Squashing Insects [Rei]

[long2]

The villain hacked and coughed as he doubled over. Kicked to the ground, the cracking of bone could be heard as he continued to writhe in pain. A foot pressed down on his injured side and pressed on it, causing him to release a howl of pain. The reactions of the crowd mixed from gasping at the brutality before them to looking down on the pirate for stepping foot on the island. A low, pathetic bounty, but still a potential threat if not squashed. Fortunately, there was a man willing and able to squash the insects as they crawled out of the woodwork - the Marine Captain Jean Chevalier. A blonde-haired man of fairly tall height and lean frame, clad always in his Justice coat and a dark suit. By his hip rested a katana, but he didn't even bother to draw it - this man wasn't worth staining his blade.

"Lock him up. Don't bother treating him - he brought it on himself. Take the wounded to a doctor's," he remarked to the Marines by him. Saluting, one of them grabbed the pirate and dragged him away in cuffs whilst two others moved towards a young couple further down. One of the two was bleeding from the shoulder where a knife had been swung, but nevertheless aside from the fear of blood loss it was unlikely to be fatal. The Marine Captain watched as the criminal was dragged away, too weak to fight back. A smile graced his lips for a second, but it quickly faded as he turned towards the crowd of people. His eyes focused on all of them for a moment before he spoke.

"Everything has been taken care of. Go about your daily business!" he informed them. Like soldiers, they obeyed the command and decided to disperse. You didn't argue with a command like that. Especially not if it came from a cyborg armed with a katana. Especially if that cyborg's name was Jean Chevalier. Watching as the crowd dispersed, his eyes scanned the crowd. However, as he watched them, an icon in his eyes directed him towards a particular woman. Upon a screen only he could see, a name and a bounty appeared before him: Rei Satsuki, "The Black Witch". His eyes sharpened as his fingers inched towards the handle of his katana. It looked like more blood would be shed today - he'd just caught sight of one more insect.

[REI SATSUKI]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #111111; width:325px; padding:15px; border-left: 10px solid E6E6E6; vertical-align:top;] Rei had spotted the incident, but made no attempts to intervene, keeping the hood on her jacket up. Normally, the pirate would have avoided coming back to this island like the plague, especially after what had occurred the last time she was here. Unfortunately, fate hadn't left them much of a choice, since a couple of the crew had fallen in and the closest island where an antidote could be acquired was here. As a doctor and as a Captain, Rei had opted to take a handful of crew, so as not to draw to much attention to themselves. It seemed the Marines were back to those nasty habits of abusing their power though, another example of cowards picking on those to weak to offer much of a challenge. Was it any wonder so many turned to piracy these days? The World Government was little better than a bunch of fear mongers, keeping people in check through unjust practices and threats of destruction to those that didn't submit. The whole scene was enough to turn her stomach as her finger coiled around the satchel that held the medicine. "Captain?" One of crew whispered, noting the thin line that now formed her mouth as a war raged within in. A part of her was itching for a fight, but Rei soon shook her head in disapproval and a warning not to get involved. Passing off the medicine, Rei motioned for the crew to go back first as the crowd began to disperse. It would attract less attention that way. However, the pirate lingered for a moment, unaware that was all it took for the Marine to catch sight of her. He didn't have to say a word, when the Marine turned to make a bee-line for them, a red flag immediately went up in warning. It was to intent a gaze to mistake that he was going for anyone else, his right hand dropping to the hilt of the katana as her own pushed beneath the coat to ready to draw the Guan Dao in defense. For once, Rei wasn't looking for some long fight with the Marines, but it seemed her plans had hit a bit of a snare. So much for sneaking out of town and avoiding trouble. Why couldn't one of her plans go right for a change? The Marines were such a pain.

[atrb=style, padding:10px; width:115px; background-color: #000000;][atrb=valign,top] [style=background-color: #111111; background-attachment: scrolling; height:100px; width:100px; padding:5px; border: 1px solid #FF6699;][/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]WORDS[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]393[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]TAGGED[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]Jean & Flint[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]NOTES[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]So short, sry.[/style]

[Flint]

Sitting perched on the ship, Flint hadn't opted to follow the captain into town. Part of him thought he should have gone, if just to keep an eye out for more marines but keeping an eye on the ship was equally as important. Still, he was more than a little bored. He was idly disassembling and re-assembling his guns at a ridiculously fast pace while he watched the people walking around the harbour. Micqueot wasn't exactly pirate friendly so the sails weren't up and since he was meant to be dead his old bounty wasn't in circulation so being seen in public shouldn't be too big of a problem. He was just re-assembling his guns for the 8th time when he overheard a rather important snippet of conversation. It was just two people walking by the boat, talking in a hushed tone which Flint couldn't quite make out clearly but he could lipread from here pretty easily

"-was a pirate though, he had it coming"
"I know but he gives me the creeps, they say he isn't human any more"
"He ate a devil fruit?"
"No something else he*covers mouth with fan and makes lipreading impossible*"

"That isn't very helpful" Flint commented as he considered who they could mean. It wasn't long before he caught the words of some green Marine recruit as he ran past and mentioned to another that it was a Captain Chevalier who'd arrested a pirate earlier today. Ahh. That wasn't good news.

Flint hadn't ever met the captain but he had heard the stories, even from Cactus Island, of the marine captain who always seemed to be treading the line between monster and marine. There was at least three pirates he'd met who'd rather die then be caught by Chevalier, just from his reputation alone. Flint idly rubbed his chin as he thought about this, if he was on the island they needed to get going soon as Rei had the neccessary goods to treat the men who were still ill below deck, but Micqueot wasn't big enough they could afford to assume that Chevalier would just go straight past them.

Glancing to one of the crew standing on deck, Flint asked pretty simply
"Hey, if Chevalier of the marines is on Micqueot what're the odds Captain'd run into him on a routine trip to town?"
"I... dunno. Pretty slim I should think, like, miniscule chances"
"Yeah... you're right, there's no chance at all, it'd be completely unlikely" with a click Flint snapped his revolvers back together and holstered them "I'm going to town to stop Rei fighting Chevalier"
"What? But you just said the odds of that happening are-"
"Yes, but since when has the captain cared what's probable and what isn't, she's probably fighting Chevalier and some Devil Fruit user as we speak"
"What!? That's... actually... a very real possibility"
"Mmmm. Be back soon." Flint hopped off the ship and began walking to town. He knew roughly where Rei'd be going he just had to hope she hadn't started a fight already...

[long2]

"Don't bother running. Don't bother escaping. Don't even bother hiding. I've already found you, "Black Witch"," he spoke, his voice cool and calm as he strode towards her with a light smirk on his face. His coat continued to flutter in the wind as he laid a hand on the hilt of his weapon before beginning to grip it. His hold was firm as he drew the katana partway, his eyes focused on the woman. He didn't need to have read it in the papers to know about her - the Marines regularly updated his brain with new information regarding bounties. Which ones had turned inactive, which ones had been turned in et cetera. But also what they had done to earn those bounties. And before him was a little bug that apparently liked to escape the Marines' arrest.

"I can't say I know how you've escaped arrest so many times, but we don't have to worry about that. You aren't going to be arrested this time," he remarked coldly. His blade was now fully drawn, shining in the light of the sun. He rose it for a second before grasping the hilt with his other hand, now holding his katana before him. His eyes focused on the pink-haired Pirate Captain. Unlike the other before, this woman was a well-known Pirate Captain. She wasn't the biggest threat on the seas, of course, not even close - but she was still a threat. Killing her here was perfectly justified. People who saw the Captain draw his blade as he spoke to the Pirate backed off, watching from afar as he stepped towards her. His footsteps were heavy and made a little clank against the earth.

"Don't bother running, "Black Witch"!" he told her as the blond Marine Captain dashed forwards. Deep impressions were left by his steps as he closed in on the woman with surprising swiftness, his blade flashing through the air as he swung down diagonally from the right of Rei's head, intending to slice from shoulder to hip.

[REI SATSUKI]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #111111; width:325px; padding:15px; border-left: 10px solid E6E6E6; vertical-align:top;] Rei would have been lying to say there wasn't a faint amount of concern that went through her mind as the Marine called out the familiar nickname. It was one earned very early on in her career as a pirate, but one that had become notorious over the past year or so, especially in the North Blue. However, it was the suggestion not to run that caused her expression to form into something more serious and sobering as the Marine launched forward. He continued to recall how many times she had escaped arrest and was so quick to reassure her that this would be the last time she ever saw freedom. It was a threat Rei had heard countless times and one that by now, no longer instill the same fear it did on most. However, there was something odd about the Marine that she couldn't quite put her finger on. "Run?" Rei repeated in mock amusement at the idea. Drawing the Guan Dao from beneath her coat, the sections snapped together as it swept forward before coming to a halt horizontally over her in defense. A loud clatter of metal rang out as the sword's edge slammed into the shaft of the pirate's weapon. "When have I ever run from the dogs of a corrupt system? I leave only when I've finished my business, just as I did with this islands base once before." She explained with a faint smirk, recalling the stained ego of the Marines after she had destroyed another one of their bases and burned the symbolic flag that they followed so blindly. Using the the Guan Dao, Rei pushed the blade of the katana off to her left side. Rolling the weapon around her hips in a flourishing sweep, she brought the crescent shaped edge back around in a slashing motion, taking aim at the Marine left shoulder and downward across to his right hip. The pirate may not have looked it, but the fluidity with which she wielded that heavy weapon was evidence of training that went back much farther than the Marines were aware of her as a pirate. Still, while her intent hadn't been to spill blood on the island, Rei had no intention of backing down or running like a coward from a man who was little more than a glorified tyrant of a Marine. "I didn't come here to fight, but if I have to put down a few mongrels of the World Government before I leave, then so be it." Rei spoke in cold warning, lifting a hand as the ice along the ground began to freeze over, forming a layer of frozen earth that encircled the two of them and attempted to freeze the boots of any Marines that weren't paying attention to the ground. Naturally, Rei's instinct wanted her to simply leave and be done with this mess, but men like this couldn't be dissuaded with simple running away. Besides, the last thing she wanted him to do was reach her crew first and for people to get hurt, when she was more than enough to deal with some arrogant,egotist of a Marine.

[atrb=style, padding:10px; width:115px; background-color: #000000;][atrb=valign,top] [style=background-color: #111111; background-attachment: scrolling; height:100px; width:100px; padding:5px; border: 1px solid #FF6699;][/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]WORDS[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]524[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]TAGGED[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]Jean & Flint[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]NOTES[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]None.[/style]

[Flint]

Flint's boots scuffed the streets of Micquoet as he jogged towards his goal, he believed he knew where the Captain would go but he'd been looking for a while, he hadn't seen a sign of her yet. He had run into a few marines who he'd had to 'show the error of their ways' to and was now reloading his revolvers as he went. He hadn't killed them, he didn't bear much ill will towards Marines as a principle, he didn't like the World Government but since half the Marines were just trying to do the right thing he didn't feel right killing them.

He ground to a halt, eyes flicking left and right. He couldn't see any sign of her. Scrambling up a rope dangling from a roof-top, he found a series of builders working on a new tower and ignored their protestations as he hurriedly scaled the structure to glance out over the town proper. His eye-sight wasn't the best in the world, but it was significantly better than a normal person. He noted, to his chagrin, that if he'd brought his rifle he probably could have sniped Chevalier from here and insured him and Rei didn't meet. He couldn't see them and so jumped from the roof, landing wth a crunch of wood on a bench as he began strolling through again, eyes darting around for some sign of his captain.

He saw a few people running away from a fight but he couldn't properly identify the source. He paused, taking a few seconds to think what was the best way to think where Rei would be
"Where would the most shirtless men be?" Flint idly wondered, to the incredibly bemused look of a few young women walking past. Flint made eye-contact with one, and after a long pause (wherein he completely missed why they found him vocalising this weird) he asked
"What?" which drove them to disperse and leave a puzzled Flint to think where Rei could be.

He shivered wondering why it was so cold and began walking away from the cold to feel warmer until some remnant of his observational skills kicked in and he paused, a fairly simple deduction going through his mind
Rei ate the Hie Hie no Mi
It was colder in that direction
"Oh. Yeah, that'd make sense" seeing he could now locate Rei, Flint was also aware if she was USING her fruit she was probably fighting so he pondered... what would be the best angle of approach so he could get them out of this fight?

[long2]

She'd been swift enough deflecting his weapon with her Guan Dao. There were a couple problems with fighting someone wielding a polearm weapon - namely range. His katana was roughly three or four feet long. But a Guan Dao could cover a much longer range. If she fought wisely, she could control the range and, in effect, control the battle. But Jean wasn't so careless as to let the difference in range get between him and his target during a fight. He had plans and strategies. Even as she baited him on with her descriptions of how she attacked and humiliated the island base once before, his face remained like stone. Keeping a cool head even in the face of battle was a skill of his she couldn't outmaneuver.

"Take pride, then. Scum will only ever take pride in being scum, after all," he remarked, his tone calm and soft-spoken as he watched her sweep around her Guan Dao again. But his reflexes were quick; as the blade swung down he ducked and moved, slipping under the blade and stepping to Rei's side. Standing and attacking from here gave him the biggest window of opportunity between her first attack and the next. Gripping his katana tightly, he now swung horizontally in an attempt to cut open her side. Jean didn't waste his movements - every step and every swing was calculated. The blond Marine Captain was willing to fight as long as it took - he wasn't the one who was going to be running out of stamina anytime soon, after all. She may have been Human, but he was a Cyborg.

[REI SATSUKI]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #111111; width:325px; padding:15px; border-left: 10px solid E6E6E6; vertical-align:top;] Now Rei couldn't explain it in any logical form and maybe that was why it had been so easy for her to become a pirate, but the Marines had a tendency to annoy her to no end. Everyone held them in such high esteem, but the truth was they were little better than the dogs of the nobility, a nobility that was perhaps more crooked and callus than any pirate could be. Yet, instead they painted themselves some false-saviors of the world, as justice. How naive. All of it was a lie, farce, and it raked on the captain's last good nerve, no matter how calm she tried to remain on the surface. She couldn't stand men like him, the arrogance of playing god when they were nothing more than human. "Tch." Was the only noise in annoyance that the pirate made as the blade slipped past the Marine, but there was more to the Gaun Dao than range. It was a mistake many made assuming that it was only good for offense. Well, maybe it was in the hands of an amateur, but for someone like Rei Satsuki, the weapon was as much a part of her as her devil fruit abilities were. As the Marine side stepped, the Captain snapped the dagger-like end of on the back of the Guan Dao up to block the sword and and thrust it away once more, before pushing forward and reaching out to snag the Marine by the arm. Winter Prison. The air around her hand immediately turned freezing cold, intent on latching onto the Marine and turning him into a human ice sculpture if she had her way about it. "Scum, criminal, pirate... Call me whatever you like, but the fact still remains, there's not a Marine alive that's man enough to take me alive." Rei explained with a confident smirk, knowing that if attempted to retreat to quickly on the frozen ground, there was a good chance he would loose his footing, which part of the real reason she'd used the Glacial Freeze. Turned out most Marines were trained at a headquarters, meaning they weren't able to fight as well on the icy and snow covered ground in the north, the very place Rei had grown up and trained to fight in.

[atrb=style, padding:10px; width:115px; background-color: #000000;][atrb=valign,top] [style=background-color: #111111; background-attachment: scrolling; height:100px; width:100px; padding:5px; border: 1px solid #FF6699;][/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]WORDS[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]382[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]TAGGED[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]Jean & Flint[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]NOTES[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]None.[/style]

[long2]

She was no amateur with a Guan Dao, he noted. Even if the blade end of her weapon had been swung, she was still able to use the other end to deflect and redirect his Tetsujin's swing so that it failed to strike her. Normally this would have been the time where he took one hand off of his sword and threw a punch, but instead he saw her reach out with her hand. Did she really think that was a good idea? But he couldn't just ignore it. Instead, as she reached to grab him, he took one hand off of his sword and deflected her arm at the wrist, preventing her from grabbing him before pushing his arm quickly inwards, intending to smash his fist into her face full-force. And a fist made of metal was likely to cause more than a little damage.

But something was off. The air felt colder around him. His feet shifted only a little as he threw a punch, but he could hear something crunch beneath his feet. In that one movement, he began to wonder - did she have some kind of Devil Fruit? A Devil Fruit wasn't surprising, but it did present its own problems. With all this cold, it was likely to be a ice or snow-related Devil Fruit. Given the fact he wasn't ankle deep in snow, or seeing snowfall around him, it was most likely an ice type. This was problematic. If it was ice-related, that meant it was likely to be a Logia type. Logias were never easy to fight against, because they had an annoying habit of turning into their element. Some even on reflex.

It looked like he might have to break out his secret weapon in this fight if he couldn't find any other way to circumvent her fruit's abilities.

[OOC: Hope you don't mind me skipping, Flint. Since he's not in the fight yet, I figured it would be okay until he hopped in.]

[REI SATSUKI]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #111111; width:325px; padding:15px; border-left: 10px solid E6E6E6; vertical-align:top;] Rei narrowly missed the Marine's coat, but instead managed to clench her jaw as his fist slammed hard into cheek. The force was enough to send her backwards several feet, before staggering her a bit as she buried the end of the Guan Dao to regain her ground. The Captain would have been lying to say that she hadn't felt that one, because she was still trying to make the world stop spinning. If she'd been a normal person, or a normal pirate for that matter, she probably would have been on the ground right about now. Fortunately, her abilities as a logia had granted her some lead-way in absorbing the blow, if only a little. However, Rei did make one very big discovery and that was what hit her was not flesh and bone. No, this felt more like metal or iron, but his hand looked normal, so then what was he? "Well, isn't that interesting." Rei spoke, lifting a hand to brush some of broken ice away from her cheek as she straighten up with a smirk. "I've heard the Marines were tampering with humans, but I never expected to see it first hand. I wonder... What'll happen to those metal components when their frozen solid."

[/b] She pondered aloud with a devilish smile, drawing her hand up into the air. As she did so, her arm became shrouded in ice, pouring out into a form that resembled the head of a massive reptilian beast.

"Ice Dragon!" The attack tore forward with a massive amount of force towards the Marine, it's tail twisting and churning as people scramble for safety. Meanwhile, the pirate almost seemed to vanish momentarily into the attack. Chances were the Marine's main concern would be stopping the over-sized ice creature for crushing him under the impact, which was exactly what Rei was waiting for. From some distance behind Jean, the ice began to reform, slowly taking on the familiar form of the pirate. "Die." Rei spoke, drawing the Guan Dao and releasing a slash of compressed ice as sharp as any swords flying towards the man. It seemed evident the Captain had no intention of pulling anymore punches. No, it was time to show the Marines exactly who they were dealing with, by sending their little human experiment back as a box of parts. [/size][/color][/justify][/td]

[td][atrb=style, padding:10px; width:115px; background-color: #000000;][atrb=valign,top]

[style=background-color: #111111; background-attachment: scrolling; height:100px; width:100px; padding:5px; border: 1px solid #FF6699;][/style]

[style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]WORDS[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]388[/style]
[style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]TAGGED[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]Jean & Flint[/style]
[style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]NOTES[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]Feel free to jump in wherever, Flint.[/style]

[/td][/tr][/table][/center]

[long2]

A punch to the face confirmed his suspicions as he watched how she crashed to the ground from the overwhelming force, only to show little damage beyond cracked ice where skin and bone and fleshy tissue should have been. The blond Marine Captain continued to watch her like a hawk, holding his katana up with one hand in front of him should she try to attack again. But it seemed she'd already deduced exactly what he was too. Most were often too incredulous to actually believe his fist was truly made of steel, but she wasn't one to dismiss that, it seemed. It was true - he was a cyborg. Recreated anew from broken bones and flesh torn asunder. She spoke as though attempting to dehumanize the World Government, but he just chuckled at the hypocrisy in his eyes.

"I've already given my life once for the cause. A second, or a third time is no matter. But you really are disgusting, "Black Witch"," he remarked, managing to keep a calm smile on his face whilst still sounding as if he was ready to spit in her face. "The only one throwing away innocent lives here is a murdering criminal like you," he told her in no uncertain terms what he thought. Pirates liked to play this game of pretense, where they tried to make it sound as though the Marines were the bad ones. But they were either blind or pathetic - without the World Government and the Marines, the world would be in turmoil. Scum like her would be free to kill whoever they pleased. It was his duty as a Marine, then, to kill the Pirates wherever they tread.

She began her attack at once, and he was ready to face it. Her arm changed in shape, the ice forming itself into a dragon of frost. The cold seemed to radiate from its form, but he had more things to worry about than the air becoming cold. No, instead it had started moving towards him with its jaws open. Her manipulation of the ice was quite advanced, to be able to recreate a creature such as this. With the ice on the ground, he had to be careful of how he dodged - slipping on the ice was a vulnerability he couldn't allow himself to show. But he had to react quickly. Had he tendons in his legs to tense, he would have tensed them. But instead, cold steel pushed off of the icy floor and leaped far to the right, dodging the icy dragon altogether.

His mechanical feet crashed to the ground, cracking and breaking ice beneath them as he landed. His legs twitched a bit on the ice, quickly recognizing the lack of friction before quickly correcting themselves. It was small, and it wasn't as if he'd taken a fall, but it gave her a moment to strike. She'd originally seemingly tried to appear behind him, but his sudden jump to the right changed that. But nevertheless, condensed ice flew like a blade towards him. He stared it down. If there was no dodging it, then it was up to him to go on the offensive. Taking firm grip of his sword in hand, he slashed - or rather, smashed through the ice. A shard of ice like a blade cut through his shoulder, causing the Marine coat to fall from his shoulders, but the wound itself wasn't too deep. His body was practically armored from the inside, after all.

His left hand stayed out, separate from the katana that his right held onto. Normally he didn't wield a sword one-handed, but normally his left arm didn't hum so loudly. He had a weapon to use against her, and he was just waiting for the opportune moment to use it.

[REI SATSUKI]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #111111; width:325px; padding:15px; border-left: 10px solid E6E6E6; vertical-align:top;] Rei cursed silently to herself as he managed to dodge the beast, but even the Marine wasn't quick enough to escape completely unharmed from the blade. Darn it! In the back of her mind, the Captain knew that there was no way she would be able to continue exchanging blows with the Marine. As much as she would have loved to carry the badge of having defeated the arrogant pain in the behind, the pirate was smart enough to factor in that doing so would expend far more energy than she was accustomed to using. She would be a sitting duck for the Marine's reinforcements and without any of her crew around to back her up, escape would be impossible. Even so, simply running away didn't seem like an alternative with someone that relentless on your tail, not without leading him back to the ship and putting her crew in danger. As the ice managed to cut through his shoulder, Rei took note of his footing and the sudden humming of his left arm. Crap! She needed to end this and soon, before the blasted Marine starting using weapons that were capable of killing more than pirates. Not that it would have been the first time she'd witnessed the Marine's knack for collateral damages, but it had never been the Captain's policy to involve civilians if she could avoid it. Still, Rei would only get one chance and it was incredibly risky. Still, if she didn't act now, there was no telling what would happen. Rushing forward, the image of the pirate seemed to flicker from view, vanishing for a moment only to reappear the Marine. Her intent was to catch him from behind with her arms around his abdomen and to pin his arms where he would be unable to launch an assault. "Winter Prison!" Rei spoke, as the ice began to pour out across her arms and hands. She only needed to hold onto him for a few seconds to encase him in the ice. Chances were, his subordinates would be able to defrost him long before he managed to contract hypothermia. Besides, she wasn't dealing with a human, but a machine and a weapon that was meant to destroy anything in it's path. To her knowledge, Rei didn't know many other ways to stop something made of metal, but if she were lucky, maybe it would buy her enough time to escape the island and be long gone before the Marine woke up again.

[atrb=style, padding:10px; width:115px; background-color: #000000;][atrb=valign,top] [style=background-color: #111111; background-attachment: scrolling; height:100px; width:100px; padding:5px; border: 1px solid #FF6699;][/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]WORDS[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]416[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]TAGGED[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]Jean & Flint[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]NOTES[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]Sorry for the wait.[/style]

[long2]

The Marine Captain stared her down as she charged towards him. She was a crafty one, he would give her that. She didn't fight directly, but pragmatically. Good. He could handle this. He'd already seen her abilities. Skill with her Guan Dao meant she would maintain a medium-to-close range, whilst her Devil Fruit's ice abilities would be incorporated into that natural style. She wasn't a long range fighter, he noted, and that was important. It meant he could fight her in exactly the way that best suited him. His movement may have been hindered by the lack of friction of the icy floor, but that wasn't too important. He already knew full well that she would come to him, anyway. He simply had to stand still, whilst his left arm began to beep in time with its humming.

"I've met plenty of Pirates who were Devil Fruit users. You'll just be one more," he remarked lowly, his eyes sharply focused on her figure. She rushed towards him, unhindered by the icy floor, only to suddenly flicker out of sight. A high-speed technique? It didn't matter. What mattered was estimating which direction she would come from. Above? Left? Right? No. She'd already revealed it to him, once before - he was certain that, given her earlier attack from behind, she would do the same once more. Sure enough, he began to twist and pivot his body as his left arm whipped around, stretching out as he found her attempting to jump him from behind, her arms out as if to catch hold of him. His palm now hovered in front of her stomach as the beeping quickened in pace.

"It's over, Black Witch," he spoke. Suddenly, a ray of light shot out from his palm, shooting right towards her stomach. If it hit, the laser would pierce through her form and shoot far, far into the sky behind her. Like a lance of pure light, it would burn straight through her. This was the work of the Marine's Science Division - unmatched by the rest of the world. In the moment where the laser fired from his palm, Jean's calm and composed features twisted into something sub-human - a savage bloodthirst expressed in a single look. A beast in a knight's armor, seeking blood.

[REI SATSUKI]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #111111; width:325px; padding:15px; border-left: 10px solid E6E6E6; vertical-align:top;] Rei had barely planted her feet and attempted to grab the Marines, when she'd noticed his hips pivot to turn back towards her. Shit. Before the pirate could so much as land a hit on him that humming arm of his snapped upwards towards her direction. She wasn't sure what was so important about that weapon, but the knowledge that the Marines had created meant trouble and it was all she could do to attempt to side step the main blow as the cannon went off. Unfortunately, the Captain wasn't fast enough to avoid it completely as the beam managed to burn a couple inches into her left side. The pain was nothing short of excruciating as Rei's momentum took her down onto her right shoulder, landing hard on the icy surface as her free hand went to her side. A sharp cough sent a crimson splatter across the frozen street as the taste of iron filled her mouth. Cursing under her breath, the Captain couldn't fully take an assessment of the damage, but knew from the pain she was in that the wound was bad. Then again, considering she'd narrowly avoided the blast from point blank range, she was probably lucky to even still be breathing. Most pirates would have been long dead in this situation. This was bad. She had to get to her feet and move before the Marine finished the job. There was only option, though Rei hated the idea. Ice slowly grew from where her left hand had settled, covering and reforming the proper shape of side, sealing whatever wound lay beneath and preventing herself from loosing any further blood. It would be a pain to deal with while trying to heal, but despite the protective barrier over the wound, the fact that something was different was apparent as the ice didn't simply return to flesh as had occurred from Jean's previous blows. Burying the end of the Gaun Dao into the ice, Rei struggled to push herself up to her feet, grinding her teeth in an attempt to ignore how badly her body hurt. Staggering a bit, the pirate managed to reclaim her footing, but knew it wouldn't be enough if Jean chose to launch another blast. "Your a pain in ass, I'll give you that much. Fortunately for me, my ability to claim victory doesn't require my actually win a simply contest of force. Perhaps, another time, Mr. Marine." Rei explained flashes a smirk in contempt, dropping her hand to the ice. No sooner had she done so, than four walls shot upwards from the ground around the Marine, forming a sort of box to keep him in. Each wall was several feet thick and it would take a good amount of force to bring them down, though it wouldn't be impossible given that her opponent was a cyborg. Of course, Rei didn't need to keep him in there forever and with someone as persistent as this Marine, it was more than likely he would be out soon enough. No, all she needed was a few minutes, enough time to get a reasonable head start on her pursuers and maybe enough time to throw in some diversions to fool them into which direction she was going. Turning on her heel, Rei snapped the blade around to knock three Marines out of the way as she rushed down the nearby alleyway. Thanks to previous visits to the city, the Captain was quite familiar with the ins and outs of the city and since the crew had likely made it back to the ship safety, they would be ready to disembark as soon as she managed to shake the overzealous Marines. Sure, running might not have been the most honorable of deeds, but a tactical retreat was far wiser than hanging around to fight when injured and outnumbered. Even if she managed to kill that cyborg, which there was no guarantee she was capable of doing, chances were that it would expend far to much energy and she still had to consider that no Marine ever traveled alone. His subordinates would move in and in her current condition, it was unlikely Rei would be able to prevent them from arresting or killing her given her injuries. No, better to run now and live to give the Marines hell later in return for the annoyance of her injuries.

[atrb=style, padding:10px; width:115px; background-color: #000000;][atrb=valign,top] [style=background-color: #111111; background-attachment: scrolling; height:100px; width:100px; padding:5px; border: 1px solid #FF6699;][/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]WORDS[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]727[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]TAGGED[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;]Jean & Flint[/style] [style= border-bottom: 1px solid #FF6699; text-transform: lowercase;]NOTES[/style][style= text-align:right; background-color: #111111; padding-right:2px;] None. [/style]

[long2]

How annoying, he noted with a disappointed look. He'd been expecting a fatal wound. A lethal blow. Possibly even an instant kill. But even in spite of how close he'd been, she'd still managed to move just enough to make it non-fatal, assuming she got medical assistance. He wasn't exactly satisfied with that. He enjoyed watching Pirates squirm helplessly, but there was only so much to enjoy. Watching them die, knowing you'd done the world a favour - that was the true joy. The true ecstasy. Rising to his full height, the Marine Captain looked down upon her wounded figure. Oh well. It was a mistake he'd soon rectify. Clutching the hilt of his katana with both hands now, he strode towards her, ready to deliver a finishing blow.

Then the walls rose.

Four walls of ice rose up, forming barriers on either side of him. A cage meant to contain him. He grunted in annoyance, clutching his weapon tighter. He could hack away at the ice with his weapon, but he decided against it. Instead he began to sheath the weapon, returning it to its scabbard. There was no point potentially damaging his own weapon by slashing at the ice for who knows how long. He could have used his laser weapon again, but he needed some time to recharge. No, this was something best left to his own, solid-steel fists. Clenching tightly, he slammed his knuckles against the ice, causing it to crack apart. Aiming for the same point, he continued to punch and punch against the solid surface, cracking it further and further. His eyes narrowed as he continued to strike furiously at the icy wall before him.

He'd been so close, too. He was ready to take her head and put it on display as a warning to Pirates. But now he was stuck within this icy prison. He'd been too complacent. As soon as she dodged, he should have rushed towards her and plunged his blade into her head. He should've reacted quicker. He grit his teeth and his blows became more furious. He refused to simply let her escape like this. It would be an embarrassment to the Marines if he let her go. No, he was going to hunt her down and finish her before she got off this island. He was a Marine Captain! She was scum! That was all there was to it. Grunting, he hammered his fist into the icy wall before him, this time punching a hole straight through it large enough for his arm to fit through. He focused more now, pulling his arm back and using both his hands to grab the sides of the hole.

With a mighty heave he tore open the hole wider, breaking apart the wall as he forced himself through. But as he escaped the icy prison, he found only bloodstains on the ground from where she'd collapsed. She'd already moved away. Almost swearing, the blond Marine Captain held a look of furious determination that was almost frightening. He was not going to let her besmirch the name of the Marines like this! He would not! His eyes focusing on the blood, he scanned the street before noticing a smaller patch of blood further up the street. A trail. She couldn't have gotten far in her condition. Now the battle had become a hunt.

Pushing off the ground, he raced down as he watched the ground carefully for any other sign of a bloodstain. Perhaps a trail that would lead him straight to her. Then he could put an end to their business.