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

"Huh...."
Kimo sounded surprised, a bit, but not shocked. He looked down at his feet for a while.
"So you do not respect your father?..... huh...."
He paused again, still staring at his naked feet and the mud they stepped through. The thought seemed to be entirely strange to him, but not repulsive. Fascinating.
"But aren't you, by existance, needed? If that crew, that man, takes you along..... Why would he do that if you weren't needed? Unless he pities you..... Which would be rude. Not even my father pities me."
He was clearly thinking out loud now. After a short pause, he finally stopped staring at his feet and swatted a mosquito that was about to sting him instead. Curiously, he looked at it's remains in his hand. He clearly didn't want to look at Uddo.
"Though you misunderstand my role."
The look in his eyes told differently.
"I am sorry if the mention of your father was rude, and I will not inquire any more, it's just that... I thought you were your crews Kumana.... What do you call it.... It's when...."
He searched for words to explain.
"It's like..... like my father having to strenghten me so I can join the.... the contest to..... take over his post, I guess.... It's really hard to explain."
He looked at Uddo out of dark eyes. He really wanted him to unerstand that he hadn't been trying to insult him.
"So that's what my mother.... what Iolana does is wrong, by definition..... though I do not understand my father's methods of training either."

As soon as Luna had uttered her first words, Madeleine scurried off and, only seconds later, returned with two glasses. The old woman took a sip from hers and listened to Luna's story.
"Hmm. Hm,hmm."
For a moment, she was silent, cocking her head like a head, contemplating the risks and profits, probably.
"I understand that man has done you harm...."
Another short pause. Then the smile returned to her face.
"Fine, here's a deal. I help you find him, I'll even help you defeat him. But in return, I need something from you as well, darling."

Zuzen was nervous, and he was getting more and more nervous each minute the barkeep didn't return. It might just be the heat and incredible humidness of the air, but he was starting to sweat. Where he came from, it was colder. Much colder. His leg started to twitch, and he took another sip of his wine. Avis was right. The man was nice, even though they were revolutionaries. This wasn't right. No, no. Not right at all. No one was that nice to them.
He was just about to spazz and do a crazy, alcohol and nervosity induced jig on his barstool (a rather weird reaction, but absolutely legit, though something Jamil would surely have amputated his legs for, regardless of his resulting uselessness) when the barkeep finally returned, an elderly woman with the face of a bulldog following behind him. Zuzen immedeatly understood why she wasn't working behind the counter. One look out of her tiny eyes made him unable to do his jig, since it froze him to the bone. Even his leg stopped twitching.
She headed directly for them, most notably him, and he could feel cold sweat running down his face as she leaned forward, her face inches from his, and inspected him curiously.
"He coward. He no good."
Her accent was even stronger than her husband's, who now kindly dragged her away from Zuzen and apologised on her behalf with a wide smile on his face.
"Please Excuse my wife. She expresses her opinions very openly. Now, honey, why don't you tell the what you told me."
Before Zuzen could stop her, the woman raised her hand, the unfolded bounty poster within it. There were three persons in the picture: A woman, tiny and frail, and positively, visibly pregnant, a little girl with an open knee just showing under the seam of her short, green dress, and the man who was carrying her, and who's hair she was messing with, younger and less tired and sad looking, with shorter hair as well, but definitely Johan. The faces of the two others were blacked out, censored just to make it clear that it was the guy they were looking for. The only picture that was more painful for Johan to look at was the one he carried around himself, and if the government would somehow get a copy of that, Zuzen was sure, they would print new bounty posters right away.
He gave a nervous look to Avis when the woman started talking.
"This man here. Leave about hour ago. Very angry. Bad. Most likely get into trouble with Kiai Kai. Not seen woman or child."
"Yes, thank you..."
Zuzen said and, in a sudden burst of courage, snatched the bounty poster from her and folded it up. He knew it was too late to hide it, and only hoped Avis wouldn't bring it up. He really, really didn't want to be the one to explain.

Meanwhile, Jamil was finally stepping out on deck. He was carrying a shiny new cutlass in addition to his two swords, but gave no words as to why.
Instead, he gave the small town a look of distilled contempt out of one eye. In such times, it was good he only had one, that kind of look out of two eyes would have most likely made the town cover in fear and plead for forgiveness for it existing. Without exchanging a word with either of the crewmembers on board, he stepped off the ship. Work to do. People to find. Johan was here, he could feel it. this town had that slight aura of bad luck that rubbed off of Johan wherever he went.... Like a trail.... So dense Jamil could almost smell it. But instead, all he smelled was dirt, sweat cheap food and scum using this town as a place to forget what they were for a while, or to bask in their own existance. Pathetic.
Jamil could most likely find paradise itself pathetic and despicable, but what did he care about that?

Uddo glanced around at Kimo, noticing how the boy wouldn’t meet his eyes. So, in response, he too looked away.

“Perhaps you’re right in a way,” Uddo said. “I might not be useless, but pity doesn’t always have to be the alternative. Helping someone in need is a good thing to do, isn’t it? In any case, it wasn’t rude to mention my father. I know fathers aren’t bad as a rule. In fact, some of my friends had great fathers, but in a way that just made things worse by comparison. My dad never wanted me in the first place. And now I’ll never see my mom again because of a stupid mistake. You’re lucky. At least you still have your parents. And your dad must really care about you if he puts so much time and effort into your success.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jace yawned and sat up, watching as Jamil left the ship. “Now there’s a man on a mission,” Jace muttered. He jumped back to his feet and glanced at Killua, smirking slightly. “Well, things were boring anyway. I’m going to take a short walk. Ya got that, half-pint? You’re in charge of the ship.”

One of Avis' hands grabbed her aching side, while the other pounded on the table a few times as she attempted to regain her composure. Everything was a bit funnier after a drink, and Zuzen's reaction to the woman getting that close to him wasn't an exception. It took a moment to regain her breath, and by that time Johan's bounty poster was laid on top of the bar.

Avis curiously glanced over it at first without a second thought, scanning over the picture to look at the bounty written across the bottom. It wasn't long, though, until she thought her eyes had deceived her. Taking one more look at the picture, her demeanor changed from curiosity to mild shock in a heartbeat. Eyes wide and jaw gaping in the slightest, she remained fixated on the picture for what felt like ages.

Sure, she hadn't been surprised when Johan mentioned he was a revolutionary that long time ago. The fact that he was married; a father with another child on the way struck her in a way she wouldn't have imagined. Not like it effected her directly, nor did she have a reason to care in the first place... At least Avis thought she didn't. Before she could look at the image for any longer, Zuzen snatched it up and hid it from sight. Even without the image in front of her, though, she could remember it quite clearly.

"Ah, yes... Thanks for the help, we both appreciate it," Avis said to the barkeeper and wife, her voice wavering faintly at the start. Standing up and heading out the door, she walked out onto the street. She had to strain in order to get her brain back to the topic at hand. As she turned right and continued down the road, keeping her eyes peeled for any site of Johan, yet away from Zuzen for a time. Something told her that Zuzen didn't particularly want her to see that. "Now we simply start looking around for any sight of him? If Johan was only there an hour ago, he should still be around here. Hopefully he hasn't gotten himself in much of a mess since then."

Killua was drawing something on his map as he saw Jace leaving the ship "Ahhhh, jeez.... well, i havent had the time to draw up this map , so its a good time, AND DID HE CALL ME HALF PINT?!!!!" Killua was annoyed but then returned o drawing his map while waiting for the others to return.

"Yes.... I suppose he is..."
Kimo said. He was wondering where they were headed... He was sure it was a great place, anyway, most likely somewhere adventurous. He really envied people like Uddo sometimes... go where ever they wanted, save princesses and fight the forces of darkness... He had never been off this island. He thought about what he knew of... Johan, he supposed, what a strange name, and what his father was like. And he was wondering....
"So.... you have gotten uch stronger on your journey? I suppose you must have been through a lot of adventures...."
He felt his heart beating faster, he was nervous, his father normally didn't allow him to talk to travellers, too dangerous, he said, but Uddo wasn't dangerous, right? He could ask him about what the world was like, right?
"I mean, I.. I've never been off this island, and I really wonder... I mean, not that you care, of course, why would you care, haha, it's just that...."
Breathe, Kimo, breathe. The young boy had to calm himself down a bit, took a deep breath, and....
A girl stepped onto the street they were walking down. This struck Kimo as strange, as they were almost on the outskirts of the city, and people, especially young girls barely ever came here. He looked, almost stared at her. She.... didn't look like a tourist. She was wearing a hoodie, tourists were normally wearing tops to not melt in the heat and humidity... She also had a.... a.... Kimo looked at her profile when she suddenly turned her head and stared right back at him. Kimo jerked back, even gave a little "eek".
But the girl with the skull tatoo, if that was what she had on her face, didn't seem to care for him much, her eyes shortly inspected Uddo. She didn't say a word, but gave a nod to him, prehaps as a greeting.

"Yeah.... Knowing Johan though, he's most likely gotten himself in some big mess by now... Most likely big enough to concern the local authorities, if he really is as angry as those two said...Uh...."
His eyes were darting to Avis and away from her. This was so awkward. The way she had reacted, he didn't know whether she would ask Johan about the poster, but if she did, then he'd have to explain why he was carrying it around with him, and that was hard.
"So.... I guess I should, uh...."
Explain, so that she didn't have to ask Johan and get him into a situation even he would have a hard time getting out of again. But then again, did he really want to explain all that stuff to her? If she told Johan he had told her, he ight be in even more of a mess. He could feel Jamil's one eyed glare on him already, and who knew how Johan would react?
Lost in his thoughts, he almost buped into a man with blonde hair and a hoodie, what a weird choice of clothing in this weather, he thought. Quickly, Zuzen apologised and went on.
"I mean, I guess we should start by searching for the ship, don't you think? I'm sure someone will know where he was headed.... Yeah...."

The man turned slowly and looked after them for a bit before going on his way. His way was leading him to one of the any small cafes at the side of the road, or, ore precisely, to a table with a young man plus group and a rather curvatious young female with glasses and short, red hair next to him. The woman seemed somewhat tense, but the man did not care about her. His eyes were fixed on the young male next to her, who now smiled and offerd him a seat opposite to his, which the man took.
"So, mister...."
For a moment, the his host waited, but all he got for an answer was a short look out of dark green eyes, and after a while, he continued as if he had never asked for the name of this individual in the first case. The young man was, as opposed to the hoddie wearing an who had taken the seat just a minute ago, wearing a pink, flashy, open aloha shirt with a white top under it, just what you'd expect a tourist to wear.
"I heard you have something on your mind, concerning some close friends of ours, who just so happen to be here on my friendly invitation?"
A toothy grin edged over the strangers face, the kind of grin that was not meant to be friendly, but to show just how sharp the teeth of said man were, the kind of grin that apes would give an individual who just occupied their favourite branch of the tree despite being lower in the hierarchy, in short, it was a menacing grin. The man in the aloha shirt gulped, but waited for an answer patiently.

(I’ll be the first to admit that I had to go back and look up that girl’s name. Thought she was one of Yumi’s friends, especially after she nodded to Uddo, but I couldn’t quite remember.)

Uddo wondered why Kimo was acting so scared again. That is, he wondered until he followed the other boy’s line of sight and spotted the girl up ahead.

“You…” Uddo gasped. “You’re…Emily, right?”

Of course she was. It wasn’t like he would forget that name considering the fact that he had had a close friend who also had that name. Besides, the skull tattoo was impossible to forget under any circumstances.

Uddo’s surprise quickly turned into a grin. “Nice to see you again,” he said. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

Immediately, he felt stupid for even saying that. It hadn’t been a while, it had been that day! Idiot!

“Anyway, gotta go! Things to do, people to find an all that!”

He was rambling again and this time he didn’t even know why. Perhaps it was because Emily’s appearance meant that Yumi might be somewhere nearby. Or maybe the skull faced girl’s attempts to blow him off before were putting him off now, especially since he didn’t have a patient to look after this time. Regardless of the reason, he gave her a short wave and a smile and kept right on walking past her.

Luna blinked as she lisened to hte lady, tilted her head "w-what is it you need?" she asked. usualy when someone says that, the person who has to give it up isnt going to like it.

(( sorry i've been gone, been going though some crap))

Emily looked after Uddo and the other boy, who gave her a nervous look as he almost ran past her to catch up with Uddo. He was on to them, wasn't he... Was the coast guard catching up? Regardless, she turned from them, face as neutral as ever, not a single word uttered. If he would have asked, she would have told him where Yumi was. He seemed to like her. It didn't surprise her, a lot of males liked Yumi, and most of them because she was such a frail pretty little doll, which appealed to the protective instinct while, at the same time, giving them a sense of superiority. Emily did not really care, she just observed. Uddo seemed to be what Jaime called a "Beta", so she didn't really have to worry about him. Yes, maybe he would have helped them. Maybe she would have let them, if not for anything else, he could at least be used as a meat shield in the worst case. She decided to keep that in her mind as a plan B, the thought of the young boy getting torn to shreds in her place almost made her smile, but only almost. Then she remembered Yumi seemed to like him as well, and decided not to let it happen that way. Not with Yumi's feelings at stake.
Slowly, Emily continued down the path to the crime scene.

Kimo still looked back a lot, as if to check whether the strange girl had decided to suddenly stab them in the back after all. Call it intuition, but he got shivers from seeing her, and it was still hot and humid on the island.
"We.... should probably look for some place to stay until the rain stops..."
He noted, just to keep the conversation flowing. A lot of questions were burning in the back of his mind, wanting to jump on his tongue.
"It's, uh.... going to... rain, soon....... Do you know that girl? Are you two old friends? She seemed... different."
He could stop himself before thinking out loud any more. Emily, or whatever her name was, had creeped him out. Certain people just had... eyes.... Not like... normal eyes, but... Kimo just decided to not follow that thought, but instead simply hope that she was not Uddo's friend, or else his new idol could be more dangerous than he had thought he was.

"Oh, let's just say..."
The old woman's dark eyes glittered with a fire that ust have been burning since she was born. Things like that, you didn't learn. This was the look of someone possessed by something, an idea, maybe, or a concept, or a dream. There were people who were merely obsessed with such things, spending every second of their days thinking about them, but those posessed by them spent their lifes being those things, breathing them. You couldn't just stand up one day and decide you were... an adventurer, for example. You were born one, or you tried your whole life to make up for not being born as one. This old woman? She didn't have to make up for anything, she knew what she was and what she had done and what she wanted to do in the future, and she was living that concept, idea, dream.
"You'll owe me a favour, sweetcheeks."

“Okay, sure,” Uddo said absentmindedly to Kimo’s first statement. No matter how hard he tried to move on, he was still lost in his thoughts, nervously wondering if Yumi was nearby. So when Kimo’s question came, Uddo almost missed it. “Huh? Friends?” Uddo’s gaze misted over. “No. We’re not friends. At least, not in the way most people would think of friends. Friendly acquaintances might be a better description. I just met her today. She was with a couple of other girls. One of them was hurt and I helped her as best I could…” Uddo turned to look at Kimo again. “So, about this whole rain situation. Do you know a place where we could go? I mean, I really don’t know this town at all…just got here today.”

( I wanna bring back Dontae so wats happening so far?)

Yeah, yeah, I know I said I wouldn’t post. But this is important! Anyway, mah whole post here is OOC, so I won’t bother with brackets or anything like that.

So 9th, can I just say ‘a lot’ and leave it at that? No, but seriously, a lot as happened. After taking over that Marine ship, the Desperados made their way to the island where Johan’s Revolutionaries are. The PC Revolutionaries are spread out all over the island and the unnamed NPC ones have all disappeared from their ship without a trace. Killua is still on the Desperado’s ship while the captain lady is off with Zuzen, an NPC revolutionary who does in fact actually possess a name. Jace struck out on his own after deciding he was bored with just sitting on the ship all day. Johan, the leader of the Revolutionaries, has been injured and is being hunted by the island’s Coast Guard, who do not answer to the World Government. Johan had been fighting you see, but we don’t exactly know why yet. Luna, another PC Revolutionary, is busy talking with an old lady who supposedly helps girls in need, though I think she might be just as bad as the ones she saves the girls from. Once again, dunno much about her yet. Then there’s Uddo. Poor little Uddo the Revolutionary is just trying to find out where everyone vanished too. And puberty is kicking him hard as well. And…I think that’s basically everyone. So there ya have it.

((Yeah, James pretty much nailed it on the head.))

"Ship?" Avis remained glued to her spot, her mind elsewhere, until Zuzen's words clicked inside her head and snapped her back into then and there. Her first few paces were rushed as she attempted to catch up with him. "Oh riiight, your ship. There's gotta be at least one living soul there that knows where Johan is." She sounded like she was trying to reassure herself near the end of her statement. Although the rational part of her said that a commander would have at least one member remaining on the ship to care for it, but for some reason she didn't get her hopes up.

It wasn't like Johan had already lost track of two members of his crew... Of course not. Apparently he had forgotten where his immediate family went, too. At the thought, Avis immediately brought her hand up, smacked her forehead and left it there for a time. "Let's just finish this and get my crew out of here. The way the barkeeper initially reacted didn't give me any warm feelings. Unlike the pair of you, my lot actually has some significant cash on our heads. I'm not convinced entirely convinced that there isn't a single marine here, either." She swerved suddenly to avoid a man wearing a sweatshirt Zuzen nearly bumped into, but seemingly forgot to utter a single apology and continued on her way.

Avis gave the blonde man a brief glance over her shoulder with distaste, holding back the urge to call him for walking aimlessly through the middle of the road as she passed. It just wasn't worth the effort this time around. Instead, she jammed her deeply into her pockets and continued to follow closely behind Zuzen. Not like she knew what the revolutionary vessel would look like. She wanted some time to manage her thoughts while someone else picked up the slack for once, anyways.

(since Luna remains off, I'll skip her part for now)

Zuzen never forgot who was or might be able to crush his head, slit his throat, pull his intestines out or something similiarily unpleasant, but now it struck him that oh yeah, this woman next to him actually had a bounty to prove it, unlike Johan, and it became clear to him that, should she decide to turn against them, Johan might not, in the end, come out on top...
Therefore, he decided, now more than ever, to never get on her bad side. He gave a nervous laugh, in need of something to say that might not upset her too much. He found himself doubting that there was anyone on the ship... Suddenly, he got that feeling Johan's bad luck might have rubbed off on him, that he'd have to spend a lot more time trying not to make Avis, who suddenly seemed so much more frightening now that he was trying not to talk to her too much. Not talking to her gave her space to think, and he might not like what she came up with, but talking might aggravate her....
Why did he always end up in situations like this?!
The nervous smile on Zuzen's face didn't waver as his paranoia took over his brain, and when, after a few minutes of walking, he could finally see the ship, he would almost have cheered loudly, until he remembered that this was still his crew they were talking about, and anything was possible. Also, that they were still not really alone, and Avis was right, some of the people around were giving them knowing looks.... weren't they?
"There we are..."
Was all he could come up with. For once, he was happy it was getting unbearably humid, this way he could say he was sweating because of the weather, instead of general nervousness.

Somehow, Zuzen's heart only sank slightly when he got on the ship and saw no one around. They could... still be in the cabins, right? Most likely, it was cooler in there.
Yeah, right, said a nasty little voice insie his head, which he knew belnged to him, as if it is ever that easy...
Nonetheless, he turned to Avis, his smile now undeniably cracking.
"I'll.... have a look around."
It was more of a formality, he knew, as he pushed open the door to the ship's kitchen, that he would not find anyone.


Kimo decided not to question this small story, a decision that went against anything his father had told him about trusting, or rather, not trusting anyone. After all, Uddo wasn't a bad person, right? He was with revolutionaries, wasn't he? Freedom fighters, right? Freedom fighters were honourable people, weren't they? At least in the storys they always were, something gave the young boy the feeling that the families did not really care which side killed their sons in battle or burned their fields and houses down...
"There's a bar nearby... Akoni's, we should be there in a minute."
He pointed down an alleyway most likely leading back to one of the more commonly used roads. He seemed to think about something, then, as if apologising for the strange name, added:
"Akoni is the name of the founder... and his son... it's a family thing."
It was clear he did not expect a foreigner to understand the tradition and honour connected with this island's strange culture, or that 'family things' were of utmost importance.

“A father and son business, huh?” Uddo commented. “Sounds a bit like that hot dog place I saw on another island. It was called Jimmy’s.” Uddo paused to consider this for a moment and amended saying, “Well, actually it sounds more like what you and your father have. After all, you’re taking over for him eventually.” Uddo turned in the direction Kimo had shown him, now heading towards that major road. “So…a bar. Will they actually allow kids like us to go in there?”

"First, we lost your captain... Now the crew's missing, too? You've gotta be kidding me," Avis sighed in disbelief. This whole running around looking for people was starting to get ridiculous. She wiped off some of the sweat gathering of her forehead with her forearm, leaning against the railing of the ship while Zuzen searched its interior. Just because he was wasting his energy didn't mean she had to.

"We should get moving again, although I don't plan on running through the streets again. You're not afraid of heights, are you?" She grabbed the katana off her back, sheath and all, and tossed it over near Zuzen. It floated parallel to the ship's deck at chest height, no doubt under the influence of her devil's fruit. Avis took a second sword from her hip for herself and sat on it, grabbing it tightly as she did.

If Witches could ride brooms... didn't that mean she could do the same with swords? While they were probably a bit less comfortable, it sure as heck beat walking around in the streets again. Maybe they'd be able to spot something helpful from a bird's eye view. Although there was that important part of not falling out of the sky in the first place. That could mean trouble.

Zuzen had barely been through the doorframe (and had been able to catch a glimpse of a strangely clean kitchen... they never left it so clean...), when he heard Avis' question regarding his fear of heights. He was afraid of a lot of things, but heights was probably not one of them.... Probably. What would she want to know that for, anyway?
When he turned to answer, the first thing he saw was a sword flying towards him. Oh boy, this was it, wasn't it? She had decided he was annoying or boring or whatever... He'd been through this before, and it took him barely a second to both jerk back and reach for his rifle, when... the sword stopped in midair.
After eying it curiously for a moment and coming to the conclusion that it was not going to chop his head off just know, most likely, he relaxed a bit, and settled for answering the question.
"I don't think so. Why? What are you planning to do?"
He eyed the katana mistrustingly, but the lack of reaction from Avis side led him to believe that it was, indeed, supposed to fly.
And somehow, he had a general idea of what would go down next... He didn't like it. At all.

Kimo was surprised at the lack of... well, surprise from Uddo.
"So you do have things like that? Incredible!"
Then again, Uddo must have gotten around a lot... It was possible that it was more of a rare feature, and that he just happened to have caught a glimpse of one.
"Man, you must have seen a lot..."
He couldn't entirely hide the envy in his voice. To be exact, he couldn't hide it at all.
When he listened to what Uddo had to say, about him and his father, it was Kimo's turn to be surprised.
"I... well, there's certainly a possibility, yes..."
He was flattered that Uddo would actually think so highly of him... Winning the tournament and getting accepted by the elders wasn't something easily done. But if Uddo said he could do it, then maybe he wasn't so weak after all?
The thought that higher up positions weren't determined by fighting tournaments in the rest of the world was completely beyond the young boy. What, that was the most natural thing ever! Like breathing... It was bound to happen, and Kimo was bound to, of course, follow in his father's footsteps...
"I suppose so...."
He murmured, his eyes fixed on the ground. He'd win the tournament, and then? He pushed the question away and instead, ran forward a little.
"Here it is!"
He proclaimed, pointing at one of the generic small bars around. This one, a bit away from the main road, wa obviously not visited that well, and looked a tad bit more run down than the ones they had passed on their way to the crime scene. He nonchalantly ignored the question of whether or not they'd be let in, knowing fully that no one would turn him down, and smelling the chance to show off to his new idol.

Inside the bar, there was a small group ofsix people, who had fled from the heat like so many others had. Five men and one girl, who looked somewhat uncomfortable, it was almost as though she was edging away from the silver haired young man who had his arm around her shoulders.
Said silver haired looked out at Kimo, his expression darkening.
"Well, wonderful. Coast guard... And just when I thought we might actually not ahve to deal with them."
The man next to him straightened, as if ready to stand up, and glanced at the young man.
"Should I..."
"No,no... Look at the age of that kid. No way he'll notice."
A little unsettled looking, the man sat down again, but kept glancing to the two young boys outside.
"You're the boss...."
He murmured, then went quiet and stared athis drink so intensely one could feel sorry for the poor thing not being able to run away. If a drink could have felt it's personal space being invaded in levels it could not have even fathomed before by nothing but a stare, it probably would have been about to call security right now.
The silver haired, who appeared to be in command, pulled the red haired girl, who was almost sitting on his lab now, even closer, kissed her on the cheek and appeared to whisper something into her ear. She tensed for a moment, but then nodded and stared, similiarily to the man next to what looked to be her date, not at her drink, which she hadn't touched, but instead at a run in her stockings. She did not look like the girl to go out like that, the neat blouse, the square glasses, the short and practical haircut, the plain skirt... Then again, she did seem to disapprove of the run a lot...
The third man, wearing a sweater and for once, having the hood pulled down to show the blonde mane underneath it, loked at the lot of them, then chuckled.
"Pathetic, the lot of you."
He said out aloud, loud enough for everyone to hear. He stood up and left the bar, smiling at the two young boys as he passed them. The cold stare he got from the presumed leader of the small group, he didn't even seem to notice.

"Aaw, c'mon. It'll be faster than trying to get through those streets again, and we'll cover so much more area this way. Unless you have a better idea," she plainly stated in response from her aerial perch. It wasn't like any of his plans were working so far, either. This time, it was her turn. No more looking through empty ships; they were gonna take the high road.

"Grab on already! We don't have all day." Tapping on the nonexistent watch on her wrist, she started raising the sheathed blades bit by bit to give Zuzen a chance to latch onto them. Avis looked pretty confident as she did this, although something in the back of her mind kept poking her conscious. Sure, this was a interesting idea and all, but she hadn't exactly done this before, much less with a second person along for the ride.

No matter. Birds seemed to take to the whole flying thing alright, and they made it look pretty easy. It did appear to work surprisingly well for Avis, too, and they got up into the air without much of a problem. Feeling a bit more confidence at this point she raised their altitude until they were a few stories high into the air. The breeze definitely felt good on her sweaty face, and they could see a pretty good distance from there.

So far, so good. From the few streets they had flown over, there was no sight of Johan, but they would definitely be able to cover more ground from here. "Hah, see? What did I tell you?" she laughed, turning her head to check how Zuzen was faring. "We could probably go a bit higher, then-"

"SQUAAAWK" Avis was very rudely interrupted by a sea gull who happened to be flapping by. The poor thing was just trying to go along with its daily business, usually there weren't people to worry about up here, but it nearly collided into her in a flurry of feathers. It was enough to take Avis by surprise, and she flailed her arms to keep her balance. Too bad it was all in vain. She slipped off the end of her sheathed blade and fell into the roof of a building bellow. The wooden roof wasn't nearly strong enough to stop the fall, and she continued right on through and landed in the middle of the floor.

Motionless for a time, Avis remained lying at the place where she made her early landing. It wasn't until she weary groan did she attempt to push a piece of the ceiling away from herself and sit up. A stinging sensation in her shoulder was enough to make her skin crawl, and when she put pressure on the wound a small amount of blood leaked through her shirt and onto her hand. Absolutely fantastic. Zuzen wouldn't be too far behind: the second sword was out of her range at this point and would start falling like a rock in a moment or two.

Only after she regained some of her senses did she realize that she had fallen into a populated building, another bar from the looks of it. This one was smaller and less crowded, but one of the denizens in particular caught her eye. The blonde man exiting the bar, he was the one they nearly ran into on the street not long before. Oddly enough, the man appeared to have some beef with some kids near the entrance.

((Seagulls... squawk? Sure they do.))

Jace had left the docks. He hadn’t been planning too, it just sort of happened. The aroma of food cooking and the rumbling of his stomach was what had enticed him to go so far away. Still, he was sure that the half-pint would be fine on his own. His bounty was even higher than Jace’s, and while that didn’t mean he was stronger, it certainly showed that he wasn’t just another punk.

As Jace made his way through the city, he yawned, and started to look around for a good place to take a nap. Even the bear in him felt tired. He could almost hear its gently rumbling growls…or maybe that was just his stomach again.

Jace spotted a two-story inn nearby and used his powerful legs to spring up, grab the edge of the roof, and flip himself onto it. He rolled across the roof and just lay there staring up at the sky. Letting out a contented sigh he started to close his eyes…and then he saw them. It was Avis and that revolutionary guy, whatever his name was. Zugzee or something like that. At least Jace thought it was them. They were flying through the air, riding on swords. How nice. He must have already fallen asleep and was now dreaming. Slowly his eyelids drooped…and then he saw Avis falling.

Instantly Jace sat up. This wasn’t a dream and he certainly wasn’t asleep yet. He started to move forward to help her, knowing even as he did that he wouldn’t reach her in time, but then he caught sight of Zuzen’s sword wobbling. That wasn’t good.

Jace flung himself into the open air, already shifting into his hybrid form. Now half bear and half man, he tore off down the street in Zuzen’s direction. If the revolutionary fell, Jace was going to try and jump and catch him and absorb and lessen as much of the impact as he could.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Uddo looked at the bar. It appeared to be a rough place, not somewhere he would choose to go himself. Still, this was the place Kimo had chosen, so he would simply follow the other boy’s judgment and hope for the best. Or pray, he thought, noticing a couple of the tough-looking clientele glancing in his and Kimo’s direction.

Uddo wasn’t a fighter. He was a doctor; a man, or rather boy, of healing. That was his true specialty. Uddo’s hand brushed up against the place where he wore his new whip and he remembered what he had done to receive it. Wimping out like this was no way to repay the shop keeper who had trusted him with his personal weapon. All at once, Uddo’s confidence returned.

“So what are we standing around here for?” he asked Kimo. “Let’s go in!”

With those words, Uddo took a deep breath and stepped forward to go through the door, just as the blond haired man was coming out. Without warning, a woman came crashing down through the ceiling and hit the ground. For a moment, Uddo just stared at her, stunned by her sudden appearance. As she groaned and shoved the ceiling off of her, he snapped out of his trance and rushed forward and dropped down next to her.

“Don’t move to much, ma’am,” Uddo told her in his most soothing voice as he looked her up and down, checking for injuries.

Ack! She was bleeding! He would need bandages! Not once did it occur to Uddo, as he reached for some bandages he carried with him, to even wonder about how far up she would have had to have been when she hit the roof to actually break through it or how she survived such a fall in the first place.

Zuzen's wasn't even surprised. He had expected this, he had known this would go wrong. Staring at the ground, his arms wrapped around the sword as if it was the only plank to hold on to in a stormy ocean. Which was, he realised, just what it was... just that he wasnt in the ocean... no, if he had been, he'd at least been able to swim.
It didn't dissapoint him, and started shaking a bit, then followed it's owner into a general downward direction. Well, that's it, then.
Zuzen shut his eyes and waited for the pain that would follow the collison with the ground. He found himself wondering, strangely, how to pay the owner of the house he was heading towards with great speed for the damage done to its roof... Then put the thought aside. He could still think about that if he survived.

The silver haired and his entire entourage jerked at the sudden, unexpected sound from behind them, one of them spit out the drink he had been trying to enjoy, much to not only his dismay, but also his friends, who got most of it on his shirt. He left it at an angry look, for now... No reason for wreaking havoc.
The leader didn't particularily seem to care. He was watching Uddo, as though trying to analyse every single move.
"You a doctor, kid?"
He asked as though he was asking about the weather, with no real interest, as casually as possible.
With the words of their leader, the rest of the group, save for the girl and the darkskinned individual next to her and her questionable boyfriend, started watching him too, as if it was a real feat to get this much attention.

Kimo, meanwhile, stepped into the bar with a look of amazement on his face. He seemed to be the only one in the room who's eyes went towards the hole in the ceiling (aside the barkeep, that was, who had been staring at it the whole time and looked close to a nervous breakdown), then to Avis, then back to the hole.
"How'd you do that?"
He asked, his voice filled with real curiousity.

"I wasn't planning on it..." Avis mumbled half-heartedly to the smaller boy. He definitely seemed like he had good intentions, but she definitely didn't want him getting too close just yet. Not until she knew that he had some idea what he was doing at least. She then tested her bound a little, wiggling her toes and fingers in turn. The subtle movement in her injured arm was enough to cause a pained grimace, but the others didn't hurt nearly as much. Funnily enough, she gave a similar wince when someone directly questioned her point of entry.

"Oh, that?" Avis responded, giving a sheepish smile as she pointed towards the gaping hole in the ceiling. "It was rather unspectacular, really; just a little stumble, and next thing I knew I was falling through the roof. How clumsy of me. Happens to the best of us, eh?" She ended with a nervous laugh and turned back to the boy looking her over, continuing with a bit more of an apprehensive tone.

"I should really get going now. There are things to do, people to see... Much too little time to just be sitting around," she said under her breath. Zuzen was still out there, where she wasn't exactly sure. He could be in worse shape than she was. It wasn't like they had all day to find Johan, either. Even she didn't have the slightest clue what could be happening to the guy at this point. That, and the faster she could get away from a piece of property she damaged, the better. Hopefully the barkeeper wouldn't mind an IOU.

Jace saw Zuzen beginning to pick up speed and he did likewise. He didn’t have much farther to go. He could already see the building Zuzen was going to hit. With a mighty bound, Jace hurled himself up to the roof, seized it and flung himself up and over towards Zuzen. As their two bodies collided in midair, Jace was driven back against the roof, punching a hole right through it. As they fell, Jace wrapped himself around the revolutionary, while at the same time being careful not to cut himself on the sword. Then…impact.

Jace lay there for a moment, staring up through the hole towards the sky. Then he remembered Avis. In a panic, he shoved Zuzen away from him, leaving Zuzen with the sword, and charged back out of the house, ignoring entirely anything that the revolutionary might have done or said.

As soon as he was outside, Jace scanned the sky, but of course Avis had already landed by now. But where was she? He only had a general idea. So he used his nose as he headed in that direction. He was sure that he could pick up her scent at some point.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Yes,” Uddo answered automatically to the man’s question of if he was a doctor or not. Then, looking a little embarrassed, he corrected himself. “Well, actually no. I’m not a full fledged doctor yet. More of an apprentice, really.” Then, hearing what Avis had said about leaving, he whirled on her, his face stern. “Sit down and shut up. You should be dead right now, or at least have a broken limb, and the fact that you’re able to move is astonishing. Not to mention your story is absolutely ridiculous. No one just falls through a roof because they had a little stumble.”

He didn’t move forward to check Avis’s injuries right away. Instead, he glared at her, practically daring her to try and escape.

"You stumbled through the roof?"
Kimo asked wide eyed and tried to imagine the kind of stumble that would make one fall through a roof. Of course, Uddo saw through the lie right away, he was so savvy! In fact, Kimo was ashamed that his love for spectacular stories had taken over his brain for a moment, and kept quiet as the others went on with this little charade.
Kimo almsot winced when he noticed he had sounded like his father there for a moment, even if it had just been in his own head. And why wasn't he happy about that? He had wanted to be more like his father all his life!
Instead of going into that thought too much, he decided to make himself useful and headed for the bar. The poor barkeep was still transfixed on the hole. It would start raining soon, and now his roof would leak...

As for Zuzen, he had shut his eyes as soon as he had started falling. He really had no wish at all to see the ground getting closer as he waited for the painful collision he would no doubt have with it. Also, thw ind was making his eyes tear, and that was highly uncomfortable to him.
So he waited for the crash, and the pain, or for a light at the end of the tunnel, maybe a voice calling him... Instead, something tackled him in midair. At first, he though he must have hit the ground, but then noticed the lack of pain and opened his eyes to see what this was all about. It was... Before he had time to think about it, they both collided with the roof, and then, moments later, the ground. Zuzen was amazed to find he was largely unharmed, and turned as much as he could to finally take a look at his mysterious saviour, when aforementioned saviour shoved him away rather ungently. Zuzen stumbled, and could barely catch himself just inches before his head would have collided with one of the large, now rugged pieces of wood lying around. Damn.... As carefully as he could, he straightened. Then he heard his rude saviour take off, and quick, judging from the sound of his footsteps.
He spun around and managed a: "Hey, wai-" before he realised the rubble he had stepped on to be not as safely lodged onto the ground as he realised. As he fell over, he found himself thinking that this just proved Johan was rubbing of on all of them!
Then his head hit the ground hard and the world went black.

Zuzen woke up when a voice called for him from far away. Was this it? Was he dead?
"Hey! Hey! Wake up! Hey!"
The last word was accompanied by a slap that made him finally open his eyes.
"Ouch!"
Looking at him was, without any doubt, an angel. Long black hair tied into a braid falling over her shoulder, tanned skin, sparkling brown eyes with, he had to admit, some anger in them....
He looked at her and a sheepish smile spread over his face. This was heaven, no doubt. God had forgiven his sins! Maybe because he had been kind of a monk?
And then, a man's voice called out to her and she turned.
"Iolana!"
"Yes, Keanu?"
As she turned away, some of the spell seemed to be broken, and Zuzen blinked, taking in his surroundings a bit. Aside from her, there were three men in the room he had crashed into, one of them standing beside a woman and a very small child... Zuzen desperately tried to remember just what had happened... Why was he lying in the middle of a room, and why was there a hole in the ceiling?
One thing was for sure, this wasn't the afterlife. This disappointed him a bit, for reasons he couldn't fathom...
The man who had talked to his angel, Iolana (what a wonderful name), continued speaking.
"This is the third time someone fell through a roof today. It can't all have been him, he's been knocked out by only once. He's clearly completely incompetent."
The other man, a mountain of fat, shifted his weight... no, wobbled it from one foot to the other uncomfortably. How had he fit through that door.... Only now did Zuzen see the girl looking at him with mild interest from behind the no doubt very much gentle man. Before, he had stood in front of her. She looked... different from the rest...
His thoughts were interrupted by Iolana (ah, Iolana) answering the man, what was his name again.
"Now that's not a nice thing to say! Just look at him..."
She did so, and Zuzen felt his heart become a whole lot lighter.
There was a small pause.
"Okay, maybe he is a bit incompetent..."
She had called him incompetent! She had payed attention to him! This was the best day of his life!
"Which isn't a bad thing, if you think about it.. I mean, we're talking about being incompetent when it comes to falling through roofs..."
And it had been a compliment, on closer inspection! He could die happy now! Then again, it would be much preferable to die happy after marrying this... being, this angel and living a long, happy life with her.
"Still, we need to arrest him, for now. Interrogate him."
Wait, what?

"Caught anybodies sent yet?" a tall brown skin man wearing a cowboy attire with a long white trench coat on said as he walked beside and larger tiger sniffing the air, he pulled out a cigarette and begin smoking it " Come on girl I'm sure Jace and the Captain have gotten themselves into some trouble and would need some help getting out" * Although I doubt I could stop any of those two once they made up there mind* the tiger growled and begin running off into the direction of the nearby city " Hey wait don't go scaring the locals if we get in any trouble the Captain would have my hid" but the tiger kept running, the man scratched his head and begin running after them, before long the were close and saw a huge figure also running towards the town, with his good eye site Dontae could tell it was Jace he took the cigarette out his mouth and yelled " Oi Bear-Guy!!" Dontae yelled

Initially, Avis retorted silently with an indignant glower of her own. She didn't exactly prepare a comeback for a response like that. It wasn't long until she realized that she wasn't getting anywhere like this. Not anywhere quickly, at least.

"... Fine," she conceded abruptly, rather unwilling in tone. "I'll have you know that a pal of mine is still out there. He could be in even worse condition than I am, even. If you could be so kind as to give me a temporary patch-up so I can go find him." She then paused for a moment and stared uncomfortably at the floor, reluctant to continue for a time.

"Please." This last part came out as an incredibly reluctant mumble and left a bitter taste in her mouth. Although her shoulder was hurting more than her pride at this point, it was still pretty painful for her to admit. Curse those ridiculous sea gulls. She was doing perfectly fine until those things came along.

Jace didn't seem to hear Dontae. He had heard him, of course, but he wasn't going to wait around and talk if the captain was in danger. So he just kept right on running, not even looking back over his shoulder at the sniper.

Jace closed his eyes as he ran and he breathed in deeply, his hybrid enhanced senses taking in more than he could have as an ordinary human.

There were many smells in the area. Bread was baking and a flower shop had just opened up. And...honey. Jace's stomach rumbled, as did the bear inside, but he pounded his gut and kept right on moving. If he had no time for the addict than he certainly had not time for eating.

It was then that he caught the scent. It was a good smell, one Jace placed on par with the scents of his family. But in a way, it was greater than theirs. This was a scent that he associated with excitement and adventure. It was her scent. The captain's scent.

Jace followed the scent and it led him to a bar. With an extra burst of speed, Jace exploded through the front door.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Uddo's expression changed as Avis spoke. Well, at least she had a good reason for wanting to rush off. But as the only doctor, or rather apprentice doctor, in the vicinity, Uddo could not simply let her leave. Of course, that didn't mean he couldn't make compromises.

"Fine," Uddo said to Avis. "I'll do a quick fix. But after you find your friend, you need to take both him and yourself to see another doctor. Understand?"

Whether or not Avis understood hardly mattered at that point. Because just then, Jace came through the front door so hard it was nearly ripped from it hinges. Startled, Uddo came to his feet and he turned to face the newcomer. Jace, having spotted Avis on the floor, marched right up to Uddo, seized him by the front of his shirt, and then tossed him away like a sack of wheat.

Uddo's flight was short lived. He crashed onto the table where the silver haired man and his friends were sitting. He not only knocked over the table, but spilled all of the drinks that were still on it.

Jace noticed none of this. He stepped over to Avis's side and crouched down next to her. Seeing that her eyes were open and she was still breathing, all of the tension ran out of Jace's body and he collapsed into a sitting position, returning to his fully human form as he did so.

"Captain..." Jace's voice was hoarse. "...I thought you might have been..."

Jace felt tears welling up in his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away. What was wrong with him? This was no time to get sentimental! Thought the fact that he was getting sentimental at all was astonishing in and of itself.