Disclaimer –
Dear Readers,
I, very obviously, do not own One Piece.
Signed
Cee-CeetheHedgie, a FANfiction author
~~~~~'*0 O 0*'~~~~~~~ Chapter Four ~~~~~~~'*0 O 0*'~~~~~
"Love, you are foolish, you're tired
Your sleeplessness makes you a liar
The city is burning
The ocean is turning
Our only chance is the lighthouse"
(lLighthouse, The Hush Sound)
"Dammit… it won't budge!"
Zoro repeatedly threw himself at the steel door blocking his path, trying desperately to make it budge even an inch. Usually, he would be able to take down something so weak pretty easily when he had his swords. Right now, however, he was malnourished and sword-less and that put him at a distinctive disadvantage.
Again and again he pounded his side into the barrier, and he could hear the other members of his crew doing the same in their own cells. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to be doing any better than he was, and he was sorely disappointed in how his strength was failing him at a time like this.
Eventually, Ussop, Chopper, Brook and Robin gave up, but the remaining four kept going, sparring mightily with the locked metal slabs that refused to open for them. Zoro paused a moment to catch his breath, leaning against the far wall of the room and staring down this ridiculous idea of an opponent. It looked so weak, so fragile, and yet the damned thing wouldn't move!
He lost any patience he was still grasping on to; he had had it with this door, and it was going down, whether it liked it or not!
With a low growl that quickly transformed in to a terrifying battle-cry, Zoro charged at the door again. Just like before, it didn't work, and instead he had just worsened his condition with a splitting headache. He flew back off his feet after making painful contact with the steel villain, landing hard on his already bruised back with a grunt and a thud.
"Right guys, I give up. I am so not super this week," Franky chimed, sounding utterly exhausted. Zoro got back to his feet, ignoring the pain that went streaking up his body from the wounds that he was starting to aggravate. He let out a small, hoarse bark of laughter, remaining defiant until the bitter end.
"Rest all you want, Franky. I'm not gonna give up before Curly Brow."
"Che. It's on Marimo."
Zoro grinned at the challenge, setting his focus on the situation at hand. Before he could make another move, however, Robin called out to the Monster Trio, halting all activity in the cell block.
"Quiet, everyone. Someone's coming."
The three men paused, waiting for the footsteps to get louder so that they could judge their new opponents' attributes. They had an irregular rhythm, meaning that there was more than one person approaching. Zoro singled out the different walking patterns; one set was loud and fast, signifying that the walker was heavy but short-legged; another set clicked and clopped their way briskly towards them, suggesting that it was a woman in high heels with little patience. There were more, some walking similar to the weightier set of footsteps, others with a more light-footed way of travelling. He could even swear he heard someone skipping.
The footsteps stopped outside Ussop's room, unlocking the door and entering the small chamber. A feminine, slightly nasally voice chirped out to the resident of the room.
"Oh, so you're awake? It's about time too, I hate doing this job. It's only for low-lives and those on the bottom rung of the ladder. Get up, chop chop. The Vice-Admiral wants to talk to you lot."
The woman clip-clopped out the room, with Ussop grumbling and struggling behind her, presumably being dragged by the others who were with her. Then, he fell curiously silent.
Next, she opened Zoro's door, squealing in delight when she saw that he was wide awake also. She did an odd little happy dance, her indigo high heels refusing to hinder her little show for whatever reason. Zoro had always wondered how on earth women got around in those strappy little toothpick shoes. The witch and the woman before him made it look so easy.
Looking up from her shoes, he inspected the rest of her a bit more. She was tall, maybe even taller than him if she kept the heels on, and light blonde. She was obviously going for the 'sexy secretary' look, with large, geeky glasses perched on her nose and her breasts nearly spilling out of her white 'Marine' shirt and blue blazer. A matching blue skirt clothed half of her thighs, and would have exposed most of her legs had it not have been for the thick black tights that covered her tanned flesh. And her skin… her skin was darker than her hair, for Oda's sake. It looked like she had overdone it on the fake tan.
"Aha! You're awake too! If I'm not mistaken, I think all of you are up," she sidled up close to him, "…isn't that right, handsome?"
Zoro shoved her away with his shoulder, trying to make a dash for freedom whilst she was distracted with keeping her balance. Upon exiting his cell, he saw Ussop knocked out with his arms dangling uselessly over one Marine's shoulder. He decided that while he was in enemy hands, he was far safer than the rest of the crew were for now. He would free Luffy first, and then they would take down their captives together and save Ussop.
The brutes that were with the woman seemed to have a different idea when they blocked his way, closing off the only two available exits from the corridor. Not to be deterred, Zoro attempted to escape from the crowd and knock Luffy's door down, only to be met with a fierce punch to the gut. The blow winded him, and he was sent flying back into another Marine.
"Zoro!"
"Swordsman-kun!"
"Oi, Marimo, what's wrong with you? Get up and fight, dammit!"
The green-haired man brushed off his nakamas' concern and attempted to barge through the obstacles again, failing once more as he was kicked to the ground.
Damn… why am I so weak…?
The blonde woman strolled out of his cell, glaring daggers at the man curled up on the ground, holding his side in pain. She crouched down beside him, handing the set of keys in her hand to one of the mooks that were with her. She slowly trailed her manicured fingers up his sweat-soaked chest, pausing at the bandages and dragging her fingers with a little more force when she came to a particularly nasty wound. Finally, her fingers reached his chin, pulling his head up so that he was forced to look her in her violet eyes.
"Now, that was uncalled for… sugar."
She slowly traced his jaw line before stroking the fine scar that ran over his closed eyelid, savouring having his gaze on her.
"I like my men with a bit of spark, but you sir… you are a forest fire. A blaze. So truly, utterly untameable…"
She drawled on the last word, touching Zoro's temples with lightly glowing fingers. Grinning as his eyes rolled back into his head, the woman rose to her feet once more and took the keys back from her co-worker. The same man reached down and grabbed Zoro by the scruff of his neck before chucking him over his shoulder like a broken rag doll. The blonde carried on with her task, opening the door to Chopper's cell and stood back as he was dragged out by the other Marines.
"Zoro, Ussop!" the little reindeer cried upon witnessing the slumped forms of his comrades. "Let me go, I need to see to them! Now!"
"What's happened to them Chopper?!"
"We can't see anything because of these idiots!"
Chopper struggled against his restraints, as his doctoring instincts kicked in seeing both Zoro and Ussop unconscious. It was futile, but still he tried. The woman – her name was Ann and she was 'Here to Help in the Name of Absolute Justice', as her golden name tag claimed- ceased his movements with a much more abrupt glowing tap to his forehead, forcing him to pass out as well. Ann chuckled at his appearance; he looked like nothing more than a cuddly plushie when he was asleep.
She moved on to Robin' cell, touching the archaeologist and catching her in her arms before the raven-haired woman even had a chance to do anything. And so her process continued, unlocking the doors and sending them off to sleep as each individual Straw Hat lunged at her, desperately seeking revenge.
Sanji was last. He saw her approaching him through the window, his nakamas like broken dolls and playthings being carelessly picked up by the apes that called themselves the 'Good guys'. He was surprised that even Luffy had fallen, but Sanji knew that his childish captain had tried his best to resist the woman's attempts to tip him over the edge into the slumbering abyss. He had even tried attacking her, despite Sanji's protests, the sea stone cuffs that hindered his movements and the fact that he was weak from having no food for… a few days? A few weeks? Sanji didn't know.
As part and parcel of his moral code, the cook did not attack Ann when she entered the dark room. Instead, he grit his teeth to bite back a growl and waited patiently for her high heels to park themselves beside him, and for her to reach out and caress his face with glowing, blue hands. However, before he allowed that to happen, he wanted her to answer some questions that were burning on the tip of his tongue.
"Where is Nami-san?" Ann's deadly fingers halted in their tracks as the words fell from his lips, cold and emotionless. She was surprised at how curt he was with her but more with the lack of resistance he offered when she walked in the room. He was a lot nicer to her than the others had been, despite all the things she had done to his friends and the fact that she was on the opposing side. She supposed that she would allow him a little bit of light in the darkness that his memories were stuck within in return.
"You mean the ginger girl? I'm afraid I have no idea. But she's not in this building, if that's what you mean… I'm sure Vice Admiral Archfist would be happy to find out for you though, if you ask nicely enough."
Sanji growled, taking Ann by surprise. He clenched his fists with anger at the news that not even these crappy Marines knew of his poor Nami-san's whereabouts. She could be scared, alone, or in trouble right now and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it! He wished, not for the first time, that he had some sort of way to find out about her condition and to tell her about their current situation. It would ease his mind knowing that she was safe and informed about the dangers ahead.
"'Scuse me, but… why did you not attack me when I opened the door? I have just taken out your entire crew with little effort, and I am about to do the same to you. So why aren't you fighting back?"
He sighed, not wanting to admit his weakness for women. However, this beautiful lady before him was asking him a question, and who was he to refuse her information when she requested it so nicely?
"I have a policy – I never attack women, no matter what. Not because I'm sexist, but because I respect the fairer race and choose not to injure their beautiful skin for the sake of winning a fight. Also, you said before that the Vice Admiral guy wants to see us. That would mean that for now, my crew is safe. You can't pry information from a dead man, after all."
"Hm, I like your answer. You know, I kinda like you. You're not as muscly as that green-haired guy out there, but you're still quite hot. Like a barbeque."
One of his curly eyebrows rose at that, not quite understanding where that statement had come from. Before he could further question her about it or about why they were captured but still alive (they were notorious pirates after all, and one would expect that the Straw Hat pirates would be executed straight away once captured by the Marines), she silenced him with a glowing finger pressed to his lips and his eyes fluttered closed.
And with that, the last of the Straw Hat Pirates fell to the ground, snoring lightly.
A/N- I don't like this chapter, but it was necessary for this story to run smoothly.
You know the drill! Enjoy, Read and Review!