Chapter 67: The Fire of Galley-La

Chapter 73:

The Fire of Galley-La

The stake out was a bust. Robin left by the window at 9:58 in a green cloak, vanishing into the air as if she had stepped into a trap door.

Luffy was kicked through a brick wall at 9:59 while screaming something about "that damn leopard bastard", forcing the pirates that hadn't entered the building yet to split into two groups, one to go in and try to save Iceberg, the other to look for their captain.

At 10:00, the fire began to spread across the first level.

At 10:01, the top of the building began to cave. The attackers were gone by then and most of the shipwrights had evacuated outside. Only Coby, Grace, Zoro, and Gin were inside the building. Chopper was in a side courtyard, treating Amy's wounds, while Nami and Usopp went looking for Luffy.

"Damn it," Coby swore, jumping away from flaming wreckage for the umpteenth time. In front of him, his teacher and Gin hacked open a locked door.

"Come on, Shrimp, Shrimpette!" Zoro called behind him as Gin pressed forward, walking through the fire without a care since his lightning body couldn't get burned.

"We're coming!" Coby yelled back, the heat making him irritated like it did back when they were raiding Gasparde's ship during the Dead End Race. The group of four climbed a somewhat-broken staircase to reach the second floor. They were greeted with the scene of a bloody hallway full of dead shipwrights. Whatever or whoever had come through had been a monster. Smoke curled up from patches in the rug, showing that the fire would soon reach the second floor if it hadn't already.

"This is awful," Coby gasped, trying not to look at the corpses that would be burned away with the building. "Who could do such a thing?"

Gin said nothing as he tried to ignore the Zoan, just barely keeping the images of the devastation he had caused long ago at bay; his past was behind him. He was different now. The group trudged forward, carefully stepping over the bodies as the fire burned the staircase behind them. Reaching the locked door at the end and hearing muttering on the other side, Zoro cut through the door.

"What the Hell is it now?!" Paulie demanded, him and Iceberg tied back-to-back in the center of the boss's burning bedroom. Both were covered in their own blood and Iceberg had a bullet hole through his right shoulder. "Straw Hats?"

"This guy's still alive!" Coby grunted, shifting into his Hybrid Mode to carry an unconscious man with a grey beard. He had been lying by the door, a smashed hammer next to him.

"We'll grab these two," Gin commented, picking up Iceberg as Zoro got a hold of Paulie. "Grace, could you please clear us a path? No point trying to minimize damage now." With a nod, Grace made her way to the windows.

"Colors Trap: Acid." Much to the shipwrights' shock, the girl's black paint began eating away at the brick and glass, the window falling out in four square pieces. Taking that as their cue, the pirates jumped out of the building.

"The pirates have Iceberg!" several guards yelled as Gin hit the ground, him being followed by Zoro and Coby with Grace on his shoulder.

"They've got Paulie and Tilestone, too!"

"Don't attack," Iceberg coughed, Gin setting him on the ground gently. Grace took off toward where Chopper should be with her sister. "Pirate Hunter. Man-Demon. There's something you need to know."

"It can wait until our doctor had treated you," Gin grunted.

"No, it can't," Iceberg denied. "Nico Robin told me why she abandoned you."

"What?" Zoro gasped. "Tell us. Now."

"CP9 confronted her shortly after you landed here," Iceberg began. "They gave her two conditions for her to follow: that she turn herself in and leave your crew, and that she follow their orders without question. In return, they would fulfill her wish."

"Go on," Gin urged as Chopper and Grace returned with an unconscious Amy. The shipwrights that weren't watching in confusion had deemed the story unimportant to them and returned to trying to put out the fire.

"She accepted, and the government agents ordered her to help try to assassinate me and pin the blame on you. That happened last night."

"But what was her wish?" Coby pressed.

"Her condition was that the other ten of you could leave this island safely. You see, Admiral Aokiji has given CP9 the authority to call a Buster Call on the Straw Hat Pirates, summoning five Vice-Admirals and ten battleships to wipe you out the same way they did her home island of Ohara 20 years ago. In return for your safety, she agreed to turn herself in and even go so far as to sacrifice the rest of the world."

"So Robin isn't an enemy after all," Zoro smiled.

"This is great news!" Coby cheered. "We just have to kick their asses and take her back!"

"Easier said than done," Gin commented as Chopper began patching up Iceberg who was rather surprised to speak to a talking reindeer. "I mean, look at how well this turned out." He gestured over his shoulder as part of the building crumbled.

"Captain Luffy went in alone, though," the rosette argued. "I doubt they can take us all on."

"You better hurry," Iceberg told the pirates. "I think they'll be leaving on the last sea train which leaves at 11:00 if I remember right. After that, Aqua Laguna will make it impossible for any ships to sail and she'll be gone by the time you get there." Behind him, the building began to collapse, taking with it all the dead and dying inside to a firey grave.

"I can carry Amy until she wakes up," Chopper offered as he finished bandaging the head of Galley-La. "We need to hurry."

"Then let's get going," Zoro ordered as the blonde was placed on the reindeer's back. "We'll call the others on our way." He took off.

"Zoro-sensei! The gate is the other way!"

"What? The damn thing must have moved."

"No, you're just directionless," Gin grumbled, facepalming as the swordsman turned in the middle of the open lawn. "This may take a while."

"Do you think we should call the others?" Chopper asked.

"No," Gin stated, shaking his head. "Sanji said he wanted to stake out the train station. We can't risk calling since that could give away his position."

"Come on," some of the shipwrights insisted at Iceberg's command. "We'll take you there. We have to pay you back somehow."

"Thank you," Coby responded. "Let's go get Robin back."

"Luffy!" Nami yelled, the sniper by her side calling out in another direction. "Luffy! Awe, damn it. This would be so much easier if we had Amy to help us."

"That's it!" Usopp exclaimed. "We need to get to higher ground to look for Luffy!"

"But how are we going to do that?" Nami countered. "With the wind from the storm coming in, being on the rooftops would be dangerous!"

"I've got something for this," Usopp boasted as he pulled a belt from his satchel. "I didn't need to use it in Skypia, but that just gave me time to work out all the tweaks!"

"Just do it already!"

"Usopp AaaaAAaah!" The sniper shot a grappling hook from his belt which wrapped around a chimney and pulled him up. Grabbing the bricks as he reached the top, Usopp sucked in a breath and called out for his captain as loud as he could through the howling wind. "LUFFY!"

"…Usopp!" The wind carried the teen's voice, but he was close.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" Usopp shouted.

"…Between two buildings! I'm stuck!" Nami bolted in the direction she believed the voice to be coming from, but she couldn't see her lover between the two buildings close enough for someone to be stuck in between, said constructs apartment buildings most likely.

"Nami! Up here!" Blinking at the voice, the navigator looked up to find her boyfriend wedged between the brick walls near the top of the two buildings.

"Now how are we supposed to get him down?" Usopp asked as he arrived, his grappling hook locking into place in his belt.

"I don't know!" Nami replied. "You're the inventor!"

"I'm gonna kick that leopard bastard's ass!" Luffy grumbled above them, trying the wiggle free with little success.

"Is there any way you could use that hook thing the pull Luffy down?" Nami questioned.

"You mean my Usopp AaaaAAaah? I guess, but the hook is almost as wide as this gap."

"Try it," Nami ordered the sniper. "We're running out of time."

"Alright," Usopp sighed, placing his pride as a marksman on the line. "Are you ready, Luffy?"

"Hurry!" the rubber-man responded. "This is really uncomfortable!"

"Usopp AaaaAAaah!" With the press of a button, Usopp fired his grappling hook which, despite some bouncing off the walls, wrapped around Luffy vertically. With Luffy's face now squished into his own legs, Usopp planted his feet on the buildings and began retracting the rope, slowly pulling the rubber-man out.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Usopp, that hurts!"

"Almost there," Usopp muttered, though the growing wind ripped the words out of the air. With a final pop, the two teens tumbled to the sidewalk in a tangle of limbs.

"So where to now?" Luffy asked, standing.

"I'm not sure," Nami answered. "We came looking for you right after you got thrown out of Galley-La and I don't want to risk calling since Sanji decided to do that whole Secret Agent Man stunt."

"I'll see if I can spot anybody," the captain nodded, pulling himself up to the rooftops just as Usopp untangled himself from his own wire.

"Shitty bastards treating a woman like that," Sanji grumbled, glancing around the column he was hiding behind. Blue Station, the sea train station for Water 7, was swarming with government men wearing either regular government attire or business suits. The cook had identified Robin as the lone female among them. "Why isn't she fighting back?"

"CP9 is here!" a man announced, his voice forcing Sanji deeper into the shadows. A group of four sauntered into the station, the tallest carrying a squirming and tied-up Franky. Even though Sanji didn't recognize them, it was Lucci, Khalifa, Kaku, and a man named Blueno.

Blueno, the man carrying Franky, stood at eight feet with black hair stylized into bull horns and a mustache/beard. His body rippled with muscle since he was able to easily handle the cyborg in his grip. A small welt protruded from his hair where Gin had caught him by surprise back at Galley-La.

"-and I can't believe you did that to the Straw Hats' ship!" Franky shouted, his voice just now reaching the chef. "That thing's alive, you know! There's no way I could forgive you for what you did to that klabautermann!"

"Shut up!" Khalifa ordered, punching the prisoner in the head. "You're the one that took it as a bargaining chip."

"Even if she was alive," Kaku added, as if trying to justify their actions, "her life was over. She wouldn't have made it far." Lucci said nothing as Corgi, the man who had met with Iceberg two days prior, gave both him and his pigeon coats to drape over their shoulders.

"What?" Sanji questioned quietly, confused by their conversation. Who were they abducting? What did he or they do to the Going Merry? And what was that about their ship being alive?

"I want to leave," Lucci stated. "Now."

"Oh, uh, right away!" Corgi saluted. "You heard him, men! Get your asses in gear!"

"Your attention please," the speaker system announced. "The train from Water 7 to Enies Lobby will be leaving shortly. Please board the train quickly. The train will be leaving at 10:15. Thank you."

Sanji waited for as long as he could, hoping that the others would catch up, but the time came and the sea train began moving. With a sigh, the chef decided that he couldn't wait any longer and walked forward. Ignoring the conductors that told him to stay back, Sanji jumped onto the caboose of the train, kicking one of the men for good measure.

"Don't worry, Robin," Sanji muttered, lighting a cigarette as it began to rain. "Your Prince Charming is coming to save you." After a deep breath, Sanji turned and let himself in.

All sound and movement stopped on the train as the blond pirate closed the door, all eyes turning on him. Sanji was undaunted, smoking calmly as he sauntered through the government officials.

"Who the Hell are you?" one man demanded, his sword stopping the chef as it was placed at his neck. "What are you doing on this train?"

"Oh, pardon me," Sanji responded, breathing smoke into the man's face. "I'm looking for someone. Can you tell me where Nico Robin is?"

End of Chapter 73

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-SwordOfTheGods