Marines poured out of the courthouse and barracks by the hundreds, firing pistols, brandishing swords, and screaming as they charged the band of thugs and pirates on the docks. Gunshots rang from across the walls like an endless supply of firecrackers, punctuated by the occasional deep boom of a cannon. The island echoed with the screams of the wounded, blaring trumpets, and thunderous cracks as stone split apart and metal was torn asunder.

For the first time in his life, Izuku's head was silent. Ringing hollowly the echoes of the battle around him, his thoughts faded away until all that remained was the ground beneath his feet, his fists, and the nearest Marine face. His fists flashed out, shocking and bruising in equal measure. Marines went flying with each impact, bowling over their comrades. The swords and bullets that did reach him passed harmlessly through, or even caught a fellow Marine. He felt like lightning incarnate, dancing through the rank and file like an electron slipping across copper atoms.

The Marines towards the front wised up and tried to retreat, but the sheer press of bodies behind them forced them into the fray. Pale-faced, trembling Marines screamed and stabbed at him. Their fear never even registered in Izuku's mind as he crushed their rib cages and scattered them like sparks.

With Izuku as the tip of their spear, plowing through Marine forces, Luffy took the role of their shield. Keeping himself airborne with Geppo, Luffy absorbed the deluge of bullets falling like rain and scattered them back in the Marines' ranks. Cannonballs slingshotted back gouged chunks of masonry from the courthouse's austere marble front.

From behind Izuku came Zoro and Sanji, mopping up the threats that had slipped past and sought easier targets. Mei, Nami, and Usopp followed after them, casting their own fireballs, thunderbolts, and noxious gas bombs into the fray. Every Marine they took down tripped up ten more behind them.

Within minutes, Enies Lobby turned into a bloodbath. Blood coated the stone pathway. Marines slipped, fell, and got trampled by the boots behind them. Wounded men groaned in agony and crawled away from the fight, clutching wounded arms, bleeding legs, and scorch marks on their chest. Many more didn't move at all. Chopper flitted about them, binding wounds and slathering salves onto burns at a frantic pace, and on occasion, punching the lights out of a Marine still trying to do their duty before patching them up. The Franky Family gathered their weapons, arming themselves with better gear before charging back into the fray.

Izuku brushed past the two giants flanking the gate, who were deep in a conversation with Usopp. With a Haki-coated foot, he kicked clean through the giant wooden slab barring the way to the courthouse. Marine Lieutenants and Captains, forming ranks with wooden, glass, and Sea-Prism weapons, shouted a war cry and charged at him. A wooden bokken slammed into his forearm, and a glass knife scored a cut along his ribs.

Izuku answered their injuries with lightning. A few Marines grounded the attack with metal swords, but many more fell scorched and twitching. The few still standing took lightning-fast punches to the jaw and fell like the walls of Enies Lobby.

Over the bodies of the fallen Marines, Izuku strode up to the courthouse's doors and threw them open. At the massive bench overlooking the courtroom, Baskerville's three heads scowled down at Izuku. "Intruder, you are just in time for your trial. You stand accused of piracy, theft, murder, and serving as an accomplice to Gold Roger."

Kerville shook his head, and said, "Look at him, he's just a kid. Let's acquit him."

"That kid took out all the captains!" Bas shouted. "Convict him!"

"Why bother with either?" And asked. "Just kill him already."

Both heads slapped him, then looked thoughtful. "You know what? You're right. Jurors? Your thoughts?"

The jurors, in spiked armor and wielding massive maces, jumped out and shouted, "Guilty!"

Their maces fell upon Izuku with a deafening clash. When the dust cleared, the shattered floor stood empty. The Jurymen smirked to themselves, patting each other on the shoulder. In a single flash, lightning swept through them and felled them all like trees.

"The Jurors!" Baskerville shrieked. "You make a mockery of our great government's justice! Face my wrath!"

The judge swung two massive cutlasses. Izuku leapt over the blades and bounced off the air towards the judge. Two fists caught the heads on either side, and Izuku headbutted the middle. All three heads slumped forward, bloodied and woozy, and the cutlasses clattered to the floor.

Izuku grabbed the judge by his coat. His fists crackled with sparks, and the judge's eyes widened with fear.

"Where are they?"

"You - you won't get anything out of me!"

Izuku shocked the offending head. Kerville's eyes rolled into his head, while And glanced between the two unconscious heads at his sides.

"Wait! If you're asking about Nico Robin and Cutty Flam, their trials were skipped, to my frustration. They've been sentenced to death, and as we speak, they're heading to the Bridge of Hesitation. Once they're across, even Gold Roger himself wouldn't be able to take them back."

"And the truck?" Izuku asked.

"The - the wha?"

A sudden trill of danger from Observation Haki alerted Izuku. Dropping Baskerville, he threw himself aside. A furry arm with glittering claws erupted from Baskerville's coat, impaling the space where Izuku had stood. Jabra yanked his arm out of Baskerville's back and threw the whimpering judge aside.

"You're faster than I thought you would be." Jabra smirked and held his claws up to the light. "Doesn't matter, though. You won't be moving much once I get these inside of you. Then I'll get to see what lightning tastes like."

Izuku flashed forward and punched. Jabra took the blow, using Tekkai to withstand it, and lashed out with his claws. The glass points drew long furrows across his chest.

"First blood goes to me," Jabra said, grinning. Then he looked down at his arm. The skin had torn away, and blood dampened his fur where Izuku's punch had landed.

"You're using Tekkai while you move," Izuku said. "How do you manage that?"

"Like I'd tell a filthy pirate like you! Now die!"

Jabra snarled and lunged forward with Soru. Izuku leaned aside, then hurriedly leapt back when Jabra's other hand swept towards him. The chase continued, Jabra repeatedly slashing and Izuku frantically leaping away.

"You can't keep this up forever!" Jabra ran his tongue over his jagged teeth. "The moment I get you, you're finished!"

Jabra backed Izuku into a corner. Grinning ferally, Jabra swung both hands in a massive downward slash. Izuku parted his body around the blow, much like Buggy used to, keeping the split an inch ahead of each claw and seamlessly merging himself back together once they passed. Jabra's claws hit the courtroom floor in a massive explosion of stone. Chunks of gravel bounced off of Izuku's flickering form.

Jabra leapt away, but Izuku's leg darted up. His teeth clacked together with a spray of blood, and Jabra hissed. "You'll pay for that," he said, voice garbled by his bitten tongue. "Ten Finger Pistol!"

Jabra's fingertips carved through the stone wall as Izuku flickered away. Reappearing behind him, Izuku said, "That's Shigan and Tekkai. I haven't thought about using two Powers at once."

"Quit mocking me and fight!"

Jabra lashed out. Izuku bent himself backward, and at the same time, used Tekkai on a leg. Izuku kicked low, aiming to sweep Jabra's legs, but Jabra leapt into the air.

"I got you now. Moonlight Ten Finger Pistol!"

With Izuku off-balance from the kick and Kami-e, Jabra bounced off the air and crashed towards Izuku like a missile.

The marble floor buckled. Stone rippled like a wave from the point of impact, overturning benches and shattering the judge's stand. The walls cracked and crumpled inwards, and dust drifted ominously from the stone rooftop.

Huffing and spitting a glob of blood onto the shattered floor, Jabra stood up and glanced around the room. "Pfeh, where did you go, you little rat? Running away?" He held up a key, dangling from a cord around his neck, and said, "If you want your little Robin back, you'll need the key to her Sea Prism cuffs. That's even assuming you make it before Spandam hands her off at the Gate of Justice."

Jabra flicked his ears. The odd pebble dropped from the cracked ceiling, but no footstep or static crackle betrayed Izuku's position. "Did you really leave?"

A low moan made him turn. He had his claws halfway towards his target when he pulled back. "Oh, it's you. Can you keep it down? I almost skewered you."

Bas weakly raised his arm. "He's… he's…"

"Shut up. I don't have time to help weaklings like you. I won't let Midoriya leave this place alive."

"He's in-"

"I said, shut up!"

"He's in my-"

Izuku burst out of Baskerville's coat. Using Baskerville's own cutlass, Izuku slashed both of Jabra's hamstrings. The CP-9 Agent yelped and dropped to the floor. He held his hands to the slashes, trying to staunch the bleeding.

"You should have killed me there," Jabra hissed. "Don't think you can underestimate me. I'll kill you for this!"

Izuku grabbed him by the hair on his chest. Jabra went to swipe at him, but a quick zap from Izuku's fingers froze his arm.

"The truck. Where is it?"

"The what?"

Izuku zapped him again. Taking a deep breath, Izuku asked, "The device you took from Franky's place. Where is it?"

Jabra's eyes widened. "Pluton? So you were the ones making it!" Jabra cackled. "You're too late! Spandam's activating it as we speak! Once he figures out how to unleash its terrible power, he will crush you and your pathetic crew!"

"Where?"

"W-where?" Jabra laughed hysterically. "Are you seriously telling me you're going after it? Ha! If you want to die so badly, then go right ahead. He has it on the Bridge with Robin. Assuming you brats even make it that far, Pluton itself will be our last line of defense. Even if you get the key, you'll never get her or Pluton back!"

Izuku punched. Jabra's eyes rolled back, and his bleeding tongue lolled out as he collapsed onto the floor. Izuku ripped off two strips of his shirt and hastily tied up the slashes in his legs.

"Sorry about those, I don't have time to stitch them up." He got up to leave, but the glimmer of the key around Jabra's neck caught his eye. After a moment of hesitation, Izuku yanked it free and pocketed it.

He turned to the three judges and asked, "Are you going to cause any problems?"

Bas hastily shook his head.

"Good. I'm sorry about all this, but I just want to go home."

Leaving the shattered courtroom behind, Izuku leapt onto the roof and cast his gaze around Enies Lobby. A massive tower loomed ahead of him. The sounds of battle echoed from within, and as Izuku watched, a giraffe's neck carved through one wall, leaving behind a clean slice through the masonry. Giant pearlescent bubbles drifted from a window. A door opened up on a bare patch of wall near the top, and Sanji pinwheeled his arms to keep from falling off.

"Hmm, I don't see a bridge," Izuku said to himself. "Might see it from up there."

Izuku leapt up the side of the tower, stopping to throw a bolt of lightning at Sanji's opponent, and perched atop the tower. Usopp yelped and pointed his slingshot at him.

"Hey, don't sneak up on me like that!" Usopp shouted. His skin was bone-white, and his arms shook. "I was just lining up the perfect shot to take them all out at once!"

Izuku looked where Usopp pointed. In the shadow of the gigantic tower and across a massive gap in the island, a bridge stretched towards a stone gate at the edge of the sea. The bright red hood of the monster truck glowed like a faint star in the distance.

Izuku jumped. An endless black chasm stretched before him, but with a few kicks, he crossed over to the bridge.

The group of guards escorting Robin and Franky drew their swords and formed ranks. In the back, Spandam grumbled as he fiddled with the monster truck's controls. "One of these stupid buttons must turn this thing on!" He flicked a switch, and the headlights lit up. "Is it on? I think it's on! Behold, Midoriya, the Viridian Flash, Scourge of the East Blue and Known Accomplice of Gold Roger! Her stands Pluton, one of the three ancient weapons, said to have the power to destroy entire islands! And now it is mine! Behold and tremble, as I wipe you and your crew off the face of this planet!"

Spandam pressed a button. The monster truck beeped twice. Spandam pressed more buttons, making the window wipers move and rolling down the windows, but otherwise, nothing happened.

"Why. Won't. You. Do something!" Spandam slammed both hands onto the steering wheel. The monster truck let out an ear-splitting, booming foghorn. The Marines all dropped their weapons and clawed at their ears.

"Did I get it right?" Franky shouted. "The schematic didn't specify what sound it should make so I used what we typically make for boats."

"It's usually higher-pitched," Izuku said, "But that part doesn't really matter."

"Hey!" Spandam shouted. "Quit ignoring me or I will blast you all again!"

"Please don't sir!" one Marine shouted. "My ears are bleeding!"

"Shut up! You should be glad to give your lives to erase the last of Roger's vile legacy. Now face the wrath of Pluton!"

Spandam threw his whole weight onto the horn. The hood of the truck rattled from the force of it. The Marines threw themselves into the ocean. Izuku darted forward, grabbed Spandam by his shirt, and bodily hauled him out of the car before he could blink.

"Wha- how! How dare you! Pluton is mine, and I won't let you take it!" He drew his sword and shouted, "Funkfreed, deal with him!"

The tusked sword turned into an elephant. It trumpeted and charged towards him, bowling the few Marines still on the bridge out of its path. Right before it trampled him, Izuku leapt up and punched down. Funkfreed wobbled on its feet, let out one last warbling trumpet, and fell sideways.

Spandam gaped and looked around. All his Marines had fallen, Funkfreed lay unconscious, and Izuku stood between him and the truck. He took out a golden Transponder snail and said, "Don't come a step closer, or I'll press it!"

"No!" Robin shouted. "Are you trying to kill us all?"

"That's the idea!" Spandam shouted. "I should have used this from the start. Once I got Pluton, I should have wiped that miserable island off the face of the map, and you with it! But no matter. I can always come back and do it myself with Pluton. In the meantime, I'll simply use this Buster Call to clean up this mess. So long, Straw Hats!"

Spandam slammed his hand towards the button on the snail. Time slowed to a crawl as Izuku raced forward, took the snail, and crushed the mechanical parts into smithereens. The snail blanched and slithered away as fast as its shell let it.

Spandam's hand slapped onto his empty palm, and he stared at his hands in shock. "But I - you - my Buster Call! You destroyed it!"

Robin had tears trickling down her cheeks as she sank to her knees. Spandam backed away until his back hit the Gates of Justice and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Lucci! Get over here, I need you right now!"

For a second, Izuku stood there, waiting for something to happen. Sweat rolled down Spandam's face as the moment drew uncomfortably long.

Just as Izuku was about to move, a whistling noise came from overhead. Rob Lucci flew out of the sky and landed on the bridge in front of Spandam. Spandam's face lit up with joy.

"Lucci! Just in time. I almost thought you got held up by that Straw Hat kid. Take care of this filthy pirate and I'll make sure you're promoted to Vice Admiral at the very least!"

The dust cleared, and Spandam's jubilant voice died with a strangled croak. Lucci's face was a mass of bumps and bruises, and both his arms bent the wrong way. Seconds later, his pigeon fell out of the sky and onto his chest.

The bridge shook when Luffy landed on it. Air hissed as his arm, still gleaming with the umber glow of Haki, shrunk back to its normal size. The red glow faded from Luffy's skin. He huffed tiredly as he wiped a smear of blood off his chin and stared down at Lucci.

"Gimme that key." He groped around Lucci's neck until he found the cord and yanked it off. "There. Now don't wake me until there's meat."

Key resting in his outstretched hand, Luffy fell backwards and snored the moment his head hit the bridge. Spandam looked down at Lucci, then back at Izuku, and said, "I - I surrender! Please don't hurt me!"

Izuku took Luffy's key. He tested both sets on the Sea Prism cuffs Robin and Franky wore. Robin's remained locked, but Franky's snapped open with Luffy's key. "Super!" Franky shouted. "I sure owe you guys one for coming all this way. Are my little bros okay?"

"Last I saw them, they were fighting through the courthouse," Izuku said. "What's the whole thing about Pluton anyways?"

Franky gave him a wicked grin. "Oh, nothing much. Tom happened to leave me two different blueprints when he passed, and when Spandam here asked me for it, well…" Franky opened up his chest and held up a folded, weathered piece of parchment. "I couldn't let this creep get his hands on these blueprints, so I gave him a different set of schematics. Good thing this idiot fell for it, right?"

Spandam's mouth moved without a sound. Izuku bit back his annoyance and said, "That was our only way home, and you gave it to him."

Franky's smile dipped. "I know. But between getting you two home or saving countless lives, I made my choice. But it doesn't matter now." He held up Pluton's parchment, and one of his fingertips sprouted a tiny flame. The fire eagerly devoured the dry blueprint, and its ashes scattered on the wind. Spandam yelled like his own son just died before his eyes, and he clawed at the ashes before a glare from Izuku stopped him cold.

"I should've done that ages ago. I guess I couldn't let go of that one piece of the old man I had left."

"You mind helping me with the truck?" Izuku asked.

"Why carry it?" Franky took the keys out of his chest and twirled them around his finger. "We have a perfectly good bridge, don't we?"

The truck rumbled to life when Franky turned the ignition. The truck rumbled down the bridge, nudging Funkfreed out of its way as it drove towards the underground tunnel crossing the divide between the Bridge and the Tower. Izuku lingered behind to drape Luffy over his shoulder and help Robin to her feet.

Behind him, the Gates of Justice rumbled. They swung open with a ponderous grinding of stone on stone. Massive gears clanked and ropes tensed as the mechanisms inside the gate moved literal tons of rock aside. Water gurgled, and the ocean rushed into Enies Lobby, calming the whirlpools raging around the island.

Spandam gaped at the gates. "No one's ever opened them all the way before," he said breathlessly. "Was it supposed to be for Robin?"

Izuku looked back when he heard Spandam's maniacal laughter. Spandam was on his knees, cackling and pointing at the wall of white sails rising over the horizon. "The Buster Call went through!" Spandam shouted. "Get them! Destroy the Straw Hats! Burn the whole damn island down if you have to, just kill them!"

Nico Robin shivered violently, and she slipped out of Izuku's arms.

"Come on," Izuku said. "If that's the Buster Call, we need to leave."

"That's not a Buster Call," Robin said faintly. "There's only supposed to be ten ships."

Izuku looked back and counted. Almost fifty ships sped towards the open gates. At the prow of the foremost ship, a bright light flashed.

Izuku felt an alarm ring through every electron in his body. He dropped Luffy, crossed his arms, and braced himself for impact, all in half the time it took him to blink.

A bright flash filled his vision. A fist slammed into his raised guard with the force of a meteor. The blow knocked him off his feet, drove him straight into the stone bridge, gouged a crater twenty feet long, and launched him back in the air. Izuku ragdolled across hundreds of feet of bridge, slamming and skidding across the stone.

A bright red smear caught his eye. Gritting his teeth, Izuku twisted mid-air, planted his feet on the ground, and skidded to a stop within ten feet of the monster truck.

His entire body felt like an overenthusiastic chef had gone to town with a meat tenderizer. He stretched everything slowly, searching for broken bones. A massive bruise covered the sides of his arms, and his vision wobbled a bit from all the hits his head took, but he felt nothing that would keep him out of a fight.

Taking a deep breath, Izuku raced back down the bridge. Every crater and cracked boulder added to his trepidation, but between the vulnerable truck behind him and his fallen friends ahead, Izuku couldn't run away.

At the end of the bridge waited a tanned, wrinkled man in a striped yellow suit, wearing gold-tinted sunglasses, with the cloak of a Marine Admiral draped across his shoulders. He cocked his head as Izuku warily drew closer.

"Oh? You're a fast one," Kizaru drawled. "I thought I saw a bit of Haki when I hit you."

Izuku wiped sweat off his brow and asked, "Who are you?"

"The name's Borsalino, but on the job, you can call me Admiral Kizaru."

"I'm-"

"Izuku Midoriya. I've read your bounty posters." He scratched at his scraggly beard. "You know, I can't help but wonder how it is that someone as young as you has a decades old bounty poster. Are you just the man's kid, coasting on their reputation, or did you get on the wrong end of a Devil Fruit?"

Izuku tried to think of how to respond. He wanted to keep the conversation going, if only to get more time to analyze his opponent, but time travel felt too dangerous to mention.

His hesitation answered for him. Borsalino shook his head and said, "Doesn't really matter, does it? The World Government says you're a threat, and it's my job to deal with those." He rolled his shoulders and neck, making his joints crackle. "You know, I'd rather just take Nico Robin and leave. I don't think you're fast enough to stop me."

Izuku tensed and readied himself to Soru at the slightest twitch. Kizaru huffed and said, "Unfortunately, you're looking like you'll be quite the problem in the future. If I don't clean up this mess right here and right now, I'll have even more work to do later. And let me tell you, there's nothing I don't like more than working overtime. I don't exactly have the most fun job in the world."

"Then why do it?" Izuku asked, latching on any way to continue the conversation. "If you hate working for them so much, why not quit?"

"Oh? Why not?" Borsalino scratched his head. "Well, it's like living in a house. It's so much easier to never wash the dishes, or never take out the trash - that's a metaphor for pirates, by the way - and let it all pile up. But if you do that, then living in your house becomes so much of a bother that you have no choice but to clean up. By that point, getting everything clean is much harder than it would have been to keep it clean in the first place."

Izuku bristled at the comment. "Is that what you think we are? Trash?"

"I thought I made that pretty clear. You're worthless, destructive, and refuse to mend your ways. What else is there to do but dispose of you?"

For a second, Izuku was back on the playground, getting called a worthless Deku. A part of him quailed at the terrifying figure before him, who had nearly taken him out with a single punch. Then he remembered hauling cannonballs, remembered Rayleigh's teachings, remembering shouting his dreams of being a hero with Luffy. Izuku balled his fists and said, "Maybe I was worthless once. Everyone else thought so. But I've come a long way from the tiny weakling everyone picked on."

Borsalino raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Is that so?"

For his answer, Izuku gathered lighting around his arms and charged.

A/N: boy howdy have I had a crazy week. Was down a coworker all week due to vacation and work training stuff, yada-yada. On top of that, I had one of the craziest days I had ever seen.

Twas near the end of the shift. All was quiet, and I was wrapping up the last of my work when I heard a call over the intercom for everyone to gather in the break room. I took one step outside the lab and it looked like the whole place was on fire. Smoke. Everywhere. Except it wasn't smoke – the fire alarm wasn't going off, but I didn't notice that right away. So, went to break room, then got called back out to talk to plant management.

Turns out, that 'smoke' was in fact from a fire extinguisher that got knocked off its hook and suffered a broken seal. The chemical in the fire extinguisher got EVERYWHERE. Fortunately, the way the airflow works kept the chemical out of most areas, but we ended up having to put on hold and throw away literal tons of product that was sitting out in bins and multiple pallets of finished product, and then reclean ten packaging lines. Ouch.

And that's not even the end of the craziness.

I stayed late to handle the hold, because the next shift was also short-staffed. While waiting for logistics to get everything sorted out, I got a call about a praying mantis in the receiving docks. It was hanging out far underneath a conveyor, so I nudged it onto a broom. I was grabbing for it, trying not to crush it, when it started flying away. I followed after it, thinking I'd just nab it when it landed.

Well, that little stinker had other ideas. After flying for about fifty feet close to the ground, it suddenly went straight towards the ceiling and landed on a hanging net about thirty feet off the ground. My first impulse was to throw my shoes at it, but luckily I had the good sense to resist that intrusive thought. I threw a box of disposable gloves and some tape rolls instead. One roll and the gloves got stuck above a dock door, and the other roll got stuck in the net. Man am I glad I didn't throw my shoes.

At this point, I called in the big guns. I had someone drive over a scissors lift. I went up with them, and the lift stopped three feet short of the net. Luckily, we had the foresight to bring a broom, which I used to knock the mantis off. I lost sight of it, but someone on the ground saw where it went. Which was… on the wall, ten feet higher than where it was on the net.

I threw in the towel and pronounced the praying mantis as our newest line of defense in our integrated pest management system. It's still up there.

So, yeah. I've had a week.

ProjectIceMan: "Looks like a few characters got upgraded early. First Hina and now T Bone are Vice Admirals already when they were introduced as Captains."

Bardothren: breaking news, old man yells at Wikipedia.

Also ProjectIceMan, in a PM: "If the Strawhats happen to have to face an Admiral, who will Izuku face? And why is it Kizaru? LOL"

Bardothren: excuse me, sir, how did you get into my mind? And do you need me to send a search and rescue team? Lord knows I always get lost in there.

Guest: "I just finished reading the story. Can't wait to see if they go home or not in the next few chapters and I'm looking forward to seeing them fight CP nine. It's one of the best one piece stories, and one of the best my hero academia stories I've ever read."

Bardothren: this is going on the fridge.