Cherry was very satisfied with the tailor's, whose name is Inazuma, work. He made a tight fit dark grey outfit that easily blended into the dark grey stone of the prison. It had an attached hood and mask, as well as gloves to ensure that no skin was showing for maximum stealth.
"It's very comfortable and warm. I appreciate that you made it with stealth in mind." Cherry complimented honestly.
"Of course, we didn't see you on any of the surveillance feeds, so I presumed that was what you were in need of." Inazuma said and sipped his wine.
"It is very impressive that you managed to break into the prison without being seen, especially with that fool in tow." The woman called Iva pointed a thumb at Buggy who was already drunk and dancing on top of a table.
Iva created needles from her fingers then jabbed herself in the side. A startling transformation occurred before Cherry's eyes in just a few seconds. Iva transformed from a tall and curvy woman into a shorter man with a giant head.
"I am... EMPORIO IVANKOV! Queen of Kamabakka Kingdom! Hee Haw!" Ivankov introduced with a flamboyant pose.
"I'm Harpin D. Cherry. I don't have a title, unless you count 'Bastard of Hawkeye'." Cherry was outwardly unfazed by Ivankov, which caused him to clear his throat with some embarrassment.
"Ahem, I see, nice to meet you." Ivankov said. An awkward silence fell over them. "WAIT DID YOU SAY YOUR HAWKEYE'S DAUGHTER?! Ah, your eyes are just like his now that I look closely."
"In any case, I'd love to have some assistance in any capacity that you're willing to grant it. I'm trying to bust Portgas D. Ace out of this hell hole and I sort of did this on a whim with no preparation whatsoever." Cherry explained.
"No can do! We've got our own things to worry about and I'm some some charity worker!" Ivankov denied her request.
Cherry somewhat expected that response. These were criminals after all, it was fortunate enough that they were friendly at all.
"I see. Can you tell me what you know about Impel Down at least? I'd hate for Kuma's efforts to send me here to be wasted." Cherry said, scratching her head.
"Huh?! Kuma sent you here to break out Fire Fist Ace?" Ivankov was shocked.
"Do you know Kuma?" Cherry asked, with a twinkle in her eye.
"N-no, why would I acquainted with that dog of the World Government?" Ivankov desperately tried to cover up his slip up. Inazuma face palmed.
"I see, so you're a Revolutionary too." Cherry looked Ivankov up and down. "Actually, I should have guessed as much earlier. You don't look like a status quo type."
"Nhaha, you got that right! How did you know Kuma is a spy, though? Did he tell you?" Ivankov simply gave up since he was found out anyways.
"I managed to get him with the classic 'I didn't know, you just told me' trick a while back." Cherry said.
"Nhahaha, you must have gotten him pretty flustered then, he usually such a quiet boy! Maybe he likes you, hm?" Ivankov joked. Kuma was very well liked amongst his comrades.
"Well, if he does, then not for much longer. Vegapunk is going to turn him into a mindless puppet soon. Saving the Straw Hat Pirates was perhaps his last action as a complete man." Cherry spoke sadly.
This bombshell did not really shock Ivankov or Inazuma, but it did enrage them. Kuma's undercover mission was exceedingly dangerous, so they were prepared to hear that he'd suffered a bad end one day. It doesn't soften the blow at all, however.
"I see. Inazuma will fill you in on the details about the prison. I need a drink." Ivankov stalked off, having lost much of his gusto.
Inazuma explained what he knew about Impel Down, which fortunately included a fairly detailed map of it's interior. The 'official' sixth level was where they kept the most dangerous prisoners and also where they kept Ace.
"HEE HAW!" Ivankov got his spirits up again, never one to be a downer. "I don't know why Kuma wants Ace out, but I'll help you, girly! We still have time before they take him away, so we can put together a proper plan of action in the meantime!"
"Oh, I'm grateful. Luffy will be very grateful too, I'm sure." Cherry said.
"Luffy?" Ivankov tilted his big head.
"You know, Monkey D. Luffy? Grandson of Monkey D. Garp and son of Monkey D. Dragon? Ace is his brother, so he'll be grateful." Cherry explained. Seeing Ivankov's face go through several different emotions at once told her that he didn't know that information.
"Dragon has a son?! Two sons?! Wait wait wait, this is all hard to believe. Too many coincidences!" Ivankov shouted. "Tell me, where are Luffy and Ace from?"
"I think it was the Goa Kingdom, in East Blue?" Cherry said, amused that Ivankov was only just now doubting her. 'I guess I just have an honest face.'
Ivankov ordered some nearby okama to go get whatever records they had on Luffy and Ace. After looking through them and seeing that he really did shared a surname and the D initial, as well as coming from the sea that Dragon always gazed in the general direction of, he was 99% sure it was the truth.
"We really can't afford to fail here! This is bad, very bad!" Ivankov was stressing out a lot over this.
"We have time, remember? First I'll sneak down to level six and see if I can chat with Ace.You just start thinking about how we can get away from Impel Down if we can reach the surface. That's the biggest problem here." Cherry said.
"Right, right. I panicked a bit there! You go on then, don't get caught or I'll strangle you!" Ivankov warned. "NOT REALLY! Nhahaha!"
...
The Shichibukai Juinbe and Fire Fist Ace sat chained to the walls of their shared cell.
Jinbe was humming a song to pass the time and distract himself from the pain of the injuries the jailer beasts inflicted upon him. Many of his neighbors hated when he did it and would scream at him to shut up, but Ace liked it so he ignored them.
"I wish I could hear a decent singer sing those songs." Ace said.
"You'll have to make do with what you have. Beggars can't be choosers." Jinbe said seriously, causing Ace to show a rare smile.
*Tap tap tap*
"Hm?" Jinbe felt something tap on his leg.
He looked down and saw a pair of eyes peering through a small hole where the wall met the floor. He would recognize those eyes anywhere.
"Hawkeye?!" Jinbe kept his voice low, so it would not be heard above the sounds of distant screaming.
Ace did hear him though, being in the same cell. He followed Jinbe's gaze and saw those infamous eyes as well.
"Don't call me Hawkeye. I'm nothing like that deadbeat. I'm as dishonorable as they come, won't get a fair fight from me, no sir!" Cherry joked, they didn't laugh.
Hearing what was clearly a woman's voice, they knew it couldn't be Hawkeye.
"Who are you, then?" Jinbe questioned skeptically, but there was some hope in his eyes. Hope to prevent the war between Whitebeard and the Marines.
"Harpin D. Cherry, I've been traveling with Luffy for several months now. Seeing as his brother was about to executed, I took it upon myself to rescue you." Cherry said, looking at Ace.
"Is he here?" Ace asked, but his eyes said he didn't want him to be here.
"No, but I expect he'll wind up coming here eventually, probably at the last minute knowing him." Cherry answered.
Ace showed immense relief and let out a sigh. "Luffy mentioned you back in Alabasta. It's good to know he has good friends. You should get out of here if you can, you won't be able to help me."
"I didn't ask for your opinion, twerp. You're getting saved like the damsel in distress that you are, whether you like it or not." Cherry paused and looked at Jinbe. "You look like a martial artist, are you strong?"
"Not strong enough, but yes. I use fishman karate." Jinbe answered.
"Great! You're coming too then. In exchange for saving you, you'll teach me fishman karate, I'll bet it's pretty interesting. I'll talk to you later when we've got a plan of actin sorted out. Don't tell anyone about this." Cherry said, then quickly disappeared into the wall, leaving no hole behind.
Cherry returned to Level 5.5, otherwise known as Newkama Land by its residents.
This time she didn't close up the passage as she passed through as she anticipated that she would be using it again, opting only to close the entrances.
Cherry found Ivankov and a now female Inazuma standing over a table with a complex layout of the prison as well as some ideas about how to deal with the various defenses and guards of Impel Down.
"Oh, you're back, Cherry." Inazuma welcomed warmly, catching Cherry somewhat off guard as she had been quite cold and distant as a man.
"I let Ace know he'll be getting rescued. There's a fishman in his cell with him, but I don't think he'll be a problem. Rather I think he'll be helpful, as he seems to be on good terms with Ace and also seems pretty strong." Cherry informed them of her meeting.
"A fishman in level six, huh? That's probably the Shichibukai, Jinbe, who they brought in recently." Ivankov processed the information. "That's good, prospects aren't looking too good so we'll need all the help we can get."
"Hm, it'll really be that difficult? With the number of people you have here it shouldn't be hard to take one of the warships, as well as sail one." Cherry asked. The main problem in her mind was getting out quickly and manning the ship. Both of those problems are solved with more fighters.
"You're forgetting that we're in the calm belt and that the warships outside aren't paddleboats. The only way to sail out of here is through the giant gate, which can only be opened from the inside." Ivankov explained.
"The gate? The gate isn't a problem, I'll just go over top of it and open it myself. Really shouldn't take that long, especially if the marines on the other side are willing to cooperate to avoid the ass kicking of a lifetime." Cherry said.
"How are you going to go over it? Do you have any idea how tall that monstrosity is?" Ivankov asked doubtfully.
"Like this." Cherry said. Then she suddenly vanished and loud cracks could be air in the air around them as Cherry bounced around without landing on any solid surfaces. Cherry landed and place her hands on her hips proudly.
"See? Easy peasy, I can do that all day." Cherry smirked.
"That'll do it. Nhahaha!" Ivankov rubbed his hands together like a villain. "Now we just need to force our way through quick enough so they can't bring in reinforcements."
"Not just that, the current will bring us right passed Marine Headquarters. They have men in constant communication between Impel Down and Marine Headquarters so that if anything at all goes wrong, they'll known the moment it happens that something is wrong. We'll be intercepted for sure." Inazuma pointed out.
"Hm, I think I know someone who could help with that. I'll see if I can get in contact." Cherry said, with a particular person in mind.
"Just bring them here if you can. There's a folk tale of sorts here that people mysteriously vanish from time to time. That what they think happened to many of us here, including myself!" Ivankov said.
Cherry set out into the tunnels once again to get as close as she could to her target on level three, then burrowed a new tunnel to reach them.
Cherry could hear someone shouting above her even through the stone walls.
"Un Deux, Koraaa! OKAMA WAAAAYYY!"
Cherry opened up a hole in the floor. "Bon Clay, come with me. Bring your friends here too."
"Hm? Cherry-chan, is that you?! Hold on, did you... come to break me out of prison?" Bon Clay started to sob from the joy of friendship.
"Nope." Cherry shut him down instantly. "I just need your devil fruit, if I could take that and leave you here I would."
Her words stabbed into his heart without mercy.
"I'm kidding, I definitely didn't plan to leave you here until I needed your skill set." Cherry smirked.
"Y-you shouldn't be mean to your friends! Maybe I won't come with you, huh? How about that?!" Bon Clay said, putting up a false resistance.
"Oh? I guess you don't want to meet Emporio Ivankov then. Have fun rotting here~" Cherry teased, closing up the hole behind her.
"Noooooooooooo, take me with you pleeeeease~ I want to meet Iva-sama~" Bon Clay begged whilst clawing at the place where the hole just was.
Cherry opened it back up and Bon Clay dived inside without giving her the chance to close it again. After bringing the other prisoners in the cell into her tunnel she led them all back to Newkama Land.
Bon Clay started fangirling over Ivankov immediately.
"This is Bon Clay, his devil fruit let's him take the appearance of people he's touched with his right hand. We can use that to replace the marine in communication with Marine Headquarters to buy us as much time as possible." Cherry explained, receiving nods of affirmation.
"So you did just want my devil fruit! You're a monster, a monster!" Bon Clay accused Cherry who could only laugh.
"Don't be angry Bon-chan. Luffy's brother is locked up and scheduled to be executed. Rest assured that I'll do everything in my power to get you out of here as well." Cherry patted him on the shoulder to reassure him.
She wasn't really fond of Bon Clay, but she did respect him at least. After all, his life had been saved by them and he still fought against them in Alabasta. Although he used himself as bait for them to get away afterwards, somewhat redeeming himself, Cherry didn't particularly like his fickle attitude towards the people he called friends.
After talking a bit and ironing out some more details for their plan of action, Cherry decided to turn in for the night.
Over the next few days, Cherry formed a much more robust tunnel system throughout the entirety of Impel Down. Now that she had a clear idea of the layout it was relatively easy to do so, whereas before she was worried about accidentally breaking through to an open space.
They also worked out who would be best to include in their prison break. The prisoners on the upper levels would be easy to control and wouldn't be too harmful to release into the outside world. The prisoners on lower levels were strong, but weren't so easy to control. Many of them also had grudges against Whitebeard, especially those from Level six.
Ivankov said they should involve Crocodile, as Ivankov apparently had some dirt on him that he wouldn't want getting out.
"Oh, what is it that you know that can make a prideful guy like Crocodile become obedient?" Cherry wanted to know, as Ivankov made it sound like some real juicy gossip.
"I won't say anything unless Croco-boy doesn't want to cooperate. Otherwise he wouldn't trust that I'll keep quiet about it." Ivankov said, disappointing her greatly.
"No fun at all~" Cherry pouted.
"We need to make a decision now, we have everything ready to go. Do we do it as soon as possible, or do we wait until the ships that will escort Ace to Marine Headquarters get here? If we wait, then the fight here will be harder, but it will save us some trouble later on." Inazuma stated.
"Personally I'd rather fight the escort here. It's almost certain admirals will get involved when they find out what's happened. Removing some vice admirals and their warships from that fight will improve our chances." Cherry stated her opinion. "Also, it's not unlikely that Luffy will turn up here if Kuma sent him anywhere nearby. I don't want him to be here on his own."
"Mm, that makes sense to me. We'll wait until the day before the execution to make our move! Hee Haw!" Ivankov said.
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