"Where are we?" Cabernet asked, staring out over a snow covered wasteland.
"Baaah." Merry answered.
"What do you mean I was leading the way? You were the one who pointed out the footprints!" Cabernet defended.
"Bah baaaah." Merry bleated.
"You're right, it's the others' fault. They should know better than to let two ships wander off without a navigator." Cabernet agreed, shifting the blame.
From a somewhat distant vantage point, two pairs of giant eyes watched the lunarian woman and golden sheep.
"Here she is. 275 million Beri, 'Bloodwine' Cabernet. Wanted alive." One of the hidden giants spoke to the other in a low voice.
"Annoying, but the money is good. If the marines want her alive we should be able to get a good price from Caesar too." The other grumbled.
"The details say she is unusually tough, so we shouldn't need to hold back too much. It should be easy to catch her, so long as she doesn't fly off outside our range." Said the first.
They both gave a nod and split ways, moving into position to set up an ambush.
Cabernet and Merry were oblivious to the plotting of two giant assassins as they tried to retrace their steps, only to find that the snow had covered them up.
Cabernet knew she could just follow her connection to Cherry, but it would be awfully embarrassing when she found out why.
'She'll probably call me Zoro 2.0…' Cabernet thought. She shook her head, she couldn't let that happen!
*BOOM*
A cannon ball exploded against Cabernet's back, causing Merry to jump in surprise.
Cabernet waved away the smoke as she spun around to locate her attacker.
*BOOM*
Another cannon ball landed on her back, this time from the opposite direction.
Although it was a vexing feeling to be flanked, Cabernet wore a menacing smile. She hadn't been able to fight properly earlier, so she hoped this would prove to be good exercise.
Cabernet started to transform into her figurehead form as she spun to face the second attacker. Only she didn't stop her spin there and continued on until she had spun a full 360 degrees.
A wooden hatch opened in her chest and fired her own cannon at a giant head that had popped up, presumably to shoot her in the back again. Sadly he ducked his head just in time for the cannon ball to sail over it.
Meanwhile, Merry had taken her own figurehead form of a large wooden sheep and charged towards the other sniper that was lining up a shot on Cabernet. The sniper turned his gun on the charging sheep and fired.
*BOOM*
Merry was hit square on the head, but it hardly slowed her down. She wasn't unharmed by it like Cabernet, but she was a Zoan type too and they were well known for their endurance.
The two giant assassins quickly realized ordinary munitions weren't the way to go. After only a moment of thought, they switched to incendiary rounds as the poison rounds might not work on their targets' wooden bodies. They weren't stupid of course. They didn't intend to use them on the one that was already on fire, instead they would prioritize taking out the weaker threat that was Merry.
By the time Cabernet reached the hiding spot of Rock, he was already on the move. Contrary to what their size would suggest, they were very swift, sneaky, and deceptive in their movements. Cabernet followed Rock's footsteps directly to a dead end, giving him time to make his move.
*BOOM BOOM*
Echoing explosions sounded out and Cabernet raced to their source where she found Merry rolling in the snow in an attempt to put out the flames she was engulfed in. That was easier said than done as she was soaked in an accelerant on top of being made of wood.
Cabernet was enraged at the sight. When the sound of two more shots were heard, Cabernet extinguished her flame to increase her speed and flew through the air fast enough to collide with both projectiles despite their very different angles of approach. She had made a slight miscalculation here as she now found herself covered in a quickly hardening foam, rather than burning fluids as she had expected.
She dropped to the ground on account of her now immobile wings. It wouldn't take much for her to break free from the foam with her strength, but two more giant rifle shots later both Cabernet and Merry were wrapped in thick, steel nets.
"We got 'em Rock!" Shouted Scotch.
"That we did, Scotch!" Shouted Rock.
The both of them rushed forward with the intent of beating any further resistance out of their new captives.
There was an odd visitor to this scene as they raised their guns high in the air, preparing to bring the rifle butts down on the trapped ship girls. It was a headless, legless torso wielding a sword. This visitor distracted Rock and Scotch just long enough for Cabernet to free her limbs from the foam and rip apart the steel net.
*BAM*
Rock was folded over from a disgustingly strong straight punch to the gut. Cabernet followed up with a Cherry specialty, a hard kick to the groin.
Scotch aimed his rifle at Cabernet and fired with great aim and speed, but not fast and accurately enough. The enraged lunarian rolled out of the way, resulting in the shot hitting his brother, Rock, instead.
Cabernet grabbed hold of the torso which immediately became aggressive, then she hurled it at Scotch so hard that he couldn't hope to dodge even with his unusually agile movements.
The torso, which happened to belong to the samurai, didn't much care about who it was slashing. So it brought down its sword on the swiftly approaching presence it felt.
Scotch tried to block the attack with his rifle, but it meant nothing to a swordsman of this caliber. The torso's sword cleaved straight through the rifle and sliced a deep wound into Scotch's chest.
Scotch didn't fall at that moment, however. Giants weren't known for being easy to kill. No, Scotch only fell over when half his teeth were knocked out of his head by a flying dropkick from Cabernet, leaving two flaming footprints on his cheek.
With both the white furred giants lying in the snow, bleeding and moaning, Cabernet rushed over to Merry and helped to put out the remaining flaming licking her wooden exterior. Thankfully the burns were largely superficial, at least they were for Merry. They would be quite painful if she were to switch into her full sheep form, though.
"I'm so glad you're okay, Merry! I'm sorry for running off and leaving you alone!" Cabernet said, squeezing Merry in a hug and rubbing her cheek against Merry's cheek.
"Bah!" Merry bleated curtly.
"Yes, yes, you had it all handled by yourself." Cabernet mollified.
The samurai's torso was still waving his sword about as he spun in place, waiting to fend off another attack on his body. Cabernet rushed him from behind faster than he could turn around and lifted him into a big bear hug.
"Thank you dismembered torso friend!" Cabernet said, not really caring if it could actually hear her or not. "Should I bring you with us? I could introduce you to Leggy, I'm sure you'd make a great team!"
Cabernet unilaterally decided to bring the torso with her despite its fierce protests, in other words attempting to hit her with its sword from the awkward angle it was being held in.
Not wanting to run across any more sneaky, furry giants, Cabernet elected to just follow her connection towards Cherry. She'd just say that she missed her or something if Cherry asked her about it.
As the three of the trotted off, Rock had managed to catch his breath after having his ribs and pelvis broken. He covertly brought out his den den mushi to contact Caesae, but then thought better of it. Rather than risk Caesar turning on himself and his brother for failing, it would be better to leave the island while they still can.