The Marine

“Hands up, hands up!

Don’t do it!”

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Killing a security guard who had reach for his weapon, Borodo ran forward and bashed another guard’s nose in with the butt of his rifle before moving onto the next room.

Directly behind him was the team of Special Operators.

Directly behind them was Olga and Acier Myskina.

And finally, leading the rear were the Marines tasked with securing the prisoners and maintaining order.

Besides the elevators and cargo lifts which naturally couldn’t be risked, Gild’s Pleasure Palace had no central stairwells and fighting their way up to the command center had been a slog of room-to-room fighting.

But surprisingly, perhaps due to the Gala, only once had the Marines run into a superhuman who had tried to halt their progress.

It was the Pirate Captain [Silver Bill], who just waking up from being knocked out hours earlier, stumbled into Borodo leading the assault.

Though genuinely not ‘weak’, Bill had hit the pirate captain in the head hard and unexpectedly, so still being dazed, Borodo was able to launch him out of a window.

As for what happened to [Silver Bill] after that wasn’t Borodo’s concern, and pushing hard he finally reached the command bridge.

Overwhelming the remaining guards with a mix of ‘shock and awe’, Borodo ran to the control boards and with shouts coming from everywhere he and the Marines first took control of the surrounding systems.

Gran Tesoro was a high-tech floating city, perhaps not to the level of [New Haven] or [Egghead Island] but it was fully mechanized, and like a giant aircraft carrier, the command bridge controlled many of the electronic systems.

In addition to turning off the surveillance snails and shutting down communication channels, which came first, he was shouting orders for his men to get control of the giant sea king turtles that pulled the city along when he heard yells coming from outside.

Picking up his rifle he shouted: “Keep working, be ready to barricade the door!” and ran to the lobby area that held scores of guards who had been taken as prisoners.

It was a scene of slaughter, and Borodo saw at least a dozen Marines lying dead and others responding in a panic.

Spotting the killer, it was [Tanaka], the big-headed Chief of Security for Gran Tesoro.

Jumping in and out of the ground he phased through the Marines fire only to materialize back and return fire with deadly precision.

Seeing all of this happen, Borodo was hurried, but not panicked himself, because he had considered this from the moment that he saw the Chief of Security use his ability before.

[Special Operators] of the Procurements Department were typically given low grade seastone-alloy weapons.

While seastone bullets were very rare and hard to make, even low-quality bullets cost a fortune and many hours of labor, it was common enough for Special Operators to at least be issued rough shaped handcuffs that could be used to restrain Devil Fruit users.

But how could any standard human, even a strong man, hope to get close enough to Tanaka to use handcuffs?

None of them could do it, and Borodo understood that.

It was only him, and charging forward, activating his Pulse Boots for the first time that day, Borodo tackled Tanaka through a window – his cybernetic arm leading the charge.

Coated in a higher purity seastone alloy, Bill had made sure the Borodo’s cybernetic arm was as strong as they could make it.

Falling from the 50th floor, holding onto the screaming Tanaka for dear life, Borodo punched and kicked as they fell.

Naturally, his rifle had been dropped.

Naturally, he hadn’t the time to finish off Tanaka in the small amount of time it took to fall.

And so, deciding within a split second, Borodo aimed to crash both of them into the ground below.

Knowing that he couldn’t survive the fall, Borodo punched and kicked some more, until about 5 stories from the ground, he stopped, and soaked in Tanaka’s scream.

He was ready to die….

“Noro Noro Beam!”

Cutting his eyes to the side very slowly, Borodo saw Foxy, Porche, and Hamberg running fast towards him.

They looked beat up.

They looked dehydrated.

They looked like hell.

They looked like the most beautiful sight Borodo had ever seen!

Even Hamberg’s ugly gorilla face… if he could, Borodo would surely kiss it!

Knowing what he had to do, Borodo slowly looked back at Tanaka, and tried to smile.

Letting go as quickly as the Slow-Mo Photons would allow him, he saw the realization in Tanaka’s eyes and relished it.

And just like that, as time returned to him, Borodo activated his Pulse Boots and Foxy shot Tanaka again.

Still landing hard, hurting but not breaking his legs, Borodo was helped up by Porche and Hamberg, and true to his intentions, while crying giant tears of emotions, he began to kiss them all over the face and thanking heaven for being alive.

“Vy didn’t know you were here!” said the split-headed Marine with a wide smile, shooting more Slow-Mo Photons at Tanaka – who was now at about the 4th story and falling slowly.

With “eewwws” and “pu-pu-pu’s” Porche and Hamberg started pushing Borodo off of them, wiping off his snot and spit, making Foxy laugh louder.

Foxy didn’t laugh for long though, because as if suddenly alerted to his presence, Borodo jumped off Hamberg and running to Foxy said: “You ugly old pirate! No! you beautiful Marine! Gah! Get over here!” and jumping at Foxy attempted to kiss him, but the man himself, yelling and pushing away said: “Vatch zee arm! Vatch zee arm!” and shot another Noro-Noro Beam at Tanaka as soon as he got Borodo away from him.

Laughing some more, Borodo’s adrenaline wore itself down, and remembering that he still had men up in the control bridge said: “Man, it’s good to see you guys, but what’s the situation? How’re you done already?!”

After Bill had dropped Foxy, Porche, and Hamberg back at the [Frontier Run] the crew knew of Gild Tesoro’s ability to control gold and determined that rerouting the cities giant fountains to spray seawater was more important than storming the city’s main control bridge.

Of course, this left the Marines much weaker – as Foxy’s Slow-Mo Photons were extremely powerful – but putting Foxy with Raise Max, Oliver, Lindbergh, and Sabo ensured that no matter what the R.A. would take control of their objective.

And that objective, while important for the Revolutionary Army’s goal of assassinating the Celestial Dragon, was more critical for Bill’s goal of securing the entire floating city.

After all, with Gild having control of all the gold in the city, the [Casino King] could literally melt the buildings and rip up the roadways with a thought.

This was something that Bill could not solve without his ability to [Nullify] Devil Fruits, and so washing the city down with sea water took precedence over everything else.

Seeing Borodo’s attitude change, Foxy didn’t laugh, but after hitting Tanaka with another Noro Noro Beam, said: “Zey aren’t to be underestimated, that’s right. Zat leader of theirs is strong and zee Mink is a genius.”

Even with the Surveillance Snails offline, saying the names of ‘Sabo’ and ‘Lindbergh’ out loud was not wise. No matter what, the Marines couldn’t be seen working with R.A. operatives – even being seen in the same area as them could get them kicked out of the organization.

As for Foxy’s claim of Sabo’s strength Borodo quickly told him to be specific as having someone nearby as strong as, or stronger, than Bill would be a huge variable.

After all, as has been said before, in a world of superhumans, where numbers were not necessarily the deciding role, strength was absolute.

To his relief, Foxy just shook his head and said: “Not as strong.” And seeing Tanaka still falling slowly, Borodo gave his orders: “Alright, head to the command bridge. Use the elevators. I’ll handle things here.”

Nodding slowly, Foxy pulled Porche along and told Hamberg to hurry up, but not before seeing Borodo’s cybernetic hand beginning to light up.

Modeled largely on a mix between Doctor Vegapunks cyborg technology, Warden Isaac’s robotics research, and Bill’s own ideas for cybernetics, Borodo’s artificial arm was more advanced than even the limbs on the [Pacifista] and was lightyears ahead of the Department’s [Iron Warden] technology.

Coated in a soft self-mending metal, embedded with seastone, the limb had a primitive sense of touch and a nearly inexhaustible power supply – which itself could be recharged over time with just the energy from Borodo’s body.

Though made to be used in everyday life the cybernetic arm was, at heart, a weapon. A weapon that Bill had made with Vegapunks and Isaac’s technology.

And still slowed, still falling, Tanaka understood just that…

Jumping up towards the big-headed security chief, Borodo had a plastic look on his that showed no emotions.

Ignoring the small movements of Tanaka’s mouth, who was trying to say something, he landed on his body and pressed his palm – which now looked like a shining star – on Tanaka’s huge face.

Once, twice, a third time.

Moving his hand to different areas of Tanaka’s head, Borodo fired one laser beam after the next.

With the delaying effects of the Slow-Mo Photons, there were no explosions, and even no sounds as Borodo jumped off the slowly falling security chief and landed on the ground.

Before meeting Bill and the others, Borodo had been a thief for most of his life.

A part of being a successful thief was knowing what was going through the mind of the mark. It was a hard thing to learn, a harder thing still to master.

But for all of that, he didn’t need to wonder what was going through Tanaka’s head as he walked back into the pleasure palace.

The explosions ringing behind him were enough to testify to that.

Riding the elevator back up to the command bridge, Borodo saw that Foxy had taken charge of the men. Clearing the dead, tending to the wounded, and securing the prisoners.

As for him, he went back to the main control terminal.

While Bill did what he needed to do, Borodo would cover his back. Keeping watch and erasing any evidence, not only for his friend, but for the entire Procurement Department.