I really waited as long as possible to post this today huh? It's not even Friday for me anymore as this goes up lmao.
Besides that, make sure to let me know what you guys think so far! Been awful quiet recently.
Enjoy!
The battlefield by Dorry's camp was dead silent, no one saying a word. Johnny, Vivi and Usopp stood across from Mr. Five and Ms. Valentine, who seemed rather laid back about the whole situation.
Before long though, the fight broke out.
"Exploding Shot!" Usopp shouted, aiming his rifle for Mr. Five. A shot rang out, and Mr. Five disappeared in an explosion caused by the bullets impact.
"Oh my, custom ammunition." Mr. Five's voice came. "That's very impressive. Too bad you chose the wrong person to shoot that at." Usopp made a face at this, but he didn't have time to question what had happened, as a blur appeared out of the smoke and slammed into him, an explosion going off. Luffy gasped as Usopp was flung back by Mr. Five's attack, bouncing off of the boulder keeping him in place.
"Usopp!" He shouted, worried about the sniper. Johnny and Vivi didn't waste any more time, drawing both their blade and slashers and running for Ms. Valentine. The woman waited until the pair was right up close, before she jumped and used Johnny's horizontal slash to catapult herself into the air.
"I'll be sure to avoid your blade this time, Glasses!" She shouted with a laugh. "10,000 Kilogram Press!" Luffy watched as the woman descended at an impossible speed, slamming her body into the ground. The impact created a crater and threw dirt into the air, sending both Johnny and Vivi flying. Usopp tried to stand and attack Mr. Five again, but another swift explosive kick into the boulder made him hit the dirt again, not moving. Mr. Five didn't stop there, delivering more kicks to the unconscious man without warning. Luffy growled, unable to contain his anger as he watched his friend getting attacked so mercilessly.
"Leave him alone!" He shouted, struggling against the boulder that kept him in place. "I swear to God I'll kick your ass!"
"And how do you plan on doing that from down there?" Mr. Five demanded. "As far as I can tell you're stuck." Luffy could do nothing but watch as Ms. Valentine descended on top of Johnny again, throwing him backwards into a tree and causing it to crack. The woman wasted no time, moving to Vivi and grabbing her by the arm. Vivi tried to resist, but Ms. Valentine was stronger than she looked.
"Stop fighting, Princess." She said. "We've been ordered to capture you, not kill you. So don't make me hurt you."
"Get your hands off of Big Sis Vivi!" Johnny shouted, reappearing from the jungle. "Sword of the Sea: Crashing Waves!" He rushed for Ms. Valentine and swung on her, who had no choice but to let go of Vivi to evade the attack. The woman clicked her teeth and turned, brandishing her umbrella. Using it she blocked Johnny's quick horizontal strikes. The swordsman struck again and again, but somehow the umbrella wasn't sliced. How was that possible?
"5000 Kilogram Bat!" With one swing of the umbrella into Johnny's abdomen, the swordsman was sent flying back into the jungle, and didn't reappear. Ms. Valentine sighed and swung her umbrella around some more as she picked Vivi back up.
"I'm not used to using my power on items," she said. "Couldn't make it too heavy. I'll make sure to crack his skull if he comes at me again."
"Johnny!" Luffy shouted, growing even angrier. "Stop it!"
"You need to shut up," Mr. Five said as he walked over to him. Luffy glared up at his enemy as the man raised his foot and began stomping him in the face, every hit punctuated by an explosion. He could vaguely hear Vivi shouting for him desperately, but he couldn't really hear her over the explosions. After a while the punishment stopped, but Luffy didn't look up.
"Bit of advice, pirate." Mr. Five said. "Don't involve yourself in someone else's business. Especially not out here on the Grand Line. It can be very dangerous for your health." Luffy frowned at this, disagreeing wholeheartedly. "We've already captured some of your precious friends due to your arrogance. And now, we have the Princess as well. You lose."
"Oh yeah?" Luffy asked. "If you caught my friends you'd be dead, so I don't believe it. Nami would scream your head off, Zoro would slice you and Yosaku would too. Sanji would've kicked your stupid face and Nojiko would have shot you! My friends are fine!"
"Believe whatever you wish," he replied as he raised his foot again, "But just know that you've lost this fight. Congratulations." Another massive kicked was delivered to his head, punctuated by Vivi's horrified shouts. Luffy's vision was kind of blurry, but he could tell that the two agents were dragging Vivi away from them. Crap, he couldn't move, and the other two were out cold. This was bad. They really had lost the first round, huh?
Nojiko watched as the giant, who Mr. Three identified as the Red Giant Broggy, was brought to his knees by the mans Devil Fruit powers. It seemed like he was being encased in wax, and it looked extremely uncomfortable. Mr. Three said something about being the reason that Broggy won the duel, by planting the explosive in the rum or whatever. Nojiko didn't know what that meant at all, but she could tell it pissed Broggy off.
That was before Vivi got dragged into the clearing by the two agents from Whiskey Peak.
"Why the hell do they have Vivi-chwan?!" Sanji hissed under his breath, needing to be help back by Nojiko to prevent him from running off into the conflict.
"Don't be a moron," she hissed under her breath. "There's only the two of us, we can't fight them all off!"
"But-!"
"Just wait for an opening!" She replied. She didn't like the idea of letting Vivi stay in the enemies hands, but it wasn't like they had much of a choice. She and Sanji alone weren't enough to deal with the three agents.
Despite what she said, Nojiko too had to resist running out as another three captives were revealed to them. She watched as Zoro, Yosaku and Nami were walked out by the wax guy, all looking irritated with the current state of affairs.
"Not only have we captured the Princess, but we've got some of the crew here as well!" Mr Three said with a laugh. "Now the real fun can begin! Candle Lock!"
Nojiko and Sanji both watched as wax poured out the mans arms, creating locks around the limbs of their crew mates and causing them to fall to the ground.
"We can't move!" Nami shouted, clearly trying to move her legs. Mr. Three just laughed.
"Big Sis Vivi?" Yosaku asked as he looked at the Princess. "Weren't you with Big Bro Luffy?" Vivi looked uncomfortable at this.
"Well yes, but..." she started.
"We've killed him already," Mr. Five said, sending Nojiko's stomach into a nose dive. Part of her doubted this was the truth, but she couldn't help but worry all the same. Zoro, however, looked unimpressed.
"Did you now?" He asked. Mr. Three turned to the hostages with a smirk.
"Now I can create the ultimate art piece!" He said. "By creating my perfect Service Set!" Wax flowed from the man once more, flowing upwards and creating a massive fountain like object. The four hostages were encased in the bottom, a giant swivel like bowl above them.
"What the hell is this thing?" Nami demanded.
"There's a bowl over our heads," Yosaku commented.
"Is there something falling down on us?" Vivi asked, holding up her hand as snow like wax fell from the top. Mr. Three laughed.
"You four will become wax dolls!" He shouted. "Encased in wax for all eternity, dolls with a soul inside! Die for the sake of art!"
"Your art is terrible," Zoro said flatly.
"I don't wanna be a wax man!" Yosaku shouted, grabbing his head out of fright. "What do we do?!"
"I don't know, but we're not dying here!" Nami replied. "Don't worry guys, we'll be just fine!"
"How, exactly?" Vivi asked. How indeed, because Nojiko didn't know either. If it was up to just her and Sanji, she didn't know what to do.
"Big Bro Broggy, you've got to do something!" Yosaku shouted to the giant. "You're so massive, you can destroy these guys!" Broggy didn't respond, looking devastated as he sat trapped in the wax.
"I wouldn't bother with him," Mr. Three said. "He's so happy he killed his best friend that he's started crying. Whether that's because he won or because he's killed his friend I'm not sure. But you can't have been that good of friends if you didn't know he was in pain." Broggy was silent for a moment, more tears flowing from his face.
"...I knew Dorry was hiding something from me," he said. "He was acting weird and groggy that whole fight...But even so, I wasn't going to disrespect his wishes! His wish that we continue the fight no matter what! That's the wish of a true warrior, but what would you fools know about true pride?!"
Nojiko's eyes widened as the wax binds around the giants arms were snapped, his rage fuelling his escape. He raised his arm and swung it at the agents, who all dodged it as quickly as they could.
"Explosion!" Nojiko flinched as Broggy's face exploded, clearly Mr. Five's doing. "That should shut him up."
"What an idiot," Ms. Valentine said as she laughed. Mr. Three looked a little startled by what had happened, and he sighed.
"I underestimated him," he said. "Although I won't allow him to escape again!" Nojiko watched as the agent spawned swords made of wax, and drove them into the giants hands and feet. It was brutal to watch, but she couldn't look away. After he'd done that, he speed up the Service Set, which made the wax fall onto their friends much quicker than before.
"Looks like we'll be wax before we know it," Zoro said bluntly.
"What do we do Big Bro?!" Yosaku said, panicked. "I don't want to become wax!"
"Well that's obvious," Zoro said. The swordsman pulled out two of his blades and inspected them carefully. "I'm going to chop my feet off to get out of here."
"Is that Marimo serious?!" Sanji hissed under his breath. "He can't actually be ready to chop his feet off!"
"We need to do something," Nojiko replied as the crew that had been captured argued loudly. She scanned the area as quickly as she could, looking for any sort of opening that she could use in order to help them. The four agents were all looking at the argument, meaning they might be able to sneak up and deal with one of them without being seen. That said, who should their target be? She'd seen Mr. Five and Ms. Valentine fight, so maybe the two unknowns in Mr. Three and that smaller girl should be the target. But were they stronger? If what Vivi said about Baroque Works numbering system was right they should be, but she didn't know how accurate that was-
Nojiko's train of thought was interrupted by an angry battle cry. Turning, she watched in disbelief as Luffy and Johnny, who were both riding atop Karoo, barrelled into the opening. The duck skidded to a stop across from the agents, allowing both men to jump off and square off with the agents.
"Alright Barbecue Agents!" Luffy shouted. "Give us Vivi and my crew and nobody has to get hurt!"
"Oh, so he wasn't dead." Mr. Five said. "He's quite resilient."
"Luffy! Johnny!" Nami shouted. "You guys have to save us! We're going to turn into candles if you don't hurry up!"
"Don't worry Nami!" Luffy said as he cracked his knuckles. "I won't let you become candles! Will we Johnny?!"
"Hell no!" Johnny shouted as he drew his blade. "Let our crew go or so help me!"
"So this is the man with the largest bounty in the East Blue," Mr. Three said. "Interesting." Luffy just watched the man weakly, before snickering.
"Nice haircut, dork." He said, making Mr. Three splutter.
"There's only two of you!" Mr. Three shouted. "We outnumber you, so let's put these two on the Set too!"
"Good," Ms. Valentine said as she opened her umbrella. "I need my own payback for Whiskey Peak from both of them!" The woman looked like she was about to take off, but a shot rang out. Her umbrella tore open as the shot hit a tree near her, startling her.
"By the way, I'd be careful if I were you." Johnny said with a smirk. "After all, we aren't alone!"
Lying in the jungle nearby, Usopp sighed in relief as he re-bolted his rifle, the barrel still smoking. He'd smoked the umbrella just as he had planned, which prevented the woman from flying up like she had before.
"Just try and hurt my crew," he hissed as he glared at the agents through the scope. "And let's see what happens. I already won't forgive you for what you did to Dorry and Broggy, but so help me God if you hurt my friends the next shot will hurt!"
Vivi watched the agents look for the shooter, but of course they had no idea where he had come from. If she had to guess, Usopp was hiding nearby, watching them through his scope.
"Luffy," Zoro said, gaining the Captains attention. "Destroy the pole on this thing."
"Will that save you guys?" Luffy asked, confused.
"I think so, yeah." Zoro replied. "If it tips over that thing above us, then yeah." Luffy nodded, smiling.
"Alright, gotcha! You hear that Johnny?" Johnny nodded, steeling himself.
"I did, Big Bro!" He said. Luffy nodded, turning to the brush.
"What about you guys?" He asked. Vivi had no idea what he as talking about, but she soon found out as Sanji and Nojiko appeared from the brush, both looking deadly serious.
"So you saw us eh Captain?" Sanji asked. Luffy laughed.
"Of course, you guys were nearly right in our path!" He said. Nojiko drew both her pistols and cocked the hammers back, watching the Service Set warily.
"So we need to knock this thing over," she said. "Sounds simple enough."
"They don't sound worried, Mr. Three." The small girl said. Mr. Three just rolled his eyes at this.
"Neither do you, Ms. Golden Week." He said. "I'm not worried about some runts from the East Blue. These kids can't fight, I'm sure of it." Luffy smirked at this, his hat obscuring his eyes slightly.
"How about we test that?" He asked. "Can you guys handle the other three here?"
"Sure thing Captain." Nojiko said. "Have your fun."
And with this, the battle began.
Luffy burst fourth and ran right for Mr. Three, aiming his fist at him. The candle man dodged it and raised a hand, which turned to wax.
"Candle Lock!" He shouted. The wax encased Luffy's legs immediately, trapping him.
"Big Bro Luffy!" Johnny shouted. Luffy stared down at the wax around his legs, looking interested. After a few seconds, he smirked and looked up at Mr. Three.
"Thanks, moron." He said. Mr. Three looked confused, and Vivi felt the same. She watched as Luffy sprung himself over to Broggy, who watched him with confusion on his face.
"What're you doing?" The giant asked.
"Sorry if this hurts, big guy!" Luffy replied. Vivi watched as he wrapped his elastic arms around the wax swords holding Broggy down, tightening them up as far as he could go. Luffy picked up an insane amount of speed as he did so, so much so to the point that be became a blur.
"What is he doing?" Nami asked.
"Helping." Zoro replied simply.
"Gum-Gum..." Vivi watched as Luffy's voice came from the blur, unsure as to what he was doing. "Hammer!" Luffy swung his encased legs at the pole of the Service Set, knocking it out with relative ease. It also broke the wax around Luffy's legs, which freed him at the same time. However, now they had a problem.
"We're gonna get crushed!" She shouted, watching the top descend on them. She braced and waited for the worst, but nothing happened. Opening her eyes, she could see that the top had landed right above them, not crushing them. She wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but they still had a problem.
"The wax is still falling," Zoro said pointedly. Nami coughed to reiterate the point, and Vivi too felt her body hardening up. Mr. Three just laughed.
"As if that would stop it!" He said. "As long as the wax falls, you will all become my art! So hurry up!"
"Big Bro Luffy you need to break us out or destroy that thing!" Yosaku shouted. "Hurry please!"
"I gotcha Yosaku, don't worry!" Luffy shouted, running right for them.
"Nice try!" Mr. Three said. "Candle Harpoon!" The wax formed into the aforementioned weapon and soared for Luffy, but a shot rang out. Mr. Three recoiled, blood spurting from his arm. The harpoon fell off target, allowing Luffy to get closer.
"Nice shot Usopp!" Luffy said, throwing a thumbs up high into the air. The Captain reared his fist back and prepared to strike, but a wall of wax got in his way. Mr. Three had recovered just in time to stop him, growling as his arm bled from Usopp's shot.
"Stop interfering!" He shouted. "My art needs time to be perfected!"
"Your art sucks!" Luffy replied., aiming his fist for the man instead.
"Candle Lock!" Before Luffy could strike his arm was encased in wax, just like his legs had before. Luffy looked down at the wax, grinning again.
"How stupid are you?" He asked. Mr. Three just looked confused, but Luffy didn't seem to care. He reared his encased fist back, still aiming for Mr. Three. "Gum-Gum..."
"Candle Wall!" Mr. Three said, raising a wall in front of himself again.
"Hammer!" Luffy's attack struck the wall dead center, and for a second nothing happened, However the wall of wax cracked, and Vivi watched as Luffy's attack broke open the wall and hit Mr. Three square in the face. The force behind the attack was so great the man was sent flying backwards into the brush, and he did not immediately reappear.
"Great work Luffy!" Nami shouted happily. "Now get over here and save us!" Luffy turned and watched them, and Vivi made a face. What was he doing?
"Come on Big Bro, we need you!" Yosaku shouted.
"I know," Luffy replied. "But I don't want too." Vivi's eyes widened at this, everyone else looking equally as confused.
"What does that mean?!" Nami demanded. "We're running out of time!"
"I know."
"Than save us!"
"I don't want too," Luffy repeated. Why was he doing this? Vivi didn't understand what was so so different about the Captain. Just a second ago he'd blown away their enemy, and now he didn't want to help?
She was confused until she saw the strange symbol under his feet.
"Under his feet!" She said, "What is that?!"
"What the hell is Big Bro Luffy doing?!" Johnny demanded as he jumped back from his engagement with Ms. Valentine. Nojiko made a face and watched their Captain stand there indifferently.
"I don't know but he'd better hurry up and save them!" She said. Sanji bounced back after a fight with Mr. Five, his suit slightly tattered from the explosions. Mr. Five laughed.
"The Captain wasn't careful," he said. "He's trapped now."
"What the hell does that mean?" Johnny demanded. "What did you do to Big Bro?!" Ms. Valentine just laughed.
"We didn't do anything," she said. "Now, let's see how this crew fights without their precious Captain!"
Just one for today, sorry lads. But I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! I'll make sure I post faster next week I swear!