Gritting his teeth, Sentomaru braced himself on the prow of the battleship he was on as it bucked and tried to throw him off. His hand already held his axe and, channelling Armament into it, tried to slam it against the neck of the turtle, trying strenuously to sink the ship he was on. Sadly, he wasn't quite quick enough to outpace the turtle's reflexes. Its head retreated into its shell, which Sentomaru wasn't willing to test his axe against. It was enough, at least, that the turtle abandoned its assault and disappeared into the deep once more.
Warily, Sentomaru turned his eyes to the battlefield he was about to enter. It was, as expected from the SBS broadcast, utter chaos, particularly in the center, where any semblance of set lines had devolved into a general melee. He needed better intel and so picked up his Snail.
"Vice Admiral Jonathan, this is Sentomaru preparing to disembark. Can I get a status report?"
"We're glad to have you," Jonathan responded grimly. "Among our assets, our experimental weapons have accrued some significant dents but are still functional. The Hebrides has inflicted significant damage to Whitebeard's ships despite being under constant assault from the pirates and one of Warlord Perona's wayward pets. Lofoten has sustained mostly cosmetic damage so far, despite attracting a significant portion of the enemy's forces with its acid bombardment protocol, which is working as you reported. The Nassau has taken significant damage, but both it and its drone capabilities are functional and continue to support."
Sentomaru snorted. "Glad to hear that Vegapunk managed to make something worthwhile out of all the headaches those scientists have given us." The sumo-scientist cast his gaze across the rest of the battlefield. "What about the broader tactical picture? It could factor into the data."
"Frankly? Not as good as it could be, but not outright abysmal either. Akainu has entered the fray with all his usual fervour, while Kizaru is still locked in a duel with Marco, Whitebeard's right-hand. Neither of them is holding anything back, and they've left significant collateral damage in their wake. As for Aokiji, his status remains unchanged: a walking hellstorm of ice that Speed Jiru is managing to keep well-distracted and directed. Granted, the amount of ice the Commander has accumulated does indicate progress, but they'll likely still be at it for a while."
"Mm…" Sentomaru hummed thoughtfully, his gaze focusing on the titan-crane that was doing its best to peel its way through the Hebrides-model BioMEGA's carapace. "But it doesn't look like the Warlords are helping much with that deadlock?"
"All rather occupied, at the moment. Roger's clown is throwing sparks with Mihawk, Emporio Ivankov has arrested Kuma's attention, and Hancock and Doflamingo seem to be in some sort of grudge match with each other, which nobody can survive getting close enough to stop. Only Perona is free to do anything to influence the larger battle, but her Hollows aren't stalling the big names for long if they manage to score a hit, and her beasts are, evidently, double-edged swords at best. I should also note that the ex-Warlords Crocodile and Jinbe escaped with Straw Hat and aren't making things any easier.
"More broadly, the situation is rapidly deteriorating in all sectors. Little Oars Jr., while out cold, provided a foothold for the pirates that, with the walls sabotaged and reinforcements unavailable, we've been unable to dislodge. And Straw Hat Luffy appears to have reached him, he'll be climbing up soon… blast, I knew I should have gone cotton-hunting for more string."
Sentomaru blinked in confusion at that non-sequitur. "What was that?"
"My fishing line, don't worry about it. Anyway, we're also dealing with widespread mutiny in the center and left, and the pirates are gaining ground twice as fast. It's madness. The leaders seem to be Captain Hina and Captain T-Bone, though the latter's apprentice and her fire-breathing beetle are trying to—ouch. Never mind, T-Bone just laid them out."
"Really? His own apprentice? Huh," Sentomaru shrugged indifferently. "He must not have trusted her as much as she thought, then. At least we still have a prime specimen of Menagerie on our side."
"Quite. Whitebeard himself has just entered the fray, though as of yet, nobody has engaged him. And last… well, while we've just learned that the Voices of Anarchy aren't physically present, the connection over the SBS is enough for Soundbite to channel his powers through other snails. So take any orders you hear with a grain of salt. The turncoats have likely even leaked our cipher to them by now."
"We'll leave it there, then. I'm disembarking now," Sentomaru said, walking past the ruined bow.
"Best of luck, Officer. KA-LICK!"
As Sentomaru led what was supposed to be their trump cards into the fray, his eyes scanned across the battlefield in silent scrutiny. The Hebrides' heart was underwater for better defence, but there were two powerful fishmen to worry about who could get to it: Namur of the Whitebeards… who seemed to be one of the two occupying the Lofoten, good. And Jinbe, who… was…wait, where was the renegade Warlord?
A sudden geyser near the van of the battle answered that question, and its terminus made him frown even more deeply than usual.
"Well, this could be a problem," he muttered.
-o-
Jinbe shook off the last remnants of his Spear Wave, took a split-second to analyze the situation he'd launched himself in, and moved so he was back-to-back with the craziest rookie on the sea.
"Well, this is yet another fine mess you've gotten us into!" he declared.
"Eh?" Luffy twisted his head to stare up and over his own shoulder in disbelief. "'Another'? We've only known each other a day or two!"
"And in that time, you've led me through an escape from Impel Down, facing down Warden Magellan in a fight to the death, and not an hour ago, you were almost directly responsible for me falling from the sky! And then this situation!"
Jinbe slowly swept his head across the crowd that had surrounded Luffy and thus himself on exit from the water. A crowd of what appeared to be every Vice Admiral left standing save only for Garp.
Yamakaji, Doberman, Stainless, Cancer, Onigumo, to name but a few out of the two dozen world-class combatants that had them both cornered, ready to attack at any time. Against two lone pirates.
Hell, it was an open question why they hadn't attacked yet. Luffy seemed to have locked eyes with Vice-Admiral Tsuru, though what significance that had escaped the fishman at the moment.
"Four times, in less than twenty-four hours!" Jinbe shook his head in mock-despair as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation. "Honestly… At least Big Bro Ti only got us into peril once a day!"
"Perhaps you chose the wrong ally, then," said the encirclement's leader, the severe-looking Vice Admiral Tsuru. "You're both a hundred years too young to stand against us." She slowly flexed her fingers, her joints popping audibly. "Do an old woman a favour and surrender peacefully, would you now? You'll both still be executed, obviously, but at least this way it can be painless."
"Tell that to Cross, he'll care as much as I do," Luffy answered, steam rising from his skin. "Right now, all I care about is saving my brother."
Tsuru exhaled and raised her hand, preparing to give the signal to attack. Or rather, giving a signal, and not the one the gathered Vice Admirals were expecting. The hand remained raised, rather than chopping down, and they all stiffened at the sound of a door creaking open.
"Time to die."
A salvo of razor winds exploded through the ranks of Vice Admirals, observation Haki alerting them to the threat and prompting them to scatter out of the way. In completely different directions, mind, scattering their formation all over the place.
All attention turned to the newcomers, Luffy and Jinbe, out of surprise, and everyone else, in hostility, morphed to shock once they saw who and what had just intervened.
There weren't many of them, just four in all. Four individuals clad in gray suits.
Three men… and one pigeon.
"So we meet again, Monkey D. Luffy."
One of the men took a step forward, his top hat tilted down and shadowing his face, until he tipped it up just so, regarding the only man there he respected with a cold, cold stare.
"And to think, it would be under circumstances like these," Rob Lucci stated as he strode—prowled, really—forward. "If this is what life holds for me now… I suppose I made the right choice after all."
For a moment, incredulous silence reigned. It was Luffy who was the first to regain his wits, and his reaction was a good deal less sanguine than his old rival's.
"What the hell are you three doing here?" Luffy snarled, fingers tensed on his pipe and ready to swing.
The second member of the trio flinched and slapped a hand over his muzzle in pained memory. It did not stop Jabra from shouting, "We're here to walk orphans to school and pick blueberries for peace, what does it look like we're doing here, nitwit?! We're saving your dumb ass!"
The third man groaned and pinched the bridge of his own substantially elongated nose. "While Jabra is undoubtedly an idiot," Kaku declared, pointedly ignoring the wolf-man snapping his teeth at him. "He's also not wrong. Rest assured, Straw Hat, we're on your side, not theirs. We've all come to help."
That comment, already tense enough, caused Tsuru to freeze up. "Did you just say 'all'?"
The grins that drew from the trio—even Lucci, especially Lucci—would've sent many lesser men fleeing for the hills. Even the Vice Admirals felt a twinge of fear, a twinge that stayed their hands just a few seconds longer.
"Rest assured, Vice Admiral," the fallen Soldier of Justice declared. "You aren't losing your hearing just yet. When we say all…"
BOOM!
Everyone's eyes snapped to the seaward horizon, where a plume of fiery smoke was rising over the rear of the battle.
"We mean all."
-o-
Sentomaru's face was rapidly reddening. The unexpected and very unwelcome arrival of CP9 was one thing. The fact that the mob of ridiculously overpowered suit-wearers who were attacking the rearlines of the war indicated that the rogue agents had subverted and integrated the rest of the Cipher Pols into their own ranks was another. The issue from all of them standing in their way at that moment was infuriating as well.
But the biggest thing bothering him was that their Pacifistas, their marvels of engineering, killing machines meant to subdue the world, were being held at bay by glorified SOAP BUBBLES.
"Bubble Marsh," Kalifa remarked, smiling coyly. "It doesn't matter how powerful your toys are if they can't even step forward."
"Honestly, it's pretty dangerous settin' up walkin', thinkin' weapons," a South Blue-accented man in a hard hat drawled, tearing at some of the fallen and sunken bots with an oversized wrench. "Sometimes, you just need a little less gun."
"You're strong. We're stronger, SO WE WIN, TOYMAKER!" a dark-skinned Scottish man with an eyepatch cackled, tearing at the fallen androids in the other direction by shoving explosives in their jaws.
"All units," Sentomaru spat. "Stand your ground and fire at the obstacles."
"Now, why didn't we think of that? Oh, wait, we did," a Bronx-sounding punk (as Soundbite would later deem him) called from behind him.
"JERRY AURORA FLICKER JAB!"
Sentomaru mentally cursed as a section of ice beneath the Pacifistas gave way, dumping several into the drink. They were waterproof—they'd be pretty poor anti-pirate weapons if they weren't—but the harbour, being deep enough to dock fully-loaded battleships, was deep enough to submerge them entirely. They were programmed to find their way back to the surface, but that would take precious time.
The remainder, and unfortunately the ones that had all taken superficial skin damage, had come under the strangest fire Sentomaru had ever seen. That glorified ramen chef Wanze was shooting wet noodles at them, and unfortunately, they were doing a damn good job of clogging up their joint servos. Kumadori's hair was the same. It still didn't stop the machines, as Vegapunk had built the joints strong enough to snap a steel cable. But once again, that took time, a problem only magnified by the soap that continued to hinder them, and the Pacifistas' opponents were taking full advantage.
Specifically, someone in a full-cover fire suit had circled around them and doused them with fire. Not something that would stop the machines, but burning off their clothing and synthetic skin exposed more vulnerable mechanisms. That let the entire rest of the force go after those weak spots—and how they knew those weak points with such precision was going to lead to some very pointed questions after this battle, if he had his way—with a combination of firearms, explosives, and some very large hammers.
"Chapapapa!"
Or in Fukuro's case, just throwing his own Iron Body at them like a bowling ball.
And through it all, Sentomaru could only watch helplessly. Not just because of those damnable turrets the man in the hard hat had set up on arrival, but because of—
"Please don't move," drawled a French voice. "If you move, I will stab, and I think that would be inconvenient, yes?"
Yeah, that. Sentomaru somehow managed to grimace even harder at the knife that had appeared at his throat. Despite his proficiency in Armament Haki, he could sense this man was damn good at the technique himself. How they stacked up was not something he wanted to learn the hard way. Not after he'd been snuck up on this easily.
So he could only watch, fists clenched around his axe, as the Marines' secret weapons were steadily dismantled piece by piece.
-o-
Atmos and Namur had spared enough attention away from the BioMEGA they were fighting to take in this newest development. Unlike everyone else, their expressions were flat, unshocked. Almost as if they had anticipated this...
"He subverted the Cipher Pols."
"Of course he did."
"All nine of them."
"Yep."
"Why are we still surprised?"
"I have no clue; he already recruited us."
The Lofoten was now without a head as well as one of its arms and acid cannons, but was no closer to being felled than it had been at the start. They had had to aim for its weapons when they aimed for its center mass, and it suddenly redoubled its efforts against them. Now, they just needed—
"Desert Encierro."
The beast abruptly began writhing in agony, and they could feel it growing weaker beneath them. The source was plain to see: Crocodile had his hand upon one piece of exposed flesh, and was siphoning every bit of moisture from it.
The fact that his right hand, Daz, was carving at one of its legs probably didn't hurt, either. But for all that, the help was welcome; neither pirate took it at face value.
And Crocodile, of course, noticed.
"If the Government is going to be mass-producing these things, then I want to know how to kill them. If you want to help Straw Hat save Fire Fist, get going."
Neither was pleased. But between Crocodile making far faster progress than they were, the fact that he was nowhere near Pops, and the fact that the rest of their brothers appeared to be converging, they left him to his carnage and ran for the plaza.
Crocodile smirked as he turned his full attention to the abomination kneeling before him. "Now, then… the heart should be around here, right?" he remarked, swinging his hook hard at the shrivelling torso.
-o-
"Our colleagues are dealing with the Navy's reinforcements, while we'll be helping you on the front lines. Working to save a life is a new mission for all of us…" Lucci's grin became noticeably sharper as he abruptly packed on nearly fifty pounds of pure feline muscle. "I think it'll be a fun learning experience."
"And after what you did, after all you've done, to us and so many others, you expect us to trust you?" Cross's hiss wove around them, prompting scoffs.
"Of course not. We expect you to recognize that you need our help and save the antagonizing for later," Hattori answered, shooting a pointed look at the fight they had just left, where Kaku was spinning on one hoof to prepare an attack and Jabra was drawing as much aggro as his Iron Body Kenpo could net him. "I would be remiss if I didn't remind you that against that many Vice Admirals, all we can do is buy time."
Luffy grimaced and let out a frustrated sigh, but his answer was to shove a bottle into Lucci's hands and start charging forward again, Jinbe beside him. Lucci eyed the bottle in brief confusion, then smirked.
"Hattori, drop it on them," he said, tossing it into the air. The pigeon caught the bottle's neck in his talons as his master Shaved after Luffy. He soared over to where Jabra was just about to be overwhelmed, flinging the bottle onto the ground, still soaked from Jinbe's arrival. As were several of the Vice Admirals.
KZRRRT!
The bottle broke, unleashing a Haki-circumventing explosion of electricity that surged through the elite Marines. Nowhere near enough to take them down, but the shock (by both definitions) still paralyzed them for a few precious seconds. The seconds that Kaku and Jabra used to attack.
"TEN FINGER PISTOL!"
"SKY SLICER!"
Five Vice Admirals staggered, four clutching bleeding chest wounds and Jabra's fingers buried in Comil's torso. That was all they accomplished; Jabra yelped mid-Shave when Vice Admiral Doberman grabbed his tail and yanked him in close, while Kaku was immediately run down by Yamakaji and had his face shoved into the stone.
"And what," growled Doberman, the remaining Vice Admirals still shaking off the effects of the shock. "Was that supposed to accomplish?"
"Distract you," Jabra replied, grinning. "That sure is working well, isn't it?"
Dragging in the agent close, Doberman growled, "And now you'll die for i—"
The Vice Admiral's last sentence was cut off by a diamond fist hitting him square on the temple, Jabra slipping out of numb fingers as he went tumbling across the landscape. The wolf-man landed on his rear, watching as the Whitebeard commanders went at it hammer and tongs with the Vice Admirals. There, Vista duelling Stainless and Mozambique simultaneously. There, Izo is trying to get a bead on Dalmatian. And a good dozen other fights way, way out of his league.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Jabra sprinted the other direction, scooping up an insensate Kaku as he went.
"C'mon, idiot, don't pass out on me now…"
-o-
"What. Was that?"
Luffy couldn't help a smirk at Lucci's flat gaze, his eyes twitching in well-justified irritation and just a hint of jealousy.
The reason for this was that Luffy had just laid out a Jotun that had crossed their path with what Lucci could have sworn was a Six King Gun. But he had done it with a one-handed palm strike, and without the proper stance or aftershock.
"I'll tell you later," he said, waving his arm out to shake off the pain from the Dial—
BOOM! "Whoa!"
—and then whipping the same arm back out, flinging his hand in the path of the cannonball that had almost managed to brain Lucci. The projectile froze the moment that it met Luffy's palm, and he grinned madly.
"I always wanted to do this… METEOR FIST!" he yelled, rearing back his hand and sending the cannonball flying back to where it came from with all the destructive interest he could manage.
And while the throw wasn't up to his grandfather's standards, Luffy allowed himself a satisfied grin at the direct hit on the gun emplacement.
"It's just one more thing I love about being made of rubber!"
Lucci's brows furrowed further as they kept on. For all that he was a worthy rival, Straw Hat Luffy was still a pain in the—
"AGH!"
Blood. He smelled it before he saw it, along with the scent of gunpowder and a hint of seawater.
Lucci's leopard nose processed all of this before his eyes processed the sight of a bullet wound. One made by a sea prism stone bullet, considering who it had hurt. He snarled in the sniper's general direction and fired off a few Flying Finger Pistols.
Behind him, Luffy fell to the ground. The bullet had torn through his right calf, and while it had exited his body, his leg was refusing to respond to his orders.
"Not now, not now, not now!" Luffy raged, pounding a fist against the limb to try to force it to move again.
"Soundbite," Cross whispered harshly. "Get in contact with the rebels, tell them to call their Medic over here—"
"DON'T…BOTHER…"
"Soundbite!?" Cross hissed.
"CAN'T HOLD IT BACK… Captain. You've got a call… from the other side."
Then, static blasted from every snail in the vicinity, a loud and very annoying noise. Jinbe, as the sane man, was already digging through Luffy's bag for the first aid kit and assumed that that was why Soundbite spoke up.
"Hey, kid, listen."
Three-quarters of the battlefield abruptly fell still and silent. They knew this voice. Few had ever actually heard it, but somehow in their hearts, they knew who was speaking.
"I've been watching you for a while now, and I gotta say, I'm really proud. You've come so far, you've done so much. Look, what I'm trying to say is that you've done good by me."
Veterans felt their hearts pound at the memories of the storms that had swept the world twenty years prior. Younger pirates and Marines paled, the blood evacuating their faces at the realization that he was back.
"And…" The voice, that voice, his voice, trailed off, followed by a heavy, tired sigh that carried far more regret now than he ever had in life. "Look, I have a favour to ask of you, alright? Now, I won't lie to you, it's a damn big one and one that, honestly, I have no right asking of you."
Edward Newgate, paused in his advance by the throes of nostalgia, brought a hand to his head with a weary sigh of his own. "Ah, you damn golden bastard… Now you choose to remember that your actions have consequences? Tch…"
He then allowed a slight grin to slip out from under his palm.
"Better now than never. Getting to hear Roger regret something… those brats really are miracle workers."
"Plus, it's something you're already doing, but… well… I have to ask. Monkey D. Luffy..."
And at the peak of this madness, overlooking it all, Ace's mind came to a screeching halt. Outrage, the same anger he had carried all his life at the truth that he knew, he knew that man was about to say, clashed with a heady sense of euphoria at the thought of hearing those same words, words that showed that on some level, the man actually cared.
"Please save my son."
-o-
And that was the final straw. The bridge too far. The Godzilla Threshold crossed. Whatever your metaphor, the important part was that now, after the obvious prewarning the Whitebeards had received, the sudden arrival of Straw Hat and the even more sudden arrival of the Voices of Anarchy, and above all, the completely unexpected mutiny and the resulting collapse of his battle plan, and now this?
It was all too much. Something in Sengoku's mind snapped.
"Commodore Isuka. Execute him, now," Sengoku stated, deathly calm to the point he circled right back around to mind-numbingly furious.
The quiet command sent ripples through a battlefield still recovering from Roger himself, damn him and the Voices of Anarchy, begging Straw Hat Luffy to save his son. And as Isuka drew her sword, they were nowhere larger and more important than the nearest threat.
"DON'T! YOU! DARE!"
A wave of presence exploded from Luffy, the image of a colossal beast crushing itself into the mind's eye of everyone nearby. Even most of the Vice Admirals were unbalanced for a crucial second.
But Isuka took it the hardest, the tip of the blade plunging through the execution stand in an attempt to avoid falling to her knees. And while her teeth were clenched and her brow was drenched and her knees wobbled dangerously, her grip on sword and consciousness was iron.
"Apologies… Fleet Admiral. Just… give me a moment…" she hissed, tearing a gash in the stand as she used her sword to lever herself back to her feet.
"Your will is impressive," Sengoku said, eyeing her with respect.
"Has to be for this…now, let's start Plan B."
Sengoku nodded, eyeing her as she stabilized her stance. Still wary of the possibility of turncoats, he watched as she stood and reared back her sword to behead Ace, heedless of the screams or projectiles flying towards her.
Then her thumb moved beneath her glove.
BOOOOM!
It took Sengoku two seconds to piece together what he had seen: a small bulge in her glove that her stance had hidden all of this time. The movement of her thumb had been pressing a button, which gave away that the hidden object was a detonator.
Unfortunately for the soon-to-be-ex-Fleet Admiral, it didn't take even one second for the bombs that had somehow been planted in every shadowed nook and cranny of the execution platform to explode, throwing him and Garp off balance long enough for Isuka to complete her swing and sever part of the platform.
The part where Ace was chained down.
"Just for the record!" she shouted as the platform plummeted into the scrum of battle. "I meant my Plan B!"
Sengoku could feel the steam rising from his face as he shifted into his Buddha form, gathered energy into his palm, and slammed out a shockwave. Isuka snapped her blade up between them and the assault, pumping as much Armament into the weapon as she could manage. It was enough that, when it hit, she grunted in pain and rode out the shockwave until she slammed feet-first into the ground rather than be turned into a spray of blood and meat on the spot.
"Arrrrrgh, my knees…" she groaned, before descending into a hacking cough that splattered blood on the ground. "My insides…"
"My everything…" was Ace's very helpful contribution.
Rolling her eyes, Isuka grabbed him by the cuffs and dashed for the line of Marines, people who ten seconds ago had once been her comrades and now stood between her and freedom. Her sword, held in her other hand, flashed out, cutting down soldiers. She only made it a few steps before the shock passed from the soldiers, and they met her steel with their own, but Isuka was unfazed in slicing and stabbing her way through them. Yet despite her determination, each slash drew a wince from her.
"Come on, you myopic jackboots! Shove the hell off!" the decidedly ex-Marine snarled, lashing her boot out and kicking a soldier away. "We've got places to be, and sticking around here isn't one of them!"
She'd made it another ten feet through the Marine line when it occurred to her that this was all entirely too easy. She'd left two utter monsters at her back. Frankly, Isuka was surprised she was still alive. Parrying a naginata, she chanced a look behind her.
Judging from the way he was clutching his chest and surrounded by a swarm of medics, Sengoku had just suffered another cardiac episode. And Garp just looked like someone had buried a poleaxe in his back, staring into the aether in a daze as his wizened mind tried to connect the series of events that had just blindsided him.
Satisfied, Isuka turned around and went back to carving her path. Sadly, resistance was stiffening. Occupied as she was by multiple melee opponents, she didn't notice a Marine draw a bead on her until the bullet scored a gash in her hip.
"Augh!" she shouted, stumbling for a moment before getting enough strength in her legs to pay the sharpshooter back with a flying thrust. "Sonnuva—Ace, now would be a really good time to start contributing here!"
That demand managed to get Ace's head back in the game again, but his focus latched onto a different problem than what his would-be rescuer was hoping for. "Isuka, what are you doing?!"
"What does it look like, I'm trying to—! Wait a minute…" Fire blazed in her eyes, realization hitting like the proverbial smack upside the head. "OH, YOU BASTARD!"
"Shit!" Ace cursed, very narrowly catching the point of her blade in the chain of his cuffs, holding its quivering tip mere inches from his neck. Not an easy task considering that his hands were still cuffed behind him.
"YOU ACTUALLY THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO KILL YOU?!" Isuka spat, smouldering with outrage. "YOU JACKASS, AFTER I WENT TO THE TROUBLE OF SAVING YOUR UNGRATEFUL LIFE!? I REALLY SHOULD, THAT'LL SHOW YOU!"
"Wha—YOU HAD A SWORD TO MY NECK!" Ace barked back, veins popping on his brow. "AND YOU STILL DO!"
"OH, PLEASE!"
"Um, if we're not interrupting—"
"You are!" Isuka snapped, ripping her blade out of the lock and sweeping around into a massive slash, throwing back the Marines that had been attempting to surround them before grabbing at Ace's chains again— "WHOA!" —and dragging him back into the fray. "Honestly, of all the ungrateful, unbelievable, selfish—and to think I begged to be a part of this shitshow! For your sake! Shows what I know, should have just left you to hang, would've made my life a whole lot easier!"
"You had a sword to my neck!" Ace snapped back, finally on familiar enough ground to actually contribute to his own escape. As much as he could while he was still down, his arms, powers, and a lot of his strength, but even weakened, someone with his skill and power could still dish out some hurt. Something he proved by Sparta-kicking a Marine noncom hard enough to bowl over his entire squad on the way. "And you said you wanted to kill me, to my face! What was I supposed to think?!"
"You—ugh, one second." Isuka vaulted over a riot shield and smacked the flat of her sword into the owner's face in a spray of blood. "There we go, and to answer you, you were supposed to remember that you asked me to join your crew!"
Isuka's answer was blunt and harsh, as if that statement said it all. And from Ace's full-body flinch, which did not stop him from successfully shoulder-checking a soldier who tried to grab him from behind, it really did.
"Yeah, well, you could have picked a better time or given me some slack!" Ace fired back just as harshly. "Impel Down isn't the best of places to try and play on someone's faith in the goodwill of mankind!"
"Well, I'm sorry, but in case it slipped your mind, I've been kind of busy working deep cover for the past five months—FIVE! MONTHS!—that I just blew clear to hell for the sake of saving your sorry hide!" The slash that cut down the next Marine in their path was perhaps a little more savage than necessary. "Kept my head down, toed the line, was the perfect little Marine! And then you go and get your dumbass caught, and of course, I need to stick my neck out for you, because what else am I going to do but blow my career for your sake?! SPEAKING OF WHICH!"
Isuka abruptly brought them to a halt when she spun around and stuck her blade in Ace's face again.
"When we get out of here, I want first mate, and nothing less!"
Ace ignored the blatant threat to his life (or at least his nose) in favor of glaring at her incredulously. "Okay, first, I don't have a first mate anymore because I don't have a crew anymore!"
Isuka's decidedly unimpressed stare, even as she swept her arm back to slice the Marine trying to flank her, told him how much she bought that.
Ace grimaced and shrugged in acknowledgment. "Right, fair. But that still leaves second, you can't be first mate because I already have a first mate, Deuce!"
"Pft, who, that toothpick?" Isuka scoffed, swinging back around and redoubling her hacking and slashing. "I'll break him over my knee in ten seconds. If you want to bullshit me, at least make it believable!"
"That is not how we do things!" The Whitebeard snapped as he managed to shove his way ahead so that they were both forging on shoulder-to-shoulder.
"I just saved your hide and you—well, 'we' now, I guess—are pirates, the hell it ain't!"
"She has a point, you know." A snide voice opined from above.
"You're not helping, Cross!"
"Did you honestly expect him to?" Isuka smirked aside at him.
"Hey, look at that, she really does listen to me." The Voice of Anarchy's voice abruptly tightened. "Now, if you're done, pick up the pace before things get harder."
"Harder HOW?" Ace demanded, straining his chains as he tried to move his arms over his head.
"RAAAAAAAGH!"
A blastwave of sheer rage and power washed over the sector, leaving a thousand men quivering and wondering what the hell just hit them.
Only one person actually managed to react to the blast, and then only because he'd experienced a watered-down version of that rage before.
"Shit," Ace cursed weakly, his omnipresent cold sweat running even colder now. A shadow loomed over him, and very slowly he turned his head around to find-
Rage. Nothing but pure, blinding rage in the eyes of Vice Admiral Garp. Rage as he loomed over him, leaped at him and Isuka, FIST drawn back in preparation to obliterate, to devastate, to enact nothing short of pure JUSTICE—!
"METEOR FIST!" CLANG!
A thrown cannonball smacked into Garp's forehead, shattering on the spot. And despite the situation, it took all of Ace and Isuka's willpower not to break up laughing at the bewildered expression on the Vice Admiral's face.
"Huh?" the Hero slurred, blinking owlishly. "What was I—?"
His eyes shot up, Ace and Isuka following. There, at the apex of his jump, was Luffy, arm reared back and determination blazing in his eyes.
Because this… this was it. This was it. Ace was off the platform. Lucci had given him the key. They were so close, he was right there.
And with Ace right there, so close, the very last person that Luffy was going to let screw this up after coming this far was his grandfather.
"GUUUUM-GUUUUM—" Luffy shouted, channelling every ounce of force he had left in his body into his right arm, the one that lacked the Reject Dial on the end of it.
And then several things happened at once, leaving Sengoku, Whitebeard, and even Ace himself forgetting his current situation.
As Luffy swung his arm forward, what they had thought was a mirage from the steam instead revealed itself as a familiar, hardened black. And the next moment, the steam around the arm ignited.
"—RED HAWK!"
Luffy's will-fueled fist slammed into Garp's skull with a resounding blast, and before the eyes and ears of the world, the Hero of the Marines was sent tumbling through the air back to what was left of the execution stand's base. His body cracked the ground as he landed, and practically the entire battlefield stared in shock.
As Luffy's arm extinguished, leaving him standing before his brother and panting from exertion, Garp dizzily managed to push himself up into a sitting position, one hand coming to his cheek where the blow had landed.
"…That's gonna scar," he mumbled, blearily taking in the sight of his grandsons standing there.
To his grandson, standing in front of his brother… protecting him.
Protecting him from… from Garp.
Garp's eyes ventured past them, to the countless pirates standing ready to defend Ace and the hundreds of mutineers who had allied with them. He took this in through all the clarity he could manage while nursing a concussion… and sighed as he fell back to the ground, his skull cracking the pavement beneath his head.
"Hey, Sengoku?"
The Fleet Admiral looked down at him with a mix of concern and simmering anger.
Garp stared up at the sky, blinking slowly.
"…I quit," he said.
And when Sengoku snapped into his Buddha form from sheer outrage a moment later, even that was now glowing red instead of gold.
"This is not good," one of the foot soldiers near the front lines muttered, tugging out the collar of his shirt.
"Oh, I don't know."
The sweat intensified for reasons besides as he slowly turned to regard Fire-Fist Ace, whose sea prism stone handcuffs, key and all, were disappearing into Straw Hat's duffel bag. The newly freed pirate flexed his hands experimentally as the temperature around them continued to climb, the two brothers wearing matching malicious grins.
"Personally," the Flame-Man declared, his blaze roaring higher and hotter with every passing second. "I think my day's just gotten a whole lot better."
-o-
Rather, unfortunately for the world, it was not only Ace's fortune that was rapidly improving.
"Kehihihihi! Here we are, sweet escape! All aboard!"
"Zehahahaha… well done, rookie."
Those voices of pure evil echoed through the passageways toward the bulkhead where the World Pirates' submarine waited, all that stood between half the prison and being flooded. The fact that the Worlds had sabotaged the emergency backup system as soon as they arrived was the only reason that the staff of Impel Down hadn't destroyed the vessel yet.
And with the entire thing armed or armoured, getting close enough to try anyway was a risk they had decided to postpone until the World Pirates were dealt with. Well, now they had been dealt with, and the person who dealt with them had done what they came to do—break a mess of dangerous people out of Level 6—and was now heading for their reserved exit.
Something that Hannyabal, Saldeath, and Mistress Sadi were racing to stop. They didn't let the many, many fallen guards, beasts, and Blugori in their way slow them, nor the prisoners that had gotten out of their cages (beyond an offhand strike here and there), nor even what they were realizing was a deliberate trail of blood.
And they skidded into the airlock just in time to see roughly a dozen dangerous pirates pile into the submarine, with a bulky wrestler the last one to board and the black-haired Warlord leading them all right behind him.
"ZEHAHAHAHA! Too late, jailers!" Marshall D. 'Blackbeard' Teach gloated. "I've got an era to claim, and none of you are worth my time! Get lost!"
"You've gone far past acceptable behaviour for a Warlord, causing this much damage in—AGH!"
The sniper behind Blackbeard hummed dispassionately as he shot Hannyabal in the hand. The Warden's weapon fell from his grip, and he wound up tripping over it and falling flat on his face. As Sniper and Warlord both disappeared into the ship, Hannyabal forced himself to his knees, and in utter desperation, seeing they were about to get away… did the last thing any of Impel Down's staff would ever dare to conceive of doing.
"Please, you can't do this!" he begged, hand outstretched in desperation. Begging for his life, for the lives of everyone in the prison… for a trace of mercy. "Stop!"
"WIIHAHAHAHA!" Jesus Burgess heard every one of these pleas… and merely cackled in response, rearing back his arm and lashing it out so that the resultant airwave slammed back the other two Wardens before they could take a step.
The shockwave sent them flying back beside the Vice Warden. Impel Down's best fighters, next to Magellan, were powerless to stop the infiltrators from boarding the submarine and tearing back out of the Blugoris' gate.
Only the trail of blood remained behind, and now, as they saw motion from outside amidst the water rushing in, they understood why.
"The emergency bulkheads are still broken…"
With grim resignation, Hannyabal raised his halberd, Sadi her whip, and Saldeath his trident. All were bloodied, still dealing with injuries from the Straw Hats' breakout mere hours before. None were bowed.
"It doesn't matter if I'll never be Warden. I will defend Impel Down to my last breath," Hannyabal vowed. The two beside him stood firm as a group of titanic entities surged forth, a massive frog Sea King flanked by an eel and a beaked serpent, cramming inside and straining the walls within further.
The three of them grimaced, preparing to die—
SWOOSH!
And they were nearly knocked off their feet as a column of white smoke rushed past them, reconstituting into Commodore Smoker. Moments later, Tashigi blurred into existence beside him, Popora in tow. Before the jailers could say a word, the Marines faced the Sea Kings and shouted two words. Short, simple, innocuous words, but which, when paired together, carried an immeasurable weight that resonated across the ages:
"JOY BOY!"
A weight that struck the aquatic tyrant like an appropriately-sized sledgehammer, halting it in its tracks. The jailers could only stare at the sight of the Sea Kings frozen, their every iota of attention on the Marines.
"Yes, we know the name, and yes, we're friends. Or at least, allies," Smoker declared.
"We wouldn't have used it if we had any other choice, but you didn't leave us one," Tashigi continued, a very audible tinge of desperation in her voice as she kept her hands raised placatingly and well clear of her sword. "Besides the fact that you would have killed us, too, this place is too important to destroy! Please, we're begging you: Honour the agreement, and leave in peace!"
The frog slowly swept its gaze over the tiny, almost insignificant specks that stood before it. Its stupefaction darkened into hostility as its eyes narrowed, and it let out a menacing croak.
"That's… not the enthusiastic yes we were looking for…" Tashigi hedged uncertainly before her eyes lit up at an idea. "Oh! But maybe there's a way that we can—Oof!" The swordswoman was cut off by her furry compatriot, using her head as a leaping point to approach the Sea King.
Once he was a foot away, Popora paused to give the frog ample forewarning, before slowly extending his mace so that it poked at the megafauna's rubbery hide and—
~o~
Shattered eggshells and shredded embryos littered upon the ocean floor, a weeping rhinoceros Sea King bleeding from a torn fin, watching as Blugoris swam away. A single rhinoceros calf nuzzled against the Sea King…
~o~
The memory rocked them all, and Smoker was the first to recover, shooting a furious glare back at the still-shaken imp-commander of Impel Down.
"Saldeath, our living past the next ten seconds depends on your Blugoris being able to live on Sea Kings without targeting eggs or children. Yes or no?"
"…y-yes, yes," Saldeath hastily stammered out, keeping his shaking gaze focused on the entity that very literally held his—and all of their—lives in the jaws of its teeth. "I-It will take time, a week or so, b-but I can weed out the more moronic individuals who won't listen. There might be… one or two stragglers, but… We can deal with them as they come?"
The Sea King was silent for a heart-pounding minute before loosing a snort that, while not necessarily accepting, wasn't overtly hostile.
Smoker took the opening for what it was and pressed on. "We'll do what we can on our end. We'll honour our end of the arrangement…"
He then proceeded to cause no less than a half-dozen heart attacks when he unslung his jutte and levelled it at the center of the frog's face.
"Now honour yours."
Seconds passed, hearts pounding in the chests of all involved. An inch away from death, a single twitch would be all it took.
But apparently, if the frog's croak and the slow relaxation of its companions were anything to go by, that would not happen this day.
As Popora darted back away from them, the eel and snake slowly withdrew while the frog rubbed down his body and spread his webbed hands wide. As he too retreated, the mucus film stuck fast to the inside of the broken airlock. The water flow subsided, and when the frog disappeared into the ink-black deep, nothing more sought to penetrate the makeshift barrier.
With their cover exchanged for their lives, the two Divine turned back to face the three jailers.
"Before you say one word, I'll remind you that Blackbeard let out every single animal that was locked up in Level 6 on his way out. Restore order first. Then, we'll talk," Smoker stated.
The jailers wasted no time splitting up again.
The three Masons remained behind, looking back at the film. Tashigi's regret was plainer to see, but it was visible even on Smoker's face.
"…is this really enough?" she wondered, staring into the darkness of the abyss. Staring after the Darkness that had just slipped through their fingers, and was now travelling to the one place they had wanted to keep it from, above all others.
"It has to be, Tashigi," Smoker huffed out. "Stopping the two jailbreaks was never something we could handle. Running damage control on anyone else who tries is still going to make a positive difference for the world."
The iron grips that all three maintained on their weapons showed just how little of a consolation that was.
"…we'll win this battle. But the war isn't over yet," Tashigi said grimly. "I'll find a snail and warn Sagittarius. Tell him that the worst-case scenario is in effect. After that… they try to stop the world from burning out there. We'll do what we can in here."
And as guards arrived at the area to begin repairing the bulkheads, the Divine ran back into Hell… even as a single thought rang through all three of their heads.
'However little and late that might be.'