Three days prior, Third Person POV, Marine HQ;

It was the end of the month and the Vice Admirals and Higher Ranked Marines were meeting for their monthly report. Well, those that were at HQ and not in the New World or doing other Marine Government thinks.

Sengoku, fleet admiral of the Marines was leading this meeting like always. He had to, it was his job to do things like this as the fleet admiral. He seldom could do things that were fun, like Garp, who was not present, having something to do with three new recruits he picked up in East Blue. Neither was one of the three admirals present, all of them having more 'important' things to do.

With him were the Vice Admirals Tsuru, Doberman, Momonga and Dalmatian, as well as the Rear Admirals Catacombo, Yukimura, and Sicily. All of them were high ranking Marines and had a great amount of knowledge and experience, as well as nothing else to do.

“Let's start this, I still have paperwork to do”, grumbled Sengoku from his seat. A small goat was standing on the table in front of him and eating said paperwork.

“Yes, I also have to go back”, agreed Tsuru. She took a sip from her tea and looked at a Marine who was standing with a stack of papers to the side.

“Yes Ma'am, these are the reports and pictures of today's main subject. The possible bounty increases.” The Marine gave each officer a folder and stepped back to his initial position.

“Hmm, Eustass Kid and his crew decimated another village, I think we can all agree that an increase of 50 million is appropriate?”, said Doberman after having a look through the first file.

“That would give him one of 160 million, isn't that a little bit high for someone this new?”, questioned Sicily.

“No, this rebellious child is causing havoc wherever he goes. This much is acceptable”, answered Tsuru for Doberman. Some of the others nodded in agreement.

“Those who agree, raise your hand”, called Sengoku out. Three fourth raised their hand and 'Captain Kid's' bounty got increased. This was how the meeting usually took place. That was until they came to two files with the same face, but a tiny bounty.

“What is this? 12 million and 25 million? Ah, they come from the East Blue. But still, couldn't some of the lower ranked guys handle those two?”, asked Momonga with a frown.

“And why are two Long-Ear-Humans coming from the East Blue, to begin with?”, added Catacomb.

“Sirs, Ma'am, there is an additional file attached to these two”, pointed the Marine, who stood at the side, out.

They all looked at the black folder that was attached and skimmed through it.

“This is disturbing. At least we haven't had to cleanse the island. Luckily Doctor Treteto kept the protocol and sedated his subjects before his experiments. Only a few could remember the Marine symbols and those were taken before anything could happen.” Tsuru was not pleased with the whole project, but it was for the betterment of the World Government. Things must be done to stay at the top and those were not always pretty.

“But worrisome are those who took Treteto out.” Doberman's words showed where the real problem was.

“Yes, the report is clear about this. This group of no-name pirates took out a CP 2 agent. Do we even know the name of this crew?”, asked Catacomb.

“Eh, ah here, Kage Pirates. Their ship is named Shadow. So the Shadows are sailing on the Shadow? How original”, answered Tsuru slightly amused.

“Anyway, Viscent was on the level of a Rear Admiral in terms of strength and skill,” pointed Yukimura out. He has once trained with the bearded man and got overpowered by his strength. His weakness was his speed, but that was overcome by the sturdiness of the Devil Fruit user.

“The autopsy says that his organs were pulverised and cooked. A Devil Fruit?”, questioned Tsuru, “neither file of them has anything about a possible Devil Fruit. True Shot was even reported to use sea stone pellets as her weapon against Captain Smoker.” She pointed down at a picture of Smoker's wounded shoulder.

“The fight and win against Captain Smoker alone would be enough for a rise of True Shot's bounty. But it was not her who took Viscent out. She was with the other members when they freed the subjects. It must have been Slicer Lara or 'Pressure Point Mengele', how he came to be with them is a mystery but he was seen to leave with them. I think we can safely assume that he is part of their crew now,” commented Dalmatian.

“A pity he couldn't handle the stress of his project. His skill with prostheses and the nervous system are almost unrivalled. Only Hogback could match him. But Mengele has never been strong enough to take out Viscent and his style is not able to inflict such wounds. It must have been this Lara.” The rest nodded in agreement to this deduction.

“Wasn't it her as well who killed this Marine Captain? I would recommend her for a place in the Seven Warlords, just to get her away from us, if we had a place and she wouldn't be this new”, muttered Momonga with a finger on the photo of Lara. It was a new one where she had her sword on her left shoulder and Mrs Chicken Wing on her right side.

“What's with the hen?”, asked Sicily from next to Momonga.

“We don't know, maybe their pet? It's not important anyway. Slicer Lara and True Shot Lia have both shown skill and strength beyond their bounty. The fact that one is able to use sea stone as an actual weapon against a skilled Captain, with the other able to fight and beat a Rear Admiral is enough for a higher bounty. What are your thoughts?”, asked Sengoku, speaking for the first time concerning the whole matter.

“75 million for True Shot and maybe 120 for Slicer?”, asked Dalmatian.

“I would say 150 for Slicer, you haven't fought Viscent. He was strong, at least stronger than me”, disagreed Yukimura.

“So 150 for Slicer and 75 for True Shot?”, asked Sengoku. Neither disagreed and the stamp for their new bounty was set down. The crew got now a bounty of 275 million with only three members. A high bounty, especially for such a new crew.

But the members of the Kage pirates wouldn't learn about this for a few more days. The New's Cows were not giving out the first two batches of new bounty posters. This way the pirates are still in the unknown and are more likely to be less wary. A higher bounty makes a lot of them more active and brutal or, in some cases, paranoid.

Present day, third Person POV, Town of Shipstand Island;

“Why are they attacking us? We don't have a bounty”, questioned Nojiko while shooting at a group of Marines. The moment Lia and Lara were back in range of the transponder snails the Marines got into position with their two ships and then also attacked her and Josef.

“Ehe, sorry. Haven't I told you? I do have one”, apologised Josef, while ducking behind a house. Bullets flew through the air, only centimetres away from his previous position. Nojiko returned fire but was not truly able to keep them away with her two pistols. There were just too many.

“What? How high is it? They are dead set on killing us!”, shouted Jonny. He and Yosaku were pushing a squad of Marines off. The four World Government soldiers thought they could attack from the side and were greeted by two swords.

“Fifty million, but that's not important now, we have to reach the Shadow”, replied Josef. He threw half a dozen needles, each hitting a pressure point and knocking out a Marine.

“This is important!”, retorted Nojiko angrily. She then jumped out of her cover and decked the Marines in gunfire. This gave the three men enough time to run to their next cover, while she walked backwards.

“Igarappa!” Suddenly rapid gunfire came from behind them and hit the advancing Marines. They had to jump back to cover or else they would have been peppered with holes.

Igaram was standing on a house and was shooting at the Marines with his saxophone.

The four Kage pirates used Igaram's support to run away and back to their ship. With Igaram following them from the rooftops.

Neither Igaram nor Nojiko, was stopping to shoot while running. This way the Marines weren't able to keep up and the five reached the Shadow. More Marines were already there, however, not focused on them but the brown blur that was clucking angrily and ripping through the Marines like a tornado.

“Is that Mrs Chicken Wing?”, asked Yosaku in awe while watching how the hen was slicing a rifle in two with her claws. Bullets and blades tried to hit the chicken, but nothing came even close.

Mrs Chicken Wing took out most Marines by the time the group reached the ship. The hen fluttered with her wings and flew back on the ship, from where she watched how the crew climbed on board.

“Yes, ehem, mimimi, Mrs Chicken Wing was a great help in defending the ship. The Marines were already trying to go on board when I reached it. She beat them down and defended it while I went out to help with your retreat”, explained Igaram to the highly impressed and more than a little-disturbed crew.

“Boug!”, commented Mrs Chicken Wing. Her tone said that this was only natural.

“Eh, okay, well then..., let us go and fetch our two trouble seeking twins.” Nojiko sounded more resigned than anything else and run up to the oar. Jonny and Yosaku were helping with setting the sail, while Igaram and Josef were using rifles to keep the still incoming Marines off.

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On the Fox, Lara's POV;

“So what are they gonna do to you?”, I asked and eyed the big Marine ships. There are more than two dozen cannons aimed at us now.

“I'm gonna get questioned about my relation to you and why I have hired you. If they find anything I might get hung. In most cases the people get fined,” answered Noa.

“Sucks to be you”, joked Lia from her place over us.

“Yeah, say you think I can come with you?” Both of us looked at Noa with a raised eyebrow. Sure, we might have thought about having him in our crew, but this can't be so bad.

“It can't be this bad can it?”, I finally asked. Having a shipwright would be great.

“Oh, it isn't. I would be able to pay the fine, but the old man is sure to kick me out for participating in this race. I wanted to use it as a chance to prove myself and then go to Water 7. But the race was so much fun that staying with you might be even better. And you are sure to at least come by Water 7 once. So you need a shipwright? If it comes to fighting I am good with my hammers”, explained Noa while waving a hammer in each hand around.

“You wouldn't be able to quit afterwards, joining a pirate crew is commonly something only done once”, I warned. Noa was funny, he would mix well with Yosaku and Jonny.

“I know, you two helped me with this, I only wish to visit Water 7 and maybe build a cool ship later. If you can promise me that we will do that I will be loyal.” He grinned at both of us but flinched when the Marine ships began to open fire on us.

“Sure, welcome on board. We are the Kage pirates, we still have no Jolly Roger, but it's a work in progress”, I accepted while Lia began to snipe the incoming cannonballs down.

“Great, thanks a lot. Now let's get out of here, where's your ship?”, said Noa, already in the process of turning the ship away from the big Marine ships.

“Behind the Marine ships”, I said with a grin and Noa groaned, now whirling the oar back. They kept on firing and Lia kept on shooting down their fire. It was truly somewhat beautiful to see the sky filled with so many explosions.

“Can you keep up at this rate?”, I asked. The closer we got the less time Lia had to react.

“For now, I'll start to destroy their cannons.” My sister's reply was followed by an explosion on the deck of one of the Marine ships. Their cannon exploded when Lia threw one of her pebbles inside the barrel.

More explosions followed and one even ripped a big hole inside the Marine vessel, the first explosion must have caused a small chain reaction. Now they decided that if shooting us down wasn't working, then running us over surely is.

“Noa, can we abandon the ship? We couldn't take it with us anyway.” Those ships are big, almost like a blue wall. I could cut them down, but the wood would still block us from reaching the Shadow.

“You think you can carry me with your flying thingy?”, he asked back.

“Sure,” I easily replied and threw him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He was too tall to be carried bridal style.

With him on my shoulder I took off, closely followed by Lia. Both of us watched how the Fox lit up in an explosion and then got shredded by the force of many more hits.

“There goes my ship, far well my fox”, said Noa with a sad look. They tried to shoot at us but Lia pushed the bullets down with an enhanced wind pressure. She then used pebbles to destroy the remaining cannons.

It was fairly easy to reach the Shadow from then on, the Marines had no functional cannons left and their ship was way too slow to catch up to us. All three of us landed safely on our ship and were greeted by the rest of our crew.

“Hi guys, this is Noa, he is our new shipwright”, I said with a large grin. Nojiko facepalmed, Jo groaned and Jonny and Yosaku looked really interested.