Run boy run

"He's over here get him!" A kid yelled as he dashes across the office toward Zen.

"Shit! Got to get out quick." Zen gave an annoyed and hateful glare toward the kid as he dodges out of the way.

The kid jumps up at him In a tackling motion. The orphan slammed into the wall only to fall on the ground and giving a grown of pain.

Zen turn giving the kid a good kick, right in the ribs, as a crack sounded out, he heard a whimper of pain behind him as he jumped out the window. More orphans were scrambling over each other to get in the office. Shouts and curses could be heard behind him as he grabbed the drainpipe by the window, he half slid and climb down to the street.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, freaky shit. All that work down the fricking drain, one year that all that stupid Simmons could hold on to. Weak ass bastard, couldn't even hold on even with all the help I gave him, lazy ass just kept giving me that dumb look. Oh no, god forbid him from doing an actual thing right in order to survive. Sigh, it true his laziness didn't interfere with me, but it certainly came back to bite me." He dashes away in the alleyway, knowing that there was a literal army of motivates, orphans and guards, after him.

He spent the better part of an hour ducking and dodging any orphan, guards or street kids, along with a few un-motivated marines walking around looking for him. The marines were more as a show of force, most in the barrack knew that Zen was not the killer but the scapegoat, that Davis had offered up.

All this started, just as he had managed to make some headway in uncovering who order the massacres on his island, that had killed everyone he loved. He found out after all this time, that it was the same owner of the orphanage. Unfortunately, he didn't get a name. Just that the owner of the orphanage had sold a few islands, that had suspiciously had the same fate as his island. Even the pirate crew were all the same, the weird thing was that all the pirates were found dead. In the report it was mention that every crew member seemed to have fought each other to the death, the last surviving member then set the ship on fire after stabbing himself in the heart with his own sword.

After all that this, the noble bought the island for a dollar, got his slaves to clean each island up of any evidence. He then sold all the newly deserted islands to a few wealthy nobles or merchants, all so they could build their own little private villa on their privately own island. What had made it worse was when he learned, that for the past three years he'd unknowingly work for the bastard. Still, this orphanage was only a small asset for the noble, he didn't want his name or family name on it. So all he had to go on, was an alias the Leopard, that was all he had to go on.

Right before he was going to dig deeper into it, Davis made his move. First, he got Jack totally on his side. Then he paid off all the guards to get them into his pocket, then he bought off the other tree elder to look the other way, in order to get a bigger piece of the pie. As for Simmon, he poisons him and then places all the blame on Zen. So far he had spotted a wanted posture of him, apparently, he had a bounty of 150 bellies. Not very high, but considering that he had used poison and that fact he was only six years old, created such a low bounty. Davis didn't want to waste good money on what should have been an easy grab.

"At least one of my escape plans was ready." He snuck toward a ship that he knew to have a hidden room for smuggling.

"Sigh, the captain going to ask almost everything I have on me, but it's the only play I have for now." He checked his bag, he had the bright idea of hiding some of his funds in a few different locations around town. Luckily no one was cunning enough, to check through his thing in order to find the map of all his catches. He was still in the process of memorizing every place on the map, it a good thing that they rush him when he was in the office and not his room, or else he would have been caught. In every place he had hidden away around 2500 bellies, so now inside the bag, he had over 10,000 bellies. But he knew the captain would at least ask for 5000 to 7000 bellies in order not to turn him in for the measly some of 150 bellies.

"Halt, who goes there." As a sailor standing right in front of the ship bridged crosses his arms while trying to look as intimidating as possible.

"I got a good deal for your captain, there plenty of profit in it for him, just a small smuggling toward his next destination." Zen looked at the sailor, not even flinching at the evil eyes he was receiving.

The sailor nodded, told him to stay put. He turned around and sends one of the others to notify the captain.

A few moments later a thin man came out, he had a long coat and a hat, green hair a scruffy beard, one dark eye and a patch on the other.

"What tha ya want?"

"Safe passage to your next final destination."

The man scratches his chin. "Are yay hot?"

"A little, but not worth much."

The captain stared at him. "Ye wouldn't be the poison kid, now would ya." A slow grin making its way across the captain's face.

Zen frown but he really didn't have a choice, if the captain brought it up it means that news had already travelled all over the town. Which means he has to pay more in order to get what he wanted. "Yeah, I can easily triple now and give you a bonus if you keep it quiet."

The smirking captain gave Zen a condescending looked. "You know what, I got a better plan, I catch you, take all your bellies and give you up to the marines. They'll really like that, I get my bonus and some good reputation to make my next visit here much more pleasant." As he was speaking he slowly walked closer to Zen.

Zen look at him and a small smile spread across his face. If the captain had only demanded more bellies. Then Zen would have had no option other than to cough it up, but lucky for him and bad luck for the captain he picked the best outcome for Zen.

"You know, for a moment I thought that I would be screwed over badly, by you. It a good thing that you brought up your next time here, cause I can say with confidence that you'll find yourself in a real pickle. If you don't act like a good little smuggler and get me out of here."

"What are yall talking about?" The captain said with a confident smirk, he was sure that the kid before him was bluffing, but he was curious to see what lies he would pull out.

"Well you see Capt, I just so happen to have some info on a certain, under-the-table deal you made to a few competing nobles on some slaves a few months ago. Now I'm sure you wouldn't want those deals coming to light since, I'm sure the noble you have as a patron, would be quite vexed on being left out of those secret money-making deals. A smile that was gentle was coming from zen, but an air of menace was also coming from him.

The captain frowned, this wasn't what he was expecting. If he was a lesser man, he would have fallen for this little act, he was confident that the brat was spitting a theory and he had nothing in backing it up. "Ha, nice trie but you'll have to do better than that!" He stood ramrod straight, trying to shut down that little voice of doubt that was in the back of his head.

Zen gave a wider creepy smile, this gave the captain a shiver up his spine he suddenly had a bad feeling when he saw that smile.

"Well then, how about I name your patron and every one of your private buyers. Would that be enough or perhaps something more closer to home, like a daughter, blue hair, black eyes, six years old, loves her papa and that cute little teddy bear of hers." The creepy smile on Zen face soon morphs into a deranged expression of a mixture of pleasure and rage. Honestly, he wouldn't really do anything to the young girl, but he needed the captain to believe that he would. His situation was already difficult enough, he needed to get on the ship fast before he could get spotted. Cause if he had to run now he was left with only one more option and his chances fell drastically lower with that one.

The captain's face became pale, this was not good, he went from confidence to despair in a matter of moment. He took a few minutes to get himself under control, a few options came to mind, but his gut kept telling him that this kid, no monster would have place some kind of fail-safe, in place just in case thing went south.

After a few more exchanges on the price for the trip, Zen got on the ship and into the hidden space. While the rest of the town had kids and adults scrambling around looking for him, Zen was safely leaving for his next destination. All the while giving himself a silent promise to come back one day when he had enough power to strike all who had tried to plot against him. He didn't really care about those who just followed the leaders, hell in their place he would be out looking for him too. But the ones who plan his fall all so it would be more convenient for them, those he would target and have them regret ever hunting him.