All eyes were now on Atali, who remained cool under this pressure.
"You'd leave me powerless?" she questioned. "How cruel."
"But necessary," said Domino.
Atali looked towards the transponders, and the guards watching looked at her, smitten. Domino then approached with the cuffs, and Hiccup had no idea how they were going to get out of this mess.
Atali looked at Domino innocently. "Be gentle and delicate."
For a brief second, Domino blushed. Atali used that moment to turn her to stone, not just her, for the transponder snail that interrupted the transmission.
"What happened?" said a guard.
"It's safe now," Atali informed Hiccup and Astrid.
Hiccup and Astrid then climbed out of her cloak.
"That was a little too close," said Hiccup.
"No kidding, that power of yours is very handy in a pinch," said Astrid.
"Even so, I'm afraid this is as far as I'll be able to accompany you," said Atali regretfully. "They're quite insistent on placing me in those Sea Prison Stones handcuffs, and once they take my cloak, you'll have nowhere to hide. I wish I could do more to help you."
"Don't sweat it; you got us this far," said Hiccup.
"Yeah, we wouldn't have been able to sit foot on this prison if it weren't for you," said Astrid.
"We can handle the rest from here," said Hiccup.
"Just be careful," said Atali. "Breaking your brother out will be challenging enough, but who knows what horrors you might face if you get captured as well. If you take one wrong step, you may never see the light of day again. I know that you want to save Ace, but this is dangerous. Please take care of yourselves, too."
"We'll be careful, I promise," said Hiccup.
Hiccup and Astrid then climbed onto the ceiling where they would be noticed.
"Okay, you can turn her back to normal. She won't be able to see us from up here," said Hiccup.
Outside, Hannibal and Marcus were waiting.
"This is taking too long," said Marcus.
"This situation is unprecedented; she's probably just been thorough," said Hannibal.
Hannibal then received a message on the transponder snail. "Vice-Warden Hannibal, we're not getting any visuals from the surveillance in the examination room. Is something going on there we don't know about?"
"What?!" said Hannibal, turning towards the door. He quickly rushed over towards it and knocked. "Domino, something long in there?"
They waited a few seconds, but there was no answer.
"No answer, huh?" he said.
This gave him quite an unusual problem: investigating two beautiful women while doing a full-body search. He was just about to barge in when the door swung open, and Atali walked out, minus her cloak and now wearing Sea Prison Stone handcuffs. She was followed by Domino.
"We have completed the body search, sir," Domino saluted.
Hannibal then received a message on the transponder snail. "Scratch that last report; everything is fine here."
"I hope I didn't cause a problem, sir," said Domino. "Did the exam take too long?"
"No," said Hannibal and reached the transponder snail. "Everything is fine on our end, too."
Atali looked at her handcuffs. "I see that your guests are treated as poorly as your prisoners here. Surely an Empress deserves better than this."
"It is a pity," said Hannibal apologetically as Hiccup and Astrid climbed out of the room without anyone noticing. "But it Impel Down we can't afford to make exceptions to the rules."
Domino frowned. 'I wonder why I can't shake this strange feeling.'
"Lead the way," said Atali.
"Ah, yes," said Hannibal as they began moving. "If you let me in front, please, or just go that way."
Hiccup and Astrid, now hanging on the ceiling, decided to follow.
Atali was soon led to a massive elevator at the far end of the corridor.
"Before we visit Ace, we'll take this elevated to what we call the Burning Heat Floor, where we'll stop by Warden Magellan's office," said Hannibal. "Fair warning, as the name implies, it can be quite hot there."
The elevator gate closed, and Atali saw Hiccup and Astrid looking at her from the ceiling.
'Hiccup… Astrid… be bold, but be safe,' she said, nodding at them.
Hiccup and Astrid returned the nod.
The elevated then began to lower itself and similarly disappeared from sight.
"Looks like we're on our own now," said Astrid.
"We have to find Ace," said Hiccup. "It looks like the most dangerous criminals are at the very bottom of this prison, which means we have to go as far down as we can."
"And the further down we go, the more security there will be," said Astrid.
Hiccup nodded and pulled out Ace's viva card. "The viva card should help us point in the right direction, but we have to stay undetected as long as possible before we have any chance."
"And how do we escape once we find him?" Astrid asked.
"I don't know, making this up as we go, but something usually turns up," said Hiccup.
The two of them then began to make their way through the prison.
At the same time, returning from the sea were apelike creatures, with blue fur with blue fur, wielding sharp battleaxes and carrying chunks of meat from large fish that swam around the prison.
"The Blugori are returning," said a prison guard.
"Looks like they've grabbed dinner too. Open the hatch!"
The Blugori then swam through the hatch and re-entered the prison with their catch.
"Nice work; get it to the fridge, and we'll be done."
Atali was still riding the elevator.
"We should be passing through the level I any second," said Hannibal.
They then heard bloodcurdling screams, and they entered the first level. They watched as prisoners were being tortured relentlessly with all different kinds of torture weapons.
"Let me out of here, damnit!"
"It's even worse than I expected," said Marcus.
"Surely you jest," said Domino. "This floor has relatively minor offenders, so these whippings are mostly a formality."
"Madness," said Marcus.
"And yet it's the truth," said Hannibal. "Level I of Impel Down is known as the Crimson Floor, by the way."
"What's Crimson about it?" Atali asked.
"That would be a secret. Level II is the floor of wild beasts from hell; it is pretty straightforward. As we move deeper underwater, we reach level III, the starvation floor. Followed by level IV, the burning heat floor, which is our destination. You cannot tell from the surface, but the structure is quite expensive. Since it takes a while for this elevated to reach level IV, you will have plenty of time to indulge in the cacophony of screams."
"And is Fire Fist Ace on level IV?" Atali asked.
"No, and that is on the bottom floor, either. We have a wide selection of tortuous devices…"
As Atali listened more, she feared for Hiccup and Astrid's safety but could do nothing. 'Hiccup… Astrid…'
Hiccup and Astrid followed the viva card, descending towards the prison's lower floors.
"Looks like we have to go down the stairs," said Hiccup.
"Let's go," said Astrid.
They then began to make their way down the stairs as they entered level I.
Currently, on level I, a few prisoners were unhappy with one of the inmates.
"No fair, you cheater!"
"We thought you were just a clown. You didn't tell us you could do that."
The prisoners looked directly at Buddy, who used devil fruit powers to get through the bars.
"Can it, would you," said Buggy as he stretched his body. "The real clowns here are you losers getting whipped like dogs every damn day. Of course, I'm going to break out the first chance I get."
"You're just going to run out on us?"
"Ha, that sounds like something a friend would say, and you folks are no friends of mine," Buggy sneered. "I'm a free eagle chumps, so deal with it. If you don't like being in there, why don't you slip out like me? What's that you can't? Well, I guess you'll just have to die, huh."
The inmates began to yell at him furiously.
"Eat my ass suckers," Buggy laughed as he slapped his ass at them.
"You won't get away with this, Buggy!"
"I'm getting away just fine," Buggy laughed and ran off.
Buggy began making his way through the corridor, but he had to avoid the surveillance transponder snails.
'A surveillance transponder snail?' he said.
Buggy waited until its eyes pointed away and then shot out of the corner. However, the eyes suddenly turned back towards him, and he was now fully aware of it.
"Hi there," he said.
Alarms then immediately sounded out across the entire prison.
"We found him!" said a guard in the surveillance room. "That's Buggy the Clown, a prisoner from level I community cell number four. He's in the hallway in front of solitary cell number 22. Grab him quick!"
"Damnit," Buggy cursed. "Stupid snail, this is all your fault!"
He fired his fist at the transponder snail, destroying it and then ran off.
The other prisoners heard the guards yelling over the speakers and found the entire thing amusing.
"Transponder snail number 71 has been shut off!"
"You blew it, Buggy old pal."
"Don't come crying to us when they're torturing you to death. Serves you right, you dummy."
"Yeah, he'll wish he'll be dead for sure."
The Blugori were now rushing down the corridors in response to the alarms.
"Here come the Blugori."
"Happy hunting."
"Make him suffer!"
Hiccup and Astrid were still following the Viva card.
"Looks like we have to go down just as we suspected," said Hiccup.
"Yeah, but we're completely out of stairs," said Astrid.
The two of them were now standing in front of a large door that was no doubt used for guards. Then, they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
"All right, men, we're looking for prisoner 8200."
"What?! The stupid clown?"
Hiccup quickly transformed his hybrid form and carried Astrid towards the ceiling moments before the guard arrived.
"No one knew he had Devil Fruit powers. You got the handcuffs?"
"Yeah, we're good."
They then opened the door and rushed inside.
"Let's move! Split up and flank him!"
The doors began to close, but Hiccup carried Astrid through them just before they closed.
"We made it," said Hiccup.
Astrid then looked down at the guards. "I wonder what's going on?"
They continued to go deep into Level I; every corridor they went down was filled with prison cells.
"So all of these prison cells?" said Hiccup.
"There's just so many," said Astrid.
They then heard a scream.
"What was that?" Astrid asked.
"Probably someone getting tortured, but we need to keep moving," said Hiccup.
Astrid nodded, and they continued to make their way through the corridor.
The scream belonged to Buggy, who was now cornered by the Blugori.
"Go away, you bunch of jerks!" he yelled.
Hiccup and Astrid were, in fact, one level him as he ran away from the Blugori.
"Have mercy on me!" he yelled.
Hiccup and Astrid finally made it to the ground floor and continued to make their way through the corridor.
At the same time, Buggy finally lost the Blugori and watched as they ran by.
"They're gone," he said, relieved. He then noticed the button right next to it, with a skull and crossbones and the word danger written above it. "Danger? It already has a skull; who's going to press it?"
He then turned his head and came face-to-face with a Blugori and instantly screamed. As he screamed, his hand accidentally pressed down on the button.
Hiccup and Astrid were still making their way for the corridor when, suddenly, large spikes shot down from the ceiling. They quickly made a run for it to avoid getting squashed and skewered.
"Where did those come from?" Hiccup stared.
Then suddenly, spikes shot out of the walls, resulting from Buggy pressing every danger button while trying to avoid getting cut to pieces by the Blugori.
Hiccup had been able to grab Astrid and fly over the spikes before they got skewered.
"That was a little too close," said Astrid.
Hiccup then flew down to the ground and placed her down. "How did those trapped activate?"
"Traps activated over there! Surround the hallway!" said a guard's voice.
"Crap, the guards are coming," said Hiccup.
"And let's not be here when they do arrive," said Astrid.
They quickly ran down the corridor, but before the guards arrived and spotted them.
"Halt!"
The two of them quickly jumped over the railings and grabbed a pair of very large chains. Their weight activated some sort of mechanism, and they started to descend and activate a trap hole just as the guards ran over it.
"Looks like they're gone," said Astrid, looking up.
"That was lucky," said Hiccup as they jumped down to the ground.
As they ran through the prison cells, the prisoners inside them noticed them.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" said a prisoner in a loud whisper. "Slow down and hold on a second."
"We're a little busy," said Hiccup.
"Yeah, that's what it looks like, but how the heck did you two get out of your cell?"
"We didn't get out," said Astrid. "We actually came in from the inside."
"Now that we have that sorted, bye," said Hiccup.
"Hold on, there is no way that the truth."
"Well, whether you believe it or not, it is the truth," said Astrid.
"You two don't look like jailers. So who are you, and why are you here?"
"He's not behind bars, so maybe it's true."
"Look, we're a little busy trying to find Fire Fist Ace," said Hiccup.
"Fire Fist Ace?"
"You don't mean him? The guy on death row?"
"That's him; we came here to bust him out," said Astrid.
The prisoners burst out laughing.
"Good luck with that."
"We don't get a lot of info down here, but I heard they just brought him in."
"If that's true, as he is here, then he's got to be Level V. No way of getting down there. You're screwed. That's the floor where they hold all the prisoners with a bounty of a hundred million or more."
"At least we know where to look," said Astrid.
"Oh, by the way, pal. While you're here, can you run to the jailers' room and pick up some keys?"
"Yeah, buddy, it would be no trouble, right?"
"This has got to be destiny, man; I mean, what else would bring us together like this? It was like you were born to set us free, right?"
"And the chick looks like an angel from heaven."
Hiccup and Astrid looked at one another, but before they could come to any conclusions, they heard a yell.
Everyone turned and saw Buggy running towards them with a whole pack of Blugori.
"What are those things?" Astrid asked.
"The Blugori!"
"I don't like the look of them," said Hiccup.
"Hurry, they're going to kill you!"
One of the Blugori then grabbed the helm of Buggy's shirt and swung its axe down upon him, cutting him in half.
"Run!" Hiccup yelled.
Hiccup and Astrid began running alongside Buggy's two halves.
"Right side… and left side! Unite!" said Buggy, pulling himself back together. "How do you like that suckers? You can cut me all you want; I ate the Chop-Chop Fruit!"
Buggy then noticed for the first time that Hiccup and Astrid were running alongside him. Upon seeing them, he practically split himself apart.
"Dragon! And the blonde-haired chick!" he cried. "What the hell are you two doing here?"
Hiccup and Astrid looked at him.
"Oh great, we had to run into you?" Astrid groaned.
"Guess we now know who set up all those traps," said Hiccup, rolling his eyes.
"Thanks for reminding me how much I hate you!" Buggy glared. "I see that prison hasn't made you any less annoying? Speaking of, I guess that King of the Pirates thing ain't working out too well."
"Look who's talking," said Astrid.
"Besides, we threw ourselves in here," said Hiccup.
"Say what?! You from yourselves in jail?" Buggy stared. His eyes then widened. "You must have known that I was here; that is the real reason you broke, isn't it? I'm not into you, weirdo, but I don't like being rescued by the girl."
"Don't flatter yourself," Astrid glared.
"When not here for you, and you made our mission here more complicated!" Hiccup spat.
Then, one of the Blugori jumped out towards them and swung its axe down upon them, but they were able to dodge it.
"This was supposed to be a cinch," said Buggy. "I called it Buggy's Peaceful Escape Plan. Does this look peaceful to you?"
"You're the one who brought their attention towards you?" Hiccup reminded him.
They then saw more Blugori appearing around the corner ahead of them, and they began to box them in.
"They're boxing us in," said Astrid.
"I hate this!" Buggy cried.
"It would be easier just to beat them up at this point," said Hiccup.
"Easy for you to say you have been tortured," said Buggy. "Oh, how my delicate body has suffered the blows of these monsters. And why did the two of you start running away in the first place?"
"We just don't want to draw too much attention," said Hiccup.
"And thanks to you, that plan has fallen at the window," Astrid spat.
"Oh, it's all my fault as it?" Buggy grumbled.
"With our cover now blown, we have to finish this off quickly," said Hiccup.
"You know that's the number one reason why I hate you. You're just so optimistic in the worst way possible," said Buggy.
"Running isn't going to help now that they boxed us in; if we want to avoid getting captured, we're going to have to fight through," said Astrid.
"Fine, I'll go along with your crazy plan," said Buggy. "Not like I have any other choice."
Buggy then turned and faced the Blugori. "Time for my speciality, causing chaos."
Hiccup then transformed his hybrid form, and Astrid drew out her battleaxe.
"Works for me," said Hiccup.
"Same here," said Astrid.
Buggy then fired his fist, Hiccup swung his fist, and Astrid swung her battleaxe intimately, taking out three Blugori.