Konnichi wa!^^ A new chapter, phew! Hope you didn't have to wait too long ;)

To the great people who were so nice to leave a review:

ruby890: Aw thank you! That's really great to hear, makes me very happy! :D

Anime lover 3593: Yeah, I wondered if it was too much at once^^ Hmm I think he just doesn't think as much as others or doesn't even bother to think about something. If he says something (and it sounds wise xD) then it's just out of instinct, and he has a pretty good one^^ Okay, thank you ;)

reason for all: Thanks a lot! I will try! ;D

Scioneeris: Yes, finally some action^^ I'm glad you liked it that much :) Thanks for telling me that, it's always amazing for an author to hear that from the readers :D

Thank you all so much for leaving such great reviews! :3 Pls enjoy ;D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece! Never did and never will.

YXYXYXYXYXYX

Chapter 8 – Hope?

The rest of the crew mostly stared at their cook who looked really pale. But somehow they felt their lips forming a gentle smile. They just couldn't help it. Luffy's determination and enthusiasm really were contagious!

Even Sanji had to smile a little as their ex-captain just needed to look at his nakama with that special expression of his and they began to smile. And everyone believed what Luffy said.

They could win, even though it looked really bad at the moment. But just like the saying, the one who laughs last laughs best, Luffy was right for once.

And that was what gave them all courage. Even Chopper and Usopp didn't look as scared as before, they knew they could always rely on their friends! Everyone of them knew that they were strong, strong enough to fight this battle. Strong enough to win, no matter how hopeless it may seemed.

The nakama only needed someone to remind them of had just forgotten, simply as that. And Luffy always did a good job in doing so, in that point he never failed. He was the one who gave them hope.

Even if Luffy himself was tied, weakened, unable to move and really pale.

„Sanji!" Luffy cried out and the now captain, who still had problems to stand without getting a blurry sight, glanced at the bundle. He looked so weak at the moment, yet his voice was so strong.

„Just beat the shit out of that guy! You can do it, we all know that! You know that you are strong enough, so don't act as if you were weak, you hear me?" Luffy said with full force and Sanji was not the only one in that cave who felt a shudder run down his spine. It were simple words. But as Luffy said that everyone could feel it wasn't just a speech to reassure his nakama or Sanji himself. Nor was it a speech to awe Arch alias Al'tera.

It simply was the truth. And it showed how much Luffy believed in his nakama.

Sanji first blinked at the black-haired teen and as Luffy said:" What are you waiting for? Let's get outta here as quick as possible, ne? This guy needs a whipe-down, so give him a good trashing!" Sanji smirked, then he nodded and turned to the slightly irritated Arch Meldowin.

„That's right! Kick his ass!" Usopp added, although he was scared the long nose sniper had to cheer for Sanji. Luffy was right, for once.

„Go Sanji-kun! He asks for it!" Nami said, sure to win. She didn't know wether it was the sight of seeing Sanji confident or Luffy's simple presence. It was amazing how their ex-captain could change the tensed atmosphere by just being himself.

„You finished now?" Arch tried to tease with that arrogant expression upon his face. „Cute how they try to push you forward."

Sanji only rose his curly brow at that weak teasing. „You serious? Tch. Wannabe shaman."

As Arch's face turned slightly red in anger Sanji knew his teasing had been much more effective and he inwardly congratulated himself for that. Not that it was that difficult but well.

The rest of the crew silently watched, thinking as best as they could to figure out how to get rid of those annoying ropes around their wrists and legs. They needed to get out of here, this gas was killing them! Especially the poor little doctor. The heat seemed to rise too, as it became nearly unbearable.

„We need to somehow cut those ropes! Got any ideas?" Nami whispered towards the others. Curse this damn island!

The others tried to think of a solution which wasn't easy. How could they escape?

„You weak crybaby! Look at your red eyes, you can't even bear the simple gas around here. Now prepare to die, weakling!" Arch spat angrily, pulling another of his test tubes out. Sanji wondered how many of that things he got under his piece of clothes that was around Arch's upper body.

Again, Sanji could only laugh at this weak attempt to tease him. „I've met scarecrows that were more creepy than you – you only make me laugh, you dipshit. Now bring it on."

„W-what? Y-you rude brat!" Arch shot back, completely furious by now. The man with the light hair lifted his hand with the test tube and suddenly jumped forward.

Sanji widened his eyes a bit at that sudden movement and stepped back, noticing his shaky legs. But he wouldn't go down, no matter what! Luffy was right, he would kick that guy's butt for sure!

Arch let out a creepy yell that sounded like a freaky battle cry and Sanji yelped in surprise. 'Such a frigging freak!' shot through the captain's head as he prepared to kick that guy to the moon, lifting his strong right leg.

Arch smirked and all of sudden he threw the test tube into Sanji's direction. Sanji was a little puzzled at the man's surprising speed and the moment he heard the warning cries of his crew the test tube made contact with his face.

Damn it, he should have dodged it! But it all had happened amazingly fast, Sanji just didn't have the time to react!

„Oh gosh, Sanji!" Chopper weakly shrieked. The small reindeer looked utterly exhausted and Franky was surprised that Chopper could even manage to scream that loud.

„Are you alright? Sanji-san!" Brook shouted with his mouth wide opened.

Zoro just bit his lip, fearing that the liquid in the test tube could have been some acid. If Sanji lost they would be doomed. Then they had no chance of escaping, had they? Darn! The swordsman hated this insane guy who called himself Al'tera.

Blinking to get rid of the damn burning in his eyes, Zoro grumbled under his breath. „Damn ex-cook!" he muttered, actually pissed off by this whole situation. If only he had his swords...

Sanji gasped as he felt the glass shatter into pieces and cut some parts of his face. Stumbling back with his eyes tightly shut, he slightly panicked as he could feel the cold liquid run down his cheeks and forehead.

He gasped and tried to rub the strange liquid out of his eyes and face. Glass splattered to the ground along with a little blood from the cuts.

Sanji coughed and didn't dare to open his eyes as he madly rubbed them. 'Dang it all! This bastard! I hope this ain't no acid or something...!'

Panting loudly, Sanji slowly realized that actually the only thing that burnt in his face were the small cuts he had recieved from the glass. Frowning slightly, the captain slowly opened his eyes.

As he did so he gasped, Arch was right in front of him and the last thing Sanji could see before the fist crashed into his face was that immense smirk of Arch.

Sanji flew back to the ground, groaning slightly at the pain and blood dripped down from his mouth. This guy couldn't be that strong, could he?

Hell, the hit Sanji just had recieved had been enormously strong! If this guy had that much of power then Arch didn't even need to trick and 'fight' with his test tubes and other chemical stuff! So why? Was it because Arch enjoyed it? Sanji couldn't imagine that, no matter how insane this guy was.

„Sanjii!" some of the crew shouted in shock and worry. Ugh, the hit had looked really painful and Usopp, gulping, could swear he had heard something crack. That hopefully hadn't been Sanji's nose!

„Oooooh what now? Scared again?" Arch teased and really began to get onto Sanji's nerves. Mentioned ex-cook just grunted back in anger.

„Hah! As if! Bastard" Sanji then grumbled madly and he stood up again, wiping the dust off his dark trousers. Then the blonde looked at his wet hand and frowned deeply, before he shot a death glare at Arch.

The blond chemist unconsciously took a step back but his expression didn't change. He was smirking again and slowly nodded, more to himself, as he said:

„So, finally figured out eh? Took you long enough, har har! Yes, to answer your unasked question!"

Sanji's face became dark red as he thought his blood must be boiling right now. This bastard had tricked him yet again! „Water!" he shouted in his anger and wiped the rest of the liquid out of his bleeding face.

„Huh? What?" Chopper blinked tiredly, then he looked at the weak Robin, silently asking for an explanation.

Robin turned her head and gave the great sniper a soft smile. „The liquid in the test tube that has been thrown into Sanji-kun's face is only water. Arch had fooled him." she explained in a whisper and Chopper grumbled. This Al'tera didn't even bother to fight fair!

„You damn-" Sanji started to curse, ignoring the fact that his precious Nami-swan and Robin-chwan were present and could hear every word he said. But he was cut off as another small object that was made of glass flew into his direction and Sanji saw the liquid didn't have any colour, much like water.

Though Sanji wasn't so naive to fall for that simlpe trick as he wanted to jump aside, not leaving the test tube out of his eyes. But somehow his legs didn't work so quick as he felt the test tube hit his arm, cutting a little of his sleeves open.

Sanji then widened his eyes, yelping at the sudden pain. Just as he had thought the liquid that had looked like water was some kind of acid - it burnt his skin!

Grabbing his arm as Sanji groaned, he shot a glare at Arch who smirked. „He he, just as I thought! You may noticed this could have been something else than water, but your mind relaxed a bit upon seeing only 'water' again in those test tube – that is the simple psychologie of humans."

Sanji bit his lip in pain, not wanting to admit Arch somehow was right as he continued to glare at the guy. But that small wound on his arm didn't stop him from beating the shit out of Al'tera!

Meanwhile, Brook tensed a little and looked slightly irritated, which was noticed by Franky. „Eh? What's the matter, bone-bro?" the cyborg asked and Brook yohoho-ed back.

„It always fascinates me that I can feel a stomach ache even though I don't even have one! Yohohoho!" the man with the afro laughed and Franky frowned.

„You're right, bro. I've a bad stomach ache at the moment too. Probably from the gas, right? Let's try to not worry about it."

The rest of the crew, excluding Luffy and Sanji, agreed. „Yeah, me too! I feel like throwing up.." Usopp said, gulping.

Even Zoro admitted that his stomach hurt and he even got a slight idea why. But he didn't want to say it out loud and was silent.

Luffy, who happened to hear the whole conversation between his crewmates, went even more pale than before. Okay, he himself was probably the only one of the crew who didn't have a stomach ache. But that wasn't the reason for his worry.

Luffy just had realized why his crew had a stomach ache! It was because of him! It must have been his burnt breakfast! Dang... he had made his own nakama sick...

The black-haired teen bit his lip as guilt crashed down on him mercilessly. He had to admit that he really really sucked as a cook... although he hadn't found the breakfast too bad...

But the strawhat teen didn't have the courage to tell his nakama that it was his fault they felt sick and tried to push the depressing thoughts aside.

The heat in the volcano seemed to rise and Zoro was not the only one to notice as sweat ran down his forehead.

„Guys!" Nami whispered and broke the tensed silence, getting the rest of the crew's attention, „ We need to get outta here as quick as possible!"

„Why?" was the simple answer from Usopp. Sure, he wanted to leave this hell fast too but Nami surely had a good reason to sound that disstressed.

„Don't you feel the slight shaking of the ground every now and then? And the heat is rising! Look at those holes in the ground, more gas seems to stream out!" Nami murmured back, concern laid in her voice which worried the crew.

Robin nodded as she looked around, seeming in thoughts as she did. „Navigator-san is right." she only said.

„But Nami, what does this tell us? Is anything bad going to happen?" Luffy then asked with the innocence of a seven-years-old, not getting what the others was bothering. Franky and Zoro both groaned, even they had realized what Nami was trying to tell them.

But the orange-haired woman was too worried and tensed at the moment to get angry and so she just turned wide-eyed to Luffy and whispered: „The volcano just decided to wake up again!"

What that meant didn't have to be explained any further to Luffy – even he got the picture now and widened his eyes. „Uh-oh..."

„Eh... bro's and sis', I don't wanna disturb you or anything but furry-bro here decided to take a nap." Franky said as he looked at the little reindeer that was out cold.

„What? Shit, Chopper!" all eyes immediately went to the little reindeer who looked utterly exhausted. But who could blame the little one, after all the gas and the heat weakened him the most.

„I think doctor-san is okay... more or less." Robin said, face pale. The gas really drained hers, Brooks and Luffy's energy a lot.

„More or less?" Usopp asked in worry.

„Yes, he will be okay if we get out of here quick.." Robin added, coughing.

Usopp didn't need to ask any more, the sniper didn't want to know what would happen to Chopper if they stayed here in this unbearable heat and with all the strange gas around any longer.

The long-nosed teen's eyes wandered around in slight panick. There must be something to help them getting out again! Suddenly, Usopp's glance stopped.

Why hadn't he thought of that any earlier? It would be so easy to get rid of the ties!

Usopp didn't even tell the others about his idea as he suddenly just shouted Sanji's name. Everyone turned to the teen with the curly hair in wonder, including Sanji and Arch who had been about to fight again.

„Eh? Usopp?" Sanji frowned while blinking at his friend. Usopp tried to hide his grin but Sanji caught it and felt that the sniper just got an idea. „What is it?" Sanji unconsciously asked again, a little anger was to be heard in his voice. Sanji wanted to keep on fighting and not have a little chat with Usopp now! What could be so important?

Arch frowned deeply wondered what this Usopp wanted to say, keeping an eye on his opponent. This was... suspicious.

„Usopp...?" Nami murmured, was the longnose out of his mind? Why disturbing Sanji now? Usopp should talk to them and not to their captain while he was in the middle of a fight! By the way, if Usopp had a plan then Nami wanted to be the first one to be informed!

But the clever sniper just ignored the others and focused on Sanji who looked clueless.

„Sanji! Be careful with those test tubes! Don't let them hit you again, look at your face, it's all cut!" Usopp yelled and Arch looked dumbstruck at the sniper. Was that all the teen had to say?

'Heh, probably too scared to do anything else than crying.' The insane guy thought to himself as his smirk returned and he turned back to his enemy he had to kill: Sanji.

Sanji on the other hand first was at least as graveled as Arch by Usopp's strange behaviour. The moment Sanji inhaled to shout at the long nosed teen in anger Sanji got the – more or less – hidden message.

The man with the curled eyebrow inwardly slapped himself, then he narrowed his eyes at Usopp.

„Shaddap, you fool! I know how to fight and don't need you to tell me that shit!" he yelled, trying as best as he could to sound real. Then he gave the slightly puzzled Usopp a short look that clearly meant 'I got it' and turned back to Arch.

Mentioned man didn't even seem to have noticed the slight thoughts exchange between Sanji and Usopp and wanted to attack again, pulling out another test tube.

Sanji sighed in slight annoyance and went back into fighting mode. 'Or more dodging mode,' the blond captain thought.

A slight grin spread across Usopp's face and the rest of the crew looked at him with weird expressions.

„What the hell Usopp?" Zoro mumbled in slight irritance – the fact that the ero-queen had understood Usopp's message and he not pissed him off to no end.

The sniper sighed, turning to his confused crew mates. Only Robin seemed to understand what Usopp had tried to tell Sanji and she smiled her typical mysterious smile.

„Don't you get it? The glass! We can cut these ropes with the shattered glass of the test tubes!" The teen with the black curly hair explained while grinning at his brilliant idea. The other's face's brightened.

„Usopp, you're amazing!" Nami squealed in joy and followed the sniper's glance to the broken glass on the ground.

„ I know, I know." Usopp smiled, „So that's why I tried to tell Sanji he should dodge a few more test tubes that will shatter on the ground – the more glass the better! And look at the first test tube's glass, it's shattered into thousands of pieces, too small to cut the ropes with it. Really intelligent of me, isn't it?"

„Yes yes, we all greatly appreciate it." Franky praised the sniper who started babbling about 'the awesome Captain Usopp is really intelligent'. Franky rolled his eyes at that, although he had to admit that the plan was really good.

„So, let's wait for the next test tube that falls to the ground and then one of us crawls towards it and tries to get rid of these ties!" Nami said, searching for a volunteer.

„I'll do it, don't worry." Luffy said with a cracking voice. The rest of the crew frowned a little.

„Luffy, you're weak enough. Let me do it." Usopp whispered back. Luffy, as well as Robin and Brook, looked ready to fall unconscious the next moment.

„I will do it." Luffy repeated, this time with more force, „Cook's orders." He then added, completely serious. The others could only sigh at that.

If Luffy used that kind of tone then no one could argue with him. 'This stubborn idiot...' shot through Zoro's head but he kept silent. The last thing they needed right now was an argument.

The following minutes numerous of test tubes fell to the ground, shattering into pieces. The crew watched while holding their breaths, searching for a piece of glass that looked big and sharp enough to cut ropes.

Arch still didn't notice Sanji intentionally dodged the test tubes that were aimed at his face. God he felt so silly at the moment, ducking his head away from a few goddamn, frigging test tubes.

'Test tubes, what a scary weapon...' Sanji thought as the whole situation began to really piss him off. But there was no other way, he definitely needed more time to defeat that crazy guy with his fucking test tubes.

Plus, Sanji had noticed the slight earth quakes. Sanji needed to make sure his crew got out of here as soon as possible! The ground was slightly shaking under his feet, but Arch was too caught up in his insance act to even notice. Somehow, Sanji pitied that guy.

Finally, a test tube that just missed Sanji's head shattered into a few pieces that looked big enough to cut through a tie. Sanji looked at the shattered test tube for a second, then his glance wandered to Usopp who gave him an invisible 'thump up' and a wink.

Then Sanji knew it was time to fight again, and he once again glared at Arch. So, now he didn't need to dodge anymore – now it was time for his plan. Simple, but helpful.

Arch narrowed his eyes at the other blond, not liking the look the other was wearing. Something was telling him he had overseen something important, but Arch didn't know what! It made him furious and he growled in blind anger.

Arch alias Al'tera had another test tube in his hand, this time Sanji was sure there couldn't be only water in it.

„You damn brat, I will wipe that stupid expression outta your ugly face!" Al'tera shrieked and Sanji had to admit that he found this guy somewhat creepy, but he didn't flinch upon Arch's words.

Sanji noticed something moving near him and threw a quick glance into the direction. There was Luffy, all tied up and panting like a dog, moving forwards to the shattered glass.

Sanji bit his lip, now Arch shouldn't notice Luffy too! Sanji had to kick the guy's ass right now!

Arch himself had an insane expression, the object with some chemical liquid in his hand, ready to throw at Sanji.

Suddenly – the whole crew plus Sanji gasped at that – Arch let out a battle cry and jumped into Luffy's direction.

Luffy's eyes widnened and he stopped, gasping.

YXYXYXYXYXYXYX

Soo, I hope you all enjoyed reading! =) It's getting exciting, isn't it? Lol at least I hope so^_^ And I'm so sorry for yet another cliffhanger! And, being mean, the next chapter's coming as soon as I get a few reviews!

So please please tell me what you think of this chapter! Every single review is greatly appreciated! =D

Ja ne :3