Just so everything's clear, her name is pronounced like "mare," as in Female horse. Just so everybody knows.
Chapter Two
"How is she gonna help?" Zoro asked and the girl named Mer turned to him.
"I'm more powerful than you realize, Zoro." she said and stepped over him.
Mer was wearing dark wash jeans with flip flops on. Her shirt was close fitting but still a little loose and was the colour white. In the little sunlight that passed through the thick leaves and branches, her black hair gave off a blue sheen. Her eyes were powder blue and looking at Luffy. Her hands were on her hips and she was leaning her weight onto her right leg.
"Captain Monkey D. Luffy," she said with a smirk. "I'll help you!" she said and held out her hand for Luffy to shake.
Luffy shook it with enthusiasm. "Ok!" he shouted happily.
"Come back as soon as you can, Mer!" the man called out as Mer led the four Pirates out of the village.
"How are you going to get my ship out?" Luffy asked as Mer led them through the trees, knowing where she was going.
"I have my ways. I want it to be a surprise!" she said with a grin to Luffy.
"How did you know my name?" Zoro asked gruffly from behind them.
Mer turned her head to him and said, "You'll see when we get to the ship."
Zoro fumed.
R-E-A-D-M-Y-M-I-N-D
The reached the lake in no time at all.
"That was quick!" Nami exclaimed, smiling.
"We know our way around. So... that's your ship out there?" Mer asked, pointing to the Going Merry.
"Yep! I'll take you there!" Luffy said, extending his arms.
"Oh no! I have my own ways!" she said and started walking straight onto the lake!
"WHAT THE HELL?" Zoro yelled as the rest of them dropped their jaws.
Mer turned back after about ten feet, "What? Let me take care of the ship and I'll tell you!" she said and with a smile, kept walking towards the ship, where she climbed up the ladder and got onto the deck.
"Who are you?" Chopper yelled as he was beside Sanji, who was laying on the deck.
"My name is Mer. I came to unstick the ship." she said as the rest of Luffy's crew made their way to the ship.
"How?" Chopper asked.
Mer smirked, "Magic!"
"REALLY!" Chopper asked, excited.
Mer smiled and went up to the bow of the ship where she looked over the railing and closed her eyes.
Luffy, Usopp, Nami, and Zoro got the side of the ship and were about to climb the ladder back up when the ship suddenly started rising from the water so that just the keel was just touching the soft waves. The ship moved slowly forward so that the stern was way past Luffy and them when it settled back into the water.
Again, dropped jaws.
"WHAT THE HELL?" everyone but Sanji screamed.
Mer turned around to see Chopper, Luffy, Nami, Usopp, and Zoro with jaws on the deck.
"When did you guys get up onto the deck? I didn't hear you? Were you in too much shock to think?"
"What?" Zoro asked, first to shake off the dropped jaw.
"Could you guys not think? I heard absolutely nothing! Except Sanji's dreams. He's really out." Mer said, turning to look at Sanji, who was still still on the deck.
"What do you mean by 'think?'" Zoro asked, getting suspicious.
Mer, who was crouched down on one knee over Sanji, looked up and said, "I am a Telepathic Telekinesis. I ate the Omoi Omoi no Mi. Mind Mind Fruit. I can move things with my mind and read people's thoughts. That's how I was able to move your ship. It was caught on the soft rocks and so I lifted it up with my mind and set it down here. You might want to anchor it so it doesn't float away." Mer said and suddenly the anchor splashed into the water and fell deep down to the floor where it stayed.
"You can read our minds?" 'WITCH!' Zoro said and thought.
Mer smiled softly, ducking her head down slightly with her eyes closed.
"Yes, I can, you think I'm a witch."
"Can you read your own mind?" Luffy asked, in total awe at Mer's powers.
"Yes! I can, Luffy!"
"You know our names!" Usopp asked happily.
"You're Usopp. You're Nami. Roronoa Zoro. Monkey D. Luffy. Toni Toni Chopper. Sanji... who is very ill and you should let me take him back up to the village."
"What's wrong with him? I couldn't tell. He seemed fine, just like he was asleep!" Chopper exclaimed, ducking down over Sanji on the opposite side of Mer.
"You're not from this island. You wouldn't know. He has Burn Fever. On this island there are bugs... tiny tiny microscopic bugs that like to get under the skin and they find it easiest when someone has burned their skin. They do occasionally get in if you cut yourself, but that's the blood stream and they don't last very long in there. Too many white blood cells. The skin is their favourite part. It causes swelling, greeness, and a sudden, sometimes fatal, fever."
"Oh my!" Nami said, looking at Sanji as he laid there.
"Please let me take him!" Mer pleaded.
T-I-L-L-K-I-N-G-D-O-M-C-O-M-E-S
Sanji floated at Mer's hip height off the ground. His arm had slipped off his chest and was hanging down, hitting the leaves and brush that were that low to the ground. His bandaged hand was still on his chest.
They floated him into the village where nobody was perturbed by a floating man.
"Algri, where is the Doc?" Mer asked the big man from before who happened to be standing in the square where Luffy and Zoro fell earlier.
"He's in his house, why? What's wrong?" Algri asked, getting concerned.
"It's not me, it's Sanji here. He's got Burn Fever." Mer explained with the crew, minus Zoro, nodding behind her. Zoro had a scowl on his face.
"How long has he had it?" he asked Mer, but Chopper spoke up for her.
"For a few hours."
"HOLY SPIRITS! THE DEER TALKED!"
"I'M A REINDEER!" Chopper screamed.
"Let's go!" Mer yelled over Chopper and led them to the left down a dirt road. The stopped at the third one to the right.
Mer knocked three times.
"Yes? Oh, Mer! How are you? Did you get that ship unstuck?" he asked as he dried his hands with a white hand towel. The Doc looked pretty young, with black hair and black rimmed square glasses over his pretty green eyes.
"Yes, but Doc, one of their crew memebers has Burn Fever!" Mer said, getting exasperated at explaining it to everybody.
"Oh dear! Bring him in!" Doc said and Mer brought him in, mentally keeping the rest of the crew back. Luffy found it fun and leaned up against whatever was keeping them back, so it looked like he was leaning on air.
"Ha ha ha! This is fun! WHOA!" he yelled as he fell back into the dirt as Mer dropped the push against them.
"Doc said Sanji'll be fine, he just needs to treat him. Twenty-four hours and he'll be perfectly fine again." Mer said, closing the door to the Doc's house.
"We're stuck here for another day?" Nami called out.
"Why? What's wrong?" Mer asked as they started towards the square again.
"We were planning to get to Ala Cree by tomorrow." Nami sighed.
Mer nodded solemnly.
T-A-K-E-M-E-A-W-A-Y
That night, the crew was invited to stay while Sanji got better.
"Are you all alone here, Mer?" Nami asked as they sat together at the long wooden table in the house Mer lived in. The boys in the other room arguing.
"Yeah. I wasn't born here, Nami,"
"Oh?"
"No. I came here about six months ago. I wandered into the village after being in the woods for three days. I was so sick. I didn't have Burn Fever, cuz that takes you out in fourty-eight hours flat. No, they said I had Hunger Fever. This island is known for it's many fevers from the stupid little bugs in the air."
Nami's eyes bugged wide.
"Calm down, you're fine. If you don't eat for a day, they'll make you sick. If you burn yourself, you get sick. There are so many other ways that you could get sick on this island." Mer sighed. "I need to get off it."
A loud crash from the other room jolted the two girls into reality.
"What the hell just happened?" Nami shouted, getting up as Mer continued to sit.
"LUFFY PUSHED ME!" Usopp rang
"You were being obnoxious!" Zoro called out.
"You're stupid!" Usopp shot back
"What'd you just say?" a sword being unsheathed could be heard.
"N-n-n-n-nothing!" Usopp stuttered.
"I wonder if this is worth a lot?" Luffy wondered aloud.
W-H-A-T-E-V-E-R-H-A-P-P-E-N-E-D
The next morning was a bright morning, despite all the shade!
"Are you enjoying yourself, Luffy?" Mer called out as she watched him play soccer with the village kids.
Luffy's response was his laugh as he blocked another attempt at his goal, since the team he was on made him goalie.
"No cheating!" Mer laughed as she and Nami kept walking.
"Should we go check up on Sanji-kun?" Nami asked, thumbing towards the Doc's house.
"He wouldn't have changed since we saw him last, but ok. He'll probably cry if he finds out you didn't visit him, Nami!" Mer said and the girls went down the road as Zoro walked back into the village, sheathing his swords.
"You guys are good!" he said as the men came in behind him, panting. Zoro didn't even break a sweat.
"How... how are you human?" one of them asked him.
"I need a nap." Zoro said and slumped off towards the pillar in the square.
"I hope Sanji is ok." Nami said as she and Mer walked into Sanji's room at the Doc's little house.
"He's doing better! He should be up in a few hours!" Doc said and left the girls alone with the unconscious Sanji.
His hand was unbandaged and the swelling had gone down but it was still the greenish colour.
"How is he?" Nami asked, looking to Mer.
Mer closed her eyes and said, "He's dreaming. Why is he cooking for a bunch of naked girls that look like you?"
Nami slapped Sanji.
M-A-K-E-M-E-B-E-T-T-E-R
It was nearing 3:00, the time Sanji was suppose to wake up from the fever. Nami and Mer were over there waiting while the boys were in the town square. Luffy was playing Marco Polo with the other village kids and Usopp and Chopper while Zoro slept. Then something happened to cause everyone to go silent.
"Hello! We're here on our rounds!" A tall man in a Navy uniform said with about a hundred other men behind him. All Navy.
Algri walked up to the man.
"What business do you have of us here?" he demanded in a low tone.
The Navel Officer smirked and held up a piece of parchment with a lot of writing on it.
Algri looked it over and nodded once.
Zoro stood up next to Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper as the Navel men came into the town.
"What's going on, Algri?" Zoro called out to Village Leader Algri.
Algri turned to Zoro with a stiff look on his face.
"They're here to recruit the village boys."
They looked at one another and back at Algri, still confused.
"For the Navy!" Algri yelled.
"You let them into your village?" Usopp shouted, angry.
"I made a deal with them. I use to be a Navy man myself, actually! Any boy eligible is recruited."
Out of the first houses came some Navy men with young boys between seven and fourteen. They were holding them by the upper arm and the other two were holding back the parents with their swords.
"They're kidnaping them!" Zoro shouted angrily.
The commotion the boys were causing caused some of the Navel officers to look their way.
"That's the Straw Hat! And his crew!" one yelled.
"Straw Hat?"
"They're here!"
"Get them!"
The Navel Officers not handling the boys went after Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, and Chopper.
Usopp and Chopper screamed and ran down the road towards the back of the village, half the navy men following them while the other half stayed with Luffy and Zoro.
F-I-G-H-T
"Hey, Sanji!" Nami said brightly as Sanji's eye opened.
"Nami-san? Where am I?" he asked groggily.
"In the village we found. The Doc made you better. You had Burn Fever." Nami explained as Doc and Mer stood a little ways away from the bed.
"Doc? Chopper?"
"No. The Doctor in the village."
Sanji looked around and found the Doc, and said, "Thank you."
"It's no problem! If it wasn't for Mer, you'd be dead tomorrow!" Doc said and left the room.
"Mer?" Sanji asked, turning to Mer standing there.
"Hello, Sanji. I'm Mer." Mer said, waving.
"She's pretty!" he said faintly and laid his head back against the pillow.
"That happens. He'll be faint for another twenty-four hours. That's the way Burn Fever works. If not treated, will kill you in fourty-eight hours. If is treated, will be gone in fourty-eight hours." Mer said, shrugging. Then her head picked up and she turned to the window where the navy men could be seen.
"Oh no." she whispered.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Nami asked, getting up and looking out the window too. "What are they doing here?" Nami barked and then Mer shoved them both down below the windowsill right as a Navy man looked.
"What?" Nami hissed.
"They're here as recruiting the boys of the village for the navy. They're forcing them to, no matter what. And not only that, they're always looking for people with- er- Pirates." Mer hissed back.
Nami was about to peak over the sill, but Mer kept her down.
"They aren't willing to capture, but to kill!" Mer hissed, her eyes wide.
"Are you two ok?" Sanji asked from the bed, trying to get up.
"No! Sanji! Stay down! You're too weak to do anything!" Mer said panicky.
"No way! I'm fighting!"
"Sanji!"
Back in the square...
"Was that it?" Luffy asked, swinging his arm around in circles.
"Looks like it. They weren't even tough!" Zoro said as the head Navel Officer came running into the scene.
"Wha-what the hell?" he yelled, seeing all his fallen comrades.
"Hey! You're the one who's making all the boys join the Navy even if they don't want to." Luffy said, pointing at the man.
"Heh, what are you gonna do bout it?" he asked, angered by his fallen men.
"Stop you."
Running up to the square was Nami and Mer closely followed by Sanji.
"Sanji, aren't you still sick?" Luffy called out.
"I'm fine!" he yelled back.
"Hey, where are Usopp and Chopper?" Nami asked as soon as they got there.
"Straw Hat. Your bounty is great, so I must HAVE IT!" the Navel Officer screamed, leaping up into the air and coming down with a rather large mace. Luffy had only seconds before it smashed onto him to get out of the way, which he did.
"Hey! Watch it!" he yelled.
The man straightened up and said, "You dare dodge my Mace?"
"Yeah! I do!"
The man went in for another attack, Luffy just dodging it again.
As Nami, Sanji, and Mer watched from the road, Mer screamed, "LOOK OUT!" and pushed Nami and Sanji out of the way as the other Navy men from back down the road appeared behind them, ready to attack.
"GOMMU GOMMU NO FUSSEN!"
"OMOI OMOI BEND!" Mer yelled and all the weapons the Navy men had bent in half and fell to the dirt, useless.
Sanji, bending over, took out ten of them in three kicks but then fell into the dirt himself from exhaustion.
"SANJI-KUN!" Nami screamed, leaping over to him in time to duck away from her attackers, who were thrown into the square with the others by Mer.
"NAMI WATCH OUT!" Mer screamed as a new wave of men came after her.
BAM BAM BAM!
Zoro was in front of Nami and Sanji, having beat the others out of their way.
"Zoro!"
"I didn't need... your help!" Sanji managed to say as he tried to push himself up onto his elbows.
"USOPP HAMMER!" they heard Usopp yell and a bunch of BAM BAM BAMS.
"You're quick, Straw Hat! But not quick enough for my SEA PRISM PISTOL!" he screamed quickly and whipped out a pistol and shot at Luffy. As the bullet soared at Luffy, it burst into dust that completely covered Luffy in it's black dust.
"What the hell? It broke?" he said and then fell into the dirt, unable to move.
"LUFFY! GET UP!" Usopp cheered from the sidelines.
"I... I can't!"
"Sea Prism Dust!" Mer hissed.
"Excellent! Now I can finish you!" the man with the Mace said and swung it around for effect a few times over Luffy and then suddenly he looked like he was punched in the gut. He dropped his mace into the square away from Luffy as Luffy watched him look like he really got punched in the jaw, punched in the cheeks, punched in the gut again, kicked in both legs, and then pushed to the ground where the chain from his mace wrapped itself around his wrists and ankles binding them all together so he looked like a tied calf.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Luffy yelled.
Mer walked over to the Navel Officer and said with narrow eyes and a small smile, "I either throw you in the lake or I strand you in the woods! Make. Your. Choice." and kicked him in the head.
P-A-R-A-L-Y-Z-E-R
"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN UP! YOU'RE GOING TO BE WEAK FOR A WHOLE OTHER DAY!" Doc screamed at Sanji as he laid in his bed.
"Nice going, Sanji." Zoro said with a smirk from the doorway as he leaned against the frame with his arms crossed across his chest.
"Shut it, Zoro." Sanji managed to say till Doc hissed a rather loud, "SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Mer chuckled softly from where she was leaning up against the wall with her hands behind her back.
"What is it, Mer?" Luffy asked from where he was sitting as Doc patched up his cuts he got from the fight and cleaned off the Sea Prism dust so Luffy could move again.
"Oh nothing! The villagers are sentencing Algri to the same thing as the Navel Officer! They're being thrown into the woods with no food!" Mer said with a smile.
"Aww! Look how cute she is when she smiles!" Sanji cooed from the bed.
"You're sort of odd, aren't you, Mer?" Luffy said.
"LUFFY!" Sanji yelled, then fainted quickly.
Mer shrugged, "Yeah, I guess I am." she said.
"How would you like to join my crew?" Luffy asked, smiling. The rest of his crew perked up at that note, Sanji coming out of his faint.
Mer blinked a few times, her face still serene and calm.
"No." she finally said.
"But why?" Chopper asked as he stood beside Mer.
"Just no. Do I need a reason?" Mer asked and the room fell silent.
A minute passed...
"Yes. You do need a reason." Luffy said, his face set.
"Because." Mer said.
"That's not a reason!" Luffy protested.
"Pweees, Mer-chan!" Sanji cooed.
"No!" Mer declared and left the room in a huff.
"Oi! Wait up for me!" Luffy yelled but could only move his right foot, right arm, and his head, so he couldn't get very far.
They heard the door slam.
11-27-08
Songtime!
Read My Mind- The Killers
Till Kingdom Comes- Coldplay
Take Me Away- Plain White Tees
What Ever Happened- The Strokes
Make Me Better- Fabolous feat. Ne-yo
Fight- No Vacancy
Paralyzer- Finger Eleven