped slightly when it suddenly swung open. The thought had never occured to him that a door could slam in reverse, but evidently it could, and there he stood holding a hand up to protect his eye from the glaring light he had just adjusted from.
The door slammed shut as quickly as it had slammed open, casting dust into the air, which surrounded the round colourful thing they had thrown in.
Then the pink ball started to move, and Odin's eye readjusted to the darkness, and the pink ball poked its head out and looked around the room.
By this time, he was still grasping the fact that this was a person he was standing in a jail cell with, and as the guy got to his feet, dusted himself off and looked up and down Odin with his eyes, clearly blue in the dark, it only baffled him more how this person would end up in jail with him.

This guy was fat. He was wearing a colourful cap, a pink sweater (short sleeved. Who wears short sleeved sweaters?), pinkish hair and a slight grin on his wide mouth basically made for munching and laughing. The only thing that made him distinct from any bratty kid in his appearance was his build: around Odin's height, only a lot wider and at the same time more physically threatening.
Having not noticed Odin's confounded gaze, this stranger casually asked for his name.
"Odin... Uh, Cyrus Odin,"
"Would you happen to be an enemy of the marines as well?"
"Uh..."
He sat down on the stone bench built into the wall. This fat, goofy fellow was nonchalantly asking him if he was a criminal too.
There were two things to that question.
Firstly, the manchild the size of a small whale was apparently on the wrong side of the law, and not only that, he identified himself as against the lawenforcers. If anyone Odin had met didn't seem like prideful criminals, this person was not it.
Secondly, the question implied a problem with the lawenforcers specifically and not the laws they enforced or the system they kept under control. As an unregistered viking, he obviously wasn't a very lawful person, but he had never seen the people doing their job as being in the wrong. Heck, if he'd grown up differently he would probably have wanted an exciting job like a Marine. He sat quietly, rubbing his hands together slowly.
"I'm not on their side, but that doesn't mean I hate them or anything,"

Then an idea dawned on him: this is exactly the kind of guy he needed to escape! Well, not exactly. He hadn't exactly prepared for an overweight living lollipop to barge into the cell, but what he lacked, and what he had now, was muscle.
Specifically, he needed muscle that could overwhelm the Marine soldiers and open a giant wooden door in their face, and was willing to do so. Well, there you go. Enemy of the marines, big and intimidating.
"Listen, whatever your name might be, do you wish to get out of here as much as I do? Because while I don't hate the marines, I would prefer not to spend time in jail for being a bit lax about the law. And we'll get out easier if we work together."

[rocko52 (Drago)]

Gumdrops sat around in the cell, listening his fellow captive speak his mind. So his name Odin. What a different sounding name, it sounded like it came from Elbaf or some other place the sniper had read about once, a few years back. He chuckled inwardly, realizing his name was probably even stranger.

When the striking figure rather awkwardly revealed he was rather indifferent towards the marines, he had to admit it was a bit disappointing, but it couldn’t be helped he supposed.

“Well, personally, I think all Marine are petty scum who think their interpretation of justice gives them the right to commit injustice, but I guess we can’t all see that,” he said, somewhat to himself. Still, he didn’t want to be unfriendly to this new guy, he seemed very interesting, and making friends was all part of the adventure, after all.

The man’s next words brought a large grin to the pink haired pirate’s wide face. "Listen, whatever your name might be, do you wish to get out of here as much as I do? Because while I don't hate the marines, I would prefer not to spend time in jail for being a bit lax about the law. And we'll get out easier if we work together."

“Certainly. There’s only two or three guys out there, I could take them both quite easily, the problem is the guy with the rifle. He’s sitting at a counter across from us. Although with two of us, I’d say it won’t be a problem.” This was fantastic, he’d be able to make it out of here well before some officers came to “question” him. Of course that left open the high chance that the Marines would be on his tail during his time on Winchester. That brought back some bad memories of a rather painful romp in Loguetown. Shaking his head, he realized he’d be in deeper trouble as the longer he stayed here. Besides, it was another chance to knock around some marine heads.

“Alright, so I’ll break down the door, you get to the guy who has the rifle, and I take out anyone left in the room. After that we run the hell out of here, deal?” He grinned, and aimed his hand for his bag filled with gumdrops, but with a grimace realized it wasn’t there. Those marine bastards would pay for taking his stuff.

“Listen Odin, they’ve got my ship out there,” he pointed out the window towards his pathetic little rowboat bearing a silly jolly roger, “and have my gun and satchel in the back. I need to get those before we head off, think you can help me with that?”

This was going to be fun for sure. He looked around the cell with determination. He hadn’t stayed here long, but it had been an unpleasant stay. He would be more than happy to leave, and continue searching for a captain on this island, although it seemed like he might have to leave the island shortly after his escape unfortunately. He’d have to see how things played out.

As he walked towards the door he chuckled lightly. All that was wishful thinking if he couldn’t knock down the door, and while he was pretty sure he could, he wasn’t certain. It was wooden, and looked rather old and crusted. It wouldn’t take much force to knock down, then again if it splintered that could end poorly. Shrugging his worries aside, he reminded himself he had been through far worse than splinters. If he had to get out of here, he would do whatever it took.

He reached the door and stopped, before turning around, his face still covered with a determined grin. “The name’s Gumdrops by the way. Please to meet ya Mister Odin.” As he saw the door up close, his confidence built. How could he lose sight of the truth? Of course he couldn’t fail here, fate was on his side. Surely whatever forces governed the universe wouldn’t allow him, a bringer of justice, to fail here of all places. No, he was certain now, there was no way his tale was ending here. He was made for bigger things.

With an almost arrogant smirk he whispered to the viking, “3….2….1…..NOW!!!!” He threw up his hand cuffed arms in the air to build a swing, before throwing his clenched and bound fists into the wooden door with all his might. As his knuckles made contact with the aged oak, he braced himself. The impact of his blow smashed the door off its hinges, and crashed down to the floor of the office. With it went his handcuffs.

He moved his hands about freely and let out a brief sigh of relief. There was no more time for that however, as he looked across from him at the horrified look the gun-lover was giving him. Although he had told Odin that he could take the counter boy, he saw it would be far easier for him to do this. Seeing his gumdrop rifle still in the greedy paws of the World Government dog gave him even more reason. In an agile dash that seemed to defy his huge body weight, Gumdrops closed the tiny distance between the counter and himself. Throwing out his large fist, he bashed a punch into the man’s face, smashing a few teeth and knocking him out. Quickly removing the weapon from the marine’s twitching fingers, he said, “I’ll be taking that.”

Although he had made it look easy, knocking down a door and then punching a man in the face really takes a lot out you. Leaning against the counter, he breathed for a moment. He eyed Odin and said, “Alright, let’s blow this place!”

---

El Drago stood from his captain’s perch as his crew reached the port of West Winchester. Here he could find even more gold! He had heard tell of various crooks and ruffians living on the West Side of the walled island, and seeing as his captive had recently been more and more uncooperative, he felt even more drawn to this island full of thieves. With all the underhanded sales going on, perhaps he could even sell the panda! After all, he was an talking silly animal...sort of, who could make things by drawing them!

Then again, most of this plan was Archer’s, the captain wasn’t intelligent enough to think that far ahead. But the boy in a panda suit had become a liability, they were using resources to keep him when he wasn’t even making much gold anymore, and had been annoying the crew. It was a better idea to sell him on the black market and make some good beri off of him before he got too troublesome. They’d have to be on their guard however, now as they docked there was no longer much holding back the panda from escaping. Little did they know, they were too late as the little martial artist was already heading out.

Upon hearing that Maru had burst out of his captivity and brutally injured his guards, Archer sprung into action, while Drago sat from the side lines. He ordered for all men to head below deck to stop the panda, although he realized at this point it would be greatly difficult to succeed. Unsheathing his knife, the first mate headed down to join the fray.

Meeting up with Golass and around ten other men below deck, the knife wielder gathered them into a loose formation. “Alright, we need to go in there and stop this freak from tearing up our crew, he’s already knocked out a bunch of our men!” There were grunts and growls and some more intelligent responses from the crewmates surrounding Archer.

He led them up to the door that led to the Brig. Small streams of blood trickled out from the door.
“One, two, three, YAAAAAH!!!!” The First Mate roared, barging open the door. The mass of regular crew mates ran first at the panda, but soon were easily defeated. Golass and Archer stood, facing him down, not an unexpected outcome, but still unfortunate.

The boy’s emotions were impossible to determine thanks to his panda suit, but there was a faint aura of anger radiating from his body.

“Fed up with serving that lug of a captain? Just can’t take it anymore panda?” The knife wielder said mockingly, licking his blad.

“Hey don’t insult Drago,” began the swordsman before he was interrupted. “Shut up, you’re not much better. But hey he’s our captain,” He turned back to the martial artist. “Sorry, but I can’t let you go, you’ll probably go for a lot of money on the blackmarket. A talking panda who can draw things that become real, what an oddity!”

Putting on a menacing grin he said, “Come on!” With that he dashed in what seemed like an instant, and slashed out his knife in a bunch of lightning fast strikes, before sliding past his target and coming to a hault. Golass unsheathed his enormous sword as he waited for the panda to make his move.

[BlacKitten]

As soon as his laid eyes upon Golass and Archer, a sadist grin grew on his face; there was nothing more he would want now than revenge against these so-called elite fighters. Archer, the knife-wielding crewmate, dashed forth and unleashed a barrage of weak yet fast slashes with his puny weapon.

Maru raised his sword towards his opposite shoulder before stepping forth. Both of them slide right past each other, but the panda criticized his foe, “Baka! Who do you think has the longer range?” A sword versus a knife, it was obvious that a knife at that little range cannot reach the target, and there was no way that he would allow someone at this level enter his personal space. Archer kneeled on one leg and dropped his weapon to the floor. A gush of blood spurted out from the diagonal cut across his chest and abdomen. To the panda, a single powerful blow was far better than multiple weak assaults.

The next obstacle that stood in his way was a bulky one. Golass was a swordsman, a first mate on this crew, and in a battle with swords, Maru was less potent. This man was the one who killed her, and because of that, his opponent lost the meaning of mercy. Unlike the usual, the panda attacked first, and Golass parried with a much larger and heavier sword.

Stomping his feet onto the wooden deck, the fluffy martial artist executed another high-leveled technique, “Dispersing Pulse!” By taking a concentrated force, he dispersed it throughout the floor below him. A crater was formed, cracking and splintering a few meter radius of the deck. Golass, a much heavier man, fell straight through his foothold, crashing into the floor below as the lighter of the two fighters leaped away.

Walking dangerously close to the edge, Maru peered down at his fallen opponent silently. The swordsman landed in a storage room, one that kept a stack of gold in which a particular prisoner had created. The panda dropped his sword down the pit for a blade had no usage anymore. Instead, he squatted down to pick a revolver from a pirate’s holster. By the weight of it, he could tell that it was loaded. Nothing had been favorable for him so far. He failed to save a life, was taken prisoner by an inferior crew, and now he had to use his least favorite weapon.

“While all of you were busy celebrating on your false victory, you all failed to notice something. The gold that I made for you guys, they were fake!” He smiled at the last word of his sentence, underlining the word fake. “Wanna know a secret? IT’S ALL A TRAP! WE’LL ALL DIE HERE TOGETHER! Or rather… I can’t even guarantee my own survival.” Maru pointed the gun towards the pile of gold bricks in the room below, “Fool’s gold!” He pulled the trigger with a final smile.

BOOM!

With each of the so-called ‘gold’ being nothing more than containers of gunpowder, the bullet ignited an explosion. ‘Gold’ was all over the place; Maru purposely obeyed Drago’s wishes. He warned him to be careful what he wished for, and now everyone shall die! A chain reaction occurred as series of explosions in a domino effect. The crew gave Maru way too much time and access to the rooms beforehand; this was their punishment.

From this moment on, the ship of the Drago pirates was damaged beyond repair, burning in flames with fragments of wooden boards drifting away in the seas. This whole plot was a suicide plan, and Maru was caught within the explosions that he, himself, created.

[PlatonSkull]

Everything went better than expected. The fat guy seemed in sync with Odin in terms of the basic plan: smash through the door for a surprise attack. He had had a bit more trickery in mind, but he could barely get a word out before the pink bipedal hippopotamus had declared his name to be Gumdrops, his pleasure of meeting Odin, and the two of them to be parters-in-crime.
Three thoughts crossed his mind during the cross of all this. Wasn't Gumdrops some kind of candy? Why is this handcuffed, unfashionable madman thoughtlessly tackling the thick wooden door? Wait, the plan was already set into motion now? Oh dear.
In a split second, Cyrus clenched his fists, inhaled sharply, and started running through the now non-existing door.
As he came out of the cell, the brightness not as disorienting with the adrenaline now pumping through his veins, he registered the door on the floor, the bulky Gumdrops with his handcuffs now off, but then his eyes darted towards his target - the guard that kept their weapons safe. Gumdrops had mentioned he had a gun that was of vital importance, and he himself missed Yggdrasil at his side, and the guard being his target had been mentioned in passing by his large ally, so he narrowed his thoughts down to two things: how to defeat the guard effectively, and what in the hell is that pink blob running past me doing?
It was punching the guard so hard in the face he was knocked out cold.
Well that ruined his plan of sliding along the ground, sweeping the guy's legs and bashing his head before he could shout anything. Whoever this man was, he wasn't a guy you wanted to mess with.

Odin quickly got a hold of himself, as time was of the essence. Gumdrops had barely blurted out a one liner before he had taken the keys the guard had been playing with, found the correct key to open the storage locker, grabbed his sword and the satchel hanging there, thrown the satchel to Gumdrops, now holding a peculiarly shaped rifle, and replied "Yeah, we'd better"
Okay then. As far as he could remember, when he had been taken into custody there had been two guards outside, both armed. There was a closed door with a window beside it at the end of the room. He walked to the window and cautiously looked through it. Two guards, and one of them walking towards the door. He looked to the large armed madman behind him, and held a hand up to assure him that he could take care of this.
the door swung open, Odin hiding behind it outside the guard's field of vision. Said guard was about to draw his rifle at the large fat escapee across the room when Odin came forward, kicked him in the shin so he fell over, slammed the door on his bared throat, silencing him, and then ducking to avoid the gunshot from the guard outside.
"Requesting assistance!!" the Marine guard shouted. The jail cells were not even a block away from the Marine headquarters. Odin should have really looked around when he got there.
"All right, Gumdrops," that name was silly when you said it out loud. Then again, it was silly even when you didn't, "you shoot that guy, or use suppressing fire, and we run for it!"
The Marine footman had almost reloaded his rifle.
"NOW!"

[rocko52 (Drago)]

In the midst of the chaos, Gumdrops was sporting a wide, excited grin. Now this was thrilling. As adrenaline rushed through his body, he tenderly held his custom made weapon. The excitement of combat was consuming him once more, it hadn’t been since his duel with the Moonsilver Pirates that he got to fight through a wonderfully dangerous situation. Gleefully cocking back his rifle, he heard the gun give a satisfying hammering noise. It was ready for the battle.

Suddenly Odin was by his side, and handed him his precious satchel. “Thanks!” He said gratefully. Despite not having much apparent physical strength, this guy sure was light on his feet. He had managed to find the keys to the storage, and retrieve their items in the short opening he had been given, thanks to the sniper pummeling the counter boy. So far their teamwork had worked great, but there were still two men left, and they needed to break out.

One left, Gumdrops corrected himself, as his viking ally had just took another one down with some skillful use of a kick and a door. The single guard left was in the backroom, his rifle trained on the sniper. He jumped right to the side in the nick of time, avoiding a bullet that blasted into the wall behind him. This was just brilliant, there was no way they’d be subdued by this one marine, not to mention he was sort of dishing out justice to this small band of uniform wearing government dogs...kind of. The absolute thrill of a fight surged him on, as did his dedication towards his ideals of justice.

He heard the soldier shout something into some sort of communicator, asking for assistance from the near-by Marine Base. Well that wasn’t gonna fly. Rambling over to the counter for some cover briefly, his fellow escapee said, “All right Gumdrops, you shoot that guy, or use suppressing fire, and we run for it!” From his tone, he could tell the viking wasn’t having quite as much fun as him, and was probably just a bit nervous about this whole thing. Well it made sense, it wasn’t like he was an active criminal, based off what he and the guards had said earlier, he probably had just accidentally violated some law. Grinning, the sniper realized though, that he couldn’t just be some obedient citizen if he was willing to violently break out of imprisonment. There could be an anti-World Government side to this guy after all.

“All right!” The dreamer replied, and quickly the man shouted, “NOW!” Springing up from his cover, the fat man kicked the door open with ferocity, and aimed his Gumdrop Rifle nearly point blank at the marine soldier in front of him, who was too bewildered to act.

“See ya Marine Dog!” With that he pulled the trigger, which set back the hammer, that ignited the spark, which launched the explosive piece of candy from his rifle into the air, violently hitting the soldier’s chest in under a second. As soon as it made contact, the little gumdrop exploded in a burst of energy, sending the man flying into the back of the room, leaving him charred and twisted, and definitely knocked out.

Standing tall as he could, being a very fat man, he turned towards Odin with a grin. “Good work, that was some good teamwork. Giving those marine dogs a beating is something I never mind doing, least of which when I’m imprisoned by them.” He paused, to sling his satchel over his shoulder and brace himself for what would come next. “Now, quite frankly, we need to get out of here. A boatload of Marines will probably be down here in minutes, and I doubt even I could handle all of them.” Truth be told, it was disappointing that he wouldn’t get the chance to beat back on the Marines on this island, considering their size and power. That said, if the opportunity came about where he could deal out some justice without getting in serious trouble, he would snap at it.

“Ready to go?” He waited briefly for the viking to prepare himself for the step they were about to take. “We’ll need to stick together if we want to get far. Honestly, I don’t know much about this island, I just came here looking for my captain, and an adventure.” He laughed. “Well I’ve got one of those already, just need to find him now.” He threw a fistful of gumdrops in his mouth, and chewed them greedily.

He smiled wildly, full of anticipation. “LET’S GO THEN!” With that he ran off happily down the short hall that led to the exit. Using his rifle and a bit of brute force, he forced the door open, and ran outside, and waited for his new ally to catch up. The pair drew a lot of eyes, many possibly unfriendly. The citizens’ eyes were full of judgmental hatred and instant disgust. They carried themselves in a rather superior manner, and were dressed and clean as the city they inhabited.

“You know your way around this island at all?” Gumdrops asked Odin, as he caught up, and resumed running. “Also, if you don’t mind me asking, where are ya from? You remind me of the giants of Elbaf from storybooks and things I’ve looked through, but you clearly aren’t a giant.” He chuckled heartily. 

He continued to run closely with his ally, with a crowd of Marines on their way.

---

As Drago’s ship was enveloped in an explosion, many of the crew mates dived into the water or jumped for the docks. The captain himself was still standing on his perch, but getting incredibly o get of angry. In fact, he was becoming consumed with an intense hatred, of what he didn’t know. He just knew he hated it.



As his golden ship burst into flames and pieces of it broke off, despair began to replace his anger, he had never felt the emotion before. Fear and despair, seeing all his lovely, amazing, beautiful, golden gold lost. His life’s goal was vanishing before his eyes. He’d have to start over.



Raising a fist in the air he let out a shout of rage at whoever was to blame, they would pay and pay dearly. Seeing his crew gathering slowly on the dock, realized he too needed to get off the boat.



Before leaving his burning wreckage of a vessel, he ran into the gold room to scoop up as much as his arms could take, and that was a lot. With a mad dash, he filled his hands with gold, and then bounded off his ship, onto the dock. He let all the gold fall to the surface of the dock, and turned to see his great golden ship burn. Was this the panda-boy’s doing? If so, he would not hold back on killing that thing now. Around him, Golass, Archer, and Burt gathered around their captain, two of them quite injured, but still able to function.



“It was the panda,” Archer said slowly. “He blew up the ship using his strange powers. Seeing him in action...we never had a chance…” Furry built inside Drago as he thought aloud, “We will find that panda, if it takes us to the ends of the Earth!” His crew cheered in approval.



The first mate sighed. His whole crew was a bunch of idiots, captain included.

[BlacKitten]

Impossible, not that he was complaining, but to think that his conscious was still working could only mean that he was still alive. Something was rather off, and he realized it immediately when he opened his eyes, “!”

The fur on his tail caught in flames as it left a trail of ascending smoke. From a pile of rubbles and splintered wood, a wild panda popped into existence. Maru ran back and forth, screaming: “HOT! HOT! HOT! GAHHH! MY TAIL’S ON FIRE!” Slipping on one paw, he smashed onto the deck on his behind, a sitting position which extinguished the flame due to the lack of oxygen. “OUCHY!” Tears leaked out from the corner of his eyes from the excruciating landing. It probably wasn’t an exaggeration to say that his body was covered with hundreds of bruises and droplets of sweat. The world around him was spinning like a top, and his head is ringing like a bell.

“?” The panda tilted his head, puzzled by one thing, “How am I still alive?” Then again… in the past, he had been caught in an explosion after hitchhiking a ship in the South Blue, so maybe it wasn’t too odd for him to survive from an inferior explosion.

His plan was initially to kill himself along with the crew, but… living was fine too. It was also quite convenient when he peered out towards the world for the ship had already landed by the docks of an unknown island. Other than Karate Island, there probably never had been any islands that wasn’t unfamiliar when he initially arrives.

There were two things on his mind right now. First, he must seek shelter for protection in order to heal his wounds. Second, the most important one, he must seek food in order to accelerate his recovery. Living based on simple needs, this was nothing new to him. Standing back up, his feet staggered forward, shaking like a wobbly bamboo tree. The edges of the deck were bordered with flames that roasted the wood into ash. Maru held his breath, avoiding breathing in the acrid smoke.

“Oh no…,” shutting his eyes, he realized what he must do. This was going to hurt no matter what. He lowered his knees, one hand on the ground, in a sprinter’s position. Standing on his toes, a white shell could be seen on the soles of his hind paws. Two Jet Dials, two sources of propulsion, one escape route, he activated them, leaving a crater of cracked wood on the deck.

It wasn’t really flying; he was pretty much a cannonball being shot out into the air. Each time he used this method, he had always failed in the landing part. With his whole skin replaced with bruises, he couldn’t even imagine the pain he was about to experience. His eyes got watery from just thinking about it.

In a parabolic shape, Maru began to descend as he flew across the land from above, far away from the pirate ship. Almost parallel to the street, he smashed and rolled across the cement upon impact, “GAH! OUCH! OOF! HAAA! AHH! OW! BLAAA! OUCHY! YAAA!” Halting to a stop, all bodily motion was in abeyance. Now, he had bruises upon bruises beneath his thick layer of fur and fluff which did nothing to halt the pain that stun his whole body at once. Too painful to move, he just lied there, hoping he could just faint like an old lady.

[PlatonSkull]

Gumdrops had remained uncomfortably cheerful while blasting a Marine apart and preparing himself for a chase involving bullets, blades, and his freedom on the line. "I was looking for an adventure and a captain, and I've found one of them..."
He smiled awkwardly at Gumdrops and hoped that it was a compliment to his leadership abilities, as this was definitely not the kind of adventure he was looking for.
Odin could think of worse people to have on his side in battle. He was passionate, surprisingly fast and had a weird gun that could one-shot marine soldiers, though he wouldn't mind his ally not being insane and anarchistic on top of being a fat oddball.
But here they both were, and here he would like to run as far away from as possible, seeing as they would have the Marines chasing them in no time at all.

So out he went, after the agile Gumdrops, eyes darting towards them from everyone around them. It was pretty unusual seeing an eye-patched caped viking and a fat gunslinger run for their lives after knocking out three prison guards.
They were very prepared for the situation considering. Marines were storming towards them from their HQ, there was docking bays and ocean to the south and east, so they had to run north through an open market place. Merchants and fishermen had set up small booths to sell their goods to a fair price, people were everywhere, and nobody expected a fat guy eating candy and holding a rifle dashing through the place accompanied by a one-eyed, silver haired viking. Nobody ever expects that.
As they both tried hard not to run into people and destroy booths on the way instead, Gumdrops apparently found it a good time for some good old fashioned bonding.
"...where are ya from? You remind me of the giants of Elbaf from storybooks and things I've looked through, but you clearly aren't a giant.” the man chuckled, trying to drown out the angry shouting and ordering of Marines behind them and shocked screams from the people ahead.
"My ancestors loved giants, but are you sure this is the time to ask that sort of thing?!" he didn't get to hear Gumdrops' answer though, because at that point, as he looked at Gumdrops to his right and had no vision through his left, the market place, thick with people, shops, and merchandise, ended, and the canal leading into the city began. He didn't have time to slow down.

So he gave out a surprised shout, something between a scream and a battlecry and leaped, and to his luck, he landed on a ship and was able to stop the fall with a roll. The ship was sailing to the west along the river, deeper into the city. It wasn't a particularly big ship, just a medium sized fishing boat. Odin quickly got to his feel, ignoring the awestruck looks from the crew, and looked up to Gumdrops, shouting "just run further into the city, try and shake them off!"
He had barely lost sight of Gumdrops before marine soldiers were lining up at the edge of the street as to not fall into the canal, and aimed at him.
He turned around, and there was a big ship passing the fishing boat, which he could jump on to. He had to survive the first salvo, however, so he jumped behind a barrel as the gunshots rained down. When all was silent except the scared fishermen and the water beneath them, he bolted to the other end of the boat and leaped to the adjacent ship, barely managing to crawl onto it before the next wave of bullets was fired.
This ship was headed in the wrong direction, towards the sea, and he had to find his way off it immediately. He looked back at the Marines, now running along as they couldn't get a shot at him from that distance. Turning back to the problem at hand i.e. getting off the ship, he ran towards the other end of the deck, getting weird looks as he went. He climbed the rope ladder at the edge of the ship until he was high enough up, and leaped off it.
Okay. He was now on the other side of the canal, on dry land, and further into the city, but he had to keep running, cause the marines had run for a bridge not far behind him, and were hot on his trail.

While he didn't have time to take in the beauty of East Winchester, running and all, there was an unmistakable air of cleanliness that was clearly disrupted by his erratic behaviour, eccentric appearance and excessive running. After a few minutes and some changing directions due to Marines ahead of him, he really needed to get off the main streets where people were watching and in the way. He turned down the nearest alleyway which led to a staircase which led to a ladder which led to him being on some lower rooftop.
He dashed across it, jumped to the next and soon found himself in the predicament of Marines on their way up the ladder behind him and nowhere to jump to. Then on the street to his left he saw, wouldn't you know it, a horse carriage carrying a hay stack of all things. And it was going rather fast!
So of course he jumped, and landed almost perfectly, swiftly burrowing himself in the hay as to not being spotted.

The noise of the streets died down, the road started to become more rough, until they came to a slight halt. Some people outside were shouting for a little bit. Then the sound of a gate opening, then it was dark as if in a tunnel, then a bit brighter, and dirt road.
After a minute or so, he poked his head out. Why was it so dark? It surely couldn't be evening already? Around him was a forest slowly thinning out, ahead of him, all he could see was a bit of smoke in the air, and behind him...
Behind him rose a gigantic wall, casting an even bigger shadow across what he now realized was West Winchester, the criminal part of the island, the part he wasn't supposed to enter.
He had reached his destination, a bit out of breath, but otherwise unharmed. All he needed now was some booze, food, and a ride to the next island.
But it would not go so well...

[rocko52 (Drago)]

Gumdrops continued to laugh, eat, and run with Odin through the pristine streets of East Winchester. while onlookers cast a snobby glare and a bunch of marines followed a ways off. Despite the danger, the fact that he had broken out with such ease, and had an ally with him, and of course his love of adventure, made this one of the most fun things that had happened to him in a long while. This was more fun than Loguetown, much more fun in fact. While that had been a life or death dealing out of justice, this was a lot less important. All he had to do was get away from those marine dogs without getting caught, and perhaps even knocking a few around. And toying with marines was definitely fun.

The noise level around them rose significantly as people began to shout or scream, and the marines gave orders to each other. The chatter grew so loud that the words that came out of his partner’s mouth were inaudible. “What?” He asked. The viking clearly didn’t hear him however.

Suddenly, the crowded streets ended and a large canal began. Reacting quickly, the fat sniper turned to his right to head down the street, but when he realized Odin hadn’t followed, he looked over and saw the Viking leaping onto a little merchant ship. Chuckling the jolly pirate decided it would be best to keep going, and his ally’s statement only supported that, "just run further into the city, try and shake them off!"

Nodding, the pink haired fatman continued his run, while Marines pursued him vigorously. Shouts of, “You won’t get away pirate scum!” and other similarly worded insults were shot at him. Somehow, Gumdrops was staying ahead of them for the time-being. Despite his enormous size, he was quite agile and quick. It was a surprising trait of his, but showed that training and going on several adventures in the past really pay off.

That said, one simply couldn’t stay ahead of a mob of Marines forever. Slowly but surely the soldiers gained on him through the city streets, a few firing rounds at him every once in a while. Up ahead as a sharp left turn, another street to the right, and the end of the island to the left. As he began to make a turn to the left, figuring that the path would lead inward, he saw out of the corner of his eyes that an ambush had been set for him on both sides of the street, with a line of marines bearing loaded rifles waiting for him.

“Fire!” Came the cry of a Marine officer. Oh crap, this was not good at all. Using his adrenaline and quick reflexes, he managed to run towards the marines to his left, push down on his knees and jump above them as they fired. Swinging his rifle in a sweeping arc, he managed to clonk the heads of about five men beneath him. As he touched down on the ground behind him, his large mass made him wobble for a second before standing firm. The chaos of his sudden movements had caused some of the men to fire, while other’s held it. Given that one or two soldiers were clutching their knees, it seems a few had unfortunately been hit by some non fatal friendly fire. Well, it wasn’t his concern any longer, especially with the huge crowd behind him ever moving towards him.

Looking straight down the street, he saw a huge wall looming in the distance. Huh, he wondered what that could be. It would be interesting to check it out, then again he kind of had to go in that direction, with no side streets in sight for the moment and a surging mob of Marines behind him. Taking off down the street wildly, he threw another handful of gumdrops into his mouth.

Later, when he was stronger he’d be able to put up a great fight with these marines. Today though, it was a better idea to run, while still getting a few of them. Some of the soldiers had pulled out flintlocks, and were able to run while firing, sending chunks of stone and marble flying from the ground. It was all the fatman could do to avoid being riddled with flintlock balls.

While he was still ahead of them for the most part, the marines were certainly gaining ground. In an attempt to slow their movement, Gumdrops cocked the rifle in his hands for another shot. After he had prepped it, he whipped around and unleashed a volley at the crowd behind him. The gumdrop landed and exploded near the feet of the group’s forefront. While it sent a two or three men flying, the crowd on the whole was undeterred. Geeze, if he was going to get away, he need to think of something fast.

People were running and screaming all around him as chaos surrounded the roads and buildings. Ordinary citizens decided to play their part by throwing stones or other small objects at him, much to his disappointment. The citizens of Winchester Island sure seemed to love the marines, and hate all weirdos. They all carried themselves with an air of snobbery and superiority, dressed up fancily and acted as such. These people reminded him of those back in his home village, not a lot he liked to deal with.

Certainly none of the citizens would aid in his escape, and out running the marines wouldn’t work forever, and their aim was starting to get a lot more accurate, the sniper painfully noted as a piece of pavement painfully whacked into his back. While this was still quite a bit of fun, it was starting to have the potential to end very poorly. This one street seemed to stretch on continuously with no side passages in sight, offering little means of escape.

Looking up at the wall again, he wondered whether this great structure would be what doomed him, trapping himself between an enormous stone block, and a horde of soldiers. Looking all around for a method of escape, he noticed a few stray crates nearby an apple vendor who had gone indoors for shelter. As a sudden crazy idea flashed through his mind, the sugar lover smiled with glee. This was an all or nothing move, if he succeeded he could probably get away, if not well, he’d deal with that later.

He abruptly turned to his left towards the little stand, and leapt upon the stacked crates. In the brief moment he was on them, he could feel them struggling to support his weight, however in an instant he hopped up onto the canvas providing shelter over the vendor’s stand, sending the crates toppling over. The stand started to splinter around him, so he bounced and jumped with as much energy as he could, and grabbed onto the rooftop above him for dear life. He heard the stand break apart and shatter down below, while the marines shouted and cursed, firing several shots at him. He would feel sorry for the owner of the cart, but the people of this town seemed to dislike him anyway, so he didn’t feel obliged.

He’d made it though, and that made his grin all the wider. He broke into a mad dash, and began hopping from rooftop to rooftop, narrowly avoiding the rather poorly aimed bullets of the soldiers now desperate to get to him. A few had even ran into some houses, to try and find a means of reaching the roofs as well. As he continued, he realized that soon he would be depleted of energy, all this running, and jumping, and fighting had really tired him out. Seeing the wall now not far from him gave him one more crazy idea, one that would use all his energy.

As he reached the final house, the marines seemed confident and smug that he had nowhere else to turn. They were wrong. Laughing both happily, and nervously, the huge pirate jumped high up after bending his knees. Reaching up with his short arms, he clutched a stone and set his fingers into the creases. Knowing that if he slowed down for even a moment he’d run out of energy and fall down, he frantically climbed up the wall, stone by stone. With each stone he climbed, pain continued to become more intense through his muscles. Soon he reached the top, barely taking the details in.

There were two small towers to either side, and an enormous cannon in front of him. He needed to get over this wall, and fast. He had heard that there were no marines on the other side, so at least for now he could be safe. The jolly sniper dashed to the other side of the wall, and started to climb over the side. Climbing down would be a lot more tricky than climbing up. That, and his muscles were nearly exhausted. He had pushed himself to extreme levels before, but this was really starting to overdo it.

As he found his footing, he began to lower himself down from the wall, until he was just hanging onto the side at this point. To his horror, he found that he simply couldn't move his hands anymore. Feeling the stones slip from his grasp, he let out a gasp as he began to tumble down. This was bad, this was very bad! HE couldn't just die here! Not when he hadn't found his captain or anything-his thought process was cut off by some tree branches, which cushioned his fat body, slowing his descent. If it wasn't for the forest surrounding the wall on this side, he would certainly be dead.

The obese pirate tumbled to the ground, and inhaled slowly. He was in horrible pain, but he couldn't keep himself from smiling. He had escaped the marine's grasp, and by some miracle had survived a fall from the massive wall. The universe really did seem to be on his side.

[BlacKitten]

How silly it was to think that his plan would result in any deaths. When he took off, he recalled seeing the captain and his elite fighters still alive. He may have achieved his freedom, but it irked him to leave them in such a healthy condition. Sometimes… he just didn’t know what to do to his opponents. Arousing anger and fooling others were the traits that he seemed to do best in whether intentional or not.

Maru lied there, flat on his stomach with his right ear pressed against the artificial ground of cement. No matter where he lied, everything felt comfy to sleep on due to his fluffiness; his own head was his own pillow. Without any disturbances, he simply rested there without a twitch of muscle. “I guess planning isn’t my strong suit,” he murmured to himself, failing to even kill himself.

The last island he set foot on was Amino Island, and he was quite chilly over there. In contrast, as he breathed in fatigue, the temperature of the air here was different. For an island in North Blue, he expected some chilliness or snow. “Guess I can’t make snow pandas here…,” Maru complained. He widened the scope of his view, and on the side of the street, there stood a giant bottle of rum. “Oh my…,” the panda said in awe at the bottle-shaped building.

Bringing his hands right be his shoulders, elbows sticking up, he pushed his weight up but collapsed before a pushup could even be done, “Ow…” Every cell in his body seemed to hurt; maybe his fluffiness was the main reason he didn’t break any bones. Outstretching his right hand, he stroked the cement horizontal across, made a small curve, and stroked back in the other direction. As he did so, black lines followed his fingertip as his fingers were equivalent to pens or paintbrushes. Ending the last section of the drawing with a hook-like shape, Maru pressed his palm gently on top and seemingly pulled the drawing into life, “Conjure!”

With his self-made wooden walking stick, Maru stabbed the flat end onto the ground as he climbed up the stick onto his paws reached towards the curved handle. For self-defense reasons, this one was actually a sword disguised as a cane. With his third leg, he began to stagger towards the bottle-shaped building with the majority of his weight pressed upon the cane. He felt like an old man.

The door slid open, and a man of greater height stepped out as he gave a curious look at the incoming figure. “Huh?” He politely stepped aside, holding the door open as Maru struggled to enter into the building. Every step he took towards the front entrance brought soreness to his legs. Turning his head towards the man, the panda with the wooden cane nodded as a way of expressing his appreciation.

It took him approximately another minute to reach towards the counter at an old man’s pace of walking. From the shape of this building, Maru was under the impression that he stepped foot in a pub, so he was shocked to find out that this was actually a hotel. When the mellow-toned woman asked if he wanted a room, the panda shook his head in disapproval as he was sick and tired of being confined in a room nowadays. When the woman asked if he would like anything to eat and drink, Maru nodded humbly.

A one-sided menu slid across the countertop for the panda, which apparently could understand human language, to read. Maru patiently took his time glancing at each title and labels, wishing that there were pictures that went along with them. The unorthodox customer merely pointed to the word to show which food and drink he wanted; he picked the ones he was already familiar with.

After some more waiting, a hotel-style wheeled cart came rolling by with dishes covered by chrome, dome-shaped lids. The servants removed the lid for the ‘old panda’ who sat on a chair. And thus, the panda had successfully obtained his delicious hamburger and a teapot.