Serious: Encounter! Gael Iura meets with an old friend and Yoruyonaka Kaizokudan fights Shichibukai Gael! ((Yorunaka crew members only, please))

Figdra had attached himself to Pwuga's underbelly to sail through the ocean, going under the Yoruyonaka ship. His froggy capablities were serving him very well, enabling him to survive underwater. Pwuga moved along, reaching Yoruyonaka Kaizokudan's destination before they did. Figdra got on top of Pwuga and made his way onto the land, moving a bit into the cover of trees to eject Gael. Gael climbed out of Figdra's mouth, followed by all his animals. He looked up and smiled. It would be here where he learned what he needed to learn. He stood in the woods, awaiting Yoruyonaka's arrival. He'd need to be super careful.

Ranyx was on the deck of the ship, singing softly to himself. He scratched his head, thinking of what he needed to do. "Um, I'm going out to go shopping for food, right?" he asked Oceana, confused a tad. He had money in his backpack, so that was covered.

((My intent is that Ranyx goes out alone, encounters Gael, teaches him, and you end up coming looking for him. Is that okay?))

Ranyx had seemed a bit distracted for a while now. When he declared that he was going ashore to shop for food, the wanderer didn't believe him a bit. All the same, it wasn't his business.

Jim sat up from where he'd been lying on the deck of the ship that had become his impromptu home, staggering over to his crewmate. He reached into his vest and withdrew a tiny golden object, a strange blunted crescent shaped thing.

"Speak into this if you need anything while you're ashore," Jim instructed. "Or if you're just bored." He placed the object in Ranyx's hand and walked over to another open place on the deck, laying himself down and staring at the sky.

"We're all just...riders on the storm."

Looking up from the romance novel she had been reading, she gave Ranyx a strange look. Shopping? As if that weren't out of the blue enough, Jim's comment sent her left eyebrow closer to her hairline. Picking up her makeshift, ribbon bookmark she slid it in between the pages she was on and closed her book quite loudly, before hugging it to her chest and before she pulled her knees up under her chin.

"Ranyx, you've been around long enough to know that Phinneas takes care of food supplies." she said, "I guess if you really want to you can..." her voice trailed off. Why was she acting so suspicious of him? Beating back her woman's intuition that kept nagging her, she smiled. Ranyx was simply trying to be helpful. That must have been it.

"Just don't be too long okay?"

Ranyx smirked. Thank goodness, she hadn't asked any of the right questions. He took the object and thanked Jim. "I will... I think I'll be fine, though." He had a wide grin on his face, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get rid of it. He knew Gael would be here... thank god the others didn't. "Thanks, Oceana... I just want to help." He WAS intending on getting food... just, not necessarily in the manner Oceana expected. He used Soru to disembark, always using the more complicated methods of doing things. He went into town, quickly moving through to a crowded area. A short while later, he felt a tug on his arm, and followed the tug. Sure enough, it was Gael.

They got out of town, and into a patch of trees. They hugged in a where-have-you-been,-man sort of hug, but it was a little bit more than that. "Ranyx, it's great to see you!" Gael said happily. Ranyx smiled and said, "It's great to see you too! Can't believe you're a Shichibukai!" Gael stopped smiling. "Yeah, that's why I'm here... a lot of people have grudges against the Shichibukai like your crew does... and I'm NO WHERE near fast enough to avoid attacks. I know you had those two skills... what did you call them... Soru and Geppou? If you could teach me those, I'd be really appreciative." Ranyx beamed at Gael. "Of course I can! You know I'd do it!" Gael smiled and replied, "Thanks so much!"

TIME SKIP OF ABOUT 2-3 HOURS

"Got the basics?" Ranyx asked Gael, a little tired. Gael nodded, resting a bit. "Oh, and here you go..." Gael grew a large wicker basket for Ranyx to fill with fruits he grew in practically the blink of an eye. "Just remember to get bread and meat and stuff..." Gael told Ranyx, and Figdra hopped up beside him. "We'll go different ways. That way they won't know we saw each other," Ranyx suggested, motioning for Gael to go first. Gael left, going into town first. Ranyx sat to the side in the forest, waiting for an opportunity to go.

((Sorry for the monster post.))

Avarill had been lounging away on the ship for quite a while. It was amazing how much time you could waste simply by staring into nothingness. Sometimes, it seemed that time just seemed to fast forward on it's course to the ever-changing future. He had had a book, but it was discarded by the side. He had gotten bored with it quickly. Never a reading man in the first place.
He was alerted from his mindless stasis. It had to have been a while. He was bored. Ranyx wasn't back yet. Wasn't he supposed to have been shopping? Shouldn't take that long. "What is Ranyx doing? He's taking a veritable eternity there. Should we look for him?" He rose to his feet.

Jim sat up on the deck, turning his head to listen as Avarill inquired after Ranyx. He stood transfixed for a moment as his desires to give this man his due privacy and to do something less boring than staring at a stormless sky waged battle; in the end the latter won, and he stood up and clapped his hands together.

"Capital idea, sir," Jim stated, walking over to stand near Avarill. "Can take care of some things in town while I'm out, too. I doubt our friend will be bringing back anything to the tune of fortified spirits, so I'll needs be purchasing those myself anyway."

Stopping mid-step, Jim spun about face and clicked his heels together, saluting and smiling his everpresent careless smile at Oceana.

"That is, begging your permission to meddle, captain."

((Midget sized bump.))

Gael was hurrying along, Figdra's considerable girth parting the crowd enough so he had very little problems. Ranyx, however, had fallen asleep on a stump, the provisions from Gael in his hands.

Considering how long he had been missing, the thought had surely crossed her mind. Although Ranyx was many years her senior and could take care of himself, her authority as captain and her maternal instincts told her to worry about him. Getting up from her chair, she set her book back down and searched the surrounding scenery for any sign of Ranyx's return. Nothing. Pulling on one of her hoop earrings, she bit her lip and turned to Avarill and James.

"If you would, I would be exceedingly grateful you two." she said, with a slight tone of matronly concern. Normally she would have gone herself, but today was a bit of a lazy day for her and she really wasn't dressed to go out into town. She wore very short, white shorts, a loose fitting, blue tanktop and she had been going around barefoot most of the day.

"I would go with you, but I have faith in you two." she said with half a smile, "Just bring him back swiftly please."

"Swiftly," Jim stated, giving a brief bow before standing at ease, "is something of a specialty of mine."

Hopping over the side of the rail, James landed and took a quick look down the path. Turning to Avarill, he called back.

"It'll be a quicker affair if we split it up, then. You take the market, and I'll take everything else."

As he turned back towards the trail, his hand shot out, a wide rectangular pane of air parting to reveal his strange shadowy green world. A moment later it closed, and the path was empty.

-----------------------------

"Buruburuburu~" the object in Ranyx's pocket intoned, quiet and slightly muffled by the clothes. "Buruburuburuburu~."

Jim wandered the island, though nobody could see him inside the air's space. He could see everything, through that strange emerald lens, though; presently he sought his quarry amongst the various paths leading too and from town. Strolling lazily, he figured to let the Den Den he'd given over do the real work.

For whatever reason, Ranyx wasn't answering the Den Den he'd been given. It occured to Jim, a bit too late, that as the baby Den Den was hidden inside the receiver for convenience's sake, that he'd might not have known it was a Den Den at all. He hung up on his end, the snail receding back into the top.

Some short while of wandering around, something on the ground caught his eye. Following it a ways, James came upon a small patch of trees. Therein was a great deal of disturbed earth, and he came out of the space in the air to take a better look.

Everywhere the grass and dirt was torn up, churned as if trampled over by an army. Crouching down, he inspected the markings on the ground, noting a great repetition of a single pattern; concentric circles.

"Soru," Jim stated to himself. Long ago, he'd tried to learn it himself. He'd never mastered it, nor Geppou, nor Tekkai or Kami-E or any of those other damnable martial arts. Being an extremely adept slacker, however, he'd learned to make his own improvised variations. He remembered, though, the days of his own failed training.

There were two distinctly different sets; one was very clean and small, as those of a practiced user. The other was larger, rougher, the mark of an inexperienced user. The ground had looked much the same after his training sessions with that starch-collared old buzzkill from the Marines.

Taking a quick assessment of the perimeter, Jim found - as he had expected - two trails leading away from the grove in different directions. One lead directly back towards the town, the other off on it's own. Jim suspected that he knew just what he'd find at the end of the second.

"Good morning," Jim stated loudly, stepping loudly out of an air door a short ways distant from the stump Ranyx slept upon. "You know, if it's napping you're after, the deck of your own fair ship is as good a place for it as any stump. And you won't worry your captain so much, either."

Standing there, smiling, Jim wondered whether or not he should ask about the scene from before. As before, his desire to do something exciting outweighed his respect for his fellow crewmate's rightly-owed privacy.

"Of course, I suppose that work-out from earlier must have worn you out quite a bit. If you'd have mentioned you'd be thusly busied up, we'd have all known to wait longer."

Avarill nodded to James. James' powers would surely help in trying to find Ranyx. The doorman was good at covering ground. Avarill would do his part in the market. He made his way to the market area. However, Ranyx said he was going to shop for food. Why did James leave the market solely for him then? James seemed to know something he didn't. He shrugged as he walked. There was likely something else behind the case, but the market was as good a place as any.
The market was busy even today. Stalls, people, the odd scammer. People made way for him. People tended to make way for 7 feet tall built people. No sign of Ranyx anyway. Maybe James knew where he was? But he couldn't contact James now. Best just to continue looking..

Ranyx almost fell over off the stump, startled by James' intrusion. "Oh, hello, James! Got some food!" Ranyx said almost awkwardly, showing the hulking wicker basket filled to the brim with fruit. "Wasn't able to find any meat, but I might not have been looking hard enough." He chuckled and worried. If James had come looking for him, that meant someone else had probably gone out. What if they found Gael... "Hehe, well, let's head on back to the ship!" He hoped he could recall anyone else before they encountered Gael. He began walking in the general direction of the ship, purposely giving the town a wide berth.

Gael was making his way through the town, the crowd parting slightly to make way for Figdra. He needed to hurry... Ranyx's crew would probably come looking any minute now. Gael got distracted looking at someone's stall while walking and accidently bumped into someone. When he looked up, he guess that the guy was at least seven feet tall. Dear god. He apologized quickly and kept moving, wearing his trademark long robe.

(since Ana's of no use to you guys ATM go ahead and keep going until you arrive back at the ship)

((Gotcha, thanks.))

"Hey you. Wait." Avarill grabbed Gael's shoulder and attempted to turn him around in the crowd. "You're Gael the Shichibukai, aren't you?" Avarill held up his left hand, unfisting it deliberately. "We don't like you." He said. He was fully intending to go nuts on the marketplace. A good dose of destruction was good for his psyche. "I wasn't looking for you, but here you are. Captain really doesn't like your type." Avarill was sounding more threatening each word. The crowd was streaming a bit farther around them than normal, leaving a hole in the crowd much larger than strictly necessary.

Oh shit. "Oh crap, Yoruyonaka..." Gael wrenched his arm free from Avarill's grasp. He began talking more to himself than to Avarill, "I was hoping to get off the island before they came looking, but... too late." Now, back to Avarill, "Can't we just talk this out?" Before Gael could stop him, Figdra began making horking sounds, eventually launching Squil at Avarill like a furry ballistic missile. Squil began spinning in midair, tail spines flared.

"No, no, no. There can be no comprom.." Avarill was about to say, but wasn't really prepared for a squirrel attack, and got hit in the back with the spiky squirrel. "Aargh!!" He turned around, slamming the squirrel with his left arm. "Sneaky bastard." He cursed the shichibukai, but not really in an angry tone. However, now he was determined to start a fight, with blood running down his back. The crowd was rapidly receding in the face of this scene. Avarill turned sideways, keeping both the toad and Gael in his sight. He pointed his left hand, fisted at the moment, at Figdra. "Funka!" There was a minuscule delay, and the 30 cm diameter sphere with a center right in front of the frog's stomach erupted.

Gael threw up his arm, and a tree trunk shot out of the ground, flinging Figdra away, and the tree trunk imploded. "Dude, what the hell?" Gael yelled, wheeling toward Avarill and chucking copius amounts of bamboo at him. "You can try to kill me, but you can't kill my pets!" The amount of pointy bamboo stakes launched at Avarill was really quite impressive. Squil had run back to Figdra, and Gael yelled, "Figdra, get out of here!"

Avarill was laughing "Hahahaha!" He was reveling in the destruction. "Funka Shield!" He created a large explosive sphere in front of the bamboo sticks as they approached, causing them to stray to the sides. The crowd was vacating the premises swiftly. "You let your pet attack me." He said. He turned to Gael. "Hokai Line!" He pointed his right hand at Gael and started proficiently fisting it repeatedly. The air started sucking itself in with explosive speed in 10 cm diameter spots running from Gael's legs to his head.

((I had posted a reply to this up right after ZB's last post, I'm sure of it. I don't know how, but the post seems to have been eaten. How weird...))

It seemed fairly obvious to Jim, as he walked along with Ranyx back to their ship, that his crewmate was giving the town a miss. Anybody else might have called it the scenic route, but the cyborg was a notoriously lazy man. A straight line wasn't just the fastest path between two points, it was the only on for him. Circling around without a good reason was madness.

"Be sure to make all haste to the ship; Miss Edwards will want to know you're safe." James' steps slowed down, his walking coming to a halt.

"In the meantime, Averill is busied up searching the city. I'll see that he doesn't waste any of his time in finishing a job already finished."

Holding a hand out to the side and parting a rectangular plane of air, Jim stepped through his door.

------------------

He'd barely made it to the city when the first explosion had rocked the nearby buildings and sent a panicked crowd racing through the streets. Jim wasn't sure if the blast had involved his new friend or not, but he was sure that it had involved him. Leaping to a nearby rooftop, the stranger spied the source of the commotion.

"Funka Shield!" Avarill cried, immediately after indulging in some crazed laughter. James rapidly puzzled out the basics of Jackson's powers as he watched an approaching line of bamboo spikes part in a shower of splinters directly before their target. Using his own improvised Soru, Jim appeared alongside Avarill, his head tilted to the side as he regarded Gael.

James waited quietly as the aptly-named "Property Damage" unleashed a line of powerful implosive blasts at his opponent. When the attack was finished, he straightened his head and glanced up at Avarill.

"If you're going to throw a party, at least have the courtesy to invite the rest of us."

Uncrossing his arms, Jim held his left palm to the sky. The small, crystalline hemisphere at the center of his palm sparkled briefly before pouring forth a brilliant, thin ray of orange-yellow light into the sky. It stretched on into the sky, fading into the blue haze, shimmering waves of heat rippling in the air around it. Though it existed for only a pair of seconds, alone in the open sky, it would be visible for miles.

"Now we've just to wait for the RSVP."

Gael used Soru to go backwards to avoid the attack. It was sloppy, but it worked. Someone literally walked into the marketplace out of thin air. RSVP, what did he... oh damn. That's what he meant. He meant MORE company... damn. He wouldn't last long in his current state. Gael grew a dragonfruit look-alike, but didn't eat it. He was afraid Ranyx would come by... "I didn't let him attack you... I was trying to get him to stop!" Figdra reluctantly ran off, leaving Gael to defend himself. Gael grew two tonfa out of wood and gave them pointed ends, picking them up. "Certainly hope your captain is comatose at the moment." Gael sighed, worried. The fruit was in his pocket. A mass of vines shot out of the ground at Avarill's legs, trying to entangle him, and a copius amount of Gael's explosive needle fruits grew, falling to the ground nearby James.

Ranyx smiled at James, saluting. "A-okay!" Ranyx said, a smile on his face. Once James left and Ranyx heard the explosion, his smile didn't disappear... but his thoughts changed to: Shit, shit, shit, shit... The flare didn't help things. Ranyx kept walking calmly to the ship, intending to try to distract the remaining crewmembers in what would be a feeble attempt to stop them from going to kill Gael.

"James! Get the others..." He paused to jump aside from the vines and slash them with his sword. "This is Gael the Shichibukai!" Avarill yelled at James in the midst of fighting. He was wielding the large, most would say two-handed sword, in one hand. He turned back to his opponent. "I would have destroyed you all anyway." He said grimly and then grinned. He still wasn't taking this the least bit seriously. He was just happy to get to destroy something for a change. "Funka! Funka!" He opened his left hand twice, targetting 2 meter diameter areas on Gael's sides. There was about a second of delay and an unnatural stream of air, and then they both exploded, blasting cobblestone to the skies and aiming to crush Gael between two blasts.

"A shichibukai?" Jim inquired, his smiling and open face turning towards Gael. "I can't say I really approve of-"

Before he could finish talking, Jim noticed a bunch of dangerous looking fruit growing around him. A square slab of the street swung open directly under Jim's boots, swinging back up to close just as the needle fruit detonated. When the smoke and spines were clear of the air, the spot was empty.

A similar square hatch popped open down the road, a bit of distance from the fight. Jim hopped out and put his hands to his mouth, helping his voice carry back to the dueling pair.

"Just don't let him run off while I'm gone, Jackson," Jim requested. "I'll be back with everyone else in just a moment."

Gael could see a rectangular cross-section of air turn emerald green as the stranger pushed the air aside, opening his door to the nowhere between everything. In a heartbeat he was gone and the door swung closed behind him.

-------------

Stepping out of his private world, Jim took a look about the ship. It seemed Ranyx had made it back before him; the older crewman was already engaged in conversation with Edwards. James let him finish his sentence before speaking up.

"We're got business in town, Captain," Jim announced, smiling a bit at the final word. He found himself enjoying being in this crew much more than he'd anticipated. As a service to this woman who'd let the stranger onto her ship and among her friends, he decided that he'd actually give his all for a change.

"There's something of interest going on in town. We should-"

For the second time that day, James had his sentence cut off by fruit. This time, however, it was the fruit in Ranyx's basket that caught his attention.

"Would you hold that thought, Captain my captain, and pardon me us a moment?"

Jim's gaze moved to Ranyx as he jerked his head back over his shoulder, towards the cabin, his smile turning sly. He said nothing, but Ranyx could read the word in that gesture.

Explain.

The cobblestones under Gael vanished into the earth as vines wrapped arpund Gael's ankles and dragged him under the earth to safety. He popped out a short distance from Avarill's attack. He swept his arm up in a grasping gesture, causing vines to shoot out of the ground in the shape of a hand, reaching for Avarill.

Ranyx was shocked that James was back so soon. No Avarill? Then that meant... Damn. James had sensed it. Ranyx gently set the fruit basket on the ground, grabbed Jim's wrist, and walked over to the cabin, out of earshot. "What's the matter? Need your Den Den Mushi back?" He lobbed the thing back to James. "I bought that fruit at the marketplace, and decided to go for a walk. Is there a problem?"

"Funka Shield!" Avarill positioned an explosion in the hand's path, blasting it into tiny pieces. He sheathed his sword and started targeting with both hands. "Destructor Gatling!" He started destroying the street around Gael with 20cm diameter blasts, centered mostly on Gael, and bent on following any of his moves with explosive blasts.

Jim was dragged along like a ragdoll, his feet backpedaling rapidly to keep from falling over as he was dragged away from the deck. Before he was pulled around the corner, he held up a single finger to the rest of the crew, indicating he'd be gone just a moment.

"What's that?" James asked with a level tone, his smile never fading. "I never said anything about that fruit. You don't," he continued, lowering his voice and catching his Den Den device, "need to explain where it's from to me, do you?"

Laughing softly, James grabbed a fruit out of the basket and took a bit. A bit of juice ran down his chin, smile deepening knowingly a bit. Rather than wait for a response, he played his hand.

"I'm not a hundred percent on the details, but I'm guessing you had a good reason for meeting with this Gael fellow." Before Ranyx could offer any protest, Jim pocketed his phone and held up his hands. "It's not any of our business...I know, I know."

The stranger's know-it-all smile thinned out into a smirk, and he watched Ranyx carefully for any tells that might confirm or dispel his hypothesis. James took another bite of the fruit, threw the rest over the rail, and pressed on.

"I'm thinking you know him from his time before being a government dog - no offense intended, of course - and arranged to meet him for a friendly sparring match or some such. I found evidence of that not too far off from where I found you napping.

"I've not been around long enough to know this crew well, but I'm guessing that you all - that is, them all - have issue with the Shichibukai. Obviously, you'd neither want us all - that is, again, them all - hurt, nor this 'Gael'. Things didn't go quite so swimmingly, though."

Pausing a moment, Jim wiped the juice from his chin with the back of his hand, his eyes never leaving Ranyx's.

"Now, things having ended up how they did, you've got two options. You tell me I'm all wrong, that you and The Royal Sir Gael are not acquaintances of any sort, and I'll believe you. I am, after all, only working on a hunch." Again James paused, his dark eyes shining with mischief. "Of course, the rest of the crew will figure out what Jackson's up to eventually, much to The Royal Sir's disbenefit. I seem to have happened to have sent out a signal from the location of the fight before returning here.

"Other option is that you say I'm right, or close enough to right that it doesn't matter. If that's the case, I've got a plan to help you out. One that'll keep you, your G-Man, our Jackson, the crew, and this whole town from taking any serious damage."

Leaning back against the deck, Jim pulled back his lips to reveal a shining, white, friendly smile hidden underneath the self-assured smug one he'd been wearing up to a moment ago. He lowered his hands to his side, digging one into each pocket.

"It'll be exciting either way, so any outcome is just as kind as the next to me."