Author's note: please note that what the characters believe to be true and what may be objectively true, are not necessarily the same thing. That being said, please enjoy.
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– Bellamy –
Things could be worse. They could always be worse.
"Stupid World Government and stupid Spandam, sending me to this icy, frozen corner of bloody nowhere. It's a waste of my talents!"
"Yoyoi! It's how…how we can apooologize for our failure…at Enies Lobbie. If we cannot redeeeeem ourselves here, I shall commit hara-kiri as penance!"
In this world, there always seemed to be bigger fish around the corner, so I could count my lucky stars that nobody like an Admiral had shown up. That went double as I couldn't imagine someone advocating unpredictable justice like Kizaru not holding a grudge. Or even if we didn't go quite that far, the squad's heavy hitters could have been here too instead of being who knows where.
"But if we're all to blame for the fiasco at Enies Lobbie, why aren't Lucci and Kaku here? Better yet, why am I lumped together with you idiots?"
"Perhaps it's because someone got on the chief's bad side."
"Why are you looking at me, Blueno? I didn't even do anything!"
"You insulted his son while we were out drinking after our last mission."
Like I said, things could always be worse. That being said, it didn't mean things were looking all nice and rosy. One Rear Admiral and six master assassins with an axe to grind against my companion did not make for goods odds. Especially when I was handicapped by having to protect two non-combatants.
"How would he know? We killed everyone in that bar!" Jabra exclaimed.
"Chapapa, I blabbed to Spandine that Jabra called Spandam a whimsical pansy with a daddy complex, chapapa!"
"Fukurou! One of these days I'm going to sew your mouth shut if you can't keep it zipped up!"
"That's sexual harassment!"
"I'm not even talking to you, Kalifa!"
"We should focus. It would not do for us to let our target slip through our fingers twice." Blueno interjected.
"Yoyoi! The sha-ame of our previous failure is so great I will must commit hara-kiri! Hara-kiri! Tekkai!" Predictably, Kumadori's knife failed to penetrate his skin, much to Jabra's growing frustration. "How regrettable…I can't die!"
"Just die already!"
"Yes, we do have a score to settle with the Straw Hats..how fortuitous that one of them dropped into our lap like this." Kalifa commented, leaning her face against one of her manicured hands, completely ignoring Jabra and Kumadori's comedy routine.
The smart move would have been to cause a distraction and escape, in order to group up with the reinforcements which were surely speeding our way. There really wasn't a need to engage in an unfavorable battle against a numerically superior foe. And while I hadn't exactly fled from a fight before – unless one counted me not staying to engage in fisticuffs with Akainu – I was at my core a physicist, a.k.a. a being of logic and reason. So, imagine my surprise when I found myself becoming excited instead, my blood singing in anticipation of battle like never before. My whole being screaming one undeniable truth: I wanted to fight. But when Robin stepped forward I temporarily suppressed that urge, difficult though it may have been.
"I see you survived the Buster Call." Robin said, her face betraying no emotion and outwardly unfazed by the confrontation with her old persecutors. But the small enigmatic smile at the edges of her mouth was gone and her gaze was unerringly fixed upon her foes, even as she pulled Aisa protectively behind her back.
"You and your band of idiots did too." Jabra scoffed, subsequently spitting onto the icy ground. "Of course, I would make it out with no problems."
"Jabra was crying for his mommy when Blueno saved him, chapapa!" Fukurou piped up helpfully before zipping his mouth back up. Pre-battle banter was helpful sometimes as people let things slip which they never would under normal circumstances. And Fukurou was notorious for being the biggest blabbermouth on the planet. The potential intel was worth waiting a few minutes.
"If you guys are the former members of the CP9 who kidnapped Robin, I thought you'd all been cut loose after the events at Enies Lobbie." I said, joining the conversation. "So, what brings a group of former government agents to a place like this?"
"…"
"Nobody going to tell me?"
"…I suppose it won't matter. You're right that Spandam blamed us for his failures and placed bounties on our heads, but that's all in the past. We cut a deal with Spandine." Jabra answered me, the others deferring to his lead. "He uses his influence to reinstate us, and we don't kill his son while he sleeps for betraying us."
"Excuse me, but I'm having a difficult time believing that someone like Spandine would fold to such a threat."
"Eh, we also had to do some missions to prove our loyalty or some shit, but it's not like it's something we hadn't been doing before anyway." Jabra shrugged indifferently. "Which is also why I'm here freezing my butt off."
"That's sexual harassment."
"Like hell it is! It's my butt!"
"That's sexual harassment."
"Raargh!" With Jabra too busy screaming in frustration to answer I turned to Blueno instead, who met my stare with a disinterested one of his own.
"What does Spandine want? Or better yet, who does he want?" Were they after Robin or the revolutionary? Or did they read my movements like the celestial dragons had on Argent Isle?
"There was a report that a dangerous criminal had been found by the garrison. We were sent to retrieve the target. Nico Robin, by the authority of the Five Elder Stars, you are under arrest."
"I refuse." Robin replied, crossing her arms before her.
"You think you have a choice? You will come with us like you did on Water Seven or we will make you." Blueno threatened, his voice as monotone as ever. Jabra on the other hand was far less reserved.
"Your crew is gone and cannot help you. You cannot fight us on your own. Like you have always been, you are alone."
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but Robin ain't alone." I interjected, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Truthfully, I probably didn't even need to interfere. Like the rest of her crew, Robin had undergone tremendous (emotional) growth during her tenure as a Straw Hat pirate, and such a blatant attempt at emotional manipulation was unlikely to faze her. Not after Enies Lobbie. Then again, just because it wouldn't be very damaging didn't mean that it wasn't unpleasant, and knowing that someone was supporting you went a long way to negate any potential hurt. Plus, the free brownie points. "If you want her, you're going to have to go through me."
"We have no quarrel with you today, Springtrap. Hand over Nico Robin and we will let you leave. Surely, you don't want the death of a child on your conscience." Blueno demanded, his eyes briefly glancing at Aisa's head which was poking out from behind Robin. "We'll even allow you to keep the old man behind you."
"Yeah, not happening buddy. I don't abandon my friends." I told him, causing the ox-like man to slightly frown, both of us slipping into our respective combat stances.
While he and I had our little standoff, the other members of the CP9 had not remained idle as they used the time to slowly fan out and encircle our little party. For, despite all their eccentricities, despite their tomfoolery...they were, when it came down to it, immaculate professionals. Individuals who would go to any lengths necessary to complete their mission. Ganging up on someone was the least of what they were willing to do.
"You will die." He promised me.
"You will try."
Their answer was a volley of aerial slashes seeking to turn us into mince meat.
"Rankyaku!" "Rankyaku!" "Rankyuaku!" "Rankyuaku!" "Rankyuaku!"
"Spring Shield!"
Almost immediately I pulled my compatriots closer to me, activating my coil chassis in the process and shapeshifting into a giant plane spring to shield them from the barrage with my body. Wind blades which could sever steel and cut castles in half, screeched against the metal plate before being deflected away through a series of nearby buildings. By then the first finger bullets were trying to burrow their way into my body.
"Goro goro no shock!" Lightning crackled as electric streams danced about my surface, catching two agents by surprise and forcing the others to disengage in a hurry lest they be caught in the trap as well. Most men would have frozen up, their body's nerves rejecting all central command. Jabra & Fukurou were not most men. Forcing their muscles to move the pair successfully retreated, singed but not burned, to join their comrades from whence they settled for glaring at us.
First blood had gone to us.
"Aisa, charge me up!" Well, if they were not going to come to me, I would just have to go to them, wouldn't I? Let's get…flashy! "Spring Shave! Death Knock!"
"TEKKAI!" Three voices shouted in unison, the agents working together to absorb and distribute the impact amongst themselves, while the other two counterattacked. True to form Blueno opened a door beneath my feet to manually hold me in place while Kalifa began soaping up, a threat I could not ignore. Personally speaking, out of all of them she was the one representing the greatest danger to myself. Thankfully I wasn't alone, which Aisa decided to demonstrate.
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"Lightning Punch!"
And as our attention was captured by the sight of Kalifa being sent hurtling by a tiny, crackling, black fist, none of them noticed the flower petals until it was too late.
"Seis Fleur: Clutch!"
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– Sarquiss –
When Sarquiss and the others burst into town, they found themselves surrounded by pure chaos. The prisoners were accidentally going out of control and the were guards adding to the confusion by bellowing out conflicting orders. Occasionally, they would also shoot the "rioters" who didn't follow their instructions, which just made matters worse. The revolutionaries didn't waste moment, leaping into the midst of the pandemonium and doing their best to calm both sides down, though the individual methods varied from soothing words muttered into someone's ear to brutal beatdowns.
Sarquiss didn't care about any of that, his sole concern being the safety of his friends. Where were Bellamy and Aisa?
Thankfully, they didn't have to search for long with Aisa's El Thor acting as a clear beacon. Additionally, once they got a bit closer, their ears started to pick up the sounds of heavy fighting ,such as the clash of steel, the crack of numerous rifles and the screams of injured men.
Skidding to a stop in what had once been a building, it didn't take Sarquiss' eyes long to dart all over the place and registering all points of interest in an instant. Aisa's lightning storm fighting a battle of attrition against a giant green blob and a bubble monster spewing out wave after wave of soapy suds. Hundreds of guards lying in potholes, thrown through walls, hung out like dirty laundry across broken roofs, many with visibly dislocated spines.
Hollering for hell or high water a bit further down the road, a disheveled kabuki actor was engaged in a tug-of-war with a small army of dainty arms, struggling to free his hair while simultaneously warding off a set of hands, which were continuously slapping him across the face before disappearing in a burst of flower petals, briefly obscuring the familiar figure of one Nico Robin. For her part, the archaeologist looks like she'd been put through the wringer, her prison robes in tatters to reveal a mass of livid bruises, but her face was locked in a fierce look of determination as she shielded two civilians, an old man and a child, behind her back.
And last but not least was his captain in his full coil chassis, engaged in a fight against a rotund sphere, a wolf and someone doing a bad imitation of a minotaur. Like a pack of hyenas circling a metal lion, the agents were refusing to properly engage Bellamy, using shave (soru) to run away whenever one of his captain's punches got too close, while the others harassed Bellamy from the back. It didn't take a genius to recognize that they were playing for time, betting on their comrades winning their respective fights before they lost theirs. And they were losing, just very slowly, as Bellamy's hands edged ever closer.
Then all of a sudden, the carefully maintained balance shattered when a young revolutionary burst onto the plaza and caught sight of his formerly imprisoned commander. His subsequent loud promise to bring the elderly man to safety had every combatant take notice of their presence, who all reacted with varying amounts of surprise, though some recovered faster than others.
The ball was grabbed by Bellamy and suplexed into the ox. The elder man turned rapidly to order the young revolutionary to stay away, slightly bumping into Robin in the process. A single arm burst out of existence, releasing a handful of black hairs. Hairs which then plunged forward to try and impale Robin through the heart.
When they impaled Bellamy instead, Sarquiss' world ground to a sudden halt.
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– Nero –
"You absolute fuckers!" It was as if Lily's scream of rage was the catalyst.
The Bellamy pirates scrambled forward screaming battle cries, racing to be the first one to bash someone's head in. The enemy failed to react in time, frozen in surprise at the sheer recklessness of their charge, and were initially overrun by the pirates who did not care who they were hitting as long as it was a marine equivalent.
Starting with Lily splattering Rear Admiral Bonbon's saccharine body across the street with a wild haymaker and followed by Sarquiss repeatedly stabbing the largest patch of syrup like a man possessed, the rest of the Crew split the government agents up, forming little groups all over the newly flattened town square.
Nero wasn't exempted from the sudden berserker's rage that had overtaken his new crew. If anything, it had hit him with a double dose with his past memories rising unbidden to the forefront, most vividly the ones of his final moments on the sea train. The terror of certain death, the sneers of his so-called comrades, the disdain dripping from Lucci's lips as he proclaimed Nero to be worthless. That his entire life, all the blood, sweat and tears from his fifth birthday until then had amounted to nothing, that his desire to be counted amongst their number was but a pipe dream.
Not a day had gone by when Nero hadn't dreamt of revenge, drafting long speeches he would give to those who had discarded him when he found them again. But now that he had one of the accursed members of the CP9 in front of him, all of his carefully crafted plans went flying out the window, leaving only a single thought behind.
Revenge.
Revenge for the betrayal and for the man who gave Nero a second home, his softly smiling head cradled in Nico Robin's lap while Aisa stood vigil over his body. There wasn't that much blood from what Nero could see, but surely that was hidden beneath his captain's broad back.
Jabra grunted as Nero's leg slammed into his guard, not having gotten his tekkai up in time, but by the third blow Nero felt like he was kicking steel. But did it matter if his opponent's body had hardened to this degree? No. If Eddy could cut steel, so could Nero.
"Rankyaku!"
"Hey, aren't you the little pipsqueak who used to follow me around like a little duckling?" Jabra asked in recognition, using kami-e to dodge the lone wind blade. "What are you doing playing pirates?"
"Fuck you! Geppou!" Nero growled back, his whiskers trembling in indignation. "And I'm not playing pirates! I am one! Rankyaku Storm!"
Individually, the individual flying attacks were weak, amounting to little more than pinpricks against the tekkai of someone like Jabra, but like they say, quantity had a quality all of its own. If ten weren't enough then a hundred, if a hundred weren't enough then a thousand… Nero filled the space between him and his prey with minuscule blades, making sure to cut off all avenues of escape until Jabra abandoned dodging altogether, choosing to hunker down and take it on his hard outer shell instead.
"H-hey! Isn't this a bit too much?"
Too much? Far from it. This was not nearly enough to repay the pain and humiliation Nero had suffered at their hands. Back then and today.
"Geppou Rebound Stomp!" While Nero had spent much of his time teaching the Crew the rokushiki, their relationship hadn't been a completely one-sided affair. Sparring against them and training alongside them had sharpened Nero's skills, and his frequent discussions with the c-captain had helped Nero gain plenty of inspiration to expand his repertoire. Such as the concept of 3d combat embodied in Bellamy's Spring Hopper. "This is for the Captain!"
Nero could feel a body give way beneath his boots, as he used the visual screen provided by his storm of wind blades to slam both boots heel-first into Jabra's abdomen and driving all the air out of him with a loud "Oof!"
"I'm not finished yet!" This still wasn't nearly enough. There was more that Nero had gained from Bellamy and the others, so many things which he would now use to exact his vengeance. "IMPACT!!"
The large wolf-man bounced on the ground a few times before rolling to a stop against a nearby fallen piece of wall, chin resting against his chest, almost as if he were inviting Nero to come and finish him off. Nero did not, recognizing the obvious trap for what it was, and soon enough the agent woke up.
"Ok, you're no longer a duckling, I'll give you that." Jabra panted, unsteadily pulling himself up to his feet. "You're a little weasel."
"I'm more than that, Jabra. I'm Nero, the rokushiki instructor of the Bellamy Pirates." Nero proudly declared. "And I'll be the last thing you'll see before you die!"
Kicking off the ground hard enough to leave a crater, Nero closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye before drawing one leg back to let loose the most powerful rankyaku of his entire life.
Jabra's grip stopped him cold, claws clamping down around his leg like a vice and trapping Nero in place. A small part of Nero's mind noted that Jabra didn't look nearly as exhausted or beat up as he had just moments prior, while the much larger part screamed at Nero to move.
"Rokushiki instructor, eh?" A wide smirk spread across the Jabra's canine face, threatening to split it apart. "A pipsqueak like you?"
"Let go! Shigan! Shigan! Shigan!" But no matter how hard Nero struggled, Jabra's grip refused to loosen in the slightest, the wolf's grip seemingly unbreakable.
"That's not how you use the rokushiki, you pipsqueak!" Nero's sole standing leg was swept out from under him while Jabra's free hand slammed Nero's head into the unforgiving concrete bridge hard enough for fireworks to go off behind his eyes. Dazed, Nero almost didn't feel his leg being released. What he did feel however, were two fists being placed almost gently against his abdomen. "This is how you use the rokushiki, boy! ROKUOGAN!!!"