The Marine

Eyeing the so-called ‘Pirate Executioner’ walk away, Bill recalled their discussion.

“And what could you do for us?” he had asked once he got the man’s name.

To this question, the man had given a depreciating smile and replied: “I have information that would greatly assist you against this towns’ Mayor. This information wouldn’t be easy to come by, I can assure you of that.”

It took effort not to roll his eyes, Bill was never fond of cryptic speech or self-important people, but still, since the man had come over, Bill asked him what he wanted.

“I only need your help securing a bounty, I will give you the information you want, and you only need to do your job to get it. How does that sound?”

“Bill this man must be crazy coming over here to bargain wit*mmfph*”

Seeing the unknown man act like this, Akisu opened his mouth before Ranse covered it.

Bill was grateful the boy spoke up for him, but he would need to explain to Akisu later that side comments during negotiations were not helpful and was not his duty to intercede.

There had also been the earlier case with Yoko talking about the town’s Mayor and Bill momentarily wondered if he should try and be more normal around the kids of his Department.

He, like all men, wanted to be idolized and looked up to by the younger generation, but it was a delicate balance. The last thing he wanted was to form some kind of cult of personality.

Bill felt that the people under him needed to follow orders, but their minds should stay clear.

He was not always right, and lately there had been too many cases subordinates praising him personally for minor things.

After considering Akisu for a moment, Bill had asked what the man in yellow wanted and was told that there was a pirate race which was too much for a lowly Bounty Hunter like himself to handle.

But if Bill aided him, then not only would he offer the information on Wetton he would split the bounties down the middle.

Answering this, Bill had simply replied: “Well, I can’t give any blanket guarantees. I have the livelihoods of my people to think about. I can guarantee you though that if you give me what information you have, and if that information is helpful, I will seriously consider whatever proposal you may have.”

Bill could see the man’s eyes waver to this statement. He wanted Bill to promise aid, but Bill would never write a blank check.

So, looking squarely at Bill, Bascud said seriously: “Would you consider my request if it meant fighting a very powerful man, someone who was a former Marine Captain who turned traitor?

Or how about a pirate with a serious force under him, or one that may be surrounded by dozens of other pirate crews, are these the kind of requests you would actually consider taking?”

Hearing the Bounty Hunters question, Bill didn’t have to think about it. Although it was never his goal to put his people in harms way, they were all in the military and it was not only impossible for Bill to always shelter them, but it would also be somewhat irresponsible for him to try.

And so, he said simply: “Yes, I rightfully would consider such requests if the information given could be verified.”

Hearing this, Bascud nodded his head and took a folded piece of paper from his pocket.

And with the words: “This will be what you need.” He turned around and left.

Once he was gone from the building, Bill turned around to his friends and Ranse whistled.

“Partner, I didn’t see that coming. Hmm, now that I think about it, I did see that man around town he was so low key I didn’t think twice about him.”

After Ranse spoke, Akisu urged Bill to see what the paper was, and after opening it, saw why the Bounty Hunter had made the claim that he did.

[Wanted

Dead or Alive

‘Chin Curtain’ Wetton 14,800,000-]

Holding up the old bounty poster Ranse whistled again, and as Bill handed it over to his Lieutenant, he sank in to thought.

The man in the picture was in his mid-twenties, but Bill could tell that it was the town’s Mayor but given the Mayor’s age now. That photograph must have been taken fifty years ago.

‘Wait, fifty years ago?’

Bill started to think about the conversation he had with Henzo a couple days prior. The old ‘dotard’ had claimed the Rainbow Mist had appeared fifty years ago and that’s when he lost his friends.

That fact, given with the explanation for the stone tower, had Bill connect dots he hadn’t seen before.

‘Is it possible?’ Bill asked himself: ‘For a pirate to retire for fifty years waiting on some nonsense lost sea?’

This led to a series of other practical questions, one being what did the towns people think of a pirate becoming their Mayor – did they even know?

With his mind turning, Bill thought on the only person who he could get answers from. It was the old man he labeled as being insane, Henzo.

“Ranse.” Bill said, before he stood up.

“Quickly get back to the Frontier Run, transfer 35 people over to the Victory before morning, and Fia and Borodo must be among them.

We will go over the details later but inform the Special Operators of the situation and prepare a strategy to attack the soldier’s barracks on the island.”

After getting an “I’ll see it done.” Bill stood up and merged with the shadows in the tavern, disappearing out of the front door without a single person seeing him leave.

When he was out of the tavern he took to the air and headed for Henzo’s house and letting himself in he came up on the old man’s bed.

There was a lump there, but Bill could tell it was a fake.

Walking around the room he adjusted his senses and felt a subtle breeze coming from behind the chair that Henzo had sat down at when they had spoken before.

Inspecting the area, Bill found a lever on the bottom of the chair and after pulling it revealed a trap door that led to a narrow staircase.

The staircase would have been narrow for a man standing six foot tall, but for Bill it was almost too small for him to fit in. Thankfully, Bill could move with only his hands, and he angled himself to go down head-first in such a way where he wouldn’t have to break through the stone.

About halfway down the narrow steps, he heard a commotion and knew that Henzo had awoken and so called out: “Henzo, it’s Bill. Bill from the Science Division, I just had some questions I’d hope you’d answer.”

Bill didn’t know what to expect, but he heard the man start shuffling faster and just as his head popped out of the staircase, he found three grenades lying on the floor.

‘Ah dan-*pop FLASH*!

Barely getting his hands up, Bill closed his eyes just as the three flash grenades went off.

This would have been incredibly dangerous in these tight quarters for anyone else, but Bill readjusted his eyes just in time to see Henzo flee out of another tunnel.

Crawling out of the staircase into a big low-budget laboratory, Bill still didn’t want to wreck the mans home, but following him down the tunnel led to more booby traps.

Calling out for a peaceful resolution, Bill walked through spikes, more flashes, and even mechanical poisonous spiders as he made his way up the steps.

It wasn’t until Bill was hit with what seemed like 20,000 volts of electricity that he saw red and roared: “Now, I’ve tried to be nice old man, you can only blame yourself for this!”

Not caring about the building, stone cracked and Bill rocketed up the steps, catching Henzo as the old man was exiting the tunnel.

Grabbing Henzo with one arm by the back of his shirt, Bill elevated high into the sky and once they were hundreds of feet above the town, he roared: “Old fool! You trying to kill someone with those traps?!”

“EEEIIKKK??!!!”

Henzo looked at Bill then at the ground and turned white as a sheet.

“Well?!” Bill said again angrily, because he knew that most other people would have absolutely been killed by Henzo just now.

But his anger somewhat faded when he saw the old man with his mouth open and his eyes in utter terror.

Shaking his head, Bill calmed down enough to say: “Easy there, old fellow. I’m not going to drop you.

Just keep those hands empty, I’ll feel if you start moving them!”

After he said this, Bill pulled Henzo closer to him and using Moon Step dashed towards the top of the island’s main mountain.

The air was colder up here, but nothing dangerous and as Bill sat Henzo down the man swallowed deeply and said: “Y.you really did come from the sky!”

Hearing this, Bill huffed and said: “It’s just a Marine technique, now you old fool, why were you trying to kill me?”

“I…I wasn’t trying to kill a.anyone!” denied Henzo before he stuttered out: “I w.was only ru.running for my life!”

Then, after several more questions Bill learned that only Wetton had knowledge of Henzo’s lab and getting a visit in the middle of the night had never happened before.

Because he had been the one trespassing, Bill decided to drop the subject and move on the Wetton’s piracy.

To his mild surprise, Henzo admitted that he knew Wetton was a pirate: “Yeah, back then he ordered the town to be burnt… it was… my friends and I wanted to escape the island and go for help, so we tried to steal his ship.”

“We were so close.” Henzo rubbed his eyes and spoke deeply: “But, he caught us just when we launched off… of course we tried to fight back, even now fifty years later I can remember Rapa fighting him off.” Henzo paused again for continuing: “Only, we were only kids… and when another pirate turned out to be on board, I thought it was over, but then I saw my chance and I took it.”

Looking at Bill squarely, the old man said: “I tackled Wetton and we fell off the ship, and there from the water below we saw the Rainbow Mist descend and the ship vanished before our eyes.

Hearing this story, Bill did feel sorry for Henzo. If the attack happened fifty years ago then the old man in front of him would have been a preteen at most.

He didn’t blame Henzo for working with Wetton, either, because the fact was that the kid probably had no choice after losing everything else.

So, trying to keep his voice neutral, Bill sat atop a large stone and said: “So, your friends die in the attack… what about the towns people, how many of-”

“They aren’t dead! They were trapped in Ape’s Concert!”

Being cut off at such a time didn’t bother Bill in the slightest, and Henzo continued talking: “Most of the civilians survived the attack… whatever Wetton had in mind for the town he changed it when he saw the Rainbow Mist, after fifty years, there’re not too many of us left that remember that our ‘Mayor’ was really our Conqueror…”

Nodding to this, only a person who had lived that long really understood what ‘fifty years’ meant, so Bill asked next: “What about the soldiers, are they still active pirates?”

Shaking his head ‘no’, Henzo explained: “They’re the grandchildren of Wetton’s original crew. They drill for battle and scare off raiders, but besides collecting taxes they’ve never been in a proper battle.”

Hearing that they fended off raiders was not a surprise. Bill had come to learn that for islands outside of kingdoms, security was strenuous at best.

Back when he was growing up on Vallipo it had struck him just how much faith the people put in the World Government, even going so far that the towns sheriff happily signed his only son up as a Chore Boy, but as he had sailed the sea, Bill had begun to understand.

Most island did not have a large enough population for a strong military force, and so they were always at risk of pirate raids.

‘Frontier’ Justice would never be enough to protect these wayward islands against the various pirate crews who could strike a moment’s notice and then flee, and thus the Marines were seen as the only force out there to protect them.

On islands like Little East Blue, Clockwork, or Ruluka the absence of a Marine presence showed the danger the average person in this world faced.

Still, when it came to murder and pillage Bill would not allow Wetton to get off simply due to the passage of time and so asked how many soldiers there were and if they would do battle against Marines.

Then Bill learned that while the soldiers numbered around 450 and lived in the barracks, they had families on the island. Wetton had indeed intended to settle down and despite the high taxes keeping people poor, life was not so unbearable as to say that the people couldn’t survive.

“Wetton keeps the most loyal to him inside the Mayors Mansion, it’s perhaps fifty all together.” Bill nodded his head; he had seen about that many during those first couple of days he was there and continued to listen.

“… and the rest of them won’t easily fight against the World Government.”

The last thing Bill asked Henzo about was the family, it would leave a sour taste in his mouth to arrest Wetton only for his son to become the next Mayor, but he was relieved when Henzo ensured him that wasn’t possible.

After being told that the population hated the family, the two spoke some more before Bill brought Henzo back to his house.

He was warned to not allow Wetton to use the battle suits and smiling to that comment Bill just said: “With what I have in mind, that won’t be possible.

Wetton will be in chains tomorrow.”