Sky Paradise, Catching Up and News

_________ POV Narration_________

"Two flying islands, huh?" Dragon asked with a cheeky smile on his face.

"Ok, maybe a few things have occurred in my absence... Though it's barely been a few weeks... Ok, maybe around two months." Enel said as looked at the multitude of floating islands they were approaching.

"Two months is actually a lot when you think about it... How much has happened to us in two months?" Dragon said as he stroked his chin for a few seconds.

"Plenty..." Robin said to the side as she also studied the multitude of islands with a curious gaze.

"Looks to be the work of the Golden Lion..." Dragon said with narrowed eyes as their ships got closer and closer to the Sky Islands.

"Shiki, huh?" Enel's voice contained a hint of realization.

'The Golden Lion only appeared in a movie from what I remember, but I don't know much about him besides the fact that he was part of the Rocks Pirates...'

Enel somewhat calmed down when he remembered that particular detail. Even if he was as powerful as the Yonko, it didn't matter. As long as he used to be a friend of Francisco everything would be fine...

Now, if he had been an enemy, Enel was quite sure that he'd already been dead to both Garp and Francisco. So there was ultimately not much to worry about.

"That flying rat?!" Akainu also stepped out on the deck in time to hear their conversation, the other marines trailed behind him.

None of the current admirals had been there for the time Shiki had attacked Marineford in order to try and break out Roger before he was to be shipped off to Logue Town.

But they had all heard the stories, about how he had lost but destroyed a large part of the island in his fight against Sengoku and Garp.

Although he was now reportedly missing his legs after breaking out of Impel Down, he was still a dangerous figure.

"He does have a history with the Marines." Dragon nodded as he looked at Enel once again.

"Where are we supposed to land, Enel?" The Revolutionary Army Leader asked as he prepared to relay the information to the convoy following behind them.

"We'll land on the two islands that seem to be circling around the rest. They are my original base, Garp will also be there."

Dragon nodded when hearing that, and proceeded to tell everyone to follow swiftly and prepare for landing.

The Revolutionary Dragon was admittedly quite happy to have found a safe spot for his army. But he was also quite anxious to meet with his father...

One thing was for sure, Dragon expected to be punched in the face at least once. It was how Garp expressed his affection, really...

"Vice-Admiral Garp is also here, huh?" Kizaru said in a low voice as he surveyed the flying islands with a yellow glint in his new sunglasses (Enel ruined his old ones).

"I hope he is healthy..." Aokiji grabbed his backpack and also prepared to disembark as soon as their convoy came close to the islands.

"I've heard so much about him, I can't help but be excited to meet him, truly," Fujitora said as he also grabbed his blade/walking stick and tapped it on the ground a few times.

"I'm sure he'll be excited to meet you guys... But please be careful on how you relay the status of Sengoku to him..." Enel said with a strained smile as he wondered how the former marine hero was going to react.

All of the marines present (besides Fujitora) seemed to tremble a bit when thinking about that.

"... He's certainly not going to take kindly to this," Akainu said as he rearranged his marine cap.

"At the very least Sir Sengoku survived. He's in good hands too, not many doctors out there can claim to even come close to Crocus in skill." Kizaru said with a rather calm tone.

"I am sure it's going to be fine," Fujitora said with a shrug, not really knowing much about the former Marine's Hero relationship with Sengoku.

"I expect a few fists to be thrown, at the very least. We are certainly going to be on the receiving end." Aokiji said as he shook his head a few times.

"Well, I did what I could, I plan to dodge punches coming my way." Enel simply shrugged a bit as he prepared to land his ship on the island.

"Do you still live in that cabin, Enel? You never did tell me where you moved it..." Robin said from the side, somewhat ignoring the marines around her as she spoke.

"Oh, I just moved to a different corner of the island. I don't even know if I live there anymore, honestly. I let someone else use it for a while." Enel said with a tired tone, as his ship finally touched ground in the middle of the forest.

The second they landed, three figures appeared in front of them. Enel smiled when seeing them.

One of them was Garp, wearing a white suit similar to the one he did in the Marines. His hair was still just as white as ever and his annoyed expression seemed unchanged.

Francisco looked quite a lot different than what Enel had remembered though. He was now a blonde young man with long hair, wearing loose pants and a white shirt, with his blunt cutlass strapped to his waist.

That cutlass was the only reason Enel could recognize him.

'Shit, something did happen in this place. I wonder why Bonney ended up making Francisco of all people Younger. I honestly thought she'd pick Garp first...'

Enel had already expected something major to have happened, especially since the Beast Pirates had already been raiding the islands when he was still in Baltigo, holding back the marines.

The third figure was one that Enel didn't quite recognize, but he could guess who it truly was.

Yet another tall old man with blades instead of legs, long dyed yellow hair and a short beard, with two blades strapped to his waist.

The old man was also wearing a yellow kimono, to match the colour of his hair most likely.

'The Golden Lion... He certainly doesn't look like an enemy.'

"Well then, I see we're receiving a warm welcome!" Enel was the first one to jump from the ship, landing right in front of the trio of old men.

"Enel! You sleaze bag-" Garp was about to admonish him for being late and leaving all of his duties off to other people, but he took notice of the missing arm and decided to hold off for now.

"What happened, captain?" Francisco also took notice of that rather quickly and decided to ask right away. Not even bothering with re-introductions or with clarifying his identity.

"Quite a lot it seems. I bet just as much has happened here as well..." Enel then looked at Shiki for a moment.

The Golden Lion smirked a bit, seemingly studying Francisco's new captain for a bit.

'He doesn't seem all that special... But who knows? Appearances are always deceiving.' Shiki decided not to try anything for the time being and just kept observing the situation.

"Well, you've surely missed out on a bit of action." Garp said as he finally recollected himself. He no longer seemed mad about Enel's absence, his anger was mostly replaced with concern.

"Indeed, is that Kaido I feel in our prison, by chance? Seems like the two strongest in his crew are with him..." Enel looked to the side with a strained smile as he wonder out loud.

Francisco instantly burst out laughing. Shiki seemed quite amused as well, as he started smiling widely.

"Well, I see you catch on quick," Shiki said with an odd gaze as he wondered just how far Enel's Observation Haki could spread.

"Can't help it. Noticed quite a few interesting changes on the island... Did Protocol Wings fail?" Enel asked with a wary gaze.

"Well, it depends on what you'd consider, failure..." Francisco said with a strained smile. But Garp was holding nothing back.

"Yeah, it fucking failed. Some battery you created, caught on fire after a few uses." Garp said with a scowl.

"Well, to be precise, we may have miscalculated just how much heat the whole operation would generate, and we may have also made the rotors a tad too big, we can also look into different materials for the battery itself..." Francisco said as he scratched the back of his head.

He had already realized what had gone wrong, but they were unable to repair the engine without Enel around, as some things needed to be completely broken and remade without his Metal Manipulation.

Basically, reconstructing the huge motors without Enel was likely going to take a few years, so they had decided they were better off waiting for him to get back.

"Lack of testing might lead to this type of thing occurring." Enel simply shrugged. He felt that everyone was ultimately safe, so he wasn't quite stressed out about the engine malfunctioning.

"It can't be helped, not like I've built such a huge battery before. At the very least it worked to get you here, right?" Enel asked as he tilted his head a bit.

"Well, they did almost crash into my islands, so I guess it worked out well enough! Jihahahaha" Shiki laughed a bit as he spoke, making the Lighting Emperor smile a bit.

"I wouldn't classify that as working, but I guess it did its job. Good thing we happened to run into you." Enel didn't shy away from recognizing Shiki's help, even Garp could appreciate the Golden Lion's assistance with their islands.

"It's not that big of a deal. I was mainly helping Francisco anyway." Shiki smiled as he balanced himself on one blade.

"Aside from that, mind explaining why everyone else on your ship is too shy to come down?" Garp said as he looked up.

Oven then jumped right behind Enel, smiling as he did so.

"Oh, did I miss the introductions?" The Sweet Commander said in a cheerful tone as Garp narrowed his eyes at him.

"Oh, what a spirited young man!" Francisco said as he chuckled a bit, Shiki simply nodded with the same smile plastered on his face.

"... Enel, who's this punk and why is he speaking like an old man?" Oven asked with a bit of a frown on his face.

This time, both Shiki and Garp burst out laughing as Francsico's smile became a bit strained.

Enel coughed a few times as he turned to Oven. "This guy's likely the oldest here. Probably the strongest besides me as well..."

"Oldest?! And is he really that strong? Even the former Marine Hero is here..." Oven said with a confused expression.

"I may be a tad older than I look. And I don't really know how I match up to everyone here specifically, besides Shiki, of course." Francisco wasn't one to be boastful thankfully.

Before, he would brag somewhat by reminiscing about the good old days when he was in his prime. Now that he actually had the strength, he didn't see any need to brag.

Even if he was almost certain he could take on both Shiki and Garp at the same time, there was no need to voice that out.

Fighting Enel was still a large question mark for Francisco, as the swordsman was quite unsure if he was able to win against his Captain under any circumstances.

"... Tsk" Garp pouted a bit when hearing that Enel considered him weaker than Francisco, but he couldn't quite dispute that fact.

"Why are the others taking so long?" Enel asked as he tapped Oven on the shoulder with his earlobe.

Oven simply shrugged, surmising that most of them were likely just afraid to meet Garp, though he didn't say that out loud.

Around them, more and more blimps started landing on the island, with Garp looking at it all with a raised eyebrow.

"Kid, how many people did you bring around this time? Do you think we've got unlimited food on these danky islands?" Garp asked as he picked his nose with his pinkie.

"Well, I'm sure I can assist you all with food until you are completely settled..." Shiki said as he shrugged a bit.

"We can always just hunt a few Sea Kings too, not that big of an issue. How are the others?" Enel as

"Well, we have quite a few decent fighters on this island now, well they're shaping up to be decent fighters. The marines from last time have already all joined the sky guards." Francsico said as he stroked his chin.

The marines that had helped transport the Foosha Villagers had mostly been spending their time in the New Foosha Village, they hadn't been able to help much against the Beast Pirates unfortunately, but they were now training to become even stronger directly under Garp.

Momonga had also finally recovered enough to train as well, and he had started training in earnest.

He was already basically the strongest besides Francisco and Garp among the residents of the island.

Enel nodded when he heard about that, he was also rather glad that the Foosha villagers had settled in appropriately in their new home. They were certainly strong people, they adapted quickly and had already accepted their situations.

Garp's presence was certainly a huge help in calming them down thoguh.

"I am truly pleased to hear that everything has gone relatively well in this place..."

Shiki's smile strained for a few seconds, he wanted to mention how they had almost crashed into his base again, but decided not to out of courtesy.

'He is Francisco's current captain, a man that Francisco himself is not confident in defeating... He is certainly someone that warrants respect.'

The Golden Lion had always been one to respect strength, and he was always polite and friendly with people he deemed worthy of his time.

He still was unsure about joining Enel's 'crew'... Crew was a small word in Shiki's mind, to him, Enel was building something more akin to a large army.

'I'll see how things develop, who knows, I might actually be able to see the Government finally be brought down to its knees...'

Then more and more people started disembarking from Enel's ship.

Garp's eyes widened completely when seeing the people that had come down. More specifically, the marines were the first ones he noticed.

"What the hell is going on?!" Garp asked as he clenched his fists in confusion. Dragon was still hiding behind some people, likely not excited about the beating he was certainly going to receive.

"Why are you all here? Where's Sengoku and Tsuru? You better start explaining yourselves!" Garp said as he crossed his arms. He shouted at the marines with a confident and authoritative tone.

Akainu sighed a bit as he rearranged his cap.

'This isn't going to be pretty...' Enel and Oven stood to the side, not quite wanting to be part of the one-sided brawl that was about to ensue.

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Hope you liked the chapter! didn't have time to write much yesterday, but I managed to write >3k words today :)))

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