Due to Rustage's firework show, the crews had to depart the same night they had arrived at the Island. They were only a day out but already they were depressed. They had to fight an Admiral. The six captains and Hiding were in the main chambers, discussing the plan. Hiding brought up the point that their biggest advantage is that they don't know their numbers. Pirate alliances were rather rare among pirates so they wouldn't be expecting the collaboration either. Though both Nux and Tekking fought marines, they weren't seen together and hence wouldn't be tied together.
"We need to break off into our respected four crews and each will play a pivotal role in this operation. First we'll need someone to make an early attack on the ship. It is important that the attack fails so that the crew will get arrested and thrown in a holding cell. With luck, that Island will only have one marine base to hold the group that gets captured. Then they will need to escape. From then, we'll lay low and wait until the day of the feast. Then two crews will act, one will lure Kizaru away with an unrelated incident; the other will attack the noble. I fully expect this plan to fail however and the base will be locked down. While the three crews run and take up all the navy , then the last group will take the head of Cortez" Animak said, taking multiple sips of water. The captains all nodded at what seemed like a good plan.
"Now" Animak continued, "I think the crew to be jailed first should be Roger's. You're crew is from the East, they should have insufficient records on you henceforth. With Spooky's devil fruit and Roger's acid getting out of the cell to cause hell shouldn't be too difficult."
"We should attack the day before the Noble arrives instead of attacking the boat, then it'll appear to be unrelated" Hiding said. Animak nodded at his suggestion.
"How are we with den den mushi? We need them to work right until we begin the straight forward assault or else they'll catch up to us"
"They'll probably put us all in seastone" Roger added.
"It doesn't matter, I can tell all of them to sleep at a specific time the day of the raid. Losing my abilities won't erase my influence on them" Hiding reassured.
"Ok, so… as for who will launch the diversion assault. I feel that Rustage would be good. He wants chaos and your cards can help achieve that. We'll also need a lot of bombs."
"Who's going to fight Kizaru?" Rusatge asked before the conversation could continue. A cold chill passed through the room.
"Has anyone here fought him before?" Rustage asked again.
"I have, 5 times really." Nux said. The three captains all stared at him while Briggs and Aniamk looked off into the distance.
"Have you ever wondered why Nux has such a high bounty?" Briggs said, voice low and shaky. "Because Nux charges into every battle like there's no tomorrow. Even against Kizaru"
"That means we can't take him, he sees me and they'll know something is up," Nux added.
"Don't change the subject, you've fought Kizaru and lived?" Roger poked.
"Yeah, barely" Nux chuckled
"I almost died trying to save you the first time Nux" Briggs hissed.
"It's true. Nux was almost dead and then Briggs got blasted full of holes trying to get Nux out of there. Luckily Kizaru didn't know about Briggs so he left his ankle unguarded." Aniamk said, teary eyed "he was mad about that one. He chased us for a bit and almost killed the three of us. If it wasn't for him being called away...We wouldn't be here"
"Quit exaggerating you two, I've fought him three times after that and the last time. I could even walk afterwards" Nux gloated.
"Yeah for like a step before you collapsed for two days. I don't even want to tell you what Melody did to you while you were passed out" Animak added.
"Wait! What the hell did Melody do to me in my sleep?!" Nux asked, horrified.
"Speaking of Melody, she'll definitely be able to get into the safe room after Cortez is whisked away." Animak said
"Don't ignore me! What did Melody do to me?"
"So I think we will be able to get in easily like that and dispose of the noble"
"Briggs! Briggs! Tell me, what did she do to me?"
"If there are no objections then I guess we'll be the final assassination team"
"Answer me!"
"So who will deal with Kizaru then?" Roger asked.
"It'll be us" Tekking answered, holding onto his sword. "My haki is better than all of yours, so I guess I have the best chance of beating him." The group all looked at Tekking and gave a thumbs up, not really caring as long as they wouldn't have to fight him. The Captains decided to take the fastest possible route to the Island as they left the room.
Nux went immediately to find Melody. He demanded an explanation and she only blushed and walked away, saying:
"Nothing worse than I do every night". Nux's face contorted and ran towards Kor who was helping King lift the sails. Before Nux could even ask Kor answered
"Yes, she does it every night and I wish she would be quieter about it". Nux felt a sense of betrayal stronger than what he had felt two weeks prior.
Tekking looked for Saige, to talk to her about the role they were playing in the plan. He found her at the very front of the ship, she and Connor were arguing. Both of them were taking cheap shots at the other. Tekking walked out to them and pulled Saige to the side. Upon knowledge of the pan was relayed to her. She fell to her knees in disbelief.
"Why did you do that captain?" Saige said in a daze.
"well...I thought it'd be really cool if I said, 'I'll handle Kizaru'... I also thought Rustage was going to jump in and decide to take the charge, but he didn't" Tekking said, his voice was quite dead.
Rustage went to the very side of the ship and called April. A few seconds later she rose up out of the water and Rustage told her where they were going. She nodded and started pushing the ship so they would be going significantly faster. To his left he saw Jones arm wrestling with Mouse. Both of them were clutching the side of the crate and grunting as they used their full strength. Dana watched from the middle, every once in a while she'd give some faint words of encouragement to Jones. She was mostly concerned with just playing with some new bombs she was building.
Roger looked for 2spooky. He was in the Crow's nest. Trying to shoot some birds. Roger climbed up and watched him miss several times before alerting him of his presence.
"Well the meeting's been held. We're the patsies" Roger smirked as he took a swig of Sake.
"Did Hiding object to this plan?" 2spooky responded, looking through the scope of his rifle.
"No, he seemed all for the idea" Roger said. 2spooky shook his head and said:
"I don't get it. I mean, I understand why we can't just charge the town but why not just sneak into his ship and kill him there quietly with one assassin...The rant pirates have that one octopus girl who could do it?"
"The rant pirates have a fishman also?" Roger asked.
"No, she's a Zoan user. You know, the cute one with the blue hair and red jacket."
"Oh yeah. Well she is going to do that anyway"
"But why go through all of this when we could just sneak her on the ship for a few days and when he gets back on she could slit his neck while he sleeps or something."
"Well, Hiding said that the cold reality was that only one of us was going to get their bounty raised directly. However, despite the deal...If all crews play a part then all of our bounties will go up just by association even if it's just a little"
"So we're risking getting caught for some attention?"
"I'm not risking my neck just so one of those guys can get up in the world" Roger scoffed as he pulled a cigarette out of his breast pocket and handed it to Spooky. "Here"
"Captain, I don't smoke"
"You do today". Roger said gleefully. 2Spoojy sighed and put the cigarette in his mouth. He took his flint lock out and shot a bullet to light it.
"How does it taste?" Roger asked.
"Taste like summer time." Both pirates laughed and climbed down from the Crow's nest.
It was night time and most people on the crew were sleeping. There were two areas, one for women and one for men. Everyone stayed on their side except for Melody. Dana said that Daisy was going to try to kill her in her sleep, so she was given permission to sleep with Jones who slept out on the deck due to his size. Melody on the other hand just snuck into the men's side and curled up to Nux like she did most nights and fell asleep. Everyone slept except for Evan who was taking shifts with Reagen to navigate. Like a gentleman he said he'd take the first shift. The starry night was beautiful and the cold relentless winds of the North kept the ship travelling quickly. They would reach the Island a few days before the Noble's visit.