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Once upon a time Mount Culombo had three brats running around, enough that people called them the demon brats of Mount Culombo. A trio of feral mountain children who didn't let the normal ways of society stop them from being what it was they wanted to be. Nothing would stop them from reaching for that which they wanted most in the world; Freedom.
The whole of Dawn Island was aware that it was better to stay away unless you wanted to get beat up. Unless you were those few that had managed to gain their respect, or even rarer, their love.
Dadan on the Mountain bandits was one of those few, as was Makino of the party bar. If you were anyone else you better run when you come across the three of them. They weren't stopping until they got what they wanted.
People from the Gray Terminal know that these brats were little more than children, but strong nonetheless. Their teamwork was impeccable, to the point that taking on the three of them wouldn't get you any grace. If anything, running into the three of them meant you would get your ass handed to you.
More than one of them knows just how much trouble the three of them gave Bluejam and that was more than enough to like them. They didn't want to run into them; but knowing these three brats made the terminal safer because they wouldn't let anyone dictate what they could or could not do was more than enough for the people living there.
Those that didn't like them, that knew what they were capable of and how it was that they would be able to keep up even with adults didn't like that pre-teens could keep up and wanted to do something about it. More than one person likened them to Garp, who was now a marine, who didn't let anyone else run over him. If these kids were a little less feral they would make amazing marines, but right now it was clear that no one in their sound mind would take them on to fight for justice.
They were too wild for Marines, and the proclamation of one of them wanting to be 'King of the Pirates' also gave it away that they wouldn't join the Navy.
Yet, no one was ever able to find where they hid. Where it was they were able to grow and learn, who it was that had placed those three brats on Dawn and left without saying another word. Where they came from and what it was that drove them to do what they did on a day to day basis.
It did work in getting the rumor mill going, in making sure the whole of Dawn was made aware of what the trio had done now, to the bafflement of some people who recently settled on the island.
"Did you hear, someone ran into the brats again", would be whispered at times. More often then not followed by the story of some poor idiot who had run into the brats and only just lived to tell the tale.
Even the snobs of High Town knew of the brats, not because they would ever venture into the forest, but more because the brats would dare to go into Town and wreak havoc there. Whenever that happened even funnier stories managed to make its way into the world. Enough that marines would be called at times, several of the groups stationed in this side of the East Blue had managed to run into the brats to the point that they were scared to do so.
While in time, the brats ran around less and were with two instead of three, there were those that still knew about them. Knew who it was that had been running around Mount Culombo and what it had meant once upon a time.
When it was just one of them, people started to forget. Except those on the wrong end of a pipe, those people never did forget the demon brats they ran into at one point.
Ace, Luffy and Sabo had been together for a full year before they were thorn apart. The world didn't deal kindly to feral brats. Even less so when one of them was a runaway noble whose family needed him back for status or whatever. They did their own thing, despite people trying to dictate what it was they did, none of them accepted that as the truth and for the longest time that worked.
Luffy and Ace were orphans, or as good as orphans, no one needed them but they kept running around out of spite and to show the world they were still there. They both wanted to carve a place in the world for themselves and make sure that regardless of what happened that place would still be there years later.
Losing Sabo had been hard, even more so when they heard he had been killed trying to chase what they all wanted: freedom.
"I promise you, Luffy, I won't die", Ace promised one afternoon. Sabo was dead and it was just him and Luffy now, if this is what it took to make sure that Luffy would stop crying he would promise it time and time again.
Despite Sabo not being there, it didn't stop them from being feral brats. They ran Gray Terminal now that Bluejam had been killed in the fire. Never with fear though, unless it was those people that tried to take their treasure. If they were just living in the trash heap they were part of their territory and needed to be protected.
When Ace left, Luffy kept to the forest and Windmill the most. Not because he was scared, but more because running Gray Terminal and everything attached to it was something he shared with his brothers. Now that he was alone, there were other things he needed to do. Other things he needed to focus on; he would after all set out in a couple of years as well. He was going to make it in the East Blue, in the Grand Line, all the way to Laughtale. All the way to become Pirate King.
Marineford was a disaster, until it wasn't anymore.
Ace had been tied up on the scaffold, the world being made aware of who his parents were. Up until the point that he wasn't, that his brothers had been able to get him free.
Sabo had forgotten, the blast of the cannonball had made him lose his memory. At least until he wasn't so long anymore. The newspaper proclaiming Fire Fist Ace as captured and pending execution was enough to get him kicked into gear. There was no way that he was going to let his older brother be killed for something stupid like the blood he shared with a dead guy.
Luffy had been alone, separated from his crew to the point that he feared never seeing them again. Seeing the announcement of Ace's pending execution, he put that to the back of his mind and tried to think of a way to get his older brother out of this mess. Other times he would have tried to get Ace out of Impel Down, but he was well aware that he wouldn't be able to do that alone. So he settled for getting to him on the day of his execution. Making sure he got Ace out and reminding the world that they shouldn't fear Gol D. Roger. They should fear the Demon Brats of Mount Culombo.
Even more so when it was the three of them again, Sabo had lost his memories but was here when it mattered. Having had the same idea as Luffy and infiltrated until the both of them were posing as the executioners. Neither wanting to ever be in that position, but working around it as someone had been stupid enough to give them both the key to Ace's shackles. The moment Whitebeard arrived and the world stopped breathing to look at the Yonko, Luffy got into action. Undoing Ace's shackles as Sabo moved to get Sengoku tied up so the Fleet Admiral couldn't do anything to them. Taking out two extra pipes and throwing them into the direction of his brothers with that tell-tale smirk on his face.
"Let's remind them about the Demon Brats", he said, laughing as Luffy and Ace each took one side before they made their way through the masses. So in tune with each other, even after all those years.