Finally, finally, we get to the action. Oh I love this chapter. The fighting was a pain to write but so much fun to read. Enjoy!

Chapter 7- Mission: Rescue Dickie-bird

The rest of the Jason's and Damien's first day on the Thousand Sunny was surprisingly calm, or at least as calm as any day with the Straw Hat Pirates. Franky and Ussop had only one explosion. Chopper had only one panic attack because of said explosion. Luffy was kicked into the water only once for stealing the steaks that Sanji was trying to marinate. Zoro took a nap until he had to fish his captain out of the ocean, then trained before taking another nap. Brook sang, Nami drew, Jimbe steered, and Robin read. Over all, it was a very peaceful day.

Dinner was as boisterous as normal, but now that they had a few meals under their belts, the two vigilantes held their own against Luffy's wandering fingers. Then after dinner everyone expect for Zoro, who was on first watch, went to bed early in preparation for the upcoming battle. The pirates were in high spirits, looking forward to the fight. They had utmost confidence in their abilities. The Gothamites, however, were worried. Jason checked and rechecked his weapons and ammunition, trying to burn off his nervous energy. Damien spent hours staring at the tiny square of smoldering paper, watching it inch across his hand, before finally falling asleep.

Damien woke up to a disembodied hand shanking him awake. He sat up with a jerk, reaching for his sword before he remembered Nico Robin's bizarre ability. The hand held up one finger then pointed up to the deck before vanishing in a burst of flower petals.

All around, in the other swinging bunks, the rest of the men were waking up to similar warnings. Ussop started to yell in alarm, but the hand clapped over his mouth. When the sniper nodded, the hand released him and pressed one finger to his lips, staying there until he nodded again. They all got ready quickly and in complete silence for climbing up on deck.

A thick fog lay over the ship and the surrounding water. Hands on the deck led them to the kitchen and dining room where Nami, Robin, and Sanji, who had been on watch and preparing for breakfast, waited.

"Be quiet," Nami hissed as everyone sat down. Sanji passed around breakfast onagri and she took one without looking. It was in the shape of a heart. "The marine ship is very close by and we don't want them to notice us until we're ready."

"How close, Nami?" Luffy whispered loudly, inciting a series of "shhhhhh" from around the table.

"Not far enough," Nami whispered. "But, Robin and I were thinking that we could use this to our advantage."

Robin nodded and explained their plan. "The retrieval team will take the shark sub as planned and climb up the hull. The distraction team will go along and start their attack after they are already on the ship. The team on the Sunny will take the ship out of range so the Marines won't know where we came from."

"That will give us the element of surprise," Jimbe agreed. "And prevents the marines from sounding an alarm till after the distraction team makes their move."

"Exactly," Nami said. "This fog will burn off in only an hour so we need to be quick. If we can, I'd like to be finished and leaving before we lose the cover."

"Yosh!" Luffy cheered, making everyone shush him again. "Let's go!" he whispered a little quieter.

He jumped up and started for the door. Zoro caught him by the back of his shirt, bringing him to a stop. "Luffy," he said with surprising patience. "What is the plan?"

"We beat up the marines and rescue Hoody's and Bird-boy's brother," Luffy explained, picking his nose.

There was a thud as Nami's head hit the table. Zoro sighed and pulled the boy back to the table. "You, me, Red Hood, and Brook will sneak aboard with the kid, Robin, shit cook, and Chopper. Then while they look for the brother, we rain hell on the marines. Can you handle that?"

Luffy nodded so hard it looked like his neck would break. Sanji went over and laid a heavy hand on Zoro's shoulder.

"You're in charge of him, mosshead," the cook said sternly. Nami snapped at him to be quiet so he continued softer. "Just make sure he doesn't sink the ship until we're gone."

Everyone one could see the effort Zoro had to exert to keep from picking a fight, there was even a throbbing vein in his forehead; but he took a deep breath and let it go. "I know," was all he said.

"Good," Nami said, picking her head up off the table. "Then let's go."

The pirates disbursed to gather their equipment in silence. It was the quietest they had been since Jason and Damien had met them. Then they all gathered in the room with Franky's sub and the boarding party launched. Unfortunately, not everyone could fit inside, so some people had to cling to the outside while Ussop piloted it across the surface under the cover of the fog.

It was eerie inside the sub, with the "mood lighting" and Brook, who kept humming under his breath. It was better than outside though, which was cold and wet. All the devil fruit users and Damien stayed inside with Ussop, so it was crowded, but Damien didn't complain about the need to hold Chopper in his lap. Luffy wasn't happy, but apparently his crew was worried about him falling off, so he was sitting in Robin's lap with a big pout. Luckily, they reached the marine ship before Luffy got really bored.

Everyone except Ussop climbed out of the sub. It was precarious with so many people standing on the slick surface, but they quickly made their way to the deck of the marine ship. Red Hood and Damien used their grapples to climb up, Sanji and Brook just leaped up, Zoro and Chopper got caught in Luffy's "silent" Gum-gum rocket, and Robin climbed up the arms she sprouted on the side of the ship. Surprisingly, they all made it on board without mishap, not even raising an alarm.

Immediately the two teams split up. The distraction team, after a quick conference, decided to go to the stern of the ship and wreck the steering before really letting loose and drawing all the marines to the deck to deal with the pirates. They crept along the deck, avoiding the patrolling marines on watch. Hood had to bite his tongue to keep from yelling at Luffy, who had the subtly of Superman. The young captain could not sneak at all. He even said "sneak, sneak, sneak" as they made their way across the deck. He and Zoro shared a look of sympathy when the swordsman had to knock Luffy to the deck to avoid being seen. Brook wasn't much better, with his flamboyant style, but at least he could move in silence, mostly. He kept humming under his breath to "calm his nerves, yo ho ho ho." It probably made the marines think their ship was haunted, especially with the thick fog covering everything.

Finally they made it to the wheelhouse. That was when the attempts at sneaking ended. Luffy burst in through the door and immediately started throwing punches. Zoro whipped out two swords and sliced cleanly through the wheel, the column, and out through the wall in a rain of glass. Brook had his sword out and startled slicing through marines as they boiled out on deck to deal with the intruders. Red Hood watched the carnage for a moment, finally understanding why a crew of ten people had no worries about fighting a warship full of enemies. Then he focused on shooting any of the marines that thought they could attack his new friends from behind.
The fight turned chaotic very quickly. Scores of marines poured from every door and they came armed. Hood was very grateful for his Kevlar body armor and bullet proof helmet when the bullets started to fly. Interestingly, all of the pistols and rifles were flint-lock, without the piercing power of the modern weapons Hood was used to. Compared to the military grade weapons he was used to dodging, these weapons were weak. He grinned behind his helmet as the bullets just bounced off him. He felt bullet proof.

Luffy, on the other hand, really was bullet proof. The balls of lead would smack into him, stretching his skin until he rebounded it back at the shooter. He barely noticed the onslaught because he was so focused on wiping out as many marines at a time as he could. Using bizarre moves like "Gum-gum whip", "Gum-gum pistol", and "Gum-gum cannon", Luffy beat down whole swatches of marines. It was amazing seeing the ferocity of the normally laid back young man.

He was not invulnerable though, Hood learned as he started taking down a couple enemies in hand to hand. A man got a lucky swing in with his sword, leaving a bloody cut down Luffy's side. This seemed to enrage the other two pirates, though Luffy didn't seem to even notice. Brook turned practically demonic as he sliced through men, leaving them with inexplicable frost burn at the site of the wounds. Gone was the laughing, singing musician; leaving a skeleton swordsman who showed no mercy on the men attacking his nakama. Many of the marines didn't even know they were cut until Brook had already moved on, leaving his victims to collapse in his wake.

Despite the frightening appearance of Brook, and the wild energy of Luffy, the scariest fighter in the battle was Zoro. The swordsman had all three swords out now, one in each hand and one clenched in his jaws and he looked more like a demon than Brook. He did as much damage to the ship as he did to the combatants with flying attacks that sent cutting energy through men, wood and steel without distinction. He was not a mindless berserker, though. He kept a careful eye on all three of his teammates and protected Luffy from the stronger swordsmen who would have tried to cut the rubber man. He also bailed out Brook when the skeleton got stuck in a corner. He even came to Hood's rescue when a mountain of a man had the Gotham-native pinned against a mast, sword raised to cut him down. The green haired swordsman appeared out of nowhere, shoving the much larger Marine out of the way like a linebacker. The soldier fell under the pirate's sword without a word.

"Watch your back," the swordsman snarled around the white hilt in his mouth with surprising dictation. "Next time I might not be there."

Hood saluted his rescuer sarcastically, knowing the man couldn't see his facial expression. It wasn't like that was the first time he had to fight a guy bigger than him, he hadn't needed the help. He shot a man who was trying to sneak up on the distracted swordsman. "I've got this," he barked.

"Then do it," Zoro snapped and swung his black sword to block a marine swordsman who was trying to cut off Hood's head.

They broke apart and threw themselves back into the fight. Hood was actually having fun. The marines were stronger than most of the punks in Gotham, but nothing compared to the rogues' gallery. Honestly, this was more like an invigorating workout. He was just coming into his stride when the Marine captain came to see what was taking so long.

"It's just four men," Captain Joudan roared over the sound of the fighting. The marines froze and backed away, the fear in their eyes different then when they were fighting the pirates. "Why can't a warship full of marines deal with four pirates?"
Someone shouted, "They're the Strawhats, Capt'n!"

The man drew his sword and swung at the nearest man, cutting him down. "It doesn't matter who they are, you lily-liver weaklings! They are pirates and we are marines!" He did something to the sword and it started to glow. "In the name of Fleet Admiral Akainu, we will not back down from any pirates!" He swung the glowing sword at Luffy, who was the closest pirate.

Luffy didn't seem to be paying any attention to the captain's ranting. He hopped out of the way of the sword and landed in front of Red Hood. "Yosh, so this guy's yours first, right?" he asked, tilting his head like he was trying to see inside Hood's helmet.

Hood nodded. He felt adrenalin pump into his veins at the thought of hurting the man who hurt and imprisoned Nightwing, his brother. He holstered his guns and picked up a sword that some marine had dropped. He advanced on the Marine captain, grinning behind his helmet. This was going to be fun.