Eva felt the corners of her lips twitch when one-eyed man shook on their deal with much gusto but held herself back from giving him a full smile. She had to remind himself that he was a pirate, no matter how sincere his promise sounded. Once he let go of her hand, she rushed for his ship but not before catching his little speech. This time, she couldn't help but smile at his confession, but quickly shook it off as she hurried on board his ship towards the crow's nest. It was the perfect vantage point to take down the Marines while also allowing her not to worry about getting on board the last minute. As confident as she was in her speed, Eva still didn't want to deal with Red Lightning.

The blond sniper began to climb the ladder to the crow's nest as fast as she could, passing by Handel and Lucky Luck fixing up the sails. At that moment, stray lightning from Ricden's attack hit the ship, almost causing Eva to fall off as she tried to dodge. She pushed herself back on the mast and climbed even faster until she finally reached the bottom of the crow's nest. Eva hauled herself up through the floorboards and pulled out her sniper rifle in one swift movement. She adjusted her scope till she got a clear view of one of Ricden's lackeys finally getting up from her previous attack. Eva took a deep breath, then pulled the trigger.

The bullet flew and hit the Marine in the shoulder, incapacitating him for a moment. Eva unloaded the bullet and took another she, this time at another Marine's leg. She kept firing, aiming only to subdue the Marines instead of outright killing them. She never aimed to kill anyone, even her targets, unless absolutely necessary. Eva was proud to say that she had only killed a handful of pirates in her short career and hoped to keep that record up.

The sniper continued her assault but saw something unpleasant out of the corner of her eye.

"Hey you guys need to pick up the pace on those sails!" She shouted down below, "we've got more Marines coming at 12 o'clock!"

“Sailor...” Lucky laughed, making him into a sailor, it was defiantly a weird thought. He just followed the orders of the dark haired man; the man knew what he was doing. He never actually knew how to prepare a ship’s sail; he had seen people done it before but not ever paid any attention. The more he thought about it he didn’t know much about ships at all, he had only barely known even the basics. When he climbed up at the other side of the rig, he looked around and saw a woman climbing up towards the crow’s nest. He remembered seeing her with Red lighting but never bother to notice. Looking at her he finally remember who she was. It was upcoming bounty hunter, Eva Solkreuz; he had seen posters and heard stories about her. He did wonder why she was helping but with all the things getting out of hand, it didn’t bother him a bit. A stray lighting bolt probably from Red lighting nearly had hit the bounty hunter luckily she had dodged it.

‘Things are defiantly getting out of hand doing.’ He had to hurry up; he went back to what he was supposed to do and saw the sail’s knot. He somewhat remembered about untying the knot first. Lucky did try to untie it but no matter how much he tried it seemed to get worse. He didn’t know what to do, the knot seemed to get worst and he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Hey you guys need to pick up the pace on those sails!" He heard Eva shouted from above. "We've got more Marines coming at 12 o'clock!" He was so close to cutting the knot but he didn’t know if it would do something bad or do nothing. He cursed to himself as he wished he had learned more about ship’s sails and knots. He didn’t want to admit that he messed up but for the sake of not being caught by the marines and getting his map back. He waved over towards the dark haired man and gave an awkward grin.

“I... need help here.”

From his vantage point up in the rigging, Handel could see that Eva was not cooperating with Ricden. Even then, he had made ready to jump into the sea when Eva climbed up towards the crows nest just in case she decided to capture him. She did not, so Handel continued to untie the sails. Before he could finish, he heard Lucky call for help. Handel frantically finished untying the last knot on his side before running over.

"Here, let me show you," Handel said, demonstrating the correct way of doing it. "Right, now you do the rest. I'll see about helping our 'fruit merchant' fend off Red Lightning."

Handel was about to climb back down the rigging, when he looked up and shouted, "Miss Solkruez, I saw that wind you summoned. Devil fruit ability?"

After facing off long enough Ricden made the first move and launched himself into the air landing in a white cloud. He witnessed his opponents arms gathering voltage and suddenly it was all being launched down towards them. It being lightning he didnt have much time to react, He cast his arms in the direction of the lightning, his palms faced outwards and his fingers curled, seemingly digging into some invisible substance. His hands flashed a dim purple and he threw his arms down as braced himself against the forces he was summoning. The lightning just above them veered off just slightly enough to miss them by a half foot.

"What did you think I had been doing this whole time Ricden? Knitting sweaters? Obviously you're not the only one who has been training." A small smirk crossed Eden's face as he heard his sails slowly begin to unfurl. Let's just hope he keeps underestimating us and we should get away without a hitch. Eden had to buy a little more time as Eva had not sent a signal yet, and so he lept into the air and turned gravity on its side, focusing it on his enemy, attempting to throw Ricden from his position in the air.

Things got flashy quite fast after Hertha made her announcement. The red lighting was soon high in the sky out of reach of her blade and crackling red lightning bolts were racing down at her and her captain. She growled raising her shield but soon found that her captain had them covered. She could feel the pulsing power in the air as he bent the pull of gravity in such a way that the deadly bolts of electricity arched around t hem. And then her captain was in the air after the super human foe. Hertha sighed "Bloody fruit users...making fights so complicated."

Her eyes lowered to the troops that came the corner. She smiled widely. Well, if the goal at this point was making sure the boat was ready to go, those pesky law men would be sure to stop that from happening. She banged her blade against the shield again "COME ON YOU TOY SOLDIERS!" She roared out charging to meet the men. Wasting no time they formed ranks and open fired at her, her massive shield deflecting the bullets, her charge unencumbered by the projectile attack. She dived through the line of marines like a bull through tissue.

"Good thing you were training other wise this would be a boring fight," The marine captain replied feeling the added weight on him. ' Dam it, geppo still drains me and the extra gravity is not helping,' John thought landing back on the ground. He saw Hertha storm into the ranks of his marines, the marine turn his attention back to Eden and raised his right arm. Electricity crackled around his arm "take this! Eletro fist!" he shouted launching a large red electric fist straight on at the pirate captain.

Lucky saw how the man did it and was relieved, he nodded at the man and frantically undid the rest of the knots like he saw. After that the sails were released he gave a sigh of relief and waved over towards the sniping bounty hunter. “ The sails are released!” He shouted, as he stared back at the fight between the captain of the ship and Red lighting he could feel the tension getting really dense. Then he saw the incredibly tall woman from earlier charging her way to some low rank marines maybe things could be changing? It’s too early to say.

(Short post sorry)

Stern Algorithm said
"Miss Solkruez, I saw that wind you summoned. Devil fruit ability?"

"Yeah, and what of it?" Eva asked, not looking up from her scope. She hoped Handel wasn't going to criticize her lack of Devil Fruit skill since she was not in the mood to deal with it. She kept on shooting the Marines in their legs and arms, incapacitating them while she listened intently for any news of the ship's status. From the corner of her eye, Eva could see the fight going on between Ricden and Merrick, silently impressed by their skill levels, especially Merrick's Devil Fruit abilities. She really had a long way to go.

Finally, she heard the words she had been waiting for. "The sails are released! Eva immediately turned her rifle away from a lowly Marine officer at Ricden who was sprinting towards Merrick with his fist crackling with red lightning. Eva took in a deep breath, concentrating her wind powers around her. After a short second, she released the bullet, adding an extra 'oomph' of wind to make the bullet fly faster as it made it's way towards Red Lightning. Once released, Eva set down her rifle.

"The ship's ready Black Hole!!"

With all the support from everyone, things were going well enough. He had not recruited a crew like originally planned, but he did have one member for sure, and she sure was something. Hertha tore through the soldiers as if they were exactly the toys soldiers she referred to them as. After Eden successfully pulled Ricden out of the air, no time was wasted for a counter attack, and a large fist made of lightning was headed his way. Eden ready to risk it and pull out the big stops was about to launch his defense, but instead Eva's voice reached his ears and feeling the power of the wind behind the bullet she sent towards Ricden, he decided on a ulterior safer method. "Hertha the ship is ready to sail. Run!" He shouted as he jumped backwards and spun on the heel of his boots upon landing, sweeping his arms around following the position of the bullet and pushed as much force behind it as he could. With the force of gravity and wind, the bullet tore through the fist but only managed to weaken it, the lightning continued and exploded into Eden's chest, launching him backwards onto his ass.

As Hertha passed him he stumbled getting up, shouting to Eva, "Lets get some- *cough* wind in those sails" Eden chest felt like it was on fire but he had no time to examine the wound, their escape had to be now. The ship began to pull away from the dock as they approached the ship running side by side with Hertha, gathering some of his remaining strength he through them into the air landing them on the deck of his ship. He leaned along the side of the ships rail and waved to Ricden. "Sorry Red looks like we will have to finish this another time." He shouted the best he could has he clutched his chest in pain. "Um, do we have a medic on board." He said as he turned to his sailing mates with a large grin.

AgniSpirit said
"Yeah, and what of it?" Eva asked, not looking up from her scope.

"Splendid," Handel replied cryptically. "Hey, Lucky, good job!" Handel called up. He then went to his trunk, pulled out a single den den mushi and placed it in the center of the deck of the ship. He then watched the battle, and when it looked like Eden and Hertha were running for the ship, Handel dragged his trunk down into the hold where he hid it and himself among the supplies.

G3njii said
The ship began to pull away from the dock as they approached the ship running side by side with Hertha, gathering some of his remaining strength he through them into the air landing them on the deck of his ship. He leaned along the side of the ships rail and waved to Ricden. "Sorry Red looks like we will have to finish this another time." He shouted the best he could has he clutched his chest in pain. "Um, do we have a medic on board." He said as he turned to his sailing mates with a large grin.

"I have some experience," Handel's voice came from the den den mushi he had placed. "First of all, you're conscious. That's good. Secondly, you were able to run to the ship. That means you're not having spasms. That's also good, by the way. You may feel some soreness, but you that should heal by itself. The last thing to worry about is burns. You may have some burns where the lightning struck you. Cool it off with running water first, and depending on the severity of the burn, you may need to apply gauze and ointment. Any more severe than that, well, then we'll have to turn the ship around and get you to a hospital."

In the hold, Handel spoke into another den den mushi that he had. He had wanted to escape on this ship at the last minute, but upon realizing that it was a pirate ship, he needed to make sure what kind of people they were, and if they weren't to his liking, he'd have to fight or flee. So until he could decide what to do, he would hide and speak with them on his terms.

After the whole deal with red lighting and the marine he was glad that everything well sort of going smoothly. "Hey, Lucky, good job!" He heard the dark man said, he gave a blank stare, ‘ya righ..’ His mood had gotten worse that before. He couldn’t believe he was now on a ship, maybe a pirate ship after escaping from the Marine . He looked down from where he was and started at the captain. He looked really familiar he just couldn’t know who, the sniper or Eva, he was not sure to trust he just yet. For now he was stuck there, ‘I better get out of here when we stopped at the nearest island.’ He though until he remembered about his map…wait that guy with the dark hair still had it. He went down the rig and looked around for the the guy...where did he go. He put his hand on his face and sighed angrily.

Hertha was almost a little sad they were shoving off before getting a chance to take a swing at the Red Lighting. But she was aware that there chances of victory against such a high ranking marine, much less such a powerful devil fruit user, was unlikely. Not that she didn't have confidence in her abiltiy to battle, nor would she show any kind of cowardice in facing a foe like Red LIghting, but she knew a mountain when she saw one. She'd fly above it one day, but she was still just stretching her wings. Besides, she left a decent dent in his foot soldiers, his men would likely think twice before taking her on again. Once she took a large sweep with her shield arm, knocking as many of the men down and into other men as she could, she lung her shield over her back to protect from any solider who was quick enough to get back on his feet and fire at her, and ran as hard as her powerful legs would carries her. In charging the men, she had put herself even further form the ship.

While not agile, and had something of a slow start, if all she had to do was run in a straight line Hertha could hit incredible speed in time. She soon caught up to her running captain. She hand managed to get ahead of him, and prepared to up and throw him to the deck of the departing vessel when she herself, much to her surprise, was thrown. She managed to role into her landing, but given she had not been prepared to be tossed by a devil fruit power it was not her most graceful of touchdowns. WHen she came to a stop she couldn't help be laugh loudly. " 'aven't seen anyone who could lift me in a while" she stated to the captain " Much less toss me like ah sack o' grain. You certainly don't seem to be running a dull ship." She lifted her self up and approached her wounded captain frowning slightly

"Mum always said if ya' gonna make ah liven given wounds, best you kno' 'ow to fix'em to." SHe knelt besides him and looked him over "I can stitch up gashes, even set bones if ya' break ain't to complected. Not sure if I can do much to help ya with all this tho'."

Eva had pulled out her rifle once more to provide cover for Merrick and Hertha as they ran to the ship and felt just a hint of jealously when she saw the captain effortlessly use his devil fruit abilities to lift him and the giant woman onto the deck. If she wasn't so prideful, she would have asked him how he had come to master his powers. Once they were on board, Eva slung her rifle over her shoulder and placed one boot on top of the wall of the crow's nest. She looked over it for just a moment, fighting a small case of vertigo before jumping off the edge. She brought her arms over her head as she fell and once she got close enough to the sails, swiped both arms down to release a gust of wind. It was enough to give the ship an extra push to get away from the Loguetown port just as some Marines were trying to scramble their way on board. Hopefully Red Lightning didn't have a ship of himself close-by.

Eva landed on the deck easily, using her devil fruit abilities to cushion her fall. Looking around, she saw Hertha, Lucky and Black Hole Merrick, but no sign of Handel. Where the hell...? She was distracted when he heard the missing man's voice resound across the deck. He was giving out medical instructions, but what for? Upon closer inspection, Eva saw that Merrick had suffered some burns from Ricden's lightning attack. Seeing as Hertha's hands were too large and Lucky was pouting like a kid, Eva sighed and walked up to the group.

"Here, I got it." She grumbled as she roughly grabbed Merrick's now torn shirt, "Sit down." As she pushed the taller man onto his butt, she overlooked the burn and saw that it was covered in bright red splotches on the verge of blistering. She knelt down next to him and tore a piece of his shirt without even asking before pulling out a canister from her belt. Being a sniper meant staying in the same spot for long hours at a time so she had learned to be prepare water and small snacks to keep her energy up. She opened up her bottle and spilled a bit of water onto the torn shirt piece. She then placed the now damp cloth onto his chest, wiping over the more nasty looking wounds first.

"Since you obviously don't have a medic, do you at least have a first aid kid packed somewhere on the ship?" Eva asked as she finally looked up at him. That's when she realized just how close she was to his face and pulled back, a light blush dusting her cheeks. She looked back at his chest and continued her work while trying to avoid eye contact.

"Well?"

His patients were nearly…most defiantly gone of the hook. He needed that map back but of course he can’t because that dark haired man still had it. He can’t find the man anywhere. He stood there wondering what the hell what he was going to do. He walked towards on of the boxes of fruits he had seen and…kicked it. He was indefinite bitter rage; the kick was strong but not strong enough to break it. He sighed after kicking to box and removed his hat. “I am sorry!” He shouted if anyone saw his bitter rage. He rubbed his head thinking what should he do.

“HEY! GUY WITH MY MAP, WHERE EVER YOU ARE YOU BETTER GIVE IT BACK!” He shouted again, hoping that dark haired man could hear him wherever the man were at.

Before anyone could a reply, a disembodied voice came from the group, it was soon noted to be coming from a den den mushi. The man although hidden began to give medical instruction on how to treat the burn, so at least he was being helpful as he hid somewhere in Eden's ship. Hertha replied by quoting her mother and Eden laughed a little bit, "Hertha, hey I can treat some wounds you know. Its not like getting struck by lightning is a normal thing, although in my case it probably is." He finished as he reminisced a bit about the common occurrences of his past.

As he was pointing he was a approached and knock down by the sniper, she grabbed her water and ripped a chunk off of his shirt, "Hey thats my favorite shirt." He said with a half-hearted pout. It had been a while since he got to spend time with actual people, so despite the burn on his chest he was elated. Happy to be social again and to make new friends, but his old crew flashed across his mind again and his expression momentarily changed from excited to deeply pained and distressed. He shook the emotion and the thought from his mind and realized that the sniper had just backed away from his face blushing which again made him laugh. "Yeah, I keep a first aid kit right on the inside of my cabin," he lifted his arm and pointed across the deck, the captain quarters right down there."

"Ah got it." Hertha said rising up to retrieve the first aid kit. With someone already treating the captains wounds she was only in the way really. She took a moment, now that things were calmed down and they were out of the harbor and in the open ocean, how odd everything that just went down. She was fairly sure half of these people weren't really pirates, not in the traditional sense at least. But neither was she, so she figured she couldn't complain much. She just hoped the Navy was rattled up a enough to give them a good head start. She got the feeling that Lighting fella wasn't going to give up on them so easily.

"Oi!" she called out once she returned with the First Aid kit. "Since it seems we ah' stuck with each otha', may as well introduce our selves." She placed the kit down next to the captain and turned to face all on deck. "Ah am Hertha, daughter of Elbathen pirate Balder the Bloody. Ah guess I'm the ships official swords woman. Ah got a little experience with a verity of trades though, I can do some minor repairs on a ship, major ones on weapons and equipment, and I've been on the sea for quite a few years now so I kno ma way around a vessel." she gave her captain a sideways glance "Could make me good first mate material, if ya think'en of choose'n one anytime soon."

(short post sorry about that)
Captain Ricden glared at were Eden and his crew ship had vanished in the distance 'I'm going to get another black mark because of this," he looked back at the lower ranked marines who helping the wounded. "Send a report back to navy HQ about the new crew, I'm going after them," Ricden said jogging away from the gathered marines. After a minute of running he return to his ship "prep the ship we have some pirates to chase," he order the marines on board run to launch sail the ship 'your not escaping this time he,' though looking out to sea.

Destinyfailhorror17 said
“HEY! GUY WITH MY MAP, WHERE EVER YOU ARE YOU BETTER GIVE IT BACK!” He shouted again, hoping that dark haired man could hear him wherever the man were at.

"Sorry kiddo," came Handel's voice through the Den Den Mushi, "But I'm not coming out of hiding until I've made certain the people on this ship aren't lunatics. You see, I didn't mean to come onto a pirate ship. I sort of just jumped on in my haste."

KiltmanBagz said
"Ah am Hertha, daughter of Elbathen pirate Balder the Bloody. Ah guess I'm the ships official swords woman. Ah got a little experience with a verity of trades though, I can do some minor repairs on a ship, major ones on weapons and equipment, and I've been on the sea for quite a few years now so I kno ma way around a vessel." she gave her captain a sideways glance "Could make me good first mate material, if ya think'en of choose'n one anytime soon."

Handel wondered to himself if he had seen any giants. There was a large woman with the Captain, but she wasn't nearly large enough to be a giant. "Introductions is it?" Handel replied, "Perfect, I'll let you all go first before I decide whether or not I'd rather take my chances in the sea."

When Hertha returned with the first aid kit, Eva went straight to work patching up the red-haired captain. She did just as Handel had instructed earlier and dabbed ointment all over the worse of Eden's wounds. Then she bandaged him up while she listened to Hertha introduce herself. Honestly, Eva would have never guessed she was a giantess. She had seen quite a few of them during her travels with her deceased uncle and knew they were a lot taller than she was. Still, she claimed to be the daughter of a famous giant pirate and she wasn't dumb enough to challenge the woman's claims.

Once she was finished bandaging the captain up, Eva packed up the medical equipment before standing up. She heard Handel say he wanted to hear everyone before introducing himself. Another smart decision.

"The name's Eva Solkreuz. I'm a bounty hunter who's specialty is hunting pirates," She eyed Eden for just a moment, "However, I have made a deal with your captain and will be working for safe passage to another island. So for now, I will act as this ship's sniper. I prefer rifles and pistols but I know my way around a ship cannon. My navigation skills are adequate and, as you have seen, I have some first aid knowledge. I also have wind powers thanks to the Kaze-Kaze no Mi." The logical side of her wanted to add on that she wasn't particularly good at her wind powers yet, but her pride held back that information. There was definitely no reason to tell them, especially when she didn't know if they would remain an ally throughout the entire journey.

"Sorry kiddo," The man voice came out very clearly. "But I'm not coming out of hiding until I've made certain the people on this ship aren't lunatics. You see, I didn't mean to come onto a pirate ship. I sort of just jumped on in my haste." Lucky gritted his teeth, he just wanted to have his map back yet now…”You got to be kidding me…” He muttered out as wanted to jump off the ship quickly. He heard the bounty hunter Eva answered to the dark haired man as he wanted everyone to introduce themselves first but he barely paid any attention. After she was done Lucky sat down on one of the crates with fruits inside and sighed.

“My name is Luckane Brida or pretty much Lucky Luck but you can call me Lucky.” He said as he fixed his hair. “I am a con man in a way or a scout…I don’t know but I do what sometimes I feel. I use theses…special cards as a way to protect myself.” He tired his best to not give much information on the deck of special cards he has. “I have the same sort of the reason I am at this ship…there happy? Can I have my map back?” He shouted to the man…still wherever he was.