Sorry it has been like forever since I uploaded this story, a lot has been going on in my life though and I just barely managed to eek it out over the recent holiday's so uh... yeah... about that... I don't own, so don't look to me for money about 'borrowing' these wonderful characters that I love to mess around with, they all belong to Oda... I just own the plot that my friend urged me to write. I have a quick question for you all before you begin this meager chapter, leave a review and let me know if you all want to have a lemon or a lime in this story, I could do one or not... It is all up to my wonderful reviewers on this one, also I am not even halfway done with this story so if you are looking for a lemon or a lime anytime soon, I would have to work it into the plot, I do have a spot it could work so uh... yeah. Anyway's enjoy this update, I am no longer going to promise to update so often, I will say that hopefully within the month the next one will be posted. Thank you for all the reviews and if you are still reading this long ass authors note, well I guess someone has to do that huh?
Inside the small closet, Luffy could faintly hear people passing by, none of them checked to see if anyone was in the small storage closet, which according to Usopp was due to the fervent prayers the long nosed teen was sending to the ceiling. Luffy doubted that anyone in the ceiling cared if they were caught or not, and it was just due to sheer luck that no one thought to open the door and look in the closet.
He had to think of what he could do to rescue not only Chopper now, but Robin and Zoro too. His stomach grumbling didn't help; absently he ate the stash of food that they had pilfered from the kitchen prior to sneaking into the lab.
Usopp still had his eyes tightly closed and his hands folded in front of him as he continued to mumble things to the ceiling. Luffy knew he couldn't just barge into the room and demand to have Zoro, Chopper and Robin returned. Hastily he yanked Usopp closer and whispered to him, "Go tell the others what is going on, I want to try to get them out." He only said for Usopp to do this due to being able to work better alone.
Usopp looked at him as if thinking that Luffy had lost his mind.
"How are you going to do it when Zoro and Robin couldn't do anything?" the long nosed teen asked, doubt evident in his tone.
"I don't know yet." Luffy grinned, "I'll just wing it."
Usopp rolled his eyes and would have said something just then; however some footsteps were heard outside the small closet and made both teen's hold their breath as for a brief moment the door handle jiggled.
"No one's in there," It was Lucci, "That is where I found these two hiding."
"So are they secured?"
"Yeah. We need to go check on the 'resident's.'" Lucci said as their voices slowly drifted away.
"Better yet," Luffy whispered, "Stay here, if I am not back in fifteen minutes, then go tell Franky, and only him."
Usopp nodded his head and watched Luffy count to ten before he eased the door open, looking around it cautiously.
No one was in the hall, in the distance though Luffy could still hear the sound of voices. As quietly as he could, he closed the door, securing Usopp in there. He quickly dashed across the hall and peeked into the window of the lab that Lucci had drug Zoro and Robin into. They were in there, thankfully alone, he couldn't get in though, the door had an access code. Punching in random numbers, he nearly laughed out loud when the light on top turned from red to green, granting him entry.
Glancing around, he slowly opened the door, and slid into the room. Trying to keep out of sight of any possible passersby that might come along the hall outside, he slowly made his way to the sterile tables that Zoro and Robin were secured to. In the corner was a cage and soft mewling sounds were coming from within it. Looking in it, Luffy saw a little reindeer wearing the pink hat that Chopper had always wore.
Shrugging his shoulders, he hurriedly released first Zoro then Robin, shaking them to rouse them.
Both seemed a little confused to see him in the room with them, yet they didn't say a word. "Where is Chopper?" Luffy softly asked.
At his words the little deer made a hiccoughing sound and Luffy heard the voice of Chopper coming from that cage, "In here…" it sounded miserable.
"Chopper?" Luffy slowly approached the metal cage, "Where are you?"
"That is Chopper." Robin sadly said, "We were too late."
All three of them looked at the reindeer that was now Chopper and a thought came to Luffy, the boy/reindeer now looked like he was supposed to. Grinning at the little deer, Luffy said, "Well, are you ready to get out of here? Can you walk properly?"
"I don't know." The voice was near tears.
"Come on," Zoro said, "We have to hurry."
Luffy opened the cage and half carried and half dragged the little deer out of it.
"Usopp is in the storage closet." Luffy said as they headed to the door.
"What is he doing in there?" Zoro wanted to know, "And for that matter, what are you doing in here?"
"Rescuing you, what do you think?" Luffy looked at him as if to say, duh.
"We can talk when we get safely out of here." Robin said while opening the door.
"I agree." Luffy hurried to the storage closet and slowly opened it, Usopp was holding a mop in his hands and was about to swing it towards Luffy.
"Great," Usopp sighed with relief, "You got them, where is Chopper though?"
"Long story." Zoro said, "Come on, let's go."
"I am not leaving without Chopper." Usopp said stubbornly.
"They changed him," Luffy said, "This is Chopper." He indicated the deer still in his arms.
Usopp choked and shoved a hand over his mouth to keep quiet.
"Come on," Zoro was getting impatient, "We have to get out of this section."
"We can't go back the same way though," Robin said as she guided them deeper into the lab's, "We will need to go through the adult section and back up to the teen section, by-passing all the security as we do so."
"Why can't we go back?" Usopp asked as quietly as he possibly could.
Zoro rolled his eyes and glared at Usopp, "If you want to run into Lucci, be my guest."
"No thank you." Usopp said almost too loudly.
"Shh…" Robin placed her index finger over her mouth as she glared slightly at the noisy teen.
"WoW…" Luffy exclaimed almost as loud as Usopp had earlier a few minutes later. "Look at that Zoro…"
Zoro placed one hand over Luffy's mouth; he didn't want to encounter Lucci again, once being knocked out by the emotionless man was enough to last a lifetime. Looking to where Luffy pointed though, everyone slightly gasped as they saw a man dressed as a clown walking around a small room; only thing was, his body was still sitting on the small bed, his hands were at the sink, and his feet were the ones that were walking around back and forth in front of the bed over to the door back to the bed. "What the hell…" Zoro softly cursed at the sight.
Even Robin softly gasped at the red nosed man, Usopp seemed to be choking on something stuck in his throat, and Chopper wanted to study this find.
Robin though regained her sense of urgency and ushered everyone past the oblivious man, "Come on, I don't know how much time we have before they come looking for us, and if anyone else gets in trouble we might as well call the entire thing off…"
They were about to turn a corner when Robin placed her hand over Usopp's mouth and pushed him against the wall, glancing at Zoro to do the same for Luffy who was another loud mouth. When Chopper saw Robin, he too scooted against the wall, trying to make himself smaller. As soon as Zoro covered Luffy's mouth, the raven haired teen glared at him and tried to move away. He hated that they were making him feel so vulnerable.
"We need a distraction…" Robin softly complained as the voices faded down the hall, luckily in the opposite direction.
An idea vaguely formed in Luffy's mind, he glared once more at Zoro and as soon as the green haired teen let him go, Luffy stepped away from the wall heading back in the direction that they had just left. "Go on you guy's, I want to create the diversion. I'll join you in the teen section near the entrance. Oh and Usopp don't forget the picture in my room of my cousin and me okay?"
He was gone before the others could stop him, seeming to be like a shadow in the winding halls and blending into the floor itself, trying to buy the time needed for the others to escape this labyrinth of a lab, and hoping he would not get too lost where he would wonder around in here till he died of starvation. If he did that, he just knew that Boa would find him so she could revive him just to kill him herself for being such a fool.
Within a few minutes, he found what he was looking for, he randomly punched in numbers once more and was rewarded soon with a soft sigh emitting from the heavy door as the light above it went from red to green. Sending a silent thank you to the ceiling that Usopp had been mumbling to earlier, Luffy pushed the door open to reveal the man sitting on the bed while the feet walked right by Luffy.
"Who the hell are you kid?" the man asked as he looked up to see Luffy.
"Oi clown, is that any way to treat the one that rescues you?" Luffy asked slightly miffed. "My name's Luffy, you want to get out of here right?"
The man on the bed laughed strangely and seemed to float as his body followed his feet without touching the ground, his hands slowly followed too. He pushed Luffy out of the way and would have locked Luffy up in the room, had he not yelped at that moment as someone in another hall accidently stepped on his foot.
Deciding to leave the strange straw hat boy alone, the clown went chasing after his feet, his hands leisurely following.
Luffy softly laughed at the sight of it all, he liked the weird guy even though he seemed slightly brash and crude.
He didn't have much time to waste though, so he went down a different hall and found more strange people and randomly pushed buttons to free more and more people from being imprisoned. After a few more, he decided to try to find his own way out now and was skipping along the halls, not a care in the world when he came face to face with that Lucci guy, or more accurately face to back. Luffy very nearly ran right into the tall man's back as he turned. Not having heard the man ahead of him. He knew instinctively that the only way out was on the other side of this man, so what should he do now he thought as he gauged his situation.
He needed a distraction from his distraction he mused to himself as he decided on his plan of action, not too sure how it would all go. Hopefully the others had made it out of the lab's at least, otherwise what he was about to do would be all in vain.