I don't own Naruto or One Piece. I do however own...no I take that back I don't own jack shit!
"Talk" Talking.
'Think' Thinking.
The day Gin collapsed and began knocking at death's door was the day things got real for us. I remember it when Igaram complained about the name of my ship. Apparently, it was bad luck to keep the name of a captured ship, if this is true or not I really do not know, but we renamed it the Nautilus; forever banishing the name of the Bezan Black from the history books. After that Gin collapsed and slipped into a coma due to the poison coursing through his system.
For four days we tried to get Gin to snap out of his coma, but it was fruitless. We are not doctors if anything we made it worse. If it wasn't for Kotetsu suggesting we head to Drum Island where the best doctors in the world resided we would have lost him. Thanks to Bashura we hit Little Garden first before we could go to Drum Island (damn log pose nonsense). When Igaram, Bashura and I arrived on the island the massive volcano erupted and...well we saw two giants fighting each other.
Yea, you read that right. Giants. I swear the both of them exceeded forty feet in height and must have weighed over six-hundred pounds each. The fight ended in a tie and the both of them laughed about it. Now I bet you're asking 'Why the hell were they laughing about it?'. Well, you see one-hundred years ago, and no I am not making this up, the two of them used to be terrifying Captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates. Apparently Dorry "The Blue Ogre" and Brogy "The Red Ogre" got into a fight over who caught two sea kings a hundred years ago and had been fighting to the death about it ever since. Why do you ask? Well apparently it's because of their culture, and I am not going to argue over it considering my own culture.
We stayed on that island for two hours, learned that the Straw Hats stopped the Baroque Works from assassinating Vivi. Though apparently there were a few close calls no thanks to a man called Mr. 3 and his partner Miss Goldenweek. After watching two more fights, two more draws, and eating roasted dinosaur the two giants exchanged log poses with us because Little Garden takes a whole friggn' year for the magnetic fields to change (which nearly gave me a heart attack). After we left we were attacked by dinosaurs...yes we were attacked by velociraptors and a tyrannosaurus rex. I killed the latter with my anchor axe and felt proud of myself, I mean...it's a tyrannosaurus rex! Not everyone can boast about killing one.
However, when we boarded the Nautilus, Kotetsu attacked us. Or more specifically attacked me, he tore up the hallway of the ship, I had to punch him through the ceiling. Then I was trapped by wax, but it did not take. I was far too strong thanks to Sea King Mode, and fought Mr. 3 and punched the sumbitch into the sea after he used his so-called ultimate technique on me. I honestly have no idea if that devil fruit-user lived or not.
At the end of the fight, we had three prisoners. Mr. 3 was unlucky enough to get Mr. 13 and Miss Friday, an otter and buzzard that were nicknamed the Unluckies. Appropriate I know. And Miss Goldenweek herself, Kotetsu caught her due to me knocking some sense into him...and some blood smearing her paint, long story. After freeing Carmen from a cocoon of wax and paint, I decided to take a well-deserved nap because I was too tired to deal with prisoner nonsense. When I woke up we had a ton of information about the organization's members and Miss Goldenweek herself was a hyperactive bundle of nerves. After that, well she was our prisoner who had free reign around the ship. Yes, I know that sounds bad, but Miss Goldenweek is lazier than a slug and no danger to us.
A day later we arrived in Drum Island and I learned two important things. One: Always have cold winter clothing, I woke up freezing cold and did not like it. Second: Never give Miss Goldenweek any sugar. It took hours to get her paint off my face.
"Gin what is going on here?" Carmen demanded.
"How the hell should I know?" Gin harshly whispered in return.
"You're the pirate expert here!"
"That doesn't mean shit to me, people are becoming pirates every day. I can't keep track of them all!"
"Guys getting upset about this is not helping anyone." Surprisingly it was Vivi who was keeping a calm head. They were outnumbered forty to one with a hostage situation to boot. Gin had to respect that. "We need to take stock of the situation, we only have five minutes left."
"Four minutes left!" Capone Bege bellowed at them.
"Not helping," Naruto muttered. His mind was racing a mile a minute, after suffering from hours of walking and traps, and being so close to the treasure he was in no mood to deal with some gangster wannabe muscling in on all his hard work. Poking his head out of the hole the tiger shark fishman yelled at the gangster pirates. "Who the hell are you!?"
"I am Capone Bege, the Captain of the Fire Tank Pirates. And we have you surrounded Uzumaki!" Bege said.
"Never heard of you!"
"What! You idiots, how can you not have heard of us!?" Exclaimed one of the more prominent members. He was a tall, pale man with a long snake-like curling tongue that stuck out of his grinning mouth. His hands were disproportionately large for his body and had a tattoo on the back of them that matched the one on his forehead. He has black hair that was slicked back and stuck up in a curl on the back of his head. He wore a magenta suit coupled with a yellow cravat and a black coat draped over his shoulders. His coat had a feathered collar and his eyes were covered by a pair of small round sunglasses. Gin noticed he had a pair of holsters where he kept two large revolvers.
"If I wanted to learn of mafia rejects I would have learned to give a damn! Ah!" Naruto ducked back into the Ivory Web when a part of Bege's belly opened like a drawbridge and a cannon emerged from it to fire off a cannonball that took off a good chunk of the stern.
"All right wiseguy, you got three minutes left. I hope you're praying to your fish Gods." Bege said before he lit up another cigar after his old one was burned down to his lips.
"Good going kid, you just went and pissed the guys off." Gin said.
"Shut up Gin, listen to me can you go and fire off some of those cannons?"
"In a ship that's partially submerged with powder that's older than I am?" The First Mate looked at the group of one-hundred plus men and calculated their odds. "Distract them, kid, this is going to be tricky."
Nothing was ever easy for them. Well, Naruto had no other choice. "Hey, Bege how the hell did you in here? I would have recalled seeing your ugly mug in the tunnels!"
"Son of a bitch, how dare you speak to the Don that way!" The pirate with the long tongue bellowed.
"Be quiet Vito," Bege ordered his subordinate. He decided to humor the cowering fishman, after all, dead men tell no tales. "You wanna know? Fine I can fulfill your last request Uzumaki. You see before I came to the Grand Line I sent this poor pirate Captain to Davy Jones Locker and took this map from his possessions. It lead me to the island we're under right now and blasted through the traps with some minor casualties."
"Just your luck, huh Captain?" Carmen cheekily asked.
"Yea, just my rotten luck. Come on Gin hurry up."
"Two minutes!"
"Will you shut up! Uzumaki listen to me!" Cricket struggled against his captors, even while kneeling the grunts were really struggling. "Forget about me, you found Lee's treasure, once I'm gone there is nothing that will stop you from kicking this guys ass and getting it!"
"Shut up!" Gotti struck Cricket right in the jaw with his three-barreled machine gun arm. The diver crumpled onto the ground with blood running freely from his mouth. "You are not to speak, prisoner!"
Gritting his teeth Cricket rose to his knees and spat on Gotti's expensive shoes in defiance. "Go stick that gun up your ass and pull the trigger!" He was rewarded as the larger man struck him again.
"One minute Uzumaki!"
"Carmen, Vivi, get your weapons ready and prepare to unleash some hell," Naruto ordered the two women.
After he finished that sentence three cannons belched out one cannonball and grapeshot respectively. Many of the grunts were struck by the unforgiving projectiles, even Gotti's gun arm was struck by the cannonball and was sent barreling through grunts and rock respectively. Vito himself took a grapeshot to the face that cracked his right lens of his glasses.
The only people who weren't harmed was Cricket and Capone Bege, in fact the gangster looked only mildly annoyed.
Bursting from the wrecked stern of the Ivory Web Naruto was the first person to attack the Captain of the Fire Tank Pirates. His speed and power completely surprised the older man, and the blonde shoulder checked the man and the both of them smashed through the cave walls, separating them from the cavern and their allies.
"Captain Bege! Gotti, I'm on my way to get him!" Vito screamed with a mixture of anger that a fishman dared to disrespect their Captain, and pain from the grapeshot ball that smashed into his face.
"Don't bother Vito, Captain Bege can handle one man. He's a one man army who became a boss of one of the Five Families of the West for a reason!" Gotti pulled himself from the wall with an angry growl. Pulling on the chain to his three-barreled machine gun, he watched as two figures jumped from the ship. The cylinders rotated and he fired a few round bursts after them, kicking up old dust and chipping rocks off the walls. "I'm taking a few men after those two. You get the bastard that shot at us with the remainder!" He yelled before he collected several goons that weren't dead and stalked off after them.
"Oh sure, leave that to me. No one messes with the Fire Tank Pirates!" Pulling out one of his large revolvers, the advisor of the crew roused up some of the remaining men, and kicked Cricket in the head as he was starting to get up. "You stay there, I'll deal with you later."
Vito and ten lackeys boarded the Ivory Web with their weapons bared. From what they learned beating the information out of Cricket, they were up against Uzumaki Naruto and his crew, three members had a combined bounty of one-hundred and twenty million beli, not bad for greenhorns just entering the Grand Line, but compared to his Captain they were nothing but ants ready to be squished.
"Yo Vito, who do you think the punk that shot up our guys is?" Asked one of the pirates.
"Gin "The Man-Demon", no question about it." Vito said before clicking back the hammer of his revolver. "From the information known about Uzumaki's crew, they got some psycho swordsman, a tattooed savage, some renown chef that may or may not be a hostage, and Don Krieg's former Combat Commander. And trust me boys Gin is a dangerous one, killing him will put a good notch in my belt!"
"Sounds to me like you got a vendetta against him." Said another pirate.
"I never met the man, but an enemy of our Captain is an enemy of mine. It's just business, nothing personal. I hope he realizes that when I ventilate him." Vito then gestured to the rooms in the hallway. "Now all you, search each room, don't be afraid to use lethal force, I know he won't!" He opened the doorway that headed down to the second level of this ship, but instead of advancing forward his eyes bugged out from behind his glasses.
The reason why, he was standing dead center in front of a cannon that was obviously lugged up to their level, and Gin, wearing his disgusting lime green pants, yellow vest, and the newest addition being a red sash was darkly smirking at them with a lit match in hand. "You're right about that, I enjoy using lethal force." He said before lighting the fuse.
Vito would deny it to his dying day, but the sound of him screaming like little girl echoed throughout the hideout.
"Was that Vito?" One of the gangsters asked in confusion after hearing a girly scream, followed by a loud explosion.
"Don't worry about Vito. Focus on who we're supposed to chase, once we eliminate them we're gonna get to our Captain to deal with Uzumaki." Gotti barked at his seven subordinates. From the looks of the figures that exited the ship like scurrying rats, the assassin of the crew knew that he was chasing after two women. One was probably "Five-Alarm" Carmen, the other was unknown, probably a new addition to the Ocean Sword Pirates. They were going to be easy targets, he wouldn't even break a sweat.
Their trail was easy to follow, they were heading south, their footprints were easy to see with almost thirty years of dust on the stone floor. Gotti and his men followed the trail for several minutes before they came across a steel door that was hastily pulled open. When the members of the Fire Tank Pirates pulled the doors fully open, they couldn't help but stop in their tracks.
There were rumors that "Black" Jack Lee's treasure was vast, that it contained not only paper money, but gold, silver, priceless gems and jewelry, blueprints, silks, and many other things. Those rumors did not do the actual treasure vault justice. Statues stood as tall to the ceiling, there were three dozens safes stacked upon each other in one corner, literal money sacks piled high, and well over a hundred treasure chests. And that was just the first floor of this literal vault, there were plenty more that they couldn't see when they craned their heads upwards.
Gotti quickly snapped out of his stupor, while it was a lot of treasure, he had a job to do. "Snap out of it you idiots! They're in here somewhere, keep your eyes peeled. And if I catch you looking at treasure instead of your jobs, I will make sure you won't live to see daylight."
That was not a threat, but a promise. Gotti helped keep a tight shift when Capone Bege was off doing Captain stuff, and if someone got uppity or outright disrespectful, the punishments varied from simple scoldings to being thrown overboard with cement shoes.
The room was obviously big, there were plenty of hiding places, but they couldn't hide forever. Gotti ordered his men to split into groups of two, leaving him the odd man out, but then again he preferred it that way, he enjoyed the hunt.
Ascending to the second level, Gotti eyed what looked like hundreds of wooden crates stacked to the ceiling of the third level. As much as he hated to admit it, the assassin really was curious about the amount of treasure Lee managed to acquire. So, he punched one of the crates with his machine gun arm and out spilled a pile of rubies. "Well, that is a pretty sight."
Gotti's attention was torn away when he heard the sound of screaming, and the sickening sound of bones breaking. Immediately he bounded off the second balcony and landed on the first floor to see two of his guys crushed under the massive weight of the pile of safes. "What the hell? Did any of you idiots see what happened here!?"
"I don't know boss, Mickey and I were up here when we heard a loud bang." One of the gangsters looked over to wince at the carnage. "Ugh, that is nasty." Those, unfortunately, were his last words too, there was a violent impact as something hit him, and his partner. The both of them fell over the balcony and awkwardly landed on their necks when they hit the ground.
Gotti didn't bat an eyelash when they fell to their deaths. It was a tragedy sure, but that was the business in their line of work. He would, however, take revenge for them. Grabbing the chain on his machine gun arm, he three-barrels rotated several times before firing at the floor his men fell from. The bullets ripped through the stone, Gotti then jumped to the second level and saw a slender form running up the stairs, a trail of bullets ripped up the stone walkway and trailed up the stairs where he swore he tore off the back of a boot.
The assassin of the Fire Tank Pirates followed his target upstairs, his machine gun arm whirling, but no bullets flying just yet. Instead, he marched up the stairs and raised his arm to take what would have been a blow to his head from Carmen's giant fan. "Heh, nice try. You did what I would have done, but your execution was flawed with such a stupid weapon."
"Funny, it worked well against your boys. The safes though, that was just pure luck." Carmen said as she tried to put more weight down on her fan, but Gotti held it up with ease.
"I am impressed, but I'm made out of tougher stuff. I am not going to be easy to break."
"Are you sure?" Vivi said from behind them. Both Gotti and Carmen looked to see the remaining gangsters Gotti brought with him captured by the Princess in disguise, her Peacock Slasher's rope was tied around their throats, and one of their pistols pointed at their heads. "I suggest you surrender, otherwise it's going to be two against one."
It was a bluff however, Vivi honestly couldn't pull the trigger on someone she literally caught by surprise. It was nothing more than a threat to try and cow their enemy into surrendering.
Gotti knocked Carmen away, raised his machine gun arm and bullets tore through his remaining men without a shred of mercy. If it wasn't for the fact she faced absolute danger for two years Vivi would have been riddled with bullets as well, she got over her shock of Gotti butchering his own men rather quickly and ran at full speed. Vivi used every bit of her acrobatic ability to run and jump off one of the steel bars on the edges, she barely managed to grab onto the ledge across from her and pulled her body up.
Gotti had her in his sights, the three barrels began to rotate, but before he could have a chance to fire he had to grab Carmen by her leg before she delivered a nasty kick to his temple. "I'll deal with you later!" Gotti delivered a terrible punch to her stomach, her chest, and then her face in rapid order, blood leaked from her nose, split lip, she let go of her fan in order to clutch her stomach. Then grabbing her calf, Gotti literally threw the pink-haired woman down to the first level and watched as she crashed into several stacked wooden chests with a loud crunch. But when he looked up Vivi was out of sight. "So the hunt continues."
"Ow..." That hurt a lot. Carmen mentally counted her injuries, broken nose, split lip, severely bruised stomach, her spine was probably bruised, maybe a few ribs were cracked, but she could move all her fingers and toes. However, this reminded her too much of her fight with Temari, she still didn't have any of these dial things for her fan that was now left on the first level of the treasure vault.
"I must get up...I can't let Vivi get hurt." Carmen clenched her teeth and forced herself onto her knees, and then to her feet where she used the stack of chests to steady herself. The top one, which was already unbalanced came crashing in front of her, barely missing her shapely body by mere inches. "Damn it, can this get any worse?"
The sound of gunfire in the top levels answered her question. She knew Vivi was remarkably durable, but against Gotti, she was sure the princess wasn't going to last too long with that cursed arm of his. It honestly angered her that she couldn't do anything more to help her, it bothered her so much that she actually kicked the broken chest in front of her and revealed its contents of golden coins, a few necklaces, and earrings she would call dibs on later.
But that wasn't all. There were several sacks and bottles that laid upon the ground, they were something that she was very familiar with. Cooking oil, and spices, the core ingredients for most of her cooking. Carmen knew it was dirty, but thanks to her fight with Temari she knew spices could be used to do something else other than cooking. (1)
However, unlike Temari, Carmen had no real issues using them against someone like Gotti.
"You're going to regret that Uzumaki." Capone Bege said. After the tiger shark fishman shoulder checked him, the both of them smashed through several cave walls and ended up in some sort of quarters if he were a betting man he would figure it used to be a bedroom to one of the crew before they killed each other.
"You're going to regret coming down here. We got here the hard way, so Lee's treasure belongs to us and us alone." Naruto said on the opposite side of the room. Already Bege lost his hat, cigar, and the front of his fancy outfit was remarkably torn. Not too bad of a first hit he had to admit.
"Why work harder when you can work smarter kid?" Bege lightly dusted his chest with a slight wince, damn that brat caught him off guard. "When I acquired this map from that deadbeat Captain, I knew that this treasure was for me. You can't stop me from getting what is rightfully mine."
"Listen, we can argue about who was here first all day. Or we can just get this over with, and trust me after fighting that giant metal lobster I need something fleshy to hit."
"Counter offer Uzumaki." Bege held up his right hand to halt their fight. "I am a fair man, there is plenty of loot here for all of us. I take the half I want, you can take the half that remains."
"You're going to give us the less valuable stuff and take all the good items. No deal Bege." Naruto cracked his knuckles. "Now, put up your dukes or something so I can beat the stuffing out of you."
"Kid you have already lost in sheer military force." Multiple areas in Bege's chest lowered like a drawbridge, small cannons emerged from the holes and fired the cannonballs. They started off as small first, but grew to their normal size in a matter of seconds. Naruto barely had time to react before they fired at him and blew up in his face.
Like before with his arms with Mr. 5, Naruto shielded himself from the blasts, but because Bege fired over twelve in such an enclosed space, not only were his ears ringing, but he went flying out of the room and smashing through stone walls without mercy. The law of motion was an absolute bitch!
"Ow, my dorsal fin, why is it always my dorsal fin?" Naruto really hoped it wasn't crooked, getting to his feet he dusted off the dust and debris off his scorched clothing. "All right, so the guy has cannons in his chest. Not exactly the weirdest devil fruit I've ever seen, but I can beat this guy quite easily."
No sooner did he say that Bege barged through the room, his legs were replaced with tank treads and a large cannon was protruding from his belly. "Oh come on what the hell is this, what sort of crazy devil fruit did you eat!?"
"It's called the Castle-Castle Fruit. That's all a dead man needs to know." Bege said before firing his belly cannon.
Unlike last time Naruto was ready. Lashing out with a powerful right hook, the blonde fishman's knuckles impacted the cannonball, kinetic energy surged through it and shattered it into a thousand pieces. He then gave Bege his infamous smile that promised nothing but pain.
Bege didn't scream in terror as the fist came flying towards his face, instead, his tank treads went in reverse and he smashed through the wall as he took a left and down a hallway, allowing Naruto to fly, and crash into the opposing stone wall opposite of him.
Emerging from his crashing point, covered in dust and debris, Naruto took aim at the retreating gangster. Forcing a drop of sweat that was coating his body into the palm of his right hand, he threw it at Bege's retreating back. Was it honorable? No, no it wasn't. But he was fighting a pirate with a devil fruit, he needed to go down before he could do anything else to try and kill him.
To Naruto's surprise Bege's entire body turned a complete one-hundred and eighty degrees, his belly cannon shot out another cannonball. The Water Bullet impacted the cannonball, and it detonated with a fiery explosion that tore apart the hallway and blasted both Naruto and Bege to the opposite sides of each other and crashed into the stone walls once more.
"I am getting really tired of crashing into walls." Rock versus spine was not that he wanted to deal with today. Then again when Naruto woke up this morning he did not imagine this much bullshit happening to him. 'At least there is only one of him, I just need to anticipate his movements, and then I will punch the bastard through the ceiling.'
That thought went flying out the window when Bege righted himself, this belly lowered like a drawbridge, and people literally began to march out of his body.
"I fucking hate devil fruits."
(Mock Town - Meanwhile)
"Son of a bitch!" Shizune's voice boomed from within the medical room of the Nautilus.
Both Kotetsu and Bashura, the only remaining members of the crew that weren't AWOL or out searching for a treasure that may or may not have existed burst into the room. Kotetsu had both his cutlass and Nidai Kitetsu in hand, Bashura morphed into his half-panther form and claws ready to rip someone to shreds.
"Shizune what's going on!?" Kotetsu asked.
"Are there enemies on board?" Bashura said, if someone else managed to find that secret hatch, he knew the Cap'n wouldn't be happy one bit.
"Does it look like there are enemies in here?" Shizune swept her arm throughout the room to show quite possibly cleanest room in the ship. Full of medical equipment, and various test results that she still had to go through, she showed that there were no enemies. She, however, showed them a wanted poster. "I just got this a few minutes ago with my newspaper. Look at it!"
The lookout and navigator of the crew looked at the poster and saw the angry, scruffy-looking face of Gin wearing his old gray headband with blue stripes design on his head.
Wanted Dead or Alive
Gin "The Man-Demon"
$12,000,000 Beli
"Did his bounty increase?" Kotetsu looked at the poster quizzically.
"He's twenty-five years old? I thought he said that he was twenty-eight." Bashura commented. (2)
"That amnesic bastard is going to make me redo his chart, and he has been complaining about his so-called lousy ten million beli bounty. I swear when he gets back..." Shizune made a strangling motion with her hands.
Both Kotetsu and Bashura wisely took a step back from a clearly angry Shizune. Kotetsu himself knew the struggles doctors faced when it came to medical charts, if one thing was even remotely falsified, then not only would high command come down on them, but it would also come into question of every chart they had done.
Bashura only knew that, like their doctor, a lot of them did get irritated from hearing Gin bitch about his low bounty was. Granted, the navigator didn't understand why pirates were so proud of the bounties on their heads, he guessed it was a pride thing. Or it was Gin being Gin, who really knew with him?
"Shizune, I think I have a solution for all your problems," Kotetsu said, stopping the woman from strangling the air. "You're stressed. Between worrying about Goldenweek and Carue, not to mention living in this crap ship, you got a lot on your shoulders. So, why don't come with us? We're going to go to a bar, play some cards to get some more money, and more than likely beat someone up. You in?"
"I have a Hippocratic oath Kotetsu." Shizune frowned.
"You killed the crap out of Miss Mother's Day with some of her goons. And I saw what you did in the desert." Bashura dully replied.
"That was different. They went out of their way to kill us, I don't do that. I'm a doctor, I'm supposed to heal the sick and injured."
She had a point there, Shizune never went out of her way to really hurt someone. But Kotetsu was not taking no for an answer. "Why don't you come with us anyway? Without Carmen, we're going to have to eat out, plus I know you could use a drink."
"I am not going out for a drink." Waking up with a hangover did not improve Shizune's mood at all. "But...I will go and get something to eat, and keep an eye on the two of you. I am responsible for your health after all."
Shizune would later come to regret her decision. Several failed poker games, and a few drunken pirates later, the bar became completely wrecked with unconscious and broken bodies. Shizune would never allow those two idiots to gamble ever again.
(Gin versus Vito - Meanwhile)
"That son of a bitch...I can't believe he did that!" Vito exclaimed as he shot another large hole in the ship.
Gin was more clever and crazy than he thought. What sort of maniac would lug a fucking cannon up a floor to shoot at them? Apparently, it was Gin "The Man-Demon", Vito had to respect the guy for being so ballsy.
But that didn't mean he had to like what he did. Gin shot Vito point blank with a cannon, the men he brought with him were completely shredded by the grapeshot if it weren't for the fact that he has been practicing Busoshoku Haki things would have been very unpleasant for him. Unfortunately for Vito after the dust cleared Gin was gone, and his well-tailored suit was shredded and covered in blood.
That left them with a game of cat and mouse throughout the slowly sinking ship. If Vito heard the sound of skittering or footsteps he shot at it, and the Ivory Web was filled with more holes. But he had been unable to kill Gin, and that was beginning to piss him right the hell off.
Clink
Clink
Clink
"Oh, asshole. Come out to play~" Gin sang from somewhere in the ship, apparently he found three bottles somewhere and began to click them together. (3)
Vito turned towards the wall and fired his five remaining bullets into it, ejected the cartridges and quickly reloaded it with one of his speed loaders. "Come out you jerk! Fight me like a man!"
"How about you make me?" Vito swore he heard Gin's voice echo in his right ear, it caused him to quickly turn in that area and fired two shots from both his pistols. All he did was punch two more holes into the walls. "Ah-ah, you missed."
"Listen here, I got ten rounds left, and I'm not afraid to use them!"
"All I need is one."
This time Vito turned to his left where he was nearing a hallway taking a sharp turn. He saw Gin thrust out his right arm with a flintlock pistol in his hand, Vito thrusted out his revolver. Both combatants maneuvered their bodies to allow each others arms to brush past their heads, and both of them fired at the same time.
Then both of them yelled out in pain and clutched their respective ears.
"Mawp!" Gin said clutching his right ear.
"Mawp!" Vito exclaimed, clutching his left ear.
"Mawp! You son of a bitch! That was right by my ear!" Gin angrily shouted over the ringing in his ear.
"Shut up! That was right by my ear!" Vito growled. "Mawp! Don't you know how bad that is!?"
"Shut up and apologize to the tinnitus you just gave me!"
"You shut up and apologize to the tinnitus you gave me!" (4)
Growling, Gin used the butt of his pistol to smack Vito right in his face. The wood shattered into splinters, cutting up the gangsters face real good before the First Mate of the Ocean Sword Pirates dealt a terrible punch to his solar plexus before he jumped back to prevent from getting a pair of bullets in his belly.
Smarting from the hit, but undaunted, Vito unloaded his revolvers into the area his opponent scurried off to. "You annoying pest! Normally I don't mix business with pleasure, but I am going to enjoy adding your name to my list of people I've killed." He said, cartridges flying from the cylinder he used his speed loaders to pop in twelve more rounds and readied himself for another attack.
Rounding the corner, and storming down the hallway, Vito was not surprised that his prey was scurrying around like a rat. He was literally outgunned, and had an atrocious fashion sense. He was not going to get ambushed again, Gin would get filled full of lead before that happened.
Rounding one more corner Vito lashed out of with his left revolver, and was met with Gin clutching some very unique knives. Two curved daggers with silver grips, sea-serpent heads with rubies for eyes. They looked like they would sell for a good bit of beli. Gin thrusted at Vito with the dagger in his left hand, the gangster barely managed to deflect it with his own. Vito moved his right hand to the trigger.
Gin growled and smacked the hand upwards, the gun went off and blasted a hole in the ceiling. He tried to stab at him, but Vito stopped it with his gun, metal scraped on metal as he lifted his weapon and cocked the hammer back. Gin pushed his body tight against his as the gun went off, tearing a chunk off his vest and put a hole in the door opposite of them.
"Dammit, I just got this vest!" Gin knocked Vito's left arm out, causing another shot to fire blindly to the side. He sliced the larger man's forearm with his blade, finally scoring a hit before taking a terrible hit to the solar plexus. Rage driving him, Gin headbutted Vito right in the chest, and drove lungs from the pirate's lungs as he once again fired bullets; this time hitting the floorboards.
"You ruined my suit!" Vito bashed Gin over the back with his elbows and tried to angle his guns to gut-shot him. But Gin was a tenacious bastard, the First Mate continued to pummel him, he struck the muscles in his arms that caused him to waste his precious bullets.
The two of them found themselves on the deck of the Ivory Web. Gin had several chunks missing from his clothing with blood from the grazing wounds staining them, his short hair matted and disheveled, blood was dripping from his daggers, but most importantly he looked pretty pissed off.
Vito himself was also pretty pissed off. His shades were cracked, his smoothed back hair was wild and crazy, his already ruined suit had some significant cuts in them, many stained with his own blood. And his revolvers were hot to the touch and smoking.
"Not bad, but you brought a knife to a gun fight. And I still have bullets to spare." Vito aimed his revolvers at Gin's forehead.
"You fired all your bullets dumbass. And unlike you, I don't always need guns to kill someone." Flipping his daggers in a backhanded grip, Gin took a crouching stance. "I'll gut you before you even attempt to reload."
"I see you feel lucky, but then again so do I." Vito cocked back the hammer from his revolvers and gave him a sick grin with his long tongue hanging out.
Before either of them could make a move, there was a loud, bone-shaking explosion that rocked the ship they were on. Then the sound of roaring water hit their ears, and all bloodlust and hatred were washed away like the thunderous rush of seawater barreling straight towards them.
"I don't know why, I don't know how, but I blame my Captain for this." Gin said as the ship began rocking violently.
"I blame your Captain too. Truce for now?" Vito asked.
"Yea...try to not drown." Their mutual hatred set aside, both combatants turned tail and ran. But not before both scooped an unconscious Cricket. Hey, they may have been some of the worst men on the sea, but they weren't going to leave an unconscious man to drown, that would have been a dick move.
Plus, they needed all the good karma they could get as they ran for their lives.
(Vivi and Carmen versus Gotti)
Gotti had to admit one thing; his target was fast and nimble. Each time he fired, she managed, if barely to avoid the lethal lead and instead he struck the crates, spilling precious gems all over the floor. He honestly didn't understand how she was doing it, but then again he had never seen someone so flexible, even monkeys had nothing on her!
'I never thought I would say this, but thank you Gin!' Vivi frantically thought as she grabbed the railings and used momentum to flip herself onto the next level. Bullets tore through the rock, pelting her with pebbles. Gotti's rate of fire was absurd, he had to of fired over a thousand bullets by now, but it didn't look like he was letting up anytime soon. Honestly what kind of weapon held that many bullets? Gin would literally kill him for it.
Vivi didn't have time to relax, as much as she hated to admit it, Gotti was tenacious. He was worse than a bloodhound, she wouldn't go so far to say that he was as bad as the Barque Works members, but then again she didn't have many nice things to say about them. At least she was somewhat civil with Goldenweek, even though she was partially responsible for nearly killing her on Little Garden.
"Woman, I am losing my patients!" Gotti shouted at the top of his lungs. For a big guy, he was surprisingly fast. He managed to make his way up to the next level in barely thirty seconds after she briefly escaped from him.
Before Gotti even had a chance to take aim at her, Vivi's Peacock Slashers were already spinning like fans. Her feet slammed into the ground as she bolted forward, with Carue she was faster than the average person, but thanks to Gin's hellish training she was a lot faster than she was in Alabasta. "Peacock Slasher!" She screamed, firing off the long-ranged weapons right at Gotti.
The assassin of the Fire Tank Pirates raised his weapon and prepared to fire off his bullets to cut his opponent into swiss cheese. However, his weapon did not fire. Vivi's jeweled weapon actually blocked the barrel of the weapon and backfired. The barrel exploded outwards, and a created what Gin called a banana peel effect on the gun.
"Looks like you can't shoot me now," Vivi said with a smile on her face. This was the first fight she had since joining the Ocean Sword Pirates, and it showed how much progress she had made since Alabasta's civil war.
"I don't need my weapons bullets to beat you," Gotti growled. Grabbing the barrel of his gun with his bare hand, he forced it straight and twisted the top of it to create a crude, twisted spearhead. "Every part of me is a weapon. And I will strangle you to death using one hand!" He bolted towards Vivi and thrust his crude weapon at her face.
Vivi dodged the thrust, to her it looked like it was in slow motion, Gotti probably was unused to being in close quarters combat. She dodged to the right under his arm and made it to his side. At such a close range her technique wouldn't be at its most powerful, but Vivi didn't see any other choice to put her opponent down. "Peacock Slasher!"
The sharp jeweled weapons cut into Gotti's side. Normally they could have pierced through rock, but they, unfortunately, hit at the wrong angle. She struck at the weapon, cutting into the metal, causing no real damage from Gotti himself. Vivi wasn't done yet, she flicked her slasher on her right hand and it flew over his shoulder and with another flick, this time with her pinkie finger the rope wrapped around her opponent's thick neck.
"No, you don't!" Gotti grabbed the rope before it could completely wrap around his neck. He pulled on it with all his strength with his one hand and jerked Vivi off her feet. No one expected a strangle to take on their strangler. He swung his arm out and watched as Vivi crashed against the many crates on the third level, spilling its contents of gold bars onto her body. That made Gotti remarkably happy hearing gold hit flesh.
The assassin bent down and grabbed Vivi by her neck with crushing force, and held her up. "Nice try girl, but I've strangled people before you were even a twinkle in your daddy's eye. There is always something about watching the light go out in their eyes that brings me a sense of accomplishment." He squeezed her neck harder, watching her face turn red from under that strip of cloth. "Sorry darling, it's nothing personal. It's just business."
"Get your grubby hand off my friend!"
Gotti barely turned his head towards the voice. He then saw what looked like sack smack him right in the face. The first thing he saw was red powder, and then he felt the pain. "What the fuck! What the fuck is this!?" He released Vivi and tried to wipe the powder out of his eyes.
Carmen, a bunch of pouches full of spices and bottles of oil wrapped around her torso then beamed Gotti right in the head. The durable fan didn't even get a dent from nailing the assassin right in his ugly mug, and Gotti went down with a groan.
"Kujaku, are you okay?" Carmen demanded once Vivi was released from the crushing grip. Gotti moved to get up, tears falling from his eyes and snot running down his nose. He coughed and sputtered, trying to get to his feet again. Carmen unceremoniously kicked him in the head.
"I'm fine..." Vivi wheezed. She was hurting all over no thanks to that impact, and those stupid gold bricks. She was also pretty sure her throat was bruised too. Nothing was broken, thankfully, but she was going to need a lot of ice later. "Is he...did you?"
Gotti groaned again, he was alive but definitely unhappy. "He will live, for now at least," Carmen said before bringing the butt of her war fan down on his back. "We got a lot of stuff here, I wonder how we're going to split it with Cricket and get it on our ship without sinking."
"I don't know. Maybe a few trips would work, or perhaps save a lot of it for a rainy day. Maybe-" A loud explosion stopped Vivi from continuing her sentence. The pressure seemed to change in the hideout, it almost became suffocating.
"Oh no. What's going on?" Carmen said.
The sound of rushing water filled their ears. The two women looked to the ground floor and saw water rushing in. Vivi visibly gulped. "I think the integrity of this base has been compromised. We need to leave."
"And where are we supposed to go? It took us nearly three hours to get from where we nearly died to where we are now." Carmen demanded. "And we can't survive that deep underwater. If the pressure doesn't kill us, drowning will!"
"Ladies...if I may?" Gotti raised his hand. "Captain Bege, Vito and I found a way in from the top. I can lead you there."
"And why would we even think about believing you?" Carmen demanded.
"Because I don't want to drown either. And like I said..." Gotti tried to rise up, but Carmen forced him back down. "Ack! This was business, it was never personal!"
"Carmen I think we should let him lead us to the surface." Vivi ushered for their chef to take her fan off of their former opponent. "We can't die here, you know that." She then looked towards Gotti. "Truce?"
"Truce." Gotti got to his feet after Carmen brought her fan off his back and began leading them from the treasure vault towards the entrance. There may have been a lot of treasure, but none of it was worth dying for. Not right now at least.
(Naruto versus Bege – Much earlier)
"Shredding Shark!" Naruto burst from the ground of the cave spinning forward faster than a bullet and impacted a line of gangsters, tearing them to bloody shreds. Using his dorsal fin to maneuver himself upwards, he tore through the roof and back into the solid bedrock. He was really getting tired of cutting through Bege's men, he had cut down perhaps three dozen since he started marching out of his body like toy soldiers...who turned into real men...firing real bullets.
After getting shot by Mr. 7 and Miss Father's Day, Naruto did not have any desire to repeat that experience. So he ambushed them, he used his Land Shark technique to dive into the rock and attack from random areas. But as it stood he was barely making a dent in Bege's forces. Who knew how many actually resided inside that bastard?
"Uzumaki! You are beginning to try my patience!" Bege's voice could be heard through the various holes in their battleground. "I have an entire army ready to fight and die for me, and you are just one man. You're going to run out of energy eventually, and we will give you a serious case of lead poisoning!"
'Good going asshole, you just gave yourself away.' Not for the first time, Naruto was glad he was born as a shark-type fishman. He found Bege thanks to his sharp hearing, and his sense of smell easily picked up the cigar he was puffing on. Burrowing through the rock, Naruto found himself above Bege himself and shot himself down to tear through the top of his head.
He saw Bege, he was barely twenty feet away and closing. He also saw the top of his head open up to reveal a cannon. "Oh fuck..." Naruto whispered before it fired directly at him. The cannonball hit him head-on in a fiery explosion that sent the blonde fishman crashing through the stone roof, tumbled through it and came out again, landing on the floor several feet away from the mafia Don.
"I told you kid, you lost in sheer military force." The soldiers that survived Naruto's onslaught stepped to the side as the Don wheeled forward, their job finished, and Bege was preparing to finish off the fishman himself. He watched as the blonde struggled up, his clothing scorched, and his body bleeding. "Listen here, I am not a cruel man. I'm going to give you an offer you can't refuse. Join me, and I'll spare your life, and the lives of your crew."
Naruto stood to his feet and glared at the gangster Don-turned-pirate. He spat out a wad of blood and broken teeth onto his fancy suit. "Go fuck yourself. I'm not done, not by a long shot."
"You scum!" One of Bege's soldiers aimed and fired his rifle at the blonde. It struck him right in the shoulder, causing him to reel back and clutch the bleeding appendage. "How dare you spit on the offer of Captain Bege!"
"Cool it boys. I will handle this little punk now." The nerve of him. It honestly took a lot to piss Bege off, but rudeness and bad table manners were at the top of the list. And Uzumaki literally spitting blood and teeth on him crossed a huge line. His chest opening one more time to reveal a small cannon, he fired it at the blonde.
Gritting his newly regrown teeth, Naruto punched at the cannonball. The kinetic energy struck it and blew up, sending him skidding backward several feet. Bege fired again, and Naruto did the same thing, and the result was the same. "Heh, do you know what the definition of insanity is? It's doing the same thing over and over again, expecting the same result. You're going to need more than just that stupid cannon to kill me."
Inhaling from his cigar, Bege gave his fellow Captain a cruel smirk. "Yea, you're right." Miniguns once again emerged from the front of his tank treads, and he held an arm up. His soldiers once again raised their rifles. "I'm just going to fill you full of holes instead."
God damn it, what did he have to open his big mouth? He was literally staring at a fifty-one man firing squad. He was tough, but not that tough. There was absolutely no way he could dodge all of them, or even backpedal his way to safety to another room.
He was going to die.
That couldn't be allowed! He made a promise to Shirahoshi that he would come back to her! He was not going to die in some dead mans hideout to this wannabe gangster! The sound of blood pumping thundered in his ears, the thought of making his little sister cry and be at the mercy of Vander Decken caused his anger to boil over.
Naruto felt it then, the rush of adrenaline surging through his body, his muscles beginning to bulge. He heard the ocean overhead through the holes he made on the rock, the water calling to him. He looked at Capone Bege, his eyes completely overtaken by crimson and gave the man his infamous shark-like smile. "Hey Bege, you might have the power of an army. But there is one thing you're completely powerless against."
Raising an eyebrow, Bege removed his cigar from his mouth and blew a cloud of smoke at his latest victim. "What exactly are you saying boy? You're completely outgunned."
"Yea, but you can't swim," Naruto said before raising his arms. A terrifying rumble caused several of Bege's troops to lower their weapons and look to the ceilings where tons of dust and pebbles fell onto their fancy suits. A loud bang followed soon after as thick cracks began to appear on the ceiling.
Water then began to trickle down by the third loud bang, and Bege's cigar fell from his open mouth. "Don't do that kid..."
"What not?" Naruto mockingly asked as another echo erupted throughout the hallway, and more water began to gush through.
"You're going to make the treasure unsalvageable!"
"I'm a fishman, I can get it all myself."
"You will kill your crew!"
"They're already running for the hills as they speak," Naruto said, more water came pouring down, soaking Bege's men, and ruining their gunpowder. "I can always find them before it's too late."
"You will kill yourself!" Bege exclaimed.
"I don't do the dying Bege. I'm the one that does the killing." Naruto thrusted his arms down, and water burst through the entire place. Many of Bege's men screamed and dropped their rifles, many tried to flee.
But it was too late. Just like a damn failing, hundreds of thousands of gallons of water burst into "Black" Jack Lee's underwater hideout and filled Naruto's area in a span of thirty seconds. The pressure of the water crushed Bege's men easily, many of them died in an instant. Others died because large sheets of rock crushed them. For the remaining few...they drowned, there was no good way of saying that.
This was not exactly the cleanest fight he ever had if anything Arlong's was messier. But it was a win, and Naruto was floating in the water, basking in his victory. This was his first actual fight against another pirate Captain with the strangest devil fruit he had seen to date, to come out on top was its own reward.
That was until he saw Bege floating in the water. His entire body was back to normal thanks to the water deactivating his devil fruit powers. His fancy outfit was torn a lot more and he was battered and bruised. But the man was still alive, unlike his men Naruto could hear his heartbeat clearly in the water, but he was fading fast.
'Not my concern. You dug your own grave picking a fight with me.' Naruto thought to himself. He backpedaled through the water and was more than prepared to leave the area to look for the members of his crew. But as he turned his head, Naruto heard that disapproving throat clearing of someone he was very familiar with.
Turning back he swore he saw the images of Queen Otohime and Hody Jones floating next to Capone Bege. What the absolute hell? Did Bege give him a concussion?
"Boy, leave this sack of meat to drown. You won this fight, reap your spoils." Hody said in his usual commanding tone that had Naruto freeze up.
"Naruto, you know better than this," Otohime said with a disapproving frown. "If I was alive, I would not have approved of you fighting like this. But you know I would have understood it, all I would ask of you is to never use it for ill will. And right now you're going to leave a helpless man to perish when you could have saved him."
"Who cares!? He's a filthy human, he tried to kill you. No one will miss him!"
"But where would it end? Would you do the same thing to the next person? And the one after that? We taught you better than that."
"Leave him to die boy!" Hody screamed at him. "Quit acting like a little bitch. Be a man for once in your pathetic life and listen to me!"
"The choice is yours Naruto," Otohime said. "I just hope you make the right one."
Naruto gripped the sides of his head and grit his teeth so hard that they broke. Squeezing his eyes shut he shook his head to try and calm himself. When he opened his eyes both Queen Otohime and Hody Jones were gone, all that was left was Capone Bege floating in the water close to death.
'God damn it. Why? Why am I going through with all of this?' He thought to himself. To do the right thing, or just leave him. He really didn't want to save the guy, but at the same time, he really couldn't leave him to drown.
Naruto made his decision.
"Land! Sweet land, I never thought I would be so happy to see so much sand in my life!" Carmen happily exclaimed.
The last ten minutes probably stole a couple years off her life. After Gotti washed his face with the sea water, both Vivi and herself used him to travel their way to the surface. On the way they passed by several deactivated traps and the dead crew members that deactivated them. None of them stopped to look at the carnage or pick anything up, the water level continued to rise by the minute, and the entire base was beginning to collapse. They barely made it out with what felt like seconds to spare as water literally erupted from behind them.
"That was...intense." Vivi gasped out. She had never ran that hard in her life, between fighting Gotti and running to escape a watery doom, she was exhausted.
"Remind me to never volunteer to go with Naruto again." Carmen said before collapsing to her knees.
"So long as you remind me." Vivi replied after gulping down sweet breaths of fresh air.
The sound of hammers cocking back broke them out of their reprieve. Looking up in disbelief, they saw the injured members of the Saruyama Alliance, plus Gin being held at gunpoint by over a hundred pirates dressed like gangsters.
"Gin...what's going on?" Carmen nervously asked.
"We're boned that's what. Apparently, these assholes kept a hundred guys up here to keep an eye on hostages. Now they're some sort of ambush team." On his knees with his hands behind his head, Gin glared at Vito. "That was really clever of you. You sneaky son of a bitch."
"You're just lucky I allowed you and that chestnut head to live until our Captain arrived." Vito cracked Gin over the head with the butt of his revolver to shut him up. "Gotti, what the hell happened to you man?"
"A series of bad luck. Sorry ladies, but you've been played." Gotti apologized before limping over to his crew. He may not of had a useful weapon at the moment, but that was what subordinates were for. "Captain Bege isn't here yet?"
"Not yet..." Vito looked towards the entrance that was gushing out sea water. A dreadful feeling filled his stomach. "Gotti, what's the call here?"
"Nothing has changed. We're going to use these divers to get every last bit of that treasure. That is what Captain Bege would have wanted." Gotti turned towards the members of the Ocean Sword Pirates. "We won't need them. Vito, you do the honors."
"Oh-ho, with pleasure." His long tongue hanging out, Vito aimed his revolvers at Gin. "Sorry pal, orders are orders."
"Kiss my ass." Gin growled.
Just as Vito pulled back the hammer of his weapon to execute his former opponent, the entrance erupted in a literal geyser of water, and emerging from it was a soaking wet Naruto, carrying Capone Bege by the back of his black Captain's coat. He looked at the entire situation and spat out a mouthful of water. "What the fresh hell is going on here?"
"Bullshit Captain, pure bullshit!" Gin gave the short and sweet answer.
"I see." Naruto raised his right arm to show off Bege. Raising his left hand he forced the water out of the Dons lungs, causing him to cough and sputter. "Bege, your boys are about to do something stupid. I advise you to tell them otherwise."
After clearing his lungs of the remaining water, Bege looked at his men. Grunting in anger, he spoke loudly. "Boys, lower your weapons. This fight is over. We lost."
"But boss we got these mooks outnumbered a hundred to four! We can take them!" Vito bellowed in denial.
"Listen here you idiot, Uzumaki here collapsed the base all by himself. And right now we're in his element if he wished it he could destroy us with the sea itself!" Bege yelled at the adviser of his crew. Coughing the older man gestured them to lower their weapons. "And you idiots ought to be grateful! Uzumaki could have let me drown, but he didn't."
"Against my better judgment." Naruto sighed before dropping Bege. "I'm not doing this from the bottom of my heart either, you jerks are at my mercy now."
"Captain, if I may." Vivi immediately got to her feet and made her way over the tiger shark fishman. "I'm not exactly a fan of how you're wording this. You need a more diplomatic approach."
"Do I look like a diplomat Kujaku?" Naruto demanded.
"No, but I am." Vivi brushed past Naruto and approached Bege. Was she afraid of this man? Yes, she would have been a fool not to be. Especially since he still had people that would point their guns at them. But on the other hand, they looked cowed due to the fact that Naruto beat their Captain. So her fear was quelled, at least a little bit. "Captain Bege, here are our terms and conditions for letting you and your crew go. First condition. You are to leave this place and not cause any further trouble within this area. We will find out if you do."
Bege looked at her. This girl barely looked a hundred pounds soaking wet, and here he was getting terms from her. The four remaining Great Families would be laughing at him now. "That will be a little hard thanks to whatever that thing is out there."
Naruto cracked his knuckles. "Leave that to me."
"Second condition." Vivi continued. "You harmed our partners. Before you leave, you must not only pay restitutions for their pain and suffering but also patch them up with your best doctors."
"Plus us." Carmen added, it was petty but after the crap she went through, she wanted to add in something to their terms.
Gritting his teeth, Bege looked at his crew and nodded. "Go get the doctors. Now!"
About half of them bolted to retrieve the doctors, Bege was definitely keeping his word. But Vivi wasn't done yet. "Whatever you may have plundered from our allies or my crew, you're to return them immediately."
Signing, Vito dropped Gin's daggers in front of him and trudged back to the ship to return their stolen stuff. That seemed to be all, thankfully.
But not for Naruto. He was not done with their suffering just yet. "I got one more for you, and I would like it in writing." Giving Bege his infamous shark-like grin, he nailed the head in his coffin. "Last condition. Because I saved your life, you owe me. You will owe me a favor for whatever I want. And you will stand by it no matter how ludicrous it is. This deal is an offer you can't refuse."
Bege glared at the blonde. The smug little bastard was rubbing it in, but there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Naruto had the advantage with all that water around them, and he couldn't access his devil fruit power at the moment. "You're lucky I'm a man of principles. You brats have a deal, don't expect me to like it though."
"I honestly don't care Bege." Naruto said before turning towards the sea. "All right you giant metal lobster. Time for round two."
(Omake: Goldenweek does a very bad thing)
For the former Frontier Agents of the Baroque Works life went from bad to worse since they were arrested in Alabasta.
"Sir" Crocodile was stripped of his fancy clothing and put in the black and white striped prison garb, and so was everyone else. He remembered exactly how his former agents got arrested and came to join him in chains. Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine were arrested in the clock tower he had the bomb in, they didn't put up a fight as they were arrested. Mr. 1 was found cut up, defeated by Roronoa Zoro. His partner Miss Doublefinger was defeated by Nami, somehow electrocuted by the woman. Mr. 4, his gun-dog Lassoo and Miss Merry Christmas were defeated by Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper, apparently beaten through clever means. And Mr. 3, he was found wandering the desert after his pet Bananawani failed to digest him.
"This is a bunch of bullcrap! Utopia my ass, why did we ever follow you?" Miss Merry Christmas yelled at Crocodile.
"Miss Merry Christmas, do us a favor and shut your mouth." Mr. 5 said.
"Shut up kid. My name is Drophy, and I'm not part of your little group anymore!"
"Does it really matter? We're going towards Impel Down. I never thought I would end up there of all places." Miss Doublefinger said.
"Hmph! Tough kid, we made our beds now we got to lie in them." Drophy said before looking at her former partner. "We're going to go through some hell kid. Want to team up again Mr. 4?"
"...Babe...call me...Babe." Mr. 4 said, revealing his real name.
"Are we really just revealing our names to each other? Or did you all just lose your minds?" Mr. 5 scowled at them.
"Shut up Gem." Crocodile said to his former subordinate. He then gestured towards Miss Valentine. "Mikita." Then Mr. 1 and his former partner. "Daz Bonez, Zala." Then finally Mr. 3. "Galdino." He really had no issure revealing their real names. He knew them from the start when they started working for him, but now that his organization was dissolved he saw no use keeping their identities hidden.
"Kyahahaha! Your name is Gem? That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard!" Mikita laughed.
"Shut up! What kind of name is Mikita?" Gem demanded.
"You all are beginning to annoy me." Daz Bonez said in his usual stoic manner. "Between your screaming and all that thumping, I can barely think."
Raisng an eyebrow, Zala crained her head when everyone was silent. "Huh, you're right. Something is going on above us."
For several minutes the former colligues listened to the ruckus that was happening on deck. Apparently a fight was happening, but with who? A rescue squad? No, all the Millions and Billions in Alabasta were arrested, and they had no more Frontier Agents either. They were either dead, or fled, not that Crocodile blamed Miss Thursday who hightailed it to safety. He did curse Nico Robin however, damn that woman.
Finally the commotion died down, and the group was greeted to the sight of Miss Goldenweek and Mr. 2 Bon Kurei being lead to their cell by a hypnotized Marine with a yellow-green mark on his shirt. "Bentham? Marianne?" Crocodile asked.
"Mr. 0." Marianne greeted her former leader for the first time. The Marine unlocked the cage with the keys he had and moved in, smiling like a loon with the keys tun unlock their seastone handcuffs.
"Goldenweek! I'm so glad you're here!" Galdino cried out, his hair turning into an exclamation point. Holding up his cuffed hands he screamed. "Quick, get me out of here! I can't wait to taste the sweet air of freedom!"
"You're not going anywhere Galdino." Crocodile said. He looked at the youngest subordinate he had, and studied her. "While I was being incarcerated I heard some talk that you joined up with that Uzumaki kid. Is this true?"
Marianne didn't even blink. "Yes."
"Do they treat you well?"
"I'm forced to do a lot of chores. But they're not so bad."
Crocodile leaned back against the walls of the ship and nodded. He then turned towards Bentham. "And what are you doing here?"
"I'm offering myself as a prisoner! There is someone in Impel Down that I need to find!" Bentham happily exclaimed with a twirl in his steps.
"You can't be serious! Goldenweek, for the love of God please take these cuffs off. We were partners for-" Galdino was booted to the head by an irrate Daz Bonez.
"Thank you." Crocodile looked towards Marianne, then this former subordinates. "To those who want to go, I invite you to leave and not look back."
"And what about you?" Gem demanded.
"I made my bed and I'm going to lie in it. Galdino is also going to stay, he'll be worth more than all of you for now. Bonez, will will stay with me?" The former Officer Agent looked towards him and nodded. And with Bentham, well at least those who whose to chose to run had a head start now. Closing his eyes, Crocodile decided it was time for a nap. "You're all dismissed for the final time. Good luck to you all, trust me, you're going to need it."
After boarding the pirates ship Marianne borrowed from the pirate crew she hypnotized to follow her directions, they sailed back to Mock Town where she knew that she was going to get an earfull later. Carue was looking at her from the deck of the ship in a judging manner as they sailed back with half of their former enemies.
"Yo, Marianne was it?" Gem said, approaching her. "Listen...thanks for saving our skin. I really mean it."
"I only did it for those who deserved it." Marianne said, her dull voice sending chills up his spine. "And I didn't do it from the bottom of my heart."
"Well, it seems we owe you one." Zala remarked from her position near the mast.
"Kyahahaha! More than one, we owe her our freedom." Mikita laughed.
"Hmph, well I say we owe the kid that much. Babe and I'll do her a solid, ain't that right big guy?" Drophy asked her partner. She got a dull nod from his end as he pet his gun-dog with childish glee.
Marianne's dull eyes shined then, and it wasn't from a sugar rush either. She had plans for them, but neither they, nor Naruto would like it very much. (5)
Armageddon: Folks I am so glad to see you again as I almost bring this arc to a close. Man, what a battle. I really couldn't help but use gangster cliche's and some crativity involving this. Now for why I took so damn long, well folks, General Armageddon needed to go out west and shoot people in the face and rob trains for money...as a certain video game character you're probably familiar with. Just got to Chapter 3 finally!...God I'm tired. Read and review folks, and stay warm out there. Seriously, fucking Day After Tomorrow winter. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get my men out of prison, man will they be pissed!
(1) During the Golden Age of Piracy...or really any age really, merchents trades spices like cinnamon, sugar and other valuable stuff. Pirates stole the shit out of that and sold it many times.
(2) After about...what twenty-six years Oda FINALLY released Gin's information. Yes folks I learned of his in December of last year, and trust me I had this planned to be rectified. But man I was so close. Three years off, and two million beli short of his real bounty. Oh well, that's what anmesia is for in this story since it's sincerly doubtful we'll see him again...unless Oda does so and makes me look like a jackass.
(3) I hope you know what that refence is from.
(4) And that, come on I don't need to hit you over the head with it do I?
(5) And just like Gin we FINALLY get the information about the Officer Agents. I'm just glad I guessed Goldenweeks age right...but man what funny names some of these bastards have. And odd Epithets and bounties...seriously Oda, I like you but you running out of names there man? I know some are historical figures like Babe Ruth and a painting...but...ah screw it, they aren't going to pop up ever again.
Update: 2-11-19: Hey folks, not much to add, I just fixed some glaring mistakes is all. I'm not perfect after all. Also, to the reviewer called T, I cannot answer any questions if you are a anonymous reviewer. Make an account on here, it's not that hard. And that goes for all other anonymous reviewers as well.