Nanohana Docks
Straw Hat crew along with Ace tended to their injuries after Vash disappeared. The only one who wasn't beaten up this time was Chopper. And the blue-nosed reindeer being the ship's doctor, he gave others all the best medical treatment possible; he bandaged everyone like mummies, Usopp even got his nose wrapped up in linen cloth straps.
"Damn that devil ossan, my face is all swollen, ladies would not like me anymore. ugh..." Sanji said and looked at Nami who was knocked out.
"Damn it, he hurt Nami-chan again. I'll surely kill him next time." Sanji said again.
"Don't worry Sanji, she is only unconscious, and doesn't seem to have any injury." Said Chopper checking up on Nami's condition.
"Is that so? It seems he at least have some manner." replied Sanji.
"But that ossan has unreal power, he casually kicked Ace's move like that. We would have died otherwise if it had exploded near us." Said Zoro.
"Speaking of that lets beat him up some more. Nami chan would have been in danger." Said Sanji.
"In the end you are only worried about Nami. But I agree, let's beat him up before Luffy wakes up." Said Usopp. Sanji, Zoro and Usopp had dangerous glint in their eyes as they rained down punches and kicks on Ace's mummified unconscious body.
"Waaah... you guys stop, or he'll die." Shouted Chopper. He was a doctor but he certainly doesn't want to see patients. Chopper was childlike in his mentality so he cared about people who were nice to him, and he didn't want them to get hurt.
"Don't worry Chopper, he is logia devil fruit user so he won't be hurt by simple physical attacks." Said Zoro. But in contrast to his sentence Ace's body piled up more bumps and bruises.
"That's not how it works... and you guys, stop it already." Shouted Chopper in loud voice waking up Luffy in the process. Seeing that all three of them stopped and started whistling innocently, taking some distance from Ace.
Luffy woke up and saw his crew mates were alright looking fine, when he saw Ace's mummified body turning red Luffy was angered.
"Ace... what happened? why are you bleeding? aarg..." shouted Luffy.
"It was that ossan, Vash!!! he came back and beat him up some more." Usopp used his speciality and that was to lie.
"What did you say? Aarrgh I'll someday kick your ass Vash!!!!!" Luffy shouted angrily.
And Vash, who at this time was taking a walk across Nanohana street seemed to heard a faint voice and got a slight chill.
"Hmm... getting a chill in summer means somebody must be talking bad about me." muttered Vash.
Rainbase city
It was one of the few cities in Alabasta which was still thriving in drought conditions. It was also the location of main headquarters of mysterious crime syndicate Baroque Works. The head of this organization Mr 0 aka Crocodile was a Shichibukai. And as usual he was doing shady things in broad daylight.
"Sand dunes pirates, you should have stayed on the desert instead of coming here to they city which I protect. I shall defeat you all so that you won't be troubling others." Said Crocodile smoking a cigar. He had a large stitched scar on both sides of cheeks joined across his nose, and he wore thick, fluffy grey coat. Crocodile also had a golden hook attached to one of his arm.
"Wait!!! it's tough for us this year due to long drought, please give us some water and ration, we'll go away without any trouble." Said the leader among desert pirate. These group of pirate were once normal citizens of this kingdom. It was due to economy being bad that they lost their jobs, it was caused by the harsh drought every year, and these common people were forced to become bandits. In fact, the man responsible for their misery stood in front of them, it's just that they didn't know it.
"Hmph... people of Rainbase listen!!! These pirates are causing mayhem, so what I do with them, tell me." Shouted Crocodile in loud voice. There was large crowd watching the drama and shouted their suggestions in hopes of also seeing some action. Crocodile had made himself a hero in the eyes of common public so people weren't afraid of him like other pirates.
"Kill them right now, finish them." A random lady covered in excess clothing shouted.
"Crocodile Sama, throw them back to wherever they came from." Another person shouted.
"Kill them" " Throw them" " Feed them to bananawani" "..." "..." Many people shouted, seeing that, the desert bandits felt bad and started stepping back to get out of there.
"Kuhahaha.... That was your verdict scum, like they said, I'll throw you back into your desert home.... Sandstorm!!!" shouted Crocodile making a miniature sandstorm in his hand, he threw the sandstorm toward the pirates as if he was throwing a spinning top. This small attack grew into full size sand hurricane when it reached the Sand Dune Pirates. The pirates were lifted off the ground by the force of the sand twister, and all of them were flung off to distant place their situation unknown.
"Kuhahaha....." Crocodile started laughing but just then he saw a red burning ball of fire shining in the distant horizon. He could feel the heat even from such distance, he was startled as he knew it must be some devil fruit user. Crocodile started considering if his plan was exposed to somebody strong, there were only Straw Hats and Princess Vivi who knew his identity as Mr 0 but they didn't know his true goal. It could become difficult for him to go through with his plan. He went back to Rain Dinners, Crocodile wanted his agents to speed up their movement.