Leading a force of two Marine frigates and close to 500 sailors, he had believed that they could steer clear of any potential conflict. Whether by chance or not, it turned out that he was right.
During the month and a half of sailing back to the Red Line, the only changes were those in personnel.
Recognizing that boredom could lead to corruption among both Marines and pirates alike, Bill wasted no time in resuming the mandatory courses shortly after departing from Secon Island. Despite the shortage of qualified instructors, he firmly believed in minimizing "downtime" at sea and started rotating the crew to compensate for the lack of personnel.
These personnel changes were mostly minor. It started when a few skilled woodworking monkey Minks went over to the M.S.S Duke for cosmetic renovations and ended with several skilled laborers holding shop classes for whoever signed up.
Though they had been put on hold while the ship was overcrowded, the ‘Marine Basic Training’ classes were restarted with the expressed intent to teach those would-be adventurers what it meant to be a Marine.
With the exception of the various Marine Academies, there was no formal top-down structure in place for training raw recruits. The reality of this had been shocking to say the least, and as he had come to find out, most of the time new recruits were trained by putting them around veterans and giving them handbooks about military law.
So, together with Nelson and his rudimentary knowledge of the armed forced back on Earth, Bill had put together a series of programs for all of his new recruits to sit through.
Starting with the title ‘Marine Values and Loyalty’ his self-made classes then went from Discipline to Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage, Teamwork, First Aid, and finally Basic Navigation.
Each topic had examples of military laws and proper conduct, and while it sounded like a lot, he designed the material to take roughly eight weeks to get through while on working on a ship – with a full two weeks of that time was spent on just First Aid and Basic Navigation.
On land, his ‘Marine Basic Training’ included physical and weapons training. Despite it never having actually happened yet, he envisioned a 12-week program not so different from the militaries back on Earth.
In this way by the time the Frontier Run and Duke made it to the Red Line, his raw recruits were no longer completely wide-eyed would-be adventurers and had some semblance of professionalism.
Though no matter how much they had learned or spoken about being professional, for the Jail Island and Mink recruits, seeing the Red Line for the first time was just as awe-inspiring as it had been for the previous group.
Thinking about those Marines who had been with him just months prior, Bill’s attitude couldn’t help but turn sour. He had learned a week prior from arriving at the Red Line that Vergo had been released into the custody of one ‘Donquixote Doflamingo’.
Despite being told by Zephyr that this very thing would happen, it was still outrageous. Vergo had betrayed and killed dozens of Marines, many of which were women!
First attempting to call Sengoku to protest the release, Bill was told that the Fleet Admiral was unavailable, and then after calling his father he was told why…
The news that ‘Fire Fist’ Ace had been captured and that Blackbeard had been promoted to Warlord of the Sea was finally known by Whitebeard.
Currently the World Government was offering to safely return Ace under the condition that Whitebeard destroyed the Pirate Emperor known as ‘Red Hair’ Shanks. In addition to that main condition, there were so many plans and deals being made around this situation that the World Government decided that they couldn’t afford to lose the support of a Warlord as powerful as Doflamingo!
As for Aramaki himself, he assured his son that he had raised as much hell as he could after learning about Vergo’s release but was told to shut his mouth unless he was able to solve ‘Red Hair’ by himself.
From what Bill had come to learn from his father, the entire affair around the imprisonment of ‘Fire Fist’ stank of Cipher Pol meddling.
“Cipher Pol went directly over Sengoku’s head and had Teach pardoned.” Aramaki had speculated angrily, and then explained to his son that Warlords were assigned by the World Government’s ruling body and not the Marines – though it was normal for that group of ‘Elders’ to weigh the Fleet Admiral’s opinions on the matter.
With Blackbeard associated with the World Government the likelihood of moving the ‘Strongest Man in the World’ had dropped dramatically and it was now Sengoku who was left to sort out the mess.
As the Frontier Run and M.S.S Duke entered the Red Port and started their five-day journey through the Red Line, Bill put on a strong face, but couldn’t help but remember the single demand his father had made of him.
“You are to leave the New World and not return until the matter is resolved.” Aramaki ordered ominously, and when Bill asked him if there was going to be a war, he said it was ‘too early to know’.
With no further news on the Whitebeard situation, by the time his two ships were passing by Marineford, only several weeks away from New Haven, another surprising piece of news reached the crew.
“Hey Sasha, Ricky, come look at this!” Bill had jumped over to the Duke and called out and waited for them to come over. Holding a new edition of the World Economy News Paper, he gave it to Sasha and watched her reaction as she read the title.
[Trouble on Long Ring Long Land!]
“Uh?” she said confused, and after he could tell that she had read the article said: “Well, what do you think?”
“Those Straw Hats are one thing, but how has that moron Foxy managed to not get caught.” She said seriously, and by the time she was talking Ricky had come over and glanced at the paper, laughing out loud: “Look they even call him the ‘Silver Fox’!”
After that the three old friends spoke about the incident where Sasha, Bill, and Ranse were almost kidnapped – finding it amazing that Foxy was still up to his old schemes, even if now they were disguised somewhat.
Back then, Ricky had gone to get help and ended up saving the trio in the nick of time, but the story was well known to him. Had he not been away from New Haven for such a long period of time, Bill would have traveled there to settle accounts with Foxy, but as it was, the irritating ‘Count Chocula’ would live to see another day.
Before jumping back over to the Frontier Run the trio spoke some more about the Straw Hats and the other so-called ‘Supernova’ that the WENP would cover in just about every new edition that they ran.
Most of these ‘rookie’ pirates were highlighted due to their outrageous bounties gained from run ins with Marine forces, but some were truly psychopathic killers by Bill’s estimation of things.
Back on his main ship the rest of the trip back to New Haven was rather uneventful.
As they approached their destination, it was evident that Boss had a clear sense of direction. His exhilaration was evident as he flew in circles around the ship, even carrying a handful of the newly enlisted members on his back.
Finally, after sailing for a few weeks without seeing land a spot appeared on the horizon and the two ships became a nest of activity as the sailors were excited knowing they’d sleep on dry land that night.
Calling in their imminent arrival, it was determined that they would be met by Mayor Fabre, Masterson, and Henzo since Ranse and most of the other leadership was currently taking care of business inside the East Blue.
Nearing closer and closer, Bill saw that while he had been away from New Haven the residents had not been idle. They couldn’t see into the huge natural harbor, but the reclaimed area on the island’s east side now held rows of barracks and even a port large enough for most merchantmen ships to dock at.
Anxious to see the progress made, Bill stood on the front of the Frontier Run and watched as Yoko, Carrot, Roule, flew away on Boss’s back headed towards his nest and then sailed into the mouth of the bay.
Starting from a trip to Alabasta Kingdom and then sailing halfway around the world, he had been gone for six months, and no doubt thanks to the new recruits from Hannabal Island and other places that brought their families the town had expanded twice over from what he had remembered.
Thinking of the small agricultural hub that ‘Little East Blue Island’ had been and looking at the now moderately high-technological island of New Haven, felt gratifying.
But what felt even more gratifying was watching the crowd form along the shore. They were waiting for him, he knew, and despite that coming along with a heavy responsibility, he was glad that his work had shown for something.
Even if the rest of the world had problems, at least he had helped create this small haven.
Once the ships had drifted into position the Fish-men sailors got to work and started attaching the mooring line buoys to the ships, then almost out of nowhere an audible ‘oooh’ could be heard from the crowd.
Standing there hearing the reaction, an idea struck Bill, and he wondered if there had been any general announcements pertaining to their Departments newer non-human recruits. He knew he hadn’t specifically ordered any announcements but thought surely there would been one made.
After all, most of the residents on New Haven were from the East Blue but even for those from Paradise, Fish-men were rare, and Minks almost never seen. “Well, it’s too late now.” He thought and, shrugging his shoulders, he waited for his ship to be towed into place and then for the ramp to be raised.
Walking towards the ramp surrounded on two sides by Minks who were standing at attention, Bill nodded slightly to Pearson who proceeded to follow a step behind him.
Waiting for them on the dock were the three expected leaders as well as a dozen Beetleborgs. Behind them were nearly fifty Marines armed with rivet rifles.
“Salute!!” shouted Masterson as Bill took his first step off the ramp, and seeing the well drilled men follow orders he nodded again.
After quickly addressing each of the three men in front of him, Bill spoke to Masterson and asked if the barracks had been prepared.
“Yes, Sir!” his Head Instructor answered and then added: “A new barracks was just finished directly by the water, should hold a hundred Fish-men if needed.”
“Good, then let’s get our men situated.” Bill added simply and following another “Yes, Sir” the two ships were free to come ashore.
For Bill and the others, it was just a normal procedure but to the island’s residents it was slightly menacing to see the 7½ foot tall whale Fish-men up close and a great oddity to see the various kinds of Mink. The monkey, ram, and squirrel Minks were kind of cute – in a cuddly sort of way – but the bison and panther Minks were just as intimidating at the Fish-men.
Nevertheless, Bill wasn’t concerned about it. In time the residents would get used to their new garrison and besides having to watch the Fish-men, he had zero concerns about the more numerous Mink.
It took the better part of the afternoon for things to settle, the island had changed so much in six months that it was startling but after a brief tour Bill returned to where he wanted to be most of all.
Walking into his lab with Henzo and a couple dozen other assistants, Bill held onto a black suitcase and was listening to them one by one explain the various the improvements made to the island’s energy storage and electrical systems.
Except for Henzo who was designing their Marines’ new kit, the scientists under his authority had been put to work on civilian applications of technology. Their improvements had been marginal, but that didn’t mean they were important, when dealing with the power coming from fusion reactors even a small percentage efficacy increase was substantial.
But now he had other plans and getting into his main lab he bid the group to be quiet and loaded up robotic schematics.
Seeing both confusion and enlightenment run through his teams’ eyes, Bill huffed and said: “These are schematics of security robots found on Jail Island, I want working prototypes in a year. In two years, we will have four functional machines stationed on each of our warships.” Seeing the men and women in front of him gulp, he added: “Any questions?”
Looking up at the screen, it was naturally Henzo who stumbled out and said: “Amazing, and what are they called?”
Looking down at the old man, Bill slightly smiled and replied: “For Jail island, they’re just robots, but for New Haven, these will be called…
Iron Wardens.”
UberNuber If you enjoy the fanfic hit the heart icon and consider leaving a rating!
Leading a force of two Marine frigates and close to 500 sailors, he had believed that they could steer clear of any potential conflict. Whether by chance or not, it turned out that he was right.
During the month and a half of sailing back to the Red Line, the only changes were those in personnel.
Recognizing that boredom could lead to corruption among both Marines and pirates alike, Bill wasted no time in resuming the mandatory courses shortly after departing from Secon Island. Despite the shortage of qualified instructors, he firmly believed in minimizing "downtime" at sea and started rotating the crew to compensate for the lack of personnel.
These personnel changes were mostly minor. It started when a few skilled woodworking monkey Minks went over to the M.S.S Duke for cosmetic renovations and ended with several skilled laborers holding shop classes for whoever signed up.
Though they had been put on hold while the ship was overcrowded, the ‘Marine Basic Training’ classes were restarted with the expressed intent to teach those would-be adventurers what it meant to be a Marine.
With the exception of the various Marine Academies, there was no formal top-down structure in place for training raw recruits. The reality of this had been shocking to say the least, and as he had come to find out, most of the time new recruits were trained by putting them around veterans and giving them handbooks about military law.
So, together with Nelson and his rudimentary knowledge of the armed forced back on Earth, Bill had put together a series of programs for all of his new recruits to sit through.
Starting with the title ‘Marine Values and Loyalty’ his self-made classes then went from Discipline to Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage, Teamwork, First Aid, and finally Basic Navigation.
Each topic had examples of military laws and proper conduct, and while it sounded like a lot, he designed the material to take roughly eight weeks to get through while on working on a ship – with a full two weeks of that time was spent on just First Aid and Basic Navigation.
On land, his ‘Marine Basic Training’ included physical and weapons training. Despite it never having actually happened yet, he envisioned a 12-week program not so different from the militaries back on Earth.
In this way by the time the Frontier Run and Duke made it to the Red Line, his raw recruits were no longer completely wide-eyed would-be adventurers and had some semblance of professionalism.
Though no matter how much they had learned or spoken about being professional, for the Jail Island and Mink recruits, seeing the Red Line for the first time was just as awe-inspiring as it had been for the previous group.
Thinking about those Marines who had been with him just months prior, Bill’s attitude couldn’t help but turn sour. He had learned a week prior from arriving at the Red Line that Vergo had been released into the custody of one ‘Donquixote Doflamingo’.
Despite being told by Zephyr that this very thing would happen, it was still outrageous. Vergo had betrayed and killed dozens of Marines, many of which were women!
First attempting to call Sengoku to protest the release, Bill was told that the Fleet Admiral was unavailable, and then after calling his father he was told why…
The news that ‘Fire Fist’ Ace had been captured and that Blackbeard had been promoted to Warlord of the Sea was finally known by Whitebeard.
Currently the World Government was offering to safely return Ace under the condition that Whitebeard destroyed the Pirate Emperor known as ‘Red Hair’ Shanks. In addition to that main condition, there were so many plans and deals being made around this situation that the World Government decided that they couldn’t afford to lose the support of a Warlord as powerful as Doflamingo!
As for Aramaki himself, he assured his son that he had raised as much hell as he could after learning about Vergo’s release but was told to shut his mouth unless he was able to solve ‘Red Hair’ by himself.
From what Bill had come to learn from his father, the entire affair around the imprisonment of ‘Fire Fist’ stank of Cipher Pol meddling.
“Cipher Pol went directly over Sengoku’s head and had Teach pardoned.” Aramaki had speculated angrily, and then explained to his son that Warlords were assigned by the World Government’s ruling body and not the Marines – though it was normal for that group of ‘Elders’ to weigh the Fleet Admiral’s opinions on the matter.
With Blackbeard associated with the World Government the likelihood of moving the ‘Strongest Man in the World’ had dropped dramatically and it was now Sengoku who was left to sort out the mess.
As the Frontier Run and M.S.S Duke entered the Red Port and started their five-day journey through the Red Line, Bill put on a strong face, but couldn’t help but remember the single demand his father had made of him.
“You are to leave the New World and not return until the matter is resolved.” Aramaki ordered ominously, and when Bill asked him if there was going to be a war, he said it was ‘too early to know’.
With no further news on the Whitebeard situation, by the time his two ships were passing by Marineford, only several weeks away from New Haven, another surprising piece of news reached the crew.
“Hey Sasha, Ricky, come look at this!” Bill had jumped over to the Duke and called out and waited for them to come over. Holding a new edition of the World Economy News Paper, he gave it to Sasha and watched her reaction as she read the title.
[Trouble on Long Ring Long Land!]
“Uh?” she said confused, and after he could tell that she had read the article said: “Well, what do you think?”
“Those Straw Hats are one thing, but how has that moron Foxy managed to not get caught.” She said seriously, and by the time she was talking Ricky had come over and glanced at the paper, laughing out loud: “Look they even call him the ‘Silver Fox’!”
After that the three old friends spoke about the incident where Sasha, Bill, and Ranse were almost kidnapped – finding it amazing that Foxy was still up to his old schemes, even if now they were disguised somewhat.
Back then, Ricky had gone to get help and ended up saving the trio in the nick of time, but the story was well known to him. Had he not been away from New Haven for such a long period of time, Bill would have traveled there to settle accounts with Foxy, but as it was, the irritating ‘Count Chocula’ would live to see another day.
Before jumping back over to the Frontier Run the trio spoke some more about the Straw Hats and the other so-called ‘Supernova’ that the WENP would cover in just about every new edition that they ran.
Most of these ‘rookie’ pirates were highlighted due to their outrageous bounties gained from run ins with Marine forces, but some were truly psychopathic killers by Bill’s estimation of things.
Back on his main ship the rest of the trip back to New Haven was rather uneventful.
As they approached their destination, it was evident that Boss had a clear sense of direction. His exhilaration was evident as he flew in circles around the ship, even carrying a handful of the newly enlisted members on his back.
Finally, after sailing for a few weeks without seeing land a spot appeared on the horizon and the two ships became a nest of activity as the sailors were excited knowing they’d sleep on dry land that night.
Calling in their imminent arrival, it was determined that they would be met by Mayor Fabre, Masterson, and Henzo since Ranse and most of the other leadership was currently taking care of business inside the East Blue.
Nearing closer and closer, Bill saw that while he had been away from New Haven the residents had not been idle. They couldn’t see into the huge natural harbor, but the reclaimed area on the island’s east side now held rows of barracks and even a port large enough for most merchantmen ships to dock at.
Anxious to see the progress made, Bill stood on the front of the Frontier Run and watched as Yoko, Carrot, Roule, flew away on Boss’s back headed towards his nest and then sailed into the mouth of the bay.
Starting from a trip to Alabasta Kingdom and then sailing halfway around the world, he had been gone for six months, and no doubt thanks to the new recruits from Hannabal Island and other places that brought their families the town had expanded twice over from what he had remembered.
Thinking of the small agricultural hub that ‘Little East Blue Island’ had been and looking at the now moderately high-technological island of New Haven, felt gratifying.
But what felt even more gratifying was watching the crowd form along the shore. They were waiting for him, he knew, and despite that coming along with a heavy responsibility, he was glad that his work had shown for something.
Even if the rest of the world had problems, at least he had helped create this small haven.
Once the ships had drifted into position the Fish-men sailors got to work and started attaching the mooring line buoys to the ships, then almost out of nowhere an audible ‘oooh’ could be heard from the crowd.
Standing there hearing the reaction, an idea struck Bill, and he wondered if there had been any general announcements pertaining to their Departments newer non-human recruits. He knew he hadn’t specifically ordered any announcements but thought surely there would been one made.
After all, most of the residents on New Haven were from the East Blue but even for those from Paradise, Fish-men were rare, and Minks almost never seen. “Well, it’s too late now.” He thought and, shrugging his shoulders, he waited for his ship to be towed into place and then for the ramp to be raised.
Walking towards the ramp surrounded on two sides by Minks who were standing at attention, Bill nodded slightly to Pearson who proceeded to follow a step behind him.
Waiting for them on the dock were the three expected leaders as well as a dozen Beetleborgs. Behind them were nearly fifty Marines armed with rivet rifles.
“Salute!!” shouted Masterson as Bill took his first step off the ramp, and seeing the well drilled men follow orders he nodded again.
After quickly addressing each of the three men in front of him, Bill spoke to Masterson and asked if the barracks had been prepared.
“Yes, Sir!” his Head Instructor answered and then added: “A new barracks was just finished directly by the water, should hold a hundred Fish-men if needed.”
“Good, then let’s get our men situated.” Bill added simply and following another “Yes, Sir” the two ships were free to come ashore.
For Bill and the others, it was just a normal procedure but to the island’s residents it was slightly menacing to see the 7½ foot tall whale Fish-men up close and a great oddity to see the various kinds of Mink. The monkey, ram, and squirrel Minks were kind of cute – in a cuddly sort of way – but the bison and panther Minks were just as intimidating at the Fish-men.
Nevertheless, Bill wasn’t concerned about it. In time the residents would get used to their new garrison and besides having to watch the Fish-men, he had zero concerns about the more numerous Mink.
It took the better part of the afternoon for things to settle, the island had changed so much in six months that it was startling but after a brief tour Bill returned to where he wanted to be most of all.
Walking into his lab with Henzo and a couple dozen other assistants, Bill held onto a black suitcase and was listening to them one by one explain the various the improvements made to the island’s energy storage and electrical systems.
Except for Henzo who was designing their Marines’ new kit, the scientists under his authority had been put to work on civilian applications of technology. Their improvements had been marginal, but that didn’t mean they were important, when dealing with the power coming from fusion reactors even a small percentage efficacy increase was substantial.
But now he had other plans and getting into his main lab he bid the group to be quiet and loaded up robotic schematics.
Seeing both confusion and enlightenment run through his teams’ eyes, Bill huffed and said: “These are schematics of security robots found on Jail Island, I want working prototypes in a year. In two years, we will have four functional machines stationed on each of our warships.” Seeing the men and women in front of him gulp, he added: “Any questions?”
Looking up at the screen, it was naturally Henzo who stumbled out and said: “Amazing, and what are they called?”
Looking down at the old man, Bill slightly smiled and replied: “For Jail island, they’re just robots, but for New Haven, these will be called…
Iron Wardens.”
UberNuber If you enjoy the fanfic hit the heart icon and consider leaving a rating!
