Roger Pirates Pt.2

As Percy was recovering, he scanned the battle that started up again after his attack. He felt guilty that he caused harm not only to his crew, but Garp as well. In his outburst of rage, his darkness ability took the next step in its evolution and started to crush everything around him. Percy noticed this and thought that he needed to refine his powers more in order for him to use it successfully.

[The sheer crushing ability plus the large scale attacks should be enough to compete in the new world right? In addition to that is my haki. Even though I am familiar with emission, I still can't grasp internal destruction. I need to work on this. Plus, my observation haki hasn't awakened yet and that will come in handy in the future. As for conquerors', I need to consult Garp at some point.]

Percy was watching the battle when he noticed someone knocking down marines around him. Normally, he wouldn't bother with this because all of Roger's crew was handling multiple opponents, but this person was different. No one came within 10ft. from touching him before they were either blown away, or were smashed to the ground by some invisible force.

[That's Taro] Percy said to himself as he got up, [I guess I'll try my luck against him. I may not be able to beat Rayleigh right now, but it shouldn't be difficult for me to capture Taro.]

Percy used the darkness to cover the travel distance between him and his target. When he got close, he stretched out his hand to touch Taro. If Percy was successful, then it would be all over. Taro was unable to use his powers when he touches Percy.

As Percy got close, Taro noticed that something was wrong. He felt like he was being stalked by a predator and quickly looked in all directions. When he didn't notice anything, he sighed and was about to resume his activities when he felt it. His observation haki picked up movement in the shadows behind him and he quickly jumped away just in time to avoid Percy's grasp.

"Hooo, how dangerous" Taro said as he saw the vice admiral appear out of nowhere. "It seems vice admiral-san wants to arrest me; too bad though."

[kurouzu] Percy thought as his hand stretched towards his opponent. This time, he remembered to coat his attack with haki, so it would be impossible for anyone to resist.

Taro was caught off guard as his body started to move towards the vice admiral's hand. He tried to bend the attraction of the darkness, but it was ineffective. He realized that his opponent was coating his attack in haki and did the same. The result was Taro floating mid air while Percy was trying to grab him. The marines looked at the scene in confusion. The pirates on the other hand were worried that their friend would be caught by the monster.

It was a battle of gravity vs. bending, a battle of haki, and a battle of wills. Neither side gave up an inch as they were trying to determine the victor in this little skirmish. When it was clear that this would be a battle of attrition, Percy used part of his darkness to thrust his dark spears at Taro. Taro immediately used his powers to force the spears to bend away from his body, but in that second, Percy made his move. He jumped up using geppo and soru and appeared before the pirate. He balled his hand into a fist and punched Taro in the face.

The pirate flew to the ground, but before he crashed, he bent the air around him to catch him softening his fall. Percy, still high in the air, rushed towards the fallen pirate but was stopped by an invisible force. Every time he got near, his body was pushed out by the wind. He coated his body in armament haki and persevered, but the amount of effort it took to push his way through the wind was not worth the stamina to maintain haki covering his body.

Percy then grabbed the darkness around him and swallowed Taro with the wind barrier around him. He imbued his haki with the darkness and allowed the power of gravity to constantly place pressure on Taro.

All Percy needed to do was wait for Taro to surrender and he would accomplish his mission. He knew rationally, that he couldn't kill the pirate because if he did, who knows if Rayleigh, or in worst case Roger would chase after him. Percy was not yet ready to face those monsters, not just yet.

As Percy was focusing on Taro, the other marines were not doing so well. Rayleigh obviously won against Take, and Gaban seemed like he was toying with Julius. Even though Julius was using his yeast ability to make explosions around his opponent, it didn't matter. Gaban was too quick for Julius to react and he repeatedly hit with Gaban's axes. The only saving grace was that Gaban didn't coat his ax with haki or Julius would have been in trouble.

Julius was fighting hard, even though his opponent inhaled some of the yeast he spread out throughout the battlefield, when he tried to retrieve it back from the pirate, it seemed to cause little damage. He was frustrated; not only did his opponent defeat him in every way, be it weapon mastery, physical strength, and even haki; Julius knew that Gaban was a devil fruit user. Not once did he activate his devil fruit which dampened the vice admiral's mood.

After about 15 minutes, Percy noticed that the wind barrier inside his dark cage was finally becoming weaker.

[Finally!] Percy thought as he continued to wait, as the resistance inside the dark dome started to disappear slowly. After about another 5 minutes, Taro deactivated his power due to fatigue and let the darkness consume him.

Percy canceled his ability, used soru to appear before Taro and grabbed him with his powers. Taro lost the remaining of his strength and was limp in the vice admiral's arms. He smiled because he knew he finally took his first real step into the New World.

*Clap clap clap* was heard behind him and Percy turned around. Rayleigh appeared with Take being dragged behind him.

"Hoo...it seems like you got stronger all of the sudden. I wonder what happened?" Rayleigh said as Take was still passed out behind the Dark King.

"Nothing much" Percy said as Taro was still in being grabbed by him, "I just noticed that I need to get stronger, and decided to take it one step at a time."

"Impressive" Rayleigh said as a smile appeared on his face, "it seems like I have something you want and you have someone that belongs to my family."

"Indeed" Percy said as he knew what's going to happen next. "How do you want to do this?"

"Toss Taro over and I'll do the same. You go first."

Percy hesitated, he didn't want to be the first person to make a move, but he knew that Rayleigh was generally a upstanding guy. He usually did what he said, so Percy paused for a bit before nodded his head.

The vice admiral tossed the still weak Taro over to the vice captain of the Roger pirates, when he caught him, he checked to make sure that his crewmate was alright. After confirming that Taro was just weak, Rayleigh then did the same. After checking on Take, Percy turned around carrying his fellow marine in his arms.

"Do take care, Percy" Rayleigh said from behind him.

"How do you know my name?" Percy asked as he turned at looked at the pirate.

"How could I not? You are, after all, the secret weapon of the marines and their worst kept secret to boot."

Percy looked into Rayleigh eyes, saw that he wasn't lying and turned around.

"Sooner or later" Percy stated as he started to walk towards the rest of the marines, "Sooner or later, I will catch up to you."

"I'll look forward to see the day" Rayleigh said as he started to laugh, "or not, who knows where the winds will take us in the future."

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Percy returned back to the ship to have the medics start working on Take. He walked out again ready to return to the battlefield when he noticed that no one was fighting.

He looked around and everyone was staring in one direction, be it marines or pirates. He followed their stares and saw Garp and Roger clashing. Garp's fists was just as deadly as Roger's sword and they were not holding back.

Percy watched as the two powerhouses fought. They both obviously mastered armament haki and every time Garp's fist made contact with Roger's sword, a mini shockwave was created. Dirt and rocks flew all over the place and both the marines and Roger pirates were unable to get near.

Finally, Garp said to his rival

"The young'uns are anxious, I guess we better finish this. I hope you have a speech ready when you are finally caught" Garp said as his black fist started to crackle with blue lightning.

[Conqueror's haki!] Percy exclaimed in his head as he watched red lighting appear on Roger's sword.

"No. You should be ready to radio headquarters saying that you failed to capture me, again HAHAHAHAHA" Roger laughed as he too imbued his weapon with conqueror's haki.

The two stared at each other for a moment, the tension was thick in the air. Garp jumped in the air and punched, Roger reciprocated with a swing of his sword.

The clash was so strong that many of the marines started to pass out as the two's will started to affect those around them.

Percy stared in wonder as he noticed that their attack didn't even touch, the sword was not making contact with the fist; but they were still clashing.

In the end, both Garp and Roger retreated seeing as there was no clear victor.

"Another day then" Roger said as he and his crew started to run towards their ship.

"Like you will " Garp said while laughing, he clearly wasn't satisfied with their last bout and wanted to go another round.

Roger intercepted Garp again which gave his crew time to escape onto their ship. As the last man boarded, Roger slashed again making Garp dodge giving him the opportunity to jump onto the ship and sail away.

"Where's Dragon?" Garp asked as the winds were blowing the ship away quickly.

"He's in the infirmary sir!" a marine said as he walked up to the vice admiral. "Apparently, Crocus and Tom managed to knock him out."

Garp had an ugly expression on his face as he stared at his rival flee. "What about the other navy battleships?" He asked remembering the back up plan.

"Sir, they are trying to enclose on them, but without assistance, they will be unable to hold on" another marine said as Percy and Garp quickly got onto the closest battleship.

"Old man, I can get us on board to Roger's ship... however, we would be temporarily stranded" Percy said as he started to channel his darkness.

"No. We can't afford to be careless, not with that man" Garp said rejecting that idea.

As Garp and Percy sailed towards the Oro Jackson, it was clear to the both of them that they won't be able to reach there before the Rogers pirates get into fighting distance with the marine battleships.

"Have all ships retreat!" Garp said as he looked onward, "it's not worth sacrificing men, not when we are not fully recovered."

"Yes sir" a captain said as he started to relay Garp's orders.

"Another day" Garp said with a smile on his face, "We will meet again."