The man shoved a foot under the teen's ribcage and flipped him over, assessing the kid's face long and hard. He nodded.
"This is him, all right." He smirked, then grabbed him by the hair and threw him at a group of marines. "Take him to the ship, we're headed to Impel Down." He smirked, and the others grinned and ran off with a collective 'yes sir!'
He smiled to himself. Once they got him to the prison, no one would be able to break him out since Portgaz was dead. There was always the danger of being stopped by Shanks, but he was farther out in the New World, and there was also the danger of the Straw Hat crew, but they couldn't do anything while they had their captain held hostage.
By the time they tossed Luffy into the cell, he had begun to stir. He quickly looked around. It was dark, and the cell he was in was attached to a long hallway with another cell just across from his. Dim lights shone from the ceiling every few feet. He rolled over onto his back and sat up, scooting back to lean against the wall. He looked hard into the cell across from him and saw a dark, hunched over silhouette. He frowned; squinting to try to see better, and when the figure groaned and turned over, and Luffy frowned in confusion. He never had been very good at the whole 'thinking' thing, but black thing looked too small to be an adult. He cleared his throat, realizing just how thirsty he was.
"Hey," he called softly, and the little black blob jerked to attention, then ran over to the corner. "Ha-ha! You're a funny blob!" he laughed, and the blob huffed angrily.
"I'm not a blob!" it said indignantly. "I'm a person. You're a blob!" the little person said, seeing the pirate as just a lanky blob with a weirdly shaped head. He frowned.
"I'm not a blob, I'm a pirate!" he said defensively. "But you're the first blob I've ever met…say…do you poo?" he asked, and the little person simply watched the other silhouette, astonished.
"Well…I mean…yeah," it replied. "BUT I'M NOT A BLOB! I'M A GIRL!" she yelled, and the silence that followed was almost eerie. Luffy was doing something he rarely did: thinking.
She said she's human, but she's kinda small. She said she was a girl, and since she's so small, that makes her a little girl, right? And she's in a cell, which makes her a criminal…that means that this little girl is a criminal. I hate marines. He thought, then looked up again. The little girl was just about to break the silence when he asked a question.
"What'd you do?" he asked, and she looked at her feet, ashamed.
"I killed someone." She whispered quietly, and his eyes widened.
"Yes, sir!" the new recruits replied, saluting, then each went their separate ways. There were four of them, and they each had separate jobs to do. One was a lookout in the crow's nest, one was a cook, one was a "janitor," so to speak, and the last was a fighter (a janitor when it was peaceful). They had all been posted on the same ship, and three of them boarded together.
"This ship is carrying my ticket to retirement, so don't screw up, okay?" the captain said to the fighter.
"Yes, sir!" he replied, and the man frowned at him.
"Don't you wanna know what I'm carrying?" the man asked, and the new recruit looked curious and almost angry, but then again, it could just be the light.
"What are we carrying, sir?" he asked, a glint of menace in his eyes.
"Maybe I'll tell you when you've earned the right to know." He smirked, and walked off to go find the new janitor to give her instructions. The fighter sighed and walked off to the men's quarters, slamming his fist as hard as he could into the pillow.
"Damn it, where the hell are they keeping him?" he growled to himself.
The captain looked at the new recruit carefully, then blindfolded her and spun her, then finally picked her up and carried her somewhere while she was still dizzy. He pulled off the blindfold and she opened her eyes to see a long hallway lined with cells on each side.
"You'll be cleaning this hallway. You look like someone I can trust. If you tell anyone about this hall way, you and they will be punished. Speaking of this place is punishable by death. No matter who talks to you and what they say, ignore them unless it's something that could put this ship and its crew members in danger." He said, and walked off. "The cleaning supplies are in that closet at the end of the hall." He said, and she waited to hear the door close and lock before walking down the hall. She didn't make eye contact with anything but the floor, but the whole time was listening as hard as she could for one voice. When she reached the closet, she opened the door and found the cleaning supplies, beginning to clean the hallway. She almost begged to hear that voice, but it never came.
"So you know how to cook, right?" the captain asked the new man.
"You could say that." he smirked. There was something about this new recruit that seemed familiar, but he wasn't sure what. They stood in awkward silence a few moments while the captain tried to figure it out.
"Well," the captain said, trying to break the silence. "The kitchen is that way, and if you talk to the other cooks, I'm sure they'll fill you in." he said, and pointed to the kitchen. "Get going."
"Yes, sir!" the recruit replied, walking into the kitchen. The other cooks glanced up from their work.
"You the new cook?" another cook asked, and the man nodded.
"I am." He said.
"Okay, get to peeling those potatoes." The man said, and the new cook looked at him offended. "Alright, look buddy, I don't care if you're the best damn cook in the world, and you're not goin' near a stove 'til you prove your worth." The older cook growled, and the man walked over to the corner to peel the potatoes, anger and hatred written all over his face, almost daring someone to talk to him. I'm only doing this for you, shit-head, so you'd better be okay, the new cook thought, peeling each one perfectly.
"Go on up there, and the other snipers and lookouts'll tell ya what to do from there, okay?" the captain asked the last recruit. The young man nodded and climbed the rigging up to the crow's nest. When he reached the top, there were two other men up there. One had a rifle and the other had a pair of binoculars. They welcomed him.
"You've done this kinda work before, right?" the man with the binoculars asked, and the man nodded.
"Yeah I'm the best sniper in the world!" he smirked, and the men laughed.
"Okay, then prove it!" the man with the rifle laughed, handing the new recruit the gun.
"Will do! What's my target?" he asked, making sure the gun was loaded. The men smirked.
"Well there's one thing none of us could ever do: hit that can up there." They smirked, and he took aim at the can that had been nailed to the mast solely as a target. After a moment, he pulled the trigger and a large clang was heard, making all work on the ship stop. The young recruit looked up from the rifle and handed it back to the first man.
"What did…how can…how do you…?" he asked, and the man pointed his thumb at himself.
"I am the great ca-…NAVYMAN! I am the greatest navy sharpshooter in the world!" he announced, and the crew clapped at the new recruit's awesomeness.