Ok, ok, ok, let me just get some things out of the way.
Yes another story but...it's not what you think. Me and a friend of mine, won't name him so you won't try and harass him, talked to me a bit ago about the number of stories I have. Look, I love writing and have always defended how much I have but...I'll admit I got a problem with writing things an impulse without thinking them through 100%. I don't regret anything I did but I do admit it can be quite the problem sometimes so I'm gonna try and fix that.
From here on out a number of my stories are going on hiatus, not cancelled, and might update the if I just get the urge to work on them but from now on only three of my stories as well as this one are gonna take high priority. And I'm making this story because it's a story me and my friend Qazse have been working on for the last few years and one of the stories going on hiatus is one of our stories. I didn't want to feel like I was betraying him or anything so hear this is.
So go ahead, bitch and moan all you want about it whether it's full putting my other stories on hiatus or making another one, looking at you Cecilio, but I don't care.
This is the way I'm gonna go about things from here on out and that's final.
Anyway this is another story I've been really hyped to do ever since I both rewatched Avatar when it become available on Netflix as well as when I started watching One Piece thanks to my friend Petrus getting me into it.
Me and Qazse thought long and hard about how to make this work and I'm sure you guys are gonna enjoy this. So sit back and enjoy the cruise!
Water
Earth
Fire
Air
These are the four nations that made up a large amount of the world. All was peaceful between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. All thanks to the Avatar. The master of all four elements. But that peace disappeared when the fire nation attacked.
Only the Avatar could stop them but when the world needed him most…he vanished.
100 years have passed and the fire nation is nearing victory and are close to controlling all four nations.
The last Avatar was from the Fire Nation itself, and the next Avatar should have been born as an Air Nomad…but a new Avatar never appeared.
Now many people have lost hope and believed that in time, the Fire Nation would conquer all four nations for themselves.
But while the war was going on between the nations…territory outside of the four nations, known as neutral territory, was experiencing an age of its own.
An age of Pirates. And it all started with one man.
Wealth, fame, power. Goldrodger the king of the pirates obtained this and everything else the world had to offer. His dying words drove countless souls to the seas.
"You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place! Now you just have to find it."
These words lured many men both in and out of the nations to the water and to everywhere on earth in pursuit of dreams even greater than they imagined!
This was known as the great pirate era!
A world filled with both war and treasure hungry pirates littered all over.
And one day a great journey was started that would shift both of these events greatly and tell a story no one would ever forget.
The winds and waters were thankfully calm today on the big ocean blue. In one of the coldest regions of the world, the south pole, glaciers and pieces of ice drifted lazily through the water and things seemed peaceful…but among these glaciers was something that stood out…and not in the good way. A great big metal ship sailed through the water in a perfect straight direction and on this ship…was the logo of the fire nation.
"Are you sure the Avatar will be in a place like this prince Zuko?" The voice of a man asked. Standing on the front of the ship was two people wearing Fire Nation cloths and armor. The man appeared to be on the short pudgier side and had gray hair with a long beard, big side burns, and the hair on his head was done up in a bun. "We have been sailing the southern sea for quite a while and the men are beginning to become restless, and cold,"
"They're firebenders Uncle Iroh," The voice of the one Iroh called Zuko said in an aggressive tone. Zuko was a 16-year-old boy with a very defining feature on him. On the left side of his was a large burn scar that caused his left eye to constantly squint and for him to lack an eyebrow on that side of his face. His black hair was all done up in a long pony tail. "They can handle the cold,"
"All I'm saying is that we can all use some rest," Iroh said in a calm and gentle tone. He knew that his nephew was determined to see his goal through no matter what, but for some reason he has been in a bad mood lately. Well, more of a bad mood then he was usually in. It's possible because it has been almost three years since 'the incident' so that might be it, but still. Iroh could see the stress was getting to Zuko. Doesn't help that they keep running into pirate ships. "If you really want to capture the Avatar you need your rest, I was about to make some tea. Come join me."
"I don't need tea!" Zuko snapped as he glared at his uncle. "I need to find the Avatar! Do what you want but I'm sticking to our main goal." Iroh simply bowed to Zuko before going to get his tea set, as well as maybe one of his games so he could have some fun while they went through the south pole.
"Come on…I almost got it," As Iroh was heading into the ship, he looked to the side to see two of the ships crewmates looking over the ship with one of them using a hook to try and get something. "This is a jackpot!"
"What is a jackpot?" Iroh asked as he walked up to them slightly curious as to what they were talking about.
"We found a barrel of beer!" The other crewmate said as they pointed down at a barrel that was floating in the water. "Must have fallen off a marine or pirate ship! Talk about lucky."
"Bleh, how is that lucky?" Iroh shook his head at this. Beer. How anyone could drink that stuff and even enjoy it was beyond him. "Why would you want that poison when we have plenty of tea on board?"
"Because we'd like something to help us take the edge off." The crewmate with the hook said as he finally managed to grab the barrel. He started pulling it up while noting how heavy it seemed to me. It must be filled to the brim with beer! "We've been sailing through these waters for weeks and haven't seen anything other then ice and snow, this might help us tolerate it a little bit."
"Do as you wish," Iroh didn't want any part of bringing the devils nectar aboard and just got back to doing what he was doing. "I'll be inside preparing a real drink." As Iroh went inside the ship, he passed by another crew mate that was wearing a helmet, hiding their face. The only thing that could be seen through it was a pair of brown eyes.
It also seemed like the armor was too big for them but Iroh didn't really notice.
Things seemed to go on as normal for the next hour. Just Zuko's crew patrolling the ship as Zuko and a few others kept look out for anything note worthy as Iroh brought a tea set and tile game onto the deck of the ship. However as they were sailing, the lookout who was perched on the highest point of the ship noticed something. He aimed his telescope at a nearby glacier and it seemed normal, but something seemed…off. He kept his eye on the glacier for a few more seconds…and noticed another ship coming out from behind it.
But not just any ship…a pirate ship.
"PIRATES!" The lookout yelled as loudly as he could, practically getting the attention of everyone on the ship as he pointed towards the direction of the incoming ship. "THERE'S A PIRATE SHIP COMING!"
"You've gotta be kidding me," Zuko growled out before looking in the direction the look out was pointing. Sure enough there was a wooden pirate ship sailing nearby with its flag showing the jolly roger only with the skull turned to the side with a heart on the center of it. "Can't go a single week without running into these bastards. Ready your battle stations! Everyone!"
Everyone on the ship then felt as cannon balls were shot at them. All of them thankfully missed but the explosions they caused after landing in the water shook up the boat greatly. Meanwhile Iroh sighed as he managed to pick up his tea pot before it spilled. "Here we go again."
In another part of the waters of the south pole was another boat. But this one was way smaller, only met for a few people. In this boat was two teenagers. One was a 16-year-old boy and the other was a 15-year-old girl. Both had blue eyes, brown hair, and dark skin. They also wore similar cloths with both having blue coats with white fur trimmings as well as gloves and boots. The girl had her hair in loops on each side of her face and the boy had his in a wolf tail.
As they were going around in the water the boy had a spear ready as he looked down at the water and saw a fish coming close to the surface. "It's not getting away from me this time." The boy said with a grin. Meanwhile the girl wasn't looking at him at all and was looking into the water on her side of the boat. "Watch and learn, Katara. This is how you catch a fish."
However the girl, now known as Katara, briefly looked at her brother before giving him a disinterested look and simply turned her attention back to the water. She saw another fish come her way and formed an idea. Taking a deep breath, Katara removed her gloves before aiming her open hands at the water. Focusing on what she wanted to do, Katara started to move her hands around causing the water in front of her to start and shift around. She grunted a little and puts her full concentration into it and managed to lift a bubble of water out from the ocean with the fish she saw trapped in it. "Sokka look!" Katara told the boy with an excited look. She was actually doing it!
But Sokka wasn't paying attention to her at all as he kept focusing on the fish in front of him. "Sssh! Katara, you're going to scare away the fish." Sokka scolded his sister before licking his lips and aiming his spear at the fish. "Mmmmm, I can already smell it cookin'."
"But Sokka!" Katara spoke up again as she hovered the bubble over their boat so the fish she got would land in the boat with them. "But Sokka I caught one!" However as she continued to move it around, Sokka got ready to strike the fish in his sights. He rose up his spear and ended up piercing the bubble Katara formed with the blunt end of his weapon causing the bubble pop. The water that was gathered up all rained down on Sokka as the fish ended up going over Katara's head and landed back in the water behind her. "Hey!"
Sokka growled a bit in annoyance as he placed his spear down and looked at his sister with an irritated look. "How come every time you played with magic water I get soaked?" Sokka couldn't even begin to count the amount of times Katara got him wet.
Katara scoffed a bit as she crossed her arms. "It's not 'magic' it's waterbending," Katara explained with an annoyed tone. That's right, Katara was a waterbender. Someone with the power to manipulate water to their will. Though Katara has always struggled a bit with her bending. "And it's-"
"Yeah, yeah," Sokka cut Katara off before she could say what he knew she'd say. "An ancient art unique to our culture', blah, blah, blah." Along with getting wet Sokka couldn't count the amount of times Katara explained this to him. "Look I'm just saying that if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."
"You're calling me weird?" Katara asked with a raised brow before smiling smugly. "I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water!"
Sure enough, just like Katara said, Sokka was starring at his reflection in the water with one of his coat sleeves rolled up and flexing his arm. Sokka's grin vanishes as Katara said this and he quickly turns to her with an annoyed look. But suddenly the boat shudders before Sokka could make a witty response causing them both to hold onto the boat to avoid falling off. Looking forward, they saw their canoe was caught in a rapid current which was pulling them through the water at a fast pace and through a jumble of large icebergs.
Sokka tried to paddle the boat to avoid the incoming floating ice chunks. As they went forward they were coming in between two ice bergs that's were coming together. Sokka and Katara gasped as Sokka started paddling forward to gain speed and thankfully he managed to avoid getting him and his sister sandwiched between two icebergs. "Watch out! Go left! Go left!" Katara called out as Sokka continued to try and paddle out of the way.
But eventually a bunch of ice chucks floated their way with two of them coming right up to the boat and, with Sokka and Katara jumping out just in time as the boat was smashed. Katara sighed as she stood up and saw they were among a field of floating pieces of ice before looking down at her brother. "You call that left?" Katara asked with a bit of bitterness in her face.
"You don't like my steering?" Sokka said with his own amount of bitterness as he started to wave his hands around. "Well maybe you should've waterbended us out of the ice,"
Katara growled a bit as she tightened her fist. "So it's my fault?" She didn't even do anything! All she did was tell him to go left!
"I know I should have left you at home!" Sokka yelled as he slumped down a bit. "Leave it to a girl to screw things up!"
This was the last straw for Katara as her face started to morph into one of fury. "You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained…" Katara growled out as she started swinging her arms around while ranting. Not noticing the water shifting around her as well as nearby ice cracking. "Ugh! I'm embarrassed to be related to you!" While Katara didn't notice what was going on around her Sokka sure did and was slowly starting to grow scared. "Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier! I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!
"Katara! Settle down!" Sokka pleaded to his sister before even more happened.
However Katara was too fueled up with rage to calm down as she continued to yell. "NO!" Katara snapped making Sokka flinch. "That's it! I'm done helping you! From now on, you're one you own!" After saying Katara ended up creating a huge wave during her rage that impacted a nearby iceberg causing massive fissures through out it…
Splitting it all in half.
ZUKO'S SHIP
Back on the fire nation ship belonging to Prince Zuko all hell had broken loose. The pirates from the ship were currently at battle with Zuko's men with Zuko and his fellow fire benders trying to ward the pirates of with their firebending. Despite lacking the powers the benders did, the pirates did well in holding their own. "Heh, your fancy flame tricks don't scare us!" One pirate said as he used his sword to block a fire ball. "You might as well give up now in the name of Lady Alvida!"
"In your dreams!" Zuko yelled back as he kicked another pirate in the face, releasing some flames as well that made the pirate going flying into the water. "We've handled plenty of pirates before! You're just another annoyance!"
Meanwhile as the battle was going on, the brown eyed fire nation solider was hiding behind a nearby crate. "Now's my chance…" They whispered to themselves. Removing their helmet they revealed themselves to be an 18-year-old girl with brown eyes and orange hair. She breathed a sigh of relief over finally being able to take off this armor before taking it all off completely. Now wearing just normal cloths, she proceeded to sneak onto the pink pirate ship that ended up raiding the fire nation ship.
Meanwhile there was someone else sneaking onto Zuko's ship from the pirate ship.
"Oh man I hope no one's down there…" A timid voice said as they explored the insides of the ship. Walking into what looked to be the kitchen of the ship was a 16-year-old boy wearing a white coat and glasses with light pink hair. Upon seeing that no one was in the kitchen the boy breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God…" Stepping into the kitchen, he immediately noticed a big barrel in the corner and walked up to it. "Wow, that's a big barrel. Must be filled with beer, maybe if I bring this back the others will be happy at me…or at least not try and kill me…"
Grunting a bit, the boy managed to flip the barrel onto its side and started rolling it towards the door. "Well if it isn't our favorite coward," But before he could roll it out three of the pirates from the ship he was on came in and block his way out. "Ducking out on the action again huh Coby?"
"N-No way!" Coby denied while waving his hands around. "I was just trying to get this big barrel of beer over to you guys!"
The fat pirate laughed a bit and actually seemed to be pleased with this find. "Well why not let us lighten your load," He said as he flipped the barrel upright.
"I was just starting to get thirsty," The tall pirate of the group said with a smirk.
"W-Wait you can't!" Coby yelled with a terrified look on his face. "Lady Alvida will kill us if she ever found out!"
"She won't if you keep your trap shut," A pirate with a tattoo over his eye said with a sick grin. "Right? Boy?"
"R-Right…" Coby immediately starting backing away. Knowing that arguing them on his would result in his ass being handed to him. "S-Sure…"
"Here, I'll open this the old fashioned way." The fat pirate then cracked his knuckles as he stood in front of the barrel. Tightening his fist, he rose it above the barrel so he could pop the lip open with his brute strength.
And just as he was about to slam his fist down…
SMASH!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" A loud scream was heard has something smashed through the barrel on the inside, a fist meeting the fat pirates chin and sending him flying.
"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
"SLEEEEEEEEEEPT!"
"SOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"GREEEEEEEEEEAT!"
Bursting out of the barrel and knocking the fat pirate out in the process appeared to be a young 17-year-old boy with black shaggy hair and round black eyes. He also appeared to have a small scar underneath his left eye that had two stitches in it. His outfit consisted of a red vest with yellow buttons and blue shorts. Finally, on top of his head was a straw hat with a red band around it.
The two standing pirates and Coby looked at the straw hat boy with shocked looks and dropped jaws. He just knocked out their comrade with a stray punch and burst out of the barrel like it was nothing! Meanwhile the straw hat boy just looked at the two pirates in front of him with a confused look. "Who the hell are you guys?" He asked with a confused tone and simple expression.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" The two pirates yelled back at the straw hat boy.
"Your friend will catch a cold sleeping like that," He said as he stepped out of the barrel, not acknowledging the pirates question at all.
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO KNOCKED HIM OUT!" They yelled at the straw hat boy before the pirate with the eye tattoo brought his sword out and pointed it at Luffy.
"Hold up!" The pirate yelled before Luffy could walk away. "You messing with us when you know good and well that we're vicious pirates?! Huh?!"
"I'm starving," The straw hat boy told Coby, who was looking up at him with fear. "You got any food?"
"We're talking to you!" The tall pirate said as he brought out his sword as well. Both pirates rose up their swords and aimed them right at the straw hat boy with the intent on ripping him to shreds. "You damn kid!"
"Die!" And as they swing their sword-
CLANG!
Coby covered his eyes to avoid the bloody sight…but he heard no screams of pain or anything that sounded like swords cutting into something. All of his instincts told him not too, but Coby uncovered his eyes and saw something that truly stunned him. The straw hat boy was fine, and the two pirates were looking at him in fear with their swords broken in half. "What's up with you two?" The straw hat boy asked the two pirates with a raised brow.
"Wh-Who are you?" The tall pirated stuttered, fear in his voice.
"Me? Oh!" The boy chuckled, realizing that he never introduced himself. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! Hi! Heheheheh,"
Right introducing himself, the two pirates grabbed their unconscious friend and proceeded to run away, leaving the straw hat boy now known as Luffy and Coby in the kitchen. "So…what just happened?" Coby asked after seeing something he'd never thought he'd see. Two things actually, the pirates being bested and retreating.
"Ya got me," Luffy simply shrugged in response.
Coby then quickly grasp, realizing what's going to happen next. "Quick! You've got to run!" Coby told Luffy in a panicked voice. "If those guy's come back with their buddies, then they'll kill you on the spot!"
"I don't care abut that," Luffy said with a big grin. "I'm hungry!"
Coby just gasped and looked at Luffy in disbelief. Was food really the only thing on his mind right now?! "How could you just blow this off like that?!" Coby spoke to Luffy like he was crazy and he obvious was! "There are tons of them up on deck and they're waiting for the opportunity to kill anything! Not to mention there are also fire nation soldiers on board too because this is one of their ships!" But Luffy didn't listen as he started to head towards a pair of doors inside the kitchen with Coby trying to pull him away. "Hey! You're going the wrong way!"
But Coby's efforts did little to slow Luffy down as the boy kicked up the doors and Luffy gasped happily at what he saw. "Alright! Food!" He finally got Coby off him as he looked around and saw boxes and barrels full of things from various food items to "It's a goldmine in here!"
Coby sighed in relief at seeing neither any pirates or fire nation soldiers in here. "Who knows, maybe we'll be safe in here," Coby whispered as he quietly closed the door. "As long as no one else gets hungry,"
"This box looks promising!" Luffy said as he grabbed and opened up a random box and saw it was filled to the brim with shiny red fruit. "Apples! Excellent!"
Coby watched as Luffy immediately began to munch down on the juicy apples, stuffing them whole into his mouth. "Uh, hey, so my name's Coby. You're Luffy right?" Coby asked as he climbed down to where Luffy was. "That was pretty neat when you jumped out of that barrel back there.
"These are great!" Luffy commented with his mouth full of apples. "So you said this is a fire nation ship right?"
"Uh-huh, yeah." Coby nodded his head. "The pirate ship on saw it and decided to raid it. They always thing these places are worth stealing from. And the pirates on board are under the command of Lady Alvida."
"I don't care about any of that," Luffy stated as he just continued to eat without much of a care in the world. "What I wanna know is if there are any boats on board."
"I think there are a few," Coby did think he saw a few life boats attached to the ship they were on when he was getting on it.
"Great!" Luffy grinned after hearing that. "Cause mine got sucked into some big whirlpool,"
"The one outside?" Coby gasped in response. He saw that whirlpool earlier and the pirates he was traveling with made sure to avoid it. It was big and strong enough to tear apart nearby glaciers. "No way! No one could have survived that!"
"Hehehe," But all Luffy did was grin as he faced Coby. "Yeah I gotta say it was a big surprise!" Coby only laughed nervously in response. "So are you one of the pirates or one of the fire guys?"
Coby sighed as he looked down, deciding to explain his situation to Luffy. "It was on a faithful day, long ago." Coby began with Luffy continuing to chow down. "I lived outside the four nations and decided to board a fishing boat to catch my dinner. Turned out that particular boat was actually heading towards a pirate ship. That was two years ago. In exchange for them letting me live I'm forced to live the life of a cabin boy."
"…You're pretty stupid you know that," Luffy told Coby extremely bluntly as he finally finished the entire box of apples.
"Gee thanks for your honesty…" Coby lowered his head in response to Luffy's hard words.
"If you hate it then leave," Luffy didn't get it. If Coby really hated being with them then he should just leave them and do something he likes. It's as simple as that!
"Are you kidding?! I can't do that! No way! Nu-uh! Not a chance!" Coby yelled as he started to shake his head back and forth rapidly. "Just the idea of Alvida finding me scares me so bad I wanna throw up!"
"You're a moron and a coward!" Luffy insulted the younger boy as he smiled and laughed at Coby's expense. "I hate people like you! Hahahahaha!"
Meanwhile up on the deck of the ship the battle between the pirates and Zuko and his men was still going on. Zuko's crew of firebenders were doing well to hold the pirates off but the pirates were relentless and just seemed to get back up every time they were knocked down. "HEEEEEEYYYY!" A loud deep female voice yelled out, getting the attention of everyone on the fire nation shipping. "WHAT'S TAKING YOU ALL SO LONG TO RAID THIS SHIP!"
"Oh no…" One of the pirates shivered in fear.
"We kept her waiting too long…" Another one of the pirates gulped.
THUD!
Landing on Zuko's boat with enough force to shake the entire ship was an incredibly large, fat, and rather ugly lady. Holding a giant metal spiked club over her shoulder was the captain of the pirate ship attacking Zuko's ship and the woman Coby feared more than anything in the world, Lady Alvida. "Don't you know it's a bad idea to make me wait?!" Alivda yelled as her men flinched while Zuko and his men glared at the new intruder with Iroh flinching at her due to her appearance. "Or am I gonna need to beat some sense into you all!?" She then slammed her club onto the ground, making the ship shake once again.
"Hey!" Zuko yelled, glaring daggers at the large woman. "Just who do you think you are, having you and your crew invading my ship?!"
"Who am I?" Alvida questioned the scarred boy with a smirk on her large lips. "Well I'll tell you little boy. I happen to be the beautiful of all pirates on these seas! Lady Alvida!"
"Do not correct her," Iroh whispered to Zuko. "The truth will surely enrage her,"
"Well quite frankly I don't care who you are!" Zuko yelled at Alvida as he took a fighting stance. "Get off my ship now or face the consequences! Or do you not know who I am?!"
"Heh, ha! Hahahahaha! Yeah, I know who you are!" Alvida grinned cruelly as she slammed her club down on the ground again. "You're a dead man! That's who you are!" But just as it seemed Prince Zuko and Lady Alvida were going to fight-
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Screams were heard and Alvida turned her attention to the two pirates Luffy met earlier with their fat buddy still unconscious. "Captain! This is bad!"
"Yeah?" Alvida questioned with an irritated look. Just then she was about to put this fire boy in his place these idiots had to barge in on the scenes. "Then out with it!"
"It came from inside the barrel!" The tall pirate said with a scared tone.
"Such a horrible monster!" The eye tattoo pirate followed up with.
Alvida seemed to misunderstood what she gave the two an enraged look. "Who are you…" Alvida then threw her club right at the two. "Calling a monster?!" The two managed to dodge the club but this ended up with the unconscious fat pirate getting hit with the force of the hit causing him to go flying into the distance and for the club to bounce off his head and raise up to the sky and eventually fall onto the heads of the two other pirates.
"Looks like I was right," Iroh commented as Zuko merely rolled his eyes.
"We weren't…..talking about you…..m'lady…." The tall pirate said as he struggled to stay conscious after the blow. "Some guy was hiding in a barrel! He could be a bounty hunter!"
"What?!" Alvida gasped out.
Back in the food storage, Coby and Luffy were still sitting around and simply talking. "You're right…" Coby admitted to Luffy with a sad smile. "If I had the courage…I could drift alone in a barrel and actually be rid of these pirates. I actually have my own dreams and some day I'd like to live out all of them." Coby then looked up at Luffy and asked a question that just entered his mind. "What about you Luffy? What was it that first got you to set sail on these seas?"
"Hm?" Luffy hummed before grinning and telling Coby his dream.
"Well, I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"
In an instant Coby felt his entire body freeze. His jaw dropped to the point where it nearly hit the floor and he starred at Luffy in complete disbelief. "The king…" Coby could barely get the words out.
"Yep." Luffy nodded.
"Are you serious?" Coby asked to make absolute sure he heard Luffy right and that he wasn't kidding.
"Yeah," Luffy nodded once again.
"But…But that would mean that you're a pirate too!" Coby thought Luffy was either some bounty hunter, or just some random explorer...or just some idiot going around the south pole. Not a pirate like the ones forcing him to be their slave!
"That's right?" Luffy nodded a third time.
"And…your crew?" Coby feared even more pirates would end up showing up.
"Don't have one yet, but I'm looking for em!" Luffy explained while still having his simple smile. "That's actually why I came to the south pole. I'm gonna recruit a waterbender for my crew!" Luffy then noticed Coby's shocked expression and waved a hand in front of his face to see if he was still conscious or something.
After this Coby stood up and looked down at Luffy like he was absolutely insane. "King of the Pirates is a title given to one who obtains everything this world has to offer!" Coby yelled out as Luffy simply looked up at him. "You're about seeking the treasure of wealth, fame, and power!"
"The treasure that you seek is the One Piece!"
"Yeah!" Luffy grinned like it wasn't the biggest deal in the world. But everyone who wasn't living under a rock knew what the One Piece was. All the treasure in the world gathered up into one piece, hence its name. Only the one who has this treasure can call themselves King of the Pirates.
"Yeah?! That's it?!" Coby continued yelling, not understanding how Luffy can be so…so…care free about this! Searching for the One Piece was easily the most dangerous thing someone could attempt to do. "Pirates from all over the world are looking for that treasure ya know!"
"Yeah? So?" Luffy didn't seem to care about that. He was simply dead set on achieving his goals.
"No way! It's impossible, impossible, impossible!" Coby shook his head rapidly again. "There's no way anyone like you could reach the pinnacle during this great pirate rage! There's just too many out there that are meaner and better! Not to mention the 100 year war going on between the four nations meaning that fire nation troops are also all over the place and willing to kill anyone that goes against them!"
WHAM!
Coby's rant was then cunt off as Luffy punched him right in the head. "Ow…" Coby groaned out as he rubbed his now sore head. "Why did you hit me?"
"Cause I felt like it," Luffy said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He was starting to get tired of Coby's yelling and his negativity.
"Oh well…" Coby sighed with a small smile. He's taken worse hits then that anyway. "I'm used to that stuff…my shipmates smack me around a lot. All the time really."
"It's not about if I can," Luffy stated as he put a hand to his hat. Coby looked up at him as Luffy took off his straw hat and looked at it fondly. "I'm doing cause I want to. I decided long ago that I'm gonna be King of the Pirates. If I have to die fighting for that…then I die."
Coby looked up at Luffy silently as he put his straw hat back on. Luffy was aware of the danger that the hunt for the One Piece had but…he didn't care. He wanted to be King of the Pirates even if it mean dying for it. How could anyone be so fearless?
Luffy then grinned as he slapped his belly and started heading to the exit of the food storage. "Welp, now that my belly's full I'm gonna go get me a new boat." Luffy said as he climbed up the ladder leading to the door. "Maybe they'll just give me one if I ask nice enough, maybe the Fire Nation are full of generous people."
"I guess I never thought of it like that…" Coby whispered as he looked down at the floor deep in thought, Luffy's words repeating in his head. "If I put my mind to it, if I'm prepared to die for it, could I do something like that?"
"Like what?" Luffy asked as he stopped in front of the door and looked down at Coby.
"Do you think I could join the marines?" Coby asked Luffy with a small amount of hope in his voice. He never dare mentioned this to the pirates he was with but…this thought never left his head for the two years he was with them.
"Yes! Catching bad guys is the only thing I ever wanted to do!" Coby yelled out as he stood up and rose his fist in the air, feeling more invigorated then he has been in his entire life. "It's been my dream since I was a child! Do you think I could do it!"
"How should I know that?" Luffy asked with a laugh. Not like it was his dream or anything.
"Then I'm gonna do it!" Coby was even surprised at himself for shouting this. But…it felt good. Really good! He almost felt like he could do anything! "I'm not gonna be stuck as a cabin boy for the rest of my life! I'll break out then I'll turn right around and Ill catch Alvida myself!"
CRASH!
Right after Coby finished saying that, the roof of the storage room suddenly collapsed. "Who is that you plan on catching Coby?" Coby found his blood running cold and his body freezing as he heard the voice of the woman he fear speak to him, her shadow appearing in the dust cloud that was created. "And you actually think this twig is gonna help you? Well? Answer me!"
When the dust cleared, it revealed Lady Alvida had some burns on her skin and cloths as well as some scorch marks on her club. "Hey! Get back here!" Zuko yelled as he looked down at the hole that was created in his ship and growled. "You'll pay for damaging my ship!"
Meanwhile Luffy just looked at everyone around him. He first looked at Alvida, and then up at Zuko, and as he was looking around he noticed some banging on the door behind him. Meanwhile Alvida just grinned as she looked at Luffy. "My guess is that you're not Zoro, the pirate hunter." Alvida was almost worried there for a second, but no way this pipsqueak with a straw hat was any real threat.
"Zoro?" Luffy repeated with interest.
"Coby!" Alvida yelled causing Coby to flinch as he shook like a shivering chihuahua-monkey. "Who is the most beautiful person in all the seas?"
"W-Wait…" Coby stuttered heavily as he tried not pee his pants. "I-I k-know this i-it's-"
"Hey Coby whose the fat lady?" Luffy bluntly asked as he pointed at Alvida.
"…" Everyone in Alvida's crew froze as soon as Luffy said that, looking at him in disbelief.
"Oh dear…" Iroh muttered as he took a few steps back.
"Ahahahahah!" Zuko suddenly broke out laughing along with a few of his troops.
"And what's up with Scar Face up there?" Luffy then pointed up at Zuko, now making him and his crew freeze.
"What did you just call me?!" Zuko yelled at the straw hat boy with tick marks appearing on his head.
But it seemed Alvida was even angrier then Zuko has she audibly gritted her teeth and rose her club up. "YOU…RUNT!" Alvida yelled as she tried to smash Luffy with her club only for him to jump out of the way making her only smash apart the area he was on.
Coby narrowed dodged out of the way himself as Luffy landed next to him and grabbed the younger boy. "Let's get out of here!" Luffy grinned and before Coby could respond Luffy jumped clean out of the food storage and landed on the deck of Zuko's ship.
"Someone stop him!" Zuko yelled as he pointed at Luffy. "I don't want anymore stowaways on my ship!"
Luffy merely grinned as he ducked under a pirates sword swing and headed butted them in the face. One of the Fire Nation troops then created a fire ball in his hand and charged towards Luffy but the straw hat boy easily turned around and punched him in the face and sent him flying. A group of pirates then tried to rush Luffy and swing all of their swords at him at once but he simply jumped up to avoid them. "Missed me!" Luffy said with a large smile on his face.
After he landed, he heard a yell behind him and stepped out of the way of a pirate that tried to jump him. "Hey! It's not fair to attack from behind!" Luffy told the pirate before picking him up by his face and throwing him into a group of his fellow pirates. Luffy then looked forward and saw a large number of Zuko's crew charging at them while creating fire too throw at him. "Ah! It's even more unfair to gang up on a guy!"
As Luffy ran away from the fire benders, he passed by a pole on Zuko's ship and grabbed onto it and kept running. As he ran everyone from both sides saw something that stunned them silent. Luffy's arm started stretching out! Almost like it was made of rubber, Luffy stretched his arm out to impossible lengths as he kept running forward. "What?!" Zuko shouted as he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing anything.
Iroh also starred in shock as well as he muttered one word. "Devil fruit…" The old fire bender muttered as he looked at Luffy's stretched out arm. He's heard the legends and rumors, but he didn't believe he would actually get a chance to see it.
"Devil fruit?" Zuko over heard what his uncle said and turned to him in interest. "What are you talking about uncle?"
"See for yourself," Iroh said as he locked his eyes onto Luffy.
"Gum-Gum…" Luffy began shouting as he grinned as he reached the end of the ship. "Rocket!" Luffy then jumped up and his body rocketed towards the soldiers that were chasing him and even after hitting Zuko's men Luffy kept going and took down even more Fire Nation soldiers and pirates while Zuko, Alvida, and Coby starred in disbelief.
Luffy nodded to himself after seeing all the downed pirates and fire soldiers as Coby walked up to him. "Luffy…" Coby began with a frightened but also amazed voice. "What are you?"
"Oh," Luffy laughed as he grabbed his cheek and pulled on it, stretching it out like he did his arm. "I'm a rubber man!"
"So…you're made of rubber…" Coby asked before seeing a large shadow looming over him. Knowing instantly who it was, Coby whelped and stood behind Luffy.
"So, you've eaten up the devil fruit?" Alvida asked with a bit on interest in his voice.
"Yeah," Luffy nodded as he let go of his cheek. "I'm at the Gum-Gum one."
"Ah, I heard rumors of the devil fruit but I didn't think they actually existed," One of the most famous stories on the sea was of the devil fruit. There was countless stories about all kinds but until today Alvida failed to see them for himself. "You're more skilled then the average deck swabber. Are you a bounty hunter?"
"I'm a pirate." Luffy corrected.
"A pirate?" Alvida scoffed and smirked. "All by yourself in these waters? Even in nation waters danger lurks around every corner!"
"I don't have my crew today but I'll just find them tomorrow!" Luffy said with optimism practically leaking out of his voice. "Or next week or something. And I need about…ten guys, yeah around that or something."
"Ha!" Alvida had to admit this boy was amusing. It'll be fun showing him his place. "So tell me, if we're both pirates and we're bearing different flags then that would make us enemies. Am I right?"
Coby immediately began shivering in fear after she said this. "Luffy…" Coby whispered as he shook in place. "Let's get outta here…"
"Huh? Why?" Luffy asked with a raised brow.
"You saw how powerful her club was," Coby said, not wanting to see his new friend get hurt. "And of all the villainous cheats in all these waters she's the most…" But Coby soon cut himself off as he looked Luffy in the eye and remembered the words he shared with him just minutes ago. Going about your dream fearlessly, no matter what.
"Go on," Alvida smirked in amusement. "Tell me…"
"You…you…" Coby gritted his teeth. It was no or never…he had to make his choice. "You're…THE UGLIEST THING ON THE SEA!" Coby yelled as loud as he could, his voice echoing throughout the nearby area. Alvida's crew, the ones still standing, all dropped their jaws at Coby's words as Luffy started laughing loudly. Even Zuko and Iroh seemed to be amused by this with the prince smirking and Iroh rubbing his beard with a smile. "I'm gonna leave you and join the Marines! And then I'm gonna spend the rest of my life beating up dirty pirates like you!"
"Do you have any clue what you're saying to me…" Alvida growled through her teeth.
"Of course I do! And I'm gonna do it!" Coby continued to yell right at Alvida's face. "I'm gonna do what I want and no ones gonna stop me! And when I join the Marines I'm gonna join them! And I'm gonna catch your lousy ass first!"
"Well that boy certainly has a lot of spirit," Iroh he continued to stroke his beard.
"YOU'RE DEAD!" Alvida yelled as she rose her club with the intent of squashing Coby like a fly.
'NO REGRETS! NO REGRETS!' Kobi mentally yelled as he braced for his incoming death. 'I DID IT! I SAID WHAT I WANTED TO AND FOUGHT FOR MY DREAM!'
"Well said!" Luffy grinned as he got right in front of Coby…and took the blow for him. Coby gasped in horror as he saw Luffy get struck right in the head. Alvida grinned, thinking she killed Luffy…only to see him smirk. "That won't work. I'M RUBBER!" Luffy then slinged his arm up and causing Alvida's club to go flying out of her hand as Luffy's arm stretched out all the way past the back of Zuko's ship.
"Gum-Gum…" Luffy grinned as he arm come rocketing back, aimed with at Alvida. "PISTOL!" With tremendous force, Luffy struck Alvida in the gut with enough force to send the giant fat woman flying through the air at high speeds. Everyone nearby watched in disbelief as Luffy's arm retracted back to him. The straw hat boy then glanced at the pirates and causing them all to flinch as the boy who easily took out their captain stared them down. "Hey, get a boat and give it to Coby. He's gonna join the Marines and you're not gonna stop him,"
Coby silently gasped before smiling at Luffy. "Thanks Luffy," Coby couldn't begin to thank Luffy for all he did for him today.
"Excuse me," Iroh spoke up to the two boys, getting their attention. Iroh gave them a kind smile before gesturing to one of the life boats on his nephews ship. "You are free to take one of our boats if you wish."
"What?!" Zuko didn't agree to this at all and glared at Iroh. "What are you doing uncle?!"
"What?" Iroh simply shrugged innocently. "You said you wanted them off your ship,"
"Wow really?" Luffy grinned as he grabbed Coby's arm and ran towards the life boat Iroh gestured too. "Thanks old guy!"
"Hey," Iroh let out, taking a bit of offense to that before pouting a little. "I'm not that old,"
As soon as Luffy and Coby hopped into the fire nation life boat, Luffy detached it from the main ship causing Coby to scream as the boat fell down and created a large splash as it landed in the freezing water of the south pole. "So, where are we going now?" Coby asked as he sat down after the boat stopped shaking.
"Well first I wanna go to the southern water tribe and look for a waterbender for my crew," Luffy explained as he started paddling the boat away from Zuko's ship. "And then we can get back to neutral territory so you can join the Marines and-"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
But cutting Luffy off was an incredible sight. In the distance, a large blue beacon of light shot up into the sky. Both boys starred at the light for a few moments until it eventually disappeared. "Woah…" Coby let out with a stunned look. "What was that?"
"No idea," Luffy said before breaking out in a large grin. "It might be a waterbender! Come on let's go check it out!"
"W-Wait!" Coby yelled, but it was no use as Luffy started paddling in the direction of the light. Missing the orange haired girl making off in one of the pirates life boats and sailing away with a bag of loot she stole.
Zuko also saw the light and had his eyes locked on where it occurred. "That's no waterbender…it's what I've been after for so long," Zuko muttered, having overheard Luffy. "Everyone! Repair the ship and head towards that light right away!" Zuko then stepped up to one of the pirates still on his ship. "And you pirates…" Zuko kicked out of the pirates in the face and shot out flames from his foot sending him flying back to his ship. "Get off my ship!"
"L-Let's get out of here!" The pirates yelled as they all rushed back to the ship and get the hell away from here.
Katara and Sokka were completely blinded at the moment. What started as Katara yelling at her brother for his sexist comments turned to her accidentally splitting an entire iceberg in half in her rage. But they soon saw another ice berg rise up from under the water to take its place. But this ice berg wasn't like the countless others that flooded the south pole. This ice berg had someone frozen inside.
Upon seeing someone frozen in the ice Katara and, with reluctance, Sokka began to break open the ice to try and free whoever was in side. Once the ice was busted open something mysterious happened, a bright beacon of blue light shot up high into the sky. It could probably be seen for miles due to how intense it was.
After a few moments the light finally faded and Katara and Sokka were able to look up to see just who it was trapped in the ice. Standing on top of the now broken glacier appeared to be a boy no older then 12-years-old. He was completely bald and seemed to have a blue arrow on his head and had matching arrows on the back of his hands as well. He appeared to be wearing a long-sleeved yellow shirt with a loose orange shawl, brown pants, and tall red boots.
As this boy stood on the ice berg, he looked down at the water tribe siblings with Sokka being quick to point his spear at him. "Stop!" Sokka yelled as he put himself in front of his sister protectively.
But after a few sense seconds, the boy suddenly collapsed. Falling off the part of the ice berg was on and landing in the snow on the level that Katara and Sokka. Katara gasped and immediately went to check on the boy. Meanwhile Sokka took another approach and used the blunt end of his spear to poke his head, much to Katara's annoyance. "Would you stop!" Katara yelled as she swatted the spear away.
Katara turned the boy to face her and he seemed to stir while in her eyes. He opened up his dark brown eyes to look into her own blue ones and started speaking. "I need to ask you something…" He said in a weak and tired voice.
"Yeah?" Katara asked, relieved to see this boy was alive. "What is it?"
The boy was silent as he looked up at Katara…and suddenly broke out into a huge grin. "Would you go penguin sledding with me?!" His voice now sounded loud and full of energy. In an instant it seemed that nothing was wrong with him.
Katara was taken aback by this and gave the boy a strange look. "Uh, sure?" He wasn't acting like someone who was just frozen in ice.
Katara then helped the boy up onto his feet and suddenly he looked around confused as he looked at all the ice and water around him. "What happened?" Everything seemed fuzzy to him at the moment but he was sure he wasn't surrounded by ice and ocean earlier…right? "What's going on?"
"That's what I wanna know!" Sokka yelled as he eyed Aang suspiciously while pointing the sharp end of his spear at him. "Why aren't you frozen in the ice?" No one should be able to survive being frozen solid, there was something weird about this kid.
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYY!" Before the boy could response they all heard shouting from the distance.
"LUFFY SLOW DOWN!" Another higher pitched voice yelled out.
The three kids on the iceberg heard the sound of rapid paddling. And it just seemed to get louder by the second. Looking in the direction of the noise all three of their eyes widened as they saw a small boat being paddled at an impossible pace by someone with a straw hat along with a light pink haired kid looking like he was holding on for dear life. The three could barely react as-
CRASH!
"AAAAAAHHH!" Coby yelled as Luffy crashed their boat right into the ice berg. The impact caused Coby to fly right out of the boat and towards the three already on the iceberg making them duck outta the way with Coby landing face first into a pile of snow with only his legs sticking out.
"Alright!" Luffy cheered as he jumped out of the boat and onto the iceberg. This had to be the place where the light occurred! And there was people here to boot! One of them must be a water bender! "We made it!"
"Yaaaaay…" Coby let out, his voice muffled by the snow he was buried.
Katara eyed the new comers in surprise as Sokka rose his spear up at them and glared while the arrowed headed boy simply rose a brow. "Who are these people?" The boy asked as he turned to Katara and Sokka. "Friends of yours?"
"No, they aren't." Sokka stated as he glared at Luffy and pointed his spear at him. "Who are you?! And why are you here?!"
Luffy however didn't address the question as he looked at the three in front of him. "So hey are any of you from the water tribe?" Luffy asked in his usual straight forward way.
"I'm not," The boy explained as he gestured to himself before gesturing to Katara and Sokka. "I think these two are though, ya know because of the coats and all,"
"Sweet! My names Luffy!" Luffy grinned and introduced himself as he ran up to Katara and Sokka. Sokka immiedately made his sister get behind him again as he pointed his spear at Luffy but the rubber man didn't seem intimidated at all. "So are any of you a waterbender? I'm looking for one!"
"…Why?" Katara immediately took a step back after Luffy asked that. The last time someone asked for a waterbender around here…Katara doesn't like to think about it.
"Hey are you ok?" As this exchange was happening, the arrow headed boy went over to Coby and pulled him out of the snow. "You went pretty fast there,"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Coby said as he dusted all the snow off himself before wiping his glasses clean of the powder. "I've been through w-worst, and at least I had a soft landing. My names Coby by the way,"
"I'm Aang," The boy now known as Aang gave Coby a friendly introduction before looking at Luffy. "Nice to meet you. So is he your friend?"
"Y-Yeah I guess y-you could say that," Coby certainly hoped Luffy considered him a friend. Coby did after Luffy saved him from Alvida. "So what are you three doing out here in the middle of nowhere, you don't even have a boat."
"Well I don't really know myself really," Aang sheepishly admitted as he scratched his head. "But that girl said she'd go penguin sledding with me! And I don't really need a boat since I got Appa! Wait a second…Appa!"
Suddenly everyone's attention was drawn to Aang as he jumped up onto the upper part of the glacier and looked down at the other part of it and smiled in relief. "Appa! Are you all right?" Everyone watched as Aang jumped down off the upper part of the ice berg. "Wake up buddy!"
Everyone grew curious and walked to where Aang was and needless to say most of them were shocked. "AAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Coby yelled out in fear as he immediately backed up with Sokka and Katara's eyes widening and Luffy grinning widely. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?"
"This is Appa!" Aang introduced as he patted the head of Appa. Appa was revealed to everyone to be an gigantic six legged bison-like creature with white fur and brown fur making up an arrow-shaped mark on its head. Appa appeared to be asleep so Aang tried to get him to wake up, first by opening up one of Appa's eyes and then Aang tried to lift up Appa's head. This finally got a reaction out of Appa as the beast started to stir and his mouth opened up with his giant tongue licking Aang, causing the boy to laugh. "Hahaha! You're ok!"
"Woah, good find Aang!" Luffy complimented as drool started to leak out of his mouth as he looked over the giant bison. "This thing should keep us fed for at least two weeks!"
After hearing that Aang immediately got defensive and stood in front of Appa with his arms out and glaring at Luffy. "Don't even think about it! Appa's not food!" Aang yelled as Appa simply let out a deep grunt. "He's my best friend and my flying bison!"
"A-A flying bison?" Coby repeated as he dared to step forward a bit. He's heard about flying bison before but he's never seen one before.
"Right…" Sokka rolled his eyes as he looked at Appa. There was no way Appa could fly, he was absolutely huge, heavy, and didn't even have wings! "And this is Katara, my flying sister."
As Katara gave her brother a deadpanned look Luffy looked at Katara with amazement. "No way!" Luffy yelled out with a huge smile. "Your sister can fly!?"
"….What?" Katara said after a moment of registering what Luffy said. Meanwhile Coby fell down comedically and Sokka just looked at Luffy in disbelief.
"Well it doesn't matter if she can," Aang wasn't affected by Luffy not catching onto Sokka's sarcasm and continued to protect Appa. "You can't eat Aaaaa….aaaaa…..aaaaaaCHOOOOOOO!" Suddenly Aang released a power sneeze. But instead of spraying spit at everyone…he released a giant gust of wind. Aang's sneeze ended up blowing everyone but Luffy back a bit while Aang flew up in air.
As soon as Aang landed and wiped his nose, Katara, Sokka, and Coby looked at Aang in amazement as Luffy simply laughed. "Hahahaha! Wow nice sneeze!" Luffy complimented with a grin.
"Nice sneeze?!" Sokka repeated as he looked at Luffy in disbelief while gesturing to Aang. "He just flew up ten feet!"
"Really?" Aang asked with a raised brow. "It felt higher than that."
Katara starred at Aang for a moment before gasping in realization. It should be impossible but…she was sure of it. "You're an airbender!" After feeling that gust of wind there was no denying it.
"An airbender?" Coby asked with a raised brow and doubtful tone. While with Alvida's he's seen plenty of firebenders as well as a few water and earthbenders but not a single airbender. No one has. "Are you sure?"
"No she's right," Aang smiled and nodded. "I'm an airbender!"
"No way! That's awesome!" Luffy yelled out as he stood in front of Aang looking down at him. "I wanted to find a waterbender but an airbender is pretty cool too! You can join my crew!"
"Crew?" Katara repeated while she and everyone else rose a brow at Luffy. All except Coby who was shaking his head at Luffy, silently telling him not to explain. "What kind of crew?"
"My pirate crew of course!" Luffy revealed with his signature grin, making Coby fall down onto his back as Katara and Sokka gasped. "Having an airbender could be a lot of help!"
"A…A pirate?" Katara repeated as Sokka aimed his spear at Luffy once again, being more aggressive then before. "So wait…you're a pirate?"
"Sure am!" Luffy nodded his head before turning to Aang. "So what do ya say? Wanna join my crew!
"I don't know…" Aang said with a bit of uncertainty, not being nearly as frightened as Katara and Sokka seemed to be. "You're not gonna try and eat Appa are you?"
"You said he was your friend right?" Luffy asked as he looked at the giant bison. Aang nodded his head as Appa yawned before eyeing Luffy. "I'd never eat someone's friend. Even if they look delicious."
"Well…ok then!" Aang smiled and nodded at Luffy who cheered in response. "I have always wondered how I'd look with an eyepatch. Or have a bird on my shoulder that I can feed crackers too!"
"WHY ARE YOU SO CASUAL ABOUT THIS?!" Coby yelled at Aang in disbelief over the boy just agreeing to join Luffy without even concerning himself over what the life of a pirate would be like.
"Now hold on!" Sokka yelled as he poked Luffy with his spear. "You need to leave now! We're not gonna let any pirates near our tribe!"
"Huh, why not?" Luffy asked with a raised brow.
"Sokka, can you just calm down for a few seconds," Katara forced Sokka to lower his spear before stepping up to Luffy. While she was put off by Luffy revealing himself to be a pirate, he didn't seem all that bad. He didn't look anything like the image of pirates she created for herself. "Sorry about him, Sokka's paranoid about, well, pretty much everything. I'm Katara and I'm a waterbender and-"
"You're a waterbender! Sweet!" Luffy then pointed at Katara with an excited expression. "You can join my crew too!"
"N-Now wait," Katara rose her hands to try and get Luffy to slow down. "I never-"
"Don't even think about taking my sister!" Sokka yelled aggressively right into Luffy's face. "She's not joining any sort of pirate crew! Just get out of here!"
"But I need a waterbender for my crew." Luffy told Sokka, not flinching at all as Sokka rose up his weapon again.
"Well I say she's-" Sokka was unable to finish her sentence as.
"EVERYONE BE QUIET!" Katara suddenly snapped, making everyone but Luffy flinch. Her voice echoed throughout and the glacier they were on suddenly shook. Katara took a breath to calm herself down before clapping her hands. "Look, it's getting late. How about we all just go back to the tribe together and get some rest and…I'll decide what to do in the morning."
Luffy nodded as Sokka looked at Katara in disbelief. "Sounds good to me!" Luffy said as he patted his stomach. "I'm getting hungry anyway!"
"But you just ate an entire box of apples earlier!" Coby pointed out loudly.
"Yeah so what?" Luffy asked causing Coby to sweat drop.
"Katara you aren't actually considering this are you?" Sokka looked at Katara like she just grew a second head. First they find someone frozen in a glacier, then they turn out to be alive and an airbender, and then a freaking pirate shows up asking both Aang and Katara to join in his crew! Luffy didn't even ask him and he was a warrior! "You can't be apart of a pirate crew! That's completely insane!"
"…Hey Luffy," Katara spoke up to the rubber man. "Say I do join, would we maybe meet other waterbenders along the way?"
"I dunno," Luffy simply shrugged. How was he supposed to know if they would meet other waterbedners. "Maybe,"
Katara couldn't help but smile at that. While she had to admit the idea of joining a pirate crew was a little crazy…maybe if she did she would end up meeting another waterbender along the way! One that could teach her and actually help hone her skills! She couldn't help but admit that the idea was tempting now. "Think your boats big enough for me, Sokka, and Aang?"
"Forget that," Aang said as he jumped up on top of Appa's head with the help of airbending and grabbed ahold of some reins attached to him. "Me and Appa can give you all a lift."
"We'd love a ride!" Katara said as she and Luffy smiled and immediately hoped on top of Appa. "Thanks!"
"Um, I-I'm not so sure," Coby said with doubt in his voice. But Luffy then reached down and grabbed Coby by his coat and threw him on top of Appa as well causing him to whelp a bit. "Nice…monster…"
"Oh no!" Sokka however backed away, not having any part in this. "I'm not getting on that fluffy six-legged monster!"
"Are you hoping some other kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home?" Katara asked as she put her hands to her hips. "You know, before you freeze to death?" Sokka opened his mouth to argue…but couldn't really find anything to say. He could take Luffy and Coby's boat…but it ended up taking some damage when it crashed into the glacier so no telling if it would stay afloat. So with a sigh of defeat, he climbed on top of Appa as well.
"Okay first time flyers, hold on tight! Appa, yip-yip!" Aang then whips the reins making Appa let out a tired growl in response The beast moves his tail up and down before jumping up in the air and began soaring through the sky…for a few seconds. Appa ended up belly flopping right into the water before swimming through it slowly. Everyone looked at Aang strangely as he tried to get Appa into the air. "Come on, Appa. Yip-yip!"
"Wow, that was truly amazing…" Sokka's voice practically dripped with sarcasm.
"Appa's just a little tired." Aang defended his bison as he patted the giant mammal's head. "Just a little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see,"
"Yeah right," Coby muttered as he leaned back on Appa, deciding to just get comfortable as this was obviously gonna be a long ride. "I'm willing to bet 100,000 berries that this thing can't fly,"
"Hey I know!" Luffy yelled out as he pointed to Katara. "Why don't you just fly us there Katara?"
"…Maybe later," Katara deadpanned at Luffy as Sokka face palmed with Aang just laughing in response. Katara then got a good look at Luffy and blinked a few times as a question came to her find. "Hey Luffy, aren't you cold wearing just that?"
"Huh?" Luffy questioned…before he stood up and started shivering violently while running in circles on top of Appa. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! HOLY CRAP IT'S COLD OUT HERE! I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE!"
"NOW you're feeling cold?!" Katara and Coby yelled at Luffy in unison.
"HOW ARE YOU THIS SLOW?!" Sokka yelled at the straw hat pirate.
Meanwhile Aang just laughed at the sight as he continued his way towards the southern water tribe.
Unaware that this was the start of the greatest journey of all time.
And there we have it folks, the beginning of a grand adventure!
So when it comes to this story me and Qazse did our best to merge both the worlds of One Piece and Avatar together. In this story the Grand Line doesn't exist. Instead all the One Piece locations will be what's known as Neutral Territory, land that's outside of the four elemental nations and are governed by the marines. The neutral nations stay out of the 100 year world and focus on their own territories business and not even Ozai will try conquering those lands since he knows how powerful the marines are.
Berries is the main currency so now copper, silver, or gold pieces. Keep things simple.
And you'll learn more about this combined world as time goes on.
And thank you to Petrus, YellowPikmin88, and of course the co-author Qazse for all going over this chapter. I wanna make this story the best I can to respect both series and make sure it's awesome. So far I think it's going well!
Also just gonna rib this bandaid off now. Don't expect either Aangtara or Zutara in this fic. I don't really like both ships and I plan on do something else for both Aang and Katara. Same goes for One Piece characters don't expect any "canon" ships from them...well...except Usopp and Kaya but she isn't around for long but I wouldn't have him be with anyone else.
Hope you all enjoyed this and make sure to follow, favorite, and leave a review and stay tuned for the next chapter...
"Fire at the South"