Sweetchin Music.

  James. Pov.

  "Drake. Good to see you again." I said as I saw Drake approach with a couple of squads of men tagging behind him.

  "I thought you were infiltrating the infirmary?" He asked with an eyebrow raised while pointing out positions for the men to go.

  "I fell. Well technically pushed out, but that's neither here nor there. I already have men stationed on the rafters, and in the offhand they escape I have a small boat prepared to follow them." He nodded and faced the doorway standing next to me.

  "Good. Any more information that we don't already know?" I nodded.

  "One of the Straw-hat has a devil fruit ability, she can make limbs grow out from places. I don't know if she has a limit, but I would be weary around her. Maybe stealth Is the better option when approaching her."

  "Hmm. They have a skilled cook, and Straw-hat Luffy is worth his bounty from what the Commander has told me. They have a marksmen, who seems to be more of a coward then a warrior." I nodded, so that was their final member, a Sniper.

  "From the report Captain Smoker made. Bullets don't work on Straw-hat Luffy. I've already told the snipers to target his crew. Warning shots."

  "Good. Now we just have to wait." We stood there silently. Until he looked at me. "And if they do escape, take a few men with you as backup. This isn't the time to work solo." I smiled and kept staring at the door. My hands were itching on the handles of the flintlock and pistol.

  "No promises."

  Fast forward a couple minutes.

  "Gaaah!" That scream a lot of footsteps marked the entry of the Straw-hat pirates. Four members to be specific. One a blond haired man dressed in a fine suit, Another with his mouth hanging to the floor, with curly black hair and a rather pointy nose. Then the other two which caused my smile to grow wider and my blood to start pumping. Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro.

  "Sniper team 7 to the…" "All men fire!" Drake and I issued two different orders which caused the men to be confused. Some firing randomly and others just looking around.

  The ones who did fire, their bullets were stopped by Straw-hat expanding. Like a Balloon? I could only watch in wonder as the bullets seemed to go deeper into his body just to be shot back.

  "What the…?" I pulled out my cutlass and parried a shot heading towards Drake and I.

  "Cannon's fire." Drake issued another order without missing a beat. I just ran forward towards the Straw-hats. "Lieutenant wait!" I heard Drake yell, but I was already too far gone. I could see Straw-hat look towards me with a wide grin on his face. His arm stretched back.

  "Gum Gum Pistol!" His fist shot forward, I barely ducked underneath it. His speed barely matched Zoro's at point blank. I heard a soft grunt from behind me. Maybe one of the men were hit from the attack.

  "Sorry Drake!" I yelled backwards and leaping into the air, with my cutlass and my hand reaching for my pistol at my waist. "This will be fun!" I almost had the pistol out when a small rock hit my hand causing me to lose my grip. "Shit!"

  "Not so fast!" I saw the long-nosed man with a smirk and a slingshot in his hand. I was on the ground now and my sword was locked with Zoro. I glared at the long-nosed man and he seemed to hide behind the blond man with the suit. "Or go as fast as you want. I'm sorry!"

  "He's so fast!" I saw Straw-hat with a smile on his face as he watched Zoro and I struggle to gain dominance over each other.

  "Use your other swords! Roronoa! I've prepared." Zoro, looked confused before unsheathing a second sword.

  "If you say so." A clash a metal followed, and we were going blow for blow.

  "Your faster than this!" I yelled at him. The men around me were getting manhandled by the Straw-hat pirates. 'How are we losing to 4 people?'

  After a heavy swing from both of us we were forced away from each other and I was breathing a little heavy and a bead of sweat was dripping from my forehead. Zoro, looked barely phased. Like I was barely a problem.

  "Look I don't know what your problem is but we're just trying to leave." He told me as he held his two swords at his side. His white sword was still sheathed, and his bandana still on his arm.

  "A year ago, I challenged you to a duel and lost." He tilted his head to the side.

  "Hey Zoro! What's this guy talking about?" I heard Straw-hat asked over a scream of one of my men.

  "I don't know. Something about a duel." Then his eyes widened. "Wait I do remember you. You were that punk kid who tried to join me." He looked at my uniform. "Lieutenant in a year? Impressive." I bowed slightly and creeped my hand towards my pistol. He noticed.

  "That fight, drove me to be the best in everything I did. To reach any higher I would have to go to HQ. I was thinking about it, then I heard you were journeying the Grand Line." I chuckled softly. "I couldn't wait any longer to fight you!" I pulled out my pistol and fired. He blocked the shot with his swords, but the force caused him to slide back a few feet, enough time for me to close the distance. With a thrust of my cutlas, his eyes widened and he leaned to the side, barely avoiding the strike. A slash of his caused me to side step into a leg sweep which caused him to jump with both swords aiming to split me in half. I flipped the pistol so I was holding the barrel and blocked his swords with my cutlass and I slammed my pistol into his thigh.

  "Agh!" He yelped in pain, but not before kneeing me in my nose as he was falling down over me.

  "Gah!"I groaned and dropped the pistol in favoring of nursing my blooded nose. Now I only had the sword in hand, and I was still on my back. I could feel the wind split as moved to the right barely dodging an overhead slash from him. I was on my knees now and felt a blood fall from my ear. He turned to look at me, he spun and tried to attack me again. I leaned back to place my left hand on the ground and used it to prep myself to perform a Chapeu de Couro. My leg dug into his side, and he lifted off the ground for a second before being launched into the stone wall.

  "Zoro!" I heard the pointy nose member scream as he saw his crewmate fly in the air. I stood up and took a moment to breath. That's all it was, a moment. A swift kick to the chin caught me by surprise and I flew into the rafters. Some of my men managed to catch me somehow and I was seeing stars.

  "Only I can kick Mosshead like that!"

  I'm ashamed to admit. It took me a minute to get back into realty after that kick. In the time I was gone the Straw-hats managed to get on their ship and had just left port. I barely managed to get down from the rafter and I could make the faint image of an orange haired woman laughing. I looked around and saw a private with a rifle.

  "Private your gun." I didn't wait for a response before snatching it and getting the crosshairs on her. Or specifically the strap to her bag. I fired. The bullet took a second to get there, and the bag fell from her shoulder and her laughter died. Her eyes were wide with fear, I placed the gun on my shoulder and smiled. There was a rock that then his me on my forehead then and there. I scoffed before rubbing my forehead.

  "That hurt." I mumbled to myself. I could hear cackling coming from the ship and looked back to it. I could faintly make out Straw-hat dancing with the Long nose. I sighed and threw the gun back at the private. I took my coat off and placed it on the floor. The bold 'JUSTICE' was dusted and wasn't as clean as I remember from this morning. Then I ran forward, past the men standing around and past Drake who had a frown on his face as he saw me. I reached the end of the dock and dove into the water. To follow their ship.

  I lied about the boat.