Chapter 99: Lifeblood
"It's been ages, Ace!" Sabo exclaimed, his eyes shining with a mix of emotions as he looked at his long-lost brother. Joy, excitement, and a flood of cherished memories washed over him.
Ace's attention snapped to Sabo as he swung his fiery fist, his heart pounding with a sudden rush of familiarity at the sight of his brother's face.
"Sabo?!" Ace's voice rang out loudly, disbelief evident in his wide eyes.
Sabo! A name buried deep within his memories, one he never thought he'd hear again. Yet here stood the person he had believed to be gone forever.
Momentarily frozen in place, Ace barely registered the cannonballs raining down around him, his focus solely on Sabo's unexpected presence.
"Watch out!" Sabo's bright smile and swift action snapped Ace out of his daze as he waved a steel pipe, deflecting a cannonball hurtling towards them. "I know you must have a lot of questions, but now's not the time. I'll explain everything once we're out of here," Sabo promised as he dashed forward, redirecting another cannonball away from them.
"Are you really Sabo?!" Ace's excitement bubbled to the surface as he finally regained his senses, but he quickly composed himself, flames reigniting on his fists.
As Sabo had said, now wasn't the time for small talk; there were more pressing matters at hand. With determination, Ace clenched his fist and shattered the incoming cannonballs.
As the group battled against the relentless barrage, the cadres and commanders of the Revolutionary Army arrived at last.
"About time! Morley, lead us to the beach!" Monkey D. Dragon commanded.
"Yes!" Morley, the massive and hairy commander of the Western Army, acknowledged with a nod. With a wave of his trident, he thrust it into the ground, causing the earth to ripple and form a sizable hole. In an instant, everyone disappeared into the ground, leaving behind only undisturbed terrain.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The cannonballs continued their assault, but now their aimless trajectory only left craters in the ground.
Underneath the surface, a cavern enclosed the group, providing shelter for the Whitebeard Pirates and the Revolutionary Army alike.
"Morley's ground-controlling ability gives us a way out to reach the sea. With it, we can break through the Marines' blockade and escape," Dragon explained succinctly.
"It's quite a unique ability," Ace remarked, testing the ground with a knock and finding it harder than steel. Despite the relentless artillery outside, the enclosed space remained secure, impervious to explosions.
"Morley, let's get moving!" Dragon commanded.
"Consider it done!" Morley grinned, swinging his harpoon with precision. As he moved, the enclosed space shifted along with him until it disappeared from its original location.
On the surface, as the Whitebeard Pirates vanished, several figures appeared.
"They vanished?!" Rob Lucci's face, concealed by a white coat and mask, twisted in surprise. After his involvement in the Battle of Enies Lobby, he had been recruited by CP0 and tasked with monitoring Whitebeard's movements on Festival Island.
"It seems they've slipped underground!" a senior CP-0 member whispered.
"Underground?" Rob Lucci stepped forward, finding nothing but a massive crater left by the artillery shells. "Can we track them?"
"CP0's capabilities are diverse," another member replied cryptically, immediately setting off in a direction as if guided by intuition.
In reality, whether CP0 or CP9, most members possessed Devil Fruit abilities and unique nicknames. The member dubbed "Mastiff" had consumed the Dog-Dog Fruit Model: Mastiff.
On a Marine warship, all Admirals and Vice Admirals had evacuated to the deck, observing as the small island endured relentless bombardment.
"Hundreds... the World Government has spared no expense," remarked one of the officers.
"Interesting," Kizaru remarked, his tone laced with curiosity.
"PX-0 might not pose a challenge for powerful individuals," he continued, "but for regular pirates, they're a nightmare. Each one costs as much as a warship, and today, hundreds of them have appeared on the island. In other words, the World Government has invested the equivalent of hundreds of warships to eliminate Whitebeard and the other pirates here."
"Of course," he added, "that's not the main point. The main point is that the World Government has no intention of retrieving PX-0 at all. They plan to use these war weapons to halt Whitebeard and, subsequently, let both him and PX-0 sink into the sea together. This time, the World Government has gone to great lengths! If this plan fails, I'm worried even the Five Elders won't let the Marines off easy!"
"Whitebeard shouldn't be able to escape, right?" Vice Admiral Momousagi couldn't help but ask, a nagging feeling of unease gnawing at her.
"No one can survive under a Buster Call!" Akainu declared confidently. As hundreds of PX-0 units bombarded relentlessly, causing widespread destruction, fifty warships surrounded the island, wreaking havoc. Additionally, many Vice Admirals conducted checks at the beach. Akainu was certain that Whitebeard had no chance of escaping.
"Don't be careless," Aokiji warned, his expression serious. "Remember, he is the strongest man in the world." He recounted the devastating defeat at the Summit War and cautioned against underestimating Whitebeard.
"Even if he manages to survive, he'll be severely injured. Can he really outrun us then?" Akainu scoffed.
"Indeed," the other Vice Admiral agreed with a nod. With hundreds of PX-0 and fifty Marine warships bombarding the island simultaneously, the firepower could potentially sink it in just five to ten minutes. Logically, escape seemed unlikely under such intense firepower.
But then, the sound of a Den-Den Mushi ringing interrupted their discussion. Fleet Admiral Sengoku's expression changed as he answered the call.
"What did you say?" Sengoku's exclamation reverberated among the Admirals and Vice Admirals present. Those who had believed Whitebeard couldn't escape widened their eyes in astonishment, wondering if they had heard correctly.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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