Chapter Two

*"Your stupid dog keeps following me home every night." The young white haired boy glared into the mossy colors glaring right back.

"I told you before. He isn't my dog." The black haired girl threw her arms out in front of her palms up, as though offering something. Advice. "He obviously likes you," she placed her hands on her hips, "why not keep him?"

The boy huffed, "Because I don't want him."

The scruffy dog whined.

The girl glared and bent down to hug the mutt. "You hurt his feelings!"

Irritated, the boy looked away while crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't know why you can't keep him." He muttered darkly. The boy's white head shifted to look at this young girl. He watched as she pulled out a piece of bread and let the dog eat it. 'Yeesh, how much can that dog eat?' With masked affection, he recalled the giant plate of food he had snuck out to feed the hopeless case wagging his tail at the pair of kids. Finally, with a defeated sigh, the boy bent down also and scratched the mutt's floppy ears. "Well, I can't keep him."

Both children sat in silence as they thought of the poor scruffy mutt in front of them. "I know what we could do!" The girl jumped up, causing the boy to fall from his crouch and unto his butt. The dog yelped and jumped around excitedly. Dark hair flew wildly as the girl dashed from the docks of Loguetown, where the boy had found the strange dark haired girl, and ran toward town.

"Wait for me!" The boy shouted as he scrambled into a run, the dog right behind him.

Both kids stopped and leaned on their knees for support as they caught their breath. The stray jumped around them both, obviously up for more of this running game. Taking in a deep breath, the boy with white hair straightened first and looked around to where this crazy girl had taken him. The boy blinked as he realized they were back in the same alley way where they had found the mutt. The crazy girl finally straightened and grinned as she pointed out a small dead end.

"If we can clean out that alley way and find some wood would could probably been a makeshift dog house." She looked at the boy next to her. He just replied with a look that told that he thought she was nuts. Those mossy eyes rolled to briefly greet the clouds. "Look, we both can't take him home. So we can at least build him a home." She bent and patted the dogs' curly brown fur. "And we can bring him food." The girl finished and looked up at the boy expectantly.

The boy shook his head of white hair, "What you do you me 'we'?" The girl glared at him. "You're the one who got me into this entire crazy plot in the first place by being a stupid helpless girl."

Grunt. Thud.

"Take the back!" The girl screamed as she looked down at the boy she tackled to the ground.

"Make me!" The boy shouted right back.*

The big white haired man, now known as Commodore Smoker, paced back and forth on the starboard side of his ship. A line of soldiers stood at attention behind him as he paced, up and down. Up and down. Up and down.

His second in command, Tashigi, saluted the Commodore as she arrived from inside the speeding vessel. She stood in front of the line of Marines. "The Captain's ship will be meeting us soon, Sir."

Smoker cursed under his breath. Of course her ship would catch up to his. It didn't matter that he had ordered the ship to accelerate to full speed. The heads up from HQ had come in when those grisly old bastards had already sent her out to meet his ship. She was already half way to location by the time he heard she was coming. He knew those old farts planned it that way. He'd rather burn in Hell then let anyone take down those pirates but him. The only reason he had even let Hina try was because he knew she wouldn't be able too. It was his job, not hers.

A sharp intake of breathe, "Look, Sir! There is her ship!" Tashigi pointed to her right. And sure enough, on the horizon, a small ship could be seen.

It didn't take long for the small speed ship to catch up, even with the Commodore's ship at full push. It was a pain, but with the ship riding alongside its bigger sister, he had no choice. The ship was ordered to come to a complete stop and once stationary, to help the smaller ships inhabitants' board.

Commodore Smoker stopped pacing and stared at the woman who had boarded his vessel. She wasn't like anything he remembered her being. He blinked as the woman smiled. All he could think of was how she had been, how she had used to look like a string bean. All muscle, cropped hair and a growing figure that wasn't quite filled in yet. But that wasn't the woman in front of him. Of course, about ten years had passed since they had parted ways after completing their training in the Marines.

He absorbed her in. Short blunt heeled boots that tightly hugged her calves. Tight brown riding pants, that hugged her curves that were held up by a black belt. She also had two tanto blades that crossed at her back forming a perfect "X". The short blades straps were wrapped around her narrow waist acting as a corset. She had on a white shirt under that, which cut at the sleeves, leaving her biceps bare. The shirt had a tie at the front of her breasts, which she tied half way up showing a little bit of her lush bosom. She also wore her Captain's jacket as though it were a cape, showing pride of her position. Next he noted her hair. The short coal black mess he had gotten use too had grown into a long thick mane that she tied into a long braid. She had also kept bangs that reached to her jaw but broke from the middle of her face because of her widows' peak. But the one thing he noticed that hadn't changed was the sharp look in her mossy colored eyes.

"Hello Belle." Smoker greeted as smoke left his lips.

"Long time no see, Smoke." Captain Adonna Z. Belle dipped her head in the direction of her old friend and rival.