Civil War Crisis

Later that night, Percy was sitting his office trying to practice his observation haki when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in" he said as his eyes were closed.

The door opened, Eli and Good Price walked through and saluted the vice admiral before sitting in the two chairs in front of their leader.

After a few seconds, Percy opened his eyes and saw his two commodores patiently waiting for him

"sorry about that, how is the situation out there?" Percy asked while gesturing with his head towards the island.

There was a brief hesitation before Good Price started,

"sir, it's not looking too good. Every time we arrest someone, more rebels appear. We are running out of handcuffs and space to place our prisoners."

Eli continued for his competitor,

"We had to resort to using the prison cells in the military barracks plus under the royal castle just to hold all of these people. It's like we're arresting half the island!"

There was a brief silence before Percy started talking,

"You don't need to arrest the citizens, just Gabba. When he's gone, the rebellion will fall with him."

"That's the problem sir" Eli started, "every time we go into his territory, we are unable to make progress either because he already moved, or people are trying to hit us with things."

"Things?" Percy asked as he raised his eyebrows

"Pitchforks, butcher's knives, baskets, anything they could find. One old woman even went up to one of the captains and started to hit him with a hard piece of bread!"

"HAHAHAHA you can't be serious."

"No sir, we are" Good Price said as embarrassment was shown on his face. He never felt like this in the past. Usually wherever he went the people who either fawn over him or run away. Never did he feel like he was the bad guy.

"Well get used to it. We are in the middle of a civil war. And you are tasked with capturing a person who some of the people in the kingdom view as their savior. You are going to meet resistance. It is our duty as the marines to maintain the peace, and to do that, we must apprehend the criminal Gabba."

"Yes sir" both of them said at the same time.

"Good, what are you planning to do next?"

"Well sir, with your permission...tomorrow, my team would like to start a mass raid on possible locations of the rebel leader. It should be straight forward. I'm sure someone at those locations will know where he is hiding" Eli said as he was thinking out loud.

Good Price went next, "for my team, our plan is to use search for a pattern, in Gabba's movements. The way he is capturing territories on the island is a bit odd and I want to find out why."

"How is it weird?" Percy asked as he started to take a keen interest in the civil war.

"It seems like he is capturing random locations, such as mountains and distant villages, but the next day he tries to take a fortress right outside the capital city. As I said, it's random at best and incompetency at worst."

[I wonder who is making these decisions, Gabba or the Trimm family] Percy thought as Good Price was pointing out the rebels' attack pattern. [Probably the Trimm, I can't imagine them letting Gabba attack this randomly. There must be another reason.]

"Alright, continue your investigation and let me know if you need my assistance." Percy said as he was about to dismiss his subordinates.

"There will be no need vice admiral. I am confident that this will be over soon" Eli said as he saluted his commander.

"Me too sir. I doubt that Gabba can hide for much longer" Good Price agreed as he turned to leave.

[If what they is said is true, we should be leaving this island in the next couple days. Perhaps a week at the most.]

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Several days later; Percy was sitting on a hill in the distance watching the fight before him. The commodores were right, their methods worked and they quickly discovered Gabba's location. Now, the marines were sent out to arrest not only the rebel leader, but his cadre as well.

*munch munch* "Eli is not half bad. If he trained some more he would be a strong rear admiral. Though, he is not quite there yet" Percy said out loud to himself as he was munching on popcorn watching Eli and Good Price attacking Gabba. "Good Price on the other hand" he stared at the man, "his devil fruit is quite unique."

Commodore Good Price ate the drum- drum fruit making anything he touches into a drum. While it may sound ridiculous, if he touches an opponent, then he can cause internal injuries with his constant hits.

Percy usually placed Good Price at the back when he attacks pirates because of his ability. His drumming can raise morale and allows him to form formations with his troops to tackle on multiple opponents at once. Seeing Good Price at the forefront was indeed new for Percy and he was very much looking forward to his performance.

"You f*ckin marines, you messed up our plan. Didn't your commander tell you anything?" Gabba yelled as he fully transformed into a spinosaurus.

"Yeah, he said that you're to be captured" Eli said as he tried to side swipe Gabba with his sword.

[He uses geppo and soru effectively] Percy noted as he watched the battle rage on.

"NO! You idiots-" Gabba started before he was hit in the stomach by Good Price. A loud *boom* was heard where the impact was made and the rebel leader flew back vomiting blood.

"Enough! Plan this, plan that. Who cares. All that matters is that we are here to maintain peace and justice in Zandia" Good Price said as he started to walk over to the crouching Gabba.

Before the commodores could reach him though, a person appeared next to him

[soru!] they both thought as they stared at the woman.

"Change of plans Gabba. Rush the castle and I'll have the rest of the rebels follow you" Zyn whispered to the dinosaur. "It's now or never."

Gabba hesitated for a moment before nodding his head, he got up and started to run towards the capital.

When the commodores saw that they were confused at first before understanding.

"Last ditch effort" Eli said looking at his fellow marine. Good Price agreed, "last ditch."

Before the two could sprint after Gabba, Zyn appeared before them and stuck out her badge

"cp-2. You're interfering with a world government mission."

Eli and Good Price stopped, they of course heard of cipher pol, but there was no mention of them being involved in this civil war. Not even a whisper.

The two commodores looked at each other, not sure what to do. They couldn't let Gabba run wild, but they can't casually interfere with the world government. This was out of their pay grade so they decided to call their vice admiral.

"One second" Eli said as he picked up his den den mushi

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Percy was still sitting munching on his popcorn when he heard his snail make a noise

*peroperopero peroperopero peroperopero*

he swallowed and answered his den den mushi

*katcha* "Hello"

"Vice admiral, it's commodore Eli and I'm here with Good Price as well. There seems to be a situation here and we need to know what to do."

"What is it?"

"We were chasing after Gabba when a woman stopped us and flashed her badge. Apparently, she's part of cipher pol. She asked us to stop pursuing."

"Put her on."

"Yes sir." There was a pause before Percy heard a woman's voice on the other line,

"vice admiral Percy, my name is Zyn. I am rep-"

Percy cut off Zyn before she could speak any more "I don't care who you are. Why are you stopping my men?"

There was a brief pause before Percy heard Zyn again "as I said," she started "this is now a cipher pol operation. You are not allowed to interfere anymore."

"Is that so, I guess I'll go to the king and tell him that because cp-2 hired Gabba to start a revolution in his country, I vice admiral Percy am not able to interfere even though it's my duty to protect one of the world government kings."

There was another moment of silence before Zyn spoke again, much quieter this time,

"I thought Gulp told you not to interfere?"

"He did, I'm not. My men are."

"You know what I mean!"

"Perhaps I do, but you know? I'm starting to get sick and tired of you guys ordering me around, not without proof of the footage of course."

"This isn't the time to renegotiate Percy" Zyn said as she gritted her teeth.

"No this is exactly the perfect time. The Trimm family has provided me with nothing but empty words, if you want my help, then produce, what I want."

"You'll regret this!" Zyn said as her anger started to flair, [who does he think he is, a mere vice admiral threatening me? ME!]

"Perhaps, but you won't be the one to do it, will you?" Percy asked as he spoke into the den den mushi.

Zyn took a deep breadth and tried to figure out how to make the best out of this situation. All she needed to do was delay until Gabba causes chaos in the capital and her agents can take care of the rest.

"Fine, pursue him for all we care. All we ask is you don't capture him until he reaches the capital, preferably until he's near the castle. If you can do this, then we'll hand over what you want."

"Hmm...I can do that, but don't let Gabba kill any civilians or it will be a slap to my face and I can't have that."

"Deal" Zyn said as she handed the transponder back to Eli. She immediately used soru and disappeared looking for Gabba and letting him know the change of plans.

"Sir?" Good Price said as Percy was still on the line

"Capture Gabba, just make sure he doesn't kill anyone and make it slow. I have a bet with cipher pol and we need to win this one."

Both Eli and Good Price were confused with the order but nodded their heads anyways. "Yes sir!" both of them said as they hung up.

[I better head to the capital too before anything else unexpected happens] Percy thought as he started to dark travel across the island.