Cassandra thumbed Skipper when it started burbling, but loud crashing noises came from its mouth before she could speak. "The ship is under attack!" Morgan yelled over the din.

She immediately bolted toward the harbor. Asking for more information would only distract them. "Don't fight too much. Theo, stay with Damien. Only go back to the ship if he does. Damien, I would really appreciate it if you went back to the ship. Alexander, Lyn, find a place to meet up so Cain can go back to the ship alone. Tell Nancy he stays with you until you join Lyn. Doctor, finish up whatever you're doing before you return. I mean it; don't come back until you've finished."

Sprinting at full speed through the city drew no few looks, but most people had the sense to stay out of her way. She wove around those that didn't, and almost none of them could match her speed long enough to catch her. The one person that caught up swiped at her with his sword, only for her to duck beneath his swipe and drive her elbow into his throat. A backfist to his temple knocked him aside, and she ran unimpeded for the rest of her journey.

She scurried up the side of a building overlooking the harbor and peeked over the parapet. Several pirates of unknown origin ambled about Fully Pardoned's decks with a generous handful more inside the ship. Morgan and Aisha seemed to have sustained light injuries, but the intact wooden boards indicated they had been caught flatfooted. She was reasonably sure Theo's workshop hadn't been broken into yet, but there was no telling if and when they would get through the security.

She drummed her fingers on her pistol grip while she thought. As much as she wanted to go in guns blazing, the pirates infesting her ship weren't pushovers. Any failure would bring harm to her crew members or worse. Still, there was more than one way onto her ship. "Miserie, meet me by the big pink boat six ships starboard of ours. I'm gonna need you to bring me in."

Miserie was waiting for her when she arrived and obligingly took her underwater. It still sometimes amazed Cassandra how fast Miserie could swim. They entered the bilge way before feeling could drain from her limbs, and Miserie raised Cassandra above water so she could determine if the coast was clear. After she nodded, Miserie eased the trapdoor leading to the medical ward open and lifted her through. Cassandra motioned for her to stand by and focused on the conversation above her. "Your bounty poster says you have a Devil Fruit, but doesn't specify what kind. I'll ask nicely once."

"I ate the Rolling Fruit," Aisha replied without hesitation. "Once I start, it's incredibly difficult to stop me. Plus, I don't get motion sickness anymore, which is nice considering who the navigator on my crew is."

The man grunted and turned his attention back to Morgan. "And you can't use your Fruit to break into the workshop."

"I'm not sure you appreciate just how paranoid my captain is," Morgan said disdainfully. "She is unfathomably possessive over things she considers hers. I tried to take something, and she shot my finger off for it. I'm not lying; she really did that to me. Surely you know how temperamental she can be, or did you raid us without learning anything about her? She's quite infamous for being as dangerous to her allies as she is to her enemies, and her crew is no exception."

"What he's trying to say is there's a seastone layer nobody can get past," Aisha cut in. "Even she can't break in. That's how secure she wanted it to be. I suppose you could rip the entire room out, though the logistics of that might be complicated. The battlesuits aren't even here."

A brief moment of silence. "Take them," the invader said at last. "We'll extract their Fruits later."

Three bullets ripped into him from below as he stood up from his chair, and he crumpled to the floor. The other intruders in the room were similarly perforated, although one got a shot off that missed Cassandra by a good margin. She raced up the stairs to flashily deal a flying kick to one of the pirates and was mildly surprised when he caught her foot. He blocked her axe kick just as easily, but was forced to release her foot to avoid her gunshots.

She ripped her outer shirt off as she skidded along the boards. "You all look so dour. Let's have some fun!"

"Lammossa Nauru!"

Cassandra grinned at her opponents' slight untensing as a joyful song permeated the air. Only those with complete control over their emotions or true battle junkies could fight their best while being so happy. "Voluntas Carnae."

She threw her pistol at the man's face and dove for his ankle. He pivoted out of the way in time and brought his axe down, but she twisted to deflect it with her left hand and, grabbing his shirt with her right, sent him into the path of another's sword. The swordsman stabbed at her as she rolled to her feet, piercing right between through the bones in her forearm. He only had a moment to be surprised when she twisted her arm, locking the sword in place, before her fingers jabbed directly into his eyes. Wrenching the sword away as his hands instinctively went to his face, she yanked it out and drove it directly into his throat.

The singing cut off as Miserie careened in, catching an invader completely by surprise and breaking several ribs with audible cracks. Their senses clear, the rest of them prepared to attack, only for a barrage of metal spikes to penetrate the wall and impale several of them. Many of the attackers managed to avoid the spikes, but were still caught off guard by the metal elemental that joined the fray. While Morgan made sure to keep his attacks away from Miserie, he was decidedly less careful with Cassandra, forcing her to dodge several of his errant swipes.

All action halted when a shout drew their attention. A man emerged with a sword at Aisha's neck. "Nobody move or I'll stick her like a pig!"

Cassandra gave the tiniest of smiles at Aisha's unfazed expression. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. I don't recruit useless crew members."

"Drop your weapons and hands up! You, stop using your Devil Fruit!"

"Do you want to do this the civilian way or the pirate way?" Cassandra asked.

"What are you even talking about?" the man snarled.

Aisha sighed. "Pirate."

Cassandra instantly resumed attacking, her knife hand caving in an invader's throat and her fist cracking their skull. Morgan grabbed another's sword, metal wrapping around him, while Miserie dragged an invader's leg to topple them so she could hammer on their face. Aisha's captor sliced across Aisha's neck, closely followed by his weapon clattering to the floor as he put his hands around his own slit throat. Aisha's light shove sent him flying towards the messy brawl, where Cassandra kicked him hard enough to momentarily embed him in the ceiling.

Although the Black Glove Pirates were making headway, the remaining invaders put up enough of a fight that Fully Pardoned rocking to the side provided a small feeling of relief. "Asja!" Cain bellowed as he landed inside, his sword cutting several invaders in half. Enough panic set in that he and Cassandra were able to dispatch several stunned invaders without much resistance, and Morgan and Miserie helped take care of the rest.

"There are times when your bloodthirst and consequent avoidance of using firearms can be quite inconvenient," Morgan snapped as he used the blood wrapped around his arm to clean the hall. "These were no mere opportunists."

"How are you feeling?" Cassandra asked Aisha.

Aisha rubbed the smooth skin where she had been cut. "I knew I'd have to get used to situations like this, but that doesn't make it hurt less. Is Oya okay?"

"The person guarding her joined the fray, and it seems she could sleep through a hurricane when she wants to. I'm actually impressed Miserie didn't wake her up. The offer to hide somewhere else while we fight is still open. You don't have to stay on the ship."

"Depending on the situation, I might not. You said we'll have help this time?"

"Yeah, some Merry Pirates are going to be here with you. I know Saffia, Alandale, and Achis are, and a few others will be joining them."

Morgan frowned. "And you trust them?"

"Of course," Cassandra said with a grin. "It's Hode and the ones on the battlefield I'll be wary of. Capturing a couple old women and a ship that even isn't mine shouldn't interest her. If it is, I have no problem dealing with my friends."

Aisha laughed. "I don't mind being called old, but it feels weird to share that descriptor with Oya. It's like saying Cain and Pythia are both tall."

"Hey, Cain might catch up if he lives to be as old as Oya."

"Has your mood improved enough that you'll address my concerns genuinely instead of ignoring them?" Morgan pressed.

Cassandra's grin widened. "Isn't this better than holding it in? I think so, which is why I chose to vent my frustrations here with my fists. Sapping Mircalla's support system without making her care enough to intervene isn't stress-free."

"I thought that relieving your stress was on Lyn's short list of responsibilities."

"Are you always in the mood for meat jelly?"

"I don't put Miserie and Aisha in dietary danger when I am because I don't force them to partake in my desires."

"Do you really think I would have put them in real danger?"

"They didn't get through this unscathed."

"Technically, Aisha did."

"So you're not going to be mature about this."

"M-Miserie doesn't mind," she chimed in. "She did not get very hurt."

Morgan exhaled heavily. "You should not have gotten hurt at all. It's one thing to be injured in the combat we inevitably face, but this was completely avoidable."

"Fine," Cassandra said. "You're right. I acted knowing there was a high chance that you could receive light wounds. Only light ones. These dipshits didn't have a chance of doing anything serious because I would have dealt with them differently if they posed an actual threat. Miserie, Aisha, let me know how I can make it up to you."

"Am I being excluded for holding you accountable to your actions?" Morgan snapped.

"No, you're being excluded because you weren't hurt at all. Cain's fine, so he doesn't get anything either."

"What about the stress you could have prevented if you had dealt with everything properly?"

She laughed. "You're talking to me about dealing with things 'properly'? You knew from the very first time we met that I wasn't someone who deals with things 'properly'. I love you all so much, but I also don't baby you. If you can handle something, I'm going to indulge in my own desires instead of preventing you from getting a little hurt."

"It's quite amazing how you repeatedly delude others into thinking they've seen the limits of your self-centeredness regardless of how many times you've crossed those limits before."

"Are you serious? Self-centeredness? One of our crew's most important tenets is that everyone is encouraged to act however they please so long as those actions don't go against my orders. Sure, Damien's the one who takes it the furthest, but surely you remember all of the times you started shit that pulled the rest of us in. Even Aisha's done it-"

"Just because some baby gay gets offended and picks a fight when I say 'dyke' doesn't mean I'm going to stop saying it."

"-and she's only officially been with us for one island. So long as you do your duties, you're free to live life to the fullest, even if it means the rest of us get a bit dinged up now and then. That's part of being a Black Glove Pirate." She glanced upwards. "I don't know if you can hear me, Oya, but I'll glue your mouth shut if you have some smart-ass comment. I'm the one that does the sassing, not the other way around."

\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\

Although Theo couldn't really gather any important information when she was outside her battlesuits, it was much more relaxing to not fight Damien directly. She didn't need to be inside her suits to record everything anyway. Damien wasn't very useful at determining how well HOMONOIA could pilot more than one suit at the same time, but she liked not having to worry about harming her test dummy. He was the perfect choice if he was in the mood to help assess her suits, especially since he was still weakened from his time in Heavens Above. If he was in a worse mood… Well, it was a good thing HOMONOIA could help repair any excess damage.

Theo froze when she noticed the group of people gathering nearby. While there were times she secretly cherished being the most widely-known Black Glove Pirate, she didn't particularly like that people could identify her on sight. Damien continued fighting, which probably indicated she was safe, but she still guided NYMPHE to hover behind her. "Uh, hi?"

"How old are you really?" asked one of the people in front.

That was one of many questions she expected from random jerks around her. "Twelve and a half."

"No, seriously," another person said, "what's your real age? Did you eat a de-aging Fruit?"

"I was born twelve and a half fucking years ago," she snapped, shooting to her feet. "If you don't believe me, too bad. I don't have to prove shit to you."

"So you can swim?"

The tang and buzz of NYMPHE's extending its plasma blade emanated from behind her. "Wanna check?"

The person in front raised their hands. "We're not here to fight. We just want to talk a bit."

Theo looked around. "And you thought me being alone with Damien was the best time to do it? You know who Damien is, right?"

"The Untamed Infernal's reputation is almost as well-known as yours and Captain Libera's. He seems to be content enough at the moment."

"Yeah, at the moment. You're still risking your lives being here. He'll come over here if I stop fighting him. I'm not telling you how any of my suits work or anything about our crew, so what do you want?"

"Do you believe in reincarnation?"

That was definitely not one of the questions she expected from random jerks. "Do I what?"

"Reincarnation," repeated someone else. "Souls returning to Earth in a different physical form instead of passing on."

"No, and I don't care. I'm an engineer, not a theologist." She only slightly failed to keep her face straight. "Ask one of the others if you want to talk philosophy. Anything else?"

"Have you ever heard of Joy Boy?"

She was somewhat amazed to remember she had from Alexander's tales. "The guy who created the first One Piece?"

Relief crossed many of their faces. "There is no doubt reincarnation exists. Against all odds, Joy Boy came back after 800 years as the Second Pirate King. If that's possible, who knows how many other people have returned over the years."

"I recommend asking Cap or Oya about shit like that. They know a lot more than me and can give you much more in-depth answers."

"You are the 31st Alram-Mah. You are the 11111st. How old were you when you came up with your first invention?"

"I successfully modified HERMES without it exploding when I was six," she said, caution replacing the boastfulness she normally had while disclosing that fact.

The group slowly smiled and nodded. "What do you think is more likely? You doing that while every other six-year-old in the world was learning to read analog clocks and fingerpainting? Or Hypatia Mah returning in the body of Hero Alram? You don't really think you're a mere twelve years old, do you?"

Words failed to come to Theo's lips as her eye filled with frustrated tears. She knew her gender and age would be questioned no matter how important she got or surrounded by weaponry she was, but denying who she was as a person? How was she supposed to respond to that?

"See?" prompted the one in front. "Doesn't that make more sense? You're not a literally unbelievably smart young kid. You are Hypatia Mah, the woman whose genius has been unparalleled throughout the centuries. We are eager to learn from you, not some jumped-up tween."

She took a shaky step backwards, but stumbled and landed on the ground. "What?"

"We know it's a lot to take in. It might take a little time for you to come to terms with everything, but we're here to support you. We can help you explain everything to-"

TITANIDE crashed to the ground between them and tumbled away, KYKLOPS following instantly behind. Damien skidded to a stop in a trail of fire, ignoring HEROINE trying to extract itself from his headlock. "Ahoy, cumrags! What y'all bitchin' about?"

The group immediately retreated a bit even though his flames went out. "We were just talking with Hypatia."

Damien glanced back at Theo and frowned at her distress. "You playin' names again? You think they won' know 'oo's playing with these puppets while Cap'n's makin' sure everybody knows she's 'ere?"

"So you've claimed to be Hypatia before?" someone cut in. "See? Even you know you've reincarnated!"

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Damien's totally blank expression when he was sure he had misunderstood something would never not be funny. "You wha'?"

"Again, it's much more likely that she's the reincarnation of Hypatia Mah in Hero Alram's body than she is an unfeasibly talented child. She isn't Theodora Alram-Mah IX."

"Ah." Although the air around Theo only felt slightly warmer, HEROINE's thermometers told a very different story. The group turned to flee, but Damien briefly blurred, surrounding them with a wall of blue fire. "Nah, smegmunchers. Le's 'ear some more."

Theo recovered enough to remotely stand KYKLOPS up so it could have a look over the wall. Damien strode unhurriedly through the panicked crowd, occasionally doling out slaps that knocked them head over heels. He lifted the main speaker by the leg and glanced up at KYKLOPS. Lyn's words about non-violent responses to hurtful statements were nice and all, but Theo still gave a watery giggle when he carelessly tossed the speaker against a tree.

When Damien was satisfied, the wall of fire died down as he walked over to her and crouched down. "Some real jizzbrains around 'ere, ain' they?"

Theo sniffled and laughed as she hugged him tightly. "Real fuckin' idiots."

"Yahahar!" He hoisted her onto his shoulders. "Le's stop playin' wit' yer dolls and get some grub."

"Didn't Cap want us back on the ship?"

He waved his hand dismissively. "If she needed us, she woulda said so."

"Well, what about TITANIDE? 14-meter battlesuits aren't exactly inconspicuous, and we won't be able to relax if every rando in the city wants a piece of it. I know HOMONOIA could get it and the others back by going along the coast, but I really don't want to leave it alone. Its movement speed is still shit. Even KYKLOPS could beat it to the ship and back. Plus, you just tested its combat capabilities. It's not exactly operating at 100%. You think it'd make it safely back if anybody remotely powerful wanted to take it?"

"Tch. Fine. One round with you in all of 'em."

"When we get back," she countered, maneuvering HEROINE and KYKLOPS into TITANIDE but leaving NYMPHE out just in case.

"Two rounds."

"You already said one, and I'm hungry too."

"You think yer real fuckin' slick now that yer out of diapers, huh?"

"Hey, I've lost all my baby teeth! Raven said I probably wouldn't need braces, but my fake front teeth might need to be replaced. Like yours!" She leaned over so she could mirror his wide smile. "Well, all of yours are fake, but still. The way you fight, I can't believe you still have all your limbs. It's not fair. You not being able to use your left arm in West Blue doesn't count."

He ruffled her hair. "Whine to Sunshine or Toro. Ha, wha' d'you think 'appens if Cabbage loses an' 'and?"

"The person she switches with loses their hand, which will attach itself to her wrist and morph to match her body, duh!"

Theo started when Lyn landed in front of them. "Duh what? What's duh?"

Alexander ran up and put his hands on his knees, panting heavily. "You know… Captain said… you have to stay… with me…"

"How many other huge robots are wandering around here?" Lyn responded to their unasked question.

Damien looked meaningfully up at Theo. "Okay, in this instance, it was good that TITANIDE was with us. Other people will still want to bring it down for shits and-"

He roared with laughter when she belatedly covered her mouth. "Why fuckin' pretend? You think only I know?"

Theo relaxed when Lyn laughed too and Alexander - still catching his breath - managed to smile. "It's not like Cee doesn't know you swear, but it's good practice being mindful of when it's appropriate for you to and when it isn't."

Damien lifted Theo's black right hand with a finger. "Aye, like that matters with this!"

"Not that you'd know, dummy," Lyn said, "but it's really nice to sometimes not be treated like hyperdangerous criminals to avoid. Yeah, Theo doesn't exactly look like your average tween, but she can still seem like a harmless punk schoolkid and not the total badass she is. How are you this winded? Did you just laze around in Impel Down?"

Alexander tried to keep his breath even as he stood up straight. "You know I would be flat… on my face ten blocks back if you… had tried to drag me here like this… three years ago."

"Psh, details!" Lyn reached up and gently ran her thumb along the tear trail down Theo's cheek. "Anything you want to talk about?"

Theo hugged Damien's head more tightly. "Some jerkwads said I wasn't Theo, but the reincarnation of Hypatia Mah."

She struggled to stifle her giggles at Lyn and Alexander's baffled expressions, and Damien's sniggering pushed her over the edge. "That's… quite a statement," Alexander said slowly. "Did they say why?"

"It makes more sense to them that I'm a reincarnated old person than a genius kid. They brought up Joy Boy."

Alexander's face darkened. "They took Joy Boy's name in vain?"

"Shoulda told me," Damien growled. "Wouldn'a been as nice."

Lyn squeezed both of them tightly. "Spirits of saints, both of you turn into complete dorks sometimes. Nerd out over Joy Boy some other time. If you say you're okay, Theo, I won't press any further. What were you two planning on doing?"

"We're sorta working our way back to the ship," Theo said. "Cap didn't sound like she needed us super badly, but I don't want to leave my suits alone so I want to go back and drop them off."

Lyn swiped her hand in the air as she blew a raspberry. "She'd be yappin' our ear off if she needed us."

"The rest of us should already be there anyway," Alexander said. "We can take our time along the coast. Is it possible to ride on TITANIDE's shoulders or something?"

Theo brightened. "First of all, I think I'm going to it from TITANIDE to something else because the suit's not big enough to fit the name. Second, yes, I made the ATLAS shoulder system rideable because I figured people wouldn't necessarily like to be transported in EPIONE. It has safety belts right now, but I'm not sure if that makes it safer or not. I'm debating whether electrifying or superheating is better to keep away bad guys…"