The Marine

Over the few hours that it took Bill to stabilize the situation at the crash site, Yoko and her Monkey Mink Marines had managed to come out victorious in their own battle against the self-proclaimed Monkey King.

With her boot on the head of the former ‘king’ she stood in front of a troop of at least two hundred kneeling Monkey Troopers, Del Kong’s, and other monstrous primates.

Showing her teeth, the girl chided her submitted foes, asking them over and over if they were sure that they didn’t want to keep fighting.

“I can go all day if that’s what you want!” she had said, followed by: “Only if you can stomach the consequences!”

Only getting a series of submissive howls to her words, Yoko looked down at the former Monkey King and spat out: “Now, have you come to your senses?”

Nodding along to what this crazy female ape was saying, the former Monkey King looked up wide eyed and then turned his face towards the dirt – doing his best to bow down despite being flat on his belly.

Seeing him do this, Yoko smiled toothily and immediately helped the golden Monkey Trooper up, saying: “Don’t worry, I won’t hold a grudge! So, let's put aside any petty squabbles and work together!!”

Still meekly nodding his head to this, the golden Monkey Trooper stuck his palm out in complete submission, to which Yoko suddenly pulled closer, still showing her teeth as she smiled and said: “Under my leadership, we’re going achieve the greatness that only I can bring.”

To the Minks who saw their Captain defeat the monkey king, and for the monstrous monkey’s who saw their former leader submit and be spared, they joined together in hoots and howls of celebration.

 It was natural for Monkey Minks to be able to speak to wild apes, and so as the groups started to mingle Yoko took a seat on a cluster low hanging vines and watched over this.

These wild Monkey Troopers and Del Kong’s were strong and armed with various weapons that looked somehow did and didn’t look like metal. During the hours long battle there had been several wounded, but not a single death – pure blooded Minks were not known as ‘natural born fighters' as a joke.

Still sitting on the cluster of hanging vines, Yoko had the golden Monkey Trooper on her left and one of her Special Operator Minks on her right.

“What’s your name?” she asked the golden the Monkey Trooper, but when it answered with ‘oo ah’ she shook her head and said: “That’s not good, you need to have a name that humans can recognize. Oh, I know! As your leader I’ll bestow you a name… how about… Rafiki!”

Looking unexpectedly touched by the name given to it so flippantly, the golden Monkey Trooper turned and knelt, only getting up when she told him to stand.

After a while, a group of other Monkey Troopers left and returned with platters of food, fruit wine, and other gifts. Seeing a particularly juicy looking rare steak that was presented to her, Yoko happily took a huge bite before frowning.

*Ptu! Ptu!*

Spitting the bloody meat out of her mouth dramatically, the celebrations died down with the Del Kong’s and Trooper Monkeys looked at their new ‘King’ nervously.

“This doesn’t taste right to me!” She proclaimed, then added that the meat had something added to it.

She didn’t know what it was and did believe the monstrous monkeys when they began their fervent denials of tampering with the food.

“Be at ease!” She said jovially, but then added seriously: “But no one eat this kind of meat, or any other kind of meat that I haven’t tested first.”

At first getting nods, she was then asked what they should eat in the meantime, to which, thinking hard about it, Yoko looked up and saw the corner of a strange brownish fruit growing behind a patch of green leaves at the top of the trees.

Telling her followers to hold on, the girl used Moon Step to reach the fruit, and picking it, her eyes widened.

Although Bill hadn’t much cared about the official name of her [Devil Fruit], Yoko had obviously cared, and so spent a good period of time researching details on the known Devil Fruits and the powers they bestowed.

That was why, holding onto this swirly, brownish green long-necked avocado, she instantly recognized it.

[Length-Length Fruit]!

Doing her best to remember the description of it, she recalled that this fruit could let its user stretch or contract any object they came into contact with – including the ground!

Landing back down on the ground, the wild monkeys surrounding her looked at the strange fruit with confusion, but the Minks knew full well what it was.

“What will you do with it?” Asked her right-hand Mink, a Howler Monkey Mink named Hanuman.

Thinking carefully, the girl put it in her Coat of Justice and said that she would have to consult Bill, to which the Minks all nodded as proper, and then, turning back to the group she said loudly: “Just because we can’t eat this meat, doesn’t mean there isn’t any meat on this island that we can’t eat! So, we’ll hunt around and be sure to find some proper food!”

Getting a round of cheers, she waited for a second before saying: “But first… tell me a little about this island and where you all got those strange weapons.”

Going slightly back in time, when Yoko was getting hailed as the new King of the Monkeys, Masterson and his small party were trekking through waist-deep snow.

The never-ending stream of mutants inside the cave system turned out to be more than he and Toma could easily handle and so as soon as the teenagers completed roughly skinning and peeling the Terror Bear’s fur, they had left.

Through stiff motions the quartet marched step by step.

Dressed in hideously sewn fur body suits, fresh rawhide gaiters, and uncured leather protective eye coverings, they looked like a bunch of uneducated barbarians.

Carrot was fairing the best out of the bunch, technically being a Snowshoe Hare Mink, she was anyways impartial to cold temperatures and hadn’t taken part in any fighting inside the cave.

The Humans were struggling, but at least they wouldn’t freeze. Masterson knew that these clothing wouldn’t last long before being worn down, but he only needed them to last until they got out of the mountain.

If there were anything that they could be grateful for, it was that after killing a quilled mole-like monster they had gotten Rapanui a quiver of thin javelins that were of pretty good quality.

Looking through tiny eye slits, Masterson couldn’t get the meaty smell of the mask out of his nostrils but counted his blessings that at least he had trained Iron Body to a sufficient level to keep himself alive.

The fighting in the cave had been hard, and nothing suggested that outside of the cave would be much easier.

“Instructor Masterson, where are we going?” Hollered Carrot over the wind, to which he replied: “Just down, caint go nowhere else but down!”

Biting back another retort to the girl that said ‘now stop asking questions’ he looked across the horizon and only saw white.

Walking as quickly as they could – which for four superhumans was not slow – they continued their march like this for what seemed a long time, though perhaps only an hour passed, when, startled by crashing sounds in the distance, Masterson narrowed his eyes and found two monsters battling it out.

One looked like a snake with multiple tiny legs, and the other looked like a dinosaur with patches of fur across its body.

Each of these creatures were larger than the [Tank Spider] back in the cave, but somewhat surprisingly it was the bipedal dinosaur who seemed to be the predator, taking one bite after another at the snake.

Stopping for a moment, to watch, it was Rapanui who spoke up first, saying: “Ey, Instructor. I think I could hit them from this distance… want me to throw a couple?”

Marines who specialized in throwing weapons were rare. After all, throwing something effectively was not the same thing as throwing something ‘hard’. Exactness, time of release, anticipation, and a dozen other smaller bodily movements were needed to throw an object effectively against powerful foes.

“Rest your shoulders some more. We’ll move closer, ought to be getting close to the slopes if there’re animals about.”

Though Masterson said this, he wasn’t exactly sure since he knew that behaviors of regular animals couldn’t be exactly the same as these monsters, but what he was sure about was that the snow pack had dropped considerably, now only perhaps two feet in some places.

Walking onward, though now slower than before, Masterson was fully alert and decided to give the huge beasts a wide berth but became alarmed by something he saw in the distance.

It was a small humanoid walking in the direction of the monsters, he couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but his instincts as a father screamed that he needed to hurry.

Just as the bipedal dinosaur finished off the multi-legged serpent, it turned its attention to the place where Masterson had last seen the hunched figure.

Instinctively, breaking out into a run, he shouted for Rapanui to start throwing his javelins, and attaching his Bowie knife to his rope, he shouted: “Shave!”

Making it just in time, Masterson threw his knife into the side of the monstrous dinosaur then used the rope to swing himself around its neck.

Pulling the rope hard, he rode the bucking dinosaur like a rodeo star, pulling it away from the hunched figure, until Toma had finally caught up.

With the furred dinosaur exhausted from its battle before and confused after being hit by quills that seemed to come from nowhere and choked by the tiny creature on its back, Toma found it easy to slip inside the creature’s defenses and deliver a killing slash on its underbelly.

Falling to the ground, like a puppet whose strings have been cut, Masterson didn’t care to double check to see it was dead but instead rushed towards the hunched figure.

‘A little girl?!’ he thought, alarmed by not only the sight of this red-headed child in such a dangerous place but also the fact that this girl was wearing nothing but a frilly skirt, a shirt with no sleeves, and a pair of worn-out shoes with no socks.

With snow still falling all around them, he quickly shouted out for Carrot and when she came, he told her to carry the girl against her before she froze to death.

Nodding to this, Carrot - who was not that much larger than the girl - opened her stinky furred bodysuit and held the girl close to her as Toma began tying the bodysuit closed.

“What’s this?” Rapanui asked, having just caught up to the group.

Holding a strange flower in his hand, he handed it over to Masterson to inspect. Looking it over, Masterson saw that it was a delicate looking flower, with a large pink bulb, and a red marking that almost looked like a ‘Q’.

He had never seen this kind of flower before but reckoned that it would have to be important for this girl to pass out without dropping it.

“Alright, good find, Rapanui.” Said he, then handing it back continued: “Hold on to it for now, when the girl wakes up, we’ll see what it’s about.”

Continuing on their march once again, it wasn’t long before the girl started moving, and upon seeing herself carried by a half human, started screaming.

“Settle down, girl, settle down!” ‘Soothed’ Masterson, and whether it was because this girl was brave or he really did have a magic touch, she did just that.

“Who are you people?” she asked after a minute of catching her breath, to which Masterson answered naturally: “We’re Marines.”

“Marines?” she echoed, and Masterson patiently replied: “Yep, just Marines. We fight to uphold Justice around the world and come to this place to see it straightened out.”

Clearly, the young girl was still confused, but after thinking for a moment she started worming around under Carrots cloths and panicked again.

“Mr. Marines, did you see my flower?! I need it! Oh, I need it!” “Settle down, girl, settle down!” Masterson said again, but this time added: “We got your treasure, right here.”

Motioning over by waving his hand in the air, Masterson pointed to Rapanui who had faithfully kept the flower safe, and the girl let out a sigh of relief.

“Well, we kept your treasure safe. Now tell us, what’s that thing for anyways?”

Seeing the faces in front of her, the girl began to describe that the plant was a medicine for her sick grandma. Crying through her story, she nevertheless pointed the group towards the lowlands.

By the time Bill had reached his first signals, Masterson stood looking down a steep cliff to see a village far in the distance.

The girl’s story about her family and village had been heartbreaking and seeing a bit of his daughter Carrol in the child, for the first time, Masterson was glad he had come on this voyage.

Swearing to himself, come hell or high water, Shiki and his pirate scum would pay the price for making this little child’s life miserable.

He would see to it.