One Piece; The Great Pirate Era

Hawkins grumbled at the sudden escalation of bullets. He wasn't expecting the Captain to fire so quickly.

But he was already on the move and looking for pots or any sort of metal really that he could use as a shield.

"Hold your horses!" Hawkins barked back at Flint as he made a grab for the pot that had been hit earlier. "Here, use this for now." He then began to look for something he could use.

Having grabbed the pot Hawkins gave to him, Flint held onto it tightly. Nearby a Marine took notice of these 'shields', before quickly latching onto and tugging frantically at it. "Give me that, I saw it first!" They exclaimed desperately.

"Hey! Get your own pot!" Flint exclaimed, pulling back, before yanking the metal out of his hands, and knocking the Marine out cold. Suddenly an entire group of Marines jumped Flint and Hawkins, in hopes of stealing their armor.

Able to fend off the first wave, Flint was quickly overrun by the remaining Marines who tackled him. As the entire mass tumbled through the wreckage, suddenly the flooring gave in. A trapdoor beneath them broke open, allowing the marines, Flint, and the debris to slid down this newly found section.

However once Flint came to, lying atop these unconscious Elite Marines, he realized he was under some basement of some sort. The air was moist, the walls were of concrete and damp, and there was nothing down there, except for a never-ending row of gigantic barrels.

Seeing that Flint was having trouble with the Marines, Hawkins rushed over.

"Hey now, knock it off!" he said.

But it was too late. The trapdoor he had been looking for collapsed.

A bullet whizzed passed him. Hawkins jumped into the basement to avoid the oncoming bullets.

"Careful!" Hawkins warned as he saw the barrels all around them. He slowly approached one to see if it was what he was anticipating. Hawkins inspected a barrel carefully. He didn't see anything indicating it was gunpowder. But you never knew. And, with the bullets potentially ricocheting every which way, this was not something he really wanted.

But then he saw a familiar cork in the barrel. And, he immediately pulled it. Out poured a liquid that Hawkins began to indulge in immediately.

Rising from the now incapacitated pile of Marines and debris, while bullets soared through the upper watchtower, Flint walked towards Hawkins. Once he realized what the barrels were, what was inside, and what Hawkins was doing, he moaned.

"Aw come on!" He shouted in a disapproving tone, "Do you have to do that now!? I don't want to drag your drunk butt around to!"

"Relax," Hawkins said, taking a break from the barrel, "I'm not going to get shitfaced. Just enough to keep me going."

He then continued drinking as apparently he hadn't had enough.

"Hey you just said enough!" Flint exclaimed, before tugging and pulling at the back-end of Hawkin's shirt. However, it didn't seem to be working too well, as he was still able to drink what was inside of the barrels.

Furiously he released his teammate's shirt, before growling. "Alright, listen up stupid barrels!" He shouted loudly, "Stop making my crew-member stupid!" He added, charging towards the barrel Hawkins was consuming, and struck a decisive fist straight into the middle.

Immediately he yanked out his fist, which managed to penetrate the wooden lid. As he did so, a fist-sized hole allowed all the reddish wine to pour out in tremendous force. Spilling and pouring beneath their feet, the alcohol puddle accumulated, before it followed the pathway down several different drain grates.

"You brought this on yourself wine!" Flint wasn't done there however, as he focused his rampage onto the other barrels. Charging with a one-track mind, he slammed his fist and feet into each and every barrel there was down there.

Hawkins backed away from the barrel as Flint slammed his fist into it.

"Hey there watch what you're doin!" Hawkins shouted as he stumbled back.

Just as he was about to continue his cursing, he stopped himself as he heard another bullet above them. He watched as the wine began to cover the ground thanks to Flint's antics.

"Wait, hold up there!" Hawkins called as he tried to grab Flint's shoulder before he smashed another barrel.

Ready to slam another clenched fist, which was barreling downwards into another barrel, Flint's arm was quickly grabbed by Hawkins. Jerking back from the unsuspecting weight and force, Flint angrily glared back.

"Hey, let me go!" Flint shouted, but in his current situation he wouldn't be able to punch or kick the remaining barrels. He tried to do so without results, as each limb missed the wooden structures by a hair length or more.

He wasn't done however, as he pulled out his makeshift contraption pistol and aimed it at one of the barrels. "It's for your own good Hawkins, you'll thank me later!" Flint added, as he aimed and fired the last two remaining bullets.

Penetrating through each barrel, on its course towards the end, every barrel now had two marble sized holes, where the remaining wine poured out from in a thin streak.

"But it ain't even strong!" Hawkins continued to protest. However, it was too late and the bullets shot into the barrels.

A low sound, possibly a whimper but it was too hard to tell, escaped Hawkins as his wine was destroyed before his eyes.

As there wasn't a reason to restrict his movement anymore, and partly because of their broken spirit in front of spilled wine, Flint was able to break out of Hawkins grip. In fact, break was a term used loosely, as all he had to do was move away.

With the remaining wine trickling and draining out of the remaining barrels, and the echoing bullet shots above, Flint snapped his fingers. "I got it, we can use one of these barrels to float out of here!" He contemplated the idea, rubbing his chin, before quickly shaking the thought out of his mind.

"No wait...they all have holes in them. We'd sink."

Hawkins shook his head at Flint's remark.

"Maybe there's something else down here that we can use," Hawkins said as he looked around the room. But it mostly just seemed like a stash of wine. The least Whiskey could have done was stash hard liquor.

It was then Hawkins noticed that the wine was moving along the floor as if the area they were currently in was slanted. At first, he didn't think anything of it until he realized that the liquor seemed to be focusing on one point.

___

Hawkins bent down where the wine was settling in. Sure enough, there was another small door, one that was large enough for a person to easily fit through.

Hawkins ripped it open.

"Aha, I knew it!" Hawkins exclaimed as he peered down the small tunnel.


He then reached down and pulled out a small bottle of liquor. But it was clearly far superior to the wine that this room had been filled with.

"There was no way he was only hiding wine down here!"

"Where are you going?" Flint asked curiously, as he noticed Hawkins inspecting the floor and wine too closely. "Don't tell me you're going to suck up that wine, have some dignity!" He exclaimed, restraining Hawkins by his shirt, but his crew-mate was still able to open the hatch he was seeking for.

"Oh..." Flint replied, unleashing the clump of Hawkins shirt. "Hey a secret tunnel, good job Hawkins!" However, once he realized what it actually was, he groaned. "I should've known!" He remarked, ready to stomp his foot into the stash.

Hawkin's grabbed Flint's foot.

"Oh no you don't!" he said as he used his other hand to grab the bottle. He then opened it and drank just a bit. "For all we know this could be that stuff he was drinkin' before to get strong."

Hawkins waited a moment to see if anything happened.

As Flint's foot stormed downwards, ready to crash into the unsuspecting alcohol, Hawkins was able to grab and stop his strike in mid-process. Flint didn't seem too angry, as his pent up energy slowly waned away. He remained indifferent, as he listened and watched Hawkins once he drank the whiskey.

However, nothing happened as the two stood in silence. "...So how do you feel?"

"....I got nothing," Hawkins said. He drank some more. "I guess it's just regular booze. But it's still better than this other crap he had around here."

Suddenly a high-pitched shriek echoed inside the cellar hall they were currently residing in. It didn't sound as if the owner of the voice was in pain or trouble, but rather that they were disappointed. Immediately Flint brought his attention to where the scream was echoing from, to notice the little girl Anais stomping angrily towards the two.

"What are you idiots doing!" She shouted out fumingly, as the wine barrels continued to pour and seep out red wine, trickling on the floor. "Hey, it's you! Little girl!" Flint replied happily, with a large grin.

"Of course, I signaled you here!" She growled, inspecting the barrels and damage more closely. "What happened to the cellar!? You needed that!"

"We needed it?" Flint asked confusedly, "Hawkins drank enough already!" She then noticed the glass of whiskey that Hawkins was drinking from. Immediately she gasped irritably, as it was half empty.

"What?" Hawkins asked. "Flint's the one that broke all the barrels."

"But you're the one who drank half the bottle, moron!" Anais exclaimed, swiping what was left of the whiskey into her hands. "This won't be enough now. I hope that buzz wears off soon, so I can kick your butt!"

"What's the big deal? It's just one bottle," Hawkins complained.

"You're lucky I'm stuck with you!" Anais angrily growled, "Or I'd...I'd ergh!" She further growled, unable to form a coherent sentence on account of Hawkins actions.

Standing by the sidelines, Flint laughed at the two as they bickered. "You guys are too much!" Shaking the half empty bottle of alcohol, the whiskey swished around. "We don't have enough whiskey to escape now! That's why!"

"Rule number one kid: you never stick me in a room with alcohol and inspect it to all be intact when you show up," Hawkins replied. "So what was the plan?"

"The plan was to use this special whiskey for fuel, until you drank all our escape and dreams away." Anais explained, which alarmed Flint. "Hawkins, I should've let you get drunk on the wine!"

"Yeah you should've," Hawkins replied.

He was silent for a moment.

"Well, if this is that special whiskey, why don't I use what I drank to grab another bottle from the Captain?"

"Listen up pirates!" Marine Captain Whiskey's voice echoed loudly, even more then when the two were trapped inside the collapsed watchtower. "There is no escape, several Marine ships are heading this way with additional reinforcements. There is no chance, there is no life."

"More Marines?" Flint asked curiously, "Neat!" As she finished listening to Whiskey's announcement, Anais' jaw dropped. "We need to get out of here now, before they come."

"Why don't we just wait?" Flint asked, "It sounds like it could be fun and then we can take their ship."

"Normally, I'd say that isn't a bad plan actually," Hawkins remarked after hearing Flint. "We could easily cause a distraction, make 'em think we're somewhere else. Then grab their boat. They'd have it all ready for us and practically on a silver platter."

Hawkins stopped. He eyed the bottle, trying to think if there was something, anything they could do to regain the full contents. But his head was starting to spin just slightly. He'd have to give it a few minutes before he was used his normal drunk self.

"But there's too many of them out there as is."