Task:

Gerard hummed a small tune to himself as he walked down the frozen streets of the town, twirling his cane as he did so. Against the cold and dark backdrop of the war torn island, Gerard stood out like a sore thumb, not that many people minded him. They had their own business to worry about. Besides, Gerard didn't really care. He was in too good a mood.

It had been a little bit of a rough start, but things were going well for the Dandyman. His first time in Paradise, Gerard had been looking to acquire guns for his ship, instead encountering the blacksmith Datara. After a brief struggle between them, Gerard had managed to convince the big guy to join his crew. Imagine that, actually getting a weaponsmith on his payroll!

As for his beloved 'wife' Valentine, when they had last parted, she was looking to get a pet for herself. He had passed the sellers on the way out of the docks, and judging from the lack of explosions, he could guess nothing had gone wrong with the deal. Things were going right for both of them it seemed, and the thought cheered Gerard a great deal.

And so, with this in mind, a celebration was in order. He haded for the nearest tavern he could find. He figured, get a couple of drinks in him, meet up with Valentine, and then head back to the Grand Steamer so they could 'celebrate' properly.

As she ran on the islands frosty ground towards the nearby town which she had seen Gerard flee off to she started to wonder how it would work for her new pet on the ship, if it would actually work and what not, but as long as she showed it love it would hopefully survive in her care, it seemed strong at least, which was the only other criteria. Then she started to think about all the allies that she has in paradise, people like Boris Drew and who else, and she wouldn't be let down if she found them one day. Her memories started to pop up again of the days when she worked as a mercenary in their own little group with a chef, smith and everything, they hunted bounties and jobs and it worked, well until she got found out about that is...

As she thought about it a big grin quickly got plastered on to her face as she ran on the snow and ice combination on the ground before she hit the icy pavement of the town. She needed to find some place to relax but first, Gerard. As she looked around herself she continued to run, she hadn't found him yet after all. She ran all around town before finding him and seeing him disappear into a bar before following him in.

"Hey Gerard! Ough that numbnut..." she screamed towards him before muttering the last part of her statement as she got closer and closer to him inside the bar. It was pretty packed, because its so cold outside people retreat towards the insides of buildings she guessed, and alcohol is a pretty good warmth to be found in the middle of winter, and with the unending war going on the people here probably needed it.

The place was more packed than Gerard realized. Well, when you live in a frozen warzone, anywhere warm with enough booze to make you forget your troubles, you would be wanting to spend all your time there too. Gerard just hoped that didn't mean the booze was watered down. He knew busy places would water down their booze in order to stretch it.

But then a voice calling out to him caught his attention. Gerard looked back through the crowd and smiled brightly when he saw the masked face of Valentine. "Valentine! My dear, so good to see you!" He reached out through the crowd for her, managing to take her hand and pulling her towards him. The crowded patrons pushed the two lovers together, causing him to blush lightly, but unable to remove the smile from his face. "I'm glad you're here darling. I'm guessing the bird purchase went well for you? I've gotten us anew addition to our crew myself." He said, having to speak up to be heard over the background noise.

Holding her hand, Gerard began guiding the two of them, approaching the bar. It was a bit of a journey, with a number of the more drunken patrons refusing to budge without a push. Eventually the two would arrive at the bar. Gerard grinned as he leaned on the bar. "Bartender, two of your best." Hey, if they were celebrating, better go for the good stuff. Gerard turned to his masked lover and smiled. "I need to tell you about this guy I found. He's a weaponsmith. Interesting guy, if a little creepy looking."

Meanwhile, Gerard and Valentine's entrance had not gone unnoticed, despite how crowded the bar was. A group of men in the corner were watching the two, glanced at a couple of posters before them. "You sure that's them?" One of them said in a hushed tone, "I mean, the Dandyman I can believe, but the woman..." "It's her all right. Look at the poster. Gotta say, damn girl looks good for a woman her age."

The lively tone of the bar was right on par with her new style that she had adapted from Gerard of her new self conscious and happy, quite roarful tone. She liked it, to have more people react to her presence especially now more than ever as a group of people sat in the corner of the bar, observing them. It was quite the bunch of people in the bar, they were everywhere, drunken patrons that sat around doing not much but sing and drink to happy and sad songs alike, it was like a wave of emotions going through them along with the warmth of the cozy pirate like bar. "Oh really? He seems like quite the person! I found a few old friends of my old adventures that would love to go with us and teach me a new fighting style! A chef named Boris and a swordsman named Tosh,
I guess they're hung up on me being their leader but I'm trying to make them have more of an open vibe to everyone on the ship... And it's going fine... I guess?" she said towards her lover as she stood on the gnarly oak floor of the bouncy tavern.

It seemed to be an alright place even if it was in the middle of a war torn island, in the middle of its frozen tundras which makes it albeit a lot more weird that it's located in such a place. Before she could think more of it she saw in the side of her eye that people started moving towards her and her hopefully soon new husband. "HEY!", a man screamed towards them, most people became quiet suddenly before dispersing leaving only Gerard and Valentine on the main floor of the bar, everyone else went towards the sides to observe and stay hushed at the sides. "Are you Dandyman Sinnet and The Red Paw Valentine?" he asked in quite the stationary voice behind a black robe. He had comrades as well it seemed as they surrounded them.

"Why does that concern you?" Valentine said as she opened her mind again, it started flowing with ideas, maybe these people had taken their crew hostage and threatened them to do something for them. Or maybe they would get to know something that they need to know for their future stay in paradise, but hey how likely would that be? "We've come to claim the bounties on your heads---" "HEAR THAT GERARD WE GOT BOUNTIES!!!" she screamed out louder than the man before her had done just moments before. "QUIET WOMAN, the bounties are on Dandyman Sinnet for 80,000,000 beli and The Red Paw; Valentine for 187,500,000 beli" the man before them said before pulling out two posters, and it was as he had said, their bounties were humongous!

"A swordsman and a chef huh? Nice. Glad to see you've still got some friends from your old life. We're picking up quite the crew on this island, aren't we?"

Before they could get their drinks, someone yelled out to them, immediately silencing everyone present. Gerard looked over at the men approaching, all of them dressed in robes and looking on the menacing side. It didn't take a genius to guess that these guys meant no good, especially when they referred to them by their nicknames. Sure enough, they were bounty hunters, after their heads. But the threat of it all was washed away when Valentine started bouncing up and down giddily, happy that they had bounties. Gerard himself couldn't help bit grin. They had fame! At least enough to warrant a large group coming after them.

Then the head of them listed out their bounties and Gerard's eyes widened.80 million? Gerard had only just left the Blues, and he already had a bounty that high? That was close to the likes the Supernovas had! Hell, Valentine's was even bigger, more than double his own! He figured she had a head start on them, but damn! "Well, would you look at that! Nice work honey! I'm so proud of you!" He leaned up to kiss her cheek, not caring that the bounty hunters were circling them.

The man with the posters stared at them, dumbfounded. "Hey! Hold on a minute! We just said we're here to-!" "Yeah yeah, give us a moment, Gerard cut him off, turning back to Valentine,"[/color] We need to celebrate. What do you think? Nice candle lit dinner? Maybe some dancing? Oh! Maybe-!"[/color]

He was cut off by the sound of steel being drawn and a shout. The bounty hunter apparently didn't take kindly to being ignored and had drawn his blade, thrusting it in Gerard. Unfortunately for the bounty hunter, he was lacking in the haki department, resulting in the blade simply going through him. Gerard stopped and stared at the blade going into his mid section, gas wisping around it. He slowly looked at the bounty hunter. "Now that is just plain rude. I was talking to my wife!" He thrust out with his cane, striking the man in the sternum, who doubled over before Gerard hit him of the head with his cane. On that not, the other hunters began drawing their weapons, as the rest of the patrons dove out the windows. All except the bartender who had to hide behind the bar.

"That sounds lovely dear! How about we get some fillet mignon made by our new chef on board?!" she said before their ramblings was interrupted by the robed man. "Aaawh Hubbyy~!" she said as he defended her, the men drawing their blades as they kept standing around them. She was ready to take these guys out with her partner, it might even help them raise their bounties higher if they take something like the bar out with it but she didn't want to put them into debt after all. "Well then "Dandyman Sinnet", you ready to take these guys out?" She said with a big grin to her face as if it was plastered onto her before charging towards a few of the men.

As she appeared in front of a few of the men she pushed one of her paws into one of the men's stomach before the young man flew away through the wall of the bar and dragged a few of his comrades with him. They looked towards her, shaking in their boots. "Then it's true? The paws on her palms can repel anything and everything! Kitty paws aren't to be messed with it seems..." one of the men said from the other side of the bar looking towards her as she readjusted her black hat and went back to her husband. "So how about it hun? We need to get to that honeymoon island of ours later too, as long as we fix the legal parts later to make us an official couple, maybe hold a wedding on the island? Ough I don't know hubby, help me decide..." she said, ending the sentence with a look of bloodlust in her eyes as she looked towards the other men in the bar sending a shiver down their spine as they back off a bit.

This seemed like her type of fight, a fight were mass destruction was actually allowed was just her cup of tea alright! One last outlash of the Paw powers before learning the Black Leg Style couldn't be all that bad actually, to get the last things out of her system. "I hope the ones that I bought the bird from has gone to a different part of the island, wouldn't want to disturb them with my activities after all..." she said as she looked down upon her paws and waited for the heads up from her husband before continuing.

Infoz:

Gerard grinned at his dear 'wife' as she seemed just as chill at the situation as he. Was. "Certainly my dear." He turned to the men surrounding them and smirked. As Valentine shot on ahead to punched out some of them, Gerard let loose a cloud of poisonous gas, covering most of the bar. Thankfully Valentine's mask would protect her from the fumes. Not so much for the poor saps who thought they could challenge them. He could hear their cries of pain as the fumes burned their lungs. Many could try to scramble out of the gas, but many were stumbling around blind.

Gerard whistled a little ashe strolled through the gas, twirling has cane as he listened to Valentine. "Well my dear, I would need to see this island first, but if it's as lovely as you say it is, then I have no qualms." He approached a man coughing and spluttering. Gerard delivered a sharp kick to his midsection, driving the air from his lungs and forcing him to inhale more of the gas. The man clutched his throat as he doubled over, only to be shoved aside by Gerard. "I do know though that once we take that island, I'm having a massive statue of you built for it. Considering it my courting gift."

He gave a laugh as another boynty hunter, partly blinded by the gas, trying to take a swing at him. Gerard shifted to the side, driving his knee into his sternum. The man gasped out before Gerard looped the handle of his cane around his neck. "Hmm, though in the event the island isn't good enough, we can always have the wedding on Minion. Give ourselves a real royal wedding!" He heaved the bounty hunter over his shoulder with his cane, slamming the man hard against the floor. Gerard was almost feeling bad for the gents. They had come here expecting an easy bounty, and they were getting destroyed. Though Valentine seemed to be having fun, and that's all that mattered to the gas man.

Suddenly there was a sharp blow to the back of Gerard's head, causing the Dandyman to stumble, and his hat to fall of. Gerard looked over his shoulder, seeing a large man behind him, seemingly taking the poisonous gas a lot better than the rest. Through the haze, he could see the familiar dark sheen of haki surrounding his fists. "Well, what do we have here?" he murmured before shouting out, "Hey darling! We've got some haki users among us! Watch yourself dear!" He was sure she could take care of herself, but he could never call himself a decent husband to be if he wasn't a little concerned for her safety. Meanwhile, the large man growled in frustration. Despite his resilience, the burning from the gas was irritating the man's lungs, and these two damn monsters were making wedding plans during an attack on their lives! They could at least have the decency to treat this seriously! Gerard smirked as he brought his hands up, like a boxer ready for a match.

"That sounds lovely dear! A wedding on that grand island of yours!" she said as she dodged the blows of the slowly dying men in the mist that her dear one had created. Even if these men would try to hurt her they wouldn't get far seeing how hard her skin and body over all had become over the training on the island, it had grown to be close to indestructible by normal standards even if she realizes that there are people that cross those boundaries and a lot of them in this world. The warm tavern turned warmer as the gas filled every little spot of it. A haki punch came straight for her from behind, a mere moments before her eyes dazzle before dodging and flying towards the other end of the tavern through some acrobatic madness.

"Thanks for the heads up honey!" she said with a joyful tone towards her husband. This person was quite the rugged mess, he seemed to need the money and anyone could see that through his rugged cloak, but his haki was impressive which must mean that his strength shouldn't be lacking either. As these thoughts filled her mind she said to herself that she needed to beat this person to show her strength. "Leave this one to me honey..." she said as she looked down to her fists before raising them and cracking them. She started to charge towards the man in quite the high speeds before clashing with him, fist to fist. He was also right handed it seems. They stood there in quite the silence before both grunted and retracted their fists before both of them sped around the tavern in high speeds and clashed at different parts of it, making them invisible to people that aren't as perceptive as their speeds at points.

If one was inside it could be heard as if bullets clashed in the air at several points before both of them stopped in the center of the tavern with a single right clashing again. "You..
*Cough* Weren't that bad... actually..." she said towards the quite big man standing in front of her. "You aren't half bad either to be honest..." he said with an albeit a lot more tired tone than Valentine.

The large haki user swung his big fists at Gerard, intent on smashing the smaller man. However, while the big guy had strength and the ability to touch him, Gerard was faster on his feet, plus his observation haki allowed him to see the shots coming. He was practically dancing around the man, dealing some light counter blows to him. This man lacked Datara's durability, and as such Gerard's blows were starting to wear the big guy down.

"Come on there big guy. Can't you hit hit little old me when I'm looking at you?" He jeered as he jumped backwards, finding himself phasing through a hunter that had been behind him. That worked out for the best as the haki user had swung a fist, catching the poor bastard in the face with a haki infused punch. The man sank to the floor like a sack of potatoes as both Gerard and the haki hinter stared at the fallen man for a second. "Well," Gerard murmured, "That's one way to take someone down." He then laughed as the haki user growled and advanced on him again.

It was then that he heard the loud crack as Valentine and the other hunter collided. It was almost like a gunshot. Gerard jumped lightly as all heads turned in the direction of the sound. Gerard blinked as he heard Valentine speak, followed be her...coughing? "Dear?" Gerard called, a little concerned. Was she hurt? Did her mask come off and she was now breathing in his fumes? Suddenly, he felt someone grab him from behind, catching him by surprise. "Hey! What the-?" He was about to phaze out of the hold, but the man had done his job. Distract Gerard long enough for the haki user to drive his fist into Gerard's stomach. The gas man wheezed as he doubled over. And all the while he was worried about Valentine.

"Valentine! Hold your breath!" he called out.

And suddenly, the gas cloud seemed to evaporate. The bounty hunters were at first confused about the suddenly disappearing fog, before a look of realization and horror crossed their faces. They all started gasping, clawing at their throats like they were choking. But it wasn't because of what they were breathing in, but what they WEREN'T. Gerard had effectively sucked all the oxygen out of the air, creating a vacuum as the bounty hunters began to suffocate.

Now able to see, Gerard was able to see where Valentine was. He made his way through the choking bounty hunters, pushing them aside as he approached his   bride to be. Air slowly returned to the area as he got in close. After all, he had only intended to clear the air, not choke everyone out and expose Valentine to a rather gruesome sight. "Are you alright dear?" he asked, concerned.

Meanwhile, the now gasping bounty hunters we're now realizing just what sort of horrific nightmares they were fighting. And he had the lower bounty of the two?[/color]

"Thanks for the warning darling, is that a new move of yours?" she asked quite upbeat towards seeing people falling down at his presence, it was just like something she had seen before but that time it was willpower showing off and here it was probably something along the lines of sucking all the oxygen out of the area which was quite a nifty ability to be sure! The warm bar had taken quite the different turn now from when they first entered it, the big man that she was fighting had struggled for his breath as the other men in the bar but was still fighting like an ox. "I'm... alright, this guy isn't too bad and he's gonna take awhile..." she said as she had her eyes stuck on the large bounty hunter with a dark small grin under the mask.

They disappeared several times over and clashed again at different points in the bar once again. This guy didn't want to go down and that was for sure! Right as they collided the second time with the sound of a gunshot she started to feel his strength weakening, he was getting tired. "So this is the power of a... 180 million bounty huh?" he said as they stood there in the dim lit bar as they were powering off each other. "It's about to get a whole lot bigger mister!" she said before overpowering him and pushing his right fist aside before aiming with her left paw towards his breast. Moments later she had pushed her entire palm in to his chest and then in the matter of seconds his strength backstabbed him making his grip loose before he flew away through the taverns side.

"I've seen worse Gerard, lets just end this and go back, I want to meet this smith guy and I want you to meet my old comrades!" she said with an enthusiastic grin towards Gerard, not because he could see it through the mask but he could hopefully feel her mood through her beautiful eyes towards him. The men all around them was starting to dissipate right in front of them, a few had been knocked out, a few had been sent through the walls of the tavern and some had just decided not to fight them.

It was a wise decision after the display they were shown after all.

Gerard was relieved to see that Valentine was alright. She had just tired herself a little fighting one of the bounty hunters. "Yeah. A nifty little trick I picked up. Surprisingly good with crowds like this." He looked over, seeing that a number of the bounty hunters, those that were still standing anyway, had made the rather smart decision to clear out, leaving their fallen comrades behind. Man, such a lack of loyalty they had. And when one put things into perspective, weren't the bounty hunters sort of good guys? I mean, he and Valentine were the criminals after all.

Gerard shrugged. Now was not the time for philosophy. It really was time to wind this fight down a bit. Most of them had already gone, and the man he had been fighting seemed worse for wear. Besides, those that did remain did look as if Gerard had somehow morphed into a monster of some kind. Hmm, would he be able to do something like that? Well, he did do that glowing thing.

"Give me a moment dear. There's something I want to try." he called out as Valentine finished her opponent. Gerard began to concentrate, trying to replicate what had happened earlier. Gerard's body began to glow, steadily growing brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding. The remaining bounty hunters stumbled back, blinded by the bright light.

And then, after a brief moment, Gerard reverted back to normal, panting lightly from the effort. The Dandyman quickly looked over himself. No more glow, and he seemed pretty solid. "Damn. I was able to do it earlier. How did I do tha-OW!" One of the bounty hunters had decided to try his luck by throwing a bottle at him. And surprisingly enough, it had hit him! How was that possible? Haki hadn't been used.

"Ok, note to self. Do NOT test that out during a battle situation." Apparently doing that glowing thing was throwing off his ability to go intangible. And while Gerard had learned the importance of dodging, loosing his biggest defense was not a good thing. A number of bounty hunters, including the big guy, were starting to advance on him, getting some realization at Gerard's temporary handicap.

" I don't think so," Gerard said before the area qas engulfed in the toxic gas. The bounty hunters cried out, in equal parts pain and frustration at being stuck in the poisonous cloud again. But that would be the least of their worries this time. Gerard wasn't going to bother fighting them up close this time. The man drew his cane and began firing. The crack of gunshots filled the air, as men cried out from their wounds. Gerard's observation haki allowed him to fire upon his targets just fine, so at least that was still working. With all the beating the bounty hunters had been taking, gunning them down was almost too easy. Hell, even the haki user he had been fighting ended up going down with a few shots. Then again, these guys had been facing up against a couple of monsters such as themselves. "Certainly dear. I think we're about done here," Gerard replied, taking note of how many of them were down, some trying to pitifully limp away.

"Awesome dear! Yeah this place is starting to bore me, hopefully we'll increase our bounties more now that people has seen us being active too, especially me now that I know that I actually have one!" she said as she picked it up from one of the defeated scoundrels before rolling it together and putting it in one of her pockets. "I've heard it means good luck..." she said as she looked a bit blushed towards the other end of the tavern. "And what was it that you was starting to do? The glowing? Another new technique of yours?" she said towards him with a dazzle in her eyes, putting him on a throne in her eyes. "Why would you need so many techniques though?" she said towards him whilst thinking deep down about if it was to protect everything that he held dear? Or maybe it was just to get a clean power up in battle and defeat the ones that he couldn't possibly imagine to beat before.

The feeling of her man being able to defeat people that he wouldn't be able to otherwise started to fill her, it felt impressive and great to have her significant other be as strong as Gerard. She never thought that she would hook up with a logia user, even less with the gas user, and now seeing how Gerard can manipulate the gases after having heard of it before she is actually quite stunned about its potential, explosive, freezing, sucking all the oxygen out and such is probably just the start of his power, and just by thinking of it she started getting excited. "Hey Gerard, lets get out of here and get back to the ship, I wanna go and get some great food made by our awesome chef... And meet that smith of yours~" she said as she finished with dragging him in for a kiss on his soft lips.

They seemed to have taken out most of the forces that they had blistered towards themselves as they had walked in to this bar, as they started to wrap this thing up Valentine walked towards the bar desk to request for her drink that she had waited almost an unbearable time for. "Hey barkeep, give me that drink we've requested, and one for my about to be man too, we are going to celebrate tonight, at least thats the plan~!" Valentine said towards the bar keep before a whole bottle was lounged up from under the desk.

"LEAVE MONSTERS; AND NEVER COME BACK!"

[Exit]

As the gas started to dissapate, he could see that the remaining bounty hunters were on the ground, either dead or dying from the injuries inflicted on them. Seeing their handiwork was really quite satisfying. He couldn't help but smirk from it all. Showed them that that 80,000,000 bounty wasn't for show. As Valentine picked up her own wanted poster, he collected his own from a fallen hunter. "Maybe get these framed. Hang them over our bed," he chuckled. He couldn't help but feel proud that his fiance was someone with such a high bounty. And the fact that she wanted to be with him...

Then Valentine asked out that glowing thing from earlier. Gerard tilted his head in thought. "Sort of, I guess. I somehow turned into it when I was fighting our blacksmith earlier. It's strange. I was glowing brightly, and I was immune to fire! Though it seems to mess with my intangibility afterwards. I need to figure out how to make it work." He turned to look at his beloved and smiled, "Besides, I want to see just how much I can do with this thing. I mean, so far it's been pretty impressive."

He agreed it was time for them to head back. Time to celebrate their first bounties. But before she could say anything he was pulled into a deep kiss by Valentine, her mask hiding her face from the only other person in the room. Gerard wrapped his arms round her and held her for a moment as everything seemed to freeze around them. He got the distinct impression their celebration was going to include more than just a dinner. And hey, he was completely cool with that.

As Valentine went to get their drink for the evening, Gerard casually approached the bar and set a couple of beli down. "For the drink. And a little extra for the clean up." He was tempted to smack the man for calling Valentine a monster, but then again, they kind of were monsters at this point, weren't they? Better to wear that title with pride.

With the bottle in hand, their wanted posters in their pocket, and satisfied with todays activities, Gerard linked his arm with Valentine's as a gentleman should, and escorted the lovely lady out of the bar, heading back towards their ship. Tonight was going to be one hell of a night for them.

[Exit]