The Invasion Plan
"That's it," pointed out Hiro-Shu, fingering one lone ship on the horizon. The crew was gathered around and all of their eyes were on the on the ship. It was still the dead of night, their lights ad been turned off and there ship was stalking its prey quietly. They saw the glowering red light of the ship's lights due to the thick darkness that enveloped them. The ship was coated in heavy spikes that stretched all the way out and protected it from enemy attack as well as made anyone who touched it feel unbearable agony. The crew held their breath as their watched the demonic ship with the flag of the World Government fluttering on its mast. "That's our ticket to Zenith Gaol."
Ridley felt a bit like a fool for having to ask this, but he knew more than likely he wasn't the only one who didn't understand. "How is that ship going to get us up to the White Sea levels and Skypiea?" The rest of the crew nodded in agreement, they needed to be filled in on the battle plan. Even Enma, a man who was usually well-informed, seemed a bit lost as he stared at the ship trying to piece it together himself.
"It s connected to the prison," explained Hiro-Shu. "I mentioned about a ship that is constantly at the heels of the ever-moving prison Zenith Gaol, remember?" The crew did recall something about that. If a prisoner ever escaped Zenith Gaol by jumping out of one of the lower levels…they would either be skewered by the ship's spikes or picked up by the ship's crew only to be transported back to that prison or a different one. The above prison currently had an impeachable record of 0 break-outs, 0 break-ins, and 0 hopeful prisoners. "It has a chute the shoots straight up to the prison's bottom floor. This way rather than having to send prisoners all the way around and up to Skypiea through the normally risky matters there is now a straight shot for the Marines to take their prisoners up there."
"And a straight shot for us," smiled Mikoto as he gazed up to the clouds. He originally wanted his first trip to the civilization in the clouds to be a happy one. He had heard great things about them, their food, and even a little of their riddles. He wanted to experience them all for himself and he would love to do it as soon as possible, but he suppose in a way going to the civilization's jail to break out a girl who turned into a tiger was a reward in itself. He always wondered what it was like up in the clouds.
"Here's the thing," said Hiro-Shu as he jabbed his fingers upwards and into the sky. "We don't have any time to waste nor can we leave anyone on that ship conscious long enough to sound the alarm. If the alarm gets sound then by the time we get up to Zenith Gaol, we'd be surrounded, outnumbered, out of luck." Hiro-Shu sighed as he thought about this. No matter how he did so this still sounded like a suicide mission, he suppose their hand had been forced in a way. They had no option, but to attack the jail, but that didn't make him feel any better about it. "Me, Mikoto, and Enma will go straight to the control center."
"Cool!" shouted Mikoto as he pumped his fist into the air, "I always wanted to drive a ship! Much less a ship connected to the sky!"
"Mikoto, if you get there before me or Enma, don't touch anything," said Hiro-Shu, "you are the fastest and time is of the essence. If possible disable the communications and then sit down and do nothing." Hiro-Shu paused for a second and just to make sure Mikoto wouldn't take him too seriously, "if a bad guy comes in take him out, but other than that the controls aren't to be touched." Mikoto puffed out his cheeks like a little kid and slid into his chair, moping. "Zesiro, Maria, and Ridley will be the distraction. At all times try to keep the guards focused on you. Take down as many as you can as fast as you can. We'll need all the time we can get to control center."
"What do I do?" Rosa chirped, happy that they were finally doing something to rescue her sister. It appeared that she was still ignoring the fact that the newspaper did not mention that they had captured Lily and sent her there. This was still a one-in-a-million shot…thinking about that only caused Hiro-Shu to sigh again and confirm his thoughts that this was a ridiculous suicide mission with very little light at the end of the tunnel.
Hiro-Shu's words were dead serious and sound not be taken lightly. "Nothing." His voice boomed and seemed especially loud amongst the quiet shipmates and without a doubt they shook Rosa to the very core. How could she do nothing? How could she stand by and let these people fight for her sister's life? She was about to voice those very questions when Hiro-Shu answered. "They know you and your sister are related. If they see you it won't be hard for them to put together why we are attacking them…if you are seen it is possible that they will use her as bait or even execute her just to make sure we can't win." Hiro-Shu's words were exactly what shouldn't have been said, but they needed to be. He needed to make sure Rosa would stay out of the way and out of sight until they needed her.
"I'm sorry," Hiro-Shu apologized. His head snapped forward and saw the ship was closing in on them. "We don't have any time to waste. We're almost there. So let's get ready."
It was still the dead of night, but on the Marine ship it was anything, but 'dead'. The Marines were awake and partying apparently bored with being out at sea all the time for no reason other than to pick up drowning prisoners will make one want to party and goof off. No prisoners would leap off of the prison at this hour. It was insane. They were just happily downing ale and gambling. Until they got an unexpected visitor, a little coyote had landed on their ship and was walking around.
"Oh, look at the cute little doggy!" shouted one of the men, he reeked of alcohol. The other men all laughed, few of the more sober ones pointed out that it was a 'coyote', but even they were too wasted to truly see what was going on. The man who cooed over the dog walked closer and reached out a hand holding a slab of cooked meat to him. The dog smelled it, came wandering over and snatched it from the man. "It likes meat!" screamed the man lifting his arm up in some kind of victory, although no one was certain if it could really be a victory…then again they were too drunk to care they all brought their glasses up and cheered loudly. Suddenly the dog jumped up, flipping around it whipped its hind legs out and embedded its feet into the Marine's face and sent him flying. The coyote quickly landed again and with his newly obtained meal still hanging from his mouth, Mikoto rushed out in search of the control room.
"What just happe-" one of the men on board started to ask before his question turned into a yell as he was thrown off the side of ship by a woman with mechanical limbs. The group of men paused for a second, hesitating due to the reason that they had no idea what was happening. Just moments ago they were 'getting their drink on' and now a coyote and cyborg suddenly appeared on their ship. Of course, they had other worries. One of the men was suddenly ripped off of his feet and flew clear across the ship, knocking several other men on the way over. He probably would've been cut in two if the Fishman who had joined the party hadn't used the back of his blades.
It quickly became painfully obvious to the Infinity Pirates, especially Ridley, that they only needed one of those two on the attacking detail. Zesiro and Maria were both easily handling the drunken Marines without even fully exerting themselves. Zesiro strode out across the battlefield, not holding back even an inch of his full-power. His sword lashed out from his side and quickly battering itself into and through multiple Marines at once. Maria was on the same sub-monster level she didn't hesitate for even a second as she brought her fists straight into several of the Marine's skull throwing them back. Ridley, who was supposed to be helping them, instead decided to sit back, play a little music, and help himself to the fighting Marines' alcohol. It is what every good, self-respecting pirate would do.
Even Hiro-Shu and Enma who would normally approach any situation with caution realized that these men weren't anything to really be worried about. They may have been in their own clear-headed minds, but being the drunken bastards they were right now…they didn't even hold a candle to their crew. The Marines were hopeless in the face of these pirates. They suppose it made sense what kind of pirate in their own good sense would attack a Marine vessel attached to the prison? Then again these Marine didn't have to be strong…the only thing these Marines needed was to warn Zenith Gaol and their plan would be ruined. Hiro-Shu and Enma needed to prevent that from happening as quickly as possible.
Out of the corner of his eyes Hiro-Shu saw the thing he dreaded. One of the more clear-headed Marines had managed to find himself a Den-Den Mushi and was already starting to call the prison…or something else, but whatever it was it probably wasn't good news for the pirates. He was too far away for Hiro-Shu to stop him, there was no way for Hiro-Shu to close the distance and land a hit on him in time to stop him. Was their plan already destined for failure just minutes into it? All of a sudden the young Marine's body was ripped back by an invisible force, his body sent flying through the air and crashing into the rail. A few seconds the later the Den-Den Mushi faced a similar fate. Right off the back Hiro-Shu knew it was due to Sage and her Devil Fruit power…it was nice to have her on their side again. He quickly ran off back in search of the control panel and their overactive coyote captain.
Suddenly the wall next to Hiro-Shu was ripped up by a wide iron club and out stepped a Marine. The stench of alcohol was heavy on him, but it was already apparent he wasn't near drunk. He must be a real drunkard for this to happen, he had a high intolerance to any kind of alcohol…although Hiro-Shu wasn't really all too impressed with his drinking ability. What really caught the Iron Golem's eyes was his right hand and the club it held. His right hand was covered in scars and his ring and pinky finger were sliced off. The club had a weird undulating shape to it. It was skinny at the base, but from there on out it swelled than shrunk than swelled and shrunk and then swelled again at the tip making a weird weapon, whose weight was probably off. The weapon was about five feet long and the man carrying it was about eight feet tall. Hiro-Shu was bothered by it though, a fight against a man like this was something that he needed. His last fights at the URA left a bad taste in his mouth.
Enma was soon after Hiro-Shu, however, he didn't stop to face the man. Their goal was the control panel, not the Marines. He didn't have any time to waste and he quickly sped past them. He knew Hiro-Shu would follow him as soon as he was finished with the tall Marine. However, Enma found out how wrong he was. Moments later, before Enma had even finished his thought process, the lumbering Marine was sent through the hall and smashed into one of the nearby walls. Enma paused as he looked back and saw Hiro-Shu already running back up to him. Enma couldn't believe it. The Marine was a monster in his own rights, but now he was looking at Enma upside down and through stars. Hiro-Shu was soon running past Enma and shouting at him to hurry up. Enma shook his head clear and continued after Hiro-Shu. He suppose that they all did get slightly stronger now. If not from their fights at the URA then from the training they did in order to make up for it, but still…it seemed weirdly easy.
(-With Mikoto-)
Mikoto was puttering around in the control center of the ship. He had nothing to do, but wait for Hiro-Shu. It was boring, being the first person at a place especially when you were told specifically not to do anything. However, Mikoto's boredom was soon remedied not because a Marine barged into the room to keep him preoccupied, but because he spied something out of the corner of his eye. Mikoto walked up to the control panel and eyed the small mechanism that caught his eye. It was significantly larger than all other buttons on the panel, but more importantly…it was red. If there was anything more fearful, more thrilling, and more dangerous than a red button…Mikoto did not know of it. He resisted pressing it, but now that he knew it existed he didn't know how much longer it would be until he pressed. Mikoto could feel his finger creeping toward the button when a burst of static cut through the air. Mikoto dashed back away from the button, afraid that whatever caused that burst of static was him.
Next a voice cut in. "Hello, this is Zenith Gaol fast food restaurant. May we take your order?" said the voice. Mikoto waited for a few seconds and during this time everything fell quiet until the voice on the other end, burst out into laughter. "I got you, didn't I? We're not a fast food place! Ah cha cha! You're busting a gut right now, aren't ya?"
"Not really," said Mikoto as he approached the small Den-Den mushi that was transferring the sound in between them. "You're not that funny." The voice on the other end made a loud sound as if he was in physical pain. "You know any riddles?"
"Cha…no sadly I don't," said the voice as he sprung back to life, "but maybe if you hum a few bars. Ah cha cha!" Mikoto remained un-laughing. "Ack! My marvelous jokes fall on deaf ears…oh, well, to business. Somebody on your ship tried to call us, but the line got caught short may we ask what happened? And don't say you were lonely and wanted to hear my jokes…nobody ever does."
"I actually don't know," hummed Mikoto as he looked around him, trying to figure out what the man was talking about. "I'm just a pirate who attacked this ship. I have no idea why somebody aboard this ship would call you." There was another period of silence as the voice tried to process what Mikoto was saying. Then out of nowhere and for no reason the voice began a boisterous laugh.
"Ah cha cha cha!" guffawed the voice. "That's a good joke. I'm going to us it the next time I make a prank call! Well, good-bye!" The line was quickly hung up. Mikoto sat there for a few seconds wondering what happened when the line buzzed back to life making Mikoto jump back. It was the same annoying voice again. "Hey, I'm a pirate who just attacked Zenith Gaol. I have no idea why anybody in this prison would try to call you. Ah cha cha!" This time Mikoto hung up the Den-Den Mushi with an abundant of vehemence. Mikoto picked the poor snail up and quickly transported it to a small dark closet and locked it away, now he wouldn't have to listen to any more of that guy's bad jokes.
Finally Hiro-Shu entered and saw Mikoto and more importantly everything seemed to be in shape, other than the missing Den-Den Mushi, but Hiro-Shu supposed he did say something about disabling communications. He suppose getting rid of the Den-Den Mushi did do so. He patted Mikoto on the back, although a pat from the golem Hiro-Shu was still pretty hefty and nearly pushed Mikoto off of his feet. Mikoto smiled, though as he stumbled forward, glad to have once more garnered the support of his crew especially in hard times like these.
"So how are we going to get up?" asked Mikoto staring towards the sky He supposed in the end, blind trust wasn't a good answer. He wanted a real one. Although it didn't matter in the end he would still have blind trust in Hiro-Shu. If Hiro-Shu said it was safe, Mikoto would trust him.
Hiro-Shu pointed behind him. Mikoto turned and saw a small tube. It stretched up and out of the ship. "It's a pressurized air cannon the propels water as well as a platform upwards basically, similar to the Knock-Up Stream. Of course, it occurs in increasing increments so the rise is slower than the Knock-Up Stream, but much safer."
"Ah, I see," said Mikoto nodding. "It is magic."
Piracy is on the Rise!
Okay, shameless advertisement: got a new One Piece One-Shot up called One Piece is a Lie.
But yeah the arc is officially starting to pick up. The gang already had a massive fight with an entire ship in the first chapter that probably means things are just going to get more and more difficult. I think this arc has some good scenery going on for it and a pretty good underlying plot, but as usual I'm none too fond of the fights throughout this arc. However, I feel that way about almost every fight so I'm hoping I'm just being paranoid.
Also just a slight warning as it kind of came across to me as this during the first ten or so chapters, but Saga will be continuing after this, okay? For some reason when I wrote and re-read some of this stuff it just seemed kind of...final to me. Like this will be the last arc, it will not be, okay? I don't even know if it sounds like this to anyone else, but it sounded like it to me...so I figured a warning was necessary.