Hey guys, I'm trying to update every Sunday at least. I was totally late this time, but I'll get the hang of it. If I, for some freaky reason, have spare time during the week, I'll try to finish another. But whatever. Thanks for your reviews! I was at 123. Heh. This chapter is definitely shorter than what I would usually would've liked, but I was trying to get it updated today, or else I never would've gotten it done, -.- Well, enough jibber jabber. Up~date! ^.^

"Ah, good job, Zoro!"

"Shut up."

"Eh? Why are you pissed off at me?"

Luffy continued whining, and Zoro had tuned him out a long time ago. Pissed off at him, no. Pissed off at himself, very much, yes. He winced slightly as he moved. Damned wound.

Mihawk may have been training him – sometimes…cough. But he knew for a fact that he at least had pretty good skills, he actually thought he was strong, and yet, he struggled against this bastard. It ticked him off, finding out he wasn't as strong as he thought he was. He barely won this fight, and he had been training for around a year with Mihawk, and a lot as a child all the way to freshman year about two years ago.

Only for one year he had taken a break, and even still, he worked out, just never improved his swordsman skills. He sighed, staring down at the white handle of the katana. Tch, what a bitch she was… He smirked, finally tuning Luffy in again. "Oi, Luffy, shut the hell up."

"You did it again!" he whined, clenching his fists.

He rolled his eyes, surprised his friend hadn't ever suspected him training behind his back – they had been friends for years, and Luffy knew Zoro took his training seriously. Dumbass.

"Yeah, yeah." He waved off, "Anyways, shouldn't you be helping Kohza up?"

"What?" the younger tilted his head in confusion, "What are you – crap!" he lightly cursed as he turned his head just in time to see Crocodile punch the said man in the face.

"Breaking my nose? Some nerve." Crocodile muttered, his cigar slightly moving, "I find it ironic, eh, Kohza?" he smirked.

"Crocodile!" Luffy yelled quickly, punching him in the face the instant the man turned his face to look at him.

He grunted as he moved his head back from the force, his nose hurting in particular due to…circumstances

"Zoro!" he called his best friend, "Get everybody over here, now! I'll finish him off and we'll start looking for Robin after we get Vivi!"

Zoro nodded, "Got it!...And you might wanna look behind you."

"Wha-oof!" his body tumbled on the floor before he landed on his feet. "Baka." He grinned, panting as he eyed his opponent, "You should've told me earlier."

Pushing off the floor, he dashed to him, immediately clenching his fist and raising it so he would purposely block it and him back. As he did this, Luffy quickly ducked and aimed at his gut. He followed with a kick to his back.

Stumbling forwards a few steps, Crocodile let out a tch, before turning around to face him again. He raised his hooked arm to block Luffy's kick, before pushing his body up with the other hand. Luffy quickly fell soon after, and his eyes widened as he noticed him getting into a position.

He had attempted to shift his balance to get his feet in front so he could block whatever he was planning to do, but failed and simply did a full turn. He gasped, followed by heavy pants as he felt something empty out a bit. He noticed the blood trailing down his chin before he noticed the reason why.

The shot was aimed to kill him, to go right through his torso. Fortunately for the younger boy, he had missed, a majority of it due to the odd shape of the weapon Crocodile wielded. Despite his failure of ending his life, he had managed to rip through a portion of his left side, the point ripping off a good inch of his flesh while the curve of the hook had knocked him in the stomach.

"I'm not used to getting hit." Crocodile admitted with a grin, "Because this world is filled with weaklings." His peered eyes followed the boy's body as it slowly slumped to the floor. He sat there, on his knees, coughing up more blood, winded. "And I had though Kohza was a good competitor." He gave a sideways glance to the man currently losing consciousness on the floor.

"He was all bark, no bite." He frowned behind his cigar at the thought before it was replaced with another smirk, "Do you have any idea who you're dealing with, mugiwara?"

He looked up at him with a grin, wiping his mouth, "Of course. Some damned bastard who hurt my nakama."

He allowed his lips to fall into a frown at the still confident reply. "A shame. Turns out you're not even in this league with myself." He grunted before kicking his body a few yards away.

"Stop kicking me." Luffy frowned a bit as he finally stood up, briefly readjusting his hat before continuing, "You're so boring…Got any water?"

"Water." He repeated, his eyes filled with monotony.

"Yeah, water. That thing that you drink. Gulp, gulp, gulp." He held a fake bottle in his hand as he pretended to drink, "Water." He nodded, satisfied with his explanation.

Crocodile clenched his jaw in annoyance, "Does this idiot even know where he stands?" he muttered to himself before speaking up, "Why would you need water at a time like this." He said coldly, the enthusiasm that made it a question was absent.

"To power up." He answered bluntly, lunging to the left as he stretched his right leg. "If I'm gonna save Vivi, I need to kick your ass, so water would help me." He said as if it was common sense, "By the way, what the hell's stopping me from going to door right now? Do you have a key or something?" He tilted his head before lunging to the other side.

He didn't answer and simply analyzed the boy's techniques. He seemed to work with speed, but didn't simply rely on it. He more or less relied on using moves that would lead up to a brief spot of vulnerability, and at that time used his brisk way of attacking to succeed. Keeping this in the back of his mind, he spat out his cigar in anger as he heard him exclaim, "Nevermind, Croc! I see your mini-fridge over there. Be right back."

As fast as the nicotine-packed item had dropped, was as fast as the boy dashed to his private fridge and back before blatantly asking, "You have hangovers on a daily basis or what?" He stuck out his tongue as he said this, signifying he apparently didn't enjoy the whole usage of alcohol.

Deciding he had had enough, he dashed to the boy, his hooked arm out once more, "This is the end, mugiwara." He smirked to himself, "I won't let you reach daylight this ti-"

He let out quick, silent pants as he felt pain rush to the spot no man should ever feel.

"Oh~!" he heard the happiness – the annoying, aggravating happiness in his voice – "You're up again? Shishishi! Are we gonna kick his ass together, eh?"

"Only if you can keep up." Kohza. He could practically hear the drips of cockiness in his voice.

Anger swelling inside him as he realized there was a chance of his own defeat, he quickly stood straight again, ignoring the stinging of there, and grabbed Sunglasses' collar and raised him a few feet off the ground before slamming his head into the concreted floor.

Sensing there was an attack currently aimed at him, he stretched out his arm once more to perfectly grasp the lower neckline of the younger's vest, before making him share the same fate of pain as Kohza.

Raising his hooked hand for the third time, he swung it down on Luffy, knowing he was now a bigger threat to him than Kohza. He cursed to himself and grunted as he felt resistance, followed by noticing fingers on the side of his hook. Pushing down on his hook even more, he could practically feel it almost cut through the red fabric, but was only there for a second as it was pushed back up with a grunt from the younger.

Finally getting it arms length away from his own body, he managed to place his legs under the hook instead of his arms, and used both of them to push up on the hook, and with the help of his hands on the floor, he managed to do so and push himself off the floor, landing feet first.

He smiled again at the small victory, watching as Crocodile stumbled a bit again, before he silently caught his breath.

During this silence, he heard the muffled voice of a girl, followed by deep, subtle thumps from the wooden door yards away. Using this time as an attempt he ran for the door, and used all his strength to grasp the brass handles and pull on it. He caught his breath for a good five second before he tried to push instead. After he attempted once more to pull, he looked back at the recovering opponent of his, who was currently staring right back at him, smirking as he held a phone in his hand.

Who was he calling? In his very amateur-like skills to read lips, he got the phrase, "Piss on the parfait."

Yeah, he doubted it.

His eyes widened as he heard a louder scream from the behind the door, the pain erupting from it so much it almost reached his ears as a clear, sharp sound. "Vivi." He mumbled.

Anger riled up inside him as she screamed again. The screaming was upsetting. The requesting was disgusting. He soon realized that when Crocodile spoke something to whoever was soon the phone, it was soon followed by the shriek coming form the blue haired girl.

Bastard.

He ground his teeth against each other while he clenched his fist so hard it was almost numb to him.

"Crocodile!" he yelled at him before letting out a blow that was worth everything he felt right then.

Ding! The sound of his balled up hand and the iron colliding bounced off the walls of the room, Luffy's panting falling into the empty spaces.

"Damn you." He seethed at him, hearing another scream from his nakama.

He chuckled, "Finally getting a response from you, eh?"

He stared angrily at the man a few feet away from his face. From the corner of his eye, he saw Kohza picking the heavy lock of the door, and from the expression on his face, it seemed as though he was succeeding so far. With only a little relief washing over him, he raised his left arm and threw it at him, but missed, and was thrown a few feet forwards from his own force.

He grunted before regaining his balance and turning back around to look at him. His eyes widened and he clenched his jaw as he saw Crocodile staring at him once more, the same, smug smile perched upon his lips.

Even though he would've stared in awe at it, he kept it on the inside and pushed it to the pile of things that didn't matter right now, as saving Vivi was the top priority. His onyx eyes followed the movement of the golden case a few feet up, before they fell on what was below it, what true danger was hidden underneath the supposed weapon of a curved, golden spear.

"What…" he stared at it, the words getting caught in his throat before he finally managed to get them out, "What is that?" he had whispered the words to himself, but it was safe to assume Crocodile knew what he meant.

"Poison." A grin melted onto his eerie face, the sadistic expression was clear. "My advice to you is not to touch it. My advice to is not to die." He pressed his lips together and made the open smile into a smirk before continuing, "Good luck."

Luffy's heart was caught in his chest and barely managed to dodge his swift shot at him. Damn. He cursed to himself, dodging one after the other. How was he supposed to attack? Croc had suddenly gained speed, and if he didn't hit his mark the first time, he was either vulnerable, or he would just be blocked…by the poisonous hook. He preferred neither.

"Gah!" he seethed, taking long, deep breaths. He resisted touching the wound on his leg, as he remembered the weapon that was still touching it was poisonous. After he calmed himself down, he grabbed Crocodile's arm, and was even more fired up as he glanced at the devious smile on his lips.

He threw him to his right, and smiled a bit as he saw him stumble a bit. While he did so, Luffy used the time to hit the leader of the group straight in the face. As he stumbled a bit more, Luffy grabbed one of the nearby chairs from the table and quickly chucked it at him with one arm.

Crocodile grunted and pushed the chair back down. Following soon after, Luffy tried to throw a punch at him, but he caught him by the neck.

Luffy quickly grabbed the chair underneath him with his feet once he saw Crocodile raise his hook. He managed to pull it up with his right arm and smash it into Croc's head right before he had time to hit him with his own poison.

He managed to jump back and avoid the splinters of wood as it broke once it collided with his head. He ran back to him and gave him a swift hit to his gut again, but sucked in a breath of air as he felt his feet leave the floor, and not soon after was slammed to the ground. He grunted and used a foot to block the hook, and hissed once the poison melted through his slippers and started to touch and sting his foot.

With his other foot, he swept it under Crocodile's own. It wasn't strong enough to make the large man fall, but was enough to make him lose his balance of one foot. As he leaned for the brief second, Luffy pushed the hook back up high enough to allow him to roll to the side before it crashed back onto the spot he was previously at.

He clenched his jaw as he felt his leg throb, a streak of pain flowing through it as he started to get up. His foot was starting to go numb, and his leg wasn't listening as it should be either.

He panted as he thought of a quick way to finally finish the man off – he would already be dead if he didn't wrap it up soon. He looked at his opponent and was a little more relieved, seeing he was breathing almost as heavily as he was.

His fingers twitched as he heard her scream again for the first time in minutes. He grunted, noticing it seemed a bit more…distant, than what he remembered. "Kohza!" he yelled to him, making sure to keep an eye on Crocodile so he wouldn't surprise attack him, "Hurry the hell up!"

"Dumbass!" He hissed back, "My being here was supposed to be secret!"

"What?! The hell is that supposed to - …Damn!" he cursed, rushing to run in front of Kohza as he noticed Crocodile running towards the said man with his hook. He managed to barely block him with his foot on his arm, and then aimed a punch hard enough to leave him open for a while.

"That's why." Kohza muttered, before breaking into a grin, "Screw what I just said." With a swift kick of his booted foot the heavy wooden door broke open.

The light appearing his eyes, Luffy ran into through the doorframe, "VIVI!" His echo bounced on the walls, and was the only thing he got in return.

He heard Crocodile chuckle behind him, and he turned to him angrily before asking, "Where is she?!"

He said nothing but light another cigar, huffing out a breath of smoke soon after.

"Oi!" he yelled at him, his blood boiling with anger so strong, it managed to even reach his numbed leg. "You said she was here!"

He chuckled again, "Was, mugiwara…I'll ask you again – Do you have any idea who you're dealing with? I'm not a fool." His grin dropped into a weary frown, "I was well aware of Kohza the second he started. I sent someone out to take her somewhere else."

She screamed again.

"Then why can I hear her?" he seethed.

He let out another puff of smoke, "…I suppose I'll tell you, as a challenging opponent…As of ten minutes ago, at exactly three o' clock, Mr. Newgate left. His office is where she is at, as no one would suspect it, and it is sound proof…as far as the walls go, at least." His grin appeared again.

He clenched his jaw again, and told Khoza, "RUN!"

He grabbed Crocodile and threw him to the floor as Kohza ran for the exit. He soon got up, and frowned, "You know many of men top men are out there, guarding her in front of it."

Luffy grinned, "Yeah. But Kohza'll run into my nakama. I trust them to save her. So now," he cracked his knuckles, "This is between you and me."

He quickly glanced at the ceiling where the screams were still coming from, before giving out a quick huff, balling up his fist again.

He had a plan.

He grunted as Crocodile's hook scarcely touched his arm, but nonetheless dodged it and kicked his side.

He needed to get him into the air, somehow.

He dodged another punch that was aimed at his face, almost smelling the poison that came from his hook.

The ceiling wasn't very far away.

He clutched his shoulder as he was lightly stabbed with it – the hook was really bothersome.

The desk.

He ran for the wooden table, and quickly leaped onto it, waiting for Crocodile to follow him.

Of course.

He grinned inwardly to himself as they sparred on the long table, fists flying, none of them hitting.

This is the end.

He grabbed Crocodile's collar, and threw him into the air, using the anger he had built up this whole time.

She screamed again.

He shot through the air. The cracking of his knuckle erupted through the second of silence as he pulled his arm back, the beat up man against the ceiling. Soon, his fists repeatedly punched him higher in the air, until the ceiling above them came crashing down.

This is the end.

"Storm."

…

"Run, you dumbasses!" Zoro spat at them, as they ran a bit behind.

"We're right behind you, moron!" Nami spat back.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He muttered under his breath as he dashed faster, bluntly pushing people out of the way as he slid around corners, praying he didn't get lost, despite the fact he had no belief in god.

His eyes glanced at every door they passed, until he realized they had passed the same door twice.

"Oi,oi! The hell's with that look, Zoro?!" Usopp yelled, noticing the sweatdrop trickling down his forehead.

"…"

"BA~KA!"

He grunted as they all punched him in the face.

"Let me take the lead!" Franky exclaimed, running ahead.

"You know where we're going?" Nami asked.

"No."

"Then why did you take the lead?!" they all yelled angrily at him.

"Zoro!" Nami demanded, "Tell us where the hell we're going and stop being so damn mysterious!" she shook him by his collar as his feet dragged against the floor.

"T-The principal's office!" he muttered out.

"We passed that four times!"

"Shut up with that already!"

Chopper panted, his blue nose twitching as he tried to catch his breath. "Did…did I do good, Zoro?" he asked curiously, looking up at the green haired man.

"Y...Yeah," he panted, nodding. "Had no idea you were that strong. You made Vivi proud." He said, looking down at the reindeer and the pile of unconscious bodies behind him.

"You bastard! That doesn't make me happy!"

"You look happy." He mumbled before exclaiming, "Oi! Let's catch up with the others."

"I'll lead, Zoro!" Chopper quickly answered, and dashed off, using his nose to track the others.

Once the two arrived, they were relieved that they had also succeeded in beating up their own share of guards, and had made it inside the office. They went in, and slammed the door behind them, so the soundproof door would prevent any unnecessary conflict with the 'authorities.' They coughed as they entered, and the little reindeer's eyes widened as the scene before him.

"Nami! Usopp! Franky!" Chopper cried, putting his hooves to his ears in worry, seeing all of them bleeding, weak, while staring at the cloud of dust and smoke in front of them. "Are you okay? Who did this?"

Nami gasped and clutched her shoulder as a spear was suddenly shot at her, pinning her shirt and a bit of her skin to the wall right behind her. She cried out as Usopp removed it quickly, despite knowing it wasn't as worse as it could've been. She seethed angrily as multiple arrows shot at her again, and quickly dove behind Franky along with Usopp, as he was partly made of metal.

Zoro unsheathed his swords as Chopper got in his fighting stance. Usopp quickly handed a small, light blue cylinder-like object, much to her confusion, "What is this?"

"Well, we both know something like this was bound to happen soon." He said, "And I know you were asking for something to help when that time came. So I came up with this. I know you're interested in weather and such, so after combining a lot of different chemicals, and a lot of explosions," he muttered, "I finally got the right combination, so, well…it sorta does chemical reactions similar to weather, is I guess how you can describe it."

"Sugoi." She mumbled, twirling the object slowly in her hand, "How does it work?"

"Heck I know."

"Dumbass!"

"Well, I sort of just winged it, and tested everything I remembered afterwards…it all seemed cool, but I don't remember anything in particular." He shrugged sheepishly.

She sighed, her wrist going limp as the end lightly tapped the floor. "Oh, geez!" she exclaimed, as it extended, the one part she was formerly holding had two parts similar to it sticking out on either side.

"Heh heh, yeah, have fun with that."

"Jerk!" she thumped him in the face, and quickly shrieked as an arrow almost hit her leg.

"I call it the Climatact." Usopp mumbled with his swollen lip.

"Climatact." She whispered, "I like it. Thanks, Usopp!" she smiled, nodding, "I'll try it once the smoke clears."

"Of course! You shouldn't expect any less form the great Captain – Holy crap is that a rifle!"

Nami and Zoro sweatdropped as Usopp and Chopper wasted no time looking in awe at the large gun Franky seemed to pull out of nowhere. "Yup! Isn't it super?"

"Super!" the two of them chorused, their eyes sparking.

Nami rolled her eyes and got up, standing next to Franky, Zoro joining them not long afterwards. "Zoro." Nami said seriously, still looking at the dust in front of them, "…Save me."

"Like hell!" he spat, before she continued, "Fine, fine. But, I need you to go in the smoke first."

"What? Why?"

"Because. You're obviously the strongest here. I think we can take on these guys, the four of us. But you have to go ahead and rescue Vivi, while they can't see you. Vivi's on the other side of this very room." she explained, "But...they have a knife at her neck. She can't say anything, she can't help us right now. This room is sorta big. There are only so many ways you could go. Can you do this?"

"Nami," Franky cut in, "Don't you think this directionless baka will get lost in the smoke?"

Zoro grunted as Nami said, "Well, two negatives equal a positive, right?"

"Wrong." He seethed, but walked angrily into the dust anyways.

"Dumbass." They both sweatdropped.

Nami shook her head before, saying, "Alright. Let's start."