Back to square one! Boat Buyin' and weapon tryin'!

[Deleted]

‘We 'gotta move.. Finished boat, army of marines. Daring escape! This is perfect!'

Taro didn’t need telling, he just had to say his quick fair wells and thanks for the brilliant service, not many people would put themselves out for a bunch of pirates like this, then again there was the large sum of money... speaking of which. The musician glanced up as the elderly shipwright tossed his wallet back to him, it felt notably lighter; ‘Those two idiots can reimburse me for this...’

Giving a final wave to Mayumi, the musician was already sliding away from his new friends, it was time to move already – as was the Hard-Hat way, get in fast and out even quicker with whatever you can carry.

"BOOOOOOOAT! WOAH! TORIN, TARO! SO COOOOOL!"

Taro who was already gravitating towards the boat, a subconscious magnetism had been responsible for that, but with Darius’ outcry he could contain himself no longer and so ran on board, holding the three wanted posters Mayumi had been holding, unbeknown to him – she had kept a second copy, he’d made an impression after all. Not that any of this was as important as the one simple fact;

“We have a NEW HOME!” he would exclaim ecstatically. Running back and forth, like everyone else seemed to be. The detail was remarkable given the time ratio; they even had a notice board with the words ‘Wall of Fame’ carved into a wooden placard above it. This is of course, where the wanted posters would live. They had a joint 33.5 million beri bounty, serious figures. It seemed like a time for celebration, but first they had to get away, although in a lot of ways this seemed like the truest Hard-Hat induction the new boat and Imuka could have had into the crew, which was just to be made official with the Captain’s invite.

“'Imukaaa!~ Board the boat of awwwwsooome!'”

A few moments of silence followed before something caught the musician’s eye, it was Darius reappearing from somewhere and looking slightly odd, he proceeded to speak.

"Well, I think it's time to go” he spoke deliberately – ‘what was he up to’ Taro wondered, but was at the same time already raising the anchor. Then Darius continued to speak adding;

"Oh yeah, and if ya hear a loud boom I'm tellin' ya one thing: It weren't me."

.................
..........................
....................................
.........................................
-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!-

“Holy cheese! What the hell was that, really Darius? Really!? Let’s go, go, GO!” Already adjusting the sails, Taro couldn’t wait to try out the crow’s nest and get his room shot gunned, but these beautiful trivialities would have to wait, there was still a marine force and it seemed Imuka may have raised the bounty total even higher, the Hard-Hat’s were fast becoming quite a prize, especially considering this was the East Blue.

“Someone take the helm!” Taro yelled as he ran to the rear of their new ship, no doubt they would soon be under fire, there was going to be a bit of a sea battle, their first one... speaking his thoughts relieved, he added; “Thank God we have a gunner now..”

[Die]

"You know I never got that thank you~" said the boy in a shaky tone as he climbed around his opponents. "You must be pretty notorious if this many people are here to collect you huh? Though if you're as cool as your gear I don't blame them from bringing a whole regiment to collect you. Though I guess they expected a little less of a resistance." While she was smacking and cutting the Marines aside, Torin seemed to take the easier route and simply step over their heads. At the same time, bullets from the Marines' rifles ricocheted off uselessly, striking their own allies in the process. It was clear that they did not realize that they were only doing more harm than good trying to shoot her.

"I'm not gonna thank you until we get out of this shitstorm." Imuka replied. With each Marine she cut down, more seemed to replace them. Yet despite this, the ex-Marine gunner continued to push on through. It was then she realized that she had been separated from her rescuers. If worst came to worst, she would have no choice but to fire her weapon, something she could not do, as it was likely that there would be civilians hiding in their homes. "Shit...looks like I'm on the receiving end of their superiority in numbers shit strategy this time around..." Imuka said to herself. It seemed like they had given up on the others and decided to pick off the straggler.

"Imukaaa!~ Board the boat of awwwwsooome!"

The shout of the hardhatted boy allowed her to find her way out of the swarm of Marines. With one final push, she cut herself a path out. But the boat was already starting to pull out from the docks.

-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!-

The explosion from one of the neighboring ships, undoubtedly the swordsman's doing, struck the docks with such force. Imuka was nearly thrown to her side, but managed to keep herself as stable as ever. With the Marines catching up to her and the boat getting farther and farther away, Imuka had only one chance to make it. With all the speed and momentum she had put on from her run from the crowd, she swung her massive weapon forward as she jumped, propelling her forward towards the rear deck of the ship. Everything seemed to slow down around her as she felt gravity meddling in her affairs as usual. Realizing she wouldn't make it, she twisted her body so that she was now flying backwards. It was then she noticed that the other Marines had set up cannons on the docks and began to fire with their typical horrible aiming.

In one swift motion, Imuka removed the ammunition magazine from the Var, stored it on the magazine rack, and grabbed another, loading it into the cannon. A tug on the bolt opened and closed the breech, loading in a round. Aiming the cannon, she fired a single round at a cluster of cannons on the docks. Just before it hit, it exploded, but with very little flame. At first glance it seemed like her round had not worked correctly. However, upon closer inspection, one could make out shockwaves from the explosion as well as shrapnel from the round. The shockwaves had shattered eardrums, broken bones, and damaged internal organs while the shrapnel tore through the Marines and the cannons, rendering them completely useless. At the same time, the immense recoil from firing that round had propelled back up and farther. With the added force from the recoil, she touched down on the rear deck of the ship. As she landed, the wood of the deck groaned and strained from the weight of the girl and her equipment. She slid back a few feet before stopping, almost dropping to one knee from the impact of landing and the rush of how she actually managed to make it.

But they were not out of the woods just yet. The remaining Marine forces had started to launch volleys of cannonballs at them. There were actually quite a lot of them to deal with. But for Imuka, they were mere child's play. She tugged on the bolt again, ejecting the spent shell casing which clanged loudly on the deck, and loaded another round from the magazine. She adjust her stance in order to take the recoil from the weapon. Imuka aimed up, and fired the first round to the left portion of the cluster of cannonballs. An explosion from the propellant exited the barrel of the cannon, followed by the round. The deck groaned and strained again, this time from the power and recoil of her weapon. Imuka's arms moved in the opposite direction of the cannon round, taking some of the recoil while leaving her aim unaffected. The air burst round exploded as it reached the first salvo of cannonballs, ripping them apart and causing them to explode in midair. A tug on the bolt again, and she loaded another round. She fired again, this time at the center of the second salvo, eliminating them before they began to descend upon the ship. Two more rounds later, she wiped out the entire volley of cannonballs. Imuka ejected the spent magazine, and loaded a second air burst round magazine. She quickly turned to the swordsman and shouted, "Don't just stand there gawking at the fireworks display! Use those powers of yours and get us out of here!"

[Tori Tori Chopper]

'Who the hell said she was even in our crew!'

Torin yelled to the self-encouraging Taro as the first batch of cannon-balls began to soar over their new ship. 'I will destroy every last one of you! I will find you if you even scratch this ship!' his comedic anger was an odd mixture of nerves and panic, not for the situation though.. More for the boats well-being. With a angry 'humph-powered' pebble throw after obtaining one from the deck he made a sarcastic roaring noise, as the marine boats were absorbed by a huge blinding light, and the explosions sound-wave soon after as Torin stood with a blank look on his face. 'He gave us uber-exploding pebbles with our ship!?' It was only then he turned to watch Darius dramatically posing as the explosion made him whisk in the wind all cool like, leaving Torin to just cross his arms and lower his head in disappointment 'God dammit...'

The explosion was one of the biggest Torin had seen from Darius in a while, considering he threw those mini-bombs around like they were pebbles.. But Torin was getting distracted from the near-death cannons and explosions and.. Crazy armored woman falling from the sky? It was only after quickly running it through his mind that he realized what he saw, and with a quick shuffle to the side Imuka came down onto the ship like a meteor, Torin moving his mouth in agony for the ship though didn't seem to emit any noises, rather he let the creaking deck-boards do that for him. 'I said get on the ship! Not destroy it!' Torin paced back and forth about the boat, helping Taro get everything ready before blitzing on the woman for whatever cracks or damages she had already made to the beautiful boat, he only froze when Imuka mentioned Darius using his abilities to get them out of there. 'Nononono!~ Don't you dare!' He flailed his arms in rejection of the idea as he escaped to the wheel of the ship, only to complain at the status of the mast, with a stubborn kick he hit a button which resided at the base of the wheel, and with a spin of it the boat began to creak and clank as the mast began to spin on the spot.

'No time to turn aroound!~ 'Gotta go backwards!' Torin yelled to himself as the mast seemed to lock back into place, resetting the wheel he slid down the side stairs back onto the deck as he yanked at the ropes holding the sails from their knots, as the sail picked up the strong current of the explosive waves still coming from the gun-powder full marine ships, the ship jerking before reversing out of the dock at pace. Torin sped back to the wheel, looking back and forth as he attempted to sail the boat backwards. Looking at a more wider perspective he saw the chaos which absorbed the dock, as marines sprinted back to there boats, boats hitting other boats in haste to escape the explosive radius which popped like fireworks over the area as flames began to spread across the boat-wrecks. With a squinted look he watched as a hammer flung back and forth in the mass, though it was still smacking marines into the water.. It looked more like it was waving..

'Naail!~' He went to wave but figured she wouldn't be able to see, as he began to shake the boat from left to right to mimic a wave back he realized he was only making the ship close to capsizing. 'Uhh.. Sorry!' He shouted back to the probably tossing and turning crew-mates as he continued to shout to Nail after all she had done for him, all because he was awesome... 'Thanks Nail! See you around!'

______________________________

And with that the Hard-Hats, after making new friends and obtaining new treasures on their journey so far, race back off into the East blue along with their new ship.. Not to mention a new friend as they escape from her pursuing escort of the marines and their dangerous traitor, or so the marines say. Now with the sea in the palm of their hands once more the Hard-Hats set off again on their adventure! Though it may not be as easy as if first seems..

[/b]