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AU- One Piece: Phantom Raiders

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Chrono pulled his wings back and beat them forward at the same time that Sano charged, the powerful gust caused Sano to slide back against the main mast of the ship. Before he could fully recover, Sano was set upon by Chrono who was dragging his blade along the deck of the ship and swinging it up to try and land a deadly blow between Sano's legs. Sano dropped, pulled his chain tight with one hand while keeping a good chunk of it wrapped around his arm and blocked the strike. His hand twisted and wrapped the straight blade tightly then yanked back and out to get the weapon out from between his legs.

Chrono yanked the blade back, slipping it from the chain and started to make quick jabs at Sano's head and chest. "YEAHHH Now the party's starting!" Sano shouted, shifting his body side to side and evading the strikes. His heart raced with excitement, it was taking everything he had to keep pace with the winged man but he couldn't let Chrono see it or he might reveal he had more to give and take Sano's head off. The entire time he evaded, Sano twisted his wrist until the chain rested at his feet and he only held the handle of his chain. The brawler grinned wide and pressed a button on his circular handle, causing a gout of flame to lick up the chain as he snapped his wrist and caused the chain to wrap around Chrono's legs, burning the white pants he wore at the calf of his legs.

Chrono howled in pain and shot backwards, jabbing his weapon down between his legs and yanking to pull the chain apart and slipped out of the flaming metal. Sano started to whirl the chain around and turned the flame off. "....Where did you get that piece of Skypiean weaponry? Return it at once, you blue sea monsters don't understand how to properly use our toys." Chrono growled. Sano smiled wide, his sharp canine teeth peeking out from behind his lips while he began to swing the chain in his right hand.

The duo circled one another and eyed each other up while trying to find an opening to exploit. At the same time, below the ship on the docks, the slave sailors went to move in and help their master but Ion slid on her foot, drove her fist into the gut of one man and dropped him in a single blow. "Now hear this, I'm a doctor and its clear that you're all starving, not resting and haven't been free from those binds in years. Next man that steps up gets dropped like your friend here." The others winced and stepped back, not even willing to draw the shoddy spears hooked to their back straps.

Sano lashed out with his chain first, Chrono ducked slightly and lifted his blade, parrying the attack and charged in while Sano tried to snap his weapon back to him. Realizing that Sano wasn't going to be able to pull the weapon back in time, he yanked as hard as he could with his left hand, dragging the tool backwards while snapping his wrist and causing the weapon to whip backwards and chase the Skypiean at a rapid pace. With a twisting face, Sano fell to his back, narrowly avoiding a strike that would have landed between his eyes. Chrono placed a boot on Sano's chest and raised the straight blade high above his head and tilted the weapon down at Sano. "DIE!" Chrono screamed and started his thrust. Sano hit the button on his shell again, causing the chain to ignite and called out. "DRAGONS BREATH!" The end of the chain smashed into the back of Chrono's head, knocking Chrono off his feet and onto his chest and face.

The flames shut off again and Sano rolled to his hands and feet. Quickly he scrambled up to his feet and chuckled softly. Chrono groaned in pain and felt the back of his head where there was now a burnt and bald spot in his hair that was singed from the flaming chain. Chrono grasped the blade in his hand and flew off rapidly, his wings dropping soft feathers around the ship as he bounced about rapidly at awkward angles, leaving an after image of his body in the wake of his sudden turns. Sano scanned the sky, trying to keep up with the rapidly moving first mate of the Sky Cleaver. Sano could hear the sound of Chrono's blade whipping about and cutting air.

Before he could think, Sano felt a blade cut through his side in an x shape twice. Sano staggered back and held the right side of his chest. He drew a ragged breath and looked at the blood seeping from his chest and abs. His head tilted up and watched as Chrono bounced around the air once again. "Hahahaha! Can't keep up? This is my finishing move and the last thing you will see!" Sano pulled his hand from his chest and lifted the chain, whipping it around at his feet in a circular motion. The moment the after images stopped appearing, Sano hit the button on the shell once more and yanked the weapon in an upside down U shape. "Flame Shield!" Chrono smashed into the chains flame trail, his head shooting up and he bounced off the deck and flipped over the ship. Starting to fall Chrono gagged when the flame chain wrapped around his neck and his own weight caused him to hang from the chain. The fire burned terribly and his legs kicked for a moment before he passed out and the flames went out at the same time. Sano smirked wide and flung Chrono off his chain and onto the docks below then dropped to a knee himself, smearing blood over his chest and trying to make sure he was going to be able to walk back down the gang plank.​
 
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Sano slumped down with a thud once his knees hit the deck of the ship. Sora strolled past the enslaved Skypieans and stopped at the downed Chrono, her boot connecting with the side of his head. "Bastard, doesn't know how to treat a beautiful woman!" She spat at him and then ran up the gang plank. Taking one look at Sora she scoffed and started to wander around the ship to inspect the craftsman ship of the vessel. Ion in the mean time looked at the slaves and huffed for a moment. "Sora, how is Sano doing? Does he need medical attention?" Sora glanced at the bleeding man and the left side of her mouth pulled up in an annoyed quirk. "I don't know, he's giving me a thumbs up and is bleeding from a few cuts but I think he's fine!" She shouted down. Ion held her hands out towards the slaves and rolled her eyes. "Okay, you guys get back on the ship and hang out, I'm gonna take a look at Sano up there, then I'll cut your binds and free you." The nine slaves all looked at one another then to the man that Ion had knocked out in a single blow. One of them nodded her blue haired head and the group helped lift the downed man off the ground before they all moved back up onto the ship. Ion walked up to Sano and reached into her pocket to pull a small vial of disinfectant from it and cleaned his wounds and started to stitch up his cuts.

Mashyuu and Angela screamed while soaring towards one another, their weapons crossing and clashing. Mashyuu's kama hooked the cutlass that Angela carried, the blades running along one another and deflecting effortlessly. Mashyuu spun around Angela mid air and clubbed the back of her head with the haft of the weapon while swinging the chain back and letting it smack into the throat of Angela. Her free hand came up and grasped at her neck while she went wide eyed and gagged for a moment. Mashyuu twisted his body and drove his boot into the center of her back right between her wings, the armor she wore absorbed a brunt of the strike but caused her to move forward. She whipped about and made a V mark in the air with her blade, forcing Mashyuu to shift to the right up and down to evade a swift slash. Mashyuu took the opening he thought he saw to charge her once more. Angela knew he'd charge though and as he pulled his kama up for a strike Angela dropped down and lined her back up with the ground below them. Mashyuu swung his weapon hard and missed, leaving himself open for Angela to stab her weapon up. Pulling up hard, Mashyuu winced when her blade caught his thigh and cut the outer part of his left leg.

Mashyuu landed on the ground and staggered, favoring his right leg so that his left wouldn't throb as much. "Bitch.... now I'm bleeding on my pants. That's never gonna come out completely!" He snapped. Crossing her arms over her chest, Angela giggled into her mouth with a cute, bubbly tone and winked at Mashyuu. "If you can't run you can't get away. Next I'll cut off one of your wings." She purred. Mashyuu placed his weapons back on his hips and reached into his vest, drawing two daggers and started to spin them around in his grasp. His wings took a few powerful beats and lifted him off the ground. Angela lifted her blade and pointed it at Mashyuu, shifting so he only had her profile. He darted at her, ready to give a killing blow but her profile made it hard for him to aim. Stopping abruptly, Mashyuu hurled his daggers out and pulled his arms in at the same time to give them a hooked flight path. "Buzzard Swarm!" The daggers ripped through the air, Angela bent her elbow and deflected both strikes, knocking the daggers aside while keeping her eyes on Mashyuu. He shot up, drew his kama and chain, whipped the chain around and dragged it down as hard as he could. "Dive Bomb!"

At the same time his mind started to calculate her movement, he could see her blade lifting to bat his chain away, see her step in to evade the slack of the chain coming at her and his body was ready to react. As she batted his attack and stepped in, Mashyuu's wings folded in around his back, he twisted and flipped through the air and cut at her wing with the kama, causing her to yelp when he cut a deep gouge in her feathers. Angela screamed in pain, blood dripped from her wound and He landed on his back while she stumbled forward.

As he landed, Mashyuu rolled his hips up and back, flipping to his feet and twisting at the hip. He hurled the kama at the woman and watched as the weapon moved past her head. He yanked the chain as it soared past her mid air. He yanked it back and watched as the weight of the kama shot back and the chain wrapped around her neck tight. She gagged and grasped the weapon but Mashyuu pulled the chain tight, forcing Angela to fall to her rear and climb to her knees. "You're leaving Mock Town, and your ship behind. It's mine now and you're not going to come after my crew. If I see you again, you die. Understood?" Angela gasped and nodded her head while Mashyuu stalked closer and unwrapped the chain from her neck. Before he could see it, she slashed at him again, cutting his right arm and forcing Mashyuu to back step when she sprang up and mule kicked him in the chest, driving the air from his lungs. She launched into the air and vanished while she headed towards the sun awkwardly due to her cut wing.​
 
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Mashyuu drew heavy breaths of air, gasping in pain and checking his body for serious injuries. Slowly he collected his gear and started to fly up into the sky. He began to sweat heavily and wiped his brow, happy he managed to get some semblance of revenge on the man that killed his parents by defeating his daughter and knowing his crew was stealing her ship. He started flying faster, eager to see his crew again and make sure they were fine. Above him he felt the wind patterns change around his wings, started to turn his head to see what was above him when a blade slashed across his shoulders and Angela landed atop his back. She pulled her left arm up and around Mashyuu's neck, legs wrapping around his waist.

Gagging, Mashyuu's vision started to blur and he couldn't draw breath properly. His left arm shot straight down, flipping a throwing blade into his palm and gripped it tight. "We could have been lovers, but now you have to die Mashy..." She purred at the man. Mashyuu drew a deep breath... as deep as he could, and shot back at her. "Then let me leave you something to remember me by." With all the strength in his arm, he jabbed his throwing blade straight into Angela's exposed thigh, twisted around and slashed her across the face with a hidden dagger. The blade slashed her from ear to ear, cutting across her face just under her eyes. She howled, and clutched her face while Mashyuu lifted his dagger and clubbed her on the crown of her head with the handle of his weapon as hard as he could, dropping the woman to the ground. As quickly as he could, Mashyuu shot into the sky, twisted until he saw the docks and launched himself towards the ship ports.

Slowly the Skycleaver started to back out of the port, the Skypiean slaves now freed of their binds showed the Phantom Raiders around the ship and how to control it. The Wapol steel pipes that were in the bottom parts of the ship started to churn water on one end and spew it out the other side, causing the ship to back up slowly and produce small bluish clouds that rose into a fog, surrounding the vessel for a moment before it dispersed. "Okay guys take a seat and Ion will see what she can do for ya, Sano keep an eye out for Mashyuu and I'll get this thing sailing!" Sora shouted happily.

Ion walked with the Skypiean's below deck, sat them down towards the helm where a massive clear barrier kept the water from the sea from pouring into the ship. "Wow, that's impressive.." Ion gazed at the sight, watching as fish swam around the ship. "It's to keep pressure changes from bothering us too much, the ship can move under water but very slowly." The man who was slugged in the stomach stammered while finding a seat on a long bench. Ion wandered about for a bit until she found a first aid kit and got to work... Sano stood at the head of the ship and looked around the sky using a curved shell that ended in a straight line. "Ah shit! He's in the center of town!... But he's coming this way, stop the ship just wait for him!"​
 
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Mashyuu flew with what one might call a limp, his injured body barely able to hold up under the pressure of his flight speed. Quickly he started to move his legs like he was running on air and came to land atop the wooden deck of the Skycleaver, slowly jogging to a stop from the momentum he carried and rested between Sora and Sano. Mashyuu dropped to his knees and gave the duo a thumbs up. "Great job gang.... where's Ion?" Sano chuckled and pointed down. "Below deck helping out some Skypiean slaves. Figured you'd let em go anyway so why not patch em up first right?" Sano put the Skypiean spyglass down and dusted himself off. "You look like shit by the way, you kill the babe?" Mashyuu shook his head and pulled the white sunburst mask off his face. "No, hell she almost killed me but I managed to knock her out of the sky and get here. I don't think she's gonna come for us any time soon."

The trio all stared at one another and started to laugh a bit. "Okay, someone help me down to Ion, my leg is killing me... so is my shoulder." Sano stalked over to Mashyuu and helped the man up then down into the ship. Dropping him onto the floor next to the others, Sano pointed at Mashyuu. "Cap can't walk well, he got cut up pretty good, either he can't fight or that chick was faster than all hell." Sano shrugged and walked off. Ion checked the last woman out and patted her shoulder. "Well, you guys are all good. You can stay here until we get back to Skypiea or you can take off any time, you're free to do what you want."

Lazily Ion walked over to Mashyuu and looked at his injuries. "Great job moron, now we gotta wait to check out the Marine strong holds. Come on, take your pants off so I can stitch you up." Mashyuu rolled his eyes and pulled his jacket off, revealing his armored vest. "The vets took the brunt of the damage here, really just stitch my leg up and we should be good. It's not deep either, hell a good bandage might take care of it." Mashyuu patted his leg and winced, realizing his wound was a little deeper than he thought it was. An hour later, Mashyuu and Ion stood on the main deck and the winged Captain moved to stand next to Sora who was at the helm. "...Sora you need a break?" She nodded and let the wheel go, slipping aside so Mashyuu could take the helm. "I need three willing bodies to go with Ion to the hospital to get her stuff, who's up for it?" Three of the Skypiean men stepped forward. "We'll help her, we owe you guys and if we can pay it with some easy manual labor we're happy to."

Slowly Mashyuu whipped the ship around and pulled the Sky Cleaver just off the coast and called out to drop anchor. He locked the ships wheel in place and stepped away. "Everyone on board gather round!" Mashyuu waited on the deck of the ship and once the Phantom Raiders and the Skypiean's were gathered, Mashyuu spoke. "First of all... to those of you that don't know me, my name is Mashyuu Ishi, Captain of the Phantom Raider pirates. It's good to see some fellow Skypiean's on the sea. If you want to join me, you're welcome to, if not you can leave at any time." Mashyuu pointed up to the sky. "That is the first place we are going, I'm gonna take great pleasure in cutting the throat of the man who made me who I am today, after that, who knows? What I do know is that I'm going to live a free life and if anyone wants to share that dream, this ship.... It's their home. We are setting off in three days time, tomorrow we are gonna raid a small Marine base, the day after we are gonna head up to the heavens! If you have anything you need, get it now. Report back here tonight."

Two of the men grabbed Ion by the hands and started to fly up and towards the docks then landed and followed her back to the hospital. "Sano, I need you or Sora to stay here and keep an eye on the ship." Sora waved the order off and pointed to Mashyuu. "Bring me back a good and stocked tool belt so I can inspect this thing properly and I'll stay, besides I have all these strapping men to keep me safe. But maybe bring back some weapons too eh?" Sano in turn shrugged his shoulders and scratched his chin. "I don't have wings so I'm staying here. Besides something tells me that the Marines will have some weapons they won't be needing when we are done with em Cap." Mashyuu nodded his head and jumped up, flying off towards Boris' blacksmithy.​
 
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Chapter 8: Goodbye Mock Town!

Mashyuu pushed the door to the Smithy open and Boris' daughter pointed and snickered at Mashyuu. "You look like shit, get in a fight with a razor blade?" Mashyuu lifted a brow and walked to the hidden door into the work shop. "No, a flying woman with a sword actually. Is your dad in?" The woman nodded and nudged her head towards the room Mashyuu was heading in while he slipped into the room and shut the door behind him. He lean't against the door and looked over at Boris while the man cleaned a rifle barrel and oiled it up. "Boy, you look like hell, need some water?" Mashyuu shook his head and winced then started to walk with a limp over towards his small work station. "Boris I've gotta-" Boris cut him off by standing and grabbing a small bag of tools he had sitting next to him. "No need to explain boy. You're headed off. I knew it would happen eventually. Look, you've got a knack for de crafting skill. You gotta job when you return. In de mean time take dis." He handed Mashyuu a backpack with tools and some ingots in it. Mashyuu accepted the heavy pack and slung it over his shoulders then reached to give Boris a hug and instead Boris grabbed the man and hoisted him up off his feet and walked Mashyuu over to the door. He set the winged man down and reached up, pulling a funny looking weapon off a plaque on the wall. "Now listen up, this be the weapon I used when I was a pirate. Made it meself and I want you to be havin' it." He placed the handle of the weapon in Mashyuu's hand and the Skypiean looked it over funny. "A whip blade?" "Aye, and it be a belt too." Mashyuu looked at the weapon again and could see how it fastened together around a waist. A good hidden weapon to be sure. "Thank you Boris, for everything. I'll be back some day and pay you in full for your kindness." Boris embraced Mashyuu in a hug and shoved him backwards out the door. "Now get outta ear and life a free life!"

Ion turned the handle of the door to the hospital that once belonged to her and silently stepped inside. It was empty for once aside from her replacement who didn't say anything to the young doctor at all. Ion knew that her now former partner heard her and the the Skypiean's enter but decided to let the girl do what she had to in order to say goodbye the easiest way for her. At the foot of the stairs leading up to the bedrooms was Ion's belongings, seven bags total, some longer than the others, two filled with clothes, four with medical supplies and one with essentials anyone would need on a long trip. "Ion, before you go, I figured things would be dangerous." The woman with her back to Ion spoke up while the group gathered Ion's stuff. Slowly the woman turned and held a wooden box about the size of a shoe box out for the doctor of the Phantom Raiders. "Don't open it till you get settled on the ship okay? Grams would be proud that you're getting out there and helping others. Thank you for freeing Mock Town." Ion, ever the stoic woman took the box and blinked a few times, not letting the young woman see that Ion was on the brink of crying. "...Come on boys, we have a ship to get back to. I wanna be settled in before we set sail."

A small row boat paddled out to the Sky Cleaver and two thugs looked up at the ship. "Ehh, Sano-san you up there!?" One of the men shouted. Sano looked over the rail and lifted his head slightly. "Sup boys?" The men held up two amber colored bottles in their hands and before they could speak, Sano was leaping over the rail of the ship and landed with a thud in the smaller ship. "Hey hey! Thanks guys!... who are you exactly?" The one that was speaking before handed Sano the bottles and pointed to his foot where a small barrel keg rested. "Al wanted to give this to ya as a way to say thanks for drinking there so often, your Captain just walked in not long ago and started to clear out his room so Al sent this ahead." Sanoske laughed heartily. "GEH GEH GEH GEH! Alright, HEY Sora! Toss down a rope ladder!" Sano reached into his pocket and handed each of the thugs a pair of old brass knuckles as a payment then started to slow climb up the ladder with two full hands...

Sora stood below deck, looking at an engine system in the rear of the ship and she tinkered with it using some tools on hand in the ship, cleaning some old gears and tightening some bolts. "Not much but it should run a little smoother at least." She muttered while rubbing the back of her left arm along her forehead and flinging her wrench around in her hand and catching it with her right. "Hey which one of you guys wanna be my boy toy and hold me while I paint a stupid symbol for our jolly roger?" She asked and picked up a bucket of white paint and headed up to the main deck of the ship. When she arrived, Mashyuu, Ion, Sano and the five Skypiean's who decided to stick around were all there and milling about, getting the ship ready. In Mock Town she had nobody, on Skypiea she had nobody but here she had a group of friends that she hoped to one day call Family.​
 
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Chapter 9: Ion's Drive

After arranging living quarters for the Phantom Raiders primary crew and setting some space aside for the Skypieans to bunk in, Ion sat in a chair in her room which doubled as an exam room and was next to the med bay of the ship. Mashyuu stood in the room, propped against the door with his arms crossed over his shoulders and changed into a fresh suit. "Whats in the box?" He asked, nodding at the shoe box on Ion's desk. "Oh? Oh yeah the box, I almost forgot about it. Lets see..." Ion pulled the box on her lap and lifted the lid off. Her eyes sparkled with delight at what she saw. Strong and sturdy brown leather, clean and polished that was the length of her forearm, steel studs and a round metal emblem of the earth rested ominously in the leather and gleamed under the light of the room. Ion giggled to herself and pulled the cestus from the box for Mashyuu to see while she slid the weapons on over her arms. "My teacher used these before she was killed by the Dons Fixer. I was too fixated on the battle at the time to think about it. Never considered her granddaughter would give these to me.

Four Years Ago:

A young Ion stood next to a red haired woman that wore black dress pants, a white dress shirt and a pair of brown boots stood in front of a building painted white with a large red cross on the front of it. The two story building would serve as a hospital for the fighting ring on Jaya and Mock Town so long as people were willing to pay something, anything would do. Really Octavia was trying to teach Ion and her Grand daughter how to be good doctors since Octavia's daughter had passed while giving birth and Octavia knew she wouldn't be around forever. The middle aged red haired Octavia bent at the knee and took Livia, her grand daughter, by the hand and pointed at the second floor. "You pick any room up there you want, the other two are for me and Ion here. Get going." Livia ran into the house and raced up the steps to pick a room. Octavia and Ion stood in silence for a long moment and after a few breaths Ion spoke. "Donny's not gonna let this place stand without us paying a pretty penny every month, and with nobody coming into Mock Town aside from tourists and lost sailors, how do you think we are gonna get any sort of real income? Especially with letting people pay whatever they want?" Octavia patted Ion on the shoulder and walked into the building. "I've got it handled Ion c'mon lets get in there."

Days went by, Ion and Octavia worked hard, admitting anyone who needed their help. For a bit Ion forgot about the Don since nobody had come in from his family. "Good Ion, now be sure to clean the wound again after pulling the bullet out, don't want to risk anything." Octavia stood behind Ion while she worked on a shoulder that a Marine had shot while fending off pirates near by. The marine man blinked in concern at the thought that someone new was working his wound but the pretty girl was clean and numbed the shoulder before she got to work on fishing the round bullet out of him. He didn't even feel it when she sewed his shoulder shut and placed a large bandage over it. Once he was patched up he dug into his pocket and handed Ion a weeks pay. "Thanks a lot! That was fast and I didn't feel a thing. I'll tell the rest of my unit about you ladies here!" Ion looked down at the Beli in her hand and quickly split it into three portions, keeping a small amount for herself, giving a small amount to Octavia and a larger amount going into the hospital funds. Octavia sighed and took her pay, put half of that into a jar and started to clean up.

After a long silence, Ion cleared her throat and bit her bottom lip. "I have to tell you something, and you're not gonna happy about it." Octavia looked over at Ion who was lifting her shirt up to reveal bruises all over her torso. "I've been fighting in a fight club the Don runs, they say there is a devil fruit there for the winner of a tournament. Tomorrow I go up against Crimson. If it's a good devil fruit I might be able to help the hospital with it. Hell maybe I can take the Don down and...." Octavia swiftly rushed at Ion and slapped her hard across the face. "Moron, you're barely trained to fight. What do you know? Enough to defend yourself against a mugger or a bandit? What do you think you can do against Crimson, a trained killer? He's going to break your body apart." Ion dropped her shirt and looked at the floor in shame. "I know, but its not to the death and I have to try! I'm already so far. I just wanted you to be there to root me on." Octavia's face twisted with pity and the red head hugged her student. "Stay here." Without any explanation, Octavia left Ion alone in the building.

The following morning, Ion strapped her boots on her feet and started to stretch her body, dressed in white pants, a tank top and a set of cestus' that she had made from scrap in the hospital. She stepped downstairs and saw Octavia pulling her pair of brown cestus over her arms and her red hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. Ion looked at Octavia in confusion and glanced about the room, noticing the jar of money was gone. Octavia smiled warmly at her student and hugged the young woman. "You're not in any condition to fight. So I paid the Don to let me take your place."

Ion found herself sitting in the Don's basement, arms crossed over her chest and scowling at the back of Octavia's head while Octavia stood in a small twenty by twenty foot boxing ring. Across from her, Crimson stood in his white pants and black shirt with no shoes for some odd reason. The bell for the fight rang and the crowd of mobsters cheered. Crimson barely had a chance to drop into a stance before Octavia was between his shoulders and his eyes went wide along with everyone else's in the room. Her cestus clad fist came up and drove hard into his stomach, she could feel his guts shift and his body stagger backwards while he lurched forward. She twisted her entire body and sent the entirety of her forearm and the back of her fist into his head, sending him sailing over the top rope and onto the ground with a crash.

The crowd was silent for a long moment, Crimson's partner the Fixer rushed to the mans side and pulled his thick black hair back to get a better look at his downed friend. He looked like he was alive but Crimson couldn't sit up let alone stand. A full minute went by before the bell rang again and the Don slid into the ring with a red fruit that had swirls running with white patterns. "This is the Blood Blood Devils Fruit. And it is now yours! Good show, if you ever need a job as one of my units let me know...I have plenty someone like you could help with."

Ion and Octavia found themselves sitting back at the hospital, Ion making fist swings like Octavia had earlier. "That was soooo cool! How did you learn to fight like that? What made you so fast?" Ion asked, the fruit sitting on a table. Suddenly a sharp knock on the door drew Ion and Octavia's attention and Octavia wandered over to the front door. Octavia opened the door and drew a sharp breath before she fell back and crashed. A small well of blood swelled around her chest and she looked back at Ion while gasping and clutching her chest. Ion screamed and looked at the doorway, the Fixer stepped into the room, placed his boot on Octavia's chest and aimed his silenced gun at her head then pulled the trigger.

The Fixer walked into the hospital and took the fruit off the table. "It should have been you fighting Crimson, so she paid your debt. If anyone ever finds out I did this, I'll come back, kill you, kill the child and burn this building to the ground." The Fixer spoke with a snarl in his voice and slapped Ion across the face with his gun, knocking her out. By the time Ion had awoken, the body of Octavia was gone and the blood had been cleaned from the floor. Ion ever saw Octavia's body never knew that the woman had left the Cestus for Ion when she was older... but that night had given her the drive she needed to seek revenge when the time was right.
 
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Mashyuu and Ion stepped onto the main deck of the Sky Cleaver and looked up at the sun as it rose slowly into the sky. A soft breeze caught the duo's hair and carried with it the scent of salt from the sea. "Alright! Lets get moving, we hit em before they are all up and about and we can catch em off guard!" Mashyuu shouted. At the helm, Sora tugged a leever on the wheel of the ship and something clicked into place, the ship churned water from the front pipes and let them seep through the metal and come out the other end, slowly pushing the vessel forward. One of the Skypiean's a rugged but older man by the name of Xorn who had salt and pepper colored short trimmed hair stood in the crows nest and used the spy glass to make sure there weren't any marine ships coming near them since the Raiders now flew the classic black flag while the other four Skypiean's remained at the ready to help with navigation if need be. "Don't forget! We need a log pose so if anyone sees one snag it!" Sano shouted and yawned, a little hung over from a night of drinking.

Mashyuu walked over to Sano and took the chain off him. "I had an idea for a weapon for you... If we can find a forge to use I can make it, I just need this flame dial or a smaller one.... Anyway I had an idea about a weapon I think you'd really enjoy." Mashyuu walked off and stared at Ion while she made rounds and examined the Skypiean's once more to make sure they weren't eating too much or too fast after being half starved and ill cared for during their time under Angela. A small smile crept over Mashyuu's face and Sora whistled at him. "Eh lover bird, stop staring and come here!" Mashyuu growled and placed the red sunglasses he stole when he arrived at Mock Town on his face. "Yeah yeah.... What's up?" Mashyuu asked when he joined Sora.

Sora handed Mashyuu the wheel and ran off. "Something feels out of tune, Keep her steady and heading around the island while I go check it out!" Pulling her goggles onto her head, Sora jumped overboard and flipped in the water, swimming so that she could look at the pipes that convereted water. Her eyes narrowed when she spotted the issues, one of the large pipes had a small hole in it, likely the reason they docked on Jaya to begin with. As quickly as she could she swam around to the other pipe to check and as she thought, both had a small hole, energy would be wasted while getting up to Skypiea and they wouldn't be able to get to the White-White sea until they got repairs from the city of Upper Yard.

Pulling herslef back on deck she rung out her dark locks and strutted towards the helm with swaying hips. "Ship's busted Cap. Nothing I can't fix though, just gonna have to make a stop on Sky Island." Mashyuu grumbled and drew a deep breath. "Alright, any suggestion on how to get up to Skypiea then?" He asked. "Mhm, we use the knock up stream to help us rise. Shouldn't be a big deal, the pipes can still do most the heavy lifting." Mashyuu chuckled and patted Sora on the back. "Great, but one issues at a time, lets raid that strong hold." Mashyuu pointed out a small Marine fort with one ship in its port at the edge of Mock Town.​
 
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Chapter Ten: Phantom Raiders Strike!

A woman wearing a white marine coat with gold trim, a black belt and two blades on her hips rounded the corner of a fairly large marine base at the end of Mock Town. She stopped at a small room where soldiers were getting dressed and readying for their shifts. Silently she brushed some hair from her face and examined her Marines with a pleased smile. The mobster Don and his "family" had been captured and put on a ship, sent to a larger base for trial and jailing, all aside for one man, Crimson who had elected to go through basic training and become a Marine. One of the soldiers saw the woman standing in the doorway and saluted her, followed by the rest of the group. "Captain!" One of the men said, greeting her. "At ease men, good morning, stay alert." The woman responded then headed off to finish her rounds.

Wind blew harshly along the island, palm trees bent harshly, the leaves of the trees brushed the stone building painted white. A pair of men walked around the roof ramparts of the Marine Base and three men worked on the single ship docked in the front of the base. Atop of the building, one of the marines in a white cap stopped and squinted at the horizon, a thick bluish white fog was rolling in but there was something in the clustered fog that looked like a cloud. However it was hard to see what it was. "What the hell is that?" He asked, his partner stopped and joined him as well. "Looks like.... a-a..... Is that a pirate ship?"

Mashyuu stood at the bow of the ship, whipping his chain and kama around in his hands with a grin on his face. "Okay Raiders this is it! Make it quick and clean, don't kill but lets not show any mercy either. Knock em out, round em up and lock em in a room! Then steal all the stored food, water and weapons at once! Sora, while we are on land, you and the Skypieans take out that ship and don't let it sail for any help!" Mashyuu ordered. Ion and Sano stepped up to Mashyuu's flanks and grasped the weapon he held while Mashyuu held onto the middle of the chain with both hands. Ion reached up to his face and pulled the mask down over Mashyuu's eyes.

The trio took off, Mashyuu grunting with each of his wing beats, going as high as he could and circling the roof of the marine base. The two guards scrambled for an alarm bell but Mashyuu swooped down, Ion dropped off the chain and onto the shoulders of one of the men, knocking him to the ground, rolled forward and lunged at the next guard, putting him in a choke hold. Mashyuu passed by the ship, Sano dropped next and lashed his chain out, wrapping it around one of the workers throats and yanked him off the boat and into the water. At the same time, Sano moved forward, threw his leg up into the chest of another guard and smashed his head against his knee as Sano landed. He hoisted the man off his feet with one movement and tossed him into the last standing guard in the blink of an eye. All at once the Raiders collected the bodies of the defeated men and used a rope from the ship to tie the men up and lock them in the brig of the vessel.​
 

Silently the trio of Phantom Raiders moved around the building. Sano to the back, Mashyuu and Ion at the front. They kept low, making sure to move under windows so that if one was open they wouldn't be spotted until each of them were at a door. Mashyuu nodded at Ion who reached out and pushed the front door open. It creaked inward and a gentle light from the dark halls filtered out. Ion lifted a brow and tilted her head to the side in confusion. "No front guard or reception area..?" Mashyuu shrugged his shoulders and glanced inside. "Must not be a lot of people wanting to join the Marines... I bet this place doesn't see any action."

Sano wrapped his chain around his left fist and checked to make sure the three spikes on his right glove were nice and tight. Without even thinking, he knocked on the door of the building and waited, silently counting to ten in his head and clearly letting an annoyed lip curl cross his face. Sano leaned for the door knob again when it started to turn. Without a moments thought, Sano crouched and when the door opened and a friendly Marine peeked his head out, Sano shot up and drove his chain wrapped fist into the mans jaw, knocking him into the room again and sending the man flying against the wall. Quickly Sano rolled into the room and popped up, twisted around and charged the mans partner. "AHHHHHHHHHH!" Sano roared, lifted his elbow and drove it into the shoulder of the man who was trying to lift his rifle. The man yelped, tried to get away and in turn, Sano clocked the man in the jaw with his spiked fist, knocking the man out from the impact. "Shhh, we're supposed to be quick and silent." Sano joked while piling the two atop one another and using their cuffs to connect their limps in awkward ways.

"Alright, Sano's likely gonna hit their weapons cache, I want you to find the food stores and I'm gonna watch your back." Ion nodded in understanding, then sprinted down a hall to the left while Mashyuu examined the room they were in. One square room where a desk could have been that led to a hall on the left and right. The left door was open, the right sealed shut, a holding cell maybe? Mashyuu wandered to the right, reached under his long black coat and pulled the morning star from inside the folds. With one strong strike he knocked the knob off the door and pushed the door in. It was an office with a small box of den den mushi and Mashyuu smiled wide. "Score..."

Ion charged down the hall, watched as a door was pulled in on her right and four men started to filter out. She jumped up, drove her knee into the ribs of one man, her cestus covered left arm shot out, grabbed that man by the hair and yanked him hard down into her knee as she came to a landing. Her right leg shout out straight, kicking the next out the door in the knee, cracking bone. He fell forward and his head went through the drywall of the hall when Ion took his head and helped guide it. The third Marine dove down on Ion and grabbed her arm, swinging around her body and pulling her into a choke hold. Before she could act or roll her legs up and flip, the last marine grabbed her legs and the duo hoisted her off the ground.

Unable to speak, Ion realized that Mashyuu wasn't behind her right away like she thought he'd be. But a flapping of wings gave her cause to smile even while turning blue in the face. The metal shaft of the morningstar he carried smashed into the side of the head of the marine that had her in a choke hold. Suddenly Ion was falling backwards and sitting up at the same time. "Surgical Strike!" The woman drove her fingers into seven pressure points on the marine's chest and his entire body locked up, causing him to drop Ion's legs. As she landed her foot came up into the mans groin and her fist shot out into the nose of the man, knocking him out cold!​
 

"You ass! You said you were gonna be right behind me!" Ion shouted, Mashyuu in turn helped Ion up off the ground and the two locked the four men back in the room they came out of. "I was, it just took a second because I found these." Mashyuu opened his jacket and handed Ion one of the five small Den Den Mushi's. "Transponder snails... kinda tiny though. I bet they don't have a range much large than the base." Ion mused. "Maybe, we can test em later but any communication is better than none." Mashyuu replied and started to walk down the hall again, glancing around at the white panted walls and quirking a brow. "Odd that no alarms have been raised yet-"

Outside the Sky Cleaver drew upon the base and rounded so its port side was lined up with the military base and the ship stuck in the dock. "FIRE!" Sora shouted, one of the smaller cannons on the ship, (It currently had four cannons) roared loudly, launching a cannon ball through the air, ripping the main sail and crashing through the deck of the ship. "Reload and get ready to open fire again! Two of you get on that ship and take any supplies that are ready!"

Sano winced at the sound of a cannon being fired and grumbled under his breath. He thought he was being loud but now everyone would know that they were there. "Stupid girl...." He grumbled and started to run through the base, flinging doors open at every chance he had in order to find a store room. "Oh this is stupid!" Sano shouted with annoyance when he opened the tenth door and found nothing, not even a soldier sleeping but beds looked like they were quickly abandoned. "Ughhh they know!"

Mashyuu and Ion kicked a door in, it opened to a large kitchen with three other doors, one on each wall. "Seems like we're in the middle of the base." Ion whispered under her breath, partially trying to catch it after sprinting to make good time. "It's a kitchen, food reserves are gonna be around here." Mashyuu responded while stepping inside and starting to look around. Being joined by Ion, the doctor shouted. "Right here!" Mashyuu and Ion stood at the door on the left side of the kitchen and gaze in at barreled and pickled food. Enough to get them through a year or more. "We only need like... four of those barrels and a few jars." Ion figured and started to stack a few small barrels atop one another and slipped a dolly under the barrel stacks.

"Figures it's outside...." Sano growled while a vein in the top of his head pounded with annoyance. He looked out a window in an office and saw a large shed that was labeled -Weapons Cache- More annoyed now than ever before, Sano turned back, picked up a small paperweight and tossed it through the window, causing glass to shatter. A moment later he was standing outside the broken window, jumping through the shattered glass and cutting his shoulder shallowly in the process. Using his brute strength he started to smash the pad lock holding the doors shut with the chain wrapped around his arm.

Whistling to himself, Sano pushed a wheel barrel filled with long rifles and a few sabers along with enough ammo to last a few fights at the very least. He stopped in the military yard when he saw small teams of Marines all on the front lawn firing at a row boat that was headed towards the Sky Cleaver, and the Sky Cleaver opening fire on the marines, scattering or taking out teams with random shots from a single cannon. "I didn't take any cannon balls, I have no idea what those cannons use anyway!" He growled and got ready to attack when the front doors of the Marine base opened and Mashyuu, led by Ion came out with a large dolly of barrels, stopping short when they saw the large force amassed. "Remind me to scream at Sora for opening fire when we didn't need her to.." Mashyuu complained and set the dolly down carefully. At the same time Ion tightened the cestus on her arms and started to stretch, knowing they weren't gonna get back to the ship without a fight.

"Sora! They are out and ready for pick up, we gotta get that row boat over there asap!" One of the Skypiean sailors shouted from the crows nest. Sora ran to the side of the ship and shouted out. "HEY GUYS! SIT TIGHT AND THE ROW BOAT WILL BE OVER!" her happy face smiled wide while she waved. Sano and Mashyuu placed their heads in their hands at the same time and drew their weapons, morning star and chain at the same time then charged....​
 
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Some pockets of Marines spread out, continuing to fire on the Sky Cleaver, a few moved for the ship that was still docked, others twisted to face the ground force of the Phantom Raiders. Ion cracked her knuckles and glanced at Mashyuu, her brown eyes shifted from Mashyuu to the group. Some of them started to level rifles at the team, Ion noticed some of them leveling their weapons to the duo's right, Sano was with them. A sly grin spread over her face until she noticed Mashyuu staring at a woman in the center of the field commanding units. The woman drew a sword off each of her hips and turned to face the Raiders. Her dark hair flipped behind her back and she eyed the trio up. "MARINES, TAKE THAT SHIP, LEAVE THESE PIRATES TO ME!"

She started to strut forward, Mashyuu swallowed a lump and fixed his mask on his face, his jaw clenching and unclenching while Sano stepped forward and started to swing his chain around, it sliced air and rattled gently with each flick of his wrist. Before Ion or Sano could charge, Mashyuu took off, his wings carrying him rapidly through the sky in a straight line at her. His morning star cut the grass under him as he held it low to the ground and cut his flight path up to attack the woman. He started to hoist his weapon up but the woman swiftly flashed her blade, batting Mashyuu's weapon aside before he could raise it fully. She twisted and batted his head with the flat of her other sword, sending Mashyuu on a spiral pattern aside and into the ground with a thud.

Before Mashyuu could recover the woman was upon him, bringing her blade down in a slash that would have cleaved him in two had Sano and Ion not charged in right behind their Captain. Sano lashed out with his chain, causing it to wrap around the blade the woman swung with and stopped her attack. Without missing a beat, the woman tilted her blade aside and yanked, the chain slid off the katana and moved back to Sano's hand. Ion jumped up, pulled her right hand back and lashed out for the back of the woman's head. Feeling the wind on the back of her head, she ducked the strike, twirled her fingers and cracked Ion along the ribs with the flat of her sword, causing Ion to flip through the air and crash into the ground.

Slowly the woman turned to face Sano and rolled her neck. "....Child's play. This town was already held by a mob, I won't let Pirates cause any harm at all." Sano didn't bother to look at Mashyuu or Ion, he knew they'd be up soon. Instead he started to duck and bob while moving in and raising his fists. The woman made two strikes, one downward slash, Sano deflected with a roll of his arm and using the small spikes on his knuckles to catch and move the blade. The second strike was a stab that Sano stepped into and twisted his body to dodge. Getting in too close, the woman couldn't bring her blades back in time and Sano lashed out with his chain covered fist for her chest. The woman ducked as Sano twisted with the strike and drove her head right into Sano's groin.

"Ahhhggg!" Sano cried out and started to gag while back stepping and glaring at the woman while the wooden Marine ship started to set sail for the Sky Cleaver. Mashyuu and Ion got up behind the woman and held their injured bodies for a moment. Mashyuu placed his morning star back behind him in his jacket and drew two daggers, quickly spinning them in opposite directions while holding them out at his sides. He flew straight for the woman and started to spin like a drill in mid air, folding his wings in on himself while making a pair of inward slashes with his weapons right for her spine. At the same time Ion darted around to the woman's flank and charged, sliding on her knees and sending a heavy back fist for the woman's knee. Sano lashed with his chain like a whip, hitting the button on the dial causing a flame to lick down the metal links.

The woman lifted her leg and stomped on Ion's arm, had she not been wearing her cestus, her arm would have likely broken but the metal inlayed in the leather braced against the stomp. Using the leverage, the woman fell backwards and landed on her back, the chain Sano attacked with hit Mashyuu in the face, causing him to flip mid air and have to stop his attack short when a sword aimed for his heart shot up. Mashyuu beat his wings as hard as he could, forcing himself up and the woman's attack to barely miss him.

The woman rolled away from Ion and moved in, flipping her weapons around in her grasp, the woman made a series of strikes that put Ion on the back foot, each time she pulled her weapons back, Mashyuu had to evade a strike while the woman readied an attack for Ion. Sano roared with anger, his entire body tensed up and he attacked with his flaming chain. He kept the chain short, holding the flaming weapon in his gloved hand and wincing with the pain but made quick strikes at the woman's feet to try and throw her off balance.

Quickly growing annoyed by the trio's useless attacks, the woman in white stopped her attacks, jumped away from the group and observed the trio of Pirates drawing heavy breaths. Sano turned the flame dial on his chain off and looked at Mashyuu confused. "She's really good Cap. Takin on three of us at the same time... we haven't even done any damage to er." Sano complained. "Lady, you got a name?" Mashyuu asked after a long pause and agreeing silently with Sano. "Captain TsuikyĹ«.... Not that you will live long enough for it to matter." She said with a dry tone to her voice. While the others spoke, Ion glanced over at the weapons Sano had carried in the barrel and got an idea.....​
 
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"Keep her busy!" Ion shouted to Sano and Mashyuu then took off for the wheel barrel. Tsuikyū darted after Ion, not wanting to give her the chance to do whatever she wanted to try. She took a single step forward and Mashyuu slid his leg, dropped his daggers and his hands drew his kama and chain. His arm forced down, stopping Tsuikyū from bringing her sword up, while Sano charged and slammed into the woman as hard as he could, forcing the woman backwards while Ion made her escape. Growling with anger, Tsuikyū flexed every part of her body and twisted while wrapping her arm around sano's waist, throwing him through the air and tossing him aside like a rag doll. Sano smashed into the ground and rolled to a slow stop while cannons fired in the distance, the two ship trading cannon fire poorly. Sano groaned and picked himself up, snapping his chain out to smash into the back of the head of a Marine just to help take some pressure off of Sora and the others.

Mashyuu and Tsuikyū squared off, the chain in Mashyuu's left hand spun and lashed out for the woman in a straight shot. Tsuikyū spun her blades, batting the chain aside and as they spun, Mashyuu darted in and brought his kama straight down and tried to cut her chest. She started to move backwards but Sano smashed into her back, forcing the woman forward enough that her abs were cut shallowly by the tip of the kama blade. She winced in pain and went to strike with the pommel of her weapon but Sano wrapped his chain around her throat and watched Ion come charging with the guns. He realized that She was going to try and blow the ammo and he shook his head side to side. "Ion! I didn't get ammo for those yet!" He shouted to try and stop her.

Ion stopped, confused and the guns spilled out of the wheel barrel to the floor. The woman glared at Sano while he tried to choke TsuikyĹ« and Mashyuu tried to get in close to finish the woman off. TsuikyĹ« brought her weapon up and stabbed it right at her own head, pulling her head aside to evade her strike while Sano loosened the chain grip and ducked. She lifted a leg and kicked Mashyuu in the chest, threw herself backwards and crushed Sano under her, using her blade to throw herself fully backwards and roll to her feet in one fluid motion.​
 

With a boot to the chest, Mashyuu flipped backwards and held his chest in pain, feeling the old injury he suffered when he arrived in Mock Town pulse with extra pain. He drew a deep breath, his jaw contorted with pain and he snarled while taking stock of the scene. Too many marines to escape even if the trio managed to take out the Captain, one ship already on the chase for the Sky Cleaver and a row boat with two Skypiean's waiting to get back to the ship. Mashyuu took a deep breath and shouted. "ION, deal with the soldiers, Sano, back her up! You two! Back to the Sky Cleaver and help defend the ship!"

Rolling his neck, Mashyuu walked to the pile of spilled weapons that fell from the wheel barrel and the Pirate picked up a single sword in his left hand, reached to his waist and flicked his wrist while yanking, drawing a whip blade from his waist. "Tsuikyū! You're mine!" Mashyuu shouted and started to fly up like an angel ascending to the heavens. He drew a deep breath to steady himself, his right hand cracked the whip blade and rushed Tsuikyū while she smirked at the Pirate Captain and crouched into a defensive stance, seeming to now take the fight seriously.

Ion and Sano glanced at Mashyuu with confusion, but Sano simply laughed it off. "YAHAHAHAHAYAHAHAHAHA! Capn's orders! Let's clean house Ion!" Sano roared twisted his neck and gave a demons glare at the marines who were firing at the Sky Cleaver and the small row boat that held the other two Skypiean's pinned down. Ion didn't waste time, rushed a small pocket and threw herself into the bunch, cestus clad arms lashing out, striking skulls before any of them had a chance to collect themselves and realize what was happening. A flurry of sickening thuds echoed off faces as the small group collapsed to the grassy floor.

Sano launched himself like a dart for a group as they turned their attention to Ion and raised rifles. "HEY ASSHAT'S I'M YOUR OPPONENT!" The manic grin on his face soon fell into a snarl when his wrist lashed out, sending a chain shot to the side of the head of one of riflemen, a second lash on the back swing grasped a rifle by the barrel and caused it to jerk to the side and shoot another marine in the knee. Ripping his chain back, Sano glanced at the grass on the field.... dry grass. His chain whipped up, the dial launched a gout of flame and the fire chain hit the grass, igniting it, and setting the marines on fire, forcing them to run for the beach and the water to put the fires out!

Mashyuu and Tsuikyū clashed, the whip blade wrapped around Tsuikyū's blade, catching it and holding it in place. The curve of Mashyuu's saber batting her other weapon aside with ease. Mashyuu's knee came up into her abs, forcing the woman to double over for a moment. She came up and smashed her head into the Skypiean's jaw. He kept a good grip on his weapons, not letting himself fall back even in mid flight. His wings kicked up harder, throwing dust into the air from the dry soil on the ground. Dirt hit Tsuikyū's eyes and she winced, falling back a pace.

Sensing he had an advantage, Mashyuu kept the pressure on, she was at her best when she was fighting on her terms, every time things started to slip out of her grasp she broke away, collected himself and drew back into the middle of a fight on her terms. Mashyuu saw out of the corner of his eye, the Skypiean's jump off the boat, pick up two rifles from marines who were flailing about in the water and take off for the Sky Cleaver. "Raiders! Back to the ship time to go!" He shouted. Sano and Ion broke for the row boat, Mashyuu twisted around and lashed his whip blade at Tsuikyū's ankle, yanking her foot out from under her and threw the woman to her back.

Still in mid flight, Mashyuu broke away for the small row boat as well, placing his whip blade back around his waist and tossing the saber aside. The captain launched himself towards the others and held his arms out. Sano launched one end of his chain at Mashyuu and the Pirate caught it, yanking hard and slowly dragging the boat out to sea towards the Sky Cleaver while Sano gripped the chain with both hands and braced his feet at the back of the small row boat.​
 
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Mashyuu dragged the small row boat while Ion used the oars to help the ship along and Sano kept his chain and the boat hooked to Mashyuu. Cannon balls hit the water close to Mashyuu, fired by the Skypiean's to keep a thick mist of water around them and obscure them from the Marines. The other two Skypiean's soared around the marine ship and fired pot shots at random soldiers every time they tried to take a shot at the other Raiders. The Sky Cleaver, helmed by Sora pulled the ship close enough that the fog that the Sky Cleaver made enveloped the smaller row boat. The moment the other Skypiean's saw that, they made a bee line for the Sky Cleaver to join the others. The crew assembled on the main deck of the ship and the ground force grumbled at their clear defeat at the hands of the Marine Captain even though the Raiders were lucky to have escaped at all.

"Alright, I want that ship at least, we take it down now, and it will take a bit of time before the Marines can get another ship after us. Besides I know they have supplies we can use. I'll take the helm, Sano, direct the other Skypieans, Ion and Sora get on the cannons I want a cannon firing every time the other isn't." Mashyuu ordered while walking to the helm of the Sky Cleaver and taking over for Sora.

"Hey, you two, fly me over to the ship then come back here and help the Captain sail this thing!" Sano shouted and lashed his chain out for the two Skypiean men to grab and fly with. The duo soared over the Marine ship and dropped Sano into the crows nest. Dropping down, Sano pulled his left fist up and struck the man in the crows nest right upside the head then he lashed out straight, hitting the man in the face and knocking the marine out of the crows nest. "YAHAHAHAHHA!" Sano laughed with glee and jumped over the crows nest, dragging his spiked gloves into the main sail of the ship and slid down the fabric while the few marine forces tried to take shots. The roar of a cannon echoed and grazed the Marine ship, splintering wood and causing the vessel to lurch while the Sky Cleaver drifted closer. Rifle fire cracked through the air and took down a pair of sailors and Sano landed on the main deck with a bit of a lurch then lashed his chain at the wheel of the ship causing it to become locked in place. "This ship is property of the Phantom Raiders now! Surrender and throw yourselves overboard!" Sano shouted. The man at the helm nodded and darted to the side of the ship, jumping into the sea to avoid death.

The ship rocked again as a cannon ball smashed into the side of the vessel and the wooden boat started to take on water. Sano staggered and grabbed the rail of the ship and cheered when he saw the Sky Cleaver pull along side of the ship. The Skypieans leveled rifles at the remaining crewmen on the upper deck of the marine ship while Mashyuu walked to the edge of his ship and started to spin the chain of his weapon around in his grasp. "Attention Marines, Captain Mashyuu Ishi of the Phantom Raiders is about to board your vessel. Meet our demands in a timely manner and you all get to go back to that cozy base of yours in one piece, resist and I'll mount your bodies to the mast of my ship."...

Quickly the Phantom Raiders worked, Sano tying the rest of the marines up on the upper deck, Ion and the Skypieans grabbing weapons, cannonballs, and food to put on the Sky Cleaver, and Mashyuu making sure more Marines didn't come from around the island. Once the Sky Cleaver was loaded up, the Raiders set sail, leaving the slowly sinking Marine vessel in the distance while they headed to the back end of Jaya.​
 
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Season 2 Chapter 1


The Sky Cleaver drifted along the sea, slowly moving towards the southern end of Jaya. The crew met in below deck and Sora laid out a map of Jaya. "If you look here, it looks like a skull but catch this, the bottom half of the jaw is gone. That's because there is an event that happens here five times a month called the Knock Up Stream. Normally it would be hard to determine how hard it would be to get up to Skypiea, but this ship can create clouds similar to those found on Skypiea. Its because there are water activated cloud dials in the metal pipes on the sides of the ship. We just need the knock up stream to lift the Sky Cleaver a little bit, from there the ship will float up to Skypiea, Mashyuu and I will be fine and so will the other Skypieans. The rest of you are gonna feel funny for a bit, also you need to stay below deck until we can dock, otherwise we might have to pay a hefty toll and as far as Pirates go, we've done a piss poor job, ya know.... since we have no treasure." Sora slapped the map and cocked a hip while leaning onto the table. "Any questions?"

Mashyuu adjusted the red sunglasses on his face and examined the map then shrugged his shoulders. "Well lets go, time to do some Pirate Shit." Sano grumbled and flopped down on a near by chair and rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed that he had to stay below deck until they docked but Ion didn't seem to care and instead wandered over towards her personal quarters and the med bay, getting things ready for an emergency examination just in case.

"Wynn! Bring the others over here." Mashyuu called atop the deck, the leader of the five Skypiean sailors, Wynn, a man with short brown cropped hair, an eye patch (not because he was missing an eye but thought it looked cool) over his right eye, and a white button down shirt with a saber and pistol strapped to his hips approached Mashyuu along with the others. The Pirate Captain started pointing to various areas of the ship and giving the Sailors stations to man. "And until we reach Skypiea, Sora has command, I'll trust my helmswoman to get us to the promise land. Get to work."​
 

The Sky Cleaver made small circular laps in the water, water rolling along the ship all while the group of Pirates waited for something to happen. Water filled the pipes on the side of the Sky Cleaver from the other end the water was converted into a light blue and thick fog that slowly condensed into a cloud. It gently began to lift the Sky Cleaver onto the cloud while the sea below began to bubble. "It's starting, close all the sails aside from the main sail!" Sora shouted. The Raiders set to work, bringing sails in and tying them down while Sora kept the main sail open and ready to twist the ship about when she saw what she was looking for.

Suddenly under the ship, the water exploded up, the cloud acted as a cushion and braced the vessel. The force of the blast caused the crew to fall to the floor of the main deck, inside Ion and Sano grabbed the closest thing pinned down that they could. The pressure that was suddenly upon the crew was immense. Mashyuu's face spread out and flopped while his glasses pulled into his skull and caused the Captain harm. The other Skypiean's screamed, not ready for the sudden jolt they would feel while Sora remained on a knee and held the wheel of the ship steady. "Someone get up and start looking for Skypiea!" She ordered, causing all the others to slowly stand up and begin looking around. "I don't know what we're looking for!!!" Mashyuu shouted, only remembering the fall and what the top of the small town he was raised in looked like... as a five year old.

"GOLD! A city of gold!" One of the women shouted, prompting Sora to lift a brow, almost unable to believe that someone had actually come from the city of Gold in Skypiea. The winged men scanned the sky line once the ship stopped going up, and Wynn pointed. "THERE!" Fully trusting Wynn, Sora pulled the wheel of the ship and caused it to turn while catching wind. Slowly the ship started to drift towards a clump of clouds until the Sky Cleaver pushed into something that felt almost solid and came to a full stop. Across from the Sky Cleaver was a jut of land that extended into a large forest..​
 
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The entire crew recovered from the sudden jolt of a stop and Mashyuu pulled himself off the deck of the ship to his feet and peered over the edge of ship into the clouds that held the ship up. His brow raised sharply and his right hand scrambled for the red sunglasses in the breast pocket of his jacket. Quickly he scrambled and put them on his face. "What.... It's been so long....." Tears welled up in his eyes a bit while he bit his quivering lip, Mashyuu was home. Sora peered over towards the forest and smirked at the city of Gold she could see beyond the forest. (Even if it was just barely.) The woman couldn't contain her excitement and pondered moving the ship towards the land mass. Sano and Ion returned to the main deck of the ship and looked at all the wonder in Skypiea.

"Hey, what's that?" Sano asked and pointed to the left of the forest where a small group of winged men in blue suits were marching towards a man in a black high collared jacket laid on the island with a massive club wrapped in white bandages lay unmoving. Mashyuu and Wynn darted to Sano's side and watched the men carefully. "Those are Skypiean Slavers!" Mashyuu shouted in pure anger, he didn't know who the man face down was but he wasn't gonna let anyone take him as a slaver. "How can you possibly know that!?" Ion shouted while Mashyuu's wings spread wide and he grabbed Sano, taking off towards the group. "I know a slave brace when I see it!" One of the men in the back of the group held a large leather harness that was normally used to keep wings locked into place but they all marked a slave of Shaw.

"HEY! WHO'S THAT?" One of the men shouted, pointing at Mashyuu and Sano. Without a word, Mashyuu hurled Sano through the sky and dove down towards the man on the ground. Twisting in mid air, he scooped up the downed man and his club and started to fly. "Shit this club's heavy!" Mashyuu groaned while taking off back towards the Sky Cleaver. Sano pulled his right fist back, threw his shoulder and body forward and smashed his fist into the face of the first slaver, breaking his nose and knocking him into a small clustered group. Before he knew it, Sano was on the ground and pulling himself up.

"Phantom Raiders! Attack!" Mashyuu shouted, soaring into the fray, Ion holding his hands and letting go when she was nearly above the group, Sora was behind the others, gliding awkwardly but swinging her boomerang in her palm then hurled it just as Mashyuu and Ion let go of one another. The steel weapon whipped through the air and between their hands and clocked a man in the side of the head, bounced up into the air and landed in Sano's grip. He twisted around and sent the back of his hand into another slavers jaw, tossed the weapon back and jumped away from the group to square his shoulders up next to Ion.

The Slavers reached to their backs and pulled make shift knives, each gleaming white with Skypiean metal. Mashyuu growled with rage and his blue eyes flashed red. One of the slavers took a step back and glanced at the other four in his group. Mashyuu's hand scythe was out in an instant and he was soaring for the slaver who backed up. Before the red glasses wearing pirate landed a head lobbed to the ground and a body followed swiftly. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Ion shouted with rage at Mashyuu and the black haired Pirate snapped his head in Ion's direction. "Saving lives!" Mashyuu watched one of the thugs run and a savage smile spread over the Pirates face while he started to stalk the man.

Sano jumped up, drove his knee into a slavers chest and knocked him back, at the same time his hands reached out and grabbed the Slaver by the back of the head and pulled his head down right into Sano's knee as he landed, knocking the man out in one final shot. Sora drew her second boomerang and tossed one at the leg of one of the slavers and waited for the man to start to jump, then she hurled the other at the neck of the same goon who jumped straight into it and fell to his knees choking for air. Both weapons flew back to Sora's hands while she strutted, swaying her hips towards the choking man and cracked him upside the head with both weapons, knocking him out cold. Ion rushed one final goon, driving her fingers into the man's shoulders, ribs and chest repeatedly, knocking him around like a ping pong ball then tripped the man's legs out from under him and drove her back hand into the man's skull, knocking his lights out.

Mashyuu returned with the last slaver tied up in his chain, dragging the goon back to the raiders. "Okay guys we are gonna have ourselves a little party with this sad piece of shit, but first we should find out who are friend is. "Sano, feel free to knock this sad sack out."​
 
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Sano dusted his hands off while nudging a winged slaver and making sure the ropes used to tie him up were nice and tight. Meanwhile Mashyuu helped Ion bring the man who was knocked out to the med bay of the Sky Cleaver. The crew left Ion and the blue skinned man alone and waited for her to examine the mans body. Ion pulled on her doctors coat, a steathascope and her gloves then got to work. She checked his heart beat and blood pressure, examined the gills on his body and the bruises covering his back and chest. The man had a band over his head that was black and held his hair up and out of his eyes. After twenty minutes of examining the man, Ion determined the Fishman would make a full recovery with some simple rest...

Slowly the man came around and started to sit up, looking at the bandages that had been wrapped around his ribs. He winced and his razor sharp teeth jutted out for a moment. The Tiger Shark Fishman rubbed his sore head and glanced about the warm room full of medical supplies. After a moment of gathering his wits, the man started to walk about the ship, searching for someone. His nose twitched at the offensive smell of someone burning pasta on a skillet and he followed the slowly burning odor to a long kitchen where a crew of winged and non winged men and women sat while waiting for a man with dark hair to finish cooking a meal. "That's no way to cook pasta.... what are you doing? You're burning it!" The Shark man shouted.

The Phantom Raiders all twisted around to see the man standing in a dark coat with red clouds on it and they smiled at him. "Hey, glad to see you up but the Doc said you need to eat slowly and get plenty of rest, you have some busted ribs and stuff." Mashyuu said while Sora patted the seat next to her and winked at the Fishman. The man in the doorway blushed and looked away. "Just... hey get away from the skillet!" The man shouted at Sano and rushed over, quickly flipping the food inside rapidly to keep anything from burning until the mix of pasta, fish and veggies had mixed properly.

Quickly the man started to sear the food in a lemon sauce and laid out enough plates for everyone then slowly spread the food around the main table and sat down next to Sora. "I take it that you people brought me back from the dead? I'm in your debt. My name is Jager Visser, cook by trade." Mashyuu reached across the table and shook Jager's hand. "Mashyuu Ishi, Captain of the Phantom Raiders Pirates. Happy to have helped you. We couldn't just let some slavers nab up an innocent man.... How'd you get here anyway?"

Jager stroked his gills and chin while thinking about the question and cleared his throat. "I was swimming near Jaya, I've only been in the area for a day or so, kinda finding myself. When suddenly the water exploded upwards, I must have been under a ship because I slammed into something hard and passed out, when I woke I was barely able to move and those slavers were coming at me, I passed out again and woke up in the hospital bay." While the others listened carefully, Sano shoved his plate in Jager's face and grinned wide. "Can I have some more? Oh and ya want a place to stay, we need a cook. I hate doing it but nobody else here could lay down a meal at all!"​
 
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Jager washed up and joined the rest of the crew, spending an evening getting to know who they were and the journey they had taken up to the Raiders helping Jager escape the slavers. While Jager didn't quite understand why Mashyuu would want to go back to the land he was tossed from and relive all his terrible memories, he thought it was admirable that the young Captain wanted to face his fears head on. At some point the Raiders turned in for the night, giving a hammock to Jager as well. The blue skinned fishman found himself on the upper deck of the ship, staring out at the ground he was on when Mashyuu lifted him off the ground and saved the man.

At his side was his massive and wrapped club, he leaned forward and started to make like he was going to leave the Sky Cleaver and the Phantom Raiders to their own devices. That was until he heard the pleading sound of a man crying for his life. Jager crouched low and followed the sound until he looked over and saw Mashyuu, holding the captured slaver by the hair, keeping the chair he was strapped to just barely above the water. "Ya know, my arm's gonna get tired from holding you eventually. If you tell me where Shaw's compound is, I'll let you go. Come on, don't pass up on this deal." Mashyuu almost pleaded with the man. The captive Skypiean relented and groaned as if he had given up. "Fine, fine, I'll talk. Please just don't kill me. Shaw.... take the road we came on as far as you can, it will lead you to a compound that has three buildings, two of them are for the slaves and slavers, the last is Shaw and his families."

Mashyuu grinned ear to ear, pulling the red sunglasses off his face and revealing his eyes were already glowing red. "Something tells me you're telling the truth. So as promised I'll let you go." Mashyuu let the mans hair go and the slaver tipped back and crashed into the cloud water, slowly sinking and eventually fell from the other side of the could, one day he would fall into the water of the blue sea and die...

Jager watched with an astounded look and jumped off the ship when Mashyuu started to walk the path that the man had pointed out. "HEY! HEY, What do you think you're doing?" Jager shouted at Mashyuu. The Pirate turned to face Jager and grinned at him. "Stay here, tell Sano I left something for him in the Captain's quarters. I'll be back in a few days. I just need to take care of this myself to make sure that nobody else gets hurt." Jager looked back at the ship of men and women who were already following the Skypiean and then back to Mashyuu. "You think those guys won't stand by you if you face your past? They already came this far. Going alone is suicide. Who knows how many more are there?"

Mashyuu shrugged his shoulders and put the glasses back on. "You're right, grab your big stick and come watch my back. For now I just plan on seeing what is what out that way. If we get into a fight, then we get into a fight. Not much to be done at that point other than win. Lets hope it doesn't come to that eh?"​
 
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Chapter 2: Enter Mars

"So, what are you gonna do when we get there exactly? Fly around and count the guards? Won't most of them be asleep?" Jager asked while switching the club on his shoulder over to the other arm and gave Mashyuu a sideways glance. The Pirate Captain shrugged his shoulders and pondered the question for a moment. "Ya know, normally I have a plan when I do this sort of thing. But if I'm being completely honest, ever since we landed I've been running on auto pilot. Maybe to a fault. All I know for sure is that I need to get there first, see who is who and make sure that I'm not being led into a trap." Mashyuu went on.

The duo walked in near silence until the sun started to rise, the entire time they were careful to keep the dense forest on the Island to their right hand side. Mashyuu wasn't sure why but it gave him a bad feeling and Jager agreed even though he had never been on Skypiea before. The duo stopped at a gated fence and looked at a massive plantation. Mashyuu pointed to the edge of the plantation at the fence. "That's new. Must be to stop people from jumping off the Island. See that long hut there, my father was killed in it." Mashyuu drew an invisible line with his finger from the edge of the island to the closest wooden shack. Jager nodded as if he understood but had no idea why Mashyuu was telling him that.

"That's Shaw's building." Mashyu pointed to a massive building, four, maybe five stories tall. The dark haired pirate's eyes narrowed and he scanned the building carefully for any sign of movement in the building during the early morning light. The man next to him patted Mashyuu on the shoulder and yanked his head back. "Come on, lets go get the others and come back. I bet we can take em together." Mashyuu glanced at Jager and shook his head. "Nope, you go back, I have to deal with someone..." Jager looked back to the building and saw a man in a white suit walking from the large house to the long shack Mashyuu had pointed out earlier. "Wait-wait, you said we weren't gonna do anything crazy." But before he could finish his thought Mashyuu jumped up and spun, his wings beating and creating an air current strong enough to cause Jager to step back a pace.

The Skypiean launched himself high up into the sky then dove down, landing in front of the man in white. His white hair blew back a bit and his left hand raised to keep himself from going blind from dust in his eye. "MARS!" Mashyuu shouted, one hand quickly flicking to the morning star on his hip to draw it. The blonde lowered his hand and looked at Mashyuu with an incredulous expression on his eyes. Slowly he straightened his red tie and considered going for the pistol on the small of his back. "...Little slave boy... Ishi. I would recognize that look of rage anywhere. Just as savage as ever. You'll be saddened to know that your master no longer resides here. He lives on the upper city now. This is his daughters home. I'm the keeper while she's away." Mashyuu didn't care beyond the fact that Shaw was living higher up. For now, Mars would have to do. "I'll kill you!" Mashyuu shouted, Jager was already running full sprint for the Sky Cleaver.

Mashyuu lunged at Mars, his left hand flicking out and revealing a hidden blade up his sleeve. The man took a few slashes at the chest of the Slave owning Skypiean. Mars grinned wide and took a side step, lifted his hand and slapped Mashyuu's knife hand aside as if he were nothing more than a child still. Quickly he spun around the Pirate and kicked the man's leg out from under him, dropping Mashyuu to a knee all before he could get any momentum with the morning star in his hand. Mashyuu growled under his breath and started to stand but Mars smacked both of Mashyuu's ears and dazed the Pirate.

He tried to stagger to his feet, used the morning star to get up and as he pushed, Mashyuu found Mars wrapping his hand into Mashyuu's hair and pulling him along. "Now, I really couldn't care less that you're here but you are not welcome on this land Ishi. Time to learn you-" Mashyuu gripped his blade hard and slashed up the blonde's leg. Mars let go of Mashyuu and the Pirate took off into the air, flying towards the forest and above it to try and loose the man in the suit. Mars put his hand behind his back and pulled a silver pistol.

Mars took aim, drew a deep breath and whispered. "Mantra..." The eyes of Mars flashed red and he fired off a single shot that caught Mashyuu in the back of his left shoulder, sending the Pirate spiraling down into the forest with a thud, putting a small indent into the ground where he landed.​
 
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Sano pushed the door to the Captain's quarters open and looked around with his head just barely peeking inside the room. The crew of the Phantom Raiders awoke to find both Jager and Mashyuu had vanished, they figure that the two would be fine for a few hours and Sano and Sora decided to go to the upper islands while Ion and the Skypiean's remained on the ship. On the table that Mashyuu had used to plan things out, rested a steel handle wrapped in leather, with Sano's chain hooked to it and at the end was a heavy steel head that had the flame dial hooked to the inside of it.

With a greedy glint in his eye, Sano rushed over to the table and picked the weapon up. On the side of the weapon was a note. -Sano, don't use this on the ship, explosive weapon.- Sano stifled a laugh and hooked the weapon to his belt then ran to meet up with Sora. Waiting with her hands folded in her lap and sitting on the side of the ship, Sora was whistling a soft tune and kicking her legs at the side of the ship when Sano joined her and jumped straight off the boat to the ground below. Sora giggled and dropped off after him...

The duo found themselves standing at the foot of a bridge that rested on clouds. The bridge curved and went up to a flight of steps that led past a group of clouds to a gate. Sora pursed her lips and cocked her hip to the side then leaned in towards Sano and whispered, in case anyone was listening. "I'd bet money that someone is gonna ask for a toll or something." Sano's wide grin pulled to the corner of one side of his face and his eyes narrowed with excitement. "Oh yeah? Well don't forget, the two of us are pirates and that means we take what we want, lets go say hello." Sano's hand went to the handle on his hip and Sora slapped it. "Before we go swinging at everything past the bridge, how about we see how many are there first."

Sano shrugged his shoulders and threw his spiked gloved hands into his pockets and sulked up the bridge while following behind Sora until she suddenly started to back off and let Sano take the lead. His head followed her pace and his brow lifted while his eyes bugged out and he shouted. "HEY! You're the Skypiean! You take the lead! What if they shoot me!?!" Sora chucked and pointed at two guards at the end of the bridge, standing with spears in their right hands, pants with clouds printed on them, white shirts and funny hats that rested at an angle on their heads. Their wings were far too small to fly with but their boots had wheels and dials on them.

"Halt! Who wishes to pass into the Upper Yard?" One of the guards questioned. Sano looked over his shoulder at Sora and tilted his head to try to get her to talk, but Sora hadn't been born on Skypiea and didn't want Sano to know that. "I'm an outlaw here champ, so you do the talking." Sano grumbled under his breath and waved to the guards. "Hey guys! Just a couple of tourists here, wanna see what the upper yard is all about if ya dig me?" Sano stopped about ten feet away from the guards and let his eyes shift between the two men, sizing them up while he wondered if they would let the duo pass or if there would be a fight on a bridge of all places.​
 
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The two guards glanced at one another then back to Sano and Sora who were staring at the guards like they were expecting a fight. The two pirates started to grin devilishly at the pair of guards, already falling into the lifestyle of 'take what you what and when you want it'. Sano leaned forward a bit, his knees bending and Sora's hands twitched, her fingers slowly inching towards the holsters on her hips where the boomerangs rested. The two guards clutched their spears, the soldiers could see an itchy trigger finger when it happened, both men lunged forward towards the pair of Pirates and Sano drew his flail.

With a flick of his wrist Sano sent the heavy end of his flail into the spear tip of the man closest to him and the flail exploded with a bursting fire that pulsed from the holes in the flail head, the force of the blast sent Sano stumbling back into Sora who had to catch him and blew the guards back into the steel beams of the gate they guarded. Both the guards slumped and dropped their spears, Sora dropped Sano and lunged over him, throwing her legs out and smashed her feet into each guards face, knocking them out when their heads smacked into the bars and were pinned between boots and metal.

"Hey that wasn't cool! Those were my mooks." Sano coiled his flail and put his hands in his pockets while leaning his head forward and pouting. Sora tossed the spears off the bridge and used the guards boot laces to tie their wrists to their ankles behind their backs and gagged them with their own hats. "Okay we should get going before they wake up." Sora dusted her hands off and pulled the gates open then ran up a set of stairs, Sano followed close behind, shutting the gates behind them...

...The pair walked around a large town, sticking the the shadows for a while until they no longer felt like they would be ambushed at any second. Together they peered around a corner and checked the opposite way of the other then gave a thumbs up as if they were spies on a top secret mission. The Raiders crept from the alley they were in and started to walk with a small group, falling in behind them just enough that nobody would think anything of them aside from the fact that they didn't have wings. "Sano, what do you think that big building with the hammer is?" Sora asked, pointing out a building that was roughly thirty feet tall and just as long and wide. "Well I'd say town hall but it looks like that's at the center there.... Lets not find out eh? We gotta get supplies for the ship just in case. Maybe Skypiea has food that doesn't rot as fast."

Sora wrapped her arms around Sano's and leaned into his shoulder, resting her head on his broad limb while looking at what would have been her home had she been born on Skypiea. "OH we should get some dials! The're like toys here but some good dials could really help us out on the sea!" Sora shouted and ran off down a main street and darted left, Sano took off behind her, struggling to keep up with the shipwright. "Don't forget, we need Skypiean steel and a few new cloud dials for the ship, we can make the fog work better with those." Sora called out behind her and stopped. "What's up?" Sano asked and Sora turned to face him slowly. "What was the name of the guy the Cap wanted to see when we got here?" Sano thought for a moment and looked past Sora to a large field where hundreds of men were working, numbers tattooed on their foreheads and behind them a building that read "Shaw's Shipyard" rested with more shipwrights and dock workers than either thought was possible, maybe hundreds of slaves all working to make ships similar to the Sky Cleaver.

"Lets go! Master Shaw wants ten ships finished by the end of the week for delivery to the Blue Sea Marines!" A driver shouted at them. The fence that held the workers seemed oppressive, made of black steel and bent to face the men in case they tried to escape. "If the Marines get their hands on those ships... Others might not ever see em coming." Sora reasoned. "Sano we have to find the others and stop em." Sanoske held his hands up and nodded. "Yeah you're right but lets get what we came here for first eh? Don't need to cause any scene without the others and they have till the end of the week to ship em. We got time."​
 
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Chapter 3: Pieces in their Places

Jager exploded onto the deck of the Sky Cleaver, jumping onto the water and using his fishman martial arts he launched himself up and onto the deck where Ion, and the Skypieans were relaxing and waiting for the others to get back. "Mashyuu got shot out of the sky by some guy in a white suit with a pistol! He fell into the forest!" Jager shouted while waving his arms and dropping his club on the ground. Ion shot up from her perch and scooped up a medical bag, then got ready to jump over the edge of the ship but three of the Skypeian's stopped her. Grace and Maggie, the two female Skypieans both with golden blonde hair, grasped Ion by the arms and yanked her back to the main deck of the ship, Wynn stepped in front of her and pointed to a golden hue at the edge of the forest. "If Mashyuu is in that forest, he's either a dead man or will come out stronger for it. That is the city of gold and its always been off limits due to the natives that live there. It's forbidden for anyone to travel the forest and if the wildlife doesn't kill you, the Natives will." Wynn went on. "If we want to help, we should wait for the others and figure out what to do from there."

Jager glanced at Ion who was the commanding officer at the moment, hell Jager wasn't even sure if he was sticking around then frowned. "The guy that took Mashyuu was good, his aim was intense and his eyes flashed red before he pulled the trigger, I've never seen anything like it. If Mashyuu hadn't told me to go let you all know, I might have been shot too. The guy might have saved my life twice in just as many days. I think I owe it to you all to stick around and at least make sure you all get back to the blue sea safely." Jager bowed to Ion and hoisted up his club over his shoulders then glanced out towards the forest. If he could he would have entered the forest but Wynn's warning and the reaction of the other Skypieans put a bit of fear into the Fishman.

..."Ughh...shit." Mashyuu pushed himself up off the ground with his one good arm and looked at his dirty suit, a scowl covered his face while he dusted himself off for a moment and winced in pain, reaching back and touching the small hole in his skin where the bullet dug in and went clean through. "Ohh that's gonna get infected. Ion's gonna kill me." Mashyuu grumbled in pain then swallowed a dry lump to act tough in front of absolutely nobody. Stripping off his black suit jacket he pulled his white button down off his body and ripped a sleeve off. Carefully he pushed it into his pocket and grabbed some small twigs to make a small bundle for a tiny campfire then used a rock and his kama to spark the flames and heated the flat end of his weapon up till it was almost glowing red. He shoved the rest of his shirt into his mouth and bit down and pressed the weapon to the front of his shoulder to seal the wound on one side then did the same to the other. His eyes bulged and the Pirate screamed into the bundle in his mouth before he dropped to his knees and passed out from the pain.

"Stupid outsider, you're gonna get yourself killed doing that." A tiny voice called out above Mashyuu and a small figure dropped down from the trees, casting a delicate shadow over the Pirate Captain. The figure walked up to Mashyuu and nudged his side while she sat down a long leaf and made him roll onto it. With what seemed like a Herculian amount of effort the tiny thing started to drag Mashyuu off deeper into the forest.​
 
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The figure dragged Mashyuu to a near by camp site and let his legs drop. She stalked around him and pulled vines from some near by trees and used them to tie his arms and legs down behind his back and gagged the man. "The others are gonna kill me for doing this." She muttered while drawing an arrow from a short quiver she had on her back. Lazily she swept her dark hair out of her face and pulled it into a pony tail, adjusted her animal hide top and dropped to a knee, then shoved the arrow straight through the wound Mashyuu sealed shut. His eyes popped open and he started to scream into the gag. "Shut up you're gonna cause a bunch of problems you moron!" She snapped and pulled a small bottle off her hip and popped the cork. Pouring some sort of alcohol on his wound to keep it from becoming infected she slapped his shoulder and started to sew it up with a thread and what looked like a fishing needle. Mashyuu remained silent and winced until she was done. When she finished she cut the vine around Mashyuu's mouth and patted his head. "There there sleepy head, all done now. So what's your name?"

Mashyuu looked at his wound and then noticed that the girl hadn't untied his arms or legs but helped the man sit up straight. "Mashyuu Ishi, Captain of the Phantom Raiders." He replied. The girl sat down across from him and tossed a log into the fire. "That's nice. I'm Kirra, you shouldn't be here. It's forbidden for Skypieans that have large wings or have settled in the other lands to come to the city of Gold or the forest around it. I should be killing you." Mashyuu replied with a grit of his teeth and a tensing of his muscles, causing the young woman to laugh at his reaction softly. "Cucucucucu! No no. If I were gonna kill you I would have done it while you were laying there. Look, I've never killed anyone, only animals and I don't plan on doing it now. Plus you're kinda cute. So I'm gonna give you advice, cut you free and let you be on your way. Don't wander too deep into the forest or you will run into my brothers and that's the last thing you want. Avoid the wildlife, most of em are poisonous. When you get out of the forest, go back to you 'Phantom Raiders' and go home." The woman placed a small vial in front of Mashyuu that held a dark liquid then cut his binds.

"Now get going, don't count on me for help again cause if I see you I'll be sure to put an arrow in your knee and use your bones for a new weapon." She ruffled the mans hair and skipped off, deeper into the forest until Mashyuu couldn't see her any longer. Mashyuu rubbed his shoulder and picked up his chain kama then stood and dusted his dirty pants off and headed deeper into the woods but stopped short so he could pick up the vial she left behind. He wasn't sure what it was, or who the girl was but he figured it was a final parting gift.

Mashyuu walked through the forest for hours, the heat of the day beat down on him through the canopy of trees and burnt his skin. He started to forget himself in the heat, becoming more and more desperate to simply get out of the muggy forest that seemed more like a jungle with every passing second. Reaching towards a funny colored vine he grasped it and yanked hard, pulling it behind him and felt something sink into his right bicep. "GAHH SHIT!" He shouted and yanked hard with his left hand at what bit him, slamming it into a near by tree and killing it. The vine flashed the colors of a rainbow and curled up, it was a snake! "Ahh shit." He groaned and went for the vial in his pocket. Slowly pulling it up he yanked the cork off, figuring it was an antidote to the poisons the animals had.

Just as he lifted the dark vial to his mouth a rush came through the forest and a force smashed the vial in Mashyuu's hand causing him to drop the remains of the glass and look around the forest rapidly. Above him, on a large branch stood two men. One was massive with small wings, holding a wicked spear over his left shoulder and the young woman, Kirra over his right. A golden choker hung on his neck and his hands were wrapped in leather gloves but his bare torso tanned dark and lined with various white tribal tattoos gave a dangerous feeling to the man. His eyes narrowed as he glanced to Mashyuu then the man standing next to him. "Jarra, dispose of the intruder, I'll take our dear sister back to the village and make sure she's punished for allowing this man to live." The dark skinned man ordered while flipping his long white hair out of his face to glance behind him. He didn't wait for his partner, Jarra to answer and instead took off, vanishing faster than Mashyuu could fully comprehend.

The Second man who was just as dark skinned from a sun tan, was adorned in boots made of animal skin, and had knives carved of animal bones strapped to his arms, legs and waist. He spun knives around in both hands and as Mashyuu glanced back to where the pressure had come from that broke his vial and followed it, he realized that the man had tossed a knife at the vial and shattered it. "Hey kid, this is it. If that poison doesn't take effect before I finish you off it will cause you to see things, until you either sweat it all out or kill yourself by mistake. Not many sweat it all out. Less survive a fight with me."

Mashyuu squared up to the man, not speaking at first but drawing his weapon with one hand. His other touched the edge of his forehead with the tips of his fingers while he spoke. "I've had enough of this place and I've been here for a day. I'm going to be the worlds greatest pirate, if I can't survive a battle with your or a non lethal poison, I should have given up a long time ago. You're going to die here." Mashyuu smirked and focused hard, in a moment of pure clarity his eyes flashed a deep red and this time remained glowing.

Jarra grinned and dropped down, tossing one of his knives straight at Mashyuu. Unlike before, the Pirate saw the toss and lifted his kama, deflecting the bone blade with ease and causing it to stick into the ground next to Mashyuu. "Oh-ho-oh-ho!" The Native laughed and drew a new weapon. "Your Mantra is fairly strong to have seen my knife throw. Guess I'll have to get up close." So focused on dealing with the foe in front of him, Mashyuu never asked what mantra was. Mashyuu was focused on staying calm and defeating the man quickly to keep the poison from spreading fast during the fight. "You always do what your better half tells you?" Mashyuu asked Jarra. "...Ragnar... YOU WON'T SPEAK ILL OF MY BROTHER!" Jarra shouted and charged in, his tall frame carrying him far with each stride of his legs.

Mashyuu pulled the chain portion of his weapon and wrapped a part of the length around his right forearm and braced himself. Metal clanged against bone when Jarra moved in and took a slash for Mashyuu's neck. The dark haired Pirate forced his weapon up and used the curve of the blade to deflect the strike, dropped the kama and flicked his wrist to try and cut Jarra with the upswing of the weapon on the chain. Mashyuu stepped in and in a flash had a small knife drawn and moving for Jarra's chest, happy to simply cut the man in general. Jarra took his second blade and jabbed Mashyuu's with the tip of it, angling the knife to just barely miss its mark. Both men jumped back and started to pace one another after the quick exchange. "He's gonna kill her ya know? Your sister... Ragnar's gonna kill her and I'm not a nice guy when the rest of my crew aren't here. I'll kill you. This is your only chance to go save her. She did me a favor and I'd like to return that kindness. Go make sure your sister lives."

Jarra narrowed his eyes and started to think on his brother. As the leader of the tribe, Ragnar had to make decisions that others never thought about but it made him hardened to the world, unwilling to move in his views. Mashyuu was right, Ragnar would kill Kirra in public to make an example for the rest of the tribe. "Damn it..." Jarra spat at the ground and nodded at Mashyuu. "Perhaps you outsiders are more insightful than we give you credit for. Good luck. I'll try to keep Ragnar away from you as long as I can. So long as I save my sister." Jarra took off into the forest, leaping onto a branch then vanished. Mashyuu in turn leaned against the tree closest to him and blinked, the red faded from his eyes and a pool of sweat suddenly fell from his forehead. "What the hell was that... I could see everything in slow motion." He groaned while holding his head.

Mashyuu put his weapons away and started to walk deeper into the woods when the forest shifted between hundreds of colors at once and the trees sprouted the heads of his crew. "You said you wouldn't kill if you could help it! You killed those slavers!" Ion shouted from the top of a tree. "You left me behind, and I wanted ta fight as much as you!" Sano roared. Sora turned her nose up and the other Skypieans looked as if they had lost all hope. "NO! No I just wanted to...." Mashyuu fell to his knees and hid his head, almost crying. "It's just my imagination and the drugs.... fight past it Mashyuu!" His eyes flashed red again as he screamed, glowing and remaining red, causing the images he saw to vanish.​
 
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Chapter 4 A: Ragnar Banished!

At the far edge of the forest, a massive chunk had been cut down and used to make a make shift village of roughly a hundred men and women. Kirra was strapped, ankles and wrists to a pyre with thick leather straps. She groaned and swayed her body, trying to break free of her binds, the dark hair still pulled into a ponytail, frayed and matted to her face due to the heat and sweat that stuck to her head. A small gag stuck in her mouth kept her from calling out while many of the villagers remained at a distance, a look of worry, anger or confusion on all of their faces. The massive Ragnar stood with his spear over his left shoulder, glaring at the villagers. "She has betrayed us by allowing an outsider to progress towards the forbidden city of our ancestors. It is our sacred duty to keep all, including ourselves away from there to not bring the curse upon Skypiea!" Ragnar shouted, his already impressive frame flexing and bulging while he took a half step towards the crowd, forcing them back.

Ragnar's golden colored eyes scanned the crowd and his grip on his spear tightened when a voice shouted out from the tent behind him. A woman, slightly older looking than Kirra called out. "Brother! You know this isn't right. Our ancestors wouldn't want you, or any of us to die for showing mercy! Release Kirra!" Ragnar twisted to look at his sister, her hair as ghostly white as his, skin just as dark but instead of being adorned in leathers like the rest of the tribe, she wore pieces of metal she had taken from fallen foes and fashioned into her own armor. A massive dual sided ax rested over her shoulder in the same fashion of relaxed and practiced ease as Ragnar's spear. "Dakku, you know that I can't do that. As the Tribal Leader I must stand by my decisions and keep order. As my sister and the next to take leadership in the tribe, you should be learning from me and not fighting me at every turn!"

Dakku stepped up, leaving exactly enough space that she could swing her ax from its relaxed stance on her shoulder and cut anyone coming at her or standing before her down in one motion and narrowed her golden eyes. "Now, now! We shouldn't be fighting, lets just celebrate the fact that we stopped the Outsider before it was too late! Come now, brother, sister, stand down and unite. I've killed the outsider. Now let Kirra down! It's time to put all this behind us. She simply made a mistake." Jarra, with his golden colored tattoos pushed through the crowd and stood between the pair, glancing at his trapped sister then to his older sister. "I sensed a mantra used for a long moment and now you return. You were pushed to use it then?" Ragnar asked Jarra with a raised brow. "No brother, the outsider used it but I don't think he knew he could." Jarra quickly responded while flipping a blade in his right hand. Ragnar looked his brother up and down, not seeing any injuries on him but a lot of sweat, Jarra had arrived back at the village quickly considering he had a fight and the warrior seemed stronger than most of the villagers. "Brother, should I be using my Mantra on you? How did you finish the outsider so quickly if he too could use mantra and you didn't use yours in turn?" Jarra froze for a moment, he wasn't sure how to answer but Dakku stepped in. "Ragnar, you question everyone over every little thing, please lets retire for now, drink and think about how to best punish Kirra after some booze!" She hoisted a hand and at that, the entire crowd of watching villagers cheered to the idea of a party.

Standing at the edge of the village, Dakku and Jarra stood, face to face but backs facing so that one of them would see anyone coming near them at any angle. "He's going to kill her in front of everyone, we can't stop him without a fight." Dakku reasoned while cocking a hip to the side and scratching her chin. "Then allow me to draw his attention, I didn't kill the outsider and he will figure it out and try to have my head next. But the outsider was right.... He said that Ragnar was going to kill Kirra and look at things now! Unlike the rest of the village, Ragnar hasn't had a drink at all, he is planning to check my work when the village slumbers. When he arrives at the battlefield and doesn't see a body he will have my head, maybe even make you take it. Together we may be able to subdue him thought." Dakku shook her head side to side and frowned. "No, the village needs a leader, I'll do it alone. I'll banish Ragnar to the city of Gold that he loves so much, he can protect it and you will untie our sister, if the three of us show a united front, then Ragnar will lose the trust of the people."

Jarra nodded his approval of the plan and drew a blade, glancing over his shoulder to look at his sister, stilled tied up but sleeping after fighting for hours against her binds and finding she alone couldn't break or slip them. Together the siblings marched in unison towards their captive sister while the villagers of the tribe drank and sang around a large fire. In the shadow of a massive tent Ragnar watched his younger sister and brother marching towards the runt of the litter. His eyes glowed a golden yellow and scanned the would be traitors. "My mantra sees all...." He growled and burst into action, before Jarra or Dakku could make it to their sister, Ragnar was at their side, sweeping his spear like a lightning bolt and smashed the shaft of it into the chests of both tribesmen. Their breath was knocked from their lungs and they were sent soaring through the sky in unison and landed near the villagers who were still living it up. The party stopped when the duo crashed into the ground, hushed gasps of shock erupted from the group and Ragnar slowly stalked towards his family. "You mean to turn on me as well? You didn't kill him!!!? YOU WANT TO BANISH ME!? FINE!" He screamed and stopped, lifting his spear for a moment then paused. "I'll find the outsider, kill him, bring his head back on my spear and then come back and kill all three of you!" After taking a moment to center himself Ragnar drew a deep breath and dusted his hands clean. "Come sunrise your new friend is a dead man." He warned the siblings then stalked into the forest headed towards the city of Gold.

Chapter 4 B: Mashyuu and the City of Gold!

It was hard for Mashyuu to focus, the world kept changing around him, his eyes hurt and he didn't know why, worse he understood that the snake bite was making him see and hear things. He staggered for what felt like hours through the dense forest, smashing into trees that weren't there, tripping over branches that were taller than he thought, and couldn't fly long enough due how dense the forest was in some places. His pants were stuck to his legs and chaffing, boots hurting his feet and weapons getting heavy. Finally he broke the forest line and crashed into the suddenly solid ground of cobblestone. Laying face down, Mashyuu laid in the sun, letting it bake him simply in hopes that Jarra wasn't lying and he would be able to sweat out the poison.

The Skypiean Captain started to drift when he noticed a funny glint off in the distance that caught his slowly closing eyes. Exhausted, he lifted his head and started to laugh at what was before him. "Hehehehehehehehehehe! No way.. It's real." Ahead of Mashyuu was a city of gold, golden but run down buildings, a well made of gold brick, statues of pure gold and at the center of it all, a giant pyramid of gold with something at the top in a chamber. Mashyuu could see light pass through the top and something not gold stood out like a sore thumb. At the base of the Pyramid were four doors, one on each side. Heaving a sigh of relief and worry, Mashyuu crawled to the well, reache up and picked himself up off the ground then hobbled over to the pyramid.

Stepping into the doorway closest to him, Mashyuu leaned against the frame of the door and took deep breaths. However the sound of an old voice caused his attention to focus on the temple pyramid. "Boy, you are allowed here due to your father's involvement in building this place. However if you come any further into this tomb you will face the trial and either live or die. If you live you will be cursed for the rest of your life, if you die, nobody will find your body. Mashyuu's neck twisted and he saw an old man in deep purple robes, hunched over with long white hair pulled back into a ponytail. "What's at the top?" Mashyuu asked the old man. "The Power to change fate and a curse to last a lifetime." The old man responded. "That's not vague or anything.." Mashyuu grumbled and figured it was better to live with a curse than die looking for a way out, and if he could get to the top of the pyramid he might be able to find his way back to the crew.

Mashyuu swept his hand through his dark hair and it stuck in a sweep going backwards due to the sweat in it. He grumbled and headed into the temple. The old man stepped back until he was in the center of the room and shook his head. "Then you chose death." The old man stopped and waited for Mashyuu to enter the room. The Pirate glanced about and winced, he could see hundreds of small holes lining the walls and as his eyes finished the sweep of the room they landed behind the old man at Ragnar who had entered the doors behind the man. "Only one will survive, the first trial starts now. Find the stairs and escape doom." As the man spoke, Mashyuu rolled his eyes and drew his chain kama. Ragnar pointed his spear at Mashyuu and tilted his head to the side. "In hours you have cost me the trust of my family and tribe. I'll have your head!" Ragnar rushed Mashyuu and the Pirate gritted his teeth while at the same time the room started to fill with pink gas. "What is it with this land and drugs!?" Mashyuu shouted and held his breath while swinging his kama down to force Ragnar's weapon to crash to the ground. Instead of stopping Ragnar used that to throw himself forward and slammed his feet into Mashyuu's chest, sending the Pirate back against a wall and driving the held air from his lungs.

Before the gas could rise to Mashyuu's chest, he beat his wings and cleared a small path around him and started to run, eyes darting about while his left hand kept hold of the wall to see if it suddenly moved a different way. Ragnar was right behind him, inhaling the gas like it wasn't a worry and letting his mouth open to allow the gas to expel from him. This guy's freaking nuts! He's gonna get me killed if I don't find these stupid steps! Mashyuu thought and felt the wall suddenly turn right then left into a stair well which was good because at some point he started to fly and hadn't noticed. Shooting up the steps, the stairs started to rise into the second floor and Mashyuu gave Ragnar the finger.

"Congratulations, you've made it to the second trial, evade all of the darts or survive them." The old man muttered then walked up a flight of steps and the stairs rose with him. Mashyuu winced when he saw thousands of holes in the walls again and mirrors where the holes weren't. Suddenly light shot into the room from the mostly closed stairwell and hit a mirror, that light started to bounce until Mashyuu was blinded by light. "Lance of the Heavens!" Ragnar shouted from below and gave his spear a strong thrust that shattered the floor behind Mashyuu. He jumped up and landed next to Mashyuu, eyes glowing yellowish gold. Mashyuu rubbed his eyes and glared back at Ragnar, Mashyuu's eyes glowing red. "AH! You do have Mantra! Do you even know how to turn it on and off?" Ragnar asked and spun his spear, deflecting the first dart that fired. Mashyuu whiped his chain behind him to deflect a second then the two lunged for one another. Ragnar snarled when Mashyuu jumped up and kicked Ragnar's spear down, but countered by smashing his head into Mashyuu's. Mashyuu flipped back, placed his kama to the left, and flicked his wrist, sending a dart towards Ragnar while he spun, whipping his chain about to deflect a volley of darts. Ragnar flexed: "Armor Mantra!" His body took a slight sheen and naturally deflected the darts like water from a shower on a body.

Gas started to fill the room from the floor below, Mashyuu worried he might not be able to survive the darts, Ragnar and the gas. Push on, don't let this stop you! Mashyuu Threw the weighted end of his kama out at Ragnar and snared his spear with the chain then started to fly in circles, rapidly surrounding the man with chain until Ragnar was bound up tight. Face to face, Ragnar smiled at Mashyuu and jumped as hard as he could, the force caused Mashyuu to go up with Ragnar just to hold onto his weapon. Ragnar kneed Mashyuu's ribs repeatedly, at the same time, Mashyuu unleashed his throwing dagger and slashed Ragnar's abs and stomach as deeply as he could from such a funny angle. Both fighter crashed through the floor of the third floor and hit the slanted roof then dropped apart from one another.

Rolling to his knees and holding his head, Mashyuu winced and felt blood stick to his palm. He moved his hand away from his head and felt his eyes wander up, back into his skull and settle to focus on the blood coating his hand. "Ohhh Ion's gonna be pissed." Ragnar screamed with anger, feeling blood coat his torso. He flexed and pulled his arms apart, snapping Mashyuu's chain kama in various places then tossed the kama aside as if it were paper. Mashyuu wiped his head with his 'clean' hand and grabbed his belt, yanking it to reveal the whip sword given to him. That's when he saw it. Mashyuu stood and saw at the center of the room a dias with a fruit atop it. The fruit looked like a blue pineapple with golden sparks running in waves around it. Ragnar saw it too and both rushed for the fruit.

Mashyuu took two steps and trusted his flight to be faster than Ragnar's legs. Reaching his hand out as far as he could while Ragnar used his spear, Mashyuu snatched the fruit up and caught a spear in the shoulder for his troubles, the impact caused Mashyuu's eyes to white out for a moment and sent him not soaring but spiraling wildly across the room before he hit the slant of the pyramid, bounced off it to the floor, back into the dias and out towards a corner. "What have you done!?" Ragnar roared, the pyramid stared to tremble and Mashyuu barely climbed to his feet with the fruit in hand. Mashyuu looked Ragnar dead in the eye, shrugged his good shoulder and lifted the fruit. "I don't believe in fate, or luck. So I did what any good Pirate would. I took something you wanted, now I'm gonna make sure you can't have it." Mashyuu opened his mouth and took a single bite of the fruit, gagged and swallowed the rotten tasting fruit. Blue juice ran down his chin and he twitched from the taste while the pyramid started to crumble slowly. "This entire place is gonna come down on us! We're both dead!" Ragnar screamed and charged, thrusting his spear at Mashyuu's heart. "Repel..." Mashyuu muttered, a silver spark bounced off Mashyuu's body, suddenly an invisible field pulsed away from the Pirate and sent Ragnar's spear soaring out of his grasp and away from the pair as well as part of the pyramid that was falling right for both of them. Mashyuu reached towards a small length of chain that remained on the floor and felt the metal in it call for him. "Attract." Mashyuu whispered and the chain whipped towards him and landed in his hand. Quickly Mashyuu spun around and snapped the chain around Ragnar's throat. "Repel!" Mashyuu shouted, causing the chain to pull Ragnar away from Mashyuu against the rapidly crumbling wall of the pyramid. Ragnar tripped and fell into the hole he had created, along with half the floor. Mashyuu darted for a window he saw earlier and smashed through it, sliding down the slanted pyramid and rolled to a stop at the base of the pyramid.

Laying there, Mashyuu groaned with nothing but pure pain. The old man appeared like a ghost next to Mashyuu and smiled down at the Pirate. "Mashyuu Ishi, your father always knew you'd make something of yourself. He put that there for you the day you were born and knew that you would come for it. Now find the mine he used to craft his spear and make your family proud, then he can rest in piece, thank you for bringing the pyramid down, now I can rest in peace..." The ghostly old Skypiean vanished, leaving the Pirate confused and on the brink of passing out again...
 
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