Lyson and Igaram don't have to walk far to hear a commotion with familiar voices—the group of Zoro, Luffy, Nami, and the recently identified Princess Vivi. Igaram approaches them and declares his plan to throw Baroque Works off their scent. Lyson notices Nami sulking on the corner and walks up to her as Luffy and Zoro notice him.
"Hey, Bison!" Luffy waves at him energetically as Zoro watches him out of his eye while Vivi quirks an eyebrow.
"Do I even want to know?" Lyson asks, crouching down with the navigator as Igaram explains his plan to the rest of them.
"You look so funny, old man!" Luffy chuckles as he checks out Igaram's 'disguise' to fool Baroque Works. His disguise will act as a decoy so that Princess Vivi can be safely escorted to Alabasta.
"Hold it!" As Nami jumps up in frustration, Lyson steps back momentarily, "Who said we were going to take the princess there!? We still haven't agreed to anything yet."
"Huh, a princess, where?"
"You don't know?" Zoro asks, "The old man here wants us to take her back home."
"Oh, she needs a ride home? Sure." Luffy states.
"Crocodile is gonna come after us, ya know!" Naami screeches, causing Lyson to whip his head at the navigator.
'Crocodile!? As in one of the Seven Warlords!? What the hell kind of trouble have I gotten myself in!?" Lyson internally screamed trying to keep his face neutral.
"Is Crocodile really that strong?" Luffy asks, looking up at Igaram.
"He is one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. He legally has no bounty on his head, but his bounty before he became a Warlord was 80 million Berries."
"And that bounty isn't accurate since he gained it over 10 years ago!" Lyson speaks up.
"That's four times greater than Arlong and he might be stronger than that! Say no!" Nami cries out, tears in her eyes.
Luffy accepts the deal and Lyson rubs his temples for the impending headache he will experience.
Igaram leads them by the water where a boat is docked and preps the 3 dummies with him as he turns to Vivi.
"Princess, I will need the Eternal Log Pose." Vivi reaches into her coat and pulls out a glass globe in a wooden cage.
"Eternal Pose?" Nami asks, tilting her head.
"You never heard of them?" Igaram asks, holding up a log pose globe in a wooden cage, "I suppose you could say it's a permanent version of a Log Pose. A normal Log Pose will always point to an island, and an Eternal Log Pose will never forget the island it was set to, thus always pointing to it. The one I have here will always point to Alabasta."
"An Eternal Pose is created from a special ore from each island, so it will always point to it, like how a normal compass always points North," Lyson explains.
Vivi looks up at her companion, "Will you be alright?"
"Princess Vivi," Igaram calmly begins, "please take the indirect island-hopping route to Alabasta, it should only take you 2-3 islands to make it there." The royal servant then turns to the rest of them, "Please take care of our princess."
"Gotcha!" Luffy pipes up.
Vivi bids farewell to her companion before Igaram pulls the boat off the shore and sails away from the island.
"Welp, there he goes!" Luffy watches the boat get smaller and smaller with a grin, "I guess he was a nice guy after all."
"Yes, he is..."
Lyson watches the boat and ponders about his current situation,
'So I somehow joined them on a rescue mission to a country...but maybe I can use this to my advantage. I can maybe have three chances to leave this suicide mission and hop off another island before they make it to Alabasta if they can make it there at all. Now I need to gain their tru-'
Before he could feel it.
Before he could hear it.
Lyson's vision went white.
Before he knew it, the light died down to the point where the strong force of an explosion crashed into him, making him shut his eyes before a rush of heat enveloped him. Once he opens his eyes after a second, he sees in the distance, that a large dome of light is dying down in the exact area Igaram's ship was and horror begins to dawn on the scientist's face.
"N-no way" A look of fear creeps up his face as he realizes the implications of what just happened.
"That's impossible! They've already found us?" Nami's voice reaches him, but it sounds muffled by the explosion dying down, leaving nothing but a sea of roaring flames in front of them.
Lyson has just finished processing what the hell had just happened when he sees Luffy turn around and reach down for his hat that had fallen from the blast.
"HE WAS A NICE GUY!" The rubber man screams before running back into the town.
Zoro, with no hesitations after that shouts at Nami for the Log Pose status, and once the navigator confirms that they can leave, the swordsman steals a glance at the princess.
"Take her with us, we're setting sail!" Zoro then turns to Lyson, "Come on, move your ass to the ship!"
Lyson snaps out of his daze and blinks away the flash out of his eyes before following the swordsman in a desperate run.
'Igaram... may you rest in peace.' Lyson ignores the discomfort in his chest mutters a goodbye to the man and looks forward, following Zoro back to the ship.
"Luffy! Wake up the other two!"
"Alright! Leave it to me!"
Luffy breaks off from Lyson and Zoro and makes a hard right to retrieve the rest of his crew while the other two keep their pace toward the docks.
"Where did you guys dock your ship?" Lyson asks, beginning to lose his breath keeping up with the swordsman.
"At the dock, obviously," Zoro replies, not sounding tired at all as they both reach the river that runs through the island where the ship is. Zoro takes a leap from the ground, lands on board the vessel effortlessly, and begins pulling the anchor out of the sea. Lyson copies him, using his Hover-Hover ability to make up the distance. When he slowly lands on the ship, he's introduced to the sight of a large duck wearing a chullo and a saddle sitting on the deck, which causes Lyson to rub his eyes to make sure he's not hallucinating.
"Why is there a duck here?" Lyson asks but only gets a shrug from Zoro as the footsteps draw his attention back to the docks. There he sees Luffy dragging both Sanji and Usopp.
"Hey! I brought 'em!" Luffy calls out dragging the unconscious cook and sniper, "Huh? They're still sleeping?"
"Vivi, there's no time!"
"I can't just leave him here!"
Both Vivi and Nami reach the boat in a heated argument due to Lyson and Zoro's confusion.
"Hey, what's going on?" Zoro calls out to the girls as Viv explains she needs to find her missing duck. Both Zoro and Lyson get the girl's attention by pointing at the duck sitting on the deck.
"This him?" They both ask in sync, much to the surprise of the girls.
Thanks to Vivi's familiarity with the island the Going Merry sets sail away from Whiskey Peak. Lyson watches as the island becomes more obscure as thick fog rolls in, and The Strawhats explain the situation to their crew members.
'Fact: I am currently stuck on a ship with a wanted pirate who managed to get the attention of a Warlord.
Fact: This Warlord has an entire bounty-hunter organization at his fingertips.
Argument: These pirates seem to be able to defend themselves from the organization, especially from the bounty hunters.
Counter: It's fucking Crocodile, one of the most dangerous Warlords besides Hawkeye and Doflamingo.
Counter-Counter: He's technically the second-weakest based on the bounty values of other Warlords.
Counter-Counter-Counter: What other options do I have?
Conclusion: Stay with Strawhats until the most optimal place and time to ditch them.'
Lyson's thoughts were running a mile a minute trying to decide what to do as the fog began to thicken along with the rise of the morning sun.
"Ah, it's good that we managed to lose those chasing us, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Nami replies, "that's for sure."
"This fog is getting thick, we should be mindful of the rocks."
Lyson's heart drops into his chest when he realizes that there is a female voice that Nami is responding to and the only other female on the ship is Vivi,
who is standing next to him.
Lyson turns around and sees a woman in purple casually sitting on the ship's railing. The rest of the crew seems to catch on as they prepare themselves for a confrontation.
"It's...you!" Vivi chokes out.
The woman smiles, "I ran into you buddy Mr. 8 a little while ago. Last I checked he didn't seem to be doing that well."
"What are you doing here Miss All-Sunday?!"
"Miss All-Sunday? If that's her codename, then who is her partner?" Nami asks.
"She's paired with Mr 0, the boss of the entire organization."
"She's directly paired with Crocodile?!" Nami exclaims and while the crew is digesting that piece of information, Lyson's mind is racing.
'Wait, if she's paired with Crocodile then based on the hierarchy of the members of Baroque Works, then she most likely has a Devil Fruit!' Lyson then pulls out his chain whip and uses his Hover-Hover ability to rise in the air while the rest of the crew gets ready for a fight. Miss All-Sunday gives him a curious glance before simply saying:
"I would like it if you would stop pointing those things at me."
Then suddenly many things happen at once, first Sanji and Usopp get flung off the higher deck by an unseen force, but Sanji is thrown higher than Usopp, which ends up with him colliding with Lyson mid-air dropping them both to the ground. Then both Nami and Zoro get disarmed leaving the entire ship in a vulnerable state.
"Wait... she's eaten..." Vivi begins with wide eyes.
"...a Devil Fruit." Zoro finishes.
"But which one?" Nami asks before looking at Lyson who is struggling under Sanji's weight, "Lyson, what's her power?!"
Lyson glares at her as Sanji gets off of him and then moves his glare at the bounty hunter, "I can't just tell you someone's power! I need details and throwing people around surprisingly covers a lot of Devil Fruits! I can name 9 that can do what she just did off the top of my head!"
"You can all calm down. I haven't received any orders to deal with you at the moment. I have no reason to fight you." Miss All-Sunday then directs her attention to Luffy and his straw hat is pulled off his head by another unseen force and flew into her grasp, much to the rubber-human's ire.
"Picking up a princess who's the target of Baroque Works, you truly seem to be unlucky." She then switches her gaze to Vivi, "Do you think a mere group of pirates will be able to protect you? Even with where your Log Pose is pointing towards."
"You see, the island that your Log Pose is pointing to is called Little Garden. That island is the closest one to this island so it's easy to assume that's where any ship would go unless they want to brave uncharted waters. We wouldn't even need to lift a finger to ensure your utter demise. That is, unless you use this." Miss All-Sunday then tosses an Eternal Log Pose to Vivi and the straw hat back to Luffy.
"This Eternal Pose will lead you to an island called Nanimoniashima, an island that is close to Alabasta and unknown to any of our members."
'There is no way she would just give it to us?' Lyson thinks as he looks at the Eternal Pose in Vivi's hands. 'She just killed Igaram not even an hour ago and is willing to let us escape the organization she works for? Logically we should not take it, but if she wanted us gone, she could've eliminated us without having her presence known at all. So why let herself be known and given this information if she has any ulterior goals in mind? Based on what she says and her actions I think the best-case scenario is that we-'
Lyson's train of thought is interrupted as Luffy walks over to Vivi, grabs the Log Pose, and smashes it in his hand, destroying it completely.
'Well, that makes things easier'
Luffy then glares at Miss All-Sunday before Nami delivers a roundhouse kick to his face, knocking him to the ground all while yelling at him about how stupid that decision was.
Luffy then replies with a simple, " You aren't the person who decides where my ship goes, I do.", which makes Lyson quirk an eyebrow at the reasoning of the rejection. Was it idiocy? Or perhaps pride?
"She also blew up that funny guy earlier, now I hate her too."
'Huh, he's not as idiot as I thought.'
"Well then, that's too bad," Miss All-Sunday replies as she walks over to the edge of the boat, "I'm sorry you didn't accept my offer, if you survive I hope we shall meet again."
She then turns her eyes at Lyson with mild interest, "If you're interested in what my Devil Fruit you can ask me the next time we meet." before leaping off the ship. The crew watches her as she mounts a large sea turtle and swims away with her on it. With the threat gone, Vivi collapses to the ground as the entire confrontation sinks in. Lyson however is still reeling from Miss All-Sunday's abilities.
'She was able to interact with us without lifting a finger, she might have the Move-Move fruit that allows her to move objects with her mind, or maybe the Push-Pull fruit that allows her to control pulling and pushing forces, or maybe she's a Logia with the Breeze-Breeze fruit and she's using wind to knock us around...it's still to early to say and she's keeping her power secret, I still wanna know so badly...'
Lyson, still lost in his thoughts, pulls out his book and begins flipping through the pages to get some semblance of what he witnessed from the bounty hunter before the cries of Usopp demanding to know what has just happened pulls him from his thoughts as Nami begins explaining to him and Sanji the situation they're in.
"So what do you think of this Lyson?" The scientist looks up from his book and Sanji asks him, gaining the attention of everyone on the ship.
"I'm not a part of your group, so I don't think I have a say in the matt-"
"Hey Bison, how did you do that cool flying trick earlier?!" Luffy asks in excitement with stars in his eyes.
"That's none of your business now is-" Lyson responds before a visible vein pulse on his forehead.
"I TOLD YOU MY NAME IS LYSON, RUBBER-FOR-BRAINS!"
So...
Been a while, huh? *Laughing nervously before bowing down in shame*
Got a bit of inspiration to write a bit so I'm feeling better about this story you can expect maybe another chapter at the end of the month if my schedule allows it.
See you next time, reviews are appreciated!