(CP-0 AU)
Koala ran, ducking beneath a kick. She had a nasty bruise across her arm and her beloved hat was finger pistolled to pieces. One of the CP agents had caught up to her, and he was toying with her, leading her through a chase. She had managed to get the package, the information their spy had gotten, but the moment she had grabbed the documents a teenager attacked her. He was wearing an orange mask with a bright grin painted on it, and it made her feel as if she was being hunted by a predator.
Especially now that she was running for her life and he was chasing her.
"C'mon Revolutionary, I thought you'd be a lot more fun than this!" the voice teased from beside her and she cried out when a kick landed on her side, sending her crashing into a wall.
Her world went dark for a moment before she pushed herself up from the floor, gasping. Koala barely dodged a fist, the fist slamming straight through the floor.
The teen chuckled. "Well, Apple's gonna be pissed off with me for wrecking the place."
"Enough fooling around."
Koala tried to dodge but a hand grabbed her head, squeezing tightly. She clawed at the hand, staring into the face of a tribal mask staring up impassively at her. The hand squeezed and she winced but refrained from crying out.
A CP-0 agent had her, and if she screamed it would alert Sabo, and then they'd both be caught. She couldn't do that to him. No way.
"You're the weaker link. So where is your superior?" the man drawled.
"I'm the only one here!" Koala spat.
They might have her, but they wouldn't have Sabo.
.::.
Ace snorted. "Sure, and I'm the Princess of Alabasta."
"You aren't pretty enough," Apple teased.
"Rude!" Ace gasped dramatically. "I'm fabulous, thank you very much."
He could feel Apple's eyes rolling, but Apple returned his attention to the Revolutionary. His hand darkened and slowly began to crush her skull. The girl gritted her teeth, tried to resist screaming but once the blood began to run down her head her cry echoed across the halls.
Almost immediately Ace felt a presence rushing their way and Apple was forced to release the girl when a pipe struck his arm, a blue coated teen grabbed the girl, dragging her back.
The blue matching top hat and coat made Ace frown. He didn't register the face though, he was on a mission, and the mission was more important than anything. Apple stepped forward, sighing.
"Let's end it here, brat. You can't defeat a CP-0 agent," Apple said.
"What's a kid doing working as a CP-0 agent?" the blonde asked, raising a brow.
"I'm fifteen you asshole!" Ace cursed.
The blonde splutters. "You're not fifteen! I'm fifteen, and you're way to short to be the same age as me."
"You're just freakishly tall!"
"Spade," Apple called, placing a hand on his head. "Stop playing around. The girl has the information package. Kill her while I captured the boy."
"Will do, Apple," Ace raised a hand, forming it into a pistol.
He let out a shot of energy but the wall to their left gave way to a sharp, piercing wind that tore them straight down, wrapping protectively around the Revolutionaries. Apple and Ace immediately retreated back, Apple cursing. Ace saw his arm, a long gash across it as a green cloaked figure stepped in front of the targets.
Ace gasped.
Monkey D. Dragon. This was Luffy's dad.
"You're here of all people?!" Apple snarled.
"Did anyone say I wouldn't be?" Dragon grinned.
Apple scowled. He had his head tilted, a sign he was listening to something before sighing. "Mission aborted. Retreat, Spade."
Ace obeyed. It would have been interesting to see more of Dragon, but he would follow Apple's orders. He and Apple left, with what was bound to be disappointing news for the World Government.
Well, they better start changing their slave trading routes. Although Ace did have a small hope that the Revolutionaries would manage to set free some of the slaves and take out some slavers before they did so.
.::.
"I'm not freakishly tall!" Sabo complained.
Dragon blinked. He was currently examining Koala's arm, who was shaking her head at Sabo. He had brought them both back to the ship and handed off the documents to Sparrow, and would have thought Sabo would have finally relaxed.
No, he looked annoyed.
"You're that offended?" Koala raised a brow.
"Yes! He looked like a twelve year old, or at least, had the height of a twelve year old."
"He's probably just growing slower, you did have a sudden growth spurt after all," Koala pointed out.
"Yeah, but not a 'freakish' one."
Dragon had no idea what was going on.
"Why are you so annoyed by this?" Dragon couldn't help but ask. "If you believe he is a child then his insults should be of no distress to you."
Sabo's brow furrowed, and he tilted his head, baffled. "I don't know exactly. Something about him just made me want to be right during our argument."
.::.
Ace scowled. "I'm not that short, am I?"
"You're still complaining about that?" Apple chuckled.
"That guy was so annoying," Ace huffed. "Most people don't piss me off like that so easily anymore, but he had a gift for it."
Apple only snorted. "Go back to training, Ace. I'm going to report in."
"Sure, sure," Ace sighed. "I'll imagine that the targets are that asshole."
"You do you, Ace. Just don't wreck the place. I'm already in enough trouble as it is with Dragon having showed up," Apple groaned.
"Good luck with that."
"Thanks, brat."