Chapter 9: Storm and Strike
Cipher Pol Arc
...
Marshall D. Teach watched with a sick, leering grin as the hapless townsfolk scattered before him, like frightened mice before a predator. Behind him, his crew marched to his pace, hauling bulging sacks overflowing with plundered jewelry and valuables.
Teach stooped down, scooping up a copy of the morning's newspaper from the town's paved dirt road. The new age was approaching fast, and every passing day promised new and exciting events. He unrolled the wad between his hands, and scanned the contents of the front page.
"Zehahahaha!" Teach could not help but guffaw out loud at the news.
"Have a good look at this you guys!" He exclaimed, shoving the paper into Van Augur's hands. "The Marines finally caught up to him! That Shiki was always plotting something; I really wondered what he was up to for all these years after he vanished from the old man's boat. It looks like he's finally met his match!"
"Golden Lion Shiki is the only prisoner to ever have escaped from Impel Down." Lafitte said, walking behind his captain with a spring in his step. "But I don't think it's very likely that he'll be able to get away a second time."
"The old legends are falling, one after another." Augur added. "Even they cannot escape from the clutches of fate."
Teach licked his lips in anticipation. It had been a really long time since he'd seen that old geezer. He couldn't wait.
"Come on men!" He waved. "Prepare to set sail for Water Seven!"
"But captain!" Burgess grumbled. "It's been four days since the Straw Hats ran wild over Enies Lobby! Do you really think we can still catch them at Water Seven?"
"Water Seven isn't far from here." Augur replied. "We should arrive by tomorrow if we depart immediately."
"Then it's all up to the whims of fate." Doc Q nodded. Covering his mouth with a sleeve of his coat, the doctor launched into a violent coughing fit, and then slumped down with a pained expression, laying his cheek against the back of his loyal horse.
"Of course we're going!" Teach ordered, his tone brooking no room for argument. "Get ready, because we're about to get busy."
"Hey!" A familiar voice called out, interrupting the crew's preparations. "Hold it right there Teach! I've been looking for you."
Teach paused, scanning the empty streets before pinpointing the speaker; a solitary figure crouched upon a nearby rooftop. The rest of his crew followed the direction of their captain's gaze. There was not one among them who didn't grasp the severity of the situation, and for a moment, they stood together in silence.
"Oh! Ace! Commander!" Teach broke the calm, warmly greeting the Second Division Commander as he had done so many times in the past.
"Don't call me 'commander' again." Ace chided, tilting the brim of his hat upward to cast his glare directly at Teach. "That word should be reserved for people you respect. Don't think you can mock me."
"Ah, you must be the infamous 'Fire Fist' Ace." Laffitte said.
"Yeah, that's me. Nice to meet you." Ace returned the greeting.
"I see you've used this time well, and become a pretty decent captain in your own right." He continued. "Marshall D. Teach, captain of the Blackbeard Pirates."
"Jeez, Ace! I haven't seen you in ages!" Teach smiled. "So what's going on? How did you know I was here?"
"Teach, let's cut the idle chitchat." Ace replied. "You took a man's life, so you should know quite well why I'm here, having lived twice as long as I have. Isn't that right?"
"Ahh, I get it. But let me say something first." Teach brushed off the implied threat. Of course, he knew perfectly well why Ace had come; murdering a crewmate was the biggest crime one could commit on a pirate ship. After he fled, he had even heard rumors now and then that a member of the Whitebeards was in pursuit. Yet his persistent smile stretched even wider.
After all, he and Ace had been good friends back on Whitebeard's ship, hadn't they? More than once, they had even saved each others lives during the harsh battles against rival crews in the New World. Perhaps Ace's coming was an opportunity. Maybe the Second Division Commander could be brought around to his way. To be a pirate was to be free after all; free, even from the bonds of morality.
"What do you say, Ace? Why don't you come onto my boat?" Teach offered. "Join my crew and seize the world with me! I've already planned my rise to power! Whitebeard's era is over and I'll become the next Pirate King! For starters, I'm going to Water Seven right now to kill Straw Hat Luffy, so I can give in his head as a present for the government!"
"Luffy? What did you say?" Ace's eyes narrowed.
"What? Do you know him?"
"Another reason I can't let you go free." Ace pronounced. "He's my younger brother!"
"And as for becoming one of your crewmates…" Ace paused as if considering the idea, standing composed as a trio of bullets passed harmlessly through his body.
"I won't."
Teach blinked once in surprise and opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. Standing behind their captain, the Blackbeard Pirates tensed in anticipation. Negotiations were over.
...
Lina moaned and slumped against the ship's railing. They had launched off from Cloud's End no later than noon, but now the sky was beginning to darken. And although they had drifted for much of the day, the ocean below didn't look much closer than before, just a monotonous blue backdrop broken by a handful of small, dark spots. Lina almost wished they could just fall the rest of the way, before she died of boredom.
"So assuming for a moment that this 'ancient weapon' we're looking for is really there." Luke struck up a conversation, one that they really needed to have. "What do you two plan to do with it?"
Lina glanced at Gourry, who was standing at the front of the ship, nibbling on a piece of fish and staring idly at something below.
"We're after the weapon to use it." Lina replied. "And you guys?"
"Well," Luke held out his empty hands, "I guess I'm in the market for a new weapon now, so you could say the same for us."
It was a situation that she had been hoping to avoid. The two of them were after the same thing now, and with only one weapon, there was no way to divide the spoils. No way, unless she could persuade him to take a second option.
"How about selling the weapon to us?" Lina offered. "Come on, I'll pay you five hundred and thirty copper coins for exclusive rights."
"What? Five hundred and thirty copper coins?" Judging from Luke's dumbfounded expression, he wasn't convinced. "You just took a block of gold from the sky island, and you'll only part with five hundred and thirty copper coins?"
"That's right. Quite a bargain, don't you think?" Lina pressed.
"A bargain?" Luke repeated, clear disbelief in his voice.
"I'll have you know," Lina continued, "that Gourry here handed over a very impressive sword for just five hundred and fifty, though I don't have it any more. I can't pay you more than that for an ancient weapon whose properties we don't even know."
"I never did that!" Gourry shouted back from the front of the ship.
"Hey Gourry! Just whose side are you on?" Lina shot Gourry a venomous glare to shut him up. Why did his memory have to be crystal clear on this one damnable topic?
"Depending on what it does," Luke leaned back, "maybe I'd be willing to sell it for five hundred and thirty billion."
Lina scowled. Who the hell did this guy think he was, putting up such outrageous numbers.
"How about this." Luke suggested. "We'll join forces until we get to the location. If we get there and the weapon's still there, first side to lay their hands on it gets it. Losers give up, no complaining."
After a brief contemplation, Lina found herself making a mumbled noise of agreement. If they were going to be on a ship together in this foreign world, the crew couldn't afford to have any infighting erupting between its members.
The crew and its members. It surprised Lina how easily she slipped into this line of thought. Yes, they were going to be together for the rest of this ordeal, for better or for worse.
"Alright, I can live with that." She said. "A truce until this whole thing is over."
"By the way, where did that tablet say the weapon was anyway?" Luke asked, his expression betraying his sudden realization that he had overlooked a crucial detail.
"Some place called Fishman Island." Lina replied. She blanched slightly at the thought.
The information Zelgadis obtained had identified Fishman Island as resting somewhere on the eastern end of the Grand Line region. They had heard Shiki confirm their entrance into this region, so now it was just a matter of sailing east toward their goal. Lina reached into a pouch and withdrew her compass.
"What the?!" She cried.
Though the ship's facing was holding steady, the compass needle had gone wild, pivoting rapidly around its base, stopping and starting, even reversing direction seemingly at random. The initial surprise faded, and Lina realized that it probably wasn't the fault of the compass; the needle was just a piece of magnetic metal, no ifs, ands or buts. That left magnetic anomalies as an explanation. Such irregularities sometimes appeared in areas with high concentrations of ambient magic, although she had never seen one as intense as this before.
Lina put the compass away, replacing it with a crystal globe which she laid onto the deck. Closing her eyes, she spoke the words of power to activate the device.
Again, her instrument failed. The four rays of light projected from the edges of the sphere should have lined up with the four cardinal directions, but like the compass needle, they spun uncontrollably about, flickering and flashing, even overlapping one another at times. This meant that even the region's ley lines were in a state of flux.
Lina sunk deep into thought. There were only a few things she could think of that could be responsible for what she was seeing. The Giga Slave was one. The first time she had cast it, the chaotic spell had unmade an entire bay, reducing it to a broken, colorless waste where no living thing would ever grow again.
She dismissed that thought from her mind. In a world that knew nothing of sorcery, it was just not possible. But if not that, then perhaps-
...
Lina didn't know how long she sat on the deck, buried in her thoughts. She'd been doing that a lot lately. As much as she hated to admit it, there was no denying that she bore at least some of the responsibility for getting everyone stuck in this world.
"Hey Lina, aren't those battleships down there?" Gourry asked.
Gourry's words snapped her out of her stupor. A quick glance over the side revealed the same scene as before, but she knew better than to question Gourry's senses.
"If you knew there were enemy ships down there, why didn't you say something sooner?" Lina demanded.
"Enemies?" Gourry asked confusedly. "But I thought Marines were pretty nice people."
"Things have changed you idiot." Lina replied. "If you recall, I have a sixty five million bounty on my head. If we drift down there, you can bet the Marines will try to arrest us."
"And all of my hard-earned gold… gone!" She added in a softer voice, with a few sniffles included for effect.
And there was no way she was having any of that.
Lina whipped through the ship like a whirlwind, sweeping through the cabin where Amelia, Zelgadis and Milina were resting and rousing them from their idleness. Outside on the deck, the men unfurled the sails, which flapped gently in the evening breeze.
With a gesture, she invoked a Bomb di Wind, sending a gust of pressurized air into the ship's sails. The sudden impulse nearly threw her to the ground, and she shot out an arm to steady herself; she'd forgotten that they were in the air. Stretched above the mast, the octopus balloon swayed precariously.
Fiery copper hair whipping to and fro in the wind, Lina noted wryly that their sudden movement had attracted unwanted attention. Though they could hardly expect to keep up with her airspeed, the Marine battleships had spotted her and were entering pursuit, trailing long wakes behind them as they cut across the sea surface.
Lina fought down the urge to simply annihilate the fleet, and threw another blast of wind into the sails. But something was strange. Although they were moving much faster than their waterbound pursuers, the battleships actually looked larger and clearer than before. Already, she could make out the towering masts that jutted from their decks, and green-painted hulls bristling with cannons.
Forming her thumbs and pointer fingers into an approximation of a rectangle, Lina held her hands over her head, positioning the octopus right in the center. A noise halfway between a cough and a squeak escaped from her throat.
"Hey guys we've got trouble!" Lina announced, drawing a round of stares. "This octopus is shrinking!"
"Now that you mention it, it's definitely smaller than when we left Cloud's End." Zelgadis said, raising a protractor to his eye. "The momentum from your spell must have made it lose some air."
Then, measuring the angle down to the pursuing ships, he added, "We're going to have to shed some weight if we want to stay in the air. If we don't, we'll land within range of those cannons."
"Oh, no you don't." Lina interjected. "There is no way I'm giving up any of this gold that I worked so hard for."
Invoking a Levitation, she drifted over the side, adjusting her trajectory to hover beside the deck. Now that she was in control of her own momentum, Lina could feel how quickly they were descending; they'd be in the air for only a few more minutes, if even that. She raised her hands and took aim at their pursuers, magical energy gathering at her fingertips.
"Miss Lina!" Amelia pleaded over the rush of wind. "If you destroy those ships, your bounty will go even higher!"
"I know that!" Lina shouted back. "I just wanna get these guys to stop chasing us!"
She cast her spell; Vice Freeze was the strongest known water spell castable by humans, the icy counterpart of Burst Flare. She watched the frigid missile streak down, blossoming into a jagged iceberg on the ocean surface that swallowed the bow of the leading ship.
The two remaining ships were undeterred, replying with a thudding cannonade. A wave of Flare Arrows detonated the cannonballs in midair, and Lina looked back to see that Luke had joined the battle. Milina followed after, striking the battleships' paddle wheels with icy blasts, stopping them completely. A blast of wind from Zelgadis sent their own ship soaring, and soon their immobilized pursuers vanished over the horizon.
And it was just as well; they had fallen low enough that Lina could make out the faint glimmers of moonlight reflecting off the waves on the ocean's surface. Still stretched over the mast, the octopus had shrunk to little more than an elongated tube, providing barely enough lift to keep the ship from free-falling.
"Everyone hold on tight!" Lina called to the others still on deck. "You're about to hit water!"
The ship slammed into the waves, bobbing and swaying, soaking the deck with a spray of salty sea water. The impact jostled the octopus from its grip, and with a rubbery snap it relinquished its hold, spiraling through the air like a leaking balloon before landing with a wet plop. Now little bigger than a person's head, it almost looked cute.
"Bye-bye Mr. Octopus!" Amelia scooped up the slimy creature, carrying it to the railing and releasing it into the water. She waved, and it returned the gesture with a raised tentacle before slipping beneath the waves.
"Hey, what'd you do that for Amelia?" Lina poked. Then she added, only half-jokingly, "I was going to eat that."
...
Kuzan covered his mouth and yawned as he pedaled across the sea. It was the dead of night and the soft, rhythmic crack of newly formed ice beneath his rims was making him drowsy.
"Oh, excuse me, just passing through." Kuzan waved to a gaggle of curious sea animals, who had probably never seen a human riding a bicycle over the water before. The ocean air wasn't doing his bicycle's frame any favors; the wheels were getting squeakier by the day. At least the assignment was nearing its end.
Shiki's capture had more than alleviated his superiors' anger at his earlier indiscretion. Sengoku himself was particularly pleased; the Fleet Admiral viewed Shiki as his personal nemesis from the previous era, similar to Garp's former relationship with Roger. There would be an awards ceremony once he returned to headquarters, commendations given out for the capture of such a notorious pirate. Kuzan briefly considered not attending before dismising the thought.
After all, he hadn't really been responsible for the Flying Pirate's defeat. Shiki had - quite literally - fallen into his lap, bruised, burned and nearly dead. Someone up in the sky had accomplished what the Marines had not in two decades.
Kuzan reminded himself why he had come. There were reports on the fleet's eastern patrol route of an attack by some sort of flying ship, but it wouldn't do to break the formation, in case more pirates came down. Thus, he had reluctantly volunteered to investigate himself.
Silently, he reviewed the list of pirates that his fleet had captured. Of Shiki's high profile subordinates, veteran captains "Iron Mammoth" Dozle and "Demon Cannon" Tomie remained at large, along with his chief scientist Indigo and the new recruit, "Pink Sorceress" Lina. What was troubling him was that while the former three had been members of Shiki's fleet since Roger's era, the latter was a complete enigma. Background checks revealed nothing, save for some strange incidents in East Blue, and the recruit had made her fame with an assault on a slave trading post that somehow resulted in the disappearance of the entire island without a trace. It was a sucker's bet that her presence had something to do with all this.
The sixty five million beli bounty was just an initial offer; simply joining the Golden Lion Pirates in such a manner merited at least that much, and the committee at headquarters would be ready to raise it again at any hint of trouble. Already, the worst generation of rookie pirates on record was gathering at Sabaody, set to surge into the New World almost simultaneously. The Marines would do well to keep an eye out for any more of these upstarts.
Squinting his eyes, Kuzan spotted the silhouette of a lone battleship, barely visible against the dim light. Approaching, he noticed that it had been immobilized, its frontmost section embedded in a great jagged chunk of ice.
The strange sight piqued his interest. These were Grand Line Marines, the best of the lot; Kuzan didn't think they would be incompetent to enough to ram an iceberg at full speed. Plus, the shape of that ice formation looked decidedly unnatural.
"My, oh my." Kuzan said, pulling up alongside the ship's port side. "What happened to you guys?"
"Admiral sir!" The ship's captain saluted. "We were pursuing the flying ship when something struck the water ahead of us and created this block of ice. The two remaining ships have been immobilized by ice as well, just up ahead."
Immobilized by ice? Created? Curious and curiouser, but the time for pondering was later.
Kuzan looked up at the sky, his navigational senses tingling.
"Tell the other ships to give up the chase, and I'll help you get this off." Kuzan ordered. "Return to the fleet once you've finished your essential check-ups, we've got a little something coming in."
...
Lina jerked reflexively at the sharp crack of wood behind her. Turning, she noticed a ball of ice embedded in the deck, the wooden boards splintering around it. A hailstone. A hailstone the size of a fist.
The passage of a second chunk was accompanied by the tearing of cloth as it ripped through a sail on the way down. A third smashed into the railing, shattering the fragile handles. A fourth, a lump the size of a head, crashed through the roof of the cabin.
Lina gazed up at the sky, and a gulp of saliva inched its way down her throat.
"Gourry, Zelgadis, fold the sails." She barked out orders. "Amelia, put up a barrier around the ship."
Positioning herself underneath the main mast, she added, "We'll switch off until the storm is over."
Several minutes passed before the rain of ice started to abate, the clatter of hailstones against the shimmering barrier decreasing in frequency. Exhausted, Amelia sat sprawled in a corner, supporting her head with one arm while Milina took over the maintenance of their shield.
The wind began to pick up, blowing the falling hail into slanted paths, causing the sea surface to churn and heave. Milina winced as a particularly large wave slammed against one side of her barrier. At this rate, even with the five of them taking turns, they wouldn't last more than a few minutes.
"Gourry, unfold the sails." Lina ordered. "Milina, once that's done, lower the barrier. We'll ride this part out."
The next swell crashed into the ship's hull, spilling onto the deck, and a sharp crack from the hold told Lina one of the wooden supports had broken.
"Luke, go down there and see what you can do about that."
Another wave rose before them, taller than even the ship's central mast, its shadow stretched long by the flashes of lightning behind it. At Lina's direction, Zelgadis invoked a Buday Wind, tearing through the wall of water and flinging their battered ship through the opening.
Lina breathed a sigh of relief when the gap slammed shut behind them, leaving the ship unmolested. She then cringed as the main mast snapped from the strain, crashing into the front of the deck. A sudden surge caused the ship to pitch to one side, dumping the loose timber into the sea.
Another shadow passed over the ship, and, turning, Lina tried to wrap her mind around what her eyes were seeing. The ocean itself was spiraling upward, forming a towering pillar of water between sea and sky. A vortex churned at its base, drawing in everything around it. And the ship was getting closer.
With torn sails and broken masts, there was no getting away normally. That left them with with just the abnormal option.
Ignoring her panicking crewmates, Lina called upon the power of Ruby Eye, the magic erupting from her hands as the familiar crimson missile. It pierced into the heart of the cyclone and detonated, flashing red, then white. The column of water collapsed, its connection broken.
The violent rocking of the ship reminded her that the storm had not diminished one bit; they weren't out of trouble yet.
Something cold and wet struck the back of Lina's head. Wheeling about in a fury, she identified the culprit as a fish, now flopping about on the ship's deck, probably launched from the cyclone by her spell. Her pent up frustration bubbled to the surface.
"Can't you see I have enough crap to deal with here?" She hollered, punting the unfortunate creature into the water.
"What the heck is wrong with this place?!"
...
"We need a new ship." Lina moaned, lying sprawled on the ship's deck. The warmth of the morning rays on her face was a sensation she'd thought she would never feel again. Somehow, they had made it through.
"We... need a new ship." Gourry nodded, sitting slumped against the cabin door. With broken masts, torn sails and a myriad of tiny leaks patched up with ice magic, it was as if all the repairs they'd done before departing the sky island were for naught.
"We need a new ship." Luke agreed. Without the usual means of propulsion, all they could do was row. And with no sense of direction, their chances of finding land were pretty slim.
"Amelia, do you see anything?" Lina asked.
"Mmm, I don't see anything yet." Amelia replied from her seat on top of the cabin. Pausing for a moment, she added, "Wait, there's something just ahead."
She passed her telescope to Zelgadis, who stared through them at the indicated point.
"It's a Marine ship." He said.
Lina bolted upright at the confirmation. Finally, some good news.
"Alright crew, full speed ahead!" She announced.
Soon, the entire party was roused into action, moving into position to perform their roles. Oars were handed to Gourry and Zelgadis, while Lina took up a position at the head of the ship. Gazing through the spyglass, she could just barely make out the shape of the enemy vessel, looking more like a green blob at this distance.
Approaching closer, she noted some light damage to its frame, along with a complete absence of any crew on deck.
"Looks like that thing's abandoned." Lina said. "Maybe it got caught in bad weather too."
Gesturing as if nocking a bow, Lina sent a volley of icy darts into the warship's hull, sealing up its portholes. Better safe than sorry.
"Slow us down a bit Gourry, and get ready to board."
Lina paused, waiting for an affirmation, hearing only the creaking of a door being opened behind her. She spun around, opening her mouth to give him an earful.
Her eyes widened fractionally as they fell upon an intruder standing atop what remained of their ship's bridge. A tall man dressed in a casual black shirt and shorts, whose hair was curled up at the sides, resembling the curved horns of a bull.
A small gasp escaped from her throat at the sight of what was behind him. A doorway in the air itself, and beyond it, a distorted, green-tinted facsimile of the outside world.
The intruder stretched a hand behind his back and slapped the door shut, the distortion smoothing over as if it had never been there at all.
"Oh great, not another weirdo." Lina raised her hands combatively, glancing around to confirm that everyone else had noticed. "Don't make me hurt you."
"Hm, it's just a couple of pirates." The intruder replied.
