Chapter 30: Mr Zero

Nope. Nope, nu-uh, nope. I don't have over 300 reviews. Nope. No way in hell. The review counter's broken. There's no way people like this story this much. No way. Nope. Nope. Nope-ity nope nope no. *internally screaming* 8D

"It's been a long time since I issued your orders Mr. 3." Mr. Zero says. Mr. 3…? "What's happening on that island?"

I could see Sanji putting the pieces together in his head. Whoever this Mr. 3 was must have built this place, like a hideout. And if Mr. Zero was calling him, that meant they were probably on the island after Vivi! I hear Sanji curse under his breath and I mentally kick myself; I really hope our little detour hasn't screwed over the others.

"Well, what's your answer?" Mr. Zero asks, his patience clearly wearing thin. "Have you eliminated Princess Vivi and the Straw Hats?"

I look at Sanji; guess we'll just have to roll with it. "Yeah, the mission was successful." Sanji said, pride in his voice like he actually had killed them. I forgot how good an actor he could be. "I got rid of all those pesky brats like you said."

"I see." Mr. Zero says. Wow, he actually fell for it! Does this Mr. 3 guy really sound that much like Sanji or is Mr. Zero just stupid? I doubt that it's the latter, but it would be hilarious if it was. "As we speak the Unluckies are heading your way to confirm this and deliver a package."

Uh, the Unluckies? Who were they? "Ah of course, the Unluckies." Sanji says, keeping his cool. "And a package?"

"It's an Eternal Pose to Alabasta." Mr. Zero answers. "Once it arrives you and Miss Golden Week will head to Alabasta; it's time for a very important operation." Geez, this sounds like a pretty big deal. "Details will follow once you reach Alabasta."

My ears suddenly twitch as two figures appear in the windows. From what I can tell it's an otter, wearing a polka-dotted outfit and a vulture wearing aviator goggles...okay…

My eyes widen as the vulture spreads its wings revealing a machine gun and the otter took out two razor sharp seashells. 'Crap...'

"Mr. 3, what was that?" Mr. Zero demands.

"Uh...nothing." Sanji says. The vulture spreads its wings completely and leans forward; the next thing I know, Sanji has grabbed me and ducked behind the table as gunfire rings throughout the air. We peek out once the gunfire ceases. "What the hell is that?" Sanji demands. We duck again as the vulture opens fire, shattering the tea set. We get up and the otter bolts towards us, razor shells at the ready.

"Pika!" 'Oh, you wanna play, huh?' I charge up my tail and jump, and with a hard swing, I nail him in the back of the head. The otter slams into the wall and slides to the ground lifeless. Sanji gets up and faces the vulture who tries shooting us again.

I jump behind the table again and Sanji flips around the bullets, grabbing the vulture's neck with his ankles. "So what are you gonna do now, you oversized chicken?!" Sanji twists his legs, there's a snap and the vulture falls down dead. Does this mean we get to have dinosaur meat with a side helping of vulture for dinner? I breathe a sigh of relief and jump up on the table.

"Hey, what's going on?!" Mr. Zero demands. Oh crap. I clap my paws over my mouth; I really hope he didn't hear me!

Sanji quickly picks up the receiver. "Hey, sorry about that; that damn Straw Hat was still alive." he lies quickly. "But don't worry; I finished him off for good this time."

There's a beat of silence. "So are you telling me that your report earlier was a lie?"

"Well, yeah I suppose, if you put it like that." Sanji answers. "But I've finished them off for good now, so there's no need to send anyone after them anymore."

"Very well." Mr. Zero says. Phew! Thank Arceus! "Take the Pose and head straight to Alabasta." he orders. "We'll have no more radio contact from now on; all of my orders will be sent via letter. That will be all Mr. 3. Good luck on your mission." And with that, he hangs up.

Sanji and I let a breath I didn't know we were holding and Sanji puts the receiver back on the snail. I jump off the table and step around the dead animals. "Who were these guys?" Sanji wonders. "They sure are funny looking."

I can't help but think that maybe these guys were the Unluckies Mr. Zero mentioned. If they are, Mr. Zero has some strange henchmen. I stop as my paw suddenly taps something on the ground. I pick it up and realize it's a Pose. It's bigger and fancier looking than Nami's and has the word Alabasta written on the top. It reminds me a lot of the one Ms. All Sunday gave us before. "Pika." I call, turning to Sanji.

He kneels down and I hold the pose up to him. "What have you got there?" He takes the pose and looks at it. "A Pose, huh?" I nod. Sanji puts it in his pocket. "Nami may know more about it; let's get out of here, we've gotta find the others."

I nod and follow Sanji out the door. The bobcat from before had smartly fled leaving us to walk. A strange scent suddenly fills my nose, "Pika?"

Sanji looks at me. "What is it?" he asks. I sniff the air and my ears twitch. I trot off in a certain direction with Sanji following me and we find the source after a few moments. The ground is scorched in a few places and many plants and tree branches are broken; a fight had definitely happened here. "They must be close by." Sanji says.

"Pi." I nod. We follow the trail of destruction deeper into the forest; luckily it got bigger the further we went. We would probably find hints of the others soon; hopefully they were okay. Sanji suddenly flinches and slaps his neck. "Pika?" I look up at him but he waves his hand.

"Just a bug bite." he says. I smile and nod; I was surprised we had even gone this long without being eaten by bugs in a dense place like this. We keep walking until we hear voices. I jump onto Sanji's shoulder as we enter a clearing where all the Straw Hats are waiting. Almost everyone's clothes have been burned off leaving just about all of them topless. I wince a bit as I take in their injuries, but they're alive which was all I need.

Sanji's eyes light up and I sweat drop; here we go… "Nami, my dear! Vivi, my love! And the rest of you! You're all still okay!"

I swallow the urge to shock him and wave. "Pika pika!"

Luffy waves back with a big smile. "Sanji! Pika-chan!"

Sanji walks towards them when we notice something that we surprisingly didn't notice before, namely two freaking giants! "What the hell is going on?!" Sanji exclaimed, voicing my exact thoughts. "Is one of you guys Mr. 3?"

Nami frowns. "How do you know Mr. 3?" she asked, but Sanji of course doesn't listen.

"Oh Nami! That outfit looks amazing on you!"

I bite my tongue to keep my lightning down. That wasn't even an outfit! "Say that again!" Nami threatens dangerously, but Sanji shrugs off his coat, prompting me to jump down.

"Now Nami, if you stand around like you'll catch a cold; take my coat." He offers placing it around her.

"Oh, thanks." Nami says, surprised at the gesture. I sigh and jump on a log; it was hard to remember that despite all the flirting, Sanji did actually care.

"Where were you two, anyway?" Usopp demanded.

Sanji sits next to me on the log, "Well, we actually just got done talking to a Mr. Zero over a Transponder Snail."

"M-Mr. Zero?!" Vivi exclaims.

"Pika pika!" I confirm with a nod. "I was talking to him in some weird hideout and he thought I was some guy called Mr. 3." Sanji explains. "So I let him believe it and told him that we were all dead."

Vivi slowly nods in understanding. "So he thinks he doesn't have to send people after us anymore." she concludes.

Usopp on the other hand doesn't sound too thrilled. "Oh great! We finally stop getting chased and we can't even leave this place!"

"Pika?" I tilt my head to one side; what did he mean we couldn't leave?

"We can't leave?" Sanji asks, voicing my confusion. "Do we still have to take care of something here?" He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the Alabasta Pose. "That's a shame, since Pika-chan and I found this thing."

Everyone gapes and stares at us like we had fused together into some freaky monster. "Pi…?" I ask nervously, but Luffy breaks the silence.

"ALRIGHT! AN ETERNAL POSE TO ALABASTA!"

I watch with a confused smile as everyone starts cheering. I guess we had just saved us a lot of trouble to get to Alabasta. Vivi runs over and throws her arms around Sanji, "Thank you so much Sanji; I was really starting to get worried that we wouldn't make it!" she cries happily.

"No no, it was my pleasure!" Sanji says with a blush and hearts in his eyes.

Vivi releases him and then faces me. "You too Pika-chan, thank you!" She says, picking me up and giving me a kiss on the head.

I blush slightly and rub my head sheepishly. "Pika pika…" 'It was nothing, really...' I inwardly smirk at the hint of jealousy on Sanji's face. Being naturally cute had its perks sometimes!

Vivi puts me back down and Zoro walks past us. "Zoro." Sanji gets up. "So, you forget about our little hunting contest?"

Zoro stops but doesn't turn around to face us, "Nope. Hate to say it, but you lost; I caught a rhino this big." he says smugly, holding up his arms to indicate size. I doubt that's the actual size, but whatever.

I jump back onto Sanji's shoulder as he walks towards Zoro, scratching his neck a bit; probably just the bug bite from earlier. "Doesn't sound very tasty but I guess you can eat it." he comments.

I smirk at the two of them as Luffy, Usopp, and Vivi bid farewell to the giants. "Pika pikachu." 'Sanji, no matter what you make, it always tastes good.' Sanji gives me a pat and we head out in the jungle back towards the ship. Unfortunately though, when we got back…

"See? I told you mine was bigger; I win!"

"Look closer, mine is much bigger!"

"Are you blind? My rhino is way bigger than your stupid lizard!"

I sigh from my spot on the upper railing next to Nami as Zoro and Sanji are at each other's throats once again. "It doesn't matter; they both look tasty!" Luffy chimes in.

"Shut up Luffy!" Zoro and Sanji yell together before going right back at it like nothing happened. My ears droop; if they keep this up we'll be here all day.

Nami sighs loudly, "Bunch of kids, aren't they Pika-chan?"

"Pika." 'You can say that again.'

"We don't even need all of it, just cut up what we need so we can get out of here!" she yells. Sanji seems more than willing to comply (of course), but Zoro…

"Hey Usopp; would you tell the stupid cook that I'm clearly the winner?!"

"Ehh, I really don't care." Usopp responds with a shrug. Now Zoro, bringing others into this is just plain immature!

"Can't you just agree that it's a tie?" Vivi suggests.

"I don't believe in ties, I fight to win!" Zoro responds crossing his arms. Arceus, he really is a kid! Nami looks like she's about to explode but I hold up my paw to silence her. She shouldn't strain herself over something like this. I give her a knowing smile and hop down between the two of them. I close my eyes, calm and collected, before letting loose a standard electric attack on both of them.

They both fall over twitching and I tap the dino with my paw. "Pika pika pikachu!" 'Just cut the damn dinos and let's get out of here!'

I hop back onto the boat and Nami scratches me behind the ears, "Nicely done, Pika-chan." she says proudly. I squeal, accepting her praise and in a few minutes, the meat is cut up and we're ready to set sail.

We start moving, Luffy whining about how we should've taken more meat. Dude, there's no way we can carry anymore; can't you be happy that we got freaking dinosaur meat in the first place?

"Are you actively trying to sink this ship?" Nami asks. Legit question, Nami.

We continue onwards, following the giant's instructions to keep sailing straight. "Hey look!" Luffy exclaims, pointing ahead. "The giants must've come to say goodbye!" Sure enough, the giants are standing on either side of the river leading to the ocean, capes billowing in the wind.

"A great danger still lies ahead of you." One of them says.

"It's a danger that's always been here, to prevent ships from reaching the next island." The second one says.

"Have faith in our words; go straight no matter what happens!" The first one says. Luffy gives a firm nod and we sail onwards. I have a really bad feeling about this… The giants say a final farewell and we enter the sea.

"Look! Over there!" Nami yells, pointing ahead. Something large emerges from the water and everyone screams. I cling to Sanji and squeal in fear as a giant orange and white fish makes itself known.

"What the heck is that?" Luffy wonders. "A goldfish?" Who cares what it is, it's gonna eat us!

"Usopp, hurry and get to the rudder before we're eaten!" Nami yells.

"Yeah but…" Usopp hesitates and swallows. "We have to keep going straight, right Luffy?" Luffy nods and I can feel my insides freeze in terror.

"Don't be a moron Luffy!" Nami yells. "This isn't going to be anything like with Laboon you know!"

"Yeah I know," Luffy says calmly. "Here, have the last rice cracker."

Nami catches it despite voicing that she doesn't want it. "If we don't turn the ship right now, that thing is gonna eat us!"

Carue squawks and runs into the storage room and I shiver madly on Sanji making him take me off his shoulder. I cling to his chest as he holds me protectively.

"Luffy, you sure we can trust those pals of yours?" Sanji asks. Luffy simply nods again.

"You mean we're willingly sailing into a beast's belly?!" Vivi demands.

"It's too late to turn now!" Nami screams. I cling to Sanji tighter as the sky disappears and it starts to get dark. And finally, the mouth of the fish begins to close. I squeeze my eyes shut and scream with everyone else as Sanji tightens his grip around me and darkness surrounds us. I can barely hear Usopp and Luffy yelling for us to keep going straight.

Suddenly, a loud crash is heard in the distance. I open my eyes as a strange red and blue shock wave passes through the fish. The next thing I know, there's a giant gust of wind, and bright light and the ship is sailing through the sky. I slowly smile as the image of the blue sky and the sea becomes more beautiful with every second.

I pry myself from Sanji's death-grip on me and climb back onto his shoulder, closing my eyes as the salty sea air hits my face. The ship jerks as it lands and shoves us in the direction of the Eternal Pose.

We were off to Alabasta...or at least, that's what I thought.

I'll just say this: If you saw it...you KNOW where the next chapter is going X3