Strategos wrote:Voyage Name: Tryouts
Location: Jaya Island, Mock Town
Participant(s): Solo
Description: Professor Jenaro is keen on expanding his piracy into new islands in his search for the four medicinal treasures of the seas. To do so, he needs the assistance of a strong crew, and on Jaya, the quickest way to do that is to be scouted. The underground fighting tournament the "Ship Out," battle royale is the latest in the island's popular bouts of violence, and Jenny plans to make a name for himself with his doctoring tricks.
Enemies:

Mockingbird:

Spotty Tillery:

Gulshan Veer:

Idsadoppo Pond:

Goal: Jenaro is looking to be courted by a pirate crew that would be willing to get him closer to one of the four treasures he seeks.
He is looking to incite a small scale arms race for healing expertise, a precursor to his greater goal.

A wooden knife sliced through the patient sea, each pull of its oars bringing ship closer to ship. Soon Jenaro Telesphore would be entering the "Ship Out" tournament, and even sooner, he'd be entering the ring of pirate flagships encircling a wrecked, stationary galleon. Already, was further from Jaya than he'd been for a long time.

"I've heard it's a land of wondrous flora and fauna! People like me! Full of myths and cultures and music and everything, built for me! Every dime I win is gonna take me back home! Wherever on the sea it is!"

A panda had joined the professor on shore. His storytelling distracted Jenny from surveying the surveyors, trying to identify each ship by the Jolly Rogers illuminated only by moonlight, stars and scattered torches. The Scorch and Slash Pirates, the Confetti Pirates, the Underhand Army... big names to be sure... but were they there?

"Anyways, doctor, what do you plan to do if you win? I hear you're a doctor, are you going to try to open a clinic with the prize money? There's no shortage of injuries on Jaya!"

"There..."

Sail and flag peaked over the locale of their fight. Jenaro recognized them quickly and stood from his post rowing the boat, sending their dinghy askew. The panda rose to track his gaze.

"That's my plan, bear. I don't care much about winning, just about proving my worth. I'll show every ship watching how invaluable I am, and I'll be recruited by the Aquarius Pirates."

"Treasure hunter, huh? I didn't much take you for boxes of booty, treasure hunter doctor."

Jenaro scoffed and grinned quickly before refocusing on his rowing. "My treasure isn't what they would seek. I will learn how to hunt, before I hunt. 'Great undertakings require great preparation.' a very old Alabastan surgeon coined that phrase."

The absent oarsmen returned to his duty, rowing with increased fervor. Knowing the crew would be watching made his previous fights in the Jaya Circuit worth it. Getting recruited would be the easy part, he was sure.

Their dinghy crashed into the still ship, like a mighty fist against an ornate front door. Knocking was received by a welcome, and a ladder flung towards the bow. In the dark of the late evening, it was hard to tell what, or who, had extended the invitation, but Jenaro didn't hesitate to accept.

"If you're not interested in winning, treasure hunter doctor, what say you to an alliance?"

The offer gave the professor pause. "Your motivation is lacking, how can I know you'll be committed to achieving an impossible dream? Finding a home you've never known is absurd. Why not find out more about it first? Why not research? Why not gather information? You'll be heading nose first into the unknown." His thesis proposed, the professor agreed with himself with a shake of his head. "No, I think not."

Panda stopped Jenaro before another attempt at ascent was made. "Don't take my ambition lightly, treasure hunter doctor. Honestly, I think it's your goal that seems lighthearted. Treasure, especially if it's important, won't just wait around until you're ready. The world of pirates isn't like your university!"

Professor:

Spotty Tillery, who'd introduced himself on their climb aboard the satellite ship, was happy to go off on the rest of the fight's competitors. As Jenaro boarded the stage, four figures silently greeted their new guest, and the professor silently put names to faces.

Isadoppo Pond, the 'Chain,' was easy to spot by the silvery metal encircling his torso and a satisfied grin plastered across his pale face. Mockingbird was just as easy to recognize, with burgeoning muscles and indifferent confidence. Jenaro's presence, and Spotty's soon after, didn't mean much for her situation. That left just Gulshan Veer, nursing a wicker basket.

The fourth individual greeted both Spotty and Jenaro excitedly, and the professor quickly recognized him.

"Welcome, welcome! You certainly took your time getting here..." Douglas Doe, the Jaya Circuit promoter seemed eager to get the fight underway. "Touch the ocean or die, you're out of the fight," he quickly explained. "Last man standing wins today's prize, make sure to put on a good show for your audience."

The promoter's hands eagerly rubbed together, almost audibly building friction between the palms. "You'll start no closer than ten paces from any other fighter. You may begin when you hear my pistol fire."

"Do we have a deal?" Jenaro was caught by Spotty's question. Gulshan and Isadoppo moved away from the small crowd of people. The latter didn't let his eyes leave the professor. "Alliance, treasure hunter doctor?"

"I haven't come around to your way of thinking, Spotty. You go about your goals incorrectly."

The promoter raised a torch, signaling the audience as to the approaching start of the fight. Spyglasses and binoculars rose to catch sight of the fighters spread out across the deck of the large, defunct ship. Jenaro made sure the Aquarius Pirates were keeping watch.

"Then I can only wish you luck, treasure hunter doctor, here and beyond."

With his words, Spotty found his own starting position near a half-broken wheel. Isadoppo posed near the ship's primary mast, now cracked and riddled with some affliction beyond the doctor's diagnosis. Mockingbird hadn't move from her position near the starboard railing, making use of one of the only sturdy pieces of the ship left. Gulshan was nowhere to be seen.

A pistol fired off, smoke and light erupting to begin the tournament.

Spotty made a beeline for the Mockingbird, who had her eyes set on Pond, who in turn seemed focused on gutting the good doctor. A circuit of aggression had been created, and Jenaro was unwilling to participate.

"Warden Finger!"

Isadoppo announced his chain and hook weapon hurtling towards the professor, who deftly retreated from its range, scampering up a net away from the fight.

Mockingbird seemed more than happy to take advantage of the defenseless fighter, launching him from the deck off the ship and presumably into his defeat. Spotty mimicked the strategy throwing his own body at the woman, jaw open wide.

"Jaguar Style!"

Glittering electricity decorated the panda's jaw in an instant, illuminating the mink's face. Even to perceptive eyes, it would be hard to tell, but the electricity seemed to take the shape of a jungle cat, collapsing its jaw onto the woman's bicep, burning, crushing and slicing into her muscle and skin.

The two fighters broke off, Mockingbird's arm smoking from the strike. Jenaro Telesphore took the opportunity to strike. His approach was met with a lazy swing from the injured arm, but the doctor made no effort to avoid the attack. Where her fist struck, thread sprung from the doctor's body, enveloping her arm.

"Gallen: First Text, Chapter 22. An elementary technique for securing unruly patients," Jenny explained. Instead of following up his trap with a technique, however, the doctor opted to swiftly treat the woman's injury, blanketing the burn with a clean cloth before wrapping it in a thin layer of bandaging.

Suspicious of his movements, Mockingbird ripped her arm away from the trap, snapping Jenny's thread. The work was already done. Her arm was sufficiently treated, and the fight between Spotty and the champ had hardly been interrupted.

Skipping away from the pair of fighters, Jenny addressed them both. "Pardon the intrusion, miss. If I had more serious equipment, I could do more with your arm, for now, this should prevent any infection and assuage the burning sensation."

Bewildered, neither Mockingbird nor Spotty could move against the sheer absurdity of the doctor's actions.

"Please, fight on, I will do my best to administer you both proper medical care without interrupting your fight!"

Professor:

The impending silence was permeated by a song, something slow and flowing that seemed to rise from the bowels of the dead ship. Before any investigation into the music could be made, a sheer laughter accompanied the instrumental.

Bone dry and smug as a fox, Isadoppo Pond clambered over the side of the ship, tumbling back onto its deck.

"That's exactly the arrogant, high class attitude I'd have expected from your kind!" Pond shouted, his words like arrows towards Jenny.

"I beg your pardon," Jenaro retaliated, "My 'kind'?"

"Silver spoons, expensive learning, all that fancy shit!" Isadoppo wrenched his weapon from the side of the of the ship, tearing out splinters from its hull. The weapon had clearly saved him from taking a loss. Over the music, he continued his shouting, "I bet you think us fighting for our lives is so terribly amusing, don't you?!"

"I'm participating just the same as you. I'm fighting for what I want."

"You are looking right past me, highbrow!" Pond's hook began circling through the air, his aim obviously focused on the professor. "I'll gouge those arrogant eyes out of your skull. Before or after I kill you, I haven't decided yet."

"There are more efficient ways of going about such a procedure."

"Warden Finger!"

Jenaro made a desperate jump away from the attack, clearing its path. Before he could regain his balance again, the weapon was returning to its bearer, sailing backwards before digging into the doctor's right triceps.

"Hooked ya, highbrow!"

The weapon's momentum carried Jenaro closer to his opponent. Responding quickly, Jenaro picked a scalpel from his Kit. Digging around the hook, Jenny sliced at his own body, liberating himself from the weapon's grip. He tumbled and slid across the ship's deck as the weapon clattered to the wood, dragging a trail of the doctor's blood with it.

"Blackwell: First Text, Chapter Nine," Jenaro recalled the medical text outlining his technique to close some of the shallow wound, stemming further blood drawn. He'd have to treat it more carefully before moving much more.

Before further treating the wound, Mockingbird made her own rush, no intention of showing gratitude for the doctor's bandaging. Her path was intercepted by a crash of lightning, momentarily drowning out the music.

"Fox Hunt!"

Spotty, cloaked in electricity, had increased his speed to collide with Mockingbird, delivering another jolt of energy to the woman's body, earning a groan of aggravation. Jenaro took the opportunity to put distance between him and the other fighters. Mockingbird retaliated to the panda's sneak attack, throwing a fist like a freight train and delivering Spotty to the stern of the ship.

Isadoppo never lost sight of the target of his rage, bringing his weapon down like a morningstar. The hook broke clear through the deck, but was clear of Jenaro, rolling away from the weapon again.

"I'm not much for aggression, but a doctor can't be incapacitated in the midst of combat!"

"All I've seen is a scampering rabbit so far!"

The weapon trapped one story below their feet, Jenaro rushed Isadoppo, feinting a punch that exposed the other man, clearly not used to unarmed combat. Jenny buried his fist in his opponent's breast, targeting the ribs. He followed his first punch with the other fist, then targeting his kidney.

Opponent taken aback, Jenaro strafed him and wrapped his arms in a precise pattern around his neck and head.

"Bantring: Third Text, Chapter Seventeen. Normally, meant to stave off fainting, it seems here your intention to disrupt my medical treatments must be answered seriously."

"High...."

"Highbrow, again? You know nothing of me, vagabond!"

"High... ropes..."

Jenaro was struck with confusion. The mad dog had passed a chance to insult the professor. Turning his gaze upwards, he caught the Mockingbird. Arms spread wide against the moonlight, she stood well above the two entangled fighters. Leaping from the railing, she swooped towards Isadoppo and Jenaro, intent to break them both in a single attack.

The doctor broke his hold, but the attack destroyed the shabby wood, undermining the already feeble integrity of their stage. Collapsing wood brought all three down, landing roughly into what was, at one point, a kitchen for the ship.

"Are either of you hurt?" Jenaro asked seriously. In giving a cursory examination for major injuries, his medical inspection was interrupted by a distraction from outside the ship. Through a shallow window, Jenny's dream sailed away from him. The Aquarius Pirates were leaving the ring of spectators.

Professor:

Shouting interrupted both the constant wind instrumental and Jenaro Telesphore's thinking. The fearful yelping seemed to come from the deck of the ship. For Jenny, that meant another potential patient in serious danger.

"If you two are alright, then I think I'll check on- Oh dear!"

The doctor's escape was cut off by the arrival of two inky segments slithering their way into the room. Jenaro was no herpetologist, but even he could tell these snakes were rattled.

"Please be careful, both of you," he advised Mockingbird and Pond, "I don't have the materials to make a proper antivenom in the worst case situation." Though hesitant to follow his orders, the surprise appearance of the animals gave both fighters enough reason to pause.

Ridding his head of thoughts of the Aquarius Pirates and their departure, Jenaro focused on the task at hand. One snake pursued the doctor, clearly intent at attacking the man. Jenaro readied a length of thread, steadily wrapping it in preparation for the oncoming attack. The snake struck, and Jenaro reacted.

"Gallen: First Text, Chapter Twenty-Two!"

Thread ensnared the animal's jaw, shut tight by a neat little knot.

"Ha! I'm not a veterinarian, but one thing is true for many reptiles," Jenaro lectured, preparing another length of thread for the second snake, equally agitated. "Though their bites carry great crushing strength, their ability to open their mouths isn't so potent. A zoologist-"

"Ring Thresh!"

In his lengthy lecturing, Jenaro had let Pond find his rage once more, and the man took decisive action against the other snake.

"Talking too much, highbrow. I've got every intention to continue your execution."

"That's really not necessary, you know."

"If I wanna win, then everyone's gonna end up a little hurt! That's the nature of the age, and especially of this tournament."

"Not much point to a fight if there's no one to watch."

Pond cocked his head at this statement. Following the doctor's fingers, he saw the kitchen's window to the outside world. Mockingbird was already calmly taking in the scene.

More and more ships were leaving the ring of spectators, departing in the same calm fashion the Aquarius Pirates had made. Much to Jenaro's disappointment, it seemed the tournament's gamblers and surveyors were sailing away, one by one, each exit detracting from the fight's worth.

"I'd like to propose a truce," Jenaro offered. "I'll patch up both of your wounds from the fall, and we can ask Doe what's happening."

"Sounds like quite the fancy trick, highbrow!"

"Maybe you could beat me, but do you really think you can beat the Mockingbird in a fair fight too? We've both seen the vast difference between our powers and hers."

"There you go again... you cocky highbrow son of a king!"

"Oh, dear."

"Warden Finger!"

Isadoppo's weapon swung towards Jenaro, and at such close range, there was little room to avoid the attack. The blunt side of the metal crashed into the doctor's gut. His back slid against the kitchen floor from the strike.

Jenaro's goal was not to beat Isadoppo. It wasn't even his goal to fight the violent young man. Another batch of screaming crying over the music reminded the doctor of his goals. He wasn't there to win a fight or achieve anything in the tournament. He was meant to be recruited. He wasn't meant to do this part of the work.

"If you'll excuse me," Jenaro rose to his feet, "There's someone who actually needs help." Wielding his scalpel, Jenny cut loose the string on the imprisoned snake before kicking its body towards Pond and Mockingbird.

Sprinting from the room, the professor followed the source of the screaming, growing closer to the music coincidentally. Re-emerging onto the deck, Jenaro discovered a bloody, weary, Spotty Tillery, encompassed by a throng of snakes.

From the crow's nest came the song. Played on some light wind instrument, Jenaro could only make out the silhouette of a cloak blowing like a tattered flag.

"The boat! Treasure hunter doctor!" Spotty shouted and pointed towards where the pair had arrived at the fighting tournament. Jenaro reluctantly followed the request, but looking over the side of the ship, he simply watched the dinghy floating towards Jaya, Douglas Doe rowing for his life.

"No such luck, patient!" Jenaro shouted back, raising his voice over the music. "Looks like we'll have to treat you on site!"

Professor::

On the deck of the ship, it was clear the participants of the tournament had been left alone. Not a single boat remained in the ring of audience members. With Doe absent as well, it seemed the tournament hardly held any bearing anymore. It only left the question as to what had caused the exodus. Had it something to do with the infestation of snakes on board? Was it a gimmick of the game?

"Patient, were you bitten?"

Spotty didn't take his eyes away from the crowd of snakes, whipped into some aggressive frenzy.

"Once or twice... They won't leave me alone!"

Even as Jenaro approached the mink to get a closer look at the wounds, a half dozen snakes noticed the new man. They broke off from the pack, pursuing the doctor instead. It was only once he'd backed off from Spotty's position that they returned to the panda, clearly more interested in the bleeding target.

"Is it the music doing this? On a field examination to a Summer island, a colleague of mine-"

"Yeah, treasure hunter doctor, I think it's the music. I saw Gulshan climb the crow's nest after I got surrounded!"

"I'll tell him the fight's over and done with, but I need to rescue you first."

"Changed your mind on me?"

In truth, Jenny had been frustrated with his plans for the evening. Relying on the outside help of the Aquarius Pirates had left him adrift on the ship. However, in the midst of the crisis was hardly the time to rethink his morals.

"Hold them off for a moment longer, I've got an idea."

"I wasn't about to invite them closer."

Jenaro returned to where he'd first arrived on the ship, finding the ladder left there and unhooking it from the wooden railing.

"Sorry, patient, I'll have to ask you to enter into further danger for your safety."

"Asking me for trust, treasure hunter doctor?"

"Will you give it, patient?"

"Admit my home is real! Tell me that I'll find it!"

Jenaro was flabbergasted. "I'm the one trying to save you here!"

"I know it'd kill you to see me get hurt again... tell me that I'll find my home! Take back what you said!"

"Fine! Fine! Your ambition isn't stupid! You'll return home! That return starts right here!"

Spotty laughed victoriously, a strange sight given his battered body.

"Now take this ladder and jump overboard!"

"Aye aye, treasure hunter doctor!"

"Fox Hunt!"

Without a second thought, Spotty did exactly as he was told, snatching the thrown end of the ladder and sprinting towards the port side of the ship. The small swarm of snakes followed mindlessly, desperate to take another bite out of the panda. Spotty leapt fearlessly off the side of the ship, trailing blood behind him. Every snake followed the scent and sight, finding themselves overboard the very next instant.

Jenaro held fast to the ladder, and he was pulled towards the side of the ship. Heels digging into the deck, and then into the railing, Jenny struggled to keep the mink from falling into the ocean. Carefully, he tried reeling in the ladder, only for the sealed wound on his shoulder to burst open at the strain.

One arm near defunct, the ladder very nearly slipped through his fingers. Almost gone, the ladder was saved by a grappling hook latching onto one of the steps. The chain reeled backwards, and Spotty was slowly, yet surely pulled from his jump back on board.

"Guess you weren't all talk about that doctoring stuff, highbrow," Isadoppo Pond relented, looking down on the doctor, but satisfied with what he'd seen.

"You two were injured some more," Jenaro observed, noticing a few more scrapes and a bite mark on Mockingbird's arm, along with some moderate injuries to Isadoppo's body.

Pond laughed, "She did most of the heavy lifting if I'm being honest. There's a whole lot more snakes than we thought. Something like a few hundred are hiding in the lower decks. And they're all going crazy from the music."

The four fighters looked up to the solitary musician, still blowing away at his flute.

"Let me treat your wounds, then I'll have a talk with Gulshan," Jenaro punctuated his declaration with his medical kit.

"I'm not sure we have that kind of time, treasure hunter doctor."

From the doors to the lower decks, another wave of snakes emerged, just as vicious and aggressive as the others.

"One minute each then!" Jenaro declared. "You'll be no use if you're dead. Spotty, you're first."

"We gotta start fighting! We don't have time to waste on this!"

"We're not wasting time! This is my profession! I'll save you every time you want to fight! Now let me do my job!"

Professor:

In the midst of combat and pressed for time, Jenaro wasn't quite able to deliver the treatment he would have dreamed for the three fighters, but he stemmed any major sources of bleeding, and made sure there was nothing that would surprise them. Scrambling away and up, he quickly found the source of that pervasive music.

Gulshan Veer didn't care to stop playing despite the professor's arrival. Even when he stepped into the narrow crow's nest, there was no break in the music.

"There's no reason to continue this onslaught. Doe left the ship, there's no audience left."

His explanation went unanswered, and the music continued.

"If you continue playing, then you're only doing it to hurt us! You're a savage, and I'll put a stop to your senseless violence."

Taking a finger off the flute, Gulshan pointed towards the sea briefly. There was hardly a pause in the melody before the playing resumed perfectly. Though his allies below didn't have much time, Jenaro followed the indication, catching the approaching sight of a small marine caravel, sailing straight for the fighting tournament.

"You're working with-?!"

A boot caught the small of the professor's back. He tumbled over the side of the crow's nest, but snatched the wooden lip with his good arm.

"I taught children for a living! You think I haven't fallen for that one before?!"

Wrenching himself back onto the crow's nest, Jenaro knew there was no reasoning with the dog before him.

"Your violence isn't senseless, but I've got a lot of work before I see the law reach me."

Entering into the nest, Jenaro drew a length of thread and prepared himself for his first real fight of this fighting tournament. The initial exchange was cursory, like two strangers making polite greetings. There was little room to dodge or evade in the cramped space, so short jabs and elbow strikes were the name of the game, but even trying his hardest, Jenny could hardly cause interruptions in the man's playing.

The doctor looped thread around his injured shoulder. His attempt at recovery also looked to be interrupted. With both professionals wielding their tools at their finest direction. The musician's song continued, despite his flurry of kicks, and the doctor's steady hands were hardly disturbed by playing defense to that surge of attacking.

Soon enough the injury was repaired, shut tight and permitting much more freedom than Jenaro's earlier treatment. One man's work was done, but the other continued their own. With all four limbs at his disposal, the fight quickly turned to Jenaro's favor.

Fighting turned more intimate, with strikes and grapples less refined and more hungry, more savage. Hardly any separation existed between the two fighters, and Jenaro was determined to end the snake charmer's song.

Crossing the musician's body, Jenaro swung his injured arm down, intentionally falling short of his target. The attempt completely exposed the recently sealed wound. The musician failed to trust his specialty. He surrendered his music. Breaking the flute's connection with his lips, he thrust out with the tool, stabbing the flute into Jenaro's wound.

"Gallen! First Text! Chapter Twenty-Two!"

The looped thread came loose upon contact, and it snaked around the flute, entangling the tool. Gulshan's eyes went wide, but he'd no time to react before Jenaro swung his arm backwards and ripped the instrument away, sailing through the air and diving into the sea with an unceremonious splash.

"Now!" Jenaro declared, tightening his necktie. "Where were we?"

"Ensign Gulshan Veer, Special Investigations Division."

"Professor Jenaro Telesphore, PhD."

Nothing was held back in the conclusive exchange between both men. Every inch of the crow's nest was danced across in their confrontation. Kicks thrown from the lip of the small structure, punches aimed well below the belt and grappling savage beyond compare.

"Do I have to step into this, highbrow?"

"Treasure hunter doctor, you're still not done?"

Climbing the tattered ropes and nets of the ship, Spotty, Isadoppo and Mockinbird had climbed to their elevation, and were watching the fight.

"Don't even think about it. You can fight after I fix all those new injuries!"

Professor::

If there was any opportunity to look away from the fight, Jenaro Telesphore might have noticed how much closer the marine caravel had come. As it happened, his entanglement with the marine was hardly turning out to be an easy fight. Losing his flute had only enraged the man, and their small war had only become more heated.

"Wrap this up, treasure hunter doctor!"

Jenny weaved away from a shallow jab, swinging his elbow against the outstretched arm. Momentum pushed Gulshan towards the lip of the nest, and the doctor greedily looked to make good on the advantage. Trying to bury his knee in the marine's gut, his leg was swatted away like a pest, and the doctor was treated to his foe's skull crashing against his sternum and throwing his back against another side of the creaky nest.

"C'mon highbrow, they don't teach you how to fight at those fancy schools?!"

Gulshan swung his legs in tandem, rejecting the doctor's attempt to recover and pushing him against the wood once more. He extended his legs again, and Jenny ducked low. Pushing up against Gulshan's thighs, he tumbled backwards, clumsily falling to the floor. Both messily thrashed one another, competing for dominance in the claustrophobic space.

There was little technique to their fight. No tact or accords or friendliness. Both saw the other's end as survival and neither were quite wrong.

"Time to face justice, scoundrel!" Gulshan shouted, finally having achieved what looked like a conclusive advantage in their bout.

The sore planks struggled against the pair's weight, groaning and complaining about all this activity after lying still and restful for so long. Jenaro had no escape between them and the marine. Again, it would look like he'd have to break things to fix them.

Exerting every muscle fiber in his chest, the doctor unleashed a quick flurry of kicks against the crow's nest. Against their weight and beating, the old wood finally surrendered, crumbling and falling apart under their bodies.

Both men fell far, catching ropes and nets and other strewn about ship appendages on their descent. Another layer of wood broke under their impact, inviting Gulshan and Jenaro into the bowels of the ship.

A moment of inactivity passed. Another followed. Jenaro prayed that the marine would stay flat on his back. It didn't take long for his plea to be rejected. Gulshan stumbled to his feet, sucking wind and starving for round two. The professor answered the call, finding his feet under him.

Awkwardly, the two bodies collided against each other. Both pirate and marine were lacking in the ferocity initially shown. So much had been taken out of them. In the following exchange, however, they proved how much more they each had. Attacks came slowly, but each carried great weight and exertion.

"THIS IS THE MARINE CORPS! ALL THOSE ON THE SHIP MAKE YOURSELVES KNOWN!"

Gulshan laughed victoriously. "That's right! That's justice knocking! We're here to end your puny pursuits! Indiscriminately!"

"Let me teach you then," Jenny retorted through labored breaths. He wrapped his hand carefully in his tools, seeming to wrap his knuckles as he spoke "That there are things, much, much, much, much, much, much, much... MUCH! More important than justice!"

Jenaro punctuated his declaration with a final uppercut, taking the marine by surprise. Between each finger had hid a single needle attached by thread to the doctor's wrist. Now, those needles were plunged firmly into the marine, drawing out lengths of thread as Gulshan flew upwards and out in response to the punch.

"Now for a remedial lesson!"

The professor yanked his arm, and the strings, back, summoning the marine into his presence once more. With Gulshan helplessly flung towards the doctor, he clotheslined his target, swinging his arm across the man's skull, and flinging his head back into the deck.

Though unconscious, his fall exposed a lower floor of the ship, swarming with the hundreds of snakes Pond had reported.

"With your kind, then."

Jenaro slid the man's body through the hole he'd created in the floor, discarding the refuse into the sea of hissing below his feet.

Professor::

"All clear, Captain!"

"All clear, Captain!"

"All clear, Captain!"

All three marines were wearing black variations of the standard sailor uniforms, and were just a few of the soldiers scouring the ship for whatever would get the four fighters in the most trouble.

"How can you tell me 'all clear'? Our inside man reported this was meant to be a battleground!"

"Our card games can get pretty heated, mister," Isadoppo Pond quipped, "maybe that's what your man meant."

The captain scowled and berated his men a bit more before sending them off to search again. Unfortunately for the captain, they weren't going to find any evidence aboard the battlegrounds.

Shortly after Jenaro did away with the inside man, the other three had found him on the verge of collapse. As the marines began preparations to board, the four had gone to work cleaning up the mess they'd made. Sealing any and every entrance to the den of snakes hidden on the ship, including some patchwork repairs made to the Gulshan shaped hole in the floor.

Jenaro was dog tired, but didn't take a single break from patching up the fighters and the ship. He'd even worked to stall any spread of venom through Spotty and Mockingbird's bodies, though a real antivenom would take more resources, as he claimed. By the time the doctor was watching marines board the shipwreck, the four of them looked days, or even weeks away from their last scuffle.

Like a vanishing act, the four fearsome fighters had been transformed into a group of cardsharps that merely enjoyed their privacy. Each of the four were bound in handcuffs and repeatedly surveyed by the marine captain, just waiting for the slightest reason to throw them each into cells.

"I know that you're all criminals. Viruses to Jaya Island and to society as a whole," the captain explained. "But I won't arrest you now. No... in a few days I'll have pinned whatever I want on you. You'll have whatever bounties I can make stick! Soon enough, rats on Jaya will eat you alive, or you'll come and beg me for protection!"

"We could challenge that in a courtroom," Jenaro explained calmly.

"Sure, sure! In the meantime, show your law degree to that island of vagabonds! Pack it up boys! We're shipping out of this dump!"

"Hey what about these handcuffs? Or a ride back?!"

"You'll figure it out."

In moments, the caravel separated from the shipwreck, sailing back towards Jaya. Mockingbird easily broke their cuffs, grunting at each strain of the muscles.

"I guess we're swimming back. Unless one of you knows how to make a boat."

Jenaro shook his head. He was all for joining in on Spotty's plan, but took a moment to lean back against the mast, and in that moment, surrendering to his exhaustion. All around him, the same happened, with each fighter nodding off.

Before sunlight even broke, they were awoken by an excitable Douglas Doe, so relieved to see his prizefighters mostly unharmed. Wordlessly, and without much of any niceties, the four seized his ship, relaxing while the promoter nervously rowed them to shore.

"I've got a small hideaway where I can treat you all," Jenaro offered, gauging their responses. "It would be my pleasure to do so."

Mockingbird nodded so marginally it could've been mistaken as one nodding off again.

Pond reluctantly agreed, once more remarking on the doctor's arrogance while secretly relieved at having another spot to sleep.

Spotty welcomed the opportunity, happily accepting the invitation. Already, he was talking about the next fight, and how Jenaro could definitely be scouted by the Aquarius Pirates then.

"I don't think so, Spotty. From now on... I think I'll be taking a page from your textbook. I'll take what I want for myself. I won't wait for someone else to tell me how to go about it."

In silence, they enjoyed the dawn breaking over the horizon, and though uncoordinated, the four felt their thoughts drift to what the future might hold in store for each of them. Jenaro was all smiles on the subject.

Professor:

-exit stage-