Serious; Salty and Johnny's travels; Chapter 4: Blue Stripe (Open to Max and myself.)

[OOC: rotfl]

"A better way to see? How kind of you!!!" Salty said, while he started running towards the direction where the voice was coming from. With the flash of his camera, he was capable of seeing in front of him and so moving in the dark was not a great problem for him. He could overcome that difficulty thanks to his equipment and continue through the prison. "I am coming! I am coming!!!" he was saying to the voice, making everybody at the place feel pretty awkward.

The rest are left trying to hide the fact that the awkwardness generated by Salty's last comments would probably be enough to keep this place's electricity needs up and going for years. Well, if there was a machine that could convert troll comments and awkwardness into electricity that is. However, back into the actual events, as Salty approaches, a light does suddenly begin to glow. What great luck this must have been, huh? However, not everything was roses and petals.
".. Salty! Stop!" Johnny suddenly yells at his subordinate. What did he saw?
From where the light was coming, a cracking sound is heard. And, moments later, a chain with a basket-ball sized iron ball, with eyes, actual eyes, that were also lighting up, obviously the light Salty saw, it even had teeth of sorts, well, the metal was forming sharp-like edges, either way, this thing is hurled towards Salty. "I GOT YOU NOW, CRIMINAL!" The chain, again, yes, the chain, speaks!

[OOC: okay, if that chain is good I want it to join the photography department]

"Huh?" Salty was surprised, as soon as he looked at the awkward iron ball. That iron ball was something that Salty had never seen before in his eyes... Well, he had heard a lot of things about weird creatures and similar stuff, but he never believed that there were speaking sharp-edged iron balls. All the years he was working for the marines, Salty had heard stories about giants, about people with long legs who live in the New World, even about dwarves... However, he had never heard anything about similar creatures before.

And no only that. Apparently, there was more. Salty had not just met a speaking sharp-edged iron ball. He met a speaking sharp-edged iron ball that was probably working for the marines! Judging from the fact that the iron ball was lurking inside a marine prison and from the words it spoke, it was most probably working for the navy. As a result, the surprise for Salty was not only because he met that creature, it was mostly because of the chance that the creature had a rank within the marines.

On the other hand, Fino, who was taking a look at the event as well, was not surprised at all. Instead, he took a look at the incident that was occuring and he was looking at Salty's reactions while slightly smiling.

As soon as Salty got hurled by the iron ball, the man finally found the courage to speak his words. "I am a Marine! I am a Marine! Let me go!!!" he yelled at the iron ball, hoping that his thought, that the iron ball was working for the marines, was right. What was going on in the mysterious prison of Blue Stripe?!

"A marine? Don't make me laugh .." The voice goes, and, as the chain begins to slowly wrap around Salty's lower body, the ball actually has been morphed into a small creature. It resembled a human, well, sort of, it was really small, and had point nose and ears. The creature had a pair of goggles on his forehead, had brown hair with a leather green hat on top, a small marine coat that Salty must have previously missed noticing, but below it he was wearing a green leather shirt, a lighter shade of green pair of trousers, and brown, and again, leather, boots. The chain seemed to be it's tail, the color around it slowly turning from green into the iron ball's seen before color!

"This is floor 1! Only I am allowed to play around here, if you are in a cage, then it's cool, but if you are out then it has to mean you are .. A CRIMINAL THAT GOT OUT! They will yell at me bro, why did you got off your cell?!!" The creature screeches, and tears are formed onto it's eyes, and it rubs said eyes, before it yells again. "MY NAME IS BOBBY! SAY YOU ARE SORRY!"

Introduction Box:
Chief Petty Officer Bobby Dick, in charge of patroling Floor 1
An Iron ball with a chain that "ate" the Hito Hito no Mi: Model Dwarf.

((OOC: I WAS SURE! xD))

"Oi! Don't screech, don't screech! My ears!" Salty says as he drops his camera off his hands and covers his ears to not listen to the annoying screech of the chain. "I am sorry! I am sorry!!! Just stop crying and screeching already!" Salty yells at Bobby. "As for the other thing you said, we are not criminals! We just brought some criminals here! I am a Marine Commodore for @#$@'s sake!!!" Salty says, obviously with a paranoid voice due to the weird incidents that were taking place at that prison. Firstly, there was that "scumbag" guy that came to them as they arrived, the time they waited, that weird but beautiful woman that loved eating meat and now that strange chain with the Devil Fruit. WHAT WAS GOING ON?!

"You are sorry? Don't make me laugh, criminal! Ahahahahahacho! ...WAAAAH!" Bobby goes, initially he actually imitates a laugh, a really, really loud screech that would make the most tolerant people on the world want to rip their ears off their heads, before he stops, his watery eyes look as if they are waving inside their eyeballs, before he resumes crying, equally annoying high-pitch screech.

However, upon hearing the rest, he suddenly stops, and looks at Salty carefully, tilting his tiny head and half closing his right eye. And then, the chain part, his "tail" retracts, releasing the marine before him. Then, he follows up with a broad smile, his eyes closed as he chuckled happily "Okay then, if you say it then it has to be the truth." the dwarf simply mutters out, completely shifted personality now, he was all happy and friendly, as if Salty was the most trustworthy man in the world. Why did he ended up believing someone so easily? What if it was indeed an escapee?!

"Oi, Salty-san, are you alright?" Johnny arrives, alongside Fino, but Doutche is no where to be seen, same with the captives. However, since both Johnny and Fino seem calm and not worried about it, it was probably fine, right?
"This creature is...?" Johnny raises his eyebrow, and then, Bobby turns towards those two, and his eyes begin to shine. "... CRIMINALS, THEY GOT OFF THEIR CELLS!" He just charges at them! What an energetic, hyperactive little thing!

"Hey! Don't attack them! They are with me!" Salty tries to stop Bobby but before he does so, the energetic ball-dwarf charges towards them. Apparently, Salty's reaction was pretty late.

"What are you doing?" Fino was yelling with his chipmunk'd voice as the dwarf was attacking him in a funny way with several kicking attacks.

"They are not enemies!" Salty tried to tell Bobby afterwards. "They are with me!" he finished.

"Ah, what's that, Mister Salty?" Bobby turns, right in the middle of an attack, to which Fino was trying to defend against without actually fighting back, as he was aware that this little thing was apparently not a bad person, but rather another eccentric one. And then, Bobby just stops his assaults, and smiles up in a really goofy and way too innocent and gullible way. "Ah, okay then!" he thumbs up at both Johnny and Fino, who are left wondering what was going on. Dwarfs were really weird, after all!

"So, my name is Bobby, Bobby Dick! Nice to meet you." Some minutes after all this, they are all in a small, but lighted room, and Bobby is actually offering those 3 pieces of cheese that was, unfortunately, looking a bit rotten. "I haven't seen anyone come around in 3 months!" He adds.
"Three months? How is that possible?" Johnny says, while trying to politely deny eating the cheese that the little thing was so persistently, but kindly, trying to offer.
"Ah, everyone else uses the elevator to go straight to Floor 2! I am just left here, because they said that I am doing a good job!" The little thing says, smiling. So, apparently, the others fooled him into having him do all the job by himself. How awful this place was!

Meanwhile, somewhere on Floor 1
Douche is randomly poking the walls with his index finger. The others are silent, but for some weird reason, no one attempts to revolt, which is odd, considering that they were left with the goofiest one of the bunch. Suddenly, as he pokes around, he presses something.
"ATTENTION, THE LADDER IS TO REACH YOU IN 15 SECONDS." an alarm goes off.
"Ladder? .. that sounds like .. I FORGOT!" Douche remarks! Where the heck was he, anyway?

"You are doing such a good job? That's great!" Salty said with a smile on his face as soon as he listened to the words of Bobby, who seemed to get along well with Fino and Johnny, even if he attacked them when he first saw them. Apparently, Salty had taken a liking at that dwarf. He looked very innocent and kind, despite the fact that he was attacking anybody he happened to meet. After all, he was just doing this because he was doing his job... And not only that, but his devotion over his job was so great that allowed, combined with Bobby's innocence, the others from the prison to fool him into being responsible for the whole first level of the place. That little dwarf was making Salty feel good, as much as Johnny, Douche and Fino did.

"I see..." he said with a smile on his face and then he patted Bobby at the head, without even mentioning that the others were taking advantage of him. "If that's so, I will go and ask your superiors to transfer you to my unit." he finished, while still keeping that smile on his face. Huh?!

"Transfer me to your Unit, Master Salty-san?..." Bobby repeats what Salty said, only with a whispering voice, with his little cute eyes waving and sparkling, as if the little thing was touched by this kind suggestion, and was about to cry it out. Fino and Johnny both smile. But then, Bobby smiles widely, with his eyes closed, and responds.
"No way in hell, this is my job, and home!" He says, thumbing up, Fino and Johnny both do face faults, with Fino falling down and ending up with his legs facing towards "the sky". How anti-climatic!

Meanwhile, the elevator's door opens, and a large, husky man wearing a marine coat, but a stripped shirt and pants, gets out of it. Startled slightly by the sight of Douche and a number of chained men, the mysterious man stops walking, and stares at them, slightly confused, however, always with a serious look on his face. Obviously, that was one guy you wouldn't want to mess with, his eyes would say that, their glaring was so strong, it felt as if he shoot out lazer beams off them.
However, he then just walks past them, and none of the guys even seems to care. Douche then casually enters the elevator, along with the rest, like nothing happened!

"Well, well, well... That's not up to you to be honest, Bobby." Salty said with a calm look on his face, despite the fact that the little dwarf had just declined his offer. "I am a higher up, higher than you. Your higher ups are also higher than you, otherwise you wouldn't even call them higher ups. If they agree for you to come with me, then you can't do anything about it." he continues speaking with a calm voice, showing his determination to recruit Bobby in the Photography Department. Then, he started walking around, thinking of something and he started speaking once again "And also, I don't see a reason for you to not come with us! We are being sent to several different places to deal with pirates, we take pictures for bounties and we even get more chances for promotion. Not to mention that you'll have mine, Johnny's and Fino's company."

"There's Douche, as well." Fino said with his chipmunk'd voice to Salty.

"Oh, screw you, that guy's company is not pleasant!" Salty said with an angry look on his face. "He's a real troll!" he finishes.

"As if you are not!" Fino says to Salty with his eyes popping out, surprise with the answer his superior gave.

"Whatever." Salty sighed and waited to see what Bobby and, of course, Johnny would say about the recruitment of the little dwarf. Then, he turned his head around, looking at everybody who was present... There was Johnny, Fino, himself and Bobby... Some people were missing and Salty had not realized up until that time. Seconds afterwards, he gasped. He gulped and with a shocked look on his face he asked with a loud voice "WHERE THE HELL IS DOUCHE AND THE TROLL PIRATES?!".

((OOC: Why is there NO ONE givin a damn that Douche's alone with the captives?! lol))

[OOC: lol do you wan't me to edit?]

Bobby was left there thinking for a while, his face was showing no emotion, actually, he started shivering. And then, just when Salty snapped out, yelling about the absence of the rest of the group of people that were supposed to be with him, the dwarf transformed into a hybrid-like form, where he maintained the dwarf body, but it was all coated in a dark silver color, while the chain was on the floor, and used as a means to make Bobby be "taller". He then flips the finger at Salty, but with tears in his eyes. Or rather .. was that oil instead of tears?!

"OKAY, CAPTAIN SALTY!" Bobby yells, crying, and wraps around Salty, making him lose his balance. Meanwhile, Johnny looks around, same as Fino, before they are left with face faults of utter shock.
"WE FORGOT ABOUT HIM!"

HOW WAS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!

Salty did not know how to react. He did not know whether he would have to smile or cry. Apparently, the man was happy about the fact that the little dwarf actually agreed to join his crew, but he was also worried because Douche had just disappeared along with the prisoners and he was nowhere to be found. "What shall we do know?!" he screamed worried to Johnny and Fino.

"Well, something is wrong..." Johnny said, rubbing his chin. He stays there for a few moments, before he looks towards Fino. "Do you also not remember why you forgot about Douche?" That question was indeed odd, and surely everyone else found it completely weird and probably senseless, but Fino actually wraps his arms and nods, visibly bothered and worried himself too. "That's ... weird, I feel like .. I don't know how to explain, but I feel like I was not aware that I should remember of Douche or them .. do you know what I say?" he says, with his high-pitched voice. "Something fishy is happening there... Bobby-chin, do you want some juice?-I mean, can we communicate to the other floors?"
Johnny then adds. He seems to be thinking of something weird has happened. It was kinda like their memories, or, personalities, were somehow temporarily altered to not include Douche and the company.

"I see... Maybe... Maybe somebody has actually messed up our memories or something. Maybe a fruit user or something..." Salty said and he explained his words "That wouldn't be that strange considering that all kinds of freaks exist in this prison... That "Scumbag" guy or that beautiful woman could be the ones behind this, don't you agree?".

However, by the time he spoke these words, Bobby would tighten his chain body around Salty. "Don't talk like that about the marines who work here!!!" he said as he tightened the chains, protecting the name of the prison and the people who worked there.

"I am sorry, Bobby... I didn't want to offend anybody. It's just strange." Salty explained.

"Nobody here would do such a bad thing!!!" Bobby argued with Salty, showing his devotion and his kindness over the other people who worked in Blue Stripe.

"Sorry, I take that back." Salty said, even if he didn't mean it. Then, he stared at Fino and Johnny with a serious look on his face and he waited to see what the two of them would say.

"Hmmm .. are there any prisoners around here that possess Devil Fruit abilities? We may want to examine that and have everyone look above. There might have been a jailbreak." Johnny says, after some time of thought.
"Well, there's nothing much here, there's a turret that connects us with floor 2, where the prisoner's food and supplies are sent, and there's also the large elevator in the middle, it connects the whole place." Bobby responds, while being in a bit of a torn position of whether he should squeeze Salty to the death or be overly attached to his "soon to be, new master", so, he was swapping from just actually squeezing Salty to just rubbing on his face.
"I remember that place. Let's go to level 2, I am afraid there's something happening up there." Johnny adds, and nods to Bobby to lead the way.

"I guess Johnny-san is right." Salty remarks by the time Bobby stops squeezing him. "We should hurry to level 2 and see what is going on... That's the only way to find out what is possibly going on." he agrees with Johnny.

"Yes, maybe the only way to find out is to get to the second floor." Fino also agrees with his high pitched voice, while slightly unsheathing his sword, indicating that he is ready to battle if he has to.

"Let's go!" Salty says and waits for Bobby to show the way.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of Blue Stripe, that large hooded man slips through the door, and looks towards the bright sky. The sun's rays were engulfing him, and everything else. He noticed the trees, their green, not too far away from where he was left there standing, everything. Letting out a sight, the man smiles softly. "Finally, after so many years .. freedom." he comments, and, as he starts to walk forward, he removes his cloth, to reveal a marine outfit.

At the same time, the group had arrived on the elevator. Bobby is clicking some buttons, and then, that same voice from when Douche accidentally reached here speaks up, thus alerting them that soon the elevator would take them to the next floor. What would they see? Was everything normal, or would the encounter something similar to the Black Cross Casino on their previous adventure?

"Wow... This elevator brings back memories..." Salty says as he looks at the elevator. "You know... The three of us, in a building where we don't know what is going on and stuff... That feeling is reminding me of the Mirage Island incident inside the Black Cross Casino!" he explains his words and scratches his head. "Well, I guess it's time for me to take a picture! That way, we can always remember our time here." Salty finishes before he grabs his camera and his tripod from his bag and places them on the elevator's floor, as the elevator moves. He then leaves the camera on the tripod's top, in a way that it was pointing towards the four marines. "Smile!!!" Salty says as the picture is taken, with Bobby showing a kind face, Salty showing a stupid face, Fino showing a proud smile and Johnny being... Oh, well, Johnny.

"Perfect!!!" Salty says and smiles while looking at the picture he just took with the camera. Those pictures... Salty would always keep his pictures, especially after the time he met with Johnny. Those pictures were reminding him of his development as a person, as a fighter and as a marine. It was Johnny who changed Salty significantly from the weakling he was to a good fighter and a good marine. It was Johnny who made the coward Salty a real man. As a result, he could not do anything less than keep all the moments he lived with him in his pictures. Those pictures were worth more than gold for Salty... Those pictures were everything for Salty because he knew that even if he got seperated from Johnny, he would always have those pictures to remember him and give him strength and will to fight. "Ahhhhhhhh..." he finished talking, with a relieved face.

"Whoah whoah, you really find the oddest times to take a shot." Johnny comments, giving a neutral look, but a small grin was visible, as he was about to drink some orange juice that he just pulled out of hammer's space.

Back into the actual events, they all returned, as the elevator had stopped moving, and the doors where opening. Each one was preparing for the worst, after all, it was clear that someone had somehow messed with their memories and sense of judgment, so something fishy must be on. And, as they are all ready for battle they .. are left there baffled, as when the door opens, they see a busy hall filled with marines working, keeping an eye on inmates that were out of their cells, but chained and in control. And there was also a large section where there were dozens and dozens of tables, many prisoners where eating.
"Um .. welcome to Level 2; the Dinning Room & Prisoner's Hall!" Bobby says, smiling & chuckling innocently. Everything seemed to be working perfectly fine!

"Dinning Room and Prisoner's Hall? What a strange name for a level, that is." Salty commented as the group arrived via the elevator at the second level of the Grand Line prison. "So... Why is this level different compared to the first level?" Salty wonders as the group moves through the crowd of both marines and prisoners and eventually reaches the table, moving his right hand to grab a banana. Then, while waiting for Bobby's answer, he starts taking out the banana's fluid so that he would be able to eat it and fill his empty stomach.

While doing so, the marines and the prisoners from around would stare at him with an awkward look on their face, probably because of the fact that the Commodore did not even bother asking whether he could have that banana or not. Upon realizing that and while waiting for Bobby's answer, Salty gulped, took a bite on the banana and while munching he said "Sorry, I forgot to ask.".

"You must be Officer Salty, from the Photography department, isn't that right?" A voice is heard, and, a figure walks towards the group, the marines and even the prisoners step aside and look towards the man. Most actually have a scared expression on their faces, even marines themselves. Drawing closer, the man extents his hand, fitted in a white, silky glove. He wears a black costume and a marine coat draped around his shoulders, with a red tie being badly positioned and half-untied, dangling on his collar. We has blonde, not very long hair that have black roots, thick lips and a light tan. His face looks rough and his eyes are green and sharp.

"And you must be...-" Johnny begins to speak, but the man stops him by introducing himself. "I am Commodore Zamato, Tousen Zamato, and I am responsible for the good performance of Floor 2. And .. that banana you just ate, was rotten." the man finishes, with a broad, slightly ironic smile carving across his rugged face.

"Oh, bolocks." Salty says as soon as he listens to the Commodore's words. The banana he just ate was rotten... Oh well, he would have some problems in the bathroom later and maybe he would vomit a little bit, but that didn't matter. What mattered to Salty was the mysterious Commodore who approached him, another weird marine who lived in Blue Stripe. That marine, just like Salty, had the rank that the head of the photography department. He was a Commodore and as a result, he had the same powers as Salty. However, one questioned was created... How did the man know who Salty was?

"Well, I am Commodore Salty Peppery of the Photography Department." Salty says with a wide smile on his face. "How do you know me, sir?" he asks kindly, ignoric the ironic smile of the Commodore.