So Far (since it's been a while):
The SH crew picks up a blue-monkey humanoid who tells them of the monster salamanders terrorizing his people a the bottom level of a giant tree-island, that just so happens to be upside down.
The salamanders have a poison coating so they needed to go the Golden City (a place protected from the salamanders) to get a means to protect themselves from it.
They split up, Zoro, Usopp, and Chopper go to the top of the tree to find the Pale monkeys who can help them, Robin is checking out the library to quench her curiosity, Sanji, Nami and Luffy went to get a quick look at the lower level of the tree but Luffy, upon seeing a child being attacked by a salamander breaks out in an attempt to save her. Sanji is injured but he and Nami escape from the difficult guards who claim they were threatening the security of the Golden monkey realm.
Luffy saves the child (Pan) but is poisoned and after breaking through the fence dividing the two nations, he is arrested and Pan is tossed to the waiting salamanders below.
Luffy is cured by Simeon (an old golden monkey) and soon taken to a trial in the middle of the night and sentenced to death. He tells Simeon to tell his crewmates what happened.
Sanji and Nami are attacked in the night and are now fleeing from the salamander riders.
This is where we left off.
Falling
SANJI and NAMI-
Moonlight poured through the Endure Simianus branches like hourglass sand, leaving speckles of pale light across the fearsome duo's back and shoulders. The massive golden ape's eyes were hidden in the shadow of his over-cropping brow. In his hand he held a long spear-like weapon with a hook on its end. His bulky shoulders were slumped, as if the occasion was quite common and indicating that he saw the two humans before him as helpless prey. In no way did he look tense.
Nami was instantly in Sanji's arms, ready to take the plunge into the darkness.
Focused intently on the threat, the cook didn't react to his female crewmate leaping into his hands, but instead swiftly turned and leapt into the black hole that awaited them. The instant he moved, the salamander had shot forward at a shocking speed; its fangs slamming into the vines where they had been just moments before gravity took control of their direction.
Again Nami felt her stomach jump to her throat as they descended at a frightening speed, Sanji riding the black mossy foliage that made up the funnel they had dropped into. The loud crash above them brought Nami's eyes up towards the path they had just trailed, her pupils narrowing in shock at the sight before her. Closing the space between them was the monster and rider, tearing through their rabbit hole like it was paper.
"Sanji!" she shouted more out of fear than warning. She imagined he knew the beast was catching up.
"Hold on!" he yelled as he tightened his own grip on her. By now she had given up trying to figure out what he had in mind so she did as she was told and squeezed her eyes shut, not knowing if it was to block out the sight of their pursuers or in anticipation of whatever crazy plan her crewmate was about to partake in.
With the salamander just feet behind them now, Sanji extended his arm and snagged an outcropping branch or vine (he couldn't tell the difference with the limited lighting) and let it propel them around it and out of their initial path. His shoulder screamed at the abuse but the maneuver was successful as the salamander and rider crashed past them, caught in the pull of gravity.
He kicked his legs, searching for something to stand on. He wasn't an ape and would do much better on solid ground if they were attacked again.
As if on cue, a smaller salamander burst from a cover of leaves just to their left, it's jaws wide open and ready to kill. Sanji let go and prayed there would be somewhere to land within a few yards. His prayer was answered by a mercifully large branch just a few feet below. Another kindness was that there was a clearing somewhere above and the moonlight left its mark on the moss-slick footing. Below they could see the faint glow of some houses. Someone must have been up late.
Seeing a civilized town seemed surreal when they were in such hostile territory being pursued by creatures of nightmares.
The two pirates took a moment to catch their breath, knowing that the posse of salamander riders would be back before they could recuperate. Still, the respite was appreciated.
"What do we do Sanji?" Nami asked, "we don't know where we are and I don't think we can hide from these things."
The cook took a few more gasping breaths, his head down and hands on his knees before straightening up and wiping his mouth.
"I don't know" he growled in frustration "I mean, all this for making a fuss at the elevators? This is so extreme. What kind of society is this?"
There was no more time to think or plan, for the smaller salamander had already made its way back to them.
Nami stepped forward, preferring to fight than to attempt to run from enemies who clearly could maneuver the tree better than the two pirates. Also, she couldn't stand to have Sanji lug her around in his current condition any more.
She flipped out her clima tact and snapped it together in one quick motion. Before the beast and rider had reached her she had accumulated a tail of glowing lightning behind her and sent it forward into the attacking foe.
She could hear the faint shout of the ape-like rider behind the anguished roar of the giant salamander as they were lit up with electricity. The monster collapsed and slid off of the large branch, taking its unconscious partner with it.
"Nice one" Sanji panted out with a smile. She turned to grin back at him for the praise, but rather than the smile she had been prepared to give, a look of horror crossed her face. The cook blinked in concern before he was struck from the side by a massive clawed hand.
The enormous scarred salamander and rider had snuck behind the blond in the chaos, catching him unaware with a bone-crunching swing.
Sanji's eyes rolled up as he flew, once again, into open space; unaware of his crewmate screaming his name.
The rider and beast didn't even glance Nami's way as they leapt from the branch, ready to finish off the greater threat before it scampered off again. The navigator would have none of that as her protective nature took over her fear and she jumped after them with a shout and a newly formed trail of lightning in her wake.
The glow caught the rider's attention as he turned to face her in mid freefall. His cruel animalistic eyes took her breath from her lungs but she didn't hesitate, bringing down her god-like power upon him as she had done her other victim.
Baring his massive ape fangs, the monkey let out an angry screech and yanked out a large shining blade from his back. An instant before her lightning struck its victim, the rider flung the weapon into the air, drawing the electrical current into itself and away from its owner. Nami's heart jumped as she descended towards her enemy, now only holding a metal stick.
The powerless weapon ended up being more useful than she'd though, for she brought it up in a defensive stance just as the ape swung his hooked spear towards her side. A loud clash was heard and she cringed in fear. Realizing she had shut her eyes again she noted that she wasn't impaled, opening them to see that the opponent's weapon had been blocked by her own and the cruel looking hooks were being held off just inches from her face.
The moment of relief was lost when the impact of the blow halted her free-fall and sent her flying to the side. She curled into a ball as she felt herself crash into a sea of leaves, vines and branches. Tumbling over herself she tried not to envision ending up in another free-fall. The thought gave her the will to uncurl her arms and grab for something to slow her movements.
For a few seconds her hands only bounced off of the surrounding foliage, burning with the numerous impacts and cuts until finally she got a good hold on a thick batch of ivy and skidded to a halt.
Catching her breath she kept her eyes shut and enjoyed the respite. She felt something oozing down her arm and for a moment worried that she's seriously injured herself, but upon bringing her other hand up and feeling the area she realized it was a busted fruit of some kind. Another second or so of checking herself over she realized she was covered in the oozing juice.
"Bleh" she expressed silently and she wiped some of it off, though it hardly made her feel any less filthy.
"Woman!" the roar of a deep voice echoed up to her from below. Not knowing exactly where she had ended up, she glanced around to see if she was well hidden.
She was.
"I have your crewmate here with me!" the monkey bellowed, his cold tone not comforting her in the slightest. Perhaps she should flee now and get Sanji back when the odds were more so in her favor.
"I will kill him right now!"
Or not
She scurried forward, wanting to see where they had landed to assess her chances of saving Sanji. Her heart rate had shot up when concept of Sanji being killed had been stated. She would not let that happen while she was still breathing.
"Give yourself up or I will feed him to my salamander. It's not often my pet tastes human flesh and I'm sure he'd be obliged!"
The navigator peaked through the brush and spotted them several yards below. They had landed on a large branch; Sanji trapped under the monstrous salamander's clawed foot and apparently unconscious.
"I'll give you three seconds to show yourself pirate! Then your friend becomes fresh meat!"
LUFFY-
Luffy glared at the poised guards. Why they even put him in a cell when he was constantly having those blasted guns pointed at him he didn't know. There was no way he was going to die at the hands of a bunch of racist monkeys. He knew he could last a few minutes at least with the poison on him, but he wasn't sure if he'd last long enough with it injected into his blood. Not long enough to find someone to cure him surely.
"Tsk" he scowled as he paced the small cell, the guns trailing his movements. Noting this with amusement, he turned to face them. They all looked so tense.
Scuttling to the left, he found himself even more amused as they followed him with the barrels of their guns. A quick scuttle to the right resulted in the same reaction. Observing a pattern, soon the pirate was bouncing around the room, seeing how well his guards could keep up.
"What are you idiots doing?" the voice of Chex could be heard from down the hall. "This is no time to be fooling around!?"
"But sir-"
"I don't want to hear it" the judge growled, reaching the cell and looking in on the prisoner who had come to a halt and was now glaring daggers into him.
"Time to go boy" he said as he pulled keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door.
Luffy didn't blink but stepped forward slowly, an intimidating aura emanating from the pirate. Chex hated the fact that his pulse sped up and let himself believe it was his enthusiasm to kill the brat and not fear.
The monkey didn't consider that it was an instinctive fear, a natural form of self-preservation, for even as he turned and made his way towards the room of execution the boy behind him was tensely awaiting any opening to strike.
Yet the guards did their job, keeping their weapons trained on their prisoner as they made their way through the twisting tree passages.
The carved tunnels took them further and further down, and through one of the openings Luffy noted that they were nearing the massive fence once more. He almost shook with anticipation and the maddening desire to get back to his little friend who had been lost to him just a few hours ago. Why did these scum have to ruin everything? He could have saved her. He HAD saved her; but they had stolen that from him and he wanted payback. Yet he carried on; still their prisoner and if things kept up, he would fall by their hands as well.
After walking for a few more minutes, they finally reached their destination, which proved to be directly connected to the fence dividing the two worlds of the Endure Golden. It was a small metal domed building without windows and with a single door to get in.
Luffy frowned. He hated rooms without windows and momentarily let his mind drift to the confrontation from months before when he'd been held in the underground base by Alvida and that General. Now more than ever he wanted to make his move, but it seemed the apes knew he would attempt to run (as if someone else had tried in the past) and were now aiming at him from all angles including the branches above.
Seeing the room as more of an opponent than a man-made construction, Luffy continued on as if to challenge it. Whatever was in there, he could beat; and then he would destroy the room if the occasion called for it.
The dawn was starting to break and he figured that in a few hours his crewmates would start wondering what had become of him. Still, the sun would take its sweet time.
Chex opened the metal door and the crowd of monkey and one human walked in. The scene was nothing like Luffy had been expecting; rather than an execution chair or some torture device, he could only see an empty room aside from a small latched trap door in the center.
"What the heck?" Luffy questioned aloud as he was pushed forward by one of the guards.
"I've decided to give you your final request Luffy" Chex spoke as he walked to the metal crawlspace and knelt down to unlatch it. "You wanted so badly to be with your new blue ape friends, well we'll let you have your way."
The captain was immediately suspicious, frowning as the thick metal door was heaved open by the judge. He stepped back only to feel the end of a gun in his back.
"What's wrong boy? Don't you want to go be the savior of the bottom dwellers? Having second thoughts?"
"Like I'd trust a rat like you to let me do so" Luffy growled.
The monkey looked angered by this, which pleased the pirate. What an ego this man must have that any insult would get on his nerves.
"Step forward boy" Chex ordered, his voice bitter and cold. The ape wanted to murder him, he knew it, but what could he do? Sure he wanted to get back below the fence, but what was the deal? He was supposed to be put to death, not set free, and the mood in the air implied that the intentions of those present were not pleasant.
"Step forward now or I'll have them shoot you and we'll leave you locked in here till you die."
Luffy obeyed, tense with anticipation.
Walking up to the opening in the ground, he looked down to see a bottomless pit into the darkness below. There were no nearby branches to hinder the drop that he assumed he would be taking, but for a moment he felt optimism hit him.
They didn't know of his devil-fruit abilities! Perhaps they meant for the fall to be the death of him and would unintentionally be freeing him.
He made an effort not to reveal the hope inside of him on his face.
"As you wished" Chex stated again, clearly pleased with his incredibly ironic form of capital punishment, "we shall return you to the world below the fence."
Luffy was now standing with his feet at the edge of the square opening, wondering if he could just jump now and get this over with.
No, he couldn't afford to get shot before taking the plunge.
His gaze locked onto Chex who was circling behind him now, smiling wickedly. Luffy kept his frown on his face though a part of him wanted to laugh at the man who thought himself to be quite clever.
"We will find your crew" the judge said as he stepped directly behind Luffy. The pirate tensed at the mention of his crew but continued to face his pit of freedom somberly.
Suddenly there was a jolt of pain in his spine and he gasped in shock as he felt a needle dig into his lower back. The alien poison returned to him like an old friend, tingling as its devilish fingers crawled their way around his sides and towards his stomach.
He felt Chex grab a handful of his hair and yank his head back so that his mouth was beside the captain's ear.
"And we will kill them" he said darkly before kicking the boy's legs out from under him and sending him careening into the darkness below.
SANJI and NAMI-
Sanji groaned as he returned to the conscious world. He ached all over and tried to go back to sleep but something was bugging him enough to keep him up so he worked to open his eyes. He felt a cool hand on his forehead and found his blurred vision to be increasingly frustrating since it hindered him from figuring out who it was.
Blinking away the haze, the memory of his last conscious thoughts came crashing back and he recalled Nami's horror-stricken face before everything faded to nothing. Sitting up in alarm he immediately regretted his decision, realizing that he had been on Nami's lap and her hand had been on his head.
Quickly he tried to return, hoping she hadn't noticed, but she immediately shifted away, causing him to crash ungracefully to the floor.
"Glad to see you're awake" she said, relief evident in her tone.
"W-what happened" he groaned, rubbing his head.
"Well, we got caught" she sighed, leaning her head back to the wall.
Sanji looked around and confirmed that they were, indeed, caught, upon seeing the bars locking them into the small confines of the room they were sitting in.
"Dang" he grumbled, then in alarm swung his head around to look over Nami.
"Cut that out you perv!" she scolded, covering herself with her arms.
"Are you ok?" he asked with worry in his voice and the navigator blinked in surprise.
"Oh, uh yeah," She replied, lowering her arms.
He sighed in relief and scooted up beside her, bringing his legs up and leaning his arms on his knees. Bowing his head, he let out another sigh, this one sounding more like defeat than relief.
"You ok Sanji?" Nami asked when she realized the cook was clearly not relaxing beside her.
"I failed to protect you again" he answered, his voice breaking a bit. "Just like I failed Robin on that blasted seastone island."
The navigator placed a hand on his shoulder but before she could speak Sanji continued.
"I just always wanted to be the knight in shining armor! Saving the damsel in distress!" He said this with such a dreamy look in his eyes and such an immature tone that Nami couldn't help but hit him in the head.
"Listen to me Sanji" she interjected before she lost the will to comfort the idiotic cook, "you DID save me."
Sanji cocked his eyebrow at her.
"Sure we got caught, but look, I'm fine. No serious injuries or wounds to complain about, which, I might add, can't be said of you."
"But-"
"And don't forget that you dragged Luffy and Zoro out of a friggin volcano a few months ago. You can't go beating yourself up and telling yourself crap about yourself that's not true."
Sanji blinked in surprise at the navigators rare words of encouragement. He felt guilty for forcing her to stroke his ego, but he was encouraged; and if anyone could do that it was a lovely lady.
"Thanks Nami" he said with a smile, blushing and rubbing his head.
The two crewmates made their way to the cot and used it as a sofa as they recuperated from the strenuous night. An hour or so passed before footsteps could be heard coming down the hallway and they both sat up with anticipation.
LUFFY-
The captain struggled against his bound hands as he continued his plunge into the abyss. He was beyond pissed. How dare that pathetic ape poison him and threaten his crew before tossing him. For a judge he lacked any sense of fairness and all Luffy wanted to do as he fell was to get back up there and punch the ape in the face.
Yet there was no sense in getting emotional now. Soon he would hit something, be it a branch or the sea he couldn't fall forever and he needed to be ready to move when he did. Already he could feel the tingling of the poison teasing his nerves and he needed to get to someone who could help him and fast.
What was that ladies name again that Pan had mentioned? "Bear-quack" or something?
He sensed it then. His fall was about to come to an end. Twisting in the air he prepped for landing, seeing the morning light bounce off of glistening water. It was still dim, but it was enough.
A few months ago he would have panicked upon the realization he was going to fall into the sea, but now he could grin knowing that it had no affect on him.
He hit the water hard. Had he been any normal human being he would have died from the impact, but his rubber just gave to the impact as he recoiled into the sea. Water sprayed in every direction, an explosion of foam shooting several feet into the air before sprinkling back into the rippling water below.
Luffy was surprised to discover that he had actually landed on a leafy branch just a foot or two submerged below sea level. His bound hands dangled into the sea which lapped up against his shins where they emerged from the dark water.
Rubber or not, the landing had knocked the wind out of him and for a moment he stood in a tense crouch as he vibrated from the impact and pushed the pain in his back out of his mind.
He looked down to see where he was standing, peering through the rings of white foam he had created into the deep dark world below.
Tensing, he sensed movement in the blackness, then more movement to his right. Gazing more intently, he struggled to see through the rippling water, impatient for it to settle.
Then he saw it, a black shape slowly shifting a few yards down from where he had landed; then another just a few feet away. His eyes widened in shock as every black shadow began to move, revealing the water below to hold a nest of enormous salamanders stretching deeper and deeper into the depths of the tree till he couldn't see any further. There must have been hundreds.
He held his breath and tried to keep still but it was too late; they were already moving. Then there was movement in the branches above him and more to his right.
They were everywhere and they were aware of his presence.
Luffy's eyes narrowed in determination, crouching in preparation for a battle he HAD to win.
TBC…
I'm ALIVVEE! *looks around to see if there are any readers who still care about me* *crickets* I'm so so sorry for the wait my friends! Life has been one big roller coaster since I left for France and I just never got to writing again. I wonder if my hiatuses were this long in For Nakama… hmmmm.
I'm curious to see if anyone is still reading my little tales. Forgive me for my terribleness.
Just compare me to the author of DN Angel and I won't look so bad.
Anyhooooo! Time to reply to people I can't private message and who were superspecialawesome enough to write a review :D
Sweet Spice- Yaaayyy! I love hearing from people who enjoyed For Nakama ^_^ So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for letting me know you liked it! I hope you stay around for this tale. Even if not, I really appreciate your encouragement
Guest- Helloo! I just have to say I'm so happy you like my fanfiction and I'm so impressed that you can enjoy it despite it being in a second language. That is impressive. And I'm also so happy you would also let me know you liked For Nakama! I hope you enjoy the rest. And Luffy's reward rises a few times in the series. The latest is after the war between the whitebeard pirates and the marines.
RoronoRawr- Haha! Yay! Another For Nakama fan! You guys just make me so happy ^_^ Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it! Storming it isn't a small feat. I found out that that fic is as long as almost each Harry Potter book *except the last one* so thanks for workin through it. I've tried to re-read it now that I'm done and it's a lot to get through XD so thanks. Hope you stick around for this one despite my delay
Also, here's to my wonderful reviewers:
Cyborgnetics
PinguSuperSquee
Epifonia
Pirate Queen of the 21st centry
Guardianstar26
Skipper917
Darkness34
Thanks guys!
And a special thanks to ThetrueAmeliaP and yellowpikmin88 (deviantart) for reminding me that there are still people waiting for my update.
Knowing that you guys actually enjoy my additions to the OP universe makes this so much fun to do.
Thanks so much.
ALSO, I have fan art up on my Deviantart gallery. I'm zinfer. If you have a request of a scene you'd like to see illustrated, include it in your review and I'll see if I can make it happen
Till next time!
Thanks again