Disclaimer: nope, don't own one piece! Sorry for the late update; homework has been killing me. But I'm so happy my story now has fans! Yay! Yay! Double yay!
Lynn: you sound like some pathetic cheerleader wannabe.
SS: Shut up shorty.
Lynn: *$%&(£$*… *walks away cursing my ass off*
SS: To all my reviewers out there, thank you soooooooo much for your support! I love you! I love you all!
Nami: Wow, you're almost as perverted as Sanji.
SS: … I find that rather insulting…
This chapter is super long (even longer than my last one), oops! But I guess that makes up for disappearing! From next time on, though, shorter chapters and faster updates; sound like a deal? ^^
(Btw, my story now has artwork! If you fancy checking it out, just clickon my profile :D I will be doing more artworks later on of my story so if anyone has anything they'd like me to draw, just tell me and I'll do my best ^_^)
Chapter 8 –Swimming Pools and Sea Monsters
"Rabbits are ultimate evil..." muttered Lynn whilst she walked home with her friends. It was dark now, and Halloween night was yet to end. Usopp sniggered.
"You're afraid of rabbits, yet you laugh at me?"
"They're evil," she protested, shuddering at the thought of the long-eared, furry tailed creature. "They really are..."
"How?" asked Nami, rather confused. "Rabbits are cute,"
Lynn shuddered again on hearing the word 'rabbit'. "They aren't cute! They're anything but cute! They kick, they bite, and they smell of droppings!"
"No, that's Sanji," Zoro snorted. Sanji shot him a dirty look, cursing under his breath.
"Rabbits don't bite," said Nami.
"Yes they do! And I've been bitten before!"
"You were bitten by a rabbit?" laughed Luffy.
"Leporiphobia, huh?" murmured Nami.
Lynn nodded. Usopp suddenly remembered something, and he stopped on his tracks.
"Hold on, do you know what the light thing was?" he asked Lynn, and her eyes widened.
"Oh no, I forgot!" she cried. "Wood! Wood!"
Usopp tilted his head. "Wood?"
"Did you see a piece of wood when the portal closed?"
Usopp couldn't remember, and he was extremely confused as to what wood had to do with the light.
"A piece of wood," repeated Lynn, fishing out her pendant and showing him. "It looks like this,"
Usopp examined the pendant, but shook his head. That's when Lynn noticed something strange. The large gateway piece was quivering, and the string was bending. It seemed to pointing out a direction.
"The wood is nearby," said Lynn mindlessly, following the direction the gate pointed in.
"Where are you going?" asked Nami.
Lynn stopped and blinked. "Yeah, where am I going?" then she shook her head and continued walking. "I just have a feeling maybe we should follow the gate. I don't understand what's happening to it, but I just feel that we should,"
"Perhaps the wood pieces attract or something," suggested Nami, peering at the gate's peculiar movements, and started after Lynn.
"Nami-san is so smart!" beamed Sanji, following.
The gate seemed to get more and more worked up with every step taken, and soon it was physically pulling Lynn forwards.
"The attraction's getting stronger," Lynn noted, speeding up her pace. Everyone trotted after her, wondering where they were being taken.
"Hey, where are we going?" asked Luffy.
Lynn shrugged, letting the gate lead the way.
"Isn't this strange?" said Lynn. "The gate has never done this before,"
"It might only attract when the pieces are close enough," Nami pointed out, and Lynn realised she was probably right. Lynn smiled. She appreciated the fact that this would make her job a lot easier, as instead of her having to search high and low, if they were close enough, the pieces of wood would just attract and tell her their positions.
They were amongst the late-out trick or treaters now, and they gate's string was rigid and firmly pointing forwards. They walked and walked, until they realised they were following a young boy. Lynn checked, and now confirmed the gate was pointing directly at this boy.
"Hey, I know that kid," said Usopp, thinking back. "I was talking to him earlier,"
"Does he have my wood?" wondered Lynn aloud.
"I'll ask," Usopp stepped forwards and tapped the kid on the shoulder. The boy spun around and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Mr. Pirate captain!" he exclaimed. "I thought you were eaten by the long armed monster!"
"Long armed monster?" cried Luffy, looking around. "Where?"
The crew couldn't believe their captain's stupidity.
"I'm the great captain Usopp, and no long armed monster can hurt me!" declared Usopp. "I beat him off easily!"
Both the little boy and Luffy looked up at Usopp admiringly. Lynn slapped her forehead.
"Get to the point!"
Usopp cleared his throat. "Did you by any chance pick up a small piece of wood around here?"
The boy blinked, and it was obvious he hadn't a clue what Usopp was talking about. Lynn frowned, as there was no mistaking that the gate was indeed pointing to the boy. Holding the gate closer him, Lynn tried to find out the wood's whereabouts.
"It's pointing downwards," noted Nami. "Check his shoes."
Lynn nodded and lifted the boy's foot. Indeed, stuck on the sole of his shoe, was a small shard of wood. She removed it, and let the new-found piece merge with her pendant. The little boy was now too amazed to be creeped out by the fact he had just been searched over by random strangers.
"What is that?" he asked.
"Oh, it's nothing," said Lynn, standing up and motioning for retreat. They waved a quick goodbye to the boy before setting off again. It was after they walked to the end of the road when Lynn noticed that Usopp wasn't with them.
"Where did he go?"
Nami sighed and flicked a thumb towards the road they had just come down. Usopp was still standing with the boy, boasting away about something.
"Hurry up!" shouted Lynn, but Usopp either ignored her or didn't hear. Luffy stepped forward and raised an arm.
"I'll get him," he grinned, and before Lynn could oppose, he shot out his arm and grabbed Usopp, pulling him over. The little boy, seeing the 'pirate captain' being snatched away again, was now officially freaked out and he ran away, screaming there was a long armed monster on the loose.
"Long armed monster?" Luffy dropped Usopp on the ground and searched around. "WHERE?"
Lynn thumped him on the head. "You'd better thank your lucky stars that no one saw you apart from that kid,"
"But where's the long armed monster?" pouted Luffy, still looking around.
"C-cool," uttered Usopp, looking around Lynn's house wide eyed.
"Now, where am I going to let you stay?" Lynn pondered.
"Why don't you just put him in the guest room along with Zoro, Luffy and Sanji?" suggested Nami, and Lynn shook her head.
"It crowded enough in there as it is. You can just sleep in the bath," she said to Usopp, and he blinked.
"Sleep in the bath? So I don't even get a bed?"
Lynn pouted. "Serves you right for bullying me with the rabbit. You're lucky I'm not making you sleep on the streets."
"Don't you still have a huge room at the end of the hall?" recalled Nami.
"That's my parents' room though."
"But they aren't home, are they?"
"Well..." Lynn didn't really want anyone else sleeping in there, as her parents could somehow always tell if someone's been in their room. She thought, and came up with a better plan. "I know! I could move into my parents' room; I'm sure they won't mind if it's just me, and Nami can use my room. The boys can slit themselves so half are in the study."
Everyone nodded approvingly at this idea, although personally, Lynn still preferred to let Usopp sleep in the bath.
"Lynn-chwan!" sang Sanji. "I would happily accompany you in that big lonely bed at night!"
"Hell no, you perv," rejected Lynn.
"When will your parents be back?" frowned Nami. "If they come back then we can't stay here anymore, can we?"
Lynn pulled a face. She hadn't really thought about it before, but she realised Nami was right. "I don't think they'll be back till next week," said Lynn. "We'll think of something before then."
Nami nodded, and more at ease now, the crew settled for an early night in after a busy day.
The next day
"…and so by adding a small amount of potassium to the acid..."
Luffy yawned as the chemistry teacher's voice droned on in the back ground. He was tired, but the lab they were in didn't even have the decency to provide chairs to fall asleep in, so instead they had to sit on stools. And stools weren't great for leaning back on, as Luffy had found out earlier from experience when he fell off. He wasn't particularly interested in the 'experiment' that the teacher was talking about, so there wasn't really any harm in not paying attention was there?
"Hurry up Luffy," Lynn poked him in the side and he looked up. Everyone in the room was putting on a strange white cloak and was beginning to position themselves around separate work benches.
"What's going on?" Luffy asked.
"We're doing an experiment, weren't you listening?" Miriam popped up from behind him.
"Not really," said Luffy, scratching his head, and Lynn didn't like the sound of that.
"Well, it's a rather dangerous experiment, so you stand back and watch, ok?"
Luffy nodded, but his attention was drifting to what the rest of the class were doing. Paired into groups of two or three, everyone was setting out pots of strange liquids and small solids.
"Ok, acid, potassium, goggles, gloves, we're all set," said Miriam, and Luffy turned and saw that the girls had set out similar equipment.
"So what do we do again?" asked Lynn to Miriam.
"Put a tiny bit of potassium into this tub of acid, and write down results," she replied, holding up a small pot of pebble-like solids and pointing to the huge tub of clear liquid on the worktop.
"Put the pebbles into the water, eh?" Luffy grinned, snatching away the pot of potassium quickly. "That sounds easy!"
"NO!" the whole class shouted in unison, but it was too late. Into the acid went a WHOLE jar of potassium... and ... BOOM.
Lynn couldn't help sniggering all through lunch. The explosion may have been extremely dangerous, but the expression that the chemistry teacher wore when it happened was priceless! They endured a stern telling off and threats for detention, but nothing else, as it wasn't really Luffy's fault that he didn't know anything about chemistry. Lynn found it very amusing that they got away with almost blowing up the school so easily!
"I'm kind of worried," frowned Miriam, who was the only one fretting over this morning's events. They sat in the empty classroom after coming back from the canteen.
"About what?" shrugged Lynn. "We've already been told off, they can't punish us because it wasn't our fault. What else can they do?"
"This morning reminded me of that time Usopp nearly blew himself up during his gunpowder experiment!" Luffy grinned to himself. "Now that was funny!"
"What? Blowing yourself up, or Usopp blowing himself up?" Lynn asked.
Luffy didn't get a chance to answer. Without a warning, a crowd of fan-girls flooded into the room and smothered him.
"I heard what you did in chemistry!"
"You're such a rebel!"
"Even blowing things up, you're so cute!"
"I wish I was there!"
"Are you scared? I heard Mr Miller's going to call your parents!"
Lynn's ears twitched at the last statement. Mr Miller was their chemistry teacher; and he was going to do WHAT?
"But his parents are dead!" she shouted over the noise, referring to the lie which covered up Luffy's identity.
"He must mean Luffy's guardians then," shrugged Jess, who was the one that made the statement in the first place.
"Then technically, that would be... my parents..." Lynn's voice trailed off. This. Was. Not. Good. She dragged Jess out of the crowd. "Your mum's the history teacher, put in a good word for me and make sure Mr Miller DOES NOT call home," she said desperately.
"Yeah, I suppose," Jess muttered, but her attention was drifting to Luffy, wanting to be near him. This gave Lynn a good idea.
"How about," Lynn suggested with a somewhat evil smile. "If you make sure Mr Miller doesn't call my parents, I'll get you a date with Luffy tonight,"
All the noise in the room suddenly died out and everyone, including Luffy, stared at Lynn.
"WHAAAAT?" everyone cried at once.
"A date with Luffy?"
"I want a date with Luffy!"
"No, me!"
"I asked first!"
"Are you kidding, I was here before you!"
Jess pulled Lynn and Luffy out of the room, shutting the door and trapping in the rest of the fan-club. Then she grinned. "That sounds like a deal!"
Lynn smiled back, and the two confirmed their pact with a handshake. Luffy's eyes flickered back and forth between the two girls, confused as to what was going on, yet had a feeling he was being passed around or something.
"Hey wait," a girl called through the door to Jess. "Don't you have a swimming lesson this afternoon? You can't go on a date!"
"Oh, yeah," Jess frowned. She had a swimming lesson which she couldn't miss. But she paused, and she thought. Swimming... swimming costumes... Jess grinned, imagining to herself the wonderful sight of Luffy in swimming trunks.
"Why don't you come swimming with me?" she suggested.
Luffy backed up a bit. "Umm, I can't swim."
"I could teach you!" she cried with delight.
"I really can't…"
"He's a hammer in water, honestly," said Lynn, waving a hand objectively.
"He could always learn," protested Jess.
"Actually, he can't."
"Why? You can come too."
"That's not the problem..." Lynn didn't know how to explain, so Luffy stepped in for her.
"I can never swim because I ate a dev-" Lynn clamped a hand over his mouth before he could say any more.
"He's afraid of water," corrected Lynn. Well, it was kind of true.
"Remember our deal?" Jess pouted, her voice containing just a hint of threateningness. Lynn grew quiet, and backed off.
"I sink in water!" whimpered Luffy.
Jess just beamed at how cute he looked when he whimpered. "Don't worry I'll save you!" 'And give you CPR if needed!' she thought happily, lost in her fantasies.
"But..."
"Ok, I'll meet you at the swimming pool after school!" Jess cut him off and ran away before he could oppose anymore. Luffy now turned to Lynn, a helpless look in his eyes. Lynn shrugged, also helpless.
"I guess you'll be needing a swimming costume then..."
"YOU DID WHAT?"
Lynn held her mobile at arm's length, afraid that Nami's scream would deafen her.
"You agreed to take Luffy swimming, even thought you know he's a hammer in water?"
Lynn shrugged, even though she knew Nami couldn't see her.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? Let me talk to Luffy."
Lynn glanced over at Luffy being chased around the classroom by his fans. "He's, err... kind of busy."
Nami sighed heavily into the phone.
"Look, I didn't have a choice," said Lynn, "Jess is the only one that can wriggle me out of this. If I didn't agree with her, then our teacher would call my parents, and if he called my parents, would find out that Luffy isn't really my relative, and that would lead to a whoooole load of problems,"
"I know what you mean, but couldn't you have come up with a better resolve?"
"Kind of too late now," said Lynn sheepishly. "So that's why I'm calling you. Can you pop out to the shops and buy Luffy a swimming costume? My purse is in my dressing table drawer,"
Lynn could almost feel Nami's devilish grin. "So you're going to tell me your credit card pin?"
"It's not like I have a choice now," Lynn then leant closed to her mobile and whispered her pin to Nami.
"Alright," Nami said, pleased. "And I'm coming too, to check out this 'swimming pool' you're talking about."
"I suppose if you came you could help keep an eye on Luffy," admitted Lynn. Since Miriam was busy tonight, Lynn needed help to make sure Luffy didn't drown or do something stupid. "All right then, you can buy yourself a swim suit too. And don't forget to bring me mines. I'll meet you after school at the empty field, yeah?"
"Yeah. See you." and with that, Nami hung up the house phone, and Lynn sighed as she slid her mobile back into her pocket.
At the empty field after school, Lynn and Luffy met Nami; but it wasn't just Nami that was there. Lynn stared at her, and then looked at Usopp, Sanji and Zoro.
"What are they doing here?" Lynn asked, pointing.
"They wanted to come," Nami shrugged.
"The shit cook said he could swim more laps than me, so I need to prove him wrong," said Zoro.
"Lynn-chwan!" beamed Sanji. "I bet you'd love to see me beating this dumbass marimo in our race!"
"I could swim you out any day," snarled Zoro to Sanji, who glared back.
"The great captain Usopp needs to protect his crew from the mysterious 'swimming pool'," declared Usopp proudly.
Nami raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said you just wanted to try the water slides?" Usopp quickly shushed Nami, but Lynn had already heard.
"Wait, how do you know our pool has water slides?" Lynn asked curiously.
"Google is such a handy thing," smiled Nami.
"Since when did you know how to use internet?"
Nami rolled her eyes. "It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. I mean, I saw you using Google for your homework a couple of times, so I just copied you, typed something in requesting information of a local swimming pool, and bingo! Maps, photos, prices, everything I need!"
"Smart," Lynn admitted.
Nami smirked. "The Jacuzzi doesn't sound half bad either."
Lynn looked Nami up and down, and realised she was wearing a new, stylish outfit and carrying a new bag.
"I said you could buy swimming costumes, not go on a shopping spree!" Lynn let out an exasperated sigh.
"It's alright, you can trust me, I'm good with money," Nami reassured her. "It's not like I'll misuse our budget or anything."
Lynn nodded, hoping Nami was right. "So do you guys have swimming costumes?" she asked Usopp and the squabbling-non-stop Zoro and Sanji.
They nodded, and held up a plastic bag.
"And you know what to expect?"
More nodding. Lynn smiled, and led the way.
When they arrived outside the building, Luffy pressed up against the giant glass panels and peeked into the swimming pool. It didn't look at all scary! In fact, it looked rather fun! Especially the large spiralling tubes that people slid down and the different coloured fun floats that small children played on.
"That looks cool!" Luffy exclaimed.
Lynn smiled, also peering into the pool. "As long as Jess doesn't make you go in the deep end, I think you'll be ok,"
"Um, he's already gone in," noted Nami, and Lynn slapped her forehead. Racing in after him, she found Luffy pressed up against the glass on the vending machine.
"Is it just me, or do you really enjoy pressing up against glass?" wondered Lynn aloud as she peeled him off. Luffy continued to stare longingly at the food.
"I wish they had meat in there," said Luffy.
Nami walked up behind him and peered into the machine too. "You know, I quite fancy a drink of orange juice."
"Yes! At your service Nami-swan!" Sanji beamed, and then raised a leg to break the glass and get his precious Nami a drink.
"ARH! DON'T!" Lynn shouted, shoving Sanji out of the way. "You don't break the glass, just put money into the slot!"
Sanji caught his balance and blinked at Lynn. "Oh, ok, whatever you say Lynn-chan."
Lynn fished out a couple of coins and handed them to Nami, telling her what to do with them in order to get her drink. As everyone else watched this interesting process, Sanji's attention was drifting to the pretty girls in bikinis. He could get a good view of inside the pool where he stood, and he was getting more and more eager to be with those goddesses inside. Seeing a sign that said 'changing rooms', he headed over to where the arrow on the sign pointed.
"Let's go already," he called over to his friends, walking through one of the two doors.
"Wait!" yelled Lynn, but it was too late; he was gone. She sighed, and counted down.
"5...4..."
Sanji walked down the corridor, until he came into a room. Then he stopped. He stared. The shower-room of half naked women and girls stared back.
"3...2..."
His eyes burst into love hearts, and he managed a cry of 'MELLORINE!' before he collapsed in a fountain of his own naval blood.
"1..."
The piercing screams cut through the air and Lynn had to cover her ears. Nami, Zoro, Luffy and Usopp glanced over, wondering what was happening. Lynn sighed, walked into the women's changing room, and dragged out a 'dead' Sanji by the legs. Nami and Usopp slapped their foreheads when they realised what happened, and Zoro just rolled his eyes. Luffy was the only one still clueless.
"Who did this to you?" cried Luffy, rushing over to Sanji.
"Mellorine..." Sanji muttered happily, eyes still closed.
"Right," growled Luffy, pushing up his sleeves. "I'm going to kick this 'mellorine' person's ass for hurting my friend."
"No you don't," sighed Lynn, catching a hold of his collar. "He got what he deserved, that's all."
Luffy blinked.
"Just go and get changed," she said, shoving him forwards towards the right changing room. "I'll take care of things here."
Zoro and Usopp walked over and both helped to get Luffy into the changing room. When they were gone, Nami and Lynn leant over Sanji, wondering what they were going to do with this unconscious perverted cook. Nami acted first. She grabbed a bucket and poured cold water over his head, making him jump up.
"Where did you get that bucket of water?" Lynn asked, but after noticing the cleaning lady with a mop not far away, searching high and low for something, she pretty much figured it out for herself.
"Ah... the joy..." Sanji muttered dreamily, thinking back. Nami whacked him on the head.
"Go and get changed, idiot," she said, shoving him into the changing room. Then she turned back to Lynn with a sigh. "I've got a bad feeling."
Lynn shrugged. "It'll work out somehow," she said, and they both went to change.
"You ready Nami?" Lynn knocked on the door of a changing cubicle. The door opened, and Nami stepped out, wearing an orange bikini swimsuit, which was pretty much just string.
"Like it?" Nami did a little twirl. Lynn grinned and gave her two thumbs up. The swimsuit indeed looked great on Nami and much suited to her personality. Lynn on the other hand, was wearing a turquoise takini patterned with white and blue swirls; much less revealing, and more pretty and cute than sexy. Putting their clothes away in lockers, a loud crash, followed by a splash and shouting caused the girls' heads to turn. Running towards the direction of the uprising noise, they saw Sanji having a stare-down with a tough, bald teenager, and Zoro swimming towards a sinking Luffy.
"Oh, just perfect," moaned Lynn, when she saw the face of the teen. It was none other than Luffy's arch-enemy; Cain. If Cain was here, it was no wonder Luffy was in the water.
"I didn't know you couldn't swim, dork," Cain called to Luffy, who was now being carried to land by Zoro.
"Whoa," gasped Luffy, coughing up water.
"What was that for?" demanded Sanji. "Who the hell are you?"
"It's none of your concern," said Cain, and he dived into the pool and swam away.
Sanji glared after him and considered jumping in and giving chase.
"Leave it," said Luffy. "I'm ok."
"I knew it was a bad idea to let Luffy come swimming!" declared a voice from behind. The crew turned and saw Usopp, who had been lurking by the wall, approach.
"What were you doing over there?" asked Lynn. "You weren't scared of Cain were you?"
"I most certainly wasn't!"
Lynn rolled her eyes because he most certain was.
"You have no right to look down on me!" frowned Usopp. "You're scared of rabbits!"
Without a word, Lynn shoved Usopp in the water.
"I really hate you, you know that?" she scowled, watching him drop with a splash. "Tease me about my phobia again, and I really will do something nasty one of these days."
"Wow," muttered Luffy, sitting up. "Scary." he got up and picked his straw hat from the ground.
"You may want to put that safely away," said Nami. "It'll get wet."
She reached and took his hat from him, and Luffy didn't resist. She then handed it to Lynn, who held the key to their locker, for her to put it away. Sanji's eyes turned into love hearts when he noticed the girls' swimming costumes.
"MELLORINE!" he cried, circling them. They rolled their eyes.
"LUUUUUFFYYYYY!" a sugary voice called. Luffy turned in the voice's direction, and didn't have time to react before Jess jumped on him and gave him a hug. "I'm back from my swimming lesson! I'm so glad you came!"
"You didn't really give us a choice," muttered Lynn under her breath. Sanji, on the other hand, fell in love again.
"You look beautiful, mademoiselle!" he said.
Jess smiled politely. "I believe we've met before. You're Luffy's cousin, right?"
"Mellorine! You remembered!" he beamed, even though he wasn't. Jess just smiled, keeping her arms around Luffy, who was trying to wriggle away from the freaky girl. Zoro, Nami and Usopp raised an eyebrow, wonder if they were missing something.
"It's not often that I get you all to myself!" Jess grinned, nuzzling into Luffy's shoulder even more. "Not with that stupid fan-club of yours. Did I mention how great you look with out a top on?"
Sanji flinched. Luffy has a fan-club? Out of all the people, Luffy? His idiotic captain who's only passion is for meat and being pirate king?
"Let's go Luffy!" said Jess, smiling cheerfully, dragging him off to the shallow end so she could teach him how to swim. Sanji fumed jealously at the attention Luffy was getting instead of him.
Lynn laughed at Sanji's depression and Luffy's freaking out and went to put Luffy's hat away.
"Ah!" sighed Nami in pleasure as she sat herself into the bubbling Jacuzzi and relaxed, "this is the life," she looked over at the other separate pools; at Luffy, who paddled in the shallow end, trying to keep afloat but failing; at Jess who stood beaming at him as if he were her precious little gem; at Zoro and Sanji, swimming away like maniacs up and down lanes; at Usopp who was clambering to the top of the tallest diving board in the small diving pool; and at Lynn who followed him to the edge.
"That's pretty high," swallowed Usopp, backing up slightly.
"It's only about 9 meters," said Lynn, looking over the end down at the crispy blue pool below them.
"And that's not high?" demanded Usopp, now trembling a little, considering retreat.
"Not really," replied Lynn casually. She wasn't afraid of heights; in fact she found that standing high up made her feel calm. Usopp peaked over the edge and quivered.
"I think I might try the water slides instead," he said, backing away. The queue for the diving board was getting longer by the second, and Lynn rolled her eyes at Usopp's cowardice.
"Don't roll your eyes at me," insisted Usopp. "How can you be not intimidated by this height, yet scared of a fluffy rab-"
Lynn kicked him over the diving board before he could finish his sentence, and the now impatient queue behind her clapped in relief.
Usopp flailed his arms as he plummeted towards the water below. He now realised it was a bad idea annoying Lynn whilst at the top of a diving board; but realised it a moment too late. He crashed into the pool and because he wasn't in a proper diving position, got a major wedgie and stinging sensations burning all through his bottom and legs. Wincing in pain, he tried to swim to surface.
Meanwhile, at the top of the board, Lynn watched as Usopp collided with a satisfying splash. She then leapt upwards, in perfect diving posture, and dove straight at the spot where Usopp landed. As she submerged she sent huge ripples across the water and caused Usopp to sink again just before he reached surface; resulting in great amounts of water swallowed. Lynn surfaced again, quite triumphant, while Usopp surfaced a few seconds later, coughing and spluttering, in quite a pitiful state.
"That ought to teach you," sneered Lynn.
"This water tastes strange," Usopp grimaced, spitting out mouthfuls.
"That's because it has chlorine in it."
"Chlorine?"
"It's a poisonous substance, and is deadly if consumed by humans. Enjoy your last moments," said Lynn, climbing out of the diving pool and leaving Usopp to panic on his own. She headed over to where Luffy and Jess were.
"Having fun?" she asked, jumping into the pool beside Jess. Jess nodded enthusiastically. Lynn looked over at Luffy who was trying, and succeeding for once, to keep afloat with the help of a huge float. He was hugging it and clinging on for dear life, even if the shallow end was only just over a meter deep; not the most elegant thing, but at least he was above water. "Wow, Luffy isn't drowning," commented Lynn, quite impressed.
Usopp rushed over to Nami, wailing that he was going to die because he drank poisonous water.
"Oh god, Usopp, don't believe everything she tells you," said Nami rolling her eyes. "She's just winding you up."
Usopp blinked. "Then are you sure I'm not going to die?"
"I'm quite sure," confirmed Nami, as she knew if there was any real danger, Lynn have told her already. "Besides, if that water was poisonous, Luffy would be long dead."
"How come I never thought of that?" Usopp now scowled, knowing he had been duped.
Zoro and Sanji were still swimming up and down the lanes fanatically, and their strangely intense competition aura was what attracted their audience; and audience of mainly girls who found the two rather hot.
"I'd say the blonde one is cuter."
"His curly eyebrows are so sexy!"
"Nah, the one with green hair is definitely the hottest."
"Yeah, check out his muscles!"
"Both of them are seriously fit you ask me."
Zoro and Sanji touched the side of the pool at the same time, and both surfaced to face each other's scowling faces.
"I won that one marimo," snarled Sanji.
"In your dreams; I got here before you did," Zoro shot back. Their eyes burned in one another as they tried to hold back the urge to attack.
"Ohmigod!" a girl squealed from the small crowd that watched the two argue. "Even their bickering is so stunning!"
They both turned and on seeing the audience that had gathered, had two very different reactions.
'Why the hell are they looking at us like that?' thought Zoro, rather freaked out.
"MELLORINE!" cried Sanji, who couldn't be more thrilled. He skimmed, yes skimmed, over the top of the water over to the girls.
"Oi, ero-cook, what about our race?" demanded Zoro, annoyed that Sanji had just abandoned their contest.
"Ladies come before shitty marimos," said Sanji, clearly taking Zoro very lightly. "Besides, you lost fair and square."
"You're the one that lost curly brow!" snarled Zoro and Sanji fumed.
"Just admit defeat loser!"
"Who are you calling loser, bastard? You wanna fight?"
"Oh, bring it on."
"What's happening?" asked Lynn, who had swam over from the other side of the pool. "Sanji, Zoro, why do you two look like you're about to kill each other?"
"I beat him in our 50 lap race, but the marimo said he won," said Sanji.
Lynn sweat dropped. 50 laps? These guys were really something… "Well that's easy," she shrugged. "Just have a rematch."
"Yeah, a rematch!" squealed the fan-girls, eager to see the two men in action again. Lynn turned and blinked when she saw the crowd; how she managed only JUST to notice them now will always remain a mystery.
Sanji and Zoro began to race furiously again, and the crowd cheered.
"GO ZORO!"
"GO SANJI!"
Lynn raised an eyebrow. "Is this the winter Olympics or something?" then she thought over, and added, "But even the winter Olympics don't do 50 lap races…"
A huge splash and screams caught Lynn's attention. She looked over, and saw Luffy in the middle of the pool, thrashing and sinking, his float a few meters away. The two competing idiots were too busy to notice that their captain was in trouble.
"Luffy!" cried Lynn, diving underwater and swimming over. She saw Luffy's wriggling body amongst the clear blue, getting weaker and weaker as he sank. Hooking an arm around his waist, she dragged him to surface.
"That was close!" Luffy coughed and spluttered out a ton of water.
"Are you ok? What happened?" asked Lynn, helping him over and onto the side of the pool. Then she looked around and saw a sniggering Cain not too far away and gritted her teeth in realisation. "Why are you in the middle of the pool anyway?" she demanded, more concerned than angry.
Luffy coughed again, and Lynn waited for him to get his breath back. "Well, someone was saying there was food in the middle of the pool, and I thought as long as I sat on the float, I'd be ok."
Lynn pinched his arm. "And you believed it? What are you, an idiot?" actually, he was, but she looked at his pitiful state and couldn't bring herself to scold him any more. "That was probably just Cain winding you up. Where's Jess?"
"Oh my god, Luffy! Are you alright?" Jess cried, suddenly appearing from behind them, looking like she had been running.
"Speaking of the devil," said Lynn, rolling her eyes. "I told you he can't swim! You're not supposed to leave him on his own!"
"Luffy-darling I'm so sorry!" Jess threw her arms around him, shoving Lynn out of the way and almost causing her to fall into the pool. "Do you need CPR?"
Lynn steadied herself from the shove, and scowled at Jess. "No, I think he's fine now. Where were you?"
"I got a call," she replied. "My mum says I have to go home now."
'That's a relief,' thought Lynn rolling her eyes.
"But I don't want to go home!" wailed Jess. "I want to stay here with Luffy!"
"...yeah... you're going home; now!" said Lynn. "And don't forget your part of the deal."
"I won't," Jess stood up and waved a pained goodbye to Luffy. "I'll miss you!"
Lynn watched, and sighed in relief when Jess disappeared from sight. "Thank god she's gone. Now we can go home; away from the dangers of this pool."
"But first, I want to try what Usopp's doing!" Luffy exclaimed, pointing at Usopp who slid his way down a wavy slide.
"No, you cant," said Lynn, keeping a hold on his arm to make sure he didn't go off. "That slide finishes with a drop into the pool, so unless you want to drown anytime soon, I suggest you stay away from it."
Luffy pouted, but wasn't keen on swallowing any more water so didn't object. Lynn was actually rather disappointed that Usopp had figured out her lie so quickly.
"Let's get the others and get going now," she said, standing up.
Zoro and Sanji's race was again, a tie, and neither chose to admit it. This time, though, it wasn't just the two of them arguing over the fact; it was two teams.
"Zoro won!" shouted the Zoro-fans in unison.
"No, Sanji won!" the Sanji-fans opposed.
"Shut up you bitches!" they screamed at each other, and a furious group-catfight ensued, much to Sanji's delight.
Lynn, Luffy, and the newly fetched Nami and Usopp headed over to Sanji and Zoro to declare their leave, but all stopped and stared at the riot that was going on. Over there, was Sanji, surrounded by girls and in heaven; over there, Zoro, backing away, terrified, from his creepy gang of fan-girls; and behind them, a small group of girls continued to bitch-slap each other over who had won the race. The life guard was trying to break them up, but was only caught in the middle of their brawl.
"My my, doesn't this look familiar," Lynn rolled her eyes, and Luffy nodded in agreement, relieved that he wasn't the one being targeted this time.
"These guys are magnets for trouble," Nami shrugged helplessly.
"HEY!" Lynn shouted over to the two fan-clubs. "You're wasting your time! They're actually gay lovers!"
"EEEH?" everyone jumped a meter in shock at that random and disturbing statement. All eyes turned to Zoro and Sanji, who looked at each other, holding back the urge to puke. The straw hats then turned to Lynn, and she shrugged.
"I'm just trying to get their fan-clubs to go away," she said in her own defence. 'And those yaoi-fan-girls would be so proud of me,' she thought with a snigger.
"You're not really gay are you?" the crowd of girls asked Sanji and Zoro in a rather doubtful tone.
"Well, I live only for the ladies," replied Sanji, putting his arms around two nearest girls. "But I can't say the same about the marimo."
"What was that, eyebrow freak?" Zoro snarled, and the girls squealed at their super hot squabbling.
"Ok... that didn't work," said Lynn, sweatdropping. "I'm all out of plans. Your turn Nami."
"Watch and learn," Nami flicked her hair and walked over to the two men. She stood over them calmly, then suddenly and sharply, struck both of them hard on the head, causing large bumps to rise. "And that's how it should be done," said Nami, snapping her fingers and indicating for the guys to follow her if they didn't want any more physical abuse. Sanji trotted after her quite gleefully, whilst Zoro grumbled away about bitches and crazy assholes. None of the fan-girls dared follow, in fear that they too would be hurt by this fierce, orange headed young woman.
"Nice," praised an impressed Lynn, giving Nami a thumbs up. Nami smirked. "I'll go and grab us some towels," volunteered Lynn, walking towards the changing rooms. But she had only taken two steps when the siren blasted out from above her head, making her jump.
"EVERYONE GET OUT!" the life guard's voice boomed out from his megaphone. "EVACUATE THE AREA!"
"What's going on?" shouted Lynn, shoving her way over to her friends through the stampedes of people who flooded towards the emergency exits. She found them staring wide-eyed at the pool. Lynn's jaw dropped when she saw what they were looking at.
A huge shadow, lurking under the surface of the water. Since when did THAT get there?
"W-what IS that?" Nami and Usopp cried.
"Sea king!" exclaimed Luffy hungrily.
"It's too small to be a sea king," noted Zoro, standing quite calmly.
"Whatever it is, it's not from our world," said Lynn, looking around to check for any for any portals under the water the thing may have come through. She noticed an unmistakeable light shape towards the bottom of the pool and grinned. This new portal was gigantic; at least 5 meters in diameter! From her experience, she had gathered that the size of the portal depended on the size of the gate shard; which meant this piece of wood should be huge!
"Stop grinning to your self like an idiot!" demanded Nami. "What IS that?"
Lynn shrugged, and Nami scowled at her calm attitude. The water surface broke as a giant figure began to rise from the depth. Its shiny, lime coloured skin pushed out and every remaining evacuee couldn't help but stop and stare with shocked, if not terrified, expressions.
"Whoa," exclaimed Lynn, blinking at the rising monster. "Cool."
"HOW IS THAT COOL?" screamed Usopp, pulling at his curls.
"But it IS pretty cool," said Lynn, still staring. "And anyway, it doesn't look like it means any harm, there's no need to be scared."
"Says the girl who's terrified of rabbits," huffed Usopp and Lynn whacked him, considering on feeding the monster Usopp-sushi.
The monster was almost fully out of the water now, revealing its disturbing features for all to see; a single, large eye almost the size of half its head, slimy lime-green dotted skin, eight thick tentacles wriggling away, partially still underwater. It had no mouth; or at least none that they could see for the time being.
"I think it's your relative, Zoro," said Lynn, looking at Zoro's green hair, and he scowled at her.
"Octopus!" shouted Luffy, pointing and not in the least scared.
"Octopuses taste best when chopped and stir fried with a touch of soy sauce," said Sanji, looking up at it.
The octopus flinched, as if understanding the fact that Sanji was planning to cook it, and decided to make the first move. It let out a strange screech/howl and lashed its tentacles about wildly.
"You've made it mad!" wailed Nami, shaking Sanji's arm furiously.
Everyone who had stood staring now went crazy and rushed toward the exits, screaming and panicking, not planning on waiting around to get eaten.
"Ok… maybe it isn't so harmless," said Lynn, backing away. "I think maybe it's best we went and hid for the time being."
"Uh huh," agreed Nami and Usopp, and the three of them went and ducked behind the Jacuzzi. From where they crouched, they could see a perfect view of the ruckus going on.
The octopus reached out and grabbed a few hostages; six, in fact, including Zoro and the life guard. Nami slapped her forehead, unable to believe one of the monster trio had simply been snatched.
"This would be so much easier if I had my katana," growled Zoro, struggling. "But a certain shrimpy bitch made me leave it at home..."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHRIMP?" yelled Lynn, jumping out furiously from her hiding spot. She realised her mistake immediately, but the octopus had already seen her; and not just her for that matter.
"Run for it!" screamed Usopp, but the octopus was already making its move before they could do so. Seeing that they had no chance to escape, they grabbed the nearest objects they could find and prepared for battle against the two remaining tentacles.
"Take that!" shouted Lynn, swatting away, batter style, the tentacle reaching for her with a giant float. It didn't do a lot of damage, but at least she was temporarily safe. Nami found a metal pole lying around, and whacked at the other tentacle. At both girls bashed away like mad, Usopp breathed out in relief when he assumed there were no other tentacles left. But boy, was he wrong. Another tentacle appeared from nowhere and snatched the sharpshooter up off the ground.
"WHAT? I thought octopuses had 8 tentacles?" he cried, wriggling about.
Lynn and Nami were stunned for a moment, wondering where on earth the extra tentacle came from, and were both caught off guard when two more suddenly swiped them away too. Now, the octopus thing had 11 tentacles visible, and possibly many more yet unrevealed.
Luffy raised his arm to attack and free his captured comrades, but yet another tentacle snatched him from behind and lifted him into the air along with the others.
"Damn!" shouted Luffy, struggling in the octopus's grasp. "This thing has too many testicles!"
"That's tentacles!" Nami shouted back, correcting his rude mistake even in her tight situation.
"Let go you slimy bastard!" screamed Lynn furiously, swatting at the octopus. It just tightened its grasp even more.
Luffy was getting annoyed now, and he couldn't restrain himself anymore.
"Gomu gomu no pistol!" he yelled, stretching his arm and throwing a distant punch straight at the monster's eye. The monster screeched in pain and loosened all grips on the hostages. Everyone dropped into the water below with a splash; apart from Luffy. He stretched and grabbed onto the top of the diving board, pulling himself away from the pool. Nobody apart from his crew saw this, as everyone else was blinded by the water that surrounded them. Lynn and Nami pushed their heads out of the surface of the water and gasped for breath as they swam over to the pool's sides. Lynn glanced over at Luffy, sitting safely on top of the diving board and breathed out in relief. Quickly looking around, she saw that there were still some people not evacuated. As much as she wanted to see Luffy in action, she didn't want to bring Luffy's powers to notice of the public eye.
"Sanji!" she shouted over, pointing at the monster. "Can you take care of this big guy?"
Sanji immediately jumped up. "Yes Lynn-chan!" he beamed, and leapt up to the octopus and landed a hard kick right on its head, sending it crashing into the pool. People in the water screamed, and began clambering out of the pool and sprinting away for dear life. Luffy stood up; wanting a part of the action, but Sanji stopped him.
"Leave this one to me," he called, and Luffy sat back down again reluctantly.
"Get him Sanji-kun!" cheered Nami, ducking behind the Jacuzzi again with Lynn and Usopp.
"Send him back into the portal before it closes!" Lynn shouted, enjoying the show from afar.
Panicking, the octopus looked for another hostage, and saw a figure dashing towards the exit not far away. Reaching out, it grabbed him; and the unlucky guy just happened to be none other than Cain.
"Let go you asshole!" he yelled, squirming about.
After all that action from earlier, the octopus suddenly realised he was kind of hungry, and glanced at Cain with a famished look in his eyes. Slowly, it opened its mouth to reveal rows of surprisingly razor sharp teeth. Cain flinched as he was raised to the octopus's mouth. The smell that invaded his nostrils was that of rotten eggs and garbage, with just a hint of the reek of dead bodies.
"You need breath freshener, you bastard!" he insulted, although shaking in terror at the fact he was about to be eaten.
Sanji scowled. Although he was never fond of this boy who continuously bothered his captain, he wasn't mean enough to watch him to get eaten. He jumped up to attack, but he octopus swung its remaining tentacles at him. They failed to hit him, as he jumped onto each tentacle, using them as a staircase to the monsters head, but they definitely slowed him down, as he seemed to be pulled backwards with every step.
Cain cursed again, and bit into the monsters flesh. It tasted awful and filled him with nausea, but at least caused the thing some pain. The octopus screeched, tightening its grasp on the boy, just too hard. Cain fell limp as he felt the breath squeezed out of him and saw stars twinkling before his eyes.
"Gomu gomu no Rocket!"
Cain turned weakly, eyes half closed, and saw Luffy catapulting towards him, his arms… stretching? No, that can't be right. The octopus screamed out in pain as a missile like item plunged into its flesh, causing him to loosen his grip on Cain. Cain felt himself fall towards the monsters mouth; but not for long, as two hands firmly gripped his arms, flinging him towards the safe area on top of the diving board. He opened his eyes, just enough to see Luffy's arms snapping back into place from their stretch and tumbling onto the water below as the price to their bodies' place exchange. So he wasn't mistaken. Luffy's arms DID stretch. But if recalled rightly, wasn't Luffy a hammer in water?
'What on earth is he? And why the hell did he save me if he couldn't even swim?' thought Cain as he blacked out.
Zoro leapt into the pool to save his sinking captain as Sanji glared at the octopus.
"You shouldn't do that!" he snarled, speeding up his pace and making his way up to the octopus's head in seconds. "Let's finish this quickly."
He jumped off the tentacle and flipped in the air rapidly to gain speed as he plummeted down. "Concasse!" he shouted, delivering the powerful kick on the centre of the octopus's head. The blow made the monster screech as it was sent down beyond the water, sending up mini tsunamis all around the pool. Sanji landed smoothly on the side as he watched the octopus plunge back into the portal, seconds before it closed.
"YAY!" cheered the trio crouching behind the Jacuzzi. "NICE ONE SANJI!"
Sanji grinned, pleased, at the two ladies enjoying the show. Lynn peeked over at the water and saw that the piece of wood was floating towards the edge of the pool. She walked over and picked it up, shaking the water off it.
Luffy, at this moment, was being hauled onto dry land by Zoro, and he sat up, coughing up water.
"I missed the action," he sounded rather disappointed. Lynn dashed over to see if he was alright.
"Remind me never EVER to take you swimming again no matter what anyone says," said Lynn, feeling pretty guilty. "It's just too dangerous. You nearly drowned 5 times today!"
"I totally agree," said Usopp, coming up from behind.
"You have no right to agree," frowned Lynn. "You were hiding the whole time,"
"Hey, you almost got us killed when you revealed our position!" yelled Usopp.
"Well I saved your ass, so shut up and be grateful!" Lynn snapped back.
"What? You were snatched up too!"
"But at least I fought the damn thing! Unlike some people who stood there and let two girls do the fighting! You're just a scaredy cat weakling!"
"I am not!"
"Yes you are! You're just a puny freak who won't show appreciation!"
"Well you're just a stupid SHRIMP who's scared of RABBITS!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth, he was covered in a frenzy of bitch-slaps and shoved into the pool.
"BURN IN HELL JERK!" shouted Lynn, and stomped off. She so much preferred Usopp as an anime character...
Next time: a substitute cook, a dangerous dinner and maybe an awkward situation and a confrontation at school if I can fit it into the next chapter.
My next update should in just under a week, but if I don't get enough reviews, I may just get lazy and not put it up XP I want at least 5 reviews guys, at least 5! So you know what to do! Press that review button! I really love reviews, you know that? Anything'll do!