A/N: I am trash. School sucks. End of story. Uploading for OPBigBang in a couple of days at keast.
Enjoy!
6th Interlude
Koala absolutely couldn't believe that Sabo dragged her down here.
Sure, she was curious as to what Gol D. Roger's lab looked like, but she wished that her friend and partner would exercise even the tiniest bit of caution. She thought she would have been used to the stunts he pulled by now, but, she thought with a sigh of relief, at least Sabo wasn't as carefree and reckless as his brother Luffy.
"Koala!" Sabo called. "You coming? Luffy already went on ahead."
"Do I have a choice?" she sighed, complying with his question by following behind.
The place was abandoned, but that was a given. Koala already knew that this lab wasn't exactly going to be teeming with Marines since they had no clue where it was. Sabo only found out because Garp was extremely honest when drunk, and it wasn't hard to slip him a few bottles when he came to visit. It's also how Sabo was able to get the keys, which were strangely enough, entrusted to Garp after Roger's arrest.
The two brothers had pretty much taken off and left her to wander the dark corridor by herself. They were much too eager (Luffy being a huge fan of everything Roger made and Sabo an aspiring programmer). She was glad that she brought her own good, old-fashioned flashlight at least, knowing that finding the power and reactivating it would be far too risky.
Even though they wouldn't be able to go through Roger's digitized records, they might be able to activate any inventions he had left lying around (though even that may be hard after the years). Still, it was fascinating shining the beam of light against the walls to read where the off shooting corridors lead, though going off on her own in this dark, abandoned building didn't seem like the wisest option. Instead, she continued following the echoing footsteps and eager shouts of Luffy and Sabo. They only had one destination in mind.
And they were right in wanting to go there. The main lab was certainly impressive.
There were windows high up, so she could see the features of the room from the moonlight streaming in. There was something eerie about how empty it was. It was a large room, so that made it feel all the more lonely. She could practically imagine scientists, inventors, and Roger himself milling about and working on their latest projects.
No doubt using the machines around the room for help, Koala mused. The level of technology in the room was staggering. Though Sabo was the expert, even she knew that. Mechanical arms attached to the ceiling that seemed to be attached to some sort of track, an array of screens and monitors, and she recognized one that was able to project interactive holograms, but obviously it wasn't going to function.
While Sabo and Luffy continued to marvel over the different technologies and gadgets in the room, Koala made sure to inspect every desk just to see if she could find something. Disappointingly enough, they were all empty with the exception of one.
She knew it was Roger's desk right away. It was cluttered with papers, a couple of tablets, a knocked over coffee mug (which had stained some of the papers), there was even some sort of tiny invention- was it a toy?- blocking a couple of photos. Koala heard Roger was working on some huge thing before he was arrested and executed, but there was no way that this was it. Just as she was about to pick it up to examine it, as well as the pictures, further, she was interrupted by Sabo.
"Hey, Koala! Come look at this!" Sabo exclaimed, beckoning her over.
She didn't know how she hadn't noticed it before, but there was one single machine in the center of the room that seemed to be pulsing with an orange light. It seemed to be some sort of capsule. Before she could warn Luffy and Sabo about being careful about whatever was inside, Luffy pressed the panel on the front, which glowed brighter at that moment, with a laugh.
"Hey!" she barked. "Could you two actually think before doing something for once?"
It was too late for protests now though, she thought dryly as Sabo shrugged and the capsule opened with a loud rush of what sounded like wind.
"What the hell?" Koala whispered mostly to herself because Sabo and Luffy had already stepped even closer to investigate.
There was someone inside. She already knew they were a robot from the multitude of wires, but she wasn't expecting him to open his eyes.
"He woke up!" Luffy yelled, almost tumbling backwards.
"Oi, Lu!"
"What…?" the man muttered obviously disoriented.
"Hello? Can you tell us your name?"
"My name… My name is Ace."
Okay, things are beginning to tie up.
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