MUAHHAAHAHAHAA, this is the farthest I've ever gotten in a fanfic. Seriously. This is fun!

Time for.... *drumroll*

Chapter 5: Liar, Liar, Fins on Fire!

(I realize how easy it is to foresee with that titles xD)

Luffy grinned, "Nami, we found you! See, Zolo, I told-- .........Zolo?"

Luffy looked around, but Zolo was missing. The cat poked Luffy's shoulder, "Did you say Zolo?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Zolo, like Roronoa Zolo?"

"Mhm."

The cat hugged him, "Luffy! It is you guys!"

Luffy sniffed, "Hey, I can smell Zolo!"

"YEAH, SO HELP ME!"

Nami and Luffy looked up to see Zolo stuck in a trap of some sort. His feet were tied together, and he was using his arms to slice wildly at anything in reach in an attempt to get free. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO USE THESE DAMN ARM-BLADES!? THEY'RE FREAKING USELESS!!!"

"Reach up," Nami called, "Scythers like you should be able to bend and cut yourselves down!"

"Good idea, Nami!" Zolo shouted back, trying and failing, "As if I haven't already TRIED IT!!!"

Luffy blinked, "Lemme try!" he punched the tree holding Zolo's trap, causing his paw to hurt. "OW!!!! ....... Aw, I thought I could break it......."

Nami sighed, "You should survey your surroundings before attacking--"

Luffy ran about a mile away, then charged the tree, slamming his head into it. Slightly dazed, he fell over as the tree cracked in half and fell, mainly on Zolo. Zolo became enraged and sliced the tree to bits before getting up and chasing Luffy for a few hours. Nami sighed, "...Boys."

After Zolo calmed down, he took a "nap" on top of the tree-bits. Nami sat on the rock, commenting to Luffy, "50,000 berries says he'll wake up in a few hours."

Luffy tilted his head, "The currency here is poker-coins, right?"

Nami punched him, "Poke-coins, you idiot."

"Oh. Why did you punch me?"

"Felt like it."

".............Felt like it?"

"Yeah. So, how'd you guys get here?"

"We ran?"

"No, into this world, moron."

"Oh. No clue."

"......Figures." Nami sighed and seemed to ask the gods for patience.

"Anyway," Luffy commented, "We should probably get back to the town before dark."

"Luffy.." Nami's eyes sparkled.

"What?" Luffy blinked.

"YOU SAID SOMETHING SMART FOR ONCE!!" Nami hugged him.

Luffy blinked, "I did?"

Nami punched him in the face.

Luffy rubbed his cheek, "Hey, that hurt."

Nami sighed, "There's the smartest thing he'll say from now on, I bet."

Luffy twitched his ears, "Anyway, if we don't get back soon, it'll be dark. And if it's dark.."

"Monsters and wild animals will come out?"

"The food shop will close."

"......Of course...." Nami sighed, getting up, "Where's Sanji-kun when you need him.."

"OHMYGOD!!" Luffy pointed at a murky nearby pond.

Nami blinked, "What?"

"I saw a fish! It was HUGE!!"

Nami ran after Luffy as he zipped up to the edge of the pond. "Fish? Where? The water's too deep to see anything!"

"I saw one on the surface!"

A tan fish with tattered blue fins broke the surface with its head. It had dark spots and eyes lined with black. Nami grinned, "Hey, doesn't it kinda look like Usopp?"

Luffy tilted his head, "Missing the nose.."

Nami punched him, "IT'S A FISH, IDIOT!!"

The fish blinked, "Did you say 'Usopp'?"

Nami stared at the fish, "You can talk?"

Luffy also stared, "You know Usopp?"

The fish looked accomplished, "Oh, yes! He was swimming in the sea not far from here. He's an excellent swimmer, ya know. In fact, he's a fish! Yeah! And he protected me from a whole band of shark-Pokemon! Single-handedly! Also, he--"

Nami punched him, "YOU COULD JUST TELL US YOU'RE USOPP, IDIOT!!"

"........Nami?"

"Duh."

"....NAMI! LUFFY!!" Usopp grinned, his mouth looking like his human form's.

Luffy grinned, "I'd hug you, but you're a fish. I'd drown."

Nami grinned, "Oh, great, he's said something smart three times today!"

Luffy blinked, "You're keeping track?"

Usopp and Nami commented in unision, "It's not hard."

The three Straw Hats chatted until Zolo woke up about three hours later ("Pay up," commented Nami to Luffy) and then went back to the town, following a river so that Usopp could follow them.

When they reached the town again, Doof and Virette were missing. The stream stopped just short of the Guild, so they hung out at the mouth. Zolo volunteered to stay with Usopp, though everyone knew (and didn't say aloud) that he would sleep through a blizzard.

After all was arranged, Nami and Luffy started toward the Guild, when Luffy suddenly took off again. "I wish he would give some kinda warning..." Nami muttered, running after him.

After running a while, Nami called, "Did you see a crew-member? Sanji, maybe?"

Luffy didn't respond.

After a long while, Luffy crashed into a Pokemon. The Pokemon turned around, revealing that it was a disgruntled taillow with a red bandana on it's head. "Watch where you're going," it cheaped, "You coulda knocked me over!"

A small rattata with a gold hoop earing in his torn left ear scurried down a tree. The rattata had a bandana identical to the taillow's. "Hey," the rattata chattered, "D'ya wanna tell the 'ole WORLD we're 'ere? Quiet!"

Luffy blinked, "You guys have matching bandanas..." they froze, "......COOL!!!" Luffy beamed.

Nami, the taillow, and the rattata anime-fell.

The rattata chitted, "C'mon, Swifty, let's get back to the base."

Swifty, the taillow, nodded, "Aye, Tarnish, we should report this."

"You idiot!" Tarnish hissed, "Report somethin' THIS petty t'the boss!? You're insane, you are!"

Nami waved a paw, "Hello, we're here too! What are you, pirates?"

Both froze and looked up at her. "S-so wot if we are, ey?" Tarnish challenged.

Nami shrugged, "Oh, nothing. It's not like two misfits like you would have bounties or anything.. And without a bounty you're a nobody."

Swifty puffed out his chest-feathers, "I'll have you know our boss is worth 10,000 Poke-Coins! Everyone in his legion is priced 1500 each or more!"

Nami got an evil glint in her eye, "...Is that so?"

Both cowered. Nami rubbed her paws together, "Luffy, shall we beat them up?"

Luffy blinked, "Huh? Why?"

Nami sweatdropped. "To get money, fool."

"Oh. Okay."

Luffy KO'ed Swifty in one punch. Nami sighed and took on Tarnish. Nami charged at Tarnish, calling out, "Quick Attack!" and slamming into him at the speed of sound. Tarnish hit the ground, but had used Hyper Fang on Nami and pulled her down with him. Panting, she got back up and battered him to a pulp with her fists, then grabbed his unconcious body, pointing to Luffy then to Swifty, "You carry that one."

Back at the Guild, Nami and Luffy presented Swifty and Tarnish to Chatot. Chatot cheeped in approval, "Congrats! The bounty for those two is a total of 3000 Poke-coins."

Nami grinned. "By the way," Chatot commented as he counted out the coins, "Weren't you a male scyther before?"

Nami sweat-dropped, "That was Zolo. He's sleeping outside today. My name's Nami."

"Right, right. Anyway, because the guild requires 90% of all bounties and rewards, here is the final sum..." he handed her 300 Poke-coins.

Nami swiped Chatot in the face, and Luffy somehow knew to hold her back before she masequered the poor parrot.

--

A/N: I have no idea how to spell masequer... mace.... mq.... whatever xD

--

That night there was lightning. Nami stared outside, "There's some really intense lightning today... Hey, Luffy."

"What?"

"The night we came to this world.. I remember a lightning storm."

"Really?"

"......You should remember it."

"I should?"

".........."

"I don't remember that at all."

"...Oh well. We have to get up early tomorrow. Let's try to get some sleep."

Nami slept in Zolo's bed, rearanging it to her comfort, and they fell asleep.

"Listen, Luffy..." Nami stared at the wall as she spoke, "Are you still awake? I've been thinking... Why are we here? I'm trying to think of it, but I can't find an answer. Maybe this world needs us, the way the villages we visited in our world needed us. Maybe when we find our nakama, we can fulfill that need. What do you think, Luffy?"

Luffy snored. Nami sighed, "I guess you were asleep after all.." she drifted into sleep.

The next morning....

"UP AND AT 'EM!!!"

"OW!!" Nami shrieked, "What IS that!?"

Luffy yawned awake, "It's Loudred!"

Nami rubbed her head, "I think I feel a migraine..."

Luffy ran outside, followed by Nami.

"...And three! Smiles go for miles!"

Nami and Luffy were about to wander when Chatot called to them, "Ah, you two! Let me give you your assignment for today..."

Both turned to him as he continued, telling them to choose a job from one of the two boards.

Luffy ran ahead, explaining to Nami, "These are the Mystery Board and the Wanted Board."

He earned a swipe to the face. "I NEED A REAL EXPLANATION!!"

Luckily, Doof was passing by and explained it to her, and she went over to the Wanted board, passing a group of gray hyenas or "Poochyenas" that she greeted. The one on the right barked, "The three us are the Poochyena brothers! We're Team Poochy! We stick to tracking outlaws!"

Luffy's eyes sparkled, "Coooool!!"

Nami whispered to Luffy, "You realize this is like living in a Marine base?"

Luffy nodded, "And it's so cool!"

Nami sighed. The Poochyena continued, "We chase and chase and chase our targets... And then we catch them when they're too tired to move!"

Luffy grinned, "So cool!!"

Nami dragged him off, "C'mon, let's go find a job already! We need money!"

They chose to take on every job on the board and do them whenever they went to those areas. The next step was to buy supplies, and Luffy was surprised to find that there were no meat stores, much as Nami tried to explain it.

Using the money they had, Nami bought an oran berry, a pecha berry, and a rawst berry from one of the Kecleon brothers, then debated the price of a revival seed, but lost. From the other, she bought an escape orb, which Luffy briefly tried to eat. After he unintentionally used it up and the Kecleons gave them another, they went to the Kangaskhan, stored some vital supplies, and left to visit Zolo and Usopp before their mission.

"So, where do you think the next crewmate'll be?" Nami asked while throwing an apple at Zolo's head.

It bounced off and caused him to mutter in his sleep. Usopp blinked, "It'd be nice to have Sanji-san around. Or Chopper! He's my buddy!"

Luffy grinned, "Or Robin, or Brook! We need our musician, too!"

Usopp and Luffy were discussing and planning when a bone hit Luffy on the head. Luffy imidiatelly looked up and scanned the area, "...Brook?"

--

Cliffhanger, not so literally :D

In the next episode: Was it Brook? Will Luffy and Nami succeed their new mission? Will they ever build a canal into the Guild for Usopp? All this and more in the next episode........... and stuff. :D