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

[SkyeNeko]

What if I don't find anyone? What if they're all already on their boat, and I can't- It hadn't even been 5 minutes before she found herself with two of them. While scanning the area, suddenly a man appeared. That wasn't even an understatement. It was like he appeared out of thin air, materialized on the roof! Cecilia looked away from her lenses for a second and rubbed her eyes, brushing the hair out of them again. When she looked a second time, there were now two people on the roofs. One, the one that she assumed teleported or shaved or something, was a short figure with dark hair, and a smudge of a lighter color around what she assumed was his head or neck. The second she noticed climbing up, a taller figure in dark clothing.

Still, it was better safe than sorry. She got on her radio, keeping an eye on the two. "Gezora, sir! I've found two people on the roofs! I can't be sure that they're who we're looking for, but they're definitely not normal citizens, sir! I don't have visual on any person carrying a large volume of supplies yet. Should I engage?" She double checked that the barrel for her gun was fully extended. If it wasn't she would have to deal with a revealing muzzle flash that would give away her position. Luckily, the numerous alleys and buildings would help distort the sound her gun would make.

 

[CounterAttack]

Marielle didn't answer the speaker from the rooftops. She just wanted to get back to the ship. So she didn't waste her breath on an answer, instead continuing to pursue Sammi. She was starting to lose it a little, though; it wasn't often that she broke into outright sprints through streets. She could feel herself starting to tire already. They had to get to the ship soon, or the people back there would catch up. Presumably they were Marines, judging by the newcomer's commentary.

"To the right," she called out to Sammi as the pirates neared an intersection. Just in case Sammi wasn't sure of where she was going.

 

[NeoAC]

Marielle seemed to remember the way back to the ship a lot more clearly than Sammi did so she was more than keen to defer to the younger girl's directions, but as they rounded the corner a thought crossed her mind. Shit, we can't lead these guys back to the ship. They'll get everyone if we do that. I can't let that happen, I was taught better than that.

"Blue," she started, not wanting to use any real names now that they were locked in a pursuit. "We have to get these bastards away from the ship. We can't have everyone going down just because we were unlucky enough to get spotted. We gotta try and lead them somewhere we can lose them." She grabbed Marielle and turned them right, down a nearby alley to try and get some breathing room.

[hr]

Holik was doing his best to keep pace with the younger, speedier fugitives, but it was tough, and the constant cornering was not helping matters. He was much better when in a stationary position. "Dammit, girl, you better be cutting them off, or you're taking every bit of heat for this one!"

 

[tsatoma]

'What to do, what to do,' Alaena repeated from her perch on the roof, keeping her nocked arrow pointed at Yezeku as she scanned the area. She could see figures running around, and movement up above in the tower close by. The movement in the bell tower worried her, and she slowly moved over to the very edge of the roof on the other side so as to not be a visible target anymore.

'This has turned pretty bad, pretty fast. I don't just want to leave like this though; it just wouldn't be safe for anyone,' she thought, looking back down towards Yezeku. There was a tense few seconds before she rapidly fired bolt tip arrows at the Marine below, the final arrow of the volley being an exploding arrow.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Anabelle drew one of her pistols, jumping to the roofs. "You aren't getting away!" she fired two shots at them, trying to turn them around. Finally she leapt down from the roof, jumping off each of the walls on her way down, trying to cut them off before they got to the end. "Hurry up, old man! This kind of spot is perfect!" [hr]

"Just find someone moving a bunch of stuff! I don't care about those others. You job right now is to help me find that thief!" Gezora shouted into the communicator, zipping around the alleys. He was now at the docks, growling again. "Fuck! What good are you, you useless sniper?!" [hr]

Yezeku smirked. "Good shot..." he started spinning around his double-sided sword, knocking away the arrows, snapping the heads off when they got closer to him, his posture straightening as he focused on deflecting the arrows until the explosive arrow came towards him. "Hmmm? What is that?" He once again snapped the arrowhead off, but when it hit the ground at his feet, it detonated, knocking him on his back. "Right. Duly noted..." he grunted, coughing out some smoked, shaking his head.

 

[SkyeNeko]

"Sorry sir, there's still some people in the streets, and it's hard to find someone with such a vague description, sir..." Okay, a pirate with a bunch of supplies. Where would I go? He doesn't want to fight, and he can't distract the other Marines unless he's already ditched the stuff. But the stuff is why they came here... he needs to get it back to the ship. She looked along the streets that led to the water, trying to go as fast as she could.

Just when she was going to radio Gezora again, she noticed what looked like a large... thing, being pushed down the street. Now she had to come up with a way to find out if he was one of the pirates or not. "Sorry..." she whispered, taking a deep breath. Her finger closed around the trigger as her lungs exhaled.

A loud but indistinct noise accompanied the jolt against her shoulder, and the bullet casing jumped out. It fell down the stairs, jingling like a bell. The projectile continued and hit it's intended target spot on: the back wheel of the cart. When it shattered, it would hopefully catch the man (or woman) unawares and tip over their load. Just in case the cart was full of merchant goods, she tried to make a mental note of her targets appearance. She'd pay back every penny for the cart. She hoped she wasn't wrong.

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

Hal was just walking along towards the docks, minding his own business as far as anyone watching could tell, when he heard shot ring out from.... somewhere. It was hard to tell with all the echoing. Thankfully it didn't hit him, but just as he was about to sigh in relief he felt the bed jerk suddenly and start to tip over. Shit! I can't let those X-ray parts get damaged, they're worth a fortune to replace! Hal thought in a panic as he flailed about trying to keep the boxes from spilling out onto the street.

By gripping the bed under the frame he was able to keep it from fully tipping over and with his other hand he secured most of the boxes. Unfortunately since he had loaded up this cart in a hurry he wasn't able to keep everything totally stable and a couple boxes slipped off before he could do anything about it. Luckily enough, they only contained some of the IV stands and a few other little things they had grabbed. He couldn't stop to grab them again without loosing his grip on the bed and holding it like this already left him in a very awkward position. Especially considering a sniper had him in their sights.

Looking around, he noticed that the gunshot had emptied out the streets pretty quickly. That was a pretty normal reaction for your average person so if Hal wanted to pretend he wasn't a pirate, he'd need to get out of here and fast. I'm a sitting duck out here on these streets. Guess I'll have to head back into the alleys and hope the stuff I dropped is still there when I can come back for it. Sorry Alaena, I'll get you some new stuff though... With little time left before the sniper fired a second shot, Hal began maneuvering the bed back into the alleys as quickly and carefully as he could.

 

[CounterAttack]

Marielle quickly saw sense in Sammi's logic. Leading them back to the ship would only endanger the rest of the crew... that wouldn't go down so well, especially since they had only been docked for less than a day. The others would likely be unprepared for a fight, especially at this hour. And if she and Sammi returned to the ship with Marines on their tail, she'd likely cop a good bit of the blame. Marielle was still the rookie.

"So what do we do now?" she asked as they continued to run, keeping her voice down in case they were overheard. "Split up and lose them on our own? Then meet back at the ship when we're sure we've lost the ones tailing us? Or do we stay together and find another way to get rid of them? I don't want to get in another fight..."

 

[NeoAC]

"We have to try and lose them Blue," Sammi answered Marielle. "I can't tell where those shots are coming from so I can't really fight what I can't see. We have to try and find some place open. If we can get back to the market, we might be able to shake them in the crowd."

As Sammi tried to make the turn towards where she thought the marketplace was, a couple more shots rang out. Sammi could see them bouncing off the cobblestones in front of them. She stopped. "Fuck. He's ahead of us now, whoever is shooting at us. I don't think we're going to make it out the sneaky way. We're gonna have to put them down, Blue."

She looked up to the rooftops and shouted. "Hey asshole! You want to come down here and face me like a man, or do you want to keep taking those cowardly little potshots?"

[hr]

Holik had gotten to the alleyway he saw the girls turning down. When he heard the shots firing, he knew the prey had been cornered. Like flies into the web. He followed into the narrow corridor.

 

[SkyeNeko]

She recognized the supplies on the ground, and quickly picked up her communicator. "Gezora, south alleys, heading east, about 500 yards from the tower. Give me some sort of sign where you are, and I could give you directions, sir?" Cecilia could hear some of the other gunshots. It would help to mask her shots, but it would also help her find the other pirates. The small explosion was a surprise though, she didn't expect them to fight with bombs... it could hurt a lot more people. She bit her lip and brushed her bangs out of her face.

It sounded like it was near one of the roof figures, but she couldn't see her anymore. Uh oh... where did she go? Her gun was strong, but firing blindly would give away her position and possibly hurt civilians. "What was that explosion? Yezuku?" She assumed it was him, since she had seen Anabelle, who was with Holik, on the roof, and Gezora was shouting at her quite alive and well in pursuit of the cart-man. Hippocrates had ran off somewhere.

She tried to keep an eye out for any other pirates, but it looked like they had either gotten away, or were confronted. All of the citizens were safely out of the way, so it would make any more pirates easy to spot.

 

[tsatoma]

Alaena noted that her little trick seemed to work, though she wasn't quite happy that it merely knocked the marine onto his back. 'Really need to give these guys a little bit more of a punch,' she mused, counting out how many explosive arrows she had left by feeling the fletching of each one, 'About a dozen left. Should be enough to at least get out of here. No point in prolonging a battle that seems to be stuck at a stalemate. Even if it is just a slight distraction it should buy a little bit of time for everyone.'

Grabbing three at a time, Alaena nocked the groups of explosive arrows and fired them at her two targets: the marine base and at Yezeku. With her explosive arrows depleted, she took out a flaming one and aimed over to her right towards the bell tower. 'Having a sniper up their is one of the bigger problems,' she told herself, raising the arrow higher so that the descending arc would land it right in the bell tower. "An easy shot," she muttered to herself with a smirk before using Soru to quickly leave the immediate area; hoping to find any of the crew members amidst the chaos.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Anabelle could see the end of the alley, jumping down, firing a couple shots to keep Sammi and Marielle back. "Heh. You aren't that bright if you thought you could get away..." she landed, slowly rising, keeping a single pistol aimed at them the entire time. "Still, you made my job easier getting into an alley. Less room to run. And my idiot partner should be here any moment..." She smirked at them, twirling her second pistol, discarding the used shells from the chambers. [hr]

"Look, I'm at the southwest dock. I'm going to try and cut him off at his ship, wherever it is. Tell me where he's going so I can take care of him." Gezora said at Cecilia, pacing back and forth. "And don't lose him." He started heading east, hoping to run into Hal on the way. [hr]

Yezeku had just gotten back on his feet when he saw no less than a dozen of those oddly tipped arrows heading towards him "Well that's not very nice..." he started leaping around to avoid the blast radius of each arrow. However, each blast was kicking up dust, smoke and debris, and his movements became less fluid and more erratic. Eventually he jumped back further into the street, looking up to the rooftops "Heh, you work fast, you still can't hit-..." it was then he noticed Aleana was gone. "Well... shit. Better get to work on that." He straightened his clothes and dusted himself off, looking around to here Aleana might have gone to. [hr]

Hippocrates was heading south, the same direction Anabelle and Holik had ran off. He running, but at a slower pace. When Yoje got close enough to him, he slowed don even more, then stopped. He closed his eyes, turning towards where Yoje was. "Hmmmm... rooftops... either Anabelle is returning or someone has followed me here..." he opened his eyes, a shooting a piercing gaze at Yoje's general direction. "Show yourself!" he called out.

 

[NeoAC]

"And you made my job easier by showing that pretty little mug of yours," Sammi retorted as brought her axes up in front of her, holding them so the top tips of the blades were touching. "Though I gotta say, it's nice to know I'll be fighting another woman. Means I don't have to feel as bad when I beat the shit out of you and your little Wild West Blue act there."

[hr]

Holik was racing through the corridors. Since the shooting had stopped, he knew that either Annabelle had caught them in their tracks or that they had already defeated her. Either way, works out for me. After another turn he could see the figures up ahead.

[hr]

"And not to point this out to make myself feel better," Sammi continued. "But me and my associate here, we're winning the numbers game at the moment, so I don't like your chances unless your main tactic is to turn and run."

"Oh, she won't be needing to do that, cabin girl," the voice from behind her called out. Sammi turned to find a big ugly mountain of a man holding a trident. The scars on his face reminded her exactly who it was, and the outfit told her a few things. "I can even that matchup right now."

"Holik, you greasy bugger." Sammi said with a scowl. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised someone like you would have jumped on board with these bastard Marines."

"Well you sure surprised me there Cabin Girl. If I had to pick any of those idiots on the Thrasher to survive a Marine raid, you're the last one I would expect to manage to escape. And to get all the way to Porte Carlo? Must have had to suck down a lot of white sauce to earn that kind of passage."

Sammi was seething now. It took every bit of restraint to keep her from launching herself blade first at the man.

"And without that dumbass Hartley too. You know, if you want to see him and all your little Thrasher buddies, I can help you get there. After all, I was the one who told everyone where they were and which they were heading. It was easy to catch Hartley since he never changed his plans up. So it looks like I made the right call ditching that sorry excuse for a boat."

"You fucking son of a *****!" That was enough to get Sammi to charge at him, but her charge was ill-advised.

Holik quickly sent her flying backwards with a sweep of his trident, knocking her back past a still standing Marielle. "Haha, it's like swatting away a fly! You haven't changed a bit! Except for the bigger tits!"

Sammi rubbed her jaw as she stood back up. "Fuck you Holik! You'll pay for what you did to my ship and my crewmates!"

"Not interested, Cabin Girl." He looked at the other two women in the alley. "I guess you can have her, Shooter McGee. I think the other girl will put up more of a fight than that pathetic little wannabe pirate anyday!"

 

[CounterAttack]

During the exchange between Sammi and Holik, Marielle had stowed her recent purchase about her person to free her hands, in case it came to a fight. But now the big man had turned his attention to the younger of the two. Marielle turned to face him, hands raised before her in a defensive stance. "None of us have to fight... we can just walk away from each other and forget this ever happened," she suggested, trying her best not to sound meek or afraid.

She didn't think she sounded particularly convincing, since both of the Marines standing before her were heavily armed, and all she had was her Devil Fruit power. The possibility of getting hurt again was becoming very real, especially since it looked like she was going to have to face the bigger man. Still, she doubted he knew of her talent, so that could prove to be an advantage through surprise.

"So... you two know each other?" she asked of both Holik and Sammi, hoping to distract the Marines.

 

[NeoAC]

"Know each other?" Sammi asked her companion. "This bastard used to be on my old ship, he lasted about two years before he ditched us. And you know what? It was awesome. Everything was much better the second you left, you old sack of shit!"

"Heh, I'm sure. Bet it's much better now too, with everyone in jail. Besides, I was getting jack shit on that ship, Hartley wanting everything split up even and all. You didn't deserve a damn thing. Marines pay me much better."

"That's all you ever cared about, you greedy scumbucket! That's why everyone hated you!"

"At least I could be useful. You were the biggest waste of a Devil Fruit I've ever seen in my life! A monkey would have been a better choice!"

"Come here and say that to my face, I'll show you first hand how much of a 'waste' it was!"

Holik snorted in derision. "You really want to get smacked again? I told you, you're not worth my time. Why don't you listen your friend there? You don't have to fight. Just come in peaceful, we'll take you down to the station, and you won't even get smacked around...much."

Sammi spit in Holik's direction. It didn't land near him, but the point was made. "Go to hell already, Holik. You look past due as it is."

 

[SkyeNeko]

In the dark, Cecilia easily saw the flaming arrow, shining brightly. It meant she was in trouble, possibly, but it also gave away the position of her roof-man/woman. She quickly loaded a few piercing rounds and fired at the roof and anywhere he/she might have been hiding behind. Hopefully, she could buy a few more minutes before the roof burst into flames.

"Gezora, sir, the pirate is in the alleys, I can only tell you when i see him passing through the streets, and it looks like I'm going to have to take some time away from my scope to make sure I don't get roasted sir..." She took off her jacket to try and smother the flames. I need to be more careful... he/she found me too quick...

The tower was stone, but it would quickly get hot, and the roof might burn too fast for her to do anything for the moment. Instead, she decided to go down the stairs a little to a window facing the same way. It offered more protection, but also less range. Still, she had a decent view of the streets, but definitely not the alleys.

 

[GoWithDAFro]

Great, he knows someone's following him. Trailing's no good anymore. Yoje reverted to his human form, staying out of sight. There's no real point to running either. And I've been wanting an excuse to fight this guy since Jingo. Yoje took a couple of steps forward on the roof he was standing on, making himself visible.

"Where were you headed, Hippocrates?" he shouted. "Not after one of my crewmates, are you?"

 

[Mr. Omega]

Gezora was still running, patrolling the area. He could cover a lot of distance with his speed, and he knew the layout of the docks well enough, but he had to keep an eye out for the supplies, so he was going slower than normal. "Useless! Don't even bother if you can't see the alleys! Go bother one of the others if you're not going to be any good to me!" he shut off his communicator, turning around to reexamine the area. [hr]

Anabelle was reloading her revolvers during Holik and Sammi's exchange, prefering to be optimally prepared before engaging the others, using their argument to do so uninterrupted. "So are you two done yet?" She said, pointing one revolver at Sammi. "Since the idiot is dealing with the unknown, I guess that leaves you to me." she reached into her shirt, pulling a couple small wanted posters out. "'The Viking.' Bounty of 13,000,000. Not exactly a big shot, but being the third highest on the crew must mean something." She fired a quick shot at Sammi, watching how she'd react. [hr]

"Ah, Mr. Taruki... Saves me a bit of effort. I was just on my way to the docks. My men are taking care of your crewmates at the moment. Come now, why won't you come down here and we can talk like civilized people. You seem a little more willing to listen to reason than that girl with the bow..." Hippocrates continued walking, his back now to Yoje, a smug grin on his face.

 

[SkyeNeko]

"S-" her communication cut off. "Sorry..." she whispered with a sigh, switching to a less powerful but more accurate scope. She had to prove that she wasn't useless. Just as soon as she finished her thought, Yoje stepped out into her view, providing her with the opportunity she needed. She quickly aimed at his feet, and fired a normal shot, intending to make him lose his footing and fall.

 

[GoWithDAFro]

Is Alaena ok? And what about the rest of the crew? "You sound pretty confident there. How about you come up here to me instead though? My way, there'll be no civilians in our way once we start fighting." Yoje cracked his knuckles. "I will listen to you first, but I doubt I'll be able to resist a battle with you for long."

Just as he said that, a bullet hit him hard in the foot. His foot jerked up in pain, and he temporarily lost his balance on the edge of the roof. Yoje could have used a Moon step to right himself, but he was clearly in a snipers line of sight up there. Instead, he dropped down to the street level, right behind Hippocrates. "Alright, what do you have to say to me?" he growled, angry at his loss of the high ground.