Serious: The Duke Pirates Chapter 1: A crew explodes into reality

Jerome looks at his crew and says "well that menthis guy or whatever, he cant come to the phone right now because i beat his ass, and the giant cant come to the phone right now because i just killed him." Jerome clears his throat "plus if you want to get rid of Antiko Remuss you are gonna have to go through the Duke pirates!"

Nick puts his arm around Antiko and nods with a smirk and Nate puts his hand on Antiko's free shoulder and says "this guy will not know whats coming when we meet him and he sees how strong we will become!!"
Jerome looks at Antiko and says "would you like to speak to this guy or no?"

Antiko dodges Jerome's arm as he doesn't like being touched by guys then looks at the den den mushi and at the girl at the table. "Sorry I disturbed you."

"What you beat Menthis and Antiko has joined a crew?!" the man couldn't believe what he was hearing and realised this was unusual behaviour for Antiko because before he would run around robbing banks and being a pain for the Marines but now he had joined a crew this meant real trouble. Could he be coming for me? thought the man as he took a long puff on his cigar then laid it in the ashtray and pulled out a folder all about Antiko Remuss. The man began quickly flicking through the pages noting that he had not done anything such as this before so this was new behaviour for him.

"Yes I have joined a pirate crew and your life is in real danger cause I am coming for you." replied Antiko as he picked up the den den mushi then crushed it in his hand and dropped the remains to the table then walked outside of the cafe and sat down against the wall where he pulled his gloves on and looked towards the docks where he could see the Marine vessel which Menthis and Manga had arrived on had gone. Antiko knew what this meant, they were still fine and would be back.

The man on the other end of the den den mushi heard it crackle and die and gulped. He may have been powerful but he still feared what an ex-circus performer and bank robber could do to him. He looked down through Antiko's file and it showed that he had never killed anyone......yet.
He thought to himself, so I'll be his first I think he will find it hard killing a person it isn't as easy as I've made it look.

Antiko remembered the shot which was fired at him the day his parents died and remembered looking back to see a man with a rifle in the distance and he realised he was lucky. Lucky he hadn't ran out on to stage, lucky he ran as fast as he did and lucky he was out of range.

Antiko had changed much since those days but his dreams hadn't they stayed as they were.

Jerome gives a concerned look at Antiko who walked outside and sat down, he asked Nick and Nate to pay for the meal and said let's go. Jerome looked at the young girl and said "I'm sorry miss my name is J.W. Dukes but my nakama calls me Jerome and I am captain of the Duke pirates, and I have to go help my crewmate, I hope we get to finish this conversation soon." Jerome then stands up and walks out of the cafe.

Nick and Nate pay for the meal and were wondering what else there is to do in this city, but the problem was they didn't even know what island this was. Nick goes back in to the cafe and asks the person at the bar "excuse me sir do you know what island this is?" the barman laughed and said "you're in Loguetown m'boy!" Nicks eyes become wide and he was excited because heard that some of the best swords come through this island.! He goes out to tell Nate and hopes that he will go look at the sword shops with him.

Jerome waits for about 5 minutes and then asks Antiko "who was that guy, he sounded so sure that you were gonna get beaten this time." Jerome looks up into the sky and asks "well when we beat the marine you want to kill, will you still stay with this crew?"

Antiko looked up at Jerome and replied, "That was the man...who killed my father, my mother and I'm going to kill." Antiko then stood up feeling his blood boil at the mere thought of this man. He had only just found out his name and what he looked like and now he just had to get to him. "I don't know what I'll do once I kill him Jerome but I'll tell you this much I don't think you should have left your money on the table with that girl in there, for all you know she could steal it."

Joy blinked repeatedly, she hadn't thought about it, although she hadn't talked with Jerome so much yet, so she didn't exactly know if she wanted to meet him, as in completely meet him, it was something that would show after a little more of talking, but it seemed like he was busy now, talking through a den den mushi. What happened next made Joy utterly confused, she didn't know what they were talking about, something about beating up some random guys whose names Joy had never heard of before, and something about joining a pirate crew.

By the yelling part Joy noticed that the guy called Antiko must have been the one who brought the den den mushi, she wondered why he hadn't answered it since it appeared that he had just joined the crew, so she didn't know why he had brought the den den mushi instead of answering himself, since he had it to start with, maybe he still, even if he had joined recently, some respect towards their captain, Jerome.

She herself didn't know exactly what to do, the opportunity was right in front of her, she would be able to join a crew! Although they did seem really strong and maybe Joy wouldn't be accepted into the crew due to being a girl and also kinda weak, Joy had no faith in herself, even after so many tests that had put her into trial, and succeed in them, she didn't think she was strong, maybe she did have some abilities, but she wasn't even that good in what she was 'good'.

And before she could process everything that was going on, and eventually asking Jerome if she could join his crew, they left. She almost panicked, but thought that it would be really weird if she followed them, she would be seen like a stalker or some kind of creep, although she was indeed kinda creepy, just not in that way. She was basically disappointed in herself, she had been thinking about everything that was going on in between them, trying to make it all make sense, and then while making it make sense she ended up over thinking, like she usually did, and they left without her noticing, which was something bad, she had lost an opportunity, and it sucked, she didn't like how this way was going, it was just one of the worst days she had ever had.

Then Joy looked down, being all depressed about it, and noticed some money on the table, she knew it was from Jerome, so she thought that she would leave it there while she ate and maybe look for him later, so she would be able to give it to him, since Joy was in no way a thief, and she knew what was her and what wasn't. Even if she was a pirate, stealing things wasn't her favorite thing to do, it had also something to do with Joy's pride. It wouldn't let her do something like stealing, which was morally wrong, it was having something that didn't belong to you, that you didn't fight for it nor it was worth of you, basically. So she just preferred not doing it.

The waiter came with her plate of pancakes and she smiled at him "Thank you" she said as she stared now at her pancakes, they looked so delicious, she was so happy, she grabbed her fork and started to eat her pancakes, her face looked really happy, and childish, as she did so.

Jerome laughed at what Antiko said, he replied with "I dont care about the money, I just wanted to see if you were ok. You seemed very upset once you heard the mans voice.!" Jerome looked at Nick and Nate and asked "so what island are we on exactly? We just drifted and drifted on the ship so i don't know where we could be?"

Nick smiled at the entire crew and said "well from what I understand we are in Loguetown!" Nate was surprised and asked "so Nick what is there to do here?" Nick smiled and said "well there are a lot of sword shops that you may like!" Nate says "ofcourse I'll go with you you little punk! You're my younger, weaker, and more ignorant brother so I do need to teach you something about the way of the swordsman." Nick took out an his swords and asked "you really think I'm weaker, I'll show you!!!" Nate smiled and also took out his sword "let's go punk!" they brawl starts and it looks like an actuall fight.

Jerome starts laugh because at the end of the fight Nate is on top of nicks head and sitting on it saying "now who's stronger?" while Nick is yelling "you're not beating me yet!!!!" Jerome finally breaks the fight up and asks "so you guys are gonna go look at the sword shops around here? Then me and Antiko will just look around town for supplies for the ship."....

Antiko watched the fight and looked at Jerome and said, "I wasn't upset, just angry but then again I guess it is hard to tell when you haven't seen me with our this gasmask on yet. But I hope you do understand I wear it because my breath is poisonous and I don't want to hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it. I think you should go talk to that girl you were talking to earlier, I want to be alone for now Jerome but thanks for your concern." Antiko then walked away towards the woods where he had left the Marines, he partly wanted to check if they remained and also spend time there so he could relax and think and plan his goal out so he could figure out how he was going to get to Eneis Lobby how he was going to kill this man and what he would do after. He could feel all of the memories of the night flooding back to his brain and pushed them aside so he could think straight.

Antiko had never been the same since that night and didn't think he ever would be. In the woods he picked up two small stones and began juggling them one handed to pass the time and help him think. As the rocks clunked together he decided that he would have to increase his strength to get into Eneis Lobby so from now on he would be doing some sort of exercise everyday and trying to learn more about his devil fruit.

Antiko removed a glove and threw the rocks down then began coating the rocks in poison trying to dissolve them. If he could create a poison which burnt off skin that would be perfect, then he could get into Eneis Lobby much easier.

As Nick and Nate walked to the left and were going around town for sword shops Jerome was thinking about what to do next. Jerome though about what Antiko had said and decided to go back to the cafe but before that he would go and do a little bit of training. He knew that he must get stronger in order to rule the grand line, and also to defend his crew. From what Antiko had said he was taking a guess on how powerful the marines really were, he guessed that at his and the crews current state they wouldn't stand a chance.

To train Jerome always liked to do physical activity before actually training his devil fruit and rokushiki abilities. So he decided to go for a jog and try to find a spot in which he could train. He used geppou to reach the top of the highest building in the city, here be could locate where a secluded place to train would be. He found a rocky are just on the coastline and decided to go there. It took him about 5 minted to get there with soru, he decided go start from the basics and work his way into techniques.

An hour later he returns to the cafe without his shirt on an orders some water and some food, as be was eating Jerome was wondering if that girl was around...

As the rocks were coated in a poison which looked a mix of yellow and green he realised this was doing nothing and dropped his head disappointed. Something ran behind him at such quick speed Antiko thought it might be an enemy and quickly turned and fired Poison Finger at the enemy.

Antiko then froze seeing what he had just done and walked up to his victim, it was a little grey squirrel he'd coated with Scorpion venom, poor little thing didn't stand a chance and was instantly paralysed due to the amount of venom fired and his size.

Antiko picked him up and placed him up in a high tree branch as he put the squirrel down he realised how quickly he had fired and noticed that his reflex's had increased he smiled to himself also noticing that he would have to work on his sighter too as he didn't want to injure any civilians, only those who deserved it. He needed to make some powers which would kill though so he wouldn't have to rely on just his brute strength.

Joy eats and eats pancakes, she eats slowly though because it was an habit of hers to eat really really slow, somehow she didn't know where she had picked that habit, but she still didn't mind, although most of the people she ate with ended up being bored and left her to meet them when she finished eating, something that Joy didn't mind much either, she just liked taking her time eating, not like the would would grow feet and run away.

While eating, after an hour or so, and yes she was still eating pancakes, she noticed the guy she met hours ago, Jerome, enter the cafe again, she wondered if she should approach him, so she ate the last pancake she had on her plate and took the money in her hand and approached him, with a smile on her face.

"Hello again, you forgot this by the way, I was going to look for you but you saved me the time" she said, the smile becoming bigger, she gave Jerome the money and sat besides him.

Nick and Nate find a sword shop which is also a dojo, the master looks at them with disgusts and says "what makes you two capable of having those masterly crafted swords?" Nate smiles and replies "well why dont you show us what you mean?" Nate puts his hand on the swords hilt and gets low ready to attack untill a hand is put up in his face and he hears Nick "no Nate i'll show you what i have learned so far." the master of the dojo says "alright punk lets go" he calls over two of his students and and says "destroy this little s**t" the two students come charging at Nick who jumps back from the attacks and uses Nanajuni Pound Ho to knock the opponents back into the dojo part of the establishment. Nate shows a small smile of approval as he see's his brother finally showing him what their master had taught them. The master tends to his students and comes out with a sword of his own, he says "lets put something on the line with this battle, my sword if you guys win, and both of your swords if i win deal?" Nick looks at Nate and sees a nod and Nick says "alright, just dont wine when i win." and then the master lunges at Nick with lightning speed...

Jerome smiles at the girl and says "thanks, i thought you were here! im sorry but before we talk i need something to eat and drink." Jerome then orders a large meal comprising of a lot of meat some vegetables and a large glass of water. While Jerome is stuffing his face he says "so i was just wondering, i remember you telling me you are a pirate and you are a pretty good sniper, so how about it wanna become my nakama?"...

Nick lunges forward pulling out his other sword and blocks with them both being thrown back by the strength of the masters attack. Nick jumps up and uses his Taka Nami knocking the master in his own establishment. While this is going on Nate is in the shop looking at different swords, the master gets up and uses his own special technique which sends a projectile towards Nick who dodges it and ends up right next to the master with his swords in a scissor like vice on the mans neck. "you have beaten me, you deserve my swords and any swords you like from my shop" the master says kneeling at Nick who says, "i dont want your swords, i have my own." Nick then tells Nate that they can have any swords from the shop that they want by the masters good graces. They both decide to leave the establishment without buying anything and go look for Antiko and Jerome, but they first go to the forest..

Antiko was sitting on his arse trying to think of a way to use his powers and manipulate them but nothing was coming to mind. He decided it would probably be best if just tried his accuracy and picked up some stones and lined them up on a tree branch and turned around. he closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

Antiko spun around and fired 9 shots of his Finger Poison when he looked at what he'd done he remarked, "Out of 9, pretty good, but I can do better." Antiko set them up again all around himself and focused himself then did the same again. He managed to hit all the targets this time but knew it wasn't really a challenge if he knew where they were.

Upset he decided he should head back into town to find something to do, he pulled his gloves on when he heard a twig snap and instead of putting his glove back on he kept hold of it and hid behind a tree. Antiko listened and heard another twig snap and another getting closer, he shut his eyes and focused on where the sound was coming from. He then leapt out from the tree and pointed his finger and used his Finger Poison he heard a voice call out, "Argh!" Antiko knew it had to have been a hit and smirked.

As Nick was following Nate into the forest, they could still feel the cool sea breeze within the dense forest but it was more soothing more than anything. They decided to make a game out of this, they would take turns saying stop and freeze while they were either up jumping from tree to tree or running on the ground at full speed, Nate decided to do this to work on their body control and fast twitch muscle groups. After 20 minutes the game got sort of boring so they continued to walk, they were not really thinking so much about Jerome as much as trying to figure out Antiko, Nick was more intrigued about their new crew mate than Nate but that was just because he was always curious. by the time they got to a clearing they kept stepping on tiny branches which echoed in the forest. While Nick was thinking he heard a really quick noise and Nate go "arghhh!" he asked Nate what happened and replied "this was my apple! and now its ruined!" closer inspection of the apple showed that it had poison on it which was quickly being absorbed into the apple, in frustration Nate threw it as hard as he could towards the direction from where the poison came from...

Antiko saw an apple roll into view of where he was and decided it was time he take a different approach to this. Antiko used his acrobatic skills and jumped into a handstand then thrust his body up into the air and grabbed a hold of a tree branch where he leapt from branch to branch in the silence of the forest. Antiko looked down where he saw Nate and Nick below. He realised he had heard them approaching and decided to show them they should be more careful.

Antiko remained in the trees for a bit completely undetectable, as Nate and Nick got closer to where he had been he continued to move among the branches. Antiko then decided as they got close it was time to reveal himself, he was proud of how well he had done following them and being undetected. Antiko removed both of his gloves and dropped down firing shots at both Nate and Nick from behind. Since these guys were crew he didn't plan on hurting them but teaching them a lesson.

Antiko landed on the floor crouching with both of his hands pointing at Nate and Nick, "You guys need to be more careful and aware." He announced as he looked at them both. "Also you guys don't need to worry about that poison on you, its not going to harm you, just remove all feeling from your bodies."

Nate and Nick were loud, but not slouches when it came to using there senses to the fullest, they knew that something of decent size had moved from where the apple had fallen to a tree nearby. what they didnt know was that Antiko was trying to teach them a lesson. when they heard someone jump from a tree branch they immediately drew their swords and blocked what had ever come there way, Nick got a small amount of poison on his hand and nate had only gotten some on his shirt, "Damn this is my favorite shirt too!!!!" When he saw Anitko he get a little bit more upset knowing that it was his own crew mate. Nick replied to Antiko's comment "we knew something was there, but didnt know who and thank goodness i thought i was gonna die because of this poison.!!!" he then laughed and sheathed his sword, Nate did the same. Nick looked at Antiko and said, tell us about yourself and where youve been? we...well im curious about my new crew mate."

Antiko stood up and replied, "Don't worry the poison will wash right out easy enough and I've just been here in these woods trying to increase my devil fruit powers. I going to need to to if I want to raid Enies Lobby, we'll all have to get a hell of allot stronger. But if we get more useful people aboard the crew like that sniper girl that Jerome was talking to then I'm sure I can come up with a plan for us and a way to make the assault easier for us all. Although if your captain doesn't want to then I'm happy to do it on my own." Antiko looked at Nate and Nick he could tell these guys were obviously strong, but they would need to become much stronger if they were going to help him.

"I know I'm sounding self centred but I've been hunted for a long time living on in memory of my parents and I'm not going to let that bastard Marine get the better of me. He may have many men at his disposal and I may be just one but I promised myself revenge." Antiko didn't like feeling angry but it was what emotion he was accustomed too especially when talking about his parents or the Marines. He felt he was born to perform until his parents where killed he felt his purpose then was to live on his parents dream and rob banks, but before he could get back to it he had to deal with this Marine first. "Where have you two been?"

"Yea we do, but as for our goals we... well I want to become the strongest swordsman in the world." Nate said this with emotion which isnt like him at all. Nick replied "NO, WE want to share the title of greatest swordsMEN in the world!" Nick smiles and says "well to raid enies lobby that might take more than just one pirate crew, we might need to team up with another crew that is strong to raid that place, maybe a crew that wants to get back at the marines or wants there bounties to sky rocket!!" Nate nodded and said "do you know any pirate crews through your travels? or heard of any" Nick coughed and said "As for your other question we went sword shopping but I ended up fighting that master of a sword shop/dojo type deal and beat him, he offered me his sword and any swords we wanted from the establishment but we declined." Nate was leaning on a tree and said "i think we should go find Captain Jay now." Nick looked at Nate wierdly and said "Captain Jay? well its better than saying Jerome all the time!" Nick then smiled and looked at Antiko and motioned him to come on.

Antiko nodded and replied, "No I haven't met any other crews but I want to raid it alone or with my crew, I don't mind which one but I need to get there as soon as possible so I don't think we'll be able to ally with another crew as I know he'll only be at Enies Lobby for a little while, I can't wait or even afford to lose him. I need to get there as soon as possible. I know it doesn't give us allot of time to become stronger but I'm sure if we train hard while we travel there we can become strong enough to raid it on our own. I know I will have to train hard and will be happy to spar with you guys too." Antiko began leading the way back to town out of the woods with his head full of thoughts he would leave the crew if he needed to get there earlier but he would rather stay with the crew as the more help the better.

Nick and Nate both nod and smile and say "well why don't start training right now, I think Cap'n Jay will be okay with that girl for a little while so why dont we start a little training now?" Nate and Nick both unsheath their swords and start to stretch. Nate was thinking this guy is strong it would be an honor for me and my brother to be able to train with him and Jerome, they both are in a league of there own. Nick was thinking even though he has a devil fruit i want to be able to beat him one day, and then become as strong as Nate.

Nate stops looks at Nick and then at Antiko and says "you go first!"

Antiko cracked his knuckles then looked at both Nick and Nate then said, "Come on boys both of you come at me, we'll do a 3 way training session we will have a non lethal fight. Are you all ok with that? I am good with it." Antiko then prepared himself for the 1st attack to come his way and placed both of his gloves back on. He wasn't planning on using his poison if he didn't need to as he wanted to see how strong these guys were and give them a chance and he knew if he used his poisons he would easily paralyse them.

Antiko didn't want to screw these guys over straight away, so he would let them attack first and only use minimal force to keep these guys coming back for more. Antiko didn't remove his mask though as he didn't want to breath out any poison into the atmosphere as he knew it would put these guys at a disadvantage.

Nick and Nate nodded at Antiko's suggestion and sheathed there swords and put them next to a tree. Nate told Nick "man its been a while since some hand to hand combat, lets see if we can remember what master Jethro taught us!" Nick decided to go first, he moved in and started to jump from one tree to another as fast as he could to build up momentum, then he jumped down with a front flip kick right where Antiko was standing. Nate then decided to wait until his brother finished his attack, but he also wanted to observe Antiko's movements before he attacked.

Antiko grabbed hold of his leg as Nick's foot came down towards him, he used his Redirect technique on Nick and slammed him into the ground. Antiko then looked at Nate and signalled for him to come at him.

Antiko looked down at Nate as he had slammed him into the ground and smirked, it had been a while since he had trained with other people but he liked it and hoped these guys would learn quickly what they could or couldn't do to attack him.

Nate moved a couple steps slower than soru and charged at Antiko, before he got into his range he side stepped to the left and round kicked Antiko with his right leg. Nate knew that his legs were strong because of how Master Jethro trained them by doing lunges with boulders on top of their heads for days on end. So he though that not even a devil fruit user could take the kick. Nick jumped up and got pissed off at the idea that someone besides his brother had made him look like a fool, as he saw Nate kicking Nick who was at about a full step slower than a soru user was getting close to the battle.

Antiko threw his hands into the ground hard and using his strength launched himself into the air narrowly avoiding Nate's attack. As Antiko came crashing back down on his feet he threw a punch towards Nate.

As Antiko saw Nick approach him Antiko leaned on his left hand which he placed on the ground and swung his feet towards Nick planning on kicking him or warning him off. As his feet flew towards Nick Antiko knew he would land to the side of them and knew just what to do then. He smirked and looked at them both keeping his eyes trained on them both.

Nate dodges the attack by falling on the ground on purpose and springs back to his feet to find that Antiko was dealing with Nick. Nate was looking at how he moved and figured out what to do. As Nick is about to be kicked he grabs the leg of Antiko and throws him. Nate at this time goes over to Nick and tries to attack him saying "this is a free for all right?"

Nick was blocking most attacks by Nate that he was just getting warmed up, and then after a couple seconds the punches were getting almost unbearable to block and the kicks were getting deadly. Nick knew the only way to get out of this was to fight back so he waited for the right punch to get hit by to fire in a counter but as he tensed for the shot, Nate punched with all of his might nearly knocking Nick unconscious. Nate then turns to face Antiko, now being warmed up he can go at full speed...