I have discovered three things in the course of writing this:

1) My computer is physic

2) It also likes Panic! At the Disco, like a lot.

3) I am a horrible person.

But I've updated now, so enjoy.

Reviews:

Undercover92: Thank you! Yeah, probably. I have a thing for corrupt governments in stories...the more corrupt the better. If I go overboard, let me know and I'll turn it down a notch or something.

Sora Tayuya: 1) Thank you! 2) Thank you. I was kind of experimenting with that, so I'm glad it turned out well. 3) Obviously. :P 4) No, I'm a girl, he wouldn't kill me. Glare intensly at me while Luffy kicks my ass, maybe, but not kill. 5) Whatever floats your boat dude. Like, totally picture him that way if it helps brah. He's like that.

IzumiTheMoogle: Yeah, I do that from time to time. Thank you! *snickers at pun* I mean, yeah, tough times. You shouldn't, he's mean. Thank you for your wonderful complements!

Abra Cadavorous: Vegapunk II is Vegapunk's daughter, but Vegapunk III isn't her son, just another desendant. Intelligence is partly how you raise the kid to isn't it? Meh, I don't want to get too into this anyway. It would be too epic for words, thus why it was cut. :P What better technique is there? XD Here, take some brain soap. Oh no indeed...

Starry-Night 11.0: Understandable, the manga's about adventure, not romance. Thank you. No it's cool, intensity is good. Here you go then. :)

dandy wonderous: MWAHAHA! Yes that's right...no, it's not. I am a horrible person! He'd win. By a lot. XP Yes, poor him. It was quite difficult I assume. It's like, totally the valley girl talk, or something. For ceral to the max, dude. XD

I, three-days-late, being of somewhat sound body and mind, do not own the literal masterpiece that is known throught the world as One Piece.

Sanji stared in horror as the flames spread across the room.

"No…"

He could vaguely hear Brooke shouting something in the background and Tania and Cali run off somewhere, but he wasn't really paying attention.

"…no…"

Surrounded by the flames, he saw Leo smirking at his handy work. "So, you like, gonna come now or what?"

"…NO!"

Sanji struck out with his foot, hitting the mercenary in the chest.

"Sorry dude, but I'm like, made of steel or something." Leo gloated. "You're going to have to, like, totally try harder than that…"

Not listening, the distressed chef kept pushing his foot against his opponent's abdomen until he started sliding little by little against the flames he created. Eventually they reached behind the two of them, trapping them in the circle of heat.

"Dude! You know we're, like, surrounded by fire to the max right now!"

The blonde didn't respond, instead opting to swing out his foot and connect with the side of the mercenary's head, causing a sickening crack. Leo tentatively put a hand up to his bleeding head, stunned.

"Dude…not cool."

"You lost your say in anything, shitty bastard, when you set my goddamn home on fire. I've worked too hard to keep this place standing just to have a shithead like you come in and ruin everything."

"I'm only like, doing my job, chillax brah."

"No more games. No more words from you. I've got to kill you then put the fire you."

"Hate to break it to ya brah, but you can't defeat me. Or put the fire out. Water and stuff's not going to work, it's totally like magic or something y'know?"

Sanji apparently didn't, or just didn't care, as he decided to shut him up with another kick to the face.

"You say you're made of steel, but it seems you missed you face. I'll just be aiming there for now on."

"Dude, low blow."

Brooke raced through the Baratie's docks, quickly cutting the ships free as Tania and Cali rounded up the still sleepy customers who decided to spend the night. Some of the little ones still didn't quite know what was going on, but the adults who could clearly smell the burning in the air herded them swiftly onto their respective ships.

When all of the ships save the Mini Merry were gone, the pirate musician set out to find his friends.

He found Tania and Cali around the back of the restaurant near the kitchen. The blue haired girl was holding back her friend who was trying to get back inside the burning ship.

"No…we can still save it…"

"Face it Cal, it's no good!" Tania took a step back, dragging the fighting girl with her.

"No!" She broke free of her grasp and charged towards the inferno, only to be stopped by a cane to the stomach.

"Brooke! Too much!" The historian shouted as Cali fell unconscious into his arms.

"Terribly sorry, but if she's anything like Sanji-san…" The skeleton suddenly paused and looked into the burning restaurant.

"Then what? Finish you statements goddamit!!"

"Then she'd probably try to go down with this place." He finished quickly. "Here," he passed her off to Tania, who was still trying to figure out what exactly Brooke was up to. "Take the Mini Merry and get out of here."

"What about-"

"We'll catch up with you." He raced into the fire without a second thought.

"But…you can't swim…"

Sanji stepped back from his opponent panting as Leo fell to the ground unconscious, bloody, and burned. It was then he realized that the fire had heated the ground up to the point where he could not put his foot out. In retrospect, it was probably overkill using Diable Jambe in the middle of a burning room, but the bastard really pissed him off. On the plus side, he could now probably kick his way through the flames if he wanted to escape.

He was going to escape, he had a navigator and an ocean to find after all, but first he wanted to put the fire out. If water wasn't going to work, then he was just going to have to try something else.

Just then something jumped at him through the flames. "Sanji-san!"

"Brooke! What are you still doing here?"

"Come on, we need to get out of here!"

"Wait, I've got to put the fire out first."

"You can't! The chemical he used to start it-"

"I know, can't be put out with water. I'll just find something else…"

"It can't be put out. Period. I'm sorry Sanji-san, but Baratie will be burning at the bottom of the ocean."

The blonde stared at him before breaking out into a huge grin. "That's just silly Brooke…of course the fire can be put out…"

"Sanji-san…"

"We can't lose the restaurant…I can't lose the restaurant…" he started chuckling in a way that was anything but humorous, "I made a promise…"

"Sanji-san…let's go. Cali and Tania are waiting…" He grabbed his friends arm only to be shaken off.

"No!" Sanji kicked out with his flaming foot at the flames, putting them out for a few seconds before the space was consumed by them once again. "I promised!" He kept kicking to no avail. "I promised that shit-geezer! It's his treasure! I can't lose it now!"

A gloved hand struck the chef's cheek with enough force to stun him. Slowly he turned his head to glare at the perpetrator.

"Sanji-san, it's not worth it. Zeff-san's been dead for a very long time…besides, we need to fine Nami-san. We can't waste any more time here."

Sanji kept his glare up for as long as he could. Eventually Brooke's words managed to make it through to him and he instead collapsed against the musician, trembling but refusing to shed any tears. Brooke placed a comforting hand on his back.

"You're right…" he said eventually. "We need to go…"

"It'll be alright, Sanji-san." The chef nodded in his friend's shoulder before straightening up. He aimed another kick to the flames, this time revealing the exit, while Brooke grabbed Leo. Wordlessly they rushed to the outside and jumped into the dark ocean below.

After some swimming Sanji managed to find and grab hold of Brooke and the mercenary to bring them to the surface. On Brooke's insistence, because he would have just let the bastard drown, or better yet burn, he tied him to a broken piece of the deck that had managed to somehow escape the flames and set him on his way.

A few more minutes of swimming later found Sanji crashing head first into the side of the Mini Merry. Two hands reached overboard to drag Brooke onto the small boat, so the chef took advantage of the loss of dead weight and pulled himself on board as well.

He stood in the front seat next to Tania, who had dumped Brooke in the backseat next to an unconscious Cali.

"You okay?" She asked, looking Sanji up and down to assess his mood.

He nodded, looking back at the Baratie which by now was a small glowing dot on the horizon. "Where are we going?" he asked, not tearing his eyes away from the sight.

"The only Eternal Pose I have on me is to Alabasta, so that'll have to do."

Sanji finally looked away from the burning restaurant and sat down. "I guess we're going to Alabasta then."

Zoro was rudely awakened from his sleep by a relentless poking of his cheek. He battered the hand away and muttered, "Stop it Luffy."

"Wakey wakey, Zoro-kun," an obviously not-Luffy voice said as the poking continued. "We've got a busy busy busy day ahead of us!"

The irate swordsman cracked open an eye to find Luna poking his cheek, looking much better than she had last night, and his crewmates missing in action.

"Where…"

"They are taking advantage of the free breakfast being served downstairs." Luna answered, still poking his cheek. "They've probably been kicked out by this time though, so no food for you."

"Stop poking me!" The poking ceased.

"It's 9:00 right now. Fredrick starts taking actual clients at 10, so we really need to get going."

"How far away is this Fredrick guy?" Zoro asked, standing up and fastening the white sword Luna handed to him to his side.

"Only a few blocks…I think." The green-haired man turned to glare at her. "It's been a while since I last visited." She added, fastening the red sword to her side.

"Great, so now we're going to spend the morning wandering around town looking for some guy while our navigator is held hostage by some psychopath and our cook is who knows where doing god knows what?"

"That's the plan."

"Do you at least know where we should be going?"

"Yeah, but I'll tell you later." She said as she walked out of the room. "C'mon slowpoke!"

Zoro cursed her under his breath before following her out of the room and down the stairs to find that the entire first floor lounge had been destroyed by what he assumed was either an indoor tornado or Luffy eating breakfast. The owner glared at the two of them as they descended and pointed outside.

"Thank you very much. Sorry for the mess." Luna said as she passed. Zoro nodded in agreement.

Outside they found Luffy and Usopp sitting on the street, sighing and playing with the dirt.

"I'm still hungry…" Luffy muttered.

"I didn't even get anything…" Usopp complained.

"Tough cookies, we gotta go." Luna said as she strode out in front of them down the street.

"Cookies…that sounds good. Zoro, I want cookies." Luffy demanded as his swordsman pulled him to his feet.

"Later. Maybe. Ask Sanji when we find him."

Luffy grinned and sprinted after Luna, Usopp and Zoro trudging behind in their wake.

After twenty minutes of wandering around town, Usopp voiced what everyone else was thinking.

"You have no idea where we're going, do you?"

"Of course I know where we're going silly; we're going to see Fredrick."

"That's not what I meant…"

"Here we are!" she announced, cutting the sniper off. The boys looked around the street.

"Wait, isn't that the inn we stayed at last night?" Usopp noticed.

"It was right next door the whole time?!" Zoro exclaimed. Luffy just laughed.

"Huh. I guess it was. No matter." Luna pushed her way through the door, the others following. They ended up in a large room with huge bookcases packed full of various books lining the walls. A wooden staircase led up to a balcony area where a small desk full of papers could be made out. "Fredrick! Are you here?!" She shouted.

"Luna!" a small, red-haired man wearing thick glasses shouted as he popped out from a trap-door in the floor.

"Fredrick!" They joined hands and skipped around in a circle, laughing the whole time.

"Okay…" the pirates said simultaneously.

"Everyone, this is my contact in Neo Water 7, Fredrick." Luna introduced after the skipping came to an end. "He's an illegal midget and a pirate otaku. Fredrick, this is everyone."

"Oh dear. You're the Strawhat crew aren't you?" The crew in question nodded in agreement. "Luna, what have you gotten yourself into now?"

"Nothing I can't handle, but we do need some help."

"You know what happens when you mess with the Pirate King…Veggy's not going to be able to help you out this time…"

"No, it's cool." Luffy butted in. "Luna's helping us get Nami back, so it's all good."

"Oh dear. The Pirate King's Compass has been kidnapped? Oh dear."

"Who stole my what now?"

"The Pirate King's Compass," Fredrick explained, "is a way to refer to the legendary navigator of the Strawhat Crew, Thief Cat Nami."

"That's…so cool!" Luffy shouted. "What am I?" He asked.

"…The Second Pirate King."

"What am I?" Usopp asked with as much enthusiasm as Luffy had.

"Sogeking?" The long-nosed man nodded in conformation. "The Pirate King's Eyes."

"So cool!! Does everyone else have one?" Luffy asked.

"Yes. After the Second Pirate King dominated the world's oceans, the World Government started using what would be known as their 'Legendary Titles' out of some silly superstition."

"Yeah…anyway…" Fredrick turned to his friend, "Do you have any idea what you're doing? If the Pirate King's Compass has really been taken…"

"It's all good. I've got everything under control." She replied.

"Certainly, because you always have everything under control…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Face it girl, you don't even have control over what era you're in."

"I have plenty of control over my fruit powers!"

"Yes and what do you chose to do with them? Gallivant about in random eras until you land yourself in over your head one way or another and Veggy has to come running to your rescue!"

"He has nothing to do with anything! I can take care of myself!"

"Your outstanding track record would say otherwise."

"So yeah," Usopp interrupted, sensing a fight about to break out, "about that reason why we're here…"

"Yes yes. As Luna has probably not told you, I run a consulting firm that is a front for importing illegal Poses. Eternal, Log, Temporary, I can get my hands on any of them. The only question left is…where would you boys like to go?"

"Good question…" Zoro said, directing his gaze to Luna, who seemed to be sulking over by one of the bookcases.

"Alabasta." She said. "We want to go to Alabasta."