Unbelievable! Just simply unbelievable! There had been a storm pop up just like out of nowhere. Now the Strawhats and Max were trying to keep it steady. Nami had barely noticed the clouds when the storm had blown in. She couldn't understand how in the East Blue the storm had shown up all of a sudden. The main problem was was that they were trying to keep from capsizing. Max was scrambling around tying down things and what not. The rest were bringing down the sails and keeping an eye on things. Max slid across the deck several times but managed to regain balance before she fell overboard. She was used to bringing in the sails on ships when it was raining and slick, but it seemed that the sea just didn't want to make things eay on her.

Ace was doing well, bringing in the sails and dodging most of the sea water. He silently was keeping an eye on Max. He couldn't help it, she just made him worry. It was kind of like the feeling he had for Luffy when they were kids and Luffy was thinking of doing something stupid and or dangerous. Max kept on getting back up even though she would fall about four feet later. Ace almost laughed out loud when she tripped and rolled back onto her feet. 'She's definatly finding her own way to get around in this weather.'

Chopper was doing pretty well too. He was able to do more than what he could whenever he had first joined the crew. "Stupid rope. Stupid slippery." he heard Max say as she made her way around the ship. Chopper just watched her roll back onto her feet again for probably the fourth time. "Hey Max here!" he shouted handing her some more rope. Max just rolled her eyes as she caught it and walked over to about the eight-hundereth thing she would time tie down something.

As Max started walking over to the barrel she slid. She whacked her arm onto the deck so hard that the braclet clasp broke. "NO!" Max screamed as she started to chase after the beads. She caught seven of them now all she needed was the eighth one. Max reached the last one just as a wave was coming over the ship. She saw the wave and dove across the deck to grab the bead. When she finally had all eight of them in her hands she looked back at the wave. It was too big. There was no way that this dumb little ship could take it. All of them seemed to stop and watch the wave come up. What were they suppose to do?

They couldn't avoide it, not at it's size. Even with the awesome navigator skills of Nami. Max's eyes widened. She felt so small, so insignificant next to the humongous wall of water. Max happened to glance down at the beads when she noticed something strange. Every single one of them were glowing. The light appeared to glow brighter as she dropped them. They had scared her, I mean glowing beads? Who in the world had ever thought of something like that? She couldn't seem to make her legs move or ant part of her body so she just fell to the deck and watched the beads glow brighter.

Nami looked over to where she had last seen Max when she heard a 'thump'. Max just laied there staring at the glowing things. 'what are those?' Nami thought. Then she could see what they were by checking Max's wrists. They were the beads to her braclet. The beads were glowing so bright that Nami had to turn away from them. All the others did as she did too. Then they looked up at the wave. It was gone! But so was Max.

XXX

One mintue Max was watching the beads glow. And the next she was here. And where exactly was 'here'? It was obvisly an island, filled with trees. Max looked down to where she was laying. There was sand, clearly a beach. "Great where am I now?" she said scooting over to one of the trees. She didn't know where she was and was really, well creeped out. One minute a gigantic wave was about to fall and topple the ship and the next she was sitting on an island alone. Nowhere in sight was the ship. Max wrapped her arms around her knees as she looked around. Just trees, trees, and more trees. Was there even a village here? It didn't look like it to her. "Hello!?" Max shouted out. She flinched when her loud call reached her ears. Boy did it like to echo here.

"Nami? Usopp? Ace? Anyone!?" still no reply. Great. Max stood up and walked down to the water. There were a lot of fish there, but not what she was looking for. Had the ship smashed? If so where was all of the broken wood? Had the bead brought her here? Or had she just simply been swept over board? The last one seemed more likely. Max walked along the beach line hoping to get somewhere, but with nowhere in mind.

Where am I suppose to go, she thought. It would have been easier had some one been here with her. Or at least if she knew where she was. How far away was the ship? Had the storm passed there? Had they even noticed that she was gone yet? And what the heck was that giant thing?

XXX

"Max? Where did you go?" Nami asked walking over to where she had last seen her. "Maximum if this is a joke I'm going to pound you for it when you come out." she said hoping to get her to come out. Truth be told she just wanted her to come out from where ever she was. Ace walked over with Zoro right behind him. "Max?"they both asked.

Ace was beginning to get worried. Sure Max played tricks on the crew, and normally they were funny. But this one wasn't funny. Not anywhere near funny or even worth a giggle. Ace was about to start flipping out when Zoro put his hand on his shoulder and pointed to something in front of them. There was the silver clasp to Max's braclet. Next to it was her black braclet. "Looks to me like her braclet broke." Zoro said. Sanji went over to the braclet to pick it up. As soon as he did he dropped it. "Ouch."

"What is it Sanji?" Nami asked. She watched with curious eyes as her husband picked up the braclet then quickly dropped it. "It feels like it was dropped in to a fire pit." he said. Ace walked over to it. "Maybe it's because it was glowing a bit ago." he said.

"You guys know what?" Usopp asked. They all turned to him. "Max said she didn't know what would happen once we got close to the island." Chopper looked over to him. "So you mean this could be what happens when we get close to the place where Luffy is!?"

Nami seemed to think it over. "It could be. But I just don't understand how we'll get to Max now. We have no clue where she's even at." "Well Nami what is the closest island near here?" Zoro asked. "I don't see how that will help at all. Max said that the island where Luffy was wasn't even charted. Much less on some map." Nami said. "True, but maybe the island closest to us will have some information about the island. You know something like a myth?"

"Well I guess that it would be a place to start." she said walking over to some maps and checked them. "The closest island is a small island called Marie." she said. "Guess that's where we start." Ace said.

XXX

"What in the world had that thing been?" Max asked just as she was walking backwards away from some monster type thing. It had huge horns that appeared that they could cut her in half. She was just lucky that she had been training on the ship. She now could easily hold her own against this monster. But still…. What if there were more. Now that Max thought about it she could hear more coming.

"Hey is anyone there?" a voice shouted. Max had hear that voice before. She knew it sounded familiar but didn't want to chance it so jumped behind a rock and some plants. Around the corner came a beautiful woman wearing a purple shirt with long brown hair. The woman's eyes searched among the bushes for what could be making such a ruckus. Her sparkling brown eyes seemed to stop where Max was hiding. Max hunkered down into the brush hopfully out of sight.

"Who are you?" the woman asked coming forward. Max knew that she had been spotted but decided that maybe keeping quiet was the best idea. But the burnett just kept on walking over to the woman reached Max she had stuck out her arm and pulled back most of the brush. "M-m-maximum?" the woman asked sofly.

When the woman received a nod of her head she dropped down on her kness and gave Max a hug. "I thought I would never see you again. I've missed you so much." she said barely keeping her words understandable. That reaction wasn't what Max had expected. And Max's wasn't what the woman had expected either. She leaned back away from Max to look at her. "Y-you don't know who I am do you?" she asked.

Max shook her head no. So what if the voice was familiar? She still didn't have a clue to who this woman was. "Max it's me. Your mother."

XXX

"So do you really think we can find any information about where Max might be?" Usopp asked . "We might and we might not. The point is it's our only lead." Sanji said climbing down the ladder. Once they had reached the town the could plainly see it was full of people. Most of them where wearing some type of weird mask. "What is it dress up day?" Ace asked. "Could be. Look it looks like a festival is going on." Nami said.

They walked down the street generaly noticing several different things in the windows. Zoro turned his head a bit, feeling someones eyes on him. He searched the crowd but it was hard to tell where the feeling was coming from. His eyes stopped on a boy who just happened to walk out of a shop. The boy seemed to avoid eye contact with Zoro. Then again when you saw someone carrying three swords down the street with other people who looked like they could take out anyone they wanted, yeah you'd probably not look at them either.

Zoro elbowed Sanji who was walkng next to him, Nami on the other side gawking at something or other. "You see that kid over there? I think he's been following us." Sanji turned so he could see the kid. The boy had a baseball cap on so they couldn't see his face. The boy was just talking to some more kids his age. "I think your just a little bit paranoid. I don't think that kid's following us. He was probably just looking for his friends. And see? He found them." Sanji said before going back over to Nami and helping her carry what ever she had bought.

"We're not here to shop Nami. We're here to get leads on Max." Chopper said pleadingly. "I know Chopper but we might as well get some shopping done while we're here. Plus I don't think you even saw what I bought." she said. "What did you buy Nami?" Ace asked coming over from one of the shops.

"Well Max likes red right?" she asked as she pulled something out of the bag. In her hands were a pair of red sneakers and a braclet. "I saw that Max's shoes were wearing out. So I bought her some new ones." she said smiling. "So what's with the braclet?" Usopp asked. "Yeah Nami. Aren't you the greediest woman in all the seas? And here you are spending money on Max." Zoro teased her.

Nami apparently wasn't in the mood to talk about why she was buying things for Max. She quickly turned around and started walking away. Nami saw Max as her niece, even if she wasn't. "Let's just say Max deserves it." she said. Which she did think was true. Max didn't have a mother or a father growing up so Nami could sympathize with her. She had a motherly figure like Amy but it's really not the same. Nami started thinking about how things could have gone. What would have happened on that day if Luffy had told them the truth?

She tried to think if she would've gotten mad at Luffy. Then again how could you blame him? He had left because he had fallen in love. She smiled. They probably han't even planned on a couple of years after he left them that he would have a kid. Much less that she would meet up with them. Her smile started to fade. She felt so bad for Luffy. Him having to leave his child. She understood why he did and Max understood why he had to too. Nami saw several kids laughing at a man in a funny elephant costume. There were very few adults aside from them. They must be off in one of the bars or something. She asummed that's why there were all the dress up costums outside, to keep the kids occupied.

"I swear that's kid's following us." she heard Zoro whisper to Sanji from behind her. "Zoro listen. First off I don't even think that we're being followed and if we were why make a fuss over a kid?" Sanji said. " What are you two talking about?" Nami asked. She was really wondering what kid they were talking about. "Zoro thinks some kids trailing us," Sanji said jerking his finger behind him and shaking it at some boy that seemed to be reading the ads on the side of the building. "but don't worry. I think he's just being paranoid."

"That boy looks familiar." Nami said. "He smells familiar too." Chopper said. They looked down to him and he was sniffing the air. "So I guess we know him?" Usopp asked. "He seems to know us. He's been staring at that ad a little too long don't you think?" Ace asked. Indeed the boy had stared at the ad that said so few words and had so few pictures on it that he was beginning to look suspicious.

"So. You finally notice me? I was wondering when you would." The boy said to them. "Who are you?" Usopp asked. " I didn't expect you to recognize me. After all I was only Maximum's best friend." the boy said tossing his cap off his head. The shaggy hair that had been up in it fell out and it was clear to see who it was.

"DANNY!?"

XXX

Whoa!!! It's been a long time since I updated. Sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways I should be able to update more often at least till I have to start practicing for my track and field things. Once again I'm sorry about being gone for so long!!! No I didn't get my computer taken away it's just that I know where the story ends and everything in my stories (well almost everything) have something to do with the end of it but I can't get to the end. In fact my friend read the story and is driving me insane trying to get me to write faster or put in her ideas but I ain't doing none of that cause when we were exploring the house next door to mine that someone just recently moved out of, she shoved me into the shed and locked it. But I got her back by freaking her out thinking that some weird boy that I made up had found her picture and was after her. It was hilarious. She flipped out and went running down the street. I chased that girl all the way to Walmart. AND IT'S THREE MILES AWAY FROM MY HOUSE!!!! No joking. Well that's the update and the update on my life. Sorry to bother you. Please read and review!!!!

Oh and just so you know I'll now have this thing when ever I update a chapter, SK, so you guys know that it's me. Remember SK.I don't trust my friend. Oh and review…