Chief Warden Magellan of the world's most inescapable prison, Impel Down, finished his two hour long session on the toilet after his breakfast. The meal consisted of sunny side up fried eggs (covered in poison powder), sausages with gravy (laced with poison), and toast with butter and jam (except the jam wasn't even jam, it was just poison).
"How are things going?" Magellan asked his Vice Warden Hannyabal.
"Fine." Hannyabal spoke, though he didn't actually know. He hoped something would go wrong whilst Magellan was in the bathroom, maybe he'd have a shot at a promotion then.
"Hm, good, as expected. We can't have anything go wrong right now, not before Fire Fist Ace is taken to be executed." Magellan said.
In that moment something crashed into one of the guard towers on the surface. They were quite deep within the submerged prison complex, so they didn't find out about it until a report was made by the guards outside.
"Warden! Something hit one of the guard towers outside!" Came a report from a den den mushi wearing a gas mask.
"What happened?" Magellan asked.
"We sent men to investigate. There was a large hole in the wall of the tower, but no sign of what it was hit by." The guard reported.
"Hm, raise the security level just in case and have some men search around. If you need me, I'll be in the usual place." Magellan said, hanging up.
He didn't like not knowing the cause of the damage. It might be Whitebeard's men up to something for all he knows. Still he wouldn't go to the surface, as that could be playing right into the hands of a would be prison breaker.
Meanwhile, Cherry had hidden herself by burrowing into the ground before she could be discovered by any of the guards.
Now she was faced with a dilemma of sorts. She couldn't simply navigate through the stone as she only possessed the means to detect living creatures. That would help of course, but it would only help so much. From what she's heard, Impel Down is a labyrinth.
Cherry expanded her Life Sense, no point in getting worked up about it until after she confirmed whether her target was even here. She found a likely candidate that could be him; devil fruit user, greatly weakened and injured, about the right body shape and size. She regretted that she hadn't met him in person as that would have made it much easier.
On a side note, she found that there were quite a few devil fruit users here. Enough that the thought crossed her mind to simply drown the whole prison, just to increase the supply of devil fruit she could find in the future. She quickly dismissed that thought, however, she wasn't that bloodthirsty.
She did find it odd that the World Government didn't simply execute those devil fruit users, but perhaps they didn't want the devil fruit re-entering circulation. Better to have the devil you know locked up, than risk another devil appearing elsewhere.
Cherry decided to simply take the plunge down into the depths of Impel Down. She would try to be careful not to get seen as that would send the whole prison into lockdown, which would be quite counter productive in a prison break.
She burrowed straight down, happy that they didn't build the whole complex out of sea stone.
As she went below the surface level, Cherry noticed that one individual with devil fruit powers wasn't cuffed as she would expect. She knew this because the curse portion of the devil fruit inscription wasn't activated within them. She was mostly sure this person wasn't a guard due to their relative positioning to everyone else.
'This person must be quite cunning, to have hidden their devil fruit in this place. They're likely awaiting the perfect moment to attempt escape.' Cherry thought. She decided to move towards that person and have a little peek at them. Perhaps they would be a decent ally in her endeavor.
She opened up a tiny hole in the wall so she could see who she was dealing with.
"Just you wait, I'll get out of here soon enough. Then I'll find Captain John's Treasure and be rich!" He mumbled to himself.
The man had long blue hair, red lips, a big red nose, and crossed bones either painted or tattooed on his upper face. In other words he looked like a clown.
"Pfft!" Cherry accidentally started laughing, but quickly got herself under control.
"WHO'S LAUGHING AT MY BIG RED NOSE!" The man shouted, unreasonably enraged.
Cherry was barely holding it together.
'If this guy is playing the fool, then he is by far the best actor I've ever seen!' Cherry thought to herself.
The important part was that he had hopes of escaping and the guts to attempt it. He shouldn't rat her out if she made him an offer.
"Psst." Cherry tried to get his attention.
"Huh? Who's there?" The clown asked, thankfully not too loudly.
"Over here, inside the wall. How would you like to escape this hell hole?" Cherry offered with her best 'deal with the devil' tone of voice.
The clown, whose name was Buggy, immediately latched onto this opportunity.
"Of course I want to!" Buggy whispered. "Did you dig through the walls?"
"Sure did, friend. Just so happens I'm trying to break somebody out of here and I happen to need a guide. If you assist me, I'll bring you out with us." Cherry said.
"Deal!" Buggy didn't bother thinking about it too hard. If this person could break in, they should be able to break out as well.
Cherry opened up the wall so he could climb inside, which he did so with haste.
It was too dark for him to see the mysterious woman until she lit a match.
"Hii-!" Buggy almost screamed like a little girl, seeing Cherry's eyes illuminated ominously in the darkness.
Cherry was quick to clasp her hand over his stupid mouth though, so he didn't manage to get it out. Cherry removed her hand and, to Buggy's horror, his mouth was still sealed shut.
"I'll unfuse your lips when you calm down and promise not to scream again." Cherry said menacingly.
Although Buggy's heart was practically beating out his his chest, he tried to calm his rapid breathing through his nose and nodded his head.
Cherry reached out again and unfused the skin of his lips. "Good. Now, tell me where I can find Fire Fist Ace."
"Eh? Him? He ought to be in the deepest level, being a division leader of Whitebeard's crew." Buggy said nervously. The more he looked at this woman, the more his instincts told him not to upset her.
"I don't suppose you'd know the way down there?" Cherry asked, getting a shake of the head 'No' in response.
"Well, tell me what your devil fruit ability is. If I know your skill set, I can make better use of you." Cherry spoke after a few moments of thought.
"Huh? How did you know I am a devil fruit user?" Buggy was perplexed. Even the guards didn't know.
"I'll introduce myself, then you should know. Perhaps you've heard of the infamous Buggy the Clown?" Buggy asked in response, seeming proud that his name is getting out there even whilst he was imprisoned.
"Oh, you're Buggy? Rayleigh happened to mention you to me a few days ago." Cherry was surprised, perhaps there actually WAS more to this man than met the eye.
"Huh? You know Rayleigh?" Buggy hadn't heard anything about Rayleigh in years, he didn't even know whether he was still alive or not. "I'd like to meet him again someday..."
"Anyways, what's your devil fruit. I had literally no idea you even existed until Rayleigh said your name." Cherry spoiled the mood.
The blow to Buggy's ego wasn't light, but it was a big and powerful ego, so it endured.
"I ate the Chop Chop Fruit. I cannot be harmed by cutting and can freely control my severed body parts." Buggy explained, figuring there was little point in hiding that much.
*Schwing*
Buggy was cut in half across the waist by Cherry's finger. Seeing he was very much stil alive, she had her interest piqued. "Wow, impressive. What if I use haki?"
Buggy was too dumbfounded and was too late to stop her.
*Schwing*
He had his head cut off by Cherry's haki coated finger. "Ohhh! Even haki can't cut you, neat! In terms of cutting attacks, your devil fruit is superior to even logia fruit, huh?"
Buggy had been getting frustrated with her, but the sudden praise turned his attitude right around.
"Haha! Of course, in the whole world, no one is better at being cut than me! In fact, even Hawkeye couldn't cut me!" He said filled with pride.
Cherry's teacher instinct were flaring up. She wanted to train him. Even better, once he was stronger, she could sick him on Hawkeye to teach him a lesson in humility.
I'll think we'll get along nicely, Buggy." Cherry smiled, which unnerved Buggy who had no idea who he'd gotten involved with.