The Jackal

Outside the guild hall, Jack saw the man he longed to see. "Hello Walter!! Is it finished?!!" Jack asked, barely containing himself as he glanced to the crate next to the man.

"Indeed!! It was a truly masterful task, one I think I went above and beyond on." Walter said proudly as he held his head up high.

Walter was a gunsmith that had been apart of the slaves freed from the Holy City, and when Jack learned of his talents, he hired Walter for a project.

He gave the man the drawings of how he wanted the guns to look, as well as how he wanted them to function, and upon hearing about it and seeing how Jack wanted the gun to work, Walter was thrilled.

He hated the nobles because they forced him to build for them, then they used his creations to kill those he was friends with. It made him dread building guns, but now that any gun he made would be used to kill them, he was more than happy to continue his trade.

Plus the fact that this new gun would revolutionize the firearms industry, and that he got to be the one to build the first model, well there was no way he was going to turn down such an offer.

He was a finely dressed man with slicked back, grey hair. He wore tiny spectacles, and he spoke very well for having been a slave for many years.

"How did the testing go?" Jack asked, wanting to rip the crate open and see the weapons himself. "Like a dream." Walter answered, looking off into space as he remembered the beautiful days of testing the glorious weapons.

"Shall I get them out here, sir?" Walter asked, shooting a look over Jack's shoulder to the crowd of onlookers. Looking at the people, Jack shrugged his shoulders.

"Here is fine. Some of the people here are gonna be using these, so it would be best if the creator of the weapon gave the run down of everything." Jack said as he signaled for Nojiko and Luke to come stand next to him.

They watched as Walter pulled out three small cases from the Crate, each case engraved with a name. The first would be Nojiko. "Ladies first." Walter said, gesturing for Nojiko to come forward. She looked over to Jack, who smiled broadly at her, telling her it was going to be awesome.

As she stood in front of the case, Walter opened it, showing two beautiful twin pistols.

"Allow me to introduce the newest model of firearms. The Jackal! A custom 13 millimeter combat pistol! It fires custom made rounds, far more powerful than any model before it! 39 centimeters long, 16 kilograms in weight, 6 rounds per magazine. The Jackal has more Firepower than any normal human could be expected to handle. Both of these two were made specifically for your use, the grips being molded to your hands only." Walter said proudly, holding the pistol out for Nojiko to take.

(A.N. That's right!! Homage to the Angel of Death!!)

Beside him, Jack asked "The rounds?"

Walter smiled happily as he pulled an already loaded magazine from the case, then explained "13 millimeter explosive shells!! The casings are made of steel coated in a brass film to protect from the elements, while the tips are made of mercury mixed with specs of Sea Stone for good measure. There are also rounds without the Sea Stone, but it never hurts to carry both."

Nojiko ran her fingers over the gun, then inserted the magazine. With preloaded magazines, she could load this thing in a second. Wanting to test it, she aimed at a tree about 50 yards away and fired.

Everyone stared dumbly as the tree blew apart, then fell to the ground. "It's perfect, Walter!!" Jack exclaimed as he opened his own case, revealing nearly identical twin pistols as Nojiko's. His were jet black, with red pistol grips, while Nojiko's were almost pure crimson in colour with black grips.

Luke checked out his pistols, and they were a shiny silver with white grips. Each case had holsters that could be swapped between shoulder holsters or for the hips, as well as ten magazines, each already loaded.

Luke wasted no time in dawning his new pistols, already getting a good feel for them. He wouldn't test them here, as it would be too dangerous given the power he had just seen.

"I love them!!" Nojiko said, jumping on Jack, who gave Walter a thumbs up. "How many of the regular models did you manage to build?" Jack asked, looking to the still packed crate.

"20 of them all together, but now that I have the specs, and the factory already built, I can start making them in bulk. Say... 110 a week, if I have all the materials." Walter said, getting a smile from Jack.

"Whatever you need, you'll get! The patent is yours, as well as the name for further use." Jack said, then turned to a few people that he was training that were part of the W.M.P.

"Each of you will be given one of these weapons!! I expect each of you to be able to pass the gun course with these by the end of the year!!" Everyone was excited with Jack's challenge, and a few people that Jack thought were ready were given one of the twenty extra guns, although they were just the regular 9mm Glock pistols.

To Jack's surprise and joy, Walter's full name was Walter Glock, which he assumed was some kind of joke, but it was true. Thinking the guns were fated to be dubbed as they were, Jack had given Walter the rights to the guns, thus all of the other models were dubbed as Glock Pistols.

As everyone celebrated the new revolutionary weapon, Jack pulled Walter aside. "Thanks Walter. You've done better than I ever expected. Although now, I have another project you might find interesting, granted you would still need to be able to have the pistols being manufactured as well. Interested?" Jack asked with an eye smile.

From the few interactions he had with the man, Jack knew Walter would jump at the opportunity, and judging by the sparkles in the man's eyes, he was right. "Of course! What is it?" Walter asked, barely biting back his curiosity

. Getting Walter's approval, Jack pulled out the blueprints for a 50 caliber automatic sniper rifle, as well as the scope and crosshairs. Walter studied the prints for a few minutes before he rolled them up, and without saying another word, he began speed-walking away, although it was more of a sprint in Jack's opinion.

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A few hours, and multiple tests later, Jack and Nojiko retired back to their room aboard the Pearl. "Was this the surprise you had planned for me?" Nojiko asked as she cleaned and oiled her guns.

"Yeah. I figured since you mainly use guns, you should have the very best to defend yourself with." Jack answered as he finished putting his own guns back in their case before he stored it in his inventory.

"I really appreciate it, but you know you need to take a break every once in awhile." She said as she finished with her own guns and put them away.

"I'll take a break soon. With the war approaching and the training still far from complete, I need to speed up." Jack said, earning a pout from the blue-haired vixen.

"You have all of us, and we can train everyone too. Dragon also can handle the trains and the North Blue. Garp, Rayleigh, Sengoku, Hawkeye, Masterson, and the others can handle training the soldiers for now. I need you to rest, okay? WE need you to rest!" Nojiko said, emphasizing WE.

It took Jack a second to understand what she was hinting at, and when he finally got it, he rushed her, spinning her around in joy. "REALLY?!!" He asked, his smile lighting up the room. "Really!" She answered with her own smile as tears of joy poured down her face.

He had promised her they would start a family, mostly because it was something she had wanted, but the thought of being a father was both exciting and terrifying. Especially now when he didn't know how the world would turn out, but he wouldn't let something like that stop him from starting a family.

(A.N. Surprise!!)

He pulled Nojiko to the bed and let her lay down, while he started talking to her her tummy, "Hey, I'm your daddy!!" He said with a smile as he looked up to Nojiko, who was holding back her laughter.

"Who else knows?" Jack asked after a few seconds. He knew how the Government would react over this if they found out, hunting his child until they killed both it and Nojiko. It's what they did With Gold Roger, only in his situation he would be there to protect them.

"Just me, you and Dr. Kureha. She confirmed it earlier today." Nojiko said, making Jack think about if he wanted to make it public knowledge.

They could always wait until she started showing, then they could have her go to Cocoyashi Village to be with Genzo until the child was born. However all of that could wait for now. He never hid where he was, and the Government was already terrified to try and face him, so he would only hide them if the situation started to look dire.

Hell, he could take them to the Sky islands, which were out of the Governments Domain, or he could take them to the moon! Enel traveled there and ruled over the people on it in the anime, so if he wanted he could always go there and be safe if he needed to.

"Do you want to tell people?" Jack asked, making sure Nojiko wanted to do anything before he set it in stone. No matter what plan he had, it would be for naught if she didn't want to follow it.

"I wanna tell Genzo and Nami, but we can tell the others if you want to." She said, rubbing her stomach with a happy smile. "For now we'll tell the people we're closest too, but other than that, let's try and keep those who know to a minimum." Jack said, getting a nod from Nojiko.

Looking back to her Stomach, Jack said, "I wonder if you are gonna be a boy or a girl..." As he trailed off, Nojiko said "I personally don't care what it is, so long as it's healthy. Although we do need to talk names."

Hearing this, Jack was left to wonder. 'I don't know any good names, and there's no one I would name them after.' He thought, only coming out of his stupor when he heard Nojiko say, "If it's a girl, I wanna name her after my mother, Bellamere. Bella or Bell for short."

Jack agreed that would be the name if it was a girl, but they would think of boy names. They had a little over 7 months until she was due.

The next morning, Makino, Soran, Robin, Smoker, Tashigi, Luke, Nami, Genzo, Tedi, Lucian, Selene, Apis, Nemo, and Tsuru were sitting in the guild hall, everyone waiting quietly for an announcement from Jack.

Everyone who needed to know was here, minus Kureha, who already knew. "Alright! Now that most everyone is here, we have an announcement!" Jack said, letting a little bit of his excitement show.

"We're having a baby!" Nojiko said happily, dropping a bomb on everyone.

*Silence*

For almost ten seconds not a word was spoken, hell Jack wasn't even sure anyone took a breath in that time. It was finally broken when Nami shot to her feet and almost tackled Nojiko, crying tears of joy for her sister.

"I'm gonna be an auntie!!" She screamed excitedly. All the guys came over and congratulated Jack, then Luke had to say, "Dibbs on God Father!!" This lead to a few shouting matches, but Jack didn't bother with them.

Instead he went to sit by Nojiko, was was being hugged by Genzo. "I'm gonna be a grandpa!" He said, trying to hold back his tears, but it didn't look like he would hold out much longer.

Eventually the God parent topic was brought to Jack and Nojiko, but before it could get heated Jack said, "Can't I depend on all of you to be there for my child? I trust each one of you, and I know my kid will too."

This naturally had the affect of ending the argument, but Luke still made a point to say that he was the legal guardian if anything should happen to both Jack and Nojiko.

"We don't want this to spread, so keep it to yourselves. We just wanted to tell the people we cared about, so that is for those of you in this room." Nojiko said, getting nods from everyone. They all knew how the world would react to Jack's child, so it was only natural they would keep their mouths shut.

Once the excitement was over, everyone went about their daily lives. Training started in earnest, and the Academy was in full swing. Daddy Masterson was given some of the new guns, and instead of carrying his 30 something odd pistols, he now only carried two, with about 100 fully loaded magazines.

Luffy officially joined the school, but he was something of a bully, although it wasn't on purpose. He was still the happy-go-lucky kid he always was, only now he liked to fight people all the time, regardless of how tired he was from the workouts.

It got to the point where Luke had to beat the hell out of him on a daily basis, but without fail he smiled every time he fought Luke, no matter how it ended.

Hawkeye kept to his word teaching swordsmanship, and he was surprisingly a good teacher. It was because he was so good that he was allowed to cut the amount of days he actually had to be in the academy to only 3 days a week, and would only accept challenges from people on one of those 3 days.

There was even a certain green-haired man who carried three swords in his class. The confrontation with Zoro and Hawkeye was similar to the anime, only this time Zoro wasn't a pirate, and they weren't out at sea.

He still piqued Hawkeye's interest like he did in the anime, and now there were both Luke and Zoro aiming to steal his title from him. Koushirou was happy to see that both Luke and Zoro were still alive, and gave them both tips on their training.

Rayleigh, Garp and Sengoku had to take training people seriously, otherwise Jack would get after them, banning Rayleigh from the bars, Garp from the restaurants, and told Sengoku that for everyday he didn't do his job, he'd be bunking with Garp. Needless to say, they were all motivated to teach properly.

There were a little over 2000 people being trained, and for weeks they were making unbelievable strides in their training. Jack tried to spend some one on one time with people, giving them pointers in their training, correcting things that they were unsuited for, and putting everyone on correct diets.

He spent most of his time in training people, but he did remember to take at least 2 days to himself every week and not do anything, while he only trained with everyone for 10 hours a day before he was almost always with Nojiko.

He and Luke did make trips every once in awhile into the Grand Line to harass the marines and the Emperors, but they never went for the Emperor's directly. In the papers, they read about Whitebeard clashing with Kaido, and it kind of funny how Kaido had to retreat.

The paper never said what happened other than that Kaido was beaten by Whitebeard, but Jack learned from the man himself that Kaido didn't receive any serious wounds that he couldn't recover from, and that Whitebeard hadn't received a scratch.

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It had been three months since Jack found out he was going to be a father, and he was still just as excited as that first day. Nojiko had a baby bump now, and it was no longer a secret she was pregnant.

Dragon was keeping his spies in the marines on the lookout for any news regarding the pregnancy, but so far there wasn't a word. In the three months since he started training people in earnest, the biggest changes of all had been the Minks.

Tedi and Lucian had gotten control over their Sulong forms, and after that Jack carried out his plan. He knew the Mink's transformed under the full moon, so he had asked Kureha and Chopper to research about it.

Chopper had already created something similar with his Rumble Balls, allowing himself to transform into different forms, so Jack had figured they could possibly do something like that to give the minks full access to their Sulong forms if they had something to give themselves the extra push.

With blood samples from Tedi and Lucian while they were in and out of Sulong, Kureha had developed a pill, that once taken would allow a mink to enter Sulong for 3 hours, regardless of the time of day or whether or not the moon was out.

She stated she wanted to research this a bit more and that she might be able to create something that would help the minks transform at will without a catalyst, but it would be a long time before she had it figured out.

Meanwhile, Tedi and Lucian's strength rose considerably after that, going from monsters to down right demons. Once they were at a good stage, they both began training the members of the mink tribe there in Foosha, and it was actually coming along great.

One day Jack went and gathered Luke, Smoker, Tedi, Lucian and Nemo, telling them to meet him in the guild hall. "Soon, I want us to go an take out Tesoro!" Jack said, making them all get serious. They all were told about Tesoro, and each of them wanted him dead.

"Is it just gonna be us?" Smoker asked, wondering why it was just them here if they were attacking someone like Tesoro. "Yeah. The others could be helpful, but I don't think they should come. When I ranked everyone before, I think I was being a little too generous. Over the past three months, I've been watching everyone, and it's safe to say I have your new rankings.

Luke-SS rank to SSS

Smoker-S rank

Nojiko-S rank

Tedi-S rank

Lucian-S rank

Nemo-S-rank

Tashigi-A rank

Robin-B rank

Nami-B rank

Selene-D rank maybe C

Kureha-??

"I'm not saying you need to be S-rank to come on this mission, but I think we could all handle ourselves and get away without losing our lives." Jack said, getting a few nods from everyone else.