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

Kimo had been trying to assure the barkeep that everything would be all right, the coast guard would come up for the damage done to his property, and besides, the rain wouldn't start for another... ten minutes.
His tries had almost started working when he heard the blast behind him and then, the gentle clattering of broken wood on the floor.
The barkeep made a sound that sounded like a whimper, or, possibly, a heartattack on its way, if there was a sound to describe it. Yeah, Kimo was pretty sure that sounded like a heartattack to be in effect in... oh... let's say, ten minutes, when the poor man would realise that he now had two things to fix, and one of them let enough rain in to flood his little establishment.
He failed to feel properly sorry for him, however, when he saw Uddo fly across the room.

"Hey!"
The small group was on their feet, every single one of them, before Uddo even collided with their table. Well, all of them save for the lady who had been sitting on her boyfriends lap, she was lying on the ground, he had pushed her away whendhe had reflexively dodged the boy thrown at them.
Right now, he was dragging her to her feet again. He hadn't offered her his hand, and she didn't seem all that happy about his help, but she didn't say anything, just freed her wrist from his grip as soon as she was on her feet again, which got her a short, somewhat surprised and maybe even... hurt look from the silverhaired man.
However, all this happened in the background, the one Uddo should be concerned with by now was the third man who had been sitting with them.
Up until now, he hadn't said anything, but now, he was looming over the little boy, his drink dripping from his clothes.
His anger seemed to make it harder for him to speak. This had been the second time today!
After a moment of heavy breathing, trying to get the muscles on his face under control, at least enough to speak, he hissed:
"You... you are dead!"
He didn't even move his lips. It was quite astonishing, really.... If it hadn't been a death threat by a man roughly twice Uddos size, maybe people had payed more attention to this small physical miracle.

The tanned gentleman seemed as tense and nervous as ever, his eyes darting to Kimo a lot, but his pride didn't seem to allow him to stand back.
However, he went for a more justified adversary.
"What do you think you're doing?"
He also sounded a lot less brought up than his comrade. Then again, to have the guts to face what he knew was a devilfruit user, not to mention an obviously strong one, you'd better have your head about you, or else be completely crazy, though preferably both.

Kimo felt a sudden coldness about him, and it wasn't because the sun was starting to get obscured by the first rainclouds. Here was a duty to be fulfilled.
"Everyone calm it!"
He was a bit nervous... here was a room full of able fighters, and he was just a little boy, though admittedly a well trained one who was part of the coast guard....
He had seen his father do this, but... but this was the first time he had to do it alone... How strangely exciting...
"The first one to make a wrong move will have the chance to explain it in the headquarters of the coast guard! And when I say 'explain' I mean in handcuffs, out of a cell."
His voice was shaking, and so were his legs. The words were the right ones, but... But he sounded like a little boy wearing a uniform, instead of a coast guard doing his duty.
Still, he slowly walked through the room, unsure what to do if one of them really was to attack... He wondered if he'd be able to scream loud enough to get other coast guards to come to the small bar. Most likly not. He was on his own here.
When he reached the table which was now in pieces, he offered Uddo his hand. He was wondering if anyone could see the fear on his face.
The big guy who was close to him and Uddo now seemed confused, but at least the silverhaired and the tanned man exchanged knowing looks, and silverhaired spoke up, slowly and carefully.
"Look, we don't want to get into trouble here, we're just tourists.... We'll be paying for the table, my friends will be leaving."
The tanned man seemed relieved, the tall man shocked.
The silverhaired gave them a short look and nodded towards the door, and the tanned man took the girls arm and dragged her with him out of the bar and down the street.
"See? Everything fine. No one's going to get hurt here, there's no reason at all to call for backup."



"No wait! I swear, I haven't done anything!"
Zuzen was now absolutely sure he was alive, with evry protest he made, his head started pounding a little worse. It was like it was trying to punish him for his lies...
At the moment, he was being held up slightly above the ground by the fat man, who was obviously trying to be careful. This was degrading, even for Zuzens standards. It didn't even take two men to carry him, one arm of one man was enough. And he wasn't allowed to walk, it seemed...
"Yeah, yeah, of course you haven't..."
His angel wasn't even listening properly, the fat man wasn't affected by his wriggling, save for an uncomfortable look on his face just spelling out that he was so sorry for this all, and the other one... Keanu or whatever, was going through some sort of notes and, save for some cold looks, ignoring him.
As for the ohter girl, it was giving him very curious looks which made him much more uncomfortable than the one armed bearhug ever could have. He still didn't know what she was even doing here...
He gave her a look, and she didn't even have the manners to look away, just kept staring.
"What the..."
He heard his angel saying, and looked ahead again. There was a... a tiger in front of them. People were jumping aside when it came near them, and it was stirring up quite the ruckus. Maybe... Zuzen carefully tried freeing himself again, to no effect. No, the fat man didn't need to pay any attention to him. somehow, this wasn't as depressing as Zuzen had thought it was. Though at least the other girl had stopped staring at him.
His angel stepped up to the wild cat without any fear about her, and Zuzen squirmed even more. She'd be mauled!
"Okay, whos pet is this!?"

When Jace initially smashed through the door and nearly smashed it off its hinges, Avis winced violently. More property damage on their tab, great. At least they could somehow make up for that if they were lucky. Tossing the doctor kid across the room? Not so much. Her line of sight immediately zeroed into to Jace in a reprimanding sort of glare.

"What was that about?!" she snapped, initially conveying her irritation pretty clearly. As Jace crouched down next to her and she saw the concern in his expression, though, Avis shook her head and suppressed a smile as her expression softened. She decided to avoid drawing attention to his surprisingly tearful reunion. Even though he was one of the last people that she would expect that sort of response from, she had to admit that she appreciated the concern. "Please tell me the entire crew didn't see that. But now you know what it's like for me to see you come back all torn up, hm?"

"You march on over to that boy and apologize, Mister Ichiro. He was only trying to help. I won't stand for any of our lot being known for smashing into bars and tossing patrons across the room, or falling clean through the roof for that matter... Although it's probably a bit late for that." Avis looked towards the barkeep and gave him an apologetic, coy grin. With all their loot being on another ship on an entirely different island, there wasn't much they could do cash-wise at the moment. Unless they decided to borrow from someone else, which still leaves them owing someone money. Looting the town probably wasn't the brightest idea, either.

"I'll figure out something to compensate with, I assure you. Might not be anytime soon... But eventually?" Avis was getting a bit more desperate at this point. Let it be known that she didn't intentionally attempt to ruin a perfectly good person's day. She thought it would probably be the best thing for them to leave before they cause the man further strife.

"Jace, let's get out of here. The faster we return Frideswide's delightful crew mates, the sooner we can leave this island in peace. Let's avoid giving them a reason to shove us behind bars for another night," she mumbled her last few statements in a quiet undertone, although someone else might have been able to overhear her if they were paying enough attention.

Uddo heard none of the following proceedings. He hadn't been knocked out, but his head was definitely spinning from being tossed across the room.

"Yes ma'am," Jace said, looking quite unabashed by Avis's reprimand. If anything, he almost seemed to enjoy it. This was evident from the fact that he had started grinning.

The truth was, Jace was just happy that she was still alive and seemed to be at least mostly unhurt, if her actions were any indication. The thought of Avis, or any of his crewmates for that matter, getting hurt frightened Jace in a way he hadn't felt since he had left his family behind. In a way, his crew had become his family. That surprised him. Jace didn't get close to others easily. It was something he would have to consider later, but for now he had to follow the captain's orders.

Jace rose and crossed over to Uddo. With one hand he easily hauled the much smaller boy to his feet and brushed him off as best he could, though, of course, there was no way for him to dry Uddo's clothing.

"My apologies," Jace muttered. "I was concerned for my captain and I overreacted. You simply had the misfortune of being in my way at the time."

"N-No problem," Uddo replied, a touch nervously. His eyes still looked a bit unfocused.

Uddo looked up at Jace curiously. When the man had first appeared, they had only seen each other for about a second before Uddo had found himself airborne. Now, seeing the man up close again, and for a longer period of time, Uddo felt an odd sort of connection with the man. Like he knew him from somewhere.*

Whether or not Jace felt this connection, he never gave any sign of it. Instead he simply left Uddo and returned to Avis, offering her his hand to help her up. He wasn't going to haul her to her feet like he had with Uddo. One didn't treat ladies like that. Not unless they were attempting to rip your head off.

(*They are both my characters. That is the only connection.)

Dontae sighed " Jerk, I know he heard me because he looked right in my direction" Dontae begin running behind Jace as he entered the busy town.

Dontae stoped and looked around the town he noticed the people still looked shocked and scared after seeing Jace in his Hybrid form and he wasn't making it any easier with a large tiger walking in front of him, Dontae stratched his head as he looked around " I'm starting to think being unnoticed and not drawing attetion to ourselves is impossible to our crew" Dontae smiled as the large tiger led him into a bar, as he walked into the bar he noticed that there had been some kind of commotion not moments before he came.

He looked around and saw his Captain and Jace on one end of a bar and the others against the wall " Umm is this a bad time or something?" Dontae said with a smile on his face he didn't move from his spot in front of the door because he didn't want to make everyone get excited.

The town appeared a bit more.... quiet now, though it was still bristling with life, as far as Johan could tell. He didn't exactly want to walk out onto the streets while they were filled with people, but the cut on his side was still bleeding, and it attracted some very ballsy mosquitos... He tried shooing them off... It was getting alost too humid to handle, and he had though about abandoning his coat in one of the alleyways, but it was the only thing seperating the public and the blood on his side. It wasn't a deep wound, but it was bleeding a lot for being so small....
He had just needed a small rest. No sign of Lunas little problem, or Luna herself, or anyone, for that matter. Once again, Johan realised how stupid he had been, storming off like that. so he had leaned against a housewall, a little away from the main road, and closed his eyes for only a small moment.... And The hell?
The revolutionary opened his eyes and looked down on himself, just to make sure it hadn't been him falling down some stairs without noticing or something. It was a reflex that people got when being the victim of their own clumsiness so often.
Once he had made sure he was still standing there, as unharmed as he had been two seconds ago, aside from possibly a newly acquired mosquito bite or two, he decided to go check on that noise. He had no other lead right now, so he might as well, plus, something just told him that crashes had something to do with him or his crew in nine out of ten cases.

On his way to the scene of the crash, the one closeby, Johan luckily found something much more interesting, walking in front of him, staring at what he deducted had to be one of the coast guards, judging from the uniform.
He had to look twice to ake sure it was really who he thought it was. Shouldn't he be... back on that other island? The one in East Blue? What was he doing here? More importantly, hat had he done to get into trouble this way? Johan was definitely not going to antagonise the coast guard, there were enough people after his throat anyway, but he really, really felt the need to help his crewmate out, even thoguh said crewmate seemed happy exactly where he was.
And so, after following them a while, he decided to step up to them.
"Excuse me, maam!"
After that, things either went downhill very fast, or were always in a state of looking slightly up, Johan was never able to decided between those.

Kimo edged back a little, relieved and disappointed to equal shares taht his time in the limelight was over. He was, however, more than ready to leave it at that. His first resolved situation... A little less thrilling than he had imagined....
While Kimo was too busy being in no ones way, the silverhaired seemed to take a lively interest in the following interaction between Avis and her crewmate. One thing seemed to be of particular interest to him.
"Frideswide? The revolutionary? Are you... friends?"
He seemed to notice how intrusive he was being, and raised his hands defensively, a little apologetic sile on his face.
"Ah, real sorry, didn't mean to be a bother, just happen to be... interested. Mercutio is my name, the gentlemen who just left were my small crew of... merchants."
He stretched out his hand for Avis to shake, but even if she would have wanted to do so, another guest arriving kept her from doing so, if merely by drawing Mercutios interest from her.
The girl in the doorway was small and a bit on the frail side, with dark hair and a missing arm, and Mercutio greeted her with a short nod, smile unchanging.
"Ah, Yumi. There you are. We were waiting for you, you know..."
There was a slight reproachful tone in his voice. All this politeness yet, something made Yumi quiver a bit, only for a moment, even in this heat. She kept her eyes down.
"I... sorry, I came here as fast as I could, it's just my foot is.... Oh!"
She had spotted Uddo, but quickly turned away from him again, though she knew it was a bit late to hide her knowing of him.
Mercutio looked from one to the other, and his smile wavered a bit while he was waiting for... perhaps for Yumi to finish her sentence, or for someone to explain what was going on now.

Avis grabbed onto Jace's hand with her good arm and used it to hoist herself onto her feet. She started out a bit wobbly, but eventually regained her composure enough so she could confidently, albeit a bit painfully, walk on her own. It was then that Dontae stepped inside the room, and Avis gave him an enthusiastic wave. What a pleasant surprise. She should've expected these two to find her eventually.

"How nice of you to finally join us! I was starting to think you were gonna laze the whole day away while we do all the hard work, Dontae. And actually, it's time for us to skedaddle on out of here, right Jace?" An uneasy smile flashed briefly across her face as she edged her way towards the door. It was too bad her exit was foiled when one of the boys in the bar happened to pick up what she had said earlier. Her reply to his question didn't come right away. Instead, she stuck her hands into her pockets and thought about it with for a short time before responding.

"Well, I s'pose that friend's a suitable term... but why would some merchants be interested? Do you happen to know where he might be?" she asked, an eyebrow arched in slight suspicion. Maybe it was the sudden probing question about her relation with the revolutionary, or the fact that a group of merchants found it interesting. It all smelled quite fishy to her, and she didn't like it one bit.

Avis then stared blankly at the young man's outstretched hand for a time, but yet another person walking into the room caught her attention before she was able to decide whether or not to accept the handshake. This time however, Avis didn't know the girl. She was quite sure about this, since she was quite sure that she'd remember someone with an arm missing. Either way, this girl's entrance interested Avis little. She just wanted out at this point so she could fix that aching shoulder of hers.

Uddo saw Yumi and he froze, staring at her with his mouth hanging open in shock at her sudden appearance, but then a word broke through the haze. Frideswide...that was Johan's last name. And this woman was saying that she was his friend. Uddo stepped towards Avis hesitantly, but then seeing that Jace was otherwise occupied with keeping an eye on the silver-haired leader, he crossed over to stand before Avis.

"You know Johan?" Uddo asked her. "He's my captain."

Jace's head snapped back around and his eyes burned as he glared at Uddo. It didn't matter what Avis told him. He didn't trust this boy, especially not after what the silver-haired man had said. Something big was going on and he didn't like it.

The whitehaired merchant now named Mercutio (his last name, which he didn't mention to strangers normally, was Silvers... everytime he told anyone, they looked at him very strangely, as if he was trying to... what was the expression? Ah, yes. "Pull their leg". Some even found his first name funny. Mercutio Silvers did not understand that, but he usually only understood the slightest percentage of humorous remarks, puns, hints or annotations done for comedical purposes. Indeed, he had spend a lot of his adolescence in front of a mirror, practicing how to smile. This now came in handy.) raised an eyebrow in what he estimated was a look of mild surprise.
"Your captain?! Oh my!"
He looked at Yumi, and the young girl continued in her tries to avoid looking into his gray eyes directly. He should be used to it by now, but frankly, that blackhaired tramp wasn't important enough for him to even care.
"I suppose you were on your way of telling me that, then?"
She opened her mouth, closed it, then, after a few seconds of absolute silence, moved her head slowly, barely enough to identify the gesture as a nod. It was, of course, more than obvious to him that she was lying, but as of now, there was nothing he could do about that.
Instead, he turned to Uddo, selling smile on his lips again.
"You see, I have been looking for a way to get in contact with your captain for quite some time."
Shortly, he glanced at Avis, then proceeded to tell the world:
"But judging by your overall behaviour and the circumstance of you being here..."
He glanced up to the hole.
"You most likely don't know his whereabouts either?"
There was a look of absolutely honest disappointment on his face, but it lighted up when the conclusion he had drawn from all of this a long time ago showed as a sudden idea on his face.
"Well, if you are going to look for him, why don't you let us help? We give you the info we have, and keep you updated, you do the same for us? How about it?"



"So you're saying you're friends with this... person?"
"Yes, he's a part of my crew, though I'm surprised he's here."
Johan shot Zuzen a quick look, and the young man was more than happy to explain.
"Well, you see, it was basicall all Jamils fault, I told him not to go too far, but of course he didn't listen to me...."
Secretly, he hoped Jamil would never know how little time it took him to blame him for everything and anything that had happened.
"And then we had to run, and we were at that island, you know, but it got attacked, and we ran again, and then there was that storm..."
He was sharply interrupted, but not by his captain, who was listening to his story with a look of sincere interest on his face, but by (he sighed inwardly at the sound of her name in his thoughts) Iolana.
"Yes, yes. Heartbreaking. Thing is, he has to come with us for a while, just questioning. He'll most likely get away with a penalty... let's say.... maybe like 50.000.000 Beri...."
Zuzens jaw dropped. Wasn't that... a bit much for a roof? Even for three.... Even in case flying was a crime around here...
Johan, though, nodded, as if completely understanding the penalty of 50.000.000 Beri, and found it to be a very fitting sum. At this point, it became clear to Zuzen that this man would be bankrupt if not for Emil managing the finances.
The only other person around who seemed to find this strange was, indeed, Keanu, who reacted to the whole situation by massaging the bridge of his nose and sighing, iplying that this wasn't the first time Iolana made such rash, and absolutely intolerable decisions.
"Then, I will come with you to makle sure things are all right. I also want to request something from you, if possible..."
"Oh, go ahead, sunsh-"
"Iolana, might I reind you that it is not permitted for strangers to enter the headquarters unless on the order of a coast guard, and under it's never ceasing watch?"
A long sigh came form Iolana. Johan looked from one to the other, green eyes bright and interested. He didn't understand them very well, and he was afraid the blood loss would be a bit of a bother in a radically shrinking amount of time.
After a minute of silence, in which Ioalana and the young coast guard tried to stare each other down, Zuzen started hopping from one foot to the other, and Johan became more and more aware that his wound might indeed become a problem soon, the revolutionary leader gave a polite cough, which prompted the two coast guards to stop their glaring.
"I suppose he can wait outside."
Keanu murured, and Iolana gave him a victorious look.
"But we'll leave someone to watch him!"
she huffed, turned around, and as they continued down their way, Johan was politely dragged along by the biggest of the coast guards, who, as he stepped towards him, finally stopped hiding the slim girl behind him from sight.
She waved at him, and Johan would most likely have felt a sort of shiver running down his spine if the heat would not have apprehended it (the humidity did make it possible for him to sweat, though, and he was sweating additionally now). While they were on their way, he tried to concentrate on figuring out how much she could know, but simply could not read it on her face, which was happy and carefree all the time. Clearly dealing with a criminal mastermind here.


Meanwhile, two small groups exited the large ship which an old woman named Kaimana called her own.
One consisted of a blackhaired broad named Myriam and a girl on rollerblades named only Chriss, who obviously despised her assigned partner just as much as the aount of fucks said partner gave about said hate, and for a time twice as long as it would take the object of her hate to count aforementioned fucks, the other one consisted of a shy, nervous, pale girl with the sweet name madeleine, who had spent her life serving people, and obviously felt she did not belong on such a dangerous trip (in her eyes, even a trip to the bathroom held unexpected dangers), and an energetic, and very protective young lady who had arrived back at the ship about thirty minutes ago, and was not very happy to be send out again. her name was Jaime, and she was starting to wonder where her originaly two partners had went off to. Additionally, there was a girl with a sneer on her face, who, behind her glasses, seemed to wonder how far she'd have to go for each of the persons around her to break down completely, how long it would take until she won in a battle her opponents never agreed to fighting, and probably never knew they were, since fighting in the common understanding of the word has something to do with drawing blood, a lot of it, by brute force. This girl, though good at the part where it came to draw blood as well, knew that the common understanding of words were mostly rubbish. This last girl, her dark blue hair swaying in the breeze, was the one people should be afraid of. She was, without a doubt, the most dangerous and important character in the whole crew.
But for now, she shall remain an unnamed young girl, walking along behind Jaime, who had quickly taken the lead, though for how long remains to be seen.

Feeling Jace suddenly tense up beside her, Avis extended her arm out in front of him in case he felt like chucking the boy across the room once more. "Do you want those revolutionaries off our ship, or not? I sure hope you don't expect me to explain to Frideswide that I returned two of his crew mates, but ended up sending another one of his to the emergency room," she rapidly muttered under her breath. Even though she didn't entirely believe the boy herself, Avis wasn't going to risk it quite yet.

"Your captain?" she responded skeptically, then turning to the young boy. "And yes, I ran into him a while back. I don't remember ever seeing you there, actually." The last part of statement was said in an off-handed way, challenging him to prove himself otherwise. While their was a chance Johan could've picked up a few more members since they last came into contact, she found it hard to accept from such a small, unimpressive fella. Granted, Jamil and Zuzen weren't exactly the most crew worthy either from what she'd seen.

"What makes you think we need your help?" Avis gave an indignant huff as her brows wrinkled irritably at the merchant's insinuation. It took a few moments for her to cool enough for her to consider his suggestion long enough to come to a reluctant conclusion. The possibility of him having even a bit of tip on Johan was at least enough for her to hear what he had to say. "I suppose we can can at least compare information... You first. I insist." She then proceeded to wait and tap her foot impatiently; this guy had better not be wasting her time.

Jace looked down at Avis's arm in front of him and the tension ran out of his body. He looked over at his captain and nodded slowly.

Jace almost took a step back to show he wasn't going to attack, but thought better of it seeing as it would take him farther away from Avis, meaning that he couldn't interfere as quickly, should the need arise. Sure, he knew Avis was strong, even though he had never watched her fight, but seeing as she was hurt, he wasn't going to take the chance that her injury might do her in.

"Of course," Uddo frowned. He completely missed the insinuations in Avis's words, but still thought carefully about what he would say, just like always. "You wouldn't have seen me and I know I've never seen you before...not in person in any case. The thing is, I only joined the crew a short while ago. Johan and the others helped me out. And I offered him my services as a doctor." At this, Uddo grinned sheepishly. "Of course, he was a bit disappointed when he heard that I don't know much about doctoring yet...apparently there's this other guy, Jamil, who can do just as much as I can when it comes to bandages and disinfecting wounds."

(looks a bit like this is now a three man show. well, fine then.)

Mercutio followed the talk with a look of mild interest on his face. Turns out the little guy was not only any member of Frideswides crew, but a doctor, or at least a soon to be man of medicine.
"Hmm, hmm..."
He had planned to stay silent for a little longer, hoping that the now uncovered 'friend' (he had to look into the specification of their exact relationship, friend was just too... unspecific) of the revolutionary would forget about her wish to have him give up his information first. But something had sparked his interest.
"So is that... Jamil here as well?"
That would change a lot, though not enough to really overthrow everything. Mister Silvers just liked things to be under control, and only that.
"Ah, pardon my inquisitivness..."
He didn't want to seem rude, circumstances had it he was alone and they were four.... well, two and two halves, so actually three, but he was still outnumbered, and didn't want to take the risk of drawing attention before he had to.
And, as a peace offering, he gave up one little piece of information.
"You see, rumor has it the coast guard is after someone with Frideswides fighting style, and who is to say they didn't limit the search down to just him? His crew certainly seems to have mysteriously disappeared from their ship..."
He made a movement with his hands to underline the words 'mysteriously disappeared' just to make sure they'd pay attention to it.
It was likely Frideswide was already in custody of the coast guard.... And actually, those people right here could make things a whole lot easier. Now that he thought about it, his original plan might just have become a plan b.

At the mention of the coast guard, Kimo gasped loudly. What, Uddos captain was.... Oh no! Of course, what his captain did or didn't do had no effect on Uddos innocence.... he... was innocent, right? Right? Kimo had ben with him the whole time, taken over from his own father..... So... But who knew what had happened before.
He didn't want to arrest Uddo! Slowly, Kimo backed towards the door.
"I'll... uh, be gone then...."
And with that, he practically jumped out onto the street, into the just starting rain, and ran. If Uddos captain really was wanted, then he would likely be caught by now.

Said captain was indeed caught. He was caught out in the rain, with nothing to protect him but his hood and the leaves of the palm trees over them to shield him from it. Not that he minded that much, it wasn't like he was made out of sugar, but..... it wasn't the most comfortable way to spend his time...
Beside himstood Keanu, the man who reminded him more and more of Jackson, keeping a watchful eye on him.... Ah, Jackson.... Johan wondered if that mechanic really could fix him... Hopefully. Johan didn't want to lose that old friend of his, he was.... special. Important. For him and as an example to underline why his goals were righteous...
However, right now, he worried more about that girl right behind Keanu. It was the one who had been with the large person before, the one from the bar.... He wondered if she knew about her friends.
Politely, he cleared his throat, but never got to start the conversation to determine just how much either of those parties knew. And he never got to do so because of two newcomers suddenly appearing between him and Keanu, their backs turned to the revolutionary.
They were female, frail, had red hair.... could be siblings, twins, even.... And the other girl seemed to know them, she simled brightly and... grabbed the two knives formerly attached to her waist. Keanu, Johan would later be able to affirm, was quick in his reaction, he was in fighting stance, with his hand on his blade in barely a second, his mind not realising what exactly was going on, but perhaps noting the fact taht he was surrounded, that this counted, by all means, as an ambush, and, maybe, what the two newcoers were carrying with them, though it was hidden by cloth.
But whatever he thought in those last moments, he never had the time to explain it to Johan, or even to carry out his attack, because the girl behind him was quicker, her knives slashing his throat before he even had his blade completely drawn.
He made a guttural sound, then fell headfirst into the mud.
During all of this, Johan could only watch, not quite grasping what was going on. When the attention of the girls turned to him, he reached for his cutlass.

Inside the building, Iolana felt a sting in her heart, and it wasn't Amors arrow, no matter how much their current suspect wished it to be. She turned to Ikaika standing guard by the door.
"Something's wrong. Something happened to my brother."
Ikaika didn't question this logic. In the native mythology, twins always had that special bond... Not only that they were said to be able to work magic, but they were also said to be in everlasting telepathic contact with each other. So far, Ikaika, along with Kapena and the rest of the coast guard, had wondered why, if they were telepaths, they had to argue out loud all day. But this, he didn't question.
"I'll go check on what's happened."

((Yeah, I haven't been hearing much from 9th. He might be busy, so it looks like it'll be us three for now.))

"Well I'll be damned..." Avis mumbled, her eyes wide with surprise. "Please don't tell me Frideswide's lost you, too." She mumbled an inaudible curse as she brought up a hand and smacked her forehead. Why did this have to be so hard? There were much more fruitful, pirate-y things she could be doing, but instead she was stuck watching over some revolutionary's crew. Things didn't improve when the merchant hinted at the revolutionary crew's mysterious disappearance, and the boy at the door bolted. His sudden escape was too suspicious for her liking. Much too suspicious.

"Jace, drag that guy back here!" she growled, immediately pointing towards the bar's broken door. Avis would have chased after the boy herself, but with her shoulder in bad condition and her patience wearing thin, she really didn't want to leave even more shifty merchant unattended. His beating around the bush needed to stop, particularly if Johan was in trouble like the man claimed. The man could've been the very reason she hasn't found the revolutionary yet, for all she knew.

"Don't take me as some empty-headed fool, merchant. You've got twenty seconds to give me a reason not to slit your throat. Speak now, or never again." Stepping forward until she was a mere yard in front of the merchant, Avis then adopted a soft smirk. She grabbed the hilt of her sheathed sword and pulled it out slightly, exposing an inch of its naked metal. "Time's a wastin."

Uddo watched, with his mouth hanging open, as the situation quickly deteriorated. First Kimo ran off and then Avis moved in on the merchant after ordering Jace to go after Kimo.

"H-Hey!" Uddo cried out. "What do you think you're doing?"

Uddo started to move to block Jace's path as the powerful man marched towards the door stoically. Jace let out a growl and Uddo, remembering how he had been thrown before, backed off. He felt like a coward, letting Jace go after his friend like that, but what else could he do? If Uddo was beaten up, who would go warn the coast guard that one of their own was in danger? That was assuming he could get away from these maniacs. Knowing what a clumsy oaf Johan was, Uddo found it hard to believe he could befriend such...brutes.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The moment Jace had stepped out into the rain, he allowed his animal instincts kicked in. The rain would wash away Kimo's scent, given a little time, but Jace could still smell him. Kimo's scent wasn't the only thing Jace could smell, however. He also could sense his fear.

With a howl, Jace took off in Kimo's direction, switching to his hybrid form as he went. Those still walking the streets scattered at the terrifying sight of the man-bear running towards them. Several of them screamed and one man plunged his hand into his pocket as if reaching for a weapon. Of course, Jace simply ignored these individuals. Neither his human mind nor his beast one cared about them. All he wanted was Kimo.

It didn't take Jace long at all to track down the boy. He hadn't had the time to get very far, after all. Jace didn't growl or roar or even howl as his soon to be victory. There was no need for such things. Kimo would soon know that Jace was after him simply from the beating of his paws on the wet street. Jace leaped, easily clearing the last ten feet that remained between him and his quarry, as he reached for the back of Kimo's shirt. He had no intention of hurting the boy, so long as the boy didn't hurt him, but he was going to do his utmost to bring him to a halt.

Kimo could hear the footsteps, or rather, the sound of paws behind him the moment Jace had left the bar, even if he hadn't, he could probably have been able to tell as soon as the few people who were still out and about (who were idiots, clearly) started to scream or at least jump out of the way.
His heart sank, when he tried to think of who was most likely following him, and what his chances of fighting back were. The woman had just crashed through a roof, and was talking to both the merchant and Uddo, said merchant seemed like more of a lithe, quick guy, and not very likely to run out into the rain and dirt to follow him, and Uddo was to light to produce such footsteps, which meant it had to be the one he would definitely not stand a chance against...
Kimo tried to run even faster, but knew it was already too late, and was proved right when he felt someone grabbing his shirt. He chocked and had to jerk to a halt forcefully when his shirt proved to be too high quality to be ripped just by him continuing his running, and he lost his short strenght match against the bear man.
Of course, when starting said short match, Kimo hadn't expected to be held back by a bear man, but he soon discovered it when he glanced over his shoulder carefully, in hope that maybe, it was just one of the Jaguarundi, he had fought those before... When he discovered that Jace was far from a small wild cat, and, indeed, closer to a big, scary monster, he produced a sound a bit like "eek".
Then he cleared his throat and tried to sound as manly and demanding as possible. He failed horribly at it, and instead ended up sounding like the scared little boy he was.
"This is assault on a coast guard... Er, release me at once."


"Woah, lady! There's no need for this! It's just a rumor! I haven't got much of a lead either...."
Mercutio had raised his hands and stepped back, his smile wiped from his face, replaced with a look that could be described as a bit shocked, a bit hurt. The corners of his mouth went upwards a bit when he finished his sentence, however, barely noticable, after all, he did not want to provocate this lady.
"...However, I guess I know more than you do... Yumi!"
Yumi had hurried out of Jaces way, shortly flinching when she used her bandaged foot a bit too quickly and not nearly with the care she should have used.
She was standing next to Uddo now, but seemed less worried about that than about the fact she had been called out by Mercutio.
"Uh... yes... sir?"
She was unsure about what to call him, obviously. But he didn't seem to mind much. Just kept his eyes on Avis, and the only apparent danger to hi in this room.
"What's the last update?"
Yumi only now seemed to remember why she was here, and almost seemed shocked she had forgotten.
"Chris and the girl, uh, Luna have talked with grandma Kai, I mean, captain Kaimana.... We currently have two search groups out there, including...."
She shivered a bit before she continued.
"Scarlet... on the lookout for both Frideswide and the... other one..."
Mercutio just nodded to all of this, obviously disinterested. As if he wanted to know about that, it was their own thing. If Kaimana wanted to be mixed up in this because of some silly girl, fine. None of his business. It wasn't like they were going to find Frideswide anyway. They'd be sure to not end up where he was.
"Ophelia and Cornelia are still gone, most likely, uh.... searching.... and so is Cassie, though she says she's pretty sure she's found one of the other revolutionaries who has crashed through a roof, and he's been brought to the headquarters of the coast guard."
For a moment, the merchant was silent, then, as soon as he was sure there wasn't more to come, lowered his hands again.
"And this is all the news we have on the matter!"
Well, not really all the news, but hey, if he could hear more information in those sentences than they could, it wasn't his fault.
In an attempt to get some more space between hi and the sword wielding lady, he stepped back towards Yumi and laid an arm around her shoulder, which caused her body to tense a bit.
"By the way, this is Yumi. I hired her and her crew to help me find Frideswide. As you can see, they're a great help. Yumi, be a nice girl and smile a bit, will you?"
Yumi smiled nervously, though it was less a smile, and more showing her teeth and moving the corners of her outh upwards. It all seemed a bit awkward.

In a different place, a similiar situation was happening.
"Uh, ladies, there's no need for that..."
Johan didn't have his hands raised, it was on his cutlass, which hadn't drawn yet. the fight before had been bad enough, he didn't want this.... maybe there was a way to talk about this before it got too drastic.
"Look, if this is about your friends, I don't know why, but they attacked e, and I just defended myself. I left them alive, right? Barely laid a scratch on them."
It was the truth, both had still been standing when he had left. They had let him go on their own accord, after he had talked to them about what had happened.
"I'm really sorry about this all, but, uh...."
One of the two red headed girls was unwrapping the object they had formerly held in their hands. It was a spear.... Just about noral looking, thick wood, metal tip, carvings of waves on it... Before Johan could ask about what they were doing, the one with the short hair took it into her hands and rammed it into the wound on Keanus neck. Johan flinched as the blood splattered out of the corpse, and the wound , made by a slim knife, opened up and into a stabbing wound caused by a great spear. He felt sorry for the corpse. He hadn't known the man that well, but this just wasn't right...
"You know, you don't have to be sorry."
The girl with the knife said, stepping over the body and laying a hand on his shoulder. He was so focused on the body, which the girl now proceeded to mangle some more with the spear, he didn't even draw his cutlass... This was just disgusting. He hadn't even done that to the rulers he had dethroned...
He felt a bit of pressure on his upper chest and realised the girl was wiping her knife off on his coat, smearing it with blood even more, only this time, it wasn't his, and it was clearly visible.
"Hey, what..."
He tried to push her away, but she just went passed his arms and placed a small, friendly kiss on his cheek before smiling.
"Thank you, you have no clue how much this means to us!"
"Wha-"
Johan couldn't even deal with all this confusement. It was like he was in a play, on stage, and he was the only one who had never read the text, practised, or even gotten his part.
The girl quickly stepped back from him, just in time for him to catch something flying towards him. He needed both hands to do so, it was heavy... He needed a moment to realise he was holding the spear, now newly decorated with blood, a lot of it.
When he looked back up, paling as he slowly started to work out his part in this, the twins were gone, it was only him and the girl, who had let herself fall on the ground and was screaming for help.
And a moment later, there was the large coast guard, just busting out of the building. Something clicked in Johans brain as he finally figured it all out. He dropped the spear just a second too late.

Avis had a content grin as she let go of her sword's hilt, letting it slide harmlessly back into its sheath. That's what she was looking for. Finally, some actual information; no more of this 'mysterious vanishing act' business. Some people just needed more persuasion than others. Being back in control of the situation, at least from her point of view, was definitely a load off the chest. It wasn't long before she was taken aback by Uddo's outcry, though.

"I'm actually trying to be productive, instead of just mulling around and waiting for him to appear out of thin air. It's your captain we're looking for, yet I happen to be the one doing most heavy lifting here," Avis retorted. She felt that he hadn't been much at all since they've run into each other. Sure, it was nice that he attempted to fix her up until he was rudely interrupted, but he ought to know where is very own captain is. Particularly if he was prone into getting into trouble constantly. Composed and collected, Avis then swiveled around to face the merchant.

"Was it really that hard? Now we're actually getting somewhere..." she responded smoothly. While the girl introduced as Yumi didn't seem particularly keen on being there, Avis still flashed a brief smile and wave hello. "If either of you would be so kind as to let us know where this 'other' revolutionary you mentioned is. The kid that just ran out of here sounded like he was affiliated the the guard around here, we can ask him if they've gotten a hold of Frideswide yet."

Jace lifted Kimo into the air and turned him around so that they were face to face. He grinned menacingly at the boy as a violent inner turmoil began within his head. Now that he had caught his prey, he had to fight down the bear to keep it from ripping Kimo limb from limb in a victory celebration.

"Oh, shut up," Jace growled, his voice having changed with his appearance. "I don't care if you are a Celestial Dragon. When my captain tells me to 'grab that kid and bring him back', I follow her orders. Not the laws of some wannabe Marines."

With that said, and the bear momentarily subdued, Jace tucked Kimo under his arm and marched back towards the bar. He remained in his hybrid form, not wanting to take the chance that someone might stop him and ask why he was caring a child in such a unorthodox manner. He had had enough trouble for one day and was ready to get things over with already.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back at the bar, Uddo was still dealing with his troubles. First of all, Yumi had chosen to stand next to him, which made it very difficult for him to concentrate on anything other than her. Secondly, he was worried about Kimo and what had become of him. He wasn't sure how much control Avis really had over the 'monster man', as he had now decided to call Jace. Third, Uddo was being berated by Avis for supposedly not having tried to find Johan, which was uncalled for and totally untrue. And fourth...that stupid merchant had decided to put his arm around Yumi! What did this mean? Uddo had to find ou...no, no, calm down. He couldn't let himself get any more distracted than he already was.

Trying to think of anything besides Yumi, Uddo whirled on Avis and with more venom than he originally intended he spat out, "I have been looking for my captain! I've been searching for him all over town! But it seems he's disappeared off the face of the earth! And I haven't even been able to find anyone from my crew! Do you have any idea how frustrating this has been for me?"

Uddo suddenly froze, shocked at the intensity of his own anger. He came to the realization that his fingers had been inching towards his hidden weapons and he quickly tightened them into fists and forced them down at his sides. He couldn't afford risking a fight. Not when there was so much hanging on the line.

(sorry for the lots and lots of NPC developent and background on this one, I don't know why I even did that...)

Yumi hadn't wanted this, any of this, to happen.
Her whole life had just been one big story of things she hadn't wanted to happen, actually. She would have been glad to keep her arm, and to be able to stay with her family, or at least not have to join a pirate crew, and in the end, she would be so, so happy if she could, for once, be less of a burden to them and everyone around her.
But all those things, she had learned to accept, and live with, and some even turned out pretty okay for her. For example, joining the pirate crew, no matter how little she had wanted to do so, had led to her meeting Jaime, and later Emily as well, and all those other great people...
Right now, Yumi couldn't really see what good this latest string of events could ever do her. She knew she was here for Mercedes, and she had, though not enthusiastically, or even happily accepted the fact that they would have to work with Mercutio Silvers and his little gang of hoodlums and possibly harm others greatly to make sure she was safe and sound....
And then, Uddo had turned up, and Jess and Nina had ended up being hurt so badly, and she had to do some horrible things to people she didn't even know, and Uddo was part of the crew that was their target, and everything was just horrible and not nice at all anymore.
Desperately, she tried to think of some was to let him know that the man who had his arm around her shoulder was, in fact, not to be trusted, and not a good guy and up to help them at all, and that Uddo and his friends were in terrible danger, but she couldn't and she wasn't supposed to because then, something might happen to Mercedes and, and....
During this entire inner monologue, Yumis eyes kept darting to Uddo and back to her feet, sometimes to Avis, just not, ever, to the man who was standing way too close to her for comfort, his arm around her shoulders. Her hand was clenching her shirt, the knuckles white, and she only noticed it and everything else around her halfheartedly when she heard Mercutio say something that seemed to be directed at her. Like a scared rabbit in front of a hungry fox, she flinched a bit, then looked up to him shyly, making sure not to look into his eyes.

From the way Yumi was looking at him, it was clear she had not heard his question. Or anything he had said for that matter. Mercutio sighed. That girl was so tense, it was like she thought he was the devil or something. So Mercedes had hissed at him not to touch her, something about being afraid of him and that he should "keep your dirty hands off her, you dirty rat, she's been through stuff you couldn't even..." he didn't remember the rest. Or maybe that had been all, Mercedes had never been very talkactive towards him, more like a grim, silent watcher who would try to fight every time he opened his mouth or tried to touch her, even if it was just to help her up. He wasn't one to admit it, but it hurt a bit, that they all seemed to see him as that evil thing. He had tried to talk to them. He really had. Even offered them a good payment, a great payment. But Kaimana only understood one language, and that was the language of violence, blackmail and hostages.
He let Yumi go and pointed towards the door.
"I asked you to try and get the good companion of this woman to bring the boy back here unharmed..."
He repeated his last statement, and this time, she seemed to understand. He noticed her giving an alost desperate look to the boy on her other side, the young man who was in Frideswides crew before she hurried out into the rain as quickly as her injured feet would take her.

As soon as she was gone, Mercutio turned back to Avis, who was, at the moment, the only active thread to him in this room, and put his selling smile back on his face. What would he give to actually know how much of a danger she was.... But he had never seen her face, or heard of anyone with a habit of crashing through roofs and looking for revolutionary leaders. Then again, he didn't have the information a bounty hunter would have, so...
"I think that, if the coast guard has gotten their hands on either of them, they should be in their headquarters, getting interrogated right now. Only those who murder a high member of the coast guard don't get a proper interrogation in favor of a quick trial.... But I don't think that your revolutionaries would have done something as stupid as that, now would they?"
Of course they wouldn't, and it would take soeone with extremely bad luck to actually be framed with such a crime, luck bad enough to have a coast guard just walk by the crime scene while their hands were still bloody.... ercutios sile grew a bit while he wondered whether they were at that stage already.... The coast guard looked after their own, and anyone who harmed one of them was in deep, deep trouble....

Yumi was glad to be out in the rain, well, not really because it was raining, but because this way, she could pretend everything that was happening in that room didn't, and would never affect her at all, in any way.
She could, at least for a moment, pretend that Uddo wasn't in grave danger, and that she was the only one who could really warn him, even though that would be high treaty towards the crew she loved so much, and dangerous to one of the persons dearest to her.
The pain in her ankle as she hurried down the street was almost pleasant as a way to distract herself from the reality she was successfully running from right now.
And then, she could see the huge, bearlike shape in front of her, and it all came back. She slowed down rapidly and stopped a whole twenty feet away from him, just to make sure she was in a distance his claws couldn't reach.
"Mister?"
She realised she didn't really know, or remember his name. He already seemed to be on his way back to the bar, so her being out here was pointless, really. Still, she was glad for the chance...
She took a deep breath.
"Please, mister, I have to talk to you..."

"Don't get me started on frustrating circumstances... I'll deal with you later," Avis growled to Uddo, not even bothering to turn to face him. She had no intention of going into detail of the last few days. It would've been utterly useless and this point, and she didn't exactly enjoy looking back to such things to begin with. There were more important matters at hand. Whether Uddo liked Avis' approach or not, she didn't particularly care at the moment. She wasn't about to go soft and risk Johan slipping away, simply because someone objected to her methods.

"The boy's gonna be just fine, I don't see why you're worrying about it. But I wouldn't count on Frideswide or the other two to stay out of trouble for long," she sighed in response. If she had to guess, a man similar to Frideswide that was being pursued by the coast guard that the merchant mentioned earlier was probably Jamil or Zuzen. Zuzen being more likely of the pair, for rather obvious reasons. The thought of what the self-destructive duo could be up to at this point caused her a good deal of worry. Growing mildly impatient at this point, she constantly kept looking expectantly to the door. Jace should've been back by now, shouldn't he?

((Ack... Can't write for crap, sorry))

"Look, don't bother me right now," Jace growled. He was about to just push past Yumi and get back to bar when he caught a glimpse of her expression. His eyes narrowed and he sniffed the air. All at once the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. This girl smelled familiar...something in her scent...it was like Uddo's...like Jamil's and Zuzen's...like a Revolutionary's... Jace reached for Yumi, trying to grab her by the shoulder she still possessed. He was planning on lifting her off of the ground to slam her back into a nearby wall. He leaned in on her, his lips pulled back in a snarl, and he roared, "Who are you and what are you really doing here?"
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Uddo had never thought of himself as an angry person. And yet for the first time he was really ticked off.

"You won't be dealing with me ever!" Uddo said, now practically yelling. "If you're going to waste your time interrogating that guy, go ahead. But I'm not going to sit around and let you treat me like a child!"

With that he stormed towards the ruined doorway, intending to leave the bar. Forget Avis. Forget Johan. Forget all of the revolutionaries. He couldn't help them right now and he never wanted to help that horrible woman. Why Johan would waste his time trying to find someone like her, Uddo would never understand.

That was when Uddo heard Jace's roar. And the young boy took off like a shot.

Even though Yumi had cautiously left some space between herself and the threatening bearman, she was too shocked to use it now. Besides, it wasn't like she could run right now, at least not fast enough to really escape him. Like a hare, she stood there, and when her brain grasped the thought she should probably run, and she took the first step back, he had already caught up and seized her shoulder. She grabbed his arm with the one hand she still had, though she knew it was in vain. Suddenly, she wished it wasn't raining so hard. She was absolutely useless, even more so than usual. But she hadn't come out here to fight him anyway, right? Stupid, stupid girl, to think he'd listen. Or that he'd give a damn, for that matter.
"Please.... please, I.... I'm Yumi, just.... just Yumi..."
She said, almost whimpered. He had a strong grip, and it hurt on her shoulder. She had always hated it, but she wasn't very resistant when it came to pain, and she bruised easily.
"I want to help you.."
This alone was hard enough to speak out loud. She was unbelievably scared, as she had been of a lot of things for a long time.
The boy the bearman was carrying was squirming, trying to wriggle himself out of his grip. Somewhere in the back of the head, she felt thankful for the effort.
"Let her go, can't you see she's scared?!... Please?"
He wasn't really shouting it, barely saying it, it was obvious he was scared just as much as she was, but he was still making an effort, wasn't he?



Watching the younger boy take off, Mercutio twitched for a moment. There he went.... Well, Yumi was outside, she could deal with him. He was sure she could at least fight. Otherwise, what was she really good for, honestly?
And even if she was as useless as she looked, and let the boy just stomp off, one less was.... really.... No, who was he kidding? It would be freaking infuriating. But Scarlet was out, after all, he could just tell her to take care of him later. Damn, just his luck. Calm, calm now... He still had this one to deal with, and he didn't want her walking in on whatever Yumi was about to do to that boy outside. It was bad enough bearguy had to watch.
Thinking all of this, he still had his selling smile on his face.
"Well, there goes one, I guess. Now, as for the revolutionaries, you said something about two others?"
Another element unaccounted for, possibly dangerous.

One of the unaccounted for, dangerous elements found himself something of a situation...
In front of him was a young girl in a hoodie, hood of said garment pulled up to protect her from the rain which was still pouring down.
They had been standing in front of each other for a while, staring in a very non romantic, not bonding way, into each others eyes. At some point, his fingers twitched, but she was absolutely motionless, though he knew she had noticed. Another minute passed, and another one, the rain had almost washed the last drop of red from the blade he was still holding in his hand.
There were no words to be said, some people just understood each other. But, just to make it clear, the skull girl opened her mouth.
"Killed them?"
He nodded and noticed the bandages on his face were soaking wet already.
Another minute in absolute silence. Normally, he would have expected something along the lines of 'Why? What did they do to ever deserve this?', especially since he estimated them to be crewates, but not from this girl. Anyone with eyes as empty as hers probably meant the skull tatoo that decorated their face to be a mirror of their inside... Jamil knew, he could relate, at least at some point, on some not quite mentally all right level.
He tightened his grip on the sword and estimated the attack that would no doubt come any minute. And so it did.

About an hour earlier:
After leaving the ship and the pirate crew seemingly attached to it, Jammil had directly started looking for Johan. As opposed to his useless partner and the rowdy lady (what did he see in her? What did she have that none of them did?), he actually established a system in his search, instead of running in and out of town and, if he understood correctly, flying. His ingenius system was to just follow the road of bad things happening. Five stalemates in a row in a chess match? Yeah, Johan had ost likely walked by here. Or how about that accident down the road? You bet Johan had been there... Okay, so it wasn't a proven fact that Johan did not only have bad luck, but brought it to others as well. But Jamil had spent long enough in the crew to know he had been a bit too conveniently (or inconveniently, rather) unlucky since entering it, and that that streak didn't seem to ever cease....
In the end, though, it wasn't his system that got him where he would be in an hour. It wasn't luck either, of course. Rather, it was the worst case of bad luck for all parties involved, but looked like good luck at first.
It was when he walked by an alleyway that he heard two girls chatting... He thought nothing of it, but then got a look at them, and, more specifically, their wounds. People on this island didn't seem to get into fights, and they definitely weren't hostile towards each other, so that sparked the question of where those wounds came from... The revolutionary decided to, uh, listen in on the conversation, something he wouldn't have done if he hadn't been absolutely sure Johan was in trouble, which was what he was every time Jamil turned his back, and who would've thunk? Yes, they did talk about his beloved captain. Without a second thought, Jamil stepped out of the shadows that had been so sufficient in hiding him before. He needed to "Talk" to them.

((Sorry, was sick and very unimaginative, feeling a bit better now.))

Right around then, several screams and yells erupted from the environment as the sound of a building falling apart echoed through the town. The sound of metal sliding across the ground rang through the streets, a slithering sound not unlike that of a snake. Suddenly, the wall of the building Avis was in collapsed to reveal a large steel serpent towering tall in the middle of the street. "AVIS!" A voice screamed from atop the serpent as a large ivory tooth dropped out of the sky and landed in front of Avis. A man garbed in a large amount of clothing landed right in front of Avis, saluting. "I retrieved the dinosaur tooth, madam! Further orders?" What in the hell?

"Go ahead, run away. That's real helpful!" Avis hollered, shaking her fist as Uddo left. She turned away from the doorway and faced the merchant with a huff. "What is with these revolutionaries..." The moment she gets the lot of them in one, she would have to consider roping them together. At least it'd keep them from running off constantly for absolutely no reason at all. This whole return turned into a rescue operation was turning out to be more than she bargained for.

Before she was able to piece together a response to the yet another one of the merchant's prying questions, the noise outside was becoming unbearable. What was Jace doing out there? Avis was about to stick her head out into the street to investigate the source of the racket when the entire wall in front of her collapsed. Her irritation from latest intrusion into the bar apparent, she gave a sour glance to the person atop the serpent. Tearing down an entire wall was definitely more impressive than falling clumsily through the roof.

"Orders? Here's one: explain yourself, whoever you are!" Avis responded, baffled by the man and massive tooth dropped in front of her. He knew her name, but she couldn't even recognize his face. She couldn't remember anyone who'd be absurd enough to wear that much clothing in such a warm, actually.

Jace growled fiercely. This little coast guard brat had no idea what he was talking about.

"I will not let her go!" he snapped. "She is-"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

Uddo approached Jace with a furious expression written clearly on his features. Jace looked at the boy almost pityingly. So now he had three small fry to deal with and he was already using both of his arms to carry the other two. Wonderful.

A moment later, Uddo reached under his shirt and drew out a long, leather whip with a silver snake head on the end of it. From his other side, Uddo pulled out a sai. Jace frowned. Okay, maybe this wouldn't be as simple as he thought.

"Drop them," Uddo ordered him. "Drop them right now!"

Jace's eyebrows rose in surprise at Uddo's tone. He hadn't been expecting that from the kid. So maybe Uddo wasn't as big a coward as he had originally thought.

"No," Jace replied, in a much more even tone than the one he had been using.

"I will fight you if you don't let them go!" Uddo yelled. "And I don't care how much stronger you are than I am! I will do my best to-"

"No, you won't," Jace said. He glanced over at Yumi and his lips rolled back in a snarl. "Do you think I grabbed this girl just because I could? She is nothing to me and I am not a monster...whatever you might think of me. My actions do have some logic behind them."

"I don't care why you grabbed her," Uddo argued. "I just want you to let her go!"

"You will care when you learn the reason why," Jace said patiently. "You see everyone has a specific scent. Some are similar, but I have learned to tell the difference between them. In a similar manner, groups of people have a scent that is all their own. For example, I can tell you what your revolutionary friends smell like. I picked up their scent on both Jamil and Zuzen and then later on you. After all, when people live in close quarters with one another or come into close contact they pick up scents from other individuals. Now, let me ask you something. This girl isn't a revolutionary, I know that much from the conversation. So why is it I smell the scent of your crew on her?"

Right. Giant steel snake. Stranger had happened. Not anything he could think of right now, but...
Mercutios eye twitched a bit as he looked at the newcomer.
His father had been right in what he said about Frideswide... The man himself might be normal, but the most unlikely and crazy things happened to everything and anything he got into contact with.
For now, he decided to stay and watch, since the question that had been burning on his mind had already been asked. Right now, he really, really wished he hadn't sent his men away....

Outside, the rain was getting stronger, and Yumi was starting to feel a bit tired from it, she had never been good with overexposure to water, or anything, really. But right now, she was in a bit of a situation. She was feeling the tears rush to her eyes, and felt pathetic for them doing so. She was frightened and angry at the same time, and it was a mix of feelings she didn't think she liked.
"That's what I wanted to tell you!"
It was so unfair! Why did everything today have to go so wrong?! Why couldn't it just be easy to make decisions like that?! Why couldn't anything ever be easy?!
"If you'd just listen! You're in danger, it's-"
"And what do you think you're doing?!"
Yumi turned her head, though she already knew who taht voice belonged to. It was a girl little older than her, though with much more revealing clothes and black, long hair in a ponytail. Behind her was another, on rollerblades, who was too busy shooting her partner angry looks to care about what was going on.
Meanwhile, it remained unclear who the question was posed to.
"Myriam! Chris!"
Yumi looked shocked, no wonder, after all she had just been caught trying to betray her crew, and over what? Some feelings of remorse and a boy she had met only a few hours ago?
"Yes! Myriam!"
The girl drew the gun she had formerly carried by her side, and aimed it at Jace.
"And you are threatening a member of our crew right there, mister!"


"I know what it looked like, but it really wasn't what it looked li- Ow!"
It was hard, Johan had to admit, to talk sense into these people. And he had a deep understanding for that, considering he had been caught literally redhanded, even though he had done absolutely nothing this whole day, and achieved even less, by the looks of it. Still, couldn't they at least let him finish the sentence without jabbing him with their various weapons?
He carefully ripped his side, where the end of the spear had hit him. This definitely didn't look good. He wondered what his crew was doing...

"Hmph...more trash..." Jace sniffed. He looked over at Uddo and nodded towards him. "You! Suicidal kid!"

With that, Jace tossed Yumi towards Uddo, who dropped his weapons to catch her with both of his arms, bridal-style, but he was still nearly flattened. Surprisingly for both him and Jace, Uddo kept his balance. Apparently hanging out with Revolutionaries was paying off. Still, Uddo wasn't like Jace. He couldn't up her up forever.

"Hang onto that for me, will ya?" Jace growled. "As for you..." He rapped Kimo behind the head with his free hand to knock him out before dropping him on his back in the mud. "...stay put." Jace cracked his knuckles and grinned maliciously as he stepped towards the girls. "It's about time for me to cut loose. After all, if these little angels are from the same crew as that girl, they must also know what's going on. And I intend to find out. One way or another..."

Uddo gulped and backed away from Jace. He considered making a run for it while he still could, but what Jace had said and what Yumi had started to say held him back. Uddo looked down at the young girl in his arms and sighed miserably. Why did things have to be so freakin' complicated? Uddo carried Yumi over to a slight overhang and set her down gently against the building the overhang was attached to. The ground was still a little bit wet, but it wasn't soaked like the open ground was.

"A-Are you okay?" Uddo asked Yumi, his voice soft. He blushed and looked at the ground. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that...I thought he might actually..." Uddo's voice trailed off. "Well, you're safe now, at least...listen...I don't want to press you for details if you don't want to talk, but what did you mean by saying that he was in danger? And my crew...was he...right? Did you see them? Or see what happened to them?" Uddo looked back up at Yumi pleadingly.