I do not own either One Piece or Justice League Unlimited.
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Beta read by the wonderful rose7anne101 and MasterQwertster. Also help from Gremlin Jack on some issues, with him even writing some of the content himself. Make sure to check out their stories!
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Justice
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Chapter 3: Aftermath
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Previously:
Stranded in a strange new universe, the Straw Hat Pirates have been working to find their way back home, but unfortunately they require lots of money and resources to accomplish this. Inevitably they began both legal and illegal enterprises to do so. Batman and Superman grew suspicious of one of their legitimate companies, Cherry Blossom Medical, leading to a brief clash between them and members of the Straw Hats. Both sides retreated, and the pirates dissolved the company to cover their tracks, adamant that the heroes never discover anything about their home universe, especially the other followers of 'Justice' that live there.
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Calmly, Black Leg Sanji turned around as he took in the sight of the Watchtower. Acting as if he owned the place.
Which he sort of did.
Partial ownership at least.
"Yes, that's it exactly," Superman complimented.
The form of the ex-CEO of Cherry Blossom Medical shifted and flowed, until in his place stood J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. "It should be, given how I took this image directly from your memories," the shapeshifting telepath dryly noted.
Batman said nothing, having denied their teammate the right to poke around in his head. His injuries hurt, but he kept on working. Not daring to appear weak. The sole normal human on the team.
Although the rest of the assembled League felt like trying to convince him to go to bed to rest from yesterday's injuries, they respected his desire to first discuss the ones who had attacked him. Each of them examined the pictures taken of Manhunter, showing different profiles of the four pirates.
"Don't look like much," Flash noted, as he rummaged through his twelfth bag of chips for the last few crumbs.
"Appearances can be deceiving," Martian Manhunter neutrally reminded him. "But do we really have grounds to put out alerts on them? Illegal construction or not, and false backgrounds, you did break into their home, which is also illegal."
"I'm not a member of your little club," Batman growled while the others tried to not roll their eyes. While they had the support from many governments, Batman, their 'part-timer,' was the one who broke the most laws; albeit in a manner that none of them were willing to call him out on. Breaking and entering to spy around was a regular occurrence for him, with the caveat that none of what he 'found' would hold up in courts. It was the results of the follow-up investigations that were born from those first clues that made the difference. Strictly speaking, they had nothing to hold those criminals on that they would not be promptly bailed out for.
It's not too different from what the prosecutor said at my trial, John Stewart thought. Remembering when he had been brought before the tribunal on Ajuris 5, charged with destroying their neighbouring planet. No one gave us the right to protect people. The Guardians of the Universe entrusted me with the means to uphold law and order throughout every planet in my assigned sector, but they were the ones to appoint themselves to play that role. They answer to no higher authority, yet so far they've gotten it right for the most part.
Just like we are doing here with the League.
Protecting innocent life is too big to let ourselves be constrained by the governments. Yet at the same time, I turned myself in to the court because we must work alongside those same officials if we want to show people how to achieve peace and justice without violence. That it doesn't have to be a part of life.
To say that it was a delicate balancing act, one which they had to be carefully scrutinized every single second of every day, would be an understatement.
The truth of the matter was that the members of the Justice League had for all intents and purposes been vigilantes, which was illegal despite widespread support from the public and law enforcement. Since the founding of their team though, they had the privilege of the United Nation's approval, as well as countries like the United States. Those institutions overlooked what were technically criminal acts out of faith that the heroes would remain true to their ideals. That they would not push the envelope too far.
So far it worked, but only because of the level of faith the various governments and police were willing to put in them.
But these people Superman and Batman had uncovered, had gone to suspicious lengths to hide themselves. Which they would not have done if helping people with superior treatments was all they intended. Clearly they held an agenda that they were willing to fight to protect at the drop of a hat, used a lead-based smoke bomb that would have been very hazardous if they had been anyone else, and openly identified themselves as pirates. Actions and words that spoke volumes.
No, there was no doubt in Green Lantern's mind that these people were going to cause trouble. The only question was how much, and how the League was to contain it.
"I dropped off most of our notes on it to the Daily Planet before coming here," Superman said. "We don't have anything to hide," Batman coughed, "aside from how Batman is going to be out of it for a little while. What's important here is that people are warned that something suspicious is going on."
There was some slight reluctance, but the others agreed. Their reputation was important, but ensuring people were safe was more so.
!JUSTICE!
Lois Lane gave a little "hmm" as she reread her article. Smallsville would look it over later to check for any grammar issues (as she would do for Clark in turn of course), but right now she wanted to be sure it had the right balance to it.
The damage from the attack on Cherry Blossom Medical's head office had apparently not gone public yet, but Superman had already dropped by to leave her and Clark his notes, along with an explanation for what had happened. He had learnt about the interview she and her co-worker had done, and wanted to break the news first. Given Lois' own suspicions, observations of the individuals involved (including how she had caught the CEO in a lie over who was responsible for the medical breakthroughs), and verifying Superman's copies of the company's finances, she was inclined to believe he had been right to intervene. Whoever 'Black Foot' and 'Dr. Mikan' were, they had obviously been up to something, especially since if they had really been as honest and helpful as they claimed, they would have had no reason to need such secrecy. Ergo, whatever they had been hiding behind what was supposedly one of the greatest humanitarian enterprises, was likely something too unsettling for the public to ever condone.
On the flip-side, an extremely successful medical company had been attacked, and who knew what would happen to those priceless patents. Lois could only hope Wayne Enterprises would buy them out. Even more costly, was how the original source of these ground-breaking medical breakthroughs was –however temporary if she knew Superman— lost. Her article was quite clear that while what the hero had done was correct, how he had gone about doing it was another matter.
That was Lois' job after all: making people aware of the full story, and guiding or prodding them into asking the hard questions themselves. Freedom and democracy required more than just punching would-be dictators to succeed after all. It was the responsibility of every citizen to hold their defenders accountable.
In her opinion, given what was at stake, more members of the Justice League should have been present. That was why they were a team after all, right? They had definitely been too cocky here. If it had been Lex Luthor's company (and yes, hiding something sinister behind something so benign, was exactly the sort of thing he would do), he would already be suing the League for searching without a warrant, destruction of property, corporate espionage, breaking and entering, mental trauma, etcetera.
While she might have a crush on Superman, not calling him out on stuff like this would only hurt him and his friends in the long-run.
She also suspected that Superman was keeping some cards to his chest, although Lois had a shrewd idea what they were. They had just gotten word from Gotham City that the multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne, who she knew was Batman, had cancelled a charity dinner because he 'hurt himself slipping in the bathtub.' Promptly following this were rumours that the playboy had actually injured himself while dallying with his latest conquest. Further scandalous gossip had flourished from there. Clearly Batman was covering something up, and had to provide a public explanation for some actual injuries. Again.
Regardless, she knew to keep quiet about it. A bloodbath in Gotham because the criminals learnt Batman was out of commission, was not something Lois wanted on her conscience. Aside from that, I think Superman covered everything else. Although if the League doesn't come up with something to help the authorities locate these guys, even if only to report any sightings, I'll have to think of something myself, Lois grimly thought, her thoughts darkening further beneath her neutral mask.
And Superman had better bring in that slimeball CEO fast. I don't want him on the streets any longer than necessary! Especially if he, or whoever he's with, is good enough to take down Batman hard enough that Superman doesn't want anyone to know.
Because at the end of the day, Lois did believe what Superman and his fellow heroes were doing was necessary.
It was tough love, but articles like this were her own way of helping them remember what they were responsible for.
!JUSTICE!
"This just came in," Batman called out from where he was working at his computer. "All of the medical company's patents just went onto the public domain."
"Not what I'd expect if they really were hardened criminals," Princess Diana pointed out, as she came up to read over his shoulder.
"Don't just jump to that conclusion," Green Lantern John Stewart cautioned. "That might just be want they want us to think. As intimidating as Batman might be, they could've called the police, or tried talking to him instead of blindsiding him hard enough to hospitalize a normal man. For crying out loud, they call themselves 'pirates,' remember."
"Why use a medical company as a front though," Flash asked while snacking down chips.
"Like Batman said, they probably got their hands on advanced stuff, and couldn't adapt it for anything else," the ex-soldier turned space-cop argued. "And then used it to make a hefty profit."
"So Batman's theorised," J'onn reminded them. "And he said the furry one claimed to be the creator. It could be that he feared prejudice against his appearance, and that is why they chose to be secretive about it."
John paused at that. As an African-American, he had experienced discrimination growing up, and had seen far, far worse as the Green Lantern of this space sector while traveling to and amongst alien cultures. Moreover, J'onn was literally wearing a different form than the one he had been born with. The shapeshifter taking a more 'human' appearance so as to not unnerve the people of Earth with what he really looked like. "It's possible," John granted. "That might even be part of the story. Nevertheless, they've taken it too far now for it to be as simple as that."
"You're all being naïve," Batman admonished. "I just told you they put the patents out on the public domain, and that's the first thing you all think about?"
"You're worried. You think making them public is part of some sort of PR campaign?" Diana queried. "Something to use against us in court?"
Batman frowned. "That's if we're lucky. Those patents represent a huge amount of money, almost the sum total of Cherry Blossom's market value. Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp were already furiously trying to get a hold of them. Either one would have paid any opening offers for them, if only to keep the other from getting them first. These so-called pirates stood to gain a lot of money from whoever bought out them out in the hours since we confronted them. They haven't been formally charged with any crimes yet after all.
"Instead," Batman continued to lecture, "they immediately disposed of everything at zero profit, just as a major source of income dried up." Now the rest of League were starting to catch on as he finished.
"No, the entire company was always a smokescreen of some sort. And that makes me wonder –what have they got to hide that makes them treat a billion-dollar asset as a pawn to be sacrificed?"
Everyone tensed up at these words, leading Superman to hold up a hand to play peacekeeper. "Let's just wait until we have some more evidence. Do we have anything concrete yet?"
"What about their base? Was there anything left?" Hawkgirl asked.
"Superman and I took a look around before coming to the Watchtower," Batman said, omitting how Superman had first flown him to the Batcave for medical aid. "When we were first distracted by the smoke, we missed how they had also fired a projectile to set fire to the notes I'd found. However, even that they had expressed no concern over. We found no clues that would lead us to them."
"Nothing at all?" Hawkgirl said with surprise, well aware of Batman's skill as a detective.
"It's probably a good idea if John and J'onn go with us for another look," Superman offered. Between John's Green Lantern Ring, and J'onn's ability to phase through solid objects (especially when lead-lined against X-ray vision), they might catch something. "But no, we couldn't find anything. By the looks of it, from the beginning they were professional enough that there were never any personal effects that could be traced. Even the materials they were using, were simply diverted from their official resources for the company overhead."
"The only thing of interest," Batman tightly added, annoyed at Superman's lack of attention to detail, "is the flag. They took their 'Jolly Roger' with them."
It was a strange one, with what looked like some sort of hat on top of the skull. A straw hat like their name.
Everyone lapsed into silence as they thought about it some more, until they noticed Diana shift to get a better look at what Batman was studying now. Reports and images that looked familiar to them.
"Fortunately," Batman said as he continued to scroll through information, "I think we've now gotten a lead on who's been doing all those robberies."
"You mean all of those banks, museums, and laboratories that've gotten ripped off lately?" Flash inquired as he zipped up beside the Dark Knight.
For the last few months there had been of string of high profile thefts. At first there had been enough variety in the methods used to make them think it was several different gangs operating. Inevitably, the crooks had messed up, leaving enough clues behind at several heists for the League and investigators to realize it was one single organization. While the revelation gave them a more accurate profile to track them down, and solved many questions, it also raised a series of new ones.
Particularly the mystery of just how skillful this group was, given the scale and scope of the crimes they had already committed.
Whoever it was, they were smart enough that not even Batman could predict their movements, leading some to wonder if they were targeting at random. There were also no hints to their identities.
"Exactly. We've suspected for some time that there were meta-humans involved, but whatever was stolen was either quietly sold without a trace of the original culprits, or disappeared. And every single time, we've never caught them in the act. Nothing for us to find them. Sound familiar?"
"Unfortunately," Superman grimly agreed, folding his arms over his chest. "Except we don't have any evidence to prove that either." He did not accuse Batman of 'jumping to conclusions,' he knew the man's intuition was razor sharp. Still, it did seem a bit of a leap.
"I admit, there's nothing conclusive," Batman allowed. "Yet with the speed and strength Black Foot displayed, and indications of meta-humans we've been unaware about until now, the possibility exists. They also had a secret base, and extensive knowledge of security based upon what I had to get through. Finally," and now he paused to turn around in his chair to face them all, with Wonder Woman and Flash forced to take a step out of the way. "Those robberies started shortly before Cherry Blossom Medical went public. In fact, some of the labs struck were working on biological research that would have benefited the company. Not to mention funding their start-up."
Now Superman was very interested. "Fair enough. Even if it's just a coincidence, I admit that's suspicious". Of course, the League had to be careful not to jump to conclusions. The idea that they had finally gotten a break on a frustrating and concerning case could be overly seductive after all. Indeed, for all that the others were willing to acknowledge the possibility of a connection, they were clearly still skeptical.
"Well, good medicine or not, if it is them," Green Lantern declared, crossing his arms, "we'll bring them in. Maybe we can get them some leniency if they make more products like that."
Deciding everyone was getting off track, Clark decided they should redirect their energies back to Cherry Blossom Medical.
"Very well then," he calmly said, "we'll keep this mind. But for now we've got other work to do. J'onn? John? Would you join me in taking another look at the base under Cherry Blossom?"
Both men nodded.
"Diana and Flash," Superman reached over to pick up printed copies of the four individuals he and Batman had seen. "Get these to law enforcement. With any luck, they'll be able to give us some better ideas."
Diana gave a pleasant smile in acknowledgement, although it was practically subdued compared to the speedster's full-toothed one.
"Hawkgirl and I will stay on the Watchtower then to monitor any new incidents," Batman grimly declared. He did not care if she acknowledged, since he was already planning to do some more research from his computer station. With a little work, he was sure to find some leads, and he would go back down to Earth to investigate.
"Alrighty then," Hawkgirl cheerfully said, grabbing Batman by his shoulder and heaving him out of the chair.
"What're you doing?" he growled, hiding any sign of pain.
"If you refuse to get some rest like you should, and we're going to be on duty together, you might as well make yourself useful. I've heard some good stuff about chess," the winged alien smirked, "so you're going to teach me." She figured the challenge, along with the opportunity to evaluate how good she was in a game of strategy –and she had always been good at those— would sufficiently salve his pride. Anything to get him to stop moving around.
Jerking himself free, Batman nodded without any emotion. "If you insist." He gestured for her to lead the way. They both knew a board and pieces could be found in the recreation room.
!JUSTICE!
Two Weeks since the Raid on Cherry Blossom Medical
"Could we really sue the Justice League?" Chopper's young voice rang from the back of the SUV.
"Probably, but we shouldn't," sighed Nami with a tear in her eye at the money dangling just out of reach. She knew Chopper was referring to that newspaper article that had interviewed Lex Luthor, who urged the former Cherry Blossom Medical to come out of hiding 'from fear of Superman's brutal and illegal actions,' and do just that. Truthfully, the fact the bald man was suggesting it was enough to make her wary. 'Dr. Mikan' had met the billionaire a few times at charity events, and something had vaguely unnerved her about him.
Still, it had been entertaining watching 'Glorious' Godfrey lambast the League on his talk show. Particular phrases stood out, like 'hypocrisy,' 'criminal,' 'vigilantes,' or accusing them of being jealous of others being put into a good light. Of course, when he had also tried to blame them for the rising divorce rate, Nami had started to find Godfrey a bit ridiculous. Amateur. If you want to play people, you've got to get better material.
"Captain's Orders," Zoro grunted, swiping the steering wheel to send them into oncoming traffic.
"Zoro—!" screeched Nami, about to wrest control of the vehicle with her own steering wheel, but he cut her off. "Don't worry!" he snapped when he made another sharp turn to take them into a side alley, missing a truck by millimeters.
"If we were suing the League, we wouldn't need Zoro to drive," whimpered Chopper, glad he had not seen Zoro's most recent near-collision. Alas, he could still hear Nami's panicked screams while the plain white van violently swerved about. He was seated safely in the back, where no one would catch sight of their doctor's distinct appearance, and so that he remained blissfully ignorant of Zoro's suicidal stunts.
It had been with severe trepidation that they had let Zoro be the driver, and only after Franky had added in a variety of safety features, including the ability to take control of it. The reason they risked this, was because it allowed them to tap into his ability to wander wildly without any regard to logic or geography. When Zoro got lost, he got lost, making sure their routes were utterly unpredictable.
As for the constant near heart-attacks while Zoro was at the wheel . . . well, they were all young with good hearts. Except Brook, who was old and had no heart anyways, but that didn't stop him from clutching his breastbone in terror when Zoro was at the wheel— while adding new skull jokes to his arsenal . . .
(Both Franky and Jinbe were too heavy to drive in anything except Franky's custom vehicles. The cyborg was the only one allowed to drive his enormous babies; sporting such massive horsepower he bragged they would soon need a new measuring system).
It was not as bad as it sounded of course. They had endured worse in the New World.
Probably.
The reason they were risking life and limb, was that unfortunately the Straw Hats always had a need for more money, a necessity that had been further aggravated by the loss of Chopper's medical company. Despite everything Nami did, their expenses were immense. While they had a few remaining legitimate companies that were carefully hidden away, it was not enough. Finding and creating the resources for Franky to create a portal back home (by far the largest drain), sustaining her crew of lovable lunatics while laying low, along with their other projects, quickly burned through their income. Hence the regular need to steal stuff to maintain their capital. Aside from the robberies for Franky's work. Or heists for other stuff to help lay a false trail so no one realized what it was they were really after.
They had stolen a lot of stuff in only a few short months.
Thus, Chopper and Nami found themselves doing heists with Zoro again. In preparation, Nami had (temporarily) disabled his brand new cybernetic eye's functions, specifically the ones designed to prevent him getting lost. Of course, once we get back home, we'll lose the GPS and automatic directions. After all, there'll be no satellites there, she mourned as they drove down the alley way.
Not that she would miss the competition in mapping the world.
They had chosen this city by having Luffy throw a dart at a map without looking at it, and traveled to the closest location indicated. Now Zoro was randomly driving them throughout the city until they found something worth stealing from. Finally, his ability to get lost was doing some good, after all the headaches he had caused.
"Captain's Orders," Zoro repeated. "Taking them to court would risk exposing ourselves, and these heroes are too crafty to not take advantage of that. We can do whatever it takes to get back home, including robbing whatever we have to. But we aren't to involve the Justice League in any shape or form, otherwise they, or someone worse, might follow us back. Any and all contact between our world and theirs begins and ends entirely on our terms. Period."
"Yes, we know," sighed Chopper and Nami in stereo. The two universes were similar enough to each other for people from either one to adapt to what they discovered . . . yet were still too alien to each other for the consequences to be anything but catastrophic. Even if the League was on the level, there were too many 'supervillains' here who –if they learnt how to access a new planet—would leap at the opportunity to wreak havoc upon the Blue Seas or Grand Line. And that was without the World Government getting involved. Just last night, Nami had been tormented by a nightmare where the marines had discovered how to produce nuclear bombs…
"Just keep driving and don't get us killed," she gruffly told Zoro.
"Tch," he grunted back.
!JUSTICE!
With ease from far too much practice, Alfred continued his check-up of Master Wayne.
They were in the Batcave, the gloom and titular bats kept away with powerful lights. The mini-hospital was also pointedly away from the Batcomputer, or anything else any patients might try working on when they were supposed to be resting. His charge was laid out on the medical bed, his Batman uniform conspicuously absent.
"Well, Alfred?" Batman casually asked, being far more at ease with the man who had basically raised him.
And routinely patched him back together while admonishing him.
"It appears that Cherry Blossom's medicine will indeed allow you to recover quicker, so that you can go out and get shot and stabbed more often," the butler dryly noted, while packing up his various instruments. "Your internal injuries have healed in record time. Remarkable."
With a light grunt, Batman turned onto his stomach, revealing a back riddled with scars. "Yes. Can you apply more of the anti-scar lotions?"
"Certainly, Master Bruce. All the better for you to attend beach and pool parties where you do the best to ignore the women around you," Alfred said as he got the bottles.
"Like you'd want me to be involved with the kind of people who go to those of events," Batman said with a slight smile. "But yes, it will be make it easier for me to deflect attention."
"Indeed. They must think it's a miracle you're even allowed out of the manor, given how you apparently keep attempting extreme sports while being so accident prone. As for the young ladies in question who you keep lying to, at this point any women in your life would seem an improvement. Although if I must be picky, I'd prefer one who doesn't keep trying to kill or rob you."
Despite his biting words, Alfred's touch was delicate as he smoothed in creams that would make the myriad of scars from fighting crime, simply disappear.
Or at least remain under the surface, alongside all of the deeper ones he feared would never fade from the man he thought of as a son.
Distracting himself, the Englishman changed the topic. "I'm glad to see so many companies are producing similar products now."
"Yes," Batman's smile was larger now. "And because they're on the public domain and were initially so cheap, it's keeping the price down. Even Luthor's having to do it. Everyone will also be rushing to try and improve them as well. Wayne Enterprises is working on an automated platform for applying the stronger salves in an emergency, since they can treat injuries that previously only full surgery could handle. It won't solve everything, but it might be enough to keep people alive when there aren't enough doctors around to save them."
"Personally," Alfred noted with a touch of admiration, "what impresses me is how much of it seems to have grown out of herbal remedies. Almost a step back from all of the complicated chemicals or cell research. It's really thrown the medical industry into a loop."
He smirked as Batman gave a dissatisfied grunt at that. Ever since his failed infiltration of the company, the latter had been pouring over various reports on the medical treatments, until Alfred spotted what all of those scientists –and yes, possibly Batman himself— had been trying to deny: that the brilliant breakthroughs involved a step back in medical science. Ergo, Batman's theory that the 'pirates' had found a cache of advanced technology –at least in regards to this— was possibly inaccurate.
The actions of Black Foot and his compatriots, and their continued silence were still highly suspicious however. The Dark Knight knew that whatever they were up to, it was not good.
!JUSTICE!
A while later, also deep underground, Nami and Zoro were following Chopper, who had gone on ahead as they committed their newest heist.
"My blades are going to go dull at this rate," the swordsman sulked while holding his flashlight. "You should've gotten the stupid cook to do this. He's the one who cost us all that money."
Truthfully, there were others Zoro could have done this with, or he could have spent his time training, but he had missed the other two. They had been so busy lately with Chopper's pet project.
He would just rather have his intestines slowly pulled out by a rusty hook than admit it.
"Oh pipe down!" Nami snapped. "You know he made the right choice. Besides, with our luck, you'll be able to fight the Justice League any day now. And that's not a good thing!" she added with barred fangs at the bloodthirsty grin her friend sported.
Chopper said nothing as he overheard them bickering, choosing to focus on his job. He had been a little uncomfortable when they had first started stealing, if eventually accepting it as part of being a pirate. Plus, he was far too smart to risk angering Nami by complaining about 'appropriating' money she viewed as rightfully hers. She was scary like that.
Not that he would have it any other way.
The books on psychology Chopper had been reading made him wonder if his crew was odder than the norm. Although, he was pretty positive that he was not the right person to judge. 'Normal' was not something anyone had ever used to describe the reindeer-human hybrid with a blue nose.
Silence fell as they continued down the rough tunnel. Eventually, Nami admitted her own impatience. "How much farther?"
"Shouldn't be much longer."
They kept moving, before Nami spoke up again. "So what was that movie 300 about anyways?"
Now Zoro's grin was of appreciation. "People fighting to the death to protect those precious to them, never turning their backs. Eh, there was some stupid political stuff too, though I just fast forwarded through it."
Nami sighed, yet did not otherwise comment.
"What did you watch last night?" he asked, hoping that talking would help her calm down a bit. Neither particularly liked their current, tight circumstances.
"The news, particularly the marketing stuff," she lustfully grinned, before giving a superior look. "And the weather forecast! Bunch of amateurs!"
He scoffed in agreement; he would trust Nami's judgment any day. Then he belatedly remembered that he had forgotten to turn his new eye back on. For some reason, the Witch had told him to turn it off before starting all of this, muttering about using how he, Zoro, kept getting lost. Ridiculous.
Pressing his finger against the artificial eyeball for a count to three, it rebooted, and he checked their GPS location, and with precise blinking of his eyelid, activated the various filters to confirm with his 'own eye,' so to speak. "Just another few ship-lengths."
"Finally!"
A few minutes later they caught up to Chopper, and were relieved to be able to stand up straight after walking hunched over through the short tunnel. Their doctor was already preparing for the next stage, including setting up some portable lights. This was not the bulky, pill-shaped form he had worn when Batman had broken into his laboratory however. Now Chopper was thin and lanky, with oversized paws and long sharp hooves, and a mane of hair on his back. Most distinctively, the doctor sported a truly massive pair of antlers on his head, easily as long as his body.
They were deep underground, with Zoro and Nami having just walked through dark and confining tunnels their resident reindeer had just effortlessly dug in his Horn Point mode. While waiting for them, he had expanded the endpoint so that his friends exited into a fairly spacious cavern for them to operate within. On the ceiling, a distinctive patch of metal was visible.
What followed was an example of precise, well-oiled teamwork, despite how they had done no rehearsals for this particular operation. It was less that they had done this together so often lately, and more that they just knew each other that well.
Using the various functions in his new, burning red eye to help, Zoro looked up, drew his black blade, and made three quick cuts into the steel ceiling.
Succumbing to gravity, the large triangle fell right down into the massive hands of Chopper's enormously muscular Heavy Point. Gently he placed the weight down, and they all looked up the dim hole.
A moment later they all leapt up into the bank vault, securely locked up for the night. It was kept deep beneath the surface, accessible only by a single elevator, and surrounded by metal walls to resist all but the most determined attacks. Heat and motion sensor alarms were also present, but the Straw Hats were unimpressed as they scooped up bundles of money into bags.
There were no cameras for budget reasons, as Zoro's new x-ray vision had confirmed. Otherwise they would have used one of Nami's tools to short them out.
In under a minute they were dropping back into the hole. There had been so much inside, that instead of letting the men do all the heavy lifting, even Nami sported a massive bag of cash on her back.
The second they hit dirt, Chopper hoisted the floor of the bank back up, holding it in place. So smooth was Zoro's cut, once the metal triangle was back in place, there was no visible seam.
Standing on her furry friend's shoulders to reach, Nami applied a super-glue that Usopp had invented, sticking the safe floor in place. Meanwhile, Zoro helpfully extended metal support beams he had been carrying on his back to support their former 'door,' reducing any chances of investigators figuring out how they had done it.
And if it failed? Who cared? Let the police come after them.
The mission was a success, with more money for Nami to cuddle with before investing it for their various operations.
Total time elapsed?
Thirty seconds choosing a random city via Luffy throwing a dart at a map of the USA.
Driving time to the city: fourteen hours and thirty-eight minutes, with Nami and Chopper crying tears of joy at how Zoro's new eye had saved several days of travel time, while the man scoffed in disgust.
Then they had told Zoro to turn off his GPS, and randomly drive around the city until they found something of interest. Even with planned heists, for materials for Franky, they relied upon the man's wild and unnatural 'walks' to ensure it was as impossible to track them as it was to predict where they would rob next.
Travel time within the city: two hours, seven minutes, until they passed by the bank and decided it would do.
Fifteen minutes to find a place to start digging from (breaking into an apartment building basement).
Ten minutes to dig in, rob the place, and get back.
"Keeping a low profile is a pain," Nami groaned, glancing down at her dirty and fully covering clothes. "Still, I guess it's worth it," she grinned next, feeling the heavy weight of the bag on her back.
Without a care in the world, they lugged the money back to their most recent base. As they drove, Nami schemed on how they would use it to make even more, so they could return to the New World and continue sailing in search of their dreams.
!JUSTICE!
Luffy hopped out of his personal seat in the TV room. Everything was a patent Franky SUPER CreationTM , from the chair stylized to look like the masthead of the Thousand Sunny, to the 10meter by 10meter TV screen, adjustable to accommodate each individual film.
He was alone, which was a bit unusual for the Straw Hat Captain, but he had been watching a Yu-Gi-Oh marathon. It was so awesome! Every episode with cool monsters, tension, surprise moves, and best of all it never seemed to end!
Sadly, Usopp and Chopper were the only other ones who seemed to appreciate it, and they were out stealing stuff. The others claimed it 'dragged on,' 'made no sense,' and other such nonsense. So they usually found something else to do while Luffy watched.
Regardless, Luffy had been on his own for long enough, and decided it was high time to be with his nakama.
Feeling out with his haki, Luffy took stock of the situation.
Zoro, Nami, and Chopper were not back yet, which meant no fun there.
By the feel of it, Sanji and Jinbe were sparring, so best let them be. They took training seriously after all. Worst of all, this also meant Sanji was too busy to make food.
Franky was busy with what he hoped was a breakthrough. Best to leave him alone.
Usopp was with Brook, who had a performance soon. Hmm . . . what time was it again? Robin would know. With that in mind, he strolled out of the room and upstairs to her office.
He found her seated in front of her desk, and immediately frowned in concern. In terms of getting home, Luffy had already done his job as Captain so far: figure out a plan, and get the right people on it. Punch his nakama's enemies as necessary.
Robin had been particularly invaluable, having spent the majority of her childhood growing up in the underworld back home, until rising to become the vice-president who managed the day-to-day business of a secret crime syndicate that had stretched across Paradise, with significant influence within the Blues to boot.
Now however, she was almost hidden behind stacks of paper.
"Oh, hello Luffy," Robin smiled. She was glad to see him, yet also knew that this paperwork needed to be completed sooner rather than later. Duplicates of her arms grew out of the table to grab the majority of her paperwork to shuffle it out of sight. "Don't worry," she reassured him. "It's not as bad as it looks."
"What's that?" he asked, pointing at the remaining sheets, still upset that she was so overworked.
"Oh, fu fu fu fu," she delicately laughed. "Sanji's been donating money to various food banks, but doesn't want Nami to know."
"Shi shi shi shi," Luffy chortled back. "She'd hit him. But she'd also understand and do nothing to stop it." Indeed, although they never spoke about it, and he had never bothered to listen to her past (since it was irrelevant, and she appreciated that), Luffy knew that Nami was more familiar with the desperation of being poor and hungry than most. "Anyone else doing something like that?"
"Oh now, Captain," Robin said formally as a light reprimand. "You know the others wouldn't appreciate me tattling." Such as how whenever he thought no one was looking, manly Zoro would slip orphanages some of the money he was responsible for.
The social support systems present in this world were one of the things they did appreciate about it. The closest equivalent to them back home, was joining the Navy to earn a roof overhead and three square meals a day.
The recruiters forbore to mention the mandatory indoctrination and death.
Robin thought she had pulled it off, but then Luffy's attention focused back on her and she knew she had failed to distract him. He always saw right through her.
"Robin, you've been keeping up with your training, right?"
"Of course," she replied, already knowing where this was going.
"But you're also doing all this stuff?"
"Yes."
With a sigh of exasperation, Luffy flung out his arm with casual ease, and it stretched so that he grabbed her own just about the elbow. "Okay then," he said with a large grin, "we've got to get you out for some fun!"
"That sounds lovely, Luffy," she smiled as she let herself be pulled along by the younger man. Wherever he went, she would follow –and she did appreciate the breather. That job was always secondary to enjoying her life after all. "Where are we going?"
"Brook's got another concert playing tonight, right?"
"Oh my," Robin continued to smile, happy she had figured it out. "That does sound lovely. Let's just let Jinbe and Sanji know before we leave. I believe our chef had a meal he wanted to run over to Usopp and Brook anyways, and we can grab a snack ourselves." Robin knew the refrigerator lock's newest combination code, specifically intended to keep Luffy out. Sanji changed it every few days –rolling dice for the numbers— after he had caught Luffy trying to (poorly) spy on him.
(He could not just break it open, because Sanji would automatically assume Luffy was guilty and start kicking him and stop making meat for a while, which was just mean.)
(Also, Franky had made some . . . improvements to security.)
"Yosh!" Luffy cried with joy. "And I got Usopp to make me some new fireworks that will be totally awesome!"
(Even though Usopp had refused to have them depict Luffy eating meat, or a big piece of meat in the sky, or their ship . . . or their Jolly Roger . . . or declaring Luffy would be the King of Pirates. Usopp had been more willing to entertain the possibility of a cool dinosaur, or robot, or dinosaur robot however).
"I can't wait," Robin answered with surprise and anticipation. She had not known about that, and whatever the tinkerer Usopp had designed, and deemed safe in his overly-cautious manner, she knew they would be breathtaking. Maybe the lights drawing a picture of a man being eaten by kittens? Or a dragon that will swoop down to terrorize the crowd? Maybe it'll look like Ryunosuke? she fondly thought.
!JUSTICE!
Off in Central City, a certain redhead named Wally West opened his letter with glee. He had received it a few days ago, but it had gotten buried beneath some dirty laundry when he been distracted by the fliers listing what foods were on sale.
"Sweet! I won! Tickets to the Soul King concert! Ooh, and just enough for me and the rest of the League!"
!JUSTICE!
Author Notes:
WOW! I just want to say to you all, thanks for your incredible support with this fic! Glad it is proving so popular! :-D
For those that remembered, yes, this chapter was supposed to be called "The Soul King," but I chose to split it in two because a) my plans for that got ahead of me and what I had already written would have at the very least doubled the length of this chapter, and b) you guys raised some really good points about the legality of what happened in chapter one. It really is shocking how much the law gets disregarded in the DCAU. Should make it more interesting for my plans with Cadmus ;-)
I promise you however, next chapter you will get the Soul King scenes you were expecting.
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Next chapter: 'Heart and Soul'
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Please Review, and I will get back to you!