Marineford III

Zoro had his bandana already tied around his head when Usopp's warning came, and by the time his eyes found the two massive Kuma-like machines flying towards the Roaring Nova at an angle necessary to avoid Whitebeard's forces, Sanji had already lit a new cigarette, while Mikita tried to nail them from a distance with her baseball-shaped loads of lead.

To no effect: nowhere near to the speed of the real deal, the two robots whipped around and twirled as they flew, neatly avoiding Mikita's assault while Usopp bit his lip in worry: if his hit landed, it would give away his position, and potentially surrender the advantage of surprise.

"They're not the real one!" Usopp's warning revealed the somewhat obvious details he had observed from the main battle going on in Marineford proper: "They're robots with laser cannons instead of the paws of the Shichibukai!"

The first Pacifista arrived flying parallel to the ice, only to fling his arms forward at the last possible moment, unleashing twin laser beams that allowed it to flip back while impacting the flank of the ship... that vanished into mist.

"I can't keep my mirage up with those things tearing through!" Nami's frightened voice rang loudly on the actual deck of the Roaring Nova. The lasers easily burrowed through the ice, releasing a cloud of steam that Nami quickly started to manipulate with the latest model of her clima-tact.

"Do what you can, witch." Zoro's laconic answer was mumbled through the hilt of Wado Ichimonji clenched in his teeth while he jumped beyond the bulwark, mirages of himself appearing scattered across the ice in a way that distracted the aiming system of the two robots.

The first Pacifista hadn't finished flipping about that the second began firing with precision through each of the copies, its mouth open as the inner, hidden canon let up three shots for each second that passed.

Mikita's long-ranged attacks bounced with no issue off the raised arms of the first robot, while Sanji erupted from the mist, hitting with his heel the shoulder of the second one, which had dodged at the last second a blow meant to close its maw over the exploding projectiles it let out.

Zoro's blades were carving at a never-seen-before speed through the resilient steel of the robot that hadn't managed to escape his ambush, and soon a leg was cut off, only for the swordsman to be blasted away by a third Pacifista that had arrived from straight up in the sky.

And it was then that Usopp realized what he had to do: as always when he began to figure out new uses for his power, a literally steely grin appeared on his face as he jumped off the tallest mast of the Roaring Nova, activating the small transponder snail he had on his wrist while he fell: "Franky, we need to do that thing we talked about!"

"It sounds like cheating!"

"It sounds like having a power-up with lasers and the ability to fly!" Usopp's sharp retort arrived with stars shining in his eyes, and even if he coudn't see Franky while his feet impacted the deck of the ship, the springs he ate and merged with his calves making him bounce off it harmlessly, "Where are you!"

The sniper fired three shots from his recently improved slingshot only to immediately eat the last version of the three-wheeled motorcycle, merging with it in the last configuration he had figured out with Franky just before the Straw Hat Pirates second raid on Enies Lobby, only for the voice of the cyborg in question to reach him as he left the galley of the Roaring Nova.

"I'm suuuper Here!" he was his usual, cheery self, but he carried a thick backpack on his back, and two small cannons were mounted over a rounded support that he was barely managing to balance over his shoulders. And while his voice was jolly, his smile was somewhat fixed on his visage, and his steel nose was the only thing hiding the wrinkles of distaste for what was about to happen, "Let's do it before I change my mind."

As he talked, the first two pellets impacted harmlessly against one of the Pacifistas, releasgin a thick, white cloud of smoke. Through it were immediately fired a retaliatory laser strike that sailed harmlessly in the air where Usopp had been falling through whe he fired, only for the third pellet to explode as black, sticky gunk over the glasses-covered eyes of one of the remaining two robots.

While Sanji's kicks hammered the side of the only knee left on the Pacifista that had met Zoro's fury, Mikita braved the first line.

Just like Zoro had done, she emerged from the ice-turned-steam with the speed only available to the truly weightless, and she kicked: her body weighted exacly a kilogram, while the tip of her toe held 999 klograms. When her kick landed on the back of one robots' head, it was as if a small landslide had been stuck into a bullet.

The massive Robot was flung head first into the unforgiving ice, which shattered upon impact, only for Mikita to flutter out of the way of an arm flaying with mechanical precision where she had been a moment before.

The Pacifista that had been momentarily hidden in Usopp's smoke flew outwards, mouth open to fire a laser at the obvious target of Usopp and Franky, who were momentarily busy, failed: with no warning, two slender arms appeared out of its shoulders, and struck its head in a conjoined blow that forged it to close its mouth while the laser was fired.

Robin's intervention made it stagger while Usopp's jaw reached the floor, only for Franky to more or less willingly jump inside the sniper's maw. The long-nosed, steel-jawed pirate immediately began to munch on the cyborg he had eaten, briefly merging with him while the wheels obtained thanks to Smoker's motorcycle allowed him to move at incredible speeds on the ice.

The Pacifista that had been hit by Robin rebooted in a split second, as its aiming system had been shot to hell, only to reactivate just in time to witness something utterly odd even when compared to the vast database of potential targets that had been made available in its program.

Instead of the two separate targets of Cutty Flam and Usopp, his camera witnessed a single being: six meters tall and without a neck, the face of the sniper of the Straw Hat Pirates was stuck amidst of a steely, rounded set of shoulders that hosted mobile cannons, while instead of goggles and hair, almost as if an odd helmet, he was wearing a blue haired-head sporting a dazed expression.

Steel that had been elaborated and obtained as a result after the 'study' of Yubashiri composed the body of the merged Franky-Usopp, and the blue start that ordinarily would have needed to be put together by joining arms shone now proudly on the steely chin of that person. A chin that reached the belly of the amalgamation, which opened as the Pacifista stumbled.

Always quick on the uptake, Robin had manifested her lips on Sanji's shoulder, and the cook had run faster than ever to follow the indications of the beautiful archeologist.

His low sweep impacted the Pacifista's shin as he took a step forward, its momentum forcing it to trip into the awaiting maw of the sniper-shipwright combination.

Still Busy moving ice, Chopper felt the odd instinct to bellow in awe, while Luffy, far away and busy trying not to due, felt his heart thump more loudly, as if happy because of something unexpected.

The Pacifista, the machine realized by Vegapunk, the greatest mind of the world, of the body, mind and maybe soul of Kuma, the Shichibukai, was swallowed whole by Usopp-Franky. The Robot prepared to fire everything it had, engaging the protocols needed to not leave behind serviceable tech for the enemy, only for the merged existence of the sniper and the shipwright of the Straw Hat Pirates to munch on it.

The first munch dismantled the Pacifista.

Just as Usopp had once extracted knowledge from books, just as he had derived understanding of the inner working from munching on a dial, just as he had managed to replicate the peerless quality of Yubashiri's steel after truly engaging his devil fruit power, the Pacifista was disassembled. With the mind of Franky working alongside his, offering insight and the sheer genius he was born with, understanding of every single component was shared between the two.

The second munch was spent thinking, using the processing power of the impossibly advanced the robot to complete the calculations and projections that would have otherwise required weeks of work.

The merging took place with the third munch: instead of the unholy combination of Usopp and Franky stood a twelve meters tall peerless example of machinery. Electronics were integrated perfectly with the organic components, and the engine powering up the Pacifista was understood and used to enhance the cola-system that Franky already got going on.

Efficiency skyrocketed, predictions and combat protocols were engaged at the same time, and when the resulting magnum opus of Vegapunk, Usopp, and Franky left the smoke, the Pacifista with a single leg that was about to fire on Mikita, which was busy fighting along with Zoro, everyone stilled for a split second.

The dark and white jacket of Kuma hung open over the shoulders of the behemoth that walked out of the smoke, fluttering like a cloak. With a blue star shining on his bare chest, and lighter blue hair shaped like the muzzle of a shotgun, Usopp's steely grin had never been more menacing. With mobile laser cannons on his wide shoulders while the spiked wheels with exhausts that sprung out of his calves gripped the ice perfectly, the combination of Usopp-Franky and the Pacifista had just become a major player on Marineford's field.

The 'crippled' but still working operative was felled and was eaten before anyone could blink, while the third one, distracted by Robin's form appearing in a flutter of pink petals out of the mist, immediately followed.

The behemoth that was the unholy result of clever usage of a Devil Fruit, applied through the lenses of a shipwright that was a genius at weapon-making, with the faintest hint of knowledge born from having read the plans of an Ancient Weapon, dismantled everything that the Pacifistas were with negligent ease. The familiarity of the process aiding it even more while Franky ran iteration over iteration until the perfect solution appeared.

The apparently hard limit that stopped Usopp from being merged with an object he ate before a span of 24 hours luckily didn't apply to those constructs he built with his power, as his projectiles and clima-tact in Nami's hands proved.

Another couple of munches were completed, and under the amazed eyes of every member of the Straw Hat Pirates that wasn't busy preparing the escape way, Usopp spat out Franky, following up with a tall backpack, and a unique-looking couple of rifles that were reminiscent of the laser-guns deployed by the Pacifistas.

But while the tall backpack that looked like an odd combination between a barrel and a steam engine was odd, it didn't match at all the new look of both Franky and Usopp.

The first stood easily at three meters and half of height, Kuma's jacket hanging open over his round shoulders, from which the retractable muzzle of two cannons was ready to fire. The cyborg kept his light blue hairstyle like a revolver pointing straight ahead from over his cranium, while he sported a blazing blue five-pointed star over his large chest. While the proportions weren't truly far from Kuma's, Franky's waist was a bit larger, and he had, of course, decided to keep wearing only a speedo, while his legs now sported exhausts in gleaming steel jutting out of his calves, and wheels with a variable profile ready to be slotted under his feet.

Everyone expected some sort of declaration, so when the cyborg stiffly turned towards Usopp with a serious expression, a hint of worry appeared on the pirates' faces. Then he spoke: "Haven't you forgotten something-Mecha?"

While Sanji facepalmed, Zoro scoffed and shook his head. While Robin muffled her bout of laughter, her hilarity quickly sobering in face of the still ongoing war, Mikita let out her insufferable peal of laughter, unable to hold it in: "Khyahahaha!"

Usopp too had changed, albeit in a different manner: instead of regular eyes he now sported a complex-looking red reticulate that was lit up from within, while instead of eyelids there were concentric rings that slid smoothly one over another as he adjusted his depth perception. Wheels still kept their position at his feet, while the exhaust pipes had a more refined look to them. He lacked the impossible height of Franky, as well as his bulk, but he hardly needed it.

With a smooth movement that betrayed the hidden improvements that had been applied to his body, the narrow shoulders of the sniper tensed, and he easily raised the immense barrel-like backpack onto his back, casually spitting a sequence of magazines charged with different sets of pellets that he nibly attached to his person. His long trousers were cut at the knee, while instead of a belt, he had a harness upon which hung several different gun-like weapons, each subtly different, while a single slingshot made of gleaming steel hung at his hip, next to a large pouch that was secured to the harness itself.

One of the two laser-rifles was secured between the backpack that had to weigh hundreds of kilograms, while the other was embraced with grim determination as Usopp turned towards his cyborg friend: "Of course."

The seriousness of the statement was betrayed by the action that followed. Almost as if he had practiced it, the sniper brought a hand to his mouth, pulling out a pair of rectangular sunglasses that he quickly handed over.

Despite the brief grimace that appeared on his face at the ide of handling something that had just left the mouth of another person, Franky nodded seriously, and with a flick of his wrist, he opened the sunglasses, quickly donning them over his steely nose. As soon as they were in place, the lenses too were lit as if from within, revealing a complex, moving reticulate that flashed briefly before disappearing from the sight of the other pirates. Then, in a robotic tone, he thanked the sniper: "I owe you-Mecha."

Usopp flashed him a thumbs up before turning towards Marineford proper: "I'll need to spit out the improvements before the 24 hours are up, and plan out something compact that I can eat in order to power up in case of emergency."

"This will do for now." Nami's irritated voice accompanied her walking out of the mist: "We have another problem."

"Such as?" Mikita was still trying to reel in the insane burst of hilarity that had almost overcome her, only to pale when the orange-haired navigator pointed at her back.

While they were busy, the Moby Dick had disappeared.


The shockwave of the clash between Sengoku and Whitebeard had blasted away Ace along with Luffy, Mr. 3, and Bentham, making them all tumble roughly on the unforgiving ground.

Sengoku, not expecting a close-range attack from the Strongest Man in the world, was pushed back almost easily while Whitebeard's powers caused whipping winds to blast about while Marineford shook, and the rumble of that clash was echoed by a joyful, unrestrained howl.

That which Ace couldn't compute was confirmed as Luffy laughed loudly: "Ace! You're free!"

Violently moving his eyes away from his father's unblemished back, Portogas D. Ace was left observing the grinning, unashamed face of his younger brother, and as the chaos of war began again around them, he was momentarily undecided about what to do: alone against Sengoku and the Admirals that were quickly closing in from wherever the battle had brought them, even Whitebeard...

A flash of light announced Kizaru's arrival, which exploded harmlessly against a vortex of blue flames, which revealed a stern-faced Marco: "Snap out of it Ace, yoi! Make for the ships!"

The familiar voice of his brother managed to shake Ace out of the funk he had fallen into and in a blink, the incoming hordes of marines that the small group of escapees would have had to fight through, vanished in flames so hot they burned white. Marco's words, however quickly delivered, had been enough to hammer in a single, obvious point: dying, or remaining behind, would have meant throwing away all the sacrifices that had been made.

Even with tears stinging in his eyes, even with a small part of him screaming that he wasn't worth it, that he couldn't be deserving of such sacrifice, that he hadn't asked for it, he began blasting a path for his rescuers to follow. Even now, the only thing he could do seemed to be to trust in his Old Man. The man whose jolly roger he bore on his back, which felt like a warm reassuring hand pushing him forward.

Ace began to run, masking the tumultuous madness of his emotions under a scoff: "What did I do to deserve such a reckless little brother?"

"Shishishishi!" the somewhat bulky form of Luffy let out a peal of laughter while he punched away a marine, bouncing freely over the ground as he basically used hismelf as a bowling ball to balse away his opponents, "Dunno!"

A spike of ice shattered casually against a raised arm made of diamond, which revealed the deceptively quick Jozu jumping in the way of Aokiji, whose uncaring expression remained utterly nonplussed even as the following punch blasted him away.

A wall of wax was kicked over an incoming platoon of marines by Bentham, who spun with a smile on his features and crying openly as he witnessed the marvel that was love between brothers.

The unpredictable allied force of Whitebeard Pirates and Impel Down Escapees seemed to take a renewed vigor out of seeing Ace being freed, and the army of corpses that gleefully assaulted the marines hardly helped the morale of the soldiers who worked on behalf of the World Government, which felt not only with their more mundane senses, but with their hearts too, that the war was being lost.

It was on the wake of that widespread sentiment that an Akainu, furious for the failed manipulation of Squard, rode in on a wave of magma: with no hesitation, he rose from one side of the path that Ace had readied with his blasts of fire, ready to personally erase the sons of the most dangerous criminals in living history, when his head was blown off by one laser fired from the other end of Marineford's bay.

The split second distraction caused by the light-speed strike was enough to stall the otherwise unstppable sweep of the Admiral, and Marco used the momentum obtained from kicking away Kizaru to rebound on the lava-logia user. A blast of blue flames was enough to halt him, and something that would be told for coultess years in songs and jokes happened.

Bounding at the incredible speeds of the truly strong, a fifteen meters long white wolf with a massive anchor at the end of its tail and a maw that was identical to the Moby Dick's figurehead appeared behind the small group composed by Ace, Luffy Mr. 3 and Bentham, and without breaking its stride, it ate them whole.

With the next step, the Moby Dick-turned-Wolf bounded across the distance that separated it from the tall, armored walls of Marineford, and from there, it jumped clear across the ice where reanimated corpses were slaughtering marines, where government issued robots were being blown apart by weapons that by all rights should be prerogative of the world government, fired with unmatched precision from the mist that hung like a veil across the expanse of the bay that was hosting the hips of the first divisions of the Whitebeard Pirates along with the Roaring Nova.

"Ace is safe!" moving between Kizaru and Akainu, Marco's voice sounded tired despite the blue flames constantly rejuvenating him: "Everyone! Back to the ships!"

Not far from him Whitebeard was having the time of his life: with no need to fight until that moment, he was as fresh and rested as he was going to be, the Moby Dick had brought him to his wayward son just as easily as it had brought his family across the unforgiving waters of the New World for decades. And despite some grumbling on the ship's spirit's part, it had obeyed when the Emperor had tasked it with making sure that Ace would be returned, along with his unexpected rescuers, to the ships ready to depart.

Not yet tired, the blows of the Strongest Man in the world struck with the unmated fierceness of the hurricanes, the unbelievable might of the earthquakes, and Sengoku was pushed back, time and time again, forced as he was to spread his golden light to prevent Marineford from sinking.

Alone among enemy forces, Edward Newgate was free to fight unrestrained, uncaring for collateral damage, as his forces were far behind, and slowly retreating despite the protests of some that managed to reach his ears.

His massive naginata blasted Sengoku off his feet while he jumped across the distance that separated him from Marco, one of the few that he knew were able to withstand the danger impregnating every inch of the area surrounding the Emperor, and with another sweep of the weapon, Akainu joined his superior, unable to hold his own against the might of Whitebeard.

The eyes of the almost ancient pirate took in the worried faces of the slowly retreating pirates while he nodded with his head towards the ships.

Of course, Marco wasn't just going to leave him behind. Proving just another time why the Whitebeard was unique in the world, the phoenix-man shook his head: "I'll stay here with you Pops, to help."

"Help?" the sardonic question came with a rumble of faint laughter as Aokiji let go of the retreating Jozu in order to give his all against someone that he had no qualms fighting against with no holds barred.

Ice exploded in a fine mist, magma splashed as if harmless water, and light scattered as if dust in the wind, while Marco's blue flames guttered, in a wind that whipped the world with the same violence of a hammer: "You think I need help?"

Marco assumed his full phoenix form and flew upwards, knowing that he had inadvertently touched the pride of the old man.

If Luffy's burst of Conqueror's Haki had run like a gunshot amidst the chaos of the war, what came next was aking to the low beginning of an earthquake. It was all-encompassing, absolute, and undeniably heavy. It rang as if a never-ending thunder, squashing everything in its embrace.

The air cracked, while upside became down, and the old fortress of Marineford began to crumble while Whitebeard let out an overwhelming burst of laughter that seemed to be a drummer reinforcing the presence of his Haki, which spread like a never-ending shadow capable of blotting out the sun, bringing with it the same certainty of a man capable of going toe to toe against Gol D. Roger, the very present memory of a pirate that had sailed fearlessly for decades. A man who had sunk islands by mistake while messing around with the King of Pirates, a man who had earned the respect of Oden himself.

And when he spoke, his voice sounded clearly in the ears of everyone, overwhelming every gunshot, every explosion, every cannonball striking against stone, every scream, and even the rumbling of the world that was shaking because of the Emperor's power: "I need no help."

"BECAUSE I AM WHITEBEARD!"


AN

Not going to lie, I've been thinking about Franky and Usopp abusing a Pacifista since I had him eat the Chomp Chomp Fruit.

I wanted to close Marineford with this chapter, but there was just too much stuff to work through, even while cutting off almost everything, as I've done. The quality of the fights is nowhere close to my usual standard, but in my defense, I also tried to write 3 Pacifistas versus five pirates without using the split POVs that would have allowed me to indulge in a greater deal of detail.

Still, I've begun this fic exactly one month ago, how crazy is that?

With the next chapter, we close Marineford, leaving up only the Epilogue of Paradise. I don't know if I'll ever write the New World part of this fic, we'll see.

As always, don't be shy with the reviews, and let me know what you think!