Serious: The Price of Justice (Closed)

“ABOSOLUTELY NOT!”

Nick flinched, not at the rebuke, but at the volume with which it had been delivered. Fortunately, he was using a Den Den Mushi and simply held it further from his ear as the man on the other end continued to rant. Nick had left Stan back on his ship and delivered Kyle to his people before going and making a call to his employers on a special phone.

“We can’t just bring in someone from the outside like this!” the man on the other end of the line continued. “They have to be gradually drawn in without any previous knowledge of our organization. This…Stan is a security risk. Deal with him.”

“I’m sorry,” said Nick, pulling the receiver back to his ear. “But I won’t kill him.”

“WHAT?”

Nick sighed, but pressed on, not leaving the other man any time to speak. “He’s a good fighter and without him, I probably would be dead right now. I owe him. So, no, I’m not going to kill him.”

“WELL, YOU-”

The voice suddenly cut off, and Nick could hear several people conversing in low tones in the background. A moment later, a new voice came onto the phone. This one was also a man and he was much calmer then the first man, but his voice held a note of danger that the first had lacked.

“We have reviewed the case and come to a decision,” the man said. “We will allow you to work with Stan temporarily. However, we want regular reports on his activities and associates. If he steps out of line, you know what to do. If you do not deal with him at that time, your own life will be forfeit. Do I make myself clear?”

Nick nodded, but then remembered that the man couldn’t see him, so he said, “Crystal.”

Stan lay on the ship's deck lazily, yawned, and stretched his arms. "That was a good power nap." He murmered to himself as he rubbed the sleep out of his ever tired eyes. He sat up and looked around sheepishly, just to check if anything important was happening. I wonder how Nick is doing with those secret people?, Stan thought to himself, Guessing with how secret orginisations go, I'm going with not very well. Ah, I don't care as long as I can lay about for a bit. He then noticed a speck in the distance. Stan stood up awkwardly, struggling a little with his spindly frame and stared intensely at the speck. He then shouted out to his partner; "Hey Nick there's Some land or something over there! Should I turn the ship to it or can I go and sleep?"

Nick heard Stan’s voice and took the opportunity to say goodbye and hang up the phone. He went out on deck to stand by his new partner and look at the oncoming speck.

“Hmmm…we probably should head for it,” Nick said. “We don’t have a job right now.” He turned to Stan and grinned. “I got you in the Organization, by the way. Guys upstairs aren’t happy about it, but who cares what they think?”

Stan merely smirked at this and steered the boat in the direction of island. "Im guessing you gave them a real hassel, wish I could of heard it." he said conversationly. HE squinted at the island once again, sheilding his eyes from the sun with his long arm. "What is that island? Looks kinda familiar." He mummbled to himself, doing a terrible job as a helmsman.

“Yeah, well,” Nick shrugged. “They’re just paranoid, to tell you the truth. I can’t even remember how many times I got killed just getting into their organization the official way, and I didn’t even know I was getting into anything. They had set up a fake bounty and made sure that only I would hear about it.” He shook his head, a small smile crossing his features. “I wouldn’t have even joined ‘em, except the pay is so good.”

Stan grunted in agreement, before going on to say; "The thing is secret orginasations always have some loony wanting to do something damaging to the world, and um, ah forget it to much hassel to chat about." He the realised the ship was heading straight for a beach out he merely shrugged and watched as their boat gentely shifted it's self onto the sand.

A loony wanting to do something damaging to the world? That sort of sounded like the group Nick was with. He had found out a little about the group and learned that a couple of the members were ex-criminals. One even still had an active bounty. In any case, he didn’t know enough about them himself to say that the group was evil. He just worked for them and didn’t ask questions. Course, if he did find out that the group wanted to destroy the world, then that would change things. But until then…

Nick seized the ship’s anchor and tossed it overboard. They were in shallow water so it wouldn’t go very deep down, but he still wanted to make sure his ship wouldn’t get pulled back out to sea.

“Alright, let’s see where we are,” Nick muttered, more for Stan’s benefit then his own. He headed back into his cabin and returned with a map, scanning it. “Hmmm…seems like we’ve drifted out of the area I was patrolling. Should just go back…” He folded up the map and grinned at Stan. “…but this could be interesting.”

Stan yawned and followed his partner into his cabin and stared into blank space until he announced his decision. He nodded and slowly made his way onto the deck, before lying down on his back, craddling his head in his hands. "Okay, I'll just nap here then, good luck." He replied sleeply, before closing his eyes and slowly starting to drift off to sleep.

“Some partner you are,” Nick muttered. He turned away and headed off to explore the island, quickly forgetting his annoyance with his partner.
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“So that’s where they were heading,” a man murmured as he watched Nick and Stan through a pair of binoculars. The man was short and bald. He was wearing a simple light brown shirt and dark brown pants. He was not wearing any footwear or anything on his hands. The man turned around to face his crew, all of whom were standing below him on their submarine, the top half of which was above the water. “Alright men,” the man said loudly. “This is where we get revenge on these bounty hunters for what they did to poor Kyle!”

[Presentation Box]
Owen Worthington
Number 4 in the Worthington Family
Bounty: 23,000,000

As he listened comfortably to his partner make his way deeper into the island, he eventualy fell asleep. He then suddenly heard the sound of water moving rapidly to his confusion, which he eventualy decided to see what was its source due to it being 'a hassel'. He sluggishly crawled over the side of the boat and proped himself up with his lanky arms and squinted at the sea carefully. He wasn't entirely sure why, but for some reason a section of it started parting suddenly. Stan merely stared on in hope of something intersting would happen, before comenting to himself; "It's like the water's trying to be a hassel."

Nick strode through the island’s dense jungle vegetation. He wasn’t lost…yet. However, it was looking like that might soon be a possibility. The bounty hunter stopped and looked around for a moment, trying to get a bearing on his surroundings. Out of nowhere, a large fruit flew out of the bushes and struck Nick on the side of his head. He rubbed the sore spot and looked around to see what had assaulted him. He spotted a couple of monkeys making sounds like laughter before they turned and swung away.

“Oh yeah,” Nick muttered sarcastically. “Hilarious.”
_

The submarine approached the Hound slowly. Owen crouched low preparing for the attack. He raised one hand and then swung it down again and several of his crew sprang onto the ship. These men were dressed in black, ninja-like outfits, which was completely pointless seeing as how it was daytime.

The men spotted Stan and a few of them moved to surround him, pulling out various weapons that mostly consisted of kunai and nunchucks. The rest of the men ran to take over the ship, one going for the wheel while others went towards the sails. Two of them actually went below deck and disappeared altogether.

As the ninja like foe leapt onto the ship Stan fell back in suprise and as regained his composure he was surrounded by a fair number of them, and noticed a few trying to get the ship to sail. "Now what a lot of hassel, did i do something?" Stan asked to no-one in perticular, before quickly taking a pair of knives from his pocket and stabbing two of the 'ninjas' in the gut before straight punching them in the face. As three of them leapt at him, reading to strike with their kunai, Stan round-house kicked them into each other an off the boat, right before being whacked right in his back by one of the nunchuck wielders, making him stumble forward due to hitting his blind spot. A ninja confident of the advantage lunged at Stan with his weapons and stabbed him in the leg with his kunai, but only to be stabbed in by one of Stan's boot knives and then quickly pushed back by the same foot with forward kick to the head, exclaiming with annoyance; "Hasseling ninjas should stick to fighting pirates!". As Stan fought, he noticed something quite worrying, the boat was beginning to sail away from the island.

Nick burst out of the jungle, panting heavily. He turned and waved one fist back at the trees yelling, “HA! I escaped! That’ll show ya!” A barrage of large nuts and fruit quieted any other words he might have said, as they forced him to beat a hasty retreat.
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“He’s good,” said Owen as he watched the battle between Stan and his underlings. “He’s very good.” Owen looked down at his hands and then closed them into fists. “That is going to make this all the more fun when I tear him apart with my bare hands!”
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Even as Stan defeated several of the ninja-like warriors, more of them were pouring over the edge of the ship. Most of these quickly took the places of those who had already been beaten and they rushed Stan.

As Stan started to head towards the group controlling the boat, some more goons leapt aboard, much to Stan's confusion. "Where the hell are they coming from? Fighting them all's gonna be a huge hassel! Oi Nick! Where are ya?" Stan bellowed out before placing another of his knives in his mouth and replacing it, as welll as activating his remaining boot knife. HE then lunged forward towards a pair of the ninjas who managed to block his attack, and aother pair slashed dpwn at his long arms which only narrowly managed bend away from the kunai before Stan slashed at the attackers. "I really hope Nick gets here, I don't want to put up with this hassel."

Nick walked along the beach, looking out over the waves. He was nearing the place where his boat had landed, but was reluctant to hurry back. He didn’t often get to come to places like this and since this ‘vacation’ had not been planned, he found that he was enjoying it even more.

Nick stopped for a moment and closed his eyes. He breathed in the salty smell of the water. He spent so much time on it that he found it strange that he could enjoy its scent, but even so, who couldn’t appreciate something so beautiful?

Nick’s eyes opened again and he frowned, having spotted a ship off in the distance. Strangely enough, it seemed to be going away from the island, almost as if it had already been there and was just now leaving. Had he really been gone that long? Even stranger then the direction the ship was heading in was the fact that it looked almost familiar. Nick looked further on down the beach and saw the place his ship had been when it had landed. The ship was gone. He looked back out at the ship sailing away, his face clenching in anger.

He had trusted Stan and now the other bounty hunter had double crossed him and stolen his ship! Well, he wasn’t going to let that man get away with it. Nick rushed forward and dove into the sea, timing his leap as the water was pulling back. He began swimming at high speed, rushing as quickly as he could out towards his ship.
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Owen jumped up onto the ship alongside another wave of his men. He strode calmly towards Stan as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He cracked his knuckles as he walked. His whole body was almost shaking with anticipation of the upcoming battle. The strong ones were always the most fun to fight. They were always so prideful, thinking that no one could compete with their power. That is, until he got his hands on them. Owen could not keep from letting out a sadistic giggle, which he quickly muffled. It wouldn’t do to let his men hear him laugh. They might think him weak. But no one ever made the mistake of thinking that twice.

Stan struggled to keeep up with the attackers, franticly waving his legs and arms around in hope of blocking kunai and nunchucks, until the enemy managed to stab him in the arm and as the pain distracted him, a fair number of the managed to pin him down. He then saw a short, bald man walk up to him among the crowd of ninjas. Before he even said a word, Stan imedietly blurted out; "Oh look it's a midget. Hello midget are you with these ninjas? could you tell them to stop being a hassel?"

Everything around Stan seemed to stop. Then the ninjas turned as one to face their boss, who was not longer walking towards Stan. Owen looked up at Stan with a deceptively calm smile on his face. One of his eyebrows was twitching omoniously.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Uh…boss, I’m sure he didn’t mean it,” one of the ninja minions said. The little bit of his face that could be seen looked terrified.

The boss didn’t seem to hear him. “What did you call me?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he continued. “Did you say that I…WAS SHORTER THEN A BLADE OF GRASS WHEN ITS LAYING ON ITS SIDE?!?” Suddenly the little man dashed forward, moving at such a high speed that to his minions he appeared only as a blur. The next moment he was leaping into the air above them. “OPEN AIR RAPID FIRE COMBO!” His fists began moving blurring like his body had as they aimed to pummel everything in front of him. Regardless of whether or not he was hitting Stan, Owen’s fists sent his ninja minions spinning away screeching. When he hit something else, like the deck, he smashed through the wood like it wasn’t even there.

(Sorry, couldn’t resist the Edward Elric moment there. Unless you’ve watched Fullmetal Alchemist, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. Oh, and Nick is on the way. I’m just giving him time to get there. Well, that and I didn’t see how I could fit him in here very well just yet.)

(lol it's okay, fullmetal alchemist is awesome)
As the leader of the ninjas went into a crazed frenzy, Stan was lucky enough to have a few of the opponents that held him down sent flying, and just managed, roll out of the way of the recent attack. "Hmmmm, probably less hassel if I don't make fun of his short height." Stan mumbled to himself from behind some frightened henchmen, cowering in fear of their leader. "Killer Cartwheel!" Stan then cried out, wielding all of his five knives before rolling towards the aged man.

Owen saw Stan rolling towards him and he stood in place, waiting until the much larger man came into range. Then Owen clapped his hands over one of the knives and, with a strength that belied his size, he stopped Stan in his tracks.
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By this point, Nick had caught up to his ship and he pulled himself up over the edge, dripping wet. Several of the ninja minions saw him and rushed him, but he was in no mood to play around. He whipped out his pistols and opened fire, knocking them down left and right.

“I love this waterproof gunpowder,” Nick muttered. He spotted Stan and Owen and frowned. “What’s going on…oh, now I get it.” Nick nodded sagely. “You stole my ship!” he pointed at Stan. “And now the people you were going to sell it too have turned on you!”

(Total misunderstanding.)

Stan looked at Nick sheepishy, and calmly replied; "Oh it's you Nick. Wait why would I sell a boat? there'd be too muc hassel involved, I'd need to find a buyer, advertise the ship well in multiple bits of media, and- eh, forget it too much hassel to explain why it's a hassel. These guy are assasins or something, I dunno." He then suddenly fell asleep, still being held up by Owen.

(sorry, I won't be around for a while, exams start on monday ya see so some panic revising is in order! See ya till there over!)

“WHAT?” Owen glared up at Stan. “Are you ASLEEP?”

“Oh yeah,” said Nick, apparently oblivious to the proceedings. “What was I thinking? You’re too lazy to steal a boat. My bad.” He was forced to duck a moment later as a hail of shruiken flew over head. “You guys just don’t give up, do you?” Nick asked, snapping off a couple of shots from one of his pistols and dropping two men with them.

Owen now turned his glare on Nick, but he quickly returned to Stan. The small man pushed Stan back slightly so that he could jump away, leaving Stan with no one to hold him up.

(Okay. See ya. But you have to tell me all about it when you get back. Just kidding. )

(Back for a bit! for some reason got a whole week with no exams plus this weekend, but when thats over i'll dissapear again until there over)

Stan continued to snore noisly as he fell with a thud to the deck. Then something strange happened. Though still asleep, he got up and started to attack randomly with his knives, as if he was fighting his dream physicaly, taking out a few of the 'ninjas' in the process. "No I wanted that pinapple......... who said you could have it?............ your a big liar you know that?" Stan mumbled lazily in his sleep, as he continued his onslaught, some how sleep-fighting.

Both Owen and Nick paused to watch Stan going on his sleep rampage. Owen didn’t stay still for long, though. He jumped back as Stan started to come into striking range. The small man glared up at Stan angrily, but he didn’t saw anything. It was annoying to have to deal with someone like this, but if he was asleep, surely that would mean that he wasn’t in any real condition to fight properly?

So, creeping around Stan, Owen then hurled himself at the much larger man’s back, punching at high speed.

Nick was too busy and too distracted to help Stan out. Since their boss was so focused on fighting Stan, the ninja-like minions were focusing all of their resources on taking Nick out. Nick was forced to jump over a sweeping kick, fall on his back and roll to avoid another hail of shuriken, and then jump to his feet and cartwheel to the side to dodge a flurry of punches and kicks all in the course of two seconds. As he blocked an overhead kick with one arm, Nick drew his second pistol and opened fire with both guns, mowing down the nearest fighters. He could feel himself beginning to sweat as he fought. This was turning into a real workout.

Stan was imedietly struck down from owen's attack, and fell face-first onto the deck before lifting his head up sheepishy and mumbling; "what was that?" and clumsily getting his feet. He rubbed the sleep away from his eyes, and then opened them to see Owen glaring furiously at him. After a few minutes of staring back, he round-house kicked at Owen, with one of his shoe blades about to stab the diminutive villian. "Wait you are my enemy right?" Stan asked with yawn, before adding, "I probably should of asked that first if it wasn't such a hassel."

Nick sighed upon once again hearing Stan’s catchphrase. The big guy just never quit. His guns blazing, Nick forced back the ninja minions and then…his guns stopped firing and he heard a clicking sound.

Nick sighed again. “What a ha…” he stopped himself just in time and shook his head ruefully. “Now he’s got me doing it.”

Seeing their target’s weapons run out of bullets, the ninja minions all sprang out of their hiding places and blitzed Nick. He tossed his pistols away and met the ninjas with his own fighting style, fists and feet both pummeling away.
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Owen sprang backwards to avoid the shoe blade, but it still sliced into the front of his shirt and left a shallow red line on his skin. The shorter man shoves his hands into his pockets and produced ten shuriken, five in each hand. He hurled them all at Stan and then whipped out a kunai and sprang forward, stabbing it at Stan’s heart.