Zoro comes to a panting halt in front of Itluk Manor's gate. He'd had to sprint as fast as he could to continue to take all the wrong turns that he did and still manage to get there first. His belt loop getting stuck on a cart headed full speed to the manor didn't hurt his progress either. His quick approach put extra strain on his already strained body. Despite his determination to grit his teeth and bear through it, he had to admit it's taking its toll. The sky has a foreboding orange glow as the sun begins to set and he is suddenly face to face with a man in a government uniform. He has feathery sparrow brown hair and a suit nearly as ornate as Sanji's. It ticks him off a little bit. "I am Defense Squad Captain Quintin. I cannot permit you to enter this building. I don't even have to ask you your name to know that you are one of the one's Lady Gallowcomb said to deny entry." He has a nasally voice and he seems to talk down to Zoro out of habit while looking at him with half closed eyes that rarely blink. The droopy set of his shoulders make it seem like this is a situation he couldn't be bothered to put any effort into. He sniffs and scratches his chin before unsheathing his scimitar. "I must ask you to leave here and never return if you value your life. The girl doesn't belong to you."

"Karmen doesn't belong to anyone but herself. How many times do I have to tell you people that I don't have time for this?" he growls. He hurts everywhere and it's making him irritable. He draws all three swords and plants his feet. "Move aside, or I'll make you."

Quintin sighs. "You can try. It would be best for you if you didn't though."

Zoro rushes in, swinging all swords simultaneously. Even with the ferocity of his attack, Quintin parries the blades with one hand poised behind his back, losing little ground, and never losing the bored expression on his face. Quite frankly it was insulting, but Zoro is more upset with his body for not doing what he told it to do. He knows that if he was recovered he'd be able to wipe the floor with this guy in less than two minutes, but his strength is failing him and soon he'll be in trouble. As their swords continue to cross, Quintin switches to the offensive and Zoro finds himself being pushed towards the cliff. The government agent lands a particularly heavy blow that brings Zoro down to one knee.

What happened next was a little uncertain. Quintin raised his saber for another attack and a wave of heat rolled over the cliffside. With the sound of an immense impact the portion of rock Zoro was kneeling on crumbled. He reached for the stable cliff and pushed off of the rock he was falling with, grabbing the still fragmenting edge just in time to keep from plummeting hundreds of feet to the ocean below. Whatever it was had knocked Quintin out cold. He is lying with his face and arm dangling dangerously over the remaining cliffside. There is a thump from above and the rock he's holding slides out of its uncertain hold and he falls, but he can swear he hears someone say, "She'll never forgive you if you die." Zoro looks at the miles of cliff rushing past him and at the ocean below and crosses his arms. He'll leave it up to fate if he is to survive and make it back up the cliff to rescue Karmen.

Luffy, Franky, Robin, Brook, Usopp, Chopper, and Nami all arrive in front of the cliffside manor within seconds of each other. "Where's Sanji?" Usopp asks.

Nami shrugs. "He said he sensed a woman in trouble and went running off. I'm sure he'll show up when he's needed."

There is a man wearing a purple suit and a big poof coming off his forehead that at one point, before it was caramelized in product, may have resembled hair. He casually stands in their way fitting brass knuckles on his hands. This is barely visible behind the congregation of government agents and hired guards that have filled the cliffside after Zoro had appeared. "Maybe we should act like we're delivering something and try to sneak past these guys," Nami suggests right before the captain's disguise goes flying.

"Hey! Dumpling Head!" Luffy calls, since he seemed to be in charge. "Have you seen Karmen?" Nami, Chopper, and Usopp give a collective sigh. Not seeing a point to them anymore, everyone else except Usopp, who still felt Sogeking was needed, takes off their cloaks and carnival masks as well.

The man sneers at the captain and speaks in a southern isle accent. "My name is Jared and I happen to be the head of the Itluk manor guard. I've seen a Karmen, but you aren't getting anywhere near her. Sir Baldwin would be mighty upset with me if went and let you do that."

Luffy's smile turns into a wry grimace. "So you know where that jerk is." He cracks his knuckles. "I promised Karmen I'd punch him in the face."

"You," comes a sneer from the back of the crowd. The jerk in question walks forward from the manor with a plump woman in a billowing silk dress. Walking beside her is a man in a silk suit with a large rococo bouffant hairstyle and a hose-fitted glass tank on his back. "Where are those good looking men my fiancé was fawning over? I'll make sure they die painfully." He looks Nami and Robin over. "And her friends can come with me."

"Save it for after the ceremony," the woman beside him mutters.

"Baldwin," Usopp sneers back at him, even though Baldwin's attention is back on Luffy.

"Not just him," Robin says, mouth hanging open. "That's her mom, Gallowcomb Antwanette Jenevive Willow, and her brother, Davenwell Yvan Ludovic. Both are said to be malicious."

"You aren't getting paid to stand around!" Willow bellows. "Kill them already!" The horde of guards rushes forward to intercept them. Luffy jumps into the fray, having the time of his life as he gum-gum whip's the first wave.

Usopp catches a glint of metal on the roof of the manor. He quickly fits a firebird star in his giant kabuto and releases it. A burning man falls off the roof and Usopp's knees knock together triumphantly, "There's was a sniper!"

"Be careful," Robin says, tripping six men with hands that sprout out of the ground, "there might be more."

Usopp hits a guard over the head with his hammer and glances around expeditiously, looking for any sign of hidden threats. He sends a lead star flying through a dark cracked window on the fourth floor and takes out another sniper and then another that was perched in a tree. "What kind of people are these?" he cries.

"You heard her story," Franky says, blowing a group of fifteen away with his weapons left. "They're probably part of that team of bounty hunters her mom hires."

"You despicable swine," Brook says, fighting off three swordsmen at once. "We'll take you all down and free Karmen once again."

"Clutch!" Robin bent thirty guards in half and released them to fall to the ground. "I haven't seen anyone who looks like a bounty hunter. I think the snipers are the only DavenGallow units here."

Nami uses the others as cover while she creates a storm cloud and zaps thirty guards at once. She runs over to Usopp and Chopper as the deer crunches into a rumble ball and throws ten people with his horn point before using his cloven rose on three others. "When we get inside, you two look for Pierce. If he's here then we need to make sure he's safe before we can rescue Karmen."

Brook comes and stands back to back with Usopp while he fights. "I'll go with you," he says. "I cannot sit idly while a promise of reunion goes unfulfilled."

A bullet passes harmlessly through Brook's rib cage and bites into the dirt by their feet and the Willow's silver pearl handled pistol smoked thirty feet away. "Do you Barbarians know how hard we worked for this?" she says with a crazed gleam in her eye. "I will not stand for you to waltz in here and screw it up. Karmen and Baldwin are going to get married tomorrow morning and none of you will live to see the sun again."

Nami throws up several mirages. "Go. I'll handle her."

Brook clears a path and the three men run towards the gates. At the same moment liquid sprayed between them and the manor, dissolving the ground and sending up corrosive fumes. Ludovic waves the hose leading to the tank on his back. "Not so fast, kiddies. You haven't been invited."

Franky grins. "Consider us party crashers." He turns towards the trio who had stopped in their tracks just behind the line of acid. "Go. We'll handle these clowns."

Robin faces off against Jared who beats his brass knuckles against each other. "I should have you know, despite my mother's teachings, I have no problem hitting a girl."

Robin smiles at him. "Good. Neither do I." She crosses her hands in front of her. "Shall we then?" He throws a quick punch, which she dodges, but sneaks in an uppercut which connects with her jaw. She stumbles back a little before producing hands from the ground to hold him in place as she kicks him in the gut. He grabs her foot and twists sharply, causing her to fall to the ground. She uses her free foot to kick at his knees and produces hands to force him to release his grip. She stands up and dodges another punch. "Ocho Fleurs!" She restrains his arms and is working on putting him into a suppression hold but he uses brute strength to pull his arms free. Robin feels the strain in her shoulders and gasps. She'll have to go about this in a different way.

Luffy finishes toying with the guards and manages to punch his way to Baldwin. He places a hand on his hat, dangerously calm while the battle rages around them. "You made Karmen cry."

"Did I now?" he sniggeres. "I think a woman's most beautiful when she cries, don't you?"

"No. I don't." Luffy raised his head just enough so that Baldwin could see one steely eye beneath the straw brim. "You'll never make her cry again, cause I'm going to kick your butt." Baldwin jumped forward, punching the ground where Luffy had been standing a few seconds before. Luffy lands a few feet away, the ground he was standing on before is shattered. No matter how much rock this man could break with his fists, he was weak. He would never be anything else. "Gum-Gum… Pistol!"

Robin ducked three punches from Jared, one grazing her cheek and one knocking out the guard behind her, causing him to lose a few teeth. She uses her powers to fold four guards and throw them at her opponent, thoroughly distracting him and partially burying him in his own men. With an "Deis Fleurs, Clutch" she bends him over backwards and hears several satisfying cracks.

Willow shoots through six mirages, effectively emptying her gun. Nami slides out of the way of a series of pistol whips that tear through her last mirages. She'd let her mirages distract the woman and began setting up a Thunderbolt tempo and now she's almost ready. "Robin! Get down to Sunny and move her beneath the cliff. We might get chased on our way out. I'll finish up here and get Mini-Merry back." She nods her confirmation and takes out twenty more guards on her way back into town. Nami turns her attention back to Willow.

Franky is having a little more trouble with Ludovic. The main problem being that he couldn't get anywhere near him without getting burned by acid, but he'd used a third of his supply in just warding Franky off. His star shields were badly burned from near misses that he'd been forced to block to keep his face freaky. "Yow, buddy, that's a nasty cocktail you've got there," he comments.

Ludovic stands in the center of a crater he'd eroded. "My comrades keep me in ample supply, you large ape." He leaps from his pit as Franky breathes fire at him, following it up with a barrage from his Coup de Vent. Ludovic barely dodges it but several guards were blown unconscious by the blast. Franky's ducktail is beginning to droop as his first bottle of cola empties. The blast of air tears the hose on the acid tank, sending a fountain of corrosive chemicals that showers everyone behind him, including Luffy, who had been wrapped around Baldwin and using him as a robot. This was a very effective mind weapon against the politician, since he enjoyed controlling a situation with brute strength and power when words were not required. Taking advantage of the captain's sudden distraction, Baldwin lands a few ineffective punches while Luffy rolls around yelling "ow" as his clothes begin to erode and adding further destruction to the cliffside.

The lightning from Nami's attack is drawn to the metal of Willow's pistols. The shock and the heat combined make her drop them. Nami quickly sent them over the cliff's edge with her clima tact and when Willow ran for them the cliff crumbled, sending them into the water far below. Getting over her shock at losing her favorite items, Willow growls in frustration as she sees Luffy's fist collide heavily with Baldwin's face. They are losing the battle. Her brother can hold his own, even without his acid, but without her pistols and having her bounty hunters otherwise occupied she might as well be out of the fight. She runs to Ludovic, carefully avoiding the stream of acid, and grabs him by his lapels. "Get us out of here!"

He tries pushing her away. "I'm in the middle of a fight, sister darling. Kindly move aside."

Franky gladly steps aside as the phrase "Gum-Gum…. Bazooka!" rings out over the commotion. Baldwin comes flying into Willow and Ludovic, sending them over the cliff and blasting them far over the horizon. The remaining guards run away in terror as Luffy grins. "What are we waiting for? Let's go get her!"

Falling into formation, Nami and Franky flank Luffy as he punches through the outer wall and the doors of the manor. Usopp, Chopper, and Brook run up to meet them. "Pierce isn't here and everyone we've run into said that Karmen has things under control," Usopp says. "The last person we talked to said that she was in the ballroom."

Luffy continues breaking down walls until they find the ballroom. Half of the masked guests are passed out on the floor and the other half are breathing heavily against the wall. None of them are a 5' 2" stabby secretary. The captain blinks and looks around. "Where's Karmen?"