Unluckies

"Please don't go on a rampage, Miss Halloween." Mr. 8 requested. "Not only will that bring unnecessary attention to Whiskey Peak, thus increasing the risk of us being discovered, but it will also cause Mr. 0 to send some of the higher ranked officers after you. I can see that you are very strong, but they are very strong as well, you should not underestimate them. *cough* Ma~ ma~ maaaaa~!"

Cherry felt her enthusiasm for creating chaos get doused with the frigid water of common sense. If it was just her, she wouldn't care if those other agents came after her. In fact, she'd welcome the challenge. However, it was true she couldn't just selfishly drag these two into that mess.

"Ugh, FINE! I'll just go around pretending to investigate as the mission bade me to do. Do you keep any eternal log poses here? I'd rather not be tracible when I leave, so I could 'steal' those to help throw them off my trail." Cherry pouted.

"Baroque Works doesn't keep any eternal log poses here. They are actually somewhat rare you know? Well, except for the ones the unluckies carry to deliver reports and missions." Miss Wednesday answered.

Cherry sensed she was hiding something from her, probably an eternal log pose of her own. She didn't bother to call her out for lying though. It was probably her way to get home when she decided to leave.

She knew who the unluckies were from the information they gave her before. A strangely intelligent otter and vulture duo with unshakable loyalty to the organization.

'Alright, I will just rob Mr. 13 and Miss Friday of their eternal log poses. They'll report back to Mr. 0 about what I did and they won't be able to predict where I went.' It sounded like a good enough plan to Cherry.

...

Mr. 9 watched the two story building from a distance. He had seen his partner in crime, Miss Wednesday, sneak off after Mr. 8 and Miss Halloween. He kept a distance as he didn't want to accidentally reveal Miss Wednesday.

'What is Miss Wednesday thinking? Doesn't she know how much trouble she'll be in if she gets caught?' He worried.

Mr. 9 saw Miss Halloween exit the building and hastily ducked out of sight.

'I wonder what's going on? I've never heard of a Miss Halloween before...' He thought quietly.

"What are you doing?" A strange voice asked from right next to him.

"HEEEEEEE!" He screamed girlishly and backed away. It was none other than Miss Halloween with her unnerving jack-o-lantern mask.

"Why were you watching me just now? You know the motto of our organization don't you? 'Mystery!' You couldn't have been trying to get information you aren't privy to, could you?" Miss Halloween's eyes were just visible through the mask. They were demonic blood red and seemed to pierce into his very soul.

"NONONONONO! I would never do that! I am nothing if not a loyal servant to the organization and its goals!" He denied quickly, terrified.

"Is that so? I'll believe you, then. Since you WERE peeping on me, however, I'll have you answer some questions." Miss Halloween spoke in her strange sounding voice.

Mr. 9 proceeded to answer most of Miss Halloween's questions. The exceptions being questions about information he wasn't supposed to divulge. When he denied to answer those questions she would praise him, which he had to admit made him feel good about himself.

After she finished questioning him, she let him go about his day, giving a curt "Goodbye, Mr. 9. Stay out of trouble."

Mr. 9 wasn't a fool, or at least he didn't think of himself as one. He could figure out the purpose behind the questions. Miss Halloween was looking for a spy, a traitor.

'Could Miss Wednesday be a spy? No, surely not. We've worked together for quite a while now and I've seen no signs of that. She must have another reason for sneaking around today, perhaps she has a mission to keep an eye on Miss Halloween? But, then why wasn't I included in that?" Mr. 9 pondered about the meaning to all this.

...

Cherry went around asking vague questions to the various agents of Baroque Works in Whiskey Peak. Her real purpose, however, was to find the unluckies.

She had seen a few mailboxes clearing demarcated for them, but had yet to see the otter and vulture pair with her own eyes or sense them with her Life Sense.

Ultimately, she had to admit they weren't here at the moment.

It wasn't until about a week later that the unluckies showed themselves. They were here to receive reports from all the agents here and to presumably hand out missions too. They made a special stop just for Cherry as well.

"You must be the unluckies. It's nice to meet you." She greeted. They gave no response except to hand over a letter to her.

The letter asked for a status report in finding the spy in Whiskey Peak.

Cherry wrote several dozen pages detailing how each and every agent at Whiskey Peak MUST be a treacherous spy. It was a mess of petty grievances, asinine conspiracy theories, outright lies, and wholly unrelated tangents. Not to mention the terrible grammar, SO many spelling mistakes.

She sealed the pages into her own envelope and handed it to the unluckies, which they stuffed into one of their bags of mail.

"Here's my report for Mr. 0. I'm sure he'll be VERY satisfied with my work." Cherry said, handing over the hefty letter. "Oh and one more thing before you go."

She then proceeded to accost the unluckies with unwanted petting and snuggles. No matter how they struggled or resisted they could not escape her grasp until she released them after about half an hour.

The unluckies were full of indignation. Their pride was shattered to bits by the fact that they actually enjoyed it.

They were also quite annoyed that there was nothing they could do about it. Their heads would roll if they attacked such a valuable new agent just for some cuddling.

Mr. 13 and Miss Friday left in a hurry. They pulled out the eternal log pose for Alabasta to make the return trip. They wouldn't notice all the other log poses they carried with them were missing until they arrived in Alabasta.

...

Now that Cherry had a handful log poses, she could leave at her leisure and to wherever she wanted to go.

First, though, she had one more piece of business to take care of.

Naturally, it was to steal as much money as she could manage to get her grubby little hands on. There was nothing wrong with stealing from criminals, right?

Cherry managed to scrounge up a little more than 5,000,000 Beri from the agents' homes in a single night.

She embarked onto the Cabernet and set sail at dawn, before most of them would wake up to find they'd been burgled.

'Now, where should I go?' She pondered looking at her log poses.

Ultimately, she decided to follow the ordinary log pose that she brought with her that now pointed to the next island after adjusting to the magnetic field of Cactus Island. There was no reason she couldn't change her mind later, after all.