Serious: The First Step! The Aurora Pirates Begin!

James had only been waiting for a few minutes when the other swordsman on his crew ran up and flung himself onto the ship beside him. The man was breathing heavily from apparent exhaustion and looking up at the sky. James walked over to looked down at him.

"How many did ya get?" he asked Kida.

Kida was still panting hard so it was kinda hard for him to speak properly. "Oh...so this is the...right ship...I...Lost...Count..." He said before bring himself to sit upwards, he bent his knee up and leaned on it using his right hand. "So...did you get rid of that brat that...was following you?" He asked still not looking around but instead looking down at the floor.

"No," James said. "He's still here. Zaru! Come over here for a second!" The young boy walked up, looking angry. "See?" James continued. "But I've got some questions for him. After everyone else gets here we can deal with that."

"Sorry kid..." He said "...next time i look around to see if you are currently present before i call you a brat." He said looking at the kid before raising himself up to his feet. "Shouldn't this kid be getting back to his home or wherever he came from?"

Zaru frowned at Kida. "Kid?" he repeated. "What are you? Sixteen? I'm eighteen!"

James just laughed and lay down on the deck of the ship, staring up at the sky. "It's a nice day..."

"And you!" Zaru whirled on James. "Lying around like you have nothing better to do! Your 'crew' as you call them, are under attack! What are you doing here? They might need your help!"

James sat up and shrugged. "Well then, if they are in trouble while fighting against these weaklings then they can't call themselves pirates. They would be worthless to me. And anyhow, I haven't really accepted anyone into my crew for certain yet. I'm not obligated to help them. So be quiet and wait."

Zaru flinched back and sat down. He glared across at James, who lay back down again. He was once again smiling.

Amelia followed the fishman, while answering his question. "I ate the horo horo no mi... It's complecated, long story short; I can sommun ghosts and stuff"

((Sorry bout short post, in a hurry)

They ran down the road to the harbor. They had already lost most of the men following them.
“That should be it!“ shouted Jake, pointing at a ship nearby.
“Okay“ Guri said and let go of the girls hand. “Jake!“
Jake understood immediately and picked Guri up from the ground.
Then, carying the small fishman in his arms, he leaped onto the boat.
“Don't you think I should help the girl too?“
He asked, looking back with a worried look on his face.
“No, she'll manage. Now let me down already!“
Jake did as he was told. Now that he had solid ground under his feet, Guri felt much better.
He turned to his captain.
“There we are. When will we set sail?“

James smiled at Guri. "Not just yet," he replied. "We've got one passenger to many. Now, Zaru, since everyone is here I have a couple of questions for you. First, do you want to join my crew?"

Zaru's initial look of shock to the question quickly changed to one of outrage. "Of course not! I hate pirates!"

"Alright then," James said. "Second, do you know where I can get a bigger ship?"

Then Zaru's expression went the opposite direction, back to one of shock. "What?" he said, not quite believing what he had just been asked.

"Well, I'm sure these guys have a ship or two between them, considering that two of them are devil fruit users, but since I've already got a good sized crew I was thinking I'll be needing a larger form of transportation," James said.

"To bad because..." Zaru began to say. Then he hesitated. "I...actually I might know where to get you one. But..." he struggled with what he was about to say. "You'll have to agree to help me with something first."

Guri folded his arms.
“Something? And I'm sure you're gonna tell us just what that something is right now, right? Well, let's hear it.“
Jake got nervous over his friend being so snotty.
“Guri, you're not the captain. Let's hear his opinion on this, okay?“
They've had many captains who would have thrown them overboard just for that. Not that it'd harm them. James didn't seem to be the kind of person who'd do something like that, but it couldn't hurt to be careful.
Guri understood that too, so he went into the 'I'm just a little kid and need protection' mode again.
“Oh, you're so right. I'm really sorry, sir. Please decide yourself.“
Too bad he was still wearing his hood, otherwise it'd have been so much more effective.

James looked over at Guri and smiled. "Don't worry about it." He looked back at Zaru. "Go ahead."

Zaru looked at the ground and curled his hands into fists. "I have never been off this island. About two weeks ago, when Yami's men took over this island, a few people rose up against them. My sister and I were among them. We were beaten down and I was wounded. And my sister was captured by those monsters along with some other people in the resistance." Zaru looked up at James, his face determined. "I can get you a ship if you can free my sister and the others in that base on this island."

“What...“ whispered Guri.
“What will happen to them if we don't help? Will they be... sold?“
Jake knew exactlywhat he was thinking about. Guri had told him about what had happened to his mother, and no matter how inhumane Guris actions could be sometimes, he still had a human side. And nothing would make him show it as fast as slavery would. Maybe it'd even make him human enough to actually help those in need.

Amelia climbed on board the ship, and saw some discussion going on. She stayed back and watched from afar. There were four people, the fishman and what seemed like his body guard, the captain appernatly, and one man she had never seen before.

Zaru shook his head sadly. "Who knows? Maybe they will be sold into slavery, or maybe they'll be executed, or even just left in jail to starve. All I know is I have to save them. My wounds from the last fight have just healed up and I was going to make another attempt soon, but if I do it alone I know I will be killed. Please! Help me!"

"Hmmm...I don't know," James closed his eyes and rested his chin on his fist. "What do you guys think?"

"If you think we should then i'll follow no questions asked." He said replying ti James. "So...you wanna help the Kid" Kida said referring to him as a kid again due to the fact that he acted like one according to kida's intuitions.

“Tch, whatever!“ said Guri.
He turned away from the reast of the crew because he didn't want anyone to see how nervous he really was. If there really were slave traders here, maybe they'd know about his mother.
“We'll just go along with what you do.“

"Alright then," James said. "Since we're all in agreement...sort of...and because it should irritate the world government to no end, we'll help you out, Zaru. Now, how should we go about this?"

"Well, you could attack from the land," Zaru said. "But it would be better if we go to the other side of the island. Yami's henchman, the mayor of this village, has his own dock and he doesn't guard it as well."

"Why not?" James asked.

"Why should he?" Zaru said. "That part of the island is facing in the direction of Yami's other occupied islands. Most people coming from that way would be dealt with by patrols long before they even reached his base."

"Right..." James narrowed his eyes looking closely at Zaru. Something told him the other boy was hiding something from him. "We'll set sail immediately. Everyone, I'm sure you have had enough experience with ships to know what to do. I'll sail for now by myself for now since we're hurrying here, but if anyone wants to help out then be my guest. Otherwise get ready for battle. This won't be easy." He stood up and walked over and untied their ship from the dock. He then went to the tiller and began to set their course. "Someone, get the sails for me will ya? Set them so that we'll catch as much wind as possible." He called over to his crew. Zaru stood near the front of the ship, looking out over the waves.

(Right then, we're finally getting to the major battle of this chapter. Just so you know, when we reach our objective you guys will need to have thought up an enemy for yourselves to fight. Make them strong if you want it to be fun. They'll be your main opponent(s) for this fight.)

((I guess if no one else is going to jump in I'll just keep us rolling.))

It took about a half-hour but finally James was steering the ship into the enemy base's docking area. It was a small inlet surrounded by tall stone walls that blocked off any escape to the right or left. There were a few small ships already at the dock.

James looked ahead and spotted several people on shore watching them come in. He grinned. "I guess they haven't realized that we aren't supposed to be here," he thought to himself.

As if on cue, the people on shore scattered. Ten of them ran into a building and came back out with rifles and swords. The remaining two ran in through a gate and close it behind them, sealing the dock off from the rest of the base.

Suddenly there was a rumbling sound from all around the ship. "What's going on?" James wondered out loud.

"It's the 'Shark's Teeth'," Zaru replied. "We can no longer retreat. If we do a row of spikes will tear out the hull of this ship and we'll sink."

"So that's what you didn't tell us before," James muttered. "Okay then. I had no intention of leaving until we were done anyway. Prepare yourselves!" They sailed right up to the dock as the first wave of bullets rained down on them.

Guri jumped behind Jake, who was gladly shielding him.
He knew it wouldn't be too long untill one of them got hit though.
“Hey!“ He shouted at Zaru, untying his shoes.
“Those 'sharks teeth' are only behind us, right?“

Zaru had ducked down behind the side of the ship to dodge the bullets. "Yeah. They are. What are you going to do?"

Guri had now untied his shoes and kicked them off.
He took his coat off next.
“We're gonna swim.“
Jake had taken his coat off as well.
“You're three devilfruit user, right? Sorry, but we're only two. Unless two of you wanna hold on to me, we can't take all of you with us.“
Guri nodded.
“Correct, but if we get there, Jake can knock the ones with guns out, and you'll be safe for the time being.I guess it'd help if one or two of you tagged along, but he can handle it himself... Oh yeah, and in case you haven't noticed by now, we're fishmen. Any problems with that?“

((is lost))

InTents wrote:

((is lost))

((Just read back over everything since you were last here. It's not to bad. We're finally attacking the enemy base. Amelia is currently on board the ship with the rest of us and we are under attack.))

James slashed Kazeshini in front of him sending out a blast of air which knocked several bullets down into the water. He swung around and squinted, looking at Guri and Jake closely. "Yeah, I guess you are fishmen aren't you?" he grinned. "That'll be a big help. And its a good idea. If each of you can take one guy I could take the last. I can swim, although I'm nowhere near as good as you two." He spun back around again and sent out another wind blast at the enemy. "We'll have to hurry though. I won't be able to block bullets if we get much closer."

(Sorry for not posting earlier )

"Damn, Kida said as he hid next to zaru by the sips side...i feel so useless when it comes down to long distance battle." Kida didn't have any techniques with his sword that could send a wave of air as strong as James'. He was out of luck aswell if he chose to use his devil fruit because they were a little out of his reach. "Arrgh screw this." Kida said agitated as got up and hopped of the ship immediately beginning to run towards the enemy attempting to evade the shots. Kida just let the green mist flush out of him as he drew closer to the enemy, he also began to attack any of them close to him with his sword whilst the others who were caught in the mist saw right through Kida and the rest of the crew. He made them invisible to all those caught in the mist.

“What does he think he's doing?“
shouted Guri.
“Didn't he listen to anything we said?“
He cursed and jumped into the water. Jake followed him.
Though Guri wasn't nearly as fast as Jake when it came to swimming, he was faster than most humans.
They reached the land in no time and jumped out of the water, Guri already had the sword he had picked up drawn. He hadn't actually wanted to fight, but Jake was with him and there were only few soldiers, so he didn't see any problems. He attacked the first man he got close enough to.
Even though he only knew the basics of swordfighting, he doubted that any of those men knew any more.

James frowned as the fishmen and Kida all left. He sighed and continued sailing forward until they were actually at the dock. Then he jumped off of the ship and ran into the battle. He drew both of his swords, blocked a swing, and thrust his other blade into an opponent's chest.

"Like before, these guys aren't very strong," he thought to himself. "This shouldn't be to hard. Although those two guys who ran off have probably alerted the rest of the base. Still, how many people would there even be in a place like this?"

Just then the doors to the main base opened and Black Suits began pouring through the opening. James spun around to face them, leaving the fishmen and Kida to deal with the others, and he spun Kazeshini in a circle.

"Single Sword: Storm Tunnel!" A powerful vortex of wind was released from his blade and it blew the front line of Black Suits away, but they just kept on coming. More and more of them were still coming out of the opening.

At that moment there came a roar from James's ship. Zaru hurled himself over side of the ship into the midst of the enemy. He had changed, his skin was a dark red and black fur covered his forearms and legs. His nails and teeth had turned into enormous fangs and claws. He still wore his pants, but his shirt was gone revealing his huge muscles underneath. Two horns grew side by side on Zaru's forehead. Zaru tore through the Black Suits sending them flying in every direction. He rushed through the gateway and into the base. This all happened in ten seconds. There were only three Black Suits remaining after he disappeared. They looked at James and then at each other and then they ran and dove into the water swimming away at full speed. James sheathed his swords and incredulously at the gateway.

"He seems to have gone berserk," he said unnecessarily.