Voyage Details:

Jenaro Telesphore hadn't left his hideaway much in recent times. Depending on odd patients to give him the news for which he hungered, the professor laid low, in the hopes that the news of his bounty would soon blow over. Those who'd been apprehended at his side hadn't felt the same sense of caution, and had happily returned to the Jaya fighting circuit.

"This time, I do have news for you, highbrow."

Following the Daybreak Bronze tournament, Isadoppo Pond was in the professor's office, relaxing on a shabby couch while the doctor prepared the other man's treatment. Since their meeting at the Ship Out, Isadoppo and Spotty had been the professor's most regular patients. Given their continued fighting in the circuits, they certainly weren't in any position to turn down what Jenny offered them. In return, no payment was accepted, just information and the occasional favor.

"Some anecdote about the day's fight? I'm not very invested in your tournament results now that I'm off the market, Pond."

"It's legit, highbrow, chill."

"Continue, then."

Despite the invitation, Jenaro was far more focused on stitching together a shallow trio of cuts across the fighter's shoulder. He reached for his needle and began rebuilding Isadoppo's left arm.

"So these Orange Row guys- Watch it! These Orange Row guys, down and out regular folks, right? Well apparently some disease is running amok, going door to door and infecting the whole neighborhood. It's so bad the marines quarantined that whole section of the island- Ow!"

"What have they contracted?!"

Jenaro's focused was snatched from his current patient, and his eyes moved from Pond's wound to his eyes, waiting eagerly for his answer. If it was something the marines couldn't handle, then it might be something worth breaking his incognito status for.

"Something... river virus? Grease river virus?"

"Grish River Virus?"

"That sounds more right."

Completely abandoning the current patient, Jenaro rifled through his shanty dressers and bookshelves. Tipping the spines of a dozen or so texts, he settled upon a beaten leather book, flipping frantically through the pages.

"That was completely contained to Alabasta some years ago... there shouldn't be any way for it to have traveled here to Jaya. No animal could have carried it. No imports would've bore the disease either. Have the marines ordered samples of the vaccination?"

Isadoppo seemed quite pleased his story had so totally enraptured the doctor. He meshed his fingers and reclined comfortably, string and needle still dangling from his wounded arm.

"Mmm... something like that. I've got a guy I play cards with at the base. He says they can't do anything cause of the revolutionaries in Orange Row. As long as the medicine comes from the World Government, nobody in the neighborhood will touch it. Very suspicious folks, those guys. How's that for payment, highbrow?"

"You know you don't pay me for this."

"How's that for thanks then?"

"Plenty. Do the marines have the medicine? I could administer the vaccinations myself, even ensure of their effectiveness."

"Sure. But, if they hear you talked to the marines, you'll be spit upon and then shot, not necessarily in that order. Besides, you don't have much dealmaking rights with ten mil on your head. Are you gonna finish your job here, by the way?"

"Apologies."

Jenaro returned to a squat stool before Pond, resuming his needlework. The procedure was routine, and it gave Jenny a chance to think on the problem at hand. Nothing on Jaya would have what he needed to create the cure himself, and ordering samples or ingredients from Alabasta, either officially or unofficially was outside the range of his abilities at the moment. No matter which way he spun the situation, it seemed the solution lay in activities both clandestine and illegitimate.

"You've got an inside man, but is there any chance you'd be able to get your hands on a uniform, Pond?"

"Kidding me, highbrow? You're looking at the undisputed king of strip poker!"

Professor:

Quickly after evening's fall, Jenaro went about exploring the marine base of Jaya, hopeful the less perceptive guards would be deployed after sunset. Even dressed in Isadoppo's marine duds, it hadn't been too long since the 'Professor's' face had been printed hundreds of times over, and labeled "Dead or Alive." He'd still be treading carefully through the small base.

If it was true that the marines had ordered samples of the Grishe River medicine from Alabasta, they'd be kept in a specially heated room. Something like an oven or kitchen would provide the proper environment suitable for its keeping. Taking from its Summer Island home, the cure and the virus both require high temperatures, or a host to survive. It'd been a while since Jenny had studied diseases so minute and eradicated, but he remembered well at least that.

What his studying at his hideaway had illuminated was much more than that. Most of his text, pilfered from a stuffy archaeologists' estate, was a history lesson. That which didn't talk about the historical exploits of the relevant doctors and scientists had reminded the doctor how to administer the medicine once he'd arrived in Orange Row. A cache of the proper supplies waited just a short getaway from the base.

Assuming everything went smoothly, Jenaro would be fixing this bio hazard by the time dawn broke over the island.

Nodding a polite greeting to some passing patrol grunts, Jenny ducked into a storeroom opposite the wall of the base's cafeteria. The warmth of its ovens could still be felt. Several iron lockers lined the walls exactly opposite the burning fires of the kitchen. Pulling open a door, clumsily labeled vials lay dormant, just waiting.

"Planning to hit the whole island this time round, hm?"

Jenny whirled around, catching a marine dressed in some green variation of the uniform. A sword leaning against the stool upon which he sat. This was not just a foot soldier.

"Sir?"

"Cut it out, hm. Your poster went up a couple days ago, and you think we'd have already forgotten about you, hm, Professor?"

Misfortune washed over him like a wave. His cover broken, Jenaro swapped tactics. He would try to appeal to a lawman's sense of humanity.

"Those people in Orange Row are going to die. I can save them, you know! Wouldn't that be better than letting those people die? Just give me the cure, and I'll do the rest."

The green clad marine took to his feet, Jenaro pressed his back to the lockers. Their heat wasn't the reason he started sweating bullets.

"A likely story from a lightfingered man, hm? You should work on it a bit more. You should at least know what you're stealing, hm. If you want those samples, hm, you'll have to beat me first."

"Samples?"

Tentatively, the doctor more closely examined the vials, reading over the labels and deciphering the coded medical information. They could have been purposefully mislabeled, but each tag indicated that the vials held different disease samples, not the medicine for which to treat them.

"Why didn't you order a cure?"

Jenaro's blood boiled. Kitchen flames, again, played no part in his feelings. These animals had no desire to help the afflicted. They'd brought it back into the world. They'd undone one of medicine's greatest triumphs for a small victory in their big game.

"WHY?!"

Rage fueled a driven charge, so opposite the doctor's temperament that it caught the marine off balance. A barbaric punch found itself deflected by a sheathed cutlass. Jenny's knuckles slid off the leather and he threw his shoulder into the marine's chest, for an unruly tackle.

His aggression was brushed aside but a swing of shocking strength, introducing the doctor's back to a wooden shelf and his body to the lukewarm stone floor.

"You'd let them die like that?! Like relics? This death was solved?! Why the devil did you revive it?"

Gracefully, the green marine revealed a shimmering, immaculate sword, carefully discarding of its scabbard.

"Hm? I don't know what you're referring to. Every marine base has such samples. If a pirate were to ever use biological warfare against us. A good idea, hm? If those Orange Row upstarts would let us help them, don't you think we would, hm?"

"Liars! You unleashed virus on those people! For what? A disagreement in ideals?!"

"Such disagreements can be powerful things, hm Professor? As for your accusations... hm... make them again, and I won't wait for a trial to declare your date of execution! Hm!"

Professor: