Lulupo, Schwarz, and Zinnia dropped the bag of cat food and stepped forward in front of Shaska, assuming combat stances. Isha backed up, drawing her revolver just in case, while Johnson and Ren activated their Devil Fruits.

"Stand down, guys," Shaska ordered, holding up her hands and stepping forward past her crew.

"Look, kids, I'm not in any condition to fight you right now," Shaska said. "And even if I was… you're my kids, I don't want to hurt you."

The twins looked at each other, then back at their mother, completely unimpressed expressions on their faces.

"Is… Is that some sort of joke?" Zeimaru asked, cracking his knuckles.

"You've done nothing but hurt us for thirty years!" Zeiko exclaimed.

"Sensing some bad blood here…" Salvatore muttered.

"You don't know the half of it," said Schwarz.

"Zeiko… Zeimaru… I know… and I'm sorry," Shaska said.

Zeiko's eyes shot open at this, while Zeimaru just rolled his. Zeiko turned to her brother and asked "she's… she's joking, right?"

"I don't think so. She tried this shit when I saw her on Fishman Island, too," Zeimaru replied.

"Look, I've had a really bad week," Shaska explained. "Met your Aunt Korla, and—"

"We have an aunt?" Zeiko interrupted.

"…not anymore," Shaska solemnly replied. She continued with "I nearly got cut in half, lost one of my officers, lost a good amount of my troops, now we're stuck on this bizarre island with no clue of where we're going. Did you hear Queen Otohime was assassinated? That happened too. So, really, I don't want to fight you two. I want to make amends."

The twins began to snicker, which built up into a chuckle, before they finally began laughing hysterically. Everyone else present was made incredibly uncomfortable by the scene unfolding in front of them.

"'Make amends' she says!" Zeiko exclaimed, blowing smoke. "After everything she's done, she wants to 'make amends'!"

Shaska hung her head.

"Hoooo… good one, mom!" Zeimaru said, assuming a fighting stance. "Oh no, we're gonna kick your ass and drag you to Enies Lobby kicking and screaming if we have to!"

"Loath as I am to defend a criminal…" said Salvatore, stepping forward. "Shouldn't you two at least hear her out?"

"No," the twins said in unison.

"I really hate family drama, guys. I don't know what your mom put you through, but the ability to forgive is a virtue," Salvatore explained. "Listen to her, or I'll make you listen to her."

"I'm sorry?" Zeiko asked, turning to Salvatore. "You, the newbie, are gonna order us around?"

Salvatore said nothing, and grabbed the twins' wrists with each of his hands. The color began to literally drain from Zeiko and Zeimaru, and their skin and hair turned from varying shades of purple to plain gray. The color began to collect as giant balls in Salvatore's hands, and the twins stumbled a bit.

"What…? What did you… just do?!" Zeimaru asked, breathing heavily.

"My Tint Tint Fruit allows me to manipulate color as I see fit," Salvatore explained. "And one of the things about being colorless is that you're drained of life itself; you're not going to be able to fight."

He combined the two purple color balls into one big one, then casually tossed it up and down in his hand. "You can have this back when you make nice with your mom."

The twins glared at Salvatore, then turned to Shaska and glared harder.

Schwarz spawned a portal in between Shaska and her kids.

"This hole will lead you up to the roof of that building up there," he said, pointing behind him. "Thought you guys could… use some privacy."

Shaska nodded and stepped through the portal. Zeiko and Zeimaru looked at each other, rolled their eyes, and went through the portal too. Afterward, Schwarz closed the portal.

The rest of Worldwide Smoke (Schwarz, Lulupo, Ren, Zinnia, Johnson, and Isha), Salvatore, Doctor Worm, and Particle Man stood together in silence.

"That was… pretty awkward…" said Johnson, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh yeah, family drama is the worst," said Particle Man, crossing his arms.

There was another bout of silence.

"Wait a minute, there's EVILDOERS I need to catch right in front of me!" Particle Man declared, striking a pose.

"Oh, give it a rest, you buffoon!" called Triangle Man, having mysteriously appeared next to the group. "Like I said, let a real hero handle this!"

Ren sighed and said "we're not getting out of this, are we…?"

—

On the nearby rooftop, a gentle breeze was blowing. Shaska and her kids sat on the roof in silence. Zeimaru had his arms crossed, while Zeiko was lighting up another cigarette. The sun was still incredibly hot, beating down on the three fish people intensely. It was especially rough on the twins, who had a hard time staying conscious with their color drained.

Finally, Zeimaru broke the silence with "speak up, mom. We don't have all day!"

"…I'm… sorry…" Shaska said.

"That's it?" Zeiko asked. "After all the abuse and neglect you put us through as kids, all you can say is 'sorry'?"

Zeiko blew smoke and continued with "I'm not even mad. I'm sure that's all an arrogant, money-hungry bitch like you could come up with."

Shaska hung her head, and tears began pouring down her face.

Zeimaru leaned forward and asked "are you crying? Seriously?!"

"I'm… so… so sorry…" Shaska reiterated, sniffling.

"Oh, for the love of…" Zeiko muttered, rubbing her temples.

"This is going nowhere," said Zeimaru. "I'd try to leave, but I don't think I'd survive a fall from this height."

Shaska raised her head and wiped the tears from her eyes. She looked at her kids, who were glaring back at her.

"Seeing you two like this… makes it easier at least," she said. "At least you look a little bit less like your father this way."

"Oh, here we go," Zeiko groaned. "It's not your fault, it's our scumbag dad's fault. Uh-huh."

"I… don't think I ever told you two the circumstances behind your births, did I…?" Shaska asked.

"All you ever told us was how much you hated us for even existing," Zeimaru said.

Shaska sighed. "To make a long story short, my childhood was no picnic, either. But when I was a teenager, I got a job at the Mermaid Café on Fishman Island. And that's where I met your father. He was… he was my boss."

The twins' blood ran cold at this.

"I don't like where this is going…" Zeiko muttered to her brother.

"Me neither… but we have no choice but to listen…" Zeimaru responded.

"He took me out drinking one night. Got me into a bar his friend ran. And we eventually made a habit of it; every week we'd go out drinking. He and I would talk on the transponder snail every night for what felt like hours. I felt myself… falling for him, because he took me in when I had nothing.

"And then, well… we started doing things that people who love each other do… and then you two came along. When I found out I was pregnant with you two, I was only seventeen. Naturally, I told him… and…"

Shaska's face became flooded with tears again.

"I f-found out I w-w-wasn't his o-one and only like he s-said. Not only was he already m-m-married… he h-had already done this to b-basically every other g-girl who worked there…"

Zeiko and Zeimaru couldn't help but start to tear up, too.

"I went home… told my parents… they called me a whore right to m-my face. So I was seventeen, alone, j-jobless… and pregnant. It was… a difficult time, to say the least…"

Shaska sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Fortune smiled upon me, at least. I got a loan from the king to start what would eventually become Kemurchant Enterprises. While I was pregnant, I swore I'd give you a better life than what I had.

"But then… you were born. And you came out looking exactly like that bastard… And my blood began to boil. Every time I looked at you two, I couldn't not remember that day…

"When you two turned eighteen and went to join the World Government, who continue to tolerate our peoples' enslavement, I felt further justified in my hatred of my own children. But then… I fought Zeiko at the Panipuri Kingdom…

"As I had my fist raised above your face, Zeiko, I was completely ready to do it. To kill you for good. But then, a memory flashed before my eyes…"

The mermaid nurse floated over to eighteen-year-old Shaska as she lay in bed, carrying two bundles.

"Here they are, mommy," the nurse said with a smile.

Young Shaska took the bundles, one in each arm, and cradled them gently. In each one was a baby shark fishman, with light purple skin and tufts of dark purple hair on their heads.

The newborn Zeiko looked up at her mother and gave a toothless smile.

"And… remembering that… I realized I just couldn't do it. I realized… something had gone horribly, horribly wrong…"

Shaska stood up, then knelt down before her children, head touching the roof. The twins had tears streaming down their faces at this point.

"I'm sorry. I'm so terribly, terribly sorry for what happened when you two were kids. I know there's nothing I can do now to change the past, but… please… I implore you… don't do your duty as government agents. I want you two… to help me defeat Minus World. Saving the world is the only way I know how to make amends for all I've done."

Zeiko and Zeimaru looked at each other, then at their prostrated mother. All that could be heard was the breeze.

"Mom… I…" Zeiko said, not coating the word with venom like she usually did.

Zeimaru gritted his teeth, then muttered "dammit…"

The twins stood up and looked at each other again.

Zeiko sighed, then said "mom… the damage you did to us was immense. Truly, horrible, traumatizing damage. But…"

Shaska looked up.

"You… seem earnest enough," Zeiko continued. "I think I speak for both of us when I say we'll help you on your journey."

She flicked her cigarette away, then added "but after we're done, we're done. We never want to see you again. Deal?"

Shaska stood up and solemnly said "deal."

Zeimaru looked down over the edge of the building.

"Now, how do you propose we get down from here…?" he asked.

Shaska shifted her legs back to tentacles and held out her arms. "Come on, I'll carry you down."

The twins sighed in unison and climbed into their mother's arms, where she carried them back down to the street.

—-

Meanwhile, while Shaska and her kids were resolving their family tensions, events continued on the street below. Namely, the conflict between the superheroes, Particle Man and Triangle Man, over who would bring in Worldwide Smoke and eject Doctor Worm from the city.

"You copied me, fiend!" Particle Man shouted, defiantly pointing at his rival.

"And yet I'm better at it," Triangle Man responded.

"Have at you, then!" Particle Man exclaimed, assuming a combat stance.

"Gladly," said Triangle Man, assuming a combat stance of his own.

"Superhero darlings, is it truly wise to fight in the city where bystanders could get hurt?" Lulupo asked.

The superheroes charged at each other. Particle Man began swirling dust around his hands. Triangle Man's hands turned into giant folding fans. Particle Man shot a wave of dust out at his rival, but Triangle Man simply blew it away with his fans.

The two battled with no regard for their surroundings. As Particle Man charged at Triangle Man, his foot came down over Schwarz, who was unaware. Ren, however, saw this, and bolted toward him, knocking him out from under the giant's foot with a shoulder charge.

"What the—?!" Schwarz yelled as he got pushed.

Then the giant's foot came down on top of Ren, who promptly turned to glass and shattered, some of her shards getting stuck in Particle Man's foot.

Particle Man stopped his fighting to howl in pain and clutch his bare foot. As he hopped around on one foot, Ren reformed from the shattered glass and turned to Schwarz.

"Are you okay?!" she shouted.

"You… saved me…" Schwarz responded, blushing slightly.

"Yeah… Schwarz, I—" Ren tried to say, but she was quickly interrupted.

"YOU! TINY EVILDOER!" Particle Man roared at Ren. "What did you do?!"

"You stepped on me. I crumpled into glass. It's not difficult," Ren casually responded.

Triangle Man snuck up on Particle Man, swiping at the latter's neck with one of his fans. Particle Man's head came off, but because of his Logia powers, it was quickly reattached.

"Leave this city and never return, false hero," Triangle Man growled.

"Never, you fiend."

The two superheroes came to blows again. As they did, Worldwide Smoke coalesced against the wall of a building away from the carnage, trying to shield themselves from the dust flying everywhere. Salvatore and Doctor Worm hadn't moved, the former still carrying his large color ball.

"Should… should we leave? I am still quite hungry…" Zinnia said.

"Zinnia, darling, we must wait for Shaska," Lulupo replied.

Salvatore teleported in front of the crew with his Shave technique. "Not like I would let you, anyway. Magnanimous as I am in regards to your boss's family troubles, you lot are still wanted criminals. It's my duty to bring you in."

"I don't think so," Schwarz replied. He spawned a portal under Salvatore's feet, causing him to drop through it. Before Salvatore was halfway through, though, Schwarz closed the portal with a snap of his fingers, calling "NEGATIVE EDGE!"

Salvatore was sliced clean in half, his lower half still functional and landing right behind him. His bow and arrows were cut in half, as well. His top half landed on the ground with a "plop!", but there was no blood or pain from what should have been a grievous, mortal injury.

"I see… very interesting Devil Fruit ability you have there, blondie," Salvatore casually responded as he propped himself up on his free hand.

"You wanna keep going?" Schwarz asked, crossing his arms.

Salvatore sighed and said "I feel at this point, if I took on the six of you at once, I'd come up short."

Schwarz squatted down to Salvatore's level and ruffled his hair, saying "good answer" as he did so.

It was then that Shaska returned to the street, climbing down the building on her tentacles, Zeiko and Zeimaru in tow. She put her kids down and shifted her tentacles back to human legs with tentacle feet. The twins flicked away their cigarette butts in unison.

The family walked over to where Worldwide Smoke and Salvatore were, ignoring the fight between the superheroes. Doctor Worm glared down at them.

"Hey! You guys said you were going to help!" Doctor Worm shouted.

"We had more… pressing matters to attend to first," said Zeiko.

"What, uh… what happened here?" Zeimaru asked, looking at Salvatore's halves.

"Self defense," Schwarz responded.

"Well, anyway, my kids are joining us now," Shaska explained. "They're gonna help us take out Minus World."

"Wait, what?" asked a confused Salvatore. "I thought you were going to make nice and then we would bring her in."

"Give us our color back, dammit," said Zeiko. She then explained the circumstances of their assistance of Worldwide Smoke.

"Now, give us our color back," Zeimaru stressed.

Salvatore sighed and plopped himself down so that his legless torso was touching the ground. He pulled the color ball apart so that it was in two equal-sized spheres, then held them out for the twins. Zeiko and Zeimaru held their hands out toward the balls and, almost magically, their colors were restored, and the color balls vanished.

To test out her restored strength, Zeiko punched the air, and the resulting shockwave punched a hole in a building across the street.

She cracked her knuckles and said "perfect. Everything seems to be in working order."

The twins turned to their mom. Zeimaru asked "alright… mom. Where to first? What's the plan here?"

"You kids know what Happy Happy Grass is?" Shaska asked.

"We're thirty years old, mom, not kids," Zeiko sternly replied.

"But I think we've heard of it," Zeimaru added. "It's a drug that makes you happy and stupid when you smoke it."

"Correct," Shaska said. "The king guy who runs Minus World uses it to control the countries he's captured. And we have reason to believe there's a place on this island producing it. What my crew and I were doing when we ran into you was looking for a dispensary that sells it so that we could find the place that's producing it here."

The gears started to turn in Zeiko's head. "I wonder…" she said, lighting up a cigarette.

"What's up, Zeiko?" Zeimaru asked.

"The reason Cipher Pol W-2 is here is because we're putting the screws to the guy who runs this island, Seven Ford of the Seven Warlords of the Sea," Zeiko explained. "But, wouldn't it be wonderful if the two things were related? A Warlord like him would know better than to mess with the World Government over taxes. I think he's confident about something… what if he's working with this Minus World…?"

Silence rang over Worldwide Smoke. Or, it would have, had there not been superheroes fighting on the street.

Zinnia broke the silence with "...screws…?"

Zeiko and Zeimaru stared at her. Shaska whispered "she does that a lot. She's weird." to them.

"So… am I joining, too?" Salvatore asked. "I don't feel comfortable working with criminals who slaughtered a city."

"Relax," said Zeiko. "She's not the type to do that. All she committed was financial crime. I can assure you that much."

"We're tax collectors!" Salvatore declared.

"Well, we're leaving regardless," said Zeimaru. "We can deal with the higher-ups later. Stopping Minus World is much more important than some taxes. Even if it's a lot in taxes…"

"Hmmm…" Salvatore mused. He looked backward at his legs on the ground, then said "fine, I'm with you guys. Just put me back together, please?"

Schwarz nodded. He picked up Salvatore's torso and legs and stuck them back together. They came together almost magnetically. Salvatore took a few steps to make sure his legs were working properly again, then turned to the crew and nodded.

"Let's go. Find this dispensary, I mean," he said.

"Hey!" Doctor Worm shouted. "What about me?!"

"What about you?" Isha asked, crunching her sucker. "There's nothing in it for us helping you, you freaky worm."

"Unless you feel like being our free transportation," Shaska said. "But you'll probably just cause more collateral damage like you did here."

Doctor Worm whined, then buried himself back underground, digging his way out of the city.

As the now ten member band of Worldwide Smoke walked away, Particle Man went flying through the building they were standing in front of, unconscious. Triangle Man had won the day.

TO BE CONTINUED