Disclaimer: I still don't own One Piece.
~~~~~'*0 O 0*'~~~~~~~ Chapter Six ~~~~~~~'*0 O 0*'~~~~~
"Put on your war paint
You are a brick tied to me that's dragging me down
Strike a match and I'll burn you to the ground
We are the jack-o-lanterns in July
Setting fire to the sky
He-here comes this rising tide
So come on
Put on your war paint
Cross walks and crossed hearts and hope-to-dies
Silver clouds with grey linings
So we can take the world back from the heart-attacked
One maniac at a time we will take it back
You know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start
So dance alone to the beat of your heart"
(The Phoenix, Fall Out Boy)
Franky had a bad feeling. It wasn't a feeling that he had very often, but it was easy to recognise when it did rear its ugly head. Surprisingly though, this bad feeling didn't look quite as ugly as he had expected.
In fact, his hentai senses were telling him that it was gorgeous.
He was slowly coming to whilst swaying dangerously and facing a moving ceiling. Or floor, whatever it was. He was feeling groggy, like he had just passed out unexpectedly and was now being transported to Chopper's Infirmary- but that explanation wasn't right; it didn't justify the fact that he was feeling so incredibly weak and on the verge of being drifted out on a small boat over the beckoning lake of unconsciousness.
Moving his head was a struggle, seeing as he still wasn't quite sure if he was fighting gravity or not. The first thing that started to swim into focus, other than the ceiling/floor, was a dark blob that was bobbing around in front of him. When he squinted a little bit closer, it seemed to be trying to move rapidly away from him, and yet he was seemingly able to keep up with it whilst being unaware that he was even moving. Upon closer inspection, the blob could be identified as having long, slender legs clothed in black tights, a short navy skirt, and what he presumed to be a navy blazer.
The cyborg felt his gaze drifting back to the legs whose heels clip clopped their way down a marble corridor. They were shapely and definitely feminine, enticing his perverted mind to mentally disrobe them and the rest of the body too. His eyes shifted upwards (or was it downwards?) and rested on the woman's sashaying backside, and then on her back. This woman, whoever she was, was a mystery indeed. He didn't know who she was because his memories were still swimming in a sea of emptiness, and from his angle he had no idea what size her boobs were. Such a mystery.
Still the woman walked her fast pace, and then turned a sharp corner with no warning whatsoever. Franky grunted when he felt his body swing roughly and slam into what felt like another person.
Now that his attention was rudely torn away from the problematic beauty in front of him, the shipwright realised that he was actually being carried over a scarily large man' shoulder. His metal-and-skin chest was digging painfully into a white and blue clad shoulder, his hands were still chained behind his back, and – if it were possible – he felt weaker than he ever had before.
No one reacted to the noise of distress coming from the robotic guy who was being manhandled like a potato sack. They were too busy yelling orders and insults at each other whilst trying to keep their own prisoners over their shoulders, in their arms, or in their grips as they dragged them along the marble ground like tattered old teddies that they no longer cared for.
"Oi, you idiot! Stop dithering…!"
"Don't call me an idiot, you son of a…!"
"You guys are getting on my nerves; quit it with the yelling already…!"
Franky had to stifle some insults and curses of his own once he spotted the conditions his nakamas were in. they looked pretty beat up, with the Monster Trio looking the worst for wear. Robin was being carried, bridal-style, by a creep that could probably rival Sanji's sickeningly doting glances with his own soppy excuse for an adoring, almost lecherous expression.
He could just about spy Brook's bony backside sticking out in the air, the rest of his skeletal body hanging over the other side of the man who was carrying him. His face wasn't visible (as if he even had one) because of the way in which he was being transported. Chopper was having the life hugged out of him by a brute that didn't look particularly bright, his fur being constantly rubbed and stroked by the man's free hand. Ussop was one of the ones being dragged along, his skin on his chest and exposed belly most likely littered and riddled with friction burns. Franky winced; that was definitely going to hurt in the morning.
Or was it night? He hadn't seen any windows, or the outdoors for that matter, since…
Well, what felt like a long time.
Just as suddenly as she had turned the corner, the woman and her entourage stopped with a jolt in front of a large door with the words "Marine Vice-Admiral; Sir A. Archfist" emblazoned across it in big, bold letters. The woman knocked politely before barging into the room with her men behind her, strutting briskly up to a desk at the far end of the room. A man sat behind the desk, his expression not visible because the light streaming from the large window did little to chase away the shadows shrouding his face.
"We got them, sir. Can you tell us the plan now? I won't be very happy if you sent me to get them just to refuse me information that I so desperately want to hear-"
"Ann. Shut up."
The blonde straightened back up instantly, almost falling over herself in order to follow her leader's command. She stumbled backwards, right into one of the other men in the room; the one carrying Zoro, in fact. The jolt seemed to wake the swordsman up, as he groaned loudly before attempting to rub at his eye. He didn't succeed, as his arms didn't seem to work due to what Franky had to assume was the mystery fatigue that had settled over him in a thick blanket, cloaking his body and keeping him from moving much else other than his head.
"Huh? Why am I so weak…?"
He trailed off when he noticed that he was in quite a fix. His eye darted around the room, flicking over the man in the shadows, 'Ann', the meatheads who were dragging his nakama around, and finally settled on his aforementioned nakamas. Franky didn't think that he had ever seen so much of the white of the green-haired man's eye- they were fully widened in shock at their current condition.
"What… the hell happened to you guys?" As soon as the words left his lips, Ann had raised a blue hand, ready to send him into oblivion yet again. She was stopped, however, by the shadow-man (whom Franky guessed was 'Sir A. Archfist') silencing Zoro's queries with a harsh voice.
"Ann, stop. I told you to weaken them, not to knock them out. I want to have a word with them."
Instantly, the blue glow faded. Ann stood to attention, leaving the now-enraged Zoro to struggle fruitlessly against his captor's brute strength. On a normal day, He would've been able to pound everyone in the room without even having to use his swords- but this wasn't a normal day, as far as Franky could tell, even by the Straw Hats' standards.
"Sir, why are you keeping these pirate scums alive? They are unworthy of breathing for a minute longer!" She looked furious, and Franky was glad that he hadn't let them know that he was awake and could hear them.
Jeez. She could give Nami on a bad day a run for her beloved money…
That thought left him feeling a little odd. But why? He glanced back at his nakamas, doing a quick head-count. He hadn't even got halfway through when the memories of the last few hours or so hit him like a ton of bricks.
She wasn't here.
Franky gasped, alerting the blonde woman, whose looks he was now ashamed of admiring, and Archfist to his current state of wakefulness. Ann huffed and crossed her arms, turning back to the Vice-Admiral to glower at the supposed man in charge.
"Great. Now they're all waking up! We could've got rid of them while they were asleep and unable to put up a fight, but no, you just had to go against Marine protocol and let them live longer than they should ever be allowed!"
That was the last straw for Archfist. He slammed the palms of his hands against his desk, making Ann and the man carrying him jump at the sudden and loud action and effectively silenced the quiet mumbles and murmurs of agreement amongst the crowd.
"Get out of my office."
"But Sir-"
"Now. Leave the Straw Hats here and lock the door behind you."
Ann mumbled a quiet reply, blushing red with embarrassment over her outburst and she quickly shoved past the other Marines to escape Archfist's gaze. Franky felt himself being tossed to the ground harshly, allowing a small grunt escape his mouth upon making contact with the floor. When he looked up, he could see his crew scattered across the room and the door slamming closed behind the men and Ann.
"Gah… my head hurts like hell…"
The Straw Hats were slowly waking up, one by one. Luffy was the loudest, moaning about his 'owies' to Chopper despite the captain still being half unconscious and the doctor even more so. But then, all of the people in the room snapped fully awake when a cold, even voice rang out through the room.
"Good to see you're awake, Mugiwara. I have a business proposal for you, and I would listen very carefully if I were you. Your Navigator will be at risk, otherwise."
A/N DUN. DUN. DUUUUUN.
Gah, this chapter was so hard to write.
Firstly, thanks for the get-well-soon wishes! I really appreciated them!
Who is Archfist? Why are the Straw Hats still alive? What is Archfist's plan? How does Nami fit in to all of this? Wasn't she accidently left behind?!
Nope! The Marines aren't so complacent as to leave one of the Straw Hats behind and kidnap the rest. If they left one Straw Hat behind, they would still be a risk to the Marines – even if they are the 'weakest' of the crew.
The reason why I put 'weakest' in inverted commas is because me and murasakiana had a great discussion about Nami and how she is so underestimated all of the time. The whole damsel-in-distress thing is alright if it's used occasionally, but come on guys! She doesn't need to be a weakling all the time! After all (as me and Mura discussed) she did travel East Blue completely by herself from the tender age of ten, robbing countless vicious pirates blind and with no help whatsoever.
Nami can handle herself, even if it's hard! If the situation really calls for it, she could trump all of the villains single-handedly and with the only difficulty coming from her lack of monster strength that Luffy, Zoro and Sanji have.
Lastly, I will continue this story, but the updates will not be particularly fast.
Enjoy, read and review!