Aboard the Moby Dick

*whistle* "Look at him go. How far do you reckon he'll fly?" Ace walked over, rubbing his ears to get rid of the ringing in them.

"He'll probably land in the ocean, but I'm sure he'll manage to survive somehow, like a cockroach. That felt like punching a mountain of steel." Cherry shook her right hand to get the point across, though most of the pain was caused by the punch itself rather than the target.

"I'll bet it was. It's a wonder how Aokiji managed to beat him." Ace said.

Their gazes turned to the lingering Neo Marines, which snapped them out of their shocked daze.

"Strategic retreat!" the first officer shouted an order, which they all began to follow in rapid succession.

The 'strategic retreat' was surprisingly well organized despite their turbulent emotional states; Cherry had to give them credit for that.

Everyone started to gather around the area. First was Luffy, Kyros, and Law, followed shortly after by the rest over the next ten to twenty minutes.

Except for Zoro, who inexplicably wouldn't turn up for another two hours, though nobody knew that yet.

"Shishishishi! We did it, Tra-guy!" Luffy chuckled.

Law heaved a sigh. "I suppose we did…"

It was a strange feeling, it all being over now. Perhaps because he hadn't originally intended to survive, before allying himself with the Straw Hats. For that favor, he supposed, he would have to stay true to his word not to stab them in the back; not that he had planned to do so.

Kyros went about offering his most heartfelt gratitude to just about everyone, as did the other royals when they arrived.

Chinjao and his two boys arrived as well. Cherry was gobsmacked to see the weapon woman, Baby 5, clinging to Sai's arm whilst he blushed furiously with a stern expression. She supposed that was fine. Not like she had any particular grievances with the woman.

Speaking of people she had grievances with.

"I- I thought I was going to die…" Sugar muttered, looking very pale from fright.

"Don't be a baby. Akainu only tried to hit you on purpose a few times." Cherry admonished.

Sugar went ghostly white. She hadn't even noticed when that had happened.

Robin sauntered over to Cherry. "You looked quite dashing out there."

"Why, thank you- OWOWOW!" Cherry said, before Robin pinched both her cheeks.

"Don't go fighting an admiral by yourself again, okay?" Robin spoke and smiled sweetly.

Cherry had enough shame to feel a bit guilty for worrying her. Robin had a certain fear towards admirals and that certainly hadn't improved ever since Cherry had returned from fighting Sengoku in as bad of shape as she did, albeit mostly self inflicted during her desperate escape from the awakened Buddha.

"Why do you think I'm letting Luffy and the others have their own fights? Even without you-know-what, they're getting stronger and stronger. I expect those three meat-heads will be able to stand toe to toe with those at the peak of the world before the year is out, if things go well. I'll be better then too, of course." Cherry assured her.

Robin narrowed her eyes at her.

"Oh, and I promise not to bite off more than I can chew…" Cherry added sheepishly.

Robin supposed that was the best she could expect. She detached Sugar from Cherry's back, who let out a little yelp as her head hit the road. Then she quietly pulled the shorter woman into her gentle embrace.

Things were looking to be gearing up for a big party and celebration feast when Cherry picked something up at the edge of her Life Sense.

"Whitebeard?" Cherry thought aloud.

"What's that about Pops?" Ace asked, having overheard.

"Right, of course he's here for you. As soon as he remembered his precious little boy, he came running to pick you up." Cherry nodded and Ace bristled at being called a little boy. "I'd like to see the old man again. Let's go, cowboy."

…

Whitebeard was rather annoyed that a golden opportunity to deal a hefty blow against the normally skittish Neo Marines had presented itself right when he was in a hurry to be somewhere.

He let it go quite easily in the end though; as did the rest of his crew. Making sure that Ace was okay came first.

What surprised them all was the sight of Akainu rocketing away from Dressrosa, splashing down into the water.

"That was King Elizabello II's King Punch, wasn't it? Was he always that strong?" Marco wondered aloud 

Whitebeard was doubtful, but then again the last and only time he witnessed the King Punch was almost twenty years ago. That was a long time for a young man to improve.

"Strange that Akainu got hit by it, isn't it? From what I know, it isn't exactly a stealthy technique and it's fairly telegraphed when he uses it. That's why he mainly uses it to bust up forts and such." Whitey Bay said.

"We'll find out when we get there." Whitebeard said.

As they approached the rocky shore of Dressrosa, a brief flash of flame was seen as Ace's trademark Striker lit up with his devil fruit propelling it. It wasn't long before it reached the small Whitebeard fleet and they saw the young man in question as well as a familiar woman riding it.

"Pops! Everyone!" Ace launched himself onto the deck unceremoniously, looking rather pleased to see them.

After several pats on the back and some teasing, he came before the old man himself. "So you were alright after all, my son."

"I had everything under control." Ace lied shamelessly.

"He got turned into a sock monkey." Cherry spoke, climbing up onto the deck as well.

"""...""" Silence.

"""Bwahahahahaha!!!""" They all erupted into laughter at Ace's expense.

"What kind of crazy devil fruit did they get you with, huh Ace?" Marco wiped tears from his eyes as his laughter subsided.

Ace sent a glare at Cherry, but she wasn't cowed by it at all and sent a wink his way.

"Let me guess, your kid brother showed up and saved your ass, didn't he?" Jozu guessed.

Ace made to retort, but Marco slapped a hand on his shoulder and interrupted. "How are we meant to make you into the next Pirate King if you're getting shown up by your little brother, Ace?"

"You at least took down Doflamingo, didn't ya?" Whitey Bay asked.

Ace opened his mouth to answer, then shut it and pouted whilst looking away from her.

"""Bwahahahahahaha!!!""" they laughed at him again.

Cherry found that tidbit from Marco interesting. 'They want to make Ace the next Pirate King, not Whitebeard?'

Her gaze met with the old man's and saw the epitome of contentedness in his eyes and understood. This was a man who never cared to be king of the pirates, even when he was young.

"Hey, isn't that Akainu's steam ship?" a random crewman pointed out to the strip of water between green bit and Dressrosa's mainland.

Attentions were turned to look and sure enough it was. A moment later, many deep blue tentacles rose out of the water around the steel ship, wrapped around it, then crushed it with unnerving ease before dragging the vessel into the murky depths.

Many of Whitebeard's men watched with slack jaws and eyes filled with horror.

'Good girl, come on back now.' Cherry commanded Takako through their connection. She then smiled mischievously. 'Make sure they know you're coming too. Hehehe.'