13 13: alabasta 2

setting sail as the marines where almost there the crew decided to go to a hidden cove vivi knew about and wait for things to cool down before searching for luffy, alex decided that while waiting it was better to take a nap as luffy can take care of himself in the mean time so there is no point worrying about him. On the way to the cove luffy spot the ship and decided to stretch across the sea to the ship, this causes him to crash into sanji and chopper. Luffy explained how he could never beat ace even before he ate a devil fruit as usopp asked if it was ok to just leave him like that, this causes ace who arrived at their ship to yell out

"Who can win now?!"

as he jumped onto the railing of the ship. Ace them thanked the crew for putting up with luffy and taking care of him, shocking the crew as he is sensible and has manners. Baroque works chose this moment to gather ships and attack the strawhats, but were all destroyed by ace in just one flame fist, shocking the crew with his strength and a little on style.

Luffy asks if ace was sure about not joining them and ace went on to explain how he's chasing a man named blackbeard who was under his command but killed another crew member and running away. So now ace as his commander decided to chase him down and kill him or return him for punishment with whitebeard, and how he caught word he's here in alabasta at a city called yuba.

Alex having woken up during the baroque works being destroyed uses this moment to share some information she gathered from the marines

" That would be incorrect my dear shirtless friend."

"Oh? and how would you know that, this should be the first time you heard of the man no?"

" not true i heard wind of him a little before this"

"then what have you heard?"

"that he was slowly making his way to barano island, and that he we picking up some crew between here and barano.Also you said he killed a crew mate and left? Do you know the reason he killed the crew mate?"

"The guy killed was the fourth division commander called thatch, and he just found a devil fruit. I believe blackbeard killed him for the fruit as it was missing when blackbeard left."

"do you know what the fruit did or at least what it looked like, i have a devil fruit book here i just acquired and can use it to find out the fruit."

"no sorry i wasn't on the ship when thatch showed off the fruit, but it's not like getting a fruit will make him stronger than me so there is nothing to worry about."

"ok just be careful, never know what he's hidden from everyone"

after that talk with ace, alex went back to her branch to relax for the remainder of the journey to the cove. Arriving they are greeted by Dugongs, a type of turtle seal that won't let them land unless they beat them in a fight. Luffy after beating them ends up becoming the master for them as it's a custom the dugongs have where the loser becomes the winners pupil. Vivi after telling them they can't come with them as they can't cross the desert is greeted with puppy dog eyes and whines, causing her nami and alex to get upset with how cute they were being.

"i don't know why, but i feel like we're doing something very sad..."

nami says to alex and vivi after the dugongs put the cute act up, to which they agreed but they didn't know how to solve it.Chopper thought of giving them food so they would stay behind, and the crew left the crying dugongs behind and started their journey across the desert.

"Hey chopper can you train me as we travel now? I even looked for the fruit in the book i got from the marines but couldn't find it."

alex asked when they made their way into the desert

" sure! But we should move a little away so you don't disturb the rest while travelling but not to far so we can still hear them talking so we don't miss anything."

" ok so what you need to do is change into you beast form and human form continuously over and over again until you can get switching between the two down in an instant, then we will add on your human beast transformation and see what you mean when you say extra stuff."

chopper a]explained to alex as they walked behind the group.

"Ok."

alex then shifted into her cat form surprising ace as he recognized her as a mythical zoan which is the rarest devil fruit to have with the only one he know about being marco the first division commander.

"Seriously?! you have a mythical zoan in your crew! How did you manage to do that?!"

ace exclaimed while staring at luffy in surprise

"mythical zoan? What that?"

luffy asked while tilting his head and looking at ace. the crew including alex and chopper who heard this also listened in as they didn't know what that is either.

"a mythical zoan is the strongest zoan there is and is the rarest devil fruit you can find. The only other person i know that has one is marco the first division commander who can turn into a phoenix, it grants him blue phoenix fire that has healing abilities that make it almost impossible to kill him and let's him use his flames to heal others as well."

"Sugoi alex! what can you do?!"

luffy asked with stars in his eye while looking at alex.

"i don't know, that's why me and chopper are practicing my powers so that i can figure out what i'm able to do or not do."

alex replied as the crew started moving again. alex who was continuing her shifting finally got to the point where chopper told her to try human beast mode, alex's a;ready towering figure grew into a more towering figure and had blue and black fur across her body. Looking at alex you would see what looks like a cat mink but much larger with two tails and black smoke like flames leaping off of here every once and awhile.

"woah this is cool!"

alex says while looking down at herself, luckily her clothes changed with her as she would've tried to kill the males for seeing her naked if they didn't.

" hey chopper i'm going to try and use the other stuff like i said before"

"ok just let me go closer to the rest so i'm not affected"

alex then move the energy she felt thing before the heat and darkness to see if she can do anything with them, this causes he tails to change, One tail burst out in flame while the other was surrounded with a murky black substance that gave of a feeling of ruin and eternity. Ace when seeing the flame and black object is shocked but asked alex if she is able to use them both at the same time or if she can only use one at a time.

" well from what i'm feeling they should be able to merge the fire and the black thing that looks and feels kinda like a shadow into one thing. This should theoretically make them stronger than if they were by themselves, but i dint have enough control over them yet to be able to manage it."

alex explained after she changed back into g]human form. deciding she is done testing her powers for the day she joins the rest of the crew as they continue their journey before settling in for the night.