(Location: Windmill Village)
(General POV)
The next few weeks seemed to pass by relatively quickly for Jack, though the same could not be said for everyone else. Luke, Smoker, Tashigi, Nami, and Nojiko were all pushed quite hard, but so too were the former slaves, and a few of them actually stood out among the rest. Of the 173 people who wanted to join the Adventurers Association, two of them showed real potential, and were actually well versed in combat. They were apparently pretty strong before they were captured and sent off as slaves, and it showed as they were quite far above the others in terms of strength. Of those who were part of the Sentinels, there were about 300 of them who were soldiers in their home towns before they were enslaved, and those ones were also quite far ahead of the others, and there were even some of those some odd 300 people who jumped out at him, seven in particular.
Jack still pushed everyone quite hard, but the ones who stood out to him were pushed a bit further than the others, with Jack putting a bit more thought into their futures. The two individuals from the Adventurers Association, Stain and Xander were quite promising to say the least. Stain was a bit taller than Jack, about seven feet tall, and was only about twenty-three or twenty-four years old. He was a brawler who could keep even Luke on his toes, moving about with quick jabs and fancy footwork, and was so quick it was almost impossible to hit him.
Xander on the other hand, he was a bit of a monster if Jack was being honest. He was a short guy, standing only about five feet, five inches tall, which would normally make one think he wasn't all that fearsome, but the guy could punch a hole through a tree, and that was without Haki or anything else helping him. He was only eighteen years old, which was younger than Jack, and also meant he still had lots of room to grow. Trying to block his hits hurt like hell for almost everyone, which motivated people to just not let him hit them, which was easier said than done. Xander wasn't quite as fast or agile as Stain, but he was strong, like super strong. Despite his short stature, Xander could lift ten tons high above his head, giving Jack the impression that he was looking at the next Garp in the making. Jack was tempted to have him hurl cannon balls for practice, but figured it might be a bit much at the moment to give Xander that sort of idea. He was, after all, still working on his Haki.
As for the seven individuals from the Sentinels who really stood out to Jack, there were five men and two women. Their names were Deckard, Leon, Haedrig, Cormac, Radek, Leah, and Tiana. Deckard was a weapons master. No matter what weapon he used during training, he could use it as if he had been training with it his entire life, and he was only about thirty years old, which was downright mind-blowing to Jack.
'Honestly, a bit of Haki training and this guy would be a serious threat to most pirates.' Jack thought while thinking about Deckard. Jack wondered if teaching the man Haki and the Six Powers techniques would be a bit much for this world, but then brushed that thought aside. It didn't matter to him, because the guy wasn't bad, he simply didn't want to be made a slave again, and felt strongly that everyone had the right to be free, something that Jack fully supported.
Leon was a swordsman who was single-minded, but competent. His goal was to get stronger, and after hearing a few stories about Garp, who was one of the strongest Marines, and Red-haired Shanks who was one of the Four Emperors, and Hawk-eye Mihawk, the strongest swordsman in the world and one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, he firmly believed that he could become stronger so long as he pushed himself, so whenever Jack pushed him further, unlike the others, he smiled.
Haedrig stood out to Jack, not because of his strength, but because of the way he used the strength he had. He was quick witted, and whenever Jack set up some sort of puzzle for them or some obstacle to challenge them, Haedrig was almost always the one to figure out a solution. On top of being smart, he was good at pointing out people's weaknesses, and an all around helpful guy. Jack was glad he was with the Sentinels, and felt as though he would make a good leader. Sure, he had every intention of making Smoker the leader of the Sentinels, or at least one of them, but Smoker cared less for the Sentinels than Luke did, and that was saying something. Jack actually wondered if Smoker would even be up for joining the organization after travelling around with them more and more, but he couldn't be sure. 'Maybe one day.' Jack told himself.
Cormac was a tall skinny guy, but he was an expert marksman. He never didn't have his two pistols strapped to his hips, and he could draw and fire them faster than anyone Jack had ever seen, save for maybe himself, but even then it was close. For fun, Jack had set up a few hundred targets around an area, then he and Cormac tried to see who could shoot the most. Jack had the advantage of knowing where all of the targets were, and not needing to reload, simply because he could swap out his pistols with loaded ones from his Inventory, and even then, it had been close. He had only gotten a little over twenty more targets than Cormac, and some of his had only barely just hit the targets, whereas Cormac had almost hit perfectly on every one of his. 'The guy is a fucking natural with guns.' Jack concluded simply, being quite impressed. He figured that a bit of Haki training, and Luffy and any other Devil Fruit user would be screwed if this guy wanted them dead.
Radek didn't stand out to Jack because he was strong or smart, but rather because of how kind he was. In all of the challenges where Jack tried to pit everyone against one another, Radek would almost always go easy on whoever he was against, even at the cost of being hurt more. He never shunned hard work, and Jack had never heard him complain even once, not about anything. Anytime Radek wasn't training, he was doing odd jobs around town helping people, and when Jack asked him about it, he said it cost him nothing but a little time to help someone else. Jack had thought Radek more suited the Adventurers Association, but again, Radek had told him that he wanted nothing more than to help people, and that lined up more with the Sentinels. Honestly, Jack didn't really know what to make of him, but he knew he had to do something.
Leah was a short-tempered woman in her early to mid-thirties, Jack wasn't sure because the girl kind of scared him too much to ask. She was determined to succeed more than anyone, and though she didn't, that didn't stop her from trying, nor did it stop her from cursing up a storm. Leah wasn't as smart as Haedrig, but she was a quick thinker, and was even quicker to bark out commands. She took charge of situations where others were confused, and she knew how to get people to follow orders. There were a number of people already in their group who looked to her for answers, and Jack felt the woman was practically made for a leadership role.
Finally there was Tiana. She was young, about sixteen or seventeen, she didn't know because no one had ever told her when she was born or how many years she was a slave. That was just all she knew. She was a good person, really, she was just extremely lazy. That wasn't to say she was weak or didn't do anything, rather she did exactly what was required of her, then went to sleep, or pretended to go to sleep. Oftentimes, Jack found her lying on the ground staring up at the sky looking at clouds, and other times she was playing games with the younger children around the town, acting like a child herself. Jack wondered if she was ready to be a fighter, but when he had suggested that maybe she wasn't ready, she had gotten very serious and told him that she was going to be a Sentinel whether he liked it or not, then she had gone so far as to turn most of the children of the town against him, and had it not been for Soran calming them down, they'd probably still be against him.
*****
After about a month since they had left Tequila Wolf, a number of ships could be seen approaching the docks flying the flag of the Revolutionary Army. To Jack's surprised delight, Dragon showed up in person, which was probably why it had taken longer than he had originally told them he would be. "It's good to see you, Dragon." Jack said, shaking the man's hand. "And you as well." Dragon said, genuinely happy to see him. "So how have things been going here?" Dragon asked as he surveyed the much larger town than he remembered seeing the last time he was here. There were far more houses, hotels, restaurants, and there was even a massive fortress further down the coast with its own harbor and what looked to be two large battleships docked there. Looking over at the side of the walls surrounding the fortress, Dragon appreciated the banner hung there. It was of a shield with weird-looking wings spread over it.
(Image Here)
"That is your banner?" Dragon asked while gesturing towards the fortress walls. "Yes. The shield is that of the Sentinels, for their duty is to protect, and the wings symbolize freedom for the Adventures Association. Together, they make up The Order." Jack replied happily, glad that Dragon had noticed the nearby fortress, though considering how big it was, it was kind of hard to miss.
"Truly impressive. I'm not afraid to admit it, but even with all of our resources I don't think the Revolutionaries could have created something like that in such a short amount of time." Dragon said appreciatively. 'If only you knew.' Jack chuckled inwardly, remembering having built that fortress in a matter of hours through his [STORE]. Granted, it had taken some time to design it, and it had cost him a veritable fortune, but he couldn't really complain seeing as how he had stolen most of that money. Okay, he had stolen all of that money, but he didn't care. It was his.
"Things are going well here. We're still in the training phase right now, but things are a bit slower than I would have liked due to a number of the former slaves having not received an education. I actually pay Makino four days of every week to teach a few classes on reading, writing, and basic economics. There are a few of the other townsfolk who have been hired on as teachers, and I myself have taught here and there, but it still isn't perfect." Jack explained as he led Dragon towards the fortress.
He briefly talked about the training he was putting everyone through, but before he could continue on to structuralizing the place, Dragon stopped him. "You have the Six Powers techniques?" Dragon asked in surprise. "I do. If you want, you can get one of your guys to take pictures of the manuals so you can teach them." Jack said, getting a grateful nod from Dragon, who signaled for one of his men to come over to him, then he instructed the guy to go and get a camera.
They continued on towards the fortress where Dragon got a good look at the interior, and noticed the number of regular civilians moving about doing paperwork and organizing things. "We're in the process of creating a call center for people to be able to request help, but we're still a bit far off from succeeding in that area." Jack explained as they passed by a number of offices. "Unless you're going to build a base or an outpost on all of the major islands, I might recommend moving your Headquarters to somewhere more central, say Orange Town on the Organ Islands. It'll be a bit difficult traveling from one end of the East Blue to the other just to patrol." Dragon suggested, which wasn't a bad idea, and was still an option, but Jack figured this would work for now. He had already thought of a way to deal with the gap in transport, but it certainly wasn't a long term solution. However that wouldn't be discussed until later, and it would only be discussed with a select few individuals.
When they finally finished the tour of the place, they were standing before a small army of people, most of whom were in the middle of running drills. "Efficient." Was all Dragon had to say on the matter. There were a few of the trainees who stopped to look at Dragon, some recognizing him from his WANTED poster and from having seen him in the papers, but it was short-lived before they went back to work. They knew slacking off would only get them more work, and with Jack constantly monitoring them, they were pushing it enough as it was.
Moving on, Jack walked back towards the town, and it was there he gave him a list of all of the individuals who wanted to go back to their homes. "There's almost three-hundred people." Jack said after handing over the list that detailed names, locations, and who their families were, and when they were taken from those families.
Dragon didn't so much as bat an eye at the list, finding it to be about what he expected. Actually, there were fewer people who wanted to go home than he thought, mostly because he didn't think so many of the slaves would opt to join Jack's organization, but it seemed they had a lot of faith in him to keep them out of the hands of the World Government, and based on what Dragon had seen thus far, their faith was not misplaced.
While his men were gathering up the former slaves who wanted to go home, Dragon led Jack aboard one of his ships, and there Jack made dozens of crates appear, all of them full of weapons and ammunition, and he even supplied a number of crates of provisions for the trip as well. "These are…" Dragon said softly as he looked over the manuals for the Six Powers techniques. They were different from the ones the World Government taught, and Dragon could see that these training methods were actually far superior. They were much more simplified, and they didn't seem as though they would lose out in comparison to the other methods.
"Where did you get these?" Dragon asked. "So get this, God has this [STORE], and because I amuse him so much, he lets me buy stuff from him." Jack said with a bit of a laugh, which in turn got a low chuckle from Dragon. "It's alright if you don't want to tell me. I understand that some things must remain a secret." Dragon said calmly, not believing anything Jack said, even though everything he said was the truth.
After they got everyone loaded up, Dragon pulled Jack aside before saying, "I thought you should know, some of my spies in Marineford have tipped me off about a potential strike force being put together to come here and put an end to you. It's still in the planning phase, mostly because they don't know a whole lot about you, but you should expect something in the next few months. I'll keep you posted if I learn more, but for now that's all I have."
"Thanks, I'll be sure to keep an eye out. In the meantime, I think I'll keep the training going. Hopefully we can get a strong foothold in the next few months ourselves, so by the time any force is sent against us, we'll be able to deal with it without issue." Jack said, grateful for the warning. With that, Dragon was off.
*****
Over the next few weeks, whenever Jack wasn't sleeping or training, he was messing around with some of the [Customize Settings] of his [STORE], namely the [Weapon] page. He found he could design weapons, though even after buying blueprints on other weapons, it was a lot harder to create the ones he wanted. It wasn't at all like designing his ship where he was able to put the best pieces of all of the blueprints together and create the best ship in the world, no, the parts had to work in conjunction with one another, making so not just any old part would do. It actually got to the point where he was just taking ideas, rewriting them with other metals and thicknesses until he finally found one that worked, and by worked, the [STORE] didn't label it as a piece of garbage.
Jack never had any intention of learning this much about guns when he first came to this world, but with how many books he read on gun-making and the number of blueprints he studied of different makes and models, he could say he knew far more than he ever thought possible. When he finally got the perfect design, he created the gun for just a million berries, which was a steal considering how much work he put into the damn thing, though to be fair, he did have to design the bullets that went into the thing too, though that was more fun than designing the gun had been.
Looking at the weapon he had spent weeks pouring over, Jack couldn't help but grin. It was a 13mm combat pistol, made to fire far more powerful rounds than any model before it. The gun was 39cm long, 16kg in weight, and the magazines for it could each hold six rounds each. It was silver in color with pearl-handle grips, and was able to eject the rounds quickly with the simple press of a button. With the [STORE], now that Jack had already designed everything, if he wanted more of it, it was as easy as pushing a button, so with that, he purchased four more magazines, giving him five in total.
Next, he looked at the rounds he had created. After giving it a bit of thought, he had created a style of bullet specifically made to combat Devil Fruit users. They were 13mm explosive shells, with steel casings coated in a brass film to protect from the elements, with the tips being made of mercury mixed with specs of Sea Prism Stone. Of course he made normal bullets made of simple lead, mostly because the other bullets were about a hundred times the cost, but also because it was sort of a waste to shoot Sea Prism Stone when it wasn't against a Devil Fruit user.
Deciding it was probably a good idea to test this thing, Jack made his way outside and headed towards the outskirts of the village to the treeline. Double checking with his Haki, Jack made sure no one else was nearby, then fired a normal bullet at a nearby tree. With just the force of the bullet alone, the trunk of the tree exploded, and a portion of the tree disappeared. Trying something else, Jack fired again, only this time he coated the bullet with his Haki. The tree exploded like the first time, only the bullet went through the tree and the two trees behind it before it embedded itself into a giant rock. More than a little pleased, Jack swapped magazines, using the explosive rounds this time. What followed was the tree straight up being obliterated and falling over, and that was without Haki.
Jack was so pleased, he didn't care about the cost of it and began firing shots all around him, emptying the two magazines filled with the explosive rounds, then went and emptied the other three magazines that were filled with normal bullets. He must have been causing a ruckus because he had just finished firing the last shot when Luke and more than a dozen other people came running to see what all the commotion was about.
"What's going on?!" Luke asked quickly as he surveyed the trees for any sign of an enemy, however the only thing he did find were a number of trees that had been blown to hell. "Calm down. I was just testing out a new gun I made." Jack said as he held up the gun in question. Smoker let out a whistle of appreciation before commenting, "That's quite the piece of machinery." As a man who had spent most of his life in the Marines, he knew a good weapon when he saw one, and that was a nice gun. "How about a demonstration?" Cormac asked, appearing at the front of the group with a wide smile on his face.
Deciding to humor everyone, Jack reloaded the now empty magazines, filling four of them with the normal bullets, while the last one was filled with the explosive rounds. Just as before, he fired at the trees, turning them into splinters in front of everyone, and because he was trying to show off, he reloaded as quickly as he could, letting everyone see how superior these guns were compared to normal guns.
"Did you know it's my birthday today?" Cormac said greedily without ever taking his eyes off of the gun in Jack's hand. "It is? Happy birthday!" Radek cheered happily as he slapped Cormac on the back and broke him out of his reverie. "He was joking, Radek. Cormac just wanted the gun." Leah said calmly. "But we can still have cake though, right?" Radek asked, feeling as though they should get cake, if not for Cormac's birthday then to celebrate Jack's new gun. "Come on, Radek. I'll buy you a cake." Haedrig said, clearly in a generous mood as he and Radek pulled Cormac away from Jack and back towards town.
*****
It wasn't until later that evening when most everyone was gathered in Makino's bar celebrating Jack's new gun that Nojiko appeared next to Jack at his table and slid over so she was seated on his lap. "So, let's see this new gun of yours." She said, quite curious to see it. She, like Cormac, was more of a gunner than anything, though that didn't mean she was exempt from learning to fight with the others.
"Why would you want to see my gun when you can see yours?" Jack asked with a grin as he made a small chest appear on the table in front of them, which seemed to draw a number of eyes towards them. "Are you serious?" Nojiko asked in surprise as she looked between the chest and Jack. "A hundred percent." He told her, urging her to open it. Doing as Jack wanted, Nojiko reached out and flipped a latch before lifting the lid. What she saw were two twin pistols that looked like nothing she had ever seen before. The barrels were a bluish silver with ruby-colored pistol-grips that were indented to fit her hand. Carefully lifting one of them out of the case, she got a good feel for it, finding that her hand fit perfectly in the indented portion.
Looking at the barrel of the gun, Nojiko saw there was an engraving across the underside of it, which spelled, [JUDGE]. Checking the other gun that was almost identical to the one she was holding, save for having the grips be for her left-hand instead of her right, Nojiko saw that it was also engraved with the word, [JURY]. "Seriously?" She asked him with a half smile. "What? I thought they were cool names for guns." Jack told her, which in turn got a laugh from her.
Their little moment was ruined when Cormac practically pushed Nojiko aside and sat on Jack's lap before he wrapped his arms around Jack's neck. "Where's mine?" He asked, sounding more serious than Jack had ever heard him. Luke and almost everyone else in the bar burst out laughing at that, hell, even Jack couldn't stop from laughing. "They're right here, now get off of me!" Jack shouted good naturedly as he made a chest similar to Nojiko's appear on the table, only it was a bit bigger.
Cormac moved quickly away from Jack with the chest in his arms, and after opening it, everyone could swear he was on the verge of tears. "It really is my birthday." Luke heard Cormac whisper to himself as he slowly caressed the two guns that were a dark grey in color with black grips. Unlike Nojiko's, Cormac's chest had two holsters that could be easily switched between shoulder holsters or hip holsters, and there was a belt that was slotted to hold twenty magazines, of which there were, and all of them were loaded. There were even three boxes, each filled with a hundred normal rounds in the chest, and one box of a hundred of the explosive rounds.
"I don't have to sit in your lap to get mine, do I?" Luke asked, to which Jack shot him a glare. That was not going to become a thing. "Tomorrow morning, I'm going to give everyone in The Order one of these guns, so don't come over here and try to sit on my lap or I'm going to throw you outside!" Jack said in warning, loud enough for everyone in the bar and some outside to hear him. "What about me? Am I not allowed to sit there?" Nojiko pouted. Jack simply shook his head, knowing he had walked right into that one.
*****
The next few days were all the same, with more training and what not, until Jack called for Radek to stop what he was doing and follow him. Radek had never been singled out like this, and was wondering if he had done something wrong. He only got more nervous when he entered a room in the fortress where he found Luke, Smoker, Haedrig, Deckard, Leah, Stain, Xander, Nami, Nojiko, and Tashigi all sitting at a long table. "What's going on?" Radek asked nervously as he moved over to the head of the table beside Jack. "We've been talking, Radek, and we've come to a decision about your role in The Order." Jack said calmly so as not to spook the man more than he already was.
"What do you mean? I'm a soldier!" Radek said, sounding a little upset. "You're not a soldier, Radek. You're a protector." Haedrig said simply, stating what everyone here already knew. "Our job is to protect people! I don't need to kill people to do that!" Radek said defensively, looking as though he was worried they were going to kick him out of The Order because he had refused to hurt people. "Calm down, Radek. No one is saying you can't protect people, hell, this is a great thing. It's because you're who you are that we all believe you're the only man for the job we have lined up for you." Jack said, hoping to calm the guy down and get this conversation back on track.
"What do you mean?" Radek asked after taking a few deep breaths to calm his breathing down a bit. In response to this question, Jack pulled out what looked to be a bright blue apple with a golden colored stem. "Do you know what this is, Radek?" Jack asked as he held out the fruit in question. "It's a Devil Fruit." Radek answered, knowing that it couldn't be anything else, if what he had heard about them was true, though this was his first time seeing one in person so he might be wrong.
"Correct, but it's not just any Devil Fruit. This Devil Fruit, if used properly, might one day be the very core of The Order. Not just anyone can be given this fruit, for they will have unimaginable power. We've all discussed it, and we've concluded that this power would be best utilized in your hands." Jack said, getting a confused look from Radek. "Really? What does it do?" Radek asked, sounding as though he wasn't sure he wanted to hold that much power.
"This is the Gate-Gate Fruit. It allows you to open a gateway through space to anywhere you've been before. Imagine it, Radek. Pirates are attacking a town, and the townsfolk call The Order requesting for help. Suddenly in the middle of the town, a portal opens and the Sentinels step out, armed and ready to take on any threat that might stand in their way, and you Radek are at the forefront of everything. As the other Sentinels move to subdue the attackers, you, Radek, are helping the injured through portals to our medical facilities where they can receive care. So long as you can open a portal there, the Sentinels will always be there to help people, no matter where they might be." Jack explained, getting a look of awe from Radek, who no longer seemed as nervous as he was before.
"Why me? Why should I have this power?" Radek asked curiously. "Think about it. Whoever gets this power, if they chose to use it nefariously, what could anyone do to stop them? They could use it to steal from people, to peek at girls while they're in the bath, or to kidnap children. You're an honorable man, Radek, which is why we know you would never do anything like that." Haedrig said, playing on Radek's fears to really sell home why he was the best fit for it.
One thing they failed to tell him was that whoever ate this fruit would be more on portal duty and moving people around than fighting, something which they all decided Radek didn't want to do. Sure, the guy was strong, but he didn't have it in him to kill someone else, which wasn't a bad thing mind you, but for a soldier, it was more of a hindrance, especially if they were going to be taking on the World Government. "I'll do it! I'll eat the Gate-Gate Fruit!" Radek said firmly, resolved to do his duty. "Good man." Jack said before he handed over the fruit in question.
They all watched Radek take a giant bite out of it, then he made a face of revulsion, something which Jack knew only too well, then he swallowed. They all waited in silence, and after a minute, a portal began to open up beside Radek, and on the other side of it, was Makino, who looked shocked to see them through the gateway that was clearly in her bar. "Hello, Makino." Radek waved at her. "Hello, Radek." Makino said dumbly without so much as blinking. "Good-bye." Radek said to her before the portal closed.
"Were you trying to open a portal to Makino's bar?" Jack asked curiously. "Of course. Makino is the kindest person I've ever met, and I wanted to show her my new power." Radek answered honestly. "Try somewhere else. Like a different island." Haedrig suggested, wanting to see more. "The only other place I can remember besides here is-" Radek began before a portal opened up, showing them all the familiar sight of Tequila Wolf. It was actually the end of the bridge where Jack had rescued them all.
"Close it!" Xander growled angrily. He didn't have any fond memories of that place other than leaving it, so seeing it was not on his "To Do List". "We'll work on getting you to explore more islands around, that way you can open up portals all over." Smoker told Radek after Xander's outburst. "It was really good for only your second try. The timing just wasn't quite right." Tashigi said, hoping to keep the man's spirits high. "Don't worry, Radek. Tomorrow, you and I will head out and explore the East Blue." Jack told him, getting smiles from everyone, mostly because with Jack gone, they'd finally get a break.
*****
It turned out that the big break that everyone was expecting did not come to pass, for they forgot one key detail to Radek's power. If he could open a gate to an island after exploring it, surely he could open a gate back to Windmill Village, which meant he and Jack were back after only being gone a few hours, and low and behold, almost everyone was caught slacking off. As punishment, Jack made them play dodgeball, only instead of actual dodgeballs, he was using baseballs that he hit at them, and they were all coated with Haki. No one managed to get out of the game without being hit at least once, but that was because if Jack couldn't hit you normally, he would use his power to pull you towards him, then hit you when you were in the air so you couldn't dodge.
When they finally finished his little game, they were walking back towards town when Jack whipped around as fast as he could and threw a baseball right at Luke's head, dropping him to the ground like a puppet that just had it's strings cut, or like someone who just got brained by a ball that was flying so fast it broke the sound barrier. "You need to keep a better eye on your surroundings." Jack told him before he continued walking along as if nothing had happened, leaving everyone else to look at Luke, wondering if he was still alive.
"You sadistic fuck! I'll get you for that!" Luke shouted angrily, confirming that he was very much alive, and quite pissed to say the least. Jack ignored him, choosing instead to whistle a tune as he walked down the road. He had made his point, and didn't think anyone would be trying to skip out on training in the days when he was gone.
*****
A few months passed by in seemingly a blink. Jack and Radek had gone to pretty much every island in the East Blue, and to all of the major cities and towns. Because there were so many places, Haedrig recommended that Radek keep a photo album with all of the places he had been to, that way if he needed to reference the pictures for where to open up a gate, then he wouldn't have to struggle to remember where it was, so after that, Radek began taking pictures of all of the towns before he put them in the book before writing above them where it was and what the place was called.
Almost as if Jack had foretold of the event, a few weeks after they had explored the East Blue, a town in the Oykot Kingdom requested help because pirates were seen just off shore. Radek opened a portal and three-hundred Sentinels stepped out and got into formations before they spread out around the town. To be on the safe side of things, Radek helped move a number of the townsfolk through the gate, making sure they were completely safe from whatever may come, which was a good thing because the pirates began firing upon the town when they got within range, then they charged the town with their weapons drawn, not realizing that the cannon balls they fired at the town had caused no damage whatsoever.
"Send them to hell!" Haedrig shouted, which is when all of the Sentinels in hiding opened fire. The thirty-something odd pirates didn't even get the chance to really understand how truly fucked they all were before they were all dead and the whole thing was over. The people were returned to their village, relieved to see that the town was still standing, and had nothing but praise for the Sentinels. The Marine influence was all but gone, and those that had been in the Marines before had quit thanks to Smoker and had joined up with the Sentinels, bringing their number to a little over five-thousand people. Jack had to come up with a new uniform for the Sentinels, which was just black pants and a long dark blue navy shirt.
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There were a few more instances where such things happened, but for the most part, everything was rather calm in the East Blue, that is, until one morning when Jack received a call. "When will they be arriving?" Jack asked curiously. "They just left Marineford today, so not for a few weeks yet. You have about a month I'd guess." Dragon answered solemnly. "Will you be alright?" Dragon asked after a minute of Jack not saying anything.
"Oh yeah, we've got this. I'm just trying to figure out their aim. I mean, it's not like the East Blue wants the Government or the Marines back, so I don't see why they would just come in like this to try and take over." Jack said, feeling rather confident about the whole thing. "I think their goal is to get rid of you. There has obviously been an information leak somewhere, and word has gotten back to the Marines about you and your Order. They even know you're at Windmill Village on Dawn Island because that's their course." Dragon informed him. "I guess it was too much to ask for more time to grow stronger, but you can't win them all." Jack said, feeling as though the whole thing was bound to happen sooner or later. "Thanks for the warning, Dragon. I'll keep you updated on what happens." Jack said, then ended the call.
He still had some time before the fleet of Marine battleships arrived, and he was going to make the most of the situation. Jack also wanted to find a way to use this to send a message to the rest of the Marines that the East Blue was off limits, and he had to make sure there was no room for misinterpretation.