Punk Hazard moves forward like a game of Chess in which the pieces don't necessarily know what the rest of their side is doing, so let's see how this goes!

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Chapter 37:

Meetings

"Just to clarify," Sunny reiterated, the fairy unmoved from where she had been upon her own railing overlooking the snowy shore, "we are not adopting, right?"

"No, Sunny," Nami repeated beside her with a small grin and a roll of her eyes. "One is enough trouble, thank you very much, even with everyone else helping."

"So what do we do now?"

"I don't know," Nami admitted. The pair looked out over the railing to see Ace running around with the other children while the marines watched, many of them speaking in hushed voices about what, exactly, they were going to do in this situation. There were many a hand gesture involved, so the pirates imagined they were not all on the same page. "Now that we've found these kids, we can't just book it and leave them behind."

"I mean, we could—"

"You sound like Zoro."

Nami couldn't help but laugh at the scandalized look that crossed Sunny's face at the comment. As much of a face that Sunny had at the moment, that is. In this case, the red coloring that mostly appeared where Nami suspected the Klabautermann's hair would be appeared where the cheeks would go, the fairy's mouth turning into an O. Sunny, too, soon devolved into giggles.

"I don' know how I feel about this team-up," Gin admitted, savoring the taste of the tobacco on his tongue as he handed Sanji his cigarette back. He'd tried to resist his wants, but constantly smelling the smoke had reawakened his cravings. With nothing to do immediately in the future, most of their Transponder Snails confiscated upon their capture, and plans to be made by those of higher authority, Gin found himself beside the one member who had joined the crew the same day he had, the one with whom he felt he had a unique bond over the others. While the blond had his back to the shore, the man's eyes closed as he looked up, Gin had his full weight on the railing as he leaned on his elbows. "D'ya trust Smoker, Sanji?"

"Not nearly as far as I could kick him," the runaway prince admitted, blowing smoke rings. His foot beat a regular thump thump thump against the grass deck. "This whole island leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It doesn't feel right."

"Somethin's obviously happenin' here."

"That's not what I meant," Sanji said with a shake of his head, the rush of air causing the end of his cancer stick to brighten. He chewed on it. "Every other island we went to looked normal. At least for the first little bit, whatever it was. Hell, even Jaya was a pirate island as advertised."

"There could be a Warlord here," Gin thought aloud, keeping his eyes on the marines below while ignoring Rum's suggestions that they were one wrong move from reneging on this uncomfortable truce. "Only time we found an island this weird was Thriller Bark, an' that was a right mess."

"What Warlord could do this?" Sanji didn't need to point, as the this he referred to was pretty obvious. "This is far outside the MO of Crocodile or Moria."

"Crocodile was kicked out a long time ago and Moria ain't a Warlord no more," Gin told him. "See, Trafalger Law an' Buggy the Clown managed t' catch th' Navy's attention and accepted amnesty deals after Blackbeard quit and Moria went missin', bringin' th' Six Warlords o' th' Sea back t' full strength."

"Moria's missing?" Sanji blinked, turning to see Gin out of the corner of his eye. He offered his cigarette, Gin accepting the offer before handing it back. He blew his own smoke ring. "Wasn't he a big player at the War of the Best? I heard about that from" —he paused, shivering— "Ivankov."

"Moria disappeared after th' battle and was declared missin' a few months later. Iffin th' Government knows where he went, they ain't tellin'."

"No kidding?"

"They'd considered addin' a seventh Warlord, too, tippin' th' balance o' power, but the guy got offed by th' New Whitebeards for lyin' 'bout being their late captain's son. 'Perently that's a major taboo for 'em."

"I guess some of the New Whitebeards really can act like the pirate stereotypes of you press the wrong buttons." Sanji breathed out another puff of smoke before pulling the cigarette away. It had already burnt down to the stub, Sanji sighing and flicking it away.

"Litterin'?" Gin questioned. "Really?"

"I don't see an ashtray around here." Sanji held out another smoke, Gin sighing as he sparked electricity between two fingers, lighting it. "Law, huh? Wasn't he one of the Supernovas? I'm surprised he agreed to work for the Marines."

"Don' know why," Gin shrugged.

"So what's the list, then? Who might we see in the New World that we haven't already?"

"Th' Six Warlords are Donquixote Doflamingo, Bartholomew Kuma, Boa Hancock, Buggy the Clown, Law, an' Dracule Mihawk. Th' Four Emperors are 'Red Haired' Shanks, 'Beast King' Kaido, 'Big Mom' Charlotte Linlin, and th' 'White Whale' Moby Dick. Y'know th' Admirals got a change, too."

"I know Kuzan quit and Akainu got promoted," Sanji nodded. "Thing is, no one seems to know anything."

"Cause no one does. Th' Marines've been tight-lipped 'bout them an' anyone who's met 'em ain't been around t' say nothin'."

"I'd think they need the morale boost. What game are they playing?"

Meanwhile, the marines' top brass locally were having something of a similar conversation. What had started off as a simple "go there, stop shit" mission had immediately devolved into something well outside their comfort zone.

"Sir, this is far outside our expectations," Tashigi hissed, the woman eyeing the pirates as they took stock of what, and who, was around. "You can't really mean to respect this so-called truce with the Straw Hat Pirates, can you?

"And why should I not?" the Logia questioned, his arms crossed. He tilted his head, one eye peeking out from his sunglasses to look at his second-in-command. "Are marines not men of their word, Captain Tashigi? Should we not do what we can to be truthful?"

"But to pirates?" She made a quick gesture toward the ship where the Cat Burglar and the Sunny's manifestation laughed about something. Several steps from them stood the Black Leg and the Electric Devil, the pair sharing a smoke, whilst the Soul King picked an ironically-lively tune with his not-so-alive hands (if their stories were to be believed). The Cyborg was somewhere within the ship, his actions causing the Klabautermann to wince or laugh periodically. The Monster Doctor stood in the snow, calling children from their play one-by-one to give them a check-up and insure there were no injuries or diseases among them.

Tashigi felt a twinge of thankfulness at the animal's care, considering the conglomerated medical knowledge of G-5 —outside that of Smoker's and her own— was limited to drinking away the pain and hoping some of the spillage would cleanse the wound. Such certainly explained why the unit had such a high turnover before they came along. G-5 was still far from respectable as far as Marine units went, but it was a sight better than it had been.

"So let's say we do work together with this pirates," the woman began, her grip tightening on the handle of her Shigure. "Can we really be productive if we can't trust them? They're pirates. They'll stab us in the back as soon as they can get away with it."

"I don't believe that they will, Tashigi," Smoker grunted with a shake of his head. "Were it any other pirate crew, I would give your concerns more thought, but my gut tells me these pirates are not prone to backstabbing."

"But—"

"Do I need to explain my reasoning, Captain?" Smoker questioned, putting emphasis on her rank.

Tashigi deflated a little but still stood tall, her sword shaking a little in its sheath. "Please do, Commodore."

Smoker closed his eyes, turning away from her as he looked up to the pirate flag flying above them. The skull thereupon almost taunted them with its smile, flapping in the chilling breeze.

"Two years ago, during the Marineford War, you were with me when I confronted Tri-Horn on the stand. Do you remember that?"

"Of course, sir. That conversation was completely against regulation!"

"I know. And now I know why. That talk… it changed the way I viewed pirates, changed the way I viewed piracy. It brought unsavory answers to questions I'd had since my unearned promotion at Alabasta. It made me hesitate."

"I don't understand, sir," Tashigi admitted. "You've barely changed in our time with G-5. You've never shown pity to pirates outside the basic human decency some of the men seem to lack. What makes the Straw Hats different?"

Smoker did not answer right away, the man blowing cigar smoke into the wind before turning around.

"Because they seem truly human," he answered.

"But… Aren't most pirates human?"

"Most pirates have thrown away their humanity, but when I spoke to Tri-Horn upon that stand, he showed more humanity and humility than I've seen in many marines to date. He spoke of a deep-rooted corruption that turned a marine-aspirant into one of the most-wanted teenagers in the world.

"As a younger man, I watched as the King of the Pirates was executed, starting the Great Pirate Era. I saw him on his knees, facing his death, and I saw him smile as he spoke the words that would send countless souls to their deaths over the next two decades. That was when I learned that all men carried a darkness in themselves. Greed, lust, wrath, and all other manner of wants that the weak allow to rule their lives. For the longest time, I believed that those who called themselves pirates had all succumbed to this darkness and that all who enlisted in the Marines found it in themselves to rise above this. Truthfully, I still believe in the latter when newbies still join, but Tri-Horn made me question all of that.

"After hearing his story, I simply needed to hear what Straw Hat had to say. I cornered him on the ice and questioned his reasons. I needed to know how his path began, and he admitted that he had no dreams of plunder or conquest. He admitted he only took to the sea for the freedom of it all and that Tri-Horn was his crew's greatest moral compass. What I've seen in the Grand Line… it has shown me that this darkness is not as conquerable as I used to think, that more than just marines can find the light, that marines can still fall into the darkness just as easily, and that the world is not so cleanly divided as I once thought it was. That, Tashigi, scares me."

"What… are you trying to say, sir?"

Smoker sighed, looking back at his second, the woman that had followed him on his quest all the way from Loguetown. "Captain Tashigi, what I am about to say will never make its way to the Fleet Admiral, nor to anyone who supports him. Am I clear?"

"Sir!"

"Good. In that case—"

"The Hell do you mean my sister is missing‽" a voice interrupted, the disembodied head of the Soul King smacking into the snow at their feet. Both Smoker and Tashigi jumped as the skull of the Soul King —an impossible lump growing from within its afro— plowed into the powder. The skull's jaw dropped.

"Have you been taking lessons from Sanji?" Brook questioned. "That kick rattled my brain! Or, it would have if I still had one! Yohoho!"

"Skull joke, skull joke!" Ace cheered.

"How curious," the reacclimated top half of the samurai beside the child muttered, his arms crossed. "Perhaps I should be concerned about the permanent effects of the magic swordsman's attacks, lest I befall a similar fate."

"That's just Granpa Brook," the toddler waved off, his words calming the other children. "He's a skelly cause he pinky pwomised to meet a whale again."

"Oohh!" the chorus of children nodded, as if that one sentence explained everything.

"That statement makes no sense," the half-a-samurai muttered.

"Brook, where the Hell is my sister‽" Amy demanded as she held the rest of the undead musician's skeletal body in her hand, her back-up parasol stabbed through its ribcage.

"As I said, Grace and Billy embarked on an observatory expedition some time ago," Brook responded. "They did not say when they would return."

"And you just let them go into a dangerous environment with unknown hostiles without saying anything?"

"Of course not!" The skull looked scandalized as much as a skull could. "I wished them the best of luck!"

"I'm on a crew of morons!" the blonde declared, throwing Brook's body aside.

"Now let's be reasonable here," Gin said, stepping away from the railing. "Grace an' Billy're tough, Amy. We know she can handle most anythin' th' world could throw at 'er an' they can run away from anythin' they can't take. We gotta trust they're bein' smart about this."

"Considering her taste in men, I don't know if I can trust her to be smart."

"Ya don't need to say that about Horn," Kaku grumbled. "At least not when he isn't here to defend himself."

"You don't want to get in the middle of this, tagalong! My sister is missing!"

"We have more immediate things to worry about right now," Chopper interrupted. "We've gotten the children out of the building and away from whatever was happening in there, but we don't have the resources to clothe them. At least, not with the clothes we were able to buy after beating the Neo-Marines since they burned most of what we had."

"If you can procure leaves or stones, mayhaps I could be of assistance," the half-swordsman coughed.

"Can you make clothes?" Ace questioned.

"Indeed I can," the man nodded. "It is a skill I have possessed ever since accidentally eating a strange fruit. Upon doing so, I acquired this unique jutsu that has come in handy several times."

"At least that solves the clothing issue," Chopper commented as he and Ace moved to pick leaves off Sunny's various trees.

"Very good," the samurai said. "Now everyone who needs a coat, place one leaf upon your head."

The children did so, the group arrayed in a multilayered semicircle around the half-man. Ace stood among them, wanting to be part of this show despite having his own winter gear. The samurai closed his eyes and focused, a low hum coming from him as his hands made a slow series of hand signs.

"What's he doing?" one of the kids whispered.

"I don't know," another replied. The samurai's eyes snapped open, the man pushing his hands forward. Smoke encompassed the group, clearing quickly to reveal that each child now wore a back coat with red mittens and earmuffs.

"Oh my gosh!" Mocha gasped. "They're so warm! And we even got mittens!"

"That's so cool, no-legs guy!"

"You must keep them on," the man warned. "Once you take them off, the clothes will cease to exist."

"Alright, who the Hell is this guy?" Smoker demanded. "Straw Hats, is he with you?"

"Honestly, we don't even know his name," Nami admitted. "Whoever runs this place took us captive and we broke out. This guy's head was in the same cell as us and we decided to bring him along. That's really it."

"You don't know anything else about him?"

"He's apparently a samurai from Wano," the young mother shrugged. "His actions lead to us answering a distress call here, so he's not aligned with whoever had these kids captive."

"Wano," Smoker muttered, a whole host of new thoughts and ideas circulating in his head as he turned his eyes to the serious man. "I don't know what, but his presence outside the closed-off nation spells bad things for the future."

"Welcome to the Master's laboratory," the crocodile centaur said, his large hand waving to the inside of the room. It lacked any color, the walls a drab grey lined with lockers of the same color. Clothing hooks hung along the opposite wall, holding lighter coats for long-term indoor use as opposed to the thick, woolen coats. Gas masks hung beside the coats, each of the centaurs grabbing one. "You all look cold. Go ahead and grab yourselves a coat and a mask. You're gonna need them."

"Thanks, Manodile!" Luffy grinned, he and his crew each taking one of the offered articles.

"Please, call me Brownbeard," the largest centaur said. "That's what the government called me until I hung up my flag to work for the Master."

"Oh yeah, we didn't give our names. Oops! You can call me Luffy." The young father held out his hand as Brownbeard's eyes slowly widened, an open-mouthed and wide-eyed look covering his face. He was not alone as most of the other centaurs developed similar expressions, the ones farthest away whinnying as their hooves clomped on the concrete.

"L-Luffy?" he stuttered. "A-As in 'Straw Hat' Luffy? The s-son of D-Dragon, th-the pirate who took on the Admirals a-and lived? B-But then that m-means…" His eyes darted between two-legs, recognition dawning.

"Yeah, these are my crewmates! That's Zoro and Robin and Usopp and Merry and Coby!"

"Er, y-yes! We're very glad to h-have you on our island!" His voice was clipped, the man now refusing to look them in the eye. Luffy didn't seem to notice, the young captain too engrossed in studying the surroundings. "W-Would you like to meet the Master?"

"That'd be great!" Luffy threw on a coat striped horizontally red and blue before following after Brownbeard. The rest of the pirates hurried to grab coats of their own, Coby snagging an extra gas mask for Luffy since, if they were around, there would be a good chance they would be needed. Coby also grabbed an extra coat, bundling the dragon egg they'd found into it before tying the sleeves over his shoulder to make a sort of makeshift fanny pack/mei dai carrier.

When they caught up, Luffy was sitting on Brownbeard's crocodile back, the huge man tense. Luffy still had the legs balanced over his own shoulder.

"This place is huge!" Merry laughed. "Is this a research lab you guys stole from the government?"

"I… suppose you could say that," Brownbeard replied. He turned back, seeing the rest of the pirates crowding onto his back. "Er, I'm not a horse."

"But you know our destination," Robin rebuffed. "Are you suggesting you are not strong enough to carry the lot of us?"

"Of course I'm strong enough!" the man insisted, a nerve touched. "Just you watch! I'll get us to the Master in record time!"

"You're evil, Robin," Usopp muttered as their transport sped up, Luffy now clapping on his shoulder. "You just don't want to walk."

"Is that a problem?" the woman asked, a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes across her lips. "In addition, I am still injured from our confrontation with the dragon."

"You just don't like it because you know the same thing works on you, Uncle Usopp," Merry offered.

"That is not true, Merry!"

"Yes it is."

"Coby, help me out here!"

The roset turned, eyeing the ridiculous argument happening behind him.

"What do you want me to say, Usopp?" he questioned. "She's got you wrapped around her finger. She has since even before she was sentient."

"Wha… But…"

"That synopsis aligns with my own observations," Robin offered. "I understand the person our crew received Merry from is important to you, so the logic stands."

"Zoro, you don't think that, do you?" Usopp asked only for silence to answer him. The sniper's eyes widened slowly as his mouth fell into a worried frown. "…Zoro?"

"Godadammit!" Coby hissed. "I take my eyes off him for one moment!"

"Is there a problem?" Brownbeard questioned. Luffy spun around.

"Oh," the captain blinked. "It's nothing. Zoro's just missing again."

"A-A-Again?"

"Don't worry about it," Luffy waved off. "He does this all the time. He'll show up again soon enough."

"That does not reassure me," the centaur muttered under his breath. Coby straightened, his eyes narrowing as his gaze whipped to their right.

"Is something the matter, Coby?" Robin enquired.

"I… no," the young man sighed with a shake of his head. "I thought I sensed something familiar, but it's gone already. Must be Zoro-sensei wondering around."

"You can't feel him?" Usopp asked.

"This is my first time having him in range when his sense of direction screws him over," Coby replied. "It's… I don't even know how to describe it. It's like he's everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. Like even his own presence doesn't know where he is. I didn't know it was even possible to get that lost."

"Eh, he'll come back when we need him," Luffy decided, ending that discussion. "So Manodile, what brought you here?"

"What?" their transportation blinked.

"Why are you on this island? Were you born here? Is that why you're a centaur?"

"Well, no," the man admitted. "This place was a World Government research lab and I used to be a pirate. After a bad defeat, I got captured by the Marines and my crew and I were shipped here for experiments. When the fallout happened, we lost the use of our legs and the Song of Ice and Fire —the battle that changed the island— left us on the verge of starvation. That's when the Master came and granted us a way to walk again, so we swore our loyalty to him and have defended his island from the local monsters since. Later, a man came that could give us new legs, granting us these."

"Local monsters?" Robin questioned. "What sorts of creatures might that be?"

"All sorts of weird things. We'd been trying to kill that dragon until you all came along, but there was this big snake before that. And this one thing the Master called a manticore with a scorpion tail. And there was a chihuahua the size of a galleon. And a turtle that walked on two legs and breathed fire! We dropped it in lava and it just came back as a dry skeleton! And there was this scary flower monster with sharp teeth that liked to taunt us. We fought them all and they'd just laugh and laugh…"

"Sounds like this land is prone to strange mutations," Coby commented.

"I couldn't tell you why, though. They seem to just… happen." Brownbeard shrugged. "Let me tell you, that flower had a nasty sense of humor…"

It took another dozen minutes before most of the group reached their destination, Brownbeard announcing their arrival as they stopped outside a metal door. The pirates climbed down, Coby feeling the presence of three someones on the other side with his Observation. Brownbeard rapped on the door before opening it slowly.

The inside looked almost like it was modeled after a bar, several couches set on a rug to the left and a counter with bottles stacked behind it on the right. A humanoid creature sat atop one of the padded stools, a frown over her face as a man in a yellow jumpsuit tended to several burns she had.

The centerpoint of the room, however, was the wispy, gaseous thing that floated before a table of vials and beakers. It was pink in color, maintaining its form as tentacles of gas moved to stir rods and mix vials.

"What is it?" the gas asked.

"Er, visitors, Master," Brownbeard answered. The gaseous thing paused. "They seem friendly and wanted to meet you."

"I see." The gas did not so much turn around as a face simply materialized from what was facing them. The eyes were little beads of fuchsia held in shadows that acted like sclera. The mouth was little more than an open pocket covered with great, rounded pieces of gas shaped similar to the polyps of flowers, only these creations were the size of forearms. The mouth moved as the thing spoke, but not quite in time with the words. "And who are our… guests?"

Coby's hand twitched. He did not like the way that last word sounded.

"Hi, I'm Monkey D. Luffy!" the captain said without a hint of hesitation. "So you're this Master guy, right?"

"I am."

"What are you? Are you an alien? Do you wanna join my crew? Do you poop?"

"Stop asking monsters to join our crew, Luffy!" Usopp yelled, smacking Luffy over the head.

"You can't call our host a monster, Uncle Usopp!" Merry chastised. "That's considered rude in most parts of the world!"

"Well, he's certainly not human, so he's the same level of weird as Luffy, Franky, and Brook!"

"By that metric, I'm a monster too, Uncle Usopp!"

"Now, that's not what I was saying at all," the sniper quickly backtracked.

"Are we ignoring that last question?" Coby muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. He sighed, turning his attention to the being and not on his bickering crewmates. Bad feeling or not, there was no excuse for such invasive questions inside someone's home. The roset gave a shallow bow. "I'm so sorry about them. Their sense of decorum can be… limited."

"Come on. Usopp! Wouldn't it be so cool to have a cloud monster on the ship? I bet he and Nami would get along talking about wind and weather and stuff!"

"Actually, it's possible he's scared of wind if he's really made of gas," Merry pointed out.

"That's not the point here, you two!" Usopp protested.

"Is he a he?" Luffy wondered. "Maybe he's a she? Or an it. I haven't seen a talking it before."

"Determining that could take a scientific study," Merry nodded. "Although, aren't the legs a talking it?"

"No," Luffy denied. "The legs are a they, 'cause there's two of them."

"We could determine the sex of the legs," Robin suggested with a coy smile.

"Ew, gross!" Merry gagged. "Besides, we aren't talking about the legs right now."

"You're the one that brought up the legs," Luffy pointed out.

"You could just ask the gas what it goes by," Usopp pointed out. "You know, that seems like a question that should come way before joining the crew or its potential bowel movements."

"I'm not asking him to move bowls, Usopp!" Luffy laughed. "You're stupid!"

"You're the moron here!"

"Again, I am so sorry," Coby apologized. "If you'll excuse me for a moment…" The young swordsman turned, stepping over to the arguing trio. His hands balled into fists before he brought them down on each. "Would you three imbeciles shut up and be nice‽ We are guests right now!"

"Ow," Usopp and Merry whined, holding their heads, while Luffy remained unaffected by the blunt-force battery. Robin stood by, giggling.

"Shishishi!" the rubber-man laughed before he turned back to the gaseous conglomeration. "So, do you wanna join my pirate crew?"

"I will respectfully pass, thank you," the Master said.

"Aww. Ok."

"My my," the winged woman at the bar chuckled. "As I live and breathe, it's the Straw Hat Pirates. I can't say you live up to the whole 'bloodthirsty plunderers' image."

"It's the bird-woman!" Usopp cried, stepping before Merry to shield her.

"We saw you on the burning side!" Luffy said. "Is that how you got hurt? Do you want to join my pirate crew?"

"No, thank you," the harpy waved off.

"Oh," Luffy pouted.

"More importantly, who's calling us bloodthirsty plunderers?" Coby demanded. "We do not plunder!"

"Well, look." The woman slid a newspaper over the counter, Coby walking over to take it with a quick word of thanks.

"Oh, it's a more comprehensive article to follow that emergency announcement about Ace. Looks like they even got some information from that Neo-Marine debacle, too."

"Oh, is his picture in there?" Luffy asked, all but running to the roset's side.

"Yeah, right here."

Luffy snatched the paper from Coby's hand, quickly folding it so Ace's picture was the centerpoint. He then shoved that picture into the harpy's face.

"Isn't my son the cutest? He got his hair and smile from me, but he's got Nami's eyes. And he's smart, too! He can use manys… mullys… marris… Robin!"

"Multisyllabic, Captain."

"Yeah, multisilly words!"

"Your progeny can converse while utilizing multisyllabic speech?" the Master questioned, his gaseous form leaning closer. "How old is this child of yours."

"Less than two." Luffy rounded, shoving the picture into the Master's face. "Look at how adorable he is! He's gonna grow up to be the free-est-est prince to ever prince, cause he's gonna be the Prince of the Pirates once I find the One Piece!"

The eyes of the Master gained a disconcerting sheen at the answer. "And, pray tell, what other skills does this son of yours possess?"

"Robin's teaching him this super old language, and Zoro and Coby have started showing him how to fight with a sword, but he doesn't have a sword yet. And he can cook better than me with Sanji's help and Chopper's teaching him doctoring and Franky's teaching him to build stuff and Brook's teaching him a language called scales for music. He knows so much already!"

"I see," the Master said. "What interesting information. I'll need to meet this boy myself. He might just be the sort of assistant I've been searching for."

"You could teach him too if you join my crew," Luffy offered.

"No, I don't think so," the Master denied, his body rapidly expanding. Coby reached for the gas masks he'd brought, but both Brownbeard and the Harpy acted as the Master grew to encompass the whole room, taking the quickest of them captive. "Sleep, pirates. Rest easy knowing I will bring the child to his full potential to overtake even Vegapunk himself. Shilololo! Shiiilolololo!"

"What shall we do with the samurai's legs, Master?" the harpy questioned as Usopp and Robin succumbed to the gas. Coby struggled in her talons' hold, the sickly-sweet aroma of the gas forcing its way down his nose even as he tried to not breath in. "And with these new prisoners?"

"I want to keep most of them," the Master said as Merry lost her physical form. "Lock them up, tighter than the others had been. Straw Hat, however, seems like too much of a risk. Injure him and dump him down the trash shoot along with their weapons. That should remove him from the equation without jeopardizing the bond I'll form with my future assistant."

"And the legs?"

"Throw them down the shoot, too."

"Shit," Coby cursed, fighting to keep his eyes open. He reached for his swords, but his arms felt heavier, the air around him growing colder. He looked to the side the see the pale face of the harpy smiling at him from between the Zoan and his captain. She had one wing draped around Luffy's shoulders, the roset coming to the conclusion her other was on him.

"Peace," she whispered. "Let the cold embrace you."

Coby blacked out.

Billy flinched as he painstakingly put one foot in front of the other, red matting his yellow feathers with drops of the stuff leaving a line to a hole in the snow. His one open eye squinted into the snow, the other closed and bruised as blood dripped down. Girl-Makes-Colors was draped over his saddle, the girl unresponsive but breathing when last he checked.

The Gigafowl extended one wing only to tuck it back against his side. Several of his flight feathers had been burned away from the explosion and the resulting avalanche that had swept them up had not been kind. He muttered bird curses toward both Girl-Makes-Colors and their current predicament as a result of her explosion, but he still readily admitted it was better than being dead at the talons of Green-Woman-Has-Wings-Speaks-Bird.

Billy cast his eyes around, only white interspersed with the occasional grey meeting his gaze. That gave him a direction for the mountain, which meant Floating-Nest-Now-Alive was docked on the other side. Probably.

"Wah," the large bird sighed, his trail marked by the disturbed snow and the spots of red. His orange peacock tail folded toward his head, covering Girl-Makes-Colors in an attempt to help preserve some of her heat lest she have lasting effects from the subzero temperatures around. "Wah wah, wah wah. Wah wahwah, wah wah. Blegh."

Billy continued to wander as he complained, internally wondering of the current positions of his flock. Yellow-Woman-Smells-Sweet would not be happy about the outcome of their expedition, but that was not his fault! Girl-Makes-Colors is the one who made too much of that explosive!

"Where the Hell did the others go?" a familiar voice questioned, turning Billy's head toward his left. "They went and got themselves lost, didn't they? What morons."

"Wah?" Billy followed the voice, slowly penetrating the white veil of the snow until the green of a familiar swordsman came to the foreground. Billy found himself looking down on the First Mate, Angry-Moss-Cuts-Things standing in the midst of a giant indentation in the snow. Billy felt his eyes widen as he recognized the shape as that of a footprint larger than Angry-Moss was tall. "Wah! Wah!"

"Hm?" Angry-Moss blinked, turning his gaze upward. "Billy? The Hell are you doing here? I thought you were back on the Sunny."

"Wah!" The Gigafowl leapt from the ledge he'd been standing on, the bird gliding downward to all but tackle the green-haired swordsman. Tears iced beside his eyes until Billy buried his head in Angry-Moss' stomach, trying to hug him.

"What's wrong with you?" the man demanded. Billy sniffed, slowly opening his tail feathers to show the injured form of Girl-Makes-Colors.

"Shrimpette?" Angry-Moss questioned. He moved his hand under her nose, relaxing. "She's still breathing. What happened?"

"Wah. Wahwah, wah wahwahwah, WAH!"

"I understood none of that," Angry-Moss said. Billy sighed. He reached forward with his unhurt wing and drew slow symbols into the snow nearby.

"So that happened," the man nodded, Billy suppressing any sign of surprise he might show that Angry-Moss could read. "So, Grace caused an explosion that you two got caught up in? Lucky for you, I know where we're going."

"Wah?" Billy gave a quick, pained squawk as the swordsman hoisted the bird onto his shoulders.

"Come on, Sunny's this way."

Billy swallowed a nervous gulp as the man started walking away from the mountain.

Unbeknownst to the pair, another pair watched them move through the snow, these individuals perfectly blended with the surroundings. One watched through a set of binoculars while the other held a Transponder Snail, the invertebrate far smaller than even his finger.

"We've got eyes on three," the one holding the snail said. "They've got a cool walk ahead, due east toward the ocean."

"Keep your eyes on them," the voice on the other end of the call ordered. "I'll be there soon. Best to start with the smallest group before heading to the large one."

"Roger that."

End of Chapter 37

G-5 have agreed to a tenuous truce, but it seems not everyone is fully trusting. And the expedition crew has been captured! And, of course, Zoro went and got himself lost, but who's that tracking him? Punk Hazard just isn't going the Straw Hats' way, is it? Tell me what you think and what you want to see! So, as always,

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods