Serious: Going on the Offensive (Open to anyone)

Nick was walking on his way back to his…no, their ship. Technically Stan had a small claim on it as well since he was living there.

The two of them had arrived on a small, backwater island. The ninja minions who had come with them had all disappeared. They hadn’t caused too much trouble on the trip there and for that Nick was supremely grateful. His wounds pained him, though fortunately he could still walk without to much trouble.

In one hand Nick was carrying a bag of cash. Twenty million belli, to be exact. (The other three million had been sent to Nick’s bosses who always got a cut off of his bounties.) Half of it also went to Stan, of course, but it was still a sizable sum. Nick couldn’t help but smile. If he had known that having a partner was this profitable, he would have gone against his bosses’ collective wills and risked it a long time ago.

Nick was taking his time, returning to the ship. He saw no reason to rush. Until he and Stan got a job, he could just enjoy the good weather and rest his weary body. Little did he realize that at that moment, his phone back on the ship had begun ringing.

Meanwhile, on the same island... David "Sleepy" Jones, a bounty and trasure hunter was there... Apparently, the man had been searching for a treasure he heard about. That treasure, also known as King Aberel's treasure did not contain much gold, but it was still difficult to find. For years the people on the island had been searching for the treasure and yet nobody found it yet. However, David was determined to find it...

As he walked on the island, the man entered a bar. There, he asked for a beer. He was quite thirsty. He had arrived at the island two hours ago and he was very tired. He had to relax before he got to work and there was nothing more relaxing than a cold and tasty beer. As he was sitting, the man looked around. All of the people in the bar seemed to be innocent civilians who had been living their lives. It looked like the place was quite peaceful... He should not bother them with asking any questions about the treasure. And so, the man started drinking his beer, relaxing himself.

Stan was lying on the deck of The Hound, the bounty hunter ship that belonged to Nick and Stan, fast asleep with his lanky arms cradiling his head. "Biscuit weevils.", the bounty hunter murmered sleeply as he rolled over and into the ships mast, hitting it face first. the bounty hunter woke up with a start, as rubbed his face. "Hmmm I wonder if it's time to eat yet, I could just check a clock but that coud be some hassel." he mumbled to himself sleeply, and stumbled off the ship. "Well, sometimes it's worth the hassel." He added, before heading off into the town, on his misson to find a clock.

Nick stopped outside of a bakery and peered in through the window at all of the delicious looking food inside. It had been a while since he had stocked up on supplies and they were starting to run low. But he still needed to…his stomach chose that moment to growl noisily. Obviously the rest of his body wasn’t going to listen to reason. And he did have some money, even if half of it was Stan’s. He would just have to be careful and not spend any of Stan’s half. That shouldn’t be too difficult.

So, stepping inside he began purchasing all the ‘necessities’. As he was leaving the bread shop, he noticed a clothing store across the way. Well, he did need some more socks. And some of his shirts were getting holes in them from all the fights he was getting into. And then there was butcher down the way and a fruit stand across from that and…Nick smiled ruefully. Already this was starting to turn into a regular ol' shopping trip. Shaking his head he stepped into the clothing store.

As David started enjoying his beer inside the bar, something weird happened. A huge man entered the shop. That mine was dirty and he could be smelt from miles away. He had an ugly face and his body was big. He was very fat and David was thinking how it was possible for him to move with such a weight on his body. He wore a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. He said to the barman "Give me all your beer! I am Jucky Juck, the pirate with the bounty of 1,000,000.". That man definitely was something. He was a treasure. From the very first moment he heard that, David realised that he was extremely lucky. However, he did not do anything at all. He waited for the man to get out of the bar before he would catch him and give him to the marines.

Some time later, the man drank as much as he wished and he got out of the bar. Then, immediately David got up as well and started following him. Outside of the bar, Jucky turned his head and looked towards the bounty hunter. He said "What are you looking at, Afro dude?" with a grin on his face. David sighed. He calmly responded "I was just wondering if you really have that bounty you claimed you had.". Afterwards, the man started laughing. He picked up a bounty poster out of his pockets and showed it to David. He said "Okay, now?".

"Yes I guess" was the answer of the bounty hunter whose hair started moving strangely, shocking Jucky to the point that he fell on the ground. The hair were extremely long and they started taking the forms of hands. David looked towards his enemy with an evil look on his face and said "I hate pirates..." as he punched him with his hair, breaking his jaw. Then, he kept punching him with his hair to the chest, causing him much pain. For a few seconds afterwards, David let the man to try to escape. Jucky got up and started running away. However, while he was running the bounty hunter said "Struggle!" as his hair started moving towards the pirate's direction and grabbed the pirate from his right leg, making him fall on the ground. Seconds later, David said "Hair Punch!" as he punched the man at his back, breaking his bones and making him fall unconscious.

As soon as he was done, the man's hair returned to their normal afro look. He took a rope out of his outfit and started tying the pirate so that he would not run away, although it was very hard at his current condition. He said "Are there any marines around to give me the reward for this man's bounty?" and waited for a response...

"Excuse me, but do you know what the time is?" Stan asked a little girl by herself, who looked extremly nervous. As the girl was about to answer, a woman that looked like she was in her early thirties came along and dragged the girl away, telling her crossly; "What have I told you before? don't talk to strange men! You don't know what he might be up to!" Stan scratched his head confused as he watched the pair walk away, wondering who on earth was the strange man. "He turned round to see a rather large crowd gathering around someone, well he pressumed someone because he heard a voice ask to see some marines. The long limbed bounty hunter decided it would be worth the hassel to this man, and started hoping on the crowds head until he shortly arrived in the middle, landing on the belly of a rather large man. He turned to a man with an afro and asked lazily; "Excuse me but do you know what the time is?"

"Hm?" was the reaction of David who listened to somebody asking him a question. He said "I have no idea what the time is, my friend... I was busy dealing with that pirate scum.". Then, he stood up. It seemed like the marines would not come. It would be better if he got the man to a marine basement instead. He had to receive his money after all. He said "I am going now... I have to handle this pirate to the navy. Do you want to come with me? The marines will definitely know what the hour is..." as he started heading towards the basement while carrying the large man with the rope. As he moved, the man was screaming due to the fact that his face was on the ground all the time David was moving him. However, David would show no mercy to the pirate. He would not die from that, after all, so it was okay.

(I never did give the island a name. My apologies. I’ll rectify that.)

Nick’s shopping spree had been fruitful and he was laden with several heavy bags and packages. The best part was that he didn’t even have to worry all that much about the money. He had gotten everything he wanted, plus a little extra, for just under a million belli.

Nick spotted a disturbance up ahead and he came to a stop, frowning. "Wonder what happened here?" he muttered.

[Elsewhere on Eshros Island]

The sound of crunching was the only thing that could heard in the dimly lit room. A young man with short brown hair was sitting at a desk on which were five Den Den Mushi. In one hand the young man held the receiver of one of the Den Den Mushis. In the other was a chip, which he popped into his mouth and resumed chewing, thus revealing the source of the crunching. Behind the brown haired man were two figures in black suits, who hung back just far enough in the shadows that their facial features were shrouded in darkness. Surrounding the trio was an assortment of filing cabinets and stacks of paper.

After a few moments, the brown haired man set the receiver back down on its snail body and turned to the people behind him. “He’s not answering,” the man said. “Told you he probably wasn’t on his ship. It’s daytime. I usually wait until night to call him. Sometimes I wake him up, but at least he’s there.”

“Ah, well,” said the shorter of the two shadowed figures. The voice indicated that the person was male. “We can’t really stick around for very long, so we’ll just have to speak to him directly. Thanks anyway.”

As they turned to go, the brown haired man stood up. “Hang on,” he said. “What do you want with Nick?”

“Not just Nick,” said the other figure. This one was male as well, but his voice was much deeper then the first. “His partner too. And…let’s just say that we’ve got a little job for them.”

“That’ll be hard to set up,” said the brown haired man. “Nick’s usual bosses don’t take to having their people snatched up by other employers.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” said the first of the figures who had spoken. “See ya.” And then they were gone.

Stan ondered shortly on what he decsion he should make, then decided it was too much of a hassel to go against what the afro man had said. "Alright then, I'll go with ya, they probably will know the time due to the being so organised and hassling all the time.", he said to him calmly. He then took out a bounty poster from his pocket, stared at it, and then the captured criminal for a second, before ripping up the poster. "Don't need this anymore since you've got him now." Stan mumbled, and started following the afro man.

"Hm? Are you a bounty hunter?" the man said to Stan with a surprised face. He thought that Stan was a mere habitat of the island. He could not expect that he was travelling across the seas, searching for pirates to get their bounties. That was pretty cool. If his guess was right, he had just found another bounty hunter. However, he wondered... Why would Stan come to the island? Would he come just to catch a pirate with a bounty of 1,000,000 beli on his head or was there another reason? He would not know unless he asked...

Nick wandered over to where a small group of people were standing, muttering to each other. “Um…what happened?” he asked one woman near the back.

“I don’t know,” she said, fearfully. “Two men started fighting and one of them beat the other one up pretty badly. Then he started yelling about Marines and a bounty or something like that. I didn’t really catch it.”

“Hmmm…” Nick thought it sounded a bit like a bounty hunter. Could it have been…? Nah, Stan probably hadn’t even left the ship. Nick sighed. He just had to pick the laziest partner of all time.

Thanking the woman, Nick moved on. He hadn’t gotten far when suddenly two figures stepped out in front of him. Two all too familiar figures.

Nick dropped his arms to his sides, allowing his bags to slide off and hit the ground, before, in one smooth motion, draw his gun, cock it, and stick in one of the figure’s faces.

“Hey Nikky!” said the man in whose face Nick was holding his weapon. “Nice to know your reflexes haven’t diminished since we last met. But…uh…can you point that somewhere else, please?”

“What do you want?” Nick said, shortly.

“Hey now!” the man raised his hands defensively. “We’re buddies, aren’t we?”

“Odd hearing that come from a guy who tried to kill me that last time we met,” Nick retorted.

“Point taken,” the man said. “But I can assure you that our intentions are not so violent this time. We just want to talk. You’ll let us do that much, won’t you?”

Nick looked around, noticing for the first time that a crowd was starting to gather. They were all looking at his gun and he distinct heard someone say, “Call the Marines!”

“Fine,” Nick said. “But not here. Follow me.” Reluctantly, he slipped his gun into its holster and turned his back on the two men before grabbing his bags and walking quickly down the street.

Stan thought carefully for a second on who the man was, and then confessed, "Yeah I'm a bounty hunter, and so's my partner, havent seen him around though today. I forgot why were here though, too much hassel." He then slowly shuffled after David. "I'm Stan by the way, just so you wont have to hassel yourself to ask my name." he added with a yawn.

"Hahahahahaha! I see!" were the words of David to the man who claimed to be a bounty hunter, just like himself. Without thinking even for a second, the bounty hunter then decided to tell him his name. Apparently, Stan trusted him with his name so he should trust him, too. The bounty hunter with the big afro raised his right hand up in order to shake hands with Stan while saying "My name is Jones. David Jones. But I suppose you can simply call me David...". David was definitely friendly to the man he just met. That was his nature, anyway.

Nick slid into a booth at a nearby bar. He had wanted to go somewhere a little more ‘low-key’, but the two guys he had come with had argued that a bar would be loud enough to mask their conversation.

A moment later, those two figures reappeared. Both men wore dark suits. The one who had spoken to Nick was the same height as the bounty hunter. He had long red hair that was tied back in a ponytail and had pale skin to match. On top of his head he wore a pair of sunglasses. The other man was dark-skinned and completely bald. He was several inches taller then both Nick and his partner. He wore a pair of sunglasses like his partner, but he wore them over his eyes. *

The red-haired man slid in the booth across from Nick, but his partner pushed the bounty hunter back slightly and sat next to him, blocking his way of escape.

“Okay, now talk,” Nick ordered, not wanting to stick around for longer then he had to.

“Relax,” said the red-haired man. “If you don’t, it’ll defeat the point of coming in here to avoid attracting attention.”

“Fine,” said Nick. “I’m leaving.”

He stood and started to slip out of the booth, but the bald man merely crossed his arms across his chest and stared at the bounty hunter.

“Move,” Nick said. “Now. Or I’ll make sure that you regret it.”

“Alright already,” said the red-haired man. “Take it easy. I’ll tell as it is. We work for your bosses. You know? Those wackos up top with the masks?”

Nick sat right back down. He was already aware that they had been hired by his bosses to train him and make him prove his worth to the organization, but he had thought it had been a temporary deal.

“So why are you here now?” Nick asked.

“What do you know about the Worthington family?” asked the bald man.
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*I’ll be honest. I ripped these two off from another series. Just thought I’d give ‘em a cameo appearance. They are based off of Reno and Rude from FF7.

Stan merely grunted approvingly at David, limply shaking his hand before carrying on with his half effort walk. Hmmm seems like he's a normal everyday bounty hunter, though that dosen't mean he aint powerful in our line of work, wonder how he took down that small fry a moment ago? I don't think he used a weapon so maybe he's a martial artist or devil fruit user? Stan thought to himself, pondering about his newly met aquaintence. "Ummm, is that the marine building? just say yes or no, a lot quicker then and a lot less hassel."; the lanky bounty hunter asked, carefully peering at a building not too far off.

David carefully looked towards the building Stan was talking about. He looked carefully and he really noticed that it was the marine basement. With a smile on his face, he said "Yes! Yes it is!" as he started moving quickly towards it. Apparently, the man wanted to receive the money of Jucky's bounty. He should get it after all. He was the man to catch him without the help of anyone else. It was all his and only his. As he started moving quicker, he said "Come on Stan! Be quick! The marines will tell you what the hour is! Hahaha!" and moved...

Stan grinned slightly as he folowed after David, not increasing his speed iin the slightest, as he followed after him to the building. He seem's quite the cheery bloke, though a bit too energetic in my opinion. Hmmm he probably works alone, just doing this for his next meal. Now that I think about it, we could use a anothe rhand on our ship, plus it would create hassel for the higher ups which is always a bonus, he thought to himself happily, contuining his plodding.

The Worthingtons…that was a name Nick wished he had never heard. He learned form the bounty office that Owen was a member of the Worthington family. In fact, he had been Kyle’s older brother. Nick sighed and rubbed his eyes. This was all getting to complicated for him. But, if his bosses were giving him a new job, he had to do it.

“All I know is that my last job was to bust one of the family’s members and then another member tracked me and my partner down,” said Nick. “Oh, and yeah, and they’re criminals. I know that to.” He said this last part sarcastically.

“Yeah, but not just any criminals,” said the red-haired man darkly. “These guys have got practically an entire army answering to them. And now they’re targeting you and that Walter guy you’ve been traveling with. Apparently they don’t like having their family taken down and exchanged for money.”

“I figured that much out when Owen found us,” Nick groaned. “Ugh…so why are you here anyway?”

“You’re not going to like this part…brace yourself…” the red-haired man smirked. “…we’re here to tell you that the bosses want you and Walter to go after the Worthingtons and shut them down. Permanently.”

While Stan was following David towards the marine building, David run towards the building and hand overed the pirate to the marines with a happy face. However, he did not receive his payment from the marines as they claimed that they did not have so many beli with them to give to him. Too bad... David wanted to buy a new outfit and he needed money to get a cool one. With an angry face, the man got out of the building and watched towards Stan. He said "DAMN IT! THOSE BASTARDS SAID THEY DID NOT HAVE ONE MILLION BELI TO GIVE ME AND THAT I SHOULD COME BACK LATER! GRRRRR...". The energetic bounty hunter was mad with the marines... However, there was nothing better he could do. The only thing he could do was to wait for the bag with his paymenet to come to the island.

"That is quiet the hassel." Stan agreed with his new found friend without much effort. "Well, best to go in and ask what I wanted." Stan then strolled into the marine office and asked simply "Do you know the time?" At first the person at the desk was suprised with such and answer, and the replyed simply; "It's one in the afternoon." Stan nodded and walked back over to david. "What a hassel, I already missed lunch." he mumbled, taking out a sandwhich he kept in his pocket, saving it for the just mentioned meal time.

“WHAT?” Nick jumped to his feet. He was attracting attention, but he didn’t care. “They want to me and Stan to go after those maniacs? Are they crazy? We could hardly beat Owen. And Kyle was no slouch either!”

“It’s your call,” said the red-haired man with a shrug. “You go knocking on their doors or they are going to come and knock on yours. Either way you’re going to have to face them.”

Together, the red-haired man and his partner rose to their feet. They slid out of the booth and then turned to face Nick.

“Well, we’re off,” said the red-haired man. “Look, Nick, you can do as you want. We’re not going to force you to chase down the Worthingtons. Personally though, I like to pick my fights when I can and since you don’t have a whole lot of options…get what I’m saying?” He winked at Nick. “You can have that little tip for free. See ya around buddy! I hope…”

Then they were gone, leaving Nick alone with his thoughts. A minute later he stood up and left the bar as well. It was time to find Stan and do what they did best. It was time to go hunting again.

"I don't care about that friggin' launch! I just care for my reward..... Damn it!" the man said as he looked at Stan eating. Apparently, he had already thought of how he would spend the beli he would get from the bounty and he could not wait... However, there was nothing he could do while waiting and so he stopped. Seeing that his new friend was eating, the man placed his hand inside his big afro and picked up an apple out of it. He cleared it from the hair that was on it and he said "Bon apetit!" as he started eating it in order to satisfy his own hunger... Wow... That afro could be having anything inside... Amazing...

As Stan watched unphased as he watched his new companion take an apple out and also start eating, took another bite out of his sandwich. He then took out a bottle from his coat pocket and then a pair of small cups from the same one with his free hand, quickly ripped off the lid and poured himself and the afro man a cup of rum. He sipped a little from his cup before saying; "Help yourself to the bottle.". He then had a look of sudden realisation on his face. "Oh, Nick's probably back at the boat now. Or maybe he was already and looking for me." Stan mumbled, before getting to his feet and quickly finishing his drink and sandwich. "I'll leave ya too it, I need to go find my partner now." he said as if it was a full agolagy and explanation, and walked off.

Nick dropped the bags of goods he had bought inside of his cabin before stepping back on deck. He had already searched the ship for Stan, but hadn’t found any trace of the tall man. It was weird. Nick had honestly never expected Stan to have the motivation to just up and leave the ship like this.

Nick walked over to the edge of the ship and jumped back down to the ground. Well then, he would have to just search for Stan, but where to look for him? Nick spotted a mattress store not to far away and he smiled. What better place for a lazy guy to go to then to a place where he could lay down and sleep?

As Nick left his ship behind, he didn’t see the four figures who appeared on its deck and watched him walk away. A moment later, they too slipped off of the ship in pursuit.

"Whatever... See you later, I guess!" David said as he turned his back at Stan and started walking away. That man... Stan seemed to be pretty weird yet he seemed to be a good guy. As he walked away he started thinking "Hm... What could he be doing here at all... Especially with a partner. There must be some big names around...". Before he even completed his thought, though, a Den Den Mushi he kept in his afro started ringing. The man took it out and received a message form someone... What could that message possibly say? Would it be something good or something bad?