With the days following the Straw Hats' invasion upon Navarone, the base has been able to recover smoothly.
Thankfully, Shepherd's men were able to take him out of the base before he could recover from Jessica's fierce punch, so he didn't get in the way of their recovery. With the base safe from being shut down, the soldiers' spirits are higher than ever.
All that's been spoken in the first two days of their recovery was their experience with the infamous pirate crew.
Today however, they're trying to tone it down as much as possible due to the sight of Vice Admiral Garp's ship arriving at their base.
When the boat reaches the docks, Vice Admiral Garp is greeted by a small squadron of marines saluting him with Vice Admiral Jonathan in the center.
The older marine gives off a large smile under his dog mask as he eagerly walks off the ship to greet his friend. "It's been a while Jonathan."
Jonathan chuckles at his enthusiasm. "It really has been. Come with me, we have a lot to catch up on."
Garp nods to him before he looks behind him to see his two proteges coming off the ship. "Coby, Helmeppo, you two can explore the base."
Coby brightens up at the chance to see what the stronghold has to offer, and salutes him before he goes over with his comrade reluctantly following him.
Garp chuckles at his student's enthusiasm before he follows Jonathan away from the docks to head to his office. While walking through the halls, the guest looks around some of the open doors to see a few broken windows, and equipment damaged. "Something happen to the base?"
"The Straw Hats came by."
The old man widens his eyes at the news that his grandson was here. "Luffy came here? How did he pull that off?"
"They fell from the sky." Jonathan answers calmly as if he didn't sound crazy.
Garp sure didn't think it was insane, but still laughs at the crazy explanation, because he's proud of the crazy feat. "Just what I'd expect from him! What kind of damage did he cause?!"
Jonathan looks back at him with an easygoing grin. "More damage was caused by Inspector Shepherd than him."
Garp scoffs at the name of the incompetent man. "I've heard of him. Don't know how that worm got his position."
"You're guess is as good as mine." The base's commander says when they reach his office and opens the door for his guest.
When Garp goes through, he follows him inside while he closes the door behind him. "Make yourself at home."
The old man didn't need to be told that, because he's already relaxing on the couch, that's placed across from Jonathan's desk, while he takes off his mask. He also takes off the smile, so his face doesn't show his normal childish facade, but that of a Vice Admiral on duty, because Jonathan never asks him to visit unless it's something urgent. "What did my grandson do?"
Jonathan loses his grin at the request, but he knows that it's time to get to business. "It's not Straw Hat himself that did something, but one of his crew members. Are you familiar with Wind Rider Rose?"
Garp thinks for a minute before he lightly laughs. "She's the girl that pulled one over on Smoker in Alabasta, right?"
Jonathan chuckles with him before he continues the story. "That's the one, during their visit, we discovered a few things about her."
He opens a drawer to take out Rose's wanted poster, and Lily's cadet photo, then shows them to him. "First off, we have a cadet here who shares the same face as her, with only a few differences in their features."
Garp widens his eyes at the news and takes a good look at the girls' faces. "So, they're related?"
The red head quietly sighs as he sits at his desk. "She strongly denies it, and I'm worried because I believe her. Especially since we also learned that Wind Rider is an astronomer who's studying Hell's Comet."
The old man is taken aback from the taboo, because he was there when the incident took place. While he wasn't a part of the search for the missing scientists, he heard the stories of how in one night over two dozen people vanished without a trace thanks to the comet. "I see, but your cadet has records of being a marine here. Her life shouldn't change because of this."
"Normally, I'd agree with you, but there's more to it…" Jonathan goes into his drawer to pick up a video den den mushi and places the blue snail on his desk. "This snail was recording on the night that our weapon's unit had set up a trap for Wind Rider."
Garp looks at the snail with interest when Jonathan turns it on to project a video onto the wall. Both soldiers watch the video to find Rose and Lily confronting each other, with Noah knocked out, and Lily holding Rose's crystal.
Lily keeps an angry look on her face as she tightens her cold fingers around the glowing stone. "I'm not letting you use this to hurt people!"
"If I was going to use this to hurt others, then why would I be fucking telling you this?!" Lily flinches at the pirate's angry tone, but Rose barely cares as she keeps going. "I mean goddammit! Can't you see that I'm trying to make sure you don't become one of the victims?!"
"Why would you care?!" Lily asks as she keeps a tight grip on the glowing rock.
The small audience can see the pirate being conflicted for a moment, then grows frightened when she realizes what she needs to do.
A freezing breeze flies off of Rose when she pulls her necklace from under her shirt to reveal the red and black crystal that she treasures more than anything. "I care, because I don't want what happened to my family to happen to you…"
She gives both her doppelganger and audience a look of pure vulnerability when she tells them her story. "When I said that I was trying to figure out how I came here, I meant it. I'm not from this world. What happened to the researchers that disappeared that night happened to me too, and I've been trying to learn how this happened ever since. I've managed to learn how to leave, but I can't promise that you'll still be here if that gem starts working on you. Please, you need to trust me and hand it over…"
Jonathan stops the video to see that his guest is completely speechless by what he saw.
It took a moment for him to snap out of it and finally say something. "My grandson recruited an outsider?!"
"It appears so." Jonathan says as he follows his gaze to the girl on the wall. "When I made the report about her confession, I asked them to do a background check on her to see if she was lying. They haven't reported anything back on her origins yet, but I have a bad feeling that she's telling the truth. She wouldn't have shown her own treasure otherwise. And when they confirm this, it won't be hard for them to pin our cadet as this world's version of Wind Rider, because of their shared appearance."
He turns off the snail and looks to his colleague. "That's why I invited you here. If you're willing, I'd like her to be transferred to your unit. She's a strong cadet with a lot of potential, but when the truth about Wind Rider comes out, she'll experience prejudice if she stays here."
Garp nods his head in understanding, because he's seen this happen to people who look like those who were only accused of being outsiders. With actual proof, he doesn't want to know what would happen to the poor girl. With his reputation as a hero of the marines though, he can keep her from that fate. "You made the right choice in coming to me for this. I'll make sure she has a chance as a marine."
"That's all I ask." Jonathan says before a relieved smile grows on his face. "Now then, before we go see her, how about we head to the dining hall? My wife can make one of the tastiest meals you've ever had."
"Works for me!" The old man's childish smile returns to his face at the mention of food, and the two head off to enjoy their meal.
In the weapon unit's training room, dozens of soldiers are fired up with training their sea stone weapons. None of the soldiers in the unit took their encounter with Rose well, and are training harder than ever to master their sea stone weapons.
The wind pirate's lookalike is no different as she throws her sea stone shuriken at a group of targets, that are fifteen feet away from her. Even though she's been doing this for over an hour, with her hitting the bull's eye every time, she refuses to stop in hopes of getting her life back to normal, but with no luck.
Ever since she met Rose, and got to know her, her view on pirates has been completely shaken.
When the two brunettes first met, Rose could've easily knocked her out with her power to take her identity, but instead she befriended her. She even saw how when she rampaged during their trap, she made sure no one died from the tornado she made.
Lily clearly saw that her doppelganger isn't like the criminals she's seen growing up, but she's being treated like one because of her research. And that treatment is going to get worse from here on out now that she revealed her origins thanks to her...
The marine groans in frustration as she throws the last of her shuriken at the target perfectly at the center, with enough force for half the star to be lodged into its victim.
Lily catches her breath from doing this for so long, and goes to grab the weapons. She manages to get them out of the targets for another round, but stops when her stomach begins to growl.
Taking that as a sign to go eat something, she puts the throwing stars back in the hidden compartments of her shirt and pants. She grabs her small blue backpack from the sidelines, that holds a few books that she borrowed from the library, and starts walking out.
When she opens the door though, it stops halfway, because it hits something hard. When she hears someone yelp, she looks behind the door to see that she accidentally knocked a marine boy down with the door.
The pink haired boy was knocked onto his butt from the collision while his comrade chuckles at him losing to a door.
Lily leaves the room and looks at the two unknown soldiers to examine them.
The tall, thin, cute boy that she bumped into, with a cross shaped scar above his right eye, looks just as surprised as she is. He adjusts the dark blue, round shaped, glasses to keep them from falling from his forehead where they're placed above his bright patterned bandana.
The boy's lanky comrade settles down his laughter at his friend's clumsiness, but Lily can tell that the blond man cares for his friend when he offers his black gloved hand to help him up.
Lily realizes that she hasn't said anything yet, and gives the pink haired boy an apologetic look. "Sorry about that, I didn't see you there."
The boy gives her a grin as he takes his friend's hand and gets up. "Don't worry about it, it wasn't your fault. My name's Coby and this is Helmeppo."
Lily happily returns the friendly boy's smile. "I'm Lily, what unit are you guys in? I haven't seen you here before."
Helmeppo crosses his arms over his chest as he looks around the hall, but it's hard to tell where he's looking at with the black visor over his eyes. "We aren't from this base; our commander is visiting today."
Lily blinks at the cleft-chinned marine's explanation because she hasn't heard anything about a visit before. Then again, she's been holed up in either training or the library, except to eat, bathe, and sleep, since the pirates' escape so she could've missed the announcement.
She looks to the guests and gives them a small grin. "Well, are you two going anywhere specific? I can lead you there."
"We're actually looking for the dining hall for lunch, can you take us there?" Coby asks.
Lily nods as she motions for them to follow her. "Sure, I'm heading there myself."
She leads them throughout the base, and passing various rooms that were damaged from the Straw Hats' visit.
Helmeppo lifts his visor to get a better look at the damage of a hole in the window of one of the rooms, and lets his curiosity get the better of him. "I thought that this base hasn't seen any action in years."
Lily tenses up at the mention of the base's damage, but answers him regardless. "That was true until we were invaded by the Straw Hats."
Coby widens his dark eyes at the crew's name before he catches up to her, so that they're walking side by side. "Luffy was here?!"
Helmeppo grows worried about his friend carelessly showing familiarity to the infamous pirate captain, but only finds her surprised by his outburst.
He decides to see where this goes as he trails the two of them.
Lily snaps out of her surprise and looks at Coby curiously. "You know the pirate captain?"
Coby realizes his mistake, and tries to tone down his enthusiasm from hearing about Luffy. "W-well, we met before I became a marine. What did he come here for?"
The marine girl is slightly taken aback by the explanation, but if he knows Luffy then maybe he knows the wind pirate. "They actually fell from the sky by accident."
Helmeppo raises an eyebrow at the story. "You can't be serious."
"I'm dead serious." Lily says as she looks back to him. "The only way to infiltrate our fortress is through the air. They even had to fly out to escape."
"How did they pull that off?" Coby asks curiously.
"I'm pretty sure Wind Rider Rose fueled up a giant balloon for the ship to escape. Were you able to meet her as well?" Lily asks as she looks to him in hopes of him giving her another perspective of the astronomer.
Sadly, she didn't get the answer she was looking for when he knits his eyebrows in thought. "I haven't heard of that pirate before. She must be a new member."
Lily slowly frowns in disappointment, but she leaves the subject alone during the rest of their walk. "I see…"
When they reach the dining hall, Lily opens the door to them and gives them a polite smile. "Here we are, once you grab your food, you guys can sit wherever you want. It was nice meeting you."
She walks off to grab some lunch before the boys could say anything to her.
Coby and Helmeppo look to each other for a moment before they walk in on their own.
Helmeppo grabs a plate for himself then looks to Coby. "I didn't expect her to act like that."
Coby nods as he grabs a plate and joins the food line with him. "Yea, it's like she was looking for something…"
The shorter boy looks for the girl and finds her already with her meal, and taking a seat at an empty table.
Lily doesn't notice any eyes on her as she eats while she opens her backpack to grab one of her books. She grabs the one titled 'The Mysteries of Navarone', and gets back to her place in the middle of the book while she continues eating.
"Is that book any good?"
Lily looks up from her book, to find Coby approaching her with a smile with Helmeppo following. "Can we join you?"
The brunette only nods, as she swallows the food in her mouth, then motions for the two chairs across from her. "Sure, come on over."
The two boys take the seats while Lily shows Coby the cover of her green book. "To answer your first question, yes, this is really good. It tells stories about numerous phenomenon that inhabit this very base."
Coby grows curious as he gets a closer look at the green book. "Like what?"
Lily skims through the pages for the one she most recently read then stops and shows him the page with the picture of a bulky, mean looking, marine covering half of it. "Like the story of Lieutenant Fero Marcus. Over a century ago, a Vice Admiral ruled over Navarone with an iron fist both figuratively and literally. He ate the iron iron fruit which made his body as strong as iron. Marcus wanted the power for himself, so he snuck into his leader's chambers in the middle of the night, and stabbed him in his sleep."
Both boys paled at the story, but Lily's having fun scaring them so she continues the horror story. "After he did the deed, he searched all over the base for the newly formed devil fruit. He found it just when a soldier on night watch took a bite of it. He was so furious from it slipping away from him again, that he charged at him with his blood-stained sword. Luckily, his comrades were nearby so they heard the struggle, and stopped Marcus from continuing his murderous quest. He was immediately court-marshalled, and executed in this very base. However, his spirit still searches here for the devil fruit to this very day. According to this book, if you find him, he will see you as a threat, and take action to keep you silent. If you defeat him in battle, or manage to escape, you live, but if he were to win..."
She runs her index finger across her neck to pass the message that death shall befall upon them.
Lily sees her audience creeped out by the story, but she doesn't pay it any mind as she gives them a friendly grin. "Any questions?"
Helmeppo is the first to snap out of it and scoffs at the tale. "What a load of bull shit! There's no way that's true!"
Lily shrugs to herself as she looks at the page. "I've only just heard of the story, so I can't argue yet."
"Yet?" Coby cautiously asks her.
The brunette nods as she puts the book away. "Yea, I'm off from training this afternoon, so I'm going to search for him."
Coby is taken aback by this girl's crazy mission. "What?! And what if he fights you?!"
"I kick his butt." Lily says as if it's the most casual thing in the world.
Helmeppo scoffs at the girl's overconfidence. "Oh really? And if you can't find him?"
"Then I don't find him, but it's worth a try." Lily dismissively says before she gets back to her meal. "By the way, what exactly is your plan here?"
Coby knits his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You two don't have a specific mission here, right? What are you going to do while your commander is busy?" Lily asks in between forkfuls of food.
Both boys look to each other in thought because they don't actually have a plan.
With hearing that this nice girl is going on a hunt for a dangerous ghost though, Coby can't help but be worried for her safety if the story is true. Before he can talk to Helmeppo about it, he looks to Lily with determination in his eyes. "Can we come with you on this quest?"
Lily widens her green eyes at the request, but Helmeppo grabs his friend by his neck scarf and drags him away from the table before she can say anything.
He takes Coby to the side, just a few tables from her and angrily whispers at his comrade. "Are you crazy?! We can't do this!"
The pink haired boy doesn't see what the problem is so he casually answers him. "Why not? Vice Admiral Garp didn't give us a time to meet him."
"That's not the point! You're asking this weird girl to take us on a ghost hunt!"
"Well, if we don't find anything then we'll be exploring the base. You said yourself that it's a load of bull-!" He freezes for a moment before he smirks to his friend. "Unless you don't want to go because of the chance there is a ghost."
Lucky for Helmeppo, his visor hides the fear in his eyes because of how right Coby is. "Of course not, I just don't want to get dragged into a wild goose chase!"
The shorter guy shrugs before turns to the table with a smirk. "Well then, you do your own thing, and I'll go on the hunt with Lily. If I end up killed by a ghost, be sure to remember me."
He starts leave Helmeppo on a guilt trip, when he hears his friend growling in frustration. "Fine!"
Coby stops walking and shows him a joyful smile. "Thanks Helmeppo, I knew I could count on you."
The blond scoffs at the gratitude, because he feels like he's just been played like a violin. "If I end up being the one dying, I'll haunt you."
"Deal!" Coby says as they head back to Lily's table. "We both want to go!"
She looks from one boy to the other before she gives them a friendly grin. "If you're both ok with coming then sure. Before we search, I'll show you the best parts of the base as a thanks."
The two guests didn't have a problem with that as they finish their meals and get ready to leave with their hostess.
What none of them have noticed though, was that in the door that was right by Lily's table, two high standing marines overheard the story with great interest.
Throughout the halls of the base, Lily has been leading the two boys around for a small tour of the place that has been her home for the past few months. With their main locations out of the way, they decide to detour into some of the nearby rooms to pique their curiosity.
As they walk around, Coby walks next to his guide to try to get to know her a little more. "So, is this your first base?"
Lily nods with a grin as she goes into an empty training room with them. "Yea, when I enlisted, they brought me here to hone my skills."
While she and Coby look through the room, Helmeppo stands by the doorway in boredom. "Let me guess, you're in the freaky paranormal unit?"
He snickers at his joke, but his laughter dies when a shuriken is thrown and pierces the wall, just an inch next to his head!
He yelps in fear as he jumps away before he and Coby look at the weapon's user in shock.
Lily snickers at their fear as she goes over to the doorway to take her ninja tool back. "If such a unit existed, I'd gladly be a part of it. In the meantime though, I'm training in the weapon's unit. I think I'm pretty darn good at it too."
Coby snaps out of his shock, and looks over her seemingly standard uniform. "Where did you keep that?"
Lily opens a loose stitch in the side of her shirt and opens up the rip. Instead of her shirt ripping apart though, it shows a hidden pocket on her back just above her pants, that a regular uniform doesn't have, holding three extra shuriken. "Marines in the weapon's units have their uniforms modified with compartments strong enough to hold ninja tools without them ripping our clothes. Thanks to this, I can hide different weapons in both my shirt and pants."
The pink haired marine's eyes begin to sparkle at the new fact about the uniform. "So you're like a marine ninja?!"
Lily is flattered by the comparison, and shyly rubs the back of her neck with her free hand. "More or less."
She puts the shuriken back in the compartment, and tightens the stitch to keep it from falling out. "Let's get going."
The boys couldn't agree more as they get out of the room and begin their search for the ghost.
Still angry about almost getting stabbed in the head, Helmeppo on a scowl as he stays in the back, while Lily continues the conversation with Coby. "What about you and Helmeppo. What brings you guys to Navarone?"
The pink haired marine furrows his eyebrows in thought, but he doesn't remember his commander ever telling them why they're here. "Actually, we're not sure. Two days ago, Vice Admiral Garp just suddenly changed course to come here."
Lily stops walking and feels every muscle in her body stiffen from hearing the reasoning.
Both boys stop and look at the shocked girl in confusion before she brightens up with excitement. "You guys are training under Vice Admiral Garp?!"
Helmeppo smirks with pride as he crosses his arms over his chest. "That's right! We train directly under him!"
The Navarone soldier couldn't believe that the legendary marine is here, but grows hopeful to see him, for she's admired his heroics for years. "That's awesome, what's he like as a teacher?!"
Coby is taken aback by her enthusiasm, before he sheepishly rubs the back of his head. "He's pretty tough, but we're both learning a lot from him."
She nods in understanding, but freezes when she remembers what Coby said before. "Wait, you said that he changed course two days ago?"
Helmeppo raises an eyebrow at the sudden tension. "Yea, why?"
"That was when the Straw Hats made their escape…" Lily knits her eyebrows when she remembers Rose's situation. She knows that Rose will be in danger because of the confession, but for someone like Vice Admiral Garp to be involved, it's even worse than she thought.
She tries to calm down but freezes when she sees both boys are surprised by her answer.
Coby recovers first when he realizes that it's not a coincidence. "He must be here to talk about Luffy."
"Either him or Rose..." Lily mutters with a new wave of confusion hitting the boys.
"What does she have to do with this?" Helmeppo asks with the marine girl jolting when she realized that she said that out loud.
She sees that they're both expecting an answer and quietly sighs. They're bound to find out when Garp tells them so they should know. However, it's better to tell them in private. "I'll tell you when we're close to the first stop in our hunt. The book tells us where he was executed, so it's possible that his soul lingers there when he's not on the search."
Helmeppo lightly sweats in fear, but he reluctantly follows the other two.
Lily leads them to one of the abandoned dock caves that used to be functional during Fero Marcus' time on earth.
Luckily though, it was modified with the base's power system, so with a turn of the lever that's mounted on the wall, the dock was able to be lit.
The lighting was dim, but it was enough for them to be able to see at least ten feet ahead of them.
As Lily leads them further into the frightening location, she tells the boys of her experience with her doppelganger. "Returning to your previous question, we discovered some things about Wind Rider during our visit. Do either of you know about a taboo called Hell's Comet?"
Both boys look at her blankly which she accepts as them not knowing. "I didn't know about it myself until the crew's visit. It's a comet that apparently has the power to bring people to other worlds. Because of how dangerous it is, it's illegal to not only use its power, but also to study it. We learned that Wind Rider is guilty of both of these crimes by using the comet to come to this world."
Coby and Helmeppo are both speechless about the outlandish story she just threw at them.
Helmeppo can barely believe it as he quickens his pace to reach her. "You can't be serious. There's no such thing as world travel."
Lily softly frowns at his doubt, but the look in Rose's amethyst eyes when she confessed was enough proof for her. All Lily could hope for is that she was desperate for the stone, so she could leave this world and not have to fight her. "Trust me, it exists. She even has a stone that holds its power. If she used it to get back to her homeland, the better it is for all of us…"
Coby is taken aback by the concern in her voice when she spoke the last sentence. With the way she speaks about her, it sounds like she doesn't want this pirate to be captured at all. He walks next to her to see that her face matches her voice. "You seem to be worried about her."
Lily tenses up a bit, but he's met with the crew before, so he might be more understanding about it than her friends in the weapon's unit, who only felt empathy for her and hatred for the pirate. Without going into too much detail in them looking the same, she decides to tell him of her experience with the wind pirate. "When they were here, I met Wind Rider while she was in disguise. We managed to become friends until her identity came out. I immediately hated her, but she was still kind to me even though she could've killed me with her wind powers. She even saved me from a cave in when all I wanted to do was arrest her..."
She quietly sighs to herself when she feels like she's ranting, and runs a hand through her unruly bangs. "She confessed to me that she became a criminal just for wanting to learn how she came to this world. And with this new discovery about her getting out, I'm just worried that she'll get dragged deeper into the dark side of this world if she stays here."
Both Coby and Helmeppo are surprised by the explanation and stop walking. Lily looks back and is shocked to see them trembling.
What made it odder though, was that they were both smiling. Lily goes to say something but her voice stops when they couldn't take it anymore, and starts laughing. "What the heck's so funny?!"
The pink haired marine settles down before he smiles at the girl. "Sorry, it's just the thought of Luffy dragging your friend into 'the dark side' is crazy."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Did you meet Straw Hat during their visit?" Helmeppo asks as he regains his composure.
Lily thinks back to when Luffy kidnapped her, because he thought that she was Rose. With the way he acted though, she didn't see a menacing fiber in his rubber body. "We spent a little time together. Honestly, I had a hard time believing that he was really the captain until he protected Rose from me."
"That's because Luffy's not your typical pirate." Coby says as he gives her a reassuring smile. "He became a pirate for the freedom of sailing the Grand Line and with a goal to find the One Piece. He always protects his friends, regardless of their background, so she's safe in his crew."
Lily couldn't help but be surprised at Coby's confidence in Luffy's character. Even though he and Luffy are supposed to be enemies, just as her and Rose are, he talks about him like he's a dear friend to him.
At the very least, his confidence helps to ease her insecurities. She still hates most pirates, but knowing that another marine has seen some good in a pirate has helped her come to terms with not all pirate crews being evil.
She gives her new friends a relaxed grin as she gets back to the task at hand. "Thank you for that. Now then, Marcus died somewhere around here, so our ghost could-!"
The brunette's cut off when the lights suddenly go out and leave them in darkness!
With how far they went inside the cave, the dock's opening was barely able to give them enough light for them to see what's in front of them.
"What the hell?" Helmeppo asks as he tries to find his comrades, but he can barely see a thing.
Lily moves her right hand to her waist to hold the hilt of her sword, to be cautious, and looks at the distant light from the cave's entrance. "The power line must've gone out. Just follow my voice and we'll-!"
She freezes when the light suddenly turns back on with Lily facing her guests and a shadow looming over them. She sees the look of terror on their faces, and can easily tell that their target is directly behind them.
Lily turns around and unsheathes her sword, but joins in their look of fright when she sees a 6-foot tall, buff, marine wearing a high-ranking uniform. The reason they're all shocked though, is because a pumpkin, with a scary black face painted on it, replaced the man's head!
No one could tell whether or not there's a face under the pumpkin, but they can tell that he's smirking while he's cracking his knuckles. "So instead of finding my devil fruit, I find a couple of insects! I'll teach you brats to try to take what's mine!"
The three kids jump away to dodge his monstrous punch with each of them regaining their composure.
Helmeppo takes out his kukuri knives, while Coby readies his fists for the crazy fight.
The Jack-O-Lantern doesn't give them a time to plan when he charges at Lily with his fists, but she dodges the punches. She keeps him distracted by swinging her sword at him to block his fists while Coby and Helmeppo run towards the fray.
Helmeppo gets ready for a downwards strike while Coby goes for a punch, but the numbers had no effect on their opponent for he jumped ten feet in the air!
The boys crash into Lily while the phantom lands in between them and their only exit.
The three of them scramble off each other just when the monster man runs towards them.
Coby runs forward to punch him head on while Lily and Helmeppo charge at both sides of him.
Coby goes for the punch, but the ghastly enemy punches the pink haired boy square in the face to send in flying before he could land a hit!
While he was distracted, Lily and Helmeppo were able to land their sideways strikes on both sides of his waist, but it felt like they've hit a body made of metal.
The phantom barely reacted to the hits when he punches the brats in the face to get them away from him.
The large man sees the three of them slowly getting up, and sighs in disappointment as he cracks his knuckles. "Were marines this weak when I was alive? Before I kill you, I'll show you what it means to be a-?!"
He cuts himself off when Lily grabs a small black ball from one of her pants pockets and throws it at him.
Not caring about what it is, he punches the projectile, but as soon as his fist made contact, he had to take a step back when grey smoke exploded all around them!
The only thing anyone could see was the dark silver smoke with half of them coughing.
The Jack-O-Lantern is more irritated than surprised by the sneaky move as throws a fist back. "DON'T THINK THIS CAN STOP ME!"
He throws a fist in front of that was so strong, that it created a strong enough gust of wind to blow it away. However, as soon as the smoke cleared the three soldiers he was fighting were missing.
He quickly looks behind him to see Lily dashing off, already halfway towards the exit, while holding her two friends by the wrists while they gain their footing.
Helmeppo hacks from getting smoke in his mouth before he pulls his wrist free when he can run on his own. "What the hell was that?!"
"A smoke bomb!" The weapons user says as she releases Coby's arm when she sees him able to run.
Coby chuckles at the clever plan, but can't be too relieved when he knows that their enemy will be after him at any moment. "Is that guy really Fero Marcus?!"
"Of course not!" Helmeppo weakly denies to keep his sanity. "Why the hell would he be wearing a pumpkin head?!"
"He could've been decapitated in his execution!" Lily argues with him.
"That's stupid! Why wouldn't he just grab his original head instead of a pumpkin?!" Helmeppo argues back at her.
Lily scowls at his stubbornness and refuses to lose this argument "Haven't you read any horror novels?! All ghosts wear pumpkins! The better question is why would he wear a pumpkin if he's not a ghost?!"
"Because he's a psycho!"
Helmeppo and Lily keep arguing back and forth about whether or not their assailant is a ghost. While they keep fighting Coby looks back in horror to see that their enemy going after them at full speed! "You guys can ask him when he gets here!"
The others stop their bickering, and share the same look of terror when they see him giving chase, and catching up.
"Oh snap!" Lily grabs four kunai from her back shirt compartment and throws them at him.
The psycho sees that she aimed too low, so he doesn't bother to dodge. That was a mistake, for the weapon's user aimed for his shoes and managed to stab both sides of the boots to the cavern floor!
He trips on his face from the sneak attack.
Helmeppo and Coby widen their eyes at how he tripped, but he's quickly getting up. "The kunai didn't explode with paper bombs?!"
"You read too many ninja novels! I can't make paper bombs!" Lily retorts in a pout, because she secretly wishes she could do that.
Marcus was the least amused by the stunt as he pulls his feet free of the kunai, and regains his chase. "ENOUGH!"
In a flash, he disappears from behind them then quickly reappears in front of the exit!
Before any of the trio could react, Marcus punches Lily in the gut as hard as he could to send her flying almost halfway across the cave.
"LILY!" Coby and Helmeppo watch in shock as she lands in a fumble from a powerful hit.
"You're next!" Coby and Helmeppo barely managed to dodge the next two punches. With little time to prepare, they let their adrenaline run wild by charging the enemy with all their might.
Even though they're both scared, they refuse to let their lives end by some crazy pumpkin man, so they go into an all-out brawl with him!
Lily shakily sits up, with her right arm cradling her stomach, and sees that the boys are still at war with the ghost. Helmeppo battles him relentlessly with his kukuri knives while Coby uses his teacher's method of fighting with his fists.
Even though the enemy is barely affected by their flurry of attacks, and continues to punch them down, Coby and Helmeppo keep getting back up to fight. The marine girl is in awe of how there's determined soldiers like them out there, and knows that she can't quit either.
She's a marine from the weapon's unit after all! Compared to Lieutenant Noah's hits from his metal arm, she can take some hits from a ghost!
The brunette wills herself to get up, while grabbing the twin daggers from the sheathes strapped to the inside of her boots, and joins in the fray!
The phantom is surprised by the girl's quick recovery, but doesn't give in. Even though Lily and Helmeppo were using blades, their opponent's armor-like skin didn't receive a single crack and felt like weak blunt attacks to him.
Coby's punches didn't fare any better, for no matter how hard the pink haired boy threw his fists, the monster didn't budge at all.
It barely took five minutes before all three low ranking officers were barely able to get back up. Marcus looms over the weaklings with barely a scratch on him except for a few rips in his clothes.
He looks at the barely conscious soldiers to see them all wearing multiple bumps on their heads as their rewards for their efforts. It took longer than he expected, but it was still easy for him to take them down.
He starts walking towards Coby to finish this farce.
The pink haired boy struggled to stand up, and get away, but he could bare move. Marcus reaches down to grab him, but stops when a shuriken plants itself into the side of his pumpkin head!
Neither blood nor pumpkin juice flowed off his head as he turns to his right to find Lily struggling to stay on her knees.
However, the determination in her eyes never falter, even in her weak state, and holds a shuriken in both her hands. "We're not done here, you monster!"
The phantom stays silent by the taunt, but he steps away from Coby to go to her.
Lily threw her shuriken at his head, along with the rest of her shuriken and kunai that she hid in her uniform. Even with the new crown of ninja tools that she bestowed upon the monster; he didn't falter in his step as he approached her.
Helmeppo and Coby both try to get up on their shaky limbs, but they were too weak to move and help their new friend.
Lily ran out of weapons, just when he towered over her, so she accepted her fate and braced herself by closing her green eyes.
Marcus raises his fist and brings it down to deliver the final blow!
"AAAAHH! They boys scream in horror when they watch the attack, but they slowly quiet down when they see that he stops the attack just an inch from Lily's head.
The boys blink in confusion when the phantom pats her head, and causes Lily to open her eyes to find that he didn't kill her.
She becomes more confused than the boys when she hears her opponent chuckling, and speaking in a less threatening tone. "You didn't even flinch. I like you."
Coby and Helmeppo drop their jaws at the familiar voice, and finally realize who their opponent really is. "VICE ADMIRAL GARP?!"
"What?!" Lily looks from the boys to the man, who's been beating the three of them senseless. As he reaches for his pumpkin head, the brunette gapes in a mixture of awe, and shock, when he removes it to reveal the legendary marine that she's admired for years.
Garp smiles down at the wannabe ninja then looks to his two subordinates. "You boys sure were quick to make a new friend. Too bad your progress couldn't be this fast."
The boys slowly sit up, while ignoring their aching muscles, and have no idea why this happened.
Helmeppo grabs his blades, and puts them away, while he voices his questions. "I don't understand sir, why are you here? And what about your meeting?"
"Don't worry, we had it." Everyone, but the Vice Admiral, look to the exit in disbelief to find Vice Admiral Jonathan coming out of hiding from the entrance. "We finished quickly and went off to lunch just when you three were together. We couldn't help but overhear your plan to go ghost hunting, so Garp and I decided to use this as a way to see how well Lily would fit."
Lily still doesn't understand the purpose of them going so far, and looks up at Garp. "See how I'd fit where?"
The elder looks down at her, and gives her a smile as if he didn't just beat the crap out of her. "To see how well you'd fit in my unit. I say you're gonna do well with the transfer."
The news hits Lily like another one of Garp's punches, and has no idea on how to act by the news. "I'm being transferred?!"
"She's joining us?!" Coby asks with a mix of shock and eagerness in his voice.
Garp chuckles at their surprise. "That's right, lucky for us that you three already got acquainted with each other."
Lily could barely register what was going on because of how fast it's happening. All she knew was that today was her last day in the base, and she wasn't even ready for it. Still…
She looks to the two boys that she's been fighting together with, and can't help but want to keep this team together. The three of them might not have been able to beat Garp, but she has a strong feeling that with them, she could become good enough to face what other craziness is out there.
Her lips begin to curl up into a small grin, and looks up at the man who will be her new mentor. "When do we leave sir?"
Garp's grin widens at the girl's resolve. "We leave tonight. For now, let's get you guys patched up."
He reaches down, and ignores the brunette's surprised yelp, when he wraps an arm around her waist to pick her up under his arm, like she's a sleeping bag. He easily picks up the boys under his other arm before he walks out of the cave with Jonathan.
The base's leader only chuckles at the Vice Admiral's form of affection, before he follows him out of the cave to lead them to the infirmary.
Once in the medical room, Garp puts them in three beds right next to each other with Coby in the center of the trio.
Garp doesn't feel guilty at all for beating the shit out of the kids, and gives them a toothy grin. "I need to go finish the paperwork for Lily's transfer."
He looks over to his newest student. "Once you're cleared to leave, pack your things."
Lily only nods as she watches him leave with Vice Admiral Jonathan. While the nurses were busy getting what they need for their treatment ready, Lily slowly turns her body to Coby and Helmeppo. "Ok, I understand why he used that creepy helmet, but how the heck didn't he get cut by mine and Helmeppo's blades?"
Coby turns his head to the brunette and chuckles. "We have no idea. We've been trying to figure it out since Helmeppo learned how to use his knives."
Helmeppo groans from turning his body to the left so he could face his friends. "It's like his body is made of metal. We asked him about it, but he always brushed it off by saying that he just has tough skin. You didn't seem that freaked out when he fought us."
Lily weakly giggles at the comment. "I was already prepared to be facing the supernatural in that hunt. I was more shocked that it was Vice Admiral Garp the whole time. Does he always fight like that when he spars?"
"Yup, but we get stronger with each fight so we don't mind. I'm sure you'll be used to it in no time." Coby says with happiness in his voice of knowing that she'll be joining them from now on. He feels like he can relax around her since she's also seen the Straw Hats' true nature, so he doesn't have to pretend to be neutral around her.
Lily grins at the compliment as she relaxes in the bed. "Thanks, so how did you guys get into Garp's unit?"
The boys go to answer, but freeze when the nurses start approaching them. The three soldiers let them do their work on healing them, but they continue their conversation as if they've known each other for years instead of just a day.
The sound of laughter fills Jonathan's office when the two Vice Admirals watch the video of Garp's fight with the kids.
With Lily's paperwork completed, Jonathan had the video recording snail, from the dock that they were fighting at, brought in so that they can watch the fight.
Garp sees the part when Lily threw a smoke bomb at him and keeps up his grin. "That little brat's a tricky one. I didn't expect her to have weapons stored in her uniform."
Jonathan chuckles at the comment as he watches the kids trying to make a run for it. "Lieutenant Noah trained her and the rest of his unit to be prepared for anything. She holds strong skills, but she's still learning."
Garp nods to this as he watches them work together to try to take him down. "So do the other two, but it looks like the three of them already have great teamwork. They'll be just fine."
"I couldn't agree more." Jonathan says with relief washing over them from how well everything turned out.
He turns off the video and stands up from the seat. "I can't thank you enough for helping me with this."
Garp chuckles at this and gives him a broad smile. "Don't worry about it. I should be thanking you for giving me a new student."
He looks outside to see that the sun is starting to set. If he wants to catch up to his grandson anytime soon, he can't dawdle here much longer. "I should get going."
Jonathan slowly nods as he leads him out of the office and back to the docks where not only Garp's unit are located, but also Lieutenant Noah and the rest of the weapon's unit.
Lieutenant Noah keeps his stern scowl on his face as he holds out a large, overstuffed, black duffel bag for his former student. "Here's every weapon that you've learned. Along with a few that you need to start on. You better not come running back, and complaining that it's too hard."
Lily takes the bag and almost drops it, for not realizing how heavy it is. Lily manages to regain her holding of the gift in her left hand, before she salutes the man, who's been her mentor since the start of her career, with her right hand. "I won't, thank you for everything Lieutenant Noah. I won't forget what I learned in your unit."
His expression softens up at the cadet's gratitude and gives her a small, but meaningful, smile. "Good, take care of yourself out there."
She nods to him and gives her salute to the rest of her former unit, with the soldiers happily returning it to her.
With a look of pride, and slight sorrow for leaving her first base, Lily picks up her other bag with her personal belongings, and boards the ship with Coby and Helmeppo.
Garp looks to his fellow Vice Admiral and extends a hand for him to shake. "It was great seeing you."
"The pleasure was all mine." Jonathan says as he returns the gesture and watches him walk towards the ship. "If you're ever in the area again, feel free to visit."
Garp gives him a toothy smile as he reaches the deck of his boat. "You can count on it!"
The ship sails back to the Grand Line to continue their course, and begin their lives with their newest recruit.
As soon as the ship was no longer in the weapon's unit's sights, the soldiers went off to continue their training.
Jonathan is the last one to leave with a feeling of pure happiness for having this incident now be behind him. He decides to go fishing to celebrate, so he goes to his office to collect his gear. Once he enters the room though, he freezes when his communication den den mushi starts ringing.
The Vice Admiral answers, which causes the red snail to gain a dark scowl and a bushy black mustache. "Hello sir, this is captain Anthony reporting on the background check you requested on Wind Rider Rose."
The base's leader nods to this as he takes a seat with a scowl of his own to show him. "Very good, what have you found?"
"We found some sightings of her in Drum Island, just a few days before Smoker spotted her in Alabasta. We also found something pretty odd. Did you pick up her family name by any chance?"
Jonathan knits his eyebrows at the odd question, but answers him nonetheless. "No, we never caught her speaking of her surname. Why do you ask?"
"We looked back into the victims list of the Spiriting Night, along with their pictures. We know it's impossible for her to be one of the victims with how young she is, but we wanted to see if there was any relation to them. It turns out that one of the researchers has a good resemblance to her."
Jonathan is taken aback by this, because if the researchers are truly alive with a descendant here, then maybe there's a way to get them back. "Are you absolutely sure of this?"
Anthony sighs to himself, and softens his features. "No sir, this is mainly speculation, but it's all we have. This researcher and her husband don't have a lot of family, and apparently these few relatives travel a lot, so we couldn't confirm anything in their hometown. Along with this, we couldn't find anything else on the pirate to the point where it's like she didn't exist until she reached Drum Island. It's safe to confirm that she's not from this world."
Jonathan slowly nods to this, and comes up with a way to solve a piece of the mystery. "Very well, has her poster been updated yet?"
The snail shakes his head in denial. "Not yet, we're still deciding on her new bounty."
Jonathan grins at this, and tells him of his plan. "Good, when it gets updated, put the researcher's surname on her poster. If it gets some kind of reaction from her, other than confusion or denial, then we have our connection."
"Understood, her case will also be taken to Cipher Pol. They'll be handling the rest from here."
Jonathan's smile fades from the news, because if it was up to him, he wouldn't have them be involved. However, when an incident with Hell's Comet arises, a particular unit in Cipher Pol is in charge of securing the problem through any means necessary.
From what he's heard, this unit has one of the highest success rates out of all of the CP units, just second to CP 9, and they won't make this case an exception...
He scowls at how this has turned out and speaks up to try to end the conversation as soon as possible. "Is there anything else to report?"
"No sir, I just mailed out the reports for you. You should receive it in a few days."
"Thank you." He hangs up on the snail and runs a hand through his dark red hair. He almost feels sorry for the wind girl for what's to come, but he knows that there's nothing he can do.
He grabs his fishing gear, and looks out the window where Garp's ship is sailing on the horizon with his former cadet. At the very least, he's grateful that he helped one of the girls. "Good luck Wind Rider, you're going to need it..."
TO BE CONTINUED