"I'm not sure this is a good idea." Usopp whimpered while watching the approaching island.
"So you think we should just leave them there?" Nami questioned with a glare.
"Of course not!" Usopp snapped back. "I just don't know if a frontal assault on people strong enough to capture Luffy and Zoro is the best idea!"
"They didn't capture them in a fight, Usopp." Robin murmured. "There was every sign that our captain and swordsman were ambushed with seastone and tranquilizers."
"Exactly! Which means they were prepared! Which means they will probably be waiting for us!" Usopp cried. He would much rather they sneak around and at least free Luffy and Zoro before the fighting began.
"People who use such tactics aren't usually skilled fighters, or very strong physically. There might be one or two strong fighters in the group, but the rest should be cannon fodder. They won't expect a frontal assault, but they might expect to find somebody sneaking around." Franky cut in. That's what he and his group did back home, after all. Ambush tactics on the stronger members, and then kept an eye out for the weaker members to come sneaking along.
The attack on Usopp had been an exception, he had the money, after all.
"Besides, that's why you and I are going to be sneaking around while the others provide a distraction. If they do expect us to sneak around, then there will be guards on the boys. They are rather high profile targets... hopefully the guards are stupid and undisciplined enough to investigate the sounds of a fight." Nami reminded.
Usopp just whimpered again.
"Alright, we're almost in SUPER range!" Franky finally called, and nodded for Usopp to get the cannon primed to fire. They were going to fire a shot in the middle of the base, that should scramble them long enough for the Strawhats to make landfall.
They were going to avoid hitting any buildings or ships, though. They didn't want to hit the one their captured crewmates happened to be in, after all. That would be bad.
Once they knew that the building or ship had been searched and found empty of their missing crewmates, though, then they would have no problem blowing it up.
Franky and Chopper would stay on the ship and keep it ready to get out of there, as well as defend it from enemies. Chopper had the infirmary ready for anything, and was just waiting to see if he would be needed. They had no idea who these men were, or what they might have done since capturing two of the most notorious of this generations Supernova's.
As soon as Franky decided they were close enough, he pushed some buttons and yelled for Usopp to fire, much to the rest of the crews pleasure as they watched the beam rip through the ground in the middle of the enemies fort.
As soon as it fired, Sanji had 'kicked' Nami and Usopp ashore while the rest of them made their own way. Brooke ran across the water, Sanji himself jumped as far as he could and swam the rest of the way, while Robin made a bridge of arms and legs.
"Oomph." Nami grunted when she landed and rolled, Usopp simply plowing into the ground behind her. "Never doing that again." She muttered, and shot to her feet, dragging Usopp behind the closest pile of crate, where she watched the commotion for a few moments.
"Alright, lets go." She said quickly, grabbing Usopp's sleeve and pulling him along behind her while she started to sneak around. They quickly searched the two ships in the docks first, making sure to grab every key they found in case one of them was the key to Luffy and Zoro's cuffs, and one of them might be the key to this groups treasure safe, too, one never knew.
"They're not on the ships." Usopp growled in frustration.
"We knew they probably wouldn't be." Nami reasoned as they snuck off the ships and waved to Franky. Moments later, two cannonballs ripped through the ships hulls while a beam from the Sunny finished the job.
There would be no escape for those who took their captain from them.
"Duck!" Usopp hissed, pushing her head down moments before a man crashed through the space her head previously occupied. There was a beat of silence while they stared at the unconscious man in surprise. "Judging by the footprint on his face..." Usopp deadpanned. Sanji had clearly kicked him in their direction accidentally.
Nami growled. "When we get out of here, I'm going to have a serious... chat with him. He should be more careful where he kicks people." She fumed while dragging Usopp behind her and towards the buildings.
"Hey, you don't need to drag me, you know!" He yanked out of her grip and followed along silently.
"Sorry, we just need to move quickly." Nami muttered after a moment.
Every room is searched, every key is grabbed, files and money are quickly taken and shoved into a bag that was found nearby. As they leave one building to move onto the next, it is quickly hit by cannonballs from the Sunny. Twice they had to duck down to avoid one of their crewmates fights. Sanji, Brooke, and Robin had long since dealt with the cannon fodder and were now dealing with the leaders.
Their assessment of the group had been right, cannon fodder with a few strong fighters.
"We need to hurry up and find the boys." Nami said quietly when she saw the shape her three friends were in the next time they left a building. They were all in pretty bad shape. It seemed like, just after the Strawhats got a handle on the fighting style used by their opponent and got the upper hand in the fight, they switched opponents. The Strawhats had been taken off guard, and were suffering for it.
"Only one building left." Usopp muttered, and adjusted the cloth running around his chest that was holding Zoro's swords in place. They'd been found in the building they just left, which seemed to be some kind of armory. In fact, they signaled for Franky to not destroy that one, they couldn't carry all the weapons they found with them, but it might be worth taking them along or searching them more thoroughly for anything of real value. If nothing else, some of them might be sold off for a bit of a profit or held in reserve for if they were ever needed by somebody on the crew.
"Thank goodness. I wonder what this place used to be before they got here." Nami mused out loud.
"It wouldn't surprise me if they built it all." Usopp cocked his head.
"No... I don't think so. There's too many of these buildings being used for storage, or are half-empty." She disagreed. Then she motioned for him to be quiet while she looked around a corner in the hallway. "Found them!" She exclaimed quietly and happily.
"Finally." Usopp muttered as he snuck a look past Nami to see their missing captain and first mate for himself. He grimaced when he saw them, they both looked pretty rough. Zoro's shirt was torn and he was bleeding in places, while Luffy looked half-unconscious. It was hard to tell if that was because of the seastone, though, or because of a combination of blood-loss and being hit hard enough around the head. It might even be a combination of all those factors.
"There's still two guards on them." She huffed, frustrated by that.
"Then I guess we'll have to take them out." Usopp said, trying to act brave and nonchalant about it, but she merely pointed at his shaking legs.
"Yeah..." She smirked suddenly. "There's a lightning storm in the forecast for today." She said slyly, and Usopp grinned when he saw that she was already starting to gather thunder clouds above the guards. He could tell the moment Zoro and Luffy spotted them, too, because Zoro grinned savagely while Luffy bounced a little (he didn't look so good, the seastone was clearly affecting him).
"Hey! Are you sure you don't want to go check out all that noise? It doesn't sound like it's going so well for your buddies." Zoro taunted, getting their attention and ensuring they didn't spot the cool and heat balls Nami was using to form the clouds, or look up and spot the clouds themselves.
"Quiet." One of the guards (Moron One) warns. "Our bosses will deal with it, and then come back here to finish dealing with you." Moron One smirks.
Zoro met Nami's mischievous gaze and his savage grin morphed into a feral smirk. "Are you really so sure about that?" He asked moments before they were slammed with multiple lighting bolts. As soon as the lightning is gone, Usopp is there, hitting them as hard as he can with his hammer to make sure they stayed down. Luffy laughs weakly in delight at the sight of his crewmates.
"What took you guys so long?" Zoro asked, partly demanding and partly in relief.
"First we went to look for you guys, and found where you were taken from. Then we had to question the locals to see if they knew about any bounty hunters or something in the area. Then we had to figure out where they would have taken you based on that information, then we had to come here. You're welcome." Nami listed, annoyed but also relieved. He was obviously alright if he had the energy to demand like that.
"I would have figured something out eventually." He grumbled.
Nami finally found the key on the guards key ring that would open the door, but none of the keys she had would open Luffy's chains. She did, however, find the one that would open Zoro's cuffs. She huffed in annoyance. "Any chance you can cut these off him?" She asked dryly.
Zoro examined the links thoughtfully, then took his swords back from Usopp, putting them back on his waist where they belonged with a sigh of relief, he always felt so naked without his weapons at least in arms reach. "Yeah, I should be able to." He finally said, and motioned for the two to stand back. Seastone was tricky, but... Two seconds later, the chains wrapped around Luffy have been cut in pieces, and are falling off. Nami and Usopp jumped forward to pull them away from their captain, since he's too weak from their effects to do it himself.
As soon as he's no longer in contact with the seastone, Luffy jumped up, suddenly full of life again. "Thanks, you guys!" He said with a full-blown Luffy-grin.
"Not a problem, captain." Nami returned his grin. "We should go see how the others are doing. Last we saw, it wasn't going well." She said, and they ran out, after picking the bags back up again, of course.
"What do you mean, 'not going well'? What are those guys doing out there?" Zoro asked while they ran.
"It was going fine, the cannon fodder were dealt with and they were each fighting somebody else. They were winning, and then their opponents suddenly switched. Sanji, Robin, and Brooke weren't expecting it, so their new opponents turned the fight back around in their favor without really trying too hard." Usopp reported. Luffy made a concerned noise and sped up.
Luckily, the other three had finally managed to pin down their opponents and finish the fight before they got out there, and the Sunny was docking.
Sanji snorted. "Naturally, they were in the last building you searched." He grumbled.
"Why did you want me to leave that building alone, Nami?" Franky asked, curious.
"It's the armory. I figured we could raid it. We can either sell the weapons inside, or keep them on hand in case we ever need them for some reason. Plus, I figured you and Usopp would like the barrels of gun-powder." She explained, and Franky went to check it out in interest. "Chopper, they have a makeshift infirmary in here," She pointed behind her at the building they'd found Luffy and Zoro in. "If you want to get some more supplies." She suggested.
Chopper looked around at the carnage caused by the Strawhats, and immediately decided to leave what medical supplies these people had here. He was a doctor, and as a doctor, he couldn't in good conscience leave them with no way of treating their wounds. Even if these people did kidnap and injure his Nakama.
"Alright, you guys, lets load up the Sunny and get out of here." Luffy ordered. Sanji came forward to take Nami's bag of stolen goodies from her while Franky, Usopp, and Robin moved to empty the armory.
"Hey, Sis! Come check it out!" Franky called after a few moments.
"What's up... squeal." Her eyes turned into stars when she saw what he wanted her to see. It seemed that this building wasn't just the armory, it was also the treasure vault.
"This might be a bigger haul than Thriller Bark was." Robin commented, impressed.
Nami said nothing, the stars in her eyes, the ecstatic expression on her face, and the slightly high-pitched squeal still coming out of her mouth said it all.
"Alright, guys. Let's load it all up." Luffy ordered, and Zoro poked Nami on the forehead, getting her attention and snapping her out of it. Luckily, Robin's Devil-fruit made for a very convenient method of transporting everything, so they didn't have to make multiple trips, they simply had to hand something on the pile of stuff off to a disembodied arm and watch it be carried to the ship.
"That everything?" Luffy finally asked after a bit, looking around at the empty rooms."
"Yup!" Nami chirped, pleased.
"Then lets go!" He yelled, eager to continue their journey. Also, he was hungry! "Sanji, meat!" He called the moment the ship was underway again. Sanji sighed in fond exasperation.
"Alright, hold it together, I'm coming, I'm coming." He called back, already making his way towards the kitchen. Chopper had already cornered Robin and began treating her injuries, it would take the little reindeer a bit to make his rounds through the rest of the crew, he should have more than enough time to make a decent snack for his captain by then.
Everyone else smiled or laughed at the familiar by-play, pleased to have the crew all back together again, and happy that their missing crewmates were safe again and in one piece.
They would never leave anybody behind.
Ever.