Nocturne Island

Nocturne Island is an island located in the South Blue. Due to it's position it always seems like it is near dark or is night time on the island. It is the home of Hunter Almar from Cross Bizen's crew and local resting place of the latter. This island is shaped like a crescent moon and have large rocky mountains lining it's backside with a small village closer to the water. This location is not widely known in the South Blue but is a very decent fishing spot.

## Midnight Greetings

It was currently two and a half past noon yet the moon shone brightly in the sky. Little to no clouds were seen for miles as the moonlight shone downwards upon the sea and glistened against it. The blue deep was beautiful and shown many fish swimming around close to the island near a docked boat. The boat was of moderate size and was clearly a Marine ship that was docked upon land. The stars glistened brightly in the sky almost as if they were dancing among themselves constantly switching partners in an endless loop. The waves and lack of noise other than the soothing sounds of the ocean made the island's village at peace as the villagers went around doing their normal jobs.

The soothing sounds of the sea are suddenly over taken by screeching and shouting of beasts coming down the mountain even though they are only 3. the beasts seemed to be acting like a chair for a half naked man dressed kind of like a koala. When he gets down the mountain he sits and looks around curiously then Bruce, a koala and Eucalyptuses best friend, stands forth pulls and pulls out a horn then he says "OUR MAJESTY EUCALYPTUS THE KOALA KING!" (44 EXP)

A canine pawed at the sleeping girl, attempting to wake her. The girl eventually complied and sat up. “What is it Kazuki?” She asked. Kazuki pointed his snout to the shore. “We’ve landed.” A bird, preening his feathers stated. The girl looked around her. The raft she was using had been pushed onto the soft sand of the island. “Alright then, let’s get going. It’s already dark, so we’ll have to wait until morning to get information on Mama.” The animals nodded in response and the trio set off. “Lulu, may I rest on your arm?” The bird requested of the girl. Lulu nodded before taking a leather bracer and strapping it to her arm.

“There you go Tori.” The bird landed on the bracer, taking care not to harm Lulu with sharp talons. As the three reached the town, they noticed it to be strangely lively for the time of day they assumed it to be. “Well this is weird.” Kazuki noted. The other two just nodded in agreement. Lulu shook herself of the surprise. “Well, no use dwelling on that. Time to ask some questions!” She exclaimed excitedly. Her animal companions sighed and rolled their eyes. They obediently followed Lulu around as she asked everyone a flurry of questions until they made up an excuse to leave. (80 EXP, 20 PXP)

Off in the distance a man was jogging down one of the stony paths that lead up towards one of the mountains. He had on a brown tank top and dark brown pants with black boots on his well toned body. He has scraggy silver colored hair and sharp blue eyes. As he jogged down the path he paced his breathing until he came to the end and entered the village by hopping a small picket fence by using his hand as a lift to leap over. As he slowed his jog into a walk he looked around the bustling city and saw all of the people who were still awake even given the strange night time that surrounded them. They were getting water from a well and some were fishing by the nearby shore. Having walked a little furhter into the familiar village with it's small wooden and stone houses giving eerie glows of yellow light, Cross was suddenly startled from a loud horn. *'Our majesty, Eucalyptus the Koala King!'* was shouted not too far from the village from a loud horn.

Cross looked towards where the sound came from and nearly went to smack himself after seeing a half naked man bring carried by an alpaca followed by a koala and turtle the former of which had a large horn made of bamboo. "That thing doesn't look like it ate the Zoan-type so it must be one of those Kung Fu Koalas. As for a king... that guy barely looks alive let alone a king." Cross says to himself before breaking into a sprint towards his docked ship. He takes out a small pocketbook on Devil Fruits and scans through some of the pages quickly before putting it away. "I'm sure of it." Cross says to reassure himself of the situation before making it halfway to his ship and stopped seeing an abandoned raft. "More visitors? Looks like I picked the right day to dock." he said before rushing towards his ship and grabbing the rope ladder. "Time for the Sea Emperor to take up his bident once more." (90 EXP, 50 DFS-PXP)

Eucalyptus slowly steps of lucius then looks around at all the towns people staring at him wondering what he will do. He then begins to look at the shops and he walks past a large vibrant shop packed full o some of the finest jewelry there is to offer,his eyes instantly light up and enlarge while he looks side to side,up and down at all the "shiny things"he slowly reaches out at one in particular that was a gold necklace with diamonds and other beautiful jewels implanted into it. The shop keeper instantly slaps his hand away and says"go away you filthy beast BEGONE!.Eucalyptus instantly got infuriated and started to scream he pulled out his Bo-jitsu staff and smacked the shopkeepr in the face nocking him onto the ground,he then let out a loud scream and started to destroy other stores and attack other people. Bruce then began to steal things of the destroyed stores while Eucalyptus was on a rampage. People started to fear for there lives and began to retreat from the area after eucalyptus finally calmed down by the help of Jeff the turtle and Bruce all was left was debresof what was once a thriving market. (75 EXP)

Lulu and her companions stood frozen in surprise for several seconds before darting out of the way of the crazy man’s rampage. They hid themselves underneath an overturned cart and discussed what was happening. “Do you know who he is?” Lulu asked the animal duo who shook their heads as an answer. “Did he not see the ‘*no shoes, no shirt, so service*’ sign, perhaps?” The girl pondered. Kazuki’s ears twitched. He snapped his head towards the angry nutcase’s companion. “That little bastard’s thieving. Tori, let’s go.” Kazuki ordered. Both of them dashed out of their hiding space and towards the koala.

“What? Guys, don’t leave me…” Lulu contemplated running after them, but heard the yells of the semi-naked man and decided against it. Tori reached the koala first with Kazuki close behind. Tori was to hover in front of the creatures face – acting as a distraction – while Kazuki would ram into it, tackling it to the ground. Tori would then retrieve the stolen items. The two had known each other long enough that no conversation was needed to create a plan simple as this. (87 EXP, 50 PXP)

Cross went into his Captain's Quarters and grabbed his armor placing it over his head and then resting it on his shoulders. As he was grabbing his sword that laid in the corner of the small quarters he heard yelling from afar. Quickly grabbing the weapon's belt and then swinging it across his body he then used his forearm to slam the door out of his way and looked out at the city. The local jewelry shop had been attacked by the strange half naked man who had also killed two innocent bystanders in the process. "Looks like I have to skip leg day." Cross said to himself before looking out at his ship's deck. Vincent was asleep atop the Crow's Nest with his telescope lying in his lap and his uncle's rifle after it. Johhny and Otto were near the top of the bow with Otto holding a whiskey bottle in his left hand. Hunter was most likely below deck sleeping on her hammock.

Cross got a running start passing through his deck before jumping off of the bow of the ship and landing on the soft sands. He looked around for any signs of the wild man until he saw a dog of some kind tackle one of the koalas and a bird fluttering around it. "Hmm... never seen them before, must be owned by whoever was on that raft. Oh well, the more heroes the better." he said to himself before taking off towards the store. As he neared it he saw the man exit the building with a satisfied look on his face and stopped not too far away. "Hold it you monster! In the name of The Navy I'm placing you under arrest!" he shouted. Cross then took off his sword holding the scabbard in his left hand and drew the sword with the other. "Come quietly or I shall pursue you in the name of Absolute Justice." he said pointing the sword at the man. (90 EXP, 40 Cap-PXP)

Eucalyptus slowly walks up to cross looking up and down at his body in a curious fashion then he suddenly warps his arms around him and hugs cross then smiles. Eucalyptus then lets out giant screeching sound and draws his bo-jitsu out from his back. he jumps back and then crouches and pokes his bo-jitsu out at an angle and lets out another loud screech before his eyes glow in rage like a feral beast ready to attack his prey.Mean while Bruce was sitting on Jeff saying his classic line "i hate my life"after being munged after mugging the towns people. before being mugged he attacked the beasts trying to defended himself and his precious shiny things but hi age and laziness led to him losing the fight and him giving up on his life once more like usual. (104 EXP, 50 Doc-Cap-PXP)

Kazuki barked to Lulu who - after looking to see if the coast was clear - sprinted towards the animal duo. She quickly collected the pile of jewellery strewn on the floor. "Good job guys. Let's return this and get out of here before anything else happens." The girl stated. She scanned the area for the shop owner. She let out a sigh. Most people had already fled the area. There was a marine nearby, but he was fighting the crazy, half-naked man. Something in the strange man's yells caught her attention. Lulu could make out vague words from the shouts. She slowly tiptoed closer to the sparring pair. "Um, excuse me. Could you repeat what you said?" Lulu asked the strange man, ready to bolt at the slghtest provocation. Kazuki stood next to her with his hackles raised while Tori sat on Lulu's bracer. Lulu made sure to keep a tight hold on the jewels, knowing that the creature who had stolen them was a companion of the man she was conversing with. (70 EXP, 50 PXP)

Cross was hugged by the strange man who then screeched and drew his bo-jitsu staff. "Hey, enough fooling around already." he said before bringing his sword down onto the bo and then jumping back when his sword was lifted by the wooden staff. "Alright then, if you want to play, let's play. I know you don't have a Devil Fruit so this should be even easier for me." Cross said twisting something on the hilt of the sword which shot out and extended. The blade then split in half and connected to the weapon guard transforming the weapon into a bident that Cross was known for using. "I won't let anyone stand in my way!" he shouted as he swung the bident forwards and caught the bo-jitsu staff between the prongs and twisted holding it in place. "This is your last chance. Come with me or... hmm?" Cross looked over and saw the young girl who had spoken but kept his grip on the staff with his bident. (144 EXP, 80 Cap-DFS-PXP)

Eucalyptus reacted to the two staffs being connected by holding the staff with one end and snapping the bo-jitsu staff in half with a karate chop that he learnt from his brethren on his home island after that the staff resulted in being more of a small sword then a staff anymore but koala man didn't care instead he smiled and vol-ted behind cross by using the remains of his staff towards the air propelling him behind cross he then struck him with several hard hitting swings towards the spine. (64 EXP, 50 Cap-PXP)

Lulu looked between the two men, unsure how to deal with being ignored. The last thing she wanted to do was get caught in the middle of a brawl. She didn't even want to be *near* a fight. The small problem was: she couldn't stop thinking over the words she thought she had heard the crazed, stick wielding man say. Curiosity took place of the majority of her fears. Lulu took a deep breath. Her animal companions looked at her with confusion evident on their faces. "Excuse me!" She shouted, hoping to gain their attention. She instantly regretted her decision. "Er, um, I mean... Would you be so kind as to listen to a request of mine?" Lulu politely asked. She was on the verge of bolting but forced herself to stay in place. (93 EXP)

Cross was struck in the back a few times before he spun his bident and removed the lodged staff pieces from the inside of it. "Tch. You're better than you look." Cross said before retaliating by spinning his bident shoving the sharp end into the ground and spinning with it kicking Eucalyptus in the jaw before landing back behind his bident and taking it out of the ground. He then rushes forward and clashes with the bo-staff several more times before he hears the young girl shouting. He once again launches his pointed end forward but this time catch Eucalyptus by his arm and shoves it towards the ground before turning his bident and then looking towards the young girl. "You should get out of here! It's not safe for you!" he shouts. (91 EXP, 50 Cap-PXP)

Eucalyptus let out spin chilling scream when cross stuck the blade in to his arm. he then ript the staff out of his arm then stared at LULU like this is not a place for children before smacking the ground widely out of rage then started to swing widely at the ground and then dashed towards cross then for some reason he said "your better than you look" in a slow confused voice like hes mimicking people around him Before he struck cross around the face and chest area with strong inaccurate wild blows before dashing back and screaming and once again hitting the ground in a fit of rage. Then he suddenly stared at LULU and said "y ou g o to dan gerous for you." (64 EXP, 50 Cap-PXP)

Lulu jumped backwards as the crazy man fell to the ground. Her fear waned as the man spoke in a broken dialect using the same words as the Marine. She tilted her head to the side in curiosity. Kazuki nudged at Lulu's leg, wanting to follow the advice that they had been given. Lulu's mind was questioning too many things to pay attention to her worried companions. "But you spoke differently earlier. Mr, what is your true language?" Lulu asked mostly to herself. She glanced back at the koala who had stolen the jewels Lulu currently had in her arms. "Do you speak Koala? That's similar to wombat I think..." She coughed to clear her throat. She then spoke; as if testing her voice; in a foreign tongue to most humans. *"Hello. My name is Lulu. May I ask your name and why you are fighting?"* She asked the strange man in Wombat, hoping the simpler words were similar enough to cross the language barrier. Kazuki and Tori just stared at Lulu. They knew she got curious easily, but what she got curious about could cause her serious repercussions if she wasn't careful. The two sighed and got into a ready stance. They would defend Lulu if necessary. (83 EXP, 50 PXP)

Cross caught the man's half staff multiple times before sweeping at his legs with a kick to knock him down and then used his bident to leap over him. He saw the girl speaking to the other koala and shook his head. "Weird kid." he said to himself before swinging his staff under his arm. "Give up, you're no match for someone like me. A simple man raised by animals could never stop me." he explained. Seeing the man's confusion he simply shook his head. Cross held out his hand palm up and mesmerized both Lulu and Eucalyptus at what he did. Small, yet long teardrop shaped water began gathering in his hand from the air and created a small ball of water which he then threw away and it splashed against the ground. "I own the Mizu Mizu no Mi, Logia-type that allows me to control, manipulate, and become water at will. You stand no chance in permanently harming me." he explained staring at the man. "Are you going to come quietly or do I need to break you?" (94 EXP, 50 Cap-DFS-PXP, 20 DF EXP)

"animals"? what? "it h ..urt i kill y ou" Eucalyptus then started to dash quickly towards cross while snarling viciously at him he then suddenly leaps onto cross pointing his staff downwards on the broken side into his chest forcing cross down onto the floor pinned. Eucalyptus then opened his mouth revealing several unnaturally sharp teeth for a human. He then screamed in to the sky. He leaned towards to crosses throat an bit into his throat attempting to rip it out. (22 EXP, 50 Cap-EXP)

Lulu; not wanting to see a gruesome act of murder; dropped the accessories she was carrying. She covered her eyes, turned, and left. "Nope. Not watching this." she made a hurried retreat out of the town with Tori and Kazuki close behind her. Tori flew near Kazuki and spoke in hushed tones. "That was a bit of an overreaction, don't you think?" The bird whispered. Kazuki shook his head. "She has this thing about necks." He replied. Lulu heard them and turned to face them. "It's just... ugh, okay?" She shook herself to get the imagery out of her head. (67 EXP)

Cross saw the incoming sharp teeth and once they bit down they simply bit into water as Cross maneuvered his body to flip him and Eucalyptus over as he reformed his neck. Cross jammed his bident into Eucalyptus' shoulder to hold him still and then with a quick motion chopped Eucalyptus in the throat with his free hand. "That's enough, this fight is over." he said though he seemed slightly weakened. "For Murder, Attempted Murder of a Marine Officer, Petty Theft, and Resisting Arrest, I am placing you under arrest." Cross said twisting his bident in the shoulder. Cross held tightly onto his bident and grabbed Eucalyptus' throat pinning him to the ground as he tightened his grip with his legs. "Nobody is coming to save you, so if you're not already choking to death I might end you right here." Cross said with a terrifying look in his eyes. (74 EXP, 50 Cap-EXP, 20 DF-EXP)

Eucalyptus let out sounds of him choking while cross was holding onto his neck Eucalyptus panicked and grabbed the rest of cross bidet that was sticking out and flipped it over his back causing cross to smack into the ground behind eucalyptus creating some space and freeing eucalyptus from cross he then was in a sense of rage to the point where he could not think straight and charged right back to cross but he had an aura around him that seemed to be created by the rage of eucalyptus he then stroke cross Sevrel times with the remains of his blunt staff towards crosses legs which caused cross to fall onto the ground and instantly striking him in the chest mindlessness in a fit of pure rage with his staff on the side where parts of the wood where sticking out like sharp needles. Bruce then shouted "this is dangerous eucalyptus stop or this might e the end we cant damage him theirs nothing to deal lasting damage ...UNLESS Bruce then pulled out several sponges and a bag of sand out of the remains of the market place and passed them to him Bruce then said This is the only thing that you can do use these to absorb his water. Afterwards Eucalyptus was heavily exhausted from how many attacks and blows he has taken through the fight. (44 EXP, 50 Cap-EXP)

  Lulu and her companions made their way to their raft. With help from Kazuki, Lulu pushed it back into the water. The trio clambered on and seated themselves. Lulu gave a sigh. Kazuki curled around the young girl. "Come on. You can sleep on me. Tori and I will keep an eye out for anything." The canine said. Lulu gave a smile to her friend. "Thanks guys." She settled down, resting her head on Kazuki's fluffy belly. "Let's hope the next island is less crazy." She said sleepily. (77 EXP, 40 PXP)

  Cross sees the sponges and shakes his head before collapsing his bident back into its sword form. "I'm ending this fight one way or another and I don't care how crazy you are." he says a little winded. Cross is feeling the effects of the clean water he had to use but shakes off the dizziness for a few moments. "I won't let you get away, you're coming with me!" he shouts. As Cross charges forwards, Bruce and Eucalyptus hears some kind of whistling as kunai aimed at Bruce's hands specifically wiz past Eucalyptus' head and would pin the koala down by his hands if they connected. In the far distance a young girl in a brown cloak whose sleeves were too long for her and white baggy pants with Marine boots on rubbed her left eye. "What's all of the commotion?" she asked. Cross got in close to Eucalyptus and swung his sword upwards on an angle at his chest. (94 EXP, 50 Cap-EXP)

  Bruce saw the mysterious women and called lucious the alpaca over he laid the wounded EUcalyptus onto his back and jumped on aswell and shouted RUN! TO THE SHIP while he pointed into the direction he wanted to go Lucious ran as fast as he possibly could untill he reached a small wooden ship that he laid Eucalyptus carefully onto and then kicked him carvely and soflty in the chest in a disgruntled fashion and set sail out to get away from the marine. (56 EXP, 50 Cap-EXP)

        As Lulu's raft floated on the tides away from the island, the sky lightened. The darkness of the island no longer affected the trio. Lulu, however, was fast asleep. Tori kept a keen eye on the horizon for either friend or foe. Kazuki trusted Tori enough to allow himself some sleep. He curled up around Lulu further and closed his eyes. The gentle waves lulled him into sleep quickly. (64 EXP)

Cross raised his sword and a shot rang out multiple times shooting holes in the sail with a man on the Marine Ship leaning over the bow with a bottle in his hand. "Who are you freaks?" he asks looking over at the raft that slowly comes to a stop. The man reloads his pistol and raises an eyebrow. "Ahoy, Captain Cross, do we need'em?" he asks. "Yes Otto." he says walking towards the shore as the young girl wipes her eyes again. "Sorry I wasn't here Cross, I..." "Relax Hunter, you did what you could my little ninja." he says placing his hand on her head while Otto keeps his eyes on the crew that attempted to flee with his revolver pointed at them. (91 EXP, 30 Cap-EXP)

At this point Eucalyptus was hardly able to move so Bruce did the only thing he could do which was lay Eucalyptus onto Jeff and whisper in his ear take him to a place with dry land is. So Jeff jumped under the water and only came up so eucalyptus could breath but he made it so the time was enough to not get shot at at the same time. Leaving Bruce and luscious on the ship with no sail. (69 EXP, 41 Cap-EXP)

Cross growls to himself and walks over to the water looking at them. "You're both under arrest for aiding and abetting a criminal. Don't move." he says as Otto drops a rope down to the raft from their boat. "You're coming with us you two, come along." he says pointing the weapon at them. Cross uses a rope ladder Hunter dropped down to get off the ship and gets onto his deck. "I don't know if you two are either very loyal or very dumb." he says folding his arms and looking at them. (77 EXP, 30 Cap-EXP)

Bruce and luscious dint resist the resist since they new nothing would come out of it because they have already don what they can do to help there captain. meanwhile Jeff found a small piece of land a fair distance away form cross so he decided to rest there for a couple of minutes gaining his strength back before setting of again looking for somewhere for eucalyptus to regain all his strength and safely get away from the marines. (22 EXP)

Cross picks up the koala and alpaca taking them below deck and placing them in jail cells. "You're all going to jail and will most likely be executed for attempted murder of a Marine Officer." Cross tells them before he leaves with a woman leaning against the inside of the area they are in. "You boys won't be getting out for a long time." she says sitting against the hull. Cross meanwhile gets back on top of the deck and rubs his head feeling his weakness going away. "I'm going to sleep... no disturbances." he says entering the Captain's Quarters. Cross sat down in his chair and nodded off. (76 EXP, 40 Cap-EXP)