Serious: The Squall Pirates Chapter 2: Growing Pains (Open to the Squall Pirates)

Daniel was sitting on the front of his ship, waiting for the next island to come into view. He had been sailing for almost three days since leaving Goldendale and was ready to get to some sort of land. His brief time on Goldendale had reminded him how it felt to have other people around him and loneliness had set in.

Daniel first checked his Log Pose, which he was wearing on his right arm, before turning to the map he was holding. During his isolation, he had found both items inside of the cabin where he had been living. A long time ago his parents had taught him how to use them and though he wasn't very good at navigating and remembered only a little of what they had told him, he figured he had almost reached his next destination. Actually Daniel should have reached early yesterday, but his lack of skill had driven him off course about a hundred times.

Daniel stood on the front of his ship and shaded his eyes as he looked into the distance. His heart preformed a backflip as the shape of an island came into view. Daniel let out a whoop and ran for the wheel to straighten it and set his course directly for the island.

A few minutes later, Daniel's ship slid into a port and he leaped onto the dock to tie up his boat. He turned around, expecting to see the dock master coming over for payment, but there was no one there. In fact, there was no one at all in sight.

Disappointment settled in, deep down in his gut. Daniel wanted to punch something. Where was everyone?

As he looked around again, scanning the area for any sign of life, Daniel caught sight of an extravagantly decorated sign nearby. He jogged over to it, hoping this would solve the mystery for him. The words on the sign exploded outward in a bright collage of eye popping purples, pinks, and yellows. It said:

Welcome to Redmont Island, home of the annual Redmont Festival! Admission to the festival is free, as are the docking fees! So bring your friends and family and come on in and enjoy yourself!

Brought to you by the Piedman Foundation

Daniel blinked in surprise. He had never heard of this festival before, though that was probably because he had been so isolated for so long. Then he heard it: A cheering sound, not too far away. A child-like excitement welled up inside of the young man and Daniel ran towards the sound to see what was happening.
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Elsewhere in the city...

"This place is GR-OO-VY!"

The speaker was a tall, thin man who had a guitar case slung over his shoulders. The man's statement had earned him odd looks from several of the passerby, but he ignored them as he continued on down the main street of the city.

All along the sides of the street were stalls, each brimming with a vast variety of games, prizes, and exotic foods. On the far end of the street was the town square, which had been cleared to accommodate several large rides.

"Heh, I would love to meet the crazy guys who thought all of this up!" the man said loudly. "Hmmm...I wonder if they'll give me a tour of their main works if I ask real nicely."

Mariana had been tired of the island she was staying at, I mean, she liked the place and everything but after that problem with that woman from the world government, she wanted to leave, at the moment. She waited in the restaurant when the guy came in and said there was a fight or something like that, Mariana being Mariana didn't really care about it, she thought that woman should be near there, and was afraid something would happen because of that, so she stayed inside and ate silently her cordon blue.

After finishing eating her food, she payed, she had some money left, from her last work in another place, so she wouldn't have to run for it, instead of paying. She smiled at the waiter, who was being flirty with her, asking her if she had somewhere to go, to stay the night at his house and stuff like that, eventually she grew tired of him being like that and glared slightly, "no thank you" she said quietly as she stood up and left the restaurant.

Mariana was really glad that once she stood in the entrance of the restaurant she noticed that all the ruckus had stopped, 'wooop, I'm lucky' she thought as she walked around town. She had decided she was leaving this town today, because if not she would still be able to meet that woman, the one in the world government, and it was obviously something that Mariana wanted to evade with all her heart.

Mariana bought all the things that she needed, basic things like food supplies and things like that, since she would not, or she had not planned, to go somewhere for some time, since it would be possible that that woman would be searching for her, since she had told Mariana to NOT leave the town, and guess what, that's exactly what Mariana did.

Mariana bought food supplies, things like shampoo and stuff she would need eventually, because she wanted to be prepared for anything, and when I say anything I mean ANYTHING, and this narrator is really intelligent so people should listen to me when I say something.

Anyway, once she got everything she needed, which made her loose all her money, all of that, she needed to eventually settle down in another town and work for some time, either that or finally find a crew, which would be nice as well.

"I hope I'll find a crew with a nice captain and nice crew members someday, although it doesn't seem like it'll be soon" she said while turning to her ship, which used to be her father's. She took all the stuff inside the ship and organized it neatly, she always loved to have everything nicely organized, which was one more thing about Mariana that people should know before living with her, because if not... well, Mariana gets mad when people mess with her stuff or make her room a mess.

Mariana finished organizing her stuff and sailed, she didn't want to go back to this town.. ever, if that was possible, because this town only meant problems for Mariana, and she didn't want them now. Mariana wasn't stupid, she knew that the woman outranked her in battle, or at least that's what she thought. Besides, fighting without a crew, against a member of the world government would be a stupid thing to do, and Mariana didn't want more problems, and specially not one like that.

Mariana sailed, her destination: nowhere in special. She didn't know if she should go to another village, island or town, because of all the problems that had happened in the last one, although she couldn't help but remember all the things, the adrenaline, about being a pirate and that it was possible that in the next island she went, a pirate willing to take her into their crew would be there, although she knew there was also the possibility that there wasn't said pirate, but Mariana liked to keep her mind positive, most of the time.

As she looked over the horizon, with the wind on her face, hands on the helm, and well everything was perfect for Mariana, although she felt lonely, she wanted to have a crew, soon, although it would be hard to find one that would have their arms open to a girl like Mariana, considering her weird aspects, like being too organised, or being too reserved concerning stuff like her likes and things like that, besides she hated pick-up lines, and things like that, she didn't like people who flirted a lot, if she was going to fall in love with someone someday, she would do it because she knew the guy from time before, and it would be something forever, not something that would last a little and would then rot, like love these days, what Mariana wanted was what people call "true love", and she would give everything to obtain it, except being a pirate and her crew, once she finds one.

Mariana kept thinking about true love, about how hard but awesome it would be to have it, she was near an island, she was considering whether she should visit that island and stay for a while, maybe work there if she found a work she both liked and was good, when this pamphlet came to view, it fell on the deck, and stayed there, Mariana, who was also a little curious about it, went to the deck and picked up the pamphlet, she stared at it for a moment before reading.

It said: Welcome to Redmont Island, home of the annual Redmont Festival! Admission to the festival is free, as are the docking fees! So bring your friends and family and come on in and enjoy yourself!

Brought to you by the Piedman Foundation

Mariana was now really interested in this island, she loved festivals with all her soul, it was one thing that would always bring joy to her, she would need money to have fun though, 'meh, I guess I can use the savings from this year..' Mariana thought while going inside the ship, she went to her room and took out a pretty pig bank, then with all her effort she took out her katana, one of them, and sliced the piggy bank in half, the money getting out, falling on the bed.

Mariana smiled, looking at all the money she had saved in a year, and put it all inside her bagpack, although she really took care of the money, she still liked to spend money in festivals, and since she almost never went to these festivals, she spoil herself once in a while, which was even less than once a year, and that explained a lot of Mariana's personality, Mariana was indeed... weird, but awesome.

Mariana, after packing everything she would need, and use, and everything in case of an emergency, just in case, because if something happened, Mariana wanted to be ready, she was like that, and it was a good trait of hers, one of the reasons why her brothers didn't want her to leave them, was because instead of them taking care of Mariana, Mariana was the one who took care of her brothers most of the time, being the mature one of the three, and also the younger and only girl.

Mariana smiled at the memory of her brothers, how she missed the dumb guys, she also missed her father and mother, but she had chosen a path, and she wasn't going to regret it, not now that she was so close to find a crew and be happy again, she would not give up now.

She slowly, walking as if she had all the time of the world, walked towards the deck, she went to the helm and directed it to the Island, she was going to have fun in the festival, because she said so, and because this narrator said so, and everyone knows that the narrator says the truth.. most of the times.

After half an hour, Mariana's ship finally arrived at the Island's port, Mariana went out of the ship and walked to the person in charge of the port, she gave him the necessary money to let her ship stay there and then went to visit the town.

A small ship was making it's slow progress towards the docks of Redmont island. Sounds of a party and the smell of alcohol were carried form the deck of the wooden ship to it's surroundings, and the sight of people banging glasses filled with cold rum was exposed. "There it is men!" One of the sailors on board announced, "The Redmont Festival!" he shouted, with his fellow mates cheering behind him. "Finally we can get some fun flowing!" Another one shouted, and the sounds of cheers escalated.

The ship was now settling into the dock and the sailors began jumping down one after another, craving to rush to the party. "Everyone join for a cheer for the man who brought us all the way to our joy! Three cheers for the man, and the afro, JIMI!" One of the men shouted, making all of the others gather around and raise their hands for a final cheer.

With the sound of the sailors' cheer accompanying him, a tall man dressed in red jumped down from the ship, his face hidden by his extremely large pitch-black afro. With a throw of the head that made his afro dangle on his scalp, the man threw his right arm up, creating a V-sign with his index and middle fingers. He was wearing sunglasses. "Thank you one and all!" He shouted, as if he was stepping down from a concert stage. "I want to thank you all for giving me a ride to this wonderful place! NOW LET'S PARTY!!!" He shouted, making the sailors cheer once again and rush for the festival, with him leading.

As Jimi was rushing for the festival, he couldn't help but thank his any god who was up there for allowing him to meet these people. Being a navigator with no ship, he relied on taking rides with various crews to reach his destinations, and as a sworn party-lover, he couldn't miss the Redmont Festival.

"Ma'am! Wait up ma'am!"

A man came running up behind Mariana. As he was reaching her he slowed down, clasping his knees as he panted from the exertion of his brief dash. The man was young and a little overweight. To the casual observer he probably looked like a kid who would have been a prime target for bullying while he was at school.

"Whew!" he gasped, finally coming back up to face Mariana. He held out some money. "I guess you didn't hear, but the docking fees are free today because of the festival. My boss wasn't really paying attention when you gave him this. He was about to head out into the festival himself." The young man looked around excitedly. Since he had caught up to Mariana while she was still on the edge of the town, only a few of the attractions could be seen from where they stood. "It's all so exciting, isn't it?" the young man gabbled. "This is only the third time we've had this festival and the last two years it has been a huge hit!"
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A woman was watching from the shadows as Jimi's ship landed and the crew disembarked. The woman raised a den den mushi to her lips and said, "Another ship has just arrived in the harbor. The vessel is large enough for our purposes and the crew looks weak. Perfect."

"Good," came the voice from the other end of the line. It sounded like a man. "You just make sure that nothing goes wrong on your end. If we mess this up we could all be-"

"Yes, I know," the woman cut in. "The parade is starting soon. Quite worrying. I'll be ready."

With that, she lowered her arm and slipped away.
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Daniel was walking down the middle of the street with the attractions surrounding him on all sides. He was trying to take it all in and he was turning his head back and forth so quickly, he was almost giving himself whiplash.

The crowds! The excitement! The foods! The sellers! It was all so overwhelming.

Daniel took a moment to rest his mind by stepping into an alleyway. He was alone now, except for a homeless man on the other end of the alleyway, who was sitting with his head bowed and his knees pulled up to his chest. The man was wearing a long, dark cloak which had a hood that was raised, hiding his head. Only the skin of his hands was visible. The rest was covered by the cloak. Daniel looked away from the man and closed his eyes, leaning against the wall behind him.

Daniel chuckled softly. Perhaps he had been a bit too overeager to reenter human society. After living amongst deadly, wild animals for so long, he had lost some of his social skills.

The sound of voices raised above the din of the crowds just outside the alleyway caught Daniel's attention. He looked around just in time to see a group of men in suits rush past the alley. Daniel caught wind of a few of the words they were saying, but it was all muddled.

"...lost track..." "...just a kid..." "...so sorry..." "...keep looking..."

Then they were gone. Daniel shook his head. What was that all about?

Daniel jumped as the homeless man brushed against him and hurried out of the alleyway. For a moment, Daniel thought he could smell perfume, but then the smell was gone. The homeless man had already vanished into the crowds, heading in the opposite direction as the men in suits who had passed by moments before.

Daniel stepped out of the alleyway and looked around, but he could not see the men in suits or the homeless man any more. The crowds were just that thick. Ah well. He figured that it didn't matter.

Daniel rejoined the crowds and soon forgot all about his encounter.

Mariana kept walking and found the Festival place, the place indeed was crowded! She kind of felt claustrophobic at this moment, because of the huge thick crowd of people, she stayed in the borders, barely being able to walk, she didn't want to end up in the middle, since, besides having her katanas with her and they might end up falling if she was in the middle of the crowd.

She kept on walking, looking at all the stands she could see, although the only ones she could were the ones in that side of the crowd, she stared at all the kind of delicious food, games and things she had enjoyed since little with her brothers and family.

-flashback-

A little 5 year old Mariana ran down the street in her light blue yukata, which was covered in white flowers, indeed a really feminine yukata. She smiled childishly but accidentally tripped on her own feet and fell forward. She started crying when a hand was extended towards her, to be more exact two hands.

The little Mariana looked up, her face full of dust and tears, and saw her two older brothers extending their hands to her, it was such a cute gesture from them, Mariana smiled slightly and took their hands, they helped her up and hugged her.

Mariana hugged them and they took her home, where they changed her yukata and put on another one which was white with sakura blossoms. Mariana and her brothers spent the whole day in the festival and had lost of fun.

Mariana smiled at herself sadly at the memory, since she missed her family a lot, suddenly, she realized she was in the middle of the crowd, all the flashback of her childhood took her mind of not being pulled to the middle and it all ended up in exactly that.

Mariana felt her breath be taken away, she could barely breath, she tried to look at the people around her, Daniel being one (without knowing), and her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fainted. "heeelp.." was the last thing she said before fainting.

"DING DING DING!" A mechanical voices erupted as the weight ran into the bell at the top of the tower. "YEA! That's how you do it!" Jimi shouted, balancing the hammer on his shoulder. The crowd around him cheered at his success, and he enjoyed every second of it. But then, it all stopped for some reason. "What happened to her?" One man asked another. "We have a fainted woman over here!" Another one shouted. Jimi turned with the rest of the crowd, but the crowd was to thick to see the event itself.

Still, Jimi had a very strict opinion regarding women in danger, and it involved him lending them a hand. He tried to walk into the middle of the crowd and reach the woman. Most of the crowd lost interest and kept their party going, something Jimi wanted to do as well, but he felt that he needs to try and help the woman first.

The crowds were so thick, it was difficult for Daniel to see everything that was happening. As he made his way along, his thoughts drifted back to that man who had passed by him in the alleyway and the scent of perfume Daniel had caught. That smell made him wonder, was that person really a man? Daniel had just assumed that fact from the little he had seen of how the person was built, though he could have been mistaken. That person had been huddled over under a cloak. Daniel hadn't seen the person's face so maybe...

"Heeelp..."

Daniel almost didn't hear the word, he was so distracted by his thoughts and just trying to navigate the dense and noisy crowd. He looked around, trying to find the source of the sound and he just barely caught a glimpse of a young woman falling over. Then she disappeared from sight. She would be trampled if she went down in here!

Daniel forced his way through the crowd, knocking against shoulders and pushing people out of his way. Despite the short distance between him and the girl, it still took him several seconds to reach her. When he did, he reached down and lifted her easily in his arms, bridal-style. It might have looked sweet, the way he was holding her, had he not promptly slung her over his shoulder like a sack of corn.

A man slammed into Daniel's free shoulder and snapped, "Watch it you!" Daniel turned and glared at the man, who did his best to back away. "What's up with you?" When Daniel didn't respond, but kept on starting at him, the man turned away muttering, "Freak."

Daniel ignored him and began pushing his way out.
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As Jimi was making his way over to go help the woman, a man appeared on the edge of the crowd, close to the crew Jimi had come with. This man was holding a sign that said, 'Come on down to Mojo's Bar! We've got freshly imported whiskey, beer, wine, and anything else your heart may desire! The first round is on the house!'

The man holding the sign made sure he was at least visible to the crew, but not as obvious for everyone else, and then he headed off down an almost vacant side street instead of heading out into the main crowd. There was a much larger sign above the street he was traveling which said, 'Mojo's Bar'. It was hanging out in front of a building from which the sounds of partying could be heard.

Jimi almost reached the girl when he felt his sleeve being pulled. He turned around to see one of the sailors he got to the island with. "Jimi my man! first round of imported drinks is on the house at Mojo's bar!" The man shouted with excitement. "Come on the crew wants to share a last drink with ya" He explained. Jimi's desire for a free cold drink was greater than his desire to help the girl he never met, and besides, she had all these people around, she will be fine.

"Let's Rock and Roll!" Jimi said and followed the sailor with a bright smile. The crew was waiting for him. "There he is!" one of them shouted, they were visibly drunk . "Let's head out" Another one said. They led him to a side street that had a large sign pointing to it reading "Mojo's bar". "Sounds like a party to me" Jimi said with joy as he rushed with his temporary drinking buddies to the side street and into the building that the sign was hanging from.

Daniel had made it out of the crowd and slipped down another side street. There were a lot of people here as well, but not so many that they were bumping into each other at every turn.

Daniel laid the girl down against the side of an ancient-looking hotel. Then he just stayed where he was, crouched in front of her. For the first time he got a good look at her. She looked young, about the same age as him. Daniel supposed she was pretty, though she wasn't stunningly gorgeous or anything like that. At her side she was carrying three swords. An unusual sight, to be sure, but Daniel had seen stranger ones.

Daniel considered waking her up, but he wasn't sure how he was supposed to do that. There was one thing he had heard about from his parents. It had to do with salt and a person's nose. Maybe you were supposed to put salt in the person's nose, but since Daniel didn't have any salt (fortunately for Mariana) he couldn't do that. So he decided to try something else.

Daniel reached out with his mind and took hold of the air around him. He then channeled a steady stream of it into both of Mariana's ears. The air was not flowing super fast or anything since Daniel didn't want to accidentally blow out her eardrums, but it was moving quick enough to disturb the tender insides of her ears.

Passing out was different from falling asleep so Daniel wasn't sure if this would work. However, he did know from experience that it tickled like crazy. A pack of wolves had been checking him out when he had fallen asleep during a training session and one of them had been breathing right into his ear. He had woken up with a yell and flung a blast of air in all directions, scattering them. That was how he had learned his Devastation technique.
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The party inside the bar was in full swing. Both men and women were dancing and drinking and singing to their hearts' content. A band had been set up over in one corner and they were playing loud, raucous music that could just barely be heard over the crowd.

The bartender must have had the hearing of a bat, because the moment Jimi and the others walked in, he whirled around and waved to them. He then turned to a short, thin man and said something quietly. The man nodded and dashed out from behind the bar with a pen and notepad. He headed straight for the crew, expertly navigating around the crowd.

"What can I get for you?" he said, when he had reached them.

"How large is your free first round?" One of the sailors asked and got nudged by another. "Don't be such a cheap skin Jacob! We're celebrating today! Give us a keg of your finest imported drink, and plenty of ice too" The sailor said, making a round of Cheers rise. Inside the loud party, Jimi felt as happy as he could be. After spending his entire childhood studying, Jimi looked for as much excitement as he could find, and parties like this one were his favorite kind of excitement. He paid no attention to the bartender's ability to notice new costumers in this mess and was focused on singing the lyrics of the song that was played, which he picked up from the people around him. His singing wasn't good at all, but it created an aura of happiness around him, making the sailors join him. "Hail the four Blues! Hail the Grand Line!" They sang, without being sure if it was the proper lyrics.

Mariana had felt someone pick her up and carry her bridal style, although she was too tired to even try to wake up, but then after a while, she felt warm air entering her ears, and it tickled, it tickled too much, and Mariana was really bad with anything that tickled, because she was too much sensitive to the tickles.

Mariana's green eyes shot open as her body is pushed up, she is dumbfounded at first and doesn't know what the hell is going on in there but eventually analyzes it and looks at Daniel, who was crouching besides her, she was almost sure that he was the one who helped her, the reason? she didn't know, but she would at least try to know.

"Um, you helped me out when I passed out?" Mariana asked him cutely, her green eyes big from just waking up in a weird place, with a weird guy, she just hoped Daniel was a nice guy, I mean, she could've been raped or anything, but she wasn't, or hasn't been, yet.

But Mariana didn't want to think so negatively, something about Daniel told Mariana that he was good, she should trust him, his eyes, they told her everything she needed to know, or at least she thought so, because in them, she could see he was good, if he wasn't good he wouldn't have saved her from the crowd, would he?

Mariana wanted to believe this, so she stayed quiet waiting for Daniel's answer.

Daniel didn't answer Mariana right away. He just kept on staring at her, his eyes narrowed now as he considered his answer to her question. On one hand, he didn't mind helping her get away from the crowd, but on the other hand he shouldn't have needed to.

"Yeah, I guess I did," Daniel said at last. Then he burst out, "What were you thinking, fainting like that? Don't get in a crowd if you have a problem with them! Sheesh." He sighed. Okay, that had been a bit rude, but he hadn't exactly spoken to anyone for a long time except a couple of Marines back on Goldendale. And he didn't have to be nice to them. "Sorry," Daniel muttered, standing back up. "I'm going to go get some water. You look like you could use a break from the all the people as well. Want to come?"

Daniel wasn't quite sure why he had asked her this. He supposed it was just his way of making up for shouting at her like that. He wasn't the most social person, after all. However, she had probably come to the festival with some friends so he expected that she would refuse.
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The waiter nodded. "Coming right up, sir!" he announced. As he turned away from them, he could hear them starting to sing. He smirked. The fools. It was just all too easy.

The waiter waved to two other waiters and met them behind the bar. He assigned each of them with the task of bringing Jimi and the sailors their drinks. Then he took off the apron he was wearing and slipped into one of the bar's backrooms. This particular room was an office. On the desk in the office was a Den Den Mushi phone. After closing the office door and locking it, the waiter crossed over to the phone and picked up the receiver.

"The stooges have arrived," he told the ones on the other end of the phone. "Make sure to keep a close watch on their vessel. I'll handle the rest on this end."

With that, he hung up the phone and left the office, heading out behind the bar again. He slipped his pen behind his ear, secretly signaling every agent they had in the bar. The party continued, uninterrupted, as the agents calmly circled around Jimi and the sailors, blocking off the door as they did so. The waiter behind the bar then leaned against the bar and reached under it, pressing a button.

The button activated a series of nozzles, all hidden in a wide variety of places around the room. The agents who had seen the signal, reached into their pockets and pulled out gas masks, which they slipped over their faces just as a greenish-looking gas* began to pour from the nozzles.

Chaos soon followed as random individuals, who were not agents, began to panic. They started to run for the doors and windows, but the agents moved into their paths, holding out knives and guns to stop them in their tracks. One by one, these non-agents started dropping like flies. The rest, seeing what was happening, started screaming and trying to fight their way out. The agents used whatever force they deemed necessary, stabbing and shooting into the crowd.

(OOC:*The gas is not deadly. It just puts people to sleep. Oh, and when I was talking about those random individuals who are not agents, I wasn't including your NPC crew. Just lettin' you know I wasn't trying to control them. That's up to you.)

Mariana looked as Daniel frowned, and thought his answer before agreeing in being the one who helped her out of the crowd, but then he snapped and yelled at her, he seemed to regret what he did right after the snap time finished, but Mariana really didn't mind this, Daniel had saved her life, and she owed him one.

Mariana stood up, since Daniel had done so as well and went to the door, she thought that his snap was only normal because indeed, even if she was claustrophobic and didn't know there were going to be so many people in the festival, Mariana still distracted herself with the memories as for noticing she was being dragged to the middle, and only noticed once it was too late, she knew it was all her fault, and that snap was only deserved, even if she didn't really know Daniel. She still wanted to explain why that had happened to Daniel though.

"It's fine, I fainted because I'm kind of claustrophobic, and I'm new in this town, I didn't think there would be so many people in the festival, obviously I was wrong" Mariana paused for a little while to breath and then she continued talking. "And yeah, it would be nice, thank you" she said as she turned to follow Daniel.

"I'm Mariana D. Fiore, by the way" she said in a small voice, she just realized that he might as well be a bad guy, but she thought, for some weird reason, that she could trust him, at least for now.

Daniel nodded. He was mildly disappointed and yet somewhat gratified by her acceptance to go with him. It was an odd feeling.

"And my name is Daniel," he told her. "Daniel D. Haught. Nice to meet you." He waved at a restaurant across the street from where they were standing. "There is as good a place as any," Daniel said. "Not to mention it's not very far from the festival."

It was also a clean establishment, which was more than he could say for some of these places. Daniel knew this because he had looked inside it earlier while he was walking around.

He now turned towards it and walked over to it, heading inside. The place was busy, but not overly so. Since it wasn't a particularly fancy place, Daniel simply chose his own seat: A booth where he could sit and keep a close eye on the door.
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Over in the farthest corner of the restaurant Daniel had chosen was a person. This person's gender was indiscernible both because of the long cloak he or she was wearing and because he or she was hunched over. In front of the person was a glass filled with sweet tea, but it looked untouched.

This person may have been mostly inconspicuous had he or she not looked up and stared at Daniel as he came in. The person kept a close eye on Daniel as he was sitting down in his seat.
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(Since I have Sleepy's permission...)

The crew that had come with Jimi was not composed of fighters. However, most of them had spent their lives on the sea and were by no means slouches.

They drew what weapons they carried, though there were only a few. They had not come to this festival expecting to find trouble. Then they charged the agents surrounding them. About half of their fighting force fell victim to the knockout gas that had been released. The other half slammed into the wall of agents and tried to push through. They were not successful. The agents easily drove them back, killing two of them and wounding several others. Even so, the crew managed to knock one agent unconscious and wounded a couple of others.

The agents then began to move in. Since the crew had been dealt with in a manner that did not leave to many marks on their clothing, the agents' main objective was completed. It was time for them to wrap things up.

Three agents in particular moved in on Jimi. They knew that he had come with the crew and didn't want to take the chance that he might have as much or even more fighting skill than the crew had.

Jimi's mood was shattered in an instant when a green gas began sloshing into the bar. People were screaming in one moment and the fell asleep in the other. His temporary and half-drunk crew tried to find a way out by force, but were ultimately defeated by a group of what appeared to be armed agents. Jimi didn't like this, he came to the island to celebrate and found himself attacked by people who he knew nothing about, and there was no way he was going to back down without a fight.

He reached into his pockets to arm himself with his brass knuckles when three agents moved in on him. He got his hands out and assumed a fighting stance. He had no doubt that he would be able to fight these agents and protect himself from harm, but the gas was worrying him, he had to take one of the gas masks the agents wore. "You'll pay for ruining my mood!" Jimi shouted and rushed at one of the agents, aiming a punch to his face. As he did so, he could feel himself getting drowsier and drowsier, he had to take a mask as quick as possible.

(OOC: I guess I'll just assume Mariana followed Daniel in...)

Daniel had ordered his water and was no sitting there drinking it. He didn't speak to the young woman who had come with him because he wasn't quite sure what to say to her. Daniel wasn't very good with girls. He was considering asking her why she had come to the festival or if she was enjoying herself when a pair of men entered the bar.

These men were obviously drunk from the way they were stumbling around and giggling. Not to mention the fact that both of them were holding bottles of whiskey. Daniel didn't pay them much attention at first. Why should he? Public drunkenness was a job for the local authorities. However, that little fact changed when they wandered over to his and Mariana's table.

"Heeeeya sweetheart," one of them said, leaning over Mariana. "The festival is gettin' kinda boring, don'cha think? Why don'cha come with us? We'll show ya a gooood time..."

The other man was standing next to Daniel, blocking him so he couldn't step out of the booth. He needn't have bothered. Daniel had closed his eyes and was drinking his water, apparently uninterested in the proceedings. In truth, he was just trying to block out the strong smell of alcohol on the man's breath.

Daniel was also waiting to see what Mariana's reaction to them would be. He hardly knew her and it wasn't his business if she went with them. Not to mention, he couldn't be sure that she didn't know them. They were certainly acting familiar with her.
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The agent Jimi punched at, a man, was hit right in the face and thrown away into a wall. The other two agents who had been moving in on Jimi, a man holding a knife and a woman with a gun, began to advance more slowly. The man circled around Jimi to the side while the woman raised her gun and fired straight at Jimi's chest.

Mariana had asked for a lemonade, since she didn't like drinking alcohol, and less wanted to get drunk while being with a complete stranger, which is Daniel. Mariana was thinking about things she would do once she went to the festival, she was excited and couldn't wait, although she was also hungry and was thinking about asking for an hamburger when this pair of guys came and tried to flirt with her.

Mariana turned her head to look at the guys and glared them daggers. "Look, I, by no means, am going to go with you two, I'd rather suicide" she said while glaring as she took out one of her katanas, she was serious, she hated this, and didn't expect to meet such ignorant guys here, she missed her brothers, who were so nice to her, not like these two guys who were bastards.

She stood up and took stance of battle, she was going to fight them if they insisted on her going with them, there was no way she would do something as stupid as that, really, and Mariana hated the guys who flirted with her, specially if they're drunk and she doesn't know them.

'Dammit...' Jimi thought to himself. His punch sent the man too far away for him to take his mask, and now he got himself attacked by two more agents. 'Great move there idiot...' He thought as he witnessed a gun being pointed a him. Luckily, Jimi knew from experience how to handle gunshots. He raised his head up and stretched his arm to both sides. He then aligned his palms horizontally to his ears, facing his face. "AFRO-PAWA!" He shouted. From there, all it took was one explosive movement to place Jimi's impressive Afro in the woman's line of fire. His afro then expanded a little, but, when the bullets entered into his bush of a hair, no impact sound was heard and no damage has been dealt, they just got lost in his hair.

After blocking the bullets, Jimi tried to punch the knife away from his male attacker's hand so he could attempt and get his mask afterwards. By now, his eyesight was getting blurry and the sound of the gunshots was still running inside his ears, the gas was catching up with him.

The man leaning over Mariana caught sight of her three katanas, one of which she was now holding. For a moment, surprise flickered across his face, but it quickly vanished to be replaced with a frown.

"Now there's no need for that," he said, no longer sounding as drunk as before. He reached over towards her katana. "Now why don't you just put that down before someone gets hurt..."

Daniel didn't notice the fact that the man wasn't exactly as drunk as he was trying to appear, but there was no way he could miss the new tone. Curious, he lowered his drink slightly so that he could get a better look at the man. The man was big, but he wasn't overly impressive muscular-wise. It was strange. Daniel was sure he had seen him before somewhere.
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The knife was knocked from the man's hand and he stumbled back from Jimi, apparently off balance as he tried to escape. The woman, on the other hand, was shocked that her bullets had not worked. However, this shock did not last long. Already she was bringing her arm back up to fire on Jimi again, though she wasn't sure if she could make it in time to hit him.

Around the room, most of the people in the bar without masks had collapsed. Only a few of them were still fighting to escape and those were dropping at a rapid speed. Since the majority of the agents no longer needed to fight off the crowd, a few of them turned towards Jimi and started running over to help. The rest began grabbing the sailors Jimi had come with and they hauled them into one of the bar's backrooms.

Jimi could feel he was running out of time. His moves became slower and less accurate, he had to get a mask. It seemed that even though he tried to keep the man close he slipped away from him. Not only that but more agents were closing in on him and the lady was aiming her gun at him again. This didn't look good. He tried to run his options through his head, but his mind was a blur. In a final move of pure instinct, he turned to the woman with the gun and rush forward, with his head first as if he was going to headbutt her. As he closed in on her, she fired her gun at him, but his Afro was already expanding into new proportions, nullifying the bullets as if they never existed. His head connected with the woman, and then he shouted "AFRO-GOTCHA!". The Afro than multiplied it's volume, trapping the woman inside of it. He could feel her trying to free herself with no luck, she wasn't strong enough.

He had no time to waste. He stretched his arm and reached into his Afro, feeling around until he touched a rubber-like object, the mask. He quickly pulled it off of her face and pressed it against his. He could now feel clean, processed air filling his lungs as the mask connected. He strapped it to his head and stood up, with the woman still fighting inside of his Afro. His situation wasn't good yet, but he at least had time now. "BRING IT ON!" He shouted at the agents from within the gas mask, assuming a fighting position, he was really angry now.

Mariana couldn't be more annoyed by the guy's breath in her face, she was annoyed really really really annoyed, she looked at him and glared dagger, then she turns quickly so she's facing him, there is now some distance between her and the man, she notices that he isn't that much drunk anymore, and that this isn't really intelligent from her part, so she takes some steps backwards and lookes at him, putting her katana back in place, but her fists are now in a fighting stance.

"I do not wish to fight, but if you don't stay away from me, I'll have no other option but to make you leave" Mariana said in a serious tone, she was surprised that Daniel hadn't done anything to help her, but then again she had just met him, it's not like she should've expected anything else from him.

She didn't want to fight, she really didn't, she would've preferred if the guys had left once she had stood up and showed her katanas, she even drew one, but they didn't, and that made Mariana suspicious about these two guys, normal people would be afraid of someone with weapons, specially it it's two, more if it's three, but they didn't looked the least scared, at all.

She hoped that now she would have them leave, Mariana had been practicing Muay Thai and Boxing since little so she hoped that they would either learn a lesson or leave before having to fight against her, she didn't know if the other man would fight against her at the same time, but if he did she would take out at least two of her katanas to fight, because it would be too unfair to fight two, big man, against one, small girl, although Mariana knew she was strong enough as to fight them and win, or so she hoped.

Daniel yawned, stood, and stretched. This was really getting old. It was plainly obvious that Mariana didn't know either of these guys and they were still moving in on her. Maybe he should just point them in the other direction.

"Hey, hey," Daniel said. "Look guys, not that I don't get that you're a little out of it from all your drinking, but if the lady isn't interested, shouldn't you shut up and walk away?"

"You shut up brat!" snarled the man who was standing in Daniel's path.

The man seized Daniel by the front of his shirt and lifted him bodily over his head with the intention of slamming him into the ground face first. However, things didn't go as planned. As Daniel was reaching the apex of his short flight, he managed to pull himself free from the man's grip and seize the man by his arm. Then, instead of landing on his head, Daniel flipped himself around so that he came down on his feet. He didn't stop there, though. He continued moving forward, pulling on the man's arm and hurling the man over his head this time. The man flew behind the front counter of the restaurant and slammed into a wall with great force before crashing down behind the counter.

Daniel smiled and idly cracked his knuckles. "Hoo boy. Now that was fun. Beats hanging out at a festival any day."

The other man's jaw dropped open in shock. He was quick to come to his senses, though, and he dove for Mariana, reaching for her wrists to keep her swords from coming into play. He did this in the hope that she would be just as stunned as he was and not respond in time.
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The agents came to a halt and stared at Jimi. He had just used his hair to trap one of their own and stolen a gas mask. That was completely unexpected, not to mention the hair part was a far cry from what most of them classified as normal. Suffice it to say, each of these agents were thinking the same thing about Jimi's abilities. One of these individuals even decided to voice their collective opinion.

"What a freak!"

These words galvanized the agents back into action. The last of those who were dragging the sailors away from the bar disappeared through the back door. The rest drew out an assortment of weapons and charged Jimi as one.

Those with guns began to try and flank him to attack from both sides. Those with bladed weapons and polearms went straight for him ready to hack and slash at his hair, should he try to grab them like the woman, whose desperate struggles to escape were slowing down as she succumbed to the knock out gas.

Mariana's eyes widened as Daniel helped her out with one guy, but then the other came into her and tried to catch her wrists, of course Mariana being Mariana she stepped back and shook her head. "No way, dude" she said with a smirk on her face, they had already annoyed her, and there was no way she would let them do any harm to neither Daniel nor her, because he had helped her out as well, and he showed that he was worth it.

She glared at him, feeling more annoyed than before because he would actually hurt a girl, that was the lowest of the low, he deserved all Mariana would do to him, that is if she felt good enough, if not she would let him leave after some cuts and punches.. if you understand what I mean.

Mariana took her leg and swinged it forward, if the kick hit it's target, she would've been hitting the guy's nuts, painful isn't it? The kick was fast and powerful, Mariana knew how to kick due to her Muay Thai classes, which taught her how was the best (and strongest) way to hit, specially there. (Due to her brothers being sobreprotective, she learnt how to deal with guys like those).

The guy wasn't able to move in time and took the kick straight in his weak spot. He stumbled for a moment and his eyes rolled back in his head before he collapsed on the ground, whimpering piteously.

Daniel grinned at Mariana and he nodded. "Not bad," he said. "Especially considering you didn't even need to use any of your swords."

A loud banging sound could be heard coming from the door and it burst open to admit a large group of men. They were all dressed in a similar manner as the two men Daniel and Mariana had just defeated. And none of them looked even a little tipsy.

"Hey!" one of them shouted. "What's going on in here?"

"Whoops," said Daniel, folding his arms across his chest. "Looks like we may have attracted some attention..."

"Hey you two! Get a move on!"

Daniel looked around to see a hooded figure rising from her place at one of the corner tables. Daniel could tell it was a she because of the pitch of her voice.

"Follow me!" the hooded girl ordered, running into the restaurant's kitchen.

Daniel considered his options: Follow a girl he did not know or stay here and fight off a horde of gorillas in human clothing. It wasn't much of a choice. He took off after the girl, racing into the kitchen and out a back door and into the streets.

Mariana smiled as the man's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed on the floor, she hadn't expected anything else, like him dodging or anything. The kick was strong enough, and the way Mariana had hit was the correct one, specially for that case, so having him collapsing on the floor was the normal/expected outcome.

Mariana looked at Daniel as he talked to her. "It's only natural, I don't need my katanas for fighting, I can fight with my fist pretty well enough, since I know Muay Thai and Boxing" she said proud of herself, she remembered how her brothers were so nice in the practice and wouldn't hurt her, but when she fought another boys they weren't mercyfull so she did understand being hurt and everything.

Then a huge amount of guys entered the restaurant, they had the same clothes as the ones she and Daniel had fought, so she guessed they were here for having revenge or something, and Mariana didn't like this, at all.

Mariana saw the hooded figure to rise from one of the tables in the corner and order them to follow her, Daniel seemed to not know what to do at first but in the end he decided to follow her, she knew it was a her because Mariana being Mariana, she noticed that the 'follow me!' was really high pitch and it belonged to a girl, probably though.

She actually followed the hooded figure to the back of the restaurant, to the kitchen, the door and then to the streets, she hoped that this way she would be away from the men who were looking for fights, since she herself didn't like fighting that much specially if it was without a reason, Mariana had only fought because the man had attacked her, so she did have a reason for herself.