Chapter 17: Crossing the Desert

As the Straw Hat Pirates landed in Alabasta, they made their way to the city of Nanohana to restock their food supply—since Luffy, Chopper, Usopp, and Karoo had eaten most of it. Sanji was furious, yelling at them for devouring food meant to last over a week for more than ten people. Despite knowing the situation, they had eaten it all without a second thought.

The crew then split up to handle their individual tasks. Douglas used the opportunity to "read" books from the local stores by simply touching them—absorbing their information without needing to buy them. He browsed a wide variety of subjects, from desert herbs and dangerous wildlife to desert engineering concepts and even maps of the entire island.

While Douglas was scanning books, he noticed Smoker chasing after some of his crewmates. Luffy, lacking Haki or Sea Prism Stone, couldn't land a hit on Smoker, who was using his Logia powers to evade effortlessly.

"Straw Hat Luffy and your crew, surrender now! We don't want civilian casualties!" Smoker shouted, as Marines fired at the fleeing pirates.

"Stop chasing us!" Luffy yelled back while running. Douglas, who had been moving parallel to them, quickly began devising a plan to help them escape. He sprinted faster, leapt to the rooftops, and created a stone wall to block Smoker's path. As Smoker attempted to go around it, an explosion Douglas triggered forced him to stop and protect his fellow Marines.

"Ahh, Douglas, since when were you here?" Luffy asked, surprised to see him suddenly beside them. Douglas didn't respond—he simply kept running. Then, by touching nearby buildings, he formed stone tentacles that lifted his crewmates one by one.

"Oi, what are you doing?" Sanji asked, alarmed.

"I'm carrying all of you," Douglas said simply, accelerating to an incredible speed. The others were stunned—feeling like they were being thrown through the air. After several minutes, Douglas reached the Going Merry and set them down on deck.

"You're a fast runner," Zoro commented dryly.

"Yeah, where'd you learn to move like that?" Sanji added.

"I trained back in Drum Kingdom," Douglas replied. "The snow made for tough terrain, so I used to time myself running laps. That wasn't even my fastest—just slower because I was carrying extra weight."

As Douglas helped get the ship ready to sail, Vivi gave Karoo a letter to deliver, entrusting him with a secret message.

"Yosh, everything's ready! Let's go!" Nami called out. They set sail again, with the crew relaxing—until another issue quickly arose.

"Everyone! There are a bunch of ships ahead of us!" Usopp, acting as the lookout, shouted.

Before anyone could react, Douglas, tired of being pursued, activated his laser arm and put on his mask. The mask's HUD lit up as he locked onto the incoming ships. Without hesitation, he fired. The beam tore through the enemy vessels with ease—cutting through them like a hot knife through butter, much like how Kid's railgun could've worked if he hadn't been one-shotted by Shanks.

The ships exploded in the distance.

The Straw Hats stared at Douglas in stunned silence. Only Chopper remained calm—already familiar with what Douglas was capable of.

"What was that?" Usopp asked, still wide-eyed.

"I have my own weapon," Douglas replied calmly.

Luffy's eyes sparkled with excitement. He immediately started poking at Douglas's laser arm like a child discovering a new toy.

"Douglas! Can I borrow your laser arm? I promise I won't break it!" Luffy pleaded.

Despite the others' protests, Douglas detached the arm and carefully attached it to Luffy's shoulder, causing Nami to panic.

"Don't give him that!" she yelled.

"Don't worry," Douglas said reassuringly, placing the mask on Luffy.

"Laser strength: set to laser point," Douglas commanded. The HUD recognized his voice and adjusted the laser's output. He then gave Luffy basic instructions on how to use it. When Luffy fired it, only a small red dot came out—a harmless laser pointer. Still, Luffy was thrilled.

"I always build in safety overrides," Douglas explained. "If someone takes my weapons, they won't be able to use them against us."

The crew breathed a collective sigh of relief.

------------------

The Going Merry reached the shores of the once-green city of Elumalu at noon. But instead of a vibrant oasis, they were met with dry land and the crumbling ruins of what used to be a thriving city—clear evidence of a fallen civilization that once called this place home.

As the crew began disembarking, Douglas brought out the full-sized version of the machine he had built for Vivi. He carried it carefully, ready to initiate cloud seeding to ensure rainfall across the entirety of Alabasta.

"Whoa! Is that the actual machine you made for Vivi?" Sanji asked, wide-eyed. The device was much larger than the prototype they'd seen earlier. It gleamed with durable synthetic panels—clearly built to endure extreme, rapid temperature changes—something the prototype lacked.

"Yes," Douglas said, adjusting a dial. "The materials I used ensure that it can last over a century before showing any signs of wear or degradation."

He presented the machine to Vivi and the others. One of the first things they noticed was the large array of buttons and control options on its interface.

"What are all these buttons for?" Nami asked, already imagining how chaotic it could get if Luffy got his hands on it.

"They're modes," Douglas explained. "If you wanted to, you could even generate snow here. But that would take significantly longer. For now, just focus on the cloudy mode—that's what you need most."

Vivi nodded in agreement, impressed but also slightly overwhelmed.

"All right, here we go," Douglas said. He demonstrated how to operate the machine, then handed Vivi a sleek bracelet.

"This will allow you to remotely control the machine. It also acts as a GPS beacon, so the device will always land near you if it's deployed from the air."

"You really are a genius," Sanji muttered in amazement. Then, Vivi activated the device, to which she set the parameters she wanted, and the device started calibrating, then it directly flew to the skies but it was in the direction of the sea. When the machine flew up, the Strawhats then look amused, with Usopp having a glitter on his eyes.

"Say…" Usopp stepped forward hesitantly, "Can you… make me stronger too? Like, strong enough to keep up with Zoro, Sanji, Luffy… and you? I don't wanna always be the weak one."

Douglas looked at him carefully, then replied, "Are you sure? That kind of strength always comes with a price."

Usopp immediately tensed up, went pale, and slowly turned away without answering. He silently disembarked from the ship with the others.

"Did you have to scare him like that?" Sanji asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's fun scaring people," Douglas said with a slight smirk, hopping off the ship right after.