Chapter 278: "Safe" House
Both Cherry and Burgess looked upon the distant, unmoving stone Pika in surprise; though they had different emotions towards the result.
Cherry was appreciative of her spear's raw power and was practically giddy thinking about training with it some more.
Burgess was coming to terms his what he was only now realizing to be a very close brush with death. He didn't even care about his missing ear at this moment, just thankful it hadn't flown a little more to the left. Once the adrenaline started to calm down, a different emotion started to take hold. Greed.
Burgess shot off in the direction of the spear with all his might, moving even faster than he did before. So long as he could claim that spear for himself, it wouldn't matter that he missed his chance to eat the devil fruit. Hell, now he could eat a different devil fruit or get one from his captain; then he would have TWO devil fruits! He would be a truly undefeatable champion!
Cherry chuckled at his naivety as he raced towards the direction the spear flew. That spear was blood bound to her, part of her very being. As such it was already heading back towards her after she willed it to do so. She had it burrow beneath the ground to make sure it didn't cause any additional unintentional deaths.
"What's happening?" Sugar asked, as if she was somehow owed an answer.
She couldn't see anything from her current very inconvenient vantage point.
Cherry was feeling generous in her improved mood, however, so she answered the arrogant girl. "Nothing much. I just accidentally killed Pika, is all."
Her first instinct had been to deny it immediately. Maybe this evil woman was strong enough to defeat Pika, but definitely not by accident, damn it! Pika was one of their strongest combatants, and definitely the one with the highest durability on their crew. Not even Doflamingo himself matched Pika in pure defensive power.
But when Cherry turned around so she could gaze upon Pika's ruin with her own eyes, she despaired. She went silent then, unsure of what her future held.
There was nothing she could do to save herself. She had tried to use her devil fruit multiple times by now to no avail. It was like trying to move your arm after sleeping on it in a weird way. You instinctively knew how to do it, but the arm remained unresponsive.
Cherry paid no more mind to her and pulled the string apart to reenter the birdcage.
"What now? Should I go play with Akainu? He's been pretty quiet, probably wants to swoop in after the dust settles to kill the victor." Cherry thought out loud.
That woke Sugar up from her stupor instantly. "Noooo! I don't want to die! Don't bring me to that freak!"
Cherry chuckled. She was thoroughly enjoying her torment of Sugar. All well deserved, as far as she was concerned.
First she wanted to check out the palace, though. Akainu wasn't going anywhere, he could wait patiently for Cherry's visit.
Sugar didn't know what she planned, however, and started to scream in terror when she shot forward. Straight towards one of the most dangerous men in the world as far as she assumed.
…
Doflamingo's panic room.
Something was wrong, terribly wrong. Pika's heavy movement could no longer be felt, and that fact disturbed Doflamingo. If something had happened or the situation had changed, then Pika should have come to notify him.
He had heard an explosion not long ago, just before the palace had stopped stomping around via Pika's devil fruit ability. Any explosion capable of taking Pika out in one go would have leveled the palace, though; and looking at the security feed from his hidden broadcast den den mushi around the country, it was clearly still there in one piece.
At least he was safe here in his panic room. It was perhaps one of the most fortified structures in the entire world. It was also very secret, with only himself and his three elite officers knowing about it. After booting that one legged idiot out of his palace, he immediately went into hiding here.
Doflamingo was thankful to his found family for insisting on this hideaway despite his arrogant denial of its necessity.
"Mmm Mm M Mm Mmm Mm!!!" a tiny voice mumbled through a gag.
Princess Mansherry's devil fruit was endlessly useful, but she really didn't know when to shut up. If she hadn't been gagged, then even now she'd be begging him to let her go. If not he would have eventually snapped under the combined pressure of his enemies and her annoying voice, likely killing her just to shut her up.
*knock knock… KNOCK knock KNOCK*
Doflamingo stood and walked to the airlock of the panic room and opened it without hesitation. This was because the knock was a passcode of sorts that each of his elite officers knew.
Diamante stumbled inside looking extremely pale from blood loss and missing an arm. He slammed the door shut behind him somewhat feebly whilst taking heaving breaths.
Doflamingo frowned deeply at the sight. He was a cruel man, but he even could not help but to feel sympathy for one of the men who raised him and made him into the man he was today.
Doflamingo snatched Mansherry up, making her yelp into her gag. "Heal him."
She did not wish to do so. However gullible those from the tontatta tribe were, after this much she knew that Doflamingo was absolutely an enemy who had tricked her before. However, she feared what he'd do to her if she wasn't useful to him any more, so she followed his command this time.
Tears dripped from Mansherry's eyes onto Diamante's arm stub. Of course, the arm was lost and would not be restored, but at least the wound itself closed up. Some of the color returned to Diamante's face at the same time as the healing properties of Mansherry's tears even recuperated some of his lost blood.
"What happened?" Doflamingo asked.
"Roronoa Zoro happened. He's stronger than we gave him credit for. I underestimated him even after watching his fight in the tournament." Diamante explained. He didn't need to save face in front of his young master because he lived to fulfill his dream, so he told the whole truth without pathetic excuses.
"You weren't followed were you?" Doflamingo studied him.
"Absolutely not. I'd sooner die than lead these monsters to you, young master." Diamante spoke with deep conviction.
Doflamingo didn't doubt that, but he did doubt Diamante's perceptive abilities whilst he was half dead.
"Alright. While you were out there, did you notice what was going on with Pika?" Doflamingo asked, dreading the answer.
"I'm… not sure. There was a streak of light from the edge of the birdcage I think. I'm pretty sure it hit Pika's stone form, but I didn't have a clear view of it." Diamante said.
"Damn it." Doflamingo cursed.
He really, really, REALLY hoped that the streak of light wasn't Admiral Kizaru. His odds of getting out of this alive, let alone unscathed, were already slim. He definitely didn't need another admiral level threat added on top of the pile.
…
Somewhere else.
"Mm! This is really good ice cream!" Kizaru said, standing at a food stand.
"It's frozen yogurt." the food stand owner corrected.
"Frozen yogurt flavored ice cream, delicious." Kizaru said.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone