Ace's Second Chance 9
Enjoy the second chapter of the day.
The Agonizing Beast
Akainu was cornered. Straw Hat Luffy and Fire Fist Ace were finally in front of him after two years, he wanted to destroy them but at that moment his priority was Tashigi, that woman knew too much and because of her his title was in danger. The Marine remained motionless, a single movement could be fatal, if he attacked the pirates Tashigi would go away and report to Mariejois, and if he attacked the girl, the pirates would strike him. It was a lose-lose situation.
Tashigi caught her breath and looked at Zoro. "Roronoa, thank you… but that doesn't change anything between us." She blushed and the pirate grinned.
Hina gave Chopper to a marine and walked towards Akainu. "This is a severe accusation, sir, and the Vice-Admirals have the duty to escort you to a cabin and make sure you remain there until we reach Mariejois." The woman was anxious to get rid of her fellow Devil Fruit User.
"However, we are dealing with two Supernovas and a Whitebeard Commander. We can make an exemption until the pirates are arrested." Doberman said with a bored expression. "Then we will continue with the protocol."
"I won't allow that." Sakazuki growled and decided that everyone would die to keep his secret. The man turned to lava and flooded the deck of the ship. The agonizing scream of the marines pierced Luffy's ears, the young captain clenched his fists and entered second gear. He disappeared in an instant and reappeared in front of Akainu to punch him in the face.
"How can you do that to your allies?" Luffy yelled as his fist sunk in the marine's face, but Akainu did not react, he raised his hand and grabbed the pirate's neck. "You are not the only one who can use Haki." Akainu laughed before Luffy used his superhuman strength to get free. At the end of the short encounter both men glared at each other.
Nami and Usopp used rain and water dials respectively to slow down the lava and guide the marines to safety, they were not on the same side but Akainu was their only enemy at the moment. "We need more time." The redhead yelled so someone could distract the Fleet Admiral while the marines were escaping in the boats.
Sakazuki narrowed his eyes and looked in the crowd for Tashigi, but she was not around so he attacked at random. This time Ace created the shield to protect them. "Why are you doing this, Fire Fist?" Hina stared at him trying to decipher his intentions. "That bastard was supposed to be the only one to get killed." Ace hissed.
"You need to leave." Zoro was losing his patience with Tashigi, the woman insisted to stay and fight. "Akainu is targeting you for the document, you'll get killed if you stay." The swordsman said.
"Then I will give it to someone else. I must fight for the honor of the marines." She was determined to stay. "I don't expect you to understand, but I owe everything I am to this organization and I can't stand to see it become a group of mercenaries." She snapped at Zoro.
"Do whatever you want." The pirate rolled his eyes. "But stay with me 'cause I won't let you get killed." He posed his eyes on Akainu, then Tashigi blushed. Soon Zoro realized his own words and got nervous. "You can't die because you have that important document." He blushed and both looked away.
Dalmatian finished the evacuation process, he did not have time to fight pirates when his leader was losing his mind. Just before leaving he turned to Doberman who was staring at Fire Fist. "I know your loyalty is with the Fleet Admiral." Dalmatian crossed his arms. "I'll report his actions to headquarters." The swordsman sighed and left with the remaining marines.
"Straw Hats… and Ace. This is an issue among the marines, if you leave now we will overlook your actions." The pink haired woman frowned.
"I have my own issues with Akainu, he did the worst thing someone can do to a man." Ace growled, he was doing everything in his power to avoid attacking Sakazuki, since the marines were evacuating. "He did two things I can't forgive." Luffy yelled.
"Fine, you'll be arrested when all this is over." Hina cracked her knuckles.
"Bring it on." The brothers smirked.
Ace looked around to see who was still on board. "Luffy and Hina are next to me, Sanji is in front of Nami and Robin, Dalmatian is behind Usopp and Brook, Zoro and Tashigi are flirting at the left of Franky and Chopper. Good, it's gonna get interesting." He said and jumped towards Akainu. His signature move, the Fire Fist, turned blue and landed at the marine's feet. Ace kept throwing punches that scratched his enemy but nothing very effective. The pirate's strength was good, the problem was Akainu's speed. Ace used his left hand to push himself and kick the marine in the face, however, the older man moved backwards. The pirate was on the air, so he used both hands to send two columns of fire towards Akainu.
"Coward, are you planning to hide on the flames?" The marine observed the flames trying to predict the pirate's next move but nothing happened, suddenly the fire disappeared and Luffy charged at him with a gigantic black hand. The impact sent Akainu against the mast. "You will regret this, but I'll deal with you later." Sakazuki growled and ignored the pirates to attack the escape boats, Franky's boat too.
"Damn you." Hina hissed and threw cages at her superior, while he was evading them the woman rushed to kick him in the stomach. Due to the size of the man Hina was forced to back off and prepare to kick again. Finally Vegapunk's inventions were good for something. Dalmatian joined the fight and barked to distract the Fleet Admiral, then he scratched his face. Both Vice-Admirals used Soru to attack. Akainu used a lava fist to get rid of Hina, since she wasn't able to use Haki that would finish her off. Dalmatian read Akainu's intentions so he made a Haki shield to allow Hina to take out a dagger and aim at Sakazuki's neck. The fleet admiral acknowledged the Vice-Admirals' team work, so he evaded the knife to kick Hina, she used Tekkai and Dalmatian attacked from behind, Akainu ignored the zoan and grabbed the woman by the arm to throw her away, then as Dalmatian landed Akainu kicked him to the sea. Sanji jumped to catch the pink haired woman and Robin created a web of hands to help Dalmatian. Everyone's attention was on the defeated Vice-Admirals.
Hina took out Vegapunk's pills and threw them on the sea while no one was watching, if they were effective Akainu would be unstoppable.
"Now that they are distracted..." Akainu thought and looked for Tashigi, once he saw her, a wave of lava stroke the place where she was. Zoro did not have time to escape so he covered the girl with his body, he forgot that Tashigi was able to create a Haki shield.
Ace saw an opening while Akainu was aiming for Tashigi. The pirate created shiny spheres of fire and directed them to the tallest man. Suddenly he remembered that Robin had a gun with sea-stone bullets. "Why isn't she using them?" He thought and as if the archeologist could read his mind she smiled and nodded. "Women." He sighed, at the same time the spheres exploded and Akainu was engulfed on flames.
Hina stood up once more and charged at her superior. She took out a knife once she was close to him and buried it on his shoulder, the only reaction of the man was a laugh. "I bet you wish you had taken Vegapunk's drug." He grabbed Hina by the neck and smashed her against a wall. The pressure of his hand increased and the woman couldn't breathe anymore, using her remaining strength she took out another knife to stab his hand. "Do it and your subordinates will pay the consequences." He smirked. Hina froze and then passed out for the lack of oxygen. Dalmatian rushed to recover his comrade before lava could turn her to ashes but he received some damage, so he was forced to abandon the battle.
"Chopper, take care of them." Luffy said and entered second gear. The rubber man stretched his arms to the sea and made them return with twice their strength to hit Akainu, the tall men received the strike and hit Luffy with his elbow. Ace jumped to the scene and kicked Akainu in the neck.
The Straw Hats saw his captain fighting with all his might for the sake of Vivi and the marines that were betrayed by their boss. Sanji took a small atomizer from his pocket and sprayed a substance on his shoes. "Where did you get that?" Tashigi asked. The sea-stone dust was in the hands of pirates. Sanji smiled, his excursion to Hina's cabin was not in vain. The cook rushed to the battle, his powerful kicks damaged Akainu's left leg, then he jumper and aimed for the head, however the marine used a lava wave to get rid of Sanji. Robin was ready to lift her blond friend before the lava touched him. "You almost turn to ashes, I wonder if it would be too painful to be burned alive." She inquired and Sanji braced himself. The archeologist had limbs ready in case Akainu decided to defend himself with lava, she would remove her friends at once.
"Zoro, you idiot, what do you think you're doing?" Nami yelled and smiled mischievously. "You should be helping Luffy, not taking care of the marine… Could it be?" She giggled much to Zoro's annoyance. "Shut it, witch." He said through gritted teeth. Suddenly a weird mass of something rose from the floor and attacked Tashigi. Zoro managed to stop the tentacle but his sword was beyond repair.
"I entrust you with my sea-stone sword. Take care of it." Tashigi said.
"Nami, create a storm. Usopp, put electric dials all over the floor. Franky… I need great amounts of water." Robin commanded. "Yes ma'am." The pirates complied. "Chopper, can you please wear this?" The archeologist smiled and gave the doctor a pair of tiny boxing globes. Chopper nodded and she sprayed sea-stone dust on them. The pirates' eyes twitched, Robin was only nice with the Zoan.
Akainu realized that his attacks would not be effective if he was desperate to kill them so he decided to calm down. His new strategy consisted in using CP9 techniques and Haki, and avoid Zoro's sword, his devil fruit powers had to wait. "Enough of fooling around." He said and disappeared with Soru to strike Sanji in the back, his next target was Ace and finally he smashed Luffy against a cannon. The Fleet Admiral eyed Zoro and evaded a flying slash to his head, suddenly he punched the swordsman so he fell next to Tashigi. The marine woman gasped and used Haki to stop Akainu's feet as it tried to crush Zoro's skull. It gave the pirate enough time to recover and strike back with his new sword.
Ace created some fire balls and scattered around the floor, he eyed Robin, who was pointing a gun at Akaunu's head. "How did she get there?" The Whitebeard Commander asked himself but didn't pay too much attention since the woman pulled the trigger. Sadly, the marine turned around in time to tackle the archeologist. She planned every move, she was the bait, and Brook stabbed the marine with a weird looking sword. It was emanating vapor and glowing. "Can you burn a soul?"
Tashigi noticed Sakazuki's skin get pale, a reaction she had never seen on the intimidating man. Robin disappeared in a whirlpool of rose petals and reappeared next to Luffy. The Captain nodded at something she said and charged at him in Third Gear. Brook retreated and waited for another chance to attack. Luffy's gigantic black arm smashed Akainu, the damage was enough to knock him out and keep the ship afloat.
The Fleet Admiral laid on the wooden floor of his battleship, he was taking a break of the fight and trying to suppress a laugh. "Those brats think they can take me on." He sighed, after a minute of suspense he stood up, eyed Robin and smirked. "The master mind." He laughed and kicked her off the ship using a combination of Soru and Tekkai. Luffy was outraged, no one was allowed to hurt his precious friends. The captain rushed to help Robin and Akainu used the same techniques to strike Luffy with enough power to break the floor. "Idiot, how do you pretend to help my dear Robin if you can't swim?" Sanji cursed and jumped to rescue her friends, however Akainu grabbed the cook by the head and used him as a shield for Zoro's slashes, when the attack was over Akainu threw Sanji against Nami, neither was able to stand anymore. Ace was harder to get, his blue fire fist hit the target, two more did the same but the last one hit Zoro and Tashigi, even though Akainu was slightly injured he didn't stop until Ace was out of energy. "Looks like this battle has come to an end." Akainu was the last man standing. He created a wave of lava to kill everyone on sight.
"No!" Vivi covered her mouth at the sight of her unconscious friends. She had barely made it to the battle ship when she saw Robin falling, Kuzan caught her and she explained everything. The former Admiral and the princess decided that the best option was to rescue her friends and leave as soon as they could but she was sure Kuzan would ignore his own strategy and fight. Vivi noticed the huge amount of lava that was about to finish her friends off and used the only thing she could to stop the massacre. The princess stood up and rushed towards Akainu. "I confess, I'm a Pirate." She yelled.
"This is your fault, if you had turned yourself in since the beginning no one would have died." He growled, putting the blame of his crimes on Vivi. He was ready to kill her.
To Be Continued
Excuses so you won't kill me:
Yey Vivi, she's my hero… and my favorite character, I was so sad when she stayed in Alabasta so I hope she shows up at the Reverie and has a major role. And I was happy that she appeared in several covers even if she wasn't traveling anymore.
It's really difficult to think of a battle with a guy who practically destroys everything he touched so please bear with me XD.
Awww, love is in the air (Tashigi and Zoro) "How does he know you love him?"… You give him a sword. ^_^U
The marine that Vivi slapped died on Akainu's attack.