Chapter 182: Biggest Fan
Popeye crushed a can of spinach, squeezing the contents into his open mouth.
"Popeye is pulling out his patented 'Spinach Rush' move! As you know, Popeye ate the Punch Punch fruit and became a punching man! What a treat for us, ladies and gentlemen!" The announcer cried out.
*BOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBONG!!!*
Popeye hammered away at the barrier with wild abandon, each punch stronger than the last.
Bartolomeo paid no attention to the ruckus going on behind him and he didn't really need to as the barrier was holding strong.
"R- R- R- R- R- Robin Nee-can?! And C- C- C- C- C- Cabernet Nee-san too?!" Bartolomeo was freaking out.
His eyes landed on Perona. She perked up a little bit waiting for his star struck reaction.
"Who?" Bartolomeo didn't remember this one.
"Screw you!" Perona roared in outrage.
Bartolomeo scanned the crowd in search of the other member of the greatest pirate crew in the whole world.
Whilst he frantically searched for his heroes, he felt something clamp down on his ankle.
"Hm?" Bartolomeo hummed.
The little old lady who had rung the start bell too early had put what looked like some sort of shackle on his leg. He was sure he had seen this exact shackle design from somewhere.
He understood when the weakness came. He toppled over, unable to bear his body weight on his own legs. Worse still, his barrier faded away, giving his three opponents free access to his now helpless self. It was a pair of standard issue marine sea stone cuffs.
*Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam!!!*
Bartolomeo was pummeled into the floor of the boxing ring before his crew could even move a muscle.
"Save the captain!" One of his crew shouted from the audience.
Then the other audience members around them pulled out hidden weapons and they found themselves surrounded. In addition, the three Sweethaven champions turned their eyes away from the unconscious Bartolomeo to them.
"Scatter!" The pirate changed his tune quickly and wisely decided they should flee first and save their captain later.
The audience member sitting in front of Cherry suddenly stood and whipped around holding a bazooka. He fired it within point blank range seemingly without any sense of self preservation.
However, it wasn't an explosive projectile that flew from its muzzle, but an expanding sea stone net.
Cherry made no moves to resist and allowed the net to fall onto her.
"Haunted House Party!" Perona shouted as hollows erupted from her body and sent all the nearby audience members into deep depressions.
"Grab that foul mouthed fool and escape while I hold off those three." Cherry said.
Robin bloomed hands to grab Bartolomeo, careful not to touch the sea stone cuffs, and threw him into the air. Cabernet swooped over the heads of the audience and caught him before flying straight up through the glass skylight.
Perona cleared a path through the audience with her hollows that she and Robin used to escape.
"Don't let them get away! They're worth more than a billion Beri together and I'll take every Beri we lose out of your hides!" Olive Oyl shouted from the VIP box.
Bluto in his half pig form and Popeye charged towards the escaping Robin and Perona whilst Oxblood went over to grab Cherry.
*CRUNCH!!!*
Oxblood was taken completely off guard as Cherry unexpectedly slammed her fist into his chest and crushed his ribs.
"H-how? The sea stone…?" He managed to ask in confusion.
"I guess you got scammed. I don't feel weak at all?" Cherry said, tossing the net aside.
That was nonsense of course. The sea's curse was only an inconvenience to her with body puppeteering.
She vanished and reappeared in the path of Bluto and Popeye, catching them by surprise.
Even being surprised they recovered instantly and launched a coordinated attack against her. They might hate each other's guts, but after working together as bounty hunters for well over a decade, their teamwork was excellent.
Cherry met their boxing gloved punches with her own fists. Bluto was knocked backwards from the collision, but she was shocked to find that Popeye's punch, despite not being as strong as her own punch, still carried forward and sent her flying away.
Cherry landed on her feet and wondered if that was the effect of the Punch Punch Fruit.
"My mama raised me not to hit a lady, but you're a pirate before you're a lady so don't expect no quarter from me." Popeye spoke.
"Let's dance, sailor boy!" Cherry was excited to study his devil fruit and perhaps fight a tricky foe.
Cherry didn't draw any weapons. Sometimes it was fun to fight an opponent on their own playing field.
She charged him and he raised his arm in a defensive stance.
When she thrust her fist towards him, he didn't block. Rather he sent out a straight punch to meet her attack once again.
Cherry covered her fist with the maximum amount of hardening she was able with Armament Haki.
Still, she was the one who was sent flying whilst Popeye held his ground.
She wasted no time in throwing herself at him once more.
Next she added Hasshoken into the mix. Popeye grunted in pain, but Cherry was still sent flying.
Cherry was getting a bit over excited and started to feed vital energy into her haki.
Their fists met and Cherry was still sent flying away, but this time Popeye's arm was ripped apart in the aftermath.
"Oops." Cherry broke out of her battle lust.
To Popeye's credit, he didn't scream in pain. He grunted and clenched his teeth, or rather clenched his gums. Then he raised his good arm and prepared to fight again, even as the other hung uselessly by his side.
*Boom Boom Boom*
Three bazookas fired sea stone nets at her. However, Cherry had gotten what she wanted so she ran away, easily evading the nets.
Bluto had decided not to intervene with Cherry and Popeye's fight and caught as many of members of the Barto Club crew that he could.
…
"Wake up, Bartolomeo-kun." A sweet voice like an angel spoke.
"What? Who's there?" Bartolomeo muttered and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
He realized his head was on Robin's lap like a pillow.
"Hey there, sleep head." She spoke gently and giggled.
"R- R- R- R- R- Robin Nee-san?!" Bartolomeo looked around and found Cherry Nee-san and Cabernet Nee-san too.
"Not just us, Bartolomeo-kun. The whole crew is here. Luffy has something important to ask you." Cherry Nee-san whispered in his ear.
Luffy-senpai walked into sight with the rest of the legendary crew following closely behind. His figure was the perfect blend of manliness and gentleness, with sparkling anime eyes.
"Bartolomeo-kun, I want you to be my first mate. No! I need you to be my first mate!" Luffy-senpai said, holding Bartolomeo's hands in his.
"W-what about Zoro-senpai?!" Bartolomeo asked, not wanting to step on any toes.
"Don't worry, Bartolomeo-kun. We all decided unanimously that you were the best for the job!" Zoro-senpai gave him a wink and a thumbs up.
*SLAP*
"What the hell are you muttering about?" Cherry asked, desperately fighting off the smile trying to appear on her face with a stern frown.
"Huh?!" Bartolomeo woke up from the same dream he had almost every night in confusion.
Looking around he noticed he was in a cave of some sort.
"Since we saved your life you're going to give us all your treasure, yeah?" Cherry extorted shamelessly.
"Sure! I-I'm your biggest fan!" Bartolomeo answered instantly and eagerly, though it did hurt his heart a bit to lose all his money.
"Fufufu. It seems that I win, Cherry." Robin said.
"Tsk." Cherry clicked her tongue.
Cherry and Robin had made a bet on whether Bartolomeo would willingly hand over his treasure. Cherry lost that one, but maybe she could win the second bet.
"Your crew was caught by the locals." Cherry said grimly.
Bartolomeo's face sank, the news spoiling his delight of being in the presence of his heroes.
"You could go save them, or… you could come with us?" Cherry tempted him.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone