"Particle Man!" the giant superhero cried as he struck a pose. "Doing the things a particle can!"

Worldwide Smoke was, for the most part, unimpressed and annoyed by this turn of events. As for Ren, her eyes turned into stars as she saw a real-life superhero, like in her comic books.

"So, what's your deal, big guy?" Isha asked, crunching on her sucker.

"He is superhero!" Ren replied. "He is here to catch evildoers and criminals! And we… are technically… latter…"

"That's right!" exclaimed Particle Man. "You tiny folks are Worldwide Smoke! I recognized you from your wanted posters! Here to besiege this fine city with your monster friend, are you?!"

"'Friend' is pushing it," Shaska muttered.

"Particle Man, give it a rest," said Doctor Worm. "You know I'm just a traveling musician!"

"What you are is a menace!" Particle Man declared, striking a pose. "Your shows cause mass destruction because of your immense size! You know you're not allowed in Beller after last time!"

"Hey, only three people died…" Doctor Worm whimpered.

"Seriously, we're not with him," Schwarz said. "Can we go now?"

"Did you miss the part where I recognized you as criminals?!" Particle Man shouted. "Worldwide Smoke is responsible for—"

"That was a complete lie. A crooked Marine destroyed that city," Shaska interrupted.

"And why should I trust you over our great World Government?!"

Shaska pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, how much is it gonna take to make this go away?" she asked, reaching into her blazer and pulling out several stacks of cash.

"Will a hundred thousand berries make you go away?" she asked, holding the money in Particle Man's direction.

Particle Man crouched down to Shaska's eye level as best he could. He took the money and flipped through it, then asked "what's this paper…?"

Shaska was dumbfounded. The rest of the Worldwide Smoke quickly followed suit, their eyes going white.

"I— That's—! WHAT?!" Shaska shouted.

Particle Man began to pick his nose. "Is it some kind of money…?"

"You JUST said you trust the World Government more than us!" Shaska shouted, eyes going white and her teeth becoming daggers as she snatched the money back from Particle Man and stuffed it in her blazer. "BERRIES ARE THE WORLD GOVERNMENT'S MONEY!"

"Ah! Therein lies the confusion, miss!" Particle Man declared. "That was paper, not fruit!"

Shaska turned her head to face her crew, neck making audible creaking sounds as she did so.

"I— I'm at a loss…" she mumbled.

Zinnia stepped forward, looking up at Particle Man, but not making eye contact, saying "Mister Particle Man, sir? What is the currency you use here? Regardless of what your grievance with us is, we were hoping to do some shopping on our vacation here."

"Cat food," Particle Man curtly said, pulling out a bag of giant cat food and dropping it on the ground in front of Zinnia. "As they say, 'wake up and smell the cat food in your bank account!'"

Zinnia took out a piece of cat food, looked at it, then turned back to face the crew, neck making audible creaking sounds as she did so.

"I— I am at a loss…" she mumbled.

"I don't get it," said Johnson, stroking his chin. "Why would an island that's accessible through Log Pose not be affiliated with the World Government…? I get that they're evil and all, but that doesn't explain why this place doesn't use the berry as a currency. Even Fishman Island does."

"An excellent question!" replied Particle Man, striking another pose. "One that will be answered after I haul you all to jail to collect your bounties!"

"Question," said Ren. "If you are superhero, what is your superpower?"

"Another excellent question!" exclaimed Particle Man. "I am PARTICLE MAN! I ate the DUST DUST FRUIT!"

He held out his hands at Worldwide Smoke, and wave upon wave of dust blasted out, causing them all to start coughing violently. After she was done coughing, Ren's eyes turned back to stars.

"That's so cool!" she exclaimed. Ren held out her hand, and a giant wave of glass in the shape of a panda shot out.

"I ate Glass Glass Fruit! I can make and become glass!"

"Hm! Superpowered fiends!" Particle Man exclaimed. "I do not wish to destroy you all, but I will if I must! I will bring you in—"

"We're not here for trouble, dammit!" Shaska shouted, shaking her fist at the giant. "We're here to stock up on supplies and relax until we heal up after the beating we took at our last stop!"

"And find my friend!" Doctor Worm interjected.

"Give it a rest, worm," Shaska said.

"Specious speculation of a supervillain!" Particle Man responded, striking a combat stance.

"For the love of…" Shaska muttered, not adjusting her posture. She turned to Schwarz and ordered "Schwarz! Get us out of here!"

Schwarz simply said "on it," and spawned a portal in front of the crew and its partner portal in the city of Beller. Worldwide Smoke quickly filed through, Schwarz bringing up the rear and giving a wave to both Doctor Worm and Particle Man. The portals both closed after him, and Particle Man began to seethe.

"Curses! CURSES!" the "superhero" exclaimed.

He turned to Doctor Worm and said "You! You're still not going into the city!", to which the worm hung his worm head and began to slither away.

—-

Worldwide Smoke landed on top of the tallest building in Beller that was visible from their location in the wilderness. It was easily over a thousand feet tall, and gave a decent enough view of the town. From their position, they could see giants going about their daily business, playing music on strange instruments, and walking their pet rocks. Of particular note was what was going on in the alleys: giants smoking out in the open and giggling madly as they stuffed their faces with junk food.

"So, now what?" Schwarz asked as he closed the portal behind them.

"Well, we're wanted here as well," said Lulupo as he sipped from his water pack. "Should we disguise ourselves? I'm afraid I didn't bring any makeup, darlings…"

"We should be fine," said Shaska, stretching. "No, our first priority here is finding a bank or something where we can exchange our berries for… cat food… and just hope we don't run into any more superheroes."

Ren sniffed the air. "That smell is familiar…" she muttered. "Smells like skunk…"

She thought back to her fight in the Panipuri Kingdom with the grasshead, Kandar, then looked over the edge of the building to see the giants smoking the Happy Happy Grass and giggling to themselves as they passed their pipe back and forth.

"Hey guys, I think we might be onto something here…" she said to the crew.

"What's that?" Johnson asked.

"This might be reach, but I think there may be Minus World presence on island…"

"You are not reaching, Miss Ren. You are standing still," Zinnia said, to which Ren rolled her eyes.

"No, listen, I fought Minus World assassin who smoked Happy Happy Grass in Panipuri Kingdom. Then we destroyed Happy Happy Grass greenhouse at Mercury Collective… now I smell giants smoking Happy Happy Grass in alley!"

"That's right…" said Shaska, rubbing her chin.

"Ah, yes, ze Mercury Collectiff," said von Esens via transponder snail. "I heard about your exploits zere. How you destroyed my sahpply of Happy Happy Grass six mahnths ago. Doctor Feelgood and I vere not happy about zat."

"What's a man of God like you want with a bunch of drugs, anyway?" Shaska asked.

"Vell, you know vhat zey say: 'religion iss ze opiate off ze masses'. Actual opiates can't hurt eizer."

"So, what you're saying is that the king guy may be growing more of his grass here?" Shaska asked.

"Exactly," Ren responded with a nod.

"Interesting…" Shaska said, rubbing her chin again. "Hm… well, assuming the king's gone back home for the time being…"

She clapped her hands and exclaimed "alright, Worldwide Smoke! New plan! Let's get our supplies… but also destroy another drug depot!"

Silence reigned over the other officers, before Johnson spoke up.

"Shaska… we don't have our weapons or our soldiers…"

"And I can't fight," Isha added. "And frankly, you shouldn't be fighting either, boss. Lest you rip that enormous wound open."

Ren put her hands on her hips, adding "we don't know where drug production facility even is, or even how well-guarded it is."

"It is okay, Miss Shaska!" Zinnia said. "Mister… Miss… Lulupo and I can still fight! I never leave without Ruth!"

"Look, guys, we have a prime opportunity to stick it to the king again," Shaska explained. "Who cares if there's only six of us who can fight right—"

"Five. Doctor's orders," Isha stressed, crossing her arms.

"But we can do this!" Shaska continued. "We can just pick up some weapons in town!"

"Giant weapons," said Schwarz.

"The JHH-42 is a pretty complicated piece of tech," said Johnson. "I can't just build a new one from scratch in an instant. Especially considering my current model was damaged at Vicks Davis."

Shaska scowled at Schwarz and Johnson, then continued with "look, let's just ask those guys down there where they got their grass. Then we can follow the trail to where it's being produced."

It was then that the wind began to pick up, and a massive cloud of dust blew in over the building Worldwide Smoke was standing on. The crew once again coughed violently and shielded their eyes from the dust as Particle Man materialized out of the dust cloud, striking a pose.

"EVILDOERS! You will be stopped!" he cried.

Schwarz once again spawned a portal, and Worldwide Smoke quickly filed through, landing in the alley below. Particle Man darted his head around in a confused manner, unable to see where the crew had gone.

"CURSES!" he shouted as he stomped his foot.

—

The trio from Cipher Pol W-2 made their way through the desert to the capital city of Linnelton, still half a day away by mink taxi. Zeiko lay in her seat, smoking, while Salvatore rolled the window down so that the mink taxi's cabin wouldn't be filled with smoke. Zeimaru paced around the cabin, which he was able to do given the sheer size of the thing.

He tightened his glove and turned to his sister, saying "you really lost your cool back there, Zeiko."

Zeiko blew smoke and replied "yeah, well, my tolerance for random bullshit isn't particularly high."

"Why does this place use cat food as a currency instead of the berry anyway?" Salvatore asked.

"Part of their agreement with the World Government for Marine protection," Zeiko explained, sitting up. "Normal berry bills are too small for the giants to use effectively, so they get to keep their own currency."

"But why cat food…?" Salvatore stressed.

"Because these people are weirdos," Zeiko bluntly stated. "Their culture is completely bizarre and nonsensical."

"Hm…" was all Salvatore was able to respond with.

Another hour passed, and Salvatore spoke up again.

"So, this Seven Ford guy, the Warlord… Why's he in charge of an island of giants? I saw him back when I was a Marine Vice Admiral and he's not particularly tall."

Zeimaru lit up a cigarette of his own and said "to tell you the truth, I'm not sure… pirate scum like that leading an official government nation is rather unheard of."

"My best guess is that he's descended from a World Noble family or something. His fellow pirate scum… I mean WARLORD, Donquixote Doflamingo is like that," Zeiko explained, covering the word "warlord" in pure disdain. "There isn't a 'Seven' Noble family, though. But, it's also entirely possible he's using a fake name anyway."

"Still, you'd think he'd know better than to cheat on his taxes and get CPW-2 on him. Even Warlords aren't immune to the Heavenly Tribute," said Salvatore. "Unless… he's really confident he can beat us."

"That would mean revoking his Warlord status," said Zeiko, blowing smoke. "Though, the less of those bastards there are running around, the better. Regardless, if he's not gonna pay, he must have something up his sleeve."

"In other words, we really need to be prepared to fight…" said Zeimaru, cracking his knuckles.

"...do you guys know if he has a Devil Fruit?" Salvatore asked.

"He most likely does," said Zeiko. "So we need to be extra careful, because if he does, we don't know what it is. And, given his position, it would probably be a strong one."

Another hour passed, Salvatore spoke up again, munching on a bag of snacks.

"...you guys want some fish crackers…?" he asked.

Zeiko and Zeimaru, being fishmen, just gave an annoyed scowl at him, to which he said "oh. Yeah…"

—-

Worldwide Smoke exited into the alley, which was full of smoke thanks to the giants smoking Happy Happy Grass. The smoke was so thick in the alley that everyone but Shaska began coughing.

Shaska walked up to the giants who were alternating between puffing on a giant glass pipe and eating their snacks.

"Hey! Grassheads!" she shouted at them.

The giants looked down at Worldwide Smoke and promptly began to snicker.

"Dude… they're like… tiny people…!" said one of them before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"They're smaller than… than freakin' kids, man…!" said the other before bursting into a fit of laughter as well.

Shaska put her hands on her hips with a scowl on her face. The rest of Worldwide Smoke got used to the smoky alley and stopped coughing.

"I said 'hey! Grassheads!'"

The giants continued to laugh at Worldwide Smoke, to the point of being barely able to catch their breath.

"Mrrr…" Shaska growled. Then, she got an idea.

She walked over to Isha and whispered in her ear.

"What? Are you kidding? They're too big!" Isha replied.

"It's the only way…" Shaska muttered. "I'll reimburse you."

Isha rolled her eyes and pushed up her glasses, then walked over to the giants.

She reached into her lab coat and pulled out all her spare lollipops. She held them out toward the giants, saying "hey! You guys want some candy?!"

The giants stopped laughing for a moment.

"Something sweet would go well with these chips…" said the first one.

"I'm getting, heh heh, a little cottonmouth myself…" said the other.

"Cottonmouth?" Zinnia asked. "But that is a kind of—"

Ren covered Zinnia's mouth before she could finish.

"I'll give you all my candy if you tell me where you got that grass you're smoking!" Isha declared.

"Oooh…" said the first giant.

"Hm…" said the other.

The two giants sat there in silence, slack-jawed and staring into space.

Isha just stood there, slowly growing impatient before she shouted "it's the middle of the day and you two are just sitting around smoking Happy Happy Grass! Get a job!"

"…huh…?" said the first giant.

"Isha!" Shaska growled.

"…oh… yeah…" said the second giant.

The second giant picked up Isha entirely and looked at her, then at her collection of lollipops, then back at her.

"Put me down, dammit!" she shouted.

"Heeheehee… you're awfully cute for such a little person…" said the second giant. "And you're bringing candy… Are you a fffffaaaairy?"

"I'm not a damn fairy!" Isha shouted, eyes going white and her pointy teeth becoming pointier. "Now put me down, take the candy, and tell me where to get the damn grass!"

"Heh heh… maybe we could play with her first…" said the first giant.

"Okay, that's our cue to step in," said Shaska.

She snapped her fingers and called "Worldwide Smoke! Kick some ass!"

Lulupo wasted no time in leaping into action, jumping up and delivering a mighty kick to the jaw of the second giant, causing him to drop Isha. Schwarz then used a portal to catch Isha safely and set her down.

"Oh… dude…! Buzzkill!" said the first giant, haphazardly rising to his feet.

"Excuse me, grasshead! I come up asking where to get some of your grass, and then you threaten to ra—" Shaska began to say.

"We get the picture," Isha calmly interrupted, dusting herself off and stuffing the lollipops back into her lab coat.

"Geez, if you wanted some grass, all you need is a couple scoops of cat food, lady! We'd have gladly sold you some!" said the first giant.

"Tell us where you bought it, grasshead," Shaska growled. "Give us the source."

"Dude, there's like, a dispensary on Lincoln Street a couple blocks away," said the first giant. "You didn't have to kick my bro like that you little twerps. I should crush you like the bugs you are!"

The second giant was knocked out cold.

"Alright, Worldwide Smoke, let's bounce. Off to Lincoln Street," said Shaska, gesturing to leave the alley.

"I tell you, I am not okay after what just happened…" Isha mumbled.

Lulupo rubbed her shoulder, saying "it's okay, darling, it wasn't your fault. Some men are just scum."

Zinnia rubbed Isha's other shoulder, adding "I was in that situation once. The pain never truly goes away."

The dust began to swirl in the alley, and Particle Man materialized out of it.

"A-HA! Thought you could escape into the alley, evildoe—"

"Can it, hero," Shaska growled. She pointed at the two grasshead giants. "Why don't you take care of these two first?"

"Oh, great, it's Particle Man…" said the first giant, rolling his bloodshot eyes.

"Indeed! Doing the things a particle can!" Particle Man cried, striking a pose.

Worldwide Smoke used this as a distraction to warp away to a different street, hoping to find the dispensary.

TO BE CONTINUED