"And I was running far away,

Would I run off the world someday?

Nobody knows, nobody knows,

And I was dancing in the rain,

I felt alive and I can't complain"

AURORA, Runaway

Happy halloween!

Nico's eyebrows raised.

"Who the hell is the ginger chick," He asked, squinting as she fought the annoying and fat guy they were literally hunting. She fell backward after a kick to his stomach sent her flying and she fell into a backwards roll.

Her face seemed so damn familiar...

She pulled a naginata out of literally nowhere (Not that dumbass over here seemed to know, but yes, she hid a storage dial in her bra. The black market on Ipsymoron was open for business.) and took a sweeping swipe at the fat guy, who jumped back and turned himself into shadows just before she hit him.

Sadly enough for Teach, Ginger Chick™ seemed to be thorough enough to have some form of seastone coating the metal blade of her long polearm, slicing into shadow then through flesh then bone then flesh again, and a limb flopped uselessly to the ground.

She herself seemed to be surprised by what he was assuming was a lucky shot.

Everyone just kind of stared for a minute or two, apparently shocked that she'd actually managed to remove a limb. But then the ginger woman made a victorious noise and pointed at the guy with pink hair who he felt like he should know.

"I got an arm, twenty five points to me," The guy groaned and scrawled something on his arm, before jumping into the fray and slashing at Blackbeard with a spear of wood.

Wait... Wood?

"Oh, guys, that's Cherry Wood Coby," He pointed out, guessing that the other guy was Helmeppo. Still had no clue about the woman though.

"Rika, on your left," Came a shout from Helmeppo, and the ginger girl dodged to the right before slamming her Naginata down and cutting off another hand. Another silence, before, "Wait, Rika? That was Static's Epithet, right?"

Everyone was quiet, looking silently at Owen. Including The three fighting the fat guy, who was also earwigging.

"I swear to god if that's you hidden behind those goddamn trees, Owen, I'm either gonna break something and slash or throw something." Ah yeah, that was Static.

"If I come out, can you please not throw things at me?"

"No."

"Okay," Owen sidestepped so he was no longer in the shade of the tree.

Static's eyebrows slid further and further up her forehead, before she turned to face Coby.

"I got a hand. I believe that warrants fifteen point," Coby cursed.

"Stop winning this, honestly," He sighed. He yet again scribble something down on his arm and turned back to Blackbeard, asking politely to Owen, "We'll be with you in a second, Thank you for your patience."

Then he sent a spire of Conqueror's infused wood through the stomach of Blackbeard. Said man rolled his eyes and yanked the hand-turned-wood out his stomach and repelled them in some weird move where he stomped his foot like a kid and they flew backwards.

"You're seeing this, right?" Somehow, Garp had bugged Rika's Snail with a small recording rig, which just kind of slid onto the side of the phone rig. Said snail was on the tree the brothers and a few others (none of which they knew were there- except Owen) were behind, giving a perfect view of the battle.

Mihawk eyed Boa.

"Yes, Hancock, we are seeing the same ongoing recording as you. I vote the pink one be promoted to vice admiral, at least," He put his two beri in.

"Why's that, Dracule," Asked Kuma.

"While the ginger one is focussing on disabling Teach and manipulating him into where she wants him to be and the blonde one is playing support, He is being more strategic, not quite a frontliner like the girl or a backup like the boy, but he's being a middleman. A Jack of all trades, master of none." Donquixote looked like he was thinking on it.

"He would make an awfully good Admiral," He thought out loud, "But then we'd have to give him that," He said, voice lilting at the end.

"True," Boa added, "But he'd be an amazing asset, would he not? And the girl, she's strong. Maybe fleet leader? Oh, we could give her a whole platoon- she's cute enough that they'd swoon for her," Garp forced back a surge of anger. Nobody was allowed to swoon at his kiddo.

"She's fourteen; Rika ate the Meow-Meow no Mi, She's a cat-woman. It allows her to disguise herself- which is what she's doing now. She makes for an excellent spy." His boasting which wasn't boasting but closer to a resume drew a few interested looks.

"Fourteen," Mihawk humoured, "Yet so powerful. Does she have access to Haki?"

"All three of them do. Coby, the pink haired one, even has Conqueror's. Rika is especially skilled with her Observation while the boys are exemplarily skilled with armament. Helmeppo is becoming rather skilled with his sword-" Behind him, the live footage showed Helmeppo cutting Blackbeard's forearm-the one that was left at least- off. Said man howled in anger before the pole of Rika's Naginata smashed into his ear. He flew left and tried attacking them with shadows. The lights, however, were far too bright and they were no more than wisps. Even his gravitational pull hardly affected them. The girl got a bit too close to him and got kicked, due to lack of arms, but she just stabbed through his thigh, so that was okay.

"I'll take him in as my apprentice," Mihawk demurred, "I'll pick him up once they finish The Pseudo-Shichibukai off." Kuma grew himself a long, creepy grin.

"I'll teach the Pink haired brat. His Conqueror's could greatly increase with my guidance. I'll take him for a week and then you can promote him."

Boa thought about it.

"As much as I'd like to have a successor, it's not ideal right now. Anyone else want the girl?"

Doflamingo leaned back in his seat, adjusting his glasses.

"I'll take her."

Luffy had heard the news. He wasn't completely moronic, prior to contrary belief. A traitor, from his brother's crew? His brother literally meeting him in Alabasta with those other guys? They'd set sail for Antel as soon as he'd figured out where the hell it was on a map. He'd heard Antell being repeated by the guys with Ace, so he knew it was true.

Going full speed ahead, they'd reached Antel in just under a week, just in time to see several body parts being thrown into a thick plastic cylinder that was lit with thousands of tiny lamps. A torso with one leg and half an arm was thrown into the container, followed by a head with scratchy dark hair everywhere.

The head was quite literally dented in some places, and in another it looked like something, maybe a metal or wooden pole, had slammed into one ear and forced the left eyeball out it's socket. T'wasn't pretty, that was for sure.

But as promised, Ace was standing there with his arms crossed over his chest as he watched a pink haired girl be consumed in a hug from one of the blonde guys from before. She didn't look particularly pleased, but she was also coated in a layer of slimy black goo, so he couldn't exactly blame her.

All he and his crew knew right now was that- Wait, who was the guy wearing stupid shorts and what looked like a whole damn fluffy carpet on his back?

Donquixote Doflamingo was a patient man sometimes. Today was one of those days, perhaps, because the Whitebeard pirates? Yeah those eight new recruits everyone was going wild over were hugging his new apprentice, while she stood there looking particularly angry. Could be because the fact that she was covered in a thick black slime.

But the moment was over quickly, because when the strawhatted brat showed up, he made himself known because he couldn't take another cheesy reunion.

"Naginata Rika, come with me." She looked up in a face that could only be 'Why me, goddammit', but the girl shifted out of the Ginger form into a much younger-looking pink haired girl.

Her shoulders rolled and she caught the Naginata that was thrown her way.

"Right then, Should I take the corpse with me or not?" Rika's question was directed at Helmeppo but was answered by Donquixote.

"Leave it, the others can take it. Cherry wood Coby, Kuma will come and get you soon, and Mihawk is sending someone to get you, Sword Blade Helmeppo."

"This is just a formal apprenticeship before you get promoted," Doflamingo told the trio, and by proxy everyone else, "It's required."

"Do you know what we're being promoted to," His apprentice asked, Naginata tucked into the storage shell in her bra.

"It's classified until further notice," He told them.

"Come, we leave now."