Okay, I think I have some explanations to give... so here come the excuses. First, school break just started and laziness hit me hard. Second, it's not that I had a writer's block, no. In fact, it was the exact opposite, I had MILLIONS of ideas for both ANR and MNIJ and even some for the HPxOP oneshots, but my brain overloaded and I wasn't able to write down my ideas... I hope a nice, relatively long chapter will make up for it ^_^
Chapter 14: It's Over
Jordan fought the marines in groups. Every Strawhat except Luffy was on the remains of the Bridge of Hesitation with her and trying to hold back the marines that were attacking them. The shipwright couldn't move her left arm because of the wound, so she was fighting single handed - literally. Lucci had just been defeated, but there was still Buster Call, and they could find no way to escape.
Jump, someone said in her head. She turned around to see if anyone else had heard it. No, all of the Strawhats were still fighting as if nothing had happened - but Usopp, who had taken off his mask, was staring into the distance numbly. Jordan ran towards him.
"Did you hear that?" she asked. Usopp slowly nodded.
Jump into the sea, it said again. I'll catch you! With every word, one more Strawhat became aware of the voice, and for some reason they all looked at Usopp.
"You heard!" Usopp shouted. "Jump!" All of them started running to the edge of the wrecked bridge.
"Someone get Luffy!" Zoro yelled.
"I'll go!" Jordan said and transformed. She flew to the tower where Luffy lay unmoving and then turned back to human to run towards him. "Didja hear that?" she said.
"Yeah," Luffy breathed. Jordan placed him on her back.
"What is it?" she said, and started running.
"Not it," Luffy panted. "She."
Jordan jumped, and at the same time the others jumped too. Luffy looked at the sea below them and saw who was talking to them.
"MERRY~!"
"Jordan, let me see that," Chopper said worriedly on the deck of the Going Merry.
"Eh? No, it's ok."
"Come on, we all fought, and we all let him treat us," Nami said.
Jordan sighed and let the reindeer lead her to the Merry's small infirmary to look at her shoulder. She slipped her sleeve upwards and Chopper gasped as he saw the wide hole in her shoulder. "JORDAN! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he exclaimed. He proceeded to apply some anesthetics so that she wouldn't feel any more pain. When they took effect, he turned to his human form and moved the arm slightly, and Jordan felt a click in her shoulder.
"Whoa, what was that?" she asked.
"It was dislocated," Chopper said, not losing his concentration. "The projectile's force was so great, not only it gave you this wound, but it pushed the shoulder bone out of its hinge." He inspected the injury for a little more. "This used to be poisoned!" he exclaimed.
"I already had the antidote."
"You sure?"
"Wouldn't be alive if Zoro hadn't found it."
Chopper gasped fearfully, but returned to his task. After some medicines and sewing, he bandaged the shoulder and arm and put them in a sling.
"You can't use that arm for the next two weeks," he said firmly.
"What? But this is my good arm! How am I supposed to do my job or train like this?"
"You won't! If you had come a little later, that arm would be done for! And the same would happen if you force it too much!"
Suddenly, they heard cheering and whooping outside, followed by a loud crack and the tilting of the floor. They awkwardly ran outside and saw a large ship beside them. Then they saw - the Merry had split in two.
After the Merry's funeral, the Strawhats, Franky and Jordan went back to Water 7 with Iceburg in his ship. Since Galley-La mansion had been burnt down, a temporary HQ had been set in Dock One. Everyone that fought in Enies Lobby was welcome to stay there, and so the Strawhats and Franky Family arrived in their rooms and collapsed on the spot for exhaustion.
Jordan woke up after she had slept for a good twelve hours. They had arrived at around three in the afternoon, so now it was around three in the morning, but she didn't like to oversleep so she woke up anyways. She went to the kitchen and ate some bread with butter for a quick breakfast, and then changed her clothes, which she hadn't done since the Sea Train, to some black training shorts and a dark yellow wifebeater.
She looked at her gloves. She hadn't taken them off once after the fight, and thus they were very dirty with grime, dust, and Jordan thought she could see some drops of blood - whether it was hers or the agent's she didn't know. She took them off and left them to soak in the kitchen sink.
Usually, Jordan would wake up at five to jog ten laps around Zousenshima, then head to the gym. But since she woke up two hours earlier and she had slept in the last day, she figured she'd stop by at the tenth lap, take her gloves out and leave them in the sun, then do another ten laps and then head to the gym.
Before she started, she took off the sling and did stretching exercises with her left arm (completely ignoring what Chopper had said), for she could move it now, and perfectly well as much as she was concerned. So she went outside and started running.
After a few laps, she started seeing some very early-rising workers hanging around the Dock One area, and they greeted her as she passed (but knew better than to stare). She felt a hollow as she wondered how it might feel to know nothing about the past day's events.
When she was done with the laps, she picked up her gloves, which were now dry, and headed to the Dock One gym. When she entered, she heard metallic noises, as if someone was lifting weights. She looked at the place where the dumbbells were and saw the Strawhats' swordsman swinging one of them over his head repeatedly. Jordan's blush when she saw him shirtless luckily went unnoticed, due to the fact that she had been running for two hours now, and her face was already flustered.
"Shouldn't you be taking care of your cuts?" she said, recovering her usual confident self.
"Shouldn't you be resting that arm?" Zoro replied without stopping.
Jordan smirked - neither of them were supposed to be doing any kind of physical activity with their current state, yet they were both here and halfway through their morning routine. "Don't mind me," she said and entered a separate room. It was a wide space with a total of five punching bags spread through the room. She went to the middle one and started boxing. Her left shoulder stung a little when her fist hit the bag, but she didn't stop and eventually got used to it.
After about an hour of continuous punches, she started kicking it. The punching bags in the room were sewn with some thick fabric and hung from the ceiling with several strong chains, so that they wouldn't be ripped off when Jordan trained (though when she was in a bad mood not even that would work).
When she finally stopped, after another hour, she went back to the main gym to find Chopper scolding Zoro.
"...but they'll open again!" the doctor squealed. "And why did you take off-?"
"They made it hard for me to move," Zoro interrupted.
"THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE FOR!"
Jordan froze when she realized what they were talking about - about the wounds. She slowly and silently crept towards the exit, but just when she was reaching it, Chopper noticed her.
"Eh? Jordan?" he said. He looked at her un-bandaged left arm for a second, then his expression turned into one of mixed anger and worry. "YOU TOO?"
What followed was a long talk about how badly over-training could damage their bodies, but neither of them paid much attention to the little reindeer. When he finally let them go, not before re-bandaging them, they went back to the temporary HQ. Jordan took a shower and then went to the room where the Franky Family was in and found them all awake. They were all sitting around the rather large table having breakfast - except Franky, who was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey Jordan!" the Square Sisters greeted and hugged her.
"Hey!" Jordan greeted too, and the sisters released her. "Um, where's Franky?"
"He said he 'had to clear his mind' or summat," Zambai said from the table.
"Did he?" She knew what he meant. Every time Franky had a thought that he couldn't shake off, he'd go to that place. "Okay guys, I gotta go." Jordan left the room and the HQ.
She went to the warehouse under the bridge near scrap island. It was in the state she'd left it in two nights ago, but she hadn't paid much attention back then; the wall concealing the workplace had been destroyed, along with some of the desks. Franky was sitting on a chair in front of a desk that had survived and looking down at some plans. Jordan walked to him to see what he was reading and smiled.
"Is that what I think it is?" she said.
"Huh?" Franky said distantly, but then he came back to reality. "Oh, this? Yeah... You missed it, didn't you?"
"Of course I did, I designed it too."
"Heh... I think the opportunity to build it is really close."
"Why d'you say that?" Jordan said curiously.
"Uhmm, remember the cash that Strawhat had with him?"
"You mean, the one you stole?"
"Ehh, yeah. Well, I spent all of it on the materials."
"Wait a second, you mean you used their money for your own-"
"Our own."
"Your benefit, you didn't tell me about it."
"Well, yeah," Franky scratched his head sheepishly. "But, I have a plan." He told Jordan his plan, and she seemed pleasantly surprised.
"I think... That's a great idea," Jordan smiled. "Should we go tell them?"
"Nope, not yet. I want to tell them when the materials arrive and it's definite."
"Okay then." Jordan started walking away. "See ya later."
The dream ship she and Franky had designed during their year together was finally going to be built, and it would sail around the world with the Strawhats. But they had promised that they'd sail with it too...
Then Jordan took her decision, and hoped Franky did the same - she was going to take Luffy's offer and become part of the Strawhats.