Nico Robin's stoic smile doesn't change as she watches the shorter girl getting in a stance. "So, you're planning to fight? You do know who I am right?"
Rose keeps her fists tight as she keeps her stance in front of the last person she wants to fight, but doesn't see any way around it in to escape. "Of course I do. You're Ms. All Sunday, Crocodile's partner in crime."
Robin giggles at the title she's given. "His 'partner in crime' huh? That's a new one, but I suppose it's an appropriate title. Since you know who I am, do you really think you can get past me?"
As much as Rose doesn't want to be enemies with Robin, she couldn't stop the small smirk from growing on her face from the challenge as she flies towards her. "Only one way to find out!"
The archaeologist giggles at the charge as she crosses her arms over her chest with her palms facing up, but quickly loses her smile when the left hook punch coming towards her side turns into a gust of wind. Robin widens her eyes when the strong gust sends her flying to the right, while Rose is sent flying in the opposite direction from the strength of her blast.
Both girls slam their backs to the opposite walls, but Rose quickly recovers and takes the opening to fly out the room.
Robin recovers from the surprise attack and runs to the doorway to see her prey flying away. She starts running after her while she crosses her arms over her chest again to try to slow her down. "Tres fleur"
Rose widens her eyes when she sees three long arms growing from her body, with two arms from her back and the last one coming from her stomach. *Holy crap, this is awesome! Wait, I can't fan girl about this right now! Get them off!*
She flies to the left to slam her side to the wall to try getting an arm off of her. Once she hits the wall, the arm disappears, but it quickly regrows as she continues her escape.
Robin runs after her as she clenches her fists to put her in a hold, but it's her turn to be shocked when her hands only go through the brunette. Before she can try another attack, she suddenly feels a draft by her legs and looks down to see that a gust of wind has gathered by her feet. She couldn't react in time before the wind sends her body flying up and slams her to the ceiling.
As soon as the wind began to send her flying, Robin broke her concentration, and the arms that she grew on Rose's body vanished into pink flower petals. Rose doesn't give Robin another opportunity as she flies out of the hallway and back to the casino while the wind holding Robin up fades away.
Robin quickly lands on her hands and knees while she replaces her smile with a scowl. She quickly gets up and runs after Rose, but when she reaches the casino all she sees are gamblers playing the slots and table games as if nothing's wrong.
A large man dressed in a suit runs up to her with a concerned look on his face. "Manager, I saw a girl flying around here! She landed somewhere in the slot area, and hid herself within the crowd! I've sent some men to go look for-"
He pauses when he sees Robin not listening to him as she stares at the room with her eyes hidden behind her hat. "Are you alright manager?"
Now, while most people would be angry at their opponent's escape, Robin couldn't help but smirk at the new development as she lifts her head to show him her cold, blue, eyes. "I'm fine, things just got interesting. Do whatever you can to find her and let me know where she is imm-"
She stops herself from giving the order when something in her pocket begins to ring. She goes into her pocket to pull out a blue snail that can fit in the palm of her hand. "What's going on?"
The snail starts smirking at her before he responds. "Ms. All Sunday, it's one of the millions. I'm here to report that we found Ms. Wednesday and have her surrounded outside the Aqua Bar. She's putting up a fight, but we should be able to deliver her to you soon-"
He stops talking when the smile on his face changes into a dropped jaw. "Wait, is that a falcon?! WHAT THE HELL?! DOES THAT BIRD HAVE A SWORD?! AAAAH!"
The only thing Robin can make out was the sound of slashes from the snail before the connection gets cut off, and leaves her with a sleeping snail in her hand. She looks back at the nervous man next to her, and sighs when she comes to a decision on how to handle the current situation. "I want you to find the flying girl and bring her to Crocodile. At the very least, make sure that she doesn't leave this casino."
"Yes ma'am." The security guard respectfully bows to his superior then goes to work while Robin heads to the door to go after her next target.
Unbeknownst to her though, was that Rose was standing behind a nearby large, unused, slot machine and watching the conversation. When she sees that Robin left the building, she sighs with a large smile as she allows her legs to give way and sits on the floor. *Oh my god, I'm so lucky that I ate a logia fruit! I can't believe I managed to pull a fast one on Nico Robin! That was freaking awesome!*
She laughs in victory then covers her mouth with her hand and looks around to make sure that nobody heard her. Once she knows that she's still undetected, she takes her hand off her mouth, grabs the machine to help her stand up, and looks around to see some security guards scanning the area. She takes a seat at the machine to blend in with her environment, and examines it as if she's a gambler in order to think up her next move. *Ok, Crocodile's probably in the basement with Smoker and the crew. Vivi should've been rescued by Pell by now and Robin just left to meet with them… Looks like the most effective strategy would be to-*
She snaps back to reality when she feels a large hand land on her shoulder. She slowly turns her head to see the large man in a suit, who was talking to Robin, giving her a friendly smile with four men in similar suits surrounding the two of them. "Hello miss, please come with us. Our president wants to invite you to-!"
She cuts him off by grabbing his suit jacket and using her wind to throw him to her right in order to slam him into two of the other guys.
The nearby gamblers widen their eyes at the brawl as they watch the third man go to lunge at her, but she jumps out of her seat to dodge. She grabs his arm to pull her close and roundhouse kicks him in the gut as hard as she can to knock the air out of him. The fourth guy throws a left hook at her, but she uses the guy she's holding as a shield and lets him take the blow to his face before she uses her wind to send him flying to the attacker.
The man that she first threw recovers and grabs her arms from behind, but she lifts both him and herself up with her wind. She quickly flies backwards with him to slam him into a giant slot machine along with her, which causes half of the coins from the machine to fall out and land onto the floor. Rose cringes from the force as she frees her arms from the unconscious man's hold and pulls herself out of the hole to see that the other four security men have her surrounded.
"There's no way for you to run so just give up." One of the men says as they start approaching her.
She narrows her eyes at them as she gets ready to fly when the coins, that are by their feet, start bouncing from a light tremor. Rose looks over the guards' shoulders and widens her eyes at what she sees before she flies up towards the ceiling.
The guards widen her eyes at the flight when Rose gives them a cheeky smirk as she points to something behind them. The men nervously look back and flinch when they see a mob of gamblers running towards them for the free money.
"AAAH!" They yell in fright as they get bull rushed by the crowd that's gathering around the broken slot machine to grab every fallen beli available.
Rose's smirk doesn't fade as she flies away to the direction of the VIP room entrance. However, when she looks back, her smile quickly fades at the sight of ten new guards coming after her. "Oh come on!"
She goes into to the entrance to the VIP room, but when she goes to the end of the hall where the paths split she goes the opposite direction of where the pit trap is with the guards following her. She flies down a flight of stairs to the lower levels of the lair, then looks back to see that she's gaining some distance from them, but they're not giving in as they jump down the stairs to try to catch up. When she reaches an intersection that splits into three paths she stops, turns towards them, points her right arm at them, and turns it into a strong gust of wind to send the two front men flying backwards. The men crash into their comrades behind them and forces them collide into each other in a domino effect until they all collapse.
Once they recover, they sit up and look to see that the wind girl is already long gone.
The dark skinned, brown haired man, who is the largest man in the group, grits his teeth as he stands up and points to the three men in front of him. "You three, come with me to go on the path ahead." He points to another trio in the middle. "You three go take the left." He looks towards the remaining men. "As for you three, take the right. If any of us finds her then we'll alert the others on a baby den den mushi. Got it?"
The rest of the cronies nod in agreement as they follow his orders and take the different paths. As the group that took the path ahead runs through the halls, they open up every door they come across in hopes of finding her.
When they reach the third door, they open it as wide as possible to show a room full of multiple swords, daggers, and guns all over the walls, but no signs of the girl.
The large man clicks his tongue in frustration as he closes the door behind him to go back on his search. What he failed to notice though, was that his target was hiding behind the door that he opened the whole time.
Knowing that she's at least safe for a short period of time, Rose allows herself to let out a sigh of relief as she looks around the weaponry. *Whoa, this selection's awesome.*
She stares at the various kinds of equipment and decides that it's best to take a weapon in case her abilities aren't enough. She scans around the room for something that she can work with and mulls over her options. *Hmm, what's good for a beginner?*
She glances at the shelf full of guns and scowls at them as if they're going to attack her. "No way in hell…"
She turns away from the shelf and looks over a shelf that's holding sheathed swords. She grabs onto a thin, navy blue, katana sheath that's about the same the length as her long, scrawny, arm. She lifts the sheath up with just her left hand to test its weight. Once satisfied with its lightness she grabs the white hilt with her other hand to unsheathe it and takes a look at the thin, sharp, silver colored blade. She grins down at her reflection from the blade then slides it back into the sheath. "This one should do."
She grabs a black, leather, belt that's meant for holding weapons and wraps it around her small waist. Once she sets the sheath in the belt's scabbard that's on her left hip she heads to the door. She opens it just a crack to make sure that the coast is clear then leaves to go through the maze like corridors to reach the fight of her life.
Smoker and the pirates have tried what they could to get out of the large sea stone cage that they're trapped in since they fell from the pit trap. However, they could do nothing to escape the cage that's set up near the center of the enormous room that holds a staircase leading to the door, and a table with four chairs under it that's just out of the cage's reach.
Seated on one of the chairs is a muscular pirate wearing fancy clothes and a golden hook for a left hand. What's the most recognizable part of his features though, is the long, horizontal, scar that stretches across his face. Crocodile chuckles at his trapped enemies as he relaxes in his spot. "Shouldn't be long before my partner brings our last guest in, so just hang tight."
"LET ME OUT SO I CAN KICK YOUR ASS CROCODILE!" Luffy yells out from inside the cage as he grabs the bars and immediately feels exhausted.
Nami pulls her captain away from the cage then whacks him on the head. "Will you stop grabbing the bars already?!"
Luffy rubs his head from the hit when the large doors at the top of the staircase suddenly open.
"CROCODILE!" The mentioned pirate, along with his captives, look at the top of the staircase to see a furious Vivi standing there.
Robin casually stands at the doorway to make sure that Vivi doesn't run while the princess glares at the warlord.
Crocodile however, isn't fazed from the hateful stare as he grins up at her. "Well hello Princess Vivi of Alabasta. Or should I say Ms. Wednesday? You've come pretty far to get here."
Vivi keeps her glare on him as she reaches the inside of her coat for her peacock strings. "I'd come from anywhere to watch you die Mr. 0!"
The warlord of the sea chuckles at the statement as his grin turns into a smirk. "The only thing that's going to die is your worthless country."
The insult managed to make her snap as she jumped off the staircase with her deadly strings twirling from both of her pinkies.
Luffy, Usopp and Nami look at her in shock while Zoro and Smoker just stare at the charge nonchalantly. Crocodile pays no mind to the approaching princess as he grabs a cigar and lighter from his pocket. Before he can light it up, Vivi quickly slashes through his head, which turns into sand, and also breaks through the upper half of the back of his chair, before she lands on the table.
"WHOA!" Luffy yells in shock as Luffy, Usopp, and Nami look at the pirate in pure shock as Zoro stays silent.
"Nope." Smoker says as he lights his cigar and watches Crocodile's body shifting into sand.
Vivi widens her eyes at how her opponent's body is moving around as if it's a sandstorm.
"Are you satisfied now Ms. Wednesday? I'm surprised you didn't hear about my sand sand fruit from living here." Vivi widens her eyes at Crocodile's voice when he suddenly re-materializes behind her.
Before she can react, Crocodile quickly presses his hand over her mouth and wraps his hook over her hand so that she doesn't attack him.
Usopp and Nami widen their eyes at the sudden attack as they jump back. "He's a sand man?!"
Luffy narrows his eyes at Crocodile as he grips the bars. "LET HER GO BEFORE I-"
He slumps from exhaustion from touching the sea stone so Zoro drags him away from the bars.
Crocodile ignores the noise that his prisoners are making as he drops Vivi onto a chair and gets off of the table. "Just sit down and quit glaring, it won't do you any good."
He looks around then quirks an eyebrow when he looks to the doorway to see Robin starting to leave the room. "Where are you going Ms. All Sunday?"
Robin stops moving then turns back to her superior with a calm smile. "I need to go round up the last person from Mr. 2's list. She didn't fall for the pit trap with the others, but she should still be somewhere in the building."
Luffy tilts his head at the answer. "Hey, do you mean Ro-"
Nami cuts him off by covering his mouth with her hand and whispering to him from behind. "Don't say Rose's name in front of Smoker, you idiot! He'll go after her too if he knows she hangs out with us!"
Luffy widens his eyes at what Nami told him then takes her hand off his mouth to glare at the marine, that's been relaxing near the back corner of the cell this whole time. "Don't go after R- Ah!"
Before Luffy can say Rose's name Nami whacks him on the head. "Shut up!"
Smoker raises an eyebrow at the pirates' odd exchange, but lets it go when he sees Crocodile looking at the cage. The warlord sees that Robin's right then looks back at her while he waves his hand dismissively. "It's just one girl right? The millions and the casino guards will be enough for her. It's not like she can stop our operation anyway."
Robin keeps a grin on her face, as she shows no intention of telling him about her devil fruit, and goes down the stairs to join him. "That's true; everything should be set in motion by now."
Vivi widens her eyes at Robin's remark then glares at Crocodile. "What have you done?!"
Crocodile can only smirk as he thinks back on his plans. "As you already know we've been stirring the rebellion by drying them up with the dance powder and my sandstorms. And by now, my men should have pushed the rebel leader Kohza to finally destroy this country. He'll be riding off to Alubarna with his men to end this civil war once and for all."
Vivi widens her eyes at this before she starts standing up to attack him, but before she can get out of the seat two pairs of arms grow from the back of her chair to hold her shoulders down and her arms to her sides. "Haven't you done enough to this country?! What do have to gain from all this destruction?!"
Crocodile snickers at her distress as he watches her continue to try to get out of the chair until it falls to the side along with her. "What do you think you're doing Ms. Wednesday? Just accept that you failed."
She doesn't listen to his words as she keeps struggling to get out of the arms' embrace. "I won't give up! We can still stop you by reaching Alubarna before the rebels do!"
The warlord lightly scoffs at the remark before he reaches his pocket. "If you want to go to Alubarna then go right ahead. However…"
He takes a golden key out of his pocket to show it to everyone. "Without this, you'll have to do it alone."
Luffy widens his eyes at the key. "Is that for the cage?! Give it here!"
Crocodile ignores the demand as he steps on a floor switch to open a pit trap right in front of him. "If you go to Alubarna to stop the killing now you will have a slim chance of stopping them, but your friends will surely die here. Of course, it's up to you whether or not you want to save these fools. Just get the key from the pit."
Vivi looks at the warlord in shock as he drops the key into the hole, without a care in the world, so struggles frantically to get out of the chair until she suddenly feels the arms that are holding her disappear. She rushes to the hole to look down and see that it landed in a pit that holds four doors to the lake that can be seen from the walls of the room. "Is that the bananadile lair?!"
Luffy tilts his head at the animal name. "Bananadiles?" He looks out this room's window from the cage then widens his eyes to see that the room's underwater and a giant crocodile with what appears to be a banana growing out of his head is swimming out there. "Whoa?! There's a crocodile growing out of that banana!"
Usopp looks out the window with wide eyes. "No it's not! It's a banana growing out of the crocodile!"
Vivi ignores their shock as she stands up to get ready to jump into the pit. But, she stops herself when she sees a bananadile crawl into the room and immediately eat the key. She becomes completely stunned at the development as she watches the bananadile swim off with the key in his stomach.
Luffy looks at her in confusion when he sees that she's not moving to get the key. "What's the matter?"
Vivi turns her head towards them while the rest of her body doesn't move an inch. "A bananadile just swallowed the key!"
The group looks at her in utter shock, but Luffy is the most shocked of them all as he speaks up. "What?! Make him spit it out!"
"I can't do that! Bananadiles are so vicious that they even eat sea kings!"
As the ones trapped in the cage grimace at the new fact, Crocodile can only smirk as he flips a switch on the wall that opens another door on the floor. Once satisfied with his work, he turns around to leave from the door that's on the opposite side of the door Vivi came in from. "Sorry that I can't stay to see how this goes, but we must be going. Good luck finding the key among those bananadiles."
He stops just when he reaches the door with Robin and turns to the group. "Oh, and one more thing. This room will be destroyed in an hour."
At this point, every person in the room besides Robin was ready to kill him. However, the group quickly stops glaring at him when a giant bananadile comes into the room.
Nami and Usopp scream in fright at the large gator while Luffy narrows his eyes at the gator and calls out to the princess. "Vivi, beat it up so it spits out the key!"
Nami turns to him in disbelief. "Are you crazy?! She can't do that!" She turns to the princess who's about to get her peacock strings. "Don't be crazy Vivi! Just run!"
The princess ignores her advice as she sees no other way around saving her friends but to fight. She twirls her deadly strings on her pinkies, and lashes one of the strings at the alligator's head just between the eyes, but he barely feels the attack as he opens his jaw. He tries to take a bite out of her, but she manages to jump out of the way just in time.
Crocodile keeps a smirk on his face as he feels satisfied that the bananadile will take care of his pests, so he opens the door to leave with his subordinate. What he and Robin didn't expect from opening the door though, was a scrawny, freckled, girl flying towards them from the end of the hall with five of his goons running after her.
Rose fails to notice the open doors ahead as she glares back at the guards. "Will you quit chasing me already?!" She creates a gust of wind from her fist that sends them flying backwards. She smirks in victory as she looks where she's going then widens her eyes when she's just a few feet from Crocodile's face. "Crap!"
She tries to stop her flying, but it's too late as she flies straight through the sand man and into the room.
Even though everyone was surprised by the sudden entrance, Smoker is the most surprised out of them all as he watches her land in the opposite side of the room. *That wind really was her?!*
Rose spits out the sand she got in her mouth from flying through Crocodile, and wipes the sand off her body as she looks around the room. She stops when sees Vivi standing by the cage where the others are and grins at them. "There you are, I've been looking all over for-!" She shuts herself up to the sound of heavy stomping and turns to the right to see the bananadile running to take a bite out of her.
"Holy shit!" Rose narrowly dodges the enormous jaws as she unsheathes her sword and charges at him to slash his cheek.
Usopp and Nami widen their eyes at the strike. "She slashed the alligator!"
Zoro shakes his head at the poorly made strike on the bananadile's left cheek. "She won't get anywhere with weak strikes like that."
Luffy ignores Zoro's comment as he yells out to Rose. "Slash him harder and make him spit out the key Rose!"
Smoker widens his eyes at the pirates' comments and realizes that Rose truly did play him like a fiddle this whole time. He bares his teeth out as he watches the girl slash the reptile in the one of its front legs then flies up to dodge its jaws. *That little brat! If the bananadile doesn't kill her then I will!*
Nami flinches the marine's glare, even though it's not directed at her, and sighs in defeat. *Looks like there's no point in trying to cover for her now.*
She shakes her head as she goes back to watching the fight to see the bananadile becoming furious with the wind girl.
The giant reptile growls at the shallow cut in his leg as he goes on his hind legs to reach her. She widens her eyes at the increased reach as she flies backwards to dodge the jaws that manage to take a bite out of the giant chandelier when he almost hits the ceiling. She sees the opening on the bananadile's stomach and charges as fast as she can to slam into his stomach in an attempt for him to throw up, but the bananadile doesn't even flinch as he leans forward to get back on all fours. Before Rose can get body slammed, she quickly flies out of the way as the bananadile's front legs return to the floor and his eyes remain focused on the freckled girl who's ready to fight.
Vivi rushes to her aid by getting her peacock strings out and slashing the other side of his face. The bananadile retaliates by going to strike her with his tail, but Rose quickly uses her wind to lift her out of the way.
Rose gently lands the both of them at a safe distance behind the gator while the reptile starts turning around for another attack.
Rose keeps both her hands clenched onto her sword as she narrows her eyes on the bananadile. "Vivi, just to make sure we're on the same page, did that bananadile eat the key to their cage?"
Vivi keeps her strings clenched as she keeps her glare on the bananadile. "That's right, but don't know if this one ate it or-"
She cuts herself off when they hear the sound of loud roaring from behind them and they quickly look behind them to see that another bananadile came into the room with a hungry look in his eyes.
Rose grits her teeth at the new reptile when she looks out the window to see at least four more bananadiles are lining up to get in the room. She grips her sword as tight as she can then looks down to see that water from the door is now reaching their feet as it starts filling the room. *Crap, I don't have much time.*
Vivi turns back to the first bananadile and gets her strings ready. "Rose, you take the new one and I'll fight this one."
Rose nods as she jumps into the air and creates a gust of wind to keep her floating above the water. "Fine by me, try to aim for the stomach as hard as you can. They're bound to cough up something."
Vivi nods as she charges towards her opponent while Rose goes after her gator.
Crocodile keeps an amused smirk on his face as he watches the girls feebly fighting against the powerful monsters. "Looks like the last girl came on her own. Let's get going."
Robin nods as she watches Rose trying to go for his side, but she had to fly back to avoid its massive jaw from taking a bite out of her. She grins in amusement as she turns around to join her boss. "Fine with me-"
She stops herself when the snail in her pocket starts ringing. The bananadiles, girls and the captives look over at the vice president as she brings out the snail that's in her pocket and answers it. "What is it?"
The snail looks at her in confusion as a swirly mustache forms on his face. "Hello? Am I doing this right? Can you hear me?"
Crocodile raises an eyebrow at the questions. "Of course we can hear you. What do you want?"
The snail widens his eyes at the voice. "Oh I remember that voice! This is the shitty restaurant."
Crocodile raises an eyebrow at the name when he remembers hearing that in Little Garden. "The shitty restaurant?"
The snail brightens up at the name. "Great, you remembered me!"
Luffy widens his eyes at the snail's voice. "That's San-!"
Usopp covers his mouth to stop him from blowing Sanji's cover. "Don't say it! He doesn't know about him!"
Rose grins in relief at Sanji's voice. *Alright, looks like things are pulling through now.*
Crocodile ignores everyone's surprise as he glares at the snail as if he's the pirate himself. "Who the hell are you?"
The snail snickers at the question before smirking. "You can call me Mr. Prince."
While the rest of the group is distracted by the conversation, Rose flies behind Vivi and whispers to her. "I can't send you flying with your ankles in the water, so on the count of three I need you to jump. When you do I'll lift you up to the top of the stairs, so that you can go bring Sanji here, alright?"
Vivi nods at the plan as slowly starts bending her knees while hearing Rose quietly count. "One, two, three!"
Vivi jumps up a few feet in the air to get out of the water. When she starts falling she gets caught in a gust of wind that Rose creates for her. Rose quietly lifts her to the top of the stairs of where the door she came in from, that's on the opposite side of the room where the door to the tunnel Crocodile is occupying is, and sets her down to watch her run off.
Rose smiles in relief when she watches her escape unharmed and doesn't realize a bananadile was turning his attention back to her. She loses her smile to the sound of snarling and turns to see the bananadile take a bite at her. However, he only tasted the table that was behind her because his mouth completely phased through her air like body. Rose flies to the side to keep him from getting another chance to bite her and returns to her fight with the gators.
Once the snail shuts off, Robin turns to the noise and sees that Vivi's missing. "Looks like we have more problems than Mr. Prince."
The others turn to where Robin's looking to see that Rose is the only one fighting the bananadiles.
"What the-?! Did Vivi get eaten?!" Usopp asks, but no one can give him an answer.
Crocodile's anger continues to grow as he glares at the wind girl. "WHERE'S THE PRINCESS?!"
Rose snickers at his fury as she flies closer to the ceiling to avoid the bananadiles' jaws. "You're kind of behind on the times old man. I helped her escape a long time ago."
Crocodile furiously turns his arm into sand and reaches towards Rose, but she blows a gust of wind out of her body to push the sand away as she descends. She stands on top of a bananadile's head while two other bananadiles start surrounding them. She makes sure that she's ready to fly while she gives the warlord a smirk and the middle finger. "You're gonna have to come into the water pit if you want your sand to hit me Scarface!"
Usopp and Nami look at the girl in complete horror as they watch her flying to dodge the bananadiles, who are now tackling the one she was standing on. *Is she trying to get herself killed?!*
The warlord clenches his teeth at the nickname as he watches her get surrounded by four bananadiles, but he doesn't fall for the taunt as he turns around. "Ms. All Sunday, let's go. We got a pirate and a princess to find."
Robin keeps her gaze on the wind girl dodging the bananadile's in the flooding room for another second, then does as she's told. "Are you sure Mr. 0?"
Crocodile grabs a cigar from his pocket and lights it up to calm his nerves as he leads them towards the casino. "I'm positive, if her devil fruit matched her cockiness then she wouldn't be using a sword. The water will take care of her if the bananadiles don't first. Finding Ms. Wednesday along with Mr. Prince are more important right now."
Robin nods at the decision as they head off into the casino to search for Vivi and Mr. Prince.
Meanwhile, Rose is trying her best to avoid getting into the knee deep water while also avoiding being eaten by the bananadiles in the room.
She manages to dodge the bananadiles by flying up to the ceiling then grins at the group. "Just hang on a little while guys and I'll-"
She cuts herself off when she sees the marine's dark eyes fiercely glaring at her with the intent to kill. She silently gulps to herself when she realizes that she ruined her hostage act and nervously chuckles as she dodges a bananadile. "Hehe, h-hey Smoker, I didn't see you there. Now I know this looks bad, but I'll make it up to you by getting you out."
"SHUT UP YOU DAMN BRAT!"
Rose flinches at the marine's harsh words, and decides not to push her luck as she gets back to focusing on trying to get the bananadiles to show their stomachs.
Nami glares at the bananadiles and calls out to them. "COME GET US IF YOU CAN YOU STUPID CROCS!"
The guys widen their eyes at the declaration as Nami keeps yelling to them. "TRY EATING US YOU PRICKS!"
"What are you doing?!" Usopp asks as Namo turns to them.
"I'm trying to get them to break the cage."
Usopp blinks at the plan. "Good idea!"
Luffy joins in the plan as he yells out to the bananadiles. "COME HERE SO I CAN KICK YOUR ASS YOU STUPID BANANA!"
One of the bananadiles take the bait as he angrily growls at the cage. He wastes no time rushing to the cage as he takes a bite of the top of the prison.
Smoker and the crew brace themselves for the jaws to break the cage, but it never happened because instead of breaking the cell the bananadile only succeeded in breaking its teeth.
"Oh come on!" Usopp complains as the others except, for Smoker, groan in frustration. The group looks over at Rose to see that she's getting surrounding by four bananadiles.
Rose avoids a bananadile that charges her, but instead he hits a window and lets more water in. She widens her eyes at the broken window then angrily stabs the bananadile in the back with the sword to piss him off. She pulls the sword out and flies up while the bananadile agonizes from the hit. He stands on its hind legs to bite her, but she flies to the side and allows herself to hold the sword with one hand, so that she turns her free hand into wind. She uses her wind arm to blast as much wind pressure on its exposed stomach as hard as she can which sends her flying backwards, but she manages to catch herself in time to dodge another bananadile's bite. The bananadile that she managed to hit lands on his back and dry hacks from the blow, but nothing comes out.
Luffy widens his eyes at the result and calls out to Rose. "Try another banana Rose!"
Smoker scowls at the freckled girl, who's trying to get another bananadile to stand up, then looks at the next bananadile that just came into the room. He intently listens to the new reptile's growl before he calls out to the girl. "The one who ate the key is on your left!"
Zoro keeps a calm expression on his face as he stares at the marine. "How do you know?"
"My ears aren't made for decoration. He has the same growl as the one that ate the key."
Rose grins at the answer as she focuses on her new target. "Thanks Smoker!"
The marine ignores her gratitude as he and the others watch her slash the bananadile in the nose. She quickly flies up to avoid the jaws that came at her for revenge. She taunts him by sticking her tongue out and motioning her arm for him to come get her, which pisses him off even further. He quickly stands on his hind legs to reach for her along with the other bananadiles but she dives just in time to dodge the jaws of death. She quickly turns her arm into wind and blasts the bananadile that Smoker pointed out in the stomach strong enough for a dent to be made from the pressure and send him falling backwards. The force of the blast sends Rose flying backwards straight into a bananadile's jaw, but he only bites the air as she phases through his teeth.
Rose quickly flies to the side to avoid another bite and looks down to see that the bananadile that she hit was coughing from the blast. He turns his body, so that he's on his legs, and doesn't stop coughing until he finally manages to throw up the key along with a large ball of wax into the water.
Everyone tilts their head at the weird wax ball in the water that's halfway submerged in the water.
"What's with the wax?" Luffy asks, but no one can give him an answer as they stare at it.
Rose ignores the confusion as she flies over the wax ball. She turns the sword in her hands over, so that she can hit with the blunt side of the weapon, and whacks the ball to create a crack in it.
The others widen their eyes when the ball breaks open to reveal a shriveled up man with his black hair shaped like the number three and wearing a pinstripe vest along with white pants.
The pruney man raises his arms in victory for surviving from being in a bananadile's stomach. "I'm alive!" He looks around his surrounding to see the water that's hitting his lower thighs and starts drinking as if he hadn't drank anything in days.
The pirates look at him in utter shock as they realize that it's the Baroque Works agent that they fought with in Little Garden. "Mr. 3?!"
Smoker raises an eyebrow at the Baroque Works agent, that's re-hydrating by the second, but pays no mind to him as he watches Rose nonchalantly inspecting the halves of the wax ball. *What's she doing?*
Rose continues to pay everyone else no mind as she inspects the wax until she finds the key attached to it. "Here it is!"
She grabs the key from the wax, puts it in her pocket, then turns to Mr. 3 who just finished drinking and regained his original scrawny physique. "As for you, I need you to come with-"
She stops herself when the bananadile she attacked with her wind charges after her, but he only goes through her and collides with the wall that's behind her. Rose widens her eyes at the crash when cracks begin to form on the wall with water starting to pour inside from it, with the pressure increasing by the second. Before she can get out of the way, the water pressure breaks through the wall and crashes onto Rose.
The rest of the group widens their eyes in shock as the waterfall pushes Rose into the water. "ROSE!"
Mr. 3 can only stare at the development for a moment before he starts laughing hysterically. "Hahahaha, serves you right for Little Garden!"
Rose's head shoots out of the water as she sits up next to the new waterfall while she coughs up water and her sword still in her hand. She sees Mr. 3 laughing at her so she walks up to him, grabs his shoulder with her free hand, and hits him in the gut with the hilt of her katana. He clenches his stomach and slumps over to catch his breath, which gives Rose the perfect opportunity to grab him by the back of his shirt with her free hand and drag him towards the cage.
Mr. 3 looks at her in utter shock as he tries to free himself, but he can't escape her grip. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Bringing a backup plan with me in case the key doesn't-!" Rose cuts herself off when she stops just in front of the cage to find Mr. 3 and herself surrounded by five bananadiles. "Oh shit!"
Mr. 3 looks at the gators in horror as Rose lets go of his shirt. She tries to shoot wind out her hands in order to fly, but nothing comes out because she's in the water. She growls in frustration, and gets her sword ready to defend herself, while the bananadiles smirk at their prey as they get ready to pounce.
"Joue shoot!" The bananadiles stop and look around in confusion for the odd voice when a sudden flash of black kicks one of the bananadiles in the cheek so hard that it instantly knocks him out.
Everyone drops their jaws when they see Sanji land in the circle with a pair of eyeglasses decorating his face. He takes a drag from his cigarette as he stands himself upright. "Have you guys been waiting long?"
Usopp and Luffy grin in excitement at the new arrival. "Sanji!"
Nami sighs in relief and looks to see Vivi's at the stairs and running towards them. "Great work Vivi!"
Vivi smiles at them as she reaches the water. "Thank you."
Sanji's eyes turn into hearts as he turns to the cage. "Nami-swaan! I'm so glad you're ok!"
Zoro groans at the love cook's lack of focus. "Hurry up and get us out of here already!"
Sanji scowls at the swordsman, but when he opens his mouth to make a comeback the sound of growls from the remaining bananadiles.
Sanji's scowl turns towards the bananadiles as he lifts his leg up to ready it for the fight. "Bring on as many as you want, you damn gators. I'll teach you to try to harm a lady!"
He charges the reptiles and starts kicking the crap out of every bananadile in sight.
Rose grins in relief that she doesn't need to worry about the bananadiles anymore as she sheathes her sword and grabs the key from her pocket. She goes to the cage to unlock it, but when she inserts the key into the slot, it doesn't fit. She tries fitting the key into the slot from various angles, but nothing works. "Shit, this key's not for the cage."
Everyone in the cage looks at the key in utter shock. "THE KEY'S A FAKE?!"
Vivi looks at the key in complete dread. "You can't be serious…"
Rose sighs then gives the pirates a carefree smile as she grabs Mr. 3 by the collar of his shirt. "Relax guys, we got a backup plan right here."
Mr. 3 looks at her in shock then scowls at her as he pulls away from her. "What makes you think I'll help you?!"
Rose casually smiles at the wax man as she grabs his shoulder with one hand then points to the bananadiles that Sanji's currently beating up. "I don't think you have a lot of options, unless you want to try getting through Sanji and the gators to leave."
Mr. 3 flinches at the option before he starts turning his hand into wax.
Rose grins at the answer as she leads him to the door. "Thanks, by the way, what happened to the painter kid that was with you?"
Mr. 3 scoffs at the casual chatter as he molds his wax hand to forge a key that will fit the lock. "The hell if I know where that traitor went! She, Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine all ran off to leave me to deal with this!"
Rose keeps a smile on her face,at the knowledge that Ms. Goldenweek's fate wasn't altered from her sudden arrival into this world, when Mr. 3 uses the key he made to unlock the cage. The door quickly opens with the crew quickly running out of the cage.
"Finally, thanks Rose!" Luffy says as he gets out of the cell then glares at the remaining predators. "Come here you stupid bananas!" Luffy runs off out and joins Sanji in beating up the bananadiles along with Zoro.
Rose widens her eyes at how in a matter of seconds the reptiles that have been giving her a hard time were taken down. *I know I wasn't aiming to kill when fighting them, but shit they made it look so easy. I need to train more...*
She snaps out of her thoughts when she feels a large hand on her shoulder and slowly turns to see Smoker glaring at her. "You got anything to say pirate?"
The freckled girl quietly gulps at her situation, when she hears the sound of cracks being made in the wall, then looks up to see the wall about to give in. "First, I'm not a pirate. Second, we should be focusing on getting out of here."
She points to the cracks, with the marine and the rest of the group dropping their jaws at the cracks. They rush to make a run for it to the tunnels, but it's too late as the wall gives in and water begins to rush into the room.
Luffy and Usopp yell in shock while the others brace themselves for the blow as they get swept away by the current. Luffy coughs up water as he gets swept away before he yells to Zoro. "ZORO, MAKE SURE THAT YOU SAVE SMOKER!"
Zoro widens his eyes at the order. "WHAT?! HE'S OUR ENEMY!"
"IF WE LEAVE HIM HE'LL DIE SO HELP HIM! CAPTAIN'S ORD-" Luffy gets cut off when the current gets stronger and sends his entire body under water along with everyone else's.
Zoro reluctantly follows his captain's orders as he swims after the sunken marine. Sanji wastes no time in going after his captain, who was the closest devil fruit user to him. Meanwhile, Nami and Vivi quickly swim after Rose and grab her arms from both sides. The group wastes no time in swimming with their devil fruit user friends as they get out of the room and go towards the surface to avoid the risk of dealing with Crocodile.
Mr. 3 was completely forgotten in the rescue, but the current manages to take him to the doorways and throws him out of the room to the edge of the water. The wax man coughs up the water he swallowed from the tide as he clenches his fists. "Those damn pirates! If I ever get my hands on them I'll-"
"I've had enough of this bullshit! I'll kill them all myself!" Mr. 3 widens his eyes at Crocodile's voice and looks to see the pissed off warlord is turning a corner with Ms. All Sunday.
Mr. 3 flinches at the pissed off look on his former boss' face before he falls face first on the floor and stays completely motionless. *Crap, with him being so pissed there's no way I'll survive a fight with him! I just gotta bide my time until I can get out of here!*
Mr. Crocodile is so furious from not finding Mr. Prince and Vivi that he barely notices his subordinate playing dead. He reaches the edge of the water filled room to find that it's completely empty with the cage door wide open.
Robin takes a look at the room then down at the man lying on the floor next to her with his face hidden. "Looks like they used Mr. 3 to forge a key for them."
Crocodile ignores her words as a vein pops on his forehead and he turns around to leave. "They couldn't have gotten far! Let's cut them off on the way to Alubarna!"
Robin only nods as she follows her leader out of the building and completely ignores the wax man lying on the ground. Once they're out of Mr. 3's sight, he sits up and sighs in relief. "That was close. Those pirates are pretty done for when Crocodile sees them."
He looks back at the water and smirks. "Serves those bastards right for using me like that! I only wish I could watch him shrivel them up! I better get out of here while I still can."
He gets up and swiftly runs away to make his escape from the casino with no intent on pushing his luck against Crocodile any further.
The surface of the lake, that's half a mile from the casino, begins to shift as Luffy's crew begins to pull the devil fruit users out of the water. Sanji quickly manages to drag his captain onto the shore as he takes in some much needed air. "You ok Luffy?"
Luffy's only answer was him puking out as much water as possible.
Sanji sweat drops at the answer before he sighs. "You're fine."
Nami and Vivi slowly walk out of the water while they catch their breaths, and hold onto Rose's arms that are wrapped around both of their shoulders to keep her from collapsing.
Rose coughs up as much water as she can and takes a deep breath to get the air back into her lungs. *Wow, I really can't swim anymore. I could barely move a muscle when that wave hit.*
Once the girls make it out of the water, and onto the shore, Vivi and Nami gently set Rose down on the ground so that she's sitting up.
Vivi looks down at Rose to see that the freckled girl's still catching her breath. "Are you ok?"
Rose gives her a reassuring smile as she stays seated. "Yea, thanks for pulling me out."
Nami grins at the gratitude, then freezes when she realizes that Rose didn't fall into the pit trap with them, so she scowls at her. "Wait a minute, why didn't you run into the pit trap with us? You could've prevented us from getting stuck in that cage in the first place."
Rose feels unfazed by the scowl as she blows a light breeze out of her body to dry herself off, then points to Zoro who's dragging Smoker out of the water with Usopp following close behind. "You can thank the marine for that one. He pulled me away while you guys made a run for it. By the time I caught up to the chase, the doors to the pit trap were slammed shut and they wouldn't budge."
Smoker barely hears the complaint as the sound of his own hacking from all the water he took in drowns it out. The marine continues to cough up as much water as possible while Zoro drops him unceremoniously on the ground as he recovers.
Usopp doesn't take too much time to catch his breath from the swim as he and the others start to stand up.
Rose takes a look in her backpack and sighs in relief when she sees that the sheet took most of the water damage, and that her journal and camera don't have a lot of damage. She creates a light breeze from her hands to dry the bag, takes out her camera, then widens her eyes when she see Smoker going to strike Zoro with his jitte.
Zoro quickly unsheathes his sword and block the blow while the others look at them in shock.
Smoker narrows his eyes at the swordsman as he keeps his weapon in place. "Why the hell did you save me Roronoa?"
Zoro pushes the jitte back as he keeps a scowl on his face. "I was just following my captain's orders. He's always weird like this."
Smoker stares him down for a moment before he grips his weapon tighter. "In that case, none of you should complain when I handle my duties as a marine then right?"
Sanji sighs in disappointment as he steps up to get ready to fight. "This is why we shouldn't have saved him."
"You wanna fight Smokey?!" Luffy asks as he gets in a stance and gives Smoker one of the most serious glares he's ever made.
Smoker stares down at the serious look on Luffy's face as he remembers that this pirate made sure that he would be saved along with his friends. He sighs in exasperation as he lowers his weapon. "Go."
The group, except for Rose, was taken aback by the response while Smoker continues speaking. "I'm only going to let you go this time. The next time I see you, you're all dead."
The group begins to lower their guard when they start hearing shouts from various marines in the distance. "THERE'S STRAW HAT LUFFY AND HIS CREW!"
The groups jolts at the yelling as most of them start running in the opposite direction from the shouts.
Sanji looks over to Vivi as he keeps running. "Which way is Alubarna Vivi?!"
Vivi points to the direction ahead as she runs with the group. "This way! We need to head east."
Zoro looks at the group to see that Luffy and Rose didn't run yet. "What are you two doing?! Hurry up!"
Luffy snaps out of it as he smiles at Smoker. "Thanks Smokey, you're not so bad after all. Shishishi!"
A tick mark begins to grow on Smoker's head as he swings his jitte at Luffy so that he runs away. "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"
Smoker freezes at the sound of a camera going off then looks to see that Rose took a picture of him with a smile on her face as she starts floating in the air. "It really was nice to meet you. Sorry about the deceit before, and thanks for the picture."
The marine growls at her childish antics as he swings his jitte at her. "Shut the hell up you damn pirate!"
Rose quickly dodges and starts flying off as she defends her situation. "When I said I wasn't a pirate I meant it. I'm just a ride along."
Smoker stops his swinging as he tries to process what she just said as he watches her join the others. *A ride along? What makes her think I'd believe her after that hostage act? If I ever see her again she's dead just like the rest of them.*
He looks to see that his marine subordinates are getting close to him so he focuses his attention on them as the pirates make their escape.
Rose chuckles at the missed swings as she joins the others and lands on her feet to run with them. *Too bad I won't be seeing Smoker again after this arc. I would've loved to have gotten into a real fight with him. Oh well, going through a high speed chase with him was pretty fun.*
She casually shrugs with a smile as she goes into her backpack to place the camera inside while everyone reaches the edge of town.
Usopp starts panting as he tries his best to keep up with the rest of the group. "Wait, are we going to run all the way to Alubarna?!"
Nami widens her eyes at the question as she looks around. "Wait, where's Eyelashes?!"
Luffy looks back to Rose as they keep running. "Can you use the flying carpet trick again?"
Rose shakes her head as she keeps her backpack strapped. "Sorry, but the sheet doesn't have enough room for Nami and Vivi too." She pauses when she sees that there's someone missing. "Wait, where's doc?"
"I'm over here! Hey!" The others widen their eyes at Chopper's voice. They look around to find the source and pause when they see the small reindeer waving at them from the top of a crab that's as tall as a building and grinning as wide as a Cheshire cat.
"A crab?!" Usopp asks as he looks at the crustacean in utter shock.
Luffy's mouth begins to water at the sight of the large crab. "Damn, that looks tasty."
Chopper ignores the stares as he waves for them to come up. "Come on guys, let's go!"
Rose uses her wind to lift the others up into the air as she flies with them up to the top of the crab.
Nami looks at the crab's face and flinches at the creepy smile before she reaches the top. "Are you sure about this Chopper?"
The reindeer nods as he keeps the reins in his hooves turns to Eyelashes who's sitting next to him. "Yea, he's Eyelashes' friend. He was born in this town, so he has a lot of friends here and he asked this one for a favor."
Vivi blinks at the explanation as she looks down at the crab. "That's incredible, these crabs normally live underground so there are people that don't believe they exist."
Rose grins in excitement as she sets everyone on the crab's back then pats the crustacean's head. "That's awesome, let's see how fast he can go."
Chopper nods as he snaps on the reins. "Alright, let's go to Alubarna!"
The crab didn't need to be told twice as he starts moving sideways to the direction of Alubarna. The crew grins at the fast ride as they start relaxing on top of the crab.
Vivi keeps her seat at the edge of the crab as she stares at the direction to Alubarna. What she failed to notice through, was a rope of sand flying towards her from behind with a golden hook at the end of the line. It's too late for her to notice when the hook wraps around her waist and pulls her off the ride. "Aah!"
The group looks back with wide eyes to see the sand taking Vivi off the ride. "VIVI!"
"Chopper, stop the crab!" Zoro says as Chopper starts getting the reins ready.
Luffy gets up and jumps off the crab to grab onto the hook. He grabs Vivi, throws her off the hook and to the direction of the crab.
Rose quickly catches Vivi with a gust of wind and lands her on the ride while the others looks at Luffy in shock. "LUFFY!"
Luffy makes no effort to free himself from the hook as he's pulled towards Crocodile and Robin, who are standing on the ground, and he yells out of the others. "YOU GUYS GO AHEAD! I'LL TAKE CARE OF HIM MYSELF!"
Usopp widens his eyes at this. "Are you crazy?! There's two of them!"
Luffy doesn't heed his warning as he grins to his crew. "JUST GO! GET VIVI TO ALUBARNA! I CAN TAKE CARE OF THESE GUYS!"
"Idiot." Zoro says as he turns back to the reindeer. "Chopper, head straight to Alubarna!"
Chopper nervously nods as he snaps the reins. "G-got it!"
"DON'T DO THIS LUFFY!" Vivi yells as she tries to get off but Rose and Nami grab her arms to hold her back.
"It's ok Vivi, he'll make it through this!" Rose says before she looks down at Luffy who's standing on the ground in front of Robin and Crocodile while he cracks his knuckles. She narrows her eyes at the sand man as she resists her urge to go down to help Luffy out. *I already risked a lot by trying to prevent the pit trap. He needs to do this on his own to learn about Crocodile's weakness.*
Rose keeps a small scowl on her face as she sees that they're at a safe enough distance to let Vivi go.
Nami lets go of the princess as well and pats her on the shoulder. "If anything Vivi, I feel sorry for Crocodile and that woman. There's not a single person who's tried to fight Luffy and walk away safely. He'll do his part, so we need to go and do ours."
Vivi keeps her gaze at the direction they left behind with a small frown as she processes Nami's words. She bites her lip then takes a deep breath before she shouts back to Luffy. "LUFFY! WE'LL BE WAITING FOR YOU IN ALUBARNA!"
Luffy looks back at the crab that's getting smaller in view with a large smile while raising his fist up. "OKAY!"
The rest of the crew don't give another glance to their captain as the crab moves as fast as possible to reach the capital in time to stop the rebellion.
TO BE CONTINUED