Ch 9.

One Week earlier~

On the Moby Dick

"Oi, Pops, Ace and Sabo are gonna want to get off at the next island. They've been jumping off the walls, yoi" Marco reported.

"And eating all my food," chimed in Thatch, "Pops we definitely need another food budget increase, the older they get, their black hole seems to grow bigger," he finished astonished.

"Gurararara, well, they are growing boys after all," belly-laughed Whitebeard, affectionately referred as "Oyaji" to his crewmembers or rather "sons."

"Marco, you will accompany the two troublemakers along with Haruta" said Oyaji.

"Aww, I want to go with them too, Pops" whined Thatch

"Guararara, son, I would let you go but you have to buy food supplies for everyone on the ship and for Ace & Sabo" rumbled Whitebeard.

"Pops, Pops, Pops, are we stopping at the next island," yelled Ace, running around the corner.

"Ace, slow down, will ya," huffed Sabo.

"Yes, my son, calm down, gurararara," laughed the strongest man in the world jovially.

"Yes, awesome! Sabo, let's go get ready," Ace jumped in the air, smiling and grabbed Sabo

"See ya later, Pops," yelled Sabo as he was dragged off by Ace. "Jeez,Ace, we just ran here and now you wanna run back, let me take a breather?" Sabo was heard saying as they disappeared from the deck.

"Those two boys sure are lively compared to a year ago when they first arrived," Marco remarked.

"Ace was so angry and both were so distrustful of others. Poor Sabo flinched every time anyone raised a hand to ruffle his hair. Ace spit on Marco the first time he saw him, that was kinda funny, but the rest not at all" chuckled Thatch.

"We gave them what they wanted most, a family," Whitebeard said, smiling warmly.

A few hours later ~

'Dammit, I'm such an idiot, thankfully Ace and Sabo got away. Hopefully, they got back to Haruta' Marco thought.

"Hahaha, we got ourselves the motherload, fellas, a mythical zoan in the flesh. How does it feel, Phoenix, to be cooped up, heh?"

"You've made a big mistake. Pops isn't gonna stand by idly" Marco responded angrily.

"Hahaha, we're long gone by now. Question is, do we call the marines or the nobles? Who do you think would pay more? You cost me the other user too, that black-haired little boy with the fire. Nobles pay good money for logias " smirked the captain of the slaver crew

"I'll be happy to see you crushed with Oyaji's power," spit out Marco

"You devil fruit users, are all the same, thinking you're invincible, hahaha, with the invention of seastone, you guys aren't so tough. Didn't expect seastone bullets did ya?Just sit tight, we have one more stop. You see Dracule Mihawk has a meeting with the end of my sword. hahahaha" the Captain said walking away.

'What a loon. He thinks he can go against Oyaji and Hawk-Eyes. The balls on this guy.' thought Marco

As he sat in the cage, chained in seastone, Marco tried coming up with different escape strategies, he knew Pops would come for him but he wouldn't just be sitting around idly.

On the Moby ~

"Arghh, it's my fault Marco got captured by those guys. I didn't know they had seastone" yelled Ace. He has a seastone cuffed to one hand, the only hand the slavers managed before Marco swopped in.

"Calm down Ace, I was there too, I could have fought harder, and we probably shouldn't have run off" added Sabo

"No, I should have been there. I was caught up at the weapons stand, when I should have been paying better attention. Marco did what he would do for any of his brothers, don't blame yourself" Haruta interrupted.

"Enough guilt my sons, what's done is done. No one is to blame but those slavers who took Marco. Blenheim, get Ace out of those kairoseki cuffs, Haruta go check on the scout and see what's the status, we should be getting a heading soon. Marco will be back," intoned Whitebeard

Present time~

"Arghh, what a headache, what the hell happened?" groggily said Perona, waking up a few hours later, looking at her cage.

"You were captured by slavers, based on what the pirates are saying, you also might have some connection to Hawk-Eyes," replied Marco across from her, sitting in an identical cage.

"Ehh, who the hell are you? These are most definitely not Princess accommodations. Oi, Hey, you bastards, come down here immediately!" shouted Perona.

"There's a storm out there, they won't be coming down anytime soon. I'm bored and tired, so I suggest you keep your voice down and save your energy. I'm getting rescued, you can tag along as well if you listen to me" Marco replied

"Excuse me, but I'm getting rescued as well. I certainly don't need to listen to you. And now that I'm taking a good look at you. That tattoo looks familiar, say, you aren't a Whitebeard are you? Horo-horo-horo-horo, a White Beard pirate captured by slavers and you wanna give me orders? As if" haughtily replied Perona.

"If anyone is gonna owe anyone any favors here, Whitebeard will be the one with the debt" she smirked.

"Oi, if you know who I represent, then have some respect. Oyaji is the strongest man in the world. Me being here, this was just a fluke. You got captured, too, didn't you," nodded Marco at Perona, "So, I wouldn't be putting any bets on you either" retorted Marco.

"Hmph. Whatever." Perona said out loud. Internally though, ' What a drag. Dammit, had I been paying more attention, this wouldn't have happened. Oh why didn't I call Mihawk when I had the chance. These slavers are a lot better than I thought if they also captured a Whitebeard pirate, those guys are monsters'

Perona glared at Marco and vice versa.

"I'm going to be the bigger person here, and introduce myself, I'm Marco the Phoenix, first division commander of the Whitebeard Crew," Marco said frowning.

Perona's eyes widened but she replied, "Well, now, if the the 1st division commander can get himself captured by these guys, I don't feel so bad, horo-horo-horo."

"Oi, I was helping my younger brothers escape, and they started shooting using seastone bullets, tch," angrily retorted Marco.

Perona,calmed down, remembering her own strength, replied, "well whatever. Seastone is a drag, I will give you that. My name is 'Ghost Princess' Perona. I ate the Horo-Horo fruit. If my younger brother doesn't come for me, my caretaker, Mihawk, certainly will," she continued.

"Ah. So you are connected to Hawk-Eyes, looks like since they didn't find him, they took you instead. But this wasn't the only ship they have. There was a second ship docked on the other side of the island, my devil fruit power gives me excellent hearing despite the seastone, so I was following along with their plans. Your brother might have been captured too" Marco said.

"What? No. No way. If Lucky was captured too, then these pirates better pray, I get to him first. Mihawk would go wild, if Lucky was taken by these men. Matter of fact, if he didn't get captured, which I'm sure he didn't, then Mihawk will find the island empty because Lu would surely chase after me. Your 'Pops' may be the strongest man in the world but Lucky's dad is the strongest swordsman in the world, I bet Mihawk gets here first if Lucky doesn't beat him" said Perona. Mihawk was due to arrive in Kuragaina any day now. Had there been no issues, Shanks would have met Mihawk in 2 days time but alas that sadly wasn't the case.

"Hah. You're on, I've already been here a week, I'm sure the storm delayed Pops, but they should be here soon," replied Marco, smirking.

"Oh, a week, huh. I bet, I can get out of these cuffs by the day's end, horo-horo-horo," laughed Perona.

"Oh yeah? Tch, doubt it, but please go and waste your time, Ghost Princess," nastily replied Marco.

For some reason, these two could just not get along. Marco was generally an easy going guy but Perona brought out the worst in him just like a certain Red-Haired Captain. Perona had a terrible headache and this guy was acting ''uncute' giving her orders and going on about his "Pops", tch Mihawk is way cooler. This was a rivalry that took seed on this ship but would intensify as Lu added more siblings to his family. Marco secretly took great pride in being the best oldest brother but Perona would put in a good fight for best oldest sibling overall to Marco's chagrin.

On the Red Force

Meanwhile, Shanks and Co. managed to get the other ship's direction but it was still at least several hours ahead. Shanks was doing everything possible to keep Lu entertained and not angry lest he lash out and cut the mast. Lu could be quite scary, Shanks noticed.

However, as many silly games as Shanks initiated Lu seemed unmoved by the shenanigans.

What finally got him to loosen up was a food eating contest.

"Go!Go!Go! Yes, Lu! Ladies and the rest of you scallywags, that's 10 plates so far, Our Big Boy Roo is ahead with 12 and our poor captain seems to be turning green at just 6 plates. Who will win, our man Lucky Roo or the newcomer also named Lucky? Oi Cap, maybe we should hit the casino after this adventure, all this luck on the ship and I'm feeling like a winner, hahahaha" laughed Yassop, impromptu announcer for the food eating contest.

Author's Note: Don't forget to fav, follow, and/or review, they really do keep me motivated :) Hopefully it wasn't confusing with the different scene/time changes. Let me know in the reviews what you think of the story + any devil fruits you may want to see Luffy with? Still deciding if he will get df during childhood or during his captaincy, hmm decisions, decisions. Check out my other AU, just published today :) I just updated ch.4 to combine it with ch.5 since it was pretty short so the chapters will be different.