12 Preparations for the Lizard

Unsurprisingly, with our flying ship, we arrived at the capital before Smoker did. At least this will get us the time to warn the King beforehand and not let Bon Clay, aka Mr. 2 act as the fake King to incite Civil War.

*ring* *ring*

Smoker: Captain Smoker here, what do you want Diana?

Diana: You were too slow. I've arrived here before you did. Anyway, I've already informed the higher ups about what's happening and I gave them the proof. As of a few hours ago, Crocodile is no longer a Warlord. We are free to take action against him.

Smoker: What do you need me to do then

Me: We still need you to meet the King and warn him. There's a Devil Fruit holder, alias Mr. 2, who can turn into anyone he touches. If he touches the King's face, then he will incite civil war. I need you and your crew to prevent that from happening while we face Crocodile when he comes here.

Smoker: Fine.

With that, the call was over.

As we landed and docked near the harbor of the city we saw several Marines and soldiers alike on board. They were obviously getting prepared for war.

Diana: We'll wait for Smoker here. Once he's done with his business with the King, we go to the Royal Tomb and fight him here.

No people, enclosed space, no sand. We'll have the upper hand there.

Sarah: Will he really come there though?

Diana: We just let him know that Miss All Sunday is already there. He'll come find you and we'll be ready for him. Besides, that would be your goal, wouldn't it?

Robin just nodded.

Diana: Then let us wait for Smoker. All of you, get ready for training. Waiting for a Marine Captain on the Grandline is no excuse to not train.

Tim, John, Sarah & Brown: Your training's too cruel~!

Seriously, Sarah, you were part of the CP unit once. Are you really going to say that to us? Breaks my heart really.

Me: Miss All Sunday, you can do whatever you wish. Chill, read some books. We've got some drinks in the freezer if you want. But Tim, you're going to train your Devil Fruit today.

Tim: Really? Not my haki?

Me: Unfortunately, yes, we're not training your haki today. I don't want you in the sick bay when you might end up fighting Crocodile's goons. So instead, we're going to have a nice long chat about your abilities.

Diana: Tell us; I know the basics of your Devil fruit. But how are you limiting yourself?

Tim: I can only produce metal or turn parts of my body into metal though. It's not much of a fruit.

Problem detected. Devil fruits were never given a power level to begin with. All fruits and users can grow in strength depending on how well they use it, and how far they can go with it. If the name of the fruit itself was the limit, the Admiral Aokiji would've been only be able to cool down drinks. But no, he took his fruit far beyond and became one of the greatest powerhouse in the world. A force to be reckoned with.

Even Luffy's fruit is an example of this. With his Rubber fruit being possibly the stupidest and most useless fruit in the entire series at first glance. Yet, his will to develop, grow stronger, and persevere has made him strong enough to fight some serious people in the One Piece Universe. The only limitations would be the thought, or subconsciousness that you put on your abilities.

Realistically speaking, gravity manipulation would never be able to pull down meteorites, create massive gravity wells and horizontal gravity; yet here I am. BS-ing to the world that this is how Gravity could be utilized.

Our main issue would be convincing Tim to let go of his beliefs on the limits of metal. Quite hard to do as his view on metal is limited by his experiences as a mechanic and blacksmith… would be nice if we had some finer control over his fruit. We should train him to do that.

Me: Alright Tim, how do you usually use your fruit then. Not in a fight but normally

Tim: Umm…sometimes I make some ingots for myself to make into something else.

Me: Alright then, do that.

Tim made a steel ingot appear in his hand.

Me: What do you want to make with that?

Tim: Not sure… a dinner knife maybe? We broke one yesterday

Me: Alright. Make it, but with your fruit.

Thus, a long scene session about the nature and potential of metal was conducted…not that he could follow but, it's a start.

Sarah: Arriving at the Royal Capital; Kara, please reduce your Devil fruit. We will now start to descend.

I did as she asked and lowered my power to half gravity. Our ship, the Requiem, started to glide softly down towards the dock. Surprisingly, I saw very little Marine presence on the island. Was it because there was a Warlord on the island that the Marines believed that they don't need as much soldiers/forces here?

Foolish thought really. Why would they ever trust a Warlord? The only one they should trust should be Kuma; and even then Kuma low-key betrayed the World Government by asking Dr. Vegapunk to program him to protect the Thousand Sunny for two long years!

Well, we're not at that stage yet. Maybe I can ask Kuma before he loses himself completely. It's still a mystery of why he gave himself up to the Government when his true loyalty lies with the Revolutionary Army. Huh, I should've asked Dragon that when I had that chance. Too late for regret though.

After we docked, told our crew to stay onboard for now and told the Marines who we are, he led us to the local Marine base… which was quite shabby.

Diana: Captain Smoker is not here yet, is he?

Marine: No Ma'am.

Diana: We'll stay and wait for him a bit. But we'll have to prepare a bit for the fight.

Me: Sis, we have a couple days to rest. Until Crocodile arrives. Why don't you help prepare the ground?

Diana: What do you mean?

Me: Make it rain. As much as you can so the there is humidity in the air even when Crocodile arrives. Rain so much that he can't absorb all of it.

Diana: I guess that's worth a try. But we'll have to tell the King later that the rain wasn't from the Dance Powder.

Other than that…

She put her hands in the air and concentrated

Diana: One Monsoon Raining season coming Right up!

Within in a few seconds, the clouds above the city gathered and grew dark. First there were droplets, then another one followed… until it was pouring and pouring.

Diana: I'm not going to make it rain too much at a time. That'll cause some problems, but I can keep this up for a couple of hours at this rate. This should prove helpful against Crocodile when he arrives.

She cracked a smile. Already excited for the confrontation.

Me: Crocodile still has the bomb though. That means only one of us could fight him while the other needs to go and defuse the bomb.

Diana: But we both want to fight Crocodile…can't we just let the bird guy sacrifice himself like in Canon?

Me: He might not make it here in time remember? We're pulling everything forward for our sake. Also, who knows how Crocodile plans differently this time. He might be the weakest Warlord but he's not an idiot. You've got to remember he survived in the New World as well.

Diana: *hah* I think a major plot hole in the entire series is how Luffy even beat Crocodile.

Me: Oda didn't have a solid grasp on the One Piece world back then, nor on the concept of haki. Technically this isn't a canon world. That's why we can even use haki right now.

Diana: You're right. But turn off your observation haki and future sight. We're deciding by Rock Paper Scissors.

Me & Diana: Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot!

————————————————————————————————————

Smoker arrived the following morning. Impressive speed if you don't consider the fact that he left behind everyone except Tashigi.

Diana: Captain, it's nice to see you. As to leave some part of this for you, we haven't requested a meeting with the King yet. You should do that.

Smoker: *grumble* Youngsters, leaving all the work to me

Diana: What was that? Could you tell me who found out and got the approval to do everything? hmmm…?

Smoker: Fine, not you but maybe Tashigi

Tashigi: Captain! *uwwaa!*

The last part is because she slipped and hit Smoker in the head.

Smoker: *grumble* *grumble* This is exactly what I mean. In my office, there isn't a day when she doesn't break something. Always adding more paperwork to my workload *grumble* *grumble*

Diana: Well then Captain, you should head off to see the King. The earlier he prepares, the less damage we'll take.

Smoker: Sure, but one question. Are you making it rain right now?

Diana: Yes, this is part of my Devil fruit. Don't worry, I haven't taken the rain from somewhere else. This is just like a preparation against Crocodile for safety reasons.

Smoker: Did you make it rain back a Lougetown as well? Was that you as well?

Diana: No, I suspect that was Dragon. With both the lightning, rain and wind. He must has some weather manipulating related Logia type fruit. Enough talk, off you go.

Grumbling and complaining all the way unlike his silent canon counterpart, Smoker headed to the Royal Palace to warn the King of what was coming.

Me: Now what?

Diana: Now we wait for the lizard.

POV Diana

The next day, the Royalty were warned and officers of the Marines were also told of the news… but they were told with caution to not warn Crocodile as of yet.

Using some paid people at pubs and more, Alabasta purposely leaked 'rumors' of Crocodile involved in the 'Dance Powder' to purposefully sow discontent and civil unrest in the Kingdom. Hopefully this will dissuade the Rebel Army for a bit longer. The less we have to fill the better.

King Cobra: Thank you Rear Admiral Diana. I heard from Captain Smoker that it was you and your sister who found what Crocodile was up to. We would have been in big trouble if you hadn't been there for us.

Me: It was our pleasure, and more importantly, it is our duty. After all, Alabasta is a nation which pays the World Government for our protection. Thus, this was, in a way our responsibility as well. We, in turn, will need to carefully monitor the islands that are under the rule of the Warlords from now on. Judging by how the island seemed silent, we underestimated the prowess and cunning mind of Crocodile.

King Cobra: No, no… this is still our country's affair. Is there any way we can repay you somehow?

Me: This is not for me… but we would like to wait at the Royal tomb. Where the ancient text is located. Crocodile is sure to go there and it would be safer to fight him there. Also, Miss All Sunday here is an archeologist.

King Cobra: Very well. It is a historic monument after all. You may follow me. You have my permission to enter it.

Not even thinking for a second that Nico Robin (Miss All Sunday) would be able to read the ancient text. After all for the world, the language is as good as dead.

With that, he stood up, signaled his royal guards to follow him and left.

Me: You can read it when Crocodile arrives in the city but I'd like to go there now. Better to scout out the battlefield beforehand. Also, you'll have more time on you. Don't you agree?

She agreed and followed me to the tomb.

Me: Here it is…

It looked exactly as it did in the anime, just that it wasn't crumbling down and broken yet. What I didn't understand was the physics of the world. How much of it would be true?

Like when Luffy and Crocodile were fighting here and the ceiling collapsed, it took the chunks at least 20 seconds to fall to the floor. It wasn't as if someone was holding it up, or the chunks were going through something but just the world itself was like "Alright, gonna ignore the laws of Physics for a bit"

Strange World. So many unexplainable concepts and stuff. Able to build stuff like Impel Down and Pacifists but not a bomb large enough to blow an island on their own. Nor do they even have the proper technology to decode some strange language from the 'Void Century'. Cool world Oda, this is expert Manga world building.

While Robin was completely immersed in reading the text, I sprinkled water all over the tomb. I made the water humid as well as hid small bodies of water all around the tomb.

Robin: You really don't take chances.

It was a statement, not a question.

Me: A Lion puts his best into hunting even the smallest hare.

Robin: You are the Lion?

Me: Nah, I'll be the poacher.

Robin just looked at me in a confused manner before deciding it wasn't worth it.

Me: We need to lure Crocodile here. Do you know if he has ever shown signs of observation haki?

Robin: Excuse me?

Me: Never mind. Did Crocodile ever seem to know where attacks are coming from without directly seeing it. Or perhaps see stuff that out of range?

Robin: A couple times, yes.

Me: Good. Then you just have to stand outside the tomb on some sand. Also, use your devil fruit powers as well. He'll be able to sense you here.

Robin: What did you call this ability again?

Me: Observational haki, nothing you need to know yet. But for now, let us return to the Requiem. Crocodile should be arriving in a few days.

The next few days were mostly spent with Tim and John sparring against each other while we gave some tips around their fighting style. (Both of them fight now with their Devil Fruit conjured weapons. So any shape really)

Tim's control over his Devil Fruit improved drastically as he put his knowledge of blacksmithing into conjuring his weapons. He can call up a pretty decent sword or gun at a moment's notice. We also told him to change and manipulate other metals that are away from him. For example, closing the barrel of a gun or twisting the sword (as they are both made out of metal). We've tried with some leftover scraps that the Marine Base had but as of now, he's quite slow at it. Well, practice makes perfect.

While Tim and John were sparring, Sarah and Doc spent most of their time reading the Mastery Books we've given them…or more properly lent them With each page a wellspring of knowledge of possibly everything they need to know about their respective subjects. They were in heaven as they read the book, each page making them gasp at the revelations.

Kara and I had a hard time pulling them away from their books to make them go to sleep.

POV Kara

Me: He's here *pout*

The moment I said that, Tim called Smoker to warn him that Crocodile is here.

I wasn't in a good mood. I finally thought I could get some action against one of the big boys of the One Piece Universe… but no. I lost in the heavenly match of Rock Paper Scissors.

I know sis will let me fight if I really try and ask her for it, but I know that she's been looking forward to this fight almost as much as I have. I don't have the heart to take it from her.

Stupid Crocodile and his bomb. We could have easily just killed everyone with his Logia fruit by bringing the desert to him. Why did he need to do the typical anime stunt and call up a bomb to threaten everyone? Now I have to go defuse it while everyone else has fun.

Diana: Alright crew. You all know your part in this.

Sarah, you're in charge of removing all hiding rebel soldiers and cover for us.

John and Doc, you stay in the open and take care of Crocodile's direct followers

Tim, fly above our location above a couple thousand meters and provide support from above. I think the Pacifista has a sniper mode as well.

Miss All Sunday, you are to attract Crocodile's attention to the tomb. I will fight him there.

Finally, Kara, you go defuse the bomb then join me in fighting Crocodile. Hehe, that is, if you are fast enough

Me: *che*

She planned to beat Crocodile before I can even defuse the bomb. Worst part of it was knowing that she had the capabilities and power to back it up.

Diana: Alright then, let's meet back here when everything's done! Remember, no one is allowed to die! Dying is no excuse to leave this unit. We are the face of Justice!

With that, all of us except Tim left the ship.

Me: Good luck sister, though I don't even think you'll need it. It's Crocodile after all

Sis just smiled and ran off with Robin in the direction of the tomb. As for me, I slowly headed towards the Clock tower…when my observation picked up a strong presence walking towards the same direction

Heh, maybe this won't be so boring after all. Safety first, I'll need to hurry if I want to take my prize.