Open Relic of the Lost God

The sun starts to peek over the horizon, bringing the calm sea waters to live with its powerful glow. In the distance a circle of fins slice through the water as a pack of Sharpedo hunt down their morning meal. As the sun's glowing grasp spreads over the water, it wraps its warmth around the vast ship docked at the port of a fishing town. Standing at the bow of the deck, facing the sun, a tall willow figure watches the sun rise with arms folded and hair tucked into the collar of their coat.

"Captain, the new crew is making their way here. Any thoughts on what we should do with these greenhorns?"

The figure turns their head and acknowledge the the figure to their right. They remain silent as they turn and stroll to the wheel of the ship, resting their hands on it as they continued their thoughts.

"...They will learn on the seas, Mr. Greed. We don't have time to waste with Gate's Truth sailing toward the treasure. See to it they find a place to be of use to us, I'll be needing to speak with my pokemon to see what plot we should sail for first."

Nodding to his captain, Greed walked down the stairs to the stern of the ship, overlooking the land and village of the port they rested at. The Captain pushes back from the wheel, walking to her quarters and glancing at the room around her.

"Sedna, Budi. What do you have for me today."

Two figure shift in the dark, one walking toward the Captain while the other flutters over and lands on their head. With a chuckle, they leave the Quarters and look out over the deck of the ship. Looking up to the crow's nest, the Captain callas up to the one that sleeps in that secluded place.

"Mr. Halan! Care to join us or would you prefer to stay up there forever!"

Answered with a growl, a third figure jumps from the nest and lands next to the group. Folding his arms, he looks to the village ahead and glares. The Captain shakes their head and pats the pokemon's back before leaning on the railing.

"Of all the Lucario I've seen, you are by far the most...unique. How you evolved, I'll never know...but at least you get along with my Golduck and Butterfree"

Halan rolls his eyes and leans against the rail,watching the village in silence. The Captain chuckles again and pets Budi's wings, turning to Sedna with a slight smirk.

"See what waters we should set out for. Budi, check the winds. As for you Mr. Halan, I need a scan of the surrounding area for any hostiles that may try to slow us down. We have a new crew and we should try to keep them alive long enough for the curse to leech on."

Halan shrugs, turning his head and looking the Captain over. With a slight glint in his eye, he smirks as he moves from the rail and leans to the Captain's ear. Shaking their head, the Captain smirks along with him, nodding in agreement.

"Aye, that will surprise them. Lets see what happens next."

Pin was sad to see the last of his boss; the old pub-owner was a rough, pretty, and quite aged woman who had been stern but quite fair. She had only ever brought up the uncomfortable subject of his arm once, too, and that had been to tell him not to expect 'no special treatment'. Yes, she had been quite the perfect superior, but Pin's heart was in boats and tides and bar tending involved very little of either. Pin himself was unable to stomach the stuff he had been selling, anyway. Julan, his companion sawk, was another story entirely...

No, now he had his mind set on the rather tangible rumor that a ghost ship was recruiting. There had even been a flyer, although technically someone with too much time on their hands could have forged such a thing rather easily. All thoughts of trickery were expelled from Pin's mind immediately, however, when he saw the grand ship in question; she was of old design but looked no more ancient than those ships that often frequented the same docks. Although by trade Pin was a dockworker, he was sure enough about ship design to understand this. Also, he was also able to accurately describe the most populated part of the ship he could see as the 'bow'. So could everyone in this fishy town, but that was beside the point. Julan, in his temporarily-hangovered state, was again another story.

Making sure that his left arm was still hidden under the long sleeves of his shirt, Pin waved with his right arm at the people on board. They looked piratey, at least, so it was a start. After a moment, Julan waved too, although with less enthusiasm and more head pain.

The dark-haired boy clinging to a gutter stuck his tongue out at the person below him. He was safe as long as he kept his grip on the gutter strong, and the angry 250-pound oaf below him didn't realize that he actually had the ability to throw objects if he let go of them when he was swinging them. Stupidity had a funny way of working in one's favor, sometimes.

"I'll hang you by your own damn scarf, little rat!" The ogre-man cried. The boy frowned at him.

"One, rude," He began. "Two, my name isn't 'Little Rat.' It's Xhan Northcut, and you'd do well to remember it!" The man scoffed at this.

"I don't care." He said crossly.

"Well, you should care." Xhan brightened up, passing a friendly smile to the troll. "Because you should be honored I spent time bugging you. I've been poisoning this godforsaken town with my presence my whole life, and I've never once been caught! Well, I've been seen with my hand in the cookie jar, so to speak, but never physically captured! The fact I'd spend my time with a stupid shaved gorilla like you... Well, you should be proud of yourself, sir!" Xhan laughed heartily. The man only grumbled.

It was at this time Xhan noticed the sun. He was late for his 'appointment.' Well, what a predicament. He thought, biting his lower lip. He shrugged, made sure his scarf was clinging to the gutter, and released his grip. The thug from before laughed and tried to take a swing at him, but, being prepared for such a move, Xhan managed to step out of the way with a laugh. He wasn't going to damage the wall of meat with any attacks, but he could temporarily disable it. He threw two fingers at the man's eyes, which the man easily countered with his hand flat in front of his face.

"You need to be better than that, punk." The man said. Xhan quickly shot his foot between the man's legs, laughing, and then bolted past as he fell to his knees. Funny how that man never expected that. People seemed to think that was an off-limits type attack, but what Xhan understood better than them was that nothing was off-limits.

He slowed down as he approached the so-called 'Ghost Ship.' There was somebody else nearby, a fairly well-trimmed man with a knife around his neck. Xhan stopped right next to him, and smiled smugly, with a little laugh. "You here for the old boat, huh? Looks real... Big. And not very Ghostly." He thought he had seen this man around town before, but wasn't sure where. He had, after all, caused problems in enough places that it was hard to keep track of who he had pissed off.

"There are two people so far. One looks solid enough...the second however...looks like a brat."

The Captain frowned, looking over to where her First Mate stood. She had hoped that there would be more to join their crew, and hoped more that they would be adults rather than brats. Shaking her head, she looked back to the skyline of the ocean, watching the sun's movements. She could only wait so long for her new crew to come before setting off. Feeling a light weight on her head, she reaches up and pets Budi's head, whispering low to him.

"We need to move soon...before they catch wind of us."

---

Greed watches his Captain silently, studying her body language before shaking his head. He knew enough to not question her motives for the enemy ship if she ever captured it, as well as enough that she needed more members than this aboard her ship. Turning back to the pier, he lowers the gangplank and calls to the two.

"Well you may as well come up."

Pin raised an eyebrow at the kid. Well, he wasn't a kid (he was actually tall enough to look around eighteen, honestly) but he seemed to put off an immature vibe. He had pockets everywhere, which seemed odd, and he didn't have a pokémon with him, which while not unusual was at least something to note about him. His face was dirty and Pin suspected that his begloved hands were as well. The boy walked up next to him, a bit too close to his partially-empty sleeve, so Pin sidled a bit to the right. The boy said something about the boat.

"Well, I'll tell you that the Ghosts I've seen always looked pretty solid until they flew through you. Same might not apply to a boat, but." As Pin looked his new acquaintance full in the face for the first time, a flicker of recognition went through his head. "Hey aren't you the guy at the bar who broke the..?" Here, a man up on the ship yelled something. He was inviting them up, apparently.

Pin smiled widely, shook Julan awake, and strode up the gangplank and towards the group at the front. Feeling a tiny bit nervous, Pin pulled a Sweet Heart out of his right pocket and popped it into his mouth quietly. He hoped they'd let him come, since the men on the docks wouldn't hire him. Julan groaned darkly but not loudly, his tough blue hand covering his aching eyes.

To one listening close enough, a faint sound was audible - the soft thunk-tap of mismatched feet on wood. The sound came louder after a moment, coming from the bellowdecks, until a door to the crew quarters was opened, and a hunched-over man stepped out, then straightened once he was past the doorframe.

The tall man straightened out his coat a bit, standing in front of the open door into the lower areas of the ship, cane in one hand as the other slipped into a pocket. At his feet, and enormous Galvantula skittered from the quarters, stopping with her body low to the ground, many shining eyes watching the newcomers. The man himself watched for a moment, before making his way towards The Captain. His false leg and cane clicked against the wooden deck as he walked, and he drew to a stop a few feet from her, facing the gangplank. The Galvantula quickly followed, many legs clicking over the deck, and both the bug-type and her master regarded the small gathering lazily, him smirking slightly.

"Is this it, then...? I thought there would be more. But that's alright. We can make do, right, my Captain...?" The man spoke with a very thick, but mostly unidentifiable, accent. He examined both Xhan and Pin with an almost unreadable expression, before breaking into a grin.

"Good luck to you, children. The sea is a harsh mistress, as any sailor can tell you, and its beasts are even worse at times. Take it from me..."

The tall man reached down and pulled the left leg of his pants up enough to reveal the strange, slender metal-and-wood contraption in place of a foot.

"...Tentacruel when I was a young man. She tore it clean off."

He was grinning even wider now, showing off all his teeth, including a gold canine.

Xhan grinned at the man's response. He laughed when he asked if he broke something at 'the bar.' "I dunno, I've broken a lot of things in a lot of bars! Probably was me, though!"

Someone aboard the ship said that they might as well come on. While the other person was busy eating a piece of candy, and probably collecting themselves, Xhan was already dashing to the boat. He bolted up the gangplank, tripping about halfway up, but managed to stumble his way to the top without actually falling over. "Alright, I'm here!" He said triumphantly as he stepped onto the ship.

"... There sure aren't many crew, though. Or ghosts. Ya' know, I was almost expecting a bunch of skeletons lurching around the ship drinking rum and singing pirate songs." He stuck his arms out in front of him, tongue hanging out of mouth and groaned as he demonstrated how the undead would walk in his own little universe, and even spouted out a few slurred words from songs. His attention, however, was quickly drawn to the man who was showing him his fake leg. He hunched over, crawling on his hands and knees, examining the odd limb from a distance of about three feet. "Wow, old man, you got screwed, huh? Does it get infected and stuff? Ooze pus, anything like that?"

Pin's eyes bugged out a very little bit; this (foreign?) man had some kind of machine for a leg! The young man's left arm, which ended a bit below the elbow, twitched involuntarily underneath the blue sleeve that covered it. He could feel his sawk's eyes on him, wary despite the hangover, watching his trainer for any sort of reaction. Beyond the arm twitch and a lingering look at the leg, there was none. Pin regained control of himself quickly, crouching down a bit to look the old man's pokémon. The galvantula was decidedly powerful, but Pin couldn't resist petting the bug anyway, despite his mind still reeling about the leg. Just a brush of the hand, of course, nothing too invasive. It would be rude to the man and the spider alike.

Standing straight again, Pin looked at the man in his eyes. This required him to crane his neck quite a bit, since the man was as tall as a slaking. Quite a bit more lively, though, by the looks of him. Despite his age the man seemed to be very rigid and intimidating, even a bit... manic. Pin wasn't one to find a smile creepy, though, so he simply didn't.

"Am I allowed to ask who is the captain, sir?" Pin said clearly, his years of hauling heavy objects under the command of other people kicking in. He tried to ignore the younger boy, who had asked about the leg in the absolutely most irritating manner possible. He almost wanted to punch him, which was way way out of Pin's character. But he was just yammering on about pus and amputation like it was something to joke about, to laugh at. Pin swallowed it, though. Nothing to be done unless he wanted to let his arm make some grand entrance for everyone to see. He couldn't let his problems color peoples' perceptions of him, not yet.

Of course, he couldn't keep his arm a secret forever, of course not. He just wanted people to get to know him first. Was that so much to ask?

Katrina narrowed her midnight-blue eyes at the ship she was heading to, her hands stuffed in her pockets. By unknown sources, she had received word that the ghost ship was recruiting. This didn't really spark her interest at first, but as she mused and pondered over it instead of getting sleep every night, her decision became clear. With Ryuu confidently slithering by her down to the pier, the melancholy girl soon spotted a few men talking aboard the ship. If those are the people I have to deal with, I might want to reconsider, Katrina thought pessimistically, crossing her arms tightly around her waist. She glanced over at her Dragonair, whom was looking up at her curiously, and mentally shrugged. Oh, well. I already committed to this, so I plan on seeing it through the end.

Katrina silently and slowly stalked over to the gangplank, lingering at the pier for a moment before shuffling toward the others, and stopped a few feet behind the man with a knife around his neck. She blankly looked down at the man sprawled out on the floor, gawking over the tallest man's mechanical leg and asking rather irritable and childish questions. She kept one hand in her pocket as she rested her other on Ryuu's head, her lip in a line as she glanced over at the candy-eating man. After staring at his back for a while, she glazed her eyes over the large man wishing her two new comrades good luck. Katrina decided to remain speechless until she was needed, though, and stood her ground. She rose her hand from Ryuu's head and ran her tan fingers through her sleek black hair, staring hard at the floor.

"The Captain would be the tall woman next to the one-legged man, or was that too obvious" she spoke, looking down at the boy on his hands and knees with mildly hidden disdain. Only one moment of watching she already figured who the brat was Greed spoke about before. Sweeping her gaze over the second man, she could tell from the way he held himself that we was a worker that favoured one arm. With a mental shrug, she looked behind them when a woman appeared with a Dragonair by her side.

Another woman on a ship. Seems people now a days have forgone the superstition. Grand.

The Captain then turns on her heel, lowering her voice for Fritz to hear alone. "We'll make do until the next port. Until then...I have much planning ahead for this mission and I may require your unique spin on things...as well as your eyes. Greed can't watch them all every waking moment."

She then walks to the gangplank, staring down at the port silently for a moment. Sensing her wish to be undisturbed for the moment, Greed stepped up and walked to the three new recruits, folding his arms behind his back. "Well then, shall we get to the introductions or shall we forego that and head into what tasks you will all be taking on during your stay."

((Why did this take me forever WHY))

As Taras walked down the road, people jumped to the side to avoid colliding with his massive frame. He had never been one to complain, but he was never too fond of this town. As he passed by, few said "Hi" to him and even less knew his name. That was probably the reason he didn't like this place. He carried a basket with him, out of which his Purrloin occasionally peaked it's head. It looked small compared to Taras, much like everything did.

Reaching the port, he could see a small gathering of people near a ship. Taras would not call himself a person of unordinary perception, but he could make a reasonable guess that it was the vessel that had been recruiting, and as such his destination.

"Hello there!" He said loudly as approached the group. "I didn't miss anything, did I?"

The Captain looked down toward the voice, her arms folded behind her back as she gave the man a small frown. This one looked promising at least, with his size alone he could at least give a jolt to enemy navymen. She then calls down to him "Not too late but you were lucky none the less. Any longer and I would have left ye here with the landlocked. No hurry aboard before I change my mind"

She moves from the Gangplank, moving to the ship's prow and lightly brushes her fingers over the carved Milotic that perched there. She falls silently again, losing herself in her thoughts once more as she studied the town before her.

It has grown so much over the time we were gone. Times have changed and from every hope and need we have...we only have these four to start with. I don't know what I am to do...but at least I have those two here that show some spark of a mind. My friend...my brother...I hope this will come to an end soon. Once we have captured what we need, we can continue our true lives with your new child. Send me your wishes, I'll need all the blessings I can get

The Captain then looks over her shoulder at the ones that have gathered, a slight grimace on her face.

Oh yeah. And you may get a kick out of the child that joined me. He may have the body of a man but...his mind...I have a feeling they may not last long if they don't smarten up. I can just imagine what your comments would have been.