Post by Grandest on May 28, 2019 17:08:41 GMT -5
Present...
Magnolia looked at the smoking ruin around her and let out a depressed sigh. Dazed people milled around her surprised to be alive after the craziness of the last half hour, while she mourned the loss of her uniform as it was nothing more than bloody, burnt rags now. All around her where the twitching bodies of unconscious or slightly burnt criminals some embedded in the floors and ceiling. She had been a busy little bee and had apparently stumble upon the middle of a gang war or something as she had been caught between both forces... Each who assumed she was working for the other side. However, as she looked at her self and the strange form she'd taken... standing on four legs and looking around with through what she was fairly sure was a dragon head she wasn't sure it was all a bad thing? Maybe...
She wasn't sure how it had come to this as it had started out as nothing more than a simple underground auction. Sure, she might have eventually decided to make some arrests, crack some skulls and generally be a nuisance but she hadn't even done any of that before they started trying to kill her... The overreaction she had received was rather startling.
Men with guns, knives, bats, chains all rushing out of the woodwork, each one intent on killing her or worse. An informant had led her here with a tipoff that she might find what she sought. However, from the moment of her arrival, things had gone to hell in a handbasket.
30 Minutes Prior...
Magnolia arrived with a swagger in her step and a smirk on her face as she slipped into the seedy looking watering hole at the back of the island. She was in her Marine uniform not concerned as her contact informed her that Marines often showed up to these things and as long as they weren't causing trouble people tended to ignore them. Besides, she knew that perceptive people would probably spot her as a Marine just by the way she moved and held herself. She didn't mind though there were plenty of criminals within the marines and plenty of ex-marines who were criminals. Without any evidence, she doubted that she would have to deal with much trouble.
That assumption died when she walked in the door though and found herself face to face with every gun in the place. She raised an eyebrow in question her voice very dry as she spoke,
"Did I come at a bad time or something?"
Several of the people in the bar exchanged glances before one who was too close for comfort spoke, his breath smelling like rancid beer and fermented piss.
"She's probably with them. They probably went and ratted us out to the marines!"
Then he spat on the ground expression of disgust crossing his features.
"No honor in the lot of them! I ain' surprised they decided to go runnin' to the Marines!"
Maggie was thoroughly confused having long since lost what was going on. Her eyes flicked from one face to the next and when she saw the gritting of teeth and tightening of jaws she decided that shit was about to hit the fan and she did what she was trained to do in such a situation. She kicked the fan.
She moved, faster than most of them could follow, her foot hooking around the leg of a nearby table as she pulled it in front of herself. Then, with strength trained from constant practice, she kicked it into the center of the room. Guns roared to life as bullets began flying around the room. Magnolia didn't even blink though, using the heavy wooden table as a makeshift shield as she charged into the center of the room and began laying waste to anyone she could get her hands on.
Soon, the entire bar was a brawl, the guns having long since becoming useless without fear of shooting their own people as Magnolia grabbed goon after goon and used them as battering rams. She smashed people with their friends and drinking buddies, the men and women making decent clubs as she went to town. Grabbing one guy by the leg she swung him around before releasing him into part of the crowd... then she was grabbed from behind and she swung her foot up and over her head kicking him in the face and smashing him into the bar.
"What the hell is going on here?"
She muttered aloud as the bar fell mostly silent save for the groans of pain from around her. Shaking her head, she still wanted to see if THAT item was here so she moved toward the back of the bar and instead of doing the knocking sequence she'd been instructed about she just spun and with a kick the door was smashed inward.
"Screw being subtle..."
She said as she walked into the back a large set of stairs leading down beneath the building. Nodding to herself she walked forward calmly, her heels clicking against the wood as she descended. However, things soon got dicey as she felt one of the stairs give out under her weight and the step gave out an audible click that made her sweat drop as she immediately dove backward. Her body flew up the stairs seconds before thin metallic wires shot out of the walls snapping taught with an audible twang of metal that made Maggie's eyes widen.
"Holy Seakings!"
She cried out as she found herself ducking under another and another wire, her body moving almost constantly as she tried to avoid getting sliced to ribbons. She was learning that black market auctions didn't play around when it came to traps.
Several minutes and a few close shaves later, Maggie made it to the bottom of the stairs relatively intact, save for a few strands of hair and some of her uniform, both of which kind of pissed her off. At the bottom of the stairs, she saw a heavy looking marble statue and she decided that she really didn't want to deal with anymore traps so she walked over to it... Then hefted it, weighing it in her arms for a few moments before deciding that it would definitely do for what she had in mind.
Then grinning she turned to face a wall that ran parallel to the hallway and threw. The statue smashing through the wood paneling with ease, leaving a hole big enough for her to hop through. She repeated the process again and again until she finally smashed her way into what looked like the main auction site. Confused people stared in her direction as she calmly stepped through the new hole in the wall, looking around with a smile and a friendly wave. She had stepped into a large auditorium, with ample seating and a large stage at the bottom with a red current currently drawn across it. The room was filled with various types, from shady looking underworld types to Nobles with their bodyguards looming menacingly.
Maggie took it all in with a glance, casually kicking the marble statue bust back through the hole she had just created with it before she strode into the room like she owned the place. Her marine jacket flapped behind her as she walked and her hat was still firmly in place atop her head as she moved. It seemed like she had made it in time for the auction after all and then reaching behind herself, she pulled out a large backpack that had been hidden by her marine jacket and swung it casually over her shoulder. It was her money to hopefully pay for the object she'd come here for although, if criminal types took it she would probably just acquire it the good ol' fashion way by stealing it from their unconscious bodies.
"Yo, just doing a bit of remodeling. Carry on."
She explained as she walked calmly to the nearest empty seat and sat down. People only paid it attention for a little while... then the lights dimmed and spotlights illuminated the stage in the center of the room. She sat back in her chair, casually kicking her feet up to rest on the empty seat in front of her as the curtain was pulled open and a beautiful woman, with ink-black hair and violet eyes, stepped onto the stage. The auctioneer, for that was what she was, smiled flirtatiously at the gathered audience before pulling out a microsnail and beginning to address the room.
"Greetings, ladies and gentleman to the Blackthorne families 32nd Official Auction! And tonight do we have some amazing things for you! I'm sure you've all been waiting with breathless anticipation for this auction so without further ado... Let's bring out our first item!"
As she finished her sentence another pretty girl, this one dressed as a made rolled out a cart with what looked to be a Giant Axe resting atop it. Magnolia tuned out what was going on, leaning her head back to rest on her seat, resting her eyes until it was time for the item she was interested in. The devil fruit was rather was listed as Uma Uma No Mi, a horse fruit, although the exact model type was unknown and apparently not a lot of people, saw much use in "horses" but to Magnolia who loved horses with a fiery passion... well this was the perfect fruit for her. She didn't really expect much competition as from the scuttlebutt she'd heard, this same fruit had gone unsold for the past three auctions.
Items came and went, some were weapons and armor, some were rare dials from the sky islands... Still, others were stolen painting and artworks from various places across the seas... Honestly, Magnolia didn't really care about any of that nonsense and she does through it all only barely catching the names... Then, her eyes snapped open as she heard the words she'd been waiting to hear.
"And now ladies and gentleman! I PRESENT TO YOU THE CAPSTONE OF THIS AUCTION! The Uma Uma No Mi Devil Fruit! Now I know some of you might be suspicious, especially because we don't know its model but I can assure you I've got a good feeling about this one--"
Even as she spoke though, Magnolia wasn't very surprised to see people already walking out, all save a few who only seemed mildly interested if they could get it for cheap.
'Tch... it's just as I was told people really do look down on horses.'
Magnolia thought as she watched her possible competition like hawks. Meanwhile, on the stage, the poor auctioneer girl looked desperate, jabbering on utter nonsense as she tried to get people to stay and bid. Maggie figured that the poor dear was working on a commission and probably took a solid hit to her profits whenever she failed to sell a devil fruit. Then... From off to her right, an arrogant voice oozed out a bid.
"You might as well just give it to me... I'll take it off your hands for one million beli... Take it or leave it."
The woman on the stage looked conflicted and the man had already gotten up and was walking toward the stage as though his little bid had won him the show but Maggie just frowned and shook her head, about to raise her hand to make a higher bid with the back of the Auction Hall exploded inward in a cloud of smoke and dust. Maggie spun around rising to her feet in annoyance... She was so close to her prize... And someone was coming to interrupt her?
She was truly enraged, the legendary temper that she tried so hard to contain rising up as a demonic aura seemed to leak off her as she looked at the new entryway, where criminal after criminal seemed to be filing into the room grinning to each other all wielding various weapons. However, Magnolia didn't really care one bit and she was about to commence the beatings when from behind the stage, more criminals seemed to be pouring out.
She blinked in surprise, for the second time completely confused by what in the blazes was going on around here. In front of each group were arrogant peacock looking dudes both strutting forward to the middle of the room, glaring sparks at each other as the moved.
"Hmph! So you decided to attack, after all, you Crimorty Scum Family!"
The first man to speak shouted, he was fat, looking like a meatball that someone vomited a rainbow on, with a feather cloak that was in every eye-watering tie-dye shade imaginable. It visibly hurt Maggie to look at him so she turned her head in the other direction only to be met with something just as bad.
"Hmph! Who's the real scum around here? If it isn't the Feng Family I'll spell my name backward from now on!"
This guy was dressed even worse, in what was a bright green and orange jumpsuit, with giant shoulder pauldrons that looked to be cats? He had the biggest unibrow that Maggie had ever seen and an overbite that would make a beaver proud. Maggie just shook her head, noticing that these guys were not even paying attention to her and calmly looked away and toward the front of the room. Where the arrogant slimeball from before was holding Her FRUIT! She was immediately triggered, a tick mark forming on her brow as she walked calming toward the front of the room. Then, looking at the Auctioneer lady who was looking between the fruit and the criminals with indecision, Maggie simply shoved the bag with all her money into the woman's arms.
"Here's forty-two million beli. I'm taking the fruit."
She told her matter of factly, plucking the fruit out of the slimeballs hands before he could even blink. In the background, all the shouting seemed to come to an end as both families seemed to be staring at her as she bounced the fruit on the palm of her hand and then she blinked noticing that she was the center of attention.
"Uh... look, I'm off duty, you guys do your thing, I just came for the fruit."
She told them emphasizing her point with a bit of a shooing motion. Then, once again things took an unexpected turn as things did not go at all the way she thought they would.
"So, you hired an outsider to take the fruit you Crimorty Scum? Hmph! She won't leave here alive!"
"Uh... Guys... I didn't take it--"
Magnolia tried to explain but she was soon drowned out by all the yelling between the two idiots.
"I hired her? You hired her you Fat Feng Bastard! How dare you besmirch my good family name!"
"Uh... No one hired me... I just came to buy...."
Again, her protests were drowned out by the two bickering crime family heads and Magnolia was thoroughly confused.
"We're crime families! HOW THE HELL DO WE WOULD HAVE GOOD FAMILY NAMES?"
"The man's got a point but seriously! I paid like twice its market value for the thing--"
"THE CRIMORTY IS AT LEAST BETTER THAN THE FENGS!"
"WHAT!? THAT'S IT GET HER BOYS! TEAR HER APART!"
"Uh, hold on, I'm not working for anyone!"
"SCREW THAT RIP HER APART BEFORE THE CRIMORTY GET TO TOUCH HER FENGS!"
"Oh come on guys... Really..."
Maggie just heaved a sigh as the first idiot charged her and without even thinking, she smashed her knee into his face, launching him upward into the ceiling where his body hung limply, only his waist and below visible as he stuck there.
"ALRIGHT FINE! I DIDN'T TAKE THIS FRUIT I PAID FOR IT! BUT IF YOU WANT TO GET YOUR ASS KICKED BY THIS EMPRESS?"
She threw the whole fruit in her mouth and gagged, nearly throwing it up as the flavor splashed against her taste buds and she nearly past out from the sheer awful... Then she swallowed retching, gagging sound escaping her as she scraped at her tongue trying to get the taste to go away. Hacking, coughing, gagging... Her eyes were watering and she barely managed to duck under the first blow to come her way. Elbowing the attacker into the side of some chairs.
Slowly, she managed to recover, step by step as the taste didn't exactly fade but she managed to subdue her response to it.
"Kracken's bloody barnacles that was awful."
She gagged out, spin kicking another attacker into two of his friends. Just as she started to recover, her body started to grow hotter and hotter and she felt like she was getting bigger somehow but in the wrong directions. Her bones itched, her hair felt like fire and her face was changing.
She threw back her head and let out a roar and a blast of violet flames exploding from her mouth and into the oncoming attackers. They howled and screamed as they caught on fire, some of them flying backward as though smashed by the hand of god. Magnolia didn't see any of this though... so caught up was she in the feeling of her first transformation.
Then, it was over and she stood heads and shoulders above anyone else in the room, her body wreathed in fire and smoke as she looked around from person to person. She looked at her self, bending her body in a way that would be impossible for a normal human as she looked at the dragon scales that coated her entire body... At her four hooves... at the giant golden whiskers, she could see growing off the sides of her face... She blinked, confused as hell for a moment as she tried to take it all in. She had eaten a Horse fruit alright... but not just any horse fruit apparently... she had eaten... one of the legendary Mythical Zoan fruits?
She stared blankly at the two crime families arrayed before her and they stared blankly back... Then, a tumbleweed fell from one of the rafters before drifting between the two parties and Maggie couldn't help but shoot the thing a dirty look.
'Where do those things even come from!'
She fumed internally before turning her head that she was now fairly certain was kind of dragon-like back toward the people who wanted to tear her limb from limb... Then she grinned.
"I believe I do owe you guys an ass kicking."
She said with a sing-song-lilting cadence.
Present -
Maggie just shook her head then slowly she began to shrink back into her normal human form, her body feeling like it was coated in a warm fire as she slowly shrunk down and went from standing on four legs to two legs. Her appearance had changed a bit and she now had dragon pupils and some strange fire floating around the tips of her hair and she grinned even as she landed back on her heels and looked around.
People were giving her wide-eyed incredulous stares, while the few conscious criminals were trying to crawl away from her. She walked forward calmly and stepped on the two leaders who were trying their best to snail themselves away. She stood on their backs as she reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a mini den den mushi.
"This is Ensign Magnolia Wilde... I've got a report and could use some cleanup crews..."
Things might not have turned out how she expected but in life... when did things every turn out as expected? She beat up some criminals and probably put an end to both of these crime families and got a devil fruit that was apparently WAY better than she expected... all in all, she couldn't really complain and so, sitting down atop her captured crime heads who she stacked like pyramids to make a more comfy seat, she waited for her superiors to arrive for a good debrief.
As she sat there she couldn't help but grin down at the small ball of violet fire that was hovering over the tip of her finger. Her life was about to get sooo interesting. And she was going to love every second of it.
Magnolia looked at the smoking ruin around her and let out a depressed sigh. Dazed people milled around her surprised to be alive after the craziness of the last half hour, while she mourned the loss of her uniform as it was nothing more than bloody, burnt rags now. All around her where the twitching bodies of unconscious or slightly burnt criminals some embedded in the floors and ceiling. She had been a busy little bee and had apparently stumble upon the middle of a gang war or something as she had been caught between both forces... Each who assumed she was working for the other side. However, as she looked at her self and the strange form she'd taken... standing on four legs and looking around with through what she was fairly sure was a dragon head she wasn't sure it was all a bad thing? Maybe...
She wasn't sure how it had come to this as it had started out as nothing more than a simple underground auction. Sure, she might have eventually decided to make some arrests, crack some skulls and generally be a nuisance but she hadn't even done any of that before they started trying to kill her... The overreaction she had received was rather startling.
Men with guns, knives, bats, chains all rushing out of the woodwork, each one intent on killing her or worse. An informant had led her here with a tipoff that she might find what she sought. However, from the moment of her arrival, things had gone to hell in a handbasket.
30 Minutes Prior...
Magnolia arrived with a swagger in her step and a smirk on her face as she slipped into the seedy looking watering hole at the back of the island. She was in her Marine uniform not concerned as her contact informed her that Marines often showed up to these things and as long as they weren't causing trouble people tended to ignore them. Besides, she knew that perceptive people would probably spot her as a Marine just by the way she moved and held herself. She didn't mind though there were plenty of criminals within the marines and plenty of ex-marines who were criminals. Without any evidence, she doubted that she would have to deal with much trouble.
That assumption died when she walked in the door though and found herself face to face with every gun in the place. She raised an eyebrow in question her voice very dry as she spoke,
"Did I come at a bad time or something?"
Several of the people in the bar exchanged glances before one who was too close for comfort spoke, his breath smelling like rancid beer and fermented piss.
"She's probably with them. They probably went and ratted us out to the marines!"
Then he spat on the ground expression of disgust crossing his features.
"No honor in the lot of them! I ain' surprised they decided to go runnin' to the Marines!"
Maggie was thoroughly confused having long since lost what was going on. Her eyes flicked from one face to the next and when she saw the gritting of teeth and tightening of jaws she decided that shit was about to hit the fan and she did what she was trained to do in such a situation. She kicked the fan.
She moved, faster than most of them could follow, her foot hooking around the leg of a nearby table as she pulled it in front of herself. Then, with strength trained from constant practice, she kicked it into the center of the room. Guns roared to life as bullets began flying around the room. Magnolia didn't even blink though, using the heavy wooden table as a makeshift shield as she charged into the center of the room and began laying waste to anyone she could get her hands on.
Soon, the entire bar was a brawl, the guns having long since becoming useless without fear of shooting their own people as Magnolia grabbed goon after goon and used them as battering rams. She smashed people with their friends and drinking buddies, the men and women making decent clubs as she went to town. Grabbing one guy by the leg she swung him around before releasing him into part of the crowd... then she was grabbed from behind and she swung her foot up and over her head kicking him in the face and smashing him into the bar.
"What the hell is going on here?"
She muttered aloud as the bar fell mostly silent save for the groans of pain from around her. Shaking her head, she still wanted to see if THAT item was here so she moved toward the back of the bar and instead of doing the knocking sequence she'd been instructed about she just spun and with a kick the door was smashed inward.
"Screw being subtle..."
She said as she walked into the back a large set of stairs leading down beneath the building. Nodding to herself she walked forward calmly, her heels clicking against the wood as she descended. However, things soon got dicey as she felt one of the stairs give out under her weight and the step gave out an audible click that made her sweat drop as she immediately dove backward. Her body flew up the stairs seconds before thin metallic wires shot out of the walls snapping taught with an audible twang of metal that made Maggie's eyes widen.
"Holy Seakings!"
She cried out as she found herself ducking under another and another wire, her body moving almost constantly as she tried to avoid getting sliced to ribbons. She was learning that black market auctions didn't play around when it came to traps.
Several minutes and a few close shaves later, Maggie made it to the bottom of the stairs relatively intact, save for a few strands of hair and some of her uniform, both of which kind of pissed her off. At the bottom of the stairs, she saw a heavy looking marble statue and she decided that she really didn't want to deal with anymore traps so she walked over to it... Then hefted it, weighing it in her arms for a few moments before deciding that it would definitely do for what she had in mind.
Then grinning she turned to face a wall that ran parallel to the hallway and threw. The statue smashing through the wood paneling with ease, leaving a hole big enough for her to hop through. She repeated the process again and again until she finally smashed her way into what looked like the main auction site. Confused people stared in her direction as she calmly stepped through the new hole in the wall, looking around with a smile and a friendly wave. She had stepped into a large auditorium, with ample seating and a large stage at the bottom with a red current currently drawn across it. The room was filled with various types, from shady looking underworld types to Nobles with their bodyguards looming menacingly.
Maggie took it all in with a glance, casually kicking the marble statue bust back through the hole she had just created with it before she strode into the room like she owned the place. Her marine jacket flapped behind her as she walked and her hat was still firmly in place atop her head as she moved. It seemed like she had made it in time for the auction after all and then reaching behind herself, she pulled out a large backpack that had been hidden by her marine jacket and swung it casually over her shoulder. It was her money to hopefully pay for the object she'd come here for although, if criminal types took it she would probably just acquire it the good ol' fashion way by stealing it from their unconscious bodies.
"Yo, just doing a bit of remodeling. Carry on."
She explained as she walked calmly to the nearest empty seat and sat down. People only paid it attention for a little while... then the lights dimmed and spotlights illuminated the stage in the center of the room. She sat back in her chair, casually kicking her feet up to rest on the empty seat in front of her as the curtain was pulled open and a beautiful woman, with ink-black hair and violet eyes, stepped onto the stage. The auctioneer, for that was what she was, smiled flirtatiously at the gathered audience before pulling out a microsnail and beginning to address the room.
"Greetings, ladies and gentleman to the Blackthorne families 32nd Official Auction! And tonight do we have some amazing things for you! I'm sure you've all been waiting with breathless anticipation for this auction so without further ado... Let's bring out our first item!"
As she finished her sentence another pretty girl, this one dressed as a made rolled out a cart with what looked to be a Giant Axe resting atop it. Magnolia tuned out what was going on, leaning her head back to rest on her seat, resting her eyes until it was time for the item she was interested in. The devil fruit was rather was listed as Uma Uma No Mi, a horse fruit, although the exact model type was unknown and apparently not a lot of people, saw much use in "horses" but to Magnolia who loved horses with a fiery passion... well this was the perfect fruit for her. She didn't really expect much competition as from the scuttlebutt she'd heard, this same fruit had gone unsold for the past three auctions.
Items came and went, some were weapons and armor, some were rare dials from the sky islands... Still, others were stolen painting and artworks from various places across the seas... Honestly, Magnolia didn't really care about any of that nonsense and she does through it all only barely catching the names... Then, her eyes snapped open as she heard the words she'd been waiting to hear.
"And now ladies and gentleman! I PRESENT TO YOU THE CAPSTONE OF THIS AUCTION! The Uma Uma No Mi Devil Fruit! Now I know some of you might be suspicious, especially because we don't know its model but I can assure you I've got a good feeling about this one--"
Even as she spoke though, Magnolia wasn't very surprised to see people already walking out, all save a few who only seemed mildly interested if they could get it for cheap.
'Tch... it's just as I was told people really do look down on horses.'
Magnolia thought as she watched her possible competition like hawks. Meanwhile, on the stage, the poor auctioneer girl looked desperate, jabbering on utter nonsense as she tried to get people to stay and bid. Maggie figured that the poor dear was working on a commission and probably took a solid hit to her profits whenever she failed to sell a devil fruit. Then... From off to her right, an arrogant voice oozed out a bid.
"You might as well just give it to me... I'll take it off your hands for one million beli... Take it or leave it."
The woman on the stage looked conflicted and the man had already gotten up and was walking toward the stage as though his little bid had won him the show but Maggie just frowned and shook her head, about to raise her hand to make a higher bid with the back of the Auction Hall exploded inward in a cloud of smoke and dust. Maggie spun around rising to her feet in annoyance... She was so close to her prize... And someone was coming to interrupt her?
She was truly enraged, the legendary temper that she tried so hard to contain rising up as a demonic aura seemed to leak off her as she looked at the new entryway, where criminal after criminal seemed to be filing into the room grinning to each other all wielding various weapons. However, Magnolia didn't really care one bit and she was about to commence the beatings when from behind the stage, more criminals seemed to be pouring out.
She blinked in surprise, for the second time completely confused by what in the blazes was going on around here. In front of each group were arrogant peacock looking dudes both strutting forward to the middle of the room, glaring sparks at each other as the moved.
"Hmph! So you decided to attack, after all, you Crimorty Scum Family!"
The first man to speak shouted, he was fat, looking like a meatball that someone vomited a rainbow on, with a feather cloak that was in every eye-watering tie-dye shade imaginable. It visibly hurt Maggie to look at him so she turned her head in the other direction only to be met with something just as bad.
"Hmph! Who's the real scum around here? If it isn't the Feng Family I'll spell my name backward from now on!"
This guy was dressed even worse, in what was a bright green and orange jumpsuit, with giant shoulder pauldrons that looked to be cats? He had the biggest unibrow that Maggie had ever seen and an overbite that would make a beaver proud. Maggie just shook her head, noticing that these guys were not even paying attention to her and calmly looked away and toward the front of the room. Where the arrogant slimeball from before was holding Her FRUIT! She was immediately triggered, a tick mark forming on her brow as she walked calming toward the front of the room. Then, looking at the Auctioneer lady who was looking between the fruit and the criminals with indecision, Maggie simply shoved the bag with all her money into the woman's arms.
"Here's forty-two million beli. I'm taking the fruit."
She told her matter of factly, plucking the fruit out of the slimeballs hands before he could even blink. In the background, all the shouting seemed to come to an end as both families seemed to be staring at her as she bounced the fruit on the palm of her hand and then she blinked noticing that she was the center of attention.
"Uh... look, I'm off duty, you guys do your thing, I just came for the fruit."
She told them emphasizing her point with a bit of a shooing motion. Then, once again things took an unexpected turn as things did not go at all the way she thought they would.
"So, you hired an outsider to take the fruit you Crimorty Scum? Hmph! She won't leave here alive!"
"Uh... Guys... I didn't take it--"
Magnolia tried to explain but she was soon drowned out by all the yelling between the two idiots.
"I hired her? You hired her you Fat Feng Bastard! How dare you besmirch my good family name!"
"Uh... No one hired me... I just came to buy...."
Again, her protests were drowned out by the two bickering crime family heads and Magnolia was thoroughly confused.
"We're crime families! HOW THE HELL DO WE WOULD HAVE GOOD FAMILY NAMES?"
"The man's got a point but seriously! I paid like twice its market value for the thing--"
"THE CRIMORTY IS AT LEAST BETTER THAN THE FENGS!"
"WHAT!? THAT'S IT GET HER BOYS! TEAR HER APART!"
"Uh, hold on, I'm not working for anyone!"
"SCREW THAT RIP HER APART BEFORE THE CRIMORTY GET TO TOUCH HER FENGS!"
"Oh come on guys... Really..."
Maggie just heaved a sigh as the first idiot charged her and without even thinking, she smashed her knee into his face, launching him upward into the ceiling where his body hung limply, only his waist and below visible as he stuck there.
"ALRIGHT FINE! I DIDN'T TAKE THIS FRUIT I PAID FOR IT! BUT IF YOU WANT TO GET YOUR ASS KICKED BY THIS EMPRESS?"
She threw the whole fruit in her mouth and gagged, nearly throwing it up as the flavor splashed against her taste buds and she nearly past out from the sheer awful... Then she swallowed retching, gagging sound escaping her as she scraped at her tongue trying to get the taste to go away. Hacking, coughing, gagging... Her eyes were watering and she barely managed to duck under the first blow to come her way. Elbowing the attacker into the side of some chairs.
Slowly, she managed to recover, step by step as the taste didn't exactly fade but she managed to subdue her response to it.
"Kracken's bloody barnacles that was awful."
She gagged out, spin kicking another attacker into two of his friends. Just as she started to recover, her body started to grow hotter and hotter and she felt like she was getting bigger somehow but in the wrong directions. Her bones itched, her hair felt like fire and her face was changing.
She threw back her head and let out a roar and a blast of violet flames exploding from her mouth and into the oncoming attackers. They howled and screamed as they caught on fire, some of them flying backward as though smashed by the hand of god. Magnolia didn't see any of this though... so caught up was she in the feeling of her first transformation.
Then, it was over and she stood heads and shoulders above anyone else in the room, her body wreathed in fire and smoke as she looked around from person to person. She looked at her self, bending her body in a way that would be impossible for a normal human as she looked at the dragon scales that coated her entire body... At her four hooves... at the giant golden whiskers, she could see growing off the sides of her face... She blinked, confused as hell for a moment as she tried to take it all in. She had eaten a Horse fruit alright... but not just any horse fruit apparently... she had eaten... one of the legendary Mythical Zoan fruits?
She stared blankly at the two crime families arrayed before her and they stared blankly back... Then, a tumbleweed fell from one of the rafters before drifting between the two parties and Maggie couldn't help but shoot the thing a dirty look.
'Where do those things even come from!'
She fumed internally before turning her head that she was now fairly certain was kind of dragon-like back toward the people who wanted to tear her limb from limb... Then she grinned.
"I believe I do owe you guys an ass kicking."
She said with a sing-song-lilting cadence.
Present -
Maggie just shook her head then slowly she began to shrink back into her normal human form, her body feeling like it was coated in a warm fire as she slowly shrunk down and went from standing on four legs to two legs. Her appearance had changed a bit and she now had dragon pupils and some strange fire floating around the tips of her hair and she grinned even as she landed back on her heels and looked around.
People were giving her wide-eyed incredulous stares, while the few conscious criminals were trying to crawl away from her. She walked forward calmly and stepped on the two leaders who were trying their best to snail themselves away. She stood on their backs as she reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a mini den den mushi.
"This is Ensign Magnolia Wilde... I've got a report and could use some cleanup crews..."
Things might not have turned out how she expected but in life... when did things every turn out as expected? She beat up some criminals and probably put an end to both of these crime families and got a devil fruit that was apparently WAY better than she expected... all in all, she couldn't really complain and so, sitting down atop her captured crime heads who she stacked like pyramids to make a more comfy seat, she waited for her superiors to arrive for a good debrief.
As she sat there she couldn't help but grin down at the small ball of violet fire that was hovering over the tip of her finger. Her life was about to get sooo interesting. And she was going to love every second of it.