A/N: This chapter is gonna be kinda long and is mostly what happened in canon but changes quite a bit towards the end. If you want, just skip all the way down and read the new stuff, or recap on all the details. Either way, hope you enjoy :)

"I missed again" A sailor groaned. His hook missed the barrel only by a few inches. "Heh heh heh heh strike three, pal" The sailor beside him laughed. "That's embarrassing, you suck!" The sailor from the crow's nest chuckled. "Hmm?" The third sailor looked to his left. A small plateau island was the only thing on the starboard side of the ship.

"Thunk" The wooden barrel sounded as the sailor's hook stuck into it. "It's a lot heavier than I thought it'd be, maybe it's filled with beer?" The first sailor grunted while pulling the barrel up with the help of the second. "Well, I think it's our beer now" The second smiled, pulling the barrel over the side. "Well, I'm not sharing my half" The first laughed. The third now sat unmoving, staring to the starboard side again. The man's eyes wide open and his mouth unable to create words, he stared as a pirate ship rounded the island. The ship had previously been hidden, but with its target moving away from the island it's cover disappeared completely. The pirate ship's flag depicted a front facing skull and crossbones with a red heart where the skeletons ear should be. The ship's four sails unfurled to reveal four hearts, one in the middle of each sail. Just as the sailor tried to warn the others, an explosion sounded, the Pirate ship firing three of their cannons at the passenger ship.

"CAPTAIN" A sailor rushed into the ballroom where the passengers and non-essential crew were previously chatting over there wealth and fine dining. "Captain, we've got pirates!" The explosion rocked the ship. "WHAT?" The ship rocked violently from the impact of another canon ball, causing the passengers to panic. The room quickly filled with screams of both men and women. "People, we have to remain calm, panicking will only get you hurt!" The captain tried yelling over the people but was ignored. The passengers all stampeded to the door. "Just follow my crew instructions!" The captain yelled as another one of the cannon volleys smashed through the ship's figurehead.

On the pirate ship*

"COBY!" A large lady with a white cowboy hat yelled out for a small pink-haired boy. "Y-yes ma'am.." the boy squeaked almost faster than she could finish. "Who is the most beautiful of all the seas" "W-well, Uh. That would be the captain of our ship, Lady Alvida, of course" the rosette stumbled across his words while scratching the back of his head. "Heheheh AHAHAHAHA" Alvida hit the tip of her mace against the ground. "Good answer" Alvida stared to the passenger ship smiling with malice. "It's been quite some time since I've seen a little action" A dark, burly man from Alvida's crew spoke. "That's right, so make it count! Hit it with all you've got boys!" Alvida yelled.

Alvida's ship turned to face the other and the cannon at the front fired. The cannon ball flew straight to its mark, taking out the passenger ship's main mast. The blast launched the crew and the passengers to the ground, and the barrel recently fished up into the ship's lower deck. The barrel rolled its way down the stairs and into the kitchen storeroom.

The panic on the passenger ship only worsened as pirates moored alongside and boarded them. The pirates quickly worked to gather all the ship's passengers and tie them together in groups. The passengers could only cry and hand over their possessions to their captors as the pirates brandished their swords and pistols. "Just hand over everything and no one gets hurt" The dark man from before yelled as he held a blade to the captain's throat. "But we already hurt a whole bunch…" A shorter and skinnier pirate said from his side. "Fine. No one else will get hurt. Happy?" The darker man hit his comrade over the head with his swords hilt.

Elsewhere on the ship*

"Look at what we have here" A pirate chuckled to two others. "Looks like our cabin boys trying to skip out on work again" The second grinned deviously. "Is that what's going on here, Coby?" "Wh-What? N-No. Of course not." The rosette stuttered, frightened by the three men. "I-I was J-Just bringing this barrel of beer I found up to you g-guys." "Let us lighten your load then" "Yeah I was just gettin' thirsty" "WHAT? No way! Lady Alvida would kill us if she found out" Coby whined to the three already standing up the barrel "If you keep your mouth shut, she won't find out anything now, will she?" the second pirate looked angrily over to the cowardly boy. "Yeah… Right" Coby replied smiling and sweating bullets. "Man, this thing's heavy" The first pirate huffed after picking up the barrel and setting it down. "I'll open it the old-fashioned way, so it'll be no problem." The man lifted his fist in the air to punch the lid off the barrel. Just as he brought his fist down the lid of the barrel exploded. The pirate punching towards the barrel was blasted upwards and into the ceiling before crumpling down on the ground.

All three of the standing pirates stared at the unconscious man on the floor. A pair of legs hung from the top of the barrel wearing sandals. "That was such a good sleep!" A muffled voice came from inside the barrel. "Who the hell are you?" Both the pirates demanded while Coby sank backwards to hide. "Huh?" The person in the barrel kicked himself out and landed smoothly onto his feet. The boy had black hair, a red vest, blue shorts, a straw hat, and a wide smile as he looked towards the pirates. "Hi, I'm Luffy" The teenaged boy beamed innocently to the pirates. "Hey, doesn't your friend know he shouldn't be sleeping on the floor like that?" Luffy asked, turning his head. "YOU'RE THE ONE THAT PUT HIM THERE" The two yelled in unison. Luffy turned to Coby as the second pirate put his sword to Luffy's back. "Hold it right there. Are you messing with us knowing good and well we're vicious pirates?" "I'm starving" Luffy ignored the sword and pirates and talked to Coby, "You know where any food is?" "I'm talking to you, Dammit!" The man slashed his sword at the raven-haired teen.

Luffy turned and slapped the flat of the blade to stick the sword into the floorboards beside him. This angered the third pirate who held his blade at his side while running towards Luffy. Luffy ran towards him after pulling the sword from the ground and slashed his blade in a wide arc before being anywhere close to the pirate. The pirate stopped on his heels to avoid the wild swings and gritted his teeth. "You don't even know how to use that damn thing!" He was visibly steaming from his anger towards the teen. Luffy stopped and held his blade towards his opponent like a rapier. "Nope. Your swords are nowhere near as good quality as the pirates I know" Luffy thought back to the crew who he'd set out to beat. "But I can still kick your ass with it" he stuck his tongue out at the pirate. "You best hope you can back those words up!" The pirate ran towards Luffy and swept his blade at the teen's throat. Luffy only stepped back and stabbed the pirate's hand, forcing him to drop his sword. The two conscious pirates backed away and grabbed their still-unconscious crewmate before running away screaming for Alvida.

"Wh-Who are you?" Coby looked to the teenager. Fear was obvious in his eyes as he was crawling backwards to get away. "Shishishishi. I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be the king of the pirates!" Luffy smiled proudly and rubbed his head. "I'm still hungry though" "How can you just blow this off like that? If those guys come back, they're gonna bring all their buddies and they'll kill you on the spot!" "I don't care about that, I want food." "There are hundreds of them up on deck and they are waiting for the opportunity to kill anything!" Coby tried reasoning with the straw hat boy to no avail. Luffy still walked to go find food while Coby held him back fruitlessly. "You're going the wrong way!" He strained against Luffy and put his foot on a door to keep him from going inside. "Wait… AHHHH" Luffy had pushed past the door leaving Coby's head to get hit as it closed. "Hahaha yes, gold mine!" Luffy's eyes became stars as he looked around the supply closet that was fully stocked with food.

"Maybe we'll be safe in here" Coby muttered while watching outside of the door. "As long as no one else gets hungry no one will come down here to look." "This box seems promising" Luffy pried the top of the box off and smiled proudly. "Apples! Excellent!" The raven-haired teen began stuffing his mouth with fruit. "Uh- Hey, my name is Coby. You're Luffy, right?" Luffy turned and gave him a thumbs up. "These sure are good" Luffy said after swallowing down the apples in his mouth. "So, are we on a pirate ship or what?" "No, it's a passenger ship being raided by pirates, pirates under the command of Lady Alvida." "Aw, who cares anyway? What I wanna know is if there are any boats on board." "I think there are a few…" Coby scratched his head thinking. "Great, 'cause mine got sucked into some kind of giant whirlpool." "That one outside?!" Coby yelled in astonishment "No way! No one could've survived that!" "Yeah, I gotta say it was a big surprise!" Luffy laughed after thinking about the barrel ride he had took. Coby laughed as well, but more so out of disbelief.

"So, are you one of the pirates or one of the passengers?" Luffy asked suddenly, jolting the rosette from his thinking. Coby contemplated what to tell the other teenager while Luffy began eating more fruit. "It was on a fateful day, long ago…" Coby thought back to how he got pulled onto the pirate's ship. "… That day… I stepped on a small fishing boat on the outskirts of town to catch my dinner. It turned out that this particular boat was actually headed for a pirate ship. That was two years ago. In exchange for the pirates letting me live, I'm forced to live the life of a cabin boy." "you're pretty stupid, you know that?" "Gee thanks for your honesty" Coby sighed and sat on the floor. "If you hate it so much then just leave." Luffy replied nonchalantly. "No way! Nuh uh! Just the thought of Lady Alvida finding me scares me so bad I wanna throw up!" "Hahahaha you're a moron and a coward, I hate people like you." Luffy laughed at Coby, sending him further into his depression.

Above Deck*

"CAPTAIN!!" Two pirates squeezed up the stairs. "This is bad!" They shouted in unison. "Yeah? Then out with it!" The captain yelled at them "I-It came from inside the barrel!" The first squeaked. "It's a horrible monster!" The second added. "Huh?" Alvida looked to the two men with anger clear in her eyes. "Who are you…" She raised her mace as a third pirate began to climb groggily up the staircase. "…CALLING A MONSTER?!" She finished and released her club to fly at the men, both ducking down to avoid her attack. The third pirate had just made his way to the top of the stairs as the mace flew into his chest. The hit launched him far away from the boat and into the sea and left the mace to drop onto the other twos' heads. "Uh.. W-we weren't… talking… about you.. my lady…" The first started "Y-yeah, some guy was hiding in a barrel. He could be a bounty hunter!" "What?!" Alvida roared in frustration.

Back below deck*

"Y'know… You're right." Coby muttered, more to himself than Luffy. "If I had the courage, I could float away in a barrel and be rid of these pirates. I actually have my own dreams. Someday I'd like to live out all of them. So…" Coby changed the topic to keep from crying about his uselessness. "… What about you Luffy? What was it that first got you to set sails on these seas?" "Well, I'm gonna be the King of the pirates!" Luffy laughed proudly. "The king?!" Coby began panicking again. "Yep!" "Are you serious?" "Yeah" "But… but that would mean that you're a pirate too…" "Right." "Your crew?" "Don't have one yet, but I'm looking for 'em!" "King of the Pirates is a title given to one who obtains everything this world has to offer. You're talking about seeking the greatest treasure of wealth, fame and power." Luffy nodded along to verify Coby's words. "That treasure you seek is the One Piece!" "Yeah!" "Yeah?! That's it? Pirates all over the world are looking for that treasure too, ya know?!" "Yeah, so?" Luffy replied but didn't understand why Coby was so upset.

"NO WAY! It's impossible! Impossible, impossible, impossible!" Coby screamed at Luffy. "There's no way anyone like you could ever reach the pinnacle during this great pirate age! There's just too many out there that are meaner and better! AH!..." Luffy stopped Coby's cowardly ranting by punching the rosette on the head. "Ow… Why did you hit me?" Coby whined. "Cause I felt like it." "Oh. Well, I'm used to that type of stuff… My shipmates smack me around a lot… All the time in fact…" His words softened sadly as he spoke. "It's not about if I can" Luffy broke the silence. "I'm doing this because I want to." Luffy removed his straw hat and stared into it thoughtfully. "I decided a long time ago, I am going to be the King of the Pirates. If I have to die chasing that dream… then I die." Coby gasped and stared up at the raven-haired teen who wore his devotion clear on his face. Coby couldn't understand his commitment. He couldn't see why he was so set on this dream he would die to achieve it. But he couldn't help but wonder if he could be that dedicated too. If Luffy could do it, why couldn't he?

Luffy replaced his hat and along with it his normal, giddy smile. "Alright. Now that my belly is full, I'm gonna go get me a brand-new boat." The older teen began walking towards the door cheerfully. "They might even just give me one If I ask nice enough, Shishishishi. Maybe they're generous people." Luffy reached the bottom of the short steps to the door as Coby started thinking to himself again. 'How could someone so childish, so carefree and happy, someone so… so stupid, have so much conviction while I can't even stand up for myself. Why am I so weak? Can I really be like him?' Coby started to cry on the floor as he looked up to Luffy. "If… If I ever put my heart into to something, do you think I can do something like that?" "Like what?" Luffy stopped to turn towards the younger teen.

"Do you think I could follow my dreams?" "How should I know? Shishishishi" Luffy laughed at Coby's question. "Then I'm gonna do it!" Coby's words were directly from his heart. "I'm gonna leave Alvida's crew and chase my dreams. I'll bring down everyone whoever harms innocent people! I'm gonna be a marine! I'll get out of here and come back and catch Alvida myself!" BOOM! the floorboards above the room exploded as a May smash through the hole. Coby squealed and scurried away from the falling debris. "Who is that you plan on catching, Coby?" Alveda dropped down from the hole she created. "And you actually think this… Twig...? Well?" Coby whimpered from the corner of the room, purposefully avoiding Alvida's stare. His fright was now overriding his earlier courage and left him unable to speak. "Answer me!" Alvida growled as swords pierced the door to the side of Luffy's head. Alvida looked over to Luffy against the wall. "My guess is you're not Zoro the pirate hunter." "Zoro?" Luffy asked, not fazed by the blades next to his head. "COBY!!!" Alvida's attention focused back onto her cabin boy. "Who is the most beautiful on all these seas?" "Uh, well I…umm… give me a sec. I know this one…" Luffy looked over at Coby and pointed to Alvida, "Hey, Coby. Who's the fat lady?"

Everyone's jaws dropped at the teen's question. Alvida's crew above deck all backed away. Tick marks adorned almost all of Alvida's face as her anger ran over her. "YOU RUNT!!!" the large woman yelled and swung her mace down to pulverize the raven-haired teen. Luffy jumped away from the attack and landed next to Coby. "Let's go!" He laughed, jumping out of the hole and onto the deck. Immediately after landing, the burly pirate from before rushed towards Luffy with his sword in tow. Luffy jumped backwards, avoiding the blow, and rebounded back up to headbutt the pirate away. Before the pirate was launched, Luffy kicked off his chest, launching himself towards another pirate. The second pirate only had time to draw his sword as Luffy elbowed him in the face, canceling his charge and sending him flying into the sea. after landing, Luffy was forced back by four more pirates who lunged forward at the same time. "Missed me!" The teen stuck out his tongue and jumped towards them. He kicked swiftly from the left and hit all four against each other and consequently off the ship. Coby yelled as another pirate jumped from above with his swords aimed to skewer Luffy's head. Luffy only stepped aside as the pirate's blades sunk into the deck. "It's not fair to sneak attack people, ya know?" Luffy grabbed the pirates head and brought the man's face to his knee. The pirate slumped to the ground as Luffy cracked his knuckles.

A large crowd of pirates appeared behind Luffy as he slowly turned around. "AH!" The teen quickly ran away from the horde. "It's even more not fair to gang up on a guy!" the crowd caught up to Luffy as he ran a few steps up the mast before kicking off and somersaulting. "Gotcha!" Fear set into the crew below as Luffy's hands started to glow with blue electricity. They scrambled over each other but got nowhere. "ENERGY!" The lightning began to concentrate itself into Luffy's palms, much to the crowd's horror. Luffy pushed his palms towards the crowd with his fingers pointed down at them. "SURGE!" The lightning traveled out of his palms and down his fingers into the middle-most pirate and jumped throughout the pile of pirates. The attack left all the pirates charred, silenced and incapacitated, the occurring groan being the only sound they could make.

Alvida climbed from the hole she created earlier to be met only with the sight of her crew lying still on the deck. Coby sat in a similar expression nearby Luffy. "L-Luffy… What are you?" The rosette's eyes were filled with fright as he stared at Luffy. "Shishishishi" The older teen laughed and scratched his head. "I'm a plasma man." "So, you're like, made of plasma?" Coby tried to understand what Luffy was saying as a sense of unease washed over him. He jumped up and ran to Luffy's side, then looked back to see Alvida right behind where he sat before. "So, you ate a devil fruit huh?" "Yeah" Luffy dropped his arms down and looked over the rival captain. "I had heard rumors, but id never seen any real evidence." Alvida looked at the frail-bodied teen and then her crew on the ground behind him. "You're more skilled than a mere deck swabber. Are you a bounty hunter?" "I'm a pirate." Luffy stuck his tongue out. "A pirate? Ha. All by yourself?" "Today its just me, but ill find a crew soon enough." Luffy spoke with a tone of certainty. "Then tell me boy, if we are both pirates..." Luffy nodded his head in understanding. "...and we're not under the same flag…" Alvida paused again. "Then I have to kick your ass, right? Luffy asked as Coby pulled at his shirt. "Uh- Luffy? Let's go."

"Why?" The older teen asked in genuine confusion. "You saw her powerful her club is. Of all the villainous cheats in these waters she's the most…" Coby's words stooped forming as he remembered his conversation with Luffy. 'I decided a long time ago, I am going to be the King of the Pirates. If I have to die chasing that dream… then I die' Coby finally understood Luffy's devotional his dream. "Go on." Alvida grinned at Coby's apparent cowardice. "Tell me. I'm the what?" "You're the ugliest thing on the seas!" The small teen yelled. Luffy couldn't contain his laughter and was soon on the floor laughing at Alvida's face of anger. This time Coby didn't lose his voice or his courage. "I'm leaving your crew and I'm chasing my own dreams. I'm gonna join the marines!" Coby's rage came out like venom and drowned out Luffy's constant laughter. "Then I'm gonna spend the rest of my life beating up dirty, rotten, no-good crooks like you!" Alvida's face contorted even further in rage. "Do you have any clue what you're saying to me right now boy?" "Of course I do! I'm tired of you always picking on me and hitting me because you can! I'm leaving and you can't do a damn thing about it!" Coby screamed his lungs out at her and crossed his arms at his final statement "You're dead kid!" Alvida yelled as she swung her mace down at the rosette. "Well said!" Luffy pushed Coby aside and punched upwards to stop the mace.

"I-Impossible!" Alvida gasped as her mace shattered against Luffy's fist. "Now it's my turn!" Luffy's arms began glowing and sparking with energy. "PLASMA…." "You insolent brat!" Alvida swung her fist to smack the boy away as the energy in Luffy's arms converged into his knuckles. "PUNCH!!!" Luffy punched both of his fists into Alvida's gut. "GAH!" Alvida gasped as the air was knocked from her lungs and an explosion of electricity sent her soaring into the sky and out of sight. "Luffy, you did it!" Coby grabbed Luffy's arm from his side. "You beat Alvida!" "Shishishishi" Luffy laughed and started to dance in a circle with Coby. "Yeah, we won!" They both shouted triumphantly. Their celebration however, was cut short by the whistling of cannonballs that crashed into the ocean. The turbulent waters throwing Luffy and Coby against the railing.

Both teens looked around to see who was firing at the ships when Luffy spotted a marine ship. Another two ships appeared from behind it. Luffy and Coby both smiled at the sight of three marine ships. "Perfect timing, now you can join the marines! But I gotta go, I'm a pirate!" Luffy jumped into a boat moored to the side of the ship. "No way! If they find me now they'll just lock me up with the rest of the pirates!" Coby jumped into the small sailboat before Luffy untied it. The boat plummeted into the water with a large splash. Through the noise a woman screamed because of the spray of water and waves from the boat's entrance. As the waves settled Luffy looked over to see an orange-haired woman staring back. "What the hell was that for? You almost made my gold fall overboard." The girl screamed at him. "Shishishishi SORRY!" Luffy yelled and waved back at her before unfurling the sails and slipping away from the marines.

After a bit of sailing Coby exhaled his held breath. "We're finally out of sight." The rosette sighed in relief. "Ah, so much fun" Luffy sat in the middle of the boat not worrying about their previous situation. "So, if you're searching for the elusive one piece, then you've gotta be headed for the grand line right?" "Mhm" Luffy nodded in agreement. "Y'know the people I've talked to call that place the pirate graveyard." "Right, and that's why I need an extra strong crew. You guys mentioned some pirate hunter, so what's he like?" "Oh, Zoro? Last I heard is that he's being held prisoner at some marine base" "Oh well. A weakling huh?" "No you're so wrong! He's as ruthless as a demon! And as scary as one too! Why are you asking about him anyway?" " I figured if he's good enough I'll ask him to join my crew!" Luffy smiled proudly to Coby. "There's no way he would join you." " You never know he might want to." "No! No way no way no way! Absolutely no-" SMACK. Luffy hit Coby on the head. "Ow. Why'd you hit me?" "Felt like it."

Dan Kenny's voice( If you will)*

A few hours later*

The two teens sat across from one another talking casually about their lives before. Coby listened to Luffy first tell him about his brothers and his grandpa, who was the hero of the Marines. He told Coby about Shanks and his crew and Makino. Even Dadan and the mountain bandits. Coby listened in awe at Luffy's stories. Only when Luffy finished did he speak. "So… you had your devil fruit all the way back then?" "Shishishishi. Yup! I didn't know how to use it until I trained after Ace left. Then I got really good at fighting without it cause Dadan told me I couldn't always rely on it." The dark-headed teen laughed at the memory of Dadan. "I was meaning to ask earlier, like before Alvida tried to kill me, but what does your devil fruit do?" Coby asked sheepishly. "Oh, it's really kinda hard to understand. Well it was for me anyway. Shanks told me it's a logan or something so I can turn into plasma whenever I feel like it or I get hit." "What's plasma?" Coby's question was met with a less than useful answer. "It's like blue lightning that's really hot" "Oh… that's pretty cool. So is it just for fighting?" "Yeah, mostly. I can kinda zap to places far away too. But not too far, I have to be able to see it and there has to be plasma there already. If there isn't any I can throw some though. I can throw really far too, wanna see?!" Luffy jumped up excitedly. "But won't you drown if you fall in the sea?" "Oh yeah…" Luffy sat back down and pouted because he couldn't show off his cool power. "Luffy?" "Hmm?" "Are we friends?" "You bet! Why wouldn't we be?" "'Cause I'm joining the marines. And you're a pirate so you must hate me right?" "I don't hate you. If you wanna be a marine then go chase your dream. And if we fight one day then we just fight, for old times sake. Okay?" "Okay." The rosette curled his knees up and hugged them as he thought about his dreams. Was that what he wanted? To be a marine meant he might have to fight Luffy. Luffy was his only friend, so was that really what he dreamed of?

TO BE CONTINUED*