Chemical Warfare

After making sure the blue crystallin liquid couldn't harm us, I opened the fumigation hood to get a closer look. Prodding the liquid with a glass poke, I tried to discern its true nature, "So what do you think it is?" Evos asked before taking a sample of the liquid and carrying it away to store.

"I don't know. I've never seen this before. Crystals can't metal as they just crumble and turn into mineral dust." Evos grunted, and I turned around to see that he was looking through a microscope at the liquid, "Sorry to tell you this but, your theory is wrong. Because all I see here is crystal fragments."

I walked over, and Evos moved aside so I could take a look, and after a glance, I was right alongside him. But looking a little bit longer, something about the liquid seemed familiar. Now with a lead, I started to move around the lense, scanning through the crystal.

Then I found it. A small round bead of bluestone floated in the liquid, and crystals had started to grow on its surface. "There lies the key to it all. Take a look." Evos retook control of the microscope, and I waited for his opinion on the object.

"The crystals are growing on it. What is it, a magnet?" I smiled, "Your close, but the correct terminology is a seed, a term used in supersaturated solutions. Where the solution that contains more than the maximum amount of solute that is capable of being dissolved at a given temperature."

Evos sighed, "You sound like a major asshole when you do that, you know?" I grinned, "Of course I do. Why else would I do it? Anyways when this happens, you can form the crystal again by introducing a tiny fragment of the original material, also called the seed."

Nodding, Evos pointed at the sample, "Then why was this on a classified warship carrying experimental weaponry?" I clicked my tongue, "That's the ten million berri question, isn't it. There always one way to find out in the end."

Biting my thumb, a dot of blood welled to the surface before quickly transforming into a tiny human with no face or gender. Walking over, I dropped the homunculus into the solution and waited for something to happen.

Almost immediately, I felt as if someone sucker punched me as I doubled over and nearly lost my lunch, "Soren, what the hell!?" Evos rushed over and started to check me over, "I'm fine, just give me a second."

Evos looked at me worriedly, ready to catch me if I fell over again, "What the hell just happened?" A grave look fell over my face as I stared at the solution, "What I say can not make it out of this room."

Evos quickly adopted my look, and I sighed, "It's Seastone. I felt it nullify my powers. That's what it was the backlash from my connection being cut off. I have no idea, but they figured out how to purify seastone. The particles are so small I fear that if a Devil Fruit user were exposed to much of it or ingested the solution, they would die."

I could see the color rain from Evos' face as he looked back to the freezer where we had more than two dozen orbs of the substance. "How easy do you think it is to make this stuff?" I sighed, "I don't know enough about crystals and minerals to understand what it would take to mass produce this stuff. But I don't think we will see this on the battlefield anytime soon. But let's call it, get Dragon, Whitebeard on the line, and everyone from the original crew."

When everyone was in a secure area, I started the meeting, "Soren, why did you call us here today. I just got off the battlefield, and I would like a moment of peace." Whitebeard's familiar voice boomed out of the Den Den Mushi that sat in his place, still carrying all the brash character I expected from my captain.

"For once, I do agree with Edward. This is unexpected." At Dragon's more calming voice, I sighed and looked at my original five crew members, "As you know, some time ago, we intercepted a weapons shipment from the Navy."

I took a breath to steady my voice, "Among the items was a bundle of glass vials containing a blue substance." At that point, I placed one of the orbs sat on a pillow on the table, "Just hours ago, Evos and I decided to try and gain more information about the substance and what we found is highly concerning."

Whitebeard snorted, "You make it seem like the end of days is coming. Just spit it out already, boy." Nodding, I continued, "The World Government has devised a way to create a concentrated version of Seastone that can potentially kill a Devil Fruit user."

There was a moment of silence before Ace spoke up, "You have to be kidding. That's impossible." Evos growled, "Soren experienced it first hand. For nearly a minute, he could barely do more than try to stand. And that was only from the backlash of experiencing the feedback from a clone."

The anger in his voice shocked everyone into silence again, and it was a minute before Dragon cleared his throat to speak, "Do we know anything else about this weapon."

I shook my head, "Not even on the ship's inventory that we confiscated. It wasn't even listed. If we didn't learn about this now, I don't dare imagine what would have happened."

"Well, to look on the bright side, we know about it now, so we need to stop imagining and starting thinking about what we're going to do," Cal said, being the voice of reason that we needed.

"I propose a task force, something small no more than ten people. Dragon, I'm going to leave this to you to organize." The rest of the meeting was filled with other conversations that served to use up the rest of the available time.

When the meeting was over, I went to leave when Evos grabbed my arm, the look in his eyes was deadly serious. "What's on your mind?"

Evos didn't waiver, "Put me on the Taskforce."