Yes, I know, WHAT THE HELL with the NO UPDATING. I am truely, truely sorry and please accept my sincerest apologies with the knowledge that I am at university and am consequently swamped with work and fun of the finest calibre, not to mention the fact that I'm a lazy bum.
Please don't kill me ; Love you! Okay, you can read now.
Little things can change big things.
This is, perhaps, not the most original of statements, but this is because it is a truth, and one that the big things sometimes wish wasn't quite so true. Seven, for example, considering the infinity of mathematical possibilities for the value of a number, is hardly a large number, but it is considered by many to hold special properties. Many believe it to be a lucky number, it is the number of stellar objects within our Solar System that are visible to the naked eye, it is the traditional number of wonders of the Ancient world, and in classical lore there are the seven sages, the seven isles of Atlantis, and the tithe that the Fairy Queen pays to hell every seven years in the tales of Tam Lin. It is a small number, and for a pirate crew it could be seen to be exceedingly inadequate in most cases. Not so for the Strawhat pirates.
Seven is also the number of basic principles of the bushido.
One particular bushido of the green-haired (or, at present, green-furred), variety, had been having a little difficulty exercising the third of these principles, as 'benevolence' didn't easily come to someone of his persona when he had just been received as a giant plush toy by the six children inhabiting the household of their benefactor's contact within the city of Hallaver.
They had travelled as swiftly as able, occasionally pausing with the excuse of giving Nami a chance to rest herself (she insisted on flying in order to show them the most direct route, and to avoid Zoro wandering astray too often), but quietly all secretly acknowledged that the 'marimo-dog', as Sanji so persistently called him, could hardly have been making braver progress considering his injury. The 'love-cook' too had been encountering some problems, the shivering kicking in once or twice along the road, though not badly enough to impede their progress. The others riding him could tell that the fits were becoming more frequent, and lasting for longer periods of time, though again, as with Zoro, they said nothing.
Arriving outside of the perimeters of the city Nami bade them stay behind the last piece of greenery before the open stretch of grass leading to the sand-coloured buildings. Despite some complaints from the ever vivacious Luffy, who would surely have set off across the stretch of open ground without a moment's hesitation if Zoro hadn't pinned his tail to the ground for the umpteenth time during the whole escapade with a heavy paw, they complied. Nami decided to leave it to the others to sagaciously explain that it would be idiotic to make such a brazen move without alerting those who were to aid them of their presence, and there was always the chance that some citizen had favoured money over allegiance and moral outrage, and given away information to the authorities without their knowing. Luffy acceded that it was a mystery plan, and the others were happy to leave it at that.
As it happened the orange-flanked Magpie returned with the good news that they had hoped for, and so, much to Luffy's approval and delight, they commenced to charge at the southern gate with as much of a hullabaloo as they could muster from their various animalistic vocals. Matched with this was an orchestration of alarm and surprise from the various villagers that had strategically gathered near the gateway.
"Run! Animals! Wild animals!"
"The pirates! Oh we'll all be murdered! The pirates have returned!"
"Beasts!"
"Monsters!"
"Weasel!"
Even if anybody had been able to decipher Usopp's indignant proclamation that he was, in fact, a stoat, it is highly debatable that anybody would have been able to understand it, less still care, as the consternation and dust that was raised in that raucously chaotic moment was further increased by several hands leasing various extra birds and creatures into the melee of excited city-dwellers and bewildered marines. The confusion was magnificent. Progressing in a seemingly uncoordinated headlong rush the original troop of creatures divided, sending their advance out into the midst of the skirmish to be lost in the dust raised by excitedly dancing feet of the rowdy delegation. Arms waved marines in false directions and voices offered advice and instructions of denigration, as one by one the Strawhats were swallowed up by the twists and turns of the sand coloured alleyways, each following the fleet footed guides that had singled them out, using a band of red ribbon about their left hands to show their allegations.
Congregating a few blocks to the East of the gate, near to the remains of the former Opera house, the paths of the crew convened in a small but comfortable house, which appeared to be mostly furnished with the six children that belonged to the somewhat overbearingly welcoming sister of Lily; one Poppy Delorit, also known as 'Aunty Poppy' to Helen Fellows. Aunty Poppy consisted of a homely smile, a pleasantly rounded figure, and a fiercesomely muscular pair of arms, which were currently squeezing the life out of Usopp's unfortunate scraggly frame while Zoro was stoically coping with having a swarm of younger Delorits treating him much as ants might a particularly interesting specimen of honey-comb. Luffy, finding the whole business too hilarious for words, was entertaining notions of investing the meat supplies of the hostess, but was persuaded to delay these desires by a small but not insubstantially painful peck on the head by Nami, who was observing and occasionally guiding Chopper's dialogue with Poppy.
"Oh I do hope that was good enough a distraction for you," were the words she was currently exuding with positive relish at the methodical chaos that has succeeded in their safe delivery to the current location, "Really, I wish we could have done a little bit more, one does get tired of being so stilted by those bothersome, good-for-nothing, white-uniformed…"
"Uh, yes, quite, no no you did perfectly, thank you very much," Chopper interjected, observing that Usopp was faring the worse for her righteous indignance. "Well, I suppose the next question is… what next?"
Poppy sighed as if somewhat dissatisfied, "yes, well, we have done all we could to try and locate Maragou for you," Nami noted the slight note of admiration in the name as she said it, "but, as usual, not so much as a sausage. I mean, the press has been positively raking the city for information on him ever since he appeared, and they haven't been successful at all, no interviews, no links to producers or executives, nothing! It's like trying to track smoke!"
There was slight air of defeat that swelled in the room, which was promptly dissipated by Luffy finding his way into a large vase on the fireside mantle (and, consequently, out of it again by it's swift and abruptly ending journey to the floor). Releasing Usopp to recover from his crushed ribs Poppy clucked condescendingly, extracting Luffy from the mess as he grinned ear to ear. Plucking shard of pottery out of his fur she reassured them; "None the less, we certainly know where the Marine Stronghold is, and has been for quite some time, I might add. As snooty as they are they can't quite get by alone, and a few of my friends know people on the inside- janitors and maintenance staff mostly. There's a lot of odd machinery in there; some of the scientists had to assist them making it." Interest was quelled when the good lady revealed she unfortunately knew nothing of the details of the stranger things when asked by Chopper (prompted by Robin and Nami), "but we do know that at least some of it offers you a way in, and a way around."
Depositing a ceramic-free monkey on Zoro's head she made her way across the crowded room. Extracting a set of rolled up blueprints from an umbrella stand she laid them across the floor for their investigation.
"There's an elevator shaft that runs throughout the building on the West side, see? There's a door that the staff can enter here, the main entrance here, and a latch for waste disposal and parcels here." She tapped the last area twice for emphasis, "this is your best option for moving through the building, but you'll need someone on the inside to operate the machinery."
Robin offered a few words to Chopper, who relayed them to her.
"Sorry, but, Robin says… if this layout is correct, then, the ground level is here, right?" He laid a hoof on a line that appeared to be somewhere about the middle of the building, and was rewarded with assent from Poppy, "so that means… counting the levels above and below… but, that building is…!"
"Eighteen floors, yes, and as wide as it is tall above the ground," she nodded with a countenance of displeasure, "as big and brash as the marines themselves. Perfect for hiding someone who shouldn't be found too, I'll wager- there's no guarantee that Maragou is there, but it's certainly a good place to conceal him, and I'll bet my barnet that there's someone in there who knows where he is. Anyway, I'll trust you to devise a means of speeding up that part of finding out information, what you need to focus on is this;" she pointed to a section of the paper marking a room adjacent to the mechanics of the elevator shaft, above the square marked 'control room'. Nami pondered on this for a moment, but decided to hear her out first.
"They'll expect you to go there straight off if they suspect you'll be paying them a visit (which, after our little party just now, I'd venture they do now), but we happen to have a very good set of mechanics who just happen to have set up a few contrivances that render the controls in that room useless- they've left the levers and pulleys there, but they aren't attached; the real controls are in the room above. They require a lot of strength to operate, however, due to the increased distance from the main gear system; three men to each lever, which is where you come in, my fine fellow," she added audibly through the hatch in the floor. The conference room they were currently in was situated directly above a sort of storehouse-come-garage where the family cart was stowed, a ladder and trapdoor leading up to the main living quarters, allowing Sanji a convenient place to both stand and listen. Up to now he had been listening acutely, occasionally flicking his head to disperse a sweat drop- he seemed to be suffering worse fits of perspiration along with his breathlessness and shivering now- and although they had infiltrated the city successfully his feeling of uselessness had merely been increased by talks of buildings with excessive numbers of floors. His bul was not exactly suited to indoors ventures. As of this moment, however, a small ray of hopefulness peered down on him through the hinged door.
"Me?" He offered, in a confused but moderately optimistic whinny.
Poppy nodded mischievously.
"Let me explain…"
So it had ensued that Poppy's plan had been related, and there was some agreement that she may well have missed a calling as a commander of subterfuge in another life.
It was some very perplexed guards that opened the door to a mysterious visitor who appeared to be rather… unsteady, on his feet.
"Oi oi, what's this? Drunks coming to us to be arrested now?"
"Saves us some trouble!" Laughingly the lunchtime shift greeted the heavily cloaked person at the main entrance. "So, what is it really? Kinda early for this sort of horseplay, isn't it?"
"Horseplay is about right," said an oddly high-pitched and sober voice, and in the time it took for them to be preoccupied by the fact that it had issued from the stranger's knees, another sort of preoccupation introduced itself in the approach of a rather large figure of more equine proportions. As the two guards made good use of their legs, the stranger split apart into four smaller figures who promptly set about opening the double doors to fully allow Sanji's entrance, closely followed by Zoro and Nami. Five minutes later the guards that had been carefully positioned around the delivery latch and staff entrance had been alerted and summoned to the entrance that had been under least suspicion, but the only remaining clue as the animal's various whereabouts was one rather decimated welcome rug and a petrified secretary.
Two levels down Sanji was cursing a bump on the head and a grazed knee- horses and stairwells had not been designed with each other in mind. Judging by the sounds of confusion from below and above however it seemed that the other groups were making a good nuisance of themselves, and the floor he was on had been marked on the map as mostly empty storage, so his chances of encountering anyone was slim. This proved to be the case, as his progress was only impeded by the occasional narrow doorway or mop-bucket. Entering the last room he noted the setup to be as he had been informed. Nervously he edged the purposely loose planking away from the hole giving onto the lift system with his teeth, mentally thanking the efficient and willing sabotage of the janitors. Chains and cogs could be made out in the dark shaft that was revealed to him.
Turning back to the main room he looked at the various sizable levers- designed to be pressed into the floor to operate the machinery, each with a spring to reset them on release. Anxiety presented itself to him once more- he'd never been good with mecha. Poppy had explained it to him very clearly three times over to make sure he knew which was which and how they affected each other, and as there were only five to operate he tried to persuade himself that he would manage- he had to. Noises from behind alerted him to the fact that the marine's suspicions had been aroused, as he heard them heading to the control room below him. Stamping down on the left-most contrivance Sanji was gratified to see the door seal itself behind him with a series of 'shunks', as several wooden poles inserted themselves into it from the side and floor, effectively making a very solid barrier, albiet a wooden one. Keeping the lever hard pressed to the ground with one back leg he swung his head around to keep an eye on the shaft. A minute passed with no interruption, then…
"There!" A red object flitted past. Laying the weight of his right foreleg on the second lever from the right there was an unhealthy grinding sound, followed by the swift clinking tattoo of chains slinking their way upwards into the black of the upper levels…
Nami nodded in satisfaction, looking down where the ribbon had just been leased from her beak.
"Looks like things are alright on the control floor for the moment at least."
"They ought to be," Usopp reassured, "I had a good look at the designs those mechanics supplied Poppy with- they sure know what they're doing!"
Nami nodded, although she was still a little anxious; there were too many things that were at stake for the plan to fall apart due to technical difficulties. Looking back over her shoulder she commented rather disapprovingly, "that took you long enough."
"Sorry Nami," Chopper wiped his brow a little abashedly, Luffy bouncing around on the unconscious heads of the dozen marines scattered about the room. Usopp waved excitedly from his perch next to the magpie, "Oi! Change back Chopper, it's nearly here! It must have only been a floor or two down. Luffy, put that hat back now!"
Discarding the over sized white-peaked headwear the monkey bounded over as Chopper transformed back down from his Heavy Point form. Quickly they jumped onto the small but sturdy platform that was heading upwards. As they sped past the floors Usopp and Nami carefully kept count, as Chopper attempted to prevent Luffy from getting enmeshed in the chains in his enthusiasm.
"You're sure that's what Robin said? The eighth floor?"
Nami nodded, "unless we got interference from the boiler, but that's the number she tapped. I just hope Zoro's not having too much 'fun' down there. You did fasten that parcel to send down to Sanji tight enough to the chain, right?"
Nami's trust and mistrust was well placed. Two minutes previous to this Robin had been carefully sending the information to Nami along the main water pipe, tapping out with a spoon the level that Zoro had extracted from the Managing Executive, who's office they had paid a visit to with a sheet of paper asking which floor Maragou was being held on; they had decided to risk presuming that he was somewhere in the building, and that the head of personnel would be sufficiently cowardly to tell the truth when presented with a somewhat intemperate wolf on his desk. At the current time the silent alert which had summoned the score of Marines to his assistance was being sounded again, as the first batch of supposedly fearsome soldiers had decided that a cat and a wolf were, actually, a lot more fearsome than they might have been given credit for. Robin was sitting back, having done some considerable damage herself, and now simply watched with a slight smile as her green-furred companion bayed more threats through the door which was being hastily barricaded by the retreating marines.
"Cowards."
He snorted contemptuously, falling back on his haunches amidst the ruins of the previously elaborately dressed office, the director of which had hurriedly left alongside his pale-faced comrades. The cat offered a soft smirk of amusement at his discontent.
"Well, now what do we do?"
"Well, bushido-san, as it appears that our only exit has been blocked, nothing, for a little while."
"Don't give me that! What about the latch?"
"The platform is too far above us, and neither of us can hold onto the chain."
"Well, how about that door?"
"That's a cupboard."
"…. Okay, then what about that door?"
"That's the one blocked by the marines."
"And this one?"
"That's the cupboard again."
Seven above ground.
"Okay, next one's our level, get ready to jump."
A second ribbon fell from Nami's beak, weighted with a small bead to ensure it fell straight, as they made the jump off the small platform.
Two below ground.
At the second signal Sanji let go of the lever second from the right and stood on the second from the left. As the gears changed and more sounds of operating machinery started the incensed shouts of frustration started to disappear from below him; the marines abandoning the fake controls to search for the source of the lift's operation elsewhere. Leaning a little more heavily on the lever creating the barrier behind him he anticipated that it would not take them long to locate him. Trying to suppress another onset of shivers he focused on the shaft- he hadn't noticed how fierce a drop it was from his position down the shaft, and with the planks removed as they were it wasn't unfeasible that he could break through the remaining partition if forced from behind… Something began to drip onto his face.
Six below ground.
New movements introduced themselves the to lift, and as a new wave of marines carefully prepared to re-enter the office, Robin and Zoro silently made their way through the sliding arpeture into the wall which had been uncovered, which swiftly sealed itself once more as they made their way along a new corridor (Robin subtely making sure that she was in the lead).
Four above ground.
Gallee smiled, enjoying the rich bitterness of the coffee on his tongue minging with the sweet peppery quality of the ginger snaps he was divulgently crunching, one by one.
Nine above ground.
Something hummed...
Scrambling to their feet Usopp, Chopper and Luffy watched Nami irritably pecking and flapping in futile aggravation at the close-nit wire cage that they had stumbled into from the aperture of the lift.
"Hey! What gives!" Usopp joined her, rattling the securely made box, jumping with a yelp of surprise as a metal slat came up behind them, effectively encasing them in metal and sealing off their exit.
"They knew, I should've known they'd know! Damn it, even if we didn't enter by the lift they guessed we'd use it to get here. Oh… bother. Luffy, is there anything you can do? Luffy?"
Luffy wasn't listening. He was looking at the person who's cell they were sharing; a fairly tall man, wearing a splendid suit and a cape that looked utterly ridiculous in the close confines of the prison, crumpled from repeated nights of sleeping on the small wooden bench he was sat on, white gloved hands pressed together at the fingertips ina contemplative fashion.
The white mask considered them with the disinterest one observes a discarded piece of wrapping.
"…Ah…I suppose you were looking for me."
I swear by all that is fanfic related that I will update sooner than the last time, or may Luffy mistake my head for bacon.
