"Of course I let them unionize!" Miwagyo said. "It's only fair. Especially in a line of work as dangerous as this!"

"Oooooooh…" Shaska responded, seething. "That's it, you've officially gone too far, Miwagyo!"

Water vapor started swirling around Shaska's hands.

"Shaska, darling, I don't see what the big deal is," said Lulupo. "A labor union seems perfectly reasonable."

"I-I! It… well…" Shaska stammered. "Can't just say I'm against it because I want to keep lining my own pockets!"

"It's, uh, bad for business!" she exclaimed, causing the other officers to roll their eyes. Except Zinnia, of course.

"Miss Ren, what is a 'labor union'?" Zinnia whispered as Ruth uncoiled from around her.

"I will explain later," Ren whispered back, drawing her pistols.

"Alright, boys!" Miwagyo began. "Remember! Shaska is worth ten million. Each officer is worth one million. Her grunts, a hundred thousand. And that's on top of the bounties that you'll keep too."

"You got it, boss!" the Kemurchants replied in unison.

The sound of gunfire filled the air, but Lulupo was quick on the draw with his hair, shooting it out at lightning speed to stop the bullets dead. He followed by striking the Kemurchants with other hair tendrils, knocking the guns out of their hands.

"Darlings, you'll have to try better," he said with a wink.

The Kemurchants responded by drawing their swords and lunging toward the crew. Of the eight Kemurchants that surrounded Worldwide Smoke, two were shot dead by Ren, two were cut down by Schwarz's sword work, two were knocked out cold by Zinnia striking them with Ruth, and the last two were electrocuted by Johnson.

"Hm. Impressive," was all Miwagyo said as she raised one of her hands.

"Everyone but Roxanne! Get the hell out of here!" Shaska called. The rest of Worldwide Smoke collectively nodded and ran for the twenty foot double doors that served as the entrance to the office. Shaska then grabbed Roxanne's head and ducked. A wave of razor sharp glass spikes shot out toward Worldwide Smoke, but Lulupo managed to prevent its advance with his hair.

Roxanne looked up at the glass. "Wh-what is this?" she asked.

"That snake Miwagyo ate the Glass Glass Fruit, a Logia type that allows her to create and become glass," Shaska answered, blowing smoke.

Shaska shot up and punched through the glass stream, shattering it.

"Question, Shaska. You're not wearing shoes. Are you gonna fight on broken glass…?" Roxanne asked.

"I'll be fine, kid," Shaska responded, blowing smoke. "I've been in my fair sha-"

"FINGER PISTOL!" Zeimaru called as he poked his mother in the gut with the force of a bullet, causing her to reflexively spit out her cigar. He followed by withdrawing his finger, then jumping and delivering a spin kick to Shaska's face, sending her crashing through the wall, half her body hanging out the hole that led to an eleven story drop.

Zeimaru landed and flicked ash off his cigarette. "You need to pay attention, mother."

—-

The rest of Worldwide Smoke hurried down to the tenth floor, Schwarz at the front and Lulupo bringing up the rear. At the bottom of the stairwell was a short hallway running perpendicular to a much longer hallway, along with the staircase down to the lower floors. The long hallway had several large doors on either side with signs saying "Boardroom A" and "Boardroom B". The ceiling was lined with visual transponder snails who were recording everything and sending it to the security room on the ground floor.

Schwarz lowered his sword and ordered "alright, Lulupo, Birdson, and Puerc. Take the grunts and keep heading downstairs. Ren, Zinnia, and I will keep checking out this floor. This is probably where the executives are."

"Stop it with the 'Birdson'," Johnson growled.

"Who put you in charge?" Puerco asked, adjusting his backpack full of medical supplies.

"I've been the de facto first mate for months!" Schwarz angrily declared. "Look, just do what I say! This isn't the time!"

Lulupo nodded and said "come now, darlings, let's clear out the lower floors."

As Lulupo, Johnson, and Puerco took the rank and file and continued downstairs, Schwarz, Zinnia, and Ren proceeded forward. At the very end of the hallway was a series of doors with the names of the various executives.

"Office of the President - Beegyoven"

"Office of the CFO - Shostagyovich"

"Office of the COO - Gershfin"

Schwarz stopped in front of Beegyoven's office.

"You ladies think they're in their offices?" he asked.

Zinnia stepped forward and knocked on the door.

"Hello? Mister Beegyoven? We are here to beat you and lay waste to y-"

Schwarz immediately interrupted with "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"I am checking to see if he is in his office," Zinnia nonchalantly replied.

"We need to get the jump on him!"

"I do not see how jumping would help in this situation," Zinnia said, causing Schwarz to pinch the bridge of his nose.

The door soon opened, and the trio were greeted with a loud BANG! from a gun fired by a young, visibly terrified salmon mermaid floating on a bubble. The bullet barely grazed Zinnia's cheek.

"M-Mister B-B-Beeg-gyoven isn't i-in right now…" she peeped.

—-

Sure enough, Beegyoven, Shostagyovich, and Gershfin were not in their offices, but holed up in boardroom B discussing their options with the rest of the board of directors for how to handle the invasion while Miwagyo was occupied fighting Shaska. Beegyoven was a seven foot tall brown flounder fishman with shaggy gray hair in a business suit with a red cravat. Shostagyovich was a brightly colored mantis shrimp fishman in a business suit wearing perfectly round glasses and boxing gloves on his eight arms. Gershfin was a strikingly handsome blue swordfish fishman in a suit with a sword at each of his hips. All three were smoking premium cigars.

"This is bad," said Shostagyovich, blowing smoke and adjusting his glasses. "Shaska was supposed to attack the entrance, not from above!"

"WHAT?!" Beegyoven shouted, cupping a hand to his ear.

"Beegyoven! Use your hearing aids!" Gershfin shouted back.

Beegyoven understood, and placed two tiny transponder snails in his ears.

"Ah. I can hear now," he said, beaming, making the other two executives roll their eyes.

"Security says Miwagyo and that race traitor government dog are engaged with Shaska on the top floor. Shaska's goons are prowling around looking for us at this very moment," Gershfin explained.

"Yes, we literally just heard them, Gershfin," said Shostagyovich, crossing his arms. "The question is how we proceed from here. Do we confront them in our offices? Or do we wait for them to bring the fight to us? Because I doubt we're getting out of this without a fight."

The other two lowered their heads in thought for a moment. Beegyoven was the first to lift his.

"As company president, I say we defer to the one above Miwagyo…"

"You can't mean…" said Gershfin.

"I do. He won't be happy we need his help, especially while he's on his way to Vicks Davis Island."

"Calling him should be an absolute last resort," said Shostagyovich. "We're not supposed to go public until after he takes Marie Jois."

"But if Shaska takes over again, he'll have our heads," said Beegyoven.

"I vote against calling Von Esens until we absolutely need it," said Gershfin. "He only agreed to let us survive the New World Order if we let him use our supply network. We'll get to have a monopoly under his rule and put Panda Corp. out of business for good!"

"I agree with Gershfin," said Shostagyovich. "We don't want to distract Mister Balthasar from his campaign on Vicks Davis. It'd take too long for him to come rescue us anyway. We should deal with Shaska's officers right now while Miwagyo holds off Shaska herself."

The three executives nodded, then departed from the boardroom.

—-

Shaska pulled herself up from the hole in the wall and lit another cigar, then clutched her stomach where she had gotten hit by the Finger Pistol.

"Not bad, kid. Got another one in ya?" she asked sarcastically, blowing smoke.

"TEMPEST KICK!" Zeimaru called as he kicked the air and sent a razor-sharp shockwave through it. Shaska dodged, and the wall was sliced in two.

"Zeimaru, I'd appreciate it if you didn't destroy my office," said Miwagyo calmly.

"I don't give a shit!" Shaska exclaimed. "When I'm back in charge, we can rebuild!"

"Man, that's some serious power being thrown around…" Roxanne thought. "Am I sure I want to be h-"

Her thought was interrupted by another wave of glass being fired at her, which she barely managed to avoid by bending the wave upward.

"Hm. Must be a Devil Fruit ability of some sort," Miwagyo muttered as she pulled her hand back, causing the glass wave to fall and shatter.

"Hey, girl! What kind of Devil Fruit you got there?" Miwagyo asked.

"Why… why would I tell you that?" Roxanne replied, confused.

"So you don't die holding onto any secrets," Miwagyo said with a smile.

Still seated at her desk, she stomped her foot, and a wave of glass shot out from under the desk toward Roxanne.

"Crystal Coffin!" Miwagyo called.

"I don't like the sound of that!" Roxanne thought.

She promptly spun around several times and leapt over the glass wave toward Miwagyo, extending her leg as she did so.

"Oh Come My Way!" Roxanne exclaimed as her foot made contact with Miwagyo's head, which promptly shattered into countless glass shards. Miwagyo's cigar fell and landed on the desk, along with Roxanne, who stuck the landing right next to the transponder snail.

Miwagyo's head quickly reformed from the glass stump of her neck. She picked up her cigar and took another puff.

"Oh Come My Way? Gotta say, girl, you're pretty convincing for a crossdresser," she said, blowing smoke.

Roxanne bristled at this. "I'll have you know I'm a real woman! I just studied under a crossdresser!"

Miwagyo looked unimpressed, and leaned back in her chair, all eight of her hands tented.

"Tell me. Why do you choose to fight for Shaska?" Miwagyo asked. "You must know how… abrasive she is."

"Oh, tell me about it. She's a real bitch most of the time," Roxanne replied.

"I heard that!" Shaska shouted, dodging past Zeimaru's punches and kicks.

"Tell you what. Whatever she's paying you, I'll double it," Miwagyo said, a crooked smile creeping across her face. She reached into her desk and pulled out a large stack of cash, then dropped it at Roxanne's feet.

"A million berries if you switch sides right now."

—-

Lulupo, Puerco, and Johnson headed down to the ninth floor, squadron of Mercury Collective survivors in tow. They were greeted by a group of five rifle toting Kemurchants with their guns trained on Worldwide Smoke, with numerous more behind them, swords and pistols drawn.

"Oh, intruders," said one of them.

"You'll get the hell outta here if you know what's good for you," said another.

"Darlings, which one of you wants to do the honors?" Lulupo asked the rank and file Worldwide Smoke members.

"Uh, Mister… Miss… Lulupo, sir, ma'am…" said Freddie. "Uh… they have guns. We just have our fists. This hardly seems like a fair fight."

"You act as if we didn't just spend six months going through intense training!" Puerco exclaimed, stepping forward and stretching. "I'm glad I'm not gonna be useless in combat anymore! Check this out!"

He held his left hand out and forward and pulled his right hand back.

"ARABESQUE BRICK FI-"

BANG!

Puerco got shot in the shoulder and started screaming in agony; Lulupo's hair had been too slow to reach the bullets this time.

"Well, there goes our medic…" Johnson muttered, face in his wing-palm.

"Anyone else wanna try something?" growled the Kemurchant who fired the shot.

"Oh… Puerco. Come here," said Lulupo, picking up Puerco and wrapping him up in his hair.

Lulupo shot a glare at the Kemurchants, who didn't budge an inch.

"Now, grunt darlings, it really would be best if you laid down your guns and surrendered. I have a hundred thousand ways I can destroy you instantly. Shaska gave us orders to subdue you all so that you'll work for her ag-"

"No way in hell we're working for Shaska again!" shouted one of the Kemurchants. "These union jobs are super cushy! The pay is amazing and the conditions have improved drastically!"

"Grunt darlings, the fate of the world is at stake. A madman bent on world conquest and his creepy cult have spread far and wide. And don't think they won't come down here next!"

"And?" said the leader of the floor's Kemurchant division, stepping forward and blowing smoke. He raised his sword at Lulupo. Unlike the other Kemurchants, who wore gray vests and were (mostly) human, this one was a fishman in a red vest, and he had what looked like a powdered wig on.

"The name's Gyozart. I'm the manager of this floor. You're not moving any further on my watch, capisce?"

Johnson stepped forward, cutting through the crowd with the hands of his robotic backpack, wing-arms crossed.

"Look, 'Gyozart', as my effeminate friend just said, we need your help to take on Balthasar von Esens. You've heard of him, right?"

"I know of him. And the fun thing about working for a capitalist megacorporation is that I don't have to care," said Gyozart. "I don't know too much of the details, but Boss Miwagyo and the upper management have plans for how to deal with him should he come to Fishman Island."

"'Plans to deal with him'?!" exclaimed Lulupo. "He's as strong as one of the Three Emperors, darling! And his creepy sister is just as dangerous too!"

"What's he gonna do? This island is Whitebeard's domain," Gyozart responded with a scoff.

"He's already taking on the World Government," said Johnson over Puerco's screams. "I wouldn't put squashing Whitebeard past him."

"Look, the point is, you Worldwide Smoke goons aren't getting your hands on this business. Not without keeping our union pay," said Gyozart, blowing smoke. "Beat us to a pulp all you want, but you're not getting our swords and guns and muscles, got it?"

Lulupo and Johnson were taken aback by this, and they looked at each other.

"What do we do now?" Johnson asked Lulupo.

"Honestly, darling, I think we should leave them be. I think we need to get Shaska to pay them better… We also don't want them beaten and bruised for our battle with von Esens."

"So, we're between a rock and a hard place," Johnson said, sweating through his feathers.

"Looks like it, Johnson, darling…"

—-

Beegyoven entered the office of the president. The secretary, Clara, was sitting at the front desk, shuffling through paperwork.

"Ah, Clara, did I have any calls while I was gone?"

Clara's eyes darted around nervously, and she began to sweat.

"Clara…"

"M-Mister Beegyoven…"

"The other executives and I heard a gunshot, you know."

"Eep!" was all Clara was able to say as she ducked under her desk.

Beegyoven's brow furrowed, and he walked past his secretary and into his office. As he entered, he noticed the chair was turned around. Papers detailing Kemurchant Enterprises' relationship with Minus World were on the desk, plain as day. The chair then swiveled around, and Schwarz was in the seat. He promptly kicked back, hands behind his head, and put his feet up on the desk, lighting up a cigar as he did so.

"What's up? Beegyoven, was it?"

TO BE CONTINUED