Sanji said, "Well, now we have a mission to do, I guess." He put a cigarette in his mouth. The enemies came up.

"Great timing," Luffy said, and put both palms out. He shot the blast out, destroying the doorway and wall, blowing the people away and into the further walls. Luckily, they weren't closer or they'd be dead, blasted apart into bits. But the roof collapsed and blocked anyone from coming. They both went running back after the large crowd. They had nowhere to go at the moment that would work, though.

The severed head was now making a fuss about finding his kid, but he didn't ask for help, and Sanji was getting annoyed. Luffy wondered what made him interested in the head in the first place? Just because it wasn't attached to a body? He watched as they argued. "You're gonna search when you're just a head?! I'd feel bad leaving some weak head like you alone to die! Just ask for help, why's that so hard for you?!"

"I won't be indebted to pirates! Never! I won't ask even if I die! But if you want to find my boy, then I won't tell you not to!"

"You cocky bastard! You're just a head!" Luffy left them to argue, running off to join the main group. He could hear the head and Sanji arguing, and Luffy wondered just how the head got Sanji to help. Strange!

Luffy found them all in a room surrounded by frozen corpses. He ran ahead, but everyone else was stuck. "Don't think about it!" he called. "Or close your eyes. I smell an exit this way. The only other way out is to a bunch of marines and Tra-guy!" Luffy called. The kids inched their way inside, all shaking and trying not to look. Eventually, they got half way in, and it was faster to get out than go back.

The sound of bare feet on ice wasn't the best. He imagined their toes were burning. They weren't dressed right for the weather outside. When they got outside, Luffy could tell there were other people around. There were a ton of guys with horse bodies out there! And a giant guy with an alligator lower body! Wow!

But they targeted the Straw Hats when they left, and the children were afraid. They were all holding weapons, after all. Luffy took care of it quickly, Zoro slashing as well, but not at his best ability while in Usopp's body. "Hey! That guy would be good transportation!" Luffy said. He slammed his fist into the guy's face, dazing him. Zoro took his weapons away, and had the smallest kids and Straw Hats load onto his huge back.

Luffy sat on his head. "Go! That way!"

"Hell no! Get off'a me, little shits!" Zoro put a sword to his throat.

"If you want to keep a head, then you'll do what we ask. And you'll then explain what the hell this place is," he said darkly. The guy didn't need Luffy to scare him, Zoro was enough, even if he didn't look threatening at all this way. Not one bit.

The alligator man hurried off, but the kids were freezing. Luffy went for anywhere secluded and out of the cold, finding a busted part of the building with a hollow bit of it. Alligator man went inside, and when he was going to try and leave, Luffy knocked him out with haki and they tied him up against a huge pole with chains. "It-it's too cold!"

"Everyone, put a leaf on your head!" the beat up severed head said.

"There's not a single tree here!"

"Then rocks! Just do it!" the kids got rocks or bits of broken metal or stone, and the head closed his eyes and everyone had warm clothes on with a "poof!" So, a devil fruit that could make clothes! Seemed kind of useless, but was helpful right now.

They thanked him, even if the severed head still scared many of them. They had no way to keep warm in there but for the clothes. There was nothing to make a fire with. When the guy woke up, he couldn't move, and Luffy asked who he was. "It's pretty cool you have an alligator body! I wish I had hind legs like that!"

"I used to be the pirate Brownbeard, you should have heard about me!"

"Nope. Never heard it before." Zoro was glaring at Luffy and Usopp. He probably didn't want to show any affection in Usopp's body, which Luffy was happy for. They had to get Law again to change them back. He seemed bothered by what happened with Usopp in Luffy's body. Well, it was hard to watch. Luffy was just glad he was switched out, since it fixed multiple big problems.

Usopp was next to him, watching him with a frown. Now that he saw the extent of Luffy's differences, maybe he'd think about him differently? Hopefully not. But he knew what it felt like to go out of control, and that was always scary for Luffy, even if he'd been able to control himself to an extent during and before the war. It was a tool, then. But not to Usopp.

Zoro asked what happened. How he ended up like this. "You were a pirate and now you're some guy with an alligator ass."

"You'll all be killed. Law will come and save me, uohoho!" Luffy doubted it for some reason, but the guy had come to save him before. Plus, he worked more with this guy, it seemed, than he had with Luffy. Who knew? He just hoped he wouldn't switch them around again, and would fix his crew. He didn't like not feeling comfortable to hold Zoro's hand. Either his body or soul. "I really hate pirates of your generation, but Law's different."

"Generation? What's that mean?" Luffy wondered. Was that a term for pirate his age?

"How can you not know!? All gathered at Sabaody two years ago! The 11 rookies all with a bounty over 100 million are called the 'Worst Generation'!" Zoro grinned. He was part of that, and smirked at Sanji, who glared spitefully. "Born between the space of two generations, you're the problem children that carry the weight of the war! After Whitebeard's death, they came into the New World seas and have fucked everything up. You hear about an incident, it's usually one of you involved! Kid, Law, Drake, Hawkins! The one who shattered my own crew was Basil Hawkins!"

The man was very spiteful. His crew was annihilated, and he lost the use of his lower body. They managed to drift to Punk Hazard, but there was poison all over the island that had used to be lush and beautiful. Both the pirates and former test subjects under Vegapunk in the lab they were in had lost the use of their lower bodies and couldn't do anything for a while.

After a year passed after the poison gas was let all around the island, a man came and cleared it all away and gave the damaged test subjects artificial legs. "That was our kind hearted Master! What was left of my crew landed a year after that, two years go. He got his own artificial legs until Law came a few months ago. He gave us all the lower bodies of animals we could use. But Master was the one to show us relief and kindness first!"

"I wonder if I can have a horse body, too?!"

"Don't even think about that! Idiot!" Nami shouted. Luffy laughed about it. But that Master sounded really nice. He wondered, though, if he was an enemy of these kids that wanted to be saved. They were taken with no proof of being sick, and were never told when they could go home. It didn't sound like the nicest thing to do, and none of them looked like they were ill. They smelled of what the rest of the place did. Chemicals.

Maybe it was the medicine they were on if they really were sick. He was glad the island had been cleared of poison or they wouldn't have been able to land there. He finally turned to Usopp, and asked him to stop staring. "Everything that was hard for you is normal for me."

The crew who weren't there for Usopp's time in Luffy's body didn't know what the problem was. "It's really fine. I don't want to bring more attention to anything about it. Besides, seastone is fine for me to handle. I used it as a weapon, didn't I?"

His crew were confused, and Zoro simply said they would talk about it some other time. "Sorry. I'll try not to anymore," Usopp said, and looked away.

"Anyways, I guess Tra-guy is actually a good guy anyways! Even though he switched our bodies and all. Shishishi, that wasn't fun at all! Usopp, don't boobs suck?" Usopp had to admit he wasn't enjoying it very much. He looked down at them in distaste and Robin and Nami laughed about it. Sanji was furious he didn't get to try them.

"They're heavy and annoying," Usopp said. "I can't wait to be back in my body."

"I'm sick of being in yours, too," Zoro agreed.

"Hey, I've gotten stronger!"

"Doesn't mean you're strong enough for most of my sword attacks," Zoro said back.

Luffy turned to Brownbeard and then asked, "Are there any monsters here? Like animals?" Brownbeard said they had two dragons. "Heh?! Where?! I'm good at taming things now!" He was bummed to hear the dragon was in the fiery parts of the island. "Neehee, maybe I can call it!"

"And give our place away completely?"

"If people are looking for us, all they gotta do is use haki," Luffy said dismissively. "Now that I'm back in my own body, I can be as scary as I want! I'm'a try it!" Nami said it didn't seem like a good idea. "C'mon, I turned the beasts of Impel Down to my side to kill their owners. I also tamed the kraken. A dragon will be awesome!" he insisted. "Than maybe Brook can find us, wherever he went!"

Luffy ran outside and onto the highest point of the collapsed building. Zoro followed him out, and Usopp told him to be easy on his body. Luffy stood on the roof, looking around in interest. The fire area was far from them. It might not work that far, but he did wonder.

He sat down, and let out the terrifying aura, boosting it over and over until the air was wavering around him. Zoro whistled from behind. "That's some scary shit." Luffy pumped another one out, but they could just hear the roaring from far away, and saw in the sky as two dragons flew in the opposite direction.

"Damn it!" Luffy said in disappointment. He could hear people not too far asking what the hell that feeling was. Shivering in fear.

"Don't be cowards," Smoker's voice said, though he sounded slightly unnerved. "Stop shivering, Tashigi. It's embarrassing."

"Y-Yes, Smore-san!" Luffy busted up laughing, and told Zoro about freaking out the marines. They weren't anywhere near to them, and couldn't hear them.

"I always knew that woman was weak. I wonder why Smoker keeps someone like her at his side. Maybe for other benefits." Luffy asked what he meant. "Never mind, it doesn't matter." They dropped down, and saw Chopper was passed out. Luffy asked if he was okay.

Franky said, "Don't get that scary again, you scared him enough to knock him out." Luffy felt guilty. He hadn't even tamed the dragons, they ran away. He walked to Chopper and managed to wake him up. He sincerely apologized for being scary.

"I just wanted to see if I could tame them from far away. They ran, though," Luffy explained in guilt. Chopper said it was just an animal instinct. He didn't think Luffy would ever hurt him that way. Robin and Nami were calming down the fearful children. Though they didn't realize the feeling was directly from Luffy. He wasn't in view when he did that.

Suddenly, they heard Brook's voice, shouting their names. "We're up here!" Luffy called.

"Luffy-san, everyone!" Brook said in relief. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Brook! Where have you been?!" Usopp asked.

"Eh? Robin-san, your voice sure has deepened!" They had to explain everything to him, and did so quickly. He was shocked at everything that had happened, and couldn't help but laugh at the other three's expenses.

Luffy heard the shuffling of feet and looked outside, seeing moving legs, running in circles. "Hey, legs! Look, legs!"

The samurai demanded to see what he meant, and shouted that those were his legs! Luffy shot his arms out and yanked it back, setting it in front of the now only torso-less samurai. Luffy went back to talking to Chopper before the kids started to cry and make pained sounds. He smelled that scent of chemicals thicken. He plugged his nose.

"Hey, Chopper, they smell like chemicals," Luffy said. "Strong ones." They listened to the children cry in pain until they explained what was making them hurt. They were out of candy, which the Master would give them at this time every day. It was their medicine. Luffy wondered if this was just bad side effects, but Chopper had another idea.

"Let me see your tongues!" Mocha, the biggest girl, opened her mouth, and Chopper looked inside, and had a horrified look on. One that rarely was made, unless something was really bad. "Don't let them leave! This is a stimulant drug! It enlarges the taste buds and the underside of the tongue gets a bright red."

"What's that mean?"

"It's a drug that forces them to have them every day or they'll go through painful withdrawals!" the doctor said. "We can't let them take any more! They're highly addictive. The 'candy' must have been what the drugs are in. The Master isn't kind, he's trapping these children here!"

Brownbeard was offended by them insulting the Master, but the crew wasn't paying attention to him anymore. "Straw Hat bro… will you get us the candy?" Sind, the largest boy, asked.

"I can't. Chopper said not to," Luffy replied. "He's a doctor, you gotta believe him!" Sind looked up with a look of deep despair and pain. A disturbing look of the formerly happy boy. Even the other kids thought that look was bad. Then he proceeded to slam Luffy into one of the pillars of the broken building.

"What strength!" Robin said in shock. Others called his name in worry, Zoro included. His friends begged him to stop hurting their saviors. They had never seen him like this, ever. Once they all started to react to missing the candy, Luffy didn't hesitate to use haki on them and knock them all out. It didn't look good, them foaming at the mouth, but it was the easiest thing to do.

"Aren't they giant children?" Usopp asked.

"No! There's no sickness to turn people into giants! These kids… they've been experimented on! And the drug is only part of what is happening to them! There has to be more going on than just the addictive candy!"

Nami asked what they do now. Then Sanji found that the samurai had left! Without saying anything! "Damn it, where'd he go?!" Sanji demanded. Luffy said he could hear him shouting about a torso. "Idiot! I'm going after him!"

Luffy said, "I'm staying here to help with the kids. Take Brook with you." Sanji agreed, and the three headed off. They lost a good fighter, so hopefully Luffy could make up the difference. He crossed his arms, wondering what they should do.

Franky pointed out, "We can't just save them, there are a ton of issues with any plan!" It was true. There were many gaping holes in what they needed to do. Robin said they should find the person responsible for all of it.

"Master?" They nodded. Chopper threatened him with violence he was so furious at what the man had done. Brownbeard was knocked out too. The only ones who were still awake were his crew. "Then we'll figure out how to save them. Nami and Chopper really want to, so I want to, too," Luffy said seriously.

Both of them smiled in relief that the captain still wanted to help with this problem. They had to go see Master directly and figure out how to fix the kids. "But I need to stay with the kids." Nami agreed that she would stay, too. They ended up tying the biggest and strongest of the kids in chains. There was nothing else to do about it.

They needed their bodies swapped now. They needed them back in fighting condition since Zoro was one of the heavy hitters. Probably the one second to Luffy. Robin also was useful with her devil fruit. Luffy would be able to sniff him out, but he could always get rid of them with his powers. Even though he seemed like a good guy, there was no reason to believe he'd switch the others.

He fixed Luffy, but maybe because Usopp was dangerous to him at the moment. Though Law worked here, worked with Master. Maybe he was a villain this time, who knew? The five others who were left, Zoro, Usopp, Franky, Robin and Luffy started to head back down the mountain and to the facility to try and do something.

"I want to be in my body already," Zoro said. "It would be weird to even hold Luffy's hand!"

"That's what you're worried about?!" Usopp demanded.

"I also hate your body, so there's that, too. We're the whole group that's messed up yet were going to the facility. Robin, why did you come? You can't do shit," Zoro said in annoyance at the whole situation.

Robin just said, "I'm smart. I can help that way. Besides, I think you can all make up the difference."

"YOW! I sure am glad I don't need to be in Luffy's body. Being metal is much better than rubber," Franky said. Then he laughed about the demeanor Robin's voice in Zoro's body gave off.

"You, shut it!" Zoro demanded.

"I am glad it is Luffy and Usopp in my body. Though Usopp isn't the same, I haven't seen either one of you peek or grope. It's very refreshing," Robin commented lightly. They were all talking when Luffy heard a loud explosion, that everyone could hear. Listening over the wind was hard, but Luffy could tell there was definitely something at the base that shouldn't be. Or at least, hadn't been before. They went running back, following massive footprints in the snow. They heard more explosions, and hurried along the mountain and up to the base of theirs. Luffy sensed two huge things, but they were on the move!

Two more explosions before some were aimed at the five of them that left. Luffy jumped out of the way, putting his hands over his ears at the right time, and stopping, before he saw the monsters behind them. They stomped on the weakest of them, knocking them out. "Hey!" Luffy shouted, seeing his friends all unconscious. He was furious, and kicked one of them in the gut, but he caught it.

A gun was aimed directly down at him, and was shot point blank range, damaging his body. Franky was knocked out and grabbed. Luffy was the only one awake, though he was burned from the explosion. He needed to get up and get Franky! Zoro was awake and told him to drink from his body.

Robin was asleep, and Luffy took as little as possible to heal the burns. She was still asleep, but woke up a few moments after Luffy ran off to find Franky. He should be fighting back, so Luffy shouldn't have to extend too many resources. Zoro promised to protect Robin and Usopp. When he got to Franky, he was furious. The big guys who took them were all beaten up and covered in burns and holes from beams.

"Beam! I wish I could'a seen it!"

"Yow! Save it for next time! Where are the others?" Luffy explained Robin and Usopp got smooshed, and Luffy was burnt and had to take some blood. He looked up when he smelled Law nearby. Coming from downwind to Luffy.

"Hey! Tra-guy!" Franky asked if somebody was around. "Yeah, over there. Neh, what are you doing so far out here?" The cyborg was skeptical when Law came out. He hadn't seen him up close personally. He lightly commented that they looked like he hadn't slept in days. "Whatcha doing here?" Luffy asked, stopping waving both arms and crossing them.

Law paused in front of them a bit and said, "I wanted to speak with you. And you don't need to thank me about two years ago. I did it on a whim. Though you seem to be moving your arm alright… has it healed?" He didn't really seem like he was actually interested.

"Nope, I still can't feel it! Neh, what do you wanna talk about?" Luffy wondered. Franky was looking skeptical with his glasses lowered.

"What is your plan in the New World?" Luffy simply said he wanted to find the One Piece. "Do you have any other goal before that? This isn't like Paradise where you can survive on your own completely."

Luffy said, "Well, we're just looking for some stuff and the one piece. We want to find out what I am and we've already gotten a lot of clues! But we want more so we're looking while we do that, too."

"Oi, Luffy, don't say so much!" Franky scolded harshly. Luffy turned to him and said Law already knew he was weird. He treated him and gave him blood. Franky looked at Law with narrowed eyes, who looked slightly stiff. Luffy asked again what his point was.

"I'm looking to find the one piece, too. But I have another plan to take down competition." Luffy raised his brows. "I want to take a yonko down." Then only two would be left. Did he want to be a yonko? Luffy had no interest in being anything but the Pirate King. He wondered what Law's plan was to do such a thing.

"That's quite the goal. I assume your plan is foolproof?" the cyborg asked.

"Not yet. I want to form an alliance with you." Luffy and Franky were both shocked. Luffy asked why. "Because we're both strong. My plan would be easier with more people. We'd both benefit from it in our standing here."

Luffy asked, "Do you want to be a yonko?"

"Not particularly. But taking down a yonko would propel us to near the top in skill and infamy. But before we even think of taking down one, we have to do a lot more planning and strategizing, so we have a chance. What'll it be, Straw Hat?" Luffy finally asked which yonko. If it was Shanks, Luffy would decline. He would only see his idol when the time was right. After he became the Pirate King and could fulfil his promise and return his hat. "Kaido." Luffy was glad it wasn't Shanks. A pirate alliance, huh? It sounded fun! They'd allied with people before, but not a real pirate like this. Impel Down and Marineford didn't count for Luffy.

"Well, I'm gonna defeat all of them, so I guess Kaido's a good start!" Luffy said brighty. Law was shocked by the confidence it seemed. "The Pirate King will trump everyone else on the sea! I'll definitely make an alliance with you."

"Luffy, think about this."

"I did!"

"For like, three seconds."

"But they were an enlightening three seconds." Franky gave up and the three of them headed to their base. The monsters were gone. Franky or Law beat them up bad. Law kept glancing at Luffy's left arm, swinging it back and forth with his other one. He asked what was wrong.

Law said it was nothing and looked away. He seemed grumpy. When they came back to the base area, Zoro demanded Law change them back right now. He didn't know why he was there, but he'd better change them back. "Yeah, if you're a ally, you gotta do what we say." Law didn't seem happy about that, and shambled their personalities back. Usopp fell backwards a bit, once the weight of the boobs were immediately gone.

"Yes!" he cheered. Zoro sighed and snatched his swords away from Usopp. He walked over and took Luffy's hand, body relaxing just a bit. He asked what Law was doing there with an irritated and suspicious expression.

Luffy said, "We formed an alliance with Tra-guy and his crew! So now we're gonna take down a yonko." They were all shocked for a moment. Then they erupted into disapproval about the idea for multiple reasons. They didn't know him, why he attacked them and then offered an alliance, why he was so creepy.

"Luffy, we can't set our sight on a yonko already! We're not ready for that!" Chopper insisted, hiding behind Robin's leg from Law.

Robin said, "Luffy, I'll go along with what you choose, but just know many pirate alliances are ruined when one side betrays the other. You need to be careful with how trusting you are." Luffy turned to Law, and asked if he'd betray them.

"No," Law said simply.

Luffy turned to the others and grinned. "He's not lying!"

"He might be like Robin! A great liar!" Nami protested. "We can't trust him. I know he saved you at the war and all, but we can't trust him at all!" Luffy said it would all be fine.

"But doesn't a pirate alliance sound fun? Besides, even if he is a bad guy, I won't worry cause I have all of you that got stronger over the last two years! Shishishi!" Luffy said. Zoro gave a smile and shook his head. Everyone else was more than happy and flattered to hear this. When all of them started laughing and joking jovially, Law looked slightly disturbed.

Then he turned around and saw the kids they'd chained up. They were still out by Luffy's haki. "So, these kids…"

"Yeah! We want to save them," Luffy replied, pointing to them.

"They seemed to be drugged. It might be useless to get them out of here."

"We know that, but we're still gonna try and get them home! I'll do what I can to make sure they take no more drugs!" Luffy was tuned out, and started laughing at what he could hear from a bit away. The snow storm had died down a bit, thankfully. Nami demanded to know what was so funny.

Luffy said, "Ahahaha! Smoky and Tashigi switched bodies! Hahaha! How stupid!"

"You were like that, too! Idiot!" Nami shouted.

"Picturing Smoky with boobs! Hahaha!" Robin couldn't help but chuckle herself, having seen him briefly in that cage in Alabasta. Franky and Brook were the ones that hadn't met him. Franky asked if Robin hadn't been bothered by them having her boobs.

"No. They disliked them, mostly. They weren't on Sanji, who would have done worse." Luffy and Usopp nodded, agreeing that boobs were awful. Law kind of looked dumbfounded by their conversations while Chopper spoke to him about how he wanted to help the children. If anyone knew what to do, it'd be Law, who'd been there a long time.

Luffy said, "Oh, gotta discharge," and went outside. He climbed onto the snowy roof, up to his ankles in snow, and let out the force, blasting a hole in the snow falling. It was loud. Luffy dropped down and back to his friends. Law asked what that was. "Just something. You already know about that, though! It was what gave me nerve damage all over!"

Law said nothing else of it. He didn't look happy to stay behind for the kids. "We wanna do that, and put that samurai back together! If you're allied with us, then you gotta help us, too!" Luffy said, pointing at Law, who looked bothered about it again.

The sniper sighed. "I'll just inform you now. An alliance with you is probably different to how Luffy considers it. And don't think you'll be the leader in this!" Luffy brightly said they were friends now. "This isn't even the start of how stubborn he is! His selfishness is already on yonko level!"

"But your friends' wishes have nothing to do with the alliance," Law said back stiffly. When he saw Luffy's clueless and cheery face, he sighed, and relented. He would work on finding the drugs the kids used, Chopper tagging along, too. While they were getting ready to leave, Luffy shouted, "NO WAY!" startling everyone by the sudden outburst. He climbed outside and onto the top immediately.