Gathering of Arms!

To the Fight!

Melanie had managed to get to the ship in time. She was tired, she wasn't asking them for help. She was just telling them about their captain. The two of them would simply sail down to the Underground Rally Arena together and stop them, they were both acting in their best interests...it was just a coincidence that their best interests collided.

Melanie stepped onto the ship. She heard her foot hit the plank, it sounded loud. She flinched as the rest of the crew flooded to the plank to see their captain return victorious. The entire group paused as they looked down the plank at Melanie. They all turned away, disappointed. Most of them left, leaving only Ridley standing there staring down at her. Ridley noticed that her leg was still injured. He sighed and began to go down to help her up. Melanie pushed past him refusing his offer for help. She walked up to the top of the ship, "Mikoto's been kidnapped!"

Despite all of the crew's previous disinterest in her, they all turned around and gave her their full attention, "what do you mean, he's been kidnapped?" asked Zesiro, "Mikoto's not the kind to get kidnapped, even by a Shichibukai."

"He was!" shouted Melanie as he stomped her foot down on the ground. She grimaced as she felt the pain go through it once more. "Trevor and him were fighting and Mikoto's must've lost!" She didn't find it all too surprising, she lost to him after all. No matter how strong Mikoto was, there was no way he could beat her or even worse beat someone who beat her. She wouldn't accept it. He was just a run-of-the-mill pirate and nothing more. She was the number one pirate on the sea.

"How do we know this isn't a trap?" asked Enma. He had already tried to fix Melanie once. He tried being nice to her and she refused to accept it, people like that rarely ever try to help other people out like this. In the end he had absolutely no faith in someone like her. He would protect the crew at costs and based on Melanie's limp, it would be fairly easy to protect them from her.

"I'm not lying! You got to believe!" demanded Melanie as she took a step forward towards Enma, "I would never work with that bastard! I'm just trying to screw over Trevor! That's my goal! Nothing else! And if he decided to kidnap Mikoto then I want you to go out there and stop him. Ruin whatever it is that he is trying to accomplish! I'm just going out to beat Trevor and ruin his day! He's taking Mikoto the the Underground Rally Arena!"

"We don't even know if you are telling the truth!" pointed out Enma, "for all we know Mikoto is still on this island. If we leave now we could be leaving him all alone on this island for the bounty hunters on this island to hunt down...he'll eventually get worn down."

"We're leaving," said Ridley standing up and turning around. "Hiro-Shu go to the store and get us an Eternal Log Pose for the Underground Rally Arena. As soon as he gets back we are leaving. We are going to save Mikoto."

"Are you insane?" asked Sage as she walked up to Ridley and jabbed him in the chest. "Enma just said we could be leaving him here and you say let's go? I thought you at least liked Mikoto! I thought you trusted him not to lose!" Sage stood up tall in front of Ridley. The rest of the crew shared a similar look of disappointment for Ridley.

"I think you are all forgetting something," said Ridley as he looked around at them. "I was his first nakama! I've fought with him twice! Only other person on this ship to ever fight with Mikoto is Zesiro! I know Mikoto...and as much as I hate to admit it...I know Mikoto's limits. Mikoto fought with my dad before, remember? Mikoto lost that fight and the more and more I think about it...the more and more I'm convinced that Trevor is even stronger then my dad. They are both cold-blooded killers, but the difference in their skill is obvious...

"My dad relies on pure brute force to overpower his opponents. To attack and keep on attacking eventually beating them into the ground until they can't move...that's my dad, sounds pretty dangerous, right? Well, Trevor is even more so. Unlike my dad who uses sheer power, Trevor uses sheer power along with technique. My dad is only capable of punching, while Trevor can do that and more. His entire body is a sword," pointed out Ridley. "Since Mikoto lost to my dad, I'm not surprised he lost to Trevor."

The crew all shared a similar look of worry now. While both Maria and Enma never met Ridley's dad, Ridley seemed to completely hate him. Not only that, but apparently he once took on the entire crew...and won. A man like that must be incredibly powerful. Not only that, but Ridley had an immense hate for that man. He hated him in every way and as a result Ridley fully believed that his dad was an unstoppable monster. If he admitted that there was someone out there capable of beating that monster, a monster that was even more unstoppable then that...he meant it.

"Hmm...fine," said Hiro-Shu agreeing with Ridley. Besides if he had to go out to the middle of town just to get the Eternal Pose for the island, he could look around for Mikoto. If he didn't see him or hear anything about him, it would be obvious that Mikoto really did leave, so they should leave as a result. Besides Hiro-Shu did have a pretty ominous feeling now.

"I'll go with you," said Zesiro as he tried to stand up, but Enma forced him back down. "What? I was capable of fighting! I took down a bounty hunter already...I'm more then ready to go into the fight once more. So, let me go off with Hiro-Shu. I can help him out by taking out any annoying bounty hunters. The two of us can handle anyone on this island, so let me go."

"No," stated Enma. "If we really intend to go to an island prized for their fighters, we are going to need all of our fighters at the top of their game. In which case we need you, Hiro-Shu, and Maria to be at full power. Me, Sage, and Ridley would be better off in the supporting stand. I'm not too worried about Hiro-Shu being beaten up as he is basically an iron wall, you are lucky if you can scratch him. You on the other hand tend to get injured fairly easily. Hiro-Shu will be more then enough for any bounty hunters out there."

Zesrio grumbled a bit, but accepted his fate. He was starting to feel like his power was starting to increase dramatically. He was just getting better and better as the time passed. Part of him was actually anticipating landing on the Underground Rally Arena. If he was right then his power was still growing even more and at the Underground Rally Arena his strength would probably increase even more. If he remembered correctly, Daimyo had a Douriki of 3300...and according to Daimyo Zesirio's was just above 1500...if Zesiro had to guess, probably somewhere in 1600's maybe even 1700 based on how Daimyo beat him. But with the way Zesiro was feeling now he felt closer to 2000 and he knew his power was still increasing beyond that. He'd eventually overpower even Daimyo's power of 3300.

(-a few hours later-)

Hiro-Shu had returned from the shop a few hours later. Other then just the Eternal Log Pose for the Underground Rally Arena they had several other pieces of memorabilia for it. It was actually kind of creepy. The winners of the island were actually highly praised and revered as incredible heroes in the modern world. It was liking normal fighting matches, except it took even that to an extreme. Since they were mostly fought between pirates and a few other more legitimate fighters, even if they died most people just shrugged it off. People have very little sympathy for pirates. It was slightly eerie that they were sailing to the one island that sent dozens of pirates to their graves in the name of entertainment and fun.

The crew had set sail as soon as Hiro-Shu got back. They were all regretful when they decided to leave and a lot of them still debated about leaving the island, but they decided they had no better option. They all just ended up trusting Ridley. He may not be the official first mate in any of their eyes, but they still trusted him for some reason. He seemed confident in Melanie...besides with Melanie sailing with them they basically had a hostage. They couldn't sink them without sinking her. They weren't exactly proud of it, but they did what was needed to be done. She was sitting still in silent disapproval of the entire event completely, but going with them was the quickest path to take down Trevor.

"I can't believe we are sailing to the island famed for killing pirates," muttered Sage. "Do we even know anything about the island that we are sailing to? I mean, other then the island's terrible reputation?" Sage looked around to the rest of her crew. The majority of the crew, even Hiro-Shu and Zesiro, two of the crew members that actually researched islands, shrugged.

Maria cleared her throat. "I've been there before. It is a huge draw for fighting fans, so several of my fights have been there in the past...and I've won them all," bragged Maria. The rest of the crew didn't seem to be all too interested in her victories. Maria sighed and continued talking, "the island was once like any other island, but rumor has it that a great meteor came crashing down ripping into the island and forming an incredibly deep crater. Over many, many years the island slowly became smaller and smaller in size. So, now its basically shaped like a giant pit. The Underground Rally Arena is on the bottom floor of the island."

"Following that the island is extremely cold as well," continued Maria, "even if you ignore the fact that this is a Winter Island we are going to, you run into the next problem of the island. The fact that the lowest level of the island is beneath the ocean only makes it even colder. There are rumors of pirates even freezing to death while they are heading down to the bottom floor of the island."

The crew all shared a similar look of fear as they began to think about the idea. This island was probably one of the deadliest islands in the Grand Line. Its hard to think of an island that was more terrifying then one filled with thousands of pirates itching for a fight, the island was also ruled by a Shichibukai, and it was freezing called. The island was scared the crap out of most sailors.

"If we plan on getting there and getting out with all of our lives then we are going to need to be at our absolute best," said Rosa as she walked up in between them as they talked. "But it certainly is a lovely day today, isn't it?"

"What?" shouted Ridley as he jumped back, noticing for the first time that Rosa was still on their ship. "What are you doing here! This mission is for Infinity Pirates and Infinity Pirates only...and Melanie, but she's more of an insurance plan than anything else! Bounty Hunters were supposed to remain on the island!" Rosa's tiger walked up to Ridley and roared ferociously into his ear. "FINE!" screamed Ridley as he jumped back away from the tiger, "as first mate of the Infinity Pirates I now officially dub Rosa and her tiger friend as honorary pirates! If anyone on the crew has a problem with that they can take it up with me!"

"Agreed," said Enma. His trust for Rosa was still small, but as far as he was concerned she did try her absolute best to help them out and tell them about Trevor, even if she was late. Other then that it would be nice to have as much help as possible for this mission. There is no telling how much trouble Mikoto would be in at all. Enma started to head down to the infirmary once more, "I'm going to be working on something until we arrive at the island. So, until then try not to accidentally injure yourselves."

The crew shrugged it off and headed in opposite directions. Their next destination was going to be their ultimate goal. For the time being they were going to put their dreams on hold, in order to rescue their precious captain.

(-meanwhile aboard Trevor's ship-)

"Ku ku ku ku!" laughed Trevor with a mean smile on his face. He had heard from some of the people on the island through his Den-Den Mushi that the Infinity Pirates were heading off after him. He laughed at the prospect of them chasing him down. He had to thoroughly thank Melanie the next time he saw her, she delivered his message to them and now he would have over five new animals to hunt down and kill, things couldn't have turned out better.

He paused though and stopped laughing. Something had happened though that made him think. That Ridley punk. He made him think back to his old partner, Karasu Blackwell. He hated to admit it, but he was starting to remember the old days with the crew. Even as cold hearted as he was, he still remembered the days with the crew fondly. He had spoken with Karasu on several occasions, but each of them had been business transactions and frightfully short. He wondered if the bait that the Infinity Pirates found so enticing would be as equally enticing to Karasu. He smiled as he moved over to the Den-Den Mushi and called Karasu. It would be nice to see his captain one more time.

An Unexpected Interruption!

The Three Guards!

Well, my arm is almost all better. Its still hurts, but nothing major. Luckily, I thought ahead and already had most of this chapter (well...half) written before I injured it. So, I was able to put it up. Next up, on the list of things I should talk about is the new cover for this story that I shall try to put up (I never tried to put it up before and with the previous problems I had with polls, you never know.) This cover image was done by Shadow40000. I added the words above it to make it follow the guidelines. This will serve as a place-holder until either I or another reader does something better.

Next up, if you remember quite a few chapters back I mentioned how psyched I am for the next arc. I personally believe the next arc will be the high point of Infinity Pirates. And for those of you thinking "Mikoto was kidnapped. Karasu will make an appearance. He's already done everything that can make this arc exciting"...you are all very, very, very VEERRRRRRYYYYY wrong.