White Ghosts:

"Soooo hungryyyyyy." Anton groaned, slumped against the railing of the Noble Justice. While many would consider his actions to be a bit of an exaggeration (and they were a little bit), the rest of the crew were definitely starting to feel the bite of hunger as they sailed through the North Blue. No sight of who they were supposed to pick up, and their supplies were running low. Even Celia, who normally worked hard to keep herself a presentable example for the others, was starting to show the pained hunger that ate at all of them. They had to find somewhere to stock up and fast.

"Land ho!" Yelled out a voice from the crow's nest. Suddenly, everyone seemed to perk up as they all scrambled to the front of the ship, in order to see what the lookout had seen. An island, not that far away. And island meant people! People meant supplies! Supplies meant food! "To that island men!" Anton yelled out, pointing towards the island as his men began to scramble, more than eager to follow his instructions.

However, as they got to work, Celia remained at the front, looking at the island with a look of concern. There was something about that island. She was sure she knew what it was, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.


"Wow, these people really like white, don't they?" Anton murmured as he stepped off the ship, his men getting to work tying it to the dock. So far, the place looked kind of nice. Clean, white, rather uniform, and no sign of crime or pirates anywhere. Actually, there was no sign of people anywhere. This was confusing.

As he stood on the doc, looking over the town, Celia stepped up beside him. "This town..." she murmured, searching her mind for answers, before suddenly a horrific realization crashed atop of her. "Sir! We need to leave this island immediately!" Anton look back at her, blinking in confusion. "What do you mean? What's wrong with this island?" Celia spun around, her eyes wide with, surprisingly enough, panic, "Do you have any idea where we are sir? This island, is the island of Flevance!"

"We're in a quarantine zone..." Celia nodded. She had just spent the last ten minutes or so explaining the dark history of Flevance. The outbreak of the deadly Amber Lead Poisoning, which had led to the destruction of the entire population of the island. Needless to say, the other men had all retreated to the safety of the ship are hearing the news. Anton was just flabbergasted. "We...literally walked onto an island of death..." the commodore repeated, before his eyes focused on Celia, "Why would you bring us to this place?" Celia blinked "Hey! It's not like I brought us here on purpose!" "Then it shouldn't be hard for you to get us as far away from here as possible!" "That's what I've been saying! We need to get out of here!"

"Erm, sirs?" came a voice. Both marines looked up to see one of their subordinates talking down from over the railing of the ship. "Erm, we have a problem." Anton was really starting to hate those words. "What sort of problem?" Anton groaned. "We're out of food." the marine replied. The mentioning of food reminded everyone just how hungry they were, their stomach growling in unison. "It would take us two days at least to reach the next island," Celia spoke, hopelessness creeping into her voice. Anton looked like he was about to scream. They were stuck in a quarantine zone with no food. "Well," the marine pipped up, "maybe there's still some food left, right? Anything that would keep for a while?" Anton blinked and looked back at the navigator. "Does Amber Lead Poisoning affect food?" he asked. Celia gave a small shrug. She hadn't really heard any specifics on the disease, other than it as deadly. Up above them, the marine smiled, "Alrighty! Well, good luck in your search sirs!" "Wait a minute!" Celia yelled out, "You're not coming?" "Well," the marine replied sheepishly, [color]=blue]"We decided it was best if you two went. You're both stronger after all, so naturally your immune systems would be better."[/color] Where the hell did they get that logic from? "And I would assume that me simply ordering you to help wont work'" Anton groaned. "Sorry sir. The marines do not have a suicide clause."

Anton let out a pitiful groan which seemed to echo throughout the entire island. Well, at least they were alone here right? What could go wrong? Well, apart from possibly dying forgot a horrible disease.

Now...where to start looking?" Anton murmured as he and Celia walked through the white streets of the town. The complete lack of life anywhere made the place seem ominous, and despite the emptiness, Anton continuously felt something crawl up the back of his neck. Like he was being watched. "Well," Celia murmured, "Obviously perishables are out of the question, so we're looking for things that would keep. Biscuits, canned goods, the like. Canned may be our best bet, since the disease couldn't have gotten to them." Anton nodded in agreement, sometimes it was difficult to tell just who was leading who, city Celia being te more knowledgable of the two.

As the two rounded a corner, something moved out of the corner of Anton's eye. The commodore paused and looked back, finding nothing there. "Something wrong sir?" Celia asked. Anton continued to stare in that direction for a while longer before shaking his head, turning back to her. "No, I just thought I saw somethi-WATCH OUT!" Anton pulled Celia to the side and drew his sword, just in time to block e attack. The attacker was a man dressed completely in white, his face covered by a gas mask. He held a long blade in his hand, pushing against Aton. Anton quickly shoved the man off of him, only for the man to attack again. Anton was ready though. "Punir Parry! As the blades clashed, the resulting burst of air threw the man off his feet, slamming him back against a wall.

With their attacker down, suddenly five more identical men lept out from hiding. They had blended in with the white buildings so well, neither Anton nor Celia had noticed them. As Celia drew her guns, the two marines moved together, back to back to face the attackers surrounding them.

----
1 T2 'ghost' defeated.

Skills:

Stamina: 495/520

The two marines remained back to back, watching the five men circling around them, each of them brandishing two blades. They certainly hadn't been expecting an ambush here on the island. What were these people doing here? What did they want?

Suddenly, one of them lunged forward, trying to attack Anton from the side. The commodore brought his sword up to block the strike. At the same time, Celia turned and opened fire on the man, blasting him in the mid section. Blood splattered on the ground as the man cried out in pain. It wasn't a lethal shot, but he wouldn't be fighting any time soon. Another tried to take the opportunity to attack Celia while her weapons were unloaded. "Get down!" Anton called out, pulling Celia to the side before bringing his sword up, "Lance Vigueur!" The man attacking would have expected a counter attack, but nothing like this. The sword didn't even reach the man, but the blast of compressed air did. Caught completely off guard, the man let out a small cry, flying back and rolling back along the ground.

That was two down, and three to go. Celia, while caught somewhat off guard by the sudden pull by Anton, had managed to recover quickly enough and reload her weapons. The remaining three men were now hesitant to attack, after they had managed to dispatch two of them so quickly. Had they broken their nerve already? Maybe they could get some answers out of these men. However, it seemed it wasn't to be, for before they could say anything, two of them pulled something out of their suits, pellet like things that they threw to the ground. As soon as they hit the ground, billowing white smoke engulfed the area. "Smoke Bombs!" Celia yelled out. Just perfect. Not only were they outnumbered, now they couldn't even see them!

----
2 T2 'ghosts' defeated

skills:

Anton's Stamina: 480/520
Celia's Ammo: 18/20

Anton's eyes were shut tight, the blinding smoke stinging them. Dammit, it was bad enough they were outnumbered, and now he couldn't see them as well. No doubt they were going to take advantage and attempt to attack them. However, Anton wouldn't have gotten this far if he couldn't handle a situation like this. "Get down!" Anton yelled out, bringing his blade back as Celia fell to the floor. "Vigueur Anneau!" As Anton spun in place, a ring of compressed air shot out around him, sailing harmlessly over Celia's head. The smoke was blasted aside, as well as catching two of the men in mid charge. Clearly they hadn't expected their sneak attack to be thwarted so quickly.

Anton blinked repeatedly, clearing his vision. With the smoke gone and two more of their attackers down, that only left one more, who was taking a couple of steps back. He knew he was outnumbered. So, he did what any sensible person would do in this situation. He turned and ran. "Get back here!" Celia yelled out, firing a shot at him. Unfortunately, the man lept to the side, avoiding the shot before dashing towards a nearby alleyway. Anton and Celia moved to pursue.

But then, a loud, metallic 'clang' rang out, and the man collapsed to the floor. Both marines paused as someone stepped out after the man. It was a woman, dressed rather scruffily and holding a rather large wrench in her hands.

Spoiler:

She looked over at the two and smiled. "Sometimes it just takes a good whack to bring these boys down," she chuckled before noticing Celia holding her pistols at the ready. "Hey, easy now. I'm on your sides. I just have as much a beef with these guys as you do." "Who are you?" Celia asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow, "And what do you know of these men?" The woman smiled. "Well, first thing's first. The name's Sprocket. As for these clowns, well," She looked around, "Perhaps we should speak somewhere a little less open." Celia looked over at Anton, silently asking if this was a good idea. Well, they didn't have any other leads, and she did help them stop that last attacker. "Lead the way," he replied.

----
3 T2 'ghosts' defeated. Objective complete!

skills:

Anton's Stamina: 455/520
Celia's Ammo: 17/20