Serious: Hooded Knights chapter 4- Whatever happens in Amazon Lily Stays in Amazon Lily

Darnel was in Marineford getting debriefed on yet another mission. He quietly listened and nodded when Rear admiral Hilton was explaining the nature of their mission, despite the fact that he wanted to be somewhere else right about now. The yonkou were finally vulnerable for attack, and here he was listening to this man about another useless mission. Darnel wanted to lead his crew and attack the yonkou directly hoping to end the pirate era, but the government felt that this mission was more urgent.

"For those of you do or don't know. The World Government has had a rocky relationship with Kuja tribe on Amazon Island or "Land of women". You see for many years the kuja was an all female tribe of pirates, and due to their location in the calm belt we couldn't touch them due to the sea kings. Now due to our ships being lined with seastone thats no longer a problem. We are now on the verge of war against Kuja, because we can't just allow an entire tribe of pirates to exist. Our superiors have been hestiate on attacking an entire race, and were looking for alternate ways of dealing with this problem. Then an oppurtunity presented itself. It turns out that the empress was just overthrown and is asking the marines for help. She agrees that she would sign a treaty with the world government banning all marine naval ships from the island in exchange for offering no opposition against the world government. We need the hooded knights to the form an alliance with the old empress and retake the thrown. Otherwise the admirals will have no choice but to use a buster call against the island, and we don't need a repeat of Atlantis."

Darnel clamly said "With all due respect Rear admiral, Amazon Lily is not part of the world government. The marines don't have jurisdiction over that place, and men aren't allowed on that island if I remember correctly. We should use our abilities to attack the yonkou, while they are still weak not helping a bunch of half naked women....on second thought we would happy to take this mission."

Hilton grinned "I knew you would. Don't worry the empress is allowing just this once for marine to enter the island on this one mission. Once she reclaims her throne men will again be forbidden on the island. The hooded knights will be the first and last of men to ever enter the island.Now the empress will be located in the calm belt. Here is a map of the location where you will be meeting the empress. You are all dismissed, and have fun." He gave the map to Darnel.

A few hours later....Darnel arrived on the hooded justice to tell his crew about their next mission.

After leaving the last island and returning to Marineford, Quintus had left the ship to go restock on his supply of bullets. He bought himself a new case, which he planned on modifying later to fit the bullets he wanted, and he picked up the items he needed to make the new bullets.

Quintus then returned to the ship and spent the next couple of hours working on the bullets. He already knew how to make each one so it didn't take as long as it might have otherwise have.

By the time Darnel returned, Quintus was done with his bullets and new case and was now trying to look insane by talking to George, who was in his pebble form and was sitting on the center of Quintus's palm. Quintus knew he had messed up on their last mission. He had used an attack that was both very flashy and very effective. The others might have noticed and that was never a good thing. Promotions were always lurking in the woodwork. So he had to make up for it by trying to look even more crazy than usual.

"I think that should do it!" Carlos announced to no one in particular. After the extremely short vacation, it was time for the Hooded Knights to get back to business, and that meant that the Hooded Justice was going back to business as well. Therefore, he spent his last 4 hours in cleaning and oiling every rusty or noisy part on the battleship. He got the oil and needed paint from the basic supply storage in the docks of Marineford.

By the time he was finished, the Hooded Justice was sparkling and spotless, and smelled like fresh lemons thanks to a new air-freshener Carlos got his hands on. After all the time Carlos spent sailing the ship, he became emotionally attached to it.

When Darnel arrived he finished his job with a final oiling of the helm. His swords were back in the quarters, so they won't be smudged with whatever dirt Carlos ran into. Carlos' clothes were filled with different stains, either from the kitchen or the oil, and his hair was messier than usual, although it might not be physically possible. When his captain arrived, Carlos quickly hid his hair under his hood and dusted his clothes. He wanted to switch to his uniform as quickly as possible, in order to give Marineford it's deserving respect.

Kami-e!
Martin yelled as he made his body go limp. Two recruits who he had convinced to help him train then went at him. As one came close to him, Martin swung his body backwards to dodge the fist, then slammed his fist into his back. The next recruit had a similar outcome, and fell on the floor. Coming out of Kami-e, Martin shook his body out and grinned at the two men

"Thank ya boys" he laughed, then heard Carlos and walked over to his ship "Are we settin' sail?"

Victor looked around Marineford on his newest assignment. He had been to the marine headquarters many times before in the past but today, he was to be assigned a crew. He found the Hooded Justice quite easily, despite the fact that it looked like any other battleship (though there was a strange lemon scent coming from the interior). He found a man on the ship wearing a hood and a cap. Assuming he was the captain of the vessel, Victor called out, "Excuse me, I am looking for a Commodore Warshack of the 88th Marine division, aka: the Hooded Knights. Is he around?"

Commodore Darnel looked upon his crew while entering the ship. It smelled good for some odd reason, and looked in tip top shape must be sleepy's doing. Darnel said "Well men I got some news on our next mission. Plot a course for Amazon Lily, Sleepy." He handed his first mate the map for their destination. Darnel looked at Martian who was toying around with some of the newer recruits. He said in a sarcastic humorous tone "Cut it out Martian. Its no fun messing with rookies ha ha ha ha." Darnel turned toward Quintus "I got some great news friend. You have just been promoted to my second mate." A new recruit who stumbled upon the ship was calling "Yes, he is around. Commodore Warshack at your service. What business do you have with me son?"

After hearing out Darnel, Quintus grinned and began tossing George up and down, catching him in his hand as he did so. He was perfectly at ease...for the moment.

"Hear that Georgie?" Quintus commented. "We're heading out to the island of pretty ladies! 'Course, that doesn't matter much to you, does it? Since you're a rock. And a roc." Quintus chuckled at his own little joke and then the full implications of what Darnel had just said hit him. Quintus dropped George on the deck and toppled against the side of the ship, grabbing onto the railing to hold himself up. Quintus was gasping as if he was short of breath. His eyes wide open and wild-looking as he whirled to face Darnel. "P-P-Promoted? Second...Mate? NO! You can't do that! I refuse!"

OOC: It's Carlos, not Sleepy, lol

"Amazon Lily?" Carlos asked with surprise. He heard about the island before. It was the island that every man wished to reach, the island that was the top of the conversation in every bar, it was an island of women.
"Seriously? It's not a joke?" He asked Darnel as he gripped the map and stretched it on the helm.

With a pull of a lever, the big and small sails opened, and the wind caught them in an instant. Carlos then reached for the lever that will raise the anchor. "Ready when you guys are" Carlos shouted to his crew mates. Even the thought of going to Amazon Lily made Carlos' knees buckle. If it wasn't a joke, their crew must be the luckiest crew of the decade.

"I am Lieutenant Victor Gray. I have been recently assigned to your crew as an extra hand. It will be a pleasure to work under you, Commodore." Victor performed a small bowing motion before boarding the ship, ready for whatever assignment his new captain had. Victor made his way around introducing himself to the others on the ship.

"haha, ait'" Martin laughed and then sat and listened to Darnel. "Amazon Lily eh? This should be VERY interesting" he laughed

Ryujin had been meditating on the roof. He listened in to the commodore and heard they were going to Amazon Lily. This made him drool a bit, a whole island full of beautiful women. He grabbed his swords and jumped down so he could listen better to the details of the mission.

Jacob had heard somebody else that was new here and he also stepped forward. He was wearing his normal marine outfit and he was very tall and skinny. Sort of awkward looking. "Commodore, sir, I'm new here to Lieutenant junior grade Jacob Ruth, I'm a marksmen." He raised his hand to salute his superior.

Victor turned to look at Jacob who was also a new recruit. "It seems that I am not the only new member of this crew. Looking back at his new captain, Victor continued, "I have been listening to your crew and it seems that we are headed towards Amazon Lily, the island of the Kuja tribe. Normally entering that area of the Calm Belt is prohibited. Have we been assigned a mission that entitles us to visit that island?"

Darnel could see his men taking the mission to Amazon Lily well. Even Darnel began to sweat a little when thinking about the legendary beautiful women of the island. They say that the women sometimes go out from the island to mate, and the hooded knights would be the only men the women would seen for years. The odds were looking good for him. Darnel began to daydream about him chasing the amazons across the island making his face turned red. Then Victor's question popped him out of his daydream. Darnel quickly regained his composure before the crew noticed "Thats a good question Victor. Well the former empress has agreed to let on foot of island in exchange for helping her reclaim her throne from the new empress. She also has agreed to sign a treaty with the world government which is the main concern of the world government now. This treaty would also ban all marine naval ships from the island, so the first and only men who would ever step on the island will be us."

Darnel then sighed "There is but one catch. The world government doesn't want us to insult the natives and cause an international incident, so no messing with the women. No flirting, no foddling, no grabbing, and no sleeping with the Kuja. Anything personal relationship will result in extreme punishment, but I'm a reasonable guy so just once and while if u feel the urge to go interact of the women please do it discreetly." He then saluted and shook hands with all the new recruits Ryujin, Jacob, and Victor "Glad to have the finest men that marineford has to offer aboard my ship." Darnel then turend to Carlos "Lets set sail toward the calm belt." He then called for Quintus "A word with you Quintus."

"Aye aye captain" Carlos answered back. He was a little disappointed after hearing Darnel's news. 'Being on the legendary island of beautiful women without being able to interact with them? That's not a blessing that's a curse...' Carlos thought to himself. He pulled the lever and the anchor was raised. The Hooded Justice departed with a mighty push of the wind and was heading out of Marineford. "Calm belt it is" He said. He tried to seem confident but he peeped at the map every time he felt like nobody was looking, hoping he was heading to the right direction. 'A helmsman with no navigation sense, I should really hit the books instead of polish ships the next time I'll get a break...' he thought.

Quintus gulped. Man-oh-man...could things get any worse than they already were? First Darnel tried to give him a promotion and now he wanted to talk to him!

Quintus took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He had to calm down. Darnel probably just wanted an explanation. No big deal. Yeah right. Darnel was probably so mad...

Quintus made his way over to Darnel, his now sweaty hand squeezing George tightly. In his other hand he was carrying his new bullet case and he had his sniper rifle slung around his shoulders.

"Y-Yes sir?" Quintus asked.

"OI! Carlos! Where do you think you're going!" A darker skinned man exclaimed, looking over his shoulder at the map Carlos was holding. "That's totally not the right way! You should be going that way, man!" He pointed directly opposite where Carlos had directed the ship, and seemed resolute in his decision... that is, until another guy showed up. "Bro, you gotta be drunker than Miles was when he heard about that failure of a match in '64!" He shoved his brother aside, before saying, "Chris is totally wrong, Carlos, you're going the right way!" The first brother leapt onto the second brother's back, trying to wrestle his arms behind his head. "Wrong, bro! He's definitely heading the wrong way!" The younger brother flipped his older brother off his shoulders, throwing him off. "Right!" The older brother ran forward and kicked the younger brother's legs out from under him. "WRONG!" The two turned into a dervish of feverish fighting and rather rascally renditions of their normally neutral selves.

A third man just tapped Carlos on the shoulder, pointing at the map and then at the sky. "You want to follow the sun... until noon. Then stay opposite of the sun. I can help you later, once you get to the next step." He smiled kind-heartedly at Carlos, before turning to separate his brothers. Man, they really needed to stay off the beer.

Darnel lead Quintus over to a corner of the ship where they could talk privately "Ok what's wrong Quintus? Thats twice I offered you a promotion, and yet you refuse each time. Is there something you want to tell me before we continue on our journey? Do not like it here on this crew? Do not like me as your superior officers?" Darnel needed Quintus to be straight up with him if he had some problem with this crew. Despite his rank, Darnel depended heavily on his crew, and if they didn't work as a single unit all of them would die. Darnel couldn't have that on his shoulders.

An older man and a young man walked to Darnel's ship. The young man had a normal eye only it looked like a hawks and was yellow and the other was black where the white normally was and was blue. He had light skin except for his left arm which was fully black and had a large eye on it and dark hair which was a bit messy. His shirt was open showing his chest and stomach which also showed the start of a six pack. Around his neck was a red tooth necklace that seemed to glow and he wore light brown pants and wrappings around his ankels. The older man known as Mail sr. looked to Darnel and said "You forgot one." gesturing to Mail jr who looked down shyly.

Darnel saluted Hilton before looked at the child "Oh sorry sir, I'll get this boy squared away." Darnel looked upon the boy. He could tell that this child wasn't normal, but then again he couldn't talk either since his face looked liked he went three round with a tiger. "Victor get this boy fitted with the proper hooded knight uniform. They are in the ship's storage compartment." Darnel went back to the child "My is Commodore Darnel. What's your name?"

Mail stared blankly at the man infront of him no saying a word. Nothing ran through his mind instead he only looked the man blankly in the eye. He was still as could be the only way one could tell he was alive was the fact you could hear his breathing.

Darnel smiled awaiting for the boy to answer. He patiently wait for a few seconds which soon turned into ten long minutes. Darnel sighed "Maybe he is deaf?" Darnel tried speaking as well as do sign langauge to speak "What is your name boy?" Then he tried speaking in all kinds of languages hoping he would understand and answer him.

Mail continued to stare blankly for another five minutes before speaking. "Mail Urashima sir...I don't like speaking." he said barely loud enough for Darnel to hear before looking back down finding his feet very interesting at this moment.

Darnel put his hand over his eyes "And you couldn't say in the first place. What a wonder recruit you will be." Darnel then noticed that he wasn't even paying attention to him anymore. He was starting at his feet "WHAT? HE IS IGNORING ME?!" Darnel yelled falling into ground in a comic way.

Mail picked Darnel up by his arm and returned him to his feet before quickly saying sorry sir and moving up onto the ship quickly.