Voodoo Island.

Part 2: Jungle.

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The Straw Hats left the village and were heading through the jungle. They brought extra supplies in case it got ruined by the sap spraying tikis like what happened at the village. Nami had a map of the island and Usopp brought a pair of leashes to keep Zorro and Luffy from wandering off and getting lost. They refused to wear them.

Much of the jungle was dense and quite hard to get through, but there were a couple paths for easier travel. Luffy looked at the map and insisted on the scenic route, which took them through villages of savages and the territories of dangerous animals before reaching the Voodoo Master's fortress. Nami, Chopper, and Usopp were loudly against that plan, instead wanting to either take the easy shortcut route the giant tiki used, or just hop on the Going Merry and circle the island to get there, but the rest were okay with Luffy's route.

The path they were on was rather narrow, and overgrown in places. The path was cleared as Zorro cut through everything in it and Sanji kicked the debris out of the way. And as they traversed the paths on the island, they had some silly conversations.

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Meanwhile, on the easy shortcut...

"Someone just took out the giant tiki. There's no doubt the villagers have tried to send them straight to us. If they're stupid enough to accept their offers, then that means they'll be coming down this road."

"And with all the traps and curses we got on it, and everybody waiting to ambush them, it doesn't matter how strong they are, it's still a thousand death sentences."

A small army of armed warriors were waiting eagerly for someone to come down the road. Having no idea that the Straw Hats had taken a different path.

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Nami was freaked out by a huge spider and nearly bitten by a snake, so she got in between the others for safety. She then loudly complained that they should have taken the main road like she wanted, instead of the most obviously dangerous path on the entire island. Having no idea that Luffy had actually chosen the safest route possible.

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After a while they made to the first village. It was surrounded by a wall made of logs, there was a gate, and inside there were straw huts. It was mostly abandoned, but there were a few guys there. Warriors from the looks of them. They were fit, muscular, wore masks, and were equipped with with primitive, yet deadly weapons, including spears, spiked clubs, poisonous darts, tomahawks, huge bones, and balls that got set on fire and launched from miniature catapults. And judging by the way they moved, their markings, and the white paint that covered them, it seemed safe to assume that they were the voodoo zombies. When they noticed the Straw Hats casually strolling into the village, they attacked. And were instantly crushed. The tribal men were very strong and tough, but against the likes of Luffy, Sanji and Zorro, they couldn't even serve as a warm up.

The next two villages were more of the same. Very few were there and they were no match for the Straw Hats. The trips getting to those villages proved far more difficult than dealing with the warriors defending them.

Later they found themselves at the shore. Also there was a horde of tikis. These ones were about their size, making them bigger than the first group of tikis they fought, but far smaller than the giant one. The tikis were motionless, but they weren't about to fall for that again. They unleashed their attacks and instantly destroyed every tiki they could find. During their rampage of destruction, they noticed the tikis still weren't moving. They weren't fighting back, running away, or anything like that. It was like they really were just regular tikis.

"AAAHH! What are ya doing?"

They turned and saw a creepy-looking man carrying two tikis. He had dark messy hair, sharp teeth, was just a little bit bigger than Zorro, had a muscular yet slim build, was dressed casually, and had long claws at the ends of his fingers. He looked like he could've been one of the Meowban Brothers, and he was furious. He dropped what he was carrying and stormed over. It was Ussop who stepped up to handle it.

"Look, all the other tikis we've found attacked us, so-"

Before Usopp could finish, he was kicked in the face and sent flying back. The man was not interested in excuses. The Straw Hats readied for a fight. Sanji and Zorro ran in.

"Carve-Carve, slash!"

Sanji was cut in the gut and went down. Zorro slashed him, but he blocked with his claws.

"Carve-Carve, carving!"

Zorro's blades were cut into tiny pieces, and then he was given a kick to the jaw and sent tumbling backwards into a tree. Then he jumped over Luffy's punch and used him as a springboard to launch himself at the girls, as they raised their shields to protect themselves.

"Carve-Carve, shred!"

The man landed behind them as Nami and Robin's shields and clothes exploded off them in countless pieces, all too tiny to do anything with. The girls screamed and tried to cover their nudity.

"Exploding star!"

Usopp's shot hit its mark and the man was stopped cold by the explosion.

"Gum-Gum hammer!"

Luffy twisted his arms, grabbed him, lifted him up, spun him around and slammed him into the ground so hard that he left a deep impact. The man was down and out.

By then Robin had sprouted a few more hands and used them to cover up their nudity. It looked like they were being groped, and despite covering up all the important parts, it was arguably just as sexy and erotic as them going naked, if not even more so. Most of the guys failed to glimpse their bodies before they covered up, but the sight of them in the groping bikinis certainly made up for it.

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A short while later the girls were properly redressed, Zorro replaced his sliced up swords with the backup blades, injuries had been treated, the man had been tied up, and everybody was waiting for him to wake up so they could pump him for information. This guy had to be with the Voodoo Master, and thus must have known everything about him, including all his strengths and weaknesses. All they had to do was beat the information out of him.

As it turned out the man wasn't actually with the Voodoo Master. His name was Oz Warcraft. He was an artist who used his Carve-Carve devil fruit powers to make statues, sculptures, and carvings of all kinds. His works ranged from priceless masterpieces, to cheap junk, and everywhere in between, and he made them in every style and form he could think of, in order to access as many markets as possible and sell his stuff to as many people as possible. He was almost guarantied to have something you'd like, no matter who you were.

The Voodoo Master was one of his best customers and he was there to sell a shipment of his wares. The tikis that they decided to destroy. When asked about the ones that came to life and attacked them earlier, he denied having anything to do with that. The tikis themselves were no doubt ones he'd made, but his powers were limited to cutting and carving. It was one of the Voodoo Master's men who had the power to bring them to life.

"Did you know he's been using those things to attack and terrorize people?!" Nami demanded.

"I guess you idiots didn't know this, but when you buy something legitimately, you own it and have the right to do what you want with it. And I'm not delusional, self righteous, or a hero. I do what's best for business. And selling to the people who buy the most without trying to stiff ya on the bill, is always what's best for business," said Oz.

In her fury she tried bashing his skull in with her Clima-Tact. But he caught it before it could connect.

"How did..."

"Claws."

There was an awkward silence as they realized how stupid they were to try tying him up when his huge and obvious claws could cut through swords with ease.

Then Oz backhanded Nami hard enough to knock her out. Then Sanji began roaring at him and he responded in kind. Sanji's view of chivalry stated that no man should ever hit any woman no matter what, whereas Oz's view of chivalry stated that should a woman attack, especially with a weapon, then she has abandoned her rights to such acts of chivalry and should not be given any more than the average man at best. Both men loudly defended their opposing viewpoints on the subject, and kept at it without giving an inch, until Nami woke up and knocked them both out. Then she stormed off.

They parted ways not long after. Oz had to go replenish his stock of tikis. It wasn't until after he left that Nami and Robin realized that Oz had stolen their money. Possibly when he shredded their clothes. They chased after him to the beach and saw him leaving on his large boat.

"Hey! Come back with my money!" Nami screamed.

"I'm charging ya for the tikis!" he yelled back. "And there's not enough here to cover them anyway!"

Luffy could have rocketed over there, but he found the yelling match between them to be funny, and Oz was making a few good points. Nami didn't want to pay and was making up every excuse she could think of to not only justify that, but also charge him instead. But he countered all of them. He attacked them and injured her friends: He had a right to defend his merchandise… Destroyed their expensive clothing: He was fluent in fashion and knew for a fact that those outfits were cheap stuff they could get anywhere, and were second hand from the looks of them… Saw them naked, which she charges a fortune for: Those greedy whores aren't worth that much by a long shot, and he was already passed them when their clothes came off, so he didn't see anything anyway… Assaulted her: That was in self defence… His tikis had been attacking them ever since they first came to the island: Those were owned by someone else… He destroyed their shields and Zorro's swords: That's what you do in battle. Besides, the shields were worthless garbage, and those clearly discount blades weren't worth enough to cover the rest of what they owed anyway…

As she struggled to think of something else, he sailed out of hearing range and she broke down in tears. She had been defeated at her own game of greedy business excuses. And it hurt almost as much as losing her money and all those expensive jewels Robins used to bribe her way onto the ship. Sanji was furious that Nami was crying, Luffy thought their argument was funny, Robin was still pissed off at him, but she didn't show much emotion, Chopper didn't mind much, and Usopp and Zorro found it refreshing to see Nami get a taste of her own medicine.

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After getting patched up, they were on their way again. Even if they disregarded the loss of money, Nami, Robin, and Zorro couldn't believe their rotten luck on this island. The girls had already lost two full outfits each, and Zorro had already gone through six swords. Their originals were covered in sap, the replacements had been shredded into tiny pieces, and now they were down to the backup spares for those replacements. And they hadn't even reached where the Voodoo Master was hiding out yet. At this rate by the time Zorro clashed against a fellow swordsman, he will have already run out of swords, and the girls would wind up running around naked in no time, and end up having to stay that way until they finally escaped that accursed island. (Sanji and Usopp were happy enough about that to start dancing, at least until Nami punched them out.)

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As they went from place to place, things progressed much like a side scrolling beat 'em up game. They entered small villages, were attacked on sight by everybody who lived there, sometimes with irregular weapons or something, and they crushed all of them while continuously moving forward. There were villages of zombified savages, but there were also villages full of zombified pirates and marines, a bunch of whom belonged to Baroque Works.

By battling through more familiar opponents, they were able to confirm something they started suspecting during their previous fights. The voodoo zombies were physically stronger and tougher than they should've been, but they were a lot slower, and they seemed to only possess a fraction of the skills they should have had. They guessed that was a side effect of becoming zombies. Despite the increased strength and durability, the lack of speed and skills made them weaker overall. But in the end they all agreed that having a weakened army working for you was still a lot better than having no army working for you.

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Meanwhile the Voodoo Master's forces were trying to figure out what happened to ones who destroyed the giant tiki. They'd waited for quite a while for them to come, but they were no shows. Ultimately they concluded that they weren't coming that way, so they began searching the island for where they might be hiding. Not only did their results come up empty, they kept getting caught in their own traps. After a while they concluded that instead of advancing forward, or finding a place to hide out, whoever destroyed the giant tiki must have turned tail and fled the island afterwards, fearing what else might be waiting for them. So they all regrouped, turned around, and headed back to base.

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The Straw Hats made it through the jungle, and found what they assumed to be the Voodoo Master's base. An ancient temple that was partially reconstructed for modern use. There were buildings, turrets, and watchtowers added on, a great many cannons and mortars were positioned to defend the place from attacks from the sea, there was a lagoon nearby that held a number of ships, and there was an army of voodoo zombies and living tikis roaming the grounds. One look at the defences told them that if they had tried to attack from the sea, their ship easily could have been completely annihilated, and making it to shore at all, even at the cost of their ship, would have been quite unlikely. And while most of the defences were set up to protect them from attacking ships, it was easy enough to see that there were more than enough weapons poised to take out threats sneaking up from the jungle. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper took one look and turned to stone in fear.

"No way! This is crazy! No way they have enough treasure to die over! We're turning around and heading back now before they see us!" said Nami, with Usopp and Chopper quickly agreeing.

"Uh, our captain's already started the attack," Zorro pointed out.

They slowly and fearfully turned to see that Luffy had charged in and was already tearing through the hordes of foes before him.

"YOU IDIOT!"

As Luffy cleared the area, destroying towers, turrets, cannons, buildings, and everything else in his path, the Voodoo Master's forces took notice and started sounding the alarms. Their cover was blown, and they had no time to think up a plan of attack, so they had little choice but to charge in and hope for the best.

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Meanwhile, back with the Voodoo Master's main forces…

Having already concluded that whoever destroyed the giant tiki had fled the island, the Voodoo Master's main forces were en route back to their temple base when a call came in on a transponder snail.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?!"

"We were looking to ambush the intruders, but they already fled the island, so we're returning to base."

"Fools! They're already at the temple! They came from the jungle and are running rampant and tearing the place apart!"

"WHAT?"

"Get back here now!"

They all took off running as fast as they could. How these intruders got past them to attack their home base from the most vulnerable angle, while it was poorly guarded due to most of their best warriors waiting to ambush them on the road, was a mystery. The fact that they did all that and now had the upper hand, was far too much to be a coincidence. This had to be a carefully thought out plan, made by a mastermind who still had a lot more in store for them.

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"Luffy you idiot! Take out the cannons that are actually pointed at us! Zorro! Turn around and go the other way!"

Nami was getting infuriated by her idiot captain and crew-mates. They were in a life or death battle against an army of zombies, while getting shot at by guns and cannons, and they're all acting like it's a game. Zorro kept getting lost, Luffy kept getting sidetracked into taking out things that were no threat to them, Sanji kept swooning over the sexy girl zombies, Robin went on break as soon as she took out a bunch of them, and Chopper and Usopp kept panicking and running away, (and mostly she was with them.) Why couldn't they ever try to plan anything out instead of rushing in? This whole thing was completely reckless and completely stupid.

But if there was one upside, it was that despite all the craziness, things seemed to be working. The Voodoo Master's forces and defences were falling, and the area was getting less dangerous. They could still be killed at any time, but their odds of survival were somehow improving. In fact, with the way things were going, the odds of victory looked to be in their favour. As long as their foes didn't spring any huge traps or call in some super strong reinforcements. And with her position at the back, she was the least likely to get taken out.

Suddenly a small army emerged from the jungle. They looked to be powerful, they wasted no time attacking, and with their positions the Straw Hats were now outflanked and caught in a killing field. And Nami was the closest to them.

She screamed and ran.

"AAAAHHH! It's a trap! Luffy get us outta here!"

Seeing what was going on, Usopp and Chopper also panicked, while Zorro, Sanji and Robin got worried. Luffy on the other hand just grinned, sent himself into the air, grabbed his friends one after another, wrapped his arm around them a couple times, and then blasted off using his gum-gum rocket.

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They were launched over the temple and landed in a clearing on the other side. Nami, Usopp and Chopper screamed the whole way, Zorro and Robin were okay, Luffy laughed, and Sanji was overcome with perverted joy from being pressed up against Nami. Luffy used his Gum-Gum Balloon before they hit the ground to make sure nobody got hurt. They were still kinda annoyed.

"Wait. You left Tia back there," said Robin.

"She's back at her village."

"No she's not. She's been following us the whole time."

"Also, she's been making fun of Nami the whole time," added Luffy.

"WHAT?!"

"You couldn't handle the bugs and snakes on the way here, and she was making fun of you for it."

"If you knew she was there the whole time then why didn't say anything?!"

"It was funny," said Luffy.

"We could've gotten lost on the way here, and she could've helped with that," said Robin.

"I assumed you already knew about her. She cracked up laughing a couple of times," said Zorro.

Nami started yelling, but Usopp calmed her down by pointing out that clearly she had a knack for staying hidden, so odds were she could easily hide from them and escape notice, so she was probably safe enough and they shouldn't have to worry about her.

Then they noticed that they were getting surrounded by walking tikis. There was an army of them, numbering well into the hundreds, maybe over a thousand, and there were different kinds. About a quarter of them were the tiny tikis they first fought, most of the rest were man-sized ones armed with stone age weaponry, some of them were tall and skinny and spat out poisoned darts, some were short and wide and spat out fireballs, a few were huge and looked much like extremely broad giant primates that were partially covered with wooden spikes and were able to breath fire, and a few were stacked on top of each other to form totem poles that could unleash a barrage of assorted ranged attacks.

And beyond that army of tikis, standing on the back steps of the temple, was a large man with dark skin. He was wearing grass, wooden tiki-like armour, and a giant wooden mask that completely covered his head and most of his chest, and was carrying a rifle with a bayonet on it. The man pointed to the pirates and the tikis attacked. The Straw Hats wasted no time responding.

"Gum-Gum Gatling!"

"Oni-Giri!"

"Exploding Star!"

"Anti-Manner kick course!"

"Hundred Hands Slap!"

"Thunderbolt Tempo!"

"Hiaaah!"

Luffy hit them with a barrage of punches, Sanji hit them with a barrage of kicks, Zorro cut through them like they were made of cardboard, Usopp started blowing them up, Chopper took his human form and started punching his way through them, Nami summoned a cloud so she could strike them with lightning, and Robin had her arms sprout out on them and deliver beat-downs. Unfortunately they were made of wood, so Robin's attacks were doing nothing, and Chopper was hurting his hands with each punch. Both of them had to fall back and rely on the others.

"Hey, I'll bet that guy's the one controlling the tikis. If you can take him out, you can take them all out."

"I'm on it! Gum-Gum Whip!"

Luffy knocked a dozen of them out of the way with a single kick. Then he ran straight to him. A bunch of the tikis launched their ranged attacks, but Luffy dodged them. One of the primate tikis jumped in front of him to cut him off, then punched him with its giant spiked fists, but Luffy dodged again and then retaliated with punches of his own, hitting hard enough to break its tusks and fangs off and smash its face in. As it fell, Luffy, in an astounding display of raw power, picked it up, spun around and hurled it at the totem poles, taking out all the ones in that direction. Then he punched out a few of the other totem poles to help clear them out.

"Gum-Gum Rocket!"

Bang!

Luffy sent himself flying to the man, who aimed and fired his rifle. The bullet hit Luffy right in the heart and killed his momentum, but being rubber it didn't cause any damage. It was one hell of a shot though.

"That won't work on me!" said Luffy as it bounced off.

"Impressive."

"Are you the Voodoo Master?"

"I'm his right hand man and the strongest member of his forces, the Tiki Lord. And my Tiki-Tiki devil fruit grants me the power to bring wooden carvings such as wooden statues and tikis to life. I have an army at my disposal, not that I need any help crushing the likes of you."

He suddenly transformed into a giant wooden tiki statue, standing slightly taller and a lot thinner than the giant one they fought in the village, with oversized arms, huge fists, oversized feet, and really short legs. He then slammed his fist into the ground where Luffy was standing an instant before. The Tiki Lord kept trying to crush Luffy, who kept dodging the attacks and then followed up with a series of punches. Each hit did a bit of visible damage, but it was easy to see that it meant nothing to the Tiki Lord. It was like trying to bring down a stone building by chipping tiny pebbles off it. The small dents and knocked off splinters may as well have been trimmed body hair.

But that didn't deter Luffy one bit. He wrapped his arms around him, lifted him up, and hit him with a thunderous suplex. The Tiki Lord hit the ground so hard that it shook the earth and caused enough damage to partially split him open. Luffy then hit him with a second and third suplex that crushed his tikis. Once he got back up, he was suddenly sent face first into the ground as Luffy hit him with a DDT.

The Straw Hats were clearly winning. They'd taken a few hits, but the tikis were getting destroyed and the Tiki Lord had all he could take. He was forced to turn back before the impacts ripped him apart. But when he did so, his mask broke into pieces and fell apart, revealing his face and head. From their view the huge mask had disguised how big his head was, but now it was gone, revealing his giant head that was almost as big as all the rest of him combined. Luffy cracked up laughing at the sight of it, followed by some of the other Straw Hats when they saw it.

"Sure you're his right hand man, and not the head of his forces?" joked Usopp.

Once Luffy stopped laughing the fight resumed. With his gun, tiki army, and giant tiki form all having failed him, and no allies there to back him up, he was running short on options. Luffy on the other hand, was easily able to pummel him with a Gum-Gum Gatling. The Tiki Lord took the beating of his life, and he had nothing left when Luffy went in for the finishing blow.

"Gum-Gum, Bazooka!"

The Tiki Lord was sent flying off and he disappeared into the sky with a twinkle in the distance. With him defeated all the tikis lost their powers and fell lifeless.

The Straw Hats won a great victory by taking out not only the Voodoo Master's right hand man, but also the army of living tikis that plagued the island. But the battle was just getting started.

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