Chapter 69: Assault on Enies Lobby

Chapter 75:

Assault on Enies Lobby

Sanji sighed sadly, rage toward both himself and CP9 swirling around inside him. The others had fished him out of the ocean half an hour ago and Chopper had bandaged his finger-shaped stab wound. While he was telling them about the powers that CP9 had used and what he believed they had, Amy suggested that their jumping-on-air trick was one as well. They had used Shave and Finger Pistol against him, so including Moonwalk brought their count up to three. That left three unknown powers that all of their opponents possessed, one of them possibly the 'Iron Body' that Kalifa mentioned while fighting Amy back at Galley-La.

Yokuzuna the frog had joined them as well, something about trying to help Franky by Chopper and Kokoro's translation. He rested comfortably on the coal cart.

The pirates and their allies continued their journey until Enies Lobby, also known as the Daytime Island, came into view. An island where the sun always shined, it looked like it was noon on the Marine base when it was nearing 12:30 AM in actuality. Paulie tried drawing a diagram from memory, having been there once before, indicating the waterfall, the Tower of Law, and the Gates of Justice which could be seen looming over the island from far away.

"This is what I suggest," Paulie stated, tapping the map he'd made. "From what I can tell, you Straw Hats are the only ones who have a chance against CP9, but there are probably two-to-three thousand other marines on the island. Wait five minutes while the Franky Family and Galley-La force our way through the main gate, then you can follow us through."

"No way," Luffy denied with a shake of his head. "I'm not waiting that long. We're all going to go in together."

"But-" Zanbai tried to protest.

"It's no use," Coby told him. "This is Captain Luffy's way of doing things."

"Fine," Zanbai relented. "At least let the Franky Family lead with Sodom and Gomorrah. We'll bust through as far as we can, then you can take over."

"Alright," Luffy agreed. Zanbai, Kiwi, and Mozu exited the car to inform their family of the plan and detach the King Bulls from the train. Rocketman lurched forward as the weight of the Franky Family fell away from it and the bulls jumped the fence surrounding the island. The assault began.

"Guys," Luffy stated seriously, attracting the attention of his crew though he did not face them. "This'll be our biggest fight yet, so I'm lifting the ban."

"What ban?" Lulu asked, the other two shipwrights with them nodding with curiosity.

"The killing ban," Gin chuckled darkly, a little of his insanity seeping out in preparation for an apparently-unrestricted rampage.

"Oi," Luffy swatted the back of the lightning-man's head. "Just because I'm lifting the ban for now doesn't mean you can aim to kill. I just don't want any of you to die because you were holding back."

"Understood," the crew nodded, various emotions scattered across the car. Those that had killed before (Gin, Zoro, Coby, and Amy) mirrored their captain's seriousness while everyone else looked a little green at the thought of taking a life if they had to.

"Rocketman's going off the rails!" Kokoro announced through the train's PA system, the train jerking to the right. Miraculously, it stayed afloat. The train pulled a big loop, Luffy helping himself to a view of the island from the nose of the machine. The Franky Family were causing havoc at what remained of the front entrance, Sodom and Gomorrah having smashed some of the gate itself. While this happened, Nami readied her Perfect Clima-Tact (having had Usopp upgrade it with dials from Skypia) and Usopp pulled out a new slingshot. This one, which he called Kabuto, was the same height as him and green with five bands connected to a single pouch in the middle.

Kokoro blew the whistle on the train, alerting the ship dismantlers that they were on the way. With even more panic than there had been, the Franky Family dove to either side as Rocketman burst through the regular gate surrounding the island and thundered over the concrete.

"Woo hoo!" Luffy cheered as the Rocketman smashed through the first concrete gate, blowing its doors to kindling and gravel and moving on. It screeched over the dirt bridge to the main island as the wheels tried in vain to keep up with the train's speed before coming to an abrupt halt as it hit the next obstacle. The second gate opened just enough for a normal-sized person to slip through, the sliver hidden by the smoke Rocketman's crushed engine was spitting out. The pirates and Galley-La stumbled out of the broken machine, coughing the smoke out of their lungs.

"That was a terrible idea," Coby coughed, glad that he hadn't eaten for a while.

"What are you talking about?" Luffy laughed, jumping down from the crushed nose with all his enthusiasm returned. "That was great!"

"No it wasn't!" everyone else yelled. A tremor swept through the ground as two giants jumped over the second gate.

"Look at this, Kashi," the wider of the two growled, hefting his studded club. "Some maggots have interrupted our sleep."

"Yes they have, Oimo," the other responded, tapping his giant sword on his shoulder. "Let's deal with them quickly."

"Huh," Zoro grunted. "Who knew they had giants?"

"Let's see what we can do against them," Gin smiled, pulling his headband off and pointing his tonfa as the slimmer of the giants. Yellow electricity danced between the two gold-plated spheres at the ends of his weapons, slowly building in intensity.

"Lightning Shot!" As if firing a cannon, Gin blasted the power forward faster than the speed of sound. The electricity met its mark, the giant, Kashi, crying out in pain. His size, however, prevented him from going down with only one shot.

"You worms!" Oimo yelled, bringing his club down on the group who scattered. They could hear the Franky Family approaching with their King Bulls from behind them, so reinforcements were on the way.

"Three Sword Style," Zoro began, placing Wado Ichimonji in his mouth. "108 Caliber Phoenix!" The flying slashes cut three gashes into Oimo's shoulder which would slow him down and scar, but not take him out of the fight. The giant kicked forward, Coby moving forward to intercept in his Hybrid Mode. The giant foot's momentum was too much, however, throwing the rosette back the down the bridge where he rolled over the edge.

"Coby!" the crew gasped, Luffy and Grace taking off to try to save the young swordsman while the others turned back to the fight. The captain and painter reached the edge and looked down before releasing simultaneous sighs of relief. Coby had managed to stab his swords into the side of the bridge and was hanging on for dear life.

"Don't worry about me!" Coby shouted. "I'll be fine!" Luffy nodded, trusting his third-ever crewmate to survive. Even though he took off back toward the giants, Grace stayed to make sure the Zoan was ok; her emotion paints wouldn't do any good against giants anyway. Narrowing his eyes in concentration, Coby began climbing his way back up, stabbing the cliff like back in Drum. Meanwhile...

"10,000 Kilogram Press!" Being the sadistic woman she was, Amy aimed for Oimo's wounded shoulder, forcing a cry of pain out of the giant's mouth. He lost his grip on his club as his hand reached up to swat the blonde like a fly.

"Wolf Fang!" Sanji yelled, his leg slamming into the back of the giant's knee, staggering the warrior of Elbaf. At the same time, Amy grabbed Oimo's hair and increased her mass again, bending him backwards. With a toss from Zoro, an unwilling Usopp was flung over the giant's face.

"Special Attack!" the sniper squeaked, terrified by the glare he received, "Triple Gunpowder Star!" The three explosions happened on Oimo's face, nearly blinding the giant with the light. The force only increased the speed at which his head met the ground, added to by both gravity and Amy's extra weight.

"Gum-Gum Bazooka!" Luffy swept in, hitting the downed giant in the face as hard as he could. The attack broke his nose and rendered the huge warrior unconscious. Beside them, the shipwrights, Franky Family, and Gin had tied up the other giant and shocked him into unconsciousness. Taking only a second to celebrate their victory, the Franky Family surged forward to push one side of the gate open all the way.

"We missed it," Coby whined, him and Grace catching up to the group as they moved to take the opening into the island proper.

"Don't worry, Shrimp," Zoro smirked, sheathing his swords. "I have a feeling there will be plenty of people to fight. Get ready."

"Dino Mode," the rosette muttered, pawing the ground. "Let's see them stand up to a charging triceratops."

"Was that smugness I heard?" Nami teased, causing the dinosaur to blush. "Look at you, Coby, talking big."

"I… Ah… I mean…" Coby stuttered, realizing how brazen his statement had been. Lucky for him, the captain didn't think that was the best time for conversation.

"Let's get Robin back!" The group of exactly 72 humans and 3 animals (relatively) charged through the door with a battle cry.

"Nico Robin," Spandam greeted with a leer as she and a chained Franky were ushered into his office. Spandam was a shady man with greasy, purple hair that fell to his shoulders and a face plate that covered parts of the right side of his face. He was dressed in a suit with a fresh coffee stain on his left side. "How nice of you to finally turn yourself in."

Robin said nothing, prompting the man to look for response elsewhere.

"And, of course, we can't forget Cutty Flam, here. Oh, it's such a shame that people won't just give the government what we want without fighting. If they did, then that old moron Tom wouldn't have had to die all those years ago. Isn't that right, Flam?"

"You bastard!" Franky yelled, biting down on the man's head. CP9 did nothing as they watched their boss getting chewed on by the prisoner.

CP9 was now complete, all seven of its members returned to Enies Lobby at the same time. Of the three newcomers was a man with black hair pulled into a long ponytail. He was on the shorter side and had a jagged scar running over his left eye. A thin mustache framed his mouth with a pointed beard. This was Jabra.

To Jabra's left was a thing that was shaped like an oversized ball. With green-tinted skin, green hair, and a zipper for a mouth, no one was really sure what Fukurou was. He was also dressed in a suit.

On Jabra's right was Kumadori. The tallest member of CP9 had skin so white it had to be painted. His hair was light pink in color and he carried a sage staff with him. He was dressed like all the rest of the agents in all black save for his tie which was green.

"Help me!" Spandam ordered, trying in vain to pry Franky's mouth open and off his head.

"Yoi, yoi!" Kumadori yelled. "I shall assist you!" With a dramatic swing of his staff, Kumadori swatted his boss out of the prisoner's mouth by batting Spandam in the side. The man was thrown across the room and over his desk where he landed with a crash. "No need to thank me!"

"I wasn't going to," Spandam muttered unhappily. "Anyway-"

BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP... BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP... BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP... CA-LICK!

"This is Spandam speaking," the unhappy commander answered, picking up the receiver from the den-den sitting on his desk.

"Commander Spandam!" a marine on the other side cried. "The Straw Hat Pirates are attacking Enies Lobby!" Robin's eyes widened, tears coming unbiden as a small gasp made its way out of her mouth.

"They're just one pirate group," Spandam waved off. "How much trouble can they cause against the 10,000 marines here in Enies Lobby?"

"Well, sir," the marine stuttered. "They've already broken the first two gates and have beaten the giants."

"What?!"

"I'd estimate our main force losses at about twelve-hundred."

"That's ridiculous," Spandam denied. "Intel says there's only ten of them. No pirate group that size could have that much energy after fighting so far."

"I'll reevaluate that. We're up to fifteen-" The grunt of pain went unheard by the commander who laughed.

"Wahahaha! Only 15? I don't know how you miscalculated that much, but, like I said, they aren't a threat." He hung up as a low-ranking marine brought him a fresh cup of coffee. He nodded to them and took a sip, only for the drink to burn his tongue. The man flailed for a second, hitting his desk and causing the receiver on the snail to fall off. "I burned myself on my coffee again, dammit!"

"You sure are a piece of work," Franky muttered, earning him a punch from Khalifa.

'Luffy,' Robin thought angrily. 'What are you doing?'

Laughing manically, Gin threw another ball of condensed lightning into the black raincloud following the King Bulls as they rampaged through the main area of Enies Lobby. The improvised Thunder Ball connected with the cloud, causing it to spark for only a second before it released a plethora of lightning bolts on the damp marines and government employees caught underneath it.

"Nice shot, Gin!" Usopp complemented, pulling back the pouch of his Kabuto and releasing six Lead Stars, each of them curving a different direction to strike a different target. Every one connected.

"Gum-Gum Whip!" Luffy bellowed, his leg stretching out to skim the ground, each man in its path either tripping or getting launched away. Those that were lucky enough to dodge the captain's leg were left coughing in the dust cloud left behind.

"36 Caliber Phoenix!" Zoro shouted, firing a slash into the air to collide with an incoming mortar. The iron ball split down the middle, the projectile cleaved in two, before exploding.

"Cyclone Tempo!" Nami yelled, two poles of her Clima-Tact arching down to smack a couple of agents before boomeranging back up to reconnect with the third in her hand. A group of Franky Family men jumped off of the back of Sodom, declaring that they'd make a stand there to thin the herd before they way to the Tower of Law on foot.

The pirates were getting closer to the Tower of Law...

End of Chapter 75

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-SwordOfTheGods