Spook got rid of his fancy clothing, and changed into something more comfortable. More stretchy to its inner core, and more allowing of flexible movement. Yet he wore his thick pantser of an armor over his torso, it was light and didn't hinder Spook. He even brought his new helm with him. The directions to the dojo were wild, Spook entered the wrong place two times before managing to convince one of his toys to find it for him while he enjoyed a white russian at the bar. Haki was the subject of today's training, as was revealed by Jackal when Spook had found the dojo. Roughly three meters separated the pair and Jackal, and around a meter and half between Spook and Lucas. The intense dojo with spiritual words crawled across the place left a lasting impression on Spook -- one of tranquility, allowing for his every sense to be working at their sharpest.



Spook grunted here and there, during Jackal's explanation of Haki. It seemed interesting, unlock his sixth eye -- but he had many a questions before they could proceed.





His brain couldn't comprehend these powers -- philosophically and psychologically; many speakpeople(therapists) became depressed after being 'blessed' with the knowledge to read minds. Was this Haki the same deal?





Technically, he shouldn't be able to since they don't portray emotions as a human would, and more like a machine instead. Spook was interested in what he'd say regardless.

And out of nowhere, Jackal went full throttle. With his eyes still closed, the male who was sitting got up and started spreading murderous intent to everything around him. Spook could tell that he was being easy on them, there was no way he couldn't already have beaten them with his superior speed. Perhaps this was more of a push-it-to-the-limit type of scenario? Either way, the way the captain held himself was clearly worthy of an Oscar nomination; sending such frights down the audience. It gave Spook a tight feeling however, one that was wrapped around his heart. Every pulse vibrated through his body up until his chest, where he felt a pressure akin to the pressure on the bottom of the ocean. Everything around his captain became a black hole, hard to get away from; a sensation akin to standing close to a fast moving train. But the decision was made, internally already--the outcome of the classic fight or flight syndrome; and obviously it was flight. Without really realizing it, he had rolled to the back of his heels, his athletic ability adjusting his body posture.

This was the boost Spook needed in order to escape Jackals lightning. Speed wasn't a strong pursue for him, in order to gain an upper hand it became alarmingly important to learn this haki. In the same backwards moving motion, Spook put on his helmet, and tilted his body backwards allowing for his knees to work their magic to make his calves come as close to their respective thigh as they could -- propelling himself away by pushing against the forces of gravity. Spook repeated this action twice, before being able to properly turn around to run away from the electricity.

Spoiler:

The first barrage of attacks were simpler than Spook had anticipated; and that was partly due to his partners diligence. Opting to attack the captain while retreating from him at the same time, this was a trick Spook hadn't thought of--perhaps his heart was in a better place than the ruthless Lucas? The captain responded accordingly, and used a special ability to shield himself from any damage. With the boost of energy from the bullets, the captain slid backwards in an attempt to evade from the second bullet. While the two were busy with themselves, Spook brought both his index fingers to his lips. A low, but audible whistle signaled his toys to come and assist Spook. But just as they entered the room, he ordered them to stay at the side -- and pick up anyone who was incapable to continue, for treatment or whatever.

It'd be nice if he had taught them how to play music, to make this scene more epic. Sadly that wasn't the case, yet. His gun carried lethal rounds, fast rounds -- but it felt like cheating. So instead, Spook picked up whatever appliance he could find and start tossing them at his captain until he heard him speak again. Round 2? By this time, a shelve, two small cabinets, a ladder and a punching bag had been thrown. Nothing was really visible anymore, the smoke that the captain had created and all the various things that Spook had thrown had completely clouded the battle field. At this point, Spook made a strong mental print of the floor plan; making sure he'd avoid striking Lucas as a retaliation of attacks to come. The point of this exercise was finding his sixth sense; and this complicated things. Spook didn't know how to unlock his sixth eye--normally, he'd try something as sappy as closing his eyes and relying on his ears and nose. Though it was obvious that doing that wasn't going to unlock this sense, since he'd still need to rely on some senses.

The idea of shutting down all of his sense starting to come up. Spook bit his lip, concentrating on the surrounding area as he tried coming up with ideas. It wasn't important. Surviving was plan numero one. Any attack the captain had headed for him, Spook was preparing himself for it. Already moving from left to right, staying away from Lucas. He didn't reply to his captain on purpose, didn't want to give away his position.

The shelves being thrown ended up a bad idea; due to half the thrown items simply returning to where they came from. This was a bad idea since they were launched back at Spook. Who came up with the plan to throw them in the first place. Catching the punching bag is the first thing he did, unfortunately the punching bag also caught a shelf. The energy behind the shelf was powerful enough to push Spook away. Shortly after an explosion followed. Which Spook was protected against by the shelve disintegrating, lacking the energy to also disintegrate the punching bag, it instead took off with Spook on top.



Yelled the male, holding onto a punching bag for dear lord as it flies through the room. A second explosion propelled it even further. During its ascension many meters further, Spook shifted his position--using it as a sled instead of a tree he'd tightly hug. Downward motion allowed for this, induced by the lack of energy. The soft cushion at the top took a beating while the bag sled for a few meters. There still was too much power, so Spook used the heels of his shoes to stop himself and the bag, he'd do a forwards roll to stop him from moving. Parts of shelf zooming past his face while he looked back, towards Jackals position.

Instinctively, he'd have raised his right arm to protect his face. Spook being predominantly right handed, this was something his brain did as an auto reflex. What was different in this situation however, was that Spook had his arm raised just before the bits of shelve of the second blast, were flying towards him. Although unaware to him, his mental eye had slightly cracked open. His real eyes were still calibrating again, these explosions were to be fired--easily capable of removing a limb if left unnoticed. While Jackal followed up on his change of location, and Lucas's, Spook began working on a mental plan. The best defense is a good offense; attack him to stop him from attacking you? No no, that's ridiculous, he'll detonate--use surprise to attack? That won't work either, with his all seeing knowledge of incoming things. There was no way to beat this machine.

While thinking of things, the dust started to settle. Spook was left in exposed air, and that wasn't a good idea--use the cloud of dust to your advantage, was his current motif. Unbeknownst to him, was the still air of explosion that caused the dust to settle. Due to his desire to move within the dust, he'd avoid it completely.

Just as he moved away, he felt the sensation of the incoming blast. It was subtle, and really fucking fast. The air expanded a bit inwards to Jackals position, and then a blast immediately followed. This blast was a bit different, it was more in the air already. Parts of the air he dragged with him were possessed with this devilish explosion. Though scaled down in effectivity, the few air pockets of explosion around him being detonated did cause him to get knocked off his feet. Like a grenade had went off next to his head, Spook crawled forwards, his ears still ringing from the explosions. Sound, vision, smell, all cut off by various elements. The explosions unfolding constantly were incredibly loud, clouded the air with dust, generated the smell of gunpowder residue. By this time, Spook was really glad he had a poo before this all happened. There was a play that Spook could make. It was risky as hell; but could work--the plan was to charge at Jackal with all his speed, logically at first he'd detonate again. Perhaps even increase the intensity of the explosion. But if Spook just keeps running, showing no intention to stop--he'd have to hesitate, there'd be a moment of doubt. This doubt could form due to Jackal actually knowing he'd kill his crewmate if he'd explode at that short of a distance. If he had perfect synchronicity with Lucas, he could do this, and expect Lucas to shoot a cap into the captain while showing a sliver of doubt. There was no way this could work, and it'd put Spooks life at risk, thus he decided not to do this.




With his ears still ringing, Spook couldn't control the volume of his voice--so he just spoke as loud as he could at that moment. The burling of his voice will surely impact his throat later on. In all seriousness, he felt like he was going to expire if this fight dragged on a moment longer. While still crawling away, unaware if anyone had responded to his query; his fingers started losing grip and he'd roll around. With his belly facing the ceiling. What once were quality mahogany wooden floors, now has become sawdust, gently settling back into its place. This was such an insane defeat, an obvious wakeup call to Spook to get stronger.

Spook drew a fresh breath of air. The smoke gently dissipating next to him, his hearing started returning--just in time for him to hear the intercom being used. His eyes were slowly resetting again, calibrating to his surroundings. After having rolled over, the man stood up and wiped off his shoulder pads. Ready for round two; even though shallow injuries begun impacting the effectiveness of his physical body, his mental state was healthier than it had ever been. Readying himself, Spook stood up with his arms slightly raised. He hadn't realized that the ship had intruders. That was until he saw Jackal getting angry, and not the playful kind.

This resulted in Spook to play closer attention to what was being said. The ship was infiltrated, that much Spook could gather. It became more apparent to the second, the shuffling sound of countless footsteps gathering around the dojo. Entrances being opened only revealed a darkness from the troops who started aiming down the sights. The bearers of pistol started invading the room. Spook immediately ordered his toys to form a small barrier around him. They were short, and the pistol bearers had to change from regular operandi to run and gunning and shooting mostly from the hip. This gave his toys a slight edge. These simple grunts wouldn't fire though, not until close enough for the pistol to even reach. Their equipment wasn't of high quality.



Spook asked his crewmate, while pointing backwards with his thumb. Truth was, he could make a gap in front, but the bullets from his back he couldn't recoil. At the same moment, he drew his gun and aimed it forwards. He didn't intend on waiting for them to start shooting so Spook started the party by opening in front of him. Instantly permanently incapacitating three grunts, they paved a small path for Spook to move into, continuing his line of fire until he ran out of ammunition. At that point an epic battle ensued, between his toys covering his flank while he did low and high kicks to get the gun out of the hands of the mob grunts. Much of the attempted fire resulted in friendly fire, a few bullets were dodged and two had hit, one landed on his upper chest plate and one left a shallow wound on his right leg. A large explosion to the left broke open the walls of the dojo, revealing many more opponents. Spook taking use of the attention being drawn away to convert two grunts into toys. Instantly giving them orders to give him cover. He'd spend much of his time bend over, converting injured grunts into toys. Their injuries being gone upon them turning into a toy, they could continue into battle.

There were so many of them, Spook constantly ducked, spun around and did a high kick in order to steal a gun and shoot it empty. As things were escalating, the more Spook decided to rely on his devil fruit. He'd just grab a wrist, turn the person into a toy and use them as a weapon, swinging a toy around like a wooden log, using it as a shield and tank a few hits using a toy. Entire crowds of people had turned into toys, with the sole order of incapacitating others with whatever equipment they wore.




Spook kept on repeating the word 'contract' by every single person he touched and transformed into a toy. With his speed, he could turn a grunt into a toy every other second. After every fifth grunt a shallow injury had been dealt, and after every ten a deep injury. That was until he transformed roughly twenty people who became a part of his toy army. They formed a ring around him and returned fire on the grunts surrounding. The entire dojo was grunt ridden, was their strategy to overwhelm? Spook was beat, he couldn't continue much further. Spook used a corpse as a meatshield, blocking off bullets, shouting off commands to his toys.



Spook crouched over and moved towards the bars with his army of toys circling around giving him weak protection. A missile had been fired into the back section of the circle, instantly wiping out five treasured toys. The corpse that Spook was using as a shield had tanked four more shots as the grunts converged into the weak spot of Spooks circle.



The riflers started to take aim at Spooks toys, effectively recognizing their threat and slowly eliminating them while they pushed back to keep the mob grunts away from the bar. Spook crawled over the bar and took safe shelter for the moment. He pulled the gun out of the corpses body he still was carrying for any mob grunt that would dare to peek over the bar. This bar was conveniently placed a few days earlier, for those who like to work out and have a drink. One of those people were Spook, who began pouring himself a white russian, while simultaneously opening a bottle of vodka. After being done with the white russian while under the cover of the bar, he'd shoot two more grunts who came close to the bar.

The bottle of vodka was used on his bleeding leg, spilling it in it's entirety on his open gash, his belt used as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. There were a few more deep injuries that needed attending right away. While changing his modus of thinking to a more medicative one, Spook hadn't noticed the grunt that started to take aim at him. His sixth eye repeated the word danger in his mind. Suddenly all of his instincts caused him to turn around, resulting in the trigger happy mob grunt to fire his shot. Spook moved his head in time to the left, only getting scathed. He'd immediately reach over to the counter to grab a pistol and return fire. He wasn't going to last very long like this. His toys were taken out by the enemy, and they started approaching the bar closer and closer.

Luckily Lucas had his backside pretty good, he seemed to be in his element in this environment. Even though his abilities were silenced by a lack of stone. It was clear to Spook that he was faster than him. While his will was strong in battle, once they arrived at a semi-safe shelter, Spook begun to realize his gravity of the injuries he'd gotten. They were perceived as great, the bleeding hole in his leg stung like a motherfucker due to the vodka being poured all over the wound. Which in hindsight wasn't the best due to all the pain. It definitely did incapacitate a few parts of Spook, like his inability to reply to his crewmate asking him if he was fine.

Despite losing much control over his body, his inner berserker managed to undo his belt, and wrap it around the upper part of his calf--halting the excess of bleeding. This trick wouldn't last though, requiring amputation if left on for too long; at least it prevents the death of its host. Because of his lacking medical skills, this tourniquet was hardly effective. Moving around felt bad, but was necessary; being cornered into a bar and gunned down isn't the way he wanted to leave this world. He certainly moved slower[1], but left the bar nonetheless. Explosions and the sound of guns being fired were at an almost constant level. By grabbing a pistol next to a corpse on the hallway, Spook had a way to defend himself again.

He couldn't go far, was slumping against walls most of the time. While Spook moved from hallway to hallway, he'd have incapacitated two grunts by legging them, rushing over to them to turn them into toys--he had about three toys left at this point. He used the earlier used contract to create these toys, having said the magic word 'contract', he was able to give them orders.

##



Spook reloaded his firearm and slowly followed the toys. A pair of cowboy boots were approaching from the west, he wasn't done reloading his firearm, so Spook hid behind a pillar while the other toys attracted its attention. Spook heard what cowboy boots was saying. It was difficult to concentrate on the words, since pain filled much of his mental capacity. By using hand gestures, he gave his toys the command to go after cowboy boots. One toy had a gun with two bullets, and the other two were all out of bullets.

The first toy peeked the corner where cowboy boots held an angle. Almost instantaneously the head of the toy disappeared into dust. A dense explosion snapped onto its head right after the bullet connected with its head. Spook cleared his throat, did cowboy boots spawn an explosion on his head? The connecting of the bullet was unseen to the puppet master. He quickly gave his toys other commands. He brought his index fingers together, and split them apart-- motioning the two fingers around a figurative corner.

@

The two toys were ordered to split apart, and attack cowboy boots from both sides. This plan was halted until one toy had reached the other side of the hallway. He continued talking smack. "If you come out, I'll spare you." Spook tsjrped with his mouth, being long done with reloading his pistol. Both of the toys were going to be his decoy, have them both pop out at the same time meant he could only shoot one and not the other. This meant that if the sniper shot one of the toys, and the other started moving up on them they'd have to turn around. During this moment, Spook wanted to peek out and shoot him. The only gun the toys had was in the scope of Dmitri. As soon as the other toy had reached the other side, the plan begun to activate. The toy on Spooks side peeked first, reserving a shot between its eyes. Upon the shot being fired the other toy started moving in, causing Dmitri to have to turn around to shoot the toy; giving Spook an opportunity to lean in and peek, aim his pistol and shoot Dmitri twice through the shoulder.

@

The sudden explosion attracted more of Mothers Grunts. Spook went over to the dropped gun and picked it up, akimbo-pistol shooting a few mob grunts while using the cover of the hallway pillar. He ordered the surviving toy to grab the gun of the injured Dmitri and cover the hallway. Spook moved to the middle of the hallway to convert the injured Dmitri into a toy. The toy covering the hallway managed to kill two mob grunts with the exploding gun before it got shot in the head. Before the grunt who shot his toy in the head could peek the corridor, Spook and his new toy had already exited it through the other side, not wanting to get flanked like Dmitri just did.

[ Dmitri converted into a toy ]
**@

Spook started perceiving the world in a different fashion. The entrances and exiting of emotions. Distant voices whispering. Sensations unfelt by his other senses were opening. Ten.. nine, that's how many people were within a fifteen meter range within him. Such a sensation, it seemed untamable; giving it refined directions seemed to be difficult. This ability did make it easier for him to find an empty room.



Spook proclaimed, he wouldn't be useful in battle if he sustained more damage from his injuries. The toy began looking through the cabinets of the room, not being able to find what his master ordered, the toy left and looked in a few other rooms. The mob grunts had no reason to kill the toy, but they'd behave offensively most likely regardless. So the toy spooked around before finding the items and returning to Spook, amateurishly patching his leg up while the room remained clear of enemies.