Outside the Tower of Law…
Luffy coughed up water. "Gya! What is going on?"
"Is he stupid, Gonbe?" A little girl with her hair braided in two spikes off to the sides of her head. The oversized cat next to her meowed with a smile. "Hey, pirate big brother? You can't sail a tiny boat like that in those rushing waters."
His vision and clarity returned to him. "But, Robin is being taken to the Gates of Justice and there right there so I need to sail across."
"Don't worry about that," Chimney and Gonbe jumped up and down. "I found you so I can tell you how to get to her."
"Oh, really?!" Luffy jumped to his feet. "Alright! Let's go then!"
Luffy followed Chimney and Gonbe back through the Tower of Law down a spiraling staircase. They reached the basement floor. A heavily secured door with the World Government symbol decorated the iron door.
"That scary looking dude with Lucci and the pretty woman went through here," said Chimney, pushing random buttons on a counsel right next to the door.
"Well, open it up," said Luffy.
"I don't know how," replied Chimney, backing away.
"I got this." Luffy smiled, pounding his knuckles together. He bit onto his right thumb and blew air into it. "Gear Three!"
With an enlarged fist, Luffy punched the steel door down. Shrunken to the size of a toddler, Luffy dashed inside the underground passageway.
—Kitchen, Tower of Law
Fukuro's punch sent Franky crashing through a brick wall. With blurry vision, he took in his surroundings. Glossy tables, pots and pans hanging from the wall, a large refrigerator pressed against the far wall. But, the pink haired CP9 agent had the gorilla arms and legs ensnared with his long hair.
'I finally reached the kitchen.' Franky thought as he slowly got to his feet. He ran toward the refrigerator but a fist slammed into the side of his check, sending him to the floor.
'I would be able to take both of them down if I had cola.' He regained his bearings, shaking his head.
Franky watched as a beat up Chopper shrunk in size, escaping from the hair binding.
"I can only use one more rumble," His small legs reached the ceramic tile floor, running over to Franky's side. He huffed. "I need to regain some stamina. Do you have a plan?"
"Yes," Franky threw up his fists. "Drink some cola. You?"
Chopper screamed. "Cola! How is that going to help?"
"Cha pa pa pa. Not gonna happen, we know the plan now."
"Oiii, You hear that Fukuro." The pink haired CP9 agent, Kumadori said, slurring his words with a strange accent. "We must prevent these two from getting to that fridge."
Behind them, a rustle was heard from inside of the refrigerator. They all stared and watched as the door slowly opened and a bandaged nose poked through. Then, a shivering Sogeking exited the fridge.
"Thank God, Sogeking, you're here to help us." Chopper said excitedly. "But, what were you doing in the refrigerator?"
'Hiding, probably.'
"Looking for Robin's keys, of course." Sogeking said warming himself up by rubbing his shoulders. "You never know where they might be hiding her keys."
Chopper's eyes sparkled. "You're so considerate. Smart thinking."
"Stop fooling around and give me some cola," shouted Franky.
"SORU!"
Fukuro lunged, throwing a punch at Franky's chest. Even with his cyborg body, he felt the punch as he grabbed on the man's forearm, entrapping him. "Now you can't move."
He uppercutted Fukuro's chin but it was rendered useless due to the man's hardening technique.
"Cha pa pa pa, weak punches. Allow me to show you how it's done." Fukuro reared back his fists. Franky released his grip to protect his face and chest. "Solid Beast Supreme Technique Owl Strike!"
A barrage of fists connected with Franky's face, even with his guard up. Unexpectedly, Franky ate an uppercut to the chin, sending him flying into the air.
"No!" Chopper worried.
"Oii? What is going on?"
Franky heard Kumadori ask as the refrigerator door opened, Sogeking loaded his weapon with three bottles of cola. He shot the bottles.
Franky opened his stomach and received the package, but at the same time, Kumadori appeared in the air in front of him. Franky secured the bottles of soda in the chamber inside of his metal stomach as Kumadori slammed him to the ground.
"Franky!" Sogeking and Chopper shouted.
Beaten and covered in crushed tile, Franky bursted to his feet. "SUPER!!!"
"Oii, I don't understand. How is a carbonated beverage going to improve his situation?" Kumadori muttered to himself.
Franky removed the fake flesh over his right hand revealing his metal arm. He raised his fists in a boxing position. Calmly and confidently, he approached Fukuro. "Put up your guard."
"Cha pa pa pa. I don't need to protect myself from your weak punches," Fukuro replied, keeping his hands down at his side.
"STRONG HAMMER!" Franky's punch sent Fukuro across the kitchen and broke through the opposite wall. He pulled a comb out of his underwear, fixing his hair. "Sorry about those weak punches, I was out of juice."
—Support Tower of Bridge of Hesitation, Underground of the Tower of Law…
Robin marched along with Spandam's constant shoving at her back. They entered the first floor of one of the support towers for the Bridge of Hesitation. Wooden boxes and metal shipping containers filled with essential supplies and equipment ran along the outer rim of the room.
Behind them, faintly they heard Luffy calling out for her.
'Luffy?' A sliver of hope sparked inside of Robin, knowing her captain was so close.
"What are those idiot's doing? How did that pirate even find this place?" Spandam whined, grabbing onto Lucci's collar.
"A girl followed us to the basement and discovered the passageway," Lucci replied, calmly.
Spandam gawked. "And, you let her get away? Why did you not alert me of this sooner?"
"Those weren't my orders, sir. A little girl couldn't possibly save Nico Robin nor is she a Straw Hat pirate," Rob Lucci shrugged. "So, I decided to let it go. And, why? Because, I want to fight the Straw Hat."
Robin shuddered, sensing a bit of bloodlust coming from the maniac.
Sensing a bit of the man's craziness, Spandam released the man's collars. "Your priority is keeping me safe and Nico Robin within our captivity! Your new orders will be to alert and prevent anyone from endangering those two priorities. Now stay here and deal with the pirate."
"Understood," Rob Lucci said.
Spandam yanked on Robin's arms as they crossed the expansive open room of items and supplies, reaching the door which led to a spiraling staircase.
"Hurry up! I can't believe that pirate made it all the way here. What is everyone doing? Is it possible that they defeated a CP0 agent? He stomped up the stairs and pulled out a Den Den Mushi, pressing the button. "Hello! CP9! Someone answer me! What are you fools doing! A pirate is on his way to the Bridge of Hesitation. They are coming after me! Hello!"
Finally, Spandam stopped forcing Robin up the stairs as he stopped. His mind processing on why nobody was giving a response on the other end of the transponder snail. However, in his gloved hand was a golden snail.
"That snail!" Robin shouted, horrified.
Spandam stared at the golden snail in the palm of his hand in absolute shock. Eyes buldging out of his leather mask. "Huh!"
He activated a Buster Call on Enies Lobby.
Quickly, he retrieved a different Den Den Mushi. "Hello! Is anyone there?"
"Yes, Director," answered Kalifa.
"About damn time someone answered my call. I can't believe I accidently pressed the Buster Call transponder snail. Of all things, I triggered a Buster Call…"
—Support Tower of Bridge of Hesitation, Underground of the Tower of Law…
Luffy sprinted down the tunnel till he reached the light coming from the room. An open room with boxes and containers on the floor. And there, standing at the center was Rob Lucci.
Luffy stopped in his tracks, listening to a transponder snail in his hand.
"Cancel it, immediately! Something terrible is coming!" Robin's voice screamed from the snail.
He clapped his hands. "That's Robin's voice! Where is she!"
Rob Lucci turned his gaze toward him.
"It doesn't matter. That's right, I, commander of CP9 issued the Buster Call to insure the capture of demon Nico Robin. The end result to satisfy those needs doesn't matter! All of the people on this island are expendable in the name of justice!
"Even the people of the World Government will all perish!" Robin retorted.
"To hell with them anyways! If only they did their damn job correctly, we wouldn't be in this mess! For me to earn my promotion at the sacrifice of those imbeciles who couldn't stop an invasion of eighty people… Then so be it."
"I'm glad the whole island will know how you feel about them."
"What nonsense are you talking about, woman," Spandam replied. A long silence later. "Gya! Uh…My name is Straw Hat Luffy."
"Everyone you are in grave danger! Get off the island–"
The transmission ended.
"Where is Robin? Where were they speaking from?" Luffy demanded.
Rob Lucci stuffed the Den Den Mushi in his pocket, turning his body toward Luffy. Using his thumb, he pointed behind him. "On the other side of this door."
Luffy blitzed, releasing a bendy kick like a whip. Lucci blocked with the side of his forearm, simultaneously jabbing at Luffy, who managed to stop the fist with the palm of his hand.
Lucci smiled. "At least give me time to say 'I won't let you pass.'"
Using his left, Luffy punched Lucci's gut. The impact of the punch pushed him back a bit but no damage appeared to be done.
"GOMU GOMU GATLING!"
Luffy's fists blurred, moving fast enough to strike multiple times within single seconds. Grinding his teeth and focusing on the moving target, Lucci maneuvered around each punch, closing the distance. Luffy ended the attack and brought his arms to defend his chest as Lucci's boot crashed into him.
The strength of Lucci's kick sent Luffy flying into a wooden crate. Quickly, Luffy bounced to his feet and rushed back into the fight.
"TEMPEST KICK!" Lucci sent a vertical flying slash.
Luffy angled his body to dodge the attack which played into Lucci's plan as he sped to him.
"FINGER PISTOL!"
Luffy yanked on his own hair to stretch his head and neck out of the way. He countered with a left jab, and Lucci caught his punch. Luffy stretched his right fist back behind him, twisting his arm.
"GOMU GOMU RIFLE!" Luffy's fist snapped back and spun like a bullet fired from a gun. Just before Luffy's knuckles hit his opponent's exposed chest, Lucci activated the iron body technique. This only pushed the man further back, allowing some space between the two fighters. They immediately jump back into the fight, coming at each other with powerful punches.
Luffy and Lucci's fists clash. The power ricocheting from the impacts send the two of them flying in opposite directions.
—Bridge of Hesitation, Outside the Tower of Law…
Minato watched as Gaia's headless corpse fell into the ocean.
He extended his left open palm, condensing a sphere of space in his hand. A contained surging vortex grew on his palm, controlling it to rage faster and stronger. A marked kunai appeared in front of him.
'SPACE- SPACE: LEVEL 4'
The marked Zauel who flew as far as he possibly could and the kunai switched places. With a confused expression, he teleported directly in front of Minato.
'RASENGAN!" He thrusted the sphere of roaring energy into the man's feathered chest. An explosion of wind and force pushed and penetrated the man's insides causing the man to spit out blood. The rasengan sent the man spiraling through the air.
Minato lifted his injured right arm to aim his right palm at the flopping man. 'SPACE-SPACE SWALLOWING VORTEX!'
A back and yellow vortex manifested on his palm, pulling all of space in its direction toward Minato's right palm. Fading in and out of consciousness, Zauel had no energy to defy the attack as he plummeted toward Minato's direction.
Once again on his left palm, a rapid spiral of wind and trapped energy surged within a contained sphere of space. Minato conjured a second slightly bigger rasengan as Zauel came flying through the air, picking up speed as the vortex grew stronger in his right palm.
'SPACE-SPACE REDIRECTED FLOWING RIVER IMPACT!'
Minato slammed the rasengan into the man's chest once again. The exploding force coursed through his chest and ribs, exiting out his back. Shockwaves rattled the sky and even the ocean below rippled. Zauel was launched back up into the air.
Minato analyzed the developing situation as Zauel's wings continued to keep him flying. Then he regained consciousness but was clearly severely damaged vomiting bile and blood.
"Your power exceeds reputation and lore," Zauel stammered through hagged breaths. "I believe a flee on sight warning isn't enough of a warning."
Underneath the red CP0 mask, Minato smirked. "I'm sorry to hurt your feelings but since you are about to die, I tend to be more truthful to the people I kill. You see, I am a cautious person so–"
Zauel chuckled. "We never had a chance."
"You never had a chance by yourself. To be honest, you will be the reason you both died," replied Minato.
"I see." Zauel muttered, his eyes sparked with blue lightning, then his whole body glowed with lightning. The dark ominous clouds returned and rapid speeds of wind shook the sky.
'Damn, Mythical Zoan healing and durability capabilities. With my chest still healing, I can't teleport or go intangible to invade the lightning easily. Should I use that? No, I need to save it.'
He teleported a kunai into his left hand as he coated it with condensed space with the blade of the dagger growing four times the size into a sword.
'SPACE SPACE- SLASH!'
Minato swung the makeshift space condensed sword at Zauel, sending a spatial flying slash. He tried countering it by striking it down with lightning but the flying slash sliced through it with ease, Zauel crossed his arms forming an X with armament haki to block. The spatial cut still drew a thin line of blood.
The kunai returned to its normal three pointed state after releasing the condensed space, then Minato repeated the action, coating the kunai with condensed space.
Afraid of the same attack, Zauel unleashed lightning coated feathers. Hundreds of lightning and haki infused feathers target Minato.
Minato manipulated the space around him to fly, weaving in and out to dodge the lightning shooting from the feathers and clash against the hardened feathers. This became extremely difficult as the wind became resistant and pushed against him. Zauel's Devil Fruit really was a nuisance. Also Minato's chest injury required another minute and a half to fully heal.
But, he didn't need both arms to finish Zauel off.
To avoid the growing wind pressure and speeds, Minato flew away from Zauel and pulled his floating marked kunai with him. A singular kunai flew fifty feet away directly in front of Minato, the Tower of Law was in the background.
Minato condensed a large amount of space into the kunai, growing the kunai into a sword of a dozen feet. While keeping momentum, he switched the kunai with Zauel and swung the sword, unleashing the slash.
'SPACE-SPACE HEAVENLY SPATIAL DIVIDE!'
Zauel and the Tower of Law were sliced in half.