~Third~

The Strawhats continued running and just as Smoker had promised he let them go, "Hey please tell me you guys aren't planning to run all the way to Alubarna?!"Usopp asked as the group continued running "We've got Eyelash just where the hell is that stupid camel anyway?"Nami asked "Close i hope doesn't this town have stables let's get some horses"Luffy said "Do you even know how to ride a horse?"Nicole asked "No but it can't be that hard, right?"Luffy asked, Nicole just sighed.

"Not to worry look ahead"Sanji said as Chopper waved to them "Hey guys hop on!"he called riding on a giant crab thing "A crab!!!!"Usopp yelled freaked out "Chopper!"Nami said "That's a Moving Crab"Vivi said "Yummy"Luffy said drooling a bit "Wow i can't believe my eyes i bet its delicious!"Luffy said as the crab came to a stop infront of the group.

"All aboard"Chopper said "Wow we get to ride it?!"Luffy asked excitedly and used his rubber powers to sling himself on the crab's eye "Pleased to meet ya"he said "Is it just me or does it's face look kinda shady?"Nami asked climbing on the crab "It's definitely not just you"Nicole said following "Who cares at least we have a ride"Sanji said following her.

"Say hello he's Eyelashes friend"Chopper said as Zoro, Vivi and Usopp rode a claw up to the back of the crab "Eyelash has lots of friends in this area because it's his home town he was born and raised here"Chopper said "That explains a lot"Nicole muttered with a sweatdrop "I can't believe you found one Moving Crabs are almost always submerged in the sand so it's impossible to spot one"Vivi said.

"Judging by his size i'd say this guy is pretty fast"Zoro said "Okay time to move out, hang on everyone here we go!"Chopper said and the crab took off in a hasty pace, when a golden hook came flying at them and grabbed Vivi, who screamed as she was being dragged back by Crocodile "Chopper stop the crab!"Zoro called.

"It's him!"Luffy said stretching himself over to Vivi and switching places with her, Zoro caught the princess "Hey Luffy!"he called after the rubber boy "That damned idiot"Sanji said "Luffy no!" Vivi said "You guys go on ahead don't worry about me!"Luffy called to his crew before crashing to the desert "Make sure you get Vivi home save and sound you have to promise me!"Luffy called to his crew.

They were all conflicted to leave their captain behind but it was captains orders "Hey Chopper let's go just keep going to Alubarna"Zoro said "Right okay let's go crab!"Chopper said with tears in his eyes "Whoa wait hold on, wait Zoro that's cold stop the crab, you're not actually gonna leave him behind are you? While Luffy's gone then you better protect me damn it"Usopp said but he went ignored.

"We gotta go back!"Vivi yelled "It's alright Vivi he'll be fine you have to trust me on this okay? I certainly feel bad for the other guy Luffy shows no mercy to his pray and there's not a single person he's gone after that walks away"Nami said "Crocodile will fail, Luffy will win, it's that simple"Zoro said "We gotta believe in him"Nicole said "The moment that the rebel army started running this lands final hour was set, once the royal army and the rebel army this country the kingdom of Alabasta will be gone forever, if you truly are the one and only hope to preventing that tragedy you must survive no matter what, so from this moment forward what happens to Luffy or any of us isn't the least bit important"Zoro said to Vivi.

"But"Vivi said "Vivi this is a fight that you alone started, you're the one who bravely left this land years ago and made a stance against a corrupted evil organisation, however don't make the mistake of thinking you're alone anymore"Sanji said leaving Vivi to herself.

"Luffy! Listen we'll be waiting for you! We'll be in Alubarna!"Vivi yelled her voice echoing through the desert "Yeah!"Luffy yelled back and as the crew went further away the first round of Luffy vs Crocodile began.

~skip~

"Vivi what's wrong?"Usopp asked "There's a giant storm heading towards Rainbase, it's Crocodile"Vivi said "Luffy no"Nami said "Hold on it's starting to move south"Nicole said.

~skip~

As the group, except Luffy, continued their way riding on the crab thing, Zoro was doing lifts with Eyelash the camel on his sword staring at Nicole while making it look like he was looking into the distance, Nicole had her hair loose letting it dry in the wind as she was just staring into the vast desert, while Usopp was telling Chopper a totally made up story.

"Zoro why don't you relax, you're just wasting your energy doing that"Nami said "Who asked you?"Zoro asked "He's just being antsy, don't worry about him"Nicole said "Yeah guys like Zoro they gotta keep moving or they won't stay focused, they have one track minds, especially our own resident muscle freak here now that he's had a taste of the seven warlords"Sanji said.

"Stop whining just say what's on your mind or shut up"Zoro said "You need me to spell it out all this tough guy bluster is to mask your fear that Luffy might loose this one"Sanji said "Who me? You're saying i'm scared huh? Is that what you're saying look at me fancy eyebrows!"Zoro said "That's it! I've had enough of you! You damn moss head!"Sanji said "What you call me?!"Zoro asked and the two butted heads "You wanna go at it?!"they both asked.

"Just shut up!"Nicole said bonking their heads together "I've had enough from both of you! If you're that antsy just twiddle your thumbs or something!"she said before sitting down again and staring at the vast desert putting her hair up again as it was dry by now.

"Calm down all of you, everyone's frightened yes but we mustn't turn on each other, Luffy's counting on us to meet him in Alubarna"Vivi said "Yeah well you seem more on edge then any of us!"Usopp yelled at her, Nami bonked Vivi on the head "Keep your mind on the rebellion and leave the rest to us"Nami said "Sorry about that Vivi"Sanji said getting back up "If we tear each other apart we've already lost"Zoro said.

"Alright that's settled now let's devote our attention to Alubarna full speed Scissors!"Nami yelled giving crab a name, Scissors.

~skip~

"What?! What do you mean we can't cross this river?"Usopp asked Vivi "Think about it moving crabs are creatures of the desert they don't take to the water"Vivi said "Has everyone gone nuts? It's a crab! They can exist on land and water"Usopp said "Guys this is not good, this a serious problem look"he said pulling out a map "If we're just gonna carelessly gonna swim across the river we're not gonna make it on time, see here after the river there's tons of desert to deal with so if this crab can't cross the water are we supposed to run the rest of the way on foot?"he asked.

"We don't have a choice"Nami said "We won't make it in time! It's absolutely impossible!"Usopp yelled "Oh oh, hey i can see it Sandora river straight ahead!"Sanji said pointing to it "Oh great" Usopp said "Help us Scissors, pretty please?"Nami asked "I know Scissors loves dancer girls" Chopper said "Will this do?"Nami asked shedding her cloak revealing the outfit underneath.

Nicole sweatdropped as Sanji, Eyelash the camel and Scissors the crab, after looking over, gained heart eyes "We're moving faster!"Chopper said as the crab began moving faster "Nami~swan!!!"Sanji yelled "Great now we have two animals in heat!"Zoro said "We're moving now!"Chopper said "And what exactly has this solved Chopper? Nothing!"Usopp yelled.

They were getting closer to the river "Go faster!"Chopper yelled and they breached the water, the crab made it only about halfway through the river however "You stupid crab!"Usopp yelled "It's over no use in whining just keep moving"Zoro said walking along the bottom since it was shallow enough for them to walk in, except for Chopper who was taking a ride on Zoro's head.

"Hold on are you sure there aren't any boats around here how long do you think it'll take us to reach the shore?"Usopp asked Vivi "The rest of the night"Vivi said "That's insane!"Usopp yelled 'We might be too late by then' Nicole thought "Thanks for the ride! Bye Scissors!"Chopper yelled waving back to the crab "Oh shut up he's the reason we're in this mess"Usopp said.

Just then something popped out of the river "It's a Sandora catfish, they're rarely seen by humans"Vivi said "Doesn't seem that rare to me!"Usopp said as the catfish went under and started attacking, the group swam away from it as fast as they could but then some Kung-Fu Dugongs beat up the catfish "It's those cutie dugongs!"Nicole squealed a bit.

The group got on the catfish as the dugong dragged them across the river, Nicole was back to cuddling the same dugong she had been before the trip across the desert and the dugong was happy to get cuddled by her again "They say they were just looking out for their fellow pupils" Chopper said translating for the dugongs "Pupils? What they think Luffy is our master? Please" Usopp said "You really wanna argue with them?"Vivi asked.

"I'm just happy to get my cuddle buddy back"Nicole said still cuddling a dugong however as they reached the other shore it was time to say goodbye, Nicole was once again crying waving back to her cuddle buddy as she was dragged away with the others "Now that things are going smoothly will we make it in time?"Zoro asked after the dugong left and Nicole had calmed down.

"I don't know even riding Eyelash i'm not sure when we would get there"Vivi said "Not to be pessimistic by Eyelash can only carry two of us if Baroque Works is gonna attack us its gonna be from here on so we can't split up isn't there anyway for us to stick together?"Usopp asked, no one was coming up with any plans.

"Damn this isn't good"Usopp said a beat of silence passed by them "Look over there!"Nami said spotting something approaching from the distance "What is it now? Is it the enemy? Don't tell me they're here to kill us already?!"Usopp asked freaking out "No wait, that sound"Vivi said as the dust cleared to reveal Karoo and six other ducks like him "Karoo and the super sonic duck squadron"Vivi said as the ducks came to a stop.

"You've come to help us haven't you?"Vivi asked, the ducks saluted "One problem"Nicole said "I count six of them and there are seven of us"she said "You can share a ride with me Nicole dear!"Sanji said with heart eyes Nicole sweatdropped at him "Just come on we don't have time for this"Zoro said getting on a duck, Nicole hopped in front of him leaving Sanji devastated "Don't get any funny ideas, this doesn't mean anything, i just don't want to be near that creep"Nicole told Zoro before the group rode off.

~skip~

The sun was clear in the horizon as a mysterious group wearing cloaks and riding on ducks approached Alubarna, Baroque Works agents seemed to be the only ones to spot them as they were set to eliminate one particular person from this group, princess Vivi but as the group was wearing cloaks the agents couldn't tell which one was their target.

"Dodge it!"Zoro called as an explosive ball was shot at them, the group dodged the explosion though and split up, two of them headed to the south and two more broke off and headed towards the west gate, except in this group there were actually three people, two more headed for the south west gate and the Baroque Works agents also split chasing each pair down.

~skip~

"Now stop"Nami said as the west gate group came to a stop "Wow you guys are very good you know, that's right i'm the real princess Vivi"Nami said, Nicole jabbed Zoro in the gut before he could speak "What are you talking about i am the real princess Vivi"she said.

"Now it's time to take our cloaks off"Nami said and they each took off the cloak "Too bad it looks like your guess was wrong"the strawhats said revealing none of them had been Vivi, Vivi in fact had stayed behind with Karoo to stop the rebel army while the strawhats were to take care of Baroque Works.

"Yeah Zoro, Nicole let them have it!"Nami cheered with the ducks from behind them "Would you keep quiet over there?!"Zoro yelled at her "They fooled us"Mr.1 grumbled "Right of course"miss double finger said "But three against two seems unfair"she added "It's not going to be two on three"a mystery voice said appearing behind Nicole, she was too slow to react as she was sent flying to the right by a punch through a bunch of buildings "Nicole!"Zoro called after her.

"Damn you who are you?!"Zoro growled turning to the mystery person that had already disappeared "Shit"he muttered before focusing on Mr.1 and miss double finger, Nicole could handle whoever that mystery person was, he was sure of it.