After hearing the announcement, Franky continued to stand there in shock.
"Franky…"
"...The shipwrights of Galley-la too?"
"Oimo...Kaashii…"
"Yokozuna was probably with them too…"
"Sodom and Gomorrah...everyone…!"
While everyone mourned for the loss of their comrades, Nami sighed.
"Can people...die so easily?"
"You cannot see humans...on the map."
Robin spoke.
"They just erased an island from the World Map...without hesitation. That's what the Buster Call is!"
Franky gritted his teeth and shouted!
"Hurry up Strawhat! Your nakama are waiting for you here! Bastard! I'll never forgive you if you end up dead!!!"
Naturally, Luffy didn't really hear Franky but he was already doing his very best in his fight.
Over time, Lucci had managed to get used to Luffy's Jet attacks by jumping backward to decrease the impact of the hit.
However, he was not the only one that's adapting better!
Even with Lucci's high speed and moving through Luffy's blind spots, it was as if Luffy's grown eyes at the back of his head and he knew when to dodge when an attack comes from behind!
Lucas smiled.
It seems that the blindfold game really did help. In the original story, Luffy can already somewhat dodge and expect attacks like this on instinct, but Lucas can tell that he is doing better than in the original story at this point.
At this time, the warships took notice of their fight and started to aim their cannons!
*BOOM*
"Kh-!?"
"Ghh!"
Lucci and Luffy both stumbled from the blast near them.
Lucci's face was grim.
He knew what this meant…
For the government that he had been fighting for his whole life...to finally turn on him like he was nothing and could be replaced…
Meanwhile, they could hear faint shouts from the distance.
"LUFFY!!!"
"WE'RE ALL READY TO GO!!!"
"DEFEAT HIM AND COME BACK QUICKLY!!!"
"WE'LL GET OUTTA HERE ALIVE TOGETHER!!!"
Hearing their shouts, Luffy revealed a smile and he could feel a warm surge of strength washing away his fatigue!
He thought of something and looked up to see the rain still falling down. He started to laugh!
"Shishishi! I don't know about you but...I really don't feel like losing!"
"...You think some kind of cheer can heal you? How absurd."
Lucci was annoyed.
He has just been thrown away, and this Luffy's comrades are cheering for him even with all the bombardment from the warships!
Luffy just laughed.
"That's right! I...am not alone! As long as my nakama are with me...I won't lose!"
At the distance, Lucas smiled.
Go, Luffy...defeat him, and take another step closer to becoming the Pirate King!
It was hard for Lucas to keep maintaining this kind of rain and control...but he won't falter just yet!
While Luffy and Lucci continued on their fight, several marine captains started to jump on the ship that Zoro and the others were at.
There is one that could turn his body into small balls and one that disintegrated one of Zoro's swords.
Still, they continued to fight and hold the fort as they waited for Luffy.
Lucci had Luffy tied up with his tail and both his fists were an inch in front of Luffy's chest.
"Roku Ou Gun!"
"!!!"
A strong shockwave hit Luffy from the inside just like the impact dials in the sky island! It ignored his ability and dealt a powerful blow that made him cough up blood!
Luffy slumped down to the ground with this attack while Lucci panted.
He waited for a while and was about to turn back, thinking that it was over. But...the next second, Luffy stood up once again!
In Luffy's mind, he remembered what Lucas had told him.
"Stupid...THERE'S NO WAY, THAT YOU'D WIN!!!"
"Do you think you're now strong enough to save me? Or are you relying on your Gear Third?"
"You can't even save Robin! You can't even defeat Lucci! Do you know how many times I've beaten that cat already!?"
Luffy gritted his teeth.
"Gomu gomu no…!"
"!!! Tekkai!"
Lucci felt a sense of foreboding and immediately performed Tekkai!
Luffy poured in every strength he had in this one last move as he thought of every moment that he felt weak!
Never! Never would he lose another nakama!
"JET...GATLING!!!"
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!
Lucci had already lost track of how many hits he took.
Eventually, the rain of fists ended and the wall behind him shattered into pieces, burying him under it!
Luffy panted and was about to collapse but he held on.
The rain gave him strength...after a moment, he was able to stand up properly once again.
Soon, all the warships received notice of Lucci's defeat and they were all shocked!
But while some guys were saddened, there were others who were happy at this moment.
"Luffy won!"
"Got me scared for a moment!"
"You finally did it, Strawhat!"
"Guys! Get on the escape ship now! We'll set out!"
Nami shouted to everyone fighting outside the ship. Now that Luffy had won, they need to leave as soon as possible!
Suddenly, another voice rang out from the marine denden mushi.
"Good job Straw-hat-san!"
"!?"
"Eh?"
Franky was surprised! He knew who this voice belonged to!
"I-idiot! They'll hear us!"
"It's okay, we're letting them know!"
It was evident that there were more than one voice at the other end of the denden mushi.
"Bro! Bro!!!"
"Stop! If we ran away quietly, they'd just think we're all dead!"
Everyone finally knew who the voices belonged to! It was the so called pirates that they had blasted off at the Main Gate earlier!
Turns out they were still alive and kicking!
At the cliff in the Main Island, the Frankies Family, Galley-la shipwrights, and the giants were holding onto ropes at the edge so they wouldn't fall.
"We're all safe here! We have a way to escape too so don't worry about it! I'll see you guys later, alive!"
Hearing they were all alive and well, Frany started to let out tears of joy. His speech was already nearly unrecognizable from his crying.
"Guyyyyzzz! Vidiooood! I would dever vorry about you guuuyz!"
Several marine officers started to ask their captains.
"Shall we head to the main gate immediately!?"
"Not now! This is more important!"
"Don't take your eyes off Strawhat!
Still, there were some that were more brutal.
"Fire at their escape ship."
"B-but, that's also our shi- kh!?"
Before the officer could finish his sentence, he was already shot down by his own captain.
"This is the Buster Call...even if they're our own ships, you need to prepare yourselves to shoot it down if necessary!"
"Y-yessir!"
The other officers quickly saluted and started to prepare.
Robin saw that there were some canons aimed at them and quickly shouted!
"Run!"
With a wave of her hand, she summoned hands that threw the people on board back to land while she herself jumped off!
Soon after, there was an explosion on their ship.
*BOOM*
"No! Our escape ship!"
Nami shouted as she saw their ship reduced to rubble.
"What the hell!? We're doomed! That ship was our only way outta here!"
While they were panicking over the situation, Luffy had made his way to them.
Unlike in the original story where Luffy was fully exhausted and unable to stand up, currently, Luffy right now is still as energetic as ever!
Not just him, even Zoro and the others were all still energetic due to the healing properties of the rain that hit them.
Lucas had to control it specifically that only the rain drops that hit them would be able to heal...which was especially hard when they are in a group fight like this one…
By the time Luffy arrived, he saw the ship explode and asked.
"What now!? We still need to get Lucas!"
"Worry about Lucas later! Right now, we don't even know what to do about ourselves!"
At this moment, Usopp seemed to have heard something and was looking around.
"Wh-who is it? Whose voice is it!?"
"What are you saying Usopp!? Are you talking about the Frankies Family!?"
"No! Not that voice! It's been around for a while!"
"Huh?"
Franky was confused, but other than Usopp, there were more people who heard of this voice.
Lucas blinked for a moment and smiled.
He didn't expect...that he can also hear 'it'...
Luffy uttered.
"Below?...Look below?"
"Luffy! You can hear it as well!? Right, it said to look below…!"
It wasn't just them.
Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Robin, and Chopper all heard it…
"!?"
"Who?"
"What is it?"
"..."
"It said, 'look below'!"
Finally, Usopp shouted.
"JUMP INTO THE OCEAN!!!"
"Usopp!? Idiot! Are you trying to kill yourself!? Being desperate wouldn't save you!"
Zoro shouted and thought that Usopp was giving up already.
But Usopp didn't give up.
"We'll survive! She came to save us!"
"!?"
"Shishishi! Follow what Usopp said! Jump into the ocean!"
Luffy didn't care about anyone's opinion anymore and stretched his arms to pull everyone with him as he jumped into the ocean!
"Ah!?"
"Luffy!"
From the warships, the marines could see Luffy and the rest jump and thought that they've gone mad!
"The pirates are jumping into the ocean!"
"Idiots! There's no way they can survive in the ocean!"
"Have you gone mad, pirates!?"
"FIRE!!!"
The warships fired on the island, but Luffy and the rest were already falling into the ocean!
Right below, was a small caravan with a familiar sheep head…!
"GET ON BOARD...THE MERRY!!!"
At this moment, everyone finally realized there was a small ship that had snuck past them without their notice.
"How did it manage to sneak in among the fleet of warships!?"
"Shall we fire at it!?"
"Do it! Fire!"
While under the rain of fire from the warships, Going Merry started to move on its own and dodged all the incoming attacks!
Everyone on board were shocked!
"I can't believe it! How did this ship reach this place!?"
"Who steered her here!?"
"That's not important right now! Give the orders, we need to get outta here!"
Zoro quickly snapped everyone from their shock and surprise in order to quickly set out.
Just then, he noticed a figure standing behind the steering wheel!
"Who!?"
The figure was covered from top to bottom, wearing a hood and a cape.
The figure thought for a while before pulling out a pen and paper from who knows where.
He wrote and showed it to everyone.
[MIZUKING]
"It's a hero!"
"Eh!? That's a hero!?"
"Of course! See the cape!? Cape equals Hero!"
"Oooohh!"
"..."
Though Luffy had infected Chopper with his way of thinking, the others naturally knew who this was.
Isn't this Lucas…?
While they were all starting to prepare, Robin spoke.
"Everyone...Thank you."
Luffy laughed.
"Don't worry about it! Shishishishi!"
Zoro was still as serious as ever.
"Talk nonsense after we get out of here!"
"What do you mean by nonsense lawn hair!?"
"Shut up! If we die here, everything would be a waste!"
"Apologize to Robin-chan, punk!"
Seeing as Sanji and Zoro started fighting again, and even Chopper joining in by biting Zoro's leg, Nami quickly broke them off.
"Sanji-kun, go steer the ship, please!"
"Okaay, Nami-swaan~!"
"..."
"Guys! We can't leave yet! We still need to get Lucas!"
While they were all bantering, Luffy still didn't give up on Lucas and thought they could get away from the warships first then get Lucas before going out.
Everyone sweated.
Isn't Lucas already on board!?
Is what they thought. However, Mizuking approached them and handed Luffy a letter.
Luffy looked at it and saw it was from Lucas.
Instantly, Luffy got pissed and tore the paper into pieces!
"I'm not reading this! I'm going to get Lucas back!"
"..."
However, this was no longer up to him...
Going Merry had already started moving on its own since earlier and has been sailing away from the island!
"Merry! What are you doing!? We still have a nakama left on the island!"
"...Luffy...I think...Merry is moving because of him."
"!!!"
Nami sighed.
Luffy finally understood that they were moving thanks to Lucas' power and was about to stretch his hand to a nearby warship to get off but suddenly, several hands held him down!
He turned towards Robin and shouted!
"Robin! Let go of me! We still need to get Lucas!"
"..."
Robin couldn't utter a word and simply held onto him.
"LUCAAAASSS!!!"
With Luffy's receding shout, the battle...is over!
An hour passed and just when the captains were deciding whether to give chase or now, Aokiji had arrived.
"Admiral! We're still gonna go after them!"
"We can't just let it end like this!"
"...No need."
Aokiji sighed and looked at Lucas who was giving him a cold smile.
"...It's obvious just by looking at this fleet and the island...that this is our…"
"Complete defeat...right, Aokiji?"
"..."
Lucas was in a good mood.
Not only did Luffy and the others rose in strength, he also managed to one up the World Government and the marines.
"I hope you remember the agreement. Otherwise…"
Lucas' eyes narrowed and suddenly, a huge tidal wave that was equal to that of Aqua Laguna appeared and swallowed the now empty island of Enies Lobby.
The marines watched on in shock as they saw an entire island disappear in a single moment!
"...This can still happen in Marineford."
"..."
Aokiji sighed.
Maybe it was a mistake to rope in this guy…
However, this power...will certainly prove to be useful in the upcoming battle!
"...Water 7 is yours. And the CP9 will be disbanded."
Aokiji took out a piece of paper and handed it to Lucas.
After looking through the paper, Lucas clicked his tongue.
"Tsk tsk, not 'will be'. After all, you guys already abandoned them on the island by firing on it indiscriminately, isn't that right guys?"
An 'Air Door' appeared behind Lucas and revealed all the members of the former CP9! Of course, Spandam wasn't included.
Spandam himself is currently the only person who still have heavy injuries and is being treated somewhere...
Lucci stood behind Lucas with his pidgeon back on his shoulder.
"You're right. There's no use serving the world government now. We shall be following you instead."
!!!
This time, Aokiji was truly shocked!
It turns out...this was his goal all along!
What a blunder! To actually give out their strongest people to him…
"What's wrong? Aren't I a shichibukai now? Isn't it normal for me to have my own pirate crew?"
"..."
"I'm thinking of the name...Guardian Wing. How does that sound?"
"...What? Like some sort of guardian angel?...I guess that's true in your case with the Strawhats. Doesn't sound like a pirate though."
Aokiji sighed and accepted the fact that the former CP9 members had turned on them. Anyway, it should still be fine as long as Lucas remains a shichibukai…
Lucas just shrugged.
"What? You think Strawhat sounds like a pirate?"
"I guess that's true…"
Aokiji scratched his head and yawned.
Since things had already ended like this, there was nothing he could do so he left on his bike after giving his final orders.
"In about a week, someone will arrive in Water 7 to find you. That person will be by your side to monitor you at all times since obviously, we can't just have any normal marine do that."
Lucas rolled his eyes and waved off.
"Fine, fine."
Next, Lucas, Lucci, and the others rested in one of the warships as they escorted them back to Water 7.
Once Lucas was finally in his own private room free from anyone's eyes, he staggered and coughed up blood!
Lucas gritted his teeth. It seems he had really overused his powers today…
Not to mention the intense concentration needed for the rain protection, just the Aqua Laguna wave was already a huge burden for him!
It was a good thing they didn't recognize that he was just putting up a front…
Soon, he collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.
At this moment, Mizuking who was still in Going Merry...dissolved back into normal water.