As I slipped through the crowd, I noticed a familiar purple cloak rushing towards the front door. Huh, that was convenient I had to admit. "No! I can't get outside!?" Vivi gasped.
I smirked. "No, it's not that you can't get outside… the Baroque Works can't get back," I told her where I was leaning against a pillar. I exhaled a stream of smoke and lowered my cigarette wielding hand. "This was all according to plan."
"Sonya-san!" Vivi exclaimed as she spun around to face me. She was pretty beaten up, and that worried me some. Hopefully, the others were in better shape.
"I just sent Chopper off running through town as a decoy. We better hurry, the rebellion's started," I told her as I pushed off from the pillar. I'd overheard several people talking about it as Crocodile walked past. Crocodile, of course, was a smug bastard the whole time. It got my blood boiling more than a little. I was very ready to kick some ass. "Just tell me where to go, Princess."
"Tony-kun is a decoy?" Vivi asked in a slight amount of horror.
"Yeah… he'll be fine," I assured her as I grabbed her arm and started running back the way she'd come from. "Let's hurry it up, Blueberry! Tell me exactly what's going on."
"Okay…" Vivi said as she struggled to keep up with me. I had longer legs and was just all around faster than her. "But, Sonya-san! Did you get beaten up just now?"
I looked over at her. "Huh? Me?" I laughed loudly at that. "Not a chance! I beat up one of those Baroque goons and Chopper acted like him to send the message. I needed to get Crocy outta the way. I didn't think I had time to try and fight my way in here," I explained.
"Oh, wow! How did you get rid of the bridge?" Vivi asked as she pointed down a hall.
"I blew up a support with a flour bomb." Vivi tripped and fell. "Vivi! We don't have time for you to fall," I snapped as I hoisted her up again.
"S-sorry… but did you say flour!?" she nearly screamed as she struggled back to a run.
"Yeah, of course," I answered. "What you think I had a bomb just hanging around?" I asked back.
Vivi blinked. "W-well… no, but- ah! There!" she said pointing ahead.
I turned my attention in front of us, where I could hear water rushing and the growls of something big. Oh, wonderful. Now I got to try and beat up something big. Well, I did say I wanted to kick something's ass. I guess I got my wish. I barely had time to take in the situation from the top of a broken stairway. The room had broken windows and was steadily flooding, and there was a crocodile the size of a ship eyeing my crew hungrily where they were trapped in a cage. Well, that just wouldn't do. "Make sure never to make noise when eating your meal," I said as I leapt down and ran forward to where the crocodile was. "Anti-Manner Kick Course!" I launched my heel upward.
The crocodile nearly bent in half as it was taken completely off the ground by the force of my heel in its gut. It let out an actually rather pathetic noise before spitting up a large hunk of rock in the shape of the stairs that had been destroyed. I lowered my leg back down as it teetered and then fell to the ground with a slam. "Phew," I said as I took a drag from my cigarette and then pulled my arm back. "Hey. Were you waiting?" I asked my crew, unable to stop myself from smiling.
"Baroness!" Luffy and Usopp screamed, tears and snot running down their faces. It wasn't a very attractive sight, but at least they were happy to see me.
"Stop screwing around and find the key!" Zoro-kun snapped.
I pouted and swung around to face my swordsman again. "Oh, Zoro-kun! Don't be mad! I came as fast as I could! Do you still love me?" I asked.
"Maybe if you open the damn door!" he snapped.
I blinked some before grinning. "Ooh! Alright then! I will open it to prove my love for you!"
"Vivi! Good job!" Luffy shouted, giving Vivi a thumbs up where she was at the top of the stairs.
"Thanks!" she called back with a thumbs up of her own.
I heard growling and turned to see at least four giant crocodiles heading towards me. Each one of them had weird banana shaped bumps on their heads. I'd never seen anything like it. I wondered briefly if they tasted like banana too. I frowned and crossed my arms. Now wasn't the time to muse on that. "Go, Sonya! Kill all of 'em!"
"Damn, look at all of them…" I murmured as the room became very crowded very quickly. With a shrug, I decided I might as well start. "Bring on as many as you want, you goddamn bananas. I have to knock all the table manners I know into assholes that would harm a lady," I said as I raised my leg up high in preparation for a kick. Luckily the shorts I was wearing under my outfit kept my modesty preserved since My leg was raised straight up in the air.
"We don't have time, Sonya! Kill them in seconds! Kill them in an instant!" Usopp yelled loudly and with no small amount of panic.
"Get the third one that just entered the room," a raspy voice I hadn't recognized said. I glanced over and realized that the Smoker guy was in the cage too. Huh. He was a bit hotter now that he wasn't constantly chasing us all over creation.
Luffy and the others turned to look back at him as well. "Huh? How can you tell?" Luffy asked.
"Are those ears just for decoration? That growl just now is the same one that ate the key," he said around his cigars.
"Whoa!"
"Mm, third one huh? Not a problem," I said turning my attention back to the crocodiles that were now getting rather uncomfortably close.
I launched myself out of the way of the nearest crocodile as it tried to bite at me and landed hard on his head. There was a sickening crunch as it's teeth and skull broke, but I was already springing off to take out the next one. I slid a little as I stopped due to the water but luckily I kept my balance. A quick iron plated heel into the crocodile's side made it fold with a painful sound somewhere between a grunt and a whine.
A pair of massive jaws came at me, but I cartwheeled out of the way. Using my hands, I sprung forward and landed in front of the fourth crocodile that had come in. It roared and snapped, but I went backward to avoid it before using both feet to kick off above me. Its jaws slammed closed as my feet left dents in the underside of its jaw.
There was only the third left, so I turned to face him. I just had to make him spit up that key thing. Well, my Anti-Manner Kick Course seemed to do that well last time. A moment later the crocodile coughed up something as my heel forced it to become airborne for a moment. "There it is!"
I watched the crocodile fall over with a splash and a thud as I lowered my leg. "The key to the cage?" the others said somewhere between confusion and happiness.
"That doesn't look like a key!"
"What is that thing?"
I finally glanced over at what the crocodile had spat up and frowned. It looked like a white ball of some sort. I took a drag from my cigarette as I heard the ball start to crack. Had I damaged that too? "Doru Doru Ball…." Suddenly the whole thing broke apart, and a weird guy with his hair in a strange three shape stood up. He was wearing a striped sleeveless shirt and looked more than a little ragged. He threw his arms straight up in the air. "Freedom! Yes! W-water! It's a miracle!"
"What the!?"
I blinked and looked over at my crew. Why were they freaking out now? It wasn't like they hadn't seen stranger things. "It's him…" Zoro growled.
"It's Three! Three!" Luffy screamed as he pointed at the weirdo who was now guzzling down the lake water. Wait… wasn't that salt water? Or… was it fresh? I couldn't really recall… Either way, it probably wasn't clean enough for drinking.
"Mr. Three! Why were you inside the crocodile's stomach!?" Vivi asked though she didn't get an immediate answer. The weird guy was still drinking.
Finally, he let out a deep gasp and straightened some. "Haaahah! I am revived! I thought I was a goner!" Suddenly he whipped around and held out an arm that started to drip and melt in what I considered to be very damn creepy! The hell was with this guy!? "Hehehe! You were naïve to think you could exterminate me, Crocodile! The moment I was swallowed, I used the last of my power to create this 'Doru Doru Ball' and was able to protect myself from harm!" Was he... going into a monologue right in front of us?
"A brilliant plan if I do say so myself," he added as he turned to his broken ball. "Oh!? What is this strange key like object attached to my Doru Doru Ball?"
"The 'key-like object' is a key, idiot. Hand it over," I said holding my hand out.
He began to turn but then noticed the cage. "Gyaaaaa! It's youuuu!" he screamed, eyes bulging out of his head practically at the sight of my crewmates.
"Aaaah! That's our key! Give it here!" Luffy demanded. He reached one hand out to hold out his hand for it.
"What about this key? Wait… a steadily flooding room… a metal cage…. And a key! I see! I have grasped your plight…" he said with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes. "Well, good job. You must be that Mr. Three, I heard about. Hand over the key," I ordered as I moved towards him a few steps.
Suddenly he whipped around and hurled the key into the distance. "Here you go!" I just stared as it disappeared over the huge corpses of reptiles and then I heard a distant plop of it falling into the water. Three laughed. "I don't know who you are… but you look like their friend! Find the key if you want it! However, I'm not responsible for whether you can find it or not!"
"Asshole," Zoro growled.
"He's smart to figure that out so quick!" Luffy exclaimed, clearly amazed.
"We don't have any time, Sonya!" Nami shouted. As if I didn't realize that already.
I turned back to face Mr. Three, now more than a little pissed off. "What is this bullshit you're pulling on me?" I growled as I started to advance on him. I was going to kick his ass so hard his spine would pop out! The hell would he do that for anyway!?
"Wait a minute, Sonya!" Usopp suddenly shouted. I paused and glanced behind me. "Couldn't you use his Doru Doru Fruit power to create a duplicate key for this cage?" he asked.
I raised an eyebrow and turned back around. Mr. Three suddenly looked nervous. "N-now wait a second…" he said, taking a half step back.
"Okay… you hear that, Three? Get to the key making," I growled.
"N-no! I won't!" he said.
My eyebrow went up again. "No?" I asked. Before he had a chance to move I had sprung forward and lashed my foot out. I caught him in the head, and he cried out as he went flying. I spun fast and caught him again in the side so that he didn't go flying too far and he let out a grunt as he bowed to the side before falling into the water.
I reached down and hauled him up by his shirt. "Wanna try that again?" I demanded. I could still beat him a lot more, but I sort of needed him conscious to make the key. He sputtered, and I kneed him hard in the stomach. "A key!" I ordered.
He coughed and gasped before shakily holding up his hand. It dripped a bit more and slowly formed a different shape. It was distinctly key-like. I smirked. "Let's go," I said pulling him over to the cage. He glanced behind himself at me, and I narrowed my eyes. He hadn't taken too many kicks to convince, but I didn't trust him not to try and pull another fast one.
There was a click and then he opened the cage with a creak. "Hmm, not bad Candle-man," I said as I reached out and grabbed his shoulder.
"Eheh-EH?"
I spun him fast before kicking him as hard as I could in the jaw. He went flying into the distance with a rather odd sound of pain. "Hurry," I said to the others. "We don't have much time!"
"I think the tunnel they went down should lead to Alubarna! But there are still too many Bananadiles in the tunnel!" Vivi exclaimed.
I glanced over at said tunnel and brought my cigarette to my mouth. "Nothing to worry about…" Nami said as I watched Zoro already sheathing his sword and Luffy throwing his arms into the air in victory.
"What, is that all!? Damn, I couldn't use full power cause of the water!"
"I couldn't do anything against only one…" Vivi whimpered from behind me.
"No, Vivi, It's not you! Those guys are just freakishly strong!" Usopp assured her.
Suddenly there was a loud cracking noise. Oh, dear. "Aaaah! The walls cracking!"
"That's because you were fighting too wildly, idiot!"
"The tunnel's collapsing! Escape! We have to escape!" Usopp shrieked. Before we could do that, though, the entire wall broke apart and water flooded in. I barely had time to take a deep breath before the wall of water slammed into me.
The whole world went a little wonky as I tried to regain my bearings. I managed it fast enough and noticed Luffy sinking. I cursed mentally and swam as fast as I could to snag him and then start for the surface. It was hard to swim with such dead weight in my arms, but I'd done it before, and I had a sinking feeling I'd do it again. Plenty more actually.
I finally made it to the surface near where one of the edges of the lake was and swam towards it with Luffy's heavy ass. He also seemed to have swallowed enough water to make him into a water balloon, so, ya know… that made it so much easier to carry him around. When I reached the edge, I had to haul us both up though it was a bit awkward. "You alive, Luffy?" I asked as I panted to catch my breath. Luffy let out a stream of water from his mouth but looked still unconscious to me. "Jeeze, these Devil Fruit Powers sure are a pain in the ass to deal with," I muttered.
As I finished climbing out of the water, I noticed Usopp being pulled up but Nami and Vivi while Zoro managed to slam Smoker onto the pavement by himself. That was, well, surprising to say the least. I didn't think Zoro would have done something like that. "Why'd you bring our enemy up, Zoro-kun?"
"Shut up, I didn't want to," Zoro replied as he got to his feet and took a few steps towards us.
"Whatever. Let's hurry!"
"We lost a lot of time. Can we still make it, Blueberry?" I asked as I lit another cigarette. Luckily, I had invested in a waterproof cigarette case, so I still had a few that were dry.
"I don't know," Vivi replied as she wrung out her clothes.
Great. We were already running late, and we still needed to find Chopper. I hadn't thought it'd take as long to get them out as it had. Suddenly I remembered something. "Egg-head. You still have that perfume you bought in Nanohana?" I asked.
Nami looked surprised. "Huh? Yeah… why?"
"Put it on!" I told her.
She shrugged and put several sprays of it on her neck. "Like this?"
I crinkled my nose some. "Yeah… like that," I muttered. God, why couldn't she have picked a better scent? That one made me think there was rotten fruit around or something. I couldn't imagine how bad it was for poor Chopper.
"Roronoa!" Zoro brought his sword up just in time to block Smoker's weapon as it jabbed towards his head. "Why did you save me?" Smoker demanded.
Zoro lowered his sword some but didn't put it away. "I was only following 'Captain's Orders'… you don't have to thank me, okay? It's just him being weird," he said glancing at the snoozing Luffy.
"Then… I assume you don't have any complaints if I complete my duties as a professional here?" Smoker said as he lowered his weapon as well.
I scoffed. So typical. And they said us Pirates were bad. "Look! This is what we get for saving that shitty sailor!"
Suddenly there was shouting and screaming. "Full speed ahead to Alubarna!"
"Where are you, Crocodile!?"
"Oh, they're awake," Nami said blandly as Luffy and Usopp shot upright.
Suddenly they seemed to notice Smoker. "Whoa! Smokey! You wanna fight!?" Luffy demanded, holding his fists up in preparation.
"Gwaaah! Smoker! Let's get outta here, Luffy!" Usopp screamed.
There was the sound of approaching Marines in the distance, and I took another drag of smoke. Looked like this was going to take even longer than I thought. Lovely. We didn't have time to deal with this. Suddenly, Smoker sighed and seemed very pained. "Go."
"Huh?"
"Only this one time… will I let you get away," he said as he let the tip of his weapon rest against the ground. "Next time we meet, you're a dead man… remember that 'Strawhat Luffy'," Smoker said.
There was a moment of tension, and then suddenly I heard the Marines shouting even closer. "There they are! The Strawhat crew!"
"Ah, crap," I muttered. We didn't waste any time in bolting down a nearby street. We had to get out of here before we had to fight our way out. We did still have a country to save after all.
