One Piece: Dream of Immortality

Chapter 549 - Pluton

Franky sucked in a cold breath, both figuratively and literally. The place was freezing, but what really chilled him to the bone was the sight of the ancient weapon hidden here.

Pluton.

He had seen the schematics. Heck, he even memorized them, just in case. They could not do the real thing justice, could not impress upon him the feeling that crawled beneath his reinforced skin as his eyes first laid on the behemoth of metal.

"A bit spooky in here, isn't it?" Cherry idly commented.

Franky thought she was putting it much too lightly. He wasn't sure if he really believed in ghosts, but if any place or any thing in the world was truly haunted, it was this.

He could almost hear the screams of countless innocents in their final moments, only to be snuffed out an instant later.

"Why is it so cold in here?" Franky asked, desperate to fill the air with anything but the eerie silence that wasn't quite silent.

Cherry shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know exactly, but Pluton is at the center of it. It's even colder than this, and by a lot."

"Hm, so the coolant system is still functional? After nearly a millennium?" Franky wondered aloud, mostly to himself. He remembered that portion of the schematics most vividly since he was particularly interested in refrigeration technology (to keep his soda cool, of course). "I would have thought the coolant would have to be replaced, as well as other repairs done to get it back in working order."

"But instead it looks almost brand new," Cherry said.

Franky nodded.

"Want to look inside?" Cherry asked.

"What about the security system?" Franky asked in turn.

"Pssh," Cherry dismissed his concerns with a wave of her hand. "No way those are active, right? They would expect unauthorized individuals to board it since they preserved it for the future instead of destroying it."

That made a certain amount of sense, but Franky still felt cautious; and rightly so, in his opinion. What if there was a secret password passed down through the generations that they didn't know.

"Relax, you big worry-wort. Where's the Franky who charges headlong into danger, huh?" Cherry lightly punched him on the arm.

"If I die, give me a sea burial," Franky said, earning a laugh from Cherry.

...

This was a cursed vessel.

Many years ago, Franky's mentor and father figure, Tom, was sentenced to death because Franky's experimental battleships were used to sink a government ship. He had even earned a pardon for building the sea train, just for it to go to waste because of Franky's carelessness.

At that time, Tom had insisted that Franky's ships weren't at fault for the matter, that they bore no sins simply for existing. Franky took those words to heart, carved into it with Tom's sacrifice.

Even at that time, when the pain and guilt and grief were fresh, that philosophy had not been tested as it was being tested now.

Pluton shouldn't exist. These words kept rearing their ugly heads in his mind with each passing second he was aboard the ancient weapon. He did his best to push them back down time and again, but it was getting harder to do so.

This was not a ship in any sense beyond the fact that it floats in water.

It was a harbinger of doom, an incarnation of death. It was the grim reaper's favorite scythe, ready and waiting for the next harvest.

Pluton made Buster Calls look like children playing with pool toys.

Could such a thing ever be used for anything but evil? Was such power fated to slaughter the innocent indiscriminately? Franky found it harder and harder to answer those questions optimistically.

And that was just on the technical side of things.

If Franky had the impression that Pluton was haunted from the outside, he was dead certain that it was now that he was on the inside.

He kept catching movement at thecorner of his vision, only to find nothing when he turned to focus on it.

"Here it is; the main cannon," Cherry drew his attention away from the most recent 'ghost'.

Massive doors lay before them, an array of enigmatic warnings were inset into the metal. It was strange that he could tell they were warnings, given he couldn't read the language or have any reference for the symbols used.

"Can you read this crap?" Franky asked.

"I only know the poneglyph language, not any of these ancient dialects. I'd have to ask Robin," Cherry denied. "Want to take a peek anyways?"

Franky did. Even as ominous (and freezing) as this place was, he still wanted to see more. "Yeah..."

Cherry clapped her hands and smiled. Franky wondered if she had heard or seen any of the things he had in here, or if he was just going crazy.

Cherry pushed the massive doors open with only a faint creak. Impressive given how old they were; they must have been perfectly silent back in the day.

The two of them stepped inside and beheld what looked a lot like a laboratory, and an advanced one at that. Franky noted that Vegapunk's old lab paled in comparison, and he didn't understand half the things that were in that place. This was completely beyond him.

"I remember this from the schematics, but I'd be lucky to even build this stuff let alone know what it's for," Franky said.

"Yeah, sciency stuff like this isn't my style. I prefer vague esoteric pseudo-philosophy," Cherry rubbed her chin. "That big containment looking thing should be the power source for the whole vessel."

"Right," Franky agreed. "It wouldn't hold near enough cola, though."

"I don't think anybody has tried to power technology with sugary carbonated drinks before you, Franky," Cherry said.

"It's really efficient, though! Way better than oil, ick!" Franky shuddered from disgust. "Way cleaner, too!"

"I'll take your word for it," Cherry said. "The schematics didn't actually say what exactly it uses. Perhaps that is the purpose of some of this machinery? To synthesize, extract, or collect it?"

"Or it was assumed that if the time came for Pluton to see the light of day again, that the people meant to use it would have it or know how to get it," Franky surmised.

*gacha*

"Did you just take a picture of the island destroying ancient weapon???" Franky asked.

"What? Should I not?" Cherry asked innocently. "If we ever meet Vegapunk one day, I want to ask him about it. Maybe he'll know, huh?"

"Vegapunk is a nutjob and you absolutely should not show him anything relating to ancient weapons," Franky said.

"Huh? I thought you were a fan of the guy?" Cherry looked mildly confused.

"I am. That's how I know what a maniac he is. The man doesn't know where to draw the line," Franky said.

"Hm," Cherry didn't seem pleased with that. "That's a shame. Want to start pushing buttons and pulling levers to see if something happens?"

"Heck yeah, I do!" Franky cheered, seemingly throwing all caution to the wind.

The two of them fiddled with and prodded at just about everything in the room to no avail. They couldn't be too disappointed, though, since at least they didn't accidentally blow up Wano.