Chapter 14
The Strawhat Pirates and their new allies were preparing for their departure from the island of the lizard-men. A large crowd of the natives and all of their leaders were present to say their farewell to the ones who had defeated their old enemy.
Who was also coming with them was the castaway Dan.
"And you really want to come with us?" Nami asked the man.
"The place we are going to is extremely dangerous", Dragon warned him.
"I have been stranded on this island for nearly three years, I am glad about any chance to get away from here, even if it is dangerous", Dan replied.
"He is a brave man", Chopper stated.
"Beside that, I can always keep out of the actual battle and stay on the ship if you are going to stop them."
"Or maybe not", Usopp commented.
The ship was about to hold direct course to the island where they suspected the base of the terrorist organization.
"By the way bear-guy, we should thank you for saving us all back then", Luffy said to Kuma
"Yes and for guarding our ship for this two years", Franky pointed out.
"There is no need to thank me. You are my friend and leader´s son after all", the large Warlord replied. "And you had a good crew. It would have been a loss had they been killed."
"Here we completely agree." The Pirate King was laughing.
"I have promised you that I would go to an adventure with you after all Luffy", Jimbei told him.
"Yes you have. Well, better late than never, right?" he answered with a smile on his face.
"Can you tell us more about the enemies we will be dealing with?" Nami asked Dragon.
"Thanatos or Shadow as he calls himself now is one of the most dangerous people on this world. He is a skilled user of all forms of haki, including the "conquerors" and has immense physical strength.
But the most dangerous thing are his devil-fruit powers. His fruit is one of the most dangerous that had ever been discovered. A Long time it wasn´t even known what kind of power it was exactly, only that it was unstable and highly dangerous and obviously a logia ability.
It was only recently that Doctor Vegapunk was able to find out more about it´s exact nature.
You see, everything around us, the entire world is build up from the same ground-elements. Thanatos logia on the other hand is something else and in many way the absolute opposite. As unbelievable as it sounds, his element is anti-matter."
"What?" Robin, Nami and Usopp yelled in unison.
"You are joking", Franky said.
"No and I do know the theories about it", Dragon replied. "Whenever it is somehow mixed with normal elements it causes a violent reaction and normally complete destruction.
The slightest impulse of Thanatos power can blow up buildings and cause living beings to explode from inside out. A greater activation can wipe out cities and devastate large areas and maybe it can level entire continents. It is nearly impossible to control and maybe that was one of the reasons why he became insane.
There are only four devil-fruits that had ever been labeled by the old government as a danger to the world itself. The first was Whitebeard´s quake-quake fruit, the second is my own storm-fruit, then Blackbeard´s darkness power and the last is Thanatos anti-matter fruit. All of them have `the power to destroy the world´", he explained to them.
"Oh great", Usopp commented.
"Beside himself there are also many other dangerous members in his organization", Dragon continued. "For example had he allied himself with a professional terrorist named Dice Williams. This man has another powerful logia ability. From the reports I think he was the man who had led the attack on Jimbei."
"That means we already know him", Luffy said.
"Another is a former fishman rebel named Ray Manto. Like Jimbei here he is a master of fishman-karate."
"He will be my opponent when we arrive", the fishman told them.
"As you wish Jimbei", Dragon replied. At this point he paused a few moments in his explanation. Then he continued.
"Also a member is your old enemy Sir Crocodile", he told them.
"What?" Vivi shouted.
"By our information he had joined their organization." He had expected some sort of reaction to this particular information, at least from the princess.
"The last we know about is a powerful pirate captain named Kruge. By the latest stand he had a bounty of 250.000.000 on his head, but his latest activities showed that he is possible far more dangerous than we had thought."
"How do you know all that about our enemies?" Luffy asked him.
"That was the other thing I wanted to talk with you about", Dragon said to him.
xxxxxxx
Miles away a different pirate ship was holding it´s course through the Calm Belt.
Captain Kruge was many things. On of them was a pirate with a bounty of 250.000.000 berry on his head. It would have been much more however if the government had known what he and his crew were truly capable of.
But they were trying to keep somewhat of a low profile. This was connected to one of his other professions, as a member of the organization under the insiders known as the "New Order". The name itself was a cynic absurdity, since order, at least on the global scale, was exactly what the organization scorned. He knew Shadow good enough to know that he staged this irony on purpose.
He had never been part of the leading council, but only because he preferred to work by his own terms. Shadow respected that. Despite this he was still one of the most powerful and important members of their organization.
Kruge passed through a door that was guarded by one of his men into a small room. He had come to see the prisoner. A few of his crew had captured her on a island close to them.
In the middle of this room, bound on a chair was a young woman. She was maybe in her early twenties and had had brown hair that fell over her shoulders. Beside that she was clothed in rags. It was clear that the last months had not been very good to her and now she was a prisoner on his ship, about to be taken to the base for questioning, for the unlikely case that she knew anything useful.
"Please", the girl begged, "what do you want from me? I have done nothing. Please let me go."
"Nothing? I guess that is open for interpretation", the Pirate Captain said with a smirk. "We know who you really are. Even if you are probably not longer worth the effort anymore." The girl visibly winces at his words.
"But we are still bringing you to our headquarter so that the Boss will decide what to do with you. They will also ask you a few questions, in case you know anything of worth. If you ask me it is a waste of time actually."
He looked at her disdainfully.
His words of course did absolutely nothing to console the frightened girl.
xxxxxxx
Base of the New Order in the Calm Belt
The crew of the base was in a obviously edgy state. They were aware that their enemies were arriving soon and they knew who they would be dealing with.
Many of this men were professional criminals or ex-pirates. But there were also some who had just come from the lowest step of the social ladder, whose who had been oppressed by the government for decades, former slaves, fishmen, people from poor villages who had been threatened by pirates and abandoned by the marines or the other way around, everybody who had believed that a world without a united government would not longer oversee them.
There were however a few men in the base who were visible calm about the coming confrontation. Two of them were currently walking through the corridors, involved in a conversation.
They were the Ex-Shichibukai Sir Crocodile and the man who was known as Abos the Slayer, one of the mercenaries who had just arrived the day before in their main base.
"I see you have made it in time for our gathering yesterday", Crocodile said. "You are a famous bounty hunter with a impressive track-record and have been a member of our organization for a few months now, but somehow you have never been in headquarters."
"Yes, despite that I had been on important missions at other places until now I was able to make it. But to be honest, I don´t exactly see the point."
"You mean the little `demonstration´ Shadow had set up?"
"Yes."
"Well, it was a demonstration for the troops", Crocodile explained to him.
"I don´t see the point in executing the man like that in public."
"That is ironic, especially coming from you", the former Warlord commented. "What shall I say, as Shadow sees it the execution of a tenryuubito is symbolic, it reminds our men that the old world is dead and that we will be the ones creating a new one or something like that." He shrugged with the shoulders.
"It seems unnecessary and cruel", Abos replied.
"So was that man, as Shadow would say", Crocodile told him. He was now walking slower so that the other was one or two steps before him. "Officially it had been a demonstration for the masses, but in fact the execution had been an example for you, especially for you." He now had a smile on his face.
"What do you...?" Before he had fully voiced the question he was hit by Crocodile´s "sables" attack as he was trying to turn around to him.
Moments later a blast of energy was fired at him from another direction. He could barely activate his armarment haki to prevent the worst damage, but the two vicious attacks were still enough to slam him to the ground and nearly went unconscious.
"What do we have here? "Abos the Slayer", the infamous "bounty hunter", Dice remarked with a sneer as he stepped out of the corridor where he had been waiting.
"Or not quite", Crocodile said before he a haki infused kick on their opponent and knocked him out for good.
"It is hard to believe that this guy was actually able to infiltrate our organization", Dice pointed out.
"Yes, it wasn´t so hard to take him out. Bring him to Shadow now, tell him everything is going as planned."
Yes, by my plan, Crocodile thought silently, as Shadow would very soon find out.
Side-note: The name of the pirate captain is taken from the klingon from Star Trek III.