CH - 74

The Chaos Pirates were heading northeast toward Architao Island, the island where they believed Shanks to be holding up. He had set out to find the Poneglyphs, and Architao Island was the first on his list, as Halcen understood it. There, Halcen would seek out his help. They had left Syrup Village behind a few hours ago, along with Bo's wife and son.

The crew was beginning to enjoy themselves in a bit of revelry. The night had darkened the sky and their ship was alight with firelight and camaraderie.

"To our new comrades!" Fein roared, holding up a pint.

"To Bo and Kazuki!" Jin shouted, following suit.

"To new friends," Morkine said a little less intensely.

"To our new crewmates!" Jory shouted.

Shira howled into the night.

"To us!" Kazuki said, holding up a beer. "And to you! Thank you all!"

Bo was a little less. Everyone knew he was upset, but he wasn't going to go out of his way to show it. That just wasn't the way Marines, or even pirates for that matter, behaved. He wasn't upset over joining a pirate crew, he was upset over his loss of his family. He knew they would be safe, but he would never see them again. And that depressed him.

"Come on, buddy," Kazuki said, throwing his arm around Bo's shoulder. "You gotta relax a little. Have a beer."

Bo looked with annoyance at Kazuki. "Not interested."

"Listen man," Kazuki said, lowering his voice. "We made our choices. We're here, at least semi-permanently. There's no going back for us. Your family is safe, okay? Now we gotta do our best to make the most of our new situation. We're really fucking lucky we're here, and not dead. We owe it, not just to Halcen and the crew, but ourselves. And you owe it to your family."

Bo wasn't ready for that, but he knew Kazuki was right. "Alright. One beer."

"Haha, there we go." He let his weight off Bo and they walked back to the gathering of pirates.

Halcen and Grey sat off behind the others. Neither one had touched the alcohol.

"So you're sure about this?" Grey asked Halcen.

Halcen sighed. "It's the only plan I got." Halcen took out a piece of candy and began chowing down.

Grey laughed.

"Hey, I gotta join the party somehow." Halcen stood up and smashed a mouth full of gummies in his mouth and began chewing. He walked toward his crew. "Anybody knew any good pirate songs?" he asked through his full mouth.

Everyone laughed.

Grey sat back and watched the kids enjoy their festivities.

After their night of partying, Halcen woke up in the morning and headed up to get some coffee. He was nursing a pretty serious sugar crash headache. He wasn't hungover, but he had a lot of the same symptoms. He threw together a small breakfast of greasy meat and some bread. He wasn't very hungry after the previous night, but he knew he needed sustenance. We should be getting to Architao sometime tonight. It'll probably be late, but we'll make it. He sat down for a few minutes to wake up. In came Grey.

"Hey old man," Halcen said.

Grey nodded and sat down at the table. His long body seemed so unfit at the table. The Black Tail wasn't tiny, but it was a smaller vessel. Grey had to deal with a lot of being uncomfortable. "Once we get a little extra money, you should think about getting a bigger ship."

"Do you think so?" Halcen had just gotten used to the idea of owning his own ship at all. The Black Tail was his first. He figured it would be years before he even thought about getting a new one. That seemed so far off in the distance.

"Well I mean, we've been gaining a lot of new crew members. Jory, Morkine, Jin, Fein and Shira, and now officially Bo and Kazuki."

"We have room to support everyone."

"For now. What happens when we actually do start adding females? Do you expect them to bunk with the rest of the crew? Wouldn't they want their own area?"

"Loyola and Valentina didn't seem to mind."

"Yeah, but they were only here for a couple weeks. What about women who want to join permanently?"

"Nobody on my crew gets special attention. If they join, they get the same conditions as everyone else. Why should they get special privileges just because they have breasts? That seems pretty silly. If a woman wants to be a pirate, why would she want special treatment?"

Grey chuckled. "That seems a bit sexist."

"How is treating everyone like equals sexist? Isn't that what pirates are all about? Equality and freedom? Everyone on my ship is guaranteed food, shelter, and my protection. Male, female, dog, cat, and anything in between. Nobody needs special treatment."

"You say that now…"

"You just want a bigger ship because you're claustrophobic."

"I am not claustrophobic, I'm just uncomfortable."

"We're getting a bigger ship?" Kazuki asked, walking in.

"NO!" Halcen shouted, slamming his hand down. "I can't afford that shit. We just got this ship, and only by selling that Devil Fruit to Max. We gotta earn some serious coin before we can start thinking about that luxury shit. Do you know how expensive ships are? We only got a good deal because Max and I have history."

"So find another Devil Fruit," Grey joked.

"Yeah, like it's that easy," Halcen laughed back. "Getting the first one was hard enough, and we only got it because we happened upon it. It's not like it's that easy to just go out looking for Devil Fruits."

"Yeah," Kazuki said. "If we had to go through that again, we'd all probably die."

"Came pretty close the first time," Halcen said.

Everyone laughed.

When the rest of the crew had awoken, Morkine took over running the ship with Jory helping out. Halcen had decided to give Jory the day off from training to get themselves right. Not just for Jory, but Halcen too. He had a lot on his mind he needed to work out. Not to mention they were both sore from the previous night's festivities. So Halcen headed up to the crow's nest to be alone.

When dusk began, Halcen spotted a ship off in the distance. It wasn't huge, but it was larger than the Black Tail by about three times. Halcen pulled out his telescope. He gazed through it to see it wasn't a pirate ship or Marine ship, it was a luxury cruiser. It was engraved in embroidered designs of purple and gold flowers and such. This was where Halcen smiled. Luxury ships meant money. Halcen glanced the name off the side, the Zaika.

Odd name, Halcen thought to himself. Fucking rich people. Would be a shame if something happened to their money. Halcen began to plot. This was what he did best. He climbed down the rope nets to the deck with a plan. "Everyone gather around! I need all eyes and ears on me!"

The entire crew came together.

"Here we have an opportunity to make ourselves some money, the good old-fashioned pirate way: stealing it from rich people!" He grinned with a cackle. "We've got ourselves an oncoming luxury cruiser on its way to cross our path. I believe this is the best opportunity to induct you all in the pirate way!"

The crew members began to get nervous and excited.

"I'm game," Fein said.

"Why is it that every time it comes to doing something dirty or violent, you get all excited?" Halcen asked.

Fein shrugged.

"Not that I'm complaining, I just think maybe you have some issues. You make me nervous. Maybe stay here."

Fein just sat there with his mouth open, unsure how to react.

"Nah I'm just fucking with you. We're bloody pirates! I love the energy." Then Halcen stopped. "Whoa, did I just say 'energy?'"

Jory nodded awkwardly.

"Anyway, here's the plan. Snipers, take positions in the crow's nest. It's the only spot in the ship that will give you even a semi decent view of their ship. You'll need to make sure none of them get over to our ship. I doubt it will happen, but just in case. Grey, Jory, Fein, Morkine, and I will all board the ship. First, we disable whatever small security force they have, then we split up. Grey, Morkine, and myself will take the passengers. Jory and Fein, you guys go to the galley and start loading up all the food and drinks. We're gonna rob these bastards blind."

"Are we sure about doing this?" Jory asked.

"It's their fault, Jory," Halcen said with a conniving tone, putting his arm around the kid. "It's just what happens to people who flaunt their wealth while others in the world are starving. Call it karma."

Jory nodded along, still unsure. But he knew he didn't have a choice in the matter. "Alright."

"Good man." Then he turned his attention to Jin. "Jin, you're gonna have to take control of the ship. Just keep it steady alongside the Zaika. They shouldn't have any cannons so we definitely have the advantage. They're not a battle ship, and there shouldn't be trained soldiers, so we should have very little to fear."

"Okay."

"What about Shira?" Fein asked.

"Can she climb a rope ladder?"

Fein sighed. "She cannot."

"Then looks like she's staying here."

Shira whined.

"Hey, it's not my fault you're a dog."

She barked.

"Wolf, whatever." Halcen turned back to the group. "Alright, everyone know their job?"

They all agreed in a general consensus.

"Then let's do this." Halcen turned back and they all dispersed to quickly prepare.

Halcen was up in the crow's nest before Bo or Kazuki. He held tight to a rope he'd prepared for this moment. He had a rope ladder strapped to his back.

Soon, he was joined by Bo and Kazuki. They readied their rifles for the fight. Here, they stood a chance of actually helping their crewmates.

Morkine, Grey, Jory, Fein, and Jin were all still down below. When the Zaika came across their path, Jory, Jin and Morkine twisted the Black Tail around to the side to follow alongside Zaika's port side. Here, was when Morkine turned control of the ship over to Jin. "Just keep her steady, man."

Halcen held onto the rope tightly, jumped down and swung across the gap between the two ships, landing in a roll on his side. It wasn't graceful, but he made it without getting hurt. He turned himself back up.

Then came a guard, running towards Halcen, yelling "PIRATES!"

A shot rang out from the Black Tail's crow nest and a hole appeared in his head.

He fell to the ground with a thump, blood began to spurt. He was dead for sure.

Of course they'd spotted us. We pulled up next to them in a damn pirate ship. But then he smiled to himself. He pulled the rope ladder off from his back, mounted it, and unfurled it by throwing it down to the deck of the Black Tail. He waited patiently for the rest of his team to climb up.

First things first, they needed to take care of the guards first. They were definitely aware the pirates had boarded their ship. Halcen began leading his crew across the Zaika's deck, but only got about a dozen feet before he heard the sound of boots stomping their way. There wasn't a siren or anything, but they were sending the troops.

"Stop right there!" one of the guards yelled.

Halcen pulled his pistol and began aiming rapidly towards random guards. There were a lot more of them than he had anticipated. Just there alone were about fifteen scattered across the deck, advancing on them. Halcen's trigger finger got itchy.

Grey, Jory, Fein, and Morkine were all at his back. Grey's fists were at the ready, Jory pulled his sword, Fein readied his claws, and Morkine had pulled his blunderbuss.

"If you all want to live," Halcen said, "it would be best if you turned around and scattered. We're wanted men. I don't want to have to hurt you, but we will."

They didn't seem to be threatened.

"All we want is the money from the rich bastards you're being paid pennies to protect. Is their money worth dying for?"

They began snickering. One of the overzealous guards fired a pistol at them, and the rest followed suit.

Halcen said "I warned you," and then he jumped forward, dodging their attacks. He got close to one of the guards, shot him in the face with a pistol and then threw his knife at another guard charging at him.

Grey swooped in without being phased and began pummeling the guards.

Jory jumped in and swept a guard off his feet with his blade, then knocked him unconscious by kicking him in the head. He slashed another across the arm, almost cutting it clean off. He watched the blood spill and the guard drop the ground.

Fein dived under the mess and popped up, clawing one guy's throat out. He spun around quickly to see another guard trying to hit him with a sword. Fein dodged in and grabbed the man's right arm and twisted it until it broke. He heard the sound of the crunch.

Morkine jumped over and floated through the air. He came down on two guards, landing on their heads, and fired his cannon into their bodies.

The snipers took their picks from guards that were trying to sneak up on preoccupied crewmates or ones that tried to run away once they realized the mistake they'd made trying to pick a fight.

When all was said and done, the deck of the Zaika was dripping with blood. Halcen laughed. "I fucking told them." He looked back at the other crews members. "Alright, you know your jobs. Break."

Jory and Fein branched off from the main team to begin scouring the ship for the galley. They went down underneath where most ships would have it and began going room to room. They were trying to get this done quickly, but when you're unfamiliar with an enemy's ship's layout, you can't just stop and ask for directions.

"Excuse me," Jory stopped and asked one of the passing servants. "Where is the galley?"

She seemed frightened and then pointed them in the right direction.

"Thank you," Jory said as they raced off.