solo log - Cyber Key plot
Sanji did not usually wake up so early, but the wonderful day he had had yesterday had worn him out enough that he slept deeply and woke up naturally around dawn. He was standing out on the deck of the Dream of Blue waiting for the sunrise, wrapped in a hooded sweatshirt, when he caught the streak of light out of the corner of his eye. Shooting stars so bright were definitely unusual, and he could see it against the morning sky, making him doubly curious. It was coming in low, and he watched it streak from one end of the sky to the other until it vanished at the horizon. Though he was no expert on astronomy, Sanji was pretty smart, and knew that that object had actually entered the atmosphere and splashed down. It was so low, and not moving like a normal meteor. It made him stand there, staring in confusion at the spot on the rim of the ocean where it had disappeared. It had to be miles away, and if it landed in the sea, what could he do about it?
But he was curious. And he had no schedule to keep.
The shores of Martinique slid by quickly as the sail caught the morning breeze, and before too long Sanji was out on the open ocean again, his senses alert for anything out of the ordinary. The GPS installed in the sailboat was a decent enough guide to send him south on a hunt for the possible location of that strange meteor, even though he doubted he would find anything. For the better part of the day he simply sailed, feeling ever more like an adventurer and even more lonely without his crew. Luffy would be all over something like this, he'd be at the bow screaming for the ship to go faster so they could find the star that fell into the sea. In their honor, Sanji decided to see this adventure through, until he could gaurantee that nothing exciting had actually happened and he could return to his voyage. He had plans to head for Trinidad next, after all.
Late in the afternoon as the sun was sinking westward, something was definitely happening out in front of the ship. The wide expanse of blue was broken up by a collection of vessels at anchor, a large yacht and a couple of smaller craft. Sanji knew the look of a salvage operation, and that only intensified his desire to sail closer and have a look at what they were up to. He already knew that these waters were supposedly the home and final resting place of this world's ancient pirates, so there were likely to be treasure hunters looking for old relics, but after seeing the meteor this morning, he was hoping it wasn't just that. He wouldn't be disappointed. The first sign that all was not so innocent was one of the smaller boats breaking away from the cluster and racing towards him with a motor, clearly on an intercept course. Sanji lazily steered the Dream of Blue so she would keep on course for the other ships, though his eye was on the one headed his way. The second sign of the true nature of the operation was the bullets that pinged off the foredeck.
Sanji did not care why they were shooting at him, the fact is, they were, and he wasn't going to let that kind of challenge go unanswered. The speedboat zoomed up close to him, bearing a handful of gun-toting men shouting at him in a language he didn't understand. He kicked off his flip-flops and put one foot up on the rim of his boat, and at the right moment launched himself with a spring of his powerful legs to land smack on in the middle of the gunmen on the other boat. One good sweep and they were all down, disarmed and bruised. Sanji grabbed the throttle and drew the speedboat to a stop, and then drove it back towards his own ship before any of his attackers could regain consciousness. He dumped all of their guns into the water, kicked one man in the face as he was halfway to his feet, and then set the boat adrift. Clearly, they were meant to keep any interlopers from getting too close to the salvage, and that made him just want to get closer. His sailboat was slower, but it gave him plenty of time to calculate his strategy as he came on and got a good look.
There had been divers in the water, but they were all out now, he could see their glistening wetsuits in the late-day sun up on the deck of the yacht. Something else shone from their midst, something that was being passed from hand-to-hand among the crewmen. Others had noticed that the strange sailboat had somehow evaded the gunship and was still coming, so there was a scramble of activity near the stern where they were obviously mounting another attack. Sanji paid them almost no heed, standing at the wheel with a cigarette in his lips, heading nonchalantly straight for the yacht to see what was so important that they felt the need to shoot at anyone passing by to prevent them from seeing. As he came on, he thought of what Zoro would say, thinking him still the same cook he had left two years in the past. Probably would tell me to sit tight and man the helm, he mused with a frown, that I'm too weak to go with the boarding party. Well, fuck him. I'll show him.
He trimmed the sail at just the right moment to keep the Dream of Blue from drifting aimlessly in the choppy sea and then raced to the rail to leap off. He plunged into water as warm as a bath and was instantly swimming, kicking out and diving underneath the huge hull of the yacht. The gunmen swarming all over the boat didn't see him and had no idea where he would come up, so they clustered along the nearest rail and aimed several semi-automatic rifles into the water just in case. Sanji, however, surfaced on the far side of the yacht and climbed nimbly aboard. It took just a few quick glances to determine what kind of ship this was - there were no research papers, no special equipment, but lots of guns and other paraphernalia to suggest that he had actually, wonder of wonders, boarded a pirate ship. Sanji had heard rumors all along the Caribbean chain that there were real pirates in these waters, but not like he was used to. These pirates liked to waylay tourists and hold them for ransom, or ransack and scuttle expensive ships, or participate in the drug and human trafficking trades. They never flew the black flag or held the belief in putting life on the line for adventure that the Straw Hat pirates did. Sanji did not care that this was not his world, these kind of pirates pissed him off for even daring to call themselves that. In the approximately twenty seconds it took to search for evidence and determine the nature of this crew, he had made up his mind what he was going to do about them. And good thing, too, because that was how long it took for someone to find him.
The gunman's body crashed through a door and slid across the rear deck of the yacht. Sanji burst out right after him, bare-footed and dripping wet with a look of sheer fighting passion in his eye. He barely dodged the shots sent his way, and one clipped his left shoulder, but he didn't stop for an instant. The men were shouting to one another even as he plowed into them with kicks flying every which way, propelling some of them into the water and the rest into each other or the ship itself. He even vaulted onto his hands so he could grab one by the neck with his feet and throw him overboard. Once the path was clear, he headed up the stairs to the forward deck where he had seen the divers. Anyone who met him went into the ocean as well. He kicked his way out onto the deck to find a cluster of men gathered around one, clearly the captain or head of this operation judging by the gold jewelry and big cigar. He was holding the object the divers had recovered from the reef beneath their ships. Sanji's eye caught the glint of metal and the shine of some unknown but possibly valuable material, and decided to put a perfect exclamation point on the end of his adventure by stealing whatever it was from them. He didn't even care if it turned out to be something he didn't want, he was doing it for the fun. He didn't understand the language they were all bellowing at him and each other, but he knew the gestures - the pointing, the battle formation, the mad dash to protect the leader and pull out weapons. He took a deep, satisfied breath and waited for them to come.
The fight was over far too quickly. Lucky for the men, Sanji had been kicking with his bare feet - had he been in shoes, he would have probably killed them all without intending to. He soundly beat the crap out of anyone who looked tough enough to actually stop him, and then kicked in the face of the leader. The object bounced across the deck of the yacht, free at last, but Sanji leaped to catch it before it could fall back into the ocean. As his hands came around it, an uncertain yet tangible sense of power tingled through him. Whatever this was, it was no relic. It looked like nothing else Sanji had seen in this world or in his. It was definitely broken, he could see the edges as he turned it around in his hands that looked like they were meant to continue on to another piece. The strangest thing of all was the sense that it was speaking to him, or urging him, giving him terrible ideas. What was that? Sanji blinked at it, curious as all hell, and then repeated what he thought he had heard or dreamed or...felt? "Cyber Key...Power?" he wondered.
Something definitely happened. He almost dropped the object, fearing an explosion, but he peeped one eye open to see that it was intact and so was he. He felt something humming along the surface of his skin, though. He was just standing there taking it all in in wonder, and did not hear the would-be pirate stagger up the stairs from the lower deck. He heard the gunshot a second too late, and jerked to the side in a vain attempt to dodge. The bullet hit him in the flank, about kidney-height, but pinged off him as if he were encased in metal. Both Sanji and the shooter were rahter astounded by this. They gaped at each other, and then the other man tried again, shooting three times. Sanji turned his shoulder toward them, protecting the object with his body, and gleefully watched was all three bullets were deflected the same way. He had the upper hand, and charged the gunman without fear. The guy went down hard and this time, stayed down.
Sanji held up the strange object and turned it in the sunlight, watching with deep pleasure the way the sunlight played along its unbroken contours. Whatever he had just taken from these modern pirates, it certainly didn't belong to them. It was his, now, until he could figure out where it came from. He thought he should probably look into that. But for now, he was nigh invincible and had a yacht to ransack.
But he was curious. And he had no schedule to keep.
The shores of Martinique slid by quickly as the sail caught the morning breeze, and before too long Sanji was out on the open ocean again, his senses alert for anything out of the ordinary. The GPS installed in the sailboat was a decent enough guide to send him south on a hunt for the possible location of that strange meteor, even though he doubted he would find anything. For the better part of the day he simply sailed, feeling ever more like an adventurer and even more lonely without his crew. Luffy would be all over something like this, he'd be at the bow screaming for the ship to go faster so they could find the star that fell into the sea. In their honor, Sanji decided to see this adventure through, until he could gaurantee that nothing exciting had actually happened and he could return to his voyage. He had plans to head for Trinidad next, after all.
Late in the afternoon as the sun was sinking westward, something was definitely happening out in front of the ship. The wide expanse of blue was broken up by a collection of vessels at anchor, a large yacht and a couple of smaller craft. Sanji knew the look of a salvage operation, and that only intensified his desire to sail closer and have a look at what they were up to. He already knew that these waters were supposedly the home and final resting place of this world's ancient pirates, so there were likely to be treasure hunters looking for old relics, but after seeing the meteor this morning, he was hoping it wasn't just that. He wouldn't be disappointed. The first sign that all was not so innocent was one of the smaller boats breaking away from the cluster and racing towards him with a motor, clearly on an intercept course. Sanji lazily steered the Dream of Blue so she would keep on course for the other ships, though his eye was on the one headed his way. The second sign of the true nature of the operation was the bullets that pinged off the foredeck.
Sanji did not care why they were shooting at him, the fact is, they were, and he wasn't going to let that kind of challenge go unanswered. The speedboat zoomed up close to him, bearing a handful of gun-toting men shouting at him in a language he didn't understand. He kicked off his flip-flops and put one foot up on the rim of his boat, and at the right moment launched himself with a spring of his powerful legs to land smack on in the middle of the gunmen on the other boat. One good sweep and they were all down, disarmed and bruised. Sanji grabbed the throttle and drew the speedboat to a stop, and then drove it back towards his own ship before any of his attackers could regain consciousness. He dumped all of their guns into the water, kicked one man in the face as he was halfway to his feet, and then set the boat adrift. Clearly, they were meant to keep any interlopers from getting too close to the salvage, and that made him just want to get closer. His sailboat was slower, but it gave him plenty of time to calculate his strategy as he came on and got a good look.
There had been divers in the water, but they were all out now, he could see their glistening wetsuits in the late-day sun up on the deck of the yacht. Something else shone from their midst, something that was being passed from hand-to-hand among the crewmen. Others had noticed that the strange sailboat had somehow evaded the gunship and was still coming, so there was a scramble of activity near the stern where they were obviously mounting another attack. Sanji paid them almost no heed, standing at the wheel with a cigarette in his lips, heading nonchalantly straight for the yacht to see what was so important that they felt the need to shoot at anyone passing by to prevent them from seeing. As he came on, he thought of what Zoro would say, thinking him still the same cook he had left two years in the past. Probably would tell me to sit tight and man the helm, he mused with a frown, that I'm too weak to go with the boarding party. Well, fuck him. I'll show him.
He trimmed the sail at just the right moment to keep the Dream of Blue from drifting aimlessly in the choppy sea and then raced to the rail to leap off. He plunged into water as warm as a bath and was instantly swimming, kicking out and diving underneath the huge hull of the yacht. The gunmen swarming all over the boat didn't see him and had no idea where he would come up, so they clustered along the nearest rail and aimed several semi-automatic rifles into the water just in case. Sanji, however, surfaced on the far side of the yacht and climbed nimbly aboard. It took just a few quick glances to determine what kind of ship this was - there were no research papers, no special equipment, but lots of guns and other paraphernalia to suggest that he had actually, wonder of wonders, boarded a pirate ship. Sanji had heard rumors all along the Caribbean chain that there were real pirates in these waters, but not like he was used to. These pirates liked to waylay tourists and hold them for ransom, or ransack and scuttle expensive ships, or participate in the drug and human trafficking trades. They never flew the black flag or held the belief in putting life on the line for adventure that the Straw Hat pirates did. Sanji did not care that this was not his world, these kind of pirates pissed him off for even daring to call themselves that. In the approximately twenty seconds it took to search for evidence and determine the nature of this crew, he had made up his mind what he was going to do about them. And good thing, too, because that was how long it took for someone to find him.
The gunman's body crashed through a door and slid across the rear deck of the yacht. Sanji burst out right after him, bare-footed and dripping wet with a look of sheer fighting passion in his eye. He barely dodged the shots sent his way, and one clipped his left shoulder, but he didn't stop for an instant. The men were shouting to one another even as he plowed into them with kicks flying every which way, propelling some of them into the water and the rest into each other or the ship itself. He even vaulted onto his hands so he could grab one by the neck with his feet and throw him overboard. Once the path was clear, he headed up the stairs to the forward deck where he had seen the divers. Anyone who met him went into the ocean as well. He kicked his way out onto the deck to find a cluster of men gathered around one, clearly the captain or head of this operation judging by the gold jewelry and big cigar. He was holding the object the divers had recovered from the reef beneath their ships. Sanji's eye caught the glint of metal and the shine of some unknown but possibly valuable material, and decided to put a perfect exclamation point on the end of his adventure by stealing whatever it was from them. He didn't even care if it turned out to be something he didn't want, he was doing it for the fun. He didn't understand the language they were all bellowing at him and each other, but he knew the gestures - the pointing, the battle formation, the mad dash to protect the leader and pull out weapons. He took a deep, satisfied breath and waited for them to come.
The fight was over far too quickly. Lucky for the men, Sanji had been kicking with his bare feet - had he been in shoes, he would have probably killed them all without intending to. He soundly beat the crap out of anyone who looked tough enough to actually stop him, and then kicked in the face of the leader. The object bounced across the deck of the yacht, free at last, but Sanji leaped to catch it before it could fall back into the ocean. As his hands came around it, an uncertain yet tangible sense of power tingled through him. Whatever this was, it was no relic. It looked like nothing else Sanji had seen in this world or in his. It was definitely broken, he could see the edges as he turned it around in his hands that looked like they were meant to continue on to another piece. The strangest thing of all was the sense that it was speaking to him, or urging him, giving him terrible ideas. What was that? Sanji blinked at it, curious as all hell, and then repeated what he thought he had heard or dreamed or...felt? "Cyber Key...Power?" he wondered.
Something definitely happened. He almost dropped the object, fearing an explosion, but he peeped one eye open to see that it was intact and so was he. He felt something humming along the surface of his skin, though. He was just standing there taking it all in in wonder, and did not hear the would-be pirate stagger up the stairs from the lower deck. He heard the gunshot a second too late, and jerked to the side in a vain attempt to dodge. The bullet hit him in the flank, about kidney-height, but pinged off him as if he were encased in metal. Both Sanji and the shooter were rahter astounded by this. They gaped at each other, and then the other man tried again, shooting three times. Sanji turned his shoulder toward them, protecting the object with his body, and gleefully watched was all three bullets were deflected the same way. He had the upper hand, and charged the gunman without fear. The guy went down hard and this time, stayed down.
Sanji held up the strange object and turned it in the sunlight, watching with deep pleasure the way the sunlight played along its unbroken contours. Whatever he had just taken from these modern pirates, it certainly didn't belong to them. It was his, now, until he could figure out where it came from. He thought he should probably look into that. But for now, he was nigh invincible and had a yacht to ransack.