Thanks for hanging in there while I took a couple weeks off-I ended up being wrong, there will be one more chapter for this original arc. And thanks for 100 reviews! I'm over the moon!
Sunny could only remember being very cold all of a sudden, not like he was moments before, but an all-compassing cold where he felt like all heat had left him as every other sensation disappeared with it. Then he woke up, and he wasn't lost at sea anymore, he was wrapped in towels and shivering but alive. Better yet, as he looked around, he could see he was on a small boat and most of the crew was with them.
A smiling face was above him, giving him scratches behind the ears. "Sunny, you're awake!" It was Nami. Oh, how glad he was Nami was alright!
"We're heading back to the ship now, another crew found us. Figured we'd all had enough adventure for the day." Zoro said casually, opening a silver eye to look at the fire pokemon.
Sunny had to wonder where the red gyarados had gone. Surely her fury hadn't been sated. And they were alive…How?
Sunny looked around at the members of the crew who were with him, relieved they were all still in one piece.
Little pieces of his thoughts floated off before he could catch them, or had time to consider what they were. He curled up into a ball, his breaths evening out.
Sunny got about fifteen minutes of rest before the rowboat gently bumped against the side of their ship. He felt himself be passed to Sanji as they climbed up the side of the ship and Sunny climbed from his arms to his shoulder, feeling somewhat better.
"Usopp! Vivi!" Luffy hollered to the empty deck, stretching up and vaulting the guard rail. As Nami climbed back onto the ship, giving a wave to the rowers that Sunny had no context for as they jumped back on the deck of their home, giving himself a relieved shake. Puddles of water and damage to the decking and rails reminded Sunny all too well of their last encounter.
He registered a vibration of movement in the ship in the direction of the kitchen and hopped in joy, gesturing to the kitchen.
"Yosh!" Luffy sprinted off to the kitchen to reunite with Vivi and Usopp. "Usopp, I'm mad at you so you better have snacks-"
As the galley door was swung open, Luffy was thrown back, tumbling across the deck, head over foot, and hitting the mast with a startling smack.
Zoro had already unsheathed his swords, his face drawn, icy, and infinitely dangerous. Sunny ignited, fire spluttering across his back. It was too early for him to fight, he realized.
Then, from the cabin door came Usopp and Vivi, ropes tied around them, lead by Marines with crooked smiles. Within moments, several other Marines popped out from Nami's tangerine trees and from underdeck.
These Marines had been lying in wait, on their ship, while holding their crewmates hostage. Rage burned in Sunny, glaring poison at the man holding Vivi wearing a Marine Captain's coat.
"I see the rest of the crew has finally arrived," he smiled as easily as someone visiting a friend.
"Unhand Vivi-chan!" Sanji yelled.
Vivi struggled and Usopp quaked in his boots, looking fearfully at Luffy.
"It's about time the bounties got here."
Luffy jumped up from his supine position, his eyes blazing.
The Marines on either side of their own captain raised their metal sticks nervously-Straw Hat Luffy looked furious.
Sunny had to wonder why these men, as well as the bounty hunter on Whisky Peak thought that would be any use. Luffy didn't seem to care either.
"How dare you hurt my crew," he said. The metal sticks clicked as the Marines tensed. Luffy threw a punch straight for the head of the Marine Captain, above Vivi's head.
Nami must have seen what Sunny was missing; she yelled their captain's name a split second before it happened. The blast of the gun punctuated her warning as Luffy grazed the Marine's face, his arm rushed back, popping back into place as he staggered back. His other hand flew to his shoulder, covering the spot where blood was beginning to pour.
"Wh-" Luffy said, staggering again, holding himself up against the mast. A cacophony of shouts rang out but Zoro was silent as he suddenly appeared next to the Marine with a smoking gun just as he moved to reload.
Zoro didn't give him a chance as blood bloomed from a deep cut across his chest. The deck exploded in chaos.
With two of the group captured and their captain injured, the remaining four had to defeat the Marines themselves. Sunny knew that. But his paws were rooted to the deck as surely as a sunflora using Ingrain.
That metal stick...had made that sound? Had ripped through his captain's shoulder? Wasn't that the stick that the bounty hunter had pointed at him on Whisky Peak? Sunny had been unafraid then but only because he hadn't known.
Nami had assembled her bo staff now and it was cracked into Marines as she made her way to Luffy, who was managing to stay standing. Sanji was fighting to reach Vivi. Zoro was fighting. Usopp yelling, Vivi...
...
Sunny could remember that sound, for a moment blasting like rain on stone, then it stopped. He wasn't on the ship anymore. He was in the forest on Spring Island. That noise had stopped his mother's roars. By the time Sunny realized his mother wasn't coming to retrieve him, it was only her and a few dead humans in the clearing. He hadn't known-he didn't imagine death could be delivered by such a small metal tube. Not to his mother. He hadn't recognized it-
"Sunny!" Usopp yelled his name in the chaos. His voice was heavy with fear and the memory of Luffy's blood. He was scared and angry.
Sunny centers himself on Usopp's fear, burying his own. He can function on someone else's pain. He can still move if he grounds himself in this moment. Sunny ran over to Usopp, intent on getting him free.
"We need to get out of here!" Nami yells, pulling Luffy up, but his foot twists numbly beneath him, forcing Nami to bear most of his weight. His eyes are dropped, his hand red, panting.
"We only need him and the rat!" The marine captain yells over the chaos. "Get strawhat while he's weakened by the seastone bullet!"
Sunny blinked in shock. They're after me too? Isn't my bounty a record low? Does it not matter to the marines? He supposed that a government-wanted criminal was all the same to them.
The marines went to intercept Nami and Luffy when Zoro again met them, gaze rivaling the severity of his blades.
Sunny made it to Usopp, dodging those reaching to grab him, or fending off their dives with a weak burst of his back flame. Just as Sunny was mustering up the strength to fire an ember on Usopp's ropes, a marine embedded his falchion between them. Sunny leaped back in surprise, glaring. If he could only release Usopp, Vivi, or even her weird bird, it would be so much easier. As was, he couldn't afford a direct fight.
Sunny had to defend rather than free Usopp when three Marines went on the offensive. They looked much more competent than the bounty hunters too. Sunny tried to duck out between them but one of the Marines dropped a heavy chain in front of his nose, causing him to back up.
On the other side of the field, Marines descended on Nami and Luffy, Nami doing her best to counter those that snuck past Zoro.
Sunny blew a weak ember at the nearest Marine, and jumped onto his shoulder when he lowered to try and club him, grabbing onto the fabric of his shoulder and nailing the Marine's face with a double kick. As soon as he touched down another Marine braved a direct hit from Sunny's back flame and pinned the fire-type down.
In a moment, both other Marines dropped down to help as Sunny fought to keep his fire burning. They quickly learned to avoid the spots on his back. A black foot came into Sunny's view abruptly, swinging around and taking a marine with it, tumbling across the deck. Just as Sunny thought he could squirm away with the added distraction of Sanji, Nami yelled out as a marine grabbed her, Luffy stumbling to one knee and holding himself there, staring at the ground.
"Shit!" Sanji is by her side in a flash, fighting the marine off as he again disappears into the crowd. With the distraction gone, the two marines have Sunny past any chance at escape. One secured his hand across his head, the other used the flat of her sword to pin Sunny on his stomach without being burned.
Even then, the marine nervously shifted as the metal began to warm. "The seastone collar!" She shouted as Sunny heard chains clatter. He couldn't see with his eyes covered by the hand, couldn't burn him through his quill-like flames, he couldn't bite, or slip away.
What would Luffy do? Well, Luffy wouldn't be able to move with the- An idea sprung to his head-an idea given by the marine's words and their experience in Whisky Peak. Hearing the clink of the heavy metal chain, he remembered the bounty hunter's ignorance on his powers, assuming he'd eaten a devil fruit.
Their reliance on that could give Sunny an edge-but only if they were misinformed or too riled up to think properly.
The sound of fighting continued but Sunny had no way of knowing what happened more than Sanji shouting a cut-off call for Nami. Swords clanged. Sunny felt something metal, cold and heavy snap around his neck, struggling in fear for a moment before forcing himself to go still.
The marines sat back in relief. Tense, Sunny lay still on his side as the marines loosened their grips. His mind raced. They can grab me again easily if I attack like this. I have to wait. I have to wait. He repeated like a mantra, urging each limb systematically to loosen, but he couldn't manage it.
Through his perpetually slitted eyes, he didn't have to worry about the marines catching him watching them carefully. Nami had been tied up, Sanji wrestled to the gorund. He watched as Zoro lowered his sword, two having been disarmed, as more guns are held to his crewmate's heads. They grab Zoro's arms and tie them behind his back as he growls.
Sunny felt himself get picked by the seastone collar and fights to breathe and not move as they are moved into a semi-circle around the Marine captain. Nami looks at Sunny in fear and confusion and Sunny briefly opens a red eye to look at her. Her eyebrows rise and her posture relaxes just slightly. Sunny doesn't have any details, he's not a strategist like Usopp or Nami, he just knows he has the element of surprise-if he can just find a moment to use it.
The captain examined them. "We got a call from the bounty hunters that they'd captured you. It seems they overestimated their skills a bit." He smiled. "We were on our way to get you when we found your ship, with only half your crew and decided to set a trap."
Sunny could see an approaching Marine vessel. So they'd hidden their ship in further in the fog so they wouldn't be on guard? That meant back up didn't it?
The ship was still a distance away. They had just a couple minutes to regain control of the ship. The marine captain stopped in front of Luffy, whose eyes were half-lidded, blood still running from the bullet wound.
"Strawhat Luffy, the prize of the Blue Sea. Bringing you in will certain net me some favors within the higher ranks." He reached out with his massive hand and held Luffy's chin up, inspecting him. "It's hard to believe such a young boy can cause the Marines all this trouble. Ah, but you were easy enough to catch." He bent over further, face closer to the kneeling Luffy while Sunny fumed, carefully limp behind them in the semi-circle. "Oh? You didn't think you'd be a famous pirate, did you?"
Sunny's eyes slid open, stormy and piercing as everyone on the crew reacted to the marine's insult to their captain with fury and outrage. Zoro's teeth were grinding his arms fighting against his bonds silently. His silver eyes caught on Sunny's, an eyebrow quirking. Sunny's eyes returned to squint in concentration, he took a deep breath, channeling all the fire he could, and gave Zoro a nod. Then he breathed all the fire he had at the marine captain bending over holding Luffy.
His impeccable white pants burst into flames and scorched his legs as he let out a startled yell and marines drew swords and pull their jackets off to pat him out in equal measure. Zoro had already taken his chance reaching a foot to pull a dropped katana toward him, backrolling over the sword, coming out of the somersault with cut ropes and the katana in hand.
In a moment, the flaming marine was cut across the chest. The marines securing Sunny was forgotten in the chaos. With Zoro having retrieved his second katana, Sanji's ropes were cut. Sunny ran to Nami burning and biting away the ropes with wisps of weak fire. Eventually, she could snap them with a quick tug.
The marine captain stepped back to recollect himself as Zoro went to Luffy, cut his bonds, and steadied him with a hand on his good shoulder.
There was a kind of intensity exchanged between the two, unspoken as it always had been. Luffy steadied himself by grabbing Zoro's arm with a bloody palm. His eyes, blank, focused, with hidden danger like smoldering coal.
"Get it out," he said.
His swordsman held his gaze. "Luffy...we should wait."
"Do it."
Zoro did- before Sunny or Sanji or Nami can stop him, he grips Luffy's shoulder, Wado Ichimoji enters the wound and with a swift twist, blood spurts from the wound, Luffy's grip on Zoro's arm shakes and Zoro pulls out his red-tipped katana out with a seastone bullet balanced on it.
It plinks to the ground and Zoro's sword arm lowers numbly. Sunny watches his captain take a few ragged breaths before pulling himself back to his feet.
He turned, cracked his knuckles and faced the marine captain, fury written on his face, landed the gum gum pistol he'd been unable to before, soundly cracking his nose and loosening a few of his teeth, throwing him back into the railing.
But now Sunny had chewed through Vivi's ropes enough she could break them.
"Thanks." Concern was still written in her face and voice. "But what is this other ship?"
On one side of the Merry was the marine ship that had just pulled up. A minute ago, they had been securing the Merry with ropes and planks and now they were being pushed back on their ship by the cook and swordsman. On the other side, another ship had pulled through the mist.
It wasn't a ship Sunny could remember having seen before until he noted the low yellow base pulling up to the other side of the Merry. Had that been the ship on the horizon? Had they gotten to that ship in the end? He hadn't even had the time to consider what had happened in the window between him passing out and waking up on the rowboat with half the crew. The holes in his memory gave him an uncomfortable itch as he realized how in the dark he was.
Standing at the bow of the yellow ship was a tattooed man, Law, katana tucked into his folded arms as he looked at the other two captains.
Luffy snapped back a kick. "Hey Tra-guy!"
Law sighed. "I thought it smelled like a trap when we saw a Marine ship a mile from your ship. But looks like you've got it handled, Mugiwara-ya." Law's cool gaze shifted to the Marine captain, smoothly drawing his katana from under his arm and looking at the marines. "And we've got you outnumbered." Behind him, the Corazon pirates drew their blades as well.
The Marine captain clutched his broken nose and scrambled for his ship. "Retreat!"
You guys didn't really think Law would have such a short appearance did you?
Next chapter going to be non-action based to balance out the recent combat chapters. Thanks everybody and let me know what you think!