The Red Night [Open]

(( Sorry, was struggling to word this so I made it short but sweet, bit rusty :p ))


Once again, darkness shrouded the damp dank streets of Loguetown. From bustling to almost deserted, people made their way around, either to do things they would not do at day or to hurry to their homes. Unsavoury characters lined the alleyways, gangs rallied in the streets and pirates brawled like drunken fools outside taverns. From atop the clock tower-made temporary HQ, Fayde stood, watching over the city; searching for trouble made from others.

Daytime wasn’t her thing, nothing happened then. Yes, the odd thief, but when the sun set.. That was when the town showed its true colours.  Street five, as she liked to call it had a gang fight between the Roger’s Legacy group and the Golden Men. They were both groups deeply entranced in the deceased Pirate King, and often butted heads, despite they’d probably be more likely working together in the leadership. They mostly try to assimilate the other, so she wasn’t worried about any deaths or broken property. They mostly fought with billy clubs. She continued to scour the buildings from afar, the odd drunken civilian or other; the night had only just begun.

((Character Sheet))
Light spilled into one of the more populated streets as The Drunken Crab's door flew open. A yell and the sound of wood breaking made some of the more curious pedestrians look at the open doorway in time to see a burly chef holding a thin fellow in a headlock.
"Goddamn peasants thinking they can start fights in my bar now, eh?!" the chef yelled incredulously.
The man in his arms let out a small whimper in defense as he was raised up to shoulder level by the strong chef. The pedestrians, now entertained by the whole situation, stepped back hurriedly as the chef threw the thin man into the middle of the street.
"If you want your weapons back," the chef said coolly, regaining his composure slightly,"you can pay for them. Until then we're keeping them as collateral for your damages." An irritated sou chef with a black eye stepped up, holding a rifle and pistol.
The chef and his accomplice left the open doorway and moved back into the bar while a small crowd eyed out the thin man. Lying face down on the street, his left arm slowly lifted. At the end of the arm his hand curled into a fist and he raised his middle finger in the bar's direction, letting it drop a second later.

((Gave Roy time, no post from him, time for me to post, also I'm not meant to fully DM the whole thread, so eh :p))

Fayde continued to scan the city, other than the odd gangfight that she didn't care to break up; they would disperse in time. A man got kicked out of a tavern, probably too drunk. However, upon the other sided of the drunk's street, there were a few figures. THey looked to be beckoning him.

-Groundview-

"Yo.. Hey guy. Wanna make some money?" one of them said to Arrin, beckoning him. THey had hoods and whatever, classic shady characters who are obviously up to no good but lead their [insert victim or partners] on with sweet words and 'good deals'. "C'mon." the other one urged.

His arm wearily slid over to his side and pushed him up. What was left of the small crowd hurried back on their path now that the show was over and the vagrant was up. Arrin finally straightened his back with a loud crack of bones and looked over at the hooded figures. He slowly wiped the blood off his face as he eyed them suspiciously. "Yeah I want money, but what do I have ta do for it?"

"We get muscle and protection, you get five thousand beli upfront. And five thousand when we're done." Another one piped up "Only for a couple of hours. We're transporting some precious goods." Turning around, they walked back into the alleyway. "Just a couple of hours." the second echoed.

Couple of hours? 10 000 belli? That's enough to pay for the damages and get the guns back, he thought as he listened to the men. Arrin looked at the men and nodded, hiding his gratitude under a sigh of reluctance.
"Sure, whatever man," he started, following the men. "Just show me what I'm dealing with." His left hand rose up and subconsciously knocked the dust of his right shoulder before dropping back to his side.

"We're transporting some products which per se aren't what the marines are after, so you won't get into any trouble with them, but the local gangs have heard of our approach and want it for themselves." the first man said. They turned a right and if Arrin followed he would find a large coffin-like box carried by four burly-looking men who looked like they could knock down a building by themselves, though its to be seen if they could actually do that. The box was bolted shut and had sound-proof foam casing it, there were a few other men that could be identified as mercenaries, some carrying swords, some carrying rifles. They looked like they knew pretty much as much as Lone knew now.

Nori Rokuro was in the same vicinity as the four burly men carrying a coffin like object, this part of town was where all the black market dealers off loaded their under the table cargo. As such he was also here bringing in his Taima, the goings on nearby didn't bother Nori at all and they didn't bother him as he was obviously doing business. He wasn't apart of the local gangs but he'd done business here before, as such he was left alone outside of the odd workers he'd hired to haul his cargo. Taking a puff of his pipe Nori surveyed the surroundings, hoping the marines or any other authority figures weren't around including bounty hunters. 

He knew his bounty wasn't that high and frankly he was insulted by that, he knew he'd have to work on increasing that number at some point. But right now he lazily directed his workers to put his Taima on the dollies, after about five minutes the dollies were loaded with high quality and varied coloured Taima. With another puff of his pipe Nori slipped off the post he was sitting on, and told the workers where they were expected to be heading. As they were about to leave Nori gave a friendly nod towards the other group, not caring what they were doing but felt being friendly would just be good manners.

Coffins?
Arrin gave the whole situation a once over before making his assumptions. People don't smuggle dead bodies by the ton, they smuggle drugs. Drugs in coffins is a brilliant idea if that's what's going on.
He whistled. "I'm sure the marine captain would give his left nut to know this was going on," Arrin smirked, his respect for the high stakes situation showing.
"You want me on guard detail?" he asked quickly.

(( Sorry if the grammar/English isn't up to par in this post. ))

"I'm sure they would. Yes." a red cloaked man said and they each moved in unison toward their respective places, one in the front, two at the sides and one behind, their cloaks didn't really give much indication as to their travelling methods but it did seem as though they floated from the ease of their movements. "Mercenaries, please walk behind the cargo." the red cloak at the back said, swiftly turning around. The two at the side also looked away from the coffin, while the four burly men also did so.

The burly ones had stitched mouthes and wore the same colours as the three priest-like beings, that being black. The one at the back of the (metaphorical) train wore red, indicating a higher position. They began to move out and walk forward and a normal pace, the mercs looked uneasily around.

Meanwhile, Fayde watched the proceedings carefully. She didn't know what was going on there, but she doubted it would be good. She was in a good position, so she didn't have to move for a while before they went out of her sight.

Nori didn't really expect a response from them, since this wasn't the type of business that had friendly people in it. And he knew it was likely drugs or some such in that coffin, but they must be expecting some serious problems for the amount of security they had. His Taima haul was larger then there's but he didn't order any bodyguards, though it wouldn't matter since people knew his wares. They also knew that crossing him or his Taima was a bad move, and that he could defend it all himself if the time came.

So with a shrug Nori ordered the workers to keep going in their expressed destination, he knew they may go the same path as the coffin people for a while, but he had his own storage locale to off load his cargo. And then in turn spread and sell it throughout the city, laying on top of one of the crates at the workers hauled. Watching the night sky as they slowly moved in semi parallel to the coffin haulers, hoping not to arise their anger in all this goings on.

A man of the mercenary persuasion tossed Arrin a gun as he joined the rest of the guards behind the coffin bearers. He caught it in his left hand and lifted his stump to give the mercenary a sarcastic salute. The mercenary smirked and introduced himself Henk, before returning to the job of looking tough.

Arrin looked around. It was dark but it didn't look like there could be much trouble. There was another group carrying supplies nearby but by the look of it they were just dock workers..
His thoughts trailed off as he saw one of the members of this second group; Lord Taima. The guy was a legend, but Arrin had only seen his face on bounty posters until today. Arrin turned to Henk, still in step with the eerie coffin train. "We may have trouble," he whispered sullenly, nodding towards the other group of supply carriers.

Fayde watched as the group made their way through the alleyways. She didn't really know who the eight figures were but some people who she guessed were hired made their way behind them, including the guy who got kicked out of the tavern. There was another group who walked with them, she swore she could remember the face of one of them but she couldn't check her bounty booklet right now, not that she really needed it. Both groups looked up to no good.


Something flickered at the edge of her eye, out of a large stone building (which she had previously thought deserted) came red figures, the same as the singular one with the coffin-group, one of them bore a torch and others had a variety of weapons, unlike the four at the caravan they didn't give off the floaty feeling. They split up and encircled around the alleyways toward it, before each group running toward it.


Alleyway: Three clearings. Four groups charging from each.
North clearing: Four halberds.
South clearing: Where the coffin's apparent destination lies, three swords and one nasty looking flanged warhammer.
West clearing: Two halberds, one man with two daggers and a single swordsman.


Approaching the group, the man with the warhammer clenched within his hand spoke, his voice almost purring in contrast to his tall stature. "And the spider is caught within another's web." he sighed, before making an almost bored gesture toward the group. Unlike the rest of his red companions, he wore the same red as the one with the coffin.


The hostile priestly people charged toward the group. "Defend the coffin, please." the non-hostile red said pointedly, producing a long, thin blades from his sleeves, each priest turned toward the south clearing and produced their own blades, they effectively had the southern entrance covered.


Meanwhile, regardless of rank or social stature one may have, these people looked ready to slaughter everyone in the alleyway, helping or not.

It seemed things were going okay for both groups, as they walked their respective cargos through the alleyways of town. But something made Nori sit up, but not before pulling a rather basic looking brown bag from atop of one of the stacked crates. He sighed as he saw a bunch of rather hostile looking guys, heading towards the guys with the coffin but looking like they didn't care whom else they hurt. His workers didn't seem to flinch much because it seemed they wanted the coffin and not Lord Taima's shipment, but the path was still blocked for them either way.

Sliding off the crates as the workers put them down, knowing full well there was nothing they could do at this moment. Nori looked at the big guy who made the old spider web pun, and just shrugged "Look, I have nothing to do with these coffin guys. And while I respect their work ethic and yours, do you mind moving you people. So that me and my shipment can get through, I mean no offence to them but you'd have less people to contend with if you let us leave. Hell I'll even offer some of my Taima in added exchange if that will help" expressed Nori hoping the guys would let him and his go.

Though he wasn't as naive or as nasty as it might of sounded, Nori still kept one hand on his pipe and the other on his fan either way. Whatever the answer Nori would either walk off or get ready to fight "So if you don't mind, I'm sure my shipments are of no concern. But I have clients, and I'm sure you don't want to mess with my business any further" added Nori in a calm tone. But if one saw his face they'd see that hint of anger, which meant if they kept holding up his shipment he may just enter the fray out annoyance.

Arrin nodded at the approaching men in the west clearing, indicating to Henk his intentions. He swung his arm up and shot at one of the halberds. His aim wasn't great but neither was the distance between them. Arrin followed up by charging into the space between the men from the west clearing and the coffins. He immediately went into a defensive stance, ready to keep the men away at all costs; holding his gun like one would hold a sword.

Although they looked ready to kill everyone, it seemed their main focus was the coffin, as when they passed Nori's cargo a swordsman only tried to slash through one of his workers which was in the way. They didn't relaly seem to listen to Nori and would chant "A heathen speaks, we do not listen." throughout his speech.

Meanwhile, with Arrin's lot one of the halberds got shot through the shoulder, her changed his grip so his good arm held the halberd and had it supported with his underarm, holding it like a knight using a lance. He charged at Arrin, trying to spear him with it.

Meanwhile, the clash of blades resounded throughout the albeit small and enclosed battlefield, the man with the warhammer fought his two-sword counterpart, the former seeming to have trouble hitting the latter, but actually seeming to do a good job keeping him on his toes, whenever the latter red robe tried to impale him, he would use the momentum of his earlier swing to brush them away. Meanwhile the other beings seemed to have a waltz-like sword fight each, their blades a blur.

Fayde spied three other robed ones appearing on top of a rooftop, carrying balls of what appeared to be explosives. She took a bolt and held it up to a blazer, lighting the oil on fire. Aiming it at the three, she fired toward one of their arms. The bolt hit, and he started to panic, she looked to the side as the bomb went off, setting off the other bombs that took out a chunk of the building they were on top of.

Nori stepped back as the group approached and passed his cargo and workers, in a swift motion Nori pulled out his fan and defended his worker from being sliced. He didn't know the worker but it was bad for business and recruitment, if he didn't keep them alive when out on pick up. He heard the words mumbled by the man, something about heathens and ignoring what they say. "You know I'm not usually one to enter other people's problems, but you've stepped over the line. Guys, time to bust some heads" exclaimed Nori to his workers.


They went to the cargo and picked up some big tools, holding them in either one hand or two but brandishing them like weapons. While Nori extended his fan and looked to the group, as the workers rushed whichever fighter they could winging their large tools. Nori tossed his fan in a discuss motion aiming for one of the bigger guys, if the fan hit then it'd tear into his chest or abdomen before returning to Nori. Who'd then grab it and attempt a knee to a Kick Up & Over, if at all possible otherwise he'd go for the Drop Trip.

The rooftop explosion distracted Arrin who'd been eyeing out the charging halberdier. He looked back at the halberdier as the weapon was about to slice into his torso. Arrin twisted his body away from the blade a moment too late. The steel sliced across the side of his chest, turning the right half of his orange shirt red. "Bastard!" he grunted loudly, as he swung his rifle like a baton, hitting the blade away from his body and stepping back to maintain his defense.

Upon Nori's side, the person actually seemed a little surprised that Nori would dare strike him. "You dar-" he began, before falling upon the ground with a grunt and a knee to his upper body, you couldn't quite tell where you were able to hit has his robe was fairly puffy and somewhat cushioned the blow, if only slowed it. One of his comrades looked upon Nori and wildly swung his sword toward him, not quite with the grace of the eight ones fighting at the southern entrance, whom seemed to be locked in a waltz of death, one would strike, the other would block, and strike, another would block it and strike once more, and it would be blocked by another, it seemed to be battle of teamwork, their leaders the same.

The halberdier dropped his halberd and produced a dagger, lunging toward Arrin, only to be shot in the face. "Careful, lad. Don't shoot unless you're sure it'll hit." a battle-scarred man with many-MANY guns strapped to two belts that ran along his body. He glanced to his left and ducked as a sword swung above him (narrowly missing Arrin) as they engaged another zealous priest.

Fayde however noted that she would be having a fine job of explaining to the marines what was going on here, she loaded another bolt into her crossbow, she wasn't quite sure who she should back, perhaps no one. She only removed the bombers because it would do less damage to the innocent populace if they exploded on top of a roof, no buildings would fall down. She made her way down, hoping one of the black cloaked people would provide an answer if they survived the explosion.

Nori couldn't help but smirk as the man seemed shocked, as Nori attacked him but still went down all the same only to have another come at Nori wildly. This one had little grace and using his own Wobbly Stance Nori evaded the attacks, like a graceful drunkard or something to that nature. Getting in close as he essentially danced his way around the mans wild swinging, once he was close enough Nori bent back his arm and sent out a Burst Punch for the man's gut.

If the mark hit, the man would be down or sent a distance away. And Nori would then move on to other targets, because it seemed this fight wasn't letting up any time soon. Hitting foes with quick strikes weather they were looking or not, as the others had their part going well Nori headed over to the gates where more challenge awaited. Nori was close to the teamwork group and jumped square into the middle of them and whatever they were attacking, weather they changed targets or not didn't worry Nori but he started up a Whirlwind form and mixing it with River Flows.

Where they had teamwork and numbers, Nori had grace and skills that allowed him to take on numbered foes easier. If someone watched Nori as he got into his movements they'd see the grace of a Japanese dancer mixed with the hard punches of a trained martial artist, where he could Nori aimed for vital body parts with heavy strikes.

"I was trying to hit," grunted Arrin, replying to the veteran's remark about his aim. Dropping under the blade of the new zealot, Arrin flicked his legs up to kick at the man's chest. His hand was planted firmly on the ground, stabilizing his contorted hand stand. The gun had been dropped after the parry with the halberdier, so Arrin decided to use hand to hand combat, ironically.

(( Out of fishoil tablets, so this post may be a little information-starved or short))

Yes, she found an alive zealot but he was unconscious. She wanted to know what was in the crate. Placing him down, she looked over the fight once more, some people in the southern entrance (interestingly, they wore the same clothes albeit different colours) and they were fighting quite an impressive battle, none of them had been injured so far.

She watched as a man got punched into the wall by another whom seemed to have moved toward the group who as said were battling eachother. Their blade waltz interrupted by an attack that seemed almost crude by comparison, the two groups of four jumped back. "Please, do not interrupt this battle, bringer of 'exotic' goods." pleaded the leader of the friendly zealots. The not-so-friendly robed men shuffled into an arrow-formation, one swordsman at the front, two flanking him and the larger man with the warhammer behind. Suddenly, the one in the middle crumpled, it seemed he had gotten hit by Nori's technique after all. "Do not think yourselves above our vengeance, you may have defeated us here, but we will not let you go." he said, before fleeing.

Meanwhile, those whom Arrin were fighting had either been incapacitated or killed, due to having a rather interesting numbers disadvantage, only two from the other side managed to aid them but they had been defeated as well. One of them turned to run only to get hand to hand'd by Arin, should he press the advantage.

It seemed his help wasn't wanted or warranted, though in truth he was merely in a rush of adrenaline. Thus making his want to fight even more, in all the fighting his last two puffs had gone out the window. So relaxing for a second Nori took a puff when the man asked him not to interrupt, with a nod and a smirk Nori complied "If you say so, I'm more for chilling anyways. I just dislike it when people mess with my gods, if you want the fight go for it" replied Nori as stood there smoking his pipe.

The one he'd successfully struck seemed rather offended that he'd landed his hit, even giving that mysterious we'll get you speech you hear from some people. Nori shrugged as the man spoke and shortly after fled, he laughed a little under his breath. "Interesting how one minute he can threaten me and the next he's off like a rabbit" added Nori with another smirk and then a release of smoke into the cold night air.

Arrin let the men run.
"You're not worth it!" he shouted after them angrily, almost unhappy that he hadn't been beaten. He got up and dusted himself off before turning to his battle-scarred companion. "Thanks for the save," he muttered. Spotting his dropped gun, Arrin bent over and picked it up, running his thumb along the chipped wood.

“Indeed.” the leader said, and each of the red robed men walked to their original positions, guarding the box and the burly, large men heaved up the coffin. One of the robes broke the formation and walked up to a fairly wounded mercenary on the floor, who seemed to have been stabbed in the leg. “We thank you for your help in this fight.” he said, producing a bag of beli and dropping it onto his chest before returning to the others. “Let us press on.” The coffin began to move once more, out of the alleyway and onto the street.
 
Fayde followed them, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, she looked upon the man who’d gone from a rage to being calm, she wondered just what kind of goods he was transporting, more than likely something he didn’t wish to be found. She would deal with him later.
 
The mercenary who helped Arrin grinned, accidently cracking his dry lips. “Don’t mention it.” He said, walking after the coffin. “Bit strange this, ain;t it? And who’re you?” He turned to Nori, before back to Arrin. “And why d’you need the money?”