And we're beginning the end at last! And Erold gets to make his debut. It's all Imperial Mint 's fault, and a big thanks to her for asking for a donkey and for betaing once again!
Ace yawned and slumped against the table. Marco had dragged him out of bed before the bacon had hit the pan, and he resented the loss of his five minutes of sleep. They'd planned to strike at 8 in the morning because that was the time when most would be sleeping, but Ace wondered if that just meant they would be more tired too. It was still dark out for heaven's sake. And he was dressed.
He traded a put-upon look with Sabo. Marco shook his head at them without pausing in his conversation with Zoro and Law. Sanji refilled his coffee cup while flipping pancakes somehow, and Ace gulped it back with less regard for its excellence than usual. He refilled his cup and Sabo's (Sanji had helpfully left a pot). He wondered vaguely if it was bad to be too hyper, shrugged and poured Luffy a cup too, nudging him out of his slumber on the table.
They could all be over caffeinated. Ace smiled, glad he was with his brothers for this. He'd have thought Sabo would be with Koala, but apparently she relished "a break from his idiocy" and had politely asked to be with Nami and Robin. Ace pitied the poor souls going up against that group if he were honest. They were all three wide awake and whispering down at the corner of the table, their smiles edged with malice as they plotted.
Breakfast was less leisurely than normal, though no less lavish. When they'd finally finished, Sanji insisted they do the dishes, marching Zoro and Law off to help him, while Luffy pouted about real gangsters not doing dishes before a special mission. Usopp entertained them with stories of horrible ways not doing the dishes had led to truly spectacular failures for gangsters past while they finished the cleanup, Shanks and Marco joining in.
Finally, they were preparing to leave, a really rather spectacular affair of packing up weaponry and sorting themselves out into teams. They slipped out team by team, since there was no need to advertize themselves by walking in a massive group.
"Be safe," Marco said, pulling Ace into a hug so tight he could barely breathe. He leaned up to kiss Marco sweetly, adding a little tongue on principle when Sabo and Luffy made obligatory grossed out noises.
"You too." Ace stepped back, warmth settling in his chest. His eyes flicked from Marco to Shanks. "Don't kill Shanks."
Shanks slung an arm around Marco's shoulders, and Ace snickered when Marco stiffened. "Don't you worry about the stuffed shirt*. I'll take extra good care of him."
Marco muttered something vaguely threatening, and Ace chuckled. He ruffled Chopper's hair, grinning when he giggled. "You take care of Marco for me, okay?"
"Of course!" Chopper bristled, putting his hands up. "Just let me at them!"
"Ace, come on!" Luffy grabbed him and dragged him towards the door, Sabo in the other hand. "We gotta be first, so we can beat all the others and win!"
"Lu, it's not a contest," Sabo said, but Ace could tell he was pumped up. Someone muttered something about too much coffee, but Ace ignored them, exchanging glances with his brothers. He whooped, and they were running out the door and down the street jostling and racing. They slowed a block away from Ace's joint.
Each team had to take out all of the Blackbeards in three districts, methods up to the individual teams. Shanks had guessed that each had at least fifty men, but only one or two who were main players. So theoretically they had a shot at this if every team ran on all sixes*. Maybe.
"So just walk in and kick ass?" Sabo asked, and Ace and Luffy nodded seriously.
"Yeah."
"Sounds good to me."
Luffy's grin widened, and he looked between them. "I bet I'll get more than either of you!" he said, and he was gone. Sabo swore, and they both took off after him.
"Oi, Luffy!" Sabo yelled, and there went the element of surprise. Ace laughed as they burst into Striker, chaos everywhere.
"No fair!" he yelled, and he heard Luffy laughing up ahead. Three men stumbled down the stairs, blinking sleep from their eyes, and then Ace and Sabo were on them. They were unconscious before they'd even registered the threat, and they dashed up the stairs in tandem. At this hour, most of the men would probably be asleep. Luffy'd left the guards crumbled in a heap downstairs, so there was nothing for them down there.
Luffy must have gone to the basement, and part of Ace relaxed, knowing his men were in very good hands. If there was anyone with skills worth mentioning, they were almost surely upstairs at this hour, so Luffy would be fine by himself. Men were pouring out of the bedrooms in various states of undress, and Ace grinned savagely.
He and Sabo tore through the crowd of men, aiming for the voice crying out for order somewhere in the back. That would be where the real challenge lay. As it was, they cut through the half asleep men like a hot knife through butter, keeping score out loud. They were neck and neck as the men finally figured out to stop pouring into the hallway and take shelter in their rooms. The first room was clear, and Ace gestured to Sabo and ducked into it. He climbed out of the window, knowing there was a convenient, if narrow, ledge running around the building.
He stepped out onto it and clung to the building with his finger tips with practiced ease, keeping count in his head. He edged to the next window, and eased it open soundlessly. He oiled them every so often for prank pulling purposes. On ten the door flung open, and the four men in the room started shooting at the empty doorway.
Ace took them all out before any of them figured out they were under attack from the back. Sabo walked into the doorway and smirked.
"We still split them in half right? Damn, I'm still one behind."
"We're at 16 and 16?" They started walking to the door, and Sabo nodded. "Can't be too many more, then."
"You'd think the worst prisoners of Impel Down would be a bit tougher than this," Sabo said, nudging one of the bodies in the hall with his foot.
"Kind of a bummer."
"I call the boss."
"Nuh-uh, no fair!" Ace huffed, Sabo's laughter deliberately echoing down the hall. A door swung open, and a grenade clattered down the hallway. Ace kicked it back, bouncing it off the wall so it slid through the door just before it closed. A muffled whoomp rattled the walls, and Ace sighed.
"Cleanup's going to be a bitch." Sabo hummed in agreement.
"Fine, you can have this boss. I'll take the next one."
"You gonna let Luffy have the third?"
"If he gets there fast enough." Sabo said, and Ace nodded. "If not whoever gets more men gets him."
"That's fair," Ace said. He'd win anyway. He always did. Sabo frowned at him like he knew what was running through his head. Ace stuck out his tongue, and Sabo launched himself at him. They wrestled, completely ignoring the men piled and groaning in the hall.
"You don't think we accidentally blew up the boss do you?" Sabo asked after a few minutes with no one coming out.
"That's why you gave me this one, isn't it?" Ace drew Sabo into a chokehold. "Here I thought you'd gotten all gracious on me." Sabo sputtered and tried to throw him off. He elbowed him in the gut, and Ace's hold slackened enough for him to slip away.
A door all the way down the hall finally opened, and they looked up.
"See! You get one after all." Sabo looked at the small group of entirely boring enemies and frowned. "You don't suppose he has all the fun ones with him?"
Ace scoffed and brushed his hands on his pants. "It would be just like the yellow-bellied coward."
"Here I thought this would be entertaining," Sabo said, and they sighed in unison.
Luffy bounded up the stairs pouting. "There wasn't anyone fun in the basement. I got all your men out Ace. They're cleaning up the mess downstairs." A knot of tension in Ace's chest loosened, and he smiled at Luffy, letting his pride slip through. Luffy beamed, then his eyes flicked to the four men in hall. "Those the last of 'em?"
"Probably. No one worthwhile here either," Sabo said, and they all sighed.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and the bastard will be in one of the others with his whole gang. We don't have to signal the others and share," Luffy said, and Sabo and Ace traded a glance. Not a bad plan all in all.
"You bastards better not be ignoring us!" the short, stocky man growled at them, and Ace turned back to them. "We'll teach you to underestimate us, won't we boys?"
They roared almost impressively and charged, while Sabo and Ace traded a glance.
"How many did you get, Lu?" Ace asked, crossing his arms.
"Only five!" Luffy pouted dramatically, and Ace and Sabo stepped back.
"They're all yours then. We tied at 18 apiece. Six men in the room with the bomb?" Sabo asked Ace, and Ace nodded. Luffy was already hurtling down the hall, taking out all four in one go with a whip-like punch.
Now to go give orders to his men. It wouldn't be easy to convince them to stay here while they went off to free two more districts, but it wouldn't do to lose the ones they'd gained back. Besides, if they were all like this, backup would just take away the fun.
By the time they'd started tearing through the second of their three districts, Marco was no longer thinking this was a suicide mission. He frowned as he slammed a man into the wall. He'd picked the districts he and Ace had thought Teach would most likely make his headquarters for his offensive on the Moby Dick, but there was no sign of anyone who was any sort of challenge so far. There was still their last district, but this meant that Ace and his brothers were probably in the thick of it.
His kick knocked the man in front of him flying, sending him crashing into three more behind him and landing them all in a tangle on the ground.
"Strike!" Shanks cheered, and Marco turned around to glare at him. Shanks didn't heed the look and bent down to Chopper. "He was a bowling champion back in the day you know," he said in a stage whisper.
Marco rolled his eyes, but Chopper looked to him in awe, and he had to smile. "You could help you know."
"But you're doing so well without me," Shanks said. "It's safer that you take out all that worry on them and not me."
"I'll help!" Chopper said excitedly, and Marco bit back an indulgent smile.
"You don't have to help Chop..." Marco trailed off and traded a shocked glance with Shanks. Chopper had cleared the whole hall, bounding down it with hand-to-hand moves from the Far East. Men crumpled behind him, falling to groan on the floor.
"I thought we got him because he was one of their weaker fighters," Marco whispered to Shanks, watching as Chopper finished off the whole joint.
"We did." Shanks grinned, wide and bright. "That Luffy. He just might do it, you know."
Marco hummed as Chopper skipped back to them and playfully saluted.
"All clear!"
"Thank you, Chopper. " Marco smiled at him, then shot a look at Shanks. "At least someone on the team is being useful."
"I'll go get everyone out of the basement and check on them!" Chopper said and scurried off. Marco made as if to follow, but Shanks cleared his throat, so Marco paused looking back over his shoulder.
"You're worried more than I expected. Ace can take care of himself you know."
"That's not it. I know Ace can take care of himself." Shanks gestured for Marco to continue, and he sighed, turning back to Shanks. "I'm worried about what we'll find at the Moby Dick. They would have found a way to get us a message if they could, not for help, but to keep us- well me, really- out of this until they'd dealt with it."
"You think they've taken the Moby?" Shanks's brows flew up. "No one could take it that quickly. They'd have to be a fool to try."
"I hope you're right."
"Well, that was disappointing," Sabo said as they left behind the third district. It had taken less than twenty minutes to clear and leave it in the hands of Jozu's men. They'd protested being left behind less than Ace's, so even that hadn't been much of a challenge.
Luffy was definitely sulking, and Ace slung an arm across his shoulders. "Cheer up! At this rate, we could be the first the meeting spot!" Luffy brightened a bit, and Sabo pulled out his watch.
"Definitely, we've only been at it an hour and a half, and we've got a good three hours before we're supposed to meet everyone for sure."
"Maybe we can poach one of Zoro's districts before they get to it." Ace nudged Luffy, who giggled and shoved him back. "He's with Brook and Law, right? They won't be able to keep him from getting lost."
Luffy snickered. "Traffy thought he was on the sane team. He's probably been chasing Zoro around in Big Mam's territory for the last hour."
"That's the spirit! We're almost to Thatch's joint, and then we can move on and do all of theirs before we're supposed to meet."
The distinctive sound of several guns being cocked echoed in the street when they turned they corner to Thatch's speakeasy. Men surrounded them, pouring from out of the alleys, dozens of them.
"Freeze and hands up where we can see them!" one of them demanded, and they raised their hands up nice and slowly.
"They do realize that in a circle like this they have just as much chance of hitting one of their own men as they do us?" Sabo asked, and Ace snorted.
"Shut up!"
"I don't think they care about that." Ace gave the ones in front of him a withering look. "They're not the type to care about some collateral damage."
"How very perceptive of you." The men in front of them shuffled aside, and a tall man who looked suspiciously like a mime came forward at tipped his hat to them in a mockery of courtesy, a pistol lazily pointed at him. "I'm Lafitte, and this..." Another man stepped forward, a rifle steady in his hands, smiling menacingly. "...is Van Auger."
Luffy growled, his hat low over his eyes. He wasn't going to stay still long at this rate. Ace's eyes flicked to meet Sabo's for the barest second and got a nod. He supposed it was good they were tied since there were two.
"Very impressive, you're somehow managing to take back most of the districts, but it won't last." Lafitte's smile widened, and he spun his cane. Ace shifted his weight, getting ready to spring forward. "It ends here, and then we'll go round up your group at our leisure. This time we have permission to kill, no saving your men for Akainu to arrest."
"Ready to die?" Lafitte said and smirked. Ace's answering smile was sharp, Sabo shifting ever so slightly to his left.
"Are you?" he asked, and he and Sabo threw down smoke bombs at the same time, all three of them diving to the ground as smoke rose and bullets began flying. Ace shoved down his anxiety about Luffy: he could handle himself. From the sounds of it Luffy had rocketed himself straight into the wall of armed gunmen to the right and was mowing them down anyway. Ace casually tossed a bomb with a bit more substance to it in the opposite direction, unsurprised when he heard another go off behind him. Sabo hadn't gotten rusty then, Ace thought, as he launched himself at Lafitte. Sabo was a beat behind him, he saw when the smoke had started clearing.
Ace ignored the few remaining torpedoes* and sure enough, Luffy knocked them all out swiftly as Sabo squared off with Van Auger. Lafitte's smile didn't falter as the last of his men was dealt with, and Ace scoffed.
"I'm going on ahead!" Luffy called out, waving merrily as he went into the joint alone.
"Luffy, wai-" Sabo started, but he and Ace sighed in unison. He was already gone. "Ah, well, we'll just have to deal with this quickly."
Ace cracked his knuckles and smiled. "That shouldn't be too hard."
It had only taken them two hours to clear their districts, Marco's stomach sinking with each one cleared without any sign of Teach. Was Ace out there, fighting for his life against that coward? Dread pooled in his stomach as they made their way to the meeting point.
"We'll be first, I'll bet you," Shanks said and nudged him, waggling his brows. "You were so efficient."
"It kept me from hitting you. Barely," Marco said absently, and Shanks laughed, Chopper looking from one to the other in worry. Marco sighed and ruffled Chopper's hair. "What do you think, Chopper? Think we'll be first?"
Chopper wrinkled his nose. "Probably not."
Shanks raised his brows and laughed. "So much faith in your boss, kid?"
"Nah, Luffy never would make it first," Chopper said, waving a hand dismissively.
"The swordsman then?" Marco asked curiously in spite of himself. They were only a block away now, and they'd find out soon enough.
Chopper giggled. "No, Zoro never makes it anywhere first. But-" They rounded the corner, and he waved grinning. "See?"
Nami, Robin, and Koala waited under the willow tree in the small park on the lake where they'd planned to meet up, sprawled in the grass, looking for all the world like they were having a picnic. They waved to Chopper, sitting up enough for Marco to see that they were actually having a picnic. Next to them was of all things a donkey, unhaltered and dozing lazily in the grass.
"We were beginning to wonder if anyone was coming! We've been here for an hour with no word," Nami said when they'd made it over to them. "Did you run into Teach?"
"Nope!" Chopper said, holding out a hand for the donkey to inspect like it was the most normal thing in the world. He was permitted to scratch behind his ears.
"His name is Erold," Robin said. "We found him to be most helpful on our mission."
Shanks looked doubtfully at the small donkey, already fluffy with his winter coat. "Is that so?"
"Oh, yes," Koala said, fondness warming her tone as she fed Erold an apple.
"He's going to go live on the farm with Nojiko after all this," Nami said, reaching over to take over scratching his ears. "Aren't you?" Erold let out a contented huff and butted her hand. "Yes, you are," she cooed. Marco cleared his throat.
"Did you have any problems clearing out your districts?" Marco asked, still trying to figure out how they'd been done for an hour already.
They all looked at each other and burst into muffled laughter, and Marco looked to Shanks to see if he was processing this better than he was. It didn't seem like it.
"Come, sit down!" Koala gestured them to their little picnic. Shanks sat too near Erold and was bitten for his troubles, sending off another fit of giggles. Chopper formally introduced himself to Erold, when they'd settled down and thanked him politely for helping his friends.
"Is this making any sense to you," Marco whispered to Shanks, who just shook his head grinning.
"Luffy sure found himself a couple of bearcats*, huh?" he said, and Marco nodded as he was poured a cup of tea from the thermos they'd brought.
"Are we going to bring, ah, Erold with us to the Moby Dick?" Marco found himself the recipient of five incredulous looks (and how the donkey understood he'd never know) while Shanks snorted into his elbow, trying to keep from laughing.
"Of course," Robin said and smiled. "Ah, look, there's Sanji's group! We were just running out of pastries. I hope he has a snack for Erold."
Sanji did somehow managed to whip out a snack for Erold, also thanking him graciously for helping out the ladies, and Marco watched still slightly baffled as the picnic grew ever more elaborate. Nami dragged them all into a card game as they snacked, fleecing them blind, while they waited from their comrades to come back from a fight with odds 30 or 40 to one without a hint of worry. Usopp told wild stories about his fights as the others trickled back in groups and Nami stole all their money.
At least Usopp seemed to find Erold a bit strange, but he'd said to Marco that after Eyelashes the camel, he wasn't even going to try and question it anymore. Marco hadn't meeting time approached, and Zoro's team finally appeared, Brook playing them a war march on their violin, and Law dragging Zoro by the hand.
The worry in Marco's stomach, temporarily smothered in confusions about their party now including a donkey and having a cheerful picnic in the middle of a campaign, was in full bloom as he checked his watch one more time. No one had seen neither hide nor hare of Teach, which could only mean that Ace and his brothers were up against him right now, but no one seemed in the least concerned.
"It's okay, Marco, they'll be back soon. I told you Luffy's never first. Now let me look at your wound." He got glared at and had to bit back a smile"I hope you didn't strain it too much when you mowed down all those men," Chopper said, and Marco let himself be distracted.
But he kept one eye on the road where by all logic, Ace should be appearing any moment, brothers in tow.
Ace threw himself to the side, the shot from the pistol whistling by him, a grin growing on his face. That was the sixth shot. He sprang forward and smacked the gun out of Lafitte's hand, kicking it behind him, away from Sabo's fight as well. Lafitte scrambled back eyes wide, but Ace was already in close range and struck out at his belly.
Lafitte dodged easily, his scared expression melting from his face as he spun his cane, catching Ace square in the ribs. His grin grew as Ace coughed and scrambled back. He breathed in deeply, wincing, but he was pretty sure he was just bruised. He heard Sabo grunt in pain, but he forced himself not to look, to focus, and he darted in again, letting Lafitte clip him on the jaw to get in close. His punch landed squarely and Lafitte wasn't as lucky as Ace had been, bones cracking.
It was enough of a distraction to twist the cane out of Lafitte's hands and toss it behind him with a clatter that echoed in the street, the only other sounds their harsh breathing and the muffled thump of blows exchanged. Ace found himself musing that this part of town was dead until after dark. Brawling in the street was generally frowned upon.
The heavy taste of blood coated his tongue, and Ace pulled his attention back to the fight and spun to elbow Lafitte where he'd just hit him. Lafitte whimpered, but he caught Ace's arm wrenching his shoulder. Fire shot through Ace's arm, and he hissed. He used Lafitte's momentum to throw him over his hip, slamming him into the ground. Ace immediately followed up with a blow to his temple with his uninjured arm. It was his weaker, but he did the job. Pain washed over him, and he forced his breathing to slow before turning to see how Sabo was faring.
He was toying with Van Auger, dancing in and landing a hit only to glide away. "Oi, Sabo," Ace called, "hurry it up. I need you to pop my shoulder back in place."
Van Auger turned to Ace, furry marring his features. "Like a brat like him could-" Sabo hit him hard in the knee with his pipe, sending the man crumpling. He swung the pipe up in an arc, sunlight glinting off of it and finished off Van Auger with a blow to the head. Blood trickled from his nose and he walked with a slight limp as he made his way over to Ace, but he didn't look too injured.
He dusted himself off and looked at Ace's shoulder. "I hate doing this. Why do you always make me do it?"
"I'm not letting Luffy do it, are you crazy? And it helps when you have someone else, you know that." Sabo grimaced in agreement.
"Fine, deep breath in..." He pulled down gently on Ace's arm with a firm grip, constant tension that would let the joint slip back into place easily. Ace breathed out, willing his muscles to relax and gritting his teeth.
Ace let out a relieved breath with it resettled properly. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Now let's go find Luffy."
They went into Thatch's speakeasy through the front door. It wasn't really concealed, there was little need in this part of town, honestly. There were fewer goons lying about than Ace would have guessed, but then again, they'd probably all been outside. They headed towards the sound of an elephant falling down the stairs without bothering to poke would be where Luffy was.
The noise stopped, and they sped up, exchanging a worried glance. They entered the storeroom to find chaos. It looked like a tornado had torn though it, booze covering the floor nearly an inch deep. Luffy stood, bloody and breathing hard, over a downed man, who looked even worse than he did.
"Lu, you okay?" Sabo asked, and he turned to them grinning as he resettled his hat.
"Yep!"
"Is that Shiliew? The former officer in Impel Down?" Ace asked incredulously. "Man, Luffy, how come you got the funnest one?"
"I dunno. I didn't listen to him yammer on," Luffy said, but he grinned proudly, and Sabo chuckled.
"Come on then, we've been a bit delayed by this whole thing. We'd better clear everything out and head to the meeting place or we'll be late." He grinned at Ace slyly, and Ace prepared to tackle him, knowing it would be needed. "Don't want Marco to worry too much, do we?"
Luffy grabbed him before he could launch himself. "C'mooooon, I don't wanna be last. Plus he worries a lot, so it's a fair point."
Ace sighed. "Let's go then." They were able to free Thatch's men pretty quickly, and they were about to leave when the phone rang. Everyone in the building froze but, of course, Luffy, who answered on the second ring.
"Hi, this is Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will be King of Chicago."
Sabo snorted, his eyes dancing as he looked at Ace. "Still, huh?"
"I gave up on that one a long time ago," he said.
Luffy's face darkened, and they both stepped forward to listen in.
"Does that mean my dear former boss is there too?" Teach's voice grated even over the line.
Ace growled. "What do you want, Teach?"
"Just thought I'd give you a bit of news. Reporting in, like old times." Dread washed over Ace, but he kept his voice steady, Sabo and Luffy both tense as they held onto his arm. "Wouldn't want to to get too celebratory, thinking you've won."
"Oh? How d'ya figure?"
When Ace finally appeared, Marco breathed from what felt like the first time in twenty minute. The lunch bags Sanji had saved for the three were all that was left of their picnic, and the whole group had gotten tenser as it come closer to the deadline. When Ace and the others had appeared, it was like a switch, and they were all suddenly grim.
All three had blood on them somewhere, and none of them were moving quite right, but it was their expressions that caused concern. Everyone stood silently, waiting to hear what news had caused them to be so serious.
When they came up to them, Marco's heart sank, and Ace spoke the words he'd been dreading this whole time.
"They have the Moby Dick. They have Pops."
Stuffed shirt* - a boring, fussy person
Running on all sixes*- operating at full power, in this case doing their best\
Torpedos*- hired guns
Bearcats*- hot blooded, feisty women