In addition to Luffy being a staffer of Impel Down, I was inspired by the Archive of Our Own story, Impel Down's Straw Hat Crew, to write a challenge of Luffy and perhaps his canonical crewmates as well as other One Piece criminals potential or otherwise being sent to Impel Down before the would've been events of Romance Dawn, which would necessitate them cooperating together to escape. Before we get started, here's some guidelines and a disclaimer.
No unnecessary bashing: seeing characters grow up and show hidden strengths is all good until it looks like the writer is purposefully making the character in question look like an unlikable nuisance at best and a complete villain at worst. Trust me, it's best to show both the positives and negatives of those in a story. And since this is an AU, I'm working forward to some people growing up differently, especially in a positive manner.
No slash: I try not to judge people who have different "bonding" preferences compared to mine, but I really don't think that characters that weren't listed as canonically yaoi in nature should be depicted as such. Not that I like gender bending much either.
Keep the content at a controlled level: meaning that it's probably best to be mindful of which direction the story/stories will go. I like straight lemons as much as the next fellow, but given how things all are iffy on certain websites like FFN, it would probably be wise to just walk first before jumping.
Be mindful how the story goes: as much as I'd like to see Luffy do great in a different faction/environment per story, that doesn't mean I wish for him to turn out completely unrecognizable in either a bad, or overpowered sort of way. I'm just curious on how he could and will far in Impel Down as an actual inmate. Also, if you decide to add on some characters to Impel Down's staff and/or inmates, I wish to recommend that you be mindful when making OCs, especially when you want to give them a big role, and that if you decide to include canonical characters such as Enel and the Eleven Supernovas, please make the circumstances for their involvement as plausible as you can. If you're all lucky, the story could move forward from its unusual beginning straight to the One Piece epilogue, whatever it may be.
Don't shy away from asking me for advice or beta reading: however, I won't dictate your execution as it should ultimately be your decision. I'm doing fine with it so far with digemsmack over his Fairy Tail story which I gave my patronage for, Ascension of the Second Apocalypse.
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Eiichiro Oda does.
[TNOC]
The Nation of Convicts
[TNOC]
In the Calm Belt that separated the East Blue Sea from the Grand Line's Paradise half, lied a massive building that stood from the sea floor itself, guarded by Marine battleships, surrounded by Sea Kings, and was known as Impel Down. For many years, it had served as the World Government's maximum-security prison for the most dangerous criminals that threatened its citizenry, security, and influence. Due to the many perils inside and out, numerous outlaws preferred not to be sentenced there. Unfortunately, as Monkey D. Luffy had learned at the age of sixteen, the plans of certain people, don't go as they initially planned.
As the Marine vessel he was confined on sailed to Impel Down, Luffy wearily sighed thinking. 'All this because I punched Stelly or whatever his name was?'
With only a year left before he could leave his home island to start his journey as the future King of the Pirates, Luffy had decided to spend his last year as a Dawn Islander robbing the Goa Kingdom's noble population for both money and out of a sense of payback for Sabo's death. Unfortunately, not only was he caught, but when he encountered the noble Stelly around his age, a verbal confrontation between them quickly became physical and resulted in him being shipped to the most hellish prison in the world. Worse, when his grandfather, Marine Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp, learned of what happened, he warned Luffy not to mention their relation to each other, otherwise Luffy would be executed right away for the rebellious crimes of his father. And thus, Luffy had no choice but to embrace his sentence, regardless how much he disliked it.
Upon arrival, he was able to hold in his screams upon being "disinfected" with boiling water, and more thankfully, the guards of Impel Down allowed him to keep his straw hat once they saw it wasn't a weapon or something of the sort, even if it clashed with Luffy's new stereotypical prisoner garb. After that was done with, the guards then assigned him to what they referred to as Level 1 of the Great Underwater Prison, where the least infamous inmates were to be chased through a forest filled with sharp-leaved trees and spiky grass. What annoyed Luffy, however, was that he was labelled as one of the least infamous all because punching a teenaged noble from the East Blue wasn't the same as punching a King or even a Celestial Dragon. Not that his first session of Level 1-specific torture wasn't painful, though.
'I guess one would argue it's nice that rubber isn't immune to everything.' Luffy thought as rhetorically as he could when he was placed back in his assigned cell. It didn't take long for him to remember, though, that his grandpa was able to hurt him regardless of his Gum-Gum Fruit power, which made him a bit sad on the inside since he missed him and the people he liked from Dawn Island. Sighing, he also could imagine what his role model and big brother-figure, Shanks and Portgas D. Ace, would say if they knew that Luffy got himself in Impel Down before he even started as a pirate. Nonetheless, Luffy narrowed his eyes to the ceiling, knowing that he had to get out of that awful prison.
A nearby voice hummed in contemplation before whispering. "Now that's a strong look of resolve I don't see often."
Remembering that he wasn't the only person in his cell, Luffy turned his eyes away from the ceiling as well as the jittery men that stood on either side of the cell, and turned to his left to see a green haired, pale skinned woman with amber eyes and a convincing smile sitting by him.
Seeing no malice from her, Luffy merely smiled and replied. "Oh, I was just telling myself in my head that I had to breakout no matter what."
The lady giggled. "Can't say I blame you. I've been here a bit longer than you, and I must admit, Impel Down's terrible reputation is well-deserving and I mean that without exaggerating."
Luffy couldn't help but feel bad for his female cellmate when she spoke. He was thinking of breaking himself out after one day, and yet, the woman next to him had to endure that torture a bit longer. "Sorry that I'm whining about my troubles. It looks like they're your troubles, too."
The woman appeared to be blushing at his sincerity before she shook her head in dismissal. "You don't need to worry about that." Her smile than appeared more cunning. "Although, if you already have a plan for escape, I wouldn't mind hopping along with you."
Luffy took a face of shock after her statement. "Uh, I honestly haven't thought that far ahead, but I definitely intend to fight my way out of here, that much is certain." He then smiled at her. "And you'll come with me, too."
The woman frowned. "I admire your resolution, but that sounds easier said than done."
Luffy shrugged. "Maybe, but I plan to find the One Piece, and I can only do that outside of here."
The woman's eyes widened, but she found her smile again. "King of the Pirates, eh? That sounds like a lofty goal for a young man, but not a bad one."
Luffy chuckled. "You're a pretty funny lady, too." He then held his hand out to her. "I'm Luffy."
The woman smiled gladly. "Call me Monet." They shook hands for a bit before Monet asked. "So how did a contender such as yourself ended up here so soon?"
Luffy rolled his eyes remembering. "I punched a bratty noble from the East Blue's Goa Kingdom."
Monet whistled. "You're definitely a long way from home, Straw Hat. I was born in the North Blue, but I spent some pirating years on both halves of the Grand Line before those idiot Marines captured me. Because I didn't have a bounty before then, I was sent to Level 1 as I'm sure the circumstances were the same for you."
"Yeah, it's kind of sucky. How many levels do you think this place has, anyway, Monet?"
Monet adopted a look of conspiratorial proportions at the question. "I believe there's six, but since Level 6 would be filled with the most dangerous criminals, it's not quite common knowledge."
Luffy looked confused at that. "Then how do you know that?"
Monet giggled. "Let's just say that I'm good at research as I am with my Snow Human abilities."
Luffy was awed at that. "Your Devil Fruit has something to do with snow and you're smart? You're awesome!"
Monet did her best to hide her blushes once more. "Well, I hope you have some strengths other than flattery, if you hope to get out of Impel Down alive."
"Oh, I ate the Gum-Gum Fruit which makes me a Rubber Human!"
"A Rubber Human?" Monet asked in confusion.
"I can stretch as I punch and jump."
Monet shrugged in dismissal of how ridiculous it sounded. "Well, I've seen stranger Devil Fruits that can still be useful." Whispering once more, Monet than divulged. "You know, Luffy, the idea of the Six Levels has got me thinking of a way for us to breakout."
"Really?" Luffy looked hopeful. "What do you have in mind, Monet?"
"In the forest, there's a hole that leads to Level 2, and from what I understand, there's a similar process on that level followed by Levels 3, 4, and 5. Each "Hell" is more dangerous than the last, but from what I understand, danger hardens a person's strengths. Not to mention that if we can encourage a good amount of our follow prisoners to help cause trouble for Warden Magellan and his small army of thuggish torturers, we could find our opening for escape."
Luffy smiled. "Sounds challenging. When do we start?"
Monet shared the sentiment with a smile of her own. "The next time we're sent to the forest, we'll head out."
Luffy looked excited at that and was unaware what Monet was really thinking.
'After tricking so many fools to explore the levels below me and listening in on the Black Transponder Snail of their exploits for so long, I think the time is coming for me to make the Young Master proud and bring him Caesar Clown. One way or another, Luffy, you'll be the key to getting Caesar and I out.'
[TNOC]
It took some effort, but it was worth it. For those of you curious, in addition to this being an AU where Luffy is sent to prison early, this is also an AU where Caesar Clown didn't escape the authorities after causing the Punk Hazard mess two years before the start of the canonical story, and not wanting it to be publicly known that Doflamingo wants to support Caesar's experiments or has the blackmailed backing of the World Nobles, he sends Monet undercover to get Caesar out without drawing attention to the Donquixote Pirates. Not that I think Monet would have to be bad from the start to the end. I'm quite open minded on her becoming a good friend to the Straw Hats at least and a Straw Hat herself at most.
In addition to Monet and Caesar's presences in Impel Down, I can also imagine some well-noted criminals shown in One Piece such as Pedro of the Minks for one example appearing as well, if you want to do things differently. I actually think with the right methods, Mistress Sadie might be the most probable Impel Down Staff Member to align with Luffy. I mean, a dominatrix who loves the sounds of screaming as a jailer sounds as weird mixing as a bastard like Shiryu being a close friend of Akainu's. Well, I don't know about that last one, but I hope you see my point.
Just let me know if I get any takers.