This is the 55th chapter. I don't own the series of One Piece.
Sand Croc, Fire Fist Ace, Dragoon Ventus, and Water Luffy!
Alabasta, Alubarna
At the palace, Luffy soaked his hand with water since he was able to land a hit at Crocodile in the face. Ace and Ventus were impressed that Luffy was able to finally figure it out on his own since he was able to recover his wounds during the fight against Crocodile at Rainbase. Cobra was shocked while Ms. All-Sunday narrowed her eyes, watching the fight when Ace and Ventus readied their fighting stance.
"Get up! It's time to fight!? Now, Crocodile!" Luffy growled.
Crocodile can only groan for a few seconds, but next thing is that he laughed as he sat up with a sinister smirk on his face. Crocodile couldn't help but feeling so amused, he thought that Luffy have lost his mind if he wanted to fight against the Seven Warlord of the Sea. Though, Ventus couldn't help but scowl at Crocodile while Ace just kept his calm demeanor, narrowed his eyes a little.
At the square, Vivi explain this situation to the Straw Hat pirates and Pell since they need to know what happened and why the fight hasn't stopped.
"Are you serious?!" Usopp exclaims in disbelief. "In 10 minutes, this place is really going to blow up?!"
"Yes! 4:30 is when that goes." Vivi replied.
"That soon!?" Nami exclaims, causing the Straw Hats and Pell to narrow their eyes with a serious expression on their faces.
"Did Crocodile told you where the bomb is hidden?" Anna questions.
"No, but according to what Crocodile said, if the cannon is shot no within 5 kilometers in here will survive." Vivi explains.
"5 kilometers?! Then that means..." Nami said.
"...Both the rebel and the royal armies will be completely wiped out!" Chopper finished her sentence.
"And Alabasta will be wiped off the map." Shanise adds.
"That damn Crocodile!" Sanji growled.
"What the hell are we supposed to do?!" Usopp questions with panic.
"We find the cannon." Zoro answered bluntly with his arms crossed, earned their attention. "We stop the cannoneer from shooting."
"The cannoneer?" Chopper repeats shockingly.
"Okay, but how do we find him?" Usopp questions.
"...And in 10 minutes?" Nami adds.
"Well, not by standing around here!" Ivan points out.
"But if everything in this area is going to explode, then the cannon guy has to be far away, doesn't he? Or else he'd just blow up with the rest of it?" Usopp questions with an argument, but Vivi has some ideas.
"No way! No, he's close. The cannoneer is almost certainly near the palace square." Vivi points out.
"What?!" Usopp exclaims. "Are you serious, Vivi?! But that means he's going to be caught in the explosion too!?"
"I guess that shouldn't be too surprising, it is Crocodile." Shanise states with a scowl.
"What?! He's just going to let his own men die?!" Chopper shouts in panic.
"He's just plain evil." Sanji said with a growl.
"Come on, let's go." Zoro suggested since they've wasted enough time on explanation.
However, Pell, Sanji, and Zoro noticed someone is coming for Vivi from behind which happens to be the Baroque Works agent, causing the swordman to block the katana and the cook to deliver a kick to the face, knocking him out. But, more of the Baroque Works agents revealed themselves from the dust devil, causing Usopp to scream.
"Looks like we found you, princess!"
"I wonder how big of a promotion that Crocodile will give us for killing you!"
The Baroque Works agents sneered at them with a sinister smirk while laughing, but they failed to realize that Crocodile is planning to set off a bomb to kill everyone in Alabasta since neither of them will get a promotion.
"Billions!?" Vivi exclaims.
"It looks like...we'll lose some time." Sanji states, turned to Zoro.
"He's right. So, let's not waste all of the jibber-jabber." Zoro adds as he and Sanji turns to the Baroque Works agents.
"Let's go!" Zoro and Sanji said with a scowl.
"I'll stay here and lend them a hand." Anna suggested, draws out her twin swords while both Shanise and Ivan drew their weapons of their own.
"You guys go and find it, we'll handle this." Shanise told them.
"Okay, I'll go ahead." Nami nods as she ran ahead.
"Yeah, us too!" Usopp, Pell, and Chopper adds in unison, following her.
Sanji, Zoro, Anna, Shanise, and Ivan begin to fight against the Baroque Works agents when the cook knocked them out, the swordsman slashed them, the ranger does the same while blocking their attacks, Shanise cleaved them with one swing, and Ivan blocked and bashed them with his baseball bats.
"Well, that's two seconds." Sanji states.
"Your counting is not helping." Zoro points out.
"Just keeping track." Sanji told him.
"Hey! Less talking, more fighting!" Shanise shouts in annoyance as she blocked the sword with her axe and punched him in the face.
"Focus on the Billions, we'll join the search later." Anna suggests as they continued the fight.
"Let's split up! We need to get out of this dust devil if we're gonna find anything!" Usopp suggests as he, Chopper, Nami, and Vivi splits up while getting out of the dust devil, Pell then uses the Devil fruit power to turn himself into a falcon to take flight and look for the bomb.
'10 minutes...' Vivi mentally thought, rushed out of the battlefield and the dust devil.
"All right, let's go! Hurry!" Zoro shouts as he, Sanji, Shanise, Anna, and Ivan finished their fight against the Baroque Works agents, rushed out of the battlefield to find the bomb.
'This is really it...This is the last chance!' Vivi thought, continued to rush out of the battlefield. 'In 10 minutes, the countries fate could be decided! For good!'
Back at the palace, Crocodile continued to laugh for a few minutes when Luffy took off his straw hat and threw it towards the ground.
"Come on, you think you can defeat me?" Crocodile questions with a smirk.
"Sure do, now that I figured out how to stop you from turning into sand." Luffy answered, readied his fighting stance.
"I'll admit, I'm impressed you, Ace, and Ventus figured it out, especially since you three are about to die." Crocodile praises him. "But I hope you realize something like that isn't nearly enough to make this an even fight. I am one of the Seven Warlords of the Seas."
"So, what if you're one of the dumb warlords!?" Luffy retorted. "I guess that makes me...the Eighth Warlord!"
"THERE'S NO SUCH THING YOU MORON!" Ventus yelled with white eyes, tick mark, and shark-like teeth, bonked him in the head.
Though, Ace, Ventus, and Crocodile weren't amused of Luffy's stupidity because he just never thinks before he speaks, considering how reckless he can be during the fight and in the sea.
"Really, who is that guy?" Cobra muttered with a question.
"He's a pirate, I'm surprised you haven't heard about him." Ms. All-Sunday answered with her serious expression, earned his attention. "He helped your captured darling princess Vivi escape from death a few times now."
"So, then he is the one responsible for bringing Vivi back?" Cobra inquires shockingly, turns to Luffy when Ms. All-Sunday chuckled with a smirk.
"And that's not all." Ms. All-Sunday said. "That boy with a spear is Ventus Starwind, he's the son of Starblaze and Merida from Ishgard."
'What?! Then that means...Ventus...is him! He got the same looks as his father, except he got his mother's eyes...' Cobra thought shockingly, but smiled as he looked at the sky. 'Starblaze...Merida...If you're watching from up there, your son is growing up and he got a spear mastery after you, Merida. Also, Starblaze, your son is adventurous, courageous, and strong...he got that from you.'
"Gum-Gum: Pistol" Luffy then stretches his arm back, then throws a punch towards Crocodile.
"If I dodge it, then it's no use." Crocodile mocks with a smirk, slightly dodges and grabbed his arm. "My hand can still absorb any fluid on you."
"Lance Burst" Ventus charge forward, stabbing Crocodile in the shoulder and then flips him in the air.
'Why?! Why can't I turn my body into a sand?!' Crocodile mentally shouts with a question.
"Now Ace!" Ventus shouts.
"Fire Pillar" Ace shoots the flames straight upward towards Crocodile, making him scream in pain.
"Thanks guys." Luffy thanked them when his arm is back in his place while Crocodile lands hard on the ground with the grunt.
"That may be true, you can absorb fluids and moisture, but it won't be enough to beat all three of us." Ace states with a smirk as Crocodile stood up with a growl.
"Also, remember how you told me...Devil Fruit powers get stronger?" Luffy adds with a question, smirked as he soaked himself with water from the barrel.
"Gum-Gum: Pistol Shotgun" Luffy then stretches his arm back again and delivers a punch to Crocodile, but he 'twangs' his stretched arm, causing it to connect multiple times and Crocodile to dodge by leaping in the air.
"You stupid brat! Desert Spada" Crocodile lands on the ground, forming his right hand into a blade of sand, stabbing it to the ground, and extending it to the ground to split the palace.
Luffy, Ace, and Ventus quickly dodges, and the sand slice some part of the palace.
"Chaos Thrust" Ventus then charges after Crocodile, delivering a multiple thrust right which the Warlord was able to dodge.
"Do you really expect me to fall for that trick?" Crocodile mocks.
"Nope, but this will. Fire Gun" Ace points his index and middle finger at Crocodile, firing flame bullets at him.
"Sonic Thrust" Ventus then began thrusting his lance, sent him flying with sheer force.
Crocodile grits his teeth in pain while dishing out punishment between the two, sent flying while Luffy stretched his arm back and deliver a punch, but instead, Luffy launched himself and delivers a backfist, knocking Crocodile down. Luffy then takes the barrel off of his back.
"Time for you to get wet!" Luffy shouts, threw the barrel at Crocodile.
"Of course, your plan was obvious! Sables" Crocodile then counters by summoning a sandstorm, blowing Ace, Luffy, and Ventus away along with the barrel.
Luffy quickly grabs hold of the barrel while Ventus sprouts his wings and grabs Ace. Crocodile laughed as he stood up while the three lands on the top of the palace walls.
"You're struggling so hard, you can't do anything at all with that barrel of yours, now can you?" Crocodile mocks with a smirk. "This isn't any different from my first fight against you after all, Straw Hat Luffy."
"Huh, big talk, you're struggling so hard, you can't even handle the heat from us." Ventus remarked with a smirk. "True this fight between you and Luffy isn't any different, but between me, Ace, and you is different because we were able to figure out your weakness before he arrives."
Crocodile growled with a sneer since the young Dragoon makes a valid point. Even though, he did have a hard time fighting against Ventus and Ace because of the power difference and battle experience.
"Yeah, you're right, Crocodile. It isn't any different like this." Luffy said while agreeing as he drank the whole barrel which it got Crocodile growled, scowled with his veins popped out of his head. Cobra widened his eyes in shocked. "How about this?! Now I'm not the same as I was, huh?!"
"You've got to be kidding me!" Crocodile exclaims in annoyance.
Just as Luffy lands on the ground, his belly his huge and round which he drank too much water.
"HOW GOOD WILL THAT HELP, YOU DAMN MOOCH!?" Ventus and Ace yelled with white eyes and shark-like teeth.
"Water Luffy, ha!" Luffy said as water leaks through his belly. "OH NO! A LEAK!?"
"STOP MESSING AROUND, YOU IDIOT!?" Ventus and Ace yelled with white eyes and shark-like teeth.
'He can't be serious about this...Can he?' Crocodile mentally questions, watching Luffy getting water leak from his stomach.
Luffy was starting to panic when the water is starting to come out of his mouth, started to throw up which instead, he just swallowed it back up with a big gulp.
"I guess I shouldn't drunk that much water." Luffy groans as Ms. All-Sunday laughed with amusement.
"THAT'S NOT HELPING, YOU IDIOT!?" Ventus and Ace yelled again with white eyes and shark-like teeth, air slapped him.
'Does this idiot really not understand what's going on here?!' Crocodile mentally questions with a growl while the battle between the rebels and the royal army continues, and the clock counts down in less than 10 minutes. Crocodile is now losing patience. "DAMMIT! STOP MESSING AROUND!?"
Finally had enough, Crocodile starts charging after the three while readying his golden hook. Luffy starts pumping his arms as water starts coming out, spitting the water out of his mouth which it got Crocodile completely soaked.
'Damn that brat!' Crocodile mentally cursed him with a grunt.
"WHO SAID I WAS MESSING AROUND!?" Luffy retorted with a yell, stretched his arms back.
'My...body...' Crocodile growled.
"I'm always serious! Ler me show you! Gum-Gum: Bazooka" Luffy then hurled his arms forward, delivering a double palm strike right at Crocodile at the center of his chest.
Crocodile grunts in pain when the blood came out of his mouth, flying and crashed against the structure as it crumbles down with it. Cobra was stunned of his strength while Ms. All-Sunday watched with her narrowed eyes.
"How was that, Sand Croco?" Luffy said with a scowl on his face.
"That's amazing!?" Cobra exclaims, amazed. "He beat Crocodile? That kid is weird, but incredible."
"There's no time now for all this admiration. We have other things to do." Ms. All-Sunday states, turned to the king.
Ms. All-Sunday uses her Devil Fruit power to sprout two arm limbs from the wall, grabs hold of the stakes, and pull them out. Cobra couldn't help but groan in pain while collapsing down to the ground.
"Get up. It's time for us to get moving." Ms. All-Sunday said. "You are going to show me the way to the Poneglyph."
"What are you planning to do? How could looking at it possibly help you?!" Cobra growled, turned towards her, but winced when she sprouts her arms behind him and restraining him by holding his wrists, holding him down to the ground.
"Just stop asking questions. All you have to do is show me where it is." Ms. All-Sunday told him which she noticed Luffy, Ace, and Ventus stared at her, causing her to stare back at them. "Your lucks beginning to run out, you certainly did try, but there's not much time left."
Until, Crocodile merged out of the rubble after the dust is cleared. Apparently, Crocodile is really mad of Luffy's tenacity for beating him which he's through playing around.
"You should get going now, Nico Robin! Unless you want to be dried up along with these brats!" Crocodile growled with pure rage. "Go, now! I'm done playing games!?"
"Nico Robin?!" Cobra exclaims shockingly.
"Yes, as you wish." Ms. All-Sunday replied when she realizes what he means as she walked away while dragging Cobra with her.
And with Ms. All-Sunday and Cobra out of sight, Crocodile slammed his hand against the ground.
"Listen up, Straw Hat, Fire Fist, Ventus, I'm going to destroy every rock on this ground! And you along with them!" Crocodile told them with a growl, smirking.
It got Luffy, Ace, and Ventus noticed that the ground is starting to dry out around him, turning it into a desert wasteland. Ventus sprouts his wings as he grabs hold of Ace and taking flight.
"Thanks." Ace thanked him, turns to the ground. "Damn, Crocodile isn't kidding! Looks like he's done playing around!"
"He's turning everything outside of the palace into wasteland." Ventus states.
"All the grass is dying!" Luffy exclaims shockingly as the ground is starting to crack, noticed the plants turned to dust.
"Ground Secco" Crocodile then makes the area around him crumble.
Soon as Luffy lost his footing, he was starting to fall, but quickly managed to gain his footing while hanging himself upside down.
"That was close! Water-Water: Pistol" Luffy then pumps his arms and spits water three times at Crocodile, but the warlord raises his hand and dries up the water. "His hand sucked it up!?"
"Shit!" Ace cursed with a glare.
"You actually think thought you can kill my powers, didn't you?! Water Luffy!" Crocodile mocks when Luffy climbed back to the ground.
'This is bad!?' Ventus mentally growled.
"That was a foolish mistake to make! The true power of sand is drying things out! Watch!" Crocodile said as he slowly placed his hand down to the ground again. "My right hand can suck the life out of anything by turning into dust! Its power is limitless!"
Suddenly, the ground is starting to shake as the sand erupts from the ground which it got both Ace and Ventus widen their eyes with a gasp and Luffy panicked. Crocodile then laughed with a sinister look on his face when one of the structures slowly turns into sand, including the Anubis statue as it tumbles down to the ground and turns into sand.
"He wasn't exaggerating! Even the statues are crumbling!" Luffy exclaims. "Everything is just...dying! Huh! My sandal!"
"Everything that is connected to the ground is done for, including you! Ground Death" Crocodile then starts speeding up the process of turning the ground into sand.
Meanwhile, the Straw Hat pirates were splitting up to find the bomb since they're running out of time. Neither of them were having any luck ever since Crocodile covered the square in dust devil and the battlefield continued to rage on.
"Okay, where is he?! Where's the cannoneer?!" Shanise shouts while she, Nami, and Chopper were running, looking for the cannoneer.
"Only 8 minutes left until the cannon goes off!" Chopper warned her.
"Well, it's gonna have to be enough time to find the cannoneer! We have to stop Crocodile's attack from happening, no matter what!" Nami points out seriously. "If we don't, then a million people are gonna die here today!"
Sanji and Ivan are rushing out of town to look for the cannoneer.
"If there's a cannonball that can blow up that big in area, it's got to come from a big cannon!" Sanji states.
"Yes, but the question is, where?" Ivan questions.
"Maybe it's in the building!" Sanji guessed as he and Ivan began searching inside of the buildings which so far, no luck. "Dammit!"
Zoro, Anna, and Usopp rush towards the battlefield to find the cannoneer, but the liar thought something.
"Oh crap, I just thought of something!" Usopp said.
"What?!" Anna demands.
"If this entire area is going to be blown in 8 minutes, then doesn't that mean we're going to be blown up right along with it?!" Usopp explains, panicking. "I don't like blowing up!"
"No time to think about that!" Zoro points out when he, Anna, and Usopp ran past the battlefield.
"Look! Up there!" Usopp shouts when he stops, pointing at the cannon. "That's it! But do you think we'll be able to get up there quickly enough?!"
Zoro and Anna didn't have time for second thoughts nor answer as they ran towards the battlefield, jumping from each soldier and leap up at the building.
"Why do they do that?!" Usopp shouts with a panic, try to catch up with them.
Zoro and Anna lands on the building as they rushed up the stairs, leaping up towards the palace wall to the building, and then lands on the wall when they noticed a bloodied royal guard.
"Are you...from the rebel army?"
"We can't waste any time with you." Zoro told him, turning his katana over to the blunt side. "Goodnight, pal."
And just like that, Zoro knocked the guard out before Usopp managed to catch up, but noticed the cannon.
"Now cut it up!" Usopp shouts.
However, both Zoro and Anna just growled in frustration, noticed that the cannon is very old and has cracks.
"This isn't it, it's covered in moss!" Zoro shouts, kicked the cannon which it tumbled down.
Pell flew towards the sky, looking for the cannoneer while watching the rebels and the royal army continued fighting each other.
'I don't see it anywhere. There's no sign at all of a cannon or cannoneer. I don't understand, where is it?' Pell mentally questions.
Vivi ran to look for the cannoneer while panting with exhaustion.
'Only 7 minutes left!' Vivi mentally thought, but stumbled and fallen down to the ground. "I'll stop it somehow! I will!"
Vivi then pulls herself up and continued running to look for the cannoneer.
Ms. All-Sunday kept dragging Cobra for the Poneglyph since he knows where it's hidden.
"Your name, he called you Nico Robin, is that really your name?" Cobra questions with a scowl on his face.
"What does it matter if it is?" Ms. All-Sunday counters with a question. "Don't you have more important things to worry about?"
"'Nico Robin', that name was known throughout the entire world 20 years ago." Cobra told her, which he was right. "Tell me, what did you come here for?"
"Just show where the Poneglyph has being kept. That's all you need to worry about right now." Ms. All-Sunday suggests, but it got her attention when the Marines are in front of them as they stopped. "What impeccable timing you Marines have, showing up right now. Get out of the way! We're in a hurry!"
"No chance!" Tashigi refused. "Thanks to one of the soldiers, I know everything that's been going on here in Alubarna! We're not moving! That man, do you have any idea who he is?!"
"Yes, and I don't care." Ms. All-Sunday answered bluntly. "I'm listening to him, you, or anyone else from the government. And I would strongly recommend that you and your men get out of my way."
"We have no intention of giving way to you!" Tashigi refuses again when she and the Marines readied their weapons.
"Well then, you may not live much longer." Ms. All-Sunday said with a glare, not in a mood for a fight.
"Please, hold on! Don't be worrying about me! We've been warned that at 4:30, the bomb is going be shot into the palace square where the fighting is going on!" Cobra warned them, leaving Tashigi widen her eyes in shock. "Please, you have to go stop it no!?"
"That's only...minutes from now!?" Tashigi exclaims, looking at her pocket watch.
"If this attack happens, it'll cost a million citizens their lives!" Cobra points out.
"Well, alright." Tashigi reluctantly replied, convinced. "We'll save you and then we stop the attack."
"Wait! You don't know who she is!" Cobra tried to warn them, but Tashigi readied her sword.
"Ready men!" Tashigi ordered, about to fight Ms. All-Sunday.
"Move out of my way! Treinta Fleur: Strangle" Ms. All-Sunday uses her Devil Fruit to sprout 30 arms from the Marines chest, choking them.
"A Devil Fruit?!" Tashigi exclaims in shock when she noticed the power of the Devil Fruit.
"I said I was in a hurry, didn't I? Don't make me angry with you!" Ms. All-Sunday threatened them with an angry glare as the Marines passed out. One of the Marines recognize who Ms. All-Sunday is.
"That's her! It's really...Nico Robin! I'm sure of it! I looked up her old wanted poster because Captain Smoker had asked me to do so! That's really her! She has a bounty...20 years ago, the whole world was talking about her. I still remember the articles that appeared in the newspaper around that time. In a terrifying incident, 6 Marine warships were destroyed. They said that an 8-year-old girl was responsible for sinking them. The Government classified her as first-degree risk and they put an incredible bounty on her head. 79 million berries! It's still an amazing sum! And after that, she just suddenly disappeared."
"STOP YOUR POINTLESS RAMBLING! EITHER MOVE OUT OF MY WAY OR YOU'RE ALL DEAD!? OKAY?!" Ms. All-Sunday yelled at the Marines.
'It's useless having this many soldiers fight her.' Tashigi mentally thought since the Marines won't stand a chance against her as she raises her arm. "Sergent, take your men and head to the square to stop the explosion!"
"But Sergent Major..."
"Just do it!" Tashigi ordered, turns her head to the Marine. "There's only minutes left!"
And with that, the Marines head for the square to find the bomb and try to stop the fight, leaving Tashigi along to face Ms. All-Sunday as she readied her sword.
"Now, let that man go right away!" Tashigi demands.
"I've already warned you to move!" Ms. All-Sunday growled as she decided to make a quick work by using her Devil Fruit power, sprouting four arm limbs to stop Tashigi by having two arms to cover her mouth and the other two points the sword next to the neck.
It left Tashigi helpless with her face pale when her sword was pointing at her neck.
The battlefield continues when the Marines entered the square to try and stop the fight while looking for the explosion.
Back at the palace, Luffy somehow managed to grab hold the top of the palace building, about to climb up with a grunt.
"That was bad! That right hand of his is going to be a big problem!" Luffy groans, looking down at the ground full of sand after Crocodile uses his Devil Fruit power. "The entire lawn has been turned into a desert. Aw great, where'd he go now?"
To answer that question, Crocodile appeared at the top of the palace out of nowhere after he turned himself into sand.
"I'm quite tired of wasting my time with you!?" Crocodile sneered with a sinister smirk on his face, grabs Luffy in the neck with his right hand.
Luffy tried to counter by spitting water three times which Crocodile simply dodges.
"Miss me." Crocodile mocks.
"Oh really? Heat Haze" Ace then shoots a stream of flames from the palm of hand, causing Crocodile to yell in pain while letting Luffy go.
Ventus flew towards Luffy as he managed to grab hold him.
"Whoa, thanks Ventus." Luffy thanked him.
"You really need to lose a couple of pounds!" Ventus points out in annoyance.
Crocodile then crashed down to the ground with a grunt, but he quickly turns himself into sand as he vanished himself, leaving Ace, Luffy, and Ventus alone in the palace.
That's it for the 55th chapter.