Chapter 11: Newest Commanders

As men drank and danced around on deck to all of their spoils of raiding the marine base. Everyone's spirits were high and excited to get started on their next mission given to them by their captain.While everyone was celebrating Ace and Capone were sitting in the captain's quarters discussing all of the things they gained from the Vice-admirals base.

Capone informed Ace that they had stolen about 400 million beli's worth of money and gold from the base and also that they had also found enough ammunition and supplies to last them 6 months on the open sea without docking in a port to resupply. When Ace heard the report he told Capone to hand him the two devil fruits, the book about them, and that he was dismissed so he could figure out what they were gonna do next.

When Ace looked at the devil fruits sitting on his desk he saw an apple that was the size of a head that was dirt brown with spirals all around it and the other one was a banana that was golden with waves covering it. As ace flipped through the book he discovered that what he had were two extremely powerful devil fruits. The dirt brown one was apparently one that was a logia type that was called the Chikyū Chilyū nomi or the Earth Earth fruit that allowed someone to control, manipulate, and become the ground itself although not that useful when you were out in the middle of the ocean when you got to land you would become a force to be reckoned with. One of the abilities that came with eating the fruit was that you would become extremely durable and harder to take down than most of the other logia and even mythical zoan type devil fruit users.

It just so happened that the next devil was a mythical zoan type devil fruit and apparently it was one of only a few that allowed you to fly and it was called the Gurifin Gurifin fruit or in English the Griffin Griffin fruit. As the name would suggest it allowed the user to become a Griffin, it would allow them to sprout wings from their back, talons to grow on their hands and feet. Some abilities that they would receive besides a boost in their strength, speed, defense, and endurance was a super enhancement in their eyesight and the feathers that they would sprout was as hard as steel.

When Ace saw that he had these two devil fruits and no one to receive them he thought that instead of hunting down people to become his commanders, why not grow him a few instead, so he decided that him and his crew would sail to an uninhabited island and he would hold a tournament and the two strongest people would receive the devils fruits and become commanders if they were trust worthy and loyal to him to a fault. As they stepped on the island and Ace explained to them the rules and the offer of a life changing reward, all of the men grew excited and incredibly lively no one could atop themselves from wanting to win and get this prize that their captain spoke of.

Days passed and as the winners were announced the party seemed to have been started since 99% of the crew couldn't win the prizes. The two men who won the devil fruits was a man named Colton Wayne, and Scott Oliver.

Colton was a big muscled African American man who stood even above Ace he had tribal tattoos going up the length of his arms, and all over his body was as if he had used scarification all over himself. Ace didn't know how Capone gained such a man in his crew but he wasn't one to complain the next man, Scott was surprisingly taller than Ace as well. Ace was curious to see the person that was a few inches taller than him as well, Scott was a caucasian man that seemed to be in his late 20's with golden blonde hair, a slim but athletic build much like swimmer or Olympic runner. When they were called into the captain's quarter's to see Ace and claim there reward they didn't know what to expect from him. They both respected and idealized Ace and his strength since they met him a few years ago when training on the island and when he defeated the Vice-admiral. Since they knew how smart, strong, and capable their captain was they didn't know what to expect when he promised a reward that would change their lives completely.

As they entered the quarters they saw Ace sitting in his chair with Capone standing beside him keeping a watchful eye on them both.Ace stood from his chair and announced to the room "Squad leader of team 12 Colton and squad leader of team 8 Scott, take a seat we have something to discuss". They bowed and went to take a seat and as they sat down Ace spoke to them again "From what I've been told you both completed the training on the island for the full three years and learned both armament and observation haki is this correct?". They both nodded their heads not wanting to interrupt their captain.

"Good, now what I'm going to offer you both if you choose to accept will change not only your lives both how everyone in this world views you, now my question.....how would you both like to become one of my commanders and if you choose to accept I'll give you both powerful devil fruits that we got from the marine base that we robbed from the Vice-admiral a few days ago".

Both of them were completely taken aback and were thrilled to hear that they were being offered commander level possessions with the added bonus of a powerful devil fruit if they accepted the spot on his crew.They looked to one another and unannounced to anyone a rivalry had been sparked between them to serve their captain better than the other. Simultaneously they both spoke to Ace and answered yes to his proposal of working under him as one of his commanders.

Ace seeing the fire and excitement in their eyes, smiled at them both and told them that he was glad to have them as his newest commanders and hoped that they accomplish their own dreams no matter what they were. With the question out of the way Ace motioned for Capone to bring out the two devil fruits and based on the files he had on these two men it turned out that Colten was a not a practioner of neither the sword or marksmanship he liked to fight face to face with giving his opponents no chance to strike back and Scott was a marksman who was most likely better than even him since he had been using firearms for over 15 years and he had now had observation haki for a while now.

Now that he had read about their background, traits, likes, and what they were capable of he new exactly who needed what fruit. He gave Colton the 'Earth Earth fruit' and gave Scott the 'Griffin Griffin fruit'. It seemed that these fruits fit them both perfectly and that given enough time could turn them into possible Yonko level threats.

After they received the fruits, both of them immediately bit into them and almost threw up tasting the most disgusting thing they've ever tasted. They had even fallen to the ground and were trying to fight the urge to spit the fruit out.

When Colton and Scott eventually rose from the ground they both felt as though something had latched onto them and were giving them incredible energy and strength. Now that everything was settled he told them that they were going to go out to the rest of the crew and inform them of their new rank and position.

When everyone heard about their promotion no one had any I'll intent towards their brothers but felt a since of pride because of their accomplishment. All of this good news, fighting, looting, and fun just made everyone including Ace party as if there was no tomorrow and almost until dawn. They had all gotten so drunk that they almost didn't notice that a bird was flying towards the ship at a relaxed and cruising speed.

As everyone was in a deep sleep they all suddenly heard a loud scream coming from what sounded like their captain and they all awoke ready to start slaughtering whoever was attacking them but to their surprise all they saw was their captain at the top back end of the ship holding a newspaper laughing like a mad man with a huge smile plastered across his face.