SO! Now that Vivi's had a chance to catch her breath and get used to the fact that the Mortal Kombat tournament WILL be held, even despite botched assassination attempts, she's decided to start going over the materials given to her by Sousuke and Kurz. She'd put it off before, since she didn't think she'd actually have a chance to go over it, but now that she's started she can't stop! It's hooked her attention, kicking up old memories and nostalgia about her time working with Mr. 9 in Baroque Works. She wonders how he's doing. Surely he must have survived Mr. 5's attack. He was such a nimble, wiry, resilient sort of fellow! It would be nice to see him again, and thank him.

Vivi leafs through the small collection of files with photographs attached, curious as to the other agents she'll be working with. The information is hardly confidential, just the basics, and lots of red stamps blotting out the interesting parts. Vivi chuckles to herself. Seems she'll just have to learn more by meeting them herself! With her head bent over the manila folder, she makes the wonderful cliched mistake of walking around the corner without watching her feet. GEE I SURE HOPE SHE DOESN'T RUN INTO ANYONE.

Poor Vivi manages to run into someone tall and muscular. The giant-like creature from some other plane of existance looks down at her with his one eye, stares, and gives her a glare. "Watch where yer goin', girl, else you're likely to get step't on." He grumbles, stepping around her. Well, some manners!

Luckily, though, Luffy's not too far away. In fact, he turns a corner on the whole other side of the terminus, but it's not like he doesn't recognize the woman with blue hair. Not many women he's ever met that has blue hair. "Hey, Vivi!" He waves a hand, wandering in her direction. Awk, make a run for it! So much for hoping she doesn't run in to anyone!

"Hey! Hey you!" An unfamiliar voice calls out, as a strange man in navalesque attire runs down the street, shaking his fist at the swiftly retreating cyclops, "Yeah, fatty! Stop harassin' the blue haired chick and get back here before we find out just what you can do to a guy in the hub after you get teleported to jail!"

There's the faint sound of a Gate activating and Peleps Kaizoku Seki, Dragon-Blooded Dynast and enthusiastic rug investor, says something that's probably a swear word in a strange, almost musical language, swinging his fist at the air in frustration. "Lousy no-good low rent not payin me back cyclopses...I swear, totally the last time I make a bet with a mythological monster..."

Seki pauses, because he knows himself. "...second to last time."

Meanwhile, from the general direction of IPA headquarters, Samus Aran has just stepped into the Terminus. Her Power Suit is projecting a series of flat holograms in front of her, and she taps her way through them one by one, muttering under her breath.

A pair of familiar voices catches her attention, though, and she glances up from her work to see Luffy and Seki across the Terminus. Samus smiles to herself, behind the visor, and starts forward to meet one or both of them. The last time she's seen either one is the fight with Ridley, so it will be nice to catch up.

Vivi? Run from Luffy? NEVAH! After recovering from her encounter with a flustered smile and apology, the princess quickens her steps to meet Luffy halfway. "Oh, Luffy-san! How nice to see you again," she beams, closing the folder shut and tucking it under her arm. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be off having another adventure on an exotic island," she tilts her head to the side curiously. Not that she isn't glad to see him, of course.

Seki's voice sure does echo in these streets, Vivi notes, turning to blink at the strange young man. He seems awfully familiar. Hard to be sure, but... Vivi cracks open the files again to take a peek, leafing through...ah, there it is. Peleps Kaizoku Seki. Call sign: Sexy. Sexy? ...What kind of strange organization IS this Mithril Alliance? Hopefully she'll never have cause to use that callsign, she's not sure she could do it with a straight face. She doesn't yet notice the armored bounty hunter moving in their direction, but rest assured, it'll snatch her attention soon enough.

The cyclops shakes a fist and disappears around the corner. Okay, well, there're so many more people here that have manners.. and Luffy only has half of the requirements, atleast as far as table manners are concerned! Luffy grins and shakes his head. "Nope. We're at another island now. We explored it, found another gate. It'll take a week for the log pose to set to the next island, so.." He grins. That explains why he's here. Once he's done explaining to Vivi why he's not out adventuring, he realizes that Peleps is there. How can he forget that guy? He gives him a wave. But it wouldn't be Luffy to catch sight of Samus! "Hey, Samus!" He gives the bounty hunter a huge wave. Wow. He hasn't seen Peleps and Samus since Ridley tried to take a bite out of the big apple.

Peleps Kaizoku Seki shakes his fist again, feeling nothing but HATE for all one eyed monsters everywhere. Seki has a lot of hate, it's family tradition. Crossing his arms and grumbling, the Peleps turns his way over to the girl and the boy on the straw hat-he doesn't have a hat to tip, so he waves as politely as he can manage when consumed by vengeful fury at the pair.

"Hi." Seki says, shockingly, "Don't mean to bother you folks, but did you happen to get that rude cyclops's name? He happens to, ah-heh, owe me a little bit of money and is apperently allergic to paying a brother back, see..."

Sol Badguy, meanwhile, makes his first foray out of his Plane. This is noteworthy because he comes out parallel to the ground, and just manages to twist around enough to land somewhat on his feet before hitting the ground. "....****ing strange," he mutters to nobody in particular, before putting one hand on the side of his neck and tilting it to either side, as if working kinks out of the muscle. Next comes reconnaissance...and so the bounty hunter looks around the area curiously, his eyes alighting on the pamphlet machine. He roughly grabs a couple and storms off, cooincidentally putting him on a path that will intersect with the cyclops.....soon-ish. "....great, they have interplanar cops. Wonder how long Kiske was going to try and keep this one quiet, the bastard...." It seems like he's in a particularly foul mood at the moment.

Before too long, Samus arrives at the little cluster of acquaintances. The cyclops and Sol don't catch her attention just yet. "Luffy, Seki, good afternoon," the bounty hunter says pleasantly, nodding to both of them. "It's good to see you both again. And under more pleasant circumstances, obviously."

She turns to Vivi then, quirking an eyebrow. The blue hair looks familiar... Ah, could she be one of the newer members of the Mithril Alliance? Samus quickly loads up the personnel file... "Princess Nefertari, I presume? Samus Aran. It is a pleasure to meet you." Samus gives Vivi a polite half-bow, hand and cannon meeting in front of her.

Vivi shakes her head. "Sorry, no." She glances in the direction where the cyclops was last seen. What an unpleasant sort of fellow! Looks like he's about to trample someone else, too. Only the other guy looks like he stands a fair chance of trampling right back, yikes. "You're Seki-san, right? I think we'll be working with each other in the near future," the princess beams. "Sagara-san just recently gave me an invitation to join. Luffy-san was thinking about it too," she gestures to her nakama happily. Who is not paying attention. Hm? What's he looking...at? Oh, wow. And that name sounds familiar. It was in the files, wasn't it? It didn't mention the armor, though! "Yes, that's right," she giggles, and mimics the bow politely in return. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well. I look forward to working with you, Aran-san. But you can just call me Vivi," she waves her hand back and forth with a laugh. Outside of the court, there's really no need for formalities!

Luffy doesn't take notice to Sol's.. unfortunate fall into the hub. He's too busy staring at his reflection in Samus's armor. Specifically, the armor on her arm. Man, how does she keep it so shiny doing the work she does? It takes him a moment to snap out of it, before grinning. "It's good to see you again, Samus. It's been a while!" He says, as optimistic as ever. "Yes, I've been thinking about joining the Mithril Alliance. I haven't really talked to anyone about it, though." He grins, rubbing the back of his neck. "The work sounds.. fulfilling. It'd be nice to have something to do while waiting for the log pose to set on each island." Not that they'd know what that means, but it does translate to one thing - Luffy has ALOT of free time.

Peleps Kaizoku Seki nods friendly-like at Samus. "Aran." He's met Luffy before, but didn't know the name. His eyes widen a little. "Huh. Straw Hat Luffy? Not bad." Apperently the privateer's heard of Luffy...Connections is an awesome background...and he grins at this, offering Vivi, and then Luffy, a handshake. "Well, gotta say it's nice to meet you all. If what I heard about your rep stands to scratch, Straw Hat, I think you and your crew would fit right in."

Seki hasn't been ordered after any of the pirates that dominate Luffy's plane...yet...but when you've got a plane full of them, any good Peleps keeps his ear to the ground. Seki pauses, his ears twitching a little, as if trying to place something. "...did anyone else suddenly get the urge to listen to old Queen records, or was that just me?"

Don't ask how Seki found out about old Queen records. It's a long, terrible story.

Sol Badguy passes the cyclops, reading the pamphlets the whole time. Well, not like he walks 'past' so much as 'through', and being the asshole that he is Sol doesn't even bother to stop and ask about the other man's welfare. Whatever he sees them in is apparently not particularly interesting, as he makes a disgusted noise...then there's a brief puff of air, and quite suddenly both pamphlets are lit on fire. Sol holds onto them for a second or two, letting them fall only when they're far enough along to turn into cinders before they hit the ground. "Ah, they were ****ing boring anyway."

It's at this point that he happens to round the corner the cyclops took a couple of minutes ago. So....creepy-looking kid in a straw hat...hot chick...pirate....robot. "....huh," is all he says, because frankly the people assembled aren't that bizarre considering what he usually puts up with.

"Very well, then, Vivi," Samus replies. "Please, feel free to call me Samus as well." With all the formality working with the Galactic Federation requires, Samus also appreciates it when she can set formality aside. "Luffy and I have fought together in the past." To Luffy, she adds, "You'd be a welcome addition to the group."

Seki's question gets a sidelong glance from Samus; it's just him. And Sol's arrival merits another glance. Samus nods politely to the newcomer, but doesn't say anything to him just yet.

Ahhhhhh, so that's how Luffy can manage to go exploring! Well that's okay, then. Vivi feels a surge of relief, smiling as she realizes she's not distracting him from his dreams after all. As long as he's still looking for the one piece with all diligence, she can relax. If anyone is to become the king of pirates, she hopes it's the young man with the kind heart and eternal optimism. It could really help change the world!

Vivi pauses as she notes Sol's unusual ability. She knows a certain person with the power to manipulate flames as well. That's interesting, she didn't know the devil fruits had more than one of each kind. ...It IS a devil fruit, isn't it?

"Ah? Okay, Samus-san," Vivi agrees. If she prefers the first name, so be it! But Vivi's far too polite to drop the -san from her name. Only childhood friends get that kind of familiarity! "Really?" she brightens at the news. Samus was a bounty hunter, wasn't she? The profile mentioned that. If she fought together with Luffy and didn't try to take advantage of the reward for his head, then Vivi can feel good about the two working in the same organization. "How wonderful! Luffy-san is a good fighter, I'm sure he helped a lot."

Luffy grins and takes Seki's hand, shaking it with a firm grip and perhaps a few up and down's more than he needed to. "Most of my crew joined other groups, as far as I know." He says. "Sanji and Zoro joined the Relief Society." But, he's a bit in the dark about the other members. Everyone's gained their own extracurricular activities! He turns towards Vivi when Samus mentions they fought together. "Yeah, it was so cool! They had this huge cannon and they were firing it on buildings, and we saved a bunch of people!" Of course, that's not quite the entirety of the story, but it gives someone a good idea of what happened, even if Luffy doesn't go into detail very often.

"Ridley's a jerk." Seki points out.

He then turns to look at Sol Badguy. Briefly, Seki realizes, he's dealing with a kindred spirit. A man who is also...Ghettofablous! Seki frowns, and initates the ancient rituals of measuring face between pretty men everywhere.

Which is to say, he puts his hands on his hips, and cocks said hips to the left, sharply, as if in challange. Sol will, Seki is confident, know what to do.

Sol Badguy shrugs, and cracks his neck again before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He takes one but doesn't bother lighting it, and approaches the group. Seki is given an incredulous look, before the bounty hunter reaches into the other pocket and pulls out a small photograph which he holds out towards the little group. "You guys look like you belong here," he says simply, his tone neutral enought that it's hard to tell whether he's being sarcastic or not. "So have you seen this girl?"

Curiously, it's a picture of Dizzy. She's dressed like a sailor, though, and the picture looks like it's a small piece of a larger photograph that's been torn off.

"Couldn't have put it better myself," Samus says to Seki wryly. To Vivi's reply, she chuckles and nods. "Indeed, he was of invaluable assistance, both in rescuing innocents and in the battle itself."

Samus smirks a bit at Sol's opening line, but her eyebrows lift behind the visor at the sight of the photograph. She certainly knows Dizzy; she was there when the poor Gear fell into the Hub in the first place. But the girl mentioned having a bounty on her once, and Sol... isn't exactly the innocuous-looking type. So naturally she's a bit suspicious. "I may have," Samus replies, somewhat guardedly. "May I ask why you're looking for her?"

Vivi squints at the picture. "...No, definitely not. I think I would certainly remember someone like that." Wings? Was this one of the angels that Luffy mentioned meeting in Skypeia? She looks to the captain, raising her eyebrows inquisitively. Then she grins at his story. Usopp was definitely the better story-teller, but Luffy's just so happy, it's contagious. "Ah, I see! That's my nakama!" Vivi raises a hand to her mouth as she giggles. Only Luffy would call it 'cool.'

Luffy leans forward to get a good look at the picture that Sol holds out, then shakes his head. "I know her, but I haven't seen her." He grins, folding his arms across his chest. There's alot of people he's lost contact with lately, but at the same time, just as many people he's recently recovered contact with. It's amazing. "I'm sorry." He apologizes, before turning to grin at Vivi. "Yeah, Samus has this really cool ship, too! I want to ride in it some day." It's not like he hasn't been inside stuff like that before, but.. dang.. it's just so cool!

"I." Seki pauses. Has he seen any winged women lately?

Wait, yes he has. "Not her, but, um..." Seki blushes a little.

"JustrememberedsomeoneerrsomethingIgottadoseeyouguyslaterbye!" Seki spits our rapid fire, hopping up over the fence and dead running towards the Gate. And Adventure!

Sol Badguy only bothers to follow Peleps as far as he can with his eyes; as soon as the pirate leaves his field of vision he's really of no further concern, as Sol has better things to be doing with his time. Like making his money. "Because she dropped off the face of the earth and Johnny'd kind of like to know what happened to her." He leaves out the addition '...and when he can get into port without worrying about being chased with a scythe'. "So he hired me to find her. It's what I do."

Samus's suspicious scowl (not that anyone can see it) clears up swiftly when Sol mentions the name 'Johnny'. "Johnny of the Jellyfish Pirates?" she says, that guarded tone mostly gone. Dizzy has brought up her friends from home more than once in the time Samus has spent with her. "Very well, then. It's been a few weeks since I last spoke to Miss Dizzy, but I can get in touch with her and let her know you're looking for her. May I have your name?" Just to check with Dizzy, of course. Samus won't give any information to Sol without her say-so.

This business taken care of, Samus turns briefly back to Vivi and Luffy, chuckling lightly. "I think we could arrange that at some point, Luffy."

"A ship?" Vivi repeats, perking up with curiosity. "Ah, then you're a captain, too! I didn't know," she smiles. No wonder she and Luffy got along so well. Of course, Vivi's idea of a ship is the kind that moves across oceans. She's never heard of a space ship. She's never really heard about space, for that matter! She beams at her friend, glad that he could have his wish fulfilled. He really asks for so little. "I bet that'll be lovely! You'll have to let me know how it compares to the Going Merry!" Vivi misses that brave little boat dearly.

Luffy's tagged along on a ride on Samus's ship before, honestly. Of course, it wasn't on the inside, and was extremely reckless to do by grabbing on to the ship as it came through the gate, but it served his purposes. "Cool! Thanks, Samus!" He grins, clapping his friend on the back. "You can come on the Merry anytime." He offers, though Samus may find Luffy's method of transportation excruciatingly slow compared to the ship she's so used to flying. He turns to look at Vivi, and grins. "Oh! I just remembered something I want to show you. It's really cool!"

Vivi blinks, her attention successfully captured by Luffy's exuberance. "Hm? What is it, Luffy-san?" she asks curiously, and takes a step towards the leader of the Straw Hats. Something he found? Or something clear across the multiverse? She can never tell with him!

Luffy grins and shakes his head. "I can't tell you. It's a secret!" He says. "But I'll show you!" And he glances over at Samus. "I'll talk to you later about that ship ride. See you later!" He doesn't wait for poor Vivi to follow him.. he just scoops her up and takes off running for one of the gates marked by what looks distinctly like a sheep. Hard to tell. It might just be a ball of cotton with a head, drawn into the gate with marker.

Sol Badguy nods. "One and the same. Tell her it's Sol." He then shrugs, stuffing the picture back in his pocket and holding his thumb up to the cigarette. There's a brief flash as a tiny gout of flame appears on the end of his finger, lighting the cigarette. He then looks up at Samus, and waves a hand dismissively. "Guess that's that then. Easy money." He then turns and walks away without so much as a 'goodbye' or a 'hey, what's your name?'. He's not really interested in that kind of stuff anyway.

...And suddenly, Samus finds herself alone in the Terminus again. A pause... and then she chuckles to herself, queuing up the holographic work she'd had open earlier. Quite a group of people she's managed to befriend out here. It sure beats chasing bounties in space, that's for sure...