This chapter is coming in late, but between moving to Montana and starting a new job, I'm honestly surprised I got it out at all. Hopefully getting into the swing of things and finally powering through this chapter will get the muse going again. I'll start posting on Saturdays again since that's just more conductive to scheduling for me. I know it's crazy, but thank you for indulging my flights of fancy.

This one's for you: Akamura, Alex P, Andrew Evans, Animephilosopher1, Ant Franklin, Avery Arp, Badmr7, Cam Bliss, Clark Kent, Cliford, Cory Johnston, CrazyMan, David Bowling, David Reynolds, EbayUserGreen, Emi Stafford, EvilJelly, Fenrir ragnarok, Garvin Lee Nelson-Mathlin, GODA98, Grim90, Illiasse Naji, Jacob McCarthy, Jbe92, JEP1010, Jonathan Moh, JONATHAN VICARS, Jones4real, Jordanitos, Jordem917, Joseph Morrison, Julien digot, Kevin Calderon, Korakas, Lamont Hale, Loriane bourguignon, Marielle Orff, Matthew Burley, Maxime mazingue, McBanjo, Mcgin28, Milla, Nathaniel Oppegaard, Nicole Morris, Philippa Sale, Rafael Cardenas, Ranger Ellis, Richard Barkley, Ricky Shaffer, Riley Bolerjack, Sebastian Gutierrez, SpiderBat, Sweetchilli, TheRevolutionaryRonin, Thomas Sanders, ViewtifulSoul, and Yvet Nadia!

Chapter 12:

Battle of the Palace

The gondola eel, which had remained motionless after the dust settled, started to move unnaturally. Its head was pushed away from the wall, causing its body to press in on itself. Once there was some space, the fishman who had caused the disturbance tossed the eel's head to the side.

"Hahaha!" Hody laughed, brushing debris off himself. "You almost got me there, Straw Hat. You know, this might actually be fun. Men!" Hody's army froze, hanging on to every word their captain said. His mere presence after having survived being crushed by the gondola eel, was a boost to their morale. "Kill them."

His order given, the room fell into a moment of silence, the tension in the room mounting. The New Fishman Pirates gave a warcry, the waters around them shaking. Each pirate reached into their pockets, pulling out one or two little pills that they each swallowed. Their bodies grew, their individual strengths doubling or quadrupling in mere seconds.

"Ah shit," Usopp cursed.

Given Usopp's aversion to swearing ever since Merry's official welcome to the crew back on Water 7, that was a pretty clear summation of their current predicament.

"Grace!" Nami yelled, trying to get her voice louder than the fishmen's cheers. "Can you make this bubble any bigger?!"

"It's not working!" Grace answered, her hand and the Bubble Coral in the waters around them. "Wasn't this thing pink earlier? It's white now!"

"It's not strong enough for that, Nami-chin!" Camie interrupted from just outside the bubble. "That's a handheld Bubble Coral! This bubble is its limit! It turns white when it's dried out!"

"What?!" Usopp gasped, his voice a couple octaves higher than normal.

"Now you tell us!" Nami raged, lowering her voice to a hiss. "Damn, we're pinned down. Ace! Go stay with your father! Billy, let's buy some time!"

"Wah!"

As the child wiggled out of Coby's hold and started quickly waddling to Luffy's side, the Gigafowl hurried over to the young mother. Nami swung her leg up as the bird passed, slipping into the saddle with ease, before both took a deep breath and charged out of the bubble.

"Well, this human's got guts!" one of the fishmen yelled, meeting the duo's charge with one of his own. He and his fellows raised their weapons.

'Direct Current Tempo!' Nami thought, unable to vocalize her attack without a bubble of her own. Her Clima-Tact spun above her head for only a moment before she swung it down, swiping Billy's feathers before launching electricity forward. The lightning snaked forward like tentacles, multiple streams splitting to each aim for a metal weapon.

The humanoid pirates had only a second to react before the electricity struck. Most shook, their skeletons appearing in cartoonish fashion as the attack passed through them, but as they fell it became apparent that Nami's lightning had not gotten them all.

"That was a pretty good shot," an eel fishman smirked, a near identical copy of the man at his side. "My twin and I haven't had something so tasty in a long time. But here, have some back!"

A pair of sparks were the only warning Nami and Billy had before the eel twins locked arms and pointed the tips of their swords. Another bolt of lightning, this one more concentrated and powerful than any of the originals, raced toward the mounted navigator. Nami's eyes widened.

Unable to cry out, she grabbed Billy by the crown and pulled. The force put Billy off balance, the bird giving a garbled "wah!" in pain as he staggered, a bubble coming from his mouth. The lightning redirected, shifting to Nami's swinging Clima-Tact that pulled the attack into Billy's peacock-like tail.

"Huh," one of the eels blinked as the Gigafowl absorbed the electricity. "Didn't expect that. Well, close range it is!"

As the pair of brothers tried to close in on Nami and Billy, the other side of the Straw Hats' temporary base had its own defender with a very different method of fighting.

"Baaaahahaha!" Merry laughed, a little piece of the bubble she had separated from the whole allowing her to breathe, talk, and, therefore, taunt resting tight against her hair. She was limited for the most part to hand-to-hand combat since the water drag disrupted many of her Rigging Arts, but Merry didn't see this as too much of a detriment. She had learned and/or absorbed move sets from the likes of Luffy, Zoro, Coby, Gin, Amy, Paulie, Kaku, and (to an extent) Franky, so she wasn't want in her range of style. Rather, such influences meant this new sort of battlefield was nothing short of exciting. This was the sort of adventure she had lived for, and the risk of her bubble helmet popping with every headbutt and horn attack only made her blood pump harder! "Come get some, ya discriminatory bastards! I've got enough for all of you! Baahaha!"

A sword swiped down where Merry's head had been a scant moment before, the current caused by the attack making her bubble ripple. The Klabautermann sprung upward, smashing one of her horns into the jaw of the reckless pirate with a mighty clack. It was for actions like these that her bubble did not cover the bone-like protrusions that grew from her head. Merry spun, a Tempest Kick cutting open the chest of her overpowered opponent. Blood from a bit tongue and a shallow gash dispersed into the water as the fishman fell, the Wood Fairy lowering to place one open hand on the ground in a stance reminiscent but different to that of her captain's Second Gear. Many fallen fishmen, all in similar states of unconsciousness, laid scattered about the area between the gondola eel's bulk and Usopp's underwater forest of dangerous plants.

"Who's next?"

"That'd be me, girl." Merry turned as a hulking figure separated itself from the rest of the nervous pirates. His skin was an uneven layering of algae green and the off-white of sand, and his mouth was a thick, powerful beak. His words were a little slurred, but the fairy could not tell if that was because of his beak-mouth or for some other reason. His shirt was ripped along the front and shoulders, a sign that whatever drug their captain had them take had bulked him up. His hands were empty as well, no weapon anywhere on his person. The real telling feature of this fishman was his forehead, or the bulbous mass thereupon. The intelligence Merry inherited from Robin told her he was some type of parrotfish, and one with a pretty clear strength. "I won't go down as easily as the others here."

"And you are?" Merry questioned, trying to buy some time. Every second she could keep the New Fishman Pirates out of the bubble was another second Luffy and the other Devil Fruit Users had to recover and come up with a plan. And if there was one thing Merry had learned from all the bad guys that had threatened her Nakama in the past, it was that every bad guy likes to monologue, typically about themselves.

"Me?" the Parrotfish Fishman questioned. "The guys call me Fore. Remember that name when they ask who killed you." And with that subversion of expectations, the newly-introduced Fore charged face first toward the fairy.

Merry, as she was wont to do, responded in kind. She kicked off the floor with a Shave and rocketed toward Fore, covering the distance between the two in seconds. With a fierce crash, horns met forehead, the waters around the two almost quaking with the generated shockwave. Merry's legs continued to kick the water with Moonwalk, attempting to overpower the parrotfish. Fore would not be taken down so easily in his own element, however, the floor cracking as he secured his stance.

"You've got a hard head," the fishman admitted, his beak moving into the approximation of a smirk. "It's been a long time since I've had a good fight like this. It's too bad you're a human."

"Casual racism aside," Merry grunted, kicking the air above to disconnect. She flipped to land on the floor before bringing her horns into the man's chin, blowing him backwards. "I'm a Klabautermann!"

"Heh," Fore chuckled, giving his new bruise a feel. "Perfect. Then beating you will actually be worth my while."

"Ohoho," the swamp-man grinned, recognizing the two men from when he'd last seen them just days ago. "If it isn't the famous Pirate Hunter and Electric Devil. And that beauty must be the Devil Child, too. Not so much a child anymore, I'd say."

"Ah?" Zoro grunted, surprised to hear the voice. The swordsman turned an eye on the man, rage smoldering. "The Hell did you just say about my crewmate?"

"Oh dear, I didn't think you'd get so offended!" Caribou smirked. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm going to claim all your heads for myself anyway. After all, I'm the one that's going to be the next King of the Pirates."

"You've got guts," Zoro stated, setting Robin aside so she could catch her breath and recover while he pulled out his swords. He leveled Kitetsu III at the man. "I can't wait to see what they look like all over the floor."

The room rumbled before Caribou could reply to the threat, the floor shaking. This did not stop the two pirates in their staredown.

"Coribou, keep a hold of that chain," Caribou ordered, his body gliding forward as his eyes narrowed. "I've got a swordsman to deal with."

"Deal with?" Zoro questioned, almost chuckling at the absurdity of the thought. "I highly doubt it will be that easy."

There was only a moment of pause before the two combatants raced toward each other, eyes narrowed. Zoro reached the edge of Caribou's swamp first, jumping up over the muck. He pulled his swords from their sheaths in one fluid motion, attacking in another.

"1060 Caliber Phoenix!" the swordsman yelled, an absolutely massive wave of cutting air in the shape of a bird rocketing down on Caribou. The Logia didn't so much as flinch, however. Tendrils of mud rose up toward the pressurized air as if ready to grab the attack from the sides.

The swamp-man's eyes widened, however, when the air blade sliced through each and every tendril without a sign of slowing down. He had no time to even try to dodge, the attack crashing down on him. There was a localized wave as the air depressurized, blowing bits and pieces of Caribou across the bubble while also cutting a trench through the floor.

"Big Bro!" Coribou cried, stepping forward in a move that pulled at Shirahoshi's chains. The princess gave a cry of pain that was answered with the angry voice of Vander Decken berating the stupid human.

The swamp across the floor flowed into the crevice as if by gravity, similar to the way the muck splattered over the inside of the bubble began to drip. Suspicious, Zoro cut away of square of mud before landing, his weapons still primed. The air in their bubble was still, but Zoro's Observation could still sense Caribou's presence. The muck started to twist, Zoro's sword already pointing at the Logia's head before it had fully reformed.

"You're so scary," the man laughed, heedless of the blade by his face. He had no fear of the legendary pirate; Zoro showed no signs of the power that could harm Logias. "Thoughtless, too. Do you know how much of my swamp it's taking to keep the water under us out after you so thoughtlessly cut through the floor? What would happen to those friends of yours?"

"Another swim won't hurt them," Zoro shrugged. "You, though..."

"I don't think I like your tone." Caribou rose, his body and arms forming from the mud on the floor in the same way his head had. Zoro swiped, lopping off pieces of the man's head to no real avail. Caribou raised his arms, his mouth moving even without half of his nose and the rest of his cranium. "Get out of my swamp."

Zoro leapt as mud filled in the square he'd cleared. Caribou rushed forward, only for 360 Caliber Phoenix to blow his chest off his torso. Even then, the swamp did not stop churning. More tentacles of mud rose, Zoro batting and slicing each and every one away.

"Damn," the swordsman growled, blasting away mud with air pressure to clear a place on the floor only for that space to fill a moment after jumping once more. "Now would be good time to kick off the air like the Shit Chef or fly like Gin."

Another swing created enough force for the verdet to backflip over the attacking mud. His eyes scanned the swamp below, looking for a weakness.

"I didn't expect you to last this long, Pirate Hunter," Caribou laughed as Zoro landed in another cleared square. "Most people realize I don't have a weak spot and give up by now. But unlike them, you can't just run away! Haha! I guess I'll have to just overwhelm you! Beware my Landslide!"

Raising his sleeve-covered hands once more, the swamp started to recede, building behind him into a wave that nearly touched the top of their battlefield's bubble.

"You fool!" the voice of Vander Decken yelled from behind the attack. "You'll break our bubble! How am I supposed to marry my darling Shirahoshi if I can't move in the water?!"

"Eh?" Caribou blinked, his face appearing in the mud on the other side so he could stare at the Devil-Fruit-using fishman, his tongue lolling out like it usually does. "Shut up, fish. You can breathe underwater and if she loves you like you claim, then the princess will save you."

"B-But I..." the princess tried, unable to find words.

"Of course my Shirahoshi would save me!"

"B-But..."

"That's what I thought," Caribou nodded. "Now shut up and-sonofabit-gllaagg!"

Caribou's face and the wave it was connected to started to shift, the top half cleanly severed from the bottom directly through his mouth. The mud collapsed in on itself, revealing Zoro with his hand on Wado Ichimonji.

"If we're gonna fight, at least pay attention to me. I didn't train for two years for some dirt Logia to ignore me."

"I am the swamp Logia!" Caribou corrected, vitriol in his voice as the man rose again from his element on the floor. "Fine, you want to play hardball, Pirate Hunter? I'll give you hardball."

Within moments, Caribou's torso expanded until he looked more like a projector screen, the off-white of his shirt swirling in places until the points of various models of weaponry appeared. Swords, spears, javelins, daggers, and any other manner of bladed weapon appeared all across his stretched body.

"As the user of the Swamp-Swamp Logia Fruit, I can absorb and contain a near-limitless number of objects and creatures in a muddy hammerspace within myself. These are the weapons of all the people I've absorbed and drowned inside me! Let's see you protect yourself and your friends from my Gate of Babylon! Hahaha!"

With a laugh, the weapons launched from the swamp-man, firing down on the swordsman. Zoro's first instinct was to dodge, but Robin and Gin were just starting to stir behind him. They were vulnerable. Well, Zoro reconsidered, Robin was. Gin was a Logia, so any weapons would simply go right through him. A grin stretched across Zoro's lips as he decided this could be a great training exercise with little risk.

"Bring it on," Zoro ginned, all three of his swords primed as the first weapon, a spear, reached him. Kitetsu III batted the projectile away with almost supernatural speed, through there was no time to lose as a cutlass followed with no preamble. The pair of weapons hit the mud at nearly the same time, the swordsman noting that they did not stay there but seemed to sink into the floor. When the same spear appeared again a couple minutes later, there seemed to be little chance that it was simply a similar model.

'I get it,' Zoro thought, his Observation keeping track of a dagger that had harmlessly stabbed into one of Gin's legs. 'If a weapon lands in the mud, he can absorb it and reuse it, but if it's outside of his range, he can't do anything. I just need to go until he runs out.'

Caribou's eyes slowly narrowed as the onslaught continued, his weapon stores, though vast, were not unlimited and the speed with which Zoro was knocking away his weapons could not be human. What's more, he was clearly doing it in such a way that he could not reach most of his projectiles, said weapons beginning to pile up on the other side of the Straw Hat. 'Did he figure it out? How? How can he think so clearly when I'm shooting as fast as possible? This attack has taken down Marine cohorts, but this lone pirate without a Devil Fruit can withstand and overcome it? What sort of monster is he?'

"Well," Caribou stated, trying to cover his nervousness with a grin. "I suppose you didn't become one of the original Supernovas for nothing, eh, Pirate Hunter? But no matter how powerful you are, I can still just wear you down!"

"Oh, is that what you're trying to do?" Zoro blinked, the nonchalance causing Caribou to doubletake. "That works for me. I was just trying to buy time and train anyway."

"Train?" the swamp-man hissed. "Is that all I am to you? A training dummy?"

"Sure," the swordsman shrugged. "I can't beat you until I unlock my Armament Haki, not as long as we're confined to this bubble, anyway. But that's just it. I can't beat you or your friends over there at the same time, but my friends can."

"Ten-Million Volt Lightning Shot!"

"Doce Fluer: Hold!"

"Wha-? No!" Caribou didn't even have time to blink before a blast of lightning pounded into his chest. The electricity coursed through his form, the heat rapidly drying and hardening his swamp until his outsides were trapped in a grotesque, clay-like statue. Behind him, Coribou and Vander Decken found slender arms sprouting from their own bodies. Six grabbed hold of Coribou, two covering his eyes and pulling his head back while the rest restrained his arms and ripped the chain from his hands. The others took hold of the fishman, placing him in a chokehold.

"The Hell is this?" Vander Decken cried, his hands grabbing the arms reaching for his neck. Though he had his superior fishman strength, he only had two arms to try and fend off six. He was able to pry off one pair, but four others still squeezed his neck. The pirate captain gasped, his ability to breathe cut off. "Sh... Shira... hoshi."

The rosette princess did not heed the pirate's desperate call. Rather, she watched with awe and fear as all three allies of the New Fishman Pirates were subjugated in a matter of moments. She pulled her hands and wrists to her chest, a sign of a need for the feeling of safety, causing the chains holding her to rattle across the floor. The end of the chain pulled out of the bubble, now out of the reach of Caribou and Vander Decken had they been in a position to try to grab them. Coribou, the poor lug, wandered in a small circle, calling for his brother to help him.

"Bro?! Big Bro! Help me! I can't see, Bro!"

"It took you two long enough," Zoro remarked, sheathing Wado Ichimonji and Kitetsu III. Shusui stayed out, Zoro's remaining eye still watching their adversaries. "I was starting to think you two were dying."

"Shuddup," Gin coughed, spitting up some steaming water from his lungs. "Jus' cuz I'm a Logia don't mean I can't drown. I had ta 'vaporate th' water in my lungs jus'ta breathe again."

"Don't be such a pansy."

"This 's yer fault, asshole!"

"And you, Robin?" Zoro asked, ignoring the literally steaming-mad lightning-man.

"I was certain you possessed adequate advantages in this conflict," Robin commented, dropping her arms as Vander Decken ran out of breath and Coribou wandered outside the bubble. "In fact, it was quite entertaining, though I am not particularly satisfied with your blocking capabilities. You allowed some mud to stain my coverup while interrupting the flight of that poleax."

"Oh, bite me," Zoro grunted. "It's not like you don't have a hundred other clothes on the Sunny."

"Well, we could confirm both of those statements once we're finished here," Robin smiled.

"Seriously?" Gin grumbled. "Get a room, you two."

"That's not-!" Zoro stuttered, his face turning an interesting shade of red. "I'm not-! We aren't-!"

"Fufufu," Robin giggled. "Ah, but we mustn't get carried away. Our crewmates need some help. Luckily, the fishman over there had this on him." Robin raised her hand —one of the originals— to show a near-fresh Bubble Coral. "I propose we rendezvous with the others."

"Good," Zoro nodded. "I'm done with these morons. Let's break the bubble on our way out."

As the end of the water bridge that connected the Ryugu Palace to the rest of Fishman Island came into sight, Namur remembered all the grumbling he'd heard from soldiers and VIPs about how important having a ride in the tunnel was. Unfortunately, he and the blond human were in no such luxury, a fact that became painfully obvious as the still waters around the palace came into watery focus. His legs and arms burned from all the swimming he'd been forced to do on his own. Sanji, in his injured state, certainly wasn't much help outside the occasional 'Bluewalk' kick to help them along, and with the water drag and injury, his technique wasn't as effective as it could have been.

Many were not aware, but the tunnel swirled clockwise. This would not be much of a problem for a creature the size of the gondola eel, but for a single fishman carrying a mostly-incapacitated human, this was a hurtle. For groups swimming the tunnel on their own, they traveled in the same manner that ducks fly through the air; with one on point and that one trading out as necessary. The tunnel was also longer than many suspected, its angle from below giving no indication to how far apart the palace was truly set.

The end of the tunnel was like breaking through a brick wall, the sudden loss of their created slipstream sending Namur ass-over-teakettle. Sanji all but flew from the fishman's grip, his bubbles rippling around his bandaged abdomen and head as he spun away. Namur recovered with the grace of a New World veteran, locating the human and plucking him from his downward spiral before he could crash into the coral that covered the ground.

"Oi, Black Leg," Namur grunted, ignoring the burning in his legs as he started dragging the human once more. "You better not have died on me. I don't need Luffy getting pissed at me for losing one of his Nakama."

"I'm not dead yet," Sanji grunted, his words a little slurred as his brain finished rattling around in his skull. "Get me to a kitchen and I'll be back on my feet in a minute."

"We'll find out if we have that sort of time."

Now that the current wasn't fighting him and their goal was in sight, Namur pulled on an untapped reservoir of energy to swim toward the castle. As he got closer, however, the destruction the building had already sustained became more apparent. Both of the front doors had been knocked from their hinges and both the left and upper sides of the doorway were little more than rubble. A slew of bloated human corpses rested on what little remained of the front steps, a foreboding and more quiet showing of battle than the sounds and flashes of light coming through the hole. Just inside the remains of the throne room and hiding the origins of the sounds and lights was the form of the gondola eel, still.

"I've got a real bad feeling about this," Namur muttered. Setting Sanji against the undamaged wall so he could investigate unhindered, Namur slunk into the palace. He quickly scaled the side of the giant eel. looking down on the battle from an overhead view.

It was chaos below.

The center point of the battle was Hody being forced to tear through a reoccurring plant similar to a legendary hydra, each head growing back as fast as the pirate could get rid of it. Had the area been dry, he could have lit it on fire, but the same ocean that kept half the humans in place prevented such and even seemed to power the creature. Two large bubbles stood, one directly below Namur, nestled in a curve from the insensate eel, and the other farther out. The farther bubble held what appeared to be a major battle with splashes of some brown goo. The bubble below was comparatively more calm, a slew of the Devil Fruit users of the Straw Hat Pirates working together to simultaneously come up with a plan and keep their captain from rushing out into the water. To the left and right of the bubble, the only directions not blocked by eel or a forest of deadly plants, were battles featuring the surface pirates' resident Klabautermann and navigator. Though Nami and Billy had to retreat to breathe regularly, they seemed to have the technical advantage of delaying their opponents long enough for them to do so. Such was their balancing act between skill and home-field advantage, but something had to give sooner or later.

"I see," Namur muttered to himself. "The Straw Hats don't need another body, they need maneuverability. I can work with that."

Nodding to himself, Namur returned to where he'd left Sanji. The human was on his feet, one hand pressed into his side as he tried to walk toward the battle.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To back up my Nakama," Sanji answered. "I know they're here; I can't just do nothing."

"In your state? I think not." Namur moved, scooping Sanji into a fireman's carry. The blond gasped as the force of the impact aggravated his wound.

"Put me down! My mellorines and the Mermaid Princess are in that room!"

"And the kitchen and air room are down the East Wing," the fishman rebuffed. "You're nothing but dead weight in a battle as you are right now. You said you needed a kitchen, so I'm taking you to the kitchen."

"But-!" The chef hacked up a wad of blood as Namur kicked off the stairs, taking a somewhat roundabout path. His trained eyes glanced in each window as they passed, tracking where the water ended and the air began. A minute was all it took before he spotted what they needed, a large room with a set of massive stovetops.

Low on time, Namur shifted his momentum, smashing into the window of the kitchen fist-first. Air bubbled outward as the two pirates broke through the hole in a wave of seawater. The fishman flicked his Bubble Coral back in one fluid motion, clogging the broken window with another sturdy bubble even as the ones around Sanji popped. The chef stood with a grunt, taking in a full breath of air as he studied the room.

Water sloshed across sandstone flooring, the walls and ceiling made of the same substance. The machines around the room were similar to those of the kitchens Sanji knew, though several regular devices like the faucets and burners were replaced with special corals. Sanji equated them to something akin to the Dials of Skypia, though an underwater version. The faucets, or instance, were a trio of blue tube-like corals sticking out of the wall by the ocean. The corals likely acted as a means of purifying the saltwater of the ocean into something useable. Similarly, red slabs of something like brain coral rested in divots on the stovetop, waves of heat rising from each. Otherwise, the kitchen was normal.

Oh, and there was the trio of fishman pirates snacking on a pair of human arms. That seemed important.

"That's just nasty," Namur sniffed, his hunched-over form still taller than the three other fishmen in the room. "Black Leg, work that magic you promised and get into fighting shape. I'll take these bastards down and get your crew a battlefield they can work with."

"Yeah, sure," Sanji nodded, patting his coat down. Finding what he was looking for, Sanji pulled out his pack of cigarettes. His eyes narrowed, the human ignoring the sounds of Namur beating the fear of Goda and the the New Whitebeards into the trio in favor of sorting through his wet, ruined cigarettes from the useful ones. He plucked one out and lit it with a Stove Coral, a visible tension leaving his shoulders as he breathed out a cloud of smoke.

"That's that at least," Namur grinned, wiping his hands of fresh blood. He turned, finding Sanji already sorting through the refrigerator and cabinets. "I don't think any more will come this way since these guys were stationed here. I'll meet you at the door when you're done."

"And what are you doing?" the human asked, opening the spice drawer.

"I'm going to fill the throne room with air so Luffy can kick Hody's ass."

"You can't be serious, dosun!" a hammerhead fishman yelled, waving his battlehammer in the general direction of the Straw Hats' bubble. To Dosun's left were the eel twins trading jets of lightning with a woman on a duck, to his right was a young teen with horns cracking skulls with a Parrotfish Fishman in an aggressive headbutt showdown, and the center was a twisted new jungle of horror. And all of this from a lesser species that can't even breathe underwater!

"This is just embarrassing," Zeo agreed, the purple and blue cuttlefish fishman watching with crossed arms. "I wonder, if they weren't so condensed, could we overwhelm them one-by-one?"

"Don't know 'bout that, *hic*!" Hyouzou hiccupped, the Octopus Merman swaying from side to side. His sword was itching for blood, or was that just the alcohol coming out? Eh, who cares? He shuffled forward, a inch of his sword's blade coming from the sheath. "I want... *hic* want in."

"What is wrong with you weaklings?!" Motion slowed to a halt, the water shaking with the force of Hody's rage, freezing his officers in place. The hydra plant he'd been fighting was little more than scraps on the floor now inside a new bubble with the captain no worse for wear. Without the endless supply of water, it'd used up its healing, apparently. "They're a handful of humans and half of them can't even do anything! Why the Hell haven't you beaten even one?"

"Sorry, Captain," a lackie apologized, kneeling at the captain's side where his bruises were on display. "The gondola eel is protecting their back and sides, so we're being funneled in from one direction. Between the lightning, plants, and razor kicks, we can't get through their area attacks."

"We are in the water," Hody stated, his voice dropping even as his rage grew. "We can swim, so why in the name of every sea deity out there have you not tried swimming up and attacking from above?"

"..."

Even the officers had no response to that question, the idea having never occurred to any of them. The water had been a way to contain and limit the humans, but they had never thought that their own maneuverability could shift to three dimensions.

"Useless morons, all of you!" Hody raged. "Fifteen minutes they've held us back and the most you've been able to do is not lose ground because they don't have gills! They're just humans!"

"Actually, Captain, they aren't all human since they have a skeleton, a reindeer, and a Kla-"

"I don't care!" Hody swiped with his hand, a half-dozen Water Bullets shooting through the unfortunate pirate that tried to correct him. "And you all! Get in there!"

"Right!" Spurned into battle, the officers leapt forward, half of them pushing off the floor so they could attack from above like their Captain had suggested. The view of the battle from above was no better than from the floor. In fact, it was worse in some ways because they could now see all the fallen and incapacitated soldiers scattered across the ground.

"What kind of monsters are these, ch?" Ikaros Much, a fishman with eight arms and eight spears, questioned. "Fishman are naturally ten times stronger, but their members without Devil Fruits have managed to take out so many of us, ch."

"Does anyone else hear that, dosun?" Dosun asked, his hammerhead turning left and right as some vibration bugged him. "I feel like there's something happening, but I can't put my hammer on it, dosun."

"I've got a guess," Zeo muttered, his eyes on a hole in the wall connected to the air room. The whine of the machines was only the first indicator of turning tides as a pocket of air grew from the hole, pushing the water away. Within moments, the bubble overtook them, the three fishmen falling out of the air to the floor with a trio of thumps. "Ow."

"Wait..." Ikaros blinked, his gaze meeting Zeo's and Dosun's. "If the water's gone, ch..."

"Hey, we don't need the bubble now!" The eyes of every fishman snapped to where the captain of the Straw Hats had his hands stretched up to the sky. "That's... what's the word...?"

"Convenient, Captain?" Coby offered.

"Yeah, convenient! Guys, let's kick these fishy, blue asses!"

"Take them out now!" Hody ordered, flinging Water Bullets at the rubber-man. The Pirate Hunter interjected himself, blocking the attack the same way he did before.

"Finally," Amy grinned, stepping forward. She stomped one leg, cracking and shattering the floor. "I've been itching to crush some heads."

"Sanji and someone else are to the east," Coby announced. "Looks like they did something for us."

"And now we aren't limited!" Chopper finished. shifting into his Heavy Point to punch his own palm.

"I can breathe easier now," Brook chuckled, slowly drawing his cane-sword. "Ah, not that I breathe, Yohoho!"

"Never change, Brook," Grace smirked, a pair of Neon Argon attacks swirling in her palms.

"Gihihi!" Ace giggled. "Bubble go pop and now the bad guys will go pop, too!"

"What do we do, Captain?" Daruma, the smallest of the officers, asked. "I wanna chew them up, but they can rampage now!"

"We need the rest of our men," Hody admitted. "This has been a bust. Everyone, grab hostages and retreat!"

"No!" King Neptune's cry went unanswered as pairs of fishman pirates grabbed hold of soldiers and started to flee. Between them and the door, however, were the Straw Hats who started trying to pick them off as they went.

"Yeah, that's what I thought!" Usopp laughed, confidence restored at this turn of events, explosive pellets going off with each shot. Coribou ran by, the petrified Caribou and unconscious Vander Decken under his arms. "No one messes with us!"

"Fight me, Hog!" Luffy demanded, having forgotten Hody's name already. "You wanna pick a fight with my Nakama? Let's go!"

"We will, Straw Hat," Hody swore, pausing at the limits of the bubble. His men ran by, many still carrying tied-up soldiers as they dove into the water, but the fishman captain only had eyes for his hated enemy. "You won't leave this island alive. I will kill you and your crew. This I swear on Arlong's name."

And then he was gone, what remained of his small army slowly disappearing into the shadows of the ocean. The Straw Hats panted as the adrenaline of the fight slowly wore off, Nami, Billy, and Usopp in particular more tired than they were use to.

"Damn it," Coby grunted, cutting a gash in the floor in his anger. "Two years of training and I could barely do anything."

"I've got some bones to pick, too," Amy commented, agreeing with Coby for once. "We just didn't have the space we needed, but we aren't done with them. And they aren't done with us, either. We'll get a chance to show them what we can do."

"I sure hope so," Merry grunted, cracking her knuckles. "My fight with that parrot guy isn't over."

"Jamon!" The pirates turned, the largest merman in the room breaking his bindings with a yell. He didn't focus on them, instead rushing to the side of the pink-haired princess. "Are you ok, Shirahoshi? Vander Decken didn't do anything to you?"

"I-I'm ok, Father," the princess insisted, though tears were already forming on the corners of her eyes.

"Oh my daughter," the king sighed, wrapping the girl in a hug. "It's alright. They're gone now."

"Well, this is quite the sight." The occupants of the room turned, Namur and Sanji walking in from the corridor to the east wing with a whole cart of food. Sanji seemed better, his side no longer bleeding and the bloody hole in his suit covered by a fresh apron. Namur continued, dropping into a hunched bow. "King Neptune, we meet again, though I must say these circumstances aren't as I would have liked. And Luffy, how are you?"

"Who are you?" Luffy blinked, trying to recognize the fishman and remember where they had met. "Oh, food!" His arms stretched, dragging the cart toward his waiting mouth. No one made a move to stop it.

"Namur," Neptune greeted, giving a nod to the Division Commander. "I assume the air here is your doing? Well done."

"Sanji!" Chopper yelled, running over to the chef and climbing up his side. "You're ok! Merry was giving us updates on your health through her Mantra, but I was still worried about your blood loss."

"I made a meal to help negate that, Chopper," Sanji rebuffed, though he couldn't help the flinch when Chopper unknowingly applied pressure on his wound. "Namur brought me here and helped get you all out of that bubble. He's one of Whitebeard's old crew."

"Wow!" the doctor gasped, his starry eyes now on the fishman beside the human. "That must mean you're real strong!"

"Heh, you could say that," Namur grinned.

"Straw Hats," the rumbling voice of King Neptune interrupted, turning attention to him. He detached himself from Shirahoshi, his huge bulk casting a shadow over the humans. "Hody is gone. What shall you do now?"

"I don't know," Luffy shrugged, a bloodthirsty grin coming to his face. "I do know we aren't done with Hog, though."

"So you do not intend to do as he did and take me hostage?"

Luffy blinked. "Uh, no? Why would we do something like that? Camie says you're a nice guy."

"..." Neptune was silent for a long moment, weighing the look Luffy had in his eye, before the merman's huge bulk lowered into a deep bow. "Thank you."

"Your Majesty, please!" the Minister of the Right called, the seahorse fishman hopping over to the king. "It is unbecoming of-"

"Silence, jamon!" the king hissed, shutting up minister. The king returned to his bow, speaking to the remaining pirates. "At first, I did not know what to expect from you. Between the stories from Moby Dick, Namur, the one known as Hachi, and the news from the World Government, I did not know what you were like. Even so, you have rescued my palace and... most of my men. I know Hody picked a fight with you, but could you please try to get the hostages back, jamon?"

"He is a pirate," the Minister of the Right protested. The king ignored him.

"So that's the Mermaid Princess," Sanji thought aloud as Luffy spoke to the king, the blond's eyes on the beautiful proto-giant mermaid. "She really is a beauty." He nodded to himself, his composure kept even as his heart appeared in his eye and beating in his chest. An unstoppable stream of blood dripped from his nose. Predictably, Chopper began panicking.

"Ace?!" Nami cry seemed to fill the room, cutting off every other thought and word. The room turned to the navigator, the woman using the air to sweep the room for signs of her son. Based on her actions and the worried look on her face, this was not the first time she'd done the search. "ACE?! Where are you?!"

"He's not here?" Luffy gasped, joining his wife's frantic search.

"Who?" Sanji blinked, looking to Chopper for answers as the other Straw Hats became just as panicked as the navigator.

"Her and Luffy's son," the doctor explained, apparently deciding that 'ripping the bandage off' would be the best course of action here. Sanji seemed to turn to glass, an almost audible shattering of his heart echoing.

"THEIR WHAT?"

"Our son!" Nami answered, tears streaming down her face. "And he's not here!"

"But if he's not here," Coby began. "That means..."

"Yeah," Grace nodded, cold anger in her voice. "Hody fucked up."

End of Chapter 12

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-SwordOfTheGods