For those wondering why the last chapter lacked a Count the Medals... I honestly forgot during the editing, but I'll add it in after posting this chapter.

My bad.

"Come on Lu! Get your crew out of here!" Ace shouted back at Luffy "I'll hold these guys off!" he said with a grin, before he made another wall of flames behind him.

"Aw, come on Ace! I haven't seen you in 3 years!" Luffy pouted.

"Lu, seriously, not the time." Ace said, shaking his head as if he knew Luffy would say that "I'll catch up with you later, promise, just get going!"

Luffy frowned before he pointed at him "You'd better!" he said, before turning to his crew "Come on guys! Let's go!"

"From the sound of it you know that guy pretty well," Lumen said as they ran.

"Oh yeah, he's my brother," Luffy grinned.

Lumen blinked at that, and he quickly thought back to the pirate helping them, and thought back to Luffy. "...huh, I can kinda see that," he mused.

Luffy grinned, laughing, as they continued to run for the ship.

"Hey, why ARE we heading back anyway?" Usopp asked even as he ran.

"Because we're going to head further in-land by way of the river. There's no need for us to walk THAT much when we can get closer to our destination by way of ship." Vivi informed him.

"Let's raise the anchor then!" Sanji said as he dashed ahead to go do just that.

"Everyone on board!" Zoro shouted as they reached the ship just a few seconds after the cook, who was already pulling up the anchor.

"That means you too Luffy!" Lumen shouted back at the captain as he helped the others get on board.

"Oh, right." Luffy turned back to the ship and pulled himself on quickly.

"Carue, wait." Vivi stopped her duck from getting on, making him turn to her curiously as she held a letter out to him "I need you to go take this to my father in Alubarna. It has all the information on Baroque Works that Igaram and I dug up. You NEED to make sure the first person to see it is my father, alright?" she told him seriously, making him realise how important what she was asking of him was.

Carue snapped his wing into a salute, giving a loud quack.

Vivi smiled, tucking the letter into his pouch "Good luck Carue, and make sure to ration your water."

Carue nodded, and he started running… and he was already drinking his water "I said ration it!" Vivi shouted at him from behind.

"Don't you dare." Lumen said in annoyance as he grabbed the barrel that Luffy had been holding and about to tip over his face.

A few minutes later…

"Your brother?!" everyone (except Lumen) gasped in surprise when Luffy revealed who the pirate that had helped them was.

"Yeah, I had that reaction mentally when he said that. Though...same hair, similar build...wears a similar looking hat. Yeah, I can see the family resemblance," Lumen said with a light chuckle.

Luffy blinked, before laughing "Naw, we're not related. Ace and I drank sake cups together when we were kids. And besides, his hat is just a plain old thing, but I got mine from Shanks."

"You got it from WHO?!" most of the crew asked in shock, except for Lumen, who knew already thanks to his sister making him read the East Blue Saga.

"Oh yeah, you DID mention the sake thing now that I think back." Lumen muttered, vaguely recalling Luffy mentioning the bit about sworn brothers when they were up against the Trump Pirates.

"I got it from Shanks. He gave it to me when he and his crew were stopping by at my village," Luffy grinned at the memory...clearly having no idea why they were so worked up over it.

"...hey Luffy, does the term 'Red Haired Shanks' mean anything to you?" Lumen asked idly.

"Well Shanks has red hair, so I guess they put that for his title," Luffy chuckled, causing a good number of the crew to facepalm.

"He has NO idea who he got the hat from, does he?" Nami asked rhetorically.

"Doesn't look like it, no. Though I'm not surprised since this is him." Lumen sighed, before looking to Luffy "Alright, so Shanks is one of the four strongest Pirates ever, the Four Emperors, along with your brother's captain, Whitebeard, I recognised the mark on his back as we left, Charlotte Linlin, AKA Big Mom, who has over 50 kids, and no Sanji she is NOT a beautiful mature woman, she's an ugly old hag, but she MIGHT have some beautiful daughters." Lumen said, already knowing what Sanji had been about to start a few feet behind him.

"I'll take it!" Sanji said as he spun on himself with his stupid heart eyes.

"Of course you will." Lumen sighed, before continuing "And finally is Kaido. He's the captain of the Beast Pirates, apparently, it's a crew of nothing but Zoan users… and I've heard rumors he has a son." he finished, though nobody noticed that Lumen's eyes got hazy when he said the last part, as if he was staring off in the middle distance.

"Oooh! So Shanks is some super duper strong guy then! No wonder Buggy hated him so much!" Luffy said with a laugh.

"Actually, Buggy hated him because he blames Shanks for making him eat the Chop Chop Fruit." Nami corrected him… not that Luffy paid attention.

"So anyway, your brother is here in the Grand Line, huh?" Zoro mused.

"Yep, Ace left home 3 years before I did," Luffy grinned. "He's aiming for the One Piece too."

"You SURE you're not related? I mean, like Lumen said, you both look similar, you got the same dream, and you both even got Devil Fruits," Usopp blinked.

"I was surprised about that last one too," Luffy laughed. "Ace didn't have a Devil Fruit when he left, and even back then I couldn't beat him."

"Wow...a normal human...however much that means...beat a guy made of rubber," Lumen blinked.

"Yeah, he did. But I've grown stronger. I bet I can beat him now," Luffy grinned...right as a blur jumped out from behind him.

"You…" the blur said, before landing on the rails, pushing Luffy off of it. "Can beat who now?" they said, revealing to be Ace who was crouching on the railing with a shit eating grin.

"Ace!" Luffy shouted with a grin… while he was ass over teakettle.

"Sup." Ace replied with a grin, before he looked at the rest of the crew "So, you're the people he's recruited huh?" he mused as he stepped off the railing, and bowed to them "Thanks for looking after my idiot little brother, he's quite the handful."

"He really is." the crew said as they returned the bow.

"So, what are you doing here?" Luffy asked.

"What am I doing here? Didn't you get my message at Drum Kingdom?" Ace asked...earning a clueless look from Luffy. "Eh, never mind. It's not important," he shrugged. "I'm just glad I met up with you. I've been sailing the seas around here for a little business I have to take care of, and I thought it'd be nice to see you once before sailing off again," he grinned, before his expression became a bit more serious. "Luffy...what d'ya say to joining the Whitebeard Pirates that I'm in? Of course all your friends are welcome too."

"Don't wanna." Luffy refused immediately.

Ace laughed "Yeah, that's what I expected. Just felt the need to ask just in case."

"So the mark on your back's no joke then. You really ARE a member of Whitebeard's crew." Usopp said, some awe in his voice, not that anybody could blame him.

Ace nodded "Yeah. This mark is my pride and honor. He's by far and above the best pirate I've ever known. I want to make HIM the Pirate King, not you, Luffy."

"It's fine, I'll just kick his butt later then." Luffy said with a grin, not at all bothered, while Ace laughed at his reaction.

"If you want to talk, you can come aboard, you know? I can pour you some tea." Sanji offered.

"Nah, it's fine." Ace waved it off "No need to mind me, I'm not gonna be here for too long anyway."

"Hm...there aren't any Marines chasing after us," Nami realized.

"Oh don't worry about them. I took care of them before I came over, used the powers of my Flame Flame Fruit," Ace grinned.

"Wow, he's so reliable. Not like someone else we know who thinks with his stomach," Lumen whispered jokingly to the others, earning several chuckles of amusement, even if some were more subdued than others.

"Geez...talk about bad luck. To think Fire Fist would go around and help Straw Hat," Akira frowned. "No way we're getting them now it seems."

"Can't be helped. Alabasta is a big country, so it's gonna be hard to find them after letting them get away once," Smoker growled. "Damn that Fire Fist…"

As he said that, Tashigi came running towards them with a few more Marines in tow, that group having gotten separated along the way. "If you're wondering where Straw Hat went, he and his crew already escaped," Akira sighed when Tashigi asked the obvious question. "More importantly, they had someone else with them this time around. I'm positive it was Nefertari Vivi," he said.

"You mean Princess Nefertari Vivi?! Why would she be with a bunch of pirates?!" Tashigi asked in shock.

"Your guess is as good as mine Tashigi. Could be her rebelling, could be she's a hostage, who knows really?" Smoker sighed "But… I know I have a bad feeling about this country, with a damn warlord being here."

"Are you referring to Sir Crocodile, captain?" Tashigi blinked. "But as a Shichibukai, he's technically on the same side as the World Government and us marines."

"Keyword: Technically," Akira sighed. "I'm with Smoker on this, at least with regards to the ones like Crocodile. Just cause he's signed himself up to be a Privateer, doesn't mean he's changed his ways. Honestly...people like him...I feel like they might be using us, and not the other way around…"

"Remember this well Tashigi…" Smoker said, taking a drag from his cigars "A pirate will ALWAYS be a pirate."

"Here. I want to give this to you," Ace said, tossing Luffy something, which Luffy caught. "Hang on tight to that, ya hear?"

"A piece of paper?" Luffy said in confusion, looking at the blank sheet of paper.

"Wait… isn't that… a Vivre Card?" Lumen asked, remembering his sister telling him about those.

"So you know of them. That helps," Ace chuckled. "But yeah, it's a Vivre Card. It'll bring us back together in the future."

"How is it gonna do that?" Luffy said in confusion.

"Vivre Cards can, at least I'm told, 'point' towards the person they originally came from. So if we use that we can find Ace anytime. There was also something about it being tied to the life of its original owner now that I think about it…" Lumen explained.

"Yeahp. If it ever gets smaller, it means I'm getting weaker and more hurt. It'll also move towards my location when you put it on something flat, so if you ever need to find me, you can just follow the Vivre Card." Ace clarified...before actually getting a slightly blank look when he saw that Luffy was...trying to make the Vivre Card stick to his hat. Sighing wryly he chuckled. "Having a naive and reckless little brother is stressful to an older brother's heart. I'm sure the rest of you have your hands full trying to take care of him," he said before grinning. "But I hope you'll continue to take care of him well." With that he jumped off the edge and landed on his personal ship...which was honestly barely a ship, and looked more like a motor board of some kind, if Lumen was being honest with himself.

"Wha? You're leaving already?" Luffy asked, clearly a bit disappointed. "Can't you stay a bit longer? It's been so long."

"Sorry Luffy, but I already told you, meeting you here was just an added bonus. I'm currently chasing after someone, and he's apparently taken to calling himself Blackbeard. He used to be part of the Whitebeard Pirates' 2nd Division, so he's one of my subordinates," Ace said.

"Why are you chasing after him?" Vivi asked out of curiosity.

"Simple. He committed the worst crime you can commit on a ship. He killed a fellow crew member and ran away. As the division commander, it's my responsibility to see that he meets his end. If it weren't for something as serious as that, I'd never sail all the way back the other way on the Grand Line," Ace explained.

"No surprise there. You're with Whitebeard meaning you came all the way here from the New World," Lumen sighed...before realizing what he'd just said. "You sailed by yourself from the New World back to Paradise...wow...that's...I have no idea how you people can actually pull that off…"

Ace gave a cheeky grin "Trade secret." With that he finished untying his boat, and looked to Luffy. "Next time we'll meet is when you're at the pirate's 'top'," he grinned, earning one in return from Luffy as he was soon moving away from the Going Merry.

"See ya, Ace!" Luffy shouted and waved, earning a wave in return from Ace.

However as he was going, he noticed the 'barricade' of Baroque Works ships starting to move towards them. "Guess I can do one more favor," Ace chuckled a bit and went full speed ahead towards the ships and jumped off his speedboat, which went underwater, while he flipped over the line of ships, propelling himself by turning his legs into fire, and then landing on his boat when it resurfaced on the other side, his hand held backwards as it turned into flames, before he punched forward with a shout of "Flame Fist!" and a wave of fire burst from his hand, scorching the boats and sending the members of Baroque Works to their watery graves.

"Guys...take notes. That's a pirate that's been to the New World," Lumen said in awe.

The group couldn't help but nod in agreement...and Usopp and Chopper actually WERE taking notes with paper and pencil they got from...somewhere.

A while later, the Going Merry was sailing on the river leading further into Alabasta. Things were going smoothly so far, not that anyone was relaxing. Currently Nami was, at Luffy's request, sewing the Vivre Card from Ace into Luffy's hat so that he wouldn't have to worry about ever losing it.

"There, all done," Nami said, cutting the thread she was using to sew the Vivre Card. "This should keep it secure."

"Good thing those things are only one way," Lumen muttered from where he was watching, idly gaining the morbid image of what would happen if a Vivre Card was like a voodoo doll…

"Thanks Nami!" Luffy grinned, taking back his hat and putting it back on. "Now I won't have to worry about losing it."

"You worry about things?" Usopp muttered incredulously.

"Oh, here Luffy, change into these." Vivi said as she handed Luffy a set of robes, red in color.

"Huh? Why, it's hot out." he asked in confusion even as he took them.

"It's BECAUSE it's hot out Luffy." Lumen said "The temperatures in deserts can reach upwards of 50 degrees during the day, and below freezing in the night. If you don't make sure to cover yourself up correctly, not only can you get severe sunburns, but also freeze to death."

"Then why are the girls dressed like that?" Luffy asked, pointing at Vivi and Nami.

"We just haven't had the chance to put our full robes on yet, but we'll do it as soon as we get the chance." Nami said, and Sanji looked absolutely dismayed the girls were going to cover up.

And then Zoro insulted him about how much of a pervert he was and the two started to brawl again before Lumen kicked them both in the head and onto the railing. "Let's recap the plan," Lumen sighed, deciding it's best if they get the plan straight again.

"Right," Vivi nodded, before unrolling a map. "We're here, sailing on the Sandora River. Our destination is here," she said, pointing to a dot that was marked 'Yuba Oasis'. "We'll exit from the mouth of the Sandora River and then head inland," she explained.

"And the leader of the Rebels is in Yuba, right?" Zoro asked.

"And I just have to kick his ass, right?" Luffy added enthusiastically.

"NOOO!" Vivi shouted in protest at Luffy's words. "I'm going to stop the rebels through words. I don't want any more unnecessary bloodshed!"

"But there's 700 thousand of those rebels. You really think they'll just stop?" Zoro asked.

"Don't forget the very likely Baroque Works operatives mixed in," Lumen added.

Vivi visibly deflated at that one, but quickly regained her determination. "That's very true… but I can't just let Baroque Works continue with it's mad plan! They're going to destroy my country if I don't do anything! Even if I'm walking into the lion' den… I NEED to do this." she said, her gaze hardened like steel.

"Vivi…" Nami said softly, while Usopp remained silent albeit solemnly.

"Good answer," Lumen couldn't help but say.

"Sorry for doubting for even a moment," Zoro grinned a bit, clearly liking her answer.

"Don't worry about the trek. I'll make sure we're all well nourished," Sanji said with a normal grin, showing he was fully serious in this.

"Let's hurry and stop them then!" Chopper said with determination even if he still didn't FULLY understand because well...reindeer.

"Alright, Vivi! Let's go!" Luffy said enthusiastically. "To Upa we go!"

"It's Yuba," everyone deadpanned, that mistake killing the mood a little.

"Okay, to Yuba we go!" Luffy repeated.

"Okay!" everyone responded more enthusiastically this time.

Later that day…

"The operation begins two days from now at 7 AM. Have you finished the necessary preparations?" a voice said.

"Yes, and there are no delays," was the response, revealing to be Ms. All Sunday. "150 'Billions' Agents are awaiting orders at Nanohana," she said. "Though it seems Mr. 3 hasn't contacted us yet for some reason," she answered… with a mysterious smile on her face that screamed 'I know something you don't.'

The person talking to her gave her an aside glance, before turning back, not seeming particularly bothered by her usual behavior. "And the other agents?"

"They should all be gathering at the Spider's Cafe," Ms. All Sunday said simply, earning a nod from the man.

Earlier that day…

"Alright! We're here at Yuba!" Luffy grinned as he beheld...a destroyed and buried in sand town.

"Uh...dude...we literally JUST got off the Going Merry," Lumen said dryly, as true enough, the Going Merry was right at the water edge.

Vivi, now wearing navy blue robes with a hood, couldn't help but chuckle at that one. "Sorry Luffy, but this isn't Yuba. We still have to walk north through the desert for half a day," Vivi explained.

"Half a day?!" Usopp gasped.

"Eh, could be worse," Zoro shrugged.

"For now we're currently at the Green City of Elumalu," Vivi explained.

"Not very green here, huh?" Luffy said, looking around.

"I guess it's not very green anymore," Vivi sighed sadly.

"What that thing?!" Usopp shouted, bringing everyone's attention to him, and hoping out of the water in front of him was… "Is that a turtle? A seal? What the heck?!"

Indeed, the creature looked like a seal of some kind, but wearing a turtle's hardened shell over itself.

"Ah! Usopp, that's a Kung-Fu Dugong! Don't get close to them!" Vivi warned him.

"Uh?" Usopp said dumbly as he had stepped closer to the animal.

And 1.3 seconds later…

"They are… very strong…" Vivi sighed as Usopp's face was beaten and bruised while the Dugong stood victorious over him.

"God you're pathetic." Zoro groaned as he looked at Usopp.

"They're not THAT strong." Lumen said as he clonked a Dugong that had jumped out of the water at him, knocking it to the ground with a goose egg… and from the pile in front of him, this was the… 20th one so far.

"Wait, no! Don't beat them either!" Vivi shouted.

"Why? Are they gonna declare revenge?" Nami, now wearing a white robe, asked in a bit of worry.

"No, but they declare the person who defeated them as their new master." Vivi said as the 20 Dugongs got back up and bowed to Lumen.

Lumen just stared at them for a while, before turning to the others "I am… so sorry."

Nami groaned, face in her hand, but waved it off with her other hand "It was bound to happen one day, I half expected you to fuck up something actually. You had a good track record at least. Welcome to the club now though."

"Thanks...I think…" Lumen sweat dropped.

"Alright! I win too!" Luffy shouted, making them look to him... and see he had his own pile of beaten Dugong in front of him, because of course he did.

"The Dugongs are going to want to follow you now though." Vivi said in concern.

Lumen hummed at that, a hand on his chin as he thought of something, before snapping his fingers and grinning as he crouched down and made the Dugongs all lean in close as he spoke in hushed tones for several minutes, until he suddenly got up and the Dugongs all saluted him and jumped into the water as he dusted his hands off "There we go!"

"What did you do?" Nami asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lumen's grin had a very… troll like nature "Gave them enough information they could mess with Crocodile's scheme."

Nami looked at him for a long moment, before she adopted a similar grin and raised a hand up, which he high-fived "You are VERY evil. I approve." she said with a nod.

"Why thank you." he said with an innocent smile.

"I swear to Goda those two were made for each other." Zoro muttered around his bottle of sake.

Marie blinked when she read that bit. "Would they?" she wondered...before chuckling. "Nah, they couldn't be," she laughed as she put a bookmark on the page she was reading right now. She had to stop first since it was almost dinner time anyway.

Back with the Strawhats, Vivi was busy explaining the situation of the town they were walking through, namely that lately the ocean had been pushing into the river and as a result this town lost its ability to irrigate. From there while they had been managing to maintain the town with water they gathered from the rain...but then the droughts began, and other places save Alubarna had no rain for years. At first it was treated as a miracle until a certain incident…namely the discovery of Dance Powder, a substance that could be used to make rain happen, but at the cost of functionally 'stealing' it from nearby areas. The stuff was apparently intended for the King of Alubarna, thus it was cemented in the minds of the people that the rain in Alubarna was because of the King stealing it from the neighboring towns and cities.

"...yeah, I'm thinking Crocodile was the one using that stuff and those people who 'accidentally' spilled it...that wasn't an accident," Lumen frowned. It was too perfect of a set up.

"Obviously not." Vivi said, kneeling in the sand and holding up a skull, gazing at it sadly "He did all this, just so the people would start to rebel. He started this bloody war by riling up the citizens and making them attack the government." her grip on the skull tightened as her body started shaking "The country's peace, its trust in the King, the rain, people's homes, and even their lives… all of it was taken away by one man. Because Crocodile wanted a kingdom for himself! What gives him a right to do such a thing?!" she was shouting now, and had yet to notice the four sets of feet moving away to one of the ruined buildings "I'll never forgive him for this!"

BOOM

The crew turned, and noticed that Luffy, Usopp, Sanji and Lumen were missing… and that a ruined building had just blown up, before the four of them stepped out of the dust made by the destruction.

"Sorry about that… but we REALLY needed to hit something." Lumen said, shaking his hand a bit.

"Croc's got me even more pissed off now." Luffy added with a nod.

"Can't say I blame you." Nami admitted.

"That was pretty reckless though, don't you think?" Zoro pointed out.

"Eh, don't worry about it moss head. Lumen looked with his hawk vision, nobody for miles except us." Sanji dismissed him as he lit a cigarette.

"So…" Lumen started, going to Vivi and pulling her to her feet before dusting off the sand from her robes and smiling at her "I DO believe we have a country to save now, right? Besides, I still need you to tell me about the stories of OOO you have in your kingdom."

Vivi blinked for a moment, before wiping her eyes and smiling "Right… of course. Thank you, everyone." she said, taking a small breath as her gaze became more determined "We'll put a stop to his plans."

With that the group soon continued onward, their destination: Yuba.

"It's hot…" Luffy groaned as they were now walking through the harsh desert, nothing but sand as far as the eye could see, and up above the sun was ready to bake anyone under its glare alive.

"Well...we ARE in a desert…" Lumen groaned. Truth be told, this was not easy in the slightest. Seriously, those people on TV made it seem so easy...and they weren't exactly having it easy to begin with.

"Could both of you please stop. It's making this harder than it already is…" Nami groaned.

"I'll try," Lumen said. Luffy just kept panting. "How's Chopper doing?"

The group looked back, to see Zoro pulling Chopper who was lying on a makeshift sleigh. Needless to say being from a winter island, Chopper was not handling the heat well.

"How far are we to Yuba?" Usopp groaned.

"I'm afraid we're only a quarter of the way there…" Vivi said apologetically.

"It's so hot…" Luffy groaned again.

"Think of something else," Lumen said, though he was clearly having a hard time following his own advice.

"Think of something else…" Vivi mused. "Perhaps you'd like to hear some of the legends while we walk? It might help take our minds off of the heat," she suggested.

"Anything's better than-" Lumen started.

"It's sooo hot…" Luffy groaned.

"That," Lumen finished in deadpan.

"Alright then," Vivi sweat dropped. "I guess the first legend would be of the Kingdom itself. As you're all aware, the stories of the Multi King are a bit of a boogie man story to many, but to our kingdom that's not true at all. Even if according to the legends, it wouldn't be wrong to call it the Kingdom of Desires, it was said to still be a prosperous Kingdom," she mused before sighing. "Unfortunately other than that it's all a bit like a myth," she warned. "The Kingdom apparently had a 'magic' of some kind, which made it great and powerful."

"Magic? Really?" Sanji couldn't help but ask.

"This myth is very very VERY old," Vivi said, looking a little embarrassed. "I'm just saying the version I was told…"

"It's fine, anything is better than nothing," Lumen said, motioning for her to continue.

"At any rate, the Kingdom had great power, so much so none dared to challenge them, and at one point apparently Alabasta was allied to it. The Multi King was supposed to be based on a notable King of that Kingdom, though I don't know how he ruled. Only that he had a lot of power and treasures, among them a mystical armor that was said to be invincible…" Vivi mused, looking at Lumen.

"OOO," Lumen frowned, taking out the OOO Driver.

Vivi nodded. "The old murals greatly resembled the armor, that's how I recognized the armor. Though...the legend says the King had more than just the armor. It was said that the army was invincible, lead by creatures that were created by the Kingdom's magic. 7 invincible warriors that none could defeat save perhaps the King," Vivi said.

Lumen paused at that, doing a mental headcount "7 warriors… Uva, Kazari, Gamel, Mezool, Ankh… I doubt there was a dinosaur Greeed, even he would know that would be a bad idea… which means… two more?" he said in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Vivi asked him.

"Well, we've already encountered two of his Greeed, I met Uva in Loguetown and then again in Whiskey Peak, and Sanji, Luffy and I met Kazari on Drum when we were getting Nami up the mountain." he said.

"Ah! The guy who looked like Kuro!" Luffy remembered.

"Wait, what?!" Usopp gasped in surprise.

"No, it's not that he looked like Kuro. From what he said, I'm pretty sure he had basically taken over Kuro's body for himself." Lumen reminded him.

"Yeah, he pretty much dumped an exposition on us." Sanji remembered "He said that Uva guy you fought and somebody called Mezool helped him."

Lumen nodded "Right, Uva is the Insect Greeed, Kazari is the feline Greeed, and Mezool is the only female of the bunch, representing the marine animals of killer whale, electric eel and octopus. The other two are Gamel, who represents heavy mammals, specifically rhino, gorilla and elephant, and Ankh, who represents avians, with hawk, peacock and condor."

"Those are the five you knew of already then?" Nami asked.

"Yeah, but if what Vivi's saying is accurate, there's two others that I DON'T know about. It's likely they represent the orange medals and the black medals." Lumen sighed "In which case, their animals are cobra, turtle and crocodile for the first, and scorpion, crab and shrimp for the second."

"How do you know all that?" Vivi couldn't help but ask in surprise.

"Well...the ruins I found the armor in had a chart of sorts carved into the wall. I was so interested in it, I kinda memorized it, though it only had the names of five of the Greeed, so I thought only five of them existed," Lumen quickly said.

"So seven of those guys are running around. If three of them are around, I'll bet all seven of them are out there somewhere," Zoro frowned.

"Question is, where are the other four?" Usopp wondered with a frown.

Unknown to the crew, from several sand dunes away, a figure rose up from the sand, gazing at them with orange reptilian eyes, before getting low again and moving away.

Eventually the group reached a rock formation they were headed towards, listening to Vivi's stories actually helped the group not think of the heat until they reached the rock. "Here we are," Usopp sighed in relief as they felt some shade thanks to the rocks too. That was also when they noticed something else there. Namely the herons that were collapsed on the ground.

"Oh no! They all look hurt!" Chopper exclaimed, about to attend to the birds.

"Ah! Wait Chopper! They aren't!" Vivi said, making him stop as everyone looked to her in confusion "Those are Swindle Herons. They like to trick travellers to steal their luggage, food, and water. So it's highly likely they're just faking it right now."

The crew turned back to the birds at that, now glaring a bit at them, the birds starting to sweat nervously.

"Hey… who wants to eat some roasted heron?" Lumen said with a grin… and he wasn't surprised that Luffy's mouth turned into a waterfall as he eyed the birds more intently now, the herons looking even more nervous.

Realizing they had to run or their goose would be cooked, literally, the herons tried to make a run for it but…

"TAKA! UNAGI! BATTA!"

They promptly found themselves wrapped in the Unagi Whips, cutting their escape attempt short. "Where do you think YOU'RE going?" OOO said, his voice the kind that would make one REALLY want to run away. Too bad for them...they messed with the wrong crew…

"Sanji's cooking is the best!" Luffy grinned as he bit into the roasted heron that Sanji quickly whipped up.

"Of course! Even when I only have the smallest of equipment available, I can make the best damn food you'll ever eat!" Sanji exclaimed as he finished cooking the last of the herons on one of the stones in the area, which was boiling hot because of the blazing sun.

"Serves those birds right too. They want to take advantage of our kindness, well they get to help us instead," Lumen smirked a bit. He did not care much if at all for the type that took advantage of others' kindness.

However, before they could continue to enjoy their meal, they heard the sound of something in the distance. The group turned and saw…

"...that's a camel being chased by a really big lizard and it's headed our way," Lumen said dryly.

"That's a Sandora Monitor Lizard!" Vivi exclaimed in shock at the sight of the giant purple lizard.

"What IS our luck?" Usopp asked incredulously.

"Really good! Hey, Sanji, can you cook that lizard?" Luffy asked excitedly.

Sanji hummed even as he stretched his legs a bit "Yeah, doesn't look to be poisonous at a first glance. I can probably make some nice tasting meat with all the fat it has too."

"So, heron with a side of lizard?" Zoro asked with a smirk as he drew his swords.

"Looks like it." Lumen chuckled as he put in a different set of medals and scanned them.

"SAI! GORILLA! ZOU! SAHGOHZOU… SA-GOH-ZOU!"

"Let's go!" Luffy grinned as the four of them rushed at the lizard, the camel continuing past them.

"Gum Gum…"

"Dragon…"

"Epaule…"

"Bagoon…"

"Whip!/Twister!/Shoot!/Pressure!"

The lizard… stood no chance. It was dead as soon as the four attacks slammed into it.

"I… I kind of feel sorry for that thing." Usopp said after a moment.

"When it's those four teaming up against a single animal? Yeah, I can see why you feel sorry for it." Nami added.

"Wooo! We got a feast!" Luffy grinned as Sanji was busy cooking up the meat from the lizard. Needless to say, they wouldn't be needing to dip into their food supplies for the rest of the trek to Yuba.

"So the lizard aside, what do we do with the camel?" Zoro spoke up.

"Doesn't seem to be a wild camel," Nami mused. "Especially since it already has a saddle on it."

"Think it ran away from someone?" Usopp asked.

"Could be," Lumen shrugged. "Though, does that mean we got some extra transportation then?" he mused, seeing as they left the Ride Vendor on the Merry...mostly because as it turned out, it wasn't designed for desert travel.

"Cool, I wanna-" Luffy grinned as he tried to get on...only for the camel to stop him...by biting him to keep him from getting on. "Agh! What's with this camel?!" Luffy gasped as the camel eventually managed to push him off from his attempt to get on.

The camel made a few sounds, to which Chopper translated. "I'm a harmless camel passing-by. I must thank you for saving my life just now. Although I can give you humans a ride...I'm not the type to give males a ride."

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK JUST SAVED YOUR WORTHLESS ASS BACK THERE!?" Luffy, Zoro and Sanji roared as they started to beat up the camel, while Lumen simply looked at the animal like it was an idiot.

CL-CL-CLONK!

"Idiots." Nami sighed as she rested her staff on her shoulder, the three now sporting bumps on their heads and were down on the sand, before she went up to the camel and started petting his head "Sorry those three morons started hurting you like that." she said, and the camel preened at her touch "There there, good boy. Now, what should we call you?"

"Idiot." Luffy suggested.

"Dumbass." Sanji.

"Retard." Zoro.

"Pervert." Lumen this time.

"I'm going to call him Eyelashes." Nami said, completely ignoring the suggestions.

"Somehow that's the strangest one." Usopp muttered.

"Vivi, get on." Nami said as she patted the other spot on Eyelashes.

"No, I'm fine, I can still walk." Vivi said with a smile.

"Oh just get on." Nami said, rolling her eyes as she pulled the princess on.

Meanwhile, Luffy, Sanji and Zoro had accepted Lumen's name suggestion and kept calling the camel 'Pervert' in the background.

"We should be able to reach Yuba even faster now." Nami said with a smile "Let's go Eyelashes!" she said… and the camel started going at full speed.

"Hey! Wait for us!" the guys shouted after them… before Eyelashes suddenly jerked to a stop… and everyone looked back when they saw a rope was taunt… and Lumen had his foot on one end, while the other was attached to Eyelashes.

"Pretty sure he ran away from somebody trying to sell him if he still has this." he muttered, before catching up to the camel and giving the girls a look "How about you don't leave us in the dust when Vivi is our guide?"

Nami had the decency to look sheepish at that "Uh… oops?" she said with an awkward laugh.

Lumen rolled his eyes with a smirk at that, before grabbing onto the reins and walking along, while the other guys quickly caught up.

With that, their trek through the desert continued along a BIT faster than before, especially since they had more food that they could eat along the road.

They did have a FEW issues along the way though.

Like Luffy eating a hallucinogenic cactus, having to drag him along after Chopper tranquilized him, running away from some kind of giant desert frog that had teeth, getting stuck in a sandstorm, and then kicking Luffy's ass when he finally woke up.

Eventually, night fell.

"It's freezing." Usopp shivered as they walked.

"Like I said earlier, below zero temperatures." Lumen reminded him.

"Good thing we got fully covering robes." Zoro muttered "We got SOME protection from the wind."

"Hey, I think I see something in the distance." Sanji pointed.

"Are we at Yuba?" Chopper wondered.

"I can't see shit with all this sand in my face." Luffy said as he spat out some sand that got in his mouth.

"Wait… what's that rumbling sound?" Nami wondered, everyone pausing as they heard a strange rumble like noise.

"... something's wrong." Vivi said, her eyes filled with worry "We need to hurry!"

And there's the second chapter for you all! Hope you enjoy!

Count The Medals:

Red: Taka

Green: Kuwagata, Kamakiri, Batta

Yellow: Lion, Tora, Cheetah

Grey: Sai, Gorilla, Zou

Blue: Unagi

Orange: Kame

Purple: Tyranno