Starting the Escape!
Ridley breathed heavily as he was trying to get ready for the raid. Maria seemed aloof and distant ever since she got back from her fight. Ridley didn't quite understand what was up, he found it hard that just beating up on some kids would make her like that. He tried to shrug it off and keep focused, but she was their main fighter. If something went wrong than they were in deep trouble. It would be him, Simon, and Maria invading the base of psychotic Shichibukai. It wasn't the happiest day of his life.
"If you guys need me, just let me know," stated Zesiro as he fitted his second replacement sword around his waist. He was going to be fighting in the semi-finals now after this, he would either be fighting Maria or Mashiba…that was if their plan failed and ideally it wouldn't. "I can quit this fight and just focus on helping you guys break Mikoto out."
"That would be a dead give-away," explained Ridley, "if no one on our crew fought Trevor would definitely become suspicious and think we are up to something. You are our decoy, just fight, kill, and stall for time. Try to keep him busy and interested in the fight for as long as possible. If worse comes to worse, raise some Kane and ruin the business."
Zesiro shrugged and turned to his support. The two Fishman brothers were of course going to see him off and to the locker room. Zesiro didn't mind fighting and leaving the freeing of Mikoto, but the real problem was he was starting to feel the Marine's grip. They were watching them fight and walk around, they were sizing up the new Shichibukai and his crew. And he didn't like that fact…he felt like they were spending more time thinking about how to kill them rather than support them.
However, he still had another two matches to worry through, he got up and left, heading to the locker room. He had no reason to sit around and wait for, he just needed to leave and then win. Hopefully, after today they'll be able to leave. This place was starting to become filled with bad memories.
Ridley sighed and looked over to Enma and Rosa. They were just to keep an eye on the ship, make sure Trevor's men didn't try something as underhanded as sinking their ship while they were out. Plus someone had to watch both Hiro-Shu and Sage. Neither one of them should be left alone while they were in this state.
"Let's go!" shouted Ridley leaping off of the ship and onto the ground. "We don't have enough time to wait around." He looked around and saw their Marine buddies waiting in the docks. He would've just shrugged and left like he normally did as they went for walks around the arena like everyone else did. He imagined that Marines did it more often than others, but he couldn't help but notice them standing there. That was because there was another fifty or so other people standing around, a crowd of people standing around doing nothing, but waiting.
It was like seeing a flock of crows gathered in one place. There was a certain ominous look to the large gathering of people. He felt like he should just keep walking, but he felt nailed to the ground, something horrible was going to happen and it was going to happen soon. "We really got no time to waste." He remembered the threat they had about the Buster Call. He definitely didn't want to be around when that went down.
He looked over at their 'allies' for the time being. Neither of them seemed to be in a good mood, he met eyes with the masked man and he simply thumped Valerie in the ribs and attracted her attention. Ridley frowned as he moved forward, signaling for Maria and Simon to follow. Just three average pirates walking out to enjoy the bloody battles of the Arena.
Simon and Maria seemed to have a similar feeling as they waded through the sea of Marines and into the door. As it currently stood that door was probably the only thing that separated the Marines and the pirates, even worse it was the only thing separating them from jail.
"So, where is this young lad who is yer captain?" asked Simon following the group closely. "And my son? Did you say you found them together?"
Ridley grimaced. He still hasn't found Simon's son, he was still up in the air and Ridley felt horrible about lying to him, especially about something like this. However, in the end he'd rather save Mikoto than save no one at all. At least that was his excuse. "Yeah…yeah, but they may have moved him," stuttered Ridley, "you know, after mine and Melanie's last intrusion. It is questionable whether or not Mikoto'll still be there."
As he said those words, he realized how truly questionable it was. Trevor wasn't an idiot…he was a sociopath and all that, but he truly wasn't stupid. He probably would've moved Mikoto…or maybe he'd increase security around him. It made him wonder if they should step into the arena first and look around, see if Trevor, Duncan, and the rest of the URA staff were around in there. If not, Ridley could place a bet on where they would be. He just hoped his senses were wrong on everything today. He hoped that the Buster Call wasn't going to happen and that Mikoto wasn't going to be guarded. However, it seemed like life was never quite that easy. It was more filled with danger and trouble than the gold and women he was promised.
"Let's get Mikoto and…er, Drew and go," Ridley stated quickly. Once more his primary objective was grabbing Mikoto. True he had originally planned on getting Drew and collecting on the large reward Simon had promised, but now with those Marines standing outside like vultures he just wanted to keep his life. Money was secondary.
They stalked through the building, admittedly there wasn't much there. Ridley was actually surprised, if anything they actually dropped the security since he had been there last. There wasn't nearly as many people patrolling as there had been. He just had to hope that that didn't mean they were just concentrated in one spot.
Ridley spotted the door a little further down the hall. He crossed his fingers one last time and signaled to Maria. Maria nodded and went forward. She was feeling a little better since yesterday's fight, she was raring for another one. Ridley was kind of surprised she didn't ask to stay here. She seemed to love fighting and the arena was the perfect place to do so, he guessed the news of the Buster Call seemed to dampen the offer.
Maria was still troubled; Trevor's offer was still in the back of her mind no matter how much she tried to shake it free. It was there no matter how much she tried to push it away. It would continuously pop up and remind her of what she wanted, she wanted to fight strong opponents. Sure the Infinity Pirates was one way to go about it, but was it really the best or the quickest? She didn't have time to think about it, she knew one thing was for sure and that was that she liked Mikoto a whole lot better than Trevor.
She brought her foot up and smashed it into the door, just above the doorknob. The door broke open, swinging widely and the trio poured in. Ridley stopped instantly, taking only a few moments to examine what was going on. Mikoto and Melanie were both locked up and he paused for a precious second examining them to make sure Trevor didn't strap a bomb to their chests.
"Let's go!" shouted Ridley, signaling to Simon.
Simon stopped for a second and just looked at the cage. "Where's me BOY!?" Simon shouted spinning around and grabbing a hold of Ridley's collar and lifting him into the air. Ridley was surprised. One, that a man about a good foot and a half shorter than him could possibly lift him off of the ground and two, that he could possibly sound as ticked as Simon did.
"I told you, they probably moved him!" defended Ridley as he struggled free.
"MOVE! Why would they move me boy, but leave yer captain sitting there as fresh as a daisy!" Simon roared, "you are the ones who stumbled upon this place, not me! Why would he hide my son, but leave yer captain here! I thought somethin' fishy was going on the moment I met you! You thought you could pull a fast one on me simply because I'm dwarven? I'll show you otherwise!" Simon pulled his pickaxe free from his belt and aimed it at Ridley's head. "I'll show ya!"
Simon was about to bring his diamond pick-axe forward and create a brand new hole in Ridley's head and he would've, if Maria hadn't stepped in and grabbed a hold of it. She was amazed by Simon's strength, even with her machine appendages; she found it hard to hold the pickaxe back. Was this one of those moments where a parent developed super-human strength to defend their kid?
"Let go of me lassie!" swore Simon as he tried to wrench the pickaxe free. "I don't have a bone to pick with you! You didn't know any better, but this slimy yellow-bellied snake did! He knew they weren't keeping ma son here, but he told me anyways! I'll crush his skull and then I'll be on my way!"
"Ridley's a liar and a downright crook at times, but he's on my crew, so I'm going to protect him," Maria hissed at Simon. You could tell through Simon's eyes that he was quietly weighing the pros and cons about bashing Ridley's head in. He slowly decided that it wasn't worth getting his own head pounded in by Maria. He lost to Rosa and he was fairly sure that Maria's punch was hundreds of times tougher than Rosa's. He just lowered his pickax to his side and ripped his arm free from Maria's loosened grip. He growled one last time at Ridley.
"Wait!" shouted Mikoto. Simon stopped in his tracks, turning around and facing the kid who was locked behind the iron bars with the seastone handcuffs.
"What?!" he shouted in a gruff tone. "I'm not freeing you. I am not going to help some friend of a crook, who tried to deceive me. You two can both rot in jail as far as I'm concerned." Simon turned around and began to leave again.
"You want your son back right?" asked Mikoto. Simon stopped in his tracks; he didn't want to believe in the kid's words. His friend already deceived him so he'd probably try to fool him again, but if there was even a sliver of a chance of rescuing his son…he'd go for it. He turned around and faced the cell. "I don't know who he is or whether or not I could help. But I can tell you if you let me out of here, I will beat the ever living crap out of Trevor. And with him out of the way, I'm fairly certain it would be easier for you to snoop around here and find your son."
Simon hesitated for a few more moments. He couldn't disagree with him, without a raging psychopath stalking the halls looking for new skulls it probably would be easier for him to find his son and get out. "Fine!" shouted Simon as he approached the small cage and placing his hand on top of one of the bars. Slowly a hole began to expand in the bars, becoming bigger and enveloping one entire side of the cage.
Mikoto jumped out of the cage. He stood by patiently waiting as Simon came up to him and used the same power on his handcuffs freeing him. Mikoto took the iron handcuffs off of his hands and dropped them to the ground. He supposed making them out of seastone would've been redundant as neither Mikoto's nor Melanie's devil fruit could get them out, but Mikoto almost felt as though they cheated as it was a Devil Fruit that got them out.
Mikoto turned to the group about to ask them where Trevor was when a loud crash was heard. "Crap, the Buster Call must've started," shouted Ridley as he turned his head up to the ceiling. A medley of screams burst forth from the arena and all over the island.
Beginning of the Buster Call!
...I plan on posting again Tuesday...if I can...like I said its that magical time of the year when everything gets shot to crap. Plus I was 'sick' for a day. I hope to be back on track after this.