This is basically my author's note... unless you count the epithets and flags: I don't own One Piece. Many of the ideas here aren't mine, either.
At a glance, one might have thought that the ASL pirates were your usual bunch of pirates. They had the main characteristics: lots of booze, many parties, more treasure than they probably needed, and a crew with structure and function. The moment anybody looked further, however, they would likely notice the three captains (each with their own ship, crew, and design near [read: on and/or behind] their letter on the flag), the lack of a large crew to go with the small 'fleet', and the more than a bit unusual crew.
Nobody really expected much of the eccentric bunch of pirates at first. When they beat the 'strongest of the east blue' it wasn't any concern because it was the weakest sea. When they beat crocodile it was hidden from the world. The first really noteworthy thing was declaring war on the world government, but as the government didn't immediately retaliate it was forgotten within the eccentricities of the crew. When they beat their second shichibukai they were hidden in fog and nobody knew. The first thing that was noted for how much it stood out was punching a world noble.
When Kuma sent the Strawhat portion of the ASL pirates away, he also sent Ace and Sabo. Ace found himself with the Whitebeards, and left shortly afterwards, only to be caught by Blackbeard. Sabo found himself right in the heart of the revolution's base. He ended up meeting Luffy's dad, and also found that the revolution's goal was a lot like his dream.
When Ace was captured, five parties came to save him, Whitebeard, Whitebeard's allies, Luffy, Sabo with the revolution and Robin, and the ASL pirates that hadn't been sent away. Interestingly enough, Luffy fell from the sky with a whole battalion of prisoners (including Jimbei who was previously informed of Whitebeard's decision to save Ace), but Ace didn't try to send him away because of the difference in structure of the crew(s) they were on. The Marines were overwhelmed by the forces of all these 'criminals', as they weren't prepared for Whitebeard or the revolution.
When Ace was saved the brothers decided they needed more training, especially since Whitebeard, himself, had died and they couldn't do anything about it. As the groups headed back, Luffy somehow ending up on Trafalgar Law's submarine, they were intercepted by the Kuja pirates. They all went back to Amazon lily including a whole ship of Whitebeard pirates and the revolution. After getting there, Rayleigh showed up and said he'd train Luffy for two years. Robin and Sabo decided to learn at the revolutionary base, and Ace decided to train with the Whitebeard pirates. Ace's main portion of the crew, or the spades, decided to train with Ace, and many of the Top Hats chose to do the same, the rest joining Sabo and Robin.
So the 3D2Y writing along the arm happened along with the ringing of the bell. They even decided to put concealer over Ace's tattoo and put the same on his arm.
Two and a half years later, the 'small fleet' reaches Raftel. Luffy immediately declares himself pirate king. Ace argues that since he's the oldest, he must be pirate king. This elicits an argument much like when they were kids, including Sabo knocking them over the head and demanding they knock it off. Since they had all reached it at the same time and they were co-captains, they were all 'the' pirate king. The Marines, of course, immediately tried to claim that there was only one pirate king.
The ASL pirates would not stand for this, however, and when the news tried to declare Ace the pirate king (because he was 'Roger's son' and the eldest brother), the three stormed the nearest marine base leaving graffiti declaring phrases such as "the ASL pirate kings were here" and "Portgas D. Ace remains fatherless in the minds of anybody with half a brain".
Each crew portion had their own assignments to write. The Tophats were to steal the marines' spare clothes and give them to the other portions to dye and graffiti. The Spades were to write about Ace's lack of father/the lack of existence of 'Gol D. Ace' and 'Gold Ace'. The Strawhats were to write about the co-captaincy and shared King status. The snipers had a different assignment. They were to wait until the marines' spare clothes were put back and get dye all over their current clothes without them feeling a thing. All four groups had to do their assignment without being caught.
A month of this every time the news said anything about Roger being related to Ace in anything other than title or about one brother being the pirate king without mentioning the other (or just mentioning the brothers without their title), and the government stopped messing up (mostly). Other news companies stopped after two of them were targeted for messing up. The news reporters did get a kick out of finding the place to stick a picture of dyed Marines in the paper. They also made fun of the other companies for being dyed. The graffiti that wasn't on clothes was also finally reported after the news companies were 'attacked'.
If anybody wants to know their flag (letter) designs:
Ace: his hat, a spade (like the card not a shovel), and some flames [basically canon except with a letter instead of a skull, and the spade and flames are in front of the crossbones and shrunk so they fit beside the S and L]
Sabo: top hat with goggles
Luffy: straw hat [basically canon]
Epithets:
Ace- Fire Fist *Hiken*
Sabo- Blue Gent [I didn't feel like making one, but blue gentleman felt too long… also, I have no idea who originally made the blue gentleman epithet] *Aoshi/Aoi Shinshi* (Aoi Shi could also mean inexperienced samurai according to google translate)
Luffy- Strawhat *Mugiwara*