Steel Heart

Ch 6 - The Coming Storm

Dock #1 was reduced to Bedlam. The crowds were cheering for the capture of Nami and Luffy. They even managed to grab the redhead while the shipwrights went after the rubber man. Nana couldn't even move as she watched all that was happening around her. Icy had said he saw Nico Robin, who was confirmed to be part of the Straw Hat...but after Luffy's declaration, she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe he was telling the truth and he honestly knew nothing about the attack.

"Stop...meddling into my fight!" Franky yelled from the side.

Nana's head turned sharply towards the cyborg when she heard the sounds of metal clanging together. Franky was in the middle of connecting his forearms to a T-shaped pipe. "Don't tell me..." Nana gasped as his arms started to expand.

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- Flashback - 3 years ago (Nana - 13-ish, Franky - 31) -

"Ow! Ow! Nana-brat!"

Nana let out a little squeak and dropped the metal pipe she was holding. She looked guiltily behind her just as the cyborg shined a flashlight in her face. She had sneaked into his scrapyard in hopes to find some metal pieces she could use for her next project. She tightened her hold on her newest blueprint. Busted...she thought to herself with a nervous frown.

"What are you super doing here this late? Go home already!" Franky shouted as he stomped down a mound of metal scraps towards her.

Nana gulped but then raised her chin up at the cyborg. "What are you doing out this late?" she shot back.

"Don't turn this on me, Nana-brat," Franky snapped. When he got to closer to where she was standing, he snatched the blueprint out of her hands. He held it above her head while he took a closer look at it, "What's this? A toy?"

Nana jumped up and attempted to grab it back but the cyborg was just too tall for her. On her third jump, she lost her footing and fell hard on her backside. "Give it back," she winced, "That's mine."

Franky raised an eyebrow at the paper and then squatted down in front of her. "This, Nana-brat, is a cannon. You think Iceberg is going to let you build a cannon?"

"It's not just any cannon," Nana said exasperatedly, "It's a water cannon! It'll shoot out a stream of sea water with enough force as a waterfall."

"Who are you trying to shoot? Devil Fruit users?" Franky asked.

Nana scoffed. "Of course not! Those cannons can help put out fires."

Franky blinked and stared at Iceberg's ward. This brat's got heart, he mused as he looked over her blueprint again, And talent...But terrible penmanship.

"You know, you super forgot to put in a pipe to connect to the water source," he said casually as he handed the blueprint back to its owner.

"No, I didn't," she snapped and pointed at her drawing, "Do you need to fix your eyes? It's right there!"

"Ah, my mistake," Franky said and then he grinned, "I see the pipe...but where's the water source?"

"It's going to be the sea. Duh!" Nana scoffed again.

"And how is the pipe going to connect to the sea?"

"Obviously, through the hole of the ship."

"You're going to put a hole in the ship?"

"Yeah! Right at the bottom so that the cannon can suck up the water and..." her voice began to fade when she realized her oversight. She blinked and looked over at Franky, "The ship will sink, won't it?"