Planning

Cherry returned to Level 5.5, otherwise known as Newkama Land by its residents.

This time she didn't close up the passage as she passed through as she anticipated that she would be using it again, opting only to close the entrances.

Cherry found Ivankov and a now female Inazuma standing over a table with a complex layout of the prison as well as some ideas about how to deal with the various defenses and guards of Impel Down.

"Oh, you're back, Cherry." Inazuma welcomed warmly, catching Cherry somewhat off guard as she had been quite cold and distant as a man.

"I let Ace know he'll be getting rescued. There's a fishman in his cell with him, but I don't think he'll be a problem. Rather I think he'll be helpful, as he seems to be on good terms with Ace and also seems pretty strong." Cherry informed them of her meeting.

"A fishman in level six, huh? That's probably the Shichibukai, Jinbe, who they brought in recently." Ivankov processed the information. "That's good, prospects aren't looking too good so we'll need all the help we can get."

"Hm, it'll really be that difficult? With the number of people you have here it shouldn't be hard to take one of the warships, as well as sail one." Cherry asked. The main problem in her mind was getting out quickly and manning the ship. Both of those problems are solved with more fighters.

"You're forgetting that we're in the calm belt and that the warships outside aren't paddleboats. The only way to sail out of here is through the giant gate, which can only be opened from the inside." Ivankov explained.

"The gate? The gate isn't a problem, I'll just go over top of it and open it myself. Really shouldn't take that long, especially if the marines on the other side are willing to cooperate to avoid the ass kicking of a lifetime." Cherry said.

"How are you going to go over it? Do you have any idea how tall that monstrosity is?" Ivankov asked doubtfully.

"Like this." Cherry said. Then she suddenly vanished and loud cracks could be air in the air around them as Cherry bounced around without landing on any solid surfaces. Cherry landed and place her hands on her hips proudly.

"See? Easy peasy, I can do that all day." Cherry smirked.

"That'll do it. Nhahaha!" Ivankov rubbed his hands together like a villain. "Now we just need to force our way through quick enough so they can't bring in reinforcements."

"Not just that, the current will bring us right passed Marine Headquarters. They have men in constant communication between Impel Down and Marine Headquarters so that if anything at all goes wrong, they'll known the moment it happens that something is wrong. We'll be intercepted for sure." Inazuma pointed out.

"Hm, I think I know someone who could help with that. I'll see if I can get in contact." Cherry said, with a particular person in mind.

"Just bring them here if you can. There's a folk tale of sorts here that people mysteriously vanish from time to time. That what they think happened to many of us here, including myself!" Ivankov said.

Cherry set out into the tunnels once again to get as close as she could to her target on level three, then burrowed a new tunnel to reach them.

Cherry could hear someone shouting above her even through the stone walls.

"Un Deux, Koraaa! OKAMA WAAAAYYY!"

Cherry opened up a hole in the floor. "Bon Clay, come with me. Bring your friends here too."

"Hm? Cherry-chan, is that you?! Hold on, did you... come to break me out of prison?" Bon Clay started to sob from the joy of friendship.

"Nope." Cherry shut him down instantly. "I just need your devil fruit, if I could take that and leave you here I would."

Her words stabbed into his heart without mercy.

"I'm kidding, I definitely didn't plan to leave you here until I needed your skill set." Cherry smirked.

"Y-you shouldn't be mean to your friends! Maybe I won't come with you, huh? How about that?!" Bon Clay said, putting up a false resistance.

"Oh? I guess you don't want to meet Emporio Ivankov then. Have fun rotting here~" Cherry teased, closing up the hole behind her.

"Noooooooooooo, take me with you pleeeeease~ I want to meet Iva-sama~" Bon Clay begged whilst clawing at the place where the hole just was.

Cherry opened it back up and Bon Clay dived inside without giving her the chance to close it again. After bringing the other prisoners in the cell into her tunnel she led them all back to Newkama Land.

Bon Clay started fangirling over Ivankov immediately.

"This is Bon Clay, his devil fruit let's him take the appearance of people he's touched with his right hand. We can use that to replace the marine in communication with Marine Headquarters to buy us as much time as possible." Cherry explained, receiving nods of affirmation.

"So you did just want my devil fruit! You're a monster, a monster!" Bon Clay accused Cherry who could only laugh.

"Don't be angry Bon-chan. Luffy's brother is locked up and scheduled to be executed. Rest assured that I'll do everything in my power to get you out of here as well." Cherry patted him on the shoulder to reassure him.

She wasn't really fond of Bon Clay, but she did respect him at least. After all, his life had been saved by them and he still fought against them in Alabasta. Although he used himself as bait for them to get away afterwards, somewhat redeeming himself, Cherry didn't particularly like his fickle attitude towards the people he called friends.

After talking a bit and ironing out some more details for their plan of action, Cherry decided to turn in for the night.

Over the next few days, Cherry formed a much more robust tunnel system throughout the entirety of Impel Down. Now that she had a clear idea of the layout it was relatively easy to do so, whereas before she was worried about accidentally breaking through to an open space.

They also worked out who would be best to include in their prison break. The prisoners on the upper levels would be easy to control and wouldn't be too harmful to release into the outside world. The prisoners on lower levels were strong, but weren't so easy to control. Many of them also had grudges against Whitebeard, especially those from Level six.

Ivankov said they should involve Crocodile, as Ivankov apparently had some dirt on him that he wouldn't want getting out.

"Oh, what is it that you know that can make a prideful guy like Crocodile become obedient?" Cherry wanted to know, as Ivankov made it sound like some real juicy gossip.

"I won't say anything unless Croco-boy doesn't want to cooperate. Otherwise he wouldn't trust that I'll keep quiet about it." Ivankov said, disappointing her greatly.

"No fun at all~" Cherry pouted.

"We need to make a decision now, we have everything ready to go. Do we do it as soon as possible, or do we wait until the ships that will escort Ace to Marine Headquarters get here? If we wait, then the fight here will be harder, but it will save us some trouble later on." Inazuma stated.

"Personally I'd rather fight the escort here. It's almost certain admirals will get involved when they find out what's happened. Removing some vice admirals and their warships from that fight will improve our chances." Cherry stated her opinion. "Also, it's not unlikely that Luffy will turn up here if Kuma sent him anywhere nearby. I don't want him to be here on his own."

"Mm, that makes sense to me. We'll wait until the day before the execution to make our move! Hee Haw!" Ivankov said.