Casual Coincidence

[Slueshy]

Kayla wasn't overly happy to be threatened, though she also wasn't overly concerned, 'if' she flapped her wings she wasn't going to be anywhere near enough for them to cut them off, that didn't matter though, she simply nodded in acknowledgement, keeping them completely still.  Moving forwards, she watched as Shinsei climbed the rope slowly, then followed after.  Between four arms, you'd think climbing the rope would be pretty easy, but Kayla made it look even more trivial as it seemed like she barely had to even hold onto the thing as she quickly made her way up the rope.  Seeing Shinsei's hand, she ignored it as three hands grabbed onto the taffrail and she pulled herself up with ease.

Kayla's two sets of hands were then tied together in front of her once the captain got up.  Not that she was worried, she could break out of this relatively easily, though the tightness was less welcome.  She had to do her best from replying as sarcastically as possible when she was asked if she was a devil fruit user, opting to stay silent instead.  As the barrel came out, Kayla briefly worried that it might be filled with seawater, but it was just empty.  Breathing a slight sigh of relief as she was tossed into it.  Her wings roughly brushing against the sides of it.  Then the lid was put on and she heard the reverberations of them nailing it shut throughout the inside of the container.  Her attention was immediately on the air holes, knowing she could likely squeeze her way through one when she shrunk down completely.  

As soon as her container began to move she twisted her arms and set them to breaking the rope tied to her, not because she really needed to break free, she would just shrink out of the bindings, mostly she did it so she could keep herself from being tossed about inside as the barrel was moved.  Hearing that the ship was being dug out was a good, and bad thing.  That meant they had a time limit, but it also meant that when they succeeded they wouldn't need to worry about that themselves.  Additionally, crew members down below wouldn't be of any help when she and Shinsei broke free.

[Bobbie]

Both Shinsei and Kayla were carried down a couple of wooden steps, made of loose planks strewn across small wooden containers and chests, and right to the hold where the others that were held captive resided.

There was a loud banging on the metal bars as a crew member who was pushing Shinsei along now stepped ahead to scare their prisoners away from the bars. “Get back, all o’ya!” With another loud slam, the prisoners moved away from the barred door in fear, before it was opened and the cyborg was tossed inside with the lot.

Immediately disgusted by the conditions these poor souls were forced to be in, Shinsei looked down with a heavy frown, then met the gazes of his new roommates, some of whom were not impressed by his appearance, and others were too far gone to really care.

The door was slammed shut just as Shinsei turned round to meet his captor again, “Is this really necessary? I’m not very good at staying quiet, but I could have used the fresh air up-” once more, Shinsei’s tongue landed him in a tight spot, as the pirate drew his weapon at the redhead yet again, prompting him to step backwards away from the door, but still with a slight smile. With a snicker, the pirate lowered his gun and pointed it at a man who was laying on a straw bed.

“No, no!” Shinsei’s body reacted on reflex and instinctively stepped in front of the man who looked like he had already endured a worse fate than a bullet from this gun, placing himself between him and the pirate. “Okay,” no longer grinning, he nodded. “I got it, I’ll zip it…”

The pirate scoffed and turned to his two companions who had just set the barrel down in the same room but on the other side of the bars so as to prevent any of the prisoners from reaching their fairy to free her. With a whistle from one of the trio, seeming to be higher in command than the other two lackeys, the three of them left to get back to work on deck, the cabin door creaking as it was pull shut and a loud sound echoed through the hold as a wooden beam locked the door from the other side.

“What is the matter with you!?” the apparent leader of these individuals stepped up to Shinsei with an angry frown. “You are trying to get us all killed!? Do you know who those people are? You are stupid? Is something wrong with your brain or something?” The man’s bark relented for a moment as he turned to look toward the barrel, his dreadlocks whipping around as his head moved. “What is in there?”

Sighing, Shinsei looked away from the man who had just angrily scolded him, and faced the barrel. “Be patient and she’ll find a way out… but you need to be less…” he paused, trying to think of a way to say this without offending the man who had been through enough. “Animated…" his shook his hands to imply his meaning, then shook his head.  "Oh honey~, we're here!”

---

Shinsei: #ba0303
Tribesman: #8f6447

[Slueshy]

Kayla could feel herself being moved and she waited until she had stopped, she could hear a commotion going on outside of her prison, but she hadn't been set down yet, and even when she had she waited a good few minutes before even starting to move.  When she heard the echoing sound of something slamming closed, she still gave it a few more minutes before finally changing.  Inside the barrel her form shifted until it shrank down to the size of a moth, climbing along the inside of the barrel, it was easy for her to locate the nearest hole and squeeze herself through it, the only hard part was sliding her wings through gently enough, as they are rather large.  Upon exiting the barrel she climbed on top of it, making sure no one was around to see her before changing again.  

Shifting from a moth back to her hybrid form, four arms at the ready as she sat on the barrel and looked at the captives.  Of course she'd seen them before, mostly in passing, but she knew how they were being kept, and that's what had driven her to do all of this after all.  Hopping off of the barrel she made her way to the barred door and unbarred it, opening it up.  "Not exactly how I thought this could go, but still workable."  Kayla said as she released them.  "Getting the door open won't be any more difficult, but I need to know who will help us take the ship?"  She said, addressing the captives.  "I rammed the ship onto a sandy bar in the ocean, because of that, many crewmembers are off the ship to help dig it out.  This is our best chance to catch them off guard."  

Of course she didn't expect many of the captives to be able to help, let alone want to.  It all came down to just how they wanted to live their lives, and if they were willing to put them even further on the line in order to gain their freedom.  At any rate she just hoped some of them would agree, she could get herself out of this mess easily enough, but Shinsei would be screwed unless they beat these guys.

[Bobbie]

As Kayla transformed from a moth to a humanoid figure, many of the captives - those who could stand - moved away from her in fear. “What are you?” The spokesperson for the team of captives spoke, before his attention shifted to the moth-girl’s companion.

Shinsei sighed and flicked his nail across his ring a few times to cause a spark and ignite the rope, causing it to tear and unbind his wrists. Listening to Kayla’s speech, he remained quiet and only nodded a few times as he helped push the door open once she released them. Many of the captives could walk or crawl out on their own, but a few had to be helped into the arms of their comrades or over their shoulders to be carried.

One child who was too scared to budge from the corner, his face buried in his knees with his arms wrapped around them, made the cyborg’s heart ache and he walked over to him while Kayla explained the situation. “Hey, buddy…” crouching down in front of him to be at his level, Shinsei smiled, “This is probably pretty scary, isn’t it? But you know what? We’ve got a pretty feisty moth on our side, she’s kind of like a super hero. She's got these super crazy senses that, if you ask nicely, can sniff out the sweetest and juiciest fruit on the island.” Pausing, he waited for the child to meet his gaze, but when he saw that the boy simply wouldn’t, he frowned a bit, then he chuckled and sat down. “Plus we’ve got a pretty dangerous secret weapon on our side too. Want to see something cool?” Grabbing some of the straw from the floor they were sitting on, he flicked his nail against his ring once more to create a miniature little campfire with the ignited straw.

In the meantime, the tribe leader approached Kayla and spread an arm toward his friends. “Most of us will not be of much help to you. They are tired, hungry, and cannot fight... but I will.” Frowning, the man in dreadlocks watched the smaller person with such an abnormal physique. “But why are you helping us? You and your… poorly clothed companion with the red hair.” He gestured toward the cyborg. “These are dangerous people and I need your word that this will not land us in a more difficult spot than we were in to begin with. Some of these people here, they have families that must be protected… others, they have nothing and need more than just a ticket to be left on their own in the world.” What the man was implying was a very realistic fear of the inability to lead better lives than what they were living before, whether because of an act revenge on the part of these pirates or the inability to reintegrate into society with nothing to their name.

Shinsei didn’t look at the boy, but could see out of the corner of his eye that he raised his head to peer into the flames, intrigued by its crackling. Before the flames could spread, the cyborg put the fire out with his own palm and dispersed the burnt straw, then stood up and offered a hand to the boy who now glanced up at him. Taking his hand, the boy stood and walked out of their enclosure with the cyborg until he hurried off past Kayla to the rest of the group.

Joining Kayla and the leader of the group of captives, Shinsei sighed, “Right, what’s the plan?” It wasn’t until this moment that Shinsei realised that he was at a disadvantage - presuming they needed the ship in one piece in order to transport these people to a safer environment, he needed to be very careful with any fires he started.

---

Shinsei: #ba0303
Tribesman: #8f6447

[Slueshy]

Kayla noticed Shinsei going towards one of the children, but her focus was more on the others in front of her.  Listening to what the captive had to say, she sympathized with him, but she couldn't solve all of his problems.  "I'm helping you because it's the right thing to do.  If I were in your situation, I would want somebody to help me."  Getting off of the barrel, she was beginning to think that maybe she needed a little more 'severity' added.  She wasn't a fool, she knew people had a hard time taking her seriously when she was a tiny looking bug girl.  So, she did something she didn't usually do.  She shifted from her hybrid form, into her fully human self, though she ultimately just looked less weird like this, she was taller and less childlike now, hopefully it would let her speak with just that much more severity, especially as she sounded much more mature, though a bit more monotone and dull, in complete human form.

"If your asking that I ensure you'll have better luck after this event.  I can't promise that.  I can't promise that I can even completely save you from things as they are now.  All I can do is offer the chance to take your lives back.  I can tell you the odds are in our favor.  I can tell you that even if we do lose, that things will likely stay the same, after all, to them, we're treasure.  If they hurt you, kill you.  You become less valuable to them.  Sure, they will obviously take action if it's their lives on the line, but anyone who doesn't fight should be spared their wrath if they intend to make any money.  I can also tell you I didn't do all this with the intent to lose."    

Kayla wasn't a saint, not by any stretch.  She couldn't help these people any more than she could help herself, if she knew what to do with her life, and how to lead it right, she probably wouldn't be illegally stowing away on ships and traveling island to island just for something to do.  "If your worried about possessions, money, food.  As far as I'm concerned, once we defeat the enemy, the ship and any cargo it has are yours.  I have no need for it, and I'm sure you could either keep it, or turn it in to the authorities.  The captain of this ship may even have a bounty on his head worth pursuing."  Kayla went on.  "Beyond what you're left with at the end of all this, I can't help you any further.  I don't know how to live my life better than anyone else."

And with that, she shifted back into her hybrid form, one she vastly preferred these days as Shinei came over.  An interesting note, Kayla's voice did sound more high pitched and childlike in her hybrid form, presumably as a result of the internal changes to her body.  Turning her attention to Shinsei she said.  "Well, I'm going to go out and scout around.  Check just how many are off the ship.  I presume most of them if the captain wants them out of here as fast as possible.  Once I do that, I'll also bring over the weapons I stowed away, giving everyone here something to use.  It's mostly melee weapons, swords, axes, spears.  I found one unattended pistol with ammo, and a trident of all things as well.  Once I come back with that and unlock the door, we have two main goals.  One, someone will have to keep the captain and the crew on board occupied.  Two, everyone not doing that needs to sever any and all ropes or ladders going off of the ship, stopping any of the crew from climbing back up."  She told them both.  

"My current thought is that I'll fly out and distract the captain and any on deck, while Shinsei leads the rest of you on cutting the ropes, hopefully the Captain will think only I have escaped, and you can come in to surround where I have them occupied after completing your task with little to no interference.  Sound good?"  she finished, mostly addressing Shinei at the end, wanting to know what he thought of her plan.  

[Bobbie]

Hearing Kayla’s response brought a mixture of emotions to the tribesman’s heart. On the one hand he was grateful and wholly appreciative of this act, as they were putting themselves in danger after all, simply because it was the right thing to do. In reality so many people would simply look the other way, and so many people probably already have. On the other hand, it was no guarantee that they would be walking into a better future, and he, unfortunately, already knew that for some of the people here it meant a very difficult if not impossible journey. Still, a death in freedom must be better than one in captivity on this ship or in the hands of another cruel dictator.

As he was ready to express his doubts about her plan, the four-armed woman’s body took on such a drastic shift, that it caused the man to raise his eyebrows and lean back, though he took no steps away or toward her. Having already witnessed her transform from a moth to her hybrid form, her sorcery was not too much of a surprise to him, especially since he has dealt with devil fruit users before, but the change was still astonishing.

“Okay. That’s all very good, but does your friend over there share the same sentiment?” he asked, seeming to be more sceptical of Shinsei than of her, but as he turned to glance at him and spotted the man with the child, his features instantly softened and his shoulders slumped. It was more care than that poor boy had been shown by a stranger in years.

He turned back to Kayla once more and spoke again before she could reply to his previous question. “I understand. Your help means a lot to me and all of my people. I will forever be indebted to you…” he uttered and offered a respectful bow of his head before he raised it just as she transformed back into her hybrid form and Shinsei was returning.

Shinsei could sense the tension in the air as he rejoined his winged companion, but he didn’t question it. It was understandable given the situation. He listened to Kayla’s plan in silence, nodding along as he did with a serious frown on his face.

“We can manage that, we’ll run along the taffrail and cut any hanging ropes or ladders, but it might take us longer than expected if it’s going to be just the two of us doing that.” He gestured toward the tribesman who was clearly on board of pulling his own weight, but very few of the others, if any, really were, and Shinsei couldn’t blame them. As an idea occurred to him, he snickered, “But I think I know a way to speed it up. I don’t need any weapons, but I do need rum. Every pirate ship has rum!” His snicker became a wide mischievous grin.

“And I will gather more of my people to rally with us, maybe two or three. The men are skilled with axes, the women with knives and spears.”

---

Shinsei: #ba0303
Tribesman: #8f6447

[Slueshy]

Kayla had seen Shinsei go along with her so far with all of this, so she hoped he would still be on board.  Thankfully he didn't seem to question her all that much after she explained.  "Well, I'm hopeful that my status will make them somewhat hesitant to majorly harm me, so I'm not overly worried about keeping them occupied."  Referring the the fact that, as a devil fruit user, she'd likely fetch a high price.  Of course they could always just decide she was more trouble than she was worth and kill her outright regardless.  "Okaay?"  She said with slight confusion to his strange request, unsure of what he needed rum for specifically.  "I'll take a look.  I'm going to leave, I'm not going to unbar the door when I do, in fact you should all head back into the cage and try not to seem suspect.  If any of the crew happen by while I'm gone, they likely won't look in further if the door outside is still locked."  Kayla told them, then she transformed again in front of them, turning from a hybrid girl moth, into just a moth, that fluttered over to the door, squeezing beneath the crack, and heading out.

Thankfully, it was just as she thought, no one was paying attention to them.  Why would they, they locked the door after all.  With that in mind, Kayla quickly made her way to the barrel she had hid those weapons in, finding it not too far from the prison, as she had left it there on purpose earlier.  Thankfully no one had moved it yet, nor checked its contents, all the weapons she had found were still there.  But before she came back with it, she went and checked for the rum that had been requested.  She had no idea what it was for, or how much she needed.  But with the kitchen empty, it was an easy task to grab a bottle.  She had to be extra careful, going from there and back to the barrel, as she had to turn back into her hybrid form the carry even a single bottle of rum.  But she wasn't caught along the way, so she grabbed the barrel, after putting the rum bottle inside it, all four arms grasping it.  She used all her strength to life it and move it quickly back to everyone else.  Stopping outside the door she quickly unbarred it, setting the barrel down for a moment, before taking it inside and setting it back in front of everyone.  

After setting it down and removing the top of the barrel, Kayla took a moment to sit down herself.  While she was no slouch, she wasn't strong either, and that barrel was full of weapons.  Carrying it in one go as she did had taken a bit more effort than she'd want to admit.  "There..  Once everyone is ready, we go out and get things underway."  

[Bobbie]

While he made no verbal protest, the look on Shinsei’s face as Kayla suggested they go back inside the cage was enough of a sign that he wasn’t keen on the idea. He barely had the chance to voice his concern, however, before the Tribesman already started rounding up his people once more and urging them back inside the cage, which many were quite indifferent to with little faith that their plan would succeed, and others were somewhat riled up but cooperated anyway.

“You’re coming back inside with us, right?” the young boy asked as he squeezed through the crowd and reached Shinsei. “Of course!” reaching down, he instinctively lifted the child to hold him on his hip, letting the soles of his little feet get a break from the rough unpolished surface and dirty ground he had been stepping on. “Our friend here won’t take very long and we’ll be back out in no time.” With that, Shinsei turned to look at Kayla for a moment, hoping she would pick up on that being his second request, and then he stepped into the cage again as the door was closed once more, but not locked this time. Once inside, he put the boy down with a tired sigh, realising too late that his body was too sore to be doing any heavy lifting unnecessarily - he needed his energy for whatever chaos would ensue out on deck.

Her transformation wowed most of the crowd and before they knew it, the tiny fluttering moth was gone, slipping through the impossibly small gap for most living creatures that weren’t insects and making it to the other side.

Out on the deck, Kayla’s predictions were fairly accurate as most of the crew were down on the beach, trousers rolled up to their knees and their bare feet in the sand as they worked on digging trenches to free their ship, while others had set to chopping down trees to create a transportation mechanism with logs. That was not to say that there was nobody on board, however, as a couple of pirates were either idling about, cleaning things up, or making preparations for when they could set sail again, despite the captain's command of urging all hands to be hard at work. The captain stood at the helm while scanning a map, despite the ship going nowhere fast, and his sub-captain was by his side. The two were talking, one with more urgency than the other.

“You’re not seriously considering… that? Let me see.” The gesture would be difficult to miss as the captain slapped the hand of his subordinate who had reached for his map away. “Do you want to lose that hand?”

“Captain… We have at least one devil fruit user on board, a dozen manual labourers, and a man who appears to have a death wish… If we lose this ship, we lose everything.”

“Precisely - and if we lose it to somebody else, they gain everything. Off our backs. I won't stand for that.” Folding the map and pocketing it, the captain turned to face his second-in-command, and for just a brief moment, he looked directly at Kayla but saw nothing more than an annoying winged insect. “We’ve already delayed too much. Tell everyone that they have until sunrise, or I’m sinking this ship and anybody who remains on it at the break of dawn.”

The sub-captain, who was clearly in disagreement, nodded after a long pause as he seemed to have enough respect for the man not to argue with his command. “Understood.”

“And I thought I told you to have somebody take care of that bug problem.” His tone became aggressive as he looked in the direction he last saw the fluttering moth, but lost sight of it and couldn’t track where it went. “I did, captain. I will inform Sinclair that there must be another nest somewhere. He must have missed it.” Turning, the sub-captain left to tend to the crew down on the beach and relay the captain’s message.

As soon as Kayle returned, the cage door burst open and a group of considerably more restless people came out to fill the space outside the cage. Shinsei cringed at how loud they were, surprised by the sudden shift in their energy levels and commitment to the task, and he tried to hush them, but there was no point. Holding his breath, he glanced toward the unbarred door, but nobody came through. Good, they didn't hear that. Sighing, he approached the barrel once the stampede cleared and fished out the bottle of rum while most of the captives seemed to have had a change of heart and began arming themselves with whatever weapons they could get their hands on from the supply that Kayla offered.

“Great, you found one…” He took a swig of the drink, it being a very poor replacement for a cigarette but all he could afford right now. Seeing she looked tired, he considered offering her a sip but was genuinely unsure of her age.  “Rest up for a minute, and we’ll-”

Shinsei’s eyes grew wide and he suddenly whipped his head around at the sound of the wooden door being pushed open, light flooding the storage area where they were hiding. So they did hear that… The cyborg darted to the man, in no way having any incredible speed, but the gap was small and easy to close rather quickly. Ramming the ball of his palm into his chin and forcing it up to clamp his jaw shut, he turned to swiftly push the door closed with his heel. A muffled cry came from the man who had just bitten a part of his tongue off and Shinsei pulled him toward the cage, his free arm wrapping around his neck while the bottle was still in his hand.

“Looks like we don’t have time to wait until everybody’s ready.” He spoke before the pirate began to lose consciousness and he squeezed more tightly. “We’ve only got a couple of minutes until they come and check what’s taking this guy so long to report back. We have to move now.” Throwing the unconscious man into the cage, he shut the door and locked it.

The tribesman, now wielding two hatchets, nodded to Kayla and Shinsei. "We are ready."

---

Shinsei: #ba0303
Child: #d36aff
Captain Wyatt: #0c4f9b
Sub-captain: #bbb87b
Tribesman: #8f6447

[Slueshy]

Kayla was just trying to get a few moments of rest in, not only from having carried the stuff in here, but also to help calm herself.  She made a habit of doing her best to try and not get involved in this sort of stuff.  Why was it different this time though?  She already knew, this time, she had options.  Herself against this entire crew?  Not possible, very unlikely.  Plenty of situations like this had arose, where she could have done something.  Most often, she did nothing, but this time she did.  Would she regret it?  Unfortunately there wasn't much time to think, seeing Shinsei move like that, the pirate he caught, she knew there was no more waiting.  Springing up, her feet never touched the ground again, her wings began to flap, she flew in that erratic way only moths ever seemed to do, her hands reached in and grabbed two spears out of the barrel.  Her four hands gripped them both, two and two on each, her weapon of choice.  "Alright, I'll head out and start distracting them!"  She announced, immediately she zipped out of their, her wings working overtime as she opened the door wide and went through, flying upwards immediately, but not too far up, she couldn't let the crew below see her so soon, otherwise they'd come for her.  

She moved towards the ocean side of the ship, where the crew would have the worst time seeing her from the ground, but anyone on board would see her as she came over, flying in the air.  It didn't take her long to spot the captain.  Going in directly would be bad idea, even if she took the captain by surprise, if she was caught immediately, that would ruin their plan.  So, she stayed airborne, not that far out, she was still above the ship.  She'd already surmised that she might be hit, and if she went down over the water, then she was done for.  "Hey captain.  If your wondering what happened to your buddy, the one who had been steering the ship, the one you couldn't find.  Well.  He's over there."  One of her hands left a spear to point off into the ocean.  "He may have drifted a bit though."  Her attitude was aloof, she needed something to grab his attention, hoping to string along a dialogue to buy more time before it came to just shooting at her immediately.  Figuring that if she could somehow hook him with the thought that there was some elaborate plan going on, if it wasn't just her, Shinsei, and his prisoners, but an actual pirate crew that had perpetrated this idea, that she could buy just a bit more time for the others.  Obviously it would come to violence, she doubted this captain was the kind of guy to roll over and give up.  She thought about saying it had something to do with the Marines, some kind of operation, but being some other pirate crew was a lot more plausible to her.  "Running you aground here, well, it was simple enough to do.  I appreciated being taken on board, saved me the trouble of coming back later."

[Bobbie]

Once Kayla was out the door and initiated her plan, Shinsei turned to the tribe leader and the two agreed on the best course of action. It was simple enough, they'd split into two groups, he would lead half his people along the taffrail on the side of the ocean to first hoist up any emergency floatation devices - in case they themselves needed them - and then cut off any ropes or other means of pirates climbing up that side; meanwhile Shinsei would move along the side of the ship that faced the sandy shore with the other half of captives and cut the ropes that served as transportation for the pirates to get down onto the beach.

They didn’t waste time, but they had to avoid attracting too much attention to themselves, so they moved out onto the deck slowly and quietly. Each time the crew members seemed to be on the verge of being alerted, they would freeze and do their best to hide in shadow.



Fortunately, the pirates that were left on the deck were quite distracted as many of them saw Kayla and nudged each other to follow after her toward their captain, in case he was in any danger. As soon as they reached him, however, the captain raised a hand to stop them in their tracks, turning to the winged creature fluttering before him. His effort to hide his shock in her admission of throwing his prime navigator overboard didn’t quite do the trick as he whipped his head around to look toward the horizon where she’d just pointed, then he turned back to her with a frown.

Through narrowed eyes, the captain glared as she needn’t try very hard to put her plan into action. It seemed the sweating pirate’s paranoia was enough to throw him into assumptions of rival crews. “Who sent you then?” he asked, keeping his guard up but making no show of aggression yet. Meanwhile, his crew stood there, their weapons drawn, on standby.

“How did you even get out?” a dumbfounded expression washed over his features as now that the initial shock had passed, he began to think more logically and then he froze with his gaze fixed on her wings. “That moth! It was you!?” Staring at her incredulously, his cool-headedness was gone in an instant, perhaps due to his disgust for insects or the frustration and humiliation of being outsmarted by a moth.



While the crew all had their backs turned to Shinsei and the captives who were tearing through the ropes, what the cyborg predicted was unfolding right before his eyes. These people didn’t have the energy to complete the task efficiently in spite of their commitment, as their arms didn’t have the strength to saw their blades through the rope very quickly. What could usually be done in a matter of three seconds took some of them ten, and a few of the people in their weakened states even dropped their weapons into the ocean or the sand. They had successfully avoided alerting the pirates on board the ship, but the clanging weapons that crashed along the side of the ship and landed in the sand certainly alerted those below.

Tipping the bottle over, Shinsei began to pour the rum out all along the rail, prompting the former captives to move aside as he rushed past and emptied the bottle’s contents along the entire edge of the ship. Discarding the glass container, he brought one hand down onto the soaked wooden beam as a fire briefly ignited from his ring and then rapidly spread up all along the rail. It wasn’t the stealthiest way to go about this, but it certainly did the trick of burning ropes that were connected to the ship a lot faster, and a few pirates could be heard screaming as their ascent was interrupted and they fell down into the sand again.



“What the hell is going on?!” The captain’s voice bellowed and he leaned over to see a part of his ship was suddenly ablaze and was being overrun. “Take care of them!” he barked at his men, who quickly turned around in obedience to leave their captain and join the chaos on the deck instead, before he swiftly turning his attention back to Kayla. He drew a sword from his hip. “I’ve had just about enough of you, you disgusting winged menace!”

---

Shinsei: #ba0303
Captain Wyatt: #0c4f9b

[Slueshy]

Despite hoping to establish a dialogue of some kind, this guy managed to put things together rather well, which dashed her hopes of that.  She would have mentioned about how a girl with moth wings being able to turn into a moth shouldn't have been out of the question, but devil fruit were quite odd and she wasn't sure if she could even make that claim.  She didn't have a crew to give him, and figured staying quiet would possibly be the better option now, possibly to draw out the tension, but when their was suddenly screaming, and not to mention what looked like fire, Kayla knew that talking likely wouldn't go much further.  Her only saving grace was that this guy pulled out a sword.  Taking advantage of the situation with the rest of the crew heading to deal with the others, Kayla decided to rush him, fluttering her wings away with both her spears pointed at her target, she made a dive through the air.  Her spears were held in her hands, each held pointed towards her target as she attempted to skewer him immediately.  "Disgusting?  That's rich!"  She commented, him having a dislike for bugs barely registered to her, the fact that this human pile of refuse had the gall to call her disgusting, as if he weren't running a slave trade here.  It made her sick, and it drove her to flap her wings even faster, she wanted to ram these spears down his throat.  "Yes, leave your captain, all the better for me!"  she shouted, her normally calm mind clouded as the possibility she could end this monsters life, and potentially break the crew in one fell swoop drove her to go through with it.

[Bobbie]

Kayla’s silence unnerved the captain as the pieces all started to fit together and he seemed to associate the girl with some crew of sorts, perhaps targeting him out of vengeance.

Once he was left alone with her, his sword filling the space between them, his eyes grew wild as she launched her attack on him. With a swift movement, he threw his entire body backward, his boots slipping along the polished wooden floors of his ship, before he swung his sword up as if it were a club, rather than bladed steel, aiming to knock both spears out of her hands at once.

“I asked who sent you!” He snapped through his teeth, though a chuckle quickly followed, “Never mind. I can only presume it was that old sword-master Barbossa, chasing his pitiful dreams of rounding up bounties!” The captain’s tongue rattled on as he lurched forward, this time to either impale the monster before him or force her back.



Meanwhile, in the main area on the deck, the former captives were putting up a fight, but it was clearly quite a struggle in their weakened states. It didn’t take much time at all for some of them to fall to the ground while somebody else stepped in to protect them. Everybody had their hands full, including Shinsei who fought with his bare fists, his rings igniting with each swing. He tossed one pirate overboard while another was knocked unconscious against the mast. He was starting to crave his fuel once again, but there was too much going on for him to stop and light a cigarette now. Once he got a break, he looked around to assess the situation. 

Their numbers dwindled fast as Shinsei scanned the area to do a quick head count. There were at least four of their own - five, as a man just collapsed at the wrath of one pirate - incapacitated or having surrendered. Rushing to intervene, he soon found himself back-to-back with the Tribesman, who, despite putting up such a tough front, was also reaching his limit.

“We are losing numbers! We cannot keep fighting like this, they are picking my people off one at a time.”

The cyborg frowned. Had they not needed the ship in functioning order, he could have done more and set the entire structure aflame. Suddenly, the clanging of metal swords and knives all around them was overpowered by a single loud gunshot. The bang that crackled through the air was yet another reminder that they were heavily disadvantaged, one that a woman had just felt the full force of as she collapsed to the ground, wounded and unmoving as a grinning pirate stood over her with a pistol. Six... It seemed everyone from both sides grew still for a second, giving Shinsei the chance to charge the man with the gun, forcing his hand up into the air as the weapon fired twice more toward the sky. This attracted the attention of two other crewmembers who joined to assist their fellow pirate in an attempt to remove the redheaded attacker.

They put up a good fight, but Shinsei’s body was tougher and more durable than an average human’s. Although it was a strain and his mechanically altered body protested, he pushed on. Letting go of the man’s arm, he grabbed the two heads of the new assailants, smashing them into each other and then threw the pair forward into the gunslinger. The man fumbled and held onto his pistol until Shinsei rammed into him to throw him into the burning taffrail and off the ship. He counted five taken care of by himself, and three more who were being physically held down and at the mercy of the former slaves. That left only two more standing, outnumbered by the remaining two tribes people, including the dreadlocked leader, and Shinsei.

His back to the burning edge of the boat, he looked up toward the captain and Kayla to see how she was faring against him. He suddenly felt his head jerk backward however as the wooden rail creaked loudly behind him and the sub-captain's hand reached out through the fire to grab the cyborg's red hair. With all the strength the man's muscles could muster after climbing up along the ship and stretching through the fire, he yanked Shinsei by his hair to suddenly pull him overboard with him down onto the sand below.



Captain Wyatt sneered at the gunshot and was quick to follow suit, pulling out a revolver of his own and pointing it at Kayla. He took a step away from her as he steadied his aim, “As a Devil Fruit user, you’re worth more alive than dead… but as a follower of that excuse for a sword-trainer, I’d rather see you die.”

---

Shinsei: #ba0303
Captain Wyatt: #0c4f9b
Tribesman: #8f6447

[Slueshy]

Despite his efforts, she held both spears firmly in her grasp, having the two hands for each of them certainly made that a lot easier.  Though she did have to back off a bit when he pressed the offensive, the primitive spears she was using weren't going to block his sword all that effectively unless she wanted to try and get it stick in one of them, and that was just liable to get her a shorter spear as a result.  Though that didn't stop her from attacking him all the same, lunging with her spears individually in order to try and stab him.  

That is until the gunshot rang out and she looked over, only to see that the captain had pulled his own gun out.  Being low enough to the deck to land on it, she folded her wings back behind her, a liability to have stretched out with a gun pointed at her.  She didn't hesitate though, seeing the gun being leveled at her she threw her first spear, it wasn't super accurate, but it didn't have to be, because immediately after throwing it, she threw the other one, then she began to move in to close the distance between them.  She didn't need to extend her wings fully in order to give herself a burst of speed, just to flutter them quickly behind her.  After throwing the second spear she didn't just run straight at him, curving slightly so she'd come at him just a little on the right.  She wasn't concerned with being shot right now, she was just concerned with beating the crap out of this guy, her four fists clenching as she ran as fast as she could.  

[Bobbie]

Captain Wyatt was quite pleased to see Kayla back off a bit with his assault, as the smug grin on his face revealed without the need for any words. Then he seemed to have all of her attention while he held the revolver in one hand steadily aimed at her, his sword in the other, but lowered.

His triumph didn’t last very long, however, as the winged woman was quick to launch her attack more brutal than his own. The first spear shocked the captain, not expecting her to discard a useful weapon so readily, but was quick enough to dodge it. When the second spear followed, he wasn’t as lucky, his attempt to swiftly dart in another direction failing as the tip of the spear cut through his forearm which he raised to protect his heart and face.

The wound caused him to lose his grip on his sword and it crashed to the ground, his muscles contracting as he lost control of his fingers. “You vile insect!” he growled at her, his gaze fixed on his wound for the moment, eyes wide in pain and horror, but when he looked away from his arm, she was simply not where he’d left her.

Out of nowhere, she popped up on his right and he spun around, losing his balance and stumbling back slightly as he took the full force of one of her punches. “How did you move so fast!? Is this your Devil Fruit magic?” he hissed at her, raising his gun and firing a couple of rounds in panic.



Shinsei’s body and the sub-captain’s fell a long distance from the deck, the pair slamming into the side of the hull before they both landed in the sand with a loud thud and a dust cloud that came from the fine grains.

The sub-captain groaned, but was somehow up on his feet before Shinsei’s inhuman body could recover. “What-” before the cyborg could express his surprise, the sub-captain was on top of him, a hand on his throat as they were both forced to fight with bare hands now that all weapons were lost in the fall. “How did you get up?” The redhead wheezed in surprise, as any ordinary human would surely be wounded from the drop. He stared at and tried to fight off the man who was squeezing his windpipe with a crushing grip that was clearly not human and did not match his skinny frame. His arm outstretched, Shinsei heated the ring up to start a spark before bringing his hand swinging toward the man as it became engulfed in flames when it whipped through the air.

“The same way you were about to.” The pirate grinned a toothy grin with mad eyes, then extended his other hand to grab Shinsei’s forearm before his fist could connect and slammed it down into the sand which snuffed out the fire.

Struggle as he may, it seemed Shinsei had met his match as he was up against another cyborg, until he caught a glimpse of a looming black object past the enemy’s shoulder. Whatever it was was spherical and was getting larger. While battling for his airway not to be cut off entirely, the redhead directed his attention toward his opponent once more with a snicker. “I hope the rest of you is as solid as your grip.”

“Are those your last words?”

The sub-captain barely finished his question before a large cannon ball landed on him, colliding with a loud metallic sound. For a moment, he was still, and Shinsei was afraid that he barely felt it, until his body suddenly collapsed to the side, unmoving.

Shinsei had to pry his cold fingers off from around his neck, coughing violently and gasping for air to fill his lungs again, then he looked up to the taffrail, the fire having been put out and the young boy peeping out in between the bannisters with a second cannonball in hand, just in case the first one didn’t do the trick. Rising to his feet, he grinned widely to the child and gave a huge wave, followed by an overly enthusiastic thumbs up, which the boy returned with an equally bright smile.

---

Shinsei: #ba0303
Captain Wyatt: #0c4f9b
Subcaptain: #bbb87b
Tribesman: #8f6447

[Slueshy]

Thankfully her gamble paid off and he was unprepared for the second spear, taking as much advantage of this opportunity as she could, managing some decent hits with her fists, though they were not all that powerful, she made sure to strike at his more sensitive and vulnerable areas, like the face!  "Insects are pretty quick when you think about it.  Sure, they seem slow from your perspective, hardly moving at all, but that's just because they are much smaller, get rid of that size gap, and you'd see just how quickly a bug moves compared to a human."  She told him.  Additionally, as he began to fire off his gun, she was so close to him that avoiding the gunfire was quite easy, in fact with one of his arms out of commission, she took the opportunity to grab the injured arm in one of her hands, while the other three began to grab the arm which held the hand manipulating the gun.  

Her wings began to flutter, she lifted herself into the air, not allowing him to apply his size against her as leverage, or use his legs to kick her, she held his arms, her one hand on the injured arm, keeping it from doing much of anything, while the other three grappled with the other arm, multiple hands working it over to grab the gun in his grip, grabbing it, his hand, and his arm, using three arm to pull his one into position, aiming his own gun towards his head.  She wasn't capable of lifting him off into the air completely, she could do it for moments at a time though. 

He was more than likely physically stronger than her, but by manipulating the forces he had to work against, pulling him up so that he had less of an ability to move on his feet how he liked, she slowly continued to move the gun until it was aimed at his face, her smaller insect-like fingers slowly pressed down over his own finger that was on the trigger, until it clicked, and then banged.