Author's Notes: Yes, extremely late. Forgive me, reviewers. School was murderous, though I managed to finally get around to writing this. For the fans of the next crossover, you'll probably know full well what's coming just by the name itself. For people who don't like this idea, please don't flame me. I got a lot of requests for this as a crossover, and it was up on one of the top on the list of recommendations. I know that other crossovers were higher, but I needed to give them a way to reach the next area faster. So please, enjoy.

Chapter 21: Sock-Hat meets Straw-Hat

There was a huge and very sudden explosion. Double D, along with the unidentified flying man screamed. Though no one else was in the direct path, the force was still strong enough to send the others off their feet. Dirt flew from the ground creating a huge cloud, making it completely impossible to see what was happening.

By this point, the remaining of the group decided to take a few steps away from the explosion. The ship that was chasing them before was approaching them. Taking his chances, Eddy approached the cloud just as it was fading away. "Double D…?"

"Ha ha!" came a different voice. "Ah, what fun."

There was one figure standing up, while the other figure, identifiably as Double D by his sock hat, was on the ground, trying to get up. The remnants of the dust cloud faded away, revealing the identity of the attacker.

Surprisingly, it appeared to be a boy, about 17 years old or so. The guy was wearing a straw hat on his head, and had a red, somewhat battle-torn vest, accompanied by some jeans, which had been rolled up to his knees. Curiously, the kid seemed to have a scar underneath his left eye.

"But that's what you get!" The teenaged straw-hat said.

"Er, pardon, but what did we do?" Double D asked.

"You tried to burn the Going Merry!" he shouted, grabbing Double D's collar.

"What's a 'Going Merry'?" Bloo asked.

Eddy walked in. "Because you shot us with a cannon!"

"Oh." the straw-hat said. He gave a huge, clueless grin. "Sorry."

By now, the ship was sailing toward them. Now, it was more identifiable. It was an old, rather torn up looking caravel. One of the first things that caught the eye was the mainsail, which had a huge painting of a skull and crossbones wearing a straw hat.

"Bloo? Are these guys pirates?" Mac asked.

Bloo smiled. "Pirates? Do they have buried treasure anywhere?"

As the ship come a little closer, some of the more prominent features of the ship were more noticeable, such as a second sail in the back, and two flags that held the same pirate mark. The ship's figurehead, oddly enough resembled that of a sheep. She also appeared to be severely beaten up, because of a ton of shoddy patchwork on all parts of the ship. It seems as if the ship had been through quite her amount of adventure.

Also noticeably, there were about 6 others walking around on the deck as it approached the beach, though at that distance, they were still too far away to see clearly.

"Hey man, what's your name anyway?" Eddy asked.

The straw-hat smiled. "Monkey D Luffy."

The ship, presumably named the Going Merry, finally approached the shore.

One of the crew walked to the front of the ship, and leaned over the rail. This one had green hair, with a white shirt and a green sash with black pants. Clinging to his side were three katana blades. "Oi, Luffy." he sighed. "Can't we go anywhere without you causing trouble, can we?"

Luffy smiled, clearly not caring what he had said. "Sorry, Zoro."

"So… what are you people, and why did you attack?" Goombella asked.

"Oh, us?" Luffy asked. "We're the Straw Hat Pirates!"

The others all stood, watching Luffy, expecting him to explain more.

"…wait, you never heard of us? The Straw Hat Pirates?" Luffy asked.

Bloo gave out a snicker. "Who names a group of pirates after a hat?"

The Going Merry's anchor had landed in the shore. By now, she had docked right in front of them, to where her sheep figurehead was starring right at Double D and Luffy. The ship's crew of 6 all jumped off and landed on the beach.

"Where are we?" one of the crew members asked.

Another member, this one a teenage girl, with orange hair and brown eyes, with a causal white shirt, and very short jeans. She also had an odd item on her wrist, something that resembled a miniature crystal orb secured by a bracelet. She quickly checked her wrist, observing the item.

"Not sure…" She said. "The log pose has been acting ridiculously since we arrived near this island."

"Island?" Double D asked. "Sorry, but this is a continent."

The orange-haired one seemed a surprised. "You mean we're back at the Red Line?"

"We're in the USA, stupid!" Bloo blurted out.

"What's a USA?" Luffy asked.

The orange haired girl turned toward the other female of the group, a taller young adult with long black hair and blue eyes, with a long white dress that extended to her feet. This woman shrugged. "I've never heard of a place named the "USA" at all during my research."

Luffy pointed toward Double D. "Oi, Sock Hat! What's a USA?"

"You mean you really don't know what the United States of America is?"

They got blank expression from all seven of the Straw Hat Pirates.

"Surely, you're joking, right?" the orange-haired girl said. "There's no possible way we have hit a continent. We're still in the Grand Line."

"What's the Grand Line?" Mac asked.

They received dumbfounded expressions from the crew.

"How can you guys have never heard of the Grand Line?" another of the crew asked, this one with a long nose and black, somewhat puffy hair, brown overalls and a set of goggles over his head. "It's the most dangerous place of the world! Swarming with Sea Kings and Pirates-"

"And One Piece!" Luffy shouted.

"One piece of what?" Double D asked.

"What is wrong with you people?" Luffy asked.

"Hey, we should ask the same about you people!" Eddy shouted. "There's no such thing as a Grand Line here!"

Luffy's expression turned angry, and held up one fist while seemingly holding it back with his other arm. "Shut up!"

"Whatcha gonna do about it?" Eddy asked.

Luffy prepared for the punch. "I'm gonna kick your-"

All of the other pirates (with the exception of the dark haired woman) rushed Luffy and grabbed him and restrained him.

"Don't do anything too stupid!" the orange-haired one shouted, slamming her fist over his head.

"Ow, Nami!" Luffy shouted.

"She's so cute when she's mad!" Another of the pirates shouted, one with blonde hair and a tuxedo, some of which covered his left eye.

"Um, excuse us…" Goombella started. "But, like, who exactly are you people?"

"Hm… I thought you'd never ask…"

From the other pirates, one of them came forth. It was the one with the long nose.

He began his speech, speaking quickly and striking dramatic postures. "You'd be wise to fear me. In all of the Grand Line, there is no one like me! I have sailed from the ends of the world, from my infamous village all the way to the ends of the Earth, my name has been heard everywhere! The strongest of pirates quake at the name: Captain Usopp!"

Luffy slammed him on the head. "I'm the captain!" Usopp let out a whine.

"That…" the orange-haired one said, pointing angrily at Usopp "Is our Marksman.My name's Nami." She gave a flirtatious wink. "I'm the navigator."

"I'm Sanji." the blond-haired teenager in the tuxedo said, posing rather courteously. "I am the Chef."

The green haired one with the swords gave an uninterested stare. "My name is Roronoa Zoro, the swordsman."

There was also a tiny one out of the seven. It looks like a sort of reindeer, but in a humanized stance. He was no taller then a couple of feet, either, and his body looked small in comparison to a large head. He wore dark red pants as well. He also had a blue nose, which was odd. This creature also had a pink top hat, which his antlers poked out of either side. On the top of the front hat was a big "X" design. This one was hiding behind Sanji, or at least, trying to. "Uh… my name's Tony Tony Chopper. I'm the doctor."

The last one, the dark haired woman, gave a warm smile. "Hello. You all may call me Nico Robin."

"There." Nami said. "We introduced ourselves, now it's your turn."

"I'm Eddward." Double D said. "But friends can call me Double D."

"I'm Eddy!" Eddy said. "I'm the leader!"

"Um… Eddy, I thought I was leading this escapade…" Double D stated.

Usopp smiled. "I like that kid's style."

"Hi!" Goombella said. "I'm Goombella."

"Mac." Mac stated simply.

"And I'm…" Bloo took a few steps ahead. "Blooregaurd Q. Kazoo! And as you can tell, the coolest guy in the group."

"Do you mind telling us why you fired at us?" Goombella asked.

"We weren't supposed to. We have a couple of misfires, while a certain two crewmembers were playing around, LUFFY AND USOPP!" Nami shouted, slamming her first upon both of their heads.

"SORRY!" Both of them replied in pain.

"Ok, now that we have these intros down." Nami started. "You guys mind telling us where the heck we really are?"

They had walked back toward the van. Eddy had taken a huge map that they had been carrying, and slapped it on it's side, propping up so that the others could see it clearly.

"Now, this is the bearing of our current location." Double D stated, pointing to the southwestern coast of California."

Nami marveled at the map. "Amazing… to think your world has it's very own map."

"You're doesn't?" Eddy asked. "Ain't you guys ever mapped the place?"

"That's actually my goal. Making a map of our place, as you put it." Nami stated.

"Are you sure we've actually gone to another world?" Usopp said. "I'm skilled with the art of lying, I would know."

"Don't care!' Luffy shouted. "But as long as we're not on the Grand Line anymore, we're nowhere near One Piece! I want to go back right now!"

"Pardon me…" Double D started. "…but how did you get yourselves here in the first place?"

The one named Sanji shrugged. "Well, in short, we were sailing as usual. Nami noticed that the log pose was pointing strait down into the water."

"What's a log pose?" Mac asked.

"Since there's bad magnetic fields in the seas that we sailed, normal compasses wouldn't work." Nami explained, showing them the Log Pose on her wrist. "This is a special kind of compass, that locks onto an island's magnetic field. The needle doesn't point north, instead, it points to the next location on the Grand Line that we were sailing in. Once we arrive at the island, the pose will adjust in time, and then point the next island that we would venture to."

"Oh, I get it…" Eddy said. "Sort of…"

"So anyway." Sanji resumed. "The log pose was pointing strait down. Of course, there's no such thing as an island underwater. Next thing any of us knew, a huge thunderstorm hit, one that Nami couldn't detect until it was too late. …the last I remember, our mast was it by a bolt of lightning. Next thing any of us knew, we were waking up near a huge mass of land. The log pose, for some reason, was pointing right near it, but another really weird ship chased us north… and here we are."

Nami showed everyone the Log Pose. "But for some reason, the Log Pose keeps pointing south. It's like it's telling us to go back there. But if we're not on the Grand Line anymore, I don't understand how it can still direct us."

"Nami, may I see your Log Pose for a moment?" Double D asked.

Nami nodded and took it off her wrist.

As Double D took the Log Pose to investigate, a few of the others began to ask questions.

"So, you're really pirates?" Mac asked.

"The best of them in all the grand line!" Usopp stated.

"Cool!" Mac and Bloo both exclaimed.

"Indeed, we are!" Usopp said.

Bloo sighed. "So how great is the 'best?'"

Zoro smiled on this remark, but remained silent.

"Luffy held out three sheets of paper. On each of them, were pictures of Luffy, Zoro, and Robin. Below their names read in the infamous word: WANTED.

"COOOOOOOOL!" Bloo marveled.

"I also got question." Goombella said. "If this Grand Line place is so dangerous, why sail in it?"

"Because we all have our own ambitions there." Sanji stated. "In order to fulfill them, we'll have to go back."

"Wow, that's deep." Mac said.

"Way boring…" Bloo said. "C'mon guys, fight somebody soon or something."

"WHOA!" Double D exclaimed.

Everyone turned toward him. He was standing near the world map, with the Log Pose in one hand and a regular compass in the other.

"Everyone!" Double D shouted. "For some reason, the pirate's log is pointing strait toward the Crystal Star!"

Eddy raised his eyebrow. "How do ya know that?"

"If I compare this compass with the grand pose, and the map… and then line up both of the lines… then on the map…" Double D took a pencil to the map and began to draw two lines on it with a ruler. He noticed that the two lines met, and he drew an X on the stop where the lines met.

"That's it." Double D said. "If the Log Pose is pointing at the star, then the next Star is right there, about 50 kilometers off the west coast of Peru!"

Chopper tilted his head. "What's a Crystal Star?"

Nami's eyes lit up. "How much is it worth?"

"Are you sure it's pointing to the star?" Goombella asked.

"These stars emit a strange kind of energy." Double D stated. "…and these compasses detect strange energies… besides, what other leads do we have?"

"Oi, Sock hat, what's a Crystal Star?" Luffy asked.

"Are you positive?" Mac asked.

"Well, almost." Double D said.

"Are you listening?" Zoro asked. "What's a Crystal Star?"

"So, we should head there then?" Eddy asked, pointing to the X on the map.

"HEY!" All of the pirates shouted. "WHAT'S A CRYSTAL STAR?"

After a very long description, Double D had told the Straw hats everything about their adventure, from the start of their trip in Rogueport all the way to the point where they met the pirates.

All 7 of the pirates (minus the quiet Robin) held gaping mouths. Robin had to speak on behalf of them, because they were unable to speak.

"So… you can attack with fire?" Robin asked.

"Just like my brother!" Luffy shouted.

Chopper's eyes were filled with a glow. "COOOOOOL!"

Nami began to pace around. "Double D, you said that you got sent to the other world after getting at lost at sea. …don't you find it weird that we both got sent to other worlds in the same way?"

Double D looked at the map. "What I find troublesome is that as of now, three worlds are connected. I mean, within the last four years, after centuries of never knowing about life elsewhere, we suddenly discover 2 new ones?"

"Whoa! You guys are alien pirates!" Bloo asked. "COOL!"

"Either way…" Double D stated. "With gateways open between all three of our worlds, it's not going to take long for Beldam's plans to spread. We're not exactly sure what she has planned, but she is definitely planning to cause chaos on a multiworld scale. I know it may be a very awkquard thing to ask at a time like this, with you being in a new world and all… but we may need your help."

Zoro gave a serious expression. "Your affair isn't our concern. You tell us why we should help first."

"Shaddup, Zoro!" Luffy exclaimed. "Sock hat," He extended an arm. "You got yourself a deal."

"BUT FIRST-" Nami blurted out. "If we help you, you have to help us."

"Here she goes again." Zoro sighed.

"Go, Nami, go!" Sanji cheered with a love-struck expression.

"It's obvious that you'll need the 7 of us to go down there. You can't reach it without a ship. We can go down there and fight along side you… but… we'll charge a fee for our service."

Eddy grabbed Double D and pulled him back.

"Urg!" Double D shouted, upon being pulled back.

"Double D, are you nuts!" Eddy shouted. "Don't even think about it, we won't pay them one quarter! Not even a dime, a nickel, or a penny! In fact, we should be charging them for agreeing to let them fight beside us! We barely know them!"

Nami gave a mischievous smile. "Well, if you don't want us to help…"

"Double D, we can't afford to pay them anything!"

"Don't worry." the orange-haired one said. "We won't charge you currency. All we want is treasure."

"…Treasure?" Mac asked.

"If we don't get some sort of treasure during our trip, then you guys let us keep this 'crystal star.'"

"Nami, is that necessary?" Usopp asked.

"We are pirates, after all." Nami said. "We do nothing unless we get something back."

Luffy gave his huge grin again. "Ok, Nami. Oi, Sock Hat! You accept?"

Double D looked a little reluctant.

"Hold on a second." Double D said. He turned around and looked at his group of four.

"Let's vote." Double D said.

"I say we do it!" Bloo shouted on impulse.

"No way!" Eddy replied. "They're tricking us! Why should we rely on a group that fired at us before!"

"I have to agree with Eddy." Mac said. "We don't know enough about them to trust them yet. I mean, they are pirates. Pirates! They're outlaws, with wanted posters, and bounties, and everything!"

"I'm for going." Goombella stated. "We can trust some pirates, like we did when we were at keelhaul. Not to mention these seem like nice people… even if they are weird."

Double D sighed. "Two votes for, two against. I guess I'm the deciding ballot."

The sock hat walked away from the others, and back towards Straw Hat. They stood there for a couple of seconds, exchanging a serious expression. One leader's eyes piercing into the others.

"We accept your terms." Double D stated.

Luffy's grin returned.

"WHAT?" Eddy shouted.

"Eddy, we have to do this." Double D stated. "They are the only ones we know with a ship." He nodded toward the direction of the Going Merry.

Eddy finally groaned in defeat. "Fine! But when something bad happens, I ain't takin' the blame!"

"We can be quite reliable." Robin said. "You needn't worry."

Eddy growled and folded his arms. He looked toward the girl named Name and gave her a glare. She replied with a simple mischievous wink.

"Oh, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Nami, Chopper, Robin!" Luffy said. "You guys help we get all their supplies onboard right now!"

"Aye!" His crew replied.

Beldam was in a bus, sitting at the window side as it drove down the Arizona country. She was, for some reason, the only person riding the bus. She peered out into the sunset as it crept behind the desert horizon.

"So, young lady." the Bus driver said to the only passenger, who went under the name of Nazz. "…where you headin' to all by your lonesome?"

Beldam looked up. "…I'm going to Peru."

The driver gave a laugh. "Sorry kid, the bus routes don't exactly run all the way down there."

Nazz grumbled a little.

"Kid, I can only bring you down to an Airport down in Mesa." the driver said. "After that, you'll have to take a plane to Peru."

Beldam didn't say anything.

"Look, here it is." the driver said, pulling up to the airport. A few planes flew overhead the area.

The driver stopped the bus in front of the airport, and walked off.

"I'll you'll excuse me for a moment." Beldam said. She jumped off the bus and walk around the back. As soon as she was sure that she was alone, she sighed and leaned against the back of the bus.

In her arm, she held what appeared to be a blue orb, one that matches the same color as the blue stripes on her hat.

"I'm glad I finally got to use this. It's been a very long time since I used this."

Nazz looked into the ball with a very sinister expression. "Those fools won't suspect it coming."

It was about then that were was a ringing tone. Beldam gasped, realizing it was the sound of a cellular phone.

She reached into her pocket, and pulled out a small phone. She flipped it open, and perfectly imitating Nazz's voice, responded: "Hello?"

"…you can drop the act." the voice on the other end said.

Beldam's eyes widened. "It can't possibly be-"

"Believe it." the voice said. "You thought I had died back then, didn't you?"

"I don't get it." Beldam said. "You, of all people! What the heck are you doing here?"

"Well, I wouldn't worry about the details." the voice said. "…but I'm back. You were right 4 years ago, by the way. Groudus was pathetic."

Beldam smirked. "Yeah, he was. He thought he could control the queen. Serves him right that he got killed."

"I suppose… so." the voice said. "…listen. I'm already over at Peru. I'm well aware there's a Crystal Star there."

"Oh?" Beldam asked. "Stay down there. I'll be joining you shortly. I should be able to make it before those heroes. …and no doubt, they'll be slowed down while searching for the rest of the missing team."

"I won't move from here." the voice said. "But if they show up first, I'll beat them, one by one."

"I'd still watch out, though." Beldam stated. "They are very tricky, and they won't hesitate to play rough."

"I know." the voice said. "I learned that after I fought them alongside you, remember?"

"Yes, and they had presumed us both dead… for a while, at least."

"That's our play, then." the voice said. "Won't they be surprised when I ambush them when they come arrive?"

"Well, well… you sound anxious to get started." Beldam said with a smirk. "Don't start without me."

"Yes, boss." the voice said.

Beldam smiled and turned off the phone. "Yes, it's only a matter of time."

Meanwhile, the driver, whom had heard the whole thing from the other side of the bus, reached into his own pocket. He quickly pulled out a phone. "Hello, operator? Get me the Arizona police."

Author's Notes: And that takes care of that. Yes, again, for those of you who don't like the idea, please don't flame, alright. And I know I kind of put a lot of info here. I did it for a reason, though. I hope I get the next one out sooner, but this is what I was able to rummage together this time around. And just a side note, I have a lot of school things going on recently, so I'd ask that nobody rushes me along. I'll get it done when I can, and not a moment sooner. So, please review?