In another verse cp 9 could have been good guys
Atfer that cover story, I honestly thought thats where Oda was gonna go with them, having them become heroes ultimately. Maybe Revolutionaries or future Cross Guild members in hindsight lol. Or their own faction even ofc. Revs or own faction would have most sense though.
I really liked what he did with that cover story with them, they're great characters too, WAY better than CP0, not even comparable. CP0 are barely characters except "Mr Goat" and Stussy if she counts, she was great whilst she was pretending to be part of them anyway lol. I vastly prefer Stussy over Kalifa too.