A/N: Johnny and Yosaku's boss is not an OC. He's just a really minor character who was named in the SBS section. You can look him up on the OP wiki if you like.

Zoro had gotten lost.

By the time Luffy realised this, the green merman was out of sight. He should have known better; he had already seen how easily Zoro could lag behind and wander off, and yet in his panic he hadn't bothered to grab Zoro by the armpits like he had taken to last time. Luffy would have to double back and look for him.

He was so distracted looking for Zoro he didn't notice the storm coming on. It only hit him when — actually, it hit him when it literally hit him. A wild current had catapulted a sizeable rock his way, knocking him hard over the head. The water around his temples became tinted murky pink.

Luffy kept looking for Zoro, foggily now. At the same time he kept an eye out for any cover from the storm, in case it took a turn for the worse.

He perked up when he saw a cluster of different types of fish gathered, motionless, all together. The currents were picking up more now, though they weren't all as bad as the one that had beaned him with a rock. Surely, the fish would be swimming away or be being pushed around by the water, unless they had found some sort of still pocket — or even better, had found some really, really tasty meal! Luffy took off towards it.

He overshot and wound up several metres past the gathering of fish, but some invisible force latched onto him as he did. It felt like little squares, just the borders of them, pressing into his skin and scales. He shut his eyes as the force stopped him in his tracks, then started to pull him backwards. When he opened them, he could see black lines in front of his face. Black lines surrounding him, in every direction, everywhere he could see, numerous and never-ending.

At that moment, a turtle that had been caught in the infinite lines above him jerked, and only succeeded in ramming into Luffy's head shell first. He blinked, and the water around his head became more red than murky pink, and then there was no colour at all but black.

When Luffy gained consciousness, it was to the sound of voices.

"Boss, isn't this a little… cruel?"

"Yeah, Boss, I think… I think we might get PETA on our asses for this…"

"I know it seems cruel, boys, but we don't know what it's capable of. What if it wakes up angry?"

Luffy shifted, and the three voices were immediately silent. However, even as they quieted, noise came when he moved — something was around his wrist. By the touch he could guess that it was that metal substance humans used so often. He moved his other arm; it was there, too, on his other wrist. He tried his tail. Metal was ringed around it. For some reason, he couldn't raise his arms up, but he shrugged his shoulders and found that there was more metal on his neck, digging into his chin and collar bone.

Luffy opened his eyes. He could see the metal around him, with heavy chains leading away from them towards a wooden pillar in the water. It was the leg of a dock, which three people were standing on.

The shortest one pulled out a human device called a camera.

"Um, Attach, sir," one of the taller ones said, "are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I'll just take one. Is there a problem?" Attach looked sternly at the two young men, and they both shook their head feverishly. "Well then." He brought the camera to his face, pointing it towards Luffy. "Fire!"

Luffy scrambled to get under the water. He wasn't an expert on humans, but he knew that humans shouting 'fire' was a dangerous thing — unfortunately, the chains prevented him from getting deeper down than a foot, and kept him entirely horizontal. He only managed to flail a bit, kicking up water.

Attach clicked his tongue, looking down at his camera. "The shot's ruined. I'll need to—"

"N- no, Boss," said the one with the design on his face, "that's enough, don't you think? He doesn't like it."

"It's a fish, Johnny," Attach said, giving the younger human a look. "Do you think it prefers that we grill it up on the barbeque, or sell it to the Baratie?"

"No…"

"You don't think it would rather get some blurry photos taken than be eaten?"

"I- I guess…"

"Well then." Attach handed Johnny the camera. "Would you like to do the honours?"

Johnny gulped. When he raised the camera Luffy tried to duck, because even though he knew what a camera was called he still didn't know what it did, but then one of those human, Yagara-like contraptions on rubber, round spinners pulled up by the dock.

"Those would be the specialists I called in," Attach said, snatching the camera out of Johnny's hands in the blink of an eye. He called towards the contraption, "Men!"

"Flamin' Attachan! Good to see you again!" said a blue-haired man with dark lenses held over his eyes by frames, as he stepped out of the — transportation — metal — thing.

The other human who stepped out had a nose that was long, like that of the first human Luffy had ever seen, but oddly squared. "So, what's this about a mysterious…" The man's eyes landed on Luffy and widened. "…fish…"

"Is that… but… That's…" the other man raised the lenses away from his eyes to stare at Luffy. "How did you—"

"Are you going to help us get him out of public or not?" Attach interrupted. Johnny and the other young man fell in line behind him as he waved his hand at them.

"Right, right," said the square-nosed man. "Franky?"

"…Yeah," the blue-haired man answered, taking the… thing… the nose guy handed to him. Luffy could barely see it, but the part that was visible looked sharp.

Franky waded into the water towards him, and Luffy tried to pull away, but he was stopped by the chains. Franky paused at this, but a snapped "Hurry up already!" from someone on land made him continue.

"It's alright, little guy," Franky said, slipping an arm under his back to hold him in an elevated position. "Trust me, okay? I got you."

Luffy still squirmed against the man's large hand as something pricked his arm.

"Man… I really don't know how you got yourself into this one, Strawhat-bro," Franky said, as the colour to Luffy's vision faded again. "But I got your back, just like always. Things'll be super again in no time!"

"Right," was the first word Luffy heard when he awoke for the second time. "Yeah. Of course."

His eyes blinked open, and found in front of them a sheet of glass. He put his hand against it, and felt that it had a slight curve.

"I'm serious!" the voice from before said, drawing his attention away. "No, really. …A fisherman contact of mine. He said it just swam into his net."

The square-nosed man entered his line of sight, and Luffy fell as still as possible. Nose Guy wasn't looking at him, but he was talking, and holding something square-ish against his ear.

"They put it in this giant fishbowl Franky made. I don't think it could break the glass, but even if it did, it would just dry out and die." Nose Guy turned to Luffy, and didn't seem at all affected by Luffy returning his gaze. "Yes, I checked. That, too… Yeah, it's one of ours. One of the mutated ones." He came right up to the glass, and Luffy tried, once again, to get out of reach, but his own tail fouled him up as it took up all the space between him and another glass sheet. Nose Guy tapped on the glass. "One with a super long tail. …Using the word super does not mean I'm spending too much time with Franky! Just check the records and send retrieval."

Nose Guy took the square-ish thing away from his ear and folded it in half, slipping it into the cloth that adorned his legs. He looked at Luffy, and his eyes showed some sort of sympathy. "What are they going to do with you?"

A/N: Some specifics — I did some calculations and Luffy's tail is twenty-two feet (almost seven metres) long, which is… really long, not that that need be stated. And this fic is officially two years old tomorrow! …Which means I've given you an average of four chapters a year. How do you put up with me?