15 15: alabasta 4

The straw hat crew after lots of mishaps on the way finally arrived at yuba, only to be greeted by a deserted town with only one old man left living there. Vivi recognized the old man as the rebel leaders father who she knew since she was a kid. He told them about how the town would get repeated visit from sandstorm nonstops causing the water to dry up and the villagers to leave, he also told her that the rebel are now based in katorea which is next to the town from where they came. Luffy stayed to talk to the old man and alex went to stargaze next to him as the rest went inside to get some sleep, luffy asked why the old man was still living in such a place.

"there'll be water. The yuba oasis is still alive. i'll dig it back up as ,any times as it takes, because this is b]very important land the king left in my hands."

Luffy decided to help while dragging alex over as well to help the old man dig a hole for the water

"hey alex go big and help me dig."

luffy told alex when they arrived in the pit created by the old man.Becoming her giant cat form alex quickly made work of digging out a hole as luffy fell asleep in the one he made, causing the old man to carry him inside as he and alex continued to dig

" You can go inside and rest as well you know."

" sorry but i can't leave an elderly to do the hard work by himself, it leave a bad taste in my mouth"

alex said as she continued to dig. After her and the old man managed to dig i giant pit it started to fill with water, seeing this alex jumped out and said goodnight to the old man befor going to sleep on a tree. The next morning the old man apologized to vivi for being unseemly before giving the crew a barrel of water that he and alex dug up the previous night. On the way to katorea luffy sat down next to a tree and said he gave up confusing the crew, who started to yell at him about how he agreed to help vivi so he can't stop now. Luffy went on to explain he doesn't care about the rebellion he only cares about kicking crocodiles ass and how going to katorea is a wast of time as crocodile isn't there before going on about how vivi is to soft for wanting to save everyone snd that people die, it's not that big of a deal. This pisses vivi off causing her to punch him in the face before saying that that is exactly what their trying to stop, and how the people living here be they rebel, army or citizens have t done anything wrong to deserve death when everything is crocodiles fault. Luffy then return punches vivi in the face before asking why she's putting her life on the line before saying he can tell with just one look at this kingdom what needs to be done the most, and saying that one life wouldn't be able to change anything anyways so why try.

"then what should i be putting on the line?! I don't have anything else to put on the line... "

"At least try putting all our lives on the line together! Aren't we friends?!"

luffy yells at vivi waking her up from her illusions that she was alone. The crew then leave to the town that crocodile was in as vivi finally understands he's the main problem, without him there might not be a rebellion anymore, so there is no point going after the rebels like she has been trying to do.

vivi told the crew crocodile was in a gambling town called rainbase, causing nami's and alex's eyes to turn into beri signs. Luffy and usopp complained about the heat causing nami to tell them to shut up as it's not so bad, cashing them to get mad at her as she's riding a camel with vivi, they are not walking like the rest of the crew. After a day of travel the crew finally made it to rainbase.

Zoro pointed out that baroque work will most likely know that they are in the country and on their way to crocodile, and that they know what they look like as bin clay has all their faces before sales mention that he doesn't have her face as she was sleeping at the time.

" I'll see you guy later, i'm going to go get more info and money."

alex says as she walks away from the crew. Alex while walking towards the casino she had a civilian tell her crocodile runs, sees the crew running away being chased by the navy

"i wonder if they got anymore treasure since i last robbed them? Well let's go seee'

alex quickly detoured to the navy ship and again found it just as unguarded as last time, so she made her way though the ship gathering info and what little gold they managed to gather since she last took from them. Leaving the navy ship with another bag of gold alex made her way to the casino where she exchanged the money for chips and went around gambling everywhere. Her an hour passed and she managed to triple her money before cashing out and leaving the casino with suitcases full of beri. Walking into a random alley alex sneaks into a house before stashing the suitcases under a bed and making her way to the closet of the bedroom, there she quickly looked through the closet for anything that would fit her, but she only found an outer coat that would just manage to reach her thighs.

Taking the coat alex switched it for the one she was wearing then made her way to the vanity table where she proceeded to use highlighting and contouring techniques to alter her bone structure appearance making her have a larger nose higher cheek bones and sharper jaw. she also removed her piercings before she made her way back to the casino looking like a completely different person, and making her way inside. She saw luffy bust through the door of the casino with the rest of the crew and start yelling about fighting crocodile, before they were chased by smoker further into the casino casing chaos as they went.

seeing this as a good opportunity alex used the chaos caused but the crew to sneak into the staff only section and change into a pair of clothes she found, making her seem as if she worked there before making her way further into the casino.

Alex having wandered the halls for a bit found the managers office on a top floor, where she checked to see if anyone was inside before entering. looking around the office alex doesn't see a safe but sees multiple, bookshelves and painting

'oldest trick in the book to hide a safe behind a painting or in bookshelf'

alex though before checking very painting and not finding anything so she made her way to the bookshelf, where she then pulled all the books forward a bit to see if there was a trigger on one oth the books. Alex was about to give up on the bookshelf idea when the final book she pulled cause a section of the wall to open, revealing a room with a desk and a vault inside it

'finally! i was beginning to think i might be wrong for once'

alex though as she made her way into the room where she then cracked open the safe and collected the money, before making her way to the desk and looking through the papers.

'Hmmm this is useful'

alex thought as she tucked away a stack of paper before making her way out of the office to continue exploring the casino looking for the main vault of the casino. Alex found the vault in the basement, but she also heard the voice of someone talking to a mister crocodile

'oh can't be caught by him, luffy wants to fight him. best i just grab the money and leave quietly.'

alex though as she walked towards the vault, placing her ear on the door she listened for an imperfection when turning the combination until she was able to gather what the password was to get inside. Walking into the vault alex find stacks of gold and jewels

'well this will be difficult to move.'

alex thought while looking at all the beri

'wonder if i can place them in shadows like i had happen while with the sand pirates? worth a try'

alex thought as she attempted to place some gold into her shadow, and to her surprise it worked, but she still felt as if she was carrying the gold

'so i cam store the objects but i'd have to be able to carry all the objects i store or i won't be able to move them'

Quickly gathering all the gold alex placed it into her shadow before making her way back to the house she stashed her previous winnings, while thinking it's a good thing she was strong enough to carry all the money with her. Alex after getting dressed in her usual attire of chest binding, black tank top, maroon cargo shorts her combat boots, leather jacket and hat, takes off all the makeup she did before stealing from the casino puts in her piercings and leaves in a good mood about her new funds.

while in a good mood alex stumbles across a cafe called Spiders Cafe where she went inside to get food and hopefully drink.

walking inside alex sees a red haired beauty manning the bar, so she goes over and orders her strongest rum.

"isn't it a bit early to get drunk?"

the woman asked after watching alex chug down six glasses in a row while happily humming to herself

"nah, it's never to early to have a good time, especially if pretty woman such as yourself are nearby."

alex said while winking to the woman, causing her to laugh before giving alex another glass. After another five glasses of rum alex is clearly buzzed on the verge of drunk, causing her to start flirting with the woman who turn out to be the vice manager of the place as the manager is away helping her friends with something. Alex after flirting and drinking awhile more finally get the woman to come to a hotel with her where they spend the remainder of the day together, but all good things must come to an end as there was an explosion at the casino causing alex to remember why she was in the city in the first place.

Saying good bye to the clearly satisfied woman alex while still somewhat drunk quickly stumbles her way to the casino where she meets sanji and vivi as they are making their way deeper into the casino, apparently the crew minus chopper sanji and her were captured by crocodile amd were about to be submerged under water. Reaching the underground area sanji and alex quickly beat up the alligators that until one of them spit something out, which turned out to be mr 3 who had the key hidden inside a wax ball. sanji threatened him into useing his power to open the cage before kicking him flying away as the crew ran out of the crumbling room. Sanji ends up having to help alex run as she keeps stumbling around giggling about random stuff

"the hell is wrong with you?!"

he yells after having to pick alex up once again

"sorry i just had an amazing time earlier with this red head and we ended up drunk and spent sometime with each other.Heeheeehee"

"why you bastard! running off with some woman while the rest of us are fighting."

" i didn't know you were fighting i thought we were supposed to gather stuff before meeting up then fighting not just jumping into the fighting bit."

alex says while tripping over her feet and having sanji just end up carrying her as they run toward alubarna.