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Chapter 10-The Hero of The Marines & The Horror of The Buster Call[]
A Few Days Later[]
"Vice-Admiral on deck!" Oliver and every marine on board snapped a salute as the legendary Vice-Admiral Garp stepped off the gangplank and onto the deck. "Vice-Admiral Garp," Oliver said with a smile, "Welcome aboard." Vice-Admiral Garp continued to grin in the slightly manic manner that all his smiles seemed to be in, "You must be Oliver White. I've heard a lot about you and your crew. He said you lot are-" He suddenly stopped, his head lolled forward with his eyes closed.
Oliver swapped glances with Smoker and Hina, then looked at the man in the gray-brown suit and fedora who was following Garp like a shadow, "Is he okay?" The man nodded, "He falls asleep. Frequently." Suddenly Garp woke back up and looked around, "Right. Let's get this show on the road. You're Captain White right?" Oliver nodded, "Yes sir. Will you be sailing on our ship or your own sir? It was not made entirely clear in the briefing, so we have made quarters ready for you if you wish to sail on our ship, sir."
Garp looked at him, "Well that's very nice of you! I think I will sail on this ship." He looked over his shoulder, "Men, move my baggage and stuff to my quarters! Captain, show me to my quarters!" Oliver nodded, "Yessir. Smoker, make sure they know where they're going. We wouldn't want Vice-Admiral Garp's luggage ending up in the wrong cabin." Smoker nodded, "Right." Oliver looked at the rest of the crew, "At ease and back to what you were doing." He turned back to Garp and gestured with a hand and smile, "And if you will follow me Vice-Admiral, I will show you to your cabin."
He led Garp down into the ship and paused at a door with a large section of what appeared to be freshly constructed wall made mostly of panels. Oliver opened the door, "Your cabin sir." Garp walked in and looked around seeing that it was quite nicely furnished and smiling turned around and stepped back out, "Well this is all very nice, but what's up with this wall?"
Oliver smiled, "Well sir, we heard you like to crash through walls because it's cooler than using a door. So we made walls that you can smash through all you like. We've got enough replacement panels to build a fresh ship with them, so you can smash through this wall here as often as you please without losing any privacy at all because we'll just push a fresh panel into place while we fix the one you smashed."
Garp looked at the panel wall with a smile, "Well that's very clever! Where'd you get that much wood?" Oliver shrugged, "We capsized a pirate ship a little over a week ago. Most of it was irreparably demolished, but the wood was still good, so we salvaged it in case we needed it for repairs. Makes pretty good walls too." He added as he patted the panels proudly.
Garp nodded, "Cool!" Then he yelled and knocked a large section of the wall down and walked through it, smiling broadly as Oliver pushed a fresh panel into place, only for Garp to smash right back through it, "This is so cool!" Five minutes and a dozen panels later Garp paused, "Hey how'd you capsize a pirate ship?" Oliver smiled as he pushed the fresh panel into place, "I knocked it over with a newspaper."
"A NEWSPAPER?" Garp exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock and his jaw on the floor. Oliver nodded, "Yessir. A newspaper." "Well surely it must have been a giant newspaper," Garp said. Oliver shook his head, "No sir, the classifieds were slightly thicker than usual, but other than that it was a pretty normal newspaper." Garp raised an eyebrow and Oliver smiled, "I can see you have a hard time believing that. So please follow me to the deck, because it is much easier to see than believe."
"Hrm, alright lead the way," Garp said. "Yes sir," Oliver replied before heading for the deck. They emerged onto the deck and a moment later Oliver was rolling up a newspaper, "There aren't any pirate ships close by so instead, I'm going to knock down that big rock." He indicated a large spire of stone sticking up out of the sea. "Hmm, that rock huh?" "Yes sir," Oliver replied as he raised the newspaper, "Unless you would prefer I yelled it into the sea."
Garp looked at him with disbelief, "Is that a joke?" "No sir, it's easier than the newspaper actually." Garp thought for a moment, "Hmm, alright, yell it into the sea." Oliver nodded and tucked the newpaper under his arm. He stepped forward and pointed dramatically, his face contorted with apparent rage, "FAAAAAAAAAAAALL!!!" The shout was deafening, the results were stunning.
The shout was more a shockwave than a sound wave, and it plowed up the sea before it. When it hit the stone spire, the spire shattered, and fell into the sea. Oliver smiled, not even breathing heavily, "As you can see sir, it is quite nasty to be on the receiving end of." He looked around, "Sir?" Garp had disappeared. Oliver continued to look around, "Vice-Admiral Garp?" Garp suddenly slid down the mast, hugging it like it was his best friend, his hair standing on end, "That is a good trick!"
A Few Hours Later[]
Oliver sat on deck across a table from Admiral Garp, a map of the Grand Line spread out on the table before them, Smoker, Hina and Bogart stood by, listening closely. Oliver pointed to a series of islands, "The Orchard Pirates have struck here, here and here in the past week." Garp nodded, "They're headed for the New World, so we should be able to intercept them at the next Log Pose point." Oliver shook his head, "They're not using a Log Pose, look at their path. They're not following any known route."
Garp frowned, "So how do they know where they're going?" Oliver shrugged, "Don't know, but we have to assume they do, and they're making impossibly good time. It's almost like they've got a gale force wind behind them at all times. Every one of these islands is several days apart, they hit them back to back in three days." He frowned at the map, "We need to figure out where their destination is."
Garp frowned, "Well, if they're going to the New World, they'll probably stop at the Sabaody Archipelago to sell the stuff they stole and resupply. We won't beat them there, but maybe we can beat them to the other side of the Red Line and intercept them in the New World. Then we'll catch 'em." He looked at the map, "Looks like one of these four islands, and given how aggressively they've been attacking things under Marine Protection, they'll probably head straight for Punk Hazard."
Oliver's head snapped up, "What?" Garp frowned at him, "I said they'll head for the research facility on Punk Hazard!" Oliver sat back, his eyes wide with shock, "I'm from Punk Hazard!" Everyone stared and Smoker and Hina looked at their friend with concern as they remembered that he was from Punk Hazard. Garp blinked and sat back from the map as Oliver took off his hat and ran a hand through his prematurely snow white hair, trying to calm down, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know... Well, maybe they'll go for one of the other," Oliver shook his head, "No you're right. That's exactly where they'll go. I should have realized it sooner. If they're trying to make fools of the Marines, that's the perfect place to do it."
Oliver put his hat back on and looked at the map, "If they breach that research facility, there's no telling what kind of weapons they'll gain access to. We cannot let them into that facility. I've heard about the stuff in there, and its nasty." He looked up at Garp, "But that brings me to something very important I've been meaning to discuss with you."
Garp raised an eyebrow, "Yeah?" Oliver frowned, "I was informed that you have been given authority to issue a Buster Call in order to shut down these Orchard Pirates. I cannot allow a Buster Call to be issued on an inhabited island, especially my home." Garp nodded, "I understand. Well we'll just have to stop them before they can get to Punk Hazard." Oliver sighed with relief, "Yes sir. Thank you sir. I would prefer a Buster Call not be issued at all, but I cannot most especially not allow one to be issued on an inhabited island."
Garp frowned, "Why?" Oliver looked up at him, "Why what sir?" "Why don't you want us issuing a Buster Call? If these Orchard Pirates are as tough as the reports make them out to be it may be out only shot at catching them. You know that. So why don't you want one issued?" Oliver's eyes hardened slightly and he stood up, "Are you familiar with the Ohara Incident, Vice-Admiral?" He walked over to the rail and lit a cigar, "I am." Vice-Admiral Garp's eyes widened slightly, "Oh."
Smoker and Hina swapped a glance, "What?" Vice-Admiral Garp looked at them, "Ohara was an island of archeologists in the West Blue. There was a Buster Call on it nearly ten years ago. It was inhabited, there were no survivors." Smoker and Hina winced and then Oliver spoke, "Actually Vice-Admiral, there was one survivor. A dear friend of mine."
Once again, he had the attention of everyone who had heard him. He continued, "She was the sweetest most innocent little child I've ever met. She was eight years old when the Buster Call was issued. Her home, her family, everything she ever knew or cared about, was obliterated right in front of her." Everyone winced, as he continued, "I'm not sure how she survived. I didn't even know it had happened until I went back and saw the ruins of Ohara a few months later."
He blew a plume of smoke and gripped the rail, "Then I saw her wanted poster. That sweet innocent little girl has a seventy-nine million beri bounty on her head, all because she survived a buster call." His voice trembled slightly as he spoke and his grip threatened to crush the rail as he continued, "I searched for her for years, trying to find her. I've learned a lot about the Ohara incident since I joined the Marines. The Buster Call ships she was credited with sinking? Those were sunk by a Marine Vice-Admiral."
"Saul," Garp said quietly. "Yes," Oliver said, "Jaguar D. Saul, he was a friend of yours wasn't he Vice-Admiral? So ask yourself, if Saul would sink half a dozen battleships to stop a Buster Call on an island full of innocents, what would he say about issuing a Buster Call on an inhabited island to stop a group of pirates that we can probably handle on our own?"
Garp bowed his head, "He'd never allow it." He nodded, "You're right, we'll beat 'em ourselves." He suddenly surged to his feet and thrust a fist into the air, "BECAUSE WE'RE MARINES! AND THAT'S WHAT WE DO!" Oliver turned with a slight sad smile on his face, "Yes sir."
Halfway Across the Grand Line[]
Oliver Gray sat up, "Kuma! Chart us a course for Punk Hazard! The Marines are on to us! If we're going to get inside that research facility, we gotta do it now!" Kuma nodded, "Aye aye Oliver-san! To Punk Hazard we go!"