[One Piece][Gen] Council Of Power (One-Shot)
Title: Council Of Power
Fandom: One Piece
Pairings: Gen. Crazy, I know!
Genre: Cast antics
Word count: ~1800 (HAH VICTORY IT'S LESS THAN 2000)
Spoilers: Sort of for the Marineford arc, although vague and not 100% in accordance with canon. Oh, and for Post-Ennies Lobby.
Warnings: More abuse of italics and punctuation. XD;
Notes: Apparently I am feeling particularly inspired by OP right now. At least it was less than 2000 words! ... shut up, that's short for me these days. orz It kind of veers off and goes non-canon after the latest arc, i.e. the Marineford arc.
Summary: Wherein Red-Haired Shanks, Whitebeard, Revolutionary Dragon and Fire-Fist Ace (plus Garp) call a meeting, the Marines collectively shit themselves and Sengoku bursts a blood vessel.
The uproar at the Marine Headquarters when the news came in was near unprecedented. Tapped Den-Den Mushi conversations! Intercepted note-carriers! The inexorable trail of giants heading across the map to one central location!
What the hell did it all mean? Four of the most dangerous men in the world meeting in one location, but for what purpose?
And more than that: why was Garp involved? The infuriating man hadn’t breathed a word about it, but he had to know more than anyone their intelligence gathering units were better than that. He was going to be there, along with Revolutionary Dragon, Red-Haired Shanks, Whitebeard and Fire-Fist Ace, and Sengoku suspected arresting the largest collection of bounties to be in one place at the same time was the last thing on his mind.
Just what were they plotting?
Garp really ought to be brought up on charges for his outrageous behaviour, but as world-renowned hero, it just wasn’t going to happen. Sengoku tapped his fingers on the desk, impatient and bothered, and decided the only way of finding out what was going to happen at that meeting was to bug it. There was no guarantee, of course, that the men involved would not do a room sweep first, but hopefully they’d overlook at least one.
There was no way they could let this go unmonitored, after all. If those five men were meeting, it had to be something big, something potentially so catastrophic it would shake the very foundations of the world they lived in. If those five men chose to join hands…
It didn’t bear thinking about.
No, thought Sengoku, steps had to be taken. But first, he needed to know what they were planning. And for that, all they could do was wait and see what happened.
“Ace! Grandad’s missed you! Such an undutiful grandson, you never come to visit…”
“Gramps, I’m one of the most wanted men on the planet,” Ace said witheringly. “I don’t think the Marine HQ are going to invite me in for tea and - OW!”
“Impudent little brat,” Garp growled, as Ace rubbed sullenly at the bump on his head. “This wouldn’t be a problem if you’d just joined the marines like I’d told you to instead of running off to become a blasted pirate. Now, where are the sembei?”
“Oh, I’ve got them,” Shanks announced, walking into the room with a packet held aloft. Garp scowled, snatching the packet when Shanks held it out to him.
“Red-haired Shanks, hmm. Don’t think you’re forgiven just yet,” Garp said begrudgingly, taking a huge bite out of the cracker and then waving it around. “I haven’t forgotten whose fault it is my Luffy became wanted all across the globe instead of the fine Marine officer I was raising him to be.”
Ace rolled his eyes. “Marine officer,” he muttered. “Luffy. Right.”
Behind him Shanks laughed, scratching at the back of his head sheepishly and not at all like a man who controlled large chunks of the New World.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said easily. “But we’ve gone to all the trouble to organise this, let’s not fight! Why don’t we get this party started?”
“Hold it, child, it’s bad manners to start without waiting for the other guests to arrive,” boomed a gruff voice, and a heavy hand landed on his shoulder. “You young ones are always in such a rush with everything.”
“Geh! Whitebeard!” Shanks said, in comical surprise. “Haaah, you got me, I didn’t even see you coming! Come to think of it, why are you here, anyway…?”
Ace shrugged from Shanks’ other side, still stuffing his face with crackers. “Beats me. Oyaji said he wanted to come, who was I to argue?”
“I invited him,” Garp interrupted, clapping Whitebeard on the shoulder with a laugh. “Glad to see you could make it, you old codger!”
“With an invitation like that, I could hardly refuse,” Whitebeard said jovially, causing Ace to look suddenly wary.
“Gramps,” he started dangerously, “what have you - “
“Now, let’s stop hovering around in the doorway, shall we?” Garp said loudly over the top of him, rubbing his hands together. “Only that idiot son of mine is left to come, after all!”
“I’m already here,” Dragon pointed out in a flat, unexcitable tone of voice. “In fact I was here before you.”
Everyone turned slowly to face the coffee table where the most wanted man in the world (or perhaps the second-most now, after Ace) was calmly sipping a cup of tea.
“Oh hey, Luffy’s dad,” Shanks said cheerfully. “Didn’t see you there! Nice to meet you, what’s up?”
“The winds of change are blowing,” Dragon said mysteriously, and then set his cup down with a gentle clink. “I thank you for saving my son, Red-Haired Shanks. He is growing into a fine man.”
“Your son has become a damned troublemaker,” Garp snapped, plopping down on the floor beside him. “And I’ve got a bone to pick with you. What ‘I met him in Loguetown’, you fraudster? Shame on you, trying to pull one over your old dad.”
“Mmm, the way I remember it Luffy was always a troublemaker,” Shanks said thoughtfully. “Man, but he was such a cute kid.”
Whitebeard laughed. “I’d believe it of that little monkey,” he agreed fondly. “Five minutes after meeting him I could tell he would take at least as much looking after as his older brother!”
“Hey, don’t compare me to Luffy!” Ace complained. “I’m nowhere near as much of a handful as that hopeless little brother of mine!”
“Don’t forget this ‘hopeless little brother’ of yours helped destroy all three pillars of government and rescue you from the execution platform, child,” Whitebeard pointed out, not without humour, and Ace scowled sullenly.
“Yeah, well… that’s different! No matter how powerful he is, he’s still Luffy - you can’t let him out of your sight too long or who knows what’ll happen? He requires constant supervision! You have no idea how stressful it is, having a little brother like him.”
“I think I might have some,” Whitebeard rumbled, raising his eyebrow.
“No, seriously. He made one of the Shichibukai fall in love with him! Boa Hancock is throwing herself at him!” Ace said, heedless of Garp and Dragon knocking over their sake and tea respectively. “And he hasn’t even noticed!”
Two sets of shoulders subtly relaxed.
Shanks threw back his head and laughed. “Dahahaha! Ah, that kid never changes. You know when he was seven he cut his face to try and prove he was old enough to join my crew?”
“See? That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Ace said triumphantly. “Typical Luffy!”
“Not at all like a son of mine who tried to fight one of the most infamous pirates in history after five days against a Shichibukai,” Whitebeard mused. “Not to mention the increasingly ludicrous string of assassination attempts to follow. How old was he, I wonder…?”
Ace turned red. “Oyaji!”
Garp shook his head. “With grandsons like these, it’s no wonder I fear for my health,” he said ruefully. “And they were such cute kids, too. Rascals, but so adorable…”
“Aaah, I have so many cute photos of Luffy when he was little!” Shanks enthused. “Hold on, just… ah, here we go! See, here’s him playing pirate… watching Yasopp’s target practice… he’s so cute when he was sleeping, look at his stupid face, getting his drool all over Makino…”
“No, wait, you have to see mine, I have a bunch from after you left, this one’s from when he decided to use his stretchy limbs to go bungie jumping off the cliff and Dadan tried to strangle him…”
Garp snorted, looking over at where Dragon was surreptitiously sideswiping the photos and staring at them with an expression that, if you looked closely enough, might be described as besotted (but otherwise didn’t look much different to usual). “If you were going to be such a doting father you should have hung around,” he said dryly. “Or at least introduce yourself to him properly.”
“My son,” Dragon murmured, clearly not listening. “So adorable…”
“So stupid,” Ace corrected, then grinned fondly down at the photos. “So stupid, but such a cute little brother…”
“But not to forget about my promise,” Garp said suddenly, facing Whitebeard, “here are some photos of Luffy and Ace together! See, they’re so peaceful when they sleep, you’d never imagine what little brats they really were…”
“Indeed,” Whitebeard agreed, studying the photo with a smile.
“Oh my god, put those away - and whaddaya mean, peaceful, like you’ve never been kicked by Luffy in his sleep…!”
“Ah, and here’s one of Ace-chan running around in cowboy boots after he refused to put his clothes back on…”
“GRAMPS!!”
“Gurarararara…!”
Ace groaned, letting his head thud on the table. “This was supposed to be about Luffy,” he mumbled. “Why does he have to have those photos, dammit?”
“Hey, at least the bug the Marines got in here probably can’t actually record the photos!” Shanks said brightly, in a way that was probably meant to be reassuring, and Ace craned his neck to stare at him.
“Bug?” he echoed. “There’s a bug in here?”
“Well, I’d say there were several,” Shanks said thoughtfully. “But Garp probably left one so they’d know we weren’t plotting mass warfare and get paranoid, or something. Plus this takes some of the heat off Luffy and his Strawhats, right?”
“The Marines are hearing my embarrassing baby stories,” came Ace’s muffled response, in a hollow tone of despair. In the background, Garp was showing Dragon and Whitebeard a photo of Ace and Luffy playing dress-ups and loudly explaining about how Luffy couldn’t decide whether to go as meat or the Pirate King, but Ace was very firm on wanting to be his mother.
Shanks patted him on the shoulder. “Sake?” he offered. “I’ve still got some photos of Luffy left…”
“… Why not,” Ace agreed, and knocked back the whole shot. “So, here’s one from when Luffy was nine…”
A thousand miles away, Sengoku stared in outraged disbelief at the flickering screen in front of him. These men. Five of the most powerful men in the world. Men whose every move was watched the world over with bated breath; men who could bring the World Government crashing to its knees. Universally feared and held in awe. This meeting of the titans, which struck fear into the hearts of people everywhere…
And this was what they chose to do?!
Sengoku had spent many, many years railing at the constant thorn in his side that was one Monkey D. Garp, but this, this truly took the cake.
Sengoku slammed his hands down on the desk, startling one of his subordinates in the room as he glared at the transmission in sheer impotent rage.
“WHAT THE HELL,” he bellowed, knowing there was no way Garp could actually hear him but too frazzled to care, “IS WRONG WITH YOUR GODDAMN FAMILY?!?!?!?!”
Fandom: One Piece
Pairings: Gen. Crazy, I know!
Genre: Cast antics
Word count: ~1800 (HAH VICTORY IT'S LESS THAN 2000)
Spoilers: Sort of for the Marineford arc, although vague and not 100% in accordance with canon. Oh, and for Post-Ennies Lobby.
Warnings: More abuse of italics and punctuation. XD;
Notes: Apparently I am feeling particularly inspired by OP right now. At least it was less than 2000 words! ... shut up, that's short for me these days. orz It kind of veers off and goes non-canon after the latest arc, i.e. the Marineford arc.
Summary: Wherein Red-Haired Shanks, Whitebeard, Revolutionary Dragon and Fire-Fist Ace (plus Garp) call a meeting, the Marines collectively shit themselves and Sengoku bursts a blood vessel.
The uproar at the Marine Headquarters when the news came in was near unprecedented. Tapped Den-Den Mushi conversations! Intercepted note-carriers! The inexorable trail of giants heading across the map to one central location!
What the hell did it all mean? Four of the most dangerous men in the world meeting in one location, but for what purpose?
And more than that: why was Garp involved? The infuriating man hadn’t breathed a word about it, but he had to know more than anyone their intelligence gathering units were better than that. He was going to be there, along with Revolutionary Dragon, Red-Haired Shanks, Whitebeard and Fire-Fist Ace, and Sengoku suspected arresting the largest collection of bounties to be in one place at the same time was the last thing on his mind.
Just what were they plotting?
Garp really ought to be brought up on charges for his outrageous behaviour, but as world-renowned hero, it just wasn’t going to happen. Sengoku tapped his fingers on the desk, impatient and bothered, and decided the only way of finding out what was going to happen at that meeting was to bug it. There was no guarantee, of course, that the men involved would not do a room sweep first, but hopefully they’d overlook at least one.
There was no way they could let this go unmonitored, after all. If those five men were meeting, it had to be something big, something potentially so catastrophic it would shake the very foundations of the world they lived in. If those five men chose to join hands…
It didn’t bear thinking about.
No, thought Sengoku, steps had to be taken. But first, he needed to know what they were planning. And for that, all they could do was wait and see what happened.
“Ace! Grandad’s missed you! Such an undutiful grandson, you never come to visit…”
“Gramps, I’m one of the most wanted men on the planet,” Ace said witheringly. “I don’t think the Marine HQ are going to invite me in for tea and - OW!”
“Impudent little brat,” Garp growled, as Ace rubbed sullenly at the bump on his head. “This wouldn’t be a problem if you’d just joined the marines like I’d told you to instead of running off to become a blasted pirate. Now, where are the sembei?”
“Oh, I’ve got them,” Shanks announced, walking into the room with a packet held aloft. Garp scowled, snatching the packet when Shanks held it out to him.
“Red-haired Shanks, hmm. Don’t think you’re forgiven just yet,” Garp said begrudgingly, taking a huge bite out of the cracker and then waving it around. “I haven’t forgotten whose fault it is my Luffy became wanted all across the globe instead of the fine Marine officer I was raising him to be.”
Ace rolled his eyes. “Marine officer,” he muttered. “Luffy. Right.”
Behind him Shanks laughed, scratching at the back of his head sheepishly and not at all like a man who controlled large chunks of the New World.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said easily. “But we’ve gone to all the trouble to organise this, let’s not fight! Why don’t we get this party started?”
“Hold it, child, it’s bad manners to start without waiting for the other guests to arrive,” boomed a gruff voice, and a heavy hand landed on his shoulder. “You young ones are always in such a rush with everything.”
“Geh! Whitebeard!” Shanks said, in comical surprise. “Haaah, you got me, I didn’t even see you coming! Come to think of it, why are you here, anyway…?”
Ace shrugged from Shanks’ other side, still stuffing his face with crackers. “Beats me. Oyaji said he wanted to come, who was I to argue?”
“I invited him,” Garp interrupted, clapping Whitebeard on the shoulder with a laugh. “Glad to see you could make it, you old codger!”
“With an invitation like that, I could hardly refuse,” Whitebeard said jovially, causing Ace to look suddenly wary.
“Gramps,” he started dangerously, “what have you - “
“Now, let’s stop hovering around in the doorway, shall we?” Garp said loudly over the top of him, rubbing his hands together. “Only that idiot son of mine is left to come, after all!”
“I’m already here,” Dragon pointed out in a flat, unexcitable tone of voice. “In fact I was here before you.”
Everyone turned slowly to face the coffee table where the most wanted man in the world (or perhaps the second-most now, after Ace) was calmly sipping a cup of tea.
“Oh hey, Luffy’s dad,” Shanks said cheerfully. “Didn’t see you there! Nice to meet you, what’s up?”
“The winds of change are blowing,” Dragon said mysteriously, and then set his cup down with a gentle clink. “I thank you for saving my son, Red-Haired Shanks. He is growing into a fine man.”
“Your son has become a damned troublemaker,” Garp snapped, plopping down on the floor beside him. “And I’ve got a bone to pick with you. What ‘I met him in Loguetown’, you fraudster? Shame on you, trying to pull one over your old dad.”
“Mmm, the way I remember it Luffy was always a troublemaker,” Shanks said thoughtfully. “Man, but he was such a cute kid.”
Whitebeard laughed. “I’d believe it of that little monkey,” he agreed fondly. “Five minutes after meeting him I could tell he would take at least as much looking after as his older brother!”
“Hey, don’t compare me to Luffy!” Ace complained. “I’m nowhere near as much of a handful as that hopeless little brother of mine!”
“Don’t forget this ‘hopeless little brother’ of yours helped destroy all three pillars of government and rescue you from the execution platform, child,” Whitebeard pointed out, not without humour, and Ace scowled sullenly.
“Yeah, well… that’s different! No matter how powerful he is, he’s still Luffy - you can’t let him out of your sight too long or who knows what’ll happen? He requires constant supervision! You have no idea how stressful it is, having a little brother like him.”
“I think I might have some,” Whitebeard rumbled, raising his eyebrow.
“No, seriously. He made one of the Shichibukai fall in love with him! Boa Hancock is throwing herself at him!” Ace said, heedless of Garp and Dragon knocking over their sake and tea respectively. “And he hasn’t even noticed!”
Two sets of shoulders subtly relaxed.
Shanks threw back his head and laughed. “Dahahaha! Ah, that kid never changes. You know when he was seven he cut his face to try and prove he was old enough to join my crew?”
“See? That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Ace said triumphantly. “Typical Luffy!”
“Not at all like a son of mine who tried to fight one of the most infamous pirates in history after five days against a Shichibukai,” Whitebeard mused. “Not to mention the increasingly ludicrous string of assassination attempts to follow. How old was he, I wonder…?”
Ace turned red. “Oyaji!”
Garp shook his head. “With grandsons like these, it’s no wonder I fear for my health,” he said ruefully. “And they were such cute kids, too. Rascals, but so adorable…”
“Aaah, I have so many cute photos of Luffy when he was little!” Shanks enthused. “Hold on, just… ah, here we go! See, here’s him playing pirate… watching Yasopp’s target practice… he’s so cute when he was sleeping, look at his stupid face, getting his drool all over Makino…”
“No, wait, you have to see mine, I have a bunch from after you left, this one’s from when he decided to use his stretchy limbs to go bungie jumping off the cliff and Dadan tried to strangle him…”
Garp snorted, looking over at where Dragon was surreptitiously sideswiping the photos and staring at them with an expression that, if you looked closely enough, might be described as besotted (but otherwise didn’t look much different to usual). “If you were going to be such a doting father you should have hung around,” he said dryly. “Or at least introduce yourself to him properly.”
“My son,” Dragon murmured, clearly not listening. “So adorable…”
“So stupid,” Ace corrected, then grinned fondly down at the photos. “So stupid, but such a cute little brother…”
“But not to forget about my promise,” Garp said suddenly, facing Whitebeard, “here are some photos of Luffy and Ace together! See, they’re so peaceful when they sleep, you’d never imagine what little brats they really were…”
“Indeed,” Whitebeard agreed, studying the photo with a smile.
“Oh my god, put those away - and whaddaya mean, peaceful, like you’ve never been kicked by Luffy in his sleep…!”
“Ah, and here’s one of Ace-chan running around in cowboy boots after he refused to put his clothes back on…”
“GRAMPS!!”
“Gurarararara…!”
Ace groaned, letting his head thud on the table. “This was supposed to be about Luffy,” he mumbled. “Why does he have to have those photos, dammit?”
“Hey, at least the bug the Marines got in here probably can’t actually record the photos!” Shanks said brightly, in a way that was probably meant to be reassuring, and Ace craned his neck to stare at him.
“Bug?” he echoed. “There’s a bug in here?”
“Well, I’d say there were several,” Shanks said thoughtfully. “But Garp probably left one so they’d know we weren’t plotting mass warfare and get paranoid, or something. Plus this takes some of the heat off Luffy and his Strawhats, right?”
“The Marines are hearing my embarrassing baby stories,” came Ace’s muffled response, in a hollow tone of despair. In the background, Garp was showing Dragon and Whitebeard a photo of Ace and Luffy playing dress-ups and loudly explaining about how Luffy couldn’t decide whether to go as meat or the Pirate King, but Ace was very firm on wanting to be his mother.
Shanks patted him on the shoulder. “Sake?” he offered. “I’ve still got some photos of Luffy left…”
“… Why not,” Ace agreed, and knocked back the whole shot. “So, here’s one from when Luffy was nine…”
A thousand miles away, Sengoku stared in outraged disbelief at the flickering screen in front of him. These men. Five of the most powerful men in the world. Men whose every move was watched the world over with bated breath; men who could bring the World Government crashing to its knees. Universally feared and held in awe. This meeting of the titans, which struck fear into the hearts of people everywhere…
And this was what they chose to do?!
Sengoku had spent many, many years railing at the constant thorn in his side that was one Monkey D. Garp, but this, this truly took the cake.
Sengoku slammed his hands down on the desk, startling one of his subordinates in the room as he glared at the transmission in sheer impotent rage.
“WHAT THE HELL,” he bellowed, knowing there was no way Garp could actually hear him but too frazzled to care, “IS WRONG WITH YOUR GODDAMN FAMILY?!?!?!?!”