A Search for Freedom

**Date Started:** 26 June, 2019
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Previous Role-Play**: N/A
**Users Involved:** User:KontonMan, User:Lemasters30
**Setting:** Unnamed Island
**Characters Involved**: Monroe Lance, Pearl H. Jane

## An Opening

The sea was not the kindest. It wasn’t anyones friend, all that sailed over it were equally welcomed by the sea as any other. One could only become accustomed to how it behaved, and so far, Lance was getting there. He was far from being the best, but he was decent. He was able to navigate the ship with a relatively decent skill. His prowess was more so on the land. When Lance had been a Marine, he sailed for pursuits and captures. Never for fun, and never to recruit a Marine into leaving the organization and becoming a Pirate. Lance wondered if that had ever happened before.

The man had a target in a mind, a Commodore. He would’ve met her, if he had been promoted. But due to his immense lack of accolades, Lance was far from the rank he would rightfully be in. But he had no qualms, if he had been a higher rank, his leaving would’ve brought more attention to him. And the man didn’t want that; not yet anyways.

Lance docked his ship at the harbour, the imposing figure of Wolfsbane shorter than the other ships, but was much, much faster. He had removed any markings on the ship that would inform others that it was a Marine ship. He wanted to travel in incognito, not wanting the attention. He leaped down from the main deck, landing with a \*thud\*. He knew where she was stationed, and he was sure that his presence would be reported. Lance walked forwards into the town, sure that his currently minute criminal presence would warrant the attention of his target. After all, he was a former Marine.

The Marine base stood on a cliff, overlooking the sea. The commanding officer in duty was a complicated one. She had quirks, demands and just a troublesome attitude in general, which made it difficult for her to get along with her subordinates.

But it wasn’t because of her attitude that most disliked her. It was mainly because of her past and the way she became a Marine Commodore. She basically was...awarded the rank. It was a deal of sorts. She was a former successful bounty hunter. She was feared as a woman who never failed to cease her targets. Even in that sort of business, things can get rough, so she began taking jobs from not so well reputed contractors, and it would be one of these jobs that would be her downfall. She was tricked into killing a crowned prince, which caused her to become chased by the Marines, and eventually captured by Vice Admiral Hale Osiris.

Even if her crime couldn’t be erased, given her reputation, she was offered a deal, a sort of way to make amends and to receive a pardon. This was how she became a Marine Commodore, and one of the most reputable marksmanship instructors the World Government had to offer.

It has been nearly five years since those events, and Pearl H. Jane had already grown incredibly bored and dissatisfied with her daily life. “Fighting for justice?”, that wasn’t enough for her. She wanted to fight for whatever the hell she wanted.

At this moment, she sat atop the Marine base, accompanied by her only friend in the whole Navy, a Kairoseki enhanced cyborg prototype, named DITTO.

In the distance she saw a large pirate galeon ship, circling the island. Probably waiting for a chance to disembark and pillage it. Jane sat with her legs crossed, throwing a pair of marbles up and down, playing with them. “DITTO...will it take me one or two shots?”

The cyborg merely answered by lifting two of his fingers. “Tssk! You’re underestimating me!”

She threw one marble up high in the air, and the other, she swung her arm to launch the little marble at supersonic speeds towards the distant vessel. The impact was tremendous, and it blew a large hole on the wandering pirate ship. From he distance she could hear the desperate cries of the pirates. “Damn it DITTO, you win.” As the second marble descended, she grabbed it with the same hand, and with another swing, she shot the marble at the ship, creating another impact that made cannonballs pale in comparison. This time, she managed to sink the pirate ship.

A Marine soldier came running up to her. “Commodore! We have a report. The former Marine Captain, Monroe Lance was spotted in town! Some reports indicate that he’s taken piracy. But regardless, this is a matter you should tend to!”

“Aaaahh shut up! Damn you lackeys always trying to tell me what to do...sheeeesh!” She yawned and reached for her rifle, which was leaning on the side of her chair. She stood up, wiping the drowsiness from her eyes. “Let’s go, DITTO. We’ll get some “brunch” on the way.” DITTO patted the soldier who came to report on the head as the duo went on their way to verify these reports.

What was it with people? If Lance had been taking out multiple of them normally, why did the next group think they’d stand a chance? But he didn’t complain, he never did. Lance embraced the opportunity to fight others, to further hone his martial art. But with fodder such as the ones attacking him, it wasn’t nearly as fun.

Lance had just laid down the latest group when he looked around. Perhaps he had been too destructive, seeing the ruined buildings. People were fleeing, but that was good. That meant that his target would be informed of his location even sooner. Lance wondered how the exchange would go. He had read up on her file before leaving the Marines, as he had with another. Lance didn’t feel comfortable asking some random mercenary for help, he wanted a Marine. That way, it would become much easier for communication. Although, considering the past of whom he was seeking, the communication issue may have still been prevalent.

But he thought nothing of it. Lance walked towards a the ruins of the building, tossing chunks of the wall aside easily. He found a chair, relatively unharmed. The man pulled it out, and took a seat. Lance let his arms rest against the back of the chair, his bottom on the seat. It was as if it was almost a throne, despite how shabby it was. He stared into the sky, and sighed. “Lets see how this goes…”

Walking through the rubble was Jane and her companion. The citizens were running by her, exclaiming about a young man causing destruction, but she didn’t seem to be paying attention.

“Oi Ditto. If you could try this enchilada, you’d never want to eat anything else! Whoooweee!!” She was just too focused on the deliciousness she just blocked everything else.

She rested her rifle on her shoulder, while she ate using her left hand. On her waist, another, smaller pistol could be seen attached to her belt. She finally came into the young man’s view. DITTO poked her on the shoulder and pointed at Lance. She finished what she had left in one bite, wiped her greasy fingers on DITTO’s body, much to his visible annoyance, and pointed the rifle at Lance.

“Heya...you!...-Umm...” She looked around and finally realized the destruction. “Uuhhh...what so were you throwing a tantrum or somethin’?”...she had forgotten the reason she was there in the first place, the report, all of it. A bite of another enchilada was all she had on her mind right now.

Lance lowered his head, spotting Jane. He had no expression, just one of curiosity. Her question further solidified his goal, she lacked drive in the Marines. He sat up from his chair, nodding in greetings. "No, I arrived here and due to my criminal presence I was attacked by your officers." he said. His voice was without any expression, it was rather strange. "As such, I fought back and have splayed them across the vicinity. I have caused property damage as an auxiliary to my minor scuffle."

He stared at her, briefly eyeing her enchilada. "You are Pearl H. Jane, yes?" he questioned. "I'd like to ask for your help." he continued. Most people were about the conversation, easing into what they would ask. Lance, however was far from it. He was blunt, almost too much. He was far too honest, stating things as they were. Lance said nothing more, waiting for how the Commodore would respond to his call for help, despite being a criminal.

“Aaaahg!”, she moaned as she looked at the bodies of the fallen marines all around them. “You went and caused a mess. Shit! You know all the paperwork your little “scuffle” will bring down on me?”... She lowered her head and thought for a moment while she scratched her belly.

“Should I listen to his request, DITTO? You know, I don’t really care about what you do to those soldiers, but hey, I can’t let you leave after this problem you caused. So let me put a few bullets in you and then I’ll listen, kay’?”, as she said this, she pointed her large rifle directly at Lance.

## The Wrong Foot

DITTO’s eyes glowed red as his massive frame suddenly dashed over to Lance’s direction, and jumped in order to body slam and pin the former Marine down. With one hand on her waist and another holding her rifle, Jane shot various bullets, though not at Lance, but to his surroundings in order to force that the only place he could move was into the direction of the incoming cyborg.

Now, despite Jane’s statement that she would listen to him after there were bullets in him, something told Lance that wasn’t quite what she meant. After all, she was shooting around him, making him focus on the incoming robot-creature that had sprinted towards him. What had she called it? DITTO? That was besides the point. Lance knew that his movement was being limited, and when DITTO had leaped into the air for what he could only presume was a body slam, he was somewhat disappointed. They hadn’t done any research on him; close quarters combat was his expertise.

As DITTO got closer and closer, Lance squatted. And as soon as DITTO made even the slightest contact, he jerked his head back, causing strong winds to ripple around the movement, doing the same as the ex-Marine went to slam his skull into the chest of DITTO to either knock it back and/or hurt it to whatever extent he could. Lance didn’t want to damage it to a high extent, as he suspected it had a connection with Jane.

DITTO slammed itself into Lance's head, his head shifted sideways, as a sign that he was surprised, and he then was pushed back, though he landed with no visible damage just a few meters away. Lance, even if he wasn't a devil fruit user, would definitely notice the bits of Kairoseki mixed in the cyborg's metal body and specifically his arms.

*"Hmm...this guy is strong,"* Jane thought. *"However"*. With incredible speed, she dashed to Lance's side, pulled out her gun, and shot multiple times, this time, clearly aiming for a fatal shot. As she began shooting, DITTO rammed himself into Lance's direction, destroying everything in it's path, and subsequently aimed a barrage of punches at Lance, that seemed to try and force Lance away from Jane, while still enabling her to accurately target him. Without a doubt, the pair knew each other quite well.

While all this went on, Jane addressed the young man. "So tell me, what was this request of yours?" After shooting twelve bullets aimed at Lance's body, she would reload faster than the eye can see, and shoot twelve more rounds?..."Did you specifically cause this scene to lure me out?" Jane was shooting Lance as she spoke to him, having her rifle resting on her left shoulder, ready in case her target got closer and managed to bypass DITTO's assault.

Locked in the heat of combat; true combat. How long had it been since Lance had a good fight? Many things were happening all at once, and to many it would be difficult to comprehend what was happening. But for Lance, he just simply had to let his mind flash back to when he was younger. The words of his mentor filled his mind, and although they were rather graphic, they worked. Lance had to focus on everything happening around him, so he let his primal instinct go to work.

A frontal attack by DITTO, most likely to lead into some sort of charge. Jane, dashing to his side in an instant to obviously release a round. Did she expect he’d back up from the assault? Which would let her shoot at him with more ease? Lance had to think of the possibilities, of the potential outcomes. Now while he couldn’t feasibly think up all of them with sheer instinct, he could get a rough estimate of what could happen. In a flash, Lance spread his legs and hunched over to half his height, his arms risen. “Well,” he began. “I want to have you join me on my mission to end the Marines.”

He blazed forwards at the sound of Jane’s finger pushing the trigger, one of the bullets skimming by him. She was good, she had expected that. But she had followed next to him, reloading faster than one could blink to fire away. But that wasn’t what he was focusing on right now, it was DITTO. As DITTO’s fists cocked back, Lance stopped and rose to his full height, puffing out his chest like it was a target. Lance took on the barrage of punches head on, the pressure behind each punch causing cracks in the ground. Any normal person would’ve been blasted back. But Lance prided himself in his ability to take blunt blows. It was paramount to his skill in Ape Fu, and he was no simple user. He and the art were synonymous, and so he took on the blows.

The barrage finished, but then would come Jane’s rapid fire. 24 rounds blitzing towards him. Lance entered that position he had once been in before, going to wrap his arms around the waist region of DITTO. The goal was to then lift him over his shoulder and slam him into the ground behind Lance. Not only would that hurt the machine, but block the bullets. The ex-Captain hoped that his plan would work, he wasn’t truly in the mood to get filled with bullets so early into his plan.

"End the Marines! Muahahahaha!...surely you must be a little delirious...*However*..." she said as she attacked Lance, and observed how confidently and effectively he took on DITTO's barrage. "*Maybe he's not so wrong in the head as I thought.*.."

Lance's plan worked out, DITTO's body took the brunt force of not only the former Captain's suplex, he also received Jane's bullets. Jane stood there, expressionless and without uttering a single word, as did  DITTO, now buried on the ground. But before Lance could react and conclude that the machine would've been out of commission, Jane yelled at it, "HEY, DITTO! Stop screwing around!". The sound of an engine could be heard, but it was DITTO, propelling itself from the ground. It's eyes began glowing an intense red, which could definitely mean it had gone in a sort of"battle-mode". DITTO lifted both of its massive arms, and slammed them unto the ground, creating a massive shockwave and a crater, and lifting an intense cloud of dust and rubble.

During that moment, Jane had jumped backwards, creating quite a distance. At the same time, she yelled at Lance, "and why me, what would I get out of joining YOU? Why should I trust you?!..." She holstered her gun, and now standing several meters away from DITTO and Lance, she pointed her rifle at the young man, and shot. The shot was aimed at Lance's abdomen. This was no regular shot though. An expert sniper as she was, in that brief moment, she accounted for the air, pressure, rubble, and everything that could divert her trayectory, in order to secure her shot. Not only that, even the output of her Haki, the amount she had imbued in her gun, was calculated to such an extent that it would increase the bullet's speed several fold, and its power, without reducing the accuracy. The bullet was aimed for a non-lethal area, although it carried so much power that it would pierce Lance and kept travelling quite a distance still if it had hit him. His few, but confident words kept ringing in her head, but nonetheless, at that moment, she still viewed him as just a criminal boasting crazy dreams.

“I assure you, I’m far from delirious.” Lance replied. Then he heard the rumble of an engine, coming from right by him. He could feel the shaking of DITTO, and so he leaped away, rolling off and blitzing off to create distance. As the mechanical warrior’s arms fell back to slam into the ground, Lance was prepared. Although, preparation to him was winging it.

The shockwave was mighty, shaking the buildings around them. The objects crumpled, and dust filled the area. Lance had no way to see through the rubble and dust, it was too thick and cloudy. So, he let his Kebunshoku Haki leak outwards. A slight silver light emanated before it faded, but this was how Lance’s Haki left him. It was like a Sixth Sense, he could see what he could not see. The bullet had come blitzing towards him, cutting through the clouds. But that was its downfall. The power behind the bullet made the smokescreen invalid, as it pushed the dust away as it approached Lance. Not only that, Lance’s Kenbunshoku was active, informing him of what was happening.

To counter the bullet, Lance spun around and slammed his left elbow into it. It dug into his skin slightly, but it was sent blazing out of the cloud of smoke into the ground, creating a crater of its own. If that bullet had hit him, he would’ve been in danger. As the smoke cleared, the trio could now see one another. “As for why you should trust me…Well, I’ve been completely honest with you so far. And as for why you should join me,” the former Marine began. “You’ll get that excitement you’re yearning for. Your old life will be returned, we just have to make a pit-stop; destroy the Marines.”

DITTO extended it's arm in front of him, palm open, when suddenly it rearranged itself into a cannon, ready to fire at Lance. "Target, locked," said the machine in a robotic tone.

"Wait! DITTO!!", the robot lowered the cannon, and returned the arm to normal. "Damn, and even though I wanted to see DITTO's "*Incineration Cannon*" in action, that shit always makes me excited..."Sigh", But I hear ya' kid. You are saying some big stuff..."

She walked and reached the robot's side, and patted it on the back. "I have no doubts now...You were stalking me! That creeps me out a bit, honestly. But even though the offer seems tempting, I'm not sure if joining you would be the best course!"

Jane continued walking, reaching close to Lance's position. "You must already know that I was forced into this shit, right? You know how *I* was forced?...I was beaten so badly, I still have nightmares about it. DITTO and I, we... stood no chance. Unit #4 of the Kuroumi hunted us down and completely defeated us. Those guys are monsters, yet you say we're going to destroy an organization full of monsters like that, and that also has many more who are leyels beyond that?! Honestly, it's easier to say you want to be Pirat King or Yonko, boy..." Jane turned to her side and sat on a small pile of rubble.

"I get it, you're strong. But if I join you, the monsters they'll send after me, after *us*...I don't see us winning, unless you have a grandiose plan, like for starters, how many do you have in the crew, are they strong?"

“It’s just us so far.” Lance responded. He could see how much the whole idea worried her, but she was on the hook. The former Marine just had reel her in. “We’re to be the roots for this crew. We’ll be getting more and more Marines to join us. We’re going to tear them apart, bring in their own.” he said. Lance was a simple man, he sought out a linear path for everything.

“But if these Kuroumi people are bothering you, you can wait here. Unit 4, was it? I’ll bring their bloodied corpses here, if that’s what it’ll take.” Lance proclaimed. He placed a hand on Jane’s shoulder. “To have you join me, I’ll do whatever. I need your experience in the sea, and your skill. DITTO’s a bonus on top of it all, really.”

Lance's honesty sparked a flame in Jane, one that had died a while ago,. The thrill of the unknown was a feeling nearly forgotten to her, until now. He seemed simple, but that trait was one Jane had begun to appreciate of the young man. He reminded her of the part of her she lost. That excitement when hunting a bounty, but now, she'd be hunting those who forced her into her current status.

"Heh...no need, kid. We'll deal with them when the time comes." She burst out laughing and smiling in a way she hadn't done in a while. "You're kinda insane...I'M insane for even considering your offer. Tch...I could care less about these Marines or the destruction you caused, I just did what I had to, in order to not have their fangs beared at me..."

She turned over to DITTO, and with her finger, she signaled him to come closer. "DITTO, face recognition software, activate. Record and save ally in memory..." She then faced Lance, "Don't worry, he's just going to analyze your appearance. State your name so he can record your voice."

Jane stood there, holding her rifle over her shoulder, contemplating her desicion.

“Monroe Lance.” he stated, letting DITTO record his voice. No doubt that’d be useful in the future. “Thank you, Jane.” Lance said, offering his hand to her for a firm handshake.

“Once you’re ready, there’s another stop before we begin.”

"Maaaahahahahahahaahahaha!...I can't believe what I'm just doing. Wow...a minute ago I was aiming to blow a hole in your gut! But...I feel kind of relieved. DITTO, you okay with this?" The huge robot shrugged, implying he was okay with whatever his companion decided. Jane then shook Lance's hand as she felt determined this was the start of a new chapter.

At the moment, it didn't matter the obstacles she thought could've held her back, the young man's attitude had reminded her that one has to be bold, and take that "leap of faith" to achieve one's desires. But plotting to destroy the Marines? She never thought she'd agree to something as preposterous as that, but somehow, that feeling made it all the more exciting.

Jane looked at she sky as she finished shaking Lance's hand. "Heh, and to think today started as a normal day. Destroyed a Pirate ship, ate a few enchilada's, and came to deal with a disturbance...Oh well, I guess this is a turning point, right DITTO?", Jane said while smiling and scratching her head, while DITTO responded by flexing his robotic arms.

"I'm ready...*Captain*. What is our next destination?"