Okay so first off, I just wanted to let you all know that the updates will be slower now since school started and... that's about it... enjoy the chapter!
"Alright, everyone, our goal right now is to capture every single one of the Arlong Pirates. But leave Arlong himself to me, got it?" Luffy looked around at everyone, who were currently in a line, listening to every word he said.
"Sir, yes, sir!" They all replied.
Zoro and Nami were standing by the side, watching in amazement at how well Luffy could command the marines.
"Well, who would have thought that idiot over there was fit for Captain?" Zoro asked.
"Definitely not me. And by the way the marines are paying such close attention to him, I would even say he seems like a good one too." Nami replied.
"Now that, that's settled," Luffy continued, "Hardy, think of a good plan." He said bluntly.
Nami and Zoro fell forward.
"I take that back." Nami sighed, "I guess an idiot is still an idiot."
"Right." Hardy immediately said, "Here's the plan. The Arlong Pirates are made of fishmen and as we all know, fishmen are born with superhuman strength. However, before we do anything to them, the safety of the citizens is our top priority."
"Well, at least some of these marines have some decency." Nami noticed, thinking about the marine who was so easily bribed by Arlong.
"And, under no circumstances are we to attack them behind their backs. We are marines, so we will do this with good moral and justice." Hardy continued.
"And at least they have some honour." Zoro added approvingly.
While Hardy described the rest of his plan, Luffy walked up to them with a big grin on his face.
"What the hell are you smiling about?" Zoro asked him.
"I just thought of something important and awesome at the same time." Luffy cheerfully said.
"And... what would that be?" Nami wondered.
"Well... Hardy just said that fishmen have superhuman strength right?" Luffy asked. They both just slowly nodded their heads, wondering where Luffy was going with this.
"So they have to get there strength from somewhere right? You see, I get my strength from food... so if they're that strong, they must have a lot of meat that I can take!" Luffy shouted excitedly.
"Idiot!" Nami and Zoro both yelled, each of them punching him in the head.
"Now that we have our plan-" Hardy was cut off by Luffy.
"Let's go!" He shouted, charging forward. Being the Captain on the ship, all the marines except for Hardy, followed Luffy's lead and ran ahead behind him.
"Can we... really count on him?" Nami asked darkly.
"No need to worry about that." Hardy smiled, walking up to them. "Luffy does that all the time and each time, he always comes back successful... more or less."
"More or less?" Nami gulped.
"Why are you so worried?" Zoro asked, "What can he do in the five minutes that we're not there?"
...
"We better go." Hardy panicked, already running after Luffy. Nami and Zoro followed after him.
Following Nami's directions, they reached Arlong Park, the base of the Arlong Pirates, in record time. However, by the time they got there, they were in for quite a scene.
In the middle of the room, Luffy could be seen holding Arlong in a strangle hold position with an angry look on his face, while the rest of the Arlong Pirates were running around the room with panicked looks on their faces.
A little bit taken aback by what he saw, Hardy quickly regained his senses and roared "LUFFY! What happened to the plan?! What did you do?!"
"Huh? I wasn't listening to your plan." He said bluntly.
Luffy let his grip loosen a little bit before Arlong managed to let out a few words "FOOLS! Stop running around and help me!"
Simultaneously, all the Arlong Pirates stopped running around in their panic and quickly went to help their Captain.
Zoro, being the fight loving person he was, instinctively ran away from Nami and Hardy to attack the pirates. In a matter of seconds, the Arlong Pirates were knocked to the ground, cut up and bleeding, because of Zoro. Fed up by what was happening to him and his crew, Arlong finally broke free of Luffy's grip by smashing him against the wall that was behind them (But since he was a rubberman, it didn't hurt Luffy at all).
"Pathetic!" Arlong snapped, "These are just a bunch of inferior human beings! We, the fishmen, shouldn't have to deal with this!"
Recovering from Zoro's attack, the fishmen pirates slowly got up in a daze and nodded in agreement to what their Captain just said.
Arlong got a cruel smile on his face "Instead, we should have fun and watch human fight with human."
"Huh?" Luffy asked.
"Nezumi!" Arlong called.
A second later, a marine that resembled a rat walked in the room. "What is it, Arlong?" He asked, irritated.
"I'll pay you double the usual amount if you kill these unwanted humans!" He bribed.
"Gladly." The marine named Nezumi smiled smugly at them.
"What the hell?" Zoro muttered.
"So it was true." Hardy frowned, "There really is a marine that was being bribed by a pirate." He spat that last part out in disgust.
"What of it?" He asked, with the same smug expression, "All I have to do is get rid of you all and everything will be just fine. There won't be any evidence and I get more money."
"That's terrible." Luffy glared at him.
"Oh? Who the hell are you to question my actions? Haven't you once in your life been so tempted that you would do anything for money?"
"Shahahahahaha!" Arlong laughed, "That's right! So them how greedy you humans can be! Disgusting. Inferior. Human. Beings." He emphasized each word.
Nezumi didn't seem to mind the insult though, but what he did mind was the laugh that Luffy threw his way. It wasn't his usual 'Shishishi' cheerful kind of laughter though, it was a full on roaring kind; the ones that made you laugh so hard that you're stomach starts hurting while you rolled around on the floor.
"What're you laughing at?!" Nezumi growled, but Luffy was too busy laughing to hear what he said.
Finally fed up with Luffy's reaction, Nezumi stormed over to him and towered above him with a murderous look on his face while Luffy continued to roll around on the floor, laughing. To stop him, Nezumi grabbed a hold of his shoulders and bent down until he was only an inch away from Luffy's face.
"I said, what the hell are you laughing at?!" He hissed at him.
Luffy stopped laughing and looked right in his eyes. "Because you're stupid."
Taken aback by those three simple words, Nezumi let go of Luffy's shoulder's and backed away from him. After realizing he had been insulted, Nezumi quickly stomped his feet back to Luffy, who was getting up from the floor.
"What did you just say?!" He demanded.
"You're stupid." Luffy grinned at him, "Why would you do all of this just for money? If you have to stoop this low just to get rich, you must be stupid!"
"Well, let's see how stupid I am after this!" Nezumi glared at him, then as quick as a rat, he grabbed something from his pocket and threw it at Luffy. Luffy stepped back when it hit him.
"Ouch!" He pouted, "What was that?"
"Specially made rat whiskers." Nezumi smiled smugly at him while holding up a whisker that glinted in the light. But there was something different about it. When Luffy looked closely at it, he could see something purple coming from the tip of it.
"Huh?" He tilted his head to the side.
"So you noticed." Nezumi put on a pair of gloves, "If you haven't realized it yet, this liquid dripping down the side is poison, but not just any poison, this is one of the strongest kind there are. And as long as I'm wearing these special gloves, my hands are safe from any poison that drips down."
"Blah, blah, blah, you talk too much." Luffy complained.
"Oh, just one more thing." Nezumi added.
"What is it now?"
"I've already ordered all of my subordinates to capture that girl who was with you." He informed.
"Like that matters. As long as she's with Hardy and Zoro, she'll be fine." Luffy yawned. "Right, Zoro?" When he didn't get an answer right away, he asked "Hardy?" When he still didn't get an answer, he looked over at them both.
"She's gone!" Hardy panicked, staring at the empty space that Nami was occupying moments before. "Weren't you keeping an eye on her?!" Hardy stared accusingly at Zoro.
"Like hell I have time for that!" Zoro shouted at him, a vein pooping out of his head. "She must have slipped away when Luffy started laughing!"
...
"What?" Luffy shouted, "She's gone!"
"Now you notice?!" Hardy and Zoro shouted at him.
Arlong could be heard laughing at them. "I see how well you humans are handling this. If you need me, I'll be upstairs. Everyone in my crew, follow me." He started to walk away with his crew right behind him.
"No way, Arlong! You're staying here!" Luffy shouted at him. He ran towards him, but Nezumi quickly stepped between them.
"First you have to get through me!"
"Damn it, he's getting away!" Luffy grit his teeth, "Hardy, take care of this guy! Zoro, go find Nami!" And with that, Luffy ran upstairs after Arlong.
Hardy
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, what an irresponsible Captain you got there. I almost feel sorry for you; he left you to deal with me when you have absolutely no chance of beating me." Nezumi announced confidently.
"Really? Because I feel the exact same way with you." Hardy sneered, "You're all talk. You won't be able to last five minutes against me. I feel grateful that my Captain left me to deal with you. I don't know what kind of twisted mind you have, but to us, doing things that you've done is the worst crime a marine can commit."
"It won't matter as long as you're dead." He smiled sadistically.
Zoro
"Damn it, why am I doing this again?" Zoro wondered as he ran around the village looking for Nami. "I don't even see anyone here." He stopped running and decided to think things through. "She would probably be at her house... Let's see, the last time I was here... Her house is this way!" He started running again while using his horrible sense of direction to find Nami's house.
Luffy
"ARRLLOONNGGG!" Luffy roared, "Stop trying to run away from me!"
Running up the stairs, Luffy spotted Arlong and his crew walking towards the end of the hallway. Finding his target, Luffy ran and ran and ran until he ran right into Arlong's hard as metal back.
"Oops!" Luffy exclaimed.
Arlong turned his back towards him and gave him a smug smile "Who said I was trying to run away from you?"
Luffy moved away from his back and completely ignoring his question, said "You're going to pay for what you did to Nami!"
"What I did to Nami? I didn't do anything to Nami!" He laughed. The rest of his crew laughed with him.
"Liar!" Luffy shouted, "You took over her village, took all her money, and now you're trying to take her!"
"If I were you, I would worry more about myself than that girl." Arlong and his crew took a step closer to him.
"What are you talking about? I can handle myself just fine!"
"Are you sure about that? You humans really are stupid! I have you all trapped like cornered mice!" He laughed again.
"Seriously, what are you talking about? It's not like you knew we were coming?" Luffy said that last sentence like a question, realization dawning on him.
"Shahahaha! That's right! We were expecting you to come! We just didn't expect you charging right in and putting me in a strangle hold... But aside from that, we knew you were coming from the very start! Why else would we separate you all?" He asked.
"Hmm? You did that on purpose?"
"Of course! This is why fishmen was, are, and always will be more superior then humans!" Arlong boasted, "First separate the small fries, then separate the higher ranks! We knew exactly what your 'plan' was!"
"Too bad there's no point." Luffy said, picking his nose with his pinky.
"And why's that?" He sneered.
"Because we can handle anything you throw at us!" He shouted as loud as he could, making sure that everyone on the whole island heard him.
Okay, so in case you were wondering, I made Nezumi seem more stronger just to make it more interesting.
And again, the updates will be slower because I have less time to write now and let me know what you think of the chapter in the reviews! Review, review, review and... review. Anyways, until next time, later!