[Episode] A perfectly good reason to panic.

"Oh my, what a delightful town!"

Around the same time as the arrival of the bear-masked Cipher Pol agent, a bright-eyed man made a similar entrance from the opposite side of the unnamed town. The man had his aura suppressed and added by the Cipher Pol agent's overpowering aura that served as a pretty good distraction, it would come to no real surprise if his presence went completely undetected. His mantle, shining under the scorching heat of the sun, flapped in the sand-filled wind and the young man had his head tentatively ducked so that half his face was protected by the collars of his mantle. Despite his delicate frame, he towed a medium sized cart that he had little difficulty manoeuvring despite the loose and sandy terrain that was constantly shifting with the breeze that flew from the direction of the port. A massive assembly of what would appear to be junk piled precariously on top of the cart. There was no particular system and was purely a collection of all kinds of knickknacks that very few people would find use in. There were bronze goblets, towels, pieces of wood, buckets of dried paint, random billboards, rusted frames with no pictures, necklaces with very obvious faux jewels, plastic plates, rocks...and even more to identify if one were to invest the time in searching. With the rattling of his wares that was threatening to topple and the squeaky wheels of the cart, the young man was making quite the entrance.

As he passed through the entrance of the town and onto the dusty roads, the almost dilapidated homes provided shelter against the desert wind. Though the sun still beat mercilessly down, the man was relieved to have escaped one of the tormenters and popped his head out from the collars of his mantle with a sigh. Glancing around the town, his eyes immediately lit up as he took in the unkempt roads and sand-battered homes. Tugging his cart, the man made an line for a grubby window and peered inside. To his delight, he spotted all kinds of wares and antiques inside, but the dimness of the shop indicated the absence of the owner. Failing to allow this deter him, he made off to the next shop across the road, drool dripping down his chin as he spotted the cakes inside. However, again, the shop was dim and downcast, he went to the next shop. Again and again, he peered into more unlit shops and finally, when he'd reached the heart of the town, he collapsed onto the ground with a wail. "Why is everyone gone?" he cried, tears running down his cheeks. "I actually have money this time! See!!!"

In his tantrum, he pulled his money pouch from his breast pocket and threw it into the air with irrational vexation. The loosely tied rope of the pouch did little to contain the precious contents inside and soon enough, coins were cascading down on the young man. Sniffing, he glared vengefully at the fallen coins. "What good are you to me if I can't use you?" he asked and feeling genuinely annoyed when the golden coins only glinted up at him without an answer. If the man had only paid attention to his Haki, he might have realised that the presences of the townspeople were all bundled together in the back of their respective shops that often doubled as a home. Instead, only the sound of a disturbance from nearby clued him in on the existence of actual people.

His tears forgotten, he leapt to his feet and made a mad dash for the noise, his fallen money equally forgotten. He flung the door of the home with an excited flourish and a cheer. "I'm here~~~" he cried happily, relieved at the prospect of company. "Oh, you can't imagine how overjoyed I am to see you!" Only did he finish with this did he pause to take in the scene around him. The brightness in his eyes didn't diminish even as they swept over thin, shady-looking man who was making a desperate dive for a set of fallen needles and the bird-masked Cipher Pol agent who was attempting to prevent the acquisition of the needles. When his eyes rested on the agent, his jaw dropped and his hand fell away from the handle of his cart. In a flash that left only his afterimage in his wake, he was in front of the agent, blocking his path to the needles and the shady-looking man (though honestly, they both shady).

"OH.MY.GOD," he squealed with excitement. "Where did you get that mask?! Those feathers look almost real even though it's made of wood! How much did you buy it for? Tell you what, if you give it to me, I'll give you all my modest savings." Fumbling his pockets, he searched for his money pouch. He had completely forgotten about his loss of the pouch in a bout of tantrum and when he found it missing, he genuinely wondered where it had run off to. Instead, he found his candy pouch and emptied the contents onto his outstretched palms. "Now let me see...how much do we have here? One, two, three, four...five pieces! Here, isn't that an awesome deal! Now gimme that mask..."

 
 
The wind blew as merchants were shouting and sailors were resupplying their ships, in a small -but lively- port town located only 20km away from the small village. A young man could be seen in front of a fruit merchant's stand, purchasing two apples. After paying the old merchant, the young man turned around, so as to give one of the apples to his partner. After looking around for a few seconds and a short pause, "Shit. Not again!", the man shouted while looking to the sky. Composing himself, he put one apple in his pocket, tightened the jacket around his waist and set off to look for his absent-minded friend.
 
Eva had come to Alabasta to, well, babysit his friend and fellow revolutionary commander, Alice Baltroy Ronx. Due to Alice's nature, he was prone to getting into all sorts of trouble. Eva was there to minimize that as much as humanly possible and make sure his ally didn't do something like wandering off and getting lost in the desert. Just as he feared, however, Alice had gone off on his own, the moment Eva turned his back.
 
It wasn't hard to find someone who had seen his lost friend, as he always dragged around a large carriage, filled to the brim with what most would call garbage. After asking a few people, Eva found out what direction his friend had taken, and hurried after him, into the desert.
 
It was especially easy to stay on his friend's track, as Eva simply had to follow the trail of junk that still peeked out of the sand. Surely that trash had fallen from Alice's carriage and Eva couldn't help but facepalm, thinking of how many more things that had fallen, were now lost under the desert's sand. Regardless of that thought, however, he didn't pick any of that junk up.


 


After a few hours had passed, Eva could finally see a village in the distance and picked up the pace. "Let's see if he's there"
 
[Kenbunshoku (Passive)]
 
Being within 1km of the village, Eva attempted to sense if his friend was there. What he sensed instead, totally surprised him.

"Wow, there's quite a few strong auras here. But this one... it completely overpowers the others...  Huh, seems like its owner did just that to the second strongest right now. This could be interesting. I hope Alice is still alive though..."
 
A wide smile covered Eva's face as he rushed to the village at top speed.
 
Moments later, he was walking through the village, heading toward the source of the powerful aura.  As he was closing in, however, he stopped. "Ah, there he is!" Being closer now, he could sense and distinguish Alice's familiar presence in a nearby house. Changing his course, he arrived at the house from the side and headed to the nearest window, so as to have a peek inside. He saw a suited man, carrying a briefcase, running madly toward him.
 
"Huh?"

The bird-masked man didn't appear willing to part with his mask, but that didn't deter Ronx. In fact, if anything, he didn't seem to notice that there was anything out of the ordinary, which was an incredible feat in itself, given the tense atmosphere of the room. Suddenly, something on the ground pulled the young man's attention away from his objective and he dropped to the ground with a massive grin across his face. "Oh, wow, candy!" he exclaimed, not realising that he had unwittingly dropped a sixth piece when he had pulled out his candy pouch. "I'm so lucky, it's my favourite type too!"

Especially lucky because he had somehow managed to dodge the potentially deadly attack that the Cipher Pol agent had intended to cleave him into two with. Feeling the breeze that followed ruffle the top of his head, Ronx glanced up in surprise. Then, he heard the sound of empty needles dropping to the ground and, as easily distracted as he was, he turned with unconfined interest. His eyes traced to the needles, forgetting or somehow still oblivious to the fact that he might have involved himself into something he shouldn't have. Then, as the two fighters sprung into action, Ronx felt the ground shift underneath him. To his surprise, little blocks began forming from the floor and began surging upwards to form a cage. The notion that the floor was trying to trap him help some interest to Ronx, but not as much as the fallen syringes and within a flash, he was standing beside the syringes that had rolled outside of the strange confines.

Stooping down, the man with his unwavering cheerful countenance scooped the little containers up and admired them in the limited light that filtered through the window. "You wouldn't happen to want to sell these to me for five-no six!-pieces so you?" he asked with wonder, turning to the skinny man in the suit before starting. "Oh my, where did he go?" He stared around incredulously before shrugging and slipping the vials into his pocket. "Well, if he's so willing to leave them behind without even a proper farewell, he doesn't deserve them!" he said with an huff, genuinely annoyed that the suited man had been careless enough to forget such treasures. "Now...I feel like I'm forgetting something...oh yes!"

The bird-masked man was making a pursuit for the man who had been quick to retreat, but Ronx was quick to remember that he still had unfinished business. In a flash, he was in front of the door, abruptly blocking the agent's attempt to leave the home. "Now, about that mask of yours..."

Picking himself up from the ground, Eva wondered what the hell had just happened. Rubbing his aching head, he looked around, trying to understand the situation. He saw the suited man that had so rudely crashed into him, but before he could say anything, the same man was gripped by the throat, his feet dangling off the ground. "Ho? Seems like I was right, this is interesting". Cracking his knuckles, the young man started to approach the two men. However, in a blur, the suited man was free and the bulkier man staggering backward toward Eva. Thinking to sidestep the man, Eva quickly changed his mind as what appeared to be fire exploded from something the suited man had thrown. Barely able to react, he grabbed the pig-masked man and used him as a shield, hoping to avoid some damage. Unfortunately, some of the fiery liquid got onto his arms and, panicked, he attempted to put it off by slapping the burning areas and letting go of the fiery pigman, who screamed in agony as he dropped to the floor trying to put out the fire. This apparently was a bad idea, as the fire spread onto his palms. Surprised by the liquid's persistence, Eva utilized his devil fruit powers to extinguish the flame. Countless strings emerged from his body to tightly cover the burning areas, snuffing the fires out.

"Retreat? I just got here, I want to have some fun... But I'm not really that into bullying a trembling old man, even if he happens to know a trick or two", Eva replied to the suited man, as he glanced at the still burning pools of liquid the man had thrown. Noticing that the pig-masked man had disappeared, "Where did-" Eva was interrupted, as suddenly the ground below his feet, well, wasn't. Surprised, Eva tried to extend two strings from his hands, so as to latch on the roofs of two nearby houses.  Before he was able to, however, a snake masked man emerged from the hole, punching him in the gut. Not having solid footing, Eva was flung backward and crashed into a wall. "Get lost", the snake hissed, turning his attention back to his target. Just as he turned his back,

[Tamaito]

Ten string bullets flew toward the agent's back. Only the first two found their mark, however, as the snake-masked man quickly dodged the rest and retreated underground. "Looks like that pig-guy had a friend. Is there a carnival or something?", Eva thought out loud, after spitting blood.

[Busoshoku]

Having taken significant damage from a single punch, the revolutionary went against his instincts and decided to give defense a try, this time around.
"I would advise against you meddling in our plans. If you stay out of our way, we might even turn a blind eye to you being here... After all, we have much bigger fish to fry today. Stay out of this if you value your life, Hangman." the agent's voice could be heard from underground.

"Hahaha! Bigger fish you say? Nice try, but you should try making your lies more believable. That man is hardly a plankton! Come now! Entertain me!", shouted the revolutionary commander back at the hidden agent.

As he talked, Eva planned his counterattack. Taking into consideration that the agent was able to make the ground disappear, he created a small, invisible string from his back and attached one end of it to an undestroyed part of the wall behind him, leaving the other end on his back.

[Itonoko]

Just as he had finished, the agent created a hole at the revolutionary's feet and grabbed his ankles, aiming to pull him down. Due to the unexpected resistance, and the loosely tied shoes, the agent lost his grip momentarily. Capitalizing on the opening, Eva tugged on the string on his back, sending himself flying upward and detaching it from his back. This caused the wall to break and it was sent straight toward the surprised agent. While on the air, Eva swiped both his hands toward the agent.

[Goshikito]

Ten sharp strings flew toward the agent, hidden by the falling piece of stone wall.

The agent was quick to react. Seeing the wall coming down on him, he quickly raised his hand and barely managed to create a hole in it. However, due to his vision being obscured, he was unable to react to the follow-up attack. The razor sharp wires cut the remaining pieces of the wall to neat blocks and cut deeply into the snake-masked agent, who fell down the depths of his own hole, his mask broken.
 

After landing next, Eva fished his shoes out of the hole and looked around, trying to gauge the current situation, a wide grin on his face.

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If the fact that Ronx was in serious danger hadn't already sunk in, it had to fast. His sudden interception had caught the Cipher Pol agent by surprise, but that was only because her attention had been elsewhere. The same mistake was unlikely to happen again, at least that's how the agent saw it. Who this silly, golden-haired man was mattered little to the agent, especially where her objective was concerned and that made him just an unnecessary hindrance. The agent struck her hand out, slamming it into the door frame just inches away from Ronx's cheek. The force of the strike made Ronx blink in surprise and all of a sudden, the frame fell into a mass of cubes. Finally sensing danger, Ronx's gaze sharpened a fraction and he struck his hand out.

[Preying Aquilam]

With a flat palm, Ronx struck into the masked agent's torso and she narrowed her eyes. The gesture seemed to amuse her, especially when nothing seemed to happen, but then an explosion of needles suddenly burst into her stomach, almost as though it came from his very palm. The masked agent grunted, but more in surprise than pain. Taking advantage of her surprise, Ronx swung around and loaded enough force into his foot to sink it into the agent's stomach. The foot made direct contact with the darts that were still protruding conspicuously from his previous attack. With a gasp from the agent, the darts sunk further into her torso, but all Ronx had managed to do was get himself further under her skin, both figuratively and literally. The bird-masked agent allowed herself to be carried backwards with the kick, but she was quick to recover. Digging her heels into the ground, she stopped just before hitting the far wall. Then, the agent lunged forward, with an index finger taut and before Ronx could even react, sharp pain blossomed from his left shoulder.

Blood trickled slowly from the wound, as if even his body hadn't quite realised yet that it had been dealt a ruinous blow. But before long, blood had filled the hole that was in his shoulder and was streaming down his body. Ronx stood wordlessly as the bird-masked agent spun away from the young man, a telltale splash of crimson trailing down her index finger. She turned away to return to pursuing her objective once more, before abruptly turning still. Slowly and silently, she turned back to face Ronx. Behind the mask, her eyes were obscured, but it was clear that they were trained solely on Ronx. In turn, his brilliant amber eyes, having lost their previous spontaneous and merry glint, were now hard with weighted fixation. A moment dragged on that might have felt like eternity to a simple onlooker, but there was a heavy aura that even the simplest could not remain oblivious to.

And then all of a sudden, both burst into action. The agent charged forward, silent and precise like an owl, while Ronx swept his right hand from underneath his mantle and it whipped open.

[Icio Pulse]

A surge of darts shot out, meeting the agent's assault front-on. She ducked under the onslaught of tiny, almost invisible missiles, only a few managing to catch her exposed neck, but the next wave quickly followed. The sound of her clicking tongue indicated at her frustration of the relentless assault of darts, but she knew they weren't intended to cause lasting damage. As Ronx kicked himself upwards and flew over his wave of darts, the agent was ready for him. Her body bent out of the way as Ronx's right fist plummeted forward and her finger struck forward yet again, this time aimed for his neck.

[Volanti Crux]

Stuck in midair, Ronx spun around and brought both his hands up, shooting out darts from each hand as he did so. From the close proximity paired with the precise timing of meeting the agent's attack, even the agent with her aptitude was caught by surprise and a cross was distinctively branded across her chest as the attack struck. Her finger only grazed his neck, but Ronx landed with a heavy and painful thud, staggering clumsily as his wounds jolted from the strain caused by his landing. The agent's leg swung low, catching Ronx in the stomach and he was sent flying back into the wall with a crash that quaked the entire house. He coughed blood as he made impact with the wall, but he was determined to allow as little of the pain to show as possible. He careened back onto his feet as blood dripped from his left temple, but his eyes were still sharp and crackled almost like lightning, as though he had yet to admit his defeat. And true to that, he hadn't. He was determined, even if it meant his inevitable death.

The agent was in front of his in a flash, ready to deliver that inevitable death. Her finger came charging forward again, but Ronx swung his leg up and it sank into his right thigh. He gritted his teeth in pain, but then grabbed her wrist. Even behind that unrevealing mask, Ronx saw her eyes widen and with her finger still lodged in his thigh, he pulled his leg back. The startled agent fell forward with his leg and with his his hand, still clamped tightly around her wrist, he aided her fall. Before long, he was on top of her with a dart pressed against her neck and blood dripping from his face, down his cheeks and onto that beautiful bird mask.

Suddenly the wall beside him crumpled. Surprised, Ronx glanced up, anticipating a new enemy but what he saw left him and his opponent speechless.

"Eva?"

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Eva's wide grin was distorted as he spat out blood, falling to one knee. "Gah... I let my guard down... That punch did a number on my internals." Still sensing a number of unknown auras, however, he quickly got back up, moving toward where he felt Alice's presence. It seemed his companion was engaged in combat, something that relieved the young revolutionary "At least he's still alive. Might need to help him, though..."
 
[Kenbunshoku] 
 
Mere moments after he had started tracking Alice's location, however, a nearby wall crumbled, revealing behind it a blood-drenched Alice, on top of what seemed to be a bird-masked individual. "Oh, Alice! There you are! I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Not missing an opportunity to mess with his friend even when he bloody and beaten, Eva was ready to keep jesting when he noticed something odd. Two large blocks seemed to have started floating toward each side of Alice's head. His brain working in overdrive, Eva got a gist of the actual situation and acted as fast as he could, so as to protect his companion.
 
[Cocoon]
[String Tornado]
 
Thousands of strings came out of Eva's right hand and rushed to engulf his co-revolutionary in a sturdy cocoon.  At the same time, using his left arm, he entrapped the bird-masked woman inside a tornado of razor sharp strings. In mere moments his companion and the enemy were engulfed in string cocoons. The next instant, his companion's cocoon was broken by the bird-masked agent's attack. In just a few seconds, the agent would break through her temporary imprisonment. Eva had to act fast.
 
Inside the tornado, the agent once more clicked her tongue. She had tried breaking it with simple punches and kicks but only managed to sustain more cuts this way. Probably thinking that remaining in there any longer would be dangerous and certainly not wishing to waste any more time, the agent activated her Busoshoku Haki, a black glint appearing on flesh visible behind the ripped clothes. Focusing her power on offense, she easily ripped through her string confines with a single powerful kick.
 
[String Ray]

Seconds before the agent had broken the tornado, Eva had raised his palm and fired a condensed beam of strings, aimed at the agent's stomach. The woman, however, was much too quick. Tilting her body, she managed to avoid getting impaled, only receiving a deep cut on her side.  Drawing the agent's attention and preparing his next move, Eva hoped that his companion would have maneuvered himself and be at the ready to launch a critical attack on their enemy.

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As the last specks of dust fell from what remained of the wall, Ronx's confusion fell away too. "Oh right, you were here too!" he chirped, his combat persona melting away to the face his revolutionary friends were so familiar with and often found exasperating. "Eva, Eva, listen, don't you think this mask is so pretty? I offered six pieces for it, isn't that a great deal? But then this lady started attacking me and she won't even put up a price! How am I supposed to negotiate if she won't work with me?" He pouted and seemed ready (and very willing) to continue unloading his mediocre dilemma onto his companion when he felt the female agent shift ever-so-slightly underneath him. His brows lifting up in surprise, he was quick to react before noticing that his partner was already steps ahead of him. Smiling with amusement down at the agent, his vision was then obscured by the thin threads that Eva conjured and the last thing the agent saw before her attack failed, was the cryptic and vexing smile.

It was barely a moment later when his defence fell loosely all around him and he now sat on the dusty ground with a whirlwind of strings in front of him. Picking himself up and carefully dusting himself off, he then warily manoeuvred himself around the tornado that now trapped the agent until he reached Eva's side. Inside the string walls, he could see the peculiar confines tremble as the agent furiously tried to pound her way out, only tainting the stringy storm with blood. The tornado was holding up excellently, but even Ronx with all his positivity could see that the fight was far from over. Nevertheless, he still tilted his head at the tornado curiously with a finger pressed innocently to his lips. "Is it over?" he asked with an almost childish tone before throwing his arms up and leaping into the air. "Yayyyy Eva's the best! Wait! Silly Eva, you forgot about the mask!" he exclaimed in dismay and turned to scold his partner before flinching. "Ouch, oh right, I'm bleeding. Eva look at this hole! It's so round! Oh...that's...Eva, do you think maybe that's too much blood coming out? How much blood do I have again?"

OOC:

Suddenly the whirling strings confining the agent tore open, threads flying up into the air in a flurry. But Eva was ready, shooting out a beam of strings that pierced the agent's side. Although the attack had been intended to drill a hole into her stomach, the damage she received still appeared grievous enough. Not to mention, despite all his folly, Ronx was ready too and the attack that followed immediately after Eva had executed his, hit it's mark.

[Gracilis Lance]

Bringing up his uninjured right hand, he conjured up an enormity of darts within seconds, all tightly packed together so that they appeared to be one colossal lance. The attack was intended to be a medium ranged one, but for the purposes of maximising the force of the attack, Ronx darted forward until he was directly behind the agent that was still distracted by his revolutionary brother. Thrusting the lance into the exact same point where Eva's attack had grazed her, the darts suddenly exploding on impact, drilling themselves into her torso. However, the agent was tenacious and the majority of the darts fell away leaving only a few managing to find purchase, clinging weakly to her skin. Somersaulting away, Ronx knew he had only a few seconds to act before he had the female agent's attention back on him again.

"Buuuut...all my other attacks haven't been working," complained Ronx, carelessly voicing his woes aloud and, even more carelessly, pausing to contemplate his woes. "Eva! Why do all my attacks only seem to make her click her tongue and yours get to make her....oh that's a lot of blood. Miss, are you alright?" Suddenly, his eyes tracked down to the obsidian glint of her skin. "Eva! When did you learn to burn people! Wait...ohhhhh." The lightbulb that clicked on was almost tangible over his head as realisation struck him.

[Busoshoku]
[Kenbunshoku]

Ronx's aura spiked as the Haki flowed out from him and appeared to imbue into his mantle. However, the reality was that his darts, which were hidden perfectly in the threads of his mantle, received the Haki augmentation. "Sometimes it's so easy to forget that we can use something like this," commented Ronx cheerfully, despite the fact that he almost always used Haki to mask his presence and often did so habitually since he had acquired the skill. The agent now hesitated to have her back to him, but she seemed to expect more from the older revolutionary in front of her.

Haki Stat Changes:

[Debilito Dart: Winter]

As the agent pondered between the two revolutionary men, one in front of her and the other behind, Ronx shot out four individual darts. Each dart sailed through the air, taking aim at different parts of the agents body: one on either shoulder and one on either hip. It was as though instinct moved her and the agent spun around, swiping the air and the dart aimed for her left shoulder missed its mark. But the other three sunk deep into where Ronx had aimed and abruptly, a shudder passed through the agent's entire body.

Her legs gave way and she fell to the ground as they failed to comply to her will. Her eyes widened beneath the bird mask and she immediately attempted to will her legs to move, only to then realise that her right arm also flopped uselessly on her side. Arrested in panic, she appeared conclude that all control of her body had completely dissipated, but only Ronx with his perceptiveness to his own attack knew that the move hadn't succeeded entirely and that if the agent was given the time, she would realise that her faculties were still minimally available to her. However, he knew that his partner was more than capable of keeping her occupied enough. A small, enigmatic and almost unnoticeable smile played on the young man's lips as he pulled away from the masked woman, allowing his revolutionary brother to finish this battle that had drawn on for long enough.

"Wait, I forgot to tell him to spare the mask."

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