Armonia, the Land of Rock
Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece.
A few days had passed since the treasure hunters escaped Roguetown and the clutches of Smoker. He hated to spread the word of a single group of "treasure hunters" slip out of his grasp, but Smoker thought he'd have to spread the word about them so that someone may catch up and catch them. So, with that in mind, he sat in his office in Roguetown, holding his Den Den Mushi, looking up at the ceiling while a lower-ranking Marine stood nearby.
"Why don't you call HQ, sir?"
Smoker glanced at the Marine, looking at her like she was a fool, "I'm not going to waste my breath and the Government's manpower to look for nobodies. I'll let someone else around here pick up the slack,"
"Anyone in particular, sir?"
The large Marine drummed his desk idly, thinking, "I might know of one. Someone who's about as tough as me, but doesn't get a lot of action,"
"Doesn't he take special pills?"
Again, Smoker glanced at the now smiling Marine.
"Sorry sir," she cleared her throat and her smile disappeared, "It was too easy,"
Smoker rolled his eyes, "Whatever. Anyway, he should still be in the East Blue, he'll probably run into that kid,"
"Who?"
-Soon after, at an unnamed, uninhabited island in the East Blue...-
"MOUSE!!! MOUSE, YOU LITTLE TOOTHPICK GET BACK HERE OR ELSE I'M GONNA NAIL THEM TO THE WALL OF THE SHIP!"
A tall, scrawny young man in his late teens jumped over a log, his short, brown hair being pushed by the wind as he ran against it. The thin runner wore tight camouflage pants, outfitted with a utility belt of sorts, no shirt, and a pair of black goggles that were fastened around his seldom seen brown eyes. Under one of his arms, he had a stack of what appeared to be comic books, which appeared to be the target of his pursuer, who wasn't looking very happy right now.
A young, attractive woman in her early twenties was running close behind him, shortening the distance between her and her target with each second. The woman had long, bright green hair flowing behind her while tied in a long braid. Her usually sparkling emerald colored eyes were now dark and full of fury. She wore loose cargo pants, a blue tube top and a small vest with the Marine logo on the back.
"MOUSE! THIS IS YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICER TALKING AND I ORDER YOU TO STOP AND GIMME BACK MY COMIC BOOKS!"
"GOTTA CATCH ME FIRST, KITTY CAT!"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT! JUST BECAUSE YOUR NAME IS MOUSE DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN CALL ME THAT!"
The two people's screams echoed around the island, which were heard pretty easily by the rest of their group of Marines. They were anchored on one of the few beaches and were all having an easy time, having a barbecue, having combat contests, drinking contests, etc etc. One Marine in particular, a rather large man was laying on a large, flat boulder a short distance away from the ship, a Marine coat with the word "Justice" in kanji draped over his face.
"MOUSE!"
BOOM!
"DAMMIT MOUSE, THAT ALMOST BLEW MY FOOT OFF!"
"NOT MY FAULT!"
Dammit...can't those two learn how to behave?!
The large figure growled and sat up, pulling the coat off his face, revealing a firm, dark, serious and currently annoyed face of an experience Marine. Rolling himself off the boulder, the man was a sight to behold. He had a head of long, black hair that was was so long, it reached his buttocks, his bangs tinted gray. He was well built, thanks to his years as a soldier and years from training, and his body showed proof of that with not just well-toned muscles, but with the numerous battle scars he has earned in his years of service. One other thing that was noticeable about this man was the fact that he had no right arm...at least, no right arm that was real. He had lost that years ago during a campaign with his commanding officer, and now he was outfitted with a mechanical replacement.
Captain "Thunder Fist" as he was called by many, cracked his neck loudly and threw his coat over his shoulder before heading back to his ship.
The soldiers under his command saluted him, but he just waved them off and reminded them they were all on vacation.
"Sir, Mouse and Emi are-,"
"I know,"
"Shouldn't we-?"
"No," Thunder Fist shook his head as he grabbed a large piece of meat, "If they're going to ruin my nap, I'm going to make up for it with a bite to eat," he opened his mouth, the intended snack coming closer, but just before he could take a single bite...
"Captain! Captain, we have a communication from Roguetown!"
Sonofa-! Smoker, I am going to kick your ass the next time I see you! Thunder Fist took a bite of his snack and snatched the Den Den Mushi from the approaching Marine, "Yeah, yeah, what's up, Smokey?" he asked after swallowing his bite.
-At that moment, in ANOTHER part of the East Blue...-
"You know, we have no name for this ship or for ourselves," Axe rubbed his chin, looking at his new ship, "Okay, we need a name and a symbol...if we're gonna be called pirates, we might as well have a mark like some!"
Ripley, Axe, Toby and Kairi put their heads together.
"Names or symbol first?"
"Let's go with names,"
"Alrighty, let's get some names out there,"
"...Holy Ark,"
"Hmm, too religious. How about...Lycan's Lunar Crusade?"
"Too...wolfy. How about The Tomahawk?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Guys?"
"You know," Ripley tapped her chin, "That's actually fitting, given who we're traveling with,"
Kairi and Toby nodded.
"That does work, actually,"
"Oh yeah...,"
Axe clapped his hands, "Perfect! We have a ship name, but to make it official, raise your hand. Those in favor of The Tomahawk, raise your hand!"
"AYE!" all three nakama's hands shot into the air.
"Woohoo, we have a title! Er, a ship name, whatever," Axe crossed his arms, "Now, we just need a group name and a flag,"
"I might have something for the flag bit, Boss,"
-A short while later...-
"Wow...,"
"That...that's perfect, Ripley!"
"Thank you! Did my best on it!"
"Intimidating, ain't it?"
"We're so gonna get into trouble for this..,"
Kairi, Toby and Axe looked up at their Jolly Roger, a black flag with the picture of a skull surrounded by four axes.
"It is good," Toby scratched his head, "But do you think we need a new flag?"
Axe shook his head, "Nah, I think it's looks good. Awright, we just need a name,"
"How about-?"
"We are the Axe-Head Pirates!"
"What the-?!"
"That's our name,"
"You're not even gonna hear our suggestions?"
"Nope,"
"Why the hell not?!"
"Because I'm Captain,"
"What kinda reason is that?"
"It's a good reason. I win, so there,"
"You're a pain in the ass...,"
"You're kidding...right?!"
Thunder Fist shook his head as he leaned back in his chair and propped his boots onto his desk, "Nope. We gotta call from ol' Smokey, asking us to hunt down a bunch of no-name pirates for him because he couldn't catch them himself,"
Mouse snorted, a smile creeping on his face, "Smoker of Roguetown, a guy who has a great reputation of catching pirates before entering the Pirates Graveyard, not only loses a target but asks us for help...man, that's gotta sting his pride,"
Thunder Fist chuckled, "Yeah, I can tell from his tone of voice that he didn't like the situation either. However, because of his goof-up, our little free time has been canceled and it's time for us to hunt these guys down and capture them,"
Emi nodded and stretched her arms above her head, "I'll keep an eye out for anything on the wire, see if anything comes up,"
"Good. Mouse, what're you gonna do?"
"Well, I-ACK!" he was cut off as Emi pulled him into a tight headlock, "Leggo!"
"Mouse is going to give me back my comic books he stole, or else he's going to be sleeping tied to the top of the main mast of the ship!"
"Leggo of me, you damn otaku!"
"Gimme back my comics!"
Thunder First rolled his eyes at his subordinates, Kids...
Armonia Island was definitely one of the most unique islands Axe had been to so far. There was only one major city on the island, and that city was the reason the island was unique. It had buildings of various sizes, tons of shops and the people were...interesting, to say the least. Of course, Axe could barely pay any attention to anything else besides the hunger in his stomach, and he wasn't alone, because Toby's stomach was growling almost as loudly as he did when he went wolf and a waterfall of drool was flowing from his mouth almost the entire time he and his nakama walked the streets of Armonia.
"Hungry...so hungry...," the young lycanthrope moaned, his stomach growling again, "I need some meat...gotta have some meat before...before...,"
CHOMP!
"Uhm...ladies?"
Ripley and Kairi turned around and were startled to see Toby trying to gnaw their captain's arm to sustain his hunger. Axe was starving, but when his Second Mate began to chew on him, his hunger was lessened and replaced by annoyance.
He is so damn lucky that he can't bite through my skin because of my Devil Fruit... he lifted his arm and gave Toby a very annoyed look, "Ahem...?"
Toby gnawed a few more times before coming to a stop and realizing what he was doing. He looked around to see his surprised and irritated nakama staring at him. Slowly, he pulled his jaws away from his captain's limb and crouched doggy-style, head hung low in shame.
"Sorry...,"
"No problem," Axe looked at his arm, "Tore some of my jacket and now my arm is covered in slobber...great," he removed his jacket and flung it over his shoulder, "Seriously, ladies, can we get some frickin' lunch? I got lucky because of my Fruit, if he bites any of you two, you'll be just like him!"
Ripley nodded slowly, looking apprehensive about what had just happened in front of her and Kairi, "That's...that's a good idea, Boss...I, uh...I think I saw a restaurant not too far up the street,"
"Let's get our asses in gear then, before Wolfy has another hunger attack,"
-A short time later...-
"I cannot believe that just happened," Kairi muttered as she left the noisy restaurant, Ripley close behind her, "Tell me that didn't just happen,"
The navigator swung her war-hammer over her shoulders, "What didn't just happen? The boys eating like pigs, the boys letting out belches that actually shook the building itself, or the patrons cheering them on for burping like that?"
Kairi hung her head, "It did happen. Ripley, we need to find another girl for the crew, I don't care what position she can do, we just need another girl...,"
"Gain the advantage in numbers, huh?" Ripley grinned and looked up at the night sky, "Well, if we're lucky, the next crewmate we get will be a girl,"
"I'll start praying to God for that hope," Kairi lifted her head and looked around, "You know, for a place that has a nice name like Armonia, this place isn't exactly expecting it to look like this,"
That was true. With a name like Armonia Island, Kairi expected a nice, beautiful place with some degree of peace, but in reality, Armonia was quite the opposite. The streets were filled with shops and buildings, that was true, but it was also filled with rough looking people, armed to the teeth, dressed in outrageous clothing and carrying all kinds of strange looking musical instruments. The former Holy Knight had seen guitars before back home in the West Blue, but these guitars were nothing like the ones back home. These guitars weren't made of wood like the ones she was used to, they were made out of some kind of shiny metal and they sounded much differently than the wooden ones.
"What is this place all about, anyway?"
"The Land of Rock,"
"Hm?" Kairi turned to see Ripley looking through a small book, "Hey, where'd you get that?"
"Bought it earlier," Ripley flipped a page, "It's a guidebook to the island,"
"Why didn't you say so before?!"
"I didn't think it was important at the time," Ripley scanned the pages, "Anyway, like I was saying, the reason people are dressed like this and carrying around things like that is because this is 'The Land of Rock' or so it says in the book. There are plenty of islands in the world that are focused around music styles, and despite the name, this one is evidently focused on the rock and roll genre of music,"
"I don't think I've ever heard of that kind,"
"Well, you have been living in a church all your life...," Ripley cleared her throat, "Hey, check this out, I got something with the book," she pulled out a piece of paper that was stuck between the pages.
"What is it, what's it say?"
"Apparently, it's a notice. Strange, why put a notice in a guidebook?"
Ripley shrugged, "Dunno...now, what does this say?" she looked it over, "Oh, that's a shame. We came all this way for it, too,"
"What? What? What?"
The navigator turned to see Kairi bouncing in place, "You know, you could calm down first,"
She stopped bouncing.
"Good girl," Ripley held up the piece of paper, "That TRIN-OTY concert we came here for is sold out. There's no more tickets for sell,"
"What?! Are you kidding me?" Kairi snatched the paper, "It can't be sold out, we came all this way for the concert! It can't be sold out!"
Ripley reached over and patted her nakama on the head, "Don't worry, kid. I'm sure there's more than one concert performance on an island like this," she reached over and carefully pulled the notice paper away from Kairi's fingers, Wow, sold out? she glanced at the paper again, This band must be pretty good for that status!
Kairi sighed and turned back to the restaurant's entrance, "C'mon, Rip, let's go get the boys...if we're lucky, we can find a cheap hotel for the night,"
Once they collected their nakama, the two females of the crew made their way through crowded streets of oddly dressed men and women. Even though Kairi knew the reason why they dressed up like that, she still felt like there a bunch of oddballs. As they walked, Kairi began to notice a pattern with the walls and posts around the city: pandas. Lots and lots of pandas. There were flyers with panda marks stuck to the walls, there were stores that sold clothes with panda designs on them, and even little knick-knacks with pandas stamped on them.
The First Mate looked at all the panda things and turned to Ripley, "What's with all the panda stuff...?" she asked, jerking a thumb to the merchandise.
"Hm?" Ripley glanced at the panda-decorated things and grinned, "Oh, that. That's Doskoi Panda merchandise,"
"Doskoi Panda?" Kairi tilted her head, "I don't think I've ever heard of it,"
The navigator chuckled and pulled Kairi close into an embrace, "My dear Kairi, you have SO much to learn about the world...,"
"Five minutes 'til showtime, guys!"
"Thanks! Haruko, c'mon, our show's about to start! Pick up Canti and take your place on the stage!"
A young, attractive woman, age nineteen, with short, bright blue hair waved her bandmates off and picked up an awesome looking black guitar with red flames painted on the instrument. She pulled the strap over and around her, then tested a few chords.
"Hmmm, a little out of tune," she stuck out her tongue and adjusted her instrument accordingly, "Canti, Canti, Canti, who has been using you behind my back, huh baby?" she sighed.
"Haruko! Move it, Panda Girl!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming, keep your shirt on!"
"Okay, does anyone have any idea where a cheap hotel is?" Kairi asked after about an eternity of searching, looking very tired and irritated, "Did you find anything, Ripley?"
No answer.
"Ripley?" the exhausted First Mate looked around, but couldn't find her navigator friend, or any of her other nakama either, "Where'd they go now?"
"KAIRI! OI! KAIRI, OVER HERE!" she could hear Ripley screaming from somewhere nearby, but couldn't quite place it, "Toby and Axe are glued to the meat store window again, could you help me get them?"
The former Holy Knight was on the verge of tears. She fell to her knees and looked up at the sky, "Dear God in Heaven, I pray to you now. Please...PLEASE...show me mercy. Just a bit, I'm not asking for much, I'm just asking that you turn my idiot friends into people who don't think with their stomachs,"
Kilnorc: Sorry for the wait guys, more tech problems as well as creative ones, but I finally got it finished! Hope ya'll enjoyed it, cuz I had fun writing it. Later, ya'll!
On the next chapter of Origin...
Ripley: Oooh...you don't look so good, Kairi.
Axe: i love this place, the music is great!
Haruko: Not this again!
Kairi: Are you guys really that good?
Distress! Haruko, Queen of Rock
Ripley: Wow, this sounds serious.