Gerard braced himself as he watched his cloned lover charging at him at high speed, taking notice of the haki coating her arm. He would have expected that of course. Without haki she wouldn't be able to hit him, and this would have made the entire exercise pointless. But as she closed in, Gerard's body took on its gaseous form and as the fist flew, Gerard dropped.

Though his intangibility was useless against haki, it wasn't without its use in its fight. In his gaseous form, Gerard's body was more fluid, capable of moving in ways a regular couldn't. It was with this flexibility that Gerard avoided Valentine's punch, her fist not connecting with a single wisp of gas.

As he ducked down, he tried to loop his cane around her leg, intent on tripping her up. Timed, unwittingly, with her attempt to blast herself backwards, would most likely trip the kuja clone up, but the sudden momentum would yank Gerard in the same direction, sending Gerard sliding along the sand to where she would end up. Not exactly what the gas man had planned.

"You didn't think very far did you babe?" she said as she laughed a bit more than she thought she would as her man got dragged through the sands of the beach of the pretty big beach. Sand and snow probably wasn't very nice to drag him through but that was the last thing that she was thinking about whilst she was having this much fun! As her mighty gas man dragged through the snow and sand he released his grip whilst she repelled at least 15 meters backwards until she stopped and looked towards her lover.

"Hey love, how did you say your ship looked like again?" she said as she looked towards the ocean, seeing a vague figure make out in the horizon. It seemed to be a .... ship! If it was opponents at least they could get a fair share of training done out of them, and if it was Gerard's ship she would be happy to meet everyone aboard personally as she met everyone of Gerards crew! The ship got closer and closer and she could see it a lot more clearly, it was as he had described it with the prime seastone hull, hopefully this was it!

"Cause if I'm not mistaken, that's the grand boat that you've described this past week to me every night, and on board is hopefully your wonderful crew..." she said as she met with him halfway and helped him up as she waited for what he was about to say to see if it was a false alarm or not.

Gerard couldn't help bit laugh as he laid on the snowy beach. Sure, being dragged through the sand and snow wasn't exactly pleasant, but compared to what else he went through this last week, it wasn't so bad. "I normally tend to think on my feet. Whether I think CORRECTLY is yet to be determined. But hey, I've gotten this far by it, am I right?"

Then came the question of Gerard's ship. The Dandyman quirked an eyebrow. "It's an iron paddle steamer, quite large, with a seastone hull. Why do...you...ask?" His voice trailed off as he followed Valentine's gaze, spotting the form of a ship approaching. As it drew closer, he could make out the ship clearly. It was the Grand Steamer! And he was sure he could spot the tall form of Alisa on deck, waving at them.

"It's them! It's really them!" Gerard cheered as He bounced to his feet, "I knew she could do it! Haha!" Meeting with Valentine, he hugged the taller woman in joy, almost burying his head into her chest as he pulled back a little, but still held onto her. "I don't think they can get too close.no dock here. Want me to fly us over?" Gerard offered.

As he buried into her chest she blushed pretty intensively before hearing about his happy offering about carrying them to the ship, he seemed happy as something she couldn't even think about at this moment seeing how satisfactory this whole situation was to her. "Sure cap'n" she said as she tilted her cap to try and hide her blushed face. Then she realized it, her mask. It was one of her signature looks and Gerard was one of the first people to see her without it, can't go about ruining her look after all. As she took it off from her thigh she dragged it around and tying it up at the back of her head and then proceeded to breath from it.

"Fly us over, I'm ready to meet with the darlings of your ship after all!" she said as she hugged him tightly, pushing him forcefully into her breasts where he had been just moments before. As they started to ascend she realized that she was about to meet with her darlings fabled coworkers and now hers! This is going to be soooo fun! she thought as they flew over the cold waters of the calm belt getting closer and closer to the grand ship of his, feeling her hair fly in the wind before she had to grab hold of her hat as it was about to fly away, it was time to go on an adventure!

Gerard blushed as he was pressed against her chest, but was really too happy about getting off this island to care. Holding her tightly, the two took off into the air, flying over the waters of the Calm Belt. As they got closer, they could see more of the crew gathering on the deck, cheering to see their boss safe and sound. As they touched down on the deck, the sailors almost crowded around them, but were wise enough to give them space.

Alisa, the long legged navigator, stepped forward. "It's good to see you alive Mr Sinnet," she said with a warm smile, though anyone could tell she was fighting back the urge to just hug her boss tightly. "Glad to be back,""Gerard said, stepped away from Valentine and leaning on his cane, "Though I have to ask, what took you guys so long?" Alisa gave a sheepish chuckle. "Well, the kuja spotted us trying to leave the island, and were chasing us all over the calm belt. It took us a while to find this place after that." Gerard looked around the place. "Well, the ship isn't wrecked, and nobody's dead. I'd say you did a find job in my absence."

Many of the crew were now looking at the tall, masked woman with curiosity. Gerard turned and smiled. "And now, allow me to introduce to you all, Valentine. She'll be joining us. Valentine, this is my navigator/secretary Alisa Schultz." Alisa tilted her head and smiled. "A pleasure to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you too Alisa! As Gerard said himself my name is Valentine, it's going to be fun to sail with you all and as I have a log pose we could get out of here and onto paradises waters in no time!" she said to the long-legged woman, which she was sure she was going to fit in with as their heights was real competitors to the rest of the crew which made her fit in a lot more than she thought even if she was a few feet taller than her it was still great to see something like it.

"So captain, what do we do now if you propose any options?" she said as she stepped aside to look at her new captain as her feelings overwhelmed at points, it was kind off hard to keep herself together whilst looking towards her love, smiling under the mask seeing her fine man work his ship as the imminent leader that he was. Being here has made her feel such an overjoy in her system, and with her theory about being able to repulse emotions she started thinking about how that would go about happening, maybe she would repulse it like she did with Gerards pain a week ago but instead focus on emotions and such.

It was something that she was intrigued by, but was for no matter focused by it, instead at this moment she just wanted to have fun and sail around the world with her new crew for a bit so she could unlock her seeing of the world as she traveled it allowing her to travel there whenever with her devil fruit powers.

Alisa smiled, looking down at the pair of them. At the mention of a log pose, her smile widened. "That would be most useful. I must get that from you later so that we can head out."

Gerard nodded. If antone can navigate them through Paradise, it was her. But first. "Well, before we get out of here, I need to get a nice hot shower, and reacquaint myself with my bedroom." He turned his attention to Valentine, "And we need to setup a room for you as well. If you'll come with me, I'm sure we can set you up with something nice." With a tender smile, he took her hand and began to guide her into the ship.

Alisa smiled as she watched the two of them go. One of her capabilities of haki was to be able to see the auras of people. And the sight of their auras mixing together as they walked hand in hand was a thing of beauty.

This trip to the calm belt had had its troubles, but in the end it had
been worth it.

[Exit]

"So that's the fabled navigator of yours huh?" she said as she got guided throughout the ship, it was quite a massive beast that was for sure, it wasn't something she had seen before, a ship with a seastone hull which was this massive, but it also made her happy beyond belief as ships on water at least was one of her favorite things in the world, plus the fact that this one was fancier than all hell just made her soul shiver with excitement!

It seemed like quite the fancy ship, and when she thought about them going for Kuruigana later in their sailing careers together she realized that she was going to take the island she loved with the one she loved at the same time, making her get quite the grin on her face underneath the mask to say the least as she found herself in her new bedroom with her significant other.

[exit]