ok, time for the third chapter
The explosion was deafening,
like a thunderstorm right above your head.
The Shockwave travelled throught the plateau with the force of a tidal wave,
shaking the structure to it's very foundation,
Sweet City felt as it was hit by an swift earthquake,
and as suddnely as lightning, the shock was over.
And the Plateau began to lean and crumble...
(on top of the Plateau)
the trembling came as swiftly as the sound,
the sound of a thousand cannons going off at the same time,
the impact of their shots connecting with the plateau and shaking it to it's core.
Few could remain standing as it continued, let alone hear anything but the loud "kaboom".
Big Mom stood, a foot restuck in Katakuri's mochi, her multible chins wiggling like crazy,
making it impossble for her to formulate any coherent sentence,
yet no one would doubt what she'd say, because it was what everyone was thinking:
"What the hell?"
the trembling continuued, but as their assembled pirates and lowlifes of the underworld regained their hearing,
not one of them could fathom what had happened,
except one.
Katakuri was deathly pale, the sight of the crumbling tower fresh in his mind,
the sound of the trembling tower and his siblings' confused panic brought him back to the present, and he decided to take charge
"EVACUATE THE TOWER!", despite the rumbling of the rapidly collapsing Tower, his voice rang clear over the plateau
"Perospero, Make a slide for the crew! and when you're done, get your ass over and help me!" he howled at his older sibling as he stormed off to where the edge of the plateau had used to be, now, that edge was rapidly disappearing, like an eroded rivershore.
not wasting time turning his head to see if his elder Brother obeyed (his kenbunshoku haki did that for him afterall),
Katakuri performed perhaps his single heroic act in his entire career as a pirate.
Kneeling in front of the collapsing edge, he poured all of his energy and will into producing as much Mochi as possible and send it straight Down into the devastation, trying to hold the Construction from crumbling too fast, giving his siblings (and by proxy the population of Totto Land) time to quit the blastzone.
(Nearby)
Nami shook along with her crew, Falling on the fracturing ground and feeling it all shift below her,
throwing everyone nearby around like balls in a raffle, sending them chrashing into eachother at random,
(she was certain she ended up colliding with Bege and Sanji a few times)
when she landed, the entire area had been rearanged,
large chunks of the Building had been turned up and lay in heaps all over the place,
making it resemble ice floe with rock.
Nami had been Lucky, she hadn't gotten too many scrapes and no serious injuries
Looking around frantically, while trying to wipe the dust from her eyes, Nami attempted to locate her comrades.
Bege was far off to the left of her, lying flat on his stomach, blood running from his temple, but trying to rise up, though trembling like a newborn calf, too unsure of his movements to really know what he was doing.
Sanji moved to Bege's side and tried to help him up, though the chef was limping, his holed pants showing a large bruised and damaged area beneath the fabric.
Jinbe was to her right, pinned beneath a large pile of masonry, trying in vain to remove the burden from his shoulders.
Nami couldn't see Luffy,
but she could see Big Mom, furious, her hands tightening around her sun and cloud Homies, Zeus and Prometheus, standing some 20 meters in front of her.
the sight made her blood run Cold,
but not from the Yonko in front of her,
from what lay in between them,
and infinitely much closer to Big Mom than herself...
(at the plateau edge)
Katakuri panted heavily, the massive task of trying to control the damage to the plateau with his Mochi, was taking it's toll,
Perospero had been delayed bu making a slide for the evacuation,
but he was helping his sibling trying to contain the damage now,
their younger siblings like Gallette and Daifuku were trying to aid them, with their devil fruit abilities,
while others, like Pudding and Amande were rushing others to the slide to get off the plateau,
with Several of the emperors of the underworld rushing to go Down it immediatly, pushing, shoving and stomping their way to the front.
then his Haki gave him yet another vision, that made him cry out in dread
"No! Mama don't... please!"
(on the battlefield)
Nami looked, eyes wide with horror, as Big Mom saw what the navigater had already seen;
Chiffon and Pez, prone and lying near her,
Chiffon was wounded, her clothes torn and her skin bruised, for, as a good mother, she had protected Pez from the Chaos and destruction with her body,
she hadn't been able to shield him from either the noise or the sights however, and now the toddler was crying his eyes out,
his mother trying to comfort the Little boy the best she could.
In contrast, her own mother didn't intend to do any comforting whatsoever.
The way she looked at her 22nd daughter confirmed that, as the obese woman's face contorted into a grimace of rage and deep loathing.
"Mama! please... Don't hurt us, We're family, remember..." Chiffon pleaded in vain as she struggled to crawl backwards,
away from the mother who bore her, and treated her like garbage
"Didn't I tell you never to show me that face ever again?!", Big Mom's voice rang out like thunder as she lashed out after her child and grandson,
missing them by mere inches as Chiffon scampered to get away.
the ground had no such luxury, as it shattered even more, creating even more tremors in the already fragile structure of the plateau, the shockwave sending Chiffon and Pez flying through the air, landing with a dull thud, Pez crying and Chiffon bleeding from her temple.
in the distance Nami could hear Bege call out to his wife and child in a panic, undoubtly trying to move to their aid, but unable from the previous trembling.
meanwhile she could only watch, her very being paralysed in fear, as the yonko took another heavy footstep towards Chiffon.
"Filthy little child! useless, treacherous, worthless, ugly, little mutineer!" Big Mom was almost within reach of Chiffon again, when her voice rang out again
"My crew does not hold traitors alive! little selfish child!"
"Mama, please, spare Pez, He hasn't done you anything!" Chiffon's pleading fell on deaf ears as Big Mom raised her arm again, black with Busoshuko Haki, high above her head, like some great jeweled scepter held by the queen of Totto Land.
"No child of traitors either!"
the fist descended like a comet,
Chiffon and Pez wailed and cried, one for fear and the other for despair,
From Bege came a wordless scream,
full of pleading and the sound of a man that knew it was utterly futile
Nami looked away,
even though she knew what was coming next.
A sound like thunder,
meat against meat,
the sound of concrete and masonry that gave way for the force of the blow.
Pez, Chiffon and Bege were all still screaming, but now it was from shock,
not dread.
"Bastaaaard!"
Nami knew wwhat had happened even before she opened her eyes,
and yet she couldn't hellp but feel overwhelmed by the sight that greeted her,
Luffy in full Gear 4 mode,
hair as wild as a haystack, grinding teeth, oversized torso that had ripped his formal attire and black haki arms, arms that ended in fists, that he was currently using to asssault Big Mom, pushing her to the side, away from Chiffon and Pez, though only marginallly.
but that seemed to be enough
(In Sweet city)
Pudding had reached the base of the plateau and immediatly started running.
She knew she wasn't a combatant and her devil fruit could do nothing to stop the destruction that was going on.
But if she could reach the city, then perhaps she could help the residents evacuate.
She briefly thought of her younger siblings, Anana, Dolce, Dragee and Anglais and all the others, but her elder sisters Brulee and Compote were already seeing to their safety. Hopefully that would be enough.
She wasn't alone of course, Baron Tamago and Smoothie had joined in the evacutaion plans aswell and were already herding the panicking population into something resembling order, marching them out of the city, away from the leaning and rumbling Plateau.
Reaching out to a panicking commoner, a skinny man in a sideways dark wig and a striped shirt, she tried to get him too listen
"Look to the Sweet commanders, they'll show y.."
"Aaaaaaaagh a monster!" his scream cut as deep as a knife into Pudding's heart as the man starred at her third eye in utmost dread, his panic deepening and spreading like wildfire, causing other frigthened commoners to flee at the sight of her.
"A monster! A monster! Lady Pudding's a monster!" despite the rumble in the background, the shout rang out clear enough and it made Pudding speechless, her arms hanging limply by her sides. Deep in her heart, she was crying and wanted nothing more than to exact vengeance on those people that called her that word.
But Mama wouldn't like it, when she came back to her senses and without Mama's patronage Pudding knew, she wouldn't last long in the new world, devilfruit or not.
Though shaking with anger Pudding resolved to at least preserve her own life by serving Mama. She wanted to prove that she wasn't a good for nothing like Daifuku had said, but she couldn't just talk to the panicking crowd without upsetting them at this point, and finding a mirror to cover her eye with her hair was out of the question.
Pondering the situation, Pudding realised that there really was nothing she could do at all,
not directly at least.
She quickly turned towards the hospital and ran as best she could
(on the plateau)
Big Mom quickly responded to the attack with blows of her own,, striking at Luffy with punches that kicked up enough wind to level trees. Luffy avoided most of the blows, moving out of the way despite his heavily inflated body. But some hit home, and caused him to cough blood.
wasn't enough to stop him though, as Big Mom must have realised, as she a moment later reached for her thundercloud Homie Zeus. Putting her hand within the cloud caused a lightning to go through the Yonko's body, and just as Luffy once again rammed his fist into her face, it struck him aswell.
Fortunately Big Mom hadn't realised that Luffy was made of rubber and lightning had no effect on him.
which was the reason for her reaching for her Sun homie Prometheus. Touching the miniature sun made her body glow with an inner fire, setting the fringes of her dress aflame.
A heat erupted from her form that singed Luffy's clothes and made him cringe, trying to blink away the heat stinging his eyes,
an opening that Big Mom did not neglect.
Her other oversized hand shot out, swiftly grappling the young man's torn shirt. As she tingthened her grip, Luffy was immediatly set aflame, his scream being heard loud and clear above the sound of the crumbling, trembling and collapsing plateau. at least to Nami.
and to Jinbe as a moment later he came flying, kicking Big Mom straight in the face.
while it barely startled her, It did take Big Mom's attention for the briefest of moments, enough time for Jinbe to grab Luffy by the scruff of his neck and pull him awy from Big Mom, tearing what was left of his shirt in the process.
But it wasn't enough time to get out of Big Mom's reach. A fact that both Luffy and Jinbe realised as one of the Yonko's fists shot out, slamming into luffy and continuing into Jinbe like a hammer on a nail, knocking out the air in both their lungs and sending them flying.
The two comrades landed with dull thuds on the fractured ground, but at least the rise and fall of their chests told Nami that they were alive, although badly injured.
In the short distance, Big Mom took a slow step towards CHiffon and Pez, intent on contnuing her previous set course of action.
Nami swallowed hard, neither Jinbe nor Luffy could recover in time to intercept her this time, and Sanji's leg injury was too bad for him to do it either.
Trembling, Nami stood and walked towards Big Mom, preparing her staff to fire, praying to all the gods and fate, definetly fate, that she'd suceed.
As big Mom took another step, the yonko got within reach of her targets
and her foot rose again, intent on stomping out her own child and grandson,
at that moment Nami struck, as she slammed her clima-tact staff into the ground yelling the name of her technique "Sandāboruto Tenpo!", a lightningbolt struck big Mom square in the face. Nami didn't waste any time as she swung her staff in an upwards position for a followup.
naturally, the lightningbolt had no effect, aside from Big Mom wiping her eyes and blinking once, before levelling her eyes towards a trembling Nami, her face contorted into a rage that was only reserved for those who were trying to deal with a particularly annoying fly.
"I'll deal with you in a moment silly little girl, but first... that ugly child of Mine..." looking down again, Big Mom noted that the mother child duo had moved a scant distance and acted accordingly
before anyone could act, Big Mom's foot rose again,
and hammered down upon Chiffon and Pez!
Aside from the rumbling that had slowly grown in strenght,
there was nothing but silence...
And that's chapter 3
as promised this chapter was a bit shorter, not just because I promised myself to write less in each chapter, but because I haven't had my computer for most of the weekend due to a much needed checkup
Chapter 4 will be up as soon as I can,
Please, RnR ladies and gentlemen