The Thunder Demon Straw Hat Luffy

The Going Merry was currently sailing calmly through the Sandora River on its way to Eremalu. Luffy was currently on the upper rear deck with Ace and Zoro looking out into the ocean. Johnny and Yosaku were currently up in the crow's nest looking out, Nojiko was manning the helm, Nami and Vivi are on the rear deck with Luffy and the guys looking at a map, while Usopp, Chopper, and Vivi's pet duck, Karoo were on the main deck drinking and laughing among themselves. Luffy turned and looked Vivi and began making his way to her before he spoke.

"So, why are we going to Eremalu?" Luffy asked getting both Vivi and Nami's attention.

"We are currently on the Sandora River. We will take it to Eremalu where we will dock before we proceed to Yuba on foot," she said causing Luffy to nod.

"You guys are going to Yuba?" Ace asked getting all their attention.

"Yeah, why?" Luffy asked with a curious look on his face.

"That's where I'm headed as well. It is the last place where Teach was sighted," he said causing Luffy to smile and nod his head. "You don't mind if I tag along now do you?" Ace asked with a smile causing Luffy to chuckle.

"of course, you can tag along, dummy," Luffy said with a smirk before he turned and looked at Vivi before he spoke again. "By the way princess, what's in Yuba?" he asked.

"Yuba is the main base of the rebel army. I know the leader of the rebels, if we can get there and tell them about Crocodile, I am sure we can stop this war," she said with a hopeful look on her face. Luffy smile at her before he spoke again.

"Don't worry princess, we'll end the war," he said with a smile causing her to smile. The ship sailed up the Sandora River for about an hour before Vivi walked up to Nami, who was standing in the front of the ship, and asked her a question.

"Nami, can we stop the ship for a second?" she asked while holding some papers in her hands causing Nami to look at her strangely.

"What for?" Nami asked while looking at Vivi.

"I have a very important mission for the Karoo," she said as she turned and looked at the giant duck. Nami and Vivi then went and asked Luffy if it was okay to which he agreed and gave out orders to the rest of the crew to pull the ship over by the nearby bank for Vivi to do what she needed to do. When the ship docked at the bank Vivi, Karoo, Nami, Nojiko, and Sanji got off while everyone else looked down at them from the ship. "This is all the information Igaram and I gathered about Crocodile and Baroque Works. I need you to go to Alubarna palace and deliver this letter to my father," she said while looking at the giant duck. "It also lets him know that I have returned to Alabasta accompanied by brave friends willing to help us in our struggle," she added before tucking the papers into Karoo's pouch. "No make sure to conserve your water and be safe," She added before patting the giant duck's head. With a salute, the giant yellow duck took off running at amazing speed away from the ship.

"Alright! Everyone, get back on board and set sail!" Luffy yelled out before he turned and walked back to his usual stop on the ship and sat down on his throne. It took another two hours before they reached Eremalu. As the ship docked the girls exited their rooms with a new set of clothes on covering up their entire body as opposed to their belly dancer outfit which exposed quite a lot of skin. Upon seeing this Sanji began to complain causing Luffy to chuckle at his antics. Nojiko then walked up to Luffy carrying two sets of folded clothes in her hands and handed them to Ace and Luffy.

"You two should put this on," she said as she handed them clothes more suited for the dessert. "We don't want you two to get sunburn now do we," she added with a smile. Ace took the clothes and put them on right on the spot while Luffy made his way to his private quarters. As Luffy entered his private quarters his thundercloud followed him into the room. Luffy threw the dessert cloths on his bed before he reached under his bed and pulled out the c.h.e.s.t containing all the devil fruits.

"Let's put you somewhere safe while I'm away," he said to himself as he left the c.h.e.s.t up and dropped it into the cloud. The c.h.e.s.t slowly sunk into the cloud before it disappeared in the cloud. He then took off his captain's coat and placed it in the clouds as well before he threw on the clothes Nojiko gave to him over his already existing clothes. When Luffy exited his private quarters, he wore desert robes consisting of a dark red robe with three white rings decorated along both sleeves and a light blue wrap over his head. You could still see his black slim-fit shirt under the red dessert robe with his lightning bolt necklace showing. Upon exiting his room Luffy sent his thunder cloud high into the sky above the ship before he locked the door behind him and made his way down to the main deck.

"We're all set, Captain," Zoro said as he walked up to Luffy.

"What the hell are those things?" Usopp asked as they all looked at the strange creatures. They were dugong-like creatures with turtle-like shells on their backs.

"Those are the Kung-Fu Dugongs!" Vivi yelled out with a panicked look on her face. The small creatures then began to speak to the crew in its own language confusing everyone.

"If you want to come ashore you are going to have to beat me first you spineless cowards!" Chopper said causing everyone to look at him in confusion. "That's what it said," he added easing all their confusion. Luffy then sighed and spoke.

"We don't have time for this," he said before he snapped his fingers causing a bolt of lightning to come out of the rain cloudless sky and struck the Kung-Fu Dugongs causing them to pass out.

"Well, that takes care of that," Zoro added before hopping off the ship. Everyone nodded agreeing with him before jumping off the ship as well. They began making their way through the desert with Vivi leading them with Luffy, Ace, and Sanji at the back and everyone else in the middle. The group walked through the desert for about 30 minutes before they came upon a deserted town covered in sand.

"What happened here?" Nami asked as she looked around at the fallen buildings and dried up trees. It looked as though several sandstorms passed through here and s.u.c.k.e.d the life right out of the town.

"Is this Yuba?" Chopper asked while looking at the desert wasteland.

"No, this is Eremalu. It was once known as the City of Green," she said in a sad voice before turning and looking at the crew. "Take a good look around everyone, this is what Baroque Works has been doing to my country, this is what the people of Alabasta have to go through," She said causing everyone except Luffy and Ace to take on a sad expression on their face. Luffy and Ace showed no reaction because both have seen far worse in the world. The group then began making their way through the ghost town quietly while listening to Vivi explain the history of Eremalu and the use of dance powder which lead to the civil war. They walked for another thirty minutes before they made it out of the ghost town of Eremalu and were now well on their way to Yuba.

The entire crew walked for an hour in the piping hot sun over numerous hills. The entire crew looked like they were about to drop dead on the sop. Out of all of them, Chopper had it worse due to him being a reindeer. He had already collapsed because of the heat causing Luffy to carry him on his shoulders.

"Yeah, Luffy," Nami said while looking at their captain. "Can't you summon your thundercloud to fly us there?" she asked causing Luffy to sigh.

"No," he replied confusing all of them. "There isn't enough moisture in the air to support a cloud, and if I did summon one it would just dissipate shortly after being summoned," he said causing all of them to groan. "Plus, even if I could summon one I wouldn't," he said causing all of them to look at him with a betrayed look on their face.

"But why?" Nojiko asked.

"It's your punishment," he said causing all of them to look at him with confusion written all over their faces. "This is your punishment for what happened by at Little Garden with all of you and Mr. 3," he said causing a look of realization to flash across all their faces.

"I still don't get why we are being punished because of that," Nami grumbled.

"Maybe it is because I thought each of you Haki and there were 8 of you and two of them and yet you still got captured," Luffy added raising his voice slightly causing all of them to look down and remain silent. "Now stop all of your arguments and save your energy we still have a way to go and the sun won't be setting anytime soon," he added before focusing on journey ahead of them. Ace just looked on at his little brother and smiled.

**Night**

They walked all day until nightfall where they found a nice place among some rocks to pitch a couple of tents and camp for the night. Johnny and Yosaku along with the girls helped pitched the tents while Zoro and Usopp got a fire going while Sanji got the food they were going to cook ready. Luffy, Ace, and Chopper were lying on the ground with their back braced against a rock looking up at the sky enjoying the cool desert atmosphere.

"Wow, look at all those stars," Chopper said with a smile as he looked up at the countless stars in the night sky.

"No, the skies above the Drum Kingdom is filled with snow clouds so I never get to see them before," he said in a happy voice.

"How can you three just sit there," came to voice of Nojiko getting their attention. "Aren't you cold," she said as she hugged herself.

"Devil fruit," Ace said.

"Devil fruit," Luffy said.

"Fluffy fur," Chopper said. Nojiko looked at the three of them with a jealous look on her face before she walked to go sit next to the fire. Luffy then got up and spoke.

"I got to go take a leak," he said before walking off to find a place to relieve himself. He found a spot some distance away from their campsite and went behind a rock and did his business. When he was finished, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small Transponder snail with a single button on its shell. He pushed the button causing the snail to wake up and began calling someone.

*purupurupuru* *purupurupuru* *purupurupuru* *Chacak*

"Hello?" came the voice of Gem over the transponder snail.

"Yo," Luffy replied.

"I want you to see if you can get your hands on that Dance Powder that Crocodile has," Luffy said.

"Dance Powder? I heard some of our new recruits talking about it earlier today," Gem said through the snail.

"Find out where it is and steal it," Luffy ordered. "It was made illegal by the World government, but it still fetches a hefty price on the black market," he added causing Gem to chuckle before he replied.

"Looks like we got our first product to sell on the black market," he said causing Luffy to chuckle as well.

"Indeed, I'll be in touch, call me when everything is done," he said.

"Aye, Captain,' Gem replied before they both hung up the phone. Luffy then put the snail away and began making his way towards the campsite. When he got there Sanji spoke to him.

"Dinner is ready, captain," Sanji said as he picked up a stick with dinosaur meat on it and handed it to Luffy.

"Thank you," Luffy replied before he went and sat down next to Ace and Chopper and eat his dinner. After he finished eating, he gave a yawn and stretched before he laid against the rock and pulled his straw hat over his face and went to sleep. Ace and Chopper got up and went next to the fire with everyone else giving Luffy some space to sleep. As Ace sat down eating his dinosaur meet Vivi was the first to speak to him.

"He looks so peaceful when he is asleep," Vivi said causing everyone to look over at the sleeping Luffy. "It's hard to imagine he can be so cold when he is awake," she added causing Ace to chuckle.

"Yeah, we've only been together now about a month or so," Nami said as she took a bite of her meat. "So, it is understandable that he won't open to us just yet," she said while everyone nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, and even then, there might be some things he probably won't share," Ace said causing them to look at him in confusion. "From what I heard from Red-Hair Shanks, Luffy wasn't always this serious and cold he used to be a lot happier and easy going, but apparently something happened when he was young that turned him into what he is now," Ace said before he picked up a cup of water and drank it. "Shanks wouldn't say what and Luffy never told me about it so I didn't try and pry," he said while looking at his sleeping brother.

"I don't really care what his attitude is," Zoro said getting their attention. "He saved my life when we first met so I'll follow him to the ends of the earth and back," he said with conviction causing everyone else on the crew to agree with their vice-captain.

"It's nice to know my brother is in good hands with some good people," Ace said with a slight bow in his head causing all of them to blush slightly while over with Luffy a small smile could be seen forming on his face.

**Next Day**

At the break of dawn, the next day Luffy began to stir. He got up and stretched before he began dusting the sand from his clothes. He looked around and saw that he was the first one up. Wanting to get an early start he walked up to the two tents with an evil grin on his face before he extended both of his hands with all ten fingers pointed into the tent.

"Electro Murder!" he called out causing ten bolts of lightning to come out of his fingers and shocked his entire crew. He made sure to lower to voltage so it would cause some pain but not enough to kill them.

"AHHHHHHHH!" they all yelled as they were shocked.

"Rise and shine," Luffy said before he walked away.

"Time to wake up, I want to get an early start walking before the sun becomes too hot," he said. Nami was about to yell at him but stopped when she realized that it made sense to do that.

"That made sense," she said before going bk into the tent to get ready. Luffy had to wait about thirty minutes before they got everything ready to go. Once everything was packed, they all set out one again for Yuba.

**Evening**

Luffy and the crew had been trudging through the desert all day and are currently on the final leg of their journey to Yuba. Nami and Vivi were currently riding on a camel that they saved from being eating alive by some sort of desert plant, Chopper was still riding on Luffy's shoulder and everyone else was just walking along. The straw hats and Ace went their separate ways after Ace ran into a bounty hunter that he was looking for and got the information he needs on Blackbeard. Before he left, however, he left Luffy with a piece of paper which Luffy knew exactly what it was.

"Luffy, what was that piece of paper that Ace gave to you?" Usopp asked as he dragged himself along with a walking stick.

"It's called a Vivre Card," he said confusing them. "A Vivre Card is made from part of a person's fingernail which is then made into paper. It is completely water and fireproof but can be torn and given to a cared person that one would be separated from. The torn pieces will point to and move towards each other no matter where they are in the world, allowing one to always be able to tell in which direction the other person is," he explained causing everyone's eyes to widen.

"Wow, really?" Chopper asked from Luffy's shoulder.

"Yeah, it is only made in the New World," he said as he took out his bottle of whiskey and took of sip directly from the bottle. "I have a few sheets of them," he added.

"That's amazing, I never thought something like that could be made from a fingernail," Vivi said in an amazing voice. It was then something caught the young princess's eye causing her to smile before she spoke to the others. "You guys," she said cheerfully getting everyone's attention. "Yuba is just past those rocks there," she said while pointing off in the distance in front of them. "Just one more push and we'll be there," she added with a smile causing everyone to perk up at the thought of this journey to be over. The crew walked through the last leg of their journey, it took them a while but after another 30 minutes of walking, they finally arrived at Yuba...or what was left of it.

"Oh no!" Vivi yelled out in a panicked voice. "the entire city has been struck by a sandstorm!" she said as they stared at the sand covered city.

"I don't know princess," Luffy said as he walked forward and looked around. "This place looked like it was hit by quite a few sandstorms," he stated as he looked around at the dried-up trees, sand covered housed and piles of desert sand everywhere. What was even worse was the fact that there wasn't a single person anywhere. It was as though everyone abandoned the city.

"This place doesn't look much different from that Eremalu we passed earlier," Zoro said as he walked forward and inspected the city.

"Vivi, I thought this place was supposed to be some sort of Oasis," Sanji said as he looks around.

"It looks like the oasis has disappeared. It has been swallowed up by all the sand," Vivi replied in a sad voice. Just she said that everyone heard some noise in front of them. When they all looked up, they saw an old man with a shovel digging in the ground.

"I assume you are all travelers," the old man said while digging. "You must be exhausted from traveling in all that heat. Sorry, but this town is dried up too, so we don't really have much relief to offer, but still you are free to rest here for a while," he added as he looked behind him at the crew. Upon seeing his face Vivi pulled the hood of her robe and hid her face from him causing Luffy to raise his eyebrow. "We may not have much water but there are plenty of inns here in the town. It is what we prided our self on," he said as he continued to dig.

"Thank you, but we actually came here looking for the Rebel Army," Vivi said as he hopped off the camel. The old man turned and looked at the group with an angry look on his face before he spoke in an angry tone while throwing rocks at Luffy and his crew.

"What business you have with the rebel army!" the man yelled while throwing rocks. "Curse you! If you came here to join the rebel army you can just go back to where you came from!" he yelled.

"Well, that was interesting," Luffy said as he stood there perfectly unscathed.

"If you are looking for those fools you can go look elsewhere, they're no longer in this town," the old man said as he continued to dig.

"They're gone!?" Luffy's entire crew yelled while he remained silent.

"I'm sure you noticed the town was just hit by a sandstorm," he said as he struggles to dig. "That one certainly wasn't the first. With no rain for three years, sandstorms became a common occurrence until little by little the oasis we used to know was slowly swallowed up and the town became what you see now, a dying wasteland," he explained to the crew. "With too little supplies the rebel army could no longer support themselves here, so they moved on. The rebel base is now located in Katorea," he said causing Vivi's eyes to widen.

"Katorea?" she asked in a whisper.

"Where's that? is it close by Vivi?" Nojiko asked while looking at the princess.

"It is near Nanohana, back the way we came from," she said causing Luffy to slump down on a rock and let out a tired sigh.

"Well great, coming all this way was just a waste of time," Johnny said as he sat down on the ground.

"Vivi," the old man said with wide eyes as he began walking up to Vivi. "Princess Vivi, is that really you? You're alive I can't believe it," he said in a relieved voice. "It's me don't you recognized me?" the man asked he placed his hands on her shoulder.

"Toto," Vivi replied with tears in her eyes

"That's right," the man replied with tears in his eyes as well. "For whatever it's worth Vivi dear, I have faith in you and the king. He's a good man, a through king who would never betray his country. I know it!" Toto said with tears streaming down his face. Everyone just stood there watching the interaction between the old man and the princess.

'Damn, we made this entire trip for nothing, and now we have to make it again,' Luffy thought to himself as he looked up at the night sky. 'It seems I may have to cut their punishment short cause there is no way I'm walking through that dessert again,' he added with a sigh.

"I tried to stop them many times, so many times," the old man said getting Luffy's attention. "But they won't listen to anything I say. The rebellion isn't stopping, and their strength, supplies, and men have reached the limit, however, their intention is to settle everything once and for all with the next attack. They're stuck in a corner with their backs against the wall prepared for death," he said causing Vivi to gasp in shock. "Please Vivi, you have to stop them before these fools tear our country apart!" he begged the princess causing Luffy to sigh.

'Damn, as if the princess didn't have enough things to worry about, he just went and added a shit load more for her to stress over,' Luffy thought to himself.

"Toto my old friend," Vivi said softly as she handed the old man a napkin. "Rest assured we will succeed," she said with a reassuring smile.

"Alright listen up!" Luffy yelled out in a commanding tone. "We'll rest here for tonight while I try and figure out just what the hell we'll be doing tomorrow," he said before he took Chopper off his shoulders and placed him in and ground and began walking away from his crew.

"Where is he going?" Usopp asked as he watched Luffy walk away.

"Probably to clear his head," Zoro said getting all their attention. "If you all haven't noticed by now, Luffy doesn't do anything without a reason. In battle, not a single move is wasted. Everything he does has a reason for it, or it serves some purpose for the future. We just made a long trip through the desert for no reason whatsoever. So, he is probably pissed at himself for wasting all that energy that may have been better spent doing something else," Zoro said to the crew.

"But we didn't come here for no reason," Johnny said to Zoro. "We came here thinking the rebel army was going to be here," he added while everyone else nodded causing Zoro to sigh before he replied.

"Yeah, but if we had spent some time in Nanohana and gather some intel on the Rebel Army we probably would have figured out that they were in Katorea and not Yuba," Zoro said with a sigh.

"I'm sorry," Vivi apologized causing everyone to look at her. "This is all my fault," she said.

"No, it isn't," Zoro said before anyone else could say anything. "No one is at fault, we all just didn't plan as well as we should have," he said to her before he turned and looked at the rest of the crew. "We should all go get some sleep, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow," he said before he walked off to find somewhere to sleep.

**With Luffy**

Luffy walked some distance away from the crew. He was currently on the edge of the town sitting down on top one of the buildings drinking a glass of whiskey. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the same transponder snail he used earlier to call Gem and pushed the button on the snail's shell.

*purupurupuru* *purupurupuru* *purupurupuru* *Chacak*

"Hello?" Gem answered through the snail.

"Tell me you got some good news for me," Luffy said.

"Well, I got both good news and bad news," Gem replied.

"Give me the good news," Luffy said.

"We located the Dance Powder. Crocodile has it in his position. Once you take him out, we should be able to grab it," Gem said causing Luffy to smirk.

"That is good news," Luffy replied sounding slightly happier. "And the bad news?" he asked.

"We found out that Crocodile has Baroque Works agents posing as both rebel soldiers and royal guards," Gem said causing Luffy to chuckle.

"What a devious man you are, Crocodile," Luffy said with a chuckle. "He is trying to cause conflict no matter what. Quite ingenious," he added.

"Yeah, it is...anything else I can do for you?" Gem asked

"Hmmm? No, that's it for now," Luffy replied.

"Okay," Gem said before both hung up the phone. Luffy then put the snail back into his pocket and then downed his glass of whiskey before he jumped off the building that he was sitting on and began making his way back to the rest of the crew. Luffy walked for a while until he arrived at the spot where he left his crew only to find that they were not there. He hypothesized that they found someplace to sleep and were catching up on their rest. The one person that was there was the old man named Toto. He was still digging a hole in the ground with his old worn out shovel.

"I see you're still digging, old man," Luffy said as he stood at the top of the hole looking down at the old man with an emotionless look on his face.

"The water is still here," the old man replied without looking at Luffy. "The dream of Yuba is too strong to be beaten by some sand! The king left this land here to me, so I'll dig out the sad as many times as it takes!" he said with conviction causing Luffy to smirk and grab a shovel on the side of the hole before jumping in with the old man.

"Okay, that let's dig," he said as he started digging the hold with the man. Luffy used armament haki on the shovel to strengthen it as he was digging. He then began to dig the hole a lot faster than what the old man was doing. In just 10 mins Luffy dug a hole 10ft deep causing the old man's eyes to widen in shock.

"You dug that deep in just this short amount of time?" the man asked as he looked around the hole.

"It would have been deeper but I'm just too tired from walking all day," Luffy said as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Why don't you go inside and rest I can handle the rest," the old man said with a smile.

"Thanks, old man," Luffy said before he jumped out of the hold and headed to where he sensed his crew sleeping. He opened the door to the inn and saw each member of his crew on their own bed sound asleep. He looked around and found an empty bed and plopped himself down on it before closing his eyes and going to sleep.

**Next Day**

The entire crew was up bright and early. They were all standing in the stop where they first met Toto the previous day. Toto was standing there as well ready to see the straw hats off.

"I am sorry that there isn't anything more I can do for you, Princess Vivi," the old man said in a sad tone.

"Please don't worry about it," Vivi said with a smile. "Well, we should be off now, Toto," she added.

"Oh wait, here you go Luffy," the old man said as he walked up to Luffy with a small jug with a straw in t. "Here, take this with you," he said as he handed it to Luffy.

"You found water then?" Luffy asked as he took the jug from Toto.

"Yes, I hit a moist level after you left last night," he said with a smile. "That water there is the moisture I was able to extract from the damp sand," he said.

"Thank You! I'll drink this with care," Luffy replied with a smile. The group then set out on their journey through the desert once again this time making their way to Katorea. Luffy had planned to summon a cloud to take them there in no time but there was something he needed to do first. As they were walking, they walked past a dried and shriveled up dessert tree. Deciding to put his plan into motion Luffy plopped himself down and leaned against the tree and folded his arms. His crew didn't notice at first, so they continued walking. Usopp was the first to notice and quickly spun around and yelled at Luffy.

"Luffy! What are you doing over there!?" he yelled/ asked while pointing at his captain getting everyone's attention. Luffy didn't say anything he just closed his eyes and pretend to ignore them.

"Luffy?" Nojiko asked trying to see if he was okay.

"Umm, is everything okay?" Vivi asked as she walked towards Luffy. He looked up and her and spoke.

"I quit," he said confusing everyone.

"What do you mean?" Nami asked while looking at Luffy.

"What does that mean? Quit what, Luffy?" Vivi asked in a confused voice.

"We need to get back to that Katorea place and stop this rebellion thing or else millions of Alabasta people will start fighting and things are going to get really ugly really quick!" Sanji yelled as he walked up to Luffy. "We are doing this for Vivi, so let's go!" he said as he grabbed Luffy by his shirt. Not feeling threatened in any way Luffy simply grabbed Sanji's hand and tossed off the side sending him face first into the sand.

"Vivi," Luffy said getting her attention. "Right now, all I want to do is kick Crocodile's a.s.s and make this country my territory. Do you understand?" he said as he refolded his arms. "Maybe we can keep the people from starting a rebellion, but that won't stop Crocodile. Besides, we won't be able to accomplish anything in Katorea," he said coldly.

"No, that's not true," Vivi said trying to make Luffy understand.

"You want it to work out, so nobody dies in this fight, isn't that right?" Luffy asked as he looked up at her with an emotionless look on his face. "We are up against one of the seven warlords of the sea and millions of your own people and you still want everyone to end up all safe and sound...you'll never win that way," Luffy said coldly as he looked at her. Vivi stood there with an angry look on her face with tears forming in her eyes and his hands balled into a fist.

"Come on Big Bro," Johnny said.

"Can't you show her some sympathy," Yosaku added.

"hang on you two," Nojiko said while looking at Luffy and Vivi. The young princess threw her hood back and yelled at Luffy.

"And what's wrong with that huh?!" she asked/yelled. "What's so wrong with not wanting to see people die or get hurt!?" she continued. Luffy just looked on with an indifferent look on his face.

"Because people die that's why," Luffy replied pushing Vivi over the edge causing her to take a swing at Luffy. Luffy saw it coming and did nothing. He simply allowed it to hit him.

"Stop talking like that! I won't listen to it!" she yelled as she watched Luffy's face turn to the side. "If you keep talking like that, I really am going to hurt you!" she yelled causing Luffy to chuckle at what she just said.

"And let me guess, you think it is only okay for you die huh?" Luffy asked as he turned and looked at the princess. "You think just putting your life on the line is enough to stop this from happening?" he asked as continued to look at her with an emotionless look on his face. Vivi now had tears streaming down her face as she looked at Luffy.

"What else can I put on the line? I don't exactly have anything else to give, Luffy," she croaked out between sobs.

"And here I thought we were friends," Luffy said with a smile causing her eyes to widen. "You got our lives to put on the line," he added causing her to look around at the rest of Luffy's crew and see them all smiling at nodding at her. Luffy then got up and dusted himself off, adjusted his straw hat, and spoke to the princess in a cold emotionless voice. "Now, tell me where I can find Crocodile," he said as he narrowed his eyes.

"Lu-Luffy is right, that does seem to be the quickest way of ending all of this," Vivi said as he wiped the tear away from her eyes.

"Yeah, and we can finally stop wandering around the desert. it was beginning to get old," Zoro said as he folded his arms.

"So, where is he?" Sanji asked causing Vivi to pull out and map and unroll it in front of everyone.

"This where Crocodile is, Rainbase," she said while pointing on the map. "It is a city north of our current location, and about a day's journey from here," she said.

"Good, now stand back!" Luffy said as he looked up to the sky. "I'm going to summon a thundercloud to take us there. As soon as it arrives, I want you all to hop on to it as quick as possible and hold on tight," he as he began to summon a cloud.

"What why?" Nojiko asked.

"Because I am going to need to get it as high as possible to a point where there is enough moisture in the air to sustain it," he explained. Everyone then looked up to the sky and saw a large thundercloud coming down from the sky. It bigger the ones the usually see from Luffy, much bigger. When the cloud was about 5 ft above the ground Luffy yelled out. "Everybody get one!" he yelled as he jumped on the cloud. Everyone else didn't waste any time they quickly hopped onboard the cloud. As soon as everyone was on Luffy gave the mental command to the cloud to take off and so it did. The Cloud shot forward at blinding sleeping kicking up a trail of sand behind it. It then began to climb into the air at a rapid pace causing everyone to hold on for dear life. They were moving at about 100mph and after 1min of flying they were already at about 300ft above the ground but Luffy knew that it was still not high enough. He then increased the speed causing the cloud to climb faster.

"Is it just me or has the cloud shrunk?" Usopp asked as he looked around the cloud.

"No, it did shrink," Luffy replied as they continued to climb.

"What!? How?" Usopp yelled/asked.

"Loss of moisture," Nami replied for Luffy. Luffy simply smiled at her and continued focusing on getting high enough. When the cloud was about 5000ft in the air Luffy stopped it and let it hover there.

"Let's stops here for a bit to allow the cloud to gather some moisture," he said as he plopped himself down and let out a sigh of relief. After waiting for 30 minutes Luffy willed the cloud to move forwards and so it did. "I going to take us to just outside Rainbase," he said as the cloud flew in the direction of the city at about 80 mph.

"Why outside?" Johnny asked as he looked back at Luffy.

"Well, it might draw too much attention if a cloud carrying people suddenly land in the middle of the town," he said with a deadpan look on his face.

"Oh, right," Johnny said while scratching the back of his head. The flew for about another 30 minutes before they came to stop mid-air.

"Okay, we are going to have to go down at the same speed at which we came up with," He said causing everyone's eyes to widen. Before any of them could say anything multiple bolts of lightning came out of the cloud and wrapped around everyone acting as seat belts. The cloud then took a deep dive and began to descend to the ground at about 150mph causing every member of Luffy's crew to scream. When they were about 50ft above the ground the cloud began to level itself out and slowly began to slow down while at the same time descending at a slower pace than before. It took about 4 minutes for the cloud to completely slow down at about 3ft above the ground. "Okay, everyone off," Luffy said as the bolts of lightning disappeared from around everyone allowing them to get off. Usopp, Johnny, and Chopper were the first ones off. As their feet touched the ground, they immediately began kissing the sand.

"Ohhh sweet ground how I missed you!" Usopp said as he kissed the ground causing Luffy to shake his head. As soon as everyone got off the cloud it dissipated into nothing.

"So, that's Rainbase," Luffy said while looking at the city in front of them.

"Yes, that is where Crocodile is," Vivi said while pointing at a golden pyramid with a giant Banana Gators on top of it.

"Well then, let's go," Luffy said as he began walking towards the city. As the group entered the city and were walking through the streets Luffy and Zoro couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.

"Do you guys think that Baroque Works knows we are here?" Nami asked as they walked through the busy streets of Rainbase. It was then Zoro and Luffy caught sight of multiple people on the street holding pictures of all of them.

"Yeah, they know we are here," Luffy replied.

"You see them too?" Zoro asked while looking at Luffy.

"Yeah...they're everywhere," he replied as he looked around.

"Luffy," Sanji said getting his attention. "We are running low on our water supply," he said causing Luffy to sigh before he replied.

"Do you have any money left over from Nanohana?" he asked as he stopped in the middle of the street.

"Yeah, I have enough," he said to Luffy.

"Fine, take Chopper and buy as much as you can. We'll head over and get things started with Crocodile and you can act as our wild card in the whole situation," Luffy said causing Chopper and Sanji to nod and walk off in the opposite direction. "Okay, let's continue," Luffy said before they all began walking towards the pyramid again. Just the straw hats came at an intersection they heard yelled off to their right. When they looked over, they saw a group of Baroque Works agent running towards them.

"Straw Hat!" was the next thing Luffy heard from an all too familiar voice coming from his left. When he looked over, he saw a group of marines being led by Smoker running after them.

"How did they find us?" Luffy asked himself before he turned to his crew and spoke. "Split up!" he yelled out causing all to scatter in all different direction. Luffy then looked at Smoker and smiled before he spoke. "Hey, Smokey! Bet you can't catch me!" he said as he stuck his tongue out at him before he took off running with Smoker following right behind him while his Marines went after everyone else. Luffy ran around the entire city with Smoker following closely behind him with both taking out random bounty hunters as they go along. After running around for about 10 minutes Luffy was finally approaching Crocodile's main base of operation. He can see every one of his crew standing out in front of the casino except for Vivi, Sanji, and Chopper.

"Luffy!?" Nami and Nojiko yelled when they saw him causing everyone to turn and look at him.

"I think it's time for us to go inside now," Luffy said while running towards them causing them to run towards the casino. When they entered the casino, they saw a lot of well-dressed people gambling completely ignoring Luffy and his crew's presence. The group continued running even though they were in the casino with Smoker right behind them. As they were running, they were approaching the rear of the casino and a door with 'V.I. P' written above it.

"Welcome," a man dressed in a tux said.

"The VIP room awaits you," another man said causing Luffy to raise his eyebrow. Luffy could tell it was a trap, but it was nothing he was all too worried about, so he went along with it.

"Did he just say a V.I.P lounge?" Usopp asked while running.

"Do you think it could be a trap?" Nami asked.

"Maybe...only one way to find out," Luffy said as he kicked open the door. As the doors came open the group found themselves running down a long hallway.

"Hey, captain," Zoro said while running. "the hallway splits up ahead," he said.

"It says VIP's go left and Pirates go right," Luffy read the two signs out long.

"Let's go left!" Nami and Usopp yelled out. Luffy doubts that sign really means anything. He was sure that both would lead to the same place...a trap.

"Sorry, but we're pirate so we are going right," he said causing all of them to groan while he smiled. As they made the turn they came upon a dead end.

"Huh?" was the one thing they all said.

"Straw Hat!" smoker said joining them. Just as smoker arrived the floor gave way revealing it to be a trap door causing all of them to fall through. Luffy and Smoker were the only ones to land on their feet while everyone else well laid out on the ground. Luffy decided to see where they were so he had a look around and saw that they were in a rather large prison cell.

"Well, seems we're caught," Luffy said nonchalantly.

"The bars are made from Sea Prism stones as well," Smoker added as he touched the bars.

"Guess we're stuck here," Luffy said as he took a seat on the bench that was inside the cell.

"Guess so," Smoker agreed as he too sat down on the bench but making sure there is some distance between him and Luffy.

"HOW CAN YOU TWO BE SO CALM!" Luffy's crew yelled.

"Calm down...We have company..." Luffy said as he narrowed his eyes and looked out of the cell. Everyone looked out of the cell and saw a man sitting in a pretty large chair behind a desk staring at all of them with a smug smile on his face. "...Crocodile," Luffy said in a monotone voice.

**CHAPTER END**