Lara's POV;

Chopper, Luffy and Nami did come almost two hours later. Luffy was a little banged up, his clothes were rather dirty and a little ripped, but his body was overall fine. Being made out of rubber makes it pretty hard for most people to hurt him at all.

The four were sitting around our dining table, with us watching their drama. They were discussing if it can be possible for Robin to do such a thing. And if she can, then, if she's their ally or an enemy.

“Lara, Josef is still not back. Do you think something happened?” Asked Nojiko in a whispered tone. I was thinking the same. It's not normal for Jo to be this late. He rarely gets lost and would have called us if something came up. Each of us has a baby transponder-snail.

“I don't know and it worries me,” I answered. I don't think that Jo would leave us like Robin did with the Straw Hats. But there is always the chance that he got kidnapped. He does know a lot of things, especially about the Pacifista.

“Maybe he found an apothecary that has some rare ingredients. We all know how much he likes it to speak about medical things”, offered Yosaku. He and Jonny had a worried look as well.

All of them can feel the tension that is in the air. The Aqua Laguna will hit the town around midnight and the Straw Hats, of whom our crew has some good connections, is in trouble.

Nojiko wants to help her sister, while Jonny and Yosaku want to show Zoro that they can be helpful too. They kinda give off the feeling of a little brother that wants to show his older one that he too can do the same as his brother.

We stopped our own discussion when we saw that the remaining Straw Hats have finished with their conversation. Luffy stood up and turned to us, or more specifically me.

He bowed deeply and asked us to help. “Lara, I know that you are strong. Please help me and my crew to get Robin back and find out what happened. We have to speak with the old man Iceburg. He might know what happened.”

I looked at my crew and saw that they want to help. “Sure, why not. Guys, get ready for a prolonged night and possible series of fights. I think it would be best to wear the same clothes I gave you during our Marine Base raid.”

Each of them nodded and left to get geared up. The Straw Hats were smiling thankfully and were then stunned at the clothes each of us wore. Luffy and Chopper found them to be cool and Ninja-like, only the masks were creeping them out.

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Together we left the inn in the shadow of the night and approached the Galley-La HQ. There were quite a lot of people guarding the building. They were surrounding it from all sides, each carried some kind of weapon and was watching for any intruder.

Zoro stated the problem we were facing. “We can't rush in there. They will only start to mop us and we aren't here to hurt them.”

“The assassin from yesterday will try to finish his job. If it's Robin or not, he or she will come back and most likely start something to get their attention away.”

“Yeah, it would be bad to run in without a plan,” nodded Luffy in agreement. Not even noticing the tick mark on Nami's forehead. Wasn't that exactly what he has had done earlier this day?

Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by a large explosion right in the middle of the defending shipwrights. They gaped at the destruction and sudden death and didn't notice Luffy's quick exit. He had used his arms to fling himself towards the HQ but got stuck between two buildings.

Lia snickered at his stupidity, which made the others notice his absence. “Where is Luffy?” asked Noa for the rest of them.

“The idiot! He must have run in like he always does,” complained Nami with an annoyed sigh. “Well, let's get going. The enemy is surely already inside. We have to rush or they might kill Iceburg.”

We all jumped down from the tree and run towards the gate entrance. “You think Luffy used stealth this time?” asked Zoro mid-run. Chopper and Nami instantly denied the possibility. “Then he must've run through the guards. The entrance should be much less guarded now. We can jump right over the fence”, he continued and all of us agreed.

Only Lia and I knew that there were still lots of shipwrights left and that Luffy never crossed them.

All nine of us jumped over the fence and were greeted by over a hundred angry men and women. Each stared at us in shock for a moment. The crew of Luffy stared right back, not really able to comprehend that their captain has done something in a sneaky way.

“Quick run!”, ordered Nami. Chopper and Zoro were following her orders instantly, but my people waited for Lia to do her job.

The next instant the men and women from the Galley-La were falling down, clutching their throats before losing consciousnesses, they were no longer able to attack us. Nami, Chopper and Zoro stared at the downed bodies in shock. “What happened?” asked Zoro for the three of them.

“I lowered the air-pressure around their bodies. They were no longer able to breath and their bodies shut down.” She answered and flicked a pebble at each of the downed bodies. The extra hit made sure that they will stay down for longer than a few seconds.

“Scary,” muttered Chopper.

“Come, we have to save Iceburg!” urged Noa. The rest nodded and we were back sprinting towards the entrance of the HQ. A kick from Yosaku broke the door and Noa, followed by Zoro with Jonny rushed inside to knock out everyone that would stand in our way.

“There, the door with the chairs in front. That must be it. Zoro, cut it open!” ordered Nami. Zoro screamed at her to not order him around, he nonetheless cut the door in four pieces and we rushed in.

Inside were the CP9, Kalifa, Lucci, Kakku and Bluene, as well as a downed Iceburg and a shocked Paulie. Upon our entrance Lucci muttered slightly annoyed, “aw jeez,” . The rest of the CP9 were glancing at us and Paulie without emotions.

“Iceburg, what? What is going on? Kaku, why didn't you run away? Why are you dressed like the criminals that are after Iceburg-san?”

Lucci turned to him, there were no emotions on his face when he answered. “Paulie, we're from the World Government. You'll forgive me if I apologize right? If it's too sudden for you to believe us then would you like me to step on Iceburg's face?”

Pauli got over his shock and attacked Lucci with an enraged cry. He threw a rope at him that had dozens of knives knotted into it.

It never reached Lucci. The CP9 evaded the rope easily and rushed at Paulie. He used his speed to get into Paulie's guard and pierced his chest with a shigan. The blond coughed blood and clutched his chest to hem the blood flow. He whispered a why. “You still don't get it? We are masters of the Rokushiki. We have turned our bodies into weapons through training. Each of us is a one-man army. You don't stand a chance.” Answered Lucci.

“Why?! Why would you?” Roared Paulie. He forced himself up and was going to attack again, but was stopped by Lucci's arm. He was just about to get killed when Luffy decided that he no longer wanted to watch the drama. He rushed forward and attacked.

And yet his attack was stopped by one hand and his following Gattling was blocked by the tekkai of Lucci. “This is annoying,” muttered Lucci. He used a Soru to get closer to Luffy and then used a shigan right into Luffy's throat.

Luffy was thrown back to us but still grabbed Paulie to get him out of harm's way.

“I'm sorry but we have to leave. This mansion will soon burn to the ground and we have to find a very important person after this. How much time is left Kalifa?”

“Two minutes”, answered the woman her team leader.

“You might want to evacuate the building, that is... if you can.” Kalifa, Blueno and Kaku stepped forward, blocking our way and ready to attack. Our two groups glared at each other for a moment and were just about to say something or attack when a sudden clucking stopped everyone in their tracks.

“What?” asked Chopper first. He must've understood what Mrs Chicken Wing has said. The bird, who was absent up until now, came fluttering inside the room and landed in front of all of us.

“What did she say?” I asked. Mrs Chicken Wing rarely does things like this. She knows that Lia and I want to do things ourselves and don't want to be protected by her if it's possible.

“She said, 'Is that you, Andreas?'” translated Chopper.

No one knew who this Andreas was, but I had my suspicion, which was confirmed when the pigeon on Lucci's shoulder flew off and landed in front of Mrs Chicken Wing.

“Lady Batilda, what honour it is to see you again,” greeted the pigeon sarcastically in human language and with a mocking bow.

“Bough!” clucked Mrs Chicken Wing angrily. She was releasing an aura of anger and her Conqueror Haki was flaring. Whatever this pigeon has done, it must have had pissed our resident chicken mightily off.

Chopper automatically translated for us. He, like the rest of us present, even the CP9 was shocked at the current development. “'Don't fuck with me, Andreas. You betrayed us and are the reason for why my Basilisk is in the hands of the World Government!'”

“Ah yes, the fight at Worm Bay. You and Herbert were fighting Sengoku and Garp and would have won if I hadn't stepped in. You see, I have worked for the World Government for 30 years now. I never was loyal to the ruling family of Poultry.” The tone of the pigeon was mockingly and he cooed a laugh at Mrs Chicken Wing's angry posture.

The coo got stuck in his throat when something inside our chicken snapped. With an angry cluck, she jumped at Hattori/Andreas and kicked him in the chest. It sent him crashing through a wall and out of the mansion. She followed right after, her body fully clad in the stronger Armament Haki.

All of us starred at the large hole inside the wall. “Eh, 'Die, traitor!'” supplied Chopper silently.

It brought us out of the shock. Luffy was the first to react. He shouted for Robin to stop and was faced by the bullhorn haired man named Blueno. Luffy's attacks were first stopped by an iron-body and then evaded by Kami-e.

“He's using the skills Lia and Lara have trained us in,” commented Nojiko in slight shock. Nami's head snapped to her, she asked what she was meaning, but the answer was stopped when Zoro shouted for all of us to dug.

Kalifa and Kaku have sent a Rankyaku/storm leg at Luffy and us. Our crew and the Straw Hats ducked down, while Lia and I kept standing. The attack was aimed at head height. So way above our own heads.

Fiara also ducked down something that made me smile in amusement. She wasn't even thirty centimetres high when standing, there was no need for her to get down.

Zoro rushed in and got confronted by Kaku, they started a quick sword fight. He looked over his shoulder and told Luffy to catch Robin. Which made him not see Kaku's next move. Kaku has had crouched down and then jumped up, he got past Zoro's guard and used a shigan to pierce his body. Zoro's chest got a breathing hole and he crashed to the ground.

Jonny and Yosaku were rushing forward to aid the green haired swordsman. Jonny even used a soru of his own. He made a pierce at Kaku, who tried to block the attack with a knife. His knife got pierced right through by Jonny's new sword and he had to duck away from the deadly weapon that still was fast enough to cause trouble.

“Soru? How do you pirates know such a technique?” asked Kaku angrily. He never got an answer, instead, Yosaku brought his new sword down. The massive sword crashed down at Kaku, who used tekkai to block the attack.

It still wasn't enough and Kaku got thrown to the floor, he pushed himself off the ground and then backwards to evade another pierce from Jonny and slowed down next to Kalifa. His shoulder wasn't bleeding, but he was clutching it in pain.

He was quick to warn his two companions. “He almost got through my tekkai. These Kage pirates are way stronger than the Straw Hats, be careful.”

Too bad that we aren't really masked. Mrs Chicken Wing, Fiara and the ears of me and Lia are a giveaway. Still, the masks give us protection and are enhancing the eyesight. Fiara has put some gimmicks into them that allowed even none Haki user to get something out of the masks. Each has a breathing dial against gas attacks, a heat vision, a night vision and a scope. It also got a baby transponder snail as an earpiece for communication.

Anyway, back to the fighting that was going to start.

Kalifa has nodded at Kaku's warning and readied her whip. Only to use it a second later to deflect a burst of three bullets. Nojiko was using her new assault rifle and shooting at the blond woman from the other side of the room.

She was still using a normal dial and not the black one, which made it possible for Kalifa to block or evade the three bullet bursts. That was until Nojiko twisted the dial halfway around and placed another one on the side of her weapons.

She pulled the trigger and a staccato of burning bullets flew out of her rifle. Each as fast as the bullets from before, but now way more in numbers. Kalifa deflected the first three, then used Kami-e to evade the next five but had to resolve to tekkai when the bullets didn't stop.

She remained strong under the onslaught of bullets, but the strain was visible on her face. Each bullet was leaving a red burn mark and her body was pushed back from the force.

Kalifa would have lost her concentration and with that the fight, if Blueno hasn't stepped in. He used soru to get close to Nojiko. His finger poised for a shigan, an attack that was evaded by Nojiko with her own Kami-e.

She then used geppo to evade to the air and make room for Noa. Our own shipwright, who was standing guard for Nojiko, swung his new hammer Midir at Blueno.

The bullhorn haired man had enough time to activate his tekkai but was nonetheless forced backwards from the force of Noa's attack. He wasn't wounded, but no longer in reach of Nojiko or Noa.

“Sorry dude, hitting a woman is a no go”, said Noa with a grin. Both of his hammers were ready to attack or defend.

“Blueno, Kalifa, Kaku, we have to leave now!”, ordered Lucci suddenly. He threw a struggling Luffy into another wall and transformed his body into that of a leopard.

Chopper was the most shocked of us all. He knew that carnivore Zoan fruit user are aggressive and stronger than their herbivore counterparts.

The rest of the CP9 agents used the sudden transformation of Lucci to regroup. “Lucci, the shipwrights are coming up”, informed Kalifa.

“No, they can't.” Denied Lucci. He used a rankyaku to cut the whole buildings roof apart. The walls began to collapse and the ceiling came down at us.

“As if that can stop us”, scoffed Lia. She pushed her hand upwards and generated a gale wind that flung the whole upper part of the HQ away. It vanished into the sky and will probably either land somewhere in the city or out on the sea.

Paulie still tried to get Iceburg away but was stopped by Lucci, only for him to be punched in the face by Luffy. It, however, did not stop Lucci in the least and he retaliated by a piercing shigan followed up by a throw that sent Luffy out of the building and into the night.

Lucci then blocked Zoro's sword with his tekkai and even stopped Jonny's pierce and Yosaku's swing in the same way. All three of them got sent flying with a strong kick. Zoro was sent out into the night as well, but both Jonny and Yosaku were caught by Fiara's robotic arms.

Lucci turned his towering body towards me.