ASL in white

Fighting! Fire vs Fire...

Marco walked from the study in the mayor's house to the living room, where he saw Izo and Haruta sitting on the couch.

"Alright, I got the information. We are dealing with a highly-skilled devil fruit user and two unknowns. Most likely, these marines are highly specialized and extremely effective specialist units. We do not know what type of group, though." Haruta and Izo nodded their heads along with this.

"If they are a specialist unit, we know they have more training in the wild. The protocol is also to find caves. So we need to figure out if there are cave systems here." Izo said, and he was right about that.

During an integration, they found out that particular fact. When they caught a marine spy trying to take one of their brothers' places, he had a shape-shifting devil fruit. The commanders were not pleased with that. Haruta, especially because the marine tried to take one of her division members' places.

It is funny actually because the reason why we found them is that they used He/Him pronouns with Haruta. It is well known that she is a woman, especially in her division. The sexist bastard was that marine. Ugh, he hated marines.

. . .

Haruta sighed to herself. Tracking through the damp, wet woods to find the dam Marines in the middle of the night was definitely not her idea of a good time.

Izo stopped leading the way, and she realized they had finally made it to the cave entrance. Izo always had the best tracking skills out of all the commanders, even the whole crew. He says it comes with the job of being a sharpshooter. She thinks it comes from growing up in the wilds of Wono. But, whatever It comes from, she does not particularly care right now. She is just thankful that he had the skill. The mayor told them that there was also an entrance by sea, so this was the most likely place they would be.

Marco stepped forward and lit up a small flame on his hand. "I'll go in first, and then you two make sure to stay behind me. I can take a hit if need be. You cannot." Marco's eyes locked with hers at that, and she felt it was very pointed at her.

So what if she has a bit of a reckless streak and is the youngest crew member? She was still a goddamn commander at nineteen. She started back into Marco's eyes and said, "Yeah, yeah, I am not stupid, Marco."

Marco just smirked and raised an infuriating eyebrow and said, "I was never talking about you. It was just a general reminder. Did I strick a nerve?" Izo let out a small laugh at that. She just rolled her eyes. Goddam Marco and Izo, why did she put up with them again? Right because they were her stupid brothers.

. . .

clack, clack, clack

Ace shot up, footsteps. Why are there footsteps? It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but then he saw Luffy still curled in and asleep beside him and Sabo curled in around Luffy. He had a face full of white and silver fluff, and he realized that Luffy's fluffy tail was definitely not hidden by their jackets anymore. It was a cute site. He pursed his lips; her legs must have been freezing before she shifted into the feeble position.

Fuck, Luffy must have been exhausted if she still hasn't woken up. With her enhanced hearing, she should have been the first to hear those footsteps. "Ace, you hear that?" Sabo's voice brought him out of whatever trance he was in. "Yeah, bo," He said in a whisper.

"Wake Luffy and get the boat ready; I'll take care of this problem and be ready to leave quickly after that." Sabo nodded along with that, before saying "If you aren't back in five, we are coming after you." he huffed, "Fine." He knew even if he told them to leave without him. They wouldn't. He wasn't even going to fight it anymore.

He got up, making sure that Luffy's head that was lying on his lap was set gently down. He lit up a small flame on his hand and shut down on his haki. Almost entirely making its presence disappear. He already did it subconsciously because of his training. This was the same with Luffy and Sabo.

He then started running, making as little sound as possible to the footsteps. By god, he hoped these weren't civis. If they were, this would get complex. He wasn't about to hurt them, but he needed to make sure they didn't contact the whitebeards.

He didn't want to pull any moves like Akainu. But, he would do whatever it takes to protect his siblings.

. . .

Marco cursed his luck. They were right. He felt three haki signatures even if they were fragile in the cave system. The bad thing was it was a cave SYSTEM. It was so confusing to pinpoint where they came from. But, two of the three signatures just shut down, which meant they knew they were here.

How Macro did not know. When he walks, he is almost silent, and his Haki is shut down almost completely, and he has some of the best Haki control in the world. That is when he heard a footstep behind him, and he realized right he wasn't alone.

He whipped around to scold his siblings before he realized they spilt up a while ago to cover more ground. What he saw was a marine with a fire lit up in his palm.

Fire was then suddenly matched with fire. Blue and Orange flames intermingling, licking up the cave walls. It was a battle of pure strength and will right then and there. But, what the marine didn't seem to realize about him was that as a phoenix, fire didn't hurt him. The marine was strong, sure, but he was the first mate of the strongest pirate crew in the world.

Blue suddenly overtook the orange flames, and he rushed forward, his fist connecting with the marine jaw. It was over quickly. For all this, marine is powerful. He is nothing compared to him.

He looked at the marine and saw that he had black, slightly curly hair, tan skin and freckles dotting his face. He remembered the sliver eyes glaring at him through the flames. Blue and orange reflected in his angry eyes. He looked young. Face still full of youth. There was a bruise forming already on his jaw. Blood was slowly trickling down his nose and chin. His lip was busted as well.

He was slumped in a creator on the wall. Marco huffed to himself. He didn't realize how much power he used. It has been a while since an opponent caused him to use so much fire. He needed to up his training again if a baby marine. Because a baby is all a marine that young could be. Caused him to use so much firepower.

He walked up to the unconscious marine and threw him over his shoulder with ease. Dam, what were they feeding marines these days. He was so light, almost skin and bones actually even with muscle covering his body. A twinge of concern worked his way up into his mind before he shoved it away. He had no clue what that marine was doing here. He was not about to feel concerned for an enemy.

He heard the sounds of a fight further in the cave system and quickly focused in on his observation haki. One of the signatures was fighting Haruta, and the other was not moving next to Izo; what the heck was going on there.

He rushed forward to where the noise of the fight was. They were gone now. And he was not WORRIED,... He honestly wasn't, Right? He knew Izo and Haruta could handle themselves but still. Even reassured by his haki they were alright he couldn't help but feel like something was wrong.