Hi guys! I'm not dead! Ha ha ha...I'm so sorry for not updating so long, super sorry. I would usually been giving you all my reasons, but I figured you guys would rather read the story, lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and just to make it up for you guys, I'll let you guys on in something...Marco is going to be in the next chapter. (;

(Well, if I remember correctly. Haha.)

After reading this chapter, I'm pretty sure you guys will be wondering about Felicia's devil fruit. hahahahaha. Any guesses?

Note: I now have a tumblr, two to be exact. Both of the links are on my profile. One is for personal and the other is for writing. Feel free to check them out and follow. Also planning to post a special chapter for TCP on there.

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Thank you to the following people for reviewing: Shiningheart of ThunderClan, irenia, Origami44, aaroniteXkryptonite, robin3zoro, kage kitsune 14, and Guest reviewers: kp, G

The Cat's Predicaments

Chapter 7: The Cat's Curiosity

Most people commonly thought that bounty hunters would track down their targets by traveling around, getting news, finding out the details, and delete etc. Essentially, this was how bounty hunters usually worked, but Felicia was a bit...different.

Though she did indeed follow this route of working, she also tended to travel towards the very place that issued the bounties: the marine headquarters.

Strange as it may be (and suicidal as well if caught), the marines who were higher up tended to know a bit more info on pirates,; especially the ones with bigger bounties, and two of her targets had a larger bounty than normal pirates. While the lower ranked marines tended to be more ignorant and stupid as usual, often messing up with their news, Felicia knew that the higher ups weren't the same. It was required for the best of the best to always be cautious, informed, and tough. They were the leaders, the pillars of the system. They had to stay well informed.

Despite the fact that some pirates were smarter than others, twisting facts and playing tricks to alter the information on them, there was always an ounce of truth to it somewhere. Misleading information, such as in one case where it was thought that the pirates involved liked to mess with the very people who hunted them, could have been avoided had a different source been contacted. Still, as good as pirates are at avoiding capture by spreading lies and using tricks, the marines have methods of their own that are just as successful; for how else could they stand so long?

The marine headquarters was an eight day trip from an island Felicia was on and, if on her own terms, a four day trip. Felicia had already planned her trip out. It was best to leave her boat where she was and make the trip to Marineford on her own terms. Though Marineford was basically a larger town, as usual for marines, she had no doubt that everyone knew each other and that everyone knew what was the norm. If Felicia had arrived with her boat on the very far outskirts of her the island, or even just a couple miles away from the island at sea, she had no doubt she would be registered as out of norm and a threat. She would also have to make sure that she arrived at night, as it was easier to hide in the dark, and any suspicions could be played off as the tiredness of a sleepy mind.

As Felicia contemplated her plans, she spent the night preparing for the trip. She had made sure to grab food and water that would provide her enough strength for her journey go there and back. Thankfully, Felicia didn't require much and didn't have to worry if she ran out as she was quite use to missing days of food and water. Packing the last of the things she needed, she drew her bag over her head and walked to the edge of the shores drenched in moonlight. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, Felicia succumbed to the power of her devil fruit.

...

Four days of nonstop travel using her power had taken its toll on Felicia, and she definitely felt the consequence as a wave of fatigue swept on her, causing her to falter in her step as she stood in the darkness of the night in front of Marineford Town.

Despite the dark, Felicia could clearly see the town made of bricks and steel. It was dead silent and not a sound was heard, causing her to feel a bit unsettled. There was very little green in the town, making the town seen seem dull and bland. Though lacking in the area of color, the town was composed of tall and formidable buildings, but compared to the humongous building that stood in the shadows of the background, yet demanded attention with its intimidating presence was the Marine Headquarters. They seemed small an insignificant, their presence waning under the demanding attention of the Marine Headquarters itself.

Though Felicia originally planned to continue on her task of infiltrating the building and gathering the info on the same night she arrived, she was tired, and the call for sleep was pulling her. She quietly walked through the town and was quite surprised that there were no patrols lingering around. She would've thought that the marines would have had some security in the town, but then again, most of the security were either on the wall or near the wall that surrounded the island and it's its headquarters. Since the security was already almost impenetrable in the front, she assumed that they thought the inside would be safe.

Felicia continued to linger around the town until she found her way towards the back alleys. She walked among the back alleys hoping to look for perhaps a small nook or cranny that she could take shelter in. Having spotted none, she continued to wander in the shadows until she spotted a house on the edge of the town with surprisingly a lot more trees than usual surrounding it. Calculating the house with a deciding look, Felicia scaled a tree that was quite close to the house to where until she was on at the same height of as the roof of the house.

The tree was tall enough to cover the roof of the house and big enough to where some of the branches encased both sides of the house. With its thick leaves and covering, Felicia concluded that the roof would be the perfect spot to sleep. Though it was quite risky sleeping on a roof and all, she had enough faith the coverings would hide her. She quietly crawled along the branch that stretched across the roof and stepped off. While Felicia preferred to sleep out in the open during the day, it was quite different as she was in enemy territory. After standing for a moment, the woman quietly laid down and fell asleep.

She had slept through the remainder of the night and the following day and woke up the following night. The sun had just disappeared and the moon was rising in the sky. After a moment of stretching, Felicia got off the roof and headed towards the marine headquarters while staying in the shadows of the night.

With some difficultly, she managed to scale the walls of the Marine Headquarters, using her claws to grip and stick on the building. After reaching the ground, Felicia spotted an open window a couple feet above her and she darted up, gripping the ledge and hauling herself in. Instead of being a window in a room as she expected, it was a window in the middle of the hallway. Felicia glanced around the empty hallway feeling a bit cautious. Though it was night, it was still in the early hours and she would've thought that there would still be some marines milling about.

Brewing in thought, she quietly crept down the hallway and would have continued absent-mindedly if it wasn't for the sound of approaching footsteps and chatting voices. Panicking, Felicia scrambled back the other way around. As she neared the end of the hallway and got ready to turn in the next direction, she heard footsteps and voices in the other hallway as well. Knowing she was trapped, she began to search for a hiding spot as she ran back the other way.

Shit, Felicia thought as the voices from both sides became nearer and she was stuck in the middle. The window wasn't an option as she could be spotted any moment. Frustrated, she muttered and cursed until she felt a brush of air along her spine.

Bingo, Felicia thought and grinned a cat like grin.

...

"Did you hear?" A voice, male Felicia identified by the low and gruff sound, asked. "Hear what?" His companion questioned. "Vegapunk's new experiment."

"New experiment? I thought he was working on something else?"

"He was, but you know how he is. He does one thing and then he does another. It's to keep his interest on the things he works on," he explained. "Sounds eccentric to me."

"All scientists usually are," he concluded.

His companion replied with another comment, but Felicia didn't catch it as she crawled off to one side and the two men walked off the opposite way.

As Felicia quietly crawled through the vents, she continued to hear the voices throughout, though it was only in small snippets. Catching an interesting snippet, she followed the voice in the vents.

"New bounties?'"

"Yeah, I'm dropping off some of the copies on the desk and the others go up on the board and mail; plus, I got to give my usual reports."

"So what are the new ones?"

"Well, there's one that has an 80,000,000 beli bounty; he's a rookie too."

"Woah! Seriously? What crew?"

"Whitebeard's."

The guy grunted in reply. "No wonder."

"Yeah, there's also been some bounties revised like…" his companion trailed off, thumbing through the stack of papers, "the Frenzy Killer Jaques Dio." Felica sucked in a breath.

"Isn't it the mass murderer guy?"

"Yeah. His bounty has raised up to 400,000,000 beli."

The guy let out a whistle.

"Dang, that's a catch," he commented as they both stopped at the door leading to what Felicia presumed was the office.

"Yeah, he's been around for a while, so he's had time to accumulate his notoriety." Felicia heard the men murmur their good byes and the one with the bounty posters went in.

After hearing the door click, the woman crawled forward into the vent in front of her till she reached an opening that filtered the air into the office. Felicia could make out the shapes of two men through the slits of the panel.

"Here's the newly issued bounties. Thirty of them are increased bounties while twenty of them are newly given."

"What are the highest?" The man sitting at the desk, his officer Felicia assumed, asked.

"From the newly given, the top two are 80,000,000 beli and 60,000,000 beli while the renewed are 400,000,000 beli and 300,000,000 beli."

"Names?"

"Leo from the Whitebeard pirates, Snapdragon from her own crew Floras al Muerto, Captain Frenzy Killer Jacques Dio from the Savage pirates, and Pillaging Alexander."

"Whereabouts?"

"Leo was last seen at Hachi Island while Jacques was last seen at Nodinero Town. Pillaging Alexander is currently at Leshosa Island along with Snapdragon and her crew ."

"You've been tailing them?"

"Yes, sir. Though troubles occurred with both sides we managed to successfully follow them."

"Good. Did you get where they were heading next?"

"We think they're probably heading to the neighboring island of their current destination."

Felicia heard the scratching of pencil against paper, indicating that the man was writing something. "Good. Keep following them and make sure those bounties get to the mail as soon as possible. Those new bounties will surely entice some of those bounty hunters."

"Yes, sir."

"Good, get out of here."

"Well," the scout said with hesitation on his face.

"What?" His officer barked.

"We may think that Leo from the Whitebeard pirates might end up meeting with Jacques Dio as the islands they could possibly land on are either on the same island or neighboring islands."

"What?" Yelled the officer. "Double the marines following them!" He yelled. "Wait! No. Send a marine ship after both groups. I want to make sure those two don't meet. We don't need the Whitebeard pirates forming another alliance," the officer muttered while furiously writing on a piece of paper. "Here. Make sure this gets to the commanding office."

The man took a step forward to grab it but the officer quickly retracted his hand. "No! I'll do it myself. I have some stuff to discuss anyway. Now, get out of here."

"Yes, sir," the scout responded meekly and scurried out of the room from the raging officer who was following right behind,.

Felicia waited quietly for both men to leave the office. Hearing the footsteps grow farther and farther away, she opened the latch of the vent and dropped down. The women surveyed the room for intruders or for any disturbances. Satisfied she saw nothing or and heard nothing, she silently went through the officer's desk. The officer had wrote all written down everything the scout had reported which was quite convenient for Felicia as she didn't have to remember much. The woman swiftly copied the notes and noticed a stack of maps on the side. While the officer may have taken the notes and knew for sure that if they went missing he would suspect something, Felicia was sure that the officer wouldn't notice a couple of maps missing. Grinning, the woman rummaged through the stack and grabbed the ones she needed.

Felicia continued to rummage through his desk and, satisfied she got everything, she darted back up the vent and followed the scent of the scout all the way to what she presumed was the mail room. Felicia watched as pelicans flew out and silently opened the latch. She watched as the scout turned around for a brief moment and took advantage of it. Curling her tail around a peg in the vent to anchor herself, she dropped down into the room, hanging from the peg. Swaying her body a little to reach for the papers, the woman silently grabbed the stack of newly issued bounties right behind the bird. Still swaying, the stack of papers brushed along the bird's back causing the bird to squawk in fear from the sudden touch.

Shit, she thought and swept the bird towards the scout with her hand. Using the momentary distraction, Felicia pulled herself up and let out a breath of relief as she watched the scout fluster and mutter while putting the bird back on its post. Having spotted the empty spot, the scout scratched his head in confusion at the disappearance of the stack of bounties.

After watching the scout for a couple more minutes and satisfied that the scout went back to his work suspecting nothing, Felicia quietly crawled back to the opening where she originally got into the vent.

Felicia was already planning her next moves. She got a new stack of bounties and a list of recent locations of some pirates. She got all the info she wanted and now all she had to do was get out here.

Slowly opening the latch and lifting the lid, Felicia peeked her head out and, satisfied that she saw the hallway was clear, dropped out of the vent.

Getting up from her crouched position, she casually dusted her knees and re-positioned her bag. Honestly, Felicia felt a bit unsettled as she glanced down the empty hallway. She would have expected at least a little bit of trouble since she was at the Marine Headquarters.

Wouldn't hurt to do a little more exploring, Felicia thought as she causally strolled down the left side. Perhaps I can find some more interesting things. She was after all quite curious about what else was in the building.

Felicia curiously peeked her head out when she arrived at the end of the hallway and saw that it led to another corridor with many doors.

Curious, curious, curious.

She could hear the voices that drifted from one door to another. Reports, conversations, gossip, rants, Felicia could hear them all. As she slowly walked beside each door and listened to the voices of each one, she came across one room that was strangely silent.

Quiet strange, she thought, and she could hear alarm bells ringing through her head. She was forgetting something. She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment before her eyes widened. Shit.

And at the same moment, Felicia heard three words, "Get the intruder."

Needless to say, Felicia booked it and as she ran back down the corridor,. She could hear the doors opening and the shouts and yells of the marines.

"Get that intruder!"

"Don't let her escape!"

"What are you people doing? Get her!"

She could hear the pounding footsteps that followed after her as she turned into the hallway and dashed for the window. Mentally, Felicia was cursing herself. The one day she forgot to wear her mask was the day she actually might needed it.

As the marine men reached the hallway, Felicia had already reached the window and was in fact, one push away from falling.

Smiling one of her rare smiles and letting out an excited breath, she jumped.

Beta'd By: Everlude

Thank you for continually beta'ing my story.