One Piece: Regime

Prologue: Returning to the old job

Note: This story takes place after the events of Fishman Island

A train raced along its dull metal tracks, passing by a herd of grazing sheep as it came ever closer to its destination. Eventually, the locomotive left behind the wide expanses of farmland that covered the majority of Terra Buena Island and made its approach towards the train station sitting just outside of the only major city on the island. Just when it looked like the train might overshoot its stopping point, the enormous machine managed to grind itself to a halt, coming to rest perfectly parallel to the boarding platform. A few moments after a small flood of civilians hauling off their heavy luggage had exited the passenger cars, a few men clad in black suits, hats, and ties began disembarking from the train as well. After about two dozen of the suit-clad men had made their way onto the loading platform, they were joined by a man who looked to be in his late twenties, who had a lanky build, short, black hair and wore a black waistcoat, a white undershirt, and dark brown pants and shoes. He approached the assembled suits while twirling a ballpoint pen idly in his right hand, not even bothering to make eye contact with any of them until he was standing directly in front of them. Following this man was a woman of about the same age who had a deep, blood red colored hair, extremely pale skin, and dark gray eyes. She was clad in a late twentieth century military uniform and had three miniature silver stars pinned above the right breast pocket of her shirt. Unlike the man before her, she gave annoyed look to the entire crowd of suits for the entire duration of her short walk to their location; breaking it only momentarily to take occasional sips from a soda glass filled with orange liquid that she hadn't managed to finish while she had been back on the train. Finally, long after the rest of the train's passengers had departed, a tall, well-built man with dark brown hair wearing a tuxedo with a golden tie and handkerchief tucked into his breast pocket emerged from the last car connected to the train and joined the others assembled on the platform.

"Well, this looks like everyone," The man said as he joined the assembled group and gave individual nods to the other latecomers who were now standing directly to the right and left of him. "Force, you know where we're going, so why don't you take the lead- oh, and the targets might not exactly be happy to see us, so try not to start something."

The woman merely nodded as she began barking orders to the suits, which were soon forming a sort of wall that marched along directly behind the three who were obviously their superiors. Force took a few steps ahead of the group and began to lead them through the city. Almost immediately, an enormous crowd of civilians began to gather around the procession, and rings of gossip began to flare up around the city like wildfire.

"The World Government is here!"

"Really, what do you think they're doing?"

"They must be here to deal with those pirates!"

"Why didn't they send in the Marines?"

"I don't know, but let's watch! It'll probably be really cool!"

And so, the World Government agents were followed by an ever-growing amorphous blob of civilians as they moved further into the city. Just as the sun had reached its highest point in the sky, the procession stopped in front of a dilapidated tavern overlooking the intersection of three roads. The gray-eyed woman extended her arm and grasped ahold of the grime-covered doorknob jutting out of the rotting door, and proceeded to pull the door open.

"Rankyaku!"

A sudden force from within completely shattered the old door into hundreds of tiny splinters and rose up an all-concealing cloud of dust that hung in the air for several seconds before being torn apart by a gust of wind. As the dust vanished, Force lowered her arms to her sides, obviously unharmed from the attack- though more than just a little annoyed judging from the look on her face.

"They're agents of the World Government," a voice echoed slightly from within the old building.

"Spandam must have sent them, I wonder if they realize that they're about to die?" Another voice from within responded, the desire for bloodlust in its owner clearly conveyed in the way the words were said.

The rank and file agents took a nervous step back upon hearing those words, the brown-haired man merely smiled and stepped through the remains of the building's doorway. The interior of the building was as equally as destroyed as its door, with several bodies and random severed parts scattered about a field of broken class and wood. Still left standing were three individuals, the one standing before him was wearing a black baseball cap and a striped shirt who had an elongated and oddly rectangular nose, the one off to the side was a woman wearing net stockings who seemed to be ministering to a wounded man who was laying down on top of the serving counter, and the one who was currently sitting at the only unbroken table in the only unbroken chair was staring at him like he would soon be shoving a knife in his chest.

"He's dead, you know,"

"Who's dead?" The square-nose asked

"Spandam. Apparently you're 'get well soon' call caused a slight heart complication that just recently did him in. I hear that his funeral will be held next Thursday."

"Is that so? Then you must be here to bring us in for murdering such a 'world renowned hero'" The brooding man at the table said as he instantly cleared the distance between him and the World Government agent.

"Shigan!"

"Tekkai!"

The attacker viciously jabbed his right index finger into the chest of the tuxedo-wearing man in front of him, which merely bounced off his chest as if it were nothing.

"Actually, I'm not here for anything like that at all," the brown-haired man said as he dusted the mark that had been made on his suit. "I'm actually here to apologize on behalf of the World Government for how you were wrongly accused by the former Director."

"You're joking," The woman said as she tuned from the wounded man atop the counter to face the newcomer.

"I assure you that I am not," The agent said in the most sincere tone possible to the race of man. "Recent events have driven the World Government to rethink how it was handling the Enies Lobby case, and all charges that Spandam had brought against you and anything you might have brought upon yourself between then and now are hereby dropped."

"That's quite generous. Why have they suddenly decided to acquit us?" Square-nose asked.

"Let me guess, after letting so many pirates escape from Marineford and being unable to handle all of the new bands of criminals that have sprung up like weeds, they realized that they need us, didn't they?" the other member answered as a white pigeon dressed in a tie landed on his right shoulder.

The man smiled again "That's a rather pragmatic way of putting it, but yes. The World Government has extended to you the offer to reinstate all of your previous extralegal rights. However, instead of being directed by someone like Spandam, you would be directed by me."

"You expect us to return to CP9 after what Spandam did to cover his own failure?"

"Well you see, I'm not the Director of CP9, I'm the head of something a little more… direct. Ever heard of the Regime Taskforce?"

There was a moment of stunned silence after that last part had been said. Even Rob Lucci, the man who wasn't fazed by the slaughter of hundreds of people, stood in shock.

"That's the World Government's trump card. The team that has singlehandedly preserved the existence of Justice in this world no less than seven times since the founding of the World Government itself" Kaku said after the effect of the phrase eventually lost weight.

"Indeed, and judging from that attack I felt earlier, you guys haven't lost your edge at all these past two years. You would all make excellent additions to the taskforce- oh, and by the way, I only count thee three of you, where are the others?"

"We got into a slight argument with some pirates here, they were stronger than we initially expected," Kalifa said as she gestured first to the bodies scattered around the floor, and then to three individuals who had been laid down on the floor to the right; two of said individuals being rather large.

The agent merely nodded and approached an individual whose chest had been riddled with finger-sized holes.

"'The Roar of The Sea', Captain Scratchmen Apoo of the On Air Pirates - bounty of 198,000,000 berries. You've done well to have defeated such a powerful pirate captain, I might even go so far as to say you've grown even stronger in the past two years."

The agent closed the pirate captain's eyes and returned his attention to the former government assassins he was trying to win over.

"If you're acquaintances require medical attention, I happen to have a full medical staff present with me waiting back at the station. I know I can't expect a full answer to my request on such a short notice, but I was hoping that you would be so kind as to board a train with me to the coastline. We can discuss the full terms of your return to the World Government's services while in transit."

"So," The agent said as he called several suits to come collect the pirate captain's remains. "Do we have a deal?"

Author's Note: I would just like to start off by apologizing to any Supernova fans out there who may be reading this, Apoo is probably the only one who's going to get the ax in this story. (maybe)

Anyways, what is this? The World Government actually doing something smart for once? Madness I say!

Also, feel free to write a critique/comment. Imput is greatly appreciated.