Serious: The Twin Bird Pirates - EP1: Oh Scrap!

Lockon smiled as the man with the cards offered him a challenge. Back when he was a kid in the Young Rebels, him and his fellow friends played with cards all the time, he knew all the tricks. But, before the man got to shuffle the cards, the sound of a cheering crowd could be heard. Lockon turned his head to see Ashley getting in line in front of a store that was called "The Blue Market". "Thanks, but I won't need your services after all" Lockon said as he turned towards the store. As he walked away, he shouted back to the card dealer "And the queen is up your sleeve!", leaving the man shocked.

Back in the bar, a crowd of drunks gathered around Milla, Yan, and their drunken opponents, creating a human ring. "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" They chanted, hoping to see some free blood on the ground. The 4 thugs who remained standing might have been sober enough to run away, if it wasn't for the cheering crowd that blinded their minds. "YOU TWO ARE DONE FOR!" One of them shouted. They then charged forward, dividing into two pairs, one running at Milla while the other running at Yan.

Back in the ship, Terco was praying to his divine being: Asa. As he did so, a group of 3 drunken men gathered on shore. These men were returning from the Happy Hour sale at the bar, they left when the fight started. Hearing Terco sing in his dead ancient tongue made their heads turn. "Hey You!" One of them shouted to Terco. "I don't know what's your deal but this is a sane island! Take your craziness elsewhere!" he said, making the other two men laugh. "Yea we want no part of any crazy religions over here!" one of them added.

Everything was right in Vinewood's world, for just a moment. He was brought out of his prayer trance by the yelling of three drunk men close to the ship. "Yea, we don't want no part of any crazy religions over here!" He could smell the alcohol from where he was sitting, he slowly sat up, rolling the scrolls of prayer up at the same time. After a few moments of cleaning up, he pushes the scrolls into a satchel that lay on the deck.

His hand slid into the satchel once more, and Terco felt his Katar. He began to grasp it, but decided to leave it be. These men may have been drunk, but they weren't dangerous...yet.

Terco quietly walked to the edge of the ship, and looked down towards the three men.

"Hey, I gotta say, those were some hurtful things to say. Honestly, I'm just a sorta religious-guy trying to get by. Leave me be, aye?" Terco spoke down to them, he had hoped he could talk his way out of a confrontation.

One of the two thugs hefted a table leg as he ran at Milla. The other one had only his fists. The one with the table leg was faster, and swung down at Milla's face in a mighty downward arc. The impromptu weapon stopped in front of her face, instantly stopped by her firm, left-handed grip. The second one was now in striking distance, and let loose a punch at Milla's face. She leaned to the side, causing the fist to whiff past her head. She jerked her left arm forwards, causing the table leg to violently connect with the man's face. One down.

She grabbed the other man's forearm with her right hand, forcing them both forwards and to the side from her angle, causing the man to spin in place and begin to fall while still being held by Milla. She bent her arm at the elbow joint, bringing one leg further forwards to keep her balance. Then she let go of the man's forearm while simultaneously elbowing him in the solar plexus. His direction was reversed, sent falling backwards. Two down.

"Anyone else?" Milla challenged, smashing her fists together.

Enzo, who with his modified vision had seen through the bar window in his hawk form, ran into the bar spinning his butterfly knife around in his hand. He looked around and sighed, looked like Milla took care of it, but just to be sure...

"Need help?" he asked

Yan, being the skilled martial artist he is, easily countered the punches the thugs threw. He pushed one thug into the other and caused them to fall backwards, one on top of the other. They ran back at Yan a second time, but this time one of them got slammed against a wall and the other tossed onto a couple of drunks surrounded Yan and Milla. The thugs were persistent in getting rid of Yan, and probably wont stop til they're dead. The thugs walked back in to face Yan but this time they had clubs and looked at him with smug looks on their faces like those cheap, neanderthal weapons were their ace in the holes.

Yan found it a bit sad that they were that weak. He was expecting at least a bit more of a challenge, not cannon fodder. But he didn't really want to get into this fight in the first place, he even felt the alcohol content in him drop slowly and make him a bit irritated. One of the thugs swung his club at Yan, which Yan quickly ducked underneath the attack and crystallized his right fist. After a second of it fully turning into ruby, Yan launched a strong punch at the thug's gut which fully connected. The thug stood on his leg for a few seconds before collapsing on the floor in pain, clutching his gut in the process. The second thug attacked Yan again, usig the same attack the first thug used, but he got punched in the face and knocked out before he could do anything by Yan.

Yan cracked his knuckles and said, "Well, who's next?"

"Not much of a challenge if i may say i was going for an all out battle with only one winner" Ashley said with a smile on her face. She looked around the room and noticed that the men in there dint take her serious, she walked over to the area where tea and th cup was sitting * Snow White would be a disadvantage here it would instantly freeze the tea* Ashley knelt down and picked a sword off the floor "This could work" she turned towards the tea quickly using the dull side of the sword she put it in the handle tossed it up in the air above the cup, dhe then sliced the tea pot in half and the tea poured down into the cup and the area around it the cup itself was full of tea and the area around it was all covered in tea. Asley turned towards the man and smiled" maui collect my prize my crew is waiting for me" Ashley stood there towering over th men who stared at her in surpise look in there eyes

The crowd aroudn the Blue Market stood with mouths open as Ashley produced a cup of tea without using her hands. "AMAZING!" Lockon shouted from between the people, causing a wave of cheers to rise. The owner of the Blue Market stepped in front of Ashley and bowed. "Your skills are impresive young lady, you have a bright future ahead of you." He said. He then handed Ashley a large wooden box. The box was filled with numerous kinds of tea leafs. "This is your prize" He said, with his old voice. "You are all welcomed to participate in the event next month!" He said to the crowd. The crowd then entered the shop for tea, it seemd like the event was a successful publicity stunt. Lockon stepped towards Ashley. "Way to go!" He said, being careful not to stare at the sun again. "Now let's go meet the others, you saved us some needed money there"

The people at the bar had no intention to fight Milla and Yan after seeing what they've done to the strongest thugs that were there. The bar owner rushed to the pair of pirates and dropped to the floor in a kneeling position. "Thank you! Thank you! You saved my business!" He said repeatedly. The kegs of rum were now free for them to take. "The rum is on the house, as gratitude" The owner said, still aiming his face to the earth, as if he was kissing the ground the pair walked on. It was a good time for the pair to get back to the ship.

Back at the ship, the 3 thugs laughed when Tarco explained himself to them. "You want us to let you be?" One of them repeated after him, imitating him with a childish voice and making his friends laugh even louder. "I'll tell you what we're gonna do, we're gonna pound you like Ol' Vinny is gonna pound those two back at the bar!" he added. "That is unless you beg for our forgiveness and give us your ship" Another one added, they clearly didn't know who they were facing.

Yan was glad the fight was over, cause that meant he could deliver the kegs again which meant he could drink the rum earlier. He grabbed two kegs and left the bar to make his trip to the ship. The smell of the rum was intoxicating Yan and was telling him, "Come on, one sip can't hurt! Just relax for a bit and have a drink!" He tried to keep his train of thought set directly on delivering the rum but soon enough, his will would break. Luckily, Yan made it to the ship on time and set the kegs down on the deck. He was so deep into his thought that he didn't notice the drunks that were in front of the ship until he was a few feet away from the ship. Yan stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to investigate what was going to be the fate of the ship. He looked at Terco and at the thugs then said, "I'm sure the captain wouldn't like your cultist friends on board without his permission, Terco."

"It was no problem!" Milla bellowed back, still in the odd voice of a woman trying to pretend she was a man. She picked up her canister of water and started walking back to the ship, following Yan.

She was slightly surprised by the other pack of thugs there. Then she heard the name "Vinnie". She then spoke. "Is this the same Vinnie whose face I rearranged back at the bar?" She coolly noted, trying to sound tough.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap~! These happened to be the words that had gone through Terco's mind once he had seen his crew slowly but surely assemble in front of the ship. They must've finished those errands quite fast, but that wasn't the point, what was on the line here was Terco's farce pirate reputation and he had to maintain it in order to continue on his true Anti-Marine mission.

He eyed the three goons and proceeded to pull out a bit of gauze from his satchel, wrapping it around his hands while he spoke, "Oh, er, you've made a huge mistake you...bastards! You can't think you would get away with making such a slight to the Twin Bird Pirates. Now prepare to taste the harsh fist of Terco C. Vinewood, the deadliest cook on the..seas!?" He managed to bellow out semi-triumphantly.

He finished taping his hands, without the tape he risked bruising his hands which wouldn't help anything and quickly he had jumped from the ship, landing in the center of the triangle the three ne'er-do-well drunkards had formed.


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As Lockon reached a hearing range from the ship, he could have swore he heard screams of pain from the ship's location. "Damn it, I think someone is trying to rob the us..." Lockon whispered to Ashley right before he started sprinting towards the dock. "Enzo!" He shouted for his scout, he was sure the zoan user was wondering around somewhere in hearing range. "Get to the ship!" he shouted. The Twin Bird pirates were running low on cash, and as much money Ashley's win saved, getting their ship robbed wasn't a good thing at all. As he passed the final corner and prepared to confront any trespassers, he spotted Terco standing above three fallen grunts, with Milla and Yan beside him.

"I guess I missed all the fun..." Lockon said to his crew mates as he arrived at the scene. He noticed Yan and Milla's kegs and canisters and a smile was spread across his face. "I see we're all done with our chores" he said. 'These idiots would have been so much bloodier if you were the one to face them right partner?' the voice inside Lockon's head asked. 'It's better this way' Lockon answered, sealing the conversation. "Unfortunately I couldn't find firewood, but Ashley managed to win the tea leaves for free so we have some spare cash now" Lockon said.

"Now, let's get going, this island seems to be getting quite hostile..." Lockon muttered, glancing once again at the three men who were now either fainted or squirming in pain on the ground. "Good job by the way" He said to Terco after giving him a friendly tap on the shoulder, he once heard that positive feedback was a good way to keep comrades on your side. As the crew began preparing to set sail, a faint sound of a Den den Mushi cry could be heard from the lower quarters of the Bird's Nest.

Yan looked at Terco calmly and back to the drunks who were wriggling on the ground in pain. It was a nice job Terco did to take out the drunks, and in only three hits too. Yan was done with carrying the barrels of alcohol to the ship so all that was left to do was get on and wait til the next time the crew hits land. It was true that the island was getting a bit feisty but only because the beer they drank encouraged them to do so. All that thinking about beer made Yan crave it even more now so he dashed to the nearest barrel and started to drink from it. Then he put it down satisfied that he had gotten the alcohol content back into his blood. "So where are we off to next, captain?"

Seeing Terco deal with the drunks, Milla once again hauled the canisters over to her shoulder. She walked downstairs, to belowdeck. "I hope you don't mind the bloodstains, cap'n!" She quipped as she walked to the pantry, setting the canisters down.

She walked back up, yanking free the rope holding the ship to the dock. Then she hauled the rope back down as well. It seemed that they were all set to set sail. She was just about to sit down when the transponder snail rang. "We have a snail?" She questioned, getting up to check it out.

As Ashley boarded the ship she could tell a small fight happened " cumming captain ill go takethhis tea in the storage room, Ashley begin to walk towards the storage room until she heard the den den mushhi ring she stopped and looked at gherkin's captain to see Wat was going o hhappen next

The Bird's Nest was starting to depart, slowly but surely. Lockon could hear the snail calling from his quarters just like most of the other members of the crew. "I guess we do..." Lockon answered Milla's question, he too had no idea. He rushed into his room and came back out while holding a large Den Den Mushi in his hand, about the size of an average backpack. He placed the heavy snail on a nearby table just when it picked up the call, and produced the sound of whoever was on the other end.

"Hello?! Is this the Bird's Nest?! Hello!?" The voice in the other end asked. It belonged to a female, it was deep yet stressed and urgent. The voice was followed by a wave of backround noises. "Yes it is, may I ask w~" Lockon answered, but he was cut by the other voice in the middle of his question. "Please let me speak to the boss! It's is urgent! We don't have much time!" The female in the other end pleaded. After her words, several screams could be heard on the other end.

Lockon realized who the woman was looking for. The rumor about the death of his and Milla's former mentor didn't reach all of the world in the several days that passed, the woman was looking for the man who trained Lockon and Milla. "I'm sorry, the thing is, the boss is~" Lockon said, but was again cut in middle sentence. "Damn it we don't have time! Listen! I'm in Paradise island of the South Blue, I'm speaking for the Resistance! We have an emergency! We won't survive for too long and we need immediate help! Tell the boss to send someone ASAP!" The voice shouted. Lockon wanted to know more, but then another voice spoke. "Rosey! Come on! He's here we have to evacuate!" The voice shouted, it undoubtedly belonged to a male. After these words, the background noise could be heard for several seconds, before the sound of an explosion was heard and the conversation disconnected. The Den den Mushi of the other end died.

Lockon's Den Den Mushi closed it's mouth and drifted to sleep. It was old, and belonged to the former members of the Bird's Nest, that was once in the boss' fleet of ships. At this point, a mental discussion erupted in Lockon's mind. 'This sounds terrible... These people need help' He thought. 'You're so naive... someone is setting a trap for you and you walk straight into it... idiot' His other self noted, with his usual arrogant trail of thought. 'But, we can't let anyone make fun out of us can we? The Twin Birds are anything but cowards' His younger self noted. Both sides agreed, the crew needs to head for Paradise Island.

Lockon reached for a map of the West Blue he used to navigate with. He spread it across the floor and crouched above it, waiting for his crew to do the same. "There's Paradise Island..." Lockon noted and pointed at a small island not too far away. "It shouldn't take us more than a few hours until we reach it. What do you say guys?" He asked, waiting for his crew to spill their guts.

Milla smacked her fist into her open palm. "Of course we have to help!" She shouted passionately, only stopping to think after exclaiming that. She stroked her chin for a few seconds before speaking again. "Paradise island, wasn't there a group of us there?" She spoke, this time in a less emotive tone. Then she paused for a second. "We should go." She repeated, this time in a much more firm tone. She, at least, had made up her mind.

As the call ended suddenly Ashley froze and her eyes widened. She never heard something so teriable before she closed her eyes and then opened them " you have my full support to help those poor people Captain" Ashley now had a determined look in her eye she hates when helpless people gets attack and have no way to defend themselves ..

Yan lit his pipe and began to smoke it. He listened to the captain and said, "Well, why not? Let's go." It was always good to help the helpless anyways. Even if this was a trap, Yan knew that the crew would all make it out of there with all of their parts attached to the torso. "I'm sure things there will get heated once we land." He began to smoke his pipe once again before sitting down on the railing of the ship.

"It's decided then" Lockon announced as most of his crew agreed. "We're heading for Paradise Island". He then headed for the helm and grasped it tightly, giving it a violent spin to make the ship perform a pivot turn. The wind quickly picked up the sails and the Bird's Nest was on it's way, heading for it's salvage mission.


"That's paradise?" Lockon asked nobody in particular as the island came into view in the far distance. The crew was sailing for several hours, enough time to make Lockon doubt his poor navigation skills. And when they finally reached the island, Lockon had to check the map again to make sure he got it right. The island was a complete dump. From a distance, all that was visible was a piece of land sticking out of the ocean, with nothing but a huge mountain of scraps occupying it. The island had a thick trail of smoke rising from it, probably the result of some junk being burnt in an attempt to make the mountain smaller. The name was obviously misleading.

The ship was making it's slow way into what appeared to be ruins of a wooden dock, now being nothing more than a few planks held down to the ground by rusty nails. The dock area was packed with people. All of these people appeared to look the same: Wearing dirty clothes and smelling of everything that was capable of rotting, with the only exception being a single fat marine official who wore clean uniforms. The dock area seemed to be the island's shopping area, but every stand had the same things to offer: Scrap, Scrap and more Scrap. This was clearly a nightmare of an island. "If that's paradise, god's a great liar..." Lockon noted.

From afar, the fat marine could be seen bossing the locals around, ordering them to stand in single lines to get food and drinks, while he was busy eating his fancy meatball sub. Pictures like these were excellent revolutionary propaganda.

Ashley stood behind the Captain completel towering over him, she looked on at the island realizing that something more had to be happening beside the obvious lack of money and mistreatment " Captain. I hate to state the obvious but things are just a little too quite on this island that snail call sounded like a huge fight was going on" Ashley reached her arm out and a snow white eagle landed on her arm " fly ahead and see if uou notice anything strange" the eagle made a loud screech and took off into the sky a
nd headed towarda the island.

Yan spotted the island from afar and thought to himself, Doesn't look that bad from this view aside from the smoke rising from there. Then as they landed, he took one look at the town and realized in was in shambles. He could even smell the body odor of the locals from his spot and it was just eye watering. "I guess paradise doesn't look like its brochure sometimes..." Yan remarked. "This place makes a filthy toilet look cleaner." He had the strongest urge to go and help the locals but what could he even do? There wasn't much to be done to get this town back into shape so he might as well just dump the idea into a blender and turn it on. It was disturbing how one fight could turn a town into rubble. What creature or object could do this much damage? No matter, we're here to help whoever called... Yan sighed and put away his pipe. Times like these makes him wonder where humanity is going to go if it keeps this up.

(There was no fight in the town itself. The town itself is poorly maintained, but not ruined. The smoke came from the massive junkyard next to the town.)

While the others were wondering the horizon, Milla was belowdeck. Her clothes had partially dried out, and now the clung rather uncomfortably. Hiding her hair under the hat was being a bit of a drag as well. She had to take care of herself, she was a lady after a... NO! A MAN! A man... a man....

Time to change.

Milla walked out to the deck just as they landed, now clad in her red top and skirt with a white coat over it all. She had also changed her hat, which was also white, though it was no longer hiding her hair. She adjusted her hat as they walked out of the ship, this time content not to say anything.

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"Awh. They got away again." A large armored figure mumbled from inside the skull-like helmet. A pile of scrap metal collapsed, revealing several bodies. "Well. Most of them." He glanced around, suddenly focusing his gaze on one who was not quite dead. The survivor tried to run, but the armored figure leaped after him like a missile, still landing smoothly in front of him. He smashed his fist into the ground, and the ground swallowed the no-longer-survivor.

The figure glanced up. A white eagle? He hadn't seen one here before. Hell, he hadn't seen one ever. He shrugged. There was still work to do.

"Ugh." Terco managed to muster. As he felt the ship sway on the waves, the writer would never be fully used to maritime traveling, but that was beside the point. He grabbed his pen as he slowly drifted from his bed over to the only other thing that happened to inhabit his room, a small writer's desk. He stopped mid-motion, contemplating a few decorative options before shrugging it off and planting himself at the desk.

He began to whistle a small song as he quietly tapped the back of his pen against the paper he had out for writing. Minutes passed before he finally gave up, standing once more and stretching. Writers Block once more had its grip on the young writer and he knew one thing could help him, the cold sea-wrought air.

---

Terco had finally made his way up topside with a yawn, "Howdy friends! Whose ready for some..." Terco immediately paused, looking straight at the so-called 'Paradise Island'. He noticed the rest of the crew were watching the sight and he found himself immersed in the gloomy atmosphere. After a few moments, he finally decided to say something, "Captain uh, we...we can help these people, no?"

Lockon tried to put things together in his head. This people clearly needed help, but the emergency call made the island sound like a battlefield, while in actuality, it was just a quiet dump. Except for the fat marine who was shouting his lungs out. "I hope we can..." Lockon answered to Terco. He noticed that Milla chose to perform her gender flip. Even after knowing her for several years, Lockon was still slightly uncomfortable whenever she pulled one of these off.

The Bird's Nest finally docked, and Lockon went to his room in order to take his trusty weapons. The island had to have some emergency on it, or a trap for that matter, but in both cases, he'll need Blaster and Disaster on his side. He walked out with two half-sized rocket launcher strapped to his back, he was now ready for action. "Let's try and figure out what's wrong" Lockon said before jumping down over the railing and onto shore.

The attention of the locals was immediately turned to the new arrivals, who were obviously richer then them. While some people went on with their businesses, others crowded next to the Twin Bird pirates, handing out empty cups for spare change. This attracted the attention of the fat marine officer, who now began walking towards the crew with a frown on his mustached face. "Who are you people!? And what do you have to look for in this island?!" the marine shouted while pushing random locals around until he reached the crew. He looked pathetic. He was shorter than all of the crew, and twice as fat as the fattest, his face were red with anger that originated from him actually having to do his job.

Meanwhile, a hooded figure was walking around the small shopping stands, making sure to keep it's face hidden under it's cheap brown cloak. 'Could these guys be working for the boss?' The figure wondered as it noticed the Twin Bird pirates. An expression of disappointment formed on it's feminine face.

Ashley watched as her captain went down to his room and came back with two large weapons * hmmm I've never actually seen him use those weapons before but t carry them without any form of strugling or anything* Ashley watched as he jumped off the ship and then up Pope's Milla a very strange person but Ashley didn't want to go into detial at the moment" Nice skirt Milla " Ashley said looking over at the women with a smile on his face but her atteion quickly went towards the sky when she heard the eagle call from the sky it quickly flew down and landed on her shoulder Ashley then pulled out a a small map and a tiny vile of ink the eagle dip one of her talons into the vile and touched the map and then mad a small noise one time. Ashley then walked down the plank and was quickly overwelmed by people holding out cups but they were quickly scared away by the marine officer. " Captain I have something important to show you.