(A.N. This is still a little over 4 years before the start of canon. Kuro didn't retire from being a pirate until 3 years before canon, therefore Morgan wouldn't be Captain of Shells Town at this time.)
*****
(Location: Shells Town)
(General POV)
On the docks of Shells Town, a man had just disembarked from a little boat. He was fairly handsome, looked no older than 18 years, standing at 6 feet 2 inches tall, and was well built with broad shoulders. His jet black hair was messy and unkempt, which wasn't uncommon around here. He had emerald green eyes that looked as though they could pierce the very soul of a person, but what was most noticeable about the man was what he was wearing. He wore a dark blue cotton shirt with slick, loose fitting black pants, which were tucked into a high quality pair of leather boots. Of course he carried no weapon, at least none that the eye could see, for he carried his weapons in his [Inventory]. This man was Jack Sparrow.
Walking down the docks towards town, a voice stopped Jack before he even had the chance to walk twenty feet. "Hold up there, you! There's a fee to tie your boat up here." Said a Marine grunt who looked no older than Jack. On the contrary, he looked younger than him. 'Probably a grunt or new recruit.' Jack surmised upon seeing him. Looking at the guy and then around the docks that were bereft of any boat, Jack raised an eyebrow at him.
"What boat are you talking about? Are you seeing things?" Jack asked, sounding as though he felt sorry for the man. Of course there was no boat there, simply because he had stored it away inside of his [Inventory]. He honestly didn't see the point in just leaving it tied to the docks where anyone could walk on by and take it, so he had stored it away in a place where only he could access it.
The Marine looked a little disgruntled as he looked around for the boat that he could swear he had seen pull in only moments ago, but no matter where he looked, he didn't see a damn thing. "If you didn't get here on a boat, then how did you get here?" The man asked. "I'm a heck of a swimmer." Jack said dryly, leaving the Marine dumbfounded as he looked him up and down. "If you swam here, then why aren't your clothes wet?" The Marine questioned.
Already having a low opinion of the Marines from watching the anime, Jack had no intention of standing here and playing twenty questions. "Listen here, little dog. I don't need to tell you anything. How I got here is my business, not yours. As far as I'm concerned, you can fuck right back off to wherever it is you came from. Go continue your worthless little existence somewhere else, preferably somewhere that I am not. Savvy?" Jack said calmly, though his tone was rather cold, and he didn't hold back from glaring. He even tried to unleash a little bit of Conqueror's Haki on the man, or at least a form of it. He still hadn't managed to do anything with it yet, so he wasn't a hundred percent sure he could use it, but he was fairly sure he could.
The Marine was stunned stupid as he felt the chill of death crawl up his spine. Never before had he felt this scared of someone, and he had been around some scary pirates. Granted he was always with a group of his fellow Marines, but still, no one ever scared him as much as the man standing before him. Unable to muster a response to the man's words, he did the only thing he could think of and stepped out of the way, letting the man pass.
Not bothering with the lowly little grunt anymore, Jack continued on his way into town, this time unimpeded. As he walked down the street, he was looking all around, keeping an eye out for any shop that he might find useful, however his attention was pulled away from the shops when he heard the cries of a child. Looking towards where the shouting had come from, he saw a little girl kneeling on the ground while a large muscular man towered over her.
From what little he could tell, the girl had run into the man while chasing a ball, which was still rolling down the street. Gazing around at the nearby citizens to gauge their reactions, Jack was a little surprised to see that most everyone was averting their eyes from the big man, most likely out of fear if their expressions were any indication of the situation. All except a group of eight men who looked like the epitome of what a bandit should look like. They wore bandannas, carried pistols or swords at their waists, and were all drinking bottles of alcohol and laughing at the little girl on the ground.
Jack's attention was brought back to the current situation when he heard a man and a woman running towards the little girl, shouting frantic apologies to the large man. He watched as the approaching man, presumably the girl's father, knelt down on his hands and knees in front of the big man before pleading, "Please don't hurt my daughter, Mr. Gates! It was my fault! I threw the ball without thinking, and I'd be more than happy to compensate you for any troubles I might have caused."
By this time, a woman who was presumably the girl's mother had arrived now and was shielding her daughter from the much larger man with her own body. She tried to pull the little girl away from the scene, but the big man moved in their way, blocking their path of retreat.
The man called 'Gates' eyed the woman up and down before a perverted grin spread across his face, and Jack could tell he didn't have any good intentions for the mother, and the man's next words only confirmed it. "I'll forgive this whole thing, but first she's going to have to come with me up to my room." Gates said without ever taking his eyes off of the woman.
At his words, the little girl's father snapped his head up off the ground to stare at Gates in horror, and his wife who was still holding their daughter mirrored his expression as all of the blood drained from her face. Without waiting for the woman to agree to his sick demand, Gates reached down and grabbed the woman's arm, which is when she began screaming for help, however none of the other people watching did anything, only now they had looks of pity in their eyes.
Jack half expected the Marines to show up and do something about the man, but after looking around he noticed a few soldiers just standing around not too far away from where the altercation was happening. At first he thought they might have been bought off, but after getting a good look at their expressions, he saw that they too were scared, most likely of the man trying to have his way with the woman.
His attention was once more pulled back to the woman's cries for help when he saw her husband get to his feet and lunge at Gates, but before he could reach his helpless wife, Gates transformed. His body morphed into a human/goat hybrid with horns growing out of the top of his head, and hair growing rapidly all over his body even as his face elongated. On top of all that, the man grew at least two more feet taller than he already was, which was already freaking huge seeing as how he towered over Jack before the transformation.
Seemingly as though he was dealing with an unruly child, Gates slapped the man away with a powerful backhand to the face, sending him sprawling to the ground. The blow should have left the man down for the count, but to Jack's surprise he got back to his feet as if he hadn't just been hit by a basketball-sized fist and charged at Gates again.
"HA! Someone wants to die!" Gates roared viciously. Before the man could reach Gates, a figure appeared in between them holding the man's wife and daughter in his arms. At first, Gates looked at the man, then the woman before looking down and realizing that she was no longer in his grasp, and that was also when the pain hit him, causing him to cry out in agony. Losing a hand would do that.
Jack didn't bother to stand on ceremony and wait for the monster to get his bearings, choosing instead to act quickly. He disappeared from view of everyone, reappearing an instant later by the eight men who were laughing before. As soon as they saw that Gates had lost his hand they had begun to reach for their weapons, but Jack reached them first.
Two bullets tore through the temples of two men as six heads fell to the ground almost at the exact same time, however before anyone around even had the chance to turn towards where the shots had come from, Jack was already standing back in front of Gates, swinging an Armament coated fist right into his chest and sending him flying through a wall of the building he had been trying to take the woman into.
Jack stepped in through the hole in the wall, looking out of the corner of his eyes to make sure no one was looking inside. They weren't, which was good. He didn't want anyone to see what he was going to do next, just in case it actually worked.
Stepping over towards where Gates was sprawled out on the floor, Jack saw that he had transformed back into a human and was unconscious, which was good. He didn't want to have to deal with any struggling as he did what he wanted to do. Gates was the first person he had come across who had eaten a Devil Fruit, and he figured now was probably one of the only chances he would get for a while to test a theory.
Back in his world there had been many debates and questions on how a Devil Fruit resurfaced in the world after their consumer died. Jack had been a part of some of those debates, and the best theory that he had heard was one some guy posted on Reddit. He made the argument that after the host died, the power would seek out the nearest fruit. Of course people argued that if that was true then everyone would know about it and that the navy would carry carts of fruit around on ships in case they ever encountered a Devil Fruit user, but the guy on Reddit had an argument for that as well.
The type of fruits were just as important for each power, meaning the powers would only enter a certain type of fruit, and would deliberately seek out the fruit it was most compatible with, and seeing as how there were literally thousands of different types of fruit in this world, it would be impossible to know which fruit one needed to carry for a specific Devil Fruit unless they knew beforehand. The argument was made that that was why Doflamingo had all of the fruit trees at the SMILE factory on Punk-Hazard, but again, none if it was ever confirmed.
Jack was about to test this theory. He had to sell all of the gold and jewels he had stolen from the pirates he encountered out on the ocean before he had enough berries, but once he did he purchased one of every fruit in the [STORE] before he brought them out of his Inventory and spread them out around the room. Taking a breath, he walked over to Gates and stabbed him in the heart, ending his misery once and for all. He had no idea how long it took before the power moved on to a fruit, or if this was even how it worked, but he was a patient man.
While he waited he took the time to look around the building he found himself in, searching it from top to bottom for anything of value. All he got for his troubles were a few fancy trinkets, a couple thousand berries, and a few weapons. Nothing too fancy. When he finished searching the house he went back to the main room where Gates' body lay dead and where all of the fruit were scattered about the room.
Jack's eyes scanned over each and every piece of fruit until his eyes landed on a weird one that wasn't there before. It was about the size of a pumpkin, but was blue in color. Its stems looked like spiral horns, while the shape of it had weird swirls all over it. Picking up the odd fruit and putting it inside of his Inventory, he was able to check it out.
==========
[Name: Goat-Goat Fruit]
[Type: Zoan]
[Value: $80,000,000]
[Sell: Yes/No]
==========
Looking at the value of the Devil Fruit, Jack couldn't stop himself from letting out a low whistle. That was no small chunk of change. Still, this was also a chance to confirm something else. Going into the [STORE], he searched for the Devil Fruit in question, and there he saw that it would have taken him $160,000,000 to buy it, which was double the price he could sell it for. It was on the lower side of value for a typical Zoan Devil Fruit, but it was still worth a pretty penny. 'I already knew the [STORE] was screwing me on prices, but to be fair, it's let me sell some pretty stupid shit so far.' He told himself, not bothering to question things further.
He kept the Devil Fruit in his Inventory, deciding that he would sell it later if he really needed the money, but for now, even if he sold everything he had, he wouldn't have enough money for the Dark-Dark Fruit, so there was no point, especially if he could find someone who would pay him more for it than the [STORE] would buy it for. Deciding that, he gathered up the rest of the fruit on the ground and put them all in a bin he purchased from the [STORE] and put it all inside of his [Inventory] after buying another of the fruits that had been taken over by the Goat-Goat Fruit.
With that all taken care of, Jack grabbed Gates' body and began dragging it towards the hole in the wall, and it was there he saw that a large crowd of people and Marines had gathered around the building. Shrugging off their stares, Jack looked to a nearby Marine before asking, "Hey, does this guy have a bounty I can collect?"
There was also the scenario where this guy was some high up official or noble and that the Marines might be after him now, but he doubted that given the idiots associated with him. In response to his question, the Marine walked over to the side of a building and grabbed a WANTED poster off of a board and brought it over to Jack.
==========
WANTED
Goat-Man Gates
$13,000,000
DEAD or ALIVE
==========
After looking over the poster that had a picture of Gates on it, Jack couldn't help but internally smirk. 'With this guy and the Duff guy, that makes $18 million by itself. Combine that with the Goat-Goat Fruit and I'm actually a lot closer to getting the Dark-Dark Fruit than I thought I'd be.' He thought happily. Turning his attention back to the Marine who had given him the WANTED poster, Jack asked, "So… where do I collect my money?"
*****
It didn't take long for the Marines to lead Jack to a large white building with "JUSTICE" written on a sign over the double doors leading inside of it. Jack ignored the soldiers who had gathered to gawk at the body of Goat-Man Gates, choosing instead to walk inside to where a man was sitting behind a desk. "I'm here to collect on some bounties." Jack told the man, getting straight to the point. "Bounties? As in more than one?" The man asked curiously. He hadn't heard of another person with a bounty being in town.
In response to the question, Jack grabbed at a bag on his hip that no one seemed to have noticed before, almost as if it had appeared out of thin air. Reaching into the bag, Jack withdrew the head of Captain Duff, then as if it had been planned, he walked over to the board on the wall of the office and grabbed the poster for the man that was worth $5 million berries. "I see. So you're a bounty hunter. What's your name?" The man asked, sounding a bit more relaxed for some reason.
"The name is Jack Sparrow. Now about my money?" Jack said impatiently. He could be patient when he wanted to be sure, but he had no intention of getting buddy, buddy with the Marines. Especially not ones who sat back and let a guy run rampant over the town to do as he pleased. If they couldn't handle someone like Gates, they should have requested help. Hell, Smoker would have been able to handle the guy like nothing, and yet no one did anything.
Seeing his obvious displeasure towards him, the man moved quickly to gather up the money for both Gates and Duff, bringing it over to him in a nice neat briefcase. Jack had to sign a few papers signifying that he had in fact received his reward, then he was given the money. Just when he was about to leave, the man at the desk stopped him. "Before you go, I would like to offer you a position in the Mari-" Before the man could finish his words, Jack interrupted him with a cold "No", which left the man a little dumbfounded.
Seeing the look on his face, Jack decided to elaborate. "I have no intention of being a dog for some spoiled rich assholes. You Marines are quick to jump when the nobles tell you to, never asking why you should do anything. You preach about Justice and keeping the peace, but when it really comes down to it, you're actually far worse than pirates." With that, Jack turned and left the building, leaving the man to stare in disbelief at his back.
Upon exiting the building, Jack noticed right away the three people waiting to greet him. It was the girl who had run into Gates and her parents. "Thank you, sir." The man said as both he and his wife bowed their heads in thanks. Seeing her parents bow their heads, the little girl mimicked their action. "Think nothing of it. The world is full of garbage like him, and someone has to get rid of it. If not me, then someone else eventually." Jack said, making it sound like it was no big deal.
Besides, if you counted the Devil Fruit, he had gotten almost a hundred million berries out of the deal, so he was quite happy with the way things turned out. "The world could use more people like you in it." The man said with a smile, which earned him a small laugh from Jack. "I don't know if the world could handle more people like me, but I'll take that as a compliment. Now please, take care of yourselves. And you, be more mindful of your surroundings. You don't know who or what could be lurking around." Jack finished by giving the little girl some advice, advice that she would take to heart.
Even though she was young, she was old enough to understand that she had almost died today, and all because she hadn't watched where she was going. Granted, she hadn't expected a freakshow who had a habit of causing shit over a little girl running into him, but she would be more wary now.
The little family thanked him one last time before they left him alone, which was good because Jack was more interested in doing a bit more exploring of the town. He also wanted to find a proper hotel to stay in for the night, preferably one with a proper bathtub that had hot water. 'I need a haircut too.' Jack thought as he moved his hair out of his eyes. It had grown down past his shoulders, which was fair. It had been over eight months since he had last gotten it cut.
With that, Jack began walking through town, stopping here and there when he saw a shop that might have something he found interesting. He stocked up on a number of necessities, like soaps and toiletries, and even a few sets of clothes, but for the most part there wasn't really much that he was interested in.
He did end up finding a barber, and after getting his haircut, he felt as though he had lost ten pounds of hair. Unlike the messy unkempt hair from before, the sides and back of his head were completely shaved, but he left a bit of hair on the top of his head. The lady who cut his hair said it looked good, and though it did, Jack was more interested in how much more comfortable it felt to not have so much hair on his head.
After the barber, Jack went straight to a hotel, one that came highly recommended from the barber. They had good rooms, and the food was some of the best in town. He paid for his room and for food to be brought up, then he ate it while he bathed. All in all, it was probably the most refreshed he had felt since coming to this world. And the cleanest too.
*****
The next morning Jack awoke feeling well rested and ready for the day, which was good because he still wanted to browse through a bit more shops. One thing he did was go around to a number of different food vendors and bought up dozens of pre-made meals. He checked, and they were far cheaper than meals in the [STORE], so stocking up now would hopefully save him a bit of money. Jack also spent about a million berries on new weapons, which had hurt slightly, but he couldn't really pass up the opportunity when the sword he had bought was one of the 50 Skillful Grade Swords.
They weren't the best swords in the world, but they were far from the worst, and it was a definite improvement from the simple little crappy sword he had bought from the STORE. Plus he only had to pay a million berries for it and a new pistol that fired a lot more bullets than his previous one, where in the [STORE] the sword all by itself would have cost him almost $5 million, which was downright robbery.
Given how most things in the [STORE] could be sold back to it for half the price he could buy them for, Jack figured he might be able to make a profit if he sold the sword to the [STORE], but the damn thing somehow changed it's buying price, making so he would only get a little under $500,000 if he sold it, which was half of what he paid for it. 'I think this [STORE] is fucking with me.' He concluded after that, realizing that he couldn't trust it not to give him the worst possible deals on items.
Jack continued going around and checking stores around town until the sun started to go down. He had been so excited to run around town that he had wasted the full day, though he wouldn't really call it a waste. He had gotten a lot more things than he had before, and now he was more prepared to face the world.
Rather than immediately go turn in for the night, Jack decided to hit up a bar and have a drink. Granted he was technically underage, but this was the One Piece world. No one gave a crap about that. Besides, he had been drinking underage since he was sixteen years old, this would just be the first time he had done it in an actual bar. He ordered a few drinks and got right comfortable at his little table in the corner and began to survey the patrons of the bar.
He did this for a little over an hour before he noticed a beautiful woman enter the place. She seemed to look around the room for a minute before her eyes settled on him. She gave him a smile before going to the bar and ordering a drink. Jack didn't really think too much about it and went back to his people watching for the next twenty or so minutes before the woman got up and made her way over to him. Rather than sitting on the other side of the table, she grabbed the chair that was there and placed it right next to his before sitting down, however she was practically sitting in his lap than on her chair.
"I've been waiting over there for you to come and talk to me, but you've been completely ignoring me." She whispered softly into his ear. 'Okay, something is definitely going on. Women don't actually do this. At least not ones who don't want something.' Jack thought before it came to him. "I see. And exactly how much are you going to cost for the night?" He asked curiously.
"What? I'm not a prostitute!" She said quickly, sounding almost offended. "Really? This would have made more sense if you were, and I'd have been completely up for it." He said, going back to being curious. He saw a flash of something in her eyes before she put on a smile and leaned in close again. "I'm just looking for a good time. Do you think you can help me with that?" She whispered in his ear as her hands moved up his thigh.
'This would have made so much more sense if she was a hooker.' Jack thought in annoyance as he ordered more drinks for them both. He tried to talk to her and make small talk, but all she seemed to want to do was make him drink more, like she was trying to get him drunk, however what she didn't know was that Jack was secretly swapping out his cups with empty ones in his [Inventory], so when he raised it to his mouth and put it back on the table it looked like he had drank it all.
He began acting like he was drunk, swaying back and forth slightly and slurring his words, and even made it seem as though he was struggling to keep his eyes open. Finally the woman, who now that he thought about it, hadn't given her name, got up and pulled him towards the door after urging him to pay for the bill, then led him back to his hotel room.
On the way there, Jack had used Observation Haki around the area and quickly realized they were being followed from the bar by dozens of Marine soldiers. They were moving in alleyways or on rooftops, and it was obvious that they were either monitoring him or the woman, however considering she seemed suspicious too, he figured she was part of it. 'This couldn't be because of what I said to the guy in the office yesterday, could it?' Jack wondered, not able to think of any other reason why the Marines might be after him.
He let himself be guided along to his room, and as the woman led him over to the bed she gave him a little push. As he began to fall on the bed, Jack grabbed her hand midway, bringing her right on top of him. She tried to get to her feet, but he held her firmly in place. "Not so rough!" She said angrily. "Trust me. You haven't seen rough yet." Jack said before he flipped her over so she was laying beneath him with her arms pinned above her on the bed with his right hand, while his left hand held a knife to her throat.
He had given up all pretenses of being drunk, and now he was going to find out what the hell was going on. "Here's how this is going to work. Either you tell me what the hell is going on, or I give you a permanent smile from ear to ear." Jack said, his words promising death if she didn't spill what she knew, causing her face to lighten a few shades as she paled.
She was just a lowly Warrant Officer who was promised a promotion if she managed to get the target intoxicated. She hadn't even asked what the man had done, she had just accepted her orders as any good Marine should. She thought everything was going perfectly, yet somehow he had seen right through it all, and he wasn't even drunk.
Tears started to form in the corners of her eyes, and her heart began to race. She wanted to scream, to cry out and beg for mercy, but before she could even open her mouth a knife plunged into her heart. "I can't have you cry out and warn the others. I have no sympathy for the Marines or anyone else who tries to do me harm, but know you won't be dying alone tonight." Jack whispered into her ear. It had just been for a second, but he had glimpsed her crying out with Observation Haki, and he wasn't about to have that happen on him.
Quickly storing the body before it could bleed on his bed, Jack left the room and ran down the hallway before exiting the building out of the side door without anyone noticing him, then began making his way around to the Marines hiding about the area, killing them all before any of them had the chance to realize he was there, storing their corpses as he did so to not leave any sign of what was happening.
When there was just one group left on the rooftop of a building not too far from his hotel room, Jack slowly crept up the opposite side of the building and moved stealthily towards them. Without warning, Jack swung his sword twice in quick succession, decapitating two of the three men. The third man didn't even register that his two comrades were dead before a hand reached around and covered his mouth, while at the same time he felt a blade press against his throat.
"If you try to make a single sound without my approval, I'm going to cut your head off. Nod slowly if you understand." Jack said, his voice cold and murderous. Realizing his position, the man slowly nodded his head. Removing his hand from the man's mouth, Jack quickly removed any weapon the man had on his person and stored them inside of his [Inventory].
With the man now completely unarmed, Jack began his questioning. "What do the Marines want with me?" It was short and concise. "I-I'm not sure. We arrived earlier this afternoon with Captain Carson. We had just left Goa Kingdom yesterday to head back to Marineford when the Captain got a report about a man who disrespected the nobles from a Lieutenant who runs this outpost named Decker. We were ordered to bring you in by any means." The man explained fearfully.
Jack continued on for a bit longer, questioning the man about how many Marines there were involved, who were the most dangerous, and what he knew of their abilities, namely about this Captain Carson guy. Surprisingly the man was very informative about his fellow Marines, and even knew a few things about the Captain. The guy was supposedly strong, if the stories about him could be believed, however no one had ever actually seen the Captain fight. He more often than not just sent his men out to do all of the work while he remained in his quarters. Still, if the rumors could be believed, the Captain had mastered two of the six Six Powers techniques, which was quite impressive.
The Six Powers techniques are a special superhuman martial arts style. To master them takes years of training, and upon mastering all of them one is said to hold the power of more than a hundred warriors. If the Captain really had mastered two of the six techniques then he was probably no slouch. When he got the answers to his questions, Jack, without warning plunged his knife into the man's heart after covering his mouth again.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go with what you know." Jack told the dying man, who had been truly helpful and informative. If he was more ready to deal with the Marines as a whole he might have felt inclined to let the man live, but for now he couldn't really see any other way around it.
After storing away the corpses, Jack used his Haki to check the surrounding area just to make sure he had hadn't missed any Marine, and after finding everything satisfactory, he began to make his way towards the docks. He planned to start there, if only to cut off the path of retreat for the Marines, then he would make his way to the compound and deal with the Decker guy who ratted on him.
As far as he was concerned, that guy was responsible for this whole mess. Granted, he could have just kept his mouth shut and not ranted about how dumb the Marines and nobles were, but even before he died, Jack was never one to bite his tongue. He said what he thought, regardless of who he pissed off, and most people had come to accept that about him. It was just in this world that it was a problem, but for who, was the question.
*****
Jack approached the Marine ship docked at the harbor unnoticed, which was fair because most of the people on the ship assumed that he was currently being dealt with by the teams sent out to get him. With Observation Haki he sensed thirty-two people on board the ship. Combine them with the eighteen people he killed already near the hotel, and Jack figured that was pretty much the standard crew to operate a ship of this size.
Sneaking on board was rather simple, and then it went pretty much just like with the Marines around the hotel. Jack went around killing them all without letting anyone get a chance to sound the alarm. After killing everyone on board, he came to the conclusion that the Captain guy wasn't among the people present because everyone had died too easily, and anyone who had mastered some of the Six Powers techniques should have been able to at least notice him. Maybe. He was getting pretty good at stealth, so maybe he was just that good.
Looting the ship came next, which was normally the fun part, but after the twentieth room it was becoming a bit of a chore. That mindset changed when he got to a room that was basically one giant safe, and after removing the door by putting it into his [Inventory], Jack couldn't stop smiling as he stared at the cases of cash. Everything quickly went into his [Inventory], after which, in a much brighter mood, Jack continued onwards.
It took ten times longer to scour the place and loot everything than it did to sneak aboard and kill everyone, but he'd done it, and now he was finally happy. He was even happier after he touched the ship and stored it into his [Inventory]. He doubted the Marines would take to him trying to sell one of their ships, so he figured he'd just sell it to the [STORE], and given the amount of money that went into one of these ships, he knew he was going to make a very pretty penny off of it, but first he still had to deal with the rest of the Marines.
Moving on towards the compound at the top of the island, Jack made sure to remain hidden and unseen by all. Upon reaching the Marine base he sent out a wave of Observation Haki, finding that there were a few dozen men and women sleeping in what he guessed were the barracks. 'They're probably the ones who live on this island.' He told himself.
He originally debated on whether to kill them all or not, but ultimately decided against it. Yes, he despised the Marines, but he also knew that without them then pirates would run more rampant than they already do and then the people of this world would be more screwed than they already are. Still, he was going to kill Decker at the very least.
Creeping around like the MC from Assassins Creed, Jack killed everyone patrolling the compound. After that, aside from those in the barracks, the only two that were left were inside the main office where he had gone to get paid for the bounties. 'Please let them both be who I'm hoping for.' He thought, sending up a silent prayer before he made his way there. When he opened the door to the office, both men sitting around the desk turned their attention to him.
The one sitting with his back to the door simply cocked his head in confusion, but the man sitting at the desk, Lieutenant Decker, looked downright horrified to see him. "Who're you?" The man who Jack assumed was Captain Carson asked upon seeing him. "You know, normally when you try to get a man killed, a good rule of practice is to learn all you can about him so you don't accidentally bite off more than you can chew. I'm going to make sure you learn why that's a good practice." Jack said, ignoring the man's question.
Closing the door behind him and locking it, Jack approached the two men, one who looked scared while the other still looked to be piecing his words together. "It's him, Carson. It's Sparrow. Do something!" Decker cried fearfully as he backed himself into the corner. Though he himself hadn't seen the fight, he had heard stories, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell at beating the man before him. For his part, Carson was just now clueing in as to his identity, and now he too looked a little scared.
He had been doing a routine inspection to Goa Kingdom on Dawn Island when he had gotten word from his friend Carson about a disrespectful bounty hunter who looked down on Marines and thought the nobles were trash. There was also the fact that he had $18 million berries on hand that no one would go looking for if they somehow got rid of him.
Hell, if they spun the story in the right way to certain people, both of them knew they might be able to get promotions out of it, but it seems their plan had backfired. He couldn't even try to negotiate or wait for backup from Marineford, as he and Decker were acting alone. Still, there was one thing he could rely on, and it had gotten him out of more than one tricky situation too.
"Do you know who I am? I am Captain Carson from Marine HQ. I was trained personally by Vice-Admiral Maynard himself! If you mess with me, you'll have hell to pay!" Carson warned seriously, but Jack just frowned at him. "You're one of those guys. You rely more on reputation than abilities. Tell me, do you even know how to use any of the Six Powers techniques?" Jack said, not buying for even a moment that this guy was any sort of threat.
Hell, the fact that he was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane pretty much told him that. Rather than wait for an answer that would probably be a lie anyway, Jack moved to strike first before either of the two men had the chance to come up with anything stupid. Sure, he basically didn't even consider them a threat, but bullets fired from a child could kill someone if they got lucky.
Carson jumped out of the way at the last second before Jack swung his sword, but Decker wasn't so lucky. Jack's sword cleaved him right down the middle from brain to balls, causing his body to split in two. Turning quickly back to Carson, Jack saw that he was trying to make a break towards the door, but the moment it took for him to try and unlock the door was his undoing. Jack's sword pierced through his gut and pinned him to the door. Looking over his shoulder at Jack, Carson's eyes showed true terror, but at the same time, resignation. He knew he was as good as dead now, and there was nothing he could do about it. And all because of his ignorance and greed.
"When HQ finds out about thi-" Jack didn't let the Captain finish his words, choosing instead to swipe his sword to the right, almost cutting the man in half. 'I don't know why people like to monologue or spend their last moments warning people about stuff. It's just stupid.' Jack thought as he swiped his sword through the air to remove a bit of the blood that was clinging to it.
After killing the Captain, Jack searched his body and found a small notebook. Looking through it, he saw that it had details regarding one of the Six Powers techniques. A little curious, he put it inside of his [Inventory] and read the text that appeared over it.
==========
[Name: Incomplete Failed Manual]
[Value: -$2,000,000]
[Sell: Yes/No]
==========
Reading over the text, Jack couldn't help but frown. 'I have to pay money to sell this thing to the [STORE]? How the fuck does that work?' He grumbled internally, finding the thing to be a complete piece of garbage. When he had first seen it he figured he might be able to learn something from it to start his training on the Six Powers techniques, but after reading the name of it, he decided that it simply wasn't worth it. The [STORE] sold manuals that didn't make him feel as though they were going to cripple him in the future, so he figured he'd just wait until he could afford them.
Before leaving the office, Jack cleaned the place out of what was left of the cash hidden in the safe in the wall, which was only about $7 million berries, but still, that was a hell of a lot better than nothing. Before leaving the Marine base, Jack decided to leave the Marines a message they soon wouldn't' be forgetting. Gathering up Carson's and Decker's corpses, he made his way out into the crucifixion yard and began pulling out all of the bodies of the Marines he had killed.
From around the hotel, the ship at the dock, and now here, he had a grand total of eighty-three corpses, and he was going to put them to good use. After setting everything up perfectly, Jack went into the [STORE] and purchased a Transponder Snail that could take pictures and videos, which by itself was weird because technically speaking the snails were alive, so it shouldn't have been possible to buy them or store them inside of his [Inventory], but he could. He simply chopped it up to one of those things to not worry about and moved on.
It took him more than a few tries to get just the right picture at just the right angle, but when he was finally satisfied with his work, he made a quick stop at a branch of the World Economy News Paper (WENP) and dropped off his pictures before he made his way back to his room to finally get some sleep. It had been a very long day, and all he wanted to do was close his eyes.
The next morning he walked downstairs and sat at the breakfast table in the hotel dining area. The room was pretty empty, and those that were there were talking about a horrible attack on the Marine base. The Marines that hadn't been a part of whatever attack befell the town had locked down the scene so that no one could get a look inside to see it, but somehow the newspaper had gotten photos and it had made the front page. It wasn't only those in the East Blue who saw it either, but the entire world.
There was a big bloody scene illuminated under the moonlight, and what it showed shocked many to their very cores. With corpses of Marine soldiers, a message was left behind for the Marines. It read,
"JUSTICE SERVED"