"Master, this is bad!"
"The gate has been opened! G-5 is storming the institute!"
A guard burst into the room, gasping for air as he delivered the dire news.
"What?!" Caesar and the others were stunned. Weren't those guys supposed to be trapped in the cage outside?
Otto lunged forward, grabbing the guard by the collar. "What about the Straw Hats?"
"I... I don't know! But some men saw them with G-5!" the guard stammered.
"Bastard!" Otto roared, tossing the guard aside like trash.
"Caesar, you owe me an explanation!" Jason's face was dark. Beside him, Cavendish's hand was already on the hilt of Durandal. If it hadn't been for Caesar's insistence on his experiment, the Straw Hats would be dead by now.
"I... I... I..." Caesar was stammering, his mind reeling.
"Everyone, what's done is done. We need to focus on damage control," Vergo interjected calmly.
"Damage control? Right... we still have a chance!" Jason's eyes flickered.
"With our current strength, we can still eliminate them inside the institute," Vergo stated flatly.
"Yes! Exactly!" Caesar regained his footing. "Kill them! Get Law to help, plus Vergo and Monet, everyone together!"
"Their goal is the children. We cut off their escape and trap them in here," Vergo said coldly. "I'll handle G-5 personally."
"Cold-blooded toward your former subordinates, aren't you?" Cavendish remarked.
"Leave the Straw Hats to us. Get Law to move with us," Jason ordered. "Caesar, Monet, you two go to the Biscuit Room and guard the children!"
Caesar was pained by the idea of his institute becoming a battlefield, but he didn't dare argue. They quickly divided the tasks and prepared to move.
WEE-OOO! WEE-OOO!
Suddenly, red emergency lights flared across the institute, accompanied by a piercing siren.
"This is Building D! Emergency broadcast to all areas of the third institute!"
"The SAD Manufacturing Room has been breached! The intruder is... GAH—"
The broadcast cut off with a scream, followed by eerie silence.
"What?! The SAD room?!" Caesar shrieked in panic. "Who? Who breached it?!"
Vergo's expression finally shifted to one of urgency. "The SAD production cannot be compromised!" He knew exactly how vital SAD was to the Family. If it were destroyed, the fallout would be catastrophic.
"Is it them? How did they find out about SAD... did someone leak the secret?" Jason's group looked equally grim.
SAD was the essential ingredient for Artificial Devil Fruits. The Chris Pirates and the Donquixote Family had been selling them to the Underworld, with their biggest customer being Kaido of the Beasts, who was building an army of Zoan users.
"SAD..." Jason's eyes widened as a thought struck him. "Wait, their target might also be Caesar himself!"
The realization hit the room like a physical blow. Losing SAD was bad, but losing Caesar meant losing the ability to create Artificial Devil Fruits forever. Kaido would lose his mind.
"Really... the target might be me!" Caesar's face turned pale. "I don't want to be captured or killed!"
"I'm going to the SAD room," Vergo said, moving immediately.
"Monet, protect Caesar!" Jason commanded. "We'll rendezvous with Law to intercept the Straw Hats. As for G-5, if you run into them, stall or eliminate them!"
…
Building B – Central Staircase.
Bang! Bang! Bang!Boom! Boom! Boom!
Gunfire and explosions rocked the halls, leaving the walls charred and pockmarked. The institute guards were taking heavy losses, retreating step by step under the combined assault of G-5 and the Straw Hats, leaving nearly two hundred bodies in their wake.
"They're moving fast. They've already reached this point?"
Jason and the others arrived at the second-floor stairs just in time to see the guards retreating below.
"Luffy isn't there, and neither is Smoker," Otto noted, scanning the crowd.
"Then one of them must be the intruder in the SAD room," Cavendish said grimly.
"I can't get in touch with Law. What's going on?" Jason stared at the silent Den Den Mushi in his hand.
"Maybe he ran into Smoker or Luffy and got delayed," Cavendish shrugged. "Law has Smoker's heart; it won't take him long to finish it."
"I hope so," Jason muttered, though a nagging feeling told him he was missing something.
"One drop is enough," Jason said, handing a bronze flask to Otto and Cavendish. They immediately understood, it was time to end this quickly.
"You're really pulling out the big guns, Physician Jason," Otto teased, taking a drop of the antidote.
"No choice. We failed the Captain out there," Jason sighed, pulling out the last two vials of M-13. He smashed them together.
The transparent liquid vaporized instantly into the air.
Five seconds... ten... twenty... a full minute passed.
"Uh... did you grab the wrong vial?" Otto asked, looking at the Marines below who were still very much awake.
Jason's face turned white. "No... I didn't."
Otto and Cavendish's expressions shifted to horror. "Then how?"
The guards were fine because of their hazmat suits, but the G-5 Marines and the Straw Hats weren't wearing anything. Why weren't they falling?
"I've been targeted," Jason whispered, his voice trembling with disbelief. "This is impossible. Even if M-13 is easy to neutralize once analyzed... to do it in this short a time... it's impossible!!"
To create an antidote that quickly, someone would have had to analyze the blood of the people Jason knocked out earlier. There simply shouldn't have been enough time.
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