Chapter 1: The Self Proclaimed Genius! Hope starts his great pirate journey!

Hope coughed up some water as he allowed himself to feel the grains of sand that littered his body, his head was pressed down further into the sand by a cold metal object. He could tell what it was.

"Don't move a muscle" a commanding feminine voice ordered as a bare knee forced itself onto the small of his back. Hope sighed as he let all of his senses return to him, the comfort of knowing what was going on allowed him to relax. "I'm guessing that you're not from around here are you? I saw that stunt you pulled on that ship, I don't know how you blew the whole thing up and only spared the slaves but that isn't important."

Hope felt a familiar presence as his senses noticed that his spear was not too far away from him. All was well, he just had to get this woman off of his back and he was dandy. He was flipped around, allowing his face and body to be hit by the sunlight, casually blinding his vision for seconds as the woman straddled him and pointed not one but two guns at his face.

As his vision returned he allowed himself to appreciate the woman on top of him. Long Maroon hair tied up in a ponytail only allowing a few bangs to fall down over her forehead. Big brown eyes and tanned skin. She was well endowed, on both ends. Only wearing a black crop top and short jean shorts as well as combat boots and gloves, the incredibly attractive woman smirked as his golden eyes found hers.

"I know once the big boss finds out about you a nice bounty will be on your head, one which I can cash in!" she explained with a greedy grin causing Hope to sigh. He didn't want his first bounty to be an un-official one.

"And who would this bounty issuer be? Because I know that that ship was not a Marine Ship nor affiliated with them" Hope asked before his jaw was shut with one of the guns the woman was pointing at him.

"I do the talking here!" She stated as Hope rolled his eyes, this wasn't his first hostage situation but it was the first time he was the hostage. He removed his hands from the pressing grip of her thighs, reluctantly, using them to grab the pistols and crush them before she could fire them.

"Umm? Where am I, pretty Lady?" Hope asked as her eyes went wide, instinctively she tossed away her guns and attempted to punch Hope in the face, a strike which he dodged and used to his advantage, flipping the woman onto the ground and with him on top. For a split second he saw the fear in her eyes, this wasn't ordinary fear Hope determined as he leapt back towards the sea. The waves brushing against his bare feet, the only thing that he was wearing were his black baggy pants, which were sandy and soaked.

Her eyes regained the same fury. "You Bastard! Do you know what you've done now?" she asked as Hope walked over to his spear and picked it up.

"Escaped you? Robbed you of a payday that was arguably immoral?" he replied using his free hand to brush the sand off of his pants and body .

"Not that! My guns!" She complained as she looked at them, how crushed they were. "How did you do that?"

"Shihehehehe! You wanna know why?" Hope laughed as he struck a pose. "It's because I'm a once in a millennium genius!"

The woman growled and charged at Hope, pulling out a small carving knife and swinging recklessly at him. Hope easily dodged these attacks before slicing the knife in half with his spear. Pointing the tip at he throat, he cleared his own. "Before you try to attack me again, I have three questions. One, where am I? Two, Who are you? Three, where can I buy shoes and a shirt?"

The woman scoffed. "Welcome to Sunrise Island, specifically Dancing Port. The home of every scum known to the North Blue. You can buy anything in this port. As for my name… It's Revy"

Hope looked Revy in the eyes, he could feel the hesitation behind her name reveal. He lowered his spear and sighed. "I guess I owe you a pair of guns, what model are they?"

A glint flashed in her eyes, a glint Hope knew all too well. "They were two of a kind, there are only four in existence, nicknamed, Cutlasses, made out of the cutlass that Silvers Rayleigh used when he was sailing with Gold Roger."

Hope decided to play along. "So how many berries are we talking about? Thousands? Millions? Billions?"

Revy shook her head. "You don't have to worry, I was about to acquire the other pair before you showed up and crushed mine!"

"So I'm assuming that these cutlasses are close by? Maybe even in Dancing Port?" Hope questioned, they were probably in the hands of some rich asshole who wouldn't miss them and a couple thousand berri.

"You're in luck. The head of a gang, named Rogun the Butcher, owns these two pieces. He's based in this town" Revy explained, this was all a lie, and Hope knew it.

"Whose ship did I 'Blow up' then?" Hope questioned as he spotted some of the slaves he rescued looking on at them.

"A mafia boss by the name of Balilaika… she's the most ruthless and powerful gangster on the Island." The maroon haired beauty explained as Hope started to pick his ear with his pinky.

"Good to know, anyways I'll find you once I have the guns. Nice meeting you Revy!" Hope said with a grin before he started to walk past her. "The name's Hope by the way, remember it!"

Hope looked at the warehouse in front of him, and then at the thirty odd people following him. The slaves, half male and half female had pledged to follow him to the ends of the planet. Hope had accepted of course, what use would a captain be without a crew?

He noticed that one of them, one of the males, was hooded and holding a small wooden branch that had been sharpened into a makeshift knife. He would ask them about their stories later and everything else but only after he paid back that troubled girl for his overexertion of strength.

The people had told him that this was where Rogun was hiding out in. A big warehouse, which could fit a medium number of people, using one hand he pushed open the door to reveal a meat house, though it was people hanging up instead of cows and such.

"Well that's concerning? Who eats human meat?" Hope questioned as an image of a defeated pirate popped into his head.

In the center of the building was a buff white man who stood there wielding a butcher's knife, on the table was a person, a live person. There where all of these smaller butches scattered around the place.

"HEY!" Hope shouted, gaining the attention of everyone. "Which one of you is Rogun?"

Silence was constant before the clicking of boots could be heard. Soon a small, slightly tanned man appeared in front of him, two expensive looking pistols at his side. "What's it to you shirtless man?"

"Thanks for the pistols Mr!" Hope thanked before he sliced the butcher in half with his spear. Surprising everyone who was not a part of Hope's following. "Prove yourselves useful to me! Kill the rest of his men and take their weapons!"

He allowed himself to smile as his crew charged in ready to rip apart anyone who stood in their captain's way.

The hooded fellow however, didn't move. Instead he looked up and allowed Hope to look him in the eyes, showing his full face. Hope smirked as he walked closer towards and then past the figure. "I didn't expect you to be the following type… Hooded Demon"

Hope watched the burning warehouse, his crew had suffered a fifty percent mortality rate, in which only around fifteen of them remained. In time those few would prove themselves hard to kill, but not without any more battle experience.

He had ordered the remainder of his crew to burn the place down, erasing any remaining trace of Rogun from this planet. The hooded man had acquired himself two scimitar type blades and a belt as well as a denim jacket. He still refused to pull down his hood.

Unfortunately, Hope had yet to find some shoes or shirts that would fit him, or ones that were not cut up or blood stained. He made a mental note to take a trip to the shopping district and equip himself with some new boots, a shirt and maybe a cloak.

A member of his crew approached him, holding a box of what seemed to be gold coins and other valuable items. "Captain Hope! The remainder of us found this, consider this one of the many gifts to come as we serve under you!"

Hope accepted the gift graciously and smiled, he noticed that this man had a very… Manchester-ish accent to him. "Thank you very much… What is your name?"

"Ronnie Biggs Captain!" he said with pride, a bald, chocolate skinned man in his thirties, he seemed to have no hair whatsoever, highlighting his blue eyes. "But the boys call me Bill Theif Biggs!"

"Why do they call you that?" Hope asked, curious as to why this man was on a slave ship.

Ronnie smiled as he sat down next to Hope. "Well you see… I am a Shipwright, a damn good one if I say so myself. But that wasn't enough to help me pay off my old man's gambling debts, so I started to steal berri bills from every place I could find them. Life was good, I only stole from the Nobles, they have too much money anyways! But one day, I made a mistake. The person who I robbed wasn't a noble, well isn't anymore. I stole from The Donquixote Pirates, got my ass beat and sent on a ship to a slave camp."

"Then I came and saved your sorry ass Shihehehe!" Hope laughed as Ronnie did too. "I saw you fight in the Warehouse, sure you weren't bad but that needs some work if you're going to survive on my crew"

Ronnie nodded. "Well captain… I do know my way around a blunderbuss"

Hope snorted. "I'll add that to the growing shopping list"

The crew's shipwright stood up and left Hope alone with his box of gold. The captain turned to the hooded man who was observing his fellow escapees' work and tossed him the box, save a few coins. "Use that to outfit the crew, I'll be back"

Hope sprung onto his feet and began to walk towards the shopping district, the cutlasses tucked into his pants and spear in arm. He needed some appropriate clothes.

It took a small while for Hope to get used to the stares he was getting, sure he had some muscles and all that, but he was a biologically seventeen year old boy, people shouldn't be staring like that at him, or maybe they should be, he didn't know the laws of this planet and didn't bother too, he had his own morals to abide by.

He found a store that sold sailor's wear and purchased brown boots, a white shirt as well as a black leather coat and a navy blue bandana to wrap around his head. While he liked his hair, he didn't like the way it got in his eyes when he was fighting.

Stepping outside of the shop with a more refreshed aura surrounding him, Hope headed back to where his crew was settled, passing the hood as he walked back.

Hope smiled as his crew feasted in the bar, they would spend all the money they had tonight on lavish foods and drinks before tomorrow came. Though he was saddened that he wouldn't be feasting with them now, for he had someone to meet on the other side of the bar.

Sitting there with a bottle of booze in hand was Revy, he had chosen this bag because she was here.

"Hello there" he greeted, placing a plate of assorted meats and cheeses on the table before sitting down opposite her.

She rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be over there with your slave buddies?"

Hope shook his head. "First of all, they are my crew, not slaves. Secondly…"

Hope pulled out the cutlasses from his pants and placed them on the table, shocking Revy. "I have your 'Two of a kind' pistols here for you"

She greedily grabbed them and smirked. "You realize that you've been played, yes?"

"Oh noo! Whatever should I do?" Hope questioned mockingly as he stuffed his face with cheese. "Please don't call the Marines"

He could see Revy's mood darken on mention of Marines. If only for a second. He pushed the plate towards her and burped. "Have some, don't worry I poisoned it so you're going to die as soon as you eat it"

Revy scoffed as she took a piece of meat and bit into it. "Yeah, really poisonous… I'll cut straight to the chase, why are you giving me these?"

"Don't have the patience to wait for my masterplan to play out? C'mon Revy!" Hope cried out as he swiped Revy's bottle and drank from it. "I wanna know who's the richest, nastiest most connected person in this humble port town"

"Like I said before Baliliaka, she's a subordinate of Donquixote Doflamingo." Revy explained as she grabbed another piece of meat. "I'm currently employed by here running gigs"

"Such as transporting slaves and drugs and killing people am I right?" Hope questioned as he placed the bottle down and looked at Revy's face.

"Just doing what I got to do to survive on this piece of shit planet" she explained, Hope figured that she didn't like escorting slaves.

"The planet itself is very beautiful! The people sour it, Revy" Hope explained as he ran his finger around the edge of the table.

"Oh please spare me the goodie two shoes act" Revy said with a scoff as she grabbed the bottle and drank from it.

"You want to see what it looks like though?" Hope questioned confusing the gunslinger.

"I can see it with my two eyes, dumbass!" Revy said as she stood up, this conversation was getting boring.

"I know that!" Hope said in a tone that commanded Revy's attention. "But have you ever seen the planet from space?"

Revy had met these dreamer types before, they wouldn't last long in the real world, there was always someone stronger. "Keep dreaming Hope, you're going to end up dead in Davy Jones' locker before you reach space"

"Shiehehehe" Hope laughed slowly in a low tone, that sent shivers down Revy's spine. "Either I go to space or die trying, either way I'll be doing what I want to do"

Revy's mouth slightly opened as she could see his aura radiating off him, pure gold surrounded the captain as he looked her in the eyes. "That is what I consider to be true freedom"

Hope stood up and smirked. "Tell your employer that her days are numbered and that all of her supplies will be mine"

He walked away leaving Revy staring at his back. He knew what he had sparked.

AN: Welcome to Golden Hope everyone! Hope you liked the first chapter!

I'll give you some insight, this chapter is set 4 years (and some days) before the start of cannon, where Luffy makes the start of his journey. The secrets of Hope will be revealed soon enough for those wanting more, and I'll be using some characters from different anime as well as historic people or people of legend to fill up some roles in the crew.

Let me know what you're thinking!

Cheers!