"Wealth, fame, power. The man, who once owned everything, the Pirate King, Gold Roger. The words he said before his death sent all the people of the world out to the seas."

"My treasure? If you want it, I'll give it to you! Find it! I left everything in that place."

"Men, searching for romance, pushed forward towards the Grand Line. The world is now in the Grand Age of Pirates!"

Chapter 10: Franky's Arrival, Roping In An Old Ally

Within a quiet game shop in Marshmallow Marsh, a portly little man smiled to his paying customer as he revealed the presence of a ball on his table before covering it with a cup and then placing two empty cups alongside it. The three cups then began to dance about as they moved back and forth, changing positions faster than one could ever hope to follow. They moved, moved, and moved with no end in sight. Finally, the portly man who had been switching their positions so rapidly lifted his hands and grinned to the denim-clad man who stood across from him. "All right, that's it! Can you guess which one the ball is under?"

Eyes scanned across the table, moving from one cup to another slowly. All the denim-clad man could think of was how far he had sunk, as this truly was rock bottom. No casino was willing to accept him anymore, not after the debt that he had accummulated. He had been forced to resort to the most basic forms of gambling he could find to try and get back any of his losses. He groaned to himself in frustration, his cigar bobbing slowly as he thought. Finally, after much deliberation, he reached out and placed his hand on top of the middle cup.

"Are ya sure?" The portly man grinned at him. The denim-clad man paused, hand started to loosen as he reconsidered. He apprehensively looked at the other two cups before shaking his head swiftly. No, he had to pick the middle one! No matter which one he decided to lift, the portly man was going to toy with him based on his decision. He tightly gripped the cup, anxiety setting in as he felt the sweat start to trickle down his forehead, and then he lifted the cup to find... nothing.

"W-WHAT? DAMN IT! I WAS SO SURE!" Paulie dropped to both knees, hands outstretched as if pleading with an unseen entity. "WHY COULDN'T I JUST WIN THIS ONE TIME!?"

The portly man watched with an amused expression plastered on his face. "It can be a difficult game at times, huh? Care to try again?"

Paulie immediately shot to his feet and slammed a bill on the table, sliding it across to him. "You're damn right I'm gonna try again! I gotta win!"

Everything hinged on this for Paulie. He was about to be completely out of money if he did not win this tme. After being chased out of Water 7 for owing an insurmountable amount of money to a local casino, Paulie had been bouncing from island to island trying to win back his losses in any way possible. Now on Bon-Bon Island, he was dismayed to find no casinos. Games of chance were even a rarity but, fortunately, he was able to find the portly man's ball and cup game in the middle of a town known as Marshmallow Marsh.

Paulie's eyes watched the man's movements carefully as he revealed the initial location of the ball before immediately covering it with a cup and then promptly moving the three cups around rapidly. His confidence immediately dropped off when, after only a few seconds, he had immediately lost track of where the ball was. His anxiety began to mount yet again, his clenched fists becoming excessively clammy. "S-Shit..."

Just then, there was a horrible racket that sounded like a boulder banging around in a metal pipe. The portly man lifted his gaze towards the wall behind him, quirking an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Paulie spotted the man's distraction immediately and swiftly lifted each cup in a mad hurry, immediately finding that the ball wasn't even under any of the cups. It was a trick! The portly man's curious gaze left the wall as he looked back to Paulie, his grin returning. "Well! Are you ready to guess?"

The banging noise returned again, this time much louder, as Paulie suddenly snapped. "WHAT'RE YOU TALKING ABOUT, YOU BASTARD? YOU RIGGED THIS GA-"

"Coup De Vent!"

BOOM!

The wall exploded, and water came flooding into the room, the portly man freaking as he immediately bolted for the door as water rushed into the shop. Paulie's eyes widened as he swiftly threw rope at the ceiling rafters and hoisted himself up, staring at the sudden blast of water in shock.

"H-How did the water main break? Oh dear!" The portly man struggled with the knob for a moment until, at last, he had it open and fled from the store. Paulie watched him leave before turning his attention back to the hole in the wall where water gushed in. His eyes then widened further when...

A hulking figure stepped out from the streaming crevice, one that Paulie recognized and caused him to stare in disbelief. "Ah, never thought I'd make it out of there! So that was a water source under the jungle, eh?" Franky lifted his shades and glanced around, completely oblivious to the destruction that he had just caused. "... but where the hell am I?"

"FRANKY?"

"Huh?" Franky lazily turned to look over his shoulder, spotting Paulie hanging from the rafters above. Immediately, he grinned. "Oh, hey there! Rope guy! Porkie, right?"

Paulie's rage immdiately bubbled over. "IT'S PAULIE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

Franky just stared back, almost looking confused as he replied flatly. "Couldn't I ask you the same question?"

"None of your damn business! What're you doing breaking in here like that? H-Hey, listen to me!" Paulie was growing frustrated over Franky barely paying attention to him, as he was now busily inserted a few bottles of cola into his stomach. Where they had even come from, Paulie didn't care to ask. "Hey, Franky! I'm talking to you here! What're yo-"

"Coup De Vent!"

BOOM!

Another huge blast, this time from within the shop as Franky blasted the hole he had created, thus caving it in. The water immediately ceased pouring in as Franky let out an exhausted breath. "Whew, I shouldn't have done that twice! I'm all outta cola now, too."

"FRANKY!" Paulie was practically seething now.

"Eh?" Franky, again, lazily peered towards him. "What are you yelling for, Parker?"

"It's PAULIE!" Dropping from the rafters, Paulie walked towards Franky, staring up at him in annoyance. "What're you even doing here!?"

Franky looked around slowly, removing his shades and appearing mildly confused. "I'm here with my crew. I jumped into a sinkhole in the jungle and got brought here. Where the hell am I?"

"You don't even know where you are!?" Paulie groaned and facepalmed before pointing out the door. "This is Marshmallow Marsh! Don't you know anything about the damn island that you're on!?"

"Ah, Marshmallow Marsh!" Franky smiled enthusiastically as he stepped towards the door and peered out at the town. Marshmallow Marsh was elevated above the cocoa swamp below, which contained marshmallow boats that lazily drifted around the perimeter of the town. The buildings themselves, though wooden, were shaped and painted to look like marshmallows, as were the platforms that held that up. There were many rope bridges going between the platforms, and Franky quickly noticed that, instead of rope, the bridges were held in place with licorice. "Huh, these guys sure like their candy here."

"Straw Hat Luffy's crew is here?" Paulie scratched his chin in thought as his cigar bobbed up and down. "That must mean you guys are after something big, eh?"

"Yeah." Franky turned around to give Paulie his full attention. "There's a pirate crew led by one of Luffy's old enemies on the other side of the island that we're here to stop. You wanna make yourself useful?"

Pirates? Paulie grinned to himself, well aware that pirate crews often meant treasure... and treasure meant money! Would he be able to get his hands on some to pay off his debt? He cleared his throat and nodded to Franky. "Yeah! Let's go thrash some pirates!"

"Hold it!" Franky held up his hand to stop Paulie in his tracks as he started for the door. "We were on our way to this town originally. Some traitor from the pirate crew is supposed to be here somewhere."

"M-my shop! W-Why..." As the portly man who ran the shop came back all teary eyed.

Franky swiftly grabbed the man, holding him up and looking at him. "Oi, fat man, have you seen any weird looking pirates in town recently?"

The portly man just stared at Franky for a moment, blinking. "B-Besides you!? Uh... well, there was one in the cafe earlier with a girl!"

"Cafe, eh?" Franky set the man down and looked off towards town, immediately seeing a sign not far off that read Beek's Cafe. He grinned to himself as he took a step out of the shop, pleased that he had made it to the place they had been looking for all along. Was he the first one to arrive? "C'mon, Pocky."

As Franky started towards the cafe, Paulie once again snapped. "ITS PAULIE! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU!?"

Zoro rubbed his forehead in frustration as he looked around the cafe slowly. Not a single trace left of the woman's presence.

"Roronoa."

He turned to face Gin, who stood behind the counter where Conis had been, desperately looking for any sort of residual hole that Sabrina had forgotten to close. "Conis... we have to rescue her."

"Yeah." Zoro nodded absently. "We met her in Skypiea. Luffy's gonna go on a rampage when he hears that she's been captured."

"No, Roronoa... we have to rescue her!" Gin's voice was frighteningly authoritative and firm. "If we don't... Don Krieg will kill her."

Zoro's eyes widened slightly as Gin said the words, which is precisely when Franky and Paulie wandered into the cafe. Franky, oblivious to situation, was immediately overcome with confusion. "Ah, Zoro's here? I must be in the wrong place then."

Zoro swiftly turned and snapped at Franky. "I'M NOT LOST, IDIOT!" He huffed loudly before crossing his arms. "The guy beside me is the guy we were looking for, and things just got complicated."

Don Krieg's appearance at the Baratie, the history of Gin, Skypiea and Conis. Zoro had explained it all to Franky and Paulie, the latter of who Zoro seemed completely uninterested to see in Marshmallow Marsh. As Franky began to understand the level of which the Straw Hats appreciated Conis, and with how much the crew valued friendship having rubbed off on Franky, he merely sat with a grim expression on his face. "I don't know this Conis girl, but if she's anything like you described? Then we gotta save her."

Zoro simply nodded before looking towards Gin and Paulie, feeling a little surprised to even see the two in the same room together. "You two gonna help us kick some ass?"

Gin slammed his rod against the floor and nodded. "I promised to stop Don Krieg, and I'm gonna do just that."

Paulie gripped his rope and grinned to Zoro. "If it means that I might find some treasure, then I'll help ya with anything."

"Good." Franky half-smirked to himself as he put his shades back on. "Then we're gonna kick some ass."

"B-But..." Everyone turned to look at Gin. "You have to know the terrible reason why Conis is in danger. I have to tell you about that terrible day... the day that Airtopia, the sky island, fell."

TO BE CONTINUED