Down... Down... Down... they all fell, following Luffy into this deep pit, feeling like they were falling right through the center of the world. It seemed to last forever, with the darkness pressing in on them from all sides. After several tense minutes of falling, they could see a feeble light coming from the bottom, and they knew that they reached the exit.
"Chopper!" Zoro called and threw the little reindeer down to the floor, who exploded into his guard point so that they all had a soft landing. Luffy needed no such thing for he bounced right back up and was looking around as if nothing happened.
"You know, its times like this that make me hate Luffy for being made of rubber," Usopp said sourly, breathing hard as he tried to recover from that fall. He looked above him to where the hole was right above and stared in amazement. They sure fell a long way... he couldn't even see the top anymore.
Luffy, meanwhile, was staring around as if hoping that he could find a sign that would point him in the direction of the next level.
"So... this is the Second Level of Hell," Robin said, glancing around at the place. It looked a great deal like Level 1, only there seemed to be a series of more staircases and hallways to choose from. "Strange... it's like a maze down here."
"A maze? In that case, Luffy's screwed," Sanji said, remembering how he was running around Enies Lobby like a madman, trying to get to the top floor where they had seen the CP9 members standing with Robin—or when they were on Sky Island and Luffy was walking off in circles because he couldn't tell where South was.
"It's not that hard," Usopp offered, "He just has to keep going down right? Find the stairs that go down and that will lead him to Level 3, right?"
"It's not going to be that simple," Robin told him. "Even if he didn't have to deal with the guards and traps on each level, finding the right stairs in all this place...?"
"So Luffy really has to fight his way through all the levels if he wants to get to 5?" Chopper asked as Luffy strayed a few yards.
"Yes," Robin sighed. "We're still on Level 2... that means that we're still three levels up... and we can't be sure that Ace is even on level 5 anyway. It's just a guess."
"So you think that there really are deeper levels than just five?" Nami asked worriedly, wondering just how worse it could possibly get here.
"I'm willing to make a heathy bet on it," Robin answered. "I can't guess at how many levels there are for sure, but I do agree that Ace will most likely be on the very bottom one. Luffy doesn't have any other choice... he has to fight his way through each level. Hancock's probably helping out by keeping the warden distracted, but even she can only keep it up for so long. Luffy's only chance would be to just keep going and get as deep as he can before the Magellan decides to deal with him.
"Do you know anything about Level 2, Robin-san?" Brook asked nervously.
"Turns out the rumors of Level 1 that I heard of were right," she sighed. "And if the rumors I've heard of Level 2 are also correct then that means that what's down here is...?"
But before she could finish her sentence they heard a resounding crash behind them and they turned at once to see Buggy's body lying there without his head—yet no sooner did they realize that did the head soon came crashing right after him and hit the ground hard.
"Buggy's here?" Nami asked, startled to see the clown.
"Yeah, I thought he flew off a long time ago," Zoro said, blinking in surprise as Buggy seethed in pain.
"Yohohoho, maybe he decided to come after all," Brook offered happily
"That coward? After all the fuss he put up in trying to get away?" Sanji said with a shake of his head. "Nothing doing. I bet you all my favorite cooking knife that the oaf fell."
"Yeah, that sounds more likely," Franky said, and they all nodded in agreement.
"This is bad," Buggy said to himself, before he looked to his headless body, the hand still gripping tightly to the treasure marker that Luffy gave him. "But still... now that I have this, I can finally find Captain John's treasure! No way I'll-"
"Well, if he wants it that badly, he's gonna have to pay," Nami said coldy, and for once she wasn't talking about money. Luffy finally noticed that Buggy was there, before he reached out and grabbed him by his blue ponytail and pulled him along so that the body was forced to follow after them.
"C'mon!" said Luffy happily, tucking his head under his arm like a ball. "Lead the way!"
"W-W-Wait a second!" Buggy cried in protest.
"Kinda hard to do that when you're the one dragging him," Zoro said, but he couldn't deny that he was rather enjoying seeing Buggy being treated like this. Yet before Buggy could try and think of an excuse to get out of this, they heard it... a distant roar in the distance as if from some lumbering beast.
"W-What was that?!" Usopp choked out fearfully as they kept on running.
"Whatever it was, it sounded big... and hungry..." Zoro said, frowning as he looked around. "You mean they have animals in this place too?"
"Well, we did see those big gorilla's upstairs," Sanji offered, "And we're in the Calm Belt so there's all sorts of giant Sea Kings...?"
"I was afraid of that," Robin whispered to herself. It looks like she was right when she heard about the different levels of Impel Down. She was just wondering how to break the news to them what was down here as Luffy continued dragging Buggy with him everywhere... they ran up and down stairs so often that it felt like they were running in circles and getting nowhere.
"This is so stupid!" Franky said, glaring around when they went running to a dead end. "How is anyone supposed to find their way in this place?!"
"That's the point," Robin answered. "If it was straight forward then they would be having their prisoners here breaking out of their cells and heading up to Level 1."
"Looks like we hit a dead end," Luffy commented calmly, breathing a little hard from the run.
"Geez, captain... ya think?" Franky asked, looking up at the wall. "Of course... it doesn't have to be... all ya gotta do is break it down."
"Remember the last wall that he went breaking through?" Nami reminded him irritably.
Luffy finally seemed to be taking in his surroundings as they heard more sounds of the beastly, animalistic growling and roaring. "So... what's on Level 2?"
At last, Buggy pulled his head out of Luffy's grip and fixed himself to the rest of his body, who had just come running up, and was also gasping for breath.
"That's right," he said. "This is the Accursed Beast Hell! And it's even worse than the Crimson Hell!"
"Accursed beasts?" Chopper whispered, his eyes widening.
"Yep..." Robin said calmly. "From what I've heard of it... apparently, this is where they put the prisoners with bounties higher than 15 million. This particular floor contains various wild beasts of sorts. But I don't know exactly what kinds...?"
"What do you think?" Usopp cried out in terror before he began to bite his nails and looked around anxiously. He was half-expecting some kind of demon to come through a wall and go straight for them. "BEASTS OF HELL! WHAT ELSE WOULD THEY PUT IN A PLACE CALLED THE 'ACCURSED BEASTS' HELL?!"
"What? You mean there're monsters straight out of hell down here?" Chopper screamed.
"HOW TERRIFYING!" Brook screamed, his bones rattling together.
"This should be interesting," Zoro said in great fascination as he wondered what the government considered to be 'accursed'. Especially since they approve of torturing the inmates here.
"Damn you, Straw Hat!" Buggy went back to yelling. "This is because you went running around like a moron!"
"Like he's one to talk," Sanji coughed out as Buggy looked up, just as scared as Usopp.
"There are accursed beasts running around everywhere on this floor!" Buggy said fearfully.
"Accursed Beasts?" Luffy repeated in confusion before he noticed something behind them and pointed curiously. "Is that one of them?"
Buggy gasped and turned. "They found us, already?"
They all spun around, expecting to see some kind of giant dragon or something with poison fangs... they could hear a low growl sounded off in the darkness of the corridor. It grew louder and louder as something came closer...
But when it stepped out of the shadows, most of the crew ended up doing a face-plant when they saw what it was.
"A... hippo?" Nami whispered from her spot on the floor as she looked up, her jaw falling open. It was indeed... rather than a monster... it was a cute, little hippo, about the size of a small dog. Robin, who was one of the few still on her feet, frowned at the sight of it—having a good idea to what it was.
Luffy glanced at Buggy as the hippo wriggled its cute ears and yawned at the sight of them. "No matter how you look at it, it's just a hippo."
"Uh... yeah, it is," Buggy agreed, looking like he didn't really believe what he was seeing.
"It's smaller than it's supposed to be too," Luffy added. "That's what you call an accursed beast?"
"It's kinda cute," Usopp said, feeling like he was missing something here.
"Don't be fooled," Robin countered seriously. "If I'm right, then that's a Giant-Mouth Hippo!"
Chopper was suddenly reminded of Wapol just as Nami asked, "Why do they call it that?"
But she got her answer almost at once for Buggy laughed a little, and walked closer to it. "That's strange..." he said, "I heard that Level 2 was filled with..."
And some members screamed as the hippo's mouth suddenly grew huge, looking big enough to swallow a man whole. And he almost did too... for he ate Buggy's torso and arms—leaving nothing but his head and legs.
"It may be small, but it can swallow things more than ten times its size," Robin finished as Brook screamed.
"You could've warned us a little sooner you know!" Usopp yelled at her as they started to run with Luffy and Buggy. But the Hippo wasn't giving up—charging right after them. Yet, it didn't seem to be able to get the idea of corners for when the two took a sudden turn it ended up crashing right through a wall with a loud smash.
"Well they got rid of that thing quick," Sanji said, so far not too impressed with any of that. But the hippo was far from done. It got right back up and began to chase after them with surprising speed, despite the fact that it had such tiny legs.
"Yohohoho, it sure is fast!" Brook said, looking back at it.
"Now is not the time to be impressed!" Usopp yelled at him, giving him a hard smack. But Brook wasn't the only one who was looking back at it.
"Awesome!" Luffy said, actually laughing a little. "He's pretty fast for a little hippo!"
"This is no time to be admiring it!" barked Buggy, suddenly mirroring Usopp and Brook. "Prepare to turn left!"
Luffy didn't need telling twice, and turned sharply with Buggy down another hallway. This time, the hippo was going so fast that it crashed through the wall and disappeared.
"Ha-ha-ha!" Buggy laughed with an evil grin. "He went and crashed into the wall! He's fast but only runs in a straight line!"
He spoke too soon. There was another crash in front of them and they saw the hippo back—having broken through the wall and took a shortcut back to them. It jumped, lunging towards them, who were forced to turn tail and make another run from it once again. The hippo missed them, but it ended up taking a large bite out of the floor as easily as if it were made of butter before it resumed the case.
"EHHHH! IT ATE THE FLOOR LIKE IT WAS SNACK!" Brook yelled in panic.
"You know! We're running around all over here and we haven't seen anything else. Is that stupid hippo the only thing on this floor?" Zoro yelled in annoyance, wishing that something different would happen already.
"If I had to guess then I would say that the bigger ones lie a little bit deeper on this level," Robin said.
"Hey," Luffy suddenly yelled at Buggy, "He just ate your body, you know! You sure you're okay with running away like this?!"
"Just watch and see!" Buggy said with a grin. "After all, I am the Chop Chop man!"
They found out what he meant right away for suddenly the hippo gagged and tripped up, rolling towards them like a boulder—giving Luffy and Buggy hardly any time to jump out of the way before it ended up crashing into the wall once more. This time it seemed to have been knocked out and its jaw fell open so that the rest of Buggy's body jumped out so that he could pull himself together.
"What did he do?!" Nami said, impressed against her will.
Luffy was asking Buggy the same thing, and he just cackled as he said, "Even if my body is in pieces, I can move them any way I please! That'll teach ya, you dumb hippo!"
"I get it," Franky said with a sigh, feeling sorry for animal. "He must've grabbed hold of something while he was in there. Poor little guy... I know how painful it is to be grabbed in places that you rather not have been grabbed."
Not that their peaceful reprieve lasted long. They were forced to keep running in this place, Luffy now looking for the stairs downward again, while the rest of them were really getting tired of all the running they were forced to do while here.
"What other choice is there?" Nami demanded irritably when Usopp began whining about how they've been running a marathon since coming to this island. "We have to keep up if we want to know more to what happened."
"What was that?!" Brook said, having heard a strange buzzing sound coming from above.
"Probably more prisoners," Franky said unconcerned.
"No, I hear it to!" Sanji yelled as the buzzing became even louder and they looked up in time to see something falling towards them.
"What's wrong?" Luffy asked as he braked to a stop, noticing that Buggy was looking up as well.
"I think I saw something up there," Buggy said uncertainly.
"Maybe it was a bat," Luffy said as he looked around.
"I don't think that's it," Robin said just when something came jumping from the ceiling and began chopping Buggy up into pieces, causing some of the Straw Hats to scream in shock.
"DAAAAAAAAAHH!" Buggy cried in terror, "CHOP CHOP QUICK ESCAPE!"
"What was that?" Chopper shouted as Buggy and his chopped-up body flew away and reassembled behind Luffy, who turned and saw that this time they were up against a giant praying mantis the size of a full-grown man. He was dressed in prison guard attire and its hands were long scythe-like blades.
"That's a Giant Praying Mantis," Robin said impressed, and began to start a quick sketch of it after she finished drawing the hippo.
"Yeah, I remember seeing a couple of them back on Jaya!" Chopper cried out, remembering how he and Luffy were forced to run from those things when they came after them while they were looking for a South Bird.
"Lucky for Buggy he can't be killed by blades," Brook said, feeling his heart calm down after the shock of seeing something like that happen so quickly. Not that he had a heart...
The mantis struck at them again, but this time Luffy jumped out of the way in the nick of time just as Buggy was hacked into pieces again.
"Wow!" said Luffy mesmerized. "He sure can cut!"
"Amateur!" Zoro said, knowing that he could easily beat that thing in a battle of blades.
"THIS IS NO TIME TO BE IMPRESSED!" Buggy's head yelled at him. "If I'm chopped up much more, I'll be in big trouble!"
"You mean there's a limit that he can cut up?" Nami asked as they landed behind the mantas and Luffy began to compliment the mantis for how fast it was.
"Can't say," Robin said, "I don't know the full extent to the Chop Chop Fruit. But all Devil Fruits have their limits whether we like it or not. Maybe it's like a doll that's been pulled apart and stitched up so many times that it just starts to fall apart and you can't fix it anymore?"
"That's a terrible comparison, Robin!" Usopp said, shuddering at the thought.
"You shouldn't be complimenting it!" Buggy cried out to Luffy as the mantis began to swing its scythes, in great arcs and circles so that it began to cut up the brick walls like paper. Of course, Zoro was far from impressed, privately thinking that he would've chopped those things up so much that there wasn't anything left.
Luffy and Buggy both clapped at the mantis's display however. At least until it struck forward, ready to attack them, but then its blades ended up getting stuck in the floor.
"Ah... ok...?" Franky asked as the mantis tried to pull itself free.
"God these are accursed beasts?" Sanji asked with some sweat falling down his face. Even those gorillas on the upper level were tougher than these things.
"Uh," Luffy muttered as they all watched the Mantis struggle to free his blades. "Think he's stuck. What should we do?"
"Whadda mean 'what should we do'?" Buggy snapped.
"Wanna just go?" Luffy offered.
"Yes," Chopper sighed tiredly. "The sooner we get out of here, the happier I'll be."
Without waiting any longer, the two walked right passed the mantis, leaving it stuck and still struggling to get free.
"Are you sure these are accursed beasts?" Luffy questioned Buggy doubtfully, looking like he had been promised a real treat, only to be severely disappointed. "Y'know they don't seem all that tough."
"That's what I said," Zoro said, following after them with an identical bored expression. "This is nothing."
"True," Buggy said to Luffy's question, having finally calmed down. "They're not at all what I thought they'd be. Level 1 was a lot worse than this! Then again, if you think about, there's no way that accursed beasts can exist outside of..."
BRUCKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWW!
This time this roar was so loud, so great, that it created a wind strong enough to pull the mantis behind them free, and out of their sights.
"What the hell...?!" Nami cried as the wind died down and she looked up. But what she saw made her almost faint from fear.
"What was that?" Luffy asked as Buggy looked up, but then he gasped and froze in place. Chopper, Brook, and Usopp all shrieked at the sight of a creature sticking its massive head through the narrow passageway.
"Now that is something you don't see every day," Robin said, looking up with wide eyes.
"What's the matter?" Luffy asked, having not noticed that they weren't alone anymore. But when he followed Buggy's gaze, shock registered on his face. For standing over them was a humungous bird-like creature that looked mostly like a giant rooster only this thing had a reptilian face, rows of sharp teeth, and a forked tongue like a serpent sticking out in a deranged manner.
"Finally! That's something you'd expect to be down on a level known as the Accursed Beasts Hell," Sanji said causally as half their crew screamed in fright.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!" Usopp screamed as it let out another rooster-like roar and went charging at the two at its massive feet.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Luffy and Buggy screamed. "A MONSTER!"
"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" Buggy shrieked and the two turned and bolted as fast as their legs could carry them with the lumbering beast hot on their tail.
"Come on, Luffy!" Zoro yelled at Luffy. "You can take that thing out easy! It's nothing compared to some of those freaks back on Shiki's island!
"Damn it all!" Buggy cursed as they ran. "The rumors were true, after all! We're gonna die! I never even wanted to be dragged down to Level 2 with you! I was planning on leaving you behind while I made a break for it!"
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Sanji said, having already guessed that his plan had been something along those lines.
"Huh?" Luffy asked, clearly not having heard anything that Buggy just said. "What'd you say, Buggy? What the hell is that thing?"
"That's what I want to know!" Brook panted, looking behind him, only to yell in fear at the sight of such a creature as Nami yelled, "Luffy! Pay attention to what he's saying! He's not here to help!"
"It's the rarest of mutations!" Buggy answered. "A snake hatched from the egg of a chicken! The Basilisk!"
"So that's what a Basilisk looks like," Robin said in interest, having just finished up her picture of the mantis and flipped to a new page. "I always thought that it would look more like a snake to be honest."
"You're drawing everything you see down here?! What's wrong with you?!" Usopp yelled at her.
"It's not something you see every day," she answered casually.
"Those things come from chickens?!" Luffy screamed back at him.
"THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT A MONSTER," Buggy bellowed out, "On the surface, it'd just attack and eat people so they brought it down here as a guard!"
"Where do they find these things?!" Franky shouted as the Basilisk continued to give chase, pushing itself through the narrow corridors, trying to bit at the two of them. While Luffy dodged its mouth, Buggy just split himself apart to keep from getting eaten. They dove under an archway that supported an upper level of cages, the Basilisk ended up getting his own head stuck in it.
Luffy saw this, and that was when he skidded to a stop, turning to face the beast with his fist raised up.
"What are you doing?" Buggy yelled, pulling himself back together.
"I don't have time to deal with this!" Luffy yelled, putting his thumb between his teeth and they knew he was about to perform a Third Gear. "Right! Bright it on!"
"About time!" Zoro cried out, glad to see Luffy stop running.
"Are you out of your mind?" Buggy shouted at him. "No matter how you look at it, there's no way you can beat something that big!" He then turned and grinned to himself. "Well, that's fine! Now's my chance."
"He's gonna leave now isn't he?" Sanji sighed. It wasn't even a question to what he was gonna do.
"Let him go," Zoro said unconcerned. "He doesn't know where he's going or anything. We're better off without him around."
"I'll leave the rest to you!" Buggy said, his arm held in farewell. "Well, so long, Straw Hat!"
He turned to run again, but as he did so, Luffy had blew the air into his fist, making it grow to a giant's arm and was pulling back for a punch.
"That's right!" Nami cheered. "Take that thing out!"
"WHAT THE...?" Buggy screamed at the sight of Luffy's arm.
"Gum Gum..." Luffy cried out, "GIANT PISTOL!"
And with the biggest blast yet, he punched straight into the Basilisk, sending it crashing through the wall behind it, where it laid on the ground—out cold.
"Well, that's problem solved," Franky said as Chopper and Usopp all cheered Luffy on. But the best part would have to have been Buggy's face... the look of stunned disbelief at what he had just seen, while a shrunken Luffy smiled at what he had just did.
"I did it!" Luffy squeaked out triumphantly.
"What the hell just happened?" Buggy questioned, slack-jawed and his eyes bugging out of his head. "What was that thing you just used?"
"That's my Gear Third," Luffy answered squeakily as he looked to the Basilisk. "Seems we beat it somehow!"
"We? That guy didn't do a thing!" Franky called as Brook laughed.
"Like I said, just leave that idiot behind," Zoro said in annoyance. "It's clear that he hasn't gotten any stronger than the last time we fought him."
"Right! I'm back to normal!" Luffy said, his body growing back to his usual size. "Let's hurry to Level 3!"
But before anything else was said or done, they heard a voice call from the shadows of the cages all around them. "The Gods have come to save us from Hell!"
Surprised, they looked up to see that the prisoners on this level were all cautiously approaching the bars and staring in shock at what they had obviously seen.
"He defeated the Basilisk!" another prisoner croaked out and soon they were all pointing and staring at the two of them like they were the ones on display.
"The prisoners again?" Franky asked in surprise.
"Just a bunch of weaklings who couldn't fight it themselves," Sanji sighed.
"Well, you don't expect a freak like that thing to exist in this world!" Nami retorted as the prisoners began to cry out praises to Luffy and Buggy.
"But Buggy didn't do anything!" Chopper pointed out.
"Think that's gonna stop him from taking advantage of it?" Nami asked as the prisoners were point to some keys on a ring that lay at their feet.
"We need to hurry!" Luffy pressed Buggy, who naturally ignored him.
"Don't be so impatient!" he said crossly.
"But I'm in a hurry!" Luffy yelled out angrily as Buggy picked up the keys and swung them around on his finger like he was the one in charge of the show.
"Want this you guys?!" he called and the Straw Hats watched in disgust as he kept telling the prisoners to continue praising him.
"Thank you so much, Captain Buggy!"
"You saved us, Captain Buggy!"
"We'll never forget this, Captain Buggy!"
"I'm gonna be sick, Captain Buggy," Sanji added darkly. He looked to the prisoners and though that these guys should show a little more dignity.
"That's right!" Buggy exclaimed as he tossed the keys to them and they quickly began to open their locks. "Remember the name of your savior! Now go, and unlock the other cells! Free your fellow comrades!"
"In that case, he should be the one to deal with the next monster that comes along," Franky muttered darkly.
"Do we have to watch this?" Zoro asked in annoyance.
"But it is a good idea to release them from the cells and have them cause trouble," Robin pointed out. "The guards will be focused on trying to prevent them from going on a riot and that will help Luffy out in a long run."
Still, it was a relief when Luffy grabbed Buggy once again and dragged him along, running once again down a random corridor.
"Are you satisfied now?" Luffy asked in annoyance. "Now you've gotta help me out! Hurry up and show me the way downstairs. Is there a hole that can take us down to Level 3?"
"Let me go!" Buggy barked. "I don't know how to get to Level 3? There's no way I'd remember all the passageways in this place! It's like a maze! LET GO OF ME STRAW HAT!"
"What the hell?" Luffy shouted at him angrily. "You said you'd take me to Level 4!"
"He never meant a word of it, Luffy!" Sanji sighed. That guy was just too trusting for his own good.
"I lied!" Buggy retorted. "I only wanted the treasure marker on your arm, so I lied to you to get it! But now those other prisoners are gonna mess up the floor for us!"
"You lied to me?" Luffy growled, stopping so that he could look at him with real anger this time. But speaking of other prisoners, the prisoners that they had all just released and had gone running out of here were suddenly running towards them in a large mob. Brook cried out that they were coming for them now, but instead they ended up running straight passed them with panicked looks on their faces, and to their amazement—bolted straight to their cells.
"What the hell? Didn't they want to leave?" Usopp asked, not getting what was going on.
"You think that Basilisk is the only monster down here?" Robin asked lightly. "No, if I had to guess there's something bigger and meaner not too far off."
"What do you have in mind?" Franky asked, but when he saw Robin open her mouth to make a suggestion he added quickly, "Never mind! I don't want to know what you think is down here."
"Each his own," Robin smiled back.
"What's the big idea?!" Buggy screamed at them all. "Wasn't this your big chance to escape?!"
"Uh, we got a little ahead of ourselves!" said one of the prisoners, closing the doors. "There's no way we can leave this place as long as the Boss of this floor is roaming around."
"Yeah! We're a lot safer in here!" one of the others shouted.
"Boss?" most of the Straw Hats repeated, not liking the sound of that.
"So now what are you gonna do now?" Franky smirked as Buggy sweat-dropped nervously before turning to Luffy.
"Right, Straw Hat," he said, as if nothing had happened. "I'll tell you how to get Level 3!"
"HEY, DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW, BIG NOSE!" Luffy yelled at him.
"Thank god that he can listen," Nami sighed. Honestly, if Luffy had just brushed that off, then she would have been seriously lost any hope for him.
"WHO YOU'RE CALLING 'BIG NOSE'?" spat Buggy.
"Who does he think?" Sanji demanded, "Who else there has a big red nose like that?"
"If you are having problems finding your way on this floor, how about I lend you a hand?" said a voice behind them and they all turned, some of them with their jaws falling open at who it was now. Though he was dressed in the same tattered prison garb as everyone else, covered with dirt and filth, his hair now a limp mess... there was no doubt who it was.
Usopp yelled, pointing a finger at him. "It's Mr. 3!"
"I did hear he was captured after the Alabasta incident," Robin said in great surprise, suddenly wondering how many other of her former fellow agents were now down here as well.
"Huh?" Luffy muttered, looking at him with that innocent confusion on his face.
"Who're you?" Buggy questioned.
Nami sighed as she shook her head. "God, can't we come across someone who can actually help Luffy instead of old enemies?"
"It's been too long, Straw Hat," Mr. 3 began with a smirk, "Straw Hat... it seems as though, thanks to you, I'm a free man! I am a man who repays his debts!"
"Funny, I didn't pick that up when he threw that key away after we got him out of that gator's stomach," Zoro stated darkly. Though, now that he thought about it, Robin did say that key was supposed to be a fake.
"But his powers did get you all out of there in the end," Brook pointed out cheerfully. "It's all about getting the job done."
"Uh... who are you?" Luffy asked in confusion as some of them sighed, not the least bit surprised.
"Of course he wouldn't remember," Nami sighed, wishing that she could forget how she had almost been turned to a wax statue thanks to that jerk.
"You think the big 3 on his head would clue him in," Sanji pointed out.
"Nah, he wasn't worth mentioning anyway," Zoro yawned out as Mr. 3 looked taken aback, as well as a little insulted, that Luffy didn't recall him. He growled at him and held up his limp hair so that they couldn't possibly mistake it for anything but a number 3.
"Oh, that '3' means..." said Luffy, thinking hard. "You're that guy who was on the giant's island! Three!"
"It's MR. 3!" Mr. 3 corrected angrily.
"What's the difference?" Zoro asked with a shrug as Mr. 3 put his hands together and then separated them to form a kind of bridge of wax between them and laughed.
"Man, we just keep running into a lot of old faces here," Brook said, "I can't help but wonder just who else we could possibly run into."
"I'm sure we'll find out," Sanji said, just hoping that they would soon run into someone who would be of some use to Luffy. Yet his hopeful thoughts didn't last long for they were spotted by a whole mob of beasts—some of the strangest ones they've seen yet. There appeared to have been a group of lion-like creatures with human faces, as well as a giant centipede, the Monster Mantis, and even the Giant-Mouth Hippo from before hot on their tail so that all they could do was turn and run.
"It would seem that the beasts on this level have noticed our presence!" Mr. 3 exclaimed unnecessarily.
"Oh, ya think?!" Nami yelled.
"What are those things?" Chopper called, staring behind him at them all. Seeing those human faces on those lions sent shivers down his spine.
"I've heard about them," Robin called, "And if I'm right, then they're the Manticores!"
"Manti-what?!" Usopp yelled at her as Luffy shouted out, "We don't have time to keep running forever!"
"True!" Buggy yelled out, surprisingly agreeing with Luffy for once. "But if we get caught, we'll become those things prey! And if we wait around for them to leave, the prison staff from the other floors will catch up!"
"Not too many great options, here!" Franky called out.
"It's obvious! Take those things out and head to the next floor before you get caught!" Zoro shouted, glancing back at the monsters. They didn't look all that tough, but there were a lot of them. Luffy suddenly braked to a stop and turned to face the creatures. He screamed at the other two that he was in a hurry and that he didn't have time for this. And so, the other two behind also decided to try it as well and they combined their efforts to try and attack.
Luffy's fist hit the giant centipede first, but to their shock, it exploded into several pieces and several smaller scorpions burst from the sections before they went running at them. Buggy's axe was able to take out three of the Manticores while Mr. 3's hardened the wax around the legs of several others and stopped them in their tracks.
"Just when you think you've seen everything," Robin said in great interest, having to abandon her picture of the centipede and work on the scorpions instead.
"The centipede just exploded!" Luffy exclaimed as he continued to run.
"It was made up of a bunch of Puzzle Scorpions!" Mr. 3 explained as they all bolted. "They're poisonous!"
"Oh, this just keeps getting more fun!" Sanji yelled sarcastically. "I bet I could cook up those guys! How much do you want to bet that they taste like shrimp?"
Chopper was frowning a little however. He remembered when he saw the poisonous wound on Luffy's arm after he they were making sure that Sanji was alright back on Fishman Island. Luffy said that he almost died from poisoning back in Impel Down. Was it possible that he got hurt from those scorpions? Even a tiny scorpion can kill a person in minutes...?
"They just keep coming!" Buggy screamed, snapping him out of his thoughts as they continued to run after the three. They ran this way and that way, here and there, up and down stairs, through corridors and hallways, the beasts unrelenting... until at last they lost sight of the three escapees.
"We'd they go?" Usopp gasped, unable to believe that he lost sight of them.
"I believe... we lost... them at the... last turn..." Brook panted. "Oh, I don't think I can run anymore... my lungs are burning in my chest. Ah! Not that I have lungs! Yohohoho!"
The monsters had all realized that they were gone as well, stopping and looking around in confusion, as they tried to figure out where they went this time.
"Wait!" Brook added, having heard something. It was the light footsteps as though someone was walking down a nearby corridor. This certainly was enough to gain the monsters attention as they turned to their right and went bolting down the hall. The rest of the Straw Hats were about to follow, at least until Zoro spotted someone hiding right above them and called for them to stop.
"For what?" Usopp asked at once, and he merely pointed up to where Luffy had jumped down from the ceiling with Mr. 3 and Buggy.
"I can't believe that worked," said Luffy, sounding impressed.
But it was Buggy who floated down towards them, his feet missing. "See?" he laughed, "I told you! They were completely fooled by my 'Fake Legs Master Plan'!"
"His...?" Nami began before she understood. "I get it. He used his feet to trick them."
"Not that it's going to help them for long," Robin said, smiling proudly at her finished picture of a Manticore. "He's talking so loudly."
She was right. For Buggy was laughing at the top of his lungs and yelling out what idiots those monsters were. Unfortunately for them, the beasts heard him and had come running back.
"I didn't think it possible," Sanji sighed, "But Buggy's mouth is even bigger than his nose."
"Moron," Nami muttered bitterly as Buggy's feet were thrown at him, hitting him right in the nose as their 'friends' came running back towards them.
"You just blew our cover!" Luffy yelled at him and soon they were running again.
"Dammit!" Buggy yelled furiously before he seemed to think of something. He then yelled out to Mr. 3, "Hey! By the way! I heard that the boss of Level 2 is supposed to be some kind of lion! Are those the things chasing us the ones?"
"There's a lot of them but other than that, they aren't that dangerous," Sanji said firmly, and it was Mr. 3 who explained.
"No! Those are the lions with human faces! Manticores!" he shouted. "And if they catch us, they'll eat us whole! Including our bones!"
"Even our bones?!" Brook gasped out, "But I'm nothing but bones!"
"I thought so," Robin answered, thinking back to the book of mythology she read once. "They are said to not be picky about their food. They'll eat anything."
"Like Luffy?" Franky asked with a snort of laughter.
"In one sense, yes," she chuckled a little. "But Luffy doesn't eat the bones... at least I don't think he does."
"Even our bones?!" Buggy cried out in fear as at that moment they heard a terrible groan coming from behind them.
"Keys..." the dark voice said and they looked back in time to have seen that the word had come from one of the Manticores.
"THEY CAN TALK?!" Chopper screamed out in shock.
"Please give us... the keys..." another Manticore groaned out.
Buggy and Luffy were both looking back in shock at what they were hearing but Mr. 3 shouted out, "Ignore them! They are simply able to imitate human speech because of their human faces!"
"Help me!" cried one Manticore.
"It hurts! So painful!" cried another.
"They're just saying words they've heard the prisoners say!" said Mr. 3 hurriedly. "They didn't even know what they mean!"
"Oh, that's just terrifying!" Usopp yelled as they all felt cold at the thought of what that meant. That sounds almost as bad as being torn apart and eaten by those things. Who knows what other horrible things will come out of their mouths? Screams of agony? Crying? Pleading for mercy?
"C-Creepy!" Luffy gasped out.
"I hear you there, captain!" Franky called as he saw the mouth of one of the Manticores open up and he was expecting something horrible to come out again. But instead...?
"Loincloth! Loincloth!" it said.
"Strawberry panties!" cried out another.
"WHAT?!" the Straw Hats all yelled, almost falling over at such a stupid, unexpected thing.
"You've got to be kidding me," Sanji said. Prisoners were really saying stuff like that?
"Well, they do say that being in prison does crazy things to you," Usopp offered. "I guess being in a place like this with no girls around would make you desperate."
"DON'T EVEN MENTION SUCH A TERRIBLE PLACE!" Sanji roared out, quivering at the memories of where he had been. Oh, he had longed for a woman alright... but he was never so desperate to go for any of those disgusting people who dressed like a lady...
"Ok, now they're just repeating dumb stuff!" Buggy yelled.
"Beef steak!" one of them shouted out, which got Luffy's attention.
"Beef steak?" Luffy repeated, with his mouth beginning to water as he looked back. "Where?"
"DON'T REACT!" Buggy snapped, smacking him over the head.
"Well, for once I agree with that," Nami sighed. At the very mention of food and Luffy's short attention span suddenly becomes non-existent. "Luffy, focus here."
"Hey, you!" Luffy said, turning his attention to Mr. 3. "You said that you'd lend us a hand, right?"
"Of course I did!" Mr. 3 answered, panting for air, "After all, we should combine our resources to escape from here shouldn't we?!"
"Well, he's in for a nasty surprise," Sanji said in amusement, wondering how Mr. 3 was gonna take the news.
"How do I get further down?" Luffy asked seriously. "I'm headed for Level 3!"
"WHAT?!" Mr. 3 cried out, "YOU DON'T INTEND TO ESCAPE? AREN'T YOU HEADING TO LEVEL 1?!"
"Straw Hat plans to free his brother Ace!" Buggy said in distaste as he ran backwards so that Mr. 3 could see his face.
"WHAT? BROTHER?!" Mr. 3 cried out in shock, "STRAW HAT, YOU AND FIRE FIST ARE SIBLINGS?! AND YOU'RE HERE TO RESCUE HIM?!"
"I know that's what happened and I still have a hard time accepting it," Usopp sighed, glancing around the dark walls. You have to have some serious brass to ever willingly come to this miserable place.
"Nice to know that there's someone who will go through so much for you though, Yohohoho," Brook said fondly. You would be lucky to have someone like Luffy-san as a friend. And once he thinks of you as one, then he'd give you the shirt of his back if you needed it.
"I'm in a hurry!" was Luffy's only answer, but that seemed to be all that was needed to be said. For a moment, Mr. 3 seemed to be trying to comprehend what that meant.
"STOP JOKING AROUND! YOU MUST BE INSANE!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE!" Mr. 3 ran for the nearest flight of stairs but Luffy stopped and stretched out his arm to grab hold of his shoulder to stop him.
"Wait!" Luffy cried as Mr. 3 continued to try and run as Buggy stopped as well. "In that case, can you at least tell me where the stairs are?!"
"It's the least that you guys can do!" Franky yelled out at them. If they wanted to get rid of him so badly then why not just tell him the way to get downstairs?
Mr. 3 suddenly stopped struggling as he seemed to think that request over. To their surprise, he hopped back down the stairs and said, almost happily, "Alright, Straw Hat! Let us go on together!"
"Huh?" was the general response to most of the Straw Hats.
"You mean he's actually going to be helping out now?" Usopp gasped out, trying to think of what the catch is here.
"Oh, he doesn't really mean it," Robin said, knowing how he thought. "I rarely ever spoke with him while I was still with Baroque Works, but I know that he always looks to gain a profit out of anything. It's just like with Buggy. He'll go with him only so far until something dangerous pops up. If I had to guess, he most likely wants to use Luffy as some kind of distraction so that he can escape."
"Why I outta wring his neck," Franky growled furiously as Buggy gawked at him as they ran down a flight of stairs and headed even deeper into the floor.
Luffy was just happy that he had someone willing to show him where the next floor was and went happily right after him as Mr. 3 continued to chant, "Leave it to me, Straw Hat! Follow me—!" But before he could finish speaking, he ended up running right into something.
They had quickly caught up to him and, at first, thought that he had simply run into a wall. Only they noticed right away that it wasn't made of stone. It was a grayish color and seemed to be soft... like fur... and they noticed that it was breathing.
"Walls don't breathe," Zoro said, looking up at it.
"Then what do you think...?" Usopp croaked out fearfully as the beast turned its head to see what had run into him. They looked up at the massive creature to see the long tail that was brushed at the tip like a lions while it's forelegs and shoulders were covered in a light colored feathers... surrounding the old, man-like face and gray mane.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! REALLY BIG MANTICORE!" Chopper screamed in terror at the sight of it.
"Not quite!" Robin said, recognizing what it was at once, and unable to believe that she was able to see such a creature. "Unless I'm mistaken, that's the Sphinx!"
"SPHINX? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Usopp screamed out, "CAN'T WE GET A BREAK DOWN HERE?!"
"It's supposed to be hell, what did you expect?" Zoro asked loudly. "I can't wait to see what Level 3's like!"
"Maybe you do! But I've had enough of memories!" Usopp shouted out. "And Luffy had to deal with all this?"
"There's... something here," Buggy whimpered, staring up at the furry wall. Mr. 3 was too frightened to even speak or move... yet he found his voice quickly enough. "It's him! The guardian of the stairs! The Sphinx!"
"Amazing," Robin said, unable to stop herself from drawing a quick sketch of the Sphinx's face. "I've heard all kinds of legends about them. Who would've thought that they actually existed?"
"W-What is gonna happen now?" Brook croaked out, shaking badly as he fell to his knees.
"I-it's a lion?" Luffy gasped, staring up at it. "No, an old man?"
"No, but not bad guesses," Robin said calmly. Right behind them, the creatures that had been chasing them up till that point had arrived. Yet as soon as they saw that the Sphinx was there, they immediately stopped dead in their tracks, staring up in terror at the ancient face. And then they turned and ran as fast as they could the way they came from, clearly have forgotten all about their prey.
"That's not a good sign," Nami croaked out. Really, if even the monsters of hell are afraid of that thing?
"Please..." Zoro said unconcerned. "That guy's big, but he doesn't look strong."
"Don't underestimate your opponent," Robin reminded him and he lowered his head slightly with a nod, showing that he understood. The Sphinx then closed his eyes, as if tired and they all stood still, wondering if it was going to say something too. And it did...
"Somen..." it said. At his words, they almost ended up collapsing all over again.
"AGAIN WITH THE STUPID WORDS?!" Sanji roared out, "WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE DO THEY PUT DOWN HERE?!"
"I guess hungry ones," Franky offered, also starting to feel a bit hungry himself.
"Somen?" Luffy, Buggy, and Mr. 3 all repeated just as the Sphinx roared out and raised a giant paw to try and crush them.
"RAMEN!" he screamed and with a thunderous crash, the three were forced to scatter and run around to avoid getting stepped on.
"TANMEN!" it continued to yell as it slammed a paw at Luffy, who was forced to jump to avoid it.
"It learned all the noodle types!" Buggy cried like a baby.
"Pork noodles!" the Sphinx then hollered as it took a swipe at the two of them. "Szechuan noodles!"
"He's making me hungry just listening to him," Zoro said, standing there with his arms folded as he watched them dodge it all.
"How can you possibly be hungry now?" Nami demanded coldly, pointing up at the Sphinx. "That thing's trying to eat Luffy!"
"Well, he doesn't does he? So what's there to be upset about?" Zoro retorted coldly.
"Handsome Men!" the Sphinx suddenly said.
"Now this is getting sad," Franky sighed as Buggy and Mr. 3 looked back at the Sphinx, as if they thought that he had been talking to them.
"In what parallel universe are those two handsome?" Nami asked coldly. Really... your hair in the shape of the number three and a big red nose and make-up? Maybe in a circus surrounded by other freaks...? But even that was optimistic at most.
"This guy's dangerous!" Luffy called in warning.
"Oh geez, what gave that away, Luffy?" Sanji called in annoyance as he lit another cigarette. "Damn..." he added, "Just once I wish he could hear me."
"Ground pork noodles! Hot-pot noodles! Canton noodles!" the Sphinx continued to cry out and they were all seriously wondering who had taught it how to say all these noodles. But to their surprise, Luffy suddenly stopped running, his hand over his stomach from the mention of all this food.
"Don't stop running, you idiot!" Nami yelled out, wanting him to stop thinking about his stomach for once in his life. But instead, she heard him say to himself that it had been a long time since he had some of Sanji's food, and they could hear his stomach was roaring with hunger right now.
"Well, I can't say that I blame him for being hungry," Robin said casually. "It had been at least a week by now since what happened to... to all of us on Sabaody. And he has spent the last part of the day running around this terrible place, trying to avoid dying."
"Don't make it sound even worse than it is!" Usopp yelled, his heart feeling like it was being twisted up inside him.
"He's inside Impel Down, trying to find his brother who is about to be executed, he has no idea where he's going but he knows that he has to fight his way through several different types of hell and all he's got helping him are a couple weak cowards who couldn't care less if he died," Zoro snapped, his temper suddenly rising. "I don't think it can get any worse than it already is!"
They were all rather taken aback by Zoro's sudden harshness, but there wasn't a single thing that they could think of to counter that. And it only made them feel even worse than before—if that was even possible. And the worst part of it all was that they were seeing this all now... two years later and were still as helpless as they were back then. All they could do was just stand by and watch.
"Wonton noodles!" the Sphinx roared out this time and Luffy's stomach growled, apparently loud enough so that it drowned out the Sphinx's voice to Luffy's ears—who was no looking down at him with confusion on his face. That seemed to tick the overgrown cat off....
"WONTON NOODLES!" the Sphinx thundered, once more and Luffy snapped back to the matter at hand to avoid another stomping from the huge paws.
"Luffy-san! Pleas pay attention!" Brook yelled worriedly. But at that moment, he saw Buggy and Mr. 3 with their head close together, muttering quickly and he frowned. "What are they planning?" he asked.
They looked to see where he was looking and they all felt a strong dislike going through them at the clear looks of betrayal there. They approached them as Luffy continued to run around, the Sphinx focusing on him.
"Come to think of it," they heard Buggy whisper, "Isn't it his fault that we're here in the first place?" Buggy asked him.
"I was thinking the same thing," Mr. 3 agreed seriously.
"Hello? You're the ones who said you'd show him the way!" Nami snapped, wanting to reach out and bash both of their heads in.
"Besides, they got sent here to prison on their own! And the reasons why they kept getting caught!" Chopper added angrily, hating that they were blaming Luffy for everything here. "It's not Luffy's fault!"
"It always is easier to blame someone else for your problems than to face up to them," Robin sighed sadly.
Just then, the two grasped each other's hands and Buggy exclaimed, "Right! Then our 'Escape Alliance' is formed!"
"I'm sure glad that there's somebody here who values freedom," Mr. 3 said in relief before they grinned evilly at Luffy, who was still jumping around, trying to avoid getting stepped on.
"Time for Operation: 'Straw-Hat-is-our-decoy-plan'!" Buggy declared.
"Indeed!" Mr. 3 said rather cruelly.
"Damn it," Sanji hissed, anger rising inside him, and you could see his leg steam slightly as if it was going to start smoking and then burst into fire. "If only I can kick these two!"
As the Sphinx continued to cry out different kinds of noodles, Luffy looked back to seem them huddled there as he asked, "Hey, what're you guys doing there?"
"Nothing good!" Usopp yelled, not wanting Luffy to be stuck on this floor any longer than he was forced to spend already. Yet, he was terrified of what the next few levels would be. After all... Level 4 is supposed to be something called the Inferno... he could only imagine just how bad that place was. And who knows what's on Level 3?
Buggy and Mr. 3 froze when they realized that they had been spotted plotting, but luckily for them the Sphinx threw his paw down, hardly giving them time to warn Luffy that he was under attack. Luffy looked up just as the paw was over his head and he jumped up, climbing the Sphinx's body until he was right above it, pulling his arms back, readying himself for an attack.
"COME ON!" Franky cheered out, "TAKE HIM OUT!"
"GUM GUM... BAZOOKA!" Luffy cried out, hitting the palms of his hands right on top of the Sphinx's head, almost knocking the thing out. But it just roared out in fury as Luffy was forced to cling onto its head.
"Damn, tougher than I thought it was," Zoro said as the Sphinx was trying to throw him off.
"Why would you upset it on purpose?" Mr. 3 cried up at him.
"I don't see you guys helping out!" Usopp yelled at him. "Do something to help for once!"
Buggy, however, freaked out and went flying off to some higher grounds while Mr. 3 stared around in horror.
"Wait!" he yelled. "You two are unfair! Escaping to a higher ground like that and leaving me down here?!"
"Karma's a bastard," Sanji said, knowing that those two were about to do the same thing to their shit-headed captain.
"They're just sore losers if you ask me," Zoro yawned as the Sphinx then spotted Mr. 3 and went after him.
"No! WAIT!" Mr. 3 cried in terror and they all froze as they watched the paw slam down on him. Their eyes widen when they saw the Sphinx raise its paw to see that Mr. 3's body had turned bone white and was now crumbling in pieces.
"AHHHHH!" Chopper screamed in horror. "He's dead!"
"Not quite," Robin answered, still drawing. "Did you forget about his Wax Wax powers already?"
"Oh, right!" Brook gasped, letting out a sigh of relief. Though he didn't like Buggy or Mr. 3, he didn't want to see either of them getting killed in such a way.
But then they heard an annoying familiar voice start to laugh before he said, "You fell for it, you simple-minded creature!" They looked up to see that Mr. 3 was still there, but standing a little farther away from where his wax statue had been.
"That is a wax-statue I created with my Wax Wax powers!" he bragged, "It doesn't have Ms. Goldenweek's brilliant coloring, but it's more than enough to fool a dumb beast like you!"
"Oh, no... you don't think that she's down here too, do you?" Nami asked, knowing that it couldn't be good news for Luffy if that was the case.
"If she is, I doubt that she has her paints," Usopp pointed out to her and Nami thought that over, realizing that he was right. He might survive an encounter with her after all without having to worry about his mind being taken over.
"What is with these guys loving to hear themselves talk?" Sanji asked, rolling his eyes. This guy was as annoying as he was in Little Garden. But Mr. 3 was already making even more wax clones of himself, all of them in different positions and expressions on their faces. He began to spread them around the room so that there were several dozens of them all around them and even they were starting to have a hard time keeping track of them all.
"Now..." they heard his voice cried out from the crowd of fake Mr. 3's. "Which one's the real one?"
The Sphinx was looking over each one with great interest as well as confusion. Finally, it made a guess and stomped down on a random figure, and they heard the crunching sound of wax over the crash of his paw.
"Wrong!" Mr. 3 laughed out and the Sphinx went out for two more.
"Wrong again!" Mr. 3 called out tauntingly.
"Hey, this looks like it might be fun," Franky laughed now "Those are SUPER copies! I'll give him that!"
Over and over the Sphinx went to smashing at the wax statues, but there were so many around them that even with his size, he was having a hard time trying to figure out which one to go for next.
"That's so cool!" Luffy commented, from his spot on the Sphinx's head. "It's like a game of Whack-A-Mole!" He laughed and started pointing at random statue for the Sphinx to hit. "Get that one!"
And the Sphinx went for it before they saw that it was just a statue.
"You got it wrong?" Luffy laughed before looking behind them. "How about that one?"
And that was how it went, Luffy would cheer on the Sphinx even as it kept guessing wrong. He was smiling and laughing, as even the Sphinx seemed to be enjoying himself with this guessing game.
"You know... the last time that Luffy had to guess which one was the real Mr. 3 he ended up guessing the right one right away," Robin pointed out.
"I'm more amazed that he's playing around with that thing!" Nami called out as the Sphinx was now acting more like a playful kitten than anything else.
"Yohohoho! Luffy-san knows how to have fun!" Brook laughed as Luffy and the Sphinx continued their game.
"You're in on it too, huh?" Luffy laughed, as the Sphinx continued to happily break more of the statues.
"He's making friends with strange creatures again," Usopp groaned out. Though he supposed that he rather have monsters with them than against him. However, they were actually starting to enjoy watching this particular memory of Luffy playing around here and act more like his old self. That gloomy, serious Luffy wasn't one that they saw often and it only helped to increase their own sense of guilt over the whole thing... at least they were able to forget about what the future held past this moment for even such a short time.
At least until Franky really began to notice all the tremors that the Sphinx kept making. "I don't like this," he said, noticing the walls beginning to shake. "You know, if he keeps this up then it's only gonna be a matter of time before he breaks right through the...?"
But it was too late. Before he could finish his sentence, the floor beneath them began to crumble and crack and several of them were screaming out in fear as the floor began to collapse under their feet. The bricks fell away perfectly like a puzzle and they saw darkness below them as they began to sink and next thing they knew was that they were falling through it. Luffy was falling, still clinging to the Sphinx's mane, and his laughter turned to fear as he, along with Buggy and Mr. 3, fell through the darkness.
"OH, YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Usopp screamed in terror as he clung tightly to Chopper and Brook, all of them screaming as they fell through the dark.
"Nami! Don't you fear! I'll save you!" Sanji cried out, reaching out his hands for her, and she pushed him away.
"Dope! We can't get hurt here!" she yelled.
"Didn't see this coming!" Zoro said in great interest, "But you gotta admit, saves a lot of time and effort!"
"Oh, shut up!" Usopp cried, not liking this at all. "I've made up my mind! If I have to choose between dying and being arrested... I chose dying! There's no way that death can be worse than this place!"
"I'm with ya there!" Sanji had to shout over the sounds of screaming. "But it's only gonna get worse from here!"
"THIS IS BAD!" Mr. 3 bellowed out, as he clung onto the Sphinx's fur.
"HEY! THAT'S LEVEL 3 BELOW US YOU KNOW!" Buggy screamed.
"Sorry noodles!" the Sphinx cried out, and even won a few chuckles from the Straw Hats, despite the situation they were in.
"STRAW HAT!" Buggy's voice bellowed out, "YOU'RE LIKE THE GOD OF HORRIBLE FORTUNE!"
And like that the memory faded so that they were back in the darkness again.
"Man, this keeps on getting even more intense," Franky said, breathing hard, "And now we're gonna see Level 3 in a minute?"
"Makes me wonder how bad that place is gonna be," Nami gulped, wondering just what could be worse than being eaten alive or torn apart. The waiting for the memories to come back was starting to become painful for them all. When at last it did, however—they didn't even recognize it at first for it was still very dark. Yet it didn't take them long to realize where they were this time.
"Oh, no..." Nami whispered before she looked around and spotted the familiar cell to her right and went over to it to see him still there. Ace was still chained up to the wall, looking as beat up and defeated as he had with the memory of Garp there.
"Ace..." Chopper said sadly, wishing that there was something that he could do to help take away some of Ace's pain.
"There is no excuse for something like this," Sanji hissed, furious that the Government got away with this kind of torture.
"I can't stand this," Franky said bitterly. The next time that he saw someone from the World Government, he was going to break their face.
"But why are we seeing...?" Usopp began, unable to truly look at Ace's bloody form. But at that moment, from the shadows in Ace's cell, there was a hulking figure rising up against the heavy chains that kept him bonded there.
In fact, the hulking figure caused such a fuss, another massive creature came from the hallways. They couldn't see the thing's face thanks to this darkness, but they could at least see that whatever it was, it didn't seem to be human. They backed away, seeing the thing raise its arm while armed with a heavy mace.
It approached Ace's cell, but seemed more focused on the one making all the noise rather than Ace.
It was then they heard another familiar voice speak up, "I'm not... I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"
"No!" Nami cried out, recognizing that voice anywhere. "It couldn't be...?!"
With a horrible cracking noise, the guard hit the struggling figure with the mace before forcing him to sit down. It was then that the guard left, where the shadowed figure breathed hard, as if biting down pain.
Nami went running forward, desperate to see his face and gasped when she recognized him. It was Jimbei. He looked just like the same Fishman they had met before at Fishman Island, only now he was heavily beaten and the kimono with diamond shaped patterns on it was dirty and torn. It looked he had been treated almost as harsh as Ace had been.
"Damn..." he grunted in annoyance. "Didn't even hit that itchy spot."
"Now that's tough," Zoro said impressed.
"What's Jimbei doing here?!" Chopper cried out in shock.
"So he and Ace were cellmates?" Usopp asked, rubbing his eyes as if to make sure that he was seeing this right.
"He looks like shit," Sanji said, unable to believe that they were able to keep someone as strong as Jimbei locked up here.
"But... but...?" Brook began, looking lost but it was Robin who had the answer.
"Jimbei was highly opposed to the war, remember?" she reminded them all. "It makes sense that he might've even have tried to stop this war on his own. And so, they felt the need to put him here. At least until after the war was over."
"How were they able to get him down here?!" Usopp yelled out in bafflement. "He's anything but weak!"
"Yes, but don't forget... the Marines have strong ones too," Nami said, frowning sadly at Jimbei's beaten form.
Ace, meanwhile, barely glanced over at him. "Looks like they've given you another beating, eh, boss?"
"This is nothing," Jimbei said grumpily. "The wounds hardly hurt. It's my heart that's aching right now from not being able to do the right thing!"
"Oh, Jimbei!" Nami said, her own heart hurting at how much pain that Jimbei must be in. He truly wanted to stop this war, but remained powerless to do so.
"This must be so hard for him," Brook said sadly. To think that this all could've been avoid, but the Government insisted on raging an all-out war just to kill Whitebeard.
"Jimbei," Ace muttered tiredly, but there was a slight light of understanding in his eyes.
"I can't die here," Jimbei said determinedly. "At least not yet, Ace! I couldn't care less if I lose my title as one of the Seven Warlords! That title means nothing to me!" He hung his head as he went on, "I'd gladly give up all I had, even my life... to stop this war!"
"He really is something else," Chopper said, his own eyes shining in amazement. He now couldn't wait for Jimbei to join their crew and sail with him. It would be so awesome to have him around.
"I thought that Luffy didn't meet Jimbei until they were at Marineford though," Zoro said thoughtfully. "So they actually met here in prison?"
"Yes," Robin said, "I can guess what happened. Since Ace was—was killed at Marineford. Luffy must've failed to make it down here in time. They must've already moved him by the time that he did get here. But when he did...?"
"He met Jimbei, who must've asked to come with him when he found out that Luffy's going to try and save Ace," Sanji nodded in understanding. Yes, it did make a lot of sense... but... but what he couldn't understand was how Luffy could fail to get down here in time. After all, didn't Garp say that he still had about a day and a half or something like that until the execution? How is it that Luffy was forced to waste so much time trying to get down here? Was this place really that big? Or was there something that they weren't aware of?
"Jimbei!" Chopper's voice cried out, snapping Sanji back to reality. "Don't move around!"
But Jimbei had rammed the back of his head into the wall and more drops of blood fell. But he went on speaking, as if he could care less about his own injuries, "To the World Government, I am known as a pirate-hating pirate. But you, Ace... you and your crew are different."
"He's a pirate who hates pirates?" Chopper asked in confusion.
"I believe that's due to the actions of pirates who had kidnapped Fishman and merfolk from Fishman Island and sell them as slaves," Robin said. "But he holds a great deal of respect for Whitebeard and his crew since they were the ones who protected his home for so long."
"Not only that, but despite hating pirates, he doesn't think twice about becoming one," Sanji said, thinking back to when he heard Jimbei's story and how he left everything behind to help out Fisher Tiger.
"A pirate-hating pirate," Ace smirked a little. "You?"
"It is hard to believe," Nami said softly.
"It may seem strange to you," Jimbei answered, "I spent a lot of time on Whitebeard's ship. Yet, because of my position, I always had to be discreet about it and travel underwater. I do like you guys after all."
"That was the best choice," Robin agreed. "If the Government knew about that, they could've taken his title away. And that title has helped to protect his own crew as well as Fishman Island."
Ace was chuckling a little, though it sounded as though his heart wasn't really into it. "I seem to recall you tried to kill me once, though..."
"What?!" half the crew shouted out in surprise, unable to believe that these two had once fought like that.
Jimbei didn't deny anything, in fact he said, "Well, you tried to kill me also, didn't you? I simply wanted to help him."
"Oh, so he was the Warlord who almost killed him," Brook said and most of them looked at him in confusion as he added, "Remember while you were in Alabasta? Luffy-san and Ace-san were talking about the Warlords? Ace-san said that he was almost killed by a Warlord once."
"So it was Jimbei he fought," Zoro said in fascination as Jimbei told Ace that the reason that his home island was at peace was because of Whitebeard. At one point, Fishman Island was like a battlefield, humans coming from all over to kidnap his people and sell them off for money. Jimbei said that he would never forget the day that Whitebeard ended the chaos by declaring that island as his territory. That was all it took to stop the raids and many different islands rely on that protection simply by using his name. But if something would happen to Whitebeard, he could only imagine what would happen to all those islands.
"They would be wiped out unless they could find more protection," Usopp said, thinking at how Fishman Island was now under Big Mom's flag. Though with protection like Big Mom, who needs enemies?
"Well, that might not last as long as you think," Sanji said and most of them looked at him in confusion as Zoro chuckled a little. "See... back on Fishman Island, when those two weirdo's from Big Mom's crew showed up for all that candy, they had her on the line."
"And that was when Luffy threatened her!" Usopp yelled, suddenly angry. "And now she wants to kill us!"
"I don't wanna die!" Chopper cried out tearfully.
"Stop whining," Zoro said. "Anyway, Luffy told her that after he kicked her ass, he was going to make Fishman Island his turf. As scary as that sounds, I think that they'll be safer that way."
"Unless we all get killed when she comes after us!" Usopp snapped as Jimbei banned his head on the wall again.
"I wanted to do something to stop this war, even if it cost me my life!" he confessed. "I wanted to save you, Ace..."
"Jimbei... please stop," Ace said weakly. "You're being too hard on yourself."
"That's the hardest part," Franky said darkly, knowing that helpless feeling all-to-well.
But Jimbei ignored Ace's words as he looked up to the ceiling and said, "I still haven't abandoned hope. I still believe in miracles and chance."
No one said anything to those words, not even Ace, who seemed to have given up. But there was someone who found those words funny. They heard a dark voice chuckling to himself almost sinisterly, as well as another familiar voice speaking up, "Seems like things have gotten pretty interesting out there..."
They had heard that laugh before and when they did, they felt the color drain from their faces and Robin's eyes widened a little as she turned to the direction that the laughter was coming from.
"No..." Sanji said at once, refusing to believe it. "Jimbei... Buggy... having them down here is one thing... but running into him...?"
"There's no way!" Nami said, but she knew that to be untrue. For through the gloom, her eyes finally adjusting to the dark, a familiar figure was sitting in a cell almost directly across from Ace and Jimbei. The figure laughed again, his hand rubbing over a large golden hook on the end of his arm, as he said, "This sounds like the perfect chance to take down Whitebeard... the thought of it makes my blood boil."
"Why you..." Jimbei growled, glaring over at the cage's direction.
"You're saying you'd like to take the old man's head?" Ace questioned, not sounding surprised or angry. Merely curious, as an amused smile came over his face.
"I ain't the only one," he smiled back and raised his head so that they could see his face.
"Crocodile," Robin whispered softly.
"I really hoped that we wouldn't have to see that bastard again," Sanji hissed, anger boiling inside him at what he had put his beloved Vivi through. Through the bars there were the faces of all the other inmates, in this darkness, they looked sinister—almost demonic. They began to let out similar cries of bloodlust, and seemed to relish the idea of killing Whitebeard. They then began to stamp their feet, rattling their chains as they banged against the bars as they let out echoing grunts of battle.
"God, and I thought those women at Amazon Lily were scary," Usopp cried out, hugging Chopper again tightly as they shook in fear. This was scary... like some kind of ghosts from the pits of hell wanting to rise up and drag this Whitebeard down with them.
"BE SILENT YOU FOOLS!" Jimbei bellowed out.
"Jimbei," Crocodile went on, still grinning. "Fire Fist. Remember this well. Try and count the people who were forced to swallow their tears after unable to beat Whitebeard or Roger..." and his eyes narrowed. "And you'll find thousands and thousands of them across the sea."
And he cackled softly to himself.
"He's lost his mind, hasn't he?" Franky said in amazement.
"From boredom more than anything," Robin said knowingly. She had known Crocodile for some time, and she could tell that he was bored out of his mind... despite being in Impel Down, he was more fed up than anything else.
"Crocodile..." Ace said. "You know, I was in Alabasta for a while, and I knew that you were up to something rotten there."
"Maybe," Crocodile answered calmly. "Was what I heard true though? When that old man Garp showed up? Is Straw Hat Luffy really your little brother?"
"What of it?" Ace asked with a smirk. "Oh, right. I heard he was the one who kicked your ass. You're in here because he beat you, huh? You must hate him a lot."
Crocodile smirked at the question. "I'm here because I chose to be. No other reason."
"He's lying!" Brook said. "He's stuck in here like everyone else, right?"
"Hard to tell coming from him," Robin said softly, wishing that she had a better answer. But what interested her more than anything was Crocodile's attitude when he mentioned Luffy. Even though he suffered defeat at Luffy's hand, his three year long plan having been destroyed because of him, Crocodile didn't seem to hold much of a grudge against him.
Crocodile leaned up against the wall, as if he could think of better things to be doing than sitting here. Jimbei was glaring at him, looking like how they all had felt.
"Jimbei..." Ace suddenly said quietly, getting Jimbei's attention. They looked over at him, and Ace seemed to be hesitating what he should say. He turned his head a fraction of an inch and made a surprising wish. "If I don't escape death..." he hesitated for a moment before he asked, "I hate to ask, but please take care of my little brother."
Jimbei blinked, startled by the request.
"Ace asked him to look after Luffy?" Nami asked in surprise.
"That doesn't surprise me," Robin smiled sadly, wishing that she had been that close with someone when she was younger.
"I might have to refuse that request, Ace," Jimbei informed him, "You mustn't overestimate me. I'm not that kind-hearted. Even if he is your younger brother; but in this world of pirates I will not lend a hand to anyone I don't think highly of, nor will I protect them."
"Wonder when that changed?" Sanji smirked, knowing that they were all thinking of that moment when Jimbei offered up his own blood to save Luffy.
Ace merely chuckled to himself. "I see," he told him with amusement. "Jimbei... while I was out chasing Teach, I met my little brother for the first time in three years in Alabasta. As soon as I saw him, I felt relieved. Why do you think that is?"
They all looked at each other, wondering just what he was talking about. But as Jimbei looked at him curiously, Ace confessed, "What I saw there, Jimbei, I saw that he was no longer the same old Luffy who'd always chase after me. He's got a reliable crew of his own. No matter what happens he will be all right. I was relieved."
No one knew what to say, all of them affected by Ace's confidence in them and felt warm on the inside at his words. At least until that was replaced by a wave of guilt over letting Luffy get himself into such trouble this time and they weren't able to even help him when he needed them most of all.
"That's what I saw there Jimbei..." Ace said, opening his eyes and raising his head up a little bit. "When you have a reckless little brother... you worry about him. You'll probably have your hands full with him too. But..." a big grin came to his face. "Take good care of him for me."
Robin smiled sadly. She remembered the letter that Sabo had left for Ace and Luffy and the request that he had made at the end of that letter.
'Take good care of him for me...'
No matter what was happening, the three of them were always thinking of each other...
Even after all these years. That truly was something special.
The memory of the dark cage faded away and they were back in the usual darkness, but they barely noticed it as they continued to just stare forward, lost in their own heads. Though none of them wanted to say it, the fact was that they all felt guilt rushing through their bodies like blood. Ace had been able to take solace in the idea that his little brother was safe because they were all there to protect him.
But instead, they might've as well have abandoned him for all the good they did. They all knew it, and were willing to admit it because they knew that it was the truth. Ace's trust in them had been misplaced and Luffy had to pay the price for their failure. Ace is dead and now that they were closer than ever to seeing that moment leading up to his death; it sent waves of terror throughout their bodies.
They all looked at each other, wanting to say something about this, but nothing came. They were each completely lost as to what they should do.
At long last, Robin spoke up, though her voice was strangely faint, as if she wasn't in the mood to talk. "So now we're heading down to Level 3?"
They knew she was asking just to change the subject, but they were all grateful for it.
"Yeah," Sanji said. "And it's only been a couple hours too. He's making good time."
"Do you know anything about Level 3, Robin?" Chopper asked, rubbing his bloodshot eyes.
She smiled a little sadly down at him as she said, "It's supposed to be where they keep prisoners with bounties over 50 million. And apparently, it's Level 4 that is the source of all the torture."
"The inferno you mean?" Zoro asked as Franky sniffled behind him, having been truly touched by such a moving scene.
"Again with Level 4..." Sanji muttered as the memory finally came back and they saw where they were.
"AHHHH!" Chopper cried out in amazement. "WE'RE IN THE DESERT AGAIN!"
And it looked like he was right. They were standing on a floor that was covered with thick layers of sand and a blazing light coming from above that almost blinded them after having been in the dark for so long. But the worst was the heat... it seemed to be coming up from the floor and was blazing hot and suffocating. Next to them was the unconscious Sphinx with Luffy, Buggy, and Mr. 3 lying around in a giant pile. Luffy was groaning a little in his sleep, slowly coming too...
"Oh, damn..." Sanji hissed, pulling at his collar. "This whole shitty place is like a frying pan! And believe me, I know frying pans."
"So here you die in the heat?" Franky asked, wondering how the government was able to make it feel like a hot sun was baring down on them.
"It kinda feels like we're back in Alabasta," Nami said, fanning her face a little though she couldn't truly feel the heat since it was just a memory. But when she looked up to see—what appeared to be ruins in the distance—were actually more cages half buried in sand.
"Look up there!" Brook called, and they all glanced up to see the hole they fell through, now the size of a pinprick in the distance—right above them.
"Damn that's a far way up," Zoro said, shading his eye against the bright light. "How do they intend to get back up?"
"Well, this isn't the normal way down," Robin reminded him. "They just went crashing through. Which means...?"
"Which means that the stairs must still be intact," Usopp said, glad to hear that Luffy wasn't going to be stuck on his floor. "So... what's this level? The Desert Hell?"
"It sounds like Hell to me!" Chopper whined, knowing that there's no way that he could survive in a place like this. He was hot just looking at this place as Luffy finally sat up and blinked from the bright light.
"Is this a desert?" he asked himself as he wiped at the sweat beading on his forehead. "It's so hot here... and quiet..."
"That's what's surprising me," Robin answered, knowing that kind of ruckus would normally have guards swarming from all over to find out what happened. She suddenly thought of Hancock and couldn't help but wonder if she had something to do with this lack of guards searching for Luffy.
Buggy had also woke up, and he was sweating like a hog. "Level 3, we came to one hell of a place..." he croaked out mournfully before he yelled furiously at Luffy, "STRAW HAT! Why'd you have to drag us down with you again?!"
"Looks like the lion's out cold," said Luffy, looking at the sleeping Sphinx, and not paying attention to anything that Buggy was saying.
"Of course..." Brook laughed. "That was such a big fall..."
"LISTEN TO ME!" Buggy screamed at him.
But their attention was quickly turned over to Mr. 3, who looked terrible. He was trying to make a little wax doll of himself in his hand, but the heat was so hot down here that it was melting and looking a great deal like the slimy thing that had been fighting on the island before when it couldn't hold onto a shape.
"This place is too harsh for me..." he croaked out, "For someone who holds wax powers..."
"He really looks terrible," Chopper said worriedly, and he was actually wondering if Mr. 3 could really melt?
"He never did take well to Alabasta," Robin answered, "For someone with Wax powers it only makes sense. There are just some Devil Fruits that are made for certain environments... but suffer greatly in others."
"And it only makes sense that someone who has his kind of powers wouldn't do well in a place like this," Nami said in understanding.
As Luffy went jumping up onto the sleeping Sphinx, standing on a large bump on the overgrown cat's head, and began to look around... a terrible sound began to echo around them. It was the sound of dry wind blowing through the cages, bouncing off and echoing around them... it was just like when they first arrived at Erumalu and how it had been reduced to nothing but a ghost town after three years of no rain.
"This place just keeps getting creepier and creepier," Franky muttered as some of them felt shivers going up their spines at the eerie sound.
"Yes, as silent as a grave," Robin said.
"The last thing we need is your gruesome imagination, Robin!" Usopp snapped at her.
"Where are the stairs?" Luffy suddenly called to the other two as Mr. 3 looked wearily up at him, with even his hair looking like it was starting to melt.
"I don't know," was his only answer.
Buggy looked at him and said, for the first time, sounding like there was sympathy in his tone. "This guy won't last for long if we stay here."
Luffy readjusted his hat as he said firmly, "Anyway, let's just get going!"
He jumped down to the hot sand and they were all heading off across Level 3, but with every step they took, the three of them seemed to have gotten hotter and more tired. Soon they were all dragging their feet, panting hard and reminding them all of that miserable march across Alabasta.
"This takes me back," Nami smiled. "Remembered when we walked to Yuba with Vivi?"
"Oh... Vivi, my love!" Sanji called out before he added to Nami. "You and Vivi were so beautiful even as we crossed over a hot desert!"
"I wonder how Vivi's doing right now?" Chopper asked softly, suddenly missing her all over again.
"We won't get anywhere no matter how far we walk will we?" Buggy grumbled behind them.
Mr. 3 looked like he was about to have a heat stroke as he said, "If we talk, we'll be wasting precious energy."
"If only we thought of that when we were forced to walk all over the desert," Usopp muttered darkly just as something fell from the floor above them and stuck itself in the dirt like a dart... and for a moment he thought that he was dreaming... but it turns out that it was a small, roasted bird.
"Did that thing really fall down here?" Sanji asked, looking from the bird to the ceiling above him. "Where the hell did it come from?"
"Ooh!" Luffy chirped staring at it hungrily. "A roasted bird fell from the sky!"
"There's no way!" Usopp said, rubbing his eyes to make sure that he was seeing that right. Buggy also thought that as he said that it was impossible, but Mr. 3 came up with an answer as he looked up at the ceiling, telling them that perhaps a bird from Level 2 got lost down here and had been roasted by the hot air.
"You've got to be kidding me," Usopp muttered, shaking his head.
"I don't know, you've got a better explanation?" Brook asked curiously and Usopp almost choked on his words, truly not knowing what to say to something like that.
Sanji looked over the bird as he said, "Looks like it's perfectly roasted to me...?"
"It's not THAT hot down here!" Luffy and Buggy barked at him, though that didn't stop Luffy from picking it up and beginning to chow down on it.
"Why doesn't this surprise me?" Nami asked a little, laughing slightly.
"Hey, I think that he deserves some food after getting down just this far," Franky said. "I want some food now too now that I think of it.
"Then you should've saved your lunchbox!" Sanji barked.
"Don't mention food to me," Brook sighed, his hands hugging his middle "I'm so hungry now, I feel as if my stomach is eating itself! Ah! Not that I have a stomach to be in pain with! Yohohoho!"
"It's roasted just right," Luffy chomped down before saying, "I rather have some meatballs made from those lions in the last floor though..."
"You'd actually eat an animal that can talk?" Buggy grumbled as they continued to march along, though now that Luffy had some food, he was looking to be in much better spirits.
"He'd eat dirt if he thought it was food," Nami sighed.
"I'm surprised that you even have an appetite in this situation," Mr. 3 gasped out grumpily.
"He can eat anything, anywhere," Sanji muttered. "Believe me! I know! He could be on his deathbed and still be telling me to serve him some meat."
"The sad thing is, that's probably true," Zoro commented, suddenly having a craving for a hard drink. He focused instead on how they were approaching the now-familiar cages in the distance and Buggy croaked out happily at the sight of them.
"Well, they're not exactly rare around here," Luffy pointed out so that Usopp and Chopper laughed at how the blunt obviousness that was.
"Just proves how dumb you are!" Buggy yelled at him, "Over there, it might be a little cooler, and it'd be safer to travel!"
"I wouldn't bet on it though," Robin pointed out, looking at the cages critically as Luffy complimented Buggy on the idea. "It might be cooler, but it is also a perfect place to set up an ambush."
Buggy then turned back to Mr. 3 and said, "Mr. 3! I'll be counting on you to make a key!"
"What's the point if it's just gonna melt?" Sanji asked, though even he was starting to worry because it looked like Mr. 3's head was melting now.
"There's nowhere to hide, is there?" Mr. 3 asked in despair as the other two took off towards the cages almost happily.
"You're in a prison? I don't think anywhere is safe," Franky couldn't help but speak up as they followed after them at a slower pace, feeling as if a dark presence was hanging over the heads the deeper they went into this place. Though they couldn't quite figure out what that darkness was. When they arrived at the grouping of cages, Luffy peeked into them curiously, like a little kid at a zoo, before he asked, "Hey, what's in these cells anyway?"
"Prisoners, Luffy, what else?" Zoro asked, glancing around.
"Are you sure?" Franky asked as they looked in. "They look... they look like...?"
And when the others looked in, they could see what he was talking about. There were people in there... or at the least, they looked like people... but if you asked him they looked rather what remained of prisoners. The inmates here... they all looked so emaciated and dehydrated that they were like dry husks.
"They'll soon end up like me," Brook whispered in horror as he stared at the weathered skin over their bones.
"Wh-What happened to them?" Nami gasped in horror as Chopper covered his mouth with his little hooves, his eyes wide.
"You might not be able to see it any longer," Mr. 3 said, catching up to them, "but all the prisoners here in Level 3 were once criminals with bounties over 50 million. The heat rising up from the Inferno Hell below us, as well as the fact that hardly any food or water is given to them, has left all the prisoners here half dead."
"WHAT?!" Sanji roared out furiously as flashbacks of those months spent on that rock in the sea came back almost violently. He knew the pain all too well... he had been hardly more than a skeleton by the time that he and Zeff were finally rescued. No one deserved to go through such an ordeal and he was wishing that he was here more than ever so that he could get those prisoners some much needed food.
"This is beyond evil! How can the Navy actually get away pulling crap like this?!" Sanji demanded of them, trembling so badly that he had to clench his hands into tight fists to keep them from steady. "Even if they're criminals, they don't deserve this, do they? No one deserves to slowly starve to death!"
"And the marines think that pirates are evil," Nami said softly as she looked at the men through the cells with pity in her eyes. "This is more evil than what most pirates are capable of."
"This is Level 3," Mr. 3 whispered tiredly as they looked to the remains of a skeleton hanging from two giant posts above them. "The Starvation Hell..."
"Starvation Hell..." Sanji whispered, shaking his head. This place was truly a hell in his eyes... not only are there no pretty girls here... you die a very slow and painful death? Who comes up with such sick and twisted ideas? Whoever they are, they deserve to be dragged out to the street and be beaten to death.
Mr. 3 readjusted his glasses as he added, "I suppose now you understand why the floor is covered in sand..."
"Wait," Nami said with her eyes wide as they all froze. "You don't think he means...?"
No one could answer her as they all slowly looked down to see that the cages were indeed full of sand and bones... in fact, they saw a skull crumbling away to dust at Mr. 3's words.
"Even the sand you're standing on right now... might just be the remains of some dead, dried out prisoner," Mr. 3 finished which caused both Buggy and Brook to scream in horror.
"I have to get out of this place!" Brook cried, looking around in panic. "I CAN'T GET ANYMORE DRIED UP!"
"YOU'RE NOT REALLY HERE, REMEMBER?!" Sanji yelled at him as the Weakling Trio all began crying in terror.
"I want out of here!" Chopper cried, jumping up onto Zoro's shoulders so that he didn't have to be on the floor again. "This whole place is made up of nothing but nightmares!"
But Franky was staring at the sand with a horrified look on his face. Was... was it possible that Tom was on this floor as well? He couldn't think, he wanted to just turn and throw up but he couldn't even move. Where did they put Tom when he was brought here? Was he torn apart or attacked by those monsters up on the first or second levels? Or was he put down even deeper and forced to suffer even worse than he thought? Just thinking about it made him sick and he just wanted to break something—to scream—just to wipe those thoughts from his mind.
Even Zoro was starting to look disgusted by all this. He had always been one for a challenge, and the first two floors were like a trial to him... but here? This was just straight-up torture. There was no way around that. Buggy was hopping around like he just wanted to get his own feet off the floor. Not that they could blame him this time.
"If we stick around too long, we could end up like them," Mr. 3 finished gloomily.
Buggy swallowed the lump in his throat and said quickly, "We have to escape from here while we are still able to sweat it off!"
"Then let's hurry to Level 4," Luffy said, finishing up the bird and licked his fingers clean.
"YOU'RE GOING THERE?!" Buggy and Mr. 3 cried out in horror.
"He wouldn't come all this way for nothing," Zoro said darkly. "You're already halfway there. There are just two more levels to go."
Soon though, all three of them were fighting over which way to go. There were so many stairs in this place that it was getting to be almost impossible of keeping track of where to go.
"They better find the way soon," Zoro said, though at that moment he sensed something behind him and sighed. "Too late... there's somebody up there."
"Where?" Chopper asked at once, looking around, looking around but not seeing anyone who wasn't half a skeleton. He did his best not to look at them, as well, trying to remind himself that there was nothing that he could do to help.
"What Moss Head means is that there's a guard up there watching them," Sanji said as he breathed out a puff of smoke. "Up there on the left..."
They looked, but they didn't see anyone up there as Robin answered, "It was only going to be a matter of time before they become trapped... they needed to leave this floor as quickly as possible."
"How are they supposed to do that when they have no idea where to go?!" Nami demanded. Luffy gets lost going in straight line. But this whole place is like a labyrinth...? Even she, who had a gift of knowing directions, was finding it impossible to keep track of where she was and where to go. Damn, if only she had a map of this place...?
"WHY ARE WE SUDDENLY BACK HERE?" yelled Buggy's voice and they saw the reason for his anger... they were right back where they started from with the out-cold Sphinx.
"You mean they walked all that way in circles?" Nami cried out in shock, having thought that they would've gotten somewhere after all that time. Time is ticking away fast—it had to be a few hours at the least since Luffy first got here.
"It looks like we went the wrong way," Luffy commented bluntly again and Mr. 3 fell to his knees in hopelessness as Buggy yelled at him not to put it like that as Mr. 3 groaned out that they should've gone the way he wanted from the start.
"Stop complaining and punch your way down to the next floor!" Zoro called out.
"Are you nuts?! We don't know what's below us! Luffy might not have such a soft landing if he goes through that way!" Nami barked back, giving him a slap to the head.
"And how is walking around Level 3 like this helping?" Zoro retorted and she just continued to frown at him, unable to come up with an answer for that.
"I need to hurry and get to Level 4," Luffy repeated himself, looking around anxiously again, hoping for someone to tell him which way to go.
"LIKE WE SAID, WE'RE NOT GOING!" the other two shouted together at him and Luffy glanced over at them like he thought that there was a problem.
"Show me the way," he said, "I thought you guys wanted to save Ace, too!"
"How did he come up with that?" Usopp asked, remembering how obvious it was that they just wanted to leave him here and escape on their own. They never once said that they would help him save Ace... Buggy even yelled at him for suggesting such an idea.
"We said no such thing!" Mr. 3 shouted, having some energy back.
"Dammit, you're rewriting your memories to make 'em more convenient for you!" Buggy added furiously.
"I do?" Luffy asked in surprise, as if he never thought of that before.
Robin finally chuckled a little at the innocence in Luffy's tone. "That is a bad habit of yours, Luffy," she commented, knowing that he did do something like that a lot.
"Alright then," Luffy decided agreeably. "I'll go on alone!"
"I'm sure that's music to their ears," Sanji said, letting his cigarette fall to the ground and he put it out by stepping on it. But at that second, something came sprouting up from under their feet with a great clanging sound.
"Oh, what now?!" Usopp shouted out in panic as he moved back in time to see a webbing of steel and netting bursting up from the hot sand below them, entrapping Luffy, Buggy, Mr. 3, and even the Sphinx inside it, and left them dangling in the air.
"Didn't see that coming," Brook said in great surprise before he fully registered what was going on. "EHHHHHH! LUFFY-SAN'S BEEN CAUGHT!"
"WHAT THE HELL?" Luffy yelled.
"DAMN! IT'S A TRAP!" Mr. 3 cried out, and you could see that he simply gave up any hope of escaping now. "THEY GOT US!"
"This isn't good, they finally caught up to them," Nami said, staring around, hoping for some kind of help for Luffy. Speaking of which, Luffy was already trying to bite through the steel net, but something was wrong with him... he didn't seem to be able to get a good hold and having trouble even moving.
"Oh no!" Robin called out, recognizing at once what the problem was. But it was Buggy who answered for her by yelling, "I knew it! This net is made of sea prism stone!"
"There's a horrible price to pay for anyone who tries to escape!" Mr. 3 exclaimed, also sounding weak. "That's it! We're done for!"
"Shit," Sanji cursed, his hands fists again. "They got to get out of that net now before they become too weak to move."
"But how?" Chopper cried out anxiously, not knowing what to do. "That's Sea Prism Stone! You can't break it and they can't even move!" He honestly didn't see how they could get out of something like that and was beginning to wonder if this was where they caught Luffy? If they had... what did they do to him? Torture?
He didn't want to think about it and began to hit his head hard to try and get rid of all those terrible thoughts of what they might end up doing to Luffy if they did catch him. No, he didn't want to think about it. Luffy made it out just fine! They didn't catch him... this was only a minor problem, right?
He kept telling himself that over and over as they were soon joined by guards, jailers, and even those Blugori from the upper levels. They surrounded the net cautiously as they heard one of the guards cry out triumphantly, "We've successfully capture Straw Hat Luffy and his two Henchmen!"
Despite the situation, hearing those two being called Luffy's henchmen was enough to cause a rather rocky laughter from the Straw Hats. And it was seemed funnier when Buggy roared in outrage, "WHAT? DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO I AM? WHADDYA MEAN HENCHMEN?"
"Well, they're too weak to be anything else," Zoro pointed out.
"Yohohoho, Zoro-san is harsh!" Brook said favorably.
"Give it a rest, Buggy," said Mr. 3 in defeat, "There's no use struggling."
"Damn!" Luffy barked, the only one of them still struggling to move. "I've got to get out of this net!"
"And you better do it now, Luffy!" Nami cried out, knowing that if he didn't break free somehow, he was going to be at the mercy of the torturers of Impel Down. And there was no way they were going to let him off easy for all that he had done so far.
They were now completely surrounded on all sides when they heard someone speak up in a slightly squeaky voice, "Make sure to restrain them with Sea Stone shackles."
"Not those things," Robin said darkly as she rubbed her wrists, remembering how awful those were.
"Understood," the guards answered, thought the Straw Hats were all looking around, trying to find who was talking. And this time, through the crowd, they saw a small figure walking towards them. They were rather taken aback by who this little guy was. He looked like some kind of little devil or imp in a white suit and even a black tie. He also wore a white sun hat with two horns coming out of the top and had the Blugori's skull design on the front... with even little bat wings growing out from his back.
"Who is that?" Chopper asked.
"What is he is what I would be asking..." Sanji said, looking at the little horns and wings.
"If I had to guess... I'd say that he's one of the chief guards," Robin answered, noticing how the other guards and even the Bluegori were looking at him with respect. "I wouldn't underestimate him."
Luffy looked down at him, asking who he was and the impish-man replied that he was known as Saldeath.
"Strange name," Sanji said as Luffy and Saldeath began to have a kind of confused argument between them. Saldeath was quickly losing his patience with Luffy, despite his calm face and Usopp was shaking his head.
"Luffy... don't make the jailers here angry with you..." he groaned out.
"A little late for that," Zoro pointed out
"Just give it up! Resistance is futile," Saldeath called out, "You never had a chance to escape this prison to begin with. Aren't you glad that I was the one who captured you? After all, the four Demon Guards, who roam these lower floors, are waiting."
"Four Demon Guards?" Usopp repeated, his eyes widening and sweat beginning to fall.
"I don't like the sound of that," Sanji said, lighting another cigarette for his nerves, and was anxiously wondering just what these guards beasts were.
"Sounds like some kind of guard dogs," Zoro said as Robin looked up in interest. Now she knew about the guards... she had definitely heard about them from some of Dragon's calls with Ivankov. They then heard Buggy beginning to consider that maybe they had gotten off easy since he didn't want to run into the four guards or the Warden, while Mr. 3 muttered if only they picked the right path earlier.
"And it's that attitude that had made you still as pathetic as when we first met you!" Nami snapped. Really, do those two have any pride in them at all?
"That wouldn't have happened," Saldeath called to Mr. 3's muttering in a bored tone. "I've been keeping an eye on you and had a feeling that you'd end up back here..."
"That's about right..." Buggy and Mr. 3 said together.
"So what now...?" Usopp asked desperately, looking at them for some kind of support. "There was no chance for them to get anywhere?"
No one could think of anything to say to that, but then Robin noticed that there was one flaw in Saldeath's plan and a smile came to her face. "There is one way... they made a mistake," she said and she beamed a little wider when the Sphinx's eyes opened.
"Vongole Bianco," it growled as it realized that it was trapped here as well.
"Oh, I get it!" Franky called, his eyes widening in excitement. "Looks like old Sphinxy is helping Luffy out after all!"
"Head Jailer!" shouted one of the guards. "The Sphinx woke up!"
"Good luck trying to keep him under control," Sanji smirked as the Sphinx started to thrash about in the net angrily, still shouting out stupid stuff like Spaghetti soup and other pasta names.
"He's a wild animal... he only knows that he's trapped and he isn't gonna like that," Brook said as Saldeath looked up at all the swinging around and thrashing that the Sphinx was doing inside the net.
Though his expression remained calm, he cried out, "This is bad! The net is gonna tear!"
"Yeah!" Franky, Usopp and Chopper cried out.
"Go for it Sphinx!" Usopp yelled. "Tear it open!"
"Funny... we were cheering for Luffy to take that thing out not long ago," Robin stated as the others shrugged.
"That was before," Franky laughed as they heard a crunching sound and knew that the Sphinx's raw strength and size was starting to take its toll on the steal holdings.
"We can't let those three escape!" declared Saldeath. "Especially not Straw Hat!"
Too late... the Sphinx was finally able to rip himself free and all four of them came tumbling out and hit the hard sand. Luffy was on his feet in no time, a smile back on his face.
"All right!" he cried out, ready for more fighting. "Thank God we got out of there!"
"NO KIDDING!" Nami yelled after him. "DAMMIT LUFFY! DON'T MAKE US WORRY ABOUT YOU!"
"Capture them!" Saldeath shouted to the Bluegori, who charged at Luffy on his command.
Luffy's eyes narrowed, holding up his fists. "Gum Gum... GATLING!" and like they knew it would, those punches came raining down on the Blugori and the jailers, being knocked out like flies.
"You're doing great, Luffy!" Usopp shouted encouragingly, punching the air. "Keep at it!"
"Hey," Brook suddenly spoke up, realizing that they were surprisingly alone. "Where did those two disappear off too?"
"What two?" Zoro asked in a bored way, having taken his eyes off Luffy finishing up another group of Blugori, only to be surrounded by the next wave of enemies. "Oh, you mean Buggy and Mr. 3?"
"Up there," Robin said, pointing right above them, and she wasn't the least bit surprised to see that they had made a break for it as soon as they could. What caught Luffy's attention was the several drops of hot wax dripping down right on top of him and he looked up to see where it was coming from. They all saw the two cowards climbing up onto a bridge right over them that lead to the upper cages, and they were trying to move as fast as they could, despite the fact that they were having a hard time moving in this heat.
"C'mon, Mr. 3! Hurry up!" Buggy shouted at him, trying to pull him up, though Mr. 3 gasped out how unbearable the heat was.
"They aren't just going to leave him are they?" Chopper yelled. Especially after all that they went through?
"Of course they are," Sanji said bitterly. "You saw it right? So long as they get out, they don't care who they have to step on..."
And his words only seemed to be proven true when the two smirked and looked tauntingly down at Luffy.
"So long, Straw Hat!" Buggy called, sticking his tongue out at him. "Say hi to Ace for me when you see him! Tell him that, if he survives, we should drink together again!"
"What jerks!" Nami yelled out, wanting nothing more than to hit them with a thunderbolt.
"If Luffy does tell Ace that, Ace would only kill them for leaving his brother behind like that," Robin answered, knowing that he would most likely burn them both to blacken crisps.
"Well, since Ace can't do it, I will," Zoro promised threateningly, his hand on his swords.
"You turned out to be the perfect decoy!" Mr. 3 added with a laugh. "You fool."
"You two morons do realize that you're not out of the clear yet, right?" Franky yelled up at them.
"The guards know that they aren't worth the trouble," Sanji spoke up, "They can take them out anytime... Luffy's the biggest danger here and they are going to focus on him right now before they deal with those losers."
Luffy, on the other hand, had a different view at it. "After we just met up again," he said to himself almost sadly before he surprised them all by smiling and waving up at the two of them, even as the crowd of enemies grew larger around him, "Well sure! See ya later! Thanks for helping me this far!"
"Luffy," Robin smiled as Buggy and Mr. 3 clutched hold of their hearts as if they were in terrible pain.
"How can he be so optimistic?" Buggy questioned in terrible agony.
"It hurts!" Mr. 3 gasped out. "Oh, it hurts so much inside!"
"What happened?" Chopper asked in surprise.
"Guilt..." Robin chuckled. "Even after what they did, Luffy isn't the least bit upset with them for leaving him to deal with this mess on his own. And that's really starting to hurt them."
"How does he do it?" Brook asked in amazement.
"That's just how Luffy does things," Nami said, and she was actually smiling a little at the smile back on Luffy's face as he turned back to face the hoard.
"Don't let your guard down!" Saldeath commanded to everyone around him as they continued to try and box Luffy in. "His bounty is 300 million!"
"And what makes them think that they can stop that?" Sanji asked lightly.
"Well, you got to give them points for trying," Franky pointed out as a Blugori was the first to go charging at Luffy. But Luffy grabbed hold of the axe and threw him back before aiming another swift kick at another Blugori that had raced up to attack. But there were still so many of them... even after the jailers, guards, and blue gorillas that he took out and threw around like they were toys, he was still heavily out-numbered.
"He can't fight them all off like this. He needs to get out of there now," Sanji called out.
"You better be feeling creative here, captain!" Zoro shouted out, hoping that Luffy came up with something, and fast. As much as he hated to admit it, the cook was right. There was no way that Luffy could fight all of them off right now. He'll be wasting all his time and strength on these guys while there were still two more levels to go. And there was still this mysterious Warden that they heard about. Robin said that he was supposed to be dangerous and if he was waiting on the lower levels...?
He didn't want to think about what was gonna happen.
"I don't have time to fight you all!" Luffy shouted at them, as if he hoped that would get them to just leave him alone. But he had another bit of bad luck—or maybe even good luck if you looked at it hard enough. A dark shadow appeared above him, and the Sphinx was back, ready to attack him once again.
"CRAP!" Usopp yelled. "I FORGOT ABOUT HIM!"
The Sphinx slammed his paw down at him, but Luffy jumped out of the way, and he went hopping on the heads of two other jailers, before he grabbed a Blugori by the arm and threw it at them like he was bowling. With everyone's attention focused on not getting stepped on by the Sphinx, they didn't realize that he was making a run for it until Saldeath yelled at them.
"He's running!" Saldeath shouted, his face still showing no signs of worry. "Get him!"
"He better run!" Chopper gasped as they bolted right after them. "And he can't stop running! I don't want to see you get caught Luffy!"
"Yeah, you're halfway there, buddy!" Franky shouted as they all bolted with him. "Just keep avoiding these guys until you find your bro!"
Luffy jumped from building to building, desperately looking for the way out of there. They could see that they weren't the only ones getting tired of all this running however. Luffy was really draining a lot of energy just running in this miserable heat. The little bird he ate a while ago had seemed to help give him some energy, but nowhere near enough to bring him up to full fighting-strength.
Though there was another piece of luck when he finally found some stairs that went downwards. He took his chance by dropping down to them and began to run downwards as fast as he could go, with sweat dripping off his face like rain.
"It's so hot here..." they heard him moaning out. "Still... if I keep going down, I know I'll reach Ace!"
And with a battle cry, he put on a burst of speed and headed deeper down into Impel Down as the memory faded around them.
"Hey! Why'd it get all dark like that now?!" Chopper cried out at once, wanting to know what happened.
"It looks like we might be seen Ace again sooner than we thought," Robin said softly and at the suggestion, they all felt their breath catch in their throats. And it turned out that Robin's prediction came true for the darkness faded around them only slightly so that they were back outside Ace's and Jimbei's dark cell.
"Why are we back down here for?" Usopp asked nervously, looking to Crocodile's shadowy cell and wondered if he had something to do with them being stuck in this terrible place.
"You know, this place doesn't seem as bad as the other levels," Chopper pointed out.
"You see how Ace is looking? It must be the worst here for a reason," Zoro said, not liking the sense of malice in the air. But before they could think of anything else to say to each other, they heard footsteps in the distance and they looked up in surprise to see Hannyabal come out of the darkness and head straight off to Ace's cell, though Ace barely raised his head to look at him.
"So... is this...?" Nami said in great surprise. She had thought that Hancock had come and gone a long time ago.
"And they took the lift too," Brook added, wondering if maybe the lift was just super slow or maybe even broken. What took them so long to get down here? Was it possible that this place was even deeper than they thought?
"You have yourself a special visitor, Ace!" said Hannyabal as he approached the cell. "Bet you can't guess who it is." Ace looked like he could care less who was here, but Hannyabal glanced over at Jimbei and added, "Jimbei. I'm pretty sure you have never met her so there's no way for you to know who she is."
"Then why ask?" Sanji asked, already hating this guy. And as soon as he saw her, all dark thoughts faded and Sanji was once love-struck at the sight of Hancock standing there, though she was looking as cold and as stoic as ever.
"But though few have seen her, her name is well-known!" Hannyabal finished up as he stood back, "The Empress of the Kuja Tribe and one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea! She is the strong, proud, and beautiful woman in the world! Pirate Empress, Boa Hancock!"
At the sight of seeing her there, Ace—and even Jimbei—were looking up with great surprise. Robin noticed out of the corner of her eyes, that even Crocodile seemed rather taken aback to see the Pirate Empress all the way down here.
"Yay! Yay! Hancock!" Hannyabal cried out. "Hey beautiful! When I become Warden will you marry me?!"
"Like hell you will!" Sanji snapped at him. "It will be I who will win the heart of such a beautiful angel!"
"Think we should remind him that she loves Luffy?" Nami whispered to Robin who smiled back.
"I don't think that's a good idea," she said softly, "Let's let him dream a little. I think that it's best for his health... and Luffy's safety."
"Right..." she nodded back as Hannyabal fired off some confetti until a man came up behind him and gave him a hard hit on the head. At the sight of this man caused several cries of shock from the more sensitive crewmates. He was a large man, about three times the average size of a normal human. He was dressed in nothing but a black suit with bat wings and horns on his head, but what scared them the most was his face... it looked like a mandrill with sharp teeth and a thick beard and dark eyes.
Behind them were also Domino, Momonga, as well as Hancock's pet snake. Each one looking rather bored of being there, as if they had already grown weary of being down here. But it was Hannyabal who was rubbing his head from where he had been hit.
"OUCH!" Hannyabal cried. "That really hurt! Now I really want to be the Warden! Ah! I got it wrong! That really hurt!"
"Who is that?" Nami asked, looking up at the man nervously.
"Who else?" Zoro asked, frowning darkly at that man. "It looks like he's the Warden."
"That guy?" Franky asked, looking at the demonic face.
"Yes," Robin said, he certainly looked like the description she had heard about him. "And if Impel Down is Hell, he is the Devil who controls everything down here."
Sanji frowned a little as he looked at him. Sure, he looked the part, but he didn't look to be all that dangerous; even as he was demanding to know what Hannyabal was doing, who pouted back at him. The other prisoners around them, however, all went nuts at seeing Hancock there. They all began to cry out how beautiful she was, even how nice she smelled, as they were actually trying to get her to come closer to their cages like she was some kind of kitten by telling her that they weren't gonna hurt her.
"These guys are all disgusting," Nami said, glaring around as Sanji looked ready to burst into flames by the lack of respect they were showing Hancock. How dare they treat a lady like this? This was unforgivable in his book. If he was there, he'd kick each and every one of their asses.
Hancock didn't look the least bit bothered by their coarse words as she slowly approached Ace's cell, looking at him with great interest. Ace just looked up at her indifferently. Like his little brother, he also seemed to be immune to her charms.
Instead, he asked her rather coldly, "What do you want with me?"
He sounded much more like the cold child he had once been when they first saw him in the earliest memories. Even Sanji frowned a little at his coldness towards Hancock. But he didn't have the heart in him to say anything against that.
"Nothing," she answered calmly. "I merely wanted to see you with my own eyes. The man who served as a trigger for the war I am about to take part in."
"So I'm just some item on display, huh?" he asked, and they could detect traces of anger in his voice. She didn't say anything as she continued to look at him, completely ignoring the men behind her continuing to jeer at her.
"I gotta hand it to her," Usopp said, impressed that she was able to completely ignore all these guys like this, who probably haven't seen a woman in years, and act like nothing was going on. "She's really tough."
"Yeah," Nami said in agreement, really hoping that she could meet her someday. Oh, the things that she could learn from her...?
"The Pirate Empress who refused to listen, no matter what was said to her until now," Jimbei sneered, "You really want to keep your position as Warlord that badly?"
She barely glanced at him. "So," she said causally, "You're Jimbei. Don't be so spiteful."
"Yes, you don't know the story at all," Sanji sighed lovingly at her, until the inmates continued to try and call to her and he glared back at them.
"They're trying to have a conversation," Magellan said to the prisoners, and they could see that he was quickly losing his patience. "Now shut up!"
But to everyone's surprise, they started to yell at him to take a shit and to just hand Hancock over to them.
"You know, if he really is the Warden, he's not doing a good job keeping them under control," Franky pointed out.
"I wouldn't underestimate him," Robin said, having heard about Magellan's powers and knew better than to hope that those were just rumors.
"Hey! Give me the position of Warden!" Hannyabal called.
"Well, he's not shy about letting people know what he wants, is he?" Usopp asked as Brook wondered why he wanted to be Warden over a place such as this one.
"Vice-Warden..." Domino tried to warn, reminding him of his place.
But Hancock had turned to look at the cells behind her. "You just..."
"Yes!" said one drooling inmate, looking ready to lose his mind. "She's finally looking over here!"
"Keep taunting me with such coarse words," Hancock continued before she held a hand up to her face, with her eyes shining and a light blush on her face as she said, "I'm just so scared."
Once again... she got the desired effect. Nami, who had been prepared for it, had shut her eyes and plugged up her ears to keep herself from falling for the same trick, but some of the boys weren't as lucky. When she opened her eyes, Sanji had already turned to stone and Brook was on his back, his hands over his ribcage, where his heart had once been and hearts in his empty eye sockets. Franky and Usopp were both drooling at the sight of how cute and innocent she looked as Chopper screamed and went over to treat Sanji. The prisoners were going berserk...
They were all screaming out at once and throwing themselves against their bars, trying to reach and grab her. They were even started calling Magellan 'Swamp Ass' and demanding that he hand her over to them now. Nami made a mental note that she had got to remember that trick...
"Humph," Momonga grunted. "This must be the most unrefined place in the world. These people disgust me."
"I hear ya there," Zoro said unconcerned. Really, show some pride here... letting some woman make you lose control of yourself like that?
"Are you really gonna let these prisoners get away with calling you 'Swamp Ass', Warden?" Hannyabal asked. "I guess you've gotten so rusty, you're not even fit to be Warden anymore?"
But then they noticed that Magellan was also looking at Hancock love-struck, whispering, "She's too much!"
"She truly is! She is so bright and shining! Oh, Luffy-san! How I envy you!" Brook cried out. "You are so lucky!"
"Give me your job, Swamp Ass!" Hannyabal snapped.
"I gotta say, he's not as scary as I thought that he would be, though," Usopp said as he looked over Magellan.
"You might wish that you didn't say that," Robin frowned as the love-sick look on Magellan's face slowly faded. "If the things I've heard about him are true then he's a cold-blooded beast."
"Still..." Magellan said softly, slowly raising his head and the temperature in the room seemed to fade. "It's true. I will not stand such insolence!"
When he said those words, they felt as if they had stepped into ice water. His eyes, though cold before, had suddenly turned a blood-red color as a dark purple substance began to seep from his body. It was like with Mr. 3's wax powers... only this wasn't wax...
"Sometimes I wish I wasn't right," Robin sighed, knowing that this wasn't going to be pretty. A dark haze began to emulate off his body as he was soon covered with the purple gunk, and Hannyabal's taunting quickly turned to fear as he began to cry out desperately, "W-Warden! Wait a moment! You're putting the rest of us in danger too!"
"What does he mean by danger?" Usopp squeaked, slowly sinking back as Chopper hugged tightly to Zoro's arm, fear on his own face as he watched Magellan transform.
"Physically," Robin said softly, as the others slowly backed away from what they were seeing, "He may not be as strong as a Marine Admiral... but his Devil Fruit powers more than make up for that. He has the power of the Poison Poison Fruit. He's a Poisonous Man, and he can kill pretty much anything just by touching them."
"POISON?!" the rest of them screamed at her as the purple gunk, that they now know to be poison, lifted off Magellan's body and began to twist and turn in midair. They watched in horror as the poison began to take shape until, out of his back, there were three dragon heads. Each one dripping with poison from their fangs and long necks... each one moving seemingly on its own.
"Don't get carried away you scum," said Magellan coldly. The prisoners gasped, finally shutting up and realizing that they were in danger, their longing cries turned to terror as they moved back against their cages.
"It would seem I will have to teach you," Magellan said sinisterly, "Just who the boss of this prison is!"
"He's brought out the Hydra!" one of the prisoners cried.
"H-H-H-HYDRA?!" Brook stuttered out in a scream.
"A mythical dragon with multiple heads," Robin answered as she watched interestedly, though knowing just what was about to happen. Those prisoners had written their own death warrants.
Zoro looked back to Hancock, one of the only few of them who was focusing on her as everyone else kept their eyes on Magellan. But she barely looked at the poisonous dragon heads, as if she couldn't care less what was going on around her, before she looked back at Ace and began to speak to him. Of course, with all the screaming and cries going on around them, not even Zoro was able to hear what she was saying.
Ace clearly could understand her however and the look on his face felt like a punch in the gut. The bored indifference was quickly replaced by something that Zoro had seen on his face only a few times before. Fear...
Ace's eyes were wide with shock and horror as he listened to whatever it was that she was telling him. Zoro glanced up and saw her lips form the words 'Luffy is coming here'. He sighed, understanding now why she had caused the uproar... to let Ace know that his little brother was coming to try and rescue him. Though, he was personally wondering if that was crueler than any kind of torture that he was forced to go through in this dump.
The prisoners were all trying to beg Magellan to stop, but the Hydra's heads had already struck a few cages, each one hitting at least one inmate, and left him coated in a thick coating of poison.
"This is what makes Magellan so deadly," Robin went on as the others all watched with their mouths wide open in shock as they watched. "Any opponent he faces is covered in a thick layer of poison that will cause them excruciating pain before it slowly kills them."
"I honestly don't know what to say," Brook croaked out.
Chopper was deadly white under all his fur as his eyes widened in slow realization. "Any... opponent...?" he croaked out as he let go of Zoro and fell to his knees as a horrible thought came over him. "Poison...? Then Luffy... Luffy...?" he couldn't bear to finish that thought.
"Chopper-san?" Brook asked timidly. "What's wrong?"
"Poison," Chopper said and his eyes were filling up with tears. "Luffy said that he almost died from poisoning in Impel Down!"
They all slowly looked up at Magellan again as realization dawned on them as well.
"Then...?" Usopp said quietly, sweat dripping down his face. "This is the guy who almost killed Luffy in this place?"
No one knew what to think or to say to that as they looked long and hard at Magellan, the few prisoners that had been hit were now writhing around on the ground in pain, struggling to breathe as they cried out for the antidote. The other prisoners backed away from them as they watched with terrified eyes as they died right in front of them.
Nami had her hands up and covering her mouth, too scared to say anything.
Zoro glanced back at Ace, who didn't seem to have even noticed the dying cries. He just continued to stare at Hancock like he was living some kind of nightmare, she had just finished speaking and closed her mouth, having delivered the message. But Ace's his jaw open in a silent scream as he seemed closed to having some kind of panic attack.
"Don't forget I possess the right and power to kill each and every one of you here and now," Magellan said darkly. The prisoners just stared at the Warden, no one daring to say a word as they sat there in stunned silence. Very slowly the poison seeped back into Magellan's body as it returned to normal and the blood-red eyes shifted to a calmer tint.
Ace was still too stunned to speak, and Zoro wondered if he actually forgotten how to do so as Magellan came over and politely told Hancock that she could take her time and say what she needed to say.
"No need," she said, turning around with her snake still slithering right beside her. "I am finished here."
"Wait!" Ace cried out suddenly, snapping out of his stupor. "What you just said... was it true?"
Some of the Straw Hats blinked in confusion, wondering what he was talking about as Zoro told them about how she was talking to him while they were all focused on the Hydra.
"I have no reason to lie to you," she answered calmly before a small smile came to her lips. "That's right..." she added before looked back at him one last time. "He was afraid you'd be upset."
"Upset? That's an understatement," Zoro muttered as Ace blinked at her, unsure of what to say to that as Momonga looked a little surprise by her sudden desire to leave. He even asked her if that was all that she wanted to say, but she just ignored him as she left with her pet snake and the others soon following behind her to where the lift was waiting for them in the darkness.
"Did she tell him anything?" Magellan asked Hannyabal, who seemed shook up.
"Who knows?" said Hannyabal as they also left. "I was too busy running away from you!"
"I-I don't get it," Usopp gulped down, still shaking from seeing that Hydra, "What did she say?"
"I couldn't hear it... but I think it's obvious," Zoro said as Ace continued to stare at Hancock's retreating form, and seemed to be fighting the urge to call her back and demand that she give him some answers.
Once they were out of sight, Jimbei looked to Ace and asked in concern, "Ace... what did that woman say to you?"
"He's really taking the news bad, huh?" Franky asked timidly as Ace's face was suddenly dark with anxiety and confusion. The last time they had seen it there had been when Luffy had been attacked by that bear and Ace had sat by his side all night.
"What do you think?" Sanji asked harshly, his hands shaking a little as he tried to light his cigarette. "He had just accepted his fate here, pretty much. And now he learns that his little brother broke into this hellhole all just to save him. Of course it would be enough to make him freak out."
Robin looked sadly at Ace. Taking care of Luffy had been Ace's one purpose in his life when he had been a child. And he had been fiercely protective of him as they grew up. When Ace turned seventeen and left, he knew that Luffy didn't need his protection anymore. But that was because he was still back at Goa... long before Luffy he would set out to sea. She had a feeling that he must've secretly worried about Luffy all these years, wondering how he was doing. That was why he really wanted to come to Alabasta... he had truly hoped to run into Luffy there and see how he was doing with his own eyes.
Sanji was right... he had accepted the fate that he was going to die soon and there wasn't anything he could do. He took comfort in the fact that Luffy was far away from here and still running free on the ocean. But Ace should've really known better if he thought Luffy wouldn't have come here the moment that he heard about his imprisonment.
Oh, it must be eating him up inside to think that Luffy was in such danger because of him.
Ace didn't look at Jimbei as he gulped down and said in hardly more than a whisper, "She said... that my brother is coming here."
Jimbei's eyes widen in shock as he cried out, "That Straw Hat kid you keep telling me about? How reckless of him!"
"Jimbei... you have no idea," Nami whispered sadly as the memory disappeared around them.
"So it was Magellan responsible for Luffy being poisoned?" Brook asked fearfully, wanting to get back to the matter at hand.
"It is certainly looking that way," Robin said seriously, "There's only so long that Hancock could keep them busy without growing suspicious. She has to play her part and had already put herself in a dangerous place by helping Luffy even this far."
"She had no choice but to leave and just hope that Luffy was going to be ok," Nami finished for her.
"She had already done so much to help," Franky said. "We really do owe her a lot for all this."
"Yes... we do..." Sanji almost sang as he thought of those beautiful eyes and how they glowed.
"But with her now gone, Magellan goes down to deal with Luffy..." Robin went on. "And I think it's safe to assume what happened after that."
"They fight and Luffy gets poisoned?" Usopp asked, gulping down.
"Then how come he's still alive?" Zoro asked, "Not that I'm not glad for that... but that poison looks like a nasty piece of work."
Chopper shook his head, not wanting to believe any of that. Zoro was right though, that poison was really bad. There had to be at least several dozen different types of poison mixed together. And if you got hit with that hard enough...? There's no way that any antidote could save you...
But Luffy was still alive so maybe...?
The memory came back before he could even finish that thought and they were blinking in the bright light again. They were back up on Level 3 and Luffy was running up towards them, panting hard and looking ready to pass out from all this heat.
"Wasn't he heading down? Why's he going up?" Nami asked as he came running to them.
Luffy had just wiped the sweat from his face, but as he did, Zoro could just make out slight tears... tears of frustration... though they came and went so fast he was half-convinced that he was seeing things.
"Huh?" Luffy gasped, his tongue rolling out as he panted, "When did I start going up? I was trying to go further down! Still..." he added in a positive way. "If I keep going down, I'm sure I'll get there eventually!"
"What do you mean you couldn't tell that you were going up?" Nami asked him as he ran passed and they went right after him.
"Nothing about this place makes sense if you ask me," Usopp panted before he saw something glint out of the corner of his eye. He looked up in time to see the barrels of several rifles being pointed at Luffy.
"EHHHH! LUFFY LOOK OUT!" he shouted just as they fired. But instead of bullets, they burst open to look just like spider webs. Luffy was swift enough to dodge them, and lucky for him. They all knew that those had to be more Sea Stone nets and all it would take was one hit for Luffy to become powerless.
"Damn," Sanji cursed. "If he's caught by those, he's toast for sure!"
"You can do it Luffy!" Chopper cheered on as Luffy almost had to dance around the shots to avoid them—but with his attention focused on the nets, he didn't realize that there was a giant paw right above him.
"LOOK OUT!" Nami screamed out in warning, but Luffy noticed it far too late. By the time he realized what was happening, he began trapped underneath the Sphinx's giant paw and laid pinned to the floor.
"Doesn't that thing ever give up?" Usopp yelled as Chopper cried.
"NO! LUFFY-SAN!" Brook called in panic, trying to run in to help, only to get held back by Franky, though he was looking like he was close to losing his mind from not being able to help as well. With a roar, the Sphinx opened its jaws wide as it lunged forward, ready to finally devour his prey whole.
"NO!" they all screamed, not knowing how Luffy could've made it out of this mess this time...
"Stop right there, lion!" Zoro's voice yelled out.
"Zoro, you know there's no point," Sanji snapped at him.
"I didn't say that!" Zoro yelled back, more surprised than anyone at having heard those words.
"But that was your voice!" Nami shouted, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene.
"WAIT LOOK!" Usopp yelled and they looked up to see... it was Zoro. Their jaws dropped open, staring up in shock to see that Zoro was standing up there, dressed in a prisoner's uniform, but more strangely than that, was that he was poised like a ballet dancer.
"I'm here to help you!" he said, grinning wider than he normally did when about to fight, and it looked completely different than before—in a rather creepy grin on his face that didn't suit him.
"You mean you were there?!" everyone but Robin screamed at their Zoro, who was gaping at himself.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Usopp yelled at him. "All this time and you never said anything?!"
"How'd you get there?" Sanji asked, promising himself to kick Zoro's ass later for keeping this secret.
"That's not me!" Zoro gasped, staring at himself. He had no idea what to think, but he knew that he hadn't been there... he was stuck on some stupid island and had been fighting against baboons. "I don't... I didn't...?"
"Zoro?" Luffy cried out, a mixture of shock and happiness on his face. "Is that you?"
"That can't be me!" Zoro yelled out at once as they all looked at him. "If that was me, don't you think that I'd have mentioned it?!"
"Well explain the fact that we just saw you there!" Usopp yelled at him. "If that's not you then who is it?!"
Robin suddenly blinked in realization. There was only one person she knew who could pull off such a flawless disguise. If he was still alive then he would be here...? In that case could it possibly be...?
"Just kidding!" the fake Zoro suddenly cried out with a bigger smile that made him look like some kind of nutjob. But to their surprise, he jumped and gave the Sphinx such a powerful kick to the jaw that they knew that it could easily have rivaled Sanji could pull off. In fact, it was so strong that it ended up freeing Luffy from being trapped underneath the paw.
They all blinked in surprise, staring from that Zoro to their Zoro—wishing that someone could tell them what the hell was going on here.
"But you don't use kicks...?" Brook said slowly as he walked forward.
"What the hell is going on here?" Zoro cried out, looking back at 'himself'... only to realize...
"That's not Zoro," Luffy said, as they heard the fake Zoro laughing and was even twirling around happily. But as they watched, they saw that he was right... it wasn't Zoro dancing around, and Luffy pushed himself up a little so that he could get a better look at him.
"But I know I've heard that voice before..." he added and they all agreed... they all did know that laugh though they were having a hard time trying to remember—except for Robin who was smiling. They looked closer at the dancing figure and Nami's eyes widen in shock as smiles were slowly spreading to the others.
"It's... that's...!" she gasped.
"BON CLAY!" Usopp and Chopper screamed out as Brook and Franky both began to cry tears of joy at the sight of the pervey drag queen. It was, without a doubt, Bon Clay... or Mr. 2 as he was formerly known. None of them had ever expected to see him again after see him sacrifice himself for their crew back at Alabasta. He looked out of place without his ballerina outfit, but he still had his make-up on and was beaming happily when he saw Luffy down there.
"Long time no see, Straw Hat!" Bon Clay cried, tears streaming from his eyes. "It's me!"
"So he is alive!" Usopp called, bawling as well. "I never thought we'd see him again!"
"Ironic," Robin smiled as she glanced at the sand. "It was a desert where we last saw him. It's good to know that he's ok..."
"And he doesn't look too bad given where he is," Franky cried out, tears running down his face. "Oh, that bastard! I'm so happy to know that he's still in one piece!"
"Bon Clay!" Luffy cried, a joyful smile on his face. "I'm a little disappointed you're not Zoro, but... at least you're alive!"
"Of all the people that he could've met, Bon Clay was one of the last ones I expected!" Nami said, wiping a few happy tears. Of course... he used his powers to disguise himself as Zoro... they should've known.
"But... wait, how did he get out of his cell?" Chopper asked as he wanted to run up and hug Bon Clay himself.
"Who cares?! He's here!" Franky laughed, but with their attention focused on Bon Clay, they hadn't noticed the guards that were swarming around them. At least... Bon Clay noticed it...
"MOVE IT!" he shouted at them as he danced ahead and kicked their asses, literally, before adding, "GET YOUR ASSES OUT OF MY FRIEND'S WAY, YOU MORONS!"
"Well, said!" Brook cried out joyfully.
"Go for it, Bon Clay!" Usopp and Chopper both cheered as the Sphinx got his feet once again.
Saldeath, who was watching the whole thing turned to the overgrown cat. "That's right, Sphinx!" he called, pointing to the two, "Take them down!"
But the words were hardly out of his mouth when Luffy and Bon Clay jumped up and finally gave the Sphinx a beating. Together they attacked, taking the cat down until there was a large mass of lumps on his head and his face was bloodied. Saldeath let out a cry, calling for more guards, but the two didn't even notice him.
"Right!" Luffy yelled, standing on top of all the bumps they gave the Sphinx and cracking his knuckles. "Now that we've beaten 'em this badly, he shouldn't be coming after us again!"
"Not right away anyway," Zoro smirked, almost able to forgive Bon Clay for looking like him for that moment.
"The best way to restrain beasts is with brute force after all!" Bon Clay said, doing a pirouette. But then the two ran at each other and embraced in a tearful, joyous reunion.
"Oh, Bon Clay!" Luffy cried. "I was sure you'd died for us back then in our place!"
"Quit joking around!" Bon Clay cried, laughing off the fact that he ended up getting shoved into prison because he helped them out. "A true Drag Queen never dies! Wait! Is that true?"
"Unfortunately," Sanji said knowingly. Bon Clay would've fit in perfectly at the island of Drag Queendom... he shivered at the memories of that place and gave himself a hard slap to knock his bad memories out of his head.
"But why did he make himself look like Zoro?" Chopper had to ask, unable to stop smiling.
"Yeah, I wouldn't wish anyone to look like that Moss Headed bastard," Sanji said, as Zoro gave him a deathly glared.
"I guess it's simply to make an impression," Robin laughed a little.
"Blugori Squad!" Saldeath called, bringing an end to the happy reunion. He was holding his pitchfork to his mouth before he began to play it like a flute. At the sound the Blugori came running in and he ordered, "Don't you dare let these guys get away!"
"I see..." Robin stated, looking at the pitchfork, "He's controlling the Blugori here with the sound..."
"So if they take it, does that mean that they can control those things?" Sanji asked her as the Blugroi quickly surrounded the two—who had stopped crying and hugging to turn and face them.
"I personally doubt it," she said. "I was just making an observation."
"While we're at it, Straw Hat," Bon clay said interestedly, a beaming smile still on his face. "Is it true that you want to go all the way down to Level 5?"
"That's right!" Luffy replied excitedly. "Mind telling me how to get there?"
"Well, shall I accompany you then?" Bon Clay asked as he moved into a fighting stance. "After all, I have someone I'd like to meet up in Level 5!"
"Seriously?!" Brook cried out joyfully. "What are the odds?!"
"More importantly, looks like Luffy finally found someone who really wants to help him in this whole dump," Zoro stated. Though he didn't say anything to counter that talk... and he was truly glad that there was someone here who was going to be of help to Luffy... he couldn't help but wish that it had been him who had come to lend his aid.
"So Luffy finally has some real help!" Chopper laughed happily, jumping up and down excitedly.
"Yes! Finally! Something really good going right for Luffy!" Franky cheered out. "Now, take out these guys and let's head to Level 4!"
"Seriously?" Luffy asked, also poised to fight.
"Yes!" Bon Clay shouted. "So let's go together!"
"Yeah!" Luffy said, "LET'S GO!" and they both charged ahead, ready to take on anyone dumb enough to get in their way. With the two of them fighting together, it didn't take long for them to finish beating up the guards and making a run for it. But the Straw Hats all knew that it wasn't going to be long before more guards would show up... they had to get off this floor as soon as possible.
"Straw Hat!" Bon Clay asked suddenly, "I just ran into some clown and Mr. 3! They said that you broke in to save someone. Is that really true?!"
"Oh, that explains how he knew that Luffy was here and where he was going," Robin said in understanding. "I had been wondering about that."
"Looks like bringing those two along wasn't a complete waste," Sanji said lightly.
"Huh? Oh, you mean Buggy and 3?" Luffy asked. "Yeah! My big brother, Ace! He's down on Level 5! I have to save Ace before they kill him! I have to get down to Level 5 as soon as possible!"
"I'll be more than happy to accompany you!" Bon Clay declared, tears forming in his eyes. "So... it is for your own big brother that you risk it all? Such a touching thing I've ever heard!"
"It truly is!" Brook cried out weepily. "I have never heard of something so moving in all my many years. I will dedicate an entire album to such a tale!"
"You gotta let me sing back-up there, bones!" Franky sobbed into his arm. "It will be an honor!"
And he broke down all over again as they all felt guilt once again surge into their very souls at his words. Thought they weren't the only ones that looked guilty. As they ran, a look of remorse came over Luffy's face however. "Bon Clay..." he began, looking at his friend, who looked back with that same happy smile. "I'm really sorry that you got sent here. You're being punished for wanting to help us."
At the apology, the Straw Hats all even more guilt wash over them at the thought of any friend getting sent down here because of them.
"Oh, don't be sad Straw Hat!" Bon Clay laughed. "I'm not here because of anything that happened with you!"
That got their attention and Luffy looked over at him in confusion as Bon Clay only continued to laugh, as if it wasn't anything serious. He then went on to tell him that he had been captured by the woman known as Black Cage Hina when he helped them to escape. But that didn't last long. He had managed to escape from the ship and had been in hiding for a short while. At least until he heard about his other former Baroque Works agents being arrested... he just knew that he had to do something to help them. In fact, Miss Valentine was going to be executed before he beat up Mr. 3 and disguised himself as him before turning himself in to Hina. As he challenged her to a fight, Mr. 5 and Miss Goldenweek had managed to escape with Miss Valentine...
In the end, he had lost the fight with Hina and was thrown in here with Mr. 3.
"So that's what happened," Sanji said, feeling better knowing that such a cute girl as Miss Valentine had managed to escape her death.
Brook and Franky were arm-in-arm and sobbing out at what Bon Clay had done.
"Oh, I love that pervert! If we ever find him again I wanna tell him that!" Franky sobbed out as Brook wiped up his own tears with his feathered boa.
"I agree! He truly is one of a kind!" he cried out and then he strummed up his guitar. "I will also devote a song just for the courage that Bon-chan had shown here!"
"You did all that for your friends?" Luffy asked, his eyes shining.
"We may not have always seen eye to eye," Bon Clay admitted. "But... we are still comrades who fought together!" He then yelled out dramatically, "EVEN IN THE PITS OF HELL CAN THE FLOWERS OF FRIENDSHIP BLOOM!"
"HELL YA!" Franky, Usopp, Chopper, and Brook all shouted out together.
"So, this means that the Mr. 5, Miss Valentine, and Miss Goldeweek are still free," Nami said, thinking it over. She suddenly thought of Miss Doublefinger, and couldn't help but wonder if she was out as well.
"Yeah, but I doubt that we need to worry about them," Zoro pointed out. Even if he ran into Mr. 1 again, he could easily cut him up since he could cut through steel easily now. In fact, he was rather hoping that he would run into that oversized pocketknife again just to see how far he had come.
"If they are still free they've been stepping very lightly," Robin nodded. Normally she doubted the idea of ever seeing any of them again. But ever since she started seeing these memories, she wondered if it was possible to run into even more old enemies? After all, she sure didn't expect to run into Buggy, Mr. 3 or Bon Clay again... as well as...
She smiled, keeping that secret to herself of who she had run into over the last two years. Meanwhile, Luffy looked over at Bon Clay and began to ask him how to get to the lower levels.
"There's a staircase just at the other end here!" Bon Clay answered at once.
"Really?" Luffy asked, smiling. "I'm sure glad that I ran into you here, Bon Clay! Thanks a lot!"
"Straw Hat!" Bon Clay responded, waving the thanks aside. "You needn't thank me! It's nothing! Our reunion was inevitable!" and he cackled happily as they went along. The joyous mood didn't last long, however... for Brook ended up hearing something...
It was the sounds of something big and heavy being dragged across the sandy floor.
"Wait! I hear something!" Brook tried to cry out, but he had already spotted what it was. Blocking their path appeared to be some kind of cow...
But this one was rather... there was no other way to put it. Dumb-looking. It had beady, cutesy eyes with big fat lips and even a runny nose. It had the spots of a cow and was even wearing red-and-white striped pants as he dragged the spiked club right behind him.
"What the hell...?" Zoro asked, stopping as he watched the thing come closer to them.
"First a Basilisk... a Sphinx... a Hydra... and now a Minotarus?" Robin asked in great interest. "Where does the Government find such things...?"
"S-Straw Hat!" Bon Clay cried out, and for the first time, he looked truly shook up. "This is really bad!"
They couldn't see why they were in such big trouble before the Minotarus attacked and they saw why. It picked up the giant club and went swinging at them with it. With a started cry, Luffy was forced to jump up high to avoid it.
"W-What's with this thing?" Luffy asked. "It sure is fast!"
"Oh, no," Bon Clay gasped, fear in his face. "It's the Minotaurus!"
"Minotaurus?" Luffy questioned.
"A cold-blood Demon Guard!" Bon Clay cried out. "A monster that tosses humans like trash! That's what it is!"
"That thing is one of the Demon Guards that we heard them talk about?" Usopp yelled. He had been expecting something a little more scary-looking.
"Yes..." Robin frowned, "I've heard of them. They are known as Awakened Zoans."
"Awakened...?" Nami asked worriedly.
"They are Devil Fruit Users alright," she interrupted, "But they are a lot stronger, faster, and tougher than what most Zoan types bestow normally. But that comes with a price. They aren't capable of coming up with any real battle strategies... they rely solely on their instinct and raw power."
"What? It's like they aren't even human anymore!" Brook cried out.
"Whether or not they were human to being with isn't something that I can confirm," she stated honestly.
"It's like this place just sucks the humanity right out of you!" Sanji said, and even he was unnerved by that idea.
"A monster?" Luffy repeated. "A Devil Fruit user?"
"How would I know?" Bon Clay asked loudly as the Minotaurus turned back to fight. It moved so fast that he was right in front of them in the blink of an eye. The next thing that any of them knew was that it slammed his club right through Zoro and Sanji before it collided with Bon Clay's head and sent him slamming against the bars of the cell nearest them.
"Holy...!" Sanji began, having not been paying attention and felt his stomach where the club went right through that. "Now I know how Logia's feel..."
"Bon Clay!" Chopper cried anxiously.
"BON CLAY!" Luffy cried, as Bon Clay hollered in pain, before he looked back at the overgrown cow. "That thing's fast!"
"Ya think, Luffy?!" Usopp shouted, but with his friend in danger, Luffy didn't notice as when the Minotarus came after him. It swung the club down at him, how had to roll out of the way. Yet again, the thing proved to be too fast for Luffy, for he was able to make up for that miss by slamming its club right onto Luffy's head.
"LUFFY!" Nami and Chopper screamed anxiously.
Luffy yelled in pain as he gripped his face and rolled around on the floor until he hit some more bars. He was clearly in a lot of pain, with blood still dripping from the wound on the side of his head, that he didn't notice the Minotaurus about to attack him again.
"Luffy! Get up!" Sanji shouted as the cow raised up its club once more, but Bon Clay came to the rescue once again.
"Straw Hat! Look out!" he shouted and he landed a powerful kick to the beast's head from out of nowhere, which gave Luffy a chance to run out of harm's way. The kick didn't seem to do much to the Minotaurus, but it was still enough to direction his attention straight to Bon Clay instead of Luffy. It grabbed him by the head and slammed him to the floor so that he was pinned there.
"Bon Clay!" some of the Straw Hats cried out with Luffy.
Bon Clay gagged as mouth started foaming from lack of breath. "I... I'm gonna die...!"
With no other choice, Luffy shifted to his Second Gear, pumping the blood in his legs and steam billowed out. Chopper bit his lip at the sight of it. Luffy was really pushing himself pretty far already after everything that he had been through here in Impel Down. He didn't think that using that ability now would do too much damage so long as he made it really quick. But it tires him out so quickly that if he's not careful he'll become too weak to move. Still, it was the only thing that could save Bon Clay at the moment and he hit the Minotaurus hard with a Jet Bazooka and sent him flying backwards. The wind of the blast felt like a shockwave, which would've sent normal people falling just from that.
Luffy stood there, even after the Minotaurus was sent through a bridge and it crumbled. He quickly pulled himself out of Second Gear, and was gasping for air... even just that short a time, that power had easily taken a toll on him. He was exhausted already, but he ignored that as he went running towards Bon Clay, who was coughing and able to catch his own breath.
"Luffy..." Nami said worriedly, fear really starting to go through her at the realization of how he was really starting to resort to desperate measures. She didn't want to say anymore as she watch Luffy check on Bon Clay, asking if he was alright.
Bon Clay shuddered a little as he covered his eyes, like he just had a terrible nightmare. "I thought I was done for! I saw a field of queens before my eyes!"
This time it was Sanji who shuddered at the thought, his eyes twitching at the mention of such a thing. But Bon Clay didn't seem to be badly injured as he pushed himself up.
"You really are strong," he complimented, looking up in the direction that the Minotaurus was sent off. "I'm sure the monster's still alive, but he must be hurt."
"That thing does seem pretty tough," Zoro said, "But I'd be surprised if it wasn't hurt."
"Maybe," Robin said with a frown. "But I told you. They are tougher than most Zoans. They are able to recover from their injuries surprisingly quick. No, Luffy needs to get out of here before it gets back up. And with Hancock now leaving Impel Down, it's only going to be a matter of time before Magellan also decides to take a personal matter into this."
They all thought of the poisonous Hydra and they agreed that the two of them had to get out of here as soon as possible. Deep down they all knew what had to happen... but the outcome of such an idea wasn't something they wanted to see.
Luffy was looking around as Bon Clay reached up and felt his face before he gasped, "Huh? What?! I'm so angry! This is just awful!"
"What's wrong?" Usopp asked, thinking that he was hurt a lot more seriously than he thought.
"MY MAKEUP IS RUINED!" Bon Clay cried out and some of the Straw Hats did face-plants at such an outburst.
"Cosmetics! Cosmetics! I need cosmetics!" Bon Clay gasped out, looking around. "That, and my toe-shoes, clothes, weapons and..." he paused before he smiled and said proudly, "Booze, tears, and the Okama way!"
"Such devotion!" Franky sniffled, a hand over his heart, after pulling his head out of the floor. "It's inspiring."
"I think that he can survive without a little make-up," Sanji said, his whole face now twitching. The idea of men wearing cosmetics that went against the nature of all things.
"I need to go down further," said Luffy, who had his tongue lulling out of his mouth and a hand to his stomach, "but I'm really hungry, and thirsty, too."
"He just had to say thirsty didn't he?" Usopp asked, his own tongue rolling out. "I'm dying for a drink just looking at this place!"
Chopper nodded miserably, only glad that he couldn't feel this hot floor.
"There's no cause for concern, Straw Hat!" said Bon Clay, getting up and dancing around again. "Getting from 3 to 4 is as easy as puke!"
"Not the way I would've put it," Robin chuckled.
"Really?" Luffy asked happily.
"Yep!" Bon Clay answered as he spun around. "Too, too easy! So easy! Way too easy!"
"Get on with it then!" Zoro called in annoyance. He remembered what annoyed him about this ballerina-boy. But Bon Clay seemed to remember that they were short on time and he happily leapt away with Luffy following close behind. They continued heading along the way that they had been going before the Minotaurus attacked them. It only took a few minutes but they eventually came to a large wall where they could see smoke billowing out from the windows directly above them.
Bon Clay pointed to the nearest window and said, "There it is, Straw Hat! Just climb that big wall right there!"
"The wall?" Luffy repeated, straining his neck to look up. "Up there?"
"That's the only way that we can get down to the next level?" Chopper asked, not liking all that smoke.
"Knowing this place, there's got to be a catch somewhere," Zoro offered, but he didn't think that even jumping down through here was going to be as simple as he thought.
"That's right!" Bon Clay said, and he sounded unusually serious here. "But don't get so excited that you go leaping over it!"
"Right!" Luffy called before he stretched his arm up there—but as his hand reached up to take hold of the stone, they could hear as if something was frying some meat on a frying pan. Luffy then pulled his hand back, screaming that it was hot as he blew on the burn.
"The Inferno!" Usopp cried out in shock.
"All he did was touch the rock though!" Chopper cried out, was it really that hot?
"What's with that wall? It's hot as a frying pan!" Luffy cried out, trying to stop the burning.
"A frying pan?" Bon Clay repeated. "That's exactly it, Straw Hat!"
"And if this floor is a frying pan..." Sanji repeated, looking at the smoke. "Then we're heading right into the heart of the fire."
"I have a bad feeling we're about to find out," Robin said as Luffy regained control of himself. The two did a graceful jump from the floor to the top of the wall. They followed up, but regretted it as soon as they did for the stone around them was almost red hot and as soon as Luffy stepped down, they could see the heat from the floor actually burning his sandals slightly. He hopped about, crying how hot it was as Bon Clay walked a little closer to the edge to where they spotted the massive hole in the center of this place.
"See this, Straw Hat?" Bon Clay inquired as he looked down cautiously. They followed after Luffy as they took a look down there. The sudden heat from below them was so strong that it almost ended up blowing Luffy back and their eyes widened at the sight below them... or lack of sight perhaps. There was a huge tower of smoke below them that was billowing up at an unnatural rate while they had a giant fan on the ceiling right above them blowing that smoke out into Level 3. There was so much of the stuff that they couldn't see anything below them.
"So that's what hell must look like," Zoro said in great interest as he felt the sweat falling from his face just looking at it.
"What is this?" Luffy questioned. "There's so much smoke and hot air! It's too hot to stand up!"
"I'm so glad that I can't really feel it," Chopper said gratefully.
"You wouldn't last long in a place like this," Nami said, gulping down, unable to turn away from the entrance to 'Hell'.
"Right?" said Bon Clay asked, "However, the place below us is, indeed, where you wanted to go! Level 4: the Inferno Hell!"
They looked to Luffy to see that he was now sweating bullets so much that he was dripping wet. "The Inferno. That's below here?"
"Indeed, it's like you said," Bon Clay explained, "Level 3 is like a massive frying pan. There is a sea of boiling blood and flames is what waits for us on Level 4!"
"BOILING BLOOD?!" more than half of the crew cried out at such a thing.
"HOW CAN THERE BE A SEA OF IT DOWN THERE? WHERE'D THEY GET ALL THAT BLOOD?!" Chopper screamed out in terror as he thought of the gruesome image.
"Makes you wonder how many prisoners they've killed to get that much," Sanji said in disgust. After all, where else would they get all that blood? And with his bounty he'd get sent straight down there... note to self: never get caught. At least until he remembered his wanted poster and his eyes burned red. If he could only get a good picture up on those damn posters, he'd risk prison.
Luffy wiped the sweat from his face and asked, "So the heat on this floor is nothing compared to down there?"
"You can try jumping down," Bon Clay answered. "But if you don't take care with the landing, then you won't escape with just a burn. Beyond this point, every move forward is risking your life!"
"I don't see what the difference is," Franky stated as he pointed out, "From the moment that bro stepped into this place he was risking everything."
"I guess this is just a bigger level of danger then," Brook gulped down nervously. The deeper that his captain went into this place, the more dangerous it was becoming.
They all stood there, staring into the flames until Luffy spoke again, looking at Bon Clay and asking, "Hey, Bon Clay, you say there was someone you wanted to see, right? I'd like to know who this guy is you're risking your life to see?"
"I wanna know that too," Nami said interestedly, wondering just who Bon Clay was willing to risk his life to save. It must be someone really important...?
Bon Clay smiled at the question as he closed his eyes for a moment. "People call him...'The Miracle Man'. Locked away for a crime he didn't commit... they call him... Master Iva!"
Sanji's eyes widened. That guy? That bastard was actually here in Impel Down? And he never once thought to mention that?! If he ever saw that freak again, not that he was ever hoping to, he was gonna kill him! He knew that he was with Luffy at Marineford, but to think that he helped Luffy escape from here?
Bon Clay eyes opened and they were sparkling with stars. "He's the Queen of the Kamabakka Kingdom, the Pink Paradise of the Grand Line! The great Drag Queen that all other queens admire!"
"Queen of drag queens?" Usopp repeated in a stunned voice.
"I've heard of him," Robin chuckled. "Believe it or not, he's actually an officer in the Revolutionary Army."
"He is?" Chopper asked, his eyes bright, "He sounds really strong! He must be pretty cool!"
It took everything Sanji had to prevent him from shouting out at those words, determined that he rather die than ever let them know where he had been for the last two years. Moss Head would never let him hear the end of it.
"Queen of Drag queens?" Luffy repeat before he smiled, "Drag queens have queens? Awesome!"
"That's right!" Bon Clay declared, clapping his hands together in excitement, "I want to meet him! And if possible, I'd like to save him!"
"Such determination!" Franky cried out tearfully.
"I, too, wish to meet this Iva! He must be truly amazing if he was willing to risk so much just for a chance to meet him!" Brook stated.
"Come on! Give me a break!" Sanji shouted at them. "For all we know this guy's an idiot!"
"What's with you?" Zoro asked and Sanji bit his tongue as he looked away, refusing to say anything as Chopper thought over what Bon Clay had just said. A miracle man? Why would this Iva be called a miracle man?
But just then they heard more screams going on and they turned at once to see Buggy and Mr. 3 running as fast as they could towards them. Now they were all shocked to see them there, having been sure that they had gone running off a long time ago. At least until they saw that the Minotaurus was right on their hells.
"That thing's up again so soon?" Zoro said, taken aback. "I know you said that they were tough, Robin but I thought that he'd be out for a lot longer than just a few minutes."
"If they serve as guards for a place that's full of criminals, then they will have to be tough," Robin said, but she was more interested in seeing why Buggy and Mr. 3 had come running back here of all places. You think that they'd have gone running for the staircase out of here...? At least until she remembered that they didn't know their way around here and realized that they most likely got lost and ended up going the wrong way. Looks like the four of them would end up going down to Level 4 after all.
And she had a rather dark smile on as she remembered how Buggy had promised to go with Luffy to Level 4 at the least. Looks like he was going to fulfill that promise after all... whether he liked it or not.
"I'd hoped we'd seen the last of them," Sanji sighed.
Bon Clay screamed, his eyes popping out as Luffy looked back eagerly, as if he was actually happy to see them. "Hey wait! We were in such a nice mood here, and you go and bring THAT thing here?"
"Yeah! Way to spoil such a heartfelt moment!" Franky shouted at them as all four were now forced to just keep running to avoid the club.
"I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WERE TRYING TO ESCAPE!" Bon Clay shouted at the two of them angrily.
"So you wanted to come along after all?" Luffy asked, smiling.
"Something tells me that's not the answer here, Luffy," Usopp stated.
"AS IF ANYBODY WOULD WANT TO GO TO HELL!" Buggy shouted out at him. "WE WERE JUST HIDING WHEN THAT MONSTER CAME FLYING AT US! I DON'T KNOW HOW...?!"
"Oh, I sent him flying at you!" Luffy explained and the Straw Hats couldn't help but laugh at the look on Buggy and Mr. 3's faces.
"Whoops," Robin laughed as they knew what must've happened. "Talk about a lucky shot?"
"Oh, so it was you then... WAIT JUST A MINUTE!" Buggy screamed. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
"I've had enough of this..." said Mr. 3, who was practically melting now, "I'd rather just get caught!"
"If he's having a hard time in this place, I don't think that he'll survive in Level 4 any better," Nami pointed out, almost feeling sorry for the guy. At least he had a better excuse for wanting to leave this floor than Buggy did.
"Damn you Minotaurus!" Buggy cursed, glaring at the enraged cow right behind them, "My life's at stake here! I've got no choice but to reveal my trump card!"
"His what?" Chopper asked, as they watched Buggy look to Luffy and ask, "Hey, Straw Hat! You remember my super-powerful weapon that I use to strike fear into your heart? My special Buggy Ball?"
"His what?" Franky asked, trying to think back to what he was talking about.
"Remember when you first saw me in these memories and he tried to get me to blow Luffy up with that big cannon?" Nami asked. "That thing."
"Oh, right..." Zoro said, thinking it over. "That was what that thing was called. Wait, he's still using that thing? Get some new material, Buggy."
"Not that it matters since he clearly doesn't have a cannonball on him," Brook pointed out.
Luffy, however, clearly didn't remember the Buggy Ball. He just looked back at Buggy with that familiar look confusion as he said, "Nah."
"Guess it didn't leave much of an impression," Robin laughed.
"Not really," Zoro said, "Luffy was able to bounce it back even then. And we've faced a hell of a lot more dangerous stuff than some kind of messed up cannonball. Why would we be afraid of it now?"
But at Luffy's simple answer, for the first time, Buggy's confidence was broken as he slowed down and a dark cloud of depression hung over his head.
"Wow, he's really taking it hard just because he didn't remember it," Usopp said blinking. You mean that was all that Luffy had to say to shut him up?
"'Nah'?" Buggy repeated, as if he couldn't believe it. "How can it be...?" But he jerked his head up and ran faster, now sounding angry. "LIKE HELL! I'm talking about the Buggy-Ball, y'know, the Buggy-Ball! Don't you remember me blowing up a whole town with it? KA-BOOM! Don't you remember that powerful attack?"
"Nope," Luffy answered bluntly, and just like that, Buggy became depressed again.
"This is just getting funnier and funnier," Franky laughed, almost forgetting that they were being chased here.
"Well, what the...?" Buggy almost whimpered out, "I had this really powerful cannonball called the Buggy-Ball. It's sort of my... favorite weapon... my trademark. The Buggy-Ball."
"If you gave it your own name," Mr. 3 commented from next to them, "You must have a lot of confidence in this 'Buggy Ball' of yours."
At those words, Buggy's confidence came rushing back and he ran at full speed with them again, looking pleased that someone was interested in his toy. "Exactly!" he said, "And I've developed a new weapon! It allows me to conceal a miniature version with the same destructive power in my body! 'The Muggy Ball'!"
"You changed the name?" Mr. 3 cried out, losing his previous interest.
"Muggy?" Brook asked, wondering where he came up with that name.
"The M is for mini, I think," Robin offered.
"Still a lame name," Zoro said, wondering if they were ever gonna take that cow out. At last however, that was when Buggy held up his foot, pointing to bottom of it towards the Minotaurus and at them as well.
"Wait, he's gonna shoot us?" Chopper screamed, forgetting once again that they can't get hurt here.
"It won't touch us," Sanji shouted out at him.
"Take this!" Buggy shouted, firing something out of the soul of his shoe. It was tiny, about the size of a marble, but it shot at the Minotaurus's face. "SPECIAL MUGGY BALL!"
At it flew there was an almighty KABOOM, creating an enormous fireball explosion. They heard the Minotaurus shrieked in agony as the fire engulfed his body.
"AWESOME!" Luffy cried as they all drew back to watch.
"Not bad!" Franky yelled out over the noise and they all stopped to see the fire. "But it's got nothing compared to the Franky Radial Beam!" And he posed as he thought about his own special attack.
"It worked!" Bon Clay shouted, sounding impressed as Buggy looked back at them with a smug smile.
"And that is how it works!" he laughed out. "Well? Remember yet, Straw Hat?"
"He might want to look up and see that it's not over yet," Robin pointed out and it was true. The Minotaurus was still standing... already up on its feet and looking at them all with murder in its beady eyes.
"Ah! All they did was make it angry!" Brook shouted out fearfully.
"SHIT! It's still conscious?" Buggy questioned in disbelief.
"Let's do this, Straw Hat!" Bon Clay declared before he jumped at Minotaurus this time, ready to show them how it was done.
"Hey, Three!" Luffy said, looking back to Mr. 3, "You really can't use your Wax-Wax powers here, huh?"
"No!" Mr. 3 answered. "It'll melt in just three seconds!"
"Then I'll have to do it in three seconds!" Luffy shouted out, as they already guessed what he was about to do.
"I get it," Zoro said, remembering Little Garden and he used the wax that was stuck on his legs to break that wax pillar. "That Wax is as hard as steel, if he does it quickly enough...?"
"It's going to add more of a punch to Luffy's punch," Nami grinned. Above them, Bon Clay did sever flips in the air.
"Flying! I'm flying! My Flying Ballet Kenpo!" he cried, "Memoir of a Winter's Sky!"
With a great crashing sound, he hit the Minotaurus hard in the face as Usopp cheered and Chopper clapped at the sight of it all. The force of the attack was great enough to cause the Minotaurus to sink a few inches into the stone floor, holding its head in terrible pain. Nami saw the floor cracking apart and remembered what Bon Clay said about there being boiling blood beneath them.
"Any more damage and they're gonna end up falling right through to the next floor!" she warned, "Again..."
"Too late for that!" Franky called, pointing ahead and they looked in time to see Luffy charging towards the Minotaurus while it was distracted.
"Here I go, Straw Hat!" Mr. 3 exclaimed and he stretched out his hand to cause a river of wax to wrap itself around Luffy's arm, creating a thick coating. "Candle LOCK!"
"RIGHT!" Luffy cried as he then threw his arm back and twisted it around as he cried out, "GUUUUUM... GUUUUUUM..."
"The Minotaurus seized his club and held it high, about to attack.
"HAMMER RIFLE!" Luffy shouted and with a spinning fist, combined with Mr. 3's Candle Lock, he landed a powerful blow right to the Minotaurus's jaw, sending it back for a second time. The wax flew off in every direction as it melted off—the other three stared at him in shock as they watched the monster fall as if in slow motion. It crashed right into the floor, sliding yards away and its head was slammed right into the opposite wall.
"That had to hurt," Zoro smirked. He doubted even that thing will be up right away after a hit like that.
"Now that's teamwork!" Brook called happily. "You see what can be done when working together?!"
"WE DID IT!" the four of them cried out together, jumping up and down ecstatically. "WE BEAT A MONSTER FROM HELL!"
"Right!" Luffy screamed out, his face now full of hopefulness than they had seen since he snuck into Impel Down, "Now let's get going down to Level 4!"
Sanji smirked at the horrified looks on Buggy's and Mr. 3's faces. "Something tells me that that wasn't what they had planned," he grinned.
"Their loss," Usopp said angrily. He just couldn't take it... here, the rest of them were wishing that they could've been with Luffy to help him, but all they could do was watch the even two years later. While those two are there and don't want anything to do with helping to save Ace.
How was any of this even remotely fair?
He was sitting there, stewing in his own anger as the memory faded once more and they were back with Ace and Jimbei in that dark, miserable cell. But there was something different about it this time. Every other time that they had been down here, Ace had been calm... almost bored of the cell that he was stuck in. But here there was completely different air hanging around him... it hung of fear.
"Ace...?" Chopper asked worriedly as he came through the bars and tried to get a good look at his wounds.
Ace just hung there limply, his face looking like he was fighting back the urge to scream. In fact, even Jimbei was looking at him with some worry in his face. Yet, Ace didn't seem to be paying any attention to anything that was happening around him... rather he seemed to be lost inside his own head.
"Is he ok?" Brook asked in concern.
Robin knew at once what that look meant. "The problem is that he's not thinking about himself at all," she said.
No sooner had she said that did Ace mutter softly to himself, "Just go away..."
They looked back at him to see him raise his head and they got a good look at the worry and pain in his eyes. "Whatever you do..." Ace whispered, "...please... don't come here..." He shut his eyes and finished, "Luffy!"