Chapter 1~

Coby's POV~

'Perhaps,' Coby thought to himself, as he watched the young man in the red vest and straw hat argue with a red haired girl, 'I've made a terrible mistake.'

Coby had a dream. He wanted to become a Marine. The problem? He'd been an enslaved cabin boy to the Alvida Pirates for at least two years. Maybe three. If the Marines knew this, then he'd be imprisoned at best, and hung at worst. Slave or not, he had, technically, been a pirate.

The young man who sat in the dinghy with him, had saved him from that life.

Sort of.

He'd come out of a barrel, breaking a pirates jaw, and then proceeded to block two swords with his arm. Coby had seen those men fight before, and they pretty tough. Skilled enough to have survived since the time Coby had been forced onto the crew.

Most of the faces he saw these days were newer then his own, but those two who had swung the swords, along with the man whose jaw had been broken, were all survivors. Apparently they were among five of the few who were smart enough to grovel when Alvida was angry, but skilled enough to survive when the Marines came knocking, who had also been part of the original crew, before Alvida had taken over.

Coby knew those men had no qualms about killing, and he knew they were strong.

The first one being taken down in a single hit? Unexpected, but considering none of them had expected a well muscled teenager to burst from the barrel, and sucker punch one of them, it wasn't exactly impossible.

But for the teen in the red vest and straw hat to try and block two swords with just his arm? That should have been impossible. His arm should have fallen into two pieces with him clutching the remainder of his stumped arm in pain. And then proceeded to die as the men hacked at his torso.

But the impossible happened. The swords met the teens arm, and, other then a trickle of blood, as if they'd been sawing at his arm with a butter knife, nothing else happened. Well, not to the teens arm. The swords on the other hand clearly met far too much resistance and were moving far too fast to jerk to a stop. Something had to give.

And, while that something should have been the teens arm, it wasn't. It was the blades themselves. Worn from use, but still lethal, the blades cracked, and broke.

For the first time, Coby had had hope. The men grabbed their friend with the broken jaw, and ran screaming about monsters. And, when Coby saw the teens tail, which he'd actually only noticed at the point, twitch angrily at the term monster, he thought the men might be right.

They were. The teen had demanded he feed him, or be eaten himself. Coby was reasonably sure the older teen was kidding, and was only looking to get food as soon as possible, but he didn't want to take chances. He put away more food then Alvida on a bad day.

And when Coby had decided to be a good person and try to tell this guy to escape or he'd be killed by Alvida, the teen grinned. Apparently, the idea of a fight to the death was far too appealing to just leave.

He'd wondered if the boy was a pirate, and they got into a discussion about goals. Coby was hit three times, and told by the teen that he was pathetic and worthless, and that the teen, who he'd then learned was named Luffy, hated people like Coby.

When Coby realized just how determined Luffy was to achieve his goals, Coby was determined to at least try for his dream.

Everything after that was a blur, but most of Alvida's men weren't breathing after that, and Alvida herself had gone flying into the ocean.

The next thing Coby knew, Luffy had grabbed him and hitched a ride on some red haired girls boat. Well, her hair was technically orange, but people called them red heads anyways.

The girl introduced herself as Nami, after realizing she didn't have time to kick them off her boat if she wanted to escape the Marines herself.

Considering she had a massive bag of treasure and money, Coby figured she'd raided Alvida's ship while the Alvida pirates were attacking. While stealing from pirates wasn't actually a crime, the money did technically belong to someone else, and the Marines would no doubt try and confiscate it. It only made sense that, if she wanted to keep it, she'd need to flee the Marines as well.

And right now, the red haired girl was screaming at Luffy to let her up, while he sat on her back, his tail squeezing her arms together, behind her back.

He flushed at the girls next words.

"Let me up, my tits hurt!" she complained. Since Luffy was sitting on her back, right on he shoulders, and she had a rather generous bosom, Coby could at least see why that might hurt.

She didn't like Luffy's alternative, which was to sit on her chest.

Coby finally had enough when they started screaming insults at each other.

"Could the both of you please shut up? The Marines won't need to see us when they can hear the two of you coming from a hundred kilometres away."

For a second, Coby thought the two might team up and kill him and throw him overboard or something.

Instead Nami settled for glaring up at Luffy, while Luffy nodded.

"Yea. Makes sense. Gramps is supposed to be coming to Shell Town to pick me up in a few days, and he's got just as good hearing as me. If he hears me from that far because he came here early he'll probably launch himself out of a cannon to get to me early."

"Your grandfather's as messed in the head as you are?" Nami sneered.

Luffy shook his head. "Nah, he's worse. He's a Marine. He knows how to be the perfect Marine too, though he refuses to let Old Seagull Man restrain him too much, so he doesn't bother."

"Old Seagull Man?" Coby and Nami asked.

"Sengoku, Fleet Admiral of the Marines."

Nami gaped. "Your grandfather is friends with the Fleet Admiral?"

"Yea. He's Monkey D. Garp, Hero of the Marines, the man who turned down an Admiral position eleven times simply because it's too much work." Luffy said. "We do share the same name, how come you didn't realize that earlier."

Nami scowled. "You only said your name was Luffy."

Luffy blinked. "Oh. I'm Monkey D. Luffy. Nice to meet'cha!"

"Get off of me, and I'll agree." she muttered.

Luffy got up, and held out his hand.

She tried to throw him overboard, but barely budged him. She gave up after that, and took over navigating the boat from Coby.

With her navigating, they hit currents and wind that tripled their speed. Soon enough Shell Town was closing in, and Coby got a bit teary that his chance for joining the Marines was coming soon.

~Luffy's POV~

Luffy grinned as they arrived in Shell Town.

"Now that we're here, don't bother me again." Nami said, before grabbing her big sack of gold, and running.

"Aw, I was gonna ask her if she wanted to join my crew!" Luffy complained.

Coby sighed. "She hates pirates. Why would she?"

Luffy rolled his eyes. "Cause I'm the strongest in the world, and Ace told me all girls love strong guys, and she's a girl."

Coby didn't seem to believe him, but Luffy didn't care. Coby didn't really believe a whole lot.

Poking the kid in the back with his tail, Luffy headed into the city proper.

He grabbed an apple off a stand and glared as the vendor tried to demand payment. He was a pirate. He didn't have to pay unless he felt like it.

The man gave up pretty easily.

"So, didn't that fat whale say something about a Zoro guy who was captured around this place."

The people walking nearby jumped in fear.

Coby sighed again. "He's considered a demon, Luffy. People here are probably still afraid of him. Morgan is-"

The people jumped in fear again, but this time several looked around fearfully, and two of them hit the ground on their hands and knees, bowing.

Luffy grinned. "Wow, these people are pathetic."

The two arrived at the Marine base, and Luffy immediately veered off to the walls surrounding the field where prisoners would normally be allowed a couple hours of fresh air.

"Luffy, why are you going this way?" Coby wondered.

"Gonna look for Zoro."

Coby shook his head. "Zoro's too dangerous to leave out in the open. They'd keep him chained to the wall in their basement, fed by a guard."

"Found him." Luffy said, as he jumped up onto the wall.

Coby climbed up, with effort, and screamed slightly. "Oh my god. That's him!"

Luffy grinned, and wasted no time. He jumped and easily cleared the distance between them and Zoro. "Yo! I heard you were strong, but you look pretty weak to me, tied up like that. I'd break out in seconds."

Zoro blinked, before countering the accusation of him being weak. "I'm not here cause I'm weak. I'm here to win a bet. If I win, the bastard who tied me up won't kill a little girl and her mother, and I'll go free. I lose, we all die"

Luffy nodded. "Why not just kill everyone who would kill them, and be done with it. If you did that, then the girl and her mother would be safe right?"

Zoro opened his mouth to respond, but closed it immediately after. "Shit... why didn't I think of that. It's just that stupid kid in the purple suit and his father. Hell, they're kind of terrorizing the town, including the Marines. I'd probably be hailed as a hero or something, so it's not like I'd get in any trouble. Damn, I don't even need to kill the kid. I kill his corrupt father, and the kid loses all his power, and the Marines can finally do their damned jobs."

Luffy scratched his head. "So, we kill one guy, and fix the town?"

"Yea! Hey, I've been here too long to break free at the moment. Wanna loosen these ropes for me?" Zoro asked, a grin on his face.

Luffy grinned back. "No."

Zoro growled, and scowled. "Why the fuck not?"

Luffy's grin persisted. "I will, on a couple of conditions."

Zoro grunted. "Fine, I'll hunt down any pirate you want and give you the bounty."

"Not that." Luffy grinned. "I want you to join my pirate crew. I'm looking for strong people."

Zoro twitched in anger. "Fuck... and if I don't, you wont' free me. And even if I do break free, I'd still need someone to get my swords from that bastard son for me, or I still couldn't fight very well."

Luffy added another reason to join. "I'll also give you your swords back if you agree to join. Cause I'm gonna go steal them before I free you."

Zoro growled. "That's playing dirty!"

"Pirate." Luffy shrugged.

Left with no other choice, Zoro nodded. "Fine. You have a deal. But, fair warning, my dream is to become the worlds greatest swordsman. Interfere with that dream, and I'll cut you down and take over your crew."

Luffy grinned wide again. "That's great. I'll expect all my core crew members to have huge dreams like that. And if I'm weak enough to be killed by my subordinate, I didn't deserve the position of captain to begin with."

Zoro couldn't help himself. He grinned.

Luffy took off, heading straight for the Marine Base. He ran into the guy Zoro mentioned, the one in the purple suit.

"Hey, your not suppo-" the teens voice cut off as Luffy grabbed him, and broke down the main doors to the Marine Base, followed by his two Marine guards

"Hey, where's Zoro's swords!" Luffy shouted.

The teen screamed, but got an answer out. "In my room, on the top floor."

Luffy dropped him then, and kept going, taking the words literally. It was sheer luck then, that the idiot had actually placed a sign on his door that said 'My Room' or Luffy would have been looking forever.

"Awesome!" Luffy said, before opening the door to see the frilliest pink room he'd ever seen. "Ahg! Not awesome."

He swiftly located the swords, and dove out the window, launching a ki blast behind him. The resulting explosion incinerated everything in the monstrosity Helmeppo called a room.

Now, the one thing a person should know about ki attack is that it has varying states, depending on the level of concentration of the ki. Basic ki attacks, like what Luffy had just used, were yellow. There was always heat in a ki attack, but the heat was more intense the more concentrated it was. This was why injuries inflicted by ki attacks typically didn't bleed. The wounds were usually cauterized by the heat. The more intense the ki blast, the more heat it had. And the colour changed.

Yellow ki attacks that were more then a simple ball of energy could still be powerful, but the power was more wild and uncontrolled. Most commonly seen in wave based attacks, though some beam attacks were also yellow

Blue was the next colour up on the concentration scale. Decently powerful, they they were typically beam based, though some were wave based. However, they usually were fairly large in appearance. Luffy's greatest ki attack at the moment was a blue beam based attack, he called the Gum-Gum Beam. It was easily controlled after being fired, and was very flexible in it's movements. Like rubber. Like himself.

The next colour was purple. This happened when the ki was very concentrated, and was most commonly seen in piercing beam attacks, which were ki beams small enough and powerful enough to punch through someone rather then crash against them, like most blue coloured ki attacks. Few purple coloured ki attacks were larger beams, but if they were, they were exceptionally powerful, and likely cost the user a lot of ki to form.

The final regular colour was red, and was used exclusively in piercing attacks. They were only lethal if they hit vital areas of the body, but they were useful because, even if the user was weaker then their opponent, they could easily overcome otherwise powerful defences because all the power was concentrated at a single point.

Other colours existed, but they only existed due to outside influence. Like combination attacks, or devil fruit abilities affecting them. Except for Green, which existed if someone was concentrating, but not doing so very well. Naturally created green ki blasts were usually a result of an expert ki user fighting and using ki attacks while in a berserker's rage. They were focused enough to be stronger then yellow ki attacks, but too unfocused to turn blue.

It was worthless knowledge to most, but to someone who was looking to create their own ki attacks, rather then using established ones, knowing why the colours were changing could be useful, because it could allow them to know how much further they needed to concentrate for a particular style of attack. Even if they weren't trying to create their own attack, knowing it could help a ki user figure out why an already established attack wasn't working properly.

Luffy wasn't very smart, but he knew a lot about fighting and being a pirate, and ki was an energy used in fighting, and his grandfather said he'd only considered him a master of ki combat if he could create his own move, so, naturally, he knew a lot about it.

Racing over to Zoro, after he hit the ground, Luffy cut the ropes, and handed the older teens swords to him.

Zoro rested his right hand lovingly on the sword with the white sheathe, and white grip. "That was faster then I thought it would be. What was the explosion though?"

Luffy shrugged. "I hate dicking around when I've got something important to do. I think we're going to have company though, so I'll explain the explosion later."

Zoro grinned. "Sounds fun."

"Scram!" Luffy shouted at Coby and a little girl who were watching them.

Coby grabbed the girl and did exactly as ordered.

Just in time as well, as Morgan, the captain of the Marine base in Shell Town just emerged with all the men in the tower.

"Who dares break into my Marine base!?" The man roared.

Luffy raised a hand excitedly. "Ooh! It was me! It was me!"

Morgan growled, and looked to Zoro. "You, Roronoa, are not scheduled to be executed today. Your execution was scheduled for the end of the week. Holding weapons without my permission however... well, that's cause for immediate execution."

Zoro scoffed. "I wanna be the one to take him down."

Luffy shrugged, and jumped in front of Zoro. "You can have him. Just be sure to take the axe on his hand. I want a trophy! Gum-Gum Gatling!"

The run of the mill Marines lining up in front of Morgan didn't stand a chance. A flurry of fists rocketed towards them. Some Marines would later swear they'd been hit, simultaneously, by three fists, such was the speed the teen had launched each fist. Combined with the speed, Luffy's great strength was more then enough to break some bones too, leaving many of the Marines not unconscious cradling their arms.

Morgan scowled, but didn't seem too put out. "A devil fruit, huh? Well, then, we'll just have to lock you up with Seastone cuffs. Time to die!"

Morgan charged forward towards Luffy, who had turned his back, and motioned to Zoro.

Before Morgan could hit Luffy, he stopped. Zoro was no longer in front of Luffy, and was now behind Morgan.

"Tiger Hunt!" Zoro gritted out, annoyed at how sore he was.

Nothing happened until Zoro sheathed his swords. That was when Morgan's blood erupted out of two diagonal cuts in an X shape across his chest. His bicep spurted the most, but that was because the axe that had replaced the man's lost hand had been cut off at the bicep.

Luffy pulled the skin, which felt kind of fake, off the axe that used to be Morgan's. Other then the part formerly visible, it was quite complex looking.

The chunk of bone and flesh that stuck the end of the axe was flicked off, and proved the skin that covered the majority of the axe was fake. He probably could have removed the axe manually after Zoro took him down, without taking even more of the man's arm, but that wasn't important. Well, not to Luffy at any rate.

"He dead?" Luffy asked.

"Nah. Not strong enough to kill him in one shot like that. Too weak from lack of food and water." Zoro explained. "I'd guess I'm only about a third as strong as I should be."

The average man would call bullshit at that, as Morgan was about ten times as strong as the average man, and Zoro had still taken him down with one blow. The average man, however, had never seen true monsters, and if they had, they'd claim that, in comparison to some of the true monsters of the world, Zoro was still a pushover.

Luffy nodded. "We'll have to spar when we get a chance. I really want to know how tough you really are."

Zoro grinned. "Looking forward to it, Captain."

"For now, let's go get some food. I'm starving!" Luffy exclaimed.

~Two Hours Later~

"How the hell can you possibly eat more then me!?" Zoro demanded. "I've been without food or water for three weeks!"

Luffy shrugged. "Humans have weak stomachs?"

"What do you mean by that?" Zoro wondered.

"Explain later. Eat now." Luffy stated, grabbing some more food to stuff into his mouth.

Before he could however...

"Excuse me, are you two pirates?" a Marine with dark brown skin, and a goatee asked.

"Yea, why?" Luffy asked.

"I see. While we Marines are grateful for the defeat of Morgan, we cannot abide pirates in this town. I ask that you please leave." the Marine asked.

"Sure." Luffy shrugged. "I'm keeping his axe though. It's my trophy to remind me what happened when I got my first crew member here."

The Marine nodded. "I would ask for it back, but I doubt we could take it from you. We'll report that it was stolen along with everything else that was stolen today."

Luffy shrugged, and nodded to Zoro. "Let's get moving then."

Zoro nodded, following. They stole a fair sized fishing boat, and immediately took off to sea.

"I feel like I forgot something." Luffy pondered.

"Well, too late now." Zoro shrugged.

"What's too late now?" Luffy asked.

"Whatever you forgot."

Luffy looked at him like he was nuts. "Zoro... I didn't forget anything."

Zoro opened his mouth, thought better of it, and shut it immediately, instead closing his eyes and taking a nap.

~Coby's POV~

Coby had managed to join the Marines, saying he was spurred into doing so after seeing the Marines taking the defeated Captain Morgan away. It was touch and go for awhile. No one had seen his face on the island before, but he luckily managed to avoid too much suspicion.

He regretted his choice several days later when Luffy's grandfather appeared and appropriated him. Whatever kind of man could possibly have a grandson as messed up as Luffy, was someone he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Alas, he'd never had good luck before, and he doubted he ever would.

~Chapter End~

Luffy: 3,260

Coby: 59

Zoro: (Dehydrated and hungry) 510

(Healthy) 1,650

Morgan: 486

I know Morgan is displayed as only a little weaker then Zoro was when Zoro fought him, but keep in mind that weapons can make someone do more damage then they otherwise could, and Zoro is a master swordsman, while Morgan got by on pure strength, and the false belief of himself and his superiors, that he captured Captain Kuro 'of a Thousand Plans'.

Now, some of you might go back, and see that regular humans on Oceanus have an average power level of 50, and then wonder why Coby is stronger then average. The fact of the matter is, is, whether he felt it or not, getting beaten on for so long did make him a little stronger, and he had to be strong enough to survive Alvida's regular beatings.

For reference:

Alvida: 264

So, Alvida was a little more then 5 times stronger then the average human, mostly because her extreme fatness required her to become stronger to move like regular people did, but also because she needed that strength to lift a mace that weighed just as much as she did. She would actually be stronger if she lost weight, because it slows down all her movements, thus weakening her attacks. So yes, when she reappears in Logue Town, she will be stronger. Not enough to make a difference were she to fight Luffy, but enough to say she's definitely a fighter now.

Next chapter will include Zoro beginning to learn about ki, and all the fun stuff with Buggy and Orange Town.

I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter, and if anyone has any tips for how I can improve my writing, I'm all ears.