Shaska and Ren wandered through the night on the abandoned Marine battleship, their only lights being the dancing fireflies and Shaska's lighter and cigar, plus the lights of civilization in the distance.

"Hey, kid, you got a flashlight on that tool belt of yours?" Shaska asked, waving her lighter back and forth.

"Lost it in th'storm," Ren replied. "An' usin' one o'mah flashbangs'd be a waste fer if we got in a faht."

"Hm," was all Shaska could respond with as they made their way around a cannon. At the cannon's base was a dead body. This made Ren shriek, scaring the fireflies for a brief moment.

"Oh. A corpse," Shaska said nonchalantly as she squatted down next to it. Much like Bulsara, it was basically skin and bones and wearing very plain clothes.

"H-how c-can ya react lahk that to seein' a dead gah?!"

"I've killed my fair share of people," Shaska replied bluntly. She inspected the corpse, making sure not to touch her lighter to it. "Besides, didn't you used to be a bounty hunter yourself?"

"Well, yeah… but that doesn't mean ah lahk stumblin' across random dead bodies!"

"Hm… doesn't look like he died violently. Looks like he starved to death…" Shaska said, standing back up.

"Where the hell are we?" Ren asked.

Shaska blew smoke. "Only way to find out is to keep heading to those lights over there, see if there's some survivors. Sure is a hell of a lot easier than explorin' an entire battleship."

—-

Roxanne lay on the bench, holding a barbell without any extra plates on it. She had her hair tied back in a ponytail and was wearing a sweatband around her forehead.

"Alright, Roxanne, darling, all you need to do is ten reps right now," said Lulupo. "It's only fifty pounds!"

Roxanne let out an audible gulp as she moved the bar from the rack.

"The kegs I move around easily at the bar weigh about that much… I should be fine," she thought.

She pressed the bar down and pushed it back up, managing to make it all ten times. She put the bar back on the rack and sat back up.

"Hoooo… good workout," Roxanne said.

"Good, darling. Now do ten more," Lulupo replied.

"What?"

"Roxanne, darling, you said yourself that we don't know when we'll run into those dreadful Balthasars again. We need to get you as strong as possible as fast as possible! Now do ten more!"

Roxanne sat there for a moment, then felt at her chest. "But what if this burns all my GOOD fat awa-"

Lulupo crossed his arms with an unimpressed expression on his face. "Darling, do you want to be hot, or do you want revenge?"

"I want revenge…" she muttered.

"What was that?"

"I want revenge on that creepy princess girl!"

"That's the spirit! Now do ten more! I'll let you know when we're done for the day," Lulupo said with a flourish.

—-

A small craft drifted along the waves. The wind slowly pushed it along as it came to an area of the sea where the sky was darker than the others.

"Huh… must be one of those areas of the Grand Line where the time never changes," he wondered aloud.

He sat down and went back to his book, occasionally looking up as the darkness drew closer.

"Well, it was a good run… I hope this patch of darkness isn't too long… they didn't give me a light to read by."

It was then that a Sea King resembling a large catfish burst out of the water in front of the small vessel. It was a small Sea King, being only around a thousand feet long, but it still towered over him.

"One hell of a punishment. Set to drift out at sea with the very real possibility of getting gobbled up by a Sea King… not even a Log Pose to guide me… now I gotta wonder if I should fight this thing or try to get the hell away…"

Johnson put down his book, stood up, and assumed his ostrich form.

The Sea King looked down at Johnson, mouth watering.

"Listen, buddy, I'm a (now former) Marine lieutenant. You don't wanna mess with me," Johnson declared, sweating through his feathers.

The Sea King poked its snout even closer, coming right in contact with Johnson's beak. Johnson crouched down, maintaining his eye contact with the Sea King. He squared up with his wing arms.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, fish."

The giant fish reared back, then dove forward with its massive mouth open. Johnson didn't hesitate; he sprung himself up with his back foot, then flipped backward with his front foot extended out, creating slashes in the air with his razor sharp talons.

"OSTRICH FLASH!"

The razor wind sliced the fish's head right down the middle, killing it. Johnson landed back in his boat, sticking the landing.

"Hoo! Been practicing that one for a while; glad it paid off!"

Several more Sea Kings, much larger than the catfish, poked their heads out of the water. Johnson began sweating through his feathers profusely.

"This… is a difficult situation."

Johnson immediately began flapping his wings as hard as he could into the boat's sail, sending him flying past the Sea Kings. He steered the boat with the hands from his robot backpack, and fast as he could, he sped toward the darkened sky.

—

Shaska and Ren hopped off the Marine battleship and onto a much smaller yacht, ignoring the plank that was meant to be used as a bridge. There were a few surviving people laying around, all skin and bones and dressed in very plain clothes, but the majority of people they saw were dead.

"This is weird," Ren wondered aloud. "Wah are all these ships anchored together?"

"I dunno. Let's ask someone," Shaska responded with a flick of her cigar. She tapped her tentacle-y foot against one of the survivors lying on the ground. "Hey, you, where are we?"

The dying young woman looked up. "Please, ma'am… I need food… or money to buy food…"

Shaska rolled her eyes and pulled out one of her cash wads, and from that pulled out a ten thousand berry bill.

"Here, girl, this should buy you enough food to stop dying," she said, handing the bill to the starving woman. This got the attention of the other survivors, who began crawling over to Shaska and Ren.

"Please, ma'am… we need money…"

"We need food…"

"Oh come on, do I look like I'm made of money?" Shaska asked.

"'Re ya actin' lahk yer not?" Ren rebutted, eyeing up Shaska and her fancy business clothes.

"Shh! Tell me, girl. My employee and I are new here. What is this place?" Shaska asked the dying woman at her feet.

"This is… the Mercury Collective."

"Oh, I see… the Mercury Collective," Shaska said, nodding with her eyes closed. She paused, then asked "what's the Mercury Collective?"

The starving woman struggled to her feet, then said "My name's Delilah… this collection of ships here… is the Mercury Collective."

Delilah turned around, then started walking inward toward the center of the mass of ships. She had a noticeable limp. "Follow me, newcomers… I'll show you more… Just be sure not to say anything negative about this place or its leadership…"

"Odd. But okay," Shaska replied. She and Ren followed Delilah, leaving behind the starving survivors, who desperately tried to catch fireflies for sustenance.

"It is okay, comrades!" Delilah said. "I shall be back with food in no time!"

—-

Johnson made it into the area of sea covered by darkened sky, having evaded the nest of Sea Kings. He sat down on the floor of the boat, huffing and puffing, and shifted back to his normal human form.

"Damn, I'm tired…"

In the distance, he saw the conglomeration of ships, which popped out against the night sky thanks to the fireflies and the sparse lights of civilization.

"Oh man, is that a place where I can actually land?" Johnson wondered aloud. His stomach rumbled. "Maybe I can get something to eat!"

He shifted back to his half ostrich form and started flapping his wing arms into the sail again.

—-

Shaska and Ren followed Delilah across several more ships. They observed gradually more and more survivors on the decks, who were all skin and bones and dressed in very plain clothes. Some were smoking out of pipes. Ren recognized the smell from somewhere… but she couldn't remember where.

"You have come at a bad time," Delilah said. "It is most people's day off from work, so the food line is sure to be longer than usual."

"Food line?" Shaska and Ren thought together.

"Our food comes from Dear Leader for free, but we are able to buy more if we have the money."

They came to the end of a long line on another battleship.

"Here is the end of the food line," Delilah said. "Dear Leader says 'he who does not work, does not eat'. There is not much food in the Collective, but we are…"

She looked ahead at the people in front of her and sweat nervously.

"…happy. Nothing here belongs to anyone, and we are happy like this. We have had communal farms and factories ever since the Collective overthrew President Farrokh some time ago, and now Dear Leader decides who gets what. From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

Shaska and Ren's eyes shot open at this.

"Yer… yer happy not ownin' anythin'?" Ren asked.

Delilah's face contorted into a forced smile. "Choose your words very carefully, new comrades," she whispered.

"Sounds…" Shaska began.

"All are equal here," Delilah interrupted. "The only one above us is Dear Leader and her close associates."

Shaska blew smoke. "Sounds like a bunch of bullshit if you ask me."

The entire food line turned around, and their jaws dropped. Delilah buried her face in her hands.

A chain shot out of the center of the Collective and wrapped itself around Shaska's neck. Shaska didn't budge, no matter how hard the chain pulled.

"I mean, think about it," she continued. "No one is equal, and trying to force people to be equal is inherently tyrannical. It's just a fact of life that certain people are better than others."

Delilah desperately tried to shush her, but Shaska kept talking.

"Can no one here see the inherent contradiction of 'all being equal' while you still have a 'Dear Leader'?"

As she flicked the ash off her cigar, another chain shot out and wrapped itself around her wrist. Shaska kept talking and didn't budge, feet firmly glued to the deck with the suction cups on her tentacle feet.

"What, is this 'Dear Leader' just 'more equal' than the rest of you?"

Yet another chain shot out, this time wrapping around her ankle. Shaska finally took notice that the chain user was trying to "disappear" her.

"Okay, what's the deal with these chains?" she asked. She pulled on them with the same might that could lift a battleship, but they didn't budge and remained perfectly taut.

"New comrade! This is what I meant by not speaking out against the Collective or Dear Leader!" Delilah exclaimed. "Someone or something will make you disappear!"

"Eh. This leader of yours doesn't scare me," Shaska said. She eventually pulled hard enough that the chains snapped. She used this opportunity to puff on her cigar again before another chain wrapped around itself around her wrist.

The people standing in line began to silently panic as Shaska once again broke the chain on her wrist, then the ones around her neck and ankle.

"Hey! 'Dear Leader'!" Shaska declared. She turned around and stuck her butt out at the center of the Collective where the chains were coming from, then smacked it mockingly. "Kiss my ass!"

The next person in line whispered to Delilah. "Comrade! Did you bring these malcontents here?!"

Delilah was white as a sheet.

—

Johnson docked next to the same Marine battleship where Shaska and Ren had entered.

"What's with all these ships?" he wondered aloud. "And what's the deal with these fireflies?"

Johnson thought it over for a moment, but then his stomach got the better of him. He assumed his ostrich form and dug his talons into the side of the ship. He began scaling his way up the side of the battleship in search of food.

—-

"And another thing!" Shaska declared. "Why is everyone so skinny here? Sounds like you don't have enough food to go around!"

"Comrade!" Delilah shouted.

The controller of the chains became frustrated. Then, the controller got an idea. Chains flew out while Shaska was monologuing and wrapped around Ren and Delilah's necks, choking them and preventing them from screaming.

"You gotta learn to value yourselves! Fight for your happiness!"

Ren and Delilah disappeared.

"I read that in a fortune cookie once. You gotta stand up to this leader of yours!"

Shaska turned around after her little speech on why the Collective's way of life was wrong, and found Ren and Delilah gone.

"Ack! Where'd they go?!" Shaska shouted. None of the people in line said a peep, and turned around to resume their wait for food. She comically darted her head around, but saw neither hide nor hair of Ren.

Shaska sighed, then cracked her knuckles and puffed on her cigar.

"Aaaaaaah… looks like I gotta go put the hurt on this 'Dear Leader' of theirs…"

It was then that Johnson stepped onto the deck of the food dispensing ship.

"Hey, so… I was told there's food here…" he said.

The people in line turned around and saw an ostrich wearing clothes and a backpack. Most had looks of confusion on their faces, but some left the line with their mouths watering, slowly moving toward him.

"Meat…" one said.

"Poultry…" said another.

Shaska turned to face him. "Oh, a talking ostrich," she said dryly. She had seen weirder in her adventures. Then, the gears clicked into place in her head.

"Wait a sec, I know you, you're that one Marine!"

"And you're Shaska the Greedy," Johnson replied, turning back to his human form. "But I'm not a Marine anymore… they court-martialed me after Minus World conquered the Panipuri Kingdom."

The people of the collective's attention was collectively piqued by the mention of Minus World.

"Now I'm just a civilian drifting the seas for food and a place to lay my head. And some people back there told me this was the place to get food around here."

"Well, I don't know if you could tell, bird, but everyone around here is starving," Shaska responded. "I'm guessing whoever their 'Dear Leader' is isn't supplying them with enough food."

She flicked the ash off her cigar, then continued.

"But more importantly, I got separated from my employees. You're strong, right? Why don't you come help me?"

Johnson put his arms behind his back and stroked his chin with one of the robot hands from his backpack. "I may not be a Marine anymore, but I'm not sure how I feel about helping a criminal. Especially one as infamous as you."

Shaska blew smoke, then asked "what's your price, kid?"

"Huh?"

She pulled out a stack of cash and started counting it. This drew the attention of the people in line, who slowly swarmed her like zombies.

"Hey, hey, hey! Bird kid only!" she said, holding the money up where no one but her could reach it.

—-

Ren and Delilah found themselves in front of an entire grove of plants with huge, three-pronged leaves, chains around their necks. There were countless emaciated people to their left and right, all trimming the flowers off the plants.

A seven foot tall woman in a blue suit with a Marine coat draped over her shoulders and shoulder-length pink hair sat on a pedestal above them, legs crossed. She had a myriad of chains protruding from her sleeves and a crooked smile on her face.

"Work faster!" she declared. "Dear Leader Mandy needs this shipment out ASAP! Dr. Feelgood needs his Happy Happy Grass!"

TO BE CONTINUED