Sorry for the wait, but I think I have a pretty good idea as to where its going. Think being the key word here, I'm not sure if it will work out as it is playing in my head. Either way, here it is, a new chapter and I hope you enjoy it because I didn't. I was seriously planning on ending it after Luffy's point of view, but I'm trying to keep the length of the chapters as consistent as possible. So I added but I don't think that I got the characters right, but who can get a guy right when all you really know about him is that the government doesn't like him. Rant over so enjoy.
Smoker's POV
I was having a hard time fully processing what I was just told. I knew of CP9 since I was a part of the government, but from what I had heard, they were nothing but loyal. Normally I would have passed off any claims against a government worker like the one that Luffy had just made against CP9 as nothing but talk, but this is Luffy. This is the kid that will smile at death, admire his enemies, and admit to things that don't need to be admitted to. No matter how much I don't want to believe it, I have no choice. I would never doubt Luffy. I will never admit to that aloud, but it is true.
"So we just need SUPER comrades to beat the shit out of them," a voice called out from the doorway and we all turned towards it while Luffy yelled, "Franky!"
I'm not even going to attempt to understand what I saw that day. I don't even have a word to describe it. It was just- no one should be forced to- just no. "Franky, please tell me you didn't break anything," Black Leg said, an edge to his tone that promised death if the robot thing gave the wrong answer.
Cyborg Franky laughed, "Relax bro, I was super careful while walking."
"Where do you meet these people?" I mumbled under my breath, not expecting anyone to hear me. Of course I wasn't that lucky.
Luffy laughed as he answered, "In the city." I groaned while everyone else just looked at us in confusion. Luffy then turned to Black Leg and whined, "I'm hungry."
"When are you not?" the redheaded witch mumbled before turning to the cyborg, "I thought you were out-of-town on business."
The blue haired man nodded and lifted up his sunglasses, "Iceburg and I finished the project early. He told me I should go ahead of him while he finished up with the business transactions. After all, it's not every day that a friend falls in love."
I paled as did Luffy. He was blushing slightly but it was easy to tell that he was thinking along the same lines as I was. A majority of the Straw Hats were laughing at the predicament that the robotic man had put me in. I let my eyes fall on the redheaded man and watched as a killing aura slowly encased him.
"What," Red Hair asked through gritted teeth, "exactly is you relationship with Luffy?"
The raw furry in his voice silenced the room while, and for the first time in the longest of times I felt afraid for my life when I saw his eyes. In all honesty, I had unconsciously prepared myself for death. The only thing that saved me was the human sun that I was taking care of.
Luffy stepped in-between me and the gang boss and said, "He saved me," rather rushed and frantically.
That calmed the man down but it also resulted with Luffy being pulled to the redhead's side, away from me. "So that means that we have less of their members to deal with."
"I didn't kill any of them, "I groaned, regretting my decision to let them live.
Black Leg walked through the door, I have no idea when he left, with carts full of food, "The doorman and the giraffe."
Nico Robin smirked, "I must thank you then."
"Yeah," the demon said with a feral grin, "I owe that square-nosed bastard for last time."
"So, why exactly did we decide to have this meeting?" I asked to get away from the members of CP9, that topic wasn't doing anything for Luffy, even if he was hiding it by stuffing food into his mouth.
"Right," Black Leg said, "you're an officer."
I glared at the blond, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Officers don't like beating around the bush and are impatient," was Luffy's reply. "Ne, Smoky, can I borrow your phone?"
I looked at him questioningly but handed him my phone nonetheless. Luffy smiled brightly and left the room with a rather angry swordsman following. No one else seemed to care about what had just happened so I decided to drop it. "So what is this about?"
"As much as it pains me to say this, but I do agree with the officer," Red Hair said as he glared at me, "what was your reason for calling me?"
Black Leg sighed, "You and Whitebeard are close, right?"
"Not really, we're just old enemies who like to drink together sometimes," the redhead answered, "why?"
Black Leg lit a cigarette, "Think you can get a meeting for Luffy?"
Luffy's POV
The number had been engrained into my head through constant tellings and warnings. The old man had told me that he would always be able to call him anytime I needed him. I'm pretty sure that it was because of this that he ever answered his phone.
I had greeted Shanks' crew as I walked to a quiet area; they were as happy to see me as I was to remember them, but I had something that I needed to do.
I was happy that I had Zoro with me, I wasn't sure if I was capable of doing this without any moral support. I took a breath and dialed the number that was engraved into my memory. It only rang twice before a gruff, "Now what do you want?"
I felt tears prick at my eyes and I whispered out, "Gramps?"
Silence answered me before a lot of clattering sounded and a faint, "Where are you going, Garp?!" before the old man got out a, "Where the hell have you been Luffy?!"
I laughed a little, "An abandoned apartment complex inside of Red Line."
"Then you're why White Chase wanted to know that?" came the slightly angry reply.
It wasn't all that difficult to tell that the man was nothing but relieved to hear my voice, "If you mean Smoky, then yeah."
A sigh of relief could be heard from the other end, "What happened two years ago?"
"My captors came and took me back," I said and felt a calloused hand on my shoulder before the tears that were flowing down my cheeks. "I can't talk any more, but Gramps, don't trust CP9. I'll see you later, bye."
I knew that he wanted to say more, I honestly didn't want to cut the talk short, but there were things that needed to be done. I looked to Zoro and nodded slightly. It never failed to amaze me, the extent of our understanding each other going far beyond words. He placed his arm gently over my shoulders and pulled me in for the hug that I needed since I heard the old man's voice.
"You should know that he's perfectly fine," I heard him mutter under his breath and chuckled, knowing how true it was. "We should be getting back now before one of those old men have a heart attack."
I laughed again before saying, "Neither of them are old."
"They're both old men," Zoro quipped back in jest. Laughing, we began walking back to the room, only to be tackled by a small pink, blue, and brown blur. I saw Zoro's hand go to his sword, but a small laugh from me had the swordsman relaxing.
I looked down to see the young doctor that I had befriended two years ago clinging to my shirt. I didn't say anything about the tears that were slowly soaking my shirt. "I'm back," I whispered and received a nod from the little reindeer. "You can check for wounds if you need to, but can we first rejoin the others?"
"Of course we can," came the doctor's reply before he turned to Zoro, "and I'm checking you too."
"You don't need to do that, Chopper," Zoro snapped back, and the two started an argument as we walked back. Once we got to the room, however, the two stopped as we entered into an awkward silence.
All eyes turned to me before Usopp shakily asked, "Your brothers are Fire Fist and The Gentleman?"
The only thing that I could think to do was tilt my head to the side and ask, "What are you talking about?"
Ace's POV
It isn't everyday that the legendary Dragon calls a meeting because his hero father found a need to call him. In all honesty, everyone knows that Garp isn't the sanest person in existence, but he doesn't normally call his criminal son to talk about the weather, so it was safe to say that whatever had Garp calling Dragon was big. My thought further proven when he called for a meeting, the second one in two days.
As Whitebeard's second division commander, I was required to show my handsome face. That didn't mean I was required to stay awake through the whole thing, narcolepsy is useful for some things. However, I am currently not able to do this since I just happened to be one of the first people here.
There is this unspoken rule that the first four people who make it into the meeting room have to help set it up. It's hard to sleep when you have to work and I can't force an attack on myself. Though I did once pretend to have an attack, but that didn't end well and I have decided to never do it again in fear for my health.
Back to the room, the four people currently preparing are, of course, myself, the first division commander who always does this, my brother who works for Dragon, and his girlfriend, though he denies it. Marco, the first division commander, was setting up Oyaji's seat so that it was ready for all the medical equipment that the old man needed. Sabo, my revolutionist brother, was setting up chairs around the odd-looking horseshoe table that separated Dragon's men from Whitebeard's men. Koala, Sabo's 'not' girlfriend, was preparing the jugs of crystal clear water and those stupid little finger sandwiches that no one ever actually eats during the meeting.
That left me, Portagas D. Ace, with the actual cleaning of the room. Let me just say one thing, I am the feared Fire Fist Ace, second division commander of the Whitebeard gang, I should not be cleaning a room, we are a gang for crying out loud, we should have cleaning people for this type of stupid shit.
"…ce, Ace, are you listening to me, yoi?" I heard Marco ask and soon realized that I had been vacuuming the same spot for the last ten to fifteen minutes. I looked up to the man and gave him a blank stare. He sighed and said, probably for the twenty-fifth time, "The meetings starting, yoi."
I looked around to see that everyone was indeed present and waiting for the me to finish with whatever the hell I was doing. It had me questioning how long I had actually been spaced out. Sheepishly, I nodded and put the vacuum up, taking my seat next to Marco and waiting for the meeting to continue, or start.
I turned my attention towards the raven-haired man who was responsible for this meeting. He looked rather out of it, which was saying a lot about the normally composed man. He cleared his throat and looked down at the folder that he had before him, "As you all probably know, I just received a call from a person with a high position within the government."
No one said it, but everyone knew that it was Marine Hero Garp the Fist. The father of one of the most dangerous men in the world today. No one ever said anything whenever Garp called his son, it was just too weird to admit their connection. "He received a warning from someone he called a 'questionably reliable' source. This source informed him that one of the government groups is not to be trusted. He did not say why but I have been advised to keep an eye out for them. I'm not positive, but I fear that this group is the reason for the movement that the government has taken recently."
A silence filled the room as everyone processed the information. It was an interesting little speech but I honestly didn't understand half of it. It's a good thing that I'm not the boss seeing as Whitebeard understood it perfectly, "Which group are we talking about?"
"CP9," was all that Dragon said. He looked a lot older than he was and I was seriously starting to wonder if he was okay.
Whitebeard nodded and then asked, "Who exactly is the source, Dragon?"
The next words to leave the man's mouth had my heart nearly stopping. It wasn't something that I had expected, and one look at Sabo told me that he was expecting it either. I couldn't help the smile that broke out on my face. After years of searching, after years of worrying, after years of failure, we finally found him. "It seems that my son has reappeared."
It was easy to tell that no one actually knew where he was, but the fact that Luffy was fine and away from those assholes was enough to bring a spark of hope to all of us.
