The next morning, Lucci was lying in bed, tossing and turning, having a nightmare.
In the nightmare, he was at the Piston Cup race, racing Doflamingo and Dark King Rayleigh when Ucy ran onto the track out of nowhere. Rayleigh drove off the track and Ucy tossed Doflamingo's car off the track with his horns. Lucci drove off the track, allowing Ucy to cross the finish line. Ucy stood between two One Piece show girls and Lucci stood in a group of bleating goats that started to lick his face.
"NO!" Lucci shouted, shooting up awake. "I got to get out of here!"
Lucci ran out of the motel to Iceberg's clinic and barged in.
"Hey, have you seen Paul-whoa! Oh my gosh!" Lucci shouted.
"What are you doing?" Iceberg snapped.
"Get a good peek back there, city boy?" Paulie teased.
"I, a, a-just need my car's gas ration and my food ration from Paulie," Lucci explained, regretting barging into the clinic.
"Wait for him at Nami and Robin's café/gas station. Now get out of here," Iceberg ordered.
"I've been trying to get out of here for three days!" Lucci shouted as he stormed out of the clinic.
"Hope you enjoyed the show," Paulie hollered.
Lucci walked down the street and angrily kicked a can into a nearby garage, resulting in a loud crash of stuff from inside. Lucci cringed at the garage and entered it, hoping he didn't break anything. He saw it was very messy and was hoarding a lot of things.
"Whoa, Iceberg, time to clean out your garage, buddy. Come on," Lucci said laughing at the mess, when a something shiny caught his eye. He looked at the top of a stack of boxes to see a familiar looking trophy.
It had a plaque at the bottom that read, Iceberg "Blue" Hornet-Championship-1994.
"What? He has a Grand Line Cup?" Lucci said, confused. He then noticed two more Grand Line Cups behind another stack of boxes. On had the year 1993, and the other had 1992.
"Oh my Kami…three Grand Line Cups," Lucci muttered.
Then he noticed some old newspaper articles dating back to the 90s lying on the floor near the trophies, which showed a man of about 20 with long hair that reached, almost reaching his shoulders, with a white bandanna tied around his head; he wore a dark colored jacket with the number 51 on it, a dark colored tank-top, pants and black shoes. Lucci's eyes widened in surprise.
"Sign says to stay out," Iceberg's voice sneered.
Lucci jumped to his feet and looked at Iceberg.
"You have three Grand Line Cups, how could you have…" Lucci started to ramble when Iceberg interrupted him saying, "I knew you couldn't drive, I didn't know you couldn't read." Iceberg proceeded to push Lucci out of the garage.
"You're the Blue Hornet!" Lucci gasped, putting the pieces together.
"Go wait over at the café, like I told you," Iceberg said.
"Of course! I can't believe I didn't see it before! You're the Fabulous Blue Hornet! You still hold the record for the most wins in a single season! Oh, we got to talk. You got to show me your tricks! Please!" Lucci exclaimed.
"I already tried that," Iceberg said, going back into the garage.
"And you won the Championship three times! Look at those trophies!" Lucci stated.
"You look! All I see are a bunch of empty cups," Iceberg sneered as he shut the doors the garage.
Lucci looked at the door, a little annoyed, and ran to the café.
"Yoi-yoi! You know, Jaaaaabraaaaa, some yoga could lower your stress and make you less gruuuuumpyyyyy," Kumadori told Jabra.
"Go get a haircut, Kumadori," Jabra snarled.
Paulie was standing nearby, looking for Lucci when he saw the race car driver running toward the café. "There he is!" Paulie shouted.
Lucci screeched to a halt inside the outdoor café and asked, "Did you know Iceberg used to be a famous race car driver?"
Everyone stared at him for a few moments before bursting out laughing.
"Iceberg? Our Iceberg?" Paulie asked, smirking.
"No, no, no, no, it's true! He's a real racing legend! He's the Fabulous Blue Hornet!" Lucci exclaimed.
"Fabulous? I haven't seen Iceberg drive more than 20 miles an hour. I mean, have you ever seen him race?" Nami asked.
"No, but I wish I did. They say he was amazing! He won three Grand Line Cups!" Lucci stated.
Sekhmet, who was sitting nearby drinking some juice, spit out the juice and asked, "He did what with his cup?"
"I think the heat's starting to get to him," Paulie assumed.
"I'll say, look at how red he is. Nagagaga," Kokoro laughed.
"Are you sick, Luc?" Usopp asked.
"He does look a little peaked," Kaku said.
Then, Luffy showed up, grabbed a plateful of food and put it in front of Lucci.
"Hey, what are you doing? That's over his food ration," Paulie said.
"It's okay, Paulie. You trust me, right," Luffy said.
"I trust you, it's him I'm worried about," Paulie said.
"Hmm…" Luffy said, tilting his head a little to the right as he watched Lucci eat his breakfast. "I trust him," Luffy concluded with a smile.
Everyone gave the boy a funny look, except for Sekhmet and Usopp, who had silly grins on their faces.
"Come on, Lucci, let's go for a jog," Luffy said after Lucci finished eating.
"A jog?" Lucci said, confused.
"Yeah, a jog. Don't you big city race car drivers ever get out of those cars and go for a jog?" Luffy asked.
"Ah…no, no we don't," Lucci admitted.
Luffy smiled at Lucci and walked out of the café and started to walk to the side of the road where the courthouse and started to jog. Lucci started to follow him until he glanced at the opposite, which led out of the small town.
Paulie took a step forward, ready to go into action if Lucci tried to make a break for it.
"Hey Lucci! You coming or what?" Luffy asked, Lucci then ran jogged after the boy.
"And you thought he was going to run," Robin said, laughing a little.
"Hey, can you believe it, man? He actually thought Iceberg was a famous racecar! Hahaha... That's too much!" Franky laughed.
Iceberg watched from the window and sighed.
On the road, Lucci was jogging alongside Luffy. "Okay, you got me out here. Where are we going?" he asked.
"I don't know," Luffy admitted.
Lucci ran ahead of Luffy for a few inches, not sure what to say. Luffy then jogged ahead of Lucci, surprising the race car driver. Lucci then jogged ahead of Luffy, and Luffy suddenly started racing down the road.
"Whoa! Yes!" Lucci said, glad to race someone.
Lucci ran after Luffy, eager to catch up. The duo ran down the road. Luffy eventually saw a huge puddle and stomped in it, causing Lucci to get wet.
"Brrr," Lucci shivered from the cold water.
"Shishishi," Luffy laughed. Luffy stomped into another puddle and Lucci dodged the cold water.
"Haha!" he laughed triumphantly, until he ended up with mud in his face. "Blech!" he shouted, spitting some of the mud that went in his mouth out.
"Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed.
The two continued to run down the road when Lucci accidently ran through a pile of leaves, which all collected onto his muddy face.
"SHISHISHISHISHI!" Luffy laughed loudly as he ran ahead of Lucci.
Lucci wiped the mud and leaves off his face and raced after Luffy. He eventually made it past the boy and the two ran down the road, taking a turn here and there when Luffy made it past Lucci again and ran ahead. Lucci was about to catch up until he saw a huge natural arch over the road. He observed it as he ran through it and saw Luffy run into a tunnel. He ran after the boy and was taken aback by the scenery he saw after he ran out of it. There was a huge waterfall and cliffs, and it was all really amazing since Lucci had never seen a landscape like it before. Lucci glanced at Luffy, who was running across a bridge.
Luffy was looking at the waterfall until he glanced at Lucci, who grinned at him, revealing to have some small leaves stuck to his teeth.
"Shishishi," Luffy laughed as he ran faster.
"Heh, heh," Lucci laughed until his tongue felt the leaves on his teeth, where he proceeded to spit them out.
He ran faster and caught up to Luffy, where the boy had stopped in front of an old building inside a natural dome. It had an old weathered away sign that said, "Logue Well Motel".
"Wow! What is this place?" Lucci asked, curious.
"Logue Well," Luffy stated. "Used to be the most popular spot on the mother road."
Lucci observed the old building to see that it was falling apart in some parts. "This place?" Lucci asked.
"Yeah, imagine what it would've been like to stay here," Luffy sighed, as he walked inside.
Lucci walked after him. "You know, I don't get you. You're so young and as far as I know, you don't look like you could be related to anyone in this town," Lucci said.
"Well, it's pretty simple. I used to live with my grandpa and my brothers, Ace and Sabo in Raftel. Living life in the fast lane," Luffy stated.
"Oh you did, did you?" Lucci said, smirking. "Were you rich?"
"What?" Luffy asked, wondering why Lucci was asking that.
"Just…clues to the puzzle," Lucci said.
"…Yeah, that was my life, but it never…felt happy," Luffy said. "My brothers were great, but one day, Sabo left and never came back and nobody could find him, and my brother Ace…died in a car accident. I decided I couldn't live in Raftel anymore so I left, and I traveled and traveled, until I passed out from lack of supplies here. Iceberg found me and got me back in good health, Robin and Franky took me in, and Sekhmet and Usopp became my best friends."
"Yeah, I understand that you needed to get away after what happened to your brothers, but after a while, why didn't you go back?" Lucci asked.
Luffy took a deep breath and said, "I fell in love."
"Oh," Lucci said, a little disappointed.
"Yep," Luffy said with a grin.
"Who is it? That green-haired swordsman?" Lucci asked.
"No," Luffy said as he walked out of the old motel and looked over a cliff. "I fell in love with this," Luffy said, pointing off into the distance.
Lucci walked over and saw the view. He could see plateaus, ridges, and other rock formations.
"Wow, look at that," he said. Then he noticed the Interstate and saw multiple cars driving on it. "Look, they're driving right by and they don't even know what they're missing!" Lucci exclaimed.
"Well, it didn't use to be that way," Luffy stated.
"Really?" Lucci said.
"Yeah, 15 years ago, that Interstate down there didn't exist," Luffy explained.
"How do you mean?" Lucci asked, confused.
"Well, the road didn't cut through land like that Interstate. It moved with the land, you know? It rose, it fell, it curved," Luffy explained, "people didn't drive on it to make a great time. They drove on it to have a great time."
"Well, what happened?" Lucci asked.
"The town got bypassed just to save 10 minutes of driving," Luffy sighed.
Back at Galley-La, Lucci and Luffy stood at the entrance of the town, looking at it. "How great it would've been to see this place in its heyday!" Lucci exclaimed.
"I can't tell you how many times I've dreamed of that. Usopp and Sekhmet dream of it too, since Usopp was 4 and Sekhmet was 1 when the town was bypassed. Usopp only remembers a little of how it used to be and Sekhmet doesn't remember any of it. Sanji, Zoro, Nami and Chopper don't remember much of the old days either. And Chimney wasn't even there yet. The people that really remember it are Franky, Robin, Jabra, Kaku, Kumadori, Brook, Laboon, Kokoro, Paulie and Ice Pops. One of these days, we'll figure how to get it back on the map," Luffy stated.
"Yeah. Hey, listen, thanks for the drive. I had a great time. It's kinda nice to slow down every once in a while," Lucci said.
"You're welcome," Luffy said with a smile. The boy walked back to the Foosha Motel and entered his office. Lucci watched him, smiling.
One of the romantic moments from Cars, and we start to see a little more LucciXLuffy now. You know what's going to happen next if you've seen the original Cars movie!
I own Sekhmet
Oda-san owns One Piece
Disney Pixar owns Cars
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