"Everybody! Head's up! Something's falling again!" the long-nose cried and he ducked behind the green haired swordsman, who had only recently awakened. They had been waiting in silence for some sort of update from the people above. The Blue Sea people did not plan to leave without their captain. Wyper and Aisa were certainly not going to leave and abandon Sid. As for Gan Fall and Pierre, well, neither the Shandians or the Blue Sea people even bothered to ask for their motives.
"What?" the swordsman asked as a large leaf floated casually down to the floor, covering the sleeping reindeer.
"A leaf?" Aisa asked.
"It has some writing on it," Robin said. She took a couple of steps towards the leaf and Aisa did as well. However, before she could even read the first letter, she got her own message from above.
"Aisa! If you can hear me, repeat this message out loud for the others to hear. Okay? Ready? I'm going to say the message on the count of three," Sid barked, "One..."
"It's Sid!" Aisa gasped.
"Two!"
"The leaf must be from Nami and them!" the long-nose said with a snap of his fingers, "What does it say?"
"Three! Cut-"
"Cut down this huge vine so it falls towards the west," Robin and Aisa said at the same time.
"Eh? Aisa, you can read Blue Sea writing? Since when?" Wyper asked.
"No! Sid! Sid just said that to me," Aisa said
"What's towards the west?" the Blue Sea swordsman asked and everybody looked up.
"Enel's ship is in that direction," Gan Fall said.
The swordsman scoffed and poked the leaf with one of his sheathed swords. "Isn't it obvious then? They want to jump to the ship by crossing the falling vine."
The long-nose's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "That's crazy!"
"Well, you go up there and try and stop Luffy then," the swordsman said.
"As if he could be stopped!" the long-nose sputtered.
"In any case, reckless or not, we've got no choice but to let him do this."
Wyper snorted. "Sounds like he's just as much a pain to deal with as Sid." His own words jolted him to another curious thought and he looked over at Aisa, who might have an answer, "Why is Sid helping that Blue Sea pirate? Why isn't she just using Boo to get to Enel and the bell directly?"
"Because-"
Kaboom!
Aisa's sentence was cut off not only from the sound of thunder but a bolt of lightning striking just a few feet away from where they stood. The patch of sea cloud exploded from the impact but before the child could fall through the sky, Wyper scooped her up with one arm and ran towards more stable ground. Clusters of bolts were coming down hard around them and it was too concentrated for it not to be mere coincidence.
"Enel knows what we're up to," Wyper growled while the Blue Sea pirates and Gan Fall, dragging Pierre, ran for cover.
"Robin! Catch!" the swordsman shouted, throwing the reindeer doctor to his nakama and drew his sword, "All I have to do is cut the vine, right?"
"Wait! Zoro!" the long-nose protested as the swordsman ran off.
Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!
He could not make a straight run towards the vine. Lightning came crashing at him every few seconds and if not for his own naturally quick reflexes, he would've been struck countless times.
"AH! ZORO!" the long-nose shrieked.
However, just as quickly as the lightning storm started, it ended and Zoro was able to run the last few feet without any hindrance.
"Eh? What happened?" Wyper asked when he reached the Vearth part of the island. He lowered Aisa to the ground and stared at the swordsman, "Did they get to Enel without our help?!"
Aisa cupped her ears and squeezed her eyes, focusing all of her attention on above. Let me hear something. Let me hear something. Let me hear-
She fell into silence and then inhaled a sharp breath just as Zoro sliced a big chunk off of the vine.
"Yay! He did it! He cut the vine!" the long-nose cheered but his joy was short lived, "Wait...why isn't it falling?! It's still standing tall! Is that still considered a plant?! Robin! What are we going to do?"
Aisa's eyes flew open and she tugged at Wyper's arm. "It's SID! Sid is up there...She's facing Enel alone! That's why Enel didn't attack us any more. She's stalling for us and Luffy!"
"She's what?!" Gan Fall gasped while the long-nose took it as amazing news.
He grabbed a slingshot out of his bag and ran towards the vine. "Zoro! Let me help you!"
Kyaaaa!
Aisa pulled her hat further down her ears and she cringed violently. "He's hurting her. Sid is...Sid is really hurt."
Wyper's expression turned just as thunderous as the clouds above. "What do you mean she's stalling? Why is she helping these Blue Sea people? Aisa?!"
Normally Aisa would shrink away from Wyper's harsh scolds but this time, something within her snapped. Her fear of him was completely covered by her worry for Sid's well-being. "Luffy...LUFFY IS OUR FRIEND!" Aisa cried.
"What nonsense are you spewing?!" Wyper roared, using the tone he usually reserved only for the Shandian healer, which was too much for the child and she cowered from him.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Aisa cried.
"Four hundred years ago, an explorer told a lie that he saw city of gold," Robin said softly from behind the Shandians.
Wyper's posture turned even straighter and he glanced over his shoulder cautiously at the woman.
"Although people laughed at him, his descendants believed his words," Robin continued, "And are still searching for this city of gold in the Blue Sea. If we ring the gold bell, we can let them know the city of gold is in the sky...That's what that boy in the straw hat is thinking. That's a wonderful reason, isn't it? It has romanticism. Even in this situation, going so far as to lose his chance to escape..."
As the long nose shot varying explosives at the vine, the Shandian slowly turned towards the Blue Sea woman. "What..." he said slowly, his voice constricted, "What is the name of this explorer's descendant?"
"Montblanc Cricket," Robin replied.
"Then...is the name of his ancestor from 400 years ago...Noland?" Wyper asked as tears streamed down his face.
"Eh? Wyper?" Aisa stood back up but when she tried to peer around the warrior to see his face, she was shoved back by his arm.
He closed his eyes but tilted his face towards the sky. Is this a miracle...? Great Warrior Calgara?
-The Ark-
"Hmmph," Enel scoffed as Sid fell to her knees for the fourth time. Steam was coming out of every pore of her blackened body but she refused to fall over.
Enel looked out into the distance and he smirked, "Looks like all your work is for nothing. The vine still stands tall."
"They'll do it. Those Blue Sea people...are not to be underestimated," Sid said between gritted teeth. She struggled to her feet but once she did, she balled up her fists and bent her knees. The smirk left Enel's face when she turned one of her fists and beckoned him over with four fingers, "And don't worry about the vine. I'm still standing too, you know..."
"You underestimate me," Enel snarled. He reappeared behind her in a flash of light but before he could put a hand on her, she blocked his arm with her own, ignoring the spark of electricity exuding from the skin contact.
"I don't need Mantra. Your moves are getting predictable," Sid hissed.
Without batting an eye, Enel used his free arm to tap the drum behind him twice. "60 Million Volt Thunder Dragon!"
Sid jumped back as far as she could but she still closed her eyes and braced for impact. She understood where to draw the strength for God's Armor but there was no telling how long that would actually hold up against Enel's relentless attacks.
"BOOO!"
"Eh?!"
The sky sheep swooped in and expanded between her and the ferocious lightning bolt. Enel struck right into Boo's protective wall. Electric blue energy crackled and sparked within his blackened cloud, that was starting to condense back into a ball.
"BOO! No!" Sid screamed but just as she mustered up the strength to run towards the sky sheep, the lightning started to gather and it became frenetic the more the energy came together.
"Boo!"
Kaboom!
A bolt of lightning came shooting out of Boo and directly back at Enel. It went right through it's creator, not harming him in the slightest, but it shot through the wooden wall of the ark. The sky sheep itself returned to its usual form as if nothing had happened.
"What?" Sid gasped as he floated in front of her and glared at Enel, daring him to try it again, "You can do that?! Since when?!"
Enel whirled around to look at the damage to his ship and when he turned back to the Shandorian, his expression was nothing but pure rage.
"Why you..." he snarled as he raised his hand up towards the blackened sphere he created, "Mamaragan!"
From above, bolts of lightning came raining down from the spherical thundercloud Enel had created. They avoided the ark entirely but struck down with persistence on Upper Yard.
"Your so-called God's Armor," Enel spat, "I'm no fool. I can see that it relies on your sense of protection...But how long do you think you can use it if there's nothing left to protect?"
"What are you...?" Sid ran over to the edge of the ark and she watched flames and smoke erupt from all over Upper Yard's forest. More importantly, she could see that the thickest clouds of smoke was shrouded around the base of Giant Jack, "He's trying to sink the vine before Luffy can get here...and he's going to destroy Shandora!"
Enel smirked, happy that this pathetic creature was smart enough to realize his intentions. To realize that resistance was futile and that no matter what sort of "protection" she had, it would only be a matter of time before he destroyed it all with his divine powers.
He watched with glee as the healer doubled over the railing and started to sob. Her whole body was trembling with devastation.
His joy, however, was short lived and the smirk was wiped completely off his face when the healer threw her head back and revealed not only was she not crying, she was laughing. Hysterically.
"Maybe Wyper's right...Maybe I am crazy if even 'God' doesn't understand me," she said. She wiped the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath. "The history of the proud warriors of Shandia will not be wiped out just because you destroyed some bits of rock that they once lived in. You can destroy Vearth. You can even destroy this very ark that we're standing on. That's not what I'm protecting. That's not what I'm fighting for."
"Then what?" Enel sneered, "You're friends?"
His guess made Sid laugh even harder and she shook her head up at the thundering skies. "They'll be fine. They're strong and smart enough to get out of harm's way..."
"Then...then what?!" Enel demanded, not liking this maddening game of riddles he was inexplicably pulled into, "What are you protecting? What are you fighting for?!"
Sid looked back at him and this time it was her turn to smirk back at him. "My freedom."
"What?"
"Boo! Catch!" Sid shouted as she leapt over the side of the ship.
"WHAT?!" Enel snarled. He ran over to where the healer was just standing. Her sky sheep raced right past his head and caught his master just as someone came to take her place in the fight.
"ENEL!" Luffy screamed as Nami drove him right to the tip of the vine with her waver, "HAND OVER THE BELL!"
"Wyper! WYPER!"
"Aisa, don't go over there!"
"But Wyper! He just used another Reject Dial to break Giant Jack. His body can't handle that. He's going to die! WYPER!"
Enel cursed himself for letting the healer mess up his mantra and distract him from what was going on down below. "Enough! One annoyance after another..." Enel seethed. He brought his hand up towards the sky again, "Disappear with the land! Raigo!"
"Nami...Sid...Thanks," Luffy said as he unwrapped his arm from around Nami's waist and gave a small nod to the Shandian on her sky sheep next to them, "I won't let your help go to waste."
The navigator dropped onto a small tuft of island cloud that was barely big enough for her and her waver.
"Luffy!" Nami cried as the rubber boy ascended straight into Enel's Deathpiea.
"What is he doing? The ship's over that way!" Sid demanded as she sat up from her seat. She looked over to the Blue Sea person for answers but Nami was transfixed with horror at the thundercloud above, "Why do you look so shocked? Didn't you say lightning doesn't work on rubber? Nami? Nami! Hello! Don't ignore me!"
"With that kind of power...who knows...what could happen to Luffy," Nami said.
They watched in silence as the lightning in the cloud became agitated and bolts of electricity discharged from the thundercloud at random speeds and strength.
"What...what is this abnormal activity?" Nami whispered as she threw her arm over her eyes to prevent herself from being blinded by the light.
"How annoying," Enel growled from his ship, "Everything...be gone!"
With another shot of lightning from his hand to Deathpiea, the thundercloud descended towards Upper Yard.
"If it's abnormal to you and annoying to Enel," Sid said while she squinted her eyes, "Then it must be Luffy. C'mon, Luffy...Whatever you're doing, do it faster!"
"Aahhhhhhhhh! AAAAAHHHHHHH!"
The roar from the Blue Sea captain came flooding out of the thundercloud. Cracks of light began to break through the dense cloud and as it spread all around the sphere, Luffy's voice grew with it.
"CLEAR UP ALREADY!"
Electricity crackled over the surface and its intensity increased as all the energy came together into one bright light.
"CLEAAARRRRR UPPPP!" Luffy shouted once more as the energy bursted out, destroying Deathpiea, clearing away the clouds overhead and returning the sky to it's sunny and blue state.
Sid clung onto Boo as the sky sheep was sent spinning off into the distance by the shockwave. When they finally came to a stop, she blinked her eyes a few times, rotated her head from side to side, and then sat up only to rotate her head again. She took a few deep breaths and waited for her dizziness to fade. The sudden return of sunshine stung her eyes so she could barely keep them open as she looked around for signs of Luffy.
"Where are you?" she whispered, "Come on...Come on...Luffy...Please be alive. Please be-"
She stopped short when a gleaming light caught her eye and a breath caught in her chest. With Death Peia gone and the sun shining brightly, she spotted a golden belfry, covered in vines and sitting with dignity on a small island cloud.
"Is that..." she whispered.
"AHHHHH! ENEL!"
"Luffy!" Sid gasped. She tore her eyes away from the golden bell and looked around frantically for the captain, "TAKE HIM DOWN AND RING THAT BELL!"
"Ahhh!"
Now Sid could see Luffy. He and the golden ball, still attached firmly to his hand, were falling a few feet away from the ark.
"200 Million Volt Amaru!"
Sid sucked in a breath. "Son of a..."
Enel had turned into an entity of pure lightning. He grew to five times his original size and he looked like a mythical creature with fire-like hair and a belly as big as hill.
"I...am...GOD!" Enel shouted as he punched the air. A bolt of lightning struck out from his fist and consumed the rubber boy, "You are just a paramythia. There's no way I can't crush you with my Logia power!"
"I said....that it doesn't work on me!" Luffy roared as he ran through the lightning bolt and right up Enel's arm, ""God' this. 'God' that. GAH! I'm so sick of crap. What kind of god wouldn't save anything at all?!"
Thwack!
The rubber boy landed a kick right across Enel's enlarged head and smashing in his jaw.
"LUFFY! Watch out!" Sid shouted when she spotted Enel raising his fist again but this time he was holding onto a new trident. This one was as tall as Sid's tent, "Boo! GO!"
Shing! Thwack!
"AH! SID!" Luffy shouted as Sid crashed against his back while holding the outer prongs in place with her smoking, black hands.
"Hooooot!," Sid said through gritted teeth while Boo expanded enough to give Luffy a place to stand too.
"You again?!" Enel shouted, "I'll skewer the both of you!"
"Oy...Luffy?"
"Ah?"
"Yo-yo."
"OH!"
"ENOUGH!"
Enel raised another trident in his other fist and just as he was about to pierce through both Sid and Luffy, Sid let go of his weapon and the sky sheep stopped floating, completely dropping him, Sid, and Luffy out of the sky.
"Ahhhhh!" Luffy screamed as they hurtled downwards.
"Ha! So you all choose to fall? How pitiful," Enel laughed.
"NOW! BOO!" Sid shouted.
The sky sheep skidded to a halt. Sid and Luffy slammed into him and they continued to drop but the sky sheep was not to be deterred. He squeezed his eyes shut and his horns began to grow. "B...B...Boooo!"
He stopped their fall but not by much. The gold ball that encased Luffy's arm was still falling over Boo's side.
"Come on. Come on," Sid said as the ball reached as far as it'll go and jerked the sky sheep and it's passengers downwards, "Keep steady, Boo."
"Boo!"
The ball bounced up and down, up and down, up and down, until finally Luffy and Sid shared a grin. The rubber boy twisted his arm just as the ball was descending one last time.
"GUM-GUM...GOLDEN...SPINNING YOYO!" Luffy yelled as he pulled his arm forward.
The ball spun wildly as it launched forward both from the force of it's bouncing and with the added pull from the rubber boy itself. It sailed upwards, breaking right through the hull of the ark and sending Enel flying off into the sky.
"AHHHHHHH!" Enel cried as he disappeared into the heavens.
"LUFFY! THE BELL!" Sid shouted up as the rubber boy began to fall again. She and Boo flew up to catch the boy once again but this time, Sid grabbed hold of Luffy's arm to help him stabilize the golden ball.
"Yosh! Together!" Luffy said as pulled his arm back and wound it around one last time, "Gum-Gum...ROCKET!"
Luffy threw his arm forward with Sid adding in her own strength to swing the rubber boy's arm towards the golden bell.
"AHHHHHH!" Sid screamed as the golden ball crashed right into the center of the bell.
Bong!
The golden ball broke on impact, freeing Luffy's hand.
Bong!
The rubber boy snapped back his arm but he was so used to the weight of the ball that he pulled with too much force and fell right off the sky sheep.
Bong!
"LUFFY!" Sid shouted as the rubber boy rocketed downwards.
He thrust out his arms and legs and puffed up his chest. "DID YOU HEAR THAT, OLD DIAMOND-HEAD? MONKEYS?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, "THE CITY OF GOLD...WAS RIGHT HERE!"
Bong!