5 months earlier, Eldrya River, Rodo Rodo Island, Grand Line, 40 km from G2 Naval Base…
A man's lungs struggled to hoard air as the force of the river's current swelled upon him. Dammit! He thought. If he didn't think of something and fast, he was going to sink to the bottom. He felt the water disorienting him into dizziness, his devil-fruit powers leaking out of him, their place usurped by weakness.
Finally, everything went black…
"TEACH!" A man clamored angrily. "WHERE ARE YOU?! COME OUT!"
"Pops! We'll find him." Marco said, trying to calm his adoptive father and captain.
Whitebeard slammed his long-poled bisentō down on the the Moby Dick's deck. "I WANT HIM FOUND!" Lower level pirates and division commanders alike cowered at the sight of the angered Great Emperor of the Sea and trembled under the sky-darkening weight of his Conqueror's Haki. At 12 feet tall, with a build making heavily muscled bodybuilders look like schoolgirls, Whitebeard's appearance was bloodcurdling, to say the least
"Pops." Whitebeard turned his head. "I'll find him. He was in my division. He's my responsibility."
"Ace." Whitebeard's eyes softened and a smile broke out on his face. Out of all his adopted sons, Portogas D. Ace was among his favorites and most loyal. It'd be impossible for an outsider to guess Whitebeard's second division commander had joined the pirates after losing a fight with the Emperor and failed 100 attempts at assassinating him after joining.
"You idiot. You need to calm down and let me handle this." Marco said, trying to cool his friend down. "This is Blackbeard! He's a snake!"
"So what?!" Ace retorted. "He killed Thatch! The greedy bastard couldn't resist getting his stubby fingers on the Dark-Dark Fruit."
"Which is EXACTLY why you shouldn't go after him. He's dangerous. You might not even be able to handle him." Marco said, attempting to reason with his friend.
"So what am I supposed to do? Just let him get away with killing Thatch? With dishonoring Pops like that? NO WAY!"
"Pops. You can't let him do this."
Whitebeard looked at both of his sons. Then he laughed. Hard. "Gurararara! My sons are full of fire! Ace, you brat!" Whitebeard sat in his chair, doubling over with laughter. Marco and Ace shot each other puzzled looks. All over the ship, crewmembers and division commanders alike exhaled with relief as the sky was suddenly much lighter than it had been minutes earlier.
Whitebeard's countenance grew serious again. "Ace, my son, you know you don't have to do this. I can send Marco, with the powers of his fruit, he can catch up to Teach much faster than you can. At the very least, we can all go as soon as we get info on his whereabouts. You don't need to go."
Ace shook his head. "No Pops. I've made up my mind. I'm going to go find him. Thatch was the first friend I had when I came aboard. There's no way in hell I'm gonna sit back and watch Teach dishonor his and your name. No way."
Whitebeard slumped back in his chair, stroking the right side of his mustache. "Okay, son." Marco opened his mouth in protest, but Whitebeard held up a hand. Marco restrained himself. "My son has decided to stand for his father and brother's honor. I won't let anyone stop him." Despite having said this, worry and concern lined his face.
"Don't worry, Pops. I won't be stupid."
"Oh yeah? Gurararara!" Whitebeard laughed, embracing his son.
The sensation of his body hitting wood roused Ace from his subconscious trip down memory lane. Coughing and sputtering, he spat out riverwater and groggily came to. That's right, I was drowning. He looked up, his fuzzy eyes making out the image of a seventeen year old girl with long, curly blonde locks.
"Oh you're alive." She giggled. One of Ace's eyebrows perked up with intrigue. "Oh! How rude of me! My name's Moda Malon. But my friends call me MoMo."
Ace grinned. "Moda, you saved my life. I'm Ace. Portogas D. Ace"