The 24 pirates met up as planned. April and Stripes had a quick conversation before both submerging down into the sea to go on and find a ship for the crew to take back to land. Rustage was breathing deeply as he attempted to focus. He was sitting down on a platform and had 14 more out. He was controlling about 150 cards and they all had to support much more weight going up an altitude he had never gone up before. He was nervous but confident he could make it. Melody on the other hand was very relaxed. She placed her hands on the side of the mountain, her suction cups held her up rather effortlessly. She climbed up a little before really activating her fruit. From her rib cage down, she started to grow tentacles She sent one to Nux and one to mouse, latching onto both of them and lifting them up easily. Using her remaining four tentacles and two arms she started climbing. Roger turns his hand into acid and makes them as acidic as he could. Luckily they were strong enough to instantly make hand holds for him. Brigss just started climbing, no rope or anything, just put one hand and foot in front of the other. Ohara made a fairly large buzz saw and got on top of it. Joel also, like Briggs, just started climbing effortlessly. It was as if gravity didn't even apply to him when he was climbing. As the others got onto Rustage's cards they started to ascend
The first hour or two was rather easy for the pirates. Even though they could really move on Rusatge's cards they still felt fairly comfortable speaking to each other. Melody wasn't finding much trouble, she had two arms and four legs which she interchanged when the others got tired. Roger was making good speed while Briggs was trying to stay above everyone else. Joel was climbing effortlessly.
"Tekking, where the hell did you find that kid?" Animak asked. Tekking turned to look at him, he stopped to think.
"A few months ago I just found him on an Island and he started following me around. I asked him if he wanted to join me and he nodded"
"That was it ? No interview or drink at the tavern together?" Animak probed
"To be honest, I've never heard him say a word" Tekking said while shrugging.
Kor, who was rather curious about the masked boy, reached out and grabbed a rock. He chucked it at the boy's head as hard as he could. A straight collision that made a loud cracking sound rung out, but Joel just kept going.
"He's weird isn't he? Joyboy did the same thing to him and he didn't react back then either" Saige interjected. Kor looked back at the fake bunny girl who had the same sword he did. He was going to throw another rock but Animak told him not to. Connor was whistling a little melody to himself while Jones was also snapping along with it. Dana tried to clap every once in a while but her absolute lack of rhythm proved difficult. Whenever she missed a beat, Daisy would scoff in a condescending manner. The two argued while Jones and Connor tried to ignore them. They were successful for the most part, Rustage on the other hand was feeling his eye twitch from the commotion his crew was causing.
Another hour had passed and the top was close, but the pirates weren't doing the best. Roger greatly underestimated the height of the mountain and found that even with the acid, the trip was harder than he would have liked to admit. Melody was doing fine, her system of switching limbs was good, Nux's jokes and spastic activation of his devil fruit didn't really help her though. Suddenly the buzz saw Ohara was riding on disappeared. He opened his mouth to scream, but found one of Melody's tentacle's grabbing him.
"Rustage! I think this fox guy is beat, can ya make another platform for him?" Melody chirped. Rustage really couldn't, he was barely keeping up the current passengers. He didn't even hear Melody's request, he was sweating profusely and sitting as still as he could. Briggs climbed down and slung Ohara over his back. The climb was never really that hard for him. He had barley broken a sweat and his armour pants hadn't really slowed him down at all. On the cards, the group hadn't made it easy for rustage to relax. Connor had really hit a sour note with Saige. They were glaring at each other. They even snapped once or twice, hurling quick insults. Hiding and Animak were discussing political philosophy. The conversation was very long and it seemed as though they wanted to start their own government. King, Kor and Evan were playing a game where they had to name words relating to the sea and the word they said had to start with the same letter as the last letter in the previous word. Evan often lost after about 25 rounds and would curse out loud.
Despite all the struggles, the crew made it to the top. However there was no rest for the wicked, Rusatge said if he stopped making the platforms he would not be able to make them again for a while. So instead of stopping, Rustage just made the platforms lower at great speed. Melody jumped down quickly, sticking onto the wall when she felt she was falling too fast. Briggs also jumped down, jamming his blade into the side when he wanted to slow down, Roger did the same only with his acid instead of a knife. Joel just jumped, not bothering to try and slow himself down.
As they got near the bottom and they could all see the ship they stopped. They were high enough to where they could see the ship but it was doubtful that anyone on the ship could see them. There was something wrong though. Hiding pulled out his telescope and said,
"How come there are people on the ship". The pirates were silent. Eyes all turning to look at Rustage who was sweating even more now.
"Captain, when you told April to get us a ship...you did inform her that the ship had to be devoid of witnesses?" Daisy asked with her face in her palm. She knew his answer before he could even start opening his mouth.
"It may have slipped my mind," Rustage said through gritted teeth. "Wait, Roger. Where's your fishman?" It was Roger's turn to be under the critical gaze of everyone else. April was rather large and hence would find clearing a crew of its occupants difficult. Stripes was normal sized though so he should have made quick work of it.
"Captain, If I may be so bold, did you get tired of trying to explain the job to Stripes and instead just told him to listen to the Cyper pirate's mermaid?" Hiding asked. Roger didn't answer. He didn't have to, everyone knew the answer. Hiding sighed. It was a pirate ship at least and not a marine vessel.
"Well...Let's not waste any time" Briggs said rather casually as he threw Ohara in the air who created another buzz saw blade to ride on. Briggs then leaped off the ledge and fell down onto the ship. Melody leaped off two, though she did get closer to the boat before leaping. Briggs landed on the boat, instantly shattering both of his legs and decimating his pelvis. He hit the deck hard and rolled towards the pirate captain. He grabbed his ankle before he could pass out and the captain's legs burst out in a sea of blood. Briggs leaped onto his legs and laughed. He grabbed his axe. A pirate was about to lop off his head from behind when a beam of plasma penetrated him. Nux was sitting on the railing of the ship with his finger glowing blue and an exhausted melody right next to him. Mouse was charging into battle, swinging her club with baseless fury. Nux's slimmer robot arm could project plasma in his pointer finger and shoot. It could still cover itself in plasma but it would get rid of its human looking exterior. The three pirates then slaughtered every pirate on board with no mercy. Nux was cackling like a mad man as he used a random sword to hack through men who were on their knees, struck with fits of uncontrollable laughter. Briggs didn't need to use his fruit as no man could even come close to leaving a scratch on him. Mouse, mamed the pirates beyond description. The ship was theirs and now they could go and kill a tenryuubito.