A/N So, it's within twelve hours, but it's technically the 2nd so here's another chapter of Heroes Will Rise! Once again I do not own any of the characters in this story. Disclaimed!
Nexus HWR 1.2 Scars:
"Land ho!" Usopp yelled from the crow's nest.
Inside the cabin, Ben and Dash snapped up from the table and looked across at each other excitedly. The two of them ran for the door and a few others were heading over behind them. Ben pushed the door open and ran out to the balcony outside the kitchen, taking in a deep breath of air as he did.
"I thought it was going to take longer," Dash said as he jumped up on the railing on Ben's right side. The blond boy leaned forward and put his hand horizontally against the bottom of his forehead, looking over the main and forward decks and out over the ocean.
"It will take much longer," Robin said as she walked out of the kitchen. The two boys looked back and watched as the long-haired woman strolled to the right and to the stairs down to the main deck. "There are many small islands in the Great Ocean. Though we have not been to this particular one before."
"Hey Nami," Usopp called as he climbed down the mast. He looked over his shoulder at the orange haired woman down below and questioned, "I thought you said it would be a few days before we reach our first island?"
"It should be," Nami replied. She had a map held out in her hands and she was looking at it strangely. We've definitely sailed around here before. How could we have missed this place? She rolled back up her map and climbed up to the bow where Luffy, Natsu, and Goku were all standing and looking towards the island up ahead. "It is a pretty small one," Nami said, "maybe we did just miss it." She gazed over to the island covered in a dense forest that was probably only one mile wide by two miles long.
The island had rounded shores that were not covered in sand, as the forest started as soon as the island touched the water. There were tall trees and lush foliage scattered around the island, most of it green, but some other colors like red, orange, and yellow. "Let's go check it out!" someone shouted behind them. The group on the forward deck looked back and saw Ben running up the steps and Dash following right behind him. "That place looks cool!" Ben added.
Luffy laughed and threw his arms up, "Yosh! Let's go!"
"We're landing here?" Gray asked as he walked up the steps. He did not sound too thrilled about it, "It's only been a day. We don't need to restock our supplies yet, not that we could on an island so small."
"Don't worry," Nami waved off the mage behind her. "We'll only be here for a minute or two, then we'll head off again for Aebrith. Okay?" She asked it without really wanting an answer, and Gray could tell so he crossed his arms and humphed.
Luffy turned to say that he wanted to check the place out for longer, but before he could open his mouth he heard something. Luffy turned back around and he looked out at the island, staring at it with a weird expression on his face. Natsu turned left and saw the pirate on his side staring at the island with a thoughtful gaze. "What are you doing?" Natsu laughed, and Luffy turned to the pink haired mage next to him. "It's just an island," Natsu said, shaking his own head at how weird Luffy looked right there.
Luffy frowned and opened his mouth to make a retort, but someone beat him to it. "Is it now?" Goku asked. The other two looked to the man with spiky black hair who gave the island the same look Luffy did a few seconds ago.
"Did you hear it too?" Luffy asked.
Goku turned to Luffy in surprise. "Hear what?" He asked.
Natsu smirked and he started laughing again, "Luffy, are you hearing things?"
"Someone said something," Luffy said, turning back out towards the island. Natsu stopped laughing as Luffy regained that weird expression on his face. They were closer to the island now and Luffy furrowed his brow at the sides of it, and his eyes wandered to the back of the island. His eyes enlarged and he leaned his head right, stretching his neck and freaking out Natsu who stepped back as the long rubbery neck stretched out in front of him. Luffy's head shot off the starboard side of the ship giving him a better look around the side of the island. All at once his head snapped back, and Luffy hummed to himself, "That's weird."
A white haired boy on the crow's nest was thinking the same thing. Killua gazed down at the island and now that they were closer he could see the sides better. He could see the water getting pushed away instead of crashing down into the shores, and he could see some white water on the back edges that were visible to them. The island is moving, Killua thought.
"Hey Timmy," Dash called behind him. The little blond boy looked back and shouted, "Come up here! This island is-"
"Alive," Timmy finished, appearing up on the bow with the others out of nowhere. Most of them were surprised at Timmy's sudden appearance, but as they got over it, they realized what he said and double-taked back at the island.
"Alive?!" Ben and Dash exclaimed together.
Nami's eyes opened wide. "So then, it makes sense that it would not be on my map."
"What is it?" Gray wondered.
"I'm gonna find out!" Natsu shouted. He climbed up on the railing and smirked back at Luffy. "Bet you wish you could do this right now," he chided, then dove off the bow of the Sunny.
Luffy frowned and he climbed up on the railing. "Luffy wait!" Ben shouted at the pirate. "You can't swim," the younger boy reasoned with him.
"But," Luffy glanced back at the island. Nami was calling out orders to get the other pirates to slow the Sunny down, but when she heard Ben she turned around and looked at the railing that Luffy was standing on. Luffy grinned at them even as Nami opened her mouth to shout, and he said, "But I want to see what it is."
"Hold-" Nami started, but Luffy dove off the ship before she could finish. She rubbed her forehead in annoyance and considered letting him drown for a second just to teach him a lesson not to rely on them to save him all the time. After that second though she yelled out for someone to dive in after him.
Under the water, Natsu opened his mouth in shock and bubbles flushed out as he released all his air. The Dragon Slayer stared forward at the face of the island that was staring directly back at him. He heard something above him and it distracted him enough from the face of the giant creature that he realized how much air he had left and scrambled up for the surface.
As he reached his hands above his head to swim up, he let out even more air in surprise at the sight of Luffy sinking towards him. For a second he thought he was wrong about Devil Fruit eaters not being able to swim, until he saw Luffy swinging his arms around yet still sinking like a hammer. Luffy let out all his air as he saw the monster too, and he sank even faster.
"Crap Luffy!" Natsu shouted, though shouting underwater just drained the last of his air and he grabbed at his throat as water poured in.
As the two of them sank down, a fish raced towards them baring an open mouth of razor-sharp teeth. It charged them and extended arms with sharp claws at the end of them. The two defenseless men did not even see it coming, and it slammed both arms into them and their bodies bent over its hands.
After slamming into them, the fish swam up and right out the top of the water next to the island's edge. A flash of green surrounded the creature and Ben landed on shore in between Natsu and Luffy who started coughing up buckets of water. The thirteen year old stared at the other two like they were idiots, which they really were to have almost drowned in such a stupid way.
Natsu shot up after he spit up his water and he shouted, "It's a lion!"
Most people on the Sunny who heard him stared at the young man like he was even more of an idiot now. Luffy jumped up after him and he shouted, "No, it's a turtle!"
Goku smiled and he said, "Must be a lion turtle." The others looked at him confusedly, but Goku continued, "I've seen one before. I wonder if this is the same one."
"A lion turtle?" Nami asked. She looked back at the island and gazed through the water. The ocean was not particularly clear, being a dark blue color. However, the closer she looked she actually spotted a head down there moving around. "Whoa," she whispered in amazement. "This planet just gets weirder every day."
"Hey Timmy," Dash called to the other twelve year old. "Race you to the island!" Without a second's hesitation he jumped off the ship. Timmy looked towards Nami while Dash was falling and the woman looked back at him and gave him a small nod. Timmy grinned and right as Dash touched down on the water, Timmy flew as fast as he could towards the island. For everyone else there except for Goku, all they saw was… well, they did not see anything. All they could see were Dash and Timmy standing on the shore of the lion turtle next to a surprised Ben, Natsu, and Luffy. The two of them were arguing with each other over who won the race.
"Guys," Ben said to the younger boys who appeared next to him. "Let's go check out the island!" He turned and ran up into the forest. Dash and Timmy looked at each other excitedly, then ran up into the trees after Ben.
The people on the pirate ship could hear the kids shouting excitedly from the island. Sanji frowned and crossed his arms as he looked off the ship, "I didn't know we were running a day care."
"Having a few cabin boys won't be such a bad thing," Franky said. "We can make them do the chores we don't want." The pirate smirked and Sanji started grinning too.
"Still," Gray muttered. "We're heading into a war-zone. Don't you think they're being a little immature?"
"Oi! Wait for me!" They all looked back towards the island and saw Luffy running into the woods after the children.
"Luffy! Wait up!" The crew turned to see Usopp run up to the bow. He lifted up his slingshot and fired a device that opened up like a claw and connected to a tree on the island next to Luffy. Usopp put his slingshot down in between two bars of the railing, lifted up a piece of cloth he was holding, and wrapped it around the wire that connected the claw to his slingshot. "AAaaaAAAaaaAAA!" Usopp shouted as he zip-lined towards the island.
Gray and Sanji sweatdropped as they realized the kids were not the only immature ones on the ship. Natsu watched as Usopp and Luffy ran off, and he looked back at the ship to see some of the older people looking at them like they were being immature. Aw man, he thought, and jumped up in the air back for the ship.
"Alright everyone," Nami called out. "We're going to be here for a little. Sanji-"
"On it!" He shouted without needing to wait for her to finish giving him an order.
While Ben, Dash, Timmy, Luffy, and Usopp ran around on the lion turtle's back, the others gathered on the ship's main deck for a snack. They figured they would give the captain the time he wanted to run around, but it was such a nice day out that they decided to eat outside. Gray was getting frustrated waiting around and he ate fast like it would get them to leave earlier. He started pacing and looking around impatiently but most people were ignoring him.
Nami sighed as she looked over from where she was sitting with Robin and Juvia. Juvia was looking his way more worriedly and Nami did not like it when her friend looked like that. "Gray," Nami called to him. Juvia looked at Nami in surprise as she said it rather loud. Nami smiled towards the edge of the ship where Gray turned to her. "Could you tell us more about these enemies of yours?"
Gray frowned, I know what you're doing. But whether we're doing something productive or not, we're still wasting time. He opened his mouth, but sighed and closed it, deciding not to complain. If we're stuck here anyway, may as well go with the productive option. Gray started walking towards Nami and a few others on the grassy deck looked his way.
Killua got off the swing he was sitting on and casually walked their way with his hands in his pockets. Rin hopped down from the railing outside the kitchen he was sitting on and walked over as well while Kirito dropped down from the boom. Before Kirito dropped, he asked the others with him if they wanted to go down, but Sora, Kairi, and Riku did not, too involved with their own conversation and snacks. The black haired teen in a hoodie of the same color landed next to Rin, and the two of them stepped towards the three women sitting on the grass.
"You want to know about the King huh?" Gray asked, not sounding too interested himself in the question.
"Not really," Nami replied, surprising the man and the others who came to listen in. "Goku's probably going to wind up fighting him after all. Right?" She questioned loudly and the others turned around towards the kitchen.
"Yeah!" Goku called through a mouthful of food. Sanji just brought the Saiyan another large plate over where he was sitting in the shade next to the wall.
"So," Nami continued. She put her empty plate down next to her and stood up. Robin got up as well and Juvia scrambled up after so she wouldn't be the only one sitting in the group. "Tell us more about the King's underlings. The ones that we'll be fighting over there."
Gray hummed and nodded his head a few times as that made some sense. "Although," Gray began, "we should try to avoid getting in fights with the King's men at all costs." The others looked at him in surprise, wondering why he would not want to fight his enemies. He explained, "When Lords get attacked, or their men do, other allied Lords send in reinforcements. At worst, a High Lord will show up if his men need-"
"Whoa!" Nami held up her hands. "Lords, High Lords, how about you slow down? How strong are those guys?" She questioned.
Gray sighed again, as he realized that common knowledge for people on Aebrith was unknown to most of the people on the ship. He nodded at Nami and looked around at the group with him. "I'll give it to you in tiers," he began.
He stared at the white haired kid who he first met on this ship the day before. "The first tier, at the very top of the Cooperative- that is, the alliance of Lords and High Lords who control most of Aebrith- is the King himself. I don't feel like I have to say this, but no matter what happens you must stay away from him."
"Yes yes, the King is bad," Natsu spoke up, making Gray turn to see the Dragon Slayer sitting at the bottom of the stairs. He had an annoyed expression on his face and he said, "You've said it enough. What about the other guys?"
Gray ground his teeth together and seethed, "The second tier..." He continued as if ignoring Natsu completely, pissing off the pink haired mage. "Are the High Lords. Each one of them are like Kings in their own right. They rule countries, some as large or larger than the land the NEG controlled at its peak."
"As big as the NEG?" Rin questioned in surprise. "How big is Aebrith?"
"Several times larger than Awul," Gray answered quickly. The others opened their eyes wide in surprise as many of them had lived on Awul their entire times on Nexus and thought it was already a massive place. Gray continued, "Anyway, the third tier in the Co-op, are the Lords. Normally, these are the best and most trusted soldiers of the High Lords that they put in charge of cities in their territory. Sometimes though, someone powerful will swear allegiance to a certain High Lord for protection, and become a Lord in the process even if they and the High Lord do not know each other well."
"So," Killua began as he thought hard on what Gray was saying. "You're saying not everyone can become a High Lord. That, no matter how powerful, the High Lords are set in stone?"
"Not exactly, but you're right that it is a difficult process putting new High Lords in charge," Gray explained. "They interact personally and regularly with the King. They have to be able to stand up against other High Lords' armies. And on top of that, wars for land already devastated the population, no one wants to try and become a High Lord and wind up killing everyone left."
What he said was pretty grim, and the others were silent for a few seconds. Finally Kirito spoke up, "If each of these High Lords have huge expanses of land, then there can't be too many of them, correct?" He waited and Gray nodded his head after a second. "Then, how many are there?" Kirito questioned.
Gray hummed to himself. "To tell you the truth, I do not know. In the last few months things may have changed, but if it is the same as when I left, then there should be about a dozen of them."
"'About a dozen?'" Killua asked and raised his eyebrows. Gray looked at the boy confused and Killua scoffed. "I figured if you were fighting them for a while, you would at least have an exact number."
The others looked down at the kid, a few of them with glares as he was being a dick. The ice mage scowled at the boy and started, "I rarely went north of the Cataclysm after the Third War of-" Gray stopped mid-sentence. He felt no need to explain himself and just shook his head a few times. "I do have some information on the High Lords though, if you want to know?" He darted a glare at Killua who held up his hands defensively and nodded for Gray to continue.
"Alright, I'll list out the ones I know and the ones I have fought against before." Gray took a deep breath and he looked up at the sky thinking back on his past on Aebrith. "Just a warning, I would not go after a Lord on my own, so these High Lords are extremely powerful." He got a few nods from the others and continued, "Okay, so there's Kouen Ren- High Lord of the Ren Empire, The Black Witch, The Fire Lord, Terminus, Satan, The Emperor..."
"Hold up, hold up," Nami waved her hands in front of herself. She had a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of her face but she laughed off her nervousness. "Did, you just say, Satan?"
Gray grimaced and nodded his head. "Satan is considered on a different level than most of the High Lords."
Nami's face turned blue as she realized she did not mishear Gray. Natsu started to sweat a little just like Robin and Juvia, while Killua and Kirito did not look too surprised. Rin clenched his fists hard and bared his teeth but held his tongue for now. "Are you talking," Kirito started quietly, "about the actual devil?"
Gray nodded his head. "His army is infinite. Demons cover the entire continent. Exorcise them and they go to Hell, but the gates are open and they come right back."
"What else do you know about him?" The other turned to see Rin looking closely and intensely at Gray. "Where is he?"
"Satan?" Gray wondered. He shook his head, "He rarely stays in the upper world. On the surface, Lucifer rules as a High Lord in his stead."
"And Satan's not even the top boss," Killua muttered. He put his hands behind his head, Not that I need to worry about stuff like that anyway. These guys are just giving me a ride.
"Alright," Natsu called over. "Get on with the list already."
Gray glared back at the Dragon Slayer and then looked ahead and nodded. "There are only two others whose names I know. The first I have never seen, but I've seen a few of his elite soldiers and each one is probably as powerful as a Lord. The name of that elite group, is the Espada. And the man who controls them, is-"
"Aizen."
Gray's mouth was left open as someone else finished for him. They all spun towards the stern and looked at a man getting up and putting his plate down. Sanji stopped next to him with the next plate smoking, but the spiky haired Saiyan ignored the food for once. "You're saying Aizen is one of our enemies?"
"That's right," Gray replied. "How do you know of him?"
"I fought him once," Goku replied. The others looked at him in surprise, and Natsu stood up from the stairs.
"And he's still alive?" Natsu asked.
Goku nodded his head, "I got him to leave Awul alone though."
Gray turned angrily to Goku and clenched his fists at his sides. "Are you saying you could have killed him, but didn't?"
Goku tilted his head as if confused by Gray's question. "I didn't think I needed to kill him. Besides, I was pretty injured when we stopped fighting," Goku explained. He reached down and grabbed the bottom of the shirt part of his orange gi. Goku lifted his gi up and took it off, then took off the blue muscle shirt he had on underneath.
Nami, Robin, and Juvia all started staring at Goku's jacked upper body. All the men on the ship had good figures, but Goku's was the best of them all. The Saiyan was not stripping to show off though. Actually he was, but he was not showing off his muscles. Goku brought his right hand down to his torso and slid it over a dark red line on the lower right side of his chest. "This," he showed them, and their eyes opened wide at the sight of a thin, three inch long, scar. "Is where Aizen stabbed me," he finished. Goku turned around and on the other side of his body was another scar like the one on the front of his chest. It was the same length and they all figured that whatever stabbed him went straight through.
"No way," Natsu muttered. "So, you lost?"
"Hehe," Goku chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Not quite. Gohan beat up a couple of Aizen's Espada, and Vegeta killed an old guy who got him pretty good too. And I beat Aizen-"
"And you let him live," Gray grumbled.
Goku nodded and scratched the back of his head. "I thought maybe he could change. Vegeta did."
"What?" Natsu wondered, not understanding that analogy.
"Did I never tell you?" Goku asked, and Natsu looked at him confusedly, showing he must not have. "Oh," Goku said, and started laughing. "When I first met Vegeta he was trying to kill me and my friends. He almost destroyed the Earth, haha."
The others gawked at Goku's carefree attitude after laying that bombshell on them. The Straw Hats who had fought alongside Vegeta at several Underworld bases suddenly realized why the man seemed so different from his fellow Saiyans. Gray facepalmed and rubbed his hand against his forehead for a few seconds. No wonder he let Aizen go. Vegeta changed, it may have worked for him before too. Stupid- Gray stopped himself and his eyes shifted to a girl not far from him. He stared at her blue hair and his own eyes widened as he remembered the first time he met her. That's right, we're the good guys. We need to give second chances. If we didn't, Juvia never would have-
"Any other names?" Killua asked, getting bored of the conversation.
Gray spun to the kid, and he nodded his head after a second of hesitation. "Yeah, one more." He hesitated and slowly turned around so he was looking back at Natsu. "You already know him."
"I do?" Natsu wondered.
Gray turned and looked at Juvia, "Actually, you met him before too. He's a monster, death follows him everywhere." Natsu and Juvia started to sweat and Juvia actually took a step back.
"Juvia," Nami whispered as her friend rose up her hands to cover her mouth.
"You can't mean-" Juvia began.
"Yes," Gray said. "He is a High Lord who even the King tends to stay away from. The immortal dark wizard, Zeref."
The crew only stayed at the lion turtle for a little longer before heading on their way again. They sailed east and the boys who spent time playing on the island waved off the stern at it. They called out goodbyes and Luffy's bright smile shifted as he heard something shout back to them. There is it again. I didn't see anyone on the island though. Ben and the others ran off leaving Luffy to stare back alone at the island swimming away from them.
On the inside of the ship, Kirito walked through the living room and past the aquarium. Kairi and Nami were hanging out on the couch and Kairi smiled and said hi to him as he walked by. He gave her a small nod and kept walking, while Nami watched him go then instantly started talking to Kairi. "Do you and Kirito know each other?" Nami whispered. Even though the boy walked to the next room and headed downstairs, she kept quiet like he could still hear her.
"Mm," Kairi hummed in an affirmative way. "He's a friend," the auburn haired girl assured Nami.
Nami nodded and looked towards the hallway that Kirito disappeared down. "I fought with him in Metropolis against Blackbeard. He saved me a few times, but," she frowned and continued softer, "he used to be an Underworld member, right?"
Kairi smiled and she shook her head. "That doesn't matter," the younger girl began. Nami looked at her confusedly, and Kairi continued, "Kirito's a good guy. He and Sora are close, and Goku thinks he's a good person too. You shouldn't judge him for his past too quickly."
Nami opened up her mouth to retort, "Hey Kairi!" Someone beat her to the punch and the girls spun to looked towards the kitchen. Sora was there in the doorway and he smiled over at his girlfriend, "Let's go on a flight!"
"A what?" Nami questioned the girl next to her.
Kairi looked excited though, and she got up and ran through the kitchen. Nami chased behind her asking what they were talking about. As Kairi reached the door, Sora reached out and grabbed her right hand. And then, the boy jumped up in the air and high above the Sunny. Kairi yelped with glee and Sora held her closer.
Nami stared straight up in the air and watched as Sora glided off through the air away from the ship. "Sora's so lucky," Nami heard a boy mumble on her right. She turned and saw Dash and Ben standing next to the rail looking up at the two flying away. Ben sighed and mumbled, "I wish I had a girlfriend."
"Ha, you don't have a girlfriend?" Dash teased sarcastically.
Ben spun to his friend. "What do you mean? It's not like you do-"
"Yeah I do," Dash replied and crossed his arms. Ben looked at him in surprise and Dash held up his right hand with all his fingers up. "Five of them actually."
Nami sweatdropped and Ben stared at his friend stupidly. The older woman stepped forward and said, "Dash." The kids turned around and saw Nami looking down at them. She focused on the shorter boy and continued, "Whatever Usopp told you, ignore him."
The boy who spent a lot of time talking to Usopp on the lion turtle's back started sweating. Nami smirked and added, "He's not a very good liar." Her voice got quieter as she walked by the two of them, "And neither are you."
Ben started laughing hard while Dash blushed and spun around to glare at his friend. Ben just started laughing harder at the red on Dash's face. Nami chuckled to herself as she walked away from them, but she found herself glancing back at the ship's cabin. Kairi seems to trust you, but can we really, Kirito?
Kirito walked down the steps to one of the lower holds of the Sunny. He was trying to find somewhere quiet on this huge ship. When he tried sitting on top of the crow's nest he became distracted by Goku's training inside. He could not meditate while using his wings and having to focus on flying, so he could not just shoot up into the clouds and relax. The teen was hoping there was somewhere down here he could find to get some quiet.
As he hit the lower deck though, his hopes of peace and quiet were trampled on. Clank clank clank, DRRRR, Ch-ch-ch-ch… Kirito followed the sounds of hammers and drills to a door that was partially open. He pushed it the rest of the way and stepped inside to see a strange room with steel walls, scraps of metal scattered around, and a brightly-colored metal man in the middle facing away from him.
Franky lowered the drill in his right hand and he wiped some sweat from his metal forehead with his left. He heard a creak behind him and spun his head around, "Yow! Didn't hear you come in…"
"Kirito," the teen reminded, pretty sure he had met the cyborg before but not getting upset that the man did not remember his name.
"I knew that!" Franky shouted, and he posed with his arms up above his head in his signature fashion. Kirito looked at him confusedly and even more so as Franky shouted, "SUPER! Did you come to check out my new invention?"
"Invention?" Kirito questioned. He walked into the room some more, looking around while he did. There was a desk with some blueprints on it, various buckets and baskets full of tools and spare parts, and there was the contraption in the center of the room that caught Kirito's attention. "What is that thing?"
The thing had treads on the bottom like a tank, but it was only a foot tall and wide, while being two feet long. It was made of normal silver steel, though it had a painted yellow star on top of it. The sides of the contraption had arms, lots of them, with many hands that had different size fingers. "I call it," Franky began and he threw his arms back up in the air in his favorite position. "Franky Junior!" The little robot put all eight of its arms up in the air diagonally above it with their elbows pressed together like Franky had his own arms.
"Was programming it to do that really necessary?" Kirito wondered.
"Of course!" Franky shouted. He pointed down at the robot and said, "Watch this." He ran towards the wall and slammed a fist into it. The walls in Franky's workshop were all reinforced with steel, but his big red fist put a huge dent right in the plating he used to build it. Kirito opened his mouth to shout at him, but Franky called out first, "Junior! Fix the wall!" The top of the robot where the star was popped up and Kirito was surprised to see there was a robotic head hiding inside the body of the machine. It popped up and most of the head-piece glowed red as it spun around, scanning the room.
"Damaged wall identified," the robot said in Franky's voice only higher pitched. Kirito sweatdropped that the cyborg used his own voice, but he quickly lost his unamused expression and watched with interest as the robot rolled to the wall and started removing the metal panel quickly. It unscrewed screws that were undamaged and its hands changed into whatever tool it needed to use.
"Wow," Kirito began. "That's, pretty amazing."
As he finished saying it, a trail of smoke started coming out of the top of the robot. It was pulling at the steel panel and trying to take it off, but there was still a screw in the wall and the little robot was struggling. Kirito suddenly realized something, "Hey, isn't this the project you were just working on? So, you haven't tested it yet?" He took a step backwards as when he looked at Franky he saw the older man had a nervous expression on his grinning face.
"It needed a test drive," Franky started, and then he and Kirito both lowered their bottom lips as the robot started smoking.
"FIX THE WALLLLll…" BOOM! The flames surrounded the robot and it exploded in a mini blast. Kirito and Franky both held up their arms for protection, and when they lowered them they stared at the smoldering pile of rubble on the floor in front of them. The robot worked until its very last breath though, and the steel panel on the wall fell off and right on top of the flaming metal scrap.
Franky grinned as the panel fell, "See?" he asked as if the experiment went great. Kirito looked at him skeptically but Franky continued, "Franky Junior's purpose will be to fix the ship mid-battle. Since I'll be in the middle of the action, he can patch up any damage he's programmed to scan for."
Kirito nodded his head a few times. "But since it's broken, what're you going to do about your workshop?" Franky looked at him in confusion, then lifted his head and looked at the wall in front of them that was missing one of the three major steel panels. He opened his mouth to say he would put it back himself, then remembered why he had his robot take it down in the first place and looked down at the dented steel on the floor. "Here," Kirito began, "I'll help you out." He walked over to a pile of screws that Franky Jr. dropped when it exploded and he started gathering them up.
"Thanks Kirito-bro!" Franky shouted. He walked over and dragged the steel frame away from the wall and towards a work bench on the other side of the room that he could use to buff out the steel.
Kirito was picking up usable-looking pieces of scrap underneath where Franky removed the panel, but as he was doing it his eyes caught something weird. He gazed up at the wall under where the steel panel fell, a wall made of wood. Thinking about his position on the ship, he realized that this was the hull he was looking at right now. Kirito stood up fully and he reached his right hand out, pressing it against some of the wood and then running it along the wall. "Hey Franky," Kirito began.
The cyborg looked back at the kid and saw him staring at the wall carefully. Kirito traced his hand around an edge of dark brown wood and then ran it over a lighter section of wood that felt softer under his palm. Kirito turned his head confusedly back towards the cyborg, "What's wrong with the wall? It looks like there are different types of wood for the same part of the hull."
Franky nodded and he put down his tools for now. He walked back towards Kirito and smiled nostalgically as he looked at the wall. "I had to. Originally the Thousand Sunny, my ultimate creation, was made only of Adam Wood. Adam Wood was the strongest wood on our world," he continued, while Kirito looked at him in surprise to hear that the cyborg made this entire ship. Franky kept going, "But after we came to Nexus, the Sunny got messed up bad. Not even an hour after we got zapped here, her hull was covered in scars…"
FD + 10
"YOW!" Franky shouted. The cyborg had tears streaming down his face and he jumped down from the tall tree branch he was standing on. The cyborg was wearing a plaid shirt and his right hand was popped open with a chainsaw sticking out of it. He left the tree branch he was on half-cut though and dropped down to the forest floor with a look of extreme joy on his face. "You guys!" He shouted and wiped his face of his tears.
"Franky!" Nami exclaimed happily. Robin smiled wide as well and Sanji let out a breath of relief that they found someone else after a few days of looking with only the ladies. After he thought it though, he instantly realized the downside to not being the only one with Nami and Robin anymore, and a dejected look filled his face.
"I'm so glad you're all okay!" Franky shouted and posed with his arms up in the air. "This past week has been CRAZY!"
"You're telling me," Sanji muttered. He had cuts all over his body and he was still in pain from his battle a few days before. As he thought about that battle he tssked and clenched his fists at his sides. "Franky, did you find anyone else from the crew?"
The cyborg's excited look faltered and after a second he shook his head. The other three sighed, but tried to keep in high spirits that they at least found him. "How about you?" Franky asked. Sanji looked at him confusedly, and the cyborg continued, "Did you see anyone else? After we crashed I found Chopper-bro, but the next day we got separated. I thought I saw Brook but there were too many monsters around and we got separated."
"This is a good thing," Nami said.
She looked around at the others and Robin knew what she was talking about. "At least the others are close-by."
"Though Usopp and Luffy," Franky began, still not knowing what happened to the two of them after they disappeared from their own world. Almost everyone was mentioned now, so he looked up and asked, "You seen Zoro around? He's probably lost somewhere-"
The three in front of him looked saddened by what he was saying and his face covered in sweat. "No way," he whispered.
"He's alive," Sanji said, though he wished he could light up a cigarette as he did. He had run out days ago. The blond man looked up into the cyborg's eyes, "But we ran into Kuma."
"The Schichibukai?" Franky asked in surprise.
Sanji nodded his head, and he clenched his teeth as he spoke the next part. "Kuma hit him. Same thing he did to us back on Sabaody."
Franky groaned and he rubbed the side of his head. "So he could be anywhere huh? That's rough. Especially when we don't even know where we are."
"Well," Nami started. "Let's look for the coast. At least get a bearing of where we are, and maybe try to find the Sunny-"
"Sunny?" Franky asked, and he started smirking again. "I'll take you to her."
"You know where she is?" Nami asked in surprise.
"What do you think the first thing I did when I fell off was?" Franky asked skeptically. "I had to protect her nonstop. It was a good thing I had some help though." He turned and started jogging off through the woods, "Come on."
"Help?" Robin questioned, not hesitating at all to chase behind him. Sanji and Nami glanced at each other in confusion and then started running after as well.
Franky grinned and chuckled to himself. "Yea! She's guarding the ship right now!"
The other three suddenly had an idea as to who it could be, and when they followed Franky out of the trees and into a small clearing full of tree stumps, they discovered their assumptions were correct. The girl with curly blue hair standing on top of the Thousand Sunny looked over in surprise at the four people rushing out of the woods. A bright smile came to the Rain Woman's face and she waved down from the side of the Sunny, which was the top at the moment. The Sunny Go was lying on its port side, the bottom of the hull facing the part of the woods the others just came out of. The bottom looked like it went through some intense repairs, but as the other pirates looked at Franky worriedly, he assured them the Sunny was strong enough that this would not take her out of commission for good.
"So that tree we saw you on," Sanji began.
"Still doing repairs," Franky admitted. "I was looking for a good branch to make a mast out of. These giant trees all have amazingly sturdy wood. Almost as good as Adam Wood I'd say."
"As Adam Wood?" Robin questioned. She reached out to a tree next to her and put her palm against it. "Hmm, that is quite impressive. What can we do to help out Franky-san?"
"YOW!" Franky shouted. "Hold on a minute there sis!" He turned to Sanji and said, "First, it's been ten days!"
Sanji sighed as he understood what the cyborg was talking about. He stepped forward and put a hand on Franky's shoulder, "How can I say no? Especially since you've been protecting Juvia-chan this whole time!" Sanji's eyes turned into hearts and he jumped up to the side of the ship and started exclaiming how happy he was that Juvia stayed with them even after so much had happened.
Juvia got red in the face and she backed up from Sanji. "Juvia, was afraid to go wandering off," she admitted. "Juvia thinks Sanji-san and everyone are nice, so she, did not want, to leave…"
"Well we're happy to have you," Nami said, as she and Robin climbed up onto the side of the Sunny's hull. They looked down as they walked across it and saw different patches of wood filling up the holes that should have been on the hull. "Wow Franky, you guys really patched this up quick. We could probably get Sunny back on the water in a day or two."
"That'll be better for cooking too," Sanji admitted as he now realized he could not just walk into the kitchen and cook them up a feast. "The kitchen is sideways, I don't know how I'm going to make a-"
Franky tapped him on the shoulder and pointed towards the bow of the ship. They looked over and spotted most of the kitchen's utilities sitting there on top of the ship. Some of them looked new like Franky made them from scratch. The cyborg said, "I could make a stove, but I couldn't make a pot roast. You gotta help me out bro!"
Present
"You made a kitchen on the side of the ship?" Kirito questioned the cyborg and laughed a little.
Franky laughed too, but much louder. "Yea! And the next day we got the Sunny back on the water! It went faster with Sanji and Robin helping out."
"What about Nami?" Kirito asked.
"You think she helped?" Franky asked and started laughing even harder. Kirito did not see what was so funny about her not doing any of the work, but he smiled along with the cyborg.
Kirito looked back at the wall and he said, "This ship really has been through a lot. I'm amazed it's stayed together after all this time."
"Oi!" Franky smacked a hand in the air. "The Sunny is amazing! Don't knock her strength, she'll last longer than any of us."
Kirito held up his hands, "Alright, my bad." He gazed back at the wall, "But after that, how did you guys protect it for all this time? You said Luffy wasn't around right? And by the sounds of it that Zoro guy was pretty strong too…" Kirito turned to Franky, "You know, I saw him that day."
Franky looked at Kirito confusedly and Kirito continued, "I'm not surprised the others don't remember me. I remember though, Kuma came out of nowhere and was taking everyone out. He sent Gray and Zabuza flying. Batman and Kuzan tried fighting him, but he was too strong and took out Ron too. And he hit me with his paw and I went flying. I don't even know how the battle ended."
Franky stared silently at Kirito for a few seconds. "Sanji never mentioned-"
"Like I said," Kirito repeated, "I don't think he remembers me. I never said a word to him, but I remember he showed up right before the guy with green hair, Zoro, got hit by Kuma and disappeared." Franky shook his head in surprise, thinking about how small a world it was that this teen was there that day. Kirito continued, "So really, how did you guys survive just the five of you for so long? I'm taking it you never found those Chopper or Brook guys again?"
Franky shook his head and grimaced thinking about how Luffy told them Brook died. He tried not to think too hard on the past though, and he smiled, "It wasn't easy, believe it!" Kirito's eyes snapped open wide and Franky looked at him confused wondering why he was surprised at that last sentence. Kirito gulped and shook his head, saying that it was nothing and for Franky to continue. The cyborg looked at him oddly for a few seconds but he shook his head and continued, "About half the time between then and when we found Luffy, I was busy fixing up Sunny. Monsters and other pirates kept attacking us, and without the captain we weren't doing so well against a few of them, but one day…"
FD + 168
"Franky, are we ready to go?!" Nami shouted.
The cyborg who just came out from below deck wiped some black off his face. He was covered in dirt, and soot, and oil, and he shook his head at the navigator. "Sorry little sis!" After he shouted it, they heard a crash coming from below deck. The others groaned as they did not like the sound of that. "Still a lot more repairs to the Soldier Dock System I need to make. We couldn't even Coup de Burst if we wanted to right now."
"That is not good," Nami muttered under her breath.
"We barely escaped those bastards using it," Sanji started. "There's no way we outrun their ship without it."
"Do you really think they're still after us?" Juvia asked the blond man she walked up to.
Sanji nodded his head and lit up a cigarette, the last one in his pack. He grimaced as he did not know if it was safe to go to a port with the type of people chasing them right now. Robin stepped out of the cabin above them and she spoke down towards the main deck calmly, "Coribou and Caribou are infamously deranged pirates. I assumed that if they are to capture us our deaths will be slow and painful."
Juvia's face turned blue and she looked down horrified at the floor. Nami and Franky yelled at Robin for being so scary, and then Nami turned to start yelling at Franky to hurry up repairs so that they would not get buried alive or something like that. Franky ran off while Sanji said that Robin was beautiful even when she was being terrifying.
The crew ran around trying to get the ship ready to sail again. Nami was wearing an orange, wool sweater and she shivered and crossed her arms. She looked out towards the coast and the beach that had a thin layer of snow over it. At least we have the Sunny, where it's warm and cozy. I would hate to have teleported to the middle of this continent, lost, freezing. She shivered even more just thinking about how bad that would be.
As she was thinking about it, a face appeared in her mind and her heart started racing. Nami looked back towards the shore and a sad expression came to her face, Luffy, is that where you are? Somewhere far from the ocean? Four more faces appeared in her mind and she only looked sadder, Usopp, Brook, Chopper, Zoro. Mina, where are you?
"Everyone!" Nami spun around hearing a shout on the other side of the ship. Standing there in a dark blue jacket with her arm extended pointing out into the ocean was her friend Juvia, and the Rain Woman looked back nervously at her pirate friends. "They found us!"
"So fast!" Franky shouted as he appeared up on deck again. He looked off the ship and his mechanical eyes zoomed in north along the coast. "Where do you-"
CRASH!
The front of the Sunny dipped and half the small crew fell off their feet. Sanji tried to rush over to Nami to steady her but he was too far away and the orange haired navigator dropped to the floor. She yelled out and Sanji reached down to help her. "Don't," Nami told him, pushing his hand. He looked at her confused and she yelled, "Focus on the next attack baka!" She punched his arm and Sanji nodded fast as he realized the priority.
The chef shot off the deck and up in the air. He Skywalked up and up and looked north where Juvia was pointing. He grimaced and clenched his teeth as he saw their ship, much larger than the Sunny, coming around a bend in the coast with cannons focused on them. How do they keep tracking us? Not even a full day, the blond pirate started panting while kicking the air beneath him to keep himself up. Damn, and that swamp-bastard and his brother are no jokes either.
He watched as smoke blasted out of the cannons on the front of the approaching galleon, and several cannonballs flew straight towards them. A quick glance down at the Thousand Sunny's bow showed him that he could already see inside the ship from the first attack. She won't last if we get hit much more. Ship's already almost completely made of material from Nexus. Sanji kicked himself forward and he kicked the cannonballs back into the distance.
The pirate chef smirked as the large black balls of gunpowder flew towards Coribou and Caribou's ship. His smirk wiped away though as a wall of brown mud lifted up on the front of the ship and stopped the attacks dead. Sanji dropped down to the bow and the wall of mud lowered as well. Caribou reformed as a human and stuck out his long tongue, and looked with his crazy eyes across the thinning gap of water at Sanji.
Robin walked up on Sanji's left side and Juvia came up to the bow as well. She shimmied around the hole in the bow and looked down to see Franky running around like a blur. When it came to fixing the ship he was faster than anyone though so repairs were going quickly. They had extra planks of wood and building materials below deck in case of situations just like this. The three at the front of the ship glared out at Caribou, but their glares became less menacing as the rest of the crazy-person's crew and his own fat, insane brother stepped to the bow of their larger ship.
"Oi Franky," Sanji muttered, and the hole in the floor behind him let the cyborg below hear him. Franky looked up and saw Robin and Juvia stepping back and Sanji looking down at him for support, "Do we have enough Cola for a Gaon-Hou?"
Franky did not like the sound of that question. There was no way Sanji would ask if they didn't need it, and Franky wished he could answer the younger man positively. Instead, the cyborg shook his head and left the repairs for later, jumping up through the hole himself. "There's enough Cola to charge half a Coup de Burst," Franky said. He lowered his voice, "And that's if I pour in everything that's in my own body too."
"In that case," the two men on the bow looked back to see Nami looking at them from the railing outside the kitchen. "Prepare to defend the ship from behind. We're sailing out of here! Franky raise anchor!"
"Can we make it?" Juvia asked her friend.
Nami looked down to the grass deck and nodded at her blue haired friend. "But you have to help out. Use your water powers to speed up the ship. Sanji! Turn the wheel and spin us away from those maniacs! Robin, CREATE A NET!"
The orders became a lot more frantic as cannonballs flew down at their ship from above. Robin created a net of arms that caught the attacks. The net pushed down and then snapped back up to send the cannonballs flying, but something was strange about her net. She looked at it from below with a strange expression and frowned as she saw all the brown gook surrounding her arms. That man used his Devil Fruit power to coat their attacks… Robin's eyes went wide as something dripped in between part of her neck, but the drip of mud was oddly in the shape of a small ball.
"Look out!" Robin yelled. She dove to the right and the others looked over to see her net disappearing from above. Their ship was in the middle of turning, Nami was still giving out orders, and they all spotted the ball of muck dropping from the air that quickly lost all of the swamp around it.
All of their eyes went wide and Franky shouted, "GRENADE!"
While four of them moved away, one of the group dove towards the grenade and wrapped her body around it. Nami looked towards the grass and she shouted, "Juv-" BOOM! The grenade went off and the explosion filled up a bubble of water that promptly exploded. The grass beneath the bubble was shredded, but the explosion's damage was minimized by the Rain Woman.
"Juvia!" Nami screamed down at the deck.
The Fairy Tail mage was gone, at least, for a few seconds. Juvia reformed on the deck, singed clothes, out of breath, but alive. Nami sighed in relief and was going to call down thanks, but the sight of the enemy ship bearing down on them reminded her how serious their situation was. She shouted at Juvia that if she was okay she had to get working on making the Sunny move faster.
Juvia started waving her arms and the waves on their sides picked up, lifting the Sunny and pushing it forward. Sanji, Robin, and Franky kept moving around warding off attacks from mainly the back, but also from above as it seemed like the enemies were aiming attacks high to drop down all around the Sunny.
"They're still gaining on us," Juvia called out. They were facing away from the incoming ship now, but they were just off the coast and their enemies were right behind them. The solution in her mind was simple, but she knew the pirates cared too much for their ship to want to abandon it and try to flee to shore.
She stopped using the water on the ship and shouted, "Juvia will try to stop them!" The teenage mage ran for the stern while Sanji was on his way up to the boom where a shard of a cannonball that exploded on his leg slammed into. The sail was coming off and he flew up and started tying it down as fast as he could.
"Could use your help back here Sanji-bro!" Franky yelled. His left arm was opened up and he was firing magazine after magazine of ammo out at their enemies, but as he finished shouting he heard clicking inside his arm and he knew what that meant. "Crap!" As he yelled, a loud dink was heard and the cyborg stumbled back and fell over the railing.
"Franky!" Juvia yelled. She ran over and waved her arms up right as the cyborg was hitting the water. A wave rose and lifted her metal friend back up to the deck.
"Thanks little-" a cannonball hit the deck between the two of them. Shrapnel slammed into Franky's metal chest and ripped through Juvia's watery body.
The two of them got back up on their feet and Juvia could see through blurry vision Franky stumbling around grabbing his head. Robin was behind the cyborg, protecting him and Juvia could see their enemies even further back. She saw Sanji leap up on a different part of the ship and knock a cannonball away, and in her ears she could hear a muffled ringing sound. The ringing was more of a high pitched voice, and she was soon able to put that voice to a location and turned around to see Nami less than a yard behind her shouting at the top of her lungs.
"NAMI?!" Juvia shouted, not knowing how loud she was until the other woman reeled back from the intensity of the shout.
Nami leaned back forward right away though and she grabbed Juvia by the shoulders. "Get ready!" Nami yelled. "They're close now! They're going to board us any second-"
Another crash shook the Sunny and Nami screamed as it felt like it was close. She held up her arms preparing for some shards of wood to fly into her. The rest of them all ran towards the center of the ship, right on the main deck covered in grass. Some dust lifted up and shrouded the damage, but the crew looking in saw something through the dust that suggested there was no damage at all. The dust started to settle and Nami, Franky, Robin, and Sanji all lowered their bottom lips and opened their eyes as wide as possible.
There was a silhouette of a man in the settling dust, a man who reached behind his back and grabbed a hat hanging there. He lifted it up and placed it down on his head, and Juvia recognized the hat as the same one on the sail. Her eyes opened a second later than her friends, and she knew she was right when she heard them all scream at once, "LUFFY!"
"Shishishi, I'm back!"
The rest of the group ran forward a few steps to make sure they were actually seeing this right. "How- when?" Nami began.
Sanji turned his head a hundred eighty degrees, "Wait a second." It was oddly quiet. "Why did they stop attacking?" Sanji questioned
Luffy ran to the stern and his crew chased after him. The pirate captain was grinning wide and Nami yelled, "Where are you going? How did you get here? Why-" She fell silent for a second. "Whoa."
"What the Hell?" Sanji muttered.
"Holy-" Franky could not even finish.
They all stared off the back of the ship at the mess that was their enemies' galleon. Most of them did not know what to make of it, but the Captain was grinning madly at the sinking vessel behind them. The flaming wreckage was going down and the screams rang out all the way to the Thousand Sunny.
Nami shook her head in disbelief and whispered, "What is happening?"
Present
"… but one day, Luffy came back," Franky told the teen in front of him. Kirito looked at him confused and the cyborg started laughing and said, "Out of nowhere, Luffy just dropped from the sky. Ever since, Sunny's been protected better than ever!" The cyborg posed with his arms up above his head. "She's SUPER safe!"
"Luffy just, showed up one day?" Kirito questioned. "On a world this big, without ever seeing him before, he just…"
"Fell from the sky," Franky finished. The cyborg getting back to work on finishing the wall scratched the top of his head for a second. "Actually, he never really did explain how he got there," the cyborg mumbled. "Eh, I'm sure it was a great story."
A/N Shoutout to Avatar The Last Airbender for lion turtles XD! Lots of new information we get from Gray about the new antagonists our heroes will be facing. Not all of them, and not much information, but enough to show that it's not going to be an easy ride. How did Luffy find the Thousand Sunny? Why did Caribou's ship sink? The world may never know... until a later flashback XD. Anyway, hope you liked the chapter! Leave a review below telling me what you think!
Espada-001 chapter 1 . 8h ago
Glad to see the start of the next half of your series and I'm already hyped for what's to come! Right now I'm kind of imagining the layout of the continent to look something like fallout given how often large scale battles seem to take place there. I really want to see some of the new big shots that are on this continent. I'm curious if you actually have Merum as the leader of the Chimer Ants on this continent since last time we saw him he was at the bottom of Goku's crater getting ready to start his new training. Other than that I don't have much else to say, but if it doesn't bother you to much I was wondering if you'd be able to answer some of my questions from my last two reviews in NEXUS since I'm still a bit curious. Welp thanks for the start of another one of your stories and hope it turns out as great if not better than the first part! Till next time have a good day and a HAPPY NEW YEARS!
The continent's geography is a big factor in many of the future battles, but no spoilers as to what it looks like, :P sorry. Meruem... you'll also see. Got those reviews in the PM, and... Happy New Years to you too!
-And on one last note. Coribou and Caribou are pirates from One Piece if you did not recognize them. Bastards with high bounties and some really creepy... everythings. XD