Musetta and her prisoners felt the brunt of another lightning bolt's worth of electricity. Once again, she reflexively retracted her chains. Some of the captives weren't as lucky this time, and dropped dead due to the shock. Ren and Puerco were fine, albeit a bit scorched.
As Musetta collected herself again, she said "oooooh… I'm gonna kill that guy with the backpack personally. Snap his neck! But first… Chain Gang!"
Another myriad of chains shot out of her sleeves, but this time she was interrupted by Schwarz and Zinnia tag teaming her. Zinnia swiped Ruth at her feet, while Schwarz went for a jumping kick to the back of her head. Musetta's eyes flashed red, and she avoided both with a front flip. She followed with her own leg sweep at Zinnia, which connected, and she followed further by kicking Zinnia into the wall while she was still in the air.
Schwarz, in kind, landed on his ass after his attack missed, but quickly found his footing again. "Zinnia, what the hell is this Observation Haki?!"
Zinnia unstuck herself from the wall and explained as she swung Ruth at Musetta, coating the snake with Armament Haki. Musetta, for her part, kept dodging and started bouncing off the air while firing off Tempest Kicks, which struck hapless prisoners when they missed Zinnia and Schwarz.
"Haki is the physical manifestation of one's willpower!"
Musetta retracted her chains, only able to maintain her focus on so many things at once.
"There are three types!" Zinnia shouted as Ruth tried to bite at Musetta, who kept dodging.
"Observation, Armament, and Conqueror's!"
Musetta shot forward at Zinnia and tried to grab at her throat, but Zinnia managed to avoid her by crouching in the nick of time.
"They all do a lot of different things, but what she is doing right now is using her Haki to see the future to avoid all our attacks!"
Musetta landed several yards behind Zinnia, and shot chains at her with her right hand.
Schwarz was flabbergasted at this explanation, flashing back to his fight with Princip. "That hardly seems fair!"
Zinnia and Ruth got wrapped up in chains, and Musetta started swinging them around, slamming them into the walls and floor. "Chain Flail!"
Zinnia got slammed headfirst into the floor, briefly knocking her unconscious as blood pooled around her head.
Musetta turned to Schwarz. "It's a fight, comrade! Everything's fair!"
Zinnia eventually regained consciousness, and began struggling to her feet, all while rubbing her bleeding head. Ruth began slithering along the ground to Musetta's location.
Schwarz dropped through a portal and opened one above Musetta's head. Musetta was not amused, her eyes flashing red as she was grabbing his ankle and slamming him into the ground as hard as she could. Ren started creeping forward, pulling out her flash grenade.
"Do you see what happens when you challenge Minus World, comrade?!" Musetta shouted as she stomped on Schwarz's gut, causing him to hack up more blood. "You're no match for me! You're no match for Dear Leader! And you're certainly no match for von Esens!"
As Ruth drew closer and closer, Musetta's eyes flashed red again. She noticed Ruth… and she noticed Ren with her grenade.
"What do you think you're doing, girl?" Musetta asked.
Ren said nothing and just chucked the grenade. Musetta shot chains out to snatch the grenade out of the air, but it was too late. The bomb exploded with a BANG! that could wake the dead, and a flash brighter than the sun. Everyone in the greenhouse was stunned, including Musetta, who was too distracted to keep her Haki on.
As Musetta came back to her senses, she caught Ruth slithering up to her. But it was too late; before her brain could even process the information fully, Ruth had sunk her fangs into Musetta's leg.
Musetta howled in pain and collapsed to her knees as Ruth slithered back to her owner. She pulled up her pant leg to see that her leg was beginning to turn purple, spreading outward from the site where Ruth bit her.
"YOU! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" Musetta shouted.
"Ruth's fangs secrete a powerful neurotoxin capable of disabling most targets instantly. More likely than not, you will need to have that leg amputated, ma'am," Zinnia explained as Ruth coiled around her.
Musetta struggled to her feet as Schwarz and Zinnia surrounded her, both cracking their knuckles.
"Damn! I can't believe I need backup!" Musetta thought, reaching into her breast pocket for her baby transponder snail. Unfortunately for her, the poor thing had been fried to death by Johnson's electricity.
"Shit!" Musetta exclaimed as Schwarz and Zinnia drew closer.
"Where's my sword, 'comrade'?" Schwarz asked.
"You think you've beaten me?! You think you've beaten Minus World?!" Musetta shouted defiantly. "This fight has only just begun! I'm gonna get Dear Leader and the other officers! And they're gonna beat you up!"
Musetta held her hand out and shot chains to the lights, then pulled herself to them. She swung from light to light until she swung upward to the entrance of the greenhouse. Schwarz was having none of it, though. He spawned a hole under his feet and one at the exit, then teleported up right in front of it. As Musetta landed, Schwarz punched his palm in a threatening manner.
"I said, 'where's my sword'?!"
Musetta's leg buckled from the pain of Ruth's poison, and she began huffing and puffing. "I'm not scared of you, pretty boy! Even with my leg messed up, I can still take you!"
She shot chains out of her sleeve, but Schwarz fell through another portal, avoiding the attack. He spawned above her, and went for another heel drop, but Musetta simply stood still and said "Iron Body".
Schwarz's foot collided with her head, and he wound up hurting himself. As he dropped to the scaffold, clutching his foot in pain, Musetta shook her head and simply said "you really need to learn Haki, comrade. You'll never be strong without it." And with that, she hobbled out the exit.
—-
After Lulupo patched up Roxanne's belly, they began their combat practice. He set up a combat dummy in front of her, standing six feet tall, a bit taller than Roxanne, who stood 5'6".
"Alright, darling, a core component of Oh Come My Way Kenpo is high kicking. Now, your legs are decently long compared to the rest of you, but you yourself are not particularly tall."
"I'm average height!" Roxanne complained, hands on her hips.
"Darling, normal humans can be nearly thirty feet tall," Lulupo responded, cocking his eyebrow, not even noting how he was nearly three feet taller than her. "And that's if you go up against a human. There are also giants in this world who average a hundred feet tall, sometimes many times bigger."
"Oh…"
"Right now, just try and get your leg high enough to kick this dummy in the face. We can work on jumping and spinning later, darling."
Roxanne nodded, held up her fists, and started practicing her high kicks. She couldn't do it most of the time, but eventually, with some exertion, she got there.
"Excellent, Roxanne, darling! You're getting it!" Lulupo cheered, clapping his hands.
Once again, Roxanne bent over, grabbing her knees while huffing and puffing. "Hah… hah…"
She collected herself and stood up straight. "Lulupo… I'm really tired… I can't beat the creepy princess girl if my body gives out from overexertion before we even meet again…"
"You do have a point, darling. You've worked really hard today. I'm proud of you!"
Roxanne plopped her butt on the ground and pulled out her hip flask. As she chugged, Lulupo sat down next to her.
"You know, darling, it would be better to get water instead of hard liquor after a workout."
Roxanne kept chugging. "Firewater is my water."
Lulupo stared at her blankly, then said "well, let's hope your liver doesn't give out before the rest of you."
—
Shaska and Johnson saw Ren's flash grenade go off in the distance.
"That must be where my employees are!" Shaska said, taking off toward the greenhouse ship in the center of the collective. Johnson took off after her, assuming his full ostrich form to keep up with her much longer strides.
"Wait, Shaska, how do you know?"
"Because that's where we saw the chains coming from…?" Shaska responded, slightly confused. "And there's this one girl who carries grenades; she told me as such earlier that she had flash grenades!"
Shaska's eyes flashed red as she looked toward the greenhouse in the distance; she could make out the silhouettes of her crew fighting. Shortly after, Musetta made her escape, swinging out of the greenhouse to the next ship over by her chains.
"Looks like they made the chain user retreat," Shaska said, blowing smoke.
"What's the plan, then?" Johnson asked.
"Let's meet up with the rest of the crew first; we're sure to run into this 'Dear Leader' of theirs eventually."
Johnson nodded, and the two took off for the greenhouse in the center of the complex.
—-
As Gattamelata ran past, screaming about the end times for the complex, Musetta hobbled into the ship next to the one with the greenhouse, an old pirate ship with a tomato (of all things) and crossbones on its mast. Out front was a guard carrying a rifle.
"Comrade Musetta!" the red and gold-clad guard exclaimed. "Are you okay, ma'am?"
Musetta winced from the immense pain she was in, but kept on trucking, pushing the guard out of the way. "I'm fine," she growled.
She headed below the decks and into the main room of the ship, the Señora Pomodoro. It was a very tall galley. This galley served as the meeting room for the officers of the Mercury Collective, and, in stark contrast to the poverty of the rest of the collective and its starving citizens' bland clothing, the galley was VERY ornately decorated and filled to the brim with all kinds of food. In the back was a garish golden throne, and seated on the throne was a stunningly beautiful red-skinned woman. She stood twelve feet tall, had long, pin-straight black hair, as well as horns on her forehead and tusks in her jaw. The only blemish from her beauty was a peculiar pig-like nose. She wore a short, but ornate black dress.
The red woman sat casually, using Schwarz's sword, Tizona, as a paring knife for an apple. She tossed the apple down her throat, and followed with a high-pitched "Nyehehehehehe… Comrade Musetta! Thanks for bringing this awesome sword! You're serving me-I mean the collective-well!"
She looked at her reflection in the sword and said "nyeh, it's too thin," before casually tossing the billion berry sword away and pulling out a hand mirror. She stared at herself in the mirror adoringly, stroking her hair and admiring every detail of her face, including her pig nose, horns, and tusks.
"Comrade Musetta, who's the most beautiful, gorgeous, perfect being on the Grand Line?"
Musetta smiled through the pain, "why, Dear Leader Mandy, of course!"
Mandy stood up and brushed her hair back, then approached Musetta. "Now, tell me, Comrade Musetta…"
She grabbed Musetta by the collar and held her up, then growled "why are you not at the greenhouse?!"
"Dear Leader Mandy…" Musetta began, hearts in her eyes despite the massive amount of pain she was in. "There's been an incident at the greenhouse! Ow… a few malcontents are-"
"So, a few malcontents show up in the greenhouse and you turn tail?!"
Mandy slammed Musetta into the wall and whispered in her ear "you're lucky you do that thing with your chains, or else you'd be useless to me." Musetta's expression changed from one of fear to once again having hearts in her eyes.
Mandy dropped her subordinate, who promptly howled in pain when her bad leg hit the ground. Mandy paid no attention to this, and said "I'll call the other officers. Von Esens won't like it if his first 'utopia' attempt outside the Twilight Kingdom goes up in flames."
She paused for a second and thought. "The price for failure with him is death… I gotta make this work until the time comes for Mandy to take the crown!"
After a moment's pondering, Mandy grabbed the transponder snail receiver. The snails in the greenhouse, the arms factory, the food bank, and the jail where the political prisoners too weak to work were kept all woke up.
"Nyehehehe… this is Dear Leader. Officers, get your imperfect asses to the Señora Pomodoro NOW."
The message was received, and within minutes, the officers from the arms factory, the food bank, and the jail filed into the Pomodoro's galley.
Besides Musetta (who was still in immense pain), there were three other officers for the Mercury Collective: Phil, a fifteen foot stingray fishman who ran the jail, Eclair, a robot who resembled a fish schoolgirl who stood only five feet tall who ran the arms factory, and Setzer, who stood nine feet tall and ran the food bank. All were dressed in red and gold uniforms (unlike Musetta, who still wore her Marine fatigues). Phil carried a large, gear-shaped shield on his back and had a pompadour. He was odd-looking, having greasy skin and a patchy beard, but he was incredibly attractive by fish people standards (not to humans, though).
"Nyehehehehehe…" Mandy began. "Comrades, I'm sure you're perfectly aware of why I gathered you here."
The four officers exchanged glances, Musetta still in horrendous pain and wincing.
"Do… Do you want me to explain, Dear Leader?" Musetta asked.
"You haven't worshiped me enough today!" Mandy declared.
Phil immediately fell to his hands and knees and exclaimed "I'm so, so sorry, Dear Perfect Leader! All glory to Dear Perfect Leader Mandy!"
"Beep boop, the time to worship Dear Leader still is not for another seven hours and fourteen minutes," Eclair said in a monotone voice.
"Oh, and there's malcontents in the greenhouse, I guess…" Mandy added nonchalantly.
"Malcontents? But the people here know better than to revolt at this point!" Setzer said. His eyes flashed red, and he got a scan of the area with his Observation Haki. "Hm… those aren't any ordinary malcontents!"
"Hah… hah… they're strong… they're new here…" said Musetta, barely hanging on to consciousness at this point. "They did this to me…"
She rolled up her pant leg to reveal her wounded leg, which was now completely purple and oozing with pus at the site where Ruth bit her.
"Oh, how disgusting…" Setzer said, trying not to vomit.
"A-ha! A-ha! Serves you right, meatbag!" Eclair laughed.
"Don't just stand there, you imperfect idiots!" Mandy shouted. "Go stop them!"
"At once, Dear Perfect Leader!" Phil exclaimed, shooting back to his feet.
"If Von Esens finds out we let a bunch of imperfect malcontents dismantle the collective, then he'll kill all of us, but most importantly, me!" Mandy said. "And if that happens, then I won't be able to perfectly execute him the second he takes Marie Jois and perfectly take the throne for my perfect self!"
"Yes, Dear Perfect Leader!" said Phil.
"Beep boop, Dear Leader, Comrade Meatbag, I mean Comrade Musetta, is stronger than all of us except your Perfection, and she is clearly almost dead, boop," Eclair interjected.
"Nyehe, she'll be fine," Mandy said dismissively.
Mandy's eyes flashed red, getting a feel for the malcontents at the greenhouse's power.
"Hm. They do look a lot stronger than the average imperfect person here," she said. "Alright, I'll join you. It's been a while since the hoi polloi bowed before me directly anyway."
Musetta struggled to maintain consciousness.
"Comrade Musetta, you're coming too. I'm too perfect to do all the fighting myself, so use your Chain Chain powers to hold them down."
"Y-yes… Dear Leader…" Musetta choked out with a weak salute.
—-
As Mandy was giving the orders to her subordinates, Shaska and Johnson arrived at the greenhouse. There, they found the rest of the crew (sans Roxanne and Lulupo) being surrounded by the starving citizens of the collective. The prisoners were congratulating them, though they were too weak to hoist them on their shoulders.
"Hip hip, hooray!" they exclaimed.
"I hate to spoil the mood," Shaska announced at the top of the stairs. "But we still have a 'Dear Leader' to actually defeat. I'm sensing a few powerful presences on the next ship over."
The mood was spoiled.
TO BE CONTINUED