459 | No title

"Full speed ahead," Cricket said on his motorcycle, "There shouldn't be any more mines for a while…"

"Wh-ho!"

"Yeah!"

"SUPERRR!"

The rumbling chopper motorcycles tore through the warped trees and withered vegetation of Thriller Bark's interior, Straw Hat riders going wild on their motorcycles as their riding beasts drove them at high speeds.

"You know these babies are way more fun than anything!" Gin said carelessly speeding up, not accounting for anything. Safe riding wasn't a thing when you were more tough than your motorcycles.

"I hate you," Coby said from the backseat trying to hold back his breakfast.

Along with Gin, there was Yosaku, and Cricket who were speeding up after most of the minefields were clear. The whole island was trapped, but even for hogback, there was a limit to how much mines he could place.

Thriller Bark was big, it used to be an island after all. So some parts of the terrine didn't have any traps. And figuring out the routes wasn't that tough, even without Nami's help.

"Oi, don't get too far there still might be mines around," Usopp called out, but of course, he was ignored.

Right as the crew was clearing out a barren path, the ground started to shake.

"What the… Oi! Stop the motorcycles… something might be happening!" Anchor called out, and this time, most of the crew listened.

"What now?"

The vibration intensified, the very earth quaking as if from impacting titan's footsteps. Even the ground cracked in several places, and it shifted as if something big was coming out from it.

For a moment, Coby had a sense of deja-vu.

"There!" Robin shouted in warning, pointing towards in the dirt ahead. Soil exploded skyward as colossal forms writhed up through rent earth. The moonlight gleamed along undulating crimson hides armored in rock-like scales. Circular maws howled wide, each large enough to swallow most ships whole.

"Giant worm monsters!" Chopper, Perona, and Brook shrieked, swerving desperately as one crashed back down directly in their path.

Its Cronenberg body bulged with rippling muscle, thrashing a cratered ditch where crew had just been. The other riders veered wildly, avoiding the thrashing obstacles rearing thirty feet high.

And it wasn't just one. There were multiple of them. Nearly a dozen of the behemoths emerged and dived with deafening force, cratering the landscape. They left utter devastation in their wake, bereft even of the gangly trees. Only churned furrows remained amidst the newly exposed bedrock and tunnels signaling the horrors' lair.

And with out any warning, the large sandworms started spraying out green liquid around. The crew scattered about with their motorcycles trying to steer away from the acidic liquid, but not all were successful.

"Fuck… my ride's gone!" Gin growled, it seemed one of them managed to destroy the man-demon's motorcycle. "You will PAY for this!"

The Ankylosarus zoan roared in his half-zoan form, jumping towards the giant beast with his fist pulled back. And with one punch, the dented the creature's thick hide, making it fall back on it's group.

"You bastards took my motorcycle! DIE!" Cricket said from the other side as he rained sword-slashes towards another sandworm.

"Well… we need to at least acid proof these things," Usopp said with a sigh, as he looked up on the road, most of it was now broken with green acid filling everywhere. His motorcycle was of course protected by Bartolomeo's shield, same was for a few others who were near.

"The roads ruined," Barto said sadly. "By the way, when making my motorcycle, make mine green and make it shoot acid."

"Ugh, wrong time to get customization orders, but… sure," Usopp shrugged. "By the way, Perona… you didn't tell us about them…"

"I didn't know…" Perona said as she felt disgusted by the looks of the giant worms. Currently, they were occupied in dealing with a very pissed off Gin and Cricket. A few bit later, Johnny and Yosaku also joined in, and they were enough to deal with the group.

"Well, they aren't much of a threat… And it makes me wonder…" Robin said, humming, before she shook her head, "Anyway, those do look quite like the sand worms in Alabasta?"

"There were these things in Alabasta?" Chopper asked with horror.

"What kind of foul place is that?" Perona asked, while Brook agreed.

"I think you are putting a bad reputation for Alabasta, Robin-san," Coby said with a deadpan. "But you were right… these things were in Alabasta. Me and Zoro had hunt every last one of them in the southern parts of island… though they were a bit different."

"How so?" Robin asked.

Coby opened and closed his mouth, "Call it instincts, but they kind of feel different… also they weren't green and definitely didn't throw up Acid back in Alabasta…" he said shuddering when he remembered a few times he was eaten. Yeah, he would have definitely noticed. "so…"

Right as they were saying this… suddenly the ground around them started to shake again. The straw hats that weren't fighting quickly moved their motorcycles away just in time as another worm came out sucking the ground beneath them and throwing up green acid liquid towards the sky.

"Shit!"

"No… my motorcycle!"

"We have to move out to the sky…" Anchor said, taking hold of his motorcycle and jumping in air with geppo. But unfortunately, some of the acid spluttered onto the motorcycle's front tire, rendering it useless. The smith growled and threw in his motorcycle out with all of its might, the machine going right through the beast, as it shrieked in pain.

While that was happening, many of the straw hats were also attacking the giant worms. But Coby stayed back, something felt off about the whole thing. Coby observed as Gin managed to kill one of them, and it's dead-body gushing out green acid everywhere, the acidic blood also had the effect of evaporating quickly, clouding the surrounding fog like green gas.

"Guys, let's ignore them," The young pink-haired man said, "We have to get to Hogback first…"

"No, can do… I have to kill every one of these bastards for killing Maria!" Gin said charging at another giant worm like a wrecking ball.

"No… wait? Who's Maria!"

"My motorcycle!" Gin said in between his fight, making Usopp sweat-dropp. It seemed that the man-demon really got attached to his motorcycle.

"DIE!" Johnny yelled drilling right through one of the large sandworms as he roared in victory. His body also, like Gin covered in the acidic substance. Their bodies were literally sizzling but their zoan's fast recovery was doing a good process of self-healing their injurious.

But while the zoan users were okay, Cricket and even Yosaku were getting burns on their skins from the green aciding mist. And yet they were persistent in fighting them.

"Oi, don't you guys have any problems with those acid blood covering your body?" Coby asked, but the only response he got from them was howl of cheers and aggressive cursing.

"Something doesn't seem right about this…" Coby said with a frown, but he was cut off by a shout.

His ears twitched as he picked up something near him. He quickly looked towards where he hear the sound from and moved on his own, pushing away Chopper and Robin just in time as small white worms, came out of the ground, trying to bite them.

"Hey…"

"…"

"Are you guys alright?" Coby asked, but his words were cut off by someone else.

"Oi, Bepo… what happened," Law said as he quickly grabbed onto a small white worm that was biting his friend. It seemed Bepo did something similar and pushed Law away, but the bear mink was bitten instead.

Other then getting a response, the bear mink started to growl and twitch pushing Law back.

"Wait… Bepo, what happened?" Chopper who was concerned suddenly sniffed the air, and quickly covered his mouth. "Cover your mouth, there's something in the air."

Those who were near and understood the massage and quickly covered their face. Brook even took a step further and controlled the green mist around them, away from everyone. But it was too late for Bepo, not only was he bitten he also felt to the effect of the green acidic liquid.

The case was same for Yosaku, Cricket, Johnny and lastly Gin. As almost all of the sandworms fell, the group that were affected started acting like wild beasts as they moved their attention to their crewmates.

"Shit…" Law said with a cloth wrapped around his face. Even though that wasn't needed thanks to Brook's help, he would still be cautioned.

Shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, goes by the username (FallenCrown) on there.
Support me if you want, but don't feel pressured, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.
Read my other fics if you have the time. If you want to have a chat with me, hit me up on discord.
/Gnxnuw56ks
Gnxnuw56ks