"Thank you all for coming today."
Robin said this to the Straw Hat Pirates as they entered the meeting room, with the others wondering what was so important that Robin had insisted that all of them (except Maureen) drop what they were doing and come to this meeting.
Once they had all arrived, Robin cleared her throat, pulled out a folder, and began.
"I have summoned all of you today for 2 reasons. First of all, I believe there might be something, or rather someone, who could be of great assistance in getting us home. In fact, this might be the very key to us getting home."
All of the 'original' Straw Hats, eyes widened, were about to bombard her with questions, only for her to raise her hand. They all promptly shut their mouths, allowing her to continue:
"Over the past month or so, I have been spending some free time tracking news within the scientific world, to see whether there was any research being done on interdimensional travel, and there is one scientist whose findings seem to be by far the most notable: Levy McGarden. Her research is remarkably similar to what we are studying, and her research in teleportation-studies that can be used in interdimensional travel have seen remarkable process in less than 2 years."
"So it's settled then", Franky said, "We just pay her however much she wants to help us like we did with those other scientists, and if we're lucky, it won't be long before we can find a way home", ignoring Nami's glare at the words "pay her however much she wants". Robin sighed and pulled out some files from her bag before continuing:
"I'm afraid it's not that simple, which in fact brings us to my second reason for this meeting."
She then handed out the folders across the room (creating multiple hands to do so in a quick and orderly manner), and as the Straw Hats looked at the files they'd been given, she resumed with:
"I've been observing Ms. McGarden's behavior for the past month or so via both direct and indirect observation, and I have noticed that she, as well as the other people within these files, share similar backgrounds behind their rises to fame (particularly the fact that all of them managed to achieve successes that would take most people 10 years instead of 2), as well as similar movement patterns on holidays and falsified background records similar to the ones we used back at Cheery Blossom. Furthermore, I've discovered that a lot of the money made by some of the other businesses mentioned in these folders is being secretly funneled towards McGarden's research. My contacts have even seen her publicly going out with the man known as 'Gajeel Redfox', as seen in the folder that Sanji is holding".
Sanji took the folder (being sure to not tear it as to not upset his beloved Robin), and looked at the photos Robin had mentioned. He couldn't help but both figuratively and literally simmer in jealously as he saw Gajeel and Levy hanging out together at cafes and restaurants (and he couldn't see what Levy saw in him, since he seemed to look grouchy in all of the pictures), and Zoro smirked when he saw Sanji angry at a pretty young lady hanging out with another man.
However, Sanji then noticed that the folder mentioned that Gajeel was owner of one of the world's largest steel companies, Metalicana, which for the past few months had begun to boom in popularity due to the unrivaled strength of the steel it sold. It was also the parent company of Lacrima Products, which was now booming due to selling many amazing products, such as headphones that stored over 10,000 songs, let the user alter the effects of the song they were listening too, and were powered by crystals that functioned as long-lasting batteries and were quite cheap to replace.
Other products sold by Lacrima included small book-shaped items called "ColorS" that allowed you to change the color of your clothing just by swiping your finger on the item's region of mirror-like glass, "Light Pens" that allowed you to write in the air and write words and draw shapes out of some form of light as though it were a normal pen (and each pen had 72 different colors to use), a type of pink rock known as "Swamp Stones" that could turn any bath or pool into a Jacuzzi (although they each only worked once so they were usually bought in large quantities), and Gale Force Reading Glasses, which allowed the user to read books, papers, and online articles at multiple times the normal speed (while also being capable of functioning as normal glasses if the buyer wanted), with the wearer's reading speed increased by anywhere between 2 and 120 times depending on the quality of the glasses bought, with the better glasses obviously being notably more expensive than the low-quality ones. Nami had planned on buying Robin one of the better variants for her upcoming birthday.
As Sanji looked over the file, noting how Robin was right in its suspiciously quick ascension of the business ladder (but then again, Robin-swan was always right), the other Straw Hats began to look through their files as well, which included people such as:
-Erza Scarlet, one of, if not the most prominent fashion designers in the world, as well as the owner of one of the world's largest construction companies and one of the world's most beautiful supermodels. Her massive influence in the global fashion industry (especially since she'd just opened up a massive branch for men's fashion) made her one of the world's richest women, if not THE richest.
-Mirajane Strauss, famous singer and swimsuit model who had both men and women falling for her charms and beauty.
-Mirajane's siblings named Lisanna and Elfman Strauss, co-owners of the the growing restaurant chain known as "Beastly Dining", which specialized in food that had themes of both real-life animals and magical beasts. Elfman had also gained some attention from the media for being a good example/idol of non-toxic masculinity, since his definition(s) of what was "manly" was surprisingly not chauvinistic at all (since he often said women were as "manly" as men and seemed to hold very liberal views on gender).
-Brandish μ, owner of one of the world's most successful cancer wards. Many competing medical companies tried and failed to find out how she was able to shrink so many lethal tumors at such a fast rate, and even Chopper had been unable to figure out how she'd done it.
-Evergreen, a woman who sold incredibly detailed stone statues to countless clients and was renowned for the intricate details in each statue she made.
-Grey Fullbuster, who was the head of the company known as "Hakobe Ice". The company was rapidly rising in popularity due to it selling some sort of special ice (called "Hakobe Ice") that could never be melted, was nearly invincible to sharp objects, could be used as a high-grade skin moisturizer, gave a great flavor to cooked food if used as an ingredient, could act as an energy booster if consumed, and could even cure minor illnesses such as motion-sickness. Many companies had tried to buy the company and/or its secrets or even try and steal the formula behind the "seemingly" magical ice, but all of the deals had been turned down (with even Lexcorp being rejected), and all of the spies wound up in blocks of ice, shivering but alive.
No one with a functioning brain was surprised to hear that the majority of these spies were connected to Lexcorp, even though Lexcorp repeatedly denied any involvement and no legal actions were taken by Hakobe Ice.
However, Gray Fullbuster himself was arguably more (in)famous due to the fact that he was often seen walking in public with only his shorts on, something which he always claimed was unintentional, even though no one believed him. Of course, most women didn't seem to mind him showing off his muscular chest, with at least one reporter who'd interviewed him muttering: "Oh my God, you could grind meat on those" while the camera was still recording, much to her embarrassment upon realizing this.
-Juvia Lockser, who aside from being Gray's girlfriend was the owner of one of the world's largest water filtration companies, one of the largest private desalination companies in the world, and a quickly-growing private hydroelectric power company.
However, she was now mostly famous for having recently created a machine that could turn a portion of the water within a person's body into blood, meaning that a person who needed blood could now get it without having to wait for a donor (although they did have to drink plenty of water until their blood levels went back to normal). This innovation could've made Juvia a fortune, but she had publicly refused to patent it in order to make sure that anyone who needed it could get it, putting her invention on the public domain similar to how the Straw Hats put all of Cherry Blossom's medicines on the public domain when Batman had forced them to flee underground.
Nami remembered how Chopper had been fascinated by this medical breakthrough and had wanted to meet with her to see how she'd done it, but Robin vetoed this idea by stating how the government might be alarmed by the Straw Hats approaching a billionaire who'd just used the power of water to greatly improve the world of medicine. They could've viewed it as Cherry Blossom trying to negotiate with a potential competitor to corner a large section of the medical market. This potential for a monopoly actually made Nami support a meeting with Juvia as she began to imagine the financial possibilities, but the other Straw Hats still vetoed this decision.
-Lucy Heartfilia, famous writer of the popular "Adventures of Iris" book series, which was now the most popular book series since Harry Potter, with 15 books already out and more confirmed for the future, and Maureen's favorite book series. Ms. Heartfilia was reportedly getting calls from companies such as Disney to discuss the TV and movie rights for the series. It seemed that she had written most of the books before getting them published, and she had gotten them all published in record time due to borderline-inhuman amounts of luck in terms of things such as publishers happening to be in the right place at the right time.
She was also owner of Aries Wool, the world's largest synthetic wool producer (and known for making wool so unimaginably fluffy and soft that it was quickly dominating the wool market), along with Scorpio Sand (which had recently become one of the largest sand-selling companies in the world, with the positive side-benefit of putting many illegal sand-miners out of business), as well as a barber shop known as "The Giant Crab", which was rumored to have the best barber in the country. Volcana had secretly made an appointment for her and Permafrost for the latter's upcoming birthday (she wanted to get her a nice haircut to make her feel better about herself), but she decided that now was not the best time to mention that.
Her luck seemed to also extend to the world of gambling, where she somehow hit a jackpot on 10 slot machine spins in a row while in Las Vegas, getting her a combined $72 million. Nami noticed this, and immediately began to make plans involving Lucy telling her how to acquire this amount of luck with gambling.
Harley Quinn and Cheetah were more than a little bit jealous at how this "Erza" woman was seen literally eating 50 strawberry shortcakes at a bakery in one visit, yet in all the pictures still looked like an athletic supermodel while she was wearing a dress. In fact, all the girls seemed to rival Nami and Robin in beauty, asides from the adolescent Wendy and the pretty-but-not-gorgeous Levy.
One of the girls, named Cana, seemed to be a master of card games and gambling games involving chance (similar to Lucy), but also had a massive tolerance to alcohol, having once out-drank 50 guys one after the other in just a few hours, then taking their money as a prize for winning a bet. Zoro and Nami both noticed this and wondered if she could out-drink them.
"Robin", Volcana said, causing the Straw Hats to all look at her. "These are some very rich people, and you're accusing them of being part of one big conspiracy. It's not that I don't believe you, but I think we need less circumstantial evidence than this or the Justice League is going to demand to know why we're tracking down some of the world's wealthiest people."
"I'm glad you asked that, Volcana", Robin responded, "because all of these people (asides from the one called Brandish) have an odd tattoo on their body. I haven't been able to decipher what it means, but I believe that, as Volcana said, they may indeed be part of one big conspiracy.
"This caused the room to go silent with shock and more than a little alarm.
"However", Robin continued, "this could be to our advantage. After all, the fact that they've invested so much money in this trans-dimensional teleportation research means that they could very well want the same thing we do: to go home."
"Wait", Usopp said, "so are they from our dimension?"
"Actually, I believe that they are from another universe entirely", Robin replied. "I have never seen any tattoos like the ones they have, and they seem to be capable of swimming without any trouble despite having abilities that should only be possible via consumption of a devil fruit."
She then pressed a remote which began to play a video on the screen behind her, swiveling her chair around to watch alongside the other Straw Hats. It showed a warehouse next to the sea, with the only one in it being the green-haired girl named "Brandish μ" (who as mentioned was for some reason the only one without that strange tattoo, even though she seemed to associate with the others as much as any of the other members).
She wore a golden fancy coat with purple-indented flower patterns across its design, along with some sort of golden bikini and a choker on her neck attached to gold chains. She also had 2 small purple crosses sticking out of her head like little horns (which were somehow not seen in any of the photos). She seemed to be sitting down on a chair in the warehouse while happily enjoying a big ice cream sundae.
The moment Sanji saw her, hearts burst out of his eyes at how beautiful she was (though to be fair, she was very attractive), causing the other girls to get annoyed (and upset that this girl was slim while eating all that ice cream while they had to go on diets or exercise until their muscles quit on them).
Suddenly, a figure seemed to pop out of the water, and the Straw Hats realized that it was a beautiful mermaid with short white hair, carrying a sizable bag over her back. "MERMAID!", Sanji happily exclaimed, causing Nami to bonk him on the head for being too loud. A brief flash of light surrounded the mermaid, and when it faded the mermaid had turned into a lovely but normal-looking girl. She walked over to Brandish, cheerful smile on her face, and Brandish soon noticed her walking over.
Her face turned into one of boredom, as if she were being forced to do a chore, and she walked over to the bright white-haired girl. She sighed and said "Let's get this over with, Lisanna." Lisanna, ignoring her moody tone, happily dumped out the bags contents, causing a bunch of small diamonds to spill onto the floor. Nami's eyes morphed into dollar signs as she saw countless small diamonds roll onto the ground (Chopper explained that they had gone from beri signs to dollars signs due to her "going native"), and her mouth turned into a wide smile at all the money being shown in front of her.
Brandish looked at the diamonds on the floor, then turned her head to Lisanna.
"Is this all you could find?". "Sorry Brandish, but the shipwreck was so creepy".
"Whatever, just move back." Lisanna did just that, before Brandish looked back down at the diamonds on the floor, counting about 30 or so. She then raised her right hand into the air...and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, all the diamonds went from each being 1 centimeter in width to over a foot in width each, and now each of them was the size of Brandish's head. Nami, unable to take the sight of so many diamonds having their value magnified hundredfold in front of her, had a nosebleed and collapsed onto the floor, causing Chopper and Sanji to freak out.
As they took her to the base's hospital, everyone turned their attention back to the video, and saw the woman known as Cana enter the warehouse, bottle of booze in hand. She tipsily greeted the other two, before walking up to the pile of enlarged diamonds. She took out a strange card, pointed it at the diamonds, and said "Card Dimension", causing all the diamonds to suddenly disappear. Cana then put the card back in a feathery shoulder bag and said "I'll take 'em out of there when we get back home. But now, who wants to go hit the booze?"
Brandish rolled her eyes while Lisanna just gave a smile (as if this thing was totally normal), and the 3 women walked out of the warehouse just as the video ended. There was a brief silence, as the Straw Hats all tried to comprehend the powers of the 3 women they;d just seen, until Luffy gave his simple but honest opinion: "COOL!". This caused everyone else in the room to chuckle and/or roll their eyes in exasperation.
"So how do we reach out to them?", Poison Ivy asked. "We're technically criminals, so they won't just accept us with open arms, and God knows what'll happen if we try forcefully breaking in".
All of the 'original' Straw Hats nodded, remembering how Batman did just that and forced them underground out of what they believed was nothing more than sheer paranoia. Yes, everything he'd said about them was true, but he still had no right to chase them underground when all they'd done was help people in need. At least Superman seemed to be open to a friendly relationship, much to Volcana's chagrin.
"Correct, which is why I have been formulating a plan to reach out to Levy McGarden for the past month or so."
Everyone looked at her, wondering what her diabolical scheme was. Usopp was just hoping to God that it didn't involve him doing any sort of fighting, while Nami hoped that it involved money. Sanji hoped it involved meeting these new lovely ladies, while Luffy wanted to see if these guys had any cool powers.
"Levy and I are in the same book club, where I have spent the past few weeks bonding with her in hopes of lowering her guard."
Sweat drops appeared on the exasperated faces of everyone else as they all said with disbelief: "Book club?!".
"Yes", Robin said while grinning and packing up the folders. "Luffy told me to find a hobby and have fun, and what's more fun than discussing good books with fellow intellectuals?".
Luffy was going to respond with "Anything else", but stopped himself lest Robin do what she did to Franky to make him join the crew. Thank god for his Observation Haki's precognition!
As the Straw Hats all left the room, thinking about these strangers from another dimension (as well as the possibility of returning home), a large floating orb in an unknown but moonlit location was showing what was happening to a mysterious but beautiful woman wearing a revealing kimono and a hood that only partially hid her pale blonde hair. As she saw what was happening, a grin appeared on her face, visible only due to the light of the full moon.
"Well, well. About time that one of them made the first move." She chuckled before continuing:
"This will be very entertaining. Game on."
(At the local Barnes & Nobles)
"Okay, I think that's a good place to stop for tonight, we'll pick up from there tomorrow.", the leader of the book club said, causing all the other women to close their books and put them away in their bags before preparing to go home.
Levy was about to do so herself, until she was approached by her new friend, Nikolai Robinovich (she was American but was apparently the child of Russian immigrants), a rather heavyset blond-haired woman who was the newest member of the book club. She and Levy had hit it off almost immediately, sharing a love for books and history (particularly runes), although Levy was a tad unnerved by her interest in books with a lot of gore and death in them, such as "A Song of Ice and Fire".
Little did she know that this was simply the same disguise that Nico Robin used during her occasional in-person business meetings with investors.
"Sorry to bother you, Levy, but I recently got my hands on some old runes from Egypt and I would feel awful if I looked at them without letting you know. How about we go to my place and we can look at them together? I can drop you off at your house when we're done." Levy's eyes widened in glee at this, and she jumped up before saying "I'd love to! Let me just get my things and I'll be right with you!"
A minute later, Levy had put her things in her backpack and was ready to go. They left the building and went to where "Nikolai" said her car was, but Levy was surprised to see that her friend's 'car' was actually a limousine. Nikolai opened the door and gestured for Levy to enter.
She did so, going to the other side of the limo and sitting down, but when she looked back at her friend she was shocked to see that she had somehow changed her body from rotund to a stunning hourglass figure (which Levy momentarily stared at before recollecting herself). Not to mention, a blonde wig and an open contact lens container (with 2 green contacts inside) were both next to her, and Levy saw that she now had long black hair and brown eyes. She then recognized her from the news as one of the Straw Hat Pirates who had fought the Justice League at the Soul King concert.
Minor alarms were already ringing in her head, but before she could instinctively bolt, the limo doors were quickly locked.
Robin saw the panic on her face and chuckled before trying to calm her down. "Don't worry, Ms. McGarden. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to make a proposal that I feel will benefit both of us." "W-What are you talking about?", Levy asked, trying in vain to act as though she wasn't who Robin already knew she really was.
Robin then explained how she'd been following Levy's research and breakthroughs in trans-dimensional teleportation over the past few months, and explained how she'd figured out that Levy and her 'associates' were in a group that wanted to find a way home to their dimension. Levy was shocked and a little freaked out that someone had been tracking her and her friends (especially a criminal empire with huge connections to the black market), but recollected herself before asking Robin: "So what do you want with my research then, huh? Money? Weapons?"
"A way to go home".
Seeing Levy's surprised yet suspicious face, she continued by saying "You might not believe me, but I am 100% serious when I say that we are strangers from another dimension, just like you. From your abilities and dialogue, it seems we are from different universes, but I believe that pooling our intellects and resources can help us both get back home to our respective home worlds."
Levy thought about what she had said. On the one hand, the Straw Hats were officially criminals who had robbed banks, recruited well-known villains, stole various generators and alloys, and indirectly caused the chaos in Gotham. On the other hand, their medical company, Cherry Blossom Medical, had done a lot of good for a lot of sick and wounded people at a low price until the Justice League had scared them underground. They had also taken a lot of worse criminals down and had apparently reformed some of the less-evil ones into becoming 'noble' villains. Besides, the way Robin's eyes hardened when she talked about being from another dimension were a good sign that she wasn't lying just to gain Levy's trust.
"I...need to talk to the others about this", Levy responded. She expected Nico Robin to threaten her, since she was a powerful criminal who could easily use her powers to torture her right there or use her information on them to threaten the safety of her friends, and thus was surprised to see Robin simply smile and nod before replying:
"Splendid. I will be waiting for your friends' answer".
"Great, so can you please take me back to the bookstore now?" Robin chuckled and unlocked the limo's doors. "We never left." Levy didn't believe her, until she opened the door and saw that they were in the exact spot where they'd left. See, the entire time that they'd been "negotiating", a flower clone of Robin had been driving in a circle around the block until Robin had sensed that their conversation was about to come to a close, stopping the car in the precise position the moment that Levy had finished talking to Robin, as to prevent her from noticing the sound of moving tires.
Levy took a step out of the limo, only for a thought to pop into her head. She looked back at Robin, who was watching her with an observant look and smile and asked: "What if we don't agree to work with you?" "Then I guess we won't being working together".
Levy, not at all relaxed by her response, left the limo and began quickly walking home.
Robin saw her go, before closing the door and having her clone drive her home. It seemed like Nami's plan to sneak into wherever Levy's work was and steal it might be their best bet, assuming Levy and her friends declined her offer of a "business merger". She'd inform Nami to prepare for an infiltration heist (just in case) as soon as she got back from her bank heist with Zoro and Cheetah.
-
(At a nearby bank)
Nami, Cheetah, and Zoro had just pulled off another successful bank robbery, and were walking through the tunnel network Chopper had created with bags of money hoisted over their shoulders. As they did so, Nami was cheerfully whistling the "Hi Ho" song from the Snow White movie, causing Zoro to look over at her and say: "You're awfully cheerful tonight, Nami. I mean, I know how much you like money but even then I've never seen you this cheerful after a heist."
"I'm just excited that we might be able to go home soon. From what Robin told us, this McGarden woman was making serious headway until she reached a dead end, so if we can help her get us home, I'll give her as much money as she wa-HAHAHA!"
She then broke into laughter before she could finish her sentence, having to drop her bags of money as she clutched her stomach while laughing. When she stopped, she wiped a tear from her eye and said "I couldn't even say that with a straight face.", before picking up the dropped bags of money. She saw Zoro giving her an upset look, clearly irritated at her skewed priorities.
"Oh come on. We'll still give her a lot, just not too much money".
"You know that this world's money is useless in our dimension, right?".
"Hey! Money is still Money! If I start throwing it away now, it'll set a bad example for when we get back! I'm a professional when it comes to money, and professionals have standards!"
"QUIET!", Cheetah shouted, causing the 2 to stop their argument and turn their heads to her in surprise. After all, she knew that yelling at Nami was a death sentence unless the situation was really serious, and even then the fines were severe for 'disrupting her peace of mind'.
"I hear something", she continued, causing them to both immediately shut up and listen for any sounds. Nami put her free hand on her Clima-tact, Zoro dropped his bags of money (making a mental note to remember to get it later to avoid Nami's wrath) and got out 2 of his swords, and Cheetah dropped her money bags and unsheathed her claws. They heard what seemed to be digging, which was nearer by the second. They all instinctively jumped back just as something came out of the cave ceiling.
When the smoke cleared, standing in front of the 3 Straw Hats was a blonde-haired girl with some sort of maid outfit, along with a big white-haired man and a woman with red hair and a suit of armor covering everything but her head.
"Put the money down and your hands up!", the redhead demanded.
"Otherwise we'll have to inflict a manly beatdown on you!", the white-haired guy said in a booming voice.
The 3 robbers looked at each other and got into a fighting stance. It seemed that the true 'First Contact' between inhabitants of 2 different dimensions would end in violence.
It'd been a lucky break that Lucy, Erza, and Elfman detected the underground thieves, since Elfman's enhanced sense had faintly picked up the sound of someone whistling underneath them, while they were suspiciously close to the local bank. At first Lucy and Erza thought he was trying to distract them from teasing him about his relationship with Evergreen, but when his face became serious instead of panicked they knew he wasn't joking.
Lucy then used her Star Dress ability to change into Star Dress: Virgo, then use Virgo's powers to quickly dig underground, Elfman jumping down the hole Lucy was making while Erza took a moment to use her Requip ability and change from casual attire to her usual suit of armor before jumping after him.
When Lucy landed, being followed shortly after by Erza and Elfman, their suspicions were confirmed when they saw 3 individuals carrying sacks of money, no doubt taken from the nearby bank. The 3 robbers consisted of a green-haired swordsman with a cybernetic eye, a cat-lady (Lucy and Erza briefly wondered if it was an Exceed in its human form before focusing on the issue at hand), and a very attractive woman wearing nothing but jeans and a bikini top.
After Erza and Elfman's ultimatums refused to sway the bank robbers, both got into their fighting stances before attacking. Erza naturally took on the swordsman, Elfman attacked the cat-lady, and Lucy faced off against the scantily-clad chick, morphing into the Star-Dress: Taurus form in mere seconds (while mentally admitting that this Star Dress was just as revealing as her opponent's outfit). She then struck the ground multiple times with her whip, causing it to rupture in front of her. The rupture quickly spread to below her opponent's feet, and the shock wave sent her flying as Lucy yelled "Earth Wave!".
Lucy then sprinted towards where her opponent landed, and just as she stood up Lucy decked her in the gut with a fist surrounded in a faint white aura while yelling "Lucy Punch!". The orange-haired robber spit out some bile, only to quickly regain her footing and reach for her staff. "Gust Sword!", was what Lucy heard just before a powerful wind sent her flying back. She shook it off, only to see a strange egg right above her. It cracked open to reveal a thundercloud, and Lucy realized too late what was about to happen.
"Weather Egg: Thunder Breed Tempo!", was what Lucy heard right before she received a painful shock to the body. This woman's lightning wasn't as powerful as Laxus's was, but it still hurt like hell and this chick wasn't even a mage! Lucy then turned back to normal and reached for one of her keys, only to realize that they were missing.
"Is this actual gold?", the orange-haired girl asked, and Lucy saw all of her keys were in her opponent's hands, "Because these could get me a pretty penny on the market." Lucy angrily reached for her Celestial whip, Fleuve d'étoiles, and lashed out before her foe could react. It hit her right on her left cheek, causing her to fly into the wall of the cavern and drop the key chain. Lucy then used the whip to pull the key chain back to her, just as her now-battered foe pulled herself out of the wall. The 2 stared each other down, narrowed their eyes, and resumed their battle.
Elfman, despite being much stronger than his opponent, was at a clear disadvantage due to the tunnel's rather tight corridors, allowing the cat-lady to rapidly attack him from all sides. Both his Partial and Full Body Take Over abilities only served to increase his size, making him unable to get a good hit in on her even when he could match her speed. It was clear that he was getting worn down, and if this kept up he would run out of gas.
He decided to use Full Body Take Over: Lizard Man, becoming a giant lizard-man with green scales, spiky scales, claws, and a mane of white hair. When the cat-lady attacked this form, her claws bounced off his armor and her skin was cut by his spikes. She tried to attack him from all sides, but his armor was far too tough to even scratch, and this time it was her who was getting exhausted due to being hurt by his spikes every time she attacked, while all he had to do was cross his arms to protect his face and let her exhaust herself.
Erza and her green-haired opponent, on the other hand, were dead even, as the 2 of them matched each other blow-for-blow in speed, power, and skill. She was impressed at how well he overcame each of the Star Dresses she turned into, even managing to power through the 200 swords sent at him by her Heaven's Wheel Armor and slightly cracking the Adamantine Armor's shield with an attack involving 3 swords (including one that was in his mouth). Despite this, he didn't even seem to have any magic, other than whatever he used to blacken and harden his swords.
Erza then morphed into her Purgatory Armor, donning black armor and a massive spiky mace. Her opponent, who was clearly enjoying the fight, lunged at her with all 3 swords. She blocked his attack, creating a gridlock where the 2 warriors pushed against each other in an attempt for dominance.
"No one has ever faced my Purgatory armor and lived to tell about it!".
"That so? Heh, then I'm glad to know that I'll be the first!".
And with that, the 3-vs-3 fight raged on for a good 5 minutes, until Lucy decided to try and break the stalemate. Changing into her Star Dress: Aquarius, Lucy put her hand on the ground and shouted "Aqua Metria!", causing the ground beneath her and her orange-haired opponent to begin rolling like the waves of the ocean towards the orange-haired woman. Eyes widened, she jumped back, but was unable to react in time as the wave of earth swallowed her. Lucy, hoping she wasn't too badly hurt, made the waves stop, only for her enemy to not be beneath the ground. Was this some sort of illusion magic?
She didn't know it, but Nami had used a mirage to cover for her while she recovered and thought of a strategy. Seeing the confusion on Lucy's face at her deception, she snuck behind the blonde-haired girl and struck her with the Clima-tact as though it were a baseball bat, her borderline inhuman strength sending Lucy flying (which caused most of her keys to break off the keychain and scatter across the ground) and likely giving her a concussion.
Lucy staggered, realizing that most of her keys were too far to reach before Nami's next attack, which she was already starting to charge. She quietly begged for some luck as she reached for her only remaining key, hoping to God that it was one of the stronger ones. She looked and saw that it was not what she wanted but it'd have to do.
"Open, gate of the Ram! Aries!"
And out came a beautiful young lady with pink hair, a nice figure, 2 small ram-like horns, and an adorably shy face. Nami was shocked. How the hell did she just summon that thing?
"Aries, take her out!"
"Um, I'll try my best, Ms. Lucy!", the spirit shyly declared, before putting her hands out in front of her.
"Wool Bomb!" And before Nami could react, a large stream of pink wool (suspiciously similar to the synthetic wool sold at the company known as "Aries Wool" in color and shape) shot out from her hands towards Nami, enveloping her body in thick pink wool.
Nami was suddenly unable to think about anything other than how soft and fluffy the wool was, as if dozens of little Choppers were embracing her from all sides and creating the mother of all snug blankets. Screw money, she just wanted to hug this wool all day!
She suddenly remembered that she was in the middle of a fight and snapped out of it while pulling the wool off her face, only to see Lucy winding up a fist. Then everything went dark.
"Nami!", Zoro and Cheetah cried as they saw their friend get decked in the schnoz and knocked out cold. Cheetah tried lunging at the blonde girl, only for her reptilian opponent to grab her tail and pull her back. Zoro also tried to do so, but his redhead opponent morphed into another one of her armors (which was black and had wings) and intercepted him. "Your fight is with me!", she said, causing Zoro to angrily grit his teeth and begin using all of his energy to attack her.
Meanwhile, the blonde-haired girl used a strange gold key to summon a pink-haired maid, whom she told to take Nami upwards. The woman nodded, grabbed Nami with one arm, and somehow began expertly tunneling her way upwards towards the surface. Cheetah and Zoro, now both officially pissed, lunged forward at their opponents in a last-ditch effort to overpower them, only for them to both jump back to where their friend was standing. The girl in question then morphed again into another one of her outfits, before unleashing a blast of water at the 2 pirates. They were sent flying back a fair distance, and by the time the water had stopped and they were able to get up, their 3 opponents were gone, and with them the chance to get Nami back.
Zoro, full of disbelief and anger, jumped up the hole that their enemies had dug to find them (doing so in just one leap), and looked around for them, but they were nowhere to be seen. As police sirens began to ring in the distance, Zoro reluctantly jumped back underground to where Cheetah was. She looked at him, already knowing that Nami and her captors were gone. The 2 of them took whatever money they could and began running back to their base, with Zoro using one of his techniques to collapse the tunnel behind them. This was an unexpected and unmitigated failure for the Straw Hat Pirates, for the first time since they'd arrived here.