Serious: Salty and Johnny's journeys; story 2: Into the Grand Line again, meeting a trollish ganster at Whiskey Peak. (CLOSED)

"Would you like some apricot juice Salty-san ?" Johnny-san's "signature" phrase, slightly altered as he had apricot juice with him instead, is directed to his subordinate Salty, as soon as the pair set foot on this island. They were send here for yet another mission. And after some time, they were also back to the Grand Line. Alright, this has to mean that this is a harder mission, right ?
Whiskey Peak is where they were ordered to go, and the mission's details was rather .. bizarre. They were told to look around for a "Funny costumed little man, that is nicknamed "Troll", with a rather low bounty but short manners." They don't really get that kind of description for such things right ? But that's why it was a serious mission, because that's really all the information the marines had about that person. They send those 2 there in order to find out more about that person, as there were intel indicating that this is where he is located.
"The weather's quite gloomy today, isn't it ?" Johnny-san adds.

"Thanks a lot, Johnny-san!" Salty said with a smile on his face as he grabbed the juice that his comrade gave him. He carefully opened the bottle with the juice so that droplets of the juice would not fall on his casual clothes. Apparently, he wore his casual clothes as he happened to be disguised in his current mission. The place the photography department was sent at was none other than Whiskey Peak, a place that happened to be the territory of one of the sea emperors, Anubis. If the pirate learned that the marines were there, the navy could get into serious trouble and so they had no other choice but to perform their mission under the disguise.

Then, a second later after opening the bottle, the marine captain raised his head in order to drink the apricot juice. While raising his head, he took a look at the sky. It was quite gloomy today, just like Salty mentioned. "Indeed it is..." Salty replied to Johnny's comment.

Unlike Salty, Johnny is actually wearing a black suit, that makes him look like he is a high-ranked officer of some business company or something. They actually had a bit of an "argument" about this before, with Johnny simply stating that "he feels too uneasy wearing such cheap-looking clothes." which triggered a bit of a (comedic) rage about Salty's disguise.
The duo is walking towards the inwards of the town, trying to be as casual as possible to prevent drawing any extra unwanted attention, as Johnny's attire was already drawing some attention anyway.

As the two walked, Salty looked at the people around. Most of them were looking like some savage pirates and they were probably members of the Anubis Pirates who were protecting the territory. However, those were not the guys that the duo was looking for. The two marines of the Photography Department were looking for another crew that was supposed to be at Whiskey Peak...

"So... Johnny-san, do you have any ideas about where we can find the pirates?" he whispered to his subordinate's ear so that he would not be heard.

"Not really .. we don't have any clues other than the information given by HQ .." Johnny stops walking for a few moments, as if he just froze or something, and then be begins walking towards a direction. "Just follow me, I have a hunch .." he says, walking towards what appears to be a really old and filthy bar.

"Okay!" Salty said with a smile on his face and he decided to follow his subordinate, who had a hunch. After all, Salty trusted Johnny completed and even if he had just a hunch, he was pretty sure that he would be right. He did not know him for a long time, but he felt like he knew him for years... Then, he entered the bar with him and he waited to see what would happen.

The bar looks like it could fall if Johnny was to punch the walls or something. It was dark, dirty and filled with all sorts of scum. Drunk people with their faces on the tables, unable to even move, a guy on a corner actually vomiting inside the place and no one giving a damn, and a bartender that looks like a filthy, literally filthy and with no pun intended, version of a pimp rather than what his post is. Johnny sits down and nods to Salty to sit down. They really look so clean compared to this place, than it feels as if they shine all over the place. "Hello .. I'd like to make a few questions .."
The bartender tilts his head lightly, points at a bottle of what looks like tainted whiskey and then adds "If you want information, then you gotta hand over money, which means .. order something."

"Okay, okay... I got it..." Salty said and he placed his hands inside his pockets. He grabbed a few coins and he threw them in front of the bartender. The coins were gold and it looked like they were lots of money in the form of coins. "Tell us what we want to know and these will all be yours..." Salty said to the bartender, hoping that he would give them the information they needed. As they had no clues about the crew they were searching for, they had to pay for it and they would have to do so as soon as possible...

"Hmmm .. those seem real .. what do you want to know ?" The man says, clearing a few glasses, or rather, making them more dirty with that filthy piece of fabric he held, and then puts whiskey on both of them. "There you go." he adds. "No thanks .." Johnny says, and then nods at Salty. "You tell him, partner."

"Well, even if I don't want to drink, I will drink the whiskey for coverage..." Salty whispered to Johnny and he grabbed the glass of whiskey from the barman's hands. Of course, this was clearly a lie. Johnny actually wanted to drink some whiskey and that was the real reason that he took it. He opened the bottle with his teeth and he started drinking from it for a while. "That was quite tasty..." he said and he placed the bottle on the bar. Then, he said "Okay... Let's get to business... We want to learn some information about a crew called "The Troll Pirates". What do you know?". Salty had made a great improvement from his time at Arabasta. After meeting Johnny he became more brave and a much more active Marine and that was very clear, even from the way he spoke to the people from around. He was much more determined to fight for justice and he was motivated to do things for the Marines that no other person did.

The bartender, his name was Joso, raises his eyebrown a bit, and when he hears the name "Troll Pirates", he takes a rather disturbed facial expression. "Those blasted clowns ? What business do you have with those brats ?" Johnny has taken out a glass out of one of his pockets, and he's in fact drinking some of his own juice, instead of that rotten, probably literally rotten, whiskey. "What does that mean ?" he says.

Salty was listening to the words that the bantender was saying. Apparently, he actually knew some stuff about the pirates they were looking for. It looked like the money that he gave were actually worth it and that they could learn some necessary information about tracking them. "I will explain..." Salty started saying and he started scratching his brown goatee. "We are two underground brokers... And we want to have an interaction with them that could benefit both us and them... If you know what I mean..." he lied to the bartender in order to cover himself and Johnny and not make his true identity known. After all, if his identity was known, this could cause problems to the Marines. The news that the Marines moved to the territory of Anubis to stop the pirates who were over there could cause the sea emperor's wrath and by extend a very big problem to the marines as Anubis would probably try to have his revenge on the force.

".. It is none of my business .. however .. with a little bit more persuation .." Joso says, and has a glimpse on Salty's wallet, before he clears his throat and place his hands on the dirty and rotten wood of the bar, looking on Salty. "I can tell you where to find a man that knows where those delinquents operate .." he turns and looks at Johnny for a moment, it's as if he's familiar, or so it looks like.

"Got it..." Salty said and he placed his right hand inside one of his pockets, grabbing a few more gold coins. Then, he placed the coins on the rotten wood of the bar and he started scratching his little beard while staring at the barman. "Now, tell me where we can find that man..." he continued saying and he waited for the barman to speak.

After a while, the pair of the marines in (sort of) disguise walk away. The bartender did gave them a tip, after them having to pay those blasted "drinks" about 10 times or something. What he said was that "at the top's back of the mountain they could see from here, they will find a small building. Inside lives a guy that works for those men. Actually, he's more of a freelancer, so who knows, you just may be able to get some words from him."
Johnny is seriously standing out, with that really important-looking costume, but he doesn't mind, he seems to be enjoying wearing it. He also holds his glass on his hand, in a manner that makes it look like he's a wine expert. Tho he was just drinking some orange juice. "Let's go there before it dusks, right ?" he says to Salty.

"Right." Salty said before he turned his back and started walking out of the bar. While he was walking away, he looked at the bartender with a smile on his face. He said "You have a quite expensive bar, you know. All my golden coins are gone." with a smile on his face and the bartender smiled as he left. While walking out, he tidied his clothes a little bit and he finally stepped out of the bar. He turned his head towards his good friend Johnny and he said "Let's go, Johnny-san."

Later that day, actually, it's dusk now, the pair reaches the location. Only that instead of a building, or even a small one, they just find a destroyed, devastated piece of what seems to be, the remains of a small building. Smoke comes out, it looks as if someone attacked this place just a small time ago. Johnny goes closer. "Please don't come any closer, Salty-san." he says, as he goes closer. He notices that there's a hand sticking out from the debris on the left side. "Oh my .." Johnny goes, but then the hand actually moves upwards and fires a punch on Johnny's chin. "What the .. ?!!"

Even if Salty was supposed to be the superior officer of Johnny, he knew that Johnny was right when he said that he should not follow him at the house. Apparently, it looked like a strong force destroyed the house and somebody had to investigate it... And in Salty's opinion there was no better person for that than his good friend, Johnny. Johnny was cunning enough to find out what was going on and strong enough to protect himself in case something bad happened. Salty was a capable fighter at this point, but he was more of a sharpshooter and not a fighter.

"I will stay back, I guess..." Salty said to his subordinate as he moved towards the house. However, he would not stay with his arms crossed. He grabbed his tripod quickly and set up his camera system so that he would record anything that was going on. He started by taking pictures of Johnny while he was moving towards the place and he continued taking more and more pictures, including the picture of the hand that punched Johnny's chin. "What the..." Salty wondered while that happened.

The pile of debris and dust then moves, and then someone literally hurls himself outside of this, and coughs. He's completely covered with dirt and ass. "You are not welcome !!" That weird man just attacked Johnny, who dodges, and then the man runs towards Salty, making several backflips. "What the .. Salty, don't underestimate him, this man's speed is higher than what it seems !" Johnny says.

Salty immediately took the picture of what happened to Johnny with the mysterious hand and then takes a look at the man while he is approaching him with the back flips. Even if Salty was weak physical, he hopefully had one good attribute. As he was always on the run in order to take some good pictures, he had great speed, much greater than that of the normal human and he could keep up with fast people to take their pictures. And it was just like this, this time. Salty could see the man coming towards him. With a serious look on his face, the once timid Marine captain now pressed a button on his camera that was standing on its tripod and was far more accurate now and shot a barrage of bullets towards the enemy that was attempting to attack him. What would he do? Would he hit him or not?

The mysterious man sees Salty's counter-attack, and as he keeps making his back-flips, he suddenly hurls himself into the left side, escaping what would otherwise be an unpleasant "meeting". Rather than continue attacking, or run away, however, the man extents his hand and then aims it at Salty, screaming. "What are you up to ?! You couldn't have killed me ! You are too serious !!". His expression is especially weird, he looks like a complete moron. Then, he notices a shadow, and looks up, to see Johnny's foot right above him, to head's height. Johnny pulls the leg down, and strikes a solid kick onto the man's head.

"Oi! Johnny-san, wait a little bit!" Salty said with a look on his face that showed some remorse because of the fact that he attacked the man without any hesitation. "This guy looks like he did not expect my attack... He might not be a bad guy at all." Salty commented but it was too late. Johnny's foot had already landed at the head of the mysterious man and sent him flying several meters away. Salty could not prevent his subordinate from kicking the man. However, that was not something that Salty did not expect to happen. After all, he would interrogate the man for attacking him and while interrogating him, he would probably have to use "strange" measures against him...

"We have to restrain him, since he did initiated all this. Whether this is a misunderstanding or not, we have to take precautions." Johnny casually and calmly explains, like they are just having a good talk, contrast to actually stepping on the weird man's shoulder, as he pulls the ropes he used to tie him everywhere. "Waaaah, you are such a primitive, violence using .. glassman !!" the weird man says, seemingly unaffected from the kick, despite bleeding from his head. "You probably want to know who I am right ? I will never tell you !" the man starts to say, but then screams with a face fault as Johnny completely left him there, and is inspecting the ruins again. "Fine then, I will talk !" he yells, Johnny still ignoring him, so he turns towards Salty. "Hey hey, sorry for attacking like that before, you startled me while I was taking a nap." he starts, bouncing around, as his legs are the only thing not "submerged" under yards and yards of rope. Where did he found all that rope anyway ?!

Salty took a look at Johnny while he was tying the man with the ropes. "Get him, Johnny-san." he was saying while he was tying the man with the ropes. "We have to interrogate him after all." he completed. The man looked like he did not want to explain who he was at first but after Johnny scared him off, he actually said that he would talk. Apparently, he was saying that he attacked the two marines because he was taking a nap and they startled him. What a pathetic excuse! There was no way that happened, at least for Salty. Something else was going on... Salty was pretty sure that this guy was one of the guys that he and Johnny were looking for. "I don't buy it..." he said with a serious voice and he waited for the man's reply. The man though would not actually speak but he would bounce around with his untied legs. What an annoying man.

The weird man manages to stand up, somewhat, and then he looks towards Salty, with a really weird expression, supposedly that's a serious face, although it mostly makes him look like an idiot. He then sighs, and begins to talk. "Alright, since you guys are pushing me so much about it .." he starts, while Johnny simply mumbles that they are not pushing him at all, and that he himself doesn't mind because "that weird man looks like he has mental issues", then narrowing his eyes, and jumping up and down, angry. "I shall not tolerate this, I say nothing ! ... but, since you insist .. my name is Doutche, Makaro Doutche. I'm a super famous man .." he says, thought probably neither Salty nor Johnny know about him.