Chapter Text
The first two to show up are - in hindsight - almost painfully normal and sane. Though on second thought, if they really were sane they wouldn't be hanging out with the rest of the Strawhats, would they?
Nami sees the newspaper declaring the public execution of the Whitebeard Pirate's Second Commander on Weather Island and suddenly the need to get back to Luffy, to her crew and their captain, isn't a bleeding ache but a horrid immediate need like she is drowning and he's air, like she is on fire and he's the sea.
She knows so well how Luffy loves people, with that horrible, selfish, self-sacrificing intensity that would have him fighting to the death for a navigator that had never given him anything but insults and betrayal ( a cold-hearted thief who made herself cruel and shallow as the world was to her). There is no question that her stupid, stupid captain is going to run head-first and thoughtless into this mess and get himself killed. Similarly there is no question that Nami will die trying before she allows Luffy to experience the pain she knows so horribly well of watching your family be killed in front of your eyes.
Tomorrow the sun will rise, the tides will shift, and Luffy will once again refuse to give up even an iota on what he loves - his dreams, his crew, and his family.
Tomorrow Nami will go join him, because she isn't just a cold-hearted thief anymore, she's the navigator of the Strawhat Pirates.
Today however, she has to bust ass and start traveling because she is nowhere even fucking-close to Marineford. Would it have killed the Warlord guy to jet her off somewhere convenient?
Deep in a wild jungle full of uncategorized wildlife, Usopp sees the newspaper declaring the execution of Firefist Ace over Hercules' shoulder and thinks "Scary!!!"
(There is no question Luffy is going to go to try and save his brother though, so Usopp packs his bags.)
He thinks, "Even if I showed up, I'd just be useless."
(But Luffy needed him for Enies Lobby and always fought braver and harder when he knew he had crew at his back, so Usopp prepares his ammo.)
He thinks, "What can one person do?"
(He shot down the World Government's flag for his captain and their crew. He was their scout, their sniper, their messenger in Luffy's declaration that he would fight the entire world for what he cherished, so now Usopp begs Hercules for a way off the island to Marineford.)
Usopp says, knees shaking with terror as he sails out to sea on Hercules's modified waver, "Jeez, Luffy is so troublesome. Good thing the Sniper King is here to bail him and his brother out. I've fought in millions of wars and won them all!"
The atmosphere aboard the Moby Dick is grim - they are going into this fight knowing that quite a few of them are going to die. They all just pray the cost won't be Pops, the only father most of them have or need, or Ace, their hot-headed youngest with his too big heart.
Still there isn't a choice here. To attack one member of their family is to attack them all. That's the way the Whitebeard pirates have always worked, it's why they can call their crewmates 'brother' and call their captain 'father'. Even if it wasn't Ace, even if it was the most annoying, loud-mouthed, smelly old deckhand, they'd still go to war.
(But it is Ace, so this isn't just a matter of principle or honor - this is also desperation and anger.)
So all of this in mind, Marco understandably isn't in the best of moods and can be forgiven for nearly launching a fireball at the waver their lookout points out approaching their port side -even though it is very obviously not Marine- before the part of his brain that has spent more than two decades playing responsible first-mate/eldest son kicks in. Instead he stretches out his Observation Haki to quickly scan the little boat and finds two humans with no Devil Fruits and no real power to speak of.
Next to him, he sees several of his fellow commanders do the same and also dismiss the boat's occupants as too weak to bother - let them be scared away by warning shots from a twitchy lookout or fall back when they realize whose ship they are approaching. He and his siblings are occupied with planning the approach of the coated Moby Dick on Marineford and coordinating with their allied crews for their planned assault.
It is a little harder to ignore the waver however, when an extremely loud female voice coming from it yells out, "This huge thing is Whitebeard's ship, right? Permission to board!"
… It is probably Marco's job to deal with this. Pops doesn't like killing idiot youngsters for being idiots, and with how worked up the crew is someone is probably going to take a swing soon. Marco can already see Izo's hand twitching towards his pistol.
He sighs, gets up, and heads across the deck to the direction of the noise. He isn't walking quickly and by the time Marco makes his way over, the waver and its occupants are somehow already on deck next to a blushing, embarrassed looking man from Vista's division.
The cause of the man's flustered state seems to be a red-headed teenage girl who is very scantily dressed. It seems pretty self-explanatory how she convinced the lookout to let her on board based of her self-satisfied expression. (Marco takes a moment to feel familiar sense of exasperation beyond his stress and promises himself he'll scold this idiot about saying 'yes' to a security breach just because the person asking was mostly topless if they both survive this.) Next to her is a scrawny teenage boy with a skinny, prominent nose and an expression of terror who wouldn't look out of place as a cabin boy on a merchant ship getting raided by pirates.
Marco sighs, the man from Vista's division snaps out of his haze, pales, then quickly makes himself scarce. The boy makes a scared squeak and ducks behind the girl.
The girl gives Marco a quick once-over, then lets her stance shift from seductive to fierce apparently dismissing him as a target from whatever trick she used to get on the Moby in the first place.
"You're one of Whitebeard's top officers, Marco the Phoenix. You all are going to Marineford to rescue Ace, right. We're coming with you." Her tone isn't quite rude, but nothing she says comes across as a question.
Marco inhales deeply, "Listen, kids." Because they are kids, as least as young as Ace had been when they first met him if not younger. "It is impressive you two have gotten this far, but we are going to war - yoi. I don't know if it is Whitebeard or Ace you are determined to help, but either way they wouldn’t want you throwing your lives away. Go home."
Harsh, but true. He can tell these two are useless as anything but cannon fodder in a fight, and Pops would never stoop to using his crew or some stupid kids like that. That type of bullshit is for the Marines or Big Mom's pirates.
The girl grinds her teeth, the boy shrinks further back so he's now hiding from her instead of in her shadow, "It is neither. We are just hitching a ride with you to find our captain, because he - that colossal idiot - is definitely going to try to rescue his brother and not God himself could stop him, the moron."
"And not just cause Luffy probably doesn't know who that is." The boy murmurs from behind her.
That takes a second, but not too long because Ace loves gushing about his cute, idiot little brother when he's happy drunk (saves crying about the dead one for when he's sober and self-hating).
Luffy, Strawhat Luffy on the bounty poster from the East Blue Ace had so proudly shown him. This is Ace's little brother's crew, they are here for Marco's youngest brother's baby brother.
They absolutely cannot be here and neither can their captain. Even if they manage to save him the casualties of this fight are already going to torture Ace. To have these children die for him, to have his little brother possibly die for him - that would kill Ace with more surety and cruelty than anything the Marines could manage.
"So you two are part of Strawhat's crew? Then go back to the East Blue, and if I see your captain Pops or I'll send him in the same direction - yoi." Marco says, keeping his tone hard. Any other day, he'd take them to Pops to give his father a good laugh -the old guy loves loyal, reckless kids like this- but not today. Today, Whitebeard doesn’t have time to send these kids off with some advice or a love tap of a spar, so it falls to Marco to scare them away.
Surprisingly, this time the boy speaks, half-yelling his answer. "We aren't going home! Luffy's gonna be there, which means even though it's stupid and we are definitely going to die, we are going to be there too." He still looks scared - of Marco, of the situation - but there is no hesitation in the declaration.
The girls nods resolutely, "What Usopp said. Yeah, we might die, but I can promise you this." Her expression turns ferocious, her eyes blazing, "If those Admiral bastards make my captain watch his brother be killed, I'm going to rip Sengoku's balls off and shove them down their throats - my life be dammed."
Marco can't help but give in a little, feeling the resolution behind their words, their understanding that they are likely going to their own death if they come with the Whitebeards to Marineford. That still doesn't mean he thinks they should be here. However now he is sure that even if he scares them off the Moby, these foolish kids will just wander into the war on their own - their death a surety rather than a likelihood.
"Fine then, let me take you to Captain Whitebeard." Maybe Pops can at least convince them to help support the fight from the back instead of going straight for the Fleet Admiral's family jewels.
The next two are bit strange but at least they look decent in a fight. Still unassuming, the sort you'd think would prefer supporting from the back not the front-lines they actually chose, always wanting to put themselves between their crew and harm.
Sanji sees the newspaper as he is running, and stops so quickly some of the okama chasing him fall over at the abrupt change in pace.
Whitebeard ... Ace ... Execution.
Sanji falls to his knees, but it is not the tragedy of the kind, polite man he'd met briefly in Albasta being subjected to the cruel spectacle of a public execution that does it, (it is the nature of men to die and the nature of death to be so terribly ugly and cruel - especially towards people that are kind).
No, it is that he knows Luffy is going to go charging into this like a fool, and then he is going to die.
Sanji isn't strong enough to survive his captain dying - he's never been strong enough to be anything but a useless failed experiment on his own. He'd needed Reiju to save him to live, needed Zeff to save him to grow up, he needs - like a fish needs the sea, like a bird needs the sky - Luffy to want him and believe in him to keep living as a free man, as a pirate, as Blackleg Sanji the chef of the Strawhat Pirates who will one day find the All Blue.
(And on top of Sanji's selfish need, is his even more selfish love. If it made his shitty, stupid, bottomless pit of a captain happy, Sanji would cut off both his hands, would starve, would return to Germa. And now that captain he loves is going to die.)
Sanji comes back to himself, collapsed on his knees and panting like he's about to cry. He realizes most of the okama are gone except for a guy with ridiculously sharp eyeliner and an A-line dress who is crouching next to him with an expression of concern.
"Hey buddy, are you okay? We were just joking around before cause you were freaking out and spouting some real close-minded shit. You look like you are about to faint though, so we can address that later. What's wrong?"
Faced with a kind voice, tears start spilling down Sanji's face and he can feel his voice blubbering like the shitty, weak little runt he is, "I-, my captain's brother-, my captain-, I need to go to Marineford right now!"
Franky wakes up.
(Franky always wakes up. His parents tossing him overboard like trash didn't kill him. Taking the full force of the Puffing Tom ramming into his chest didn't kill him. Those lonely years rebuilding his flesh with steel didn't kill him.)
It is cold where he is, and there is no one around.
This is also familiar, so he grits his teeth into a smile and wanders off to see if he can find some people to point him back in the direction of his ship and his crew.
The lab he finds in the snowy wilderness is SUPER!, one of Vegapunk's old facilities and Franky can nearly forget the bitter loneliness of separation as he drools over the genius of the machines. Not as good as Tom's stuff of course, Vegapunk may be a genius but he's no artist or craftsmen. His creations are amazing, but they will never have the life of something born of an artist's soul like the Puffing Tom or the Oro Jackson. Still there is a lot Franky could learn from Vegapunk's technical perfection.
The newspaper at the facility announcing the execution of Firefist Ace is not so super. Franky's never met the guy, but he remembers the love and badly hidden worry Luffy had staring at his brother's burning Vivre card - saying Ace wouldn’t want to be saved.
Well fuck that nonsense.
Tom hadn't wanted to be saved, Robin hadn't want to be saved, Franky himself - guilty, guilty, more trouble than he's worth to his parents, to Iceberg, to Tom - hadn't wanted to be saved. Weren't people like that the type that needed saving the most?
Izo's eyebrow twitches as he stares at the two new intruders that have snuck on board, one with their food delivery for their chefs and another with the delivery of building materials for their shipwrights. He'd mostly simmered down from his anger born of frustrated worry that had nearly erupted with the loud intrusion of their last two intruders when he'd been called over to deal with this batch as the most level-headed commander available with Marco currently occupied.
Unlike the last two, these men look and feel like Grandline pirates. Not strong enough to be captains or first-mates, but decent enough in a fight to be worth including on a crew. Especially if, as he suspects given their choice of hiding places, their primary function on the crew is as chef and shipwright.
Izo gives a hard look at the blonde kid in a suit and the top-heavy guy in a speedo who have been detained in the storage room they were found in, "Sneaking onto an Emperor's ship is a stupid thing to do in general. It is an especially stupid thing to do when that Emperor is preparing to go to war."
He hopes his scolding knocks some sense lose in this heads (though it never has for Whitebeard, for Ace, for Lord Oden), Izo's not in the habit of killing casually - but they can't afford weaknesses right now, so he will put these two down if he must. After all, Izo was a samurai - loyal to death and beyond for his lord - before he was a pirate.
Blondie pipes up first, "Yeah, we know and we're sorry, Ma'm-" Izo shakes his head, "Sir, then." The teen bites down on his cigarette, "But the fact that your crew is going to war is why we came. We need to help."
Izo feels himself soften, just a bit, "You're here to help Ace." He knows what it is to be a ragged young thing, desperately trying to repay your more powerful savior. They wouldn't be the first people to show up asking to join the Whitebeard's rescue attempt, though Izo wishes they'd gotten here earlier and announced themselves instead of sneaking aboard.
The blue-haired one answers, "In a way, yeah. We're here to help out Ace-aniki."
"In a way?" Izo questions.
Blondie sighs and the blue-haired man grins, "We're part of the Strawhat Pirates! I'm the SUPER shipwright Franky" He strikes an odd pose, angling the tattoos on his arms so they form a star, and Izou lets out an involuntary snort at the rather bombastic sight, "and the blonde guy is Sanji, the best chef on the Grandline."
If Thatch was here he'd have been playfully up in arms at that statement. If Ace or Lord Oden were here they'd laughing their assess off at Franky's showy style. Lord Oden would probably try copying the pose, and Ace would laugh so hard he'd trigger a narcolepsy attack then wake up still giggling. None of his lovable dumbasses are though (Lord Oden is dead, Thatch is dead, Ace is going to …)
Franky continues speaking even as Izo's brief moment of amusement fizzles out, "I've never met Ace-aniki, but he's our captain big brother. I know Luffy loves the guy to pieces, and I'm not about to let the Government rip my captain's family apart while I'm still breathing."
Sanji nods, "Basically what Franky said. Our shitty captain isn't the type to take this lying down, so we can't be either. I know we're out-classed, and I know we might die, but it'll be a cold day in hell before a single one of us leaves Luffy's side for something so paltry as death."
Izo is a samurai before he is a pirate - loyal enough to slit his stomach should his Lord demand it. Before he is a samurai though, he is still the scared, starved child trying to look after his younger sibling that Lord Oden granted mercy, he is still the man who grabbed onto Lord Oden and let his fool lord take him away from everything he'd ever known in Wano because he'd die before he gave up on his family. He is the child raised with and by Lord Oden and his vassals, still Ace, Kiku, and Thatch's brother, and still Whitebeard's son at his core before he is anything else.
Izo smiles at the strange men, he understands why they need to be here.
These two are dangerous, not for their skills that are still not quite up to the New World standard, but for the way they already know how to spill blood, how their eyes say they'd do it with glee in their loving fanaticism if it protected their captain's smile.
Zoro does not stop to think when he lands on the cold, dark island. He simply turns to the shore, grabs the nearest half-wrecked dinghy, and sets sail.
That he does not know the way doesn’t matter. That is he still half-dead from Thriller Bark and Warlord Kuma does not matter.
Here is what matters - Roronoa Zoro will be the world's greatest swordsman. He will accomplish this with Kuina's sword between his teeth and their promise in his heart. He will accomplish this as the crewman of Monkey D. Luffy, the Pirate King, whose dreams shines brighter and more brilliantly than the sun, or he will have accomplished nothing at all.
Zoro sets sail and trusts the wind and tide to guide him back to his captain, his chosen path of fate.
Robin had wanted to die for a very long time. She hadn't wanted to live for even longer - possibly for as long as she'd had any concept of the idea. An unwelcome, unlucky child with no family to want her - even before the Buster Call, even before Ohara burned.
Now Robin wants to live. She wants to relax in the sun and go on adventures and laugh. She wants to do all of that with her family. She wants to do all of that basking in her captain's light.
For the first time in possibly forever, Robin wants - selfishly and totally. She has tasted happiness, freedom, and love and she can never forget their flavor now. Perhaps this make her more dangerous, more of the Devil that can and might damn this world to hell with her knowledge that the World Government has always called her, but Robin finds that now that she knows happiness she does not particularly care whether those stuffy old men think she deserves to live.
So when she sees the paper, it is almost a relief. She knows exactly where Luffy will be headed and knows her crew will follow - all else is immaterial.
With a smile Robin crosses her hands and snaps the neck of every slave-driver in Tequila Wolf with a loud crack that echoes in the snowy waste more sickening and meaty than a gunshot, before calmly going over to pick up a key from the closest one's dead body and unlocking her own chains.
She can't keep her family waiting after all.
Deuce isn't pacing as he keeps an eye on Whitebeard's health for Marco while the doctor is at the Commander's meeting. He doesn't pace, he's not the type of guy that gets nervous under pressure. What pressure anyway? This is Ace after all. Who cares about that stupid asshole?
"Deuce, please stop pacing before you wear a hole in the ship. I promise you, we are going to get Ace back. I would never abandon any of my children." Captain Whitebeard says in a calming voice from the chair he's resting up in near the room's back.
Before Deuce can respond that he wasn't pacing, and that he's not nervous (who cares about his still-in-his-heart true captain, his first real friend, the stupid big-hearted idiot that laughed as they nearly starved to death together?), Marco comes in trailed by a pretty-red head who could give Ace a run for his money in a dresses-like-a-stripper competition and a skinny teenage boy. The First Division Commander looks annoyed on top of his previous worry.
Deuce's eyes narrow, the boy looks kinda familiar and not in a 'Whitebeard pirate I've only seen a couple of times way' either.
Ohh, he knows.
"Isn't that the kid in the background of Luffy's Wanted Poster?", He asks aloud.
Marco sighs, "How did you even-? Nevermind, yes. This is Usopp and Nami of the Strawhat Pirates. They want to come with us to Marineford to rescue Ace."
Deuce knows because Ace is a goddamn bro-con who shoved that Wanted Poster in Deuce's face like 10 million times, Marco just doesn't know because Ace is still trying to look cool and grown-up in front of the other Division Commanders. Unfortunately/fortunately Ace already knows Deuce knows he is a dumbass.
"Oh, what a coincidence." Izo's voice rings out as he enters the room right behind, with a ridiculous looking guy in a speedo and a blonde teenager in a suit, "This is Franky and Sanji, they're here for the same thing." His painted lips curl into a smile, "In fact they were quite insistent on helping."
Unlike Marco whose tone implied he really wanted Whitebeard to send their uninvited guests packing, Izo seems pleased with the turnout of Luffy's crew. Said crew is smiling and waving at their united comrades across the room, Sanji swooning with heart eyes over the Nami, Franky high-fiving the kid that must be Ussop that Deuce recognized from thier captain's bounty poster,
Marco frowns, "Most of them are just kids, and they're all rookies - yoi. If they stay with us, they'll just get killed."
Izo shakes his head, "They want to go with us to rescue Ace for their captain's sake, he is their family too in way."
They both deliver their comments to Whitebeard instead of each other, not quite arguing but instead trying to sway their captain, knowing that his word is law to his sons. Whitebeard strokes his mustache looking thoughtful.
Since the Whitebeard doesn't seem to have made up his mind, Deuce adds his own thoughts, "The last guy who showed up wanting to join us in getting back Ace was a literal giant of a giant. This is three punk kids and a guy in a speedo. I'm not impressed." Honestly, he'd be fine sticking these rookies in the back, it'd be a pain to get rid of them but it'd leave a bad taste in his mouth to callously lead towards their death by letting them get in the thick of the upcoming fight.
"Well, while I can't say we are physically intimidating, I can promise our crew is quite skilled." Deuce nearly jumps out of his skin at the unexpected voice, as a tall, dak-haired woman emerges from seemingly nowhere. All the more terrifying even Marco and Izo flinch so they hadn’t known she'd been lurking in here either. Only Whitebeard seems unmoved.
"Devil Child." Marco identifies her with a frown. "The notorious criminal known for leading every crew she's ever been on to their death - yoi."
Deuce has heard of her too. Forgot the stuff about her murdering shit-loads of Marines as pipsqueak -that stinks of Marine propaganda- the real terrifying stuff is how any crew she'd joined would experience a brief burst of success and notoriety, their enemies quickly and quietly assassinated with broken necks and shattered windpipes, before breaking apart into in-fighting and mutiny. This lady is bad news beyond just being on the Government's shit list.
There isn't much the Whitebeard Pirates hate more than a traitor, especially these days with wounds Teach left still throbbing and aching. Marco and Izo are both eyeing the shadowy woman with unveiled distrust.
The Devil Child smiles in way that it is a baring of teeth instead of joy, "The Phoenix, First Division Commander of Emperor Whitebeard, you seem quite behind on the news. I prefer to go by Nico Robin, archeologist of the Strawhat Pirates nowadays."
At her words, the other Strawhats seemingly can't stop themselves from crying out "Robin!", "Robin-chan!," looking at her with undisguised glee. Nami even bounds over to hug the terrifying looking woman, causing her unsettling smile to melt into something soft.
Nobody says anything, but Deuce exchanges a glance with Marco and Izo, either this Nico Robin is the best liar any of them have ever seen or she really has turned over a new leaf with Luffy's crew. If the kid is anything like his brother, Deuce knows which he's betting on.
Finally -perhaps having made up his mind with that last display of affection and loyalty- Whitebeard speaks, "You're quite gusty kids, that's for sure. I can't say I don't appreciate you wanting to help my son on behalf of your captain, but do you really think you'll be any use on the battlefield?"
His voice hardens, a touch of Conqueror's Haki to emphasize his point, "You little brats aren’t bad for rookies, but this isn't Paradise anymore. This will be the strongest the world has to offer trying their best to kill each other. To stand with us here is enter hell and declare the world your enemy." Deuce feels sweat prickle along his back from Whitebeard's Haki, even as it's not aimed at him.
Surprising everyone, the Strawhats just grin. Robin even lets out a low chuckle as she answers, "Oh, but hell was last week."
Usopp laughs, "Yeah, and declaring war on the world was the week before."
The makes Franky and Sanji both snort, the group grinning at each other in good humor, before they calm down. Deuce is both desperately curious about what they got up to to be able to laugh like that in the face of an Emperor's warning and somewhat annoyed at their light-heartedness. This ship is going to war after all, if an Emperor's crew is scared, why should these rookies be laughing?
When they've calmed down enough to look serious -though most of them are still smiling slightly- Nami answers Whitebeard, "Thanks for the warning, but there is nothing you can say that will scare us away. You've got nine extra for this war whether you want us or not."
"Nine?" Deuce questions.
"Chopper and Brook are probably arriving soon." Robin explains, "And as for our captain and first mate -" Another fond smile, "-well they are exceptional in many ways, but in terms of navigation they might be said to be exceptionally bad. Don't worry, they always manage to arrive eventually."
"A pirate captain and first mate that can't navigate at all?" Marco says incredulously. Deuce stares at the wall and doesn't say anything (he and Ace learned eventually after all).
"They'll get here when they get here, the morons." Nami says with finality. Deuce isn't sure whether he wants to question more her unwavering conviction, or that she called her captain and first-mate morons in front of a stronger, rival crew (he at least saves his shit-talking for Ace's face).
Before he can think to ask either however, as if summoned by her declaration a loud shout echoes through the Moby Dick, "Oi! Another boat off approaching off the port bow! It's some half-dead swordsman in a dinghy!"
Nami looks incredibly smug, "There! Sounds like our first mate just arrived."
Whitebeard throws his head back and laughs.
The last one is just weird.
Chopper cries a bit when he reads the newspaper.
Well actually, he cries a lot. And yells a bit. He might have scared some of the birds and people, so he should apologize later.
It's just! They Government is going to kill Luffy's big brother! They are going to kill Ace who had smelled like warm spices-wood smoke-and blood and who had blown up that whole battalion of Baroque Works ships after them, and who most importantly had made Luffy look so happy-safe-proud!
They were going to kill him, just like Hiliruk who had made Chopper feel happy-safe-proud had been killed, because the Government was sick, like Drum had been sick. And it will make Luffy, who is his captain, who is his first friend, who smells like sea spray-rare meat-sunshine, who loves Chopper as a doctor, a monster, and a crewmate, cry. It will break his heart, as surely as it had broken Chopper's.
Thinking about all that grief falling on his captain's shoulder, Chopper cries and cries. Once he's cried himself out though, Chopper remembers. He's not just a little blue-nosed reindeer monster, he's a man, a bull, a fully-fledged Strawhat Pirate. They don't just cry when they are upset, they fly their pirate flag, punch assholes in the face, and tell the world to fuck off.
Chopper stands up and dries his tears.
Marco's not exactly happy about the Strawhats joining them in this fight, but Pop's word is law so he sends Robin over to the commander's meeting with Izo to figure out how to incorporate them into the upcoming battle plans while he and Deuce start corralling the half-dead swordsman they'd dragged out of the half-sunken dinghy that is apparently the Strawhat's first-mate to the infirmary.
Said swordsman won't stop grumbling that all he needs is some good booze and he'll be fine, but Marco doesn't take that line from his father so no way is he taking it from this green-haired little punk. Deuce just looks mildly despairing that they've got another alcohol obsessed fiend to corral.
They've gotten the guy halfway across the deck, when suddenly the shadow of a large bird passes over head and a second later a small … something drops onto the deck.
The small creature-thing has a blue nose, antlers poking through a top hat, and a giant back-pack. It makes a determined little face and announces, "I'm Chopper, Doctor of the Strawhat Pirates. I'm here to help save Ace!"
Marco takes half-a-second to wonder if he's started hallucinating from stress, before Zoro perks up from where he'd been getting half-dragged between himself and Deuce, "Chopper, my man. Ready to kick some ass?"
The tiny-animal-possibly Zoan(?) smiles back, "You bet! I'll gore anybody that gets between us and saving Luffy's big brother! Let's do this!"
"Yeah sure, this tracks with the batshit day I've been having." Deuce says, because that idiot's already bad verbal filter gets worse when he's stressed.
Surprisingly Zoro laughs instead of being offended at the slightly insulting remark about his crewmate, "Don't know how to break it to you, buddy, but it is only going to get worse. Our captain hasn't even shown up yet, after all."