The Marine

As Bill began to fight off the avalanche of swords, the battle of New Haven raged on.

Tragedies one after the other played and in hand with heroics that could only be seen on the battlefield.

If at first neither the former Foxy Pirates nor Marine recruits much liked each other, this battle against a tide of pirates and monstrous birds had caused them to forget their biases and work hand and hand rather than perish under their attackers.

After all, one thing was for sure, the Golden Lion was not going to spare any of them.

As the battle progressed, it seemed to be natural that the superhumans of each side had found each other.

This was not a plan as such, of course Shiki had given no detailed attack plans since he didn’t care about the lives of his men, but whether this was fate or the simple fact that it took a superhuman to suppress a superhuman no one could say.

Over the last few hours, these battles had started to draw to an end with tremendous losses on both sides. Given that the Marines had suffered as defenders, it was clear that the pirate attackers had been dealt a huge blow and besides some pockets of ongoing resistance they were simply a spent force.

*Oh-Ha-ha-ha*

Laughing while breathing heavily, Yoko stood above a grey-haired man of average size.

“You thought I wouldn’t be able to get you! Dancing through that giant flock of birds you were so full of yourself! But what about now?”

Then stepping on [Blue-Winged Din]’s chest, who gasped in pain as he was physically no different from a normal person, she laughed again and continued while breathing heavily: “My patience may be boundless, but it's not infinite! Yeah, you are one tricky son of a gun, but now the match is up. No more evasions or sleights of hand for you, ha-ha! You're caught, and you've earned my irritation!"

Despite having her devil fruit suppressed, Yoko had been self-confident for her entire life and that self-assuredness naturally only increased after following Bill and learning how to become a superhuman herself.

That was one thing Bill had never tried to change in her, thinking that in any world people needed confidence, he had only tried to limit her foul mouth and narcissism.

Unfortunately, this had only half worked. Of course, Yoko was smart enough to mostly act nice around her foster father, but in situations like this… who could blame her?

“So, you’ve earned the irrational of this Queen…” saying this, Yoko took a deep breath and continued “…but I don’t sentence you for that!”

After saying this, Yoko pressed down harder and ignored a wet popping sound when she said: “I sentence you because you had your chance to surrender, but since you wanted to kill, you deserve to die!”

Drawing her foot back in a flash, she swung down the [Compliance Tree] with two hands in a blurry motion and didn’t dwell on the fact that she had smashed Din’s head like a watermelon.

With her job here finally done, Yoko turned to look around the harbor.

She was still breathing heavily, her auburn hair was a mess, and her entire body was covered in sweat and hands ached from wielding her living quarterstaff for so long, but with no time to rest, she endured.

The ground everywhere was covered in a layer of blood, even the water had turned red.

Tens of thousands of dead pirates and monstrous birds were scattered around a relatively small area. Their deaths were each somewhat different, but be it cannons, grenades, bullets, blades, or even her own [Compliance Tree], it was a gruesome sight to behold as their blood emptied out onto the stone harbor and ran off into the water.

Most of these poor souls were nothing but pawns. The men and women who Shiki kidnapped moved due to fear and sheer momentum, and the monstrous birds had been double victims. Once from the SIQ and once from being ensnared by the Flock Flock Fruit.

That was another reason why Yoko had to kill Din, the Flock Flock Fruit may had been somewhat weak in other circumstances, but around the [EvoBeast] birds of Mervellie it was shockingly powerful.

Though Yoko didn’t know exactly how many it had been, she knew that hundreds of Marines were killed primarily due to that flock.

Rubbing her eye, which had started to tremble after seeing the scene of death in front of her, she suddenly got the urge that she had to move and be occupied, so doing just that she turned and ran.

Walking down hallways of the fortress that overlooked the harbor, the 16-year-old girl moved like a machine, but whereas before each of her moves were sure to kill whoever she hit, something now held her back and for the first time most of her targets survived.

Broken horribly, but alive.

Over the next half hour, Yoko stemmed the tide of pirates attacking the fortress overlooking the harbor and even finished off the hammerhead shark Fish-man known as ‘Gad the Whirling Tide’ who had defeated not only the former Foxy Pirate, Capote, but had also beaten Big Pan to an inch of his life.

Considering Big Pan was a Wotan, a half Giant and half Fish-man, Gad’s strength was no doubt very powerful and if not for him being weakened, Yoko would have had a hard fight on her hands.

Many Marines had died, some of the King Cannon platforms had been broken – no doubt sabotaged by defenders who were revolved to not allow the pirates get a hold of the massive guns.

Once the harbor area had been cleared, Yoko ordered whoever she found able to move to head towards Bill’s laboratory and then leading a group of some 150 shaken Marines and former Foxy Pirates she started heading inland where explosions and fighting could still be heard.

Not using Moon Step, she looked back occasionally and didn’t say anything as her motley crew scavenged whatever they thought useful from the dead bodies lying around.

The first pirates she and the other Marines ran into were old timers from Shiki’s crew. They had been smart enough to avoid the fortress and had met resistance in the form of Toma, Carrot, and several other of the more experienced people on the island.

Though outnumbering their Marine foes these pirates were not using the ‘human wave’ tactic as seen at the fortress, but the Marine Instructor had held them off, and finally with the aid of Yoko and the others, the pirates were finally routed and surrendered.

After her rendezvous with the Marine Instructor, Yoko was alarmed to see that Toma had been burnt across a large part of his body and Carrot had a much of the hair on the top of her head singed off.

‘Firebirds…’ was the answer the two of them gave, and Yoko nodded in understanding.

Blue-Winged Din could not only control regular birds, but his Flock Flock Fruit had also been able to manipulate the elemental and strange variations too.

Looking around at the pirates who had surrendered, many of whom had bounties ranging from 5m to 45m Beli, Yoko suddenly thought of something and called over to Toma.

“Hey, Instructor Toma, where’s Instructor Masterson? And where’d that Nelson and get off to?”

Looking confused from her question, Toma’s eyes narrowed, but before he could answer, her question answered itself.

From the top level of the island, a massive blue and purple flame exploded out and a weirdly spicy scent instantly wafted down to the lower levels.

Looking up and the rainbow flames, it was clear that there was fighting near Bill’s laboratory, and without waiting Yoko, Toma, Carrot, Adelle, and Rapanui led the charge up there.

Of course, with her proficiency with Moon Step, Yoko beat the others and she found a ferocious battle between several people – only some of whom she knew.

It was Nelson, Masterson, Foxy, and the Iron Wardens fighting against Scarlet, Dr. Indigo, and the Black Cat Pirates.

Kuro and his Black Cat Pirates were nothing much, but Dr. Indigo and Scarlet were different.

As Shiki’s number one and two, they were naturally powerful and had it not been for Foxy’s Devil Fruit and the Iron Wardens sacrificing themselves the Marines here would have been defeated a long time ago.

Seeing the fight from the air, Yoko landed her [Compliance Tree] down on a fat pirate dressed like a cat. But strangely, her appearance on this new battlefield wasn’t met with joy from the besieged Marines.

During their battle, everyone had been focused on what they were doing lest they die immediately, and even when the explosion happened, the Marines on the lower level looked away from the floating islands.

But when Yoko landed from the sky with her [Compliance Tree] in hand, it caused all the combatants to look up, and their wide-eyed expressions portrayed fear on one side, and jubilation on the other.

With multi-colored fireballs circulating all around him, it was Dr. Indigo who spoke first, and it was a rapturous laugh: “Victory is ours!”

*Piro piro piro piro!*

Confused by this, Yoko turned around and saw that the floating islands which had been far in the distance were now much lower in elevation and exceedingly close.

There were still two islands that were in the distance, though one had been mostly obscured by a huge dust cloud, and seeing this, Yoko’s fear for Bill was only just overcome by her sense of injustice.

Masterson would have continued to fight until he died, after all his daughter was in the caves behind them, but for the others, Yoko’s timely words were an unintentional rallying cry: “Do you truly think what happens up there is going to protect you down here?”

Saying this, she extended her Compliance Tree and crushed another pirate who was dressed like a cat, only narrowly missing Kuro himself.

“Avast ye, Pirate!” hollered out a ragged Nelson in agreement and hefting up his ‘Big’un’ laser cannon he fired at a distracted Scarlet, who barely defended himself with huge, blackened forearms.

*Piro piro piro piro!*

Before the fighting could start up again in earnest, Dr. Indigo’s laugh had them halt, and pulling a popgun like toy from his dirty lab coat he said: “That’s how dumb all of you Marines are, the islands so close now that-“ As if he saw the future, Foxy’s face fell, and he yelled: “Slow Slow Beam!”

Sending the slow-mo photons towards Indigo, Foxy shouted to the others: “It’z a trap!” but was stunned when Kuro jumped in front to protect Dr. Indigo, giving him the second he needed to pull the trigger.

The popgun acted like a flare, a beacon, a stimulant, and a target all at once.

Instantly the floating islands around New Haven started to howl and even from their distance the Marines saw the first of the monstrous animals start jumping off the sides of the islands to the sea below.

What was worse, even swarms of flying insect clouds could be seen taking form.

Seeing this, Yoko’s eyes turned red and while Masterson started ordering the others to fall back to Bill’s laboratory, she went to finish off Indigo.

“Little girl, it’s time you die! Boink!”

Despite Yoko’s strength, Dr. Indigo wasn’t Shiki’s number 1 for nothing, and given his knowledge in Bioengineering he had developed his own body to the extent that he could physically fight off even the [Iron Wardens].

Hitting him with her first swing, Yoko missed the second, and before she could retreat Dr. Indigo struck out at her with his hand covered in flames.

It was in that instant before an alchemical pink flame burned her face off, an unexpected event took place.

In the time it took to blink, Indigo’s arm was held in place by a large red gorilla’s hand, and looking up, the doctor asked with evident rage: “What’s the meaning of this, Scarlet?”

Looking stoically at his long-term friend and associate, Scarlet then turned his head towards Yoko and his words shocked everyone present when he stated: “My Queen.”

Saying this, he threw Indigo back several meters and kneeled in front of Yoko – who herself didn’t see his actions as strange – and hearing a dull buzzing getting closer, she looked up and immediately spotted a unique blue Flame Beetle in the swarm of flying insects and forgot about everything else.

The beetle which had a faded Marine logo painted on it was naturally Boss.

Overcome with emotions, Yoko could have either cried in relief or shouted in joy. Even from this great distance she could pick out her companion from a group of hundreds of other Flame Beetles, Don Mantis, and even the spear-wielding giant dragonfly’s known as God Winds.

Narrowing her eyes, she could somewhat see that Boss wasn’t himself, but that didn’t matter. As long as he was alive, she believed she would get him back.

Turning her head from the fast-approaching insects, she looked down at the kneeling Scarlet and said: “I charge you with this task: subdue the wrongdoer.”

Pointing towards a dumbfounded Indigo, Yoko didn’t bother looking towards the mad scientist, and Scarlet complied with a simple: “Yes Majesty.”

By now Rapanui, Carrot, Toma, and the other Marines had begun to arrive on the upper level of New Haven. They had no doubt heard the swarm approaching and saw the islands scattered to either side of the island and were running towards the laboratory.

Yoko didn’t hear what Scarlet was saying to Indigo, she barely heard Masterson and Nelson taking charge of the retreat.

Her attention was only on the swarm and Boss.

Planting her feet into the ground, Yoko waited until just the right time before willing the [Compliance Tree] to grow hundreds of feet.

Around the time that the first of the monstrous boars and other swimming mammals emerged from the harbor, and when Bill had ordered Shiki to lower the islands, a split second was all that needed for the Compliance Tree to extend into the swarm of insects, grow one leaf out wide, and swipe to the side.

Wielded like a giant fly swatter, Yoko got rid of half the swarm just like that. Though not all insects had been killed, the weight of the Compliance Tree and other bugs had crushed many of them.

Jumping through the air, using Moon Step regardless of how tired she was, Yoko dodged left and right while she closed in on Boss and shouting “Wake Up!” hit him on top of the head.

By now, every living soul remaining on the island had begun to rush upwards and away from the beast tide that was crawling on shore. Big Pan and the Groggy Monsters who had been beaten bloody by Gad the ‘Whirling Tide’, the shocked Marines who Yoko couldn’t get to move, and even the pirates who had smartly hidden instead of fighting at the fortress.

Those who were surrendered and now prisoners, pirates, Marines, it didn’t matter. Most didn’t even know where they were going, but following the fleeing tide that ran and ran.

In Bill’s laboratory, Masterson had the factory workers armed with whatever rivet rifles and pistols they could find and intending to make full use of Foxy’s ability set up a makeshift staggered firing line.

The people were scared, but in a matter of life and death, none of the surviving Marines had time to consider their feelings.

Of course, not every beast of the floating islands had jumped and most of those who did jump had drowned, but even the small percentage that made it to New Haven constituted tens of thousands of individual EvoBeasts.

It didn’t take long for the beast tide to eat the thousands of corpses at the harbor, and quickly the lowest level of New Haven looked like a squirming carpet of every conceivable color.

Teeth already chattering in fear, a certain munitions factory worker held his only weapons, a large wrench in one hand and an old model rivet pistol that had 10 shots.

With everyone looking down at the oncoming beasts or looking inside their own minds, this particular factory worker did not. He looked to the sky, and immediately wished he hadn’t.

That was because he was the first to notice that a floating island was flying right at them.

Pointing his finger towards the obviously falling island, the man couldn’t speak but jabbing at his neighbor, it didn’t take but a second for people down the line to look up.

Soon, Nelson was alerted to this fact and stopped his attempts to get Dr. Indigo to stop the beasts.

Well educated in artillery, Nelson could tell that this island would miss them, but before he could reassure the doomed resistance, suddenly like a puppet with their strings cut off, all of the floating islands on either side of New Haven just dropped straight down.

In an apocalyptic scene of destruction that boggled the mind, Nelson stood dumbfounded as twenty Hawai’i sized islands simply fell out of the sky and even though he was sure the first floating island would miss them, it was clear that the main island of Merveille – distinct due to its massive central snowy mountain – was headed right for them.

Everything then happened in a blur, the impact booms of the islands hitting the water below deafened any poor souls who hadn’t covered their ears.

Massive tidal waves caused by the floating islands killed any EvoBeasts still swimming and would quickly sweep the harbor and first level of the island clean of anything but stone. Splashing over New Haven’s raised sides, even the second level which held the residential buildings and Marine Headquarters were washed away.

In mere minutes, from one of the most technological islands in the world, New Haven was reduced to almost nothing. It was a state of destruction rarely seen anywhere in the history of the Grand Line.

Incidentally, most of the EvoBeasts were washed away, besides a small cadre of a couple thousand rushing away from the waves, all had just disappeared.

Seeing all of this from the sky, Yoko was helpless.

She had quickly subdued Boss – who had lost his wits and therefore main strength due to the control placed on his by the SIQ – but fighting off the swarm of bugs hadn’t been a cakewalk; in fact, it would have been impossible if the percussion blast hadn’t stunned the swarm for long enough for her to get some hits in.

Seeing Merveille’s main island get nearer and nearer, Yoko was naturally the first to see Bill pushing against it, and even though her mind said ‘impossible’ her heart was renewed with hope as she yelled: “Fight!! The Commodore will hold up the sky! All we have to do is Fight!!”

Dropping to the ground near the tied-up Boss, Yoko raised her Compliance Tree and with an enthused cheer, just under 200 Marines, and 400 factory workers stared down just over 2500 EvoBeasts.

The Marines were mostly fine, though many of the best Special Operators who had been on the island had already been killed during the battle the others were still trained enough to not run.

The same could not be said about the factory workers whose enthused cheers died down as the first Quilled Boars could be seen breaching the highest level.

The smallest of these EvoBeasts had heads that stood 5feet in the air, and scared out of their wits, before Foxy had been given the order to use his Slow-Mo Photons, frightened factory workers began to shoot.

As for Nelson, he didn’t reprimand them. He knew that even if Bill could alter the course of the island, the Marines left on the island were spent. Even if they killed half of the attacking beasts, they would assuredly die.

Thinking this, the first island sent flying towards them soared high overhead and passed without issue. It was only Yoko’s face changing.

Changing to that of a wide smile and laugh.

Willing the [Compliance Tree] to grow out thousands of feet, she held on with all her might and roared almost as loud as the crashing islands.

“Jump on!”

Following her stick, Nelson looked dumbfounded and at first dozens, then scores, then hundreds of apes started sliding down the Compliance Tree on pieces of flat tree bark.

Welding fan blades, staffs, nunchaku’s, swords, and just about every other type of martial weapons, the Monkey Troopers on ‘snowboards’ were followed closely by dozens of massive Del Kongs and smaller simians.

Seeing this, the remaining Howler Monkey Mink Marines bellowed and even the dumbest person could see that these monstrous monkeys were their reinforcements.

Haha! Nelson laughed and shouted: “Righto, little Bell!

Foxy, hit them!”

‘About time’ the old pirate said and using his Slow-Mo Photons to freeze the first of the EvoBeasts, buying just enough time for the Monkey Troops to make it.

Not to be outdone by the monkeys, Yoko, Rapanui, Carrot, Adelle, Masterson, Toma, Nelson, Foxy, Big Pan, Porche, the Howler Monkey Minks, and even the normal Special Operators rushed into the thick of the combat.

Jumping here and there smashing everything in sight, Yoko was eventually surrounded by the giant red gorilla pirate Scarlet, the golden Monkey Trooper Rafiki, and her own Howler Monkey Mink Marine troop as they formed the tip of the thrust into the heart of the weakened beast wave.

Looking up frequently, Yoko could see Bill pushing away the island but not see his injuries, and not thinking twice about it she continued to fight until long after Merveille’s main island could be heard splashing into the sea behind New Haven.

Breathing heavily once the final EvoBeast was killed, Yoko’s foot was propped on the head of a green aquatic elephant, and she roared for victory.

Her victorious spirit spread like a virus to everyone around her, and despite their enormous losses, for this moment the Marines of New Haven were gods of the battlefield.

Even generations in the future, the people of New Haven would proudly say that when the Golden Lion came knocking to their island, they knocked back.

The new islands surrounding New Haven were proof enough for that.