Hi, guys! Back for another week of three postings! Things are going to get very interesting.

Thanks to Agent Chan and Stargate Valintime for the Favs and Follow!

KP360 - It's a pretty good series; I've read only a couple of the books, though, but I know enough that I know I like the writing style.

chaosrin - All will be explained about the Purple Pirates in time, but I can confirm that they are NOT native to the One Piece realm - this version of it, anyway.

Chapter 116 (or 21) - Planning the Rescue

Maria glared down at the newspaper lying on the table, with Ace's wanted poster picture clearly on the front, before looking up at the Purple Pirates. "My captain's definitely going to want to rescue Ace, wherever he is. And if he hasn't learned about this yet, then I'd be more than willing to go and rescue his brother for him."

Looks of unease passed between the members of the other pirate crew before Max spoke up.

"Maria, what you're suggesting is impossible," Katie said, frowning. "According to this article, Ace is currently being held in Impel Down, which is the largest and most dangerous prison that the World Government could have thought up. If you so much as manage to sneak in, it's more than likely that you will never come back out alive."

"We've heard about what goes on in there," Isaac added, suddenly serious.

"And the only person who's managed to break out in all of Impel Down's history was Golden Lion Shiki, twenty years ago," Ike added. "He got out by cutting off his legs and leaving them in their shackles."

Maria flinched at that, then frowned. "Well, that explains why he had swords for feet..." She shook her head, clearing out the memory of the idiot pirate. "Still, I'm not just going to stand by. I need to get moving so that I can do something about this! So if you can point me in the direction of anyone who'd be willing to take me, then-"

"Maria, no matter what, no one is going to be willing to take you to Impel Down," Max stated seriously. "That's suicide. It doesn't matter that someone managed to break out, breaking in is something else entirely."

Mitchell nodded in agreement. "Yeah. And the deeper you go, the more dangerous it gets. There's supposedly six levels total, but we only really know about five of them."

"So even if you did manage to get in, you might not have had a chance to get out," Kate finished.

Maria scowled at that. "Well, what do you suggest? I'm not about to let my captain's brother die! And Luffy, wherever he is, definitely isn't going to, either!"

Max and the other Purple Pirates exchanged looks, mixed expressions on their faces.

Max hesitated. "I don't know...we shouldn't get involved in the timeline even more than we already have..."

"We have our captain's counterpart!" Justin suddenly pointed out. "And she's a part of the Straw Hats here!"'

"I'm a what?" Maria frowned. "And what does that have to do with rescuing Ace?"

"Everything," Ike spoke up. When Maria gave him a curious look, the mechanic simply looked at Max with a raised eyebrow.

Katie looked irritated. "I was on the fence before about accepting that request, and I'm still on it now. Max, we can't get involved. You know that."

"What do you mean, 'can't get involved'?!" Maria demanded sharply.

"It's hard to explain," Max replied, looking over at Maria.

"Well, make it simple, then." Maria folded her arms across her chest, glancing down for a moment when she heard her armored arms clank against her chest.

Max frowned as she and Maria locked eyes with each other, the wings on Max's back almost looking like they were twitching. The other members of the Purple Pirates watched the two of them with mixed expressions.

After about half a minute, Max let out a sigh and dropped her gaze before smirking and shaking her head. Looking up at Maria, she commented, "Well, I'm not one to refuse a summons from that man."

"Yes!" Isaac threw a fist into the air, only to get a gentle bop on the head from Ike - an action which was mostly ignored. "That means we're going, right?"

"Yes, that means we're going." Max nodded to Ike, then looked back at Maria, who was frowning confusedly.

"Who are you talking about?" Maria asked.

"As soon as we got to this island, we met a bunch of pirates who were protecting this area as their territory," Liza explained. "We weren't really sure about them...until their boss came onto the island. Turns out, we're right in the middle of a Yonko's territory."

"Yonko?" Maria blinked, her frown deepening.

"That's the exact same reaction we got when we said his title," Mitchell commented, snickering.

"Around here, they call a Yonko one of the Four Emperors," Katie said, rolling her eyes.

Maria's eyebrows shot up. "Four Emperors? You mean like Shanks?" She looked around the room. "Does that mean I got shot into the New World?"

"Not quite," Liz spoke up. "The Yonko have territory in the Calm Belts, too. We're close to the New World, but we're on the wrong side of the Red Line."

"The Yonko like to make sure that some islands get supplies and things to make sure that the people on them can survive," Justin added. "Like TransTown."

Maria relaxed a little. "Okay...then who's the...Yonko who's in charge of this island?"

"Whitebeard," Max responded. "Portgas D. Ace, who you've said is Luffy's brother, is his Second Division Commander - a pretty high-up spot in Whitebeard's fleet of pirates."

"Since we were kind of invading their territory and had just appeared out of nowhere, we ended up getting brought up to Whitebeard," Mitchell added. He grinned. "And now we can call him Oyaji as much as we want!"

The exclamation threw Maria for a loop. "You call him what?"

Max sighed and made a waving motion with one hand. "What we call him is besides the point. The point is that we've been counted among his allies, since we're living in his territory, and we have to answer his call if he ever needs any of us to give him a hand."

"And he's calling in everyone," Isaac added, grinning. "He's got a plan to rescue Ace!"

Maria's eyebrows shot up as her eyes widened, and a grin crossed her face. "Are you serious? Let's go, then! If he can rescue Ace, then Luffy won't have to put himself in danger!"

"Hold on," Katie spoke up. "Out of all of Oyaji's forces, we're a little odd. He's given us permission to not get involved in certain situations if we don't want to be. This kind of fits with one of the situations where we asked that we be allowed to not get involved."

Maria's grin faded slowly. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that there are just some situations where we can't get involved." Katie folded her arms across her chest, practically glaring at Maria. "And the only one who would really have the words to change my mind would be the real captain and she isn't exactly here right now."

Maria snorted. "Be glad she isn't!"

Max sighed. "For her, that's beside the point."

Maria looked at Max with an incredulous expression. "You're the first mate, right? Doesn't that made you pretty much the same thing as the captain when she isn't around?"

Max paused at the question. "Technically, yes, but this time we're all a little bit hesitant to get involved."

"I feel like you're talking circles around me." Maria scowled. "And it doesn't help that I can't remember everything right now, either."

"Can't remember?" Isaac parroted.

"Yeah. I had an accident a while ago that involved your captain and a rather nasty storm." Maria folded her arms across her chest. "Airam's been playing with me ever since, and now it feel like you guys are playing with me, too. First you say that you're friends with Ace's captain, then you say you're not willing to help. What is with you people?"

Maria's annoyed tone, coupled with her words, caused the Purple Pirates to look at each other with mixed expressions.

"And this is why I'm planning on going ahead and accepting Whitebeard's order," Max said, turning to look at the others. She nodded her head at Maria. "We have a member of Luffy's crew. It wouldn't be right to leave her out of what Whitebeard's planning."

Katie looked like she wanted to protest, but then she paused after a moment and let out an annoyed sigh. "All right; fine. So we're going to go ahead and do this."

Maria's eyes widened, and she looked at Max in amazement. "You're really going to do it?"

Max nodded, smirking. "Yeah. But we're going to have to hurry if we're going to get down to TransTown to meet up with the local Division Commander. Which means that we're going to need to get packed fast."

Most of the crew seemed to take this as their cue, and they scattered out of the kitchen in seconds. Katie was the only one who really took her time.

As soon as they were gone, Max turned and looked at Maria. "They're going to be back here in about fifteen minutes, so I'm going to cover this now."

Maria frowned at that. "Cover what?"

"There's something about this island that you should probably know before we head down to TransTown. This island has a strange environment about it...it'll bring things out of your memories and make them almost a reality. Which means that there is a chance that we're going to run into things from your past, even though you might not remember them."

Maria jolted in surprise at that. "Really? You're sure?"

Max nodded. "It did that the first time we came here, but after a while, the island got used to us and stopped showing us our pasts. I'm kind of starting to miss it, to be honest, but the island isn't about react to us anytime soon."

Maria blinked, absorbing that. "Uh huh...so that means that I could end up recovering some of my memories while I'm here?"

"Probably not very many of them, but there's a chance that you could remember something. But we can't stay for long - there's a Whitebeard ship waiting for us down in TransTown, so we're going to have to hurry."

"Right." Maria nodded, then gave a sigh. "Gotcha."

"Hey."

Maria looked at Max, blinking a couple times when she saw the expression that was on the first mate's face.

"I can tell that you want to get your memories back, but you're a part of the Straw Hats, too. They're probably worried about you, remember?"

"Right." Maria nodded.

"Maybe you can come back here once you've gotten back with your crew and you could spend a few days here," Max added.

"I'd like that." Maria smiled. "It would be pretty cool to see what everyone else would think of this place!"

Time Break

Max led Maria to the front door of the building that the Purple Pirates called home, and the two were met by the other members of the pirate crew standing there with an assortment of items that Maria guessed were their weapons.

Katie held up a katana with a gold handle and a red sheath and tossed it over to Max, who caught it easily. "Maria, do you need anything?"

Maria blinked at the question. "When you say 'anything'..."

"Weapons," Mitchell held up his guitar, grinning eagerly. "You didn't come with anything."

"Oh." Maria blinked in surprise, then shook her head. "No; I'm fine without anything."

"You're sure?" When Maria nodded, Mitchell smirked. "I'd love to see how you fight."

"Where we're going, we definitely will," Max replied. "I already told Maria this guys, but be warned - we're probably going to end up running into Maria's memories on her way down, since she's new to the island. I don't know what we're going to end up seeing, but it could be absolutely anything. So keep your eyes open."

"Sure!" Ike replied cheerily. "I can't wait to see what kinds of memories we'll end up seeing!"

Maria chuckled, looking nervous as she rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I don't know..." She frowned a little. "There are some things that I remember now that I don't really know if I want to remember, so I don't know if some of the things we're going to end up seeing are going to be anywhere near cool."

"A lot of us have things that we don't really want to remember," Ike replied. "I think that we will be able to handle whatever it is that your memories will throw at us."

Maria paused when she heard that, and she looked around at the different members of the Purple Pirates crew. She blinked in bewilderment when she saw the determined looks on all their faces, and she gave a determined smile of her own and nodded in response.

"All right. Let's go, then." Maria looked over at Max, who smiled in response. "Lead the way to TransTown."

Max chuckled in response. "All right. We'll do our best." She moved to the door and opened it before stepping out, leading the rest of the group out of the house and into the open air.

And the next chapter I post, we're going to be sending Maria on a little trip down memory lane.

Do you recognize the place that Maria's at now? TransTown? If you own or have played the game One Piece Red, you should! It's an island that Luffy spends the entire game on! It's unfortunate that the game is technically non-canon, but I still find it pretty fun to play. The entire island is a great place to relive the Straw Hats' greatest - and most terrifying (since Marineford's there) - adventures.

Since Luffy can't go there in canon, I thought it'd be cool if Maria went there instead. :)

Anyway, I'll see you on Wednesday!