Yuuki looked at his captain who leaped off and glanced at the injured swordsman who looked like he wanted to cut him down.
"Geez, alright calm down. It's not even a real gun."
Taking the gun away from Usopp, Yuuki pointed it up and fired, which only caused a white flag to appear from it.
Usopp looking at that regained some of his courage and screamed at Yuuki,
"You bastard! Do you know how scared I was!?"
As Yuuki picked his ears with Usopp screaming near them Jerry approached Zoro,
"Marimo-san, you should probably rest now."
"..You brat. What the hell is your goal?"
"Eh, did you not hear Tom-san just now? Your crewmate stole our ship, so we're just trying to get it back."
"Crewmate?"
Zoro thought for a moment and understood that he was probably talking about Nami. Though inwardly angry at her for getting them in trouble he didn't show it as his captain still wanted her to be their navigator.
As he thought about what to do next he felt something stab into his butt. Jerking forward because of the pain he looked back and saw a big syringe sticking into his ass.
Looking at Jerry who was holding it Zoro tried to grab him but only failed as the boy scurried away and hid behind Tyke. Gritting his teeth Zoro took out the syringe but started feeling very drowsy and fell unconscious.
""Zoro-aniki!""
Seeing Zoro fall over Jonny and Yosaku shouted and tried to get out of their bindings. Usopp also looked over and hurried to Zoro who had fallen.
"W-what happened?"
"Eh, it's okay. I just gave him a big sedative. He's just sleeping."
Usopp looked at Jerry who said that and wondered when he had put on a mask.
"Now, if you'll step back."
Jerry pushed away Usopp and covered the area around Zoro with big drapes and started operating on him. The ones on the outside were only able to see the shadow of Jerry moving inside.
"W-what is he doing?"
"It's fine. Zoro will be fine after Jerry's done."
Usopp looked at Yuuki who said that with full confidence, something that drained away and he was filled with sweat as they saw Jerry take out and use weird instruments under the drapes.
"W-what is he using a chainsaw for?"
"I-it's just to cut the excess bandage."
Yuuki said that more to assure himself than answer Usopp. Gulping down hard they looked as Jerry operated on Zoro. Jonny and Yosaku were the most scared as they kept trying to get out of their binds.
When the drapes were finally removed, everyone saw Jerry covered with blood.
""Waaah!! Zoro-anikiii!!""
Jonny and Yosaku, unable to handle what they saw, started crying. Jerry who wiped his sweaty forehead asked,
"Why are they crying?"
Yuuki called over Usopp after checking Zoro who seemed to be just asleep. Seeing Zoro breathe normally Usopp sighed in relief and turned to Jerry,
"Why is there so much blood?"
"..Doctor-patient confidentiality restricts me from saying anything."
Usopp narrowed his eyes at Jerry, who got fidgety and acted suspicious after talking. Tyke who was just watching everything play out till then, decided to let the two crybabies go and untied them.
Seeing that Zoro was just sleeping peacefully, the both of them let out a big sigh of relief as well when they heard Yuuki speak.
"You should probably take him inside."
Nodding at his suggestion they hoisted Zoro up and took him inside the ship. Usopp turned to the Whisker pirates then and said,
"So what now? If we don't follow your ship, how will we find it later?"
"We have our own way."
Usopp looked at Tyke whose voice he had heard for the first time and said,
"What kind of w-"
"It's none of your concern. Be a good hostage and stay silent."
Usopp gulped down hard as Tyke's visage bore down on him and nodded.
"It's fine, he doesn't bite."
Yuuki brushed past Usopp after saying that and went to the edge of the ship and checked the musket he had on his back before taking aim towards the restaurant.
**********
Luffy jumped in and took out a large number of pirates and held onto a broken mast so that he wouldn't fall into the water.
Tom watched the chefs get ready to fight with the head of the restaurant detaching into a paddleboat which was rowed by two of the chefs. With the 'fins' of the restaurant also opening and raising two platforms raising up on each side of the restaurant, Tom cracked his knuckles and jumped into the fray.
With an evil smile on his face and his tongue hanging out he charged at the nearest pirate, knocking him out with a single punch. Ducking under the sword that slashed at him, he kicked another pirate and broke his nose.
Dancing around the battlefield, Tom charged towards where Krieg was, taking down anyone who got in his way. Looking at the paddleboat which got caught by Krieg and thrown away towards the ship Tom thought if he should go and stop it.
It seemed to be not much of a problem as Sanji kicked it down before it could crash into the restaurant. The two chefs who were rowing it got out and started fighting the lower ranked pirates that tried to swarm them. They held their own ground, even beating up everyone that came at them.
Unfortunately they were not able to fight for long as a large man, who had two large iron plates covering his front and back as well as small iron plates near his knees, elbows and hands.
As the man who called himself Iron wall Pearl started bragging to Sanji that he had never lost and never even lost a drop of blood, Krieg broke the mast that Luffy was hanging on to and sent him flying.
Luffy smashed right into the back of Pearl's head which made him bleed. Watching that happen his fellow crewmates started to show worry on their faces, which included Krieg.
As he started to create fire and was setting the ship on fire a lot of the pirates ran away while Sanji started to fight Pearl.
Krieg, who was getting annoyed that Pearl was about to damage the ship he wanted to steal, decided he might as well destroy that part of the platform along with Pearl and tried to throw a knob with the intention to destroy that part of the platform.
As he pulled it back and was about to throw it he noticed a blue blur heading towards him.
"Forgot me asshole? Clench your teeth."
Tom punched Krieg and sent him flying back into the remains of his galleon. Standing tall afterwards, Tom posed towards the restaurant and taunted Luffy who had a disgruntled expression.
His taunts didn't continue for long as he saw Gin, the right hand of Krieg, had taken the head chef hostage.
"Don't move anymore. I don't wanna kill you Sanji."
Tom scrunched his face at that as Sanji started getting beaten up by Pearl cause he couldn't fight back. Luffy soon got enraged at what was happening and stretched his foot into the sky.
[Gomu-gomu no ax]
As he broke the platform they were standing he stated that he didn't hit any of the pirates and declared,
"Alright, I'll sink this ship."
"What the hell!? You crazy bastard!"
"No, I think he has a point. Let's blow it up."
Sanji looked at Tom who had arrived near him some time when he was confronting Luffy. What immediately caught his attention was the big stack of dynamite Tom was lighting up.
Sanji looked on with a horrified and stunned expression as Tom finished lighting it up and threw it toward the restaurant. Sanji's instinct kicked in and he intercepted the dynamite by kicking it away into the water.
As Sanji landed back and looked towards where Tom was with an angry look, he noticed Luffy had joined him and was talking to him.
"Hey Tommy, you have more?"
"Uh-huh here, but that idiot might try to stop it again though."
As Sanji saw Tom handing over stacks of dynamite to Luffy he rushed over and kicked the dynamite away.
"Stop it already! There's no way I'll let this ship sink! My enormous debt and the way I feel about this ship.. you'll never understand."
"So you're gonna die for this ship? That's stupid!"
"What!?"
"Getting killed is no way to repay your debt! He didn't save your life so you could just throw it away! Only a coward would do that!"
"How else am I supposed to save Zeff's ship!?"
Tom looked at Luffy and Sanji who were at each other's necks and scratched his ear.
"Geez, get it over with already. We've still got people to beat up."
Just after Tom said that, Pearl who was nearby started talking,
"Haha, it's unfortunate that you met us. There's nothing you can do now that we've got a hostage."
As Pearl rushed at the three after he said that he got blocked by someone. When he looked at who blocked him he got punched away. Flying back, he crashed onto a part of the broken platform.
"What the hell? Where'd you come from, Tyke?"
"..That's what you wanna know?"
As Tyke deadpanned at his captain, Don Krieg felt the situation slipping out of his hands and shouted,
"Oi Gin! What are you waiting for?! Shoot!"
Gin looked at the new arrival who had joined and thought of shooting at a non-fatal area to make them understand he means business.
*BANG*
"Gah!!"
Gin held his hand after the gun in it got shot and fell out. Looking towards where he heard the gunshot he noticed it came from the Straw hat pirates' ship. As soon as he noticed that he saw a lead ball that came flying and hit him straight in the face.
Looking at the place Usopp had sniped through his scope, Yuuki said,
"Not bad young Usopp."
"You too young Yuuki."
Zeff looked at Gin who was stumbling backwards after getting hit in the face when a brown ball came rolling and smashed Gin straight in the midriff which sent him flying towards the broken platform.
"Are you alright old man?"
Zeff looked at the brown ball which turned out to be the little glutton he had come to know in the last couple of days and nodded.
"Ahem, well it's okay. You don't need to say thanks. You can just write off my next bill."
Zeff deadpanned as he got lifted up by his chefs who came running after Gin flew away.
"What the? You guys had to come? You're gonna take away some of my fun this way!"
Tyke looked at Tom with a fed up look and turned to face Pearl who had gotten up while inspecting his bleeding nose.
Tom looked around and watched as Tyke went to face Pearl and Sanji went over to Gin. The third rate pirates were not able to put up any sort of resistance as well with the chefs beating them up with the snipers backing them.
Tom looked at Krieg who was the only viable target and decided to rush him but was tripped by Luffy.
"What the hell bastard!?"
"Don't think about it Tommy! I'll fight him!"
"Who the hell decided that!?"
"I did!"
Don Krieg looked at what was happening and decided that it was time to take matters into his own hands.
____________________
Author's note : Most of the dialogue between Luffy and Sanji is right out of the manga. I thought of cutting it out but left it as it is cause I felt it was a pretty important one. I'll try to wrap up the Baratie arc in the next couple of chapters.