I really like seeing the small differences in the characters showing up a little at this point. As Zoro said, taking care of someone (a pet) matures you, and this Luffy is a little bit more thoughtful when he has to be. Not very often though, as this chapter will demonstrate.
Despite Sunny's initial sense of overwhelm, he quickly shifted from hiding under a dusty armchair as the band started playing, to creeping over to Zoro, who was sitting at a table with Nami and Sanji, and climbing onto his shoulder. The party was coming to life all around him, with Usopp speaking animatedly with a group of men as they passed around beers and hung on his every word.
"I was wondering where you'd gone off to," Zoro grunted, pulling away from the sake gourd. Sunny stuck his nose into it with impetuous curiosity. He was repaid by an overwhelmingly strong but sweet smell filling his sinuses.
"Eh, you want to try?" The swordsman asked mischievously. Sunny, seeing all his crew, except Luffy, who was shoveling food into his mouth, had something to drink, began to nod when Nami shook her head sharply.
"Sunny, how about you give this a try?" She offered her bottle of red wine, helping him hold it as he gave it a tiny taste. He immediately recoiled at the sharpness but the berry flavor reminded him of the smell of peacha berries baking in the late summer heat. He gave Nami an approving nod and she poured a splash of wine into a sake cup for him before looking mischievously at the rest of the group. "Anyone want to play a drinking game?"
There was some brief squabbling over which game to play and some brainstorming on how to include their tacit crewmate when finally, Sanji suggested an adjusted version of Never Have I Ever where they would guess yes or no question on Sunny's longer turn and if they were right, Sunny would drink.
Again, Sunny wasn't sure he understood the rules, but he was happy to play and trusted his friends to help him.
Sanji asked first—"Do you have brothers and sisters?" Sunny took a sip for 'yes'.
"Have you left your island before?" Zoro asked, taking an out-of-turn swig of sake. The cyndaquil dawdled on that answer, he wasn't sure how to explain that one. He couldn't, he realized, looking down at his reflection in the wine. The face of a pokemon in a group of humans. Finally, he decided on taking a sip.
Sanji and Nami exchanged a confused shrug. "Are you from the Grand Line?" Nami asked. Sunny shook his head and Nami took a pull from the wine bottle. "Too bad," she sighed, "that could have explained it."
"Where you always able to use fire?" Sanji asked. "You didn't eat a strange tasting fruit, did you?"
Sunny drank at Sanji's first question and shook his head with a negatory 'quillll' on the second. Nami refilled his sake cup, and he felt his cheeks feel pleasantly warm as he looked over to see Usopp and Luffy arm in arm, swinging around the room.
"Alright, this is turning into an interview rather than a party game," Zoro groused.
Nami uncorked another bottle of red wine offered by a nearby party-goer. "Fine, then. Never have I ever been to another Blue." Sanji took a drink.
Zoro thought, drank, and said: "Never have I ever had a tattoo." Nami rolled her eyes and drank.
Sanji's turn. "Never have I ever had a devil fruit?" Just then Luffy passed by, catching a fragment of the conversation, grabbed Zoro's sake and took a short drink.
"BLEH! That's gross, Zoro!" He complained loudly, letting the sake spill out of his mouth.
"Don't drink it then!" Zoro scolded.
"Luffy, cut it out! And don't give Sunny alcohol either, he's just a kid!" Usopp protested. He was now playing chess with a host, using fancy fruit tarts as pieces and eating them as they were captured.
"Sunny wanted a taste!" Nami defended. Sunny hummed contentedly, he was still keeping an eye out, watching the strange people, but the strange tingle of dishonesty Sunny had sensed had dulled away. He was much calmer and felt better than he could remember being like his constant prey instincts were softened and he was finally allowed some confidence.
"Never have I ever been a quadruped," Nami winked at Sunny, who took another sip from his paw-sized cup.
Behind them, Luffy, egged on by hosts, had managed to tie himself into a pretzel.
"Never have I ever met anyone like our captain," Zoro said. They all looked at each other before laughing.
"That's no fun, now no one gets to drink!" Nami protested.
Sunny laid in Usopp's lap as he galed a story to a group of women (including a drinking nun?) who had joined the festivities. His story was getting more non-sensical and he stopped for long pauses before deciding what to say.
Sunny burped a bit of fire and curled up into a ball. Parties were fun, but they were exhausting.
Little did the fire pokemon know, the denizens of Whisky Peak were watching all of them carefully. One of the seemingly drunken hosts straightened up and pulled another villager into the hallway.
"Did you see that? What their pet did?" The first bounty hunter asked. She had a long brown bob and big, light eyes and a gentle smile that didn't match her words or voice.
"Uh, no? What, did he fetch?" The other bounty hunter, a tired-eyed man with stubble asked disbelievingly.
"Check the book," she hissed.
The man sighed and pulled out a folded and bound set of bounty poster and started thumbing through it. "It's worth like 100 B, man. Keep your eyes on the prize. "
The woman rolled her eyes and flipped to the next page. The fresh bounty poster had a drawn image of a shaded, inhuman figure, with a question mark inside of the shape.
Beasts of Supernatural Abilities — Wanted: Alive — 5 million berri on confirmation.'
"I found one—it breathed fire! The thing is practically worth its weight in gold! We need the captain and their pet! Come on, we need to be ready to move soon!" They headed back into the room where several of the crew where in states of stupor, with the red-head chugging wine and the long-nosed man passed out, and the captain half-wake, finishing off the last crumbs of the feast.
The first bounty hunter looked around. "Wait, where's their pet? Or the green-haired guy?"
They quickly searched the entire room. Sure enough, in the minute they'd been gone, the little payday had snuck away and so had the sake-lover.
"Shit! Do you think it caught on? Animal instincts?"
"We underestimated it! We need to move while we still can!" Wailed the second.
Sunny felt comfortable like he was dreaming until a tiny prickle of unease reached through his relaxed haze. He wasn't a psychic type, but he'd always had a minor sense for certain emotions, something his father had had too. It could make him jumpy, but it was also what led him to trust Luffy and the others. He slipped outside to feel the cool wind on his face as he had the strange sensation of being too warm.
Hic.
He really had grown to love the smell of the sea. Sunny's eyes drooped even further and he gave a tiny yawn. He really had fun tonight, he felt bad for being so uneasy around the townspeople after they'd been so generous. Hic. Maybe he could afford to let down his guard, considering how strong Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji were.
"Sunny! What are you doing out here?"
The shrew pokemon jumped slightly and looked over from where he was sitting on the pavement looking at the quaint town, to Luffy, escorted by two of the townsfolk, who looked at each other, sweating slightly as they saw the fire-type.
"Cynda—hic!" Sunny greeted warmly, getting up to approach his captain and the townspeople without an ounce of suspicion. "Qu iii?" Where are you going?
"They ran out of food here, so I'm helping them get the rest of the meet from their restaurant! Wanna come?"
The first host jumped at the opportunity. "Yes, you should come!"
Sunny titled his head, but walked up to Luffy and accepted the lift onto his shoulder. It's better to stay together, Sunny thought. Just to be careful.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before Luffy piped up. "Ne, where's the food again?"
"Oh, very close now," the woman said, stopping where he stood and raised a hand in the air. Neither Luffy or Sunny had enough time to react properly before they felt the opaque shadow of a net descend onto them from a building above.
The net was weighted and instantly pinned Sunny against Luffy's shoulder. What Sunny wasn't expecting, however, was when Luffy's struggles abrupted stopped as he titled forward, falling flat on his face on the ground, eyes half-lidded.
Sunny, who had tried to stop Luffy's fall, had to pull himself out from under his limp captain, the nets barely allowing Sunny's compact form to stand up. The hosts were shouting now, something like 'we got them!' into their transponder snail. The other side crackled slightly and responded, 'we're having some difficulty with one of his crew, we'll call back when we finish him.'
The cyndaquil took advantage of the time they were occupied to slap Luffy across the face. "Cyn cyn!"
Luffy's eyes shifted to look at him and he gave a weak groan, twitching his hand. "It's sea prism stone, isn't it? That's mean, why would you attack us?" He whispered.
The first bounty hunter hung up the call she was on at looked at her captives. "Are you stupid? How do you pirates never know it's a trap? We're bounty hunters! We sell the bounties to the Marines and kill the rest! You crewmates are being taken care of right now! But don't worry, we'll bury them, just like the others!" The bounty hunter raised her hands, toward the massive cactus-like hills on either side of the town. Every cactus needle is actually a grave!" She laughed, her smile spreadingly snakishly across her face.
Luffy's eyes shaded behind his hat and he began to shake furiously under Sunny's paw.
The little cyndaquil felt the last dredges of that pleasant feeling fade away as his body burned so hot, a puff of vapor escaped his mouth and suddenly he could think clearly again. Enemies, sirens flashed his mind. Fight. Win. Burn.
It was all too much for Sunny. They planned to capture or kill us this whole time, he thought. They even knew how to weaken Luffy.
Sunny bit into the rope with his sharp back molars and shook it viciously. The rope didn't even fray. Channeling the same energy he'd used at Reverse Mountain, he blew a large mote of fire at the rope but was durable enough to only char lightly. He tried a weaker but more steady breath of fire, and to his relief, the rope was beginning to wear and catch fire. Unfortunately, the bounty hunter's smiles slipped off their faces as they saw Sunny make progress. One pulled out a bat, and the other stayed unarmed though he had a shotgun slung over his back.
"Idiot!" The woman hissed at the man. "It isn't affected by seastone, we need to stop it!"
She charged with his bat, intending to bash Sunny in the head, but the fire-type abandoned his progress on the charred ropes in favor of rolling out of the way. He continued to move under the net, dodging blows, careful not to get caught up in the netting.
The man finally lunged at him, intent on crushing him under his arms. Sunny let out an undignified squeak, sprayed burning embers into the man's face, and careened in the opposite direction. The man screamed out in pain, covering his watery, red eyes, and lashing out with his feet, tangling in the netting. The woman tripped over the netting as she tried to avoid hitting the other bounty hunter with her bat, tumbling over and landing next to Luffy's prone form.
The chaos was just enough for Sunny to start to shed his instinctual prey-driven panic and realize his first priority was getting out of the net now that the bounty hunters were temporarily occupied. He nosed his way under the net, enjoying the feeling of standing unrestrained once again.
The bounty hunter who had lost his sandal was the first to get back up. Sunny ran around, tackling the back of the bounty hunter's knee but he didn't buckle, instead lifting up his foot to try and slam down on Sunny. The fire-type hopped back, barely avoiding his shoe, and the man stepped forward and stomped with his un-sandaled foot. This time, Sunny took the blow. The man's foot slammed him flat against the gravel, popping the vertebrae in his back.
It was a small price to pay as Sunny's eyes opened to look up at the man before igniting with all his might. The bounty hunter fell to the ground screaming, his foot smoking.
A third bounty hunter had arrived on the scene, alarmed as he saw one bounty hunter writhing on the ground and the other just getting back on her feet and only one small opponent. Sunny stepped between the new opponent and his captain, flaring to warn him away.
The third man wasn't sufficiently impressed and swung at him with a weighted chain. Sunny ran to the side, narrowly avoiding the second and third lash as well before closing distance, where his weapon would be less versatile and bit hard into the man's heel.
The other bounty hunters falling over each other had given him an idea. They say Alolan exeggutors have the farthest to fall… Sunny thought, here goes nothing. Once he'd secured his teeth into the man's skin, he pushed forward with all his might, sweeping the man's weight from under him and causing him to hit the ground, head slamming into the pavement.
Once he was grounded, Sunny had finally leveled the playing field—he blew out an ember at the man's chest, causing him to wake from his stupor and start patting out his chest with one hand, while the hand holding the chain jerked out.
Sunny would be the first to admit he'd underestimated the bounty hunter. He had very little time to reflect on that, however, when the chain struck him behind the ear, sending him flying through the air, and rolling to a stop a few feet in front of Luffy. Sunny lay there, blinking a few times as the chainsaw-loud buzzing filled his ears and he felt pain travel across his skull and down his spine as he tried to work out what happened.
One paw, another, another, one more. Before he knew quite what was happening, Sunny had gathered his sprawled limbs back under him. It was instinct, it was a pokemon's natural response. He hadn't been knocked out, and if a pokemon hasn't blacked out, they can and will continue to fight.
Sunny just had to figure out how to balance. As he stood up, he tipped over onto his side, head still spinning. Forming coherent thoughts was beyond him, but his one base thought was that he had to keep moving.
The bounty hunter who had fallen over himself near Luffy finally stood up, readied. As did the man Sunny had just attacked, favoring his injured leg. They held their bat and chain at the ready just in time for Sunny's vision to clear enough to see them.
The woman with the bat stepped forward, weapon held above her in both hands as she prepared to finish the fight. Then, she felt herself stop mid-step as if her ankle was caught in something. She jerked his foot and looked down. A hand was gripping her ankle with vice-like strength, though the boy holding onto her couldn't lift his head off the ground and was panting in exertion.
"Don't…don't touch my crewmate!" Luffy said through gritted teeth.
The bounty hunter only had the sense to be unnerved for a moment before she scoffed and kicked Luffy hard in the head, jarring his grip enough to pull away. Luffy fixed her a glare more firey than Sunny's ember but couldn't push his hand back toward her fast enough. The distraction was enough for Sunny to push through the smothering pain in his head to face their enemies and try to ignore the strange vibrations in the ground.
He charged at the bounty hunter Luffy had a hold of, moving fast enough to avoid another whip of the chain. He felt his stride quicken in the few bounds it took to reach the man, and by the time he processed what was in front of him, he was already there, his shoulder pushing into the bounty hunter's stomach, fire flaring, head pounding, as the man let out a shout of surprise, staggering back.
The pounding under him continued. Footsteps, he now knew, just about to be audible.
Cha-chik. Sunny, who had been preparing another ember to send at the woman, looked over to see what the sound was. The man with the burned foot was sitting on the ground, shotgun aimed at Sunny.
"Qui?" Sunny couldn't help but say in surprise. What are you going to do with that? You're twenty feet away.
"Don't mess with me! I'll blast you away, even if it means we only collect one bounty!" The man yelled. From the side street, a dozen more bounty hunters with various weapons came into sight. Sunny turned to the man holding the shotgun and took a step forward, growling. The man gritted his teeth and shut an eye, finger on the trigger.
"Sunny, no!" Luffy managed.
Then, from the side street, a dozen more bounty hunters with various weapons came into sight and Sunny and the captured Luffy were surrounded on all sides.
A bounty hunter with a big nose wearing a hawaiian shirt held up a sword. "Give up, rodent, or things are going to get ugly."
"Ugly? Trust me, they already are," a voice came from a building above them. Sunny jerked his head up along with all the bounty hunters. The crew's unofficial first mate was standing there, blood running from a gash on his forehead, holding his third sword in front of his mouth. His shaded steel eyes now fixed on Sunny. "Sorry I keep intruding on your fights, campfire. But somehow I worked up a mob in town, so we're going to need to finish this quick." A demon grin spread across his face as he took up the sword hilt between his teeth.
Sunny looked at him, and managed a small smile. "I'll leave it to you, budew-face."
This chapter, the tiny Sunny in my brain was extra vocal on what he wanted to do and it went much differently than my outline.