Danger back in the Present...Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. If I did, I would be busy drawing instead of writing Fanfictions


52: Trigger

The night had approached the Vespian Isles, and Victor found that he was having a hard time sleeping. He had left for his camp hidden well within the Hydrox Isle after feeling he had observed Kaido long enough, ate some food, and attempted to sleep.

He found, however, that as soon as he fell asleep, he was plagued with nightmares. Surreal images of his past, childhood, and of some of the things he had seen pirates do in his lifetime. He awoke almost immediately in a start, and decided to go overlook the operation of getting Poseidon.

He went to the dig site, and surprisingly, he found Abalo Pizarro sitting by it, a lit cigarette in his hand. Perplexed, Victor walked up to him to find out what was going on.

"Taking a break?" he asked.

Pizarro took a puff on his cigarette and jerked a thumb backwards towards the dig site. "Done," he simply said.

Victor blinked. "Excuse me?"

"We finished the excavation," Pizarro stated. "I've done all I could, going through all that bedrock. All that's left is having some of the men do some last minute touches."

Victor was visibly shaking. "Yes, yes," he said hastily, "but it's basically finished, correct?"

Pizarro nodded. "Shouldn't take more than an hour to get Poseidon out, give or take fifteen minutes or so."

"Good, good," said Victor. "Excellent work Pizarro." He leaned in closer to the Corrupt King and said, "Let's just keep this business of getting the Poseidon out away from Kaido, eh?"

Pizarro's face lit up as he nodded. "What exactly are you planning there Victor?"

"Don't worry about it," he quickly replied. "Just let me know immediately when the ship is ready for transport so I can get Wolf ready."

Pizarro nodded, and Victor walked away.

It took near a full five minutes for him to stop shaking with excitement.

— — —

Victor wasn't stupid. He knew exactly what was going on on the island. Just one of the plusses of sending out a few members of the Corps of Kings to major cities like Sylar. At this late in the stage, information-gathering was key to Victor, and he made sure he found out everything he could.

So when Daron Arkan (along with Vendrix, but he left to go do his own thing) came back to Victor to report that he had an interesting skirmish with Roronoa Zoro of the Straw Hat Pirates. Victor had expected them to land on the Vespian Isles anyways, so this didn't come as much of a surprise.

One thing did stick in his mind, however.

While recounting his battle with Zoro, Daron had stated that they got interrupted by Monkey D. Garp, the former Hero of the Marines. This unsettled Victor somewhat, but when he also learned that he was accompanied by none other than Commodore White Chase Smoker, it had gotten Victor's attention.

He surmised that they were most likely deployed by Sengoku to hunt down the surviving Shichibukai: Doflamingo, Mihawk, and himself. He knew that it might be a problem at some point, but he didn't expect such a powerful marine to show up right in the middle of his operations. He took this new information into account, and planned accordingly.

He had come back to their own personal base to talk to Tobias. He found him sitting down in what appeared to be meditation. He kicked at him lightly.

"Hey, Tobias, you awake?"

He slowly opened his eyes. "Yes?"

"We got some plans to discuss."

"What would that be?"

Victor crouched down to get a level-eyed view of Tobias. "According to Pizarro, the Poseidon will be ready to move in an hour. I want you to go and get Wolf and assemble everyone you can, but do it quietly, without arousing suspicion from the Plague Pirates."

Tobias raised an eyebrow. "What do we intend to do about Kaido?"

"Don't worry about him," replied Victor. "I've had William be his 'personal bodyguard' from our side, and he's keeping an eye on him all right. What matters now, though, is that we're ready to move within an hour."

Tobias nodded. "If it gets us to our goal quicker, then it is for the best."

"Oh, it'll send us flying to our goal with the speed of a fuckin' golden train," laughed Victor. "Just make sure it's done."

Tobias nodded. "All right, I'll—"

"Why what is all this secretive talk about?"

Both Victor and Tobias immediately turned around to see Kaido standing there with a smile, Gunslinger William Helmont at his side. Victor glared at William as if to say he needed some warning, but William only looked at him sympathetically that seemed to say "there was nothing I could do."

Victor matched his smile. "Why, are we getting a bit paranoid there Kaido?"

"Well when Poseidon and One Piece are at stake, one could get a little…irrational," he simply stated. "But I would like to know what you were talking about."

"I was just talking to Tobias about how the excavation was going," he replied. "Nothing more and nothing less…"

"So how is the excavation going then?"

"It'll probably take half a day more," Victor said. "It's pretty deep underground, after all."

Kaido nodded and turned around, about to walk away. "I would suggest you tread lightly while here…It would be a horrible shame if a few of you were to come down with a slight cold."

Kaido didn't get four feet away when the sound of a gunshot was heard. They all immediately snapped to attention as they heard several screams followed by more gunshots. Victor immediately sprang into action.

"William!" he ordered. "Go up on that hill and see if you can find out where those shots are coming from!"

He nodded and immediately bounded off for the massive hill that would give him a strong vantage point.

"So it's those bastards after all," Kaido muttered.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" demanded Victor. "Are you suggesting you know what's going on?"

"Well my stay here has caused some…unrest with Vespians," replied Kaido. "I have caught rumors in the wind that a man named Ridge Carrison—a deaf-mute—was inciting a rebellion against me, but I didn't know if it was true or not."

"You're saying you knew there was a rebellion and didn't do anything about it?"

"I said there were rumors," reiterated Kaido. "Besides, I didn't think they could do much anyway."

Victor looked around to see several men falling to gunshots. "Well apparently they can do something! Now you're men are the ones paying the price."

Kaido was about to respond when William called up from the hill.

"It looks like there are snipers on all the isles surrounding this one!" he shouted down. "Hey Boss, from what I can see, it looks like the Straw Hats are hanging out in the middle of some forest!"

"What?" was Victor's response. "Well what are you waiting for? Take them out!"

William smiled at this. "With pleasure."

Victor then turned to Kaido and said, "And I'm not risking my men out there! This is your problem, and you need to use your men to fix it."

Kaido responded with a grunt and turned to one of his men. "Gather up the Plague Pirates and split them up into equal forces to go and deal with the rebels on each individual isle. I'll go personally to deal with Carrison."

When Kaido was walking away, Victor shouted angrily at him, "You knew where he lived as well, and still didn't do anything?"

Kaido didn't respond, as he was already gone, taking the closest twenty men he could find. Victor looked up at William and shouted, "When you're done taking them out, go and make sure Kaido doesn't do anything fucking stupid! There are marines on this island after all!"

William nodded, turning his arm into an artillery cannon.

Victor snapped towards Tobias and said, "I can't trust that incompetent fool to take care of this alone. Send word to Blackbeard's old crew—save for Wolf of course—that they're to search each isle and take care of the problem, especially if they come across any marines. We can't afford to have anyone else fuck this up!"

Tobias nodded.

"I'll go to Pizarro and send him out too—since he served his purpose—and make sure you gather everyone else and have them meet me at where Poseidon is. Be sure to let Blackbeard's old crew know that they're to meet back at Poseidon when they've conducted a thorough search. If they're not there within an hour, then too bad for them!"

Tobias nodded again. "It'll be done."

"Alright," Victor sighed. "Get the remaining members of the Corps of Kings and have them meet me at Poseidon."

With that, he left.

Meanwhile, William took aim of Ridge's house where the Straw Hats were standing together and smiled. "Blast-Blast Artillery!"

— — —

"We had snipers position all around Hydrox Isle waiting for Beau's signal to attack," Julia had explained to the Straw Hats, all of them filing outside of her home.

Ridge nodded.

"Our plan is to cause confusion and have Kaido send out pirates in all directions to take care of the problem, where our men will be hiding and waiting behind all of the booby traps we've set. Then, once we've taken out his force, we can swarm Hydrox and take out Kaido!"

"Clever plan," Nami said. "Seems about the only possible way to take out such a powerful force."

Ridge motioned to Julia and pointed away from the house. Julia turned towards the Straw Hats and said, "We have to go take care of a few more things. You can wait here for us to return if you want, but we won't stop you if you want to help in some other way."

They all nodded, and with that, both Ridge and Julia were gone…

Sanji leaned against a tree, smoking a cigarette with Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Hancock hanging around the Carrison's house. "So we're just gonna hang out around here until they get back then?"

"It's the best plan," Nami said. "Ridge and Julia know this operation the best, and if we go running off, we'd just get lost and not end up helping."

"Not that it's stopping this kid," Zoro sighed, holding Luffy under his armpits in an attempt to stop him from running.

"Come on, I wanna go and kick Kaido's ass!" he said, trying to escape Zoro's strong grasp.

"Give it up," Zoro said flatly. "In this forest area, you'd just get lost and end up doing nothing."

"How dare you lay your hands on Luffy!" Hancock yelled to Zoro.

"No I won't! I'm just gonna go to the Hydrox Isle and fight with Kaido! Then hopefully we can find Victor and I can kick his ass too!"

"Can you even point to the direction the Hydrox Isle is in?" asked a curious Usopp.

Luffy froze for a second, before finally answering, "No…"

"Then just sit tight and wait for Ridge and Julia; they know where it is, and will probably lead us there anyway," Usopp sighed.

Luffy finally stopped struggling.

"Can I let you go now?" asked Zoro.

Luffy nodded, and Zoro released him. "You guys are right, I guess we'll just wait to—"

William's artillery shell hit dead on at Ridge and Julia's house with such a force that it sent all the Straw Hats flying to the ground from the shock.

— — —

Kaido was moving quickly with his twelve men trying to keep up. He had already lost five upon entering the isle that Ridge and Julia's house was on due to clever traps they had set up in advanced. Two of the five were lost to falling in a pit with sharpened stakes at the bottom, while one stepped on some device that made a clicking noise, and when he stepped off of it, a homemade bomb flew into the air, killing him and two others.

Three had been wounded when one stepped over a trip wire, apparently activating several guns hiding in the brush of the forest, as bullets flew at them from all sides. Kaido's instincts served him well, as he had been honed by a lifetime of skill and hardship. His men, however, were not so lucky. He coldly left the three injured men to die as he and his remaining men moved on.

Not being the best with directions, however, Kaido kept going off in random paths, hoping they would lead to his ultimate destination so he could kill Ridge and end the rebellion prematurely. After several minutes of wandering, however, and he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Enough of this!" he yelled, as his men recoiled. "Let's get rid of this bothersome vegetation!"

"Ah, Captain, you don't mean—"

Orange mist began to emanate from Kaido's pores, as he yelled, "Agent Orange!"

"Ah! He really is using it!" his men yelled, trying to scramble away from it. "His special technique Agent Orange. A technique that uses special bacteria to act as a pesticide and eat away at all plant-life; it can also be deadly for humans to inhale too!"

Sure enough, as soon as the orange mist touched the trees surrounding them, they shriveled away almost instantly to nothing, leaving only gray dying vegetation in their place. His men had already fled the isle, knowing that once he started, he would increase the radius until he found where to go. Kaido—the eater of the Flu-Flu Fruit—stayed there, continuing to produce the noxious gas, until its radius got so big it stopped.

When it stopped, Kaido looked up and saw a much clearer path, and within seconds, he spotted the silhouette of a house…right before it seemed to explode.

Surprised, Kaido hurried over there to see what happened.

— — —

Gunslinger William Helmont smirked as he saw his artillery shell scatter the Straw Hat Crew to the wind, and after firing two more quick shots towards them, he rushed down the hill to try and find Kaido and make sure he doesn't fuck anything else up more than it needed to be.

— — —

Almost immediately after the house exploded, two more of William's shells hit the ground, and, while none of them hit the Straw Hats directly, it still caused a large amount of damage around them, sending them flying even further back with the shockwaves of the attack.

After a few seconds, Luffy got up, and saw that his crew was a little slower to do so. Luffy thought it was because he could absorb the shock better (being made of rubber and all), and called to them. Soon enough, they got up, but all of them seemed to be scattered all around him right at the edge of the forest.

Before any orders could be called by Luffy, Kaido burst through the woodlands and yelled, "There you are!"

Luffy looked and asked earnestly, "Who are you?"

Hancock seemed to recognize him immediately, though, and said, "Luffy, that's Razeden Kaido, one of the Yonko!"

"So you're Kaido?" Luffy asked.

"I don't know who you are and I don't care," Kaido said to Luffy. "Where, however, is Ridge Carrison?"

Luffy almost immediately sprang into action, launching an extending fist towards Kaido, which he easily dodged. "As if I'd tell you that!" he laughed.

His arm came back and he yelled to his scattered crew, "Everyone, split up and do whatever you can to help Ridge out! I don't think he's gonna be coming back here anymore once he sees what's happened to his house!"

"But what about you?" yelled Nami.

Luffy smirked. "I'm gonna do Ridge's job for him and kick this guy's ass!"

"Big words, little man," Kaido said humorlessly.

"No Luffy, don't fight him alone!" pleaded Hancock. "He has the power of the Flu-Flu Fruit, and can infect you with any kind of disease he wants!"

"Sanji, take care of her please!" Luffy called, and Sanji got the message, running towards the pleading Hancock and picking her up.

"Put me down you savage!" she said, attempting to break from his grip.

"Split up and be safe guys!" Luffy said, not even looking at them anymore. "And be sure to meet at the Hydrox Isle so we can go and kick Victor's ass too!"

"You crazy kid," Zoro muttered, before yelling: "Aye-Aye Captain!"

"Be careful Luffy!" Usopp pleaded.

"Don't die on us!" Nami added.

"Good luck Captain," Sanji said (with the still-struggling Hancock over his shoulder).

Luffy nodded. "Now scatter!"

With that, they all ran in separate directions, each bound for different isles to help out with the cause of rebellion; Luffy was the only one who stayed, facing the massive Kaido.

"So you seek Victor, eh?" Kaido said. "I don't much care what happens to him, but I'll only ask one more time: where can I find Ridge Carrison?"

"You might as well stop asking," Luffy said, throwing both his arms back and stretching them. "Because I'm not gonna tell you the answer! Gum-Gum Bazooka!"

Sparks flew as Luffy and Kaido squared off in a death-match that would rock the very isle they were fighting on.


Clash with a Yonko!

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