Ch. 1

Kong looked out in front of him to the table that would usually be reserved for high ranking marines and government officials, only to see three pirates before him. All three were eating and two of them were staring directly at him. 'Why is it necessary to work with this trash?' he thought to himself as one the pirates started on his fourth helping of food. The three pirates in question were all part of the same crew. The one closest to the edge of the table was a short man with spastic red hair and visor covering his eyes. He was wearing a purple coat over a clean white blouse. He wore some sort of denim pants and had no shoes. He was helping himself to a small cut of steak cooked extra rare. He cut up the pieces very carefully and put them in his mouth while chewing diligently after every bite. It was hard to believe a man such as him was a pirate but alas he was. Next to him would be what some might call the utter opposite of him. A very large muscular man with a beard and brown hair. He was wearing a tank top that was covered in blood and holes. Kong might have guessed that it was someone else's blood if it weren't for the fact that it was still oozing from his body. The pirate appeared to have four stab wounds on his body and was casually ignoring them as he chomped down on plate after plate of meat. He was also wearing knight's armor pants. With plating all over his legs and boots. Next to him was the final captain in this crew's hierarchy. It was peculiar in these days to see three people with equal footing on any pirate crew, but this particular pirate crew had functioned like that for many years and have survived. The last pirate though was the one who stood out the most. He had white skin and black hollow eyes highlighted by bright blue pupils. His hair was a wavy mess of curls and silver locks. In the tangled nest that was his hair he had a skull mask with a bright red x on it. He brandished a red coat with a fluffy collar and had a robotic arm. He had no shirt on instead showed off a tattoo across his chest of a jolly roger. He wore a type of sneakers and silver pants as well. On his face he wore a twisted smile as he chomped on apples and took liberal drinks of strawberry milk. He spoke first.

"Sooo, mr Kong. Looks like only we showed up". His grin was smug and his tone condescending. Kong looked enraged and wanted to arrest the pirate right there and then but suddenly the doors swung open and a man strolled in. He wore a large tan cowboy hat and a very loose and baggy black blouse on his chest. He had a harness on his waist that carried at least 15 swords, all of them katanas. He had tight black pants on with holes littered all over them, perhaps from stray bullets. The man with the silver haired smirked and yet again spoke.

"Yo RogersBase, what shit timing you have to come in and ruin a good joke I was setting up". The man with the hat took his seat next to him and replied,

"Shut up, Nux. I'm only here because Reagen forced me to come". Nux just laughed at this and turned back to Kong.

"Well then I guess that only four of us showed up"

Kong looked at him but said nothing. He promised he'd get at least 7 pirates, this was going to be a problem. Kong opened his mouth to shut up the silver haired pirate when a voice from above them chimed in and said, "five of us".

Everyone swerved their heads upwards to the balcony above to see a man perched on the rail looking down on them. None of them sensed him with their observation haki. The man himself was lanky and very skinny. He had light brown hair and black suit on. Matching the suit was a black tie and dress shoes. In his left hand he also held a sword in a white sheath with a red grip. The man was grinning like mad as he observed the shocked expressions of the men below him.

"Well seven if you include these two". He took two men and threw them onto the table, both of them chained up in seastone. They were both struggling to get loose and very upset. The man with the black suit jumped from the ledge and perched himself on the back of the chair.

"I thought they were going to flake on us, so I took special precautions to make sure that they wouldn't be ditching this important meeting." He took his sword and cut through the chains so they could stand up and find their seats. The taller man had a checked red flannel shirt that had been wrinkled due to the chains. He also bore a vice admiral's coat on his shoulders with the word justice scratched out and replaced with "freedom". He wore glasses and had curly hair that was dyed blond. He had light blue pants on and a belt that harnessed many decks of playing cards. He marched over to his seat and sat down. Glaring at the man in the suit. The other man stood up, and moved quickly to his seat. His hair was straight and a very light shade of purple. He had glasses on as well. He had a hoodie on with a jolly roger on the back. He had a pair of gray shorts on and balck leather boots. He also carried an assortment of pistols on a harness along his sides. Kong looked among the seven pirates and breathed a sigh of relief. Not a moment too soon because the den den mushi at the end of the table started projecting an image on the wall. The image was in the dark with his voice distorted. He turned to Kong and spoke.

"Where are the shichibukai?"

"We can't use them, they would be tied right back to us in case of something going wrong… I decided to call on some other pirates". The voice stayed quiet and looked around the room before speaking again.

"Who are they and what are their devil fruit abilities?". Kong cleared his throat and pulled out some files from under the table and started reading them out.

"The man in the visor is Animak, "The brain of the east", he has a bounty of 800 million berries. He is one of the three captains of the Rant pirates. He is the mastermind behind the incident at Raychar Island. He consumed the Glare Glare no mi. His eyes are ones that can instil fear into even the strongest of men. He wears a visor to keep his eyes hidden. It's been reported that even White beard found his hands trembling from slight fear under his gaze.``

"That was a long time ago." Animak chimed in, "I prefer you not sully the man's good name by sharing such a tale". Kong cleared his throat and moved on.

"The man eating with no sleeves is Briggo, "the beast", he has a bounty of 500 million berries. The second captain of the Rant Pirates his strength and honor are revered throughout the grand line. He has eaten the Pass Pass no mi, making him a human voodoo doll. When his body takes damage he can store it and then transfer it to his opponent, transferring all his scars and pain over to him. A common ritual for him is to have his men stab him in the arms and back before attempting combat." Briggo let out a loud laugh at this comment and continued eating.

"The third is "lord" Nux Taku. His bounty is the highest from the crew at 965 million Berries. His masochistic tendencies often lead him to enter battle completely unprepared and engage in combat with opponents much stronger than himself. He has consumed the Laugh Laugh no mi, a fruit that when activated induces fits of uncontrollable laughter. Once activated the fruit will cause his opponents to be either disoriented or to eventually suffocate from laughter. The fruit also forces himself to laugh when activated but reports state that it doesn't seem to hinder his ability."

Nux giggled at hearing this and said, "hinder me? A man who doesn't fight with a smile on his face isn't a man at all". Kong continued talking, "in addition to the fruit he has a mechanical arm. The arm can cover itself in plasma, making cutting through most things as easy as slicing butter. It is speculated that he stole it from one of Vega punks laboratories"

Nux smiled at Kong, "what gave it away, monkey boy?". Kong glared at him before moving onto the next file.

"The pirate with the cowboy hat is Rogersbase, "the mutilator", he is the captain of the base pirates with a bounty of 600 million berries. A logia user who ate the acid acid no mi. His fruit is especially powerful among logias. Even haki weapons can prove a challenge against him. Unless the sword is coated in extremely powerful haki, it'll melt in his body before it can do much damage. He carries over 15 swords with him due to them being destroyed after coating them in his acid. He melts down his enemies along with their ships and weapons."

Roger rolls his eyes and gives him a mocking thumbs up as to say that he got all of his facts correct.

"The scoundrel defiling our navy garb is Rustage, "the dungeon master". He is the captain of the Cypher pirates with a 700 million berry bounty. He got his title due to the fact that he is one of the only people to ever be released from impel down. While in impel down he seduced a tourter named Sadie and manipulated her into vouching for his freedom. Many of the jailers in charge of toutre were also under his influence, helping his chances even more. He was released from impel down, only to blow up the processing area with a bomb. Since then he has been on the run. Rustage has eaten the Ace Ace no mi. Giving him telepathic control over playing cards. He can make the cards extremely sharp, indestructible or even blow up as well as having them fly around at his will". Nux heard the tale and looked over to Rustage.

"Breaking a girl's heart to escape Prison, not very honorable Roo-stahj" he said, purposely pronouncing his name wrong. Rustage, looked back at him with a stoic expression and his middle finger in the air. Nux only laughed.

"The man in the hoodie is 2spooky, "the devil's devil" and first mate of the base pirates with a bounty of 500 million berries. His devil fruit was one that was stolen from vega punks lab and somehow ended up in his hands. It is the Sea Sea no mi, and it turned him into a seastone man. Any surface he touches will take on the properties of seastone, however he must be touching the surface or else the effect wears off. Touching an enemy directly will also nullify their devil fruit ability. In addition to that, if he touches someone with seastone cuffs on, the nullifying effect will cancel out allowing the person with the devil fruit to use their fruit. This data was only recovered recently and has aided him in breaking out of navy prisons over 30 times after inducing devil fruit user riots." 2Spooky stood up and bowed as everyone there except Kong applauded his achievements.

"Lastly we have "Devil hunter" Tekking, captain of the Brick pirates with a bounty of 625 million berries. Tekking has no devil fruit-"

"What do you mean he has no devil fruit?" the shadowy man on the projector interjected "what kind of weakling did you get me?" Tekking jumped off the back of his chair and threw a sack to Kong, the bag was full of devil fruits.

"That's enough fruits for ya?" He said with an agitated voice. Everyone looked at Kong as he pulled 6 devil fruits from the bag. Kong cleared his throat again and said

"Tekking is famous for having fruit trees on his ship and after battles he collects the devil fruits of the men he killed. Even though he has no fruit, he has intense armament haki. His haki is so strong that it can make him invisible to observation haki" The others all looked at tekking who was nodding his head with a smug face.

"Like my new suit" he asked no one in particular.

"Black really suits you" Animak said without looking up from his plate.

"The suits white" he said with a smug look still plastered on his face.

"That fruit over there, who did it belong to?" Roger asked, pointing to a pineapple looking fruit with green swirls on it.

"Some newbie who challenged me near the entrance to the grandline, someone you knew?" Tekking asked. The both of them looked at each other for a long time, neither saying anything.

Suddenly, both of them lunged to the middle of the table. Roger had two swords coated with his green acid while Tekking stopped them both with his pitch black haki blade. Both of them smirked before separating. Tekking not wanting to miss his chance took a small blade from his back and swung for Roger's neck. Roger laughed as the blade melted as it attempted to tear through him. Tekking scowled at himself for not using stronger haki as he dodged rogers acid swords. Tekking turned around and also started swinging at Roger, he separated his body whenever the blade was getting close, a difficult task seeing as his observation haki was failing him. Roger flung his leg towards Tekking, splashing Tekking with acid as he charged in for the kill. Tekking fell to his knee but shot up his left arm to the acid blade and Roger's arm flew off. Roger stood in stunned silence as Tekking stood up again. It took him a second to regrow his arm from acid and with a scowl reached for another sword before Kong stopped them.

"Will you fools quit your insolence?! Settle your petty differences later". Neither of them wanted to stop but both did anyway. Tekking want back to his perch on the back of his chair while Roger threw his now melted sword to the floor.

"Now that you have all been properly introduced to me, I have a job for all of you" the shadowy figure said. "If you are to complete your job not only will you get one billion berries but you bounty will at least double"

"What job could the navy possibly have for us?" asked 2spooky.

"Assassination". Upon hearing this the pirates all stood up and started making their way to the exit. A puny boring job like that was not worth even considering. The prize was tempting but they weren't little cipher pol dogs who would kill a man for their masters.

"Wait! At least hear us out" Kong boomed. The pirates ignored him as they kept walking.

"The target is a tenryuubito" The shadowy figure said. Hearing this all the pirates froze. One after another they all turned their heads up to the shadowy figure. Killing a tenryuubito? That was something that had never even crossed their minds. Even Nux was stunned to silence, "wait a minute...The World government wants one of their leaders dead'' He thought. The shadowy figure continued speaking. "Fleet admiral Akainu proposed a plan to the gorosei to divert a small part of the heavenly tribute to the marines due to the fact that three of the tenryuubito had been injured by pirates. Almost all in marajoiese support the notion except for one family who refuses to accept it and is trying to get others to oppose it...He must be purged". Most of the shadowy figures' words were going over the pirate's head. Thrilling fantasies on what they could do to a world noble filled their eyes. Roger dreamed of slowly killing him by dropping him in a bat of acid. Tekking imagined cutting him one thousand times before landing a fatal wound. Briggo imagined tying the noble's hand to his mighty back and then sprinting a marathon until getting dragged on the floor for miles killed him. Rustage imagened throwing him in a freezer until he almost died of hypothermia then reviving him before starting the process all over again.

"The world noble in question is St. Cortez and he will be appearing in a rich kingdom in the north blue in one month to eat in a feast honoring him". One month was more than enough time to get to the North Blue from their current location. The pirates turned around again and left the room, not giving an answer but not denying the request either.