Devinius AKA Davey Jones's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Devinius stood at the edge of Tortuga's harbor, water dripping from his wooden barrel chest. He watched a group of young bounty hunters botch a simple capture across the dock. One tripped over his own rope. Another fired wide and hit a lamppost. Devinius sighed, bubbles rising from his liquid form. Someone needed to train these fools properly. Justice wouldn't balance itself across the realms. He knew what had to be done. Devinius walked along the coast until he found it—a stretch of rocky shore with natural tide pools and gnarled trees. Perfect. He spent three days building an outdoor training gym. Rope courses swung between the trees. Booby traps hid in the sand and rocks. Target posts lined the cliffs. He rigged nets that dropped without warning and platforms that collapsed under slow feet. The tide pools became obstacle courses that filled and emptied with the ocean. When he finished, Devinius planted a driftwood sign at the entrance: Poseidon Outdoor Training Gym. This place would turn sloppy bounty hunters into elite trackers. This place would teach them what justice really meant. But a gym wasn't enough. His students would need something to hit, something that could take real damage. Devinius spent two more days welding and bolting pieces together. The result stood eight feet tall—a bulky training unit covered in dented metal plates and reinforced joints. Its arms could swing and block. Its chest could absorb strikes from blades and blasters. Devinius punched it three times to test the structure. The unit rocked but held firm. Now his bounty hunters could practice their combat moves without killing each other. Now they could learn to strike with purpose. The gym was ready. Tortuga's best hunters would train here, and they would bring balance to every realm that needed it. One last thing remained. Devinius needed a way to call his students to training. He found an old ship's bell in a scrap yard and hauled it back to the gym. He fused it with spare circuitry from a broken navigation system. The bell flickered to life, glowing blue. Devinius set it to flash red when danger approached. He mounted it on a post near the entrance and pulled the rope. The bell rang out across the harbor, loud and clear. Heads turned. Bounty hunters looked up from their drinks. The sound would gather them for drills and announcements. The sound would mark the beginning of something new. Devinius let the bell ring three more times, then released the rope. His training academy was complete, and Tortuga would never be the same.