As always, thank you to all my wonderful Patrons: Akamura, Alex P, Andrew Bohl, Animephilosopher1, Anna Khuu, Ant Franklin, Badmr7, Cam Bliss, Christopher Mitchell, Clark Kent, Claude Walker, Cory Johnston, CrazyMan, daniel, David Bowling, David Reynolds, EbayUserGreen, Emi Stafford, Eric Bandel, EvilJelly, Fenrir ragnarok, Garvin Lee Nelson-Mathlin, GODA98, Grim90, Illiasse Naji, Jacob McCarthy, Jbe92, JEP1010, Jkat, Jonathan Moh, JONATHAN VICARS, Jordanitos, Joseph Morrison, Josh Watson, Julien digot, Kari Winters, Kcx1, Kevin Calderon, Korakas, Kyo Anamoto, Lamont Hale, little greenmen, Loriane bourguignon, Marielle Orff, Markoos, Matthew Burley, McBanjo, Mcgin28, Michael Lessard Lagrange, Milagros Perez Davila, Milla, Monkey D Tobi, Nathaniel Oppegaard, Nicole Morris, Philippa Sale, Rafael Cardenas, Raghhh, Ranger Ellis, Reader45, Richard Barkley, Ricky Shaffer, Riley Bolerjack, Sebastian Gutierrez, SpiderBat, TheMedia_Ghost, TheRevolutionaryRonin, Thomas Sanders, ToonTownTourist, and ViewtifulSoul!

Note: Chapter re-uploaded to fix formatting issues.

Chapter 16:

Hody Makes His Move

"Stop right there, Hody," a voice ordered, the captain of the New Fishman Pirates slowing to a stop on the main street of the Fishman District as a frown stretched over his face. His eyelids dropped a little, filtering out more of what meager light already reached the area. He turned slowly, his eyes coming to see the slouched form of Namur, the commander of the New Whitebeards' Eighth Division, the same position he'd held before the death of the first Emperor he served. Despite his rumored power, Hody was not intimidated. "This is madness, Hody Jones, and you're putting the island and all the lives there at risk. If you gather your crew and leave now, you'll be free to go. None of us will stop you from your war on humans when you're on the surface."

Hody snorted, the sound so unexpected that it nearly threw Namur for a loop. Before he could fully recover from the surprise, Hody began laughing without restraint.

"Ahahahaha! Aaahahahaha!"

"What's so damn funny?" the other fishman questioned. "Care to share what's going on in that maniacal brain of yours?"

"It's you," Hody answered, his words still carrying the mocking cackle. "The fact that you think those are my reasons or that you think I care about your permission to do anything. That you think I'm so worried about what that tub of lard Moby Dick thinks or may do."

"You might not be thinking about the consequences of your actions, Hody, but we are. Yeah, Fishman Island is under the protection of Captain Moby, but there are so many other things wrong with your plan. If you destroy Fishman Island, Fishmen and Merfolk won't have a home anymore and be thrust out into the open sea, those outside the World Government will no longer have a way to cross this part of the Red Line giving the World Government even more power, and the place that raised fighters like you and me will be gone. Do you not have a single ounce of doubt in your soul? Or do you just not care?"

"I suppose I just don't care," Hody answered, now turning completely to face the rival pirate. His grin stretched wider. "This whole kingdom is rotten to the core, stuck on this notion that humans and Fishmen can get along if we try. If we have to destroy the very place where those ideas were allowed to grow in order to destroy them forever, then I will gladly kill even my friends in the ensuing destruction. Even if I fall, then I will simply become a martyr and one of my 100,000 men will take up my mantle."

"What did they do to you?" Namur asked slowly, for everyone had their own story and secrets. "I know you've hated humans for a long time and that you admired Arlong and Fisher Tiger, but that can't possibly be the cause for all of this." He gestured to the empty streets of the Fishman District, how the hustle and bustle of the once-thriving neighborhood was gone, only to leave a place as dry of life as the old shell of a bug despite the billions of gallons of water around it.

"I wonder," Hody mused. "Was it that humans were always trying to kidnap people? No, I was never kidnapped. Was it that Straw Hat took down Arlong or that the Marines killed Fisher Tiger? No, I hated humans even before that."

"Then what was it, Hody?" Namur demanded. "What did some humans do to you?"

"Nothing."

Namur froze at Hody's simple answer, its simplicity making the word all the more confusing. Of the plethora of rationales the other fishman could have produced, of all the reasons Hody could have responded with to make him the tragic victim of a crime long passed, he answered with no reason at all?

"What?" the New Whitebeard croaked.

"I said, 'nothing'," Hody answered, opening his arms as if to embrace all the blind hatred he kept stored in himself. "I have no personal reason to hate the human race! The facts of the matter are that Fishmen are just superior to them in every way and it bugs me how we cower at the bottom of the sea while the humans live their lives above the water! Neptune and all his family are weak and would have us squander in the world's status quo, but me? I'll bring all Fishmen to the surface and conquer it for us, even if I have to kill the sympathizers and drag the rest up by their tails! Ahahahaha—gyak!"

Hody tried to breathe but his lungs would not work, his eyes seeing the burring speed of buildings as they flew past his vision. No, the buildings weren't the ones moving. He was, an indent in his chest as his body still had trouble understanding that Namur had punched him. His ragdolling body slammed into one of the many stone buildings, the wall cracking and shattering under the force.

"What foolishness," Namur commented, idly walking to the building as its compromised structure collapsed on the pirate captain. "I knew you had strong feelings about this, but I thought you at least had some righteous reasoning for it. Now, I'm just disappointed to see how far you've fallen since we were kids."

"You bastard!" Hody raged, shoving stones off himself. "How far I've fallen? You're the traitor here! How could you leave your fellow Fishmen to serve under some dusty old human? To put your life on the line to rescue the child of the man that caused the anguish of so many fishmen with the start of this Great Pirate Era? Gold Roger's final words were nearly a death sentence for Fishman Island!"

"I know," Namur agreed, continuing to watch as Hody freed himself. "But the sins of the father should not fall on the son, and the sins of the few should not color your perception of the many. Not that you care about any of that. That's why I need to stop you here and now. Go back to being the young, innocent Hody I remember from the past."

"You can try," Hody growled, reaching into a pocket to pull out a handful of red-and-black pills that he shoved into his mouth. His heart beat once, loud enough to be heard by even his foe, before Hody doubled over in pain. Namur didn't know what to make of this situation or if Hody had just finished himself off. He watched as the pirate captain writhed in the rubble, gasping as whatever he'd just used did its vicious work.

Hody grew still, hunched over on all elbows and knees, his breathing ragged. Namur approached slowly, a nervous sweat disappearing into the water around them.

"Hody—"

Too quick for Namur to react properly, Hody's arm shot up, his fingers latching around the other fishman's throat. The division commander's eyes widened at the suddenness of it all, his hands scratching at Hody's steel-like grip.

"Namur…" the other fishman sighed, his eyes with a new, eerie red about them, the whites now the same color as spilled blood. His hair waved in the current, gray starting to creep into his dark mane. "I respected you when we were kids, considered you a friend, even, but I'm not that one that's fallen. Now, I think it's time I finally test these Energy Steroids against all the power your friendship with humans has given you. Ahahaha!"

Fukaboshi, Ryuboshi, and Manboshi woke slowly, their heads spinning. A soft melody drifted on the wind, tickling their minds and lulling their worries about how hard their resting positions were or what their aching joints said about how long they had been there.

"Five more minutes," Manboshi muttered, rolling over as he fought off the musical call. As if in response, the tone turned to something more pressing, a hint of urgency in the melody's crescendo and accelerando that pulled at their senses. "Ba, fine! I'm up! I'm up!"

"Why are we on the ground?" Ryuboshi questioned, opening his eyes to see not the plush room he had lived with all his life but the brown-grey stone of Fishman Island's earth. He turned his head, his gaze moving over the earth until it gave way to the top of the cliff and the plaza beyond. "Gyoncord Plaza?"

Unlike his brothers who woke slowly, Fukaboshi's first instinct was to reach for his trident, the weapon shooting out in moments to spear through the neck of the minstrel nearby. Brook gasped as his head was severed from his spine for the second time in as many days, the body remaining standing as his cranium hit the ground without a sound on account of his luscious afro dampening the impact.

"Brook!" Luffy yelled, his next move blocked by the shaft of the trident that had decapitated his musician. "The Hell was that for, Prince Guy?"

"Straw Hat," Fukaboshi grunted, his trident straining under the lingering force of Luffy's punch. "What have you done to us?"

"We didn't do anything!" the pirate answered. "We came here to get you and you just attacked us! Look what you did to Brook! How's the whale gonna recognize him now?"

"Why would you care of Ho-e knows your skeleton?"

"Yohoho!" the decapitated skeleton chuckled, both Ryuboshi and Manboshi crying out in shock and hugging each other at the sound. Green gas poured from the severed neck of the self-haunted musician, connecting to the skull which returned to its rightful place. "Do not fret, Luffy. That which is dead cannot be killed by such means. Which is to say, you shouldn't lose your head over it! Yohohoho!"

"Brook, you're alive!" the young father grinned, pulling his fist away from the prince's held weapon. "I didn't know you could do that!"

"Though I'm not," the skeleton grinned. "Alive, that is."

"What happened?" Fukaboshi demanded, in no mood for such games or jokes. When last he'd been aware, an ultimatum had been given to the island with his father and sister as hostages to a homicidal madman of their own design through avoidance, only for the ones called out to preemptively attack the royal trio. Now, Fukaboshi had no way of knowing how much time had passed due to the nature of Fishman Island's light source being the Sunlight Tree Eve. For all he knew, it could be the next day. "How long have you had us at your mercy?"

"We just got here," Luffy said, much to the princes' shock. "Yeah, sorry about knocking you all out like that. We thought you guys would attack us 'cause Hody said some stupid things and we didn't want to fight you. You're strong so it would have taken us way too long to knock you out the normal way."

"How long have we been down?" Fukaboshi rephrased, Luffy's last reply having answered his questions but still been incredibly unhelpful.

"I don't know," the pirate shrugged. "Maybe two or three hours? Somewhere in there. Oh, we saved your dad and sister by the way, so there's no need to fight us."

"That…" the blue-haired prince blinked, not knowing how to respond to such a flat statement. "If that is true, then I suppose I owe you my thanks, Straw Hat, but the truth is that myself and my brothers were searching for you to enlist your help."

"Really?" Luffy laughed. "Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

"You attacked us before we could!" the three princes shouted in perfect tandem.

"Oh, yeah… whoops! Shishishi!" None of the princes knew how to react to this happy-go-lucky pirate as he laughed off having attacked them just some time before. "By the way, my crew went out to fight Hog's guys. They took my son when we drove them out of the palace, so Nami went to go get him back, but your dad asked us to fight them while he did something else. The others are fighting right now."

"Did something else," Fukaboshi blinked, awed by the way Luffy could say so much but give so little information or context. All he learned was that the Straw Hat Pirates pushed Hody out of the palace (something Straw Hat had already claimed), they were supposedly fighting in other places, and that he had a—

"You have a son?!" the buff prince gasped. With a big name like 'Straw Hat' Luffy, one would have thought such a story would be known to the world by now.

"His name is Ace," Luffy answered quickly, his voice increasing in speed as he started to gush like a proud parent. "Monkey D. Ace. He's getting close to two right now, but he's already so smart! He can talk and use big words and everything already. Do you know what Nami told me just a little bit ago?" Fukaboshi opened his mouth to say that, no, he had no way of knowing what Luffy's wife had told him about their son while the princes were indisposed by his crew's own hand, but Luffy forged ahead before he could get a word in edgewise. "His first word was 'meat' at four months! He's so smart! Gramps said I needed nine before I learned that word. And he's already using mo… Mul…" Luffy's face turned red, the poor captain trying to figure out what word he needed. He turned to his crewmate. "Brook, what's the word for big words Robin used?"

"Multisyllabic, Captain," Brook answered.

"Yeah, that! Ace's a genus. He—"

"Enough!" Fukaboshi cried, cutting off Luffy's rant. "I get that you love your son, but my home is in danger right now!"

"Shishishi, whoops!" Luffy laughed. "Forgot about that! Anyway, Hog went to the Fishman District or whatever and Namur went after him, but Coby said they've got a huge army somewhere on the island and that it appears like they're getting together. Robin think's they'll come here since it's a big, open area near the center of the island. Something about having people watch."

"But why?" Manboshi asked, figuratively stepping into the conversation. "I mean, I like when people watch my mambo, but this is different, right? Why does he hate you guys?"

"You all took down Arlong, la-ti-do~!" Ryuboshi remembered. "Hody said he wanted revenge for you all crushing Arlong's dream, do-ray-me-fa~!"

"Yohoho, that is correct," Brook agreed, strumming along with Ryuboshi's pitch. "I was not present on the crew at that time, but Namur informed us that Fisher Tiger and Arlong were idols to Hody and that Luffy defeating Arlong was a tragic blow to his beliefs."

"Still, his arrogance knows no bounds," Fukaboshi grunted. "To think that he believes he can defeat a pirate worth 400-million is ridiculous, much less to think he could take your crew as well. He must have a powerful trump card in his back pocket."

"Four…" Luffy blinked, the number slowly registering. "I'm worth 400-million?!"

"You didn't know that?" the three brothers gasped.

"I didn't know you were unaware, Captain," Brook commented, revealing that he too had known about the price of his captain's head. "Your bounty rose right after you paid your tribute at Marineford and vanished. I suspect even young Ace is aware of your worth."

"Awe shucks," Luffy muttered, uncharacteristically bashful as he rubbed the back of his head, a blush spread over his wide smile. "They think so highly of me."

"I believe it is the opposite of that," Manboshi muttered. "Anyway, can we get on with this song and dance, now?"

"I concur," Brook nodded. "We've taken a few detours, but I believe we mentioned reasonable suspicion that Hody and his army will ultimately fight us here in this plaza. As such, we ask that you three assist us in evacuating the citizens from the area."

"I understand," Fukaboshi responded. "Namur has been here for nearly a year waiting for you to come through and Moby Dick has spoken of you many times. We have enough reason to trust that you will not attack us without provocation... again."

"Provocation is when someone attacks you first, Captain," Brook supplied, Luffy closing his mouth with his unspoken question already answered.

"Ryuboshi," the eldest prince stated, turning to his brothers. "Manboshi, I want you two to stay here and evacuate the people. I will return to the palace and check on Father and Shirahoshi to confirm Straw Hat's story. I believe it to be true, but I want to see the damage with my own eyes. Can I count on you?"

"Of course you can, so-la-ti-do~!"

"Let's get this dance going, akamambo!"

"Good," Fukaboshi nodded, turning back to the pirates. "Straw Hat, I apologize for our lack of communication, but please help us. Please keep Fishman Island safe and take down the New Fishman Pirates that pose such a threat to my family, my home, and my people."

"Shishishi," Luffy grinned. "I was gonna do that anyway!"

"Thank Goda that Captain Hody had Daruna dig all these tunnels for us," Zeo muttered to himself, the blue-and-purple fishman stepping into a cavernous section of area hidden inside the earth near the Gyoncord Plaza. Humans groaned in pain and hunger as he walked past, thousands of former pirates, merchants, and a few marines sprinkled among them begging for their freedom and they stayed chained to the walls. Zeo easily ignored all of them. The lesser beings did not deserve his attention, not when he had an important job to do.

The cavern needed to be pretty large to hold so many prisoners and hide so many fighters under the nose of the kingdom. As a consequence, he walked for some time before his destination came into sight, his personal laboratory away from the Fishman District. Compared to his lab at home, this one was barebones, but he needed to get to work quickly for the battle to come and there was nothing at his home that he needed so badly as to lose precious time on the detour when he could be working.

The room was sparse, containing a couple of tables, a desk, a bookshelf with copies of his most useful resources, and a slew of machines that could make any chemist weak in the knees. It had taken a long time to set this up and a lot of funds funneled to Challenger Deep, but with the Ryugu Army unaware of the altercations the New Fishman Pirates had made to Fishman Island's underground, the needed time was shortened considerably.

Reaching the table he used for preparations, Zeo dropped his stolen goods and made his way to the bookshelf. His eyes skimmed the spines, searching for a trio of books he had found incredibly helpful in his understanding of the atomic sciences, once he had looked past the origins of the authors, that is. Humans, they may be or may have been, but they knew their stuff.

"Now where did I put those… Aha!"

The first was easily the thickness of his fist, a weighty tome by the title of The Chemical Compounds of the Living Body, A Comprehensive Guide to What Makes all Sentients Tick, Fifth Edition by the famous Dr. Ceasar Clown. Said compendium was a few years old and read more like the textbooks of Fishman Island University, but the details of how the chemical reactions in the body interacted to keep it from destroying itself and how such limitations could be broken were amazing. Among them were outside chemicals that could serve to permanently break the limitations over the long- and short-term, with some risk, of course. The only reason so few were able to utilize this published research was the limited number of copies and a lack of people willing to actually do more than brute force their way through problems. That such cheat-like chemicals were only a means to obtain brute force was lost on the officer.

The next was smaller, an older book by the late Wilson Marigold, a chemist of some renowned from the West Blue. Though the Forward claimed chemistry was just a complement and fundraiser for his artistic passions, Marigold's Reactions of the Brain and Body served as a start to anyone wishing to study the effects of the old phrase 'mind over matter' and how placebos could be almost as effective as real science, allowing for a 'less is more' approach.

The last was the most recent addition to his library, a book currently under fire from the World Government due to suspicions that it was penned by the notorious Magpie of Color under the pseudonym Maggie G Bird. Said book, Compounds Thought Impossible and Other Such Nonsense was good for both a laugh and a lesson. Bird's writings described chemicals previously unknown and the processes with which one could make them (alongside her snarky comments about suppressed public research). In the three months before the World Government began confiscating any copy they could find, her observations had revolutionized chemical study across the globe. He'd only managed to get a second copy through the black market, since the bookstores of the island foolishly acquiesced to the order of the human government despite Fishman Island not being an official member nation.

They never would be if Hody and his crew got their way.

It was these three books that Zeo pulled from the shelves, flipping to his bookmarks amongst the pages. The margins nearly blurred into the lines of text due to all the notes Zeo had taken, his scribbles theorizing and connected all the ideas and formulae he needed for his own ends.

"And to think," Zeo commented to himself, pulling his stolen goods from the shopping bags he'd used to carry them. "Some of the greatest human chemists of this age wanted to share their knowledge with the world, and now that knowledge will help us destroy their feeble species. The irony is delicious. Clown helped me understand and replicate the steroids Captain Hody stole from the Tamate Box, but with Marigold and Bird, I should be able to improve on them. We'll need it, now that we know how strong the—"

"Talking to yourself again, Zeo?"

The scientist jumped at Daruma's voice, nearly spilling the bottled water he needed as a distiller.

"Dammit, Daruma!" Zeo cursed. "How many times do I have to tell you not to do that when I'm working on something?"

"You mean you didn't know I was here?" the cookiecutter questioned, already knowing what the response would be considering Zeo's pride.

"O-Of course I knew you were there," the taller fishman lied. "I simply tricked you into thinking I didn't! I didn't want to hurt your feelings by making you think you'd lost your edge." Zeo blinked. "What happened to your hat?"

"Those stupid Straw Hat girls slipped through my teeth and ruined it," the diminutive shark growled, jumping with rage. "They were more slippery than I thought they'd be, kya! I'll be more careful next time, kya!"

"Well, next time, we won't be fighting fair," Zeo commented, gesturing to his rig. "I think I've worked out a way to make the Energy Steroids almost twice as potent with the same amount of risk. Given the timeframe, however, I'll only be able to make enough for us officers and maybe a few extra for our more powerful subordinates."

"With our numbers, that should be more than enough, ch," Ikaros grunted, also stepping into the room. He looked a little worse for wear, his skin patchy in some spots and his beard uneven due to the parts that had been seared off. That he smelled of burnt hair didn't miss his companions. "Even if those humans manage to take down most of our men, they'll be exhausted by the time they reach us, ch."

"We still shouldn't take them lightly, dosun," a forth voice commented, Dosun joining his fellow officers in the room. "Their powers border on the stupid, making them hard to fight, dosun."

"So you lost the kid," Zeo observed. "Well, you probably fought Straw Hat, so it says something that you made it back here."

"Er… not exactly, dosun," the hammerhead admitted sheepishly. "It was the woman with orange hair, Straw Hat's wife, that came for him."

"What!" Daruma gasped, his surprise quickly fading into anger. "You lost to a human woman when you had her kid as a hostage? How?"

"She can turn invisible and make the air around her as hard as stone, dosun," Dosun defended. "Not only that, but she had The Survivor and a bird that fried the Sea Leopard to a crisp, dosun. Like I said, their powers border on the stupid, dosun."

"We should have just turned the kid into dried squid, ch," Ikaros grumbled.

"No," Zeo disagreed. "This is just fine. We've taken the kid once, so we know he can't defend himself. That means that the Straw Hats will be forced to either hide him somewhere during the battle or be forced to protect him. We'll have the advantage when they have such a glaring weakness."

"Actually, did any of us win our fights, ch?" The fishman officers glanced at each other, all sharing looks of embarrassment.

"Actually, I didn't fight to begin with," Zeo offered, waving away the defeat of his subordinates. "Therefore, I neither won nor lost."

"Perhaps Hyouzou managed and is just too drunk to report in," Daruma suggested. "We all know how strong that drunkard is, kya!"

"Maybe," Dosun nodded, "but I'd like to know about the ones you all fought, dosun. There's no guarantee that we will fight the same humans we did before, dosun."

"The ones at the Marine Shopping District," Zeo began, "were a man in a robe, the Cyborg, and their ship which is similarly alive as their Klabautermann. They've become more common ever since the Marineford War and the reveal of Moby Dick. The man claimed to be made of lightning itself, making him the Electric Devil, and the Cyborg's body was nearly all tricks and machines."

"I fought a couple of girls," Daruma growled. "It sounded like they were sisters. One of them could fly and come down like a meteor and the other could condense the air itself and sense me when I was underground."

"The Mood Painter and the Weightless Woman, probably," Zeo commented, identifying the two from his memory of the Straw Hats' wanted posters. "Dosun told us already that he faced the Cat Burglar, the Tri-Horn, and a bird suspected to be their pet, so that leaves you, Ikaros."

"My opponents were cowards, ch. One was a sniper that could create plant monsters and throw fire, ch. The other turned into a giraffe, flew by jumping on air, and kicked the Sea Giraffe across Fishverly Hills like it was a ball, ch."

"The first one sounds like the Long-Nose," Zeo muttered, Ikaros nodded as that lined up with his own suspicions. "We don't have any information about a Straw Hat that can turn into a giraffe, though. Neither the Monster Doctor nor the Tri-Horn could do that, and those are the only Zoans on their crew."

"Kya," Daruma rumbled. "Those damn humans are tough! I don't understand how humans could get so strong, kya!"

"And of the ones we fought, only the Electric Devil was a Supernova," Zeo agreed. "To think I managed to fight him to a standstill, I must be stronger than I thought."

"You said you didn't fight, dosun/ch/kya!" the other three yelled in tandem. Zeo, sufficiently intimidated by their combined volume, nearly missed the quiet ding that his machines gave off. Scrambling for a change of topic now that his ego had been bruised, the wobbegong latched onto the end of the Steroid Packaging Machine, lifting the final product. Unlike the checkered red and black of the original version, this one was striped green and white diagonally.

"This is it, my friends," Zeo announced as he held the pill up for the other fishmen to see, a smirk in his voice even thought his mouth was hidden. "This is the improved Energy Steroid that will spell the downfall of not only the Straw Hat Pirates and the Ryugu Kingdom, but the entire surface world!"

"Let me get this straight," Nami commented, the snail in Luffy's hand blinking slowly in time with his wife's struggle to comprehend the plan their shipwright and Chief of Staff were suggesting. "You want to tie the Thousand Sunny to a giant fish-lion with a massive intertube-like bubble and force it to carry her to the Gyoncord Plaza, just so you morons can have a cool entrance and Sunny can keep fighting?"

"Uhh, yeah," Gin's voice responded. "That's pretty much it. An' Sunny's on-board wit' th' plan, too. She can't wait."

"You can't be serious. Sunny wouldn't…" Nami paused, a look of exasperation coming across the snail. "Actually, she would. Considering all the muscleheads messing around in her brain, of course Sunny would have a hand in such an idea. She's essentially a mixture of all of us even more concentrated than Merry."

"Despite the truth of that statement, I resent that comment!" Merry put in. "My ideas can be just as good as that one when I have the resources!"

"You know for a fact that I'm speaking out against this plan, Merry! Don't even try to play coy. We all know you get your IQ from Robin, so there's no way you missed what I said."

"Well, I should hope so," Robin commented. "It will be delightful to engage in academic discourse after so long."

"What?" Coby blinked. "You're glad Nami's against the plan? What does that have to do with academics?"

"I have no opinion on the support of this plan or the lack thereof, Coby. I'm simply hopeful for the future days when Merry and Sunny can participate in intellectual conversation with myself in a way no one else manages."

"The Hell is that supposed to mean," Zoro groused from right next to her.

"Zoro…" Nami growled.

"Did I say something incorrect?" Robin blinked. "If you've hidden your talents for academics, I'd desire for you to reveal them to me. Something other than the proper way to care for a blade, that is. Ah, perhaps you remember some of the architecture of Kuraigana Island? I suspect it was mostly gothic in origin, but with a hint of Puminbritalika in the concrete composition. The Pumins did—"

"How did you know that?"

"You actually studied the concrete composition?" Robin nearly gasped. "Why Zoro—!"

"Not that," the swordsman interrupted. "How did you know I ended up on Kuraigana?"

"Ah, that." Was there a hint of disappointment in her tone? "Hawk-Eye was royalty of Kuraigana, so I simply assumed that was the location of your training with him. Did you peruse the library while you were there, perchance? They say Hawk-Eye is the most well-read of the Warlords."

"No," Zoro huffed. "I didn't."

"Then maybe—"

"I get it, you're smarter than me. For the love of Goda, woman. You don't need to rub it in."

"Don't you dare talk to Robin-chwan that way, Mosshead!"

"Shut your stupid face, Swirly Brow!"

"Darn it, Sanji!" Amy put in. "I was having fun listening to that!"

"We aren't a damn soap opera!"

"Watch your mouth, numbskull! Ace is listening!"

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed, his voice intermingling with the giggling of his son over the call. By the sound of it, Sanji was choking on air at the mere mention of the child, not that Ace was aware of such. Even so, Chopper could be heard asking if Sanji needed the Heimlich after swallowing his cigarette.

"Sunny can handle it," Franky offered, breaking up the argument before it could get any worse. "Our plan, I mean. With her ship made entirely out of super pressure-treated Adam Wood, nothing short of lava could get through her hull. The floor of the plaza is more likely to give out than our super ship. Ain't that right, Sunny?"

"Yeah, Maker! I can take it! Let me at 'em!"

"And you all thought I was weird for classifying violence as self-care," Merry laughed.

"It's not healthy for any of you to think that!" Chopper cried, the snail in Luffy's hand waving its stubby little arms. "We're all having some serious, mandatory, psycological evaluations done after this is over!"

"On the bright side," Robin giggled, "such evaluations should provide you with ample data for a clinical study, should you wish to publish."

"I know a good publisher!" Grace chimed in. "They keep things on the DL and aren't afraid to go against the Marines. After all, they got my book published."

"You wrote a book?" Coby gasped. "That's amazing, Grace."

"It… It is, isn't it?" Grace whispered, her voice a soft, sweet sound. The snail played with a lock of nonexistent hair, though everyone on the call could imagine the bashful look the young woman had at the comments based on the blush.

"Oh, yes," Robin agreed, quickly shifting the snail's expression. "It was quite the page-turner. My benefactor and I very much enjoyed the section on poisons and antidotes."

"We need to stop taking so many detours," Usopp interrupted. "We can all agree that Hody's going to attack us at the Gyoncord Plaza if we go there, right? I'd much rather we pick our own battlefield if we can."

"From what I can sense, there's a lot of hatred already in the area," Coby agreed, though Luffy couldn't really see much hate as he watched the two younger princes and Brook herd the people out of the area. That being said, he still trusted Coby's words. He had both a larger range and a more acute emotional sense than Luffy's battle-focused Observation, after all.

"Brook, Songboshi, and Danceboshi are already getting people out," Luffy nodded. "The place will be empty by the time you all get here."

"Who?" several of the crew questioned in tandem.

"A couple of the princes. Since we knocked 'em out and left 'em here when we took the eel, they were still here when we got back. Turns out they wanted to help us, too, so maybe we shouldn't've done that, but oh well."

"Pappagu did warn us that might be the case," Merry mused. "Speaking of, where did you all leave him and Camie?"

"We dropped them off with this tall shark lady," the captain answered. "Camie called her Madam Sha-something and said she was her boss."

"Madam Sharley," Franky corrected, remembering Camie mentioning her while he, Luffy, and Gin were in her apartment just after the crew's disastrous entrance. "Camie showed me a picture of her. She's a tall shark mermaid with some super big—"

"Aaaand we're cuttin' that sentence off right there!" Gin interrupted from beside the metal man.

"No, go on!" Sanji urged, only for the Klabautermann to punch the chef in the back of the head by the sound of both the hit and the sudden fretting of Chopper.

"I was gonna say business ideas," the Cyborg grunted. "She wants to super team up with Takoyaki 8 in the future to expand the Mermaid Café to the surface. You know, catch all those pirates that don't make it to the island. I don't know what you were thinking I was super gonna say, Gin."

"The H—"

"Ahem!" Nami coughed.

"The Heck you don't!" the Electric Devil amended. "I can see your face, Franky! You looked just like Sanji!"

"Oi!" the chef in questioned protested.

"This is getting us nowhere," Nami sighed. "We'll meet you all at the Gyoncord Plaza in ten or fifteen minutes, ok? Say 'bye' Ace."

"Bye, Ace!" the little boy giggled, clearly thinking himself clever. "Gihihihi!"

CA-CHA!

One by one, the other groups hung up their parts of the call until no one was left. Luffy was the last to put his snail away before turning to the plaza. Though Brook and the princes had been working hard, it was still a massive area and each person varied in how difficult they were to wake, so the combined group was only nearing the one-third mark. Figuring it was at least something to do, Luffy hopped down the ledge to help in any way he could.

"Your Majesty!" a soldier yelled, sprinting into the throne room where King Neptune, Princess Shirahoshi, the Minister of the Right, and a select number of higher-ranking soldiers stood, the king and his minister in deep discussion with the army representatives. "Your Majesty, we have a problem!"

"What now, jamon?" the king sighed, one hand coming up to rub his massive forehead as if the pressure would help relieve some of the headache he was suffering from. "I swear if it's the Straw Hats causing property damage or Hody Jones…"

"I'm sorry, sir," the soldier began, kneeling. "It's Vander Decken. The Flying Dutchman is heading right for the palace!"

"What?" the king yelled, the anger in his tone echoing through the room as Princess Shirahoshi recoiled at the name. "That vile pirate again?"

"Yes, sir," the soldier nodded. "Based on the direction and speed, we have reason to believe he has used his powers on his own ship in the same manner as he has with the weapons of the past. Based on what we know of his powers and Devil Fruits, the Flying Dutchman will not stop until it crashes into Princess Shirahoshi, is blocked by something with enough structure to withstand it, or Decken dies."

"Damn him," Neptune snarled, those present ignoring the uncouth language. "Were I in my prime, I could have gone out there and smashed that ship to pieces myself, but my back will not allow such things today."

"What shall we do?" the Minister of the Right questioned. "We cannot allow Decken to have the princess, nor can we let him kill her as he has wanted to since the queen's passing."

"If I may give a suggestion, Your Majesty," one soldier said, a younger man stepping away from an older companion.

"Shine, what are you-"

"Shut up, Dave," the younger hissed, cutting off the other before turning back to the monarch. "As far as we can tell, Vander Decken's powers do not need to kill their target. The first items he sent were letters that did not harm Her Grace. Were his powers always meant to kill, the first few times would have claimed Princess Shirahoshi's life."

The princess gasped at the candid statement of how easily she could have been lost, the first sign of tears moistening her eyes.

"Get on with it," the General ordered.

"My suggestion, sir, is that the princess only needs to touch the Flying Dutchman."

"It would flatten her at its current speed!" the minister yelled.

"Not if the princess were moving at a similar velocity," Shine objected, putting his Fishman Island University degree to good use. "That is, if she moved at a similar speed in the same direction, the speed there would cancel out the force of any impact."

"I see," Neptune nodded, stroking his beard. "That is not a bad idea, but we do not have much time to find a way to implement it."

"There may be one way," the soldier called Dave muttered, turning attention on himself. "Though she has remained in the Hard Shell Tower for much of her life, Princess Shirahoshi is a healthy mermaid, and no sea creature can compare to the speed of a mermaid underwater. Even if the princess cannot outrun the ship, she could delay the impact long enough for a strike team to enter and neutralize Decken."

"Neutralize?" Shirahoshi echoed softly.

"Who would lead this team?" the minister questioned. "Everyone knows the only fighters we have capable of such a thing are the princes, and they are all on the island. There's no chance that they could get here before the Flying Dutchman."

As if the world were mocking the Seahorse Fishman, the doors of the throne room burst open, Prince Fukaboshi swimming inside with a panicked look.

"Father!" the prince yelled. "The Flying Dutchman is headed this way!"

"We know, my son," Neptune responded, turning to face his progeny. "But your timing could not be better. I need you to take your sister and a squad of soldiers into the ocean and swim away as quickly as possible. You will lead a team to take Decken out before the Flying Dutchman can reach her while Shirahoshi keeps the chase going."

"But why? Can we not intercept him or face him here on our own battlefield?"

"It appears that Decken had gone mad enough to use his powers on his own ship. It is not that he is sailing here; the Flying Dutchman in on a collision course with Shirahoshi. If she acts as a decoy to lure the ship away, we can minimize the damage and buy time to deal with Decken."

"That's much too dangerous, Father!" Fukaboshi protested. "What of the Sea Kings outside the bubble?"

"Some of the men will stay with her. Even if they cannot keep up with her speed, even a pair of our knights are strong enough to take out almost any Sea King. Now, take your sister and go. We have only so much time before our forewarning is of no use."

"I… I understand, Father." Fukaboshi bowed slightly before turning to the princess. "Sister, come with me. We must escape quickly."

"B-But Big Brother, what about you? This is too dangerous—"

"Do you not trust me?" the prince questioned, cutting off his younger sister's words. "You know how strong I am. I will defeat Vander Decken and free you of his gaze, but we need you to act, for you are the one he wants. I will keep you safe."

Fukaboshi reached up, sticking forward one pinky in the same way the four royal siblings had with their mother one fateful day so many years ago. For a moment, both saw the other, but as they were on that day, papers and boxes burning around them. To Fukaboshi, the girl was still young, not yet having blossomed into a beautiful woman, and for Shirahoshi, she saw her brother smaller and with tears in his eyes. Yet time returned a moment later. The princess was no longer the little girl she had been and the prince was now a warrior uncontested among the army.

Slowly, Shirahoshi reached her own finger forward, just barely touching his.

"I trust you, Big Brother," she whispered.

"Hah," Hody sighed, his breath the only sound in the destroyed rubble of the Fishman District. His body ached already, a bruise coloring the left half of his face. Several gashes in the shape of a bite mark on his side leaking crimson blood into the waters around didn't help matters. His head twitched, an unfortunate side effect of the amount of steroids he'd used along with the color shift of his hair from black to white. He took one step before his left leg gave out, the leader of the rebels falling to one knee. "Fuck."

Namur could not respond, the New Whitebeard Eighth Division Commander out for the count while facedown in the broken remains of an apartment complex. His right arm was broken in two places and his shirt was gone entirely, revealing a series of droplet-sized puncture wounds along the small of his back.

"You've worn me down, Namur," Hody hissed to his defeated foe, pressing a hand into his bleeding shark bite courtesy of his fellow fishman. "I knew you'd be strong with your 547-million bounty, but I didn't think you'd push me so far."

Hody coughed up a glob of blood, the thick sludge taking several seconds to fully dissolve into the water. His head was swimming as the beginnings of anemia took their toll on him, but Hody would not let something so small as blood loss stop him here. Despite being a human, Hody was sure that Straw Hat could beat him in his current state. He needed to recover, fast.

"You bastard," Hody coughed, directing his anger toward Namur. "If you just saw the truth of the world, if you'd only see how inferior humans are, then we wouldn't have so much trouble. You could have joined me and helped bring about the fishman empire Tiger and Arlong dreamed of. Lucky for me, I knew you were just too stubborn to see and prepared anyway."

From his kneeling position, Hody gingerly reached into his left pants pocket before pulling out three items. One was a small bottle of tiny, red pills while another was a vacuum-sealed bag of green, and the last a simple Bubble Coral. A hatred of humans Hody may have, but that did not mean he was above using their products smuggled onto the island through Challenger Deep. The former was a drug colloquially known as Blood Pills, a collection of the minerals that make up nearly half a liter of blood concentrated into a ball the size of one's fingernail. The other was a healing gel sold to the black market by some bigwig calling themselves Joker. It would only work on each person once and is mostly absorbed into the body upon use, making it a one-use instant heal at an exorbitant price. Even so, the employment of Hyouzou showed that the New Fishman Pirates had the cash to spare.

The smugglers had warned him that the healing goo would not work in the water, so Hody surrounded himself with air via the Bubble Coral. With all the seawater gone in his immediate vicinity, the pirate captain's blood flowed down his body in thin rivulets. Wasting no more time than he needed to, Hody ripped the bag open with his teeth and slathered the green substance over his side.

Pain exploded in his mind, his sight turning simultaneously red and white as agony assaulted him. The goo moved of its own accord, climbing over his skin and burrowing into his punctured side. Within moments, the semisolid consumed the fishman before hardening into a chrysalis in which one could see the convulsing shadow of Hody Jones. The shell muffled his cries of anguish for only a couple of minutes before the form grew still and silent.

One heartbeat passed before a fist punched its way from the shell. The retracting arm left a hole in its wake, a pair of hands exerting enough force to form spiderweb cracks from the origin until the crystalized gel could take no more, shattering into a million tiny shards.

Left behind stood Hody Jones, his wounds and injuries nothing but scars nearly indistinguishable on his pale-blue skin. His hair, once a black-turned-white, was a long gray that fell down his back like an evil fog. The gel had reacted with the Energy Steroid still in his blood, his body now producing miniscule amounts of the drug to counteract, or more accurately reduce, the dangerous addictiveness of the original. His urges sated and a constant power high running through his veins, Hody turned one red eye on the body of Namur.

"You were good for one thing, old friend," the fishman reborn commented, a hideous grin stretching his lips. "You have made me stronger than anyone else in the world! Ahahahaha!"

End of Chapter 16

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods