Thanks for all the reviews and feedback so far. After a slow first chapter, things should start heating up now.

Now, onward to the chapter.

Chapter 2: Maria of the Angels

The Strawhats said nothing as they watched Mariangely leave.

"Mariangely, what a heavenly name fit for an angel," Sanji cooed.

Zoro rolled his eyes at the cook, although he too found himself taken by the woman and he didn't know why. He just met the woman.

Luffy suddenly brought his fists together. "I don't care what she says. She's joining my crew whether she likes it or not!" He then ran out of the bar.

"Luffy, wait!" Usopp yelled.

"Let him go," Nami sighed. "You know how he is when he has an idea."

Chopper looked at Nami. "Do you really think she'll join us?"

"Who knows." Nami shrugged. Although she tried to sound indifferent, a part of her hoped she would. Dammit, what was wrong with her today? "Anyway, let's get our supplies and go back to the ship before anyone else tries to kill us."

The rest of the Strawhats nodded in agreement.

Luffy ran all over the town looking for Mariangely. He asked around and was met only with threats. Some even tried to attack him, but they were easily dealt with. Most of the suppose pirates in town were either complete wimps or were too drunk to put up a decent fight.

After nearly an hour of running around town and getting nowhere, Luffy eventually found himself on the far side of town, which was much dirtier and run down than the port entrance.

Luffy knew from his experience in Goa that this was the part of town where all the shady businesses stood.

"Dammit Mariangely, where have you been?" a voice yelled. Luffy then heard the all too familiar sounds of a slap. "I told you to come here at four o' clock sharp!"

"Sorry, I had some trouble at one of the locals bars," Mariangely said. Her voice was shaky as if she was fighting the urge to cry.

Another slapped filled the air, causing Luffy to wince. "That's no excuse! You have customers that have been waiting for you!"

Mariangely sighed. "I know..."

"Then get to work!" the man yelled again as Mariangely's voice disappeared.

Luffy ran towards the sound of the commotion and found himself standing in front a large wooden building. It was slightly run down, but it was in better shaped than the other buildings in this area of town.

He quickly scanned a nearby sign and read it out loud. "Joe's Brothel." Luffy didn't know much, but he knew what a brothel was. They practically littered all of Edge Town and he has been threatened to be sold to one on more than a couple of times.

"Hey, what do you want, kid!" someone yelled at him. Luffy looked up to see a dirty man coming towards him. "This is no place for children."

Luffy looked straight at him with a blank expression. "I want to see Mariangely."

The man began to chuckle. "Who doesn't. She's very popular. She's the only slut I would dang in that crap hole."

"Can I see her?" Luffy asked, purposely ignorant the sexual overtone.

"She has another client," the man said. "You have to get on the waiting list, plus she's an expressive little thing. If you're desperate, they're others here you can wet your appreciate on until she's ready."

Luffy said nothing as he walked inside. The inside was surprising comfortable with sofas and chairs. Normally, he would barge in and take Mariangely by force, but he decided to wait. He honestly didn't want to walk in on anything.

After an hour or so of waiting in the lounge, a man came out, whistling happily. He didn't even spare Luffy a glance as he walked out.

"How may I help you?" a man behind a desk asked. He looked all too happy counting his money.

"I want to see Mariangely," Luffy said bluntly.

The man chuckled. "Have your eyes on the good stuff. Not bad for someone so young. However, she's booked until the end of the month."

Luffy frowned. He didn't want to wait a month.

"Who's that? Is that my next appointment?" Mariangely asked as she stepped out of the room. She was now dressed in a white silky gown that flowed over her curvy body.

Luffy found his eyes locked on her and unable to turn a way. There were no words to describe her.

"Mariangely, get back inside!" the man yelled. "Your next appointment will be coming any minute now."

Luffy was finally able to break out of his trance. "So, this is why you turned down becoming part of my crew."

Mariangely frowned when she saw Luffy. "Oh, it's you again."

The man looked between the two. "You know him?"

"He's just some pirate I ran into in town," Mariangely tried to say dismissively.

"What this about you joining his crew?" the man insisted as his voice rose.

"It's nothing," Mariangely said quickly.

"I want her to become my new crewmate," Luffy said bluntly, causing Mariangely to glare at him.

"Be quiet," she whispered harshly.

The man laughed. "So you're that taken in by her that you want her all to yourself? You're a typical pirate, but you can't have her. I wouldn't sell her even if you offered me a one-hundred million belli for her."

Luffy turned towards Mariangely. "Can't you leave?"

Mariangely put down her head shamefully. "I...I can't..."

The man began to laugh harder. "You see, her old crew sold her to me for a nice profit. The captain needed the cash after her rack up an ungodly gambling debt."

"Well, I decided to have her as my crew and that's the end of it," Luffy said stubbornly.

"You can't just decide that!" Mariangely yelled. "Besides, this bastard owns me."

The man grinned evilly. "That's right. If she ever tries to leave me, I can bring the entire force of this town on her head. I won't let my star whore get a way."

Mariangely cringed at being called a whore. It looked like she wanted to strangle the man.

"Do you want to be here?" Luffy suddenly asked Mariangely.

Mariangely was surprise by the question. "What?"

"Do you want to be here?" Luffy asked again.

"Of course I don't want to be here!" Mariangely yelled. "Why would anyone want to be someone's sex slave?"

Luffy lifted up his arms. "Then join me on the open sea!"

Mariangely snorted. "I got burnt by one pirate crew before. As far as I know, you just want me as your private slut. If I do leave this place, it won't be as a pirate, especially a pirate's whore."

Luffy's face softened. "I would never sell you or use you like that."

"I've heard that before," Mariangely sneered.

"That's enough chitchat," the man said harshly as he ruthlessly grabbed Mariangely's arm. "Your next client will be here soon. So get back inside."

Before he could pull her further, Luffy suddenly backedhanded the man into a wall. Mariangely was completely stunned by these turned of events. The boy captain's eyes were covered by his hat, giving him an intimidating aura. This was the first time she could see the feared pirate known as Strawhat Luffy.

"She says she doesn't want to go back," Luffy growled harshly.

"What the hell are you doing, Strawhat!" Mariangely yelled once she found her voice. "You maybe a feared pirate, but you can't just steal something from a town like this."

"I don't care," Luffy said as he lifted his hat up so she could see his eyes. "I fear no one in this or any town. If you want freedom, then join me as part of my pirate crew. Otherwise, you can stay here and rot as some man's toy."

Mariangely was speechless for a couple of minutes. The boy's demeanor and devil may care attitude was something that she wasn't expecting. Yes, all pirates had a degree of recklessness, but she had never heard of a pirate picking a fight with an entire town over one woman. Especially one he has just met. Nonetheless, she felt herself smiling.

"You're really something else. I guess I should expect no less from a man of your reputation," Mariangely laughed before she gave a wide smile. "Fine, I'll be a pirate one more time. This town stinks anyway."

Luffy returned her smile. "Then let's get out of here."

"You...you won't get away," the man groaned as he stood up. "No one steals my property."

This time, Mariangely was the one who kicked him in the face, knocking some of his teeth out. "Shut up! I'm done with you and your whorehouse. Find someone else to fuck."

Luffy chuckled at the scene before they both ran out. When they got outside, they saw several people surrounding them.

"Where do you think you're going?" one of the men growled.

"I had her next!" one of the people said as he reached for his sword. "I waited a month to get my hands on her."

"No one steals our whore and gets away with it," another man said.

This earned him a vicious kicked by Mariangely to his midsection. "Stop calling me a whore!"

Luffy also took out the rest of the men easily with a Gum Gum Whip.

Mariangely looked at Luffy in mild surprise. "So, the rumors are true. You're a Devil Fruit user."

Luffy smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I ate the Gum Gum Fruit."

Mariangely playfully grabbed Luffy's cheek and pulled it until it stretched. Strange, his skin felt normal except for maybe being thicker and smoother. "Such a strange power suits you."

With that said, they both ran off through the town. It didn't take them long before they had the Sunny within their sights.

"That's your ship?" Mariangely asked. She realized how dumb the question was when she saw the pirate flag flowing in the wind.

Luffy chuckled. "Yeah, the Thousand Sunny!"

"Why do a thousand dandelions come to mind?" Mariangely muttered to herself.

As they ran, several more pirates came after them. Mariangely recognized some of them as her former clients. The things some men do for a booty job.

Meanwhile on the Sunny, Brook stood on watched as he turned towards the sounds of the commotion.

"Luffy-san's back!" Brook yelled when he saw his captain running towards the ship. He was watching them through a telescope.

"It's about time," Nami said in annoyance as she and the rest of the crew finished loading the ship. Luffy always somehow manage to skip carrying the supplies on board the ship.

"Oh my, he has a pretty young lady running beside him," Brook suddenly added.

This caught Nami's attention. "A pretty lady?"

"It must be that woman we met at the bar," Zoro said as he tried to keep his face blank.

He had to keep himself from breaking into a smile at the thought of seeing that woman again. Why the hell was he so happy anyway? He just met the girl for heaven's sake.

"It seems several people are also chasing Luffy-san," Brook continued to report.

Sanji sighed. He knew that rubber idiot couldn't stay out of trouble for long.

"Can't we go into one town that doesn't end with us being chased out?" Usopp whispered to himself.

"Stop that ship!" they heard someone scream. "That boy's a thief!"

Nami heard enough as she turned towards her crew. "Get ready to set sail!"

Usopp looked at her in surprise. "What about the log pose? It doesn't set for another two days."

"We'll deal with that later!" Nami yelled as she pushed Usopp. "We have to leave now!"

Without another word, they all got the ship prepared. By the time Luffy and Mariangely reached the Sunny, the sails were opened and the ship was ready to move. The crew didn't have to drop the ladder as both Luffy and Mariangely jumped on board.

"That was fun," Mariangely muttered.

Sanji happily greeted their new crewmate. "Mariangely-chan, it's an honor to have you on board." Hearts were dancing in his eyes.

Mariangely just stared at Sanji.

They began to pull out of port, but several nearby ships attempted to cut them off. It wasn't long before they began to fire on them.

"Sheesh Luffy, what did you steal from them?" Franky asked as he helped to defend the Sunny by shooting at the enemy's ships.

"They want Mariangely," Luffy answered simply as he deflected a cannonball with his rubber body.

Zoro looked over Mariangely carefully. "She's that valuable?"

Mariangely shrugged. "Apparently so."

"Talk later!" Nami yelled as she told Sanji how to steer the ship away from the enemy.

After over ten minutes of dodging and deflecting cannonballs, the Strawhats were finally able to sail away from the island. Some of the Strawhats collapsed in exhaustion from their escape.

"Too close," Usopp muttered.

"Those ships nearly shuck us," Chopper said. "Good thing Sunny is much stronger than the Merry." As much as he loved his old ship, Merry would had not survive such an assault.

Franky looked over the damage. "Damn those pirates. This is at least half a day worth of repairs."

Luffy chuckled. "That was kind of fun."

Usopp knocked Luffy upside the head. "Only you would call that fun."

Zoro turned his attention towards the person who caused the entire situation. "Why were those people after you?"

Mariangely sighed. "Because I owe a huge debt."

Zoro gave her a confused look.

"Her old crew sold her to a brothel," Luffy said bluntly, causing the entire crew to stare at him in disbelief.

"You didn't have to tell them that," Mariangely grumbled.

"What kind of jackass sells a woman to a brothel?" Sanji asked in disgust. "Tell me where they are and I personally kick all of their asses for you!"

"They're long gone," Mariangely said dismissively. "They left me in that town weeks ago."

"It isn't uncommon for pirates to sell women like that, especially over debt," Robin said darkly.

There were more than a couple of times when the pirate crew she was sailing under attempted to sell her or use her as a sex slave. Thankfully, her powers were able to put such men in their place, although she had more than a few close calls.

Chopper titled his head. "What's a brothel?"

"I'll tell you when you're older," Robin answered gently.

"He's old enough," Luffy said as he turned towards Chopper. "A brothel is..."

Robin immediately used her power to shut Luffy's mouth. "There's no need to ruin his innocence." It kind of disturbed her that Luffy knew what a brothel was.

Chopper looked between the two of them, completely lost.

"Sounds like you had a rough time," Franky noted, getting back to the main subject.

Brook nodded those head. "What those men did to you is a great dishonor. A union between two people isn't something to be sold to the highest bidder."

"It wouldn't be the first time a man screwed me," Mariangely said as she tried to wave off their concerns. "I just wanted to pay my debt off and get the hell out of there, but my demand because so high that it became nearly unbearable. Also, some of those pirates were just plain filthy."

"Demand?" Chopper asked in further confusion. He hated being treated like the little kid in the room.

"It makes sense given your...appearance." Nami said slowly. She was not going say out loud that Mariangely was beautiful and that she was almost jealous of her.

"You're safe now," Robin assured the younger woman. "Although, you may want to be looked over by Chopper to make sure you did not get anything."

Mariangely shuttered at the thought of what she may have contracted from those pirates.

Luffy smiled widely at Mariangely. "No one will ever hurt you again, cause you're part of my crew now."

Zoro folded his arms. "So, it's official."

Sanji was all too happy to have another female on board. He was sick of getting nothing but men lately.

Nami should be happy about getting another female on board, but something about Mariangely just didn't sit right with her.

"Hey Robin, do you mind taking Mariangely to her new room?" Franky asked. "She should rest and get settled before Chopper runs any kind of tests on her."

"What kind of tests am I supposed to be running?" Chopper asked in frustration.

Zoro sighed as he gently grabbed one of Chopper's hooves and took him into the infirmary. It was best to have this kind of talk in private. He would really prefer either Nami or Robin to do this, but this was a talk between men.

At the same time, Robin began to lead Mariangely to the woman's quarters.

"Although, because of our dealing with Mariangely we had to leave the island before our log pose set," Nami sighed in frustration.

"Oh, I nearly forgot," Mariangely said as she took something off her wrist and threw it at the navigator.

Nami gracefully caught it and carefully looked it over. "This is..."

"A log pose," Mariangely finished for her. "I managed to keep mine when I was sold. I had to have some way to escape one day."

"Well, at least that's one worry out of the way," Nami said as her mood brightened.

Mariangely then allowed Robin to lead her to the woman's quarters. The room was very spacious with two beds set up, which she assumed belong to Robin and Nami.

"You know, this ship isn't very big if these are the woman quarters," Mariangely noted. It looked like the room could only hold two or three more people.

"It works because this is a small crew," Robin said. "Luffy is a very personal person and has handpicked everyone here. Because of his philosophy, I doubt this crew will ever become big. That is most likely why Franky did not make the Sunny bigger despite all the resources he had."

"Sounds like a weird policy to have. As a pirate, it's always best to have a large and diverse crew in case something happens," Mariangely said. "I mean if one of you dies, you would be severely shorthanded."

Robin nodded. "True, but Luffy does not feel that way. To us, we are more than just his crew. We are his family."

Mariangely looked up at Robin. "Family?"

Robin fondly nodded and began to smile. "I am sure it's strange to hear such a word among a pirate crew, but it is the truth. Even when I was formerly his enemy he welcomed me on board without a shred of doubt. At first, I thought it was simply to repay his debt to me, but he sincerely cared for me."

Mariangely sat on one of the empty beds in thought. "It seems kind of odd that Strawhat would see me as family despite the fact we've just met."

"He must have seen something special within you," Robin said as she glanced over Mariangely.

Mariangely shrugged. "I guess he did, but I find it weird that you don't question me at all either. You don't strike me as the trusting time."

"You are quite correct. For a long time, I trusted no one but myself and questioned anyone I have ever come in contact with," Robin admitted. "But, I trust Luffy completely and in lieu of that, I trust anyone he chooses to have on his crew. Luffy may make odd or rash choices, but his instinct has always been proved right about people."

"Your captain, or should I say our captain, sounds like an amazing person. I can't wait to know him better," Mariangely said, although she could tell that Robin wasn't being entirely truthful towards her.

There was short, comfortable paused between the two women.

"Mariangely, I have to say that is a strange name," Robin suddenly said.

Mariangely smiled. "It was my mother name. I was named in honor of her because she died giving birth to me. I was told it meant Maria of the Angels."

Robin raised an eyebrow, but chose not to say anything. This girl was strange and, despite her own words to her, she did not entirely trust her. Luffy, however, saw fit to invite her to their crew, and she would always respect her captain's decision, despite any misgivings she may have. It was not like she joined with a clean slate.

Nonetheless, she could not shake the uneasy feeling Mariangely gave her. She found, however, her doubts fade when she looked into Mariangely's beautiful violet eyes. She felt herself go at ease, although she didn't know why.

"I think we'll become good friends, Robin-chan" Mariangely said with a smile.

Robin returned the smile.

A couple days passed within the pirate town and life had all but returned to normal. The day, however, was miserable since it have been raining for the past couple of days. Because of the weather, most of the pirates stood inside the bar, getting even drunker.

"You're looking for some girl name Mariangely?" the bartender asked.

"Yeah, we left her here nearly a month ago," the man answered.

"Sorry, but Mariangely left days ago," the bartender said. "Well, most like she was stolen by some pirates. The brothel owner was not pleased. That woman was pretty much his only business in that shitty hell hole of his."

Another man next to the first man sighed. "Dammit, we were too late. That devil has already made her move."

"Do you know who stole her?" the first man asked.

The bartender nodded. "It was one of the hot rookies, Strawhat Luffy."

The first man nodded. "Just as we expected."

"It makes sense. I've heard that Strawhat had a small crew despite his reputation. It will be easy for her to cast her spell on them within a short time," the second man said.

The first man folded his arms. "There is only one more island left from here before they reached Sabaody. She will make her move there, I'm sure. Looks like Aaron will be working overtime in order for us to catch up with Strawhat."

The other man nodded. "No matter what, we must stop her before she destroys the Strawhats."

Well, I hope you like the small twist in the ending. Yeah, there is more to Mariangely than being a Mary Sue. Some of you are probably going through the checklist in your head about all the qualities Mariangely fills on the Mary Sue's test and are probably thinking that the only thing missing is an overpowered Devil Fruit, most likely the Water Water Fruit. All I can say is wait and see. *wink*

Until next time.