Author's Note: Buckley, Sickland, and Realize's POV. Thanks for reading!
Inside of Zone's Volcano (5 hours 10 minutes since the Brave Luck Pirates arrived)
"Look! There goes the stairs! I think I can just leave you somewhere around here, while I go u-" Sickland was speaking to Buckley until Buckley cut him off.
"I'm going up there with you Sickland," Buckley said as he winced at the pain still coming from his side. He reached his hand toward the sash that was covering his "flesh wound."
Sickland sighed. He was worried about Buckley. It had taken them longer to get to the staircase than expected because of Buckley's injury. He didn't want to bring Buckley into further danger up the stairs, but rather hoped that he could just take it easy cleaning his wound in one of the springs around the oasis.
"Well if your sure, lets go ahead and get up there then. Do you think there will be another one of those things up there?"
"I don't think so…..that thing was definitely one of a kind…..like we guessed, it's probably a devil fruit user meaning that power is unique to him…and it wouldn't be fair in the big scheme of things if there were more of those," Buckley said as he chuckled (painfully).
Sickland smiled along as he helped Buckley get over a small dune on the way to the stairs. "That makes sense I guess…..I hear something!" Sickland released Buckley roughly (to Buckley's pain) as he looked around with his ears twitching. "Buckley can you see anything ahead?"
Buckley looked up for the first time in quite a while. He strained to look forward and around him. "My eyesight is still a bit blurry, but I don't see anything….did you hear something?"
"Yeah. It sounds like someone is walking on metal right now. I also heard someone talking to someone up ahead….if the stairs are metal, it's safe to say that whoever that was already got moving up!"
Buckley looked alarmed. "Is it that thing again?"
Sickland shook his head. "No. I first heard a voice about 60 meters away from the stairs and by the time I had you look to see, the person managed to get on the stairs! That behemoth from earlier couldn't move that fast unless it shifted!"
"Whoever that was managed to get all the way to the stairs in the time it took me to look up? B-but that only took a second…" Buckley said, as he realized he stuttered, a sign of being nervous.
Sickland's ears twitched as he looked up at the tube leading up 10 or so stories. "They've slowed down now. They had to get to those stairs in a hurry apparently…..perhaps something was chasing them?"
"I don't know," said Buckley, "but let's just get up those stairs as quickly as possible. I don't wanna know what they were trying to get away from."
Inside of Zone's Volcano, Realize's Perspective (5 hours 10 minutes since the Brave Luck Pirates arrived)
'Geez, I shoulda known better than to just waste time looking around this joint….place. I really need to work on my slang and pronunciations.' Realize thought as he walked towards the stairs again. He had wasted quite a bit of time just lollygagging. He trotted forward for a bit before yelling at himself.
"What the hell am I doing?" He yelled as he broke off into a sprint toward the stairs, full speed. In the blink of an eye he covered a great distance, and felt his lead foot land firmly on a metal step. He stopped and looked around. Just as Zone or whoever said, there was a magma pool right next to the stairway. He looked down at his shoes to see if he accidentally ran over it. He didn't.
"That's a stroke of luck," Realize said as he started to jog up the stairs at a leisurely pace. Just like the outside view of the tube he was now in, the inside was covered in grass. It felt like he was moving up a great grass tunnel, albeit there were sounds of metal being hammered as he moved upward. When he was about five stories off the ground, he could see a split off path that somehow was invisible from ground level. He looked toward it and decided to ignore it, when suddenly a voice came over the mic.
"Uh uh." The way further up the stairwell suddenly shut. Realize stopped and looked down the long hallway. His only option. Or so the voice thought. He got ready to break down the door when the voice came back.
"That way up has been restricted. It leads to our scientist labs. Destroying that door will completely destroy the foundation of this staircase, leaving you with no other option up. Take the hallway to the other stairwell and move upward. Eventually you will meet up with your teammates for the game." The voice was different from before. It sounded like a orderly woman was talking to him. He turned down the hallway when suddenly the door leading to the stairwell behind him shut. He looked down the hall to see that the door leading to the other stairwell was still open. He slowly walked down the hall on the way to the other stairwell.
'Maybe of the two stairwells, there was a safe path, and a dangerous path. I took the safe path, so they redirected me to the more dangerous one. Maybe I should go back and kick down those doors,' Realize thought. But then he started to grin. 'Well I guess I should at LEAST give them a fair chance to kill me.'
As Realize waled halfway down the hall, a figure came crashing down from the ceiling in the hallway. It landed before him, and Realize could tell it was a man. The man was a couple of inches taller than Realize, maybe 6'5 or 6'6, and had short brown hair that was stuffed into a cap that covered his eyes. The man had a sadistic grin on his face, and a heavy skewering mace in his hands.
"Serge? What is the meaning of this? You-" The voice started.
"SHADDUP!" The man called up to the mic, cutting the woman short. He turned to Realize. "You're that Blood Contact guy aren't you? You know, you really have the cap'n freakimyfying out up there!"
Realize raised an eyebrow at the brute's failure in language. "Captain? You mean Zone, Mr. Serge? Nice entrance by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Realize."
"GEHAHAHAHA! I already know exactly who you are dumb ass! I'm the most powerful pirate in West Blue, and I'm going to rip your head off!" The man reared his head back as he laughed, revealing his black, beady eyes.
"Ooooohhh….most powerful? Why confront me here then? I figured the most powerful guy would try to kill me when I got to the top. Cliches and all that." Realize smiled. He managed to articulately and sarcastically insult someone.
"Whu…..I….SHUT THE HELL UP! I'm the third most powerful on this island! I-"
"Ah the truth. No longer the most powerful in the sea, but the THIRD most on the island! Riveting-"
"SHUT UP! SERGE DE LA HOYA IS THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THIS HALLWAY! HOW ABOUT THAT? I'M GLAD I JUMPED THE GUN AND CAME DOWN HERE TO KILL YOU, YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Serge was infuriated beyond all reason.
"Tch." Zone sucked on his teeth. This guy had a short fuse. And based on what he just said, he was supposed to wait to ambush Realize on a higher level. That proved it 200% that Zone was just trying to kill him. Probably so he could take his head and parade it for the government. Realize sighed. This meant that he would definitely have to kill Zone and his crew. "Your the most powerful man in this hallway? Hardly. I doubt I'll have to use any weapons to show you the truth."
"GEHAHAHAHAH! You're cocky as fuck guy. I guess that's to be expected from one of you stick up your ass Blood Pirates! I ain't stupid, I know that you got some gimmick to you, so I'm not gonna let you get the drop on me!" Serge said, as the ground beneath him shifted and he disappeared. Realize's eyes opened wider as the buffon before him suddenly disappeared.
"YARGGHHHHH!" Serge yelled as he swiped at Realize's head from behind him. Realize instinctively ducked and rolled out the way to observe Serge's face. He was giving a huge toothy grin. Realize's quick mind immediately went into analysis mode.
'Did he just disappear?' Realize thought. No not disappeared. He was far away from the creature that could do it in the oasis, but he could see clearly what just happened. As the ground shifted the man rapidly sunk into the ground and moved with it! Now he understood. The reason why he couldn't see the hallway from the ground level was because of a mirage of sorts caused by the oasis. That magma pool was close to the stairs for a reason! To deter someone from walking further ahead and walking into the invisible plateau or something. The tubes were covered in grass because they were still attached to whatever he was standing on.
"Clever bastards," Realize muttered as he saw Serge disappear into the ground again. Realize noticed that whenever he did this, a small disturbance would occur around the area he left, and where he intends to go. Realize concentrated and felt a slight vibration under him. He leaped back and, sure enough, Serge appeared again from the spot where he was standing, wielding his mace.
"GEHAHAHAHAHA! You ain't gonna beat me asshole! Not with this power I've got from Zone hisself!" Serge proudly proclaimed. Little did he know he was giving Realize more information every time he opened his mouth.
'So Zone can share his power? I've never heard of that before…devil fruit powers are supposed to belong to only one person in the world at a time!' Realize thought as he reached into his sleeve and threw a sharp dagger towards Serge. Serge noticed and tried to disappear, but Realize was too fast.
"ARGHHHHH!" The scream emitted by Serge was horrid as the dagger drilled into his side. "YOU DAMNNNNNNN….!" Serge disappeared again into the floor. Realize readied himself and looked around. As much as he hated to admit it, he might have to use THAT twice in the same day to deal with two low level grunts. This was embarrassing. After about 2 minutes of waiting, Realize released a slight amount of tension.
'Seems like he retreated,' Realize thought. 'That was serious. I need to stay on my guard. If that guy has the same power as Zone, there may be others. I've definitely got to get to the top now…' Realized slowly walked through the hallway as he looked left and right, preparing himself for any attack. He heard footsteps in the hallway, loud clanking metal. He stepped out into the hallway and…
Inside of Zone's Volcano, Buckley and Sickland's POV (5 hours 16 minutes since the Brave Luck Pirates arrived)
Buckley and Sickland were jogging up the stairs.
"I'm telling you, we should've went the other way! They always have a dangerous path, and a safe path!" Sickland said as he jogged alongside Buckley.
"No way! You just said that some amazing guy went the other stairway, and the last thing I want to do is meet him! This way is the safe way either way you look at it!" Buckley yelled to Sickland. Sickland was about to retort when his ears twitched.
"I could hear someone yelling up ahead! I've been hearing muffled sounds for a while now, but most of the sound was being blocked out by us going up these steps and something kind of big!"
"Are they in the stairwell Sickland? Or at the top?"
"They sound close, but not in the stairwell, or it would echo! It's some kind of hidden room somewhere on the side!
"Hidden room? But we didn't see any more tubes hanging out the side, except at the top! Are you sure we aren't closer to the top than we thought?"
"SHHHHHHHH!" Sickland furiously whispered as he stopped moving. Buckley followed his lead and looked up. On the side of the stairs further ahead was a open pathway. It looked like another tube! Sickland crouched further. A man wearing a duster stepped out into the hallway and looked down the stairwell. He could see Sickland and Buckley looking at him. He called down to them.
"More of Zone's fine friends?" The man had a cool speaking voice, Buckley noted.
Sickland jumped. That was the voice of the man that had the terrifying speed! He was sure this guy had went the other way up!
"Zone? That's the name of this Volcano right?" Buckley said. "We aren't Zone's friends, as you may well know!"
The man looked confused. "Eh?" he said as he looked down at Buckley.
Buckley continued to talk as Sickland signaled to him to shut up. "You know damn well! You think we're gonna fall for another trick! We need a hostage, and I think you meet the bill!" Sickland couldn't believe Buckley's bravado! Especially at a time like this.
"Hostage? What? And who are you holding me hostage from? Do YOU intend to take me hostage!"
"No, that's why I have my friend here! He's a master swordsman!" Buckley yelled toward the man, smiling. He felt confident despite the fact that he was slightly hurt. Sickland was amazing! He could easily take this guy!
"Um Buckley….that's the guy I heard…" Sickland said weakly. The smile on Buckley's face slowly disappeared.
"….You mea-" Buckley didn't have time to finish his sentence before a blaring noise began playing in the Volcano and a alert came over the mic.
"ATTENTION! AN ISLAND WIDE ANNOUNCEMENT WILL BE MADE VIA VIDEO AND AUDIO! ALL THOSE IN FREEDOM'S LANDING PLEASE STAND OUTSIDE TO RECEIVE AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR ZONE!"
Author's Note: How will the new threesome react to the news? What about Haven? Review and critique!