FicWad

"Ugh…Ow." Summer's head pounded against her skull, a repeated throbbing that progressively got worse as she woke up. She tried to bring her hands up to her head but found that they wouldn't move. Slowly opening her eyes, she looked around her.

Darkness surrounded her except for the single light that shined above her head. When she tried looking up into it, it blinded her and set her headache off again.

'Bad idea.' She thought.

'I'm not on the sub.'

The thought brought her fully awake, alert to everything around her. The scent in the air was different than that of the metal submarine she was so used to. This place smelled salty and...metallic. The second one she knew too well. Something dripped on her head from the ceiling; presumably salt water that had leaked on the ship, but in the darkness it was impossible to tell. She just hoped it wasn't blood.

The room swayed back and forth, and not just from her dazed state. The light on the ceiling swung with the gentle motion of a ship. So she was on a ship, but not the submarine. The Marines, perhaps? The last thing she remembered was fighting the Marines and seeing Law battle the commander…

Law! Was he alright? Was he still alive? Where was he? Hell, where was she exactly? Listening intently did nothing, the only thing audible was the slapping of the waves against the hull. A tiny part of her thought she heard voices but it could've been her imagination.

The frustration of not knowing anything was beginning to tax on her, and she sighed.

"Hello?" She called, torn between whether she wanted an answer or not. Who knew what the Marines would do to her after this? She'd been in enough trouble before, but now that she had affiliated herself with the Heart Pirates…

"I'm awake now!" She yelled, waiting in a silence afterwards. Still, there was no answer. Another sigh and she gave up trying to get anyone's attention. If they wanted to talk to her, they would obviously do it in their own time.

Her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, and now she could just make out the shapes of things around her. To her right there looked to be a bucket on the floor, directly in front of her looked to be the shape of a door, and to her left was what looked to be a chair.

With nothing to do but wait, Summer began to count out of boredom.

"Why weren't they picked up on the radar?" Law demanded, eyeing the navigational system with distaste. Straightening up once more, he faced his two navigators in anger. "Nothing is malfunctioning so why weren't we alerted to their presence?"

Bepo hung his head and muttered an apology, while Jean Bart only crossed his arms. "Nothing showed up on the system, Captain."

"Then explain to me how this would be possible?" Law breathed deeply, restraining his anger.

"The radar detects objects that reflect back at it, meaning individual bodies and flesh aren't detected. A small rowboat or dinghy could probably escape it's sweep as well since they are small and down low in the waves."

"Is that the only possible way?" The ex-captain shrugged.

"They could have swam up to the submarine, but that's highly unlikely."

"Dammit…" He muttered, pacing the floor. "Was Liam-ya the only one injured?"

Bepo nodded and snapped out of his depression, knowing that moping about wasn't going to help. "I found him on the floor in the infirmary. He had a wound on his head, but it wasn't bleeding too much."

"Bepo, go check on his condition." The bear nodded and hurried out the door. Turning to the stoic navigator, Law sighed once more. "Go over everything that happened in the last two hours. Don't miss even the smallest detail."

'892...893...894...'

Still, no one came. Were they even still on the ship?

'895...896...897...'

Her headache was slowly going away but now her patience was beginning to be tested. Obviously, Marines or not, whoever had kidnapped her had no respect for their captives. How rude.

'898...899...900...'

"None of you heard anything?" Law questioned his tired but ashamed crew. They shook their heads, but Shachi and Penguin kept avoiding their gazes. He narrowed his eyes.

"Shachi-ya, Penguin-ya. What aren't you telling me?" They looked almost on the brink of tears.

"We were in the kitchen last night...setting up a prank for Casper…" Penguin muttered, shuffling his feet and keeping his eyes on the floor. "Whoever took Summer would've had to go right past the kitchen...but we didn't see anything."

"We're sorry, Captain. If we'd known we would've went after them."

"There's nothing to be done now." He admitted, more angry at himself than any of his subordinates. He had left the room for an hour at most and in that time Summer had been stolen from him, right under his nose. And he had no clue as to who had done it.

Deciding he would check up on Liam himself, he left the crew to themselves and set off down the hall.

"He should wake up soon." Law inspected Liam's head, gently tilting it this way and that. "He may be our only hope as to finding Summer-ya."

Bepo looked worried. "We're going to find her, right Captain?" He wrung his paws, looking into Law's eyes in concern.

He shook his head. If it were anyone else asking, he would have smirked confidently and dashed any doubt immediately. The Captain of the Heart Pirates, the Surgeon of Death, the Dark Doctor would have never thought that anything would go wrong. Law, however, was unsure if they even had a chance. And Bepo was different; they'd been together since the beginning, slowly forming this pirate crew from the bottom to get this far.

He would always be honest with his first mate. "I hope so."

'7,465...7,466...7,467...7,468...''

The door to the room swung open, flooding the room in sudden light and blinding Summer all in one. Heavy footsteps stopped just in front of her, but she was unable to look up from the change in lighting.

"So, you're finally awake." A snarky male voice proclaimed. Though her life was in the hands of these men, her sarcastic nature couldn't be tamed so easily.

"You're about 2 hours late to be saying that…"

Summer's head was snapped right from the force of the slap. "Urg!" The stinging pain faded slowly, leaving her with ringing ears and stars dancing across her vision.

"That's enough of that attitude." The same voice said. Her vision was beginning to return and she looked up at her captors. The light from the door made the people in front of her appear as silhouettes, but there was no mistaking that spiky haircut. Next to him stood a man with a vaguely distinguishable striped mask.

"Eustass Kid…" She muttered in slight amusement. The sound of his name from her lips made him smirk in arrogance.

"So you know my name, huh? I should feel honored." Now she smirked, almost appreciating his sarcasm.

"Don't. Everyone knows who you are." Grabbing the chair nearby, he placed it in front of her and sat. Leaning closer, he laughed lowly. Killer remained silent closer to the door.

"And I know who you are, Red Hunter." Her eyes rolled.

"Wow. I should feel honored." She said, mimicking his previous statement.

"Are you comfortable?" He mocked, eyeing the restraints around her wrists and ankles.

'This is getting nowhere.' This was the one thing about notorious pirates, she thought, they always have to put on a show. With an exaggerated sigh, she rolled her neck to pop a joint back in place.

"Can we just skip the niceties and get on with the whole why-am-I-here crap? I've been sitting here forever."

She thought he would slap her again, but he only laughed in response. Now that her eyes had adjusted completely she could see Killer standing slightly behind his captain, watching their exchange with apparent interest...or disinterest. It was hard to tell with the mask covering his face.

"I at least appreciate the fact that you aren't stupid. Not like the last guy." She wasn't sure what he meant by that exactly but she had a feeling she didn't want to know. So she didn't ask. He seemed a little disappointed by this but continued anyway.

"You have a very high price on your head. Turning you in would make me very rich." She arched an eyebrow.

"I'm pretty sure my 195,000,000 beli bounty wouldn't make that much of a difference to your bank account." Before she had even finished talking, Kid had started laughing. She frowned, confused by his humor.

"Something wrong?"

"You can't be serious, right? Do you live under a rock?" He must have decided her confusion was genuine because he shook his head in wonder. "The Marines raised your bounty a month ago." He fished a newspaper out of his jacket and held it up to her. There, on the bounties page, was her picture.

THE RED HUNTER SUMMER. Considered armed and extremely dangerous. Do not approach. If sighted, immediately contact Marine forces: 245,000,000 beli.

"Huh." Her lack of response seemed to irritate him once again and he put the paper away. She hadn't, however, known that the Marines had raised her bounty. And a month ago? She supposed that she hadn't been paying attention to the papers recently. "That's still not much of a bounty if you ask me. Besides, what makes you think turning me in would guarantee you getting a bounty at all? The Marines would probably just arrest you too."

"Who said anything about giving you to the Marines?" He replied cockily. She frowned once again, frustrated by his constant confusing statements.

"Just tell me what the hell you're talking about. Please." She added after he glared at her giving him orders.

"Word's going around that some underworld big-shot has put a huge price on you."

"And who would that be?" He scoffed at her question.

"Hell if I know."

"Under what terms?" She asked in curiosity, rolling her eyes at his apparent ignorance of the whole situation.

"Bring you in alive, to some island he's waiting on." Kid's gaze looked far-away, as if he were telling himself more than her. "The best part is, he's offering way more than your bounty with the Marines."

"So, how much is my beautiful self going for nowadays?" She asked sarcastically.

"550,000,000 beli."

She was silent. Who the hell had that kind of money to just spend on a bounty? And who the hell was that desperate to have her captured? Her first assumption was Viper, but she knew even he didn't have that kind of money. Maybe it was just a ruse from him to make it easier to locate her?

"Well, I hope you enjoy your stay with us, Red Hunter, because it'll be a long two weeks down here while we travel to that island." He stood up from the chair, turning towards the door. He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Oh, and don't expect any celebrity treatment just because you're wanted alive. They never mentioned what condition you were in when you got there."

Without another word from him or his first mate, the pirate captain left the room and shut the door behind him. Immediately, Summer was blinded from the sudden change to darkness and she blinked back reflex tears.

'550,000,000 beli...underworld...who the hell wants me that bad? And...why?'

"Captain, Liam's waking up." Bepo alerted Law, who had been gradually falling asleep in his chair. He jerked awake, standing up with aching muscles and walked over to the infirmary cot his medic lay on.

"Argh...dammit…" Liam muttered, shifting uncomfortably on the bed. Law lay a hand on his chest, noticing how he tensed at the touch.

"Try not to move too much, that wound on your head isn't small." At his Captain's voice he visibly calmed, sinking back onto the sheet.

"I tried to stop them, Captain, but there were two of them and-" His scratchy voice was interrupted by Law.

"You did all you could. There's no use blaming yourself." He enforced, looking directly at him to get the point across.

Liam sighed but reluctantly nodded his head.

"Do you know who did this?" Law asked. Liam faced him again anger setting into his features.

"The Kid Pirates." Law narrowed his eyes and the medic almost thought that he had angered him, before realizing that it was who it was that changed his mood so rapidly. Liam was surprised by the abrupt turn of his captain as he headed purposefully towards the door. However no one saw the thunder of hatred on his face.

"Eustass-ya…" He muttered darkly.