Mission #2: Appetites

[Xander Touchstone Abernathy]

Xander sighed nervously as he walked swiftly across the barren plateau, strewn with cave entrances and large boulders. Wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, he cast a worried look about the group he was with. Captain Kingsten, and three other Seaman Recruits like him. To Xander, it didn't seem like enough to take down a group of Cannibals, and by the looks on the other recruit's faces...they thought so too. Their Captain, on the other hand, looked just as strong, proud, and cocky as ever, trying to strike fear into the hearts of his little gaggle of recruits by telling them a story about how he was almost eaten by Cannibals once before, and how he escaped. Kingstan than rolled up his sleeves to show his scared recruits some of the bite marks and scars the Cannibals gave him. The mere sight of the marks nearly made the guy next to Xander faint, but the young recruit had Xander to lean on to regain his composure.

Patting his friend's back, Xander said soothingly, "Now now...I am sure Captain is just trying to scare us...don't pay him any mind!" The other recruit smiled and said, "Thanks Xan...I think I'll be fine..." he then proceeded to stand up, no longer leaning on him. The group walked along more until they made their way to the closed up mouth of a gold mine. "We are here boys!" The Captain called out happily.

The sound of voices and footsteps awakened a creature inside the mine. It made a small sharp crying sound that awoke several others. Their white, soulless eyes illuminated the dark cave as they spread the word of food. Their leader, a large, burly looking human-thing with bloodstained hands and sharp nails and teeth, climbed up to the cave entrance and looked out, seeing the fresh, young meat outside, looking scared and tasty. He turned and called to the others as they gathered around the closed up cave entrance.

[Xander Touchstone Abernathy]

The cannibal group began to stir in their little cave as the news of fresh meat, growling and screeching and basically growing impatient waiting for their leader's orders. The large, strong looking leader waited for a few minutes, watching the group of Marines get closer and closer, until he finally let out a shrill cry, jumping up and down and pointing outside. "GYAAAA KILLIE KILLIE!" he cried, ordering the seven others out of the cave and after the marine group.

Startled by the sudden attack, the young recruits where sent into a fear frenzy, scrambling about in an un-orderly fashion. Xander's initial instinct was to run as well, so he did. Taking off behind a large boulder, Xander hid for a while, wile the Captain laughed his usual, hearty laugh, swinging his large battle axe around at the oncoming horde. The young marine quickly began calculating a battle strategy for the group, when he heard a sharp scream come from one of the other recruits. Turning to see what was amiss, he witnessed the horrific sight of one of the cannibals latching onto the marine recruit's arm, about to bite his neck. No one would come out of hiding to help him, so Xander had a choice: Keep hiding and let his friend get eaten. Or do something.

Without thinking, Xander jumped up from behind his boulder hideout, arms raised, and tackled the cannibal, right before he opened his mouth. "Attaboy Xander! Hahahaha! have at me ya freakish bilge rats!" The captain called out triumphantly, cracking down on his second cannibal. He wasn't killing them, but he was knocking them out for quite a while so that way, they can be taken back to town for the correct punishment. The cannibal that Xander had tackled and pinned to the ground began to squirm and bite frantically at Xander, trying to have his teeth find purchase in the soft flesh of the marine recruit, but only finding air.

Xander whimpered a bit and weakly threw the guy a few feat away. "I am not edible!" he cried out indignantly, swinging his arms around a bit, turning them green and stretching them out.

[Loki]

Loki walked slowly through the barren plateau. He had just left his home on Tenshi island, knowing that there was still evil to be vanquished. He started to reminisce about the events that had led up to his inevitable leaving of the island, but before he could get lost in the memory he forced himself to remember the only reason he had stopped on this stupid island. "I need supplies and a bigger ship." He thought, repeating the phrase in his head. His supplies were mostly alright, but the ship was a must. He had barely been able to scavenge a dingy from the island and sorely needed an upgrade. "Stay on the objective, distraction is the devil and it wants to take your soul." Even when he said this to himself, he couldn't help but wonder what his old master was currently doing.
Pulling the pole from his back he examined it for the thousandth time, being gentle at he examined every mark on the slick polished woods surface. "I will banish evil for you Jishin." He thought solemnly before swinging the pole a few times. Suddenly he heard a bloody roar and rushed over to its location. A few marines were being surrounded by scrawny looking individuals. He hadn't joined the marines for a few reason, the prominent two of which being that he wasn't allowed very much freedom within the marine core and that there was a good deal of corruption in the marines. So he chose to become a pirate. It wasn't unheard of for a pirate to be a fighter of justice, and by being a pirate he had a great deal of freedom that you didn't have as a marine.

Loki took only a second to take in the situation and rush down to help the marines. Two of the younger ones were about to get a death blow. He was pleased to see the third rushing to the aid of one of the marines so he focused solely on the last one in peril. Two of the scrawny men were rushing at him and trying to penetrate his clumsy defenses. One of them finally knocked the weapon out of his hands and proceeded in for the death blow. He managed to make it just in time to block the gaping jowls of the cannibal. "Spear Thrust!" He exclaimed, pulling the pole back and positioning his hand just right. He jabbed at the attackers stomach, sending him flying in the process. The second was about to start attacking the intruder when he said something that made the abomination stop in its tracks. "Repent for your sins or face the fury of gods angel." Its face twisted into a snarl and after another roar it rushed at him. "Taste the impurity of your sins." He said, sidestepping the man and giving him a crack on the back of his neck. The cannibals jaws opened and he grabbed the stink pot in his pouch, shoving it into the cannibals jaws. It instinctively used its jaw strength to crush the pot, releasing the horrible gases within his mouth. It fell on the ground, rolling, and had its hands clawing at the inside of its mouth. "Only now, when you near your end, do you realize the stench of your own impurity." He took maneuvered his hands so that they were clasping the pole like a broadsword and waited for the next creature to strike.

[Xander Touchstone Abernathy]

Xander was about to whip down on the cannibal that was trying to take a bite of the guy to his right, but then, he saw someone bust in and begin fighting off the cannibal hoard. The person in question actually seemed really good at fighting as well as brave, but Xander didn't have time to be gawking at a random person, he had to fight to. his arms began morphing into long, thick vines that where each about twelve feet long with big thorns and started smacking the cannibals with them whenever they got close to him, or the other recruits. "Justice Whip!'' He called out as he slapped the cannibal chief to the ground, scratching his shoulder with one of the thorns.

It didn't take long, however, for the horrid form of the chief to stagger back up to a standing/crouching position and lunged at the Seaman Recruit with a renewed energy. But seeing the horrific man charge after him caused Xander to freeze, holding his arms out a bit.

The chief man opened his mouth wide, about to bite down on the soft, tasty looking flesh of Xander, when, instead of skin, his teeth sank into flora. He bit hard on the vine, but got only a chunk of plant, which he spit out angrily and returned to charging at Xander. This time, however, Xander had a plan. He netted his fingers together and stretched them into vines, catching the cannibal in the net and calling out, "Ten Vine Net....Smash!"He added the last part as he smacked the net, hard, against a boulder.

Once the man was sufficiently knocked out, Xander turned back to the man who had come out of the blue, smiling a bit as he held his hand out to the guy, saying, "Thanks...for that...." The battle wasn't over yet, but most of the cannibals had been knocked out, and not a single one of them had been eaten! "What is your name?" The Seaman recruit asked, his breathing returning to normal and his limbs returning to normal form.

[Loki]

Loki could tell at a glance that the seaman recruits were much to inexperienced to be fighting merciless killers like the cannibals. If the one recruit they had wasn't so apt at saving others they would have likely been eaten. But he wasn't about to let the innocent marines die a needless death. Then it struck him. "The marines are weeding out the weaker recruits!" The revelation angered him beyond measure and he was ready to storm the nearby marine base by himself, taking out as much of it as possible before they promised to change their methods. He was astonished to see one of the marine recruits, the one with potential, change his arms into vines and start attacking the cannibal leader. He saw the leader go down like a ton of bricks but could tell that a attack of that power wasn't going to knock him out.

But before rushing forward to finish the job Loki hesitated. The other two marine recruits were fighting against another cannibal and obviously facing a losing battle. He would have to trust the tougher recruit could finish him off and save the weaker two. With a quick strike on the skull of the unsuspecting cannibal he heard a crunch and shivered when he realized that the cannibal had gotten a chunk out of the marine recruit. He turned to see the cannibal chewing on a chunk of plant and let out a sigh of relief. The marine then proceeded to wrap him up in a net of his own making before throwing him against a boulder. The fight was finished and the other cannibals started to escape, obviously disconcerted by the defeat of their leader. But Loki knew that if it wasn't for him or the one recruit the results would have been much worse. He ignored the question of his identity and angrily started to run at the groups captain. The captain was a rather large man with an axe that could easily cleave Loki in half. But he wasn't the least bit disconcerted by the menacing stature of the man and he started yelling at him. "Who the hell do you marines think you are? These marines are but boys, it was sheer luck that one of these killers didn't do any of them in! I don't know what show you marines are running, but pairing them up against these killers was nothing short of foolish! You were essentially sending lambs to the slaughter while you could easily walk off without injury!" He continued to rave against the marine captain, fully realizing that the captain would likely attack him if only to shut him up.

[Xander Touchstone Abernathy]

Xander's smile fell slightly ajar when the mysterious hero ignored him and went over to their captain and began yelling at him. This was all very odd to him considering this man had just saved about four of the recruits, shouldn't he be relieved that the fighting was over now? The recruits, him included, where happy, the captain was happy, so why wasn't he? Xander crept over to the two men who where arguing. He tried to meekly interject to their quarrel, but it was ended when the large axe that the captain was carrying came down an inch away from the guy that saved them. "You....How dare you doubt me!" he paused for a second, "I have to make sure these boys are tough enough to survive! SO WHAT IF WE LOSE A FEW?" He asked, slamming a hand over his mouth a second afterwards. He wasn't suppose to tell anyone that.

In a fit of rage, he hefted his Axe and began swinging at Loki, shouting, "Now You've done it, you'm gone and made me tell!" He acted like a bull, charging at the tinyist little thing. "Wha? Why would you want us to die?" Xander asked, his eyes watering a bit. All the other recruits began to freak out as well, shouting about how he was a bad captain.

[Loki]

Loki didn't flinch when the axe came inches away from his face. "You may heft a big weapon. But these recruits are stronger than you will ever be!" Then the captain let the truth slip and simultaneously lost all respect that his squad had for him. The captain was obviously in a fury and started swinging his axe toward him. He jammed his pole at the metal rod that connected the handle to the axe. The pole held and the captain struggled uselessly to force the axe forward. He had been expecting a much stronger blow, but strangely it was lighter than air. "Your strength is pitiful captain, your heart is pitiful, and your mind is pitiful. I only hope that you end in gods domain, for he is all forgiving, but unfortunately for you, I'm not." He pulled his pole back and let the axe get lodged into the ground. "3 stance strike!" Loki yelled. His hands shifted and he wielded the pole like a naginata, sweeping at the captains legs and causing him to fall forward. He then shifted his left hand backward and speared the captains gut, forcing him into the air. Then his right hand shifted toward the base and he wielded the pole as a broadsword, swinging forward at the captains exposed chest. The blow connected and the captain was sent flying back against a tree, slumping into unconsciousness. He kept his eyes on the captains body and muttered. "May god one day cleanse your soul and keep you out of the bowels of hell."

Loki turned away and smiled, a broad smile, at the recruits before saying. "That man worked for the best of intentions, ridding the world of evil. But his lust for powerful allies caused him to stray into the path of sin. I have seen each one of you in battle and I know that this captain is wrong about you. Each one of you has enough potential to become Admirals. But you must never sacrifice your morals to do so. You have to all change this horrible system, I'm going to work on it from the outside but you have to promise to work on it from the inside." He put the pole in it holster and turned to walk away, before stopping and turning his head. "Oh yah, you asked me who I was vine user?" He said, addressing Xander. "My names Loki Nerose and I'm captain of the Tenshi Pirates." With that he turned his head back forward and started walking to where he had docked his boat. After beating up a marine he doubted he would find a bigger ship. But he did know this place on the east blue...

[Xander Touchstone Abernathy]

Xander and the other recruits watched the man beat up their captain. For some odd reason, they didn't feel any sympathy for him, seeing as he was fine with letting them all die. As they watched it end with looks of horror and wonder, Xander came forth from the frightful little group and said, "Nice to meet you Loki, I am Xander.....wait...Tenshi...Pirates?" He said the last word with an asking inflection. The word Pirates made the scared little gaggle of recruits straighten up. As marines, they where suppose to take down any pirates whatsoever, and the fact that Loki had beaten up their captain made it even worse for him, even if they didn't like the captain. The law was the law.

Xander noticed that all the recruits began to heft their cutlasses and pistols, looking fearfully to him with a look of wonder, as if torn between going after Loki, or letting him go as a thanks for helping them. But Xander already had an idea. Running to catch up to Loki, he called out, "LOKI! WAIT!" Once he was within earshot, Xander called out, "THANKS FOR THE HELP, WE COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOU YOU!" The marine recruit took a deep breath than called out, ''WE'LL GIVE YA A TEN SECOND HEAD START!" Xander finished with a lighthearted giggle, walking back to the group. "Come on guys, lets see if he heard me! But either way...none of us saw a pirate, and the captain.....left...and never came back...agreed?" He asked, and they all agreed, turning back and raising their weapons, "Lets give a hearty cheer to Loki, the Marines, and life!" One of the recruits said gleefully After a cheer, they took off running after Loki, giggling like mischievous school boys.

[Loki]

Loki didn't reply as Xander thought through what he had said. He wasn't about to lie to these marine recruits after all, he was a pirate and proud of it. He knew that these men were already outstanding marines and he was going to have to make a run for it. He didn't pretend to be surprised when Xander ran at him and told him to stop. Nonetheless he raised his head slightly so as to acknowledge that he had heard him. "10 seconds hmm." He muttered to himself. If that was the amount of time he had then he better not waste it. "Your all going to become strong marines." He thought out loud and started running toward where he docked his boat. "Hip hip hooray." He thought to himself as they cheered. A few times a bullet whizzed past his head and he couldn't help but smile, knowing that he had just helped give the word a few more protectors.

Loki reached his small dingy and set off with a heavy kick to the beach. He stared at the ocean, just basking in the sheer enormity of it all. The marine recruits had managed to reach the beach and were firing randomly at him as he escaped. When he finally was out of range from the bullets he decided that he would leave them with an bid farewell. "Xander," he started to yell, "I need you to watch over your fellow recruits, because I expect to see all of you at the GRAND LINE!" He finished and clunked down on the boat, pulling out a compass and planning his expedition into the East Blue

[Sean]

Mission complete
Rewards:
- 1000 beli for Xander.