hiding

Out of the chains

"Damn... stupid pieces of metal crap!" Alexia gritted through her teeth.

It had taken her less than five minutes to pick the locks on her cuffs, leaving Marco curious as to when and how she had gotten so proficient with lock picking. Marco's cuffs however were not as easy. It had taken Alexia five minutes alone just to unlock the cuffs around his ankles.

"Take a deep breath Lexie, you got this."

"Don't tell me to take a deep breath Marco," Alexia hissed, "You have blood on you. Your blood. You don't have your blood on you. Your supposed to heal and be fine. But these stupid damn cuffs..."

Alexia fell silent at the light click of metal inside the locking mechanism.

"Hell yea!" Alexia cried a little too loudly, throwing her arms around Marco, which sent them both back on the ground, "Woah shit."

"Maybe save the victory cheer for after we get out of here." Marco chuckled lightly, yanking off the cuffs completely.

He stood up, holding a handout for Alexia to grab. Alexia remained on the ground, letting out a sigh of relief as she remained on the ground, staring up at him. Marco's devil fruit was now gaining strength again, light blue flames erasing his wounds. Only the dried blood around where the wounds had been, remained.

"Lex, as much as I like the way your looking at me, we need to move." He said as he shot her a cocky grin.

Alexia grasped his hand, letting him help her to her feet.

"Sorry I'm just... not used to seeing you injured. Normally I'm the injured one."

"Don't remind me." Marco scowled as his eyes scanned the tent.

Alexia held her hand out in a motion for Marco to wait as she crept forwards towards the front of the tent. The severity of the situation causing the slight crunching of snow under her feet to sound exponentially louder than it actually was. Fingers grasping the tarp like fabric covering the entrance way, Alexia pulled it back slightly to peek out. Marco approached slowly behind her, hand falling on her shoulder as he peered out the small gap as well.

"It's dark out."

"We won't be able to leave by air without alarming them of our escape." Marco pointed out.

"Even if we leave on foot without your devil fruit, we won't be able to get very far without seeing. We risk them finding us again."

From what part of the camp was visible, they could see there were only a few smaller tents in front of them. No other people or creatures were visible.

"We can't assume that these are the only other tents, we don't know what is behind this one. There could be a whole army of people we can't see."

"I can always use my devil fruit to get us out if the situation gets too hot." Marco stepped back, allowing Alexia to fall back from the entrance.

"I don't like the idea of just blowing the scene like no tomorrow when we don't have a full understanding of our situation. If they have sea stone cuffs they could have sea stone weapons. We don't even know how many traders are out there or if any of them possess devil fruit powers that could pose a threat to us." Alexia shook her head, deep in thought.

"We should lay low and try to scout the camp on foot." He nodded his head in agreement.

"I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be satisfied with letting this bitch go free." Her eyebrows furrowed.

"She lost the chance of escaping unscathed the moment she cuffed us." Marco mumbled, "Pop's will want to deal with her. Do you still have your knife?"

Marco looked confused as Alexia reached into her shirt, obviously feeling inside her bra.

"Yoi, what the hell are you doing?"

"Yep it's still there." Alexia gave him a cheeky smile.

"You keep your knife in your bra?"

"Of course. Most people don't think to check there." She shot him a wink, "If I had a small pistol I'd probably find a way to keep it in my panties. If I'm going to pose a threat, I may as well do it in surprising ways."

"I... I can't even say I'm surprised."

Alexia peeked back outside, looking back at Marco silently for permission. With a nod, she slipped outside, running to the hide on the side of the tent directly in front of them. With a motion to follow, Marco was soon copying her action. Looking in the surrounding directions, Marco headed towards the back of the tent, Alexia on his heels. They both stopped to look at each other as they could hear feint sounds of conversation coming from the tent that was on the outskirts of the camp.

Marco held up a hand, motioning for Alexia to wait as he stalked over towards the other tent where the noises were coming from. It amazed them both how they hadn't seen a single person in the camp so far, granted there appeared to only be four make-shift tents in total. As soon as she saw his signal, she crept over to join him. The quiet sounds of the snow under her shoes caused her to cringe.

The storm seemed to have died down completely, as did the wind. The only thing happening weather wise was the extremely light fall of snowflakes from the sky. While really cold, the temperature wasn't completely unbearable for Alexia.

Marco motioned for Alexia to stay silent as they listened closely to the conversation inside the tent. Alexia frowned as she recognized the voice of the grotesque woman from earlier.

"This is the worst hall we've ever had! Can't you pull your heads out your asses and actually get some work done." The woman sounded furious.

"We're tryin Sid! You aren't giving us much to work with. The storm set us off pace..." The high pitched male's voice was cut off by Sid.

"Tryin?! Tryin?! You ain't tryin nothin!" Sid roared, "What all have ya'll brought me?! A small child and two pirates! That ain't nothin compared to our normal haul."

Alexia looked at Marco, making it obvious she was turning this into a rescue mission.

"It ain't our fault Sid. Now that Gornei's gone, working without a devil fruit power is difficult!"

Marco gave Alexia a nod, causing her to smirk as she stepped back to give him space. Things were about to be fun. Alexia crouched down slightly getting into position to move. Her smirk grew into a confident smile as she watched him mouth the count down.

Three...

Two...

One...

Blue flames erupted from where Marco stood, melting most of the snow in the area almost immediately. The flames spread up to the top of the tent as Marco the Phoenix went barreling into the side of the tent, creating a burning hole, and sending very unmanly-like screams into the night.