Summary: Dealing with the Don in ways he won't like...

*Warning* Chapters 22-25 were all released back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Chapter 24: Back to Work

"Sails, ho!"

The shout came down from Usopp, causing the rest of the crew's gazes to sharpen. Given the range of Luffy's Haki, they'd already known these targets were here. But Luffy had chosen not to actively scout ahead beyond that. It was broad daylight this time, and he was still trying to keep most of his abilities relatively unknown.

"Targets confirmed! Two Sloops and a Brigantine! Brig bares Kreig colors!"

Several sharp nods were had at that. This was the group they'd been patrolling the waters here with intentions to intercept. They'd known roughly where they should be, coming back from raiding as they were. And it was time they show back up on the Marines radar, which meant they were going for two captures along with a single 'sinking.' The possibility that there might be captives of some flavor aboard, however, also meant they weren't willing to use the Discovery's guns. Even too much use of them against pirates was risky, as too many reports of unusual guns on an unusual ship would get the Marines paying attention they currently didn't care for. So this time…

"Everyone to your stations! Kuina, Zoro, and I are primary defense. Usopp, Nojiko, it will be up to you to catch anything that slips through!"

Sanji looked pained that as, this time, he wasn't of much use on the defense. The brutal truth was that, while the chef had proven he did have enough leg strength to start learning Soru, he most certainly wasn't up to kicking cannonballs away just yet. As such, he quickly traded places with Usopp, who took over one of the ship's deck guns. It was really meant for broadside use against rigging or boarders, but could swivel far enough around to cover a little less than half of the Discovery's forward arc. Nojiko would take the other half with several thick, pre-prepared Crystal Shields. Any canon fire that made it through their trio of swordsmen would be blocked by either Usopp or Nojiko's second layer of defense.

As for said trio, all three of them were waiting with mild impatience for the range to drop. That was happening fast, since they'd deliberately arranged to come at this group head-on and at maximum sail, in order to limit the time their enemies would have to maneuver or bring fire to bare. At a combined closing speed of 40 knots, the raiders would only have around 4 minutes from sighting them to react, even assuming they spotted them nearly the instant they physically could. That would, most likely, barely be enough time to get a single set of shots off from any forward guns the ships had.

It was also not a normal tactic. Typically, you needed a lot more time-on-target to either sink or board a ship. Even with the relatively nimble Discovery, manned by Nami and with its engines involved, they wouldn't be able to reverse into a pursuit vast enough to matter. They'd have just one shot of their own to board the enemy vessels, and zero chance of a 'normal' boarding action. Instead, they'd be leaping off their own ship as they passed the enemy, with Kaya once again the only one being left aboard to carefully decelerate the Discovery and rendezvous with them later. Nami, Nojiko and Usopp would be working together again, boarding and taking one of the Sloops. Kuina, Zoro and Sanji would be taking the other sloop, with Sanji getting an unhappy lift from Luffy. Luffy wouldn't be stopping to help them, instead moving straight to engaging the Brigantine crew. Whether he'd be able to finish up there before Kuina and Zoro joined him after dealing with the Sloop was the subject of a small betting pool…

"They've seen us! They're scrambling for the forward guns!"

Sanji's call got all three of the swordsmen to launch forward with Geppo, getting into the air in front of the Discovery. A handful of staggered shots began to hit near the ship…and all three of them sighed as they realized they'd been far too prepared. Only two cannonballs got close enough to threaten their ship, and Luffy let the other two deal with them as he ascended to grab Sanji. Sanji grunted unhappily as he was picked up by his jacket. Thankfully, as they sped past the first sloop, his trip at least didn't last long, with Luffy air dropping him in onto the deck with the shocked pirate crew. Kuina and Zoro were already there, and Luffy darted off at his top speed. Well, his top speed without his Fruit, at least.

With that restriction, he only just reached the Brig in time to launch a disabling air cutter down the ship's broadside, where a number of the cannons had been run out by the pirates. His own use of Haki was still far superior to Kuina and Zoro, making that air cutter more than sharp enough to sheer through the canons before they could fire. The maneuver gave the Discovery a clear passage as it zipped by, as Nojiko had used her Crystal Shields to block broadside fire from the second sloop that her team was, even now, boarding. A moment later, Luffy had popped up to the top deck of the Brig and launched a far wider but blunter air cutter to sweep half the pirates on the deck off their feet, without damaging the rigging or masts on the process. Then he was an agent of chaos, in among them as they desperately tried to react to someone too fast for them to even visually track…

The idea of a handful of boarders taking three ships crewed by over 250 men between them should have been absurd. Instead, it was absurdly easy. Every single boarder, even Usopp, could use Soru. Which made only clusters of enemies like those Usopp, Nojiko and Nami had faced in their first boarding action potentially dangerous. Here, the pirates just flat out hadn't been given time to organize to that level. The speed of the attack, the fact they'd been late even spotting the Discovery coming in, and the fact that half of them were drunk off of celebrations about their recent raid, all doomed any attempt they made to get that organized, too.

The fighting was all over in twenty minutes. And after all three groups of boarders had discovered rape victims in among the pirate crews…this time there was no quarter given and not a single pirate was left alive. Sadly, that did mean cleanup was going to be a bit of a bitch. Particularly as they had traumatized and wounded civilians to deal with…

... ...

In the end, they'd changed their original plans and ended up sinking one of the sloops. After taking plenty of photographic evidence, of course. With Luffy and Kaya both needed to deal with the civilian victims, they just didn't have enough manpower to handle all three ships. As much of the stolen cargo as possible had been shifted to the Discovery and remaining Sloop, while Usopp, Sanji, and Nami manned the Brigantine to move it to the hidden cove where they'd stored the other vessels. The remaining Sloop had been taken over by Zoro and Kuina, the pair guiding it in the Discovery's wake. Nojiko, meanwhile, remained aboard the Discovery to pilot it while Luffy and Kaya dealt with the dozen traumatized women that had been recovered from the pirate ships.

That was something they hadn't had to deal with before. And it wasn't at all a pleasant business. Frankly, neither of them were all that sure they could have handled it at all, without copious use of sedative teas and soothing applications of Spirit Energy. Hopefully, the island of Cozia would be able to handle the survivors better than they could. Healing, they could more or less handle. Psychological trauma? Both of them were painfully aware how out of their depth they were on that subject. With mixed feelings about how this had gone, they all set about doing the best they could…

... ...

Thankfully, most of the immediate grimness had faded a week later when they all met up again in the hidden cove where there were now three Brigantines and a Galleon hidden away. They had all been reunited on the Discovery and experienced a mood lifting meal made by Sanji. In better spirts, but with more than a bit of anger still lingering in the air, they all sat down in the ship's lounge to talk about what had happened. Luffy, in his role as the Captain, got the topic started.

"I think we can all agree that this was a bit of a wake-up call. We've been happy enough to pick off Krieg's ships in small numbers up until now. But…he and his men, some of which we ourselves have let go, are doing a lot of real damage to real people out there."

There were tense nods all around the table. Sanji, to everyone but Luffy's surprise, had been all for their little plan to deal with Tequila Wolf. Luffy had kept anyone from pressing him about why, having a strong suspicion the blonde remembered enough of his youth that he probably had a better idea just how fucked up the World Government was than even Luffy did. His knowledge of the man's past was admittedly hazy at this point. The already incomplete knowledge from Alex had long diminished farther under a decade of Luffy's life. But he had written enough of it down to suspect Sanji of a certain familiarity with the monsters in charge. Now, it was the blonde whole lit a cigarette and spoke up next.

"In a way, the damage Kreig is doing is worse than Tequila Wolf. The conditions there might be bad, but even slave labor can't be treated as too disposable. Not if you don't want to constantly replace it. Krieg, on the other hand, is killing freely and…worse."

The table creaked as a smoldering-eyed Kuina gripped it hard enough to break any lesser piece of furniture. Luffy, in a brief moment of humor, was glad he'd built the entire ship and it's fittings with people of monstrous strength in mind. That tiny flicker of humor fled all-to-quickly as Kuina spoke.

"Agreed. I believe we need to stop treating this as a training exercise. We simply assault Kreig's main fortress and wipe out the bulk of his forces. A few of us can move ships while the rest pick off the others as they return."

Luffy hummed in a bit of discontent but nodded.

"We'll likely be facing steep enough numbers to cause even our group some issues. His personal ship almost never raids and has a crew of over 500 all on its own." He ran some quick mental calculations. "He had roughly 50 ships when we started. We've captured or eliminated 13 so far, including one of his Galleons. Roughly half his fleet is out on raiding or supply runs at a time, usually…but that might have changed with so many losses close together. I'd say we need to assume at least 20 anchored ships, with most of their crew on the island. Call the average crew size, excluding the Galleons, at 75 men per ship. We're talking something in the order of 2,000 men once you factor in his flagship. Minimum."

There was silence as they all mulled over those numbers. The Galleon they'd already captured had possessed a crew of just over 300, with the Brigantines all having around a 100 each. That meant that their largest battle where they weren't just sinking ships had only seen them up against about a quarter of the number they were talking about now. Worse, at least a few of Kreig's officers were strong by East Blue standards. Only the Don could hope to stand up to even Nami or Sanji in a fight, but he and his officers would be irritating to deal with while fighting so many grunts. Even in this world, quantity still had a quality all of its own. Even if it was far less potent a quality against people like their crew than the layman was likely to realize.

"Could we bombard the island from beyond the horizon? I know we don't really want to show that ability off, but if it cut down the numbers and split them up as they scrambled to the ships…"

The suggestion had come from Usopp, but Kaya touched his arm and shook her head.

"There's no way for us to know if there are more civilians there. Either more women they've taken for…entertainment. Or even just regular laborers they're using to maintain their base. Krieg seems like the type to conscript captives to build that base and maintain it for his men. Rather than waste his own manpower on the same."

Several people winced at the reminder of what was fueling this discussion, but they all made sounds or gestures of acknowledgement, too. She had a point. A very good point. Which…actually hid another point as well. Luffy diverted them to that one for a moment.

"As for that, I think we're going to have to bring in a bit of help. I actually got the people on Cozia to agree to volunteer some sailors and doctors for us. We left them the Sloop we captured, after giving proof it had been captured to the Marines. With that, they can bring in some people to help with cleanup and shuttling any freed captives back after the fight."

Nojiko smiled at that.

"Good thinking! That will help a lot. Particularly if we just flat out let them have a few of the smaller ships to help people get back to wherever they came from, too. That…still leaves us needing a plan to handle the numbers, though. The original idea to pick off ships was intended to let us avoid exactly this issue."

Sighs went around the table, and a few ideas were tossed out and dismissed as either too destructive or too impractical. There was even a suggestion to bring in the Revolutionaries early, but Luffy shot it down. He didn't know Dragon at all, despite being aware of their blood relation. He could predict that the man wouldn't pass up a golden opportunity to thumb the Celestial Dragons in the eye via the Tequila Wolf raid. But his morals beyond 'fuck the authorities' were pretty much unknown to Luffy. He might be perfectly happy to let pirates cause havoc, since those actions caused their own trouble for the WG. What motivated the man? Morals? Revenge? The simple challenge of it?

Shaking those questions off as useless and unanswerable for the moment, Luffy leaned back and tried looking at their situation from new angles. If they didn't come up with something, the only two options were to return to picking off the Pirate Armada in smaller numbers…or reveal a few cards he'd rather not by opening up with either his Fruit or Conqueror's Haki. The latter would seem like a good option, in a way, if it wasn't for the high probability that the Marines at least had Kreig's base under some level of observation. What to do, what to do? A thought hit Luffy and he paused. Would that…actually work? He hadn't tried that before. But in theory…Nami would learn to do something similar, right?

"Guys, I think I have a crazy idea. But I'm not sure if it will work. Nami, what would happen if…"

... ...

Even as he raced through yet another cloud, altering its electrical charge and releasing a careful mix of potassium chloride, sodium chloride, and silver iodide, Luffy was starting to become more than a little nervous of the front building behind him. His original question to Nami about possibly creating a storm had led to a long discussion between the two of them that the others could barely follow. It turned out that attempts to study the Grand Line for millennia meant that this world actually had a better scientific understanding of cloud formation than memories from Luffy's previous life could provide. A lot better, in point of fact.

The scientists of One Piece actually understood how clouds formed…and how electricity affected clouds. It had taken a bit of explanation from Nami, plus a bit of experimentation to turn the theory she knew into something practical, but they had figured out that yes, Luffy could alter weather by manipulating the electrical fields of clouds. Add in a little bit of primitive cloud seeding and the use of his rarely-touched upon sound-based powers to crudely stir the pot, and there was now a massive storm front building behind Luffy as he raced onward toward Don Kreig's island base.

The Discovery was no where near him, of course. It, along with the captured Sloop that had been renamed Virtuous Rescue, were busy sneaking up on the same island from the complete opposite direction of the storm front. If all went to plan, the two ships would slip into a sheltered bit of shoreline not normally used by the Krieg pirates, the water there too shallow for anything but the fleet's Sloops. Nami would use her skills to make that sneaking possible during the time where the storm would be becoming a visible threat on the horizon for the pirates, causing them to focus inward on battening down their ships and sheltering in their base.

After the storm hit, the rest of the plan would go into action. Luffy, riding the storm in his nebulous ball-lighting form, would direct lighting strikes against several unimportant ships and whatever parts of the base he could be fairly sure weren't inhabited by captives. Meanwhile, the rest of his crew, even a grim-faced Kaya who had insisted on taking part this time, would sneak into the base under the cover of the storm. Using the sounds of that storm, amplified by Luffy's control over thunder, they would engage in a number of smaller fights with an eye to reducing the total numbers of their opposition.

It was a good plan. Now, if only Luffy wasn't very much afraid he'd underestimated the monster of a storm he was creating. This was starting to feel far more like the sort of storm that the Grand Line was supposed to be known for. Not the East Blue...

... ...

"NAMI! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU AND LUFFY DONE?"

From where she was sheltering behind the one of her sister's Crystal Shields, which was literally the only thing keeping her relatively light body on the ground, Nami shook her pale-faced head in denial at Kuina's shouted question.

"I DON'T KNOW! THIS IS WAY MORE THAN WE EXPECTED!"

Kuina glared, but didn't try shouting over the wind again, instead just gesturing for Nojiko to keep the Crystal Shields moving forward as they acted as a windbreak. Nojiko was sweating from the effort of that, having long given up on controlling them telekinetically and instead simply growing them forward and erasing the previous shields as they went. It was working, but their progress was a crawl…even as they saw several ships already being hit by lightning and burning.

This was far more than a simple storm. It was nearly a full-blown hurricane, if a small scale one. It was throwing out random bits of hail and snow, that sporadically shifted to foggy heat, lashing rain, and at least one waterspout that had formed then vanished. It was pure chaos in weather form, and far more than they'd bargained for. Still, there was no arguing that it had accomplished the stated goal as well. No sane person would be outside in this weather, and the base was dead as the pirates hunkered inside. The ships were showing a lot more chaos. But even there, most of the pirates were trying desperately to ride things out below deck.

Five minutes later, they finally reached the rear of one of the largest buildings in the base, and Nojiko sharpened her Crystals to carve their way inside. There were pirates in the room they entered into, gaping at the new hole in the wall…but they were quickly dispatched by Zoro and Kuina before they could even scramble for weapons. Nojiko sagged as she sealed the hole up with her Crystal and Kuina eyed her for a moment before issuing orders.

"Nami, Kaya, say with Nojiko until she recovers. Usopp, you're with me, we'll head left out of the room. Sanji, you're with Zoro and you'll head right. Any civilians encountered, send them back to this room. Otherwise…wipe the pirates out."

There were grim nods and hard eyes at that statement. After their personal look into just how these particular scum operated, none of them were feeling the need to drag them to the Marines. Who would, frankly, just hang them anyway. With the exception of anyone that actively surrendered, or young cabin boys if there were any such, they'd already decided on a no-quarter policy for this raid. With the numbers they were facing, it would have been hard to arrange otherwise. And the storm outside getting out of hand only made that more imperative. They'd all realized independently that it probably wasn't something they wanted getting out…

... ...

The hour and a half the storm had run its course for had been bloody work for all of them. They'd systematically moved through all the auxiliary buildings, gathering up nearly 70 civilians as they eliminated pirates. Hundreds died. Numbers that might have left a scar on the less hardened members of the crew…it not for their rage being renewed at some of the situations they'd found the civilians in.

As with those they'd rescued from the pirate ships, the majority of them were women. Whom who had all be treated roughly at the Krieg pirates hands for far longer than their previous rescues. The handful of men present had been those needed to maintain the base, and hadn't suffered in quite the same way. But they had still been battered and bruised for the pirates entertainments. Their bedraggled state and several missing limbs told a tale of a different sort of horror altogether. Even a coldly furious Kaya had put down a dozen or so men after seeing some of the things done to these people, even if she spent most of her time focused on the surviving civilians instead.

Luffy hadn't been idle either, having abandoned any hope of guiding the storm to stalk among the pirates still battened down in their ships. Many more had died at his hands, a grim task made harder for him by not so directly seeing the horrors these men had committed. Still, he had prepared himself, even if they were all absolutely taking a break after all of this got settled. Killing on this scale was…not mentally easy to adjust to. Even if they'd all agreed it was necessary in this case. As well as inevitable. With the types of crimes the Kreig Pirates were known to be guilty of, every single one of them would have been sentenced to death by hanging or firing squad anyway. The slaughter was changing their fate only in type of execution compared to having dragged the crews to the Marines.

By the time the storm died down there was just one last building left with pirates surviving. Even if the pirates inside had no idea that their 'Armada' had already been decimated. The crew, save for Kaya and Usopp, the latter of who had actually run out of bullets and was helping his girlfriend as a result, all gathered before Kreig's personal sanctuary as Luffy nodded to Kuina and Zoro. They nodded back and each took a single step forward, one blade each striking in a near-impossible-to-follow iaijutsu strike. The pair of deliberately-blunted air-cutters they'd created slammed into the giant steel door…and ripped it off it's hinges, throwing it inward. There were cries of rage and shock from inside as the crew calmly walked through the now-empty doorway.

They strolled into what could only be called a Throne Room. A massive and angry looking man that could only be Don Krieg already standing from the 'throne' as he'd blocked the flying steel door with a punch. Built along the same lines as Garp, though a good foot shorter than that man's ridiculous 9'5" frame, he cut an admittedly impressive sight in the full Wootz Steel battle armor he wore. Despite being armored, however, he appeared mostly unarmed. Not exactly having expected trouble here in his own stronghold, in the middle of a storm. There were other pirates scattered around, only a small handful. But 'Man-Demon' Gin was present, as were two other known officers of the Krieg Pirates. Uninterested in dealing with the dozen or so normal fodder, Luffy spoke a single word.

"Nojiko."

His crewmate understood the one-word order, razer-sharp Crystals flinging out to instantly end the rabble. One of them was shielded by Gin…only for that pirate to die anyway as Luffy fired through the battle-commander's exposed arm with his revolver, the round ending between the eyes of the pirate Gin had shielded with his tonfa. The Don's second-in-command cursed at the wound and burst into motion toward Luffy…only to lose his head as an unamused and just done with this shit Kuina vanished into Soru and decapitated him with one strike.

"Wha-"

One of the other officers barely managed to gurgle out half a word before Zoro did the same to him, with Nojiko and Nami eliminating the other pair of officers present almost as quickly. Kreig was looking shocked at this point and threw himself at Luffy with a roar. But…Luffy was just as done with this as Kuina. His arm vanished into a bolt of lighting that connected with Kreig. The pirate's unarmored head vanished in a splatter of gore, the fight over before it started. Krieg was well known for being incredibly strong…but his speed had been nothing special.

"Sorry, Nojiko, Nami. I'd intended to let you two test yourselves on him, as he was actually quite strong for the East Blue. But…"

Nojiko shook her head.

"It's fine, Captain. I think we're all just ready to be done with this."

Luffy nodded. This was…not the sort of adventure he'd wanted to have. Yet, despite that, he knew that this whole mess had been a good thing. Even if grimly done. Maybe they could find a silly adventure or two to have after this, before heading to the Grand Line…

... ... ... ...

A/N 1: So...ugh. I'm not a fan of writing grim/dark content. Which is why I didn't go into the gritty details or angst here. It might take away a bit of the impact of what they found, I'm afraid. But...if it does it does. And it served as a reality check for the crew anyway. One that the Original Crew never seemed to actually get, aside from Robin, who didn't need it in the first place.

A/N 2: The storm-creation thing! So...that's not going to be something they do often, if ever...for obvious reasons. But, from what I could find out about cloud formation it SHOULD be possible. Particularly as the One Piece world really does seem to have a better understanding of that than ours does. Frankly, it's surprising to me how utterly shit our own understanding of clouds and how weather works actually is. I had to dig into theoretical research papers to determine if clouds are affected by electrical charges or not...