Chapter 1: Chemical Boy

Bubbling and rumbling, hissing and steaming, pipes ands beakers teaming with strange liquids that flash and glow all the colors of the spectrum. The dark room lit by the splendor, like mini-fireworks bursting in a mini-world.

"Heheh… I've done it!" shouted the lonely scientist, "I've made my first weapon! The Acid Lover!"

Just as the man through his hands up in laughter, he looked down as the steam became smoke and the hissing became screeching. The colors ran wild, and the air toxic as the solutions burst into combustion, blowing the small laboratory to pieces.

The man himself was sent spiraling back like a feather in the wind, his white shirt stained with soot. He slammed into a tree just outside, as the walls of his hut crumbled. Colors whirled through his head, his senses falling before him.

"At least… it works…" he said, falling into a daze.

He tried to stand, struggling against the dizziness, but he fell back to the ground.

"Vissik Foehn!" a woman's voice shouted, scolding, motherly.

Vissik stood and held himself against the tree, hugging it as if it were his last life. His mother, coughing, scolded him as always for his strange experiments.

"Goodness… Vissik, you have to stop doing these silly things… you could get hurt!"

"Mother… I know you care, but you should be inside, resting… your illness-"

His mother suddenly fell, panting, coughing, and hard of breath. Vissik jumped to her side on his knees, lifting her up. Vissik wasn't just of strong mind, he was also of strong body, and lifted his mother with ease.

Vissik carefully but quickly took his ill mother inside their small home. He lay her on the bed, grabbing the clothe beside him and wetting it with warm water, folding and placing it on her forehead. He may have a knack for chemicals, but Vissik was no doctor. Not only that, but no one on their small island could diagnose, let alone treat, her disease.

The doctors on the small fishing island of Pongnir just weren't good enough. At this rate, Vissik knew that life was fleeting for his mother, and his father had already passed away. Vissik slouched, sitting aside his mother, listening to her breathing, faint, weak, almost cold.

Vissik's days on this island generally passed along like this nowadays. He could only wait in fear of his mother's death sentence.

He sighed, looked out the window, and wished for a way to save her.

But nothing would come.

What could come?

Silence…

"PIRATES!"

"What?"

"PIRATES ARE HERE!"

"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Screams instantly filled the room, ringing from the nearby docks. Vissik looked to his sick mother for a moment, startled by the sound. He grasped her hand in his tightly.

"I'll be back…" he whispered to her.

Vissik ran out the door, his slightly curled brown hair tumbling in the wind and his violet trench coat waving like a cape. Dashing quickly to the docks, he saw it: a black flag waving in the air, a skull and crossbones painting its dark fabric. A straw hat painted on the skull's smiling head. What kind of pirates were these?

Feet pounded on the wooden planks as people stormed around Vissik, heading away from the lion-shaped mast of the vast and glorious pirate ship.

"Why are they running?"

"Because we're flying a pirate flag… idiot…"

"Humph… pathetic…"

"All the lovely ladies are getting away~!"

"PIRATES? WHERE?... Oh wait…"

"How rude… Now I've got a bone to pick with them, YOHOHOHOHOHOH~!"

"Well, this is just a fishing island…"

"Man, they all look super-scared!"

"They're all running in fear of a true brave warrior of the sea!"

9 figures all stood on the ship's mast, looking out over the island. The light from the sun brightened their figure, but made it hard to see their faces. Vissik stared in awe. These pirates didn't seem to bear malice, they seemed free. Something Vissik truly envied… but he could never leave with his mother under these conditions.

Although, on second thought… Pirates are Pirates, just to be safe…

"Time to test it out! ACID LOVER!" Vissik shouted, throwing a small purple ball at the 9 pirates.

"Hm?" What is that?" the one in the straw hat questioned.

The sphere burst mid-air, sending a spectral gassy mist over the pirates.

Cold metal touched Vissik's throat.

"You don't seem too strong… or smart…" the swordsman mentioned, blade held to Vissik's neck.

"Wha-what? How? You should all be in a confused daze right now!"

"Maybe them… but not me…"

"HEY! We didn't come to hurt anyone! We already have all the supplies we need, and they obviously don't want us here! We're leaving!" the red head shouted just in time.

The swordsman sheathed his sword to that, and said, "You got lucky. If we ever meet again, don't attack us…"

The green-hair jumped back to the boat, as the sails came down and were filled with wind, the rudder steering them back out towards the sea. Vissik fell back, still startled and shocked… yet… thrilled and excited. What was he missing out there?

"V-Vissik! You did it!"

"You drove away the pirates!"

"HOO-RAY FOR VISSIK!"

The villagers and fisherman were filled with joy, their heads filled with an image of Vissik beating down the foolish invaders. This was only a lie, but it made them happy, so why spoil it?

Cheers filled the town.

All night long.

Joy.

Silence…

Later that night, as Vissik watched his mother in her restless sleep, he dreamed of going out to sea. What would it be like he wondered? Then he realized it. What if there WAS a cure somewhere out there for his mother? Vissik was eccentric. It was decided: he would become a pirate, for the sake of saving his mother's life!

Vissik knew this had to be the answer if there was one. His imagination whirled round and round, thinking and dreaming of his adventures to come. He would meet new friends, explore exotic regions, and in the end, he would find the cure to the disease that plagued his mother.

This was the beginning. The beginning of a new life.