Setting Out

After creating my virus, I started to study poisons and bioweapons. Most proved unsuccessful as it wasn't my area of expertise. I also didn't have many plants with harmful properties. But having seen enough zombie movies, I created a dead switch in each prototype virus I made.

Storage was a problem I had to face. Without a black box, I didn't feel safe storing the viruses externally. I realized then it wouldn't be hard to program the virus to ignore my body's cells and live in a dormant state.

Though having them drift around in my body fluids wasn't practical, so I created glands on the tip of my fingers. Each finger contained a virus or poison that I could excrete at will. I would only need to shake someone's hand or touch a common item to take down an entire ship possibly.

And although it was all theoretical since I wasn't using any human test subject yet. Everyone had recovered from Teach's betrayal, but I had more than a few of my subordinates asking me to talk to Whitebeard about hunting the traitor down.

But any attempt to even talk about the subject was shot down immediately. I had a feeling Whitebeard knew something about Teach or, more importantly, the Yami Yami no Mi. It was one of the greatest mysteries how Teach was able to gain two devil fruits.

My theory was he didn't. The Yami Yami no MI's power to seal devil fruit powers could evolve if Teach awakened his devil fruit. It was more akin to a paramecia fruit, as the eater couldn't change into darkness.

I cleared my head, focusing back on my subject. It was a new strand of nerve poison. A single dropped would paralyze the diaphragm stopping that person from breathing. Finishing up for the night, I was ready to hit the sack. As I walked through the ship's bowels, I passed by an open door to see Ace packing a bag.

Knocking on the doorframe, Ace jumped like he was caught doing something, "H-hey Soren, you going to sleep?" I raised my brow, "Really, is that the best you could come up with?" Ace stood up, putting on his backpack, "I'm going after him."

"Oh really, who?" Ace snarled, "You know who, that damn bastard. If it weren't for you and Macro, most of us would have died." I nodded, "That is true, and I won't stop you. But as your commander, I can't let you go out on your own. I'm coming with."

Ace blinked, "You're not stopping me?" Smiling, I turned around, calling one last time over my shoulder, "Meet me on the deck in ten minutes. I'll be waiting."

Ten minutes later, Ace and I stood on the deck looking like bandits in the night, "You sure you want to do this? The Captain won't be happy." Ace didn't look at me, "I'm prepared to make that sacrifice."

Nodding, I put my fingers to my lips and whistled the low note that I could barely hear. A few seconds later, the water frothed, and Gibby breached the water.

The small little guy was little no more, as he was twenty feet long and covered in thick bone armor. Gibby did his signature stomach growl, happy to see me, jumping down onto my mount. I looked up at ace.

"Do you need to catch a ride?" Ace shook his head, "I had something special made for this occasion." Ace disappeared over the ship before returning, holding a small yellow canoe with an engine hooked onto the back.

Tossing the boat into the water, Ace landed on it and looked over at me, "I hope your little fish can keep up." Using his flame powers, Ace fueled the engine speeding him through the water.

Creating a platform from Gibby's bones, I patted his side, "Come one. We can't let him have all the fun." Looking up in the air, I waved to Whitebeard, who had been watching the entire time.

A few days ago, we agreed, if Ace tried to go solo, I would go with him, hopefully preventing any more chaos. Catching up to Ace, we rode through the night, beginning our journey of revenge.

Ace had caught wind of Teach retreating into Paradise all the way back to the way back to the Drum Kingdom. With the small number of supplies we had, Ace and I planned to stop at Sabaody Archipelago to stock up.

It also gave me a chance to check in on Rayleigh. It had been years since I last saw the old man. When Ace and I weren't fighting off Sea Kings and battling weather, I played my violin. I noted that I needed to find more devil fruits to start my arsenal of OP items.

One night when we decided to stop and rest when the sky was particularly fog, I was deep in dreamland when a bright red light pierced through my eyelids. Jumping up, I looked around and saw Ace holding his eyes as a barrel with a red drifted away.

Swearing, I could already sense something spying on us, "Damnit, Ace, do you realize how badly you just screwed us over." Ace rubbed his eyes, recovering from the blinding light, "What I thought there might have been sake inside. What's the big deal?"

Scowling, I moved Gibby closer to Ace, "We must have entered the Florian Triangle. I don't know why I didn't piece it together."

"Why does that matter. It's just some fog." I pointed up at the flare, "The problem is that one of the Seven Warlords is now coming after us, thanks to you!"

Ace frowned, "Can't we outrun them? They won't know where we are if we move away from the flare." I could feel the spirits around us moving, watching, "Sorry to tell you, but they already know our position. They're watching us right now."

Ace looked around wildly, "How I don't see anything? Are they invisible?" I shook my head, "One of them can turn invisible, but the one who's watching us right now uses ghosts."

Ace's hand ignited and he looked for any signs of them, "Don't bother unless they show themselves you won't be able to touch them. All that's left to do is wait."