A Wild Blackbeard Appears

Cherry weaved through the crowd towards her next target. The fight with Garp had left her with major injuries but now wasn't the time for licking her wounds.

Along the way she found that Captain Hina was in her path, so as she passed her she turned around to blow her a kiss before rushing out of sight again.

Hina had made a strange face at that. One which simultaneously showed concern for her injuries, and like she wanted to finish her off.

Some weirdo in a pink feather coat had struck Luffy hard enough to stun him, but seeing Admiral Sakazuki break off from the fight with Whitebeard and head towards them caused him to back off.

Cherry was able to overhear Sakazuki say some mocking words about Whitebeard to Ace wich worked splendidly as a taunt. Ace earned a blast of lava for his reckless charge and Sakazuki turned to Luffy who was just getting his bearings back.

Sakazuki made to end Luffy's life with an arm made of lava. Ace rushed towards them and placed himself directly between his little brother and the hotheaded admiral.

Admiral Sakazuki's lava fist burned through skin and flesh.

Just not the flesh he expected to burn.

'I thought that soft old man, Garp had been holding back against her, but it seems I was wrong. Her body is far tougher than I could have imagined...' Sakazuki analyzed, seeing that his attack didn't pierce all the way through Cherry's body.

Cherry grabbed onto the arm that was halfway pierced into her chest and wrapped around it with her arms and legs. Smiling like a devil who felt no pain from her burning flesh, she suddenly contorted her body with all her strength, the haki coating her arms and legs preventing Sakazuki from being intangible.

Sakazuki's face contorted in anger and pain, then a sickening SNAP was heard by everyone nearby.

"Damned pirate!" Sakazuki shouted, using the arm that hadn't been snapped at the elbow to try and smother Cherry in boiling, molten rock.

Jinbe had already snatched up Ace and Luffy and fled with them under his arms as quickly as he could.

Sakazuki's attack came down upon the helpless Cherry who still had an infuriating smile on her face.

*Schwing*

Sakazuki's good arm was sent arcing away by a flying sword attack. He wasn't harmed at all as the attack contained no haki to counteract his intangibility, but that didn't stop him from glaring at the perpetrator.

"What do you think your pulling, Hawkeye? You want to lose your Shichibukai status?" Sakazuki spoke through a tightly clenched jaw, barely containing his boiling rage.

"It was an accident?" Hawkeye answered shamelessly, maintaining his signature poker face.

"Thanks a whole bunch, Papa~! I knew you loved me~!" Cherry spoke in a sing song voice and winked. She had already gotten back to her feet and weaved through the nearby marines.

*BOOM!!!*

Sakazuki was hit hard by shockwave attack from Whitebeard before he could even think to give chase.

Soon after a swordsman called Vista and the phoenix devil fruit user Marco engaged Sakazuki, preventing him from interfering at least for the time being.

Jinbe, Ace, and Luffy finally made it to the other side with the bulk of the pirates. Whitebeard seeing this ordered them all to retreat.

Something strange caught the attention of the marines and the pirates in this moment. A massive giant wearing a prisoner's jumpsuit was hiding poorly behind the fortress and soon a group of people made themselves known.

"Zehahahaha! It's been a while, hasn't it old man?!" Blackbeard shouted.

The marines started to recognize the people he'd brought with him. they were an assortment of the worst criminals from Impel Down that were judged to be bad enough to be erased from history.

Blackbeard went on a rant about how it had been his plan all along to use his position as a Shichibukai to break them out for his crew.

"Teach!" Whitebeard shouted his name, drawing his attention.

Blackbeard saw Whitebeard winding up his arm and seemed to panic at the sight. rightfully so, as Whitebeard swung his fist soon after and crushed the portion of the fortress they had been standing on into gravel.

Whitebeard started telling him that he was no longer his son and that he would be put down for his betrayal.

'Is this really important right now?! It's time to run away now, old man!' Cherry thought with exasperation. This was why she didn't hold her pride so high.

'At least the marines don't seem to want to get in the middle of it. Guess they want the pirates to kill each other?' She observed the marines who were just watching on the sidelines.

Blackbeard made a big show of his devil fruit power in front of the whole world like an idiot. It was some kind of darkness fruit and it seemed capable of sealing devil fruit powers when he touched someone, like he did with Whitebeard just now before getting slashed, like an idiot.

Whitebeard grabbed the idiot by the head and activated his devil fruit to blast him with a point blank shockwave, crumbling the stone below them.

'There's something weird about this guy, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I guess I can get a closer look later... unless he dies here, which seems likely.' Cherry thought.

Cherry was pretty much done getting involved in the action now, unless she absolutely had to. Her injuries needed some time to recover from and were reaching a point where she was at risk of dying.

'If old Whitebeard gets himself killed, that's not my problem. Though I'd prefer that he didn't, since he owes me a big favor now.' Cherry thought, observing the fight.

"Damn it, kill him!" Blackbeard shouted, pulling a pistol, whilst his new crew jumped into action to attack Whitebeard. Perhaps if it had been the Whitebeard of before he would have fallen to these attacks, but not now.

Whitebeard swung his glaive in a wide arc, fending off the melee attackers, whilst the bullets that rained down on him simply glanced off his body as he precisely protected himself with minimal haki coverage.

Blackbeard almost looked like he was going to cry. He had no clue what was going on, wasn't Whitebeard practically on his death bed? How in the hell was he fending them off so easily.

Blackbeard scrambled to his feet to try and run away, when his leg was suddenly pierced by a bullet. Glancing back he saw Cherry smiling at him with a revolver pointed in his direction.

Blackbeard was no pushover, though, even if he was kind of stupid. Despite the enhanced pain shooting up his leg from the wound he still stood up and began to flee. Whitebeard wasn't keen on him escaping, but Blackbeard's crew weren't letting him get a clear path to him.

Whitebeard saw that he wouldn't be able to kill Blackbeard today, given that the marines were still waiting to swoop in like vultures to feast on whatever remains. His clicked his tongue in annoyance and began to pull back towards his own crew for a retreat.

He had accomplished his goal here, he shouldn't risk his sons and daughters for the sake of revenge.

The pressure was eased from their side as the marines split their forces between Whitebeard and Blackbeard. Fresh marines were coming out of hidden places in the fortress to relieve the exhausted and battle worn marines, though, which didn't allow them too much wiggle room.

Cherry approached Whitebeard's side. "It's not going to last much longer, old man. We need to get out of here before it wears off."

"I know, I can feel myself getting weaker by the second. By the way, you look like you've been to hell and back, young lady." Whitebeard spoke. Cherry didn't miss the change in the way he addressed her, and felt the heightened respect he had for her.

"How would you like to become my daughter, hm?" He offered sincerely.

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline. I'm still got a rotten father that needs to be taught a lesson or two." Cherry decline politely.

"Hawkeye, huh? Good luck with that, Gurara!" Whitebeard chuckled.