I'll never forget that first battle, it's forever etched into my mind...

I took a deep breath in an attempt to settle my nerves, "you sure about this, J?" I asked, the tension clear in my voice.

"Dude, you've been able to move freely with that thing on for weeks, and we're almost out of food, so..." Jacob replied, shaking his head, "trust me, I don't really like the prospects of this any more than you do, but we're shit out of options, and we don't exactly have job skills or the trust of Equestria's populace."

Dammit, I knew he was right, but this nervous feeling in my gut just wouldn't leave!

The Galleon was currently flying in the lower stratosphere, pulling up to a Zangyack Dreadnaught. Jacob and I were about to embark on our first act of piracy.

"Looks like they haven't noticed us yet, this ship must have stealth tech up the ass," Jacob muttered, propping his foot up on the ship's railing and leaning his saber on his shoulder.

"G-guess so..." I muttered, moving my hand up to the bridge of my nose to push up glasses that weren't there anymore. Jacob caught this and laughed out loud, "don't tell me you're getting cold feet now, Ika-chan~" he teased.

"Screw off dude, I'm not used to having twenty-twenty vision, that's all!"

Jacob just laughed harder, slamming his free fist into his leg.

"Knock it off!" I shouted in indignation, "I've never been in a real fight before, so sue me!"

Jacob let his laughter fade into a chuckle and sheathed his saber, turning to me, "close your eyes and take a deep breath," he instructed.

"what the hell is meditation gonna do?" I groused, crossing my arms.

"Just hurry up and do it!" Jacob urged, lightly whacking me on top of the head.

"Gah! Fine!" I grumbled, closing my eyes and sucking in a lungful of air. Strangely enough, it did seem to lower my tension a bit, but not nearly enough to get rid of the burning, sour feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I never saw it coming.

Suddenly, all the wind was knocked out of me and I was sent sprawling to the deck, my eyes nearly bugging out of my sockets from the impact.

I looked up to see Jacob standing above me, his arm was still extended from the sucker punch to the gut, "what the fuck was that for, you bastard!?" I roared, springing to my feet and grabbing his collar, my right fist poised to deck him in the face.

Jacob raised his hands in surrender, "oh? I see you're not nervous anymore! That nasty temper of yours must've helped."

I blinked, realizing that he was right, the tension in my gut was gone, "huh, guess you're right about that..." I muttered.

"Great, great... do you mind putting me down now?" Jacob asked, pointing downwards. I looked down and saw that I was currently holding him a few inches off the Galleon's deck.

A mad grin sliced across my face.

"Dude, what's that grin for? No. Nonononononononononono!" Jacob begged, waving his hands wildly before I decked him in the face, sending him sprawling to the deck.

"That's for the sucker punch, asshole!" I crowed triumphantly.

"I suppose I deserved that then..." Jacob muttered picking himself up and clamping a hand on his cheek, "so? What now?"

"Now," I said with a mad grin still on my face, "we roll out the red carpet!" I pulled out the Gokai Cellular, "Navi, you ready to stick it sideways to these guys?"

"Aye Sir! All Cannons are ready to let loose on your mark!" Navi squawked from her place at the Galleon's control room

"Excellent," I turned to Jacob, "how about you? Ready for our first raid as pirates?"

"You have to ask?" Jacob chuckled, "if anything I should be the one asking that question!"

"Oh, quit your whining," I said as I inserted the Gokai Silver key into the Cellular and crossed my arms over my chest, "Gokai Change!"

GOOOOOOOOOKAIGER!!!

"Oi, the pot called, he says you're black," Jacob muttered, drawing his sword and gun, "should we give Navi the signal?"

"I was getting to that," I muttered, resting the Gokai Spear on my shoulder and speaking into the gokai Cellular again, "Navi, wreck 'em."

"Aye Sir!"

The cannons on the Galleon roared, spitting fiery death on the side of the ambushed Zangyack ship as cycles of three volleys blasted into the hull, easily tearing a large hole in the side.

"Grappling hooks!" I yelled as several grappling guns popped out of the deck, firing their lines into the hull of the Dreadnaught, pulling the unfortunate ship closer to the scarlet pirate vessel.

I turned to Jacob, holding out a fist, "ready to go?"

"heh, you damn hypocrite, what happened to 'never being in a real fight before'?" He replied, bumping my fist with his own.

"First time for everything, right?" I said, twirling the Gokai Spear over my head as the shadows of several squads of Gormin appeared down the hall we'd just blown a hole into.

"You know we have to say it, right?"

"Of course! What kind of pirate or Gokaiger would I be if I didn't say it!?"

"On three then?"

I nodded.

"AVAST AND PREPARE TO BE BOARDED!" We both cried, charging off the railing and into a crowd of Gormin, "LET'S MAKE THIS SHOWY!"

Turns out, that day was when we found our first batch of Ranger Keys. That ship didn't have much else except tons of bits...

Author's Notes:

... I don't need to do character bios again for this, do I? No new characters yet...