Passing Calm (Ace/Marco)

[EriChar]

This place really is windless… Thought Portgas D. Ace as he jetted over the almost still waters of the calm belt in his modified dinghy, Striker. Thanks to the modifications, even in this windless environment, Ace could move around with his own flame powers. It was a relief to him that Pops or Marco had grabbed his cherished vehicle, especially on a voyage like this. Sat on a ship, with not even a breeze to distract you from your thoughts would send a man to madness. Being cooped up in a cell for so long, it had given him a great restlessness, well, that’s what he believed for now.

Increasing his speed, Ace felt the air move more quickly past his face; finally feeling like a wind was blowing at him. Holding onto his hat, Ace gave a grin and veered his craft into a sharp turn, curving and heading into a hard left. Keeping his pace up, Ace began to zigzag through the water, spray catching his face as Striker bent through the waves, almost riding the craft on opposing edges, the beam of the craft’s mast mere inches above the surface of the water. A slight error would have been disaster, clipping the water with his mast would have certainly sent Ace out of the ship and into the water, and that would have been over for him. Even though he had his home ship only a few hundred meters away, they would probably be too late to save a man who had been forsaken by the sea. The power that was currently driving his excitement could quickly turn into something that would doom him. Still, he persisted in his dangerous activity because the thrill it gave him made him feel more alive than he had for months.

However, falling into the water wasn’t the only danger that Ace met in this sea, there was something much worse. Causing enough of a stir on the surface, Ace’s activity had caught the attention of a monster, which burst through the surface of the water behind him.
“That’s more like it.” Ace said with a wicked grin as he turned his head and saw the beast. Turning his craft just in time to avoid the massive lunging head of a sea king, Ace turned his pace up and sped away with the creature chasing him, back in the direction of his home ship.
“Ha ha ha ha! You’ll have to try harder than that!” He shouted to the huge sea animal as it’s jaws burst back out of the water, only a few feet from the back of Ace’s Striker.

Screaming through the water at high speed, Ace guided the animal towards his target; A marine battleship. Ordinarily this would not be a very good idea for a Pirate as wanted as Ace was, but this one was rather unique. The main sail that usually bore the insignia of that organisation had been painted over in black, so that it now showed a white cross and an upward facing crescent. Seeing his comrades of the deck, Ace shouted to them “OOOIIIIII!!!! I FOUND DINNER!!!!”

[thormundsson]

The blonde haired man stood up from the hammock he had been taking a breather in. It seemed like a year since they had left the battlefields at Marine HQ but it had just been a few weeks. The sun was shining brightly and there was not a cloud in sight. Though from what he had heard of the Calm Belt it was always like that. The ship was swaying to and fro despite the absolute lack of wind there. He pushed his hair out of his face as he emerged onto the main deck and got a clear sight of everything.

There were a few men around to man the stations the ship required but nowhere near the amount of men needed to have it fully battle ready. It didn't really matter. The only reason they had taken the ship was to get through the Calm Belt rather quickly. Not that both he and Ace didn't have alternative means of traversing it, still it was nice to have a place to rest and the lack of islands in the Calm Belt made it difficult to navigate.

He looked up at the jet black flag and the symbol on it. A symbol that was mirrored on his back as well as the backs of all those who were keeping the ship in order. He rubbed his shoulder as he walked to the side of the deck, he was still a bit sore there, despite his healing powers. "Oi! Where's Ace?!" he shouted to the men, trying to locate the Second Division commander as he scanned the group. It was obvious he wasn't there seeing as his figure was quite easy to make out amongst the men.

"He's over there......WITH A MONSTER COMING THIS WAY!! AAAAARGH!" he heard a man shout before running off to grab a rifle. Marco turned his head to the east had to raise his hand to make sure the sun didn't blind him. Off in the distance he could make out Ace's striker which they had located when searching for him. The plume of flame that moved it was obvious even at this distance and even more obvious was the form of a massive Sea King racing after him.

"That idiot, what's he gonna do if the Sea King destroys the ship..." Marco said rhetorically to himself as he placed the hand that was covering his eyes on his forehead and shrugged. With a few quick orders he sent the men scurrying for the cannons and prepare to blast the creature. Not that it was going to hurt it much, Sea Kings were tough enough to survive a few blasts from a cannon.

At the gleeful shout from Ace he decided to meet him rather than risk any damage to the ship. He raised himself up and jumped in the air, his arms turning into wings of fire, effortlessly carrying him towards the small striker and the huge beast.

[EriChar]

“Ah, so you’re up, eh?” Ace shouted, seeing the distinctive blue flames pour out from a body and rise into the air, it could only mean that Marco had decided to join the fight.
Seeing his comrade take to the skies, Ace’s eyes flashed and he remarked “I should get some Air time too…”

With that, Ace crouched down and turned Striker so that it would skim up to their captured ship, then pushed off from its deck and leapt into the air, his legs and feet turning into flames and giving him an added boost.

His whole body flickering, turning into weightless flame, Ace seemed to float for an instant in mid-air as he looked at the massive beast that was closing down on him. “We’ll need some real [i[fire power[/i] against a beast this size…” He said, pulling his fist back and fully allowing his powers to take effect. With a concentration of flame, Ace threw out a straight punch, but what was brought forth was a flaming column of fire, scorching the air and burning the beasts face. The creature let out a loud howl, one of pain but also anger, and despite having a charred side of its face, pushed through the flames, surprising Ace.

Ace hadn’t counted the beasts skin to be as thick as it was, so when it unexpectedly burst through the fireball that he had sent its way, he was taken by surprise and ended up being snatched by the massive jaws that the creature had. It was lucky for Ace that there was such a dramatic size difference between them that he was captured whole, uninjured by now inside the beasts mouth.

Ace, his body back to flesh and blood, seemed to be laying on something soft and wet, he assumed it was the creatures tongue. It was dark in there, and it stunk, whatever sort of creature that this was, it hadn’t learned of mouthwash. Checking himself, Ace found that he still had all of his arms and legs intact, but when his hands reached his head, to his displeasure he found that his trademark orange hat was absent. Great, must have been knocked off when the beast gobbled me up… Ace thought, his fondness for the item preventing him from turning into flame and burning the creatures mouth to let him out again, he might also burn his hat in the process. Trying to pull himself to his feet to locate it, Ace was suddenly flung to the side, crashing against the teeth of the Sea King, inside its mouth.

“Looks like the guys are making it squirm from the outside…” Ace said to himself, rubbing his neck from whiplash. Holding out a single finger, his index, Ace allowed just that one part of his body to become a light, creating a makeshift torch for himself. Shining it around the inside of the Sea King’s mouth, Ace began his search to reclaim his lost possession.

[thormundsson]

"Ace, you idiot!" Marco shouted as he watched his friend get eaten by the huge beast. The gasps of horror and fear from some of the crew were not quite reflective of his own feelings. Ace's Logia fruit was a surefire way to survive such a thing along with the fact that he had been eaten whole. The only significant problem would occur if the creature were to dive under which it didn't seem to be in any hurry to do.

He soared with the speed that only very few in the world could feel and the wind flashing past his face and through his hair was a welcome feeling now that he was moving. The usually dead air of the Calm Belt was incredibly annoying and he always felt a sense of boredom when the wind stopped.

He further enhanced his transformation and his legs turned to the claws of a bird. The claws that formed were huge and long, designed to cut and grab at a prey and never let it go. His transformation was also marked with spots of blue flames that formed on the other parts of his body, a sign of the power he had. He picked up his speed even further and within the blink of an eye he had come up to the huge Sea King. He sliced forward with his claws, the golden blades slicing through the flesh of the Sea King with ease, as if the creature's skin and mass was made from butter.

It roared in defiance and snapped at him, trying hard to bite him down like his friend but didn't seem to have enough luck nor speed to catch him. He merely flew in the other direction. He came back and struck again, once more drawing blood from the creature and infuriating it again. But the creature's sheer mass prevented him from killing it right away unless he went to it a bit more seriously.

That's when the creature appeared in front of him, mouth open, and swallowed the burning bird in one gulp, sending him hurling into the creature's maw. He turned one hand to flame, deciding to use the chance and find Ace in the dark yet very much alive, cavern.

[EriChar]

“Man, this thing’s breath stinks!” Ace exclaimed as he stumbled around in the near dark, now having turned his whole hand to flame to give himself a better source of light. He brought his other hand, the not on fire one up over his mouth and nose; covering it in the hope it would protect his olfactory sense from the smelly environment he was in.
“What have you been eating?” Ace asked as he peered around the creature’s mouth, shining his flame engulfed hand in front of him like a torch. Though he had been fighting it from the outside, Ace only truly got an appreciation for how massive the beast was from inside its mouth. He could stand upright in here and still not be even nearly as tall as this monster’s teeth were, which was an intimidating though when you considered the size of that this whole area was crawling with beasts of this size.
From what Ace understood, their recently obtained Marine battleship was built in a way that would keep it from the attention from these creatures. But seeing as how Ace had gone out of his way to attract the attention of one of these beasts, one had to wonder who the real monster here was.

Seastone in the hull? Ace thought to himself as he considered the makeup of their current transport, Maybe that’s why I feel so weird standing on it…
Musing over the thought of the ship being responsible for the ill of ease he had been feeling while travelling, Ace continued to stumble, trip and outright fall around the creature’s mouth.
I wish it were so simple as the boat’s hull… Ace reflected honestly, but before he could think more on the subject, his attention was snatched away by his quarry. There it was, that brilliantly outrageous orange hat, hanging off the tip of one of those massive obelisks of teeth.

Ace dashed, or moved as quickly as he could over the tongue of a thrashing beast and hopped up to his hat’s hiding place. With his free hand, Ace gripped the edge of the tooth which, as it turned out, was surprisingly blunt. “Found you.” He said, turning the ‘gas’ down on his burning hand so that the flames receded back to just the tip of his index finger. Then, making special effort to avoid touching the lost item with his flames, Ace plucked it from its rest and inspected it.
“Gross.” Ace said, as he noticed that the hat was largely undamaged but caked in the slime of the sea king’s saliva. Gripping its brim, Ace released his hand from its hold on the tooth and dropped back down to its tongue. However, as he landed the massive marine animal opened its mouth in anger, causing Ace to roll backwards in his off balance state. As he watched the sky and monster’s mouth spin around him, Ace caught the sight of familiar blue flaming pair of wings.
Coming to a rest, leaning against one of the Sea Kings larger than large chompers, Ace casually raised to his friend a hand and said “Hey, decided to join the party?”


((OOC: I’m not sure what you’ve got planned for the next stage of this, but I’m going to leave it in your hands. If need be, you have my permission to drag Ace out of his current position any way you see fit, preferably in the least dignified manner possible.))