The Marine

As Bill was running down the stone steps and headed into the tavern that led to the pirate cove, he had seen two flares and trusted that his Lieutenants would have seen the signal and react accordingly.

His trust was not betrayed, but what he couldn’t have known was the anxiety that his Lieutenant was under at that time.

Sometime before the two flares had gone up, Fia had started to pace back and forth worrying about Ranse. He had been gone for nearly 45 minutes, and to her, this was far too long.

She couldn’t just leave her position since potentially a lot of lives were at stake and the fact that she knew just how strong Ranse was, the dumb little cowboy she knew as a kid had grown up as strong as he was devilishly handsome.

Of course, she would never tell him that. Fia considered it the man’s responsibility to woo the woman, and besides, she thought that he already owed her so much that he really couldn’t afford having her make the first move.

But like many young women, when she worried her mind spread out in all directions and she thought about everything and every consequence at once. Her mind stayed in such a state of disarray for what seemed like a long time until the two flares were pointed out to her.

The two flares allowed her mind to narrow down into a single and clear problem that she knew she could solve. Fia was always good at making quick decisions, if she wasn’t then she would have starved to death as a child.

So, seeing this signal which went up in the middle of their operation, her scattered mind focused and she quickly thought of the facts.

Firstly, the opening encounters were heard less than thirty minutes after making landfall and they occurred furthest to the east.

Secondly, several single flares went up quickly after those first battles. Importantly, they went up in several different areas of the city.

Thirdly, the first double flares went up after another thirty minutes and were in an area that Beetleborgs had already been dispatched to.

Fourthly, in the 45 minutes since Ranse went into action there had been constant signs of battle but no flares until now.

These four facts led Fia to conclude that at least some portion of pirates had either seen their ships or were tipped off of their arrival, and if that was the case, then their plan had been a mistake.

The multiple pronged attack on the island was meant to quickly catch large numbers of pirates off guard, and if that wasn’t possible then it should have been their most powerful people going in first to soften resistance.

Only after resistance was more or less tamped down would the rank-and-file Marines be sent in to make arrests.

Fia didn’t know for sure if her conclusion was correct, but all the same, she altered the plan and ordered the last team of Beetleborgs to go and support the Marines furthest east moving up from the government district.

While they supported the teams furthest east, she would head in the dead center of the operation where the two flares went up and then move towards them and link up.

Once she linked up with them, she would lead all the Marines on that side of the island back west and clean up whatever troubles they found.

Not one to second guess herself when a decision was made, Fia signaled to the Victory that she was on the move and made her way quickly to the location of the flares.

She didn’t have the raw speed of any of her childhood friends, as she always felt that fighting wasn’t very ladylike, but still she made her way through winding alleys and over small wooden bridges.

As she ran, she noticed that while nobody was on the streets, she would see people peeping out from their windows very often. Clearly, they had heard the battles raging on and smartly hunkered home.

Fia saw the problem well before she made it to the spot that the flares were fired and immediately after ran past three dozen fleeing Marines.

‘The plan was already failing.’ She thought to herself while she yelled at the men to go east.

“Regroup in the east! I’ll handle these big bastards!” she yelled over and over again.

And they were massive bastards, namely, they were the two pirate giants that they were told may be participating in the Dead End Race.

‘Bobby and Pogo…’

There wasn’t much information on these two but that wasn’t strange. Generally, when giants turned pirate, they were automatically given medium sized bounties.

Fia had only ever seen one giant in her life, and that was from a far distance, but she had heard a lot about them and now running into a large open market she could see why.

These two would have been considered normal for their kind but still stood over sixty feet tall. With mouths big enough to eat a man in one bite Fia didn’t blame the Marines who retreated at first sight on them.

The two massive men were sitting on the ground and laughing at a stall, drinking beer from wooden barrels that looked like small cups in their hands.

In such circumstances Fia was wary but didn’t let it show and called out loudly: “Bobby and Pogo, you’re under arrest for piracy, put down the stolen goods and surrender immediately!”

Though she had wished otherwise, she wasn’t surprised to see the red nosed Bobby look at her, then speak to his comrade: “Look, Pogo, a little fly wants us to surrender! Suhahaha!”

His laughter was met in kind and before Fia could warn them again he continued: “Now, where’s that fly swatter? Oh! Here it is!”

Then casually leaning over, Bobby the Giant pulled a large wooden stall up from the ground and flung it towards her in an apparent attempt to get rid of his opponent without having to step away from his liquor.

Seeing the stall being lifted up, Fia was quick thinking realize what was going to happen and avoided it with a wide margin by cartwheeling to the side.

This time she didn’t order them to surrender and, using distance as her ally, she pointed her two palms towards Bobby. One palm pointed at his giant red nose and the other at his kneecap.

Then with a clicking sound two hinges formed on her wrists and her hands fell down revealing cannon barrels.

Unlike the others, Fia rarely shouted her attacks, and instead mumbled in a low voice: “Broad Barrage!”

When she spoke, fire burst out from her arms and sent two wrist-sized explosives hurling towards the sitting giant.

Once they connected his laughter stopped and he toppled over, leaving his buddy to look wide-eyed towards the small female Marine.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?!” Pogo roared and the sound shook the surrounding area as he lumbered to his feet.

But Fia was already readying her next shot and turning her two palms she aimed at his nose and his crotch: “Broad Barrage!” she said again and like before two lines of fire burst from her arms and the explosive rounds hit home.

When Pogo was hit, he was sent bent over hollering like a madman. Holding his crotch with his left hand, he destroyed the stone pavement by pounding his right fist into the ground.

The sounds could be heard all over the city, and even in the M.S.S Victory Yoko was startled from her defiant self-imposed isolation.

Running to the deck, the teenage girl looked on in horror at what she saw.

After over two hours of fighting, smoke could be seen rising from several areas of the city, and that in conjunction with the hollering sounds at once turned her face white with shame from her outburst and red with anger towards whoever on this island would dare challenge the Marines.

Surely everything would be ok, Yoko thought as she stood near Boss and looked towards the city.

She was firm in this belief, but when another loud roar could be heard, she became worried and just knew she should be there helping the others.

Back in the market square, Fia fired as quickly as she was able, but Bobby and Pogo were slowly stumbling their way closer.

With her bronze body she didn’t know whether or not they could hurt her, but she didn’t want to risk it. Neither did she want to use her trump card in the middle of a city but seeing them get closer and closer something had to be done.

When Pogo got up unsteadily, Fia decided on a move that would be dangerous, but hopefully one where the rewards outweighed the risks.

Rushing forward her two arms reverted to normal, and she locked her fingers together in a single big fist.

Before Pogo could react, the sandy haired Marine jumped high, morphed her arms into a single cannon, and yelled: “BROAD BAZOOKA!”

Instead of launching a ball or shell, this cannon only unleashed a fiery explosion, and she aimed straight for the giants face.

“B.B.B.”

After the explosive attack, Pogo couldn’t speak through his charcoal lips and after muttering incoherently he fell backwards.

Seeing the giant fall, Fia knew she had succeeded in one phase of her plan but unfortunately, she had a terrible feeling rise from behind her.

“POGOOO!!”

Moving at a speed she couldn’t react to while falling, the giant stood up and snatched her out of the air. Then with hands as larger than her body he threw her clear to the other side of the market and into a stone house.

Standing back up was hard but despite the wind being knocked out of her, Fia went past the frightened family and after giving them a ‘sorry’ walked through the hole she had made.

On the far side of the market, perhaps 100 meters away, she saw Bobby leaning over Pogo and turn his head in her direction.

With a face that could kill, he roared again stampeded in her direction.

From the ship, Yoko stood for what seemed like a long time listening to far off roars and explosions. And when they stopped, she waited longer.

She also heard Nelson rush back and forth demanding information from his portable Snail.

“I need the status on our Lieutenants!”

“Dammit, I don’t care what’s going on! Find THEM!!”

“CAPTAIN, COME IN! I REPEAT, COME IN!”

The fact that Bill wasn’t answering didn’t worry Yoko because she believed no matter what that he’d be ok, but she could tell that Nelson was rotating his communications between the various teams they sent forward and several among them had gone silent.

This put her on and everybody else on edge, and the fact that no pirate ships had tried to escape just made it worse as the anxiety of the unknown grew in their hearts.

Yoko didn’t know how long she had focused on the city, but her knuckles were turned white by the fists she was making.

It was then, after a long time since the explosions and roars and stopped, after a long time since Nelson could reach Bill, Ranse, or Fia, three flares went up.

‘No, two?’ Yoko thought she must had blinked because there were only two in the sky.

Yoko didn’t know if Nelson had seen what she had, but she turned to him, and he looked nervous despite the angry appearance on his face.

Turning her head from Nelson to Boss, Yoko knew if there was a problem then there was only one solution.

“Boss.” She said quietly.

When the beetle turned its huge head towards her, she spoke softly: “There’re bad guys over there, we’re going to get them.”

After saying this, Boss backed up a bit and Yoko continued quickly: “I know, Bill said you can’t let anything past, and that’s why we have to go there… can’t you see those flares? We can’t let anything past them.”

Boss was intelligent but, being an insect, it couldn’t easily refute human ways of thinking. Furthermore, Boss trusted Yoko more than any human, which included Bill, and so it naturally took a step closer to the girl.

Nodding her head, Yoko listened to Nelson frantically trying to contact Bill, and decided that this was her chance. Holding her hammer in one hand, she jumped on Boss’s back and the beetle took off from the ship in the direction of the flares.

Seeing the city from high in the sky Yoko was devastated to see the destruction caused in the last several hours. She even saw two giants laid out in a wide-open piece of the city surrounded by blackened craters.

Heading to the area where the flares went up, she didn’t discover any Marines.

She couldn’t see anything until she ordered Boss to fly lower, and even then, she only found one area that was coated in something she didn’t recognize.

She recognized that area was outside a factory and the signpost shown a picture of a candy cane but whatever was on the ground didn’t look like candy because it was green.

Deciding to get a better look, Yoko brought Boss down and immediately regretted it when she stepped down. Her feet were covered in stickiness, and she almost swore she saw a face when she looked down.

Yoko was hard working and brave, but she was still only thirteen. As such, after seeing the face she felt afraid, and thinking that she’d seen enough she tried to get back on Boss and look elsewhere.

“Heh heh heh

And where would you be going?”

Turning her head to the sound, Yoko was face to face with the most dangerous pirate on the island and her fear turned into rage as she grit her teeth: “Gasparde!”