Morning came far too swiftly for Rob Lucci; he had led awake the entire night, his body did not require the same amount of rest as average men and women, forsaking one night to his rampaging thoughts meant nothing to him in the long run, it was just one night, plus it came with the advantage of thinking his position through, he would be required to inform his team about the offer, he could not just ignore it, it had been given in faith by someone stronger than himself, the one thing he respected in life was strength, and that… child… had it by bucket loads, no matter how humiliating his defeat had been, he'd been defeated… respect was due to the straw hat wearing boy for his strength, not only physical, but mental strength as well.
At first break of dawn Lucci slid out of the warm hotel room bed and swiftly went through the process of getting himself ready for the day, including checking that his unpacked bags were still in order. After this daily routine, he walked out of his room. In a brisk even pace, he walked to each door on that corridor and knocked once with an added verbal command 'lounge, I'll give you five minutes before I come back' then walked off to the aforementioned destination, Hattori fluttering out of the room after him and perching on his shoulder as always.
Approximately 4 minutes and 57 seconds later, the ex-agents had congregated in the hotels lounge area to talk. The lounge was a large open space, a set of stairs in the middle of the room leading up to the levels with rooms, the walls were a cream with gold trim making the establishment look more sophisticated than it truly was, small green plants decorated the corners of the room and both sides of the check in desk, fake of course. Then, situated to the left side of the room rested an area, a circular arrangement of chairs with a table in the centre.
The agents all sat around that area, the other residents in the hotel had gotten the picture that none of the group were to be disturbed after Kalifa had kicked a man through a wall the previous day for grabbing her ass, all the while rightfully accusing him of sexual harassment, they were lucky not to be thrown out of the hotel.
They focused solely on Lucci; even Jyabura's gave him some of his attention, not that he'd admit to listening to Lucci ever in a million years; all of them wanting to know what the dark man had requested their presence for.
"Well then, cat… what's this about then eh?" Jyabura finally spoke up after a moment of rather deafening silence, Lucci's sharp gaze fixated on Jyabura, for a second they were on edge, nobody knew what went through the mans' mind at any given moment, not that they'd ever volunteer to find out, however instead of a witty yet bored come back to Jyabura's insult, Lucci simply opened his mouth to answer the question.
"We have been given an offer to join a rather odd crew" he responded, Kuku went to open his mouth to ask however he stopped when Lucci raised his hand to silence him "I understand it may be a shock that I'm actually considering accepting the offer, as this crew is in fact a Pirate crew" he continued, then gave Jyabura a sharp glare as the wolf man went to speak, shutting him up immediately "if you take into consideration the time we've spent running, avoiding and hiding from the government these past 2 years, it would be logical to join them, as we're in the same metaphorical boat as they are" Lucci concluded, finishing off his explanation neatly, leaving room for them to finally ask questions.
"What crew is it… do we know of them? Are they even capable of holding their own against us?" Kaku questioned eager to find out more about this mysterious pirate crew who'd offered them shelter; Lucci bit back a smile at Kaku's constant humorous child-like behaviour, it had certainly made their lives easier to bear for the past 2 years.
"To answer those questions in order, the crew who have so…graciously, given us the offer to join them, was none other than the Mugiwara crew, yes we do know of them, and I think we all know how strong that crew really is" Lucci responded evenly, he noted that the expressions of his comrades had changed drastically after he mentioned the crews signature name, a name well known throughout the seas for the captains astounding actions on Marinefold 2 years previously.
"Oi-oi have you been on the catnip? When did they give us that offer? 'ow did they even find us?" Jyabura finally burst out, incapable of holding in his questions any longer
"No I have not touched that infernal collection of herbs, Monkey D Luffy gave the offer last night aboard his ship, it is moored off the eastern coast of the island, I noticed it a few nights ago… it seems we've just been missing them in town. It was a freak occurrence; I doubt they had any intentions of finding us here." Lucci spoke with an air of confidence as he personally knew, if the captain had given the request, his crew really had no choice but to follow in his lead, he wouldn't admit though, that the thought of Nico Robin taking personal offense to what had transpired in enies lobby, worried him greatly.
It was no secret that the calm beautiful woman could be devastating in the highest order with her strangely appealing devil fruit power; it was also obvious that before she was placed into those seastone handcuffs, she could have escaped their grasp with very little effort in water 7.
"And his crew, do they agree with this?" Kaku asked, a frown on his face, he couldn't hide his thrill at the idea of seeing the green haired swordsman again, maybe even fight him again, it would be good to have a training partner that could really match up to him!
Lucci sighed and shrugged his shoulders "there's no way to know until we go today, Monkey D Luffy has given us a time to be there, 4 o'clock is the set time, now this is not just my decision alone, you must make your choices… and make them now, will you join me in returning to the ship to hear the verdict, or go your own way?" Kaku glanced around the faces of his comrades, would they really separate after all they'd been through together, he understood Kumadori and Fukurou separating after the first year… they'd found something they wanted to do on an island somewhere far behind them, so they had opted to separate from the group to follow what they wanted to do… but Kaku didn't want them ALL to separate, he wouldn't know what he'd do on his own.
"W-Well… I'll come with you" Kaku spoke up after a moment a stutter of meek uncertainty, he wouldn't leave Lucci, Lucci had never left them, no matter how cruel or sadistic or even complicatedly scary he was; he had never left his comrades.
"If the veggie ere's goin ah guess I'll go too" Jyabura gave a grin, wrapping an arm around Kaku's shoulders, earning a mild glare in response. Lucci nodded and looked to the others, the top strongest 3 were in, it was just the other 2 present in question now.
Kalifa gave a sigh and adjusted her glasses "What if we cannot fit in? These are the pirates who ended our careers, how will we fit in with their crew, their daily routines, I don't see how assassins can fit aboard their crew" Lucci nodded his head, acknowledging her problems with understanding, however as he opened his mouth to respond, Kaku beat him to it.
"We probably won't fit in straight away, but there's always the chance that we will eventually be just like part of the crew, why forsake an opportunity to do this while we have it!" while Lucci listened to Kaku trying to explain the finer points to taking leaps of faith, he glanced around the room with his eyes alone, no hint to the fact that he was in fact looking around, taking in the meaningless human beings wandering around the spacious room, up and down the stairs, the bellhops carrying bags for the lazy buffoons staying there, then he noticed something else… something very different… an eye.
In the far side of the room in one of the corners, rested a bright blue eye on the wall, hidden partially by one of the fake plants, he glanced around once more, before sensing the distinct scent of blossom flowers, and not too far away either, he followed the scent with his eyes alone, catching sight of an ear hidden on the stem of the nearest fake plant, hidden amongst the greenery… they were being spied on.
Lucci had no idea if Monkey D Luffy had told Nico Robin to do this, or whether she was doing it of her own accord, however regardless of why she was doing it, Lucci turned his head towards the eye and simply smirked, to which it immediately disappeared into a burst of petals, Robin knowing she'd been caught, the ear followed shortly after. Lucci then returned to listening to the conversation. Blueno had begun to speak
"It would be a smart to join them I'll hand that to you, they're strong… and continually running from the government puts its strain even on us, we won't last on our own forever, it would be beneficial for us to go." The large man put a comforting hand on Kalifa's shoulder, the only one of the group who seemed uneasy about the idea.
"At least give it a go, maybe they'll let us tag along for a trial run, see if it works" Jyabura chuckled, he knew that to join a pirate crew meant for life, unless the captain said otherwise, but then even he knew that the Straw-hat pirates captain, was no normal captain.
"Fine… we're in then Lucci; I reserve the right to mention that I told you so if this goes horribly wrong" Kalifa declared in a confident tone, as if she would actually tell Rob Lucci 'I told you so' when they all knew for a fact, that she wouldn't dare.
"Of course" Was the only thing the dark hared man responded with before standing up and looking down at them, Hattori fluffing his wings briefly before copying his master "pack your things and do some last minute shopping if you need to, we have only a few more hours before we'll be expected at the Straw-hat's ship, we will meet back here at 3:30 then I will show you to the ship" he nodded to them then walked off towards the door, leaving them to their own devices until the time required for him to care.