Stallion of the Line

Ranma's Rumiko's bitch, and I like my main characters to at least have a working brain.

While Mr. 2's character is interesting, his and the other agents' method of speech are horrifying to work with. GAAHHH!

I want to thank Michael for his work on editing this. In particular there were several sections which had more mistakes then the others, and the reading of them was greatly impacted by both the number and size of the mistakes.

Chapter 11: New Rivals and Plans Clashing Together

After Robin had explained Crocodile's real motives, covertly watching Vivi closely for any hint that she knew about the poneglyph, which she didn't, there was a moment of silent contemplation. Most of the crew were worried about the idea of this monster weapon, while Vivi was analyzing all she knew about her country's history, wondering where the poneglyph would be hidden. And more importantly to her, why it would have been hidden in Alabasata at all, but she came up with no real answer.

The silence was broken when Luffy began to speak, his voice sharp and decisive as he put on his captain's voice, as Robin had dubbed it. "So that's what's going on with Croc. For now, though, it doesn't change what we need to do, which is to gather some up to date information. Robin and I will handle that. Zoro, Nami, you're on ship duty with Chopper. Sanji, I'd like you to stock up the ship and grab bags for a cross-desert trip. Vivi and Makino will go with you to grab some local clothing, just in case."

"Oh, I can take care of that too!" Sanji said excitedly, holding up his hand like a schoolboy answering a question in class while Nami nodded vigorously, unwilling to leave the ship unguarded given how much money they had aboard. Zoro simply leaned back against one of the masts and closed his eyes as Sanji continued, "In a desert kingdom, it's got to be dancers' clothes!"

"I don't think so," Makino said primly while the others looked confused, save for Vivi, who was blushing at the idea. "I'll find us all some local disguises; don't worry."

"Good. Also, keep an eye out for any Marine presence. This is a busy port on an island that's a hub for trade, so even if we can't see any Marine ships in sight I'd assume they're around," Luffy ordered. "And we don't need more complications."

Moments later Luffy was in his female form walking beside Nico Robin as they moved through the town. Robin was dressed in the same cowgirl outfit she had worn when she first boarded their ship, while 'Ranko' was in her bounty hunter gear: short cut-off jeans that barely came down to mid-thigh, a T-shirt, and a wide belt. The T-shirt was pale white and was covered by a loose leather vest. A pair of shades coupled with a cowboy hat much like Robin's finished the look off. This way, the two of them looked somewhat like partners.

Soon after leaving the docks the redhead turned to her compatriot, her words almost drowned out by the bazaar that seemed to dominate the street they were on for as far as the eye could see. "So, where do we go from here?"

"There is a small tavern along the main road through the city whose owner is an information broker. He's not part of Baroque Works, but he sells information to all sides in this conflict. He also sells to the Marines, I believe, so he's useful to everyone," Robin replied. "We'll start there unless I see any agents I know in the city. There will certainly still be a few Billions here despite your decapitation of the Millions back there. But searching them out could prove more time consuming than we'd like."

"Works," Luffy said, and the two of them continued through the town, listening in on conversations as they passed. The redhead noticed that while everything seemed peaceful, there were hints that even here people knew that there was something wrong with their country. Kids kept close to parents, strangers like the two of them were watched tensely until they were out of sight, and people seemed wary all the time, like they were waiting for a storm to hit. "People know that there's going to be a final conflict soon, I suppose," Luffy muttered, shaking her head.

"Agreed. Now that they have half the Royal Army on their side the rebels won't wait very long before launching an attack directly at the palace. Despite its defensive position giving it an advantage, the odds would probably be with the attackers in such an event. Could you do the same thing to two clashing armies as you did earlier to the Millions?" Robin asked, probing for information about this Haoshoku ability. Luffy had expanded somewhat on Makino's description earlier, but that hadn't been enough to stave off Robin's curiosity.

"Yeah, if it's needed. I don't like to show off like that, but it's a useful technique to deal with the weaklings, I suppose," Luffy replied.

Robin chuckled. "Only you would consider a world shattering power like that as something to use to get rid of the riffraff."

Luffy laughed too, elbowing Robin in the side lightly. "I call it like I see it." After that the two walked on, looking around and staying silent for the most part, their eyes watching everything around them.

They soon reached the bar that Robin had mentioned. The bartender twitched as he caught sight of Robin, but Luffy barely noticed. Instead, her eyes were resting on the person sitting at the bar in front of the bartender. That worthy was currently sleeping even though he was sitting upright, his next bite halfway towards his mouth, the food still steaming on his fork.

On his back was proudly displayed the mark of the Whitebeard Pirates, a dark purple cross made of bones backing an equally purple smiling skull with white, slanted eyes, teeth and, most importantly, a wide, large, white mustache. The mustache was so large it curved up over the sides of the skull, and it looked sharp along the edges.

Robin saw that mark and stiffened, but was surprised when Luffy moved over, smacking the man upside the head, causing the bartender to shake his head. "That's no way to treat the dead. He must've eaten a sand fruit. They take people like that."

To the bartender's shock the man woke up under Luffy's smack, shaking his head and turning angrily, standing up from his chair. The man was tall, taller than Luffy's male body would be by several inches, making his female form look even more petite than normal. He was also broader in the shoulders and visibly muscled, built more for strength than speed, which was a marked contrast to Luffy's spare but well-defined frame. Being shirtless, his chest was on display, and Robin noted as he turned that the man had decent definition, though not quite up to Luffy's level from what she had seen. On his upper arms he had tattoos, one of which read 'Asce', with the 'S' crossed out. On the other he had the word 'Determination' written out in small but fancy writing.

The man had looked angry as he stood, but that quickly shifted into a happy expression as he saw who had hit him upside the head. "Who the...Luffy!"

Grinning so hard it hurt her face, Luffy raised a hand, clasping the man's in a hard grip. "Yo, Ace!"

The two brothers, or rather one brother and one at the moment sister, stared at one another, and Luffy quickly signaled with a few hand gestures they had come up with years ago that Ace shouldn't comment on her current appearance.

One eyebrow quirking under his hat, Ace nodded a very slight movement up and down, before gesturing the two to come with him over to a nearby booth. "So, what's the scam this time?" he asked in a low voice. His eyes flicked over to Robin, only slightly widening as he seemed to recognize her from her wanted poster, before looking back at Luffy without saying anything.

"Call me sister for now if you have to call me anything," Luffy said with a shrug. "We're playing a bounty hunter team for the moment, since we don't want trouble with any Marines who are in town. We've got enough trouble on this island already."

"That's always disturbing," Ace said, shuddering theatrically as he pointed at Luffy. "Whenever you say I need to call you a sister I can't help but remember the little girl who was so adamant her mind didn't change, then kicked my, Sabo's, and the mountain bandits' asses the first time she had her monthly, screaming like a howler monkey about why the hell she was bleeding down there."

"Oy, that's supposed to be a secret, you ass!" Luffy said, flipping Ace the finger while Robin laughed beside him. "And that was a long time ago, dammit! Now I'm as at home in this body as I'll ever want ta be."

Ace laughed again, looking at Luffy closely. He looked good, or rather, she looked good, Ace amended in his mind. He had been sort of scared that Luffy would change in the intervening years, but it seemed as if he, or rather, she again, hadn't changed very much. Oh, her body had changed quite a bit, something Ace was trying not to notice for the good of his sanity. But the way she sat and Luffy's blue eyes, they hadn't changed.

"So, what brings you here?" Luffy asked. "We heard about you on Drum Island and that you were looking for me, but that's about it. Also, what is up with that Fire Fist thing? That's been bugging me and Makino-nee ever since we heard of it."

"Heh, I'll show you later. And yeah, I wanted to check in on you," Ace replied, leaning back in the booth. "I know you didn't want to start using most of your bag of tricks until you were in the Grand Line, but the rumors flying about the new monster rookie is that he can use Busoshoku?"

"Yeah I used it to kill Arlong, didn't know there were Marines in the area. Bah!" Luffy said with a shrug, downplaying the issue. Her eyes were dark, however, as she contemplated that memory, and she finished simply. "He made my navigator cry."

"Understood," Ace replied, smiling internally. "And in doing that, exceeded my first bounty! But you still have a ways to go before you can catch up with my second bounty. I tripled the amount of my bounty up to 246 million before I hit the Red Line."

"Bah," Luffy said with a laugh, "I'll get there soon enough."

"I also wanted to give you Sabo's greetings." Other people would have said love, but brothers or not, Luffy, Ace, and Sabo were all guys, and bandying the word love around was just not going to happen. "He wanted to come himself, but he didn't have any reason to come back to Paradise, while I did, something completely unconnected with you. And his…duties…keep him busy most of the time."

"Paradise?" Robin asked, taking part in the conversation for the first time.

Ace glanced her way, cocking his head towards her before looking at Luffy, who replied to the unanswered question. "This is Nico Robin, my intelligence officer and archaeologist." Luffy leaned her shoulder against the taller woman's for a second. "We…recently came to that agreement despite the fact that we had been transporting her for a few weeks. I wonder if I should charge her rent for that time now?"

Robin chuckled, bumping her own shoulder against the shorter girl's, but did not look away from Ace. "You were saying?"

"One track mind there," Ace replied with a chuckle, one finger pushing up his hat as he smirked at the older woman. "Paradise? That's the name all of us New World veterans called this half of the Grand Line. We call the second half the New World, because that is where the future is going to be decided one way or the other. If anything important is going to happen, it'll happen there. All the movers and shakers are there, all the powers of the world are represented there, and the only way to Raftel is through the New World.

"The oceans there are so much more chaotic, the islands and the weather and everything! It's literally an entirely different world even from this half of the Grand Line. That's why we call this half Paradise. It's easy going."

Aces eyes had become almost fiery as he spoke about the New World, and he looked at his younger 'sister' with a grin that would have told Robin they were related even if she hadn't known beforehand. "Luffy, I'm sorry. I know I told you I'd help you become Pirate King," he said in a low voice, "but I've decided I'm going to make Whitebeard Pirate King."

Luffy cocked her head thoughtfully to one side, answering in the same low tone. "That's fine. I wasn't planning on asking for your help anyway. But do you really think that Whitebeard wants to be the Pirate King?"

Ace blinked at that, but before he could say anything Robin came back into the conversation. "Look out!" she said, standing up quickly and moving towards another booth, sliding into it. She had been glancing out of one of the nearby windows, a habit that had saved her life several times, and had seen a few individuals dressed in Marine uniforms coming towards the bar.

Pulling her hat down over her face, Robin leaned back as if she was asleep a second before the door opened. In walked the two Marine officers, one of whom Luffy recognized immediately as Smoker. They moved towards the bar, smoking on a cigar and cigarette respectively.

They stopped halfway across the room, seeing a man with the Whitebeard pirate mark sitting there with a young woman neither of them recognized. Glaring at the massive tattoo of the Whitebeard Mark on Ace's back, Hina backed off quickly. She didn't want to cause an incident here for many reasons, primarily because of the bystanders and the rumors about Fire Fist Ace, who both officers, of course, recognized.

But in contrast Smoker marched straight up to the booth, glaring down at both of the individuals there, puffing heavily on his cigar as he growled, "What is the Second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates doing in this country?"

Ace looked up and twisted his body around so that his legs were sticking out of the booth and his back was against the wall, putting his hands behind his head, the picture of cockiness. Luffy had to give Ace about an eight and a half out of ten for the sheer level of cockiness that the pose showed.

"Nothing that concerns the Marines," Ace said with a smile. "I'm not here to fight anyone. I'm not here to make trouble for you, Crocky, or this country. Just here for a drink, a talk, and moving on. Then I met this lovely lady…"

Luffy shuddered, reaching across the table to smack Ace's arm. "Don't even joke, gah!"

Smoker's hard eyes flicked to her, and Luffy shrugged. "I might be a bounty hunter, but I'm not stupid! I figured if I wasn't going to try to fight him, I could ask some questions about Whitebeard I've always wondered about." She cocked her head thoughtfully to one side, her face the picture of confused innocence as she looked at Smoker. "I've heard of you, Smoker, but aren't you supposed to use some kind of large polearm or something? Are you a fist fighter instead? The rumor mill's not usually that far off."

"Bounty hunter?" Hina asked, while Smoker glared at the bounty hunter for reminding him of the loss of his jutte. Ace, on the other hand, glanced at Luffy, whose fingers twitched again in a sign that she would tell him about that later.

Luffy nodded, checking Hina out while Hina did the same to her. Hina was definitely one of the more attractive girls that Luffy had seen, but then again she'd seen a lot of attractive girls since going out to sea. Though seeing her in person makes that whole pinup incident make more sense.

In return, Hina connected the red-haired girl with rumors coming out of East Blue and let her lips twitch into a smile around her cigarette. "Hina intrigued. I've heard of you. Bounty Hunter Ranko, correct? Though I had not heard reports indicating you had entered the Grand Line."

Luffy shrugged. "Stowed away on a pirate ship, then left them as soon as I could after knocking out most of the crew. None of whom had bounties, more's the pity. Eventually made my way here. I'd hoped to find some more partners along the way, but haven't had much luck there. Heard rumors of this guy being in town," Luffy said, reaching over to slap Ace upside the head, a show of courage that made Smoker twitch and Hina chuckle, while Ace simply turned a glare on her. "And decided to see what he was like."

"And if we paid you to help us capture him?" Smoker asked, his glare not moving from Ace's face.

Luffy laughed, while Ace simply grinned like a shark asked to dinner. "You don't have enough money on you, and I'm not willing to get my ass kicked just because of your idiotic excuse for justice. Just because I don't like pirates don't mean I like Marines any better. At least with pirates, they're honest about what they're after most of the time, while you Marines don't care what happens out of your sight so long as you can imagine you're keeping your pretty white coats clean."

Smoker twitched at that, finally turning his glare on her as Ace threw back his head with a laugh. Hina, on the other hand, simply let her lips twitch into a smirk as she crossed her arms. "Hina amused. Little girls should know their strengths and their weaknesses. Bounty hunters should also remember how little love Marines have for them when they mouth off."

In response 'Ranko' glared at her for a moment, then smirked, touching her smaller chest lightly. "No one's ever said I was a quick learner. So how's your back with those things? I bet it's pretty tough to get your troops to see past your tits, or do you have a whip to go with that look to keep 'em in line? Though there you probably run into at least a few that like that kind of thing."

Now it was Hina's turned to glare at Ranko, as it was in fact a sore point for her at times. As a woman she liked knowing that men found her attractive, but there was a limit to that. The idea that most of her own troops followed her because she was a gorgeous woman rather than a competent officer sometimes did irritate her. She flicked her cigarette out to one side, cracking her knuckles. "You want to go?"

Luffy stood up from the booth with a sudden and very dangerous grin lighting her features. "Sure, so long as there's no hard feelings after?"

Hina merely nodded her head, neither she nor Smoker noticing Robin using this moment to escape out the door. Robin glanced back and caught Luffy looking at her for a brief moment with a wink, and Robin chuckled before racing on. Her being seen by the Marines was a complication they didn't need at this point.

While Luffy had winked, Hina's attention had turned back to the two boys as Smoker lashed his fist out at Ace. "I can't ever let you go, so long as you're a pirate, and I'm a Marine!"

In reply to the attack Ace smacked his fist aside, pushing back and then kicking off the wall to roll forward, exiting the booth as the fist suddenly expanded to one side, smoke flying and pushing the fist back towards Ace's head.

As the smoke began to spread, Luffy leaped the other way, putting some distance between herself, Ace, and the two Marines. At the same time and with curse under her breath, Hina leaped forward to join Smoker in attacking Ace. Luffy alighted on the bar, crouching there and watching intently, but not taking part as most of the other bar patrons scrambled for the door.

"Now that's just not fair," Ace said while dodging under an attack from Hina, putting both Marines in front of him for a moment, though he was concentrating on Smoker, whose arms and legs had disappeared into smoke billowing out to either side of him. "I suppose I should respond in kind."

With that Ace's body suddenly turned into flames, forcing Hina to back away with a choked off curse. A second later Ace thrust forward, his fist slamming out as fire jetted towards her.

But Hina dodged to one side, rolling away and distancing herself from what was now a fight outside her abilities.

To one side Luffy smacked a fist into her palm as she continued to watch the fight. "Oh, so that's what that means!"

As Luffy watched, rather amused to be on the sidelines for this, the two combatants began to fight in the center of the room. Logia against Logia fights were rare, but this one seemed destined to be a stalemate. As far as she could tell, the two elements could do some damage to one another, but nothing lasting, certainly nothing that would carry over to the two men's actual forms.

The heat of the conflict quickly drove most of the onlookers out of the bar. As the conflagration began to develop and the air became unbearably hot, the two's attacks burst up out of the top of the restaurant, Ace's fire searing through the wood and even concrete easily. Luffy was about to follow them, figuring she could find Ace after he broke contact with the Marines, when she saw the bartender hiding behind the bar. Shaking her head, Luffy leaned down to offer the man a hand, when several dozen kegs of ale were crushed from above, their contents suddenly spraying the area over the bar with their now warmed up contents.

Luffy had a bare second to realize that she was about to transform before she leaped into action, hurling herself forward and down over the bartender's head, feeling the hot sake hit her, starting the change. One hand lashed out at the wall with desperate energy smashing it open, and Luffy landed, rolling out of the opening this created as he bit back a feeling of pain as he felt his crotch being crushed by the panties Makino had forced her to wear. Method acting my fucking ass!

Whimpering and moaning, Luffy desperately reached under the skirt he had been wearing, pulling off the panties. "God dammit! That is the last time I let Makino talk me into wearing those things." He groaned, moving forward to hide in the corner of the dark alley as the bartender followed him, leaning back as the pain in his crotch slowly began to subside. Above him the spiral of smoke and fire continued to grow.

OOOOOOO

Having left the site of the confrontation behind her, Robin traversed the city's byways quickly, her eyes flicking here and there, watching for secret signs and markers that only Baroque Works agents would know. She found them quicker than she had expected and made her way through a series of back alleys to a small mom-and-pop sort of restaurant set into the basement of a tiny building, a narrow staircase leading down into it, the doorway covered with a purple cloth instead of a solid door.

The purple was a mark that the place was currently in use, and seeing it Robin nodded and entered quickly. Letting the purple cloth fall back into place behind her, she came face-to-face with several Baroque Works Billions pointing guns at her. "Really?" she asked, cocking her head to one side. Before any of them could pull their triggers there was a fluttering of petals, and some force none of them could see smashed their weapons to the floor.

"That is no way to greet a superior," Robin said calmly, moving through the wreckage she had just caused to a specific small booth at the back of the restaurant.

Only a few of the agents hadn't been pointing weapons at Robin. One was in that booth, and he looked up at her fearfully, but also with a trace of arrogance. In front of him sat a Den-Den Mushi, its large body set with a distinctive look Robin had seen hundreds of times before. "The boss wants to talk to you, Ms. All-Sunday," the man said. "We knew you were in the city, so he's been waiting for our call."

Instead of simply turning and running away as the man had obviously thought she would, Robin simply nodded, sitting down across from him with a lazy air. Crossing her legs and leaning back, she smirked at the man. Robin had been playing games like this since she was seven. She knew when to bluff, when to run, and when someone could only make empty threats. "Then please do make the call."

The man gulped, but did so, the other side picking up after only a few rings. "Boss, Mr. 0, sir… She, Ms. All-Sunday…she's here."

The transceiver portion of the Den-Den Mushi spoke with a lazy, arrogant drawl, its tone a deep baritone, oozing authority and power. "Give her the phone."

Robin held out a hand, and the man dropped the other half of the phone into her outstretched palm as if it was a live wire. Chuckling at that, Robin put the transmitter to her mouth. "Mr. 0 I am back, though my welcome was somewhat warmer than I expected despite my being so late."

"You say that after betraying me? Did you think I would not find out? You cost me a valuable tool in Mr. 3 and killed another somewhat less valuable one in Ms. Valentine," Crocodile replied. With each word his voice became deeper until it was a sort of bark almost as if he was biting off the words in his anger.

"I had nothing to do with Mr. 3's defeat," Robin said honestly, though she was somewhat dismayed at this sign that she had been watched. The Unluckies, I suppose? "That was all Roronoa Zoro's fault. I did what I had to in order to keep my cover."

"Do not take me for a fool, Nico Robin! You have betrayed me to this Straw Hat crew. What did they promise you? That they would be able to help you achieve your dream as well as I could? Money? Wealth, security? What did they give you that I could not? I'm honestly curious," Crocodile asked, his voice going back to its controlled growl.

"Friendship," Robin said simply. "And do not use my name. It sounds foul when you say it."

She hadn't noticed that until she had heard her name on Crocodile's lips. But Luffy and the crew had been using Robin's name freely from the moment she was came aboard. When they did there was no disgust, no loathing in their faces or expressions, or even wariness. There was some suspicion, of course, but even then not from all of the crew. That had helped make her feel at home for the first time in a very, very long time, possibly just as much as the character of Luffy and the others had.

"You know they have no chance against me," Crocodile said, his voice matter-of-fact rather than simply arrogant. It was as if he was simply discussing the weather. The very idea that rookies could fight him, could stand against him and his plans, was sheer hubris in his mind, regardless of their captain knowing Haki. "And I don't need you whole to make use of your abilities. Come back now and I might forgive you."

"And now we are down to coarse threats," Robin said, crossing her arms over her chest, one hand propping the communicator in front of her lips. "That's rather predictable."

"Without my aid you know you will never achieve your dream, Nico Robin," Crocodile said, his voice once again becoming angry. "You need me. You need my information just as much as I need your ability to translate the ancient language. You will never achieve your lifelong dream, your obsession, without me!"

"You know what?" Robin said with a chuckle, remembering Luffy's grin in her mind, his acceptance of her and his immediate agreement to her request for help, as well as the power he had displayed. "I rather think I will."

With that she stood up just as there was a loud series of loud snaps and pops all around her, followed by muffled groans which quickly fell silent. "Farewell, Crocodile. I don't know if we'll meet in person before this is all over, but if we do, consider this my resignation." With that she dropped the top of the Den-Den Mushi onto the table and turned, walking through the now dead bodies of the agents all around her.

After leaving the restaurant Robin walked around for a bit, noticing a massive column of smoke and fire rising into the air from the direction she knew the original restaurant she had been in was. My, they're really going at it, aren't they? Interesting to discover that Fire Fist is a rather literal name for Ace rather than some kind of flowery prose. I suppose I should not have assumed that the morons to come up with bounty nicknames had enough poetry in their souls to use such, but even so that is rather disappointing.

Still walking on, she cocked her ears, sometimes conjuring a few around her to overhear conversations, trying to get a determination of the lay of the land without access to the BW network. It sounded as if the remaining Royal Army had begun to fortify the capital, while the rebels had, as she had told Luffy they would, gathered into one single army. Rumor was that they were even now gathering resources for a march across the desert towards the capital city.

Of course, desert marching was slow and ponderous, made worse by the sheer number of people they had to feed and water. But she estimated that it would only be three, perhaps on the outside five days before they reached the capital.

Her musings on this were interrupted as she heard a familiar voice going, "Beautiful, excellent! You look lovely, oh princess of my heart!"

Looking in that direction, she saw Makino standing by a stall talking with a vendor who was looking rather irritated as the other, older woman continuing to shake his head angrily at Makino. Beyond her stood Vivi, looking embarrassed in a rather fetching dancer's uniform, loose flowing silk pants, and tight fitting silk brassiere. She does have a decent body, Robin thought, and the curves to pull that off, I suppose…

Deciding, however, that she didn't want to get involved in what was looking like a confrontation between Sanji and Makino, Robin turned, making her way through the city in a different direction.

OOOOOOO

Luffy recovered from what he ruefully decided to call the damaging of the danglies, moving away from the now badly battered restaurant. He quickly found a quiet alleyway in which to change into his normal clothing, including his straw hat, before heading back to the fight. The jutte he had taken from Smoker, which had been in his hidden weapons space, was now out and openly displayed over one shoulder. Luffy figured that Smoker was here for him, so he might as well take the time to twit the Marine again.

Hopping over the rooftops, Luffy came to the point where the two elemental forces of fire and smoke were still trying to wage war upon one another. He shouted out, "Hey Ace, is that you?" addressing him as if this was the first time they had seen one another in a long while rather than a bare few minutes ago.

Ace turned, summoning up a wall of fire to keep the smoke back even as Smoker retreated into his normal human body, glaring up at where Luffy stood on the rooftops. "Straw Hat! Surrender or else!"

Luffy ignored him for a moment, as did Ace. "Luffy! Been a while! I saw your bounty poster! Not bad, ya beat my own rookie bounty! So, have you found yourself a crew yet?"

The younger boy nodded, and Smoker glared at the two brothers, interrupting before Luffy could speak, his teeth clenched so hard around a series of cigars it was a wonder the words came out at all. "How do you two know one another?"

The two of them looked at Smoker, then pointed at each other saying as one, "He's my brother!"

Then Luffy blinked, a slow, deliberately antagonistic drawl entering his tone as a smirk appeared on his face. "Oh, I didn't see you there, Smoky. Wait, so you couldn't beat the little brother so you tried to fight the bigger one? That's so dumb, manNN!"

At the word 'man', Luffy suddenly flipped forwards while kicking out backwards. He felt his kick deflected or blocked by someone's forearm before he twisted around entirely to face behind him to find Hina standing there. Looking at her, Luffy reflected as always that it was nice to find out that he was able to look someone in the eye in this form. Cocking an eyebrow at the woman, Luffy let his smirk change slightly into a more amused rather than sarcastic form. "You're not even going to introduce yourself before you attack me? I'm hurt."

Hina chuckled lightly, tossing her white cape to one side to stand there in her purple uniform, cocking her hands up in a classic boxer's stance even as she shifted slightly, her legs spreading into a stance Luffy would have thought was taken from Muay Thai back in his old world. "Hina amused. I am Captain Black Cage Hina. Come quietly, pirate, or I will bring you in by force."

Luffy nodded, again acting as if he hadn't seen her before. "Oh yeah. Ji-kure talked about you."

"Crazy grandpa?" Hina asked, circling to one side, forcing Luffy to do the same.

"Hey Luffy, shut up!" Ace shouted before Luffy could blurt out anything he didn't want known.

But at that moment Smoker pushed forward and attacked him again, his smoke form rising over Ace's fire wall.

And while Ace preferred to keep everything about his past hidden, Luffy simply saw no reason to not say he was related to Garp to the Marines. It wasn't like Ji-kure would keep it a secret after all. "Yeah, Ji-kure. Or as the rest o' the world knows him, Monkey D. Garp."

"You're related to that hero of the Marines? Hina skeptical," Hina scoffed. Then she paused, straightening up slightly from her fighting crouch, her curiosity getting the best of her. "What did Garp-san supposedly say about me?"

"That he thought you were too smart for your rank and one of the better up-and-coming tacticians. Mind you, that wasn't all he said about you. The other thing was that you were a damn nuisance due to your effect on his crew. Though I think that was because of that pinup calendar he found that featured you." Luffy half-complimented, half-teased.

Hina scowled angrily, biting down on her cigarette before spitting it to one side. "Stupid calendar! Stupid, stupid photographers! Hina enraged! That has been haunting me for years!"

Luffy shrugged as if it didn't matter to him, which it didn't. "Heh, yeah, the old man nearly had a mutiny on his hands when he, um, confiscated that calendar. Said he didn't care if the men had swag like that about random civvies, but wouldn't let them have one of another officer, though that might have been because of some old fart named Tsura or something who seemed to always scare him when I was younger."

That caused Hina to laugh, shaking her head, her pink hair waving to and fro. "Hina amused. If you ever met Tsura, you would be scared of her too."

"If she scared Ji-kure probably yeah, though this is all sort of beside the point right now, isn't it?" Luffy replied, still smirking. "Or are you not as strong as Gramps said?"

"Why don't we find out!?" Hina shouted, charging forward.

Luffy lashed forward, forcing Hina to dodge a punch before rolling backwards quickly from another slip kick. This pirate is fast! Indeed, for the next few seconds it was all Hina could do to dodge Luffy's assault, slowly getting use to his speed, wary of taking a blow from a pirate she had heard could use Haki. Still, he has no idea about my power…

A moment later she ducked rather than dodged to either side as she had been and Hina activated her power. At her mental command one of Hina's hands morphed into a series of handcuffs as her arm shot upward, clamping down on Luffy's arm and twisting around, pulling Luffy off balance, her other arm coming up in a chop, her power activating as she struck.

Luffy however reacted quickly, pushing up off the roof they were currently fighting on and leaping up and over Hina, forcing her to disengage her arm or have it dragged behind her, possibly twisting it out of its socket. This left Luffy's arm still in the black lock her hand had become.

But to her surprise, Luffy simply slammed his free hand down on the black metal, shattering it with an ease that made her instantly wary of the strength Luffy was hiding in that slim, admittedly attractive body of his. For his part Luffy merely smirked at her. "That's an interesting technique. Let's see what we can do about it!"

Hina growled but rushed forward, unwilling to let Luffy have enough time to analyze her ability or to bring out his Busoshoku. But instead of backing away, Luffy charged to meet her. Damn it! Is he going to use his haki? Hina had tried at one point during training with her power to let a haki-infused punch go through her hand as she activated her power. It hadn't worked, and it had been intensely painful, like being stabbed from the inside.

To her surprise, however, Luffy did something else. A fist flashed for her head so fast there was a faint boom sound, then between one second and the next stopped suddenly, letting the air slam into her with as much force as the physical punch would have conveyed.

She staggered to one side, but Hina was tough and brought her leg up in an attempt to catch Luffy with a knee to the chest. Luffy dodged at the last second, flowing around it in a way that she recognized. Kami-E. Smoker said he could use it, but I didn't see him activate it. That shows a mastery of the technique that I would never have thought a pirate could have. Hina worried now.

Despite that thought though, Hina refused to retreat, her punches and kicks moving faster and faster, activating her own Kami-E and even at one point using Tekkai when she couldn't dodge a blow. Her Kami-E, however, was not as good as Luffy's, and she started to take hits. In return she activated her powers every time she managed to touch Luffy's body, and he had to back away occasionally to break the cages she placed on him.

At these points Hina pushed forward hard. But Luffy was too fast, even with her cages weighing him down. Hina slowly realized that she couldn't win this without breaking out her entire arsenal.

The smile Luffy gave her after one exchange, however, nearly made her stumble. Instead of being smug or even challenging, the smile was happy and excited. "Damn! Okay, so you are as good as Ji-kure thought!" Leaping backwards, Luffy crouched, bringing his hands down to the rooftop before slashing them forward. "But let's see you deal with this!"

From his hands flashed out modified Rankyakus, a sight that caused Hina's eyes to widen. But she gritted her teeth and shouted out, "Tekkai!" Taking the blows, she pushed her arms out to the sides, launching into her own attack. "Awase Baori (Lined Kimono Feather Cage)!" From her arms and hands came a massive cage extending to either side and down and up into the air. She swiftly brought her hands together, attempting to trap Luffy within the cage's environs.

Luffy's attack cut off, and he leaped into the center of the cage she was forming, his hands and arms flashing out. Still, they didn't turn black, the tell-tale sign of Busoshoku. Instead they flashed so fast Hina couldn't track them. There was a sound like ripping air for a moment and the steel of her cage exploded in every direction, the bars coming apart under some massive impact.

Before Hina could do more than stare, Luffy's feet touched down for a brief second before he hurled himself forward. Hina couldn't dodge, her arms still held forward, stuck in her technique. The pain of having the bits of metal connected to her body shattered and her body still being in Tekkai had combined to cause her to seize up. She couldn't even pull out of Tekkai and reactivate her paramecia power in her own body.

The punch this time sounded out again like the attack that had shattered her cage, and Hina flew backwards, blood flying from her mouth as she felt what had to be several hundred impacts on her chest and stomach. She slammed into the ledge of the rooftop, shattering it before falling to the ground, only to feel someone grab her midair. She looked up through watery, pain-filled eyes to stare at the pirate she had been fighting holding her in his arms.

An old, old fear began to rise up in Hina's chest at that, but before it could truly grip her she felt her body being set down on the ground as Luffy ducked to one side, a fist appearing out of a smoky arm going through the air his head had recently inhabited, only the fist being solid enough to hit. An instant later the fist turned, grabbing at the jutte and pulling it off of Luffy's shoulder, only now bringing Hina's attention to the weapon Luffy hadn't bothered to use.

"Hey Smokey, what the hell, man!" Luffy growled before his next words surprised, no, shocked, Hina. Not that the pirate said them, but that, she would later reflect, she believed them. "I was just setting her down; the fights over for her now. I wasn't going to do anything!"

"And it is kind of rude disengaging from our fight like that, Smoker," Ace said calmly, reforming his own body as Smoker did the same, glaring at both pirates. In the distance they could hear the tramp of booted feet coming closer, but neither pirate was concerned about that, instead staring at Smoker.

Smoker didn't bother with words. The sight of Luffy standing over Hina's battered body had pushed any coherent thought out of his mind. He charged forward, his form expanding once again into smoke. The hand with the jutte sliced one way, forcing Ace to dodge as he realized there was something special about the weapon, while Smoker swiftly enclosed Luffy's body in smoke.

But even as the smoke tried to restrain him Luffy leaped up, his legs and arms flashing in every direction, hard Rankyakus crashing out. Smoker's main body appeared as the rest of the smoke dissipated, his body being hurled back by a few of the air blades which crashed into him.

Sighing theatrically, Luffy shook his head, using Soru to jump forward so quickly that to Smoker's wide eyes it appeared as if he had disappeared. Luffy grabbed the jutte out of the air. "It's been what, four weeks, five since we saw each other, Smoker? And you don't seem to have gotten any better. That's kind of sad. I would've thought you'd have come up with something to counter the techniques I used on you the last time at the very least."

Smoker grunted, trying to push to his feet, but the jutte, his own damn jutte, again slammed down onto his head, sending him crashing back to the ground.

"Huh, so you haven't lost a step since the last time we sparred," Ace said conversationally, moving forward to look at Hina closely before glancing over at Luffy. "That air punch thing of yours and the, what do you call it, Thousand Fist or whatever? That fucking hurts when it hits, though I doubt it would do anything to my fire form. Wind might punch through smoke, but fire would simply bend around it." He paused, thinking. "Wouldn't it?"

"Heh, we can maybe check on that later. Right now I ain't interested in dealing with the peons." Luffy pointed down the street as several dozen Marines ran into sight with the familiar form of the sword-wielding Marine girl in the lead. What was her name, Tash something? "Yo, Tash! Ya mind looking after these two for us? We're just gonna go now."

Tashigi nearly tripped at the name 'Tash,' but kept on racing forward, her mind unwilling to admit that if Smoker and Hina had been taken out by the two pirates standing over them that she and her men had scant chance against them. "Stop right there!"

"I'll just take that as a yes," Luffy muttered, turning back to Smoker as Ace leaped up onto the roof Luffy had fought Hina on, waiting there for his younger brother. "So yeah, we're here, though I ain't gonna tell you why. You'll probably find that out on your own. I'd dare ya to try yer luck against me again, Smokey, but if you haven't gotten any better in five weeks, I doubt you'll be worth my time in a bare few days."

Luffy glanced over at Hina. "If it makes ya feel better, ya did better than this guy did. Made me break out more of my tricks, for certain." Hina blinked at that, then felt a smile form on her bleeding lips as Luffy went on. "Actual style and technique beat brute force and logia ability, Smokey. Ya might want think about that before we meet again. Later."

With that Luffy leaped up to join his brother, dodging around a slash from Tashigi as she reached them, Luffy still carrying the jutte.

Hina pushed herself to her feet watching the two pirates race off. "Hina intrigued…and enraged. I know now why you are after this Luffy so fanatically now, Smoker-kun. He does have a way of infuriating you, doesn't he?"

Both through words and through kindness. Leaving a Marine alive like that, showing compassion? That hurts my pride just as much as your attacks hurt my body, Monkey D. Luffy and I swear I will get you back for it!

OOOOOOO

Several dozen rooftops away, Luffy shivered between one jump and the next, his arms going around his body as he nearly lost his balance. Ace steadied him quickly, looking at the younger man quizzically. "What's wrong?"

"Ugh, I think someone just either declared vengeance on me or a rivalry. Not certain which," Luffy scowled.

"Well, we did just kick the crap out of two high ranking Marines. These things should be expected," Ace commiserated. "Hell, it's not like you're the only one with rivals. Let me tell you about the last time I ran into Momonga. He…"

OOOOOOO

As she had expected, Robin was one of the first to return to the ship, followed by Sanji and the two girls. Makino shook her head at the others as they climbed aboard. "Is it just me, or was there a giant column of fire and smoke in the distance there?" She looked around dramatically, then sighed. "And Luffy is nowhere in sight, of course."

"Your instincts are correct," Robin said from where she was leaning against the mainmast. "We ran into his brother Ace, but were then found by the Marines, including one Commodore Smoker. I gathered from what little I overheard before slipping away that Luffy had made an impression on him when you all escaped East Blue."

Zoro chuckled at that, trying to cover up a moment of interest at the idea that a certain sword-wielding Marine might have followed her superior officer in coming after them. "We kicked his ass, along with most of his Marines," he said bluntly. "Before we talk about that or what this Ace guy's like, do you all have anything that we can use to cool down Chopper?"

Beside the swordsman Chopper lay spread out, gasping in air while several compresses of cold seawater were pressed to his head under his hat and on his limbs.

"Yeah, the poor little guy began to suffer the moment we docked. Before that the wind was keeping him relatively cool," Nami elaborated, leaning down to rest a hand on his forehead before teasing him slightly. "I don't suppose there's any way you could take that coat of yours off, is there?"

Chopper moved the compress covering his face just enough to give her the stink eye, and Nami giggled as she stood up. "Yeah, you fit right in with this crew!"

The reindeer boy laughed at that, but leaned back, even that brief movement of levity having taken it out of him. He was a reindeer after all, and reindeer were not often found in deserts. Even with a near constant breeze coming off the ocean the heat was extreme. Worse, everyone knew they would be moving inland soon, and Chopper's suffering would continue.

"I'm sorry, but no. Oh, I found some cosmetics and other things we can use to change our appearance, but in terms of actual disguises I'm afraid that Sanji beat me to it. And…I didn't bring enough money to buy both more actual food supplies and a second set of clothing. My mistake for letting Sanji keep hold of the purse," Makino admitted.

She had assumed that having Sanji do the haggling would be a good thing in most cases, since the majority of the peddlers had been men, and she had seen the chef haggle, he was simply better than her when it came to doing so with men. With women, of course, he had no such ability. "I suppose if we can stay here long enough I can go back, of course."

"I don't think we want to be here when the Millions Luffy knocked out regain what passes for their senses," Nami replied, shaking her head quickly. She reached into the bag that Sanji held out willingly, pulling out what looked at first like a bra or a swimsuit, and then she pulled the rest of the costume out and laughed, turning away to head inside. "I'll be right back."

Zoro pointed at the creature standing beside Sanji. "What's with the camel, Aho-cook?"

"Bah, has that growth on your head sapped your brain, Marimo?" Sanji scoffed one arm sweeping out to encompass the three remaining women on deck. "We are heading out into the desert soon. How can even a bore like you think to even try to force such delicate flowers to march in such an environment?"

Rolling his eyes, Zoro looked at the camel, not liking the look of him for some reason. But before he could say anything Nami returned, and Sanji's jaw dropped as his eyes turned into hearts and he danced around Nami in ecstasy. "Beautiful, gorgeous, angelic Nami-swan!"

Only Zoro noticed the camel's eyes also turning into hearts, albeit smaller ones. Crap, snail-brows found a kindred spirit!

The dancing girl outfit was made of silk much like the one Vivi had been almost forced into, save it had tan leggings and a blue bra in comparison to Vivi's white and pink. The look put Nami's chest on display, pushing her breasts up and out slightly, giving her even more cleavage than normal. It also hugged her hips and put her svelte, trim stomach on display.

"Angelic would not be the word I would choose," Makino said tartly, shaking her head as Nami reveled in Sanji's attention.

Nami smirked at her, running her hands through her hair and thrusting out her chest. "I suppose if you feel you that you're a little too old to pull this off, then you can leave it to me and Vivi."

"Thank you, but no. Once in the town was enough!" Vivi retorted, blushing hotly. She was currently dressed in the same pants Nami was, but she wore a nice, if a little too tight, T-shirt over her bra.

Makino however narrowed her eyes at the younger girl, then thrust out her hand at Sanji commandingly. "Give."

A moment later she returned, and Sanji began to gush blood from his nose, his eyes moving wildly between Nami and Makino, his breath coming out in short gasps. Despite Nami's taunt, Makino was still only in her mid-thirties and had kept in shape her entire life. She had longer legs than Nami, and while her breasts weren't quite as big, her waist was trimmer, her hips slightly more womanly, and she had a six pack, which Nami could not boast.

The green tinted silk pants and bra suit also set off her green hair to good effect, emphasizing her pale skin. "I think the jury rests on whether I can make this look good, if I was so inclined," Makino said, looking at Nami challengingly, who simply grinned back at her. "The problem is Nami-chan that unlike you, I have learned that flaunting everything like this makes it become rather…stale."

That remark caused Nami's eyes to narrow, but their argument was interrupted by two voices coming from the side of the ship nearest the dock speaking as one. "Gah, I so did not want to see that."

The crew, even Chopper, turned to see Luffy and another slightly older young man crouching side by side on the bulwark before hopping down onto the actual deck. "Ace!" Makino shouted, racing forward to pull him into a hug. "It's been years! How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine, or I was until I saw my big sister figure dressed up like a pole dancer," he said, his teeth clenched around the words. "And why exactly are you dressed like that?

"It's all his fault for buying this stuff when my back was turned," Makino said without any hesitation or concern, pointing over her shoulder to Sanji.

That worthy suddenly gulped as both Luffy and Ace turned to him, cracking their knuckles as a dark aura appeared behind them. "Oh ho…. Sanji, we need to talk about boundaries…" Luffy said coldly.

As Sanji flinched away, trying to back away and beg for mercy at the same time, Robin stepped back, now looking at both young men closely. Seeing the two of them like this, it's obvious they're brothers. When he was in his female form that connection was only visible in their smiles.

Despite being at least two years younger, Luffy was only an inch shorter than his brother, but had a far thinner frame. Luffy was built for speed over everything, while Ace was just as heavily muscled as Zoro. But when it came to muscle definition, Luffy had Ace beat. Robin couldn't see a single muscle on Luffy that hadn't been trained to an insane level, which was shown to a most enticing degree on his stomach and sides. Will he keep that definition as he continues to age?

Nami saw the look in her eye and nudged her, looking away from the torture of Sanji for a just a brief moment. "What is it?"

"Oh, just wondering how much Luffy will look like his brother in the future," Robin said musingly, before shaking her head.

By that point the two brothers had finished beating Sanji into submission, and they turned, looking at the rest of the crew. Luffy placed a hand on Ace's broad shoulder, and said formally, "Ladies and gentlemen, my crew one and all, this is my brother, Ace. Apparently he's named Fire Fist because he ate the Mera-Mera no Mi, and he's also Whitebeard's worst division commander."

"Oy, that's second, not worst, you little bastard!" After smacking his brother upside the head, Ace bowed his head respectfully to the rest of his crew. "Hello all. I'm glad my brother was able to build a good crew. I understand you all had a lot of adventures already, including putting up with this one's idea of training?" They all nodded, and Ace shook his head. "You have my sympathies."

"Thank you," said more than one of the group while Luffy chuckled.

This was followed by a round of introductions while the crew also got the ship underway. Robin directed them out of the harbor to the south, moving along Alabasta's shoreline. They were just out of the harbor when Luffy asked, "So, what else brings you to Paradise? You didn't have time to answer before Smokey interrupted us, and I forgot to ask on the walk here. It has to be important since I can't believe you'd want to be away from this Whitebeard guy for long if you want to try making him the Pirate King."

The others frowned at that, looking at the older brother closely, then at Luffy, but saw no irritation or anger there. Shrugging their shoulders, they instead simply listened as Sanji, his wounds now bandaged by Robin under Chopper's direction, came out with some food.

Ace thanked Sanji before taking a sip from his beer, wiping his mouth with his free hand. "That's good stuff. As for why I'm here, I'm after a former crewmate. His name's Blackbeard, and he committed the worst crime a pirate could while aboard ship: he murdered a fellow crewman in cold blood."

Everyone's eyes narrowed at that, but Luffy had the most negative reaction. His blue eyes darkened noticeably as a feeling of cold wafted off him. "That's inexcusable," he said. Even his voice sounded cold, almost emotionless.

Ace quickly reached over smacking Luffy upside the head. "No, no Soul of Ice for you!"

Luffy blinked, coming back to himself, then shook his head. "Erg, sorry."

"Meh, wasn't as bad as the first time you fell into it that first night after your period," Ace replied, chuckling. "Seriously, you traumatized everyone around you when that happened. Twice!"

Luffy pouted while Vivi and Nami looked at Luffy commiseratingly. "See it from this side of things, I dare you."

"No thank you," Ace retorted, his tone saying this was an old exchange between them. "And if I ever meet Ivankov I swear to god I'm going to burn him to ash."

"What was that?" Zoro asked, looking at his Captain intently, the first of the two men to recover from that sort of mind-breaking bombshell as he slotted it neatly into a mental folder marked 'never think of again.' "That felt…weird…"

Nearby Robin had backed away quickly, the first time she had moved from her comfortable position against the mainmast. The cold that Luffy had exhibited for a moment there had almost caused her to have flashbacks to her past when she had seen that bastard Aokiji killing Saul.

"It's a martial arts move, sort of based on a unique ability of haki I kind of invented," Luffy replied, prevaricating slightly. "It's not something I'm going to teach anyone, so don't even ask. It messes up your emotions something fierce, and I normally would never use it except in the direst of circumstances. But that, killing a friend, a nakama, that pissed me off so much I just automatically reached to it to help me control myself."

"Don't ask us how Luffy came up with it. No one can get that story out of him," Ace said with a laugh, leaning back as he gestured at Makino who nodded in agreement. "But yeah, that's why I'm in the area. The man I'm after, Blackbeard, he passed through here recently, though he made so little trouble it was hard to pick up his trail. I guess he didn't feel like trying his luck against Croc, though I don't know what his long term goals are. I've been behind Blackbeard most of the way. My attempt to try and cut off his trail backfired right off the bat, putting me on the back leg. But I've been gaining on the bastard since, so I should be able to catch up to him soon enough. Unless you need my help here? You said something about being here to fight Crocodile."

To everyone's surprise except for Zoro, Luffy shook his head quickly. "No. This is my journey. I don't need my big brother around to help me out when the going gets tough. Unless you've got a beef with Crocodile too, you can head out after Blackbeard now."

"I don't have to be on the trail that quickly," Ace said dryly. "We have time to catch up a bit. And while Croc tried to fight Whitebeard a few years ago, I don't particularly have a beef with him. Whitebeard beat him down by himself so fast it made the prick look like a baby trying to take on a giant."

"That reminds me!" Luffy said, throwing arm around his brother's shoulder and squeezing. "I want a Den-Den Mushi to talk to Whitebeard."

"Are you serious?!" Nami shouted, shaking her head. "He's one of the most powerful men in the world, one of the four Yonkou, and you're just talking about speaking to him like it's an everyday thing!"

"Why do you want to talk to Oyaji?" Ace asked, cutting everyone's response off quickly, not reacting to the orange-haired girl's words. They were true, after all, but also in keeping with Luffy's attitude. He didn't respect positions at all. Luffy respected people and wouldn't even do that until he met them in person.

"I want to thank him for taking you in, of course. You always…" Luffy paused in thought, thinking how to phrase it. "You've always acted as if…as if going out to sea and becoming a pirate was just something you had to do. Yes, it would be fun, but the fun wouldn't be the main reason you wanted to be a pirate, like it was a task or something you had been forced into, and that made you angry. Now, you look calmer, more relaxed. More at home in your own skin, I suppose, is the best way to put it."

Makino nodded agreement, having seen the same thing. "Even when I knew you, you were a little bundle of angry energy," she said dryly. "You're much more…centered now, I suppose."

Ace chuckled, wrapping an arm around Luffy's shoulders in turn and squeezing lightly before pushing the younger man hard enough to send him off the bench they were sitting on with a squawk of surprise. "I suppose what this one, you, and Sabo started, Whitebeard finished. He gave me a home, showed me that that he looked at his crew as family, and…"

He paused before going on, but before he could speak Luffy finished the words for him, grinning up at him from the deck. "That living your life isn't a crime. That you have a right to exist." The two brothers looked at one another, and Ace nodded slowly.

Only Luffy and Sabo knew that secret: the secret of who Ace's real father was, and they all wanted it to stay that way. The horrors the Marines and the World Government had inflicted in their attempt to wipe out the blood of Gol D. Roger: wiping out every child below a certain age, executing every pregnant woman on the island where he had been born, and the number of times his mother and he had been cursed as demon spawn. It had left a mark on Ace, but Sabo and Luffy, and then Makino and finally Whitebeard had slowly expunged the darkness from his soul.

Nearby, Robin's eyes widened in shocked understanding, her face for once showing complete honesty in the pain it conveyed. Thankfully for her, none of the rest of the crew was looking at her at that moment. This let Robin regain control of her features, pushing the memories of the time she had been cursed, called a demon child, and beaten or turned out into the streets back into the recesses of her mind.

"Yeah, that too," Ace replied. "But is that the only reason you want to talk to Whitebeard? Just a thank you? I don't think that's enough a reason to give you my only dedicated connection to Oyaji," Ace said, using the term everyone in Whitebeard's crew used for the mighty Yonkou.

"Nah, not just that," Luffy said with a laugh. "I also just want to talk to him. He's a freaking legend, after all, and that's not all I want to thank him for. Oh, and I want to tell him that I'll be the one to find One Piece."

Every other individual there stared at Luffy when he said that, the sheer balls of even thinking of saying that to Yonkou Whitebeard even over a Den-Den Mushi was beyond belief. Then Zoro began to laugh, and Ace joined along with Sanji a moment later. "Hah, that's my captain! If you didn't have the balls to do something like that I'd have to find another crew!" Zoro shouted between roars of laughter.

Looking at one another, the four women all rolled their eyes, not seeing the appeal of that at all. "Men!"

Luffy reached up, pulling Robin and Vivi down onto the deck to sit with him laughing. "It ain't that at all. It's just, if I'm afraid of shouting my dream for all to hear, even someone like Whitebeard, how the hell am I supposed to become the Pirate King at all?"

Robin rolled her eyes once more and might have made a cutting remark, but something in Luffy's eyes caught her attention, making her look away, her heart racing for some odd reason she could not define. It fell to Nami to attempt to remonstrate with Luffy on his bravado, but everyone could see it fell on deaf ears.

While Ace, Luffy, and Makino continued to talk for the rest of the day, and the crew got to know their captain's brother, they did have other tasks to perform throughout the day as the Resolve continued on its course. The crewmen not on duty at the tiller or up in the sails took turns up front with sounding ropes, not having thought about finding a map to show the shorelines. Nami was with them or on the tiller, a small notepad in hand at times as she made notations, but for now it was somewhat smooth if slow going as they continued to skirt along the shoreline.

At the same time, Makino, Vivi, and Chopper worked on gathering and organizing supplies for a trip across the desert. Chopper had recovered somewhat, but wasn't much help in this, since all he knew about desert travel Vivi knew too, and far more intimately. Instead he helped in constructing hats for those who didn't already have them to keep the sun off, chatting with the camel, who received his own hat in turn.

Seeing that she wasn't needed for anything else, Robin retreated to her normal position on one of the lounge chairs and read quietly, only looking up whenever someone asked her a question or to lend them a hand, a phrase which took on a new, quite literal, meaning in her case. Despite this, she was somehow not surprised to find Ace sitting next to her when she looked up at one point later that evening while Luffy took a turn up front. Cocking an eyebrow at him inquisitively she asked, "Can I help you?"

"I know your name Nico Robin. I know a bit of your past too. Not why you were given that bounty, but I've heard how you betray pirates left and right, never giving anyone your true loyalties. I don't know why that is, and I don't care, but..." Ace leaned in close, glaring into her eyes. "If you betray my brother whatever the reason, I will find you and make you pay for it. Do you understand me?"

Robin looked back calmly even though she knew that there was scant little she could do against a logia type like Ace if he decided to attack her. If she had started to learn Busoshoku there was a possibility she could hurt him, but even then the idea of her defeating this man was rather laughable. Yet even so she wasn't going to back down. He wasn't the first pirate she had dealt with that could squash her like a bug, and he wouldn't be the last. "Your brother doesn't need you to protect him; indeed, I seem to recall him stating so earlier. As for my betraying him, while initially we were simply using one another in various ways, or at least I was using him, the idea of betraying him does not appeal to me now and will not in the future." I wonder when that changed?

Ace stared at her, then for some reason chuckled, leaning out of his threatening pose. "I wasn't talking about physical betrayal, but I suppose I'll leave it for now."

Robin looked at him quizzically at that, but Ace stood up and left without elaborating. He had seen the glances the two of them had shot at one another when one or the other wasn't looking and found it interesting that Luffy was seemingly attracted to an older woman like Robin rather than someone like Nami. Oh, Ace could tell he found Nami attractive too, but that looked to Ace more like a purely physical thing rather than a real emotional attraction.

Still, he thought to himself as he looked from Robin to Nami and then to the Princess, he does have good taste in women, and he got two of them to join his crew too. Ace's mind resolutely refused to notice that Makino was attractive too, especially since she had not changed out of her dancer's outfit, much to the delight of Sanji. Not like mine. Mine was a freaking sausage fest! For some reason Ace found that thought rather depressing at the moment, and a cloud began to appear around him as he leaned against the railing, watching his brother's nakama go about their business.

That evening the ship dropped anchor some ways away from the shoreline as the crew threw a small, impromptu party to celebrate both their arriving at Alabasata and meeting Ace. Sanji brought out the food, and the group caroused for a time. The animals too took part, even the new camel, though that pissed Zoro off to no end.

Zoro and Ace had entered into a discussion on swordsmen that Ace had personally met while sharing copious amounts of the ship's sake. Zoro set his stein down for a moment, nodding intently as Ace described the appearance of one of his own nakama, only to turn around as he heard a loud slurping sound behind him and laughter from the rest of his crew. "What the hell!?"

The camel had moved over from where it had been tethered, actually having freed itself. It had moved across the deck silently, then dipped its long neck down to stick it's head into Zoro's stein, slurping the sake down in a long gulp.

"Damn you! You're mincemeat, camel!" Zoro shouted, reaching for his swords.

The camel looked unimpressed at first, instead spitting a big fat gob of slobber into Zoro's face. But as Zoro stood up angrily it backed away quickly, looking ready to bolt, but with nowhere to go.

Before Zoro could make good on his threat Nami moved between them the rest of the crew, even Robin, being too busy laughing to do so. "Now that's enoughZoro. He's only a silly animal." Placing a hand on the camel's chin, Nami went on, ignoring the angry shout of "Oy!" this brought from Chopper. "He was probably just thirsty. Besides, we'll need him when we cross the desert. You'll be a good camel and carry me and Vivi, won't you?"

Its eyes having turned into hearts, the camel nodded its head quickly at that, nuzzling into Nami's chest. "Good boy!" she coooed. "Now, what shall we call you, hmmm?"

"Ero-camel," Luffy, Zoro, Ace, and Sanji all said as one, while the others laughed.

"How about Eyelashes?" Nami said, to which the camel nodded. Judging by its slack-jawed expression and heart-shaped eyes though, it probably would have agreed to any name Nami chose.

"Okay, that's even weirder. I vote Nami is no longer allowed to choose names for anything. All in agreement, say aye?" Luffy said, raising his arm in the air.

"Aye!" everyone else shouted much to Nami's visible annoyance.

Laughing, Ace leaned back, taking it all in. The crew was much smaller than the one he was used to, but there was an atmosphere that Ace had only seen in a few pirate crews, most notably Whitebeard's. "I'm glad my brother found such a good group of nakama to sail these seas with him," he said, pulling everyone's attention to him. "I hope that you will continue to look after him for me."

As everyone else nodded, Luffy hurled himself on his brother roaring, "Oy, I am not some pet that needs looking after, you bastard aniki!"

As the rest of the crew watched laughing, the brothers continued to wrestle on the deck for some time, only being pulled apart by Makino. She waded into the conflict with a practiced air, pulling them apart with grips on their ears that could not be denied.

Later that night as the party died down and the rest of the crew went to sleep, Ace and Luffy moved over to the railing talking quietly for a time. "I want you to have this, Luffy," Ace said, pulling out what to Luffy's eyes looked like a normal piece of paper. It was a small scrap torn off another larger piece of paper, but Ace gave it to Luffy as if it was something precious. "Keep it with you, and you'll always be able to find me if you need to."

Luffy looked at the paper quizzically, but nodded, pulling off his straw hat, intending to stick the paper behind the red ribbon around the dome of the hat. Since his hat was always either on his head, one of his crew's heads, or in his ki space, that was easily the safest place Luffy could think of. "What is it?"

"A vivre card." Ace explained. "Don't ask me how it works, but that bit of paper is somehow connected to me. It'll act like an Eternal Pose always pointing in my direction wherever we are. Mind you, that'll just give you the direction, not the distance, but it's better than nothing, and in the Grand Line that's about all you can ask for."

"Huh, interesting. I might want to get some of these for me and the crew just in case we ever get separated. You think I could get some of this paper made in Alabasta?" Luffy asked intently, staring at the scrap of parchment.

"I doubt it. I had that one made in the New World," Ace said, before clapping his hands on his brother's shoulder, shaking him lightly. "It was good to see you and to meet your crew. I'm not going to ask you to stay safe, but…have fun, yeah?"

Luffy grinned, smacking his fist against Ace's. "You too. I'll see you in the New World!"

Ace laughed and nodded, then stood back, pulling out a strange looking surfboard kind of contraption from his own ki space. Ace had never used it to the extent that Makino or Luffy did, but he did have a few knickknacks in there, including this, a single-person ship designed to run on his Mera-Mera power.

Hurling it over the side, Ace followed it, landing on it in a standing stance, fire flickering out of his ankles and feet into two turbines. With a final wave back to his brother, Ace rocketed off into the night time sea.

OOOOOOO

Staring around the table at the faces of his numbered agents, Crocodile was pleased that they understood the severity of the price of failure and the stakes they were playing for here. He waited until they finished reading their orders, then spoke again. "I hope now you all understand the roles you will play. There is, however, another matter we need to discuss: that of betrayal. Ms. All-Sunday has betrayed us. She has sided with a rookie pirate crew, believing that they will be strong enough to defeat us. I do not know why she has done so, or what could cause her to believe that, but she is still important to our long-term goals."

That was a lie of course. He knew some of the reasons why Robin had betrayed him, though he had not been concerned until his army of Millions had been so decisively dealt with though the how of it was still a mystery. Still, he was confident that he could deal with her and this Monkey D. Luffy given time. "Her inclusion into the Straw Hat crew, however, makes them more predictable, hence your orders. Mr. 1, Ms. Doublefinger, keep in mind I need her alive to help me decipher the plans for Pluton; alive, able to think and speak. Other than that, if you see an opportunity to…constrain her…do so."

Ms. Christmas Day smacked the table in front of her, "I, I understand, understood it is understood, clear, concise, but why, why is this one, this, this thing in charge!" she said, pointing at Mr. 2, who hissed and made to stand up and twirl in anger.

"Enough!" Crocodile said sharply before the rather disturbing man in the ballerina outfit could do so. While Mr. 2 was arguably the second most important of his assets, or even number one given Nico Robin's betrayal, his mode of dress still disturbed Crocodile, and he had no desire to see it put further on display through the man's normal antics. "Mr. 2 is in charge because he has more experience leading our Billions than you two and because his combat ability is higher as well. I'll have no arguments on this matter."

The elderly, oddly grandmother-looking individual that was Ms. Christmas Day subsided, as her partner, a massive, fat bear of a man shivered beside her as Crocodile's eyes moved over the two of them. Even Ms. Doublefinger and Mr. 1 felt the fear Crocodile evoked at that moment, and Mr. 2 wilted in his seat.

"Good," Crocodile said simply.

"Sir, you realize that capturing Robin alive and able to speak will be difficult. My partner and I do not specialize in such missions, but assassination," Mr. 1 said respectfully after a moment.

"That is why your orders say that your primary task will be to deal with the rest of this pirate crew. I will deal with the foolish captain myself." Crocodile allowed a faint smile to appear on his face for a second as he went on. "There are proprieties among even pirates to be observed."

That wasn't the real reason, though there were unwritten rules among pirates that stated that captains should fight captains if at all possible. But Crocodile would have ignored such a rule if he could. Yet the skills he knew this Luffy had shown demanded that Crocodile take him on personally.

"Mr. 2, I want you on the road within the hour," Crocodile went on, changing the subject as he let his eyes flick over to the other man, expertly hiding the shudder that seeing a man in a tutu evoked in him.

Mr. 2 nodded quickly. "Of course! I'll speed un, deux, trois on my way at once! I just hope these two don't hold me up too long."

"I say bah, bah, bah!" said the old woman, again slapping her hands down on the table. "It is you who will try, try, but not succeed in keeping up with us!"

"Don't even joke~~~!" Mr. 2 shouted, already getting to his feet and hurtling towards the door.

Behind him Ms. Christmas Day hustled her partner out as quickly as she could, actually pushing at his large bulk to get him moving, while Crocodile leaned back in his chair, turning it around once more to stare at the glass aquarium behind his chair. The other two agents understood this to mean they were dismissed, and stood up quickly exiting the room.

With them gone Crocodile closed his eyes as he smoked on his cigar, thinking hard. The Royal Army was no threat. Even their best fighters could not stand against even Mr. 4, let alone any of his other agents, and their numbers were no threat to Crocodile anywhere in Alabasta.

And with Mr. 2's special ability, Cobra's public persona will be damaged beyond repair soon enough, the king himself in my hands. Yes, I can leave all that in Mr. 2's capable hands, and even if he fails I have pawns in place to turn events in the capital to my favor regardless. This pirate crew, however: the use of Busoshoku concerns me. Rookie he may be, but that ability makes him dangerous, as does the fact I have no idea how they dealt with my naval forces. Perhaps I should stack the deck a little further in my favor…

OOOOOOO

Resolve put its anchor down twice after Ace left. Once was to send off Carue, at which time they met up with a group of animals called fighting dugongs. They were extremely cute animals, looking like a mix between man, turtle, and otter. They all posed like strongmen in a gym while their leader pointed angrily at the ship.

"What's wrong with these guys?" Luffy asked, looking over Chopper. "Translation, please?"

Chopper quickly explained, hopping down to stand next to the leader as he spoke, once more twisting his snout in such a way as to sound like what he thought the animal he was translating for did. "We are the fighting dugong! This is our shoreline! If you want to put ashore here, you'll have to fight us or give us tribute. If you can't do either of those things then get out of here, weaklings!"

"Oh ho, weaklings, is it? Possible ingredients want to talk to us like that?" Sanji muttered, leaping over the side as Luffy did the same. Zoro, however, simply shook his head, closing his eyes again for another nap. None of the dugongs had weapons after all.

Nami shook her head sadly looking down at the crowd of cute little creatures. "They look so cute, though. How can such little creatures be tough?"

Vivi looked up from where she had been tying the message to Carue's neck, racing to the side quickly as a thought occurred to her. "Wait! Don't fight them! They…"

She was too late. Sanji had beaten three of the fighting dugongs, while Luffy had defeated seven by the time she got there. Luffy looked up at her quizzically. "I know they're cute and all Vivi, but they told us to try and fight them. So what's the problem?"

"Because they're fighting dugongs!" Vivi groaned, shaking her head. "Yes, they challenge people, but if someone proves tougher than they are, they…" she paused, as below her the creatures woke up.

As one the group that had been defeated by Luffy and Sanji got together, their little paws placed in front of them as they bowed formally to the two humans. Both of them bowed back, looking a little quizzical then up at Vivi again, who groaned and finished what she had been about to say. "They decide that you are their new master and want to follow you as disciples."

"Tell us this stuff sooner, please, Vivi-chwan?" Sanji said, crooning the words even as he looked at the group of animals rather askance.

Luffy, on the other hand, laughed. "Well, we could set them to work on the cannons…"

A hand smacked his head as a tangerine rind smacked into his face. "Don't you dare think about using such cute creatures like that, Luffy!" Nami shouted while Makino roared the words in his ear.

Luffy rolled his eyes, but nodded agreement before hurling the tangerine rind back with unerring accuracy, the rind smacking into Nam's chest right between her breasts. As she growled in outrage he began to teach the group of animals a bit of martial arts training and set them to it before turning back to the ship, which seemed to be enough for the dugongs. After that Carue was set ashore with some water to see him over the desert, and the ship pulled up anchor once more.

The next day as morning broke the Resolve slowly sailed up a small inlet. It was shallow here but Vivi and Robin both explained that it would open up further later on. The schooner would still be a tight fit, but if they were careful they could hide the ship further up the river, and there was no way any heavier ship could follow. With Luffy and Zoro punting the ship along it was slow going, but they still covered far more ground than any group simply marching on land could have, and in the early evening they tied the ship up near the source of the river, an underground water channel of some kind.

With the ship stopped, the crew gathered to go over their plans in more detail.

"Rain Dinners is almost in the direct center of the island." Crouching on the deck, Robin set out a map of the island, the sight of which caused Nami to keep making a tsking noise under her breath. Robin looked up at the noise and noticed the younger girl's face, then playfully pushed her leg. "Not everyone who makes maps has as high a standard as you do, navigator-chan."

"That's why she's my navigator!" Luffy said with a laugh, gesturing to the map. "Anything you can think to add to this Nami?"

Nami puffed herself up, then retraced their course briefly, going into what the number of tributaries they had seen meant, and then gesturing to the map that Robin and pulled out. "This one river though is the most important to the island as a whole. It'd be heavily traveled, and I'd bet that this Rain Dinners place is right beside it?"

"Close enough," Robin said with a nod, gesturing to a strange crocodile looking creature set above a tiny dot on the map. "That is Rain Dinners there. We could have indeed taken the river nearly to the town, but that would've been too obvious and possibly guarded. Besides," she gestured down river to another dot touching it lightly.

Luffy looked closer, and noticed a small 'M' mark there. "Marines?"

"There is a base here and at the river's mouth," Robin replied, tapping the mark of a large city there with a nod. "The one at the river's mouth is relatively new, hence why it's not marked on the map. This one was built before the current troubles as a local Marine base and general communication hub with the World Government. Crocodile has suborned many of the people there, but since we spotted Commodore Smoker and Captain Hina their neutrality in regards to us and Crocodile cannot be assumed. He is, after all, a Shichibukai. In any conflict between our crew and his they would naturally take his side."

"So we have to go cross country," Luffy said with a nod. "In that case, let's hide the ship as best we can, then maybe make it look as if it's wrecked, just in case?"

"Are we leaving anyone behind?" Nami asked anxiously. "We have a lot of gold aboard, after all."

Luffy shook his head. "No, we'll take everyone with us except for Banchi." He looked over at the turtle. "Will he be all right if we leave him in the waters here?"

"I will be fine," the elderly turtle answered via Chopper. "Indeed, I can help guard your ship from other animal threats, though not so much from people. I'm sorry I can't be more help, but while I can handle the desert just fine, I'm not exactly speedy."

"In that case, why don't we just toss the gold over the side?" Zoro suggested. "We can retrieve it later, but the gold won't tarnish in the water that fast, and if we make the bags heavy enough the stream won't be able to move them."

"That works," Luffy agreed over Nami's protest. She agreed that it was a smart move, but the very idea of tossing gold over the side of the ship almost made her sick to her stomach. "Sanji, Zoro; you and I will work on that. Ladies, if you could finish packing up the supplies I think we should get going in about an hour."

Nami led Eyelashes down the plank, smiling over at Sanji. "I'm glad you bought this camel. It's definitely going to come in handy now."

Shaking his head, Luffy chuckled. "Maybe I should let you walk and have the camel carry everything instead, Miss rind-thrower."

Without even looking in Luffy's direction Nami gave him the finger while Sanji turned angrily, launching a kick his way which Luffy adroitly dodged. "Shitty captain, how dare you think of making such frail lovely flowers as the ladies of our crew trek over such harsh terrain!"

"I still want to turn that damn camel into cutlets. No one steals my sake," Zoro muttered, glaring at the camel.

The camel glared right back until Nami touched his chin lightly, and it turned its now love-struck expression towards her. "There, there, don't worry. The bad swordsman won't touch you so long as you let us ladies ride, right?"

The camel nodded its head quickly, actually kneeling down so Nami and Vivi could get on board easily, its eyes even larger hearts now.

Luffy sighed, shaking his head as he looked at the strange camel. "You want to bring it along, you get to take care of it, girls. The rest of us will be busy carrying the food and other supplies. Remember what Vivi said, though: every hour on the hour you need to drink water, regardless of if you feel thirsty or not. For now, let's get moving. I want to be away from the river by the time the sun goes down, and then we'll push on for at least a few hours more before resting.

He had toyed with the idea of only traveling at night, but both Vivi and Robin said that traveling at night was more dangerous than traveling during the day in the desert because most of the predators came out at night. While these predators were not really a threat to anyone in the crew, dealing with them would slow the crew down. They were also under a time limit, and camping out during the day would slow them down to a level they would not be able to make up traveling only at night.

Almost immediately it was clear that Chopper would be no use whatsoever during the day. Without even the breeze coming from the ocean Chopper truly began to suffer, unable to even move, his entire body just a big, sweaty ball of fur. After watching the little guy still try to keep up for about an hour, Luffy simply tied him to his back and carried on. Thanks to his training, he and Zoro were not feeling the heat nearly as much as the others, though Vivi and Robin, having lived here all their lives and for a few years respectively, were dealing with it better than even the two of them.

It was near evening and the heat of the day was slowly dissipating when they first ran into their first obstacle. In the lead by several hundred feet, Luffy had seen a series of large boulders, spotting them in the distance and deciding to make them their target for the day. The crew was looking forward to taking a break, when to one side of their current path a large dust cloud appeared over the horizon. Vivi spotted it first, her face paling noticeably. "It's a sandstorm! Run! Get to those rocks quickly!"

Luffy looked in the same direction then chanced a glance in Robin's direction. At the same time he reached over to pull Vivi off of the camel, carrying her in a princess carry as he rushed forward. Sanji did the same to Robin, who he was standing nearby, and Zoro kicked off the ground, shouting at the camel to run as Makino did the same. The camel, realizing the urgency, needed no second urging, and the group raced forward with Nami now clinging to the back of the camel. "Could this be from Crocodile?"

"No," Robin said quickly, shouting to be heard over the speed of their passage as Sanji fought to keep his attention on keeping the two of them in the air rather than staring down at Robin 'lovingly.' "Or if it is, it isn't targeted. While Crocodile can always use the sand around him, his ability to use it further from his body than he can personally see is limited. He could have started this storm, but he couldn't aim it this far away."

"So it might be him, but he won't be able to use it to pin us in place," Luffy nodded. "All right, we can work with that."

They took shelter for the rest of that evening and well into the night among the rocks Luffy had spotted. Around them the sandstorm raged past their position, the crew having just barely gotten undercover before it hit the rocks.

That night as the sandstorm died out, they pushed on despite the camel's reluctance to do so, the two girls getting off its back and leading it now, shivering in the night. Chopper, on the other hand, actually changed into his larger muscled form, laughing and throwing his hands up in the air. "Now this is more like it!"

"Good," Luffy said, slapping a hand to his shoulder. "In that case, you take point. I'll be tail end Charlie."

"Tail end Charlie?" Robin asked, cocking her head quizzically.

"I have no idea where the phrase came from. It's just an strange name for the last person in a column as you're making your way through dangerous or enemy territory," Luffy said with a laugh, unsurprised that Robin had questioned him on that.

With Chopper now in the lead they moved through the desert like this for a few hours before coming upon another small rocky outcropping. It wasn't much, simply a single stone jutting out of the desert, but it was tall enough to give them some shelter from the wind and served as a lookout post for whoever was on watch.

It was well that they had, because as Vivi and Robin had predicted they were attacked several times during the night, multiple times by snakes, and once by a giant scorpion thing just as the sky began to brighten. Zoro dealt with the snakes, and Sanji dealt with the scorpion easily enough, however.

Pushing her way out of the tent she shared with Nami, Vivi spotted the giant scorpion's corpse and gasped, looking around hurriedly. "Ah, that's a giant scorpion. Watch out; they always…travel in packs…"

As she was speaking two more scorpions pushed out of the sand to either side of their camp, somehow having moved under the sand until they were in perfect position to ambush their prey. Before they could do so, however, Luffy and Zoro struck, a punch from Luffy removing one scorpion's face while Zoro sliced the other up into several bloody chunks.

Turning from the collapsing corpse of the large scorpion, Luffy looked at Vivi, his face so deadpan she flushed and looked away. "Tell us this stuff sooner," Luffy drawled, deliberately repeating his words from when they met the Fighting dugongs.

The second day was much like the first, all of them suffering somewhat under the oppressive heat, but helped along by their water supplies and prior planning. However, at midday they once again saw a sandstorm in the distance, only this time there was no outcropping of rock nearby.

Luffy glared at this upcoming sandstorm, then at the surrounding area, before leaping into the air, bouncing higher and higher up into the air to give himself a better view of the land around them. "Get ready to move on my signal."

Below him Robin sighed, scowling as she looked at the incoming storm front. "I think we can assume that these sandstorms are indeed being sent our way by Crocodile at this point. He might not have our exact location, but someone must have seen us exiting the port and followed us somehow."

"…That's kind of terrifying, someone sending out actual sandstorms to destroy their enemies," Nami said, shivering as she stared at the oncoming storm. She estimated they had maybe twenty minutes or so until it was on them. It was moving slowly, but once it hit them there would be no protection.

Luffy dropped like a stone, landing to one side of the crew with a thump that could be felt through their feet, such was his urgency. "All right, I see another outcropping of rock to our east. Those of you can use Geppo, grab those who can't!"

A second later Robin found herself suddenly being carried, this time by Zoro who hopped into the air, carrying Chopper on his head for some reason. Sanji grabbed up Vivi from the camel's back, and Nami found herself on Luffy's back as he pulled Makino up into his arms, the green haired woman scrunching her eye shut for some reason. "Wait! The camel!"

Luffy looked at the camel, then groaned and pointed in the direction they were going. "We're going that way! If you think you can keep up, do it, but if not, you're going to have to let one of us guys carry you!"

The animal looked between the distance, the rocks Luffy had spotted out of sight from their current position, and the oncoming storm, which definitely was within sight. A bare second later it was gone, a dust cloud being kicked up by its flailing hooves.

"Well, that answers that question," Luffy quipped, leaping into the air with Nami in her on his back as they raced off. He blushed slightly as Nami's hand tightened around his chest, her breasts pressing into his back, the feel of her legs wrapping around his waist from behind almost making him lose control of his Geppo.

But he fought through it and raced on through the air, feeling his reserves drain away. Keeping in the air like this took it out of people about four or five times worse than just walking in the same conditions would have, hence why they hadn't been using it. This was made worse by the need to carry the others in their party.

That second sandstorm raged throughout the day and into the evening, and when they exited from their makeshift shelter, Robin and Vivi spent some time trying to figure out their position by the stars before heading to bed. After they all woke up and had a good breakfast the next morning, Robin explained their findings. "We're off course, but we, that is, Vivi and I, think we can still make for Rain Dinners relatively easily. But every time we are heading in a straight line for any sense of time we run the risk of running into further delays."

"We're just going to have to chance it," Luffy said, sighing. "At this range there's nothing else we can do, and if Croc's trying to keep us away this much, I bet he's pushing through some plan or other. So the faster we can get there, the better."

"I vote we keep on using Geppo for as long as possible every night," Sanji said, smoking his cigarette. since his style was based off his legs Sanji could deal with the effort of using Geppo better than any of the others save Luffy. "We need to make up lost time, and we are better able to do it at night."

Luffy nodded, and the group set off. About halfway through that third day out from the Resolve, Luffy was once more in the lead, hopping up into the air occasionally for a better vantage point in order to see ahead of them and spot any incoming sandstorms, just in case.

At one point when doing so he held up his hands, shielding his eyes as he swept the horizon, frowning as he spotted something to the left, a hazy outline barely visible from his current vantage point. "I think I can see an outcropping of rocks we can use for shelter if we need to. You all keep going on this route. I'm going to head out to see if it's usable. Zoro, send up a Tatsumaki every few minutes so I know where you are."

As the others trudged wearily on, Luffy kicked his way up into the air again, racing quickly in the direction where he had seen the rocky outcropping. When he landed, he quickly pulled out his water bottle and took a swig of at least two hours' worth of the water in one go. Air walking during the day was absolutely crazy for any extended time.

Looking at the rock, he frowned slightly. Some of it looked worked, almost. Moving forward towards it, he sank almost immediately into the sand directly below the outcropping he had noticed, which formed a bit of an arch there. Kicking out of the sand was tough, but Luffy did so, grabbing onto the rock right above him and hanging there like a bat for a moment, his hat slipping off his head to be grabbed by his other hand as he stared at the sand, which swirled beneath him, some of it sinking now visibly, as if there was some pocket of space or something below it. "Weird."

Luffy experimented, moving around the outcropping of rock for a few minutes, and found that only that one spot was unstable. Making a mental note of the rock, he rejoined the rest of his crew quickly thanks to Zoro's air attacks shooting up as a visible trail. Landing down in front of them, his knees bent easily under his weight even as he once more took a long draft of water from his bottle. "I found some rocks we could use for cover if we have to, but I'll warn you all now there is a spot there that has something like quicksand. Funny thing is, it's right below what I could swear was some sort of an artificial arch in the rock."

"What?" Robin asked quickly, moving towards him. "Artificial rock? You mean a ruin?"

Luffy looked at her quizzically then shook his head apologetically. "Ah, right. Sorry, yeah, it looks as if the arch was from some larger building that collapsed maybe? Or maybe a rooftop. The rock itself looks kind of like concrete, if you know what I mean? Do you want to go look?"

"Yes, please. Take me to it, Captain-san," Robin said, stepping forward.

Luffy looked over at Zoro, who nodded. The swordsman was actually grateful for a bit of reprieve from simply slogging on as they had been, the arm exercise breaking the monotony. Luffy turned back to Robin and nodded at her. "Okay, let's go then. We'll see you guys in a bit."

He turned and knelt down, presenting his back to Robin then flushed hotly as she stepped forward, putting her feet into his back-cupped hands as if they were stirrups. Robin was quite a bit taller than Nami, and rather than pressing her breasts into Luffy's back, this position pressed them into the back of and to either side of his head. "Are, um, are you…comfortable?" he asked hesitantly, flushing to his ear tips at the sensation. For some reason this felt more intimate than when Nami's chest had pressed not his back.

"Quite comfortable," Robin said with a chuckle, realizing what his problem was and enjoying making the self-possessed young man become flustered.

Hesitantly, Luffy leaped into the air, blushing even hotter as this motion caused certain bits that were now pressing into the back of his head to move with the motion. Seeing this Robin chuckled throatily, her arms tightening around his shoulders as her legs did his sides. "Ara, are you all right, Cap~tain~san?" she whispered into his ear, giving her nickname for him a very sexy tone somehow.

Luffy nearly lost control of his Geppo for a second, actually coming down to a bare few feet off the desert floor before hopping higher into the sky. "J-just peachy!" he growled, his voice quite strained, but he refused to show any further sign that Robin was getting to him, ordering certain parts of his body to return to the at rest position. He heard Robin chuckle again but the older woman halted her game, for now anyway.

Lighting down onto the rock he had found, Luffy let Robin down to stand on her own feet. When Robin made to move forward however, he grabbed her hand, squeezing it once to stop her. "Wait. I told you, it's got some kind of quicksand or sinkhole right underneath it."

Nodding her head, but still looking intently at the rock, Robin closed her eyes and crossed her hands over her chest. Luffy knew that meant she was using her power in a way that demanded more concentration. And true enough, as he watched several hands appeared jutting out from the rock, followed quickly by eyes appearing on the palms of those hands.

The hands quickly began moving this way and that as she directed them to look at the rock from all angles. She spent an inordinate amount of time looking at the base of the rock, then, as Luffy watched, the original limbs disappeared. In their places several dozen arms formed one after another, each arm growing out of the palm of the last hand to make a rope of arms which dipped down into the sand at the base.

After a moment, the hands all disappeared, and Robin opened her eyes with a smile. "There is a bottom to that quicksand, as you put it, which lets out into some kind of large cavern underneath the desert."

Luffy looked at her in surprise. "Then what's keeping the sand up?"

Robin shook her head. "Ah, I apologize. I didn't explain it correctly. There is a bottom to the sand underneath that morass but it's made of wooden slats left over from something or other, which lets in a trickle and allows for that movement you noticed. One of my conjured hands knocked on it, so I know it was wood. Do you think you could break through it?"

"So long as it isn't so deep that I run out of breath," Luffy quipped, though he was somewhat serious. No matter how strong someone was, they needed leverage to move, and while Luffy could get around this slightly, even he could drown or be buried alive if he was careless.

"You shouldn't, and if I connect my arms to you I can pull you out," Robin promised, looking at Luffy closely, wondering if he would trust her to that extent.

To her carefully hidden surprise Luffy simply nodded agreement, showing no qualms about doing so. Rather than voice her astonished appreciation of that fact, Robin once again gestured and a series of hands appeared from the rock, holding their palms out to Luffy. He leaped forward, grabbing onto them as he slowly sank into the quicksand.

He let loose an involuntary growl as he felt the quicksand pressing into him, but a second later, just as Robin had predicted, his feet landed on what did indeed feel like wood. A quick stump shattered it, dumping the sand and Luffy down into the cavern.

A moment later Luffy stood with the sand still falling all around him in what was indeed a large underground cavern. He shouted up to Robin. "There is a cave down here for sure! In fact, it looks entirely man-made down here. Your instincts were right!"

"Thank you," Robin said quickly, a tone of eager delight in her voice that Luffy hadn't heard before. "And now catch me!" Without further ado she hopped down the hole giving Luffy a bare second to hold his arms out in order to catch her.

"What would you've done if I didn't catch you?" Luffy asked.

"Created hundreds of hands to do the job, of course," Robin replied with a chuckle, wiggling out of his hands quickly and moving towards the walls, calling over her shoulder as she went. "I'm a practical sort of woman."

"So I see," Luffy said with a laugh, moving after her. "Do you need a light?"

"If you could make one, yes, please," Robin said almost absentmindedly as she began to read what she could in the dim light coming in from the hole in the ceiling they had made. The cavern stretched to the right of that hole for some distance, and the light didn't travel very far unfortunately.

In reply Luffy quickly created a makeshift torch using a spare tunic he had in his hidden weapons space and, ironically enough, the jutte that he had taken from Smoker. Robin took a brief glance at that weapon and laughed before turning back to her work.

Luffy simply followed her for a time, looking at the images she was looking at as he tried to figure out their meaning. Most of it was writing, but here and there was a picture, and eventually Luffy saw a pattern in them. "War? I mean, there was a war at some point? These images, they're of fights, aren't they?"

Robin nodded. "This is, this is an amazing find," she said, the first words she had said in over forty minutes of exploration. "I've lived in this country for years, and I didn't know this existed! It isn't what I'm seeking, but it is an interesting discovery nonetheless. Unfortunately," she said with a chuckle, pointing at some of the writing, "These aren't actually historical documents. This is more the equivalent of graffiti. Eloquent graffiti for the most part, but still not something someone wrote down for future generations."

"So does it tell you anything new?" Luffy asked.

"Quite a bit, actually, once you get through the normal graffiti nature of it. These are musings of soldiers for the most part; as you said, all of this was written during a war. But some of it actually gives me dates, which is important. You see, all of this was written during the Void Century!"

Luffy nodded thoughtfully, looking at the drawings with new interest. He knew what the Void Century was and had before Robin mentioned it as part of being part of her dream to find the poneglyphs.

But before he could say anything Robin went on. "It also says some extremely interesting things about the history of this country. For example, this country did not used to be dominated by a desert. In fact, from what I'm reading here, it was a relatively normal summer country at one point. This writing here," she says, gesturing to a scribble that Luffy hadn't thought was actual writing, "says it was hit by some kind of cataclysm. I can't detect anything that says the cataclysm was part of the war, say part of the Pluton weapon Crocodile is after being fired. It looks as if it was simply a natural disaster. I had always wondered about the nature of the rock that can be found in the desert here and the fact it didn't quite match the composition of the sand, but I never suspected that."

"Does give any hint to the location of what you're looking for?" Luffy asked.

"It mentions a capital city, and judging from the way it's spoken of as being high up above the rest of the ground, it is possibly talking about Alubarna. That gives me some hope that we'll be able to find it there, despite my not knowing exactly where it is hidden."

Robin looked at Luffy as she finished speaking. He had given his word to help her, but neither of them had any real idea of how difficult it would be to discover where the poneglyph was hidden. And Robin decided now to broach one way she knew that they could discover that. Glancing at Luffy then away, she said tentatively, "We could, we might have to eventually simply force King Cobra to tell us where it is. That is the most certain method, and I know that the king will also be necessary to gain access to wherever the poneglyph is hidden. Crocodile had plans for him to be kidnapped at some point during the final battle between the two factions."

"Or…we could just ask," Luffy said, his words a drawl. "Let's face facts; the king's gonna owe us big time after we kick Croc's ass for him, and unlike with Vivi I don't mind squeezing her old man for whatever we decide he owes us for saving his country via kicking a Shichibukai's ass. If he doesn't agree, then we'll have time to consider other options." Luffy laughed. "I actually haven't done anything really piratey since leaving East Blue, so maybe kidnapping a king would be a good way to add to my infamy."

"I don't think piratey' is a word, but I take your meaning," Robin laughed, shaking her head as she turned back to her work. Yet though that sounded like a joke, she could somehow tell Luffy was serious.

His next words only helped to confirm that. "Don't worry. Now that you're part of my crew I'll do everything I can do to help you achieve your dream. If Cobra refuses to help us, making him do so in any way short of torture is well within the bounds of that."

Again Robin chuckled, thanking him before turning all of her attention to the wall in front of her.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you more in there," Luffy said several hours later, leaping up into the air out of the hole with ease with Robin this time in his arms rather than on his back. Even so it was still somewhat troubling to carry her like this. Robin was a woman, and she was currently wearing shorts, unlike Nami who wore those dancer's silk pants. The softness of her flesh under his hands and the way her breasts moved against his chest were rather distracting.

"I knew going in back there that I wouldn't find anything that would address my primary dream, Captain-san. Don't worry about it," Robin soothed, patting his back with one hand while she held onto his shoulder with the other. "But just because it doesn't help me towards that goal doesn't mean that it wasn't fascinating."

Finding his crew once more thanks to Zoro's signals, Luffy set Robin down next to the others, discovering that they had already begun to put together dinner.

"Did you find anything interesting?" Makino asked.

"Very interesting, yes," Robin said, her voice infected with the excited tone it had had since Luffy had told her about his find rather than her normally controlled, laid back drawl. "It was most fascinating. I'm going to write it down in my journal in a moment. Nothing entirely groundbreaking, but it was certainly an exhilarating find."

Robin turned back to Luffy, then leaned forward, quickly kissing him on the cheek before moving off. "Thank you for your help, Captain-san."

Behind her Luffy blushed again almost as badly as he had while carrying the older woman on his back. He shook his head quickly before moving over towards the food even as Sanji began to angrily shout at him for attempting to monopolize Robin.

To one side Nami watched Robin walk to her pack, then slid her eyes towards Luffy. As she did, a frown appeared on her face for no reason she could understand before she turned back to her own meal.

OOOOOOO

"So, now we know who is really behind all this!" Cobra said, hurling the message from his daughter down onto the table separating him from Pell and Chaka. "Now we know who our real enemy is!"

"I agree we need to act on this, but can we afford to do so right now? The rebel army is already on the march. For certain unless Vivi meets with their leader, there is no one else we can send that they will believe," Chaka cautioned. "They could ransack this castle and the capital city when our back is turned. Worse, we only have your daughter's word for what is going on. There will be a lot of questions if we attack a Shichibukai."

Cobra stood up quickly, slamming his hands down. "Who cares about this castle!?" As his two chief bodyguards and military commanders jolted at the noise Cobra went on, his tone soft but intense. "What is important in a country? The trappings of power, the castle, the capital, the king? No, it is peace and the people. If the cost of moving against the real enemy behind this conspiracy, of bringing true peace to Alabasta, is the destruction of this castle, I will blow it up myself!"

He leaned back as both Chaka and Pell looked at him before bowing their heads in silent assent, and Cobra went on. "Nonetheless, you raise a point. We can't move the entire army after Crocodile without some more justification than this. However, Vivi says in this missive that these pirates she has allied with are already moving against him. We can it use that as an excuse; move the army in to try to quell the violence going on between Crocodile and this group in and around Rain Dinners, and then look for further proof on the sly. I want the army ready to go by tomorrow morning. For now Pell, you will go ahead to meet these pirates at their target. The rest of the army and I will follow you."

As the two guards made to leave, Cobra stopped Pell with a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I know I don't have to say this, Pell, but while your stated mission will be to aid these pirates, your primary mission will be to protect my daughter. If it looks as if this Straw Hat crew is becoming overwhelmed by Crocodile, you are to escape with her back to the palace."

"Of course, Majesty," Pell said with a deep bow. "I would give my life in her defense if need be."

"I don't want you to give your life, I want you to protect Vivi's with it!" Cobra quipped, pulling a chuckle from the ever serious Pell, before he gestured Pell once more at the door.

With his guards gone, Cobra sat for a time staring into nothing before he stood up resolutely and followed his two men out the door. He nearly bumped into a maid in the hall beyond, apologizing quickly but almost absentmindedly as he was in a bit of a hurry.

He never even saw the blow coming which knocked him unconscious. The maid stood up, slapping her own face for a moment, said face transforming into that of Mr. Two, his now male body filling out the rather fetching maid outfit in a way that would've sent most straight men running. "Tie him up quickly, my babies! We have more mischief to prepare tonight! Un, duex, trois!"

End chapter

Hope you all liked the action, the comedy and please tell me if you think the budding romance going on makes sense in terms of the characters.