Chapter 8
The Arrival
Weeks after Tori had boarded the Whitebeard Pirates were docking at an uninhabited island. The lookouts had been alerted by Tori to expect her ship on the horizon within the next four hours. True to her words they spotted a ship with a bird as the figurehead. "SHIP SIGHTED!" the lookout yelled. "IT'S THE FREE FLIGHT!" the two siblings came to an immediate halt. Tori suddenly burst into flames and shifted to her phoenix form while Ace jumped onto her back. Tori took off towards her ship with ace trilling a cry of delight. There were sudden flashes of light coming from the deck of the Free Flight. Suddenly red, flaming birds launched from the deck and met Tori and Ace in the middle of the sky. They danced through the sky and landed back on the deck of the Moby. The birds erupted into fire and shifted into human beings. However these humans had 'left over' parts from their bird forms.
Looking around the new group Marco could see that some had feathers in their hair or somewhere on their bodies. Some had talons on their toes or their whole legs were bird-like. Others still had their wings or beaks. "How do you all have the same Devil Fruit?" he asked. Tori laughed," we didn't." she said. "We are all real phoenixes." Marco's eyes widened. Ace laughed. " Man, that is just funny right there." Marco looked at him in confusion. The phoenixes laughed as ace through back his head and howled. From around the deck the former spades joined in. The Whitebeard Pirates looked on in confusion as the former Spades burst into flames. As the flames died down the pirates were replaced with large, flaming, winged wolves. "Wha…." Thatch muttered. Tori spoke up. "Meet Okami D. Akaihono. The 'Flaming Wolf'." She said. "Captain of the Spade Wolves. The second group of the fire wing." Whitebeard's eyes widened in surprise.
A loud screech rose from one of the phoenixes. "The Freedom Fighter!" The phoenixes shifted back to bird form and the wolves howled. As one the rose into the air and sped towards a giant ship that had appeared on the horizon. The Whitebeard Pirate's eyes widened the further they got as they realized just how big the ship was if it was that far away and still looked the size of the Moby Dick. When the ship finally reached the Moby they saw that it easily dwarfed the Moby. It had to be four times the size of the Moby. A deep voice echoed across the space between the two ships. "Permission to board sir?" Whitebeard looked up. "Granted." He replied. A loud thump resounded through the air as a figure landed in a crouched position on the figure head. The figure slowly stood up and turned. They couldn't see his face under the hood he wore. He reached up and removed his hood. Glowing gold eyes peered up at Whitebeard as a fanged mouth smirked. "Hello there Whitebeard." The deep voice said. "I am the captain of the Guardian Pirates. Draconis D. Draco."
Whitebeard's eyes widened as his mouth dropped. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever thought this would happen. A man said to be the strongest, smartest, fastest, and wildest man alive, while thought dead, was the once captain of one of his sons. And on his ship.
