The Marine

Having the external Communication Snails down was naturally Bill’s and Nelson’s doing, but that didn’t mean that internal Surveillance Snails had the same issue.

In a way to bolster the faith in the people left on Gran Tesoro, be it former Debt Slave, Merchant, or Tourist, video played around the clock showing Bill pull the golden city through the choppy waves of the Grand Line.

It showed when Sea Kings attacked him, and how he dealt with them.

For the most part, the world of the Grand Line didn’t revolve solely around the power of the strong, but that didn’t mean the ‘strong’ didn’t inspire fear and awe into people regardless of the governing situation.

And obviously, the stronger ‘strong’ was, the more it inspired that fear and awe.

So, with his arms covered in gunmetal gray Haki, Bill was showing everyone in the city that he wasn’t just ‘strong’, but he was immensely strong.

This show of power on one hand was meant to instill confidence in the men who had pledged themselves under the Marines – namely those 1,600 former security personnel.

Since, if Bill was that strong, couldn’t they too become strong by following him?

But that wasn’t all, it was also to instill trust in the former Debt Slaves who had nowhere to go.

Settling New Haven’s islands would not be an easy task, those islands which Shiki had plundered carried natural wonders and resources in abundance, but also dangers virtually unknown anywhere else in the world. So, for that for those who decided to stay, wouldn’t they feel better to know that no matter what monsters rested on those islands that an even bigger ‘monster’ was on their side?

And for the Marines who followed Bill, this display was just another notch in their minds that their Commodore was the greatest person in the world.

In their minds, anyway, they could not see how such a person could lose, and unlike the former Debt Slaves and Tourists, they knew how well New Haven was run and just how lucky they were in finding a place like that to call home.

And for Bill, heading to that place called ‘home’ was his top priority, and after pushing day and night for a week he finally saw what he was looking for in the distance.

Hauling along a metropolis-sized city, it was naturally not long until the Marines stationed in New Haven saw Gran Tesoro, but this time, instead of shooting at him like Nelson had done years before, Bill was able to get close enough to the natural harbor to jump out of the water and give them a signal.

Letting go of the chains that he had pulled the city with, Bill jumped out of the water and through the air, looking in awe at the amount of building that had been done over the last half year.

By now, New Haven – at least the main, central, island – had been rebuilt and even from Bill’s vantage he could see the Robotics HUB and the massive Drydock, both of which seemed to be in working condition.

It didn’t take long for him to cross the distance to where he had to go, and glancing at the many spotters and canon crews as he did so, he landed on the island’s main battlement – in front of the old robot designer and Ruluka Island native, Henzo, and four [Iron Wardens].

Looking down at the old white-haired man, Bill thought to himself that it had already been six years since Henzo had joined the Department with his friends who had slipped through time in the Rainbow Mist.

For the old man himself, looking up at Bill with one eye closed and the other eye sporting a single large monocle, one that had the functions of glasses, binoculars, and a microscope, his lip raised irritably and said: “We expected to hear from you soon Commodore, but can say, we didn’t expect this…”

Then, turning to look at Gran Tesoro in the distance, Henzo shrugged his shoulders and continued: “… bah! Masterson is on his way, so if there’s nothing else…”

For Henzo who remained in his lab and lived for designing robotic components, Bill didn’t take the old man’s attitude as anything serious and laughing, told him that he would come by and look at what he had been cooking up.

Shrugging his shoulders and saying: “That’s what you ought to do.” Henzo handed Bill a device which acted as part communications and part security controller for the Bases automated defenses and readied to leave.

Seeing the old scientist trying to leave, Bill had to stop him, asking where Sasha and the others were – it had taken him roughly an hour to tow Gran Tesoro near New Haven’s natural harbor and situate it enough so that it wouldn’t drift off, making it highly unlikely that either Sasha or Ricky couldn’t have made it to New Haven’s Main Headquarters.

The fact that it was Henzo in place of the Departments leadership standing on the battlements was strange to say the least, and to say frankly, it was out of order.

Looking up at Bill, Henzo didn’t seem to care much for being stopped and snapped: “Captain Zima and a whole host of our main forces left to Sabaody Archipelago some weeks ago, bah! I don’t know why, only that Masterson pulled me from my lab then stuck me in charge here while he’s with the Recruits on that infernal hellscape that you decided to not clean up…

Anyways…” said Henzo in a huff: “… can’t you see their ships are gone?”

Raising his eyebrows, it had been 7 months since Bill had originally left New Haven and he hadn’t even thought to look closely at the harbor, and turning around, sure enough, the M.S.S Nimbus and M.S.S Salamander were both gone.

‘They went to Sabaody?’ thought he, recalling the pertinent details of that lawless place.

Before dismissing Henzo, he got a list of his officers who were remaining on the island, and breathed hard when he realized that Sasha had left with her battleship and crewed it with mainly Special Operators – including over 20 of their Elites, the high-tech Beetleborgs.

Bill knew he had been out of the loop for weeks, and though he had pressing concerns to deal with, and though he hadn’t slept in a week, he couldn’t help but wonder: ‘Were you expecting a fight?’

Rubbing his eyes hard, he decided to wait for Masterson, and until then, started calling out his orders for the Marines in New Haven.

After all, Bill believed that Sasha could handle herself and no matter what, for now, they had Gran Tesoro to deal with and nearly 20,000 refuges to settle.

*************************************************************************

While Bill started giving orders to start settling the former Debt Slaves and drawing up documents for the former Security Personnel, Sasha was on Sabaody Archipelago with harsh expressions on her face and looking at an auburn haired 17-year-old girl.

“Look, I TOLD you everything was going to be fine…” saying this, Yoko was motioning with her hands this way and that way: “… and really, it’s not even THAT bad.”

Seeing Sasha not speak, the teenager continued: “I mean, look! We lost the Bounty, but now, my crew has added 2 Blue Gorillas… they can SWIM really good you know?

I, uhhh, and I think we should just take that as a win and go home now!”

Looking at Yoko in front of her, Sasha didn’t blink and thought about how the last two weeks had been…

When she first arrived on Sabaody, docking at the Marine Base on GR 66, she was met by someone she hadn’t seen in years and someone that she would have been fine with never seeing again.

Standing prim and proper, Ain greeted Sasha and Ricky with a level of familiarity that they never had, and for Sasha, who even now still felt the sting of her unfair treatment at [Marineford Academy], it seemed like the blue-haired woman was taunting her.

Of course, her feelings were also no doubt due to the fact that Zephyr himself was at the base, and she had no inkling that was so.

So now, that former Instructor was summoning them for a meeting – he wanted to talk with them?

Well, he didn’t seem to want to talk back then, in fact, Sasha said to Ain, he had seen to it that they failed out of Marineford Academy entirely.

So now why should they give the old dotard the time of day?

These comments about Zephyr would have not settled well with Ain in the best of times but seeing as her teacher had been repulsed time and time, from former students and friends alike, Ain couldn’t let it slide.

And after saying a few more words, this time actually intending to taunt Sasha, a fight was inevitable.

Long twin daggers collided back and forth against a longsword, and the powers of a Devil Fruit competed against Armament Haki, resulting in more and more Marines coming to watch what was happening.

When Shuzo and Binz appeared, Moon Stepping to the scene, Ricky and a dozen Beetleborgs got ready.

When more Marines, undoubtedly those affiliated with Zephyr, came and seemed to prepare to brawl so did the hundreds of Marines on the M.S.S Salamander – a mix of veteran Human and Mink soldiers who had been in Sasha’s crew for years at this point.

This brewing battle was watched by the Marines who were stationed at the Marine Base with some dismay, and even the Rear Admiral [Catacombo] didn’t seem to know what to do.

After all, tentatively, Ain was a Marine Captain and Sasha was a Marine Science Division Captain, but both had enough strength to beat most Vice Admirals – something even a lay person could see from the shockwaves caused by their fight.

Watching nervously as the powder keg was about to blow, suddenly with a gust of air, HE appeared.

Almost teleporting in between the two Marine women, Zephyr’s metallic arm blocked Sasha’s longsword and his other hand pushed Ain’s daggers to the side.

“Enough, enough already!” shouted the former Admiral, who despite his advanced years was still more powerful than everyone present.

Zephyr may have been old, but that didn’t mean he had lost all of his strength. True enough, the older people got the more endurance and mental quickness they lost, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t go at ‘90%’ for a short period of time.

So not surprised that he could block her attack, Sasha backed off and the powder keg was kept dry, after another tense moment, Sasha directly refused to meet with Zephyr to his face and had the Marines of the Procurements Department start the search for Yoko and her crew.

This was how Sasha found herself on her first day on Sabaody Archipelago, but that was hardly the worst that had happened.

After finding Roule who was still in the base she was told that Yoko had kept her ship in one of the pirate ports to make it easier to transport prisoners, so Sasha had a portion of her crew go and get the M.S.S Nimbus and then with Ricky and 5 Beetleborgs found Yoko and her crew battling with several dozen pirates.

In a scene that looked like a warzone, with flash bombs going off and [Boss] flying overhead and occasionally swooping down and breathing fire on unfortunate pirates, Yoko’s crew of Monkey Minks, Del Kongs, and humans were battling groups of people that Sasha herself didn’t immediately recognize.

But whether or not Sasha recognized the enemies, the fact that Yoko was fighting them was enough, and one by one, moving at speeds that none of them could react to, Sasha and Ricky sliced and subdued their way through the scores of enemies until she finally made it to Yoko – who herself was fighting a Zoan Devil Fruit duel-wielding Swordsman.

With legs of a rooster and sharp spurs to go along with them, the man was strong but not strong enough, and even without Sasha, Yoko would have probably won.

With Sasha though, it was no contest, and after quickly defeating the Rooster Human the rest of the pirates lost the will to fight and, with experienced ease, Yoko’s crew began rounding up all the ones who lived through the battle.

Looking at all of this and looking at the girl who was smiling widely at her, complimenting her swordsmanship, Sasha wasn’t flattered but was angry!

After all, Yoko had claimed to only be escorting an almost-destroyed Marine ship to port, but here she was, initiating a war on Sabaody Archipelago without anyone even knowing what was going on!

The fact that the real powerful pirates on the island hadn’t gathered together to kill Yoko and her Marines was shocking!

Yoko’s crew wasn’t small, about 180 Marines in total.

Nor was it weak, because even besides her core crew members, all of whom had a lot of potential or were already strong, she had a mix of forces far more suited for combat than anything usually put forward by their Department.

All in all, the Human crew were professionals, nearly all former soldiers who had come from Ruluka Island, the Monkey Minks were naturally powerful fighters, while the pair of Del Kongs would defeat most Rear Admirals and would give many Vice Admirals a run for their money.

But none of that was to say that the crew could stomp around the Grand Line immune to danger…

Not even Sasha or Ranse could make that claim, and they were in their mid-20’s, had been in the Marines for over a decade, and had been trained by Aramaki alongside Bill, to say nothing of a 17-year-old Captain!

Not wanting to give Yoko a piece of her mind in front of the girl’s crew, Sasha waited until later in the day, and when she got Yoko alone, all of this was ‘emphasized’ to her.

But, as if Yoko was expecting everything that she was going to say, Sasha was stumped when the girl pulled out 376m Beli and had a smile on her face about it!

Not knowing that Bill had commandeered Gran Tesoro, Sasha knew the financial situation that the Department was in, and knew it wasn’t good.

So seeing the money in front of her, and hearing Yoko’s plan to trap the Bounty Pirates – a crew worth 410m Beli in total – despite herself, the Sasha was reluctantly convinced, and that set in motion the events of the next ten days.

Ten days that would see Sasha, Ricky, Yoko, and the several hundred Marines who followed them in a plethora of battles that culminated in another 150m Beli in Bounties and finally tracking down the Bounty Pirates whose Captain, a man named [Margin], was said to have been working with the so-called “Public Employment Security Office”.

Although they didn’t know what the work was for, the reports were clear that the Bounty Pirates were at the Auction House and Sasha, Ricky, and Yoko led some 250 Marines there to apprehend them.

This force was big, too big to hide, and seeing Margin standing at the front door of the Auction House next to a quartet of villains that she recognized, Sasha knew it was a trap.

‘[Charlotte Oven], [Charlotte Cinnamon], [Charlotte Raisin], and [Charlotte Custard]!’

Seeing several sons and daughters of Big Mom, Sasha was mildly daunted, calling out for them to leave, and shutting Yoko up beside her.

Unfortunately, when the Pirates didn’t seem to have any interest in doing so, they put Sasha in a position to either turn tail and withdrawal, or start something that she hadn’t bargained for…

What the Marines couldn’t have known was that this was the last big ploy for [Disco], the manager of the Human Auction House, to save his business after Donquixote Doflamingo had abandoned the venture – choosing “smiles” over slaves.

It was a ploy to get a new backer, and after searching the Underworld high and low, trading whatever he had for information, he finally had ‘it’.

Working with the Captain of Bounty Pirates, [Disco] had something that he knew that Big Mom wouldn’t be able to resist.

The Candy-Candy Fruit.

Not only was this a Logia, the rarest type Devil Fruit, something which Disco knew that any pirate would want. The Candy-Candy Fruit was a Logia practically tailor made for Big Mom Pirates, and one that they had wanted for a long time.

He didn’t know when the last owner of the fruit had died, [Disco] wouldn’t care, he only wanted to secure the Devil Fruit in order to get backing.

And now that he had it and seeing one of the oldest sons and daughters of Big Mom arrive to claim it – Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Custard – Disco was much more emboldened.

So emboldened, that he didn’t care about a Marine presence!

It was then that Sasha saw Disco walk out of the door of the Human Auction House, and after some minor back and forths, Sasha and the Marines were faced with an nearly equal number of Pirates and Security Guards.

On one hand, Sasha couldn’t just flee.

The Marines had suffered so much that she couldn’t look ‘weak’ in front of a group of criminals. Her looking weak now would make the Marines look weak as an organization.

On the other hand, Sasha knew she couldn’t fight.

Between herself, Yoko, Ricky, Carrot, Rapanui, the Del Kongs, and Scarlett – the red ape who was Shiki’s #2 – they had power.

But facing them were four cadres of the Big Mom Pirates, the Bounty Pirates – two of which had bounties over 80m Beli – and hundreds of other pirates and guards that she didn’t recognize!

Thinking that even if they won, she would have to bury so many Marines that it wasn’t worth it, Sasha for the first time in her life started to back down from a fight.

It was then that Disco told her that the Human Marines could leave, but the Mink Marines had to stay behind.

After all, each Mink could be sold for 700,000 Beli – and their ‘Public Employment Security Office’ couldn’t turn away 150 ‘workers’ for nothing.

Hearing him say this, Yoko pulled the [Compliance Tree] from her hair and extended it, almost going crazy with ferocity.

Throwing curses and insults at Disco, the cadres of Big Mom, and the Bounty Pirates, the most hilarious thing happened when 2 of the pirates tamed Blue Gorillas switched sides just before the fight – much to the dismay of the pirate’s animal tamer, a man who had a Bounty worth 85m Beli.

Blue Gorilla were the primary guards and prison keepers for [Impel Down], their strength was just as great as the Del Kong, but Sasha knew it wouldn’t be enough.

Still, there was no way that they would leave their people behind, and just when the fighting was about to start, more Marines arrived.

First Ain, then Binz, then Shuzo.

Then scores more, armed with muskets and sabers.

Then finally, he appeared again.

Zephyr was old, but with the Battle Smasher attached to his right arm, and sunglasses hiding his eyes, even if the old man could only strike a couple of times before getting exhausted, the question was, who wanted to take those strikes?

Despite herself again, Sasha stepped back and let Zephyr talk. She strongly disliked the former Admiral, but not to the point of risking lives.

Ignoring Disco, much to the man’s apparent dismay, Zephyr only spoke to Charlotte Oven, and when threatened with the wrath of Big Mom, Zephyr reminded Oven that he was already very old and didn’t have as much to lose as Oven did.

Especially not with his precious siblings with him…

At the end of the day, the Marines all withdrew, Sasha thanked Zephyr but told him that she’d have to meet with him the following day.

*************************************************************************

It was the 2nd time Zephyr had saved them.

First it was against the Whitebeard Pirates, and now it was against the Big Mom Pirates.

Sasha was prideful, but not ungrateful, and now watching Yoko without blinking, she told the girl what she thought.

“Yes… take it as a win, a win for you.”

Hearing Sasha say this, Yoko squinted but didn’t respond, and Sasha continued: “You have not lost anything, but now, I am going to have to meet with that old man and it will be very hard for me to tell him ‘No’.

We don’t even know what he wants… but it’ll be hard to say ‘No’… and do you not understand that the root of everything we’re going to have to do is the fact that you couldn’t just follow simple orders?!”

Naturally Yoko responded about the Bounties that she had collected, almost 500m Beli in total, and how she hadn’t had a single Marine KIA in the process.

This all was true, besides her inability to follow orders Yoko was a very capable leader, but it held little sway, because the teenager should have never left New Haven to start with!

Spending the rest of the morning with Yoko, Sasha was about to meet with Zephyr when Ricky rushed into the room.

With a smile on his face, he told the two girls:

“Bill’s back! He’s at New Haven now and brought a city of gold with him, and there’re tens of thousands of refugees with him! He needs us to come back!”

Excited and relieved, for Sasha’s part, that news was a weight taken off her shoulders.

Due to the ‘emergency’ she wouldn’t be able to meet with Zephyr, but to keep her honor she would offer to bring Zephyr back to New Haven where he could meet with Bill.

Thinking that to be a good idea, Sasha made the offer… completely unaware that traveling to New Haven already were 2 Admirals and several agents of Cipher Pol.

Adding Zephyr to the mix, New Haven would soon host to some of the most influential players in the world.