Task:

Gerard's chin rested in his hand as the young man walked along the docks, his iron cane tapping the stone ground in front of him softly. Everything up until this point had gone smoothly. He had been able to successfully separate the factory owner from his money, had gotten his new threads, and even left some for his parents to get by on. His first few steps on his path to criminal royalty had gone on smoothly. Well, not ENTIRELY smoothly. The young man glanced down at the cane in his hands. When he had commissioned this, it was supposed to double as a firearm. A hidden weapon of sorts. However, while he had the gun and the ammunition to go with it, Gerard didn't have any gunpowder to load into it. How was a gun supposed to fire without any gunpowder?

But that was minor compared to his current dilemma. Where did he go from here? He had pretty much gone through the money he had acquired, so what did he do now? Did he commit another robbery? Go into hiding for a bit? It wouldn't be much to assume the robbery would be soon noticed, and his parents working out he had done it. How did famous pirates start out? The stories never really mentioned their first crimes. Gerard's mind was going a mile a minute, trying to think of something, ANYTHING to do!

Then the sounds of activity caught his attention. Gerard paused and looked ahead. In the distance, a ship had just pulled into the docks, and its crew were getting it tied to the dock and unloading any cargo that they had. Nothing really new to Spider Miles. But as Gerard's eyes fell on the ship, a thought occurred to the young man.

The ship was rather small in size. He had seen ships like this before, and while they worked best with a crew, it was possible to sail those things with just one man.

A small smirk appeared on his face. Well, if he did need to go into hiding, what better way to do it than get off the island altogether? And he was a criminal now. Criminals robbed people after all.

It had taken some time. After all, Gerard had to wait and keep out of sight as he watched the crew unloading their ship. He had to make absolutely sure there was nobody around before he attempted his ship theft. After all, there were about twenty one of them, and only one of him. And all he had was his cane. Not exactly the best circumstances to go into combat.

After a couple of hours waiting, they all seemed to be gone, having headed into the town proper to grab a beer, or whatever it was these guys did while on land. Whatever it was, their ship was now vulnerable, and it was time for Gerard to pull off his second crime. Making sure nobody was around, he made his way over to the ship. The crew had set down the gangplank, and while Gerard could simply put it back and walk aboard the ship, he didn't want to give anyone any indication that he was on the ship until it was pulling away from the dock. So, instead Gerard settled for climbing up the mooring rope up onto the ship. He had to be quick though, since nothing was more suspicious than seeing someone climbing up onto a ship.

Gerard heaved himself up onto the ship, panting from his rush up onto the deck. Thankfully, he had avoided being detected, but he had to find another stealthy way to get on a ship. Rope climbing was NOT his thing. He glanced back at the rope, realizing he didn't have anything to cut it. He let out a hiss of annoyance. He should have gotten one while he was waiting for the crew to leave. He glanced around, trying to see if there was anything sharp laying around. Unfortunately, there was nothing on the main deck, but there had to be a knife around here somewhere. Then it hit him. This place had to have a kitchen, right?

He headed for the nearest door, heading down into the bowels of the ship. There were some sleeping quarters, filled up with many, many bunk beds. Well, guess they had to cram all those crewmen in here somehow. It didn't take him long to find the kitchen, and the numerous sharp implements that they had laying around. He walked over to one of the counters, grabbing hold of a cleaver. This should cut through the rope quite nicely.

Then up above he heard a bang, and Gerard's heart froze in his chest. That was the sound of the gangplank falling.

The crew had come back to the ship.

Crap! Crap! Crap! Gerard was in the worst possible situation he could be in right now. He was stuck on this ship, and the crew had just come back. There was only one way off of this ship, and now there were many, MANY men between him and freedom. Even if the men were unarmed, he was grossly outnumbered, assuming all of the crew had come back. What the hell was he going to do about this?

Well, somebody answered the question for him. In his worry, Gerard wasn't watching the door and one of the crewman had come down for a snack. So imagine his surprise when he stepped into the kitchen to see a stranger panicking. "Hey! Who are you?" the man demanded. Gerard let out a yelp of surprise and spun around, the iron cane connecting with the man's head with a sharp crack. Caught by surprise, the man collapsed to the floor like a ragdoll, leaving Gerard panting heavily as he stood over him. That...was much easier than he thought it would be.

"Hey! You here that?"

"Yeah. Sounded like it came from the kitchen."

Gerard let out a hiss of frustration. Dammit, they had heard him! And they were coming this way. He moved over to the side of the door. He knew he couldn't get out before they got here, so he may as well try to ambush them. He held his breath as the two men came in, immediately noticing their downed friend. "Holy crap, Nick!" one of them yelled out, running to his side. Gerard quickly snuck up behind them, and with a sharp swing, laid out the second fellow with a decisive blow to the back of the head. The second man spun around, seeing Gerard and let out a loud shout before he was rendered unconscious by a cane to the head.

That was three down, out of twenty one. And he could already hear footsteps approaching. Fortunately, Gerard was getting used to fighting with his cane, and there was a choke point in the form of the door. Moving over to take his position next to the door, he got ready to brain the next individual who came into the room.

He was starting to feel he might just get through this, though it would certainly take a while.

The battle with the crew was going a lot better than Jack had initially expected. As he suspected, once they were aware there was someone in the kitchen braining their cohorts with a cane, they all made their way down there to drive the intruder out. And with only the single door to the kitchen, Gerard was in the perfect position to defend himself. Anyone who came in got a faceful of iron cane and soon there were a number of unconscious bodies laying around, mostly by the door which was starting to become a bit clogged. And the cramped space and plenty of cover made trying to fight him from a distance almost impossible. It was either stay out of the kitchen, or risk going in and getting knocked out. So far there were about eleven people laying on the ground, and only a couple of times did Gerard have to turn away from the door to provide another application of unconsciousness to them.

But now, things had gotten quiet, with the remaining crewman waiting out in the hall. Gerard kept his ear pressed to the wall, his cane gripped tightly in his hands. He could hear movement going on outside, but any voices were muffled. He knew they were planning something out there. Then he heard footsteps approaching the door. Loud, heavy footprints. Looks like one of the big guys was taking a try. He gripped his cane, ready to swing at anyone who came in.

As he saw someone move through the doorframe, Gerard swung with all his might. The man quickly brought his arm up, the cane striking the limb and stopping dead. It was at this point that Gerard got a better look at the man. Large, muscular, and shirtless. He didn't seem the least bit effected by the attack, his cruel eyes turning to look straight at Gerard.

A sinking feeling welled up in his stomach. "Ooooh snap."

The man smirked as he suddenly moved faster than Gerard could react, grabbing hold of Gerard's coat and lifted him off of his feet, sending the young man flying. Gerard soared over the counter, hitting the hanging utensils as he crashed to the floor. Gerard shook his head as he tried to climb to his feet, just in time to get a powerful fist straight to the face. Gerard spun on his feet, trying to regain his balance before the powerful man drove a fist straight into Gerard's stomach. The wind was violently knocked out of his lungs as he was set flying into the wall, slamming into it.

The muscular man smirked as Gerard wheezed and gasped for air. "Come on now," he said with a cruel smirk, "You go through my men like that, and only a couple of shots have you gasping?" The smirk twisted into a sadistic grin, "I have much worse for you!" The man then charged at Gerard, delivering a powerful drop kick to the injured Gerard. The wooden wall broke apart like paper, sending him flying into the next room.

Gerard groaned in pain as he was sent flying into the next room, a storage room. He collided with the various boxes and barrels stacked up, causing them to collapse atop of them. Gerard groaned in pain as he tried to regain his senses, pushing the barrels off of him. However, as he climbed to his feet, he was suddenly seized by the collar and hoisted up into the air. He saw the man's cruel face grinning at him before he was lifted up into the air. Gerard only managed to figure out what was going on as he was suddenly slammed into the ground face first, his head slamming into one of the boxes that had fallen to the floor.

The wood shattered and he felt something cool and wet splatter against his face. Almost on instinct, Gerard licked at some of whatever it was that was stuck on his face. For that brief moment, any pain he felt was forgotten at the knowledge of how horrible it tasted! He almost gagged violently before he was suddenly pulled back onto his feet, the man ready to have some more fun with Gerard. Gerard let out a cry of disgust, trying to shake the remains of whatever it was off of his face. as he peered at the man through juice covered eyes, he noticed the man had paused, noticing the fruit on his face. Still gripping him, he looked down at the broken box, brushing aside the shattered wood with his foot, revealing the broken remains of a fruit. The skin was a muted purple with a sort of spiral pattern on it.

The man looked at the battered Gerard, his smirk replaced with a vicious snarl. "That was a Devil Fruit I had stolen!" He snarled. Gerard groaned, trying to focus on his attacker. "If it makes you feel any better, I think it was bad." Hey, if he was going to die, go out with a quip.

The man snarled angrily and drew his fist back, ready to deliver the final blow. Fear flashed across Gerard's face, wishing there was some way out of this horrible situation.

And then the man's fist passed right through Gerard's head. The thief's head was a pale purple wisp of gaseous substance before reforming back into his head. The captain's expression of rage changed into one of surprise for a brief moment. It took Gerard a minute to realize what had just happened.

"Well...what do you know?"

Gerard smirked and suddenly swung his arm out at the captain's head. He didn't know exactly how this worked, but he had managed to pull off that head trick without thinking. Maybe he'd get lucky and see what else happened. Suddenly a burst of purple gas shot from Gerard's hand. The captain yelled out, dropping Gerard as he stumbled back, whatever the gas did was clearly hurting him. Gerard took this opportunity to scrambled out through the hall in the wall.

"Ok, so apparently I have gas powers," Gerard murmured to himself, pulling himself back to his feet and picking up his discarded cane. He glanced over his shoulder back at the storage room, the captain trying to make his way through the harmful gas. Gerard looked down at his cane, an idea forming in his mind. The gun portion of the weapon didn't have gunpowder, but gunpowder wasn't the only thing that could be used to fire a weapon. "I wonder..."

He held the cane gun out in front of him, concentrating on making some more of that gas and feeding it into the weapon. More of that purple gas formed from his hand, snaking into the weapon. Gerard took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. With a loud 'woosh', a stream of flame fired from the end of his gun barrel. "WHOO! That is awes-" Gerard was suddenly cut off as the stream of flames met with the gas cloud in the other room. Suddenly the cloud erupted with a thunderous 'BOOM!', launching Gerard off of his feet and sending wooden splinters everywhere.

Gerard was slammed back against the far wall, his ears ringing. The thief groaned as he tried to shake some sense back into his head, and as the smoke from the blast thinned, he was able to see what had happened. The wall have been blown to bits, and the storage room beyond was completely demolished. There was even a hole in the ceiling, letting the light from outside shine in.

Gerard looked over to see the rest of the crewmen staring at the hole where their captain used to be, before looking at the thief in utter shock. Gerard pushed himself upright and dusted himself off, still looking rather beat up from earlier. "Gentlemen, I believe I just blew up your boss. Also, I'm untouchable."

Gerard let out a small whistle as he pulled the mooring rope up onto the ship. After that little display, the remaining crewmen had decided it was best NOT to fight the man made of gas that could cause explosions. Which was good because Gerard wasn't sure he could repeat that awesome feat, at least not yet. The crew willingly turned the boat over to him, and had kindly removed their unconscious and dead crewmates (which thankfully included that sadistic psychopath).

Sure, there was still a massive hole in the ship, but she was still able to sale, and Gerard had only really planned on using this thing to head to another island. He could work out his transportation needs afterwards. With the ship disconnected from the docks, Gerard moved to lower the sails, instantly catching the wind. With the ship in momentum, he made his way over to the helm to quickly steer the ship away from the dock. That little explosion had already attracted too much attention, and Gerard wanted to be off of the island before any authorities showed up. Already he could see a crowd had gathered to watch him off.

With the ship pulling away from the docks, Gerard took the opportunity to turn to the watching crowd, tipping his hat and giving a mocking bow to the recently robbed crew. Sure, this crime was pulled off with a lot less finesse than his first, but this certainly started his criminal career off with a bang.

Then a shot of pain went through his bruised face and Gerard flinched in pain. He really needed to put some ice on those bruises. Had to look his best at his next port of call.