hiding

Operation is... a fail

Her stomach dropped, and panic flooded her chest as she felt a rough masculine hand grasp her upper arm, dragging her quickly into the abandoned alley near her. The breath was knocked out of her lungs and she winced as she was slammed into the wall behind her. She growled lowly out of instinct, taking a defensive stance as she glared at the attacker in front of her. It was the annoying blonde from the evening before, Marco was his name, if she recalled correctly. He stared at her, his face appeared almost bored, but his eyes radiated with annoyance. She quickly began looking for an escape route out of her peripheral vision, fighting was definitely not her strong suite.

"It seems our meeting yesterday was cut short marine." He drawled out the last part, "The last I remembered, running away after initiating an attack, is an act of cowardice yoi."

She didn't move, her body remained frozen in place, her eye glued to his form. She saw no openings to escape. Her hand grasping the handle of the knife fastened to the waist of her pants.

"Nothing to say yoi? Are you too good to say any last words to the scum of the sea?" Her eyes narrowed as he moved a bit closer, her body remaining still. She remained silent. In all honesty her throat was too dry from fear to say anything, even if she wanted to.

Yes, she was afraid. She could not fight in general, she had seen his devil fruit, and the fact he believed she intentionally attacked one of his crew made it worse. She was not afraid of death itself. If anything she found herself wishing to die on many occasions. But she knew he was not likely to make her death sudden, he would let her suffer, and she had done enough of her fair share of suffering to know she didn't want to endure anymore.

And just like that, his fist shot out, towards the left side of her face, encased in blue flames that felt hot enough to melt her flesh just from where she stood. Before he could connect with her body, she dropped like dead weight, surprising him only slightly. She dove in-between his legs, and inched slowly towards the edge of the alley, stopping when he turned to face her again.

"It's bad enough for you to act like a coward as a marine, but for you to act like a coward as a man in general is shameful." He scoffed, "What happened to you marines and your sense of honor and duty?"

He became nothing but a blue burst of flame as he barreled towards her. Without any grace, she stumbled to the side, barely avoiding collision, as she thrust her knife out. He was back on his feet facing her, poised to attack again, a slash of blood across his right cheek.

"Sea stone yoi?" He smirked, "When did they give low ranking marines such a small weapon with such defense? Or are you more to the marines in rank than you appear?" He was toying with her, his voice filled with amusement. Blue flames, barely noticeable, licked over his injury, healing it almost immediately, "You are going to have to do so much better than that."

His left leg shot out, attempting to sweep her feet out from under her. She stumbled, barely avoiding his move, not registering his other movements as he drove a knife she hadn't seen into her left side. She felt pain shoot down her leg as she grunted. One of his fists connected with the right side of her face, as he removed the knife from her side. She felt searing pain in her right shoulder as he plunged the knife into her again. She crumpled to her knees, grasping her shoulder. Her whole body felt as though it was shaking, she felt pounding in her ears as her vision was blurred and stinging from tears forming. She could barely register the feeling of warm blood covering her hands.

Just then she heard a shout from the other side of the alley towards town. It was the brunette from before. Marco had turned his attention from her to greet his approaching crew mate. She took that lapse in his focus to make a dash for the woods. She was surprised that her legs still listened to her. They felt so much like jello, that she was sure she would have fallen flat on her face.

"YOI!" She heard Marco shout out in anger. She didn't dare glance back, stumbling as fast as she could thru the woods. She could hear a set of heavy footsteps not far behind her, undoubtably the brunette, as she noticed Marco preferred his devil fruit powers to transport him quickly. She struggled to breath, occasionally grunting in pain as she ran, her vision was getting hazy. She jumped over the ledge in front of her, falling to her knees briefly as she landed on the ground below her. She struggled to get up and lurched forward, reaching the entrance to her shelter. She glanced up noticing they were not in view yet, although quickly approaching, and threw herself quickly down into her tiny space, the cover closing above her, forgoing the ladder she had originally prepared as it would have been too slow of a process for escape. As she hit the bottom her cap fell off and laid next to her, her hair auburn hair splayed out around her. She ripped off her mask in a failed attempt to breathe better. Pain radiated throughout her body as she succumbed to darkness, failing to notice the trail of blood she had so plainly left upon the snow, leading to her hiding spot.

Marco recognized the area the blood trail had led them. It was the same area the marine had disappeared from before. The blood trail stopped, just past a ledge in the woods. He quickly flew down, landing on his feet. He noticed bloody handprints, just under neither the oak tree near him, as if they were opening something. As Thatch quickly appeared next to him, it dawned on him that the hands had in fact opened something. A poorly constructed hatch they had failed to notice the evening prior. With a nod from Thatch, he grasped the hatch and threw it opened, almost ripping it off completely.

"Uhhh Marco..." Marco looked at Thatch, his face filled with hesitation and confusion, before looking down at what he was staring at, "He's a girl..." And indeed, Marco found their elusive marine was in fact, none other than a girl, her blood was slowly starting to form a pool around her body.

A slight feeling of discomfort formed in the pit of Marco's stomach. As much as he despised marines, especially ones who harm his family, he never could feel comfortable with injuring a woman. He dropped down into the whole, studying her figure. She was out cold, her tan skin was looking extremely pail, her body losing blood faster than he had assumed. Her face was morphed into one filled with pain, sweat beads had formed on her forehead. He quickly tossed her cap and mask into her bag, that was now bloody, and tossed it up to Thatch. He quickly transformed, grasping her with his talons easily, as she felt as though she weighed nothing at all, and flew up.

"I'll meet you back at the ship." Marco flew away before Thatch could even respond; his mouth still open as Marco flew out of view.