Serious: Book 1 ~Darkest Night~ Chapter 1 - Fresh Meat for the Grinder (Only for those that want to join the Black Plague. PS we are following the turn rule -.-)

The scene is a small island town in the middle of the Northern Ocean with the time being midnight as the sky that is normally filled with stars and the bright moon was shrouded in the darkness of black dreary clouds, thus the night was of utter blackness with only the points of light from the torches of the town patrol breaking the blackness. The effect was very little but enough to give the patrolling men and women some sense of comfort, but the real nightmares of the night were to begin soon enough as the crimson eyes belonging to a young man that looked like a noble named Mephistopheles Til Alexandros, or better known as the Devil's Advocate though others call him Advocat.

As the young pirate looked at the small town and island his mind was already calculating his next move as he did not want to have to deal with the Navy at the current moment, as he looked at the town it would bob up and down due to him being on his pirate ship called Dead Man's Chest. Soon he whispered two words "Shadow.....Guardian" which caused the shadow that was hidden by the darkness of the knight to lift off from the deck and stand behind Advocat waiting for orders. Advocat just looked at the town without saying a word as the Shadow knew its orders and would do its order, the shadowy being flew across the large stretch of ocean between the ship and the island almost invisible in the darkness if it was not for the inside of it to be glowing red.

When it reached land Advocat activated his Shadow Corridor ability to have himself switch places with his shadow to allow him to be on the island without trouble, he smirked at the lack of proper defense that this town has before he snaps his fingers and causes his Undead Squad to pull themselves out of the ground. The zombies numbered twenty and that was all that was needed by Advocat as he said "Capture everyone, but kill anyone that fights back....." the zombies let out a loud battle cry before they started to ransack the village as the screams of men, women, and children filled the night as well as the sound of gunfire and the scream of agony as another life was snuffed out by the darkness. Advocat though did not join in the fight he simply waited for his shadow to reach him and form into a chair for him to sit in, Advocat always tends to let his little zombies do the dirty work for him when needed as he listened to the fighting he let out a slight chuckle before saying, "Tis the Darkest Night of their lives."

~Day time~

It has been five hours since Advocat and his zombies attacked the village and while the sun was shining brightly the village looked horrible due to the fact the zombies torn it apart capturing most of the people and leaving the dead bodies of the slain to lay out in the sun. The smell of decay could not be detected just yet due to how fresh the bodies were but already flies were landing on the corpses, but the main reason that Advocat was still in this village and even attacked the village in the first place was for one reason only. He had sent out notices all over the world with the help of his shadow to every gathering place of pirates to give them the location, time, and date of where the infamous Devil's Advocat would gather up a living crew to sail the seas with him.

Now it is only a matter of time before the potential crew members appear and become part of one of the most dangerous crews in the world, but as the wait went on Advocat had his zombies bring him a chair, umbrella, table, and his tea set so he could enjoy a spot of tea while he waits.

Ozzy was drinking, again. He had done nothing but drink since Keu was disbanded. He was living off small time bounties and even then he couldnt do much since the government named him a criminal. He looked out of the ship he had hijacked. He couldnt sail it on his own, but it got him this far. Ozzy was a wreck , drinking and playing his violin for money, he refused to sell his gold hilted katanas, as it was important to him. Ozzy had received some notice by some unknown pirate who most likely had weird henchman. Ozzy finally saw the island and played his violin as his ship crashed onto the beach.

OOC: Figure I will have your guy and Advocat have some talks before the competition for First Mate.

IC:Now when you approach an village that is quiet save for the sound of burning buildings and the low moans of zombies; a violin is pretty noticeable to anyone still living so Advocat knew that someone was on the Island but where exactly he wasn't sure. He looked up at five of his zombies and said, "Go see what our guest wants, if he wishes to join then lead him to me. If he wishes to stop me though....you will kill him is that understood?" The zombies nodded their heads before they ran toward the source of the sound all the while their bones clacking together making a eerie sound to all that listen to them.

Now it only took about five minutes for the zombies to track down Ozzy due to the violin playing was a very good tip and all that. When the zombies found the man they looked at him before one said, "What be ye business here fleshy?" "Tell us or we'll slit yer throat." said another as two drew their swords and the other three drew their twin flintlock pistols. What happens next all depends on what Ozzy says to them which meant he held his fate in his own two hands.

watching some pirates talk to a simple violin player he almost felt pity but shenshe just kept walking away from the beach walking near the town knowing that the golden glint would be the violin players saviour saviour. when shenshe got close enough he saw an evil looking man wearing a brown suit only to notice he had been spotted.

Jace was finally off on his adventure, after having had to pay for a boat by working with his father he finally had the chance to begin his great adventure and he knew just where to start. He had already heard of a man by the name of the Devil Advocate and had been interested in how the man got such a bad reputation. Jace saw his chance to take advantage of an opportunity when he found a notice from the Devil's Advocate himself wishing to recruit new members. Jace smiled as he looked down at the notice, he was on a small boat floating lazily towards the island , on foot leaning on the front ledge on the small boat.

He brought his hand up as he reached the island to block the sun out of his eyes. Upon finally reaching the island Jace firstly secured his boat to the shore before turning to face the island. The sight of burning buildings and moaning voices sent a chill through Jace's body as he begun to walk more withing the island looking around attentively. Jace was following the directions given on the notice as he looked around wondering just what had happened within the island curiously. "HELLOOOO....ANYBODY HERE!!!" He shouted thinking the moans he heard came from local villagers.

The soft feel of the sand was felt between his talons as he walked down the coast, somewhere off of the coast the wreckage of his former ship sunk into the sea. Taken down by one of the monsters of the sea that even this part of the sea had never seen only refered to as the demon, the sea monster attacked at the worst time for it was only after the last of his crew left for the homeland of Birdman island. Without a crew he abandoned the ship and found himself on this island, the smell of dead was rampit though the air though barley noticeable even by his nose.

"What a dreary place ive come across." he said to himself as he walked twards the burning village, already knowing that there was probably no surviviors of this. For this was not the first time he had seen a village complely destroyed by pirates or other humans. "What a complete waist." He did not see any villagers crucified or put up to display mearly dead, strange if this was a pirate attack. He pushed open the door to a house with one of his claws looking inside of the building and not seeing any signes of looting. "Marine work? No too sloppy."

A crow landed on Ishura's sholder and began to caw at him. "So it was a pirate attack. Those that reak of death walk still. Probably Devil Work." he said refering to a Devil fruit. Walking dead, that was new even for him though he had learned to expect the unexpected since traveling on the grandline and other oceans, devil fruits make the world of make believe come true. He kept standing over the corpse of one of the villagers when he could hear another human yelling somewhere nearby "So there are still people here, one of the attackers or something else." he said questioning to himself. The wind pushed the door open and the next moment Ishura dissapeared from the spot in a moment. The next moment he appeared on a balchony over looking one of the other streets. Looking down at jace, some human in the village who happened to glance where he was though He dissapeared again and appeared behind him in the streets.

"This place reaks of death, though you do not, so i guess its safe to assume that you are not the one responsible for this Human. Though I would keep your voice down, ive been told that there are some things walking that may be responsible for this." he said starting off down the street then turning his head twards Jace "What exactially is this island?" he said only appearing on this island due to extrenious circomstances.

walking up to the weird guy in a brown suit "so you are the man who can control the dead I am hear to see if i can join you"just walking past the undead

Ozzy then spoke to this strange creature "Im here because i got some notice........ its best you do not anger me...... or ill slit your throat.... where is your master? I wish to speak to him since he went through the trouble of summoning me to this place." Ozzy could not honestly tell what that thing was, but he wasnt going to let it walk all over him and intimidate him. He would not go through that sort of problem ever again. Ozzy also felt that other people had entered the island as well, so things would become hectic soon.

"HOLY CRAP!" Jace shouted after instantly hearing the voice of a random person seemingly appearing from nowhere. Jace stumbled away a few steps before falling on his butt, he looked up getting a better look of the person and a man standing there with a crow on his shoulder, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!" He said breathing heavily as he held his ch=est with one hand, "God...why the hell would you sneak up on someone in the freak darkness of death ridden village." Jace said loudly seeming angered by the man, "Who the hell are you anyways?" He asked as he got up letting his breathing slow down and his heart rate relax.

Ishura watched the strange man freak out by his apparent scary enterence or at least startaling, if he was in jace's spot he would of just about expected anyting by now. Still the human was farily skiddish "Lets not freak about it now, i would be more worried about what attacked the village than me. Besides... its not even that dark out, even your human eyes should be able to see easily in this with those fires burning." he said saying some things under his breath about wierd human guy, and something about just killing him so he didnt have to deal with the guy.

Ishura waved his hand in front of the crow on his sholder which then immediatly flew off of his sholder flying past jace and into the darkness around the village. "Its considered polite to introduce yourself first before asking anothers name. Though since most of you humans lack even that, Ishura 'The Crow' former captain of the birdmen pirates. And what do they call you?" he said as he sniffed the air, he could smell other scents now in the air that were not reaking with death... more humans. "So what in the world is this island anyways, i doubt that you came here by chance." he said

"They call me many things,,,jackass" He said out loud but the last part under his breath and he brushed the dirt off himself. "I have no idea what this place is...i'm just here to meet up with the Devil's Advocate" Jace looked closely at the man examining him, "Hmm...guess it's not you...anyway i'm sure he's the one that did this, i've heard about him from numerous sources and i'm positive this is something he would do...the freak." He said as he begun walking towards the designated area he was supposed to meet Meph. It was easy to tell that Jace was still quite annoyed as he made his way towards a silhouette of a man sitting on a chair with an umbrella in the distance, just barely visible.

"Devil's Advocate?" he said for he never heard of the name before, though if anything the name probably implied that is was some devil fruit user or mabey something else. He looked around the town again, if this Advocate was here he must of been strong for not many pirates would slaughter a village like this without fear from the marines. "Strong... or crazy. Still probably just some honorless murder."

"If this guy is such a freak why would you want to be associated with him? If this is something he would do on whim then even those in his inner circle would probably just be lambs to the slaughter." he said though still who ever this was made him curious and he followed Jace twards where ever he was going.

"Main reason is i want to join a crew and he seems like a strong enough person to be my captain, hopefully he's not crazy." Jace said as he walked closer to the man, now he was able to see more figures around the other man. When Jace got closer he saw the creatures and his eyes widened, "Huh?" He closed his eye and looked again, there were zombies roaming around and one man sitting on a chair amidst them, Jace noticed the man from his bounty picture, it was Mephistopheles Til Alexandros, the Advocat. "Damn...looks like he is Crazy" Jace said jokingly looking around at the zombies, he then saw another man walking up to Advocat and speaking to him. Jace made sure to keep his guard up around the zombies.

The Zombies looked at Ozzy then back at one another before laughing a bit as the Zombie leading the group said "Lad we don't even have throats to be slit, but the captain will like your attitude and said to bring anyone that wanted to see him to him. Follow us then." The zombies turned and lead Ozzy to their captain but they were surprised to see other living people have come to their captain so they picked up the pace and now the other three humans had zombies standing all around them with their bones clacking and clicking making a rather disturbing atmosphere.

But while the zombies were not too pleased with so many new fleshes being here their Captain was quite pleased with this, He looked up at Shenshe for a few moments before he said "Yes I control these Zombies and don't worry you will have your chance to prove you are worthy of joining my crew, but first I must greet the other potential crew members. Would be quite rude not to do so." Advocat now turned his attention toward the other three humans that were now here along with Shenshe and looked them over to see he got quite an impressive batch with his little posters. Two of them seemed to be experienced pirates and would be very strong but the other looked a tad bit skittish and new to the Pirate game......but he had a certain air to him that told Advocat he could grow into a very powerful Pirate in due time.

After he was finish looking them over he gave them a polite nod of his head before saying "Welcome my friends, I am sure you know who I am based on my notices but I am not quite sure who you all are. I will admit though that some of your faces are familiar from bounty posters on you all but........well it would just be faster to have you all simply state who you are and what you can do. Also don't worry about the mess around you, I simply needed to ensure that no pesky civilians called for the Marines and ruin my recruitment day." While the pirates might be taking this so seriously Advocat was treating this like a simple meeting among noble gents....yep he was a bit off but not insane.

As he talked a few Zombies had walked off to his ship to get more chairs and tables so they returned not too long after to put down some more for the new pirates to sit down and such instead of having to stand around, Advocat found it quite rude to make them stand around while he gets to sit but ensured no one sat with him for a while. After the others had introduced themselves and told him what they can do he would be more than happy to get straight to picking out who gets to become what on his crew.......or if they even get to join it....

Ishura didnt really know what he was talking about when refering to his little notices, though he did remember jace saying something refering to something that braught him here. "Sorry but i cant say i have seen any of your notices, it wasnt my reason for comming to this dreary little island you have taken occupation of. Though what ive been told makes me a little curious. Though forgive me when i say that i simply dont see a any reason to trust you to expose what i am capable of." he said, knowing that he needed to leave open a excape option. Simply he did not know anything about this man to even remotly trust him, rather he was thinking more of the opposite direction of trusting him. Though if he was as strong as he was said to be it could open up a good opportunity to travel further into the grand line, where his goals lied.

"Ishura 'The Crow', former captain of the Birdmen Pirates and formost a birdman even if i do not look like one currently." he said for that was common enough knowlege of anyone whos seen his bounty poster. "Though to be honest im rather more interested in what you can do other than play puppet with some villagers."

Ozzy looked up and saw the man who had summoned some of them. At first he thought he didnt actually need to talk, but now seeing as alot of people were noisy he decided might as well. "Yeah.... im Ozzy Hummingbird....... swordsman and musician....... as well as thief..... something ive gained over the last few years.........."

Ozzy was not impressed by idle chit chat, but, the faster this went down, the faster they could proceed.

"Jace Tsukane...Genius...Cook...Genius...Fighter...oh i forgot to mention Genius...that's about it Zombie man." Jace said speaking after the others and looking around at the zombies.

"please dont make this meating to long i change at night and i mean that" talking to controller of the undead sitting down

Advocat listened to the other pirates talk and the only one that was annoying him was the young pirate that was telling him to hurry it up, he didn't answer his question and he was being rude as well. Advocat looked at that pirate and said right then and there "Well I found one who will not become first mate, and that is you sir. I asked you a question and all I got was you telling me to hurry up, enjoy being a low rank member if you are good enough to be even that." He turned to look at Jace, Ozzy, and Ishura as he said "Firstly thank you for telling me your names and a little bit of what you can do, as for what I can do I have consumed the Kage Kage no Mi so you can guess a little bit as to what my abilities are."

He snapped his fingers as his shadow lifted out of the ground behind him and stood beside him now with its glowing red eyes staring into them, after that was done the Shadow Guardian stood and waited with Advocat as he then said "Now Mr. Ishura you said you was a former captain....that makes you a prime candidate for first mate due to your power and experience....but as I am a fair man I am going to allow Jace and Ozzy the chance to take that position for their own. But only if you agree to join my crew of course, simply answer the question and I will give you three your test and have our rude friend here do his own test as well. After the test you can all ask me any question you like about who I am, what my plans are, and what I will give to you in return for working for me." Advocat knew it was a bit unfair but he wasn't going to tell them anything at the moment until they were part of his crew.

Ozzy then looked down , he wasnt going to refuse an offer from this man. Where else would he go? What else could he do by himself? The government had already made sure work would be difficult to come by, and he wasnt going to make much friends due to his work as bounty hunter.

Ozzy then looked to Advocat "I accept your offer, ill join your crew and sit for your test....... usually i would sing a melody for this occasion..... but i guess i wont this time......."

Ishura considered the proposion advocate offered to them, on one hand he knew nothing of him and what his true intentiions were, and on the other hand he must of held cosiderale power and this could of been a once in a lifetime opporuntiy to travel farther into the grandline. Even if this offer didnt turn out to be in his favor there was allways a way out "Should be... interesting, well i got nothing to lose over it so Ill accept your offer." he said. In truth the possision of First mate wasnt such a important thing for him, though he would still take it if proven the only one capable. For that was the reason why he became the captain of the birdmen pirates, he was the only one capable of holding such a possision among the warring factions that were represented on the ship.

finally answering the advocate "I am shenshe i am fighter and i will accept your challenge" sitting down readying the sword of the changer.

OOC: Sorry Rai I did wait.

IC: Advocat smiled a bit at the three though he wondered why Jace was so unusually quiet but then again the man might be thinking but it was taking far too long and they were burning daylight on all this. He looked over at the three men he would allow to take his first mate test and simply said "Your test is to capture my Shadow Guardian, be warned that you must capture most of him not just a single piece. He will fight back and try to make you retreat from him but for the most part he will just dodge and avoid you three, you are allowed to attack one another in attempts to ruin the other's attempts to win but try not to kill each other even if only one of you can become first mate you would all be very good crew members to have. Now lets give my Shadow Guardian a head start as I don't need you three tackling me while trying to reach him."

Advocat motioned for his shadow to run off and it quickly flew away using its high speed to get near the forest that surrounds the village as it disappeared into the forest and with that Advocat said "Now then happy hunting." With that he turned his attention to Shenshe and said "Your test is to fight my Zombie Squad.....and you have to make them stay down. Good luck with your test but first move away from here I don't want you damaging my furniture or any of my other possessions." With that the twenty five Zombies surrounded Shenshe and lead the man off from where Advocat was and when they were far enough the Zombies glared at Shenshe before pulling out their flintlock rifles and firing at him giving him lead flying at him from all directions. They quickly shifted to their cutlass and charged him after the bullets were let loose and they would chop him up if he wasn't careful.

Ozzy looked up, why was he giving people several different tests? none the less, he was going to win it using logic. Ozzy jumped off and ran in a different direction than which the shadow ran. He had a plan in the back of his mind.

"No matter how dark the night, somehow the sun rises once again and all shadows are chased away." he said softly thinking that it was a little to fitting for this little test that advocate was giving them. He thought of what the advocate said 'most of him' figuring that ment that ment that the shadow guardian could break apart into smaller ones "Im pretty sure that theres some saying advising against trying to catch a shadow." he said as he went off in the direction that the shadow dissapeared to trying to think how he could catch the shadow before the others.