Blugori attacked the three at full force; two charged at Hiccup, who quickly took to the air.
"Dragon Whip!" Hiccup yelled, striking them with his tail.
Another two were making their way toward Astrid; one of them swung its fist directly at her. However, she quickly raised her palm and absorbed the attack thanks to the impact dial on her gauntlet. The second Blugori jumped at her, but she quickly somersaulted, opening it and then drew out her battleaxe.
"Valkyrie War Dance!" she said, swinging her battleaxe at them.
A Blugori was now attacking Buggy, who immediately panicked.
"Stay back! Go away!" Buggy cried.
The Blugori didn't appear to be listening as it raised its battleaxe, but Buggy smirked.
"I'm just screwing with you," he said.
The Blugori swung attacks, but Buggy launched his head into the air before the axe could make contact.
"I called this my Chop-Chop: Emergency Escape!" he said.
He then had his body grab hold of the Blugori and launched his torso into the air, quickly followed by his hands. The Blugori was roughly 30 feet in the air, and Buggy laughed at it.
"A drop like that should break your skull just fine!" he said, spinning the Blugori around. "And this here is my Aerial Tailspin Big Top!"
He spun the Blugori and slammed it into the ground as hard as he could.
"You picked the wrong clown to mess with, monkey," said Buggy as he reattached his body.
However, to his horror, he saw that the Blugori had not been taken down and had recovered.
"No! No, don't get up," he said. Then, he immediately ran away as the Blugori began swinging its fists at him.
Hiccup then intervened and slammed his fist into its stomach, knocking the wind out of it and causing it to topple over.
Buggy just stared at him open-mouthed. "Damn, you got a lot stronger, didn't you, kid?"
"I don't know, but these guys are pretty tough," said Hiccup.
Astrid walked up and looked at it curiously. "What exactly is it?"
"Sea monkeys, blue sea gorillas there called or Blugori for short," said Buggy. "But stay sharp. There should be four more of them left to take the place of—"
He turned around, and his mouth fell open as the rest of the Blugori lay motionless on the ground.
"Never mind, I guess you two got them already," he said.
"Either way, I hope that's the last; we don't have time to mess around right now," said Hiccup.
The prisoners just stared, shocked.
"That guy is a monster. How did he do that?"
"The girl is incredible as well, not to mention cute."
"You came here to let us out, didn't ya?"
"We'll be your best friends, we promise."
The guards were still looking for Buggy when they received a message on the transponder snail from the monitoring room.
"Something wrong?" a guard asked.
"You bet there is. I thought you said only one present escaped."
"Yeah, it was just the clown guy."
"Pretty sure I saw two guys and one girl, but maybe I'm crazy. And speaking of crazy, five Blugori got taken down in front of community cell number 10."
"On Level I? There's no way; the prisoners down there aren't strong enough to take on even one Blugori."
Hiccup and Astrid explained to Buggy why they broke into Impel Down.
"What?!" he yelled. "You broke in here to rescue Ace?!"
"Yep," Hiccup nodded.
Buggy stared at them and quickly placed his finger over his mouth. "Shhh! We've got to stay quiet."
"You do realise you were the one that was yelling," Astrid reminded him.
"We could really use the keys to our cell if you're not too busy," said a prisoner.
"Will you shut up the hell up!" Buggy snapped, kicking the cell bars. "Nobody gives a damn."
"Hang on, do you know Ace?" Hiccup asked.
"Yeah, and although I can see the resemblance, he made a better impression than you did," said Buggy.
Ace had boarded Buggy's vessel just a few months ago, and then he began stuffing his face and fell asleep.
"After he woke up, we had a few drinks, chatted it up and became pretty good pals," said Buggy. "So yeah, I think it sucks that your brother got thrown in here too. It's kinda stupid for the Navy to do that; I'm sure Stoick the Vast will give them Hell."
"We heard that they're keeping Ace on Level V. Can you show us the way to get there?" Hiccup asked.
"Not a chance in hell!" Buggy snapped. "You can go by yourselves. Did you think we would suddenly become friends? In fact, the two of you can die down here for all I care. So long."
He then began to walk off, grabbing one of the Blugori's battleaxes. "If you don't Wanna break out of here, I'll just do it on my own."
"Have it your way, but just so you know, there are 10 battleships out there," Astrid smirked. "I do hope you have a good plan to get past."
Buggy gulped. "That's not good. All right, I get it. They must be expecting an attack from Stoick the Vast. Guess I picked a bad time. Maybe I can just lay low."
Astrid then pulled out a map. "If you help us, I'll give you this treasure map."
Buggy turned towards her. "You do say treasure map?"
Hiccup looked at her. "Where did you get that?"
"I kinda took it from Valkyrie Lily when all the warriors were chasing after you," Astrid smiled innocently.
"Does Atali know you have it?"
"I chose not to share that piece of information, but there were so many maps in there I doubt they'll miss it."
They then heard bullets fly over their heads and looked down to see guards shooting at them.
"Up there!"
"Time for us to go," said Hiccup, and they quickly ran for it.
"How do they find her so quickly?" Buggy asked.
"You're the one who kept on yelling the entire time!" Astrid reminded him. "Now, do we have a deal?"
"So long as you give me the map, I'll tell you how to get Ace," Buggy promised. "But first things first, let's shake off those guards." He then detached himself from his feet and floated into the air. "Grab hold of my feet, okay."
"Your feet?" Astrid frowned, and suddenly, Buggy's feet jumped into her hands. "That's disgusting."
"Just shut up and start running," said Buggy.
"Or better yet, let's fly," said Hiccup as he turned his dragon form.
Astrid quickly jumped on his back and flew after Buggy, now floating in midair.
"Be careful of those feet. I can't have you drop them," said Buggy.
Buggy could freely separate and control his body, making the body pieces float around except for his feet. However, he was only able to control his body pieces in a limited area. If his feet were close to the ground, he became unable to levitate the rest of his body.
'Damn, I'm one lucky clown,' Buggy smiled. 'I've got a treasure of a lifetime and a ticket out of this crap all in one shot.'
A few weeks ago, Buggy and his crew had been looking for buried treasure on an island in the Grand Line. Buggy, Maddox and Page were currently wandering through a cave.
"Captain! Captain!" Maddox yelled.
"What?" Buggy asked.
"I'm just starting to have second thoughts about this place, that's all," said Maddox. "Are you sure this is the cave where Captain John kept his hidden treasure, which his crew never found at this time? It seems a bit too easy."
"Just hold the lantern and keep walking," said Buggy.
"Yes, sir."
"Now look alive, boys; the treasure is near, but so is unspeakable danger. If you let your guard down even for a second, then death will creep up on you. There is no telling what kind of monsters will appear or vicious booby-traps away to kill us all."
Marcus and Page looked at one another rather nervously.
Then, suddenly, the entire cave lit up, and they heard voices coming down from the tunnel behind them.
"Come on, men. Another fine day of carving out channels awaits us!"
"You got it, boss!"
The chief miner then saw Buggy and his men. "Oh, you three must be the new guys."
Buggy somehow decided to mine with the miners until he realised what he was doing and attacked them.
'Unfortunately, that wasn't the first dead end we hit; it would be the last. We ran all over the Grand Line looking for that treasure. As if that wasn't crappy enough, my ill-fated treasure hunts brought me straight to a Navy post one day, and the bastards threw me into this dump when they captured me. But maybe it was destiny all along guiding me.'
"Step on it! Time is wasting!" Buggy yelled. "Follow me, and will be Level II in no time!"
Hiccup continued to follow Buggy.
"Level II? We need to get to Level V!" Astrid reminded him.
"You really are dumb blonde," Buggy scoffed. "You need to get through Level II to get to Level V. This place is like an upside-down tower, and we're currently in Level I. After that, you get to Level II and Level III and so on. The deeper you get, the more infamous the criminals are; they tortured me at the fires of Level IV a few times, but that is as far as I've gotten myself. Everything else is just things I have heard from other people. Level V is where they take all the big shots, though, so someone with a bounty as high as Ace has got to be there."
Then suddenly, they saw that following them was a bunch of Blugori.
"As for what's below Level V… well, I've heard some rumours, but the details are scarce," said Buggy. "The theory is that the criminals they send down there are so dangerous that they have been completely wiped from history. Now that I think about it, there's a good chance that is where they took Ace. But the furthest I can take you is Level IV, so you're on your own after that."
"We appreciate it," said Hiccup. "Though I'm sure this helpfulness wouldn't have happened if Astrid hadn't pulled out a treasure map."
"A deal is a deal, and a treasure map leads me to where I think it does, and then I've got a real bargain," said Buggy.
"You're still an idiot thought, especially if you got yourself captured," said Astrid.
"Yeah, give me a break!" Buggy snapped.
"You better take this," said Astrid, handing over the treasure map. "I have a sneaking suspicion I will get another opportunity to hand it over."
Buggy stared at her. "You're just going to give it to me? But if you do that, what's stopping me from ditching you and leaving you two to die?"
"Nothing, I guess," said Hiccup. "But I like to think that were pirates of our words."
Buggy practically burst into tears. 'Those trusting eyes pouring into my soul. I'm a scoundrel Dragon, can't you see that? Don't do it. You deserve better than this, both of you. I'm no good to you.'
He then slashed the treasure map from Astrid. 'After all this time, I finally have the key to Captain John's secret, and I all in all to you two. Thanks, you two are real champs. Now I did you two and get the Hell out of here?'
Buggy was so busy talking to himself he didn't realise that he was heading towards a wall until it was too late.
"Some guide he is," Astrid sighed.
"Yeah, but sadly he's the only one we've got," said Hiccup.
Atali was still making her way down towards Ace in the elevator.
'I do hope Hiccup and Astrid are safe, I warned them to stay out of trouble, but that may have been in vain,' she said.
"Okey dokey, we're almost there," said Hannibal, and then they heard a bloodcurdling scream. "Ooh, that was a good one, wasn't it?"
"Our jailers certainly seem skilled at what they do," said Domino.
"Did you hear that, Empress?" Hannibal asked, looking at her. "No? Well, worry not, milady, there are plenty more bloodcurdling screams where those came from. If you don't have a taste for Satanism yet, we'll do our darndest to change your mind before this little visit comes to an end."
Atali then kicked into the ground and stepped on him. "Silence, you cursive fool! You interrupted my thinking!"
"I thought I was being polite, but she's stepping on me," said Hannibal. "This may acquire a new approach."
"Please, Empress, he means well," Domino pleaded.
"Actually, this is kinda hot," said Hannibal. His eyes widened. "Oops, I said that out loud, didn't I?"
Meanwhile, Buggy continued to lead Hiccup and Astrid, and somehow, they ran through the guard room.
"What the hell is going on in here?"
"That clown is Buggy, the escaped prisoner, but where did that woman at the dragon come from?"
'Oh no, this is the guard room,' Buggy panicked. 'If I keep going this way, I'll be in trouble.'
"There's no way out of here!" Astrid yelled.
"Then we'll simply make one," said Hiccup and opened his mouth. "Plasma Blast!"
Hiccup fired a plasma blast at the wall, creating an opening for them to escape through. However, they soon realised they were now falling towards a chamber filled with red trees.
"This place is crazy," said Astrid. "Why would they put up a forest in a prison?"
"I don't think those are trees," said Hiccup.
Astrid looked more closely and saw that he was right; every tree had razor-sharp blades. That's when they noticed a bunch of prisoners were actually standing in the forest.
"Who are those guys?" Astrid asked.
"They're prisoners; this so-called forest is an entire torture chamber," said Buggy. "Every leaf is as sharp as a razor. That is why they call them blade trees. The grass is made of spikes that prick you like needles, called spike needle grass. Original, I know.
"The jailers release venomous spiders and chase the prisoners up and down the forest all day long. Deadly pitchforks behind them, piercing needles beneath them and cutting razors everywhere else. They keep on going until they are drenched in their own blood, suffering I can easily never before possible. This is Level I, also known as the Crimson Hell. The true face of Impel Down."
"Haven't I suffered enough!"
"You're going to kill me!"
"Whoa, this place really is like hell," said Astrid, horrified.
"And these are only just for the minor offenders," said Hiccup. "We doing this kind of stuff to Ace."
"I wouldn't think about it," said Buggy. "Just keep falling."
"If we do that, we're going to get cut!" Astrid pointed out.
"And there's hardly room down there for me to fly," Hiccup added.
"Just grab a hold of me," Buggy smirked.
Hiccup and Astrid did what he told them, and they climbed onto his back.
"Now drop my feet and slow them down at the ground below us," Buggy instructed.
"If you say so," said Astrid and tossed his feet towards the ground.
His feet then hit the ground but split apart to avoid the needles. He began to walk, much to the prisoners' surprise.
"Holy crap, you don't see that every day."
They were even more surprised as Buggy flew by with Hiccup and Astrid on his back.
"This is a cinch," said Buggy, laughing. "And the good news is we don't have to go down any stairs to get to the next level. No stairs, no gate, no key, just falling. The normal prisoners wouldn't want to take it, but there is one way to get out of the Crimson Hell, which will be perfect for our little plan."
"We're going to have to take your word for it," said Hiccup.
They eventually exited the forest and saw a large hole in the centre of the clearing. It was so deep that no one could see the bottom of it.
"See, we're already here," Buggy smiled.
Once his feet exited the needle glass, he reattached himself.
"A hole?" said Astrid as she looked down.
"I can't see a thing," said Hiccup.
Buggy laughed. "Like I said, there's a way out, but nobody wants to take it. Can you guess why? It's not because it's dark and scary; it's because this hole is a one-way trip down to Level II, and if you think things are bad here, well, you've seen nothing yet. When people get sent to Hell, you better believe they'll try to crawl their way out, but no one in their right mind would ever dream of diving further into the abyss."
"Then it's a good thing we're crazy," said Hiccup.
"Then let's go," said Astrid.
Hiccup and Astrid then suddenly jumped down, and Hiccup then transformed into his dragon form.
"It's a good thing I'm able to fly," said Hiccup as Astrid clunked onto him.
"But it looks like you're on our own from here on out," said Astrid, noting that Buggy can jump down. "Not that I'm at all surprised."
"There is no doubt about it. Those two have guts," said Buggy as he looked down the hole. "Either that, or they're just pure crazy. But this works out for me now. I can blow this joint, and they can't say a damn thing."
He then smiled at the treasure map Astrid had given him and laughed.
"I have now got a map to the treasure. I've got those chums off my back, and soon I'll be free!" he yelled triumphantly. "I'd say see you in Hell, Dragon, but I've been there and done that. I've gotten rid of you, got my revenge, and you thanked me for it."
He then laughed even louder, but then a battleaxe swung by and cut his head clean off. He turned and saw that the battleaxe belonged to a Blugori.
"Stupid!" he yelled. "You can't chop me! What do you think the Chop-Chop Fruit is for?"
He then turned his head to his horror. He saw that his body was now falling through the hole towards Level II. He also had reattached his feet to his body, which meant that it couldn't float back out, and soon, his head would be pulled in with the rest.
"Crap," he said. "Those are my feet. No! No! No!"
He tried to run away, but of course, his head was pulled in, and he found himself falling down the hole.
"Surveillance room, come in!" said a guard who had seen everything. "We sighted two escapees; they and Buggy fell to Level II. Can you find them?"
"We're on it."
In Level II, fearsome beasts wandered through the corridors, terrifying the prisoners.
"Hey, is it just me or do the be seen kind of restless today?"
"So long as they're not hungry, anything but that."
Within one of the cells was Mr 3.
"I'm too tired to be afraid anymore. I don't even care," said Mr 3. "I'm going to be their dinner sooner or later. It might as well be today, I suppose."
