Hey everyone! just letting you know that next week's update will be a LITTLE late, because I'll be going on a camping trip with my mom and daughter...won't be bringing the laptop or anything else to use to write, so yeah...

don't worry I'm almost to the Skypeian Arc in writing, just adding in some final touches to some of the filler episodes from the anime...we kinda gloss over a couple of those episodes, but that doesn't mean you can skip them or else you'll miss learning something about Wisp hehehe but that means that even if I miss out for a weeks worth of writing, that I have content to post, just have to go over it and edit...

so reminder...you guys only have until the end of alabastra to decide yay or nay about nami getting the devil fruit... :D

Chapter 15

It only took an hour to cross the Sandora River with the Merry. Upon reaching the shore however, we encountered a small problem.

Usopp had tried to step off the ship first, only to be smacked back aboard the ship.

It was Kung Fu Dugongs!

My eyes widened in shock as I watched Usopp and Luffy challenge the adorable half sea turtle/half seal creatures to a duel.

As expected, Usopp lost his round and Luffy won his, both in an instant.

Vivi began crying out why doing such things was bad either way. To engage in a duel when you had no hope, because they were quite strong, was bad due to PAIN; but at the same time, winning due to your being stronger than them was bad too because once you won, their colony would nominate you their leader and "master" sensei, until such a time as they could beat you.

Luffy was quick to offer them the simple teaching method that he'd used while growing up, on how to learn to throw a punch, they in turn lined up in formation to begin practicing.

I walked over and asked the assembled Dugongs, "Excuse me! Do any of you dugongs know a 'Sencho Dugong' among you?"

Will walked over and asked me quietly, "Sis...what're you doing?"

Without turning to him I said, "Hush brother, I'm looking for a friend of father's."

The Dugongs all looked at each other before a small one waddled forwards and began to bark and squeak at me.

Chopper stepped forwards and said, "I can translate for you. He said, 'the one you see-"

I stopped Chopper with a wave of my hand, and once the young dugong was through, I glanced back with a smile at Chopper.

"Thank you Chopper, but our mother taught me how to speak with all of the sea's creatures. Well besides Sea Kings that is, hihihihihi, since they never listen to anyone."

Turning back to the little Dugong, I said, "thank you, I would greatly appreciate it if you'd did that. It is very important that I speak to him at least just this once. Tell him that someone by the name of 'Duncan' wishes to speak to him and he should come right away."

The little Dugong barked twice and with a bow to me, dived into the water.

Chopper asked, confused, "How did your mother know how to speak to sea creatures? I can only understand these guys because they are part mammals."

Will leaned into me and asked in a stage whisper, "Wisp, I would have thought you'd have told them by now?" he had a huge shit-eating grin on his face, which I ignored.

Everyone is looking at me now and I blushed.

Luffy bounces over, curious as ever, as he asked me, "Nani? What's going on Wisp?"

"It's nothing much Captain. Just paying my respects to a family friend."

Before I could continue, the river surged up with a huge splash, and a very old Dugong lands on the shore in front of us.

He had the typical green shell, with golden brown fur of his species but around his muzzle area, the fur there had lightened so that it was almost white, showing his age. Over his eyes grew in long white fur that resembled eyebrows, nearly covering his eyes completely.

He scanned the shore and I could see the area around his eyes furrow in ire. He began to bark loudly.

Stepping forwards, away from Luffy and Will, I said, "Please, Sencho Dugong, it was me who asked little bobo to bring you here with that name. For it is mine."

He starts growling before barking four times, his aging flippers curled into their race's version of a fist.

"My name is Wisteria Duncan, First Born daughter to your friend John Riley Duncan. Please, Sencho Dugong, I need to beg a great favor from you and your people."

His eyes had grown large in surprise, before doubt crept forwards in his furry face and dark eyes.

He barked several times before tucking his flippers crossed over his lighter green stomach scales.

Luffy turned to Chopper behind me, asking, "What's the old guy saying Chopper?"

Chopper looked back and forth between me and Sencho Dugong and said timidly, "He wants proof that what Wisp says is true. His exact words were, 'Last I heard of Ol' Riley-boy, he wasn't interested in love, let alone begett'n brats. Prove your of his get' is what he said."

Will walked up to Sencho Dugong, and with a crouch to bring him down to Sencho Dugong's eye level, he smiled crookedly and said, "Do I give you enough proof old man? People say I'm a spittin' image of my old man. If I knew how to use a sword, I'd ask Wisp to pass me dad's sword for a second to further accentuate our similarities, but I don't, so I don't dare, ahahaha! She'd likely prank me into next week if I seriously tried to ask her that!" His eyes crinkled as he threw his head back laughing. You better bet your ass I would, brother mine!

Sencho Dugong had dropped his arms and his mouth in surprise at the sight of Will.

My guess is that he had passed him over in his search before, since Will doesn't dress like dad used to, plus he's too young for him to have been dad, who he'd been looking for. However, Will was about the right age for when Dad said he'd first met Sencho Dugong.

Sencho's eyes started misting up and his barks were broken as he asked us about our father. Will looked away and I could see that Sencho understood, even if it was my duty to say the words.

"Father lost his sword arm due to a festering wound he gained from rescuing our mother. They moved to East Blue to start a family, thinking they'd be safe from all of father's old enemies. They were wrong."

Sencho closed his eyes and two tear tracks slid down around his muzzle. He barked once for me to go on.

"I was eight, and we were ambushed. During the attack, I was injured and now I can no longer speak very well. Father didn't make it. He'd managed to kill all but the last, who slew him from behind. He stood there laughing and gloating over father as he bled out on the ground. Taking up my father's sword, I managed to run him through. Father held on just long enough to tell us goodbye, and that if any of my siblings and I managed to see his old friends again, to pass on a message. I didn't understand, I still don't understand, what he meant by his words," I amended, "but I figured it had to be some sort of clue to you all."

Sencho opened his eyes and I could see a strength of will form in his eyes as he barked twice.

"The message was, "The rightful Lord shall rise with the Blue Moon of the Twentieth year."

At the end of the cryptic message, Sencho Dugong's face turned grim.

He nodded and barked four times, Chopper was still in the background translating for Luffy, "So, it will begin soon. It is as I feared."

"Sencho Dugong? What does that mean?"

He shakes his head and barks twice, Chopper whispered to Luffy, "He said that it wasn't his place to tell her, if her father never saw fit to do so. It was their problem, and to not worry about it, Honored Lady."

Will groaned beside me and slumped down into the sand, "Oh come on man! These were our dad's last words! How was he supposed to have the time to explain, if he was bleeding out!"

Still Sencho Dugong shook his furry head.

Turning around so that he faced the river instead of us, he barked loudly and waited for several seconds.

Out of the water came eight dugongs.

Each much younger than Sencho, all of whom had a similar marking on their stomach scales. They were a strange pattern of what looked like a patch of a honeycomb pattern on their top right of their chest, just under the lip of where their light green stomach scales met golden brown fur.

They bowed to Sencho Dugong with a long bark and then stood up into a resting salute stance. "'Sencho' they said." Chopper commented, still running a play by play of what was being said to our Captain, who had stars in his eyes at the sight of the young dugongs.

Sencho barked at them for a full minute and then gestured out towards the ocean.

"'Boys, the time has come to put all your training to use. You must go forth and find our allies and deliver the message. It is TIME!, he said." Chopper's quiet voice translated.

The eight youngsters barked once in an affirmative and then down into the Sandora River to swim out to sea. Chopper remained silent since it was a fairly obvious response.

Sencho sighed and gave us a farewell bark, and then he too, slipped back into the water.

Luffy looked at me and asked, "Are you good?"

I nodded and said, "It was never meant for me to get involved in, I only wish I'd been able to give the message to Sencho the last time I was here in Alabastra. I'd tried but none of the Dugongs would respond to me when I asked for Sencho last time. He must have been away from the tribe or something." I shrugged but left the riverside.

Vivi was giving Nami a long white travel robe with a hood that she could wear, Sanji falling to his knees in grief over not being able to see his "dancer girls". I scowled in annoyance but ignored him to go get my own desert travel robes from Vivi. I refused to even think about the dancer outfit Sanji had tried to foist off on me.

Mine was a simple robe of my preferred blue with white stitched hems. It fell to my feet, nearly obscuring my boots and had a hood to cover my face, face veil included.

Looking over at Vivi, who had a sheepish expression on her face, I asked exasperatedly, "Did they not have anything just a few inches shorter?"

Her face went red in embarrassment as she said timidly, "W-well they did, bu-but the bust would have been too small. Any of the other smaller sizes and I would have been forced into looking at the chi-children's section."

My blushing-glower was enough of an answer to what I thought of THAT notion.

She gave a shaky smile and said, "I'm sure I could hem it up a bit more after we make camp tonight, Miss Whisper."

I raised an eyebrow at the moniker.

This was the second time she'd addressed me as such. The first time being when we'd traded places for caring for Nami while she was sick.

She'd told me back then that it was a method she'd learned to use so as not to get emotionally attached to others but I could tell that was doomed to failure. She was too kind, and too empathetic, of a person for that to ever work.

Plus she'd already dropped that formality with the Captain upon his insistence early on. I'd tried to as well but I must not have gotten it to sink in that I meant it. Oh well. Not that it' all that important I guess.

We set out after a short issue of negotiating for the rest of the Dugong Tribe to guard our ship, the Going Merry, while we were all away.

It took giving them some of our food supply as payment but eventually they agreed, with tears in their eyes.

I made sure to grab as much of the sunscreen lotion we had on the ship as I could carry and was so grateful to Will, who'd said he'd brought several bottles along in one of his storage boxes.

I knew we, more than the others combined, would need it the most in the days to come.

By the time we'd crossed enough of the desert to be too far to see the Going Merry, I knew that I wouldnt last the whole trip on my own two feet without help.

I felt like I was boiling alive inside my own skin.

"Hopefully we can rent a Camel or something in town for the trip to Yuba. This sand is a real bitch to walk in." I thought in complaint with a grimace.

Beside me Will just laughed.

I looked to him with a side glare. He'd been walking with Ace for the last three minutes and the duo were currently walking abreast of me. I hadn't heard Ace or Neal say anything funny, but then again, I wasn't really focusing on them. I was too grumpy with the harsh sun beating down on my head.

I was already beginning to show the beginning signs of heatstroke.

Not good.

Reaching the outskirts of the city, I could tell something was wrong.

While sure the outer buildings in Nanohana had looked run down, none had looked half destroyed to this extent.

Vivi responded to everyone's silent question, "This used to be known as the city of green. Now it is the perfect example of what Crocodile has done to my country."

Tears slowly began to track down her face as we looked upon the deserted city.

Usopp made some remark about the 'road' we were traveling on but Vivi was quick to correct him, telling us that it used to be the channel they'd had that brought fresh water in from the Sandora River, but once that was destroyed the oasis here began to rapidly dry up under the prolonged drought.

The people had no choice but to relocate or die.

A strong breeze blew through, causing there to be a long eerie sound to echo around us, scarring Usopp, Nami, and Chopper with thoughts of ghosts and spirits.

Vivi, pale and with a stricken face, said hoarsely, "it's as if the city itself is crying."

I thought she was speaking to herself, but her words just furthered terrified Nami, Usopp and Chopper until Ace disillusioned them all of that notion, by pointing out how it was the empty broken down buildings around us that had made the sound when the wind blew through the openings.

A sudden mini sand storm blew in and only lingered around us for a mere moment.

Even though the wind itself was nice, it was hard to enjoy it due to the sand.

Sand, when blowing by you at the speeds these winds were blowing, acted more like sandpaper. Which, when rubbed against any exposed skin, like say, our fingers, face and neck, it hurts like a right bitch, let me tell ya. Owwwwwwww ow ow ow owwwwwww fucking sand!

Everyone had ducked and covering our faces as best we could, except the Captain.

He was glaring into the 'eye of the storm' so to speak.

It was a small mini tornado twister, clearly only in the middle stages of growing into a much larger and more fierce sandstorm.

When it was gone, Vivi collapsed onto the ground, asking rhetorically, "what have the people ever done to deserve this?"

I had nothing I could say to offer comfort and instead kept to scanning our surroundings for signs of danger.

At the flutter of fabric, we all looked over to see what appeared to be a person collapsed in the sand. We ran over, hoping to help, only to discover that it was a skeleton. Whoever this was, had died quite some time ago to have no flesh left on his bones, not even hair on his skull, which stayed the longest usually...

Ace and I started digging a grave to bury the remains as Vivi's distress over the death of a random citizen, caused her to begin crying.

The sight of her tears caused Luffy to go on a rampage, destroying a building to release some of the stress and tension in his body. Usopp had stood straighter and as soon as we had gotten the body buried, we all set out to Yuba in silence.

With no extra provisions, and no other mode of travel, we were forced to go on foot.

Thank god Sanji preplanned on packing enough provisions for the entire trip to Yuba just in case!

Eventually, as the heat of the day passed us by, we were forced to walk in the shade of one of the tall sand dunes to remain in the shade as much as possible.

Chopper, like Will and I, was not suited for the intense heat and sun.

Soon, he collapsed in a near faint.

Zoro took to pulling him along in an improvised sled, as Chopper panted harshly.

When we made camp that first night, we all pitched two tents. One was for the girls, and the other was for the males.

Of our group only four of us were unaffected by the extreme drop in temperature.

Will and I were both of merfolk descent and as I'd noted during our stay in Drum, we handled the cold weather much better than a normal human. Our travel cloaks were more than enough when combined with our regular clothes underneath.

Ace was fine due to his devil fruit. He now wore a simple black with orange flame design robe simply to avoid the sunburn, not really to avoid the heat itself. Lucky bastard, I thought uncharitably.

Chopper, having been born on a Winter Island, was naturally used to the cold weather and his body's fur was much more suited to this temperature.

Luffy and Usopp were both huddled up to Copper in an effort to soak up his body's natural furnace like body heat, cracking jokes about his 'fur coat'. While Nami and Vivi huddled together on the other side of the fireplace to stay warm.

Sanji was dutifully cooking us all our food for the night. A simple meal of rice and a meat based sauce with vegetables was a good choice as it only required a simple bowl and spoon to eat.

Vivi told us all to get some rest early into the evening, we'd have to wake up super early in the pre-dawn to travel as far and as fast as we could before the heat of the day hit. During which she planned for us all to have a two-four hour rest break. It was apparently the best way to travel in the desert.

Because only in the early morning and the dusk hours, would it both provide light to see along without worrying about the scorching heat, with the help of the stars to guide us on our way. She had been slowly teaching Nami all about their star based navigation that was used here while on our way to Alabastra from Drum, after Nami had recovered from her illness. Other than learning that the stars were one of the few constants, even here in the Grand Line, and then how to tell which way was north, I didn't really pay much attention to these lessons.

That next morning brought a level of craziness that I was slowly becoming used to expecting out of my Captain, I realized with a sigh.

It started off with his discovery of a 'desert shrimp', which had turned out to be a scorpion, and then swiftly led to a large reptile known as a 'Sandoran Dragon' trying to ambush us by hiding under the sand.

Luffy, Sanji and Zoro had admittedly been a bit of an overkill for the single monster sized animal, but at everyone's shouts behind me I'd whirled around, halfway through withdrawing my sword when I saw another Sandoran Dragon trying to attack from behind.

Taking a step to engage, I had to stop as Ace flash grilled the animal in barely a second.

I pouted. Not that I'd ever admit that out loud!

We ended up eating the animal, Luffy giving Ace large amounts of praise for getting to have so much meat for breakfast. However, the excitement of the morning at least meant that everyone was both awake and alert for the trek out through the desert. Oh joy…

Will and I took turns lathering ourselves up with as much sunblock as we could before following everyone out into the vast expanse of sand. Vivi, and Nami, keeping an eye on the stars above to ensure our route.

We'd been walking for the last six hours now and the late morning sun was starting to reach the uncomfortable stage.

Chopper had taken to riding on the makeshift sled being dragged by Zoro as soon as the sun was no longer touching the sand. Usopp, who'd been walking behind them, was complaining loudly about the unfairness of Chopper not having to walk. Chopper's response of his heatstroke suffering not really making much difference to the tired long nosed sniper.

I was highly annoyed at Usopp for calling Chopper a monster when he had shifted to his 'human' form, or Heavy Point, as he preferred to call it. But it was too much work to stop and berate them. Zoro had to stop and by sheer force, managed to make Chopper shrink back down to his hybrid form, or "brain point" with a disgruntled, "Don't grow big or I wont pull you!"

I turned to Will and asked him, "ok, spill, how come your not having a hard time walking in this stupid sand, while I feel like I'm fighting against quicksand with every step?"

He smiled with a shrug and said, "After I got away from the bastards, I was washed ashore like I told you."

I nodded, remembering what he'd told me back in Nanohana.

"Well, the majority of the island was covered in sand. I got pretty used to running in the stuff all day, every day, for the first two years that I'd thought that I was the only human on the island."

I could only stare in horror at my brother. "How? Wha-Tell me everything!" I asked quickly.

Besides us Ace laughed, "This guy here never tried to go around the whole island for all that time, when if he'd just followed the coast, he'd have come across the only village on the island! How nuts is that?"

Will and I threw identical looks of deadpan as we said together, "That's something you/Captain Luffy would do." We blinked and look at each other in surprise, as Ace just laughed it off.

Luffy decided that a game where the winner has to carry everyone's stuff to the next rocky outcropping was a great idea. Will tried to prevent it by offering to carry more in his storage boxes but Luffy was set on the idea of a game.

He won, and so by his own rules, he had to carry our stuff. I refused to give up my duffle bag, which I'd brought from the Going Merry to carry my own water supply and extra bottles of sunblock inside of. I only got away with it because I had refused to play Luffy's "game".

As soon as we saw the beginning outline of what looked like several towers of rocks up ahead, Luffy raced off. None of us felt like wasting so much energy on running, but when Luffy came back without the supplies yelling for Chopper to help some injured birds that had been lying up ahead, we all booked it.

At the sight of the birds, Vivi cried out, "Oh no! Those are Warsaigi Birds! They trick travelers so that they can steal food and water! I forgot to mention it earlier!"

Luffy, enraged at the trickery and the birds mocking attitude, charged after them to reclaim the stolen supplies. I wanted to follow him but after barely running more than a dozen feet under the hot sun, I fell down to my knees as the sky and sand started to swirl around me.

I think I heard Will and the rest of the crew shout my name, but I couldn't focus.

What was I doing?

Zoro was the first to reach me as I toppled over my right side, the opposite of my sword. He rolled me over to my back and asked loudly, almost shouting, "Wisteria! What's wrong? Oi! Don't faint! Stay awake!"

Chopper joined us and despite his harsh breathing, started to examine me as his job as the crew's doctor. Will was there in his flowing teal blue robes, just a shade darker than Sanji's sky blue robes. They had a swirling pattern that was giving off the illusion that they were moving even though I knew they logically shouldn't have.

"She's suffering from heatstroke, lets get her back into the shade and get some water into her system. Will, do you happen to have some kind of cool compress in your storage box?" Chopper asked, voice strong, calm and confident.

"He's in doctor mode now haha" I thought as everything started spinning again.

I felt Zoro, who had been letting me use him as a pillow for the short examination, pick me up and carry me out of the sun. He laid me out on top of Sanji's robe, he'd rolled it up so that I could have something other than sand in my hair. How sweet of him, then something cool was pressed to my forehead and under my armpits, the back of my neck and over top of my chest above where my shirt started. It jostled my necklace but the chain held in place.

I'm not sure how long I laid there, but they did replace the compresses twice since they first put them around me before I became coherent enough to hear Will explaining how he and I are both more susceptible to the sun and heat.

"So she collapsed because of the sun?" Zoro's deep baritone had come from my left. He was sitting beside me with one leg crossed and the other up with his knee bent as a resting spot for his right hand. Will was on the other side kneeling down besides me, Neal on his shoulder.

Sanji, I could see, was standing between my feet.

Nami and Vivi had stopped in the shade next to the rocks a little ways off where I could just make out that they were talking quietly to each other. Vivi was constantly looking at me, like she was worried I'd die any second now.

Ace was up on top of those same rocks, keeping lookout, for both Luffy and danger, though, knowing the Captain's track record, danger will probably be following him...ugh...

Usopp was rifling through his brown satchel for something. Good thing he didn't give his ammo bag to Luffy earlier, otherwise we'd have lost that to the damn birds too.

"To be precise, she's severely dehydrated and has heat stroke. But yes, we'll go with that." Chopper said, breaking me from my observational thoughts.

Even though he too was exhausted from the heat, and went to lie down in the shade, he didn't go to sleep since he thought I might still need him.

Zoro saw that I was looking at him and lets everyone know by poking me on the forehead. It was the first time he'd moved since I was laid down in the shade.

"Baka, if you were thirsty you could have just had some water," He berated me softly, not intending to be mean by it, just trying to down play how concerned he was feeling.

I glared as best I could, but before I could really try to form a reply, Will comes forward with a canteen of water. Which he then shoves into my mouth and tilts it back so that I either have to swallow or choke. I swung my glare to him instead but all that did was make his uncharacteristically serious face more grim as his mouth thinned into a straight line.

Confused, I dutifully drank the water without fuss.

It's not until the canteen was empty that he let me sit up and try to speak again. I was about to ask him what was wrong, when he preempted me.

"Don't do that to me ever again Wisp. Seeing you fall like that, it was just like, just…" he sniffled and turned away from me, shoulders shaking. Neal, sitting on his shoulder, ran his beak through Will's short hair behind his ear. I can tell it's a gesture of comfort from the bird.

"I'm sorry Will. I didn't realize the sun was affecting me this badly. It wasn't this bad last time we were here." I offer, knowing that it wouldn't be enough, but I had to say something.

Chopper sat up and said, "The heat's effects have gotten worse since last time? But you were younger the last time you were here, right? That's not right, children are typically more susceptible to these kinds of things...so it should be the other way around...?" he trailed off in thought midway into talking to me.

I didn't say anything about my personal suspicions on why it's that way be for me.

So far, the only one I'd ever told about this happening had been Crocus, and he'd been both shocked and amazed to learn of it. From that reaction alone, I knew it wasn't an ordinary thing to have happened. Chopper's never diagnosed anyone of Merfolk heritage, I don't think he'd even know what to do. Plus I needed to find out if something like this has happened to Will or if it's just me.

I looked at everyone who's still around and I tried not to squirm.

Glancing back at Will, who had now gotten a hold of himself, I internally groaned at the expression on his face. Ok, now all I have to do is to get him alone so I can talk to him about this...which won't be easy since I had to go and faint like a weakling. Ugh...no one's gonna want to leave me alone for a little while are they?

Thankfully, distraction came in the form of Luffy and a camel running away from something or other. Zoro and Sanji were quick to dash off and kill it and I heard a "whoosh" sound that I'd come to associate as Ace's flames shooting up, so he must have joined in on the fun.

Grabbing Will's wrist I said, "I need to talk to you, alone."

He nodded and I let it go for now.

This wasn't something that couldn't wait after all.

The Camel turned out to have been a new friend of Chopper's that he'd made yesterday.

They'd met back in Nanohana when Chopper had somehow gotten carted over to the neighboring oasis city of Katorea, he'd stopped to lay down for a quick break due to heatstroke in somebody's covered wagon and accidently brought along with the guy.

Nami ended up naming the Camel "Lashes" since his actual name couldn't be translated into human speech. Her naming skills suck...why Lashes? She'd completely ignored the guy's suggestions for names when 'Lashes' had denied carrying any of the boys on his back.

At his pervy heart-filled eyes he made as he was petted by Nami, I knew I had no desire to ride the camel. Why is it such a pervert over another species' females? Ewww….

When Luffy learned I had fainted he, predictably, freaked out, but everyone else was able to calm him down rather quickly when he found out Chopper had 'treated me' and that I was awake. The knowledge that Will and I needed more water than a normal human though, caused him to get both depressed and angry all over again that the birds had stolen our supplies. Going so far as to cry to the two of us apologizing for allowing those birds to steal from us. I had to be quick to hide my surprise, I didn't expect Luffy to cry over this.

Ace just laughed, calling Luffy a Crybaby and ran off as Luffy chased after him in mock anger, eventually rolling around in an impromptu wrestling match between the brothers.

Will and I shared a smile as it made us think of Crystal and how she used to tease her twin.

After Crystal had gotten her Tiger Fruit, we didn't do much of those rough-an-tumble kinds of fights. She didn't have much control over her transformations in the first two years of having it, and would accidently bring out her tigers claws while rough housing with us back then.

Mostly we'd practice sword fighting, typically when the twins wanted to play with me while I was practicing my stances and forms. They'd grab some bokken and pretend to duel me, knocking me down or my least favorite, sneak attacking me while Crystal would be shouting things like, "Marine Raid! Protect your Captain, First Mate Will!"

Yeah, Crystal was a very hyperactive girl growing up. Her favorite game had been to pretend she was a Pirate Captain and Will was her ever-loyal First Mate.

Dad would come in and say something about being the "Fiercest bounty hunter across the seas, come to claim your head, Captain Tigress Crystal!" while mom was always the "terrified civilian" that had was being 'raided by the dreaded pirates'.

Somehow, I always got stuck being the uptight Marine Admiral who was trying to arrest them. Those Brats…

Although, my favorite game to play, was where I got to be a pirate with them, as we ran through the forest to escape from our 'bounty hunter' father.