The Marine

“This has to be a joke…”

Standing beside Smoker, Bill looked at the largest person he’d ever seen in either of his lives.

The man in question was scowling at the two, and started demanding their attention, but Smoker ignored this and spoke: “His name is Nelson Royale, he lost half his fleet and came back raving about dragons. When Headquarters sent out patrols, they found nothing. Now after his demotion they stationed him here.”

Nelson: “There were dragons, you dolt ----!”

Not hearing what the man was saying, Bill was amazed and horrified. He was amazed that there could be a human so fat, this ‘Nelson Royale’ must have weighed a thousand pounds, but he was also horrified what this crazy world did to a heroic figure like Horatio Nelson.

Bill had known since his childhood that there were similarities between Earth and this world besides English and the numbers they used.

Culturally, things seemed to be just one shade off. For example, Ranse’s childhood hero was Wyatt Holiday who clearly had elements of both Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday.

In his classes growing up Ms. Angie had read what verbatim seemed like Machiavelli and Dante. Nearly all of the kid’s philosophy lectures where arguments between the two political viewpoints.

And now, looking at this creature in front of him, Bill thought that Britannia’s ‘God of War’ would be rolling around in his grave if he knew how this world treated him.

Walking up to the fat man, Bill tapped his huge cheeks and looking back to Smoker asked: “Can it even walk?”

Nelson: “Poppycock! Who’s an “it”! I’ll hav-----”

Grimacing as he spoke, Smoker shook his head and said: “No, and he needs six strong men to lift him.”

Still amazed, Bill tapped the Marine logo tattooed on the man’s huge belly and as fat vibrated around Nelson’s entire body asked Smoker: “How does he even wipe himself?”

This question clearly unsettled the fat man as he didn’t respond. Ordinarily Bill would not directly humiliate a person in this way but in addition to being cursed at as soon as he walked in the room, Smoker had given vague details about the former Captain of the large galleon.

Simply put, this Nelson was an unconstrained bully.

Why was this man who once commanded a fleet sitting in a room alone? That was because not one single crew member chose to stay with him when given the chance to be reassigned.

This both said a lot, but also not enough and so the real question Bill had was why Smoker was willing to give away a huge galleon, worth hundreds of millions of Beli, to have Bill conscript the fat 2nd Mate.

Looking at Bill evenly, Smoker’s tone didn’t change when he said: “There are orderlies.”

Being a man who had lived for over a hundred years, it was hard for Bill to find himself dumbfounded. Even still, Bill could not help himself burst out: “How is a person like this even in the Marines?!”

Nelson: “I’ll have you know I’m fif---”

Nelson may have been seven foot wide, but Bill was a still larger a man who stood at nine feet tall.

Unable to take the man’s huge jiggling cheeks and scathing remarks, Bill put his large hand over Nelsons mouth shutting him up.

Addressing the portly fellow for the first time, Bill leaned over and said: “Be quiet now. If you talk again or bite my hand, I’ll pop you in the mouth.”

When he said this, Nelson changed his look from Bill to Smoker and started visibly sweating.

After locking eyes with Nelson, the Lougetown Captain grunted again and said: “Captain Ox, why don’t we go. Nelson here seems to be tired.”

Confused by this, but figuring not much good would come from staying, Bill let Nelson’s mouth go and once freed the fat Marine didn’t hesitate to start raging again.

But Bill was many things, and one thing he was not was a liar. Hearing Nelson’s outburst, Bill directly gave the fat Marine a light pop on the mouth.

This pop, which was light for Bill but still very hard, seemed to have absolutely stunned the man. It took a few seconds to go from fear, then confusion, and then rage. As Smoker and Bill were walking out of the room Nelson screamed: “Smoker! how dare you let him h.hit m.m.me?!”

Bill: “What did I say?”

Moving back from the door, Bill long legs crossed the room in an instant and he gave the fat Marine another two light pops.

This time however he wasn’t satisfied with just leaving and so holding on to the crying man’s mouth Bill spoke lowly: “Take a look at yourself! Before you open your mouth again, you’d better think why you’re in this position!”

Truthfully, Bill didn’t know where his anger was coming from. The only facts he knew were that Nelson was a bully and that it was probably his arrogance that had killed those sailors.

 After saying this, Bill followed Smoker out the room and as soon as they were down the hall he asked: “So what’s the story behind him, and why can’t you deal with it?”

Walking into an office down the hall from Nelson, Bill sat in the intended chair across from Smoker. Lighting up two large cigars Smoker took a deep puff and blew the smoke upwards.

“There are two things about his status which make things difficult. Firstly, he graduated top three in his class at the Marineford Academy. Secondly, he’s a noble of Frauce Kingdom and even though he’s fifth in succession to the throne that’s not something I can easily deal with.”

Hearing this, Bill didn’t care that Nelson was a noble – he cared that ‘Nelson Royale’ was a noble in the ‘Frauce’ Kingdom!

Laughing at the absurdity Bill didn’t let Smoker in on the joke and instead they spoke a bit longer about what to do with the over two thousand refugees waiting on ships.

Smoker had already sent for water to be collected and delivered and Bill knew his crew would be more or less done their jobs by now.

When he was leaving, Bill said he would need to speak with his crew before deciding to take the fat Marine on, but though he said this, he knew that they needed the galleon.

It was just too much money to pass up and the ship would be able to sail with fifteen hundred people. In fact, the ship was so large that it could sit in Little East Blue’s natural harbor as a shelter while the town was being built.

Leaving the Marine branch, Bill headed for Frontier Run and turning a corner found Ranse at the head of a group of twenty men and women.

Walking beside Ranse was blond haired man who wore a bandolier which held six pistols and a dressed like a cowboy. Following them was a little girl hold a book and then several men, three of which Bill thought he recognized from Clockwork Island.

Besides them, Bill saw four rough looking men being dragged along. They were tied up but besides their faces didn’t seem to be struggling.

Not jumping to conclusions as they walked in the same direction, Bill figured that Ranse was headed to the Marine branch, and as soon as his friend spotted him, he called out excitedly: “Bill!”

With the parties seeing each other it didn’t take but a few moments before the met up and Ranse started reporting his progress: “I’ve found sixteen solid sailors who were willing to sign up, and four other potential Mates who wanted to speak to you first.” After saying this, Ranse gestured to the two groups of men.

Nodding his head, Bill first smiled and greeted sixteen who had agreed to sign up and then the other cowboy who was being tailed by a young girl.

With that done he eyed the three other men who he was now sure he had seen on Clockwork Island.

Taking things one step at a time, Bill listened as Ranse introduced the sixteen. They were all young and Bill supposed the oldest of which was no older than twenty-one.

Ranse: “And this is Daddy Masterson, a retired Special Operator and Gunner who I met after I captured these few pirates. He’s been working as a local pirate hunter but said he’d be willing to reenlist if the terms were right.”

Nodding again, Bill introduced himself and after being told that Masterson retired as the rank of Ensign, he said that they would speak about possible terms after their current issues were resolved.

Ensign was not a high rank, but for Bill who lacked numbers, having a former Marine who looked no older than thirty was not something he could easily pass up.

Then turning to the three scrawny guys Bill said: “I recognize you three. You were at the castle on Clockwork Island, I didn’t see you fight but I remember you wearing the Trump Pirates insignia. Why shouldn’t I arrest you?”

Hearing Bill say this, everyone else looked towards the three men who now looked dumbfounded.

Looking at Bill then at each other, the three quickly huddled up and spoke in a tone that even Bill couldn’t understand despite his great hearing.

After going back and forth they turned around as a group and the purple haired one started talking first.

?: “Sir! We’re tired of our bad ways…”

Followed by the black haired one.

?: “They always want to conquer the world…”

Then finally the orange haired one chimed in.

?: “But bad guys always seem to lose…”

Circling back to the purple haired one he said.

?: “And I’m tired of losing!”

?: “Losing is no fun…”

?: “And they never offer any benefits!”

Then all at once they huffed and looked down and said in tandem.

???: “We don’t want to conquer the world anymore…”

After they said this, the trio rotated between each other and continued to speak about how they decided to join the people who had already conquered the world and now all they wanted was a job and maybe a house.

After several minutes of this, Bill raised his hand, and they stopped talking. Looking at them he asked: “What are your names?”

“Danny” said the purple haired one.

“Denny” said the black haired one.

“Donny” said the orange headed one.

“And how long did you work for Bear King?” asked Bill.

Danny: “A month?”

Denny: “About two months…”

Donny: “They never offered any benefits!”

Nodding his head, the other people with Ranse gathered around and watched Bill continue to question them: “Who did you work for before Bear King?”

Danny: “Eldoraggo…”

Denny: “He shouted a lot, and then lost…”

Donny: “He never delivered on our benefits!”

After this, Bill thought these men were strange but decided to not arrest them. After telling them that he would question them later, the group went back to the Marine branch and turned in the pirates Ranse had caught.

They were three brothers with the last name Riley and were worth a combined 800,000 Beli.

It was small change, but Bill thanked Ranse for his work as they walked out.

Looking at the sky and then the group assembled Bill started to address them properly: “Thank you all for considering joining our department. We are a part of the Science Division, and our primary purpose is to further that goal.

Unlike the other branches, our primary goal is not to seek out pirates. That is not to say we will not fight piracy; we are Marines after all, only that there are other departments that specialize in that.”

Pausing for a second, Bill looked at them one by one and said: “If you seek strength, we can offer than to you. If you seek knowledge, we have that also.”

After he said this, Bill continued speaking for several minutes about what the Procurements Department was and their objective to raise the standard of living for the wayward islands across the world.

The group in front of him looked wide eyed, apparently, they expected Ranse to be a normal Marine, but Bill didn’t mind this and wrapping up he said: “I don’t want any answers now. Think about what I’ve said. Our job will not be easy, if you join us, you will have many nights where you won’t be able to sleep and many days you won’t be able to relax.

Our department plans to change the world and, if you want to be a part of that, come to the docks tomorrow morning. I’ll have the appropriate paperwork ready and will accept you into our team.”

The group looked fired up, but as they were dispersing Bill pointed to Danny, Denny, and Donny and said: “You three will be coming with me.”

Though he said this sternly, the trio nearly jumped with joy causing him to roll his eyes.

After this, Bill spoke briefly to Masterson and the two agreed to meet the next day. The man looked strange, but Bill didn’t push for an explanation.

Starting to walk back to Frontier Run, it was still midday, Ranse took his place beside Bill and said: “I think they were a pretty good group; they all have sailing experience and are around our age… oh, except for Masterson he has a daughter that’s why he retired.”

As they neared the docks, Ranse finished talking about his job and started asking Bill about his results: “So how did things go on your end, any problems?”

Giving a laugh Bill just replied: “We may have a thousand-pound problem, but let’s get the others together first.”

Though he didn’t understand, Ranse nodded his head and the two walked on the deck of their ship. Where Ricky, Sasha, and Fia stood waiting for them.