Title: What are the Odds?

Summary: For denizens of the Territories, life is generally pretty good. Provided of course that one is able and willing to conform to the rules imposed by whomever is in the charge of the area. However when the World Collective, a group of allied territories, declares that they are resuming hunts for people who seem to have the Devils own abilities, life becomes very complicated very quickly.

Pairings: Marco/Ace.

Warnings: AU, Language, canon-typical violence, possible Out of Character moments, too many characters, OC's galore, implied sexual content, slow burn

Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners. I simply play with them for my, and your amusement.

Authors Note: Welcome to Chapter 2 all! It has been brought to my attention that there are some words that need clarification which makes sense and in hindsight I really should have thought of that. So if there is a word, term, or phrase that I use that makes absolutely no sense to you please feel free to let me know and I will start including definitions at the end of the chapter! Thank you to Mysteryreader6626 for bringing that to my attention and for the lovely review! Thank you to Grifen345 for the fantastic review! and thanks again to the marvelous Ktwontwo who is betaing the entirety of this monster.

Again, the magnificent cover art is by Idaida on tumblr and they produced the magnificent piece of art that they graciously allowed me to use as the cover for this story. A much more amazing large version can be found here! post/143364258999/one-piece-big-bang-2016-what-are-the-odds

Chapter 2: Two Birds and a Stone

Ace D. Portgas leaned back in his chair as his friend reluctantly got up to leave. As he watched Marco navigate around tables to the door he had to Ace smile fondly as he watched his youngest brother entered at exactly the same time as Marco attempted to exit. He stifled a chuckle while they danced around trying to get past each other so they could each be on their way. The commotion in the doorway had the side effect of drawing the attention of the rest of Luffy's crew who called out to their captain. Ace, however, ignored the background noise as he attempted to piece through what Marco had told him.

Ace wasn't stupid and often thought things through completely before he acted despite what his brothers or grandfather would say. Running a bar in the Border meant that you had tough customers; ones that you would have to deal with yourself if someone got upset. Being this close to Agvitatmaa also meant that you kept track of who Whitebeard's enemies were. You also quickly learned which of Whitebeard's crew would most likely be dispatched to deal with the particular enemies if they caused a fuss. Unlike most territory leaders Whitebeard actually cared about the adjoining Border and the people in it. Not to the extent that he considered it part of his territory and subject to his rules but enough that it was a generally accepted business practice to inform him if and when someone particularly nasty came to call. Even the Border had standards. So yes, Ace knew exactly who Marco was and his position in the Whitebeard hierarchy.

Granted, it had taken Ace longer than he would ever admit to discover Marco's full name and from there make a connection to between it and his appearance. In his defense however, it wasn't as if he had ever met the First Division Commander of the Whitebeard Enforcers before moving to Outskirts. Besides, people impersonated others all the time in the Border, though it was rare for someone to try such a thing with one of Whitebeard's men. Ace remembered and sometimes wished he didn't what had happened the last time someone had tried that particular trick. The results had been messy to say the least. Ace also hadn't missed the look of relief that passed across Marco's face when Ace had not reacted to being told his name. He knew that look much more than he wanted to after seeing it on his brothers' faces and more frequently feeling it upon his own. He knew all too well what it was like to want a place to be yourself without anyone having any expectations or demanding things from you. It was for those reasons that even now, cycles after their initial meeting he still had not acknowledged or even alluded to his knowledge of Marco's identity. He wouldn't either, not until Marco changed that status himself or someone else outed him in public. Luckily, due to Marco's tendency towards privacy and a late lunch, Ace hadn't had to worry about the consequences of the latter just yet.

As far as the information was concerned; Marco's position, his penchant for secrecy, the fact that he'd specifically touched on a sensitive subject and had not let it drop assured Ace that he was passing on the truth. Probably not as many details as he had actually gathered nor as many as Ace would have liked but the world wasn't perfect. Besides Marco being who he was meant that he got more information than he was supposed to which meant that what he passed on often was better than what most people could find out. Ace wasn't sure whether he had a network of sources, a penchant for obtaining and compiling information from mundane sources, innate sneakiness, a specific power or most likely some combination thereof. Whatever it was it was damn effective despite the ludicrous reasons Marco came up with for his travels. Merchant Scout? Seriously? Ace had always wondered just who exactly did Marco think he was kidding? Well, apparently enough people fell for it. The ease that Marco had initially delivered the line as well as his background details suggested that he had used it frequently and presumably successfully at that.

"Ne, Ace," came a voice distracting him from his thoughts and Ace looked up to see Luffy join him at the table. "You going to eat that?"

Ace looked down at where his brother was pointing to his forgotten last half of sandwich. He made a show of looking at it, then up to Luffy's face then back to the sandwich. Ace shrugged, took a final bite then handed it over to Luffy's ultimate delight.

"So," David came up and stood at Luffy's shoulder, "What interesting news did Marco have for us this time?"

Ace grinned. "Oh nothing too exciting" he said as he nonchalantly gestured for the rest of Luffy's crew to gather round. "You guys finally have an official name. You all," he said gesturing, "are the Straw-Hat Vandals."

"We have a name yet?" David asked pulling out a chair to sit.

Ace shrugged. "Maybe. If we do Marco either didn't mention it or doesn't know it. He did however comment on the public details of the liberation of Cocoyashi."

"That was fun. Especially the party they threw us," Luffy said through a mouthful of sandwich spraying crumbs everywhere.

Nami, one of the crew who had grown up under the tyranny of Arlong merely rolled her eyes and smiled fondly at the young man she had chosen to follow.

"I'll bet," Ace continued with a grin. "On a more serious note, Lu, you were headed to Nefertari territory right?"

"Yepf," came the answer once again through a mouthful of food. There was a swallow and Luffy continued, "Now that everyone is better, we were gonna go tomorrow. Gotta catch up with Vivi. Why?"

"The situation may be worse than you think. Marco said that a large number of Brass were headed towards that area. It could be a coincidence."

"But you don't think so," Luffy replied in that cheerfully serious manner of his.

Ace nodded. "Based on what Marco said things are going wrong in the area and I don't like the sound of it. Take a SNAIL and yell if you need to. I have to be here but I'll send the rest of the Card Deck to help you out."

"Help?" Zoro, the green haired man draped bonelessly in the chair next to Luffy scoffed. "As if we're gonna need it."

"For once the Algae has a point," said the rough voice of Sanji who was perched on a nearby table smoking. He was the newest member of Luffy's group of scruffy misfits.

Usopp, the curly haired sniper muttered a soft "Speak for yourself."

Nami spoke up then, "But it would make me feel ever so much better."

"Anything for you, my dear," Sanji said simpering in her direction.

At roughly the same time Zoro remarked, "Whatever, witch," half under his breath.

With a rather violent mood swing Sanji hopped off the table and whirled on the swordsman, "What did you say about the lovely lady?"

"Nothing," Zoro muttered.

"Really?"

"Bring it," was Zoro's response one hand moving rather casually towards the hilt of one of the three swords that he carried.

Luffy, Ace and David traded looks then burst out laughing. The scene in front of them had become a frequent sight over the past few days while the group had waited to set out for their next adventure. It never failed to amuse. Usopp, hesitant as ever, joined in the laughter a beat behind the others. Neither Sanji nor Zoro noticed. They were too busy standing toe to toe tossing insults at each other. The insults kept getting more and more absurd which only served to increase the hilarity of the scene.

When a small tongue of flame ran down his face instead of a tear from laughter Ace sobered and stopped laughing. Ace pulled himself up from where he had half collapsed against David and looked over at his brother who was still laughing his ass off. Ace had almost forgotten to impart the most important piece of Marco's other news. Ace chided himself. He'd only remembered due to the slip in his abilities caused because he was laughing too hard. Looking around Ace was incredibly thankful that the bar only held Luffy's crew and a few members of his own.

Both crews were fully aware of his and Luffy's status as Users. Had anyone else been present, well, who knows what would have happened? The toleration of Users in the Borders was highly variable. Reactions to their existence and powers largely depended upon the specific ability and the particular area involved. If the ability wasn't too dangerous or was an advantage to the area as a whole the User was welcomed. Unfortunately situations like that were rare. More often than not, Users hid their abilities as much as possible hoping no one would discover their strange nature regardless of the nature and strength of the power. After performing some great heroic feat like diverting a flood or otherwise saving the entire settlement the best reaction that a User could hope for was one of willful ignorance. The residents of the settlement would know that there was a User was around but would not actually admit to knowing who the User was, what power he/she had and or the strength of said power. The system worked provided the User never slipped up.

Outskirts, however, was unique in dealing with the User population. It frequently housed people fleeing from persecution for any reason, Users included. As such it was quite a bit more tolerant than other Border areas so long as the power was under control and the damage was kept to a minimum. Even so, the reveal of Ace's own ability would more than likely cause more problems than it was worth. This was especially true in this area of the Border where fire, regardless of how necessary and useful, was always a danger. Even when an ability was considered "useless" it's discovery could be a problem. Luffy was a prime example of this. It wasn't his power. No one ever expected that someone who was quite literally a rubber man could cause as much trouble and damage as uncontrolled fire might. It was his personality. His brother was a living breathing trouble magnet. Once someone put two and two together Luffy could very easily become persona-non-grata.

Ace frowned slightly as he redirected his thoughts to his brother and this new problem at hand. Luffy wasn't the most careful person and getting caught by the Hunt would be much worse than it would have been when they were children. This far from their childhood home their grandfather's name wasn't worth much. Ace doubted that the fact that their grandfather worked for the World Coalition would not be enough to protect them from the usual fate that awaited captured Users.

It was because of that connection and the identification at a very young age that Luffy was a User that Ace knew more than most about the fate of captive Users. Upon first being caught by the Hunt a User would be forced to reveal the true nature of their ability. From there they were either declared useful or useless. If useful the user was "invited" to join the Brass or work for the Coalition in some form or fashion. If their powers were declared to be useless or they refused the offer of employment they were imprisoned and tortured to reveal the locations of other Ability users. There were also several rumors floating around that those users whom had been declared useless and criminals were eventually handed over to a scientific research facility and subjected to various experiments. Ace doubted that last bit, no one had ever been able to confirm the existence of such a place. Besides, executions were the more common option when the Coalition didn't particularly care about the user's ability or had gotten all that they believed they could from someone. After all, where there was life there was the hope of escape or rescue but dead was exactly that, dead.

That thought lead Ace to consider the World Collective's strategy overall. For reasons unknown no two abilities were ever exactly alike and throughout history no two people had ever held the same power at the same time. Given this fact the prevalence of executions made no sense. If the World Coalition was seriously attempting world domination then they should want to identify and keep all Users under wraps one way or another. The death of a User usually meant that someone else received the power. The process appeared to be entirely random, so there was no guarantee that someone who received a power would be within the reach of the World Coalition. Even if they were in Coalition territory there was no guarantee that the power would manifest immediately and whether or not the User would agree to work for them at all. Life imprisonment of useful but recalcitrant users would make more sense if only to keep such powers out of circulation. Ace was relatively sure that the Coalition's execution of users with demonstrably useful powers was a last resort but he wouldn't want to chance it. Not to mention there was no way in hell he'd allow either option to happen to his little brother.

Something about his sudden shift of mood caught Luffy's attention though because Ace suddenly found himself on the end of one of Luffy's rare serious stares. "What's wrong Ace?" he inquired.

No sooner had Luffy asked his question then the altercation between Sanji and Zoro suddenly degenerated from verbal insults to actual fighting. Ace ignored it.

"Be very careful," Ace finally said after a moment of returned study. He knew his brother was strong and could handle himself but this was different. "The World Collective has started the Hunts again."

Nami and Usopp who were paying more attention to Ace and Luffy than the fight both let out soft gasps of alarm.

Luffy, in contrast, simply looked unconcerned. Thankfully for Ace he didn't appear to dismiss the news off hand, as he would have as a child, instead he simply smiled. "No worries Ace! I have my crew to help me!"

Ace nodded, "That you do. You should probably leave early tomorrow so that you don't get caught behind the Brass headed for Neferati. I doubt they are going to be moving terribly fast since I suspect they'll also have orders to implement the Hunt along the way."

Any further advice that Ace had prepared to give was cut short as Zoro and Sanji's fight escalated in ferocity. Ace complained, "For fucks sake guys, take it outside! I refuse to replace any more tables because of you two!"

"Don't worry about it too much Ace," Nami said watching the fight with a cross between interest and annoyance. "If they break anything else I'll just take it out of their pay or their hides whichever appeals."

"Alright," Ace said with a shrug as he watched the pair. They had started moving toward the door immediately after Nami spoke. It appeared that they were at least making an effort to not destroy anything on the way.

Ace whistled slightly to himself, impressed. After a moment of contemplation Ace discarded the idea he'd just had about making them scrub the shop floor with toothbrushes. Apparently the pair feared Nami adding to whatever already existing debt they already had more than they feared Ace's retribution. After a moment more thought he decided that he didn't really care provided his tables remained in one piece. Though he did have to ask as he watched the pair tumble into the street outside, "Lu, are they always like that?"

"Yep yep!" Luffy giggled, "Long as the've been with me. Its fun!"

Ace raised an eyebrow, but grinned all the same. "Fun, huh? Seems like it." More conversation was cut off as the door opened again as another traveler walked in eyes wide, occasionally looking back at the fight going on behind him. Ace and David exchanged a slightly resigned glance. It was time to get back to work.

Despite the news of the Hunts starting up again being in the back of everyone's mind, the next few days were rather peaceful. Well as peaceful as life in the border could ever get. Ace had ejected four people from his bar and had to interfere in seven different fights. On the other hand, it was nice to be so busy. It kept him from worrying too much about what his brothers were up to.

Unfortunately the information that kept trickling in had Ace slightly worried. The situation in the Nefertari territory was worse than he had feared and that meant Luffy was heading straight into trouble. To add to his worry, the Coalition had apparently decided to get off of their asses for once by assigning Brass Captain Smoker Chase to identify, find, and capture the Straw-hat Vandals. It was a really good thing that the bar was keeping Ace busy, otherwise he would have been tempted to go and attempt to catch up to his brother and help him whether he wanted the help or not.

According to his sources, Luffy and company had run through the border town of Drum, an area famous for its back alley doctors, and overthrown what equated to the government there. Not a terribly difficult task since the local government in Drum consisted of whom so ever happened to be strong enough to impose "protection payments" on the local populace. Hopefully the good citizens of Drum would take the opportunity to install a better system but Ace didn't think he'd wager anything on that outcome.

His sources as well as the traveler's tales from the bar were also were also rife with other rumors. These were strange at worst and hilariously misinformed at best regarding current goings on in an about the area. The most outlandish of the bunch kept referencing a group that the World Coalition had dubbed The Fire Fist Gang. It was with some amusement, as he was listening to a patron describe a rather over exaggerated series of events, that he realized the Fire Fist Gang was the name that had been bestowed upon the Card Deck. He grinned as he remembered how the story took one melodramatic turn after another. Given the clearly embellished nature of the stories he absentmindedly wondered if they should bother to plant any evidence at the site of their next attack to correct the name and build up their reputation. He was still musing over this idea much later in the day, long after everyone had left and he had started to close up.

"So, Cap" a rough voice drawled pulling him from his thoughts and Ace turned to face Marie Black, his plump and pretty friend who often worked with David to help him man the bar. "Didja hear the stories about the Fire Fist gang?" The grin she offered him was wicked and full of an inappropriate sort of glee. "Some yahoos have vivid imaginations. Telling tall tales about events they only heard of from a friend of a friend's cousin who might have been somewhere in the vicinity and may have talked to an actual witness or something! Fucking rumor mongers."

It was always amusing to work the bar with Marie. Her pretty face and normally friendly disposition had fooled many in times past. Ace, David and those who were regulars knew something that most people did not. Behind the pretty face laid one of the sharpest, foulest tongues of anyone Ace knew and her chubby frame could deliver one of the strongest punches to boot. Neither the punches nor the cutting remarks would be held back when she got offended, as many had found often to their dismay. It all depended on the level of intelligence of the insult and or the state of drunkenness of the offending party exactly, which of her talents she employed.

Ace knew his own answering grin was a mirror image of Marie's. "I did indeed. Seemed a bit familiar don't you think?"

Marie just hummed in agreement as her grin grew wider. "How many stories did they have to tell before you figured it out?"

"Four. Why?" Ace asked suspiciously.

"No reason." Marie said, with false sweetness as she pretended to be occupied with sweeping the floor once again.

Ace narrowed his eyes. "You've been betting with David again, haven't you?"

"Maaaaaaaybe" Marie sung mockingly and Ace sighed.

"I thought we agreed to stop that?"

"Never!"

"How much did'ja bet this time?" Ace countered.

"Not telling!"

"Marie!"

"Nope!" she proclaimed cheerfully. "Not telling!"

"Not even if I do this?" Ace asked, casting aside his own broom and lunging for his friend who simply cackled joyfully as she dodged and took off Ace right on her heels.

A few minutes later, the game was interrupted by a voice commenting wryly from the door. "I thought we were trying to avoid breaking any more tables."

"I won!" Marie crowed as she recognized the voice and figure first.

"Won what?" David asked confused.

"The bet, apparently" Ace grumbled. "I thought we'd agreed to stop betting on each other."

David's grin was small but present as he handed Ace a small sheaf of papers brought back from the small post box that Ace kept in the Whitebeard Territory, "You decreed. We listened and then chose to ignore it."

"I can see that," Ace said looking down at the paper in his hands.

Skimming the densely written missive Ace realized that it was a coded set of reports. It looked like his sources had sent on a good bit of information from all around the border. He grabbed a chair and settled down to reading. He wasn't sure exactly what he was looking for but he'd know it when he saw it.

He was only half paying attention to the conversation that Marie and David were having while reading the broker's summary. It was only when they started talking about the nature of the bet that Ace began to pay attention. Given that the bet had been on how many stories it would take Ace felt he had to defend his failure to recognize the Card Deck's exploits.

"Give me a break!" Ace looked up from the papers, "Those stories were mainly about the runs I wasn't present for! Anyways, getting called the Fire Fist Gang is a little irritating. We should fix that," he commented shuffling the papers to take a look at the underlying information. The handwriting on one of the papers caught his attention and he immediately started to read that one first. If his brother had taken the time to send him something it was bound to be important.

"And how the hell do you want us to fix that?" Marie asked. "That would involve blowing up some more shit and leaving enough evidence for them to give us a new name that happens to correspond with what we are actually called. Even then they might not bother. You know them. Once they give something a code name they never bother to change it regardless of how stupid it sounds."

"I dunno," Ace said absently as he scanned the paper in front of him.

His face split into a rather wide grin that kept growing the more he read. This was fantastic news. His brother had come through for him yet again. In the background, David and Marie had returned to arguing. They now happened to be debating the details on how exactly to get the World Coalition to give them proper name credit as opposed to who had won the bet.

"We just need to set more shit on fire!" Marie exclaimed

"And what will that do?" David countered calmly. "That's just causing more wanton destruction! Unless we leave something behind they'll just keep calling us by the wrong name! No we'd have to come across as a completely different group to get our proper name in the records."

"But we can't leave things behind! Or did you forget that you were the one to come up with that rule you fucktard? As a former Toilet resident, you were the one who warned us that they had sufficiently advanced technology to track us through any leftover evidence. That's why we've been burning things in the first place."

David's expression turned murderous at the reminder of his past, and Ace knew he had to interfere or he really would end up with broken tables at the minimum. "Cut it out you two. We'll worry about it later." He finally said putting down the paper on the table and bringing up his hand to adjust his hat. "It was just a random thought after all. I care enough that it marginally upsets me that they don't call us by our real name, but not enough to let the Sewer Lords know that." He was relieved when his new nickname for the World Coalition, colloquially WC, got a chuckle from Marie and a look of contemplation from David. Whew crisis adverted, he thought. "Besides, we have something a little more important to focus on."

"Oh?" Marie inquired, while David shot him a look that said he clearly knew what Ace was trying to do but was willing to play along for the moment.

"Two things actually, both pertaining to Blackbeard." Ace said and the mood turned grim. "First, we've finally got a lead on his identity. Royal Blue wanted to take a couple more days to confirm things before he passed that piece of information on though so specifics will probably arrive tomorrow or the day after. Secondly," Ace continued with a grimace on his face "he's finally learned how to be sneaky. Or, well, sneakier than he has been. Blackbeard has unfortunately managed to set up a base of operations in the border on the far side of Agvitatmaa, between the 8th gate and Mériens. They've been spying on the territory from that spot for months."

David's frown was minute but noticeable. "Why didn't anyone notice it?" He asked.

Marie then threw in her own two cents. "What kind of incompetent people do they have on duty over there? Don't they patrol that area?"

David's frown deepened. "We also patrol that area."

"I know." Marie snapped back. "I was including myself in that bout of incompetence, thank you very much, seeing as I was one of the people on the last patrol!"

Ace simply shrugged as if the oversight didn't bother him in the slightest. "Blackbeard finally got someone who understood what being sneaky was about apparently."

"And gave the bastard authority to actually implement being sneaky if they managed to hide from me," Marie commented. "Or bitch I suppose," she added after a pause.

"Unlikely," remarked David. "Blackbeard has always been a bit on the misogynistic side if you ask me."

Despite the nonchalance that Ace was currently attempting to project, he could tell that Marie and David knew his apparent indifference was total bull and the looks Marie and David were giving him suggested that they were not buying it. Likewise, he knew that the banter also masked a deep interest in this particular information. It didn't really surprise him. Other than his siblings, the pair probably knew him the best and knew exactly how deep his grudge against Blackbeard ran despite it having changed from a roaring inferno to embers ready to ignite at the slightest touch.

"So," Ace continued fingering the brim of his hat, "They had planned to launch another attempt to discredit Whitebeard and seize control of the territory from that base in the next few days." He let the fire that he normally kept so carefully under control play around his fingers, lighting up his face with what he knew was sporting a slightly deranged grin. The extra light allowed him to see that his friends had caught his train of thought and were sporting maniac grins of their own. "What do you say that we kill two birds with one stone and go solve Whitebeard's problems and incidentally fix this little patrol oversight of ours?"