What would you do for a fruit?

The sun beat against the ocean water, with its light-reflecting back onto itself. It was midday, with not a cloud in the sky, the waves bashed against the hull of the ship, pairing with the gulling of the birds above. Lysander was taking a nap on a hammock he made, a few days prior, catching a light tan, with his new straw hat shading his face from the sun. The hammock swung back and forth as the ship bumped and crashed against the soft waves. Lysander had fallen asleep with a bag of jerky in his lap, along with a half cup of cider he had not yet finished. The cool breeze that bounced off the water made up for the lack of clouds in the sky as it was soothing to the touch. Could anything get better than that?

The group was about a few hours away from Conomi Island, and they were enjoying their last few moments of rest and relaxation.

Somewhere on Conomi Island...

"What's taking her so long? She's supposed to be here by now; she better not have betrayed us." A man with slick black hair and in an expensive-looking suit was heard talking to one of his colleagues: "If she doesn't get here soon, the marines might find us; we can't stay still for much longer; we're already wanted, men." With his shaky hands, he peered open a pair of blinds and took a peek outside, the light of the sun barely illuminating the run-down shack they were in.

His colleague was a big, burly man with some large facial hair. "If we don't get out of here soon, the marines will find us. I say we cut our losses and get out of here." The burly man said, with his arms crossed, he stood next to the only entrance to the room they were in. "Are you crazy? What we have here is an incredibly rare item; we can make a fortune with this, and I know this buyer very well; she is a woman with money; she'll probably pay double the original price for this," the slick man said as he took a bottle of wine from a nearby desk and began drinking it.

His hair was now a greasy mess. He quickly took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Suddenly, a man burst into the room and was frantically yelling, "Captain! Captain!" The man yelled, nearly tripping on the uneven floorboards. The burly man quickly grabbed him and put him in a chokehold. "Are you crazy? The Marines will hear you, and you'll blow our cover!" The well-dressed man stood up from the desk, pulled out a flintlock, and put it up to the man's chin. This island was very dangerous for pirates and criminals alike, as it was riddled with Marines.

The man could barely talk through the chokehold he was in. He then pulled out a piece of paper and held it up towards the captain. The well-dressed man signaled for the man to be released from the chokehold as he looked at the paper: "Pirates attack the town of Mariner's Bay!" The well-dressed man was shocked. As he read, he found out a disturbing truth: "One of the victims identified was a pirate by the name of," the well-dressed man looked up at the burly man with a horrified expression, "Bay Anne Mary!" The well-dressed man nearly fainted from the shock "Our buyer is dead!" The man yelled at his captain, "And our agents have identified the pirate's ship heading towards this island!" The well-dressed man frantically rushed toward his desk, tripping on the floorboards making him fall face first on the ground.

He quickly dragged himself towards the desk and reached up towards the desk frantically moving his hand as he tried to feel for something specific, he then found what he was looking for, a transponder snail he quickly took the snail and spoke into it with a voice full of panic "All agents, stay on the lookout for a pirate ship heading towards the island!" The well-dressed quickly man stood up and wiped the dust off himself. He then ordered the burly man to grab a briefcase containing the rare item and protect it with his life. The man then combed back his hair and rushed out of the shack, loading his flintlock, he ran frantically towards the nearby town, ready to kill the men responsible for his most trusted buyer's death.

Back on the Galaxy Voyager...

Steven wanders around the ship as they wait till they find land, looking for anything new that was missed or is needed. Not seeing anything of need, he comes back up the deck to his crewmate Howell steering the ship and notices his captain sleeping with jerky all over him. Not seeing anything else to do he walks to the side of the ship and starts shifting his hands into binoculars. Putting it over his eyes he scopes around and sees a bit of land but before he could say anything he hears some movement behind.

Lysander had finally woken up from his slumber, he yawned as he removed his straw hat from his face to the top of his head. He took another bite of the jerky as he looked up into the sky, birds flew above him, circling round and round. He jumped up from his hammock and began to walk around the ship, he spotted Howell and Steven at the wheel of the ship. " Oi we should be there soon. Any sign of land yet?" He shouted out to them as he cupped his hands around his mouth, projecting his voice to the steering deck above him.

"Yeah, we're about an hour away from land," Howell shouted back. "We should probably hide our ship when we get there; if a Marine sees our ship, we're bound to be in trouble," Howell told Lysander.

"Yeah you're probably right, I say we dock the furthest away from the main port. That way we don't cause a disturbance. Oi Tea Man, can you spot anyone on the island docks we should worry about?" Lysander said.

"I see land but nothing to dock at so we can try to find another spot to dock or we can try it here? I'm not exactly positive it'll be good considering there's a lot of jagged rocks from what I can see." Steven states out loud to Lysander as his hands start to form again.

"Aye, you make a good point Tea Man!" Lysander said, he hopped onto the ledge of the ship and scouted out the terrain, swiveling his head from left to right, he pointed to a location off in the distance. "There Howell, take us there!" The location he was pointing to was a small clearing not too far from the main dock. It looked to be a cave of some sort, but they had to get closer to get a better look. Lysander quickly started to prepare for arrival as he grabbed his trusty sword and flintlock. "HEHE LET'S DO THIS!" He said, as he grinned from ear to ear, "Time to go fruit hunting"

Howell quickly maneuvered the ship towards the cave, dodging the ragged rocks as he did. As Howell tried to steer the ship, he noticed marine ships docked at the port, but luckily none of the marines onboard seemed to notice the ship as it entered the cave. "I think marines are occupying the island!" Howell shouted towards Lysander.

Steven starts to get the anchor ready as they finish docking in the cave. "Well we just gotta make sure we don't let them see the ship, but should I stay back in case any wandering marines decide to be adventurous?" Setting the anchor down after saying that he also grabs a rope and jumps off to tie the ship down.

"Ok Tea Man, You stay here then, Howell and I will go check out the island, for any sign of fruit activity." The two crewmates then set off into the nearby forest, heading toward the edge of the town.

As the pair enter the forest, they notice a group of people talking amongst themselves: "Are you sure that's the item our boss is selling?" A voice was heard coming from the group: "Yeah, I heard he found it after he took down an entire government ship!" Another man said as Howell and Lysander closely watched the group a big, bulky man with a cigar in his mouth approached the group of men while holding a briefcase, "What are guys doing?" The burly man asked, "We should be getting off this island this instant! Didn't you hear our buyer is dead!" The burly man took out his cigar and puffed a cloud of smoke at the face of one of the men.

"But Mr. Volkov!" One of the men said, "The captain said to stay here and stay on the lookout for a pirate ship!" The man told the burly man, better known as Mr. Volkov, "He's insane! He'll rather kill some low-level pirates to protect his pride than leave and forget about this whole mess!" Mr. Volkov spat out, "But we can't leave the boss," One of the men protested, to which Mr. Volkov gave a menacing stare. Suddenly, his fist became engulfed in flames as he delivered a powerful blow to the man's jaw, causing him to fall to the ground. Mr. Volkov shook his hand, extinguishing the flame. His hand had turned as black as charcoal his hand then fell to the ground, disintegrated into dust as it landed, only to be replaced by another hand. As the leader's right-hand man, Mr. Volkov was suspected of having consumed a Devil fruit. "You all work for me now!" Mr. Volkov declared, pointing to the men who were now tending to the man he had punched.

As the group left, Howell and Lysander tried to process what they just witnessed: "I think that's who has the fruit; he's got to be." Howell told Lysander, "They don't look like ordinary pirates; do you think they're part of a gang?" Howell asked.

"Most likely they work for a gang, but whom? I've heard of people who work in the underworld but could they be apart of it?" Lysander said to Howell, "I say we tail close behind them, my money is that fruit is in that brief case. Plus we have to be careful, that guy has fruit powers."

The duo continued to watch from the bushes, lurking like wolves stalking prey.

"He looks like he has Logia powers." Howell told Lysander, "It'll probably be very difficult to try and fight him." Howell then got up and ran behind a nearby tree, "Let's try and follow him!" Howell whispered as he tried not to be heard.

Lysander and Howell followed the group of supposed gang members for quite a long distance. They reached a clearing to where they stumbled across a large group of people. Volkov then ordered a numerous amount of people to do something, but the orders couldn't be heard by Lysander or Howell. Volkov then handed the briefcase over to a worker before he entered a small building.

"There are lots of people here, do you think they all work for Volkov?" Lysander asked Howell

"Seems likely," Howell responded, "but what did he mean by; You all work for me now!" Howell asked, and as he did, a group of men came out of the small building, all carrying boxes of what seemed to be weapons and money.

As the last of the men left the building, Volkov emerged, "Have you got all the money?" Volkov shouted, "Yes, we've got all the weapons as well!" One of the men answered, "Good, the sooner we load all this on the ship, the sooner we can leave." Volkov said as he pulled out a cigar seemingly out of nowhere.

smoking it, he turned back to face the small building. "We can't leave any evidence, I'm going to burn this old shack. It might distract the marines long enough for us to leave," Volkov shouted as his finger suddenly caught fire. He then lifted his burning finger towards the home. He then rubbed it on the wall of the house, setting it on fire, and much like his hand, his finger also became ash and fell off turning to dust as it hit the ground, which also grew back. "What about the boss?" One of the men interjected. Volkov turned to face the man. "Forget him; the sooner he's gone, the better off we are. No more listening to his horrible ideas or risking our lives for a buyer who might not even show up." Volkov shouted at the men, who also seemed to agree. The group then loaded up into a carriage.

"They're leaving!" Howell shouted as he pulled out his sword and ran towards the carriage.

"Wait! Howell!" Lysander said chasing after him. He then tackled Howell to the ground before any of the men could notice the sudden disturbance.

"We have to play this smart! We don't want to get caught ya know! They said Marines are on this Island as well, we don't want to fight unless we have to. We should think of a plan first."

Howell looked up at the carriage as he tried to conjure up a plan. "We should go get Steven; he can look around the shore and look for a ship that's being loaded up with supplies; it's unlikely that they're docked at the port since there are many marines there." Howell looked up at Lysander, "From what we've seen, he probably has an ash logia. How do we fight that?" Howell asked Lysander.

"I have no clue, I've never seen a logia before. I'll give Steven a call." Lysander pulled out his transponder snail and began to ring Steven. There was an answer on the other line, "Oi Tea Man! Be on the lookout near the shore, there is a possible shipment heading out to the dock, we need you to occupy the dock!"

"Got it captain." After ending the call with Lysander, Steven checks the rope ensuring it's secure, and starts to walk out of the cave, checking out the nearby docks with his hand binoculars and not seeing anything yet, he waits. Making a plan, he finds higher ground closest to the docks and gets set in a crouch with his binoculars watching over the docks.

Noticing movement from in town he sets up and starts shifting his arms into a sniper rifle barrel with a scope over his eye. Seeing and even hearing the loud shouts of the bandits that are walking towards the docks, he takes action and starts shooting tea bullets everywhere. Hearing even more shouts, he continues shooting ensuring that they aren't going anywhere any time soon.

As the duo tried to follow the carriage, they heard gunshots from a nearby town as a man began to scream, "Face me, you damn pirates!" The man yelled as more shots were fired towards the sky, "I'll get my revenge for the murder of Bay Anne Mary!" The man continued, and Howell and Lysander looked at each other in confusion, "What's happening over there?" Howell asked.

"I don't know. We should go try to get a closer look at them, I've got Tea Man covering the dock so we should be fine to investigate."

As the duo enters the town, they spot a well-dressed man walking drunkenly while shooting at the sky, while a group of men are following him. As the well-dressed man takes a swig from a bottle of liquor, one of his followers comes up to him, "Are you sure this is a good idea? The Marines will be here soon." He asked the well-dressed man, "Relax; as soon as we kill these pirates, we will leave." The well-dressed man said, as he was about to take a drink from his bottle of liquor, a shout was heard, "Stop right there!" Before the well-dressed man could even process what he just heard, a group of Marines emerged surrounding his group, "Ale D. Miller, leader of the Ale Gang and wanted for hijacking a Marine ship, killing everyone on board, and stealing an item from the world government." One of the marines shouted, the marines suddenly raised their weapons and prepared to fire, the well-dressed man also known as Miller, pulls out a bottle of beer seemingly out of nowhere and begins drinking it, as he does a yellow liquid begins to drip off his arms, as Miller finishes his drink he raises his hand towards a group of Marines suddenly a large jet of the liquid bursts out of his hand causing the marines to get launched backward, the marines that managed to dodge the stream but still get some of the liquid on them suddenly start to act tipsy and are now drunk, Miller than launched the liquid to all the marines, all of them being launched by the strength of the liquid or start to become drunk, as Miller was fighting the marines a man came running towards Miller, "Boss, boss! We found the pirate ship; it's in the cave near the shore!" The man shouted at Miller, "Ha! Let's go, men." Miller then stepped over the drunken marines and started following the man.

Still shooting, Steven notices more people coming towards the cave and starts to pick up speed and changes the sniper barrel into a mini gun. Blasting everybody that gets close to the cave and with his foot he calls up his captain on the transponder snail. "Hey captain, they're getting closer to the cave; I'm holding them as far back as possible but they just keep coming. I'm gonna need some back up over here soon or the ship's gonna be found."

Lysander quickly ran back through the forest toward the cave, the speed he ran with was immense and powerful. It was like a deer, zipping and zagging throughout the tree lines. Hoping bushes and logs, Lysander moved into a state of total concentration, siliva spilled out his mouth as he was in a trance like state reaching the nearby cave.

As he got closer and closer to the cave, the shots of bullets and tea blasts could be heard, gradually increasing in volume with every step. The gang members were now just surrounding the cave entrance.

Howell followed closely behind, and as the pair reached the entrance, they heard a laugh: "Kamamama!" The strange laugh made Howell stop in his tracks right behind Lysander, and as he looked behind him, he spotted Miller. "Come out, you filthy pirates!" Miller took a swig of liquor and said, "I have over four hundred men working for me!" Miller then signaled for one of his followers to hand him a snail. Miller spoke into the snail, "All agents, you are now free to attack the town and loot everything." Miller returned the snail to his follower, "That should distract the marines enough for us to kill the pirates and flee." Miller then noticed Howell and Lysander and stopped in his tracks. Before Miller could react to the duo, Howell charged toward Miller, sending a strike to his arm with his sword. Miller's arm transformed into what appeared to be a beer keg and blocked Howell's sword. He then punched Howell with his changed hand, the strength of which caused him to go flying. Miller then launched the liquid, which Howell dodged but was now heading toward Lysander. "Look Out!" Howell shouted.

Lysander quickly tried to evade, the liquid but it hit Lysander in the face, sending him flying into a rock. SMACK! Lysander was launched into the rock cave wall, his head had smashed against the rock, between this attack and the attacks from Mary Anne, this guy's attacks were much more powerful. Lysanders eyes began to roll back and turn white as blood seeped from his head.

"This can't kill me, right? I'm spinning, why do I feel drunk all of a sudden" he thought to himself as his body slid down the rock wall.

"I guess I used too much power. Oh well!" Miller said as his hand turned back to normal, "I'm guessing you guys are responsible for killing my number one buyer." As Miller was about to take another sip from his bottle, Howell used his powers to turn his sword into a sort of ribbon and used it to immobilize Miller as he wrapped it around his arms. "You have fruit powers!" Miller shouted, and suddenly his followers charged toward Howell. Using his powers, Howell lifted the stone ground, turning it into a wall, blocking the men from continuing. He then ran towards Lysander.

Howell tried to shake Lysander awake, but he was still knocked out due to his head injury. Determined to still help, Howell hoisted Lysander over his shoulder and tried to get him on the ship. As he limped towards the ship, loud bangs echoed through the cave. With a large bang, Miller broke through. As Howell tried to run away, Miller's hand transformed into a nozzle and he aimed it at Howell. Miller then launched a large blast of beer toward Howell, which he barely managed to dodge. The stream was powerful enough to drill a hole in the cave wall, causing it to crack a little. "Try to run away, you filthy pirates!" Miller shouted as he ordered his men to burn down the ship. Howell tried to fight the men, but the injuries he sustained from Miller's attack almost made it impossible, as he was quickly surrounded by the men.

Lysander had finally woken up from his unconscious state. "Oi Howell san, where's the fruit?" he said as he climbed down from his shoulders. Miller was causing havoc at the cave. Lysander then called out to Steven" Steven sannn! Sail the ship outta here!"

"I'm on it captain!!!" Steven yells out as he starts heading back towards the ship, untangling the rope, picking up the anchor and getting back on to sail the ship out. As he's doing that the other bandits start running at full speed towards the fleeting ship and throwing or shooting at it with whatever they have. Yet nothing reaches far enough and Steven gets the ship far enough away from the shore to sail around the island safely.

Lysander's sudden awakening distracted the men long enough for Howell to run away, "Are you OK? You seem drunk!" Howell asked as he carried Lysander over his shoulders and started to run, "We have to go get to the ship before they set it on fire!" Howell shouted as he dodged more blasts from Miller.

As Howell jumped on the ship, he laid Lysander on the ground and rushed towards Steven, "Get us out of here!" Howell shouted, as they left the cave and it became impossible for Miller and his men to get on the ship, "You won't get away that easily!" Miller shouted as both of his hands transformed into large black nozzles. Miller pulled his arms back and leaned forward. The nozzles started to shake violently, and a large blast of beer launched out of the nozzles, propelling Miller forward almost as if he were flying and now heading straight for the ship.

"I wan-t My fRuit!" Lysander said with his drunken speech. He shook himself off and jumped off the edge of the ship, plunging straight into the deep. He began to dive, but when he touched the water his drunkenness' went away. "That was strange? I felt so off just a minute ago," he thought. Lysander rose to the surface to see the band of gang members shooting their guns and man power at the ship. "I need to find that Logia, and grab that brief case."

"Captain!" Howell cried out, "Get back on the ship; Miller is headed towards us!" Kaleho used his powers on his sword, turning it into a rope and threw it towards Lysander.

Meanwhile, at Conomi Island...

"Goddammit! What is that idiot doing!?" Mr.Volkov shouted out as he saw what Miller was up to: "Now the Marines will get involved! That idiot just had to make our escape even harder!" Volkov huffed a cigar. "We can't escape now; the Marines will probably block off all escape routes to capture all those idiots!" Volkov huffed his cigar once more. "Why does that idiot have to be my brother?"

Lysander had reached the shore, eager to find that fruit he had desperately been searching for. "Howell, take on that beer man! I'm going to grab that fruit." He shouted toward his crewmates. He then began to turn away from them and run into the tree line again, disappearing from their sight.

"I have to find that fruit! If it's what I think then I have to get it." He ducked and darted through the trees, trying his best to avoid the gang members who had now flooded the area. Lysander reached the location where Howell and himself first staked out the Mr. Volkov. The scene was empty and nobody remained in the area. Lysander checked and made sure nobody was looking in this area. He stepped out into the open and began to search the area for any trace of where Volkov could be.

Back on the Galaxy Voyager...

Miller crashed down onto the deck of the ship, breaking some boards on his landing. "You're never escaping me!" Miller shouted towards Steven and Howell. Miller raised his hand, and beer began dripping from it, but before Miller could launch it, Howell rushed in front of him and used his sword in conjunction with his powers to create a shield blocking his blast, and with a swift motion, Howell swung his sword at Miller.

"Howell, distract him for a little while I got a plan!" Steven shouts out as he tries to give help to his captain by shooting his tea shots out to the nearby pirates. Hip firing everybody from where he's at while lowering their numbers, he keeps eyes on Howell's fight and his captain running. Noticing the diminishing numbers, Steven points both his hands at Howell's opponent to give a warning shot.

Lysander continued to stalk out Volkov and his gang, he found some leftover documents and papers, that suggested that Volkov would be leaving at a second docking port. Lysander then went around searching for the dock until he finally came across something interesting.

He looked over toward a stone wall ridge that sectioned off the dock, The second dock was busy with henchmen, loading up a small ship. Off in the distance, Lysander saw Volkov walking down the dock Isle from the ship.

"I want this damn ship on the water and sailing for the next island right now, the more we wait the more we risk getting caught!" Volkov said, snatching the collar of one of his henchmen's shirts. He threw his back on the ground and started to walk toward another group of people. As he was walking Lysander spotted the brief case that carried the devil fruit in Volkov's hands swinging back and forth as he paced around.

"There it is, THAT fruit. I need to get my hands on it right now!"

Lysander without a second thought leaped out into the open, announcing his very presence to the entire group. "Oi, Big man! You got something of mine."

Volkov turned to Lysander, with a look of confusion written all over his face and body. "I'm sorry kid, who are you supposed to be?"

The faint radiance of the sun fell onto Lysander silhouetting him in its light. Lysander chuckled to himself and grinned, placing his right hand on top of his straw hat, he looked up toward Volkov.

"I'm the man, that's going to be Pirate King." Within a blink, Lysander had vanished from his spot and appeared right in front of Volkov. He cocked his right arm backward and swung it into the center of Volkovs face. The punch sent Volkov flying backward into a wall. Lysander then landed and smiled a wide grin. "But first I'm going to be needing That fruit."

A large burst of heat exploded from Volkov as he got up from the rubble of the fallen wall, both of his arms suddenly engulfed in flames with a tarry black smoke rising from his burning arms, the briefcase now on the floor ahead of him. "Pirate King? How would you become king of the pirates if you can't even throw a proper punch?!" Volkov shouted towards Lysander as he wiped the dust from his face, the smoke from his arms suddenly shaping into a fist that hurled towards Lysander.

Lysander smiled and unsheathed his sword and drew it to his right side. A standoff occurred between the pirates. Lysander was determined to take that fruit at any cost, so he quickly launched his body forward heading directly for the briefcase.

The smoke from Volkov's attack suddenly engulfed the briefcase making it almost impossible for Lysander to tell where it was, the only thing he could see was a crackling flame that was approaching him, as the flames grew closer the sounds of heavy footsteps running towards Lysander was heard Lysander quickly drew his sword and quickly blocked Volkov's flaming punch the impact of the punch creating an explosion of air the clearing a small area of the smoke.