CH - 66

Fein nodded.

They waited a moment for the passing guard to turn his back to them, then Halcen said "Now."

Fein whistled and Shira roared to life.

The guard was attacked in the leg by Shira tearing into his calf muscle. "Oh fuck!"

"What the hell!?" the other guard came running.

BANG!

Halcen's pistol rang out as the other guard was shot in the head, knocking him onto the ground, dead.

Fein came upon the first guard's back, knocking him down, and then snapped his neck.

"Nice," Halcen said, passing by.

They stood up, looking around. There were cages everywhere, with several frightened captives inside. "Which one is Bo's family?" Halcen asked himself.

"How do we figure it out?"

"There," Halcen said, motioning to the only cage with a woman and a young child. She was quite lovely, with long red hair, and pale skin. The kid was about ten, with Bo's olive colored skin and the same bulbous nose. He walked up to them. "You must be Catharine and Josopp."

"Who are you?" the lady asked, holding her young son in an attempt to protect him from the pirates.

"I'm a friend of your husband's."

"Bo?"

"We're here to rescue you."

"What? Why?"

"I literally just answered that. Do you want to be rescued or not? We don't have time for these questions. Fein, the key."

Fein quickly took out the cell key and unlocked the jail cell they had been stuck in.

"Now, let's go," Halcen said.

Catharine seemed to hesitate.

"NOW!"

That startled her. "Alright, baby, let's go," she said to her son. "We're gonna go see your daddy." They followed Halcen out of the cell, passing Fein and Shira, who took rear in the procession.

Halcen busted out of the front door of the jail towards the guard station. He stopped to look up to where he knew the snipers were waiting. Behind him were the wife and child of Bo. Halcen waved and gave them a thumbs up. He waited for a reply.

Bo looked down at Halcen and tears came to his eyes. There behind him was his beautiful wife and his young son. "There they are," he whispered. His heart skipped a beat. "They're finally within reach."

"Things are moving. Soon, you'll be able to hold them," Kazuki said, "but for now we gotta get moving. Secondary patrols are bound to show up soon."

"You're right." Bo shook himself of his moment, knowing he didn't have time to savor it. He whistled to confirm to Halcen they were ready.

Halcen turned to the woman and said "Alright, let's go. We're getting out of here."

"Where's my husband?" She demanded.

"He'll meet us soon. We still need his cover to get across the rest of the town."

"Okay," she said, knowing she didn't have any option but to believe this stranger.

"Alright, we're gonna do this low and slow. We only have the five of us to take on any challenge, so I don't want to make a big scene. Follow me, very carefully." Then he looked down to Bo's son. "Can you do that, big man?"

"I can do that," Josopp said.

"Alright, here we go."

This was where Fein took lead. He was the best sensory member they had. He began the parade slowly. He crossed out of the light of the guard station and across the road where the light was much dimmer. The others followed suit.

Slowly, they began to cross the base and head towards the docks. But they soon encountered a problem. Fein stopped in his tracks and everybody froze. There was a group of three Marines hurrying through the road, right past where Fein had lined up their escape route.

"What's going on?" somebody called from behind.

The Marines stopped.

"There's something wrong at the jail," one of them answered.

"What happened?"

"We don't know. We're headed there to check it out. They were supposed to check in ten minutes ago, but nobody's answered the calls."

"Oh shit. We better be on alert."

"Yeah, we'll let you know what happens."

And then they headed back off toward the jail. It was only about two hundred feet from the pirates' current position. Soon, they were going to find out what happened and there was going to be a big deal.

Bo looked at the three soldiers running. "We have to take them out," he said to Kazuki. "The base will lock down if they found out what happened and we won't be able to get out again."

Kazuki nodded. This shit just keeps getting better. He looked down to Halcen and whistled. They were still on the rooftops but there was enough surrounding light to see them now. He motioned that they were going to take down the Marines.

Halcen motioned to go ahead.

"This is gonna be tricky," Kazuki said. "We don't have time to let even one of them get away."

They readied their rifles quickly.

"Three, two, one."

Click.

The two Marines at the back of the group fell to the ground with bullets in their heads.

The last one turned around in horror. He looked around wildly, then realized what was going on. He began to run.

"Here we go." Kazuki got sights on him first. "Three… two… one."

Click.

The man just ducked behind a building and Kazuki hit his shoulder instead of his head. "Fuck," he said. He looked to Bo. "I missed. He's around the corner."

Bo took up Rebecca and said, "Hold on, let me check it out." He caught sight of the very top of the man's head, hiding behind the wall. "I see him, but there's a very little room." He focused and breathed.

Click.

"Got em, yes," he said as celebratory as he could without actually shouting.

"No fucking way." Kazuki took a look and was flabbergasted. "Son of a bitch." He gulped. "Alright, well let's get going." He looked down to Halcen and whistled again.

Halcen looked to see Kazuki confirming their kills. He gave them the okay, then turned back to the others. "Alright, let's get going. Fein, after you."

And Fein got back to leading them the rest of the way. They didn't have any more problems from there. Soon, they were over the fence that cut off the base from the rest of the town. This was where the snipers finally rejoined the rest of the escapees.

Bo saw his wife and son and run to them and wrapped his arms around them, nearly in tears. Catharine did begin crying. She was hysterical and that was understandable.

"What the hell have you been doing?" she cried out. "What did you do that was so bad that they had to lock us up for it?"

"What did they tell you?" Bo asked, ashamed.

"That you betrayed your commanding officer. That you two were working with pirates."

Bo sighed."Well, in a way, that's true."

She slapped him across the face. "How could you?!"

"Would you listen before you go slapping me?" he said angrily. "We were brought along to handle this pirate captain, except he was too strong for us. So Reluji took off and abandoned us on the island. Halcen took us and saved our asses. We didn't know Reluji had started that lie until we got here just the other day. I didn't know you were being held captive and I'm so sorry that happened to you. But now we're together, and we're gonna escape this island."

"I don't want to leave."

"Dad, why do we have to go?"

"Listen, I know it's gonna be difficult, but we don't have any other options. We're fugitives. They're not going to just let us reset and live here. We need to leave and go find an island where we can live peacefully. I'm thinking we can lay low in Syrup Village."

"Damn you, Bosopp," she said, but she hugged him anyway. "Okay, fine."

"Hate to break up the touching reunion, but we gotta get out of here," Halcen said. "We're off the base, but we got a long way to go until we're safe."

"He's right," Kazuki said.

"Then let's carry on," Bo said, holding it together.

Fein continued his lead of the rest of the group through the darkened city streets. It was much easier this time. They were able to make their way through the majority of the town without further issue. Then they came upon a lone Marine barring their way to where they needed to branch off to get to the docks. He began walking toward them with full ferocity.

"Vergo," Kazuki said.

"I'm afraid I can't let you leave again," he said.

Bo pulled his pistol and trained it on the Marine Captain.

"I don't think that's wise," he said. And then his arms turned Haki and he shielded himself. "You never know where those might reflect and who you might hurt in the process."

Then Halcen stepped up. "I'll take care of this. You guys go around. I'll hold him here."

"What about you?"

"I'll catch up."

They nodded and Fein dragged them down an alleyway, leaving Halcen to fend for himself.

"Not smart, sending away your backup," Vergo said, shaking his head. "It's okay, once I kill you, I'll go fetch them."

"Not gonna happen," Halcen said, and his own arms turned black. "I don't need help to beat you."

"Oh? You think so? I guess we'll see who the better Haki user really is."

"I'm gonna settle this, once and for all."