Luffy was more than happy to leave those two to their strange grudge match. As soon as Mihawk had declared Buggy 'interesting,' he'd happily booked it past the swordsman and toward the execution platform. "Hope nobody else wants a piece of me today for weird reasons…"
"Tempting fate again? You really are an idiot. But hey!"
CRASH!
Luffy desperately lunged forward, only barely getting out of the way of the pink-boa-clad meteor that smashed into the ice where he'd been standing moments before.
"Who am I to deny your heartfelt request? And don't even try running, Monkey-boy!" Doflamingo cackled eagerly at Luffy's back as he tried to do just that, the air shimmering around him. "I want to break you like I broke Cross's will to live!"
Doflamingo's grin grew all the wider as Luffy abruptly slid to a halt and spun around, fury coursing through his body, the words "Don't leave me hanging" in that smarmy voice echoing in his ears.
"What, too soon?" the Warlord sneered.
Luffy's fists clenched, ready to swing—
—and then he stopped as a much more acute reminder came to his ears. Directly to his ears, judging by the lack of reaction from anyone else, especially Doflamingo. Drowning out the sounds he could hear across the battlefield was the sound of deep breathing. Too deep, and too fast.
Cross, wherever he was, was having a panic attack. Just from being in that monster's vicinity by proxy. He was too out of control to even warn Luffy about how stupid he was being, how stupid he knew he was being.
And Luffy, coming to a decision as someone else drew closer, didn't say a word. He simply reached into his bag, his eyes not leaving the monster's sunglasses, and in one motion, flung an object towards him.
The demon scoffed and raised his hand to catch it.
"You're trying to bribe me with—?"
Catching the bottle, Doflamingo felt putty instead of glass. A glance was all he needed to recognize the substance. He snorted.
"Not a bad trick, Straw Hat, but not—"
Luffy crushed the detonator in his hand before wheeling around and springing off.
The plastique explosion was expected.
The spray of flaming booze and shrapnel was expected.
The burst of lightning in the dead center of the flames, booze, and shrapnel? Not so much.
~o~
The last being to join the crew was the last to step forward, five carefully bundled cloth packages within his wings.
"I've been working on this for the last few weeks, Captain, and this is the best that I can do right now. Each of these contains one of my feathers, supercharged with as much electricity as they can hold. They'll explode as soon as they touch something alive that isn't made of rubber, and anything weaker than a Sea King won't get back up from it. I couldn't make too many of them, but I hope you can use them well."
Luffy was almost grinning as he accepted the bundles, unable to resist peeking at one of the flickering feathers inside.
"I'll make it count, Billy. I promise."
~o~
When the smoke cleared, Doflamingo himself seemed unharmed. But his signature pink jacket was tattered, and a few tongues of flame and lightning still licked across his form. Veins bulged on his forehead, and his smile was extremely tight.
"That. Brat," he bit out, fingers twitching viciously and carrying out nearly a dozen atrocities at a time in a futile effort to relieve his mounting rancour. "Is so damned lucky he's funny!"
Then, the Heavenly Yaksha noticed a tiny crack in the lens of his glasses and felt a very small snap in the back of his skull.
"That being said," Doflamingo chuckled ruthlessly to himself, raising his increasingly twitching fingers in the direction of Luffy's retreating back. "He can still be funny without an ear."
His index finger raised, tensed—! And paused.
"Actually, you know what…"
He spread all five of his fingers wide.
"Let's make it a leg!"
Doflamingo made to snap his fingers shut, to cut into the little brat's potential a bit—!
!
—and then swung his hand and the strings with it up, barely deflecting a cataclysmic impact that would have pasted his skull. As it was, the ice shattered beneath his feet, forcing the pink-clad Warlord to jump back to less perilous footing.
A motion that was mirrored, as Doflamingo's attacker—and wasn't that a novel concept, someone actually having the balls to attack him! What a day!—landed a few meters ahead of him.
Doflamingo took one look at his attacker, and his grin evolved into an out-and-out smile.
Forget the dumbass Monkey running to his death, this promised to be far more FUN.
"Why, Empress. I do believe we're on the same side, aren't we?" he pointed out as Boa Hancock straightened in the crater she'd made so that she and Salome could regard her fellow Warlord, the massive red and white serpent coiling around her being like the living weapon it was. Both of their faces were… impassive. Eerily so.
"Ostensibly, yes," she answered, as expected. What wasn't quite so expected was her flicking her hand out, her siblings flanking her, moving to circle around the two world-class pirates, holding back the nearby combatants so that the two Warlords were unobstructed.
Doflamingo grinned further. "Then why, pray tell, are you attacking me, rather than those who you should be?"
"I was indeed attacking these mongrels when something I saw took precedence."
"Oh? What?"
"Your expression."
Doflamingo's brows shot up in genuine surprise. "Oh?"
"The expression upon your face," Hancock clarified, her own demeanour rapidly and aggressively darkening. "It has offended me. And thus, I must destroy it completely."
"My expression?"
Hancock's eyes flashed as she reared into a combat-ready stance. The ice beneath her shattered and heaved beneath her unstoppable heel, and the world hissed and roared as it was crushed in the coils of an all-engulfing serpent.
"Your face!"
Doflamingo's grin was almost too big for said face as he flung his arms out; his strings sheared through ice and flesh alike, as the worthless puppets continued to put on a show at his behest, dancing and leaping to his every cruel whim.
"INTERESTING!"
As one, the Warlords went at one another.
KA-CRASH!
And vaporized a good chunk of the battlefield's eastern front.
-o-
"…no, thanks, I like living."
Such was Perona's sentiment as she and any nearby Hollows floated a little further away from that clash.
"Then focus on Straw Hat instead."
Sengoku's voice echoed to her from another Hollow, and her main body spun around in the air to see him glaring at her. That or he was glaring at Luffy, who was drawing closer again; it was hard to tell.
"Your loyalties were in question from the beginning. We brought you here for a reason and put no small amount of resources towards that end. Put him down here and now, or risk your own arrest or worse."
Perona huffed in annoyance and, between one breath and the next, had appeared beside the execution stand.
"Let me make this perfectly clear, Fleet Admiral. Two of my predecessors tried their luck against him, one of whom is already here, and both had literally ten times my power and twice my life experience! I'm going to stick to the enemies I am actually managing to handle; you deal with the monkey you decided to poke in the eye!"
Without waiting for a reply, she turned away and raised a hand aimed at Luffy's barely visible form, while using another Hollow to focus her 'sight' on the aquatic BioMEGA that was starting to claw its way up the side of one of the Moby's other escorts.
"But I'll step up my game if this isn't enough for you," she uttered, snapping her fingers three times.
And at once, another group of bestial roars sounded out, this time from within the city itself. Much of the battlefield waited with dreadful anticipation for whatever biomechanical horror was going to enter the field of play this time, so it was a relief when a large, silver, and 100% organic crane soaring up from the rear of the island to circle over the battlefield.
Then, beneath the crane, another pair of beasts appeared on the walls. One was a toad, eating ground with great leaps, its colour scheme bringing to mind a volcano on the verge of eruption… a volcano that just so happened to have the face of an especially pugnacious bulldog.
The other, initially moving too fast to see more than a white blur, came to a halt beneath its mistress, revealing itself to be an oversized porcupine. And judging by the trail of punctures left in its wake, the quills on its back were made of some kind of metal. The crane landed beside the porcupine, and the toad arrived a moment later. All three bowed before the princess.
"Three of the strongest members of my Peerage will now join the fight. Now, remember your training, you three. Do a good job, and you'll get extra Positive Hollows on the way home."
All three nodded eagerly, smiling as widely as their expressions and demeanours allowed.
"Good. Now, Libic? You go after that young man with the blood-red shirt. Calcab, Rubic? Do our home proud…"
She waved her arm at the field.
"And show them Hell."
Letting out war cries, the crane shot into the air while the porcupine leaped into a cartwheeling dash towards Luffy, its limbs and tail striking the ground almost fast enough to shave. The toad, meanwhile, simply turned in place and began breathing in, its skin growing redder and hotter by the moment.
Then it began spitting out fireballs roughly as big as itself, raining down on the battlefield in a way that even Akainu would have had to appreciate… if they were a little more discriminatory in their targets. As it was, Marines and pirates alike had to scramble to avoid the shots.
The crane, meanwhile, had decided on a single large target: the aquatic BioMEGA. It landed atop the ice near the serpentine monstrosity and went to work hammering at it with its beak. The crane's pecks were strong and fast, and while it was a struggle to even dent the metal, the fleshy parts of the serpent were shredding like paper, and the crane's conditioning made it easily agile enough to predict and dodge the claws and mandibles of the monstrosity.
As for the porcupine… well, it was certainly shooting its spines at Monkey D. Luffy, but merely aiming in the right general direction didn't mean they were actually hitting. Or at least, hitting their intended target. The Marines and Devil Dogs that Luffy ran in front of? They learned firsthand how effective javelin-sized metal quills could be when flung at sufficient velocity.
Perona observed all of this impassively. Then, with acute awareness of the seething rage being directed at her being, she turned her impassive stare on her glowering 'superior.'
"Satisfied?"
"They are attacking my men!" Sengoku bit out, just short of a literally incandescent roar.
"Because, like I warned and you asked for, in spite of my explicit warnings, they're my strongest beasts, not my best-trained! In fact, barely any of my Peerage is trained! I told you I needed three months to get situated, you're the one who took that as a suggestion! You're the one who started this war and dragged me and mine into it! You want to complain when things start going wrong? Do it to someone who cares!"
"…one reason I shouldn't just kill you, right now."
"Because if I die, then all of my beasts—both here and back on Merveille—go on an indiscriminate rampage and you get the unenviable accolade of managing to dig through rock bottom and somehow making even this series of ludicrously bad decisions even worse. Now, if you'll excuse me—" Perona raised her fingers with a prim sniff. "—I'm going to get back to fighting your war."
And with a snap, the ghost was back to the frontlines.
A heavy silence fell over the platform. A silence that prompted Sengoku to turn to the others beside him. "Nothing to add?"
"I'm lucky I've gotten away with this much. I'm not pushing my skull's durability any farther," Garp answered.
"I'm just waiting for my cue so I can get this over with," Isuka sighed, cradling her forehead.
"I'm still stuck on 'my dumbass little brother dropped in on a ship from the sky.'" Ace dragged out.
"Seriously? Running on water, one-shotting a giant Vice Admiral, blowing past all five Warlords, and you're still stuck on page one?"
And that drew everyone's attention back down to the battlefield, where Cross rolled his eyes before turning back into battle.
Sengoku frowned even more deeply as he watched him go. Since he'd thrown himself in front of Kuma, Sengoku had felt that there was something off about this whole situation with Cross, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Making jokes at a time like this?" Garp scoffed. "Does he really think he'll make it out of this alive?"
Sengoku's eyes slowly widened as he realized what was bothering him. When it came to mind games, Cross was a credible threat to anyone. But physically, he was among the weakest of the Straw Hats. Yet the pirate on the battlefield leading PX-0 on a merry chase was without his usual reinforcements: no dog-gun, no elephant sword, not even armoured limbs. And then the most blatant fault of all: no other Straw Hat nearby to help him.
Another glance at his captain—who was getting too close to making landfall for comfort—only reinforced the issue. Luffy had eyes only for his brother and was barely sparing a glance back at his crewmate. Any of the Straw Hats on the battlefield should have been a distraction that they could capitalize on, but it was as if he wasn't worried about—
…it couldn't be. Sengoku stepped forward, eyes wide open as he stared down at Cross. The hood was down… no, even with the hood down, the face was unmistakable. It couldn't be an imposter, not unless they could perfectly copy—
"SONNUVA—! THAT'S NOT JEREMIAH CROSS!"
His sudden shout on the PA system drew attention, mostly incredulous, from all sides.
"THE COLORBLIND PIRATE ON THE BATTLEFIELD ISN'T CROSS! THAT'S AN IMPOSTOR USING THE CLONE-CLONE FRUIT!"
"THAT'S THE COLORBLIND IMPOSTOR-PIRATE TO YOU, MISTER GOLDFINGER!" 'Cross' yelled back, Soundbite amplifying his voice so that everyone heard the distinctly flamboyant tone he adopted. "BUT NOW THAT THE CAT'S OUT OF THE BAG, I SUPPOSE I MIGHT AS WELL SLIP INTO SOMETHING MORE COMFORTABLE!"
'Cross's left hand slapped to his own face, which reconfigured to that of Bentham, poised and ready to lay any foes out flat with his martial arts.
"Yes, 'tis I, Bentham, AKA Mr. 2 Bon Clay, master of Oh Come My Way Kenpo! What do you think of that, you oversized tin tyrant!?"
Kuma stared at Bentham blankly for a few seconds before turning to stare at Luffy's back. "Reprioritizing priority target. Priority target acquired."
"…oops."
"BEN-BOY! VHY DIDN'T YOU KEEP UP THE ACT!?" Ivankov screeched, slamming into Kuma's way once more.
Sengoku dropped his hand into his palm.
"I am so conflicted," he grumbled. "Thank goodness he's not actually here, but now we can't kill him."
"…wait a minute," Isuka muttered. "If Cross was never here… then how did Soundbite take down Irian?"
"Pffheheheheheheh…"/"Heeheehee hoohoohoo…"
Mirthless laughter rang out once more. "Took you too long to figure it out. The power of an Awakened Devil Fruit and a Straw Hat scorned. We may not be in a safe place right now, but we're not in Marineford, either."
"OR AT LEAST… not in any capacity that you can STOP."
Then the entire battlefield seemed to quake, and it wasn't Whitebeard doing it. A hammer strike to his inner ear made Sengoku lose his balance for a brief moment. The results on the battlefield varied wildly: cannoneers in the most vital sectors began spiking their cannons or even pushing the weapons over the edge and into the harbour if they thought they didn't have time.
The Angevins, in particular, suffered greatly from the sudden audio assault, as they were the only forces fielded that were actually mounted. This advantage abruptly and violently reversed when their horses started bucking and thrashing wildly. And, once their riders were dismounted, the horses proceeded to sow further chaos, either stampeding through the battlefield or just causing massive amounts of collateral damage
The aerial BioMEGA found its squid spawn suddenly start taking Marine fire, and was itself riddled with bullets. Though judging by how many Marines turned and how quickly, it was hard to say whether it was all due to Cross.
Soldiers in the affected areas shoved earplugs in as fast as they could and strained their eyes to read lips, ostensibly to repulse any attempts to confuse them, but in reality to ensure that actual orders fell on deaf ears where it mattered most.
And of course, scores of soldiers all across the battlefield stumbled and even toppled in response to the Gastro-Phonies popping up all over the place.
~o~
Everyone had given their gifts now. As Robin handed Luffy a list to keep track of them, Soundbite took the chance to speak up.
"I can't be there with you in the flesh… but I can be there in the NOISE."
The snail's expression was resolute, locking eyes with Luffy's.
"I've spent the last YEAR jailbreaking my powers. I CAN CHANNEL THEM ANYWHERE THAT I CAN HEAR… and ONE connection IS ALL I NEED."
His eyestalks swivelled around to take in the entirety of the crew. "THE SBS is our gateway. He was alone in one lifetime. HE WON'T BE THIS TIME. MY POWERS WILL MAKE SURE OF IT."
The rest of the crew nodded, and Luffy put a hand over his eyes, smiling.
"Thank you, Soundbite."
A pair of squinting eyes silently observed the snail as he again defied what was and wasn't possible for them to do, beyond what even Cross knew.
She was the only one who couldn't do anything to help Luffy, who couldn't contribute anything.
'This will be the last time I'm this powerless before them. I don't know what these two years will hold, but I'll find the Children myself. One way or another, I'll get the power I need to stand on my own four paws, or I will die trying.'
~o~
Sengoku briefly closed his eyes in frustration. He had suspected that Soundbite would be able to do this much over a mere snail call. Underestimating an Awakened Devil Fruit was the height of stupidity. But he had no recourse for it. Cutting communications, be it by radio silence or earplugs, was suicide, and using a cipher had to wait until they had tried baiting Whitebeard.
He only had two reliable countermeasures, one of which had failed at the outset. The only option left—
"Puru puru puru puru!"
Sengoku very nearly had another cardiac episode as the baby snail on his person abruptly started ringing. Soundbite's singsong suggestion of "You're gonna want to get that~!" didn't help matters either.
Sengoku sincerely considered ignoring the demonic pest's taunt, but unfortunately, if the past hour had demonstrated anything about the Fleet Admiral, it was that the bastard didn't leave him much in the way of options.
So when he took out the snail and answered it, he wore a furious scowl, a scowl which only deepened when the temperature in his palm suddenly spiked. "Akainu. What news?"
"Fleet Admiral, we have a situation," the blood-soaked hound stated.
~o~
With Squard no longer an option, Akainu had opted to approach the problem from a different angle. Gossip spread like wildfire, and all he needed was a spark from an innocuous place. He began spinning lies among any pirates he came across to turn Whitebeard's forces against him from the bottom of the chain up.
Or that was the plan, anyway.
"So, let me get this straight: Pops is trying to sell all of us out to save his own crew?" asked the first nameless pirate he had targeted and hobbled.
"That's right," Akainu confirmed.
"WOW," he said, letting out a bark of incredulous laughter that didn't faze Akainu one bit. "You really are stupid."
That, however, made him narrow his eyes. "Excuse me?"
The pirate grinned a wide and menacing grin.
"You expect to be able to trick any of us into turning on Pops while Cross is listening? He had your number from the word go, about this and about your walls! YOU NEVER HAD A CHANCE OF WINNING!"
He fell back cackling as though it were some great joke. Akainu, sprouting a fist of magma, didn't faze him, nor did the swing. Even as he perished, his mocking laughter and smile stuck in Akainu's mind, as though that laughter would continue no matter what he tried.
A thought that grew stronger when the Voices of Anarchy decided to stop holding back their power. Scowling at the unfolding chaos, Akainu connected to Sengoku.
~o~
"The Jericho Gambit has been compromised. Jeremiah Cross has informed the Pirates of our plans; we must act now."
For a long second, Sengoku had an urge to let out a stream of invective to make any sailor blush. Damn Jeremiah Cross to the deepest, darkest pits of hell! How could he know that? They hadn't even come up with that plan until months after he'd arrived!
But that second passed, and the Fleet Admiral let go of the urge. It didn't matter how he knew. All that mattered was that he did, and he'd spilled the beans to the Whitebeards. The only option left was to accelerate their plans, which he now had twice as much reason to do. Assuming everything was in place, of course.
Sengoku scanned over the battlefield. On the right, the Marines, despite all the problems, were still pushing the Whitebeard allies back. On the left, the front lines hadn't budged. Irian and the armoured Angevins were doing an excellent job of carving through pirates and deserters alike so that fresh Marine units could relieve them. And in the center… well, the success of the pirates in clearing out the harbour was actually working in their favour now. The only fly in the ointment was that Whitebeard himself hadn't yet committed to battle, and an encirclement would probably be all the motivation he needed to do so.
"So be it. You know what to do," Sengoku said. The connection terminated with a nod.
As he connected to give the next orders, the words caught in his throat. He surveyed the battlefield once more…closed his eyes…and spoke the command.
"Initiate Jericho."
"What are you doing, Fleet Admiral?" Isuka demanded. "Communications need to be cut—"
"It won't do any good," Sengoku dismissed. "If Cross has ever been right about one thing, it's this: let the world watch. One way or another, nobody will deny the truth."
In the long run, and for his conscience and integrity, Sengoku knew that he had made the right choice.
In the immediate future, however? The regret was colossal.
-o-
"Initiate Jericho."
"Right away, Fleet Admiral, sir!" Captain Enji saluted his snail before hanging it up.
He then flipped open the main speaking tube in his cabin and addressed his men, his voice reaching every corner of Marineford's cavernous underbelly.
"ALRIGHT, BOYS, THAT WAS THE CALL WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR. TIME TO GET TO IT AND SHOW THOSE PIRATES THAT THE ENGINEERING CORPS AIN'T JUST FOR SHOW! ALL HANDS, INITIATE JERICHO, AUTHORIZATION CODE: AURUM! I REPEAT, INITIATE JERICHO!"
The Marines' Engineer Corps leapt to work to enact the orders they'd been waiting for from the moment the first shell had been fired. Coal was flung by the bucket and shovelful into the waiting maws of the underbelly's mighty boilers, and they roared to life with a belch of smoke and a shriek of steam.
And then, with a grinding howl, the true work began: A wall of gears, ranging from the size of a man to the size of a giant, slowly spun to life. Teeth ground against teeth, metal strained to push metal, and for the first time in decades, the great walls of Marineford's last line of defense rose for their intended purpose, ready to rebuff the foes at their gates once more.
Enji let out a contemplative huff as he watched the massive sheets of metal start to rise. Truly, it was a melancholic moment: on the one hand, it was always a spectacle to witness the walls rising, even if only for drills and maintenance tests. But on the other, for matters to have proceeded this far, for the enemy to have pushed them to this point of desperation, the mere thought of it all was, was just—!
The creak of a door opening shattered Enji's train of thought, and he whipped around with his hand on his sword, ready to strike—!
"At ease, Captain."
—only to whip it away just as fast as he recognized the newcomer. "Captain T-Bone, sir!" Enji breathed in relief, taking a moment to catch his breath before shooting a glare at his fellow officer. "Warn a guy you're coming, why don't you? Today's not a good day to sneak up on people."
"My apologies, Captain Enji, I will be sure to keep that in mind."
"So, what brings you down here, T-Bone?" Enji continued as he turned back to his instruments. The boilers didn't stop needing to be babied just because an officer was present. "Shouldn't someone like you be on the bleeding edge of the frontlines, leading the charge?"
"My skills were deemed to be of better use at the rear," T-Bone sourly answered. "But as your walls are sure to halt the enemy in their tracks, I thought I might as well see how your part in things is playing out. So… these are the mechanisms that control the walls, then?"
"Yessir, they are!" Enji puffed out his chest with pride for a moment before wincing and deflating as the grinding of gears reasserted the reality of the situation to them. "I, ah, would be more enthusiastic about them, if the present situation wasn't giving me very mixed emotions…"
"It's understandable, soldier," T-Bone said with a rueful smile. "We take precautions for war, but we would rather never use them, no matter how impressive they are."
Enji nodded gratefully, looking back at the grinding gears. T-Bone closed his eyes and let out a soundless sigh, then he spoke again.
"What are your thoughts on this war, Enji?"
"Not a small question… frankly, not a question I have an answer to. I just want to do my job as best I can and take pride in it, you know?"
"Yes, I know. I know all too well… I respect your dedication, Captain, truly I do. You are, without question, a good and honest man." T-Bone nodded his head solemnly. He then kept his head lowered, and lowered both it and his stance even further. "...which makes what I am about to do all the more difficult."
"Eh?" A confused Enji turned around to face his fellow Marine. "The hell are you—?"
SHING!
Enji froze as a faint breeze passed above his head, the fact that T-Bone had just drawn his sword taking a few seconds to register. He whipped back around at the sound of a creaking grind, just in time to see the biggest gear and several others alongside it split neatly in half.
With the central gear gone, the mechanisms that had been moving the walls up lost all motive power. Worse, without that motive power, gravity reasserted itself. With a screeching crash, the walls fell back down on their supports, demolishing them and then the underground machinery as well. Gears shattered under the strain, pistons collapsed in on themselves, and the hiss of steam and screams of agony filled the room.
Faced with the destruction, Enji whirled on T-Bone, his face a sickly shade of purple.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"
"Foiling your plans," T-Bone answered.
"Foiling our plans?!"
"Indeed. And I'm afraid I don't have time for an entire bit at the moment, so please, just take a nap."
Enji paled in realization and barely had the presence of mind to reach down, either for his sword or his snail, before a pommel strike laid him out cold.
T-Bone carefully looked around him and found no other soldiers nearby. Nodding to himself, he withdrew a snail from his jacket and spoke:
"Curtain Call in three, two, one."
-o-
Luffy's breath came out in ragged gasps as he drew closer, at last, to the edge of the harbour. He was already heading straight towards the fallen mega-giant, but as he drew closer, he became aware of the unfortunate fact that he'd lost roughly half of his stamina just getting this far.
"Stupid Warlords, making me waste my energy," he groused. "Every time I fight one, there's something new to worry about! Can't things get a little bit easier for once? Just once?! Come on, that can't be too much to ask for!"
It was at that moment a bone-rattling KA-CLUNK! echoed out from the docks Luffy was charging towards, and sheets of metal started to rise from the stonework. A lot of metal, actually, all around the bay. Why did that sound so familiar to Luffy, oh crap, right?
"EASIER! I SAID EASIER!" Luffy roared at the universe. He accelerated as fast as he could without Gear Second, smashing away Marines left and right. He had to reach the walls before they could go up, before this entire fight would become that much harder—!
KRRRRCHUNK!
The seawalls' rise suddenly ground to a halt, the sound of grinding metal ringing out. For a few seconds, the walls shuddered in place, half-risen out of the ground. And then, with an almighty shriek of tortured metal, the walls collapsed back into their prior housing.
While the Marines gaped at the failure of their ultimate trump card in naked horror, Luffy took a moment to scratch his head in genuine surprise.
"…huh. That works."
-o-
"ARE WE MAKING ANY PROGRESS AGAINST THAT STUPID TANK!?"
"Sir, I believe we've managed to chip its front armour a bit, sir!"
"FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC, JUST THE THING I WANTED TO HEAR!"
"Yes, sir!"
Such was the topic of conversation in one of the large foxholes on the western half of the harbour, where a squad of Marines was huddled for shelter. They periodically took potshots over the top to try to stem the flow of incoming pirates, but the disparity in power was too great to overcome. Only their own artillery had prevented them from being outright overrun.
As such, standing orders were to be ready to retreat at any moment. One tremor in their general direction and they'd be sent to the bottom of the sea or, at best, rolled into another one of those tanks.
And speaking of which, the icy frog-tank that was the original object of conversation seemed to be deliberately aiming at the weak spots in their improvised fort. Somehow.
"ARE WE SURE CROSS ISN'T HERE!? BECAUSE WHOEVER'S RUNNING THAT THING KNOWS TOO MUCH!" the commander bellowed.
"Puru puru puru puru!"
"AND NOW ON TOP OF IT ALL, SOMEBODY'S REMEMBERED THAT WE EXIST! PERFECT!" the commander barked, snapping up a finger at the soldier nearest the ringing snail. "PICK THAT UP AND FIND OUT WHEN SOMEBODY'S COMING TO SAVE OUR HIDES!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" the soldier saluted, unhooking the snail. The gastropod woke up, donned a serious expression…
"Curtain Call. KALICK!"
And then immediately went back to sleep.
The Marines in the foxhole, and several others carved into the ice all around them, all paused in place at the apparent non-sequitur.
"WELL, THAT TOLD US ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" the commander roared, the veins on his temple visibly throbbing. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!?"
"Sir, I believe that was a cue, sir!"
"A CUE FOR WHAT, THOUGH?!"
"This."
CRACK!
And that was the last the commander heard before the subordinate behind him broke the butt of a gun over his head.
Half the Marines in the defensive line reeled in shock, stunned and outraged at the blatant mutiny. The other half of the soldiers made sure they never got past that stage by jumping them and rendering them unconscious just as fast.
For a moment, the remaining Marines stood over their downed once-comrades, panting from exertion and the shock of what they'd just done, until the soldier who'd downed the Commander straightened up and gave his fellow soldiers a nod.
"Alright, boys…"
He withdrew a bandana from his pocket and tied it around the lower half of his face.
"Let's go be big damn traitors."
The rest of the 'Marines' mirrored their new leader, donning their own bandanas and saluting. "Sir, yes, sir!"
Steeling themselves, they emerged from the trenches and moved towards the Whitebeards. And while the pirates reacted with (thankfully not immediately lethal) surprise mixed with bloodlust, the frog-tank abruptly ceased firing.
"Finally! Sorry for jumping the gun, but I was staying out of sight!"
All the 'Marines' and pirates glanced up at the tank to find that the soldier Inazuma had collected earlier was wearing his own bandana and very much not subdued by the other men manning it. On seeing this, the pirates turned back questioningly.
"We're on your side now," the turncoats' leader confirmed. "Follow us, we'll show you how to breach the defences. Just keep bloodshed to a minimum, don't shoot anyone wearing a bandana like us unless we shoot at them first, and let's go and get your man back! Now come on!"
He turned face, and as one, the 'Marines' and pirates both glared bloody murder at the monument to bloody Justice towering before them.
"Let's go make this a mutiny to remember!"
-o-
"…can someone please tell me what I'm looking at?" one gunner requested, his voice as calm as the cannon in front of him.
Another gunner came up beside him and took the telescope he was using, taking in the sight of bandanna-wearing Marines popping up by the dozen all along the front lines. A line that was rapidly being pushed back towards the mainland due to the bandanna'd Marines turning on their shocked compatriots like wolves on wounded moose.
…what? They can't all be about Sea Kings.
"Hm…" the gunner mused, watching as the renegade soldiers overtook a gunner's nest and reversed its armaments' direction. "It looks like there's more than a little bit of mutiny going around at the moment."
BOOM!
The gunners both jumped as the cannon emplacement next to theirs suddenly fired, planting a round far behind the Marines' lines.
"Aaand it looks like a few of the other gun emplacements are turning coat, too. Ooh…" The on-looking gunner winced as a massive detonation blasted out from where they'd hit. "Looks like Wellerman hit a powder stockpile. Bet you he won't stop bragging about that for months."
The first Marine forced the telescope away from his eyes to glare at him, almost nose to nose.
"Hey, you asked," the grunt said.
"Why are you taking this so casually?! We need to figure out what's going on!"
"I do know what's going on, Grunnle. They got the signal."
"'Signal'? What signal…?" Dawning comprehension struck him dumb, just a moment too late.
SLAM!
"The one saying it's time to do that," the grunt said, waving his punching hand as he pulled out his bandanna and put it on. "Always did have a hard head, Grunnle. Just wish I didn't have to prove it with my fist. Eh, he'll get over it."
His new uniform properly secured, the 'Marine' stuck his head out of the gun emplacement and let out a sharp whistle. "HEY! Need a new gunner over here!"
Another bandanna'd 'Marine' ran up to him and saluted readily. "Reporting for duty, sir!"
"Help me tie up my ex-partner and then load us up with some incendiaries. I want to see if we can burn the coat off a Vice Admiral!"
"Yes, sir!"
-o-
One of the many armoured knights who had gotten separated from his lance looked around feverishly as the battlefield began to turn, a massive reversal of fortune for the pirates' side. His eyes fell on a woman nearby, clad in a captain's coat, who was directing her subordinates with an impressive amount of skill and expertise. Which they were in dire need of, given the current situation.
"Captain, ma'am!" he called, cantering up to her. "This is pandemonium! The front lines have collapsed into chaos, and it's working its way back towards us! Marines are turning towards the pirates!"
"Hina knows."
The Angevin processed that, then sagged in relief. "Then—"
"Hina and her allies are the ones who gave the order!"
"Wha—A-Allies?!"
BOOM!
And his attention then snapped to a previously hidden door in the Navy fortifications. Emphasis on previously hidden, as both the door and most of the surrounding wall had just been blown straight to hell.
Out of the smoking hole strode one of the captains, the knight and his fellows had come to recognize personally for his chivalric demeanour: the so-called Ship Cutter and most upright Captain serving, Captain T-Bone. But the knight only just recognized the man, as his helmet now sported a faceplate that covered his skeletal visage.
This did not impede the gaunt captain's intimidating demeanour. If anything, it was enhanced by the narrow, cross-shaped gap in the plate, which afforded the barest glimpse of the Captain's eyes. Eyes that blazed with fury, with determination…
With a fierce promise of swift, brutal Justice.
A promise that was echoed across the full-score of bandana-wearing Marines who were shadowing the menacing captain.
Any further contemplation was denied by a blow striking the knight's head, which immediately robbed him of his sight and painfully pressed the metal against his head. As he made to raise his arms, another blow struck his upper back, and his arms locked to his sides.
Hina looked dispassionately at the knight as he squirmed around blindly. The Divine had spared no expense evaluating these newcomers of Absolute Justice, and it seemed that most of them were amicable, with real reasons to fight for justice and oppose pirates. Had Cross or the Masons reached them first, they might have been allies. But the deciding factor was the 'interviews' that Jango had conducted. For all the variations and reservations among them, one question spoke volumes: every last hypnotized Dog had been asked about Onigumo's actions in Enies Lobby… and in full cognizance of the context on both sides, not one of them saw any issue with it.
These men believed in Justice, let there be no question. It was just that they believed in it in all the wrong ways.
In the end, no matter their good points, the Devil Dogs were fanatics to a man. And so the Masons had decided their course of action: they wouldn't go out of their way to attack them, but if they crossed blades, there was no need to hold back. Unspoken was the fact that it was nearly certain that they would clash.
And so Hina left him there, disoriented but alive and armoured, before turning her attention back to the matter at hand, discarding her coat and bringing a bandanna to her face.
"MARINES OF THE BLACK CAGE SQUADRON!" Hina bellowed, raising her fist high, rallying her soldiers to herself. "Take up your arms... and about-face."
Hina backed up this order by doing just that, turning on her heel and casting a final, scathing glare at Marineford as she cracked her knuckles, layering a healthy coating of Bind-Iron over her fists. "It's about time we put down some dogs."
Hers was not a lone cry, as T-Bone drew his own mighty blade and levelled it at the soldiers that, just a day before, an hour before, he had called comrades. "For honour! For Justice! CHARGE!"
And with that, both rebellious forces let loose their own determined roars as they rushed into battle, striking a blow at the very heart of the Marines' forces.
-o-
Sengoku, Garp, Ace, and Isuka stared in a collective mixture of shock and horror as their depleted ranks began to implode. Hundreds of their loyal soldiers acted in not only premeditated but pre-coordinated actions, transforming the battlefield from two opposing tidal waves to a full-on quagmire.
It took a minute for Sengoku to get his senses about him. And at that time, he turned to glare bloody murder at the impassively observing snail.
"You… You did this," he hissed furiously.
The snail cocked its eyes to the side in a parody of a shrug. "Technically? Correct. Specifically, not really. I can honestly say I'm surprised by this. Certainly not disappointed, but surprised."
Sengoku flashed a furious gold, far past caring about his heart. "Bullshit!"
"Hey, I've been pleading for some show of sanity all throughout this war. Hell, I've been begging on bended knee for over a year now. My guess? You all might have blocked your ears to my words…" The snail's eyes jerked down toward the battlefield. "But they didn't. And now, well… you're paying for it."
It took an effort of will, but Sengoku just managed not to get into an argument with Cross in favour of taking in the tactical situation. It was, in a word, not good. Their lines had imploded and were only being held by the skin of their teeth and the determination of the Suomi; the seawall was out of commission, so a proper encirclement was out of the question, even the Warlords were at one another's throats…
There was no question about it: his entire strategy for this hellhole had effectively imploded, to the point where not even he could predict what would happen next. Which, frankly, was what he should have expected the moment the Straw Hat Pirates got involved in any capacity.
The Fleet Admiral narrowed his eyes as he mulled that thought over. Well, if the Straw Hats could make sticking to one's guns past the point of rationality work for them…
Sengoku brought up his snail again. "Complete the Encirclement Protocols. Flank the Whitebeard Pirates, and drive them into our ranking officers."
"Acknowledged, Fleet Admiral; moving to engage."
As he lowered the snail, suspicion stirred in his mind, and he snapped at the two beside him.
"Empty your pockets, show me that you're not carrying one of those bandannas."
Isuka turned out her coat's pockets before shrugging it off, repeating the same for the clothes beneath. No cloth was out of place.
Garp, however, only gave Sengoku a glare that dared him to repeat his order. After a few moments, they looked away from each other in unison, the one regretting his suspicions and the other regretting, in some measure, not vindicating those suspicions.
-o-
Whitebeard stared up at the execution stand where Sengoku, understandably, was livid. The old man couldn't help the smirk that came to his lips, both at the turn of events and the fact that a single person was responsible for much of it.
The smirk faded, however, as he turned to look behind him. The approaching battleships and the line of Kuma-shaped robots marching onto the ice were a decidedly unwelcome sight.
"They're really breaking out all of their toys, aren't they…"
Then an ominous whistling sound reached his ears, and he turned back towards the front to see a meteor shower surging towards his whales. His frown became a scowl.
"And they're letting their mad dog off of his leash, too. Dumb mutt, don't you dare…" Whitebeard let out a harsh grunt as he swung his naginata through the space in front of him. "Make a mess on my ships!"
A barrage of rippling cracks flew from the edge of his polearm, blasting through the air—
KRAKOOM!
—and prematurely detonating the molten projectiles mid-flight, raining flaming debris across the battlefield, though most of it blasted back at their point of origin.
Whitebeard snorted dismissively as he pounded the butt of his weapon on the deck. "Inconsiderate brats, not even bothering to housebreak their dogs… still…"
Hearts all around the battlefield flew for the throat and plunged for the stomach at the sight of Whitebeard limbering up his shoulders.
"If the Navy is showing off its best, then it's only polite to respond in kind."
And with that, Whitebeard leaped off of the Moby Dick with far more dexterity than someone of his age and size should have possessed. He landed on the ice with a crash and strode forward, slowly but inexorably and became the new center of gravity for the whole battlefield.
And the black-clad nurses looked on with conflicted frowns.
"…did we come this far just to wait on the back lines?" Camellia asked darkly.
"Up close to Pops is too much; we'd only be in his way when he's going all-out," Iris pointed out.
"Guarding the way out and being here to patch up the ones who need it is an important job," Tate mentioned.
SPLOOOOOOOSH!
Their discussion was abruptly halted by the sound of water breaching behind them, and they turned to find… the warships that had flanked them getting treated as chew toys?! By some very familiar hard-shelled Sea Kings, too.
"Wait, weren't those guys supposed to leave after they broke us through the seawall?" Hannah demanded.
"I mean… they are Juveniles," Shion noted, sympathetically wincing in spite of her own opinions on the Marines as one of the Sea Kings started to gnaw on—
CRUNCH!
—correction, as it ripped off the prow of one of the Battleships.
"I'd imagine they're about as impulsive and easy to control as… well, any of us, frankly."
Considering those facts, Tate smirked, an expression that spread to the other six.
"Well, then, there goes our excuse. Shall we, sisters?"
Katana, kanabo, kusarigama, naginata, butterfly swords, sai, and shotguns snapped out as the seven of them charged into the fray.