The Neo Marines' fleet emerged from the mist like steel ghosts, cannons roaring. The _Red Tide shuddered as a volley of Seastone-reinforced shells punched through its hull, seawater geysering onto the deck. Rookies scrambled, slipping on ice and lava—Gunnar's chaotic power surges had turned the ship into a minefield.
"BRACE, YOU MAGGOTS!" Gunnar bellowed, his right fist erupting in molten rock. He slammed it into an incoming cannonball, liquefying it midair. The left side of his body glowed frost-white, and he hurled a wave of ice at the next volley, freezing the projectiles into harmless hail.
Ace, perched on the mast, laughed wildly as he rained fireballs onto the nearest Marine ship. "WARM ENOUGH FOR YOU, ICE PRINCE?"
Gunnar's eye twitched. "DON'T CALL ME THAT!" He launched a lava spear at Ace, who vaporized it with a flare of flames.
"Focus, idiots!" a rookie screamed before a cannonball obliterated the railing beside him.
Ace dropped to the deck, flames coiling around his arms. "You're steering us into a slaughter!"
"You're the one setting the rigging on fire!" Gunnar shot back, freezing a rookie who'd caught aflame.
"Both of you—"
A cannonball exploded between them, hurling Ace and Gunnar in opposite directions.
---
The Interlopers
Two figures materialized in the smoke—Ain, her hair whipping in the wind, and Binz, his mechanical arm whirring.
"Children playing pirate," Ain sighed, adjusting her glasses. "Adorable."
Binz hefted his axe-cannon hybrid. "Zephyr-sama won't be pleased you're late to die."
Gunnar rose, lava dripping from his right hand, ice crystallizing his left. "Ace. Handle the clown."
Ace cracked his neck, flames roaring. "You take the librarian."
Ain smirked. "Cute." She flicked her fingers, and a beam of light shot toward Ace. He dodged, but his left arm instantly withered into an elderly limb.
"The hell—?!"
"Don't let her touch you!" Gunnar snarled, hurling an ice wall between Ace and Ain.
Binz charged Gunnar, his axe-cannon blasting seastone nets. Gunnar melted them with lava, then flash-froze the deck beneath Binz's feet. The man stumbled, and Gunnar lunged, only for Binz to counter with a piston-powered uppercut.
Ace, now with one shriveled arm, hurled a fire tornado at Ain. "Age this, hag!"
She danced through the flames, untouched. "Aw, the baby's mad."
Aboard the Neo Marines' flagship, Zephyr watched the chaos through a spyglass, his mechanical arm clenching. "Whitebeard's brats…" He grabbed a seastone-coated anchor chained to the deck. "Time to educate them."
With a leap that cracked the ship's mast, Zephyr soared through the air, the anchor swinging like a meteor hammer. He crashed onto the Red Tide's deck, the impact splintering the wood.
"PLAYTIME'S OVER," he growled, his voice a tsunami of authority.
Ace and Gunnar froze mid-swing, their rivalry forgotten.
The rookies whimpered.
Zephyr's gaze locked onto Whitebeard's jolly roger. "You wear his mark? Then you'll die by it."
Gunnar's lava and ice flared simultaneously, his grin unhinged. "Try it, fossil."
Ace reignited his flames, his aged arm now restored—Ain's power disrupted by Zephyr's quake. "He's mine, Quake Puppy."
"Like hell!"
Zephyr swung the anchor, and the Red Tide's deck shattered beneath them.
The _Red Tide_ groaned under the weight of Zephyr's presence, the air crackling with the static of impending doom. Ain and Binz stepped back at their commander's raised hand, their faces taut with deference.
"Stand down," Zephyr ordered, his voice a blade sheathed in ice. "These whelps are mine."
Ace wiped blood from his split lip, flames flickering weakly around his fists. "Old man's got a death wish—"
Gunnar cut him off, lava dripping from his right hand, ice clawing up his left arm. "He's mine."
Zephyr's mechanical arm whirred, revealing a seastone gauntlet beneath the steel. "You fight like rabid dogs. No strategy. No unity. Just… noise."
Ace lunged first, a comet of fire. "SHUT UP!"
Gunnar followed, hurling a wave of molten rock. "BURN!"
Zephyr sidestepped Ace's punch, grabbing his wrist with the seastone gauntlet. Ace's flames sputtered, his body locking up. At the same moment, Zephyr's other hand—gloved in seastone mesh—caught Gunnar's lava fist, the anti-Devil-Fruit material smothering the heat.
"Pathetic," Zephyr growled. He yanked Ace into Gunnar's path, their bodies colliding mid-air. Gunnar's ice instinctively lashed out, encasing Ace's leg.
"IDIOT!" Ace roared, melting the ice with a burst of fire—only for Zephyr's knee to slam into his ribs, sending him skidding into the mast.
Gunnar charged again, lava and ice spiraling around him in a chaotic vortex. Zephyr didn't flinch. He ducked the lava, weaved past the ice, and drove his gauntlet into Gunnar's stomach. The seastone sapped his strength instantly, dropping him to his knees.
"You have power," Zephyr spat, "but you wield it like a child with a hammer."
Ace leapt from the shadows, a fireball swelling between his hands. "EAT THIS!"
Zephyr pivoted, using Gunnar as a shield. Ace's eyes widened—he jerked his arm upward at the last second, the flames barely missing Gunnar and scorching the deck instead.
"STOP HELPING HIM!" Gunnar snarled, struggling to rise.
"STOP BEING IN THE WAY!" Ace shot back.
Zephyr's boot crushed Gunnar's shoulder, seastone grinding against bone. "This is not a duel. It is a lesson." His gauntlet seized Ace's throat, lifting him off the ground. "You cling to your hatred for each other, and it blinds you."
Ace gagged, flames dying in his palms. Gunnar's ice crept toward Zephyr's leg, but the admiral stamped down, shattering it.
"Whitebeard's legacy?" Zephyr sneered. "This is what remains? A firefly and a storm in a teacup?"
With a roar, Gunnar mustered the last of his strength, his trembling fist glowing with unstable seismic energy. "DON'T… SAY… HIS NAME!"
He slammed his palm into the deck. The Red Tide erupted in a chaotic quake, splintering the mast and hurling Zephyr back. Ace broke free, coughing, as the ship listed violently.
But Zephyr landed in a crouch, unharmed. "Gura Gura no Mi… How come you are able..." He raised his gauntlet, seastone spikes snapping into place. "Let's end this."
Ace and Gunnar stood side by side, battered but unbroken.
"Stay out of my way," Gunnar muttered.
"You first," Ace hissed.
They charged together—and Zephyr smiled.
Zephyr's smile vanished as horns erupted from Gunnar's skull—curved, jagged spirals of black ice that gleamed like obsidian. His eyes glowed molten gold, veins throbbing with primordial fury. Ace stared, momentarily stunned, before grinning like a madman.
"About damn time," Ace spat, flames roaring to life around his fists.
Gunnar's voice echoed, deeper now, as if the earth itself growled through him. "Burn it all."
"My pleasure."
They leapt, fire and frost spiraling around them in a helix of destruction. Midair, their fists collided—Ace's flames merging with Gunnar's ice, birthing a monstrous trident of _burning frost_. It towered over the ship, its crystalline edges crackling with blue fire.
"RAGNAROK'S FANG!" they roared in unison, hurling the trident at Zephyr.
The admiral braced, seastone gauntlets crossing as he unleashed a concussive Haki wave. The collision shattered the sky, a shockwave vaporizing the sea beneath them. For a heartbeat, the trident held—then splintered, engulfing Zephyr in a storm of ice and embers.
The Red Tide disintegrated.
---
Ace woke first, seastone cuffs biting into his wrists. Gunnar lay beside him, horns retracted but his skin pale as ash. Around them, the surviving rookies groaned, chained to the wreckage of Zephyr's flagship.
"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," Ace muttered, kicking Gunnar's boot.
Gunnar's eyes snapped open, glowing faintly. "…How long?"
"Long enough for the old man to gloat." Ace continued, "We are about to be executed in one of their ships"
Neo Marine cannons pivoted, barrels gleaming.
Ace chuckled, low and dangerous. "Guess we're dying together, Quake Prince."
Gunnar smirked. "You wish."
---
The first cannon fired—then the sky screamed.
A shadow blotted out the sun, wingspan wider than Marineford. The peacock, now colossal, its feathers crackling with storm clouds, dove like a hurricane. Cannons erupted, but the bird's wings scattered the firepower like pebbles.
"What the—?!" Zephyr snarled.
The peacock's talons closed around the wreckage, tearing it from the sea. Ace and Gunnar gripped the chains as the ship lurched skyward, wind roaring in their ears.
"Since when could it DO THAT?" Ace yelled.
Gunnar laughed, wild and unhinged. "I don't have time for stories!"
Below, Zephyr's fleet shrank to specks, their cannons silent.
---
Hours later, the peacock gentled its flight, descending toward a hidden atoll. It deposited the wreckage on the shore before shrinking back to its usual size, preening smugly.
Ace collapsed onto the sand, chains still dangling. "Remind me to never team up with you again."
Gunnar wrenched his cuffs apart with a surge of ice. "You begged to ride my coattails, matchstick."
"In your dreams."
They glared, then—slowly, grudgingly—nodded.
Somewhere, Whitebeard's laughter rumbled across the waves.
[A/N: I have prepared a captivating storyline after this arc. As this is almost done, the main story will being soon.
Also, from tomorrow, you can expect two chapters per day release. I am a dozen chapter ahead as of this moment.]