"I'm bored." Luffy whined, lying on the deck.
Franky sighed, not bothering to look up from his newspaper. "Of course, you are."
"I want to go look around!" Luffy pouted as he rolled around the floor.
"Nami told us to watch the ship, Luffy. Besides, the island probably is boring." Franky stated, glancing at the island they docked to.
"But there's a village, Franky! I want to go there!" Luffy sat up and pointed to it, looking at his friend with a pout. True to his word, there was a village just a few miles away. Nami and the rest of the crew had gone there to stock up on their supplies.
"The village probably is boring too." Franky stated matter-of-factly.
Luffy shook his head, "You don't know that! Maybe, it's cool and awesome!" The captain had a thoughtful look on his face and drool came out of his mouth. "Maybe, there's a meat store!"
"If you go there, Nami will be SUPER mad." The cyborg reminded, flipping his newspaper to the next page. "She instructed us both to keep the ship safe and wait for the others to come back. They said they're going to be back after around three hours, remember?"
Luffy groaned dramatically and lied back down on the deck. "But, that's too long! You can't expect me to just sit here and stay still for three hours! I'll die of boredom."
"You won't die of boredom, Luffy. That's just ridiculous."
"Still! I want to go!"
"What if something happens to the ship when you go?" Franky asked, as he was about to flip another page.
The captain didn't even think twice before saying, "Then I'll leave that to you, Franky. You are the shipwright, after all!" Luffy glanced at Franky and gave him a grin. "I can trust you!"
Franky's breath hitched. His jaw dropped in the slightest and the cyborg almost dropped the newspaper to the ground. Luffy didn't see it but behind Franky's sunglasses, the cyborg's eyes expanded and his eyebrows raised a notch.
Luffy. Franky thought with his lips trembling. Finally, after two long years, I can finally hear you say that again.
It took everything in him not to cry right there and then.
"Franky, what's wrong?" The cyborg was snapped from his thoughts when he heard Luffy's voice calling out to him. Franky turned around to see Luffy staring at him.
Franky's eyebrows furrowed when he noticed the almost worried frown on his captain's face, so he quickly blinked the tears away and continued reading the newspaper like normal. "Nothing. But like I said, Nami would be mad if she sees you in the village."
With his friend acting like himself again, Luffy smiled in relief for a brief second before he went back to his whining. "Ugh, I know! But, still-"
"That's why, don't get caught."
"I want to-Huh?" Luffy halted as he took in what his friend had just said. Franky put the newspaper down and turned around to give his captain a sincere smile. "Just go, and don't let anyone see you."
Luffy stared at him for a few seconds, before his smile turned into a wide grin and Luffy's eyes lighted up like a little kid in a candy store (in Luffy's case, a meat store). "Really?"
Franky nodded and waved his hand to 'shoo' his captain. "Yeah, go ahead."
Luffy quickly sat up, not needing to be told again. "Thanks, Franky!" The captain said as he jumped off the deck and ran towards the village.
The shipwright stood up and walked to the railing of the ship. "But be back in an hour, Luffy! You have to be here when the others arrive." Franky yelled, before he had a thoughtful look on his face and added, "And, don't get lost!"
"I won't, I'm not Zoro!" Luffy replied, still grinning. The boy glanced at Franky once more and waved his hand. "Take care of Sunny for me, Shipwright!"
Franky's chest almost burst with joy (even though it was metal) and the cyborg's smile threatened to split in half. "Alright, you can count on me, Captain! I'll make sure nothing happens to Sunny!"
"Yeah!" Luffy said, running further and further until he was finally out of sight. Franky chuckled and walked back to his seat, flopping down onto it as he retrieved back the newspaper. Three hours was a pretty long time, so he had to do something.
A few feet away, a large group of pirates marched towards the dock and set their eyes on the Thousand Sunny. The man with a captain's coat smirked and he turned around to his crewmates, pointing the ship with his left hand. "Look at this, boys! This will be our new pirate ship!"
The crew's eyes lighted up and all of them jumped gleefully. "Alright, Captain! You found a good one!" The crewmembers shouted.
The captain laughed and said, "Of course I did!"
One of the men inspected the ship and noticed the Jolly Roger it had on its mast. "W-Wait, Captain! This ship already has a Jolly Roger!"
The captain waved him off and confidently said, "Doesn't matter, boys! I am the man that will be the Pirate King someday, I can easily throw that pirate crew off board and we'll depart in no time!"
His crew behind him cheered even more and they put their hands up in the air.
"Alright, Captain!"
"You're so cool!"
"That's our captain!"
Franky heard the commotion from the deck and scowled annoyingly. "What's all the fuss down there?" The cyborg mumbled as he got up and went to check. When he came near the railing, he saw a group of pirates approaching the Thousand Sunny.
That's odd. Franky thought. Nami didn't say that we'd have guests. "Wait a second, who are you guys?"
The captain spotted Franky on the deck and grinned. "We are the newly formed King Pirates! We like this ship, so we'll be taking it!"
Franky took off his sunglasses and frowned. "King Pirates? What are you, a king?"
The captain's smile widened and he had an I'm-glad-you-asked look on his face. "Yes. Someday, I'll be the Pirate King and I'll be the richest man in the world!" The captain laughed out loud. He had a mysterious glint in his eyes and smirked. "But to do that, I'll need a ship! So, get off my ship, you brat!"
Franky's eye twitched at the man who had dared to call Sunny his and quickly put on his sunglasses back. "This isn't your ship, it's my Captain's ship."
"Oh, really? Where is your captain, then? I need to get him off my ship too." The captain answered, smirking. Franky gripped the railing hard and narrowed his eyes. This man was seriously getting on his nerves. "I told you, this isn't your ship and it never will be. It only belongs to my Captain."
The captain gritted his teeth in annoyance, then he pulled out his gun and aimed it at the cyborg. "Who are you, bastard? I'm a pirate captain!" The captain cried out. He took out a bounty poster from his pocket and showed it to Franky. "My bounty's around thirty million berries so don't even bother fighting me."
Franky merely raised an eyebrow at him and the poster. Then, he walked off the ship and made his way towards the captain and his crew. At this moment, one of the men finally took a good look at Franky and his eyes widened in fear when he realized who their enemy was. "S-Stop, Captain! You can't fight him!"
The captain turned to him with annoyance. "Why? I could easily beat him and his captain! He's probably weak, anyway!" A vein popped to Franky's head when he heard that and he balled his fists in anger.
"You can't, Captain! Don't you recognize him?" The man shakily pulled out a bounty poster from his bad and held it to the captain. "That's the Straw-Hat's shipwright, Cyborg Franky! He has a bounty of forty-four million berries!"
The captain, who was earlier confident and arrogant, was now turning pale as he took in what his underling had just said. "...S-Straw-Hat?" The man stuttered out, glancing back at the cyborg.
Franky tilted his head in confusion. "What, you didn't know? I thought the Jolly Roger was a dead giveaway."
The captain was now trembling, and his hand that was holding the gun shook. "I-If you're a Straw-Hat, t-then your captain is..."
Franky smirked when he proudly answered, "Straw-Hat Luffy."
The captain paled even more as he recalled what he had said about the captain. When he saw Franky walking closer to him, the man shook his head and tried to hide his fear with a (not so) brave smirk. "D-Doesn't matter! I can still beat you and take this ship! Then, I'll be the Pirate King!"
Franky stopped before the man and stared at him with a sinister smile. "You think I'll let you do that, eh?" The cyborg bumped his large fists together and small sparks of electricity charged throughout his body.
The group of pirates stepped back in fear and some of them began to run away. The captain however, stood right on his spot, frozen. "W-What are you doing?"
"Making sure you don't do anything to my captain's ship." Franky said as he retracted his fists and aimed his right arm towards the group. "Luffy trusted me to take care of Sunny until he gets back, and I won't betray his trust." The cyborg's lips turned to a small smile when he added, "He called me his shipwright, after all."
The pirate captain finally took a step back and Franky used that moment to strike. "Strong Right!"
The forearm separated from Franky's body with a chain behind it, and it flew towards the King Pirates like a rocket. The pirates tried to avoid it, but the launched forearm was too fast for them as it slammed onto the captain's stomach and hit the other pirates behind him. The arm let out a ball of fire at impact, causing the pirates to have burns throughout their bodies.
Franky's arm shot them all the way to the barrels, a few feet away from the ship. The pirates landed hard onto the ground, all groaning and wincing from the pain. The captain slowly sat up, favoring his left wrist, which had broken from the impact, and glared at Franky. "How dare you!"
"No, how dare you." Franky glared back, seething as he reeled back his arm. "First, you called this ship yours, when it only belongs to my captain. I made it for Luffy, and only Luffy."
The pirate captain noticed the dark aura that had formed around Franky and wanted to run away, but for some reason his body refused to move. Franky couldn't help but feel slightly satisfied to see the petrified look on his soon-to-be victim's face.
"Second, you said you were going to become the Pirate King. Sadly, that'll never happen." Franky resisted the urge to chuckle at the man's now puzzled face. "You want to know why? Because, that title is for Luffy." Franky explained matter-of-factly. For a moment, Franky recalled when he asked Luffy to why he had wanted to become the Pirate King.
"Because, the Pirate King has the most freedom in the sea." Luffy said with a grin. "I always wanted to be free!"
And yet, this man just wanted the treasure. He wanted the same dream as Luffy, just because of the wealth. For Franky, it sounded like an insult to Luffy; who just wanted to have freedom.
"Being the Pirate King isn't about the wealth, it's about the freedom." Franky said, as he got closer to the group. The cyborg's eyes started to grow more malice as he hissed, "How dare you want to become the Pirate King just because of the freaking treasure."
By now, the pirate captain had lost all confidence at defeating Franky and he tried to stand up and run away again, this time succeeding. But, Franky was faster. He quickly gripped the captain's collar and lifted him up from the ground. The captain gasped and he struggled to get himself free.
"And third, you called my captain weak." The shipwright's hand trembled in anger at even the consideration of the thought. In the midst of his struggle, the captain finally realized that that was his biggest mistake of the day.
"I would probably forgive you if you had only said that I'm weak. But, you made it personal when you brought up my captain too." The man glanced at Franky's eyes and his face lost all color. The cyborg's eyes were filled with rage that could be seen even through his sunglasses, and if looks could kill, the captain had no doubt that he and his crew would've been long gone by now.
"Luffy's anything but weak, you bastard haven't even met him yet you call him weak. You haven't seen him fight, you haven't seen him protect us, and you haven't seen our battles. Don't you dare call Luffy weak when you are absolutely nothing like him!" Franky all but yelled at the man. The captain was too scared for his life to even care about the spit on his face.
Franky wanted to shout out more, but thought better of it since that would probably take more than three hours (a day or two, maybe). Instead, Franky glanced at Sunny beside him and grabbed the collar of the captain to the side, so that he could look at the ship as well.
"This ship is going to help Luffy reach his dream. The Thousand Sunny was built for that sole purpose." Franky said, gazing at the ship. Then, he turned back to the pirate and hissed out, "If you had taken this ship, you would've have ruined not only Sunny's purpose but Luffy's dream as well. And for that, I'm never going to forgive you."
"I-I....I'm sorr-" The captain stuttered, but apparently Franky had had enough with him as he punched his face with his left hand. The force of the punch sent the captain flying out of Franky's grip, landing a mere few feet away from his crew.
Franky was beyond rage at the fact that despite everything he just said about both Luffy and Sunny, the man tried to freaking apologise.
"Don't even try, you bastard." Didn't I just say that I'd never forgive you?
The man was now trying to get up, even though his face was bruised and dripping blood. Franky's Strong Right had already knocked all of his crew out, so he was the only one conscious. Franky wasn't feeling the slightest bit guilty at what he had done (they deserved it), but he didn't want his hands to be dirtier than they already were.
Besides, if there were others like this arrogant pirate crew out there, they need to have a reminder (and an example of the consequences).
"I'll spare your lives for now, but tell this to your mates and friends when you see them." Franky readied his left arm and aimed it at the group. His knuckles opened upwards, disclosing the gun barrels underneath it.
The captain sweated rapidly and his eyes widened in utmost fear when he saw the barrels beginning to light up, ready to fire. He didn't even have time to scream; because before he knew it, raging hot pain exploded on his chest. The man fell backwards and his vision began to darken. The last thing he heard before the darkness completely took over was like the words from the devil himself.
"Don't get in my Captain's way."
-
Later in the day, when the fishermen started to prepare for their fishing adventure, they would get the surprise of his life when they opened the barrels. Unconscious pirates were tucked into it like they were dead, but when the fishermen checked, all of them were still breathing.
When one pirate in particular managed to wake up and they questioned him, all he said was, "C-Cybor-..." and he had a terrified look on his face before he passed out again.
Moments before,
"Hey, Franky! I'm back!"
"Yo, Luffy! Took you long enough."
"Shishishi, sorry! I was too busy eating meat. I was right, there was a meat store!"
"Oh, really? Did the others see you?"
"Nope! I made sure to stay out of sight."
"Oh, that's SUPER! I'm not in the mood to be scolded by Nami again."
"By the way, Franky. Did anything happen when I was gone?"
"Well there were some guys who liked Sunny, but other than that...nope."
"Were they pirates?"
"Not even close."
"Really?"
"Yup."
"Okay then."
"LUFFY~! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO NOT GO TO THE VILLAGE!?"
"I-I thought you weren't caught."
"I...thought so, too. Wait, w-weren't they supposed to come back in two hours?"
"Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing."