(Location: New World)
(General POV)
"There it is." Jack said to the others as they neared the giant floating casino. "It's kind of hard to miss." Luke commented, finding that Jack's words were redundant as even a blind man could have been able to point out the ship, after all, Gran Tesoro was no ordinary ship. At ten kilometers long, it was the largest casino in the world, housing more than twenty percent of all the world's circulated money, and was recognized by the World Government as its own independent nation.
Jack had already set the little boat down in the water a kilometer or so away from the approaching casino, and it was only now that they decided to discuss what was going to happen on the ship. "Besides Tesoro, is there anyone else we need to look out for?" Smoker asked Jack, figuring he'd no more than he should about the whole thing.
"Tesoro has three top executives, but only two are worth mentioning, and both have Devil Fruit powers. The first is Tesoro's chief of security. I can't remember his name, but he ate the Through-Through Fruit, which allows him to pretty much move through objects or make objects phase through people and trap them. The second is a woman named Baccarat. She's a concierge of Gran Tesoro who ate the Luck-Luck Fruit, which allows her to steal the luck from people. It might not sound all that annoying, but she could make a series of unfortunate events happen simply by throwing a coin into the air and letting her luck make a series of bad things happen to everyone else around her." Jack explained the two biggest threats besides Tesoro himself.
"What about the third executive? I know you said he doesn't have a Devil Fruit power, but surely as an executive he must be strong." Smoker questioned, wanting to know all of the details. "No, he's just a masochist and a sadist. He's your typical dumb brute who relies solely on his raw strength. Everyone else who works for Tesoro are your standard henchmen, though lots of them are slaves who are forced to work for him, so don't immediately begin to kill them all." Jack explained, looking pointedly at Luke as he said the last part.
"I understand. I won't kill the underlings until I know they deserve to die." Luke said, then almost as an afterthought he asked, "Can I be the one to kill Tesoro?" Jack didn't feel like he had to be the one to kill the leaders of every group they fought, however given that he could nullify their powers and deal with them in quick order, it just made sense for him to do that. Luke on the other hand, his power was almost the perfect counter for Tesoro's power, seeing as how he could warp and manipulate the gold with his lightning to some degree. "I don't see why not. I was going to kill Baccarat anyway." Jack said, not opposed to the idea.
"I want to deal with the chief of security guy." Smoker said, choosing his target. "Tedi and I will handle the big brute masochist." Lucian said, getting a nod of agreement from the bear Mink. "What about me?" Nemo asked after realizing that there was no one left for him to fight. "Did you learn very much from that Fishman-Karate manual I gave you?" Jack asked him.
"A fair bit, yeah." Nemo admitted. "Okay, well you can use that to make it rain sea water from the skies. If sea water touches the gold or the people covered in gold, Tesoro loses his control of them. Basically I want you to free everyone on board." Jack instructed him. It would give him something to do, and let him practice his own abilities, so he had no complaints.
With that all decided, Jack wrapped everyone up into a film of darkness before he jumped through the air using Moonwalk, making sure to avoid all of the surveillance Transponder Snails keeping watch, then once he was directly above the floating casino, he let himself drop down into the city before he snaked his way into an empty building. After checking that the coast was clear, Jack released the others from the darkness before he moved over to sit in a chair.
"Don't tell me. We're waiting until nightfall?" Luke asked with a frown. "Yes, but not for the reasons you think. Unlike everywhere else, Gran Tesoro comes alive at night, at least more than it does throughout the day. We don't have Viola here to tell us where everyone is, therefore we need to wait. Tesoro sings for the people in the evenings, though I'm not sure if that's every night or just every few nights. I have no idea where he is, so unless you want to search the whole damn place for him, then we're just going to have to wait until he comes out to perform." Jack explained, earning a look from Luke.
Finally deciding that Jack was being honest with him, Luke moved to sit down on a nearby couch and wait with the others, though unlike them, he had his Haki spread out all around him, encompassing the entirety of Gran Tesoro. Since he knew nothing about this place, and given the fact that Viola wasn't there to feed him information, he decided to gather as much of it as he could.
*****
As midnight drew near, Jack suddenly got to his feet when the sound of music reached them. Glancing out of the window, everyone watched as screens began to play a concert, and it didn't take long after it began before a tall man dressed in a white suit with gold accents appeared.
"Before we go, I have some information." Luke said suddenly, then went on to explain where the security room was, where some of Tesoro's loyal guards were, and where Jack could find Baccarat, which was actually at the gambling tables. He had been going over this whole place for the last few hours, and in that time he had seen and heard a number of things that had convinced him that more than a few people in this place needed unalived.
"Let's go." Jack said after Luke told him exactly where he could find Baccarat. Without further questioning, everyone followed his lead as they left the building, all of them moving in different directions. Smoker went straight towards the security room, while Tedi and Lucian went towards the place where Luke told them a giant of a man was bossing people around. For his part, Nemo went straight towards where all of the ships were docked, while Jack headed towards the gambling tables.
Arriving at said gambling tables, Jack immediately began to act like any other patron as he moved towards the table where a certain gentleman was winning big. It didn't take long for a certain red-haired woman to sidle on over to the man and begin to stroke his arm, which only earned a quiet chuckle from Jack.
Already he had activated his Void Domain, which in turn made her power useless, hence why the man kept winning big. He could see the confused look on her face as she stared at the man, and even though he was tempted to let her wonder why her power wasn't working, he thought better about it and simply moved to step beside her.
Jack waited until everyone was focused on the man who was winning before he wrapped Baccarat in darkness, making her disappear from the area. Looking around, Jack noticed two little kids looking at him with wide eyes. Evidently they had seen what he had done, however by simply pressing his finger to his lips, both of them nodded at him while returning the gesture. One of them even went so far as to give him a thumbs up.
With that taken care of, Jack headed over to where the concert was taking place, arriving just in time to see Luke appear on stage directly in front of Tesoro. Given Luke's infamy, it was understandable why everyone, Tesoro included, seemed to freeze in place upon noticing him. For his part, Luke slowly drew the swords from his back, and almost lazily swung them towards Tesoro.
Seeing the attack coming, Tesoro coated himself in gold to block the attack, which it did, however that was when things went horribly wrong for him. Knowing full well how conductive gold was to lightning, Luke unleashed a stream of it at Tesoro's armored form, and instantly the stage was filled with the man's cries of agony.
Luke continued to channel his power into Tesoro for a few seconds, when suddenly the armor fell away from around the singer, revealing a burnt mess that had definitely seen better days. Tesoro was on his knees, his body spasming every few seconds as Luke slowly approached him. He was tempted to drag this moment out and make the man truly suffer a fate worse than death, but in the end he simply chose to end it. With a wave of his sword, it was all over.
Having witnessed everything from start to finish, Jack had already moved in close enough to be out of the way before he made the crates of fruit appear, then at the same time that Luke killed Tesoro, he killed Baccarat, and a few short minutes later he was holding two new Devil Fruits.
Just when he was about to store the remaining fruits, a short guy with a giant head appeared out of a wall coughing and wheezing as he gasped for breath. Jack knew right away who it was, however before he had the chance to deal with him, a flume of smoke appeared around the man's head and began to fill his lungs. Try as the man might, there was no escaping the smoke, and soon enough he dropped to the ground, dead.
Realizing that everything had gone more smoothly than he could have hoped for, Jack appeared next to Luke on stage before looking out over the crowd of people who were still staring dumbstruck at what they had just witnessed. "Attention people of Gran Tesoro!" Jack spoke to them through the mic he had taken from ground beside Tesoro's corpse.
"This place is officially under new management, so if you would be so kind, please stay calm and be patient as we sort out what's going to happen next!" Jack said, finishing up his little speech as he looked around for the others. He spotted Tedi and Lucian quickly enough, them being the only two Minks in the whole place, and only after it started raining sea water did he finally notice Nemo off in the distance fighting a few guards. "I'll deal with them. They're not innocent." Luke said from beside Jack, then suddenly he vanished.
It took less time to go through and get rid of the truly bad guys on the ship than it had to take over the place, and all said and done, Jack considered the whole thing a huge success. "What do we do now?" Smoker asked as he looked out over the throngs of people gathered around them, most likely they were waiting to see what would become of them.
"We'll take them all with us back to Secon, then from there they can choose whether or not they want to stay on board or go their separate ways." Jack answered. This was a rather important decision, and he also knew that he himself didn't know enough about the whole thing to decide on everything himself. Thankfully he didn't have to, and with the help of not only the rest of his guild, but Whitebeard, Garp, Rayleigh, and Sengoku, Jack figured they all should be able to figure out everything well enough.
Without getting the opinions of anyone else on board, Jack touched his hand to the ground and at once inky black darkness began to spread out all around him. It took a bit longer than he thought it would to spread out over ten kilometers, but soon the entirety of Gran Tesoro and its residents were swallowed up into the darkness, leaving Jack, Luke, and Smoker hovering alone in the air over the ocean. Nemo, Lucian, and Tedi had all been swallowed up with the others, but Jack didn't plan for them to be in there all that long.
"Just so you know, even though you can survive in that dark void of yours, it's not a pleasant place to be." Smoker said dryly, looking none too impressed at Jack for doing what he did. "Hey, it would take weeks if we tried to sail that thing back to Secon. And let's not forget to mention the people. I don't think there were enough ships for everyone, not to mention I don't know if we could have handled the pandemonium if we told them they could all just fuck right off out of there. I'd rather take them all back and get everyone involved so we can get this settled in short order." Jack explained, making a valid point.
Without any fanfare or preamble, a little boat appeared beneath them, and after charging up his power, they were off.
*****
(Location: Secon)
When Secon finally came into view, Jack was met with a scene that made his blood run cold. The wreckage of what looked to be dozens of ships were drifting about in the water around the harbor of Secon, and Jack could see a few hundred bodies floating about as well. Panic set into his chest, and before the little boat had even landed he jumped away from it, moving at a speed that no one was able to follow towards the Black Pearl.
"Nojiko! Soran! Anyone!" He called out. The fact that he couldn't sense anyone on board was alarming, but before he could lose his mind, Luke appeared next to him, pointing a finger towards the large ship belonging to Whitebeard, and almost immediately Jack saw a small shimmering light flying towards him.
"You're back!" Soran cried excitedly as she crashed into him, her form slowly growing larger by the second as she came out of her fairy form. "I'm so glad you're safe." Jack said softly as he nearly squeezed the life out of the little girl. "I can't breathe!" Soran wheezed as she swung her little hands at his head.
"What happened? Where are the others?" Jack asked her as he scanned his surroundings. "Mom and everyone else are at the resort. Apis, Selene and I were hanging out with Gramps over on Whitebeard's ship so we could keep an eye out in case anyone else showed up. By the way, I think your boat is wrecked." Soran said as she looked at where the little boat had landed on some rocks and was now in splinters.
"Okay, but what happened? Who attacked?" Jack asked. "Oh that. Gramps and Whitebeard said it was Luke's fault. Apparently a pirate he killed was important to Big Mom, and some of her crew showed up yesterday to get revenge. They didn't even make it close to the island though. Gramps, Uncle Rayleigh, and Whitebeard were badasses!" Soran explained, earning a flick to the forehead for her uncouth language.
Taking the moment for Soran to rub her forehead, Jack looked out over the wrecked ships, and it was only then that he noticed the flags that undoubtedly belonged to Big Mom. "So everyone's alright?" Jack asked again, much calmer now. At his question, Soran looked like she wanted to tell him something but quickly hid as she nodded her head. "Soran… What aren't you telling me?" He questioned her.
Soran tried to hold out under his stern gaze, but she cracked after only a few seconds. "Mom said it was nothing to worry about, but something happened to Nojiko. After the fight, she just suddenly fell down. She couldn't use her powers and threw up all over the place, and Gramps had to carry her back to the ship. I tried to heal her, I really did, but nothing happened. Everyone was worried, but after mom went and got the doctor, she seemed really happy for some reason. She wouldn't tell me what it was, but she did say it was a good thing." Soran said, looking a little crestfallen. "You're not mad at me, are you?" She asked sullenly.
Jack could practically see the guilt in Soran's eyes, and even though he was worried about Nojiko, he couldn't stop himself from giving her a small smile. "No, I'm not mad at you. You did your best, and that's all anyone can ask of you. Since I haven't been called about this, I'm going to guess it's not all that serious, but just to be sure, I think I'll go and check up on her." Jack said, assuring the little girl that everything was alright. Right about that time, Jack noticed Garp and Rayleigh making their way towards the Pearl, and they were being trailed by Whitebeard and a number of his crew members.
"You missed one hell of a party." Garp told him with a wolfish grin on his face after boarding the ship. "I heard. Thanks for watching over everyone." Jack said, truly grateful that the old timers were there to protect everyone. Regardless of the fact that he believed Nojiko and the others would have been fine on their own, the fact that there were no casualties or injuries was something that Jack attributed to the old monsters.
"I'll be sure to get the details about everything from you all later, but for now, I think it's best if I go and check up on the others." Jack told them calmly even though inside he was more anxious than ever.
Clearing his throat behind Jack, Smoker asked, "Don't you think you should bring out Lucian, Tedi, and everyone else you have trapped inside that void of yours?" "Ah, I forgot about them." Jack admitted as he jumped away from the Pearl until he was over a fair distance from Secon, then darkness spread out all around him.
Everyone on board the Pearl watched in amazement as the grandest casino in the entire world appeared, along with a few thousand people. "You forgot about us, didn't you?" Nemo asked Jack after he looked over and saw Garp and everyone else watching them with dumb looks on their faces. "For like five minutes. Anyway, I'll be back in a bit. I need to go and check up on everyone else." Jack told him and the others before he disappeared.
*****
Entering the resort, Jack moved to the room where he found Nojiko laying faceup on a table with a towel draped over her body with slices of cucumber covering her eyes. "Are you-" He began, but she interrupted him with a raised hand. "I'm fine. I'm better than fine, actually." She said as she slowly began to rise into the air before moving to get into the lotus position, the towel covering her falling to the floor, leaving her naked body on full display.
"You don't look hurt." Jack said, letting his eyes move up and down her body, using the excuse to check her for injuries to ogle her. "I'm pregnant." Nojiko blurted, her words completely derailing Jack's train of thought. He must have been out of it, because he didn't even register the fact that Nojiko floated down so she was directly in front of him, and it was only when she grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach that he came back to reality. "You're going to be a father." She told him with a smile so bright it could have melted Aokiji.
After hugging her, kissing her, and caressing her stomach, Jack couldn't help but ask, "Who all knows?" "Makino, Nami, Robin, Shakky, Rayleigh, and the doctor who checked me over. I suspect Garp might know, but if he did, he certainly didn't show it." She admitted. "I know too now!" Luke shouted from somewhere outside the room. Given how he could hear things from miles away, Jack somewhat expected him to be listening in, so the response wasn't a surprise.
"And Luke." Nojiko added as she stared at the closed door. "Good. I'll need to pay that doctor a visit so I can-" Jack started to say, but stopped suddenly when he noticed how the smile disappeared from Nojiko's face. "I'm not keeping this a secret. I've wanted this for as long as I can remember, and I'm going to celebrate it with everyone I care about. You're not going to hide me away, and I don't care if the World Government comes after me. They already are, because in case you've forgotten, I'm part of The Order, same as you." She told him, her tone brooking no room for argument.
It was a little scary how well she had read him, as Jack was already planning to silence the doctor and was thinking of places to hide Nojiko while she had the baby. Based solely on what he knew of the World Government's reaction to Gold Roger having a child, Jack knew Nojiko would be in danger, if for no other reason than the fact that she was carrying his child, and the child itself would be in danger from any and every Government agent because they might fear that the child would turn out just like he did.
In the few moments the idea had appeared in his mind before Nojiko snuffed it out, Jack had thought of maybe hiding Nojiko in the Sky Islands for a time, as the Government held no sway there, not to mention Nojiko was loved by everyone in Skypiea for bringing them the other island, but as quickly as he thought about it, it vanished.
"I'm not so fragile that you need to hide me away under lock and key. I have you and the others, so I'll be fine." She assured him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.
*****
After checking up on Nojiko and the others, Jack returned to the harbor with everyone in tow so they could all see the giant casino he had brought back. By that time, most everyone who wanted to get out of the Casino was mulling around the harbor, unsure as to what was going to happen next. Jack ignored them all as he gathered with Garp and the others so they could recount the events that he had missed while they were away.
"Idiots showed up, we killed them, end of story." Garp said, earning a raised eyebrow from Jack. "Your idea of recounting events sucks." Soran said, none too impressed with Garp's version of the story. "Soran!" Makino scolded her. "But it does! He left out all of the important parts!" Soran stated emphatically.
"That was basically how his reports went too. It was a major headache." Sengoku grumbled, equally as unimpressed with Garp as Soran was. "Since I witnessed the whole thing, let me tell you what happened." Soran said, drawing all eyes to her.
*****
(The Day Before)
(Location: Secon)
(Soran POV)
It had been two days since Jack and the others had departed for Dressrosa to defeat the vile Warlord Doflamingo, and so far things had been rather peaceful on Secon, especially after Jack and his group had arrived on the island. Whitebeard's crew never terrorized any of the island's citizens, but they were still pirates and were prone to doing and taking what they wanted, however that changed with Jack's arrival, and since then, the pirates had behaved like model citizens. Soran could even recall hearing one shop owner extort a pirate by threatening to get Jack involved in whatever argument they were having, something which earned the shop owner a thumbs up from her.
It had been around midafternoon when her, Apis, and Selene were exploring the town with Garp as their chaperone and discussing the broadcast that had appeared a few hours before from Dressrosa, where Jack basically told the rest of the world to join him in the hunt of the World Government, then had gone so far as to execute a Warlord for all of the world to see. Well, all but Soran and Apis. Makino had appeared just before the pillar of fire burned Doflamingo and covered both of their eyes, however there was no one there to stop Selene from seeing it, which was apparently alright because she had seen a lot worse in her young life.
"I'm telling you, there's no way the Government would hire a pirate without arms or legs. A million berries say either Jack or Luke cut them off." Selene said, having argued with Soran on the matter for the last twenty minutes. "But what if he had a really powerful Devil Fruit that worked even without arms or legs? That's happened before." Soran argued. "Then take the bet and we'll see who's right." Selene said, then held out her hand for Soran to shake.
"Can I get in on this too?" Garp asked, inserting himself into the conversation. "That depends. Do you already know the answer?" Soran questioned him. "Yeah." Garp admitted honestly. "Then no." Soran said before looking back at Selene who still had her hand outstretched towards her. "Alright, fine. It's a deal." Soran said, agreeing to the bet as she shook the little cat-girl's hand. Behind them, Garp merely clicked his tongue at the missed opportunity.
"Hey, let's go and visit the old bearded guy. One of his crew members said he could turn into a giant diamond, and I want to see if that's true." Apis suggested, getting a shoulder shrug from both Soran and Selene. "Oh come on!" Garp whined. "You said we were going to go and grab a snack if I took you out!" Garp said in protest.
"Gramps, I don't mean to sound rude, but you're sounding an awful lot like Grampa Goku. Besides, we can always go and get food after." Soran said, brushing off Garp's complaint and making him look affronted in the process. "Now that's hitting below the belt! I'm nothing like that old b-!" Garp began, but was interrupted when an alarm sounded from the harbor.
"What's going on?" Selene asked, looking at Garp for an answer. "Nothing good. The alarms only sound when the island is in danger." Garp said seriously. "Who'd be dumb enough to attack the island where Whitebeard's at?" Soran asked incredulously. "The Marines or one of the other Emperors. Come on, let's go and see." Garp answered. "Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Apis asked, finding that to be a rather bad idea. "Stick with me, and everything will be fine." Garp told them, then gestured for them to get a move on.
Curious herself, Soran didn't argue as they all made their way towards the harbor, where upon arrival they saw Whitebeard's crew all getting into battle formation. "It's Smoothie, Pops! And she brought a dozen officers and forty-three ships!" Marco said quickly after landing down beside Whitebeard. "I'm insulted that Lin-Lin didn't come herself. The fact that there's more than one ship leads me to believe this isn't a social visit." Whitebeard said coolly.
"Smoothie? As in the fruit drink?" Selene asked curiously. "I think so. Jack told me that all of Big Mom's kids are named after food or drinks, and that their positions basically amount to them feeding her." Soran explained as best she could. "That's so stupid. Are you sure this lady is really an Emperor?" Apis questioned, finding that to be one of the dumbest things she had ever heard.
"The Four Emperors are known for their strength, not their brains." Soran told her, which in turn earned her a not so pleased look from Whitebeard. "Minus present company of course." Soran reiterated, causing the old man to shake his head.
"Look, they're targeting Sparrow's ship!" Someone shouted, and almost as one, everyone turned to see how the approaching ships were all aiming their cannons towards the Black Pearl. "Do they have a death wish? Jack almost loves me as much as that ship, and you know how much he loves me." Soran said, earning more than one pair of questioning eyes at her. "Don't you mean he loves that ship almost as much as he loves you?" Marco asked, focusing his attention on the less pressing subject. "Meh, it could go both ways. He really does love that ship." Soran said with a half shrug of her shoulders.
"What do we do, Pops?" Marco asked Whitebeard who was staring out at the fleet of ships. "Before this turns into a battle, send a message to Smoothie that I want to meet. Let's figure out what the problem is before we start an all out war." Whitebeard ordered, however before the order could be carried out, the sound of explosions reached their ears.
Looking out at the fleet of ships, Soran saw that one of the approaching ships was in flames, and before she could even register what was happening, two more of the ships exploded. "Damn it, Garp!" Whitebeard shouted angrily.
Hearing Whitebeard, Soran turned to look behind her, and only then did she realize that Garp was gone. "When did he go?" She asked Selene who merely shrugged her shoulders. Moving their gazes towards where they suspected the cannonballs to be coming from, the three girls saw Garp's ship already moving itself between the Pearl and the approaching fleet, which seemed to spark something inside them because at the same time they all cheered in celebration for Garp.
"Can anyone tell me what's going on?" Rayleigh asked, appearing from out of nowhere beside them. "The weird drink lady was going to attack the Pearl, so Garp started destroying her ships." Apis answered simply. "That's not good. A man's ship is his castle, and Jack's got one of the finest ships I've ever been on." Rayleigh said, then suddenly his face turned serious before he asked, "Wait! Did that idiot seriously leave you three here on your own?"
"Technically, yes. But in his defense, Whitebeard's right there." Soran said, pointing at the Emperor who was already on his ship and shouting orders at his crew. "Of all the irresponsible…" Rayleigh grumbled before he gestured to the three girls to follow him towards the Pearl. "If leaving us here was irresponsible, then isn't taking us into the line of fire more irresponsible?" Apis couldn't help but ask.
"Hardly. They're not in range of the ship yet, and with Garp's ship acting as a shield, you'll be perfectly fine. Besides, your backup has arrived." Rayleigh said, and it was only then that Soran noticed Nojiko, Robin, Tashigi, Nami, Shakky, Sengoku, and her mother moving onto the ship. "Hey, Mom! What are you doing here?" Soran asked once she boarded the ship.
"There you are! I was so worried about you girls! Quickly, let's get inside!" Makino said in relieved panic. "But mom! We won't be able to see anything from inside! And if a cannonball is coming, it'll be easier to dodge if we can see it coming!" Soran said quickly, hoping to not be hidden away for the whole thing. "She's not exactly wrong." Rayleigh chimed in as he grabbed a sword from one of Whitebeard's crew members who had moved onto the Pearl to help defend it.
To Soran's surprise, Nami and Robin moved to sit on lounge chairs on the upper-deck so they could watch the battle unfold. "Aren't you two going to help?" She asked after moving up to where they were at. "With what? They're way out there, and besides, Garp's got this." Nami said, having all the faith in the world in the former Vice-Admiral.
"Oh look, Rayleigh's joining in too." Shakky said as she pulled another lounge chair over to sit beside them. Looking down at Garp's ship, Soran saw Rayleigh standing beside Garp with a glowing sword in hand. She watched in fascination as Rayleigh casually swung the sword down in front of him, and suddenly the ocean split in two for a long way out in front of him until it reached Big Mom's ships, where upon contact with them, five ships were torn asunder.
"Wow… I didn't know swords could do that." Apis said in disbelief. "I don't think it was the sword." Soran told her, not daring to take her eyes off the battle for fear of missing anything. "Bring out the Ball and Chain!" Garp commanded, and suddenly an alarm began sounding on his ship. Soran's eyes practically fell out of their sockets as a massive cannon ball that was about a third of the size of Garp's ship rose out of the water attached to a really big chain.
"I don't see how that's physically possible. It would have served the same purpose as an anchor or it should have straight up pulled the ship underwater. I mean look, he has to reinforce the front of his ship with his Haki to keep it from breaking under it's weight." Apis said, finding the whole scenario to be highly illogical. "You can speak to animals from a power you got by eating a weird fruit. Nothing in the world is logical." Soran deadpanned at her, making a very valid point.
Before Garp could throw the giant ball of steel, Nojiko flew down from where she had been floating above the ship and touched the giant ball, making it rise up off the ship. Grinning like a madman, Garp grabbed the end of the chain before using Moonwalk to put some distance between him and his own ship, then he swung the giant chain in a wide arc and the ball attached it moved effortlessly through the air and smashed into fifteen ships, destroying them in a blink. Garp jumped back to his ship after that, having released the chain connected to the ball, however to most everyone's surprise, the chain and the ball attached to it remained floating in the air.
Ignoring the screaming coming from the struggling pirates, Nojiko flew over to hover above the lead ship where a tall woman with long legs was staring intently at her. "For the sake of my own curiosity, I've got to ask, why did you all come here looking for us?" Nojiko asked the woman whom she recognized as Charlotte Smoothie from the WANTED posters.
"That bastard, Luke Strauss killed my brother, Perospero! Mama won't stop until he and everyone associated with him are dead!" Smoothie growled angrily. Hearing this, Nojiko remembered back to the time right before Jack departed for Dressrosa, and it was only then that she recalled Jack mentioning something about Luke killing some pirates that were part of Big Mom's crew, only Luke had referred to them as "small fries". 'That idiot.' Nojiko thought internally with a sigh. Only Luke would consider one of Big Mom's top officers as a small fry, but Nojiko guessed that to him, most pirates seemed like small fries.
"I see. Well, I guess it's only fair that I help reunite you both." Nojiko told her, then made the giant chain attached to the giant ball begin spinning and thrashing about as if it were a giant metal snake. The cannons tried to shoot her out of the air, however even when she wasn't dodging they still couldn't hit her.
Whitebeard and all of his crew present on Secon were approaching to meet the members of Big Mom's crew, but until they got there, Whitebeard was using his power to send powerful blasts to intercept the cannonballs that were flying towards Nojiko. There were even a few ships that he sunk by simply punching the air, which was beyond cool.
The fight, if it could even be called that, had been going on for about half of an hour by this point, and so far the attacking pirates had suffered massive casualties without managing to cause any sort of damage onto anything but their own ships. For her part, Nojiko remained in the sky above the four remaining ships, firing the occasional shot every now and then at Smoothie, who was doing her best to try and hit her.
"You're a joke, you know that? You have no form or technique, you just attack with reckless abandon, not to mention the fact that you've killed a number of your own allies. I would pity you, but you're too much of a bitch for me to care about that." Nojiko taunted from up in the air, still dodging Smoothie as if it were nothing to her.
Whitebeard and his crew had already arrived and were keeping the remainder of the enemy pirates at bay, but Nojiko was getting tired of this. Deciding to end the whole thing, she made the giant chain snake around Smoothie, and when she was more focused on the chain than her, she fired an explosive bullet right between Smoothie's eyes, and upon impact the larger woman's head simply turned into red mist.
Unsure if was what she had just done or the exertion from moving around so much while dodging projectiles, Nojiko was feeling a little feint, thus she promptly made her way back towards the ship, however before she had even got halfway back she doubled over and began to retch and spilled the contents of her stomach. 'What's going… on?' She asked herself, then suddenly she began to fall from the air towards the ocean down below.
She was only about ten feet from the water before she felt herself getting swept up by someone, and then the next moment she felt herself being placed down on the deck of the ship. A warm feeling washed over her, and though it did calm the feeling in her stomach, it also made her tired. Unable to keep her eyes open, Nojiko promptly fell asleep.
*****
(Present Time)
(Location: Secon)
(General POV)
"And you know the rest. The doctor came and checked Nojiko over and since then she's been super happy." Soran said, finishing the story and getting everyone caught up on the details of what happened. "That checks out with me. I did get to destroy most of the ships." Garp said proudly.
"Well thank you all. I owe you for what you did." Jack said, truly grateful to the old monsters. "Speaking of owing stuff, where is it?" Nami said, looking pointedly at Luke as she held her hand out towards him. Knowing exactly what she was asking about, Luke looked to Jack who made a Devil Fruit appear before he tossed it over to him.
"With this, my debt to you is paid." Luke said, however before he had even finished speaking Nami had swallowed the entire pineapple-shaped Devil Fruit whole. "That was… hot." Luke said, looking at Nami in a different light. "Nope! Don't even go there!" Nojiko said, putting an end to whatever thought was worming its way into Luke's mind about her sister.
Focusing their attention on Nami, everyone watched as she began to manipulate the gold around them that had once belonged to Tesoro, and to most people's surprise, her control was better than it had any right to be. Given her love of gold and her knowledge about the rare metal, Jack knew she would take to the power well, but even he didn't think it would be this well.
"So how did you guys get this place?" Garp asked, turning his attention from Nami to the giant casino they were all in. Jack explained everything with Doflamingo, most of which everyone had already been able to guess because of the broadcast, then how they had taken over Gran Tesoro before coming back to Secon. At the end of his story, Jack seemed to have thought of a brilliant idea, and looked between the old codgers before saying, "Since I have no intention of running this place, and since I owe you one, why don't I just give it to you guys?"
Rayleigh, Garp, Sengoku, and Whitebeard were all dumbfounded at his words, none of them having expected anything of the sort. "You'd just give us this place?" Rayleigh asked with a wide grin, already imagining all of the gambling he could do in this place.
"It's got its own resort!" Sengoku said, liking the idea more and more with each passing second. If he owned the resort, he wouldn't be stuck with the bill and he'd be able to enjoy his retirement. "It's got food, and all the entertainment a guy could ever want." Garp said, already fantasizing about throwing people out of the place.
"Thanks for the offer, but we're pirates. I don't intend to run a casino." Whitebeard said, rejecting the offer. "Then I'll take your share, that way Garp, Sengoku, Rayleigh, and I all have a quarter share of the place." Shakky said excitedly, inserting herself into the deal.
"Works for me. I trust you all will be fair and just owners. By the way, I already took all of the gold out of the place, but I'll start you all off with a few billion berries to get the place started." Jack said, getting a wide grin from the four new owners.
Even though Shakky wasn't as powerful or well known as Garp, Sengoku, and Rayleigh, she had still been a powerful pirate back in the day, and Jack was curious to see if anyone would dare try to attack the grand casino. He doubted it, but it would be quite entertaining to say the least.