Serious: A meeting of old friends (open to Anubis 15th division and the Dire Desperados)

"We are here with no one! Except ourselves! Okay?!"
Chrissies hand still covered Cassies mouth, which was good, since she was obivously about to protest, and her other hand was now gesturing aggressively. Yup, nothing strange going on here.
She turned back to cassie and the big man, her hand still on Cassies mouth.
"And you two! You will stay out here and think about what you've done!"
With that, she grabbed Lunas arm and puleld her towards the ship, leaving behind a confused coast guard and an even more confused Cassie.

The twins were following their new lead, but they took their distance, as though they were afraid he'd be giving them cooties. if they were, they didn't let it show.... their faces were so neutral, it could almost be called creepy.
This place was awfully empty for an outpost. Aside from hearing steps once, they didn't notice anyone around.

Kapena seemed unimpressed by Uddos sudden outburst. He even seemed to be ignoring him. Meanwhile, Kimo, who was still following him, gave him an astonishing look. That made one out of two who were actually impressed...
Only for a moment, one moment, did Kapena look at Uddo out of the corner of his eye, but his thoughts about this whole thing stayed obscured. After a while of silence, he finally spoke.
"Fine then. If you do not accept my authority, then that is your opinion.... However, once you got dragged into this, you won't get out just so easily."
Kimo gasped. That had been more than he had ever been allowed to do. His respect for the other boy grew more and more....

"Jamil? What... what exactly are you doing?"
Zuzen had watched on for some time as Jamil was going through the weapon room, picking up a saber, then throwing it away, looking at a cutlass very closely, then dismissing it with a short huff, seemingly for no reason at all, his partner was looking through the weapons, more specifically, the blades again and again.
He didn't give an answer, but Zuzen was used to that. His arm was bandaged. In the fight, he had gotten a bullet into it. He should be resting, actually... The wounds from the war weren't completely healed, now he had the new ones to worry about... he was in no condition to be talking to Jamil. Even when absolutely unharmed, talking to Jamil posed a threat to his health. Everyones health. But still, here he was. What else was there to do? Someone needed to watch that psychopath who knew what he'd do if left alone?
Suddenly, there was a crackling, and then he heard Avis voice. For a moment, he looked around him, wondering how she got in the room and why she sounded so weird. Then, he hit his forhead when it came to him, something he shouldn't have done, as the pain in his arm reminded him ever so friendly.
"Auugh.... Looks like miss Ridley found the speaker... come on man, time to get some air."
He wasn't about to mess with tha woman if she wanted something. But Jamil just grunted.
"Go ahead. I'll catch up later."
That was more of an answer than he would have expected. It wasn't satisfying, but it was something, and no matter how much respect he held for Avis, his fear of Jamil was bigger.
So, he left the weapon room and headed for the deck.
Once he was there, he leaned against the reling and waited for whatever was to come.


((Guys! We're BACK IN BUSINESS! Yeaaaah!))

Killua woke up, he scratched his head and found that he was wrapped in bandages. He yawned and tried to recollect what happened exactly? He was fighting through the horde of marines and finally reached Avis before passing out from the sheer exhaustion and fatigue. He heard Avis on the microphone and got up, he was on some sort of medical bed, this must have been the first aid room. Killua walked stretching his arms. He walked up and noticed the ship was a mess, but as he got up to the deck, he felt the breeze and knew he was back to the place where he belonged. He enjoyed the wind and then saw the Captain sitting there with some ice thing "CAPTAIN!!! Are you ok? Sorry i couldnt make it that time!!! As in.... i failed to save you....."

“’bout time you got some sense,” Uddo muttered, though he couldn’t completely hide the triumphant smirk that crept over his features.

He walked quickly, lengthening his strides so that he could match Kapena step for step. It was a very tiring thing to do, but he had no intention of giving this arrogant, overlording control freak even the illusion of superiority, even though that fact was painfully obvious to anyone who just so happened to see the undersized boy next to the huge coast guard.
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Jace did not give any response that he had even heard what Avis had said. He was, after all, already on deck, leaning his back against the mast with his legs crossed in front of him. He was, as he always was after a battle, slowing his breathing and forcing his muscles to relax. The bloodlust had been easier to control this time as he had allowed himself to sate it first before pushing it down, but even so he could still feel it lurking just beneath the surface, ready to burst back out at a moment’s notice.

Avis walked back on deck to see the other three already there. None of them looked in particularly good shape, but at least Killua was able to move about again and Jace was under control. Killua's sentimental sputtering, though, caught her by surprise. He had barely recovered from being nailed by a cannon ball, and he was already apologizing for not doing better. Being the pragmatic person she was, she couldn't resort to such melancholy. Not in front of the others, at least.

"When'd you get all sappy?" she laughed, flashing a brief smile as reassurance. "Sure, it took a little longer than I was hoping to get out of that mess... But there are advantages for being caught up in such a fiasco. For all they know, the marines think we're on our merry way to Impel Down, or whatever prison they decided to lock us up in."

"It'll be a while until they figure out where we really are, and by then we'll be long gone! Killua, I'll need you to find the closest island that we can a secure place to recoup. The rest of us will-" stopping suddenly, she looked from one side of the deck to the other. Lifting up her hand and counting the people present on deck one by one until something dawned upon her.

"Hang on... Where's Jamil?" The last part came out unintentionally demanding as her gaze stopped at Zuzen. She hoped they had a good reason for this. They might have been out of trouble for the time being, but that could easily change if their cover was blown. That was one thing Avis wasn't going to allow happen, not while she was under control.

Killua grinned and then decided everything was fine right now since the captain and some of the others he had seen seemed fine. And it seemed the captain wasnt too upset or sad about anything so he had nothing to worry about. He then grinned. "OK Captain, ill..... oh wait...... this is..." Killua had felt the wind change and a little bit of smell coming from what could be a port side and the wind felt a little bit heavier in this area. Killua then saw it as he climbed up the mast "LAND!!!! WE GOT LAND!!!!" Killua then headed for the ships helm to try and steer it into the right course, they should be able to head towards port. Killua made sure the sails were tightened as they closed in. He was tired doing it all by himself, but at least he was being a good navigator, he wanted to draw his map when he got down here.

“You don’t have to shout,” Jace grumbled in an unusually good natured way. Then he looked thoughtful. “Or maybe you do. Not everyone has ears like mine…”

He rose from where he had been sitting and leaned backwards, cracking his back and stretching his arms. He let out a sound that was half-groan and half-growl of pleasure. Maybe, just maybe he should let the bear out more often. He felt good. Really good.

Crossing over to the edge of the ship, Jace looked in the direction of the island. He could just make it out if he tried hard enough. Looking around at the crew behind him, Jace searched the faces. Jamil wasn’t the only one missing. The addict had disappeared as well. But who cared about him? He was probably lighting up another one of his cigarettes somewhere out of sight. Stupid things made Jace’s nose itch.

Dropping down, Jace began to stretch in preparation for his usual workout regimen.

(Arrr, crew! Me sandy body aches for your assistance here! okay, I have no idea why I just said that.)

After walking a while in silence, Kimo eyeing Uddo more and more curiously and less and less unobstrusively, the young boys attention finally seemed to be drawn to something else. With a few steps, he quickly ran in front of them and pointed down the road, where a woman was leaning against a wall.
"There she is! See?! I told you she was here! Iolana! Heeey!"
He waved and ran ahead, hugging the woman, who picked him up and kissed him on the cheeck. She seemed to be a very cheerful person, judging from the way she was laughing and swinging him around before she set him down again.
When she straightened up and saw Kapena, though, the look on her face got serious again. Nothing strange about that, one look at Kapena could probably sober up someone who had been drinking for ten hours straight.
Iolana flipped her long, black hair back and crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Uddo for a moment before concentrating on kapena again. her voice was as dry and serious as her face when she spoke.
"Hello, sweetie. Aren't we in a good mood today? Who's the kid?"

Zuzen was quiet for a few seconds, thinking about how to answer that question. She had just asked for the place, but something told him she wanted to know what exactly he was doing there as well. Whatever, she had just asked for the place, and Zuzen didn't know what Jamil was doing himself really, so...
He shrugged and tried to sound as casual as possible.
"He's snooping around in the weapon chamber for some reason. Picks up random blades and throws them away again. No clue what he's trying to do."
Knowing Jamil, he should probably be worried, though. then againg, there wasn't anyone else in that chamber, so he couldn't exactly hurt anyone like he had back then on the ship, about five months ago when they had still been with the crew. That hadn't been pretty. Ever since then, Sammy had only been known as scar-Sammy. Poor boy had been pretty too....

Kid? Uddo decided not to take offense at that. He was, after all, still in his mid-teens. And he was small. Well, smaller then most people, anyway. So, taking the initiative, Uddo gave her a small wave and a bright smile.

“My name is Uddo,” he said. “I came along cause I’m a doctor-in-training and I heard that some people were hurt.” Uddo then gave Kapena a withering look before turning back to the woman. “This guy thought my services would be unnecessary, but I tagged along anyway. Wanted to make sure whether or not I knew any of the injured people.”

"Is he now? That means it'll be just you and me, how nice." Avis' crooked smile as she said this was less than comforting and contained some questionable intentions. She reached out an arm and slung it around Zuzen's shoulder, bringing the two of them close enough that it would be uncomfortable for most people to bear.

Although it may have appeared to be a friendly gesture initially, the spiteful gleam in her eye said otherwise. "It's about time you earn your food and board upon this ship, while the rest of my men a break for the afternoon and do whatever they desire as we do some nosing around."

"We'll be going out to look for any sign of your dear captain, Johan Frideswide. I wish to return the pair of you to him in a timely manner, so my crew and I can go on our merry way with a bit less... baggage. Capiche?" She gave Zuzen little time to respond, finally releasing him to walk over near the reiling of the ship. Turning back towards, Avis gave Jace and Killua a departing wave and dismounted from the ship where she waited.

"You two have fun, just keep yourselves and the ship in a single piece if you can. We'll be out for the afternoon," she called out endearingly, hoping at the same time that they wouldn't get into too much trouble this time around. Since they were separated from Dynar since the time the lot of them were captured, they would have to be more careful about avoiding unneeded fights when they could.

Luna sweatdroped as she watched the scene, it was like something out of a cartoon or something. she avoided laughing as she yelled at the man before blinking as she was dragged away "ummmm" she said as she tried to get up and walk with the girl(( to lazy to scroll up and see what her name is))

She was in his bubble! Invading his comfort zone!
Zuzen leaned back as far as he could, which wasn't far, seeing how she had him by the shoulders, and boy, she had a strong grip.
Zuzen intetly hoped Jamil wouldn't come on deck now. He might hate miss Ridley, but he wouldn't let any man close to her, even when it was miss Ridley who did all the closing.Why?! How was Zuzen supposed to know that?!
Lucky for him, she let go before there was any sign of Jamil around. A sigh of relief escaped him before he realised that this was far from over.
Of course he wanted to find the captain, but he would really prefer to do so without an energetic fun loving woman who was most likely attracting trouble just as much as Johan did in her own way. But then again, sneak away on his own? Not an alternative. Who knew how dangerous this island was? So he waited for her, his arms crossed and his eyes searching what he could see of the island for any immedeate dangers.

"A doctor?"
Iolana smiled and bowed down a bit so that they were on eye level. With a conspirational smile on her face, she said, just loud enough for Kapena to hear:
"Bet he didn't want you to come, huh? He never does. Hates strangers, hates doctors, hates kids.... You're just the perfect hate mix. But really? He doesn't show it, but he's actually such a softie under that whole ooh, look at me a I'm so grim thingie he has going. Right sweetie?"
With the last words, she looked up to Kapena, a biting smile on her face.
The tall man just turned away with a small huff.
"Where are the victims, Iolana."
Iolana straightened up.
"No fun.... okay, okay. This way."
She lead them into the alleyway she had appeared to be guarding before.
"This is where we found them. Brought them to medical station right away. Get this: They had slashes all over them, cutlass I'd say. And looking at the scene, they fought back. Whoever did this must have been a really experienced fighter."

Once they reached the ship, Chrissie dragged Luna towards a door at the end of it. just before it, she let go of her arm, took a deep breath, and knocked carefully.
There were a lot of girls on the ship, some of which looked curiously at Luna. A young one with long black hair and very revealing clothes stepped towards her.
"You new? You gonna join us?"
Chrissie turned her head to her.
"Bugger off, Madeleine! She's not yours, we found her!"

“Well, I guess that’s it,” Jace muttered. He was almost completely absorbed in his training, but had given a little attention to what Avis had to say. She, at least, deserved that much. “Nothing to do for now…” He threw a couple more punches and then danced back and flopped himself down next to the mast again. He yawned before rolling on his side. “Wake me when something happens.”
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Uddo looked around the alleyway noting the bloodstains. It didn’t look pretty. Blood never did. Yumi…no time for that now. He then turned back to the woman.

“Where is the medical station?” he asked. “I would like to…” he paused. “Hang on. I can just ask you. Was one of the victims a young girl who was missing an arm?”

There. She should be able to tell him that much, at least. A missing arm was hard to…well…miss.

luna blinked as her wings came out on her head and she scratched it a bit "i already have a crew thanks" she said politely as she could. poor luna, she is so dence some times.

Iolana raised one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows.
"Well, that's a horribly specific description."
She turned to Kapena, obviously teasing.
"You didn't tell me he knew them, honey!"
Kapena didn't answer, just glared, which she shook off with a small laugh. Obviously, she was used to glares from his side.
"So grumpy, as always...."
After that short talk, she got serious again, as was really appropriate in such a situation.
"No, sweetie. I don't think so. I didn't get a good look at them, but.... I do think they had both arms. Though one of them looked like hers might have to be taken off... Whoever did this ust have been some sort of monster."

"Thaaat's right, she's already in a crew! So piss off, Madeleine!"
The girl pushed her black hair back, unfazed by her obvious rivals words.
"Oh, I was in another crew before I joined. Believe me, hun, when it comes to girls in trouble, this is the crew you're looking for."
Before she could continue, the door was opened. It lead to a dim room smelling of herbs and smoke and darkness, if darkness had a smell.
On the other side, there was a tall young girl, looking barely fourteen, with blond hair and a short lolita like black dress.
When she saw them, she hesistated, then said, shyly:
"Yes? W-what is it Chrissie?"
Though she was talking to Chrissie, she was staring at Luna, or, more specifically, the wings on her head.
"Oh... oh my god, does she have...."
Chrissie, as an answer, pushed her aside and stepped in.
"Heeeey Granny! I got someone who needs to talk to you!"
After she noticed Luna hadn't followed her, she turned and waved at her.
"Come on. Nothing to fear in here."

Meanwhile, in an unspecific place, at an unspecific time, though the sun was still shining, Johan leaned against a wall, holding his shoulder.
Damn it, what had that been all about? He wondered if he had done something wrong, until he realised that he did have a bounty. Most likely, those two girls had been bounty hunters. Still, just attacking him out of the blue? Or rather, out of the shadows of that alleyway...
They had been strong, very strong, and he had the feeling he had seen some kind of handwriting on their fighting style, like it was something he had seen before...
Some blood gushed out of the wound on his shoulder. It was small, but it bled a lot... He let go of it for a moment to rip a shred off of his dirty old coat and wrap it around his shoulder tightly. Not the best material to use, but still, it was all he had until he could get to Uddo or Kain.
But first things first, he needed to find that man who Luna had described to him. He pushed himself off the wall and continued his little search, no clue where he was actually heading, or where he was at the moment.

“Perhaps,” Uddo murmured. He felt a wave of relief wash over him, but almost immediately felt ashamed of himself. Sure, Yuna might not have been here, but that didn’t make what had happened automatically good. “And no, I don’t think I know those other two if the girl I mentioned is not with them…though I suppose she was with two others last time I saw her so maybe they split up…”

The young boy dropped back into a contemplative state. He wanted to be sure about everything, but at the same time he realized that what was going on here was way too big for him. His crew was missing and a couple of girls nearly got killed and all he could think about was some girl he had met for about a minute. Puberty had really picked a bad time to kick in. It was stupid. He felt stupid. He was never this illogical.

Uddo suddenly became aware that he had just trailed off into his own little world and he blushed. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I’ll just get out of everyone’s way.” He gave Kapena a short bow. “And I’m sorry for being rude. I was just…never mind. No excuse. Thanks anyway.” He gave a short wave and a smile and walked away from the group, more troubled and lost then when he had first arrived.

Luna blinked as she looked at them, that one girl seemed to really want luna to join but she wasnt about to just abandon her new shipmates like that. she looked at chrissie before noticing the other girl, seeming to be staring at luna, her blushed lightly as her wings dissapered from her head and reappered on her back as she followed chrissie.

Glancing briefly at Zuzen before turning into the town and starting to walk, Avis gave a sigh as her head hung in the slightest. She never had enough patience or discipline for this intel-gathering stuff to begin with, and didn't particularly have any idea of where to start. At least there weren't any marines running around by the looks of it.

It was strange that there weren't any, with all the oblivious tourists making easy targets for pirates looking to cause trouble, but Avis wasn't one to complain. She continued casually down the street and assumed Zuzen would follow, since she was rather preoccupied with looking for some place to begin their search. A bar with a number of sunburned tourists caught her attention and caused her to stop in her tracks.

"Let's start there, shall we? I'm a bit thirsty anyways, how convenient," she casually remarked, a slight grin appearing across her face. Moments later, she walked into the bar and right up to the counter, giving Zuzen little time to respond to her choice of location. Avis sat on one of the stools and waved for the barkeep. Maybe he heard something about revolutionary movement in the area.

Iolana raised an eybrow, looked after Uddo, then smiled knowingly.
"Someone has a cruuuush~"
It was hard to tell if she was mocking him or not, her voice just generally had that tone in it...
She looked after Uddo for a while, until Kapena turned away and slowly started walking off into the other direction, giving her orders while he was at it.
"Fill out the protocol, get some people to search the scene, find me the man who did this."
"How do you know it's not a woman?"
Kapena glared at her, and she got it, shrugged and chuckled a bit. He didn't. But that big dumbo didn't want to admit he had just said something not a hudred percent correct.
"Of course. Be right at it."
Kimo, who had been watching the whole thing curiously, shifting his weight from one leg to the other, now spoke up, a hint of shyness in his voice.
"Uh, what... what should I do?"
No answer. Kimo's shoulders sank. No answer was: Go and do things kids your age are supposed to do and stop hanging around on fighting scenes...
Kapena was barely out of sight when Iolana bowed down to the boy.
"Hey, sweetie. Do mommy a favour and go look after that other kid, okay? He looks like the type to attract trouble."
Kimo knew that this was just something to keep him busy, but it was something, and being needed brought the smile back to his face!
"Right away!"
He ran after Uddo as fast as he could, leaving Iolana to deal with the rest.
"Hey! Hey, wait!"
Kimo could see Uddo's back, he hadn't gone far yet. He caught up to him, and realised he didn't even know what to say.
"You..... you can't just leave like that! The guy who did this might still be around!"

"Hey! Hey Granny!"
Chrissie shouted through the dark room. For some reason she, in spite of this obviously not being her room, had begun rummaging through the things lying around, sometimes picking one up. All of them, without exception, looked weird, and slightly unsettling. One looked like a shrunken head...
The girl who had opened the door was obviously supposed to stop this, and she stepped towards chrissie as if stepping towards an injured lion.
"Uuuh, Chrissie..."
I don't want to do this, said her voice.
"You're not supposed to... uuuh.... It's not very, er, nice."
Chrissie spun around.
"Oh yeah, guess what, I don't give a, uuuuuh, fuck!"
The girl jerked back and raised her arms, as if to say: please don't hit me!
A laugh could be heard fro one of the darkest corners of the dim room, actually more like a cackle, raspy and old as dirt, and what had looked like a pile of old clothes just a moment ago rose up and stepped forward, revealing to be an old lady in excessive amount of clothes. She might have actually been thin under all of them, scraggy, even, but with them on, it was like she was wearing a protective shell made of hundreds and hundreds of clothes.
When she stepped into the light, or at least the part of the room where one could make out anything, her face looked an astonishing lot like an old pumpkin, brown, with lots of wrinkles, somehow collapsed at some point, but it was friendly, and the dark eyes had a glistening in them that could only be perceived as youthful.
"Well, don't argue now. was just taking a nap, and then you two start shouting like it's the end of the world."
Her voice was as raspy and dark as the room. As if she was actually a part of the wood itself, an old spirit of the forest.
The girl who had opened the door was quick to apologise.
"I... I am so sorry, Granny Kai! She just cae barging in, I couldn't...."
The old lady waved it off.
"Don't worry, sweetie. Chrissie is here to tell me something important, but it's not her who's in trouble this time..."
She turned to Luna, a mild interest on her face.
"What can Grandma Kaimana do for you, my dear?"

Zuzen could only do so much as stagger after Avis, trying not to lose her. how did she do it? He kept bumping into people, like they didn't even recognise him as a person, while she just strutted straight through the crowd.
He was more than happy when they arrived at the bar, and let himself fall on the next best barstool with a sigh of relief. He would have searched the docks first, but wouldn't protest against a drink.
The barkeeper, an elderly man with the tanned skin of the locals, came to them and started talking with a strong accent.
"Good day, friends. What can I do for you?"
Zuzen was unsure about how to answer, somehow, in his mind, Avis was already the one in command, and he looked to her for answers. Also, she scared him a bit.

Avis crossed one leg over the other as she leaned forward onto the counter. The barkeep seemed friendly enough, and possibly knowledgeable to boot. "We're looking for a friend of ours, actually." she responded, her voice quiet enough that it wouldn't attract too much attention without being overly suspicious.

"Have you come across any revolutionaries in the area, or any news of them? Also, a drink for me and my friend here would be nice... You have no idea how long it's been since my last one." She ended with a grimace, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a few coins and setting them onto the counter then reluctantly pushed them towards the man. They really only had pocket change at this point, since most of the crew's loot was still on their own ship.

Uddo stiffened slightly when he heard Iolana’s parting words and his cheeks colored, but he did not stop or even glance back. Instead he kept right one walking, trying to retain at least a little dignity. Then Kimo caught up to him.

“He might be,” Uddo said in response to Kimo’s last statement. “That is a possibility. But why should he attack me? Unless he doesn’t like revolutionaries. That could be problematic. But I doubt the girls who were attacked are revolutionaries. I expect my captain would have known if there were others like us in the area. Then again, this is Johan I’m talking about and…my apologies. I’m rambling.”

He was mainly putting up a brave front for Kimo. The incident had shaken him, but what Kimo had said had only made it worse, though Uddo would never tell him that. Seemed like the poor guy had a rough enough time as it was with Kapena. To take his mind off of things, and give himself something else to ramble on about, Uddo decided to learn a little bit more about the area.

“So this town has a coast guard instead of Marines,” Uddo said. “I can’t imagine that the World Government is too happy about that. Especially since this place could be a safe haven for pirates and revolutionaries like me. Do they ever cause problems? The World Government, I mean.”

Luna sweatdroped as she watched the girls, she held her hands in front of her and blinked as she saw a pile of clothes turn into an old women. she watched them closely before blinking as she turned to her "oh um, hehe" she pause to rubb the back of her head "i dont really know" she said cluelessly, not wanting to come out and be like 'i need help killing a man'

The barkeep raised his eyebrows more with every word Avis said, until his originally large forhead was barely an inch, but curled up in wrinkles. Zuzen looked at it in a very fascinated way. He had though something like this physically impossible... Well, you never know.
The old man had been searching for glasses, and put two on the bar that looked as if they hadn't been used for at least a month, though not cleaned either, as there was a thick layer of dust inside and outside of them. The fingers of the barkeep left a bit cleaner spots on them, actually. Zuzen eyed them curiously, wondering whether they were poisonous and if it was allowed to serve drinks in them. But at the word 'revolutionary', when the wrinkles on their hosts forhead had reached a point of which Zuzen was absoluetly sure it couldn't be right, and the old man took the two glasses back, replacing with two new, shining ones, which he then filled with a golden brown liquid.
"Best I've got. Punyun wine, specialty of the island."
Zuzen inspected the newly poured liquid curiously. Normally, the mention of their allegiance didn't invoke the urge to give them the speciality of their town... Still, after he smelled it, he carefully took a sip. It was sweet, a thick, sugary sweetness, but with a spicyness behind it that was incredible... And he was quite sure this might be the most alcoholic wine he had ever tasted.
Meanwhile, the barkeep leaned forward and lowered his voice.
"Between you and me, the revolutionaries.... They might have some neat ideas. But this island has managed to escape the world government for decades. Keep your head down and no one will notice you.... Not even the marine comes here, except for holiday. We're simply too unimportant and weak to fight over us. Small island like us.... So, what are the revolutionaries doing here, one might ask, if curious by nature. Me, I'm not curious. Just here to help and serve."
He scooped up the money on the counter and dropped it into a small metal box behind the counter. Not very secure....
Boy, this barkeep sure liked to talk a lot.... Zuzen took another sip of the wine.
"So, what does your friend look like, then?"
Asked the barkeep, now louder again. Zuzen put down the glass quickly and went through his pockets.... He was sure it was here somewhere.... Ah, there.
He laid a folded paper on the bar, which the barkeep eyed curiously, and instantly regretted having taken it out so fast.
"Please be... discrete, okay?"
Showing wanted posters around wasn't the problem. But Johan had always hated his wanted poster, he felt the picture was supposed to provoke him. Seeing as it was pretty outdated, but hadn't been changed, maybe he was right. But most of all, Zuzen felt it wouldn't be fair to show it to just everyone. If Johan wanted people to know about the pictures history, he'd tell them.
The barkeep took it up and unfolded it, so that only he could see it. Again, he raised his eyebrows, and Zuzen slowly began to understand he must have a lot of practice doing that.
"I think...... Hm.... May I show this to my wife? She has a better memory than me."
Zuzen hesistated, but then he nodded, and the barkeep hurried off with the poster in his hand.

Wooooow... He was so brave. Kimo gulped and kept on walking next to Uddo. first he stood up to Kapena, then he showed no fear in the face of a dangerous murderer? (For Kimo, everyone who had done something that drew blood was a murderer. Once, another kid had hit him hard enough to make his nose bleed, and he had tried to arrest him.... Kapena had called him a wuss and Iolana had laughed at him... Since then, Kimo generally kept his suspicions to himself.)
For a while, he remained silent, thinking the words Uddo had uttered over and over again. Tried to think of the world government making trouble... Then he shook his head.
"No. They come here sometimes, but most of them just get drunk and tan and then they leave again. Ikaika says my grandma had a lot of trouble with them in her time, but they seem to have given up on us. We're one of the few islands not under anyone's control, he says."
He paused for a while, a question burning in the back of his mind.
"Who's Johan?"
He finally asked.
"Your captain? Is he your father, then?"
His dark eyes were fixed on Uddo. He might as well have been taking notes.

The old lady, Grandma Kaimana as she called herself, laughed her dry, raspy laugh again. It sounded as though it damaged her vocal cords every time she opened her mouth.
"Well, well. It's okay. You see, all of those girls have a past. Chrissie here used to be in a street gang in the worst part of, oh.... where was it again, sweetie?"
Chrissie crossed her arms over her chest.
"None of your or her business, granny!"
"Ooooh? But I did save you."
Chrissie looked like she wanted to protest, but couldn't find the words, so she shut her mouth and looked away.
"It's okay, sweetie! I don't care!"
"Then don't ask!"
Granny shook the hard words off easily, hell, they didn't even seem to smear the armor that was her experience with all kinds of people and situations.
"So, is the law following you? Or the coast guard? Kapena himself, maybe? Granny Kai can deal with them all. Oh, but sit down first. Madeleine, dear, would you mind bringing us something to drink? Scotch for me, and..... what do you want, darling?"
She sat down at a low table with old cushions around them and pointed opposite of her.

Well, at least the World Government couldn’t be involved in his crew’s mysterious disappearance. Uddo might have breathed a sigh of relief, had not that been too cliché and earned him a few odd glances. But what Kimo asked him next, his eyes darkened.

“Johan is my captain,” Uddo said, his voice low. “But he’s definitely not my good-for-nothing father.” Uddo spat the last word out like it was a curse. “No, Johan is a great man. He took me in, even though I’m pretty much worthless.” Uddo hesitated, but then words began spilling out, “The truth is, compared to the rest of my crew, I’m weak. And I’m not a particularly good doctor yet. I do my best, but I wonder if I’m not just in the way. That’s why I have these.” Uddo patted his new weapons. “I’m going to learn how to use them and make sure I’m not a burden to everyone. I don’t just want to be useful, I want to be needed.” Uddo looked up at Kimo and smiled. “Maybe I’m just rambling again, but I have a feeling you know what I’m talking about.”

The way the barkeeper initially reacted left Avis less than impressed. Although she was used to a lack of hospitality in general, her eyes narrowed crossly as the man pulled out the first pair of glasses covered with filth. As surprising as it might have been to some, she did have standards when it came to this sort of thing. When the glasses were exchanged with an improved set of newer looking ones, Avis' expression softened somewhat.

She reached out and grabbed the handle of the one closest to her, bringing it in and eying it suspiciously at first. The barkeep's mood improving so suddenly after the mention of revolutionaries sounded a bit too good to be true. Zuzen appeared to be enjoying his drink, though, so Avis gave a shrug of indifference then brought it to her mouth for a swallow. The Punyun wine, as the man called it, was shockingly good; it was definitely enough for her to forgive the man for his questionable behavior moments ago.

"Such a nice fella," she muttered the barkeep left to consult his wife. A content smile appeared on Avis' face as she set the mug down on the counter and turned to Zuzen. "Hopefully we'll find some information here... I don't have enough cash to be hopping from bar to bar all day. I doubt we'll find anything as good as what we had to drink, either."

Luna stood there staying quiet as she watched before smiling softly at the women and sitting down "o-oh um, j-just water for me please" she said softly, not really ready for a drink at the moment. she sat with her hands together in her lap as she breath out a sigh "w-well i dont need help getting away form someone, i need help finding someone. t-there was a man who took me from my home when i was little and now he's trying to find me, and.....i want to kill him" she said soflty as she looked at her dress.