Scalpel, Sniper, Stegosaurus [Shining Pirates Medical Group]

[Vio]

Kuo! Wobbling a little as the smoking human gave him a pat on the back, Brandon steadied himself upon his elongated legs. An unfortunate side effect of his Devil Fruit powers meant that he was actually quick unstable, but the excess weight of trench coat and trilby actually served to balance out his centre of gravity. Fortunate, else the papery penguin would have ended up with his face planted in the shop floor.
Ohu. The likes of the smoking human now taking temporary charge, Brandon and company followed Hikaru outside into the cool air of the streets once again. Right now, the group was drawing substantially less attention than they had been doing so previously, and that in itself was a very good sign. Even as they waltzed through the streets, very few eyes were drawn to them, though that was mainly because the streets were practically empty. Not a soul walked upon the streets with them, despite the rumbling of cannons having ceased. Had the countless humans who roamed this myriad of nests cottoned onto the oncoming rain? Unlikely. Not all humans were that knowledgeable about weather conditions, though by now the grey clouds were beginning to draw ever closer to the island.

Oru? Now advancing onto what was the main street of the human settlement, one thing was obvious. The stench of alcoholic beverages had faded away, no longer burning his nostrils. Sniffing the cool air Brandon could clearly distinguish the many scents that lingered in the air, the most prevalent being the clean scent of the garments which he wore. The trail of cigarette smoke left behind by Hikaru was at least acting as a guiding system, for he had yet to see the formerly immaculately dressed human without one of those fiery sticks of paper protruding from between his lips. His ability to track his compatriot was certainly proving useful, as his somewhat slower movements forced him to lag behind a little, lost amongst the crowds.
Kuu? Hii? Navigating cleanly as he mingled between people, Brandon soon caught up with his companions, arriving at their intended destination. A cool shiver travelled down his spine for a moment as beady eyes settled upon the blue-green waters of the open sea. They were at one of those places were human 'ships' gathered. What were they called again? Harbours? That sounded vaguely familiar to the papery penguin as he struggled to maintain his balance, the sea breeze now starting to push against his cloaked body as if attempting to drag him into the briny depths. The open ocean was simultaneously a welcoming sight, and a frightening one. As a penguin, he had spent a good portion of his life darting through the waves, gracefully gliding around and snatching fish and squid from the open waters. But once he had partaken of that strange flat fruit, his former lifestyle had been completely stripped of him.

Kuoh! Keeping with the group, the folding fowl soon found himself aboard an impressive vessel. The craft that humans used to traverse the sea were certainly magnificent, designed to carve a path through the surface of the water as the winds gently pushed them along. Humans were creative, to say the least, but there was little that humans could create that did not draw inspiration from the natural world. Even the most far-fetched of inventions could be traced back to nature in all its glory. Of course, Brandon had little understanding of this, though he at least knew what a ship was. He could always recognise them as they bobbed along on the waves, their masts resembling mighty trees. The harbour was no exception, countless vessels lined up side by side resembled a miniature forest of timber and fabric. He had been stuck in a tree once, not too long ago, and it was not exactly the most pleasant of experiences. He certainly was not planning on doing it again any time soon, provided the winds did not decide upon it for him.
"Oru?" Now secure aboard a ship, Brandon grunted out the most important question of all. What now? Not that anyone could possibly have understood what he meant through sound alone. Making use of his abilities, the penguin held out his flippers in such a way as to give a questioning shrug of the shoulders, a gesture he had seen many a human make. Perhaps they would understand him as well as he could understand them?

[Blaka]

Kusatta liked the way they were handling things back in the clothing store. It wasn't the safest way to go, people always had ways to make others talk, but it was enough for now. Money sure did help silence witnesses sometimes. Although saving money was always the best way to go for Kusatta, he was finally tired of starting trouble. They were in a hurry afterall.

When everyone started to pick an outfit, Kusatta did so too. He needed a worker's outfit in order to blend in with the people down at the docks, so he grabbed white overalls that had stains all over them and baggy brown trousers. Both were a couple of sizes to big for him, but that didn't matter right now. On top of this, he found black boots, just fit for his relatively small feet. He made his way to the changing room, on the left side of the store while Hikaru and Hiroto were using the ones on the right.

Halfway there however, he almost tripped over the potato sack he was wearing at the moment. There was a knight's iron armor standing right beside the door. He hadn't seen it until now because it was hidden behind all the clothes racks. It didn't look like it was for sale as it was way more polished than the other things in the shop. Most likely it was a souvenir from the shop owner's past. Looking back over his shoulder, the young pirate could see that it was hidden from the owner's view as well. Perfect. What happened to Kusatta back in Marius would definetly not happen again.
Careful, with as little noise as possible, he took the knight's left arm and left his own left arm slip into it. It fit too well to be true. As he moved his fingers, the metal didn't even squeak a little, its owner had taken good care of it. Moving the arm was a bit problematic though. That was the sad truth; armor was good for protection, but heavy. Sadly, he had to leave it at that since his right was still bandaged up and still hurting. Maybe he really had to ask Hiroto about something against the pain. Only for the arm of course, not for the hellish headache. As if he would give in to the old geezer and his pan.

His next problem was the changing room. He had worn his "clothes" his whole life and these new ones simply smelled wrong to him. After a moment of hesitation, he simpley decided to leave his potato sack on and simply put his new clothes on top of it. That way he kept the smell and his new outfit would smell accordingly comfortable in no time. His wounded right arm had to be placed under the overalls as well, there was no way he would be able to stuff it through the sleeve. Instead, he now looked like he lost his right arm. Just another feature differing from the description the soldiers would be looking for. Luckily, he found out that the pockets on his new baggy trousers were so deep that he could easily put his new metal hand into them without the owner noticing anything until the group was far far away.

Due to all of this, the first mate was the last one to get back to the others. Hiroto looked indeed very good, even in this new outfit. Still, like Hikaru, Kusatta just nodded. Of course he didn't mind how Hikaru looked too much as long as it served the purpose, but Brandon was truly a sight to behold. The penguin almost looked like he could be their boss and they were his workers.

Without looking at the owner again, he followed the others. Surely the amount of money Hikaru left him would be enough to compensate for his armor's arm. Even losing a thought to this was rare for Kusatta.
Outside, the first thing he noticed was that the unnerving old cook was gone. Good. Kusatta had seen enough of him for a lifetime.

Soon afterwards, they arrived at their would be ship. It was a relatively big one with three masts and a lot of canons, at least two dozen. Yet, aboard the ship they noticed a problem: Nobody could steer a ship. He would have tried himself, but with that arm he would not be able to do anything.

"Oru?" asked Brandon

If he was honest to himself, Kusatta had enough of today's problems. Not being able to do anything with the unbelievable power he just recently recieved was not a nice feeling at all. In fact, it was an extremely frustrating feeling. Usually, he would have taken his frustration out on the crew. Instead he decided to take it out on the door leading below deck. With all the strength his human body had he raised his left and punched the wood, resulting in a metallic clank and a lound bang as the door sprung open.
Followed by a loud shriek from inside the ship and sounds as if someone ran against a wall.

Immediatly, Kusatta was back in his survival mode.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
Looking as angry and dangerous as possible, the pirate with the metal arm stomped down the stairs. Below, he found a young sailor, cowering against the wooden wall, a broom still in his hands and a bucket of water to his right. Clearly, he had just been left to clean up and was no danger whatsoever. The guy had red, curly hair, big scared blue eyes and was wearing a typical blue and white sailor uniform. Without much effort, Kusatta took the broom, threw it away and grabbed the young man by the collar. Suddenly, his victim stopped shivering or breathing heavily, like an animal playing dead in the face of a predator.
"You heard the commotion?", he whispered to the frightened fellow "That's because of us. Don't move, don't say anything, just nod." The Shining Pirate was back in his element now "You know how to sail a ship right?"
Without hesitation, the man nodded vehemently a couple of times
"Found a solution!", Kusatta shouted up to his crewmates while he dragged the guy by his shirt up the stairs.

[HikaruShin]

The last item on their checklist, the final destination and finally the dispatched team had assembled on the main deck of this final item; the ship. From its size and constitution, which comprised of three masts and a main deck large enough to house 2 dozen cannons, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the ship was a sloop of war. Initially as Hikaru had looked around while attempting to appear inconspicuous, he hadn’t noticed a single soul besides his own comrades. “Now we need to find a way to take this massive ship out of here without attracting much attention. Though, how do we do that? That man from before said that there are two ships out there waiting for them, the bombing may have stopped but who knows they might be just there waiting. Even if they aren’t and have docked to fight Leonard provided that the distraction has in fact worked, which does appear to be the case, what’s to say they won’t come right after this ship after seeing us on it?” this wasn’t a conversation he was having with anyone else, in fact it was the trail of thoughts going through his mind.



Before he could voice his thoughts, Hiroto the doctor among them, pointed out a few more things that increased his worries. Turning to her as she spoke he couldn’t manage much of a reply, “Yes your right about that”. Meanwhile, he did not notice Kusatta once again apparently going in rage mode once more, startled by the noise of his impact on the door; he was about to question his actions but before he could Kusatta disappeared inside, leaving behind a rather speechless Hikaru. He didn’t know how to deal with that, obviously Kusatta was the one higher in rank considering the crew and all but still they needed to act rationally and the whole idea of the costumes was to not attract attention. The loud ‘bang’ incurred many glares and stares of the workers passing by on the harbor where the ship was docked, a few soldiers as well turned their eyes towards the ship where they could see people but not those who they were actually told to look for, at least their outfits didn’t match the description they had been given.



Despite that fact, some soldiers now began to head for the slack of wood that connected the ship with the harbor, may be they just wanted to see what was going on. Alarmed by the soldiers that were headed in their direction Hikaru turned to Kusatta who had now emerged with a ‘solution’. He knew where the ropes of the main sails and the other two were tied and the only thing that he needed to do to get the ship moving consisted of three steps; pull in the anchor, untie the rope that was holding the ship to the harbor, untie the ropes of the sails. In his mind, he went through all these steps, calculated the time it would take to do all of them but that time wasn’t enough, by that time the soldiers would make it to the main deck.



Now he needed to think of the other options he had, maybe he could just throw off the slab of wood that connected the ship to the harbor, on which the soldiers had by now began to walk and were only moments away from getting on to the main deck where they all stood Or he could; take out his sniper, aim at the soldiers and tell them to back off or he could his revolvers that he had hidden among the citrus fruits to do something similar. “but.. why am I thinking of only what I can do? I’m not… alone now.” The thought suddenly popped into his mind and once again the steps went through his head now taking into consideration his comrades and it all added up. He knew that Hiroto had a gun which she had used earlier and that Brandon had abilities that would prove useful for a distraction , Kusatta had the guy who could steer the ship in his grasp so all he needed to do was pull the anchor up. Looking at Hiroto who he was just speaking to him a few moments ago, he let go of the box of citrus fruits which resulted in another “Bang” like sound, once again alarming the soldiers. As the box fell he was already making his way towards the pulley system that was responsible for lowering and pulling up the anchor, while he shouted to Hiroto “Hiroto untie the sails or shoot them” as he pointed in the direction where the ropes were tied to, hoping that she would understand. Reaching the pulley system he had now two things left to deal with, the ropes were taken care of, he had reached the pulley system so remained the soldiers and the steering. Looking at Brandon he pointed to Brandon, “Penguin!” then he pointed at the soldiers, “Stop them”, repeating the hand gestures two more times so that he understood. He didn’t even know the name of the flightless bird and neither did he actually understood what kind of powers it had but he hoped they would prove useful. Finally as he put all his strength in pulling the anchor using the pulley system, he shouted to Kusatta, “Kusatta, make sure he steers us away from the harbor”.



He was doing his part as best as he could and now he needed his comrades to do theirs. Never before he ever had people to rely on or distribute his work with so his mind usually worked in a single track, thinking of what he can do; but whether it was sheer luck or his smartness, he had divided the work load to get better and quicker results. The actual reason behind his logical and swift way of thinking would be his sense of responsibility. He was given the task of procuring a ship and that’s exactly what he was going to do, it didn’t matter which path he took, that was his destination.

[Vio]

Kuoh. Uncertain of exactly what needed to be done, Brandon's beady black eyes darted steadily between each of the people whom he was with. First to the girl with not-so-stripy legs, then to Kusatta and his newly acquired metal arm, and finally to the smoky human. Not quite as well dressed as he had been before, the sniper was still amongst the neatest of people, which was a lot more than could be said for Kusatta, whose musky and dirty scent was still discernible. One could not deny that Brandon was identifying a lot of his comrades via scent alone, a decidedly useful trick considering how similar most humans appeared to him. Still, he was beginning to get used to subtle facial features and other characteristics of human anatomy.
Kuaaa! A sound of metal and wood colliding with force startling the papery penguin, Brandon's head swivelled with instinctual haste in order to focus upon the scene. Perhaps a little enraged at his inability to do anything drastic, the odorous offender had taken out his frustration upon the door leading below the deck of this floating nest. Curious, perhaps, but not something particularly unusual. The folding fowl had spent long enough with the beggar boy to know how vengeful he was, but what was truly frightening was that they had yet to witness Kusatta's true strength. Fortunately, such power was limited by the fact a particularly important limb was in no fit state.

Ruoh... Watching as his comrade vanished into unknown territory, Brandon's attentions were soon diverted to something a little more serious. The wind was beginning to pick up a little, though it soon died down again into the soft cool breeze that had been prevalent since his arrival on the island. The clouds were thickening above them with every passing minute, the wind seemingly guiding them towards the sea from the middle of the island. Wind direction was an influential factor upon many an occurrence, especially rainfall. Still, more noise quickly snapped the penguin back into focus. Kusatta was now emerging from the ship, dragging another human along behind him, a man with a shock of red fur upon his head who wore a frightened expression.
Oru? Another loud bang emerged from nearby, drawing the feathered fellow's eyes once more to Hikaru, who had allowed the box of citrus fruit from his arms and onto the deck. In just a moment, the sniper began issuing orders to all those present in a hasty manner, taking charge exactly when it was due. Following the motions of his finger, Brandon finally noticed a small group of approaching humans, all wearing the same patterns of the ones they had previously encountered. Immediately associating said uniform with danger, it took a moment before Brandon realised exactly what his comrade intended. But, how was he going to stop those bad humans from reaching the ship when they were already so close?

"Waru!?" The closest thing to a questioning objection he could come up with, Brandon quickly cancelled his powers, quickly descending back to his standard height of just a few feet and allowing his trench coat to fall onto the floor. Nodding his head rapidly to throw off his hat, his beady eyes now expressed some degree of caution. Perhaps this human did not quite understand, but he was only a penguin, not a polar bear! Whatever a polar bear was. Still, there was no way a penguin could fend off so many humans single flipperedly. It was impossible! Or at least, he thought so until he remembered a trick he had learned. Ruffling up his feathers, the folding fowl now wore a look of determination upon his face.
"Nageru? Nageru?" Attempting to make words form, though perhaps not as efficiently as he may have wanted, the brave bird repeated a gesture with his wings that resembled a person lobbing a stone or a ball before pointing his flippers between Hikaru, himself and the rapidly approaching army. Though he was not certain if the smoky human would understand him, that question was soon answered as, in the midst of a repeated gesture, Brandon's feet left the floor. Now held in the hands of the formerly immaculately dressed gentleman, Brandon began to change shape rather rapidly. His body flattening itself to the thickness of light cardboard, the awkward avian allowed his ability to take complete control of his body until he resembled a rather colourful sheet, folding himself as he did so.

"Nageru!" Still in the midst of his transformation, Brandon gave his final order, feeling the arms of the sniper accelerate him and release. Thankful that his companion had understood his requests, the folding fowl was now completely transformed into an oversized paper plane. Trying his best to keep control of his body as the wind whistled in his ears, the airborne animal was experiencing something rather spectacular, as too were the people below him, including the soldiers themselves. A triangular shape of black and white now arcing through the air, Brandon circled above rather uncontrollably, his flight patterns erratic in comparison to other birds. That said, flight was never something penguins were intended for, and this was perhaps only the first time that Brandon had even attempted to take control.
Kuu. Kuu! Now beginning to descend once more, the slick 'aircraft' aimed himself towards his targets: the soldiers...

SPOILER: Click to show

Okay. This should do! No need to worry about Brandon from here on. I've got some plans!

[Blaka]

Dragging his hostage behind him, Kusatta arrived back on deck just in time to hear Hikaru shouting orders at everyone. With a quick look around, he realised their situation. They had drawn the attention of the soldiers and had to get out of the port as quickly as possible.

As he heard Hikaru telling him what to do he was confused at his tone for a moment. What was the new guy thinking shouting orders at the First Mate?
Then again, he would have decided to do the same thing anyway, so he just went ahead and shoved the young sailor towards the steering wheel. Not that he was following the order, no, in his mind he just did the sensible thing in this situation. For the sake of speed he didn't even voice his discontent.

"You heard him, get us out of here!", he bellowed at the red-haired fellow, who just whimpered in response, stumbled behind the wheel and started steering rather hesitantly. Obviously he was hoping for the soldeirs to make it to the ship in time so they could rescue him. Kusatta couldn't have that, they needed to get out. Quickly, he drew his dagger and put the blade directly in front of the hostage's eyes.
"We might let you go after this, so hurry up if you want to live!" He was whispering so none of his comrades, esspecially Hiroto, couldn't hear him since he knew that would just result in another conflict.

The threat helped and the ship started to move after the sails were set. The young guy in front of him apparently did care a lot more about his own life than he cared about a couple of bad pirates getting caught. Kusatta kept a close eye on the prisoner while Hikaru and Brandon dealt with the incoming soldiers. Somehow the smelly pirate couldn't help but recongnize how well everyone was able to work together after just a few hours. Allies like this were truly needed to reach his goal that was certain.

However, the First Mate didn't waste much time looking at what the others were doing. Instead, he stayed focused on his own task. He could trust them to do theirs.

[HikaruShin]

Even though Hikaru hadn’t spent much time with Brandon, it was quite remarkable that the two were able to communicate in such a way. After helping out Brandon, he got back to the task he had assigned himself, pulling up the anchor. The anchor of such a large ship is no small sized anchor, nor is it that easy to lift with a single person, but considering the number of people that were available it was his sole responsibility to take care of it. Thanks to the time he had spent working with bounty hunters on their ships, he was able to muster up enough strength needed to pull the anchor up and just in time too. The sails lifted and the ship began to move away from the beach. Taking a bit of a breather, he wiped off the sweat from his forehead and took out a cigarette from his pant pocket along with his lighter, lighting it up he placed it in his lips. Taking a long puff he now turned his gaze to Kusatta, who was now telling the terrified hostage to steer.



The wind was favorable to set sail and more ever the time was on their side as well. They had spent almost all of the day running around in the island, the sun was now tired of shining and had begun to set, it wouldn’t be long when it would get dark. If they managed to find the team that was meant to be a distraction and set sail along with them, it would prove almost impossible for the military to find them. The ship was large but its sails were sufficient enough to make it disappear as long as the winds were favorable.



Though the time for them to relax hadn’t arrived yet, “Sailing off the shore is one thing off the list but… what about those two warships?” he thought to himself as he walked to the side of the main deck that faced the ocean. After covering a bit of a distance he noticed the horror that awaited their arrival, among the two warships that were mentioned one was out there in the open ocean anchored and stationary. It was like they were expecting them or waiting for them, were they able to foresee their plan? Or was it just a stroke of bad luck, in either case they needed to handle this warship before they could get to the other shore. Hikaru looked at Kusatta and then without using any words, he pointed at the warship that was now clearly visible from their location.



Noticing that there were enough cannons to do what needed to be done, Hikaru spoke: “I think I may have a solution. If only I can find some ammunition, we might be able to take them by surprise”. That of course, depended on the fact that those soldiers in the warship weren’t expecting a ship. He walked down the same room where Kusatta had walked down before, there he located stairs that were leading to the lower deck. As Hikaru walked into the lower deck, hoping to find what he needed to find; he just hit the jackpot. For whatever reason, the lower deck had enough ammunition to wage a small sea war. He gathered up 12 cannons in a small hand cart that was conveniently left there by the shipwrights who had worked on the ship. Pushing it along he brought the cart full of ammunition to the main deck where his other comrades were. “Looks like I just found the solution”.



The solution that he was aiming for was indeed a bit extreme but obviously the ship out there wouldn’t exactly suggest negotiations if they noticed a ship moving out of the harbor. Looking at their frightened captive, he ordered the poor hostage: “Keep the ship close to shore and turn it so that these cannons are pointing out to the warship”. After giving his order, he looked at Kusatta with a look in his eyes that pleaded him to please make sure that he does what he’s been told. After that, he began to fill each cannon with ammunition, “Hiroto, would you mind connecting all of the cannons so that we can fire all of them almost simultaneously?” he asked of his other companion as he continued to fill the cannons. What he intended to do was first fill all 12 side cannons with ammunition, then tie up their triggers and light the rope so that it wouldn’t give much delay and would appear as that all 12 cannons were being fired simultaneously.

[Dr.Ambs]

Calamity. That was all Hiroto could describe as the few seconds started to feel like an hour. She had no sooner got done explaining her worries to Hikaru when there was a bang sound coming from the lower deck. It was then that she realized that Kusatta was no where around them. Looking over her shoulder, the young medic also discovered soldiers walking up the plank. Her heart stopped for a moment, the absolute fear welling in her chest. Would they be caught?

Yet the sniper of the team didn't fear, or at least show it. He quickly ordered the group certain orders. It took Hiroto but a second to run over to the ropes, untying them to let the sails loose. Her eyes cast back to the soldiers, her hand reaching in her bag, but it seemed like the little penguin and sniper were two steps ahead of her. Kusatta's hostage, as she was going to call it, steered the ship away from the shore.

No time for relaxing. No, they still had a bigger problem. They had to regroup with the second half, and hope they could sail away without damage to the ship. The little medic stared into the water, her mind reeling. If this ship had some type of weapons, they could stand a chance. but if there were no weapons, they were just a bunch of floating ducks, especially to a war ship.

Hiroto was snapped from her thought, seeing Hikaru wheeling out cannons. 12 to be exact. She looked at him, seeing that he wanted her to hook them together to set them off simultaneously. Scratching the back of her head as she looked at the cannons, "Well, I can try." She spoke, before looking at the fuses. She mingled a bit, using rope and such. It wasn't too hard, she had seen other people use a cannon before, how hard could it be to rig them to set off on the same time? She matched the lengths, giving the fuses a good tug before she finally smiled a bit. "Well, if they don't fire all together at the same time, they'll at least fire within seconds of each other. I've never done this, but, it should do, right?" She spoke, looking at the sniper grinning with pride at her own work.

The medic then took her hat off, chucking it to the side, letting her hair down before turning to the injured one, "Hey, Kusatta, you okay?" She asked, seeing the metal armor on his arm, "Where did you get that at?" She questioned, pointing to the armored arm. She then dug into her bag, getting her pistol, bow and quivers out, gearing up if she needed to fight in close quarters. It was odd, she had no connection to these people except for the fact that Kusatta's arm had been injured. She really had no need to get along with these people, had no need to fight alongside them, however... Something just told her in the back of her mind that she needed to.

Clutching her necklace, she smiled a bit. She wondered, would Hiruka do the same if she was still alive? She shook her head, letting go and pushing the memories out. For now, she had to focus.

[Vio]

Kuu! Descending from moderate height, the penguin named Brandon found himself rapidly approaching the small squad of Remunun soldiers at decent speed, their eyes trained upon the unusually large paper plane is it closed in. If there was one good distraction from a current objective, it was a papery penguin flying straight at you. Indeed, as he closed in he could see the confused and somewhat frightened looks upon their faces, though he was not entirely sure why they were directing such visages at him.
Oru? Tilting his head rather questioningly, the awkward avian suddenly discovered that such an action was not a wise option, eyes widening as he felt the wind resistance against his body change ever so slightly. Well versed in the concept of weather anomalies and the kinds of effects they had, not to mention having some previous experience with his Devil Fruit abilities, he felt his body veering off at a downward angle. That also meant he was about to take and unexpected plunge into the rather choppy waters around the port.

"Eeeeep!" Flailing wildly as realisation swept through his mind, Brandon found the tight folds of his body unraveling, his feathered form spreading out into the equivalent of an absurdly childish paper cut-out of his species. Caught off guard by this sudden change in shape, the leading soldier - likely a sergeant or someone of similar rank - found himself hit with a surprising amount of force.
Kah! Stumbling backwards as the fluttering fowl struck him like a sheet of newspaper caught in the wind, the trooper ended up losing his footing as he tripped over the cleats of the gangplank which gave passage between docks and vessel. Unsure of what exactly was going on at this point, the absurd bird started to withdraw himself, slowly filling out as his elongated form compacted and returned to its original figure. At the same time, all the soldiers began to topple like dominoes, rolling down onto the docks with a couple of them being knocked into the waters below as the ship began to part from the port.

Areh? Peeling his still flattened face off the ground, the little penguin shook himself as he got to his feet, looking around inquisitively as he tried to regain his bearings on the situation. A rumbling sound captured his attentions, startling him slightly as he gazed upwards towards the now blackening sky. Aware of weather changes to an extent, he still had some way to go until he could call himself - or at least someone else could call him - a meteorologist. A storm was brewing faster than he had anticipated, the wind now starting to pick up as it swept across the island. This was bad. He needed to get back to the ship before the rains set in.
Oru? Shadows enveloped him for a moment, and Brandon turned to look at whatever was blocking the light. The remaining soldiers stood there, looking down upon him, awkward expressions on their faces as they babbled to one another in human tongue. Picking out a few words, the inquisitor discerned that they were definitely talking about him, but he had no idea what they were considering. Something about fruit? Oh. The fact that one of them was now pointing a bladed tool at him indicated malicious intent, to which the penguin responded with a simple movement.

"Kuwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!" Legs flattening and extending as fast as he could manage, the awkward avian that was Brandon turned his feathery tail and bolted as fast as his folding limbs could carry him. Scurrying for what he could only assume to be his life, the penguin made a sudden dive into an alley, tripping over his own legs as he did so. Unable to get to his feet, he flailed for a moment before withdrawing his elongated legs. Then, with some quick thinking, the paper bird decided to mimic one of those unusual images he had seen about the place. Condensing himself down as much as he could, he only hoped that he would achieve his chosen form in time.
Kuu!? As the soldiers turned the corner, Brandon held his breath. Sure enough, he was now the size of a sheet of paper, his face flattened against the front to resemble one of those posters that depicted human faces. He clung to the bricks of the wall with his feet, desperately trying to support his body mass. A small disadvantage to his powers, the Oru Oru no Mi only allowed him to reduce his weight through the use of surface area. By no means did it actually reduce how much mass he had, and that was awkward at times such as these. Fortunately for him, the soldiers ran past without a second look towards him...

[Blaka]

The angsty red-head in front of Kusatta stared in shock after the penguin on that flew off. Not for long though, as he was given a little nudge with the knife, nodded hectically and continued. Both hostage and captor were fully concentrated on the task given to them.

That's why they both jumped a bit when they heard Hiroto talking. Kusatta threw a quick look to the side at their doctor. The girl had taken off her bandana and her purple hair had fallen down to her shoulders again. It was weird for Kusatta to notice some minor detail like that. So weird that he almost didn't hear the question. Luckily, he caught himself right on time:
"I'm fine.", he grunted. "Got this from the clothing shop. I think I need it more than that guy by now." The wording was intentional, he wanted the red-haired helmsman in front of him to think they maybe did something to the man. Even though he was just talking about the shopowners age. Obviously, that armor was from a time where the man was younger. His head turned away again to pay attention to the one steering the ship. He blinked, then turned back to Hiroto again. "Thank you for asking."

The girl in the white tank-top wandered off with her weapons to connect the canons. Shaking his head, the skinny first mate made a decision. He dragged the poor fellow back from the wheel and got his own face very close to the man's. "Name?"
"A-aka Ari, sir.", the guy stuttered.
"We're gonna let you go, Aka. You don't want to look like you helped the evil pirates here do you?"
Aka seemed confused about that last statement, so he continued to stare straight ahead, still shivering.
"Stay there.", ordered the 'evil pirate' and pushed the frightened sailor back against the wheel.

Afterwards, he stomped a couple of meters away and crouched down. As expected, the ship wasn't in the best state it could be, some of the wooden planks in the ground were removable with a bit of effort. With his armored arm, he dragged one of them out, half a meter wide and one and a half meters long. This was a little more difficult than he imagined with only one hand, as the nails were rusty but still hammered deep into the wood. Yet, he managed it and came tottering back to the scared captive. Because the guy looked in the other direction he luckily didn't saw that embarassing operation.
"Take this, this will float."

Grabbed by the collar again, Aka was dragged to the front of the ship and pushed against the railing so he could look down. The water surface was a little far away, but one would survive the jump down.
"Now, Aka, you're going to flee. You're going to tell everyone about the horrible Shining Pirates" As Kusatta talked, his body grew. It grew and gr His skin turned into an orange tone, his hair disappeared, his neck grew, the face elongated. The wood of the ship creaked under his massive weight. Boneplates came out of the back of his sweater and a tail ripped through the bottom of his pants. His fist was now as big as Aka's head. The user of the Dino Dino no Mi had turned into his Stegosaurus Hybrid Form. In addition, the voice of the Zoan was now exceptionally loud.
"You're going to tell everyone about the horrible Shining Pirates!", he repeated, now so loud that he was maybe even audible at the shore. Aka was picked up by the giant fist and presented to the people at the docks like a trophy, his feet kicking wildly through the air above the water. "You're going to tell them about the cold-hearted Hikaru Shin, who shoots men in the heart without a thought and sinks whole warsships in mere seconds! About the cunning Hiroto Shiaru who takes care of their wounds, so that they resurface no matter how hard you hit them! About Brandon the Penguin, who makes whole batallions of soldiers drop to the ground despite his size! About Kusatta Kotei, the monster that destroyed Marius! And about Leonard LeClerc, their captain!" For the last words he lowered his voice, so only the people on the ship could hear it: "Now flee."

Kusatta let go of Aka's body. The man shrieked and plummeted down into the cold North Blue sea.
Immediatly, the First Mate  turned around and shrinked back to his human self as he ran towards the steering wheel, grinning as he passed his crewmates. Now that they had more space to move, he could very much do this himself. With his good arm, he flung the wheel around and positioned the ship in the manner Hikaru described.
"Like this?!?", he yelled over to the sniper.

[HikaruShin]

Things were falling into place, while Hikaru loaded up the cannons, Hiroto did what he had asked her to do: tying the fuses of all 12 cannons together. Loading up the cannons took more time than it took Hiroto to connect the fuses, after finally finishing up with his task. He stood straight putting both his arms on his back, lifting and putting cannon balls wasn’t an easy task and he had to do 12 of them all by himself; that was bound to happen since they were so shorthanded. Taking a sigh of relief he took his cigarette and took a big puff of smoke out of his mouth, raising his face to look at the dark sky above. His attention was diverted to Hiroto since she had something about connecting the fuses. “That will have to do, I hope it works like they way we want it to” he replied, not that he didn’t trust her to do it correctly. He just wasn’t sure it’ll work since this hadn’t been done before, not in front of him at least.



Then his attention was turned to Kusatta, who had now begun to transform into something. After the transformation was completed, Hikaru’s entire body was frozen as he saw the phenomenon unfold in front of him. The cigarette was still in his hand, he forgot about putting it back in his mouth; his mouth was wide open like inviting the passing by flies to fly right in. Devil fruits: he had heard about them, but never before had he seen one. While Kusatta gave his speech to the poor and scared “hostage”, Hikaru just stood there staring at him like he hadn’t a clue in the world. Ash from his cigarette fell on the main deck as the wind began to pick up, finally he made his return and replaced the cigarette back into his mouth, shaking his head a bit; as Kusatta returned to his normal form.



To Kusatta’s question he raised his thumb without establishing eye contact; like a ‘thumbs-up’ gesture. He was just too surprised at the moment, looking at the warship he looked at the cannons. “Considering the distance and the wind speed, it should be right. If all of these cannons hit, that should take them by surprise.. I just hope it makes enough of a damage for us to get by them” he thought as he took out his lighter from his pocket; looked both at Hiroto and then at Kusatta as if saying, “here we go” but he didn’t verbally say it though. Just as soon his lighter touched the thread that connected all of the fuses, a little flame raged through, moving on a single thread then dividing itself among all the other threads to a total number of 12. Hikaru’s eyes traced along the flames as he puffed his cigarette, just as soon he breathed out the smoke from his mouth the flames reached the cannons. Almost simultaneously, 12 cannons fired with a loud roar suddenly piercing through the silence.



Just as soon as the cannons fired and the projectiles launched, Hikaru realized the mistake he had made in directing the cannons. “Oh no..” the words made out of his lips in a soft tone but it was too late to undo. The soldiers on the warship were alerted by the familiar sound of cannon fire, the superior began shouting orders to brace themselves since they were in fact taken by surprise and weren’t expecting an attack. The fired cannon balls missed the main deck however, two cannons hit the main mast of the targeted warship directly. “Of all the times I had to make a miscalculation, I really have bad timing” he thought as he was embarrassed and his eyes stared at the deck underneath his feet. He really was ashamed and disappointed, despite the fact that he had little experience with cannons he was still a sniper and if only he had taken more time to aim those cannons he would have done it right.



Though the time to apologize and repent came later, dropping the sniper bag from his shoulders, he took out the sniper. Placed the sniper railing and used the scope to observe what result their action had produced, as expected the crew on the warship was moving and readying to attack. He also noticed that despite the poor aim the cannons had been able to hit the main deck, so all he needed to do was lower them a bit and it would be a better hit. “They’re about to reply everyone, Kusatta hold that wheel strong, Hiroto we can’t sit back and brace ourselves. We have to risk it, help me adjust the aim and prepare the next shot”.



Hikaru moving as fast as he could, picked up a cannon ball and headed for the nearest cannon, opening it up and reloading the cannon. Then returning back and doing the same for the cannon next to the previous one, there was the risk of being hit by a cannon ball being launched at them but that was a risk all of them were taking. He expected the others to do the same so his eyes didn’t even look at them to make sure whether they were helping him out or not, even though he barely knew them but for some reason he trusted them. All he knew was that he needed to do his part and the others will do theirs as long as he did. While Hikaru refilled the cannons the enemy ship was already prepared and only a few minutes later after their attack, the opposition replied with a similar sort of attack, however with better aim. The result was 4 cannons hitting the side of the main deck that was facing them.



The ship shook violently which resulted in the cannons moving back and Hikaru falling and sliding way back to the other side of the main deck, if it wasn’t for the railing he would have fallen off the ship. Memories from his past began to make way into his head but he resisted shaking his head violently. This wasn’t the time to be lost in those horrible memories, they’ll just have to wait. The warship had displayed their militaristic experience with the way they had replied to their attack, sadly the cannons weren’t nearly ready for another shot. They were short handed and it was coming into play, at this rate they will soon be overwhelmed by the opposition. Was there nothing he could do about it? There had to be something that could answer this problem but what? Before he could reload another cannon, he heard the screams of those soldiers on the warship. As his gaze turned to the warship he saw that the ship was without its main mast. A ship’s prominent feature is its main mast not to mention it’s the tallest thing visible from afar; once again using his scope he found the answer to why he couldn’t see it. The main mast was damaged enough to stay there for only a few minutes, enough for them to fire those cannons but then it fell on top of those soldiers and the cannons. The warship was now no longer able to use those cannons to attack them, though the other side remained unaffected; without their main mast it would prove extremely difficult to turn the ship.



“Thank goodness” he thought then his gaze turned towards his comrades, “Are you two okay?”

[Dr.Ambs]

Hiroto looked at the cannons, seeing Hikaru loaded the last one in. however, blue eyes looked over as Kusatta seemed to be dragging their hostage to the front of the ship, with a long plank. She frowned, "Oi, Kusatta, what are you planning now?" She mused to the first mate. Yet she didn't need an answer. instead, she saw Kusatta start to transform. Her mouth opened, eyes widening. The young medic just stood there. There was slight fear in her eyes for only a minute, before complete fascination filled her eyes. She held her head with her hands, a large smile and a small sound coming from her lips, "Oh, my god! I'm paired up with two Devil Fruit users?! Ah! And look! You're a Dinosaur! Just like the guy from the bar! Ah!" She squealed with delight, almost ignoring how Kusatta was describing their team. She turned to Hikaru, "Ah! Hikaru, look! He's a dinosaur! Are Devil Fruit users amazing?! Wait!" She turned back, seeing Kusatta had literally thrown the hostage over board, changing back, "Wait no don't do that! I wanted to get a closer look at you in that form!" She almost whined like the five year old she truly was, pouting. "You never let me have any fun."

Perhaps on the verge of insanity, Hiroto's knack for knowledge might come off weird. after all, she found her forte in her studies, she found her forte in helping people. She could remember one incident. On a small cast away island, people were having some disease running amuck. it caused their lymph nodes to swell, causing great pain. It caused a high fever, chills, night sweats, and puking. She managed to get permission to look at a dead body and oh the sights and wonders in the body. the swollen lymph nodes, the inflamed organs. It was her own paradise.

That paradise, however, was cut short as a loud, deafening sound snapped her from the thought to reality. The medic covered her ears in pain, not having heard the fair warning. Looking over, blue eyes could see the cannon balls had just barely missed the warship. She looked over, seeing Hikaru went into action, taking his scope out, seeing what had actually happened. They had been a little high. She jumped a bit when Hikaru called to her, asking her to help him adjust the cannons and prepare them for another set of fire. "Right!" She replied back, moving into action. they had been a little high, so if they just tilted them down a bit, it should hit the target.

Quickly, she got the fuses ready again. Since she knew she had gotten the first set right, she could get these easily set up. However, the medic hadn't gotten three done when there was another loud sound, further away, but she realized what it was. Return fire of cannons. Her eyes widen as she looked up. It almost seemed to happen in slow motion. As the four cannonballs hit their ship, it rocked violently, causing the young woman to gasp as she fell back, barely avoiding the moving cannons before she caught herself on the main mast. Nearly clutching it with dear life, her mind started to zone out.

Oh no, this wasn't the type of adventure she had planned for. This was complete fear that was taking over her. Sure, when she had that Amino Casino incident, it was different. She could run away from that. She could escape. But she was on a bloody ship for crying out loud, she couldn't escape. She felt trap, helpless. She felt like a child again. Those warships had everything they didn't; manpower and fire power. It caused Hiroto to shake with the looming anxiety that was slowly emerging. Would they make it? Would they be able to meet up with Leonard and the rest? What if the others had been defeated, captured, killed? What would happen then?!

She was so caught up in her own worries, that she barely registered seeing the main mast of the war ship fall onto the cannons. She barely heard Hikaru calling out to see if they were okay. Swallowing hard, all she could do was nod. She was okay for now. They were still alive. She would keep them alive. She pushed from the mast of the ship, walking back over to the cannons. Even with shaking hands, she returned to her work. With the enemies cannons down, they had the opportunity to fire again.

When her work was completed, she opened her mouth, "Hika-" She stopped, her voice cracking, before she swallowed hard, regaining her voice, "Hikaru! The fuses are ready!" She spoke, pushing all the fear and anxiety she had in her down. She could worry later. She could fear later. For now, she needed to stay calm. She needed to stay alert. She needed to be focused.

[Vio]

Oru... With bated breath, Brandon the Penguin continued to clutch the bricks of the alley wall, his flat and folded body slowly beginning to peel away from his makeshift refuge. As his pursuers swept their way down the side street, they knocked over crates and such, checking every nook and cranny for signs of the feathered fiend. Luck was on the side of the awkward avian, however, and after what seemed like hours in the eyes of the penguin finally ended as the troops continued their search elsewhere.
"Kuuu~" Releasing his taught grip upon the rough wall, the folding fowl sprung free like a jack-in-the-box, his form ballooning outwards as he let out a sigh of relief. That was a tense situation, not too dissimilar from the kind of feeling he used to have when pursued by the penguin's only natural predator; seals. Still, he no longer had to worry about the vicious predators that lurked beneath the waves. Hitting the water was bad enough for him, but the blessings of that mysteriously flat strawberry he had consumed had just saved the bird from another type of 'predator'.

Kua? Body now having returned to its usually plump shape, Brandon's dark and beady eyes looked towards the skies. Storm clouds had gathered above, completely enveloping the island as lightning flickered and thunder rumbled. Any animal would find this terrifying, but the plushy pirate penguin was a navigator and meteorologist amongst untamed beasts. Certainly, thunder and lightning was shocking, but Brandon knew what effects it had upon the climate.
Aare! He could now feel the moisture in the air, the humidity making it seem several degrees warmer than it actually was. Typical of a storm, but once this monster passed, the temperatures would plummet to their norms once more. For now, the island was about to be pummeled by wind and torrential rain for a good few hours. There was just one thing that Brandon himself needed to do... Get out of here before that happened!

Kuwa. Kuwa. Kuwa. Waddling as fast as he little legs could carry him, the little penguin scurried back the way he had come from, headed towards the docks once more. He needed to get back to the ship. Back to his human friends--Kusatta, Hikaru, Hiroto, Leo--whom he had become quite proud of in such a short time. To be fair, he was surprisingly trusting of humans, but there were things about these people that he had yet to understand. They were a strange bunch, much like himself, and perhaps that was why he was so intent on returning to them.
Oru... The winds picked up for a moment, very nearly knocking Brandon off his feet as he plodded along, but they soon died as he regained his balance. He paused for a moment, considering the sudden strength of the gale. The winds seemed to hug the ground closely before lifting upwards as they began to fade away, an unusual trait that he had only encountered a few times before now. These updrafts could be particularly vicious at times, but perhaps he could use it to his advantage?

Oreo? Now approaching the pier, Brandon could see the vessel ahead, now a few hundred yards clear of land. There was no hope for the penguin to return to it, not without a small boat of his own. Well, either way, the penguin wandered up the docks towards a nearby pier, searching for a decent vantage point from which he could spy the ship's crew and hopefully make his presence known. Sure enough, a small lighthouse of sorts (more like a light pillar) stood at the end of the pier, but it was another figure clad in darkness that stood out in the rain.
"Kua!" Waddling up as fast as he could, the little bird saluted with a folding flipper. The form of Leonard le Clerc, albeit battered and bloodied, stood there upon the pier...

SPOILER: Click to show

I'm still not feeling right, it seems. I did try, but the quality is kind of poor. My original plan just didn't make sense to me any more, so I scrapped it in favour of something simpler and easier to write.

[Blaka]

Hiroto's reaction to his transformation pleasently surprised the Stegosaurus-human. He had thought she would fear his powers and maybe even overthink joining up with a monster like him. Instead, the opposite was the case - she was squealing like a little kid over ice cream. As the pink-haired doctor started nagging her First Mate to change back he couldn't help but grin. "Once we're out of trouble.", he told her. Of course the reason for Hiroto's joy went completely over his head, the former smelly streetkid had no idea he was being reduced to a fascinating study object.

The loud bang of the first batch of canonballs filled Kusatta with enthusiasm. He expected the enemy's ship to go down in flames in the next few seconds. So, he was all the more bumped out as most of the canons missed their target and two of them only hit the mast. Was that really all the cold-faced gunman was able to do? Here he was again, trusting others, and as every single time before all he was getting out of it was disappointment. Just as he was about to make his dissatisfaction known he saw Hikaru's sorry face. Perhaps the time to complain would come later. Now it was probably time to wait if their sniper could compensate for his mistakes with another try.
Although he didn't realize it himself, this decision was a major deal for the skinny pirate. Giving people another chance hadn't been a word in his vocabulary until now. Yet, now he was willing to put his trust in the man in the suit.

Suddenly, the soldier's counterattack came flying towards them. A horrifying crashing sound, followed by a wild trembling of the floor made Kusatta lose his grip of the wheel and hurled him head first against the railing where he landed next to Hikaru. For a moment all he could do was lie on the wood and scream his loungs out at the pain in his still broken arm and in his skull where the old Poele had previously hit him. The pain was unlike anything he ever felt before, his head was about to burst. Everything went black.

Seconds later, he woke up, breathing heavily. Hiroto and Hikaru were reloading the canons for another attack. Breathing heavily, the would-be mighty dinosaurus-man rose grabbed the railing with his armored arm and dragged himself up. His arm was stinging unbearably, but he had to ignore it for the moment and calm down before he could help the others. Looking at the sky, he wouldn't have much time to spare: Dark clouds were drawing near, a bad storm was coming. With another deep breath he pushed himself back and was about to stumble back to the steering wheel when he saw him.

About 200 meters in the distance, a third vessel was leaving the docks to sail out into the dangerous storm. It was a small hexagon-shaped black boat, just big enough for one person. In front of this person, a strange device was installed. It took Kusatta a couple of seconds to realize this device was a cheap camping grill. On all 8 sides of the ship, along the railing, there were all kinds of different glasses, bottles an other containers neatly lined up one after another. From Kusatta's vantage point he couldn't really see what exactly those were for, but considering whose boat this was it had to be alcohol and spices. Because in the middle of the little vessel, in a comfortable orange easychair, there was a man the young pirate had hoped to never see again: Poele Ohdora, a bottle of rum in one hand and a strange seashell in the other.

"Oooooh death~" The loud wind made it almost inaudible, but he could still here the old chef singing along with a song with another man whose voice seemed to come out of the shell.
"Oooooooooh deeeeaaaath~" The waves were starting to shake the little boat as Poele took another mouthfull of rum. Kusatta's days as a child with nobody to trust had given him the ability to figure out the smallest hints of feelings in people's voices. The voices of these two men hit him. There didn't seem to be any hope left in them.
"Won't you spare me ooover anooother year~"
What made the old geezer leave town now, he couldn't tell. The only thing he knew was that this was the saddest person he had ever witnessed. What he saw here made the otherwise angry young man even forgive the pan-fighter what had happened back at the food shop.
"What is this" Disgusted, Kusatta turned around and walked towards the steering wheel to hold the ship steady when the next attack would hit. "That IIIII can't seeee~"
He did so just in time. While his crewmates were busy preparing, they weren't looking at what was happening on the other side. Over there, the soldiers were holding up white flags in the air. "With icecold haaands taking hold of meee!"

Normally, he wouldn't have said anything. These soldiers needed to learn their lesson, he wouldn't have let them just give up. Only to distract himself from the depressing man behind him who was slowly going silent as he sailed off in the distance, he yelled "Look! They are giving up!"

It took some time until he realized what this meant. Leo won. He won and was probably on the way back to them. Since they had engaged in battle with loud canonfire, it couldn't be that hard to find them.
Just as relieved about Poele's song finally disappearing in the wind as he was about the fact that their captain made it, he let out a sigh. All they had to do now was to wait for Leo to find them again.

All in all it had been as succesfull day, he thought as rain started splattering on the ship's floor. Kusatta, Brandon and Leo had found new members for their crew, a ship, medicine and food. Even though there were still a lot of things to overcome, they were on the right path.