Part one of three!
Title: Fire Fist's hunt for Blackbeard I: A Lucky Start
Theme: # 16 Mole - Set 3
Claim: Ace
Words: 1780
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Set during Ace's hunt for Blackbeard. Part one of three. Mentions happenings in “A Place Called Home”. Then some swearing and Tashigi bashing.
Disclaimers: One Piece isn't mine. Jaja.
Ace had to admit that the marines were good at one thing; underestimating their enemies. This was the fifth time he had done this now, attacking a marine outside his base, stealing the uniform and then, simply, walk into the marine base. People came and went all the time so no one noticed yet another freckled marine.
And it was a easy life for Seaman Portgaz D. Trace, the all too obvious code name he had given himself. He ate at the buffet in the cafeteria and used no time for silly sword practice or equally time demanding things as he didn't have his name printed on any of the commander's lists.
Instead, all the time he didn't spend eating or sleeping (or both), he searched for anything related to the traitor Blackbeard or the new crew he seemed to have gathered. The other marine bases he had infiltrated had held false clues, tracks leading t a dead end. It was quite a while now since he had set out to find and kill his former comrade, and he missed everyone back at the 'Moby Dick', butboth for his honor and for Thatch's sake, he couldn't stop now.
The remaining marines were out on the courtyard, listening to a newly arrived commodore holding a speech, and Ace saw the gathering as the perfect chance to search through the archives down the hallway. Pushing his cap further down his forehead, the raven sneaked carefully towards the door, hoping that no one would notice him and drag him to the courtyard with the other idiots.
---
”Tashigi!” Commodore Smoker yelled at his poor ensign after finishing his dull speech. She had once again replaced her glasses and had thought that a dumpster were her boss. According to the marine's rules, she had saluted it and then started talking about the latest news about the Strawhats with it. The real Smoker, sitting about ten meters away, was fairly irritated and expressed that through yelling the woman's name loud and clear. She might be half-blind without her glasses, but she was most definitely not deaf. Hearing her boss' shout, she realized that she once more had made the usual mistake.
“C-commodore!”, she stuttered, turning towards the real man. Bowing several times, she tried to explain. The grey haired man waved away any of her excuses with the back of his hand.
“Tell me what you know about those damned Strawhats, and then go find your glasses. You embarrass both me and yourself by walking around like that... Talking to a dumpster...”, he added with a grunt.
Blushing, Tashigi nodded and took a piece of paper from her pocket and gave it to the frowning officer. It was a bit of a newspaper., the article carefully cut out along with the picture that belonged with it. The text was about a man who had broken an old record of “how many hot dogs can YOU eat in ten minutes!?” On the photo, said man was pictured with a green-looking face and his six-hundred-seventeenth hotdog in his hand, ready to shove it down his mouth.
Slightly disgusted, Smoker looked at his ensign with doubt in his eyes. Every clue leading towards the Strawhats was a welcome clue, but the commodore had problems finding the connection between this article and that crew and its dratted captain. He would surely have a serious talk with Tashigi if she had taken the wrong article... again.
Tashigi herself must have sensed that Smoker's irritation didn't fade away when he received the article so she explained:
“Look there, on the right side of the hot dog!” Although, instead of showing where on the photo, her index finger pointed at Smoker's groin. Shaking his head, the man decided to let it slip this once, and instead he looked closer at the picture where Tashigi had directed him to. And there, on the right side of said hot dog were a couple of grainy figures, almost melting into the background. One of them wore a straw hat, just like his appointed arch-nemesis, and it looked as if he was currently trying to attack the last hot dog in the eating champion's hand. Two other characters , even further back in the crowd were trying to restrain the straw hat clad figure from executing his food-snatching plan. Squinting his eyes, Smoker laughed for himself. A blond and a green haired man dragging a kid wearing a straw hat away from food. That couldn't be anybody else but the so called 'Monster Trio'.
---
The room was filled with dust from years and years of gathering information about pirates and other villains. Distracted, Ace drew a pirate skull and matching crossbones in the thick layer on one of the many steel cupboards. Some poor librarian would probably get the blame for that later on.
This was the dull part of the chase, spending hours in old offices, trying to find a single clue about Blackbeard's whereabouts. All too often it was a fruitless mission. Most of the information was old, some of it even before the time when Blackbeard had joined up with his captain. His birth location, the address to his parents and other relatives, wanted posters with constantly raising amounts. Stuck between a couple of old reports were a photo of a much younger Blackbeard without his famous beard. There was another photo in there too, one picturing Blackbeard, Marco, Ace himself and Thatch. Ace's fingers crushed the group picture and the flames licking his finger tips burned the remains.
Thatch... No one murdered a comrade with out consequences, especially nobody in Ace's division. He had made a promise to Marco many years ago, and he wasn't one to betray his words. He would chase down that friend murdering son of a bitch even if it meant that he had to infiltrate a thousand marine bases and follow Blackbeard to the end of the Grand Line.
---
Tashigi still hadn't found her glasses when a young recruit came running towards her and stopped to salute her.
“Ma'am!”, he yelled. “A man on the west division claims that he spotted the infamous pirate Portgas D. “Fire Fist” Ace in the cafeteria only a half hour ago! My orders are to bring the word to the commodore, ASAP!”
The black haired woman nodded and told the recruit that she could take over. The commodore was busy with planning another pirate hunt , but she would make sure that he got the news as quick as possible. The marine looked quite relieved that he didn't need to encounter the grumpy Smoker himself, And as soon as he had greeted Tashigi with a second salute, he was off the other way down the hallway.
The female swordsman however tripped down towards Smoker's temporary office further down. Her search for the missing glasses was with once forgotten.
---
Ace had heard several running footsteps outside the archive's door accompanied with raised voiced yelling something pirate something. Swallowing down, the rave sped up his search, guessing that he hadn't been as safe as he had presumed to be. If his guess was correct, he had a fortress full of marines searching after him this very moment. Digging deep in his pockets, he pulled out an item planned for emergencies like this one.
The black baby Den Den Mushi was currently sleeping and letting out small snores not too unlike that sound they made while connecting to another phone. Careful not to wake it, Ace opened on of the many drawers and put the sleeping snail phone on top of the load of papers. After making sure that the Den Den Mushi was turned on and that it wouldn't all down amongst the wanted posters and various reports, Ace closed the drawer, leaving only a small crack for air. Smirking, the freckled raven cracked the joints in his fingers. Time to get back to work while he still had time.
The second after his mind had uttered that thought, the door slammed open and a woman wearing a flowery shirt and a sword on her hip marched in. It took a moment for his brain to process who stood before him, but when it did, his whole body froze like a deer in a spotlight. If that woman was here, then that old, grumpy commodore Smoker was here too, and that was bad news for Ace. Just Smoker, he could handle, but when he was accompanied with an army of marines, trouble started to boil. He looked around himself, trying to find an escape path, but the only way out from the room was the door that was currently blocked by Tashigi.
“Commodore!”, she saluted him, looking straight into his dark brown eyes. Blinking, Ace stared at the ensign. Had she just called him commodore? As in commodore Smoker?
“I just got a report that the Fire Fist is hiding somewhere in this building, Sir!”
There was something very wrong with this picture, and Ace stood with his mouth wide open, trying to figure out what the hell it was. Then it hit him. The familiar glasses didn't rest on the bridge of the woman's nose like they used to. Could it... could it actually be that Tashigi mistook him for the real commodore? If so, then this was his luck day!
Holding a hand on his throat to alter his voice, Ace tried his best to imitate the harsh voice of Smoker.
“It was nothing, Tashigi! A false piece of information simply. The latest sightings of Portgas was 800 miles from here!”, he told Tashigi, hoping that she would buy the bluff, at least for the time it took for him to get the hell out of here,
“I would appreciate if you spread the word that it was a false alarm to everybody you can find. Now excuse me, but I have a meeting with... uhm, Portgaz D. Trace.”, he muttered, pressing his way past the half-blinf woman. When he came out from the room and turned around a corner, he raced along the hallway, keen to get out of the marine base as quick as possible.
“Commodore?”, Tashigi called after him, unsure about what was really happening. Closing the door after her, she shook her head. It was probably best if she found those glasses.
To be continued