The Jungle Part 1

The Jungle Part 1

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Makoto and I jogged towards Ami's house, concerned.

We didn't know where Ami was.

Normally, either of the ten year old girls would try to meet me at the dock when my chores on the Patch were done, but only Makoto had been there today… and she'd asked me where Ami was. Just yesterday I'd come to the decision to tell Makoto that I was part of a family of pirates before we left the island for our next raid.

And neither Makoto or I had seen her since yesterday, which worried the hell out of me. Makoto had already checked the library on the way here and hadn't seen her between her home and the town. It was entirely possible her mother was just having her study a lot or something, but it was unusual if that was the case.

Not the studying part, but the keeping her from seeing her friends at all part. She usually had enough free time in the morning…

There–! Her house. We ask her mom what's going on and figure it out from there and–… local police. Through the open gate there were the local constables were milling about, organizing? Okay, the fuck is going on?

Without hesitation I ran straight up to the small group and darted in, concern outweighing any other issues. 'Police. Police. Police. There. Ami's mom.' Despite some of the police making some noise about me darting through, I ran right up to her. The middle aged woman's eyes locking on me, "You-!"

I pre-empted any accusations, "Do you know where Ami is?"

Her eyes widened in horror, "… you don't?"

And I understood. She'd assumed I knew because she'd thought Ami had come to me for whatever reason. But Ami was out and out missing. Damnit, now to move on to the damage control. The gathered police meant they were just now about to start up a search party? Damnit.

I cursed under my breath even as the larger and obviously ranked police beside her asked, "This is the child you were speaking of?"

But we both ignored him, Ami's mother grabbing my shoulder, "You don't know where she is?!"

"When'd you last see her?" I demanded of her. Looking up at the woman as her hands clenched in the fabric of my shirt.

"She said she was going to see her friend–!" she said almost frantically.

"Has there been any ransom notes?"

A quick shake of her head, "No! Nothing yet!"

The police chief had had enough of being ignored though, stepping closer and demanding of me, "What do you know?"

I looked at the man I'd guess was the police chief based on the fancier hat and ornamentation on his shoulders, "She wasn't at the library or the docks which is where she'd meet me. The only other friends she has are at the Hikawa Shrine. I would recommend having your men check any known hideouts of kidnappers and the forest immediately around the town as well as along the path to the Hikawa Shrine."

The police chief's mouth worked silently for a moment even as I turned and made a beeline for the door, "H-Hey!"

The taller Makoto was still stopped by the police at the gate, and when she saw me she immediately ignored the policemen as I ducked past the policemen, "What's going on?!"

"They don't know!" I said quickly as I rushed down the street, Makoto keeping up with me, "She's probably on the path to your place somewhere!"

"Wait, what?" her brain caught up as she spun on her heel and ran after me as we dashed down the street. She gave a quick nod, "Okay! What do we do?!"

I grit my teeth, I didn't want to do this but… with any luck the police chief would accept my logic and have his men check the forest and the town proper… but if he didn't, I need to ensure that Ami wasn't removed from the island… we hadn't seen any ships leaving on our way in so either they'd left yesterday, possible but unlikely, or were still here on the island.

But if she had been taken from the docks and was in that area…

"You know what my mom looks like right?" I asked as we skidded around the corner on the first turn towards her place, the small shouts of the policemen fading behind us.

Emerald green eyes rolled, "Duh! Why?"

"Go get her!" I said as my sandals pounded against the cobblestone of the streets, "Tell her Ami's probably been kidnapped or hurt! Tell her to get the crew to search the docks and keep an eye out for her!"

Makoto stared at me as we ran, "Your mom?"

"My momma's one of the strongest people I know! Now go! I'll check the path to your place!"

"I'll go with you–!"

"I move faster on my own and we need to be sure that if she was kidnapped they don't just leave with her!"

Her eyes widened, "You really think-?"

"No but it's not worth the risk!" and it was worth the risk of Makoto finding out I was a pirate, "Now go!"

"Crap, okay! Where would she be?"

"Probably in the market district right now!"

"Alright, going!"

And with that, Makoto broke off and I stopped going slower for her and kicked things into high gear. Enough with the fucking streets. My legs bunched up and I launched myself up grabbing the lip of the roof and hauling myself up onto the roof before running straight out towards the path up to the temple. Leaping across the distance between houses and running along the rooftops.

Fading into the distance as I ran, I could hear a voice grumbling, "Someone's been sandbagging when we wrestle…"

-oOo-​

"Any of these worth a damn?"

I glanced up from the shelves, finding Bonney standing in the entrance to the LABORATORY, "Maybe? Some of this stuff is pretty standard, but other bits are beyond me. I haven't found the intermediary bits yet."

She grunted unhappily as she walked in, looking about. I was currently perusing the shelves of books along one wall. The wall opposite the door was covered in those little hatches that you'd find in a morgue, and inside were a number of bodies and corpses, and the room itself was rather cold. There was a mist hanging at about ankle level, lit up by the two large tesla arcs on either side of a central operating table.

"Well what do you think this is worth?" Bonney asked, lightly kicking one of the machines surrounding the central operating table. The wall opposite the shelves was almost entirely consoles with dials and screens and levers, with some tubes of strange liquids that still bubbled. I figured most of those controlled the various robotic arms that surrounded the central operating table as well as the arcane looking instruments that hung from the ceiling.

"Government attention," I muttered, pulling a book labeled 'Human Weapons' from the shelf and cracking it open.

Another unhappy grunt as she stepped up beside me, eyes skimming over the spines of the books, "Alright, any of this shit worth anything to you?"

That made me pause, I looked at her, "Oh yeah. This is stuff I've never seen before. I have no idea how about half of this equipment works. I can learn a lot from this." I turned back to the book in my hands, slowly flipping through it as I skimmed the text, "I'm just hesitant to sell it, since from what I've heard, this stuff is either exactly what the World Government is looking for or was taken from their nooOOotes–! Hello."

"What?" Bonney perked up, leaning over.

"This is by Dr. Vegapunk!" I said eagerly, as if it explained everything, because it did to me. She raised an eyebrow at me and I cringed, "Right. He's a scientist. He's supposed to be centuries ahead of our time."

"What, like you?"

I snorted, "Tchah! I'm flattered you think so much of me!" I grinned at her and she elbowed me good naturedly, but I shook my head, "Honestly though? No. I'm decades ahead right now, tops." There's only so far my knowledge from my past life can take me, dedicated nerd or not. "Vegapunk is supposed to be as far ahead of me as I am ahead of everyone else, and then some."

"Okay, so this is worth something?" Bonney prompted, leaning her elbow against my shoulder and looking at the book.

"Oh yeah," I agreed, flipping through the book a bit faster as I skimmed through it, "How much I'm not sure, I haven't even been able to find one of these on the Black Market, and I've been looking." I truly had, I was curious and eager to find out what the hell Vegapunk was doing. But there was nothing by him directly that I'd been able to find. I was a little pissed with myself that I couldn't remember (or even find out!) what island Vegapunk was born on…

"What do you think you could make with this?" Bonney asked, a devilish glitter in her eyes, likely thinking of the guns I'd made.

"… not sure. This book is old… and it looks to be built around the usage of corpses…" I scowled, the pieces of the previous books I'd leafed through before falling into place. My eyebrows went up, "I think the Captain," a small cringe, because oh god the puns, they still hurt, "Dr. Frank. N. Stein. I think he took this research even further."

I looked back at the operating table and apparatuses with new eyes, thinking over it, "… I think I have an idea now what he was doing."

Bonney followed my gaze, "What?"

"The crew." She raised a pink eyebrow at me curiously and I looked at her, "He made the crew."

For just a moment, she looked at me in confusion before her jaw half dropped and her head jerked back towards the door, then back to me, "Wait! From corpses?!"

"That's my bet." With the hand not attached to the shoulder Bonney was leaning on, I resettled the nice tri-corner hat I'd taken from the now deceased captain, "I'll need to look through more of this to be sure though."

The pink haired woman pulled a face, looking at the books in front of us. Then she gave a small, full body shudder, "… ew. Zombies."

"Not a fan?" I asked, amused.

"No." My Captain said with finality, glancing at me, "You are not making them on my ship."

I raised a hand in a salute, "On my honor."

She looked decidedly unimpressed.

"I do have that, just not a lot. Though in this case, believe me because I have no interest in making zombies." Umbrella Corps I was not. "Though I am curious what the flying fuck he was looking into here."

Pushing off, Bonney walked over towards the center of the LABORATORY, looking over the machines as crossed her arms under her breasts, "There's not a whole lot of treasure on this ship. This is the most expensive looking stuff here. It's just a lot of refrigerators and stuff."

I scowled, "Full of corpses?"

"Yeah." She blanched just a bit, "Bits and pieces of them."

"Huh… not surprised…"

There was a moments silence before Bonney ran a hand through her hair, pushing it behind her ear, "If the crew of this ship are zombies, what do we do with them?"

"Probably let them go once we leave? Tie them up and leave a sword so they can work their way out over time and haul ass? As far as I could tell, they're still people, just people made from the bits of other people."

Bonney had turned some of them into old men, which was a bit unsettling. Hard to put my finger on it, but I found that to be more disconcerting than having maimed or just killed them for some reason. Others had turned into little kids which was weird but hey, they got a new lease on life like I had. But most of them were 'just' badly injured, with a few that had surrendered. Those that'd survive their wounds could go on to be people or be pirates. Being stitched up reanimated zombie people wasn't all that weird by Grand Line standards.

… it really said something about growing up in this world that I almost didn't think twice about that.

"We're not going to catch any zombie disease or curses from them right?"

"Nah. From the looks of things this is a one by one process of making a zombie and making it LIIIIIIIVE," I did a dramatic claw gesture before letting my hand drop and returning to my more deadpan tone, "Dramatic intonation probably required."

Bonney snorted in amusement, "So what about this stuff?" she jerked her head at the machines and equipment, "We taking it?"

"Mm…" I flipped another page before forcing myself to close the book. I needed to sort through this stuff, "Get Akira in here as well as some crates. We're definitely taking the books, and we'll see what we can take of the equipment. But unless we're willing to convert space in the hold or the kitchen into something else, we don't really have enough room for all of it in a functioning way…" I trailed off, "Unless we took this ship…?"

She paused to consider that, putting a hand to her chin and the other on her hip. After a moment, she shook her head with a small frown, "No. We shot it up pretty good… unless you can fix the main mast?"

It was my turn to shake my head, "Not enough raw materials. The Cake's isn't big enough to transfer over and I don't have enough epoxies or resins to even make a patch job. I'm good at engineering, but a miracle worker I am not."

"Then no. We don't have enough to crew the ship, and it ain't worth our time if it's practically dead in the water anyways. Take what you can. How many crates do you think you'll need?"

"Let's start with five. And we might need some muscle moving the machines themselves, I'll see."

"Don't take too long," Bonney cocked her hip out, and my eyes couldn't help but flick to her short-shorts covered rear as she looked towards the door, "We're still in sight of the island and I don't want to stay this close too long."

My brain sent on pause for just a moment at that as I searched her purple eyes. She was concerned? Worried. Softly, I asked, "That bad?"

Bonney frowned, gaze falling to the floor as she sighed, "I don't like it. I saw a mass of smoke rising over the island yesterday, and the dawns have been red far too often..."

Tucking the book under my arm, I walked over to stand beside her, superstition it might have been but I would err on the side of believing it given the weirdness inherent to this world, "Are we in cannon range?"

"Our cannons? No." She said, glancing at me, before half turning to look at the operating table, "But a twenty pound gun? Artillery? Maybe. I don't want to risk it. I want to get us in port as soon as possible."

"We have to stay pretty close for the Log Pose to reset…" I carefully reminded her. Generally, within visual distance and usually within cannon range.

"I know," she growled, her hands tightening on her biceps. Though it was less at me and more at the situation, "If there was a better way to get those McPuffins I'd just have us stay out at sea more. But they're only on the island and we just have to find them…" she drooled just a bit, making me roll my eyes.

"What if something happens while we're out?" I prompted.

"I've got a second port in the Indwandwe territory set up for the Cake to go to," she said, wiping the drool on the back of her hand, "If the town we're docking at is attacked, the crew will just ditch the town and we'll meet them there."

"Fair enough. I'll get to work," I said with a nod, it was a good plan. Bonney returned it and turned on her heel, walking towards the door. Before she could go though, I called out, "By the way." She stopped, half turning to glance back at me. I made a gesture at my chest with my hand not holding the book, "Zip up."

Bonney glanced down, finding that her lack of bra was rather noticeable in the cool room. Her face flushed as she tugged her jacket tight across her chest and hastily zipped it up, growling out, "Not a word."

Despite being seriously tempted otherwise, I made a zipping motion across my lip.

The flush on her cheeks was almost gone even as she turned with a small huff, "Get to work Ironhide."

"Yes, Captain."

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The Jungle Part 1 End