Serious: The Aurora Pirates Part 5: True Strength

James twisted in the grasp of whatever it was that had caught him. It was strong, that much was for certain, and from what he could judge by his view of its leg it was black and hairy. James's arms had been forced down when the 'thing' had grabbed him, but he had somehow managed to keep a grip on his swords. Even so, the swords wouldn't be much use if he couldn't bring them around to bear. Frustrated, James bit down on the creature. He heard a hiss and he was dropped down on the ground. Unfortunately the creature had been moving at a high rate of speed and when it let go James was sent rolling across the ground, wincing as he felt a few rocks cut into his arms, legs, and back. He jumped to his feet as soon as he came to a stop, holding up his swords in a defensive position. The creature that had been carrying him turned out to be a massive, black spider. It clacked its mandibles and rushed towards James, who dove to the side to avoid the creature. He popped back up and slashed at its leg with Crimson Rain, but to his surprise his sword simply bounced off. Now the spider was facing him again and it didn't look like it had even noticed his attack.

"This...could be trouble," James muttered.
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Back at the crew a man sat on the branch of a tree, out of range of the weaponry, watching the crew fighting against the many weapons coming at them. The man was young and had dark hair and dark eyes. He wore a dark brown coat that had a high collar. He also wore a pair of black pants.

"Useless," he muttered. "They are not without skill, especially that one who is just standing there taking all that fire and the girl with the blades, but it's obvious where this is going." The man stood and then disappeared abruptly. The only sign that he had ever been there was a small gust of wind that shook the leaves in the trees.

[Presentation Box]
Albert 'Al' Hedge
2nd Mate of the Trick Pirates
Bounty: 54,000,000

As the funnel around her deflected all projectile attacks,she wondered why her captain did not propel her, as she turned in his former location, he disappeared! "Captain James where are you? We need to stick together! Crap!" While the funnel surrounded her she went through the forest in pursuit of her captain, but before she left the area, she urged someone of the crew," Can you come with Rai?"

OOC: He should be online today

Kaori sighed. The captain was gone. They'd need to find him quickly. He motioned everyone to group together and keep an eye on each other. They would need to make sure no one else disappeared. "Agreed." He said to Pyriss.

"Ack!" James jumped away as one of the spider's legs crashed down on the ground where he had been. "What's your problem?" he yelled at the beast. "Leave me alone!" The spider responded by spitting webbing at James, which he narrowly avoided by diving to the side.

"Talking to it won't do you any good boy. She's a predator and to her you're just another meal. A pesky meal, but a meal none the less."

James spared a glance to see where the voice was coming from. A short man sat in the trees near James. He was going bald on top of his head, but had a small grey beard. The man wore a dark traveler's cloak and had a walking stick lying across his lap.

"If you know so much about it then why don't you help me?" James growled. He was forced to duck as the spider nearly took his head off with a swipe of its leg.

The man looked thoughtful and then nodded. "Sure, why not? If you can't cut through her armor aim for her weak points." James frowned, staring at the spider. It didn't look like the creature had any weak points. The man noticed his confusion and sighed. "Go for the joints, idiot!" he snapped at James.

"Um, right," James ran towards the spider and rolled forward to avoid another leg swipe, and then he popped up next to the spider and struck the point where its leg bent. This time instead of bouncing off, James's sword cut right through and the spider's leg hit the ground. The creature screeched in pain and shot backwards so fast that it caught James off guard and knocked him to the ground. A moment later, the spider was gone. James stood up and brushed himself off. "Hey, thanks man, really..." he looked up at the tree, but the old man had disappeared. "Weird..." James muttered.
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Back at the Aurora Pirate crew the traps suddenly stopped. A young man walked out of the trees towards the crew. This man wore camouflage hat, shirt, and pants. Messy blond hair could be seen poking out from under his hat. He had a large crossbow strapped to his back and a weird knife with a sword-like hilt in a sheath at his side. The man walked right up to the crew and waved to them.

"Hey!" he said. "So, you're still alive! Great! It would have been bad if you guys had been killed. I would have been in trouble and then my boss would have been in trouble and then everyone would be really unhappy. Anyway, where's my manners? My name's Kurt, what's yours?" the young man extended his hand towards no one in particular, waiting for someone to approach him.

Pyriss shifted her head backwards to see a man almost as handsome as Rai. He possessed blond hair, wore a camouflage suit it looked like. Pyriss walked to the man not to greet him, but to ask him a few things that were popping in her head," Who are you? Still Alive? Are we supposed to be dead or something?........Are you the one who set these traps?" Pyriss looked at him with a stern look, she did not trust him.

James was now officially lost. For such a big creature that spider didn't leave much of a trail and it had weaved all over the place so he couldn't just go backwards. James supposed that Pyriss could find him with her detection ability, but he wasn't going to sit around waiting. He marched off through the forest on his own.
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"Whoa, hang on lady," the man laughed. "I can't answer a million things at once. I already told you my name. As for you being dead and all these traps...well, if you were dead then I wouldn't be here. However since you survived I was sent to get you guys. The boss wants to see you so just follow me. I'll take you to him." He turned and started off, but called back over his shoulder saying, "That is, unless you don't want to see him, in which case I would advise you to just leave. We don't like trespassers around here."

Jake pondered about the words some time...
Yeah, just leaving would be logical, since that boss guy had tried to kill them...
But he had put so much effort into it! All those little traps...
Jake felt the need to reward him for it somehow. Pat him on the shoulder and say "Good work! Nice technique! Maybe next time, right?"
Dumb reason, but who needed a reason for things like following a stranger to a guy who set up traps in order to kill complete strangers?
Jake stepped out from behind the tree, grinning as if he had no worried in the world and slowly starting to follow the man.

Labelisa blinked as everything seemed to calm down with when the guy showed up. she blinked as pyriss and jake follow, she shruged and decided to follow to. having nothing eles to do, but she kept her sword out just in case.

Heiki who had been doing nothing the whole time (lol), decided to follow the man as well!

Pyriss continued to follow the man, she suddenly started to sense other people's presences, as the crew continued forward. Pyriss started to think at a logical standpoint, why was this man setting traps to kill their crew? Probably the reason behind the question she asked to the man just ahead of her earlier. She still thought of a positive explanation, there were only two which went through her head,. One, a test, to see if the crew could survive. Two, the traps were set as the man said earlier for trespassers, Pyriss though less of her crew being the subject of an attack by the old man, she believed that the traps were set for any person. She continued to possess this assumption in her mind. In caution, she tied her hair in a ponytail with some ripped scarf, she didn't wnat her hair to get caught in the branches, she looked towards Labelisa, desiring her to follow the same action.

(Note the totally awesome avatar. )

"So, anyway, you guys are our first visitors in a long time," Kurt said. "Usually at least a few people in a crew die within the first few minutes and then the boss doesn't think they're interesting enough to talk with so we leave the rest to die." Abruptly, Kurt came to a halt, drew his crossbow off of his back, and fired the crossbow bolt at a huge beetle, which was crawling up the side of a tree. The beetle was killed instantly, with the bolt pinning it to the tree. "Stupid bugs. They get so big in this forest. I don't know why. Maybe its the water." Kurt crossed over to the tree and ripped his crossbow bolt out of the beetle, which fell to the ground. Now that he was standing by the, the immensity of the creature became obvious. It was half as tall as Kurt himself! "Shall we continue?" Kurt said, walking back to the main group and taking the lead once more.

The baby dragon shivered, and hid himself behind Jake. Giant insects were creepy...

Labelisa noticed pyriss put her hair up and then look towards her, She nodded and did the same, tarring off some of her already torn skirt and tieing it in a high pony tail tightly.

The crew finally reached their destination. The man lead them into a clearing, where a house sat, seemingly abandoned. At about that moment, James walked into the clearing from the other side.

James saw his crew and waved cheerfully, "Hey guys! What's up..." he stopped when he saw the strange man leading them. "Who are you?" James growled.

"My name is Kurt," the man said. "Nice to meet you!" He held out a hand, which James did not take. Instead, James walked past him to his crew.

"Is everyone alright?" James asked. "Sorry about disappearing like that. There were...extenuating circumstances."

James' apology forced Pyriss to smile. He was very concerned about his crew, and his abandonment of crew, Pyriss forgave him, since he was worried about his own safety. Pyriss responded in a sweet, calm matter," Its ok, Captain." She looked to Kurt, she wanted to see this old man, she wanted to find out if the crew was really ready for he grand line. She asked Kurt," Now, where is this old man?! I want to know just exactly what he does to determine who is worthy to go to the grand line."

"Hmmm, maybe he should explain it to you himself," Kurt replied. "Hey boss! How's it going?"

Behind the crew, up in a tree, sat an elderly man holding a staff and wearing a dark traveler's cloak.

"It's you!" James said, recognizing the old man as the guy who helped him out against the spider.

"Yes, it's me," the man said, wearily. He turned his gaze on Pyriss. "To answer your question about how I will assess this crew...well, I already have. And to be quite blunt, in the words of one of my subordinates, 'You ain't gonna cut it.'" He sighed. "From what I and those under me have seen, you are quite strong, but not strong enough for the Grand Line. If you go there now, you will probably get a little ways into it, but there are many pirates and marines who could kill you all single-handedly. Of course, one could argue that this is always the case and it is a risk that anyone on the Grand Line takes, however I am not here to decide for you whether or not you do cross into the Grand Line. All I can do is hope that you will not throw away your lives so foolishly. However, I have prepared a test for you if you are willing to take it." He said this last thing, looking directly at James.

"I'm ready for anything you throw at me," James said. "...but I'm not the only one on this crew. So, what do you guys think?" He turned to the rest of his crew. "I'll leave it up to you guys. Are we going to just head for the Grand Line now, or are we going to take this guy's stupid test?"

(Yes, I'm quite serious about that last part. I will leave it in all of you guy's hands as to what we do next.)

"Hmmm..."
Jake had never been to the grand line as a pirate... But a test?
"Oh heck, we only get this chance once! I say let's take it!"

Kaori scoffed at the assessment. He had been in the grand line. He had survived a confrontation with an admiral. He felt like stomping these people to make the arrogant faces go away. "I'll accept a test." He outwardly said.

Label loved a challange "im in!" she grined brightly and excited.

((>< sorry its so short))

"I suppose that's good enough," the old man said. "Right then. Here's my test for you: After observing your individual abilities I have found opponents for each of you, which I'm certain could defeat you at this point in time. So, I will give you three days. During the course of these three days you must remain in this forest. You will not be allowed to interact with the rest of your crew. If you do, you fail the test. My people will be watching you for these three days to make sure you do not break the rules. If you do happen to run into another one of your crew, do not speak to them and depart from them as soon as possible. At the end of these three days, you will reconvene here. At that time I will bring out your opponents and you will fight them. If at the end of three days you are able to defeat them, then you pass the test. Lastly, be very wary out there in the forest. There are large insects and arachnids on the island that will seek to eat you. If any of you die out there in the forest, then all of you fail the test." He grinned at them. "This shouldn't be too hard for you, should it?"

"Nah," James grinned up at the old man. "We should knock this out, no problem." He turned to the rest of the crew. "Guys, be very careful out there." Then he smirked. "Although, for various reasons, I'm not so fond of some of you..." his eyes roved over Kaori, Rai, Labelisa, and lastly Immelman, who snorted a short burst of fire at him. "...I don't want to lose any of you." He looked at Jake, Heiki, and Pyriss, his eyes softening somewhat. Then he turned his back on them all. "So, I guess I'll see you all in three days!"

"Hey, does Baby d come with me? He's just a child, I can't leave him!"
That said child could breath fire and fly didn't seem to interest Jake.
His mo...fa...parental instincts had awoken.

The old man shrugged. "Very well, you may keep the dragon," he said. "I suppose we can consider him a weapon for you."

Heiki grinned at what the man said. "Finally, some time to practice my new work... and catch up on my nap." The girl stretched a little and made her way towards the trees. "I'll be off now. See you guys in three days," she waved carelessly at them.

"Bye Heiki!"
Jake waved ack, then turned into the opposite direction she had, the baby dragon in his arms.
"Well, I'll go this way, then. See ya guys!"
And he started making his way through the forest, away from his crew.

telothlion after finding a way to cope with the pain in his wings he decided to walk around the ship looking for something interresting but allas nothing interested him all was weapons or bed and as he had decided to not fight unless absolutly neccercery he left the weapons alone but he want to keep a watch for the master he climbed up to the crows nest because he still could not fly.

Henry had been sitting on a barrel, watchin the guy with wings have his way on the ship.
He hadn't taken any action, partly because what did he care whether or not those damn pirates got robbed, partly because.... well....
He leaned back and put it in words.
"What a creep..."
For all he cared, the guy could stay up there forever. Just as long as he didn't do anything to him.