Oh boy, last chapter I was so preoccupied with getting the chapter out I forgot to thank you all for getting Sunny to 50+ reviews and 100+ follows and faves! And I'm especially you all are loving Laboon!
Also, you all read my mind, movie 6 is the one I'm definitely doing, though I'm open to others.
The Strawhat Pirates and Crocus were seated by a campfire at the red sand shore eating a giant pig, Laboon watching over them from further in the water. Crocus explained that the poachers, Mr. 9 and Ms. Wednesday, had been around for more than a week trying to catch Laboon to feed their city. Sunny found he had to fight to stay calm and not to try and find them to teach them a lesson at the mention of that. Humans hunting pokemon was an inexcusable to him, especially when there were so few of them in this world. Crocus had foiled their every attempt at hunting his friend, though. And Sunny had a feeling that after this time, they'd be more than turned off by the idea of trying again.
As the fire shrew climbed off the log next to Luffy and put his back against the campfire with a comfortable sigh, Crocus' shrewd eye switched to him.
Sanji leaned forward, catching the look the old man had and lit his cigarette on the fire.
"You seemed to know something about Sunny back on the ship, can you tell us what?"
Crocus smiled lightly. "Well, it's just a theory, but if I had to guess, these two," he gestured to Laboon and Sunny, "are related."
"What?" Nearly everyone shrieked. Luffy's eyes bugged out of his head. Sunny watched them cooly as they looked at him, a tiny fire mouse, and him, a massive water whale, then gave Crocus a nod of confirmation.
Crocus waved a hand at the crew and clarified, "Not familially, but in the way that this is an animal," he pointed down at the leg of pork he was eating, "and you are human," the crew, "and they are neither," he pointed to Laboon and Sunny. He gave him a small smile, relieved that at least this could be communicated.
Nami exchanged a startled look with Sanji, remembering viscerally her own realization of Sunny's strange nature while she was in Arlong's tower. Sanji remembered several times he'd seen an almost-human like look in their small crewmate. Zoro quirked an eyebrow and Luffy leaned forward on the log. "Whaaat? How do you know?"
"I've known Laboon for a long time now, after fifty years, I can understand him pretty well."
Luffy had stars in his eyes. If he thought it was so cool, maybe they should put a little more effort into learning my language.
"Unfortunately, Sunny speaks entirely in his species name, and if there are others, they probably the same. But Laboon and Sunny don't seem to have a problem understanding each other, or us, so we're the ones behind," Crocus finished, smiling warmly at the whale, who was breaching the surface again, a hundred feet away.
WAAAAIII.
"They have abilities I've never seen in animals, too. When Laboon was a tenth his size, he was already creating whirlpools big enough to swallow a ship," Crocus recalled fondly. "My own ship is laying at the bottom of the sea right now, too."
"But wait," Sanji said, holding up a hand, "if they're as strong as you say, why didn't Laboon finish them off days ago and why does he have all those massive scars?"
Sunny looked toward Laboon, blue skin outlined by moonlight. A spurt of water streamed from his blowhole like a huff.
"Laboon is very peaceful, there's only one thing he wants to destroy." Crocus thumbed toward the mountainous Red Line from where ti rose from the ocean. In the bright moonlight, it was a shock they didn't see it earlier.
Veining through the craggy red rock were massive cave-like fissures and fifty-foot craters along the wall as far as they could see. What had looked like red water underneath was more likely broken rocks and red sediment, the water now too shallow for the massive whale to approach. Sunny backed up, flinched back as he stepped directly onto a burning log, the horror of the situation becoming apparent. His own progress was stopping him, wasn't it? He was strong enough he could do it, but every time he made progress, he had to move further along the Line. Sunny had thought that the ideal pokemon for a pirate crew would be a water-type but at every turn, Laboon had been too big or too strong. A prickle of anxiety settled over Sunny. It could have been him who couldn't have come on the journey. There were a hundred pokemon who wouldn't fit or be able to live on a ship. Magmar, Onix, Snorlax, Magikarp, Diglett, the list went on and on.
If only Laboon had a trainer, if he had a pokeball, there would never have been a mobility issue and he would never have been left behind.
I was knocked out of my reverie when Nami gave a long pat on my head. They were talking about Laboon's pirate crew now.
Zoro was staring at the wailord. "Fifty years and he doesn't accept that they're dead?"
Luffy's hands clenched at this. From where Sunny was on the ground, he could see him, under the shade of his hat. In the campfire, his eyes reflected their chaos.
"Do you want to go back to your old home?" Crocus asked.
Sunny shook his head.
"Neither does Laboon, he just wants someone to come back."
Laboon glided through the water so smoothly, they nearly didn't hear him until he was lined up with the Red Line. I froze. He was going to try breaking through again in his condition?
Luffy jumped to action, bounding onto the Merry and to our shock, ripping Merry's mast off and charging toward the approaching Laboon. Laboon didn't notice him until they were fifty feet away from each other, Laboon's small black eyes widening.
"LAAAAABBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNN!" Luffy wound up and slammed into Laboon's head, and yells of shock and disbelief erupted from everyone but Zoro.
The force stopped Laboon enough that he only slammed into the side with the volume of a thunderclap.
After a deep breath, "FIGHT MEEEEE!"
The surprise on the whales' face morphed into determination. If there was one piece of advice his mother would have told him, had she thought of it, it would be: do not, under any circumstances, provoke and fight a four hundred foot wailord. Nevertheless, Luffy did.
Sunny's head spun with all the attacks he could imagine Wailord could use to wipe Luffy out. All it would take is one well-aimed water attack…
Luffy dropped the mast and threw a gum gum bazooka at Laboon's face. Laboon let out a wail and all of a sudden, the cracked rocks started skittering around them.
Sunny called out to Luffy just a second before the rocks abruptly fought gravity, shooting towards the rubber captain. Luffy's eyes shifted to focus on the rocks at the moment before they hit, his weight shifting to move when two large rocks on either side crushing him between the rocks.
The crew all tensed as the rocks fell into the crashing water. Even Laboon seemed taken aback and opened his mouth with a "Bwaaaaa?"
"Shishishishi," Luffy's cheerful voice came from the side of the Red Line where he was dangling from a small hand hold, chunks of rocks in his hair. "You'll have to do better than that to crush me!" He backflipped Then he threw his arm back, twisting it as he went in a move Sunny had never seen from him before. He jerked his body forward, bringing his stretching arm to a stop, and propelling his spinning fist forward
"GUM GUM RIFLE!" he yelled. "LABOON, I'M YOUR RIVAL NOW, SO WAIT FOR ME TO CONQUER THE GRAND LINE!"
The attack was strong enough I could see Laboon's eyes roll back for a moment. Luffy landed on Laboon's head and continued. "I'm going to become King of the Pirates and then we'll come back, I promise."
Laboon's eyes watered and he started to moan.
"Okay, Strawhat, you won, I'll wait. But when you see my crew, who are still out there, help them to the end of the Grand Line—promise!"
As Sunny stood there watching the exchange between his captain, who was crossing his arms and laughing, and the wailord, the latter shifted an eye towards the smaller pokemon. He understood, Sunny would see to it, but he had a strange feeling Luffy had understood too, somehow.
Luffy grabbed paints and started painting over Laboon's scars and wounds while the rest of the crew worried about the broken mast. Luckily, Usopp declared he could patch it up and started to frantically work, shouting at Luffy while he worked for hurting Kaya's ship.
Sunny took a nap like Zoro attempted to do before getting roped in to help. A lot had happened in one day for the small pokemon.
Eventually, Luffy finished a lopsided version of their Jolly Roger on Laboon's head, proclaiming he couldn't hit his head against the Line or the paint would smudge. And the rest of the crew had fashioned a metal plate to keep the mast aloft with Usopp proclaiming it "sturdier than ever."
It wasn't much longer after that that the crew decided it was time to sleep, and all but Zoro, on watch, and Sunny went down to the cabins.
Sunny picked his way across the red beach, finding an outcropping of rocks he could stand on. He sat there, watching the stars flicker in one by one, knocking small pebbles into the choppy ocean waves.
After a minute, Sunny saw Laboon's shape appear in the distance, spraying up water and submerging again. Sunny waited, looking for the massive shape, and eventually, he saw the large shape appear again in the much shallower water.
Laboon looked at him, the crew's Jolly Roger painted proudly on his forehead.
"Sunny," Laboon greeted warmly. It was as if Laboon could sense how much was running through his brain, and he was content to sit with him in silence to sort them.
For a moment, Sunny thought about what it would be like to stay with Crocus, and help him protect Laboon. To be around another pokemon, who understand each other almost empathically sometimes. But no, Sunny had a cause, Sunny had a crew. A sleuth he'd shared laughter and tears with, he foolish to even consider leaving their side.
But what about Laboon, who was left behind by his sleuth?
Sunny was quiet a long moment before speaking up to the whale, to one of his massive eyes only a dozen feet away from him. "That pirate you mentioned, what was his name?"
"His name is Brook."
The next day, Sunny was one of the last to rise, Crocus joined them for breakfast while Laboon hunted, or swallowed schools of fish and krill. After Laboon got back, Sunny busied himself by asking tons of questions about his home. He too remembered falling through a glowing circle to a world of water.
He thought of home, the place he hadn't thought of often in the past few weeks. I'm not even from this world, he reminded himself, wandering a distance up the beach and into the nearby grasses in thought. As a pirate, any time on land had to be appreciated, and this clearing wasn't too different from the one he'd grown up in…
Sunny distracted himself from the poignant trail of thoughts when he found a pretty lilac to eat. Just as he'd finished his treat, his body went rigid as he placed the tremors underfoot to be something moving toward him. He lurched, spinning towards the possible threat, as not one creature, but two humans in the opposite direction from the ship approached.
The blue hair was unmistakable. It was Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9, now standing only twenty feet from Sunny.
Sunny's head spun with half-framed plans. Had Ms. Wednesday repaired her fan yet? Even without it, he knew he couldn't take on both of them by himself, and he was too far to call out. And what did Mr. 9 have up his sleeve? Sunny hadn't seen him fight. They were clearly both hurt but not badly.
Ms. Wednesday held up her empty hands, sweating slightly and looked tense. She had a bandage on her burned hand.
"Stop, shhh, don't attack, it's okay," Ms. Wednesday took a step closer to Sunny, then another. Sunny rescued the distance between them by taking several steps back, only stopping when his back end hit a thick tree.
"Quuuu," Sunny warned, flame igniting in warning."
Ms. Wednesday took another step forward and crouched, putting her hand out. "See? I'm not going to hurt you, sorry, come here, it's okay."
The cyndaquil took a moment to balk. Is she trying to befriend me or threaten me? He couldn't tell. The day before she had been all cold fury and focus and now she spoke in a soft voice and was trying to entice him to go over there as if he could trust her.
Sunny growled in response as she hadn't picked up on his previous, more subtle warning. She better get to her point. I'm not letting my guard down.
She was more appropriately cautious now. "I need to talk to your friends. Will you take us to them?"
A smile crossed Sunny's face. So he wouldn't have to sit here and deal with her doomed attempts at taming him without a pokeball. He gave her a nod, kept distance between them, and went straight for Zoro.
He was sleeping against the log of the now-expired campfire after his watch the previous night. Sunny gave him a firm headbutt to the side and Zoro woke up, instantly alert.
"Eh? Sunny?" The swordsman looked at his crewmate in annoyed confusion.
"Cynaquiiil," Sunny pointed his nose to the clearing behind him. Zoro was up and drawing his swords in a second. We have visitors, Zoro.
"What the hell? They're back?" Zoro demanded. Sunny just shrugged, he wasn't feeling threatened of them now that he was back with Zoro.
As it turned out, because their ship was destroyed, they wanted a ride to the next island. Luffy had agreed, loudly proclaiming them their 'prisoners,' much to their terror.
Sanji, however, fawned over Ms. Wednesday with no discrimination-much to the annoyance of Nami and Zoro-and went to cook the poachers something in the kitchen.
Crocus approached Nami and Zoro with something in his hand, "Compasses don't work on the Grand Line, this is a Log Pose. It will get you to the next island on the Line, then will need time to set—a different amount of time depending on the island's magnetic field—before it can lead you to the next." He handed it to Nami. Then he hesitated for a moment, looking at Sunny.
"Take care of that one, he's sure to attract attention on the Grand Line. Treat him well and you'll see what amazing things he can do." Crocus gave Sunny a knowing smile and Sunny had to wonder what he had seen.
"Of course!" Nami squealed, holding the Log Pose, "I'll take care of them both!"
Soon after, Crocus waved them goodbye from the red sand beach, the sun making the water shimmer. "Look!" Usopp cried, pointing into the water.
Laboon's body was racing along just under the surface of the water, leaving a dark blue shadow and a stream of churning water along the surface. The crew ran to the side of the ship. Sunny stuck his head through the guardrail, holding onto one side. Laboon's head breached upwards a few hundred feet away as if he were swallowing the sky.
He wailing and released a massive hydro pump into the air, propelling a hundred feet in the air before dispersing like a fountain.
Sunny gasped as he marveled at the mist pluming in the air.
Nami cried out too, "A rainbow!" In the falling mist, in the clear and sunny day, a large shimmering rainbow spread out before them, a welcome gate into the new world. Laboon grinned at the Merry beneath it.
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOODD LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKKKKK!"
And the Strawhats finished their first adventure on the marvelous Grand Line.
Next chapter is going to be an intermission of the story for Shinx's story due to popular demand! So get ready for a triple length chapter! Then after, we're back to Sunny :)
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