[color=black][b][h2]There And Back Again[/h2][/b][/color]
Not long after their prior conversation about food, Motley's phylactery piped up for the first time in a fair while. Pulling it from within his clothing, he was accosted first by the voice of the announcer from before, and then again by his opponent, one Captain Bartholomew K. Runch. The most annoying part of his speech came from learning that he was back in Oldtown - which sounded far more like the location Motley had just come from than where he'd been going - whereas the most interesting was the desire for a one-on-one fight. No allies, just the pirate captain and the vampire. Not that any preparations of Erina's could help him here, but if the pirate captain was so concerned with honour... well, he was going to wind up having a bad time.

And then came the position marker. From the muffled voice coming through the phylactery, it seemed to be a two part move - first, something relatively invisible, and secondly something extremely visible indeed. Clearly, the former move let him find a way to get insanely high in the air, in this case in preparation for the second move, but already it revealed a key factor in this fight: Runch had the ability to fly, and not slowly either, through some means or another, which would give him air superiority over Motley if push came to shove. At best, Motley could pull off a fairly high leap, following by using his Nega-Ripple to push against the air and hover around relatively slowly, maybe using Heavy Fuel to pull himself around when possible. So, preventing Runch from getting airborne if at all possible would be important.

That said, following the trail of whatever colourful substance he'd just scattered around would by no means be difficult. It was just the journey back that'd be tedious, since he'd already travelled it once. And that would annoy him, and he decided in advance that that meant perhaps being a bit more coarse with the good captain than was strictly necessary, starting with not telling the man his name.

[color=black]'I'm afraid you are not going to like what happens next, Captain Runch,'[/color] Motley droned into his phylactery, intimidation the aim of the game. After that, he put the device back beneath his shirt, then motioned to Erina to follow after him, back the way they came. More of a leisurely pace this time around, since a ten meter wide pool of life-sucking energy would be more than sufficient to keep them both safe from harm if need be, and it only made sense to let the man stew in his own worry for just a little while.

It wasn't long after they re-entered the Oldtown district that the first scattering of brightly-coloured cereal made itself known to Motley, floating atop the surface of the flooded district and rather soaked by now. Surely the same stuff that had been emitted by Runch, or whatever devices he held that let him create so much cereal. Another important point worth noting, then: Runch could create and potentially control cereal, in abnormally vast quantities no less. So, whilst it was his usual MO anyway, Motley would definitely want to get as close to Runch as possible to prevent the man taking advantage of that capacity... if his Black Ripple wasn't sufficient to nullify the cereal on its own, since a quick test showed that it was simple enough, at least, to disintegrate just the one waterlogged puff of whatever grain was in that thing. His lightning mode might also be useful for that purpose, preventing Barty from making full use of his abilities and/or devices if the electrical surge was strong enough.

Figuring out where to go was simple enough based on the thickness of cereal covering the water and land, and it eventually transpired that the destination was a large, ancient-looking colosseum. Halting outside it, Motley took a moment to gather in the sight - it wasn't exactly an eyesore, after all - then pondered on the streak of humour that Runch was showing off by setting their fight in what was quite literally a giant arena. And wouldn't it be equally humorous to force an anticlimax by making the ship's captain come and fight him just outside of it? Although there were better reasons to force such an event, after all... it could be that he'd rigged the entire building with traps whilst Motley was making his way there. Or perhaps that he'd done so before even contacting him. He seemed very certain that that was where he wanted Motley to go, after all... he pressed a hand over the phylactery under his clothing, muffling any noise that might otherwise reach it.

[color=black]'Erina, you're a smart girl. I want you to stay outside the amphitheatre,'[/color] Motley ordered quietly, [color=black]'to wait for myself and Captain Runch to emerge, and if you see me having trouble at any point, to use Bend to end the fight decisively. Can you do that?'[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]'Tch, what, do you think I'm some sort of-'[/color]

[color=black]'Okay, I made a mistake in my wording, so let me clarify: you [i]are[/i] going to do that for me, because I'm sure it's within your power to do so.'[/color] Now was not the time for her to be contradictory, and he needed to be absolutely certain she could assist if he needed the assistance.

[color=bc8dbf]'...yeah, I can do that,'[/color] she murmured, just a tad surer in her words than before. [color=bc8dbf]'You'll know when I make my move.'[/color] With that, she wandered off, hand already at the hilt of her blade.

And with no further distractions, Motley began to climb the colosseum's wall, fingers puncturing sets of holes into the rock as he ascended. If his theory about the place being trapped to Hell and back held true, there was no reasonable way that he'd want to wander through the halls of the amphitheatre so casually. That was just asking for trouble, after all. So, instead, he'd climb up to the top level, and make his foe come up there in order to fight him. A risk, if the air superiority thing held true, but one that might be worth taking.

A mere minute passed before he reached that top level, and he found himself within what seemed to be the amphitheatre's uppermost stands. And that raised a good question: was the ability to summon cereal the man's Stand ability, or was that a factor of some other power source, in the manner of Erina's ability to summon flames that burned the undead? He knew not, and from the look of the man below him, it could easily go either way - he certainly seemed to be an old-fashioned captain of some sort or another, at least, though the torn-up cape was somewhat less standard.

Pulling out his phylactery again, and making certain Heavy Fuel wasn't visibly manifested beforehand, he spoke into it before putting it back under his shirt: [color=black]'Come up to the stands.'[/color] If the pirate wanted to make this quick, then Motley certainly wouldn't mess around with smalltalk.

[@Lugubrious][@ProPro]