Protocol 'Wings'

_________ POV Narration_________

Francisco and Garp were both unaware of what was happening at Baltigo, instead, they were both more concerned about what could happen to the Sky islands.

'Protocol Wings was never a finished project, to begin with. But Enel isn't answering, and we can only act, for now, we have no other choice.'

Francisco proceeded to walk towards Enel's old cabin. He had already gotten Gan Fall's approval to initiate Enel's plan.

After all, even if their position wasn't given away by the clouds moving from their fight, then they still needed to worry about Kaido, who likely would pursue them and could know their location at all times as long as they still kept prisoners from his crew.

'Me and Garp should be able to take care of that dragon brat, but the island certainly won't be safe for everyone else, so it's better to just avoid confrontation altogether.'

He continued to make his way through the forest with ease, jumping from tree to tree as he navigated around with ease.

Francisco stepped through the front door without bothering too much. He was currently in Enel's small and unused cabin made on the edge of the Upper Yard.

In the middle of the room, was a large golden lever, it was the switch for Protocol Wings, and it had been made there for one reason.

At the edge of the island, shrowded by clouds, a giant metallic turbine could be seen. It seemed to collect energy from the wind around it, flowing through the clouds constantly and rotating alongside the wind.

Further to the side, the turbine was connected to 4 different powered rotors, all of the construction was made using a mix of regular gold and what the sky people called iron clouds.

Enel had been working on that mostly as a side project/precaution in case something happened and the Sky Island needed to be moved.

This wasn't something that Enel thought he'd ever need in the beginning, but the Sky Islands somewhat became a permanent base more so than a temporary one, so he was forced to come up with ideas to preserve it in dire situations.

Enel knew he would get more allies in the future, that was the very crux of his plan. But he had no idea that he'd end up with that many people to take care of/protect.

Every emperor needed a territory, and Enel's territory inadvertently became the sky, befitting of his epithet as 'Sky King'.

Still, Enel was a busy man. Which led to 'Protocol Wings' still being a 'Work in Progress'.

It was something that Enel had precisely said shouldn't be attempted without him there. Too many things could go wrong with it.

But, alas, there was no contacting him now. And they didn't have the luxury to wait at that moment.

Gan Fall and Francisco knew that 'Wings' wasn't exactly finished, but no one actually knew just to what percentage it was completed and if it was truly operational.

'Worst case scenario, the Sky Islands fall to the lower seas... Gan Fall should've already warned everyone about this...'

Now, the way Protocol Wings worked was rather simplistic. But that didn't mean it wouldn't have its fair share of dangers.

The Sky Islands all rested on a collection of old fossilized clouds called 'Imperial Cumulus'.

It was a massive and somewhat solid mass that seemed to constantly be in motion. Still floating as a cloud despite its aforementioned 'solidity'.

By extension, the entire sea of clouds and Sky Islands were always moving in a somewhat predictable fashion around the first half of the grand line.

It was predictable as it always obscured the sun completely wherever it went, the clouds formed an extremely thick blanket in between the sun and the people below.

But there was never rain from the Imperial Cumulus. At least no one had ever seen those clouds ever release any water.

Now, although the collection of clouds always moved in a predictable fashion, one still needed incredible luck in order to reach it.

Now that Garp and Francisco potentially gave away the position of the Sky Islands, they needed to force the cloud formation, or at least a part of it, to move in a less predictable manner.

It was a tough task, and since the project wasn't actually completed, Francisco would likely end up having to sever the islands from the rest of the sea of clouds, and cut the Imperial Cumulus as soon as the turbines and engines started working.

Dozens of gigantic metallic chains tied Upper Yard and the Sky Islands together further down in between the clouds.

Those chains were at least finished to some extent, but Francisco had no clue if they were enough to hold the Sky Islands together.

The Rotors were only on the Upper Yard, which was slightly higher in elevation than the rest of Skypea. So the island of the earth would have to carry around the others along their journey.

Moreover, to ensure that Upper Yard didn't slip away from the piece of Imperial Cumulus it rested upon, it was chained using iron clouds and mended together to the Imperial Cumulus by a few workers.

In the first place, the building took a lot of time, but Gan Fall had given the project a lot of resources after Enel gave him the plans for it.

'This machinery likely won't work for long without Enel powering them...

The turbines only got to generate so much energy, there are also too few of them if we want to have a positive energy output...

The second these rotors turn on and the islands start moving, we'll be bleeding energy. Let's just hope we're able to move away far enough...'

They also had an emergency motor that provided more electricity tied to the rotors, it worked using Thunder Dials, but even that wasn't really enough to compare to the power of Enel's Devil Fruit and the constant voltage it could provide.

Even worse, the thunder dial battery wasn't even tested, so they didn't know if it was even functional or if it would catch on fire and blow up in their faces.

Francisco used to be a mechanic for his crew. He played that role as he had always been interested in complex machinery.

He had helped build many of the components of Protocol 'Wings', but even he couldn't give an exact estimate as to how they would all work together...

'Well, only one way to find out... I certainly don't want to test my blade against a Pluton Cannon with my body in this state...'

And so, Francisco pulled the lever, and Garp got into position, watching the chains that connected the islands with a close eye.

His task was to make sure they held up and to try and reinforce them quickly if the need arose.

Some of their students were also present, those that were still in good enough shape to help out.

They were all wielding Eisen Dial, prepared to use iron clouds to reinforce the chains if the worst-case scenario materialised.

Gan Fall told everyone to brace and prepare themselves for a sudden shift. Not everyone knew about the protocol, but they all followed Gan Fall's words, as they respected him as their leader.

Francisco covered his hand in haki and placed his hand on the lever, electricity could around it, as he immediately pulled the lever, ignoring the sensation of his muscles contracting.

He then immediately ran over and jumped on a chain, standing perfectly in between the islands as he took out his cutlass, covering it in a thick coat of both armament and conqueror's haki.

His mechanical glove grasped tightly onto the cutlass, as he huffed a bit and took a deep breath.

Just as the rotors were starting up, he jumped upwards the chain he had been on dangling a bit as he took off. He reappeared above the islands high in the sky and released a powerful slash towards the Imperial Cumulus.

"Sever!" That flying slash seemed to turn completely red as it formed, becoming larger and larger as it flew towards the dense cloud formation and the sea of clouds.

They posed no resistance to the powerful slash, the clouds parted to accommodate it almost instantly just as the rotors started working at full power.

Just like that, Upper Yard started moving slightly in the opposite direction of the ancient cloud formation.

It was slow, but would surely pick up speed as the motors spun faster and faster.

The chains between the islands rattled as Francisco landed back on one of them, huffing a bit as he felt the condition of his body slowly deteriorate.

'This and those newbie brats from earlier and their small invasion... I really shouldn't be straining myself so much.'

But he didn't stop there, he placed his hand on the Iron cloud chain he was standing on, making it turn completely black as the other chains also started straining, pulling Skypea along with the power of the giant rotors.

'Shit...' Was the only thing Francisco could think of as the other chains around him started simply snapping,

The students acted quickly, but a lot of the chains had still fallen leading to only ten of them linking the two islands.

Garp immediately jumped towards a chain that had just snapped, grabbing each snapped side with his hands and started gripping them tightly as both sides turned completely black.

The students tried their best as the chains shifted more and more, the islands separating slightly. But their Dials simply weren't strong enough to handle that much pressure, leading to more chains breaking.

The old marine legend roared angrily as more and more chains snapped, and eventually, only two chains connected the island.

One was being held together by him, and one by Francisco. Both were on the extremities of each island.

'This is basically our worries materialized... Huh?' Francisco pondered as he slouched over and felt the Imperial Cumulus get further and further away.

Upper Yard had already shifted position, and was in front of Skypea, dragging it along as they gained more and more distance from their previous location.

'Hopefully, the cloud formation underneath the islands will be enough to hide this whole mess and keep both islands together...

Regardless, these islands will gain the speed of a regular ship soon, I don't know how long we'll maintain it, but we will certainly fly far enough...

After we run out of energy, we will keep drifting in that direction anyway, so we should be good...'

Francisco sighed contentedly as he laid down on the chain he was reinforcing, whistling a bit as the students quickly started working to connect the other chains as well.

"OY! WORK FASTER! I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT!" Garp urged the students as Francisco continued to whistle happily.

Gan Fall looked at the situation with some sweat on his brow. Sighing as he hoped for the best.

'Now... I just hope Enel is safe at this point...

Well, he doesn't seem the type to die easily... Ambitious people usually pull through... I guess he'll reach out to us eventually.

Till then, we'll just be drifting around... Hopefully not fallen out of the sky.'

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Hope you liked the chapter!

Took a bit to write, didn't have much time yesterday either :(( This is becoming more and more of an issue.

Some things changed at work basically, making it harder for me to write while at work.

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