Abigail ran through the streets; she was winded but she couldn't stop. She and Killer hadn't stopped trying to find the girls while Heat and Wire gathered up the crew, Sam was busy doing the same with his crew but it was taking so long to track down everyone. Where were they… where were her girls… "Kiss… Peri…" She whimpered a little as she barged into another store and gave a look around. "Have you seen these girls?" She held up a picture of them for the shop owner to look at and her heart sunk again as he shook his head no. She spun on her heel and made her way to farther down the street.

"Abby!"

A voice called to her and she paused to turn and see Killer running up to her. "Did you find them?"

"No…" He said with a sigh as he came to a stop in front of her. "But listen." He held up a baby transponder snail and started the call.

It picked up almost immediately. "Kil-kun, did you find Ma?"

"I'm here." She responded to her son's voices. "Have you found the girls? What about our crew?"

The voice sighed. "No word on the girls and I have bad news, I'm missing three girls from my crew as well…" The face made a scowl. "Meet me at Remy's place, I'm heading there now. There has to be a slave ship docked on the island somewhere, it's the only explanation."

"I agree." She said with a sigh, she had this sickening feeling in her gut… if anything happened to those girls… "Have the rest of your crew stay back on the ship, I don't want to risk anyone else being taken."

"Agreed, I'll bring my second with me. We'll need the muscle, be safe Ma. I'll see you soon."

The line went dead and Abigail hugged herself, of all things it had to be slave traders… "You should go back and get Eustass-love, Remy's is pretty easy to find…"

"Not gonna happen." Killer interrupted her. "So far we have five girls missing, I'll be damned if I let you run around by yourself anymore."

She gave him a skeptical look. "I can handle myself, we need the Captain."

He covered her mouth. "We can call him and have Wire and Heat follow him, I'm not leaving you." He moved his hand to the side of her face and rubbed her cheek. "And you're not allowed to argue me, I'm the first mate so what I say goes."

The corner of her mouth twitched a bit as she tried not to smirk. "If Eustass-love can't pull rank on me what thinks you can?"

"You really are stubborn." He said with a sigh. "Please Abby… if something were to happen to you…"

The tone in his voice made her sad… she closed her eyes and leaned her face into the hand on her cheek, what was she supposed to do about this… it was bad enough she developed feelings for Eustass and she knew there was an attraction to this man here but she never thought that he would start feeling the same way too… "Killer…" She said his name softly, now wasn't the time to be sorting this out.

"I know." He let her go and stepped away, damn him… he had to push those thoughts away, there were more important things to be dealing with. "Lead the way, I'll call the ship."

She nodded and started off, the blonde following closely behind as she heard him making the call. Damn it, damn everything! Damn her stupid feelings and this damn island, she had to get her girls back and put this place behind her… then she'll just have to deal with being pent up on a ship with two men she shouldn't dare let herself be involved with… damn it all.

Kid gave a loud growl, how the hell did everything turn to shit so quickly! He barely had time to down half a bottle and add a few more dents to one of his projects before Heat came barreling into his room with news that two of his crew had been kidnapped along with a handful from that boy's ship. "Where the fuck is this place?" He let out a string of agitated curses, trying to find this place was a pain and who the hell was this Remy person anyways?

"It's just up ahead Master Kid." Heat said as he pointed to a small building resting on a hill, the others should be there already. He looked beside him to see Wire's stern expression, he wasn't much for showing emotion but he could only assume he was worried about Kiss. Those two kept their attraction pretty low key, he was pretty sure a good portion of the crew didn't even know they were pseudo involved with one another.

The red head gave a grumble as he ascended the row of steps leading up to the shack two at a time, the fact that some of his crew got taken really sucked but the silver lignin would be being able to kill someone today. He opened the door and was hit by a fog of smoke that made him cough. "The hell!"

The others look up and saw the Captain in the doorway with the other two men just behind, Sam gave a wave. "Leave the door open so we can clear out this damn smoke." He fanned the air in front of him with a frown, he wasn't a fan of smoke and he had forgotten that Remy was a damn chain smoker.

"Well nobody asked you to bring a parade into my shop." The owner of the place gave a grumble as he eyed even more people coming in from his spot leaning against his bar top. "Why did you decide to meet up here again?" He tapped away his ash with a yawn, he'd much rather be taking a nap right now.

Abigail gave the man a solid smack to the back of his head. "Because you know everything that goes on here, now that Eustass-love and the others have arrived get to talking!"

"Shit! Ok!" Remy winced a bit as he rubbed the back of his head and stood up, grabbing the tattered old map he had rolled up. "Gather around then kiddos." He unrolled it with a sigh, he'd never seen the Missus this worked up.

Kid frowned as he eyed the person that must have been Remy, he was just about as tall as Heat but the similarities ended there. He was dark skinned and hairy, looked like a five o-clock shadow to boot… and he was supposed to trust this guy? His eyes went to Abigail, she didn't even look at him but that seemed to be because she was more focused on the issue at hand… but it didn't seem Killer had the same focus, what the hell was his hand doing rubbing her back like that?

Heat looked around, Wire hurried to the table and took up a spot beside the boy Captain. The only ones he didn't recognize were the dark skinned man with the heavy black eyeliner and an even taller man with green skin and blonde dreads that was on the other side of the boy. He must have been from Abby's old ship, he wondered if he was a fishman but he didn't have webbing on his fingers… He took up the empty spot beside that one and looked back to the Captain that had moved beside the dark skinned man and across from Abby and Killer, he couldn't help but sigh. Now wasn't a good time for them to be arguing.

"Alright lads, directing your attention to here." He pointed to the back end of the island. "It might not look it but there's an old dock here, hasn't been used in years because that part of the island got quarantined. Word is there's a ship there now and I'm willing to bet it has your ladies." He took a long drag from his cigarette and crossed his arms. "This ship causes a problem for us here on the island too so if you can sink it and send a proper message I'd be much obliged."

Abigail frowned at that. "For starters, why was it quarantined? Is there a disease there? Toxic land?"

Remy shrugged. "Nothing that terrible, some jackass just decided to bring a nasty man eating poisonous plant that apparently went rampant when it met this island soils, it's taken over the whole area and pain in the ass to deal with."

"Do you know the species?" The green skinned one asked in a voice that seemed much too soft for him.

Another shrug. "Something Hydra I think, it's a bitch because once you cut it the damn thing regrows. That's how it took over the area, a bunch of dumbasses went in there to cut it away and turned it into a damn forest of the things."

"That's actually very good news." He responded with a smile as he turned to his Captain. "It sounds like the Giant Hydramari Plant from the West Blue."

Remy scoffed. "I don't know who you are kid but you're fuckin crazy to call that thing good news." He smirked a little as he snuffed out his cigarette. "I like it."

He blushed a little. "Th… Thank you."

Abigail arched a brow. "I don't mean to be rude but… Who are you? I thought You said you'd be bringing Forrest." She directed the second part to her son, she was expecting to see her old second. The gruff old man was a zoan type and his strength and speed would be really needed right now.

Sam frowned. "No, I said I was bringing MY second. Tek took over as second after you left and he's much stronger than that old tiger."

"What!" She was genuinely shocked. "What the hell are you thinking demoting him! He's served on that ship for longer than you've been alive!"

"Miss Abigail… Mam." Tek raised his hands defensively. "It wasn't Sammie, Mr. Forrest picked me to take over himself."

"Sammie?" Killer arched a brow and a few others snickered a bit at the cute little nickname.

Sam coughed and tried to ignore it, Tek was always calling him that. "Point being he's good at what he does, he's three quarters fishman and has their strength plus he's crazy smart. Back to the issue at hand he's a botanist so if he says this plant issue isn't an issue let's move on."

She sighed and pushed passed the issue. "You're right. Remy, what can you tell us about this ship?"

He crossed his arms with a grumble. "Never seen em before and they must be new to the place because they don't mind the rules for shit."

Kid peeked a brow at the. "What rules? I thought this was a pirate island."

Remy grinned. "This is true; we don't have much for rules… mostly guidelines. The first and foremost is an agreement that unless it's a stand up fight between crews you don't mess with the other pirates while you're here." He cracked his knuckles with a bit of a grumble. "And sneaking about stealing young ladies is most definitely frowned upon, there's no honor in it."

"Honor?" Kid scoffed. "Since when do Pirates give a damn about honor."

The man eyed the red head, so this was the short tempered super nova he heard so much about… so far he was not impressed. "Unless you plan on playing at being pirates for the rest of your life your attitude is gonna need an adjustment."

"Kid!" Killer said sternly. "Don't pick a fight right now, we need to get the girls back and this guy is our best chance at doing that." He could see his Captain was already on edge, the last thing they needed was for him to lose his temper right now.

"Please Eustass-love." She pleaded with him. "And you." She directed her glare at Remy. "Mind your tongue, for my sake."

"Hmph." Remy lit another smoke but did as she asked and backed off. "As a note, memories of your tongue is the only reason I'm being so helpful."

"What the actual fuck!" Sam cringed and covered his ears, that's not what he wanted to be hearing right now… or ever. As far as he was concerned his mum never did anything with anyone other than dad.

"Him too?!" Kid exclaimed.

"Once… damnit." Abigail held her head, why did he always have to bring it up.

"Twice, actually."

"What?"

"New Years, Simon was here too."

"Ah… right."

Sam waved his hands. "Please! No more!" He made a dramatic whimper as he covered his ears.

Killer couldn't help but smirk, there really was a lot about her they didn't know.

Kid closed his eyes and tried his best to push that mental image out of his mind.

The others in attendance blushed at the exchange, that was a bit of information none of them needed to know… And now they all had rather vivid images of the ménage à trois…

"Enough!" Kid exclaimed. "Just tell me where this ship is, I'll sink it myself!" He was beyond irate now, not only did she have that one eyed bastard but she slept with this ragged looking bastard too. He didn't want to think about it damn it, she was still his! And he didn't want anyone else thinking about her like that, especially this scruffy prick.

"Wait Mr. Kid." Tek interrupted the other Captain as he turned to leave. "You'll have to deal with the plants before you can get to the ship, the Hydramari is susceptible to sleeping powders. It's how botanists subdue them so they can be transplanted or harvest their sap."

That caught Abigail's attention. "What use is their sap?"

"Multiple uses actually, a ship wright can boil the sap to reduce it and it becomes an almost indestructible sealant. For medical purposes you can use it to counter numerous poisons, including the plants own venom."

"Fascinating." Kid interrupted. "Do you have enough sleep powder to deal with the weeds."

"We have some on hand." Tek answered before looking to Abigail. "Do you have any?"

"No, we usually make that as needed." She frowned, she preferred using liquid sleep agents as opposed to powder.

"Don't worry." The larger man smiled. "If you can lend me some of your crew familiar with herbs we can get a lot made up in a short amount of time."

She frowned at that. "Peri was the closest we had to the trade but she's one of the girls that had been taken…. Rosie would be the next best. I'll have her head over to your ship now with what supplies we have." She turned to the blonde beside her. "Kil-love, could you make the call."

"Sure." He pulled out the baby snail and walked way to talk where it was quiet.

"How long will this take." Kid asked. "The longer we waste screwing around with powders and planning the bigger the chances are of that ship taking off with our girls."

Remy gave a grumble. "Fire-crotch has a point." He exhaled a large cloud of smoke and ignored the death glare from the boy. "I'd suggest that you split up, some of you get to making that powder and the others head straight to the ship."

Wire finally spoke up. "I'm going to the ship with you."

Abigail nodded, she had no complaints about that. "Sam, could you and Tek handle making the powder."

"I'm not going." He objected. "Some of my people are over there too, no offense but I'm not going to sit back and grind herbs while my crew needs me."

"I can assist." Heat stepped forward. "I've been… paying attention to things. I can help."

That honestly shocked the other members of his crew, they had no idea he was taking an interest with the medics. Kid gave him a nod. "Get to it then."

With that the two left, leaving the others to make a decision. "Where are the plants the densest?" Abigail asked as she eyed the map.

Remy's black painted nail made a circle in the center of the forested area. "Right in front of the docks, more than likely the people docked there or either using a sleeping agent of their own to go straight through the horde of nasties or they are following the beach in either direction to go around the whole area." He gave a grumble. "I wouldn't particularly want to chance finding out if they knocked out those plants or not so you'd be safer going around, yalls medics can cut through the middle when they get back with the powder."

Kid eyed the map. "Alright. Killer, you take the boy and shaggy here around this side. Me, Abby & Wire will go in the opposite way..."

"Whoa now." Remy interrupted. "Who said I'd be tagging along."

"It makes sense." Sam hated to admit it but he agreed with the call. "Having an even team of three would be a better choice, we don't know ow strong these guys are so making sure we are balanced out raises the chances for success."

"If we want a balanced team." Wire offered up his opinion. "Then I should go with Killer and Remy should go with you Captain. This way both teams have a Captain, a strong defense like Bones and Myself then a good Offense with Killer and Remy."

"And who says I'm an offensive person?" Remy argued.

"You have a trophy of animal fangs hanging from your hip." Wire stated plainly, he was pretty good with animals and could tell they were from different ones.

"Stop arguing." Abigail scolded the darker skinned one. "I can vouch for your skills; this is a good plan. If there's going to be no more bickering, I'd like to head out."

"Fine." The older man of the group scratched his head with a grumble, he didn't want to get involved but he owed the Tome-Bon clan too much to tell them no. "Everybody got the weapons they need?"

"I'm good." Sam opened up his coat to reveal a white sheathed katana that was attached to his hip with a red rope.

"So are we." Killer touched the scythes he had sheathed at his sides and the Captain never needed weapons. "Abby, Wire?"

The hooded man frowned a little, he was so preoccupied with getting here he didn't think to grab his weapon.

"It looks like we'll need a look at the stock." Abigail sighed, she had forgotten her own Katana back on the ship but she's been needing to pick up a second weapon. After all she was proficient in the two-sword style, she lost one of her swords when she had that fiasco with Yeager Faust…

"Are you gonna pay for it this time?" He said with a smirk as he waved them back behind the counter.

She smiled at that. "You can put it on my tab, you know I'm good for it." She waved the others to follow after. "You guys might find this interesting."

Kid arched a brow and looked behind the counter as the owner reached below to hit some mechanism in the counter that caused the floor to pop open. "A hidden door?" What the hell…

"Yup." Remy smirked. "But mums the word kiddos, there's not many people that know about this little secret." He started down the steps as he lit a fresh smoke, he wasn't too keen on showing strangers this but if the Missus vouched for them then that was that.

It was a short decend before they came to a stop in front of a large metal door, Remy lifted his chain of fangs and pushed three of them into holes in the door.

Interesting, Killer was third in line behind Abby and the Remy person. So those teeth were for more than show but this was certainly a lot of effort to go through.

The door swung open and Remy flicked on the light to reveal a store room lined with various weapons from guns to swords. "There you have it, take your pick."

Abby eyed the stock. "Some stuff looks new, did Simon bring you a shipment?" She picked up a katana with a sea blue sheath and eyed the blade, she found the smith's mark with a smile. Lulu made these…

Killer and Kid stood back with the boy as the other two browsed and talked to Remy, so this guy was a low grade weapons dealer huh… Who would've thought. "Sam." The blonde got the boys attention. "Did I hear Abby right, your Dad delivered these?"

Kid winced at the reminder of who the boy's parents were… now he had thoughts of that one-eyed bastard being with Abby… and seeing the way that scruffy bastard kept smiling at her didn't help to remind him of their little connection. Damn it…

"Yea, you gents only met my dad once huh? So I doubt they would've shared the info that he's a world class smuggler." He grinned a little as he said that with pride, Dad was so good that even the world government would ask him to take on jobs that they didn't want to be connected to and in turn they looked the other way when their home island of Balabala turned in an oddly large amount of bounties. "Want to know another secret." He grinned feeling a bit proud. "My Auntie Lu makes all these bladed weapons, impressive huh?" His family really was the coolest!

The other two men exchanged glances, the boy was definitely gloating but that didn't change the fact that what he said was pretty heavy. Neither of them would've thought this 'Bon' family had such skills to be in the weapons trade… Was Abby a part of it too?

"We're ready." Abigail turned to them as she slipped a new katana into her belt, this one should do nicely. "Are you sure there's nothing you guys need?"

The others shook their heads and Remy waved them over to a tapestry on the far wall. "We'll use my tunnel systems to get to the other end of the island." He pulled back the fabric to reveal another heavy metal door with three circular key holes. "It wouldn't do much good for all of us the go heading down to the far dock, this unknown ship could have people on look out. Since we still don't know much about them then we'll need every last bit of advantage to stay ahead of the game."

The others nodded in agreement, Killer watched him insert three more fangs but he was certain they were different than the others he used on the first door. It was an interesting method using beast fangs as keys and this guy was fairly knowledgeable as a tactician… he couldn't help but wonder just what kind of person this 'Remy' was…

Abigail took a deep breath; it had been awhile since she went all out. She hoped she wouldn't have to but she still had this rotten feeling in her gut… Who the hell were these people that took her girls…

Kid rubbed his palm, they were starting to itch. Everything that has been happening since they docked here hasn't done much for his nerves or his temper, he thought everything would be better once they came here and got Abby patched up. They could go back to yelling at each other, he'd could go back to trying to kill her and she'd… he let out a sigh… she'd go back to smiling at him… and looking at him with that soft look in her eyes… but now. Everything went to hell, he lost his temper and assumed things and now he's finding out about all this stuff which made him realize he really had no idea who the hell she was at all… Which was his own fault. Not once did he ever try to get to know her… she asked him why he became a pirate and even encouraged his dream… but he never even thought to ask anything about her. He took a deep breath as they began to walk down the narrow tunnel, she was in front of him. He could catch the scent of the perfume she wore… she always took care of her appearance, always looked her best. She walked with a straight back, full of confidence… why didn't he ever notice this before. She was smart… way smarter than him and the whole damn crew liked her… he just took her for granted. He'd change that, he's going to get the girls back. Get the fuck off this island and make things right with Abby.

Killer brought up the rear, he couldn't see past Wire but it didn't matter much. He was too distracted with his own thoughts to put much thought into the act of following in line, he knew that Abby understood how he felt now. It was selfish of him to lay that on her but if he didn't put it out there now then he'd never have another chance… Still, a part of him wished he just kept his damn mouth shut. He knew she'd never be his girl… exclusively he should say. To be honest the more he found out about her the more she seemed like she'd never belong to just one person… could he deal with that? Would he be ok with sharing her affection? Would the Captain be ok with it? He let out a sigh, they took on one hell of a headache having her brought on board… and yet, they wouldn't give her up for anything now.

Remy exhaled a large cloud of smoke, this was such a pain in the ass… but maybe he'd get lucky and some of these girls they are off to rescue would be grateful enough to offer up a physical reward. The thought made him grin, it's been awhile since he had fun. The women on this island didn't interest him anymore and it didn't seem like he'd be able to have any fun with the Missus considering she seemed to be having some kinda love triangle fiasco going on… a shame too. He shrugged it off and went back to paying attention to which tunnels he had to take, a person who was unfamiliar would get lost quite easily down here and the only way to open the doors was with his fang keys. It shouldn't be much farther, then the real fun would begin.

He couldn't help but grin, licking his lips in anticipation. It had been awhile since he had a decent brawl, maybe this wouldn't be as big of a drag as he first thought.

To Be Continued…