Chapter 115: Escapes and Anomalies

[Peter POV]

The sharp, metallic clang of the dropped wrench echoed through the subterranean cavern like a gunshot.

The humming of the Ark Maxim’s massive rotors didn’t stop, but Enel’s head snapped toward my hiding spot behind the golden crates. His eyes, completely devoid of anything resembling human empathy, flared with crackling blue electricity.

“A rat,” Enel whispered, the sound carrying effortlessly across the vast space.

My hand slammed onto the activation stud on my chest. I didn’t wait to see if he was going to throw a lightning bolt or just teleport over to me.

But Enel, he simply looked down from the bow of his colossal ship with absolute, bored disdain. The Ark was still drawing power, the massive golden gears grinding as they aligned. He wasn’t going to delay his grand ascension to swat a bug.

“Divine Guard,” Enel commanded lazily, waving a hand. “Kill the vermin.”

From the shadows of the cavern’s upper tiers, a dozen elite White Berets and two lesser Priests dropped down, brandishing spear-dials and heavy blades. They rushed my position in a coordinated, highly lethal swarm.

I stepped out from behind the crates as a spear thrust directly toward my throat.

Ghost Touch.

The world shifted into a freezing, translucent blue hue. The spear tip passed harmlessly through my neck, the guard stumbling forward as his momentum carried him through my intangible body.

“What?!” the guard gasped.

I didn’t bother counter-attacking. There was no time for a prolonged fight down here. I turned and sprinted directly toward the solid stone wall of the cavern, passing straight through three more guards who tried to tackle me. I hit the wall and kept going, phasing through the dense bedrock of the Golden Shrine.

I descended through the dark earth, aiming for the outer edge of the compound. But as I passed through a lower sub-level, the muffled sound of a chaotic, high-pitched voice caught my attention.

“I’m Mr. Meeseeks, look at me! Let’s get these doors open, ooh yeah!”

I phased my head through the stone ceiling of the room below. It was the shrine’s dungeon. Dozens of battered, starved Skypiean prisoners were huddled in heavy iron cages.

And standing in front of the cells were two bright blue Mr. Meeseeks. One was frantically picking the lock of a cage with a bent piece of wire, while the other was cheerfully bending the iron bars of another cell with impossible, cartoonish strength.

“Hurry up!” a Skypiean woman cried out, looking over her shoulder at the dungeon entrance.

I dropped through the ceiling, solidifying as my boots hit the stone floor. The prisoners shrieked, backing away from me.

“It’s fine, I’m with the blue guys,” I said quickly, tapping my vest.

I focused on the strength of my ancient, heavy muscle mass of the Spinosaurus hybrid form rapidly expand across my shoulders and arms. My skin thickened into dense, scaly hide. I stepped up to the main dungeon gate, gripped the reinforced steel bars with both hands, and pulled.

With a harsh screech of bending metal, the heavy gate was ripped clean off its hinges. I tossed it aside.

“The exit is that way,” I told the terrified prisoners, pointing down the corridor. “Run for the jungle. Do not stop until you hit the giant beanstalk.”

The prisoners didn’t need to be told twice. They poured out of the cells, rushing down the hall. I took the rear, making sure the bizarre blue creatures followed as we broke out into the overgrown roots of Upper Yard.

[Law POV]

Minutes earlier.

The gravity was suffocating. It felt as though a warship had been dropped directly onto my spine, pinning me face-first against the grated metal floor of Dr. Indigo’s laboratory.

Above me, Scarlet, the massive, mutated gorilla wearing a tailored suit, grunted, tapping the gravity-dial apparatus strapped to his right arm. The dial hummed, projecting the localized, crushing force keeping me trapped.

“A brilliant little device, isn’t it?” Dr. Indigo giggled, his squeaky shoes pacing around my head. “Shiki thought it would be a fitting way to squash a bug. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some gifts to deliver to your friends.”

Indigo turned his back, walking toward the main console that controlled the heavy artillery bays suspended above us. The shells full of the unrefined IQ pathogen were loaded and ready to drop on the center of the island.

I couldn’t reach Kikoku. My sword was lying three feet away.

But my fingers were free. I curled them against the metal floor.

“Room,” I whispered.

The translucent blue dome expanded silently, enveloping me, the gorilla, the console, and a large pile of concrete rubble in the corner of the lab.

Dr. Indigo reached out a gloved hand toward the launch sequence button.

“Shambles.”

Scarlet let out a confused, deafening roar. The beast stumbled sideways as his massive right arm, the one with the gravity dial firmly strapped to it, was instantaneously teleported away. In its place, perfectly grafted to his shoulder socket, was a jagged chunk of concrete rubble.

The severed arm, still emitting the crushing gravity field, appeared in the corner of the room, safely pressing itself against the floor.

The oppressive weight vanished from my back instantly. I pushed myself up in a fluid motion, snatching Kikoku from the floor as I stood. I didn’t hesitate. I swung the nodachi in a wide, precise arc toward the launch console.

“Amputate.”

An invisible cutting force sheared through the room. The top half of the main computer console violently separated from its base, showering Dr. Indigo in a fountain of sparks and severed wires.

“No!” Indigo shrieked, jumping back as the screens died. “The launch sequence!”

Scarlet, enraged by his new concrete limb, charged at me with a furious bellow. He swung his massive, remaining left fist, aiming to crush my skull.

I stepped smoothly inside his guard, wrapping my hands around his thick wrist. Using the beast’s own massive forward momentum, I pivoted on my heel and executing a high-leverage throw.

The giant gorilla was launched through the air, crashing violently into Dr. Indigo. The scientist and the mutant tangled in a mess of limbs and squeaky shoes, smashing into a wall of empty chemical vats.

“You Moron!” Indigo coughed, untangling himself from the dazed gorilla and drawing a pair of strange, chemical-laced daggers from his coat. “Do you have any idea how long it took to refine that payload?!”

I rested Kikoku on my shoulder, a dark smirk pulling at the corner of my mouth. “I assume it took long enough that losing it is going to ruin your day.”

Indigo snarled, preparing to lunge. I lowered my stance, ready to dissect him.

CRASH!

The reinforced steel wall to our left violently exploded inward.

A cloud of dust and debris flooded the laboratory. Tumbling through the jagged hole was a heavily armed pirate henchman, locked in a brutal, chaotic death match with a bright blue Mr. Meeseeks.

The henchman screamed, trying to stab the creature, but the Meeseeks moved with terrifying, unhinged ferocity. It grabbed the pirate’s head with both hands and gave a sudden, violent twist.

Snap.

The pirate went limp, dropping to the floor.

The Mr. Meeseeks stood up, covered in dust, completely unbothered by the brutal murder it had just committed. It looked at a horrified Dr. Indigo, gave a wide, manic smile, and chirped, “I’m Mr. Meeseeks, look at me!”

Poof.

The creature vanished into a cloud of blue smoke.

Dr. Indigo stared at the empty space where the blue monster had just been, his jaw hanging open in absolute shock. He blinked, shaking his head, and quickly spun back around to face me, raising his daggers.

But I was already gone.

[General POV]

The refugee camp at the base of the Giant Jack was a hive of nervous energy. Jasmine, Maria, and Jacob were busy organizing the Shandian fighters along the massive wooden roots, ensuring their firing lines overlapped in a way to leave no gap for the enemy.

Suddenly, the dense brush at the edge of the perimeter rustled violently.

Weapons were instantly raised, but the tension broke as Peter burst through the foliage. He was panting heavily, followed closely by a ragged, exhausted group of Skypiean prisoners.

“Stand down! It’s Peter!” Jacob yelled, rushing forward to help a stumbling prisoner.

“How is it up there?” Jasmine asked, stepping up to her brother.

Peter leaned against a root, catching his breath. “It’s worse than we thought. Enel isn’t planning to launch a ground assault. He has a massive flying ship hidden under the shrine. He calls it The Ark Maxim. He’s using it to build something called a Raigo, and launch an attack big enough to vaporize the entire island and Skypiea into the Blue Sea.”

A terrified murmur rippled through the nearby refugees. Wyper, standing near the barricades, gripped his Flame Gun until his knuckles turned white.

Before anyone could process the sheer scale of the threat, a faint blue dome expanded over the camp.

Trafalgar Law materialized in the center of the clearing, displacing a wooden crate. He dusted off his coat, his expression grim.

“We have a very big problem heading our way,” Law announced, walking over to the group. He looked at Peter, then at Jasmine. “Shiki’s artillery is full of bombs and missiles and he intends to launch them at us. It’s loaded with the unrefined IQ chemical. It’s a hyper-aggressive, airborne pathogen. If those shells hit the jungle, anyone who breathes the gas will mutate and rot from the inside out in minutes.”

“He’s going to gas the island?” Maria asked, horrified.

“I managed to sever the main console, so it should take them some time before they can launch the missiles at us,” Law said, adjusting his spotted hat. Jasmine looked at Law then at everyone present there and said “We are sitting on two separate ticking time bombs. We need to alert Victor. We need to coordinate a strike to take out the Ark and the artillery bays simultaneously before they wipe this place and its people off the map.”

Jasmine didn’t waste a second. She pulled the primary Den Den Mushi from her satchel and dialed the frequency for the Titan’s Glory.

It rang twice before the snail’s eyes snapped open, taking on Victor’s calm, sharp gaze.

“Victor,” Jasmine started rapidly. “We have massive complications. Enel is building a weapon to vaporize the island, and Shiki is preparing to drop a biological plague on the jungle. We need to do something about them or everyone on this island will be dead, one way or another.”

“Ok, that’s bad dont worry we will figure out something, we are bringing the ship to your location so be ready, and Jasmine…” Victor’s voice cut through the receiver, uncharacteristically tense.

Jasmine paused, blinking. “What?”

“It’s a good thing you called,” Victor said over the Den Den Mushi. “Because I was just about to call you. And I have some incredibly concerning news I need to share with everyone.”

The crew exchanged uneasy glances. For Victor, a man who casually summoned dragons and bent reality to his will, to sound genuinely concerned, something catastrophic had to have happened.

[Marineford – The Blue Sea]

Fleet Admiral Sengoku rubbed his temples, feeling the familiar, throbbing onset of a severe migraine.

His grand office at the pinnacle of Marineford was quiet, save for the sound of his pet goat lazily chewing on a discarded requisition form in the corner. Sengoku sat behind his massive desk, staring down at a stack of highly classified reports and a crumpled morning newspaper.

Standing at attention across the desk was Commodore Brandnew, the Marine’s chief intelligence officer.

“Are you absolutely certain about these reports, Brandnew?” Sengoku asked, his deep voice rumbling with exhaustion. “The intelligence out of the Grand Line has been a chaotic mess ever since the Verdant Abyss incident at Mock Town.”

“We have verified the intelligence through three independent Cipher Pol agents stationed in the desert, sir,” Brandnew replied rigidly, adjusting his sunglasses. “It is confirmed.”

Sengoku sighed, picking up the top report.

“Two Supernovas,” Sengoku read aloud, his brow furrowing. “Eustass ‘Captain’ Kid. Bounty: 315 Million. Basil Hawkins. Bounty: 249 Million. Both of them, converging on the desert kingdom of Alabasta at the exact same time.”

“Yes, sir,” Brandnew nodded. “According to the timeline, their crews clashed near the city of Yuba. However, the skirmish drew the attention of the local hero… Warlord Sir Crocodile.”

“And instead of breaking it up, Crocodile engaged them both,” Sengoku muttered. He looked at the satellite photographs attached to the file. They showed a massive crater in the Alabasta desert, miles of sand turned to jagged glass by extreme heat and magnetic anomalies, mixed with the devastating, sweeping trenches of Crocodile’s sandstorms.

“A three-way war between two of the Worst Generation’s most violent captains and a Warlord of the Sea,” Sengoku said, putting the photo down. “The collateral damage is astronomical. King Cobra is demanding answers from the World Government. But that isn’t the part that gives me a headache, Brandnew.”

Sengoku leaned forward, his hands steepled in front of his face.

“The report states that at the climax of the battle, a third party intervened.”

“An unknown third party, sir,” Brandnew corrected, a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek. “Our agents couldn’t get close enough to identify the vessel or the individuals involved. The interference was sudden, overwhelmingly powerful, and brief.”

“And the aftermath?” Sengoku asked, though he already knew the answer.

Brandnew swallowed hard. “As of this morning, Fleet Admiral… Eustass Kid, Basil Hawkins, and Sir Crocodile are all completely unaccounted for. Their crews have been decimated or scattered. The three captains have vanished without a trace.”

Sengoku closed his eyes, the migraine pulsing violently behind his skull. Three massive bounties, one of them a vital pillar of the World Government’s balance of power, simply erased from the board in a single afternoon.

“Someone is hunting the big players in Paradise,” Sengoku whispered to the empty room. “Find out who. Before they set their sights on someone worse.”