THE CHILDREN Set Sail

Disclaimer: In case it isn't already clear enough, if I claim ownership over either One Piece or Zettai Karen Children, so much as a single hair on Kaoru for example…A thirty-thousand meter drop for me, get me?

Normama (floating thirty-thousand meters in the air, pointing to himself): "Ant…"

Normama (pointing to Kaoru using her power to keep herself and Normama afloat): "Boot…"

Kaoru: "He got that from 'The Avengers'…"

We last left the Children as they were falling with Vivi, pummeling towards the ground several meters below. With their power exhausted at the moment, they had no way to save themselves or Vivi. Fortunately for them, moment ago, Luffy arriving on a large bird made his appearance. Without a single hint of hesitation, Luffy and the bird dived for the four falling girls, catching them just as were in just a few seconds of hitting the ground.

"Phew," Luffy puffed, embracing the four tightly, "I caught up!"

"Luffy~!" Kaoru cried in joy. Since Crocodile was here, she had thought that Luffy was killed considering he wouldn't have let Crocodile pass him so easily. Seeing him again after thinking like that lift a heavy burden off her heart. "You're late, you idiot~!"

"Idiot, idiot, idiot," Shiho and Aoi cried in the same manner, obviously have thought around the same line as Kaoru.

Luffy laughed. "Sorry you three; I messed up~!"

"…Luffy," Vivi suddenly managed in-between her sobs, "Pell! The palace is going to be bombed, there isn't any time left! Everyone is going to die! And no one can hear my voice! If this continues this country will-!"

"Don't worry," Luffy suddenly voiced, before showing a huge grin, "Your voice, we all heard it!"

"…Ah-!" Shiho blinked. Since Luffy caught them in his hug, Shiho was in contact with Vivi thus was able to read her thoughts. Up until her last few words, Vivi's thoughts where all dark and negative as if Crocodile's words had erased every trace of hope she had. But now, a small shine of hope once again began to flicker in her mind, growing stronger with every passing second.

'Thank you…' was Vivi's only thought that Shiho could read, but it was strong and clear. Luffy's words had a strong impact on her.

Shiho, thus, could help but smile. Luffy's healing words was contagious; her two friends wholeheartedly nodded at Luffy's words.

It was long before the bird landed. From the clothes it was wearing and how Vivi had addressed it earlier, he was a Devil Fruit User and an acquaintance of Vivi by the name of "Pell".

"Luffy," the big bird, or rather falcon, spoke, "Be careful, your injury has yet to fully heal…"

"Eh!? Injury!?" The Children gasped, noticing for the first time the bandages around his abdomen.

"I ate a lot of meat," Luffy informed, "So I'm okay…"

"HOW ARE YOU OKAY!?"

"This time for sure…I'll kick his ass!" Luffy glared up at Crocodile and began to stretch back.

"AAAHH~!" a voice cried out from behind, "Luffy is alive~!"

"Tony!" Vivi cried as she and the Children turn around to see Chopper with his mouth and eyes comically wide open.

"What!? It really IS Luffy!" another voice exclaimed from behind Chopper.

"Vivi-chan is here too!" another voice exclaimed.

"Usopp!" Shiho exclaimed, identifying the newcomers, "Sanji!"

"Even Eyelash!" Aoi exclaimed, seeing the out-of-place camel.

"See! See!?" Usopp comically cried, "I knew it! I knew he was alive!"

"Really?" Chopper wondered.

"Yeah right," Sanji sweat dropped, "Is that the face of someone who knew?"

"Nope!" Kaoru giggled at Usopp's expression…before sweat dropping at his comically overly-bandaged body, "And what the hell happen to you? You look like a mummy…"

"Eh!? Oh, this is-…"

"Usopp~!" An angry voice shouted as a shadow appeared behind him and whacked him in anger. "Who told you to make a party toy!?"

"OUCH-!"

"…! Nami! Zoro! You're alright too!" Kaoru exclaimed in relief.

"…? Ah-! Kaoru!" A heavily banged up Nami noted as an angry Zoro approach from behind her, "Why do you look so banged up!?"

"SO YOU CAN STAND JUST FINE!" Zoro comically exclaimed in anger…covered in blood.

"GEH~~!" Aoi comically bulged her eyes out, "Zoro-han, what happen to you~~!"

"…But…Nami," Usopp managed, with a comical swell on his head, "it worked…didn't it…?"

"I'll kill you later!" Nami forewarned before turning her attention back to Vivi, "Vivi, just what was that sandstorm just now?"

"Wah~!" Shiho bend over Usopp, who's collapse was halted by Chopper, "These wounds look serious…!"

Chopper, Shiho," Usopp comically cried in despair, "Please bury my remains in the sand when this all over~…"

"Like we're going to do that!" Shiho and Chopper exclaimed in unison.

"Hey," Sanji meanwhile glared at Zoro, "How the heck did you get Nami-san hurt!?"

"Isn't she…alright?" Zoro pointed over to Nami with a sweat drop.

"…Well," Kaoru noted as Aoi panic over her mentor's wounds, "She alive and kick…sexy…so I guess she's okay?"

"See?"

"… …Fine, I'll let it off this time," Sanji sighed, "After all I should've known better than to trust Nami-san to a ruffian like you…"

"Huh!?"

"Oi! Don't fight!" Aoi sighed, "We got bigger problems…"

"…Sorry guys," Luffy suddenly spoke to them; his hands had by then gripped somewhere near the top of the wall Crocodile was standing on, "I let him get away once…so this time I won't let it happen…"

"Luffy," Kaoru sighed before smiling, "Well, we have our share with him, so it's your turn again!"

"Hurry up with it," Zoro grunted.

"If you can't win, who can!?" Usopp added.

Everyone else simply nodded or smile.

Luffy slightly turn to them. "I'll finish it now…all of it!"

With that, he shot himself up towards Crocodile.

"What? Find the shooter?" Usopp noted after Vivi's brief explanation, "How the heck are we supposed to do that?"

"There's no time to think about it," Shiho sighed, "We've got about ten minutes left…"

"Yeah," Aoi nodded, "Since, according to what Crocodile told Vivi, the diameter of the blast is about 5km or so, the shooter should at least be 2.5km away…"

"…No," Vivi suddenly noted, "The shooter might be very near here…"

"…!? How?" Usopp inquired in shock, "If the shooter is here, then they'll be-!"

"No," Kaoru grumbled, "That guy, he's evil down to the core, like Black Phantom! I won't put it pass him to sac-use one of his minions like that without informing them of the blast radius…"

"Crocodile IS that sort of person…" Nami thought out loud.

"Killing his own buddies," Chopper gasped.

"The kind Luffy hates the most huh?" Aoi sighed.

"I'd like to eat that bastard raw," Sanji commented.

"If you know it, then let's-!" Zoro huffed before he and Aoi sense something (especially when Pell was about to draw his sword).

Using their swords, they block a sword strike aiming at Vivi from behind. Meanwhile, having sense the same thing, Sanji kicked the interloper's face and Shiho aimed for the groin, knocking the guy out.

"What the-!?" Kaoru exclaimed in shock, "Where he came from!?"

"GAH-! Damn it!" Usopp exclaimed, noticing the crowd behind the fallen goon, "We've been spotted~!"

"We finally found you, Princess Vivi~!" one of the goon snickered, "Killing you will earn us a promotion and we'll be millionaires~!"

"Ah, more Billions," Shiho noted calmly.

"How long do you plan on taking?" Sanji asked Zoro, for once not as an insult.

"Well, we can't waste time," Zoro replied, for once not in a retort.

"And we have to make every second count," Aoi hummed, readying her swords, "So~…"

"Two seconds!" Zoro and Sanji announced at once.

"Make it one!" the Children grinned.

One second later after various beating, slicing and kicking the group of Billions were completely wiped out. The rest took the opportunity to scatter to find the bomb.

"Well with that out of the way," Kaoru noted, "We better split up too and find that damn bomber!"

"Yeah!" the rest agree and soon split off.

A little while later…

"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA~!" Usopp laughed repeated, with what looks like a golden hook in place of one of his finger, "…Worthless-!"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Zoro roared as he and Aoi comically pounded Usopp on the head.

"We're here trying to find the bomb and you go crazy!?" Aoi added.

"That's not it!" Usopp roared back at the two in protest, "I'm trying to think like Crocodile! Then we can figure out where the attack is going to come from!"

"Oh~! I see~!" Aoi sarcastically thumped her palm in understanding before coming back strong, "LIKE HELL I DO!"

"Just shut up and look for it!" Zoro growled at Usopp, "We've only got five minutes left!"

With that, the three split off again.

"Chopper!" Nami huffed as she and Shiho ran around with Chopper, who is currently in his reindeer form, "Can't you smell out anything?"

"Impossible," Chopper informed, "The whole city is filled with the smell of gunpowder…"

"Then try to find the smell of a shooter aiming at the center of the city!"

Shiho sweat dropped. "How do you get that kind of smell!?"

"Who cares? Chopper, just try!"

"HA!?" Chopper comically exclaimed.

"… …Ah-!" Shiho screeched to a halt, "Damn it!"

"…!? What is it Shiho?"

"We have to go back to the palace! Those goons! They may hold information we can use!"

"Ah-! That's right!" Nami exclaimed and began leading them back towards the palace.

"A bomb that can blow up 5km in diameter," Kaoru hummed to herself as she searched another street, "Even C4 Bomb can't do that…meaning the bomb is huge! But…something like that would not be possible to shoot, at least not far without psychic powers, so where-?"

Just as she round a corner, the wall in a building exploded as Sanji ran out soon afterwards.

"Damn it all," Sanji noted before noticing Kaoru, "Oh Kaoru!"

"… …" Kaoru gaze through the hole Sanji made; five to six houses now has holes through them making a path from one street to this street.

"Hey, come on Kaoru! No time for daydream!"

"…You know, once this blows over, someone's going to rather piss at this…"

"Leave that crap for later!"

"Yeah, yeah," Kaoru shrugged before noticing something in the sky, "Hey, what's that?"

Sanji saw it too and smirked. "Usopp's signal!"

"…!? Looks like Usopp figure it out!" Nami noted when she saw a stream of smoke in the air.

"Looks like it," Shiho nodded, "And it's not too far off from the palace too!"

"Uh, you two," Chopper huffed and puffed, carrying the two on his back, "I can't run at full speed like this!"

"Just shut up and keep moving!" Nami ordered.

"That's got to be Usopp's signal!" Aoi noted as she made her way towards the smoke stream, "Right back towards the palace too! … …Damn it! I hate going back and forth like this!"

As she was saying that, she happens to look up in time to see a falling object. Upon glaring at it she realized it was Pell…but he was falling as if he was going to crash!

"Ah-!" Aoi exclaimed as she change direction to head towards Pell's landing area, "Something's wrong!"

"…Ah, found them!" Nami called when she spotted Usopp and Vivi together.

"Vivi~!" Shiho called out, "Usopp~!"

"Hmm!?" Usopp turn to see them approaching, "Guys!"

"Did you find the shooter!?"

"Well…"

"No!" Vivi shook her head, "But if this sandstorm is part of the strategy, then I know where it could be!"

"The sandstorm?" Chopper noted in confusion.

"Now that you mention it," Shiho grumbled, "The sandstorm that Crocodile caused is still going on! But what about it?"

"That's the only place we have left! It is wide and large, and invisible from below the sandstorm!" Vivi suddenly pointed towards the tallest tower on the palace, "I can't imagine it elsewhere. I'm sure they're there! Inside the clock tower!"

"…! What!?"

"My god!" Nami growled, "The clock tower!?"

"We've been running in circle the entire time! And it was right here!"

"I see!" Chopper exclaimed, "From there you can aim for any place!"

"Oi, Pell-guy!" Aoi called out, occasionally removing some of the scatter debris made from the crash she witness, "Answer me, would you!?"

"… … …Ugh…" A voice managed from amidst the debris.

"Close enough!" Aoi nodded and was about to teleport the debris away when they suddenly began to levitate away, "Eh? Kaoru!?"

"Yeah, it's me!" Kaoru made herself known from above as she continued to clear the rubbles, "I saw Pell falling so Sanji and I split up and I came here to see if he was okay…"

"Good judgment," Aoi noted as she went over to check on Pell, "…Oh my god! He's been shot!"

"What-! Really?"

"Yeah! Kaoru, can you remove the bullet?"

"Mm~!" Kaoru examine Pell's wound, "I can try since it didn't look like it enter the heart…"

Using her psychic power, Kaoru slowly and carefully remove the bullet. Once it was done, Aoi with some nearby rags dressed Pell's wound to the best of her ability.

"Got it~!"

"I got the wound," Aoi noted with a frown, "But I can't stop the bleeding! Damn it, if only I had Dr. Sasaki's medical knowledge!"

"…Ugh, you two," Pell managed, coughing blood every-now-and-then, "are with…the Straw Hats…?"

"Yeah, Kaoru! Help me get him up!"

"Got it!" Kaoru nodded. The two help Pell right himself.

"…You…got to, cough, take me…to the, cough, clock tower!" Pell managed.

"Eh!? The clock tower!?"

"Yes, cough! I was shot by someone there! It must have been, cough, the bomber!"

"You got to be kidding me~! We were like right next to it not fifteen minutes ago!"

"Time enough for that once we get there!" Aoi sighed in frustration, "let's go!"

"Vivi!" Nami exclaimed to her friend, "Even knowing its location, you can't climb that high in a minute!"

"Originally, I planned for Pell to take us up there," Vivi informed, looking around worryingly, "But I don't see him anywhere…"

"Kaoru and Aoi aren't here either!" Shiho hissed, "Why is it that everyone that can get us up there isn't here!?"

"There's only the stairs left!" Usopp informed.

"… …Oi~! Nami-swan!" a voice was suddenly heard from above, "Vivi-chan!"

Everyone glance up to see Sanji leaning out from one of the windows of the building under the clock tower.

"What the-!?" Shiho blinked in shock, "Sanji!?"

"Why are YOU up there!?" Usopp roared in confusion.

"Why!?" Sanji called back down, "Because you left that freaking message for me! It said 'Clock Tower', so I started making my way up…"

"… …Is that right," Shiho mumbled, bewilder.

"So, what do you want me to do!? Where are the bombers?"

"They're at the top!" Usopp informed, pointing towards the top of the tower, "The top! Get to the top and kick their asses!"

"… …!? Yo!" Just then, another voice called out from a place higher than where Sanji was, "I've been looking for you guys!"

Everyone stared up to see Zoro staring down at them.

"What the-!?" Shiho blinked at his sudden appearance at the most unreasonable place.

"Zoro!" Sanji exclaimed in shock, "You're here too!?"

"What are you guys doing all the way over there!?" Zoro asked.

"That's what I want to know! What are you doing there!?"

"I don't know! The Marines I ran into kept saying 'Go north! Go north!'…So I went up this building!"

Shiho comically fell backwards at Zoro's explanation.

"…'North' and 'Up' are COMPLETELY different!" Sanji exclaimed at the stupidity.

"But that's good!" Usopp hollered up to Zoro, "Keep climbing!"

"No," Vivi suddenly stated.

"…What?"

"From where they are, they can't enter into the inners. To go there, you must use the stairs from ground level…"

"But Zoro can just break those walls-!"

"The cannon may not be able to take that much shock!" Shiho sighed in realization, "So in the end, we can only take the stairs-!"

"Wait Vivi, Shiho!" Nami called, "I got a better idea!"

Nami quickly inform them of the plan, but as soon as they were done some strange loud laughter was heard way above in the tower. Everyone peered up to see the clock face open up and two people, a man and a woman, in strange attires stepping into view.

"This is our last job," the man spoke, "Baroque Works company, Middle class workers, Miss Father's Day and Mr. 7!"

"…!? In this kind of situation," Vivi exclaimed, "those two had to appear…!"

"…Who are they?" Shiho frowned at the woman's choice of clothing, "Why is she dress like a frog?"

"They're Baroque Works' sniper couple!"

"Sniper!?"

"Well, whomever they are, they haven't notice us yet," Nami smirked, "So there's no time to waste! Everyone get into position!"

Everyone got into their designate position as instructed. Shiho didn't have a position so she instead worked her brain to figure out a way to deal with the Sniper Couple in the even that they notice Vivi.

"…But what can I do?" Shiho grumbled at her inability to help, "I'm not a psychokinetic like Kaoru or a Teleporter like Aoi! Actually, if they were here we wouldn't be having this problem. What can a Psychometrist do in a situation like this!?"

As Shiho continue to war with herself, a rifle conveniently fell next to her feet, catching her attention. Staring at it for a while, she widened her eyes in realization.

"I still have a use!"

"Nami! What are you doing!?" Usopp exclaimed to Nami who stood a bit away. He was in a weird squatting stance with Chopper in his reindeer form on top of him. Vivi was on to of Chopper. "We really don't have time, if we keep this up any longer, everyone will die!"

"Fifteen seconds!" Shiho warned, sensing the Sniper couple readying to fire.

"I know that!" Nami hollered bat to Usopp, "You just stand there and don't move! I'm calculating!"

"Don't move!?" Usopp yelled in confusion, "I don't know the meaning of this pose! What are you planning to do!?"

"After I do it, you'll know! Here I come~!" With that, Nami threw two connected piece of her Climate-Tact, "Cyclone Tempo~!"

"…!? Wait, Nami," Shiho sweat dropped, seeing the trajectory of the attack, "Why are you aiming at… …oh~!"

"Huh?" Usopp managed before Nami's attack hit…at his manhood. His crying eyes bulging out in comical pain, Usopp made an incredible jump close to where Sanji was station. "YEOW~~~~!"

"Chopper!" Nami called up, "Jump towards Sanji next!"

"…So that the plan," Shiho awed in understanding as Sanji, who also understood, leapt out of the window he was in, caught Chopper and Vivi midair with his leg, and launched them towards Zoro's height. "Just keep jumping, huh?"

Unfortunately, once Vivi and Chopper reached Zoro, who courteously used the backside of his swords to catch them and prepare to send further up, the two snipers suddenly notice them and prepare to aim at them.

"Oh no, you don't!" Shiho declared as she used the rifle from earlier, took quick aim, and fire. Normally that would have been futile, but Shiho was a Psychometrist so her aim was nearly always true. 'I'll know where the bullet will go even if I'm not looking!'

Thanks to Shiho's shot, the couple panicked a bit, causing their aim to be off and missed Zoro, who by then had already launched Chopper and Vivi upward. The two Snipers then try aiming for them, only to discover Chopper was the only one in sight, who dodged by changing his form (he was in his "human" form before shrinking to his hybrid form). Vivi, who was thrown even higher by Chopper in his "human" form soar towards them from above as they attempt to find her. By the time they notice, Vivi had aim wire-like weapon at them. The Sniper Couple managed to dodge the attack and aim at Vivi again.

"Not happening!" Shiho declared again, this time firing at their weapons (the pistols in their hand), destroying them.

At the same time, Vivi completed her supposedly missed attack, striking them from behind in their confusion of their destroyed weapon. Once they knock off the clock tower, Vivi quick went inside. There was only one second left by then.

A few seconds ticked by afterwards. By then everyone was back on the ground, with the two funny-dressed snipers creating a comical crater in their shape upon their crash.

"…Did it stop!?" Usopp wondered.

"What? You're still alive?" Sanji asked the down Zoro.

"…What about the cannon!?" Zoro ignored Sanji's quote and asked.

"What happened?" Chopper wondered, coming back after his fall with only a comical swell on his head.

"There's no sound coming from up there…"

"Vivi-chan hasn't shown herself," Sanji added.

Shiho quickly went over to the wall to read the situation. From what she could read, Vivi has successfully stopped the cannon from firing… …but now she senses something else. Something more ominous.

"…Tic…Toc!?" Shiho gasped in horror, "the bomb is-!"

"NO~~!" Vivi suddenly cried out from above.

"…!? Vivi!?" Nami exclaimed as Vivi came back into view.

"It's a timed bomb~!" Vivi informed in horror, "It will explode in thirty seconds if it's not disarmed~!"

"…! W-WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Everyone aside from Shiho, who already knew, exclaimed.

Vivi peered into the large cannon again after informing her friends below. There it was; the bomb. It was huge, as big as middle-class house's room. A clock was situated on it, indicating that it will go in less than thirty seconds.

"…I finally found and stop the cannon," Vivi agonized, "But he leaves another way to fire the bomb! When will he be satisfied with playing with lives!? How much longer will he laugh at us all!? Crocodile~!"

"He won't be laughing any longer~~!" a voice suddenly called from behind.

Shocked, Vivi turn in time to see Kaoru, Aoi and even Pell fly in. "Kaoru, Pell, Aoi…"

"Pell, help me pull it out!" Kaoru instructed, not wasting time to answer Vivi, "Aoi, prepare to teleport us at on my signal!"

"Got it!" the two answered.

Kaoru, with her psychic powers, and Pell, using his falcon feet to grip and pull on the bomb's hinge, quickly haul the time-bomb from the cannon and out of the clock tower. Since she was also supporting Aoi, Kaoru had trouble lifting the big bomb but with Pell's help they quickly began to ascend. There was Fifteen seconds left.

"We have to get this as high as we can from the city!" Aoi called.

"And we will!" Pell declared, despite being injured, "I am…the protecting god…of this country, the falcon! I will make the enemy of the Royal Family…Vanish into nothing!"

"Well said!" Kaoru grunted from the stress of lifting the huge bomb. By then there was only five seconds left. "This is good enough! Aoi!'

"Emergency Teleport~~!" Aoi declared, teleporting the three back to the clock tower…two seconds before detonation.

"… …! No! It's still not high enough!" Pell informed only to see Kaoru leaping above the clock tower. One second.

"Psychic Invincible Barrier~~~!" Kaoru declared, creating a huge reddish dome over the area.

BOOOOOOOMMM~~~~~~!

The bomb exploded! It was 2.4km away from the clock tower so about 100 meters of explosion was left to reach the city. Anticipating this, Kaoru had set up the barrier to nullify it. The barrier groaned and electrify as it held back the force of the 100 meter explosion. The stress reflected on Kaoru as she felt tremendous amount of pain as she kept the barrier up.

"I was born…" Kaoru snared, "with these powers~! If I can't even stand up to this level…of destruction, if I can't save so many lives with it…WHAT'S THE POINT OF HAVING THEM~~~!"

Kaoru: "Come on~ me~!"

Aoi and Shiho: "Go! Go~! GO~!"

Kaoru: "... ... ... ...I CAN stop that, right?"

Normama: "Maybe, stay tune for the next chapter to find out..."

Aoi: "So in the meantime, please review this chapter!"