Still, the stupid snake ignored me. I couldn't tell if it was deaf or if it just wasn't taking me as a threat. I picked up Usopp's mallet and weighed it in my hand for a second, and then I hurled it as hard as I could at the snake's head.

A klaaang! came from the head when it hit. It wasn't nearly as loud as Luffy or Zolo's attacks, but it still broke the near silence on the island with ferocious volume.

The snake's head whipped around to give me a warning hiss. I'm sure that the snake was blazing with fury, angry with the persistent little idiot that kept stupidly trying to defeat it. "I'm not gonna stop hurting you until you let your five captives go," I stated, slowly picking up my whip from the ground.

Its gaze kept switching between Usopp and me with intensity. Right when I was sure it was going to go for me next, it lashed its dark stripes on its body, which turned out to be the wires that had attacked me, out at Usopp. Click. They lifted him up about seven or ten feet from the hard ground, but Usopp was biting at them and trying to kick the wires the entire time.

First, they tangled around his arms, immobilizing them. Then, they wrapped around his stomach, like they had done to me, and one of them slithered into Usopp's mouth, pulling it open. The other one then darted towards the lower part of his jaw and forced it to stay that way while aiming into his mouth. He kept struggling to get out of the frighteningly strong grip the entire time.

Fssh.

A thick white substance spread from the end of the wires and into Usopp's mouth. It looked thick, but it was able to move through the air like some kind of strange vapor. For a few more moments, Usopp continued to fight against the creature, but then he fell still and his body slumped. The wires retracted and allowed Usopp to fall to the ground.

Click.

I was shocked for a bit. I didn't know what to do. Once the idea of what had just happened finally hit me, I started to shake with anger. The snake just bent down, picked Usopp up in its jaws, and slithered towards its pit and bony nest. When it reached the pit, it carelessly dropped Usopp into it.

The thud of Usopp's body hitting the bottom was heard, and then the snake turned around and squinted at me. Somehow, I knew it wasn't glaring. It was squinting, like it was looking for something.

Carefully, even though it didn't have anything to be careful about, it slithered towards me. My fist tightly clenched around my whip.

Click. Its wires came undone. It started growling, and then it sped up and launched itself through the air towards me, letting out a metallic sounding roar.

FSSSSSSH.

The wires started wildly waving around and spraying their murky vapor everywhere, and I felt myself breathe it in. It made me cough, and it felt like when the droplets of the vapor got into my throat, it started to burn.

I jumped to the side to avoid getting crushed by the snake. When I landed, my coughing became louder, more choked, and painful until I just barely was wheezing and then was reduced to merely gasping.

Crap. I can't fight this monster like this.

I used my free hand to try and wave away the vapor floating around by my face. In the snake's attempt to try and attack me, it started striking out with its needle-filled mouth, trying to eat me or bite me or something. I had to keep dodging, and every single dodge became weaker than the last.

Thankfully, my opponent started to run out of its murky spray right when I thought I wouldn't be able to make it.

Fsh… sh… FSH… fsh…

Sputtering, the spray coming out of the wires thinned until it stopped coming out altogether. The snake looked between the two wires, and shook them to try to make them work again. I tried to at least get a scoff out at it, but, instead, I doubled over and my coughing fit restarted. And then, at the worst possible moment, my legs gave out, and they were too weak to be able to move.

Not now! "Come on! Get up!" I yelled, pounding my legs. "Oh, great," I moaned helplessly after only a second.

The snake started hissing again, but… instead of a trying-to-be-scary hiss, I think it was some kind of laughter. What? Do I really look that amusing? I glared.

"GAAH!" A loud shout came from the pit.

"Luffy?!" I coughed disbelievingly.

"Where am I?!"

"In a hole."

"Oh, yeah. Look at that."

Click.

The snake reattached its wires to its side, and, again, switched its target from me. "Will you just get over here, you stupid snake?!?"After I'd somehow managed to get that loud yell out without coughing, I fell to the ground with the worst coughing I've ever heard.

"Huh? Me?" Luffy asked.

"Not you, Luffy."

"Oh. Wait, did that worm-dino put me in here?"

"Yup. It's coming towards you right now." How is he completely calm? How is he not freaking out about his friends' bodies?

"Aaaah! Oh. It's just Usopp. Usopp, Usopp, wake up."

What an idiot.

"Everyone's in here! Why? Uh… Hello? You guys awake? Sanji? Chopper? Nami? Zolo?" He paused. "Renor, they're not waking up!"

"Don't expect me to know how to help them!"

"That worm-thing did this, right?"

"Yeah…"

"'Kay.

"Hey! Dino-worm! Get over here so I can kick your butt!" I saw his arm stretch up to grab the top of his prison, but before he managed to reach it, the snake swiftly arched its tail above its head to resemble a worm-like scorpion. Then it shot its barb that was sticking out of the end of its tail.

In mid-air, the barb straightened out and then changed slightly until it resembled an oversized and deadly staple.

Luffy's hand was about a foot or two from grabbing the top of the pit, but the staple pinned his arm against the back wall with frightening power and speed before he was able to. He let out a loud and pained yell, because the staple had pierced through the bone in his arm on one side and then squeezed the rest of his arm into an impossibly thin amount of space.

If he didn't eat his Devil Fruit, he would've lost his hand right then, I realized.

Still wanting to crush that snake into a pulp, he shot his other arm up. It was met with the same fate. After a second helpless yell, Luffy's body flew up to meet his stapled arms.

Just hanging there, I though that if his feet had been stapled together under his body, he would've looked almost like a crucified outlaw. Wait, he is an outlaw, I suddenly remembered. With all his happiness, eagerness, and just being Luffy, I'd completely forgotten for that entire day that he had a bounty.

"Well… do your best, 'kay, Renor? You said you're not a wimp; now you've got to show you really aren't," he grimaced.

He's as unpredictable as the Grand Line! It's impossible to tell if he's an idiot or really smart. Geez… I wish he'd make up his mind on what to be. "You got it, Luffy."

He gave me an attempt at a smile, but it immediately changed into a frown when his gaze wandered to his trapped hands. "Can you hurry up? My hands look funny." When I peered at them, I saw they were starting to change to a kind of light purple.

There's still a possibility of him losing his hands. He's right. I gotta do this quick. I shakily stood up; the poisonous mist was still lingering around me, but, much to my relief, it was starting to spread out and its effects were weakening.

When my enemy saw that its best weapon it had used against me earlier wasn't really working anymore, click, it tried to douse me again. Still, nothing came out except for a few feeble spurts. Click. It remembered how useless they were.

"Not gonna work anymore," I smirked. "Heh. Like Luffy said, I gotta get rid of you quickly. So get over here like the good lit—" I stared up at its head, looming far above me, "like the good snake you should be," I corrected myself.

It growled and shot its new barb, which turned into another zooming staple, at me. I can say without hesitation that it missed its mark by a long shot. Another barb was shot, and then another, and another. Not even needing to move for any of them, I began to know something was wrong, even though I didn't (and don't) know what was. It had been able to hit Luffy's arms with pinpoint accuracy; I'll bet it'd wanted to drive its ammunition through his bone.

"What's wrong?! I'm too good for you?!" I knew I wasn't; I just wanted the thing to use all its ammo before I took a good shot at it. My strength was returning; the more the mist thinned, the stronger I felt. I glanced over at Luffy, and I noticed he was looking between his blue-ish hands and me. Even with him being that stupid, he knew something bad was going on. Also, he knew I was taking too long.

Alright, come on, Renor. You can do this.

Why are you helping him? He's a pirate! my evil conscience taunted.

Shut up.

No. I'm only trying to say that you don't need to do this. You barely know that loser!

I know that he's not that bad.

I'm sure he just hasn't shown his true colors yet.

Well, I'm sure that his hands are a color they shouldn't be!

Just leave him.

No. And with that, thankfully, the voice shut up.

Finally, the snake decided to stop shooting its staples at me. Instead, it started trying to poke me to death with its un-shot barb. Maybe 'poke' isn't the right word; 'stab' or 'skewer' would probably fit better in that spot... Still, 'poke' seems to work, right? Anyways...

Dodging became easier with each second, but I still had to do this ASAP, even if that meant making it a tiny bit harder for myself. Come on... what makes this thing tick?

There was nothing giving away what gave this monster its energy. Wait a minute...

Its eyes. Its eyes looked like the top and bottom of a spool or yarn or string. Maybe if I...

"Woah!" I ducked out of the way quickly; its tail had a close call to driving its barb right through my skull. "Okay... come on..."

Again, I wrapped my whip around its attacking tail and I ended up on its back when its tail recoiled. Here I go.

Before dashing up its back towards its head, I had to make sure that I wasn't going to get swept off by the tail; it had stopped trying to stab me and started trying to whack me off instead. With all of the speed I had, I rushed off towards its head, ducking or jumping when needed, and then I was on its neck when it stopped attacking.

"Come on! Attack! I dare you!"

Apparently this thing knew better than to try to hurt me while I was there. "Dang it..." I muttered. "Uh..." I thought for a brief second. "Got it!"

Again, I started running, but this time, instead of heading straight for its head, I tried to go for its mouth. To try to reach it, I was using some dents on the snake's head that Usopp, Luffy, and Zolo had made earlier as handholds.

Wildly thrashing its head around trying to make me fall off was an unsuccessful plan on the snake's part. I mean, it was pretty difficult to keep my grip, especially with my leather gloves being rather slippery on top of this metal snake. But, still, I couldn't take them off; I had my reasons. Plus, the snake had turned its head around to try eating me again. Snapping its mouth open and shut, open and shut, at me, it almost shook off my grip each time it closed.

"Remember when I told you I'm not gonna fall off? I meant it, you know!"

Click.

Come on! Not now!

The wires weren't trying or even attempting to try showering me with their acidic mist, but they kept trying to strangle me and get me off guard, which was a huge problem the closer I got to its snapping, needle filled mouth.

Just a tiny bit closer...

"Alright, here we g— Crap! Let go!" One of the wires had snared my right foot and was furiously tugging me and trying to get me to fall to the ground. "Let go!"

Next, the other wire caught my other leg. Loud squeaking came from under my hands while I tried to keep my grip while being pulled downwards. Only a bit of aim... and...

Swipah! My whip cracked at one of the evil wires and its grip on me wavered. Another direct hit, and it let go. Click. "Wah!" From another strong tug from the second wire, my hand not holding onto my whip suddenly lurched backwards, almost sending me sprawling to the ground. I struggled to regain my grip, and, somehow, I did.

One good hit to the other wire and it clicked back in its place. I let out a relieved sigh and continued inching towards my goal for one or two more seconds. I reached out my free hand into the snake's mouth. The mouth snapped shut one last time and crushed my hand. "YOW!" It hurt! My hand was being crushed, and I swear, I heard one or two cracks come from it. "Ow..." I cringed, looking at my hand getting squished in between the snake's upper and lower jaw.

I think I heard another hissing laugh come from the snake's closed mouth, when I thought of another idea. My feet aren't doing anything right now... I decided to put them to good use. I planted my left foot on the side of the snake's lower jaw, and then, with my right, I kicked the snake's mouth as hard as I could.

Its mouth opened out of surprise and released my hand. It felt as if a wonderful sense of ease just shot through my hand and up my arm, but then a second later it started to hurt again; I probably broke a couple bones.

Carefully, but tightly and speedily, I tied my whip around my what felt almost useless left wrist. I wouldn't be needing the whip anymore in this battle.

After tying up my whip, I gripped the longest needle-tooth I could reach, and I tugged it out with a strained grunt. "Yes!" I cheered once it came out. The snake let out a loud roar, straightened up, and swung its head around some more; I think it realized I was a bigger nuisance than it had originally thought. (Nobody likes the dentist, ya know?) The tooth had an obscenely tall height of four, maybe five, feet; it was hopefully about as tall as this snake's head was wide.

Slowly, just to make sure I didn't fall off, I crawled on top of its head. Still angrily, but now it seemed more desperate than anything, the snake was whipping its head back and forth. A few times, I slightly dug the needle in between some large screw heads; they were part of the snake, and they were keeping some of its several jaw parts together. The only reason I did that was to make sure I didn't fall.

On its forehead, after almost falling several times, I took a few well placed steps to end up right by one of its eyes. The snake seemed to understand what I was doing, and it started whipping its entire body around. It seemed like some kind of jump rope with the ripples of its bounces coming from its head and then moving towards the tail.

I jammed the needle through its eye right when I was sure about my position. I felt a satisfying amount of resistance with the needle heading through its head before seeing it sprout a bit from its other eye.

A deafening, nightmarish screech rose from the thing's throat. Still, it wasn't dead. I didn't think it was going to be after that. And now, if I'm right...

You're probably wrong.

Just go away, will you?

Pulling the needle out, but then slightly shifting it towards the outside of its mouth, I pulled the long needle out. The needle slipped out of the snake's head and had some red twine following it. The strange eye started to spin at the same speed as the string coming out, and several clicks sounded from the inside of its forehead. The snake's resistance against me stopped.

Ca... Ga.. Ugh... the creature coughed. Many more gasping coughs came out, until it suddenly bucked its head and I flew off, unsuspecting of a sudden and last attempt to finally get rid of me.

For what felt like forever, I was flying through the air and watching the rock under me and staples stuck in the ground sail by under me.

And then I landed.

I skidded along the ground, and I heard several sharp cracks come from my right arm, the arm that I'd tried to use to soften my landing. It really wasn't that bright of an idea to try to use that arm, because I'm right handed. Seriously. I wonder about myself sometimes.

Pain shot up my arm, and I roughly hit my head on the ground after a hard bounce.

"Ow... Crud..." I got up, and almost fell back down again; my left leg had snapped one degree past the normal limit, and I think that I did something funny to that leg's knee joint. When I looked up, the red string had tied around the needle and trailed all the way from the snake to where I stopped skidding. My head felt almost like it was swimming, and there was some warm blood trickling down the side of it. Man... I hope my sweatshirt doesn't get bloodstained, was all I was thinking at the moment.

Before the snake totally shut down, it was able to shoot me one last, hate filled glare, and then it crumpled onto the ground and didn't move again.

"Renor? Remember me over here?" For once, Luffy's calm stupidity made me laugh. An instant later, though, I remembered how important speed was for his condition.

I quickly tore the string off the needle, which caused a painful burning feeling shoot up my arm. I ignored the pain, though. There were more important things to worry about than a hurt arm. Then I dashed over to Luffy, leaving the string behind but still holding the snake's ultimate cause of its death: the needle. I felt pain every time I breathed, moved my arms to pump me forward, or put either of my legs forward. It also hurt really badly when my right foot hit the ground after each step.

It was excruciatingly painful to keep up a speedy pace, but I knew that it would turn out worse for Luffy if I took too long; bones can always be mended, right? But hands can't be grown back. I hope he has a doctor on his ship. For both his sake and for mine.

I felt like I'd taken forever to run past the snake, through the maze of oversized staples arched out of the ground, and then by the freakily huge pile of bones. When I looked down at Luffy, I saw that his hands were a sickening purple-blue, which, even without any medical knowledge, I knew was really bad.

Bending down over the side of the pit, I was careful not to fall in.

I peered down at the bottom of the pit to see how everybody was doing. They were all unconscious and looking pale, like that kind of bleached color the bird hung on the second large needle had been. I shuddered and hoped that they were fine. To release Luffy from his unique... 'shackles,' I was exact as possible with fitting the needle between the staples and Luffy's arm. It took most of my strength, and much terrible, burning pain searing through my arms to push out and undo both of them. He fell to the bottom of the pit when I released both of his hands.

I don't know how many people have tried doing something like that, (Not exactly like that; I don't think many, or any, people have tried releasing a friend from killer staples before.) but it's really hard to move broken arms at all. Near impossible, actually. When I had released Luffy, I had just assumed that he would fall into some of the untaken space below, but I should've known what would happen. He fell right onto poor little Chopper.

Muffled screams erupted from under Luffy, and when he stood up, he just apologized. "Sorry..."

Chopper gasped for air when he got up. "You okay?" I shouted down to Chopper.

"Yeah," he breathed.

"So... need some help up?"

He looked around. "I... I think so."

"Okay. I've got an idea.

"Hey, Luffy." He turned his head up towards me to show that he'd heard. "Shoot your arm up here. I'll grab it." I couldn't grab his hands; not after what they'd been through. For all I knew, it could've made their condition worse. He did as I told him, and grabbing it was easier than I'd expected. "Now grab Chopper." Luffy did, but Chopper didn't seem too enthusiastic about the idea. "What are you going to do?" was his wide-eyed question.

"Luffy, toss him up here."

"What?! No! Luffy! Don't—" He was ignored. Luffy obediently did as I had said, and Chopper flew up towards me, screaming. I backed up a bit, and, still holding onto Luffy's stretchy arm, I caught Chopper. Quietly, I said some kind of, "Ow," after catching him because the pain in my arm was set ablaze again. Thankfully, I don't think Chopper heard me.

Luffy and I did this with everyone else, and they all woke up with their rough landing. Each catch hurt more than the last, until I finally came to catching Zolo, who had been the last one up. (He didn't wake up, but he started snoring, so I assumed he was okay.) I crumpled to the ground and gasped for air. Luffy had brought himself up out of the pit using his arm I was holding onto as some kind of rope. When he saw me on the ground, he asked, genuinely confused, "Is Zolo really that heavy?"

I laughed, "No, it's not that." When I shakily stood up off the ground, Chopper shot me a worried glance.

"Are you okay, Renor?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." Another sharp pain fired through my right arm, and my left hand shot over to grab it.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I think I just broke a few bones, that's all," I responded, trying to make it seem like it wasn't that huge of a deal. "Do you... have a doctor on your ship?"

"I'm the doctor."

"Really? That's so cool!"

"Haha! That won't make me happy! No! Not at all!" He suddenly stopped his laughter and coughed 'professionally' into his arm before continuing. "Do you want me to give you a checkup when we get back to the Merry Go or do you want me to check you up here?" he questioned, ready to get his backpack off his back.

"Uh... okay."

He glanced around at everyone else, and then silently muttered, "I think everyone's going to be needing one."

Nami was surveying the aftermath of the battle. "Hey, Renor."

"Yeah?"

"How come you didn't use that long string over there to get us out of the pit?"

"Well, that's because... well... um... It's because... because..."

She scoffed. "You know that would've been easier than having Luffy toss us up here."

"Okay, you know what? A 'thanks' could've been nice, at least," I irritably replied.

"You're right." A smile spread across her face. "Thanks." ("Aah. Nami-san's so amazing when she's grateful.")

"So... anyone know which way the ship is?" I asked.

Zolo snored, Luffy started cluelessly staring into the distance, Usopp put his hand up to his forehead and squinted through the fog, Sanji peered around, and Nami had that, "Wow, she's actually right about something," look.

"W-well... I think I should be able to follow our scent back to the ship," Chopper piped up.

"Oh! Great idea, Chopper!" Nami exclaimed, clapping her hands together.

"Hehe... praising doesn't make me happy!" Again, he started doing his funny clap-dance. "Heehee..."

I poked him in the back. "Chopper. The ship, remember?"

He stopped in mid-step to peer up at me. "Right." He straightened out his pink hat even though it was totally fine. "Um... we came from the direction of those needles, so let's start off there first."

Everyone nodded in unison, and then Nami told Sanji, "Take Zolo along, will you? I know he won't wake up even if we try to make him."

"What!? But Nami—!"

"Come on. I'll give you a 'treat' when we get back to the ship..." She clasped the top of her shirt and gave a hinting wink.

"You wouldn't!" Sanji shouted, almost drooling. "Hai, Nami-san! Anything for you!"

I felt sick. She'd better not do that... Urgh... My stomach turned. Everyone else, besides sleeping Zolo and always-clueless Luffy, also looked unsure and wary.

"Come on. Let's get back to the ship," I coughed queasily.

"Everyone ready?" Chopper asked.

"Oh! One moment!" Usopp said. He dashed off and picked up his hammer and everything else he'd dumped out of his purse and jammed everything right back in. He rushed back over. "Alright. Now I am."

We were led back to the creepy hanging corpses by Chopper. No matter how far away we got from the fight scene, Usopp couldn't help looking back at the motionless snake. When we reached the first person in the back of the long human row, Chopper's nose quivered, and then he flatly stated, "Alright, I got it." His eyes darted between the ever staring beings. "Let's go."


This was the first action scene I've ever written, so constructive criticism is definitely appreciated if you want to say something. ^_^ Oh, and reviews in general are appreciated, too, in case anyone's forgotten. x) Oh, but 'Plz updat soon' stuff isn't really what I could call a 'real' review... o.o