Mounting Contention

Aboard the Moby Dick, Whitebeard's flagship.

Several captains and division commanders were gathered to share information and coordinate ship movements.

The air on the deck felt thick and heavy. This was all the doing of one man, the man held the title of "World's Strongest".

A short time ago, he and his crew suddenly remembered the existence of Ace and his crew. The lot of them had fought a whole war against THE world government to save that boy, and they just up and forgot him.

Fortunately, no one on this ship was so weak-willed to fall unconscious from conqueror's haki that wasn't even directed at them.

"Old man, stop worrying so much. Ace's vivre card is fine and since whatever made us forget went away he must have worked it out himself." Marco said, though his attempt to appear unworried wasn't very convincing.

"After that hellish training you put Ace through, he's strong enough to contend against Doflamingo. You also hammered the lesson of when to retreat into him over and over." Jozu spoke up.

"Now isn't a good time to risk all out war with Kaido. We've already lost some good men to the damned Neo Marines; adding a war with the beasts on top of that will exasperate our losses." Vesta added reasonably.

Whitebeard's already deep frown deepened even further, clearly not liking what he was hearing. A silence fell over them that felt like it lasted an eternity, though it was only a few moments.

"Now that those very good reasons not to go have been spoken aloud, we're gonna go anyway, right?" Whitey Bey asked rhetorically with a smirk.

"""RAAAAAHHHHH!!!""" The silence was instantly shattered by a great war cry from the Whitebeard pirates.

Whitebeard himself just snorted in amusement.

There was never a possibility that they would make any other choice. They were pirates, not politicians.

Marco, Juzo, and Vesta were also satisfied with this result. They only played devil's advocate because somebody had to, or else this bunch of ruffians would run wild all of the time.

There was no need to waste any more time. The captains and commanders returned to their ships and immediately set sail for Dressrosa.

…

Elsewhere in the New World.

Another small fleet of ships was also heading towards Dressrosa. These ships weren't as colorful as the Whitebeard pirates' ships, and were largely uniform in appearance. At the top of their masts, they each flew the flag of the Neo Marines.

Zed's mechanical arm tapped against the desk in his captain's quarters impatiently. He was in a bit of a bad mood after Akainu practically ordered him to go to Dressrosa.

Still, he couldn't argue with the man. Akainu had shown his quality in leadership many times over since he joined up. Hell, they'd sunk well over a hundred notable pirates since then, several were even subordinate or affiliated with the four emperors.

Zed just didn't like being told what to do by a youngster who was barely out of diapers, in his opinion.

The original neo marines, like his right hands Ain and Binz, were similarly aggrieved watching the man they dedicated their very lives to being bossed around.

The problem lied in the fact that Akainu never did so unless he had sound reasoning to do so that they couldn't refute. Like now, several high priority targets were converging in Dressrosa in addition to Doflamingo. This was a chance they couldn't pass up.

They even brought many of their PX-Z model pacifistas and a dyna stone for good measure, showing how important their success was here.

This wouldn't just be a major blow to the pirate scum. Liberating Dressrosa from Doflamingo's evil clutches would serve as excellent propaganda for their cause. Dressrosa itself would likely supply no small number of volunteers.

Of course, they wouldn't use the dyna stone on Dressrosa as that would be counterproductive towards their primary goal of recruitment. That was merely a hidden card they could use against enemy fleets if necessary. Most of their current fleet was in one place at the moment, after all. So they needed to ensure its protection.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Zed spoke up, breaking the silence.

"Something about the participating pirates?" Ain suggested.

"Mm, this is going to get messy I think." Zed said.

Zed wasn't the kind of man to see upstart pirates as a threat, so this said a great deal about the danger he perceived in the coming battle.

In particular, if THAT woman was still in Straw Hat's crew. She was an unknown variable that he couldn't quantify. She was already quite strong two years ago, so who knows what she's like now.

"We will crush them, just like always." Binz spoke confidently.

Zed grunted in half-hearted agreement and returned to his quiet contemplation.

…

On an island with the face of a skull.

"Did anyone else just forget that Burgess exists for a while? Hic…" spoke an ugly and very drunk pirate.

"I did as well. Perhaps he's having some trouble?" a man dressed as a prison guard said.

"Shall we go lend him a hand?" spoke a man with a strange monocle and a rifle on his back.

"Burgess would kick your ass if he heard you say that, hehehe." spoke a very ill looking man riding a similarly ill horse.

A man with a scruffy black beard, Blackbeard himself in fact, spoke then. "We're not going to help him. If he dies, then he was too weak anyways."

Truthfully, Blackbeard had a bad feeling about this. There was no evidence to suggest as much, but he knew to trust his instincts; especially after he ignored his instincts two years ago with the Marineford war. It had only been the smallest of inklings that told him to abandon the entire plan he'd worked so hard on, so he had ignored it and pressed onwards. Only for him to be proven the fool for not listening to his gut and having nothing to show for it.

Fortunately, he still managed to retain the employ of the level 6 impel down escapees through no small feat of charisma and promises of power, both literal and political. That has unfortunately led to a rather stressful situation in which he is surrounded by very strong and very bloodthirsty psychopaths whilst lacking the strength to truly put them in their place like he'd planned to do with Whitebeard's devil fruit.

As such, there was no way in hell he would add more risks onto the ones he already has to deal with on a daily basis.

"Here's hoping that asshole never comes back! TopTopTopTop Hic-!" the drunkard, Vasco Shot laughed.

'Please come back, Burgess. I need all the loyal men I can get…' Blackbeard almost prayed.

…

Marine Headquarters.

Aokiji sat behind the desk of the fleet admiral, his desk now he supposed. He wouldn't ever get used to thinking of it that way. Even when he fought Akainu over this very position, he hadn't really imagined he'd be the one sitting here in the end. It was practically a miracle that he pulled a win against that hothead, given his elemental superiority over Aokiji's devil fruit.

That Akainu went and joined the Neo Marines almost immediately afterward was no small headache of his; just one of many that he had in recent days.

The return of the Straw Hat crew was yet another such headache. The worst part was that he kind of liked them, not that he would ever admit as much.

"Kukuku…" chuckle former fleet admiral Sengoku in the corner. It wasn't terribly clear whether he was amused by Aokiji's stressed out appearance or by the romantic comedy novel he was reading.

"What's so funny?" Aokiji asked straightforwardly.

"The man in black challenged Vizzini to a battle of wits. One glass of wine was poisoned by the man in black and the other was not. Vizzini swapped the cups when the man in black's back was turned and died thinking he'd won!" Sengoku retold. "Turns out the man in black poisoned both glasses, as he built an immunity to the poison beforehand. HA!"

"I have no idea who those two people are." Aokiji spoke truthfully, having never read any of the book.

"Whoops, spoilers." Sengoku chuckled.

"I'm not going to read it anyway; I'm too busy as it is." Aokiji said with a sigh.

"I found time to read." Sengoku said.

"How'd you manage that?" Aokiji asked.

"I retired. HA!" Sengoku barked a laugh.