"Its…" Sanji breaks the silence and approaches the object. "A snail. A blue snail."
The snail appears to be sleeping, with something metal on the left side of its shell and wires running along its side. It doesn't look to be dangerous, but Ace knows better than to trust things that fell from the sky.
"It's a Den Den Mushi," Fire Fist breathes, staring at the object with wide eyes. Ace turns to him, questioning, but Fire Fist isn't paying attention to him anymore. He's staring at the snail with an expression that Ace can only describe as awe. Straw Hat picks the sleeping creature up and examines it.
There, painted on the machine part of the snail, is a jolly roger with a straw hat.
Fire Fist's eyes widen, "That's—!"
"Plupluplupluplu," suddenly the snail is awake and ringing. Ace leans back, unsure. The rest of the group looks just as confused as Ace feels. He knows that Straw Hat mentioned that these were communication devices, but it just seems too weird.
Not to mention the fact that it appeared out of the sky.
Straw Hat picks up the receiver, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, I'm going to become King of the Pirates!"
Ace stares at the pirate incredulously. Is that really how he answers when someone calls him? Apparently Fire Fist is thinking the same thing because he smacks a hand over his face and sighs, "Do you really answer a Den Den Mushi like that?"
"LUFFY!" Several familiar voices shout back. Straw Hat breaks out into the biggest grin possible.
"Everyone, it's Luffy! We got a hold of him!" A voice shouts and there are cheers on the other end.
"Guys!" Straw Hat shouts. He's practically glowing with happiness now and Ace realizes just how much he missed his crew (for there are no others that could make the pirate this happy). Even with his brother, he must've felt lonely.
"That's us from your world?" Sanji asks in disbelief.
"Talking to a snail that makes faces is probably about the weirdest thing I've ever done," Nami says and the rest of Luffy's friends echo their agreement.
Luffy takes the Den Den Mushi from Straw Hat, "You guys are my friends other-selves?!"
Someone on the other side of the snail sucks in a breath and mutters, "Oh fuck, there's two of them."
"This is your crew, Straw Hat?" Fire Fist says and grins. "It's been awhile since I've seen them."
The chatter from the snail abruptly stops. The snail stares, wide-eyed and silent. Then, hushed whispers and harsh tones break out.
"Is that Ace?"
"There's no way…"
"Ace died, remember…?"
Straw Hat interrupts them, "Ace came back to life!"
"WHAT?!"
"Yeah!" Straw Hat grins and laughs, ignoring the shocked face of the snail. "We don't know how, he appeared when I appeared! This world is really cool! There's another me! And another Ace! And all of you guys have other-selves too! Except Brook isn't a skeleton and Chopper's a human and Franky's not a cyborg and they don't have Devil Fruits!"
"Yohohoho!" Brook's voice says from the snail. "To have flesh again… I can't see it! Though, I don't have eyes to see with!"
Which, Ace thinks, would actually be a funny joke if it isn't so terrifying knowing that there is an actual walking skeleton on the other side of the line (snail? How does that even work?).
"That sounds boring," Zoro's (much older) voice says.
"It's not boring!" Nami says, disgruntled. "It was perfectly fine and safe until this mess happened!"
The snail looks at her (which is really, really creepy, Ace has to admit) and snorts, "Seems the witch is the same as always."
"SHUT UP!" both Nami's shout and there's a crash on the other side of the line.
The snail changes expressions again and other-Nami's voice comes through, much more serious, "Look, we don't have a lot of time. We, uh, convinced—" The way she says convinced has Ace thinking that they did a lot more than simply asking and Ace is once again reminded that his and his brother's double are not good people "—Blackbeard's crew into opening this for us but we couldn't send anything bigger than a Den Den and our connection isn't great. Listen, Luffy, you have to find Blackbeard as soon as you can, otherwise you'll be stuck in that world forever, you hear me? He took a Devil Fruit that allows to open and close portals to other worlds. He is the only one who can open and close those portals."
"It's not SUPER!" Franky's voice comes through, echoing around the warehouse. There's a cling sound in the background, like two pieces of metal smashing together.
"Not super!" Chopper's voice echoes, sounding much more high pitched than the human Chopper. "Ah Zoro! You're injured, you shouldn't—STOP TAKING OFF YOUR BANDAGES!"
There's a crash and a sigh on the other side of the line. Zoro's protests are the only thing Ace can clearly make out until someone laughs mockingly.
"Shitty marimo can't even keep his bandages on. What a joke."
"WHAT WAS THAT SWIRLS?"
There's a crash and some more shouts. Nami's voice takes over the Den Den Mushi once again, sounding furious. "STOP INTERRUPTING ME!"
Someone (Ace is pretty sure it's Chopper) whimpers, "Nami's scary."
Straw Hat is still laughing so Ace figures he shouldn't be too concerned, but still, that was a pretty loud crash and there hasn't been any noise other than the pain groans and other-Nami's shouts. He's almost about to comment on it, but Fire Fist shakes his head and mouths 'later'.
"That's not all!" Other-Usopp says, taking advantage of the silence. "Luffy, he can only open two portals per world and can only go to a different world once. He's already opened up one portal getting here, do you understand?! But, there's something tying him to that world! You have to find it! Blackbeard can't open the portal unless he's touching it and when he does open the portal, you have to go through it! If you don't go through that portal when he opens it, even we can't get you back, okay?! You have to defeat him!"
"Got it," Straw Hat says and grins. "Don't worry, I'll kick his ass!"
"We've already taken care of his crew," Other-Sanji says. "All that's left is you, Captain."
Their voices are getting weaker and the eyes of the snail are slowly dropping. Ace doesn't know why until Fire Fist mutters something about losing connection under his breath. Straw Hat apparently notices, too.
"Wait for me, I'll be back! It's a promise!" he says.
The snail can only get out, "Aye!" before falling asleep once again.
"Change of plans," Ace says and rounds the group to sit back at the table. The snail is sleeping peacefully on the smooth surface, completely undisturbed by the tense atmosphere around it. "We have to find Blackbeard immediately. Can you two still fight?"
Even battered and covered in makeshift bandages, Straw Hat grins and holds up a fist, "Of course!"
"You guys," Ace says, addressing Luffy's friends, "Go home. Now. This is about to get bad. Luffy, you go with Marco and Thatch to their house."
"And what about you?" Marco demands.
"I'm not leaving you, Ace!" Luffy protests.
"I'll come eventually," noticing Marco's look, Ace grins. "Don't worry, I'm not going to fight or anything. I'm not that stupid. I'm just going to help these two figure out a plan."
"Be careful," Thatch says, eyes solemn. He glances at Fire Fist, eyes honing in on the burn scar that decorated his chest. "We don't want…"
"I know," Ace says. "I promise, I'll be careful."
"Stay safe, Ace," Luffy says and gives him a hug. Ace hugs him back and looks at Marco and Thatch. He mouths 'keep him safe' and they both nod.
They herd Luffy and the rest of his friends away and Ace watches them retreat with a sigh. If this ends badly, he dies. But if he doesn't help then Straw Hat and Fire Fist could very well be stuck here, in a world that isn't their own. They need to go home and if fighting a supervillian is the only way to do that, then so be it.
"Where would he be?" Ace asks, just to keep his mind off of everything.
"In the shadows," Fire Fist says. "Waiting for us to mess up because he's a coward."
"Then split up and find him," Ace says. "You can cover more ground."
"That's what he wants," Straw Hat interrupts. He's staring at the snail longingly and Ace almost feels bad for him. If he messes up, then he never gets to see his crew again. "He knows he can't take us together."
"Then what do we do?"
There is silence among the group of three, all thinking of the best way. Ace doesn't have as much knowledge on Blackbeard as they do nor can he really fight, but someone from this world has to be there, just in case.
"There's two of you," Straw Hat says suddenly, grin in place.
Fire Fist and Ace look at him in confusion, "And?"
"Blackbeard doesn't think that both of you can fight."
"Ace can't fight," Fire Fist says. "That's the whole point."
"But Blackbeard doesn't know the difference between you two."
Fire Fist gaps for a second, like he understands, "That's…since when do you plan?"
Straw Hat laughs at him but Ace is just confused. So what if there were two of them? Ace couldn't fight—it didn't matter if Blackbeard can't tell the difference between the two of them or not.
"Explain?" Ace asks.
"Blackbeard can't tell the difference between us," Fire Fist says with a grin. "So what if we make him think we split up? If you act as a decoy, Blackbeard will go after you thinking that Straw Hat is somewhere else, but in reality we'll be following behind you so when Blackbeard strikes, both of us can take him out."
"So I'm bait," Ace says. "But how do we know that he'll go after you—I mean me?"
"Because he thinks he can beat me again," Fire Fist grins, almost feral. "Don't worry about it, we've got your back."
story is almost dooooooonnnnnneeeeee
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