Marine Headquarters.
When they got the emergency call from Akainu's battleship, everyone was shocked—like they had just been hit by lightning.
The battleship of their Fleet Admiral had exploded and sunk!
"What happened exactly?" Vice Admiral Tsuru rushed into the Fleet Admiral's office like a gust of wind and asked Brannew.
Sengoku and Garp followed closely behind her, like her left and right guards. Both were dressed casually without even wearing their Justice cloaks.
They were snacking on rice crackers and didn't seem anxious at all.
After all, they were basically semi-retired now.
"Uhh... (⊙o⊙)..."
"For some unknown reason, Fleet Admiral Sakazuki's ship exploded. The keel snapped like a twig, and the ship broke in half. I've already ordered the nearest ship to rush over for rescue," Brannew answered quickly.
The three old-timers looked more confused than ever.
Akainu's battleship was the newest model in the entire World Government fleet!
Normally, the keel was as strong as steel. There was no way it could break so easily.
But now it had snapped suddenly and caused a massive explosion?
Vice Admiral Tsuru and the others couldn't figure it out no matter how hard they thought about it.
"The explosion happened while they were returning from Punk Hazard to HQ, right?" Sengoku asked, frowning deeply after thinking for a moment.
"Yes!" Brannew answered firmly.
"If I had to guess," Sengoku said right away, "the explosion and the broken keel probably have something to do with the Dream Exploration Team."
"But the Marine who called for help said they didn't see any of the Dream Team aboard... Still, Fleet Admiral Sakazuki came to the same conclusion as you, Inspector Sengoku. He also believes the Dream Team did it," Brannew said.
"Sigh~"
"This is a huge embarrassment for the Marines. The Fleet Admiral's ship exploding and sinking at sea... what a mess," Vice Admiral Tsuru didn't know what else to say.
Now that both Akainu and Sengoku were saying it was the Dream Team, it was probably true.
But the ship was already gone. Knowing who did it didn't change that. And it's not like they could strike back right away.
"Ryuen's still as vengeful as ever, huh..." Sengoku said with a sigh.
At first, the Marines and the Dream Team actually had a decent relationship. Even though Ryuen and the others operated outside the Marines, both sides knew there wasn't any real conflict between them.
And everyone knew the Dream Team acted with a strong sense of justice.
But all of that changed during the Summit War.
Back then, the Dream Team took Bartholomew Kuma away, which really angered the Marines.
After all, Kuma was the prototype of the World Government's human weapon—the Pacifista.
To the World Government, the modifications done to Kuma were top secret and couldn't be leaked.
That's why, even if Kuma was treated like trash and left in the garbage pile at Mary Geoise, the Five Elders would never allow him to leave their control.
Because of that, Ryuen's Marine status was eventually revoked.
Akainu, who understood how dangerous the Dream Team could be, saw them as a growing threat to the Marines.
Now that they were enemies, he of course wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible, to protect the Marines' power and image.
So when the Dream Team made their move, the Marines didn't try to stop them.
Punk Hazard.
After the Dream Team's party ended, it was already deep into the night. But by dawn, another ship appeared off the coast of Punk Hazard.
It came from the World Economic News Agency!
Hearing the sound of a ship approaching, the Dream Team members woke up from their sleep, rubbed their eyes, and stepped out of their tents.
"It's that guy Morgans. What's he doing here instead of staying on Sky Island?" Nojiko said, recognizing the bird-headed man standing at the front of the ship.
The others also looked puzzled.
After all, Morgans is famous for being afraid of death. That's why he's always seen in his human-beast form while sailing the seas.
You could say that no one on the seas has ever seen Morgans' real face—not even the Dream Exploration Team.
"Gahaha~"
"Surprised to see me show up at Punk Hazard?" Morgans shouted proudly as soon as his ship docked, waving to the Dream Team.
"Morgans."
"Do you know what time it is? If you don't have a good reason for waking us up, each of us is going to punch you once!" Nami said, raising her fist at him.
The rest of the team also looked at Morgans with unfriendly expressions.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
"Don't get mad! I'm only here because of the lab on this island!" Morgans panicked.
He knew these people would hit first and ask questions later.
"The lab on the island?" Robin asked with a confused look.
"That's right!"
"I'm really interested in what's inside. If the things in there get out to the world, it would cause a huge stir! It'd be front-page news!" Morgans said excitedly.
"What things?"
"Morgans, do you know what's in there?" Hogg was clearly surprised.
The others were curious too.
"Well~"
"Of course I do. Besides being the King of News, I'm also known as the King of Intelligence in the underworld."
"But I only know part of the secret inside that lab. Still, even that small part is shocking enough," Morgans said with pride.
"Then spit it out—what exactly is in there that made you come all the way down from Sky Island?" Nojiko pressed.
Seeing everyone's curiosity, Morgans felt even more smug. But he knew he couldn't drag it out too long, or he really would get beaten.
He quickly put on a serious face and said, "Once, I got solid intel that the World Government was using prisoners in this lab for terrifying human gigantification experiments!"
"What?!"
"Human gigantification?!"
"Experiments?"
The whole team gasped in shock.
---
You can read 10 Chapters ahead on my
pat reon.com/GMadman