Serious: Encounter! Gael Iura meets with an old friend and Yoruyonaka Kaizokudan fights Shichibukai Gael! ((Yorunaka crew members only, please))

Ranyx put his head in his hands. "Damn. It's not the crew I'm worried about. Gael doesn't have a murderous bone in his body. I'm worried about him. Avarill's fruit does not have any easy counter attack. If Gael isn't careful, he's screwed." Ranyx sighed. He'd explain most of it to James. "Look, I met Gael before he was a Shichibukai. The Captain hates the Shichibukai because one of them killed her father. Gael and I are good friends... and Gael really is quite weak for a Shichibukai. He can get away if he absolutely needs to." Ranyx sighed again. "What I'm really most worried about is Gael's last-ditch effort. It takes the form of a fruit that literally changes the impulses in his brain. He changes from his normal, kind self to one who would kill anyone who fecking looked at him funny. And its bad when he's like that... he has any number of ways to make plants literally digest you. So, everyone will be fine if he doesn't eat that."

Gael had his vines drag him underground and pop out out of Avarill's attack area. He looked at the dragonfruit, swallowed audibly, and devoured it. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Suddenly, his features grew darker, and he looked up at Avarill smiling widely. "Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly." Gael laughed maniacally and swept his arm up, and a giant Venus flytrap shot out of the ground under Avarill, its mouth closing with intense speed.

Avarill jumped up, barraging the flytrap with small 5cm diameter blasts of funka, causing the plant to disperse. He finished the jump a bit to the side and regarded his opponent again. "Hahahahah! A change of heart maybe?" Avarill laughed. He looked around briefly, grinning. He had caused quite a lot of ruination in the marketplace. He was going to cause more of it. "Hokai!" He made a 2 meter diameter sphere, centered on Gael's midsection, intended to crush him where he stood.

Gael vanished into the ground, an extensive root system enabling him to escape. He popped up away from the radius of the blast, giggling madly. "Hope you're not claustrophobic!" Gael had a huge pitcher plant shoot up out of the ground, scooping Avarill out of the ground. He quickly followed up with three gigantic flytraps, each bigger than the last. "My pets are hungry..." Gael said madly. "Lets give them a snack, shall we???" All three attempted to eat the pitcher-plant surrounded Avarill.

Avarill started furiously making Funka blasts around himself with both hands, blasting away the plants. He made eight 2 meter diameter blasts around them, making the edges of the spheres just touch. "FUNKA!" He delayed 7 of the explosions so they went off just as he made the last one, creating a great ring of explosions around him, hopefully either stalling Gael's next attack or getting gael in the blast or the shrapnel.

Listening, nodding at intervals, James took in the information about Gael. His lingering smile grew a bit at hearing about the 'crazy' fruit he could produce. Though his good nature told him that it'd likely be bad if things came to that, his natural lust for excitement had him hoping it did.

"You always have to assume the worst," James finally replied, clapping his hands together. "We'll assume that he's going to or has already eaten that power produce of his. In that case, this is my plan:

"We're going to beat the piss out of him."

Jim could sense instantly that Ranyx wasn't thrilled with the idea. His tone changed and his smile mellowed out a bit as he explained.

"My original plan was more diplomatic, but this will work. Hear me out." James took a deep breath and continued. "We'll make an excuse and go ourselves. There's no doubt the three of us could bring him uner without too much lasting harm.

"If he's rampaging right now, it's bad news. I'm sure Jackson can stand up to him, but it'll cost a large enough number of innocents their houses, their pets...their lives. I'm sort of the opposite of our good friend Avarill; I excel at keeping property damage down.

"Once Sir Royal Mister Gael is inoperatus, will he calm down? Good, I thought as much. We can convince Avarill to keep this whole incident between the three of us."

Peeking around the corner to ensure that they'd been forgotten, Jim nodded and opened an air door. He stood to the side of it, hand on the handle, beckoning Ranyx in with a sweeping gesture.

"It's that or we wait around and hope for the best...right up until it's too late to do anything, of course."

Between Ranyx’s extended absence, the sounds of a battle raging in the town and James and Ranyx whispering secrets to each other like school girls on the playground, Oceana was quickly losing patience. Something suspicious was afoot and she was determined to find out what was going on.

Slamming her book shut for the final time that day, she stood up abruptly and marched over to the two men just in time to catch the last bit of their conversation.

“Too late to do what?” she snapped, feeling rather irate, “What is going on you two? Where’s Avarill? What took you so long Ranyx?” At this point she was beginning to sound like a nagging mother rather than a pirate captain.

“I demand an explanation right now.” She demanded, stomping her foot for emphasis.

Gael leapt away from the explosive shield, laughing madly. "Funka funka funka! Is that all you can say, guy? Eh? IS IT?" He grinned swiftly wreathing the area around Avarill in Immobilizing flowers. The gases began swirling out of the flowers, attempting to reach him.

Ranyx stood stock still. "No." Ranyx said to James before Oceana had a chance to come over. "I refuse to go over and harm Gael. To be honest, I would literally attempted to kill everyone on the globe...twice, before I even attempted to hurt Gael. Nothing you, Oceana, or God himself can say will change my mind." When Oceana came over, he smiled brightly at her and said, "Oh, Avarill's blowing stuff up... it's his thing, you know... and the reason I took so long was... well, after buying all this," he gestured at the fruit basket. The huge fruit basket. "I went for a walk, and accidently fell asleep. Sorry. James was just gonna go retrieve Avarill. Weren't you, James?" He tilted his head at James, his face changing to a very angry, passionate one for a second, then returning to normal.

"Habits, Shichibukai, habits." Avarill said. His opponent had had a weird change, but he wasn't about to worry about that. He blasted a portion of the gas attack with a funka and ran through to the outside of the gaseous ring. He was determined to blow this shichibukai to hell. He created a 2 meter diameter blast so that Gael was just inside, delaying the funka explosion. He created four more, on each side of Gael delaying them with pinpoint precision as well. Finally, he created a sphere above Gael. The blasts gathered wind as they delayed, finally exploding as he set the final funka above Gael's head.

It was clear to James that Oceana was angry, concerned, and upset with all this suspicious behaviour. A pang of guilt raced through James' mid as he heard the slapping sound of Miss Edwards' bare foot hit the deck. He didn't like the idea of lying to his new captain after such a short time, even if it was for her safety. The crew was by no means weak, but the damage they'd likely inflict on the island resolving this incident

"You've got us," Jim admitted to Oceana, laughing sheepishly and rubbing the back of his wildly hairy head. "We sorta cause some trouble...right now, Avarill is sorta kinda rampaging right now." Taking in a breath and straightening up, Jim put on a surprised look.

"But I'll take care of it, I promise!" Jim snapped to attention and saluted. His pseudo-professional demeanor was replaced by sincerity, and he looked her in the eyes with an earnest, young, eager-to-please, childl-like gaze. Bowing curtly, he stepped through a door into the ship's cabin that nobody remembered.

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Rushing full-speed through his private emerald universe, Jim wondered how much of a difference he could make in this sort of grand-scale fight. Smiling grimly, he began to work through the strategies and the words he'd need in his head.

The sound of explosions and site of giant plants could be seen in the distance, looming above and between the buildings. Stepping up his speed, Jim prepared to join the showdown...but he'd watched long enough to kno what was happening.

Ranyx suddenly grasped his forehead, swaying where he stood. Massive nausea and a headache born of worry made him stagger. He wordlessy shuffled downstairs, the nausea apparent on his face. He would be in trouble... he would pay them back. At this point, he was just a pain in the rear to the crew.

Gael disappeared under the earth with a shlorping sound. Vines burst out of the ground around Avarill, twisting in to try to crush him. Gael took a breather underground, almost positive Avarill wouldn't be able to catch him.

Avarill knew he was disadvantaged here. Gael could evade him easily by going underground. He leaped to the right to escape the vines, cutting them apart with a single slash of his Daito afterwards. James had sent a signal. The rest of the Yoroyunaka Pirates should be here soon. The marketplace was devastated. Marines or guard would probably arrive once they figured out an attack plan. It mattered not. Avarill's concern was Gael. He knew he couldn't target the shichibukai now, so he readied himself, preparing to attack Gael immediately after he resurfaced.

Gael seemed to rocket out of the ground, a wild maniacal grin on his face. "Welcome, Mr. Funka! To the Arboretum of death!" He spun around, turning the whole marketplace into a forest of Impel Downian trees. With a snap of his fingers, the tree's limbs began swinging at Avarill.

Jim decided that now was more or less as good a time as any to re-introduce himself into the battle. A round door popped open directly below Avarill, gravity taking the man down into the strange pocket dimension down below him. It was different from the air doors he'd made earlier, all the colours distorted and warped through an amethyst lens.

Above them, like the surface of some frozen purple sea, the ground stood in sharp, clear relief, the objects and plants on it's surface shadows against the bizarrely transparent surface of the earth. Gael could be seen up in the air, falling back down to the ground after his last attack. The entire world above was plainly visible, as if the world below the world had been cut away to give a perfect overhead view...from beneath.

"The Earth Door is a good place to launch counter-attacks from, but it has the disadvantage of being less maneuverable and more predictable than the Air Door," Jim explained, "so we'll have to make our counter-attack count. You pick the spot, and I'll let you out wherever, whenever you want."

"Just let me know when you're ready to break on through..."

Avarill was surprised of the earth door, but recognized it as James' ability and allowed himself to fall through. "James? Where are the others." He then shook his head. They were probably coming behind him. James was always the best at covering ground. "There." He pointed at right in front of where Gael was, readying a diagonal up-from-down attack inside the earth door. As he was let out, he slashed, trying to cut down the shichibukai.

Something sprouted out of Gael's feet, widening into a broad shield like disc, blocking the slash, and Gael brought his wieght down on his attacker.

His opponent had made a really bad move. Avarill was large, heavy and immensely strong. He kept his sword at the side as he stepped forward, slamming his larger form into Gael in return. He pulled his left arm back as the fell, slamming it towards Gael's face.

The disc seemed to melt away as Gael kicked off the air, shooting a safer distance away from Avarill. With a wave of his hands, roots and tree limbs began swinging at Avarill, attempting to take him out.

A pair of thin lines of light, one brilliant aqua and the other a subdued tangerine, ripped out of the ground and into the sky in front of Avarill. Severed roots and limbs rained to the ground, leaving a clear path open between the pirate and Gael.

A split second after the laser barrage tore apart the incoming attack, an air door swung open silently behind Gael. Jim leapt out, throwing a strong open-palm strike at the small of his opponent's back. On his palm was a black plus-sign, made of thin blade metal strips, each converging on a small hemisphere of clear glass of some sort; a lens.

As the strike rushed towards the shichibukai from behind, Morse's free hand was already reaching off to the side and grabbing the air. And infront of him, Gael had nothing between him and Avarill.

With the help of James, this fight might be won sooner than he had thought. Avarill readied himself as James appeared behind Gael to strike, making a 15 cm diameter blast to Gael's abdomen. "Funka!" He made it small so he wouldn't him James with the blast. Even he understood why friendly fire was bad.

Gael stretched his arm out and a tree branch came whizzing to his finger. Before either of their attacks connected, Gael seemed to vanish: sucked into the tree branch. He popped out at the tree's base and laughed. "Two on one, is it? All the more fun!" Two masses of vines broke the surface of the ground, molding into the shape of hands. The two hands grasped at Avarill and Jim, trying to grab them and squeeze them to death.

This time, Jim left Avarill to worry about his own attack. As the mass of vines came towards him, he put a hand forward. The plant-hand wrapped around him, closing with a sickening thud.

A moment later, Jim casually stepped out of a door at the base of the vines, both hands already aimed at Gael, palms wide and fingers spread as if trying to lift a giant weight. A deep crimson beam of light fired directly at him from one, a gaudy yellow one firing somewhat off to the side.

"Hokai!" Avarill used an implosion to crush the hand into a small ball of vague greenery. He aimed another hokai, this time with a 40cm diameter, targetting Gael's head. If he could either distract him from the beams or just hit, it would be good.

((Bump for great justice))

((Sorry, been busy.))

Gael simply touched the tree's base, being sucked into it and popping out at the end of a branch. "Missed me missed me!" He giggled madly, reversing the hand behind Jim, trying to get him with that. While that was happening, he created a field of Blade Grass around Avarill, intending to extend all the blades of grass to pierce him.

Jim nodded in simple agreement, stomping on the ground and falling through a trapdoor a split moment before the hand swinging back behind him made impact. Safe inside his own little world, he sat down and placed his chin upon his fist, deep in thought.

"He not only controls the plants...he can grow them instantly, in no time at all, and can become them as well. This will make hitting him a bit problematic..." Jim reasoned. "That being said..."

Bursting out of his Earth Door, the stranger quickly opened and slipped inside an Air Door. Once inside, he moved through the emerald pocket dimension to stand right besides Gael, waiting and watching from inside a place that nobody but him could enter or leave.