The thick dust slowly fell to the ground.
The fight was over. The bad guy, Mr. 1, lay in a huge hole in the ground. He did not move.
Kai lay on his back near the edge of the hole. He looked up at the bright sun. He took short, hard breaths. His body hurt a lot. He felt like he could not move a single finger.
"Bot..." Kai whispered. "How bad is it?"
His watch blinked with a weak light. Bot's robot voice sounded tired. "You are out of power, Kai. You need to rest right now."
Kai smiled a little bit. He did not care that he was tired. He had kept the bad guy away. The gate to the city was open. Now, his friends could go inside.
Run, Vivi, Kai thought. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Inside the big city of Alubarna, things were very bad.
Princess Vivi ran up the big stone stairs. Her lungs burned. Her legs felt heavy. She had sneaked past the bad guys. But when she looked down at the city, her heart broke.
A huge cloud of dust hit the city gates. The Rebel Army was here.
There were seven hundred thousand angry, hungry men. They marched toward the city. Their boots hitting the ground sounded like loud thunder.
At the very front of the army was Koza. His face was full of anger and sadness. He was Vivi's childhood friend. Now, he was leading the attack.
"STOP!" Vivi screamed as loud as she could. Tears fell down her dirty face. "PLEASE, EVERYONE, STOP!"
But it was no use.
Guns fired. Cannons boomed. The men yelled loud battle cries. The noise was too big. No one could hear one girl screaming.
The Rebel Army crashed into the Royal Guards. Friends and neighbors began to hurt each other.
"Koza!" Vivi yelled again. She tried to climb higher so he could see him.
"Princess!" a mean voice said behind her.
Vivi turned around. Some Royal Guards ran toward her. But their eyes were cold and mean. They were not real guards. They were bad guys working for Crocodile.
They pulled out their swords and pointed them at Vivi.
"Mr. 0 says you cannot pass," the bad guy said. "You die here."
Vivi did not cry. She looked at them with brave eyes. She pulled out her weapons. She was alone, but she was a Straw Hat Pirate. She was ready to fight.
Vivi stood alone on the stone walkway. The bad guards pointed their sharp swords at her. She did not give up. She held her weapons tight and got ready to fight.
Suddenly, a fast foot came out of nowhere! BAM! The bad guards went flying through the air and crashed into the wall. A man in a nice suit stood in front of Vivi. He had curly eyebrows and a cigarette in his mouth.
"The name is Mr. Prince," Sanji said smoothly. He blew a thick cloud of white smoke into the air. "I am here to save you, Vivi!"
Vivi smiled. She was so happy. She was not alone. Her friends were here!
"Go to the palace, Vivi!" Sanji yelled. "Stop the fighting! I will beat these guys!"
Vivi nodded. She ran as fast as she could toward the big palace.
High above the fighting, Sir Crocodile sat in a rich room.
He wore a big, expensive fur coat. A gold hook was on his left hand. He blew white smoke from his cigar.
King Cobra, Vivi's father, was on the floor. He had heavy iron chains on him.
"Do you hear that, Cobra?" Crocodile smiled an evil smile. He pointed at the window. "Your country is burning."
"Crocodile..." King Cobra said. His mouth was bleeding. "You will not win. People will find out the truth."
Crocodile laughed a cold laugh.
"The truth does not matter," Crocodile said. "My plan worked perfectly. Soon, your armies will destroy each other. Then, the people will beg me to be their new King."
Nico Robin stepped out of the shadows. She smiled a quiet smile.
"Mr. 0," Robin said. "The Rebel Army is too big. They will win soon."
Crocodile stood up. He walked over to the chained King. He looked very scary.
"Good," Crocodile said. He put his gold hook near the King's face. "Now, tell me the secret. Tell me where the ancient weapon is hidden. Tell me where Pluton is."
Far away in the hot desert, a giant bird fell from the sky.
It was Pell, the falcon. He landed hard on the sand. He turned back into a man. He fell to his knees. He was very tired.
He gently put Luffy on the ground.
Luffy looked terrible. He had a huge, bloody hole in his chest from Crocodile's hook. He was barely breathing.
Pell ran to a small wooden shed. He remembered what Robin told him. He took out a small glass bottle of medicine. He poured it on Luffy's chest.
Then, Pell found a big barrel of water. Robin said Luffy needed a lot of water.
Pell opened Luffy's mouth and poured the water in.
"Drink, Straw Hat," Pell whispered. "You fought for my princess. I will not let you die here."
At first, nothing happened. The water just sat in Luffy's mouth.
But then, Luffy's rubber body worked its magic. He swallowed. Then he swallowed again.
Luffy's eyes snapped open!
He sat up super fast. He grabbed the huge barrel of water. His mouth opened incredibly wide. He drank gallons of water in just a few seconds. His belly puffed out like a big balloon.
He threw the empty barrel away. Then, he grabbed some dried meat and ate it all in one bite.
Pell fell backward. He was shocked.
The water and meat gave Luffy his power back. The bleeding stopped. His rubber body fixed itself just enough to keep him alive.
Luffy stood up. His red vest was torn and covered in blood.
He reached down into the sand. He picked up his straw hat. He put it on his head.
Luffy turned to look north. He looked past the hot sand. He looked at the white walls of the big city.
He was not smiling. He looked very mad.
"Straw Hat..." Pell said. "You cannot go back. He is too strong."
Luffy did not look at Pell. He cracked his knuckles.
"I told him," Luffy said. He gave a bloody, scary smile. "I'm gonna beat him."
Down at the city gates, the rest of the Straw Hat crew was ready to fight.
Zoro stood in the front. He pulled out his sharp swords. He looked at the elite Officer Agents of Baroque Works.
Nami held her blue Clima-Tact in her hands. She looked scared, but she did not run away.
Chopper changed his body. He turned into his big, strong form with lots of muscles. He called it Heavy Point.
Usopp pulled back his slingshot. His legs were shaking, but he stood bravely next to his friends.
"We have to stop them here!" Zoro grunted. He had a scary, bloodthirsty aura.
The bad guys attacked!
Miss Doublefinger, Mr. 2 Bon Clay, Mr. 4, and Miss Merry Christmas ran forward to fight. The final, bloody climax for the fate of Alabasta had arrived.
Zoro stood in the front, his sharp swords fully drawn and a terrifying, bloodthirsty aura radiating from his body. He didn't wait for the elite Officer Agents of Baroque Works to make the first move.
"Scatter!" Zoro roared to his crewmates, charging headfirst into the enemy line.
Mr. 2 Bon Clay spun like a violent, flamboyant top, his heavy swan-tipped shoes aiming a devastating kick directly at Zoro's head. "Come, green-haired swordsman! Let us dance the dance of death! Un Deux Trois!"
CLANG!
Zoro brought two of his blades up in a perfect cross block, the impact sending a shockwave of dust rippling outward. "I don't dance with freaks," Zoro grunted, pushing back with immense force.
While Zoro engaged the eccentric shapeshifter, the ground beneath Usopp and Chopper suddenly liquefied into churning sand.
"Mole-Banana!" Miss Merry Christmas shrieked, burrowing into the earth at terrifying speeds and grabbing Usopp by the ankles.
"GAAAAH! I'M BEING EATEN BY THE DIRT!" Usopp screamed, his legs shaking violently as he was dragged away from the city gates.
"Usopp!" Chopper yelled, his body currently shifted into his massive, muscular Heavy Point form. He charged after the mole-woman, but a massive, incredibly heavy baseball bat swung through the air, forcing the reindeer to duck.
Mr. 4 blinked slowly, hefting his massive four-ton bat. "Four... play..." he mumbled sluggishly, lumbering after the sniper and the doctor.
This left Nami standing completely alone, gripping her blue Clima-Tact tightly in her trembling hands. She looked up to see the cold, merciless eyes of Miss Doublefinger staring down at her.
"A cowardly little girl playing with a toy," Miss Doublefinger sneered, stepping forward. Sharp, lethal spikes began to protrude from her arms and shoulders, courtesy of the Spike-Spike Fruit. "You don't belong on a battlefield."
Nami swallowed hard. She looked scared, but she did not run away. She remembered Vivi's tears. She remembered Kai risking his life to hold off Mr. 1 so they could reach this exact point.
"I'm the navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates," Nami said, her voice shaking but resolute. "And I'm going to blow you away!"