Chapter 107: Merry's Last Stand
"Black Hole!" Luffy winced, summoning forth his darkness around him in an attempt to gain some breathing room from the barrage of punches, strikes and blasts from Lucci. However, the agent, having witnessed the affects of coming into contact with this power before, was smart enough to avoid the darkness a second time. Both teenage captain and government agent were both panting and bleeding from several wounds on their arms and legs, as well as trying analyse the situation that would end in one of their victories. Leaning against a pillar in the ruins of the courthouse, Lucci transformed into his leopard form, "shave!" The man abruptly vanished and then reappeared behind the boy pirate; "finger pistol", he then shoved his finger into Luffy's back making him cry out in startled pain. Lucci grinned as he took in the sight of the wound, his handy work. 'Straw Hat' was stronger than he had anticipated, and couple that with his devil fruit; any countenance would have to be carefully planned. but Kuro was faster. Speed now had to be amplified ten times when Lucci was in his leopard form, the disadvantage was that his muscles grew tired quicker.
Luffy tried to grab a hold of Lucci with his devil fruit ability "gravity hold", but the leopard-man was so quick on his feet meant that it was extremely difficult for him to get an attack in. The battle itself reminded him of when he, Ace and Sabo would go into the forest and hunt, under cover of night, for creatures to eat or to train themselves. Speed, whilst helpful meant nothing if you couldn't touch your prey. This was like those times, with the exception of Sabo not being here to think up a counter plan, and Ace yelling at him to keep quiet and out of sight.
"It's useless boy!" Lucci's voice called out from across the chamber. "Years ago I mastered the six powers and my own devil fruit, there's no way you can beat me". "Shave!" The leopard man suddenly appeared right in front of Luffy and dug his claws into the captains right arm ripping into his flesh. He then moved past the boy, who tried to repel the attack with a "vortex", but ended up being slashed across his left leg instead. Luffy winced he felt claws tear through his clothes and flesh beneath; his opponent certainly was tough but he was tougher. "You want it darker", he muttered before slamming his hands down onto the floor, "Nightmare!" The result was instantaneous, a gigantic sphere of darkness emerged from the ground and then exploded outwards engulfing the entire island and swallowing up: buildings, people and ships.
"Remember this government dog..." luffy snarled. "This is the power that swallowed up the Goa Kingdom years ago. And now I want you and everyone to know what will happen if anyone threatens my friends and my crew!" Everything was disappeared, leaving no that humans had been here, Lucci simply stood eyes wide in shock but then he lunged forwards with a "finger pistol" and smashed into Luffy's shoulder. "If you really did destroy Goa and kill Saint Jalmack, the government will be please to be finally free of this unsolved discrepancy". Before he could make any further attack, Rob Lucci found himself being dragged forwards, towards the boy's outstretched hand; which was covered in dark runes. Then Lucci saw his moment, it was clear to him that continued use of his devil fruit was starting to have a negative affect on the boys fighting stamina, and just when he was about to be trapped in the "dark grasp", Lucci unleashed a "tempest kick" straight into the boy captains' head. Unfortunately, as as effective as it was to end the fight it he had also failed to anticipate the pirates attack, which came in the form of a spear impelling him in the back. Ending the fight with a stalemate.
Onboard the deck of the captured navy battleship, Sanji frantically spun the helm trying to avoid being sucked up by the gigantic mass of darkness that had suddenly appeared and engulfed the two main land masses that made up Enies Lobby. "What... the hell?" Kāshī muttered, staring slack jawed at the blank landscape now behind them. "—What just happened..?" Gerd continued fear shining in her eyes. "That would be our captains devil fruit power", Chopper responded, cautiously. "Luffy ate the dark-dark fruit, and now he controls darkness. Whatever that means, I don't think even he fully understands his power yet". They were interrupted by a sudden beeping coming from a hidden cupboard within the main mast; 'purdah...purdah...purdah'. Kāshī practically ripped the doors open and picked up the transponder snail but instead of answering he pressed down on a small button on the snails shell, "this is a navy snail, the button makes the conversation one way and secret".
"Th-this is an urgent report!" the marine on other end of the snail. "Just now, Rob Lucci of CP9 has been recovered impaled by a spear through is back, defeated by Straw Hat Luffy! This is a message to all navy personnel that managed to evade the 'darkness' and get to a ship and set sail, the buster call here is now irrelevant, and by order of Chief Spandam, is to be carried out on the nearby town of Water Seven!" What began as a joyful celebration quickly turned to horror as they took in the clear disdain, fury and desire for some sort of revenge against them; from the navy but attacking an innocent third party island was utterly useless in that regard. "We should...How can they do that!" Chopper snapped. "The government is cruel like that", Gerd replied, "all they care about is maintaining Mariejois's power whilst keeping its reputation intact. And damn the consequences!" Sanji frowned at hearing just how much resentment was held by those outside of the fortunate world kingdoms and citizens that supported Mariejois and so he returned his attention to the helm, not wanting to dwell on sad painful memories, instead keeping the warship sailing towards the bridge of hesitation and the meeting point.
Nami and Vivi just barely managed to evade the shell that flew past them and struck the warship, which Franky had spotted was ripe for their taking as an escape vessel. Frankly had been halfway up the gangway when the explosion struck, sinking the ship beneath the waves, causing him to be frown into the sea. As for Usopp and Suki, they had been grabbed by Robins "Seis fleur" before they could be caught up in the chaos. "Thanks for the save Robin", they super and artist cried out hugging the person that had saved them. "Yeah, thanks a lot," Nami muttered brushing dirt and rubble off her clothes as Vivi glared at the archaeologist before softening when accepting that they were too far away for the flower-flower fruit to reach; at Robins current skill level. "Now what do we do?" Usopp frantically cried, looking around for any sign of another ship, "If I had any bullets left I'd shoot that man for destroying our escape route". Just then the mod was broken by Franky cloning onto the quay; soaking wet, in response to which Vivi grabbed Suki and covered the youngsters eyes. "Put some trousers on for god sake! There's a child here, she doesn't need to see them!"
Franky grumbled as he, reluctantly, fished a torn government flag out of the sea and wrapped it around his waist. "How can I be a super freak if I'm not allowed to be me", he mumbled before being suddenly hit by Nami in the face, "of you really want to be a freak just wear some short-shorts!" The argument was then ended when Usopp yelled out, "what's the Merry doing here!" The others, sans Franky, all moved forwards in confusion; "I though she was damaged. Whose sailing her?" Before anyone could start questioning that, the gunboat Going Merry appeared alongside the quay, and a small misty silvery figure clad in a green and white top and a black skirt stood on the bow spit; and from the young girl's head of purple hair, arose a pair of curly horns. "M-Merry...is that you?" Usopp stammered, removing his mask and jumping onto the deck of the ship. Behind him the others stood stock still in utter shock, and then a sudden burst of cannon fire made them all rush onboard. "Your a klabuatermann...", Franky uttered speechless. The little shimmering girl nodded her head and her horns glittered with sea spray, "I'm the spirit of the Going Merry. I took on a physical form due to the love and friendships that were formed on this ship", the spirit explained, "but I am nearing the end of my life due to the ship's damage. Still my love for all you made risk everything to come save you". Nami and Usopp walked forward and gently pulled the small spirit into an embrace; "I don't want to loose you..." Nami cried, "we only just found out about you". Ceasing when she felt Vivi and Suki both fell to tenor knees beside her, "we will always remember her", Suki mumbles into the princesses arms.
"Head towards the second to last buttress of the bridge", Spirit Merry ordered before heading back to the helm and taking command. "The captain is there and badly injured". Nami immediately bolted upright and ran towards the bow looking out for her boyfriend, followed by Usopp and his sniper rifle telescopic sights. As the Merry about turned, and made her way towards luffy's location they saw heading in their direction was a navy warship with the giants Gerd and Kāshī onboard, holding Chopper in the air waving to them, "hey guys! We need to get back to Water Seven..." the reindeer doctor yelled into a transponder snail, which was then heard by everything on the Merry. "The Buster Call for here has been redirected to Water Seven! We have already picked up Granny Kokoro and Chimney..." Zoro, below deck treating the injured Kaku, aided by the still reticent Robin, suddenly saw several large battle ships soaring towards them, and grabbing a snail reviver yelled to the helmsman, Spirit Merry to "watch for ships port-side!"
As the Merry approached the buttress Usopp gave a yell of "found him!" Alerting everyone that luffy was there, the only problem being that the way was blocked by large chunks of the bridge itself sticking out of the sea, making it very dangerous for the Merry in her present state to even try and manoeuvre through. "Franky! Get up here now!" Nami screamed, making Usopp flinch and cover his ears at the same time. When the shipwright appeared he was told to use his weapons left to reach out over the ruins, grab luffy and then reel him back in to safety. Slowly and carefully, trying not to attract Nami or Vivi's annoyance, Franky swung out his arm and released his weapons left straight over the sea and ruined chunks of bridge within. As his hand reached the land, Franky was directed by Usopp about how to pick up luffy without cash too much pain. The whole situation would have been easy had two members of CP9 turned up, Kumadori; defeated by Kaku, and Khalifa, defeated by Sanji and Chopper. Franky managed to get luffy back safely on board the ship, after which Nami and Usopp promptly carried him to the infirmary; leaving Franky to be defence. However, two large axe strikes tore past ten Merry and struck both agents across the chests, burying them into the ground.
After which, through the stormy seas and the rain the Going Merry escaped the judicial island and made its way back to Water Seven, followed by the navy ship helmed by Sanji and Chopper. Little did the whole crew, plus Franky and the two giants, know that the city of shipwrights was now forever changed. Cipher Pol had failed to take Nico Robin for Mariejois but it had succeeded in instigating a civilian uprising with the city of fountains, soon to be destroyed. 'Oh well. You win some you loose some', was the response received from Admiral Aokiji.