Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. They are copyright Eiichiro Oda.

Time seemed to slow for Usopp as Auger pulled out his rifle and took aim. The liar saw his life flash before his eyes. He only had two regrets: the first was not being able to meet up with his father. The second was not seeing Kaya again. The shots echoed in his ears, as did Chopper's voice, faintly calling, "Usopp, duck!"

Only he didn't duck. The bullets from the rifle had missed. Accidently? Doubtful. Intentional? Doubtful.

"Those were warning shots." said Auger calmly, watching the smoke from his shots rise from his weapon. "You try those childish attacks on me again and I will kill you."

T-these are real pirates. Usopp reminded himself. They won't show mercy. "What should we do, Chopper?"

The reindeer paused, taking a look at Doc Q–who had fallen off his horse–before answering. "I'll help you with Auger. I don't think this guy is going to do anything."

"Yosh. Then I'll show you the skill that took down the head of Cipher Pol Number Nine!" Usopp reached into his bag and pulled out another pellet. "Kemuri Boshi!" There was an explosion of pinkish smoke that billowed through the treasure room. Chopper looked around before detecting Usopp's gunpowder-ish scent. "Tamago Bushi!" the reindeer heard his friend cry.

SPLAT! Chopper wheeled around and tried to suppress a laugh. It was absolutely ridiculous. Auger's targeting reticule covered in rotten egg.

Doc Q wheezed joyfully. "He got you there, Auger!"

The sniper snarled and fired a few more shots into the smoke, which cleared a few seconds then after, Usopp nowhere to be seen. "Come out and play, you little–"

"I'm up over here!" Chopper followed to see, not Usopp, but Sogeking, an alter ego created by Usopp to invade Enies Lobby without getting a bounty. Sogeking had 30 million on his head., though.

"Sogeking! Where'd Usopp so?" asked the impressionable doctor, eyes sparkling.

"Have no fear, he went back to the ship. He found me passing and explained what was going on. Thus, I am here!" He raised Kabuto up high... only to have a bullet pass over it. "Eep!"

"Long nose or not..." growled Auger, raising his gun up to Sogeking's perch. "I'll fill you full of holes." He squeezed the trigger.

"So it's a Mystery Power..." muttered Luffy, standing up and brushing the rubble off his shoulders. He glared unnerving at Blackbeard. "So, if I touch you directly..."

"I'll take your strength one bit at a time." finished Blackbeard, grinning his horrible grin. "Until you're weak and trembling at my feet..."

"You wish." replied Luffy, jabbing his fists into the ground. He pulled them out, holding two large chunks of earth. "If I can't touch you hand to hand... I'll do it this way! Iwa Luffy!"

"Rock Luffy...?" repeated Nami from her spot in the doorway, her captain's hat over her orange hair. "I hope this is a good thing..."

"Gomu-Gomu no... Iwa Pistol!" An elongated punch from Luffy is always a dangerous thing, but add a few inches of solid rock at the end of a bullet train, and you have very serious injuries. Luffy expected Blackbeard to dodge or turn into darkness... but his opponent did nothing but take the punch head-on.

"Gaah..." Blackbeard spat blood, clutching his stomach. "With everything this fruit gives me, I get bad things..."

"What is he talking about?" grumbled Luffy, pulling his fist back with a snap.

"Wait a minute!" cried Nami suddenly. "If he can pull your body in with gravity, then he has to do that with your attacks, too! That means he can't absorb them or bypass them!"

"Damned wrench..." Blackbeard raised his hand to her. "Kuro–"

"ORYAAA!" Instead of pulling the girl towards him like he wanted, Blackbeard pulled in the two rock boxing gloves, courtesy of Luffy. WHAM! "Gghh.."

"Gomu-Gomu no STAMP!" Luffy's sandaled foot collided with Blackbeard's face, sending him falling backwards to the floor.

Nami spared at look at Luffy and gasped. His face was dark and forbidding. She had rarely seen his face like this on the ship.

Blackbeard sat up, his face covering half of his face. "Brat..."

"If you touch Nami... or try that again..." said the normally care-free teenager in a low voice. "I'll beat your face down into your ass."

"You want to try me, Mugiwara?" replied Blackbeard. "I can be pretty mean when I want to..."

"So can I." Luffy leapt up onto the domed ceiling of the room, then ran as fast as he could, until he looked like a giant red-and-blue cloud. Nami was barely able to notice his fists as they flew out. "Gomu-Gomu no... Harike-n!" Similar to Gatling, two fists stretching and retracting over and over to one point was devastating. Even more so the opponent has an uncontrollable field of gravitational pull...

Zoro reached over and pulled the bandana off his left arm and put it around his head, casting a shadow over his eyes. "Okay, Franky... how do you want to do this?"

"Well," mused the cyborg, rubbing his three chins (or as Luffy liked to call it, a "butt-butt chin") "Since this Burgess guy is running away... we should probably just go ahead and fill the entire room with attacks."

"Okay," agreed Zoro. "But you stand back. If we're gonna finish this guy, you need max fuel."

"Supah." said the cyborg, and stepped a few paces back, eyeing Zoro as the swordsman eyed Burgess.

"Sia..." Zoro adjusted his swords so that the bladed edges pointed away form him. Spinning on the spot once more, Zoro created a whirlwind of energy expanded outwards over the stone floor. "KURUU!" Unlike Tatsu Maki, this attack made a tornado shorter, but a wider horizontal range. He felt the attack connecting and smirked.

He spotted Burgess kneeling on the floor, coughing up blood. This was his chance. If he was quick enough... actually, he didn't have to quick, as long as he could hit the champion. "Nanajuni...Pound Hou!" Larger and stronger than San-Juu-Ruko Pound Hou, this, Zoro felt, was his best bet for now until he could put his plan to use.

A cry of pain and an explosion of dust and rock told Zoro he had succeeded. For now, at least. He wondered what his next move should be. "You have yet to land a blow on me." He taunted.

To be continued...