"That one look good to you?" Fencer asked.

"Seems as good as any," I shrugged.

"Okay then." My fire ferret got on top of my head and began waving and yelling. "Hey, you, big mouth!"

The pelican she called out to quickly turned its head at us. In a rage, it flew down and tried pecking us.

I put a stop to that by grabbing one of its legs and holding it upside down. "Look, sorry about the insult, but we need a favor."

The pelican grumbled, to which Fencer translated, "What's the favor?"

"Easy," I gestured to my newly acquired Transponder snail, "Just carry this thing around and record our crew's exploits for the next couple of hours."

"Hours!?" Fencer said on the pelican's behalf, "I've got better things to do. Unless, of course…You make it worth my while."

"Surprisingly greedy," I muttered as I pulled out some money. "Okay, here's half upfront. But if you swallow this snail, you're not getting the other half."

The pelican nodded and opened its mouth. Carefully, I placed my new snail into its jaw pouch while giving it a crash course in operating the snail. Once that was done, it flew away to do its new job.

Fencer and I rejoined the crew in the train car. Though, as we got back in, we noticed Chopper sticking his head out of the window.

The little reindeer quickly pulled his head back in, furrowing his brow in concern, "Uuuh, are those giants supposed to be at the first gate?"

"Not according to what the skeleton told us," Ehlek answered, shaking his head. "Alright, I hope everyone's familiar with the plan?"

Zambai was about to leave the car with Paulie and the shipwrights to make his preparations. Before he did though, he glanced back at us to ask, "This whole thing sure is ballsy. You sure it'll work out the way you said?"

Ehlek nodded, "Trust me, Kalmah and Pridak should be able to divert enough forces that we won't be overwhelmed."

"What does it take to kill this thing!?" a Marine grunt yelled in frustration.

Several more grunts set up a mortar and fired at the freakishly huge squid that was crawling all over the place. The Marines concentrated their firepower, causing the squid to squirm in pain before eventually going limp.

Out from behind one of its tentacles walked the crimson Barraki, Kalmah. "Impressive. Very impressive," he said, gazing over his fallen beast. "But-" he turned to face the Marines, who were aiming their guns at him, "-What are you going to do about the rest of them?"

Right on cue, the ground rumbled several more literally giant squids crawled into view, making the Marines start to panic.

"Somebody call for backup!"

"I'll try, but there's trouble on the west side of the island too! It's diverting our forces!"

"What!? What else could possibly be going on!?"

Numerous Marines fled in terror. Unfortunately, many of them were still sucked into the tornado. Once that happened, they were eaten by the sharks inside the tornado.

"Don't lose your nerve, men!" one of the Marines shouted. He and some of his buddies fired their rifles, shooting some of the sharks that were flying out of the tornado, "We can't stop a tornado but we can at least kill the sharks!"

"You mean like that shark, sir?" one of them asked, pointing off to the side.

Just as the group followed his finger, Pridak dashed into their midst, slashing them to pieces before any of them could even get a shot off. Feeling some blood splash on his face, he laughed maniacally and stared down another group of Marines. "I've come, I've seen-" the leader of the Barraki took a fighting stance, "-and now I'm going to conquer."

"Wow. How'd you come up with all that so fast?" Luffy asked, voicing all our thoughts.

"We often came up with battle strategies when we were ruling our own kingdoms," Mantax answered.

Ehlek wrapped an arm around me, "Well, with those giants in place, we'll have to do something about them. The skeleton and I will handle it."

"Waitwaitwait," I stopped him. First, I summoned Skeleton Buddy, then I handed Luffy my Reject Dial. "Take this, Luffy. You know how it works?"

Luffy took the Dial, "Yeah. You really think I'll need it?"

"Yep," I nodded. I then focused on our doctor, "And Chopper, you remember what I told you?"

"Stay in my Heavy Point or people will think I'm a pet," Chopper growled, clearly angered by the very notion.

The green Barraki whisked me up to the top of the train before anything else could be said. "Alright, skeleton, it's time."

"But I actually don't want to kill those giants," I shook my head. Of all the people he would try and aim me at, why Oimo and Kashi?

"I swear, sometimes you're impossible, you know that?" Ehlek muttered under his breath. Man, that felt jarring to hear from him. He adopted a tone you might expect to hear when talking to a toddler, "Alright, just tell yourself they're too strong to kill and just beat them up. Does that sound good to you?"

"Don't talk down to me," I said sternly.

"Good, use that anger," Ehlek sounded too happy about that. "And hurry up. We're almost at the gates. Just take everything you can think of and use it for fuel." He urged. "Like me, for example."

That made me groan. How long had he been bugging me with this "fight to kill" crap? It's not like I've even lost that many fights. Just that one time against Mr. -1. Also that time I got captured on Drum Island…And I might've lost to Wyper if Fencer hadn't been there. And, for all my foreknowledge, I feel like I'm not as good a strategist as I should be-"

If Ehlek had lips, he would've had a nasty grin on his face right now.

"What the hell's going on with him?" Fencer asked. As she and some of the other crew members climbed out onto the roof, Declan pulsed red, making their eyes widen.

"Simple, ferret," Ehlek answered calmly. "He's finally started his downward spiral."

Declan pulsed again. This time, his bones all turned a bright red.

"Wow. Hey, Declan, could you always change colors like that?" Luffy asked innocently.

"Forget about that!" Ehlek suddenly shouted. "We're too close to the gate! Captain, just like we planned!"

Luffy nodded and stretched his arms back. "Gum-Gum Bazooka!" Flinging his arms forward, he struck the gate, bending it just the right way for Rocket Man to jump it like a ramp.

As the sea train sailed through the air, Ehlek kicked Declan off the train.

"What the hell was that for!? everyone yelled angrily.

"Simple," Ehlek said calmly. "The skeleton will defeat those giants, making it that much easier for the rest of our forces to break through and meet us inside."

"Now stop complaining and brace for impact," Mantax instructed.

Realizing the Barraki were right, the crew held onto the train as it finally crash landed behind the second gate.

"Everyone alright?" Zoro asked. Everyone gave him either a nod or verbal confirmation. "Good, because we've got company."

Nami, Chopper, and Usopp all began panicking at the sight of the rapidly assembling Marines, all of whom were pointing guns at them.

"I've got this," Fencer declared. She hopped off the train and faced the Marines, brandishing her tail, "ALRIGHT, WHO WANTS THEIR NUTS SLICED OPEN!?"

In response, many of the Marines dropped their guns and ran away in terror, hands covering their groins.

The rest of the crew got off the train to join her. "You're scary, you know that?" Usopp whimpered.

"Thanks." Fencer's grin quickly turned into a frown. "But that's not gonna keep them off us for long. Nami, can you whip up a storm cloud or something? Maybe that'll stall them."

Nami pulled out her Perfect Clima-Tact, "I could try, but why not just ask Ehlek?"

"Did you forget the plan, Dinosaur?" Ehlek asked, gesturing to his crackling spines, "I'm saving my energy for later."

The navigator sighed and began prepping the area for a thunder cloud. Hearing the sound of rubber tightening, she saw Usopp preparing to fire his new large, new slingshot. Knowing she wouldn't have to do all the work in defending made her smile a bit.

Oimo and Kashi gazed in mild shock as the sea train soared over their heads.

"What's that red thing falling off the train?" Oimo wondered out loud.

Once the object landed, the giants got a better look at it.

Kashi raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Is the skeleton supposed to be red? Gavin and Falco didn't mention that part."

"Hehehehe." Both giants scowled as the skeleton rose to his feet, chuckling maniacally. "HehehaHAHA!"

"Let's just crush him and get the rest of those pirates!" Oimo raised his club overhead and brought it down.

The skeleton leapt back as the club smashed into the ground. Before Oimo could retract his club, the skeleton leapt up and ran up Oimo's arm. Still laughing, the skeleton punched the fat giant in the face, making him stumble back.

Hopping off Oimo, the skeleton grabbed his dropped club and, with a heave, swung it, knocking Kashi's legs out from under him.

Though down, Kashi swung his ax, hoping to take their enemy down quickly.

The skeleton blocked the ax with his stolen club, though he quickly abandoned it to move in for another attack. This time, instead of a punch, he got in real close and gave the giant a headbutt.

"Why you!" Oimo had recovered enough to throw a punch of his own. To his dismay, the skeleton simply hopped onto his arm and ran up to his face. "Not again!" That was all he got out before he was punched in the face again, this time knocking him to the ground right beside Kashi.

"We've guarded this gate for 50 years!" Kashi declared from his spot on the ground. "We're not gonna lose to just one guy!"

Before any of the three combatants could react, they all heard a rumbling. Looking back in the direction of the sea to see two King Bulls on tank treads rolling up to them. Without bothering to change course, the Bulls rolled right over the giants, knocking them out.

Zambai called out from atop the pink Bull, "Hey, Declan, was it!? Hop on!"

Declan gazed at the Franky Family for a few seconds before running to the first gate and sinking his finger bones into the wall. He quickly climbed up and over the wall, laughing like a maniac all the while.

"Uuuuh, okay?" Zambai shrugged, confused. He soon regained his focus, "Alright, men, let's get these gates open! Don't wanna keep the Straw Hats waiting!"

"Guuuys?" Usopp whimpered. "They're starting to close in."

"We can see that," Sanji growled.

Due to waiting for the Franky Family to catch up, as well as wanting to save their strength for when they caught up to CP9, the Straw Hat crew was one step short of sitting ducks. As a result, their strategy was for Nami to blow away approaching Marines with ranged attacks while Ehlek and Mantax took out any foes that got past that.

"This is bad. More and more Marines are showing up," Chopper observed worriedly. "If the others don't make it here soon-"

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Hearing insane laughter coming from the second gate, they all glanced back to see Declan falling off the top of the gate. He sank his fingers into the wall to break his fall. Once he'd reached the ground, he charged right at the Marines. He was too quick to be hit by any bullets, and every time he punched one, there was an audible "CRACK," signifying he was breaking their bones with each hit.

Chimney poked her head out of the sea train, "Oh, hey, Mr. Skeleton Guy!"

Kokoro quickly pulled her back into the train, "Let's maybe wait until he's calmed down a bit, Chimney."

Zoro ignored the fact that Declan was rampaging and casually asked him, "Hey, please tell me the others will be here soon."

"HAHAHA-" Declan laughed, only to abruptly calm down for five seconds and answer, jabbing a thumb at the second gate, "Them? Yeah, they'll be here in a few. HAHAHAHAAAA!" With that, he continued laughing and ran off into the distance, busting heads as he went.

Mantax pat Ehlek on the shoulder, "I have to admit, you worked wonders with him."

"Alright. You hear that, guys? We don't have much longer to wait," Zoro assured everyone nonchalantly.

"You're not worried about him at all!?" Usopp and Chopper yelled in unison.

Sanji took a drag from his cigarette, "Nah. Anger may be passionate and powerful but it's still fleeting. He'll be back to himself in no time."

The whole crew perked up at the sound of the second gate opening. They all smiled as their allies made their way through the gate. From atop one of the King Bulls, Paulie threw out some of his rope and helped them aboard.

Skeleton Buddy looked back at the gates as the group drove away. Seeing the two downed giants ended up jogging his memory. Gasping, he grabbed Usopp and hopped off the Bull they were on and headed in the giants' direction. "Don't worry about us! We'll catch up!"

"Wait a minute!" Nami called out, only to see that the living skeleton had already gotten out of earshot. Growling, she glared at Fencer, "He's your partner. Shouldn't you be keeping him in line!?"

Fencer was unfazed by her crewmate yelling at her, "Will you relax? Declan and his clone are super fast. They can join back up with us and bring Usopp, no problem."

"Uh, Declan, or SB or whatever, I'm not trying to call you stupid or anything-" Usopp began, "BUT WHY THE HELL AREN'T WE ON THOSE BULLS WITH THE REST OF THE CREW!?"

Skeleton Buddy ignored him in favor of trying to figure out his choice of words for Oimo and Kashi. Obviously, he couldn't just go and say "Hey, we met your bosses. They're not really in jail. You were lied to." Being that blunt would probably get them met with disbelief. Instead, he decided to go on a trip down memory lane.

"Huh. You know, these giants weren't all that tough. I mean, my real self beat them all on his own," the skeleton loudly mused. Kashi, who'd regained consciousness at this point, glared at him, so he went on, "They're nothing like the last two giants we met. Those guys were badass."

Usopp just looked nervous and whispered, "Why are you provoking them? Do you want them to get a second wind?"

SB ignored the questions and asked one of his own, "Huh, you know, maybe it's because I literally don't have a brain in my head, but I don't remember where we met them. Hey, Usopp, where'd we meet those giants?" Seeing Usopp was still uncertain, he leaned in a bit and whispered, "Just roll with it. Please."

Nodding, the sniper answered the question, "Uh, it was Little Garden."

Seeing Oimo and Kashi's eyes widen at the name, SB smiled (on the inside, at least). "Oh, right! Little Garden. It's all coming back to me. One of them used a sword and the other one used an ax, right?"

"Yeah, and all their duels kept ending in a draw," Usopp added.

"What…What were their names?" Oimo asked hesitantly.

Usopp and SB exchanged glances. "Dorry and Brogy," they said in unison.

After a brief moment of shock, Kashi shook his head, "That's impossible. Our bosses are locked up in a Marine base. This must be some kind of trick!"

"Waitwaitwait! Hold on a sec!" Usopp waved his hands frantically. "We wouldn't lie about meeting them!"

"Yeah, what's it gonna take?" Skeleton Buddy asked. Despite openly keeping his cool, he was a bit nervous. One wrong word and this conversation could break down in the worst of ways. "They told us they'd been fighting for a hundred years."

Usopp nodded, "And every time the volcano on the island went off, they'd restart their duel!"

Oimo and Kashi had gotten up into sitting positions by this point and shared a glance. They narrowed their eyes at the two Straw Hats. "Tell us the full story," Oimo demanded. "And if we think you're lying for even a second, we're gonna smash you."

"And your little friends too!" Kashi finished.

SB chuckled, "Trust me, if Usopp was lying, you'd know it."

"Hey!" Usopp shouted, offended. After a quick deep breath, he calmed down, "Anyway, it all started a good long while ago-"

"What the hell?" That had been Franky's reaction upon meeting Falco in the Tower of Law. "How come you sound like the skeleton?"

"I was actually wondering about that too," Kaku admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "Something you wanna tell us, Falco?"

"No, there isn't." To Robin and Franky's shock, the new voice sounded exactly like Falco. A new agent entered the room. This one looked exactly like Falco. The only visible differences between the two were that he actually wore a shirt, and he had a mustache but no beard. That's our little secret, Kaku," the newcomer stated with a grin.

"Yoyoi, you and Falco have been tightlipped for as long as we've known you, Gavin," Kumadori said loudly as he posed melodramatically.

The now-named Gavin chuckled alongside Falco, "Like Jabra said, 'We're secret agents and we've got secrets to keep.'"

Jabra's eyes widened, "You weren't even in the room when I said that. Were you eavesdropping?"

"No, I wasn't," the two identical men said in unison.

"Enough," Lucci declared, getting up from his chair. "We should prepare for if the Straw Hats make it this far. Between Blueno's death and them invading this island, they're clearly a threat. Now come along. I believe Spandam said he had something for the two of you." He finished, pointing at Kaku and Kalifa.

"GUM-GUM BALLOON!" Luffy inflated himself, deflecting a mortar that would've hit the yellow King Bull he most of the crew were riding on.

Out of nowhere, three giant, metal balls on chains swung at the pink and red bull the Barraki were on. Mantax and Ehelk immediately leapt up to counterattack. Though with there being only two of them, Ehlek called out to the rest of the crew, "One of you help us out!"

Zoro grabbed Chopper and threw him at one of the balls. Panicking, the Human-Reindeer thrust both his arms out in a double punch, knocking the ball away. The Barraki did the same using kicks Sanji would be proud of. All three Straw Hats then landed safely back on the pink and red bull, with Chopper shaking his hands in pain.

"Owowowowow! What was that for!?" Chopper barked at Zoro. "You could've just done that yourself!"

"Yeah, but I wanted to see if that training we've been doing paid off. And it looks like it did," the green-haired swordsman smiled. "I bet you couldn't have done that before."

Fencer ignored the exchange and looked off in a random direction, "I wonder what Declan's doing." As soon as she voiced her question, the sounds of Marines screaming in the distance caught everyone's attention.

"Oh God, he's here!" "Not like this!" "Help me, mommy!"

"...Does that answer your question?" Sanji asked Fencer, to which the fire ferret nodded.

Nami pointed ahead, "Hey, we're here!"

The two King Bulls slowed to a stop in front of the courthouse, allowing all their occupants to dismount. By some coincidence, Kalmah and Pridak appeared from the west and east respectively at the same time.

Ehlek nodded at them, "I trust things went according to plan?" This made the two Barraki chuckle menacingly.

Chopper cringed at the display while the rest of the crew just frowned. "What's with the laugh?" Zoro asked.

"Oh, nothing. We just found it amusing how repetitive all those Marines were," Pridak explained. He began pantomiming with a mocking tone of voice, "'You think losing an arm or an eye or a leg will stop me? I'll take you down in the name of justice!'"

"It's like we were invading an island of broken records," Kalmah quipped, still chuckling.

Zoro nodded and jabbed a thumb at the gate, "Real nice. Now, how about helping me chop up this door?"

As the two swordsmen slashed up the gate, Luffy put a hand to his ear, "Did someone turn on the background music?"

Hearing the music get louder, everyone looked back the way they came to see Declan making his way toward them. Not only was he still bright red, but his outfit had also seen better days. The right sleeve of his jacket was missing, the jacket itself was now unzipped, and his shoes were gone. The skeleton punched out several more Marines as he started sloppily dancing by the crew, singing along to the music.

My baby takes the morning train

He works from 9 to 5 and then

He takes another home again

To find me waiting for him

After Declan entered the courthouse, the crew stood in silence a few seconds before Pridak suggested, "I say we pretend we didn't see that and join him inside."

"Agreed!" everyone said as they followed their teammate through the gate.

Once inside, they saw Declan standing calmly in the middle of the room. The redness of his bones dissipated in a puff of smoke, making him white again. He looked around, "Huh, we're already here? What happened?"

Seeing that her partner had calmed down, Fencer resumed her usual place on his shoulder, "Let me put it this way, dude: you got mad, then you went mad."

"It was a thing of beauty," Ehlek commented. He nudged me with his elbow, "Now get going. You have a friend to save."

Luffy paused as he was about to go upstairs, "Wait, aren't you guys coming?"

"Our plan requires that we stay down here," Pridak explained as he stabbed a Marine. He then swung his sword, flinging the dead Marine into another Marine.

"Plus, if this impending reunion is anything like the skeleton described, we'd throw up from watching," Kalmah continued. A Marine tried to sneak up and slash him from behind, only for the crimson Barraki to grab him with his tentacles and twist his head until it faced backwards.

The rest of the crew frowned and/or flinched at the brutality but made their way upstairs.

"Hey, Declan, do you know which way leads to the roof?" Luffy asked as he looked between the different hallways and staircases.

The skeleton just shrugged, "I'm not sure about that part."

"But what about all those spoilers of yours?" Fencer asked, annoyed.

"It's not like they give the layout for every building they show," Declan pointed out. "Look, you guys made it to the roof without me in the version I saw, so you can make it now."

"Fair enough," Sanji nodded. "We should split up to cover more ground. I'd be happy to escort you, Nam-" The cook shut up when he saw that Nami was already running off and taking Declan with her, dragging him by the ankle with her tail.

"Come on, Luffy, this way," Zoro led, with his captain following.

That left Sanji standing there with only Chopper to keep him company. The reindeer in question wrapped an arm around Sanji's shoulder while pointing his boomerang, "Let's go!"

"You can stop dragging me now!" I yelled, prompting Nami to finally let go of my ankle. "Thank you!"

Fencer grinned as I got up, "Aw, you wanted to spend time with your senseis?"

"Still not calling either of you that," Nami deadpanned, hefting her Clima-Tact.

"Nice to see you kept up on your tail exercises. You-" Fencer's ears perked up. "Do you guys hear that?"

Knowing what was coming, I planted my feet firmly, and when I saw the iron ball coming, threw a straight punch, stopping it dead. "That hurt more than I thought it would," I got out, clenching my teeth in pain.

Our attackers stepped into view, being a few of the Guilty Jurymen. "Guilty, guilty!" they chanted.

"Let's get 'em, guys!" Nami declared. She paused for a second before rephrasing, "I mean, 'Go get 'em, guys!'"

I just growled at her laziness, but Fencer just wasn't having it. She hopped off my shoulder and glared at our navigator, "Oh no, we're not doing ALL the work for you! You've got dino strength, so use it!" She pointed at Nami's Clima-Tact with her tail. "Or maybe you can smack them with that rod and balls you have."

Aaaaand just like that, I lost it, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I laughed so hard; I actually fell over.

Nami narrowed her eyes as she twirled her weapon, "Alright, you're all getting zapped."

Sanji threw a roundhouse kick, deflecting one of the Jurymen's iron balls. "Chopper, your turn!"

Chopper nodded and reared back before throwing his Dragonrang. The weapon flew at the rightmost Juryman and hit him in the face. It then bounced off him to the second, then to the third, then back to the first.

As the two Straw Hats watched the pattern repeat, Sanji asked, "Did you mean to do that?"

"No," Chopper shook his head. "I thought it would just come right back to me."

A Juryman swung his ball and chain at Luffy, who leapt over it, rearing his arms back. "Gum-Gum Bazooka!" The attack sent the Juryman stumbling back as he spat blood.

"This is taking too long," Zoro complained as he dodged a ball as well. "Hey, Luffy, what do you say I take these guys out and make a path to the roof?"

Taking his attention off the enemy he had in a headlock, Luffy asked his swordsman, "How are you gonna do that?"

Zoro grinned and put one of his swords in his mouth, "Just watch."

"Holy shit!" The girls and I all yelled as a twister of razor wind erupted from the floor below us. The twister took out the Jurymen we were fighting and extended up into the roof, destroying that too. We then heard Zoro's voice from the floor below.

"What'd I tell you? Straight shot to the roof."

Nami leaned over the edge of the hole and spotted Zoro and Luffy, "Are you crazy?! You almost killed us with that!"

"Zoro did what now!?" We heard Sanji's voice from the floor above.

"Hey, guys!?" I called out, "You know what we should be doing right now? This!" I put Fencer back on my shoulder and leapt up to the floor above us before getting to the roof itself. Once the rest of the crew caught up with me, we were greeted by the sight of two particular crew members who'd beaten us there.

"Usopp? Other Declan?" Luffy observed. "When did you guys get here?"

Skeleton Buddy beat Usopp to the punch in answer. "We made friends with some giants."

"Cool," I nodded. Seeing Franky and Robin were on the tower balcony, I called out, "Hey, Franky! What'd I tell ya!? 24 hours!"

"Not gonna lie, bro, I kinda thought that was just bluster!" was the cyborg's response.

SB tapped my shoulder and pointed to the gathered CP9 agents on the balcony, "Are there two of us up there?"

Question for you readers: What do you think would be good starting bounties for Declan, Fencer, and the Barraki? Any estimates? Also, what kind of bounty might Chopper have if he was acknowledged as more than a pet? I'm open to suggestions.