"Alright alright, calm down and tell what's going on here. Who are all these losers?" Cherry smiled. She wasn't so shallow to get worked up over friends having a laugh at her expense.
The weirdo devil fruit loser, whose name was Foxy, seemed to take the loser comment quite hard and fell into a brief depression.
"Thank goodness you're here, Cherry. Luffy got us into this Davy Back Fight nonsense where we have to wager our crew against theirs in stupid contests!" Nami said after regaining her composure.
"Well, I don't know why you're glad I'm here then. I already told you guys I'm not a pirate, so it wouldn't be quite right for me to participate would it?" Cherry stated firmly.
"I know, but can't you help us with just this one thing?" Nami begged.
"She cannot participate unless she is officially a member of your crew and thus part of the wager!" Foxy shouted with what he probably thought was a sly grin, but it only made him look like an idiot.
"You heard the man. But I suppose I could join up officially... for a bigger share of the loot." Cherry said, putting on a cunning smile.
"Geh!" Nami looked torn, but in the end grit her teeth and agreed with a nod.
Cherry was mostly just teasing her since she liked money so much. Cherry didn't really care about the difference between being a real member of the Straw Hats or just a passenger. The world government certainly wouldn't make the distinction.
She would have no qualms about leaving if and when the time came to do so, regardless of whether or not she was an official member of the crew.
"Just putting this out there, you're sure you want to play this silly game? Just killing the lot of them isn't an option?" Cherry directed a question to Luffy.
"""So vicious!""" The Foxy pirates shouted.
"This a matter a pride! I have to beat them fair and square!" Luffy insisted.
On the Foxy pirates' side, the green haired woman with a pointy nose, Porche, had pulled aside Captain Foxy.
"Look Boss, I told you I recognized that woman!" Porche said, showing him a bounty poster.
Looking at the enormous bounty printed underneath the photo of the black winged woman, he began to grow nervous.
Foxy knew that ones bounty didn't mean everything, the government couldn't keep track of your strength unless you were particularly active. His own bounty was earned before he had eaten his devil fruit after all. He reckoned he was worth at least 150 million Beri at this moment.
A bounty of 250 million Beri was too much even for his amazing self to handle though.
"Ah! Look here, Porche. It says only wanted alive. This overinflated bounty must be because she's some lost princess or something, not because she's strong!" Foxy rationalized.
"Wow, you're so smart, Boss! Why didn't I think of that?!" Porche praised, her worries abated.
Foxy wasn't entirely wrong in this line of reasoning. Cabernet had gotten this bounty solely for being a Lunarian, not for her fighting ability. Though he was incorrect in assuming she wasn't strong enough to warrant the bounty.
"The first event is a barrel boat race. Naturally I will take part in this game as the navigator. Who should be our second and third?" Nami asked.
"I can be quite handy at range." Robin said.
"I guess I'll join this one too." Cherry said.
"Great, we have our first line up!" Nami stated.
Luffy insisted on taking the combat game at the end. Sanji, Zoro, and Cabernet took the second game.
Cherry helped Usopp to put together the barrel boat, fusing the barrels together so they wouldn't come apart too easily.
The race was ready to begin, they were up against two fishmen and Porche.
"Ready! Set! GO!" The announcer shouted into his microphone.
The Foxy pirates immediately opened fire, which was pretty predictable since they were pirates and there were no mentions of rules against outside interference.
Cherry stepped forward and cut all the bullets and cannon balls out of the air. Soon enough the interlopers were dealt with by the other Straw Hats.
Robin used her devil fruit to throw Porche overboard, forcing the other team to stop to pick her up.
As the fishmen left their boat unattended, Cherry lined up a shot and fired.
The super dense bullet ripped a jagged gash into their barrel boat's underbelly, instantly starting to sink swiftly.
With Robin rowing their boat with her powerful devil fruit arms, they quickly gained a significant lead.
The Foxy team decided to simply lift the boat to the surface and swim that way and started to gain ground.
Cherry watched their futile struggle and drew her sword.
After they entered the long corral reef, Cherry discreetly sent an electric current into the water towards the Foxy team's fishmen, stunning them and starting to sink into the miniature whirlpools that formed around the corral.
Nami had no issues navigating the corral maze and the large whirlpool immediately after.
Foxy was riding one of his crew along the coast and trying several dirty tricks, which in the end were only tricks. It was simple to subvert them.
As they neared the finish line, Cherry sensed Foxy using his devil fruit, with his hand pointed at their boat.
Although Cherry wanted to see what it would do, she wasn't about the risk the race for it.
She swung her sword towards Foxy and an arc of lightning flashed towards him, sending him flailing to the ground where he jerked and convulsed for several seconds.
The Straw Hat boat safely crossed the finish line with the Foxy team nowhere in sight.
A ceremony for choosing the crewman to join them was held. Naturally Luffy had the final say in the matter.
"Choose a pretty lady, Luffy!" Sanji yelled, ogling the women amongst the Foxy pirates.
Some of the Foxy pirates were quite downcast at this unexpected loss. Although most of them looked excited, hoping to be chosen to get away from this ridiculous pirate crew and join up with these super rookies.
Luffy looked at the Foxy pirates. "Hmmmmm..."
"Oh! Which ones are the shipwrights?! I'll pick one of them!" Luffy had a great idea.
Several hands shot up as their owners pushed through the crowd to the front.
Luffy studied these individuals closely. Sanji was desperately trying to turn his attention to a rather beautiful lady shipwright who had blown a kiss and winked at him, though this was just a tactic to get chosen. Cherry made a mental note to try to correct Sanji's overly gullible behavior when it came to beautiful women.
"That one!" Luffy pointed at a burly middle aged man and seemed satisfied with his choice.
"Noooo..." Sanji lamented.
"Ohhh, thanks for choosing me, Captain! You can call me Pepperjack. I couldn't stand that scumbag Foxy any longer. I was even considering sinking the ship and sending us all to the Davy Jones he loves so much! Harharharhar!" Pepperjack laughed.
Foxy couldn't help but feel he might have actually dodged a bullet on that one.
"Enough dilly dallying! On to the second game!" Foxy said, still salty about his loss. He flinched when Cherry looked him in the eye and lightly grasped her sword's handle with a devilish smile.
Apparently the second game was a rather complicated one as it had about a thousand rules compiled into a book. Cherry gave the book a quick once over and swiftly discarded it. Most of the rules were about hyper specific scenarios that were practically guaranteed not to come up in this game.
The main rules to keep in mind was that weapons were banned and attacking the referee was a big no no.
Cherry looked at the referee. 'There's no way that guy is going to judge fairly.'
As the players took the field, Cherry brought Serene over to the referee to say hello.
"Hello there. I was worried that the Foxy pirates were going to cheat through the referee, but I can see you're a man of integrity." Cherry lied through her teeth.
"Oh, well, uh, of course! I take this job very seriously, yes ma'am!" The referee blushed. It wasn't often he was flanked on either side by beauties.
"My friend Serene here is a masseuse as she said earlier. Perhaps you'd like a quick pre-game massage toget you into tip top shape?" Cherry offered.
"Oh, o-of course I would! Please do!" Naturally the referee was ecstatic.
Serene got started immediately. The referee immediately felt he was in heaven, but in only a moment it changed into hell.
All the muscles in his body cramped up painfully and he couldn't move. He was not even able to cry out in pain.
"You're going to judge the game fair and square, am I clear? If you think this is bad, what do you think would happen if we end up on the same ship? You wouldn't want to wake up trapped inside the painful prison of your own body like this, only be to tossed overboard to drown, would you? Blink twice if you understand." Cherry said sinisterly, no longer looking beautiful in his eyes, but like evil incarnate.
He blinked twice without thinking twice.
"Good boy." Cherry patted his shoulder and Serene relaxed his cramping muscles so he could move again.