Chapter Twenty-One: Ussop

Getting shot fucking sucks.

But Ussop knew that before he actually got shot. In fact, it had been one of his goals today to not be injured in any way, shape or form. Still, when he opened the door on the sixteenth floor and saw about fifty burly men in suits, he knew he was in for some sort of bodily injury.

At a loss of what else to do, since he had just made himself the center of the attention to the whole room, he cracked a joke.

"Anyone order take out?" he asked with a nervous chuckle, gazing about the room lamely. At the exact moment his eyes found Nami, a shot rang out and he was thrown backwards and to the side a bit from the impact of the bullet.

The first thing he realized over the blazing pain was that he was still alive. Small miracle. He'd felt the impact in the middle of his chest, though a bit below where his heart was. It hit one of the books he'd taped to himself and somehow not let the bullet slide through him like he was a gelatin mold.

The second thing that hit him was that no one was looking at him anymore. If they had, they would have seen his chest moving (with great pain, though) and probably shot him again. Also, adrenaline had finally hit him since his long (super loooooong) trek up the stairwell and he found he had the energy to move, despite the pain he was in. He hazarded a glance and saw was the main boss man, a grisly looking guy in a very expensive looking suit, shouting at a man who had half his body standing outside of a small room full of monitors.

There! That was the security room! Somehow, Ussop had to get his butt into that room.

The desire to move from where he was lying became much stronger when the boss man, who had to be Arlong, shot the man who was delivering a bit of bad news to him. Ussop scrambled behind one of the nearby couches and hoped that no one looked his way.

"Get our security measures back up!" Arlong shouted in a fury. "I want the elevators working too! Go down to the fucking fourth floor and shut off that damn alarm if you have to!"

Several men scrambled to do as they were told, and luckily, quite a few near where Ussop was hiding were quick to head to the stairwell and leave him with less likelihood of detection.

"And get those bodies out of sight!" Arlong commanded, and Ussop paled. They were about to discover he wasn't a dead body. He scrambled closer to Nami, which also took him closer to the security door but also nearer to the enraged man. "I don't want blood staining the carpet."

Ducked down and hiding, Ussop didn't see what made the room fall deadly quiet. But he had a guess of what it was.

"What is it?" Arlong demanded. Silence answered him for a few moments, but they felt hours long to Ussop.

"Maybe one of the guys grabbed him on the way downstairs," offered up somebody. Ussop knew they'd realized he was mobile somewhere. He hazarded a glance around the chair he was cowered behind and saw that everyone's attention was on the empty spot on the floor.

Everyone's except Nami. She was inching her way towards a desk that was between himself and the security room, though she was cautious of a large, mean looking man stationed near her.

"Send out a general alert," Arlong ordered, narrowing his eyes. "Something rankles."

Ussop took stock of the room and saw that he was going to have to give up his hiding spot soon, because Arlong was pretty close to the desk and as soon as he moved, the almost everyone in the room was going to see him do it.

"Sir, we've got a problem in the stairwell," a timid voice spoke up. Ussop had a fair idea of what that problem was, too. As soon as the people started rushing from the building, Luffy and the guys were gonna be on their way in. And likewise, up the stairs. Ussop was supposed to be keeping those stairs open too, but here he was, stuck behind a chair across the room from the place he needed to be. Fucking bad luck.

Arlong walked to the security room looking ready to break necks with his bare hands. "What is it?"

Ussop took back his curse against his luck. The attention of the room followed Arlong and left Ussop still unseen.

"It's the all-nighter kid," the petrified man told Arlong. "He's got two others with him. They're on their way up."

"Let the men headed down to the fourth floor deal with them," Arlong decided, sounding a lot less concerned than he should be, Ussop thought.

"That's the problem, sir," the terrified man explained. "They've already beaten them."

Ussop felt the room's tension skyrocket. Yeah, Luffy had that kind of way with situations. Ussop darted to the chair that was between himself and Nami. He grabbed the knives he had hidden in his pockets and armed himself, because he knew that the battle was about to begin.

"Idiots," Nami hissed as Ussop ducked under Arlong's desk to hide. Just in time, too. Everyone in the room turned to regard her.

"Something you would like to share with the rest of us, my dear?" Arlong snarled.

Nami lunged forward, stabbing the scary looking guard in the leg with a letter opener from the desk. The man crumpled to the floor and she hopped back away from him.

"Well, sixteen is longer than I originally expected to live," Nami sighed. "So I guess I came out ahead. I'll tell you now; I am not going to go peacefully to Donquixote. You're going to have to kill me."

Arlong narrowed his eyes into slits at her. "Is that so? Even at the cost of the lives of your precious family, who you've work so hard to keep alive these six years?"

"You were going to kill them anyway," Nami accused. The yakuza boss didn't even deny it or have the shame to look guilty.

"I offer you one last chance, little Nami," Arlong spoke. "Sit down in that chair and wait for Doflamingo like a good little girl and you will escape this little act of rebellion without a mark on you."

The small silence between Arlong's offer and Nami's response filled the room with so much tension that Ussop felt like he might choke on it. He prayed that Nami wouldn't say something belligerent to upset the mob boss.

"I'd rather die," she stated, against Ussop's prayers. "So let's cut to the chase already."

"So be it," Arlong shrugged. He took a phone out of the breast pocket of his jacket and dialed a number. There was a pause while he waited for the other party to answer. "Mihawk. I have another job for you. Yes, the two women whose pictures I sent you yesterday. No, no need to wait anymore. Go now. Do me a favor and make it painful. I'll pay extra. Good man."

Ussop felt bile rise in the back of his throat. That easily, Arlong dished out death to a complete stranger. Hell, he had been shot himself by the guy with the intention of death, and Arlong had killed one of his own subordinates. But it was the order of murder of someone completely innocent and without connection to any of this dirty business that made Ussop come to a hard decision.

Could he kill someone, too?

It would be murder. Ussop would be no better than the people he was fighting against. He would take a life that could not be given back. It was not something that Ussop could come back from. He would be forever changed by the action.

"You're in for some trouble, you know," Nami spoke while Ussop deliberated. "Those boys, the ones on their way up here, they were at the restaurant with Krieg. They survived."

Arlong scoffed. "Impossible. I decreed no witnesses."

No witnesses. Arlong had already signed their death warrants four or five weeks ago. Ussop knew that there would be no second reprieve. It had been the night Nami was taken. Had she given herself up so that they might have a chance to escape? It sounded like something Nami would do.

Ussop swallowed hard and released one of the big knives from the tape on his arm. He could do it. He was going to do it. He was going to kill people. People that would kill him, given the chance. It was self-defense in a way.

"I know," Nami agreed. "But here they come. Which means one of two things: either they bested Dracule Mihawk, or Mihawk cheated you. Which do you believe?"

Nami was pretty good at bluffing, Ussop realized in admiration. She couldn't know the real story, but she had taken a good guess.

Ussop was distracted by the sound of a man grunting and growling at the same time. He peeked an eye around the desk and saw that the scary-ugly dude that had been guarding Nami had stood again, and the look on his face was murderous intent. And Nami was without any type of weapon to defend herself with.

Without thinking too much about it, Ussop sprang up from behind the desk and threw the big knife into the chest of the ugly-scary –faced guy. He fell to the floor with a look of confusion on his face, as though he didn't know why he was falling. Ussop tore his eyes away from the man who was going to be his first kill and stared Arlong down unflinchingly.

"I'll tell you our secret!" he cried, pulling more knives from his pockets. "We're invincible!"

It was a blatant lie. But they didn't know that. Nor did they know that Luffy had just let himself and Zoro and Sanji into the room too. They all drew their guns to shoot (probably) at him as Nami leaned down and pulled the knife from the ugly's soon-to-be corpse.

While Sanji and Zoro took walked in opposite directions from Luffy, Nami charged half stumbling towards the nearest man to her and stabbed him in the back with the knife she'd gained. He saw her reach towards the man's inner jacket pocket but another gun shot rang out and the man ricocheted away from Nami towards another grouping of men.

Nami did keep the knife, but every man within three meters of her backed away, recognizing her as a threat. But oddly, no one aimed their guns at her. Whatever. Ussop didn't worry about it since it wasn't an issue and began tossing knives at the men that where within his range. Three more went down before bullet's came his way and he had to duck behind the desk.

Ussop heard the first sharp clang of metal hitting metal and realized with a laugh of exaltation that the desk was armor enforced. Ha! Trust a yakuza leader to have a bullet proof desk! What a lucky break.

Arlong began moving towards the security room.

Damn it! Ussop was no longer going to think about his luck; it seemed to change with the wind today. He took stock of how many knives he had left that would kill a man, not just maim him, and counted seven. The most sturdy one Ussop could possibly throw at Arlong's head, but he wasn't sure the yakuza boss wouldn't be able to dodge and—

Problem solved. Luffy half-tackled Arlong before he got more than three steps towards the security room. He was also pulling the same stunt as he had at the Baratie. He stripped Arlong of his suit coat and dislodged the gun from his hand. Well, whatever worked.

Nami came his way, though she tripped again and was making some odd movement with her arm as though she was reaching behind her. He didn't worry about it. She looked fine. In fact, she looked almost perfectly unharmed. And weirdly, the bullets headed his way stopped as soon as she ducked behind the desk with him.

She pulled some pins out of her hair and began picking a lock on one of the desk drawers. Ussop watched in puzzlement for a moment before glancing over the top of the desk to see that most of the 'bad guys' were now converging on Sanji and Zoro.

Well, how about some knives in the back! Ussop put three more knives in as many men before they backed out of his range for the most part. Once in awhile, one would get close enough out of carelessness and he would land a hit. But his knives were starting to dwindle. Soon, he'd be down to non-lethals.

In the meantime, Nami had gotten the drawer open and was pulling out a gun. She checked the magazine with almost no fumbling and then slammed it back in with a frustrated huff. She shuffled around the desk drawer a bit more before slamming the drawer closed in agitation.

Ussop saw that the stairwell door was open again and that more men were starting to appear. Damn it, that's what he was supposed to be preventing! He had to get to the security room, not cower here! But still, as soon as he left the protection of the bullet proof desk, he was likely to become target practice again. Not at all appealing.

Nami handed him the knife she'd been brandishing, and Ussop grabbed it eagerly—along with her hand and pulled. He hugged her hard for a few seconds before letting go, knowing that this reunion had to be short. He set his eyes on his next target as he peeked around the desk, also looking for a good chance to get into the security room.

Nami darted out from behind the desk and Ussop's eyes followed her, his knife cocked and ready to throw if anyone raised a gun at her. But no one did. It was weird. They all backed away from her as if she were the plague. Oh well. That left those avoiding her as open targets.

He threw knives at the nearest men and landed hits on all of them, but unfortunately, only two of the five knives he threw were lethal shots. The other three were wounded, but still functioning. Plus he was down to three knives. When Nami made her way over to Sanji, the same avoidance occurred but none of the men got close enough to Ussop to be mortally wounded and at this point, Ussop needed mortal wounds. No maiming would suffice.

Two more fish got close enough to give lethal shots to. No matter how much he thought about what he was doing, though, Ussop could not think he was killing or murdering the men. He tried to think of it as an interactive game that just had really good visual effects. It didn't help much, though. Nagging at him deep in his chest was the feeling that he was a murderer.

"We've got to get you into the security room," Nami said, breaking up his dark thoughts and handing him three more knives. She didn't even duck down behind the desk. "Sanji said you'd be best at keeping out more Fish."

Fish? Oh, right. The bad guys. In Garp's files, Ussop had read that the men in Arlong's yakuza were referred to as Fish.

Nami tugged on his arm and pulled him up with her. He went reluctantly; though the Fish were not shooting at her, they could still shoot at him.

"Trust me, no one's going to shoot while I'm around," Nami promised. Ussop thought about that for a moment before deciding she was right. He'd seen the evidence himself.

The two of them made their way towards the security room in a dash, but a behemoth of a man stepped in their way. He, unlike the others, was not afraid to be in close quarters with Nami and made a grab for her immediately. Nami shoved Ussop around the giant Fish towards the security room. He was only a few feet away as Nami shooed him away and faced the monster Fish with only her gun.

Ussop was going to protest (or at least put a knife in the ginormous man's back) but Luffy rammed into the man after being physically thrown away by Arlong, blocking his aim. Arlong set his sights on Ussop then and pulled a gun and Ussop knew that he had to go into the security room or die.

Easy decision.

He barely made it into the security room after being hit with yet another bullet, this time in the back, but luckily also in one of the books he'd taped to himself. Foresight was a blessing sometimes. It still hurt like hell and he felt like the wind had been knocked out of him as he tried to get back up in time to yank the dead body out of the doorway and close the security room door.

He'd barely accomplished the task when he was grabbed from behind.

Ussop had been so worried about the threat of Arlong outside of the security room, he forgot to account for any men inside of it. And now he was in a headlock.

In retrospect, Ussop had a clear shot to the kidneys. It wouldn't be a quick or painless death by any means, but Ussop figured he was in for the same if he didn't do something. So he stabbed one of his remaining three knives deep into the kidney of his captor. The man howled in pain and lost his grip, and Ussop was finally able to take a breath. When he spun around to throw another knife, he got the shock of his life. Which was really saying something considering all that he'd been through so far that day.

Another one of Arlong's men, a Fish, stood next to the maimed man with a gun pointed at his head. He fired without hesitation and the gore splattered everywhere, including onto Ussop, much to his dismay, as the man fell dead to the ground.

"I take it that you're here to stop the reinforcements from entering," the Fish said calmly, reholstering his gun. Ussop was pretty shocked and didn't think about not answering the Fish. He nodded mutely. "That is easier said than done. There's someone on the outside hacking in and fucking around with our systems. They're keeping every door open. I've been doing my best to counteract it, but with a subordinate looking over my shoulder, I was hard pressed to do much."

Ussop was still stuck in a blank, mute stare. Just what was going on?

"I can lock the hacker out easily enough, but I need to get upstairs to the Mermaids. I must get Keimi out of here," the Fish went on, finishing his thought almost absently. "If I show you how to block the hacker, will you vow to not speak about my involvement to anyone?"

Ah. A trade. Ussop got it now.

"Absolutely," Ussop agreed readily. "As long as you don't take out me or my friends."

The Fish smiled slightly. "You and your friends…you are doing what I have been aiming to do for almost three years. Of course I wouldn't take you out."

It could be a trap. Ussop knew that. But being a skilled liar himself, Ussop also knew when (most) people were lying, and this man wasn't, to Ussop's knowledge. So he nodded again in agreement.

The Fish went straight to the console for the security system and began typing furiously at the main computer. Not a word was uttered for over a minute but Ussop watched as different security systems went online again. The Fish had done the job, rather efficiently too.

"Remember, you never saw me," the Fish reminded Ussop as he went over to the corner of the room where the emergency exit was. By the orientation of the room, Ussop guessed it led into a stairwell. Not the main one, but probably a maintenance one. He popped the door open and ignored the alarm that was set off and hurried up the stairs before the door closed again and Ussop saw no more of him.

What Ussop did see were the monitors. And it looked like the fighting was over, but not in the good way. He saw that his four friends were headed in a single direction very slowly, moving awkwardly. But he couldn't tell where they were headed until he heard a knock on the security room door.

"Come out now," he heard Nami say. She sounded worried. "Hurry, Ussop."

He cracked the door open the tiniest bit to peek out, seeing that it was indeed Nami and the others waiting for him. He hazarded the door open a little wider and took in a scene that brought panic to him. Luffy was shot. Oh shit. And he was bleeding. Bad. Way worse than himself. And there was blood all over his chin. Was he throwing up blood too?

"Did you get the security system handled?" Nami asked him. Still in shock at the sight, Ussop didn't answer right away. She elbowed him.

"Yeah, I think so," he mumbled, shaking his head to try and clear it. It didn't work well.

"To the elevator," Nami instructed next. It was slow progress, in which time Nami kept her eyes on Arlong and a gun cocked to shoot herself in the leg. When they made it to the elevator, Nami reached out blindly behind her to press the call button.

"Don't you dare think to get on that elevator," Arlong growled, taking a few steps towards them. Nami pulled the trigger on the gun again, sending a bullet through her upper thigh. Ussop jumped away from her, but he was still hit with the ricochet blood anyway.

Was she crazy? Why was she shooting herself? Ussop watched as Nami bit down hard on her lip and struggled to remain standing. Ussop moved his hands to support her in a moment's time, though she was doing her best to stay standing on her own and only needed a little help with balance. Arlong had stopped in his trek, but the look on his face was livid.

"You're going to get on the elevator as soon as it opens," Nami told them, and everyone's head turned towards her. She put more weight back onto her injured leg and pushed away Ussop's hands. "You're going to close it behind you."

"Like hell," Sanji snapped.

"Someone has to stay behind and make sure no one overrides the security and brings you back up here," Nami reasoned, though Ussop had half a dozen arguments to counter her. "I'll be fine. They won't hurt me. I'm too—expensive."

"But—" Sanji protested again, beating any of the rest of them to it. Luffy erupted in a coughing fit and a gush of blood came up from his throat and splashed down to the floor in vivid red. Ussop realized that they couldn't defy Nami. If they stayed any longer, Luffy would undoubtedly die and possibly the rest of them too. They were just too out gunned.

"This is worse than when you disappeared from the Baratie," Ussop complained with a wavering voice. "None of us made the conscious decision to leave you behind."

It wasn't fair. They'd come here for her, damn it!

"It'll be fine," she lied. Ussop could lie with the best of them, but that also meant he could see a lie a mile away.

The elevator dinged its arrival and Ussop turned to watch the doors open up to a blonde man who looked startled to see them all. He gazed at all of them briefly, his eyes halting on Nami for just a fraction of a second longer than the rest of them, and then came to rest on Luffy.

His hands were moving before any of the rest of them could register that he'd moved. The blonde man pulled Luffy by the shirt into the elevator and knelt over him. Zoro stepped into the elevator immediately and hovered protectively over Luffy and the unknown man. Ussop reluctantly entered the elevator too, and finally, Sanji brought up the rear, muttering an oath under his breath.

"Holy mother fucking hell!" the blonde man cursed, flipping out a phone and dialing rapidly. He had the phone to his ear as he reached down and felt for Luffy's pulse. "Koala! I need paramedics in the lobby in half a minute! Man down!"

Then the blonde slipped through the closing elevator doors and left the four of them alone in the elevator, and the last Ussop saw of Nami, she was holding a gun to her head. Immediately, Sanji jabbed the door-open button, but the elevator was descending. He next stabbed the button for the fourteenth floor, but it wouldn't abide him.

"I think someone on the outside is working the security system," Ussop explained. "I was having a hard time with them when I got into the security room. I thought they'd given up, but obviously they just were letting me have my way for the time being."

"Well, what the fuck are we supposed to do for Nami?" Sanji demanded in a roar. "And Luffy? This whole fucking plan has gone to shit! We didn't get Nami back and Luffy's about to die as a result of it!"

Ussop had no rebuttal, but Zoro did. He turned and slapped Sanji. Not hit. Not punched. Slapped.

"Get your fucking head straight," Zoro snapped. "We don't know what we're about to face on the first floor. But if you don't get your shit together, Luffy might die and we might die with him. Luffy's strong, but if we can't get him to an ambulance in less than a minute, he's gonna drown on his own blood. You wanna waste time because you can't see the goal? Yeah, we failed at getting Nami back. But we will try again if we're alive. So, you stupid fucker, you wanna live or die when we get to the first floor?"

It was the longest speech Ussop had ever heard from Zoro. But every single thing he said was true. Brutally true. Ussop only had about six knives left, so he was going to have to be accurate when throwing them. There was no way that he could be accurate if he was frenzied. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

"You carry him," Zoro dictated to Sanji. "You've got the longest legs. Get him to the nearest ambulance and kick the shit outta whoever gets in your way, got it? Me and Ussop will get anyone who tries to follow."

Sanji looked livid at being told what to do by Zoro, but he also looked like he was taking the advice given and was getting his head back into the game. The three of them shifted Luffy, who began coughing up blood again though he was unconscious, onto Sanji's back as they neared the first floor.

"Ussop, you're gonna clear the way as soon as the door opens," Zoro instructed. "Be ready."

Ussop already had a knife in each hand, but he knew that the 'be ready' meant he was supposed to be in front. Great. Just where he wanted to be. Unconsciously, Ussop adjusted the books taped to his body and wondered if they would be able to stop another bullet.

"You good?" Sanji asked, looking down at him. "There's blood on your apron."

"Probably not mine," Ussop replied, dismissing it. Truth was, though, that his chest hurt big time and he was wondering if he had in fact been punctured by the bullet and was just now feeling it since he was coming down off of adrenaline.

"It's yours," Zoro told him. "You're getting in the ambulance with Luffy. Darts-for-brows and I will find out what hospital you're at and follow in our own way."

"Fuck you," Sanji spat at Zoro. "Snot hair."

"Future sex offender," Zoro returned, though there was a shadow of a grin on his face.

"Closet narcoleptic," Sanji retorted, sounding just as content to throw insults at each other.

The elevator dinged its arrival on the first floor and Ussop tensed. He had no idea what he'd see, but he didn't trust the blonde guy to deliver the said paramedics that he'd barked to get waiting for them over the phone. The elevator door opened to reveal a tall, older man with long silverish hair and matching mustache, and brown agespots adorning his skin. He gave Ussop an odd look and made a sweeping motion towards a pair of men who were looking rather averse to being there but sporting a stretcher.

"I'll be damned; he got a stretcher," Ussop muttered, moving out of the way for Sanji. Sanji looked a little less trusting though, but Ussop dragged him out of the elevator and over to the gurney.

"Hey!" Sanji protested, but didn't put up much of a fight since Luffy was still coughing up blood and he was mostly working on keeping Luffy on his back. "These fuckers—"

"Are terrified to be here," Ussop interrupted. "I doubt they mean us harm. Let's go."

Sanji finally gave in and put Luffy on the stretcher. The paramedics looked alarmed, but at least knew what their job was. They began to immediately treat Luffy as they steered the stretcher back out of the building at a slow jog. Ussop tried to keep up with him but his chest just wasn't having it anymore. He got three jogging steps in before he collapsed to the ground coughing.

"Damn it," Sanji cursed, leaning down and untying the apron. He pulled Ussop's shirt up next. "Why didn't you say something?"

Ussop couldn't answer through the coughing. And then he was crying in pain as Sanji tore one of the books, tape and all, from his skin. When would the abuse end?

"Fuck!" Sanji cursed again. "Why didn't you tell us you were shot?! Holy hell, this is bad. Hey, can we get another stretcher?"

Ussop hazarded a glance down and saw the hole the bullet must have gone into. Worse, since it had entered and in the relative scheme of things, his back didn't hurt, that meant the bullet was still inside him.

"Hold on," Sanji told him. "This is gonna hurt, but there are no more stretchers to come to you."

And suddenly, Ussop was over Sanji's shoulder in a fireman's carry and howling in pain as Sanji flat out ran out of the building. He ran for what seemed like forever, but finally stopped next to an ambulance.

"Got another one for you," Sanji announced, pulling Ussop down from his shoulder. That hurt too, but Ussop was beyond remembering what he said. He could be calling Sanji's mother a grand scheme of awful things and not know it because all Ussop could do was feel the pain in his chest.

In some part of his mind, he was aware that he was put into the ambulance with Luffy. In that same place, he knew that Luffy was already intubated and having someone else pump his breaths for him. He knew that Luffy was in bad shape and should ask how good his prognosis was. But Ussop couldn't. He could only feel like a red-hot poker was stabbing into his chest and the burning heat of it was spreading through his chest.

A/N: I planned on updating this about every 2 weeks, but I'm going to slow down on that now. It's going to be more like once a month from now on. Please let me know what you've thought of the story so far, and THANK YOU to all of those who have reviewed and done so thus far.