Hope you're ready for this chapter people, because it's got a few surprises in store for you!

Here we go!

Getting out of the Casino was...more hectic than they'd imagined. Between Crocodile making a rushed exit to try to ensure his carefully laid out plans didn't go up in smoke...and the group soon chasing after him...the patrons of the casino were soon in a bit of an uproar. When they got out...it was clear today just wasn't Crocodile's day, seeing as they were JUST in time to see the last of the Millions stationed outside hitting the ground unconscious, Sanji lowering his leg which he'd no doubt just used to literally kick the crap out of them.

"There you guys are," Sanji said when he saw them. "Looks like you've been having fun too," he couldn't help but smirk, noticing them hot on Crocodile's trail.

Crocodile just glared back at the group, before turning his body completely into sand and practically disappearing into the desert, being carried by the wind.

"A LOT of fun honestly." Lumen chuckled "We just screwed Croc's plans over something fierce. And his right hand woman jumped ship and is on our side now."

Sanji grinned "That so huh? Well, good thing Chopper went out to look for some transport for us."

"Transport?" Luffy asked in confusion.

"Eyelashes told Chopper he apparently has a friend nearby who could help us cross the desert to reach Alubarna if we need to, so he went to find him." Sanji explained.

"Good to know." Nami nodded.

"We actually have a chance now… to save my country." Vivi said, smiling in relief.

"And you can be sure you'll have our help as well princess." Akira said, before he turned to Smoker "I'll go with Strawhat's crew, you handle coordinating the troops?"

"Fine with me." Smoker said, before heading back into the town proper, while Akira nodded to the crew.

"Lead the way," Akira said as the Strawhats did just that, and they were all soon at the edge of town. When they arrived…

"Hey guys! Over here!" Chopper shouted and waved...while riding on a gigantic red crab with a big grin.

"...it says a lot that I've stopped questioning these things, doesn't it?" Lumen deadpanned.

"Since when do crabs grow that big though?!" Usopp asked in shock.

"It looks tasty!" do we even need to tell you who said that?

"That's an Itinerant Crab! They usually live under the sand all the time, people rarely see them." Vivi exclaimed in surprise.

"Get on everyone! Scissors here is a friend of Eyelashes, so he's willing to help us out!" Chopper said with a grin as the crab stopped in front of them.

"You… named the crab scissors… right, not gonna question it." Zoro said with a shake of his head.

"It's face looks pretty sketchy though." Nami noted with a raised eyebrow.

Chopper sweat dropped at that "Ah… yeah, he's kind of a pervert like eyelashes."

"Animals can be perverts too?" Akira asked in confusion.

"Apparently yes," Lumen said dryly. "Come on, let's get going. We got a Civil War to stop."

"Right," Everyone nodded and soon got on Scissors who started moving away from the town and before long they were running across the desert.

"Now THIS is what you call transportation," Zoro smirked a bit.

"Definitely better than trudging around the desert," Usopp laughed a bit.

"...hey, I just realized something," Akira suddenly spoke up. "Does anyone have a map of the area?"

"There's one here, why?" Vivi blinked as she held out the map.

Akira took it...and sighed. "Yep. Thought so. Can this crab actually cross the river...while we're riding it I mean?"

Everyone was silent for a moment… before they turned to the nervous looking Vivi.

"Don't tell me, you forgot something again?" Lumen said in deadpan.

The princess blushed at being called out like that "Ah, well… Itinerant Crabs aren't capable of living underwater, unlike most other crab species."

"...okay everyone, we've got like 10 minutes before we either find a way to cross or we drown. Any ideas?" Lumen groaned.

"You're...taking this pretty easily," Akira sweat dropped.

"Believe me, it's not the first time Princess Scatterbrain over there forgot to tell us something important till it's right in front of us. Literally in this case," Lumen deadpanned, earning an indignant squawk from Vivi, but she couldn't actually deny that sadly.

Luffy laughed a bit at that "Princess Scatterbrain! Shishishi! Nice one!"

"I don't want to hear it from YOU!" Vivi shouted and slapped him upside the head.

While they were having their little argument Chopper had been talking to Scissors and it seemed Scissors had a request. "Scissors says he likes dancing girls!" Chopper reported, said crab's eyestalks looking their way.

"Wait… so the outfits the idiot cook bought are gonna be good for something?" Zoro asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What was that moss head?" Sanji growled.

"Just that your taste in clothes is as horrid as your taste in food." Zoro said blandly.

Before this could escalate any further, Nami gave the two goose eggs on their heads. "Not the time you two," she said dryly.

"Wait, what's so special about clothes?" Luffy said with a confused head tilt.

"It's not something you really need to worry about." Usopp waved him off, and Luffy shrugged in acceptance.

"Anyway…" Nami sighed, rolling her eyes, about to pull open her robes, before Lumen put a hand on her shoulder.

"Not just yet. We should wait until we're just about to hit the water. If I'm understanding it right, seeing the outfit will excite him and make him more energetic, so we'll get a burst of speed, and if we keep it until the last second…" he trailed off, grinning a bit.

"We might actually be able to dash past most of the river." Akira realised.

"Hopefully." Vivi frowned "The Sandora river IS rather large after all."

With that, the group waited, a tense atmosphere on the huge crab's back, as they watched the river slowly grow closer… closer… closer… and…

"Now!" Lumen shouted, and Nami immediately pulled her robe open-

And Scissors suddenly gained a burst of speed and actually started running on top of the water.

"Saved by a perverted crab… I'm never gonna live this one down." Akira said with a sigh.

"Yeah, well, on top of giving that one a speed boost…" Zoro trailed off, before pointing at Sanji and Eyelashes who both looked KO "She knocked out the two morons over there."

"Well, not hard to understand why." Lumen said with a slight blush as he looked at the outfit.

Nami grinned "Yeah, that's right, praise me more."

"You wish witch." Zoro grumbled.

Then all conversation halted as they felt the wind die down… and Scissors slow down.

"Oh crap! We're only halfway through!" Usopp panicked.

"Come on Scissors! Give it some more!" Chopper tried to cheer on the crab.

"Yeah! Go Scissors!" Luffy added in.

"I don't think cheering him on will work guys." Lumen said nervously.

Nami frowned, before considering that "Well… maybe a DIFFERENT kind of cheering will?" she said, before standing up, completely removing her covering robe "Hey Scissors, look back at me would you?" she asked, and when the crab did just that, she started to… to… huh…

"... didn't know you could belly dance." Lumen said, his blush back harder as he started at Nami dancing and… well, shaking it.

"Eh, you learn a lot of stuff as a thief, whatever helps, you know?" Nami said without breaking the dance.

And it seemed it DID help, because as Scissors stared… his eyestalks completely turned into hearts and he started moving even FASTER.

"It's working!" Chopper said as true enough they were clearing the river, and before long, they managed to get across...to which Scissors slumped to the ground. "I think that's all Scissors can take!" he reported.

"That's okay, it's more than enough," Lumen said as they quickly got off.

"Yeah! We're totally gonna make it!" Luffy shouted with a cheer.

"Let's not jinx it. We still have to cross more desert before we can reach Alubarna," Akira said as they started moving in that direction. However, that's when they heard quacking.

Turning to the source they saw Carue...with several other ducks similar to him right behind him.

"Carue! Perfect timing!" Vivi cheered "And you brought the supersonic spot billed duck squad with you too!"

"Wow, mouthful much?" Lumen muttered with a snicker.

Vivi blinked though when she noticed that along with the 7 ducks she expected, there was one more with them, this one wearing a gladiator helmet, but without the crest on top "Oh? Is he a new recruit?"

Carue nodded, gesturing to the duck who snapped a salute with his wing.

"Nice to meet you too." Vivi smiled.

"Alright, so that means… 8 ducks… and there's… 9 of us, right." Lumen muttered, counting quickly, before looking at Eyelashes "Think you'd be able to go as fast as these guys if you pushed yourself enough."

Eyelashes snorted, but he nodded nonetheless.

"Right, in that case, Nami, you ride on Eyelashes, the rest of us will take the ducks. As for how we approach… Baroque Works is probably expecting us, even IF Ms. All- I mean, Nico Robin is helping us."

"Considering I didn't see Crocodile grab anything when he rushed out, I doubt he has a snail himself to give orders… meaning she's still directing them." Nami said with a nod "It's possible she might set them up in a way we can exploit."

"Right, and since chances are good they're expecting us, and they'll try to kill Vivi if they see her." Sanji added.

"Not to mention we have no idea what the Rebels are doing." Zoro added.

"Puru puru puru puru"

Right as they heard that noise, everyone glanced between each other, before looking to the source of the noise to see Akira pulling a baby transponder snail from his coat.

"Akira speaking." he said quickly.

"Good, we got trouble. One of the visual snails we have flying over the kingdom on a coo just sent us an image. There's some kind of dust cloud heading towards Alubarna from the south, the closest image it was able to get showed that it looked like a large group of people." came Smoker's voice from the snail.

Everyone stiffened at that "Well… now we know what the rebels are doing." Usopp swallowed nervously.

"They're charging Alubarna… something must have set them off." Vivi surmised, before nodding resolutely "I need to get in their path. Kohza is likely to be leading them. If he sees me, he'll stop and listen."

"In that case, I'll head with you, just in case they try something stupid." Lumen said.

"I'll go as well. Maybe Marine presence will make them stop faster." Akira added.

"Thank you." Vivi nodded in thanks "As for everyone else… I have an idea to confuse Baroque Works." she said with a smile and a glint in her eyes that had them all grinning.

At Alubarna, the royal army was fortifying their defenses in light of the approaching cloud that many (including quite a few Baroque Works members who were purposely stoking the flames) claimed were the rebels coming to attack. As such cannons were lined up and guards were ready. Additionally, albeit unknown to the royal army, they had some...extra guards...in the forms of the high ranking members of Baroque Works, standing by not far from the entrance, ready to intercept an...unwanted guest.

"Looks like the rebels are already on their way. Funny, I don't remember a report coming in that they were already coming," Ms. Merry Christmas said as she looked through a pair of binoculars. The rebels were still too far to make out clearly, but something was DEFINITELY coming.

"Even more reason for us to be ready. Even if they're already on their way, there's still time for the Princess and those Pirates to come and try to stop the war," Mr. 1 said.

"Even if they do come, they won't be able to get past us," Mr. 2 Bon Clay said...while doing a pirouette.

"Whatever the case, we know what to do. As long as the Princess doesn't make it through and meet with any side, there won't be anyone who can stop the war once it starts," Ms. Double Finger said, blowing out a small puff of smoke.

Mr. 4 continued being the look out as the group talked, before he saw something approaching, a small group of...large ducks with riders on them. Oh and one camel with a rider. Realizing what it was, he quickly alerted his colleagues...in the only way he seemed able to. "Heeeereee…theeeeeey…coooooomeeee…" he said...and it seriously took him 10 seconds to finish that.

"What?! Tellussooneryouidiot!" Ms. Merry Christmas snapped at him in a fast tone, before she yanked the binoculars out of his hands and looked through them herself "5 supersonicducksand… A CAMEL?!" she said incredulously.

"Seriously?" Mr. 2 blinked in surprise, before shrugging "Oh well, not really important. Which one is the princess riding on?"

Ms. Merry Christmas frowned "Yeah… problem with that." she said simply, before handing him the binoculars.

Mr. 2 accepted them and looked through them… before he gasped at what he saw "They… they're all wearing cloaks! I can't tell which is which!"

"Thenhitallofthem! Get 'em Mr. 4!" Ms. Merry Christmas shouted, Mr. 4 aiming his bazooka and firing. However all that did was make the ducks split up...and go into different directions.

"Those birds are fast!" Mr. 2 gasped.

"We'll have to pick them off then," Ms. Double Finger frowned.

"Two of them are headed to the south gate! That's where the rebels will aim for!" Ms. Merry Christmas said. "Does that mean that's where the Princess is?! Argh whatever! Let's just get them all! Come on, Mr. 4!" she said as the two of them went after the two ducks that broke off from the main party.

"Guess we'll have to deal with these ones," Mr. 2 frowned as the remaining ducks and the camel were headed straight for them. The group were ready...until one of the riders shot something which exploded right at Mr. 1's face, though he managed to block it. However, that distraction was enough to allow 2 more to split from the main group, with these ones being one duck and the camel, heading for the Western Gate.

"They're really aiming to split us up," Ms. Double Finger frowned.

"We'll take care of those two. You deal with the last two," Mr. 1 said as he and Ms. Double Finger chased after the two that had broken off, leaving Mr. 2 to guard the gate they were at right now…and promptly get tackled out of the way by one of the ducks, allowing them to run up the steps, Mr. 2 soon hot on their trail.

Eventually the three groups were in position, ready to fight their opponents. Whichever was the Princess didn't matter. They all would carry out their mission. However...that was when the various groups removed their cloaks and revealed how badly they'd been duped.

"Too bad! You messed up, so better luck next time!" spoke Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji and Chopper with grins and smirks of varying degrees on their faces.

"Tch! They got us," Mr. 1 growled, summing up the situation.

"Do you think the others will be okay?" Vivi frowned as currently she, Lumen, and Akira were riding through the desert, heading towards the incoming rebels.

"They'll be okay," Lumen said. "One way or another, be it fighting or running away, they'll be okay."

"I still can't believe they didn't even hesitate to go along with this plan," Akira couldn't help but say.

"Yeah well, in case you didn't notice, our friends are the exception to the rules," Lumen chuckled a bit. "Now eyes forward. We got a group of rebels to talk...down?" he stopped when they could see the 'rebels'.

"That… there's one human at the front… but everything behind him…" Akira trailed off in shock.

"Lumen… are those…?" Vivi trailed off, her eyes wide in fear.

"Yummies… a whole army of them at that… all of them are reptile type too from the looks of it… which means one of THOSE bastards isn't too far either." Lumen hissed through grit teeth.

"What about the person at the front?" Akira asked, shading his eyes "Looks like a young man riding a horse to me."

Vivi narrowed her eyes, trying to get a closer look, before she gasped in shock "That's Kohza! And he looks hurt!"

"Then that means he's running FROM the Yummies." Lumen frowned, before taking out the OOO Driver and loading it with the yellow medals "I'll get him out of there." he said as he hoped off his duck and quickly scanned the medals "Henshin!"

"LION! TORA! CHEETAH! LA-TAH LA-TAH, LA-TORA~~TAR!"

OOO got into a crouch once he was transformed, before kicking off a small plume of sand as he zoomed ahead, and right as what looked like a komodo dragon based Yummy was about to pounce on Kohza after a cobra themed one snagged his horse, the rebel leader all but disappeared, and reappeared next to Vivi seconds later.

Kohza blinked when he suddenly felt himself shift...and now he wasn't about to be torn apart by a monster that had burst out of the sand. "Wha?" was the only intelligent thing he could say as he processed the fact he was not only suddenly away from the monsters, but Vivi was right next to him...along with a Marine and some guy in odd armor.

"Yeah that happens. But the reunion's gonna have to wait for a bit," OOO said with a light chuckle, before he zoomed right back towards the Yummies, who barely had a chance to react before they were soon bleeding Cell Medals as OOO struck them repeatedly using his claws and super speed, with a few even being blasted by intense heat and light, sending them stumbling back.

Realizing that like this there'd be too many to stop one by one, OOO quickly started running circles around them, causing a small tornado to kick up (and thoroughly confusing the people in Alubarna at seeing a random tornado suddenly appearing in the middle of the desert) and starting to corral the Yummies in. Once they were in sufficient range of each other. "No holding back here," OOO frowned as he stopped in front of them and scanned his belt.

"SCANNING CHARGE!"

"Gush Cross!" OOO shouted, as three yellow rings appeared in front of him, as he soon charged through them, his entire form all but glowing as the Cheetah's power was supercharged, causing him to be all but invisible as he dashed through the crowd of Yummies, while delivering a cross slash with the Tora Claws that were charged to the max with the Lion's energy, creating an X of light that seemed to move through the crowd, a plume of fire erupting as Yummies were destroyed by the attack.

Once the attack was over, OOO seemed a bit wobbly, but gave the group a thumbs up.

They made to respond, but the way they froze up… it was very telling, which made him utter a sigh as he turned back to the smoke and dust… to see several more Yummy still walk ahead, battered, but very much still alive.

"Well… I killed a lot of you… but there's still a lot left… all this rapid changing and running and everything is… pretty tiring. I don't think I actually got a moment to rest since we left Yuba." he hissed to himself.

Seeing the Yummy were coming and OOO was clearly tired from doing what he just did...and Akira REALLY couldn't blame him, the Marine sighed a bit. "Guess I don't have a choice. Well, it's a good a time as any to get the Doctor some data. Especially after I lost the sword," he said, before reaching behind himself...and pulling out a familiar looking Driver (to OOO anyway). Unlike the OOO Driver it was a full on belt from the get go, with the belt hanging almost lazily. The buckle itself was an odd looking thing with what appeared to be a crank on the right side with what looked like a gashapon capsule in the center, a coin slot on the left of it.

"Isn't that just like Lumen's?!" Vivi gasped in surprise. Sure it looked pretty different, but could the Marines have actually created something akin to the Legendary Armor?

"Not gonna deny it's similar," Akira sighed, before strapping it onto his waist, the components fastening together. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a single Cell Medal. "Henshin!" he called out as he inserted the Cell Medal into the slot on the left, and grabbed the crank and turned, the belt giving off a sound that sounded like 'Crack, crack, pop!'

At that, what looked like several more capsules appeared around him, popping open and releasing bits and pieces of armor which quickly attached to him, and forming a black bodysuit over the majority of his body. The result was a mostly silver and black armor with gashapon capsules on the knees, hips, elbows, shoulders, chest and back, some metallic green parts, gold cuffs for his wrists and ankles, and a helmet with an almost grill shaped mouthpiece and a black U shaped visor… that lit up green as red lines appeared on each piece of armor.

(Play Reverse/Re:birth)

He cracked his neck once it was finished, before punching his palm "Alright, Proto-Birth system online."

OOO chuckled "Proto-Birth huh? I guess a prototype is better than nothing. Show them what you're made of then, Kamen Rider Proto-Birth." he said, before stepping back and sitting on the sand "I'm gonna take a minute to recover while you do that."

"Don't go adding random names to the armor… though I do like that one at least, so sure," Proto-Birth chuckled slightly as he charged forward and met the Yummies head on.

"Uh...Vivi? What's actually going on anymore?" Kohza couldn't help but ask, his brain still trying to process what he'd just seen.

"I'll explain later," Vivi sighed, before smiling a bit. "I'm just glad you're okay."

With Proto-Birth, he met an iguana Yummy head on, and with a grunt, lifted it up over his head before spinning and throwing it into another Yummy, knocking both over. "Okay, movements are no problem. The strength looks good too," he mused with a nod….right as he socked a Yummy across the face, knocking it back. "Now to test the weapons," he said as he pulled out another Cell Medal and inserted it into the slot, an image on his HUD appearing and allowing him to select a weapon. Grabbing the crank he turned it. "Springer Haken!" he said, selecting the weapon.

"CRANE ARM!"

A capsule emerged from his right shoulder which broke open and released a mass of machinery which attached to his right arm, equipping him with the weapon in question. The crane part was soon ejected as Proto-Birth wasted no time in using it like a flail, knocking the Yummies around, and even grabbing one and using it as an impromptu weapon, Cell Medals filling the air as the Yummies took damage, though OOO noted that none of the Cell Medals seemed attracted to the armor, so the Prototype at least wasn't designed for collecting Cell Medals.

Either way, Proto-Birth was tossing the Yummies around, and taking a page from OOO's strategy, he was slowly boxing them in, while thinning them out with his attacks. Eventually he had them all in a sufficient range, and inserted another Cell Medal, right as the weapon on his arm vanished. "Salamander Launcher!" he called out, turning the crank.

"BREAST CANNON!"

The capsule on his chest emerged and broke open, reforming into a chest mounted cannon that seemed a bit hard to move with...which was exactly why Proto-Birth had the Yummies in a rough line.

"I ain't sitting around for this one," OOO commented, quickly getting out of the way, seeing as the last thing he wanted was to be within any range of THAT weapon.

Proto-Birth didn't waste any time, and grabbed the handles while inserting three more Cell Medals, the cannon charging up while his HUD targeted the best angle to shoot as the energy was brought up to a good level. "Fire!" he ordered, the cannon firing a powerful beam of energy, shooting right through all the remaining Yummies, destroying them as a rain of Cell Medals followed.

(Song End)

"Not to sound like Ankh but...mine!" OOO chuckled as he used the Cheetah speed to gather up a nice arm full of Cell Medals.

What? He needed those.

"Hey! I just killed these guys!" Proto-Birth argued.

"Yeah, and as such, you get a share." OOO said pleasantly… before presenting him an empty milk canister "Try to fill it up before I get everything."

Proto-Birth sputtered for a moment, before scrambling to get as many medals as he could into the empty canister.

While the two Riders were being very...un-Rider-like, Vivi was fussing over Kohza. With how accident prone the crew was, they had a few first aid kits (something most of them could do thankfully, but nothing beyond that) on hand, one of which that Vivi was using to treat the injuries Kohza was sporting.

"Honestly, I don't see you for so long and when I find you again you're already getting into trouble," she huffed, albeit with an amused smile.

"I don't want to hear that from you after you just up and vanish one day," Kohza shot back. "Where were you anyway? The entire Kingdom was in an uproar when you vanished."

"I found out who was really behind all this," Vivi said simply.

Kohza sat up straighter at that "What?" he asked, barely above a whisper.

"The whole country's been fooled Kohza. The Dance Powder was planted at the palace and at the port. It was all to make the people start to doubt my father. Somebody wanted to fuel the flames of revolution so that the country would implode on itself… so that they could claim it as their own once it was dead." Vivi told him with a hard frown even as she bandaged him up.

"Then… King Cobra… he truly hasn't betrayed his people?" Kohza asked, his tone hopeful.

"He never stopped thinking about them. Even as they rose up against him, father wanted to do his best for the people." Vivi said, smiling sadly.

At that, Kohza hung his head, his shoulders shaking "I… gods I've been such a fool…"

Vivi placed a hand on his shoulder "It's alright Kohza. Besides, my friends and I came back to help, and we're already starting on stopping the one behind it all. They're very reliable so I'm sure with their help we can do it," she said as she turned to look at OOO and Proto-Birth with a smile...only to see Proto-Birth chasing after OOO who'd snagged another armful of Cell Medals. "...they're reliable most of the time," she amended lamely with a dry look on her face.

Kohza smiled in amusement at the scene, before his head shot up as he registered a certain part of what she said "Who? Who's the bastard that tried to make everyone kill each other so I can shove my sword down his throat?" he asked, obviously angry, but clearly not at Vivi.

"It might be hard to believe, but I promise you on the honor of my ancestors, it's Crocodile the Warlord," Vivi said, her tone dead serious. "He's the one who's been manipulating everything, including trying to bury Yuba under sandstorms he created."

"You forgot the part how he's clearly having a kick out of all the pain he's causing," OOO added as by now all the Cell Medals had been gathered...with OOO 'donating' some of his to fill up the Milk Jug a bit (read: Getting Proto-Birth off his case). "Don't worry, we shook his confidence a bit. Now we're gonna demolish the rest by stopping this Civil War and coming down on his sorry ass."

"Then we must hurry," Kohza said. "If we go back to Katorea now, we can warn the others, we can stop this madness and focus on the real enemy."

"Eh...SLIGHT problem there. We're basically positive that both the Army and the Rebels have some of Crocodile's men planted in there, so rushing in and announcing it might not be the BEST move," OOO said. "But it's still a decent move overall."

However, before they could even start to act on the plan, the sand seemed to shift, before something came out of the sand revealing to be a ball of some kind which appeared to be made out of...wax. "Oh boy…" OOO sighed. He could see where this was going.

The ball promptly broke apart, as a familiar figure landed, revealing to be Mr. 3 again, although compared to the last time they saw him, he was now covered in bandages.

"Finally. It was starting to get far too hot in there." Mr. 3 sighed, before grinning at them maliciously "I'm glad I did decide to come wait here though. I had a feeling I'd come across at least ONE target if I did."

"I'm surprised the sand croc didn't bury you 10 feet under considering how you failed to stop us the first time." OOO said as he dropped his sack of Cell Medals for now and got in a ready stance, just in case.

Mr. 3 scoffed at that "Despite my previous failure, he was willing to give me a single chance after I told him about the battle capabilities I witnessed."

OOO slowly tilted his head "So… that's actually not a lot then. You only fought me and Luffy, and at most you caught a glimpse of Nami, Usopp and Vivi fighting your partner… talk about useless and outdated info." he said, and you could hear the grin in his voice.

Mr. 3 scowled at the tone "Is that so? I doubt much of anything has changed since we last fought."

OOO rolled his eyes behind his mask "It's been almost a month since the last time you saw us, you'd be surprised at how fast we can upgrade."

"Then try this! Candle Lock!" Mr. 3 shouted, sending the wax flying...only for OOO's head part to glow and release a wave of light and heat, completely melting the wax.

"Try again, jackass," OOO smirked a bit.

Mr. 3 grit his teeth and started coating himself in wax. "Candle Champion!" he declared...and was promptly hit with a wave of heat, causing the suit to melt before it could finish forming. In desperation, he hit the ground and started raising a wall of wax. "Candle Wall!" he called out, but didn't stop either, as he quickly manipulated the wax and formed harpoons. "Candle Art: Harpoon!" he shouted as he sent the harpoons flying out of the wall.

"Oh shit! Rampart!" OOO shouted in slight panic as he zoomed to Kohza and Vivi and grabbed them before getting further back, with Proto-Birth doing the same on his own as they hid behind some nearby rocks.

"Ok, that is… a bit more daunting… why didn't you stop him from making it?" Proto-Birth asked him.

"To be honest? I thought he was just building something to stall me and run away." OOO said sheepishly.

"Fine, can't blame you for that I guess." Proto-Birth sighed.

"Couldn't you just melt that like you were doing with everything before?" Vivi asked.

"Somehow, I don't think he can." Kohza said nervously.

"He's right. He's probably making it thicker as we speak, meaning that I'd need more time to concentrate on one spot to melt it down, which would give him enough time to hit me… plus he's upgrading it as we speak." OOO said, peeking out of their cover to see the wall getting larger with more harpoon guns being built into the side of it and the top.

"This is bad. If this keeps up he'll get us eventually," Vivi frowned.

"We're gonna have to stop this barrage at the source," OOO frowned.

"How would you do that? He'll fire the moment we even peek our heads out," Kohza said.

"You'd need something that could deal with a barrage while you move," Proto-Birth added.

OOO hummed in thought at that, before perking up "Idea." he said, before taking out the three orange medals, with Kohza boggling at the Cobra one.

"Isn't that-?" he started, before Vivi shushed him.

"I gave it to him because he can actually use it." she said, and that was answer enough for Kohza.

With that OOO pulled the yellow medals out of his belt, before replacing them with the orange medals, which all pulsed together as they were inserted, while he held the scanner to the side before sliding it over them.

"COBRA! KAME! WANI! BURA-KA~~WANI!"

Once again, his armor changed over him, giving him the Cobra head part and the Kame arm part, while also giving him a new pair of legs covered in orange armor that had fangs built on the inside of his legs.

He rolled his head slightly "Well, that feels better already." he said, pinching his fingers together before pulling them apart to show some kind of clear liquid between them "Soma Venom, that stuff does wonders."

"Are you sure this one can stand up to a rampart?" Vivi asked.

"If it doesn't then I don't think any of them will," OOO shrugged. "Well, here goes something!" he said as he got out of cover and held up his shields. Unsurprisingly Mr. 3 opened fire, the harpoons flying at him. Acting quickly, OOO joined them together to create the Gora Shielduo, the energy shield blocking the harpoons as he moved forward. Every now and then though a harpoon managed to bypass the shield, striking him, but with the Soma Venom, he quickly recovered from any damage that he took and kept up his progress. Even as Mr. 3 was clearly getting worried and upping the attacks, he kept moving forward.

Eventually he was just about at the rampart, so tensing, he delivered a strong kick to the wall, the Saw Deathscythers on his legs manifesting crocodile heads of energy which quite literally took chunks out off the wall with each kick, the massive bite force tearing through even the hardened wax of the Wax Wax Fruit. Mr. 3 tried to quickly make up for the losses, but with the momentum gained, OOO was whittling away at his defenses piece by piece.

Eventually he was breaking through faster than Mr. 3 could fix his defenses and before long… "Peekaboo," OOO smirked, as he grabbed Mr. 3 by the collar.

Mr. 3 gulped nervously "Uh… mercy?"

"Sorry, fresh out of that." OOO said, before tossing Mr. 3 aside and scanning his belt again.

"SCANNING CHARGE!"

"Warning Ride!" he shouted as he went into a slide kick… and started moving around the sand like a snake gliding on the ground, passing through three energy rings as his legs started glowing brightly, with Mr. 3 having just enough time to see the energy projection of a large crocodile's mouth appear on the legs, wide open and aiming for him as OOO shoved himself upward with his arms and snapped his legs close around Mr. 3.

The result was a small explosion that sent Mr. 3 flying further back, landing on the sand completely knocked out… and rather broken at that with how mangled he looked.

"Well… didn't even need to use the flute." OOO said, before pulling out a pungi from somewhere.

Vivi blinked at the non-sequitur as they came up to him "Why do you have that?"

Instead of physically answering, OOO brought the pungi to where his mouth would be beneath the helmet and started playing somehow… and a cobra rose up from his helmet, swaying to the sounds coming from the instrument.

"...that armor is really strange sometimes," Vivi sweat dropped at that one.

"No arguments here. Still super useful though," OOO chuckled.

"Now that he's been dealt with, where to next?" Proto-Birth asked. "We can either meet the Rebels or talk to the Royals."

"I've given everyone orders to not make any moves until I return...or if something happens to me," Kohza said. "And considering Alubarna is right there…"

"We should talk to the Royals first," OOO nodded.

"Well, hopefully the two of us being there will stop anybody gung ho from attacking before speaking." Proto-Birth said, shaking his head.

"Considering how we're pretty sure Baroque Works has infiltrated both the Rebels and the Royal Army? We'll have to keep an eye on everyone." OOO sighed.

"To think that some of my own men were actually infiltrators." Kohza looked down, his fists held tightly.

"Don't beat yourself up over it Kohza. He fooled everyone in the country, myself included until I learned the truth." Vivi said sadly.

"More importantly we need to take apart whatever plans Crocodile still has, and I can almost guarantee he has some other plans up his sleeve still," OOO said, earning a nod from Kohza as the group set their sights on Alubarna. It was time to finally end this madness.

There we go!

Not only do we debut Burakawani, but we also show off Proto-Birth, and what exactly Robin's wrench has done to Crocodile's plans.

It's not over yet though, still two chapters left before the arc ends.

Count The Medals:

Red: Taka

Green: Kuwagata, Kamakiri, Batta

Yellow: Lion, Tora, Cheetah

Grey: Sai, Gorilla, Zou

Blue: Unagi

Orange: Cobra, Kame, Wani

Purple: Tyranno