O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
Doflamingo had the Flame-Flame Fruit.
"I have something that I think you'll want."
Doflamingo had the Flame-Flame Fruit and he was gonna give it to some random contest winner.
"Franky-,"
Franky had never had the pleasure of meeting Portgas D. Ace, but he liked to think that Luffy's brother would've liked him for what he was about to do.
Which is why the two Strawhats were not looking for the SMILE Factory (as they were supposed to); no, Franky was waving Luffy off as his captain disappeared into the depths of the colosseum. Franky was about to follow the gaggle of spectators to the main entrance when something stopped him dead in his tracks.
"What? What is it? We need to go inside!"
Franky ignored the one-legged soldier who, for some reason, would not leave him alone; he was busy working out the scene in front of him.
Leo Valdez was barreling around the side of the colosseum at top speed, running for his life from what appeared to be…
"Are those centaurs?"
Franky glanced down at the soldier, "You can see them?"
For some reason, this made the toy angry, "What? Of course I can! What do you mean-,"
"FRANKY!"
Franky blanched. Leo had seen him and was now running straight at him.
"Leo-bro," Franky greeted the fire-user, "What are we doing about this?"
"There are too many of them," Leo said breathlessly, "More of them went after Percy too. My dad says they can't go in the colosseum, so if you don't mind-,"
The soldier was trying to voice some very valid questions, but Franky knew they didn't have time for that; the wild centaurs were quickly gaining on them. Franky could see the foam frothing from the nearest one's mouth before the trio finally made it into the colosseum. The centaurs paced back and forth in front of the entrance, angrily pawing the earth and snarling at Leo, but for some reason, they couldn't chase them any further.
"SOMEBODY EXPLAIN PLEASE!"
Leo slapped a hand, covered in some mystery green goo, over the soldier's mouth, "Shut up!"
The soldier pushed Leo off and gagged into a corner, "Gah! Have you been swimming in the sewers?"
Franky shot Leo a stern look, "Leo?"
Leo chuckled nervously and marched towards the stands, "Heheh that's a long story. Oh, look! Stands! By the way, what are we doing here?"
The announcer answered Leo's question a moment later.
"WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! YOU KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE! THE BEST WARRIORS FROM ACROSS THE GRAND LINE ARE HERE TO FIGHT TO THE BLOODY END. AND FOR WHAT?"
A spotlight shone on a Devil Fruit on a purple cushion in a glass box.
"FIRE-FIST ACE IS DEAD! HIS FLAME FLAME FRUIT IS IN THIS WORLD ONCE AGAIN! WIN THE TOURNAMENT! GAIN UNIMAGINABLE POWER! WHO'S EXCITED?"
"Luffy's brother," Franky said in a low voice in Leo's ear.
Leo's face was grim, "He's gonna fight, isn't he?"
"Yeah," said Franky, "And we need to find the factory while he does."
"And take care of the centaurs," Leo sighed, "Ugh, why do we always get stuck with the hard stuff?"
"WHY ARE YOU ASKING ABOUT THE FACTORY AGAIN? YOU'RE NOT STILL THINKING OF OVERTHROWING DOFLAMINGO, ARE YOU?"
This time it was Franky's turn to slap a hand over the soldier's mouth, but it was too late; the audience in their immediate vicinity was already glaring at them.
Leo chuckled awkwardly, "Hehe, toys, what are you gonna do about them, am I right?"
The spectators shot Leo one last glare, but apparently decided that the ongoing spectacle in front of them was more interesting. Franky and Leo were about to slip away, but something caused Leo to freeze in his tracks.
"Leo," Franky gave his small friend a little nudge, "Let's go."
Leo stared at the arena, a look of unbridled shock on his tiny face, "Holy Hephaestus."
Franky looked around frantically to see what Leo was looking at. The A Block fight was already in full swing, but a platform was rising from the depths of the colosseum with a single gladiator standing on it. The gladiator was struggling furiously to free himself from the chains around his hands and feet when a staff member struck him with a cattle prod, crackling with electricity. The gladiator howled and, to Franky's amazement, morphed into a large dragon with rippling, red scales.
"Holy Hephaestus," Leo said again, "Frank?"
P.E.R.C.Y. J.A.C.K.S.O.N.
Several hours earlier…
It said something about Percy's experience with the immortal world that he wasn't in the least bit surprised that the shop was abandoned and unlocked.
"Nobody's been here in a while," Leo noted, tracing a finger along the dusty shelves.
"What are we looking for, anyway?" asked Percy, "None of this stuff is celestial bronze. I doubt the door knob will be enough for whatever you've got planned."
Leo grinned and pointed at a manhole behind the register that definitely had no right being in a store, "No, but I bet we can find more stuff down there."
So, ignoring Percy's grumbles about having just showered that morning, Leo removed the celestial bronze cover and jumped down the hole…
…and landed in what was definitely not a sewer.
"Is this…"
Percy rudely cut him off when he landed on top of Leo, "Whoah, is this a post office?"
It certainly seemed that way. Centaurs roamed around, clutching slips of paper and occasionally glaring at a screen sitting above the desk at the far end of the tunnel.
"Now serving, No. 3,758."
A centaur with long, dirty blonde hair shouted excitedly and cantered up to the desk, proudly shoving his slip of paper in the face of a disgruntled looking human. The human pulled a parcel out of a shoot behind him and shooed the centaur away.
"Now what?" Leo asked Percy.
"Now serving, the two demigods in the back."
Percy and Leo gulped at the hordes of dirty looks fixed on them.
"Go up there and don't get trampled?" Percy said hopefully.
The human at the counter didn't seem at all fazed to see two humans.
"This way, please," he said in a monotone. Percy and Leo were happy to oblige, following the human through another tunnel out of sight of the irate centaurs. The human stopped at an endless row of chutes, spun on his heel and glared at them.
"Uh…are we supposed to do something?" asked Leo.
"Wait," said the human.
So the trio waited in silence. The seriously ADHD demigods were tempted to start looking around, but before they could, a whoosh of air heralded the arrival of two pieces of mail: a letter addressed to Leo and a package addressed to Percy.
"Awesome!" Percy cheered, peeking under the wrapper, "My mom sent cookies! And a recipe for Sanji! I need to translate it into Japanese though…"
Leo wasn't listening; he was too busy reading his letter from his dad.
Dear Leo,
I still don't get why you would want to go traipsing around the Four Seas; real annoying place, if you ask me. Your girl says hello. Calypso's sending you something too; take good care of it. As for protection for your mortal friends, here's a map to some celestial bronze to help with that. I'm real proud of how far you've come with your powers, but you have to keep working on them; you've barely touched the surface of what you can do.
Best,
-H.
P.S: The centaurs won't go in the colosseum; it's too cramped. You should be safe there.
Below was a crudely-drawn map of the sewers, complete with a path to get to the celestial bronze. Luckily, there seemed to be a lot of it.
"WHY DO THEY GET TO CUT THE LINE?"
"I'LL CUT THEIR FACES!"
Percy and Leo jumped at the outraged roars coming from the centaurs they'd left behind.
"We need to go," said Leo, shoving the letter and Percy's package in his tool belt, "Hope you don't mind getting a little dirty."
"Leo, hang on," Percy held him back, "Something else is coming."
Sure enough, a whirring noise shot a small, metal disc out of one of the chutes.
Leo grinned and carefully placed the disc in his tool belt, "Excellent. Remind me to thank Calypso later."
"THERE THEY ARE!"
"Hold on!"
"Wait, what?"
Percy ignored him. Throwing his hands up caused a wave of sewer sludge to go barreling through the tunnel, completely flooding the mail room and pushing the centaurs back a good forty feet.
Leo spat out a mouthful of disgusting sewer goo, "Tasty. Let's get out of here."