Wealth, Adventure, and the Open Sea: A One Piece RP.(Arc 4: Porte Carlo.)

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

After Hal took a few minutes to catch his breath, he stood up and started running back towards the main fight to help the others. He was still exhausted, having no stamina and Shaving all over the place would do that, but he was in good enough shape to take out a few more thugs. As he rounded the corner, he witnessed a scene of pure carnage before him. Dead or unconcious thugs everywhere. Arrows raining down on the field from Alaena and Yoje kicking away. "Alright so looks like it's just those two and the rest must be inside already. Looks like a couple of the ones fighting Yoje are a head above the rest, just like a few more of them back there. I think I'll try to take care of them, though I don't think I can use Shave much more." Hal muttered his plan as he approached the remaining Lieutenants.

One with a spear was the first to notice Hal and turned to face him. The man charged forward with a thrust of his spear. Hal barely managed to step to the side in time and dodge the blow. He was ready however with a strike of his own, quickly unsheathing his sword and slicing the man's gut open. His last screams of pain attracted the attention of his comrades, who ran towards Hal. Hal shaved towards the nearest one and swung... Only to find his sword blocked by the other mans sword. That was something that had never happened to Hal before. "Too slow..." The lieutenant said with a sick grin as he took one hand off of his sword, balled it into a fist, and landed a strong punch right across Hal's face. Hal hit the ground hard, and couldn't quite get back up. He was seeing stars and it would probably take a little while to recover from that hit.

 

[GoWithDAFro]

The amount of thugs outside was finally starting to dwindle. Yoje had managed to knock out one of the lieutenants by jumping over a stab attack and slamming him into the ground, but the other one was still attacking relentlessly. Yoje tried to hit him with Tempest Kicks, but the lieutenant was able to dissipate all the attacks with his katana, and kept Yoje on the defensive. Finally, he saw an opportunity. I really don't like having to use this move, but its the quickest way to end this.

In his hybrid form, Yoje suddenly charged toward the lieutenant. He grinned, and slashed down at him. But just before the blade hit his shoulder, Yoje cocked one arm back, and activated his Iron Body. The katana was stopped at Yoje's skin with a metallic clang, and the lieutenant was wide open for an uppercut from Yoje's other arm. One more kick, and the lieutenant was out. With a grimace, Yoje realized that the katana slash had actually broken through his Iron Body, but the shoulder wound thankfully wasn't deep.
_____________________________________________________________________
Too much time had passed since Grana and the Archer were supposedly killed, and it didn't take long for Tozani to realize he'd been tricked. He had sent some scouts out a while ago to look for the two of them. Now, his Mushi rang again. "Boss, big news! The Ivory Oyster is under heavy attack!"
"What? By who?"
"I don't know. Pirates or mercenaries. I can see a lot of arrows around, so I'd say the Archer's in on it."
Tozani sneered. "Perfect. Is Inshi dead yet?"
"He's still in the resort, I haven't gone inside. Doesn't look too good for him, though."
"Alright, stay where you are. I'll send you some backup."
Tozani hung up, and called his second in command. "Visso, Inshi's vulnerable. Take nine of our best fighters, head to the resort, and finish him off. Then try to take out whoever's behind this attack. Stay in contact with me at all times."
Confident that Inshi would soon be dead, the Budero boss grabbed a telescope from his desk and made his way to the roof of the Casino.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Inshi had began to stumble back towards his office to try and recover, the wound's Jaqcue had left on him leaving him barely able to limp without the aid of two of his men. "Damn them... I need to try and get a handle on this situation..." he managed to get inside, stumbling back towards his safe. "I know this isn't meant to be taken in such large quantities in such a short time... but it's either that or bleed to death..." he started trying to unlock the safe.[hr]
Peter managed to get to a vantage point, seeing that Inshi's men were spread thin across the place trying to deal with everyone. Suddenly, he saw a large group heading towards the resort. He took a minute, but he realized it was the Budero family. He didn't see much of the fight, but he did see Jacque and Grana get out injured. Sammi was closest to him, Hal was the farthest, and Yoje was sill fighting in the main lobby. "Shit... just what we need... more trouble. We need a moment to regroup... we need to get away from here before the fighting gets too chaotic..." he reached into his bag and reached to what looked like a small red cone. "Hopefully they'll know that this means 'go where I shoot', not 'meet with the shooter'..." he shot it pretty close to the alleyway Jacque and Grana had retreated to.

 

[tsatoma]

Scanning the resort for anymore of Inshi's men stupid enough to not be in cover, Alaena deftly nocked another of her arrows with still hands. The carnage below was nothing to bat an eye at for her; this was just the latest in many assaults on compounds for her. She clicked her tongue and slowly put the arrow back in the quiver; taking another glance around the resort (noting an injured Jacque and Grana) before standing up from her position.

'That turned out pretty well on my part. Let's hope someone did what they were supposed to,' she thought, her eye following a flare that had been fired. She followed it's course back to who had fired it, seeing Peter briefly before he started heading over to the alley. 'Suppose I should be heading over there,' Alaena mused as she jumped off the roof before using Geppo to safely and quickly land in the alley that Grana and Jacque were at.

Alaena took a moment to catch her breath as she headed towards the two injured men, kneeling down next to them and taking a look at their injuries. She wasn't too surprised at how tired she had become, knowing that all this activity after such injuries would lead to that. 'But now it's time to focus on other's.'

Looking over Jacque's injuries first she tore off some strips of his pants to tie around his thigh, shaking his shoulder a few times afterward to wake him up. "You don't have anything that could be life threatening, but you will need a few stitches. I would do it myself, but my supplies are back at the inn. Stay off your leg for now," she stated calmly before turning towards Grana. His injuries had already been hastily bandaged up, leaving little for Alaena to do without her supplies. Instead she plucked the spear away from him (breaking off the seastone spearhead and placing it inside her pocket) and examined his hand, letting out a faint whistle as turned it over carefully.

"This hand...you won't really be able to use it even if I do fix it up. The skin and such will heal over time after I finish with it, but the muscles and nerves...well the former is too damaged and the latter won't regrow after this extent of damage. In the end it will mainly be there just to make you not look freakish, but other than that it will be useless," Alaena explained to him after placing his hand back down, adding, "Or I could amputate if you'd prefer not having useless flesh on you."

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

The world seemed to be moving in slow motion for Hal. Or maybe the guy who had decked him was just taking his sweet time getting over to him. It was hard to tell, but it didn't really matter as much as the fact that if he didn't get out of here soon he was a dead man. As he lay flat on his back looking up at the sky he saw a flare shoot across and land on the other side of the resort. It seemed important and the sight of it snapped Hal out of his daze. He quickly leapt to his feet, finding himself face to face with the thug once more. This time though, Hal gave the man a grin. "Sorry pal, I gotta go. I'll get ya next time we meet OK?" He said before Shaving out of striking range and making a mad dash for where he saw the flare land.

After losing any pursuers he had and running for what felt like forever, Hal met up with the others. Jacque and Grana looked like they'd had a rough time in the resort. Thankfully, Alaena was looking after them. Hal sat down with his back to the wall and took a much needed rest. All that running and Shaving had left him exhausted. "Whoo..... Is it over? I don't know... How much more of this I can handle..." He said as he reached up and touched his swollen face with a wince. That punch he took was gonna leave a bruise for a long time.

 

[GoWithDAFro]

Yoje was fighting another lieutenant when he saw the flare out of the corner in his eye. He figured it was a signal from Peter, but he wanted to deal with this guy first. The man swung high with a hammer, but Yoje dropped low, Shaved behind him, and kicked his legs out from under him. He then leaped to the direction of the flare, bouncing on the lieutenant as he left. He arrived in the alley a couple of minutes later, surprised to see that Grana and Jacque looked badly injured. "Are you two alright? What happened to Inshi?"
______________________________________________________________________________
On the roof of the Casino, Tozani pulled out the telescope and looked out towards Inshi's resort. Normally, the resort would still only be small shape on the horizon, but he had eaten the Sight-Sight fruit, which gave him enhanced vision. Very little could escape his sight, whether it hid in darkness, or even behind walls. "Now, where are you, Inshi?"

 

[Scarim Coral]

Thank to Alaena shaking, Jacque had woken up although he wanted five more minutes to sleep in. He listens to her words.

He wonders "How am I going to get back to the inn if I can't use my leg?"

Jacque heard Yoje asking what happen to him.

He answers "Despite my injury I suffer much worse than this but it's a pain. I had a duel with Inshi which I had took too much risk at trying to strike him down but he's also injure at the moment."

He then turns to see Hal near him with bruises on his face."

He asks "You don't happen to selling any clutches at the moment twoo?"

It's too painful to morph to my owl form so I really don't want to fly back to the inn.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Peter had spent a little longer than the others getting to there, trying to stay out of sight. Once he got there, he noticed only Sammi was missing. "Crap. Well, while we're waiting, we need to think about what to do next. Alaena, try and patch up everyone as best you can. We'll head to the casino next. We need to take a different approach there. One of us, maybe two of us, will go after Tozani. The rest of us will try to stay hidden as best we can. Unlike the Yarrakona family, we have a very clear way to hurt, maybe even crush the biggest source of the Budero family's income. As for how, and how we can find Tozani.... well, I'm still trying to think of that."

He sat down, and looked at everyone. "You all did great back there. I'm proud of you guys. 7 against who-knows-how-many. And we made them all look like idiots." First he turned to Yoje. "Good job holding the line back there. You really did do a good amount of damage to their numbers. You sure you're ok?"

He turned to Jacque and Grana next. "Jacque, I know you've taken a lot more punishment than we have facing Inshi. And Grana, you're hand..." he sighed. "Look, none of us will think any less of you two if you want to sit the rest of this out. I'd appreciate the help, but I don't want you guys to think I'm forcing you to do this for any reason."

Finally, he turned his attention to Hal and Alaena. "Thanks for your help here. I know we kinda screwed up quite a bit of your business. Look... we're going to be leaving in a couple days. I want you to know, you two are more than welcome to join us. There's still plenty of time before we do leave, and I know you two have places to go, money to make, and people to fight. Still... could you at least think about it?"

After he had said everything he wanted to say, he got up, walking a little closer to the resort. Come on Sammi... I know you're more than enough for those thugs, but we need you here... he looked very concerned for her.[hr]
Inshi had limped out back to his office. "That damn owl... that accursed archer... that slothful marine...and whoever lead this attack. Three times this day I have been insulted... I have been injured. I've been disgraced. I... I will have their heads!" after a minute or so, he reached his desk, trying to get a grasp on what was happening.

He saw Tozani's men heading towards the place and starting to fight with his men. While Inshi had them clearly outnumbered, they were still tired from the attack by Peter's crew, and each Budero fighter was heavily equipped, carrying some very powerful weaponry. "The Budero family?! Why did they have to come here now? How could they... unless they knew about this..." he saw things were pretty even at the moment. He dragged himself over to his safe, having something to heal his wounds, as well as a place to hide in case things went south. "I guess their leader really earned the nickname 'All-Seeing' Tozani..."

 

[Xero Scythe]

Grana's head slowly dropped back until it hit the wall with a gentle 'thud.' "So my arm's... Gone? From just that one hit?" Grana was speechless. It was true that it had been a while since anything had even touched him, he hadn't quite realized how fragile the human body was. Still, Grana was loath to part with his arm, as he was still strangely attached to the hunk of flesh. Perhaps it was because the thing was still strongly attached to him. Grana tried to prove Alaena wrong somehow; a twitch of the fingers, or perhaps a twist of the wrist- anything would do. Grana sent the command to move his fingers and could feel them move, even without looking at them. Still, this meant nothing- Grana had heard tales of men who had lost limbs, and yet still completely believed they had a full set of appendages until their eyes confirmed what their nerves could not. "Damn... Why did I do such a stupid thing? Jacques is a trained professional, by the looks of it. He probably could have seen that ruse from a mile away!
...
...
...
...But what if he hadn't?" This was the idea that scared Grana the most. That Jacques would have been cut down, with Grana able to easily stop it but failing to do so- this frightened Grana for some unknown reason. "So... This is friendship, eh? Damn, but if it doesn't come with strings." Grana decided to look. He turned his head slowly towards his arm, examining it for the first time since the actual incident. He once again commanded his fingers to move. Disappointed with the results, Grana turned back towards Alaena. "Alright, amp-" Suddenly, Grana replayed what he had seen, rewinding and playing each scene as if his eyes were movie projectors. There! Was that it? "Please, please, oh please, don't just be in my head." Grana thought as be quickly turned back to his arm and commanded with all his will for his arm to move. Again, he saw it! His fingers definitely twitched! "Hell, what do I have to lose? I'll risk it all on this one chance!" Grana looked back at Alaena. "On second thought, my family has been known for their resilient bodies. Let's wait and see, shall we?" Grana took his suit top off and offered it to Alaena. "Mind binding my arm to my chest? I don't want it getting in the way while I fight."

Grana stood up, exposing his back and the long scar that stretched diagonally from his right shoulder to his left hip. He reached into a portal and pulled out his common shirt, planning on donning it the moment Alaena bound his arm. "With all due respect, Captain, screw you. I want to see this through to the end, and even if no one else thinks less of me, I would. I was foolish, and now I have to pay the consequences, but I'm not letting that get in-between me and what I must accomplish." Grana shook his head. "Experience is a harsh school, but fools will learn in no other." He muttered. He once again smiled at Peter. "Besides, I still have one good arm, two good legs, and thirty-two good teeth to fight with! I'm not that weak, that I'll go down with a small handicap like this." Grana shrugged. "So, what's the plan, Captain?" Grana, for the first time in a while, was getting serious.

 

[tsatoma]

"It's not like I was going to amputate it here anyways Grana; I don't have any of my supplies. If you change your mind you'll just have to tell me," Alaena stated after rolling her eyes at Grana's comments, quickly binding his arm as best she could with his jacket. As she did it she mulled over Peter's offer, not entirely sure what she should do.

On one hand she did need a way to get off this island and move to the next place that needed help, and joining them would be an easier and less costly way. 'Not that I really need to be stingy with my money,' she thought as she went around to the others and doctored them up as best she could, making note of what needed to be done once she had her supplies. On the other hand she would be working and traveling with a pirate crew, and while they were ones that seemed to actually have morals, she could also not be entirely sure that they would stay that way. 'Or if they're normally just as ruthless. I barely even know them.'Once she was done with that she took a seat against a wall, still contemplating what she would do.

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

"Sorry buddy, if I have anything like that it'd be on my boat now and I don't know if we can really afford to head back there. Maybe the Doc'll have something for you though." Hal told Jacque with an apologetic smile on his face. He would like to help the bird man out since it would reduce his share of the fighting later, but Hal couldn't just carry around a bunch of random stuff like that.

"Ah, don't worry about it Peter. My business got screwed up long before I met you. I'm just glad I got to get my revenge. And... I'll think it over. Thanks." Hal replied to Peter as he weighed the benefits and consequences of joining Peter's crew. A pirate huh... I hate pirates. But these guys don't seem so bad. I already travel around a lot and this way I'd have some pals to keep me safe. And if we do it right, we could get some pretty sweet loot I bet. Of course, I'd have to fight a lot more.... Eh, I guess I'm in no hurry to decide. We'll see how I'm feeling about all this later. Hal thought with a shrug as he stood up and began stretching his sore legs tp get ready for when they'd be leaving again.

 

[GoWithDAFro]

"Thanks, Alaena." Yoje said as his shoulder wound was bandaged up. All of his other injuries were minor scrapes and bruises which wouldn't slow him down at all. In his human form, he sat down against a wall and looked up at his captain. "I'm okay for another fight, Peter. Just tell me when we're ready to go."

 

[Scarim Coral]

Jacque replies to Pete "I'm quitting just yet! I still need to kick Inshi ass for stabbing me in my thigh! Yes my wound will get worse when using my legs however that in my human form. While I have exhausted my owl form but I have a backup plan when this happen. All I need for you to do is bring me coffee, lots of coffee! That should keep me awake and energise in my owl form. However once this is over and I revert back, I will be in a deep slumber so you better keep me safe when that happen Twoo."

 

[NeoAC]

Sammi was lost. There was no way around it. The flow of thugs to dispatch has shrunk to a non-existent trickle, and all the corridors were starting to blend together. Maybe I shouldn't have come here after getting shot.

She walked down another hallway, finding nothing but a couple of abandoned massage rooms. "Damn it," she cursed. "I'd lay down a rope trail, but I don't need any of the stragglers around here finding me and chopping at me." She looked around. "Of course I haven't seen anyone in a little bit. Things sure got quiet around here." She let a strand of rope fall from her pinky finger, it hit the ground after a few seconds growth. "See if this helps." She continued on trying to find a way out.

Spoiler: OOC

Go on without me for now guys, like I said on other threads, this laptop battery issue has really screwed me over for the time being, so I'll try and catch up whenever I can, hopefully this weekend I'll have a temp solution in place.

 

[Mr. Omega]

After a couple minutes, Peter turned back to the group. We aren't going to get another chance like this. And I know Sammi can take care of herself. We'll come back for her once this is all done. He turned to the others. "Ok, now taking care of Tozani is going to be a little harder. First, unlike Inshi, he's not injured. Second, I'm not sure where he is, so I can't plan around that. And third, he will probably be expecting trouble after this. However, there are some things that will make this easier."

He started checking some of his gear. "The best way to take down a criminal organization is to hurt their income. And Tozani has a lot of it just sitting right out there. Honestly, we might not need to actually fight him. But still, good measure never hurt anyone. The thing is, we're going to need to be a little more stealthy this time. No going up to the front desk guns blazing. We need to make the place tear itself apart."

He looked like he managed to find what he was looking for, and started examining his stock. "And greed can be a good motivation to operate in chaos..." He turned to everyone. "Ok, is everyone ready to go?"

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

Hal finished stretching as he listened to Peter's plan. His legs were still pretty sore so he'd have to avoid using Shave to much in the upcoming fight, but it'd have to do. The fact that they were gonna be stealthy about it this time would help with that and the idea of hitting the Budero family's income was very appealing to Hal. "So, you're saying we oughta rob a casino or two of theirs? I don't steal, but I'll make an exception for these guys. And I'll be a lot better at sneaking around than I am at fighting. I'm ready to go when you guys are, so just tell me what you need done and I've got ya covered!" Hal said with a devilish grin as he grabbed his sword and got ready to head out.

 

[GoWithDAFro]

"Well, thievery isn't my strongest skill, but I can move pretty fast. Just tell me where to go, Peter." Yoje said confidently. Maybe it was better that he got a break from fighting anyway. "Are we not going to wait for Sammi though?"

 

[Mr. Omega]

"She'll be fine. I've spent enough time with her to know that she can take care of herself. Plus, she can have a little more fun with the guys down there..." he finished taking inventory and started leading them to the casino.
[hr]
"Here we are, gents." they were right outside the casino. "Ok, let's try to not all go in at once. I'll head in last. Look around the area. Don't get into a fight. And at least one of us should be looking for Tozani."

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

"Alright, sounds good. Not getting into fights is something I can definitely do. Guess I'll head in first." Hal said before making his way into the casino. He wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for, having never robbed a place before now, but he figured keeping an eye on security was the way to go.

He stepped inside and decided the best way to get a good look around was to blend in and pretend to be a normal gambler. He hated gambling since the odds were always against him, but since he probably looked like a gambling addict he was painfully aware that he wouldn't draw any extra attention. He took a seat at a blackjack table at the edge of the main room, a place where he could get the best view of the whole area. He made very few bets since he was probably gonna be more focused on everything BUT the game and would likely lose every time. Here, his sunglasses came in handy as he kept on eye on everything around him without showing it to the people around him. As he played, he noted the positions of every guard he saw and any particularly dangerous patrons and kept an eye out for anyone who looked like Tozani.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Jacque had finally hopped his way back to the inn. Seeing how there was no time to gather and drink alot of coffee before they attack Tozani, he opted out as he doesn't want to risk injuring his thigh more.
As he got in the innkeeper is given him a weird look mostly staring at his injury.

He howl "Don't ask" as made his room back to his room.

As he got inside, he topples over to the bed, hitting his face in the blanket. He turns around with his back on the bed staring at the ceiling. He soon found himself nothing off as his eyes close.

They better kick some arses on my behalf?