SwordOfTheGods here with another chapter of Coby's Choice! This is the chapter where most everything starts going pear-shaped, so I'm excited to see your thoughts, considering that last chapter had around 40 reviews, the highest of any chapter yet! In other news, I've also started work on the sequel: New World, New Choices, but y'all won't see that for a bit. I think I've got six more chapters left for this story, before the revision.
Chapter 138:
Breach
Sengoku smirked until a voice echoed over the battlefield, laden with a power that sent shivers down the spines of even the toughest marines.
"YOU MARINES THINK I'LL GO DOWN THAT EASILY? YOU THINK THE END OF MY BODY WILL STOP ME? YOU THINK I WON'T MAKE MYSELF KNOWN? IF SOME EAST BLUE CARAVEL CAN STICK IT TO YOU SONS OF BITCHES AND SURVIVE, THEN SO CAN I!"
Eyes searched the battlefield for the mysterious voice until someone called, pointing out a shadowy figure clinging to the highest remaining point of the Yonko's flagship. The figure solidified through the smoke, the flag of the Whitebeard Pirates waving in their hand.
"I AM THE SPIRIT OF THE MOBY DICK, AND I WILL NOT GO DOWN QUIETLY! I WILL FIGHT FOR MY FAMILY! FOR ACE AND FOR POPS! I! WILL! FIGHT!"
The declaration shocked the combatants, their confusion palpable as the true meaning of the words settled on them.
The Moby Dick's spirit was unassuming in the broad scope of pirates. It was male, somewhere around seven or eight feet with a bald head and a wide smile. His skin was pale and he was heavyset, arms and legs rippling with muscle and a massive warhammer draped across his shoulders. He was dressed, as Merry had been when she first met the Straw Hats, in a white raincoat and a simple pair of trousers. Through the shock, many of the Whitebeards realized they'd seen him before, in the middle of some of the worst New World storms that threatened their crew.
"A klabautermann?" Coby whispered, his eyes widening. "The Moby Dick has a klabautermann!"
"A what?" Ace asked.
"You don't know?"
"I've heard the term, but not really."
"The spirit of a ship," the Fleet Admiral growled. "The klabautermann of a Yonko's ship could topple kingdoms if even part of the stories of fairies are true. Target that spirit! It's a threat to us all!"
"You Marines know nothing." Though softer now, the Moby Dick's voice still reached across the battlefield over the booming cannons. The spirit's arm lashed out, generating gale-force winds that blew the cannonballs away. Another gesture claimed the projectiles for his own. It was a casual show of power that made the Marines wary and filled the pirates with hope. "Our existence was revealed with the Going Merry and spread with her wanted poster. That was your work. If that little caravel can muster the strength to act, to become her own person, what sort of ship would I be to not? That sucks for you, Marines."
The spirit of the Moby Dick gripped his hammer, swinging it like a bat. The wind created launched the commandeered cannonballs back from whence they came with three times as much speed. They exploded on impact, hitting the cannons hidden in the walls with pinpoint accuracy.
"Because you see, like all klabautermanns, I have all the best of my crew wrapped into one package."
Moby Dick's declaration, powerful as it was, lost some of its effect when fire licked its way up his front. The spirit grimaced, a conscious effort causing the fire on his spectral body to fade. Making up his mind, the klabautermann grabbed the top foot of the mast on which he stood, the rest of the ship beginning to glow a bright white. The light traveled though the ship, coalescing in the top of the mast.
The spirit then snapped that shining segment of wood from the rest of the ship with a wince. As everyone watched, the Moby Dick tossed this beacon-like piece of his original body away, dissolving. The wood continued to shine as it fell, the spirit returning to corporeal form on the ice to catch his, for use of a familiar term, Heart.
He tucked it into the back of his pants for lack of any other suitable pockets before heafting his hammer. The tall spirit walked to Whitebeard's side, standing a few feet under his captain.
"Can't anything go right today?" Sengoku muttered.
"Pops."
"Moby Dick."
"What do we do, Pops? This is a bind we're in and I can't exactly carry everyone away this time."
"I've got one job for you. Find Straw Hat and protect him. That little brat got Red Hair to give him the Crown. He's going to be something big, so he needs to survive, no matter what."
"He's the one Red Hair gave up his arm for?" Moby Dick thought aloud, remembering that meeting years ago when Shanks had stepped foot on his deck. What followed that meeting, few remembered. Never let it be said the Red Haired Pirates didn't know how to party. They'd turned the act into an art form. "Roger that, Pops."
With that, Moby Dick cast out his Sonar, his sense as a ship to pick out his crew, similar to Observation Haki in a lot of ways. It pained him when he felt the pirates because, while their auras were calming for him, the auras he couldn't find were more numerous than he'd feared. Pushing that down, he took a second to recognise the ones who didn't register as Crew, including the trio by one of the holes in the ice.
"I'll see you on the other side, Pops," Moby Dick said before vanishing in a Shave that belied his apparent weight.
Though given a mission from his captain, Moby Dick took a few detours on his way to the young pirate, diving into holes in the ice to rescue crewmates from the boiling water, swimming with the power of a whale. Each thanked him with something like awe. The spirit didn't blame them; they didn't have time for such a thing anyway. Finally, the klabautermann appeared beside Ivankov, standing over the okama in height, while Luffy recovered from near-drowning with Jinbei by his side.
"So you're the one we've heard so much about from Ace and Shanks?" the whale-themed being commented with a bow and a wide, toothy smile, so much like the one that now burned on what was his body. "Moby Dick, ship of the Whitebeard Pirates, at your service, Straw Hat."
"Ship?" Luffy coughed, still getting water out of his lungs. "Like Merry?"
"Exactly like your Going Merry," he answered. "Pops sent me to protect you."
"Ok, but we've got a problem with those walls. How do we get through?"
"Well, Straw-Boy," Ivankov began, "if you can't go through, under, or around, then there's only one choice left."
"How do we get over, then?" the youngest pirate asked himself.
"I could throw you over," Jinbei offered, "but I'd need to use the water and that could leave you weakened."
"Or we could fly," Moby Dick smirked. "You should know all about what klabautermanns can do, Straw Hat. We get more powerful with age and members, so I'm probably the strongest klabautermann in the world, considering the other Yonko with big crews don't have dedicated ships." Moby Dick twitched his fingers, four cannonballs ripping through his former body and racing across the battlefield to float by the group. "Well, Red Force could probably take me on, but that's neither here nor there. Between the four of us, I bet we can give those Admirals a run for their money. Maybe not for long, but long enough."
"Good," Luffy nodded. "Let's give them Hell and get Ace and Coby back."
"Great!" The spirit's smile widened. "Get on! We've got skulls to bash!"
"Dammit, you incompetent morons!" Sengoku raged as he watched the remaining pirates amass beside Whitebeard on one of the few ice chunks left. Worse however, if something could be worse than the world's strongest pirate, was the lost visuals on the klabautermann of the Moby Dick, Straw Hat, and his allies. They were an outlier whose unaccounted absence was dangerous. "Find them! Use the snails! Use scouts! Use Haki if you have it! Just find them!"
"Be careful, Sengoku," the bass voice of the Moby Dick taunted, dragging attention to the top of one wall where he stood with Luffy, Ivankov, and Jinbei. "If you keep shouting like that, you'll give yourself high blood pressure. Why else do you think Pops is so laid back all the time?"
"Get them!" the Fleet Admiral roared, causing a slew of bullets and cannonballs to race toward the quartet. Luffy jumped before them, expanding with a cry of "Gum-Gum Balloon!" With the marines below in disarray on account of their projectiles being returned, the pirates jumped down to land on the cobbled streets beyond the walls.
"There are intruders in the plaza!" one particularly unhelpful marine yelled. The crowd backed away from the group slowly, intimidated by their reputations and from what they'd seen just a little while ago. The space between the marine grunts and the pirates widened until there was no one blocking the pirates from staring down the Admirals directly.
"So who wants who?" Moby Dick asked.
"I will fight Kizaru," Jinbei grunted. "I'm a poor match against the other two."
"I'll take Aokiji," Ivankov growled, needles growing from the ends of his fingers. "I've got a few bones to pick with him. Perhaps he'll like it as a her."
"Oh sure, leave the magma dog for the ship," Moby Dick muttered, coating his arms in Haki the way his crew had done countless times before. "That makes perfect sense. Well, let's go. Straw Hat, go get your brother and crewmate. We'll handle things down here."
"Right!" Nodding to each other, the three older pirate's charged the three Logias, Luffy staying behind to activate his Second Gear before blurring out of visibility through Shave.
"BOY!" Akainu yelled, crossed arms blocking a Haki-coated hammer. "Stop that pirate!"
Moby Dick didn't manage to see what came if the statement, his focus on protecting himself from the heat of the Logia that had forced his hand. Black Haki stretched over his arms and hammer as Moby Dick clobbered Akainu's guard, not wanting to let him have an inch to work with. Even so, Akainu wasn't an Admiral for nothing, grabbing the hammer's handle on the next swing and pulling the fairy closer.
"Die, pirate scum!"
"Not today!" the fairy rebuffed, destabilizing as the hand of magma passed through him. It was a risky gamble with his Heart so exposed, but it paid off as the ship avoided any damage, ducking under the strike to solidify and punch the man in the gut. Akainu gave a cough with the blow, which was admirable considering Moby Dick had the strength of the strongest member of the crew. Despite his bravado, the marine was forced to stumble back, wiping blood from his lips.
"Fucking pirates," he growled, his arms turning to molten rock. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! Taste your Justice! Great Eruption!"
"And I say you won't!" Moby Dick countered, layering Haki over his warhammer. "Blubber Beatdown: Grand Slam!"
Shifting out of the way, the klabautermann smacked the coming attack like a baseball, redirected the magma toward Admiral Aokiji. He didn't seem to take too kindly to that, jumping over the coming magma and using his cold wind to harden it into a horizontal column of rock. The Blue Pheasant landed on the structure with a sigh, eyeing Ivankov. He sighed.
"Listen, whatever grudge you have we me, I'm just following orders."
"Death Wink!"
Not wanting to have to reform again, Aokiji dodged to the side and formed his bow, firing a Repeat Artisan at the hormo-human. The Queen among Kings flipped around the arrows, gathering them in his hands before throwing them at the other admirals. While Kizaru didn't seem to notice, the ones thrown at Akainu met their mark, melting a moment after.
"They had another ship in reserve!" The voice of Sengoku yelled across the plaza. "Prepare to be breached!"
The plaza shook as a scraping sound filled the area, eyes of pirates and invaders being drawn to another Moby Dick lodged in the gap between Oars Jr. and the wall on the other side.
"BOY!" Akainu yelled, crossed arms blocking a Haki-coated hammer. "Stop that pirate!"
"Sucker Punch!"
Luffy's eyes widened as a candy-covered fist met his cheek, the opposing speed of the two sending him careening into the ground. A blond in a purple suit stood over the pirate, the cracked coating of his fist crumbling.
"We meet again, Straw Hat," he sneered. "And you're finally where you belong: at my feet."
"Do I know you?" Luffy asked, using the confused anger of the marine as time to stand. "You seem familiar. I probably punched you before."
"You sure did!" the young man yelled, quickly recovering his composure. "I had a monologue prepared for our meeting, but we don't have time for that. Suffice to say you will die here at the hands of a future Fleet Admiral, me! Helmeppo!"
"You were there!" Luffy remembered, his eyes widening as he pointed at his foe. "When I got Coby back in East Blue!"
"Hehe, that's right, Straw Hat! You, Roronoa, and that pink bastard ruined my perfect little life, so the face of despair I'll get to see on either you or him when the other dies... Let's say I'm going to relish this day."
"What does relish have to do with this? That's a condiment. Are you stupid?"
"You are the last person who can say anything of the sort!" Helmeppo yelled. "It's time to die, Straw Hat!" Forming a lance out of candy, Helmeppo charged the pirate, forcing Luffy to retreat. His eyes hardened as the platform got farther away. Jumping back to get some distance, Luffy renewed his Second Gear and launched forward.
"Gum-Gum Jet Stamp!"
Helmeppo had become reliant on his Logia powers, which was apparent when he made no move to dodge or stop the pirate's attack. That proved to be a mistake when it turned out the force behind Luffy's kicks was far greater than what the marine's high-viscosity body could absorb. Each kick splattered another piece of the young marine until there was nothing of him standing except his legs. Luffy took a second to smirk before springing toward the stairs.
"Now!" Sengoku ordered, the executioners on either side of Ace and Coby snapping to attention, swinging their weapons downward.
"NO!" the collective pirates screamed.
Fate, however, had other plans. Or in this instance, granted a new will to fight.
Coby twisted, one leg shooting out to trip the man ordered to kill him. The marine dressed in green lost his footing, the downward force of his weapon sending him tripping over Coby to land on Ace's back. The pirate let out a surprised shout, the sound mixing with the cry let out by the tripped marine who was stabbed by his companion.
"Oh shit!" the other executioner yelled. "Oh shit oh fuck!"
"Get off!" Ace roared, throwing the limp marine on his back into his fellow, the two ragdolling over the edge of the platform.
"The boy's not even a D and he's still plenty of trouble," Sengoku grumbled to himself, listing off the reasons for why he shouldn't kill the two prisoners himself. The main reason seemed to be to avoid ruining his relationship with Garp, considering he has a soft spot for the both of them. Sengoku didn't know how the Hero of the Marines would react if he killed the prisoners with his own hand, and Garp was too much of an asset for the Marines to lose.
"Get another pair of executioners!" the Fleet Admiral ordered to the marines below. They saluted and took off as the man turned his gaze to the pirates in the plaza. "Godadamn, this is a-"
He didn't finish, the air over the bay cracking as a wave of force penetrated the tiniest space between Oars Jr's body and the wall beside it. Showing all the finesse befitting a man of his legend, Whitebeard released the second quake the first had carried, pushing the barriers apart with enough force to move the titanic body. Through the gap, Sengoku saw Whitebeard smirk as he and all his pirates in the bay jumped or swam over a new shadow in the bay, a fourth Moby Dick replica with another whole crew surfacing below, paddles going full tilt toward the opening.
"They had another ship in reserve!" Sengoku screamed to the marines who couldn't see the incoming crisis. "Prepare to be breached!"
The cannonballs fired at the ship did nothing as, with a screech of protest, hard wood scraped against concrete and the pirate ship plowed through the too-small opening, its sides tearing off. Even so, the bow kept its momentum, a few dozen unfortunate souls getting caught and crushed under its weight. Movement in the plaza froze as the ship ground to a halt, everyone holding their breath.
"Sengoku," Whitebeard said, his voice clear as he and his commanders jumped off the ship. "I gave you a chance to surrender. Now give me back my son before we destroy the Marines, forever!"
Chaos erupted as the pirates attacked anew, closer than ever to achieving their goal. A group of the biggest names rushed toward the fight with the Admirals, intent on helping the fighters there. Luffy panted, falling to one knee as his body began to give out from all the damage, both self-inflicted and otherwise, that he'd taken since the breakout at Impel Down the day before.
"I need... to get... there," he whispered, trying to force himself up. His momentary pause was a moment too long, Helmeppo reforming in front of him with a lance and a scowl. His scowl turned into a sneer, however, as the lance came down, stabbing into Luffy's shoulder.
"This is what you get, Straw Hat!" Helmeppo laughed as Luffy screamed, tiny needles growing from the weapon in his shoulder. "This is the fate of those who wrong me! You'll fall first, then that pick-haired baby up there. After that, I'll track down each of your crewmates and every one of your allies, and I'll kill every one of them. They'll be an example and a warning to the world." His smile twisted into a leer. "Well, maybe not all of them. I think I'll make that pretty little wife of yours my personal bitch once you're dead, so you can watch from Hell as I defile everything you ever loved. That sounds like the perfect end for a villain like you. What do you think, Straw Hat?" His eyes lowered to see his now-silent victim and, for a second, Helmeppo thought he'd killed the pirate accidentally.
But he hadn't. Luffy twitched, his hair shading his eyes while his hand came up to grab the candy spear in his shoulder. He shifted, one pinprick pupil glaring at the young Vice-Admiral. The candy weapon in his hand cracked, Helmeppo's eyes widening behind his shades.
"What did you say?" Luffy whispered, the sharp fragments in his palm making his hand bleed. The air around the two grew heavy, the people around falling silent. "I don't think I heard you right. Did you just threaten my friends, my Nakama, and then my wife? You just made the biggest mistake of your life, Hippo. No one, and I mean NO ONE, threatens the people I love."
"I... ah, I..." Helmeppo floundered, having never been on the receiving end of such malice. At a lost for words, the marine settled for his automatic response: violence. His free arm shifted into a drill. "Die! Jolly Drill!"
Luffy's other hand came up, the drill stabbing into his palm and out the back. The damage, however, was negligible compared to the raw, overflowing rage pouring from the pirate. The marine spent several seconds trying to free the drill before deciding to abandon the outside coating to pull his hand free. Luffy tossed the husk aside before lunging, his fingers latching around the marine's throat.
Helmeppo gasped, all thoughts of his Logia powers forgotten as he was forced for stare into the eyes of an angered powerhouse. Weakening hands grasped at his throat in vain. He tried to plead. To apologize. To say he didn't mean anything by it, but no words made it past his closed windpipe. The totality of Luffy's Spirit crushed the two.
"I don't think you understand who I am," Luffy hissed as he drew Helmeppo closer, the whole world narrowed down to him and the blond in his hand. "I am a pirate. I am the man who will be the King of the Pirates. I will not hesitate to kill you if you come after my Nakama. In fact, maybe I should kill you now? Maybe I-"
He trailed off, his power and energy beginning to drain as the damage caught up to him once more after the brief adrenalin surge. He stumbled backwards, Helmeppo falling from his grasp. The Logia coughed as Luffy tipped, eyes unfocused.
"Straw Boy!" Ivankov cried, too slow to catch the pirate captain before he hit the ground. The Queen among Kings was quick to pull Luffy back behind the battlelines, shaking his shoulders. "Straw Boy! Straw Boy, stay with me! You've still got that wife you told me about, don't you?! Wake up!"
"That bastard," Helmeppo coughed as he rubbed his throat. "I'll show him!"
"You'll show who?" a smooth voice asked, the blond wheeling around to see a surprise.
"What do you want, you disgraced sand lizard?" the Vice-Admiral demanded. "Don't tell me you're helping the boy who put you in jail."
"What do you care, candy man?" Crocodile responded, a sand cloud dancing around his feet. "I don't have any love for Straw Hat or Firefist."
"Then work for me!" Helmeppo offered. "You can live in luxury. I'll get you a pardon. We can help you get back at every pirate that's ever wronged you!"
"You're a fool, boy," Crocodile said. "Even more of a fool than Straw Hat. I don't like him, Tri-Horn, or Firefist and I want to kill Whitebeard myself, but all of them have earned my respect. That's more than your shitshow of a government can say."
"Fine," the teen growled, falling into a renewed fighting stance as the cloud around Crocodile grew. Purple ooze oozed from Helmeppo's skin, forming a wall to absorb the sand thrown at him. "I guess we're doing this now."
From one of the windows of Marine Headquarters, Garp looked down on the battle below, a sad, conflicted frown on his face. Beside him, hooves up on the windowsill, was Sengoku's pet goat, watching the battle with him.
"I don't know what to do," Garp confided in the animal as the battles between forces grew ever more chaotic. "It feels like everything I've even done has been for nothing."
"Meeeeehhh," the goat bleated, a rather unhelpful answer at it started gnawing at Garp's sleeve.
"It's just... what can I do?" the old marine asked, downtrodden. "I want to help my grandkids. They aren't bad kids, they just made some bad decisions, but... but I'm the reason they did. I wasn't there for them when I had the chance, and now they've replaced me. They've found new families, and I'm not part of them. I... I don't deserve to be part of them..." Garp sighed, no left hook or wild turn of the battle phasing him, even as the klabautermann revealed itself and the plaza was breached. His hands fisted as Luffy and the upstart Helmeppo fought below. Garp didn't like Helmeppo of Akainu. Both were too serious and had used favors to raise the boy's title so quickly. It was an insult.
"Meeh?"
"What have the Marines become?" Garp asked, not expecting an answer. "What have I watched them become? Did the Great Pirate Era really force us to become so twisted? I accepted the white lies we've told. I accepted the Ciper Poles. I swallowed the destruction of Ohara and all the losses we've taken from even our own ranks. What was it all for? We're no closer to stopping this Great Pirate Era than we were before. Can... Can the Marines be saved?"
"Meeeehhhh."
"Yeah," Garp sighed. "Maybe you're right. Maybe..."
End of Chapter 138
Read and Review!
-SwordOfTheGods