CH - 5 [ in the line of fire ] part -1

Halcen stared down from the crow's nest, spying on his new crew from his perch. They were all trying to keep busy as Valentina kept the ship moving. Once their course had been set, there became little to do, hence why Halcen was up in the crow's nest instead of down on the deck.

He enjoyed the sailing breeze flowing through his unruly hair. This is the life, Halcen thought to himself, smiling like a buffoon. He was glad he was alone up there, with nobody to watch him. Admittedly, he was excitedly buzzed by all the new events. He was the captain of a brand new pirate crew. This was a great success to him. He had finally landed the power to make this a reality. All those many years under Whitebeard and he had never been given this responsibility. Halcen couldn't be happier.

Halcen eventually came down from his perch to check the status of the new recruits. Grey seemed to be handling them expertly. He seemed very at leisure about having control of others. Halcen was thoroughly impressed, but he did still need to do some of the captaining himself. He couldn't let them see the first mate as their source of authority. This was his first shot at building a crew of his own. He needed to make it count.

So he went to Valentina. She was stuck up at the helm on at the back of the ship. She was very composed, and very stone-faced. Halcen needed to check in with her. "What the status, Valentina?" he asked, trying not to ogle.

She kept her eyes on the horizon; that was her job. "We're heading on a south-western course past the other islands in the East Blue. We'll be to Loguetown in hopefully about a week."

"Sounds like we're on our way," Halcen responded, happily. "If anything comes up, let me know."

"Roger that, Captain," Valentina answered.

Halcen stopped for a moment as he was turning away, smiled to himself, and continued on.

Grey saw Halcen coming down the steps, and came to greet him. "Do you have a sec?" Grey asked.

"Yeah, what's up?"

Grey looked around to make sure there weren't prying ears. "Are you really sure this is a good idea?"

"You don't like the name?" Halcen asked. "See, I was worried somebody might not like it. I mean, 'Chaos Pirates' does sound a little-"

"What? No, it has nothing to do with that." Grey shook his head, confused.

"Oh," Halcen said relieved, but a bit embarrassed. "Then what are you referring to?"

"Going to see Shanks."

"What about it?"

"Well… what do you think we're gonna get out of it?"

"Well, hopefully a little help."

"With what though?"

"I want payback."

"Halcen, if this is a revenge mission, Shanks isn't going to help. He's a keen man. He only gets involved when it's important."

"And this isn't important? Whitebeard's golden boy is a thief and a liar!"

Grey took a deep breath. "That's not what I meant. Shanks is one of the Yonko. His problems are a lot more pressing than ours." He took a moment to gather his thoughts. "I'm sure we can find a lot of other ways to do what you want to do."

"What are you saying, Grey?" Halcen was beginning to get irritated.

Grey sighed. "I'm saying, we can go through with this if you want to, but don't get your hopes up. Shanks most likely won't be willing to help in the way you want. So don't put all your eggs in one basket, and get discouraged when it doesn't work out. I'm sure we can find other ways to get done what you want to."

"So you're not saying don't go to Shanks?"

"No, we can go. Honestly, I would like to see him. But he's a very… stubborn man. He likes things a certain way and he's not often open to suggestions, alright?"

Halcen nodded. "Fair enough."

Grey put his hand on Halcen's shoulder. "Everything is gonna turn out fine, regardless of how things go down with Shanks. We've got your smarts."

Halcen laughed. "Smarts? Does that mean we got your dumbs?"

Grey began to laugh with Halcen. "Alright, alright. Let's get back to work."

Halcen had Grey bring him up to speed with the other crew members. It seemed like everything was functioning well. The Black Tail was smaller, but it was nearly brand new, so it wouldn't need very much effort to keep it maintained. All these newer models were actually pretty sturdy. That's all they needed. And Bailu was making sure nothing else would keep them from their destination.

Then there was Loyola, who was running around double-checking all the little possible things she could think of. She was maintaining busying herself so as to not be worried.

And Jory was standing, almost completely still, gazing out at the ocean.

Halcen walked up to him. "Amazing, isn't it?"

"It really is, sir," Jory said, too formally.

Halcen laughed. "You don't have to call me 'Sir.' My name will do just fine… or maybe 'Captain.' I am only a few years older than you, you know?"

"But you seem to have so much more experience than me."

"That may be, but that doesn't mean I'm any less of a person." Halcen stopped, in a darkening realization. At least I hope not. "Anyway, just make sure you don't overwhelm yourself. I don't think we're gonna have much use for swords out here. Maybe pick up a gun, and start some target practice while we wait," Halcen laughed, walking away.

And it was then that Halcen heard a writhing scream shoot through the sky. He turned around suddenly to watch a flare in the distance. It was a distress signal. There was an island under it, but still a good distance off.

Somebody's in trouble.