The Prisoners of Notice Island

[Aromancer]

Tomoko was proud of herself.

Following the... unfortunate events at the Holy Remunun Empire, she'd impressed her superiors enough to be given more responsibility! Commodore Kaizen had placed her under the command of Lieutenant Krayg on a peacekeeping mission to Notice Island.

The island was a mostly peaceful one, located close to B-1 and home to many wealthy nobles of the North Blue, but ever since the notoriety of the Bellamy Pirates had started to spread, many of the less fortunate folks on the island had gotten it in their heads to try their own hands at piracy. Not only that, but over the past year or so, it seemed many more pirates than normal were attracted to Notice's shores. The marines had issued a couple more ships filled with crews to the island in the hopes that a stronger military presence would dissuade less savory individuals from attempting to stir up trouble for the well-to-do elite.

That Mellifera Tomoko had been assigned to one of these ships was a big deal. It showed that she was valued enough that she could be entrusted with the safety of some of the most important people in the North Blue! Never mind that her ship seemed largely populated by younger, greener recruits, she was second here only to the Lieutenant himself!

Or at least she was nominally. In practice, Lieutenant Krayg seemed to keep ordering her to do all the administrative labor, while he took counsel from other crewmen. Petty Officer Jones wasn't as high-ranking as she was, but he seemed to have Krayg's favor. But Tomoko was sure that she would catch her superior officer's eye so long as she did everything he asked to the best of her ability.

She had just finished compiling a report, and was getting ready to deliver it to the Lieutenant's office, when an alarm rang out on Notice Island: a pirate attack! Tomoko dropped her papers and dashed towards her station by the Lieutenant's side. "Mellifera Tomoko, reporting for duty, Sir!"

[pepsi]

-- LARS #1 //

He was only meant to be there to learn the ropes of field deployment, nothing more. Lars was sent from B1, where he had spent most of his time since he joined the Marines, to Notice Island. On board there were only a few people higher in rank than himself: among the many Seamen and recruits, a certain Lieutenant Krayg commanded the ship; directly below him, only a handful of people including a certain Master Chief Petty Officer Tomoko.

They landed on the island and began performing the normal duties that Marines were supposed to do: contacting the local Marine force, signing paperwork, selecting personnel and staffing guard posts. Lars quietly, but nonetheless happily, obeyed every single order he was given without hesitation. There was quite a lot of work to be done, but he was determined to show his worth bit by bit.

It was an otherwise regular morning when the whole base was put on high alert. A pirate attack! It was Lars' first run-in with actual criminals of the sea; he was going to be on the frontline no matter the cost.

The Lieutenant immediately ordered the recruits to gather at the designated station, not too far from the docks where the pirate ship had first been sighted. Lars managed to get there just in time to position himself at the very first row of the group. After that, he stood at attention waiting to hear the words of the Lieutenant.
In a matter of minutes, a group of around twenty Marine recruits had taken formation in front of the Lieutenant and the Petty Officer.

"Pirates are attacking from the South" Krayg explained, "we have just received the news that they have occupied a building in the southern potion of Notice Town. We have a hostage situation on our hands, but our duty is still to re-establish order on the island. I have considered our options, and I believe we should not be allowed to make compromises with the criminal scum."
Lars nodded along. He was mostly in agreement with the Lieutenant, not because he disregarded the safety of the hostages but because he knew in his heart that pirates could not be trusted, and that dealing with them often meant losing the opportunity to secure them to justice on purpose.

-- NAME // Lars Van der Vennen

-- CLASS // E

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Aromancer]

Tomoko admittedly wasn't... thrilled with Krayg's command decision. She understood his logic, of course, negotiation with pirates was rarely a productive task; but it wasn't going to look good on the report if too many important people died.

Perhaps she could sway the Lieutenant to a more... productive course of action. "Sir! Permission to speak?"

Krayg shot Tomoko a begrudging look of annoyance, but it would look bad if he refused his (nominal) subordinate's request. Why couldn't she fall in line during a time of crisis, like Lars here? "Granted. Make it quick."

"I understand we have no intention of making concessions to these pirates... but they don't know that. With your permission, I'd like to engage in fake negotiations. We might be able to keep the prisoners alive longer, and draw their attention long enough to launch a covert rescue mission."

Krayg shook his head. "Our job isn't to rescue those prisoners, Mellifera. That's the fourteenth fleet's mission. Everybody has a role to play; ours is to establish order so the other fleets can do their jobs as efficiently as possible."

Tomoko gritted her teeth. The fourteenth fleet was led by Lieutenant Commander Xerxes; certainly an effective military commander, but known for being something of a loose cannon. If he was in charge of the rescue, Tomoko expected a high casualty count. "But Sir-"

"Zip it, Mellifera! Any more lip and I'll have you court-martialed!"

Tomoko snapped shut immediately. She wasn't about to usurp her commanding officer. Instead, she busied herself coordinating the ship's disembarking procedure. All she could do was her job, but she intended to do it as well as she could.

[pepsi]

-- LARS #2

Lars watched the exchange between Master Chief Petty Officer Tomoko and Lieutenant Krayg unfold. It was clearly a clash of ideals, and he found himself understanding the motivations of both parties.
But while initially he had been swayed towards Krayg's side, he couldn't shake off the idea that Tomoko had raised a pretty powerful point.

He wanted to see the pirates' ranks come undone more than any other, but even he could see the usefulness in keeping the pirates engaged in peaceful confrontation while others infiltrated their chosen hiding spot.

No, he thought. Tomoko was right.

"Sir! Seaman Recruit Lars van der Vennen!" he yelled, standing at attention. "Permission to speak?" Krayg was taken aback by Lars' actions - he was certain he wouldn't fall out of line, but there he was. He granted it with a motion of his hand and a perplexed look on his face.
"Master Chief Petty Officer Tomoko has merely provided an alternative route to achieving the same goal, sir. I am ready to put my life on the line to uphold my duties, like everyone else, sir; but at the same time, I truly believe that distracting the pirates would be beneficial and would help restore the order faster, sir." He took a long, deep breath, his brain working full-force as he tried to find the perfect middle-way solution. "If the strategies of the fourteenth fleet have not changed, Commander Xerxes will look to pressure the pirates out with a volley of cannonfire. Combined with pressure from us, the pirates will certainly yield, but perhaps avoidable destruction may follow." He took a second to gather more thoughts, but seeing as he didn't have any, he simply concluded with...

"... Sir."

A fiercely bold move. Lars had been recommended to Krayg by yet another Marine, an Ensign by the name of Ezra Miller, who reassured him Lars would be a very important asset for the Marines - with high potential, and already far ahead of his peers.
In that moment, Miller's words resonated in Krayg's mind like the echo of a memory: "He is an unconventional man. He thinks, acts and behaves well ahead of his rank. But that is only because the slow bureaucracy can't keep up with a man like Lars."

-- NAME // Lars Van der Vennen

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Aromancer]

Ensign Miller and Lieutenant Krayg had been sharing the room with one other officer at the time of their discussion. Krayg was reminded of Kaizen's words when he'd overheard Miller's description of Lars.

"If there's any bureaucrat in the ocean fast enough to keep up with your Lars," the lower-ranking Commodore had said confidently, "it's my Tomoko. There's not a better administrator in the Marines. Honestly, I'm hesitant to give her up; but we just don't get enough paperwork to keep her busy!"

Much as Krayg hated to admit it, Kaizen's words rang true. The young Master Chief Petty Officer had handled every document he'd thrown at her with aplomb; docking approvals, supply requests, mission reports, and everything in between. The girl was practically a walking admin machine. This was her first time speaking out, and while Krayg certainly didn't want to reward insubordination, Lars was right; her idea had merit.

Finally, the man sighed in defeat. "Very well," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Permission to engage in false negotiations... granted. I'll let Lieutenant Commander Xerxes know the plan." Now there was a call he wasn't looking forward to making.

"But if you think her idea is such a good one, then you're going with her, Recruit!" He snapped at Lars, directing his finger towards the low-ranking officer. "Tomoko, bring Van der Vennen with you! The two of you will provide a distraction while Xerxes launches the rescue op!" Honestly, he was ever so slightly intrigued to see if these two would get along as well as their superior officers seemed to think. And if they imploded, well, nothing was risked that wasn't already being risked.

Melly's face blanched at the order, but she immediately snapped to attention, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Yes, Sir!" She immediately rushed to her quarters to grab her gear, returning only a moment later with an unwieldy spear in hand and a unique, pitcher-shaped flower tucked behind her ear. "Come along, Recruit! No time to waste!"

[pepsi]

-- LARS #3

Lars stood at attention, keeping a straight spine as he heard his superior grant both him and Master Chief Petty Officer Tomoko the ability to engage in those negotiations. Even as Tomoko left for her room - to gear up, no doubt - he simply stood there, without moving a muscle.

He relaxed only after Tomoko was back. Lars personally did not need to grab any gear, as he fully believed in the power of his fists and the resilience of the reinforced leather gloves he had on his person at nearly all times.

He approached Tomoko as the two of them broke off from the rest of the group, heading south where the pirates had attacked. The rest of them would soon follow, in order to provide support and a follow up in case things went bad.
"Ma'am" Lars said, as they were tracing the path towards their objective, "there are effective and ineffective tactics when it comes to bringing justice. I'm glad to hear this has not been forgotten." He brought his hand to his hat, as if to salute; but it was more of a thankful gesture than a proper greeting.

As they reached Notice Town, they identified the occupied building as the one that had been surrounded by a bunch of civilians. The building was composed of three stories, the first of which was nothing more than a tavern; the rest were apartments, possibly belonging to the tavern as well. The first thing to do was securing the civilians and helping them understand that the area was not secure.

"Ma'am," Lars called, "should I guide the civilians away from the building? Or is there a different strategy you'd want to employ?". Lars unbuckled his gloves from the side of his belt, and quickly wore them over his hands. "Seaman Recruit van der Vennen... ready for action."

-- NAME // Lars Van der Vennen

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Aromancer]

Melly smiled approvingly when she saw Lars still standing at attention, not having moved from his spot while she was gearing up. Even considering how quick she'd been about it, it was nice to see a soldier with the discipline to stand at attention, waiting for their superior officer to return. Lars was off to a great start in her book!

She nodded her assent as Lars spoke to her on the way to their objective. "I've often thought we have a tendency to forget ourselves in the pursuit of justice," she told him. "Our primary responsibility is to the people we protect; eliminating the pirate threat is crucial to common well-being, but not at the cost of those we've sworn to serve." She turned back to look at Lars head-on. "Thank you for seeing that. I don't know if Lieutenant Krayg would have listened to me if you weren't there."

Melly was a strong believer that the Marines, as an organization, were the ideal organization to maintain peace and order in the world; but they weren't beyond the faults of individual bad actors within their ranks. Sometimes she had her doubts about Krayg; certainly, he was a capable warrior and commander, but there seemed to be some personally-held opinions about the place of women within the Marines that colored his perception.

The two of them reached Notice Town and saw a large group of civilians gathered around the pirates' hideout. Melly's breath caught in her lungs; she could just imagine the violence that might ensue were Xerxes to attack now.

She nodded in response to Lars' question. "Go for it, recruit. I'm going to scout out the situation inside; keep an eye on my spear while I do."

She handed him her spear and morphed into a tiny, black-and-yellow insectile form. The Devil Fruit she'd consumed had made Melly a master at infiltration, able to pose as an almost literal "fly on the wall" in hostile areas that other Marines couldn't. Melly was so small as to be almost invisible as she entered the three-story building and began to search for the pirates within.

[pepsi]

-- LARS #4

It felt good to be recognized, by a superior nonetheless. Clearly Lars was not interested in kissing anybody's boots and climbing ranks that way, as evidenced by the fact that he did push against an even higher ranking superior of his just a few minutes prior. What he cared about was justice and the good of the innocent people of the world: nothing, not even the rigid structure of the Marines, should stand in the way of doing the right thing.

Though in his mind, the complete eradication of piracy was on equal footing with safeguarding people; he wouldn't let one goal get in the way of the other. When those goals clashed, his good heart pushed him to act in defense of the people first. Still, deep down he questioned whether a harsher stance would've been better, like Sakazuki's - one of the people he looked up to the most.

As he witnessed Tomoko buzz off into the sky, his gaze turned to the crowd. He adjusted his hat, trying to get people's attention; slowly, almost one by one, he motioned at the people to distance themselves from the building. "This area is dangerous, please" he repeated multiple times, "keep a safe distance."
It didn't take long for the crowd to start self-organizing under his guide, as he calmly directed groups away.

In the top floor of the building, a bicker between brothers was unfolding.

"Such a waste of our time", Drachen said. "We should've just killed everybody and left the girl alive. It's such a hassle to be stuck in here with so many people. You can't move all of them at once." His back against the wall, he played with his brass knuckles in the palm of his hand. Drachen Vaar was the captain of the Bluenet Pirates, worth all together some 40 million Belly.

"Look, Drachen," his brother Keiran replied. "We just have to wait for the contact to arrive. Then, we give him the girl and everybody else, and we all vanish from here with the max amount of money they offered us." Keiran Vaar, the captain of the Rednet Pirates, worth 35 million Belly just by himself, had a reputation for being generally uncatchable. "If you say so, man."

A few of their lackeys guarded the twenty-odd people; their hands were tied with several coils of rope. Some of them were bound to structural supports and unable to move in any way.

Lars' eyes peered into one of the windows at the ground floor. He quickly realized he couldn't see anything, despite it being a sunny day. The windows seemed to be blocked by something; it took him several seconds to crack what exactly he was looking at. The floor, the chairs, the tables seemed to be all tangled up together and tied together with rope, all bunched up against the windows so that nothing could be seen from the outside.

Every rope was tied perfectly around each pair of objects, and wound around them several times. There was no way the pirates had access to that much rope. What was going on?

-- NAME // Lars Van der Vennen

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Aromancer]

A contact? So, they were here waiting for somebody? Tomoko continued listening as the two men discussed the nature of this deal further. And that man... that was Kieran Vaar! He had a hefty bounty on his head, one of the highest in the North Blue! Tomoko supposed she shouldn't be too surprised; after all, it clearly took a criminal of a certain caliber to be able to pull off a hostage situation like this!

But what were they doing here? They'd mentioned a girl... clearly somebody of great importance, if she were worth such a considerable sum. Maybe, if she continued to explore the building, she'd be able to find her? Obviously, she wouldn't attempt an extraction until she had Lars with her, but this was a scouting mission at present; the more information she gathered, the better.

The little bee zipped down the stairs towards the area where the hostages were being held. The rest of the Bluenet Pirates, mostly with bounties in the tens and hundreds of thousands, were milling about in the lobby, keeping an eye on- Melly did a quick headcount -twenty-three hostages. They mostly seemed to be employees; clerks and the like. This building appeared to be an immigration office, among other things, but Notice Island wasn't getting many immigrants at the moment thanks to the disproportionate pirate presence. Nobody who matched the "girl" description, though, besides a frightened-looking apprentice with hands clasped behind her head.

As Melly watched, another crewman came out from the back. "She bit me! Can you believe that? Who bites a guy?"

One of the other crewmen in a red bandanna laughed. "You should be so lucky! C'mon, you seriously complaining about a fragile little flower like her biting you?"

"She's fifteen, man," the newcomer said testily. "Quit being weird about it."

"Old enough for our employer," Red Bandana replied with a shrug.

This seemed promising. Melly flew back where the newcomer had come in from. In a small broom closet she found a young girl, bound and gagged; a girl who looked like she'd be about fifteen, in a well-tailored dress. She seemed well-off, but not like nobility. Probably the heiress to a large company. Could this be who the Bluenets had been sent to capture?

[pepsi]

-- LARS #4

The girl looked horrified from seeing a bug buzzing near her; she was probably one of those types of people that freak out at every spider and every fly they come across. She squirmed and wiggled, her body bound by several feet of thick rope. Any more noise, and she probably would've caught the attention of any of the pirates just outside.

As Lars patiently guided the people away from the building, his eyes scouted a group of Marines approaching in the distance. He sighed audibly as he recognized Commander Xerxes among them; leaving the people to idle for a moment, he ran to meet the Commander before he'd get too close to the building. If any of those pirates had been keeping a watch, they would've been on high alert by now.

Lars approached the Commander and stood at attention. "Sir! Seaman Recruit Lars van der Vennen!" he respectfully introduced himself, "We have discussed with Lieutenant Krayg, and we believe that the best course of action is to lead a small investigation before attempting to negotiate with the pirates!"
To be frank, Lars had no idea why Xerxes was even there. Shouldn't they have been stationed far away from there, where they could - if they wanted - cannon the hell out of the building?

"At rest, Recruit" Xerxes replied, with a wave of his hand. "I talked to Krayg, and I think you guys have gone soft. I don't know whose idea this was, but if there's one thing I know about the pirates on this island, is that they won't listen. They only respond to violence, and violence is what we're going to give them." Lars' expression hardened as Xerxes explained exactly what he feared he would. "But I also know that it's protocol to warn the civillians about the incoming shells, so that's what we're here to do."
Lars' adjusted his hat and looked down, biting his lip so as not to defy a superior once again. "How much..." he asked, "how much time is left before the cannons fire, sir?"

"I don't know," Xerxes replied, "fifteen minutes?"

"Hey!" a Bluenet pirate yelled, "see that?". The pirate pointed outside of one of the windows. From his position, one could clearly see a battalion of ten to fifteen Marines not far from their position. "The Marines are here! We need to move!"
"We will not move," Keiran said, "our contact should be here in half an hour. Even if they try to force us out, we can buy time."

-- NAME // Lars Van der Vennen

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Aromancer]

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" Melly called out in hushed tones, shifting back to her human form so the girl would see her Marines uniform and know she was safe. "I'm Petty Officer Tomoko, I'm with the Marines. We're here to help you."

Well. Most of them were here to help. But the hostage situation training manual had been very clear about keeping the hostages calm; the last thing they would want was for the situation to escalate. Melly suspected that Commander Xerxes had not read the hostage situation training manual.

A cry from a few rooms over alerted her to the presence of Marines nearby. For a second, she thought the pirates had noticed Lars; but one Marine by himself probably wouldn't have caused this much of a stir. The way these guys were talking, it sounded like they thought an attack was imminent!

Could Xerxes have... no, that shouldn't be possible, she said to herself. For him to have already taken action, he'd have to have done so the moment the attack was announced. There's no way the Fourteenth Fleet was already here, not unless he'd been planning to storm the building from the beginning, hostages be damned! And even Xerxes wouldn't be that rash!

...Would he?

Alright, stay calm yourself, Tomoko. If the hostage notices how scared you are, she'll get scared, too. "I'm going to remove your gag, okay? Please stay quiet when I do; we don't want the pirates to know you're being rescued." She quickly undid the girl's bonds, removing the gag last.

"T-thank you, miss," the girl murmured, in a shaky voice.

"Don't mention it," Melly replied, offering her a reassuring smile. "Now, I snuck inside through a route without many pirate guards. I think they're mainly upstairs and in the lobby; if we're quick and quiet, we can get you out of here without being noticed."

"What about the others?" The girl asked, eyes wide with worry.

"...A plan is in progress to extract them as well." Melly avoided making eye contact with the girl; that was a fancy way to say "I'm still figuring that part out."