Ricky led everyone to some sort of secret exit that the guards use to escape for smoke breaks. Junpon was sitting on Sabo's shoulder, trying to keep quiet with small cheering, but still had to be reminded by the blonde to shut up once in a while.

As the slaves barely restrained themselves from just breaking into a run, Sabo looked around. Quinne was nowhere to be seen. It could be that she's just further in the crowd, but he had a bad feeling stirring in his gut that told him she had definitely not come out yet.

"Hey," Sabo whispered to Junpon. "I made a friend while looking for the keys. Can you go to Ricky while I look for her?"

Junpon just grinned. "Go right on, boy!" he said and jumped off Sabo's shoulder to scurry off.

Sabo sneaked off to what he thought was the direction to the cleaning room. The hallway in that direction was fairly empty, but the uneasiness in his chest just grew. He didn't have a metal pipe with him, or any weapon for that matter, but just his fists will do.

He reached the door of the cleaning room when it just broke.

Something— no, someone,— got thrown at the wall, the splintered planks of the door littered in their wake. They were severely injured, face entirely swollen with bruises. From the armour they were wearing, which was now broken and dented in ways that could not be comfortable, Sabo guessed that they were a guard that he first knocked out. Before he could get any words out, someone snarled from the doorway of the cleaning room.

"You guards had one fucking job!"

Slowly, Sabo turned and came face-to-face with Poppers. And the sight of him instantly made his blood boil.

The slaver was standing tall, looming over the blonde with a frown, but Sabo couldn't concentrate on that. He was more focused on the fact that the slaver was holding Quinne by the neck and dangling her in the air like a mere rag. The woman was clawing at his fat fist, struggling to breathe. The look of panic on her face was getting more and more pronounced, and for a second, she looked over at Sabo, her eyes begging.

Before Poppers could get another word out of his disgusting mouth, Sabo ran at him with a warcry.

Poppers swung his free arm through the air, hitting Sabo and bodily throwing him down the hall. Quinne gave a strangled yelp as the blonde slammed into the brick wall, and a smaller one when she herself was thrown behind Poppers. Sabo felt his back sting in pain, but quickly got back up, glaring.

"Let her go." he hissed.

"No can do. She betrayed me! That only means death." Poppers shouted.

"She never chose to follow you!" Sabo retorted.

He pounced again, this time managing to get a swipe at his face. He dodged another swing of the arm by jumping backwards, then kicked sharply at his stomach. Poppers caught his leg before it could land and swung him at another wall, and the blonde stood again, eyes still glued to the horrible man.

He noticed Quinne sitting up, looking between Sabo and down the hall, the path to escape. Sabo nodded towards the exit encouragingly. She took one look at him, biting her lip and eyes full of tears, and leaped up in a run.

Poppers thankfully ignored her and gave him a vicious smile. "You rat. What do you think you are, some sorta hero? Tricking me, helping every weakass escape? They'll just get caught again anyway. And then nobody's gonna save them."

"I don't think anyone deserves to be put in chains." Sabo murmured, rage still simmering in his veins. "And I don't think someone like you deserves to have that power. I don't really care much for other people's feelings, it ain't relevant to me. But to take away their freedom?"

There it was. That urge to fly again. But now that that horrible metal wasn't around his wrists, there was nothing holding him back. He felt a prickling in his arms, but it wasn't uncomfortable… more instinctive.

"Everyone is born free. You have no right to go against the rules of nature!"

He attacked again with a kick, but something was different this time. Poppers tried to block, but there was a sharp whoosh and the man's arm had a large slash in it. Poppers screamed in pain, and Sabo blinked in surprise.

His foot had turned into a grey claw.

For a second, he stepped back, examining his new biology. It was more of an avian claw, if the sharp talons were anything to go by. The skin of it was a dark grey, and the nails were sleek and shiny like nickel. Before he could give it more thought, he had to dodge a large fist coming his way.

The slaver looked absolutely furious, but that was more to Sabo's advantage as his moves became sloppy. Sabo circled him, ducking around every attack as he tried to think. So, he had claws. He had the claws of a bird. He had no idea what the fuck his Devil Fruit was, but it can turn him into a bird. If it can turn him into a bird, does that mean he'd also have wings?

Wings. Maybe that's it. Maybe he just has to fly.

(He was choking, dying, down here on the ground. He has to fly. He has to fly.)

The second that thought came to mind, Sabo's body automatically turned around and ran. Poppers shouted something angry and started running after him, heavy feet slamming into the ground with such force that Sabo was pretty sure he's setting off mini earthquakes with every step. With every turn, Sabo was afraid he might slip and fall and immediately be completely beaten, but the chase was also exhilarating, and despite himself he felt an untamed grin grow on his face.. The last time he ran like this was when he and his brothers were being chased by the Hightown guards after dine-and-dashing for the nth time.

The reminder of those happy memories made his heart ache. But he swore he would get to feel it with them both all over again, someday.

Sabo turned one last corner, and saw that he was back in the room with the cells. What he hadn't noticed before, as his senses were dulled by seastone, was that the ceiling was in the shape of a circus tent, and from the dark hues of red he spied behind the wooden support beams, he could guess that it was actually made of thick cloth. Which was a horrible design fail on Poppers' part.

His loud footsteps stopped behind Sabo, and the blonde avoided another swing. No matter what he does, he has to ensure to not get back in a cell, nor get too close to the man. Could he climb the bars of the jail cells and jump to the rafters? Tear a hole and fly out? Okay, not the best plan, but it was his only one.

Naturally, things go wrong before they could get better, because Poppers snatched him. He dangled him in the air, holding him up close to his face, snarling. He was saying something about hanging Sabo like poultry, but the kid was too busy cringing in pain from the older man's grip. Hissing a curse, Sabo did the only thing he could think of and bit at Poppers' flesh.

The slaver howled and dropped him. Sabo quickly spat out the blood in his mouth (the metallic taste familiar yet unwanted) and scrambled away. Bringing out his inner jungle child, he climbed the bars of the cell in record time, Poppers yelling wildly down below and trying to grab him. The man was too out of shape to jump and reach him, but likewise, Sabo wasn't as nimble as when he was a child. He doubts he can make it up to the rafters with his injuries and his current stamina—

Wait. His injuries.

Another stupid plan hatched in his head and— okay. He had most likely hit his head a few times too many today, which is why such a risky plan came to mind. And why he was so eager to try it. But then again, Quinne did say that Poppers was an idiot.

Sabo looked back down, grinning sharply at the man who was still glaring at him. In Sabo's concussion-ridden head, he was just a child throwing a tantrum, which made him more sure that this might work.

"Hey," the blonde called down innocently, "Mind giving me a hand at something?"

Poppers blinked at the sudden question. "What?"

Sabo didn't wait for anything else and simply jumped right back down, but this time right on Poppers' fat head.

The crack of the fat man's nose and his strangled wail was a satisfying sound. The blonde's well-landed kick had managed to give some surprising damage. The second he landed, immediately started passing on his injuries onto the man under him through his bare foot using his weird powers. In a second, his head was cleared, and his body didn't ache anymore. He felt bone tired again, but the adrenaline thrumming in his veins gave him the energy to leap right up again.

He jumped high, and his arms tingled and he flew.