The partnership deal with the Fourth District was soon coming to an end. Peck had forgotten to check up on him more times than not recently, content that the cash was flowing in and not worrying about the rest. Gil had gladly used this reprieve to divert resources towards his own research rather than focusing on one hundred percent production.

The assistants had finally lost their uneasiness at the doctor's methods. Their half troubled, half queasy faces contorted as each inhumane experiment was inflicted on their patients. Never before had the fishman had access to such a wonderland of a laboratory. He could follow his nose wherever it took him in regards to his medical research. As long as he was making money for the men at the top, few questions were asked.

One problem that had sprung up, were a dwindling number of volunteers to undergo treatments. They had tried reaching out beyond the district for people, increasing the payment and lowering the bar for health. He was beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel. See, word had gotten out that this particular job wasn't exactly the best long term investment. Gilbard didn't intend to damage them, it just sort of 'happened' along the way. You couldn't expect him to turn down subjects that came knocking on his door and begging to be tampered with, could you?

This particular problem could have probably been avoided for the most part if Gil hadn't been so forward with his methods. Due to the particular place that he was on his story line, he was experiencing unchecked emotions brought on by stress. About to bubble over like a jug left on the stove top. Everything was coming to a head. The war against Mother was continuing to rage and the preparations for the attack on the World Government submarine was entering its final stages. It seemed like his whole life had been leading to this point. So when it came to his research, he couldn't help but push the boundary.

"Mrs... Hiddlestone. Lay down on the bed."

He was down in his laboratory below street level. He had a date to meet with Jackal today but he wanted to squeeze in one more procedure. With all the time he had been spending on his research and all that had been going on, the two had not conversed much even though they had been on the same ship a lot of the time. However today was a scheduled meeting in which he would rather not miss.

An aging woman hobbled over to the hard plastic bench that was no substitute for a bed and got up onto it. She was in a sealed room, away from the rest of the lab. This was the quarantine room, something that Peck realised was quite necessary once he realised that his business partner had been letting pathogens loose on the general public. However the quarantine room had been outfitted for a particular procedure. Today he was testing a new chemical weapon. One born from inspiration after meeting the two new recruits to the Calico Pirates. They had both not been keen on the idea of letting a virus wreak havoc on Mother and had instead wanted to take a head on approach. Gil had adapted his plan, albeit begrudgingly at first. The idea was for what he was developing today to be useful for crowd control. The Ball that was slowly approaching would surely be a grand affair. If he could cut down the numbers of the public and possibly any nuisance reinforcements through a product of his then why not.

"Masks on. Do not enter the room unless I say so." The assistants that stood by his side had learned by now that listening to the scaly doctor in these times was in their best interest. "Mrs Hiddlestone, how are you feeling?" She nodded and jabbered something incomprehensible. The old lady was some retired matron that lived in a run down apartment with her umpteen cats. She had tried telling Gil the tales of how Mittens was a wonderful cat that could fetch her slippers in the morning. She soon stopped once Gil had responded by producing a sewing kit with the very real intention of sewing her mouth shut for the sake of peace and quiet. Unfortunately for the old lady, her hands shook and her mind faltered now and then. She couldn't work any job and was left without an income. Without any family to rely on, the woman had sold whatever she could to keep food on the table for her and her kitties. But alas, she was no rich woman. And so with nowhere left to go, she had resorted to selling her body to the fishman doctor. Her eyes lit up and her toothy mouth crinkled into a smile when she recieved that first wad of beli. She would go down to the fish market to buy Mittens a special treat to celebrate, she said.

"Releasing chemical." Gil pulled a lever and a mist descended upon the old lady. Nothing happened for a second. The observers held their breath. Itch. Another. Two more scratches. The old lady whimpered a little. This gas stimulated the sensory organs present in animals. It stimulated them to such a degree that they were rendered incapacitated. Or at least that was the theory. She moaned and then hiccuped. The hiccup turned into a convulsion. She rolled from side to side, her eyes blinking as they turned blood shot. Her hands ran over her body as they tried to free her skin from the horribly peculiar sensation. She gurgled, her throat filling up with the gas. She wretched, expelling gastric acid up through her mouth. So far so good. This was it, he was sure he was onto something with this. Non-lethal yet impossible to ignore.

The experiment took a sudden turn. Mrs Hiddlestone screeched once about her eyes between convulsions before her fingers flew into her eye sockets. Gil noticed the irregularity straight away. He pulled another lever to suck the gas away through an air vent. "Stop her." He ordered his assistants. They scrambled into the room but they were too late. Still, they grabbed her arms, stopping her from doing any more damage. The old lady had suddenly felt something in her eyes. The gas had made her eyes itchy to the point that it was torture. In that moment, she had experienced a drive like none other. She wanted to satisfy that itch that lay behind her eyeballs more than anything she had previously wanted. So she relieved herself of that itch by driving her fingernails through her eye sockets and into her skull. Gil was amazed to say the least. It had all happened so fast.

... It looked like Mittens wouldn't be fetching any more slippers. He would have to wait on that fish dinner too.

"Thank you for your work. Clean up and we will continue tomorrow." Gilbard left the mess to his assistants. He continued to refine the chemical to rectify the issue until it was time to leave. Pleased with what was basically a finished product at this point, Gil headed out to meet up with his captain. He packed up the tools he had been using as well as a concentrated, liquid form of the chemical and stored it safely.

On the way back to the boat, he stopped. Then he changed direction. He found himself at the market, buying a freshly caught cod and returning it to Mrs. Hiddlestones residence. He opened the door and chucked it inside before leaving. He wasn't exactly sure why he did that, but he didn't bother to dwell on it.

A while later, he was aboard and waiting for Jackal to arrive. He leaned against the railing, staring out at the salty expanse.

The day passed and the sun crawled into the sky. The captain was late. Gil sighed and deflated, falling limp onto his back with a thud. Looking up at the sky he let his mind wander. It was so hot these days. Not a cloud in the sky. His eyelids drooped closed. Next thing he felt was a shoe nudging his scaly scalp.

"Someone's come to find you." He opened his eyes to see an upside down Sinbad peering down at him. Had any time passed? Another upside down figure moved into view. It was one of the raggedy female minks that they had rescued from the 2nd district. She asked him to take a look at her. After the treatment that he had given all of them after their rescue, he had become the most trustworthy source of medical care. He didn't like to indulge the dependency on him too much but he didn't really have anything else to do in the mean time. He got up and shook the fatigue from his body.

"Come with me." He lead the woman down into the lab in which he got her to sit on the patients table. She explained to him about how she had been itchy. He looked her over, parting her fur to look at the skin underneath. It was red and covered with welts. She explained her worries, that this might be a sexually transmitted disease. Something like that was a constant worry for a sex worker, and could lead to serious complications in the future not to mention a severe hampering of their particular career path.

"Lie down. I will apply an chemical to you. You will experience a strange sensation around your body as well as cramps and convulsions. But after that, you will be healed after a day or two." She nodded her head, laying back on the bed with worried eyes. He whipped out the bottle of concentrated chemical that he had been working on earlier. Squeezing a few drops with an eye dropper, he dropped them onto her skin and stepped backward. He observed from afar as she began to undergo those same convulsions and intense sensory overload. But this time with a milder reaction and no deadly ending. It was getting better.

He continued to watch over her as the effects began to lessen. The truth was that there was no disease, she was simply experiencing an allergic reaction that would clear up on its own in a couple of days. He would take her unknowing participation in this trial as his consultation fee.

Gilbard had been absorbed in his test that he had barely noticed the ship lift up and fly over to the Ninth District. He turned upon hearing the signature humour of his furry friend. "Jackal. Come in." He stepped back from the bed and held the door open for him to enter. "Here, take a look at this." He waved an arm to draw Jackal's attention to the prostitute that was twitching and tweaking every now and then. "This is a chemical I have been working on. It overloads the senses. I think this could be of use to us at the Ball. Distributing this in the venue could lock down areas and make it safer from Mother's forces. But I don't have a way to distribute it."

He took a deep breath while watching the effects linger and slowly dissipate. "The two new recruits, I also met up with Spook and Lucas. I've informed them on the ball and it seems like they have begun to prepare for it. I am not sure how much you know of them but my first impression was, well. They are strange" said the fishman. "Spook managed to capture a human with his devil fruit powers which will be a great help. They both seem capable from my first impression. Not short of confidence at least." He was thinking back to the day he had met those two. They could very well be the secret weapon that they needed to tip the scales on Mother. But he also couldn't shake his suspicious nature. "Do you think they are trustworthy?"

He nodded as he listened to his friend's assessment of the new recruits. It matched the feeling that he had. He was relieved that Jackal had grown a little more reserved in terms of the people that he attached himself to. There was too much blood in his recent history for them to repeat that history. A harsh lesson to learn, but one that Gil valued. He decided to trust the captain again. It made sense. If Spook and Lucas proved themselves by being useful and trustworthy during the ball then that would be enough of a test for them to be welcomed into the fold.

Just thinking about the ball sent a prickle up his spine. Once more into the fray. Gilbard would be relieved when the time came, it was worse waiting and thinking about it. The female mink slowly regained her faculties and dazily lifted herself off the bed. "You can go now." He said, holding the door open and sparing any morsel of bedside manner. The prostitute then left, her mind still a little befuddled.

Jackal brought up the possibility of using the magic shells to store and release the chemical. His hairless eyebrows rose, imagining the potential. Yes, if it was anything like how his water dial functioned then this could work out. He had bought the dial at a market in Baltigo when he had discovered its propensity to store an enormous amount of water inside, something that suited his fighting style perfectly. He could see how a different dial could work in the same way. "Yes, I see. This could work." His hands began twitching as he started getting enthusiastic about the project.

"Let us begin then." He hopped over to the bench where stacks of this and that were piled high. He swept them all off onto the floor with a crash. Pulling out his vial of goodness, he hesitated at the stopper before throwing Jackal a face mask and put one on himself. He then began to work on the concoction with the various chemistry supplies to create his final drug.

"Everything is different now, isn't it." Gilbard muttered, as much to himself as to Jackal. Now and then he contemplated the path that they had found themselves on and each time it seemed to be a vastly different predicament. A wild ride with an unknown destination. "But at the same time, its the same." But here they were, fishy and furry, a constant that seemed to always remain.

Gilbard fed the liquid into a tube that lead to a small container above a Bunsen burner. He set it on low and let it simmer, reducing all of the excess liquid out of it. He kept fiddling with knobs to get the right consistency. With a spring of inspiration he pulled out some grassy herbs and stripped them of their pollen. He added it to the mixture. Pollen would help bring about an irritating effect, much like hay fever.

He listened to Jackal, a shiver going down his spine when he mentioned that it was starting to get nearer to that 'festive' season. He didn't want to hear of any jollyness for the rest of his days. He was glad that something good did come of those times though. "Yeah, I noticed there were posters for me." Gil's teeth ground a little. It wasn't exactly the sort of life he had saught out on purpose. To be wanted and hunted was not an easy way to live. But then again, he was here of his own volition. And he wouldn't have it any other way. "Before I was dragged into this crew, I wasn't getting anywhere. I felt myself slipping away. But now thanks to this new path, I am closer than ever to finding the Miracle Cure. Thank you." He didn't take his eyes off his project. Being this close to someone else was a first, it felt unnatural to him.

A while later, the dial was done. Gilbard took the shell and mulled it over, making sure that he understood the directions properly. He then positioned the shell underneath the apparatus and pushed the button twice. He then turned a knob to let the liquid drip into the shell until it was all gone. And that was that. Their masterful creation. "A chem-terror dial. I am sure this will be a big help when the Ball finally arrives."

He rubbed his eyes and turned toward the door. "Is it time for lunch? Or dinner? What time is it? Either way, let's eat." He left, leading the way toward the kitchen. When there he would whip out a mix of green vegetables and pour some water over his hand, grabbing it into a ball. Putting the water and vegetables together, he fluidly blended the vegetables into a smoothie with his jujutsu, pouring it into cups for him, the men and Jackal if he had followed. "To infamy, fortune, and the pirate life." He raised his cup in a toast before downing it.

exit