The Marine

Yoko: “Woaah! Look at that Bill look at that!”

Bill: “Hahaha, yeah that’s something else, isn’t it?”

Yoko: “How does it stay up and not fall?”

Bill: “We’ll just have to go find out wont we!”

For Yoko who had lived her whole life on Little East Blue island, the sight in front of her was awesome.

Clockwork Island was shaped like a giant beanstalk that extended into the clouds and was inspiring even for the rest of the crew who had seen Water 7 and Enies Lobby.

For the last several hours the ship had avoided one whirlpool after another, and the crew had taken on blind faith that the Eternal Pose was correct.

Bill was astonished on just how much iron was used in the construction of this place. Squinting his eyes, he saw that the main island was in fact just one enormous gear that acted as some sort of fulcrum.

“How come we’ve never heard of this place?” Asked Ricky, who was just as amazed as Yoko was.

“I guess the sea is just too wide and unpredictable…” Bill said, though he knew this island was known to the World Government. After all, he had gotten the Eternal Pose from a local Marine branch.

As the ship neared the island, all the members of the crew were pointing out various details. One major thing was that there seemed to only be a natural port at the base of the island.

With nowhere to dock, they would have to launch their dinghy to the base of the island but from there Bill didn’t actually see a way up.

‘Does that mean we have to jump up those gears?’

Deciding to shelve the idea for now, the crew went to draw straws on who would get to go up and who would have to stay.

“Stupendous!” cried Miyagi who would finally not have to watch the ship.

“All right!” shouted Ricky.

“That’ll do!” exclaimed Ranse.

“Hmm.” Hummed Sasha.

“… Next time I don’t watch the ship.” Said Fia who rolled her eyes at the results, she had been unluckily forced to stay on the ship a few times in a row now.

Nodding his head, Bill said that was fine and there was no complaint from anyone else.

It didn’t take long for Frontier Run to glide across the water and enter the natural port. This place was a far cry from Little East Blue island, but the water was calm enough.

“What are all these ships?” asked Ricky eying the fleet docked here.

Shrugging his shoulders Bill didn’t know, but also found it was strange for there to be twenty caravels and brigs which had matching sails. Each one represented some playing card.

Thinking it strange Bill told Fia to keep an eye out and to take the ship out of port if anything was suspicious. Thankfully as a Cannon-Human she didn’t have too much to worry about normally or else he would have had Ranse or Sasha stay on board the ship with her.

Lowering the fifteen-foot dinghy into the water, the six members of their small crew went ashore and found that the gears formed a ramp up to the island.

Glancing up, the ramp extended as far as the eye could see, just barely disappearing in the clouds.

“Come on.” Said Bill to Yoko, bending over for her to get on his back. Then looking over to their doctor said: “Miyagi we’re going to run up fast, tell us to slow down if you need us to.”

“Nonsense! Minks are all fearsome warriors! I’ll be right there with you all!”

Smiling to this answer Bill then check and Ricky, Sasha, and Ranse indicated they were also ready and the five took off running.

For Bill and his childhood friends this ramp was similar to things his dad had put them through after he had eaten the Forest Devil Fruit.

Perhaps thanks to that, when the floor turned in to spikes, they were all able to dodge while Sasha was even able to pull Miyagi up.

The Mink hadn’t been lying when he said he could keep up, but when flames spat from the walls and boulders rolled down the ramp it was just easier for him to hold on to Sasha.

“Do they know they’re attacking Marines?!” Yelled Ricky with a huff as he barely dodged a big pair of scissors snapping shut.

“It could just be automatic defenses!” Offered Ranse who was likewise ducking under a comical boxing glove that shot downwards from the ramps ceiling.

While they were dodging, Yoko was having the time of her life. Of course, sticking to Bill’s broad back she was in no danger of anything besides biting her own tongue.

It took just over an hour until they finally reached the top, Bill and Ranse could have been faster if they used the Moon Step, but it wouldn’t have been acceptable to leave Sasha, Ricky, and Miyagi behind.

Finally reaching the top, they were met with a town where every building was shaped like some sort of gear tower or gear windmill.

Most buildings spun slightly, which made Bill think the homes had more than one purpose.

“Wow! Cool! Said Yoko who, crawling off Bills back, adjusted her Marine hat and ran back and forth.”

Seeing her act like this made Bill thankful, the girl still could have her dour moments but more and more she was acting like a kid should act. Ironically to him, it was mostly Sasha who had helped with that as now Yoko had traded the Coat of Justice on her back for a weighted wooden longsword.

“See that?” Ranse said pointing to the middle of the island.

In the islands center stood a large fortress painted with Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spade symbols. It kind of looked like something from Alice in Wonderland thought Bill.

Clearing his mind of that, Bill nodded his head and said: “Yeah… there’s a few ships up there too, how strange.

Let’s just look around first and see if we were actually attacked or not. We’ll stay together this time, Clockwork Island should not be a Kingdom, but there are an awful lot of things indicating it someone’s in charge here.”

Saying this, the small group moved forward drawing all kinds of stares from the locals.

They passed a few clothing shops and food courts but only stopped as they passed a store selling intricate trinkets.

Walking inside, Bill and the others marveled at the small music boxes, time pieces, and other masterwork crafts.

One thing that especially interesting Bill was a pure mechanical arm. He couldn’t see how it would connect to any nerves and be controlled by the brain, but it was master workmanship.

“Uh. Um… Can we help you?”

Turning around, Bill found a man and woman wearing lab coats looking down at him and the others from a loft. The couple seeming absolutely stunned to see them.

Seeing the looks on their faces, Bill smiled and said: “Oh? no thank you, we’re just in town looking for the engineers who designed the Diamond Clock.

But I have to say these trinkets are extraordinary.”

Hearing this, the couple looked at each other, then the woman spoke back to Bill: “We are the ones who built that clock! but… a…are you really not here to save us?”

Then speaking before Bill could ask anything the man said: “Please Marine! Take that prosthetic arm as our gift to you! But please free this island!”

Hearing this, the Bill glanced around to the others while Yoko jumped up and down shouting ‘leave it to us!’.

Putting his large hand on top of her head, Bill looked back at the couple and asked: “What do you mean save your island? There didn’t seem to be any distress when we walked outside, and we just recently left from the Marine branch as Lougetown and there were no reports of piracy in the area.”

When he said this the man defeatedly sat back in his chair, but the woman was defiant.

“No reports of pirates? We’ve been living in hell for nine years!

Ever since the Trump Pirates invaded our town, they’ve forced us to create weapons for them! This used to be an island of dreams but now we can’t shut our eyes without having nightmares!”

Huffing, the woman continued: “We can’t fight back as long as Bear King holds the castle… from there he could sink the whole island if he wanted to!”

Alarmed and confused, Bill thought about the discussion he had with Aramaki a week ago.

‘Could there be a Warlord involved here?’

He tried to not draw this conclusion because it was too easy and would reinforce his idea that giving virtual immunity to privateers was a terribly dangerous policy.

Of course, seeing the look on the faces of the middle-aged couple made him not really care whether or not a Warlord was involved, after all, Warlords were not given the leniency to attack islands or nations that were a part of the World Government.

Standing there thinking this, it was Sasha who spoke up first.

“Why is the castle needed for him to destroy the island?”

Still slouching over, the man said defeatedly: “The castle holds the island key. With that they control the fulcrum point, it would be a simple matter to topple the island over.”

Running down the steps, the middle-aged woman reached Bill and said ruggedly: “Sir Marine if you want the Diamond Clock you can have it. We finished it the day our son was born, but since...” she then paused for a moment before continued: “… now it only hurts to look at.”

Nodding his head, Bill said he would look into it and would naturally see justice done.

Before leaving, he needed to know more about the people in the castle and so asked: “You mentioned a man named Bear King, who is he and who are his subordinate?”

Taking a breath, the middle-aged man walked down the steps and stood in front of the group of Marines. He was much shorter than Bill but looked up at him with found courage.

“His subordinates are all his siblings, there are five of them and two have abilities.”

He went on to describe Bear Kings ability as being able to get really hard and burn. Even claiming that he had seen the man melt iron girders with his bare hands.

The other ability user was the crew’s sister. The man didn’t know her exact ability except that she could turn into liquid. He also claimed that she was a coward, but Bill couldn’t help but to be worried about this news as what the man described was the Water Nature System devil fruit.

The rest of the Trump Pirates also seemed to be strong, according to the engineer the second most powerful member was named Pin Joker and that he used a rapier. Then there was Boo Jack and Stunk One, who Sasha laughed and told Ranse he would have to deal with.

There was also several hundred-armed pirates and a score of ships underneath these five siblings, but Bill didn’t have particular concern for these.

With the information he needed, Bill said his goodbyes and the crew left the trinket shop.

“Bill, are we going to go arrest these pirates?!” Asked Yoko enthusiastically swinging her sword.

“Well, you’re not.” He laughed then turned to Miyagi and said: “I need you to wait around here with Yoko while we see what’s going on.”

“Absolutely!” said the goat Mink and pulled Yoko as she trashed around saying it wasn’t fair.

“But you all fought pirates when you were younger than me!!”

Seeing them walk towards the food courts, Bill laughed and said they wanted her to be smarter than they were.

Bill didn’t know what they were walking in to, but he trusted Miyagi enough to keep Yoko safe.

Looking towards the others they shared a glance and started up the mountain to the castle.

“If we meet them all at once, Ricky you’ll have to stall Queen Bee and Boo Jack. Make sure to hit the girl with electricity and if she’s not the water Logia just run.

Ranse, you’ll need to subdue Stunk One as fast as possible then take out Boo Jack, I expect you to do so before any of their subordinates come.”

Bill didn’t need to tell Sasha what to do, if there was a capable swordsmen, she would naturally fight them.

Walking to the castle didn’t take long, it was still midday when the group reached the castle gate.

The gate in front of the castle was shut tight, but unlike the rest of the structure it was wooden.

Seeing this, Ranse jumped up to look over it but was immediately shot at several times.

Up till this point Bill hadn’t had any plans to go in swinging, that would have been improper until he knew the situation. Now though, seeing as they fired on a Marine all bets were off.

The rest of the crew knew it as well as Sasha and Ricky drew their weapons.

Holding his hammer in his hand, Bill waited for Ranse to land and said: “If they don’t immediately surrender do not go easy.”

Walking towards the wooden gate raising his hammer he shouted…

“Giant SMASH!”

Hitting the gate with a concussive blast wood shrapnel flew in every direction and revealed hundreds of armed men on the other side looking stunned.

Taking another step forward, Bill felt Ranse to his right and Sasha and Ricky to his left.

“Put your arms down! Surrender! This is the Marines!”

None of the armed men moved and almost no sooner than Bill finished a putrid stench wafted over the area.

Identifying the source of the smell, Bill saw a hunched back mousy man eyeing the four of them.

The man gave a too-wide smile and laughed: “Welcome to Trump Castle, Marines.

Men attack!”

With his hammer in hand, Bill didn’t need to hear anything else.