320 The Big Event

Cherry managed to calm down the distraught Baccarat (but not too much) and got her to lead her to her V.I.P. booth. Baccarat was nervously chewing her manicured nails in the corner, her eyes darting around nervously as if in search of some invisible threat.

The various large screens showed Gild Tesoro capturing Luffy and Franky in the den den mushi central control room before getting dropped to what Cherry assumed to be the gold desert in the bowels of the ship.

At this time, the rest of the crew and Carina should be making their way to the "vault" with her key, which means the main event would be starting soon. People began to file into the seats of the stadium attached to the highest tower of the Gran Tesoro and sure enough, all the Straw Hats were soon broadcast live from wherever they happened to be.

…

Luffy looked over the opening of the large pipe, the only exit to the gold desert which was filled with oversized bats. Nothing he couldn't handle, which he quickly proved by jumping inside and kicking all the bats' asses despite the protests from the prisoners being kept on this level.

Franky followed swiftly after and the prisoners did as well with some hesitation. They'd rather not die by dehydration, so it was better to take a risk to follow the crazy pirate.

Soon they arrived before a massive fan coated in seastone alloy; one they needed to get through to escape.

"I'll break it!" Luffy declared confidently.

"Luffy, that's sea stone alloy on the blades! Not only are they as hard as diamonds with the flexibility of steel, but you'll be weakened if you touch them!" Franky explained.

"I'll try harder, then!" Luffy insisted, leaping to his potential doom.

He predictably bounced around like a pinball well on its way to get a highscore before Franky pulled him back up.

"Don't just jump before you hear me out, Luffy," Franky said to his dazed captain. "I've got my own idea."

This time Franky leapt down, but he wasn't intending to destroy the fan blades. With a well timed Coup de Boo, heis descent slowed just before he reached the fan and extended his hands to catch onto one of the blades.

Franky braced himself against the wall, then with a tremendous warcry he released the longest and most powerful Coup de Boo of his life. This was only possible thanks to borrowing Cherry's Fizzy Pop giving him the unlimited cola to fuel it.

The audience in the stadium outside was utterly silent as the most violent fart in the world ripped through the night air from the amplified den den mushi speakers. When it finally ended after Franky slowed down the fan enough for Luffy and the prisoners to pass through safely, there was only the sound of a single woman laughing hysterically to break the silence. Surprisingly, the audience was largely unimpressed by cyborg flatulence.

The larger group of Straw Hats impersonated some celestial dragons (which made the already lukewarm audience somewhat nervous), and made their way past the guards to the "vault door".

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Tesoro appeared with Tanaka on the main stage. Lights shone down upon them and Zoro who was imprisoned in gold. "Soon, the big reveal will be upon us! Are you ready to savor the despair of these rotten pirates?!"

The audience went wild; this was what they were here for. Just like the people of Dressrosa in the colosseum's audience, they wanted violence and blood!

"Hahaha! You sure do sound excited; I know that I am!" Tesoro egged them on, lavishing in their cheers. He'd never get used to this feeling of stomping on the dreams of loser pirates! "Let us welcome our 'honored' guests for tonight!"

The so-called vault door swung open and the unwitting maze rats spilled out in shock. The audience jeered at them and their foolishness for falling for such an obvious trap!

Tesoro greeted them delightedly, revealing that Carina hadn't betrayed him at all! She manufactured the entire heist so that others could mock them and gamble over how far they would get.

He directed their attention to the main screen where Luffy and Franky were working on getting a hold of sea water to wash themselves of the gold dust that Tesoro controlled on them. This was a trap too of course.

Zoro had been largely calm and quiet up until now, but at this moment his single eye opened with a ferocious glint. Nobody was paying him any attention when he placed a razor blade between his teeth.

An instant later, the sound of massive chunks of gold hitting the ground was heard and Zoro was already most of the way to Tesoro by the time anyone noticed he had moved.

"What?!" Tesoro raised his hands to constrict the gold on Zoro's body, but nothing happened to his immense surprise. 'How did he get rid of the gold dust?! He's been under constant watch, he can't have had access to sea water?!'

Dice interposed himself between the charging swordsman and his employer. Zoro didn't hesitate to cut him down with the swords he was fortunately sealed up with.

"S-" Dice muttered, before shouting, "So GOOOOD~!"

Zoro's swords had cleaved through his clothes easily enough, but Dice's haki was tougher to get through than expected. However, that was to be expected of the underworld's best pit fighter.

The others weren't to be upstaged and quickly came to Zoro's aid. At this point, Tesoro had already recovered from his momentary shock and the lake of gold around the stage erupted in countless tendrils that darted to the Straw Hats and eventually overwhelmed them.

"That was a good attempt, I'll admit." Tesoro smugly spoke. "Unfortunately, nothing has changed for you. Your captain and shipwright were doomed even if you won your little last ditch effort, too! HA!"

Cherry landed on the stage then, prompting an outcry from Nami. "Cherry, help us!"

"Sorry, toots." Cherry winked with her best evil smirk. "I go where the money flows, and that's not with you broke losers." 

"HahahaHA!" Tesoro laughed. "A round of applause for the only intelligent, now former member of the Straw Hat crew!"

The audience obliged him. Here Tesoro was king, so even if they were a bit confused since they didn't know why he recruited one of the pirates, they'd follow his lead.

The others were "shocked" by her sudden betrayal. Except Zoro who was really just annoyed that he got caught again so quickly, but then he'd already gotten that particular reveal earlier so that wasn't suspicious at all.

On the screen, Luffy and Franky smashed open the sea water piping system and Tesoro signaled to have them sealed inside to await their watery grave.

Tesoro capped off the show by shouting for his fountains of gold to spray into the air "Gold SPLASH!"

*PSSSHHH!!!*

Despair could be seen on the Straw Hats' faces and delight plastered over the audience and Tesoro and his peoples' faces. Even Baccarat seemed to be in a vaguely better mood thanks to her sadistic personality.

"Boof-?!" Tesoro folded like a picnic table after a swift kick to the gonads.

Cherry stood over him looking pleased with herself.