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Chapter XIV: Countdown to Destruction

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Nami took a deep breath, having a feeling that this was going to be her biggest challenge yet. With her Clima-Tact broken and unable to be used even as a staff, she wouldn't be anywhere near as effective as she normally was. She'd have to rely on the Rokushiki… and unfortunately, she was already pretty tired from everything that had happened over the past hour. Just Crocodile drying her arm out and desiccating it was enough. That arm was still tingling, even if it wasn't quite numb. She couldn't quite make as good of a fist as she normally could with it.

Meanwhile, Mr. 2 was fresh, and from all Robin had told them, there was a very good chance the man was in Sanji's tier. Or at least Sanji's tier without the Rokushiki, and possibly Luffy's training. And speaking of Mr. 2, the ballerina was twirling around and making Nami feel dizzy just looking at him, "Come now, little swan! All you have to do is get out of my way, and I won't have to bust up that beautiful face of yours!" He grinned widely, making Nami wonder if he had secretly eaten the Rubber fruit instead of the Copy fruit. His face was so damned stretchy and expressive.

"Yeah, you'll just go kill an innocent young princess instead." Nami replied dryly, "We doing this, or would you prefer an interpretive dance instead? And don't call me a little swan!"

"Stop joking arooooound!" Mr. 2 stopped twirling, "Don't say I didn't warn you!" He dashed forward, his leg lancing out so quickly that Nami was abruptly certain that she did not want to get hit by him.

She flowed around his leg with a graceful Kami-E, feeling so glad that she had started taking her training seriously, "Jeez you're fast!"

"Ahahaha!" Mr. 2 laughed, "You dodged that! Impressive!" His grin split his face again, "And of course I am! I've trained relentlessly, day after day! Year after year!" He held himself in the Arabesque position, showing off his insane bodily control. "That's how I perfected my Okama Kenpo, and it will never be surpassed by you, little swan!"

"Hah, well I definitely can't claim years of it." Nami smirked, "But I'd say I've come quite far for just a couple months' worth of training!" She raised her leg slightly, "For instance…" She smirked wider, and Mr. 2 was overcome by a sense of foreboding that had him start to sweat slightly. "Rankyaku!" She yelled, kicking up.

As the blade of wind erupted from her, Mr. 2's eyes popped out of his skull and he got his body as straight as he could, throwing both arms into the air as he twirled away. He stopped, watching in shock as her attack carved straight through a building. His lipstick-ed lips were puckered as he stared at the carved out front of the building, "Stop joking arooooound!" he yelled, "That was dangerous!"

"That was the point!" Nami rolled her eyes to hide her worry. She was really hoping that she could have taken him out by surprise with that attack. She had barely managed her first Rankyaku on Drum while running from the Lapahns. She didn't have more than three of those from either leg before she'd barely be able to walk much less fight. "You can just give up, you know! I don't really want to hurt you. I just need to stop you from ruining Vivi's home!"

Mr. 2 pouted outrageously, "Unfortunately, little swan, it appears we are destined to be enemies then! Zero-chan has trusted me with the main portion of our operation, and I can't let him down! For our Utopia!"

"Oh please!" Now Nami scoffed, "He's going to kill all of you, stupid!" She crossed her arms, "You probably don't even know about the bomb he's planted in here. One large enough that only he and his stupid sand powers could survive!"

"Stop joking arooooound!" Mr. 2's catchphrase was very annoying, but now he looked angry, "The boss would never betray our dream!" He rushed forward, and Nami cursed as she was forced to duck under a kick that shattered a storefront. "Pardon my Okama Kenpo Knuckle!" Mr. 2's fist shot out at her face, and she was barely able to avoid it with Kami-E. "You won't escape my fists! Okama Kenpo: Drunken Swan Soiree!" He yelled, a dizzying number of strikes flying from his limber arms.

"Shit, fuck, shitfuck!" Nami cursed, barely able to stay away from his fists even with Kami-E.

"Such an ugly mouth on such a pretty face!" Mr. 2 yelled with his grin back up, "Naughty, naughty!" He launched a roundhouse kick at her head, which she dodged by throwing herself backwards.

She planted her hands on the ground as she bent back for a back-handspring. When her feet came up, she shot another Rankyaku at her nimble opponent, hissing slightly from the pain. She would definitely have to switch legs for the next one.

The blade of wind grazed Mr. 2's shoulder, but that was enough for a tiny geyser of blood to erupt, "GAH!" He cried out, clutching his shoulder in pain. "Ooooh, now you've done it, little swan!" He yelled at her.

She yelled right back as she landed from her attack, "Stop calling me that, you stupid swan!"

"Then I shall crush you with the power of my Mane Mane no mi!" Mr. 2 declared, "What's so amazing about it is the scope of my memory!" He grinned, "For example, I can use it to create a montage of parts, and once I've crippled you with laughter, you'll be at my mercy!" He touched his face, "The world's weirdest eyes, nose, mouth, and head shape!" His face warped… very slightly. "For the first time anywhere, the Mane Mane Montage!" He finished his act by once again posing in the Arabesque position, with his leg bending backwards even above his head. He also formed a heart shape with his arms, touching the top of his head.

"…" Nami started, and his lowered jaw lowered even lower. A bead of sweat dripped down as Nami continued to stare at him as though he was an idiot. He dropped to his knees, crying as he looked in a mirror he pulled out of… somewhere. "That was just pathetic." Nami sniped at him, making him flinch, "You barely changed anything. Wapol's normal face back on Drum looked weirder!"

"How dare you!" Mr. 2 gasped, utterly insulted. He paused, "Also, I don't know who this Wapol is, but poor guy."

"Ehh, he deserved it. Mad tyrant; killed all but twenty-one of the doctors in his entire country. Took twenty of them for himself and never got the last. He was an asshole, honestly." Nami said dismissively, and Mr. 2's eyes popped out.

"Killing doctors?! What manner of fool wa-" He slapped himself, "Never mind that! Stop joking arooooound! We're fighting!"

"I am fighting! You're clowning!" She shot back, smirking as he got angrier.

"Then it's truly time for me to stop messing around!" Mr. 2 declared, "I've never met a single foe who could bring themselves to harm a-"

"Let me stop you right there." Nami said, before raising a finger, "First, the only face you've possibly got that I would consider a friend would be Robin's, and she's been beating me up in training enough that I owe her payback anyway." Mr. 2 gasped as she raised a second finger, "Second, we regularly beat the shit out of each other on the ship for training, so don't think I won't fight you even if you somehow snagged a face I'm not expecting!"

Mr. 2 puckered his lips, "Then what about this!" He touched his face and turned into a very young boy, "You wouldn't harm an innocent youn-" Nami flashed forward and kicked him in the face, "YOU HEARTLESS WRETCH!" Mr. 2 gasped, holding his bruised and now bloody face, "An innocent child?!"

"YOU CHANGING YOUR FACE DOESN'T MEAN SHIT IF YOU KEEP THE SAME BODY, DUMBASS!" Nami screeched back at him, now utterly done with this fight.

"Ah…" Mr. 2 blushed, "Knew I forgot something." He scratched his chin sheepishly, before he kicked up to his feet. "Fine then! I can see your heart is three sizes too small!" He harumphed superiorly.

"Oh, come off it." Nami rolled her eyes again, "No matter how you change your face, you're still you. It'll never work if your opponent knows it's a mask."

"Tsk." Mr. 2 glared at her, "Fine, I guess we'll just have to do this the hard way!" He got into his kenpo stance again, "Other than that cutting attack, you have no power! I barely felt that kick!" That was a lie. His face was definitely throbbing. But he knew for sure his kicks would hurt her a whole hell of a lot more than her kicks hurt him.

Nami glared back, "Let's get this over with. I have a country to help save! Soru!" She vanished in a burst of speed, and Mr. 2 coughed out a bit of blood as her foot speared into his gut.

"GUAH!" He hacked out as he blew back, impacting another building and demolishing it with his body.

"Damn…" Nami landed and had to brace her knee with her hand to keep from falling over. Those two Rankyaku had really taken it out of her… But at least it was over, and she'd be able to-

"That was an interesting technique, little swan." Mr. 2's strained voice had her eyes widen in shock. She watched as he stood up, clutching his stomach in pain, but he was grinning fiercely. "Ten kicks in a single second! What marvelous speed!"

"Grk!" Nami paled and started to sweat, 'Oh shit! Please don't tell me-'

"But 'Soru?' Such an uninspired name, isn't it?" He started to twirl, "I think a much better name would be 'Flight of the Swan!'" He yelled, and then Nami was bent in halfaround his foot.

She flew back so quickly that her body vanished before it impacted a signpost. The metal creaked and broke as she fell to the floor. She coughed raucously, wheezing and barely able to breathe as she writhed on the dusty ground. She rolled onto her knees, her forehead still touching the ground as she cried out in pain, clutching her gut.

"Tut, tut, you poor thing." He pitied her as he twirled forward. One hit and it looked like she was out, "I gave you the chance to turn away, darling."

"F-Fuck you." Nami struggled to her feet, her dancer outfit revealing the heavy and already purpling bruise on her stomach. "Th-this is nothing." She grimaced, sinking almost to her knees before she staggered her way back up. She spat out some blood, "Nothing compared to the pain Vivi will feel if you win!" She snarled at him, revealing bloody teeth. She bent her knees and vanished, but he mirrored her.

The two traded places essentially, "Your bravery is inspiring, little swan!" Mr. 2 yelled out as he turned, "Fine then! I'll show you my ultimate Okama Kenpo technique!" He reached behind him and grasped the necks of the two swans behind his back. He jumped up, pulled the swan necks off his back, and slapped them onto his feet in one, smooth motion, "Behold!" He now was wearing the swan necks and heads on his ballerina slippers, "Prima Ballerina!"

"You look ridiculous." Nami responded, groaning that this was her opponent.

"How rude! You didn't even let me introduce them! Please be aware the one on your right is a male, and the one on your left is a female!"

"HOW COULD YOU EVEN TELL THAT, DUMBASS?!" Nami screeched at him.

"Hahaha!" He laughed, "Still so rude, little swan! Never mind, I suppose. Take this! Okama Kenpo: Swan Bombardier!"

Nami relaxed and let Kami-E take over, and she was so glad she did. The swan heads were almost mirage-like in their movements, but the beaks were apparently as hard as steel spikes. Even with her dodging them, the beak still opened a very small gash just above her navel and completely pierced through the stone behind her. She wasn't certain even Tekkai would have been able to stop it! She used the motion of her dodge to spin, and launched a third Rankyaku, this time with her left leg. From this close, she couldn't miss.

"GAH!" This time, it was Mr. 2's turn to fall to the ground and writhe as his chest was opened up and began weeping blood. "Stop joking aroooound! That hurt!" He got to his feet, clutching at his chest. His costume was ripped and torn as well. But Nami grimaced because he wasn't hurt nearly as badly as he should have been. Her injuries and exhaustion had clearly caught up to her. That Rankyaku didn't cut anywhere close to as deeply as it should have, "You're so strong, little swan!" He grimaced.

"Right back at you." She huffed, brushing her sweat-matted hair off her face. "Those slippers look ridiculous, but they're damn dangerous. You're compressing all of your strength into a tiny point." She glanced at the wall, where a perfectly circular hole was revealed. "It's like putting an elephant on top of a stiletto."

"Ahahaha! You're a smart little lady! That's exactly right." He grinned weakly, "Just think of my kicks as bullets from a rifle, only a lot bigger." He took a deep breath, "I'd say this fight is almost over. One hit from either of us and we're down. Isn't that right, little swan?"

Nami grimaced, "Ugh, I'm going to sleep for a week after this."

"Hahaha! That's if you win, little swan!" He started to twirl, though his movements were slower than before, "Otherwise that sleep will be a good deal longer!"

The two vanished, and the street started getting utterly destroyed. Cracked pavement here. Then a dozen holes pierced through a wall there. Then a shop cut cleanly into two, with the upper part of the building leaping up three feet before crashing down on its still-standing walls and crushing them from the impact. Each time, the two appeared and then disappeared in bursts of insane speed.

Finally, something gave. Nami crashed to the ground, screaming from the pain of a third Rankyaku from her right leg. Her muscles were nearly shredded from it. She was on her hands and knees, clutching her right thigh and behind her knee.

Mr. 2 landed, also grimacing, "Whoowie, that's killer on the legs, little swan." He bent over and massaged his calves, grimacing, "Flight of the Swan might be an amazing technique, but I definitely will need to train more." He pirouetted some more, "It was an amazing fight, little swan! I'll remember you always!" He leapt forward, "Okama Kenpo: Swan Bombardier!" His foot shot forward, aiming to pierce clean through her heart and give her a clean, quick end.

But Nami had one last trick up her sleeve.

Or rather, up her dress.

She dodged to the right, lifting her left arm, and allowing the swan to just barely graze the side of her ribs. The swan pierced through the ground next to her, and then she clapped her arm down and trapped his leg. "What?!" Mr. 2 gasped, "Let go!" He tried to pull back, but she had his leg locked down tight.

"Sorry, Mr. 2!" Nami said, before she jabbed the last, unbroken section of her Clima-Tact directly into his nethers.

"Aiiieeeee!" Mr. 2 squealed out from the pain of the impact. And then Nami pressed a button, and he lit up like a Christmas tree. His skeleton flashed from the electrical discharge, and then it was over. His body was smoking heavily as he took two steps back and fell, right on his back, defeated.

Nami rasped, her Clima-Tact falling from her limp fingers. It clattered on the dusty floor, before Nami's vision went dark, and she slumped forward. She hit the ground just as hard as her opponent, out cold.

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"Damn it!" Vivi cried out in frustration, "Where could this damn thing be?!" They had both armies scouring the city. Well, those that could be spared from the evacuation, at any rate. "Report!" She barked as a couple of the rebels neared her.

"Princess, the eastern quadrant is clear!" The former freedom fighter saluted her.

"As is the northern quadrant!" A Royal Guard spoke next.

"Maybe it's not a cannon. Maybe Crocodile just planted the damn thing in a basement somewhere?" She mused, "With Miss Merry Christmas's mole powers, they could have placed it anywhere. It doesn't need to be shot if it has a three-kilometer radius!"

"Crocodile couldn't know exactly where we would be fighting." Kōza shook his head, still marveling over what he had repeatedly seen his old roughhousing partner do. She had been practically running up walls and getting atop the tallest of their buildings to check from the roofs. "He might have known where we were coming from, but he couldn't know that we would stay in the southern region. His goal is to wipe both armies out, isn't it?"

"Yes, but he wouldn't need to wipe us out. If there were too many survivors, he could just kill the rest himself." Vivi countered, "He obviously doesn't care about the palace." She jerked her head to the west where the massive sandstorm was lit up with brilliant light. Molten jets of glass jetted out and splattered all around every once in a while.

"Princess!" Another Royal Guard ran to them, "Southern quadrant is clear, and we did break into buildings to check basements. There's nothing!"

"Damn it!" Vivi slammed her fist into a wall in complete and utter frustration. "Where could a Set-damned three-kilometer-blast-radius bomb be?! It can't be small! We don't even know how long we have left! It could go off any minute!" She wished she had just had more time. Time enough to manage Geppō consistently. Time to train with her friends more.

"Are there any areas that are heavily defended by Baroque Works?" Kōza barked at his freedom fighters and the Royal Guards alike. "Any place that we seem to lose people if we approach?"

"A sniper, you think?" Vivi cottoned on immediately. "Well?!" She asked, excitedly.

"No Princess, Kōza." The rebel said, "Since we weeded out the scum, we haven't lost anyone."

"Or at least none I've been informed of." The guard agreed.

Kōza and Vivi both deflated instantly. "Damn it! There must be something we could do!" Kōza mimicked his old friend by punching the wall they stood next to, "We're the Suna-Suna Clan, damn it! Surely we know our way around our city be-" He stopped, stuttering for a minute, "-tter…"

Vivi and Kōza snapped their gazes to one another before they both turned to look in the same direction. The clock tower, where they had once made their secret hideout. "That son of a bitch." Vivi said blandly, making Kōza choke, and several people sputter. She bent her knees and kicked off, throwing herself into the air. She couldn't Geppō perfectly yet, but she could certainly kick off of the buildings.

"Vivi wait!" Kōza yelled, but Vivi was speeding away, far outstripping their ability to even remotely keep up. "DAMN IT! TO THE CLOCK TOWER! ON THE DOUBLE!"

Vivi was hurrying as fast as she could to the clock tower, but her burgeoning senses told her something was wrong. She kicked off the building directly sideways, and not a moment too soon. As she moved, a bullet sliced through some strands of her hair, "SNIPERS!" She yelled, throwing herself through the window. "Mr. Seven and Miss Father's Day!" She growled as she took a moment's break, panting. She looked around, grabbing the bed sheets and crumpling them, before tossing them out the window.

The second the bundle left the window, it was expertly pierced by a bullet. "They're as good as ever." She groaned, "But I can't let that stop me! I have to get to that bomb!" She looked around, and smiled as spotted a small stand mirror used for makeup. She grabbed it, trusting her senses, and thrust it out of the window. There was another sharp retort of a bullet, but a flareup of light from Luffy's fight hit the mirror and reflected. Vivi threw herself out the window as soon as she heard a faint cry of pain, and the bullet missed entirely. "Oh, thank you, Kenbunshoku! I'll never talk bad about you again!" Not that she ever had, but now she definitely wouldn't! If only she could actually control it instead of just flying by the seat of her instinct's pants. She could have used it to find these two idiots minutes ago!

She continued to race towards the building, and did not stop once she reached it. She knew that there was an entrance to the actual tower on the other side of the building, but she didn't know if she had time for that. Instead, she simply ran up the side of the building using Soru. She quickly shot past the ledge, and continued into the air until she was at the apex of her leap, floating momentarily in line with the clock face.

And then she thrust her legs back and utilized a single Geppō that honestly had her legs screaming in pain. She shot forwards and kicked through the clock face, sending shards of their monument flying everywhere.

"SHE DID IT!" Kōza yelled, far away as the rest of the charging men sped up.

In the clock tower itself, Vivi's dynamic entry had thrown one of the metal clock hands directly into Mr. Seven's forehead, splitting it open and causing blood to gush out as he was knocked unconscious. "Mr. Seven!" Miss Father's Day screamed as her partner was instantly taken out, "Damn you, traitor, kero!" The frog-theme woman croaked in anger as she turned her equally froggy gun at Vivi, "Die, Miss Wednesd-!"

Vivi blurred with a Soru and kicked her hard in the chest, sending her flying out of the tower. "My name is Vivi." She growled, before turning to the lit fuse cutting the lit portion off with her Kujakkī Slashers. She fell to her knees in relief, letting out a sigh. "We did it!" She whispered, closing her eyes, and allowing herself to feel some of the exhaustion she was fighting.

Tick

Tock

Tick

Tock

Tick

Tock

That wasn't the clock tower. The ticking, especially inside the tower, was much louder due to the large and heavy gears and equipment. She could only hear this fainter ticking because the tower's clock was currently inactive.

Dread rising, she quickly stood and ran inside the absolutely massive cannon. The bore made a regular bombard look positively tiny. "Oh, you bastard." She whispered, biting her lip as she looked at the timer on the equally massive bomb. Her fists clenched at her sides and trembled in fury.

They had less than two minutes left.

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'Who the hell is this brat?!' Crocodile had never experienced anywhere close to the amount of stress he was currently feeling, not even from his fight with Whitebeard. The giant man had been so far ahead of him that it almost wasn't even a fight. Nothing Crocodile had done had even come close to scratching him, and the strongest man in the world had almost negligently defeated him.

Luffy was a whole different beast. Crocodile's Kenbunshoku had never been the greatest, and right now it was being sorely tested. Luffy was blindingly fast and as Crocodile was finding out, knowing something was coming didn't mean anything if you weren't fast enough to get out of the way. He'd taken over a dozen hits in just a minute's worth of fighting. And his powers. His powers. The other man in a straw hat just had to get a finger on him, and he would burn.

And had done so, multiple times already. Crocodile's Haki had never been pushed so far in either respect. His clothes were even more tattered. It was only through Busōshoku hardening that he hadn't already been killed. He had lost one of his boots, and it was only his Haki that kept the foot from being lost with it. Even then, it was lobster red and blistering. "ENOUGH!" He roared, turning into another sandstorm to try to blast Luffy away.

"SHISHISHI!" And the most infuriating part? Luffy was having a blast. His smile hadn't dropped from his face once since he had originally discovered his Devil Fruit's rock-paper-scissors style domination of Crocodile's, even when Crocodile successfully hit him with anything. This was the most fun he'd ever had in a fight so far, since his grandpa could beat his ass as easily as Whitebeard could beat Crocodile's. "Hey, what's the big deal, banana-boy?" Luffy asked, which confused his opponent. What the hell was he on about with that nickname? "It's no fun if you just hide!"

'How am I losing to this utter buffoon?!' A vein was pulsing angrily on Crocodile's temple as he surrounded Luffy in a sandy tornado. Alubarna's palace had slowly been getting wrecked over the past several minutes. Even beyond the initial eruption of sand from when Crocodile had been chasing Nami, Vivi, and the two guards, the sandstorms had completely stripped away the paint from some of the faces of the once-beautiful palace. The grounds were dried and cracked, with Crocodile having absorbed all of their moisture and ground them into more sand. The trees were desiccated husks now.

And that wasn't even counting the damage Luffy was doing. His Devil Fruit left glassed craters and crevices carved deep into the stone plinth the palace sat on. The surrounding areas didn't look much better, with nearby buildings having been buried in sand raining from above. Others still had been carved up from Luffy's attacks, with several now burning from the heat from his attacks.

Luffy leapt up the shaft of the tornado of sand surrounding him, before tucking into a ball, pulling his knees up and crossing his arms, "Enten no Asahi!" He expanded rapidly into a miniature sun, melting the sand all around him. Crocodile panicked as he was part of the sandstorm, and he threw himself from it as fast as he could. His body coalesced rapidly, and he flew down, smashing into the palace and cracking another wall as he exploded into sand, before reforming again.

"Gah!" Crocodile threw his arm in front of his face as the blinding light tried to sear his eyeballs off. His Kenbunshoku screamed at him, and he dodged out of the way not a moment too soon. Luffy's blazing fist crashed into the ground where he had been sitting. The ground rapidly heated up and exploded in a burst of steam before magma started spewing about from the melting sandstone.

'I can't keep doing this!' Crocodile thought to himself rapidly, 'I have to kill him! Otherwise, this heat is going to kill me first!' He got to his feet and aimed for Luffy, "Desert Spada Adamantina!" A sandy blade rose on his arm, the sand turning black from his Haki coating it. He swung his arm, and his blackened sands raced to Luffy, slicing through anything in their path with extreme grinding action.

Luffy dodged it, but Crocodile just kept swinging the blade, more and more of the sands surrounding them crawling up his arms to be fired off at his opponent. "Desert Spada Adamantina: Bombardeo!" Luffy made quick, agile work of dodging the blades, knowing now that the black coating meant Crocodile was using gramps' trick, which meant he definitely could get hit.

But Crocodile had a plan. He wasn't actually trying very hard to hit Luffy. The straw-hatted brat was too fast. But he had a plan for that. His bare foot had sunk into the sands below, which was not a pleasant feeling from how burned it was. In fact, if Crocodile still had a cigar, he'd probably be biting through it from the pain. But it was doing its job.

"Oh, shit!" Luffy cried out as a snake of sand erupted from underneath him and bit him in the ankle, followed by another.

"DIE, STRAW HAT!" Crocodile used another Desert Spada Adamantina to finish the job, aiming to cut Luffy's torso in half diagonally.

"Tekkai!" Luffy crossed his arms and steeled himself. "GRAH!" He cried out in pain as the sands ground against his defense, flaying skin away.

"No!" Crocodile readied another attack as he realized the first one wasn't going to do it even with his Busōshoku. He swiped his arm again, but Luffy was prepared this time.

"Enten no Kizu!" Luffy ripped his leg from the sand and launched a crescent moon shaped blade of his solar energy at the approaching sands. The two smashed together between the two opponents, and globs of molten sand rained around them again.

The two glared at one another, Crocodile's hair falling into his face. Luffy's arms and parts of his torso were raw and red from having the flesh abraded away. He didn't quite have muscle showing, but he was definitely starting to bleed.

"Tsk!" Crocodile clicked his teeth, "Sables Pesado!" He yelled, leaping into the air, and throwing down an absolutely massive sandstorm. One that was far bigger than the previous ones. This was aiming for Alabasta itself!

"You already tried that, you stupid banana!" Luffy yelled, leaping into the air, and once again using Enten no Asahi! The blazing heat disrupted the winds and melted the sands, which rained all over Alubarna again. Their fight was going to end up destroying the capital even without Crocodile's bomb at this rate. Already, fires were starting to burn as roofs and clothes caught fire down below from the heat of the melting sands.

"I KNOW I DID!" Crocodile yelled, skating towards Luffy with his one good eye closed and shielded by his hand. His other arm, however, was poised to strike. His golden hook didn't look very golden anymore, with the sheathe removed. Now it looked silvery, but was full of holes and coated liberally in a purple liquid.

He swiped for Luffy's head, but Luffy ducked under it, throwing a glowing, thunderous cross into Crocodile's chest. Just before impact, the area blackened. Crocodile was knocked away, rather than being punched clean through. Even then, spittle mixed with blood burst from his mouth as several ribs broke, and the skin blistered from the heat.

A whirlwind of sand erupted around them again, and Luffy rolled his eyes, "This agai-" He shut up and dodged left as a fist flew by his head, "Oh, that's much better, shishishi!" He grinned as he again dodged a foot, and then the hook, and then another foot. The sands whirled around them, building up more and more sand from Crocodile's Logia fruit. Trails of sand even hit Luffy, but much to Crocodile's frustration, he wasn't getting dried out. His desiccation powers were definitely touching the brat, but they didn't seem to be working.

"Desert Gran Ola!" Crocodile yelled, an utterly massive and heavy tsunami of sand surging before crashing down towards Luffy.

Luffy leapt up, trying to get above the crashing wave, but his eyes widened as the tornado of sand was contracting too. "Crap! Tekkai!" He gritted his teeth and covered his nose and mouth as he was smashed between the two waves of sand.

"Desert Sōsō!" Crocodile roared as Luffy was engulfed, and started compacting the sands as much as he possibly could. He wanted to crush the life out of this pest who had interfered in so many of his plans. He wanted to squeeze every drop of blood he could out of him!

But he wasn't going to get his wish. He could feel the sands making no progress. In fact, he could feel Luffy fighting his way out, the mountain of sand rippling and surging with every move the other Logia made. A plume of molten glass erupted from one of the sides, and Crocodile knew he had to make this count.

He launched himself forward at Luffy, weakening the prison just enough on one of the sides. Sure enough, Luffy burst from it, gasping for breath while trying to spit the sands from his mouth. "DIE, STRAW HAT!" Crocodile swiped, stabbing Luffy directly in the side with his blackened hook, right through his Tekkai. Grinning in victory, Crocodile opened his mouth to gloat. And then he realized…

He had fucked up.

Luffy's crushing grip landed on his wrist, preventing him from pulling his arm away. Luffy had his own shit-eating grin on his face as he turned his arm into the sun and squeezed.

"GAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Crocodile rolled away, howling, and clutching his once-again mutilated limb. The pain was the worst he had ever felt. His original injury had been a clean cut, for all the pain it had caused him. This time, it was not only burned and cauterized, which was sending screaming pain racing up his limb, but Luffy had squeezed it off like popping a pimple. His fingers had dug into different parts of Crocodile's arm, so it was anything but a clean cut. No, it was a jagged mess, which was blackening from the burns this time, not Haki. The only saving grace was that it wasn't his good hand that Luffy had literally squeezed off.

The pain was so bad that one of Crocodile's teeth cracked and popped off from how hard he was squeezing his jaw. Finally, he rolled onto his knees and one hand, growling in rage at his slumped over opponent. There was a small puddle of blood in front of Luffy, coming both from the wound itself, and having been spat out by the younger Logia. He had yanked the hook out of his wound, and was now holding it and the burning bits of Crocodile's arm. "You!" Crocodile snarled, "Every single one of your friends are going to die screaming for that!"

"Shishishi…" Luffy laughed, though it was strained. He raised his head, greeting Crocodile with bloody teeth, "Why are you talking like you won, stupid? It's just a tiny stab." He eyed the small hook with a tilt of his head.

It was Crocodile's turn to laugh, though it was far more strained than Luffy's. "Because I have, imbecile!" He stood and started to laugh harder, "That was scorpion poison. The deadliest in any desert across the entire world! You're dead, Straw Hat!"

"Shishishi, and?" Luffy laughed, which wiped the smile off Crocodile's face, "You don't get it, do you? I'm a Logia too. I told you that earlier!" Luffy's grin widened as Crocodile's face paled. He was well aware of that fact, but didn't think it would have any bonuses that his brat of an opponent was no doubt about to inform him of, "You have that special little drying power of yours, but I've got some tricks too. I'm the sun. I don't feel heat. Cold doesn't bother me at all either…" Crocodile clenched his fist as Luffy continued to speak, his grin getting even wider, "And any poison or virus immediately gets destroyed inside me." Fun fact: He had also been bitten by Kestia, the same as Vivi. None of them ever knew, nor would they. Luffy reached up and pulled his eyelid down, sticking his tongue out, "How about that, imbesill?" He purposefully mocked Crocodile's pronunciation of the word. "AHAHAHAHA!"

Crocodile snapped, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LAUGHING ABOUT?! YOU THINK YOU WON JUST BECAUSE YOU DESTROYED MY HOOK?!"

"Oh, is this where you tell me about your bomb?" Luffy asked, and Crocodile bit his tongue in pure shock. "Yeah, Robin found out about that too." He grinned, punching his fist into his open palm, and squeezing to crack his knuckles, "By now, they'll have found it and stopped your idiots from firing it." He switched hands to crack his other set, "Which means all that's left to do is finish kicking your ass so we can get to the victory feast!"

"There won't BE a FUCKING victory feast!" Crocodile spat, before he grinned himself, "After all… I plan for everything." Luffy's smile dropped, "You think stopping the cannon is enough? Oh no, Straw Hat. That bomb is on a timer. Even I can't stop it now!" Luffy lost his smile and started to glare for the first time since the very start of the fight, "Every person in the city except you and me are going to die in about a minute! Including your friends, and your bitch of a Princess! LET'S SEE HOW MUCH YOU LAUGH THEN!"

Luffy bent his knees and threw himself forward, pure fury on his face. Crocodile did the same, and this time, he was the one laughing.

-]|[-

"What am I going to do?!" Vivi held her head in her hands as the numbness of her discovery vanished and panic started to set in. Despite how hard she was wishing it wasn't true, the bomb wasn't magically disappearing. The timer was ticking ever onward, mockingly.

Vivi had already ascertained that she could lift it. Barely, but she could. Nami would probably have been able to put it on her back, and maybe even shuffle it away. Luffy could probably have just thrown the damn thing away.

She couldn't do any of that. She had barely been able to lift it. Even if Kōza and the former rebels and guards burst into the tower right now, they probably wouldn't be much help either. Training on the Straw Hat's ship had given her perspective she'd always lacked in terms of strength. She was probably stronger than most of the muscle-bound royal soldiers. Even if they managed to somehow get it out of the cannon, there was no way they would be able to carry it out of the city fast enough to make a difference.

Even if they sprinted at full speed, without Soru they couldn't even get from the clock tower to a safe distance unencumbered, much less carrying the bomb. There simply wasn't enough time. Just the time she'd spent trying and failing to get it out of the cannon had burned about half of the time available. There were only fifty seconds left.

She was on her own. She was the only one who could stop this. And if she failed, they all were dead. Every man, woman, and child still in Alubarna except for Luffy and that bastard Crocodile would disappear in hellfire. She needed to do something, and now.

The only good thing was that she'd jostled it a fair bit, and it hadn't gone off. It looked as if the detonator really was the only way it could go off. It made sense. If it was so sensitive that impacts could set it off, Alubarna probably would have been destroyed when Crocodile didn't want it to. As long as she didn't damage the detonator, she was probably fine. It wasn't in her way at least. She'd managed to turn it away from her.

She took a deep breath, steeling herself and clenching her leg muscles. She knew the theory. All the Straw Hats had been shown every move of the Rokushiki. She had never managed one, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She knew even if she did manage to succeed, it was going to put her out of commission. So, if this didn't work, then she had played all of her cards.

With a grunt of exertion, she raised her leg to the ceiling in front of her, before bringing it down in an axe kick. "Rankyaku!" She yelled as the air churned in front of her. A gust erupted from her and struck the bomb, rocking it back. But it just settled, sitting there mockingly.

Thirty seconds.

Vivi groaned in pain as she massaged her calf, hunched over. "That's even worse than Geppō!" She cried out, "Damn it, it can't end like this!" She straightened up and ignored the pain in her leg. Pain was temporary. She could deal with pain. She steeled herself again, "Rankyaku!"

This time she appeared to get an actual blade of wind, and yet it just stopped on the face of the bomb, barely nicking it. As she put weight on her leg, she wobbled and fell over. "Ghh!" She hissed through gritted teeth, tears in her eyes.

Twenty seconds.

"Damn it!" She punched the inner barrel of the cannon. "Damn it! DAMN YOU, CROCODILE!" She screamed in fury as she punched again and again, until her knuckles were gashed and bloody. "I won't let it end like this!"

She forced herself to her feet, hissing in agony as her leg throbbed. "I WON'T LET IT!" She threw her leg up one last time, "RANKYAKU!" She screamed as a final blade of wind left her heel.

The attack struck the bomb in front of her as her world went white. Vivi didn't even realize what had happened because the next thing she knew, she was hearing screams. And then she realized it was her screaming. Her leg was limp, and she could see ugly purple bruising already starting to form from calf to thigh. But beyond that? All she could do besides cry in agony was feel relief.

She managed to roll herself to face the bomb, or rather, what was left of it. Her Rankyaku had cut it in half straight down the middle, before cutting through the back of the cannon as well, and even continuing out the back of the clock tower. The back of the cannon had fallen apart, and the bomb had rolled out. As soon as it crashed down to the floor of the clock tower, the two hemispheres had split open, spilling the white, powdered high explosives Crocodile had purchased everywhere. The two hemispheres had continued rolling until they hit the wall, and then fell over on their sides.

Even through her pain, Vivi managed a wet laugh as the timer hit zero and there was a click. But with nothing to ignite, it just fizzled out.

It was music to her ears.

"VIVI! VIVI, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Kōza's voice pierced the air as a door was slammed open. "By Ra's Light, what happened here?!" He gasped.

"I'm here!" She managed to gasp out.

Footsteps stomped, and Kōza turned pasty as he lay eyes on her, "Vivi, your leg!" He gasped in horror as he kneeled down next to her, afraid to even touch her.

"PRINCESS!" The rebels and guards with him gasped in horror as they saw her too.

She let out a pained chuckle, "Yeah, not very pretty." She said. Indeed, her entire leg had already started turning purple from all the blood vessels and muscles she tore, "Doesn't hurt much right now." She said in faux cheer, knowing exactly what that meant.

"That's because you're in shock, you idiot!" Kōza snapped, "WHAT ARE YOU STANDING THERE FOR?! GET A STRETCHER!" The guards snapped to follow their orders, even if they had to find stuff to make a makeshift one. "Osiris help me, why didn't you wait for us, Vivi?!"

"If I had, we'd all be dead." Vivi was starting to feel more than a little lightheaded. She pointed at the left side of the bomb, "Look for yourself."

Kōza turned his head, and then he paled, "A timer?! It was going to go off even if we stopped the firing!?"

"Yeah…" She tried to sit up, but a lance of pain shot through her, and she abandoned that immediately with a short yelp.

"Don't move, damn it!" Kōza snapped at her.

"Yeah, I got that." Vivi whimpered.

"Damn it, this is all my-" Kōza started to say, bowing his head over her.

She immediately dope-slapped him, "Don't be a moron." She said, letting her hand fall. She probably would have found his expression funny if she had bothered looking, "There's only one person to blame." She managed to raise her head and looked through the slice her Rankyaku had carved in the clock tower, "And I'm looking at him." She glared hatefully at the tornado of sand spinning above her childhood home.

-]|[-

Luffy's glowing fist struck Crocodile hard, knocking out a few teeth even with the Busōshoku coating that Crocodile raised to protect himself. Crocodile reeled, before his form rippled with sand and he jerked forward, slamming another Desert Spada Adamantina into Luffy's chest in retaliation. Luffy used Tekkai to protect himself, and then kicked Crocodile in the chest, forcing the air from his lungs.

Crocodile skidded to a stop and already had his hand on the ground, "Ground Seco!" The ground started to dry up even more than normal, and Crocodile forced sand into it to start grinding it up, "Ground MUERTE!" He roared, and the ground beneath him cracked as though an earthquake had ripped through it. Faults opened up and slabs of rock jostled from the 'quake,' before it all turned into sand, "WHY KEEP FIGHTING, STRAW HAT?!" Crocodile's laugh came from the waterfalls of sand that had engulfed him, "EVEN IF YOU SURVIVE AND BEAT ME BY SOME MIRACLE, ALL YOUR FRIENDS WILL BE GONE! YOU STUPID DREAMERS WILL NEVER SURVIVE ON THE GRAND LINE!"

"Enten no Kōen!" Luffy formed a massive sphere of plasma in his hands, pumping more and more of his power into it, before throwing it forward. He didn't really have time to think about it right now, but later he would feel bad about just how messed up Vivi's house was getting.

Crocodile and he had utterly ruined it already. The interior was full of sand, the outdoor area had been dried up, the plants killed, and parts of the plateau turned to sand. Parts of the palace itself were gouged up, as were parts of the grounds. Blackened holes and craters pockmarked the entire ancient edifice. And it was about to get a whole lot worse.

Luffy's attack flew forward, piercing through the rivers of sand and expanding rapidly. Another sun burst into being atop the plateau, and kept growing. The sand was engulfed, melting, and even starting to boil. It rained down as molten glass all over. The ball stopped expanding, but it had already consumed a section of the palace itself. It imploded, shrinking to a single point before evaporating.

But it had already done its work. Everything it had touched was just gone. A semicircle had been melted into the ground and had even carved away parts of the palace. The extreme heat had already started to catch things on fire.

If they didn't end this fight soon, they were going to turn the capital of Vivi's home into an unlivable hellscape.

Crocodile reformed, his shirt completely gone, exposing his muscular chest. His entire body was covered in a patchwork of burns, and he was starting to flag. The arm which formerly held his hook was almost completely gone now, with a blackened stump all that remained near his shoulder. He trembled in agony, his remaining eye red and veiny, and all of the momentary amusement he'd found gone.

Luffy chuckled, "Hehehehe, what's wrong, banana?" Despite all of his wounds, despite the fact that his flesh had been flayed and rubbed right down to the muscle, despite the fact that he was visibly as exhausted as Crocodile himself… his grin only got wider, "Where's that bomb you were so proud of? It's been more than a minute, hasn't it?"

Crocodile ground his teeth together, before turning to look at the clock tower. Even from here, Crocodile could see the white powder of the explosive he had purchased slowly dribbling out from the newly gashed clocktower. It looked as if someone had sliced it with a knife. And that was when Crocodile knew: it was over.

Luffy followed his gaze, and his face lit up, "Ehehehe, looks like they did it! Looks like your trap failed, banana."

Crocodile looked broken as the realization ripped through him. Every single one of his plans had been countered and stopped. He'd failed to end the threat beneath Rain Dinners with his drowning trap. He had underestimated this entire crew because they came from the weakest of the seas, even though he knew damn well that Roger had come from there too. The one outlier that had ever come from that sea. He had been so confident and sure of his victory. He had planned for every contingency and laid trap after trap… but it hadn't been enough. His overconfidence had cost him an eye and a lot of blood to pests, and underestimating Monkey D. Luffy had been a mistake.

He couldn't keep this up. His Kenbunshoku had already failed him, and his stamina was so drained that he was starting to lose control of his Busōshoku.

He was going to lose.

He knew it, and the thought was causing him nothing but fury. This no-name pirate Captain from East Fucking Blue was going to kill him. And even if he managed to kill the younger man by some miracle, he would be so weak after that even Nefertari fucking Vivi could probably finish the job and kill him.

All his plans. SIXTEEN YEARS of work! All up in smoke and ash, because of this moron of a dreamer in front of him. The brat had been ONE when he first started making plans in Alabasta! And the worst part? The worst part was that he could see himself in the idiot before him. Before the seas had ripped comrade after comrade from him. Before Whitebeard had crushed his dreams of being the Pirate King. Before he had grown disgusted with the romanticism of the pirate lifestyle and resolved to never let anyone else get close to him. This damned rookie was doing what Crocodile had never been able to do. Not even twenty years old, and Monkey D Luffy was already capable of defeating even a seasoned veteran like Crocodile himself, even when he was going all out.

And that, more than anything else, was what pissed him off the most. "I MAY LOSE HERE, STRAW HAT!" Crocodile roared out, "BUT I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME!" And with that, Crocodile pulled every last ounce of energy out of his exhausted body, throwing himself into the air. Every single grain of sand in the entirety of Alubarna and even from the outlying desert started to follow him. The sand started to compact, forming an absolutely massive crocodile in the air, befitting its namesake.

Luffy grinned widely as he realized that meant he could break out the big guns without destroying even more of Vivi's home. He cupped his hands and a massive ball of plasma started forming between them. Yellow light blazed and everything near him started to smolder as the heat ratcheted up again, "Enten no…"

"DIE, STRAW HAT!" Crocodile's voice roared from within the sandy crocodile as the entire beast seemed to blacken with Haki. Its head was even bigger than the entire palace and the plateau it sat on. "Desert Taisō" The crocodile shot downwards like a falling meteor, its maw wide open and ready to snap Luffy and a large section of Alubarna up in a single bite.

"Kōen Taihō!" Luffy yelled out his own move and threw his hands towards the sky. A brilliant light shot towards the heavens, illuminating the night sky. And then even more power seemed to surge, with the ground beneath Luffy's feet starting to crack and buckle. The beam, which had been started at about ten meters in diameter, expanded to about a hundred meters. The inner core of the beam was so hot that it was actually starting to turn a little blue.

It struck the crocodile and the Busōshoku coating held for roughly a second before the beast started to look like it was sweating. And then it started to melt, losing its form as the hellfire of solar plasma burned it away. The sheer heat turned the attack to glass, and Crocodile inside of it merely closed his eye in defeat for the final time. And then his world went white, and he was engulfed. The crocodile in the air was held up by the plasma, not falling and crashing into Alubarna. Luffy kept intensifying it more and more, with more of the beam starting to turn blue. The molten glass started to boil faster and faster before it started to evaporate.

Finally, the entire beast was gone, completely erased by Luffy's attack. The beam petered out, revealing the result. The sheer heat rising out of the planet's atmosphere had churned the air, and mixing the hot and cold air had started forming clouds, which were spreading across Alabasta. A hole in the clouds was rapidly filling with Luffy's attack gone. Without Crocodile's presence and very intentional and insidious use of his powers (as well as the effects of Luffy's final attack), something which hadn't happened naturally in Alabasta in almost a decade was about to occur.

Lightning flashed, and thunder roared.

Rain started to fall, putting out all of the fires. The people of Alabasta across the entire island looked on in rapture as the life-giving liquid started to fall from the heavens. Waves of shame, grief, relief, and joy started to engulf the people of the desert country.

Miles away, Robin and Zoro smiled, knowing what must have happened. Further away, Pell landed and allowed King Cobra off his back, with the injured king holding his hand out and sighing peacefully as he watched the storm engulf his nation. He looked to the sky and smiled. Across Alubarna, the various fighters of the Straw Hats smiled, "He did it!" They cheered and allowed themselves to rest.

As Vivi was stretchered out of the clock tower, she held her hand out, feeling the rain fall on her exhausted body. She started to cry, closing her eyes, and hiding her mouth behind her hand, "Luffy…" She cried out, "Thank you! THANK YOU!"

In the ruins of the Alubarna Palace, Luffy looked at the sky, wavering on his feet. He felt the heavy raindrops falling on him, but they caused no discomfort. They felt welcoming, actually. He smiled, not really hearing but feeling Vivi's thanks and his crew's cheering. "Shishishi!" He smiled widely, before tilting back and falling flat on his back, unconscious.

-]|[-

So, this came out quite a bit shorter than I expected it to. Only about 9.1k.

Either way, hope everyone liked it! Alabasta is almost done. I can hardly believe it. All that's left is the cleanup and getting the fuck out of dodge. Also, you have NO idea how much I wanted to kek and have Luffy start chanting KAAAA MEEEEE HAAAA…

Chapter 15 AND 16 are already written and available for patrons, and I'm going to post Thunderous Soul 5 very soon. Hope you're looking forward to it!

Next month's chapter will also be Supernova!

-]|[-

Technique List:

Enten no Asahi – Scorching Heaven's Rising Sun

Desert Spada Adamantina – Adamantine Desert Sword

… Bombardeo – Bombardment

Enten no Kizu – Scorching Heaven's Scar

Desert Gran Ola – Desert Grand Wave

Desert Sōsō – Desert Waterfall Funeral

Desert Taisō – Desert Imperial Waterfall Funeral

Ground MUERTE – Ground DEATH

Enten no Kōen – Scorching Heaven's Brilliant Flame

Enten no Kōen Taihō – Scorching Heaven's Brilliant Flame Cannon