Chapter 44: Survive
Blue and red flames swirled into a tornado around the brothers as Ace created a cyclone, pulling the cool air out of the center as he pressed pressurized heated air downwards, the result caused the ice sheet to crack under Akainu's feet. The cyclone also didn't allow any outside force to come into the fight. Unfortunately because Ace had to continuously feed the cyclone both types of fire, he couldn't help his brothers against Akainu; yet.
Whilst Ace had the battlefield limited for their enemy, Sabo and Luffy took up the offensive position and began their attacks. First Sabo attacked Akainu with his staff weapon, as soon as the seastone weapon came into contact with the magma user, it became obvious to the admiral that he wouldn't be able to fight like he usually would. As the seastone infused pipe was capable of nullifying his attacks.
Luffy leaned forward and concentrated. He initiated his technique by pumping through his legs to increase the blood flow in all of his body parts. "Gear 2." He called out, his body glowing slightly a pink color, causing steam to begin to pour from his body. Luffy knew activating this ability might be dangerous, as it would make him extremely hungry. I ate as much as I could on this while traveling here. He thought. Hopefully it'll be enough.
As Akainu jumped back he activated his magma fist and went to hit Sabo with it. Just as the magma covered fist came into contact with the pipe, suddenly Luffy's stretchy arm flew passed Sabo's head. "Gomu, Gomu no Jet Gatling!" He screamed out as the haki covered fists came into contact with Akainu's stomach.
Sabo felt the air rush past his head with each hit Luffy gave until his little brother's attack ended. That little shit. He thought. Luffy I'm going to kick your ass for doing that; later. The barrage of fists soon ended with Akainu taking steps backwards. A streak of blood dripped from the admirals lips as he had at least one broken rib thanks to the attack.
As Luffy's left hand pulled back he wrapped it around Sabo's waist and pulled him back at a quick speed just as Akainu turned his body into a boiling mass of magma. "The heat is a bit much." Sabo muttered under his breath.
"Shishishi." Luffy laughed. "Compared to level 4 of Impel this ain't nothing." He looked at Ace and noticed the wound on his side. "Who hurt Ace?" He asked his revolutionary brother.
Sabo grinned. "Already taken care of." Sabo assured him.
"Good." Luffy said as his eyes gained a pink tint around his normally chocolate brown eyes. Sabo frowned at seeing it but stayed silent.
Buggy lifted his head to see where he was and saw his ass and legs sticking out from a crate. You've gotta be kidding me. He thought. Apparently when they were free falling he had separated his body. Wasn't the first time he'd done so. He whistled at his other half. "Dipshit, over here!" The body parts separated from the crate and floated back over to him. He groaned. As much as he'd complained and cursed Shanks for the incident concerning his devil fruit, being able to separate his body had saved his life more times than he could count. He'd never admit that to the red haired menace, but it didn't mean it wasn't true.
Grasping his daggers that he'd dropped, Buggy eyed the battlefield. It seemed that Oars Jr had joined in while he had been out of it. The large guy was squashing a group of Marine when Gekko Moria began sneaking up behind the guy. Just as Moria was about to stab Little Oars Jr through the heart with his shadow ability, Buggy threw several of his Buggy Balls at the guy. The explosion had Moria flying into the air and landing somewhere behind the ship debris.
Oars looked down at Buggy. "Are you Ace's friend?" He asked.
"Ace's brother's friend." He corrected the giant.
"Which one?" Oars questioned.
"Does it matter!?" Buggy squeaked. "You need your men to watch your back! You almost got impaled!"
Oars Jr looked at his men who were helping Whitebeard's boys. "They're busy."
Buggy facepalmed. "They're your men! Give them orders!" He screamed at the giant.
"Oh."
How the hell is this guy even still around? Buggy wondered. Turning he saw Rayleigh fighting Mihawk. Nope. Not walking in on that one. He thought as he tried sneaking away to find a good hiding spot and then taking credit of some good fights.
Sand swirled around on the deck of the Moby causing Whitebeard's to turn towards the presence behind him. Sitting on the boom of the mainsail, Crocodile sat watching the fighting below. "Crocodile." Newgate greeted his old friend, turned enemy. "I'm surprised you're not attacking me."
Crocodile recalled the conversation with Strawhat. "Don't hurt Ace's Pop." Luffy told him. "If you try I'll hunt you and drown you in the deepest sea." His eyes glowed and his stature and the way held himself made Crocodile know he meant every word. "After the war you can do whatever but until then, keep your petty revenges to yourself."
Brought back to the current, Crocodile held his hook up. "I've been ordered to hold my petty revenge in check until after the war." He held his cigar to his lips and inhaled. "I haven't forgiven you for the humiliation you caused me in front of everyone, but for now I will hold myself back."
"Why are you listening to that boy?" He asked the sand logia.
"Who knows." Crocodile stated as he looked off towards the fire cyclone. "Maybe I know something. Maybe I don't." He grinned. "But the hatchling is entertaining."
Just then Kizaru shot towards them, with Whitebeard's attention not on the battlefield the Marine admiral took advantage of it. The beam of light hit at the Moby.
"POPS!" The crew on the ground screamed.
"Pop!" Marco yelled in his Phoenix form. The golden and blue bird flew towards the ship only to see a wall of sand had formed around his father's form. The beams of light weren't making it through the thick sand wall. Instead they were being absorbed by the sand. Spotting Crocodile sitting on the boom, he smirked.
"I'll help you, yoi." He said and with a high speed dive, he spun so that his clawed foot kicked Kizaru away.
Kizaru went flying into the ice shelf away from the old man. "Phew, I forgot about you." He said as he stood. A line of blood dripped from his head from his crash landing into the ice.
"My, my, I think you're losing your touch Kizaru." Aokiji said as he froze three former inmates from impel down. "This was supposed to be an easy capture and execution. It's turning into a debacle."
"One that nobody will know of." Kizaru stated.
"As long as nobody from their crew has a video transponder or recorder." Aokiji said.
As if his words were a precursor, Mr. 3 came out of his hiding spot with a video transponder snail. Finding Buggy, he had an idea.
The pounding of feet sounded as a young man held a video transponder snail in his hands rushing up the steep steps into a room where a devil fruit albatross user stood with piles of paper everywhere in the room. "Big News Morgans sir!"
"WHAT!" He yelled out, turning towards the young news apprentice. Morgans devil fruit form of a very tall albatross with small eyes and a large beak. His body was covered in white feathers, though he has a large wings that resemble human arms. He was wearing a blue top hat with a large striped feather in it, a light blue button down shirt with a yellow bow on the top, red and white checkered pants with shoes that fit his bird like feet.
"We're getting a live video recording of a battle between the Whitebeard Pirates, their allies, with Strawhat Luffy and the Revolutionary Portgas D. Sabo against the three Admirals; Kizaru, Aokiji and Akainu along with an army of Marines fighting against the escapees from Impel Down!" The apprentice stated excitedly.
"Put it up!" Morgans ordered.
Immediately the young man did as he was told. The room, which had been busy with all of the new reporters, went silent as were suddenly captivated by the fighting at the unknown location. They watched as Marco the Phoenix landed an attack on Admiral Kizaru. They saw the spiraling power of Fire Fist Ace's cyclone. They watched as a legend appeared on scream, Dark King Rayleigh fighting Dracule Mihawk.
"Hook this up to the world transponder!" Morgans ordered. "I don't care what those hotshots say in Mary Geoise, this is big, BIG news!" He flung his wings/hands outwards excitedly. "Who is broadcasting this!?" He asked the apprentice.
Suddenly a face appeared on the video transponder. "Is it working?"
Morgans blinked once, twice and a third time before his jaw dropped. "Even bigger news! Buggy the Jester Genius! He's a former Roger Pirate!"
"WHAT!?" All the reporters gasped.
Buggy pulled away from the snail. "Hopefully the world sees this." He turned towards the fighting.
"Even if they don't, Big News Morgans will put it in his newsco paper." Mr. 3 said. "He's at least reliable to some point."
Koala rushed up the steps of the Marine ship she and Hack were on. Both of them using every fish man karate style they knew of to take out the Marine onboard. Finally getting to the top deck. Next she quickly climb the rope ladder. Once in the crows nest, Koala adjusted the Marine uniform she had swiped from the female sniper. Speaking of, she had also taken the rifle from the sniper. Yes, it was heavy. No, she wasn't keeping it. She was just borrowing it for a moment. She figured it wasn't too different from her hunting rifle. The scope was bigger and the barrel was longer and the bullets were a lot bigger too. She just needed to get off two, maybe three good shots before Aokiji spotted her and turned her into a human popsicle.
Finding him on the battlefield, she saw he was quickly approaching one of the Whitebeard commanders, the one who could turn into a giant diamond. Taking aim, she let loose a single shot. However she wasn't prepared for the kickback of the rifle and ended up falling into the crows nest bucket.
On the battleground, Aokiji's observation haki kicked in. Forming an ice barrier he turned quickly to find the shooter but didn't see anyone. His eyes scanned for the enemy before turning back towards Commander Jozu. The diamond devil fruit user was acting a shield for his non-devil fruit brothers.
Using the ice covered ground as his personal skating rink, Aokiji closed the distance between himself and the paramecia user. Turning his body into an ice armor, he formed a sharpened sword to take Jozu's head only for a mink, of all people, to suddenly drop down from the sky on him.
"How about we turn a little heat on." Lindbergh joked as he switched the setting to his gun from laser to heat. The fire like heat burning a hole into Aokiji's armor. Using his jet pack Lindbergh quickly took off as Kizaru shot a beam of light at him only for it to hit Aokiji in the shoulder. "Yowzer." The mink whistled. "That looked like it hurt."
"Watch it!" Aokiji yelled. He'd been lucky, the beam of light had only burned through his ice armor but hadn't touched his skin, unlike that fire beam that the mink had used. His back was certainly burned from that. "When did the revolutionaries get here?"
Before Kizaru could answer, Lindbergh answered for him. "Since the beginning." He stated as he switched the settings again on his gun. Once again it was a lazer beam which shot at Kizaru. Hitting the admiral only for it to do little damage.
"I think I'm getting bored of this one." Kizaru stated as he rushed at the mink. As Lindbergh swerved out of the way, Kizaru appeared ahead of him in mid air, with hands crossed over his chest, he used a light burst to stun the mink.
"Are you stupid?" Lindbergh asked. "My glasses protect my eyes from that attack." He pointed towards his goggles.
"Oh?!" Kizaru said sounding amazed even if he wasn't. "Does it protect you from this?" He began shooting at the mink with beams of light like they were bullets.
"Eep!" Lindbergh gasped as he dodged the attacks by swerving in mid-air. "No, but I can still dodge it!" Pressing the fastest setting on the handles of his jet pack, he quickly flew higher to escape the admiral. As Kizaru reappeared ahead of him, Lindbergh swerved and as he did he pressed a button that spat out a net that was made from seastone.
The net wrapped around Kizaru. Trying to escape it he found that he could not. The thick seastone infused metal was stronger than what he was used to. Struggling to unwind the netting, Kizaru realized that the ground was getting increasingly close, too close for comfort. His struggles increased tenfold but to no avail he resigned to his fate when suddenly an ice covered slide rose up out of the ground and met him. His body slid to Aokiji's feet.
"You're such a bothersome fellow." The ice admiral bemoaned.
"Yet you still saved me." Kizaru pointed out.
Aokiji rolled his eyes before looking up at the revolutionary. It bothered him that members of the revolutionary army were here. "I thought the Whitebeard Pirates and Revolutionary Army had bad blood between them."
"Apparently we gave them something to unite against." Kizaru said as he finally escaped the netting.
"Which is?" Aokiji asked.
"Good question." Kizaru replied as he stood.
Lindbergh landed on top of the ice wall and looked at his gauges on the jet pack. He was half on fuel. Crap. He thought. He had one more net and two gas grenades. He also had found four small balls with a clown painted on one side and a button on the other. Might be useful if I can figure out what it is. He suddenly hear a loud whistle sound. Looking behind him he saw a group of pirate ships quickly approaching. Pressing a button on his goggles he zoomed in and saw a familiar Jolly Roger, though he'd never seen them himself; Sabo had described these pirates before. The Red Haired pirates and their allies had just arrived.
M-Angel: Wow! I got 3 chapters out this weekend. It'll probably be a dry spell on this story for a week or so due to me moving. But I should have another chapter out before or around March 1st.