AN: And once more! Replies to the commenters! All one of them!

Voyagers Unite: I'm quite glad you're enjoying, and yes I rather thought it was a good plot twist. I like Rebecca a lot, she didn't get nearly enough development in Dressrosa, so I decided to bring her in WAY early and make her a part of the crew along with her little sister. This is actually the first sign of the temporal butterfly effect mentioned in this story's description. Other major changes will be revealed periodically throughout the story.

Without further ado, LET'S GET ROCKIN!

Chapter 11 – Four Monsters

A Little While Later

Nojiko looked over at Zoro from where she was sitting at the little outside table she often sat at to peel tangerines and sketch as the green haired swordsman walked through a sword kata, "Sooo, how did you wind up traveling with Nami, Luffy and Atlas?"

Zoro executed a slow block and counter slash with the sword in his teeth before turning and bringing down another strike, "'Ell," he grunted, "I wuv eatin' in dif eftaurant, an dif guy comev in. Got dif wild mutt with him, and da mutt triev to bite thif kid, fo I kicked it out." He smoothly reversed his overhead swing into a thrust and continued, "Den da guy fev he'v a marine and gonna have da girl ekfecuted, fo I cut a deal."

His thrust transitioned into a block as his other two swords came around in a double slash, "I'd ftay tied up in their yard or a month, and he'd wet it go. Then the little mumble-mumble-mumble wanted to doublecrof me, but Luffy cut me loof afore dey could ekfacute me. Then we fought da marinev and da little bathtard tried to take Luffy's friend hoftage. Atlaf fowed up and fot the gun out of the little prick'v hand. After dat, we were a crew. Luffy's captain, I'm firft mate, Atlaf iv Quartermafter."

"That was very brave of you," Nojiko declared as she idly doodled a picture of the scene in her head. "Those marines sound horrible. What did they look like?" Zoro looked over at her, "Why?"

Nojiko turned her sketch pad around to show him, "I'm trying to draw it."

Zoro took his sword out of his mouth and sheathed all three as he stopped to examine Nojiko's idea of a quick sketch, "Wow, how long have you been working on that? There's no way you just started that." In the time it had taken Zoro to describe the incident, Nojiko had perfectly captured his, Luffy and Atlas's likenesses. Luffy and Zoro were fighting back to back in what Zoro had to admit were some pretty awesome poses, and Atlas was a shadowy figure holding a gun in the background as another gun was blown apart across the page.

Zoro sat down across from Nojiko, "That's incredible…Are you gonna draw the rest of the scene?" Nojiko turned it around and frowned at it, "Any other important people I should make sure to include?" Zoro scratched his head, "Ah, Coby, that was Luffy's friend's name. He was short and had glasses, kinda pudgy with a helpless look on his face…"

Nojiko's pen flew across the paper by the spot where the gun was exploding as the image formed in her mind. Then she turned it around, "Like this?" Zoro gaped, "Ok, I understand how you were able to draw me and Luffy and Atlas so well, but that's just uncanny!" Nojiko blinked, "Was I that close?" "Close?" Zoro exclaimed, "It looks exactly like him!"

Nojiko grinned and turned it back around to look at it, "Really? Cool!" Her eyes flicked up to him, "Anyone else I should include?" "Yeah the little brat and his dad, Axe-Hand Morgan," Zoro declared. "The brat, I can't even remember his name, he had blonde hair and his head looked like a mushroom, he looked really stupid and he wore really fancy clothes, like he'd go strutting around town in a three piece suit with a gold chain around his neck…" A moment later Nojiko turned the pad around again and Zoro was once again flummoxed. Then he wagged a finger at her, "You're spooky."

Nojiko grinned playfully and Zoro tried very hard not to blush as she asked if there was anyone else. Zoro nodded, "Yeah, uh, Axe-Hand Morgan. He was about eight feet tall I'd guess, he had this huge axe where his right hand was supposed to be and a metal jaw. Wore marine camo pants and a sleeveless blue shirt, smoked a cigar, really angry looking all the time…" Nojiko's hand and pen flew and a moment later her eyes flickered across the paper as her hand raced.

About five minutes later she turned it around and showed it to Zoro with a playful grin, "Like this?" Zoro gaped, "Whoa…"

What Nojiko had made in a scant few minutes was nothing short of a masterpiece to Zoro's eyes. Everyone in the picture looked as though she had traced them from a photograph, and the poses were spot on. Luffy and Zoro looked every bit the epic bad asses Zoro knew they were as they fought back to back in a circle of marines armed with sabers while Morgan raised his axe hand to strike them down. Atlas was looming out of a cloud of dust to the left of the picture, looking as sinister as could be with his pistol trained across the page on the exploding gun in the hand of Helmeppo which was right next to a terrified Coby's head. "That's incredible…" Zoro whispered.

Nojiko's grin widened, "Was I close?" "I'm starting to wonder if you were there," Zoro declared honestly, "Everyone looks exactly the way I remember, the only thing that's wrong is that Atlas snuck up behind Helmeppo to, that was his name! Helmeppo! Anyway, other than that, that's as good as any photograph I've ever seen. You're amazing Nojiko."

Nojiko's smile widened further, as she turned it around and doodled an ornate little box at the bottom of the page and labeled it, "Formation of the Strawhat Pirates".

Then she turned to a fresh page and shot an eager, teasing grin across the top of her sketchpad at Zoro, "Any other adventures you want to tell me about?"

Meanwhile

Nami panted as she narrowly held onto the tangerine tree and Luffy's bare chest pressed into her back, their chests heaving with exertion, "You know what Luffy? I don't think we're going to get many tangerines picked." Luffy laughed, "Shishishi, don't worry, it'll go really fast when we're done!"

Nami grinned and turned around to wrap her legs around his waist, "Well then, I guess we can take a little more time."

Elsewhere

"You know," Atlas declared as he examined the little panda like birds, "I don't believe I've ever seen this kind of bird before." "They. Are so. CUTE!" Mina declared delightedly as she gave one the tightest gentle hug she could. It spoke volumes about how friendly and intelligent the little birds were that the little bird actually hugged her back.

Rebecca smiled as she looked at the one perched on the hilt of her sword saluting her, "They certainly are." Mina lifted the little bird in her hands up and gave it the sweetest smile she could, "Do you want to be my pet?" "Groooo!" the panda-bird replied with its wings raised upwards. Mina's smile grew, "Good! I'm gonna call you Po!"

Rebecca smiled, "And is Po going to be like Tora, Vipy, Manny, Justice, and Pants?" Mina turned and stuck her tongue out at Rebecca as she set Po on her shoulder, "Just because they had other adventures to go on doesn't mean that they are not still my pets!" She pouted slightly, "I wish you'd realize that."

Atlas smiled wanly as he rowed the little boat along back towards Cocoyashi, "So you've had a lot of pets huh?" Mina turned, her smile now returning, "Yeah! I had Tora, she was a tiger cub, and Vipy was a garter snake. Manny was a Grand Line Mantis and Justice was a crane, and then Pants was a monkey who pulled down the pants on some guys who were chasing us and then stole and wore them."

Atlas blinked and then an old memory clicked. He grinned, "If you ever get them all together again, find a red panda named Shifu and have him teach them kung fu."

Mina's jaw dropped, "HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!"

Atlas's eyes bugged out, "YOU MEAN THAT ALREADY HAPPENED?!" He recovered quickly and leaned over to poke Po gently, "You be careful around that wildebeest ya hear me? You should be alright against the leopard and the peacock, but that wildebeest is fierce."

Po and Mina's eyes bugged out in unison as Po asked, "Groo?" "Can you see the future Atlas-sensei?" Mina asked in a voice of quiet awe. Atlas grinned, "Not very well, and only a moment at most. I'd call it more highly advanced analytical ability than seeing the future, but I have heard that story before. I never imagined it would come true. That's quite a friend you've picked up Mina! He just might be an incredibly powerful ally one day, not that you'll need the back up when I'm done," he added with a grin.

Mina and Po swapped a grin. Rebecca drummed her fingers on the blade of her sword, "I've been wondering Atlas-san, you said you could train us, but what are you going to train us in?"

Atlas's grin turned slightly frightening, "Isn't it obvious Rebecca? Everything." Rebecca recoiled slightly from the suddenly scary grin, "Um, everything?"

Atlas nodded, "Yes. Everything I can teach you two, I will. I actually like to think I'm quite an accomplished teacher. I have many friends who I've helped learn and grow to reach closer to their fullest potential. As for what I intend to teach you two specifically, and I apologize in advance because I know that this is likely a touchy subject, I don't doubt for an instant that your aunt fought back when Vergo came for you, and I'm sure she was a formidable fighter. Vergo however is trained in what's called Rokushiki, an extremely powerful set of martial arts which grant superhuman combat abilities. No ordinary human would likely be able to stand against even one of the six power. Vergo I know has mastered at least three, and I would not be surprised if he knew a fourth or even all six. I doubt he knows the secret seventh, I know of only two people in the world who are capable of using it."

Rebecca and Mina were now listening with utterly rapt attention as Atlas continued, "First off is what's called Shave. It grants the user nigh invisible speed by kicking off the ground ten times in an instant. Only those with Observation Haki and exceptional reflexes can combat a Shave user. Basic Observation Haki can keep up with it, most of the people who have that level don't even realize they have it, so I'm not worried about you being able to see it Rebecca. Mina, how's your Observation?"

Mina couldn't meet his gaze, "Ahhh…actually I'm not very good at it. I can only just barely predict movements. Aunt Viola said I used Conqueror's Haki once, but I don't remember it very well and can't summon it on command."

Atlas nodded, "That's good, and don't worry, I can teach Observation and Armament. You will however be tied with my captain as the first of my students to have ever had Conqueror's." He grinned, "It should be fun! Well, more for me than you. The only way I know to train Conqueror's is to use it and stand up to it, which basically means I'm gonna blast you with mine over and over again until you can stand up to it and fight back. Of course," he smirked, "That's actually probably going to be the least physically demanding part of your training."

"Aaanyway," he continued with a grin as he cast a glance over his shoulder, "The other five of the six powers I'll be teaching you are Moonwalk, Finger Pistol, Iron Body, Paper Art, and Tempest Kick. Moonwalk is jumping off the air, allowing you to run and bounce off air. It's not quite flight, but it's still an immense agility boost. Finger Pistol might be better termed Finger Dagger, as that's basically what it is. There is a more advanced version which actually acts like a pistol, but the basic version is just a finger poke with the power to punch through flesh like cheese. Iron Body is also exactly what it sounds like, you make your body so hard that normal attacks just bounce right off you. That's the one I'm best at along with Moonwalk and Shave."

"Paper Art," he declared, "is dodging taken to its utmost extremes, letting your instincts take over to such a degree that you are able to dodge without consciously having to. It's one of the few things able to circumvent Observation Haki. Before we make it to the New World, I want you both to have mastered Paper Art, Moonwalk, and Shave." He raised his eyes to meet theirs, "I promised to protect you in addition to teaching you, so in those lessons I will strive to let my instruction protect you whenever I cannot. There are forces which no defense can withstand, and foes you won't be able to face. We will almost certainly encounter threats of that caliber in the New World, and when we do, I want you both to be able to get away while I hold them off."

Rebecca frowned, "But if no defense can withstand them, and they're foes we can't beat, then how are you going to win?" Atlas smiled thinly, "How will I win you ask Rebecca? It's very simple. You probably realized already with your Observation, but even though I don't like to toot my own horn, I have to admit I'm a bit of a beast myself. Where I'm from, anyone who isn't an absolute monster by the rest of the world's standards simply can't survive. I survived and was doing well before I left to see the rest of this big beautiful world. Long story short? Those foes you currently don't have a prayer of beating? I'm one of them."

Rebecca frowned, "That's a little bold to just be up and declaring don't you think? Not to mention a little bit rude." Atlas's smile shrank, "I am sorry if it came out that way. I did not intend to belittle you, it was merely a statement of fact. However, I can see that you have some pride in your abilities, and rightly so. So with that in mind, let me show you a demonstration of my abilities."

He rose and turned, spreading his hands out before him, "The bane of all Devil Fruit users is the sea. To fall into it, or anything even resembling it, is to lose our power and see our vitality washed away in an instant. Even before I ate my devil fruit, I was stronger than most can imagine. Now?"

He clapped his hands together, almost as though in prayer, and then, "OPEN!" Rebecca and Mina could only gawk as the sea suddenly ripped itself in two before them, a solid canyon in the ocean down to the sea floor a hundred feet below and reaching all the way to the horizon.

"Can you imagine what would happen to a ship caught in the middle of that?" Atlas asked quietly. He clapped his hands back together and the two walls of the sea chasm slammed into each other with the force of tsunamis and the roar of a million thunderclaps. Atlas didn't even flinch as the boat rocked wildly beneath him and Rebecca and Mina held on for dear life.

When the sea stopped trembling Atlas declared firmly, "While my strength is not without limits, and my powers do take a considerable amount out of me, my abilities are firmly in the territory inhabited by the beasts that dwell within the New World. Nothing in the Four Blues can stand against me, and very few things in Paradise could confront me, even fewer on what could be considered an equal footing."

"In case you need any further convincing that I've got the bite to back up my bark," he added as he raised a fist and turned it black with Haki, "Observe the uninhabited rock to your right." Rebecca and Mina needed no further convincing, but Atlas was on a roll. He disappeared and reappeared above the twenty foot high rock jutting up out of the surf. "HOWLING THUNDER!"

His fist descended on the rock sheathed in a nimbus of lightning and the massive stone didn't so much shatter as explode. Before the last pieces had even hit the water, Atlas was back in the prow of the boat as Rebecca and Mina stared in awe, Po peeking out of Mina's coat in abject terror.

"That's something else I'll be teaching you," Atlas declared, "How to get special effects out of your Armament Haki. Some people can make battle auras, some people make shockwaves or flames. I make lightning and thunder. That's how I got my name. I can infuse Haki with my shouts to shake the fight out of entire battalions. Robin called it a wave of pure fear and declared me a low level thunder god."

He smiled thinly, "Needless to say, the forces of the Grand Line are a wee bit stronger than they were before me and mine came along. Everyone's had to step up their game to avoid getting crushed under the heels of the organizations we've joined."

It took a second for that to sink in and then Mina and Rebecca exclaimed in shock, "THERE'S MORE THAN ONE LIKE YOU?!"

Atlas nodded with a small smile, "At least three. One is a major broker in the underworld, does a lot of the go between for Joker and the Yonko Kaido. The second is an agent of the World Government's Cipher Pol. Drop dead gorgeous and really fun to be around, but when she gets her orders she's a terror if ever there was one. I don't mind though, she's terribly persuasive," he declared with a wry grin, a nosebleed and narrowly discernable hearts in his eyes at what was no doubt a very lewd memory.

Then he shook the hearts from his eyes and continued while wiping his nose, "and last but not least is an extremely powerful pirate captain who is well on his way to being an outright pirate admiral. His initial crew were stronger than your average pirates, even for the first half of the Line, and since then he's assimilated eight more powerful crews with himself at the top and eight very formidable pirates heading up the ships that now comprise his fleet. I don't think any of them had a bounty of less than fifty million when he recruited them."

"Again," he added as Rebecca and Mina stared, "all four of us are absolute beasts in combat, and none of us are exactly slouches in the brains department. That's how we've made it so far. When I'm done, you two will be strong by our standards as well."

There was quiet for a moment and then Mina asked, "Um, Atlas-sensei, how strong are your standards?" "The Shichibukai are what I and those like me would dub tough," Atlas replied, "Not unbeatable by any stretch, but not to be taken lightly either. I've got the strongest armament of the four of us and the best grasp of combat. The others are masters in their respective fields as well, but combat is my domain, and believe you me, I'm good."

Rebecca nodded slowly and then a small smile spread across her face, "Teach us."

Meanwhile

Zoro and Nojiko looked over at Nami and Luffy as they returned from the tangerine grove, Luffy toting a large basket of tangerines. Nojiko raised an eyebrow, "So, when's the wedding?" Nami immediately blushed crimson and Luffy tilted his head in confusion.

Zoro sniffed and then his eyes bugged out as he realized what the two had been doing all morning, "LUFFYYY! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET HER PREGNANT?!" Luffy frowned, "What's pregnant?"

Nami buried her face in her hands, "A baby Luffy. He's asking if you're trying to make me a mommy." Luffy thought about it for a moment and then, "I think you'd make a good mommy."

"EEP!" Nami squeaked as she blushed even more crimson. Then she reached over and smacked him in the head, "DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT! I'M TOO YOUNG TO HAVE A BABY! EVEN IF YOU ARE AMAZING AND SWEET AND AWESOME IN BED…" then she realized her nose was leaking blood at that last one and she immediately covered it.

Luffy leaned in, "Hey Nami, are you alright? Your nose is bleeding and you're all red faced." Nami scrunched her eyes shut and then sighed, "I give up." She caught Luffy by the hand and dragged him towards the house, "We're just gonna have to go at it until I get it out of my system for a while, otherwise I'm not gonna be able to think straight."

Luffy blinked and then grinned, "Shishishishi, sounds fun!"

A moment later the door closed behind them and Nojiko turned to look at Zoro, "I think we may need to get a room somewhere else tonight. We won't get any sleep in there," she declared as she raised her glass to drink while Zoro set his down and looked over at her.

"And here I thought you wanted us to join in," Zoro declared bluntly. Nojiko immediately choked and had to set her glass back on the table as she tried to cough out the wine obstructing her airways. Zoro walked over and rubbed her back until she quit coughing. Nojiko came up to scold him, but was cut off by her body reminding her of what she'd been thinking about doing the night before. She pursed her lips, Well, already did the captain… Then she grinned wickedly, "You're on."

An Hour Later

Atlas raised an eyebrow as Mina and Rebecca covered their eyes, "Well, I can't say I'm completely surprised to find them like this. I suppose we'll have to wait until they wake up to introduce you two."

Zoro and Nojiko didn't even notice as Atlas summoned the ship to the little dock out back and led Rebecca and Mina aboard.