Sylvester Sweet was intently worried about the integrity of his cowboy boot. Under its sole was a quivering middle-aged man, clawing at the brown leather, his head only a yard or so above a rushing flow of water, spewing straight towards the Grand Line. With so much frantic movement, there was a serious concern the footwear might be damaged beyond repair.

“Please!” the man shouted, for what was something like the umpteenth time. “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you, pick me up! Save me!”

Finally, the cowboy’s supposed informant relented. Sylvester freed his boot from the man’s throat and pulled him up from the water, letting him catch his breath while he studied his boot for any notable scuffs. Standing from his knees, wiping the snot from his nose, the man tried to make himself presentable following that pitiful display of courage. It didn’t do much for his image. Glancing back down towards his boot, Sylvester noted a linear mark near the heel. This information had better be worth it.

“You said you’d tell me,” Sylvester said, standing straight up to meet the informant in the eye. “Time and place. Then, you get to roam free, Mr. Thane,” he reminded.

Wobal Thane wrung his hands tight, forcibly laughing as if he’d heard a bad pun rather than a serious deal for his life. “You see, Mr. Sweet, sir. I don’t think you understand how serious Asa Dufort is, exactly. Trying to interrupt her business dealings is akin to a death wish. Surely, you and your fine men wouldn’t want something like that. I can offer you any number of weapons! Treasure chests full of beli! Pirates love that sort of thing, don’t they? No need for you to get all tangled up in that mess.”

Sylvester groaned. Dealing with snakes back on the ranch wasn’t much fun, even as a kid, and they weren’t any more enjoyable to deal with as a pirate. Sylvester lurched forward and took hold of the guys face, spreading his fingers across the guy’s skull and forcing him to his knees. “A filthy, grimy little weapons smuggler shouldn’t be talking about my ambitions, about what my crew and I want for the world. If the next words out of your mouth aren’t what I’m looking for, you’re going to be very sorry.”

“Ah… Ah! Okay. I get it!”

“Wrong answer!”

“Underneath the museum! Midnight tonight! Everyone’s sneaking inside the basement tonight at midnight! Please, please!”

“Now wasn't that a relief? To just have a neat, simple conversation? Question and response, right?” Sylvester asked, elated he finally had his answer to the question he’d been asking all week. “As much as I appreciate your cooperation,” he continued, squeezing tighter on the man’s skull to keep him in place. “I simply despise loose ends.”

Whipping out Trust with his other hand, Sylvester plunged a bullet into Robal Thane’s chest and cast him off the edge of the island. A neat ending to what had surely been a very messy life.

Sylvester walked away from the edge and returned his sidearm to his side. It was only the beginning of the next story of his own.

So there's supposed to be something going on at the museuem. But I can't be certain just what is supposed to be going on. I could go and see if there's something on a lead off of this island before I get attacked again. And see if there is anyone there willing to get me off of this island as well. He thought to himself while his index finger curled around his chin, elbow in his free hand while he looked down at the ground.

Leaning up against the wall in one of the back alleys of the island of Water 7 stood Willow O. Omens, contemplating just what it was he was going to do to see what this secret meeting was about. Around his feet were a few unsavory pirate looking types that thought the eccentric lad would be an easy target for some beli. Sure he had plenty on hand, but he wasn't going to be giving it up without a fight.

ANd those three guys that were on the ground, eyes rolled back into their heads, were mumbling incoherently, well, coherently enough, about how it would have been easier to go with the boss off to their meeting under the museum tonight.

First, he came to this island from the North Blue. Next, he was followed by some people that he would rather forget, even got into a fight with them and some marines a few days ago. Now, he was hearing about some special deal going down under the museum tonight, his goal for the evening. Which meant that after this, he might be getting off of this island and staying ahead of the Island of Lhao Zhuu.

Clenching his fist and looking up to the sky, Willow took in a deep breath and then started making his way out of the alleyway. As he stepped out into the daylight, his shrewd and calculating look on his face changed to a close eyed look of a dopey appearance. He was always one to hide that true nature, and on his back was his weapon Shepherd, about a foot in length, tucked away against the small of his back.

Apparently for those that had an interest in Willow, he brought with him next to nothing on this island of ship makers. However, something decided to follow him. Some people from his past. And on the other side of the island a collection of about thirty of them were busy getting the down low on the same deal that was going down tonight.

Figure one: Listen here, I want you to tell us what's being sold, it means a lot to us you see. If you do I promise that no harm will come to you.

Figure two: On the other hand, I can assure you that if you keep stammering and whimpering like that,, I may get annoyed enough at you to just lop your heads off right here. Info. Now.

Figure three: First, Kong, I appreciate you trying to take the initiative, but you do need to stop piling on when I am trying to start something. Second, Nisha, you are a lady of the sea, but you don't have to act more belligerent in front of our guests. Right?

Both of the two figures, identified as Kong and Nisha, barked at their comrade to 'shut up Johannes'. But while Johannes was kneeling down, his ten foot stature dwarfing the cowering pirates in the corner, they were more than happy to spill the beans. All of them. They told the trio of tall folk just what they wanted to know. And after getting the information, Johannes smiled ear to ear.

Johannes: First, gather up the men and tell them we have some shopping to do tonight. Second, tell them that if they behave properly, we'll be bringing back that little law breaker straight home to the Tribunal of Lhao Zhuu.

It seemed that they had big plans, and when they all split up, the cowering pirates finally passed out, slumping down against the ground, heads clonked together.

"Wooooooooooo!" The crowd screamed as Klinghoffer and an accompanying band finished the final song of their set, "Thank you!" Klinghoffer said as he stepped up to the mic. This was his final scheduled show at this club, the crowd was cheering and the band was happy with their performance, "Make sure to look out for any of my next shows everyone!" the musician shouted as he unplugged Layla, his trusty electric guitar, then proceeded to walk off of the stage out into the bustling crowd. "Thanks for another good show S.C, here's your pay as promised, take it easy man" a man with a well kept Afro and black sunglasses walked up to Klinghoffer and handed him a small yellow envelope, which he assumed contained his pay. "Right back at ya Funky G, take it easy" The musician replied as he took the envelope and walked out the door. The street was dull, all but a neon sign that read "Funky G's Groove Central" A popular club among the more lively side of Water 7's community and a personal favourite club of the Six Barrel Pirates' resident musician.

As he walked out of the club, Klinghoffer looked up at the sign then around at street, in particular, a small alley that was right across the street. A trio of suspiciously tall people talked down to a group of pirates in a threatening tone, Klinghoffer snuck into the ally and eavesdropped into the conversation. He couldn't listen in well but he managed to get most of the list of things being 'sold' on a small note. The note written went as follows:

• Ancient Hammer
  
• Fruit of the Devil (Given the name "Kage" for some reason)
  
• Assorted Dials
  
• Fruit of the Devil (Given the name "Horo", are all of these weird fruit named like that)
  
• Skypiean Rope
  
• Ancient coins
  
• Etc.
  

As soon as the pirates spilled out all of the information, they were knocked out and the trio started to disperse. Klinghoffer shoved the note he made into his pockets and made his way back out of the alley as silent as possible then sprinted away to the rendezvous spot he had planned to meet his Cowboy Captain at, the musician walked through the back streets grinning at the score that had just presented itself. He arrived at an alley located in the backstreets right next to a canal, the musician sat on a trash can and played Layla to pass the time. Not long after he got there, a familiar face with a cowboy hat made his way down the alley, "Boy do I have something to show you, there happens to be a mighty fine score ripe for the picking" Klinghoffer said, looking up from his guitar and holding out the list.

An electric vibe led Sylvester Sweet further down the alley, turning up the corners of his mouth as drew closer to the guitar and its owner. Klinghoffer’s shows were fine performances, and he could certainly appreciate the style and vigor, but there was simply something more appealing about Klinghoffer’s solo performances. When he played for no one, there was a personal sort of vulnerability that Sylvester couldn’t help but drink in, like the soft burn of some homebrewed moonshine back home. The cowboy wasn’t sure if the West Blue guitarist helped or hurt his homesickness, but the music was good enough for him not to care either way.

With Klinghoffer taking note of Sylvester’s presence, he offered his captain a list of items that seemed to perfectly line up with his informant’s estimated inventory. It was entirely likely these three figures had some sort of direct involvement with Pumpkin Sabbath. But, what could they be doing attacking potential customers?

“We certainly can’t let a treasure trove like that fall to the highest bidder,” Sylvester agreed. “I s’pose we’ll have to be the ones that make sure none of those weapons make their way to the high seas. Any one sale could shake up the status quo,” he grinned, “and we can’t be having that, eh, partner?”

Thinking about the threats before them, Sylvester did grow quite worried at the size of the task before them. Whatever defenses this auction had, was now being compounded by this wild card party. The biggest problem with this ‘score,’ as Klinghoffer had put it is they had little information besides its inventory and its location. The pair of pirates would need much more intelligence if they wanted this heist to go more smoothly. 

Sylvester walked on into the city streets of Water 7 and looked up to see the sunlight already heading down. He brought the brim of his hat back down and pursed his lips. Working together in this instance wouldn’t be the best plan. On a time crunch, sometimes these partners had to split up.

“Partner,” he hollered, turning back to the musician. “Way I see it, we’ve got a lot of chores to do, with little time to do it. If you’d be so kind, see what you can do about scouting out the location of this here auction. Pumpkin Sabbath is taking place underneath the museum, so see what you can dig up about the locale. I’ll head over to the docks and motels and see who plans to stay the night in town. Maybe I’ll be able to sleuth out some of the cowboys who plan to be in attendance. More we know the better. Sound proper to you?”

Willow wasn't a stranger into sneaking in to where he didn't belong, in fact that's how he managed to get by so far. From the initial escape of his home island by lighting a candle over a pool of oil in a munitions barn, to getting off onto that first island. Then it was a matter of sneaking onto ship after ship, and telling story after story to make sure anyone that thought he was a no good stowaway would let him remain.

Yes it was certainly a task to get out of the Grand Line, around the various blues, just to be back in the Grand Line. But now he had a chance to get something out of this other than another ticket to another island. He could get something to make him strong. Something so that he could fight on his own against even three or more people!

He simply had to wait until the evening. And that meant staking out at a nearby inn. The Smiling Salamander as it called itself. it was more like a tavern than an inn what with all of the unsavory folk loitering about its halls. But that just made it all the better to get through into the evening.

There wasn't much else to do but wait until the very last hour before he would have to sneak into that museum and get down and dirty in the basement.

---

---

Meanwhile, the weapon smiths were busy collaborating on the other side of the block, making sure that they knew what the plan was.

Johannes: "First, we will be sitting in and waiting for the auction of that fruit. Second, when the Little Wanderer tries to stake a claim on the fruit, we will get closer while I continue to counter bid. Third, when we are close enough to him, you will pounce, and chaos will ensue. It is up to you to deal with this as you see fit."

Everyone of Johannes Trio was in agreement. They had their orders, they had their goals, it was time to set forth and wait for the evening.

---

---

That evening, there was a rather rotund man, stalk-like little legs, pants wider than his shoulders, and arms about as long as that four foot tall hat. He was certainly a long-arm, mixed with what could only be described as an egg-shaped short-leg! Apparently he was the ringleader, as people referred to him for the evening, and he went through all of the trouble to dress up like one. The thing was, whenever someone addressed him as another title, he was inexplicably in another outfit before anyone could even blink.

Ringleader: Yes yes, I know you are all here for some goodies, but we cannot begin until everyone is seated, understood? So if you would please. Take your seats and we can begin our auction.

Things were going to be tense, and it was time to try and gauge the audience, get to it heroes.

Klinghoffer stood up and put Layla away, following behind Sylvester. As the sun began to set the pair decided to split off, "Aye, take care and I'll see you inside the venue" the musician said as they both went their separate ways. Klinghoffer knew that the best way to scout out a place was from the inside, he made his way over to the museum and looked around to find any entrances. The museum itself was of an extreme size and had many openings to within it, finding an entrance down below the museum discretely would seem to be the hard part, as he looked around he saw a large queue of well-dressed people lining up at a door next to the museum. "Ahh, that'd be the main entrance. Invites only through that door it seems" the musician said to himself as he walked into the museum, looking around at the first exhibit there was nothing out of the ordinary, however, there was a small commotion in the next exhibit over. Klinghoffer peered into the room and saw two workers dressed in the museum uniform moving a large crate into a staff only room, presumably a staff lounge of such that lead down into the basement.

Klinghoffer waited outside the bathroom for an unsuspecting victim for him to prey on, "Excuse me! come quick there is an emergency!" The musician yelled as a museum worker walked by. "What's the matter?! Is there a problem?" The worker fell into his trap and walked over to the bathroom, "Follow me!" he said as he ran into the bathroom with the worker close behind. In there! there's a shark in the bathtub!" he said as he pointed into one of the stalls, the museum worker looked into the stall and the only thing in there was just a toilet. "Wait there's no shark in the bathtub! there isn't even a bathtu-" The gullible museum worker was interrupted by Klinghoffer as he grabbed the museum worker's head and slammed it against the wall of the bathroom stall. The musician took the now knocked out worker's clothes and put them on, leaving his own on below them.

He made his way out of the bathroom and into the staff only room where he was met by a large room of crates containing auction numbers sealed off by metal bars, beside him was a list of all of the items and when they were set to go on for auction. On the wall was a large control centre for all the lighting in the building, Klinghoffer took note of the control panel and pocketed the list. He then made his way down a flight of stairs and through the door that was at the bottom, he entered a room full of well-dressed people and a large stage with a small man addressing the crown upon it. "Hmm, I've got an idea" the musician said to himself with a wide grin.

At Klinghoffer’s agreement, Sylvester Sweet had gone off to the docks nearby their quick meeting. On a normal day, the waterfront on the island would be busy beyond belief. On that afternoon, however, it seemed many ships were completely abandoned, however. Hardly any of the vessels had shipwrights looking them over, and it seemed as if they’d long since been unloaded. Sylvester gritted his teeth. It seemed that his party truly was playing catch-up to this whole mess. He could only hope that his crew mate was finding success in his half of the operation.

The only craft still offloading people was a sleek, cherry red sloop with no sails or flags. An older woman spoke calmly with the dockmaster, looked about for a moment, and reached her hand into the man’s pocket. No doubt in Sylvester’s mind, it seemed the woman was making a personal deposit to make sure her ship out of sight to any authorities. Her ship couldn’t be more suspicious if it had a neon sign advertising its legality. She led a pair of subordinates away from the ship and towards the business district. Sylvester turned away to hide himself from the woman.

Instead, he moved in on the dockmaster after her departure. If he’d been taking bribes all day, Sylvester hoped the man had some sort of record. “Just a friendly conversation?” he asked the dockmaster as harshly as he could, shocking him out of his elated stupor. 

“Excuse me?”

“I’m the new sheriff of these parts,” Sylvester explained, flashing a false tin star that was merely a part of his wardrobe. “Routine check up, partner. Let me take a gander at your registry,” he ordered with an outstretched arm.

“I don’t answer to you,” the man said. He looked wary of getting caught up in the cowboy’s pace. This wasn’t his first time being run down like this. 

Sylvester bluffed with a hearty chuckle. “Listen up, partner,” he ordered again, “no need to make our days any longer. So let me put this in simple phrases you can understand,” Sylvester threw a lightning quick jab at the bridge of the man’s nose flinging his head back just before the cowboy caught him. He placed an arm around the unconscious guy and looked down at the registry. Hopefully it would look like an amiable conversation, rather than an assault.

Glancing down at the sheet, none of the man’s writing made any sense. Every page looked half finished, like the letters weren’t completed, making the list entirely incomprehensible. Sylvester’s answers were locked behind some kind of code. It only made sense for a mud swimming hog to guard his secrets like that, but it didn’t exactly bring him solace to think the dockmaster clever. Sylvester simply couldn’t make out what any of the written shards meant, not without a code or an answer to work off of. 

Looking past the clipboard full of nonsense, Sylvester caught sight of his shadow. He looked around him. When he wasn’t paying attention, afternoon had passed, and it seemed dusk was already on its way. Sylvester yanked out the papers from his clipboard and tucked them into his jacket pocket. Even if he left now, there was a serious chance he might be tardy to this party. Sylvester could only hope he didn’t arrive to find a mess of a situation.

The ringleader tapped his stubby little feet-leg-things against the stage, arms folded over each once over and a second time with how lanky and joint-ridden those arms were. It seemed that while everyone was settling down, nothing was going to be brought out. He would have order. And it would be sooner rather than later!

As things were finally winding down, it seemed that the list that Klinghoffer had found earlier was the order that they would be auctioned off. First up was some form of an ancient hammer. And by ancient, they must have meant, wielded by giants. It was rolled out on five different trolleys, breaking through a bit of the door frame it was brought through! A giant war hammer fit for a giant!

It was bronze colored, a spiral handle leading up to a flat head on one end, and a curved pointed face on the other side. It was named something in a strange language, a language that no one could speak. And it seemed that everyone was more than interested in a weapon like that. If they could find someone to wield it or equip a ship with it?

The bidding started, ravenous numbers and signs being held up numbers being shouted, entire gaps of digits being passed as the price of the hammer shot up into nine digits with ease before the bidding finally calmed down. During all of this, Willow sat among the crowd, just waiting patiently while he was trying to get a feel for who was around in this auction, what was being sold. That's when the fruit that was brought out caught his attention.

Murmurs, whispers, hushed words, all of these exchanged while they were discussing what kind of fruit it would be.

Ringleader: After much investigation on the matter and cross-referencing a number of books on the subject, we have discovered that this, one of two fruits we have for sale today, is the Kage Kage no Mi! What power it holds you might ask. It allows you to wield your shadow as a weapon, take the shadows of your enemies, use them however you please to power yourself or your allies up! The bidding starts at fifty million Beri!

And so the mad dash for the fruit began while the next fruit was being prepared to be wheeled out with a number of dials that anyone could quick buy by shouting out a number. But people were interested in two things. Fruit One, and Fruit Two.

Klinghoffer looked around the crowd anxiously, looking for his partner in crime, instead, however, he saw a familiar face that he had met just a few days prior. He walked up to the orange haired fellow and tapped him on the shoulder, "Hey, remember me? I need you to do me a solid okay?" The musician said to Willow with a pleading tone, he looked down the list of items as when they were set to go on. "When uhhh this one..." He pointed to the point of the list that read 'Horo Horo No Mi', "When this one goes on I want you to wait until the bid is done and somebody wins yeah? Even drive it up a bit if you feel like it, I don't care since it's more for me. As soon as they take it off the stage I'm going to cut the lights, I want you to steal it for me, take it for yourself for all I care just make sure you take it during the blackout." He said to Hollow acting as natural as possible in the crowd. "Sit tight yeah? We're gonna be rich beyond compare my friend" The musician said as he walked off towards the staff room entrance once more.

As he walked to the stairs, the announcer ringleader came on once again to announce another bet. "50 Billion Beli to the tall man at the back! now onto our next item, these items come straight from the mythical land in the sky, Skypiea! Please welcome to the stage these 10 all original Skypiean DIALS!!!" The crowd went wild with bets that skipped right over Klinghoffer's current yearly pay grade and into the 7th digits and even further, yet there was a prominent group of people at the back consistently placing bets. The Johannes Trio could be seen lurking at the back, one at each back corner consistently bidding and one edging closer to the middle where Willow was, The musician knew that something was up but he didn't know what, so he continued with his plan. He pushed his way through the crowd back to the stairwell where there were two museum officer dressed guards on each side of the door, Klinghoffer nodded at the two and tipped his hat as he walked past them and up the stairs into the staff only room and planted himself by the door, pretending to watch guard.

A pair of museum wearing guards came out of the barred off area carrying with them a small crate containing the Horo Horo No Mi, they walked up to Klinghoffer and looked him up and down before saying, "Shift change huh? Never seen you before, you must be new right?" The musician fidgeted slightly then responded awkwardly "Uhhh sure am boss, take it easy." Confused at what they just saw, the two walk down the stairs and say "Yeah.... You too man", his plan was now ready to be launched he walked over to the control panel and waited to hear the loud ringleader yell the magic words.

Sylvester Sweet hurried through Water 7, looking anxiously for a safe path into the museum’s basement. It seemed just about impossible to enter in without getting caught up in a pre-existing crowd. Again, he’d found another dead end to this operation. Without a clear entry point, Sylvester was cut off from his partner, and from the action happening below the surface of the streets. 

Rebuffed from the museum itself, he walked towards a bridge, happening to glance down into the water underneath it. There he saw his opportunity hiding in the water. A maintenance shaft led from directly under the bridge towards the museum. The cowboy took a quick glance of his surroundings to survey for onlookers before swinging under the bridge and landing at the small metal door. Usually, taverns or secretive hideaways were planted underneath this 'Troll Bridge Doors,' as they were nicknamed, but it seemed that in the finer parts of Water 7, the openings served a purpose all their own. 

Wrenching open the door, he slipped inside to find it dank and dull, with only a few beams of moonlight pouring through grates over Sylvester’s head. Arms outstretched, he felt his way along the squat tunnel, moving closer to a faint source of light far up ahead. If his guess was correct, this tunnel was one of many secret entrances to the auction, and that light was coming from the show floor. Hopefully he wasn’t too late to prevent all the chaos that might result from Ms. Dufort’s sales.

He began to hear a series a voices with his quiet approach, hoping this meant his relief from this grimy cave wouldn’t be too far off. Much of the noise seemed to be reminiscent of an auction, with numbers spewed from the mouth of a fast talker, and furious hoots and hollers thrown out from the crowd. Sylvester was definitely growing closer to Pumpkin Sabbath, but it seemed something else was in his way. 

“Captain,” a young, masculine voice spoke quietly, giving the cowboy pause. “I’m pretty sure they just sold off a Devil Fruit! You’re sure we don’t need to take action yet?!”

“Petty Officer, Mickey Link, please, keep quiet,” the ‘captain,’ replied. “The people down there are scum and villains. Sooner or later, they’ll turn on another, and then we can leap into our heroics. No need to make a move before that.”

“Aye, sir, but…” Mickey trailed off, reconsidering his question.

“Just spit it out, Petty Officer Mickey Link.”

“Do you really need to say my full name every time you address me?”

Some other voices sighed and groaned at the question, like a bad joke they already knew the punchline to. “What do you mean? What other name would I call you by?”

Sylvester was stuck in his tracks. Marines on top of everything else didn’t make this compounding mess any more appealing. Now, he really was cut off from Klinghoffer, and from the auction. The cowboy was frozen with more than enough thoughts barreling through his mind. What kind of Devil Fruit was being sold in there? How many more enemies were inside the auction? Had Klinghoffer been captured? Was it too late to find another route inside the auction? It wasn’t just the threat of a messy, blind fight that paralyzed the pirate.

The only solace was that Sylvester had found his own eyehole into the auction, a narrow view of the commotion happening inside the museum’s basement. And the moment he took a peek, his eyes went wide with frightened recognition.

Willow was sitting patiently in the crowd, wearing a pair of headphones on his ears for the time being, the volume turned down low. There wasn't really anything special about the headset, it was one of the things he managed to steal during his stint a few days ago. They were equipped with a sound dial in one ear, and a transponder snail in the other. The snail could take in sound and replay it, and transfer it to the sound dial, giving stereo volume while only needing to feed one snail.

He sat there, arms folded, waiting patiently for something interesting to be put up for auction. The first fruit mentioned caught his attention, his hand flicking one of the earmuffs of that headset off of his ear, listening clearly to what the name of the fruit was. Kage Kage. No, that wasn't the one he wanted.

He flicked that headset back down over his ear, ignoring everything else that was happening for the time being. There wasn't anything happening just yet, not anyone that seemed interested in what was being sold other than the fruit. But when someone came to speak to him, Willow took the headset off and wore it around the back of his neck. It was that guitar playing outlaw he bumped in to the other day! He smiled and pulled his collar up a little more, disguising the movements of his mouth so no one could tell it was him talking with all of the bids being thrown around for the dials.

But before he could say anything, there was one fruit mentioned that caught his interest. Going from the dopey look of playing the fool at the mere mention of 'Horo Horo' to the determined and shrewd eyes of someone wise beyond his years, he simply nodded, "You know it Music Man. I'll be sure to."

Serendipity thy name is Music Man. Not only could he get the fruit he had been searching for so long for, but he had someone here that he didn't mind partnering up with!

When the next fruit was wheeled out, it was introduced, the Horo Horo no Mi, the ability to create and control ghosts. But Willow had looked up this fruit since he was little, he knew a lot of the possibilities it had. He. Was. Not. Letting. It. Go!

The bids started like crazy: fifty million, seventy-million, a hundred million, Willow just stood up and held up his sign, "Five-hundred and fifty-five million Beri." Those around him turned around, staring with their eyes bulging out of their noggins, jaws hanging wide open as if they were made out of rubber. But on the other side of the room, big figures started moving around. It was time for the Lhao Zhuu weapon smiths to get into action.

Just as Johannes and his troopers stood up, the lights were cut out. People started to shout. Flashes of light from weapons being drawn and clashing with one another ringing out. Even the shots of stray bullets flying around, crashing into walls, up through windows. Apparently it wasn't looked upon in a friendly light, pun intended, when the lights went out during an auction of a potential super power!

"Scuse me gents. I've a date." Willow drew out his staff, twirling the foot long piece of wood about in his fingers before he stood up on his chair and pushed off of it, swinging his arm down toward the ground as the weapon extended, "Summer Solstice!" The weapon extended and struck the ground, pushing him along and through the air. Up over in a wide arc. Landing neatly on the stage, and on top of the ringleader and that doofy hat of his!

The guards on stage were in a frenzy, and Willow was spinning that staff around, leaping off of the ground and bringing it around like a propeller to strike one man in the side of the head, and send him into the boxy looking woman on the other side of the fruit.

Time to take the power that should have been his. One hand holding Shepherd, the other holding onto that odd green and purple swirled fruit. Bottom's up right? Nope. A steel arrow, like, a solid steel bolt, was shot out of a crossbow followed by two others. One struck the wall next to Willow, the others struck the stage. It wasn't easy to aim a weapon in the dark, Kong was a great marksman, even having a general idea of where Willow was judging by the history they knew about the kid.

"Ah hell." He muttered and decided to eat and run. Munching into the fruit quickly and voraciously, trying to get it down as fast as possible and grimacing at the taste! He shuddered all over and nearly lost his footing, tumbling his way down the stage and onto the floor. FOlding up Shepherd and sticking the weapon behind his back. He felt different. He felt funny. He felt--kind of like a ghost?

How did a ghost feel? He didn't feel empty or cold. He felt like--he could hear and see things now that others couldn't? He didn't exactly have a masterful grasp on it yet, but he at least had the idea of what he could do now. A voice ringing out from that headset around his neck, right up to his ears.

"Get up! It's time to move! Find your friend!" The voice was disembodied. There was no one there, but it was a trustworthy voice! Willow got to his feet while Johannes, Nisha and Kong wanted their quarry. Willow running out of the room for the time being, hoping he could meet Klinghoffer again or that boss that the Music Man spoke about!

Time to get to moving! For the future of the pirate crew!

Klinghoffer flipped the breaker on the control panel, all the lights went out and everybody rose into a state of panic, to avoid being caught, the musician ran from the panel and over to the steel bars and waited at the lock for a worker to come by. "EVERYONE! I lost my keys in the chaos, quick help me get all of the cargo to safety or you are all fired!!" Klinghoffer yelled out as assertively as possible hoping to convince whoever came in the darkness, conveniently, a group of workers came up the stairs and rushed to his aid, "On it Boss! Escort the cargo to safety!" one of them said as they unlocked the door and all rushed in, taking the items one by one out a small back door that leads out of the museum and backed onto a canal where a large getaway boat was stashed for black market emergencies. Klinghoffer ordered the workers around in the darkness, telling them to load the ones that had been sold on last, the workers went along with whatever he said just like he was an actual boss of them, the large barred off area that was once full of crates filled with ancient and illegal goods was now void sans the shelves that they were stored in.

"Done loading boss!" Yelled out a worker from the canal, Klinghoffer burst out the back door into the cool midnight air and looked out at the surrounding area that the getaway would take place. The city was silent and dark, in the distance however you could see bright shining lights of all different fluorescent flavours colouring the pitch black sky, down on the sidewalk of the canal stood 15 museum workers stripping themselves of their uniforms and donning an unfamiliar black suit, presumably a custom for black market workers. Along the stone paved walkway was a entrance to a tunnel that lead under the museum, in the water was a large boat that had been loaded with assorted black market goodies, the boat was just finished being packed and was in the process of being unhooked from the side and was about to set off on its impromptu getaway. Klinghoffer seized his opportunity and sprinted down the stairs from the museum's back staff entrance and onto the sidewalk of the canal, barging his way through the workers and leaping onto the boat, grabbing the nearest black market item. The musician held up the Kage Kage No Mi and waved it around, warning all of the black market workers with a loud menacing voice "I swear to god I'll eat it if you bastards don't stay the fuck back!!". The boat started up and revved it's engine, jerking forward slightly and throwing Klinghoffer off balance and sending his wide, threatening mouth down onto the Devil Fruit, sinking his teeth in as he tried to regain his balance. "Oh shit..." The musician said with his mouth full of the Devil's Fruit, staggering and struggling to stay on his feet as he absorbed its demonic power.

In an instant of recognition, Sylvester Sweet’s eyes went wide with fear. He’d studied many wanted posters and criminal accounts from newspapers, keeping up to date on the world and its most discordant figures. To his apprehension, many of those very figures were sitting in the crowd of Pumpkin Sabbath, perusing the stock of world changing inventory. Keeping track of the most powerful among them might’ve been a completely fruitless task when everyone out there posed a serious threat to Sylvester’s goal of shutting down this underworld regalia. 

But, before he could take a full census of the room, it went pitch dark, and his view was pointless. Sylvester couldn’t make out much within the room except a messy discord of sounds and indiscriminate actions. To his right, he heard the marines bust into action, with the group blowing open the stone wall to enter onto the scene. He rushed to their location, hoping to prevent more kindling being thrown on this wildfire, but, by the time he’d arrived most of the marines were through the door, with the exception of a single uniformed man near the tail end of the group. 

Sylvester coiled up his rope, throwing out a large, wide hoop to land on the target in the dark, announcing….

“Initial Trick!”

… and pulling back on the rope. The marine was jerked away from the auction house and sent clattering to the floor. But, even removing a single marine from this jumble of criminality did little to quell any of the fighting going on in the dark. 

Far off towards the end of the tunnel, Sylvester heard some faint yelling, and thought he could see a great number of figures huddled about the exit. As much as Sylvester would’ve appreciated returning to the clean streets of Water 7, it seemed that route was now cut off. The only escape, unfortunately, would be straight through the heart of darkness, into the poorly lit discord before him.

Sylvester burst onto the scene from the same broken wall the marines had used and was instantly taken aback by some wild, shadowy swordsman. The cowboy retreated from the bladed attacks, luckily running across some other fighter bearing a large set of armor, who began to trade blows with the swordsman, letting Sylvester disengage from both. He turned only to vaguely catch the shape of an oncoming gunman, waving around some shotgun. The stranger raised the barrel to Sylvester’s chest, only for the cowboy to swiftly kick aside the weapon and follow up the block with a kick of his own, and the gunman was careening into a different confrontation on the other side of the room. 

“PEOPLE!!! PEOPLE!!! CALM YOURSELF!!!”

The lights all came on at once, and paired with the commanding, feminine voice that boomed over the room, people suddenly stopped in the middle of their fights, taking stock of their surroundings. Pirates, revolutionaries, arms dealers and marines alike held still, no one wanting to restart that chaos back up again, least of all Sylvester. 

A single transponder snail was sitting upon a stool on the stage at one end of the room. And, it spoke in that same voice that had halted the battle, saying, “Clearly, we have some uninvited guests here tonight,” she said. “A certain group has decided they don’t want to play by the rules,” she continued, her voice oozing calm and charisma, Sylvester understood the terrifying strength of what that could mean. 

“She’s right!” Sylvester suddenly interrupted, feeling the eyes of the room move to him. “These marines here clearly weren’t acting alone!” he said, trying to command control of the narrative.

The voice behind the transponder snail spoke again, indirectly fighting against Sylvester, “We have no evidence that marines were the only ones behind our problems tonight.”

“Exactly!” Sylvester agreed, improvising his speech as he went on. The woman behind the snail held some sort of authority, and he needed to coast off of that to make himself seem more viable. “And, we’ll be sure to get the information out of them directly!” 

He threw his beloved rope into the crowd, and some of the criminals ganged up around the tight formation of marines, looking to tie them together. Now that they’d settled on a common enemy, it’d be a simple matter for Sylvester to use that feeling of conflict to control the impressionable crowd before him.

“Don’t you worry, Ms. Dufort,” the cowboy muttered quietly, turning off the Transponder Snail, “I’ll take it from here.”

Willow would be following after Music Man, looking to meet up with Klinghoffer and get together with the musician who was leading a bunch of workers around. While he followed in suit, SYlvester was trying to help calm down the situation while talking to a transponder snail on the center of the stage as the lights came back on.

It was just as the lights came back on that Johannes and the Yulkan Smiths took notice of Willow bounding around the corner and out of sight to go elsewhere. Of course, this did nothing but throw petrol into the mix of flames. It was like throwing gas onto an electrical fire on top of a vat of chemicals!

The moment that Sylvester was finished talking and trying to calm everything down, one of the Yulkan Smiths would point out Willow and shout, "There he goes! After him!" Now, they weren't talking to everyone, they were just talking among themselves, the small group of thirty fights including Johannes, Nisha and Kong. But the phrase itself was enough to throw everyone from the quieted down state into a frenzy once again.

And as Willow heard the sound of people charging after him, he broke into a mad sprint, just like several days ago.

"Crap, crap, crap, oh crap oh crap!" Willow shouted as he was running down that path toward Kling and the black market workers! Maybe Klinghoffer would notice Willow before he got there, because as he came through, Willow took out SHepherd and swung the staff at the ground, "Summer Solstice!" He would launch himself up and over the workers, using them as a human shield for the stampeding frenzy of pirates and disgruntled people from Willow's past. It was, a mess, to say the least. A limb sticking out of a pile of bodies over here, a shoe dangling off of a big toe over there, it was just not anyone's day today it seemed.

As Willow landed, he turned and looked at Klinghoffer, showing his more shrewd side to the man, "Are you ready? Let's get out of here! Where's that captain you spoke about the other day?" Willow and Kling had a chance to make their escape, or double back to meet up with Sylvester, it was on Klinghoffer to make that choice.

---

---

Whatever choice was made though, about three minutes after the human pile-up incident, Johannes and his lackeys would emerge from the mass of people groaning and complaining about one limb being stuck where it shouldn't be, or something along those lines.

Johannes took in a deep long breath and pulled his hair back, exposing the tattoos over his eyebrows that went down over his eyelids and along his cheeks completely. "First: make sure everyone is here and accounted for. Second, split into three groups, it sounds like that little filth stain has found some friends. Third: get the hell off me!" He shouted and swung his leg, smacking one of the unfortunate members of the body pile across the chin and sending them straight up into the ceiling of the tunnel, demonstrating the power he had behind his attacks.

Sylvester, Klinghoffer and Willow had a short amount of time to regroup and get out of dodge before things would get hairy.

Regaining stability, Klinghoffer felt his body numb itself from the nippy cold air as if it didn't affect him as much as before. regaining his thoughts he turned to his comrade by circumstance and stared him dead in the eye, "Look, I want you to sink this boat and everything on it, no questions asked. I'm going back into that hellhouse of an auction and I'm finding my captain, I'll meet you back out here." The musician jumped off of the boat and sprinted back up the stairs, ignoring the massive pile of people on his way in, He ripped off the museum uniform as he ran down the stairs into the auction house, discovering the huge crowd of enraged pirates, marines, revolutionaries and at the heart of it all was his cowboy captain next to a transmitter snail. Klinghoffer attempts to make his way over to Sylvester but is immediately stopped by a rather large man, "Hey Boss! I found the guy that is workin' with the convict!" the burly man said, putting his hand on The musician's shoulder to hold him in place. "Bad move mate, Klinghoffer said as he strummed his guitar with a loud Twang!, his Double Stop Destruction blasted the burly man point blank and sent him flying unconscious into the crowd.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" A tall woman said as she clapped slowly, walking down the stairs into the auction house. The musician turned to the voice, it was none other than one of the Johannes gang, Nisha, "Do I know you from somewhere? Maybe at one of my shows, the name's Kli-" he attempted to introduce himself but was rudely cut off by the tall woman. "Now now, ladies first. I am Nisha, I don't need your name since you'll die too fast anyway" She says as she enters a fighting stance, "Oh come on it doesn't have to be like that" Klinghoffer says but as soon as he starts speaking the 8 foot tall woman advances and begins to start striking. Alrighty then, that's how its gonna be, then have a taste of my Minor Inversion Triad!" he says as he strums a chord on Layla directly at her, freezing her in place. "Ahh, much better. Now I don't like to hurt beautiful women unless given a good reason, so let's get to know each other a bit shall we?" Klinghoffer starts to ramble on in an attempt to talk his way out of it. Unfortunately for him it doesn't go as well as he planned, Nisha slowly starts to wiggle her fingers and gain free will over her own body once more, "Ohhhh crap..." The musician said in an astonished tone but slightly impressed, Klinghoffer readies his guard in preparation for the imminent fight.[/color]