In regards to questions, Sunny's just hit level 13, he's not necessarily going to evolve when he hits a specific level though, mainly because level 14 feels too early for him.
Also, there won't be a pokemon on each island because of how the pokemon came to this world but rest assured, there are plenty more pokemon in the OP world to be discovered!
Sunny's red eyes were wide with fear as his face burst out of the water, choking and sputtering out the salty seawater.
"Quuuuuu!" Sunny squealed out in panic, looking around wildly in panic. Around him is nothing but gray water, storm clouds, rain, and—in the fog, is that the Merry? The shape was so far away. If he was the only one thrown, they would never find him. If everyone was thrown off, they might have lost the Merry for good.
The realization halted his movements and he felt his head drop under the surface again, and again, inhale a lungful of seawater. Sunny wasn't sure he could reach the surface again when he saw something coming towards him underwater. Something white and snake-like reached out toward him. Sunny felt the spike of fear in his heart grow even further. No, not again. Sunny wished for nothing more than to be warm and dry and happy with the crew like they had been not fifteen minutes ago. The flames on his back responded automatically to his fear, trying to burst forth, instantly doused, and causing a wave of exhaustion to overcome him as I tried to prevent himself from breathing any more water. The white thing's jaw unhinged to strike out.
-20 minutes before-
During their routine noon nap on the deck, Luffy flipped over onto his stomach to face Sunny, who mirrored the action curiously.
"Shishishi! Hard to believe we're on the Grand Line with a whole crew!" He grinned, his chin resting on the palm of his hand. "Are there people you want to see too, Sunny?"
Sunny thought for a moment. There were—if his father and siblings had been displaced as well, then they were out there somewhere, it was just a matter of looking! …And then there was someone else, a man he'd encountered on Spring Island, where Luffy had found him. I need to find him too, Sunny thought, a strangely cathartic tingle of malice sweeping over him. The other poachers. He remembered that rainy day as well as the firey night of the Big Displacement. The roars, the gunshots, the body left on the ground he'd seen once he'd mustered the courage to leave his hiding place. He grit his teeth for a moment, released a breath, then gave Luffy a nod.
Luffy smiled back. "I do too!"
Suddenly, the sky darkened as clouds rolled in from either side. The sight was unnatural everywhere but the Grand Line, where wind blowing in two different directions was just another day at sea. Then the sky began to sprinkle and the waves picked up as if they were being jolted out of the water by an unnatural force.
"All hands on deck, there's a massive storm!"
Sunny watched as gray clouds thickened and expanded over the sky and steamed off the water as surely as if a pokemon had just used Fog or Rainy Day. In no time at all, the crew was scrambling into their places as the fog made it difficult to see past Merry's figurehead.
The Merry lurched to the side, provoking exclamations from the crew. Sunny barely slid across the deck at all. There wasn't even enough wind to take him off his feet and the waves, while pounding, were coming from multiple directions.
It couldn't have caused the massive lurch of the ship, he thought as he took shelter under a bench as Sanji and Usopp fought to furl the sail to weather the Grand Line storm.
Then the water on the left side of the ship began to bubble. Nami and Vivi froze.
Sunny and Zoro didn't have a view of it, only the horror on their navigator's face. Then a massive bulge in the water exploded and a massive, gaping-jawed sea creature with glittering red scales and intense eyes and flared gills held itself over the boat with a massive roar.
"SEA KING!" Usopp screamed, eyes all but rolling to the back of his head.
Sunny's blood stilled and his breath caught. His paws took him without his control from the bench' s shelter and his crew oogled the screeching creature. Its finned tail lashed out on the other side of the ship, soaking Zoro and Vivi's backs. It wasn't as large as the sea kings they'd encountered on the Calm Belt, only a little longer than the length of the bow, but it was much more ferocious.
That's because it wasn't a sea king, it was a gyarados, a red gyarados.
And she was furious.
Sunny ran over to hold one of Nami's knocking knees as she looked up at the fearsome face hovering twenty feet above the ship, behind them, the boat lurched. Gyarados roared angrily again.
"You trespassed on my territory—that was your last mistake! Your ship will join my nest!"
Sunny knew cruise ships and barges from his world dealt with territorial groups—people or pokemon—on the sea enough that it was virtually required to have a powerful ice- or electric-type on board but this world had no need until now. And this was the second great water type Sunny had met in a single week!
"Gyarados! Please don't sink us! We didn't know this was your territory! We'll leave immediately!" Sunny moved forward on stumbling legs before he knew it. The rest of the crew didn't know what they were dealing with.
The towering water-type exhaled a breath and his wide-mouthed face lowered so she was only a few feet above him, Sunny smelled brine on her breath and saw fishbones stuck in her teeth.
"Another one of us, something I haven't seen in a long time," she hissed.
Zoro and Sanji exchanged glances as the sea monster picked up speaking as Sunny did—a few specific, repeated syllables that made up his name.
"H-he's talking to it?" Vivi asked in disbelief.
"Gyarados, we're just passing through," Sunny beseeched. If she was a pokemon, she would be reasonable, they were different from the sea kings. "We have fish we can give you!"
Gyarados stared, seawater dripping from her lips.
"Fish," she said finally, "does not taste as good as pokemon!"
Not even understanding the words being spoken, Sanji was instantly by the face of Gyarados, kicking her across the face, making her miss her lunge toward Sunny and hit her head against the deck instead, gouging the wood with a tooth.
Sunny flared as the rest of the crew prepared themselves for a fight. She roared loud enough for everyone to cover their ears and as they felt their eardrums reverberate with the roar. Luffy pulled Nami out of the way of another strike but they had nowhere to go. She was putting the weight of her neck on the ship, causing the new ship to groan and pitch in protest.
The gyarados was enraged enough to be both formidable and senseless, the wrathful glaze of her eyes rendering her unable to even fear Zoro's swords as he charged, katanas dancing across her body, cutting through scales and drawing equally vibrant red blood. She lashed out and he was thrown headlong into the mast. Puffs of sour smelling smoke impacted across her wet scales as Usopp's weapons impacted.
Vivi struggled to calm Carue, who was running in circles too close to the water dragon while Nami assembled her wooden bo staff and backed against the wall, looking around for someone.
Maybe me, Sunny thought. After reasoning had failed, Sunny had disappeared behind the mast and ducked under the serpent's underbelly, hanging up on the guard rail, and slammed into the slippery pale scales with all the speed he could muster.
He managed to make the serpent's body twitch but the recoil had him flying back, barely catching himself as he touched down again.
Luffy was struggling not to get bitten, pressed against the deck as Sanji came in with another kick to save him.
"Watch out, if it's like Sunny it might have other abilities!" he warned. As he spoke, Gyarados' tail flipped out of the water on the other side, slamming Sanji into the deck. He didn't move. Gyarados opened her mouth again and shot a massive jet of water, sending him rag-dolling in the force of water and hitting the other side of the deck.
She's playing with us, Sunny realized in anger. She's not hunting, she's playing.
Sunny charged at her stomach, impacting with all he could. Besides another small jerk, it had no effect. He tried again and again, ramming into Gyarados' side. Slowly, she began to withdraw, taking a few more deep slashes from Zoro as she went until she disappeared in blooming red water.
"She's gone..." Nami sighed. It was quiet while Sanji managed to lift his head up to recollect himself and the others resummoned their wits.
She wasn't a sane pokemon. There was something wrong with her.
"CYNDAQUIL!" "We're a challenge to her!" Sunny shouted, flames still ignited, he stomped a foot on the deck. "She hasn't given up! She's coming back!"
"Campfire doesn't think it's over," Zoro observed, stance relaxed but katanas still in hand.
"It's not," Sunny confirmed grimly.
She appeared fifty feet away, half her body arched out of the water as she submerged and breeched in arcs, moving around the boat.
Sunny could hear her primal wordless call as it instinctually filled him with both fear and an urge to join her in the sea.
No, it can't be. Is this Dragon Rage? Sunny felt weightless in panic, like he was air about to float away. They were done for.
Nami must have read the way Sunny went white at the strange vibrative hums and calls from the water, shouting commands to the others. "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW-" They realized that the arcing back of the gyarados sewing through the water had been joined by a dozen sea kings, smaller and of all colors. The weather was shifting brutally by the second, buffeting the ship with wind and wake. Water slid across deck as the crew gathered around the mast. The Merry shifted upwards as something slid underneath her. Sunny moved behind Usopp as the driving rain started to sting his eyes and skin so badly he had trouble seeing. The ship began to spin with a forming whirlpool.
"Come back here and fight, you big fish!" Luffy yelled. "Sanji is gonna make maki tonight!"
The tail lashed out again, slamming into Luffy. This time, Luffy caught it as he impacted into the mast, jerking the massive serpent to a stop under the water, gripping hard enough that Sunny heard a scale crack. It was almost impossible to stay standing now, the ship spinning and rocking and leaning. Zoro opened a long slash across her tail with his cursed sword, pouring blood onto the deck. An incoherent roar burbled from the water.
Then Gyarados' tail wrapped around Luffy's body and wrenched herself free from Zoro's next volley of slashes, flinging Luffy into the air with incredible force. Sanji, previously stunned from injuries, jumped into the water after him before the rubberman even splashed down, near the outer ring of sea kings.
Sunny was cold, and not only because of his wet fur and water underfoot.
They didn't stand a chance. Luffy and Sanji were now in her domain.
Gyarados fired a blast of water at Nami and Vivi, who had run to the side of the boat in alarm and they were flung off the ship into the tremulous water, Carue losing balance and falling in after them. In the distant water, Sunny saw three sea kings lash out and be thrown back, sinking into the water. He didn't have time to see if it was Sanji.
Usopp was shaking so badly his slingshot looked like a green blur. Another massive tide poured over the ship, soaking into the cracked boards.
Rage poured off Zoro's entire body as Gyarados reappeared in front of the remaining members of the crew as her gills flicked back in preparation for another jet of water aimed towards them. Sunny leaped off Usopp and towards the gyarados' head, falling until he caught onto her whisker, jerking her head to the side in pain as the water gun shot off into the water.
A tidal wave bloomed behind the ship larger than any Sunny had seen before, almost as tall as the mast. Gyarados flung her head to the side and Sunny's toothy grip failed as he flew straight into the tidal wave as it peaked over the ship.
That's when everything went sideways, literally. Sunny felt myself flying through the air, directionless, for several heart-spinning moments before he was finally able to parse a direction—when he was diving nose first into the tremulous ocean.
Like a candle being snuffed, Sunny was enveloped in all-encompassing blackness.
Sunny went still for a mere moments before his body reignited, effort to survive re-writing his faint. The little fire-type worked through the pain, panic, and cold to start pedaling, but he wasn't sure which way was up. He hadn't had the chance to hold his breath. The burning sensation of water in his snout and racked his head with pain.
Stop, Sunny thought. Can't work myself into a frenzy, I have to get to the surface, find everyone else. I'm a pirate, I have to look out for the rest of the crew! He started pushing harder through the inky blackness, buffeting him from one side to the other. My legs are too short! I can't do it! His red eyes were wide with fear as his face burst out of the water, choking and sputtering out the salty seawater.
"Quuuuuu!" He squealed out in panic, looking around wildly. Around him was nothing but gray water, storm clouds, rain, and—in the fog, is that the Merry? The shape was so far away. If he was the only one thrown, they would never find him. If everyone was thrown off, they might have lost the Merry for good.
The realization halted his movements and he felt his head drop under the surface again, and again, inhale a lungful of seawater. He wasn't sure I could reach the surface again as energy was sapped from his body. Then he saw something coming towards him underwater. Something white and snake-like reached out toward him. He felt the spike of fear in his heart grow even further.
No, not again. Sunny wished for nothing more than to be warm and dry and happy with the crew like they had been not fifteen minutes ago. The flames on his back responded automatically to his fear, trying to burst forth, instantly doused, and causing another wave of exhaustion to overcome him completely. The white thing lashed out, jaw seemingly unhinging, and with the reserves of energy Sunny didn't realize he had, he secured his teeth into what he assumed was its head.
It jerked in response, and in the moment, they were both pulled out of the water, Sunny still in its grip, who was too occupied with vomiting seawater yet again.
"Campfire, hey, campfire."
Sunny worked his eyes open and stopped his feeble struggling. Above him was Zoro, treading water and holding me with a bleeding hand.
"Zoro?" Sunny asked, trembling weakly.
"I thought I saw something flailing in the water. Well, at least you don't sink as quickly as Luffy," Zoro said, his eyes darkening. "Dartbrow had hold of him right before we were blown off the ship, so with any luck, the shit cook won't end up killing him somehow. Hey," Zoro paused in his train of thought and Sunny realized he had started to slump in his grip, head dipping slightly back in the water. "Stay awake. I get it, you don't like water. We're gonna get back to the ship, alright?" Zoro growled slightly. Then he placed him on his head and started swimming toward the ship, which was just a shadow in the distant fog, threatening to disappear in the heavy rain.
Sunny nodded slightly, holding onto the foresty green hair. He had to stay strong through the cold and the rain.
Zoro was a strong swimmer, that I could attest to. Still, it seemed like an impossible task to catch up to a stray caravel.
"Still alive up there?" Zoro asked, after fifteen minutes. The cyndaquil kept his eyes locked on the ship in front of us, now close enough that he could see the mast. He anchored himself on that and got the feeling Zoro was doing the same. Because if the red gyarados found them, it was all over. She was merciless and crazed, unlike any pokemon he'd met. And Sunny was completely, irreparably useless against her. Completely useless...and rapidly losing consciousness again. Instead of getting stronger, he felt like his body was going in shock after being knocked out in the water and surging back awake in a desperate attempt to save himself. The overwhelming cold and wet didn't fade, just sunk deeper into him like a sickness and made it harder to breathe, harder to stay awake. "Quiii," he manages, voice faint.
Zoro responded with a lengthened stride, saying nothing for several minutes until they got closer to the ship, then he hesitated, treading water for a moment.
"That...doesn't look like our ship," he said. The ship was not the Merry. It was yellow and lower in the water with jolly roger with a geometric skull design.
Sunny felt himself slip both mentally and physically as the world spun again and Sunny had slipped off his head, Zoro abandoning his swim stroke in order to catch him just as he dipped into the water. Zoro swore in surprise, yanking the twenty pound, soaking wet dead-weight back onto his damp hair. The ship was closer now, and it was his only choice.
He approached the boat, reaching a hand out to grab the rope ladder on the side, still holding onto Sunny when the water disappeared below him with a strangely empty feeling in his stomach. And he fell on his ass on the deck on a ship, Sunny tucked under an arm, Zoro's mouth worked up and down for a moment before he collected himself enough to speak.
"What the hell?" Zoro looked around the unfamiliar deck, registered the strange man in front of him and jumped up, drawing a katana in his empty hand. Two splashes sounded in the water distantly. Then he noticed on deck with him, along with a group of decidedly unfamiliar pirates; was Nami, leaning against the guard rail, a towel draped over her shoulders. Nearby, the considerably more soaked Sanji and Luffy were sitting on the deck, Sanji toweling off the unsteady captain's hair.
Zoro felt a like a weight had been removed from his shoulders seeing the shit-cook hadn't messed up and let them get eaten. But just because he could see a majority of the crew was safe, didn't mean that he trusted the tattooed man in front of him.
"Who are you?" He demanded. The man, around his age, with a bit of facial hair, tattoos on his hands, a katana untouched at his side, and a furry, spotted hat looked at him unconcerned.
"I really should ask that as you just boarded my ship without permission," the man pointed out.
"No, I didn't," Zoro grit. "I was planning on it when I was somehow teleported onto your ship. How about you explain that?"
The man thought about it for a moment before accepting the point. "Fine, looks like there are a couple of things that need to be cleared up. But first, whatever that is under your arm looks like it needs medical help."
Zoro jerked in surprise, kicking himself for letting his focus shift—there were a lot of concerns at the moment; the pirates, Usopp, the princess, but he put them aside for the moment, sheathing his sword and holding Sunny more carefully. The little Straw Hat's head hung limply, fur soaked through and he'd gone alarmingly cold. Most worryingly, he hadn't made a sound since falling into the water again.
The man saw the creature and stepped forward automatically. Zoro tensing slightly as he did. Sanji was standing too, alarmed by the condition of the fire-type. "Damnit shitty swordsman..."
The man moved forward. "Trafalgar Law, I'm the captain of this ship and also a doctor. I suggest you let me take a look." Zoro relented, opening his arms to let Law see Sunny. Law felt his pulse, forehead, and ran his hands along his back.
Law frowned at the creature that was more soggy stuffed animal than a living being. It was certainly not a species he'd ever heard of either.
"It's hard to explain, but Sunny's very in tune with the element of fire, so water hurts him a lot," Nami said anxiously as she joined them.
Law took Sunny from Zoro and accepted a dry towel from a crewmate that was literally a bear in a jumpsuit and rubbed him dry, trying to elicit a response.
Sanji instinctually reached for his cigarettes as Sunny didn't move. "Fill bottles with warm water," Law told his crewmate who replied affirmatively and ran back below deck.
"He's breathing, so he'll probably be alright, he's hypothermic and exhausted," he said when his crewmate returned with the warm water bottles, which he tucked into Sunny's towel, and handed to Nami. "Give him a little while, once his temperature settles again and he should perk up."
Nami sighed in relief. "I don't know what we would have done without you."
Law looked at the blond chef. "What are you doing?"
Sanji had set out all his soggy cigarettes in a neat line on the deck to dry out. Law rolled his eyes and twisted three fingers in the air. "Room."
Suddenly, Sanji was replaced with a wet log and another splash was heard near the ship.
A few moments later, a very annoyed, drenched Sanji climbed back on deck to a chuckling Zoro.
"What. Did you do." He accused.
"I'm a Devil Fruit user," Law explained casually. "With my ability, Room, I can switch two objects within my range, and frankly, this log is being more helpful than you so I switched you back."
"You can't just decide that!" Sanji protested, stalking back to his towel. "I was coping with a stressful situation!"
Luffy just laughed, finally recovering and pulling himself to his feet using the guard rail. "Tra-guy sure is funny! We owe him for saving Sunny too."
"'Tra-guy!' You can't just call me something that's not my name like that Mugiawara-ya."
Nami sweatdropped. This guy may seem serious, but he really was just like the other boys, probably around the same age too.
"How about we focus?" Zoro suggested, gaze trailing from his downed crewmate to the punctures on his hand from where Sunny had bitten him. The swordsman had seen Sunny do the same against their enemies and he could respect the power his scrappy crewmate possessed, despite all appearances. Even drowning, he'd kept fighting. It was a rare quality to have.
Just then, a man in the crow's nest shouted down. "Law! I found their ship!"
"Set course, " Law grunted, and the crew followed his orders quickly and efficiently.
Luffy didn't look excited like he normally would. Instead, he crossed his arms and frowned. "When I see Usopp I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind for making me worry!" he fumed as if it was his friend's fault.
As they approached a few hundred feet of the Merry, the crew let down a rowboat and the Strawhats and two of Law's crew boarded a skiff, Sanji abandoning his dissolving cigarettes on the deck.
"Bye Tra-guy! Thanks for not letting us drown!" Luffy shouted up at him as they were beginning to be rowed back to their ship.
Law crossed his arms and gave him a nod. "Yeah, maybe you'll hear about my crew again, if you don't go overboard again, that is."
"Shishishi, if that happens Zoro and Sanji will definitely save me again!"
**Fun fact: the extremely stressful drowning scene is actually the second scene I ever wrote for this story once I decided on Cyndaquil. I hadn't even thought of Cyndaquil's name. Don't ask why. Jeez.**
Finally, I've been working on a side project I think you guys will be interested in, I'm not announcing it yet but expect it to come SUMMER 2019 :)
Please let me know what you thought of this chapter, it's a little bit of a risk doing an original arc, which still has to wrap up with 1 more chapter! And I hit 50,000 words!