Flevance

"…and, and then the kid used flour to ward off that brat Gion! Bwahahaha"

"This isn't funny Garp! From this report this Rex is around sixteen years old, with the strength of a captain, maybe even a commodore, and is suspected of having conqueror's haki as well as an Ancient or Mythic Zoan! He's a genius tactician, a brash risk taker and now we've lost him!"

"So he's just like you then! Bwahahaha!"

Sengoku's brow twitches. While he had noticed the similarities between himself and Rex, now that Garp pointed it out, they were similar. Both he and Rex used their brains to beat out others who used their fists, both of them wielded high-level Zoan fruits, possibly Conqueror's Haki, heck this 'Kid' fellow was rumored to be as brash and annoying as Garp.

"What bounty should I give him?" Sengoku asks, hoping his old friend would give him some good advice.

"Isn't he going to the North Blue?" Garp asks, recalling that Marines in the West and South blue confirmed he wasn't there. "Just give him the exact same bounty as that cocky brat, Doflamingo. With that, those two chuckleheads will kill each other, and we can just eat donuts and senbei."

Sengoku clenches his fist at Garp's lazy behavior, but has to admit, his tactics were sound. If Sengoku made Rex's bounty equal to Doflamingo's and told the news they were equivalent threats, that would shake Doflamingo's power in the North Blue. He wouldn't like that and the two would likely clash weakening them both.

While Sengoku didn't feel that Rex could compare to Doflamingo, who was stronger than most Paradise Pirates, he felt that Rex might be able to take out some of Doflamingo's officers.

Plus, if Doflamingo was looking for Rex, he couldn't be doing more concerning things like threatening the Ope Ope no mi purchase in a few weeks.

Sengoku smiles, ratifying the new bounty.

(The Next Day)

In the North Blue, the massive King Gucci finally touches down on the sea with Kid retracting the metal wings.

"Haha! We made it!"

After 14 years in the South Blue Rex, Killer and Kid had finally left their home sea.

"Where should we go first!?" Kid asks eagerly. "Are we going to fight Doflamingo, or loot the Germa Kingdom or fight the Corrupt King!?"

"First, we're going to a town called Flevance."

"Flevance?" The crew puzzles, the name sounding oddly familiar.

"You mean that cursed town with the plague?" Killer asks, recalling seeing that name in a newspaper years ago.

"The very same."

"Why would we want to go there?"

"I heard that the Flevance plague melts your skin! I know I can grow it back, but I like my skin!"

"Skin melting? Sounds great!"

Soon the entire crew has expressed their opinions, most being afraid.

"You lot should learn to never judge a coat by a cover, the insides are far more valuable. Jakekeket!" Rex laughs. "Set the course, helmsman."

Meanwhile, all across the North Blue, a controversial newspaper was floating around.

"Vesta Rex has now been elevated to number 1 most dangerous pirate in the Four Blues! His bounty has been raised to… 87 million berries."

"Oh, 87 million exactly? That's interesting. Let me guess, he just entered the North Blue." A grinning figure says, lounging back on his chair at the head of a large dining table.

"Y-yes! How did you know?"

"Fuffuffuffu! The Marines are trying to use this kid to distract me from the Ope Ope no Mi deal. What fools!"

Donquixote Doflamingo laughs uproariously at this. It was astonishing that the Marines thought that this useless trick would work.

"Still, Doffy, when this news spreads…" Diamante says, concern in his voice. "I'm just afraid that our clients will begin to look down on us, making moves on our operations."

"If they do, I'll just kill them."

"Wouldn't it be easier to kill this brat Rex and be done with it?" Pica offers.

"No, while Vesta Rex isn't as strong as I am, him escaping a Rear Admiral shows that he is resourceful. The timing it just isn't right at the moment." Doflamingo says with a conflicted expression on his face. "Still, those devil fruits…"

Doflamingo shook his head, quelling his desire for Rex and Kid's fruits. He knew that the moment he took his eye off the ball with the Ope Ope no Mi, it would be gone. He couldn't afford to split his attention with this Vesta Rex.

"Has Trebol made any progress in finding Corazon yet?"

"No." Diamante says with a scowl, recalling the traitor. "There are rumors however, of someone matching his description flitting through hospitals in the North Blue looking for a cure for Amber Lead syndrome."

"My dear, sensitive brother." Doflamingo sneers. "Tell Trebol that if he hears of this Vesta Rex to extend him an invitation to join our Donquixote Pirates."

"And if he refuses?"

"Then kill him."

(Several Hours Later)

"So this is the famous silver city, huh?"

Flevance has long been abandoned and is decrepit and barren. The city that had once sparkled silver with amber lead had long tarnished to black with years of poor care.

"Don't touch anything, in the city and wear these." Kid says, handing out some gasmasks and protection suits he had gotten from Torino kingdom.

Rex had decided to sit out the mission to Flevance, feeling that Kid was good to run a mission by himself. Besides, he had other important tasks to attend to like training his newest Tiger-Print move.

Kid looked at the ominous, ghost city with scrutinizing eyes. He had been told that the Amber Lead syndrome wasn't contagious, he wasn't sure that there was no small particles of Amber Lead floating in the air. It was best to be cautious.

"Why are we here?" Jidanbo asks curiously. "There doesn't seem to be anything of worth on the island. If there was, looters would have long taken it."

"Tsk tsk tsk. You underestimate the desire for life." Kid chided, knowing that there was no chance that even a single looter had visited Flevance. He brings his gloved hand to the door of a house to prove it. "You see how all this rust is continuous, without being broken. If a looter had broken in, it would be jagged, but it isn't."

Jidanbo and Killer looked at Kid as if he were an alien, surprised that the arrogant, murder Kid could be so intelligent and coherent.

"What did the captain even say we were here for?" Killer asks, not liking this area.

"Captain said we're here to get detailed maps of a shipping network that spans the North Blue."

"You mean…"

Kid smiled, nodding to Killer's supposition. He had loved the idea, using the amber lead shipping routes to navigate the North Blue.

After all, in superstitious fear of the disease, Marines and sailors refused to use those shipping routes, afraid that there was 'remnant pathogen' in the air. As such, they would make a perfect route for the King Pirates' personal use.

What's more, the King Pirates were only able to buy incomplete maps of the North Blue when they were in the South, so they needed more maps to navigate the sea area.

"Ok, let's split into teams. Me, Jidanbo and Killer will search the upper town for maps and valuables. Bonney, you lead half the crew to search the low town. Gem, you search the mines with the other half."

"Yes captain!"

The crew then splits up, Killer and Jidanbo following Kid to the upper town.

"Do you really think that the merchants didn't take the maps with them when they fled?"

"Fled?" Kid says incredulously. "Who said anybody fled?"

Killer's expression is confused, then twists into horror.

"You can't mean…"

"Barring three members of the Flevance royal family and one little boy, there are no survivors of the Flevance catastrophe." Kid explains grimly, recalling the stories Rex had told him. Kid had to admit they were pretty grisly.

"When the disease started, the island was quarantined, their ships impounded." Kid continued. "Hundreds tried swimming away but either drowned or were shot by the Marines. There were no escaped merchants, there were no escaped people at all."

"A little boy?"

"The captain said it's not important for now."

Killer nods, recalling Rex's tendency to know things he shouldn't.

Then, the three scour the upper town, house by house. Most of the gold and precious metals have rusted, making them worthless, but they do get a tidy sum in paper Berries.

They also find dozens of corpses that the Marines hadn't found in their corpse elimination. They were only skeletons now, making it impossible to even know who they were.

These people were all once wealthy and noble. Now they were just bones on the floor of abandoned houses.

Still, Kid knew Rex would be ecstatic. If there was one thing that definitely didn't rot, it was the nobles' clothing. He had looted dozens of high quality jackets which would undergo a thorough cleansing before being reword.

Of course, on top of these side expeditions, Kid had found the maps he had been looking for as well as many journals of the deceased that had survived. After a thorough cleansing, these too could be put to good use.

"Ugh, another skeleton!" Kid groans, stomping it into powder. "These Flea-bag people should have at least had the decency to die in the wilderness so their bodies wouldn't be so cumbersome!"

Jidanbo just sighed. Sometimes, he was jealous about Kid's cavalier attitude about death.

"Well, at least we've finished with the looting." Killer says, patting off the dust on his hands. "We should leave now."

"Nope, we've got one more place to hit."

"Where?"

"The palace."

Kid's eyes light up with dollar signs as he looks towards the massive palace. Killer clenches his swords tightly before slowly walking towards the building, an ominous feeling in his gut.

"Why are we even checking this place? Didn't you say that the royal family escaped?"

"Yes, but they did so in secret, so they probably didn't have time to get all their wealth with them."

The inside of the palace looks like something straight out of a horror movie. Black rusted walls and ceilings makes it appear eerily dark and the corpses in various states of decay seals the look.

As opposed to most of the houses which had a bit of amber lead in them, the palace was completely made from the stuff. None of these people ever stood a chance.

From the clothing of the dead, they varied broadly from nobles to slaves, but all died the same way. An interesting commentary on how social status can't protect you in the end, unless you're king that is.

Like Kid expected, the Royals didn't have much time to take their treasures. The armory, treasury and food reserves are all more or less full, with scarcely little being taken.

Kid shakes his head as he sees the piles of dead bodies in front of the food reserves. They had likely been locked and the royals didn't even bother to leave behind the key when they left, leaving their guards to starve to death.

The food was mostly rotten, and the few non-perishables were probably too dangerous to eat. In the end, Kid just takes the treasure and weapons, before leaving.

As they depart, Kid, Killer and Jidanbo have grim looks on their faces. The scenes in there were mortifying. Mothers cradling their children as they died together, claw marks on the walls of the food reserves, bullet holes in many maids' skulls likely from nobles who didn't want to share their food.

"Kid, crush that palace to bits." Killer says.

Kid nods, using his devil fruit to cause the already decaying palace to collapse in on itself. Then, the three leave, never to return to Flevance again.

(The Next Day)

"Cursed Town finally destroyed." Rex reads apathetically. Inadvertently, his destruction of Flevance had served to hide the news of his appearance in the North Blue.

Rex had read his bounty a few days ago and was shocked by the spike. Rex himself now had 87 million on his head with Kid, Killer and Bonney having 52, 47 and 44 million respectively.

Gem still didn't have a personal bounty as his devil fruit hadn't been revealed and the Marines thought he was just a trainee but the crew in general got a bounty of 100 thousand a member. The other officers like Pan and Shelly were now sitting at the mid 20 millions for a pretty hefty total crew bounty.

Rex couldn't understand what he had done to piss the Marines off so much, but there was another piece of news that surprised him even more.

'The 'Crescent Moon Hunter' Catarina Devon escapes Marine custody with help of Marine-turned-pirate, 'Black Cage' Hina. Devon and Hina are now at large in the East Blue.

It is suspected that Hina's corruption first started when she aided the King Pirates in robbing the marine base in Sorbet.'

"Bull****!" Kid swears loudly, throwing the paper on the ground. "There's no chance in hell that goody-two-shoes went and became a pirate. It's more likely that that old gas bag Marine marshall became a pirate than Hina!"

"Oh is someone worried about their cute little Marine girlfriend? Come tell aunty Bonney all about it!" Bonney says, aging herself up into her 40s and making a kissy face.

"Shut it Bonney!" Kid roared. "She's innocent and that's that. I just don't want her perverting the name of real pirates like us!"

Rex couldn't help but agree, it was unlikely that Hina would betray the Marines. There was something bigger going on here. Maybe Devon hypnotized her or maybe…

"Damn it!" Rex shouts, having figured out the answer. "Devon played us all!"

Kid looks confused, but Rex doesn't bother answering. Instead, he looks at the picture on the newspaper seeing 'Hina' shooting a marine in the head.

Everything was in order, but if you looked really closely, you could see a whip clasped to Hina's belt. No one else would even know to look for such a thing, but for Rex who knew about the fruit Devon would wield in the future this was a dead giveaway.

Still, all Rex can do is sigh, tossing away the paper.

"Hey captain, did you read this to the end?" Bonney asks, reaching the last section.

"What is that?"

Rex then grabs the paper and reads the last few paragraphs.

"DAMN IT! Where's the nearest Marine Base!? I'm going to kill them all and feed them their own words! Daring to call me such things! Those Bastards!"

Rex rushes into a training room, viciously punching a training dummy until it shattered to pieces.

Kid then picks up the paper, reading it softly.

"The Marines have denounced Vesta 'The Lascivious' Rex to be a vicious, depraved, sex-crazed maniac. Witnesses say that he takes great pleasure in fighting and pummeling female opponents, using sexually suggestive language and recruiting numerous female maids to service him.

Rex's voracious appetite for sexual pleasure, plus his tendency to be able to switch body forms as confirmed by Marines, make it clear that Rex suffers from body dysmorphia. He has likely used techniques to change his appearance and became a pirate due to being rejected for his ugliness as a child.

Furthermore, some doctors in the south blue have attested to having a patient by the name of Vesta Rex. These doctors, who wish to remain anonymous, claim that they have treated Rex for multiple sexually transmitted infections and further assert that his phal…"

"Enough!" Rex roars, ripping the newspapers out of his crew members' hands. "From now on, we are boycotting the World Economic News Paper! And any marine ship that dares entering firing range will be seized and returned to the Marines with the words 'Caped Devil Rex' carved into them."

Rex then walks back to his office mumbling like a madman. "I'll show you depraved. I'll show all of you!"

Other than Rex, there was one more duo who was particularly interested in the recent news.

"Hey Law, look, your home town is all over the news."

Law slowly limps towards Corazon, his body aching as the amber lead syndrome was setting in.

"So, someone finally destroyed that old palace." Law muttered. "Good riddance."

"Don't worry Law, I still haven't given up. We'll find a doctor that can heal you, then I'll make sure to get you justice for your family's deaths."

Law just looks out at the sea apathetically.

"Sure."

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Omake: Calling Sengoku

Call 1:

-Buru Buru!

Rex: Moshi Moshi, is this Sengoku?

Sengoku: It is. Who is this? How did you get this number?

Rex: I had to beat up a few Marines, but they finally fessed up and gave me your number, now, I've called to talk to you about my bounty.

Sengoku: WHO IS THIS!?

Rex: Oh, I've forgotten my manners, I am Vesta Rex, and I would like to petition for my nickname to be changed. Is there some paperwork I should sign, or something along those lines?

Sengoku: NO! Bounty names are decided by the Marines! Now don't ever call this number again.

-Hang Up

(A few minutes later)

Call 2:

-Buru Buru!

Rex: Moshi Moshi, is this Sengoku. I feel like we got off on the wrong foot.

Sengoku: Don't call me!

Rex: In order to clearly explain my sincerity to you, I composed a song about my woes. I call it, the ballad of the Caped Devil. It's not long, it'll only take up around five minutes of your time.

Sengoku: I'm going to hang up!

… There is a long silence.

Rex: Sengoku! It pains my heart, to see my name defamed so thoughtlessly

Sengoku! I feel the hurt, I want to reinvent myself more peacefully

Sengoku! There's nothing in the…

-Hang up.

(A few seconds later)

Call 3:

-Buru Buru!

Sengoku: STOP CALLING ME!!

Rex: …world that I desire, oh, more ceaselessly

Sengoku! I feel that you have misconstrued me ruthlessly

SENGOKU! I WONDER IF…

-Hang up

(Several Minutes Later)

Call 15:

-Buru Buru!

Rex: …so if you know my pain you will re-define my des-tin-y!

FOR I AM, THE CLOAKED DEVIL!

YEAH I AM, THE CLOAKED DEVIL!"

… There is a brief pause after that.

Sengoku: Is that accursed song finally over!?

Rex: Yes, now, I move onto the limerick! There once was a man, Sengoku…

-Hang up

(An hour later)

Call 77:

Rex: Moshi Moshi, is this Sengoku?

Garp: No, this is Garp.

Sengoku (in background): Garp you bastard, give me back the phone it might be important!

Rex: No, keep the phone Mr. Garp, I'd love to talk to you. Have you ever felt that Sengoku unfairly demonized you? Treated you poorly despite all your actions having been done in good faith? Criticized you for being who you are?

Garp: Eh, sure, sometimes.

Sengoku (in background): Who are you talking to!? Is it that brat, Vesta Rex!?

Rex: Great! Then join my campaign! Change Vesta Rex's title to Cloaked Devil! I vow to call Sengoku ten thousand times until he changes my name!

Garp: Excellent! I'll join you in your cause. I will eat ten thousand of Sengoku's senbei and bother Sengoku ten thousand times. No, I will do it ten thousand multiplied by ten thousand times! So that's, uhh, a lot of times! Bwahahaha!

Sengoku (in background): Garp what are you talking about give me back my phone!

Garp: Sure, take it! I have to start my mission! Oh senbei, where are you?

Sengoku (on phone): Who is this!?

Rex: We are protestors united! While you may try to silence us, the many will overcome the few! Your reign of terror will end soon Sengoku! Caped Devil! Caped Devil! Caped Devil! Caped De…

-Hang up