O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
"What the fuck are you wearing?"
"You like?" Dice giggled, twirling to show off his new, shiny gold armor before throwing himself at Zoro once again.
"Special gift from Tesoro," said Tanaka, "Our Gold Armor."
"I like the look," said Baccarat, aiming a sword between Brook's eye sockets, "But it's not for show; it's for pounding you into the ground!"
Robin coughed, "Ah, Baccarat-san, I would take a look at your chest."
As Robin ran off after Sanji, in hot pursuit of Tanaka, Baccarat glanced down to see a single, red pinprick of light shining on her mostly-exposed midriff. The user of the Luck Luck Fruit looked around wildly, her eyes widening in recognition when she saw that one Strawhat in particular was missing.
"Piper!" she shrieked, "Stop hiding, you coward. Fight me like a real woman!"
"So fighting like a real woman means letting you take my luck while you twirl around in a gold swimsuit? No thanks; if I need to fight you head on, I'll go get some real armour."
Piper's voice echoed eerily around the amphitheater. Franky, Brook and Usopp had enough sense to know what Piper was doing, but still…
"She creepin you guys out too?" Franky muttered.
"I know she's Nami's sister, but we don't even know her that well," Usopp agreed.
"Yohohoho that may be true, but she seems to have a plan," said Brook, preparing to go after the thugs Baccarat was commanding, "So I suggest that we back her up."
BANG!
A trail of fire sliced a red groove into Baccarat's side and she screamed in fright. Baccarat wasted no time in frantically stumbling through her men and touching each of them. It was only once she did this that she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Argh!" she gasped in pain, clutching at her side, "Piper, you bitch! Where the fuck did you find seastone bullets? How are you using seastone?"
"None of your business."
Baccarat shrieked in outrage.
"Now's our chance!" said Franky.
Franky Radical Beam!
But even though Franky's aim was true, his energy beam hit a thug with an RPG slung over his shoulder. The RPG fired wide, hitting a cannoneer up on the ramparts. This caused the cannoneer to fire too early, and the cannonball barreled straight into the Strawhats with a small explosion.
"HOW?!"
"Piper!" Usopp shouted in desperation, "Can't you charmspeak her into getting rid of her luck?"
"What do you say, Baccarat? Give my friends your luck."
It was useless; Baccarat had already stuffed fingers in her ears and was making loud noises to drown out Piper's voice.
"Any other bright ideas?"
Usopp staggered to his feet and adjusted his goggles, "Just one," he said calmly. Then, Usopp sprinted off at top speed, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake.
"He ran away!" Brook shouted in outrage.
"Great observation," said Franky, aiming the machine guns in his arms at Baccarat, "Now what are we gonna do about her?"
Baccarat laughed in delight as, through a series of unfortunate events, a parade of her men unfortunately slipped in front of her, taking Franky and Piper's bullets and inadvertently shielding her from harm.
"You see?" she said giddily, "You can't touch me! In fact-," she tossed her sword aside and flashed a single, gold coin resting between two, slender fingers, "This is all I need to take you down."
Brook used his cane sword to shoot a blast of ice at the coin falling from Baccarat's hand, which did succeed in freezing the thing, but the ice also managed to send Baccarat's forgotten sword flying in the air. The sword spun in circles before managing to slice another thug's belt buckle off. This, in turn, started another unfortunate chain of events that left Brook and Franky charred and sprawled on the ground.
"So not cool," Franky groaned, "If only I had General Franky with me. Can't you do something?"
"Yohohoho, Franky-san, I'm already doing it."
That got Franky's attention. Looking around, he finally noticed the drastic drop in temperature and the glazed look on Baccarat's face.
"Baccarat."
Piper's singsong voice danced around them, but somewhere in the back of his mind, Franky had the sense to notice something off about his new friend's voice. Fortunately, Baccarat noticed nothing of the sort.
"LALALALALA! THAT'S NOT GONNA WORK, PIPER!" she said loudly, stuffing her fingers in her ears and squeezing her eyes shut, "LET'S BRING YOU OUT OF HIDING, SHALL WE?" she roared, quickly fishing out another coin and throwing it wildly before hastily stuffing her fingers back in her ears.
CHOMP
The mist cleared from Baccarat's eyes to reveal three things. The first was Usopp, clutching his giant slingshot triumphantly and grinning at Baccarat. The second was Piper, aiming a sleek, bronze, sniper rifle at Baccarat's heart. The third, was a large, purple bag, munching on what used to be Baccarat's coin.
"I-I don't know how you did that," Baccarat said shakily, "But you failed! I'm still on top! I'm still lucky!"
"It didn't work…" said Franky, falling to his knees.
"Don't worry guys," Usopp said confidently, "You know me; I never miss!"
"Neither do I," said Piper, "Thanks for everything, Baccarat. See you never!"
And she fired. But unlike before, Piper's aim was true. Her bullet, which turned out to be one of Usopp's pellets, exploded in a purple, skull-shaped cloud in Baccarat's face.
"B-But," Baccarat spluttered as she fell in a heap, "That's impossible."
With a loud burp, the purple bag from earlier burst open, revealing a slot machine spitting out thousands of gold coins.
"Lucky!" Piper grinned, giving Usopp a high-five, "Quick, Franky, throw some seastone on her!"
Usopp laughed in a mixture of relief and disbelief, "We actually did it!"
"It was a plan worthy of Athena," Piper told him, "But our work's not over."
"Indeed, Piper-san," said Brook, "Let us go and find the others, shall we?"
P.E.R.C.Y. J.A.C.K.S.O.N.
The night before, Sanji, Annabeth and Robin had gotten together to come up with a plan to deal with Tanaka. Sanji's plan, as always, was to take on the Through Through Fruit user by himself, all while shielding Robin from harm. Alas, he was swiftly outvoted.
"But we can play to that," Annabeth had quickly said, sketching out a potential diagram for the trio, "Tanaka is observant; we saw that when he found the right moment to grab Percy. He'll take advantage of Sanji's need to protect Robin. And once he's exploited our weakness, you turn on him and exploit his."
Sanji's rudimentary military training from his horrific childhood gave him enough sense to understand that Annabeth was a skilled tactician. He didn't like putting Robin in danger, but if it meant saving the others, he'd just have to go along with it.
Still, Tanaka pressing the barrel of a gun to Robin's skull was something he hoped never to see again, if he could help it.
BANG!
"What is this?" Tanaka said in confusion as instead of collapsing to the ground with blood seeping from a gaping hole in her head, Robin dissolved into flower petals.
Cien fleur!
A giant hand shot from the ground and grabbed Tanaka before he could slip away.
"Argh! Lemme go!" the strange little man whined, "I can't get out!"
"It's as we thought," said the real Robin, "You can't phase through human flesh. Sanji, would you care to end this?"
Sanji didn't need telling twice, "With pleasure, Robin-chan."
Diable jambe!
"Nicely done, Robin-chan," said Sanji, "Are you alright?"
A column of fire shot into the night sky above their heads, hitting the distant gold colossus squarely in the jaw and causing Tesoro to howl with rage.
"Ask me again when this is over," said Robin, already sprouting her wings and taking off into the sky, "Let's go help the others."
O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
Zoro wasn't useless.
Sure, the others were forced to rescue him, but he wasn't fucking useless. He'd take down this masochistic freak, then he'd show how useless he was.
"GIVE ME MORE, RORONOA!"
Zoro grunted in frustration as his swords met Dice's head again. Sparks flew in all directions, but he pushed Dice off as easily as he had the first three times that happened. He wasn't making any headway; he needed to break through and cut Dice down so he could go and help Luffy.
Two Gorilla Slash!
His added strength succeeded in knocking Dice back further than before. It didn't phase the larger man though; he just squealed in ecstasy.
"EEEEH! I should have freed you hours ago," said Dice, "The things you can do to me-oh baby! You're too good to keep in a cage!"
"Hold still and I'll cut you up real good," Zoro promised before he could stop himself. Why was he engaging this creep? After all the crap he and his friends had put Zoro and Percy through in the past 24 hours, they didn't deserve battle quips. No, Zoro would just have to block him out and kick his ass. Then he'd never have to deal with Dice ever again.
Dice laughed in delight, "When your friends are all dead, I'm gonna get Tesoro to keep you! There's no way I'm passing you up! You can show me how strong you are every day, then every night, Tanaka will put you back in your place. We'll never be bored again! Ooh, I can't wait!"
With that horrifying promise, Dice hardened his whole body with armament haki and threw himself at Zoro in a spinning ball of death. Zoro readied his swords to intercept him again only to find them immobilized by golden tendrils peaking out of Dice's abandoned axe. Zoro barely had time to think shit before Dice slammed into him and sent him flying. Pain exploded in Zoro's back, but he couldn't afford to think about it; not when Dice now held all of his swords.
"Didja know, Roronoa?" Dice said smugly, "The best way to not lose a gamble is to take away your opponents chips before the game starts!"
"Sounds fun," Zoro smirked. Then, Dice pounced. Zoro dodged him easily enough. Dice was clearly not a swordsman; Zoro's precious swords swung clumsily in his giant hands.
This was just the kind of challenge Zoro needed to get back on top of his game. Hardening his arms with armament haki, Zoro stood his ground and blocked Dice. The much larger man grunted with the effort of trying to break through Zoro's defense, but through raw power, Zoro held him in place.
"Someone so inexperienced has no right wielding my swords," Zoro growled, "You want a hit, Dice? I'll give you a hit."
No Sword Style: Black Rope Dragon Twister!
His twister sent Dice flying, but thanks to his armor, Dice was unharmed.
"Stop underestimating me!" Dice shouted in anger before spinning at Zoro once again. It didn't matter though; Dice had dropped Zoro's swords.
Black Blade: Lion's Song!
Zoro struck through the gold armor, reveling in the feeling of it cracking under his blade. He didn't have to turn around to see Dice collapsing in a shower of blood.
"What's wrong? Didn't it feel good?" Zoro allowed himself to quip before running off towards the golden colossus in the distance. He'd already wasted too much time on this nuisance; Luffy needed his help.