Worm Piece (Worm/One Piece)

Chapter Seventeen

"There's a group of people about six-seven blocks down," Taylor said. She pointed in the direction. "They're on the roof of a bar. About... sixty people, give or take."

"Is Luffy there?" Zoro asked. He shaded his eyes and tried to look in the direction she was pointing in but there were dozens of houses in the way.

"I don't know. We're too far for me to see that well. If we move closer I might be able to tell."

Zoro shrugged one shoulder and started walking away.

"Wait, where are you going?" Taylor asked.

"To the bar."

Taylor looked towards the bar, then the direction where Zoro was headed. "I literally just pointed it out to you!" she said.

Zoro stumbled a few steps. "I was looking for a shortcut?"

She took a moment to calm her breathing. It wouldn't do to lose her temper and knock Zoro out. He was too heavy by half for her to carry and they were already down one friend. If she wanted to consider Luffy a friend. "Come here," she said before grabbing one caloused hand with her own and pulling him after her.

"I'm neither your kid nor your boyfriend," Zoro said as he tried to tear his hand out of her grip.

She didn't let go, she didn't even glare at him because with how warm her face was beginning to feel she was certain that would knock him out. "Shut up, Zoro. We both know you'd get lost again and I don't want to waste bugs pointing you in the right direction."

"Tch."

They made good time, walking right through some homes and breaking through fences instead of following the streets and wasting even more time.

Soon enough her range had extended over the party on the roof, and it was a party. There were plenty of bugs there already, some sipping at spilled beer or hovering over freshly cooked meat. The people she sensed were singing and dancing and laughing, all of them having the time of their lives.

They were also, dressed one and all, as if they'd just escaped a carnival. Clown outfits abounded, people were juggling knives or riding unicycles or standing on inflated balloons on one leg while chugging more beer. "What the," she said.

[Host Species Bizarre.]

"What?" Zoro asked.

"Uh, they're all dressed like clowns?" Taylor asked. This was strange, even for her.

"Buggy the Clown has a crew of clown-like pirates," Zoro said with a shrug. "We could ask them if they saw Luffy."

"Ask the nice pirates that emptied a town if they saw our-- your captain?" Taylor asked.

She shook her head and sent more bugs to scout through and around the bar. That's how she found Luffy.

The boy was in a cage, neck stretched out so that he could bite at the bars holding him in place. Ropes were wrapped around his torso keeping him stuck in place and a lithe girl was kneeling next to him just outside the cage, a smug, almost familiar expression on her face.

There was also, Taylor noticed, a cannon being wheeled towards Luffy's spot on the roof.

"Ah, shit."

***

Operation: Save Luffy:
[] Go in loud (go in swinging)
[] Ask nicely for Luffy to be returned (Walk over and ask nicely)
[] Think outside the box (Let the author come up with an insane plan that won't work but will sound cool)
[] Luffy probably deserves to be in that cage, somehow, leave him to his fate. (Poor Luffy)

[] Write in...