Pride fills him as he drags an oil soaked cloth across the helm, and he quietly looks about to marvel at his dream ship. She is a thing of beauty, and strong like her lion figurehead. She'll take him places, him and the rowdy crew that he is now a part of. With a glance towards her figurehead, he catches a glimpse of short, wild black hair peeking from the blade-like pieces of her mane. A contented and grateful smile steals across his face as he finishes polishing the helm.
He absently tucks the cloth into a pocket in his floral printed shirt and then makes his way to the bow of the ship. He waves to the skeletal gentleman playing on a violin as he passes by, never once thinking him to be odd or out of place. As he comes closer to the figurehead of the ship he finds it harder to move, his body becoming sluggish and heavy. He can just barely make out the back of the Captain's head. He doesn't know how he knows it, but that is the Captain of his dream ship sitting out there on the figurehead. He opens his mouth to call out to his Captain, whose name immediately slips his mind, when something smacks him in the head.
Cutty Flam jerks awake and bolts upright, his head colliding with Iceburg's. "Oww… Damnit, Ice! What are you doing?!" He holds his forehead while Iceburg clutches at his nose, blood seeping from between his fingers.
Iceburg says something quite unintelligible, and at his fellow shipwright's flat look he repeats it again. Then once more. He finally resorts to pointing at the doorway where their mentor, Tom, stands. The Fishman chuckles at the sight of them and then motions for them to follow after him.
Cutty feels a little guilty over Iceburg's nose and fishes a clean handkerchief out of his pocket. He holds it out to his friend and gets up once Iceburg accepts the proffered cloth and moves. "Sorry, man. I didn't expect you to be standing over me." Which has him question why Iceburg had been standing over him to start with. To wake him up, apparently. He follows his friend out into the hall, where Tom waits for them.
They walk the short distance to Tom's office and when Tom pulls down the cork board where they have various blueprints pinned up, both of the teens' eyes bug out. There is a panel in the wall, their sharp eyes able to pick out the less than noticeable seams out from the rest of the wall. Tom slides it open to reveal a safe. "I have been safeguarding this ever since my mentor passed it on to me. It is no longer safe for me to keep these blueprints, so I am passing them on to both of you." Tom opens the safe and pulls out slender roll of paper.
Cutty and Iceburg step closer to examine the paper as it is unrolled. To their disbelief, they are looking at the blueprints of something called Pluton. A weapon. They both come to the immediate realization that if this falls into the wrong hands, especially those of the World Government's… It will be terrible for the entire world. They look at each other and then back at the blueprints one more time before they both agree to safeguard this momentous secret.
Cutty Flam, or Franky as Iceburg liked to call him, inspects his small platoon of Battle Franky ships. Iceburg had said that he should dismantle all of the old ones, so that nobody else could get their hands on them and use them maliciously, and ever since that Spandam guy came snooping around for the blueprints to the Pluton, he has been getting a very bad feeling. Tom's pardoning is coming up soon, and he certainly doesn't want anything to go wrong.
He can't name why he is feeling this way, but Cutty Flam dismantles all of his Battle Frankys. It is a long job, and he works all throughout the night to get it done. When morning comes, he is passed out by the pieces of the last ship, which is how Iceburg finds him. Yokozuna, who had come to help him in the middle of the night, is asleep by the neatly stacked lumber that had made up the ships.
Iceburg stares in wonder at the scrap yard, then at his friend and smiles. Cutty had taken his warning to heart and had dismantled his creations. Even though it isn't something his friend had wanted to do, it takes a lot of pride swallowing to do it. Going over to the sleeping shipwright in the making, he nudges Cutty with his foot. "C'mon Franky! Time to go watch Tom get his pardon."
There is an incoherent grumble and Cutty rolls over, eyes half open. "Okay, Ice, I'm up!" He gets up with a groan and rubs at his face. Dismantling his beloved Sea King Hunting ships had taken the better part of the night so he is extremely tired. Yokozuna, despite having come to help him with his project, is up and alert. Cutty looks around the scrap yard and sighs. The only Battle Franky he hadn't dismantled is the latest one that had actually worked and that one is hidden away.
Iceburg calls for him again then runs ahead to where Kokoro is waiting for them. Cutty and Yokozuna follows, and when they all finally reach where Tom and the Judiciaries are, they are all smiling happily.
"Because you have built the Sea Train, and saved Water 7, we hereby pardon you for any one crime of-" The sound of a cannon firing drowns out the rest of what the Judiciary is going to say, and the concrete between Tom and the Judge blows up.
A tremor of horror goes through the crowd as people dive for cover, while the present Marines rally together and spot a small ship in the distant water. Nobody can recognize the ship, and then another cannon fires. Cutty unfortunately catches the brunt of the second attack.
It is dark, at first, and when he can finally open his eyes, it is to the worried faces of Iceburg, Kokoro and Yokozuna. He tries to sit up, but finds he can't move.
"Don't sit up, Franky... You're still healing from the operation..." Iceburg states in a soft voice.
Operation? He is as fit as a fiddle! He is more worried about Tom and what had happened at their mentor's pardoning.
"They let Tom go. A full pardon. He saved their lives and helped take out the attacker." Iceburg smiles faintly, then his face grows worried. "He got injured really bad though, Franky."
It turns out that there isn't anybody they can blame for the attack on Water 7. Whoever had been on the ship had gotten away, though it wasn't unscathed. Tom had been severely injured in the attempt to stop the culprit, and had lost an arm. The old shipwright refused to have a cybernetic arm grafted on, and instead used everything he had to save Cutty's life.
With a new lease on life, and at Iceburg's urgings, he takes on the nickname Franky. Guilt tears at him, because if he hadn't got caught up in the cannon fire, Tom would have been able to spend the money on himself for a cybernetic arm. Franky decides that it is best that he goes his own way, at least for a while. Tom doesn't blame him, and he knows that. He just needs some time to himself.