One Piece; The Great Pirate Era

Washing third and last on the shore, and on one of the boat's decimated boards, Flint laid flat out and stomach first. He remained where he washed ashore, as Hawkins and Anais began to rise from their shaky travels.

Anais attempted to pry herself out of the bucket fruitlessly, and instead accomplished toppling the it and herself over, face first into the sandy ground. A courtesy wave just so happened to rush across, as she managed her fall. Angrily, she then plucked one foot after the other, out of the bucket, before kicking it back into the ocean. With a growl, she kicked Flint in the side. "You moron, what were you thinking!?"

"Ugh...fish...cooking fish..." Is the only excuse Flint could come up with, in his weary state. In fact, his voice and mouth bubbled in the shallow waters, which his face groggily rested into. "...tasty fish gone..." He added, as the water around him continued to bubble.

"You couldn't have waited until we got to shore?" Hawkins asked irritably, shaking sand out of boots. "This is the third boat we've lost already for Pete's sake!"

Although Flint was still weary from their prolonged drifting and lost at sea experience, he still had the energy to push himself upright. Push was used so loosely however, as he practically flung, before staring annoyingly at Hawkins, due to his last comment.

"Hey, those weren't my fault!" He uttered his defense quickly, before he slumped in on himself and his tired legs, with a weary groan. "And we could've had fish sticks, if you didn't kick my jar." Flint added, but this time slower and more groggily, his mouth and words bubbling in the wet and sandy ground.

Groaning frustratingly at Flint and Hawkins bickering, but mostly Flint this time, Anais stepped forward, now that she had better bearings. "Enough already!" She shouted first, as a preemptive strike before the two could dish out anything else. "We're close to that town anyway now, so we're not stranded." Anais added, as her tone and attitude began to calm.

Within a seconds after her comment, it seemed as if Flint gained a second wind, as he flung right back up. This time his legs weren't straining to support his weight. His weariness seemed to have flushed out of his system, as he enthusiastically smiled with a gasp. "Really!? A real town!? Our first real town and island!?" He blurted out excitedly, before looking over to where Anais was pointing and staring.

In the horizon and over a steep dune hill, there seemed to be a settlement of some sort. It didn't take Flint any time to began rushing and scaling over this miniature sized mountain. "That means there will be real food!"

Hawkins hurriedly placed his boots back on.

"Hey, slow down there!" he called before running after Flint.

Before entering the town, the smell of food filled the air. Triangle banners were lined across both sides of the street connected by the vender's booths from above.

Although Hawkins was as hungry as ever and the food looked nothing short of delicious, he couldn't help but to notice a decent amount of the people in attendance to whatever sort of festival was going on were all carrying guns. Some looked like your average weapon. Others were a bit more strange and appeared as though they were hand crafted. Children were playing with toy guns and slingshots. One accidentally hit an adult with his slingshot. But the adult didn't seem angry at all, in fact, he seemed rather happy about it.

After gazing around a bit more, he noticed further down the street a large sign read 'Welcome Sharp Shooters'.

As soon as gravity took place, Flint came barreling down the other side of the dune. Beyond this hill laid a vibrant town, which seemed to be in high spirits. It didn't take him long to reach level ground, but when he did, he slowed down to a complete halt. Flint was just in too much shock and awe to continue with his energetic and hungry rampage.

Unfortunately Anais wasn't given a warning, and rammed straight into Flint's back abruptly, with a grunt. "Hey, what gives!?" She barked out, as she pushed and pried herself off of his back, only to display the same amount of awe immediately after.

The entire town was decorated with colorful banners and strings on all buildings and stands. He wasn't sure what to make of it, especially with all the playful children and cheerful adults armed with toy guns, fake guns, custom guns, small and big guns, and guns in every shape and size.

Then his attention went straight to a flier, hanging in the middle of the town and street. "Welcome Sharpshooters." He read aloud, "Huh...hey Anais, what's going on?"

"How should I know? I've never been here before." She stated, as the two stared at the scenery. "Hey Hawkins, what is this?" Flint asked almost after asking Anais.

"Not sure," Hawkins said absentmindedly as he was putting the pieces together. But first, he realized he had far more important things to do. He spied a woman through this vast crowd who was probably around fifty.

"Come here kid and let me do the talking," Hawkins remarked as he grabbed Anais by the hand.

"Hey wha--?" Anais began to ask as he pulled her away. Hawkins turned to Flint.

"Stay put," he ordered with a glare. "And I mean it."

As he kept himself concentrated on the woman, he led Anais through the crowd towards a safe place where they could sit on the cold, hard ground. Hawkins gently guided Anais to her spot and he sat next to her. The woman would be near them momentarily.

Hawkins quickly tore his clothes a bit more. While they had been torn from the explosion, he felt they could use some more holes. He then grabbed a small mound of dirt and placed it in Anais' hand.

"Here make yourself look more rugged. And make it fast."

Although Flint was confused by Hawkins and his action, and that he was forcing Anais towards somewhere, much to her dismay, he couldn't help but to be drawn back to envying the town's beauty. The structure, the decorations, the lively townsfolk, it just wasn't something that he could ignore so easily. Whatever Hawkins was up to, he would find out a little later. Maybe in a minute or so, he thought as he inhaled the mouthwatering aromas.

Licking his lips and almost involuntarily drooling, he spotted a line of market stands sporting a variety of seafood, vegetables, fruits, meats, and anything else that was edible. "Real food!" Flint exclaimed, as he hungrily rushed towards the stands. "I need to get this pickle taste out of my mouth!"

"But--" Anais began to protest.

"No buts. Just do it," Hawkins replied. Anais looked at the handful of dirt before she rubbed it on her face. She then wiped the remaining dirt on her shirt.

Anais was just in the nick of time as the woman was walking passed them. Hawkins got up, his mannerism now changed. Slumped over slightly, he rushed towards the woman.

"Excuse me, excuse Miss," he called desperately.

Meanwhile, a vendor nearby selling cooked fish on a stick noticed Flint's plight.

"Need some help?" he asked. "I've got some fresh fish right here."

After expecting the ware of fresh seafood and different food, Flint looked at the vendor and then at what Hawkins and Anais were doing. A smile enveloped as he watched them muddying themselves. "Oh I see, that's how it is!" Flint exclaimed, but mostly to himself, as he slapped his hands together.

He then immediately looked back at the vendor and his fresh ware. "Fresh fish? Do you have any fish that isn't fresh anymore?"

"Uhh..." the vendor began, taken aback by Flint's question. "Well, I've got this fish from yesterday."

His hands shuffled down below before revealing a fish on a stick. It was similar to the ones he was currently trying to sell but clearly wasn't as fresh.

Just across the street, the woman turned to Hawkins.

"I'm really sorry to ask you this but you don't have any spare change by any chance do you?" Hawkins asked, not missing a beat. "My daughter and I were shipwrecked this morning and I'd really just like to get her something to eat." Hawkins gestured towards Anais and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Daughter?" Anais remarked, a little too loudly.

"Don't mind her, she just doesn't feel comfortable asking for help," Hawkins interjected. The woman looked at them quizzically as if she wasn't sure if she should be reeled into their story.

As the vendor dug through his ware, deeper, and at the bottom, all hope wasn't lost. Flint smiled delightfully, even more so as they pulled out a fish from a day ago. It seemed more slimy and filthy then the others, but he just wasn't convinced yet.

Leaning over the vendor's counter, he inhaled the day old fish smell. He immediately cough, fanning his nose, before nodding. "Oh yeah, that's a stinky fish!" Flint commented, before tossing what spare coins he still had left. "Thanks fish guy!'"

Quickly taking the expired seafood, Flint quickly rubbed it over his arms, legs, face, stomach, wherever he could reach. He made sure not to miss a spot.

"Uhh don't mention it...." the vendor said.

The woman in front of Hawkins began to shuffle through a purse, revealing some coins. She handed them to Hawkins.

"Here," she said. Her suspicion seemed to waver. But Hawkins still felt she wasn't fully convinced. Not that he cared at this point now that the coins were in his hand. It wasn't like he was completely lying anyway. He was just leaving out some inconvenient truths. And adding a bit of white lies. But the basics were true.

"Thank you ma'am," Hawkins replied. He then nudged Anais.

"Thank you," Anais said.

Without warning, Flint had left the seafood vendor's stand, just as Hawkins conned the lady into giving him some of her beri. "Hawkins!" His voice trailed loudly through the street, before he appeared behind the lady.

However, they didn't need to know he was there, as something smelled really fishy. "I know what you two are doing! You can't leave me out of this!" He added, smiling slyly. "I'm going to beat you, I'm the dirtiest, so I win!"

As soon as Hawkins heard Flint's voice, he shot a look at Anais. It was brief, so brief the woman was unable to detect it. It was a look of pure and utter terror.

Hawkins quickly placed the money in his pocket and was in the process of leading Anais away.

"Well we better be going now--" Hawkins was saying before Flint barged in. The woman eyed Flint and was very confused.

"Who are you exactly?" she asked.

"Yeah, do you need some help?" Hawkins added, eying Flint suspiciously. A very colorful vocabulary began to fill Hawkins' mind but he did not allow this to become apparent. He did however, pull Anais behind him as if he were protecting her from this unknown lunatic.

"Aw c'mon Hawkins!" Flint exclaimed cheerfully, as he smiled at him and Anais. "Stop playing around! You didn't get drunk already did you?" He asked curiously, inspecting his well-being. "Cause if so, that's really lame! We haven't even checked this place out yet!"

After weakly berating Hawkins, he then brought his attention to the middle aged lady, within the group. "Oh I'm Flint. These two are my friends, we're pirates." He explained, as if it wasn't a big deal. "Nice to meet ya."

Hawkins didn't wait for the woman to respond. He grabbed Anais by the collar, dangling her in the air with one hand and grabbed Flint with the other.

"Time to go."

He ran as fast as he could while dragging along two others. The woman yelled after them "Hey!". But Hawkins kept running. He knew one of two things could happen: either these were the sort of people that would stop and try to help the woman out or these were the sort of people that would ignore any pleas from the woman. He was counting on the later especially given that almost everyone here had a pistol on hand.

Fortunately, it was half and half. Some heard the woman's pleas and were helping her to try and apprehend them. He felt someone try to grab his shirt. Luckily, they missed. But he knew he couldn't keep this up for long. At least, not while holding onto two people.

"Flint, I'm going to let you go now and you better run like your life depends on it damn it."

Before Flint could even register it, he was being dragged involuntarily away from where he was, and the lady. "Hey, what's going on!?" He barked out irritably, "I still wanted to check out the other food stands!"

Anais growled annoyingly, as she flailed in the air, and by the collar of her dress. "You moron, what were you thinking!?" She exclaimed, angrily staring at Flint, and then brought her attention to Hawkins. "And what were you thinking!? Leaving us out of your idea like that? Especially him!"

In the expanding distance, he spotted the lady reaching out to them in anger, as well as several townsfolk who appeared to be acting upon her misfortune. While some checked on her well being, others chased after the three suspicious and fleeing suspects.

Being more agile then the other pursuers, one of the citizens grabbed Flint's flailing leg, before another grabbed and jerked at his hair. As they pulled backwards, all the while, Hawkins pulled forwards, causing Flint great discomfort. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" He exclaimed, before pulling out his expired fish. "Fine take it, you big jerks!" He shouted, and slapped the fish into the two, who quickly released their grip and tumbled with the rotten fish.

"Run where?" Flint asked, getting tired of this game of drag and run. "Anywhere, just not here!" Anais shrieked, hoping that Hawkins didn't expect the same from her. When he was given the chance, and Hawkins and Anais rushed off somewhere, he dashed in an opposite direction.

As he was being dragged in the process, he didn't have time to catch his bearings quickly, and ended up crashing into a lot of things during his marathon. Crates, buckets, people, stands, you name it. He eventually ended up dashing through several buildings, accidentally busting a hole through one of them.

"He probably would have screwed up the plan regardless!" Hawkins barked.

As soon as he let go of Flint, he immediately regretted his decision. True, it was smarter for Flint to go in the opposite direction. But at the same time, Hawkins couldn't help but to think of all the potential things Flint could do to get them all in even more trouble than was necessary.

The few yelling people from the crowd distracted Hawkins from this thought. Right, escape. Still holding onto Anais, Hawkins made a sharp turn down an alley then another sharp turn out. Slowing down after the sharp turns, he slid himself and Anais into a shop.

A man and woman had been chasing him and they kept running down the street. However, they weren't stupid as they realized no one else was running ahead of them.

"Where'd they go?"

Cautiously, Hawkins calmly took Anais by the hand and started leading her towards the back of the shop. The shop owner didn't seem to notice. He was very fixated on the window for some reason. Hawkins guessed he was watching the festivities from afar, wishing to join but forced to run the shop by his overly bossy wife. That was just a guess though.

It wasn't that hard for the two, who were both women, to see where Flint was running off to. He left a trail wherever he went. As burst through the wall in one store, the owner began to yell immediately.

"What the devil is going on here?!"

It wasn't long before he was part of the chase as well. He made a grab for Flint as Flint passed the register. His hands latched onto Flint's shirt.

As soon as Flint entered the owner's shop, through an unlikely entrance, he was then being chased by the keeper and his previous pursuers. Once the owner shouted angrily, at this odd trespasser, Flint was confused to say the least.

"I don't know!" He exclaimed to this owner's enraged question. "People just started chasing and attacking me!" However once he noticed what the keeper was doing, he groaned. "Not you to!"

Through all of this chaotic chasing, he didn't once stop, unless he wanted to be overrun by these fanatic townsfolk. He ran by a variety of the store's wares, which was just about anything and everything that would catch his eyes. If he wasn't in the heat of the moment, he would had surely stopped to inspect these fine merchandises. Through the corner of his eye, and at the far back of the shop, he spotted an exit.

The door was wide open, allowing the sunlight and bright blue sky to pour in. He didn't take in account to inspect what was near or outside of this exit. All that was on his mind was to escape the clutches of these crazy people.

When he ran out of the exit, this time he didn't have to damage anything, everything was already opened and out of his way. Things seemed to be looking up for him, there was a clear pathway straight forward. There weren't any obstacles, not a building nor stand, or even a lone person was present to be in his way or join the chase.

The pathway was clear and open blue. "Wait a minute..." Suddenly it donned on him, that he was running straight into this town's open body of water. As best as he could manage, he screeched to a halt, while three of his pursuers, who were currently latched onto him, followed his uncontrollable pattern. "Oh crap!"

Pushing his feet downwards, they skidded across the town's pathways, and then to the pier, as friction and physics took its course. With no room for error, he plunged into the salty water, along with the others following too close behind.

Fortunately for them, they didn't have devil fruit powers, so they would no doubt rise to the surface eventually, and continue with their search. Flint wouldn't be found floating in the water, underneath the waves, or even on the pier a dry or dripping mess.

Hawkins placed his hand on the knob. They were close, close to escaping.

He saw the woman (the one Hawkins had stolen from) look towards the store, into the window, directly at Hawkins. As soon as he saw her looking his way, he was quietly slipping through the door, his back turned to her while Anais was conveniently blocked by the counter.

Hawkins shut the door behind him.

The barged into the store.

"Hey you!" She called to the owner. The owner jumped in his place as she snapped him out of his gaze. "Who was that just in here?"

"Who?" the man asked? The woman rolled her eyes. Imbecile. She marched towards the door Hawkins had gone through. "Hey, you can't go back there!" the owner called. The woman didn't listen. She opened the door.

They alley was empty with nothing but a few trash cans on one side. She frowned.

Shutting the door, the woman ran out of the store.

"Hurry, we might be able to catch them if we cut them off. You go up there and I'll take the rear," she ordered from outside. They both ran in their respectable directions.

In the alleyway, the trash cans began to move. Hawkins burst out of one, covered from head to toe in garbage. He reached into the trash beside him and lifted Anais.

"Sorry about that kid. But we didn't have much of a choice," he said. Anais was still fuming. He could see it in her face.

As the shopkeeper and the two ladies, who were chasing Flint, rose from the cold and salty water, they gasped from the shocking events that had just transpired. They were not expecting to fall into the ocean today, especially not with their daily clothes on.

After having registered their unexpected and chilling dip, they searched all around them. Yet the person they were chasing didn't seem to be anywhere in plain sight. They weren't on top of the pier, having already pulled themselves out of the chilly waters, or dry as a bone and mocking these three childishly.

Nor were they floating nearby, sinking underneath, or hiding in these salty waters. "Where the hell did he go!?" The owner shouted, as he first inspected nearby him, then on the dock, and then lastly under the semi-clear oceans.

One of the females confusingly shrugged, at a loss of words as to what to even say. "He probably tricked us and is already hiding in one of the buildings!" The other female exclaimed, swimming to the pier. "He's not getting away that easily!" She added, as she pulled herself onto the pier, and soon the other two followed her.

Meanwhile, underneath the pier, Flint awkwardly held and shoved the tips of his fingers into the gap of the pier's boards, while his feet wedged onto another gap and a support piece. Tensely he tried his best from moving too much, unless he wanted to lose his grip and plunge into the ocean this time. Although being quiet was an easier task, it wasn't by much. Straining to stay stretched out, and suspended in the air was quite difficult on the muscles. It was all he could do, from grunting, moaning, or yelling from this irritating and uncomfortable situation.

In order to pacify the girl (and not cause further attention), he handed her a couple of coins they had gotten from the woman.

"In case we get separated," he said. "Now, if I were Flint, where would I run off to?"

He led Anais out of the alley and down the main street. There seemed to be some commotion on the far side back the way where they had come.

A group of people were crowded around a building which now had a hole in it. They didn't seem too concerned with finding the culprit but rather just nosy as to what had happened to create such a gaping hole.

"Well at least he's leaving a trail."

"That moron! He's going to get us all caught at this rate!" Anais exclaimed as they walked away from the wreckage and towards the trail of debris.

Once enough time had passed, and Flint was almost at his limit of endurance, he figured he had given his pursuers enough time to leave the scene. Even if that wasn't the case, he needed to get back onto the pier. He was close to letting go as it was, due to his weary state.

Slowly and carefully, he clawed his hands and feet through the tiny gaps between the boards. It looked like he was climbing a ladder, only that he was upside down, and this 'ladder' was horizontal. Once he reached the edge, with his limit almost reached, he quickly reached out for one of the thick support stumps. Quickly latching onto it with all four limbs, he wormed himself up and onto the pier.

To his luck, there didn't seem to be anyone around. At least none of the pursuers from before were around. If there were any other townsfolk, they paid Flint little mind. "Phew, I thought I was going to sink down there!"

After wiping his brow and when the crisis was averted, he then inspected the boardwalk behind the alley, which housed a few more different shops and stands.

While Flint was about to explore the shops and stands, a voice called out to him from the distance.

"Hey!" The voice was familiar. It was Anais. She was ahead of Hawkins now, trying to make sure Flint knew where she was and who she was before he wandered off any further.

At first Flint was set on browsing through every vendor's shop and stand, but a familiar voice shouting his name caught his attention. Quickly realizing it was Anais, with Hawkins trailing behind, he smiled delightfully. At least he didn't have to go find them later, even if that was one of the last things on his mind.

"Oh hey!" Flint shouted energetically, as he rushed towards his team, and waved. "That was something else, wasn't it?" He asked, while laughing at their expense. "I thought I was gonna drown!...so what's next?"