(Beginning A/N)
I'll save the excuses for after you've read this chapter, so you'll be less focused on how long it's taken me to get the fifth chapter done.
People who have not read/seen One Piece: The 'AaaAAaAaAAAaA' is a grappling hook built into a belt buckle; Fresh Fire is a flamethrower-like ability made possible by Franky's cyborg-ness. I have mentioned that he's a cyborg-like thing, right?
People who have not played Overlord: The Spawning Pits are the residential area of the Tower where the Minions... well, reside.
(End Beg. A/N)
The Giant Slayer carefully arranged the bones in the sunlight, his mind rolling through the possibilities; he could dimly hear someone trying to speak to him, but he was busy trying to convince himself that the skeleton was not, in fact, a Minion.
A few moments later, he grimly stood and glared at the old bones; they were baffling him. Besides the fact that he wasn't entirely sure how a Minion's skeleton was put to together, this particular body wasn't like the Minions that occupied the Dark Tower. It had no tail, like a Brown, but also feet that looked like they had once been webbed- like a Blue.
The Dark One turned towards the cave. He needed to speak with Gnarl, but until he could, he'd have to do some exploring into dark, damp places that reeked of mold and long-dead things.
Much like the Spawning Pits, in fact.
With another bout of homesickness, Steve tromped into the cave, leaving Robin staring after him in confusion, Franky dazed from a rock, and Nami approaching the location of the ex-door, choking slightly on the dust that still lingered.
"Where is Steve g- what is that?" Jumping backward, Nami pointed at the corpse.
"He went inside, and he did not answer when I asked that very question. Twice." Robin turned back to the cavern, thinking. "That body seemed to have unsettled him- a lot. Back when he described his 'magic', he went into a small amount of detail of his 'Minions'- do you remember?"
"Kind of. Dang, this thing'd be ugly..."
"Based off what he had described, I think that this," Robin gestured towards the body that Nami was both trying to stay away from and look at, "was once a Minion, or extremely similar."
"Oh..."
"But, I don't know why he blasted that rock apart, when I said that it might be a door; our guest has made me even more curious." Without another word, Robin followed the armored man into the cave.
The navigator looked towards where the archaeologist had been standing, only to find it vacant; there was no sign of the other woman, save the quickly-fading footsteps coming from inside the hole.
"Robin...? Robin! Ugh... hey, you, get up!" Irritated, Nami went over to and kicked the shipwright.
"Ow! Not super! I might have a concussion!"
"Isn't your head made out of metal?"
"It's still a problem if it gets a dent!"
"Well, you look fine. Come on, we're following them in."
"Shouldn't I lay down-" Seeing the glare, Franky decided it would be better for his health to do as he was told.
Zoro furrowed his brow. That rock... it looks like the one I saw just a moment ago...
He was about to dismiss it as coincidence, when he noticed a footprint in a patch of dirt, on the rocky terrain. Curious, he placed his own foot in the mark.
And scowled.
Slightly irritated, he pulled out one of his blades and made a mark in the ground before continuing on his suspiciously circular journey.
As much as he liked the dark, Steve also liked being able to see where he was going. For the fourth time that minute, the prongs on top of his helmet slammed into a low area of the ceiling.
Removing the excessively tall piece of headgear, the slightly dazed Overlord continued tromping and scraping down the ever-spiraling stairway, in the ever-darkening gloom.
Not far behind, Robin followed the -thuds-, -clangs-, scrapes and slightly muffled cursing that emanated from the slightly agitated man.
"This doesn't seem safe, Luffy..."
The captain grinned at the marksman, who was standing on the edge of the island. Luffy himself was dangling over the side, lowering himself to the next rock that jutted outward slightly. "I saw some sort of cave entrance down on a ledge near the waterline! I wanna check it out!"
Usopp leaned slightly farther over the ledge, to try and see the mentioned ledge. However, the wind suddenly pushed at his back, leaning him farther over the edge. The ensuing reflex burst landed him roughly eight feet away from where Luffy was still trying to climb downward.
"W-w-w-windy..."
Even Brook seemed eager; a quick "yohohoho", and the skeleton had hopped off the edge and was hanging off the captain's shoulder.
Usopp stared after the musician, in shock. Clutching his side, in equal shock, was Chopper.
-Clonk clank clonk clank clonk CRANG clonk clonk SHRAKK-
The volume and variety of obscene language flowing from Steve increased, until he at last reached the end of the stairway. With a final -CLAWANG- as his shoulders slammed into the sides of the narrow entrance, the Overlord found himself in a dark room. A very, very dark room. Damp, too.
With a -conk- and a -CHSHRANK-, Steve took one step and tripped over a rock; his oaths ended quickly.
If part of the darkness had a conscience, it would have smiled softly to itself; the streams of swearing would make anything a bit twitchy, and Steve's... detail made it even more unsettling.
But of course, it couldn't understand the large metal man who was laying half-conscious in front of the stairway that led back to the surface. It also failed to notice the woman who carefully felt her way out of said stairway.
The darkness can be quite oblivious when it wants to.
In hindsight, Robin thought to herself, maybe I should have brought a lantern. Feeling that the walls suddenly stopped, and that the steps had finally reached an end, she concluded that she had arrived at the bottom of the stairway, in a cave of some sorts. That had no light, whatsoever.
Blindly, she slowly walked across the extremely uneven floor.
"Steve? Steve? Are you here? Steve!" frowning, she tried to listen for his trademark clanking- nothing. Only the distant sound of water (the cave was most likely far below the ocean surface), and the gentle echoes of her own breathing.
Taking another slow step forward, she ever-so-slightly nearly lost her balance as the ground became smooth once again.
Acting independently from its owner's conscious thought processes, Robin's boot softly prodded the lump in front of the stairway.
"How long does it take to get a lantern working?"
"It's dark, I can't see the damn thing. Doesn't help that I'm still woozy."
"Get over it and get that lit; I don't want to hurt myself because of a loose stone, or something."
"When someone lands on a giant rock in the middle of the ocean, a lantern is not something people generally accessorize with. I'm trying to make one out of nails and rock shards. These aren't the perfect materials for the job."
"Here's an incentive, then: if Sanji finds out that I got hurt because of something you failed to do, what do you think will happen?"
"... I'm learning, day by day, why Zoro dislikes you so much..."
Steve's mind floated. He could vaguely piece together enough information to figure out he was still conscious, but... that was about it. It certainly did not help that his head, which hurt like a frikkin' Dwarf had landed on it, also felt like it was being whacked by a hammer, over and over and over and over...
For a brief moment, the abuse stopped; as the pain subsided enough to piece together one and one again, Steve could figure out what sounded like distant voices; however, when he tried to listen to what they were saying, his mind crashed and set itself to idle until the burning stopped.
"Nami? That you?"
"Robin! Yeah, Franky's here too. But, there's no light yet."
"I'm workin' on it, I'm workin' on it..." Franky's voice was accompanied by clicking and grating.
"Be careful, there's a rock-"
"WAH!" With a surprised cry, the younger woman tripped over the lump and was barely caught by Robin.
"-in front of the stairway."
The navigator tried to regain her footing, on what felt like the transition between lumpy and smooth sections of the floor. "Franky, get some damned light!"
"Hang on, hang on... There!" With a final -clirank-, a small fire was lit (with a small bit of help from a low power Fresh Fire), illuminating the dark cavern with a flickering reddish glow.
"Light, has arr- AOW!" Seeing the spectacle in front of him, Franky enthusiastically cried out and gave the duo a thumbs-up.
Nami quickly stopped leaning on the taller woman, glared semi-murderously at the shipwright and took the 'lantern' from him. The first realization was,
"Daaaaamn this place is big... I can't even see the ceiling, let alone another wall..."
Followed by Robin's notice of, "More writing... may I see the light for a moment?"
As the archaeologist examined cave paintings and the navigator looked for anything like a sign that said 'LOG POSES TAKE _ AMOUNT OF DAYS', Franky gave the area a bored once-over. The pillars were old and made of stone, but he could tell they were still sturdy; as long as no nitwit nearly broke one or two of them, there should be no prob-
-SHWINK-
Following the thundering of several rocks falling from the ceiling (which originated from a hole that was nearly two feet from the nearest ancient support), a certain green-haired swordsman landed on the ground, sheathed one of his blades, look around, and noticed Franky.
"Yo. How'd you get down here?"
"I took the stairs! But, never mind that, LOOK AT WHAT YOU ALMOST HIT!" Franky gestured towards the narrowly-missed pillar.
"Oh. Would that have been bad?"
"VERY."
"Ah, well.. What is-" Above him, Usopp hooked the AAaaaAAAaaaAA to the edge of the hole, and began to rappel down with Chopper. "-this place?"
"I don't have any idea. By the way..." Franky leaned closer towards Zoro, and motioned towards the woman who had been too interested in the writing to see what the noise was, "You might want to avoid Robin- you know, because you chopped a hole and rained debris down into an ancient cave. Oh, and why did you make a hole?"
"I... was looking for a place to sleep, but after a while... I found I was..." Zoro struggled to think of a different way to put it. He failed. "Circling... a rock... for several minutes..."
The giant hole in the ceiling allowed enough light to see with, eliminating the need for the lantern (which hadn't even been lit for three minutes). Taking the proffered lamp from Robin, Nami finally noticed what had made the floor uneven.
"Steve!"
The swirly images were slowly reorganizing, but Steve still couldn't summon the focus required for solid thought.
"Steve?"
A single word from beyond managed to break through into his mind; it sounds like a familiar phrase...
"Steve!"
Steve... sounds familiar... was that a dog's name? No... maybe my own? That makes more sense...
"If you aren't going to recover any time soon, then I'm going to use you as a chair."
The words were beginning to make sense, and Steve recovered higher levels of brainpower.
It took several more seconds, but he got enough control to push himself off the floor. He still had to go slowly, though. His skull still hurt, so he didn't want to risk quick movement.
There was also a weird weight on his back that gave off a startled cry as he began moving.
Gnarl stood by the pool once again, sporting three poker-shaped bruises.
"Quaver, were you able to configure it to work correctly?"
"Yes; and Giblet help!"
"Good... show me what got through."
A few minutes after the last transmission with the Overlord, Gnarl had made a plan- if they spiked enough power through the connection, there should be enough power to send immobile images through the link, allowing him to periodically see what the Master was doing.
Gnarl had become suspicious of the Dark One's dedication to evil, and just wanted to make sure everything was going well. There were absolutely no hopes that he'd catch the Master doing anything raunchy, of course.
As the jester fiddled with various items next to the water, Gnarl attained his best evil-evaluating look: the Eviluative Glare.
The first image solidified onto the pool: a giant rock in the ocean (rating: Undeterminable out of 5). Another image drifted across: Standing on the giant rock (U of 5). There weren't even any plants to make the rock more interesting. The third image came onto the water, and Gnarl was filled with hope.
Debris! Chaos! Rocks! Falling things! Undoubtedly, this meant that he was waging chaos and mayhem! (4 of 5)
The fourth and fifth images showed nothing interesting; they were pitch-black (U of 5). The sixth one, however, was in dim light- enough of it, however, for there to be a grand view of the two women on the ship, with one leaning on the other. (Requires Context to determine Evility; U of 5)
After several seconds, the seventh image arrived, and Gnarl felt more hope for the Evilness of the Overlord- MORE falling rocks, debris, and other things fitting of evil-doing! (3.8 of 5)
After a few seconds of admiring the slightly destroyed scenery, Gnarl reviewed a few of the pictures once again. Just to be sure his first Eviluations were accurate, of course.
Some time later, he nodded and left the pool, with a remark to the jester: "Our Master's doing the wrong thing again, Quaver- I feel like doing a jig!"
"How much does this hurt?
"Aaagh."
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
"You have hooves."
"Oh, yeah. How many fingers is Usopp holding up?"
"None."
"I was supposed to be holding up fingers?"
"It would help."
"Three."
With a slight nod, Chopper leaned back. "You don't seem to have a concussion, that's good."
With the wooziness gone, Steve could stand without immediately falling over. He took advantage of this, and rose. Now that there was light (thanks to a gaping hole in the ceiling), he could see that the cave was big- a majority of the island was probably hollow, which meant that the light from the hole (whose creator seemed to be staying far away from the archaeologist) did not permeate the entire blackness.
The Overlord hoped that someone else thought to get more lanterns from the Sunny, because he wasn't going in that direction. Plonking the Arcanium helmet back upon his head, Steve took the makeshift lantern that was setting nearby and went towards the throb of magic that the DAMMIT was detecting.
Watching him whilst feeling slightly ignored, the medic and marksman did not move. Chopper almost tried to stop the armored man, but Steve's aura increased slightly, warding him off.
The historian of the Straw Hat Pirates was slightly befuddled by the carvings and writings; some portions were in the ancient text she could read, vaguely describing a foreigner who had brought an island with him. Other parts were crude cave paintings of goblin-like creatures chasing sheep, and being patted on the head. A third type was a completely different type of language that she had never even seen before, and the last one she could find was a blend of the writing on the Poneyglphs and the 'new' kind.
The best she could figure out from the hybrid was 'strange man _ sheep _ horns upon shoulders _ foe of foes _ agreement', before the writing stopped, worn away by many years of corrosion.
The archaeologist was about to start on another pillar, when she saw Steve walking into the darkness with the 'lantern'; Robin remembered the incident before, when he had blasted down the possible door without question. Fueled by a want to discover more about the strange language, she followed the Lord of Evil, the Wench Bane, and the Duke of Domination into the shadows.
The man's aura of distortion had gotten stronger since he entered the cavern; even in the dark, she could see Steve's wavering outline.
It got even easier to see him when there was the sound of a metal clashing against a rock and a short stream of curses, before the light of the lantern illuminated enough of the way for Robin to avoid tripping over rocks as much as Steve seemed to.
Meanwhile, back near the stairs, the rest of the crew loitered.
The first to speak was Nami. "Usopp, Chopper... weren't you with Luffy and Brook?"
Usopp looked up from his trinkets. "Yeah... they went rock climbing."
"Rock climbing?"
"Rock descending would probably be more accurate, now that I think about it."
"But... I don't remember seeing any cliffs on the island, other than... they went climbing down the edges of the island!"
"Y-yeah..."
"Neither of them can swim!"
"Oh... right..."
The captain frowned. He thought he'd seen a door on the ledge, but all that was there now was more rock. And the ledge itself, of course. But no door. However, a thought struck him.
"Brook! Grab on!"
"Yes, sah!"
Not entirely thinking the risks through, the captain reached for a handhold to the side of the ledge, and began swinging around the side of the island.
"Luffy, might I ask where we are going next?"
The captain grinned, and grabbed another rock to continue swinging. "I think I saw some kind of ledge from the ship, one with a door or something on it; that one doesn't have anything like that, so I'm gonna go around the entire island 'till I find that one I saw!"
"Ah, a truly tenacious plan!"
"Tena-what?"
"In other words, you won't stop until you find your door! Yoho-" The skeleton's laughing was cut short as Luffy misjudged an angle, and nearly sent the pair flying off into the ocean. After that, he clung tighter. "My face, I believe it is turning blue- but I do not have skin to change color! Yohohohoho..."
Back aboard the ship, a lone blond man muttered to himself, crumpled a piece of paper, and threw it in a bucket. A few minutes later, another sheet was discarded. Then another sheet, until he finally threw down his pen and declared,
"Fine! I shall express my feelings not through poetry or song, but through a dance!"
That idea was also soon discarded, after a wave bumped the ship slightly and sent him over the railing. After that, he glared damply and gloomily at the surface of the island, trying to catch a glimpse of his beloveds. Unfortunately, all he ever saw was his idiot of a captain, swinging around under the edge of the island.
(Ending A/N): Okay, excuse time. It's totally the fault of Fullmetal Alchemist! A-and late schoolwork! And Bleach! And Trigun! And me getting my copy of Overlord back, and then playing it! And Guild Wars is also to blame! And- you know what, I'll simplify it for you: Blame the entertainment industry! But, wait! The entertainment industry inspired this story! So you can't do anything, right?
... right?... please don't kill me...?
Any way, I have a newfound respect for Eiichiro Oda (creator of One Piece). He can keep track of like, a bajillion characters. And what can I do? Forget that, in chapter 4, I first wrote that Franky was staying on the ship- but, through miraculous transportation, he's looking for materials five minutes later. Amazing!
Just watch- since there was a 4 week gap between 3 and 4, then a 6 week gap between 4 and 5, I bet there will be an 8 week gap before the sixth chapter.
(End End A/N))