Here's the start of Jaya. This is kind of all leading up to Skypeia so it's not as intense as the other stuff. Okay, enjoy. Thanks friends dkflsadfa
Robin smiled wanly at the group. "Well, it's about time. I never thought you'd leave that over- sized sandbox."
In a flash, arms sprouted out of Nami and Zoro knocking away their weapons. Sunny flared up and growled but didn't lunge.
Luffy just stared. "Oh, it's you! You're still alive?"
"How long have you been on-board?" Nami demanded.
"Oh, a while, I was catching up on some reading and I took a shower too. Monkey D Luffy…Sunny. You haven't forgotten what you did to me, have you? I suffered a great deal because of you, now take responsibility."
Luckily for Sunny, Luffy quickly became the object of Sanji's aggressions, while Sunny and Luffy were still confused.
"I want to join your crew," Robin said.
The deck erupted into chaos and confusion. As the arguing dimmed, Robin spoke up over the crowd again.
"I wanted to die and you made me live. That's your crime. Even your pet wouldn't finish the job."
"'Lava!" Sunny barked out, speechless in offense.
"He's not our pet!" Chopper protested.
"No, no one can hurt you, my love!" Sanji crooned.
"Okay, I take responsibility. You're on our crew."
"LUFFY!"
Over the next hour, Robin found a way to win over most of the crew—with gems, with games, and Sanji was clearly no obstacle, only Zoro and Sunny remained unsure.
Even when Sanji called them all in for lunch, things remained tense and Zoro spent more time watching her than eating his food. Sunny did likewise. Her quirk was powerful enough that all she could get the upperhand in a moment, even as outnumbered as she was. She remained entirely unphased by either of their staring.
"Sunny, would you pass the salsa?" she smiled at him in a way he could not believe.
Sunny let out a low growl and pushed the salsa jar toward her before Sanji could dive for it and make a mess of the table (he was speaking from experience).
"Thank you very much."
"Sunny would you like my leftovers?"
Sunny gave a low growl as he took Robin's plate and shoved the last pieces of fish into his mouth. A look of 'your food will not buy me, devious woman. I'm just doing you a favor.'
Robin found a chance to approach Sunny after she'd finished playing games with Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper.
Sunny gave up his guise of sleeping and cracked open an eye.
"May I bother you for a second?" Robin asked.
It felt strange to be treated like another human after she'd called him a pet not long ago, but Sunny slid up into a sitting position, twitching his ears in curiosity and suspicion.
"You overheard us, at the glyphs, didn't you?" Robin asked, smiling lightly. "It was quite an interesting prophecy, was it not? What do you think about—"
Robin was interrupted by a massive ship falling from the sky.
They'd managed to keep the majority of the wreckage from striking the boat through kicks, slashes, and punches. Sunny's fire blasts devastated falling chunks of wood but sent a rain of cinders down on them, which only made Usopp panic worse.
Only after the rain of ship pieces could the crew pull themselves together and Usopp was sweeping the deck clean of spare ship chunks.
Nami was staring, still in shock at her log pose which was turned up toward the sky. Sunny had already given the sky a thorough inspection and saw nothing of note except for fluffy clouds and found something new to occupy his energy with.
Sunny could not comprehend why a ship falling from the sky and sinking into the sea meant that Luffy, Zoro, Sanji had to go diving in barrels. Still, that's what it meant.
"SUNNYYY STOP IT," Luffy whined, trying to throw himself off the side of the ship. "LET GOOOO."
"No way!" Sunny yanked back on the hose connected to his barrel he was supposed to get air through, tears pricking at his eyes. "You can't swim, you stupid magikarp!"
"Campfire, quit joking around! Luffy, get down here!" Zoro yelled up impatiently from where Sanji and him were treading water.
"I'm try-y-y-ing!"
Usopp hurried over to Sunny, who was now managing to hold Luffy, who was now dangling off the side of the ship. Sunny's nails were scoring claw marks across the deck of the ship but there was no way they all wouldn't drown if they went down there. Water was dangerous enough on just the surface!
"Oi, oi, Sunny. If Luffy doesn't go down, they're gonna make someone else do it, and I have Can't-Drown-In-Shipwreck Syndrome!"
"Sounds…like…you should be…the one to go…down then!" Sunny managed, and he kept his body planted steadily on top of the hose while Luffy had started to occupy himself by swinging back and forth off the ship. "Oh, fine, Arceus save me!"
Sunny released the hose and it unspooled in a second, Luffy's hoots of joy turned into a yelp of surprise, followed by a splash in the water.
Usopp and Sunny hurried to the side of the ship just in time to see Zoro give them a lazy salute and all three disappear under the water's surface.
Sunny tried not to be a pacing wreck on the ship but any attempts were failures as joltiks seemed to itch at his feet.
"Sunny, stop that, I can't read this map with you pacing around like that!" Nami snapped. Sunny pittered over to her side, not understanding how those things could be related at all, but knowing better than to argue with their only map reader. Or, almost their only map reader.
Robin was standing next to her, with a map between them. Sunny sat up on his back legs to get a view of what was laid out on the table in front of them. It was a complex series of scribbles. Scribbles that looked like trees. Scribbles that looked like clouds and islands, spiky scribbles. Animal scribbles. Curving human word scribbles. Everything but footprint runes. How dare the cartographer not include footprint runes.
"What does it say?" Sunny asked, after grasping for understanding far too long. He was getting rather tired of being illiterate, especially since he had now seen footprint runes existed in this world. There was a swellow that had scratched it into stone on one of the most important writings in the world, if Robin was to be believed. Why wasn't everyone using it?
"It's a map of Skypeia…it's an island in the clouds. And that ship came from it," Nami breathed.
"Or attempted to reach it and fell to their—" Robin started.
She was interrupted by the clanging of cymbals on a fast approaching ship with a monkey figurehead.
Sunny and Nami shared a loud sigh. Strangeness followed them. The ship seemed like they were relatively friendly. Their captain, Masira, introduced himself. Complete with a lot of yelling, laughing, and monkey puns. Sunny pondered if he was a half transformed zoan, or if he just looked like that.
Nami and Masira's crew started arguing, louder and louder as Masira's crew started hauling up the wreckage that Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro had gone underwater for. Clearly they didn't understand the ancient law of 'Dibs.'
Then, something caught the line. The ships tilted to the side, chains and air tubes creaking dangerously, and started to drift to the side.
"Is the ship moving underwater?" One yelled.
"Impossible! Something must have the line!" Another responded.
"Or the ship!" Shrieked a third.
Then something started rising from the water, larger than even Laboon. It could have been an island. A sea turtle with one tooth the size of Merry's main mast. Sunny knew he could have walked comfortably (if you could call it that) through the comparatively tiny nostril on the sea king's face.
The ship's wreckage clung out of its mouth by thin chains and snapped mast and floorboards. The ship Luffy and the others had been in seconds ago.
Sunny didn't have the luxury of passing out with fear. Then Luffy was thrown over the side, followed quickly by an uninjured Sanji and Zoro.
Usopp started to cry in relief. "You're safe! We thought the turtle got you!"
"Turtle? What are you talking about? It was just a monkey," Zoro said.
"It was very friendly with Luffy at first since they're both monkeys but then it saw all the treasure we'd pulled up and—"
Sunny knocked Sanji in the shin and directed him to turn around so they could look behind them. At the beyond-massive turtle.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"
The only reason they got away from the turtle was that something even larger appeared. Three massive shadowy figures, so large they seemed like they were standing on the curve of the world itself, hands raised with spears, wings off their backs. Creatures that seemed neither human nor pokemon…Sunny grabbed Zoro's oars and helped him row as fast as they could. Mostly, he was just clutching onto it for his life as the oar was spun with enough force to rattle his brain.
It was a long time before anyone was willing to slow down and they all lay slumped on the deck, recovering from what felt like heart attacks. All but Robin, who had stayed mostly composed throughout the ordeal. She swiped imaginary dust off her shirt with an extra pair of arms and handed an eternal pose to Nami.
Nami took it and inspected it. "'Jaya?' Where did you get this?"
"I stole it from that monkey's ship," Robin smiled.
Nami looked like she wanted to cry in joy. "You understand me! This must be for their headquarters! They must have so much treasure there! Oh, and find out more about Sky Island!"
"Set our course to Jaya!" Luffy said immediately.
Seagulls started to drop from the sky right on Sunny's favorite nap spot. Unfortunately, while it was in use. Sunny yelped and tumbled away right before he was pelted with falling bodies.
When he turned around to sniff them, he could see they were dead before Chopper ran over to confirm they'd been fatally shot. There were no ships around at all. Nothing that could have killed them. Nothing but ocean.
Nami peered out at it. "Did someone shoot from an island we can't even see yet? That's impossible!"
Mock Town was unlike any place Sunny had been to before, the coast was surrounded by docked pirate ships. Usopp, Sanji, and Chopper hung back on the ship but Zoro and Luffy wanted to check it out. And Sunny was curious enough he didn't want to be left out, so he decided to tag along.
"If those three are going there's no way they're staying out of trouble!" Nami mourned. "I'm going with them!"
"Nami-san, if you're going, I'll go with you!" Sanji tried, but Usopp and Chopper held him back, begging for his protection.
Heading into the city made it even more clear. It was a pirate town. Not the Straw Hat kind of pirate, but the kind of pirate the Marines painted all of them to be. They drank and flirted and fought in the streets. People stumbled around erratically, roared with laughter and anger. The humid air was rife with sharp odors and confusing sounds. Even the boardwalk smelled like it had been soaked in old liquor, making the walk an uncomfortable one for Sunny.
"I don't want to be here long," Sunny said to the crew, lifting a paw carefully that had landed in something sticky and identifiable.
Zoro grinned at Luffy. "Looks like a fun city."
Sunny could have smacked him.
"Alright boys, repeat after me, 'I promise not to fight with others in this city,'" Nami said.
Luffy dutifully repeated the others, Zoro nodded, and Sunny said whatever he wanted, correctly figuring Nami might not be able to tell.
"You guys mean it, right?"
"Yah," they chorused.
"Sound like you mean it!" Nami yelled. "If you cause any trouble, we won't be able to stay in this city, which means no Sky Island!"
They got in trouble. Multiple times, on their way to their first stop. First deadly explosive apples, which Luffy ate, then a host of strange people and merchants.
One of them crouched down as the four passed and offered out a handful of crushed crackers. Behind him he had small wire cages filled with exotic looking birds with their beaks seemingly stuck in uncomfortable positions, rats the length of snakes squeaking loudly, and brightly colored beetles that appeared to be painted that way.
Sunny was curious enough to give him and his stand a sniff as they walked by, but he was not planning to take randomly offered food from a stranger, unlike his captain. He'd never seen anything like this and it put him on edge more so than anything else he'd seen so far in town.
"Interesting pet you have lady, would you be willing to part with it for a hundred thousand berri?"
Sunny didn't have time to react before Nami snatched him up and away from the merchant and held him protectively to her chest despite his size. "He's not for sale, creep!" The three kept moving, Zoro with a hand casually moved closer to his hilts as the man called after them.
"Two, three hundred thousand! Hey, wait-!"
Nami sighed, still clutching Sunny tight. Sunny kicked his legs half-heartedly in protest of his stuffed animal treatment but he got nowhere. He felt bad for those animals. Nami had made them promise not to start any trouble. But it wasn't fair to keep animals cramped in small cages like that.
The quilava didn't get the chance to further consider the dilemma as a man in a fur coat dropped money in front of them and offered it to them, angering Zoro and Nami. Nami didn't even want to pick it up, which was strange for her.
Sunny followed at Nami's feet as they walked off. "Why are you angry?"
Nami huffed and looked down at Sunny. "They insulted us. They implied what was worthless to them was so valuable to us that…well, it was an insult."
"It was an attempt to degrade our pride," Zoro summed up, eyes steely. "To insult a captain's pride is an insult to their crew."
Sunny nodded uncertainly. He understood pride well, even if they went about different ways of defending it.
The four Straw Hats ended up in a busy pub, to get a drink and a lay of the land. Luffy got into an argument with a black-haired man so massive Sunny might have been shocked if he hadn't just seen a behemoth of a turtle and the uncomprehendingly even larger not-pokemon not-humans in the sky. But since this man's head probably didn't scrape against the ceiling, it wasn't enough for Sunny to register so soon after that sight. After he left, with fifty pies, no less, another man burst through the door.
He introduced himself as Bellamy and came to sit by Luffy, who voiced exactly what Sunny was thinking. "Boy, I keep running into tall people today."
After him walked in the man who'd insulted them by throwing money at their feet—Big Knife Sarquiss, who licked blood off of his namesake weapon. The tension escalated as the crew poured into the bar, standing around rather than mingling. For some reason, all their eyes were on their captain as he ordered Luffy a drink.
Luffy laughed in delight and accepted it, and in that same moment, Zoro's katana was drawing from its scabbard and Bellamy was slamming Luffy's head through the bar. Screams and laughter erupted. Quicker than Sunny could see, Zoro had the blade of his katana at Bellamy's throat. The swordsman was sitting on the unwrecked portion of the bar, eyes reflecting the steel of his blade. Sunny could feel the fury pouring off him.
Bellamy snarled. "What's the meaning of this, punk?"
"Why don't you tell me?" Zoro's voice was ice.
Luffy stood up, and wiped blood off his face. "So you're ready to take me on then, huh?" Beside him, Zoro slid off the bartop and took a ready position, and Sunny jumped off his seat and joined their side, back flaring.
"Ha! You've got it all wrong, kid. This isn't a fight, this is a test. Let's see how strong you are after all!"
"Wait, no, stop! We just want to know about Sky Island! Bartender, can you tell us about that!"
The room erupted into laughter as the other pirates began to try to humiliate them for even believing that there could be such a place.
"The Great Pirate Era is over! The Lost City of Gold? The great treasure, the 'One Piece'? It's all a joke. Pirates who believe in that shit are even more laughable!" Bellamy guffawed. Then, to Luffy's stoic look, he took a bottle and smashed it across his face.
Nami screamed and Zoro just watched on, as if appraising why Luffy had let the bottle hit him.
"Wimps like you are why pirates get a bad rep," Bellamy spat on Luffy, who was still laid out on the floor.
"Luffy! Zoro! Sunny! Forget what I said before, just kick his ass!" Nami shouted, pale in shock.
Luffy sat up, his face still stoic and determined. "Zoro…Whatever you do, don't fight back. Sunny, don't intervene."
Bellamy landed punch after punch onto Luffy and Zoro while they stood motionless.
Sunny surged forward to stand in front of his crew mates, growling with rage. They weren't fighting for themselves! They'd been insulted. Where was the fight they'd had seconds ago?
"Sunny." It was Luffy, but it was sharp and quiet, and Sunny froze in his tracks. It's all he needed to say. Luffy didn't say another word, a fist connected his face, right over Sunny's head, but Sunny didn't think he'd have said anything else anyway.
Another couple guys joined in and grabbed Zoro and took turns kicking him while he stood like a statue.
"What's this rat for?" Bellamy laughed, pulling his foot back. "Do you have a cute little pet?"
Nami choked on a yell and covered her face in her hands.
Sunny watched the shoe come toward his face in slow motion. He looked up at his crew mates. Pirates he respected, that were his family. They'd been insulted. Their pride as pirates– And that meant they couldn't fight back. He wasn't sure why. But it was important to them. Sunny didn't want to get hit. He wasn't sure he could stand still and let it happen even if he wanted to. Bellamy was wide eyed and smiling as his foot came closer.
Sunny couldn't fight him. He didn't understand why but it was important that he didn't. He couldn't fight back. He curled in on himself, pulled all his energy into defending himself, fortifying his body like he did whenever he curled up. He imagined a giant metal wall, as tall as the red line and became it.
The foot collided with his side, a bruising hit to his back. The impact rolled him a few inches. There was a moment where the laughter died out, a sense of confusion. Then displaced air and another strike, another foot, much more powerful. It stung, sending him rolling to the floor, but Sunny felt it as if it had taken behind a suit of armor, and he certainly did not come out of his curl.
There was some whispering, then 'did he kill it?' He felt a foot—a new one-on his back pressing down. He was big enough that the person couldn't get a good balance to put all his weight on him, and he allowed himself to roll with the attempts, until the man who had been trying to crush him tripped on him and stumbled face first into the floor.
Sunny could have laughed but he could hear Bellamy hitting something again and he knew what was being done to his friends.
"Sarquiss! This thing won't open up," someone complained, as Sunny felt a foot coming down over and over on his head. Sunny's heartbeat elevated as he remembered the man with the knife.
"Wait! Stop! Let me take that weasel!" It was the voice of the exotic animal vendor.
"See if I care, I'm going for the Straw Hat punk," came a response. Glass shattered across the room and Nami let out another choked gasp.
The street vendor had had those animals, hadn't he? He remembered the shape those birds had been in. When he felt hands on his sides, he uncurled and sat there, dizzy and bruised. He felt a loop of rope tighten around his neck. "Bellamy-san! I'm taking their pet!"
"As long as I get my share of what you sell it for, I don't care," he responded. That was the first thing that got Luffy and Zoro's attention since Sunny had tried to step in. Nami's eyes flew wide and she took several steps toward Sunny.
Standing still for pride was stupid if you asked Sunny. But it was important to his captain and his first mate. So he wouldn't fight back. Not here. And he wouldn't make them act either.
He felt the rope tighten around his neck as the vendor gave it a tug. He stayed in place. It would be a simple burn or bite for his freedom. They weren't fighting back. Luffy's tone as he said Sunny's name echoed in his mind. He saw the cages the vendor had had when they'd first passed him by. He saw the one the fishmen had kept him in when he'd been caught.
"I'll be alright."
Nami tried to push forward but she was caught by the arm by one of the Bellamy Pirates.
Sunny looked at his captain and first mate. "See you soon," he promised.
Then he followed the man out the door. The man led him through the busy street, down the boardwalk. It was humiliating, being treated like someone's livestock. But he waited. He wasn't like Luffy and Zoro, he couldn't hold back forever. He was angry. Angry at those who had insulted Luffy's dream, all because they'd hurt him and hurt the others. It was better he wasn't there. He didn't mean to worry them, he was just angry enough not to care if they did worry.
Sunny waited until he'd been led to the cages of animals, he was shoved into a rickety metal cage. The man was so excited his hands were shaking. He picked up a transponder snail. "Yes, I got it later on. Just like the poster. Get someone to dock tonight, I'm not risking anything." The man looked around suspiciously, as if he were going to be overheard, then walked a few steps down into the alley. " If we split the fifty…"
Sunny held his paw through the metal bars and worked the latches open. Another stupid mechanism they assumed he couldn't figure out. He could have broken through the cage, probably, but quieter was better. He burned off the rope around his neck and came around to the other cages. They were made out of wood or sticks and it was exceedingly easy to break out the loooong rat, the beetles, a few sickly looking purple frogs, and the flock of colorful birds with their beaks all in the same direction. There were no pokemon here, Sunny had been hoping he'd find something, but there wasn't anything like that around. When he smashed open the cage holding a single white pigeon, the trader ran back, waving his arms, and wielding what looked like a bat. Sunny smiled like his namesake as the animals behind him scurried off in every direction.
Sunny had played along with Luffy's rules. This was fair game. Sunny's toothy grin backlit with red flames burning his throat. Then the alley lit with a stream of fire.
Sunny cantered back to the bar after leaving the vendor twitching on the ground. Nami appeared unharmed thankfully, and the one-sided fight appeared to be over. Sunny couldn't help but wonder why the Bellamy pirates had stopped hitting them, if they'd just gotten bored.
Luffy and Zoro pulled themselves up to their feet. They were cut up and badly bruised. Luffy's nose was still streaming blood but the unreadable look on his face went to a grin at seeing the fire pokemon bounding in their direction.
"Sunny!"
Sunny hurtled back to the group and climbed up to Zoro's shoulder and settled on a spot that didn't have blood on it.
"What happened? Where did you go?" Nami demanded.
A purple frog leaped across the ground between their group, croaking. Sunny gave a shrug. "I made some friends."
Nami sighed. "Just…don't get involved in that again. Somehow, you're in better shape than either of these jokers but…we were worried."
Sunny's nose twitched. "You didn't think I could handle him?"
"We didn't like to see you get taken away."
Sunny felt his temper flare a bit with his fire. He directed his crimson stare at the two men. "I didn't want to stand around and watch them get hurt."
Nami stared at Sunny a little while longer, eyes red with ghosts of tears. Finally, she turned to Luffy. "Luffy, he doesn't understand. It's not fair to him."
Luffy brushed himself off, set his hat back on his head, then approached Sunny and Zoro. "This was something that was bigger than us. They're weak. So if we beat them, it wouldn't have proven anything."
When he said it like that, it nearly made sense, maybe in a Luffy way of thinking. He exhaled a deep sigh as Luffy pet the top of his head in apology, a rapidly fading moment of Luffy's seriousness. "We didn't mean to scare you and Nami, or involve you, but your curl up trick was super cool! It was like you were a rock or something!"
"Well, it seems like they don't know anything about Sky Island. Does that mean…" Zoro trailed off with a groan.
"I think we'll need to track those guys down." Nami confirmed as they headed back to the ship.
Let me know what you think! And if you wanna read ahead check out the links in my tumblr ravenwingdark
dklafdfsda until next time ;)