P.E.R.C.Y. J.A.C.K.S.O.N.
"Have them send in ten Navy ships and a more competent agent. With Jackson out of commission, that should be more than enough to stop them."
"You hear that?" Koala said to her companion, lounging in a hammock nearby, "Tesoro's getting ready to make his move."
"Any word from Max?" asked Sabo, the second in command of the Revolutionary Army.
Koala frowned, "No not yet. I'm starting to worry."
"He's probably fine," Sabo tried to reassure his friend, "You know him; that old coot's probably spending all his time at the casino."
"Oh, that reminds me," said Koala, spinning in her chair to face Sabo, "Our intel says they're there."
This, at last, gets Sabo to push his top hat out of his eyes, "Luffy's here?"
O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
Akainu was a patient man.
He didn't want to be patient; he'd rather leave anyone who irked him to burn. But, as Fleet Admiral, patience was a necessary vice, especially when dealing with Rob Lucci.
"When did CP-0 become the lapdogs of an ex-pirate like Tesoro?" Akainu growled.
"It's necessary for our mission," said Lucci, unphased, "You will comply."
"Who do you think you're talking to, mongrel?" Akainu snarled, grounding his cigar into paste in the ash tray on his desk, "I am your superior."
"And our orders come from over your head," Lucci said smoothly, "The Strawhats cannot be allowed to keep going."
"Tch," Akainu rose to his feet, "Fine. You'll have your ships. But if you talk back to me again, I'll show you what absolute justice looks like."
Lucci flashed away before Akainu could say anything else. Akainu stormed off.
If he couldn't work out his frustrations on Rob Lucci's face, the gym would have to do.
P.E.R.C.Y. J.A.C.K.S.O.N.
Sanji was scowling.
Not at the sweet smell of cinnamon wafting through the warm, night air from the bakery across the street.
Not at more of Tesoro's minions terrorizing another pack of children a few blocks away.
Not at the now-sickening, inescapable glint of gold surrounding them for miles.
No, Sanji was scowling at the poster clutched in his hands, trembling with anger. Zoro hung from a star of molten gold, his swords sticking out above his head. His one good eye was closed, though Sanji didn't want to know why. Slumped at the foot of Zoro and his scowling, ugly mug was Percy. The dull, vacant look in his glazed eyes peeking out from behind the disheveled hair in his face was unnerving. Sanji hoped that the others, especially Annabeth, hadn't seen the poster yet.
"Tch," Sanji scoffed, "They're already handing out friggin' posters everywhere."
Sanji's companion on the roof of their hotel, Luffy, paid him no attention; he was too busy gazing up at the tower they were to infiltrate the next day.
"He's gonna be ok, Luffy," Sanji said in a low voice, shoving the poster in his pocket before Luffy could ask to see it, "They both are. Stupid mosshead's probably kicking himself for letting this happen in the first place."
"He didn't let this happen!" Luffy said sharply, whipping around to face Sanji, "This isn't Zoro's fault; it's-."
"Yours?" Sanji rose an eyebrow at his captain.
Luffy pushed past him to go back inside, "They're gonna be fine," he told the cook, shooting him the fakest grin Sanji had ever seen, "I'll make sure of it."
O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
Nami escaped the endless charts and schematics Annabeth had papered their room in to find Carina and Piper on the roof. Carina was enjoying a smoke in private while Piper was cleaning a pair of pistols.
"Since when do you use guns?"
Piper looked up from her work, surprised, "Oh, hey Nami." She jabbed an empty pistol at Carina, "Since this one taught me how to shoot. My weapons aren't much good around here; I needed new ones."
Carina leaned gracefully against the golden railing and regarded Nami curiously, "She's a natural," she admitted, "Does it run in the family?"
"I've never touched a gun," Nami admitted, coming over to join the two by the edge. The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon, illuminating Gran Tesoro in dazzling rays of golden sunshine.
Nami was starting to grow very tired of the color.
"You know, everyone who works for Tesoro thinks Piper has amnesia," said Carina.
"It was the easiest way for me to explain away where I came from," Piper told Nami.
"Everyone but you," Nami assumed, "What makes you so special, Hellcat?"
Carina patted Piper's head, laughing when this made the girl huff in annoyance, "I still barely know anything. Piper said knowing would get me hurt."
Her round, blue eyes fixed on Nami, "I'm starting to fill in some blanks though. Like how you two seem to have the same Devil Fruit power."
Nami and Piper shared a look.
"It's called charmspeak," Piper decided to confess to Carina, "It runs in the family."
"So…not a Devil Fruit," said Carina, "Well shit; I didn't know that kind of natural power existed. Does your other sister have the same…I dunno…way with words?"
"Not that I know of, but it's a little hard to explain without giving everything away," said Nami, "Will you trust us with what you've got? You owe me that much after that time you left me to die."
Piper rose an eyebrow, "That sounds like an interesting story."
"We teamed up to steal from the Treasure Pirates," said Nami, "When we got caught, Carina talked her way into them letting her go to retrieve all the treasure in exchange for our lives."
Carina sighed and extinguished her cigarette, "Feels like that was so long ago. What memories."
Nami snorted, "Memories? They tortured us. Then you left me there! I barely escaped with my life."
"From what I've seen tonight, you probably handled yourself just fine," Carina snapped, "Besides, if I'd given back all our treasure, they would've killed us for sure."
"Should I…go?" Piper muttered, "This seems private."
"It's fine, Piper," said Nami. She held out a fist to Carina, "I'm not mad, ya know. I've seen way worse in my life than a couple of thug pirates; it takes a lot to scare me anymore. But you better not cross me again, Hellcat."
Carina smirked and bumped fists with her old partner, "You got it, Cat Burgular. Let's go get rich."
P.E.R.C.Y. J.A.C.K.S.O.N.
Zoro hated feeling useless.
"This all started on Thriller Bark," he decided aloud while struggling, in vain, to free his hands from the glob of molten gold welded to the wall above his head, "Stupid, power-hungry psychos always want a piece of me? They should just give me my hands back, then they'll see just how useless-."
Zoro cut his ramblings short as today's psycho in a pink suit loomed out of the darkness, waving around a syringe in a taunting manner.
"Can't forget this," he said gleefully, stooping down to where Percy lay crumpled like a broken doll at Zoro's feet.
"Leave him alone and maybe I won't cut your head off," Zoro snarled. Each hour, for the past 24 hours, someone from Tesoro's organization would come and find the two Strawhats. Zoro was fine with enduring the teasings and the occasional beatings whenever Zoro looked at them the wrong way(Dice may have been the masochist, but Zoro learned quickly enough that Tanaka was the sadist of the bunch), but whatever it was they kept injecting into Percy's neck every hour was making him uneasy.
"Oh no, Roronoa," Tesoro said softly, "If we're to have any fun at all tomorrow, Mr. Jackson here must stay asleep. But don't worry-,"
Tesoro traced a thick, pale finger first along the jagged cut at Zoro's hairline, then down his jaw, stopping to palm Zoro's chin in his massive hand.
Zoro spat a wad of spit and blood (where did that come from?) in his face.
Tesoro smiled icily at the pirate hunter, licking the man's blood from his face with a long, pink tongue.
Zoro couldn't help the shudder that escaped his shoulders.
"You remind me of my Stella," Tesoro murmured, running a hand from Zoro's chin down his chest, inspecting every inch of his bare torso, "She too once yearned for freedom. I tried getting it for her, you know. But in this world, without money, my love meant nothing."
Tesoro stopped, and dug his fingers into Zoro's ribcage until the two heard a sickening crunch. It took every once of Zoro's strength not to howl in pain as he glared at his tormentor.
Tesoro patted him gently on the cheek, "I can't wait to see the look on Strawhat Luffy's face tomorrow when I separate your head from your body. Seeing the man he loves executed in front of him, with the whole world watching…"
Tesoro broke into uncontrollable laughter, "Now that, is the ultimate entertainment!"
With that, Tesoro faded back into the darkness, stopping to give Percy a hard enough kick to slam him into the wall beside Zoro before leaving.
Percy let out a soft moan.
"Percy?" Zoro hissed, "You awake?"
Even he knew that was a stupid question; Tesoro would never allow such a thing. The man was clearly terrified of what Percy could do to him; why else would he keep Percy unconscious until the execution?
Zoro wasn't sure what he could do in his current state, but he swore on his life and the life of the man he loved that he would keep Percy alive. And when they tried to execute them?
Zoro would show them just how useless he really was.