While within Cooktopia's safe sea radius, Harmony was looking out at the sea beside Nakama's figurehead. She looked lost in her own thoughts before Julio came over snapping her back to reality. "You good?" She turned, and for a second couldn't get words, but after figuring it out, she asked, "Am I really ready for this..?" Julio looked confused. "I mean... if you guys got there any later, then I might have lost... and Kiwi..." He responded by patting her back. "If you held out any less, we wouldn't have made it," he smiled, grinning widely. "Don't go selling yourself short. You lost the fight, sure. But we won cuz of your stubbornness. If not for you, our little bundle of joy wouldn't be here." Kiwi popped out of below deck, "Yea!"
She stood there for a second before she started chuckling. "You're right. I'm not strong on my own. I don't know if I'll ever be strong enough on my own..." She stared up at the sky, a reignited fire in her eyes, "But I'm not on my own." The doorknob to the kitchen area rattled open, and she turned seeing Minx and Kasai come up with some crispy poultry that made her mouth water just smelling it. Her attention went there, and she immediately started eating her plate, leaving Julio laughing to himself as he gets his own.
The crew all talk and laugh, unaware of a tail a few miles back. A small one-manned vessel holding a single armoured person was following the Nakama, his armour a complete metalic black. In his hand he held a giant wooden spear with an obsidian head. "Cleoma Harmony... your bounty is mine!" he said to himself, his voice muffled but understandable by the helmet. He snaps to attention, noticing the storm beginning to form ahead as they were exiting the safe zone. "Hmph, assuming the storm doesn't take you first."
"Alright little Melodies! We gotta storm brewing!" Harmony called out. "Please don't normalize calling us that-" Kasai asked. "No promises~" she giggled as she hopped up onto the wheel. "Kiwi, eyes on the map! Julio, Minx, eyes on the port and starboard! Kasai, eyes on the sky!" She threw her fist up. "Come at us storm! You ain't got nothin' on us!" A huge bolt of lightning blasted down, evaporating the water it hit all the way down to the seabed. Any fish in the radius was disintegrated. "OK OK YOU GOT PLENTY ON US!!" Kiwi cried out, but Harmony just laughed. "You call that a challenge!?" She started steering, using Doggy Paddle to keep Nakama under control from the waves, but they still beat up against the ship hard as the sea moved wildly to refill holes left by these huge bolts constantly evaporating the area. The current was wild, nearly throwing them on the side multiple times. Then suddenly, the lightning stopped raining down. "Did we make it..?" Minx foolishly asked.
The clouds begun coalescing above them, and Kasai called it out. Harmony was about to go left, but then Julio cried, "Bad waves coming in from the port!" She right right, but Minx exclaimed, "No water on starboard! Its still filling in!" She looked up, watching as the clouds kept condenscing till they started sparking. She jumped forward, climbing onto the mast up to the crows nest, where she threw her hands up, and a gigantic fountain flow of wax flowed from them, covering the Nakama in a shadow, just as the giant bolt blasted down. Harmony didn't know this doing it, but wax doesn't conduct electricity, so while it all melted, it did block the bolt. "LOOK OUT EVERYO-" the liquid wax splatted onto everything, but was warm enough it just flowed off into the sea, but everything was coated in wax now, including the crew.
An entire day of this chaos ensued, never giving up. But Kiwi kept up navigation towards where the logpose was currently locked onto, and they reached the safe zone of the island, finally able to rest just as the sun started rising. "Ok... where are we Kiwi..?" Harmony asked, out of breath. Kasai and Minx started finally getting rid of the wax, and Kiwi double-checked the map. "Stanguria-" he stopped, immediately covering his nose, "Aw what is that smell!?" Everyone reacted, the smell was like a billion eggs had all sat in one place just stankin'. It wasn't quite rotten smelling, but it wasn't pleasant either. Stanguria is the only island in trade that cultivates the Stank Bloom, a flower sought-after by farms for its smell deterring any pests it its own.