Chapter 4: Here comes Sabo and Annie! The twins at the Gray Terminal and the reveal a pirate princess!
The Gray Terminal, the north side of Mt. Corva. A place filled with smokey piles of discarded junk and people trying to survive. Folks would either earn their money honestly and the others would steal it. An unsurprisingly lawless area. Crime and disease abound since there are no doctors.
"Wow! What is this place?" Luffy exclaimed looking down at the trash-filled wasteland. Luffy jumped down and started to explore the land filled with piles, still looking for Ace. Luffy then spotted a group of man, fighting over a pearl necklace. He saw one guy ran off with it as the others followed right behind him. Luffy kept looking for Ace. Looking all over the Terminal for him, even felling into a hole. He finally spotted young Ace running out of the Gray Terminal, back into the forest. Luffy smiled as he followed suit. Ace had a big sack his hand.
"Sabo! Anne! You there?" Ace yelled up to the tree. Two kids came out of the shadows. One was a girl and the other was a boy. The girl had short blonde hair, like her brother next to her. However, the boy had a top hat with goggles and the girl had her hair in a little ponytail.
"Ace!" The two yelled down.
"Sorry I'm late" Ace yelled back.
"You sure are," The girl said standing up.
"Yeah, we've already done some work in the city" The boy added. The twins were Sabo and Annie. There were the same as Ace. They all smiled at each other.
"Oh yeah? Well, I did, too." Ace smiled.
"At once" The three shouted, showing off their loot.
"Whoa! You got a lot!" Sabo exclaimed.
"Yeah, way more than I did" Annie huffed.
"That's a lot of money! How'd you get that?" Sabo asked.
"I robbed some thugs near the main gate!" Ace explained.
Annie pick up some of the money and started to count, "Damn! You won again!"
"It doesn't matter if you win or lose." Annie and Sabo looked up at Ace, "It's been 5 years since we started to put money in our 'Pirate savings'" Ace looked at Annie and smiled, "We worked hard for it" Annie smiled back.
"Yes we did" Sabo agreed, "We gonna leave the East Blue and go somewhere these people have never dreamed of"
"It's exciting just to think about it," Annie said as all of them looked out to the sea.
"Now put it away. We can't let anybody see it" Ace stated.
"I wonder how much we need to get a pirate ship," Annie asked.
"I don't know. 10 or 100 million maybe?" Sabo answered.
"Long way to go" Ace added.
"'A pirate ship'" Luffy yelled up the tree. Sabo quickly shut the hitch door of their stash. "You guy! Are you gonna become pirates? I'm gonna become one, too" The two boys quickly ran down the tree and wracked Luffy in the head.
"Be quiet!" They yelled. Later the three tried Luffy up on a tree.
"Ace! I didn't know that you travel this far every day!" Luffy laughed.
"Shut up!" Ace yelled.
"Is this the Luffy that you were talking about?" Annie asked.
"Oh, you told them about me?!" Luffy asked back.
"I told them how annoying you are." Ace responded.
"He also told us that you're empty-headed" Sabo added.
Luffy laughed, "Oh yeah?"
"You don't realize that we're dissing you, do you?" Annie questioned.
"He finally got me here although I didn't take any walkable routes." Ace stated. Luffy then felt something bad was happening nearby.
"Let me go! I need to go can save my crewmates?" Luffy yelled as he suggested to get out of the ropes.
"Crewmates?" Annie looked confused.
"What is he talking about Ace?" Sabo asked.
"I-I don't know" As soon Ace responded, they hear footsteps and men talking coming towards them. Luffy chewed off the ropes to let himself out, while the others hid. The men that were coming were the part of the Bluejay pirates, who Ace unknowingly stole from.
"Even if we couldn't find Ace and Sabo, we have these two brats to trade-in for a pretty berrie," The biggest one said holding up Hancock and Robin.
'What are they doing here too?' Ace thought to himself.
"I know going after him would be a Bad Idea!" Hancock exclaimed.
"Hey! Let my crewmates go you bastard!" Luffy yelled running toward the group.
"Take another step and they get it!" The pirate yelled back holding a knife at the two.
Luffy clutched his teeth then thought of a plan, "Why are you wasting your time on these small fries! My bounty ten times theirs!" The pirates looked at each other and then back at Luffy, "If you don't believe that how come I'm the captain. It's usual for the captain to have the biggest bounty in the crew".
"He's right, but I've never seen his bounty before." One of the pirates said.
"I even know one of the people you're looking for, Ace right?" Luffy added. The pirate's eyes widen. The big pirate dropped Hancock and Robin onto the ground and grabbed Luffy instead.
"If you know Ace then you must know where my treasure is," The pirates said.
Luffy looked away and puckered out his lips with a little whistle, "Nope, I don't know"
'What a terrible liar!' Everyone exclaimed in their heads.
"Doesn't matter, cause if what you say is true then we gonna make a fortune off your head" The pirate smirked, "But first I wanna know where the stolen treasure is".
"Too bad, cause I ain't telling," Luffy said, glaring at the pirate.
"Oh, you will soon enough" The pirate smirked.
"Luffy!"Robin shouted trying to get to him, but Hancock held her down.
Luffy grinned down at her, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just get out of here." They all watched as the pirates walked off with young Luffy. As soon as they were gone, Ace, Sabo, and Annie came out of their hiding spot.
Hancock rushed at Ace, "You're going to go save him right?"
"Why should I? He's going to rat out our secret treasure anyways" As Ace climbed up the tree.
"But he's not! All Luffy wanted was to be your friend and he wouldn't rat on a friend" Robin protested.
"Yeah Ace, I mean I may not know the kid, but he seems genuine. I don't think he's going to tell on us."Annie stated.
Ace sighed, "Sabo, make sure we're not going to be followed. Annie let's move our treasure somewhere else."
"But what about Luffy?" Hancock asked again.
"Once we move our treasure then we'll go get him," Ace said, as he handed Hancock a box, "But first let's get moving."
Somewhere in the Gray Terminal, in a hidden hut, the pirates have Luffy tied up hanging from the ceiling. Porchemy, one of the pirates part of the Bluejam crew had beaten Luffy with his spiked gloves
"You had lied about you're bounty and you won't tell us the whereabouts of the treasure." Porchemy said as he took off his gloves, "I guess I have to kill you" Porchemy grabbed his sword and slowly walked back to Luffy.
He rose his sword, and was about to swing until Ace and Sabo busted through the wall, yelling, "Don't!" The two started to fight off the pirates one by one as Annie cut down Luffy.
"Hey, Luffy! Are you okay?" Annie asked as she helped Luffy to his feet.
"Yeah" Luffy weakly responded. The two tried to get out of there, but a pirate got in the way. The pirate rose his sword at them but was stopped by arms growing out of him. Luffy panned to Robin.
"Seis Fleur Twist," Robin said, and the pirate's upper half-twist around.
Luffy grinned, "Nice job Robin". Robin ran over to help Annie get Luffy out, however, the two others were having trouble fighting Porchemy. He grabbed Ace by the face and hoisted him up into the air. Sabo tried to sneak up on him, but Porchemy smacked him away. Luffy had enough watching this. He crouched down, spreading his legs apart. He placed his fist onto the ground, as his legs started to pump up blood through his body. His skin turned red and radiate steam. "Second Gear!" He shouted as a burst of air blasted out his skin. He shifted his left leg forward and his right back. He extended his left arm out and using his figures, aimed it at Porchemy. "Gum Gum…" cocked back his right arm, "Jet pistol" He shot his right fist out so fast, no one saw him hitting Porchemy square in the face, knocking the pirate out. After he was out cold, Luffy passed out in Robin's arm.
"That was…"Sabo started to say.
"Wow" Hancock finished saying walking into the hut.
"All right, let's get out of here before more of them show up" Ace led all of them out and they hurried back to the forest. They all stopped when they felt they were far enough away. They all bandaged up their wounds. Robin had to help Luffy with his, due to the fact he couldn't move a single muscle in his body, another than his mouth and eyes, because he is crying.
"You have a bad habit, Ace! When faced with real pirates it's best to run! Why do you have such a death wish?" Annie yelled Ace, who was fixing is his staff.
"This doesn't feel right. I liked the one I had" Ace said examining the staff.
Annie smacked him in the back of the head, "Don't ignore me!"
Sabo sighed, "We made a stupid mistake. The Bluejam clan won't forgive us. They'll come after us!"
"Oh, that was scary! I thought I was gonna die!" Luffy said through his tears, as Robin was still trying to wrap up his wound.
Ace slammed his staff, "You're so annoying! Shut up! Stop crying already! I don't like cowards or people who cry a lot!"
This made Luffy quickly stopped, "Th-thank you".
"Why didn't you cough it up in the first place? Their kind of people kills women or kids without hesitation!" Ace questioned.
"I thought if I said anything… you wouldn't be my friend" Luffy said, hiding his eyes under his hat.
"It's better than dying, isn't it? Why do you wanna become my friend that much?" Ace asked.
"Because…" Luffy started to say.
"Didn't I give you a hard time until now? How could you follow me this far?" Ace added.
"Because…" Luffy looked to see more tears, "I can sense the loneliness inside you! I know how it feels to be lonely, to be yourself. To feel like no one wants you! If I didn't follow you, you'd be all alone. Being lonely is more painful than getting hurt!" Ace didn't say anything back. Everyone was pretty silent after that.
Annie breaks the quietness with a smirked and putting Ace in a headlock, "Oh I see! Our little Ace is feeling lonely!"
Ace tried getting out of the headlock, "I am not lonely! And I'm not little, we're the same age!"
Annie brought Ace closer to her body, tightening the lock, "Don't worry little Acey, I won't let be lonely anymore! I'll stay with you forever and ever and ever."
"Get off of me" Ace yelled.
Hancock sat next to Luffy with crossed arms, "Putting Aces loneliness aside"
"Damn it I am not lonely!" Ace yelled from the side.
"I have to ask, Luffy, What was that power back there when you knocked out that pirate?" Hancock asked. Everyone stopped for second to look over at Luffy waiting for his answer.
"I don't know" Luffy grinned, but everyone else fell over. "I saw in my dream one night. The dream showed me much older, beating tough opponents, using that power and much others." Luffy panned over at everyone with a smile from ear to ear, "I can't wait until I'm older." the group fell in comfortable silence.
"Hey, by the way, Annie and I have a little problem," Sabo said before jumping up from where he was sitting, "Bluejam and the others will try to kill the six of us after this for sure, right?"
"Well, I think so," Ace said.
"This forest that we've been living is close to where they are - the cove Pirates! What if they attack us when we're fell asleep exhausted?" Sabo added
"You guys are gonna die," Ace repeated.
"Yeah, you two gonna die" Luffy agreed.
"Yeah? That's why we need your help" Sabo said before explaining his plan. The next day started weird for the mountains bandits, as they woke up to see six kids, wrapped in bandages, sleeping on the floor.
"Why are they wounded? They're all bandaged." Asked Dorga. "Boss! Boss! We have a problem!"
"Hmm? It's still early. What's wrong…"Dadan asked, not fully awake yet. She came into the room to see two new kids laying with the others. "Whoa! What's going on here?!" She started to count the kids."1..2..3..4..5..6" Then she started to call them by their names. "Ace...Luffy...Robin...Hancock...Huh?...Hmm?" She did this until it clicked in her head on what's going on. "Ace! Luffy! Robin! Hancock! Who are these two?!"
Luffy woke up, "Who is who?" then fell back asleep.
Hancock also woke up, "It's too early - You're too loud!" then fell back asleep.
"How come there are two more kids?" Dadan questioned, "Who the hell are you two?"
Sabo and Annie sat up, "Are talking to about us?"
Annie smiled, "I'm Annie and he's Sabo. We're twins"
Sabo looked at the big woman, "You must be Dadan!"
"Annie? Sabo? I've heard your names before!" Dadan said
"Oh yeah? That makes it easier! Thank you for taking care of us from today" Annie said before laying back down. Sabo tried shaking Dadan's hand, but she pulled away.
"'Taking care'? Don't tell me that you two are gonna stay here…" Dadan asked.
Annie sat up again, "Yes! And thank you". At this point all the kids were up, smiling at Dadan.
Dadan sighed in defeat, "Ace! Luffy! Robin! Hancock! Annie! Sabo! I'm giving you a place to stay! You gotta get to work already!"
"Thank you, Dadan!" Sabo said back. From then on, the six troublemakers would help do chores then run into the forest until sundown. They protected each other if needed to be. They would laugh, play, and an old pirate helped them train. They would go hunting to bring in more meat, even taking down the giant lion from before. Not before long, Ace, Luffy, and Sabo become brothers by drinking sake. They asked the girls to join in, but Robin stated that if they were siblings of Luffy, they couldn't marry him, Hancock said that she already had siblings and Annie said 'she already siblings with Sabo, why does she need to drink sake to proof it'. They built a little pirate in the trees, even staying there for some time when they ran away from Dadan and the other mountain bandits. The boys would fight over whos the captain. This had gone on for quite some time until it was relieved that Annie and Sabo were nobles, when their father and with the help of the Bluejam pirates, found them. However, Sabo sacrificed him to insure his sisters freedom. While this was going on, the nobles had gotten word of a celestial dragon was coming to visit them. They needed to get rid of the filth know as Gray terminal by setting in ablaze. When Sabo was caught, Luffy and Ace was capture as well by the Bluejam pirates and was asked to join them or die. They had no choice, but to a few errands for the pirates, like carrying a box from point A to point B. Sabo tried multiple times to escape from his father but was caught every time. He tried to tell the others about the fire, but he couldn't reach them. Both Luffy and Ace were still in the grasp of the Bluejam pirates and were going to leave in the fire, however, the girls went back Dadan and asked for her aid. The fire raged on as Luffy and Ace tried fighting off the pirates to escape. During the fight, Ace let out a wave of haki to knock out most of the pirates, except for Bluejam himself. The pirate was about to shoot Ace, luckily Dadan and the other bandits made it time to stop the execution. Dadan orders the bandits to take Luffy back to the mountains, while she and Ace fought off Bluejam. The next day, Luffy woke up back at the bandit's hut, wrapped in bandages and surrounded by Robin, Hancock, and Annie. They told him Ace and Dadan has not come back yet. Meanwhile, Sabo finally makes his escape by stealing a ship and setting sail to the sea, but not before sending a letter to his friends. However as he was sailing away, he was passing the celestial dragon ship, and the great noble order his to fire cannonballs at Sabo's ship, making it sink and burn into the sea. Dorga watched all happen and thought Sabo was killed. Back at the bandit's hut, Dadan and Ace finally came back, injured but still alive. However, the celebration was cut short when Dorga returned to give them bad news about Sabo. Everyone cried out their pain for the loss of a brother and friend. Dadan had to tie down Ace to a tree, so he wouldn't go after the nobles for revenge for his fallen brother. The next day they got the letter Sabo wrote before he set sail. The letter was goodbye to his friends, his sister, and his brothers. With this Ace and the others finally had some closure. After that, everyone got older and stronger. Once Ace and Annie turned 17 they set off to sea, leaving Luffy, Robin and Hancock. Luffy three more years before he could set off. Robin was already committed to going with him, but Hancock was still unsure. The night before Luffy was set to go off to sea, both he and Hancock sat on the dock, looking out to the sea.
"Are you already go to Luffy?" Hancock asked.
"Yeah, I can't wait to get my adventure started so I can catch up with Ace and Annie," Luffy responded with a grin. "Have you figured out if you're going with me and Robin yet?"
Hancock shook her head, "No not yet".
"Don't worry you have until we leave tomorrow, so take your time" The two fell in comfortable silence.
"Hey, Luffy?" Hancock finally said.
"Yeah?"
"All these years ago, with the Bluejam pirates, if they only captured me and not Robin, would you still do the same thing?" Hancock questioned.
Luffy looked at her weird, and then grinned, "Of course I would, we're friends right?"
"Even if you know who I am" Hancock quietly said.
"Yeah! No matter if you were a mountain bandit" Luffy chuckled.
Hancock chuckled as well, "I guess I have nothing to worry about." Hancock unhooked the back of her dress and move her long hair out of the way to show Luffy her bareback. It had a tattoo of a circle with three spikes on top and one upside down on the bottom. "Do you know what this is Luffy?" Luffy shook his head. "It's a mark of a slave for the celestial dragon."
"A celestial dragon? Isn't that the people who shoot down Sabo's ship?" Luffy asked.
"Yes and their also the world's top nobles. Years ago I was a slave, along with my sisters. We were tortured and beaten almost every day. Until we were saved by a Fishman and his crew. They saved us all, but that wasn't the end of it. When we returned to my home island of Amazon Lily, the world government found out about this and call a burster call on the island. They set the whole island to ablaze. I was the only one who got the flea on a rowboat away from the island, where I ran into your grandfather and brought me here." Hancock went silent after explaining to Luffy.
"A burster call? Robin said something about that as well. I believe Robin said they called one on her island too." Hancock's eyes widen. "Damn world government! And damn celestial dragons! I won't let them hurt you or Robin ever again!"
Hancock quickly hugged Luffy tight, burying his red face into her chest, "Oh Luffy, I think I've fallen for you!"
"You know, oddly Robin said that too," Luffy said, still in her chest.
Hancock let go of Luffy and got up, "I must go speak with Robin then" Hancock ran off, back towards the hut. Luffy stayed on the docks, staring off into the sea. He had a smile from ear to ear, thinking about his adventure.
"Tomorrow is the start of my exciting adventure. I wonder whom I'll add in my crew on my way to becoming King of the Pirates" Luffy said out loud.