Favors

Night's Light
Booze and cheers filled the night and streets of Hamcroft, particularly, the place known as the Pig's Rest. A bar renown throughout the Winter Island, it had the most clients amongst the other estabilishments. Nothing too surprising given its size and structure.

It was rustic, made of wood, not too carved, but not too rough. It didn't crumble under the many feet of both men and women. Closer to the entrance was a large bonfire, much like a blazing rectangle on the ground, surrounded by people dancing and drinking beer.

At the bonfire's four vertices stood four wooden pillars, surrounded with some iron plates so that the fire didn't reach them. Two meters above the actual bonfire was a netted platform, made of ropes, which held several meat pieces that slowly got to the point. However, most notable was the presence of something else atop these pillars.

The body of a person, alive given their slow breathing. They were wet, clothes and skin, possibly, they were slowly regaining conscience. Much to their side, was another figure, though they were dry.

"Ugh.." A low grunt from the dark-skinned being was released with what seemed to be one of his strongest breaths. Every inch of his body was cover in scars. Some areas quite more noticeable than others. The palm of his hands, which were flat out on the group, had large holes in them as though someone had taken a concrete drill and stabbed through it.

His abdomen area, right around his ribcage seemed to have also had holes in it as well as the tee shirt and jacket that covered over his body. The clothing completely draped in the blood that leaked from his wounds. One would wonder just how he remained alive, or hell, even how he managed to maintain conscious from such a large loss of blood.

He turned his head slightly looking around the area. There was not a person in sigh to accommodate for the amount of noise around. He grunted again and turned his head the opposing direction. "Hey.." The boy whispered faintly to the man lying next to him.

"You are awake," The hooded person nodded at him, "Buster D. Zack." They had a voice somewhat rough and their eyes couldn't be viewed from any angle at all, not even with the bonfire's light. "I thought you were a goner, some of us put you up here to dry you out."

Memories of earlier during the day filled the man's mind, "You washed into the island by chance, along with some wood. This is Hamcroft Island, we're on Paradise," If that place could ever be called a Paradise. "Winter Island, which you can clearly see. Famous for its techniques on cutting meat and the likes, got some traffic, but that's enough about it."

That time, the figure stared more directly towards Zack. "What happened in the seas...? A famous head like you to have their boat stolen," Stopping for a moment as if he were blinking, the man extended his hand towards Zack. "Forgive my manners, I'm..." A wet pause, "Dude, call me Dude."

The boy's, Zack, eyes rolled to the back of his head as he turned his face to look directly up. "I'm bleeding out..." Zack whispered, his dark skin begging to lose its color. "Please, dude..." Zack whispered once again, unintentionally calling the man by his name. "Could ya' get me some help?"

Zack closed his eyes for what he thought was just a moment. He got an instant flash of a man, seemingly shedding his skin to reveal his true identity. Goo dripped from his body and Zack just stood there, the injuries he seemed to have currently had not yet been placed on his body.

He quickly opened his eyes which locked onto the bright sky above. Clinching his fist he grunted once more, as more blood began to leak from his opened wounds. He squeezed his eyes and bit his bottom lip; an expression of the pain he felt. "Damn." He thought to himself, clenching his fist even tighter. "Am I about to die?"

"Damn!" Dude shout out, "His wounds opened!" His body shot up and some other people paid more attention, their eyes shifting over to the platform. Dude jumped offwards and landed just a small distance from the bonfire, he seemed to hold something with his hand, partially hidden by the sleeve.

Even as that happened, however, most people went back to their own business, refilling mugs or just continuing to dance around. Dude slashed at the bonfire and flipped over to land on the platform, "Buster, this is not my specialty." He gestured for a knife, covered in flaming charcoal, "If you allow me to." Dude pushed the knife towards Zack, waiting for his response to proceed to cauterize such wounds.

Initially, the crowd seemed to be completely uninterested in Dude's cry for help. How could they? Were they drunk? Too self-centered? Whatever the case may have been, Zack remained there on the ground for a couple more minutes until Dude himself decided to take action.

Zack's vision was blurry. He could barely see what was going on so when Dude stood over him with his knife, he was not aware of what was going on. From his point of view and the current situation he was in, Zack simply nodded his head giving Dude the consent he'd been seeking.

The teen braced himself, the pain had gotten worse but to be completely honest, Zack couldn't even feel it. The pain seemed to have been completely overshadowed by the thoughts of him potentially dying. He was too young and honestly not ready to meet his demise just yet. But it just seemed like that feeling would not leave the atmosphere around him.

Not waiting any other second, Dude simply pressed the hot knife against the skin bits that he saw were open. Steam, the smell of burning flesh flew across the air. Some did stop to pay attention, but quickly glanced away once they understood just what transpired.

A bead of sweat rolled down Dude's face, he pulled his hood back, revealing a rather ebony tone of skin. His head was completely shaved, "It will be finished soon." He uttered at Zack, still pressing the knife against the rest of the wounds, "You are lucky they were not too deep, otherwise, I couldn't close them like this."

Zack felt nothing. Instead of even responding to Dude's statement, he went ahead and closed his eyes. Even though he went silent from what Dude had just done for him, had he been in the right state of mind, he'd truly have been grateful. He grunted once again after Dude's knife made contact and rigged him wounds close.

The moment his top and bottom eyelids made contact with each other, Zack found himself dragged into what he thought was "another world". It was dark, the only thing that seemed to shed light were the teen's very own eyes.

"Where am I?" He thought to himself. "What's this feelin'?" There was an ominous feeling and while the area was pitch black dark, he could feel a sudden breeze of wind blow past his face.

There was a buzzing followed by an even stronger gust of wind. A flash of light lit up the area, revealing a being floating in mid-air dressed in an all black cloak. The cloak came with a hood attached which was used to cover his/her face from allow Zack to see it.

"Who the hell are you?!" Zack questioned, staring the figurine down.

There was a loud snap and suddenly Zack returned to the world, quickly opening his eyes as wide as he could then jumping to his feet. All of Zack's wounds found themselves healed, down from the wholes which were all over his body down to the very smallest scars. He surveyed the area with his attention full.

"Where am I?" he asked Dude.

"God-damn," Dude muttered, placing his knife to the side over the wood platform. Much like Zack laid down, he tried relaxing by leaning against the wooden pillar. "As I told you... you are in Hamcroft, a winter island famous for its meat cuisine. Let me..." Dude licked his lips and sat to the opposite side to Zack that time.

"Let me introduce myself again... you can just call me Bro Dude, I'm just wandering around," He sighed, trying to shake off the hotness onto his hand that held the knife previously. With the other, he polished the blood off the knife. "You washed up ashore and some people helped you, so here we are. I read that you were part of a fight?" His eyes hovered over Zack's wounds again.

Zack took a deep breath and gripped his forehead with his hand. While he couldn't feel the pain from his wounds, he did, however, feel the pain from his head which had been pounding.

"I washed up? I don't remember any of that. I remember I was in the middle of a fight with that weird Marine, and after getting my ass kicked I passed out in the middle of the fight." Gripping his forehead even tighter and little lightbulb went off in his head. "Wait, you said you read about it? Read about what?"

Dude arched one eyebrow up, "If you need something, just tell me. I don't own the place, but, I could throw some word for you," He pointed at the main part of the tavern, a few meters away from them. "You don't, huh..." Checking over the pockets of his pants, Dude took a cigarette between his fingers.

With a quick and swift push, the cigarette went against the wood, sparking fire into its tip. Dude took it to his mouth, sighing, "The Newspaper. They released Newspaper about your deeds on Reverse Cape." A puff of smoke, Dude glanced at nowhere, but, continued to talk, "You survived the Four Blues and the Entrance, congratulations."

Zack coughed from inhaling a bit of the smoke. "Newspaper..." he mummbled, covering his nose from the smoke with his free hand. Then he became silent trying his best to grasp the situation. But then, "NEWSPAPER?!" He shouted, leaping to his feet and turning his head left and right swiftly as though he had no headache to begin with.

He rushed into the tavern leaving Bro Dude behind nearly knocking the doors off of its hindges. Once entering the buildign he rushed to the front desk where he met face to face with an elderly woman. "Excuse me ma'am, do you happen to have a newspaper lying around?!" He asked.

The woman's face did not hold the expression as though she wanted to help. "YOU DARE RUN INTO THIS TAVERN ALL ROUNDABOUT BOY!" She scream, jumping onto the top of the counter revealing her full self. She was an extremely short woman in a pink robe and blonde hair. She began to stab at Zack with her cane. "THE DISRESPECT OF THIS GENERATION IS INSANE!" She shouted, continuing on with stabbing Zack.

With a swift movement, he gripped her cane and stiffed his eyes onto her. "Listen here old lady! I ain't mean any harm, I just asked for the most recent newspaper. Ya' ain't gotta stab me with ya' damn cane!"

"There, there!" A voice called out from behind the counter. A man coming from what seemed to be a backroom held his hands up in a pushing position. "Here's one for you! Mrs. Farsey didn't mean any harm." Reaching underneath the counter, the man handed Zack a newspaper.

Zack, without another word to the duo, grabbed it and ran back outside to Bro Dude. The teen boy flipped through the newspaper vigoriously ripping a couple of the pages until he saw the headline: Mountain Defense Operation: Bringing Down the Sky-High Rookies!. He read through the page with haste, but there seemed to be something specific he stopped on. He stopped at the portion that spoke of him:


 * “Bone Buster” Buster D. Zack has made his debut from, what appears to be, a former Cabin Boy for the Black Widow herself! Somehow in the Blue Seas, he seeks to start his own crew and sail the Grand Line! In shocking revelations, the boy has been revealed to be the child of former Pirate Buster D. Amaka, a name that shook the seas at one point in time!

He read this short paragraph out loud to Bro Dude. "ALRIGHT!" He shouted, forgetting the headache he held, and flung the paper into the air. Just as he did, a lone sheet floated down and landed right between himself a Bro Dude. Zack picked it up--it was a bounty poster.



"15 MILLION BERRI!!!" He shouted, gripping the poster even tighter than he had done with his forehead. "AL-FUCKIN'-RIGHT!"

"Woah," Dude mouthed at Zack's sudden outburst, almost as if he prepared to draw something, "Calm down." He sighed. Maybe he should try doing something, though, given the shouting, it wasn't anything too serious. Or at least, that was what seemed to be the case. Dude's lips parted and a puff of smoke escaped, meshing in with the one from the bonfire.

It didn't take time for Zack to come back, not that Dude wasn't willing to wait. Even if he didn't look, the shouts were the mark of the young pirate's presence. "Heh, congrats on that. I read it the other day," Another smoke puff. "Don't get too ahead though," Dude glanced at Zack, "We got way bigger fish in this pond."

Fish that he didn't want to or could catch. Dude smirked briefly and commented again, "A group rescued you from the seas, and... and I helped too." He smashed the tip of the cigarette on the wood and threw it at the bonfire, earning some dirty looks. "But... that's because I wanted a favor."

Zack continued admiring the poster a bit further. In all honesty, he was happy. Just a few days ago, or so he thought because in actuality weeks had passed, he'd told his mother he'd be setting out on his journey to become the greatest pirate. This poster alone was proof he'd been doing just that.

He folded it up and placed it into his torn jacket pocket, patting the pocket as though it were a pet. "Thanks." Zack responded, "With yo help, I prolly would've been a goner." The ebony teen stood to his feet and punched his left fist into his right palm. "'Ight, dude! I don't know what the hell it is you want me to help ya' with. But, you saved my life! So, I am in your debt. Lay it on me!"

Favors
A snicker escaped Dude's mouth along with puffs of smoke, he having picked another cigarette, surely he couldn't recall the last time someone was so excited after receiving a bounty on their head. Seeing as the screams were odne, he fully turned to Zack.

"It's not a problem, though, I did say my intentions," Dude's left eyebrow perched up and his eye stared at the young pirate. "Debt? Don't worry about that, not at all." Another snicker, he threw the cigarette down to the bonfire, "Now..."

Breathing heavily for a second, Dude got up from his seat on the wood, towering over Zack's form on the ground. With a quick jump, he was face to face with him, "It involves the subject of lives... though, not one to save." Dude licked his lips briefly, expression still stern. "The favor is-" Whispers, his eyes pierced through Zack's, "-aiding me in an assassination on this island."

"Assassination?" Zack mumbled, slightly repeating Dude's words. Zack lowered his head almost as though he were shameful. "I'm sorry dude..." he apologized, his expression as blank as it was when he was found. "I've never done anything like that before..."

He clenched his fist and held a stiff position for a couple of seconds. "I always hear my mom talk about 'em. It's always like she put a hit out on someone. It seemed so cruel when she tried to explain it." Zack paused and covered his nose from Dude's cigarette smoke. He coughed and spat in the opposite direction. Cigarette smoke had always been one of his weaknesses.

"But at the same time... IT SOUNDS SO COOL!!" Zack shouted at the top of his lungs, throwing his fist up at the air. His entire facial expression changed. He grew a smile and cheesed like no other. "Who's our target?! I'll give him an ass whooping he won't forget!"

Seconds passed with Dude's face bearing no expression at all, he cracked his neck sideways and then answered, "You... you sound pretty okay with trying it all, okay." He instinctively tried to take a deep inhale on a cigarette, but found himself holding onto nothing. "Okay, okay," Dude waved a hand around.

Moving his head to the side, Dude gestured for them to leave the platform and jumped a second after, beginning to walk out of the tavern's territory. "Mrs. Fansey, I already paid the waiter," He waved at the woman behind the table counter in the distance, shouting while still walking his path.

"You damn right I am!" Zack shouted, jumping to his feet flailingly. "I just told you, when my mom explains it to her mates it seems so cool." Zack's eyes became googly. "I'm a pirate now, aren't I? I'll have to get an experience like this up close otherwise, I'll never know if its something I'd truly be into."

He began to chase behind Dude, giving off a few slight coughs as he did and waved back t Mrs. Fansey "Goodbye mean old lady, I'll be back later after this to get some rest!!"

"There he goes, mentioning a parental figure again..." Dude thought, while mindlessly staring the snowy road ahead. "D... Buster... could it be?" He turned his head to face Zack once more, musing out with a serious expression, "Your mother sounds like a wonderful person." Dude merely nodded at the numerous remarks.

A sigh, "Being back... I'm not too sure about that," Dude said quietly, putting his hood over his head with a single hand. "Our target is quite... unusual, let's say." Though Zack did ask whom it was earlier, Dude figured he was not too eager to know.

Nevertheless, he gestured for up ahead, out of the town, a path that led into a relatively small settlement. "Up ahead is the island's main location, the Hammerfield Castle," Several lights could be seen on the place's windows, its surrounding buildings not as active.

"Eh, unusual ain't got nothin' to do with me. I'm only here to repay my debt because once I become the Pirate King, I ain't gonna be out here spending my time repaying what people have done for me!" Zack ran slightly out in front of Dude and eyed the castle.

The various lights caught his attention as well, so much that he just had to take it a step further that Dude. Holding his left hand in front of himself, he gripped his wrist with his right hand. The skin on the tips of his fingers began to open up revealing the literal tip of his bones.

"Bone-Ladder!" He shouted, as his bones shot from his fingers tips and formed themselves into a ladder constructed of his bones. With a simple jerk, he broke his bones apart and the tip of his fingers closed. He now had now created a ladder which he could use to look inside of one of the shining windows. The size big enough for both himself and Dude to climb side by side.

He rushed to the ladder and signalled for dude to come along.

Dude stared at Zack for a moment, "If that is what you say, very well." He offered him a nod and, before Dude could even jump into the wals, his eyes widened at the visage of Zack's bones sipping out of his body. "So... it was true, the newspaper did mention your tricky powers helped you escape from the marines," Dude narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms.

Once the ladder was ready, Dude eyed it for a moment, mouth still thin. Then, he gave a short nod to Zack and looked behind and to his sides. After all, they were just this close to infriltrating the castle, surely, someone would have seen them. Or, just maybe, Hamcroft was more poor than he remembered, the castle wasn't even that big to begin with.

Without another second, much like they were phantoms, Dude's limbs moved to push himself through the ladder's body. He went past Zack and instantly reached the top, all without any sound, a large veranda entering his view as soon as he did so. With his hand, he waved for Zack to climb up.

As his feet touched the stone of the large veranda, no sounds again, Dude looked around for soldiers or any sort of guard, though, knowing whom it was, he didn't know if he should really expect guards. He faced the entrance to a large room, it was made of glass. "Convenient."

Zack climbed the ladder as quickly as he could, coming to Dude's side with the swiftness. But before he did, he watched each of Dude's stealth movements and tried to mimic them as best he could on his way up. In his head, it all worked out perfectly, but in reality... he'd been moving normally.

He extended his neck so that he could see through the glass window which gave a clear-cut view of the center of the castle. There were three men: there were two men and a mink, circling a single man who'd found himself tied up in the middle. The group seemed to have actively been in a conversation and Zack focused his eyes to try and read their lips. "Yo bro," he whispered trying to remain stealthy but at the same time not noticing he'd been calling Dude by his actual name.

"We should wait a while and try to scope out the situation." As if he were the one to actually be leading this "mission".

On the other side of the glass, the trio continued in their conversation, and the one currently speaking was the man to the far right with red hair. "Xerxes, this guy ain't talkin' maybe I should just rip his throat out right now." The lower portion of his mouth was wrapped by black tape but somehow he split it so that he could speak through it. Holding his arm up, he slashes across his forearm with a short knife and blood exited the wound. The blood began to move as though it had a mind of its own and formed into a scythe.

The tied up man shook his vigorously, a signed that he had clearly been disagreeing with what the man next to him mentioned. The tape covering his mouth was the only thing keeping him from being able to verbally give his thoughts on the matter.

"No, Riz." The yellow-furred mink stated, holding her hand out in front of him to stop him in his tracks. That's right, Riz was the now rogue Marine soldier who helped aid Braxton in the robbing of El Dorado's gold mine and the current user of the Chi Chi no Mi.

"Killing him is completely against the orders of my father." The mink was none other than Roxwelle, daughter, of the current Duke of Zou; Kyuubi. "I will not allow it."

The man in the middle of the two stood with his eyes closed and arms folded. He had short spiky blue hair and wore a white onsey covered by a black fur coat. "Both of you, quiet. There will be no touching Mathew unless ordered by the King himself."

Riz's blood scythe disappeared as he stepped back. "Ya' know somethin', Xerxes? Till this very day, I still ain't sure how you rank at ROOK when I've still yet to see your power. Even Braxton changes the topic when I ask him, and we've been best friends since he joined the Marines."

"It's something a BISHOP would never understand." Xerxes, another one of Braxton's followers, within Braxton's organization he held the position of ROOK, but as it currently stood, the position and ranking, or hell even the name of the group were unknown. "However, if this drags out, I'll personally take the blame for your death."

Indeed, as soon as Dude heard sounds and Zack called him, he stopped dead in his tracks. "And those..." He mused to himself, low like a whisper, "This is a problem," He uttered towards Zack. "Our target is basically the man tied up in there," Dude put his back against the stone, sliding to the ground without being noticed.

"Those teeth and red hair... I read about him in a newspaper... but, what is he even doing here?"

Zack continued to look through the glass as Dude went a proceeded on. "Hey, bro, I got a clear shot." Zack fixed his hands so that he'd been making a finger gun. "I could get this over with quick and we could get the hell out of here quickly." He squinted his eyes looking down the "scope" of his finger. The skin on the top of his finger split, just like when he created the ladder he stood on.

"I actually feel like a trained assassin!" He thought, "The adrenaline rush is HYPE-" A pellet from the tip of his finger shot through the glass down on the quadrant of people standing in the center of the castle. It was a complete accident. The adrenaline rush had truly been getting to his head. The excitement caused him to send a Bone Pellet at the group. His aim was off and instead of hitting his target for a clean head shot, he managed to pierce the man in the right shoulder.

"Oh shit!" Zack shouted, leaping from the ladder and leading to the solid earth. "Yo, bro, I may have kinda fried this fuckin' mission."

Within the building, Foxwelle and Riz were the first to react. Foxwelle rushed to Mathew's side, lifting his body from the ground over her forearm to survey the wound. "You mean to tell me, there were people here and we were not notified?" The Mink frowned, placing her hand across Mathew's wound.

"I thought your kind had keen senses. Yet, even you were unable to locate the boy in the window looking down on us." Xerxes responded, maintaining his same position from earlier; arms folded and eyes closed.

Slicing Throats
Zack would find himself without a response to his statement, Bro Dude had actually entered the room where everyone was in. Glass breaking and chatter completely allowed his figure to go unnoticed, though, for sure the Mink girl would be the first to react.

His steps were merely whispers through the night, he stood behind Mathew's figure and quickly held him, while the others were busy discussing the situation, the mink girl would see her hands empty. While holding him, Dude walked from the group, "D-Dude!" Mathew gasped upon seeing the assassin's trademark dagger being pointed towards the group, "You came!"

"Yes, I did," Dude stated flatly, "And who are these people? State your reasons for being here," He pointed the knife at each on the group. "Don't come any closer, or else Mr. Mathew will die." Dude really wished he could check upon Zack, but, the mission came first. Plus, if everyone's attention was on him, it meant Zack could come back.

"Oh," Riz's opened wound from earlier leaked blood once more forming into the previously shown scythe. "you are very bold to make such threats." He stepped back to further inspect Bro Dude. "Oh wait. I know this face." Riz's facial expression changed to that of being surprising. "Bro Dude: a bounty of 50,000,000--a well-known assassin."

Riz chuckled, "I know it may have taken me a while to sense the other, but there's someone outside as well, Foxwelle."

The yellow-furred mink purred, bending her knees and leaping over the standoff between Bro Dude, Riz, and Xerxes. "Yeah, I could smell him. I'll go on ahead and handle him. Remember, Riz! Mathew is to remain untouched!" She shouted, rushing through the doors of the castle to the outside world.

Xerxes maintained his position, not budging nor speaking to the rest of the group once. He let out a deep breath but allowed his allies to handle the situation.

"It'd suck if you put that knife to that man, Bro Dude. Then I'll have to commit something I don't wanna do..."

"Suck...?" Dude pondered out loud, eyes still lingering over everyone's figures, "You use a rather degrading vocabulary, young man." He said suddenly, face still stern, "I'm most honoured that you know of me, however," Dude, indeed, pondered just how far his few feats had gone into the Grand Line.

For a single moment, Dude's eyes met the entrance from which he came from, "The kid." Though, truth be told, he didn't have time to worry about him now. "This man is the target of an assassination, so "Bloodlad" Riz, state your reasons for wanting this person!"

Mathew seemed to sweat even more, although, for one reason or another, he made no movement to free himself from Dude's grasp. "Y-Yes, I've been hearing the rumors. People, people want my h-head!"

6:00 PM, the sun had just begun to set...

Riz stuck his tongue out and licked across his makeshift scythe. "It seems the World Government has called an assassin to take you out," Bloodlad's words clearly aimed at Mathew. "that's been a pain for you to get taken out right when we were about to get that information out of you."

He sighed and dropped his arm down to his side. "Bloodlad, huh? Is that what the newspaper's been callin' me? I suggest you not worry about your little friend too much," Riz's completely vanished from his current position--flawless use of Soru, a technique taught to him while a Marine.

Be appeared behind Bro Dude, performing a swiping motion with his scythe, which at this point seemed to be coated by a black armor. "When you're here fighting for ya' own life!"

"World Govern-" Dude began, but quickly interrupted himself at the sight of Riz coming to attack him through a flash step. "Woah!" Almost by instinct, Dude threw both himself and Mathew forward, hitting some furniture. His teeth grinded against one another and blood gushed from his back, way more than normal.

Thoughts plagued Dude's mind whilst his eyes glared at Riz and his weapon, "What is that scythe?!" Sweat went down his temper, he quickly glanced at Mathew, mouth still wide. Their eyes met for but a moment, both worn out, Dude's dagger stood close to Mathew's neck even then. They really needed a way to get out of there, Dude had a duty, a duty he ought to complete however he could. Yes, assassinations were duties, requests, no matter how someone handled them.

Dude's lips were curved down, teeth still tight, Mathew could definitely see that, myriads of thoughts crossing his mind as time went on. While Dude had that expression, in contrast, Mathew's lips perched up and he gave the other man a light pat on his forearm, which held the dagger. He was someone who had always produced trouble, one way or the other, be it through his requests or through his direct actions, other people didn't seem to get a break.

Dude stopped for a single second to look into Mathew's eyes and found his very being shudder. Much like iron molded by the fire, an image was printed into his mind at that very moment. His hand descended, blurring without a sound, and Mathew fell to the floor, still smiling.

Riz stood stiffly for a moment. He found himself in shock. Was it due to the fact he had just witnessed a murder up close? Or what is because he had seemed, no, completely failed his mission given to him. The redhead gritted his teeth at Dude, veins began to pop out all across his had, showing just how angry he was.

Even Xerxes who seemed to remain blind during the previous events, opened his eyes only to meet a lifeless Mathew. His blank expression made it hard for the others around to decipher how he felt, but for a fact, he was surprised.

"Dude, you just signed your one-way ticket to hell, motherfucker." Riz's anger got the best of him. With a simple slash, a gust of wind blew towards Bro Dude.

Xerxes appeared in front of Riz with his hand up, "You have already been detrimental to this mission, Riz. Take another step and I'll be the one to kill you." Xerxes unfolded his arms and gave Bro Dude a glare, "You should have turned down your mission today." The ground began to shake and the building they stood in began to tremble.

"Yo bro!" A voice shouted, bursting through the front doors of the castle. The appearance and voice closely resembled that of Zack. "When you ran off, some Mink-chick followed me and chased me. Ion' know how, but I shook off my dick somehow! Did you complete your mission?!" Zack stopped to survey the situation.

Bro Dude found himself in a two-way standoff situation, or at least that's what Zack saw. While doing so, his eyes stayed attached to the blue-haired man, Xerxes. "What is this I feel?" Zack thought to himself, placed his right foot behind his left as though he were preparing to step back. "Its an ominous feeling..."

"Bone Buster Zack..." Riz mumbled as though he knew Zack. "Well, what a surprise."

"Tha' fuck you mean, what a surprise? I don't know you, dude!" Zack shouted, reaching inside of his jacket and pulling out a flint revolver. He pulled down on the latch, "Step away from my boy."

Illusive Weaver
Meanwhile on the other side of the town...

"Ryan, you gotta have more patience-grr." A pale man with long white hair stated as he strutted through the pathway of Hamcroft. He dressed in the attire of the Marines, with a coat hanging over his shoulders with the insignia of the organization all around it. His eyes transitioned all across the town as if he were on the lookout for something specific.

He stopped dead in his tracks and so did the rest of the navy soldiers around him. His mouth opened and saliva slid down the canvas of his tongue. "There's just so much here."

Meanwhile, the young teen next to him seemed to be straying away from the group. "Commander Doge! We have a mission!"

Doge barked at the boy, "You are but a petty officer, Ryan-grrr. Remember your place! Ruff!" Bringing his tongue back into his mouth. The commander approached a group of conversating fellows with a large smile on his face, waving frantically as though he'd never been in this situation once before.

"Hello, citizens of Hamcroft grr. I am Commander Doge! How are you three gentlemen today?"

The first of the three men gave Doge a glare. The second instantly burst out into laughter and the third completely ignored the Marine officer.

"You ain't gettin' nothing outta us you Marine scum." The first man commented, spitting at the ground as he did. "Ya kind ain't even allowed around this island anyway. You sure are bold for landing up on here."

The commander smiled and held his hands up. "Please calm down sir!"

"Act like a Commander, Doge! I ain't tolerating disrespect you three drunk asses!" Ryan jumped out in front of Doge, his height made it hard for him to be taken seriously on top of the fact he had to look up at the three men. "We just want to know if you've seen any new faces around here! Nothing more nothing less."

The second, middle, man stepped forward in front of the boy. "Listen here boy, it's best you and your dad leave off this land before you both become missing Marines. Sir Braxton wouldn't like for you two to be on his land. If I killed tha' both of ya' right now, he'd be strangely satisfied. Now you better scurry away while you have a chance."

"Now you watch who the hell you're talkin' too!" Ryan shouted holding both of his hands outwards. "Flame...on..." Ryan mumbled as his left hand began to generate flames. "Ya ran into the wrong hot head!!!"

At the same street, in a humble tailoring shop, were people coming in and out with various orders. As the regular clients continued to talk, talk began buzzing of the Marines being in the area looking for a specific person.

"What do you think, Sheila-san?" One of the customers asked a woman with black hair, wearing a simple, short kimono, tights and the whole package, rather finely sewn together.

"Hmm...well, I hope they don't distract us! It takes a lot of patience to sew things so well, Holalalala!" The girl responded, taking the order cheerfully.

As soon as the shop was empty again, a mildly grim expression blanketed her face. Just what was the tailor hiding?

"Ryan, Ryan!" Doge exclaimed gripping the teen's wrist with all of his might. "They mentioned Braxton... is he on this island? This could be bad-gr. We'd better wrap things up quickly!" Doge's facial expression quickly changed to that of concern as he dragged Ryan away from the trio of men.

"LET ME GO YOU STUPID DOG!" Ryan shouted trying his best to free himself of Doge's grip. "I'll kick all of their asses. Let me go! We can't let these people speak crazy to the Marines. They have no respect around these parts!"

After getting a respectable distance away from the group, Doge threw Ryan to the ground in front of him. "I hear that, but we are not on Marine territory-grr. It's best we keep a low profile, ask our question, and move around. You're making this harder than it has to be. At this rate, Archibald Minerva will have to be notified of your actions-grr."

Ryan's eyes widened, "Oh no, oh no. I'm fine, Doge! I'd rather sit here and pout rather than tag along with Mother Nerva on another musical. ANYTHING BUT THAT!"

"Well, act accordingly. We must move silently and ask questions as under the table as possible-gr." Doge lifted his leg and began to scratch his back as though he were a dog.

Meanwhile, a woman dressed in a white robe approached the platoon of soldiers. Her face was held low, but even that didn't stop them from noticing how beautiful she was. "I overheard your conversation. In a small town such as this, we all know each other. Though, the other day, there was a new girl who began working at the tailor shop." She lifted her finger and pointed at a store that had been literally across the street from where they stood.

"Right there, a young lady her name is Sh- um, what was it? Sheila, that's it!" The woman smiled, lifting her rob from the ground so that she could continue on about her day.

Doge smiled and waved his hand at Ryan to follow behind him. "All other soldiers, I want all of you to remain outside and guard this place. Let's go Ryan."

Approaching the building with swiftness, Doge opened the door allowing Ryan to enter first but he was right on his tail. "Good evening." Doge greeted the two workers.

"A-ah, hello Marine sirs! How may we help you?" Two middle-aged men were working on their clothes as the Marines entered the building, shivering in nervousness from the possibility of violent questioning.

At the back of the building, the other worker named Sheila had just finished her shift before the Marines arrived. She quietly exited the building without anybody noticing and made her merry way.

However, the townspeople eyed her from a distance. Sheila knew exactly why, and tried to keep pressing forward without anyone questioning her. At the same time, she prayed that the Marines would not be able to catch her.

"Yes-gr." Doge simply replied with a large smile on his face. "I was wondering if your worker by the name of "Shiela" had come into work today-gr." He licked the backside of his hand and rested it on the side of his face. "We have something very important we need to discuss with her."

The two men looked at each other and hunched their shoulders. The man to the left lifted his hand, "I'm sorry lad, but she her shifted ended a little while ago."

"She probably is on her way home, but information of residency is something that we can not give out." The man to the right carried on.

Ryan's eyebrow lifted. In his mind, he thought there had been more to the situation and that these two men had something to hide, but in reality they did not. They knew nothing of why they had come looking for her and most importantly, why it would concern them. Yet, this was something he just could not accept.

The teen exited the building in the middle of Doge's conversation to where the rest of the Marine soldiers were. He looked both left and right, and in each direction, there was a large crowd of people. By the grace of the gods above or maybe luck itself, he saw a girl with dark hair dressed in the same uniform as the two men in the store merged into one of the crowns.

"Hey!" He shouted, rushing to the woman's location. "Hey! Sheila, could you slow down for a second!"

The woman named Sheila ignored the Marines and continued to move forward, rapidly increasing her speed as much as she could. Her hands, carrying needles, began to swiftly knit some spare fabric together into a net-like shape, and threw the newly made net, about a metre long and wide, towards the oncoming Marines, in hopes of distracting them for a brief period of time.

With keen ears, Doge rushed out of the shop only to find that Ryan had already taken off. "Did he find her-grr?" Doge asked the few remaining Marine soldiers only to have them maintain silence as though they didn't hear when in all honesty, they weren't too fond of Ryan.

Meanwhile Ryan, on the other hand, had been hot on Sheila's trail and it would soon become literal. He continued to chase after her, shouting her name out with nearly every ten meters he rushed forward. She seemed to be leading off the trail of the town into a large field and the only thing that could be seen on the other side was a large brick-like structure.

"Sheila, slow down! I only got a few questions I need to ask ya'!" He shouted, nearly getting closer with his few men behind him. That sentence alone was like a trigger to Sheila. In a matter of moments, Ryan saw a large net come flying over him.

Holding out his left hand, he mumbled "Flame on..." igniting his hand with fire. "Fireball—Curve!" A ball of flames formed in the middle of his hand and with a thrust back he threw the ball towards the ground. Just before hitting the ground, it curved and changed its direction upwards to hit the center of the net burning directly through it.

By doing so, he was able to avoid himself being captured by the net, but not his comrades. "I'm sorry guys!" He shouted.

"Fireball? Tsk..." Sheila continued to escape, looking at the oncoming brick building coming in front of her. "Do I have any other choice...?" With no other option available, Sheila unveiled an unusual that was placed within her larger bell sleeves. She jumped high, slashing the fabric-like blade with a single hand towards the incoming window, shattering it into pieces. Leaping into the building, she darted towards the nearest room she could find with another window, hoping to lose the Marines following her.