On the other side, sparks of rage flared from Smoker's cigar as he stared in the direction the Straw Hats had vanished. His Jitte gleamed with a cold metallic sheen under the harsh desert sun.
"Captain Smoker!" Tashigi's voice called out from below, her glasses caked with sand.
"Another squad of Baroque Works agents just showed up on the east side!"
The Shigure in her hand dripped with fresh blood, her white Marine uniform now streaked with dark red.
Smoker whipped his head around and saw dozens of agents in uniform charging out from behind the dunes.
Mr. 1's steel body glinted menacingly in the sunlight as Marine soldiers fell like wheat stalks before a scythe.
Further off, Mr. 2 was pirouetting wildly, his ballet kicks flinging Marines in every direction with each spin.
"Damn it…" Smoker growled through clenched teeth, smoke billowing from every pore of his body.
He suddenly turned into a white cyclone, blasting across the battlefield and slamming three agents aside in an instant.
"Is Crocodile openly declaring war?" His voice boomed like muffled thunder over the desert. "Ridiculous!"
Tashigi rolled to the side to dodge a flying poison needle, then countered with a clean slash, knocking the attacker's weapon out of their hand.
"Captain! Reinforcements are showing up on the west side too!" Her voice was tight with urgency. "It's Mr. 3 and his crew!"
Smoker's glare could have melted steel. He glanced toward the path the Straw Hats had taken, then at the retreating Marines. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth as he spat into the sand.
"All units, listen up!" His roar cut through the chaos of battle.
"Priority one: wipe out Baroque Works! Let that sand freak know what it costs to mess with the Marines!"
At his command, the Marine formations shifted immediately.
As mortars thundered in the background, Smoker dissolved into smoke and blasted straight toward Mr. 1.
The two collided in a thunderous clash, sparks and steel lighting up the sandstorm like desert lightning.
"Hmph! Princess Vivi, come quietly. Otherwise, these Marines die here!"
...
Deep in the burning heart of Alabasta's desert, the Straw Hats were dashing forward when Luffy suddenly slammed to a stop, his rubber arms flinging out comically from inertia.
"A... Ace?!" Luffy's eyes nearly popped out of his head, his jaw dropping wide enough to swallow a whole watermelon. He rubbed his eyes hard. Once he was sure it wasn't a mirage, he launched himself like a cannonball. "Ace!!!"
On a distant sand dune, Ace stood in his trademark orange cowboy hat. He was just as stunned. He instinctively caught his little brother, and the two tumbled together into the sand.
"Luffy?" Ace patted his back, his black hair now filled with grit. "What the hell are you doing way out in the middle of Alabasta's desert?"
Luffy scrambled off him, his straw hat sitting crooked.
"We're helping Princess Vivi!" He waved his arms around in animated explanation, choking on his own excitement.
Usopp jumped in, wildly exaggerating the scale of the Marine deployment with his hands.
Ace sat cross-legged in the sand, finally putting the pieces together.
"So that's what's going on." He tugged the brim of his hat low, the shadow hiding half his face.
"I'm here hunting Teach."
"Teach?" Luffy tilted his head.
"Marshall D. Teach. A traitor from the Whitebeard Pirates," Ace said, his voice suddenly cold enough to chill the desert. A ghostly blue-green fire flared in his clenched fist.
"He killed Thatch and stole the Devil Fruit…"
"What?!" Luffy's face froze, the weight of the news hitting like a punch. The Straw Hats all gasped. Zoro's hand instinctively went to his sword. Sanji's cigarette dropped straight from his lips.
"That kind of scumbag..." Luffy muttered darkly, his straw hat casting a shadow over his eyes.
"Absolutely unforgivable."
Nami suddenly pulled out her phone.
"Ace, do you have a photo of him?" She quickly opened TikTok.
"We've got tons of followers now. We can post it to expose him!"
Ace blinked. "Photo? TikTok?" He looked at Luffy, utterly lost.
"What are you guys even talking about?"
"It's a phone!" Nami waved the device.
"Super popular right now…"
Luffy threw an arm around Ace's shoulders, his rubber limb coiling around him twice like a scarf.
He held the phone up high, yelling,
"Ace! Say cheese!"
"Huh?" Ace barely had time to react before Luffy twisted his head toward the camera.
On the screen, two faces appeared: Luffy grinning wide with all his teeth out, and Ace looking completely baffled.
Click!
The flash went off. Ace instinctively blinked.
When he opened his eyes again, Luffy was proudly shoving the phone in his face.
"See? That's a phone! It takes pictures!"
Ace stared at the photo in disbelief. The image was even sharper than what a Transponder Snail could capture.
Luffy swiped the screen.
"Look, you can zoom in too!"
Ace's confused face was suddenly enlarged three times, making Luffy roll in the sand laughing.
"This thing… can it buy food too?" Ace poked the screen, still skeptical.
"Of course!" Luffy shuddered at the memory.
"Last time we ran out of food on the ship, we almost starved to death! But then I found this!"
He opened a food streamer's profile, the screen flooding with mouth-watering grilled meat videos.
"I ordered fifty servings of grilled meat straight from here! They dropped from the sky right onto the ship!"
Ace stared in disbelief. His Transponder Snail puffed a little bubble in protest from his palm, as if sensing betrayal.
He weighed the little guy in his hand.
"If phones are really this useful… doesn't that mean Transponder Snails are going extinct?"
Sanji flicked his cigarette to the sand and exhaled a smoke ring.
"Not necessarily."
He gazed toward the horizon.
"In poor places, a single phone can cost half a year's wages for the average family."
Zoro crossed his arms and added,
"The worst is that island near the New World. The black market's driven the price up to fifty thousand Berries a unit." He scoffed.
"More expensive than my sword when I started out."
Ace's eyes lit up, and he ruffled Luffy's head with a big grin.
"If I had a phone, I could contact you anytime!"
"Yeah, yeah!" Luffy turned to Nami, stars twinkling in his eyes.
"Nami~ Can you buy one for Ace too?"
Bonk!
Nami's fist dropped on Luffy's head like a meteor, raising a cartoonishly large bump.
"You think I'm a phone vendor or something?!" Her hair stood on end with rage.
"Do you even know how much one of these costs?!"
Luffy squatted on the ground, holding his head and drawing circles in the sand. Ace burst into loud laughter.
Just then, a familiar "coo coo" echoed from the sky above.
(To be continued.)