Serious: Chapter 4 The Road to becoming the best (hooded knights)

Darnel was awaiting aboard the hooded justice for his men. He had asked his superiors for some time as well as the rest of the crew, so for the next two weeks the hooded knights were on vacation. Darnel himself was not dressed in his marind uniform, but shirtless in white loose jeans carrying a blue towel for hitting the beach in Rakuen Island (though Darnel still wore his signature hat and hood to cover his face). Darnel needed the rest. His injuries hasn't fully healed, and his men needed the time off too. Darnel couldn't wait to try out the hot springs there, and maybe get a numbers there. All this work has left Darnel with no time for women, and if nothing changed he was going to stay single. Darnel needed a life outside the marines, but he kept that to himself.

“WAHOO!” Quintus yelled. “I’m liking this crew, Georgie! We get to go on vacations for once!”

He was riding on George’s back, far out over ocean. He too was shirtless, but was wearing a pair of bright purple swimming trunks with tiny, multicolored flowers dotting them. For a moment, he closed his eyes, enjoying the wind whipping past his face. The next second he was standing on the edge of George’s back and diving out over the ocean. Nearly one hundred feet* later, he struck the ocean’s surface performing what could only be described as the world’s most imperfect belly flop. It took him almost half a minute to resurface after that one, spluttering and spitting out the salty water that had gotten in his throat and nose.

However, his idiotic grin reappeared and he shouted up at his circling giant roc, “This is fun! Just wait’ll we actually reach the island!”

With a joyful screech, George swooped down and scooped Quintus out of the ocean with his claws. He then flew lazily back to the ship with Quintus talking the whole way about what he would do when they got there.

(*Normal people can die if they hit water after falling one hundred and fifty feet. And considering that these are One Piece characters, I’m sure that a mere one hundred feet wouldn’t even faze them.)

After the horrible adventure in the Florian Triangle, Carlos needed a good rest to cool off. Everything was happening so fast: One moment he was navigating through of the most dangerous waters in the world, and he next he was promoted both to a lieutenant and a first mate. It was all piling up in Carlos' head and he needed to clear it all with a little rest. As opposed to Darnel and Quintus, Carlos was lying on the beach instead of running around. He was fully dressed, but in his civil cloths instead of his uniform, which consisted of a sleeveless brown shirt and a pair of loose black pants and sandals. His pair of hook swords was lying next to him, he never left them behind, not even on his vacation. With his eyes closed and the wind blowing against his super messy hair, Carlos got the best nap he had since the day he joined the Hooded Knights.
A group of kids was having a loud argument about 5 meters away from him, half of them wanted to leave him alone, while the other half wanted to poke him with a stick and run. But Carlos didn't let this kind of silly disturbances to wake him up.

Darnel got off the ship unto the island feeling the nice hot sand on his feet. He saw two ladies at the concesstion stand, and decided to join them. Carlos and Quintus seemed to be having a ball, so why not him? "Hello ladies, I'm Commodore Darnel, leader of the hooded knights. Maybe you heard of us?" The two ladies began to laugh "Weren't you the guy who got his butt kicked by Captain Maximillion?" Darnel said trying to regain composure "But we caught RedBeard surely you must have heard of our victory there." The girls laughed even louder "You mean that low ranking pirate in the west blue? Come back when you capture a REAL pirate." Darnel went to sulk on the beach alone embrassed.

Carlos' left eye slinted open when a wooden stick poked his side. The group of kids giggled and ran off, fearing he'll give them a close look of one of his swords. Carlos wasn't going to do it in a million years, but he was irritated.

Getting up, Carlos looked around for a better spot to take his nap in, preferably kids-free. He walked around the beach for a while until he ran into a familiar face. It was his captain, and he seemed to be unhappy.

"Hey Darnel-sama! Why the long face? We're on a vacation oyu should be selebrating!" Carlos said. "How about we go get something to drink? All of this sun got me dehydrated".

Darnel got up from the ground "Yeah why not? I didn't come all this way to sulk. Ha ha ha ha the heat makes me feel good. I guess having a snake zoan devil fruit has it advantages" Darnel walked over to the tropical bar ordering a jack and a coke "Don't worry its on me Carlos. Order anything you want." Then after sipping his drink a couple of times. Darnel asked Carlos seriously "Am I a good captain?"


Far off the coast into the sea, a group of shandians bandit rode of their wavers and skates powered by breath dials. There about six of them riding on their skates and three rode on weavers. Their leader Lionus order them to begin attacking the inhabitants on the beach. Skoria, Turk, Bella, Cole, Tyrant, and Rain began attacking the boats on the sea first by using their rifles and guns. Turk saw a huge giant bird in the sky, and that a man was on top of it. He fired his burn cannon at them thinking it was a regular person riding on his pet.

Quintus was still coasting along in George's claws when he caught sight of the attack. Now that was no fair. He had just gotten here and they were messing up his vacation. With a sigh, he leaned up to order George to turn and head towards them when he saw a blast coming towards him and his pet.

"ACK!" Quintus grabbed hold of a clump of George's feathers and tugged on them, hard. "Evasive maneuvers! Now!"

The bird let out a screech, which either was confirmation for his new orders or pain from having his feathers pulled. Regardless, the bird turned to the side to avoid the incoming projectile.

Now Quintus was in a bit of a bind. He always kept his gun and ammo with him, but it was currently placed on George's back, up out of reach. So the Marine was forced to begin a slow, dangerous climb up George's side. This was very painful for the giant bird, but he wisely kept his beak shut. Fortunately, due to all of the forest explorations he had done as a child, Quintus was an excellent climber and it didn't take him too long to reach George's back. Taking hold of his sniper rifle, Quintus flipped open his bullet case and held it down with one foot so it wouldn't slide away from him.

"Let's go back, George!" Quintus shouted and George immediately complied, wheeling around so that they were coming in towards the bandits. "STAND DOWN!" Quintus roared, raising his rifle and pointing it at Turk. His voice now held the air of authority of a man who expected to be obeyed. A cold shiver ran down his back as he did this. The tone was one he had not used for years, and for good reason.

"I think your promotion speaks for itself Captain" Carlos answered to Darnel after ordering himself a glass of orange juice, after a few nights of getting drunk his head ached every time he thought about drinking.
"Now c'mon, we're on vacation! It's no time to become emotional and bathe in our own tears, it's time to have fun!" Carlos said, trying to cheer Darnel from his seemingly bad mood.

Unfortunately, just as he finished talking about having fun, a group of shandians attacked the shore. For a second, Carlos considered minding his own business. He wasn't in uniform and right now was considered a normal citizen, but after thinking about the people who might hurt, including the group of silly kids who woke him up, he grabbed his swords. "Damn it! Even when we're on vacations something bad happens!" Carlos complained as he got up from his sit. He thought about running towards the beach and slay whatever he came across, but seeing as he was already being a marine, he decided to wait for his captain's orders.

Darnel turned his head to see that a bunch of shandians attacking the boats in the sea "We can never get a break can we?" A part of Darnel wanted to lay back and not get involved, but how can he dare call himself a marine if he refused to help these people. He got up from his seat "Carlos we need to stop them. Do whatever you can without hurting the citizens." Darnel knew that this mission would be risky, since he couldn't swim. He turned to see some surfboards and Canoes laying on top of the sand. Good thing that we were at the beach huh? "Carlos, we use these to help manuever in the water." Darnal grabbed the canoe since touching water below knee level would weaken and eventually kill him, and ran toward the water.

Turk was stunned to see this guy pull out a rifle. He put down his weapon seeing this guy was no ordinay citizen "You must pretty bold to command me like that. Let's see how your skills as a sniper fair against mine. If you win I'll stop this assault and lay down my arms. Make it shower rain!" Hearing her name being called, Rain fired some sky arrows toward Quintus and George. The arrows flew all around them never hitting the target only surrounding them by white spiral clouds in the air. Soon they were surrounded by a bubble net made out of a cloud. Turk then rode inside the net using his jet skis. He rode toward the top of the net bubble with his front facing Quintus. Turk fired five cannonballs toward him.

Only the faintest flicker of surprise flashed across Quintus's features at the man's approach. Then it was gone, leaving in its wake a warrior.

"Dive," he ordered George. The roc automatically folded its wings and swept downwards towards Turk.

Quintus whipped out his rifle and opened fire. His first bullet sideswiped a cannonball, sending it careening around him. His second bullet hit a cannonball dead on. This did little to slow it and Quintus had to swing himself to the side to avoid it. For the third cannonball he took a stance and then launched an 'Ostrich Spear' kick at it, sending it back into the fourth cannonball, blowing them both away. As for the fifth, it caught Quintus on the side of his stomach and sent him spinning off of George's back. Despite the pain, and what felt like a cracked rib, he wasn't finished yet.

Quintus twisted himself in midair, bringing his gun around to bear on Turk and he fired two shots before falling past the Shandian. He didn't wait around to see whether or not they hit. Instead, he turned his body so that he was facing the rapidly approaching ocean headfirst. George, who had come back after Quintus had fallen off of him, swept under his falling master, who grabbed onto him, and slowly turned his body away from the ocean so that Quintus would not be jerked out of his fall too quickly. George only just managed to angle himself properly in time to keep from falling into the ocean and drowning. Even so, he found himself flying just inches above the waves. It wasn't exactly a desirable position for a devil fruit user.

Once more on George's back, Quintus reached into his bullet case and rifled around in it for a couple of seconds. He pulled out an extra bullet clip as well as a couple of special bullets and he stuffed them into his pockets.

"Gotcha!" Carlos shouted back to his captain before dashing along side him towards the beach. Seeing as Darnel went over to take the canoe, Carlos was left with the surfboard. He ran towards the flat plank and just as he picked it up and man shouted after him, yelling "Hands off my board!". Carlos had no time for a run in with a man he was trying to protect, so he didn't stop. "I'll bring it back!" He shouted as he kept on running. He entered the water with a quick dash, holding the board over his head and his swords strapped to his pants. After getting waist-deep into the water, Carlos laid the board on the surface of the water and pressed against it, waiting for a wave. The waves were going in the opposite direction he needed him to go, and so he needed to change their direction, a thing he could easily do. His ultimate technique, Reverse Boomerang, is meant to change the direction of air blades, so changing the path of a wave was supposed to be a much easier task.

As a wave approached him, he drew his swords and shouted "Wing Art: Boomerang Surf!" Before performing a weird slashing motion with his swords. The wave seemed to disappear for a second, only to reappear behind Carlos, going in the opposite direction and picking the helmsman up on to his surfboard, leaving the man who owned it with his mouth open on the beach. He was now heading at full pelt towards the Shandians, following his captain's canoe and catching up to him fairly quickly.

Darnel ran into water before it got knee deep, and leaped upon the canoe. He ate a rumble ball giving him access to his other forms. Darnel turned his muscle form turning his skin scaly like a snake and enlarging muscles to massive porportions. He began to paddle with his arms toward the Shandians. He heard Carlos right behind but paid no mind knowing that carlos could take care of himself. Then suddenly his canoe suddenly lifted from the sea by Carlos's Wing Art: Boomerang Surf technique. Darnel was unaware of what Carlos had done so the wave rising beneath him completely shocked him. The wave pushed Darnel faster toward their enemies.

Lionus followed by Tyrant and Cole attacked Darnel and Carlos. He ordered Tyrant and Cole to attack. Tyrant took out his burn blade and ignited it creating a flame out from the sheath like a sword toward Carlos, and Cole used the jet dial located on his elbow to dash faster toward Darnel to punch him in the face. Quintus's aim were true. His bullets went straight toward Turk. He quickly fired a cannon toward the bullets exploding the first and sending the second one of course. The second bullet nicked him on his side. Turk then skied down a cloud trail toward the sea behing george. He fired a large column of white-blue flames from his weapon toward Quintus as flew on geroge.

Josh was sleeping and since it was a holiday he had removed his clothing all except hit bowler hat which was covering his face as he slept. Josh was laying there in his black shorts relaxing on the beach, he knew his scars could been seen but figured he could say it was from some huge battle he was involved in against a Yonkou instead of telling the truth about, that he as attacked by a pirate when shaking someone hand. Josh slowly came to his senses as he heard people attacking. Josh stood up and stretched as he approached the water and stood ankle deep in it. He could see some of the other marines had already started fighting against them and readied himself to unleash his tentacles on them. Josh used his tentacles to smash the wavers in the water regardless of anyone being in them.

Quintus heard his opponent incoming and rolled over to see Turk flying towards him with...flames. Quintus hated fire. He couldn't stop it except by throwing himself in its path and considering their coloration, these flames were pretty much at the peak of the heat spectrum. It was a wonder as to how Turk could even survive being so close to them, let alone the fact he didn't seem affected by them.

So Quintus did the only thing he could do. He flipped back over and jabbed George with his fingers saying, "Dive."

George hated water. It was a natural dislike that partially came from his inability to swim. But there was another reason as well. As a roc, he didn't like to get his feathers wet. At first, these reasons led him to consider ignoring his master, a thought which had never even occurred to him before. Then he too felt the heat. Without a second thought, he did as he was bidden and dove into the waves, changing back into a pebble as he did.

Quintus caught George just before hitting the water. He didn't stop his dive right after going under, but continued down a short ways. His rifle would be fine. Its gunpowder was enclosed so that it would not get wet. As for his bullets, he had closed the case just before striking the ocean, and he now had one foot slipped through the handle on the case.

Quintus could feel the heat even from where he was and he waited until it had passed over. Then, shoving George into his pocket, Quintus swam towards shore, staying just enough below the surface that he couldn't be seen by an ordinary human eye. He had a plan, but it would take a minute or two for him to get ready. He only hoped that his allies held up until then.

Ryujin had finally been assigned to a crew and he was excited and giddy like a little school girl. He was even more excited to find out that they were vacation he packed his stuff and set sail on a small boat. He paddled all the way out until he could see a boat he couldn't really tell what was happening but it looked fun so he sped up. In all of his excitement he didn't even realize the sounds of battle

Carlos was scanning the Shandians for one thing: A swordsman. being Carlos Vivo mean that he will hunt and defeat every swordsman he encounters, and it didn't take long until he spotted his enemy. After an order was barked by one of the Shandians, one of them took out what appeared to be the grip of a sword with a weird conch-like object connected to it. The only thing Carlos never thought he would face today, was a fire breathing conch.

At first, Carlos was taken by surprise by the sudden heat and light he was exposed to, yelling "Holy mother!" In surprise, but after a respectful number of voyages, he could get through the initial shock and focus on the next problem, how to defeat this guy. He had a few seconds before his surf board would reach the shandian, and in this time, he analyzed the situation at hand. A flaming sword has it's advantages: it can't be blocked and it burns you to death. But what are it's weaknesses?

And then, Carlos got it: WATER!. "That's it! I got you now!" he shouted. The shandian made the wrong choice when he picked this weapon for a fight at sea. Carlos shifted one of his swords to his right hand, now having two swords in his right and a free hand to his left. He then scooped his fingers and jammed his hand into the wave he was riding. When he got close enough to his opponent, Carlos jumped off of his board and waved his left hand at the shandian, causing a splash of water to fly at his sword. Hoping that the water will extinguish the flame, Carlos aimed a left side kick to Tyrant's jaw, and aimed his right leg to land on the shandian's waver, trying to hijack it. "Fang Art: Waterworks!"

The waves that Josh created only grew unto they grew as they rode away from shore into the ocean, until they got to the size 10 feet waves. The huge waves proved too much for Bella and Rain to ride on fell beneath them leaving only four shandians left. Turk didn't see the marine resurface from the water, and assumed that he died. Turk skied out of the net of clouds, and went back into the open ocean where he spotted another small boat. He aimed his cannon at Ryujin.

Tyrant was completely surprised to see that the marine was using the water as weapon doucing his burn blade. Without his blade to defend himself, Tyrant was completely defensless to stop Carlos from from kicking him off the Waver. He sank beneath the waves only leaving three shandians left to fight. Darnel turned into his venom point spitting poison from his glands right unto the shandian. Cole screamed so loud that he fell right into the ocean. Now leaving two left to fight. Lionus seeing his warriors feel decided to excute his plan. He opened his plams catching some air withing a giant paw shaped bubble. Then the bubble started to grow in size.....

Ryujin heard a loud noise above him and he opened his eyes to see that a large cannonball was launched at him. His eyes got big and he scrambled to get off of the boat he dove out in just enough time to dodge it and he dove into the sea. He came up spitting the water out of his mouth and he looked at the person who shot at him. He instantly got depressed and his shoulders sank. "I guess I'm not getting a vacation." He then used geppou to get out of the water and he drew his white sword and went to attack the cannon user

Quintus burst out of the ocean and hauled himself up onto the shore. He didn't waste any time catching his breath and began to set up his retaliatory attack.

Dumping out the bullets in his pockets onto the sand, he fitted an abnormally large one onto the end of his gun. He also slipped out the bullet clip he had just put in his weapon and tossed it away before reaching into his bullet case and ripping out another clip. He slid this clip into his gun and turned to face the enemy. Now it was time to bring some attention to himself.

Quintus reached into his pocket and pulled out the pebble that was George. He rubbed the pebble and threw it into the air yelling, "War cry!"

George shifted into his roc form and took to the skies, letting out his loudest screech thus far. It was earsplitting and would almost certainly attract that attentions of anyone within a two mile radius.

Turk then used his cannon to shoot a column of fire toward the swordsman "Wheter you are a swordsman or a sniper I'm the best." Then he heard a loud sound coming from the air that caused to cover his eyes "What the hell was that? Its him again!? Arrrgghhh we'll finish this later sword guys. I got a score to settle." Turk used his skis to to surf toward the marine ready to fire another column of fire.

Darnel that Loinus was making a huge bubble of some kind. This couldn't be good. "Carlos lets go evaculate the beach. I have no idea on what devil fruit this guy has, but we can't let the citizens get hurt. All hooded knight fall back. Get the citizens off the beach and into the city now!"

"Get clear!" Quintus shouted at George who swooped away, further up the beach.

Quintus then dropped down on one knee and raised his gun to point it at Turk. He was actually using the scope this time as he took careful aim at the oncoming man. There was no room for mistakes in a move like this one.

With his weapon now lined up, Quintus pulled the trigger. Instead of firing a bullet from the clip he had just placed inside his gun, his gun shot the giant bullet he had attached to the front. It raced towards Turk at a speed that was neither as fast as a cannonball or an ordinary bullet, but was still too quick to easily follow with one's eyes.

Then Quintus pulled the trigger on his rifle again. This time he did fire a bullet from inside the clip. It caught up with the bullet he had previously fired and struck it, punching through the back of it and going inside it. Then, the smaller bullet exploded, releasing a tiny flame from within it. The explosion ignited the gas in the larger bullet catching it alight.

Under normal circumstances this larger bullet had enough gas within it to fill a town square and the gas was incredibly flammable. It was a very effective way of wiping out a hundred or even two hundred people at a time. However, in this instance, since the gas was more contained and directed, when it was ignited it blasted apart its bullet container and became a giant fireball,* which was still growing in size and intensity as it flew towards Turk.

(*Think of the fireball Ace used against Blackbeard. Yeah, this is about that size, except, as I stated above, it is still growing.)

Ryujin laughed at the mans attack and used his white blade to absorb the attack. He then looked around from left to right and saw nothing as he fell back towards the water. Right when he was about to belly flop with the clear ocean water he used geppou to push himself towards the shore. "I wonder where he went he thought." Out loud

Carlos raised his head to check if his captain was serious. Up until now he was busy checking the water under him to see if the Shandian he kicked under knew how to swim, That was before his captain sent an evacuation command.
"This is kinda unortho... WHAT THE HELL?!" Carlos shouted. As he raised his head he got a glimpse of the giant paw-shaped bubble the remaining Shandian was holding in his palm. "Understood!" He said in return to Darnel's command, now without any doubt in his captain's sanity.

The vehicle he was riding at the moment seemed easy enough to control: It had a set of handle bars and a weird engine in it's backside., nothing Carlos couldn't handle. He grabbed the handles and yanked them, causing the waver to shoot forward towards the beach. He wasn't in his marine uniform, so he didn't seem like the authority figure he was supposed to represent at the moment, but he hoped the people on the beach would be wise enough to listen to him.

As he reached hearing range from the beach, he started screaming with the top of his lungs: "ATTENTION! This is a marine force direct order! All citizens are to evacuate the beach!". He repeated that message several times, hoping that the formal language will convince the citizens. He spotted Quintus on shore and said: "Evacuation command, we have to get these people outa here"

Turk looked at the fireball and could only muster "Oh Shi" before the fireball comsumed his entire body until his entire body turned to ash. The only thing that was left was a column of steam left from where the shandian stood.

Darnel quickly tried to paddle back to shore following Carlos. He had read about this devil fruit while studying in Ohara. It was the Nikyu Nikyu no mi, and if Darnel what was thinking is correct they would need to retreat as fast as possibe. The people began to run deeper into the city away from shore leaving only the marines from the base and the hooded knights on vacation. Darnel yelled out to all marine "Listen to Carlos...We need to get the hell out of here!" Lionus then began to shrink the small paw bubble condsening it into both palms "This is the end to the oppression of my people. Farewell marines!!!" He released the bubble paw toward the beach.... "Urusus shock!" The bubble exploded like a bomb wiping out the entire beach. The marine base was completely destoryed, and Darnel and some of his crew were caught in the blast.

((OCC: Don't worry nobody dies from the blast. If you were on the sea you wouldn't be affected."

Quintus lowered his gun as his opponent's ashes fell away. A tear formed in his eye and slid down his cheek. He hated when someone died, especially when he was the one to kill them. Sometimes it was necessary, but he had never liked the act of killing.

He did not hear what Carlos shouted at him, but continued staring off into the distance. He didn't even notice the oncoming bubble paw that was flying towards the beach, nor did he hear the screech that George emitted when he realized his master was in the way of the blast.

The roc streaked back down the beach towards Quintus like a diving falcon and swept him off of the sand with his talons. He then shot up into the sky, flying above and beyond the bubble paw.

Quintus didn't react to be snatched up like this. He merely lay there in George's talons, staring listlessly up into the sky. His bullet case had been left on the beach, but his sniper rifle was still hanging loosely in one hand. Perhaps he could have stopped the paw with one of the seastone bullets in his case, but the way he was now, he wouldn't have had the chance too.