11: "Hey, Hey We're the Monkeys!" (open)

[Farris (Kuro)]

The form of a young girl with long brown hair and bright bubblegum pink eyes found herself traveling alone again. This time it was on an rather peaceful looking Island... if you didn't count bandits and and dangerous wild animals. Over all the ten year old was terrified and wished her rather large robot friend were here. She had thought of building another machine but finding the parts was more difficult than she had imagined. Most stores and smiths looked at her as if she was speaking none-sense. Though that could have been partly to do with her fast speaking habits. Few were the ones that could understand her when she spoke at such speeds and those that could simply thought she was a little girl playing pretend. The little inventor never though she'd have troubles like this waking up after being trapped in stone for over 9000 years. Wasn't technology supose to advance over the course of such time? It had seemed like things went backwards to here.

Iria didn't give this too much thought though specially today as she finally had some money to guy something in the town called Fuschia. The grilled cod fish smelled so good as it was cooked outdoors on the stand so the little girl rushed over to by some with a broad smile. For now she wanted to simply eat some fish and forget how scary the outside world was. After exchange of beri for yummy food, the little girl started to walk away from the stand and towards the docks to watch the sea as she ate. That was when disaster struck! In a blink of an eye her precious grilled fish was gone and Iria did what most little girls did at such moments. She cried. The brunette cried loud and hungrily, but she was not alone in her distress. Many of the villagers gasped and yelled and even cried as many of they're belonging seem to be snatched away all around Fuschia town with ninja like speed and stealth...

[valkyrie536]

Krox Lansherr had just landed on this island. He had been travelling for days alone at sea, drifting around lazily, before he finally caught sight of this island. He sped towards it with mixed emotions, anticipating what the island would have.

"Fuchsia Town. It should be a fun place!"

Fuchsia Town was a beautiful place, with many friendly villagers. He could tell. He got out of his boat with pockets full of money. He meant to go to the butcher shop and buy lots and lots of meat. He was sick and tired of eating small tiny fish, anchovies, which starved him. His fishing rod was also not strong enough to hook a big fish, and he wanted to get a better one. He went to the butcher shop and bought a huge piece of leg meat. It was so juicy and after taking a bite, he was crying with joy. Exaggerated emotions often took over him. Packing more meat into his huge bag, he made his way back to the dock, as he guessed that fishing rods would be sold there. He could also keep all his meat safely in the boat.

When he reached the dock, he caught sight of a small little girl, no more than the age of 10. She was sobbing, tears flowing down her cheeks like waterfalls. Holding his leg meat in one hand, he crouched down and realised that she must be hungry.

"Here, have a piece of meat," Krox told her, handing her the meat he had on his hand.

At this moment, he caught sight of a huge black figure, swiping the meat off his hand with a ninja-like skill. He immediately gave chase, dropping his large bag and running furiously like a cheetah chasing its prey. But to his dismay, the figure escaped easily from him, even though he had the speed and dexterity. When he walked back, his large bag was gone. All the meat inside it was gone. Totally disappeared. The girl was still sobbing and crying. Krox was irritated and angry. Very angry. He felt like a volcano on a brink of eruption, lava flowing out dangerously. Then, he erupted.

'WHO STOLE ME PRECIOUS MEAT!?"

[flame08]

At the same time from the side a third person watched the action unfolding. Both of her sides were interested though for different reasons. It was at least interesting to the Devil that they were getting picked on by some shadow. The Angel of course was more concerned with their safety but more importantly there was an issue they both found concerning. The shadows Akiya could barely make out what they were. She could only see an outline no specific details, it looked kind of humanoid though.

Finally with both of them robbed of their food it seemed that the party was finally over. Akiya looked around for any sign of the sneaky stealers, her keen eyes would normally notice any sort of movement but there was no sign whatsoever. It was odd for her to be unable to find someone. She sighed, anyways onto the little girl and the boy should check on how they are. Akiya stood up and walked over, her red and black apparel gave her presence in the rather grayish town.

Crossing over to them she patted the girl on the back. "It'll be ok, if you want i can get you another." It was the Angel inside her talking, the Devil disagreed but there wasn't much she could do at the moment to change the decision. It had already been said and there was no taking that back. She smiled at the girl, probably better things to do than help her but whatever Angel was in control.

[Kurosaki]

Thieves. He utterly despised thieves. The reason why was fairly simple, because they stole selfishly just to take an easy route in supporting themselves without any regard for the welfare of those from whom they were stealing from. Therefore, Lance believed that they were pretty much scum only second to Pirates. And since most pirates were also thieves and sometimes vis versa, he would just fight either and sent them packing to a proper place; jail.

He hadn't come to this town to work, his superior having given him the day off, but now that he was here and had heard about the stories of disappearing items from the townsfolk Lance couldn't rest or relax until those responsible were put behind bars. The Seaman Recruit wasn't exactly the most formiddable of foes and being alone on this one and away from the main part of the Island where the rest of his squad was severly limited how much power he had. However, Lance was also determined and that in itself was dangerous.

But where in the world to start the search?

That was when cries rang out as townsfolk had items stolen one after another. Lance turned to run toward one of the cries but barely had started to move before another cry in an opposite direction could be heard. The blond young man turned to head that way but stopped as someone shouted out that they had just been robbed from a completely different area.

"What the heck is going on here!"

[Armani]

"Home…interesting..."

Cuomo stared at the island from the small vessel that docked in the quint, small Fuschia Village and a tiny piece of a much greater sized island. Albeit being born on this island, Cuomo had never really set foot outside of the city walls of the Goa Kingdom save the fateful event of his family setting sail one night as a small child, so this place was just as new as any other area of the island to him.

Cuomo stood tall as his eyes glossed over as, even though it appeared he was staring at the oncoming village, his memory had him looking backwards in time. A flashback of an exceptionally stormy night took over for a brief moment before the jolting of the ship docked at the small fisherman's harbor. Even though he was lost in thought, by now, the young S.W.O.R.D. Marine had developed almost a sixth sense of being able to react timely, as he spent much time in his head thinking on this or that.

"Sir," A sailor called out to get Cuomo's attention, "we've arrived at your destination. I apologize that we weren't able to take you directly to the Goa Kingdom, they are apparently in one of their noble frenzies again." The old sailor gave out a chuckle as he spit over the side of the boat from even speaking the word "noble". And as he watched and listened to the man, Cuomo couldn't help but feel a bit upset that the same blood that ran through his veins was still so despised by the general populace of the world.

"Thank you sir." There was a slight bow forward in appreciation for the ride across the East Blue before he turned and sauntered off the boat. With the day to himself, Cuomo had dressed appropriately (at least appropriate to him) as he left behind his Marine uniform, adopting only the necessary identification to keep on his person to show to another that he was a friend in the law and not a foe. He dressed sharply in shining black shoes, gray slacks, a tucked in white button down shirt with the top couple buttons left open and a light jacket to match his pants. He looked much more like a fine tourist than anything else. All of it looked quite normal save for the two dangling coiled chains that he had hanging on the back of his waistline. They jingled slightly as he pressed forward, their little ring was always a nice touch to the ambiance anytime to him.

The tranquility of such a small village was nice, but in an unfortunate turn of events, there would be no such thing as relaxing for the moment. Mere seconds after the he had stepped from the docks, Cuomo's ears perked up and were instantly tuned to the sounds of shrill screams and desperate shouts as the words "lost, taken, thief" and "stolen" permeated the dialogue in the atmosphere. Cuomo stood there and watched as blurs zipped here and there around him. Their unidentifiable forms quickly took whatever was in their path that shined. As quickly as they appeared, they disappeared though and the ruckus that whomever this was had stirred was now all that was left.

His eyes caught a grouping of people that seemed as different as could be from each other, all seemingly now involved or trying to deal with the theft at hand. Cautious as he walked forward towards them, he surveyed from side to side hoping to notice something or someone that could be a clue on where to begin an investigation like this. Whatever had done this was surprisingly fast and Cuomo had been unable to properly identifying whoever it had been. Caught off guard, he couldn't have even told anybody if it was one or multiple offenders. That could be troubling…

"Hello sirs. Ladies." He'd bow to the respective genders with respect to all of them, despite the clear difference in age within this small group. "My name is Cuomo. I just arrived in town not moments ago. Is there anybody hurt, or was it only items that were pilfered?" He spoke calmly. Of course with what had happened, people would be riled up, frightened, confused amongst other strong emotions and panics. Hopefully, the nature of his question as well as him appearing laid back would set people a little bit at ease by either thinking of other.

[lily]

"Tch...where are those damn things?" thought Victor as he walked from the docks of Fuschia town. Adeodatus followed closely behind him. He was stretching his arm out slightly as he had just been taken by surprise by something not human. Thinking back to earlier he remembered how he had unluckily gotten his favorite Flintlock Pistol stolen by some quick animal that had some humanoid traits.

"Jeez..." he said as he walked through town watching people panic and scream as many people seemed to have also had stuff stolen from them. He almost bumped into someone who seemed to be chasing a small shadow moving at high speeds. Victor was able to track it's movement almost completely but sadly it was too far away to tell exactly what it could be other than the fact that it was an animal of some sort.

Victor stopped as he saw a group that had gathered together around a little girl who seemed to be crying her eyes out. Victor decided to approach the group (being the friendly and generous boy he was) he said "Did you guys get something taken from you too?" with a concerned look on his face. His horse Adeo followed right up behind but unlike his carefree owner he seemed to be a little wary about these people. Not everyone was oblivious to the fact that Victor was a World Noble..and if they found out...well lets just say things wouldn't become any easier for him..

[Farris (Kuro)]

As people seemed to gather around her, the pink bubblegum eyed little girl sniffled and looked to those around her. The first was a young man that offered her food in place of what she had lost... Only to loose all his food as well! Then a kind young woman offering to help buy another grilled fish. The next seemed to be two men trying to bring some order to the erupting chaos that had occurred. Then another man appeared and asked is they had been robbed to. Iria started to rub her eyes dry before nodding to him. She then looked to the nice lady with a frown. "But it'll get stolen again like that guy's meat." She reasoned, not wanting the woman's kindness to go to waste. Iria looked around the town at the suffering people then gave a look of determination and said, "I'm getting my fishy back! And- And everyone else's stuff too!" She stated with a stubborn look to those around her as if asking if they were with her without actually asking.

The thieving blurs seemed to all disappear at about the same time and head into the woods. Some of the victims from town informed the marine of what had been stolen. Everything from food, to clothing to weapons and other more valuable items had been taken. There seemed to be no real pattern, and even a local bum said that his cardboard box had been stolen. (Yes Fuschia Town has cardboard boxes. >.> Shut Up. ) A close inspection would note the prints of a primate in many areas in the village. The little inventor however, simply took out her flashlight with a stern and brave look, holding the light giving apparatus like one might hold a heavy gun going stealth-fully into enemy territory as she slowly started to make her way to following the thieves trail with a simple, "I'm going in!" That sounded all serious, cool and professional-like... and probably completely ridiculous from a ten year old girl.

[valkyrie536]

It looks like everyone saw the girl crying, and decided to approach her. By now, there was a quite a number of people around him. People who were walking past might think that the group of people were bullying the small girl, but in reality, they were helping her. Krox was glad people had come, he couldn't fight an invisible enemy alone. He needed as much help as he could, to find the thieves who stole his precious meat. And the girl's fish. And whatever they stole.

He was thinking really hard, staring into space, oblivious to his surroundings. What can he do? Just then, somebody said something which brought him back. "I'm getting my fishy back! And- And everyone else's stuff too!" He looked at the person saying it. The crying girl. This was ridiculous. He wanted to laugh out loud. Even he couldn't do anything, what could she, a little kid, do? She looked so serious. She then took out a flashlight, shining it on the street. He saw it clearly. It was a footprint. A monkey's footprint. But much bigger. Looking further down, he saw many of the same footprints. It had to be some kind of ape-like monster who stole their stuff. Or worse, monsters.

The girl slowly moved, following the trail of footprints. She really wasn't joking about getting the stuff back, even if she had to do it alone. What an interesting kid, he thought. "I'm going too!" He was not gonna let her go alone. He stood up, cracked his knuckles, and followed the girl.

[flame08]

Akiya looked on as the young girl who couldn't have been older than maybe 12 or so took to the harder path, she went to go catch the thieves. Akiya smiled a little at the confidence of such a small girl, on the chase for her lost food her cause were good but Akiya was slightly concerned for the girls safety. It was the Angel's voice speaking, the Devil of course was mumbling her annoyance in the background but that was normal. She didn't exactly approve of what was happening, but then she normally wasn't the one in charge so nothing that she could do.

So the hunt is on Akiya thought, since there was a good reason not only the Devil was happy with the hunt by the Angel could deal with as well. It was in this that Akiya was awesome, the hunt, the chase that was always the best. Akiya chuckled to herself slightly one of her hands sliding over the grip of one of her pistols. Best follow the girl, maybe she knows where they are, anyways probably better to stick together. she thought.

They left as the sun started to set on the island. As the young girl pulled out her flashlight shining it into the darkness of the town. Confidently the girl said "I'm going in!" Akiya took out one of her pistols loading some shots into it. She would be ready for anything. Eyeing the darkness carefully she held her pistol up to line it up with her eye.

[Kurosaki]

What in the world would any thief need with all of those items. It didn't really make sense. Why would anyone risk snatching objects from people in broad daylight, particularly unimportant items, when they could simply strike at night and probably have less risk of being caught. In particular was the fact that the little village wouldn't be devoid of authoritive figures. Why was the thief (or thieves) taking such risky chances?

Lance could only gather that they were incredibly foolish. He turned his head, hearing a bunch of voices together talking about something. A girl, perhaps no more than ten years of age, was making some declaration about going into the forest. It seemed that she wasn't alone in the pursuit.

"You guys are going into the forest? Did the culprits escape there?" Lance called over before he joined them. "Then I'm going as well." He had a calm, assured look about him as though he was confident that having him along would help their investigation. He had his hands in his pockets and smiled at everybody in turn.

"My name is Lance Hains. I'm a Seaman recruit with the World Government. Well, though I'm off duty right now. Hopefully I can be of some help to you finding these thieves," he told them all before nodding toward the forest. "Shall we go in?" He confidently then strolled in with his hands still in his pockets, golden eyes fixed ahead of him.

[Armani]

Cuomo found a particular interest in one of the members that had shown up behind him. Interestingly enough, the young marine (and hidden noble himself) felt a strange sense of kinsman-ship at the sight of another noble. This man wasn't really outlandishly dressed like one per se, yet because of his own heritage as one from Goa Kingdom, on the far side of the island, it was possible to identify another noble from certain traits that one might exude unknowingly. With the way this stranger talked and entered the small grouping of others that had gathered, Cuomo found it refreshing that there was still hope for the Noble community to be actual people and care for others. Unfortunately, circumstances required most of his attention be spared elsewhere than approaching the young Noble with conversation.

As things progressed, the sharply dressed marine couldn't be helped but to be caught by surprise with the little girl who had initiated this little gathering suddenly announced her intentions and took to the woods adamantly. As the astonishment from this little one's bravado settled, Cuomo found himself trailing to catch up. It wasn't a difficult task to do so, since they were following the stern and determined walk of the little one and so a light jog managed to bring him up to the motley crew that had formed. It was just in time to hear introductions as well as notice that the little one was also clever enough to be following odd footprints. Not just any footprints however. As strange as it seemed, all the look back and forth, every single footstep that wasn't created by the small troupe was that of a large primate. Beyond the group, the prints entered into the forests to which they subsequently would disappear under the foliage.

Lance Hains, a man who introduced himself to the group to which Cuomo happened to listen in on was immediately appreciated in his eyes as a fellow Marine.

"A pleasure Lance." He spoke up to greet him personally, before speaking to the rest of the group. "As I said before, I am Cuomo. I am part of the Marines S.W.O.R.D. Division. Please allow me to accompany all of you. I will make sure that S.W.O.R.D sees this problem resolved appropriately."

It might be an odd sight to see the relaxed figure of Cuomo shot straight and rigid in formality as he introduced himself as well as his division and then return back into a relaxed state, but that was hoe he operated. Ceremony and presentation was important for a marine.

"Now, if you will all allow me to give a brief description of the area, I am somewhat familiar with the general layout of this island. Though I cannot say I know every small detail, I am aware that there have been bandits noted in this forest. If we chose to begin there, we may want to head North." He paused for a moment, as he decided whether or not he would mention one other area before continuing. "There is area to the West that is a rather unscrupulous part of this island. They call it the Gray Terminal." Again, he paused as he mentioned it. The place in the past had definitely seen its fair share of desperation, but the Nobles of the island, including his family had burned it to the ground when he was a child. But Cuomo hadn't seen the place since he was a kid. Circumstances in his life had forced him away from Goa Kingdom and start a new life away from his past. He couldn't be sure if it was the same place or not. Still, if there was a thief, primate or not, there was a high chance that (if it still existed), the Gray Terminal would be a prime location for them to hide in. "If we are to look for a thief, then the possibility exists that they might have headed in that direction."

Though Cuomo hadn't noticed it, his facial features made him look a bit upset and concerned. Coming back here, back to his past, was it really such a good idea? After a brief moment, he'd shake the things from his head. He was a Marine. He was a part of S.W.O.R.D.. It was his duty to protect and help these people who had been taken advantage of by someone who had broken the law. Cuomo would try to be prepared for any questions that might come his way.

[lily]

Cuomo wasn't the only one of them to see somewhat familiar people in the group. To be honest Victor knew that Cuomo was a noble from one of the blues as he had studied on most of the world's royalty due to the fact that his parents made him study about not just the world's affairs. Apparently though by the way Cuomo was looking at him it seemed that this understanding was mutual and didn't need to be vocalized.

Getting back to the matter at hand however Victor listened as everyone was deciding to go on ahead to search for their stuff which started with the little girl who was crying saying she'd go in after the monkeys. Based on the way the others were acting it seemed that they believed it wouldn't be a good idea to let this little girl go in on her own armed with just a flashlight. Victor sort of paused at this odd display of confidence coming from such a young person and decided that it would be in his best interest to prevent the others from getting hurt as well so he said "I guess it can't be helped...we'll all go together!" then he began to follow the rest of the group from behind preparing himself for whatever type of danger came their way.