A.n I own Nothing

The Bounty Competition is now closed, I have had an overwhelming number of creative entries. Thank you to all who sent in their suggestions for Connors Pirate name, the wining Name will be announced in the next chapter.

As always Please Review

The Straw Hats were sitting on two branches in a tree that gave them a good view of Ice bergs home and office. The mayor lived in a two story mansion and it was well guarded by the workers of the Galley-la company. Despite the harsh weather and the massive winds that were blowing at a very dangerous level; the carpenters still surrounded the mansion on all sides and stood guard dutifully.

The crew had arrived and hidden in the tree a little after sunset, the only member of the crew who was not with them was Sanji. He had not returned from looking for Robin.

Luffy, Chopper and Zoro were on the first and lower branch with Zoro standing against the trunk while and Connor and Nami were sitting on the branch above them. Chopper had some binoculars and was using them to look over the mansion.

"Has anything happened yet?" Zoro asked.

"Hmmm...Nope, still nothing," Chopper responded without lowering the binoculars.

"So, why are up in this tree again?" Connor asked.

"So we can see what's going in the mansion without being spotted," Nami answered.

"But why don't we just bust in, we know Robin is here. Let's just charge in," Luffy whined.

"Because we don't know when she'll arrive," Nami reminded him.

Luffy then looked up at Connor

"Can't you just use your sight to tell if Robins in there or not?" Luffy asked.

"We're too far away and it will be harder to pick her out if she's changed to red," Connor claimed "Besides even if I could see from here I can't see through walls so I would have no way of knowing if she's inside,"

"She's not here yet," Nami assured "if she was then there would be some kind of panic and since all the shipwrights outside are still calm that means no one has tried to kill Iceberg...again,"

"She still could be in there already," Luffy muttered.

"Luffy just because we know Robins going to be here does not mean she will be here when we arrived," Zoro said.

"Well she should, honestly she's being a bad friend," Luffy pouted "She made me miss not only dinner but my pre-dinner meat,"

'Since when does Luffy have pre-dinner meat?' Connor thought to himself. He knew how strict Sanji was with the ships food supply, especially when it came to the rubber captain and since he had started helping prepare the crew's dinner Connor knew that Luffy did not get that pre-dinner meat from the kitchen.

"None of us have had dinner yet, deal with it," Zoro scolded.

"Luffy's got a point though," Chopper spoke up "Robin's been part of lots of criminal organisations right? What if she snuck in earlier today when there was less security?"

"I doubt it, even with all the shipwrights now it would be easier to sneak in at night rather than during the day," Nami said.

"What do you mean?" Connor asked.

"There is really strong wind so any noise could be easily covered up or mistaken for something being blown around. Like a door being blown open or a windows shuttering," Nami explained.

She then looked up at the sky.

"Plus with all these storm clouds around it would make it harder to see at night and the carpenters will have to depend on what little light they have...this would make it easier to sneak in,"

"Should we be worried how you know this stuff?" Zoro asked.

"I spent years as a thief, remember," Nami huffed.

"Hph your still a thief," Zoro grumbled.

Nami hit him with her Clima-Tact for that comment leaving a large bump.

"I didn't realise the environment could be used like that," Connor said.

"It's all about the approach, if you can make your environment work in your favour then you're more likely to succeed," Nami shrugged "that is one of the basics of stealing,"

"Plus don't you use the environment around you when fighting?" Zoro asked.

"No I use my sword for fighting," Connor responded innocently.

Zoro sighed; he made a mental note to add environmental awareness into Connor's training sessions.

They sat there lightly chatting for a bit longer but never taking their eyes off the Ice-Bergs manor and after a while an explosion was seen and herd just in front of the mansion. The carpenters were quick to react. Not only was there an explosion but a masked figure appeared as well and started running around; the carpenters started to cry out.

"Intruder, quick there is a masked intruder round the side heading towards he back," a voice was herd.

"Well I guess that's our que," Zoro said as he and the others watched the chaos.

"Yeah, I bet that's Robin," Nami agreed.

"Nami..." Connor spoke up, but he was ignored.

"Alright let's go in and get to the bottom on this," Zoro said eagerly as he gripped the handle on his swords.

"Umm...guys," Connor tired again.

"We know Robin will be heading for Ice-berg so it's likely that the intruder round the back is a distraction. So we should use this time to find a way in," Nami agreed.

"Right we know Robin's headed to Ice-berg, so we can either find her on her way or in Ice-bergs room," Chopper said.

"GUYS!" Connor yelled. The rest of the crew looked at him finally noticing him.

"Luffy's already gone," Connor stated.

The crew looked at where Luffy had been sitting and found that he was indeed gone.

"WHAT THE HELL! WHERE DID HE GO?!" Nami yelled angrily.

"He launched himself into the air as soon as the fighting started," Connor stated.

"How did we miss that?" Zoro asked.

"Well he dropped down and headed back towards the buildings behind us," Connor claimed "I think he was trying to be like Kaku again,"

Nami and Zoro groaned.

"Who's Kaku?" Chopper asked.

"A shipwright with a long nose that can jump over half the city," Connor explained "Luffy's been trying to imitate him since he met him,"

"Ah, makes sense," Chopper agreed.

"Alright let's go," Nami declared and she jumped down from the tree.

The rest of the crew followed and they ran towards Ice-bergs mansion.

"We'll head to the back and get in that way," Nami said.

"Wait we're just going to barge in?" Connor asked "What about being stealthy?"

"Luffy's already gone a head right? So odds are he went through the front causing a scene like he normally dose," Nami explained "that means all the guards will be trying to stop him so we can sneak in the back,"

Connor nodded in understanding and they ran around the side of the mansion as they herd fighting going on at the front and assumed it was Luffy, once they were behind it the crew jumped over the fence and landed in the vast back yard. However they were met with the stunned faces of the Galley-La compony.

"THE STRAW HATS ARE HERE!" they cried out "GET THEM!"

The crew's face paled and they all immediately turned and ran further into the garden with the carpenters shooting at them, thankfully all of their shots missed.

"Wait...why are they still here?" Zoro asked as he ran.

"Does that mean that Luffy didn't go through the front?" Connor asked running with the crew.

"Are all carpenters such terrible shots?" Chopper wondered.

"WHERE THE HELL IS LUFFY!"Nami yelled.

They rounded the concern of the mansion leading to the right side and came face to face with even more angry carpenters, these ones held a verity of weapons. They were armed with Swords, large hammers, jaggered saws and even some metal rods and other tools from the ship yard.

The crew stopped in their tracks.

"I don't think those behind us were trying to hit us," Chopper said worriedly.

"GET THEM! DON'T LET THEM HURT ICE-BERG!" the carpenters yelled as they charged in.

The crew turned around to go back the other way but after a few steps the carpenters they had just run away from had caught up; they had put their guns away and now held weapons similar to the carpenters the crew had just met.

"We're surrounded," Nami gasped.

"GIVE UP STRAW HATS! THERE'S NO WHERE FOR YOU TO RUN!" the shipwrights demanded.

The crew took a few steps back but gave no indication that they were going to surrender. Zoro however drew two of his swords and walked slowly towards the crowd of carpenters.

"I have had enough of this," he muttered irritably.

"Zoro wait they're not really our enemies," Chopper tried.

However it was too late, Zoro had already begun charging through the mob of carpteres taking them out one after another with incredible speed. Chopper was right, the shipwrights were not the crew's enemies and even though Zoro was using the backs of his blades; for all they're strength and shipbuilding skill meant nothing as they were still no match for the first mate of the Straw Hat pirates.

Once most of the mob was lying on the ground Zoro straightened up and turned to look back at the others.

"Alright lets go," he said and walked casually past the bodies and over to the mansions wall.

Nami, Chopper and Connor walked over to catch up to the swordsman, Chopper eyed the fallen.

"Even though he was using the back of his blades, there are still a lot of wounds that could be fatal if they remain untreated," Chopper commented.

"We don't have time for that, we need to find Robin," Nami remained him.

"But how are we going to get in?" Connor asked looking up at the mansion. He didn't see any side doors and the windows were clearly locked.

"Like this," Zoro said and he sliced the wall with his swards, a small part of it fell off creating a way in.

Nami ran up and hit him on the head.

"Don't just cut walls away and break into people's houses," Nami scolded.

"Your one to talk," Zoro shot back.

Nami glared at him.

"Whatever, either way we have our way in now, let's go," Zoro huffed and walked into the mansion.

Inside they were met with more carpenters; they were not impressed with the straw hats form of entry. Once the carpenters were dealt with, Nami found and grabbed one of the few who were still somewhat conscious by the shirt and pulled him close to her face.

"Hey you, where is Ice-Berg," she demanded.

"I...I'll never tell you," the carpenter responded weakly.

"That's fine, we already know where he is, I just wanted to confirm it," Nami claimed.

"Wait...you know he's in his room on the third floor being guarded by Kaku, Lucci and Paulie?" the carpenter gasped.

"I do now," Nami said with a sly smile "thanks for the info,"

She dropped the carpenter who was shocked that he had reviled that information and looked at Zoro, Chopper and Connor.

"Right now we know where Ice-berg is, let's head up to the third floor," Nami said.

The crew nodded and headed towards the stairs. However when they arrived on the second floor they found more Galley-La workers waiting for them.

"Just how many shipwrights dose Ice-berg have?" Nami asked.

"Too many," Zoro sighed and he charged in to deal with them the same way he dealt with the ones outside and on the floor below.

Earlier, insides Ice-Berg's mansion

No sooner had the explosion been herd Paulie had been told that Ice-Berg wanted to see him, the mayor had asked him to go to his secret safe under his desk and take what was inside, run and throw it into the ocean to destroy whatever was inside. Paulie had not understood why Ice-Berg had asked him to do this however Ice-Berg claimed that if he was to die tonight than this would be his last request and he trusted no one but Paulie to complete this task.

Paulie had agreed and left Ice-Bergs room to complete his task, he felt bad since Paulie fully believed that he should remain to protect the injured mayor however he respected Ice-Berg too much not to see his last wish fulfilled. In the office Paulie had found the safe, it was exactly where Ice-berg said it would be and the combination he had been given worked as well.

Inside there was only one thing, several papers rolled up and held together by two thin ropes. Paulie untied it and unrolled it to see that it was Blue prints to some large ship. He didn't look past the top page which had a picture of what the finished ship was supposed to look like along with a several signatures at the bottom.

Paulie only recognised Ice-bergs signature.

"Why would Ice-Bergs last wish be to destroy this?" Paulie wondered "It's worthless,"

Deciding not to question his mentor and friend Paulie re-rolled and retied the Blue prints up, he knew that going near the ocean now was incredibly dangerous since Aqua Langna was due in less than three hours, however he was confident he could get to the lower town and back to safety before it hit.

He stood up and turned around only to come face to face with a Bull headed man and large Skull headed man. They were clearly masks but the fact they had appeared behind him without a sound made the shipwright jump back. The two were wearing some kind of very long and thick robes to cover and hide the rest of their body.

"What the...who the hell are you two?" Paulie demanded.

The Bull headed figure looked at the Blueprints in Paulie's hand.

"So this is where it was...the whole time it was right under our noses," the Bull headed man said and raised his hand "Give that to me,"

Paulie blinked a couple of times and then narrowed his eyes.

"No, I don't know who you are but Ice-Bergs final wish is for me to destroy this," Paulie claimed "and I don't intend to disappoint him,"

"You're already a disappointment," the Bull claimed and he lunged forward.

Paulie didn't know what happened, the Bull headed man suddenly appeared in front of him and before the shipwright foreman could react the pulls arms moved and lighting speed and then the Bull man stepped back. Paulie looked down at his body to see it riddled in with holes. Paulie panted heavily as he tried to remain standing, he was sadly hurt with his body riddled with holes that looked like they had come from a gun despite the fact that no shots had been fired.

Paulie couldn't remain standing with all his new injures and he collapsed face first on the office floor, the blueprints rolled out of his hand and the Bull headed man walked over and picked them up.

"Well we got what we came here for," the Skull masked man stated.

"Indeed," the Bull man agreed as he unrolled and untied the blueprints to look at them "and there is no blood on them either,"

"You...You two are behind the attack on Ice-Berg," Paulie said "Not the Straw Hats,"

"That is not entirely correct, Nico Robin did attack Ice-Berg...but the rest of the crew had nothing to do with it," the Skull man claimed.

"So what you're going to kill me and Ice-berg now?" Paulie asked.

"Yes and blame it on the Straw Hats," the Bull man agreed.

"Well...I don't know what you're after or why you would even want that in the first place," Paulie wheezed "But I do know that even if you kill Ice-Berg and me...you've failed,"

"I don't see how, we have what we came for and now all that is left is to make sure there are no witness," the Bull headed man stated.

"In that case I at least get the stratification of proving you wrong," Paulie said with a smile "those blueprints your holding...are fake,"

"F...Fakes?" the Bull headed man asked.

"Yeah, I don't know that builds but I know real blue prints when I see it and those aren't real," Paulie smirked.

The pull quickly flipped through the pages and much to his horror he found that only the first two or three pages had writing on it and the rest were filled with diagrams and instructions for different and unrelated things. One page had a recipe for pancakes written on it.

"He's right, these are fakes," the Bull headed man hissed angrily and he tore the collected pages in half.

"If those are fakes then where are the real blue prints?" the Skull man asked.

"I don't know...lets go and ask Ice-Berg before we kill him," the Bull man said.

"What about him?" the Skull man asked.

"Our orders were to leave no wittiness," the Bull man reminded.

The Skull masked man walked over to Paulie and prepared to deliver the final blow, Paulie closed his eyes and waited for it. However just before the Skull masked man could end the carpenters life the back office wall broke and Luffy flew into the room; crashing into the Skull masked man and landing on him and knocking him out of the office.

"Whew I finally got free," Luffy cheered. He was completely unaware of what was going on around him.

"What...Straw Hat?" Paulie gasped.

Luffy looked down to see Paulie.

"Hey you're the Rope guy right, have you seen Robin?" Luffy asked. He then noticed his injuries "You don't look very good, your all injured,"

"Observant aren't you," the Bull headed man said sarcastically.

Luffy looked up and finally noticed the Bull masked man.

"THAT COW JUST TALKED!" Luffy yelled "THERE'S A TALKING COW HERE!"

"I was not expecting that," the Skull masked man said as he came back into the room.

Luffy turned to face him and his eyes went wide.

"Whoa he has a Skull for head," Luffy cried out pointing at the Skull man "Are you a walking skeleton? How do you eat meat and do you poop?"

"There masks you idiot," Paulie yelled angrily.

"Really? I thought they were real for a moment," Luffy said.

"They are clearly masks only an idiot would believe they were real," Paulie shot back.

"What should we do? We need Straw Hat alive to take the fall for us," the Skull masked man said "and we're nearly out of time,"

The Bull headed man rushed forward to attack Luffy with the same speed that he had used to incapacitate Paulie, but the rubber captain jumped out of the way.

"Hey what are you doing?" Luffy demanded.

"He...he dodged it," the Skull man gasped in surprise.

However the Bull headed man followed his attack up with a swift kick that through Luffy off balance and then threw Luffy to onto the floor; he then pinned not only the rubber captain but also Paulie to the ground with some curved metal half rings.

Both wrists, ankles, elbows, knees were pinned by the metal rings embedded into the floor; there was also one around the neck, chest and waist making any movement near impossible.

"A lucky fluke nothing more," the Bull headed man said as he stood back up. He sounded very irritated, it was like the fact that Luffy had avoided his first strike offended him "Leave them, we have work to do,"

The Bull masked man walked out and Skull masked man followed shutting the door behind them.

Once they were gone Paulie let out a sigh of relief, he was glad he was not going to die but now he was concerned about Ice-Berg. His eyes shifted to Luffy.

"Straw Hat, are you alright?" Paulie asked.

"Yeah, this is nothing," Luffy said as he struggled against his bindings but they did not budge.

"Why did you come here? The whole city thinks you and your crew are criminals,"

"We are, we're pirates after all,"

"Still...I'm sorry, we let our poor judgement get the better of us and now we're in this predicament," Paulie apologised sincerely. He truly did regret letting his emotions get the better of him and placing the blame on the Straw Hats without even considering any other suspects.

"It's fine, like I said we're pirates. We're used to being chased around and being blamed for everything," Luffy claimed.

"But that doesn't answer my question of why you came here tonight," Paulie stated.

"One of my Nakama was taken by those masked guys and they forced her to do something she would never do,"

"Nico Robin," Paulie said.

"Yeah I came to get her back," Luffy said seriously.

Paulie was silent for a few moments thinking his options over, the only sound was of the wind blowing outside and his heavy breathing from his injuries.

"Hey, you've got a high bounty...does that mean your good in a fight?" Paulie asked.

"Yeah I'm strong," Luffy agreed.

"Do...Do you think you could beat them?" Paulie asked.

"No," Luffy responded.

Paulie sighed he knew it was too much to hope for and he did not know what he was thinking of even considering asking a pirate for help.

"I know I can," Luffy declared.

Paulie's eyes went wide and he smiled.

"Then would you fight with me?" Paulie asked.

"Huh?"

"Fight with me Straw Hat, if you do I will speak on your crew's behalf. Why should Ice-Berg have to die by people like that? Why should you take the blame for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time?" Paulie ranted "I hate secret organisations; they think they can just come in and walk all over us. Well I'll show them differently...so fight with me,"

"Okay, but once we kick their ass I'm taking Robin with me and no one had better try and stop me," Luffy said.

"Fine if she's been forced like you said then she's a victim too," Paulie agreed.

"Great now let's get out of here," Luffy said and started to twist and pull against his bonds.

"How are you..." Paulie started but then stopped as Luffy's arm suddenly came free.

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT!"Paulie asked in shock.

"I'm a rubber man so my body can stretch and squeeze out of even the tiniest of places," Luffy smiled and pulled his other arm free.

It took a few minutes for Luffy to wriggle out of his bonds and once he was completely free he pulled the rings off Paulie as well. Once they were both free they raced out the door and Paulie led Luffy to Ice-Bergs room.

"It's just up ahead," Paulie claimed as they approached a door.

Unfortunately Luffy took that as a sign that it was the next door and burst into an empty room taking kicking the door down.

"Straw hat I meant it was the next door," Paulie scolded "Ice-Bergs room is the next one after this one,"

"Oh okay," Luffy said realising his mistake and walked over to the wall.

"Oi what are you doing we don't have time to dawdle," Paulie demanded as he ran up to Luffy.

"You said it was the nest room over right?' Luffy asked.

"Yes but..."

"Then this will be quicker," Luffy declared as he pulled his arm back and punched through the wall in front of him.

Luffy punched through the wall bursting into the room. At the same time Ice-Bergs door was sliced open and Zoro, Nami, Chopper and Connor also barged in. Everyone in the room stopped and looked at the indentures.

"Luffy?" Robin gasped. He was not supposed to be here.

"Huh...Luffy where the hell have you been?" Zoro demanded "do you how annoying getting here was?"

Paulie however was stunned; he had expected Robin to be here with those who had attacked the mansion. He now knew for certain that the rest of the Straw Hats had nothing to do with Ice-Bergs failed assassination but he had not expected to see Kaku, Kaifa and Lucci and one other man standing in the room over a very injured Ice-Berg who was lying on the floor staring up at is assassins, he had a fresh gunshot wound and was covered in blood.

"Lucci...Kaku...Kalifa and...Bluneo? What...What's going on here?" Paulie asked in shock.

"Isn't it obvious, we're here to kill Ice-Berg," Lucci sated coldly.