The feast hall for the noble was booming. There were people scattering making last minute preparations as guests started sitting down. Influential people sat down at the very large table decked out with food and were ignored by the staff. They looked annoyed at being ignored but were understanding, they could have them arrested but tenryuubito could have their whole family murdered. The doors swung open as St. Cortez walked into the hall. He was a very short man who was frail and boney. He had a big nose and beady eyes. His hair was jet black and he wore the space-like suit that the world nobles were known for. He made his way to his seat as a man in a black suit pulled out the chair behind him and he sat down. A very nervous looking man with gray hair and suit walked up to Cortez and presented him with a gift. Cortez turned to the side and his face lit up as he saw what was before him. There he saw five women and three fishmen presented before him in chains. The women were all of great beauty and all looked terrified. They had been taken from their homes early in the week to be presented to the noble. The fishmen were all of a different type. One was a shark fishman with blue skin. The second was of light yellow skin and appeared to be a flying fishman. The third was a small piranha fishman with sharp teeth and a nametag that listed his name as stripes.
The staff moved quickly to move domes of plates and to serve freshly cooked bread and very expensive wines. There was a large stage in front of the table. A man was set to perform. Before he could come out however, Cortez pointed to one of the waiters.
"You, go up there and sing us something" He said with his pistol in his hand. The boy looked around nervously before quickly walking up to the stage. He fidgeted around before searching his mind for anything he could sing. He wasn't a very bright boy and his brain had betrayed him for the final time. He started to sing:
"Yohohoho yo ho-ho-ho
Yoh-" the bullet from Cortez's gun ended the ballad before it could really get started. Two men in black suits moved the boy off the stage. The performer shuffled out, terrified. He turned around and bolted in the other direction but stopped when the men in suits pulled their guns on him. He stopped in his tracks and walked back to the center of the stage. He had black slicked hair and a black suit fitted with matching leather dress shoes. He started singing:
"Sometimes when I, look out at sea
I see nothing but what I could be
Darling I know that I may not be a man of action
But I couldn't help not being the main attraction
Though the night is long and the days are shorter
I long for those days where things were a bit smaller
I cherish the days when we could smile together
Day by day night by night, ignoring the gloomy weather
Come with me my Darling, like there's no tomorrow
A beggars tale is better than a rich man's sorrow
The Dream is over it was sweet while it lasted
But now I feel as if I can't even stand it
Please darling come fly with me, we'll make a poor man's dream come true
So we'll get a ticket and make our way down to the North Blue
Yes, I built an empire, I made it run
I was a lonely king until the end, and now its done
They used to say that I was living a fantasy
A puppet on strings, clear to see
I don't need to go from rags to riches, our lives may be long and poor
However with you by my side, I simply wouldn't care anymore
Your love is all that matters
Darling please don't leave my heart in tatters
A little passion and some cheap wine is all we need
To enter our own heaven, so come on darling I'll take the lead
Come with me my Darling, like theres no tomorrow
A beggars tale is better than a rich man's sorrow
The Dream is over it was sweet while it lasted
But now I feel as if I can't even stand it
Please darling come fly with me, we'll make a poor man's dream come true
So we'll get a ticket and make our way down to the-".
Cortez shot the singing man as the crowd looked at him with stunned silence. Cortez looked really mad as he chomped away at his turkey leg.
"Such blasphemy about heaven and being a king will not be tolerated in my presence." The group of wealthy guests all nodded along nervously and mumbled their agreement.
"In the north blue!" Came a different voice from the stage. It was Rustage. He stood in the middle of the stage. He had put his original marine jacket over the dead performer and was holding his playing cards in his hand. The cards levitated and circled around him. One young marine woman jumped onto the stage with her scythe in her hands. She brought it down towards Rustage. Connor jumped in front of his captain and blocked the scythe with his leg. The young woman with green hair and beady red eyes looked at a grinning Connor.
"Haki?" She asked out loud to no one really. He just grinned as he showed off his leg which had a dagger strapped to it, which had kept him from getting cut. Connor wasted no time and plunged two large blades into her gut and killed her. Rustage immediately started wreaking havoc with his cards. Blowing things up and sending razor sharp cards to slice through the marines that were pouring in. Jones crashed through the wall. His huge size caused even more havoc as he started sending sound waves through the crowd. Cortez screamed as his team immediately rushed him out of the building. The security team called for Kizaru but none of their den den mushi would wake up. They saw explosions of light in the distance, on the other side of the port. They were too far away to run to him and he wasn't picking up. They ran towards the boats so they could leave.
"What's going on?" Cortez sobbed at his team.
"Sir, it is a terrorist attack, we must get you away from this Island to safety". As the man uttered this, all the ships in their proximity blew up at once.
"What's wrong mr Dragon? You don't like the fireworks?" Cortez turned around to see a scruffy man with a guitar in his hands. He was sprung a few minutes ago in a riot but wasn't concerned with skipping town. The men in black suits reached for their pistols but halted at the sight of a woman. She had two daggers in her hands and was charging at them. Five of them ran at her with their pistols in their hands while the other ten or so protected Cortez as they went in the other direction. Daisy however made quick work of them. It was obvious that the world government felt that some extra marines were more important than any actual cypher pol agencies.
Inside the hall, Rustage cut up anyone who would even resemble a noble, Necklaces broke and heads flew at the hands of Rusatges cards. Connor had two long blades in each hand and sliced through marines while Jones sent his sound waves to the floor, getting rid of any marine aiming for his captain. A huge boom was heard out in the distance and the screams inside the room only got louder. The back doors flew open and a stamp of marines came in while the guests and staff tried to force their way out. Dana jumped into the air from Jone's shoulder and started chucking grenades at the nobles. However they all started glowing blue and flew back at her. She threw a stick of dynamite so that they would collide and the explosion blew the roof of the building and sent her flying back. She flew into Jones who caught her and threw her on his shoulder. From the smoke came a marine woman with light blue hair. It was Muna. Rusatge had heard about her from Tekking and groaned at his misfortune. She looked around the room and lit up when she saw Rustage.
"Hello Dungeon Master Rustage, have you seen the Devil hunter anywhere? I tracked him to this Island." She said beaming. 'Fucking hell' Rusatge thought as he flew over to her with his cards as a platform.
"He's fighting Kizaru right now," Rusatge said, seeing no real reason to keep that part of the mission a secret anymore. Muna however dropped her smile and her eyes welled up with tears.
"Wait, b-b-but if Kizaru kills Captain Tekking then I won't be promoted" She said, voice quivering. Rusatge nodded , her logic was sound. However his pride was hurt. He was never a man to care much about numbers or anything but his bounty was higher than Tekking's and she wasn't paying him any mind. She turned around showing her back to him, Rustage's rage had gone up a little.
"I should go save Tekking" She said, with desperation in her voice. Rustage was out of patience. He sent a number of cards at her from his deck, razor sharp.
"Am I not enough for you then?" Rustage growled as his cards flew directly at her. She turned around and repelled the cards so that they wouldn't hit her. She pondered Rustage's statement for a good minute. She shot out her hand and stopped Jones who was charging at her. Finally she blushed and looked at Rustage, bowing and saying
"I'm sorry Dungeon master but I cannot cheat on the Devil hunter" She said. Rusatge just looked at her in awe. 'What are you? A school girl' He thought to himself, 'I'm not confessing to you, I'm trying to kill you'. He made his cards glow red and she enhanced her repelling ability and the cards exploded away from her. Rutage unleashed a full deck of 52 cards on her. She was quickly overwhelmed. She used her rapier to deflect the razor sharp cards coming at her from every angle. She tried to repel cards but as soon as she finished pushing them away they would just start flying at her again. Rutage had gotten a report on Tekking about her devil fruit, he knew that she couldn't repel what she couldn't see. She leaped in the air and threw her little mirror in the air. Using the reflection she used the attraction powers to make one of the huge tables fly towards her. She then avoided it from below and repelled it right at Rustage. Unphased, he sent two cards to blow it up. It exploded into fire but from the smoke came Muna with her rapier in hand. She swung down on Rustage with her sword but a single card was enough to stop her sword. However her hand was glowing orange and she thrust her fist into his stomach. Normally that punch wouldn't have hurt him much but his body kept pushing against her fist increasing the pain. She then switched to blue throwing him back only for him to stand up again in his platform of cards. Connor flung some blades in her direction only for her to easily repel them away from her. He had two blades in hand slashed for her face. She arrogantly pulled out her rapier and tried to not use her devil fruit. Connor however quickly slashed her hand making her drop her rapier. She repelled him away but he was able to throw the knife as he flew backwards and she couldn't stop it before it penetrated her shoulder. She used her devil fruit powers to repeatedly slam him against the wall of the hall. He collapsed and spit out a mountain of blood. That would have been a nice little victory for her if she wasn't completely surrounded by cards on all sides. Rustage had leaped and was now just over her and he closed his fist as he descended. She tried to repel as many cards as she could but in the end she was skewered many times by the razor sharp cards. She collapsed to the floor, her wounds were severe but not quite fatal. He landed on the floor and stood over her with one card in his hand. He was going to shoot the card through her heart and kill her as quickly as he could. A marine came charging at him and he was about to respond when a grenade blew off the marine's head. He looked over to Jones who was full of bullets but still standing.
"Captain, I got Connor. We need to get out of here." Jones answered breathing heavily. Rusatge saw more marines starting to enter so he nodded and created one really big platform so all of his crew members could ride at once. Jones got on and put Connor and Dana down as he took a breath . Rusatge levitated the platform and they left. Daisy was on the streets, looking for the noble with her hands and knives covered in blood. She reported that she had lost him.
"Well let's go" Rusatge responded.
"It took the marines much longer to send reinforcements than I thought it would," Jones said as he took a swig of rum as he had in a pouch strapped to his chest.
"Looks like Roger did a really good job. Speaking of which, let's go pick him up before the marines go hunting for him."