"Not so much bait as, well, yeah. Kind of. I have an address of where I could supposedly meet him but the location was under guard. And as for the plan..."

----- 43 minutes later -----

The pair made their way back to the location that Gil had been at before calling Jackal. The run down residential area on the borders of the Nine Districts and Nil. "Step one: Go up and ring the doorbell and ask for Mr Dorwin. Step two: There is no step two. I guess we'll have to improvise." Gil sighed. Maybe the 'banditness' was beginning to rub off on him. Gil stepped out into the street with his head held high. There was no sneaking, this direction would work only if they were able to muster up the presence to match Jackal's infamy. The man was still there, leaning against the side of the house, attempting to suck the last dregs out of his stump of a cigarette. "You again." He came out to meet Gilbard, his hand going to the stock of his shotgun. Gil cleared his throat. "I am here with the Bandit King, the man who ran amok on the islands of Sandy and Cactus and declared war on the World Government. He asks- no, he demands an audience with mister Feldip Dorwin immediately." The fishman flourishing his hand toward Jackal's position and raised the bounty poster of the mink with his other. The guard stopped in his tracks for a long few seconds. Gil's eyes flickered up the side of the apartment building to catch a few flickers of movement behind tinted windows. "Wait here." The man hurried up the steps and knocked on the door. The door opened and he slid inside.

Gilbard and Jackal would be left out there for a minute. Gil gave a furtive glance back to his captain, his hand going to his water dial. A strange silence in the streets. And then the door burst open, two men came out to meet them and one stood at the door, holding it open. "Mr Dorwin welcomes his visitors inside." Giving another glance to Jackal, Gil walked up the steps and into the building. Should Jackal follow, the pair would be lead down a dimly lit hallway and into what looked like a family dining room. However, this room was filled with half a dozen individuals. A few of them looked the same as the guards, wearing nondescript dark clothing. One man stood out among them.

A tall, slight man with reddish brown hair that dressed in a white overcoat that covered a tidy suit. In one hand he clumsily wielded a glass of red wine and in the other was a manila folder. "Ahh! Here they are! Let me shake your hand, Mr Noam!" He punctuated every word with a flick of his wrist, flicking drops of wine over the other inhabitants of the room. He plopped the folder on the table and walked up to Gilbard with gusto. The fishman stepped back, unsure about this weirdo. "Ah, but where are my manners. My name is Feldip Dorwin, head of the research operations. I am very glad to see you have found your way here. And you brought your friend, too!"

A female behind him cleared her throat and stepped under the lamp light while wiping a droplet of wine off of her cheek. She didn't seem to have as much care for Gilbard as Dorwin did. Instead, her attention was fully fixed on Jackal. "Excuse Mr. Dorwin, he has been radiating anticipation since he had heard of your friend's attempt to meet with him. I apologise deeply for meeting under these circumstances, Sir Bandit King. I am Captain Celia Jelicich of the Revolutionary Army." She gave a half bow, her beret sliding forward before being fixed back into position.

"Our intelligence has informed us of what transpired on Cactus Island. You've declaired war on the World Government. If my enemy's enemy is my friend, then that would make us friends, Sir Bandit King. We hope that we may provide a useful ally in times to come." She bowed her head again.

Feldip rolled his eyes, tapping his index finger on his glass of wine with impatience. "I'm sorry my men turned you away, they just didn't realise what an important person you are!" He said, still fixated on Gilbard.

"Of course-" was all that Celia could get out before Feldip took over. "Yes! Please tell us what you have come for. We can talk as we walk. Come on, there is something I want to show you." Gil was taken by the elbow and lead off out of the room and down the hall once more. Feldip half skipped, half trotted like he was an excited preteen on their first date. Celia sighed and talked to Jackal. "I am sorry for Mr Dorwin's manner. Believe it or not, he's the ranking officer in this place. It will be easier to humour him for now." She would follow on if Jackal did as well. Her dismissive attitude toward Feldip suggested that she was tired of him. With a couple of guards bringing up the rear, Gilbard was lead down a flight of stairs and into a basement. Dial lamps hung from the ceiling, giving off a bright yellow false light. The air was stale down here, and hints of various chemical fumes coagulated, hints of what was to come. Gilbard was a little taken aback by this sudden all-too-familiar approach that Mr. Dorwin had to him but he decided that he would endure whatever it was to follow this lead. It turned out that he had indeed found the Revolutionary Army again. So these were the comrades of that man that he had met out on the waters outside Cactus Island.

"I want access to all the information you have on the trials of the regenerating patient. I believe it might be a clue to finding the 'Miracle Cure'." Feldip stood on his own shoelace, making him stumble before regaining composure a moment later and continued to walk. "A miracle cure? Ha! You believe something like that exists? Medical science isn't some magic that you can make everything better, you know." Gilbard's heart sunk. But what did he expect, for it to be here, just waiting for him to come a-knockin'? They had reached the end of the basement, and were now looking at nothing but a bare brick wall. Feldip fumbled around in his coat and produced a small key. "Now where is that bloody... Aha!" He was running his fingers along the brick wall until he discovered a small crack. Slotting the key into the hole, he turned it once and then twice. With a groan, a mechanism pulled away the brick wall to reveal what was once a completely hidden passage. "Well you see Gilbard, it seems that we are searching for the very same thing." He winked and grinned before trotting off down the tunnel.

Gil hesitated only for a moment, his immense curiosity causing him to follow. This underground lair was a little reminiscent of the time he and Jackal had spent in the Christmassy dungeon below Sandy Island. The comparison did get his heart going, but that fear paled in comparison for his curiosity. Even if this was a trap, he had decided to take his chances. Not that he could see why it might be one, other than the auspiciousness of the Revolutionaries' overly welcoming attitude. What they came out to was a laboratory on a scale that he hadn't seen before. State of the art fixtures and implements. Shiny clean metal and stone surfaces. Stacks and stacks of documents and books. Many machines and contraptions that Gilbard did not recognise. Also inside this place was a squad of armed men and a group of men dressed in lab coats. They all stopped what they were doing and stood to attention. "This is the top secret research lab dedicated to discovering the secret of the miracle cure." The fishman's eyes nearly popped right out of his head.

Was this... Had he found it? An angelic melody filled the air and a golden light shone down upon the laboratory.
*record scratch*

"Unfortunately, we've hit a dead end. We haven't been able to make any progress for a couple of months now." Celia who brought up the rear, chimed in. "The former head of this project, Niko Goldov, left two months back." "THAT IS TOTALLY UNRELATED." Feldip squawked. "Ahem. Anyway, you are welcome to have full access to our facilities and collaborate with us on this project, but we do have a request. Captain?"

"Sir Bandit- err, Mister Ears, may I have your attention." Celia walked over to her men which pulled out a table and laid maps out on it. "We have intercepted transmissions from a World Government research vessel. From what we have decoded, we believe that they are researching the Miracle Cure and may have the answers we need. If this is the case, then capturing this vessel has become a top priority of the Revolutionary Army. As we speak, our scouts are closing in on the vessel. If we combine our strength, I believe that we can accomplish this task." The battle hardened woman looked at the pirate with a steely determination.

Celia was a bit taken aback by Jackal's eagarness to jump straight in. She didn't show it though, other than a slight eyebrow raise. She listened to Jackal's suggestions and then his request. "I would have to confirm that with my superiors, but since this mission is of high importance, I am sure that there will be no problem with your terms. Now, with regard to the assault, our intel confirms your guess. The World Government have patrol ships in the vicinity and we will not be able to approach without them being able to respond immediately. The problem that we've had is that the target research vessel, is nearly invisible to the naked eye and every form of tracking that we've tried. We only have the information we have now due to our scientists intercepting the den-den mushi transmissions and triangulating the position of the vessel from them. We will need time and space to locate the exact coordinates of the vessel while being in close proximity to the defending battleships. We will run two teams. The first, as you've suggested, will be the distraction force. Attacking the marines directly, we will drive the vessel toward our scouts which will then pinpoint it's location. The second team will be the infiltration team, tasked with capturing the vessel without harming it." Her gaze shifted to each member of the guard, measuring their preparedness for the task at hand. This would be no cakewalk, but she seemed to believe that this was something that would be achievable. "We gladly accept your assistance, Mr Ears." She held her hand out to Jackal and would give a firm handshake if he complied.

Meanwhile, Gilbard had been slowly floating away from the discussion and toward the laboratory interior, peeking through the various doohickeys. He felt like he could spend a year here, just going through all of the paperwork and quizzing the scientists. Yes, the plan did interest him, but right now he wanted to get started on all of this material. He trusted Jackal enough now to be able to lead him into danger. A flurry of paper could be seen at the back, as pages were picked up, read, and thrown into piles. Refined scientific process. Extensive budget. Advanced technologies. Gilbard had been traveling the Grand Line since he left Fishman Island but he was yet to find some place with this much value.

Celia nodded, the agreement was made. The Calico Pirates, in conjunction with the Revolutionary army, were to take on a the World Government. This destiny was set. This event would go down in history as one of the critical points in the struggle for dominance between the factions. But which way it would swing was still yet to be determined. One thing was for sure though, and that was that Gilbard and Jackal did not fully comprehend the stakes that were at play.

"It's a fine collection, isn't it." Feldip Dorwin came over to commence chit chat for the sake of his own ego. "Yeah, I whipped this up pretty quickly once I took charge. Still, it's gonna be nothing compared to what we can do once we get a hold of what is on that ship." Gilbard took no notice of his words, still scrolling through the paperwork. He noted the same language pop up over and over again. The appearance of someone only called the 'Subject'. The researchers conducted experiment after experiment on this person, each procedure becoming more intrusive and more humane. Even during the moments where the Subject was declared conscious, there was no record of this person resisting the treatment. Each day they cut into his body, the very next would bring an observation of self healing. Something was up with this person.

Gilbard soon realised that these records were much like those that he had come across in the briefcase that the strange Revolutionary outside Cactus Island had given him. This was strange, it didn't add up. Gilbard's head began to hurt. This information was supposed to be top secret, was it not? Then why had that man taken it not only outside Baltigo, but into a war zone where it had almost fallen into the hands of the marines? There was still so many questions. He regretted not getting the time to talk with him more. The revolutionary had said: "I heard there was a zebrafish fishman doctor on Sandy but I never thought I would meet him". It occurred to him now just how strange this sentence was. He wasn't just referencing how weird it was that he was a fishman doctor, but that he was specifically a zebrafish and seemed to suggest that meeting him was somehow significant.

These thoughts pulled him further and further into his own mind, down a spiraling staircase into a dark well of ominous blackness. He was reminded again about how the Miracle Cure had found him first, the whispers of this thing had found their way to even the deepest trench at the bottom of the sea, like they were following him. That day had changed everything. His life of simplicity within the deep sea temple of the Kappa Conclave had been ended by a pirate group, seeking out the Cure, and a zebrafish fishman. That's where all of this started. This mystery was a plague on his existence, one he dearly wished for a remedy.

A zap on the shoulder pulled him right out of himself. Standing straight up with a jerk, he found Jackal was right next to him. Making a joke about Christmas which sent a chill down his spine as he remembered their past escapades. It did cause his face to droop but it managed to serve as a distraction from his own head.

Gil's expression:

The pair were escorted out of the building and left in the streets of Baltigo where they had started. There, they met a sinister pair. Threatening with their words and their body language. Gilbard was on edge straight away. Gilbard reached for his water dial, feeling the shell underneath his green fingers. They knew Jackal, but they weren't friends. He recognised the names, Jin and Gin from Jackal's stories. One from Sandy and the other from further in his past. The man known as Salda Khan was apparently a bigwig from the Sixth District. He seemed like someone that they didn't want to mess with. This man talked like he owned Jackal. And if there was one thing that he knew about his captain, it was that he valued his freedom greatly. As was expected, Jackal responded with his own hostility. With one last threat, they left. Gilbard looked at the young mink.

"Whatever happens, whatever comes, we can handle it." The fishman clenched his fist. He wanted to reassure the mink and let him know that he had others by him that would help him face the threats ahead. Gilbard surprised himself, because he found strength in his camaraderie and resolve. He believed his words. Whoever those people were, they would feel the wrath of the Calico Pirates should that try to mess with it's captain.


----- Back at the Revolutionary Laboratory -----

Feldip Dorwin sighed. "It's a shame that the fish was with that pirate. It would have been good to get him on his own." Captain Celia Jelicich packed up the plans from the table. "Don't do anything rash, we can't risk losing the Bandit King as an ally. We focus on this attack for now. If it doesn't work out, then you have permission from the higher ups to pursue Mr Noam."


~exit~