Towering Memories and Treasured Dreams

Floor 2: Creatures of the Deep

The memory continued to darken around them until everything seemed to fade out and they were left in darkness.

"OW!" Luffy's voice called out with an angry shout through the dark. He had been in the middle of his freefall and had been laughing until he ended up hitting his face flat on the hard floor. "Hey!" he complained loudly as he looked around. "What happened? Where'd everything go?!"

The others were also trying to glance around and get sense of their bearings.

"Where are we?!" Chopper cried out anxiously, wishing for once that he was a raccoon so that he could see in the dark.

"Stay calm," Robin spoke up, also sitting up and having a sneaking suspicion where they were. "Franky? If you would?"

Franky blinked in confusion before he understood and threw open his shirt so that he could shine a light around them. They were exactly where they had left... or maybe they had been here all this time? They were all sitting on the floor of the room in the tower.

"We... we're back?" Usopp gasped, lying against the stone as he sighed in relief... at least until he felt the cold of the floor and sat back up. "Thank goodness!"

"Is everyone alright?" Brook asked the room at large and after hearing everyone's voice also felt relief flood his bones. "That is so good to hear! Hearing you all is like music to my ears! Oh! But I don't have ears anymore... Yohohoho!"

"Ok," Nami said as she pushed herself up and brushed off any dust as she headed toward the door. "I'm just going to make sure that the door remains open in case something like that happens again and we can all just..."

But as soon as she opened the door, she suddenly shrieked and they turned around immediately, thinking that whatever attacked them from before was right there. But instead, they saw Nami slamming the door shut and looking at them with tears in her eyes.

"There's no way back," she whimpered.

"What are you talking about?" Zoro asked as Usopp and Chopper both hugged each other tightly at the terror in her voice.

Sanji strolled over, and after gently pushing Nami to the side in case something happened, he threw the door open and let out a loud curse when he saw what was there... or rather... what wasn't there.

Instead of the stairs that they had used to climb up there was nothing but a solid brick wall.

"What the hell?" he asked, reaching out and feeling the rock beneath his fingertips.

"EHHHH? WHERE'D THE STAIRS GO?!" Chopper screamed out in fright.

"That's stupid! Stairs don't just vanish!" Zoro said, drawing a sword and was getting ready to slash at the wall until Robin held up her hand.

"Wait, Zoro," she said firmly. "I know how you feel. But let's not do anything hasty until we get a better idea of what's going on."

"Oh really?" Zoro asked, his eyebrows raised at her. He had half a mind to simply send a spiraling attack straight upwards and through these floors just so that they have a straight pathway up. "I don't like feeling like we're exactly where someone wants us to be."

"What kind of power is going on here?" Brook wondered out loud. "Nothing about this island is making any sense to me. Nami-san, don't you know anything about it?"

"No," she said regretfully. "I didn't have time to go over the maps on the Sunny. It just said that there were several islands in this direction. I can't remember which island this is on the map. And even if I did, I doubt that there's any warning about how freaky this place is!"