Chapter 18: People To Meet

Hey guys! It's been awhile, but I'm making moving arrangements, and if anyone has moved before, it's a pain in the ass. Anyways, not a whole lot happens in this chapter, but this is an essential chapter for the plot. The most exciting thing that happens is that the Navy's plan is slightly revealed, Conan meets Franky, and Blackbeard shows up. Reviews are appreciated. Enjoy!

Aokiji glared at the Shichibukai in front of him, who was currently holding Nico Olivia's file. Doflamingo just laughed at his expression. "No worries Admiral, just thought you might want to relieve some old memories."

"Get out of my sight, scum of the sea." The admiral glared.

"Don't worry, it's not like I actually know about you're little secret, and the little detective didn't need to tell me it either." He smirked.

"Edogawa-kun got the information form you, you allowed him access to the file." The ice admiral was so close to attacking. "Seems as though I was too naive. He may appear a child, but he's a wolf in sheep's clothing it would seem."

"Heh he…you should learn to pick your friends better, admiral." Doflamingo laughed. "As much as I'd like to see you freeze a kid, he's still useful to us. So, I come here to deliver an order from the people above."

Aokiji raised a brow. "What would that be?"

The sinister man chuckled. "They want Blackbeard to retrieve him."

With Conan

This was quite an experience; despite living in modern day Japan, the young detective had honestly never been on a sub before. He just wished they were under normal circumstances. According to Law, they would be in Karakuri within two days, due to the speed of the sub. The young detective sighed and settled for watching the water outside the window. Feeling someone poke his shoulder, he turned to see Bepo, ironically holding a red can of soda. Conan had to resist the urge to think of Coca Cola.

"You want some?" Bepo asked, holding the soda to him.

"Yeah, sure." Conan smiled and took the can from him. After taking a few sips, he smiled. "Thanks, this is the best beverage I've had my whole trip."

"How long has your trip been? Where you been?" Bepo asked.

"I've been many places, and…" Conan frowned. "I have no idea how long I've been here now, all I know it's been less than a month."

"Wow, that's scary." The bear replied. "Why you try to lie to Captain Law?"

After thinking over his answer, Conan spoke. "It's what I'm used to, where I come from, I'm used to lying to everyone, it's pretty much taken over my life."

"Oh, really? I'm sorry, that sounds sad." Bepo responded. "Why you lie so much?"

"…It's to protect the people around me, but recently, I've discovered that my effort's been pretty futile. My enemies know who I am anyhow, and I'm lying to everyone here because it's become easier. I'm a horrible person, aren't I Bepo-san?" Conan chuckled bitterly.

The bear shook his head. "No. You still better than Bepo."

Looking up at him, Conan asked. "How so?"

"Bepo's a talking bear. Bear's aren't supposed to talk." Now Bepo looked sad.

"Says who?" The boy frowned. That may be true in his universe, but that most likely wasn't the case here. Or maybe it was, but animals had the option of talking.

"Says everyone. Says the ringmaster, says Boa Hancock, says the people who used to watch me in the circus, and the mean marines." Bepo sniffled.

"Really? What about Law-san? He and the other crewmates seem really fond of you." Conan pointed out.

"Captain Law rescued Bepo from circus; the ring master was beating me up because I fell off the unicycle." The bear quivered. "So, I joined the Heart Pirates because of that."

"So, do your other crewmates accept you too?" Conan smiled.

"Yeah." Bepo answered.

"Then that's all you should care about. If Law-san and the rest of your crew are fine with you, then you have nothing to apologize for." The boy smiled at the shocked expression on the bear's face. "It doesn't matter whether someone's able to talk or not, everyone's got something to say." If Conan was able to speak for the murder victims he solved cases for, then Bepo could speak for himself.

Bepo gave him a wide smile and hugged the boy to himself. "Thank you!"

As Conan struggled to breathe, from a shadow of the ship, Law smiled at the scene. It had been a long time since someone could actually give his first-mate a pep talk.

With the Whitebeard and Revolutionary cavalry

Whitebeard frowned at the revolutionary leader in front of him. He didn't like that one of his sons hated the man's guts, and he didn't like that so many of the man's army was so close to one of his ships. They were outnumbered, and it had a 50/50 chance at getting ugly. Now, pirates and revolutionaries weren't enemies with each other by any means, they fought the same enemy and similar reasons of existence and purpose. However, once in awhile, they occasionally stepped on each others toes- like telling one of the most experienced and powerful pirates in the world the most far-out story he'd ever heard is one of them.

"So you expect me to believe that, the brat's from another universe?" Whitebeard had heard many strange tales, but as said before, this was the strangest. "And you also expect me to believe that you got all the intelligence you're presenting to me, is from an admiral. What makes you think I'll believe anything you say?"

"Whitebeard-san." Nico Robin spoke up. "I know you and your crew must find this impossible to believe, I barely believed it myself when Aokiji told us, but we have it on good authority that all of the information was verified and proven true."

"And what is this authority, exactly?" Ace glared.

Inazuna stepped forward, and got some documents from his coat. "These are authentic orders of procedure, from the Commander-in-Chief Kong, himself." He handed the documents to Ace, who handed them to Whitebeard. "You'll find that in the orders, Vice-Admiral Tsuru was ordered to be in charge of the abduction and containment of subject: Conan Edogawa. In exchange for abducting the boy, a society from the Edogawa-kun's universe, the Black Organization is paying them in some type of biological poison, called anthrax and combine it with seastone. The exact contents and effect of this poison are unknown, however it is said to be extremely contagious and kills like the plague. Their plan was to modify this substance to only to affect pirates with devil fruit powers, and to release it into the air."

"How would they make marines immune to it?" Marco asked.

"Apparently, they're developing a vaccine within the Marineford headquarters. Essentially, their plan is total domination, backed by the authority of the Tenryuubito and World Government. If a person is not a part of either of these organizations, they would be put to death." Inazuna finished.

"Then, I don't get it. Why's he going all over the Grand Line? What does One Piece have to do with any of this?" Ace pointed out.

"We believe that Edogawa-kun is trying to find the World Government's weak spot, and exploit it. The boy is also obviously looking for a way home; otherwise he wouldn't have gone to Karakuri so quickly. As far as One Piece goes, we're still unsure of its relevance." Robin answered.

"What's at Karakuri?" Chopper asked.

"Dr. Vegapunk's lab." Dragon answered. "Where Kuma was transformed into that thing."

Back with Conan

Conan breathed a sigh of relief as he took in a breath of fresh air. After two days cramped in the sub, he was ready to be out. But what he wasn't expecting was freezing his butt off as soon as he got up to the deck. Honestly, it was colder than Japan's lowest winter.

"We're docking soon, stay close." Law spoke up.

"Got it!" Conan shouted back. Before he ran off, Law stopped him.

"Here." Law handed him a winter coat, Conan took it gratefully. "You're not going off alone, at least one of us is staying with you at all times. Bepo'll stick with you for now."

The polar bear stepped forward. "We're partners!"

The detective smiled. "Glad to hear it. Hey Law-san…" He got the pirate captain's attention. "When we get to Dr. Vegapunk's lab, I'd like to go in alone."

"Not gonna happen." He replied bluntly.

"But-"

"Discussion's over." Law said. "Move out!" He and his men got their winter gear up and went forward. The young detective sighed, he wanted to go alone, because that's how he did all of his investigations.

15min Later

After 15 minutes of excruciating walking, they finally arrived at the laboratory; the detective had to raise a brow. It was old, broken down, and looked like it hadn't been used in years. Glancing to his left, Conan's eyes widened slightly when he noticed on old Navy flag in the snow. Law saw that, and said. "Don't worry, marines left the island, they're too weak to handle the cold."

"Good to know." Conan grimaced. "Shall we go inside?"

"Sounds good." Law nodded. "Bepo!" The bear kicked the door down, and they eagerly went inside. As they got inside, Law turned to address everyone. "Okay, we'll split up into three groups. Me, Penguin, Shachi and Jean Bart, and Bepo and Conan will be paired. Bepo, you help the kid find whatever he needs to find on the island, we'll keep watch for any intruders or anything unusual. Everyone know their assignments?"

"Yes sir!" They saluted.

"Good." Law sighed. "We meet back here in three hours, be careful." With that each group went their own way. For some reason, Bepo insisted on carrying Conan, most likely to insure the boy wouldn't run off. And after a few minutes of walking, Conan looked around for any indication of where Vegapunk's lab may be.

Deciding he'd make better progress on foot, he spoke up. "Bepo-san…may I get down?"

"But I like carrying you." Bepo argued.

"Y-Yeah…but I think I'd hinder you less if I could walk. Don't yah think?" The detective pointed out.

"The captain said you'd run away." Bepo responded.

"…I promise I won't run away, then." The detective reluctantly promised. Really, he'd be better off with Bepo at this point; this place was too complex to navigate himself. After walking for several minutes, they came across a fork in the massive complex.

"What we do?" Bepo looked at him.

"Not sure." The detective admitted. Reaching into his pocket, the detective pulled out a coin. "Heads we go left, tails we go right." The bear nodded in agreement. But before they could flip the coin, they actually heard someone coming down the right hallway.

"Damn pirate, absolutely useless!" It hissed. "Stupid Kuma bots, separate um, but don't kill um! Honestly, what the hell are the uppers, thinking with the Strawhats! It's not like they'll talk, so why keep them alive?"

"Let's go down the other hall!" Conan led Bepo down the left hallway, to avoid the angry voice. After running a few feet, the odd pair stopped to gather their bearings. "Where are we?" Conan and Bepo looked around themselves, and the detective grimaced, clearly recognizing the cage. They were in prison quarters.

"You're in VegaPunk's prison quarters." A gruff and nasal voice answered. Bepo and Conan and jumped, and turned to a jail-cell behind them. Conan was getting a serious rush of dejavu. At least the guy was bound, just sitting on the bench in the prison casually. "What are you guys doing here? You don't live on Karakuri, do you? And hey!" He pointed to Bepo, who immediately stiffened. "Aren't you one of the Heart Pirates?"

After thinking it over, Bepo pointed at the strange man. "Yes! You're one of the Strawhat Pirates! What's your name, again?" The bear tilted his head.

The huge man in the Speedo smirked. "The name's Franky, the Strawhat shipwright."

Meanwhile

Laffite looked through a telescope through the snowy area he and his nakama were in; looking for the island of destination. He smiled when he spotted a familiar sub. "Captain. I've spotted Law-kun's sub, this is definitely the right island."

Blackbeard grinned. "Perfect."

With Conan

The young detective stared at the man in front of him in wonder. His biceps were freakin' huge! He had blue mullock-mohawk hybrid hairstyle, had a Hawaiian shirt, wore sunglasses, had a metal nose, and lastly, the Speedo. Oh god, the Speedo. The only thing that scarred Conan greater than the horrific sight of the Speedo-donned hairy legs was seeing Rachel's dad naked. It was the damn hot springs, single-sex baths. Only men, which meant no requirement for bathing suits. Shuddering, Conan snapped out of it. "You're part of the Strawhat crew too?"

Raising a brow, Franky responded. "What do you mean, 'too'? Have you met my nakama?"

"Some of them." Conan nodded. "I met Brook-san first and Chopper-kun. I helped Brook-san escape imprisonment, and Chopper-kun saved us from drowning."

Franky smiled. "Awesome. So what are you guys doing here?"

"…I'm here to-" The boy was about to lie, until Bepo opened his mouth.

"He's here to get some of Dr. Vegapunk's research." The bear answered.

"Huh? You don't say." Franky said. Instead of asking more questions, he stood up and grinned. "Allow me to be of assistance." Without warning, Franky had his arm turned into a blasting-cannon, and he shot the bars to his prison down. Luckily, Bepo was smart enough to grab Conan and get down. After getting up and releasing his grip on the boy, they discovered Franky had successfully freed himself. Then Conan witnessed something else he wished he had never seen, he was seeing the ever-famous-Franky pose.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Conan exclaimed. "You couldn't have warned us you were going to do that?"

"It'd would've ruined the awesomeness!" Franky declared.

Conan's eye twitched, and then thought of something. "Wait a minute, if you could blast through the door, why the hell were you in that cell?"

"Oh…truth be told…I was doing some research in Dr. Vegapunk's lab too, and this was the safest place to sleep. It's creepy to be here alone." Franky scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "So who is else is here, anyway?"

"Just the Heart Crew." Conan answered. "Can show you me to Vegapunk's lab?"

"Sure." Franky nodded, and walked forward. "I'll show yah."

With Law

He really wished he hadn't found a telescope and looked out the window, he also wished he didn't just knock out the Navy's top pirate captain was cursing; not only was Sentomaru here, but Blackbeard was on their tales as well. Signaling Penguin to follow him, Law set out to gather his nakama and guest early, this wasn't good.

With Conan

As the group walked down, Conan thought several things to himself. One: he already met three of the Strawhat crewmembers, and at this rate he was going to meet all of them. On that note, why wasn't Franky-san more suspicious of him? The other thing that was curious was that Franky was also a cyborg, like Kuma. Did Vegapunk do experiments on Franky as well? Just how many Pacifistas were there? After several minutes of walking, Franky finally lead them to a laboratory of some kind.

"This is it." Franky announced. The detective and bear had to frown, this lab held a ton of machines, but it was a pigsty. It was fairly obvious no one had used this lab in years, which meant there wasn't a whole lot of chance for important works. "Looking for anything in particular?"

Conan snapped his head up at the Shipwright at the question. After thinking it over, Conan asked, "Where do you think he'd keep all of his records? You know, documents, journals, stuff like that?"

"Ah! Check the desk." Franky pointed to a practically invisible desk near the back corner of the lab. "Me and Bepo will check out other stuff. Paperwork's boring, kid; take up a more manly hobby."

"I'll see what I can find." He twitched; first from Ace, now from Speedo-guy. Choosing to ignore Franky's comment, Conan took to the desk immediately, and started going through the massive amount of paperwork. After some shuffling, he finally found what he was looking for. Looking at the documents before him, he had successfully gathered blueprints for Kuma, some historical records about an Ancient Kingdom, and finally, the notes about the Black Organization. Taking to those documents first, Conan looked them over thoroughly. His eyes widened; Tsuru wasn't the mastermind behind this plan, but she had been put in charge of it for some reason. What was also interesting was that Dr. Vegapunk was the one that first contacted the Black Organization, contradicting his theory from earlier about Tsuru making the first move in communication. Conan frowned in confusion, this wasn't making sense; the Black Organization only did things for practical reasons, they weren't interested in ruling the world, they just wanted to change the world. So unless this world had something to offer them, they wouldn't bother be in contact with them. Moving on, Conan's eyes narrowed at the mention of the name, Blackbeard. 'One of the Shichibukai.' Thought Conan. After reading his file, Conan's eyes widened. He was currently in contact with them, and his eyes widened further when he looked on the other names on the sheet: Donflamingo, Commander Kong, the admirals, and of course the Gorosei.

'The man at the auction house…'

Collecting the paperwork, Conan started looking around the lab for any clues on how to get back to his universe. He noticed Franky looking around the room, and Conan decided the shipwright might be able to recognize some machinery or another. "Excuse me, Franky-san."

Looking down at him, the big man answered. "Yeah kid?"

"Do you know if any of these machines have to do with teleportation or vortexes?" The detective couldn't have felt stupider even if he tried.

Franky laughed. "What are you crazy? This isn't a science fiction movie, kid."

'If only.' Conan's eye twitched, but then blinked. "Franky-san?" The man looked to him, indicating he was listening. "Where is Dr. Vegapunk?"

Franky frowned. "Not sure. I asked a couple of locals about him, when I got here, but…they didn't know, he disappeared roughly ten years ago."

Conan frowned, wishing it was twenty, it would've lined up with the Ohara incident. "You don't say." After mulling it over, Conan decided his best move was track down Vegapunk, his best chance at getting home and hopefully get everyone out alive.

Suddenly, everyone turned to a figure enter a room. "Captain!" Bepo waved. Conan and Franky frowned, something was wrong. Law's face was to the ground, and he looked to stiff compared to his normal posture. After a second, he fell forward, unconscious; along with the other Hart pirates that came onto the island. "Captain!" Bepo ran to his nakama's side, only to be brutally jabbed in the stomach by some sort of rifle, that looked like an old-fashioned bazooka.

"Gwahaha!" An unfamiliar voice laughed. Suddenly, the unmoving bodies were pushed to Conan and Franky, giving them complete view of the new intruders. The very first man to appear was a tall, hairy, fat man with missing teeth and a read pirates coat. He had several pistols and rum, the gruff people with him, were most likely his crew. The man looked between Franky and Conan. "Looks like we found him, guys! You're Edogawa-kun, right?"

Conan tensed. "How do you know my name?"

"Gwahaha! The name's Blackbeard, kid. I've been looking for yah." The large man smirked. Conan growled; this wasn't good.