Lia's POV;

We were racing over the open sea and I could feel a good dozen sea kings swimming under us. Nojiko was providing clouds for us to drive on, so these monsters of the sea couldn't sense us. They would have to come out of the water. Something that they likely aren't about to do, the Marines must have trained them not to get out. Or else stationing their ships here would have been impossible.

Anyway, we faced no resistance during our quick ride over the ocean. Both Nojiko and I had a close eye on the prison, just in case they have spotted us.

And sure enough, there were guards coming out. They lined up on balconies and were aiming at us with hand cannons or rifles. “Nojiko, take out the sharpshooters, I'll handle the hand cannons,” I ordered and flung some pebbles at the aiming guards. I aimed for the barrel and hit true like I always do. The payload inside exploded and killed the shooter, as well as those who stood too close.

Nojiko was using her assault rifle and took potshots at the snipers. Most had realized that aiming at us was synonymous for a quick death sentence. The moment they peeked over the wall they got a headshot.

The remaining rifleman were not good enough to hit us. We were way too fast for them. I threw a wide arc of Fiara's liquid flame pellets just before we reached Impel Down. The balconies that still held guards lit up in fire and burning guardsmen tried to extinguish the fire by jumping over the wall and into the water.

It won't help, Fiara's invention can burn even under water. And even if it had helped, there were hundreds of sea kings inside the water. There aren't only massive ones, some are also small.

Another cloud gave us enough altitude to reach the mid-level of the prison. We continued to race inside. Jonny and Yosaku took the lead and were cutting down any and all opposition. Guards with net cannons tried to shoot us down, but their nets got stuck inside their cannons.

I am not keen on getting caught inside a nearly indestructible net.

Fiara was throwing her pellets inside rooms that were along the corridor and explosions followed our blitz attack.

Meanwhile, Noa was guiding us through the labyrinth of corridors. He was in the back and read the map while the rest of us took care of anyone that tried to stop us. “Next turn left, medical bay four is at the fourth door to the left,” he directed over the tiny transponder snail that was built into our masks.

The next turn we slowed down. Yosaku and Nojiko turned around began to attack the guards that were following us. Yosaku's massive sword was a good shield and the rapid fire of Nojiko's rifle was keeping the attacking guards away. They couldn't take cover in nearby rooms as well, Fiara had made sure that they were aflame.

I killed the thirty or so guards that came at us from the front and Jonny, followed by Noa and Mrs Chicken Wing, were rushing to the end of the corridor. The corner would allow them to easily take out any guard that came around.

From inside the room, I could feel the presence of a good twenty people. Most were asleep, while two others were in panic and fear. “Please give them a polite knock,” I asked Fiara. She grinned and her four arms shot forward. They anchored themselves into the wood and then ripped the whole door out with a loud crunch. Fiara then threw the door over her shoulder and down the corridor.

It narrowly missed Nojiko and crashed into a group of four guards that were trying to get close from behind shields. Their formation was broken and all four were quickly shot by Nojiko. More guards were coming with shields now.

However, Nojiko simply exchanged her cloud dial with an axe dial and clapped a second axe dial on her rifle. This changed the weapon from a semi-automatic assault rifle into a shotgun. The strong armour piercing cloud bullets shredded the hardened steel shields with ease.

Satisfied that the corridor would be held for some time I walked inside the room.

It was a medical bay, alright. Wounded soldiers were laying on beds that stood close to the medical equipment. Most, if not all of these men and women were heavily wounded and in no position to attack, or even stand up. A doctor and a nurse were trying to hide at the far side of the room.

A short burst of my waver skates brought me right up to them. The nurse screamed in fear and wet herself, while the doctor tried to place himself in front of the nurse. “W...what do you want?” He asked.

“Where is the prisoner named Bon Kurei?” I replied. My voice was slightly distorted from the mask. Since the start, we had switched to our rebreather equipment and the module inside the mask distorts the voice. It comes out darker and more mechanic.

“He, he is inside the fifth bed to the right,” answered the doctor with a shaking finger pointed at the bed he meant.

Josef had gone over to the bed and was preparing the smelling salts. The man inside looked like Bon Kurei, he was dressed and had makeup like a stereotypical queer or fag. He wasn't in the best condition. Wounds were all over his body, but they were treated, if only lightly.

Josef placed the smelling salt under Bon Kurei's nose and the man woke up with a jump. He began to cough before he looked up at me. Which instantly made him scream up in fright. The shock was so great that he even fell out of the bed.

“Bon Kurei?” I asked. We don't have much time. From the auras around us, I could feel how literally hundreds of guards were closing in on us. At some point even they will land a lucky hit.

“Am I dead?” Asked the man after standing up. He took a look around the room, saw the wounded people and could see that they were the guards of the prison. “I hope Straw-chan escaped.”

“No, you are not dead and he most likely succeeded in his escape. We have seen how the gate of justice opened and closed. But more importantly is the here and now. We need your help,” I answered. It might quicken things if I tell him at least that much.

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Kurei stood up and studied me, Josef and Fiara for a moment. He took a quick look at the silent and quivering pair of nurse and doctor, before looking back to me. “You are attacking Impel Down.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes, like Luffy. We are searching for a friend of ours. The husband of a crewmember of us, the Kage Pirates, was imprisoned and we want to free him. We need your help with the layout of the prison. In exchange we will help you to get out,” I answered while giving Josef and Fiara a quick look. They nodded and went out to help the others.

“So you are doing this for love?” He asked, a strange undertone layered over his words, I nodded. The next thing he did was strange. He began to twirl on one of his feet, like a ballerina. An ugly ballerina with way too many hairs.

“For the sake of love you would invade hell? How could I call myself a New Kama! if I would not help you? Tell me what you want to know and I will do my best to be of assistance!” Great, his personality is exactly like in the anime. At least convincing him to help was easy.

“The person we want to free is most likely at the lowest level of the prison. He is one of the VIP prisoners, do you know a way to reach him?” I started driving over to the entrance.

Kurei was following me closely. “That will be the 6th level. The deepest part of Impel Down. The criminals imprisoned there are the most notorious or the most dangerous to the World Government. We need to go through five levels before we reach the sixth. You already know my name, but may I know yours?”

“I'm Lia, also known as True Shot Lia. The one we want to free is called Herbert, also called Basilisk, it is the husband of a member of us. Her name is Batilda and she has searched for him for quite a time now. With the war between Whitebeard and the World Government, we decided that now would be the best time for an attack. Take this mask, we have heard that they want to flood the prison with some kind of gas,” I explained and handed a spare mask over to him. Each of us has a spare one.

He frowned down at the mask and muttered something about a truly horrendous ugly thing. He still placed it over his face, as he saw the possible need for it. The hall outside was resembling a tiny battlefield. Yosaku and Nojiko's side was filled with dead bodies and on the other side, I could hear how Mrs Chicken Wing was decimating her enemies with force blades.

I activated the transponder snail in my mask and spoke to the rest. “Guys, this is Bon Kurei, he has agreed to help us rescuing Herbert. Yosaku, you'll have to carry him on your back, as he has no waver skates.” Kurei was also able to hear us.

Fiara threw one of her pellets into the hallway in parting and burned the pile of bodies. It also blocked any other guards from following us.

Kurei climbed on Yosaku's back and we moved down the corridor to Jonny, Noa and Mrs Chicken Wing. “Hmm, such a strong and manly man. I find myself quite liking our agreement if helping you means riding such a stud of a man,” spoke Kurei through the com-link.

“Please refrain from touching him at inappropriate places, distractions can be deadly,” I requested. Kurei made some pouting noises, but I didn't hear any complaints from Yosaku. Jonny was snickering, but that was to be expected.

We rounded the corner and looked into a bloodbath. Mrs Chicken Wing has really done her part. Body parts and blood was everywhere. Seems like she is quite eager to see her husband again.

“Oh my, you aren't doing things halfway,” commented Kurei in an awed tone.

“We know where we can find the elevator and the stairs to the lower levels. From there on you'll have to help us out,” I said while we began our fast track through the prison again. This time Mrs Chicken Wing was flying at the front. Her sharp claws were ripping incoming guards apart faster than they could react.

“We'll have to take the elevator. During our escape we destroyed the stairs,” explained Kurei through the snail. Noa took his warnings into account and directed us through a different corridor.

Soon we came out of the narrow pathways and filled into a wider passage. It was the main entrance. On one side we could see the sea, the gate has had been destroyed during Luffy's escape. The stone under us was still a deadly purple, remains of Magellan's poison. But our waver skates allowed us to pass over them without coming into contact.

However, there were more guards in our way. They had build barricades on the not poisoned stone and had placed cannons and net cannons on them. There were also four big animal like people.

“That are the Demon Guards, to think that they are still able to move,” warned Kurei. And really, these four looked more dead than alive. Their bodies were full of wounds, some looked to be still bloody. There was also a bruised blonde woman with a thorned whip.

“Doesn't matter, they are in the way,” I replied and took four sea stone pebbles out. Those are awakened Zoan Fruit user. They have the sturdiest bodies in the world, I'll have to give them something slightly more serious.

I threw a pebble at each of them. Not all at once, the attack had to be strong. Each stone flew true and hit a Zoan user. The ox was the only one that managed to place his weapon in the way of the attack.

It didn't help them. The sea stone rendered their Zoan given defence almost useless and their heads exploded in a gory mess. The ox had the most luck. His mace blocked most of the force behind my throw. Which did not mean that he came out unscattered. The mace exploded from the impact and pelted him with sharp metal shrapnel. The pieces pierced into his face and it howled up in pain. His three friends were already dead.

A force blade from Mrs Chicken Wing then destroyed the barricades and we flew over the wounded or fleeing guards.

The woman with the whip tried to hit Nojiko, however, our navigator was quite skilled with the waver skates. She managed to duck under the attack, circled around the woman and shot her in the back with her shotgun. A large X mark cut into her back, the ends of the X were lining up with her shoulders and hips. The attack was so strong that her limps were partially cut off, she will bleed out within minutes.

“Such strength, I wish you had been here with Straw-chan,” muttered Kurei from the back of Yosaku. I didn't say that we could have done that. Had we attacked with Luffy we would have risked a lot more. The guards are all tired or wounded. The defence mechanism were are all used or destroyed. Attacking now was the least dangerous for us. If it meant that more of the prisoner had to die, then so be it.

We reached the elevator and only had to kill a good twenty guards before we noticed that it wasn't in working condition. The guards we had dispatched had done a good job in destroying the elevator. It wouldn't go down or up any time soon.

“What now? The stairs are also destroyed,” asked Jonny for all of them.

“Kurei, does this elevator go all the way down to level six?” I asked the only one that knows how to get around here.

“No, it only goes as deep as level four. The Scorching Floor, we have to take a different route then.” So going down in one go isn't possible anyway. A good defence, it stops any invader from going all the way in one go. And the first three levels aren't filled with big names anyway.

“We're going down, this elevator is the quickest way for us to leave,” I decided after a moment of thought. Trying to go through the destruction Luffy has left in his escape would take too much time.

I moved over the elevator platform and punched the wood once. The strength of my punch got enhanced and the wooden platform broke in two. Its parts fell down into the black pit below.

“Nojiko, we need more clouds.” Nojiko threw a cloud dial down and a milky way road began to grow. Within seconds we had a makeshift way down. Each of us jumped on the cloud and we took a fast way down.

While riding past the first three levels I gave orders. “Remember, Inari said that Magellan is fighting someone at level four. Be cautious and let me go to the front. Kurei, what can you tell me about Magellan?”

“He is a Paramecia User. His body can produce all kinds of poison, some of them even corrosive to the environment. His control is extremely good and he can even create poison golems that attack for him. A single hit and you will be out and suffer a cruel fate.

Straw-chan almost died through his poison. Only Ivankov-sama's power saved him and that as well was a narrow save. Evade him, running will be the safest,” explained Kurei while we got deeper and deeper. I did not reply, a few sea stone pebbles will surely help against Magellan. Even when he can control his fruit like Katakuri, sea stone pebbles will counter him.