[Episode] The Smoking Lamp: Case Of the Revolutionary

An old record playing jazz sounded wonderfully in the background of the bar, the clicks of glasses and drunken laughter seem more livelier than the music. The bartender handed Maru his wine glass, the masked bounty hunter tipping the man before taking his glass to take a small sip of his drink. Since the crew was busy taking care of some missing persons cases, Maru decided to branch away for only a little while so he could get a drink and possibly hear some juicy gossip of Ilusia. The Marine branch here was pretty interesting since he heard of some tales of backstabbing negotiations and back alley deals going on around Ilusia. But Maru wasn't here to fix things, he just wanted to know if there were any Revolutionary's looking to fight back and change the corrupt system. With a so called corrupt marine branch, you'll get some marines who think they are too good to take orders or even civilians would fight back against the so called tyrants. This was a perfect place for a One Star Bounty Hunter to make a quick name for themselves since there will be all kinds of people trying to fight for equality. Maru was hoping there would be one he could make a quick buck off of but he hadn't actually hunted any bounties since signing up for the (BHA) and he really needed to get more stars under his belt. Not to mention his pockets were feeling a bit empty from partying with his crewmates a bit too much.

Maru's attention was drawn towards two shady looking individuals with bandanas, talking among themselves in country accents. They weren't far so Maru was able to listen in on the conversation, squinting his eyes as he took another sip of his wine..

"-ya heard what's going on at that Moreine Branch thing?" one said, drinking a tall glass of beer to tell the man before the other guy could say something. "Some loonatic sent a letter threatening to bomb that there Port Artor. Ain't no one found that fool yet. Heard they put a bounty to whoever found the maniac who wrote it."

"Really? Well just how much reward money we talkin' about here. For all we know this guy might be shooting fire out his ass with that ole' devil-thinga-majigs folks be using now." the second man leaned in, wanting to hear how much the reward actually was for just making a threat like that against the marines. Naturally they don't play around with stuff like that.

"Welp, they sayin' the reward varies but they want 'im alive but they don't know who the fella is who sent the damn thing. But if I was to guess it'll be around……-" the man paused to remember the average it was for even rebelling against the government. "About…  5,000,000 to 25,000,000 Barries if he ain't done nothin' already. What I was thinking was that we wait until this fool blows-"

"Is it really that much!?" Maru screamed causing the two men to jump in surprise seeing the masked man standing uncomfortably too close to where they were. Maru stood up right then waited for them to continue their conversation, but now they turned their attention to the caped weirdo looking like something straight out of a comic book.

"The hell you standing ova us for? You lookin' to get killed boy" one man said, but Maru paid no attention to it, instead pulling his cape back to show his round copper badge with a single five-pronged star engraved on it which made the man back down for a bit. "Oh. You are a bounty Hunta ain't ya?"

"That's right! I Maru, The Mystical Hooman Lamp, is looking for bounties around the west blue and with your story I was hoping that you'd know a little more about the mysterious Revolutionary." Maru question, pointing upwards to express his point but the man provided no new information other than what he just said before along with his plan.

"Listen, listen, we gon wait till they actually blow the Port up and see if they actually give us a number on how much it is to catch this fool. With the destruction of government property and murder that fool's bounty gotta go up to at least 25,000,000 mil if we just wait it out." the man said, showing off his badge two meaning he was a hunter too and also to let Maru know that he knew what he was talking about. Of course, Maru wasn't interested in that since he believed the Marines would be more appreciative to them if they just stopped it from happening all together rather than waiting it out. "That's insane! Why wait when the Marines will be more grateful if you bring them in before they cause any damage? If the reward varies it must be a credible threat and I Maru will find this 'fool' with the aid of the Jinn that lives within me!" Maru shouted in complete confidence which made the two bounty hunters laugh since obviously they didn't believe that this guy really had a genie within him.

"Okay boy, you say you got one of dem Genies on ya. Then why not wish for that sum bitch here. It'll save us some trouble looking for that fool." the bounty hunter remarked sarcastically. Maru, not noticing the doubt in the man's voice, was all too happy to summon his Jinn here to show off his power. "GREAT IDEA, I'LL GET THE JINN INSIDE ME TO FIND THE FOOL!" he slapped himself for being so stupid. Why didn't he think to summon the Jinn to magically poof the guy here in the first place. Maru put both hands on his stomach then began to rub his stomach in a circular motion, the room going dark and his stomach began to glow a dull pink light. Around Maru smoke began to appear, the smoke smelled of some really strong incense that made the two mean and some of the people around him began to cough. The smoke came from Maru's belly, growing bigger and bigger until a mushroom cloud filled the room causing smoke alarms to go off. Then the smoke began to twirl with these magical gold sparkles to form into a life-sized ghostly woman made entirely of smoke at first, the Misty ghost floating over Maru looked at her arms then smacked her gums irritated that she didn't manifest her from right.

The Genie shook herself like a wet dog, spreading her pink mist around her until her ghostly form turned solid. Maru's genie didn't look monstrous like most Jinn's, this Genie took the form of beautiful pointy eared tanned jinniyah with lavender hair made into a ponytail with a gold scrunchy, purple eyes, and wearing a rather revealing pristine violet two piece bikini with her top being held together by a gold diamond shaped accessory. She didn't seem to care about the eyes all around her, Gaki simply stretched herself out then yawned. "Suuuuup.. What cha need me to do, Lamp?" Gaki asked, cracking her knuckles bouncing around as if she was full of energy as she waited for Maru's command. Maru spoke in the tone of a fortune teller, the two slack jawed bounty hunters making the scene look more accurate as the masked man rubbed his stomach like a crystal ball. "Oh Gaki, Great Jinniyah Within me. Will you please bring the bounty in which these two gentlemen have told me about here to this bar."

"Nope! Can't bring him here myself." Gaki cheered almost overjoyed to turn the request down, especially since Maru was slow at catching onto what she just said.

"Thank you Gaki the Grea– Wait a minute!? What! Why the hell not?!" Maru protested which made the bounty hunters behind laugh at his sudden outrage. Gaki laughed too at her lamp's reaction of being told no, yelling at how unfunny it was and to tell him why she couldn't grant the wish. "You see the problem with your wish is that you assumed I know who the hell you're talking about. Not to mention I can't make people fall out of the sky cause if I could I'd just poof them in jail and the admins in god land wouldn't be too happy with YOU having that much power now." Gaki explained. "Though what I could do is take you to him, but guess what? I don't know him nor where he's at so looks to me like you're shit out of luck." Maru soured at the thought of finding the fool easier would be a bit harder than he intended. Maybe he should wait like the two men told him because there's not really much to go on other than the let- wait! There's still a way he could find the man without knowing his name and location.

"Well then, if you can't bring him here nor bring me directly to his location then I wish you'd help me find him through an investigation! The rules doesn't say anything about using forensics, clues, and evidence to find someone now does it." Maru asked. With the regular police things like testing DNA, identifying fingerprints, and stuff like that wouldn't be a problem for the Jinniyah to solve in under a minute. Gaki seemed interested in the idea of playing detective, it seemed like fun in those law shows Maru watches plus things like forensics were something that he could do on his own. Just Gaki knew she could do them better.  "Yanno what? That sounds fun, wish granted boya. By the way, you know where we need to go first right?" Gaki asked, wondering if he was thinking the same thing she was thinking. "Why of course, law and order marines always go see the victims first plus our victim has a key piece of evidence that we need." Maru responded, heading out the door because he now had a date with the 45th Marine Branch. Hope they were professional enough to keep the letter because it might have the fingerprints he needed to find him….

Using a Camel as his stead, Maru traveled slowly towards the base of the 45th marine branch. The Camel almost seemed to walk to the beat of one of Maru's favorite songs that played on a boom box he had tied on the animal played at full volume causing some to look his way as his Camel walked right on by. Maru's Genie floated beside him with ear plugs in her ear, looking really annoyed not from the music but to Maru's horrible singing. "Oh, here's my favorite part. ♪Ya better!... Call the police! Call the corner! Call up yah priest! Have him warn ya! Won't be no peace! When I find that fooooooooooooooooooool♪" Maru sang. The Genie began covering her ears, the earplugs doing little to keep her from listening to Maru and his horrible singing. Since she had to help him find this bounty, she couldn't go back inside of him and just sleep until they got to their location. She couldn't rest until the wish was fulfilled which SUCKED! It's one thing to be trapped inside a person and just sleeping most of the time at least you can have wonderful dreams when sleeping. It's another being free and leashed to said person who was doing their very best to annoy you. Gaki was about to explode before she saw was ahead of them, the Jinniyah taking out her earplugs and then tugged on Maru's sleeve to try to get his attention.

"Yo lamp!-" she called to Maru, trying to get his attention but he continued to sing with his eyes closed.

"♪Who did that to you.♪" Maru sang, his Genie again trying to get his attention by shouting again but he simply sang on like he didn't hear the Jinniyah call him. "♪Who did that to yoooooooou! My baby! Who did that to you! Gotta find that fooooooooooo-♪"

THWAK!

Gaki bitch slapped Maru across the face so hard he couldn't taste anything for at least a minute! Maru was shocked for at least a moment but he quickly recovered, holding his red beet red cheek as he screamed at the Jinniyah that slapped him for no apparent reason. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" he yelled at the bratty spirit. Gaki pointed in front of him and as Maru finally looked he realized that they were coming up on the marine base. Turning the music down, the masked bounty hunter made the camel move towards the gate where two navy officers were waiting. When the Camel got close enough it stopped then Maru snatched it's leash to turn himself so he could see the marines better. "Greetings local law enforcement, beautiful day outside isn't it?" he stated, trying to make small talk to break the ice with the marines but they didn't seem interested in making small talk. Especially with the bomb threat hanging over their heads like a storm cloud.