Zinnia hopped over to the Señora Pomodoro, all the while dodging Eclair's gunfire. She flipped onto the deck of the Pomodoro and came face to face with Eclair. Or, she would have, if she didn't completely tower over her.

"Beep boop. Hello, meatbag," Eclair said, glaring at Zinnia with her arms crossed.

"How fascinating," said Zinnia. "I have never encountered a metal person in my adventures. Are there others like you, Miss…?"

"Beep boop. My name is Eclair, and I assure you, there is only one of me."

"Hello, Miss Eclair. I am here to destroy you so you do not hurt any of my companions," Zinnia explained, bouncing Ruth off her shoulder like a club. "Tell me, do you feel pain?"

"Beep boop. You will not even get the chance," Eclair said. She held out her arms, and from the palms of her hands came rockets that propelled her backward. Then, from her chest, cannons protruded that fired bombs at Zinnia.

Zinnia's eyes shot open as the bombs flew at her. She reflexively swatted at them with Ruth, but they exploded right in Ruth's face. Ruth's eyes turned pure white and her face was covered with soot as she coughed up smoke. Zinnia stopped what she was doing to check on her beloved snake.

"Ruth! Are you okay?!" she shouted as the snake relaxed its muscles.

BANG!

A gunshot rang out, and smoke billowed from the end of Eclair's finger. Zinnia looked down and found her stomach was bleeding.

"A-ha! A-ha! Beep boop. Serves you right, meatbag!" Eclair laughed.

"Ow…" Zinnia moaned, stumbling a bit as she clutched her stomach.

"Beep boop. Meatbag malcontents who really cross Dear Leader get sent before me! Then I get to have some fun, boop!"

BANG!

Now Zinnia was really in pain; Eclair shot her in the shin, breaking bone. Zinnia doubled over to grab her bleeding leg.

Eclair couldn't help but throw her head back and laugh. "A-ha! A-ha! A-ha! Meatbag!"

Ruth straightened up again and hissed at her partner, who also stood back up through the pain. Zinnia began breathing heavily due to the immense pain she was in, not to mention the freezing weather.

"Beep boop. A-ha! You want some more, meatbag?" Eclair asked, aiming her gun finger again.

"Zinnia! Back up!" called a voice over the storm. Zinnia turned to see who it was.

BANG!

Zinnia did indeed back up… because Eclair had shot her in the shoulder. Zinnia clutched her shoulder and doubled over in pain, all the while Ruth began to feel faint due to being a cold-blooded animal in a winter storm.

"Leave mah friend alone, ya sadistic bucket o'bolts!" Ren shouted, brandishing a grenade in each hand as she stood on the edge of the Pomodoro, having grown tired of feeling useless. She had started bolting over after watching Zinnia deflect the bombs.

"Beep boop. Oh, good, another meatbag to torture!" Eclair said as she pointed her finger at Ren.

"I am… your friend…?" Zinnia asked, barely able to stand through the pain.

"Beep boop. Adorable," Eclair said. "Meatbag affection. I have no use for such-"

She was cut off by a grenade flying at her face, which she swiftly dodged. It exploded in the air several feet behind her. She responded in kind by shooting at Ren, who barely managed to avoid the bullet.

"Zinnia! 'Re ya okay?!"

"I have been shot three times and Ruth is currently freezing to death. Forgive my bluntness, but-"

BANG!

Ren doubled over in pain and felt her stomach. She, too, had been shot.

"Beep boop. Pay attention to me while I'm torturing you, meatbags!" Eclair demanded.

—-

Shaska and Mandy struggled for dominance in the abandoned merchant ship's empty cargo hold, fingers locked and staring death into each other's eyes, which were flashing red.

"Nyehehe… you're stronger than I thought, Shaska," Mandy said. "But sadly, you haven't made me even use fifty percent of my perfect powe-"

"Oh, don't give me that shit!" Shaska interrupted. She kneed Mandy in the gut with her Armament Haki, causing her to break the finger lock and reflexively grab her gut.

Shaska seized on this opportunity, punching her square in the chest with a Haki-coated fist.

"FIVE THOUSAND BRICK FIST!" Shaska called as the attack connected with the force to break five thousand bricks in a row.

Mandy was sent flying into the next ship over, the burning greenhouse ship. She stood up among the flames, clutching her chest as she scowled at Shaska.

"Fight for real, 'Dear Leader'!" Shaska shouted. "Don't give me that 'not my full power' crap!"

"Nyehehe… I'll show you what 'perfection' looks like!" Mandy retorted.

It was then that Mandy checked her (perfect) watch and said. "Nyehe. Correction. I'll show you what perfection looks like in a few minutes. Mandy needs her beauty sleep."

She then plopped down in the middle of the burning ship and promptly went to sleep, laying on her side and propping her head up with her hand.

Shaska was fuming. If she had a cigar in her mouth right now, it would have instantly burned to ash. She bolted across the gap in the ships.

"I'M SHASKA! THE GREATEST BOUNTY HUNTER THIS WORLD HAS EVER SEEN! AND YOU WILL RESPECT ME WHEN I'M BEATING YOU!"

Shaska had been used to getting disrespect from pirates in the past, but not to the point of going to sleep in the middle of a fight.

As she jumped to stomp on Mandy's (perfect) face, the latter grabbed her ankle and slammed her into the ground. Then, she stood up, grabbed both Shaska's legs, and vigorously swung her around like a ragdoll before throwing her into a burning pile of Happy Happy Grass with a giant swing.

"Nyehehehe! I can't believe you actually fell for that!" Mandy jeered as Shaska shot to her feet, now on fire.

Shaska calmly pulled out a new cigar and lit it with the flames of her burning jacket, then stripped off her jacket and shirt. She was left in just her bra and skirt, revealing her bulging muscles and numerous battle scars.

She turned to Mandy, cracked her knuckles, and growled "you're really pissing me off," then blew smoke.

"Nyehe! That's what happens when you mess with perfection!" Mandy laughed, crossing her arms with a crooked smile on her face.

—-

Lulupo held Setzer tightly with his hair.

Roxanne pondered what to do, then said "I… don't know how I feel about beating up a cat. Any way we can get him to turn back into a human?"

"Sorry, darling, we'd need sea-prism stone for that," Lulupo said, still bleeding from his scalp.

"Maybe you could let me go and just let me kill you," Setzer said.

"Ohoho, that's not happening," said Roxanne.

"Hm… actually, darling, this might be an excellent way to test out your new powers," said Lulupo, resting his head on his hand.

"Lulupo, are you crazy?!" Roxanne asked, shocked. "I've trained literally only a day in my life and I'm wounded! He'll kill me!"

"Don't worry, I'll step in if he gets close to doing any real damage," Lulupo said with a wink. "It's a perfect opportunity, darling!"

Roxanne began to sweat. She looked at Lulupo, and then looked up at Setzer, who had a devilish grin on his cat face.

"I…" she said.

"Lulupo has a point… that creepy princess girl is probably way stronger than this guy… I don't know when I'll get another opportunity to test myself…" Roxanne thought. "I need more booze…"

Roxanne closed her eyes and took a deep, heavy breath.

"Alright, let's do this," she said, opening her eyes and squaring up.

"Prepare yourself, darling," Lulupo said. "Remember, your fruit is a Paramecia type. Your power is only limited by your creativity!"

"So I just need to think of ways I can 'bend' this guy…" she thought.

"And… go!" Lulupo exclaimed as he released Setzer from his hair's grip. Setzer, for his part, immediately Shaved next to Roxanne and kicked her through the wall in his half-cat form. The storm started blowing into the galley.

"Nyahaha!" Setzer laughed as he landed. "Pathetic!"

"Ow… ow…" Roxanne moaned as she sat up and wiped the blood from her forehead. She slowly stood up as the freezing wind blew in, causing her to shiver on top of the pain she was in. Setzer Shaved next to her, then poked her in the shoulder with the force of a bullet and his cat claw.

"Finger Pistol!"

Roxanne howled in pain, but Setzer didn't withdraw his finger-claw, and instead held her up off the ground with it. He then started twisting his finger around, causing her to scream in pain further.

Then, Roxanne got an idea. She grabbed Setzer's arm and bent it into two perfect curves. The shock of this caused Setzer to attempt to withdraw his claw, which he did with quite some difficulty due to the new bends in his arm.

He inspected his arm, then shouted "what did you just do, woman?!"

Roxanne didn't answer, and instead sunk down and bent Setzer's legs into a pretzel. This made him fall over, unable to stand or Shave away.

Roxanne clutched her bleeding shoulder while breathing heavily. "How do you like my Bend Bend Fruit, you cultist bastard?!"

Setzer sat up and said, "first of all, it's not a cult, it's an organization dedicated to bringing about worldwide equality an-"

"It's a cult, darling," Lulupo interrupted from afar, looking at his nails.

"Hey, Lulupo, what should I do now that I got him unable to run?" Roxanne asked. Lulupo came over, rubbing his chin.

"Hmm… punching bag?"

Setzer promptly turned back into a cat (still with twisted legs) and meowed "you wouldn't hurt a poor little kitty, would you?"

Roxanne punched her palm, then said "the way I see it, we can do this one of two ways. You can be my punching bag until you spill everything you know about Minus World…"

She picked Setzer up by his tail.

"...or two, you can get the scruff of your neck clipped with a hair clip and tossed in the ocean."

"Luhoho! You can be quite nasty when you try, Roxanne! I like that!" Lulupo exclaimed.

"So, what'll it be…?" Roxanne asked. Setzer had a look of utter fear on his face.

—-

"You guys okay?" Puerco asked Schwarz and Johnson as they stood up after being knocked into the broken mast of the merchant ship.

"Oh yeah, check on us after you check on the scantily clad girl…" Schwarz muttered, rubbing his head. "We're fine, Puerc! We got this, right, bird?"

"My name is Johnson," he said, dusting himself off with his wing-arms. "And this shouldn't be too hard. He's only bigger than both of us put together."

Schwarz rolled his eyes and said "that's the spirit."

Phil wasted no time in going for another attack, flinging his shield at them, eyes flashing red to predict where they would be. And sure enough, the shield connected, striking both Schwarz and Johnson in the throat before ricocheting back to Phil's grip.

"You guys think you can take on Minus World? Seriously?" he asked as the two coughed violently. "I can sense your power! You guys are pathetically weak. Us guys? Me, Dear Perfect Leader? We used to be New World pirates before seeing Balthasar von Esens' light of equality!"

"*cough hack* Spare me your life story," Schwarz said, wiping the blood from his mouth.

"Fine. Just means you die faster," Phil replied. He threw his shield at them again, but they dodged by ducking in opposite directions.

Johnson began flapping his wings in Phil's direction, shooting out razor wind.

"Ostrich Gale!"

The razor wind flew at Phil, but was dissipated due to the force of the winter storm.

"Crap!" Johnson exclaimed before Phil dashed at him.

"Three Thousand Five Hundred Brick Roundhouse!" Phil shouted as he raised his foot, but a hole appeared under Johnson.

"I gotcha, birdson!" Schwarz called as Johnson teleported next to him.

Johnson turned to him and said "thanks, but 'birdson'? Really?"

"You're lucky I address you at all, peasant," Schwarz retorted.

Phil doubled back around and went for a shield charge, but Schwarz spawned a hole right in front of him, causing him to teleport and go barrelling off the edge of the merchant ship. He broke through the railing and landed in the water with a loud splash.

"Peasant?! Where do you get off?" asked an angry Johnson.

"We can discuss my nobility later, first…" Schwarz said. "Hey, chain girl! You said you gave my sword to the ogre! Where did you give it to her?! Where is it?!"

"Like… I'd… tell… you…" was all Musetta was able to say before she passed out due to Ruth's poison and the cold.

"Hm… it's gotta be somewhere on the ship they came from…" Schwarz wondered aloud. "Sit tight, birdson. Hold fishface until I get back. You can do that, right? You were a Marine, after all."

Schwarz teleported to the Pomodoro against Johnson's complaints. "I was a lieutenant! I can't take a New World pirate by myself!"

He paused, then shouted "and stop calling me 'birdson'!"

Soon enough, Phil was back on the deck, glaring down at Johnson. "Splitting the party is never a good idea, bird."

—-

In front of the flames of the Happy Happy Grass greenhouse, Shaska and Mandy exchanged blows. Shaska landed a hit on Mandy's (perfect) jaw, while Mandy hit Shaska in the chest with a knife edge chop. The two eventually stood there and threw a blazing fast series of punches that the eye could barely track, each punching the other's fist hundreds of times. Mandy still wasn't taking the fight all that seriously.

"Nyehehehehe… I used to be a New World pirate, you know. And as far as I know, most of your business was in the first half of the Grand Line, Paradise…"

"Of course I know that! Bounty of 395,000,000 berries, Mandy the Fashionista!" Shaska shouted over the sound of their punches colliding.

Eventually, Mandy stopped punching and tanked Shaska's barrage, opting to just grab her around the waist.

"What are you-?!" was all Shaska could say before she found herself suplexed. Then she was suplexed again. And again. Before finally Mandy jumped up through the deck, flipped while holding Shaska, and then landed for a brutal body slam, leaving a crack in the floor of the greenhouse.

"Nyehehehehe…" Mandy laughed as she stood up over Shaska's bruised and battered body, blood pooling around her.

"Like I said… I'm stronger than you and hotter than you! You wanted me to stop playing? Well, that's true perfection! NYEHEHEHEHE!"

Shaska propped herself up on her elbows, then slowly struggled up to her feet.

"Oh, you want some more? You haven't had enough of my perfection?" Mandy asked, looking at her nails.

Shaska spat out her now crushed cigar and said "I told you I was gonna pummel you. I don't go back on a promise."

She cracked her knuckles and said "I still got an ace in the hole. I'm gonna make you as ugly on the outside as you are on the inside, Dear Leader."

TO BE CONTINUED