Lara's POV;

The Straw Hats and Vivi used a simple trick to get past the Baroque Work agents. They only had to hide their body and faces in long coats and then storm the town all at once. Vivi herself wasn't even with them.

And thanks to the agent's skillset they weren't shot down from afar. This exploding baseball gun-dog might have been good for it, but its wielder is too slow to react. So the Straw Hats could gallop relatively unmolested inside Alubarna.

Lia and I were not with them, we chose to use Geppo to fly overhead. People rarely look upwards when there is a threat in the front. And from our higher position, we also had a better view of the different fights.

“Chopper and Ussop are nearly finished with their battle. Ussop is badly wounded, but the last explosion took the Numbers pair out”, commented Lia from my side. She was informing me of the battles that were farther away. Her better sight was again helping her.

I hummed in acknowledgement, their fight wasn't interesting, Ussop is way to weak for that. Still, the explosions were pretty. With a happy sigh, I took a deep breath. Inhaling the smell of gunpowder.

“When was the last time we were in something resembling war?”

“I think 320 years ago when we still had fortress worlds against the Reaper. Most battles afterwards were more guerilla fights and less war. Do you want to go down? I can take care of the leather bag for you.” I shook my head. Lia's badly hidden ploy to get a rematch against Crocodile didn't stay unnoticed. She knew that I kinda enjoy the battlefield, the hectic and destruction it brings.

But if I go down now I might miss Crocodile and his fight against Luffy. The sand user will be warier now and a serious Crocodile will rip Luffy apart. Lia is not as good a match against him as I am.

That and she had her try, now it's my turn.

“As much as I'd like that, I can't. Luffy's life might be in danger and we need him for some of the plot of this world. You don't have the strength to wound Crocodile heavily enough, well not in short time. Especially not when he is serious.”

A short, cute growl escaped Lia. “Don't remind me. I need to put some more effort in my Armament. The short fight against him showed what I am still lacking. None of my attacks had a strong enough Armament coating. Still, I'm not a close combat specialist like you are. Situations just like this are more my speciality”, she said and flicked two pebbles down to the fighting place of Chopper and Ussop. I don't know what she hit, but am pretty sure that these two Number Agents aren't standing up again.

Five more pebbles were sent down into the crowd and I saw how five people fell down. Two from the king's side and three from the rebels. All of them were in a good position to take aim at the blue haired woman running in between this battle.

Lia took another pebble out and began to play with it, moving it between her fingers, while looking down at a section of the city that was filled with rumbling but no explosions. “You think I should help Nami? She is having problems with the spike woman. Her weapon has a lot of useless gimmicks. Gimmicks that might cost her her life.”

“Do what you want. Only Sanji's and Zoro's fight is important for their growth. Nami only learned that she can't trust Ussop with weapons. And Ussop's fight is already over.” A flick of Lia's wrist and the pebble was gone “More importantly, where are Nojiko and Jo?” I continued. Both should be in Alubarna, hopefully not in the palace, where Crocodile can kill them.

Lia closed her eyes for a moment, before turning around and pointing down at the large clock tower in the middle of the plaza. “Up in the tower. They already took the numbers pair out. And both of them don't seem to be wounded.”

“No surprise there. If Vivi could take them out in one hit then those two can do that as well.” Those two had so little screen time that I almost overlooked them. But the still ticking bomb is a problem.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Okay, you go and throw the bomb away, preferably into the desert. And I will go and stop Crocodile from killing Luffy.”

“He has already departed to the Poneglyph. Luffy was lucky that he still wasn't taken completely serious.” She said in return and pointed towards a street that leads away from the palace. I gave her a hug and then went on my way.

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Nami's POV;

Ussop you idiot! If I'm going to survive this then I will skin you alive for this. Party tricks inside a weapon? Are you crazy?!

I threw myself to the side and luckily evaded another piercing stake. This woman only needs to touch me and I'm dead. And she is sadistic as well. Numerous smaller cuts are all over my body.

“Stand still!” She jumped forward and I tried to back away, but a wall was sparring my way. One of her stakes pierced the wall at each side of my head and I let a short scream out. This was way too close.

“Hey”, she said and I forced my eyes away from the stake that has, only centimetre away from my face, easily pierced stone. My whole body was quivering from fear.

“Although you've got a funny and unusual weapon, it hasn't much power in it. It is more like some child toy than a weapon.” During her sentence, her mouth formed to a pike and I realized that she only needed to mover her face forward to pierce my head.

“If it's made for a purpose, to specifica....” He speech was abruptly cut off by a splat sound. She didn't move for a moment, her head was turned back and her body suddenly went slack.

Of course, I took the opportunity and got out of the deadlock. I sprinted away, yet noticed that she didn't follow. From a corner, I peeked around and saw that she was still where I left her. Her hair stakes still inside the wall. But her body looked limp, even dead.

“You've got that Nami. She might fake it”, I said to myself, but couldn't come up with a reason for her to do that. I slowly stalked back, the staff ready for anything. Hoping that not another of Ussop's jokes will come out with my next attack.

Then I stood next to her, she has yet done any move. I poked her with the end of my staff, but there was no reaction. A closer look made me spot a puddle on the floor.

It was directly under her head and red.... “HIIIII!”

I jumped back when I realized that it was blood the puddle was made of. Why is she bleeding?

With more courage than what I had thought possible, I lifted her head with my staff and saw from where the blood came. There was a small, maybe two-centimetre large hole directly in between her eyes. Someone has shot her in the head.

But there was a wall in the way. I hesitantly looked at the wall that was just moments ago the reason for my near death and saw another hole in it. The angle looked like it was from where the bullet came that killed the woman.

Someone saved me. I'm saved!

Two minutes later I managed to stop my dance of joy and remembered that we have to regroup at the plaza. Vivi needs us.

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Lia's POV;

Stupid Crocodile. I so wish to bash his head in. Why couldn't he stay above the dune. But no, he has to hide behind tones of sand and attack me without his presence in it. At least I can annoy him by putting a wrench in his plans. With his bomb gone he has to do the killing himself.

Not that he will be able to. Either Luffy wins like he does in canon or Lara will cut him up. Here in Alubarna is not enough sand to hide and even then it wouldn't matter. Lara is perfectly capable of spotting him with her Observation Haki.

It's not as strong as mine, by far, but still good enough to keep her sight on someone during a normal close to mid-ranged fight. As long as there aren't too many enemies.

Anyway, the clock tower was my destination and I reached it within minutes. I could already see how Nojiko was waving at me from the balustrade. Josef stood right behind her.

“Lia, good to see you. It's pure chaos down there. The rebels are attacking the palace and the royal guards are defending it vehemently. And then there was the fight at the garden in the palace. Crocodile and a woman in white have the king.

Oh and Luffy also came, riding on a flying eagle human. This is just too strange.”

I waited for Nojiko to finish her outburst and only spoke when she needed to breathe. “I know, I have seen some of it. You'd like to know that your sister is safe. I helped her with one of the Number Agents.”

Nojiko smiled in thanks and breathed out in relieve, “Thank god. I haven't been able to spot her and could only hope that she wasn't in danger.”

“More importantly now is the big ass bomb behind us in the tower”, cut Josef in. He lazily pointed over his shoulder at the giant cannon and the equally giant cannonball inside of it.

Nojiko was nodding along, her face slightly pale. “Yeah, that thing. We got into a small fight with two Baroque Works agents when we climbed the stairs. They didn't pose much of a threat, but the cannonball is ticking. We weren't sure how to proceed and hoped you could help.”

Knowing that it is a time bomb and still waiting right next to it shows how much courage they have. It is courage and not stupidity. They are from our crew, we aren't stupid...well, Nojiko and Josef aren't.

“Sure”, I agreed easily and climbed into the barrel. The cannonball had a timer on it that currently was at five minutes. It also had convenient handles to grab. I took hold of the bomb and quickly noted that I wouldn't be able to lift this thing. At least not without my Devil Fruit, more than pulling it over the ground wouldn't be possible for me. Another thing I lack. This is frustrating!

I applied a counter pressure and the bomb almost lifted off the barrel. Now easy to lift, I took it out of the cannon and threw it away from the town. The black ball vanished instantly and hit a massive dune some hundred kilometres away from the town.

“And we struggled to even pull the damn thing a metre”, mumbled Nojiko with an open mouth. Ah yes, the awe of your peers. I can perfectly understand why Lara likes it so much.

“Now then, let's snipe some Baroque Work agents. The more the better.” Nojiko nodded slowly and stepped back out of the clock tower. She took aim and a moment later let a cloud bullet shot out of her rifle. It his the chest of a soldier. The tattoo on his shoulder marked him as a Baroque Work agent.

Now everything left is Lara and her fight against Crocodile. Hmm, maybe he will be thrown in the air again if so I might be able to take a few shots on him.