WinterRose61 - Second part! Even a poor villager got roped into the confusion. Though it is fairly limited in this one, especialy between Ace and the Whitebeards. But no fear! I've decided to keep this one going untill Ace figures it out that the old man is actually the real deal, so more confusion to come! Just gotte get Ace onto the ship somehow haha

Out of breath Ace arrived at the small village, the battle with Jimbe really had taken something out of him. He had wanted to rest first thing after it, but with the old man appearing, that took priority. He could take a little nap after helping him, for now he was sure his crew would protect the old man from his 'sons'.

-Sons. Sons. Pff, I don't know a lot about biology, but Deuce had at least, tried to, teach him the basics. So he knows this kind of height difference was impossible, unless they all had that weird dwarfism! Oh noo, poor kids... Deuce would be proud of him for remembering the name if a sickness! Hehe, I'm smart too Deuce, look at me hahhaha! If those people somehow are his sons... the poor mother... It must have been like passing kidney stones!-

Suddenly getting thrown out of his own weird thoughts he looked around him "What was I doing again...? Ah right, searching for the old man's house."

-Hmmm, everything is too small...Ah!- "Excuse me!"

A passing villager turned around hearing someone yelling behind him and saw a freckled teen running closer, happily waving at him. Putting on a kind smile he turned to face the guy.

"Hello, can I help you? You're not from around here, are you?"

"No, no, I'm docked with my crew at the other side of the island, we're the Spade pir-. DON'T WORRY! We're not here to harm you guys!" Ace quickly added the second part and rose his hands as a sign that he really means no harm when he saw the villager tensing up.

The villager looked a bit more nervous knowing he was in front of a pirate, but he luckily stayed to help. "O-okay, ehm what is it you need?"

"Well, I met this big old man with a HUUUGEEEE moustache." Ace made sure to accentuate the size of said moustache with his hands.

"Mister Newgate?"

Seeing that the villager knew the old man's name, brought a smile to his face, "Ah you know him, perfect! I am looking for where he is staying and who's taking care of him."

"Staying? Taking care of? Ehm well, I guess his sons take care of him? The sta-

With his short attention span, Ace already interrupted the villager before he could even finish his sentence, "Are they REALLY his sons!? There's such a big height difference, didn't you see that?!"

The villager was really confused by now, everyone knew they were not really the man's actual blood-related sons, right, right?

"Ehm, they are ehm not really his sons."

"They're adopted?"

"... You could say that, yes. Sir Marco the phoenix has even already been with him for the past 20 years or so."

"The pineapple? Hmmm, so they're not after his inheritance then?"

-Pineapple? Inheritance?- "No? I... I don't think so? They travel together, as a family. For the fun of it, because they can and want to stay together, no strings attached. And ehm, if they were after his inheritance, I don't think that they would care that much about his health as they do now. They always buy lots of herbs and stuff for Mister Newgate's health. And The Phoenix is also known to keep a watchful eye on him and is one of the only ones who dare to take away Mister Newgate's alcohol when he has had enough."

-hmmmmmmmm, they got the villagers fooled, I see I see. I'll have to keep a closer eye on them, especially that pineapple Phoenix, stealing the old man's sake on his old day. That's were it starts, one day it just seems innocent sake, 'for his health's sake', and next you know his whole inheritance is gone!-

Even if Ace didn't believe the villager, he decided to keep up an act that he did, he did still need some information out of the villagers. "Thank you for the information, and ehm, you said travel? You mean around the island?"

"No, on his boat."

"Boat?"

"Yea, the Moby."

"His ship has the same name as Whitebeard's ship?"

"Yes... Because he is Whitebeard."

-! These villages! They're in on it too!- Ace wiped away an imaginary tear –There's so many good people here! Everyone always said that the new world is a mean place, but look at this!-

"Yes, he is, isn't he. Strong, undefeated, Whitebeard." Ace answered with a proud smile while nodding. "So, when he isn't on his 'boat', then where is he?

Ignoring the weird way that the kid was suddenly smiling at him, the villagers pointed a bit further down the road, "Ehm, a bit ahead, more into the village center, is a big bar named 'The crescent moon'. It was built big enough for sir Newgate himself and his crew, so they are often found there when they are docked here."

"Thank you very much! I am going to check it out!"

The villager mumbled a 'no problem', but after having bowed an impressive 90° degrees in less than 2 seconds, the kid was already running off in the direction he had pointed. "That was one weird kid, how do you always attract these kids Newgate..." the man said to no one in particular. He just looked up towards the huge flag flying in their docks, the flag that protects them simply by displaying the jolly roger of Whitebeard himself. It was visible from everywhere in the village. With one last look, the villager turned around and went back on his way to his home, "Weird, weird kid."

Running the direction that the nice villagers had pointed him, he had found the establishment easily. It was the size of like ... 12 normal sized houses stacked together, it was massive!

Looking around the huge building, Ace noticed the sign at the door, "The crescent moon".
-Huuuh, the sign even has the shape of a crescent moon, or a banana, or... ! The old man's moustache! These people named his own house after him so the old man can always find it! That's so nice! Now the old man probable never needs to be scared to find his house again when he goes for a walk in the village, aah this is so emotional, such good people!-

After internally blessing the whole village, Ace peered into a window and saw it was also very spacious inside. There were lots of normal sized chairs and tables, but at the back he could spot one very big comfy chair "Bingo!".

-Glad to have found this place so quickly, time to tell the rest!- With a skip in his steps, Ace made his way back over to his crew and the old man... and his 'sons'. He really needs to take care of those before he leaves the old man alone. -Just you wait you alcohol stealing pineapple inheritance thief!-

"You have an 8th of clubs?"

"Go fish. Ace of Spades?"

"By coincidence, yes, but not the one you want, go fish."

"2 of Spades?"

"Go f-"

"He has it."

Instantly cards were flying through the air and people were jumping up.
"YOU CHEATER!"

"WHY DID YOU OUT ME OLD MAN!"

"YOOOOOOOOUUUUUU-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

"...Ehm... Shouldn't you stop them?"

"Who?"

"... The ones of your own crew-yoi? The ones physically fighting on the ground over there, and... biting each other."

The blue haired kid, who was apparently named Deuce as they recently learned, just looked over to the fighting pair with a humm before turning back and continued to write in his book as if nothing was going on. The only answer they got was a murmur of "They know to avoid the arteries when biting, don't worry.".

"..." The commanders where all speechless. This crew was insane. The Spades captain didn't believe that their captain, THE one and only Edward Newgate, THE strongest man in the world, WHITEBEARD HIMSELF, was standing before him, just because he didn't have a beard.
His crew apparently did know that he was the real deal, but for some reason played along and were now just casually doing their own thing, not minding in the slightest that they were with the strongest crew in the world. Hell, they had somehow even managed to mingle in with some of their own. Asking some to join in a card game, or even darts (When did they even sett it up?), more chefs had joined the skull-mask-guy too, and... were those nurses too? That guy must have some good recipes...

It seems that, besides Thatch who was send away to retrieve a recipe by pops himself, the other commanders were the only ones sane le- scratch that, they lost Izou. One of the spades complimented his kimino and asked what kind of cloth it was, yeap, won't be seeing Izou again for a while. And... Why is Jozu suddenly getting polished? Is he enjoying it too?!

Seeing all the commanders getting roped into the madness one by one, Marco just plopped down next to the seemingly only sane person on the Spades crew, the first mate, Deuce, who was still casually writing in a book.

"What's going on-yoi?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

… You don't have to glare at me commander, geez, you got out of bed on the wrong talon.

"I didn't... and did you just -"

"I didn't."

"..."

Marco sighed deeply and wiped his hands over his face.

"Please tell me this is not a daily thing."

"Oh no, don't worry, this is nothing"

"Thank goodne-"

"compared to normal."

"... You've got to be kidding me-yoi!"

"You know, you actually get used to it pretty quickly. It keeps things lively too."

-It keeps things lively alright- Marco looked over to everyone on shore, now that everyone was settled down, it did actually look like a cozy gathering. Like the ones they also did themselves when having parties. The crews mingling perfectly, all enjoying their own day. Even pops seems to be having fun, even if it was thanks to a combination of drinking prune juice, petting a cat, and snitching on the cheating of the ones playing card, and if Marco was correct, he also noticed Pops using his power to derail the darts... Old goat is enjoying it too much.

"Your captain seems to be having fun."

"... He does-yoi. Thanks... I guess."

"No problem, it just happens with Ace. You may think he is crazy. And he is."

"Aren't you supposed to defend him and say he's not."

"Would you even believe me if I tried to defend him?"

"No-yoi"

"There you go, and besides, it's a part of him. No matter how often I curse at this side of him, no matter how many times it actually gets us in more trouble, I wouldn't want him to change for anything, or anyone. This, including all of the madness, is the man I decided to follow."

"You seem to have a lot of respect for him."

Deuce raised an eyebrow and turned his full attention to the first commander "Isn't that obvious just by the fact we're following him? You should know that you don't survive these waters with childish games, even if it sometimes looks like that's what we're doing. Ace is an admirable captain, he has protected and saved us more times than I can count.
And you may not see it in him right now, but Ace knows when it's time to get serious. We could have been laughing, or playing games, just like we're now, as soon as there's a real threat, Ace will be there to have our backs. I put my full trust in him.
Why do you even think we're all hanging out with you so casually? You guys are a Yonko crew for goodness's sake. And look at us. We're here, not running away, playing games even, all because Ace wanted to meet you guys, because Ace told us to keep an eye on your old man, even if that is unnecessary, Ace wouldn't just leave us to our deaths, we trust his judgement.

"So, you do know the actual danger you could be in right now-yoi."

"Of course we do. First division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, Marco the Phoenix, we may seem crazy, but we're not stupid. Everyone present knows that if you guys decided to attack, that we would stand no chance. It still doesn't change a thing though."

"What if his judgement is wrong? He is clearly wrong about Whitebeard, and all of you know it, but you're still staying. What if this recklessness will lead to your end?"

"As I said before, Ace knows what he's doing, even if it doesn't seem like it. And commander, even with knowing everything, it doesn't mean that you can prevent everything. And besides, if we plan out our every move, avoid every element that dangerous, where is our fun in the journey then? We didn't choose the pirates life for safety either, I think no one does.
But, either way, even if we were to get into a deadly situation due to decision of Ace, I'll gladly go down with him. Ace saved me, he's the only reason I... we, all of the Spades, are able to stand here today and enjoy our life. If one day this journey will end, no matter if it is in battle, or because of some stupid consequence, we'll stay with Ace until the very end."

Marco could see the determination and passion in Deuce his eyes, he spoke with nothing but adoration towards his captain. He had greatly misjudged these people. With all their antics in the newspapers, when it came out that the newbie wanted to take his father's head when he hadn't even reached the New World yet, how their captain had acted just minutes earlier, and how the crew was acting with them right now, he had thought they were simply reckless.
Just running around like teenagers, not thinking through anything they do and what the consequences may be. He had had thoughts that with a captain like that, the crew would be unstable, that there would be no way that there was a reliable amount of trust and coordination in the crew.
But he was wrong, even now that he was looking around, really looking at all of them, as individuals and as a group. He noticed, that even while most were seemingly playing games and acting stupid, talking and playing with their own members, they were actually all placed very strategically throughout the clearing. And now he was really looking at it and noticed it, you couldn't look past it. No spade was out of sight of the other, everyone was keeping an eye on each other with subtle motions and signs, every spade only had a selected few of his own crew around them. And was it planned or coincidence, their sharpshooter was playing cards, higher up, at a perfect vantage point. While this, everything going on around him for the past minutes, had all seemed so uncoordinated and crazy, the Spades somehow had, without planning or even really talking, all spread out in an unnoticeable and strategic way. Even when knowing that they won't be able to beat them if a fight came to be, they were so spread out, with perfect option to not only get away, but also in places where they would be able to do a great deal of damages and raise hell before anyone of them would have noticed. They wouldn't go down without a fight.

He had seriously underestimated them. Not just the captain, but the whole crew and their way of doing things. The amount of thrust and coordination they had was admirable and was only possible with a steady captain to anchor it.

Once Marco had gathered his thoughts, he turned more towards Deuce and bowed his head before speaking sincerely, "I'm sorry-yoi. I see that I've misjudges you all greatly. Forgive me, I didn't mean to down talk your captain, or anyone of you for that matter."

"It's okay, it's a pretty normal reaction." Deuce smiled softly while running a hand over his book. After a moment of silence, he closed his book and looked the commander in the eye with unreadable look before he spoke with glee in his voice "Commander, it seems you'll see for yourself how Ace really is."

"Wha-"

"OOOIIIII, I THINK I FOUND HIS HOME!" Turning to the voice, Marco saw no one other than the Captain of the Spades running towards them while waving at them and smiling brightly"

"SPADES, Gather up! Our dear captain has returned!" Deuce suddenly yelled next to him.

Even with his newly found admiration for the crew, Marco couldn't stop looking at the approaching form of the Spade's captain, a headache forming with every step that the guy got closer. And the look Deuce was sending him really wasn't helping it either. It was clearly mocking him, 'You don't know anything yet', he looked so smug about it too...
So, with resignment he looked up towards the sky and closed his eyes with one thought. -Oh kami, what have we gotten ourselves into...-

I know there wasn't a lot of interaction between Ace and the Whitebeards this time, but I hope everyone still enjoyed this chapter! There will definitely be a 3th chapter of this, just gotte get Ace onboard of the ship XD