Whitebeard was receiving his sons, Klee Meow was still shouting about being bored on the Dodo Advance, and no oversized cat food can had fallen from the sky.
So...
Where did Uranus go?
Sherwin head was a bit confused.
Actually, it wasn't hard to guess where Uranus was. After all, besides Marineford, there was another place of major focus for the World Government called Egghead Island.
But the problem was, Vegapunk was still over there! Even if the World Government no longer wanted to keep him around, with so many black-tech products on Egghead Island, as well as things capable of changing the world like Punk Records and the Mother Flame power reactor, could Imu really harden their heart to destroy them all together?
Furthermore, given the World Government current state and the fact that Mariejois had been destroyed twice, did York still single-mindedly want to become a Celestial Dragon?
However, the famous fictional detective Mr. Sherlock Holmes once said: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Regardless of whether York had defected or not, after ruling out the minuscule possibility that Imu eight-hundred-year-old brain had short-circuited and sent the newly repaired Uranus to bomb Totto Land, Pirate Island, or Baltigo, the attack just now could basically only have occurred on Egghead Island.
And...
Most of the garrison on Egghead Island had been deployed to Marineford, so Kaido and Charlotte Linlin would most likely not miss this opportunity.
Therefore, there was a very high probability that they had also been caught in the disaster along with it.
As for the Five Elders, they had most likely gone to Egghead Island too.
Since they couldn't die anyway, they were the best candidates to lure and stall the Alliance.
If they were lucky enough, it wasn't completely impossible for them to seize the opportunity to take down a Kaido or a Charlotte Linlin, or even take down both of them together.
Damn it, my jinx of a mouth better not come true at a time like this!
The moment this thought popped up, Sherwin immediately slapped his own mouth.
Although he had a grudge against Kaido and his relationship with the Big Mom Pirates was only average, during this current period, the two of them being alive was much more useful than being dead.
If the two of them died under Uranus bombardment, the World Government would be able to free up their hands to focus on dealing with the Revolutionary Army and Sherwin group.
So even if the Beast Pirates and the BIG MOM Pirates suffered heavy losses this time, it was best for the two core figures, Kaido and Charlotte Linlin, to both stay alive.
As long as the two of them were alive, they could continue to tie down the World Government attention.
Moreover, perhaps this opportunity could be used to open up cooperation with them.
After quickly analyzing the current situation in his mind, Sherwin called for Klee Meow and the others to come down and help via the Sheikah Slate, while also stepping forward to cover the retreat of the others.
Since the Marine attitude was vague and Magellan ultimate move had been restricted by Haibara Meow and Shirley, even without the joined forces of Sherwin, Klee Meow, and the cats arriving later, the retreat of the crowd did not encounter too much resistance.
Soon, the Moby Dick, the Thousand Sunny, and the recently landed Dodo Advance successfully withdrew from Marineford amidst the Marine "lining up to see them off."
...
"Those damn bastards! Where did they hide Grandpa?!"
Luffy, who had come aboard the Moby Dick together with Marco and the others, was extremely furious.
Not only did they fail to rescue Garp on this trip, but it had also resulted in Ace taking a blade and nearly losing his life.
If not for the persuasion of Sabo, Nami, and the others, he would have insisted on going back to send Catarina flying no matter what.
It was just that at this time, even if Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates had become Supernovas, they were still just nobodies in the eyes of the Revolutionary Army and Whitebeard.
Even Dragon had no intention of chatting more with his son, but instead came with Whitebeard to the Dodo Advance...
"That tremor just now—as expected, the World Government has already repaired 'Uranus?"
Dragon was clearly thinking the same thing as Sherwin. With a worried look on his face, he said, "But they didn't use it on Marineford... Vegapunk... is in deep trouble."
"Didn't you guys say that the World Government still needs Vegapunk to work for them? Besides, Egghead is a scientific research base they spent an enormous amount of resources to build they just wiped it out like that?"
Whitebeard furrowed his brows, unable to help but question.
"Though I didn't want to see this happen either, but..." Sherwin shook his head, sighing with regret, "Egghead Island has already lost contact."
Before Dragon and Whitebeard came over, he had already tried to call Vegapunk, but there was only total silence from the receiver...
If a Transponder Snail that was dialed died or was released, there wouldn't be a ringback tone or a busy signal in the receiver, but rather it would completely fail to go through, and Vegapunk obviously couldn't have suddenly released the Transponder Snail used to contact Sherwin.
Therefore, it could already be concluded right now that Egghead Island was gone, it was just unknown whether Vegapunk survived.
"I've already asked Shanks, who is in Elegia, to go to Egghead Island and check it out to see if he can find Vegapunk. However... the hope is slim."
Sherwin shook his head again.
With the strength of Kaido and Charlotte Linlin, it wouldn't be difficult to escape Egghead Island before "Uranus" was launched, but for Vegapunk to escape in time, he could only place his hopes on whether he had prepared some special escape device.
But the problem was, if York had really betrayed the main body just as Sherwin guessed, even if there was such a device, it would be useless.
In the original story, York had almost wiped out Vegapunk main body as well as the other clones in one fell swoop.
"That Imu, really is just as you said, not putting anyone in their eyes..."
Whitebeard also shook his head, expressing with emotion,
"An old monster who has lived for over eight hundred years, a genius scientist like Vegapunk indeed amounts to nothing to him, he can completely wait for a new genius to appear in the future."
"Actually... he doesn't necessarily have to wait."
Sherwin thought about it and decided to voice his suspicion regarding the clone betrayal:
"Vegapunk created six clones for himself, each possessing their own self-awareness, and intellectually they are not much different from the main body.
If one, or even a few of them, were bought off by the World Government, then Egghead Island wouldn't be as secure as we think... Heck, Uranus might even have been repaired by that clone..."
But immediately after, Sherwin dismissed his own speculation.
"Hmm, no, that not very likely. If that were the case, Vegapunk should have noticed something..."
Therefore, Sherwin couldn't understand why Vegapunk, when creating the clones, didn't take any precautions whatsoever.
Even if he gave them independent personalities for the sake of better research, he should have at least secretly left a backdoor or something, right? You knew enough to set up command authorities for the Pacifistas and the Seraphim!
As for the argument that Vegapunk and his clones shared the same brain, and that any backdoor would be discovered and removed by them...
Sherwin didn't believe that with Vegapunk capabilities, he couldn't manage to isolate and extract relevant memories from Punk Records.
Now look at how things turned out. Whether in the original timeline or this current timeline with the intrusion of Sherwin and the Felynes, Vegapunk failed to escape the fate of being killed by his own clone.
A genius scientist being consumed by his own creation... this really is a classic trope of science fiction novels!