Raven was shocked at seeing Viktor awake so soon and could only stammer." Your awake so soon?" She then ran towards him to give him a hug.
Viktor replied, " Yeah, all the screaming kinda woke me up. "
He then sported a teasing smile, " Yep, it seems little old Raven is becoming a woman, able to do interrogations with such ease."
Viktor then wiped a fake tear from his eye and channeled his inner China Fujiwara. " Now I can say to others: I raised that child."
Raven stopped midrun after this as her joy from seeing Viktor turned into embarrassment and anger for both teasing her and worrying her. She used her new powers and said, " Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
All Viktor could do was gasp in shock as he was pulled by his clothes towards her into a hug. She told him, " I'm so glad you're OK. While I don't appreciate the teasing, I'll let it go this time. "
Viktor then broke off the hug and said with a sheepish grin on his face, " So, I'm guessing you ate a devil fruit. It tasted absolutely divine, right? Also, just an FYI, you supposedly don't have to eat the entire devil fruit in order to gain its power."
Raven just looked at him in shock, " Are you serious? You're telling me I didn't have to eat the whole thing? But you ate the whole thing, so I thought that was the norm. "
Raven then made gagged, " Oh God, just thinking about that fruit is making me gag. Why the hell didn't you tell me I didn't need to eat the whole thing?"
Viktor tried to calm her down, " Woah, calm down Raven, let me explain. First off, while it's true only a bite is necessary to gain an ability, it's unknown if the abilities potential will be weakened if the fruit isn't completely consumed, so I decided to eat the whole thing. Secondly, I thought you'd ask before eating a devil fruit since it's risky if the ability is unknown. Although in your case, it seems to have worked out well."
Raven's anger subsided and pride took over, " Hmph, indeed my ability is awesome. It's even better than yours. "
Viktor raised an eyebrow, " Wow, that good huh? Well, we'll have to compare abilities later. I want to get a feel for our crew and then figure out what we'll do next. "
Raven nodded in agreement and beckoned over the leader of the prisoners. Vikror asked, " So, you're the leader here, right?"
The leader said, " Sort of? I'm more of the spokesperson than the true leader."
Viktor then said, " OK so tell me about yourself. "
The leader said, " Well,I'm 18 years old and my name is Blitzo, with a silent o. I'm a newbie assassin in the underworld and these 2 are my subordinates, Moxie and Millie, who are the same age as me and married. "
Moxie and Millie both greeted Viktor and Viktor nodded in understanding. He thought, ' OK, so their characters from Helluva Boss's IMP company, but a lot younger than in the show. The mink tribe kid is probably Loona.'
Blitzo then presented his mink kid," And this is Loona, my adopted daughter."
Loona said, " Whatever. I guess I'm grateful for your help. Also, I'm 10 years old."
Viktor then said, " OK? Are you one of the Mink tribe?"
Loona looked at him in surprise, " Wow, I'm surprised you know about us. I had to explain to this idiot here about my tribe."
Blitzo responded by saying, " Awh, Loony, don't say that about me. They don't talk much about the Grand Line, not to mention the new world. I didn't even know the Grand Line was divided into Paradise and the New World.
Loona then sighed, " Well, he's gotta point. So how do you know about us?"
Viktor replied, " Let's just say I've read a lot of books. Now, where exactly are you guys from and do you want me to take you home, or truly join my command?"
Blitzo looked at Millie, Moxie, and Loona and they all nodded in agreement. Blitzo replied, " We're from the Hell Kingdom, a member of the world government. It's actually pretty close to here. And we've unanimously decided to join you. "
Blitzo then turned serious, " However, I want us to be in a partnership. I've had my fill of bosses and want to be independent. Although when we're on your ship, I'm happy to follow you orders."
Loona added, " Tch, of course we'll join you. You literally saved our lives. How could we not want to join you. "
Viktor said, " OK, I get the gist. I gladly accept you guys as partners. I've gotta talk to everybody else, but we'll talk details later."
Their group nodded and proceeded to leave.Viktor sighed, " Alright, how many more do we got?"
Raven replied, " Well, there's 50 prisoners in total, so there are 46 left. "
Viktor replied, " Alright, let's finish this already, I want to know more about your devil fruit ability and, sigh, see if we can do anything about Professor Jones's situation."
Raven nodded solemnly and they accepted the next person. Out of the next 56 people, all but 2 of them were young adult males between the ages of 18-21. They all originally resided in the Hell Kingdom and all agreed to join Viktor's command.
The last 2 people were special. They're both kids around 10 years old and are named Katara and Toph. As their names suggest, they are similar to their namesakes from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Katara is a water bender, while Toph is an earth bender, or the One Piece world's equivalent.
Katara is actually half Fishman, which allowed her to instinctively grasp Fishman Karate. Due to the fact she's only half- fishman, her appearance looks human. It's only when she enters the water that her appearance changes. Even this change isn't that drastic, with her only gaining gills and webbed hands and feet.
Interestingly enough, on her fishman side, she takes after Kung Fu Manatees. Because of this strange bloodline, she is a martial arts prodigy, able to control water skillfully and even able to create high- pressure water that can even affect steel, not to mention the human body.
As for Toph, like her series counterpart, she's blind, but is able to utilize a special type of observation haki she refers to as ground sensing. Even though she can't see, she can sense the vibrations through the ground to sense what's around her even better than the average human can.
Her observation haki can even sense the voice of the earth itself, similar to Roger's Voice of All Things ability. Unlike Roger, Toph can only hear the Earth's voice, but because of this, she can actually control the earth. She calls this ability earthbending.
Unlike Katara, Toph's one of the only people in the world that can earthbend, so there isn't a martial arts practice built around it. Because of her rich family, she never worried about defending herself, so she only used her powers to help sense her surroundings. It wasn't until she decided to run away from home due to how suffocating her parents were that she started to develop her Earth bending abilities.
Unfortunately, before she could do anything more than move the earth to help her travel, she was caught earthbending by some locals. She was branded a demon by the uninformed locals and chased away. Word spread quickly about her powers and she was captured by slave traders that valued her unique power.
Toph is currently trying to create a new martial art revolving around earthbending similar to Fishman Karate. Viktor values Toph's ability even more than Katara's as it represents a new path of strength. Using Toph as a reference, he could also develop airbending and even the breathing styles from Demon Slayer.
After Viktor got through meeting everyone and everyone agreeing to work for him, he went to speak with Raven alone about her ability and how to deal with Crocus.
Although he thought so given Raven's previous display of her power, he was still amazed when she told him her devil fruit was a mythical zoan type: Human Human fruit, Model: Witch of Darkness, Raven. She had the power to spread darkness and control darkness, and telekinesis was the first product of her ability.
This was especially surprising because Raven's given name is Rachel Roth, which is the same as Raven from Teen Titans. Adding onto the fact that the devil fruit called out to her like it did to him, it almost seems like she was fated to get this ability.
Viktor thought, 'Wow, this really seems to an AU version of the One Piece world with all these characters from different fictional universes. Although, technically speaking, all the characters I've meet could've been in the original work, but died young. Overall, I shouldn't blindly assume things will be the same in this world as it is in the manga. Who knows if Luffy will even be born?'
After Viktor finished this thought Raven told him, " About Professor Jones's situation, I think I might have a solution. I've realized another ability of mine is to enter my own mindscape and I think I can also enter the mindscape of others with enough practice."
Viktor was surprised as this ability seemed to be the same one that Raven from Teen Titans used in the episode Nevermore to enter her own mindscape. Since Raven could let others into her mindscape, it isn't out of the realm of possibility for her to enter others mindscape's.
Viktor then asked her, " OK, sounds promising. How do we enter?"
Raven replied," All I have to do is use a mirror as a medium and we can enter through the mirror. However, this is risky as anyone can enter my mind through this mirror. If the mirror breaks while we're in there, we could be trapped in there forever."
After Viktor and Raven discussed it some more, they decided to make some preparations before entering. Since their bodies would be in Raven's mindscape, if someone came looking for them, they might think they disappeared into thin air, which would be problematic to say the least. They then set off to discuss with everyone their plans.