bravenewworld | Merchandising, merchandising

Entry tags:

Merchandising, merchandising

Log Deputy: Void
Participating Characters: Banzu, Isabela, Yuuna, Kyoko
Plot Description: Exploring the Archipelago for scientific knowledge ~~but mainly things that Banzu can make money off of.~~
Warnings/Notes: No warnings yet, will add if there are.

The rumble of Pathfinder's engines shifted as Banzu cut the throttle and reduced speed, calling to the person on lookout duty to watch for underwater rocks now that they were close to the Archipelago. They had made much better time than the first group to come this way, but interactions with the local Pokémon were a mixed bag; some fled in terror at the strange noisy object barreling along, some took it upon themselves to rid the seas of this monstrosity, and some just watched them go by in curiosity or confusion. Fortunately their speed left most pursuers exhausted in their wake before long, but they were certainly annoying to deal with in the time that they shared together, and Banzu was less than delighted about the new gouge in the railing. Still, they had made it, and Pathfinder carried enough supplies that they wouldn't need to return for a while if they didn't want to, along with a small amount of cargo tied down in the center of the forward deck.

"Okay," Banzu called out from the wheelhouse once they'd made it closer, "I'm gonna keep the islands on our right as we circle 'em. Holler if anything catches your eye, but keep watching for rocks and hostiles."

[For more info on the ship see here.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Banzu's already splitting his focus between watching where they're going and looking out the windows at the islands, so any feeling he gets goes unheeded. Spur-Mesh the Klinklang, grinding away in the rear of the wheelhouse, gets a vague sense of being watched and floats closer to the window to see if there's any reason for it.

Not one to ignore her instinct, Yuuna taps the warp band to call out another Pokemon. A Hawlucha drops lightly to the deck and at a silent command Ichijou joins Zedd and Spur-Mesh, sweeping the area from above.

Kyoko can feel it too, and in a split second, her spear is unfolded and at the ready. Bertram stands next to her, striking a heroic looking pose, while Rieger circles overhead. While the trip had been exciting and new, a little action would be a nice change of pace.

"I guess you all felt that too..."

Isabela squints toward the shoreline, making sure her Doublade is out and ready to go. Between them they've got/are four weapons, so she's not too concerned.

[The sound of rushing water can be heard. The waves around the ship grow choppy and several enormous figures burst out of the water around the ship. Wailords. Five of them.]

Banzu swears loud enough to be heard on deck and both cuts power to the engine and frantically steers to avoid a collision while the ship's inertia bleeds off. You may want to grab onto something.

Yuuna grabs hold of the rail and just blinks. Wailords? Seriously? What was it with this stupid ocean and enormous fish. She snaps her fingers and calls Zedd back her way.

"Get ready...and hope they don't decide to attack for no reason."

Well, this was interesting. Kyoko drops back onto the deck and grabs onto the rail with her free hand. Falling into the water would not be fun. Especially with their...'guests'.

"Well, I'm guessing they're not here to say hello."

Isabela stands on the deck, swaying with the momentum of Banzu's stop as only an experienced sailor could.

"I've never seen a group this size this close to shore," she comments. "They don't eat people, so they might just be curious. Get ready, but they might move on if we're not a threat."

Quietly and behind her back, she summons her quiet, hovering Tynamo. Pitting the smallest Pokémon she has against the biggest in the world might seem like a bad idea, but she has a plan in case things go hostile.

A voice calls from a megaphone on one of the Wailord

"You're surrounded! All crew members come up on deck with your hands raised!"

Well.

Banzu blinks for a moment at this unexpected turn of events. This? This he hadn't planned for. There was no way to know how strong the group surrounding them was. Time to assume the worst and wing it.

"Do what they say!" he calls out to the others. "Five Wailord might be a bit much for us."

"Spur-Mesh?" he whispers. "Can you tell Multi to stay in the engine room and hide from anyone who comes in?"

While the Klinklang floats around the wheelhouse, letting its voice drift down the stairs to the engine room, Banzu slowly starts to swivel his seat and stand as if he's complying with the order. His fingers run over the controls as he does so and the metal deforms slightly; anyone who tries to use them will find them excruciatingly stiff. His shotgun is hanging from the back of the seat, and he brushes it off as he stands, intentionally "tripping" and falling as it hits the deck, making it sound like the noise is entirely from him. Out of sight for a moment that can't last long before it induces additional suspicion, he shoves the shotgun across the deck to the top of the engine room stairs and taps his Warp Band to summon Driver the Rotom.

"Driver. Don't let anyone see you," he whispers as he stands. "And shock anyone but one of us that comes in. Tell Multi to grab the shotgun and hide it with him."

He heads for the door as Driver hides and Spur-Mesh relays the message to Multi.

"Come on, everybody out."

He speaks at slightly higher than normal volume as he slides open the doors leading to the deck, allowing those outside to see the "empty" interior of the wheelhouse and assume what they will. His hands are open and at head-height as he and Spur-Mesh move to the forward deck, hoping that he managed to set things up as well as he hoped he had.

"Not everyone has hands!" he calls out. "Who are you and what do you want?"

Yuuna snorts and casually raises her hands, palms up. A soft chitter echos up her sleeve, a really nasty surprise for just about anyone who thought to get up close to her. Her orders through the band are simple, though. Denki is down too low to be sighted so he's told to stay put while, and Zedd goes on standby, orbiting it's trainer protectively.

The real surprises will come later, of course...

That was unexpected. However, Kyoko complies after hooking her spear back up to her waist, raising her hands. She wasn't sure what they were capable of, but they probably didn't know what she was capable of, either. But right now, all she could do was wait.

"You assholes stole my idea!" Isabela rants over the rail. Meanwhile, she mutters to Tynamo to try and sneak down the side of the ship and start paralyzing if fighting starts. The shuffling she noticed from everyone else was probably similar preparations, but the way she saw it, a tiny slip of a thing should be able to get into the water without being noticed and get the momentum on their side, should this come to blows.

As the group comes up, they get a bit better of a look at their assailants. They're dressed in sturdy leathers, looking perhaps a century or two behind fashion-wise but certainly serviceable. They're carrying spears and harpoons and look vigilant, albeit not enormously overtly aggressive. The one with the megaphone speaks once everyone is up.

"Is this everybody? Why are you in our waters?"

"Exploration," Banzu calls back, conveniently forgetting to answer the first question and diving straight into the second question, hopefully talking enough about it that the omission will be forgotten, assuming that Team Wailord weren't willing to sit down and discuss business as equals. "We'd heard about these islands but only found a route to them recently, so I decided it'd be good to take a good look around and see what's here. Aside from the shitty welcome, it's convenient that we ran into you. Getting maps off of someone who's already familiar with the area'll save us time, and you can tell us about any areas you think we should look into or avoid. Maybe see if where we come from's got anything you'd be interested in, and vice versa? You never know."

Yuuna remains silent, her eyes and Zedd's continuing to scan for threats. Let Banzu do the talking...

Kyoko also elects to stay quiet for the time being. However, she keeps her guard up, ready to move at a moment's notice.

"Wait a second, do I know you people? I don't remember a gang with this many Wailord-riders," Isabela chatters, trying to keep the pirates' attention on things other than theft, murder, and sneaky Pokémon.

The man looks like he's going to speak before he turns and gawks at Isabela for a moment.

"Sir! It's her! The wanted one!"

Suddenly, he lets out a loud guffaw.

"Well bless me Binacles! It is!"

He clears his throat.

"I'm afraid you folks're going to have to come with us. Send one of your people down to steer and I want you to follow. No quick movements, we'll move in formation with you at the center, if you try anything funny we'll scuttle you. The girl stays on deck where we can keep an eye on her."

"Oh, finally. I was afraid everyone had forgotten about me," Isabela says brightly. "Has someone wrangled a decent police force out here or are you folks just in it for the bounty?"

This is our patrol route, so we're legit enough pirate. Your friends, if they cooperate, will be free to go eventually. You on the other hand...

"'Legit enough' isn't very reassuring. Far as I know, for the time she's been in the area we came from she hasn't done anything that's gotten her on the wrong side of the law. If she doesn't come back with me I'm gonna hafta deal with questions about why. 'Some guys showed up and claimed that they were allowed to take her in without proof of who they were or that she had done anything wrong' prolly isn't gonna go over well. If I wanna keep heat offa my back I gotta know if you're legit and there's an actual call for her or if you're just desperate for someone to keep you warm at night. Hell, you could have a bounty on your heads and dealing with you could cause more trouble for me later."

He shrugs.

"Gotta be sure here, so assuage my doubts, why dontcha."

The entire exchange causes Yuuna's hands to clench onto the railing and her teeth to grind. Not only was Isabela a friend, pirate or not, she was also a citizen of Union. And that was something the Rangers did take pretty seriously.

But what could she say? Banzu probably had a plan. and if he was serious about turning her over? Then she was just going to have to take on Wailord Raiders and Banzu both. Because there was no way Isabela was going with them.

While she continues to remain quiet, there's an interesting turn of events here. Kyoko glances over at Isabela for a moment, but her focus immediately returns to the wailord riders. They're the threat here.

While turning her over was probably the right thing to do, Banzu was right about wanting some proof. Letting their captain continue talking seemed to be their best bet for now.

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