Chapter 4: "Around The World"
Cars were zooming back and forth on the busy main street, somewhere farther away. Where Usopp was sitting, though, at the foot of a large wooden shack, the only traffic was the occasional ragged kid on a bike, or a stray cat jumping from one busted car roof on the other. The junkyard - or Franky House by its fancier name -, was an unfrequented, and severely underrated place.
Until the head of the House would arrive, Usopp had made himself right at home. April was nearing its end, and that could have only meant one thing. Suns out, guns out! Ah, Usopp had been looking forward to wearing short overalls again… So while he waited, he was basically sunning. Sitting on a wooden crate, he had propped his feet up onto another, smaller one, to conveniently be able to work his magic on his digital tablet, with his coolest of cool funky and electronic playlist buzzing through his headphones.
His tool of the trade was not just any tablet, either. It was a state-of-the-art deal - the marriage of performance and style! Whiiich had to be rigged just a teency tiny bit to be able to run his super awesome 3D modeling software without lagging too much. It indeed was a good thing to have friends in the Galley-La, the biggest and most famous building and trading industry, with its seat in the capital, the Big City! Or, okay, more like friends of those friends…
But nobody had to know. Ever. No, not even you. Forget everything you have just witnessed. Forget it right now!
Maaan, drawing eight thousand men one by one was hard work, no matter what kind of awesome pen you had! Thanks to digital era and the sorcery of copy and paste, Usopp only had to tweak the faces and clothes a little to give the whole concept a bit of variety, that was true. It could have been far worse. However, he found over and over again, at every fifth little face, that designing a game was pretty exhausting… But he had won the annual Let It Beep! PC game demo contest, at long last! The mighty Usopp wasn't going to give up! Never! And here he already had, uh, 2196 crewmen to back him up! Yeaaah!
Just as he boosted himself up for drawing again, Usopp's tablet started shaking with a message signal. Feelings of 'oh darn' and 'oh finally' hit him at the same time. He promptly slid his pen along the vibrating icon to take the video call.
"Hi Ace!"
"Hey, Usopp-kun," Portgas D. Ace grinned up sheepishly at him from the screen. "Sorry about last time. I guess I just um..."
"Nah, no biggie," Usopp waved his hand in a reassuring gesture. "I kiiinda got the hint after you started snoring," he added with a slight grin, at which Ace chortled at the other end of the world.
Really, it was a near impossible, and highly disrespectful thing to fall asleep in the middle of the Great Captain Usopp's anecdotes! In the middle of laughing, too! But who could ever stay mad at Luffy's big brother?
"Saw your email with the progress shots. Great job so far!" Ace applauded, smiling wide. "Luffy's gonna love it."
"He'd better! He's gonna be dazzled by my awesome painting skills! Oh, yeah, and Franky's design, too," Usopp allowed.
"Hehe, he's gonna be over it like a gourmet table! Man, now I'm hungry..."
"So. Could you work it out?" Usopp got to the point and leaned closer to the screen, excited. Ow, ow, okay, not that close. He rubbed his nose, then noticed himself and quickly pretended scratching it instead. "Haha, these damn mosquitoes, right? Hahaha!"
"Um…" Was Ace buying it…? "Y-yeah, yeah, sure! I'll be there!" He was! Yusss! "Probably gonna arrive the day before."
"Really?! Awesome! Can't wait to see Luffy's face when you show up! Oh, this is gonna be so great…!"
Usopp and the others had been planning Luffy's nineteenth birthday for pretty much over a year now. Ever since Luffy's eighteenth, to be precise. The had been some bad stuff in the family for the poor guy the previous year, and since he had taken it on himself to help fix it, having gone away for almost a year and a half, there had been no birthday bash that year. That had been the first birthday since they had known each other that had gone uncelebrated...
But Ace said he was okay now! If the tales were to be believed, Luffy had helped Ace bust out of a crazy mental institute back then. The Great Usopp-sama had been there, too, of course, so he would know!
It had turned out that the institute was actually a prison cleverly disguised as one! Luffy and Ace had been hopelessly trapped, begging for help, tortured, crying day and night! So The Mighty Usopp had had to personally go and bust them out! That's right! He had been the one saving both of their lives, from the giant devil warden with gas issues, then there was uh… a female guard obsessed with S/M and another one that had insisted on, um… on wearing a wacky Egyptian headpiece all the time! Yeah! There had been a huge fight, with explosions and sick battle moves and stuff!
And after that, they lived happily ev- Uhh, no, sorry, wrong tale…
So after that, Ace had started to get proper treatment for his narcolepsy. And now, he had just been given the OK to travel! Yesss!
"Yeah, I'm so pumped!" Ace grinned into his webcam. "I'm just gonna, you know, roll along in this cool car I've rented and everything… It's actually kind of big, and kind of a pick-up. And it has flames on it! Flames, dude! I'm in love."
"Wait a sec. You're gonna drive all the way here?!"
Don't get him wrong, Usopp was very-very happy for Ace's sake, about his well-progressed recovery, and to see him dork around with Luffy again soon and all that. But that road trip idea didn't sound good, at all! Not one bit!
"Yeah! Why not?" and Ace just shrugged! As if Usopp had asked him if he wanted to go for ice cream later! How could he stay so calm about something so outrageously insane?!
"Are you out of your mind?!" Usopp jumped up to his feet without even thinking. "You live, like, a zillion thousand kilometres from here! Where are you gonna sleep?! What if you fall asleep at the wheel and crash into a truck?! Or two trucks?!" he screamed so hard there was spittle on his tablet screen.
"Hey, chill, Usopp, I'll be fi-"
"No, you're definitely not gonna be fine! You're not getting into that car, not alone! Or I swear I'll fly over there and slam your toes with my Golden Ten Ton Hammer!" Ugh, these D brothers were gonna be the the death of The Mighty Captain Usopp one of these days…
"Okay, okay, alright! I give up, Brave Usopp-sama," Ace chuckled and held his hands up in surrender. Another day saved by the Great Usopp! "I'm still wanna show off that pick-up truck, though. Maybe if I ask someone… Do you have room for one more to crash?"
"Sure, no problem," Usopp gave him a thumbs-up. After all, there had been more than one night where even ten people slept over at the tiny apartment he shared with Luffy! No lie!
"Hmm, now who to ask..." Ace looked thoughtful for a moment, and then, "Alright!" he called out, jumping up from his chair so suddenly that he toppled over his webcam. There was a minute of microphone groping and finger-shadows until Usopp could see anything again. "Haha, sorry, dude. But I've just gotten the best idea!"
"You have? What is it?" Usopp wondered.
Ace was just about to share, when Usopp distractedly raised his head, listening for a familiar noise. The engine booms and break screeching of a certain ancient tow truck...
"Ah, there they are," Usopp murmured the remark, then whipped his head back to look at Ace through the camera again. "Sorry, Ace. Time to continue the B. P. P.!"
"Aww, okay. Say hi to the guys for me."
"Will do!" nodding, Usopp assured, said good-bye and ended the call with a flick of his finger.
"Yo, Usopp bro!"
And barely had Usopp slid his tablet and pen into their special bag when Franky arrived to stand in front of him, waving his large hand.
"Hey, Franky! Look who suited up!" Usopp grinned.
He was pleased to see him wearing his 'dirt suit' to the occasion; it was basically an old Galley-La logo T-shirt, with the text crossed out and 'SUPER * STAR' written on it with a textile marker, but the fact that Franky had put it on was a sign that he meant to get his hands dirty. And over that, he had the same red-black checked shirt he had worn on Usopp's surprise birthday party at the arcade! But um… That was about the shortest jeans shorts he had ever seen in his entire life. Didn't feel like pants again, huh?
"OW, you bet!" Franky mirrored the grin, then struck his favourite arms-in-the-air pose. "Let's get down to business!"
"Where's Zoro? Please tell me you brought him..."
"Huh?" Franky scratched his head. "Didn't he get out…?" He looked around. "Yo, Zoro bro! Where'd you go?"
Padding back to the old truck, it didn't take them long to locate Zoro. He was still inside the truck, sure enough, sleeping peacefully, but above all loudly, in the shotgun seat, his face halfway smooshed against the side window.
Usopp and Franky shared a sideways look. And a smirk.
Usopp was already leaned against the one Zoro was plastered against when Franky had only just clicked the truck's driver-side door open, carefully, silently… A meaty hand raised above the steering wheel and two fists against the passenger door, they nodded with their countdown. Three… Two… One…!
The truck's horn blared aloud, immediately chasing all the pigeons and cats in the yard to their hiding places. But Usopp was convinced that it was the added plus of the his Mighty Infernal Fist-drumming Technique on the rusty doorside that finally forced Zoro to jolt awake. Haha, the big idiot almost slammed his head into the windshield! However, taking credit was suddenly not that appealing to Usopp anymore when Zoro laid eyes on him first, jumped out of the truck and started chasing him around it.
"It wasn't me, it wasn't me, I swear!"
"Get back here, damn long-nose!" Please tell Usopp Zoro hadn't brought his swords, please please please…!
"I'm just gonna go and unlock the House, yeah?" Franky declared, and that traitor just slipped by their circling to the shed, whistling and jingling his keyring.
"Don't just leave me here! Frankyyy…!"
They have run circles around the truck for hours and hours on end, because that was how long it took for the Great Usopp to even feel the slightest bit dizzy. Yep! Oh, and Franky was done unlocking the door by then, too. W-wow, talk about slow, hahaha…! (Damn, busted.) That piece of log should have just minded its own business though. What was it thinking, jumping forth from the back of the truck like that to punch him in the face? Wood these days! And Zoro just heartlessly left him lying on the ground, too! Guess who would not cover for him the next time he's late for security duty? Ha, that'd teach him! Usopp will so go through with it, too!
Franky and Zoro had already begun unloading the logs and planks from the back of the truck when Usopp gave priority to blast some music from the speakers inside the shed. Franky somehow got Bluetooth on those 80's boomboxes, so there went nothing…
"OW, lovin' this song! Around the wooorld, around the world around the-"
"Oi, Franky, stop shaking around and hold the pile still!" There was clattering… Oops.
Before heading outside to help other others, Usopp turned an admiring gaze towards their work so far. The masts were tall and magnificent, the hull was slowly piecing together, too… The rest of the Franky Family was out on an errand, but they would lend a hand next Sunday. That should speed things up.
He was still a bit wary about the wheels that were supposed to carry the whole thing behind the ol' truck, but Eustass Kid had provided the long and robust metal frame that connected them to the structure. That guy knew his metal, as owner of the vicinity's metal factory, so it should be alright, Usopp decided.
Makino-san and the kindergarten kids were making progress with sewing the flag, too. Usopp could hardly wait to paint the figurehead design on it! Well, the day's task for him involved a lot of painting already, but he didn't mind. It was too bad Nami couldn't come because of work that day, but she had bought the paints he needed to make up for it. So it was time to make that lion figurehead brilliant, vibrant and totally awesome!
Thousand Sunny, they had begun calling her. Yes, she would become the best on-land pirate ship to ever roll into the middle of a birthday party!
Her captain had been waiting for years.
Hoarding, toppling and dropping, sawing, dusting, hammering, screaming in pain, spraying, coughing… Ah, the music of the working man. That and electro.
All the wood was inside the shed. Franky had prepped most of it, too, cutting new planks and putting them to soak, to be bent into shape later. Zoro did most of the carrying. He hauled plank onto plank, took them on top of the frame one after the other, and held them in place while Franky was drilling and hammering away at them. By the time Usopp had mixed the perfect sun yellow, and the first layer of it was drying on the giant figurehead, most of the second floor of the ship was pieced and fastened in place. This was no amateur work, no sir.
The beat of the hammer stopped again, for a while. Zoro literally jumped ship, wiping his sweaty brow with the back of his hand and drying his sawdusty face with the edge of his shirt. Franky followed and sat down on the edge of the frame to take a breather.
"Oi, Usopp," Zoro turned to him as he was climbing down the ladder, paint bucket and stencil in hand. "Didn't you say there was one more guy coming?"
"Yeah, now that you mention it…" Usopp hummed to himself, contemplative. Unless he was caught up with work at the Baratie, or was losing his mind over chicks, Sanji was very particular about punctuality. "I wonder where Sanji is…"
"Sanji?"
Zoro displayed a curious expression; a mix of surprise and bubbling anger. Oh, yeah! Nami had mentioned something about them having tried to choke each other on the liquor store floor in the plaza. And supposedly before that, too, at a party? It couldn't have been… Zombie Night, right? Usopp thought he had smoothed things over when he convinced Zoro to let Sanji and his friends in. Then again, Sanji could be really nasty and Zoro was surprisingly easily provoked…
Right then, it occurred to Usopp that they might have been withholding a nation-wide catastrophe with not introducing those two sooner. Yes, of course. That had been the plan; the Mighty Usopp-sama's plan, all along!
But… If they would meet at the party… The ship would be…!
"You okay there, Usopp bro?" Franky looked at him with worry.
"Y-yes…! Everything is fine!" Usopp put on his toughest and totally not suspicious voice. "Haha, fine, yes…!"
"'kay then…" Franky shrugged, then leapt down from the frame to fetch the broom in the corner. "Would be too bad if he missed out," he remarked. "And I bet he'd bring cool drinks, yo."
"Yeah. I was looking forward to his Pike-N-Spice sandwich…" Usopp sighed longingly, sitting down onto the lowest step of the ladder.
Far less amused, and probably less hungry, Zoro didn't make a comment. Instead, he dealt with the topic in just one curt 'tch', then reached down to pull his soggy, dirty T-shirt over his head, to dump it unceremoniously on the floor. The was no doubt that there was nobody stronger and manlier than The Great Usopp - they called him Mansopp, after all! But Zoro had already earned not one battle scar, but two, which was why Captain Usopp had most generously offered the very next spot in line to him. There had been an awarding ceremony and a seal of approval and everything. Usopp just might have forgotten to mention the time and date to Zoro, is all...
After a moment of silence, Franky took a deep breath and climbed back on deck to sweep off some of the sawdust. Zoro made his way towards the door, in the opposite direction, to their stuff they didn't want to overly dirty.
"Want any?" he offered their large water bottle to Usopp.
"Yeah," he nodded, "but you go first."
The bottle crinkled and squeaked as Zoro took it in one hand, and when he started pouring the water over his head, Usopp could have screamed and slapped himself repeatedly all at the same time for his decision. Okay, he may have actually done that. A little...
"Leave some for us, oi!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Zoro grumbled, and after shaking thick pellets of water off his hair, he finally held the bottle to his mouth and took a few big gulps. He looked kinda cool… c-considering he was at second place in manliness, of course. Hahaha…!
A tremendous clamour came blasting in from the outside, and Usopp didn't fall right off onto the ground. No, h-he just felt like doing some push-ups. See? Push-ups. On one knee and a foot caught in the lowest ladder-step. Yeah, great ab workout! Uhuh!
"OW, what was that out there? A cat again?" Franky leaned out from under a plank to look towards the door.
"Must have been a big one, then..." Zoro muttered ominously. "I'm gonna go look."
Usopp was right at Zoro's heels to check on the noise, too. Riiight after he had finished his, uh, two hundred or so more Usopp leaned out through the door, he found Zoro lifting up a steel barrel that had been tipped to the ground. No, 'tipped' was an understatement. There was a dent in that thing so large that Usopp head and all his hair could have fit into it! What kind of monster could have done it? What was lurking in the shadows of the junkyard…?
"Was it a… a… a cat-pigeon mutant slime?!"
Usopp felt his 'I-can't-go-outside-this-shed' disease kicking in with the symptoms of shivering and heavy perspiration and probably some tears…
"Yo, what's that over there?" Franky spoke up from next to them, and stepped over to the other, closed wing of the shed's door.
Usopp squinted. It looked like a… basket?
"D-did the monster leave its offspring at our doorstep…?!" Kill it, kill it with fire!
"Ah!" Franky grinned, and pulled a bottle out of the basket. "It's cola! OW, just what I needed!" he declared, popping the cap off with his nail and taking a good gulp.
"What kind of a monster leaves food?" Zoro frowned, reaching into the basket as well. "Oi, Usopp, is this yours?" he handed him a triangle-shaped bundle. Usopp unfolded the napkin and the unmistakable smell of roast pike hit him in an instant.
"Pike-N-Spice…?"
"Yo, check it out!"
Franky craned his neck over a piece of paper, tiny compared to his hand. When Zoro took it from him, Usopp recognized the baratie logo on its backside. A business card?
"It says," Usopp took it over last. The writing on it looked scribbled down in a hurry, and the letters were etched deeply, angrily onto the paper. "'Enjoy, shitty bastards.' Oh, and, 'P.S. Bring my basket back, or I'll… I'll carve your pumpkin heads'...? What the heck?"
"Huh," Zoro smirked. It wasn't cowardly to admit that, after all those years, Zoro grinning made Usopp… feel concerned. Yeah, concerned. "Looks like our 'monster' is a coward."