Hammers at Sea
"All hands on deck!" called the voice of the navigator, startling the crew out of their activities. Each and every pirate jumped up, because all hands on deck meant all hands on deck now. No exceptions. Franky and Usopp dropped their tools, Luffy catapulted down from the crow's nest where he was on watch, Brooke carefully put away his precious violin, Sanji abandoned his dinner preparations, Chopper raced over from where he was inventorying his supplies, and even Zoro and Robin jumped up from their respective places on deck.
"There's going to be a storm," Nami announced to the assembled crew. "And it's a bad one. Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, tie up the sails!" she ordered, and for once there was no complaint, no swooning, no grumbling. Each straw hat raced to do their job, the three strongest manhandling the heavy sail into place and lashing it down with ropes.
"Franky, keep our point. Usopp, Chopper, secure those lines. Brooke, make sure everything is lashed down tightly. Robin, help me secure the second sail," she said, climbing onto the smaller mast. Hands bloomed to help her, and as she tied down the striped sail with all of her strength, Robin's extra hands holding it in place for her.
Nami glanced around the ship from her vantage point, making sure that everything was getting done properly. The monster trio were clambering on the main mast, Luffy's arms stretched around the sail to keep it in place while Zoro and Sanji, muscles straining, pulled the ropes as tight as they could. When they had finished, their captain untangled himself from the sail and flung them all down in his rubbery catapult, and they ran to lines and started pulling them taught, next to the sharpshooter and doctor, currently in his human form. They had only secured a fraction of the lines, and the navigator began climbing down to help them. The second the monster trio got on the job, however, the job went unbelievably faster. Nami and Robin combined efforts to tighten a few, but soon the job was done. She had caught a glimpse of Brooke running franticly from room to room, a coil of rope in the skeleton's hands.
The ropes would probably come undone during the storm, but the crew had to tie them down now or they would just be that much harder to tie down during the storm. And if the lines whipped around, they could easily knock a crew member overboard. And when the winds got bad, the knots would come undone, or the cleats that they were tied to would get ripped free and they would be forced to use the spare cleat next to them. Whatever happened, the crew would be needed to fight the storm.
The air pressure changed suddenly, and she looked ahead in horror. The sky, previously only slightly overcast, was now filled with looming black clouds, and the rumble of thunder was easily audible in the distance. Off to the right, she could feel something forming. A cyclone, along with the storm.
"Franky, port! Turn the Sunny to port!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Without missing a beat, the shipwright spun the wheel to the left, looking at her when its momentum slowed down. She cupped her hands and hollered, "A little more!" Franky spun the wheel a couple more turns before she yelled, "That's good, stop!" He held the course, and as the boat turned, the crew gathered together on deck. They looked up at the sky, a slight breeze tugging at their clothing and hair. A short distance ahead rain pattered on the water, stopping right at the edge of the clouds.
The navigator counted down as the ship approached the edge of the storm. "Three, two, one, now!" and at the now, the wind picked up and rain hammered the deck of the ship, drenching the crew. A strong wind picked up, making the boat rocking to one side and sending its crew staggering.
"Straighten her out and hold the course steady!" Nami hollered to Franky, and the shipwright obeyed. Her eyes scanned across the deck. She saw that a line had come unfastened, and Chopper was trying to hold it down long enough for Brooke to fasten it. The wind picked up in a sudden gust and she watched in horror as Chopper was swept off of his feat, still clinging to the rope. As the reindeer, still in human form, clung to the rope, it swung out over the side and his grip slipped off of the rain-slick rope. She opened her mouth to scream man overboard when she noticed Zoro racing across the wet deck.
Nami saw Luffy take control of the loose rope that the swordsman had vacated, and the blond cook jump on Chopper's rope. Both men managed to gain control the lines when she saw a wet green head pop up and start to bob in the waves. The swordsman was holding the prone form of the doctor under his arm, and as he swam over to the side of the ship, hands blossomed out of the hull and passed both crew members up.
Zoro laid the small reindeer at the base of the mast to give him a chance to recover before racing off to help Luffy tie down the rope that he had left. The doctor was in his small preferred form after his dunk in the ocean, and looked vulnerable as he lay beneath the mast. N
After a couple seconds rest, he got up, shook himself off, and ran over to help Usopp tie a line. Nami felt a small smile come to her face. All that time she had been yelling orders, or running to do the task herself if the others were too busy. Nonetheless, she was glad to see that their little doctor was unharmed.
A few relatively uneventful minutes went by, and the crew started to let down their guard. They had safely made it past the cyclone, and although they weren't out of the storm yet, there was a moment's lull in the squall. All of a sudden a gust of wind picked up, sending Robin, who was leaning over the rail to check for something, tumbling headfirst into the stormy seas. Franky leapt to the side and dove over, leaving Nami scrambling for the wheel. She grabbed it and with every ounce of strength she possessed, managed to wrestle it into submission.
She saw Luffy, up on the mast, send his rubbery arms overboard and pulled up Franky, with Robin in his arms, from the tumulus ocean. He carefully dropped the pair back on deck before clambering across the mast with a coil of rope in his teeth to tie down a portion of the sail that had escaped its bindings and was flapping in the wind.
The navigator gratefully surrendered her post at the wheel to the bigger, considerably stronger cyborg. Nami surveyed the deck again to make sure that everyone was doing alright. The two hammers that had fallen over the side were alright, and everyone in the crew was racing about, tying down lines that had escaped and re-knotting knots that looked loose before they could come loose.
Her eyes fell onto Luffy just as another gust blew. He was working like a man possessed, tying down knots with frantic motions as his hat flew off of his head for the umpteenth time before catching on the chin strap. But this time, the chin strap must have worn out because it snapped, sending the precious straw hat plummeting out into the waves. The captain launched himself at it, grabbing it and securing it in his free hand. His other hand was clutching at a slick grip on the railing and as Nami watched in horror, the hand slid free and its owner began to tumble into the battering waves.
Sanji looked over just in time to see his captain go over the edge and released the rope he was holding, almost wrenching Zoro, the one who was tying it down, off of his feet. Brooke ran over to help him, and the skeleton's nimble fingers easily tied the rope down as the swordsman strained to pull it tight.
The cook dived off of the edge, and quickly swam toward the figure fast disappearing into the ocean's cruel grasp. But the cook, the strongest swimmer in the straw hat crew emerged victorious, the prone form of the captain slung over his shoulder. Robin's hands helped him up as well, and he dropped the waterlogged captain and raced off as soon as they were on deck.
The navigator could see the edge of the storm and the beginnings of sunlight breaking through the heavy clouds. She called out to the crew, "We're almost out! Just a little bit longer!" This news was met with enthusiastic cheering, and the crew gained some of their energy that had been sapped by the sea. The ocean, on the other hand, didn't like that news as much. It seemed determined to claim at least one of the pirates, and the storm picked up in intensity as the ship neared its edge.
Nami saw the familiar form of a skeleton teetering on the edge of the rail. A wave broke over the side of the ship, and it wrapped Brooke with its greedy fingers, dragging him over the side. Usopp was the only one facing that direction and dove in after their musician. Nami waited and watched for a couple of seconds but the pair didn't re-emerge. She ran over to the rail and franticly searched for her crewmates. Her roaming eyes found Brooke, and Usopp sinking under his weight.
The navigator dove in without hesitation. She quickly swam over to the spot where they went under, took a deep breath and dove. The murky green sea buffeted her from all sides, and she swam deeper and deeper into the watery prison. She finally reached the pair, Usopp looking like he was about to run out of air. Nami slipped Brooke's arm over her shoulder and clutching it tightly, began to swim upward. The sharpshooter followed suit and they fought their way to the rippling green above them.
Lungs burning, Nami was almost at the last couple of feet of seawater. Just a few more strokes, she told herself desperately. Then she saw Usopp's eyes roll back in his head and cussing mentally, grabbed hold of him as well. She broke through the surface, breathing cool, sweet air. She pulled her crewmates' heads up above the surface as well, and Usopp coughed and spluttered for a couple of seconds before swimming around to support the other side of the skeleton.
They swam toward the ship, and Nami was never been so grateful to see Robin's hands blossoming out of the side of the ship. They handed the skeleton up first before Nami, and then Usopp, got passed up the side of the ship. They lay on the deck on their backs, panting for a couple of seconds, watching the dark clouds break up and disappear above them.
"That was fun," Luffy said, cheerfully bouncing up to his fallen crewmates. The sniper just groaned, and Nami was inclined to agree with Usopp's sentiment. The rest of the crew shambled over, collapsing onto the deck in exhaustion when they got close enough. Zoro was leaning against a wall with half-lidded eyes and Sanji was sitting next to him, lighting a slightly soggy cigarette. For once they weren't even arguing. Nami figured that they must have been too worn out to do even that.
"The sea was being mean today," Luffy announced suddenly. He abruptly plopped down in the center of the rough circle of soggy, bedraggled pirates.
"What do you mean?" Sanji asked, blowing out a stream of smoke.
"The water kept trying to take my nakama," the captain pouted. "Because we have devil fruit powers, it thought that we would be easy to take. But it was wrong." Their captain's face split into a grin. "Because our nakama look out for each other. And that's why we can never lose!" Luffy fell backwards and started to snore, lying spread-eagle in the middle of the group.
The crew exchanged glanced after their captain's speech. They shared grins over their captain's antics, and one by one, slowly dropped off to sleep where they were sitting. Nami was the last one awake, and looked over her sleeping nakama, treasuring each and every one. She just hoped that if they got another crewmate, the new person wouldn't be yet another hammer. But with Luffy as captain, she decided, who knows? A slight grin lingered on her face as she joined her soggy nakama and drifted off to sleep.
…
Hi again! Once more, I'm doing another oneshot before I get back to Jailbreak. Oh well, it'll get finished eventually and in the meantime, I decided to write this when it popped into my head. I hoped that everyone enjoyed it, and I would love it if you reviewed XD. Constructive criticism is also greatly appreciated, and it'll help me write better stories :)