Chapter 67: First Bounties

"Hey girls," Ben greeted.

Nojiko, Alvida, Kaya, Honey, Emma and HQ greeted back. They saw Ben carrying Sumi in his hands.

"Miss Sumi, how did the talk go?" Emma asked.

"Talk," Kaya said sarcastically.

"My love is doing his job as a captain and having these talks with his crew, he did it four times," Alvida teased.

"Master is truly the best to become the Pirate King," HQ said.

"He is the Pervert Pirate King," Kaya stated.

"That has a nice ring to it," Honey said.

"Hey," Ben blurted. The girls giggled.

"We are just teasing my love," Alvida assured.

Ben laughed. "Well it does not sound menacing," Ben said.

"Hide your women, daughter and sister, Ben on the hunt," Kaya said.

The girls laughed.

"Let's have dinner Master," HQ said.

"Nojiko, you can sit next to Ben," Alvida said.

"I," Nojiko muttered.

"We all besides Emma have been with Ben so far," Honey said.

"That is meant to be a secret," Kaya said.

"We can't keep that a secret." Alvida replied and added, "HQ knows."

"I know," HQ pronounced.

Ben put Sumi on the chair next to him. Nojiko sat next to him. Emma sat next to Sumi. The other girls sat around the table."

"My love, we got the newspaper while we were with Sumi," Alvida said.

Ben thought, the newspaper handled by Big News Morgan, a powerful underworld player. Ben probably needs to be careful around him. While the World Government can suppress certain news the bird finds its way.

"Anything interesting?" Ben asked.

"Yes my love, it mentions how the marines captured Arlong by themself and freed a village from this terror," Alvida said.

"That is a lie," Nojiko blurted. She realised she was a bit loud and was slightly embarrassed.

Ben chuckled and said, "Easy Nojiko. The press is somewhat controlled by the World Government so they can publish what they like."

"That is horrible," Kaya said.

"Whoever controls the press controls the flow of information," Emma said.

"Yeah that is correct," Ben replied. Ben was impressed with Emma.

Alvida then said, "The newspaper then goes on to say how they fought another crew that day and pushed them back. That crew was the Love Pirates."

"Okay," Ben said.

"My love, I am sorry. The newspaper had made a mistake and it says I am Captain of our group," Alvida said. Her voice was broken.

Ben laughed, "Could be worse." Ben thought this might work out in his favour and stay under the radar for a bit. If the Marines got this wrong and who really cares, they will get to know the truth eventually.

"But," she blurted.

"It's fine. We can correct them next we see the Marines," Ben assured her.

"Wait, so our name is the Love Pirates now?" Kaya questioned.

"Looks like it," Honey replied.

"I joined a pervert group," Kaya said.

Nojiko giggled, "Like Ben said, it could be worse."

"You fit right here," HQ replied.

"Hey," Kaya tried to refute.

"She has you there," Sumi said.

Kaya pouted.

"The Marines have issued bounties for us," Alvida said.

The girls got quiet and looked at each other.

"Let's hear it," Ben said.

Alvida listed, "The bounties are:

 Iron Mace Alvida, 25,000,000 Beli

Demon King Ben, 20,000,000 Bel

Honey Queen, 7,800,000 Beli,"

"Only three of our crew got bounties and Honey was from before," Ben commented.

"These are high bounties, so be careful," Alvida said, looking slighlty worried.

"Don't worry, we will protect each other," Ben assured.

"I can understand HQ not getting a bounty since she was not there but why did Kaya not get one?" Nojiko asked.

"I don't know it does not mention Kaya at all here or her fight with Chew," Alvida replied.

"The Marines in East Blue are not the most competent," Ben said.

"That is true, very corrupt," Honey said.

"Yes," Nojiko agreed.

"It also says Straw Hat Luffy has got a bounty of "15,00,000 Beli," Alvida added.

That is strange, Luffy got his first bounty after the defeat of Arlong and Nezumi pulling strings, Ben thought.

"Does it say why?" Ben queried.

"It says he defeated Don Kreig, Buggy the Clown and beat some marines, my love," Alvida said.

"Luffy being Luffy," Ben muttered.

"Does it say anything about Belo Betty or the Revolutionary Army?" Ben questioned.

Alvida looked at the newspaper and reported, "No my love, nothing about either."

Ben thought maybe the Marines are hiding the fact or they are incompetent. At this stage he could not tell with the information he had but his gut feeling was picking the later option.

"Anything else?" Ben asked.

"No my love," Alvida replied.

"Okay about the bounties, the Marines, World Government, Warlords and other pirates we will take them all down to free this world by becoming the Pirate King. This is the start of our bounties soon we will all get them," Ben explained.

"He is so charming when my work husband speaks like that," Sumi said.

"He does have a certain charm," Nojiko said.

"He has his way with words," Kaya admitted.

"It makes my panties wet," Honey said.

"Maybe not that far," Kaya refuted.

"Really?" Alvida said.

The girls laughed.

Emma thought these girls were weird. However, she had to admit this man has something going for me. Emma felt her heart skip a beat when Ben spoke.

Ben cleared his throat. "Okay girls, let's dig in before the food gets cold," he said.

The girls nodded and started eating.

Prison Cell East Blue Marine Base

In a prison cell in East Blue, man with a red marking on the right side of his face, reads the newspaper. "Ben and Alvida!" he said angrily.

A man in the opposite cell fixes his glasses, "Those names are irritable," he commented.

"They took my gold away," said another man from the third prison cell.

"Cut it down, I want to crush them for taking my marine seat away from me," said another angry man.

"What are you going to do when we are stuck here?" asked the man with the red mark on his face.

"This," the man with orange hair said as he shouted and fired a few small beams that destroyed multiple prison cell doors.

The other prisoner looked in surprise. "I am Eldoraggo," he said.

"Eldoraggo why didn't you do this before?" Pin Joker asked.

"I arrived here last night," Eldoraggo replied, touching his face.

A marine came running to see the noise and all the cells either opened or were badly damaged.

"Freeze," the lone marine said in fear.

The large man appeared next to him and slammed the marine into the wall, knocking him out.

"Out of my way," the large man shouted.

"Or what?" Eldoraggo replied.

"Gentleman we all have a common enemy and that is the Love Pirates," the man with glasses said.

"And?" Eldoraggo said.

"Let's work together and take them out," the man with glasses proposed.

"I don't work with anyone," the large man said.

"Neither do I," added Eldoraggo .

"Is that wise? We all got defeated individually, but together we can crush them," the man with glasses said.

"I am in," said Pin Joker. Pin Joker thought they could be useful idiots.

Eldoraggo thought for a second. He can use the help and ditch these idiots later.

"I am in as well," Eldoraggo replied.

The large man thought for a bit and then decided he can always leave these fools.

"I am in. My name is Captain Morgan," Morgan said.

"Kuro, please to meet you all lovely people," Kuro greeted. Kuro fixed his glasses and smiled. He knew these could be useful idiots if he played his cards right.

"The confiscated room is that way," Morgan pointed out.

"Let us not waste time," Kuro said.

Pin Joker picked up the marine sword and rushed toward the confiscated room. A group of 6 marines were coming towards them. Pin Joker took action and slashed the first two marines. The third marine attempted to strike Pin Joker however he blocked it.

Morgan came out from behind and grabbed the marine`s face and smashed into the wall. His face was all bloody and it looked like he lost some teeth.

The other two marines were charging towards Pin Joker and Morgan when Kuro, who had picked up a sword, jumped and slashed the two marines in the chest. They both went down. The final marine was panicking. He was loading his gun when Eldoraggo came and punched him in the stomach. He dropped his gun and leaned forward in pain when Eldoraggo kicked him and he went flying and hit the wall.

"Let's keep moving," Pin Joker said. The sirens were going in the background. The other prisoners also now had escaped and were releasing more. The marines were trying to call for back-up and trying to control the situation.

The group arrived at the confiscated room. They saw a lock and the door was made from a sturdy metal. "Let me take care of this," Eldoraggo said as he fired a beam and blew the door right away. Its hinges came off and the door was destroyed.

Pin Joker rushed in and saw his clothes and sword. He immediately wore them.

Morgan grabbed his massive axe and put it in his hand.

Kuro grabbed his claws like knives and equipped them.

Eldoraggo grabbed his clothes.

"Let's keep moving," Kuro said.

"There might be a small ship," Pin Joker added.

The group exited the room and headed outside. They exited the building and saw random prisoners fighting with the marines. Using the chaos, they sneaked away and headed to shoreline. They saw a small marine boat unloading a dozen troops from a wooden pier.

Kuro and Pin Joker charged towards the marine. Pin Joker stabbed the three marines. "You are poisoned," he laughed. The marines screamed in pain.

Kuro slashed another three marines with his claws and they went down. Another three marines came with their swords about to strike when Morgan blocked all their swords with his axes. He pushed them back with such force the sword went flying in the air. Morgan stares at them. The marines attempted to punch him however Morgan uses his axes and slashes them. They all suffered from massive cuts and passed out from the loss of blood.

The final three marines just saw all their comrades fall. "I," one of the marines muttered.

Eldoraggo comes up and punches the first marine, the roundhouse kicks the other two marines who fell into the water. He then uses his sharp claws to stab the marine in the chest. The marine yelled in pain and fell to the ground.

"Let's go onboard this ship," Kuro said.

As they were about to sail off, Pin Joker said,"What should we name our group?"

"Mind your own business," Morgan said.

"No, what about Hate Pirates?" Kuro suggested.

Morgan and Eldoraggo shrugged their shoulders. "Good," Pin Joker said with an evil smile on his face.