Fortune Maker Incident, Part B: Chase -Open to Cryptic and me-

New World. A place so bizarre, diverse, interesting, yet deadly, only for the veterans. Surely they'd want to have a peek, but the place they had managed to hide themselves into, offered nothing more than a small cabin-sized window to look at. While it was true that Pumpking's Devil Fruit ability, what he described an "awakened" ability at that, was able to cause them to be completely invisible to the naked eye, apart from being able to see one another that is, the fact remained that sound was still a problem. And aside that, they wanted to remain as remote as possible and as inactive as it can get, due to the possibility of adept Haki users abroad, too; a proficient one at the Color of Observation might have been able to locate their presence anyway. Heck, perhaps they were already located and the enemy didn't bother to exterminate them, confident that their power far masks theirs.

It was only the four of them. Hawks, Jade, Catz, and Mr. Pumpking, who was funnily enough, actually named as such, much to Hawks mild surprise and distaste. In fact, they had been informed, during their 10 hour hiding on that ship, that he was actually quite an infamous pirate once, but decided to live a somewhat more secluded life. Now, how that works out with associating himself with vagabonds like that glassy nerd from Fishman Island was something Hawks wasn't willing to occupy himself with. The important was that he was an ally. So far.

Did the others made it out safely? Well, Ginji was with them. Despite being weird, awkward and a bother, his strength was not to be dismissed. With a power rivaling that of Wally's top men, had he stayed with him instead of them, he'd surely be a Commander, Hawks thought. All of Wally's top men had bounties at least or over 600 million. That amounts to a lot, right? Surely everyone would be safe and would find a way, he reassured himself.

"It should take a week or so to arrive, I'd reckon. Unless if they are moving faster than my calculations. We will need to find a way to extract nourishment without being caught in the meantime." Catz, all patched up, explains casually. Almost made Hawks forget that they were going to be in some real trouble soon. "Necromancer" ... she was one of the 11 to be given the title of "Executive" in Fortune Maker's crew; as far as he knew, of all of them, she and another one were the "only" not to boast a bounty of over a billion. Not that this mattered. She was surely incredibly powerful. Besides her, that blasted String String Fruit user that decades ago killed the only person that cared for him until very recently. He too was known as a formidable adversary.

What was going on in Cleyra, he also wondered. Tiberius is a staggering man but, would he be alright? And aside that rascal assortment that one could barely call a crew, was the prince alright? With all that took place, he was probably a fugitive at best. Oh, so many things to worry. People to worry of. He didn't had to worry about that many people ever before. But, above all he had to worry of, was someone much closer.

"Jade, how are you holding up?"

The waving motion of the sea tugging the boat and the creaking sound of old lumber, groaning against its burden had caused Jade to drift into a restless sleep. Her back was against the wall of the vessel and she had begun to lean against Hawks as she fell asleep. She hadn't had a good rest in weeks, her dreams full of shattered nightmares of her own shortcomings causing everyone around her to perish - because she wasn't strong enough. She tensed, gasping for a moment before her eyes opened, she looked around, confused for a moment, half forgetting they had boarded the enemy vessel.

The restless slumber made her more tired than before. She noticed she had drifted off while leaning against Hawks. She straightened up slowly, not having her typical fit about proximity. She was happy to have at least one predictable thing nearby. "Ah sorry for the intrusion. I must have fallen asleep."

The anxiety began to creep back into her mind. This was the second time they ran away from an unresolved disaster. They left Cleyra in the hands of Tiberious, unresolved and without looking back and now they were leaving another place in a war zone of ashes. Everywhere they went, disaster and blood followed and they were ill-equipped to stop the carnage. All they could do was run. She was sick of running. Especially when the destruction was linked to her own blood. She yawned, still half asleep before murmuring, likely only within the earshot of Hawks. "I should turn myself in ... and end this nonsense. Too much needless death..." She was quite close to drifting back to sleep.

"What are you saying? It doesn't matter either way, they would have done all that whether you existed or not. This is in no way your fault. If anything, you are trying to save everyone without anyone ever giving you a reason to. Now that's what I call a hero." Hawks said, in an effort to encourage her. Not that he was completely wrong, however. These events were going to unfold regardless, and in fact it was a good thing no one knew of her real identity. It was saving everyone time.

Of course, being a klutz as he was, the final words of his encouragement were a tad too loud, much to the other's annoyance. "Oh yes sure, yell yer dumb pep' talk, we would love to get caught and gutted. Nice going, "capitan" Lovestruck." Catz growls in a taunting way, briefly retracting his thoughts from the apparently important act of licking his own paw-hand.

"Um, it just occured to me, but the hostage is actually somewhere on that exact ship ... shouldn't we try to extract her now?" Pumpking wondered, while looking away from Jade; apparently he was shy when close to females. "You are not wrong but ... if we do that, they will probably turn back and burn down Cleyra ... however, perhaps we could use your power a bit more offensively, maybe locate her and formulate an quick plan for when we arrive. Any thoughts?" Hawks asks, finding Pumpking's question as an excellent means to divert a possible "lovestruck" conversation somewhere else. Thankfully to a more serious subject as this one was.

Jade opened her eyes more widely, her half-asleep murmuring had apparently been heard by Hawks who was, as usual, trying to see the bright side of things. "Heroes don't run away and heroes have to share... I don't like sharing."  She seemed to 'fluff' his shoulder before pressing her cheek against it and had started to drift back to sleep while Catz, who she had failed to notice entirely began squawking about getting caught and 'captain lovestruck'?

She lifted her head, giving him an intense green glare.  "What the hell did you call me, cat?!" That obnoxious cat always made suspicious comments about the two of them but as far as they knew, he had never seen them together so it was better to just ignore him.  Engaging his accusations only made them look guilty.

Jade was more awake now that the cat irritated her and made her very aware that she had be sleeping against Hawks with incriminating familiarity. "If the princess is on the ship and we find her... what the hell are we going to do, take her and jump overboard?  I don't know whose idea this was but as far as I can tell we are ALSO prisoners unless we can gain control over the ship - which would mean fighting with that demon doll yonkling. And even if we capture her - what are we going to do with her - take her home and assume she won't get captured again?  They WILL NOT STOP until the poneglyph is resolved.  What happens when the find out her blood ..." Jade stopped herself almost revealing too much.  "Yeah ... we're all going to die here. Fantastic."

"Why are you both keen on being loud? If they find us in here we are done for ... we have to wait until we reach Zou. Those morons think they can take down the mighty Mink tribe. That's when we jump them. Once we handle this, then we can see how to protect and what to do." Catz huffs, crossing his arms and then letting out a groan of annoyance.

"Um, shouldn't we still formulate a plan? Perhaps analyze what we know about the heavy weights we have to deal with?" Pumpking questions, now completely turned away from Jade.

"Well, the Commander, Liliana, has an ability that seems to infect anyone it touches, and causes them to effectively become her minions. Then there is this guy ..." Catz begins to explain, each person's description being about as terribly horrible as the others.

"Oh my, we ARE going to die here." Hawks sighs, sweating lightly.

Again, that cat was antagonizing her. Jade peered at him between strands of teal hair the fell over her eyes. He was always such a melodramatic diva - always complaining, accusing, and bringing bad news. She had tried to be friendly with him before but they both disliked each other so much that it all crumbled when they were out of the immediate threat of death. For the moment they had to be civil but she wasn't going to be cooperative about it.

"YOU are the one who started it, hurling out your baseless accusations and critiques. If no one pleases you - why are you here? ... and since we're going to die anyway ... here's a little gift for you and the silly stories you come up with." She turns to the Hawks, devilish mischief in her her eyes. He was going to be so so angry at her, but being stuck in a confined place with that endlessly complaining cat was getting to her. She grabbed the magicians collar with a hand, tugging him close. "Sorry about this ..." She kissed him suddenly with the pent up aggression the had been simmering just below the surface. Falling victim to her own scheme for a moment, she kissed him much more deeply and for much longer than intended and by the end she was completely flustered and out of breath, but she had a good poker face. She released Hawks, slowly straightening his shirt where she had grabbed it, and offering and apologetic gaze. "There, cat ... are you happy now? Will you shut up and leave us alone now or do you have another baseless conspiracy theory that I have to hear about every day? If you don't pipe down, you'll be next and no one here wants that." She glared at at the cat threateningly for a moment - afraid to look Hawks in the eye - he could creatively punish her later. She turned her attention back to the glass eyed creature. "You were saying, Pumpking?"

Catz was not impressed. Instead, a yawn signaling indifference was released, followed by a casual, nonchalant crossing of his arms. "What did that prove to me now? That you have the maturity of a 10 year old? Don't care if you wanna toy around, marry him, eat him, whatever. Why would it matter to me in any way? Actually, do care about the eating part so, don't eat him, if you please. And, will you act as a grown-up until we are done with this mission?"

"Ah ... I forgot." Pumpking remarked, now with his face fully covered by a spare, empty cargo box that he seemingly found once that kissing bout took place. "Are you really that shy, Pumpking?" Catz questions, leaving out a sign of frustration. "Am surrounded by a bunch of kids."

"And if you must know, this was ... a curing act! Yes, see, her saliva contains the power to heal wounds and ... uh, disease! And I was just trying to rebound from a bad case of cold. So, thank you for your assistance, doctor." Hawks explains, with an expression that implied he thought he had it under control. "... I am a doctor, you know. You was fine before." Catz casually remarks. "Kids ..."

Jade eyes the cat carefully, her teeth growing sharp as her face, for a moment reflects the sleeping feline predator within, clawing to be released upon the next victim of her rage.  It had been too long since she let the beast roam free.  She runs her tongue over a sharp canine with a warning glare.  "I did mention that you would be next, didn't I?" She did not specify if she meant for eating or an aggressive rendezvous of lips - it didn't matter - he would not enjoy either scenario and both would end in blood. A very lion like growl escapes her before she turns her attention away from the cat, determine to not allow him to get the better of her.

Her expression softened ass she pushed her anger away and buried a slight smile of amusement in Hawks trying to give a reasonable explanation for her over the top behavior, still impressed he didn't have one of his usual fits. Her brazen nonsense was partly to shut the cat up, which clearly didn't work - but mostly she just wanted to. She approached him, her gaze turned toward the ground, almost shyly.  "I'm sorry for the intrusion, Captain. Mm shall I call you that now? You will let me know if your ... 'cold' returns won't you? This doctor doesn't know about ... alternative healing." She looks up, fixing her gaze on him as she slips a folded up map into the front pocket of his shirt without breaking eye contact. "Do try to keep yourself alive and maybe we can follow this to treasure later."

She was not unaware of the danger they were in - but being stuck in hiding made it difficult to keep calm. The close-quarters frustration among their personalities was a powder keg. They needed to devise a plan of escape with the prisoner but there is no way they would get away without a fight.

Catz was going to respond to her nonsense, despite this being highly counter-productive for all of them, but he stopped himself because he felt a change in the ship's movement. "Slowing down ... are we docking already? This is bizarre. Am pretty sure that Zunisha doesn't roam that closely to the Red Line." his voice showed concern. If he was correct, then why didn't they went there? They had made it perfectly clear that they are to head to Zou immediately after Fishman Island.

From their tiny window, Mr. Pumpking pointed at the outside world; that did not looked like a giant elephant -they had reached a point where statements like these were barely anything out of the norm. Instead, it appeared that they had reached a place that was quite literally engulfed into a massive, endless inferno. "W-where the heck are we?"

"Punk Hazard ..." Hawks speaks to himself, almost as if too familiar with this hellish landscape. "Why did they stopped here, of all places?" Playing with his kitty would have to wait for another day, after all.

Jade felt her blood run cold as she hears the name of the cursed island. She turned sharply to where Pumpking had been looking out the window. Her eyes widen in disbelief and horror, the reflection of the flames dancing wildly in her eyes. A faint whisper tumbled out of her mouth, heavy with despair. "No ... anywhere but here ..."  

She pulls out her dagger drawing out a rough outline of the place with a line down the center denoting the demarcation of temperature extremes.  She put a mark on the fiery coast and tried to work out where they were relative to the landmarks. "What the hell could they want from here? Even those monsters should have the sense to stay the hell away from a place like this ... unless they're throwing someone off as punishment." She takes a moment to stare at Catz as if contemplating, she this shrugs as if she thought better of it and continues detailing her crude outline of the place.

She hate him, not for who he was but for reminding her what she was doing. He was abrasive and obnoxious but also correct about everything. "Goddamnit Catz. We can't afford to not be able to rely on each other in this. Fuck. Just know I grudgingly appreciate you ... but also hate you for keeping me focused. I don't know how much you know ... nor do I need or want to but thank you for reminding to not walk away from the second chance of life that was given to me ... and not to sully to memory of all the blood that was spilled to grant that second chance by being destroyed by the shekels they already freed me from. You ... are still such a dick ... suuuuch a dick. ... but sometimes a dick is what I really need."

"This is a war - we're part of it now.  We can't keep running and hiding. If we could cleanly rescue the girl - it would be different but there is no escape in this place.  The unlikely event of stealing the damn ship is what we have to work with. Whatever.  Suicidal dumb shit is our brand." She wanders behind a support beam, when she emerged from the other side, a small golden cat emerged and hopped onto a rum barrel, taking a moment to wash her paw before jumping on top of a box to peer though a vent overlooking the main deck. She could slightly overhear a conversation of the figures who were standing on the starboard side looking toward the flaming shore.

Catz seemed mostly unfazed from her statements. Something about a need for phallus and admiration for said phallus, or something like that, amongst other blabber-like statements. Or at least, that was the impression he drew; he was trying to do exactly what she did immediately after her statements over shafts; try to utilize their cat-enhanced hearing capabilities to pick up any residual remarks or dialogues. "Save your drivel for later, kitty." was all he groaned.

Up on the decks, the mistress of the dead, Liliana, was walking across the bow, and on to observe the everlasting fiery inferno that had been raging for years. "Stoke a flame hot enough, and you will never run out of fuel, huh?" she remarked to herself, almost as if pondering for something deeper than the mere presense of flames. She then turned to address to her associate, who was bizarrely bowing down on her, while holding a knife. "No, your request to amputate yourself for redeeming yourself over it is, once again, denied. Prepare everything, for he should be here soon. We have to act quickly; they are bound to figure out our deceit and plot soon."

"Mistress - we have reports that the western side of the island is all clear we can''t fulls see around to the other side on the fare end of the flames due to the cast shadow. No indication that we have been followed."

Jade had her little golden paws perched on the edge of the grate to hear the murmuring above when she felt her feet go from under her. She began to hiss until she was met with a familiar face.  "Ah so you are a fruit user. I knew you had to be some sort of monster but, honestly I had hope for something more fearsome."  

"Xan?! The hell are you doing here?!"

"You really didn't think I was going to let a team made almost exclusively of fruit users chase this viper woman into the sea, did you?  Did you think this small blond human would be able to procure you all, should you be thrown into the sea?  Besides, I am duty bound to save the innocent creature who happened upon the bizarre misfortune to be recruited to be my second wife - a moot gesture which I will fully release her from.  

Jade sat up on one of the shipping containers as she was put down, her tail wrapping neatly across the tops of her front paws. "Is there any other stowaway you'd like to inform up about? We can't risk having our cover blown by any more surprises. Hasn't your family cause enough trouble? Where is Lexana?"

Xan leapt to the floor from his high perch, straightening his jacket as he landed.  "This is such a mess and my idiot parent are the cause. Lexana is probably the only decent thing my parents meddling has yielded - but last I saw her, she was electrocuting one of my brothers - possible out of pure enjoyment so I left here her there to keep them from doing anything stupid.  I can't believe she as hiding her power from me all this time.  In any case what is the plan here - other than hiding in the cargo hold. Anyone know why in hell we're docking at Punk Hazard? This was not discussed ... something is wrong."

Somewhere in the sea, Jade's ship was in distress; there was some light damage on the hull of the ship, and one of the masts was cracked. The remaining people on board were frantically moving around. Someone was assaulting them from over the distance.

"Can't believe our bad luck ... to escape from the grip of a Yonko only to be under chase from another. And why did Xan had to just abandon us a few hours before that happened?!" Brosko begun wailing. Mark and Crows were trying to manuever around, and were actually doing a very good job; if it wasn't the case, the ship would be long gone, due to the insane amount of blasts that were aimed at them. But they couldn't really keep up like this for much longer.

Muffled sounds from below triggered Ginji's shrieking. "Stop yelling about it! We lovely had to, maaaha!" They had actually taken both Lexana and the rowdy, younger of the princes that Lexana hated, with them by force. Ginji didn't want them to stay behind to sacrifice themselves for them to escape easier, and captured them instead. A bizarre thing indeed, to have people be denied to sacrifice themselves, then become hostages over it.

"Ginji ... this won't do. We can't do this for much longer." Mark's words bring Ginji back into focus. He observes the situation for a few moments, then nods to himself. "That ship is very, very important to a friend. But, there's this boat we have below. Let it out. And no matter what happens from beyond that point, do not turn back, alright?" "Huh? What's with that way of talking?"

---

"Hmmmm, Fishman ... where are the rest of our team?" Catz questions, narrowing his eyes slightly. Indeed, it was peculiar that Xan arrived alone. Let alone that he could find them to begin with. "Is everyone safe, Xan? How did you found us?" Hawks questions, but unlike the feline, his tone was not abrasive, but rather one of an alarmed and worried individual.

"The sea is unkind to those who do not dwell within it - it is in my blood and my soul. It is the sea that elevated my family to its ranks an the sea that will take it away - everything beyond that is trivial matters of the land. While the sea does lend to me its secrets, there is not a vessel that makes port on our island that is not tagged and tracked. It has been away of protecting our interests against the ... less than honorable humans who pass through." Xan's words seemed distant as if he was somehow far away, lost in some idyllic abstraction of awe and remorse. He approaches Hawks who seems worried and confused. "Look I know you are worried - your friends are in the company of some great, bizarre monster with great needle fingers. I'm actually not sure if he was attempting to hide something of if that his behavior was just more of his ... oddness - he seems to be a formidable and unsettling creature who over looking after them. I will return after a time, if opportunity permits."

Jade's feline form made her drowsy and she nearly fell asleep during Xan's ode to the sea. The mentioned of the needle fingered weirdo, in all four seas and among all of the known islands, could only be Ginji. She felt better knowing he was there - she wasn't sure why or how get got there but knowing he was looking after the others combined with knowing all of his tricks were far the hell away from her was comforting. "Oh he's most definitely hiding something. He is indeed bizarre - but also tends to be up to something 100% of the time. I have never seen the man sleep - not that he could possibly have the time. He means well - he just has his own way of doing things, which will probably make less sense at the end than they did at the beginning - but he's still alive. We all are thanks to that one. He will pull through for you in the most ... confusing and likely un-enjoyable way."

"Um, guys. Is it bad that am smelling something getting burnt?" Pumpking questions, prompting everyone to look at him in awkward disbelief. "You realize we are on an island those half side is always on fire, right? What did you think it'd smell like?" Pumpking turned to the side, apparently feeling ashamed of himself. However, a few seconds and a cough later, he resumed with his claim. "Actually, it feels as if the source of that stench comes from much closer."

"Wait ... I see her. And two other individuals. They got off the ship and are heading towards the inferno." Hawks reports, looking from their small window. "Could they really leave her here unguarded? That's foolish ... come to think of it, it feels hotter than I expect it would ..."

---

"Did you set the ship ablaze?" Liliana questioned one of the two individuals; the other was Ikarus. The person questioned merely nodded excessively . "Good. We will be using a different ship." she calmly stated.

Some time later:

While their escape of the vessel escaped those piloting it, it did not escape the notice of the locals.  The tortured souls set upon them mindlessly with their mangled bodies and heavy weaponry.  Few were competent but their numbers made them difficult to dispatch quickly.

Jade gritted her teeth as she raised her katana to intercept the heavy axe that was bearing down upon her - a flimsier blade would have shattered under the weight of the large war axe but her blades were made of mineral alloys researched by a master blacksmith.  She placed a blunt kick into the abdomen of her attacker to give herself space for a clean slash, gashing the stomach of the axe wielder. His towering frame grunted and for a moment seemed unfazed but the sharpness of the blade hid the depth of the cut moments before its impact caused the figure to slump, the heavy axe falling unceremoniously to the ground with a great crash.

Jade took a moment to catch her breath.  it was hotter than she imagined air could be without being fatal.  Battle was slow and difficult because the heat made the air heavy and difficult to breathe.  Her skin glistened with sweat and seemed to glow as the light of the flickering flames, that seemed to be everywhere, danced in the sheen of her wet skin. Her hair pulled into a high pony tail to keep some measure of heat off of her neck and back.  Her top and battle skirt, also heavy with sweat clung to her skin as she moved to adjust her stance, checking her immediate perimeter and checking on the rest of the crew that was also caught up in the hell-blazed melee battle. She had shed some of her armor for its weight and heat and would just as soon remove everything if it wouldn't cause a scene. She had been born into hot desert - but this was something else.  This was unnatural and it took sheer will and rage to not all unconscious under such extreme conditions.