That's right folks: A new Badger Kaizokudan adventure is in the making! This follows on almost directly from the Oz arc (except for one one-off I plan to write sometime soon), so make sure you read that before this if you're new to the series!
As usual: One Piece and all canon characters, places and ideas are copyright of Eiichiro Oda, not me. However, all original charaters, places and ideas are copyright of Richard Carr (Captain Badger) and Jimmy Hartill (Hertz/Arachna D Seth)
Also, unlike the previous arc, this is written exclusively by Jimmy Hartill, as opposed to myself (I will be contributing to our Fairy Tail fanfic too, so we've effictively made two joint accounts, if you like). Enjoy!
Badger Kaizoku-dan: Ferris Island Arc
Chapter 1: Fun for all the Family
The storm raged violently through the sky, jagged forks of lightning struck downwards and were absorbed meaningless into the ocean swell. Enormous waves of darkened water rolled and frothed, crashing against the hull of the infamous Badger Pirates ship, the Tanuki-Go. The ship itself was rocking and diving through the turbulent seas buffeted wildly by the impacts of the elements trying to force the ship under the water and into its eternal rest.
Captain Badger himself stood on the prow of the ship, the rainwater lashing his face and soaking his dark blue captain's jacket, the golden tassels plastered unceremoniously to his sleeves as he sipped from a bottle of whiskey. He was leaning against the balcony near the helm but had decided that trying to use the wheel in this condition would be ridiculous, Boboette was simply holding it in place, steering would've been impossible.
At his side stood Locke, the hammer-head Fishman irritably trying to light a cigar in the torrential down-pour and finally giving up, pitching the lighter off the side of the ship to stand with his arms folded besides his Captain. They stood for a few minutes in the soaking hurricane before the Captain finally decided to ask the question
"So, why aren't we helping?"
"Well, you're the Captain sir, so you shouldn't be involved in something so simple"
"True enough" Badger agreed, nodding his head
"Mujina's a young girl, no way should SHE be trying to help in this rain"
"Again, true" Badger conceded
"Vince has the upper-body strength of a small prawn"
"Sadly true…"
"Penny and the bear don't seem interested in actually helping the crew right now"
"Well, nothings more unpleasant than a wet bear"
"And Boboette's manning the helm"
"So, why aren't you helping?"
"Oh, because I fucking hate him."
"Oh yeah…" Badger grunted, hearing the heightened cries and yelps as Seth tried rapidly to hold the mast in place and row both sides of the ship using hyper-extended oars. It was entertaining to watch, but sadly counter-productive to the good of the ship in general. Badger sighed and ran a hand through his soaking hair "We have to find an island to dock at, we're about three hours away from completely cap-sizing"
"Aye… I checked the maps, there's a fairly large one we were heading to before because Vince had heard they were opening a new art gallery there. We've kept a roughly straight course, we should be there soon"
"Good work, any chance I could convince you to help Seth?"
"None at all, I hope he ends up hanging himself from the rigging"
"Fair enough, nice talking to you Locke"
"The same Captain"
Ferris Island (so named for being in a strange pinwheel shape) was an island rarely visited due to its unfortunately close location to the entrance of the Grand Line. As it wasn't included on the log pose, very few people believed it a necessary place to visit.
To be fair, if it wasn't for the fact they'd somehow been caught in a nightmarish storm the Badger Pirates wouldn't have either, but as it was, they'd docked at the port and were disembarking (or in Seth's case falling in a tired stupor) onto dry land.
They were greeted by a huge sign and a covered walkway that advertised the island as "The greatest theme park this side of Shabondy Archipelago!" which none of the crew could dispute seeing as they had no idea where Shabondy was (including Vince, which was worrying since he was the navigator). The whole island seemed to be white-washed and coloured in again only several shades brighter, a huge sheet of some see-through material was suspended high above them and prevented the rain that still raged outside from pouring down upon them. The brilliant red cobble-stones lined the path towards most of the attractions, a few blue ones lead towards the "Refined Tastes" buildings and a yellow one lead to "An adventure".
"… anyone feel like following the yellow road?" Badger asked with a raised eyebrow
"Nope"
"No thanks"
"Not in a million years"
"Uh-uh"
"Ook"
"Bwaaaaah" Badger looked at the prone form of Seth and decided it might be a good idea to just leave him to rest for a while. Since the rides looked like they required physical effort, this gave him the almost ideal solution that would also mean Vince wouldn't have to say the sentence he was clearly aching to say.
"Alright, Vince! You take Seth to see your art exhibit and make sure he gets plenty of rest, Mujina, Penny and Boboette, you three can go round the park. Me and Locke can examine the local taverns…"
"Oh no you don't!" Mujina announced unexpectedly, stalking forward and grabbing her father by the arm. "You and I are having some serious father daughter bonding and that is that!"
"But the rum!" Badger tried to argue as he was dragged away, his protests ignored by the fearsome decision of his daughter. This left the four remaining Badger crew members to try and decide what to do. Vince brightened up at the prospect of having a large party to see this exhibit, his pigeon chest swelling with anticipation
"So Locke…"
"Count me out, I'm going to stay on the ship and do some reading."
"Oh, ummm, Penny? Would you care to indulge in some fine-"
"No, I'm staying here too" Penny stated, following the Fishman back onto the Tanuki-Go despite the continuing storm. Vince felt a little disheartened and sagged visibly until his eye caught Boboette, with a bright sunny grin he turned to her, arms spread
"Miss Gorilla!" only to meet with a leathery palm to the face. Vince stayed in position for a while as Boboette's hand was pulled down, smearing a stain of ink onto it and leaving Vince looking a little cross-eyed and discomforted "I, umm, assume that's a polite way of saying no?"
"Ook" Boboette affirmed, loping off towards the tavern that Badger had been so interested in, Vince sniffed and looked thoroughly dejected at his harsh mistreatment
"You'd never abandon me would you, Seth?"
"Vince, you're one of my best friends" Seth wheezed "But if I could run right now you'd never catch me"
"Fair enough" Vince sniffled, wiping away a single inky tear as he propped the First Mate up and the two staggered off towards the art exhibit.
"This is ridiculous. I'm Captain Horatio Badger, I have a bounty in the millions! My first mate has punched through a cannonball, my cartographer is made of ink and nearly indestructible" He looked to the young girl with the same black and white hair as him who was currently holding his hand and leading him around the park "So why can she get me to do whatever the hell she feels like!?"
"Daddy, which ride should we go on first?" Mujina asked, a broad sunny smile on her face. Badger was momentarily taken aback, she'd been angry earlier and now she was all smiles? What was with this inconsistency!? He looked around, harried and flustered, before deciding on what looked to be a roller-coaster of some sort. He tried to take charge, as he did with the crew, and pointed to it
"That ride looks fun"
"Hmmm, I dunno, looks boring… Oh! Let's try the tea-cups first"
"But… but you asked…" Badger was dragged along helplessly by his daughter and simply looked thoroughly and utterly confused by the events of the day thus far. "What… is… HAPPENING!?"
Penny looked apprehensively at the large bear sitting in front of her, he appeared to be fairly docile and, well… tame. Marty was a good partner, she definitely liked his attitude. She stroked her chin absent-mindedly with one hand while tickling under his chin with the other, her mind pre-occupied enough to barely acknowledge the happy growling emitting from his muzzle.
"I need… a new target" she decided. She looked over to the corner where Boboette usually sat and wondered whether or not to attempt taming the gorilla… that was until she remembered the incident when Seth and Vince had tried to give her walnuts wrapped in a banana skin. She learned two vital lessons, Boboette disliked walnuts and to try and tame her would be tantamount to slapping a professional wrestler in the face. No… she needed another animal, after all, if she had a large group of familiars then combat would become far easier…
It was here that her mind hit upon an idea that she would, in the not too distant future, regret to a huge extent.
Locke sat in his cabin with one hand supporting his strange shaped head and the other holding a well worn paperback between thumb and knuckle as he leafed through the thoroughly perused novel. It was something ridiculous about a human man and a human woman meeting and falling in love, somewhat like Seth and Mujina only he didn't intensely hate the main male character. The only problem was the girl's father who didn't like the man pursuing his daughter but admits in the last chapter he was just trying to protect her. It seemed odd to Locke. Fishmen weren't inherently protective of their offspring. That was why so many of them grew up to be trouble-makers…
He sighed and shrugged as he slipped the bookmark into place and heaved his huge frame off his bed. He strolled to the door and casually walked into the corridor. Only to be confronted by a petite blonde haired figure stamping her food and glowering at him. He stood for a moment in uncomfortable silence, both eyes fixed in a cross-eyed glare at the fuming woman in front of him.
"Uhhh… what's with you?"
"Bad! Don't speak unless spoken to!" Penny shouted and wagged a finger, Locke was taken aback and momentarily silenced by this admonishing and simply blinked. Penny's face spread into a broad grin
"Goooood Fishman, now, I want you to give me your left hand, come on"
"…Why?" Locke asked, a tickling feeling of concern spread down his spine. Penny's happy smile quickly changed to one more similar to an enraged demon
"Don't speak unless spoken to! Bad Fishman! Bad!"
"I'm not your bear, woman! Would you stop with the Fishman, already? I have a name!"
"You are a very bad Fishman!" Penny brandished a rolled up piece of newspaper "You will listen to orders or I'll be forced to discipline you!" Locke's face darkened as rage began to flood his veins, not the rage of a Fishman reminded of his years of servitude but of someone who already had a preference for solving his problems with violence being given little over discourse against his own free will.
"You wouldn't dare…" Locke growled, the threat hanging in the air, but fell upon deaf ears. There was a soft pap sound as Penny tapped him on the nose with a newspaper. She had just about enough time to whisper
"uh-oh…" before Locke's completely justified revenge fell upon her.
Captain Badger, scourge of the seas, was sitting precariously in a spinning piece of porcelain designed to look like a gigantic cup. The swirling motions were infinitely worse than the storm had been, at least the storm had a degree of predictability! The only thing controlling THIS swirling motion was the delicate hand of his beautiful yet (as he had only just recently realised) insane daughter.
Mujina had somehow found a way to suddenly change direction mid-spin which made the whole experience for him even worse. He was a lucky guy, supernaturally so, but he could never predict which way this cup was about to turn! It felt like he was riding an incredibly indecisive bronco, the motion made him feel genuinely ill to the very bottom of his stomach as he held back the urge to vomit he could only hear Mujina's happy laughter.
He didn't know why he hadn't known it before…
His daughter was a demon.
It was PARADISE! Vince ran up and down through the Gallery looking at all the beautiful presentations of art. There was a sculpture of Sengoku on that far side which looked so life-like he wondered if it was his petrified twin. There was a contemporary piece consisting of two suspended planks that he found utterly fascinating and could not for the life of him understand, which of course made it so much more interesting.
He was currently excitedly explaining to Seth the importance of his newest favourite
"You see, it's an expression of the artists hidden rage, it shows through in the way the piece seems to leap off of the canvas and almost… attacks you as you look at it! What do you think?"
"Bwaaaaah!" Seth moaned from a bench situated in the middle of the large faux marble room. The entire museum was silent. There were people there but apparently you can't appreciate art if you… speak. He was still in some discomfort but not the agony of earlier, given another half an hour and he'd probably be back to normal… well, normalish.
If he was left alone to recover, that was.
"Seeeeeth, show an interest" Vince whined, his lip trembling ominously. The first mate of the Badger Pirates, in incredible pain, sat up. And blinked at the picture Vince had been talking about
"Its'a picture of'a fist… punching" he mumbled blankly, wondering if he was missing something. Judging by Vince's ecstatic squeal it wasn't anything important
"That's another fine interpretation! It could be him lashing out at the society forcing him to manufacture more and more art, ooooo, I knew you'd be good at this"
"M'kay…" Seth murmured as he rolled back to sleep, dreaming that Mujina and the Captain were having a lot more fun.
Badger wasn't. But Mujina was. She dragged her reluctant father (for the duration of today he was apparently 'daddy') to every single stall and ride she could think of. This had also included playing a crooked game of find the lady which Badger unthinkingly won without questioning how fair the man was intending it to be. After a hasty explanation that he was just naturally lucky and how he'd try to curb it in the future, he'd taken leave of the stall to buy some candy floss since Mujina had just commented that she wanted some.
Since they were taken a break while she quickly bit chunks out of the pink fluff he decided to finally ask
"Errr, Mujina, I gotta be honest I don't understand… well, why we're going round the park? Wouldn't ye be happier doing this with Seth?"
Mujina didn't reply for a while she just chewed on her Candy Floss for a while quietly. Badger was about to seriously question his sanity for a moment, asking a crazy woman what she wanted was pretty… unwise. But Mujina didn't seem angry just… sad? Why did that feel worse? Why was her appearing upset infinitely worse in his mind than her beating the snot out of him? He was about to say something but she interrupted with her answer
"Because… you're my dad. We never spent time together when I was little because you were out at sea… I wanted a few memories with you… I don't want to live my life not being able to say I love my dad." Mujina sniffled once as she finished and wiped at her eyes as she got to her feet "You feeling like a few more rides? Or do you want a drink?"
Badger knew the answer he wanted to say. But he also knew the right answer
"A few rides would be good for an old seadog like me, come on. We got all the time in the world" Mujina smiled and that smile made any amount of discomfort on an inane, banal ride worthwhile.
Vince was sipping on a glass of mineral water as he perused the gift shop and wondered if, as Pirates, he should actually pay for anything. He was still caught in debate when he noticed a piece of work by the door which he hadn't seen when he came in. He frowned and peered at it, why did it seem strangely familiar…
Seth had a new addition to things he didn't like waking him up. Vince screaming in outrage and shock. It was slightly different to his screams of panic and screams of joy since it had more of an Eeeeeeeeek quality to it than his usual screams. Wearily he got up and dragged himself to the quivering figure of his friend
"Wha's wrong, Vince?" He slurred as he yawned broadly
"Th-th-they stole my picture!" Vince cried, tears of ink rolling down his cheek in a way that most emo kids wish could happen to them. Seth blinked a few times as he stared at the picture Vince's quaking finger was indicating. It was a simple inky drawing of a stick figure and a small house, the credit was an artist called Gabriangelo.
"You sure? It doesn't look as good as your usual stuff" Seth said, trying to sneak a compliment in there to calm him down (he barely knew the difference between stick men and a map, but in his own mind this statement was accurate)
"It was my very first one! I left it in my house when we left the Islands! Ohhhhhhh, someone stole it! I'm-I'm", Vince blubbered as he tried to find the appropriate words to express how upset he was. Seth looked sympathetic and patted his friend on the shoulder
"Don't worry, Vince. I have the solution"
"Y-you do?" Vince snivelled, looking up at him with a face that screamed 'My mascara is running, and I don't care my boyfriend dumped me'. Seth nodded at his friend and smiled a re-assuring smile.
He reached up, elbowed the glass in, and carefully grabbed the picture, pulling it free with one move. Vince was in awe as Seth handed it to him and squealed in delight as the picture returned safely to his hands, he hugged it to his body and small smears of ink in the shape of hearts flowed around his skin. Seth smiled happily, glad he'd done a nice thing. Until heavy iron gates closed suddenly and a voice boomed out
"Gentlemen! We have art thieves in our midst! We must capture and destroy them for the sake… of ART!"
"Oh for the love of southern fried potatoes!" Seth shouted in exasperation. Four ominous figures appeared, their silhouettes glaring at Seth and Vince. It looked like, against all odds, they'd found another fight…
There is luck, which Badger specialises in. There is fate, which he doesn't. And then there's completely blind impossible co-incidences, which tend to happen of their own accord regardless of his interference. Finding a log pose at a shooting gallery? Was one of these. He simply stared in awe at his fortune, and for someone who makes his own luck (literally) getting lucky for once is all the more special.
Mujina noticed too and look at her father in confused silence as she tried to work out what he'd seen. Badger had stormed up to the stall in what looked, worryingly, like a swagger. He grinned a broad toothy grin at the stall-owner
"Hello there, my dear carnie" He beamed, the grizzled man behind the stall sniffed once and scratched an improbably hairy arm-pit
"Whut?" He growled
"I was just going to ask… would you mind if I had a go at your shooting game? I'm not a brilliant shot, but I might get lucky."
"Yeah, sure, whatever" The man sat back and handed over a small air rifle. Badger smiled as he grasped the gun and felt a slap of stone on his wrists. He blinked in confusion until he noticed the look on the man's face
"My god…" he thought "I know that grin. I've MADE that grin! That's the grin of someone who's about to remove all your advantages and kick the ever loving crap out of you"
"Yer get three shots, and a Seastone cuff. Just to stop you using any Devil Fruit powers. You better get a target in those three shots… otherwise your ass is mine."
Badger suddenly decided to look at what else was on offer in the gallery. There were a large assortment of Pirates and Marines hanging around at the back in rags holding up bulls-eyes, their eyes imploring Badger for his shot to set them free. This suddenly seemed to be a much worse idea than previously seen. So this is what it felt like for your luck to suddenly turn…
"Alright," Badger announced "I'll do it"
"Dad, are you sure?" Mujina sounded worried for him, he wanted to admit that this was probably round about Seth's level of decision making but didn't want to worry her
"I'll be fine, I've got a plan if those goes wrong anyway" He gave her as best a smile as he could manage, "Just promise me you won't try to win back my freedom yourself, stick to what I tell you" Mujina looked conflicted for a few seconds before nodding.
Badger turned back to the stall and took a rough grip on the rifle, he flicked at what he thought was the bolt but after a few hollow clicks was soon revealed as the safety. He shouldered the stock as best he could and aimed at the Log Pose. It should be a clean shot…
He fired and felt the gun kick-back, the pellet shot out and missed by a few inches to the left. Badger corrected his aim and aimed at the same spot. He fired but felt a shoulder gently nudge his arm as he did. The pellet missed again and instead hit one of the unfortunate marines who quickly dropped to the floor and groaned in pain as he tried to get up.
Badger glared at the stall-owner who simply shrugged as if to pretend he'd done nothing. He took a moment to check the stock, lined the barrel up as best as he physically could and noticed a scope on the Rifle. He lined the scope up carefully so it was facing the bulls-eye and with an inkling he might be lucky, squeezed the trigger… and saw the pellet limply fall out the end of the rifle and hit the floor.
With a withering glare he handed over the Rifle and saw the stall-owner shrug,
"Bad luck, looks like it ran out of steam."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure the game's perfectly fair for a normal man. Mujina go and fetch him"
"Who, dad?" Mujina asked looking concerned, Badger's face showed an enormous worry that Seth was rubbing off on his daughter
"Make an assessment!" He shouted as two surprisingly large men hustled Badger behind the tent and into manacles. He looked around the tent with a disgruntled sigh "Any of you got a pack of cards?" he asked in vain hope…
As far as first outings into the Grand Line go, the Badger Pirates weren't having a particularly great one…