Race to the Sky:

-x-

Luffy, Y/N, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper were sitting around the stump out behind Cricket's house while the descendant of the infamous Noland the Liar addressed them following his decision to use the Saruyama Alliance's resources to help get them to the Sky Island.

"What did you wanna tell us, Old Timer?" Usopp asked. He, Luffy, and Nami were all sitting on log-stools around the stump while Y/N and Chopper sitting on the ground and leaning against it and Zoro was sitting off behind them. There was an ear growing out of Y/N's shoulder which told them that Robin was listening from the ship.

"Listen up, and listen good," Cricket instructed as he took a short drag from the cigarette he was smoking. "I've decided to tell you guys everything I know about the Sky Island. Most of this is rumor and here-say so you'll have to make up your own minds whether you believe it or not."

"Mmm, I believe it," Luffy replied even though Cricket hadn't said anything yet.

"Quiet!" Usopp scolded him.

"There's something very strange that happens in this part of the ocean," Cricket explained as he turned and pointed at the ocean on the east side of the island. "Everything will suddenly turn black as night, right in the middle of the brightest day."

"The same thing happened to us," Chopper recalled, remembering their encounter with Masira and Sheldon and how the sky turned black and the winged monsters that had come along with it.

"Yeah," Usopp agreed as he thought back to yesterday's incredible events, "It was like the sun vanished! And then these enormous monsters showed up!"

"You saw the giants," Cricket realized. "There's a tale about where they come from but forget about 'em for now. We can go into it later. Now about this strange nightfall... its caused by the shadow of an extremely dense cloud."

"Cumulonimbus clouds?" Nami, the weather expert, questioned. "But it was too dark for clouds. It was like the sun went out."

"It was more of an eclipse," Usopp insisted, "clouds on a cloudy day are just sort of... cloudy."

"Yeah, cloudy!" Chopper chimed in.

"SHUT YOUR GOBS AND LISTEN!" Cricket snapped, "This cloud is called a cumuloregalus, it forms high in the sky, it has no internal air-currants, and never turns to rain, no light can reach the ground and a sunny afternoon turns black as pitch. It's like some giant hand reached up and snuffed out the sun like it was a candle. Some say cumuloregalus clouds are floating fossils, petrified clouds that hand in the sky unchanged for thousands of years."

"You've gotta be kidding us!" Nami said, "A petrified cloud that drifts around for centuries?"

"Hey, I'm just telling you what people have told me," Cricket defended himself. "Whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you."

"Nami remember, this is the Grand Line," Y/N reminded her. "Strangeness in the weather is what you should've come to expect on this ocean."

"So... it's a Mystery Cloud," Luffy decided.

"Yeah, I guess that sums it up about as well as anything else," Cricket reasoned.

"This is so awesome!" Chopper exclaimed as he jumped up onto the stump.

"You see, there's only one place the Sky Island can be if its real," Cricket concluded, "And that's on top of one of those clouds."

"Okay, let's go!" Luffy decided. "WE'RE ON OUR WAY UP TO THE CLOUDS!"

"WOO-HOO!" Usopp cheered as he and Luffy jumped up and started dancing around.

"Come on Zoro, wake up!" Luffy called out to the swordsman who had dozed off at some point during Cricket's explanation.

"Hm, is it morning already?" Zoro grunted as he woke up and stood up.

Y/N sweat-dropped while Nami fumed at their foolishness. Y/N took it upon himself to cut Luffy and Usopp's premature celebration short before Nami became violent.

"Hasn't it occurred to you yet that we still don't know how to get up there?" he questioned.

"Awwww..." Luffy and Usopp whined as their faces grew long and they got depressed.

"Yeah, that's gonna be the hard part," Cricket admitted, "because you'll be risking your lives every minute. There's only one way to get there: the Knock-Up Stream. It shoots straight up in the air so it could theoretically take you into the sky if you're lucky."

"Wait a minute, are you saying that this currant can actually send ships flying?" Nami inquired. The others had reclaimed their stump-stools while Zoro stood off behind them.

"Great!" Luffy exclaimed, "Then it'll be a snap! All we have to do is hitch a ride up!"

Chopper grinned as he pictured the Going Merry being gently pushed up into the air as it floated on top of a friendly geyser-like stream.

"But on an ocean currant?" Usopp questioned.

"Except wouldn't we end up falling back into the ocean and get smashed into pieces?" Nami asked with a small whimper at the end.

"Usually that's true," Cricket admitted, "Unless you can get the timing just right. It's one thing to sit here all comfy and talk about riding the Knock-Up Stream but if you think this trip is going to be some kind of pleasure cruise, you're in for a very rude awakening."

"Oh?" Chopper gasped as he leaned in closer to Y/N. The image of the gentle stream pushing their ship up into the air shattered.

"The Knock-Up Stream is as dangerous as any hurricane," Cricket continued, "it should be avoided at all costs."

"But how exactly can a currant of water rise up in the air in the first place?" Nami questioned, still trying to wrap her mind around the concept of a Knock-Up Stream. "Come on, we've never heard about anything like that before, right guys?"

"Uh-huh," Luffy and Usopp answered with a nod.

"The water from Reverse Mountain flows upward, doesn't it?" Y/N reminded her. "After seeing that, you can't honestly believe that riding the Knock-Up Stream is impossible. I'm more concerned with how we're supposed to do it, not how it happens."

"I've heard a lot of different explanations about the Knock-Up Stream," Cricket recalled, "but there's only been one that's made any sense to me, though so far no one has been stupid enough to try and confirm it. It's like this: deep below the ocean floor there are large cavities filled with air, cool sea water seeps into these air pockets and geothermal energy heats it until it becomes steam. Over time, the pressure builds and when it finally becomes too great there a tremendous explosion. This explosion hurls the water into the air and creates a currant to the sky."

"I don't get it," Luffy confessed.

"It's a Mystery Steam," Y/N dead-panned.

"OOOOH!" Luffy gasped in understanding.

"Anyway, the effect lasts for about a minute," Cricket stated, "and connects the sky to the ocean like a bridge."

"ONE MINUTE!" Nami exclaimed. "Do you realize how enormous an explosion like that would have to be?"

"The explosions occur in widely different locations about five times a month," Cricket told them.

"We'd be blown into fish food if we tried that old man!" Usopp growled.

"Anyway, you can't really explain something like this with words and theories," Cricket admitted. "It's one of the great many mysteries of creation."

"Nah, I got it," Y/N replied as he pushed himself up so he was sitting on the stump, "We have to time our ship's trajectory perfectly so we can reach the site of the undersea explosion that happens five times a month and ride the upward currant up to one of those cumuloregalus clouds and hope the Sky Island is on top of it."

"I'd say that sums it up pretty well," Cricket answered. "And if you miss, you fall back down, slam into the ocean, and get blown into fish food."

Usopp was shaking in abject terror, "Okay, so we're gonna forget all about Sky Island, right?" he asked and added a nervous laugh, "Ahaha-hahaha-hahaha..."

"Shishishishishi!" Luffy started laughing too which made Usopp's laughter even more nervous.

"Ahahaha...hahaha..." the terrified sniper glared at Luffy, "Because its nuts Luffy! Completely insane! You'd have to be luckier than Mr. Lucky McLuckLuck of Luckyland on his lucky day to pull off a stunt like this one! Aha... haha... ha..."

"So when's the next Knock-Up Stream scheduled?" Y/N inquired.

"GAAAH!" Usopp squealed in terror. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE RATIONAL ONE!"

"Shishi!" Luffy chuckled, "It'll be okay, let's go!"

Usopp started crying. "How can you say it'll be okay?" he whimpered, "Think about it for a second! And what about the poor Going Merry? Did you even stop to consider the shape she's in? The way she's suffering?" Usopp voice's went hard at the thought of protecting his precious ship, "There's no way you can expect her to stand up to a disaster like this in her condition!"

"He's absolutely right," Cricket agreed. "She's worthless. Even brand new that wreck wouldn't stand a chance."

"SAY WHAT?" Usopp demanded, taking it as a personal insult.

"Speed, weight, strength," Cricket stated, "the explosion would blow that ship to pieces before it even had a chance to get airborne."

"Yeah, see, it's hopeless," Usopp sighed.

"But don't worry," Cricket reassured them, "I think I can help you out there. I'll have Masira and Shoujou do a complete refit of your ship. I'll also have them reinforce the super-structure to withstand the strain."

"YOU BET!" Masira and Shoujou shouted as they stuck their heads out of windows in Cricket's house, "Don't worry guys, we're all over it!"

"Thanks fellas!" Luffy said with a big smile and a two-handed wave to the monkey brothers.

"Yeah... thanks a lot..." Usopp and Nami grumbled.

"Have you really thought about this?" Nami asked.

"Huh?" Luffy questioned. "What?"

"Well, I know you haven't," Nami admitted, she turned away from Luffy and faced Y/N, "At most we can only stay one more day on this island. Or did that slip your mind. After that, the Log Pose will lock onto the next island's location and we'll have to move on."

"What makes you say that?" Y/N countered. "We're not looking for an island, we're looking for the closest Knock-Up Stream. We don't need a Log Pose for that. To find it we just need to know a set time, a location and straight-forward directions on how to get there from this island." Y/N turned to Cricket, "So when's the next Knock-Up Stream scheduled?"

"It'll be at around noon tomorrow," Cricket answered.

"NOOOON?" Usopp screamed. "YOU MEAN WE CAN ACTUALLY MAKE IT?"

"That doesn't leave us much time," Y/N realized.

"No it doesn't," Cricket agreed, "So you'd better get ready."

"Hold on! This whole thing sounds fishy!" Usopp protested. He pointed accusingly at Cricket. "You're lying! We've known you less than twenty-four hours, why're you being so helpful? And what's more..."

"Now hold on Usopp!" Luffy scolded him.

"YOU hold on 'til I'm finished!" Usopp snapped. "This 'Sky Island', this legendary place we don't even know the location of is just going to show up out of the blue... at noon tomorrow? And to help us get there you're gonna rebuild and reinforce our ship... for nothing? When something looks too good to be true, IT PROBABLY IS! The infamous liar Noland is your great, great, grandwhatever, right?" By now he was growling. "So how do we know we can trust you?"

"Uhhh..." Cricket sighed as he blew out some smoke after taking a drag from his cigarette. He'd just stood there and smoked through Usopp entire accusing tirade.

THUD! The door slammed opened and Masira and Shoujou attempted to force themselves through the small doorway of Cricket's house. "HEY OLD MAN!" they called out. "SOUP'S ON! COME AND GET IT WHILE ITS HOT!"

"Move it," Sanji growled as he squeezed out passed the two monkey brothers and then with hearts in his eyes called out to Nami, "Miss. Nami! Di..." Sanji trailed off when he noted the tense one-sided stare down Usopp was having with Cricket.

"Hmm..." Cricket grunted to himself.

"What... what is it?" Usopp asked, he quickly raised his arms, "You wanna fight me?"

"Masira said whenever the mid-day night occurs in this area a cumuloregalus cloud appears in the southern sky the next day," Cricket stated as he slowly advanced on Usopp. "Based on its usual cycle of five appearances a month I'm guessing the Knock-Up Stream will along arrive tomorrow at mid-day. That will probably also be to the south. I can't exactly be one-hundred percent certain but there's a chance that the two events will coincide." Usopp broke into a sweat as Cricket got closer but just walked right passed him and stood behind him with his back to him.

"Uhhh..." Usopp let out a gasp of surprise.

"Shishi..." Luffy chuckled while the other looked on silently.

"I'm proud to have met a bunch of brave fools like you," Cricket confessed, "You're true pirates. Now then, let's go inside and eat. Tonight, I want you to call my home, your home, my friends."

Usopp started at the fact that Cricket considered them his friends. Cricket began walking back towards his house while Luffy chuckled and waved at Usopp, "Come on Usopp, its chow time!"

"YEAH! COME ON YOU GUYS!" Masira cheered.

"YAHOO! YAHOO!" Luffy exclaimed as he began dancing around at the notion of food.

"Chopper, go get Miss. Robin," Sanji instructed.

"No need," Y/N told them, he prodded the ear that had been growing out of his shoulder the whole time. "It's dinner time, Robin. Come and eat with us."

Usopp sighed and dropped down to his knees. Most of his accusation towards Cricket had been out of fear of facing the terrifying Knock-Up Stream. But the man hadn't taken them personally and revealed that he was being honest and that he considered the Straw Hats his friends.

Nami walked up next to him. "Looks like we're going to the Sky Island whether we're ready or not," she commented, "Well, let's just hope our luck continues to hold."

"Nami..." Usopp spoke up. "Do you think I'm a spineless little coward?"

"You forgot to mention idiot," she fondly teased him. "And I know how you feel. Now why not go apologize?"

Usopp nodded and pushed himself back up and raced after Cricket, "I'm sorry old timer!" Usopp cried as he grabbed the much-taller Cricket in waist-height embrace.

"WHAT'RE YOU DOING?" Cricket demanded as he pushed Usopp off of him, "Don't wipe that nose on me! It's disgusting! Idiot!" BONK!

-x-

As the sun set and the evening began, all eight Straw Hats gathered in Cricket's house with Cricket, Masira, and Shoujou. The sound of laughter echoed in the air and all around the house as the Straw Hats and the Saruyama Alliance had dinner together.

"C'mere buddy, dance with me!" Luffy exclaimed as he grabbed Shoujou and started dancing with him.

"Oh yeah, keep it coming!" Cricket called out as he happily drank a bottle of grog.

"Eat up everyone!" Sanji addressed the others as he carried over two more large plates of food, "I'm just getting started. There's plenty more on the way!"

"Here..." Usopp said as he gave Masira some food.

FWOOOSH! Flames shot out of the monkey man's mouth as he let out a scream of alarm, "YAAAHH!"

"Ahahahaha! Gotcha, ape face!" Usopp taunted and laughed at his prank, "It was hot sauce!"

"WHY YOU!" Masira growled as he shot up and started chasing Usopp around the house. "C'MERE YOU SQUIRRELY GOGGLE-HEADED LITTLE FREAK!"

"Hey good looking," the now very drunk Cricket leered at Nami, "You wanna sit next to me?"

Nami smiled but slid closer to Y/N who sitting next to her drinking from a mug of grog. She pressed up against his side and rearranged his free arm so it was draped around her shoulders.

"Watch it old timer!" Sanji scolded Cricket, "I might not be able to do anything about him, but you're about a hundred years too old to be hitting on Nami!"

"Oh, I see..." Cricket realized, "So they're..."

Y/N lowered his drink and glanced down at the girl under his arm, "When did you get there?" he inquired.

"Just now," Nami replied as she looked up and met his gaze, "You've got something on your face." Nami grabbed hold of Y/N's free arm when he attempted to move it and kept it in place around her shoulders then picked up a napkin from in front of her. She slowly turned and softly dabbed at the corner of Y/N's mouth to rid it of the crumb that was there. "Got it." She dropped the napkin and picked up her own grog mug and let out a content sigh as she started drinking.

"CHOMP!" Chopper called out as he bit down on Zoro's shoulder. He had the two halves of a broken chopstick in his mouth and was pretending to be a vampire. "So are they together now?"

"I don't even know anymore," Zoro confessed, he ignored the mouth of the reindeer-vampire that was latched onto his shoulder and as he eyed Y/N and Nami from across the room.

Robin took a sip of her glass of iced tea as she sat silently in the corner eating her own dinner while reading Noland's logbook. She turned the page but looked up in surprise when she realized that Cricket was standing right in front of her.

"The skull's right eye..." Cricket said cryptically. "That's where I saw the gold."

"Gold?" Y/N and Nami immediately perked up while the others all quieted and froze at hearing Cricket's cryptic comment.

"Those words, smeared with tears, are the last ones Noland wrote in his logbook," Cricket explained, "'The skull's right eye... that where I saw the gold'. That very same day, Noland was executed. I still don't know what he meant by that, does it refer to the name of a city? Or some landmark that used to exist on the island? Or is it just a poetic allusion towards his own impending death? The blank pages that follow give us no clue. And that's the reason we continue to dive to the bottom of the sea. We dream." Cricket raised his bottle and took a long drink.

"HOORAY FOR US!" Masira cheered from where he was sitting with Usopp on his shoulders.

"Heh heh heh..." Shoujou and Zoro chuckled as the knocked their mugs together.

"We're gonna go flying!" Luffy cheered as he stuffed a whole fish in his mouth.

"Not if you keep eating like that you won't!" Usopp joked causing everyone to laugh.

-x-

Off the north-eastern shore, Bellamy's crew sailed towards Cricket's house on their pirate ship. The main mast had two large sails. The top one had the Bellamy Pirate's Jolly Roger: a mouth with its tongue sticking out in front of a pair of crossbones. The bottom one had the same crossed-out smiley face that was tattooed on Sarquiss' chest and was matched by the figurehead.

"It's getting pretty dark but I can still make out the shoreline," Eddy the Navigator of the Bellamy Pirates reported as he stared through a pair of binoculars. "It's clear."

"Drop anchor and prepare to land!" Bellamy ordered from where he was standing next to Eddy. "Golden treasure shouldn't be wasted on starry-eyed dreamers."

-x-

Catch the South Bird:

-x-

"'Log Entry from May 21st Year 1122'," Cricket recited a passage from Noland's logbook. Dinner was over and Cricket, Shoujou, Masira and the Straw Hats were sitting around a large circular rug in the middle of the room. Even Robin had been drawn out of the corner and was sitting with Y/N and Nami. "'Today I arrived on Jaya. Shortly after making landfall we were startled by the peculiar cries of some strange bird deep in the forest... as well as the tolling of what seemed to be an enormous bell. The ringing of that golden bell resounded far and wide, as if announcing the presence of some great and prosperous city of the past. Its fleeting echoes the only reminder that this land was once home to a mighty civilization.'"

"NOOLAAND! NOOLAAND!" Shoujou and Masira sang as they swayed together with their arms thrown over each other's shoulder. They really were fans of the story if they were still getting worked up after hearing it who knows how many times before.

"'In our pride and arrogance we thought we had seen and heard everything in our short lives," Cricket stood up as he continued to recite the passage he had long since memorized. "'But the sound of that bell tolling left us all speechless. It was as if the clang of that bell had struck us all dumb with wonder.' YAAAH!"

"YAAAAHH!" Luffy cheered along with him.

"YEAH NOLAND!" Shoujou exclaimed before falling flat on his back. He drank too much.

"I just love stories with bells in them," Nami gushed, "Especially gold ones!"

"I wonder how much something that impressive would actually be worth," Y/N remarked.

"Hey old timer!" Usopp called out with a wide grin, "Sounds like you might be just a little fond of Noland after all!" The others laughed, Cricket who had seemingly claimed to hate his family legacy was still as worked up about his ancestor's log entries as the others were.

"Look at this," Cricket instructed as he pulled out a large bulky sack and unveiled a thick golden bell that was about the size of a bucket and had rectangular engravings etched in the sides. He reached into the sack again and produced two more identical gold bells.

"WOW!" Nami gasped. "A GOLDEN BELL!" She practically sprang across the rug and an instant later was hugging one of the bells to her and fondly rubbing her face against it and cooed softly to herself.

"I wondered what was in that sack," Y/N admitted, he walked over a lot calmer than Nami had and picked up one of the bells so he could examine it.

"Huh, doesn't seem too enormous to me," Usopp stated as he looked up at the golden bell that Y/N was holding.

"None of these is the one Noland was writing about in his log book," Cricket explained, "These are bell-shaped golden ingots we found on the ocean floor during a dive."

"Golden ingots?" Chopper repeated. He jumped up onto Y/N's shoulders and peered over his shoulder at the bell he was holding.

"It feels like each of these is worth an even ten million berries," Y/N noted as he lightly prodded the side of the bell, "you can only get that kind of value out of something this size if it's pure gold. I'm guessing there's more where these three came from so the people who made them had to have had an enormous supply of gold to manage it."

"THE CITY OF GOLD!" Luffy cheered, "HAH! IT IS REAL!"

"It's still not proof though..." Shoujou protested as he slowly sat back up. "You could find golden relics like that lying around in any old ruins in this part of the world."

"Maybe so," Robin replied, "but it does suggest that there was a civilization here sometime in the past. Ingots are made to divide gold into standardized units of weight and that wound indicate and advanced trading society."

"Right," Cricket agreed, "And you remember that peculiar bird call he said they heard when they landed?" He motioned to Masira who was holding the still-bulky sack Cricket had taken the three ingots out of. "Show it to them."

Masira pushed down the sack and revealed a golden statue of a strange-looking bird.

"THERE'S MORE GOLD!" Usopp exclaimed.

"Just look at the size of it!" Zoro remarked.

"That's the last of it," Cricket told them.

The large solid gold statue was big enough to come up to a normal-sized man's knee and the strange bird it depicted had a long beak like a toucan and had two feather- covered growths on the top of its head and a third one coming out of the back that was shaped like a fish's tail making its entire head look like an arrow. The bird had a large round body that was about four times the size of its head and was perched on a solid gold log.

"OH! IT'S GORGEOUS!" Nami gushed.

"Unlike these empty ingots, that thing's solid gold," Y/N stated, "The whole thing is worth more than all three ingots combined: forty-five million berries."

"Golden bells and birds huh," Sanji commented, "Do you think they might be symbols of some ancient giant civilization?"

"I really couldn't say for certain," Cricket confessed, "but I'm pretty sure all of these pieces are a part of the same casting." Cricket grabbed the statue and slid it over to him. "This creature is called a South Bird, you can still find them on this island today."

"Wow, and they have a peculiar call?" Luffy questioned as he leaned in closer to see the statue.

"Uh-huh," Cricket confirmed, "Just like in the logbook."

"Sailors have used South Birds on ships since ancient times to help them nav..." Masira trailed off and his and Shoujou's eyes went wide in alarm.

"AAH!" the two monkeys gasped.

The feeling of dread was confirmed when Cricket's eyes went wide and he let out a gasp of his own, "GUUH!"

"OOOOH NOOOOO!" Cricket, Shoujou and Masira all shouted at once.

"What's wrong?" the Straw Hats chorused.

"This is really bad!" Cricket realized, "You guys have to get to the forest on the south side of the island right away!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Luffy asked. "Are you crazy?"

"Don't waste a minute!" Cricket urged them, "You've gotta capture one of these birds quickly!"

"How come?" Usopp questioned, he wasn't all that eager to go wandering around a forest in the middle of the night. "Why?"

"What do we need the bird for?" Sanji inquired.

"Now listen carefully," Cricket instructed, "tomorrow you're gonna sail for the Knock-Up Stream. It lies directly south of here. How are you gonna get there?"

"We just sail the ship due-south of course," Luffy replied.

"Did you forget that we're in the Grand Line?" Y/N reminded him. "Typical equipment like compasses get messed up by the magnetic fields of the islands. If we sail out into the opened sea we'll get lost."

"That's why you said we wouldn't need a Log Pose to find the Knock-Up Stream," Nami realized as she recalled what Y/N had said earlier about finding the Knock-Up Stream.

"If old sailors used South Birds to help with navigation then I'm guessing we'll need to get one too," Y/N reasoned. "Since they're called South Birds I guess they have a way of telling which way is south and will help us keep going in that direction."

"That's right," Cricket answered. "Certain animals are known to have a very accurate internal sense of direction as if they're born with a natural compass."

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed, "That makes Zoro dumber than an animal!"

"Oh, yeah right!" the often lost swordsman retorted, "Like you have any room to talk!"

"The South Bird is a perfect example of this kind of creature," Cricket continued, "In the middle of a vast barren plain or a trackless ocean its head will always point in the same direction. You see? If you don't get going into the forest and catch one of those birds right now you're gonna have to kiss your only chance to get to Sky Island goodbye!"

"GAAAAHH!" Luffy, Usopp and Chopper shouted in alarm. "AND YOU'RE JUST TELLING US THIS NOW?"

"QUIT YOUR WHINING!" Cricket scolded them. The Straw Hats were practically thrown out of his house. "There's no time for that now! GO! MOVE IT OR LOSE IT!"

"You expect us to go stumbling around in the forest in the middle of the night?" Usopp shrieked.

"Don't forget these," Cricket advised as he tossed three nets out of the house after the Straw Hats. Luffy and Y/N caught them. Cricket stood in the doorway with Shoujou and Masira, "The three of us are going to get started on the repairs to your ship. You know, now that I think about it, we probably shouldn't have had that party."

"OH SURE! NOW YA TELL US!" Usopp complained as he was dragged towards the forest by Zoro and Sanji.

"Listen, the clock's ticking," Cricket warned them, "You have until morning to catch a South Bird or you can forget about the whole thing."

-x-

And so, a little bit later, the Straw Hats found themselves in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night.

"Whoa, its pitch black!" Luffy noted.

"Will you let go of me, you idiot?" Sanji scolded Usopp who was clinging to him out of sheer terror.

"I c-can't..." Usopp whimpered, "Y/N's taken." They both glanced back and spotted Nami clinging to Y/N's arm.

"Just great," Sanji complained, "He's got Nami and I'm stuck with you."

"My stomach's still so stuffed from that dinner," Chopper groaned as he rubbed his belly. "I couldn't catch a bird if I saw one."

"So where are they?" Luffy wondered as he glanced around at the trees around him.

"Let's just catch one of 'em," Zoro resolved, "Then get back to drinking."

"Will someone remind me why we ended up in this mess?" Nami asked.

"You wanted to find the City of Gold on the Sky Island," Y/N answered.

"Man, he couldn't tell us in the daylight," Usopp cried as tears of terror ran down his face, "It had to be in the middle of the night."

"Where are the birds?" Luffy asked.

"If I had any idea where the birds were do you think we'd be out here looking for them?" Zoro retorted.

"All we know is that this thing's got a peculiar call," Luffy recalled as he, Y/N, Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji huddled together.

"Yeah, and it looks just like that gold statue he showed us," Sanji added.

"Its kind of hard for me to believe that any bird can look that screwy-looking in real life," Zoro admitted.

"I bet a real one looks even stranger," Y/N told him, "The one we saw was solid gold. I'd bet it has colorful feathers too."

"Anyway, saying it has a peculiar call is too vague," Usopp pointed out, "We can't identify it just from that."

"Well, the old coot didn't seem to think we'd have any trouble finding one," Sanji stated.

JOOOOHHH! Everyone tensed as a strange call sounded through the forest.

"HEY! THAT SOUNDED PECULIAR!" Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, and Chopper all said at the same time.

"Oh, ya think?" Nami snapped.

"Yeah," Luffy answered the rhetorical question.

"Well, we're here, let's get it over with," Zoro resolved.

"We'll probably have better luck is we split up into groups," Y/N decided.

"Three nets, three teams," Sanji reasoned. "Let's bag that bird."

Luffy took one net, Zoro another, and Sanji the third. Clack! They knocked their nets together.

"WE'RE GONNA BEAT UP A BIRD!" Luffy cheered as he and Chopper ran off into the forest.

"WE'RE TRYING TO CATCH IT!" Usopp called after them.

"I'll go after those two and keep them out of trouble," Y/N offered.

"But..." Nami started to protest.

"Go with Sanji," Y/N instructed, "He can look after you and Usopp, and then Robin can look after Zoro."

"HEY!" Zoro objected, "WHY AM I THE ONE BEING LOOKED AFTER?"

"Because Robin as a sense of direction," Y/N answered then grinned, "And her bounty's higher than yours."

"Cheeky bastard..." Zoro grumbled as he stomped off in the other direction.

"Mr. One Eye, hold out your hand," Robin instructed. Y/N did as he was told. "Oreja Fleur!" An ear grew out of the back of Y/N's hand.

"Now our groups can communicate," she explained.

Y/N eyed the ear growing out the back of his hand, "In that case, give me an eye too," he requested. "This way if I spot the bird I can point it out to you and you can get the drop on it with your powers without actually being there."

"Very clever, Mr. One Eye," Robin remarked. "As long as I see it, I can grab it. Ojo Fleur!" An eye appeared on Y/N's palm.

Y/N nodded and ran off after his younger brothers while Robin turned and followed after Zoro who was using his swords to hack his way through a bush when he could've just as easily gone around it.

"Don't worry Nami-baby," Sanji reassured Nami with a suave grin, "I'll protect you!"

"Me too Sanji-love!" Usopp gushed.

"WILL YOU SUCK IT UP AND STOP BEING SUCH A WUSS?" Sanji snapped.

"Come on guys," Nami resolved, "Let's catch that bird and get out of here."

"Okay, let's all just settle down and see if we can hear that bird's call again," Sanji decided. Sanji and Nami paused and cupped their hands to their ears.

"Jeeeyaahh..."

"Hey! There it is!" Nami exclaimed. But then she turned around.

"Jeeyaahh..." Usopp crowed in a poor imitation of the call they'd heard before. "Coomee oon oouut! Jeeeyaaah!"

WHUP! Sanji's net came down over Usopp's head. "Knock it off!" Sanji complained.

"Hey! Why're you catching me?" Usopp protested as he turned to face the cook, "Oh hey, nice accessorizing there Nami. Where'd you get that thing?"

"What thing?" Nami questioned. The she looked down AND SAW THE GIANT SPIDER THAT WAS CRAWLING UP HER SIDE! "SPIIIIIIDEEEEEEEERR! WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" The spider dropped off of the terrified girl as she ran away screaming.

"What? It's just a spider," Usopp pointed out, for once he wasn't afraid and casually squatted down and picked up the big spider that had come off of Nami. It was easily the size of one of his hands. "Come here, ya poor thing..."

"I HATE SPIDERS YOU IDIOT!" Nami shrieked from the bush she was hiding behind. "THROW THAT THING AWAY!"

"GET RID OF IT USOPP!" Sanji shouted as he hid alongside Nami, "IT'S GOTTA BE POISONOUS!" Another hand-sized spider dropped out of a tree overhead and fell to the ground in front of the bush they were behind. "WAAAAHH-HAAAAA-HAAAA! THEY'RE FALLING FROM THE TREES!"

"THIS IS JUST TOO NASTY!" Nami screamed.

"I bet you're a species of tarantula," Usopp cooed to the spider as he let it crawl on his arm. He grinned at Nami and Sanji, "Don't worry you guys! They don't bite unless you make them angry or frighten them! I used to wrestle with spiders like this all the time."

"Are you out of your tiny little mind?" Sanji demanded while he and Nami hid behind the bush, "Bugs like that completely freak me out! Ewwwww!"

"Yeah me too!" Nami agreed looking just as freaked out, "They make my flesh crawl! THROW IT AWAY! I CAN'T STAND IT!"

"Ahahahaha! Suddenly Y/N being scared of zombies doesn't seem that bad!" Usopp taunted. "At least that's a reasonable fear, you're scared of tiny little bugs."

"BUGS ARE WAY WORSE THAN ZOMBIES!" Nami argued.

"DON'T YOU DARE MENTIONED THIS TO HIM!" Sanji roared.

"But you don't seem to have any problem with the centipedes and moths on the tree behind you," Usopp pointed out.

Slowly... slowly... slowly... Nami and Sanji directed their gaze behind them... THERE WERE OVER A HUNDRED MOTHS PERCHED ON THE TREE BEHIND THEM!

"YAAAAAHHH!" Sanji screamed.

"I HATE THOSE THINGS TOO!" Nami yelled, they bolted out of the bush and ran off screaming. "AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"WAIT!" Usopp called after them. "DON'T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE!"

-x-

"Wait... that sounded like someone screaming," Robin noted. "And since I didn't hear it through the ear I gave Mr. One Eye, it must have been the other group."

"Really?" Zoro asked. SLISH! With a quick slash of his sword a huge centipede the size of his leg dropped down onto the ground in front of him. Zoro reached down and pulled the bug up by one of its feelers, "A centipede. And a big one."

"You don't have to kill every living thing we meet," Robin scolded him, "It's kind of rude."

"Don't lecture me," Zoro retorted. "It's his own fault for challenging me. Anyway, I still don't trust you. Don't forget that." He turned and started walking off.

"Hey wait!" Robin called after him.

"Now what?" Zoro groaned.

"You're going back the way we came," Robin stated causing Zoro start twitching in annoyance.

JOOOOOOOHHHHH!

"There it is again," Robin realized as she turned in the direction she'd just heard the bird call. "Come on. And be careful not to step in the quicksand."

"Hey, wait for—ugghhh..." Zoro started after her only to immediately sink knee-deep into the patch of quicksand she'd just warned him about.

-x-

"SHISHISHI! I GOTCHA!" Luffy laughed. He wasn't having any trouble at all. But he seemed to have forgotten what he was looking for because he pulled a large bug out from a tree's roots. "It's an Atlas!"

"An Atlas?" Chopper repeated.

"That's right," Luffy replied, "This one and the Hercules Beetle are some of the most prized insects in the world for collectors."

"You mean there are people who collect insects?" Chopper asked.

"Oh sure," Luffy confirmed, "and these guys are some of the hardest to catch."

"Hey! Which one is cooler? That bug or the One Piece?" Chopper questioned.

"Ugghhh..." Luffy groaned as he struggled with the difficult choice. "That's a tough one."

"Please," Y/N scoffed from where he was scanning the tree tops nearby. "That's no contest. Now in case you forgot, we're here to find a bird not a bug."

"Y/N's just upset cause I always caught more bugs then him when we were kids," Luffy whispered to Chopper.

"That's cause I was busy looking for more important things, like treasure," Y/N protested.

"Rare bugs are way cooler than crummy treasure!" Luffy argued.

"You can't buy anything with bugs!" Y/N insisted.

"Oh yeah, then why'd that one guy give me his lunch when I showed him the spider I caught?" Luffy retorted.

"Because he ran away screaming!" Y/N answered, "He was arachnophobic!"

"Here's another one!" Chopper called out as he pointed to a beetle on a tree.

"WHOA!" Luffy gasped. "A STAG BEETLE!"

"We're here... to find... A BIRD!" Y/N reminded them.

"I'LL CATCH IT!" SHOOM! Luffy stretched his arms out and tried to catch the beetle on the tree but the bug launched off of the tree and flew away from Luffy's arms.

"It flew away..." Chopper noted as he watched the Stag Beetle fly away.

"RAAAH!" WHUP! WHUP! Luffy started swinging his net at the beetle but it always managed to avoid him and started flying away even faster. "DON'T LET IT GET AWAY!" Luffy and Chopper ran off after the beetle while Y/N hung his head.

"I miss Ollie," Y/N sighed, "She could find a stupid bird in a forest in no time."

JOOOOHHH!

Y/N looked up and despite his limited depth perception and the fact that it was in the middle of the night, spotted the source of the call. Perched on a branch further down the path Luffy and Chopper were chasing the beetle down was a South Bird. It had a toucan-size bill, the two growths on the top of its head, the fishtail like growth coming out of the back of its head that made its whole head look like a big arrow, and a round body that was roughly four times the size as its head. The feathers on the South Bird's head were a pale pink and purple while the feathers on the bird's body were purple and green. The greens ones were on its chest and the middle of its wings while the purple feathers made up its lower body and the tops and bottoms of its wings.

On the tree branch next to the South Bird was a bee hive.

"Joh!" the bird crowed as it nudged the hive. THUD! The bee hive fell from the branch and landed in Luffy and Chopper's patch.

"A BEE HIVE!" Luffy hollered. "RUUUUN!" BZZZZZZZZ! A swarm of angry bees came surged out of the hive and flew at Luffy and Chopper who turned and started running back towards Y/N.

SWIP! Y/N snatched the net from Luffy as he and Chopper ran by then lunged out of the way of the swarm of bees who were more intent on chasing their initial targets.

"WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS FOREST!" Luffy yelled.

"Luffy, look up there!" Chopper called out. The two looked back over their shoulders and spotted the South Bird perched on the tree branch behind them.

"A BIRD!" Luffy exclaimed.

"HE'S THE ONE THAT DROPPED THE BEE HIVE!" Chopper realized.

"JOOOOOHH! JOOOOOHHH!" the bird cried.

"WHAT DID HE SAY?" Luffy asked. "DID YOU UNDERSTAND HIM?"

"Uh..." Chopper answered, "he said: 'I'LL KILL ANYONE WHO DISTURBS THIS FOREST'!"

"Robin! Now!" Y/N called into the ear on the back of his hand while he pointed the eye on his palm at the South Bird up on the tree branch. He'd capitalized on the distraction caused by Luffy and Chopper running away from the bees to position himself below the tree branch.

Four arms grew out of the tree branch and grabbed the started South Bird before it had a chance to do anything. WHAP! "JOOOOHHH!"

SKISH!" Y/N leapt up to the branch the struggling bird was rooted on. SHU-WHUP! Y/N swung the net down and caught half the large bird inside it. "Gotcha!"

"JOOOOHHH! JOOOOOHHHH!" the bird cried.

Y/N looked up in time to see dozens of hand-sized spiders dropping out of the tree branches above him.

"Shit!" Y/N cursed. He lunged at the netted bird and tackled it, knocking the bird and himself off of the branch and down to the ground. WHUMP!

"JOOOH! JOOOOOHHH!" the frantic South Bird shot out of the next and started taking off.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Y/N growled. WHAP! Y/N launched himself at the bird and grabbed onto its feet. But despite the bird being only a quarter his size, the bird managed to lift both itself and Y/N up into the air. FWAP!FWAP!FWAP!FWAP!

"No, no, stay on the ground, stupid!" Y/N ordered. "Someone stop this crazy thing!"

"JOOOHH! JOOOOHHH!" the South Bird crowed as they flew through the trees with Y/N clutching its feet for all he was worth.

-x-

Back at Cricket's house, Cricket, Shoujou, and Masira were standing outside staring down their second group of visitors.

Bellamy the Hyena stood across from them with Sarquiss and the rest of his crew behind him.

"Now, now little boy," Shoujou taunted Bellamy, "You don't really wanna go and make us angry, do you?"

"It's not nice to show up in the middle of the night uninvited and demand gold from somebody," Masira commented. "Now get lost. We've got a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it."

"HAAAA HAHAHAAAHAAAHAAA!" Bellamy laughed. "You must be the bodyguards, and the old man must be the ex-pirate Cricket. I heard the sad story of the Montblanc Family back at the bar. It moved me to tears. But stealing another man's treasure moves me even more. I'm a pirate." SHWIF! Bellamy threw off his blue Captain's coat and stood there in his sleeveless pink shirt, "CRICKET! Maybe you'd like to know what people call me before I take your whole life's work?" A cruel grin crossed the scavenger's face as he stuck his tongue out at his latest victims. "THE HYENA! AAAHAAAHAHAA! HAAAAHAAAHAAAHAA!"

-x-

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!!