The sail back to reverse mountain was easy. Tekking had clarified that the race would start when they all reached their boats. In fact, Tekking states that the minute that he saw his ship, he was going for all of their heads. They faced very little marine presence. The fact that April was pushing their ship helped them outrun any marine that even considered chasing them. Muna and her zombie captain were not chasing them, at least not yet. Rusatge gave Tekking his solemn word that he had not killed her. After all the hell she put him through, Tekking would not tolerate anyone else but him cutting down the rear- admiral.

They did reach the reverse mountain faster than they had left it, they were all rising up on Rusatge's platforms when they looked down. Their faithful little ship that they had never bothered to name was set ablaze. Dana had blown it up with a few sticks of dynamite and gunpowder. However the more impressive sight was the one at the bottom of reverse mountain. There pinned to the side with swords through his arms to keep him upright was the body of Cortez. It was starting to decompose and had flies swarming it, but it was still clear to tell that it was a world noble. The body would serve as a warning to the new pirates. In front of the body however were the four flags of the crews. The first was a flag with three skulls on it . The one on the right had a red x on it, the center one had a visor on while the third had stitches and scars all over it. The next flag was red and it appeared as the skull was liquid and falling off the flag. The third was of a skull surrounded by the four face cards and an ace card. There was a musical note on the skull's forehead for some reason. The last one had swords instead of crossbones and a tie design. Hopefully they wouldn't regret the act of self promotion later.

As they rose up to the top and back down, they grew more and more conscious. Everyone fumbled with their weapons and looked at the pirates beside them. Every twitch and glance was over analyzed by the groups of pirates. As they reached the bottom the ships were almost visible. No one was hiding their intent at this point. Everyone had their blades and pistols out, not pointing them perse but having in the general area of other pirates. When the ships became visible, Rusatge immediately dispelled all the platforms except for his own crews. Using the little energy he had left, he sent them to his ship and collapsed on his hands and knees. The other crews all struggled in the water. Melody grabbed onto her three captains while she herself sank. It took Mouse, Kor and Evan together to haul the four of them up to their ship. Tekking's crew only had one devil fruit user who was grabbed by Joyboy. The rest swam to their ship. King had to grab 2spooky and hiding while stripes saved his captain. All the crews were now on their ships. None had left yet. Roger stood up and was about to say something when a saw blade took off his head. As his head flew to the ground he smiled.

"You jackass, what are your blades going to do to an acid man?" Roger asked as he simply grew a new head from his acid. Ohara smirked as he got on a blade and made his way to the ship. Saige was not going to miss out on the action, Taking a running start she leaped at Rustage's ship, sword in hand and looked for the lanky bladed man. Connor pulled out two daggers and blocked her blades. They clashed a few more times. Her sword danced through the air as he just pulled out one knife after another to block her swipes. Saige jumped up on one foot while swinging her sword, Connor pulled up his blade, missing her other foot which was shooting for his ribs. Connor was still healing from his injuries and a serious kick would have knocked him out. Before that could happen however, he was pulled back. Shwabadi had saved him from danger and just in the nick of time. Saige landed on the floor, caught by surprise Shwabadi kicked her hard in the chest. Her body flew off the ship, breaking the railing. Shwabadi smiled and was about to turn around when he saw Tekking. Tekking was already jumping onto the ship, so he was able to catch saige with his left arm while he brought his sword down with his right. Swabadi pulled out his sword to block but in a second it shattered before Tekking's blade. Facing death, he also found himself saved by Joshua this time. Joshua pushed him out of the way and threw a knife at Tekking. Seeing the blade, Tekking veered off his path and threw Saige back to the ship. However doing this took him off his balance and he fell onto the deck. He lay on his hands and knees when he heard the sound of a flintlock being cocked behind him. Joshua smirked.

"Don't move" He said. Tekking pondered the order, before ignoring it. Tekking stood up and just stared at him. Joshua, unfazed, started to pull the trigger. However when he started to pull it back, the gun crumbled into pieces. He looked stunned and saw Tekking had a small blade in his left hand. Joshua reached for his blade but stopped when he saw The tip of Tekking's Katanna less than a centimeter from his eyeball. Tekking smirked,

"I'll make you famous" He said, happy he had made a clever one liner before going for the kill. However before he could bring the sword into Joshua's eye, he had to dodge a stream of acid. Roger landed on the helm of Rusatges ship.

"You and I have unfinished business, Tekking," Roger said with a scowl.

"Do we?... Oh you mean that rookie. What was his name? Herm something"

"It was Hermsaur"

"Never heard of it"

Rustage had recovered and was finding he could control around one deck of cards. He also found himself on Tekking's ship after dodging a blast from Nux. He stood up and held a card in his hand, Nux had his entire arm glowing in plasma. Rusatge smirked and sent a few cards after him. Nux deflected the cards but they didn't get destroyed. Nux tried to deflect them but kept getting cut from all sides. Then he started laughing, Rustage also started laughing . The cards lost their preciseness, without concentration, Rusatge was as useful as a hakiless cabin boy. The cards fell to the ground and stopped moving as they laughed harder. Nux charged at him with his arm glowing, Then both stopped laughing. Both looked for the cause before seeing Spooky with his hand on the floor. Nux continued to run after the confusion ceased,but a bullet from Reagen on Roger's ship hit the right spot in Nux's robot arm and it lost power. Nux jerked his arm to the side and yelled out in pain.

"I don't wanna do this to you Nux, but if the Captain's bounty goes up, so does mine" Spooky said as he reached for a pistol.

"I'm sorry too, spookster. Mousey, fuck him up" Nux answered. Spooky looked confused before he was sent flying into the mast of his ship. Mouse walked out and gave her captain a thumbs up and nux rolled his eyes and gave her a thumbs up back. Rusatge made a platform with his cards and was ready to attack mouse when he saw April struggling by his ship and he swooped over to help her. He saw eight tentacles all latched around her body as she struggled to break free. One was wrapped around her neck and she was swinging her arms to her back where Melody's main body was. Rusatge prepared one card and aimed it very carefully, 'hopefully it will shred Melody's brain in one go' he thought before a bullet grazed his head and he fell to the ground.

"I don't like getting in the ocean" Evan said as he chucked the pistol he just fired into the ocean. Rusatge lifted up his head only to stop one of Kor's blades from slicing him in two pieces. He quickly blocked another bullet from Evan. Both of them looked at him smugly as he surrounded himself in more cards.

Animak clutched his word with both hands as his steel went against Hiding's cutlass. Neither of the two were known for their combat abilities, more for their peculiar devil fruits and superior intellects. Both lunged at the other with caution, making sure not to leave any openings. In one motion both lunged at the same time and got a scar on the others face. Animak broke his vizor while Hiding tore his bag. Neither man moved. Animak closed his eyes and reached for the other visor he kept in his jacket pocket, Hiding flipped his bag around so it showed his hair instead of his face. Neither dared attack while the other was fixing their face. Animak could defeat Hiding if he just showed him his eyes, he had gotten to know the tactician well and did not wish to beat him with such a strategy.

"I hope I didn't cut that handsome face of yours" Animak smirked as he adjusted his vizor.

"Oh please, as if the brain of the east could even cut my skin" Hiding responded as he made a smiley face on the paper mask with the blood from the wound. Before either one of them could say anything they both ran out of the way of Jones who was falling on the ground hard. Stripes cackled along with Joyboy as they both unleashed a plethora of cannonballs and kicks at the man. Dana chucked bombs at the two to little affect. On Roger's ship, King and Ohara clashed fiercely. King's speed with his glaive kept Ohara's blade at bay.

Roger and Tekking continues to cross swords. Tekking tried to catch his breath as his arms and legs had chemical buns on them while Roger just clutched his arm. Roger grabbed another sword and swung as hard as he could at Tekking who sliced the Katanna in two with one swing, the haki radiating from his blade. Roger, unfazed, grabbed his best sword and coated it with acid and lunged at Tekking who did the same. They clashed and pushed against the other's blade to try and break their grip. Tekking and Roger both felt a hand on their arms, they looked to the owner to find a smiling Briggs. They tried to break free but it was too late. Both fell to the floor in pain. Briggs smiled as he grabbed his axe. Roger and Tekking looked at him, looking for some way out. Roger tried to stand up, but blood flew out of his mouth as he tried to move. Tekking on the other hand just waited for a few seconds and smiled. Briggs stopped as he felt an immense aura behind him. The weaker pirates fighting each other were all falling to the ground. The air was ripe with conqueror's haki. The force was strong but Briggs didn't fall, instead he turned around. He looked for a man but instead found a brick plopped on the railing. Briggs looked confused and glanced at Tekking before he felt the impact of Barry smashing into his Torso. Briggs was caught completely off guard and he definitely broke something from the impact. Tekking through his body forward with the little strength he had and gashed Briggs's back. Briggs in more pain fell to the floor with his hand aiming for Roger. Roger activated his acid form while Briggs hakid up his hand. However when the men collided, nothing happened to either of them. 2spooky laid on the floor, right hand on the floor while he clutched onto his face with his left. The impact with the mast had really fucked him up. With all devil fruit users weak, Tekking swung his sword. It was stopped by a stray card.

"Get the fuck of my ship" Rustage said from the hull. He stood up there for only a second before he jumped down to avoid Kor's blades. He tried to organize more cards at once but kept finding himself handicapped by the onslaught of bullets coming at him.

"THE MARINES ARE HERE!" Came the terrified voice of one of Rustages crew members. Everyone immediately stopped fighting. Looking to the South they saw a fleet of marine vessels. The type of fleet that'd make a buster call seem like a coorjal visit.

"Fuck" cursed Rusatge. "It must have been Kizaru!"

"Impossible, he knew about the assignment from the beginning. He let all of us escape in the first place" Tekking interjected.

"Everyone! Get back on the ships!" Yelled Roger. It seems he meant it to get everyone to flee but instead they all hopped onto Rusatge's ship together.

"I propose another truce" Animak said, looking out at the fleet by them.

"What about the money?" Asked Briggs.

"Are you stupid? We've been set up. They're not gonna give us shit" Roger hissed.

"We really should have seen this coming" 2spooky said shaking his head.

"Set up? I don't know about you, but did you even think we'd be seeing any of that money?" Tekking said casually.

"Tekking's right. This wasn't about the money, it was about the noble. I mean, a billion berries is a lot of money, how were they going to explain where the money went?" Hiding said .

"I had a right to dream!" Briggs exclaimed.

"I mean what did you expect was going to happen? we'd get the money and then be let go with a secret salute and everything gets back to normal?" Hiding said again.

"We thought we'd get the money and at least a week head start to get to the new world"

"That's why I propose a truce. We can kill each other in the new world, in paradise we fight as one" Animak repeated. The captains all looked at each other and sort of rolled their eyes agreeing with the notion.

"Well then, Sink those boats!"