Walk The Dragon Too

The world is ruled by Absolute Justice. Fine words, but tainted by the tree that produced them. The world is ruled by the world government, an organization that brings order to the entire world. In order to maintain itself and the righteousness of its rule the world government took up the philosophy of Absolute justice. Absolute Justice is the idea that all are equal under the law, and that evil will be crushed with extreme prejudice. It is a fine idea and one worthy of ruling over the world. However man, in the sense of all species and races, are crooked twisted beings that can never truly supplant there nature. Even with the word justice written on their backs the concept is twisted and perverted. Absolute justice only exist toward the common man. Those in power and those who have connection to power have loop holes that allow them to bypass justice. Thus justice is not absolute and the ideal government the world deserves, or to be more specific thought it had, is perverse.

That is where we come in. We are the Middle Men. We are the hand of justice. The blade that extends its reach where Justice cannot be found. We pierce the wall of protection shielding the wicked from the justice they deserve.

Long ago, a young marine decreed that the world was ruled by absolute justice and we, as The Middle Men, are here to insure that his words remain true.

Let me give you a short introduction. My name is Jacket Man, well that is not my real name, but it is the name everyone knows me by. On the surface I am Marcus Noodles a simple accountant for the Lexing Burg newspaper company, however that is a rouse. In truth I am a ninja, and no! Before you go off screaming believe it and put on an orange jumpsuit I am not that kind of ninja. If the idea of a man dressed in all black with a sword and cowl came to your mind then you need to throw that out as well. A real ninjas does not dress like that. If you saw me on the street you would not even recognize me as a ninja, or anybody of any threat level. I am just a normal guy with a navy blue jacket, light tan pants, white button up shirt, and blue tie. The only thing that stands out about me is my handsome looks and periwinkle eyes.

However that is enough about me. What you need to know is the name and face of my target. For today is the day that I prove my worth as a ninja. Today is the day that the ultimate offender’s name has been brought to The Middle Men? Today is the day that I assassinate a World Noble.

Before we go on let me give you a bit of background about my target. The man’s name is Harkon, well Saint Harkon if you want to be exact. He is a human of a light completion and an old man around the age of ninety seven. He is of a medium build with very little muscle tone and he has not had any combat experience his entire life. A year ago he was simply another World Noble living the life of luxury and pleasure. As always the World Nobles are on The Middle Men’s list of people to eliminate or watch.

As a side note about World Nobles and The Middle Men, it should be known that they are usually on the watch list for the first ten years of their life and after that they do something to place them onto the elimination portion. However most of the time they are never killed off. This is not due to a lack of devotion on The Middle Men’s part, but rather the lack of opportunity. World Nobles have the best security and The Middle Men are low in number. We cannot throw away all our lives trying to take down one World noble. Instead we focus on the other offenders and strike at them once the opportunity presents itself. Harkon however has stood out and his recent actions have made him a must eliminate target.

So to go back to why Harkon must be eliminated once needs to understand what he did a year ago. Harkon, who is most definitely not a saint, visited the Island of Apple. Like all old men who live as long as he does Harkon began to fear death. Its shroud loomed over him like the silver moon and the noble feared for his life. In an effort to escape death all together Harkon had people looking for way to become immortal. During his search one of his men picked up on the legend of a certain devil fruit and a women who had been alive for over two hundred years. Naturally once the information reached Harkon he left to go gain this power. Of course there was only one problem, the power was inside of the women’s blood. The power of devil fruits exist inside the body of the consumer and thankfully there is only one copy of that power in the world. Harkon, filled with greed and fear, murdered that women and during the crime several other innocent souls lost their lives. One soul in particular was a young man named Cooper.

Cooper, who is important to my mission, was Yoza, the women who held the power of immortality, son. The aged maiden had adopted him at an early age, which seemed to be a custom of the village at the time. Yoza was the village elder and it was only natural that the elder of the village look after the orphans. Even though the bond between them was not of blood the two of them where as close as true kin. Once Harkon moved to slay his mother Cooper moved to stop him. That was when Cooper’s head was chopped off by his guardian monk. That Monk, is Harkon’s personal bodyguard. He will be one of the targets I need to eliminate if I want to do the old man in. However Cooper, is the more important piece of information. Thought that probably seems like a surprises considering he is dead right, but this time you would be wrong.

Well the information surrounding this is vague and questionable but The Middle Men’s contacts tell us that Cooper is alive. Apparently between the time that his head was cleaved from his body and apple island ripped to pieces someone discovered a way to put Cooper’s head back onto his body. So surreal right. Well, that is not all the way true. Cooper’s head was placed onto a body, but it was not his body. Well to be more specific it was not his natural body. Whoever it was that put humpty dumpty back together decided that they did not want him to be made out of egg shell again. Cooper’s new body is made entirely of metal now. He is some new kind of synthetic cyborg admiral now. I know it is weird, but the important part toward my work is that Cooper, being the fool he is, has decided that he wants to get revenge for his mother. So he has gathered together four other fools in order to try and eliminate this World Noble.

I know you are probably wondering how in the world this information got to us, The Middle Men, and not the world government. Well the answer to that question is that it didn’t. The information we have about Cooper and his intentions came from one of our assassinations. The spook who picked up on the fool’s intentions was marked for assassination by us. Before he could turn in his findings we removed him from the streets and gave him a pleasant dinner date with Fishman Island. Of course we gave him some complementary cement shoes and a formal dagger thought the heart.

After we received this information my superiors saw this as a perfect opportunity. They would let the fools go in first and distract the security surrounding the World Noble. While there eyes are on them one of our agents will sneak in and kill the noble without anyone being aware. They would then sneak out and nobody would be the wiser. However, the top brass of The Middle Men where not convinced the fools would even provide a reasonable distraction. As a result they decided that they did not want to send one of their top operators on this mission. At the same time they were most definitely not going to send a complete newb. This mission had too much riding on it to entrust to an initiate. So this this mission fell to me. I was most definitely not in the top ten, nor was I so green that they figured it would be a waste of time. I was just enough competence to do the job, but at the same time expendable that I would not be missed. Yay, lucky me. If you cannot tell that was sarcasm. Still there is a bit of a silver lining. If I succeed and the mission is a success then I will most definitely get a promotion and to top it all off I got to deliver justice to the scum bags that deserve it the most. Still it was a daunting task. I was going to need to find my own way in, or more importantly find out where in was.

As I said before World Nobles have some of the greatest security in the world. One of the main defenders that keeps assassins and rift raft out is the fact that nobody knowns where they are at in the middle of their travels. Sure now and then they will tell the news that they are coming to an island, but for the most part people don’t know where they travel. They just show up and wreck peoples shit up, and as soon as they come they leave. Sounds like Vikings right, well they might as well be Vikings. The only true difference between the two is that Vikings are far prettier and they do not have control over your town guard.

So first I needed to figure out where in the world the World Noble was going and where they were going to be. Not only that I needed to coordinate my movements with that of the give fools who were to serve as my distraction. If they were planning an attack they might know where the noble was. Thought there was something in the back of my mind that tells me that these fools are dumb as rocks. They are probably planning on attacking Mariejois itself. I can see it now. Those idiots trying to convince a giant to climb over the Red Line and attack the city like an invading army. Still I can’t write them off yet. They are still alive after all, thought that is probably more due to us taking out the spook than their own skill.

Thus how I found myself on Las Voyager, the seven sail ship. However I personally gave the ship another name. The Ship of Fools, because only idiots are riding this ship. For you see the Las Voyager is also rumored to be the home of another underground organization, The Lung Cancer Club. However the catch about the organization is that it really does not exist. We started the rumor back about fifty years ago as a way to see how well we can put out false information. The world Government took the bait and began to try and investigate it. Because the agents of the World Government could not find anything about it the upper brass began to question their loyalty to the cause. Eventually executions began to be passed down until one sly individual started the organization just to have something to report on. Well once he did that other factions in the world began to send spies into the organization to figure out what was going on. As a result there was an organization made entirely of spies from other organizations and a ship captain, the friend of the guy who started it, rolling in beli as a result.

As I said before, I am a simple accountant. Instead of trying to be all fake ninja, like in books and movies, and sneak onto the boat I simply bought a ticket to the next island and rode like a normal passenger. So there I was sitting on the pier waiting for the boat. At the time I was not wearing my trade mark blue coat. To be honest I almost never really wear my coat on missions. Most of the time people see me wearing it when I am off duty. Only a fool wears the same disguise while on ever mission. Anyway I was sitting on the pier waiting for the boat to arrive when the unthinkable happens. My target, Cooper himself, walks up to the pier and takes a seat right next to me.

<p class="MsoNormal">Now you are probably thinking, what a turn of luck. Now I can stay close to him and find out information about him with ease. Well you would be wrong. This was bad luck. Very bad luck. You see Cooper is a known man. Once the World Government realized he was alive they sent spies to simply watch him. Those spies are most definitely on the pier watching him right now. Keep in mind that he walked up and sat down next to me. That means that those spies who were watching him are now watching me. They are wondering if we two know each other. That means they could be taking a picture of me, or marking me as a man to be followed. They could peg me as a supporter of his. That means that my job will be a thousand times more difficult later on and probably far beyond this job. If they have me on file then if they see me somewhere else they can look me up again. Connections can be made and my cover might be blow. This one random incident has now jeopardized my future.

<p class="MsoNormal">However the threat of me being pegged as an agent is not the worse part of this situation. The worse part about this entire situation is that this idiot, the fools sitting next to me, is wearing all white. Yes, that fool is wearing all white, and not normal white clothing either. He is wearing a white button up jacket and pants, all military uniform kind. If I could peg it to a branch it would be the navy. So here he is. A man looking to assassinate a World Noble. The fools is wearing an all-white navy uniform, and now that I got a clean look at it, the uniform is obviously from the old Apple Empire days. Before the World Government gained controlled over Apples Island the place use to be the center of a great empire. It has long since fallen, but there uniform was still being produced. It was mainly used in reenactments and as museum pieces, but this fool decided he was going to wear it walking about. It was probably his way of saying fuck you to the World Government, but come on dude. You are trying to assassinate a World Noble, what the crap are you doing. You are supposed to be low key, not wearing a uniform of a defeated power!

<p class="MsoNormal">I don’t think I have to say it, but I really, really wanted to move. However moving could complicate matters. I could move, but that would make me suspicious. Why would I suddenly get up and move. That makes no sense. They could think that we somehow passed information. This would peg me. If I start to talk to him they could think we are passing information at the moment that could peg me. I could try to ignore him, but that might alter him that something is wrong, or worse it could alert the world government that I know that they are watching the two of us, and as a result I can get pegged. Why, why, why, why!!!! Why did this idiot sit next to me?

<p class="MsoNormal">“Good morning Sir”, spoke a voice. The sound brought me back from my mental rant and took me back to reality. The worst case scenarios just happened. The fool talked to me. He spoke, to, me. Great now all yes where most definitely now on me. What I say and what I do are now very important. Naturally my face wanted to show the stress that was building up inside of me. However my years of ninja training and hardship told me not to let that happen. If that happened I would be as good as doomed. I needed to play it cool and use words that did not sound like code words. I needed to be exact and pinpoint as my day job.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Good day to you as well”, I spoke. A bright smile crossed my face as my insides screamed in agony. My heartrate started to increase, but after I took a breath with my lungs I calmed it down. I needed to be perfect. I needed to be sure that nobody could notice anything wrong, or weird. I needed to be normal, that way they would forget me. “That is a nice uniform you are wearing. Is that not from the Apple Island Empire days? I think I have seen it in a play once.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Crap, I shouted in my head. Why did I let that out? I should have talked about something else. However his clothing, well, they were so loud. I could not help but talk about them. Hopefully the spies will take it as idle conversation. Hopefully they will not see it as a code. Hopefully he won’t …

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh yeah it is”, spoke Cooper as a smile crossed his face. Crap, I thought in my head. I was almost doomed now. “I know most people don’t wear it out in public now. It was the old military uniform of an extinct kingdom. However I simply like the style and I support my heritage. Almost like yourself right.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hum”, I spoke as my eyes widen and I looked up at him. It seemed that Cooper thought I was from Apple Island. Probably due to me talking about his clothing. It would make sense for another person from Apple Island to understand Apple Island tradition. However I needed to make a way to disassociate myself with the place. If they see me as an Applenite, they will peg me for sure. “Sorry, but I am not wearing anything from Crimera am I”, I spoke? Hopefully that will be enough to throw any spies off.

<p class="MsoNormal">“OH you are from Crimera”, spoke Cooper with surprises. “I thought you were from Apples Island since you knew about my outfit. Not many people know about our traditions out there.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well my girlfriend was from Apple Island”, I spoke without thinking. I needed a way to justify the reason why I knew it, but at the same time I needed to distance myself. That lie would be a good cover. Hopefully it fooled the beholders as well. “She made me go to a few shows on the island about three years back. It was some kind of reenactment or something. To be honest I don’t care much for history, but the mock battle was cool. Especially when they fired the cannon. The way it roared, well I thought it was a real one for a moment.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I know what you mean”, spoke Cooper as he was pulled into the conversation. In truth I did go to the reenactment three years ago. Thought I was not there with my girlfriend of course. To be honest I don’t even have a girlfriend. My wife is my work and at the moment we are happy together. However there was a bit of information to be pulled out of Apple Island at the time. I went there to find out stuff about Marcus Greggory. That old cat worked for an organization called The Red Moon. If the rumors about them where true they must have some skill in cybernetics. At the same time however we were hearing rumors about them kidnapping people as test subjects. That investigation was handled by another agent, but I was used as a bootleg, or information gather, at the time.

<p class="MsoNormal">Before the conversation between me and Cooper could go on any further an individual walked up from a nearby bench. I could tell immediately by the way he walked he was World Government. The swag he had, the way he moved his shoulders, and finally the way his foot hit the ground. There was no doubt, he was a rokushiki user. The man tried to hide it under a disguise, but your body tells all. That is why we Middle Men spend hours in front of mirrors making sure that we give nothing away. We are as common as the word.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh so you guys saw the event as well”, spoke the man as he walked up with his shark smile. He was clearly trying to play nice. “Yeah I also went to the reenactment. However I was not so lucky that I could pick up a girlfriend. My skill with the ladies needs a lot of work.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“As tall as you are”, I spoke as I attempted to make casual conversation with him. The man had planted his arm onto Cooper’s shoulder. The agent attempted to hide the fact that he was pressing down on Cooper’s pressure point, but the small changes in his face, which would normally be missed by a regular man, let me know he was pushing down with considerable force. From what I could guess he was trying to knock Cooper out and try to make it seem like the young man fainted. He would probably say something about taking him to the hospital and usher me toward making the ship. However it seemed that his information was not as current as ours was. He probably had no idea that Cooper was a cyborg.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Excuse me”, spoke Cooper as he raised his hand up and pulled the man’s arm off his shoulder. “Nothing personal, but I don’t like it when other people touch me. I am not trying to be rude or anything.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh sorry sorry”, spoke the man as he played it cool. He played the role of the apologizing stranger, but underneath he was furious. Well I guessed that he was. To be honest I could not tell. Physical exertion is easier to read, there is no way to hide the tensing of your muscles. However facial expressions and emotions are a different thing. The agents of the World Government, where no slouch.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Nah don’t worry about it man”, spoke Cooper. The fool was still unaware about what was going on. Well it is to be expected. He was a fool after all. He did not even think word about his actions would get out. How in the world would one expect him to pick out an agent out of a crowd of people? If he did not have that new shiny metal body he would probably be joining the other agent at Fishman Island.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No, no, no”, spoke the Agents as he shook his head. He was still playing the act. “Let me apologize properly. How about I buy you a drink”, he spoke. Clearly he was planning on poisoning it.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Sure, but it has to be a caned drink”, spoke Cooper. The puzzled look on the agent’s face must have been hiding his anger.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Why a canned drink”, he asked. “There is a Cola bottle vending machine over there. I could simply go over and buy two bottles and..”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Sorry bruh, but I went to college”, spoke Cooper as he looked at the man. The very statement raised a flag in my head however. Cooper never went to college. Well not a normal collage that is. He did go to a trade school. One for something, it was not important at the time so I did not add it to memory when I looked over his file. However Collage was never in it, and the trade school he went to was more like learning from an old man in his barn than a collage.

<p class="MsoNormal">“… What does that have to do with canned drinks”, spoke the agent. I could tell he was truly puzzled by his statement. Clearly he had never been to collage. Any man who has ever stepped onto a campus understands whey Cooper’s statement makes sense. Thought as a side note, I myself have been to collage. My job as an accountant did not come from nowhere.

<p class="MsoNormal">Cooper looked at the man and gave off a long sigh. “Well”, I spoke adding myself to the conversation. I had been out for it for a bit and it would look strange if I simply let the two of them talk. “You see in collage there are plenty of people who like to spike your drinks.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Wait, are you saying that I am going to spike your drink”, spoke the agent as his face showed offense. He was good at showing the right emotions for the right situations.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No, no, of course not”, spoke Cooper. “I am just saying that I can’t drink bottle drinks. It is just against the rules.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“What rules”, spoke the man.

<p class="MsoNormal">“The collage rules”, I added. “You don’t drink anything from anybody else that has been out of your sight. The only way the rule works is if you apply to everybody and everyone in all situations.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Exactly”, spoke Cooper. “As a result I can only drink canned drinks from strangers. That way I know they had no chance of putting anything into it.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Pshaw, whatever man”, spoke the agent as he turned around and began to walk toward a can drink vending machine. It was in that moment however that everything went crazy. My vision blurred and began to static as if I was watching a television with no connection. I knew what it was. During my training I was pushed to the very end of my limits. My body awoken and I discovered a power that lay asleep inside of me. My master called it The Dragons Eye, other called it haki. Kenbunshoku haki to be exact. My version of it was not like my masters. He could see things, visions, places, and other things. Me, I could feel danger. I could sense when an attack was coming and how much it would hurt. However I could not see the attack or the attacker. I just knew the direction it would hit and were. The pain I felt once the vision hit told me how dangerous it was. This one would be enough to knock me out and it was aiming toward the back of my head.

<p class="MsoNormal">As the man took a step forward he vanished. It was in that moment it all made sense to me. As quickly as I could I attempted to lower my head. My efforts were successful, thought I am not sure if I should have succeeded. The blow still came to the back of my head, but instead of hitting the sweet spot it slammed into my skull just above the area. A shower of weakness washed over my body and I fell to the ground like a log. My eyes stared out to a puzzled Cooper who was surprised by both the speed of the man and his intentions.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What was that for”, spoke Cooper. His voice came in muffled and blurred as the concussion rolled over my brain. From this point on I could not understand anything they were saying, but from body language and guess I could figure out a bit. It seemed that the agent hard revealed who he was and he was now moving to either kill or take Cooper into custody. I could not tell his attentions because my body was facing the opposite direction of where he was. I did see him appear next to Cooper and strike at the man with his finger. Cooper’s eyes flashed red for a moment and his body began to move with inhuman quick reactions. A fight broke out and blows where exchanged. I could not tell who had the advantage because the fight went away from my position, but the victor of the fight was clear.

<p class="MsoNormal">As I stared off into space trying to figure out what was going on Cooper flew from the distance and slammed into the ground. His white clothing tainted by the brown dirt. “Now you will die here”, spoke the agent. That I could make out. Then, the unthinkable happened. A blade seemed to come out of nowhere and the head of the agent hit the ground. A figure then walked into view. It was one clad in all white, matching Cooper’s white suit. However this one was more stylish and did not have the military feeling to it. White slacks, a deep purple vest and dress shirt. Add in a white tie and trench coat and the figures outfit was almost complete. Wrapping it all up in a nice bow was a white fedora.

<p class="MsoNormal">“And this is why I said for you to wait for me Cooper”, spoke the figure as it adjusted its fedora. Pulling a butterfly knife out of the head of the dead agent the man turned and looked at me. “Oh, this one might still be conscious”, he spoke.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What really”, spoke Cooper as he looked down at me. “I don’t know Cobba he seems to be out of it to me.” Cobba, I thought to myself. I knew that name, unfortunately. Everyone who is anyone has heard of him. Cobba is … well to put it lightly a gigantic annoyance. He is a man who is so in love with himself that it goes beyond stupid. However his skill with a knife and speed make him a danger. He can carve his name into a man’s forehead before they can blink an eye. That use to be his favorite thing to do before he got locked up in the insane asylum. However now that he is out Cobba has been going around causing even more trouble. He graduated from being an annoyance to now being a pirate for hire.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Do you question perfection”, spoke Cobbas as he looked at Cooper with disgust. “Cobba is never wrong, and Cobba says this man is still conscious. We can’t have him alerting anyone to anything”, spoke Cobba as he flicked his butterfly knife and drew back out the blade.

<p class="MsoNormal">So this is it, I thought to myself as I looked up at Cobba. I was sure that I would die to some great marine or maybe a notorious pirate, but Cobba. Well that just an insult. At the very least I wish Cooper would kill me. That way when I enter the afterlife I don’t have to worry about people talking about how I got carved up by the greatest narcissist to ever grace the world.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Wait stop Cobba”, shouted Cooper as he grabbed the man’s arm. “He is an innocent, we can’t …”, that was the last thing I heard. A swift kick hit me in the back of my head and everything went black. The next thing I knew I was waking up inside of a room. For a moment I thought I was in purgatory, but the rocking motion told me otherwise. Looking out a small circular window I could see the sea. From the looks of things I was on a ship, but which ship I did not understand.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Where am I”, I spoke as I began to look around. It was then that I noticed my brief case lying on a table. So where ever I am somebody decided to bring my brief case with me. That was a good sign. That meant whoever had picked me up had no intentions of killing me. Still, I needed to get my equipment out of the secret compartment. Even though the person who brought me here may not have tourcher and violence in their mind I could not stay here long. I needed to catch up to my target and discover their intentions. Only then could I come up with my plan for my mark.

<p class="MsoNormal">As I rose out of the bed and moved toward my brief case I heard a sound.

<p class="MsoNormal">“So you brought the man here”, spoke a voice. I recognized it, but it was neither Cobba nor Cooper. It was somebody else, but somebody I was sure I followed before. Maybe it was an old mark, or an old contact. Whichever one it was the person did not bring up friendly emotions in my mind.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yeah, I could not just leave him lying on the pier”, spoke a familiar voice. This was Cooper.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I say you should have just slit his throat and looted his corpse. That is what I do”, spoke another familiar voice. This one however was a women, but after thinking for only a moment I knew who it was, Sain. There was no mistaking it. That was Sain’s voice. I was going to have to change my assessment of the voice now. Sain was no women, but he sure had the looks and voice of it. If he did not have a million children I would have thought he was one.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What is Sain doing here”, I spoke to myself. Then I began to think back onto the five fools. Cooper was the leader, but we did not have any information about his associates. So Sain was one of his associates. Lucky for me, Sain and I had never meet face to face. Sain was a Mark. He killed and looted for a living, but he was somebody else mark. I had seen him a few times while doing recon. I watched him for a day and did some snooping into his financial records. Thought the information did not do our agent any good. Sain was a master of Draconic First Style. Once the fighting started our agent was turned into a steamed meat bun. Sain had developed a martial arts technique that combusted the oil in a man’s skin. John did not stand a chance.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What!”, shouted Cooper with surprise. “No, why would I do that. The guy had nothing to do with this. He was simply waiting for his ship, when …”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I agree with Cooper”, spoke a stern voice. The sound told of a profession, but not the person. The man talking was a member of the Royal Task Force. I could tell by the muffle of his voice. There were a lot of crazy people out at sea, but none where more crazy than the Royal Task force. Those psychopaths wore plate armor on a ship. Who wears plate armor while you are out at sea, are they asking to drown. Thought I was starting to question my initial assessment. What would a member of the Royal Task Force be doing talking with Cooper? Was he not trying to kill a World Noble? The task force was placed together to protect the nobility of the land. Such an actions is the highest form of treason.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Of course you agree with Cooper”, spoke Sain. “Wallace Walter Walnut, if that is not the noblest sounding name I have ever heard. Triple W’s. The White Knight is strong with you.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Alright that is enough about that common dog”, spoke a new voice.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Innes”, I spoke to myself without skipping a beat. Now I was more confused than I was before. That voice belonged to Saint Innes. He was in fact, a world noble, and a notorious world noble at that. Off the back he has a fan club, even amongst our female agents, who follow him around like he is the treasure One Piece itself. Having good looks will do that for you. To make things worse he was born a world noble, and as a result he grew up with their arrogance and crappy personality. However that was not enough for that brat. In his mind he must be perfect, so Innes has gone out of his way to train himself as a fighter as well. I have never seen him fight, but I have heard rumors about him. They once said that he kicked a ship in half, not sure if it was true, but the rumor alone is enough to make me want to stay way.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Innes is right, we did not call this meeting to talk about Coopers pet”, spoke Cobba. “Now if we were talking about Cobba I could understand putting the meeting on hold, but some random guy, not so much. “

<p class="MsoNormal">“First off”, spoke Sain as the feminine voice martial artist began to tell Cobba off.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Enough”, shouted the unknown voice! “You two can argue with each other on your own time. This ship is half way to port already and we have very little time. I for one would like to see the target dead.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“As efficient as always Noodle”, spoke Innes. “You would make an excellent slave. After this job is done you can come work for me. I could pull out your true potential and get you to do some truly important work.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“First off it is LordNoodleXIV, and secondly if you ask me to be your slave again I will stick your head so far up Sain’s ass …”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Whoa, whoa, whoa”, shouted Sain. I did not need to be in the room to understand that a look of horror crossed his face.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Stay focus people”, spoke Cooper. “Saint Innes did you …”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yes the shipment is already on the ship. Once it set sail you will be able to proceed as you plan.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Good”, spoke Cooper.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Right, once we arrive I will take out the two port guards on the opposite side of the island”, spoke Cobba. “Just make sure I have a way to catch up, or I will be seriously ticked off. Remember Cobba is the greatest ally you will ever have and the most terrible enemy.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Worry not Cobba you will be there to see the look on his face”, spoke LordNoodle. “Since we are all reporting in I already infected the communication snails with the parasites. Nobody on the island has noticed it yet, but soon all of their dindin will die by noon. If you fail at your assignment Cobba our plan won’t work.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Worry not, Cobba is perfection incarnated. There is no way Cobba will not be able to take out the two captains.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“What about the mixture”, spoke Copper?

<p class="MsoNormal">“Worry not”, spoke Sain. “If Innes here got everything on my list and mixed it accordingly the cargo hold should go boom by two o’clock.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Pshaw, what do you think I am, some commoner? Of course everything is as it should be. Everything will work, unless your science is wrong mongrel.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“How about you say that to my face, silky”, spoke Sain?

<p class="MsoNormal">“Gladly”, spoke Innes.

<p class="MsoNormal">“How many times am I going to have to separate you two”, spoke LordNoodle as sound filled the other room. It appears a fight almost started, but LordNoodle put a stop to it before it could really began.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Now that you two are done flirting with each other”, spoke the knight. I did not need to be in the room to feel the death stares radiating toward him. “I have already secured a lower number of guards guarding the ship. My presence alone was enough to mitigate a hundred troops. However I have to warn you all.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Bad news”, spoke Cooper.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Spit it out”, spoke LordNoodle. “We don’t have time to be playing around.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well”, spoke Wallace as he coughed to clear his throat. “Thanks to the rise in actions of the seven flags of late the World Government decided that all traveling World Nobles needed better security in this area. That better security comes in the form of One-Star Military Commander Swoll.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Swoll”, shouted Sain. The fear could be heard in his voice. The others remained quiet. I was not sure if it was out of fear, or ignorance, but I could feel my own blood vessels turning into ice just thinking about it. Swoll, I had heard legends about him. They say his rokushiki is so great that the very atoms in his body bend to his will. Of course this rumor is false, there is no way a mere mortal can control there atoms. However the fact that it was said about him was enough to give me chills. Still I had heard enough. The fools planted a bomb on the World Noble’s ship and they have eliminated there lines of communication. However even with that they still plan to board the ship and do the deed themselves. Taking that into account this bomb is probably not that big, or maybe it is simply designed to take out the rotter and prevent the ship from moving. With my mission successful and not wanting to let them in on my own plans I snuck back into the bed and knocked myself out with hypnosis. I am sure they will awaken me eventually.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hey traveler”, spoke a voice. My eyes opened to see Cooper standing over me. The light shining through the window told me that it was early morning, which was freighting considering that it was close to dust before I put myself under.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What”, I spoke as I looked around.

<p class="MsoNormal">“On thank the lord”, spoke Cooper. “For a while I thought you might have died.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“What happened”, I spoke. Cooper moved to open his mouth, but the man stopped before anything came out. “You … you tried to get up and then you tripped.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I tripped”, I spoke, knowing full well that it was a lie. “Yes you tripped and fell over. Then you hit your head on a rock and was out for the whole day.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Out for the whole day”, I shouted playing the surprised businessman. “I began to look around frantically and the noticed my suit case. “No, no, no, I can’t miss that ship”, I shouted.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Worry not friend”, spoke Cooper as he grabbed my shoulders. It was probably his way of trying to calm me down, but his grip was eating into my shoulders. “We, I mean I got you onto the ship. You have arrived on Pong Tong Island.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I have”, I spoke, playing the part. “Crap”, I spoke as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my pocket watch. The time said seven o clock. It would be a few more hours before they put their plan into motion. I still needed to plan my own and get something to eat. My stomach began to protest, but lucky for me it was silent. I did not want to get looped into eating breakfast with Cooper. “I still have time”, I spoke as I grabbed my suitcase and began to rush out the door. “Thank you kind sir for your assistance”, I shouted as I ran out. Cooper looked on both amused and confused.

<p class="MsoNormal">As I left the ship I immediately moved into the market district. I was not sure if any of the other members where following me, or if Cooper himself did. My plan was to loss them in the rush of the crowd and the sounds of the market. After circling around a bit, I broke off and moved into a dark alleyway. Pong Tong Island, like so many others, held a secret bunker of ours. Here I could make plans and fill my stomach with food. Entering the right password by pressing in loss bricks a small hatched open up on the ground and I moved into the safety of my tunnel.

<p class="MsoNormal">“So the Glowing Sea”, I spoke to myself as I began to chump on a sandwich. It had been two hours since I had been in the town and I had picked up information from the local cell. The World Noble was leaving on a ship named The Glowing Sea. It was a nice pun on the ship because of how high tech it was. The ship’s blueprints however where on sale in the black market. It took me a while, but I was able to “procure” them from a merchant. After taking a spin on it, I figured the best point of entry would be from underneath. I could climb up the anchor and enter from the bottom. However that would leave the problem of wet clothing, so I was going to have to travel with a water sealed bag and a spare of clothing.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hey guys do we have any”, I spoke when a sudden loud boom shook the city.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What the hell”, shouted one of the local agents and soon a second boom shook the city again. At first I thought we were under attack by a sea king or something, but then it hit me.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No, no, no, no, no, no, no”, I shouted as I rushed toward the ladder leading out of the tunnel. Climbing up and into the back alleyway I made my way into the crowded street.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Run it is the Iron Titan”, shouted a man as he nearly pushed me over. Looking up I saw a gigantic figure stomping its way in a segment of the town. It was humongous and clad from head to toe in armor. A giant shield protected its left arm and a gigantic sword was held in its right. The figure was something out of old legends.

<p class="MsoNormal">“A titan”, I spoke, and then a loud zoom filled the air. Butterflies, larger than any man, zoomed by as military commands filled the air.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Stop Borgus now”, shouted a man. It was clear to me then that this man was the famed Mythical Zone user of the seven flags, but what was he doing here I wondered. Still this meant that the time table had been turned up. There was no way they were going to keep a World Noble on the island with those monsters attacking.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Harkon”, a loud booming voice roared over the ground. Harkon, I thought. Maybe Saint Harkon. What did the Seven Flags want with Saint Harkon, and why did they know he was here. Before I could ask any more questions a gigantic sonic boom filled my ears. The force knocked me to the ground and a shining glint filled the air. Another boom filled the air as I saw the gigantic figure fall backwards. A gigantic slash rippled across its steel armor and the large figure began to shrink.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What the”, I spoke. The same man who had knocked me over from before came running back again.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Run”, he shouted. “It is Candide!!!!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“What is going on”, I shouted. Then a marine soldier came out of the shadows and rushed at me with a sword. “Die dog”, he shouted. I had no idea why he was attacking me or the reason, but my natural defenses kicked in. As he slashed with his sword I released a knife I had hidden up my sleeve. The blade matched his edge to edge, but his strength was far greater than mine. The clash threw me to the ground and knocked my knife out of my hand. The blade skirted across the ground and rolled into the sewer. With no weapon to defend myself I looked up to see the soldier bringing his sword down. How did this happen. Did they find out who I was, how? Am I to die here?

<p class="MsoNormal">“Tag”, the word filled the air.

<p class="MsoNormal">A Few Moments Before

<p class="MsoNormal">“You have to be kidding me”, shouted a very burly dark skin man! The man’s head was shaved smoothly bald, but his scraggly beard gave him a nice look. Dark shades covered his eyes and a yellow vest covered his chest. The man wore a pair of matching slacks. To complete the business man look he wore a white dress shirt, under the vest of course, a dark purple tie. The man shouting in the streets was none other than LordNoodleXIV and his rage put a whole new tune to the trope angry black man.

<p class="MsoNormal">Angered by the message LordNoodle threw the paper to the ground. The word, One, was written on it, and that single word meant a lot. Their plan had been compromised, thought by the presence of the word One it meant that it was still do able. Somewhere between last night and today the world government had gotten wind of their attempt to kill the World Noble. LordNoodles associates in the field sent word in that singe word, scenario one. The world Government had docked the World Noble’s ship till they replaced there dindin mushi and they had brought in a four star to clean up the muck. In order to counter act this LordNoodle’s friends had called in their own aid.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What is that”, shouted someone as a gigantic figure crossed the horizon. While everyone else gawked at the sight LordNoodle calmly began to walk toward the direction of where the noble’s ship was supposed to be. They were going to have a fight on their hands. It was then that Borgus punched the ground and created the first earth quake. The first punch prevented any ships from leaving. Borgus had no idea about the bigger plan, but he knew that they wanted to be sure that nobody left the island. That punch would have created one heck of a wave, and the second punch, well that was for good measure.

<p class="MsoNormal">As the ground shook and everyone panicked Noodle stood still and let the earth do its work. A bit of the shaking forced him to correct his footing, but the muscle bound warrior had a hold on everything. Noodle never really smoked, it was a bad and destructive habit, however this time he made an exception. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a cigar and placed it into his mouth. Lighting it with a lighter he simply bellowed out smoke and watched as the city began to panic. His little smoke break was ruined however when something shot by at speeds far beyond his kin. Whatever the figure was it left a great boom in its wake and the force not only caused Noodle to stumble but it knocked his cigar out of his mouth.

<p class="MsoNormal">“The hell”, he spoke as he looked on with confusions. A gigantic slash suddenly appeared on Borgus armor. It was not raining blood so Noodle figured Borgus was alright, but he would have to travel over to that side of the island to find out. Considering whatever made that slash was probably the force that blew by him earlier LordNoodle opted to simply stay out of that one. The Seven Flags where not children, they could handle themselves.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Die Dog”, the words rose over the sound of the chaos and filled LordNoodle’s ears. The burly man stopped and turned around to see a marine officer attacking the sleeper from before.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Well this is a new development”, spoke LordNoodle as he began to walk in that direction. He was sure that the little guy was the spy. He was the only one who could have informed them about their plans. It seemed that he was wrong though. The Marines want him dead, but he could not guess why.

<p class="MsoNormal">As the young business man struggled against the marine it became clear who the stronger fighter was. All it took was a swing to knock the young man to the ground. However that blade he pulled out of his sleeve was a clear indication of who LordNoodle was dealing with. That young man was not a merchant. Merchants don’t hide blades in their clothing. He was probably some kind of corporate ninja. You know a guy who sneaks around other companies’ offices and stealing their secrets. Corporate espionage was a good field to make money in. It only made sense that they had their own brand of ninjas.

<p class="MsoNormal">As the marine held his sword up to strike the young man down LordNoodle opened his mouth to speak. “Tag”, he spoke. His voice grabbed the attention of the marine and his fist slammed right into the man’s chest. The force of his punch was so great that it sent the man flying backwards like a bolt from a crossbow. The man’s body finally stopped once it found a place into a nearby building. The punch temporary stopped the man’s heart, it was needless to say that the marine was out cold, but he would live, lucky for him.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hey kid, what did you do”, spoke LordNoodle as he looked down at the young man. Looking at him the two of them where probably the same age, thought Noodle looked much older than he really was. As he spoke however a hunk of a building flew off and slammed into the ground next to him. The sight caused the Corporate Ninja to panic. Noodle on the other hand had fought beside Borgus before. He knew how he worked, and nearly being hit by building chunks was part of the job.

<p class="MsoNormal">“The crap was that”, he shouted as he stared at the chunk of the building. The young man however suddenly regained his composure. This practically confirmed it to Noodle, he was a Corporate Ninja. “I need to get to the docks. I can’t let him escape”.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Let who escape”, spoke Noodle. The young man turned and looked at him with eyes of daggers. Noodle just stared back, but he could tell the young man was trying to read his expression. The sunglasses did well to hide his eyes so no matter how much he wanted to the Corporate Ninja could not read his emotions.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Harkon”, he spoke suddenly. His words raised an eyebrow on Noodles head as he realized that the young man was after the same target they were. Well unless there was another Harkon in this town, who was supposed to be near the bay.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hold on a second, you are telling me …”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yes I am an assassin and yes we were both after the same mark. Look I know you have questions, but we need to get to Harkon before he sets out to sea. If he does …”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Whoa, clam down”, spoke LordNoodle. “There is no way Harkon is going to go out to sea”, spoke LordNoodle. “In the current chaos with Borgus and the seven flags in the city they would be mad to try and set sail. Not to mention they somehow jumped our plan. The Glowing Sea is not fit to sail. They would have to change ships and I am a hundred percent sure that a World Noble will refuse to ride any vessel less than a first class brig. So Harkon …”

<p class="MsoNormal">“There he is”, shouted a voice. LordNoodle turned to see several soldiers clad in armor rushing toward them.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Royal Task force”, spoke Noodle. The fools expected Noodle to fight with his fist. It was true that Noodle was skilled in the art of fist fighting, but that was not his main form of combat. As they charged like the fools they were Noodle pulled his weapon off his back. It was a black rife, created by the Cyclopes themselves. The clockwork abomination had the kick of a cannon and the accuracy of a sniper rife. “Sorry, but I don’t play fair”, spoke Lord Noodle as he lifted up his rifle and fired at the first soldier. The bullet left the gun like a shooting star and made the man’s chest explode like fireworks.

<p class="MsoNormal">Once the rifle had turned the first man into the fourth of July the others took on second thoughts. As they paused another bullet entered into Lord Noodles’s rifle chamber. As he pulled the trigger the recoil force from the gun sent his massive arms clocking back. The bullet then turned the second knight into a holiday event and then the third began to flee in terror.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Thanks”, spoke the Corporate Ninja, but LordNoodle did not pay it much mind.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t thank me”, he spoke. “They were probably here for me. Also”, spoke Noodle as he turned around to look at the man in the face. To his great anger, and surprise the corporate ninja was gone. “What the”, spoke Noodle. He wanted to look around for the guy, but he figured he might as well move on. He still needed to get to Harkon.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Alright time for daddy to get to work”, spoke LordNoodle as he made his way toward The Glowing Sea. He knew Harkon would not be on the ship, but he was sure he was in the area. If they did jump there plan they were probably unloading the barrels right now, or fortifying there position. If there was one thing that LordNoodle was sure it was that the marines did not understand what was actually in the barrels. If they did he was sure they would have brought in an admiral by now. Then again, why have they not brought in an admiral? If they jumped there plan then they should know that the noble was in danger.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Thoughts for a different time”, spoke Noodle as he made his way down the street. The sudden chaos that hit the city seemed to be … well weird. Sure Borgus showed up, but he was on the outskirts of the island. Why is there so much chaos in the roads? People running around like they are crazy, people looting, and the marines trying to keep order. There main problem however was there lack of numbers. If Noodle had to guess it was probably due to the World Noble wanting as many people between him and the people who want him dead.

<p class="MsoNormal">As Noodle pushed his way toward the docks it soon became evident that his theory was true more and more marines showed up to block his path, and more and more he has to show the power of his hand cannon. However that all came to an end once he reached 12th street.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You are throwing your lives away for garbage”, shouted LordNoodle as he hid behind a wall and reloaded his gun. His path all the way here had been hindered, but small time marines and would be heroes. His gun easily dispatched of them. However now that he was on 12th street things were different. The marines had a good defensive line here and Noodle could not power his way though.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Filthy pirate”, shouted the captain of the marines. The man had to raise his voice to raise its volume over the cannons they were fire in LordNoodle’s direction. “You will never get to Saint Harkon. The very thought of someone like you even breathing the same air as our beloved…” Before the man could finish a knife flew out from the shadows and found a place in his neck.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What the”, spoke the marines as a lone figure began to walk down the road. “Let me ask you a question”, spoke the fire as it pushed through the smoke left. LordNoodle had finished reloading and was going to make his assault, but a friend of his made their move first. Walking down the street as if he owned the damn place was Cobba. His white fedora still covered his eyes from view and the sinister smile still crossed his face.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Let me ask you a question”, spoke Cobba as he walked toward the remaining troops. “Where is Harkon? Where is the fool that dare look down at Cobba! Cobba is the greatest and perfect human that humanity will ever create! Harkon, that piece of filthy dares to …”, spoke Cobba. However the soldiers had enough of him. Fear and desperation filled their hearts as they turned everything they had against Cobba.

<p class="MsoNormal">As the cannons roared and fire off their projectiles Cobba simply laughed. As the balls of iron approached Cobba whipped out his knife and cut them all out of the air with a single flying slash. In a moment’s notice Cobba was gone. Picking up in speed Cobba closed the gap between him and the soldiers and began to go to town on them.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Cobba”, shouted LordNoodle. His voice caught the knife wielding narcissist attention and he turned to see his team mate.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Ah Noodle”, spoke Cobba as he turned to look at the man. “So what the world went wrong”, spoke Cobba as he tried to make sense of everything.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Somehow the marines jumped our plans”, spoke LordNoodle as he hooked up with his team mate. “From what I understand the leak had to come from one of our team mates though. Now way they found this out from an outside sources.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Looks like Cooper made a serious mistake in choosing allies”, spoke Cobba.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Not as serious as yours”, spoke a voice from above the duo. LordNoodle and Cobba turned around to see a figure jump down from a building. As it landed the ground shook a bit and the stone street cracked. LordNoodle was force to stare up at a man who was at least three heads over him and was twice as thick.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Swoll”, spoke LordNoodle.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Let’s not stand on ceremo…”, before he could finish speaking LordNoodle raised his gun and shot the man in the chest. His bullets had been proven both their power and versatility all day. The force behind them was too great for the armor of the Royal guard to handle and the mess it makes once they splatter shatters the moral of the others. However in this case it was not moral that shattered, nor was it the marine. As LordNoodle’s bullet slammed into Swoll’s chest the bullet shattered like glass. Not even a mark was left on the man.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh Shit”, spoke Cobba. Shooting forward like a rocket LordNoodle had very little time to react. The burly man slammed his fist into his chest and sent LordNoodle flying backwards like an arrow. It was like getting hit by a train in your chest. As Lord Noodle slammed against the wall he felt his heart scream out in agony. To make things worse a chilling pain radiated off his chest as somehow, the man had caused his punch to freeze him?!

<p class="MsoNormal">“Holy crap Noodle”, spoke Cobba as he watched his ally fly off toward a nearby building. Swinging his knife at high speeds Cobba attempted to carve the burly man to small little pieces. Unfortunately Cobba soon discovered that Swoll was not only as strong as a ox, but as nimble and grace as a ballerina. As Cobba stabbed, slashed, and curses Swoll simply moved around him dodging very blow. Finally Cobba lunged forward attempting to catch his opponent off guard. However Swoll was a step ahead. The burly man closed his arms, like a Venus fly trap, grabbing the slightly built Cobba in midair.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Now I will break you”, shouted Swoll! Cobba attempted to struggle, but a sudden chill began to drain his strength. Pulling the man high into the air Swoll brought him down with the full force of his arms. In a devastating power bomb Cobba meet the ground. The sound of cracking filled the air as Cobba felt his left shoulder turn to bits.

<p class="MsoNormal">Cobba screamed in agony as he held his shoulder. He was luck that was the only thing that cracked. His head was also in bad shape, but the pain from his shoulder took center focus.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Cobba”, shouted Noodle as he attempted to stand back up on his feet. The heart punch, which he had given a marine earlier, was a devastating move. Adding on the frost bite Noodle was only able to watch as it seemed that Swoll was about to finish off Cobba.

<p class="MsoNormal">“The pride of a knight”, shouted a voice. The sound caused Swoll to jump backward leaving Cobba yet breathing. Quickly following the clank of steel and stone. Sir. Walter came slamming into the ground. In his arm was his greatsword and on his head his shinning helm.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Ah the traitor returns. By the fact that you are still standing that means the others have failed.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Walter”, spoke Noodle as he looked at him with amazement. ‘Noodle was sure that Walter was the one who betrayed them. However it seemed that it was not true. If Walter was the traitor he would not have saved Cobba.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Did I not warn you two about the power of Swoll”, spoke Walter ignoring the man he once called commander.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Dang it my shoulder”, shouted Cobba as he rolled on the ground.

<p class="MsoNormal">“So you are not the traitor”, spoke Noodle as he made his way over to the knight. Swoll simply kept his distance for a moment, walking around them like a lion sizing up its pretty.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Wait what”, spoke Walter. Disbelief was filled his voice. “How dare you all call me a traitor”, shouted Walter with anger! “I am the most upstanding and loyal person in our merry band of five. Howe dare you call me a traitor!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“And yet you fight with the enemy”, spoke Swoll as he finally stepped forward ready to fight. “If that is not a traitor then I don’t know what a traitor is.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t you dare call me a traitor”, spoke Wallace Walter Walnut as he stared into Swoll’s eyes. “Not you ,or any of you for that matter. The world is ruled by absolute justice”, spoke Walter as he changed his guard in an effort to cut off Swoll’s line of attack. “That is what you all told me when I first join the marines. Yet here you all are protecting a murder. Harkon, and no I am not calling that bastard a saint, walked into a village and murdered a women. Yet he does not stand trial, no worse than that. Harkon is treated like a saint, a hero. He is placed in the highest position in the court and treated like a god! No I am not the traitor here Swoll. You all are! You betrayed our ideals! You betrayed this uniform!

<p class="MsoNormal">“Your words are true Walnut, but your view is short sighted. You forget the need for stability. If we wage war against the World Nobles the world government will split apart. People will choose sides and he stability that covers the land will crumble. If the World Governments falls who will be there to protect the people. Who will stop the rampaging pirates like the seven flags and black coats? Nobody, that is the true answer Walnut! Your heart is in the right place, but your brain is not!

<p class="MsoNormal">“Pshaw, a typical excuse”, spoke Walter.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Typical indeed”, spoke Swoll. It was in that moment that Walter attacked. Walter knew all about Swolls techniques. He understood how Swolls freezing worked. The man contracted his muscle to such a extent that they slow down on a molecular level. This causes them to zap the heat from other objects. However if he could attack before swoll contacts his muscles then maybe.

<p class="MsoNormal">As Walter swung his sword Swoll braced himself. The blade cut through the air faster than Walter had ever swung it before. The man placed both his heart and his soul into the attack. All he needed was once moment, but he was too late. As the blade his Swoll’s flesh the sword began to bend. Swoll had harden before he arrived and now the force was vibrating back through the blade. It was too much for the sword to handle and in an epic fashion the blade broke against Swolls skin.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Crap, Walter”, shouted Noodle as Swoll’s counter attack came. With a strong close line Swoll not only cracked his breastplate, but split open his bucket helmet. Falling to the ground the grizzled Walter’s face was revealed. To Noodles great surprise he looked younger than all of them.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What the crap”, spoke Noodle! “Your just a kid.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Piss off”, spoke Walter as a sharp pain radiated through his chest. “I am twenty one”, he spoke.

<p class="MsoNormal">“As the man said, just a kid”, spoke a voice as Sain looked down at the battlefield. It seemed that sain had arrived, thought his position already told Noodle enough.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t you dare”, shouted Noodle.

<p class="MsoNormal">“To late”, spoke Sain as he dropped a can down toward Swoll. It did not take a rocket scientist to guess what that was. It was a make shift bomb, one of Sain’s special treats. The master of explosions figured he could take the marine out with a simple pop can bomb. Swoll however was not amused. Rather than dodge it Swoll jumped off the air grabbed it and threw it back before it exploded.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh crap”, shouted Sain as the can exploded into needles. Sain caught a few in the leg, but he managed to avoid any serious damage. A few of them his Swoll, but we all know how that song ended. Noodle gained a few in his forearms and thanks to his armor Walter was alright. Cobba, well Cobba was still screaming in agony. One was not sure if he got hit by the rain and that added to his pain, or if he was still being a baby about his broken shoulder.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Now I shall break you all”, spoke Swoll as he looked out at the four fools. Each one incapacitated and injured in some way.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Admiral Kick”, the words seeming to come from all directions catching both Swoll and everyone off guard. Suddenly, from inside of a building, shoots out a person. The flying kick is powered by a jet pack and a series of very impressive midair twirls. As the attack comes in Swoll hardens his body. However the force from the blow gets through. For the first time since the fight started LordNoodle and the others watch Swoll take real damage. However the attack did not stop there. As the blow connected electricity shot up through the leg sending an electrical shock through the burly man’s muscles. Falling to the ground a graceful position was none other than Cooper in his newly cleaned white navel uniform.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t worry guys, Cooper is here”, he spoke as he gave off a crappy smile.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Nice kick”, spoke Sain as he pulled some of the nails out of his leg.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t let up attack him now”, shouted Walter as he drew his dagger. “That electric shock should have weaken his muscles. Without full strength Swoll won’t be able to tighten them up his insensible level anymore.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t underestimate me”, shouted a very angry Swoll. From the rubble flew an iron rod that slammed into the unexpecting Cooper’s left shoulder. The metal rod lodged itself into his shoulder joint exposing to the world his cybernetic nature.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Crap”, shouted Cooper as he lost control of his left arm. Lucky for him it was all robotics so he did not experience any of the pain, like Cobba, who was still on the ground. Walking out the rubble once can see that Swoll was now really, really angry. He was no longer playing around.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Soru”, he spoke and then the big man vanished. He reappeared in front of Cooper grabbing his head and tossing him into a nearby wall. Cooper’s body hit hard, but more importantly his head slammed into the stone. The force gave him a concussion and let him open for Swoll’s next attack. “Tekkai, Buchikamasu”, shouted Swoll as he attempted to punch the cyborg into next Tuesday.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No way”, shouted LordNoodle as he stepped up. The burly marksman grabber’s Swoll’s punch with his left hand, a feat that was nearly unthinkable. “I have had enough of your shit”, he shouted as he delivered a haki covered right fist straight to the man’s jaw. The force caused Swoll to back up a bit, and Noodle grew confident. He stepped in to throw another punch, but Swoll grabbed his arm and arm dragged him to the ground. The champion then delivered a bone crushing stomp to the man’s chest putting down the hero for the moment.

<p class="MsoNormal">However the group was to going to simply let Swoll do as he pleased. As Swoll stumped Noodle into the ground Sain rushed forward and dropped kicked his ankle. The force of the attack threw Swolls’ slip off the ground and sent him falling forward. Taking full advantage of the situation Walter rushed forward and slashed at Swoll’s face. The edges of the sword hit Swoll’s mask. It stopped the blade from cutting his face, but it did not stop the force of the attack coming through. The blow shook Swoll up as the force made its way to his brain.

<p class="MsoNormal">It was then that Swoll gave off a fearsome roar. The fight or flight response had activated in him. Jumping forward Swoll grabbed hold of Sain and slammed him into the ground with a savage pile drive. Seeing an opening Noodle caught Swoll in the ribs with a haki covered punch. He was attempting to give him the old one two. One punch to the ribs to open you up and a punch to the face to send you to sleep. Instead he got caught into a fearsome grappling hold, and by grappling hold I mean a hand around your neck. Choking the life out of Noodle Swoll slammed the man into the ground putting him back down once again. Walter attempted to fight with his broken sword again. However Swoll was prepared and when he swung the blade he caught the edge between his two clapping hands. After delivering a swift punch to Walter’s face, Swoll took the broken sword and ripped of the handle and dropped the edge weapon onto the ground.

<p class="MsoNormal">All hope seemed lost when the enraged Swoll rushed to finish off Walter, however then a miracle happened. As Swoll charged forward a flying slashed cut him in the back. The burly man turned around to receive another slash, this one aimed at his face. Before he could move another flying slash cut through the air and began to rain down upon him like rain. Cobba, the man who was out most of the fight, had finally revered, and ticked off was not the word. Using his butterfly knife Cobba began to beat back the burly man with a thousand cut small cuts. By spamming small flying slashes Cobba was able to beat back swoll with the force alone. Eventually Swoll’s are flared up. The man began to push through the slashes and make his way toward the source. Everyone looked in horror as they expected Swoll to rip Cobba to little bits. However Cobba remained calm. The fire in his eyes told of the great vengeance that grew in his heart.

<p class="MsoNormal">As Swoll moved into range to attack Cobba let off one final slash. This attack was much bigger than the others and when it slammed into Swoll, it sent the burly man flying backwards. Swoll was pushing himself far beyond his limit. As he fell he could feel his strength leaving him. All the little cuts where doing their job. Swoll hit the dirt like a tumbling tree. His down sent a ray of hope through the five as they pulled themselves out the dirt.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Finally”, spoke Cooper as he pulled himself off the ground. The entire group was looking bad. Their bones where broken, their bodies bruised, and there will nearly broke. “Come on guys, we still have to take care of Har”, spoke Cooper when the sound of footsteps filled the air.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Congratulations”, spoke a voice as the group looked up at their surroundings. Marine soldiers surrounded them on all sides and a familiar voice filled their ears. “You all have been quite the little amusement”, spoke Harkon as he walked out from among the soldiers. Next to him was a man dressed in all back with eyes as crimson as blood. In his right hand was a sword, covered in blood, and in his left was Swoll.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Wait what”, spoke Noodle as he turned to where Swoll was laying. The man was no longer there. Between the time they had rallied themselves up and now the man in black had moved in and grabbed their comrade and moved out. It was not a good sign.

<p class="MsoNormal">On the left side of the man was a women. Which seemed strange to Noodle, but Sain seemed to know her.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Shinan”, spoke Sain as he looked the women up and down. “Oh f#$%” Between all of them Sain had the most connections. He knew the most people and as a result he could recognize Shinan out of a crowd. The others, they were ignorant to the two people standing before them. That was for the best probably. Knowing would not change the fact that they were doomed.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I have to admit”, spoke Harkon as he looked at the five fools. “I did not expect you all to come this far. It is a complete shame that our spies where unable to uncover this plot earlier. These lazy layabouts. If it was not for my Blackburn agent then I might be dead by now.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Blackburn”, spoke Cooper as he looked at Harkon. “What the hell is a Blackburn agent?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“That would be me”, spoke a world government agent as he stepped forward from his men. He was the same man that Cooper had gotten into a fight with at the docks.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Wait, so there was no traitor”, spoke Noodle as he stared with confusion.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Pshaw, foolish little insects”, spoke Harkon as he looked at Noodle.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No there was no traitor”, spoke the Blackburn agent. “When I got into a fight with you leader early yesterday morning I planted a bug on him. Do you think we would not know about your new robotic body Cooper”, spoke the agent. “We have been keeping tabs on you for quite a while. Thought I have to admit when you took out one of our best agents I was kind of worried.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Best agent’ thought Cooper to himself. He did not kill the man, but there was no point in letting that guy know it.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Stop talking to insects”, spoke Harkon as he looked at his agent. The man liked to brag far too much for his job. “Listen here vermin. Know this before you die. Once you are all dead I will go back to you filthy little village and burn it to the ground. I know you all are secretly from Apple Village, thought I have no idea who the crap you are”, spoke Harkon as he looked at LordNoodle. “However you can be sure that those close to you will suffer as well. Walnut, your entire family will be put to death and those related to you by blood will be marked as exiles and traitors. The world government will not tolerate traitors in its ranks, especially in the Royal Task Force. Cobba, you delusional maniac, you will”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Sorry, but Cobba does not give out autograph to baboons”, spoke the narcissistic knife men. Harkon looked at him for a moment and then pulled out his pistol. Rather than outright kill him he wanted to make Cobba suffer a bit more. So instead he shot the bullet into Cobba’s left shoulder sending a new wave of pain through his body.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Only thing worse than an dog   is an dog   that won’t shut the hell up!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh look we got a promotion”, spoke Sain. Harkon looked at the lad and then raised his pistol. Unlike Cobba he could care less if Sain suffered or not. He was simply going to end the man’s life. There was something about Sain that just rubbed him the wrong way.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Die”, spoke Harkon, but before he could fire a sudden explosion filled the air. The force of the explosion made Harkon miss and his bullet buried itself into the dirt.

<p class="MsoNormal">“What was that “, spoke one of the soldiers as another explosion went off. A green haze filled the air around the concentration point and a crooked smile crossed Sain’s face.

<p class="MsoNormal">“That looks like the warehouse with the bombs taken from the ship”, spoke one of the soldiers.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Who could have set them off”, spoke another man.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I will check it out”, spoke Candide as he suddenly vanished. A loud boom soon followed as the man rushed his way toward the source of the explosion.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Tag”, the word filled the air and grabbed the attention of all around.

<p class="MsoNormal">Remember at the beginning of this story I told you about The Middle Men. As I said before we are the blade that slash where justice cannot reach. Every last member of The Middle Men, understands that one day we are going to die on the job. We understand that we are dispensable tools and that our fate is to eventually die and be left in a ditch. Still we fight on. Because some things are more important than life.

<p class="MsoNormal">Suddenly and without warning one of the marine soldiers broke rank. Drawing a dagger from his back pocket the figure moved to stab Harkon. However the maiden in black was far faster than he was. She cut him off midway and drew her sword and cleaved the man into two. In that moment however there was a small opening. LordNoodle took the opportunity to run, which grabbed the attention of everyone around.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Don’t let that swine get away”, shouted Harkon. It was then that Harkon felt a sharp pain coming from his liver. Looking up his eyes bore witness to Jacket Man, the young ninja of The Middle Men. The first assassin was his assistant in the area. He knew the moment they slew him that Harkon would let his guard down. All of the Middle Men are willing to throw their lives away for the sake of justice, that includes the secret base staff.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Justices has finally found you”, spoke the young man as he pulled his knife out of the World Noble’s body. Marines rushed forward to attack him and all eyes and attention turned back in his direction. As   Harkon fell to the ground bleeding to death a bolt of lightning cleaved through the heavens. The bomb began to do its work. For you see, the five fools never planned on killing Harkon themselves. Even if there plain would have went off without a hitch they still figured they would lack the skill to defeat his body guards. As a result they came up with a new plan. They would make bomb, but a very unique bomb. The Dance powder bomb. The explosion would not only wreck your ship, but it would summon up a great and terrible storm. The wind howled and lighting lit up the sky. It was almost as if the sky wept tears of joy as the five fools succeeded in there great goal.