Real life keeps rearing up and kicking me in the tail. I've got fics to update, go away need for employment _
This chapter's planet was named by Animefreak99-06, one of two to answer the bonus question from last chapter. And I love the name so squee~
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Joe studied himself in the single mirror in 'his' room. It was a simple set-up: bed, wardrobe, chest at the foot of the bed. And he'd had to get a layer of dust off most of it before it became useable. Clearly the Galleon was made to be crewed by more than the three pirates it had previously carried. But that was a topic he wasn't going to bring up.
The image the mirror presented him set off a much more occupying thought process anyway. Marvelous had lent him some clothes until they could find a suitable planet to pick some up from, so Joe was staring at himself in a pair of black slacks and a white long-sleeve that were close enough to his size to work, but so far from what he was used to wearing that it looked foreign to him anyway.
With a last shrug at his appearance, he headed back up to the main quarters to rejoin the other two. The second he got to the top of the stairs, Navi turned to look, and she broke into giggles. Marvelous, in turn, glanced over, but simply shrugged before returning his attention to the console and view screen. Navi quieted, abashed. "Sorry."
"It's fine." Of course Mavelous' clothes looked odd on him; the captain was both shorter and narrower than Joe, and these were hardly a style Joe would have chosen for himself. He crossed to stand on the other side of the stairs and eye the view screen. "Any luck?"
"Yeah." Marvelous brought a planet up on the screen, predominantly covered by large, red oceans. On the visible side Joe counted the edges of three continents. One in the central region, mostly dark blue, and two more, closer to each of the poles. On those, the areas furthest north and south were a frozen orange. "It's called Siragos. I've been there before, for three of the Gekiranger keys."
"And Zangyack has no interest?"
"Haven't reached this system yet. The Siragosians don't do a lot of space travel, but they're pretty accommodating." Marvelous sat in the captain's chair. "Should be there in an hour or so."
"And after we're done there?" Joe took a seat on the couch, fishing his mobirate from his pants pocket to be set next to him.
Marvelous, in turn, took something out of his coat pocket. Joe only had to glance to notice it was the other Gokaiger keys. "We've still gotta find people to use these."
"Find three more people willing to stick their necks out for treasure?" Joe leaned back, frowning at the green, yellow, and pink ranger keys as Marvelous returned them to his pocket. "That's not going to be easy. Not many people are crazy enough to risk going against Zangyack."
Marvelous shrugged. "Well, we can't be the only two idiots in the universe."
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The Siragosians were more than accommodating. By Joe's standards, they were downright welcoming. When the Galleon dropped its twin anchors and the two pirates descended (Navi opting to stay behind with the ship), the most they got were curious looks and smiles from a few onlookers. He raised a brow and glanced at his captain. "You weren't kidding..."
Marvelous smiled. "What, like I'd lie? Let's go."
They'd landed in the largest city they could find on the central continent, and it was busy. In addition to the normal-looking natives, several more unique species were among the pedestrians they had to dodge. Joe wasn't surprised when the first clothing store they found had an attendant who gave them directions based on limb number and body shape. Upright biped wear was apparently floors three and four.
When they got to the third floor, a Siragosian worker was waiting for them with a bright smile on her face. "Welcome! Do you need help with anything?"
Joe glanced at Marvelous, but the captain was pointing at him while looking at the girl. "He needs clothes." … That answered that, then. Marvelous was no more familiar or comfortable with clothes shopping than Joe was.
The worker seemed happy enough to accommodate, at least. "I'm sure we can find a few things. Let's see…" She walked a slow circle around him, studying him with such intensity that he was starting to feel like a museum exhibit by the time she stopped and nodded decisively. "Right. Could you follow me please?"
Over the next ten minutes, Joe was led around the store practically by the wrist, occasionally answering questions (whether they were about sizes or just asking his opinion), and ending up with a dozen or more outfits put into a fitting room. He also learned that his helper's name was Rizli.
By the time she led him back to the fitting room, the outfit number was closer to two dozen. He had to admit she had a good eye. It would have taken him hours to do what she'd done in minutes. And now he had clothes that were the proper size and didn't instantly connect him to universe-spanning despots.
When he came out of the fitting room (with an armload of clothing that Rizli took to the front), he had Marvelous' clothes over one arm and a new pair of black pants under a shirt that faded from purple up through white. Only then did he spot Marvelous, leaning on the wall across from him. "Hey, Joe. Catch."
Joe barely got his hand up in time to avoid getting the garment in the face. It was a blue leather jacket... with, quite frankly, more zippers than he would have thought possible on any single article of clothing. "What's this?"
"Try it. You're GokaiBlue now, right?"
He shrugged into the jacket and adjusted it. It fit well, and he transferred his mobirate and ranger key to the inside pocket. He raised a brow at Marvelous. "Is this so you don't forget which key you gave me?"
Marvelous snorted. "Shut up. Come on."
Joe wasn't sure what to wonder at: why clothes cost so much, or how Marvelous thought absolutely nothing of spending that kind of money. They walked back through the city with four bags (no matter how hard Rizli had tried to pack them efficiently), and Joe realized something he hadn't said despite everything Marvelous had done. He couldn't quite bring himself to look at the man when he said it, though. "Thanks."
He caught Marvelous' grin from the corner of his eye. "Don't mention it. It's worth it just so I don't have to walk around with someone in that uniform."
It was a good point… and it made a hell of a difference. Joe wasn't used to being smiled at, being treated as just another person. His world had been suspicious glances from his peers, cowering from ordinary people, and beatings from his superiors. Here, he was just some guy who had obviously not updated his wardrobe in half a decade.
His thoughts were derailed when a sudden, extra weight attached to his right arm, almost yanking him over before he caught himself. "Wow, mister, you're so tall!"
He tracked the voice down to a Siragosian child whose hands were latched onto his wrist like claws. The young boy was grinning, and Joe didn't really know what to make of it. "Uh…"
"Hey, hey." The boy tugged on the arm, ignoring the way the shopping bag Joe carried bounced against the pirate's leg. "How'd you get so tall? I wanna be tall!"
"I didn't…" What the heck was with this kid? Joe sent a desperate look to Marvelous, but the red Gokaiger was being exactly no help, standing by and smirking at the sight.
"Ernai!" The unmistakable bark of an annoyed mother spared him from the ordeal, as a short woman barreled in and pulled the child away from Joe. "Don't bother the gentleman!" She looked at Joe and bowed. "So sorry. He wandered off while I was browsing." One hand on her son's head forced him to bow alongside her. "Apologize, Ernai!"
The boy flailed, managed to duck out from his mother's arm before sulking at Joe. "… Sorry."
Joe smiled. "It's all right." He glanced between the two before bending to set one bag on the ground so he could muss the child's hair. "I'll say this though. No matter how tall you get, your mom can still boss you around. It's her privilege."
The boy gave a dismayed cry before his mother took his hand and, with another bow, led him away. Joe picked the bag up again, watching them go. Anywhere else, a child would never have dared wander far from mother, let alone approach him.
Marvelous stepped up to his side. "What's wrong, Joe?"
"Nothing, really." He shook his head, turning and starting to walk again. "I'm just not used to it… a planet without Zangyack."
Marvelous kept pace with him, shrugging. "Yeah. Seems like there's less and less of them around. Let's get back to the Galleon."
They made it with no other delays (except Marvelous detouring them to a food stall once), and dropped the clothes off in the cabins before going to the main quarters where Navi was waiting. "We're back, Bird."
"Welcome home!" She flew over to land on Marvelous' shoulder, only for him to flick her in the beak.
"Haven't been slacking, have you? We need another fortune telling."
Joe frowned. "Fortune telling?"
"It's how we found you… sort of." Marvelous sighed, sitting down. "Bird here spits out some vague prophecy, and it points us in the right direction… eventually. She's not very reliable."
So that was what she'd meant when she mentioned strangers. At least, he assumed that was part of it. "So that's how we're going to find our next member?"
"That's the plan! Let's Treasure Navigate!" Navi spread her wings, flapped twice, and shot straight into the ceiling so hard that Joe winced. "You must be sure to steal from the right places…" She drifted back to the floor with a thunk.
The ex-Zangyack stared for a few seconds. "… How's that supposed to help?"
Marvelous made a helpless, one-handed gesture to the ceiling. "See what I mean?"
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Whoo, this turned into a bit of a 'get it done' chapter, but I wanted to start showing just how fish-out-of-water Joe is. Despite the prophecy, we're not on the road to Luka just yet! Joe and Marvelous have a few more things to do.
PS: No, I didn't forget about Joe's necklace. We'll get there.