109 Chief Warden Magellan

Cherry went down to level six to fill Ace and Jinbe in on the plan. Garp had paid a visit to Ace earlier in the day before returning to Marine Headquarters. She was grateful for this because it further solidified Ivankov's misunderstanding, that Ace wasn't actually Luffy's brother by blood.

'He doesn't need to know that. I can't afford to lose his help at this point.' Cherry thought.

Cherry opened up the hole in the floor next to Jinbe.

"Hey, we've got the plan worked out and all our preparations are completed. Now we're just waiting for Ace's escort to show up so we can take out the vice admirals here rather than later on. Divide and conquer and all that nonsense." Cherry informed them.

"I am also ready to go." Jinbe stated.

"Luffy isn't here right?" Ace's concern lied elsewhere.

"No, that's also part of the reason we decided to wait. Didn't want Luffy to turn up here and not have any allies to help him get back out." Cherry said. "SPeaking of allies, you don't happen to know of anyone down here that would support us? We have our own list of people we think we can control or trust, but are there any allies of Whitebeard down here that you know about?"

"Not really, there's only losers who hate the old man down here. Not you Jinbe." Ace said. "There also isn't really anyone down here that's easy to control either, as far as I know."

"I see, that's a shame. Having more help would always be better." Cherry said.

"Hm?" Cherry sensed a couple of familiar people enter the range of her Life Sense and arrive at the prison on the surface.

"It would seem that Luffy has come to Impel Down as expected, aboard a vice admiral's ship no less." Cherry narrated.

""What?!"" Ace and Jinbe were shocked.

"How do you even know that?" Ace asked.

"Nevermind how I know. I'll see you later when we start the plan. Right now I need to collect Luffy before he makes a mess of things. The last thing we need right now is the prison going on higher alert." Cherry said, then closed up the wall before they could say or ask anything more.

Cherry swiftly navigated the tunnel network back to Newkama Land. She told Ivankov that Luffy had shown up and to be ready to start the plan immediately if Cherry didn't reach him in time to stop him form making a ruckus.

Then she worked her way to the top of the prison through on of the vertical shafts she'd created for speedy transit for herself.

Cherry had to carve a new tunnel to reach the room that Luffy had stopped inside. There were two other people in the room with him and a surveillance den den mushi. The surprising part was that Luffy was wrapped around the other person who was a devil fruit user.

'They're smuggling him inside perhaps? He's being more thoughtful than he usually is.' Cherry thought.

"We don't suspect you, but procedure states that you have to wear these sea stone cuffs." A woman's voice was heard through the wall.

"Please be gentle~" Another woman's voice said.

"Eh?" The first woman said, then went silent.

Cherry noticed that the second woman's devil fruit activated and a change came over the first woman, as well as the surveillance den den mushi.

"That was close, I was about to just take my chances!" Luffy said, climbing off of the woman.

At this point Cherry opened up the wall and poked her head out.

"Psst! Luffy!" Cherry called out in a whisper.

"Huh? Cherry?!" Luffy exclaimed.

'W-who is this woman?! Why is Luffy so happy to see her?! Is she Luffy's girlfriend perhaps?!' Hancock inwardly panicked, barely maintaining her composure.

Cherry didn't miss the way she was acting and had an idea why as well.

"*Whistle* Wow, Luffy. Only been away for a week and already got yourself beautiful girlfriend." Cherry teased.

"W-what? Girlfriend? A-am I... his..." Hancock didn't finish the thought before she got lost in fantasy land.

"Right, Hancock is my friend. She has helped me a lot!" Luffy smiled.

The sudden and ruthless friend zoning sent Hancock spiraling into depression.

"Anyways, I'm going to bust Ace out soon. Hop into the hole, is Hancock coming too?" Cherry asked.

Hancock shook herself out of her melancholic stupor. "No, I have to keep up this act."

Luffy nodded and thanked her whilst clasping her hands, then resolutely jumped into the tunnel. Cherry closed it behind him and gave Hancock a wink.

Hancock took it as a challenge and swore to be the one who would win Luffy's love and adoration in the end.

"You're going to be surprised, Luffy. There's an old friend waiting for you down there too." Cherry said, patting Luffy on the back as they descended.

"Who?" Luffy asked.

"I won't ruin the surprise, just wait and see." Cherry insisted on keeping her secrets.

When they reached Newkama Land and Cherry opened the door, Bon Clay turned to look and saw Luffy and Luffy saw him.

"Bon-chan!" Luffy cheered.

"Luffy-chan!" Bon Clay cheered.

"You're still alive! Shishishi!" Luffy hugged him and spent some time catching up.

Afterwards, Luffy was filled in on the plan. He wasn't too happy that they wanted to wait, but ultimately he decided it was the best chances they would have.

All that remained was to wait until the time came. The hours passed slowly as the anticipation built up.

Their people were in position to swarm into the prison and cause as much chaos as possible on the first three levels by releasing the prisoners there. Other men would break out select individuals on the lower levels.

Cherry's job was to take out Magellan. Most of his strength came from his poison devil fruit from what Cherry had heard, so she was very confident that she could deal with him. Between her body cultivation and devil fruit, she could easily break down any poison that entered her body.

The time came, Cherry sensed the vice admirals arriving with their warships and signaled the start of the operation. They moved into their positions quickly. Cherry went to find Magellan. Luffy, Ivankov, and Inazuma went to grab Ace, Jinbe, and Crocodile. Bon clay went to the communications room to replace the marine there and keep a false all clear message going through.

Cherry saw that Magellan entered an elevator and moved to the tunnel she made to intercept it.

*Boom*

Cherry brought out her spear and burst through the wall of the elevator shaft, as well as through the wall of the elevator.

"Who the hell are you? Harpin D. Cherry?!" Magellan recognized her quickly. He was a large man in a black trench coat and an almost monstrous face, with his hair pulled up into the shape of horns.

"I'm your worst nightmare!" Cherry charged him.

Magellan's body erupted with purple poison, much to the dismay of the other guards on the elevator. He easily covered Cherry in the toxic goo as she didn't even try to dodge it.

"You're a fool is what you are." Magella spoke calmly, retracting his poison as he believed that she was done for.

Cherry didn't stop and pressed forward. She stabbed out with her spear and Magellan caught it by the shaft.

"You're already slowing down, your fate is sealed." Magellan said.

*Bang*

"Huh?" Magellan put his hand against his abdomen and when he looked at it, he saw it was covered in blood. "Where did you get that gun?"

Cherry suddenly increased the strength with the spear and pierced him on the other side of his abdomen.

"Warden?!" The other guards cried out. They didn't dare to move in for fear of the poison.

Magellan swung at her, but Cherry jumped and kicked him in the head. He collapsed to the floor of the elevator unconscious.

Cherry looked at the guards who were glaring angrily at her. "You should take care of your boss rather than get in my way."

The elevator arrived at the bottom and she stepped out when the doors opened.