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Etho hadn't meant to join the World Government.
But ever since he spawned people seemed to think he was some kind of spy or agent, or at least really strong. So when CP9 showed up at his doorstep (under the guise of being there to tax him for building illegally, which, rude), and essentially told him "join or be arrested", it wasn't a very tough decision.
The CP9 know how to turn their fingers into bullets. Etho learns it from watching them, even before he joins (part of why they went for him in the first place- he guesses not many people can sneak up on them unnoticed)- his red eye can usually only copy and alter redstone, but in this server it does more. So now he can shove his finger through flesh like it's butter.
He's winning this season.
There are other cool things, too, like walking on air and going turning your body into steel. (And this one guy who has a door related power. Etho can't copy that one.)
What CP9 does isn't nice or clean work, but he supposes red names can't complain when their bloodlust is quenched and no one is hunting them for it. Important highly classified secret government agent stuff, he supposes. Etho's never really lived under a government. Monarchies don't count.
(It makes him miss the Red King a little.)
Generally, his coworkers don't talk to him much. The first week was an exception, when they were making sure he wouldn't immediately run off with whatever they were teaching him and instructing him about, but even then, they preferred bickering and talking to each other than him. Being able to copy movements near perfectly made the learning process so much easier than he suspects it should have been, although it came with the downside that when they sparred, they hit hard . (Not as hard as Gem, nobody hits as hard as Gem, but it was still enough for Etho to question all his decisions.)
Etho's lack of proper documents or identification was quickly fixed by the organization. The idea of needing those is foreign to him, but in such a large server, it makes sense. No attempt to explain he comes from another server was made- better safe than sorry, who knows how they would have reacted. Grian made it clear they were more invading than borrowing the server's grounds.
The lone red heart symbol on his headband beginning to glow every now and then doesn't help the "getting CP9 to trust him" part of their deal, but they give him enough people to kill, so it's not an issue. The issue is in the fact Etho is very aware they do not trust him, and as such making any moves towards finding any other players is too risky. He keeps to observing the news instead of outwardly seeking them out.
Surprisingly, Kalifa is the one he gets along best with. He appreciates her blunt but calm attitude, and she doesn't seem to mind him as much as someone (cough Rob Lucci cough) around here. They tend to make light conversation, or talk about important information Etho should pay more attention to (those are very one sided conversations).
It's not as though he makes any real effort to get along with people. As nice as it would be to have friends who are specialized assassins, Cipher Pol 9 has a clear objective of "keeping the World Government's peace by any means necessary", not "keeping each other alive by any means necessary", meaning the moment they found out he's not that into the whole World Government thing, it'd be over, no matter how close they were.
("So, uh, Kalifa, is there any… supreme power? Like… a final boss, stuff like that?"
"Did you not go to school?"
"...No…"
"I see. There are the Gorouseis, yes. Five elders who hold more powers than even the Celestial Dragons."
"...Yes, right. And if we… went against them?"
"Do not even joke of such a thing."
"Alright, alright! Got it!"
"Ah, and Slab?"
"Hm?"
"That's sexual harassment."
"But I didn't even-!")
Etho spawned in Water 7, and he hasn't left Water 7- although he should, because he hasn't seen a single other player yet- and this game is hard to win without killing your enemies (and your allies and everything you love). CP9 assigned him sneaking around to gather information, a fairly entry level job. Perfect for him, sneaking around is great. He even gets to spook people.
(He needs to leave. The seas call to him like blood or redstone and waiting won't bring him anything- but out at sea his survival isn't assured and he's a survivor before a winner.)
The rest of CP9 is busy with some long term infiltration mission, and his job is to look for anything that can help or derail them. It's chill.
Food isn't an issue, or a safe place to sleep. There are no mobs at night, and not even the weird gang (the Franky Family, led by Franky, who is a cyborg and Etho just knows Tango would love to study him) goes near his house; not ever since they tried to spy on his window, and he stared at them very intensely with a single glowing red eye (he was laughing for ages after they ran screaming). The only other problem would have been money. This world needs a type of currency called berry to keep running, but his not-that-willing job supplied a steady source of those.
So, Etho is thriving. Everything's going great.
That is, until 5 weeks in and with no notice of other players (Joel should have a bounty on his head and Grian should have pissed off the World Government by now), when he's sitting by Kalifa in an office and they receive a stack of new bounty posters.The politics and general issues of this server don’t interest him, but he runs by the papers out of boredom.
Correction: the politics and general issues of this server usually don’t interest him. But then, when Etho is faced with paper stamped with a too familiar face, they have never interested him more.
Maybe his breath hitches for a moment. Maybe his eyes widen, maybe his fists clench. None of that matters- he’s out the door and hurrying to his makeshift house in seconds, poster clutched in a fist as though it’s his life he’s holding. (Kalifa will be suspicious of whatever that was, but ultimately it doesn’t matter as much as this.)
His eyes read and re-read that paper five times before it finally, truly sinks in.
The paper reads: Wanted, dead or alive, 44 million berries. B. Dubs, the Mossy Menace.
Bdubs. Bdubs is wanted by the government. Bdubs is a pirate.
Bdubs is alive .
You can't win Life alone. It's a tested and true fact- you can try, you can get far, but you can't win if you're alone.
(Maybe company comes in the form of wolves, or whatever was going on with Pearl, but it was still allies and she was still not alone. Not like he is now.)
Etho is alone. Etho needs allies. The CP9 is great, but they don't know of the game or of the bloodlust or of servers, their interests are too far removed from Etho's. What he needs is another player for an ally, and this is the best lead he's got. Hopefully, he'll want to form an alliance, too.
(The CP9 isn't Bdubs.)
There are two options for him, if he's really doing this: ask for permission to go after this pirate (way too risky, they could ask too many questions and notice too much), or quit his job. He's not particularly looking forward to doing either- he likes his job! Kinda! A little bit! Also, the CP9 are government-funded professional assassins who would kill him the moment they saw him step out of line.
Rob Lucci doesn't look like the type of man to let people quit the World Government still alive.
So, Etho settles on the third, secret option. Which is, of course, taking 3 days to use the CP9's resources to gather every single piece of information he can on Bdubs and then leave a note on Kalifa's office saying he's retiring and getting the hell out of dodge in a merchant ship.
All in all, a flawlessly executed plan.
(Turns out his timing was perfect- not 2 days later, the face of a boy in a straw hat stamped every newspaper, followed by descriptions of his attack to Enies Lobby and his declaration of war against the World Government.)
Everything he could find on B. Dubs, or the Moss(y) Menace, sits scribbled in a book in his inventory. All the clues lead towards the general area of Sabaody Archipelago, nearing somewhere around Thriller Bark (dangerous area, territory of a Shichibukai)- mainly smaller islands around there. Not much on how or why he became a pirate is available, only that Bdubs is a dangerous Logia user and you should be careful around him.
Of all the things briefly being part of CP9 taught him, the meaning of logia user isn't one of them. One of the men in the ship is kind enough to explain it to him- a Logia is a classification of Devil Fruits, meaning the power granted by it allows one to become and control a natural element.
(Etho laughed a little when he realized the power was most likely moss. It finds him anywhere he goes, huh?)
What gets his full attention is the fact that a Logia is a type of Devil Fruit . The one thing that can get them to yellow. Bdubs isn't red .
Sleep that night is... fine. The hammock isn't as nice as his bed, but that was to be expected. But he...
(He dreams of snow and a fortress and walls and a deal never taken and a promise never fulfilled.)
It's cold, is all.