NOTICE! I do not own anything in this fanfiction, save for two characters, one of which is introduced in this chapter.
The next day, Hogarth and Chopper were at the seaport. Hogarth walked out of the shop, trying not to laugh.
"Hogarth!" Chopper shouted from inside the shop, "Wait for me!" Chopper came out, wearing a funny-looking suit! It looked something like an old-fashioned diver's outfit.
"Well, Hogarth," Chopper said, "this should be a good opportunity for us to get to know each other as friends. Robin once told me, "Familiarity breeds contempt." ...What's contempt?"
"Look," Hogarth chuckled, "Let's just find the ship, OK?"
"Second berth on your right," said a short, red monster called Ickus.
"You can't miss it," said a weird, humanoid monster named Crum.
Author's note: If you watched "Aah! Real Monsters!", you'd know who these are.
"Thanks," Hogarth said, walking in the direction they pointed him.
Chopper caught up to Hogarth. "It's the suit, isn't it?" he asked, "I never should've listened to those saleswomen. One said it fit, the other said it looked cute, I didn't know what to do! I get so confused!" He bumped into Hogarth, who had stopped walking. Chopper looked up and saw why.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, "Hogarth, this is our ship, the J.P.H. Wonderlust!"
And what a beauty it was! A gigantic Rocket-Port (the future version of a New England Port Ship)! Hogarth looked up in awe. There were many people on board, the ship's hands. Also, there was someone shouting, "Pull those casks forward! Heave together, now!"
Hogarth got on the ship. "How cool is this?" he said, smiling. Then, he bumped into someone.
He turned around and saw a large, chubby man wearing a tri-peak hat, an unbuttoned red vest, and a pair of torn, striped pants.
"Sorry about that," Hogarth apologized, "I didn't--"
But when the man spoke, he knew the man didn't hear a word he said. Y'see, the man wasn't speaking English, but Russian. And he didn't seem too happy.
Chopper caught up again and saw the problem. "I'll handle this," he told Hogarth, and told the man, in Russian, "Calm down. He didn't try. He's new here."
The man's face softened. "Oh!" he laughed, still in Russian, of course, "I see! Well, welcome to the ship! I'm Zoffski. Good to meet you!" He held out his hand. Chopper translated, and Hogarth shook Zoffski's hand. As Zoffski walked away to do his ship duties, Hogarth turned to his friend. "How did you do that?"
"There were three languages on Drum Island," Chopper explained, "English, Japanese, and Russian."
"...Cool."
The two walked over to a large, literally stony-looking character, wearing a grand-looking outfit.
"Good morning, Captain," Chopper greeted the man cheerfully, "How is everything?"
"Shipshape, lad," said the man, "But I'm not the captain. The captain's aloft."
They looked up the mast and were greeted by a very strange sight.
A small (about Hogarth's size), black-and-blue creature with large, pointed ears and long, blond hair was floating just above the topsail. It turned its head and looked down at the newcomers. Its eyes were red, with yellow where white should've been. The creature seemed feminine, somehow. A mischievious smile slithered onto her face, and she actually turned into a group of small orbs! The orbs spiraled down the mast to the deck. The creature reformed there.
Hogarth and Chopper were at a loss for words!
The creature spoke in a strange language, yet, somehow, all in the area could understand what she said. She said to the stone-man, "Mud, I've checked this dumb ship from stern to stern, and like always..." Here, the creature floated up to the man, Mud's, rocky face and smiled. "...it's great. You can't do anything wrong, can you?"
Mud smiled. "You flatter me, captain," he chuckled, tipping his tri-peaked hat.
Hogarth whispered to Chopper, "That's the captain?" He didn't hear what she called the rock-man.
The captain turned around and the first thing she noticed was Chopper in that odd suit. That crafty smile returned and she floated down to the floor. "Dr. Chopper, I presume?" she asked.
Chopper could only stammer. He was still in awe about the captain's earlier actions; the levitation and transformation.
"Hello!" the captain called, tapping on the poor reindeer's helmet, "Can you hear me?"
The tapping shook Chopper out of his stupor. "Yes, I can!" Chopper said quickly, "Stop that tapping, please!"
As Chopper tried to pull the helmet off of his head, the captain noticed the cord on his suit's stomach. "Hey, this suit works a lot better if you plug it in. Like this!" She then pulled out the cord, turned Chopper around, and put the cord's "head" into the outlet. Which was on the suit's rear! "There you go!"
Chopper was startled! He pulled out the cord. "Thanks," he said, trying to keep his cool, "but I'll plug it in by myself when the time comes."
The captain ignored Chopper and started shaking his hoof. "I'm Captain Midna," she said, "I was just confronted by the Japanese Navy. I won't bore you with any details." The captain, Midna, then patted Mud's shoulder. "You already met my first officer, Mud, former Runescape Warrior's Guild Doorman; strong, honest, brave and true."
"Please, Captain," Mud said.
"Oh, shut up, Mud," joked Midna, "You know I don't mean a word of it."
"Wait a minute," Hogarth said, "She said the big guy's name is Mud?"
"Yeah," Chopper said.
Hogarth tried very hard not to laugh!
"What's so funny?" Chopper asked.
Hogarth waved his hand. "Nothing," he lied. Chopper obviously wasn't familiar with the phrase, "My name is mud."
Chopper turned his attention to the captain. "Um, excuse me," Chopper interjected, "I don't like interrupting, but I haven't introduced Hogarth Hughes. See, Hogarth is the one who found the treasure--"
Midna slapped a small hand over Chopper's muzzle. "SHH! Chopper!" She then glared at some crew members whose attention was caught by the word "treasure". They hesitantly went back to their duties.
Midna let go of Chopper's muzzle. "I'll talk to you in my Stateroom."
"Look, Chopper," Midna said as she closed the door, "You shouldn't blab about that map in front of this crew. I don't trust them..." She put a clawed finger on the reindeer doctor's sensitive nose. "...and neither should you!"
"Why not?" Chopper asked, "Sure, they looked rough, but--"
"Map," Midna said abruptly.
Chopper was going to say something, but sighed and signaled Hogarth to give Midna the orb.
"Here," Hogarth said, tossing the small, silver globe to the imp.
Midna caught the map and gazed upon it. "Ee hee hee! Not bad," she snickered. She gave the two a sly look, and started to float again, this time over to a safe. She opened the vault. "Hogarth," she said, "from now on, you'll call me 'Captain' or 'Ma'am', OK?"
Hogarth only let out an annoyed sigh.
"OK?" she repeated, a little louder this time.
"...Yes, ma'am."
"Thank you." The imp closed the safe and turned to the pair. "Guys, the map should be in there with the weapons when you're not using it, OK?" She dropped down to the floor and walked up to Chopper. "And Chopper, again ... shut up."
Chopper was starting to get mad. "Captain, listen. I--"
"Now, let me make this really plain. I ... don't really like this crew YOU hired. They're..." She turned to Mud. "Uh, what'd I say about them, Mud? I said something pretty good this morning."
"A disgusting bunch of babbling morons, ma'am," Mud answered.
Midna smiled at that past statement. She turned to Chopper. "Now THAT'S poetry!"
That did it. Chopper went into Heavy Point, breaking his suit and surprising everyone!
Almost. See, Midna wasn't really surprised; she's seen more surprising things than this before. No, as a matter of fact, she was actually impressed. A strange creature, Midna was...
"OK, look, 'Captain'!" Chopper said angrily, slamming his furry hands on the table, "I--"
Midna floated up to Chopper's face and put her hand on his muzzle, causing the reindeer to stop. "Doctor, I like chatting as much as the next girl, but I've got a ship to launch, and..." She looked down at the broken suit. "...you've got your outfit to fix."
She then floated back down into her chair. "Mud, take these newcomers down to the doctor's office." Chopper perked up a bit when he heard this. "Hogarth's gonna work for the doctor, Jumba."
"Wha-What?" Hogarth stammered, "The doctor!?"