Okay ladies and gents new chapter for you all. Not abandoned, yay. Updates will probably be far apart though.
Rio Skyron: Wow, I hadn't quite thought of it like that but gotta say now that you've mentioned it I can't think of it any other way.
Admittedly the giant squid-like thing that the people of Skypeia had given the Straw Hat's to safely decend from the sky island wasn't the strangest thing she had seen but watching her captain, Chopper and Usopp bounce on top of it repeatedly certainly made it into the top one hundred. What can I say when you live as long as Spider the lists get pretty long.
However she was less than impressed when the boys' antics caused the creature's limited air supply to be drained very rapidly and soon the Going Merry was plummeting down towards the sea at high speeds.
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Someone screamed (I wonder who).
"I SWEAR IF WE DIE AFTER FINALLY GETTING RICH I'LL MURDER YOU ALL!" Yelled another.
"Calm down" Zoro chided. "The water's soft so we'll be fine."
"Actually if we hit the water at this speed it will be the equivalent of crashing into cement. It's more likely the ship will shatter than us surviving in one piece." Robin reasoned.
It was truly amazing that they could have this kind of conversation while imminent death approached them rather than just incoherently screaming like normal people. But that's just how they are.
Spider was just glad they weren't actually going to die, not with her around anyway. Spider walked to the centre of the Going Merry and gathered magical energy allowing it to swirl around her hands before extending them outward towards either side of the ship. The softly glowing radiance extended from her and attached itself the hull creating large draconic wings on both sides, shadowing all below them. Gradually the ship slowed it's decent and touched down gracefully on the surface of the ocean.
Or at least the everyone thought they did.
As soon as they landed bright search lights were aimed at them from all sides with just the appropriate sound of alarms accompanying them so from the looks of it, the crew appeared to have landed in the centre of a huge base/prison. 'Fabulous.' Spider thought as she banished the large wings from the ship.
"So umm, does anybody know where the heck we are?" Luffy asked while holding a small squid that Spider assumed to be the one they'd floated down on.
"We're in the middle of no where about to be killed by whoever's shining lights at us, that's where!" Usopp cried earning him a slap to the back of the head from Nami.
"I did not survive this long with you bone heads to die after hitting it big so stop being so negative!" She chastised the sniper.
"You guys might want to look over here, we've got guests." Zoro gestured over to the portside. Sure enough several small boats paddled towards the Going Merry carrying a number of Marines.
"It Appears we've entered a marine base." Robin quickly deduced going from the amount of cannons she was able to see built into the cliff side of the land that encircled them.
"Whoa that's so cool! I've never seen one before, let's explore!" Luffy cheered. And in true Luffy fashion he gum-gum rocketed from the ship all the way to shore leaving behind a disgruntled crew.
"He's got a point." Spider commented. On seeing the confused glances she elaborated. "While we're here we may as well help ourselves to anything we can find, we are pirates after all."
"What about the Merry?" Sanji asked. "We can't exactly leave the ship here."
"Spider smiled. "Let me take care of that, you should all go and find something to do until Luffy gets bored and we can leave." With a wave her crew was engulfed in purple flames and transported to the nearby shore just as the first marines started boarding.
Men dressed in white and blue carrying weapons that more often than not were ineffective at harming their enemy climbed up and over the railing only to be greeted by a lone figure clad in daedric armour. Spider had equipped her helmet for the occasion adding an additional sense of terror to her appearance. Warily the marines stepped forward.
"You'll regret coming any closer joor. That I promise you." Spider barked and suddenly they all stopped. "You have heard about what happened to that vice admiral they sent after us by now haven't you?" She asked rhetorically. "It would be a shame to have to go through such messy business with your kind again."
"M-maybe we should let the vice-admiral handle this." One of them managed to say.
"This is a surprise, I didn't think I'd find someone smart enough to run away." She goaded.
This angered the growing number of marines that had now climbed aboard, each of them looked to each other with steely determination before issuing a battle cry and charging straight for the Dovahkiin. The first to reach her had his sword raised and with trained precision slashed towards her sternum in a practiced arc, yet to his surprise Spider caught the blow by the middle of the blade and snapped the sword in two. Still holding the piece she had broken off Spider turned and deflected a second, third and fourth strike.
Quickly side stepping a charge and tossing the blade aside she backhanded another marine sending him barrelling away and over the railing of the Merry. Looking to the others who were readying for another attack Spider drew her daedric weapon of choice, smiling a little under her helmet. 'I warned them' Her head swam with multiple different ways to end their mortal lives, some of them less than... humane.
They came at her again with both fear and determination lacing their every movement, two were slightly faster than the others in getting to her and Spider didn't waste a second in lunging to the marine furthest to the right she manoeuvred past his sword's slice and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, dragging him to her left as the second marine reached the zenith of his own attack. It was too late for him to stop himself. It would be by his hand that a man he had served with would lose his life.
A loud clash of metal on metal rang out and everyone froze. The marine in Spider's grasp was dropped and left on the floor panting while the other had his blade locked with Spider's.
'Why did I do that?'
Snapping out of the daze first Spider delivered a quick kick to the downed marine while simultaneously slashing away from the blade lock she'd found herself in, forcing the sword out of the second Marine's hand. Stepping over the prone body of the unconscious one Spider struck the second with a punch from which a loud crack ensued. It was only then the other marines that had crowded around shook off the small daze they were in.
'I had every reason to let him die and then take the opportunity to decapitate his ally, so why didn't I?'
The others looked like they were about to attack yet something was holding Spider back. "HAHNU!" (Dream). With that one word, every marine on board collapsed into a deep sleep, leaving Spider stood there, alone.
'They should be gasping out their dying breath yet here I am telling them goodnight! Why am I holding back?' Spider asked herself when several other voices joined the fray.
'It's the child, you don't want him to be afraid of you again.' One said.
'Fool, it's the captain. He ordered you to hold back.' Barked another.
'Can't it be both?' A third tried.
'Perhaps she's coming back to her senses, do you remember how she used to be?'
Spider scoffed. "I'll never be that foolish again."
'Then how do you explain this?' The same voice asked, though it couldn't physically gesture at anything it was clearly talking about the unconscious marines.
"I... I don't know." Spider sheathed her blade and conjured a chair to collapse in. Thankfully she had enough sense to make it a plush armchair to brake her fall, as she placed her head into her hands. "I swore I'd never make that mistake again. The price is too high."
'Yet here you are, prepared to lose them just like you did-'
The soul was cut off by an ungodly growl. "Mention them again and I'll send you to the harbour, dovah." Spider warned. Almost no one brought them up anymore, everyone who knew them was dead. All except her.
'A nice name for your personal hell scape.' This only served to elicit another short growl but no one spoke again while the Dovahkiin collected her thoughts. This took a while since she also had to collect the thoughts of everyone else that called the Dragonborn 'home'.
"Alright. Let's forget about the temporary difficulty I have killing people who don't even deserve to be alive after attempting to apprehend me and my crew, and focus on how I'll be able to escape this place with everyone intact." Spider thought aloud, standing up and banishing the chair she paced back and forth. "Any large scale magic I use on the ship will destroy it, as powerful as I am my affinity is destruction not creation so teleporting it along with the crew isn't an option. And from what I can see the tide is going out and the only exit is blocked by a natural barricade of rocks and a giant metal gate, I'll either have to remove them or wait until high tide and take care of the gate as we approach." Spider commented looking towards the entrance to the marine base.
'Why bother, the straw hat kid will only leave when he's ready, you're better off finding the others and waiting for him to do something foolish, like they are.' An older dovah suggested abrasively.
Despite the attitude Spider agreed it was better than obsessively preparing a good plan Luffy would probably ruin, she'd come to learn it was one of her young captain's specialties. "Fine, but I'll deal with the refuse first." She said picking up one of the marines by his shirt and throwing him all the way to shore, not hard enough to kill or grievously harm but he won't find it pleasant when he wakes up. She repeated the process until the ship was clear of all marine presence.
Her hand glowed a bright blue and a shimmering translucent dome appeared around the Going Merry. This would repel anyone who wasn't a straw hat and protect her from harm, best part being it didn't harm the ship because the spell was only around it rather on the ship itself.
"I'll be back with the others soon Merry, don't go anywhere." Spider said as she readied a teleporting spell.
In the seconds following Spider heard a feint voice of a child reply. "Keep them safe for me."
Spider arrived nearby Luffy and Sanji, she could sense they were close and started heading towards the sound of a surprisingly none aggressive conversation.
"We will each prepare meals for one hundred people and the marines themselves will decide the contest winner.!" A female voice layed out what Spider could only assume to be the rules for whatever they were doing.
"Whoa, I have no idea what's going on but it sounds exciting!" Came Luffy's ecstatic response.
'His face is on a bounty poster, why aren't they arresting him?' Spider pondered as she approached the double doors her crew mates were behind.
"Start whenever you're ready." Sanji's smooth voice replied.
The sound of a conch being blown indicated the start of the contest as Spider opened the doors still dressed in her daedric armour sans the helmet. Stepping into the kitchen she was surprised when no one noticed her immediately and were instead hyper focused on preparing the food. Not wanting to ruin the moment she stepped off to the far corner of the room leaned against the wall to watch.
It never ceased to amaze her how people never noticed she was in a room if she didn't want them to, no matter the stark contrast of her armour against the walls or even if she were to start humming a tune, provided she didn't outright walk in front of somebody they didn't register her existence at all. No magic necessary.
Spider watched as a team of chefs cooked a hundred meals of the same dish using the best parts of all the ingredients they had on hand, they were trying their hardest to show off that much was obvious but they sacrificed diversity in the name of quantity which was a shame.
Sanji wasn't even looking at any of the fresh ingredients at his disposal and instead opted to wait for his opponents to finish their dishes before he made his move. Spider had a sneaking suspicion of his plan given his distaste at wasted food and the other chefs had left a lot of their ingredients half used.
"Such a waste." She heard him say as he took their left over fish and vegetable over to his counter and started to pulverise the bone and guts into a paste. He described step by step what he did as he created a masterpiece out of seemingly nothing, protein filled fish balls with a vitamin rich broth to serve as a side. Sanji was quickly filling the plates and Spider had to admit it looked appetising for what it was, but what looked even better were the other chefs hanging on to his every word like children seeing a magic trick for the first time.
Not wanting to feel left out of this little competition Spider reached into her inventory an pulled out a few dozen sweet rolls and mammoth steaks that she had stored and placed them on the side beside her. Conjuring a quill and parchment she began writing a note.
They aren't enough to feed everyone however they are imbued with strengthening
and stamina enhancing properties so try to save them for a special occasion.
Sincerely, Spider PoisonBlood
Despite how she felt about the marines in general terms, if Sanji was willing to give this group the benefit of his cooking talents then Spider could give them a little something to make up for the trouble that her crew would no doubt cause later.
"SO GOOOOOOOOD!" Luffy yelled out from across the room causing spider to drop the note next to her own dishes and turn to the scene her captain was causing. He was sat down surrounded by empty plates which once held the base's chefs meals. Luffy himself looked grossly overweight and it was more shocking they had no idea who he was even now.
"Let's go." Sanji said as he walked up to Luffy and helped him stand up.
"Yeah I guess it is about time we leave huh." He replied with a smile. "Thanks for all the food, it sure was good."
Sanji began to follow his captain as he headed for the exit and passing who Spider thought to be the head chef that had challenged him. "If it had been up to me I would never have battled a woman as beautiful as you. Until we meet again mademoiselle."
They were almost to the door when she responded. "Hold it." They both stopped and turned to see what she had to say. "Were you really planning on leaving me humiliated like this? I won't stand for it, I like your spirit and your appetite so as of right now you two are part of the team." She said with a smile.
The other chefs had a round of cheers and Spider's crew mates were all smiles.
"My sweet Jessica, oh thank you!" Sanji said lovingly with hearts in his eyes.
"Spider was behind the two idiots in a heart beat. "Don't even think about it." She said grabbing them by the collar and dragging them out the door into the maze of hallways.
"Oh hey Spider, where'd you come from?" Luffy asked with his signature grin.
"Well I came to find you and ended up watching Sanji show those cooks what a real chef can do." She responded.
Sanji didn't skip a beat and instantly went into a noodle dance at the prospect of a compliment from another woman, two within a minute of each other must have drove him over the edge. "You really mean that dear? I'm so flattered by your praise."
"Calm down, I need you two to find the others so we can get going, we have a whole ocean to explore and it would be a waste to spend all our time here don't you agree?" Spider coerced.
"Yeah I guess you're right, guess we better get started." Luffy replied.
"We can't leave without Nami-swan and Robin!" Sanji added.
"You're forgetting three other members of the crew there lover boy. Don't forget Chopper is 30% of my reason to stay" Spider said in a nonchalant manner.
"WHAT!" Sanji looked like he'd been stabbed.
"What about the rest of us, what's my percent for you staying?" Luffy asked wide eyed.
"Your 30% of my reason to stay too don't worry." She ruffled his hair affectionately which got him to smile again. "The rest is split evenly between the remainder of the crew" Spider finished with a smile of her own.
Sanji dropped to his knees clutching his chest as if he were heart broken. "I only get 10% of Spider's affection! What a cruel world in which we live."
"You'll drop to 8% if you don't hurry and find the others and I'll assign the remaining percentage to Zoro." Spider warned.
"NEVER!" Sanji cried and sped down the corridor leaving a trail of fire in his wake.
"You didn't mean any of that did you?" Luffy asked.
"No I love you all equally." Spider assured the boy. "It's just faster if he thinks I'll hold more affection for Zoro."
"Wow, you're as manipulative as Nami!" Luffy laughed.
Spider's smile grew wider. "Don't tell her that or she'll try and hit you, now go before Sanji becomes lost too, I'll find Nami and Chopper and we'll meet at the dock so I can get us back to the Merry without disrupting anything."
Luffy nodded and ran off in the same direction Sanji went leaving the Dragonborn alone again. Deciding to open the door and take a half step back into the kitchen she wasn't surprised to find all the marines staring at the door minutes after she'd taken her crew mates out of the room all of a sudden.
"I lied. Chopper is main reason I stay with them. And if any of you breathe a word of this to anyone I will flay you alive and use your skin as a rug." The door quietly closed behind her as she too left to find the others. "They'll snap out of it and raise the alarm soon. But it is strange how long the people of this world spend staring at something even slightly shocking to them." Spider said to herself as she headed towards where she sensed Robin since she was closest.
She arrived at the doors to an office that has two guards posted outside, a quick "Iis!" Froze them in place before they could so much as blink. Stepping past them and partially opening the door to lean in the room much like an assistant interrupting a meeting. Spider saw Robin dressed in a navy uniform she'd stolen speaking with a man who was by far the strongest human here. There were a few others in the room but no one of real importance, either way everyone's attention was on her.
"Sorry to interrupt but we're leaving now." Spider spoke to the man in charge who was calmly regarding her from behind his desk, she then looked to Robin. "Come on, captain's orders." She beckoned.
"Hold on a minute, you haven't even introduced yourself and you're leaving already?" The guy behind the desk asked rhetorically. "I'm Vice Admiral Jonathan. And you are?" He asked politely while making to stand.
"I have more titles than we have time to talk so in the interest of haste I'm Spider, that's Robin, and we are leaving." She stated opening the door fully and holding it open for Robin to come with her.
"You know I can't allow you or your crew to escape that easily." Jonathan said and the other marines drew their weapons in preparation to fight.
Robin was already walking out of the room and Spider slipped past her to cover the exit. Connecting her consciousness to the raven haired woman Spider told her to find the docks, Luffy and Sanji should be there with Zoro by the time she arrives.
'You can count on me.' Robin mentally responded and was on her way, using her devil fruit to guide her.
Spider let the door close behind her, not in the least bit put off by the hostile presence directed at her, she'd seen worse. She had been worse. "I'm going to put this in simple terms for you Vice Admiral Jonathan." She said speaking to him directly. "You are not 'allowing' us to escape easily, in fact the only thing you would accomplish by trying to stop us is sealing the fate of every man and woman in this base because regardless of rank, gender, race or age I will paint these halls with the blood of everyone here and rip the souls from their corpses." Spider's emerald eyes held a burning fire that spoke volumes as to just how serious she was. "There will be no remorse for the living and no afterlife for the dead. So please, attack the people I've come to regard as family, give me the excuse I need to show your faction how far I'll go to protect them a second time."
The tension was palpable, no one was sure how long it lasted but when Jonathan responded it was hesitant. "And What am I supposed to tell my superiors? Surely you can see why this is a damned if I do and damned if I don't situation for me."
She hadn't considered that. These people fit the type who would blame this man for protecting his people above trying to capture pirates. Then she had an idea, dropping her threatening stance and reaching into her inventory to pull out a scroll she cast a spell overwriting the old text and inscribing something new on it before stepping across the room and holding it out the Vice Admiral.
"This is a one time summon, simply open it when in the presence of a superior officer who is berating you for 'letting us escape' and I'll be brought to you." She explained. "It will be a lot harder to argue you could have done more when I show them just how smart you were not to pick a fight you can't win."
Jonathan took the scroll though the doubt he held was clearly written across his feature. "Do I have you're word that no one will be hurt?"
"Sir! Are you sure you can trust pirates!?" One of the semi important looking marines said, his sword shaking. Spider was half tempted to say 'boo!' just to see if he'd drop it.
"What choice do I have, either everyone lives or everyone dies. I know which one I'd prefer." The Vice Admiral replied, refusing to stray from his infuriatingly calm demeanour. Spider would have to fix that.
Looking to the one who questioned Jonathan Spider said. "My crew has more reason to distrust the marines than you do to question our word. Nami and the people of her island spent over a decade as slaves to a pirate I personally tore apart. While the marines accepted the bribes Arlong offered to look the other way. where were you? Sitting here perfectly happy and doing nothing of any use to anyone." Her attention turned back to the Vice Admiral. "I've done my research on this world and the blatant crimes the Marines allow the World Government and Celestial Dragons to get away with, you're nothing but a private military bending to the will of aristocrats with no idea what justice really stands for. You've perverted it into nothing more than a term to justify why you can commit such atrocities and everyone should simply accept it." Spider turned back to the other man. "Think about that the next time you insult someone who just wants to be free."
Spider made for the door but was stopped by the sound of Jonathan's voice as she had her hand on the handle.
"Wait!" He said but wasn't sure what to say when she stopped yet didn't turn around. "How... what is justice to you? How could we do better than this?"
Spider didn't even have to think but refused to turn and look at the man, she had too many memories swirling around inside her head, she saw them smiling, laughing, could feel herself losing them all over again as it turned into screaming. "Justice is about what is fair for the greatest number of people possible, if the law only works to benefit the few so that they can exploit the rest of the world for their own ends then justice has not been achieved." Finally letting go of the handle Spider turned. "I've seen many worlds with all kinds of injustice but here it stands in plain sight masquerading as what is morally right. Followers of true justice would never have allowed such sickening acts simply because the people who commit them are part of a specific social class."
"And what's your excuse!?" He yelled. "I saw what you did to the marines that were sent after you in Alabasta. Only a handful of the eight hundred that were dispatched were found alive and they'll never even be able to walk again. The Vice Admiral was driven so insane they had to restrain him so that he wouldn't kill himself, but rather than tell us what you did he bit off his tongue and choked himself on it."
At last his calm demeanour is cracked, some real emotion slips through. Spider looked him dead in the eye. "How many children are being kept as slaves in Mariejois even as we speak?"
Silence followed.
Jonathan stared at the floor "I... I don't-" He was cut off.
Her voice wasn't raised, in fact, it was barely above a whisper. "The day you can look me in the eye and give me an answer you can stomach, I'll tell you why I did it." Spider was done talking. She left the room without a single care for who was inside and headed for the docks, she could sense the others grouping together and assumed they must have found it.
Things moved quickly after that, Spider made to her crew and transported them all onto the Going Merry which was still sitting in the middle of the lake without a scratch.
There was the question of how they were going to escape but it was answered by the large metal gate lowering for them and they were able to sail right out without any form of resistance. When asked why all Spider would say is that she had a little chat with Vice Admiral and he came to see things her way.
Now they were following the log pose to the next island which was still a few days away.
Luffy was keeping himself amused by decorating the dagger Spider had gifted him when they first met, making it his own by adding their jolly roger on the hilt with some of Usopp's paints Spider had no doubt the young captain stole without the sniper's knowledge.
She approached Luffy while remaining aware that for some reason Nami and Zoro were sat watching from the other side of the ship.
*Nami and Zoro's perspective*
"Spider likes to give gifts a lot." Nami commented as they watched the Dovahkiin approach their captain.
"Yeah, it's probably the best way she knows how to say that she cares." Zoro replied taking a swig of his booze.
"I guess so." Nami said as they continued their people watching. The two saw Spider pull out a blood red navy overcoat and present it to Luffy who had gone starry eyed at the article of clothing. They could hear him say 'That's so awesome!' even at this distance. He was so excited to put it on and show off his flashy new coat that the boy zipped around the ship faster than they'd ever seen him go before, accompanied by his signature grin.
"GUYS!" Luffy yelled despite now being right in front of the two. "Did you see what Spider got me, I thought she'd forgot I wanted one but it turns out she was putting all kinds of spells on it! So cool, I gotta show Chopper and Usopp!" He declared and disappeared as fast as he'd arrived
"Energetic as always." Zoro stated.
Nami smirked and put her hand in front of her mouth *Cough* "Told you she got him a gift." *Cough*
Zoro raised an eyebrow incredulously *Cough* "No you fucking didn't." *Cough*
"You two sound like you're coming down with something." A voice came from right beside Nami causing her to yelp and jump back into Zoro who reflexively caught her. Both looked and saw Spider smiling at them. "Oh am I interrupting something, I'll come back later when you two aren't cuddling." She said while backing away, smile growing wider at the indignant glares she received.
"This isn't what it looks like and you know it!" Nami cried, jumping up from her seat.
"Right right I completely believe you." *Cough* "Bullshit." *Cough*
Zoro had to hold the navigator back while Spider continued to walk away from the pair. "Stop, let it go we're not going to win this one." He tried but it only seemed to make her more irritable.
Breaking free of the swordsman's grasp she turned and pointed at him in an accusatory manner. "I don't know how but is your fault." Was all she said before speeding off towards her office area.
Zoro just stared after her for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "Tch! Women."
*Back to Spider again*
It's the small pleasures that get the crew through the voyage time to a new island. Spider liked to help with that or else they'd drive each other crazy, not to a huge extent but crazy enough that they'd be very annoyed with each other.
So on special nights, she brought out the good stuff. Cyrodilic Brandy had a high enough alcohol content to make even Zoro blush, and it was just spectacular to see Robin let her guard down as she quietly sang a shanty or two with the rest of the crew. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper would dance wildly (more so than usual anyway), and Nami would laugh like she was the only one in on a hilarious joke no one else new about. Meanwhile, Sanji and Spider would sit and watch their friends with content smiles.
Tonight was special because they would be arriving at a new island soon, a famous place on the Grand Line that built the finest ships in the world. And to Spider, a party always was the best way to say goodbye.
So this is a short update just to say I'm alive, but I have run into technical issues which is why I haven't updated anything in so long. My laptop has reached that point in its life where if it's off charge for longer than 5 seconds it dies, and the charger no longer stays in the port with the same determination it once had. So until I get a new laptop I may not be making new chapters for a little while. Life is still busy and all that crap.
Not abandoned though, still love you guys :)