Baha was firmly tied up after Law tended to the cuts on his palms and fingers from grabbing the sword. He had to be held down for that, as the blow to the gut that Cabernet had given him hadn't actually knocked him out, just knocked the wind out of him.
"MmmMmMMMmmMmmM?!" Baha had also been gagged when he wouldn't stop shouting about the whale and how they were clearly in league with it.
"What if the whale doesn't come back?" Usopp asked in whispers, so that Zoro wouldn't overhear. The man in question was watching the sonar screen like an addict waiting for his next fix. "Franky's laser beam scared it off. No matter how smart it may be, it's still an animal. If anything, being smarter is more likely to make it stay away from us…"
"That's true. I am a certified badass," Franky agreed.
"Where'd you get certification from?" Usopp asked in a tone that made it clear he was being sarcastic.
"Baldimore," Franky answered seriously, pulling out an official looking certificate.
"Huh? Wait, this says that you're a 'certified public nuisance'," Usopp read.
"Same thing," Franky put the certificate away with a shrug.
"Worst case scenario, the whale doesn't come and we get Cherry to fix him, like you suggested Robin-ya," Law said. "Though, from a certain point of view that is actually the best case scenario, considering we still might get sunk."
*blip* *whoosh!*
A single, small beep from the sonar and Zoro was charging for the top deck before anyone could stop him.
"Damn, we have to stop him!" Usopp said and made to follow, but Law stopped him.
"There's no need; that isn't the whale," Law said. "Zoro-ya doesn't understand how the sonar works. This blip is too small to be the whale. It's probably just a shark or something."
*blip blip blip*
*blipblipblipblipblipblipblipblip*
*blibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblibliblip*
"Make that a whole bunch of sharks…" Law said, his eyes squinting at the hundreds of blips converging on their location.
"Are you sure it's a whole lot of sharks and not something larger hiding inside of a school of smaller sea critters? I had some trouble fine tuning the sonar of my mini-submarine on the Sunny," Franky asked.
Law blinked at him. "Surely not…"
He spoke too soon, however, as a massive figure emerged from within the swarm just as it was getting close. Simultaneously, a new blip, the smallest yet, appeared right next to the Polar Tang and started moving towards the first blips.
…
Cabernet had already left the room whilst they were talking. She was currently flying over the sea where Zoro was doing a front crawl in the water, swords in his hands and mouth already drawn.
"Zoro! You really should come back! It'll get you with the sonar thingy again!" Cabernet called out to him.
"I've got ear plugs this time!" Zoro called back through his clenched jaw.
"I don't think that's how it works, Zoro!" Cabernet replied, but she wasn't really sure.
A giant white mass became visible and Zoro dove beneath the surface soon after. Cabernet gripped the silver hair on either side of her head and tried to think of something she could do.
After only half a moment of hesitation, she made a rather rash decision. Her body grew and took on a wooden texture as she shifted into her figurehead form. Then, she dove in right after Zoro.
The whale had noticed Zoro in the water and was now bearing down on his position. Its humongous mouth opened wide in a clear attempt to swallow the man who was puny in comparison.
Zoro could see the burn from Franky's laser and even a shallow cut from his own attack earlier, so he made no attempt to flee. Instead, he prepared himself to go all out on offense. Even if he got eaten, he could just cut his way out. The whale couldn't dodge his own insides, after all.
Zoro felt something slam into his shoulders from above, wooden hands now gripping him tightly and preventing him from attacking. He felt himself floating back towards the surface as he struggled in Cabernet's grip fruitlessly.
The whale wasn't about to let them go, however.
*GULP*
…
"AAAAAHHHHH?! They got eaten!!!" Usopp cried out in alarm, looking through a spyglass.
"That certainly isn't good. The whale looks very similar to a cachalot, and if it shares other properties with them then it also has hydrochloric acid in its stomach…" Law explained dourly.
"Cabernet should be fine, but Zoro…" Robin said.
"Well, let's go get them!" Franky shouted, hopping into the water as his legs transformed in midair into propellers. His resulting speed in the water was by no means slow.
When Franky was coming up on the whale, which itself was still on a collision course with the Polar Tang, he held his hands before him as he prepared to fire a radical beam at the great beast.
"RADICAL BEEEAAAM!!!" Franky shouted, though it came out as blublublubluuuuub since he was underwater.
The whale swerved with lightning quick reaction speed, the radical beam only grazing one of its fins, but at least it wasn't headed directly towards the Polar Tang anymore.
No, now it was focused on Franky.
"Uh oh…" Franky blubbed.
…
Inside the great white whale, Cabernet climbed out of a lake of hydrochloric acid with no visible signs that it was harmful to her whatsoever.
"Look what you got us into, Zoro! Whale guts! I don't want to be whale poop!" Cabernet bemoaned.
"Let me out so I can kill it, then," Zoro replied with a somewhat muffled voice from Cabernet's chest.
"The air smells funny in here, and that lake makes my skin all tingly. In a bad way, I think," Cabernet said. "You might just die if I let you out right now."
"I survived being swallowed by Laboon just fine," Zoro replied.
"Law says you're sick in the head, though. How do I know that's even true? Brook says that Laboon is a nice whale, why would he eat you?" Cabernet said.
Zoro was growing frustrated, but whilst the whale induced madness in his mind was a powerful driving force, he wasn't so weak willed that he would be driven to harming his friends just to get his way. So the only choice was sitting inside her Chest cavity until he convinced her to let him out.
"I can't see a thing in here, either. Oh, let me try-!" Cabernet lit her shoulder flames.
…
Franky bashed the whale across the snout, or what he thinks is a snout anyways, with a strong right hook. Sadly it didn't seem to do much to the monstrous whale given its size, but it did prevent himself from getting swallowed at least.
The whale circled back for another pass at him, but before it could do so-
*BOOM!*
Franky felt a powerful shockwave create a single, massive THUMP in the water and he watched the whale writhe in agony. A figure was spat out of its mouth like a torpedo, so Franky swam to and grabbed them before racing back to the Polar Tang.
Franky surface and chucked Cabernet onto the deck as he clambered aboard as well.
"What happened?" Robin asked.
"I don't know. I think there was an explosion," Franky said.
Everyone turned to look at Cabernet. More specifically, at the flames that danced along her shoulders.
"Pffft!" Usopp could help but burst into laughter. The rest followed in turn, even the usually grumpy Law couldn't help but to crack a smile.