Episode 2: Hot N Cold

Quest Description:

The wall stood strong in front of him, scarred from his fists beating on it over and over. Adrian stared into it with the greatest intensity, hands coarse from the stress he put them under. His face and body still had battle wounds spread across from his fight with Rat-Ear. When he was done with his session for the day, he rest against the wall and let himself slide to a sit. The ageless man was exhausted, likely still recovering from Rat-Ear's fists hammering down on him.

Thinking about the past few days he spent dealing with the breach in security, he realized that in order to move forward he would need people he can trust. The idea that so many marines had betrayed the Navy ideals they were taught and the concept of Justice had sickened him. He couldn't blindly put his trust into the integrity of the Marines, a mistake he's made too many times. With that decided, he realized that he had something planned long ago but had to complete his training on Las Camp. Remembering his closest ally, Blair, he realized he simply needed to contact her via bird or slug-thing.

Adrian finished up his shower and used makeup to hide all the scars that he couldn't cover with bandages and put on his ninja suit. With his trident on his side and his arm piece worn confidently, he went out for his duties for the day. Eventually he'd contact Blair to meet him by the shore by sun-down the next day. In the mean-time he'd focus on recovering and decided he wouldn't tell her about what happened until they were face-to-face.

While off-duty, he patrolled the city himself and was eventually intercepted in a dark alley. A robed man led him to a secluded area which alarmed Adrian. "You ain't done with us. And before you gut me like the monster you are, despite you're insistence that we're the monsters, they'll know if I'm not coming back. If I don't return to my people, they'll inform the higher-ups of your actions involving helping Rat-Ear smuggle 'Alex'." Adrian didn't respond, he simply took the warning and waited until the next day where he would meet Blair.

Why can't he ever just think things through before leaving us all behind?

That was the one burning question that was running through Blair "The Hanged Man" Cairistine's mind as she disembarked from the marine ship that she had taken to get to Las Camp. She had been off duty for the previous day, and as such had gone back to Illusia. Of course, she still was not on good terms with her mother yet. Her mother had expected her years of training and discipline within the Marines to toughen Blair up emotionally. And while that was true to an extent, her forced enlistment was still a sore spot in her history. In truth, she had returned home solely to see how her father was doing.

Unfortunately, his vision had completely faded away. She had ended up spending all of her time on Illusia with her father, taking care of him and making sure that he kept away from the gambling. Thankfully, he seemed to have learned his lesson. Unfortunately..she had let her emotions get the better of her at one point. Right before she had left, her mother had tried to force an apology out of her. Two stubborn wills had clashed..and Blair had nearly used her new powers on her mother. Luckily, she'd been able to reign in her sadism, and her mother only escaped with minor singing of her clothes. The look of terror in her eyes made it clear though. If she was to come back, she wouldn't be getting near her mother anytime soon.

Of course, as far as she had known, Adrian and the ship were still on Illusia. So being called to Illusia's marine base because of a letter addressed to her from Adrian was more than a bit of a shock. What had been even more shocking was that he had apparently run all the way off to Las Camp without even telling her. His first fucking mate. A fat lot of good that title got her, really. Still, Blair sighed as she walked the docks of the city. She had been here a handful of times before. Still, the point of the letter had been for her to meet him by sundown on the beach. Now, she COULD have gone to the shore and waited for her Captain to show up. But..she felt a little irked by his unannounced disappearance still. It was midday. She had a good while before sundown would even approach. As such, she wandered the town, wearing her usual uniform, the stitched eyes on her scarf doing their job of being intimidating, as many people went out of their way to make sure that she wasn't in the way. Eventually, she stopped at a restaurant.

It had been a long trip from Illusia. She needed some real food before she was dragged into some kind of misadventure by her captain. By the time she got seated and finished her meal, the day seemed to be on its way towards winding down. She sighed softly. "Well..I guess I might as well go meet with him.." The raven haired woman muttered to herself, tucking some hair behind her ear before weaving her way through the crowds, her prototype firearm bouncing lightly on her hip, while Discipline remained stock still on her waist. By the time she arrived on the shore however, the sun was only just starting to go down. Well. He was bound to be here any minute.

As per Adrian's typical fashion, he made sure his appearance was silent and sudden. He viewed the shore from the docks, noticing his First Mate awaiting his arrival. He wore his usual snow-white makeup to disguise his skin tone and grey contacts to hide his sky-colored eyes. When he finally decided to move in and transition to the meeting spot, he swiftly approached and sat down near Blair. He didn't speak for a while, watching the sun drop lower and lower. Adrian felt the cool air begin to set, something that came from the sun's heat retreating.

He pulled out a pocket watch, flipping it around his hand and popping it open to check the time. "Watch. A ship passes this way in the exact same way in exactly three minutes. It is supposed to carry supplies from another island. Instead, it's smuggling drugs and weapons. Needed to check it out early in the morning." Removing a spyglass from his side, he looked to the left of them, seeing a ship in the distance. He was originally pointing straight ahead and the ship was still distant. He offered the spyglass, pointing to where he spotted the ship.

"At that rate, he might be a bit early. There is a small group of three marines. That three is part of a whole consisting of six marines. Three on the ship, three making sure they complete their route." Adrian was cutting right to the chase of their active mission set by himself, though he was planning on bringing up their future. He was very intensely focused on finishing their battle with the marines that betrayed Las Camp. Adrian stood up, brushing off the sand as he turned to Blair.

"Blair. Nice to see you, sorry for leaving you behind. I'm finding suitable members for the Circle. We can't trust the people we follow. Eventually, we'll have to become leaders ourselves." Adrian dug a rock out of the sand and skipped it a few times. He paused to build suspense, walking in a brief circle to ensure no one was listening in on them. "I've been dealing with the discovery that around fifty marines betrayed us and dealt with a dangerous pirate, Rat-Ear. Drugs. Arms. People. Innocent people, Blair."

Adrian clenched his fists, speaking through his voice-changing apparatus. "I killed most of them. Rat-Ear's dead, but his crew is not." While his true eyes were hidden, Blair would likely see how they shook as rage wrung throughout his body. Truly he didn't feel this compassion, but the facade needed reinforcement. Blair didn't know the monster underneath, but Justice held tightly onto the scales and that's all she needed to know.

"I can't trust our own people. I need you to trust in me. I trust you, you're my right hand. Hell, probably my left. This crime went on unnoticed for so long...we have to take matters into our own hands. After we deal with the remaining marines, we'll move onto the crew." Adrian pointed to a far-out island which the spyglass would just barely pick up. "Past midnight, that small island is where they'll meet. It's a thick jungle, we can separate and pick them off. Six marines. Nearly thirty pirates. We can't tell anybody about this operation."

Adrian kept his eyes on his first mate, one of few people he genuinely trusted and respected. She was one of the most calm and collected people he's come to know. It was unfortunate that the Adrian she knew wasn't the Adrian that she knew. "And don't worry, I'm not leaving you again. We're going to take care of this. Then we grow."

When her captain finally arrived again, it took everything in Blair's power to not roll her eyes at his attempt at a frighteningly stealthy entrance. Thankfully, she managed not to. While the sun finally began to set, Blair let out a small bit of her power. She didn't really like the cold before she'd gained these powers. But now? Now she outright refused to allow the cold to touch her. The moment the sun went down, a small aura of heat started to emanate from her body, allowing her to turn any cold air that would come near her into a warm breeze. Really, it was a useful day to day ability. One that became even more useful in combat. Still, she listened to what her captain had to say. As usual, he spoke through a voice modulator. Nobody knew what his real voice was. Not even her. Hell, she didn't even know what his actual skin tone was, nor did she know what color his eyes were. He went to extreme lengths to make himself unidentifiable without all of this. As he explained the situation though, Blair couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

A ship with only three marines. One that carried weapons and drugs under the cover of night. Interesting. When he explained that there was actually a grand total of six marines, Blair nodded. It made sense to take them out. Between the two of them, there was a good bit of competence, and also a good bit of supernatural power. However, it wasn't until Adrian explained why he had left her that Blair spoke up.
While she did seem to understand, she spoke with quite a bit of irritation in her tone.

"I don't care that you left to search for new members. In fact, leaving for the reasons you just said makes it make even less sense that you left me behind." She said, her voice still low and calm, in spite of the tone she took on, berating her captain almost like he was a child. "If you were searching for new members because you don't trust our bosses, then you should have taken me with you. You got lucky that nobody decided to question me as to where you were this time, because if they had, some suspicions could have been raised. You already aren't exactly the most trusted guy in the corps after all."

She said, sighing softly as she took the spyglass and looked through it in the direction that her captain pointed. As he explained the details of the location, Blair merely nodded. "What about their living conditions? Are the houses wooden, brick, thatch? If we can't let anyone know about this, then we need to make the whole situation look like an accident." She said, obviously implying a rather horrific death for those who were doing this. Blair might have been known as The Hanged Man because of the reason she had become a marine, but she was just as much a monster as her captain, even if she didn't know that Justice was a monster.

Really, she had seemed to ignore his reactions to the actions of these traitors. For her, it was no real surprise. She had been sold to the marines to pay off a debt. Of course, on the surface she seemed surprisingly unbothered by it. But Adrian would know better. Her power was over heat. If she was asking about their living conditions, and speaking of accidents..it was likely that the whole island would become a blazing inferno. Her eyes hid her anger rather completely. But in her mind, she was planning out her series of murders. If they were going to be forced to leave a survivor, he wouldn't be leaving unscathed. Her power over heat made her quite adept at torture..and especially adept at disfiguring people. Still, she handed the spyglass back to her captain after she finished speaking. This was going to be a rather important mission.

Adrian smiled underneath his mask, though the thickness of the material hid his curling lips. He loved how she kept him in check, to a degree. While part of him wanted to bind and gag her for her insolence, he knew that he needed a moderator. She was just as brutal as he was, though she didn't hide it and it was wonderful. It was easy to point every ounce of merciless action to her. He couldn't deny her being correct about the marine corps not trusting him nor the part about needing her along with him.

Digging his hands into the sand, Adrian pulled it and watched the grains form several waterfalls, emptying quickly. In that moment, Adrian pictured the sand as thousands of skulls raining down from the cliff of his hand. All around him, the sand became the skulls of millions. All around him, he was lost in a void of skulls with a sudden snowfall. Adrian zoned out during his fantasy, snapping back and returning his attention to his first mate. "You're right, I'm sorry. I just didn't know what to do." Adrian crossed his hands and sat in thought.

"They have sloppy arrangements. Likely mostly tents, maybe one wooden cabin for their former captain. The toughest pirate probably took up residence there. It's thick and covered, but there's an oasis in the middle where they have a constant, gigantic bonfire." Adrian drew a crude map of the used parts of the island. The pirates didn't in complex patterns, simply using the middle with a few paths formed between the shore facing Las Camp and their camp. "The marines may or may not know about the island. Oh, and I hope this doesn't make you jealous, but..."

Adrian made a weird chuckle due to his modulator, looking at Blair. "A higher-up got to see my sweet cheeks. You might not believe this, but I was captured! Well, I let them capture me. Turned out great for me." Adrian thought about the marine that he nearly seduced, figuring that was one of the six marines remaining. The guy was definitely attractive to him, but the gullible nature of his was not. Thinking about this, he realized that the voice from before was, in fact, the man he tried to seduce. Real anger coursed through him.

"When we burn it all down, I need two people alive. I want a certain traitor and I want the first mate of the pirate crew. We're going to send a message to the pirates. Marines might be mad, but we'll have time to set sail before we get in any real trouble here. The other...I'm going to punish for leaving me dry." Adrian didn't add any particular emotion to that statement, hopefully leaving Blair wondering exactly what he meant. Though, if she picked up on it, Adrian ACTUALLY went on a date! At least, he wanted to enjoy his little ruse for recon.

To most onlookers, the relationship that Blair and her Captain have would seem rather antagonistic, and sometimes even bordering on outright insubordination. And yet, to those that had spent enough time within the crew that she worked for, it was quite clear that she was simply the 'straight man' to her captain's shenanigans. As such, Blair quite literally waved off his apology. However, when he started explaining and drawing out their outpost, Blair's attention snapped over to him without any hesitation. "Interesting. So they have such a bold plan, but not the intelligence to keep their outpost organized or even fortified." She said as she glanced down at the drawing that was laid out.

So they were almost entirely set in flammable locations. That made things much more interesting. Still, when her captain started teasing her with the idea that she had a thing for him by insinuating that she would be jealous that another person got to see what he actually looked like. Well good for them. They got to go through the process of getting rid of all the extra stuff you wear. What a enraging idea." She said, as seriously and dryly as she would have given a report to a higher up. Because of that, what she said sort of shot the moon and landed squarely in the territory of returned teasing.

Of course, when her captain said that they needed to keep two people alive, Blair merely sighed and nodded. "Alright. We can do that. But I'll need a description of both of them. I also want you to know that if I find them first, they will be alive, but not unscathed." She said, slowly moving one of her hands outwards, a heavily wavering shimmer of heat surrounding her hand until she clenched it into a fist, the mirage of heat vanishing almost as quickly as it was created. The implication of this action was enough for her intent to be easily understood. She was quite adept at controlling the output of heat. If she caught one of them first, they were definitely going to be branded. Painfully. She of course rolled her eyes once more at her captain's last statement. "Well, either way, we need to get going. It's not going to be too difficult a trip to navigate to, but I also need to be able to chart us a path around to a spot where we won't immediately raise a panic among those on the island."

Admittedly, this was a rather straightforward mission. But even the most straightforward of missions could go tits up if the situation was not approached in the proper way. They might have been planning to burn everything down, but that wouldn't matter if they found themselves outnumbered and outgunned. Her powers were only so strong, after all, and her captain didn't have the advantage in a fight that she did. Stealth would be their best advantage in the battle to come.

If people had the context of Adrian's true self and saw how they treated each other, they'd think Adrian would want to snap her in half. Adrian has even thought about it, but he values her a bit too much. He regretted not already bringing her along to Las Camp, but maybe it was best that he handled the previous operation alone. Going dark seemed to be a good option for making reconnaissance easier, but it cost him the ability to finish off everyone. Adrian stood up, brushing the sand off his uniform.

Seeing her roll her eyes and tease back, he figured whatever dynamic he was creating would make her comfortable around him. Which was good, especially if he wanted the strings to be especially tight. "Hey, it gets cold at night. Also, I'm pretty ugly anyways. Not missing out on much." I'm god-damn sexy, actually. Adrian used his foot to brush away the schematic he carved into the sand, hiding evidence regarding their planning. "Well, for the pirate I just need one of the important ones that looks like they'll shit their pants when you give him the slightest touch. Need them scared so we can send a message."

Adrian turned to Blair with his pale facade. "Justice will always rain down on the roaches that break our law." Adrian let the dramatic moment set and eventually subside, turning away. "The other is a marine by the name Rodney. Looks like he used to be a very privileged schoolboy. Well-built too. Actually, I really am sad that it had to turn out this way. Justice in the streets, devil in the sheets. Just saying." Adrian wanted to portray a rather ironically open love-life despite seeing those he wants to sleep with as nothing more than bags of disposable meat that eventually rot after a few days.

He couldn't wait to get his hands on Rodney. He was going to do horrible, horrible things to him for the way their fake date went. It wasn't entirely Rodney's fault, but the way he talked made Adrian feel like he had to inform him who really was in charge. "Well, with that said...We'll meet at the big warehouse at the docks. Once the six marines depart for their important meeting, we'll high-tail it over to the backside of the island. Before we go prepare, I will ask...Do you want to go guns blazing or do you think this requires any stealth?"

Adrian just wanted to take them all out. He wanted the job done quickly, cleaning the slate of Las Camp that he knew of. It would be simpler and more fun that way, though he valued the opinion of his right hand puppet.

Admittedly, sometimes she found her captain insufferable. Though she would never say as much because of the fact that she didn't want to have to put up with more bullshit from him because of her spoken admission of it, she would in fact roll her eyes at his attempts at drama. This attempt came from the same man who quite openly slept with other men, and who went as far as to make jokes about it. And yet, he also wasn't entirely honest with anyone. Every single time he spoke, she could quite clearly tell that his voice was being modified. It wasn't exactly the most subtle effect, but she assumed he had reason for it. Still, when she was finally asked for her opinion, Blair sighed, pulling the heat she allowed to emanate from her body back to her, allowing it to be an internal, rather than an external heat.

From the way the question was worded, Blair assumed that he wanted to go in guns blazing and just wipe the island clean. And while that would be a rather effective maneuver, it also highly increased the chances of the both of them running into quite a bit of trouble. She merely let out a soft huff as Adrian fell silent. "Well, while the direct assault would normally be effective, we are indeed outnumbered. And given how the island itself isn't that far away, we should very much opt for a stealthier approach, as it would allow for our lack of numbers to be outweighed by better tactics." She said, sounding quite cold and detached.

Still, she had a rather valid point. Sure, Blair herself held quite a bit of power given that she had eaten a Devil Fruit, but there was also the fact that they were outnumbered, plain and simple. Going in guns blazing would be a good way to get themselves killed. "Of course, I assume you already know that. We can't exactly go acting like we have all the backup in the world. You already planned for us to sail to a side of the island where we wouldn't be caught, after all." She said, pointing out the fact that he had indeed already changed his plan to accommodate for their lack of numbers.

Really, there were quite a few holes in this plan. The lack of numbers wasn't a particularly big hole, but it was one of the holes in the plan that they would have to work around. Guerrilla tactics would work well. Another hole was the fact that they were doing this essentially as vigilante work. Stealth was going to be their friend. Admittedly, owning up to that was rather difficult for Blair to endorse. Sure, she was a touch more logical than her leader was, both as a person and as the card known as The Hanged Man. And yet, she had just as much of a taste for carnage as he did. So trying to get them to take a path that would be less painful for those they were fighting went against the instinct rather heavily. Still, she needed to be the logical one. And right now, this was the most logical path to take.