212 Dyna Stone

"What?! He's going to pop the bubble?!" Usopp exclaimed in fright.

"With that much water and the pressure of the deep sea…" Nami said as her face went pale.

"It'll crush us all to death in an instant." Robin said with an unconcerned smile on her face.

"How can you say that while smiling, Robin?! We're going to die!" Chopper cried whilst lightly tugging on the hem of Robin's skirt.

"Maybe not…" Nami muttered then looked like she had an idea. "Old Man Money Bags! Tell everyone to get into the water!"

King Neptune was lamenting the fact that there was no way to reach the palace and stop these madmen within the ten minute time limit, but he was shaken from his despair by Nami's words. "What do you mean?"

"Hody and his goons were planning to use Shirahoshi to call sea kings to destroy the bubble, right? They must have had a plan to survive it then! They were planning to dive into the water to mitigate the impact of the coming disaster on their bodies!" Nami explained.

King Neptune widened his eyes in realization. He immediately began to address the people with his booming voice full of authority, meanwhile the three princes fanned out to spread the word.

Most of the people who got the message trusted the royal family enough to listen to them, however there were still a lot of people who didn't listen or simply weren't within earshot to hear the message. Needless to say, if the bubble were to pop, a lot of people would die without the ability to resist. Ten minutes just wasn't enough time to form an effective evacuation.

"We need to get under the water, guys! Hurry and use the Bubbly Coral and dive under!" Nami tried to convince some stupidly stubborn members of her own crew, including the captain..

Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, Franky, Usopp, and even Merry stood on the deck of the Thousand Sunny seemingly with no intentions to move from the spot.

"If the bubble pops, the Sunny might be damaged beyond repair. She's my masterpiece! If the Thousand Sunny dies here, then I'll die with her as penance for my lacking skill!" Franky spoke seriously.

"Baaah." Merry bleated sadly, but resolutely.

"Merry says that she won't leave her friends behind." Chopper translated. He then slapped his cheeks and made an expression of resolve. "And I wouldn't be a man if I did either!"

"What am I going to do with you guys…" Nami lamented. "Wait a minute? Aren't we missing someone…?"

"Cherry flew up to the palace with Cabernet." Robin said, naturally having kept track of her girlfriend's whereabouts. "She said something about smelling a tasty morsel, whatever that means."

…

"Excuse me! Can I come inside?!" Cherry shouted at the entrance to the tunnel that leads into the Ryugu Palace.

She hammered on the closed door just loud enough to make some satisfying thud noises. Of course she knew perfectly well they wouldn't just let her inside, but pretending she was helpless to reach them would set their guards at ease and hopefully catch them off guard.

"What are you up to, Harpin D. Cherry? None of your tricks will work against the Neo Marines. We aren't complacent as the marines are." The voice of the electric eel fishman, Garcelo, came through the intercom.

"Who needs tricks? You should surrender now while I'm being nice! Otherwise I'll hunt down all your little wannabe vigilante friends once I get into the New World. How about it?" Cherry threatened.

"You're about to die here, Cheapshot. Even if you somehow miraculously survived and made it to the New World, the Neo Marines are more than equipped to deal with your ilk. May your trip to hell be swift and painful." Garcelo said confidently.

Cherry pushed her fingers into the close crack between the doors and pried them open with little effort. She slipped inside quickly and shot towards the other side of the tunnel where she did the same again.

She found herself face to face with a very large cannon that was pointed in such a way that when the doors of the tunnel were opened, its payload could be fired straight down to the other side.

*ZAP*

Cherry felt an intense electricity surge into her body the moment she entered the palace proper. Garcelo had been waiting for her there from the start and used his natural bodily electricity to send a jolt of energy at her.

Cherry didn't dodge, not that it would have been easy to do so. Electricity was very fast after all. Instead she rushed directly at the source of the electricity and landed a powerful blow onto his chest. Garcelo's armament haki barely prevented his ribcage from collapsing, but the vibrations from the strike were only partially nullified and raged through his hearts and lungs.

To the man's credit, he barely even flinched at the pain of his organs being damaged. His eyes were full of cult-like fervor as he dug into Cherry's flesh with bladed gloves and increased the voltage of his electricity tenfold, even burning the flesh of his own arms in the process.

His men were similarly zealous in that they didn't hesitate in the slightest to charge at Cherry's back with haki coated swords and harpoons. Cherry noted that both the bladed glove and the weapons wielded by the subordinates were very high quality, only inferior to Meito. They were also quite thin and thus extremely sharp, meaning they were made specifically for cutting power whilst sacrificing long term durability.

"You guys came here prepared to die for this, huh?" Cherry said, right before she was skewered by every weapon that came piercing at her back.

Garcelo gave her a smile only a madman could have. "We came here to get the job done, killing you was just a bonus!"

"Killing me?" Cherry said mockingly.

Garcelo realized something was wrong. Even having been pierced through by a dozen weapons, Cherry was seemingly unfazed.

"You don't have what it takes to kill me." Cherry spoke matter of factly.

*Crunch*

The sound of metal being crushed beneath tremendous pressure was heard and all the Neo Marines felt their weapons suddenly come loose. No, they didn't come loose. They were broken as Cherry tensed her muscles around them. A technique that was usually employed to trap a blade inside a stab wound had sundered them instead.

Garcelo didn't panic. After all, there was still the-

"Poison too? You guys are ruthless. Magellan's was worse, though." Cherry said with a mocking smile as if she knew every thought in his mind.

*Crunch*

This time it was the sound of crushed bones, as Cherry squeezed Garcelo's hands with her own. A bolt of lightning shot out of Cherry's back and passed through the heads of each of the Neo Marines aside from Garcelo. They were accustomed to resisting electric shocks as they were on Garcelo's squad, but his electricity didn't compare to genuine lightning.

Having their brains short circuited, they instantly toppled over unconscious. A credit to their toughness as that would have killed lesser men.

Garcelo's eyes were full of hate. Not a burning hatred, but frigid and cold like a violent blizzard. He took some distance from Cherry, something that in hindsight Cherry would realize she shouldn't have allowed.

He opened his coat with his almost useless hands. There he revealed an explosive vest and took its detonator into both hands to hold it firmly enough to actually trigger it.

Cherry scoffed. She was unafraid of whatever petty explosive he had prepared. It could not hurt her. She approached him with slow even steps, the mocking smile having never left her face.

Garcelo looked her dead in the eyes as his expression distorted to show the roiling madness within him. For just an instant, his eyes glanced at the cannon as he pushed the button.

Cherry jerked her head around in horror just in time to hear the smallest explosive go off from inside the cannon, followed by a bright pink light shining out of it.

And Cabernet was standing right next to it as she had pointed it away from Fishman Island.