We all jump out of the way as the sea serpent takes a good bite out of the harbor and Nami takes the opportunity to start rowing. My eyes widen as the sea serpent spots Nami and starts going after her. I don't think so!
I quickly jump into the air and unleash a huge lightning attack. The serpent screeches in pain as its wet scales make my electricity even more painful and when I'm done, it falls into the water with a crash, burned to a crisp. "Pika pikachu!" 'Take that, you overgrown fishstick!' I yell.
Nami sighs in relief and deflates in the boat, "That was too close…"
"Nice shot, partner." Sanji comments.
"Pikachu!" I chirp, giving a salute.
"Now that that's over, let's see what this safety gear is." Nami says, picking up the box. Inside is a lifeline, and a super long one. Not what I was expecting, but hey, it could be useful. She throws the end of the lifeline to us with her Climatact and we tie it to Chopper's wrist.
"Alright, I'm heading into the mist." Nami says. "When I give you the signal, reel the line back in!"
"Pika!" I say with a nod.
"You got it Nami!" Chopper chimes in, waving. Nami starts rowing, and in a few minutes, she's vanished into the mist.
"Alright, Chopper, Pika-chan, until she gets back we're not letting anyone touch this rope, got it?" Sanji says.
"Got it!"
"Pika!"
However, we turn around as Mayor snaps his fingers. A bunch of soldiers approach him and put up a few curtains, blocking our view of him. "What now?" Sanji demands.
A few moments later, the curtains disappear, revealing the Mayor, wearing another suit. It looks kinda like that lightning suit Lake was wearing but I feel no electricity in the air. "Flame Suit!" Uh-oh...
We watch as soldiers begin pumping fuel through a giant tube into the suit. My nose twitches as I smell gasoline. "I'll burn the flesh right off your bones!" Mayor yells and raises one of the robot's arms, which has a nozzle on the end. We scatter like crazy as a pillar of flames shoots from the suit; great, first lightning and now this?
I barely manage to avoid the flames, only escaping with my fur lightly singed, but Sanji and Chopper aren't as lucky, being bigger. I spy Lake putting on his Electro suit as well; just peachy. ...Actually, this might work to my advantage. I just have to make sure Sanji and Chopper-
I'm cut off as Chopper screams in pain, falling to the ground, having been hit by the Electro suit. "Chopper!" Sanji goes to his side and Philip steps up. He holds up some kind of cannon and shoots a large net out of it. It wraps around Sanji and Chopper, completely tangling them.
My eyes widen as Mayor steps up to them; I have to help! My eyes fall on the tube pumping fuel into the suit; it may not be electric, but it's bound to work! I quickly run over to the tube with no one noticing. This is gonna taste nasty, but it has to be done!
I sink my teeth into the coil and give it a good hard rip. Fuel sprays from the broken tube and I spit out the foul taste it leaves in my mouth; my job's not done yet! I quickly move to the back of the mayor's suit. I harden my tail and aim right for the two glass cylinders on the back of the suit. I give a good hard swing and land on the top of the suit as the cylinders shatter, spilling fuel everywhere.
"What?!" Mayor exclaims as no flames shoot at Sanji or Chopper. I give him a smug salute and run towards my friends.
"Pika-chan!" Chopper exclaims happily.
"Pika!" I chirp and I start gnawing on the net. There's a few snaps, and Sanji and Chopper are free.
"Thanks partner." Sanji says, giving me a pat.
"Lake! Eliminate those punks, now!" Mayor yells.
"Right!" I perk up as Lake stomps towards us in his suit, lightning crackling from the claws. "Men, guard the generator!" Lake orders. "We don't want any pests chewing the wires!" Soldiers surround the generator, blocking my view from the wires but I don't even flinch. I can take down electricity based things without having to chew wires, especially if it's this guy.
"Take this! Rolling Thunder!" Lake yells. He swings his claws and two decent sized blue lightning bolts shoot towards us. I raise my tail and the blue lightning swerves right towards me. I blink as the lightning hits me and I easily absorb it making everyone's eyes widen. "What the-?" Lake sputters. "What happened to my attack?!"
I grin, "Pika pikachu!" 'I told you before; electrocuting my crewmates is my job!'
Sanji grins in relief, "I almost forgot about that tail of yours."
I nod and step towards Lake. "Pika pika!" I say to Sanji and Chopper, gesturing for them to get back.
"C'mon Sanji!" Chopper says getting up. "It's saying to get back!" Oh good, I managed to make it through Chopper's language barrier this time. I turn to Sanji and nod; no need to worry, I'll make easy prey out of both these guys! To my surprise, Sanji doesn't protest and nods back; I guess he's finally starting to trust me to fight on my own!
Sanji gets up and the two of them move out of harm's way while I direct my attention back to Lake. "I don't know how you did that...but I won't miss this time!" Lake growls. He puts his claws together again and I start to run towards him, a plan already in my mind. "Rolling Thunder!" Lake shoots two more lightning bolts at me but I don't even have to dodge. I simply raise my tail and take the lightning in, not at all hindered.
I grin at Lake's dumbfounded expression and leap towards him. I latch right onto the front of the Shock Suit and I immediately feel the lightning coming off it. I simply stay put and allow the electricity to wash over me, the feeling not at all painful to me. "I-Increase output!" Lake cries. "Faster! Faster!" The men oblige and I feel the electric current increase.
My grin only grows wider as I keep absorbing the lightning like a sponge. "Faster! Maximum output!" Lake yells desperately and my smile grows wider. That's right, keep feeding me energy; this electricity is nothing compared to the lightning I have to deal with on the Grand Line!
"You useless whelp!" My ears twitch as I hear Mayor's voice. I turn slightly and see that the soldiers are finishing up replacing the tube and the cylinders I smashed. I frown as Mayor points one of his flame nozzles at me, "I'll make quick work of you, dirty rat!" Uh, are you sure you wanna do that?
No one puts the pieces together and a stream of flames shoots towards me. I quickly push off the suit and jump straight up into the air, letting the flames envelop Lake. It ends after a few seconds and I land back on the suit, absorbing the still present electricity. "Hmph! I won't miss this time!" Mayor growls and takes aim again.
Lake waves his arms frantically, "No, grandpa wait!" I jump again and the flames hit Lake. I land back on the suit, keeping my balance as Lake begins to waver.
"Hold still, dammit!" Mayor yells, and the process repeats. Three generations of idiots; this is just sad. As I dodge, I keep absorbing all the electricity the suit is still giving off every time I land. Just a little more...almost there...just a little bit...done!
I finally leap off the suit and land on the ground in front of everyone. Mayor and Lake stare at me, their mouths agape in horror and shock (no pun intended). My body is completely surrounded with blue electricity making my fur stick up and my body almost glow. Man, I'm really charged up now! Mayor has the same dumbfounded expression while Philip and the soldiers are starting to back away in fear.
"W-What are you?!" Lake exclaims. "S-Some kind of yellow demon?!" Hm, I kinda like the sound of that. But in the meantime, let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine! I jump into the air, the newly received electricity eager to be released. I send the Whettons a triumphant glare and let loose.
The entire area lights up with blue electricity as all the volts all come together and hit the whole army with the force of a brick wall. There's a loud explosion, and the lightning fades; I land on the ground, back to normal. I open my eyes and...oh wow.
I might have gone a tad overboard. Yeah, both suits are completely destroyed having been overloaded with electricity, but the entire area looks like it was hit by a fireball. Chunks of stone from walls litter the ground and there are big patches of flames where the spilled flame fuel was ignited.
The soldiers and Philip are all burnt to a crisp too, and neither Mayor or Lake are making any sounds in the ruins of their suits. I turn around to see Sanji and Chopper a good distance away and unharmed, but they look a bit rattled from the sudden display.
"Geez, that was close…" Sanji breathes.
"Maybe next time warn us when you're going to use an attack that big?" Chopper squeaks.
I rub the back of my head and smile sheepishly, "Pika pi…" 'Eheheh...sorry…'
We approach the fallen army, making sure that no other soldiers are around, but it looks like we're finally in the clear. "Well, that takes care of them." Sanji says, giving the Mayor's flame suit a little kick.
"Yeah, but what about the mist?" Chopper asks. Just then, a tug comes from the line around Chopper's wrist. We all look at the string before immediately looking out towards the Rainbow Mist to see the shadow of a small boat emerging.
"It's Nami!" Chopper exclaims.
"She made it!" Sanji agrees in relief. Unfortunately, as the boat gets closer, we realize that's not the case. It's Nami's boat, but Nami's not in it; it's some random guy. I mentally slap myself; that book said that the mist has been sucking up ships for years! Of course there would be other people in there! I have to remember to bring up the stuff Robin and I read about in the future.
The boat reaches the harbor and the man inside stares at the sight of the burned soldiers and suits. "What the... what the hell happened here?!" He exclaims. He gets out of the boat and spies Lake inside his suit, "Captain? Captain, is that you?!" Sanji steps up and gives the man a sharp kick to his chest, knocking him to the ground. "Ow! What the hell-" He cuts himself off as the three of us hover over him, our eyes gleaming dangerously.
"Hey there," Sanji says, taking a drag. "That's our friend's boat you've got there; mind telling us where you got it?" Chopper clenches his fists and sparks fly from my cheeks; this guy is in for the interrogation of his life.
It doesn't take long for our intimidation to make the guy spill the beans. Apparently, he was part of Whetton's pirate crew (the man was a pirate; figures) and he and the ship got sucked into the Rainbow Mist fifty years ago. I remember that the book said a little something about how the mist is an anomaly of space and time so I guess that's not too big a stretch.
From his descriptions, the Merry and our crewmates are in there, and he swore he didn't hurt Nami or any of them so I guess he gets to live another day; in other words, he just gets a kick to the face. Well, know that that's out of the way, now what do we do? Well, now that we know this safety line works I guess one of us could go in and lead the Merry out?
"Sanji! The mist!" Chopper cries. "It's disappearing!" Sanji and I turn to the mist and sure enough, it's quickly fading away. It's gone before we can even properly react. Now what do we do?!
"Pika-chan," I look up at Sanji's dangerous tone. "Why don't you wake up our beloved Mayor Whetton; maybe he has something to say about this." Translation: He better have something to say about this or he and his family aren't even gonna pass as fish food when we're done with them.
I nod and walk over to the destroyed flame suit. I activate Brick Break and easily smash the remains of the suit, leaving the Mayor behind and I quickly follow up with a short but sharp lightning attack. Mayor wakes up with a start and sits up abruptly despite being completely covered with burns thanks to me. He looks at me and I give a low growl; to my surprise he actually yelps and backs away from me in pure fear. Huh, guess I'm more intimidating than I thought.
Sanji and Chopper stand on either side of him, cutting off any avenue of escape for him and we all glare at him. "Hey, our friends were somewhere inside that mist." Sanji says. "Would you like to explain what happened to them?" Mayor shakes on the ground and doesn't say a word.
"Answer me!" Sanji growls. "Or do you want an encore of Pika-chan's lightning?" I step forward with a growl, more sparks flying from my cheeks, sending a chill down the Mayor's spine.
"You better not think that you can get away with assaulting the Mayor like this!" Mayor says, desperation now easily coating his voice. "The tax for hitting the Mayor is 90 million berries!" I send a small bolt towards him, making him jump nearly a foot in the air; if I hear the word 'taxes' one more time, I'm gonna make sure all these Whetton guys are nothing but ash!
Sanji shrugs, "Doesn't bother me; pirates aren't exactly paying citizens."
"Tell us what happened to our friends!" Chopper snaps. "The mist is gone, so where are they now?!"
To our horror, Mayor begins to laugh, "There's nothing you can do; they're stuck in Ape's Concert forever and they're never coming back out!"
My growling grows louder and electricity begins to surround my body; I am this close to committing first degree murder and I really don't care! But before I can, something catches my eye. I look up in the sky to see a familiar rainbow color appearing above the island. "Pikachu!" I exclaim, pointing towards it.
Everyone looks up as the Rainbow Mist appears and a giant whirlwind begins to blow around the island. We watch as a tiny object makes itself known and we eventually spy a familiar goat head. No way...it's the Merry!
The Merry flies out of the mist, making a few turns on the wind before it's practically flung out of the wind. It flies well over the buildings until it lands in the ocean with a loud crash. I cringe as the mast fully tips over and Merry's head flies off, floating in the water nearby; how much abuse can that poor ship take?
We then turn back to the mist as it seems like the wind has changed direction. Now it feels like the mist is pulling things in. We watch as the Mayor's house is easily pulled up into the mist, leaving tons of collected money floating in the air. The suction even reaches down to where we are and in a matter of moments, the Rainbow Tower is flying into the mist as well, never to be seen again.
I love it when bastards like Whetton get their just desserts. We turn back to the harbor to be greeted by six figures climbing out of the ocean, all alive and unharmed.
"Nami!" Sanji cheers.
"You guys!" Chopper exclaims.
"Pika pi!"
We run towards them but skid to a halt as Nami gives Sanji a hard punch to the head. "I'm so annoyed, I could scream!" She growls as she storms away.
"But why, Nami dear?" Sanji whimpers from the ground. Geez, he didn't even do anything this time…
"All the treasure on the ship got blown away." Usopp whispers. "She isn't taking it very well, so I would steer clear for now." Yes sir, steering clear as of now! Just then, a loud cannon fires.
"Alright pirates, that's far enough!" Oh for the love of Arceus…
"Marines!" Sanji exclaims.
"And it's the same ones who were chasing us!" Usopp adds. This day has been the biggest disaster ever! Yeah, even more than Clockwork Island! It's that bad!
Mayor leaps at the chance and tries to pin everything on us, but this particular Marine captain doesn't seem to care… in fact, it's like he knows this guy! We all watch in amazement as he and his assisting officers arrest the entire Whetton family for their crimes of piracy that they have been guilty of for fifty years.
Wow, karma's really cutting us a break here.
The rest of what happens becomes just a blur of confusion to me; something about these Marines being the old friends of this Henzo guy the others were in the mist with and they somehow ended up somewhere else fifty years ago because they blew up a ship to help the Merry escape and they somehow ended up with the Marines- agh! My head hurts just thinking about it! I'm asking Robin for the details later; she's the only one who could possibly make sense of all this!
"Oh, I may have forgotten to mention this to the Straw Hats, but you're all under arrest." The Marines captain says suddenly making us all start.
"You're heartless!" Usopp cries. I take it back, screw you karma!
"As a Marine I'm charged with upholding justice; I can't just let a pirate with a bounty on his head get away." The captain says. "However...it can't be!" He suddenly blurts out frantically. "Right now we have to take Whetton and his crew into custody but that will give the Straw Hats time to slip away!" Uh...what the hell? "Should we request for assistance? No, they won't arrive until tomorrow or the next day at the earliest, giving them more time to get away! There's nothing we can do!"
And with that the Captain runs away in a stressed frenzy. "Very convincing…" Everyone mutters.
"Pika…?" I ask, tilting my head. I think my mind is close to the breaking point…
The next day, Professor Henzo and his associates help to rebuild the Merry. Not perfectly, but enough to keep the water out. We get our supplies and we bid farewell to Luluka, setting sail. Sheesh, after that fiasco, what else can the Grand Line throw at us?
I stand on the railing in front of Zoro who's lifting weights while the others stand at the front of the ship. "You know, that mist place was pretty awesome." Luffy says from his spot on Merry's head.
"Um, I think I've had enough of that ship graveyard." Nami says.
"I'm not saying I wanna live there, it would just be cool to visit." Luffy amends.
"I can't believe you enjoyed that!" Chopper exclaims. Yeah, do you know how much you stressed us out? I flinch as something falls on my head. I look around but I see nothing but a pebble falling into the ocean.
Zoro stops lifting his weights and looks at me, "Feel something?"
I shudder and my ears twitch as I glance around; I don't know what, but something's up. I leap off the railing and look around, my ears still twitching. "Pika pi!" I say, catching the others attention. I want everyone on guard in case something happens.
"What's up, Pika-chan?" Sanji asks. I flinch as another pebble falls on my nose followed by many others raining onto the ship.
"Rain?" Zoro asks.
"No, this isn't rain." Sanji answers. We all look up as the pebbles get bigger and get mixed with larger and larger bits of debris as a shadow looms over us.
Oh, it's a falling ship.
...WAIT WHAT?!
Hands down, best cliffhanger in the entire series of One Piece XD
BAMF!Pika-chan is officially my favorite Pika-chan to write!
