Hello and welcome to another new fanfiction by yours truly! This will be for One Piece, just in case you didn't read the category, and yes, the title is directly inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean. I am also in no way sorry for starting this many stories, because if I didn't I would be bored out of my skull writing for only a few of them. In this story my own character will be a part of the Straw Hats and accompany them on all the adventures they find themselves in. It will be OC/Nami, just to let you know. Oh, and there will be quite a few OC pirates on the enemy crews so that my OC has somebody to fight when all the enemies that actually have character are taken by other members of the crew. Feel free to send a few in if you have any ideas.
This little idea hear came about after reading an abysmal amount of One Piece stories. It started out as this nagging little voice in my head that kept telling me "Write the story, PJ, write it!" and I just couldn't ignore it. I'm not sure how good it's going to be by the standards of the people reading it, but I'm only a chapter in and I'm already looking at this story like it's my masterpiece ... but you guys can be the judges of that, can't you? I hope you enjoy the first in my Pirates of... series!
Oh and, fair warning, if you don't like a character who kills people with no hesitation whatsoever, then you won't like my OC. His moral code is strict to the point where if someone harms innocents in any way, he has literally no problem killing them. Unless they're much more powerful than him, in which case he'll try, but almost definitely fail.
Let's begin. He'll be with Luffy from the beginning, because I like to get the whole story in whenever I can.
We're Fish in a Barrel
Gol D. Roger (aka: Gold Roger) had it all. Money, power, pretty much everything else you can imagine, really. He was the envy of every person who knew of him. And with his dying words, he brought about a new age to the world: You want my treasure? You can have it. I've hidden everything I've gathered in one place. Now you just have to find it. It was these words that brought many a man to the Grand Line, the most dangerous sea of them all, in search of the One Piece, that one bit of treasure that would make the one who found it King or Queen of the Pirates. This was the Great Pirate Era.
And in the middle of it all, was my captain and me.
"Luffy," I said, sighing and rubbing my head in annoyance. "If we ever get out of this, we are going to have a serious talk about your directional capabilities." The situation I was in was a rather stressful one, to say the least. You see, my idiot captain had somehow managed to lead us—our crew of only the two of us—into the path of a whirlpool. How did we escape it? I have no fucking idea; Luffy just jumped into a barrel, pulled me in, and we prayed to whatever deity may have been watching that we wouldn't die. We were still in the barrel … and I was rather uncomfortable with the rather cramped up space we were in.
Have I not introduced myself? Forgive me. My name is Stuart 'Dagger-Man' Starling, though I prefer Stu. I had black hair, unkempt and uncut, that had red highlights and was pushed back to avoid getting it in my eyes. My eyes were a dark, harrowing blue that rather a lot of people mistook for black at first glance. I wouldn't say I was muscular, but I wasn't exactly lacking in physique either; if anything, I was just casually athletic. I wore a black vest that showed off my scarred arms and equally black, loose-fitting trousers, along with a pair of boots (also black). There was a belt holding up my trousers that had two holsters, containing my two baselards—a type of sword that resembled a large dagger. What most people couldn't see was that I also had plenty of daggers concealed in small pockets within my clothing. There was a small band-aid on my cheek.
"Why do my … whatever you just said, matter?" my friend Luffy asked. "Aren't directions what the Navigator's for?" Luffy also had black hair, even blacker than mine as it happened, and eyes with pin-prick irises surrounded by no perceivable colour. He had a huge grin on his face and a scar under his left eye. He wore a straw hat atop his head and short blue trousers with cuffs, sandals and a sleeveless red vest. He looked scrawny, but don't be fooled, the guy could kick every kind of ass imaginable and still be home in time for dinner … assuming he didn't bring dinner with him, that is.
"You know, Luffy, I would be more inclined to agree with that logic if we actually had a fucking Navigator," I said. As much as I cared for my dear friend, there was no denying that he was really stupid. "Do we even have a plan here? It's not that I don't enjoy floating on the ocean in a tightly packed space, but … I don't. Some sort of plan would be nice."
"Eh, I figured we'd just wait until someone picks us up," he told me. Most would be thoroughly baffled by his lack of interest in the situation, but by Luffy's standards that was a really well-thought plan.
That fact still didn't stop me from sighing though. "As interesting as that would make this, did it not occur to you that we might actually be getting further away from our goal? Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that I'm in this for the adventure, I'd think you're a raving lunatic." The way I saw it, we had two options. Go with Luffy's plan or stick my head out of the barrel to see what the situation was like and make a decision from there. I fumbled in my pocket, struggling due to the cramped space, and pulled out an old, dirty belli coin. Heads I take a look, tails we go with Luffy's plan. I flipped it. It landed on tails. "Well I suggest we find some way to pass the time," I said as I struggled to put the coin back in my pocket.
We sat there in awkward silence, the sound of seagulls could be heard from outside our small, wooden prison. I was starting to get bored. I reflected on the time I'd spent with Luffy thus far. I'd met him about three months ago when I happened to come across the village where he was living. Why did I just happen across it, you may ask? I'll leave my story for a later date. There are more important things to see to right now.
I was brought out of my boredom when I was suddenly forced to the side and hit my head off the wood that surrounded us. It would appear we've hit something. I heard a splash in the water just beside us. Then another. Then another. I sighed. Clearly whoever was trying to get us out of the water was not the brightest tool in the shed.
"Ugh, I missed again!" I heard someone groan from above us. There was much laughter from other people around him, by the sound of it.
"Strike three, pal!" I heard a man laugh.
"I would be embarrassed!" I heard another man yell. "You suck!"
"It would appear somebody's being made fun of out there," I said, turning to Luffy as I did so. "Let's just hope they stop long enough to get us out of the fucking water. I don't recall you being its best friend." I should probably take this time to tell you that I swear an awful lot when I'm speaking. I've always done it, and I'm not going to stop just for the sake of politeness.
"I wonder if they have any meat," Luffy said. Of course. He'd ignored me completely. I sighed and went on with my silent waiting.
It took a while but it would appear one of those idiots finally got the rope onto the barrel. I could feel a sinking sensation in my stomach as the barrel was lifted from the water. It almost felt like I was flying. I chose to ignore the comments that our saviours made about the weight of the barrel we were occupying. I felt more than a little annoyance at the fact that they were holding the barrel on its side, so Luffy had fallen onto me and I was now in an even more uncomfortable position.
"SHIP OFF THE STARBOARD BOW!" I heard one of the men, a little further away than the other two, shout in a panic. I grinned a little at the implications. A ship would only bring that much panic out of a man if it were a ship containing one thing: pirates. It looked like this was going to be fun. "AND THEY'RE FLYING A PIRATE FLAG! WE'VE GOT A PIRATE SHIP IN PURSUIT!" And that was when my head hurt like a bitch because the people holding our barrel decided to drop it. Not an unreasonable reaction, but my head hurt too much for me to care.
There were several loud explosions and a lot of incredibly loud splashing in the water surrounding the ship we were on. That meant the pirates had fired the cannons. I heard more cannon fire from outside, most of it hitting the water from the sounds of it, but I definitely heard something on the ship splinter.
"Good God, these guys have terrible aim," I huffed. I could understand the cannon fire if they were trying to sink the ship, but the odds were that they wanted to rob it first, so the cannon fire was likely meant for intimidation purposes. That was a waste of perfectly good cannon balls, in my opinion. People are already going to be intimidated when they see the pirate flag, so there was literally no point in trying to scare them further. Wait … no, that was definitely another hit on the ship. Okay, maybe they don't care about it sinking before they can rob it.
Whatever the cannon had hit, it definitely had quite the effect on the ship. The barrel started rolling, me and Luffy kept getting whacked into one another. He looked like he was having fun … I found that hard to disagree with, even though I was a little more conscious of the tight space than he was. Then came the numerous bounces and hits of my head against the wood of the barrel that probably meant we were falling down some stairs. That one hurt. A lot. Back to rolling, another crash, this one probably into a wall or a door or something, and then a lot of spinning. I was feeling nauseous and Luffy was laughing his ass off.
"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying this," I said in complete deadpan. Or, at least, as close to deadpan as I could get whilst trying to hold in some puke.
"You bet I'm enjoying this!" he exclaimed with laughter. "This is fun! So, d'you wanna get out of the barrel?"
I hummed in thought. "Not quite yet," I told him. I had developed a malicious smirk on my face. "With the pirates likely about to board the ship, I figured we could have some fun with them if they find the barrel." There was a moment's silence before I added, "But if you want to get out, Captain, then by all means. This is your crew, after all."
"Nah," Luffy refused with a fast shake of his head. "Your idea sounds more fun!"
"H-Hello …" a rather young sounding voice called into the room we'd fallen into after a while of silence. "I-I really hope there's no one in here …" There were a couple of footsteps and then a sigh. "That's a relief," the person said. I guessed he must have been trying to get away from the pirates. I heard his footsteps get closer to where we lay. "Wow, that's one big barrel. I wonder what's inside it."
I felt the sensation of our barrel being slowly rolled across the room … very slowly, in fact. Whoever this kid was, he clearly wasn't the muscular type. No matter. After a few seconds another load of footsteps could be heard. From the sound of it there was more than one person, maybe two or three.
"It's our favourite coward," a gruff sounding man said from nearby the barrel. "You trying to hide in here and dunk out on all the action again?"
"No way!" the young one said in a panic. "I was just trying to lug this big barrel of beer over to you guys!"
There was some laughter from the older one. "Why don't you let us lighten the load?"
"I was just starting to get thirsty," another older voice added in.
"You can't!" the young one exclaimed. "Lady Alvida would kill us if she ever found out!"
"She won't if you keep your trap shut," a third older voice said. "Right, boy?"
"Yeah … right …" The young one let out some nervous laughter.
I could feel the barrel being tipped the right way up, me and Luffy managing to right ourselves quickly, without making too much noise. I heard the pirates comment on the weight of the barrel and got a little annoyed. One of them announced that he was going to open the barrel 'the old fashioned way' which I took to mean punching it open. I looked at Luffy and nodded, making his grin widen even further than it already was. With a mighty yell, Luffy used both of his arms to punch his way out of the barrel, one of his fists catching the one who had been preparing to punch the barrel open in the face.
Using the clearly dumbfounded expressions of the other two older pirates to my advantage I leapt from the barrel, too, pulled my baselards from their sheaths at my side, and lunged forwards with them, catching one of the pirates in the chest and the other in the throat. Their blood flooded the area around us and they fell to the floor dead.
Some would say I'm a monster for killing people, but pirates who attack innocent people all deserve it one way or the other. You could be a pirate and not hurt innocents, but it seemed that not many were able to grasp that basic concept. Though, if it makes it easier for you, I didn't exactly enjoy it. When I jumped them from the barrel, I had at least expected them to react quickly enough to fight back. There was no honour or justice in killing a man who couldn't fight back, I don't care what he's done in the past.
"You got any food?" Luffy asked the young kid who was sat, shaking, nearby. He was short, wore large round glasses, and had light pink hair. Unlike Luffy, he seemed to take notice of the fact that I'd just killed two people, and was shaking like a leaf, taking cautious glances at me.
"Wh-Who are you two?" the kid asked us.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy!" Luffy introduced himself.
"The name's Stuart, but call me Stu," I told him.
He looked at me with wide eyes. "Y-Y-You just killed those guys!" He pointed at the corpses as if I didn't know they were there.
"So?" I shrugged. "You didn't seem to like them all that much. And I'm not planning on killing you, so what's the big deal? Is it the mess? Because I'm sure the crew of this ship can get that cleaned up in no time." I saw that he was still shaking—even more so now that I'd acted so casually about the men I'd just killed. I sighed. "Look, kid, it's not like I enjoy it, okay? I mean, I'm a pirate," I reasoned. "So it stands to reason that I do some very bad things … and I do them very well. But I only tend to do them to other pirates."
The kid seemed to shake himself out of his fear … okay, not his fear, but his mental breakdown, and began to yell at us. "IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU'RE PIRATES, YOU GUYS GOTTA RUN! If Lady Alvida finds out about this, she'll kill you on the spot!"
"I don't care about that. I'm hungry," Luffy said.
"How can you just blow this off like that!?" the kid shouted at us. "You just killed two guys, and there's hundreds more waiting up on deck that'll kill anything!"
"Oh, good," I said casually. "I may not take pleasure in killing, but there's never any harm in cleaning up the oceans a little, right?" My humour was quite crude, I admit. But to be fair to myself, I had just spent a good portion of time stuck in a barrel, cramped in with another male. I think I had a right to be pretty crude after that.
It didn't matter, either way. Luffy was heading towards a cupboard of some sort and the kid was was clinging to his arm, trying to hold him back. Luffy was actually struggling … for some reason. Honestly, he was way too strong for a kid that size to be bothering him, and yet he was struggling … what the fuck? Anyway, I just shook my head, a grin on my face at the strange display, and followed at a slow pace. Luffy eventually reached the cupboard and opened up one of its double doors, walking inside, and allowing it to swing closed. I winced in sympathy as the kid's head got stuck in the closing door and he cried out in pain.
I sighed and walked towards the door, re-opening it and freeing the poor guy's head. He looked at me in what I thought was some form of gratitude and stood aside to allow me to enter. I sent a warm smile at him, hoping to make me appear more trustworthy after my … less than nice looking display out in the kitchen.
As I entered I saw that the cupboard wasn't actually a cupboard at all. As a matter of fact, it was a large storage room for food. There were boxes and sacks of different kinds of food all over the place. Luffy was ecstatic.
My captain let out a loud laugh of pure joy and cried, "Food! This is a goldmine!" He leaped down to the bottom of the room and began turning his head left and right, getting really excited about the sheer amount of food that surrounded us. "Food food food food food!" Seriously, he didn't even stop for breath.
"Maybe we'll be safe in here …" the kid said from behind me. I heard the door snap closed. "As long as no one else gets hungry …" In the background Luffy was still having a happy-attack over the food.
"This looks promising!" yelled Luffy. He'd opened up one of the boxes and it turned out to be full of apples. "Apples! Excellent!" He let out a loud laugh. He picked up two of the apples. "Tasty." He then threw both apples into the air and caught both in his mouth at once, chewing for but a few seconds, and swallowed them down. Three months of hanging out with this guy and his eating habits still baffled me.
"M-My name's Coby," the kid introduced himself to us. I'd walked down to where Luffy was and picked out an apple before he could eat them all. I was happily munching away as I listened to Coby speak. "You're Luffy and Stu, right? The thing you did with the barrel was pretty neat … except for the, er, killing thing." He shot me a nervous glance and I sighed. I was starting to see just how much my attitude repelled normal people.
Oh well, I thought. It's not like I'll be spending much time with normal people on this trip, anyway.
"These are great!" Luffy exclaimed, looking between me and Coby with that giant, unnatural grin of his. He turned back to the apples and, with his mouth full, he said, "So are we on a pirate ship or what?"
"No," Coby told him. "It's a passenger ship that's being raided by pirates."
"Yeah, Luffy," I said. "Even by your standards it's kind of stupid to not know that. As I recall, we were both very conscious when the attack started. And we both heard it." I paused for a moment. "But, of course, knowing you, you spaced out completely until we started getting knocked about, am I right?" I turned to speak to Coby. "Who's crew is doing the raiding, anyway? I'd like to know who we're going to be fighting to get out of here."
"L-Lady Alvida," stuttered Coby. He seemed more than a little put-off by the way I said we would be fighting them.
"Ah, who cares anyway?" Luffy asked. "What we need to know is: are there any boats on board?" I was slightly embarrassed. Luffy had managed to think ahead of me … I didn't know how to feel about that.
"… I think there are a few," Coby told us. He sounded slightly confused by the question. Then again, we were leaving quite a few gaps in our story. I suppose confusion is a rather reasonable reaction.
"Good. 'Cause ours got sucked into some big whirlpool." Luffy never dropped his casual tone.
"That big one outside?" Coby asked, his eyes wide in shock. "No way! No one could've survived that." His tone was full of awe.
"Well, we survived that," I pointed out to him. "It took us by surprise, for sure. But you wouldn't believe what you can accomplish by jumping into a barrel. Hell, I can scarcely believe it myself." I took a final bite from my apple and threw the core onto the ground. "So, where do you fit into all this, Coby? Are you an invader or an invadee?" I realise that 'invadee' isn't actually a word, but the phrase was good so I didn't care.
Coby's face fell into one of depression at my question. He looked to the ground solemnly and I began to grow concerned. Then he looked up again and said, "It was on a fateful day, long ago. That day … I stepped out onto a small fishing boat on the outskirts of town to go catch my dinner. It turned out that particular boat was actually headed for a pirate ship. That was two years ago. In exchange for them letting me live, I'm forced to live the life of a cabin boy."
There was silence in the room. Until …
"You're pretty stupid, you know that?" Luffy said to him. He was crouched in a frog-like position and looking at Coby intently.
"Gee, thanks for your honesty," Coby said, burying his face in his knees.
"If you hate it, then leave," Luffy told him, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Are you kidding? I can't do that! Nuh-uh! No way! Not a chance!" Coby shook his head fervently as he cried out his many denials. "Just the thought of Alvida finding me scares me so badly I might throw up!"
"You're a moron and a coward!" Luffy said, laughter leaking through his words. "I hate people like you!"
Coby turned away, a dumbfounded expression on his face at the behaviour my captain was showing. There was also most definitely quite a lot of sadness in there, too, because of the way Luffy had just pointed out his worst features. It was likely that he knew them to be true, but just didn't want to face that fact.
"Coby," I said in an attempt to get his attention. He looked at me and I continued on, speaking directly into his face. "You can't live your life in fear. That's no way for anybody to live out their lives. Facing your fear is half the fun in life, and the sooner you accept that, the better your life will be." During my speech I stood up and looked through one of the small windows on the door. Oh dear, I thought as I took in what was outside. It would appear that the third pirate has woken up. Better prepare for a fight.
"You're right," Coby said after a while. "If I had the courage, I could drift out alone in a barrel and be rid of these pirates. I actually have my own dreams. Some day … I'd like to live out all of them. So … what about you guys? What first got you two to sail on these seas?"
"Well I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" Luffy exclaimed with a massive grin on his face.
Coby's expression was, in a word, comical. His jaw had dropped, his pupils had shrunk to the size of pin-pricks and his eyes were wide. His whole face was an expression of pure shock.
"Th-the King …?" he asked in a strangled voice.
"Yep!" Luffy told him.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah!"
"B-but … you don't have a crew."
"I have Stu. I'm still lookin' for the rest."
Coby was silent. His face was frozen in that same comically shocked expression. Luffy waved a hand in front of his face and he jumped onto his feet.
"King of the Pirates is a title reserved for the one who obtains everything this world has to offer! You're talking about seeking the ultimate treasure of wealth, fame and power! The treasure that you seek is the One Piece!"
"Yeah!" Luffy confirmed.
"'Yeah,' that's it!? Pirates all over the world are looking for that treasure, you know!?"
"Yeah, so?"
Coby began to shake not only his head, but his entire body with it. "No way! It's impossible! Impossible! Impossible! No way that anyone like you could reach that pinnacle in this great pirate age! There's just too many out there that are meaner and better!"
Coby was then sent to the floor by a well-placed hit to the top of his head, courtesy of Luffy.
"Thank you, Luffy," I said with a sigh. I rubbed my forehead with a slightly pained expression on my face. "That was starting to get really annoying."
"Ow! Why did you hit me?" Coby asked from his spot on the ground, rubbing the spot on his head where Luffy had hit him.
"'Cause I felt like it," Luffy said.
"Oh well," Coby groaned, sitting up from his spot on the ground. "I'm used to it. My shipmates smack me around a lot. All the time, in fact."
"It's not about if I can," Luffy said. He placed a hand proudly on his straw hat. "I'm doing this because I want to." He took his hat off and looked upon it fondly. "I decided long ago that I'm gonna be King of the Pirates. If I have to die fighting for that, then I die."
Coby looked up at him in awe once again. You've got to give it to Luffy; he may be a huge idiot, but he was a hell of a good speaker.
"As pleasant as this conversation is, I think it'd be best if we got our boat and left," I said to Luffy. "You've eaten enough for now, right? If we don't grab a boat now, those fuckers upstairs will probably have destroyed them by the time we finally get to it."
"Yeah, you're right! Let's go!" Luffy agreed enthusiastically. "They might even just give us one if we ask nice enough. They might be really generous people."
"Oh, Luffy, if only we all had your optimism." I smiled at the ignorance of my friend and captain as we began to walk for the door. I'd liked Luffy almost since the moment I met him. I have always been able to see his ignorance and stupidity, but there was much more to him than that. Luffy was a collection of bravery, determination and loyalty. He was a person who would go to the ends of the Earth to reach his goals, and I'd found in the three months that I'd known him that he had a very definite idea of how a pirate crew worked. Our crew was our family. And a family was no good if we didn't work together and help one another.
In the end, it was near impossible to not like Luffy.
"If I put my mind to it … if I'm prepared to die for it, do you think I could do something like that?" Coby asked from behind us. We turned and saw him, still facing away from us.
"Like what?" Luffy asked.
"Do you think … do you think I could every join the Marines?" Coby asked.
"The Marines?" Luffy asked.
"Yes!" Coby confirmed. He stood up, turned towards us, and there was a new look of determination in his eyes. "Catching bad guys is all I've ever wanted to do! It's been my dream since I was a child! Do you think I could do it?"
"Only you can decide that," I said. "Do you think Luffy would be doing this if all he did was sit there and question himself? No, of course he wouldn't. Hell, for all the talk I used to give about going on a great adventure, it wasn't until I had a … push to do it that I really got started doing it. But you don't have a push, Coby. You have to push yourself if you ever want to make your dreams a reality."
"Then I'll do it!" Coby declared, walking forwards to join us. "I'm not gonna be stuck here as a cabin boy for the rest of my life! I'll break out and then I'll turn right around and catch Alvida myself!"
There was an almighty CRASH! A large piece of ceiling caved in and what looked like a giant metal mace was sticking down through the hole. Looks like the third pirate went for backup. That one chunk of ceiling caving in caused the entire thing to fall through, leaving only a few parts of it around the walls of the room.
"Who is that you plan on catching, Coby?" came a loud, feminine (though only slightly) voice from the still-smoking debris that used to be the ceiling. "And you actually think this twig and his pet are going to help you? Well? Answer me!" Coby was shaking in fear. As the smoke cleared, I was faced with the biggest, fattest, ugliest woman I had ever had the misfortune of laying my eyes on. She wore a white cowboy hat and had long black hair … and that's all I can bring myself to describe. She was vastly unpleasant to look at.
Coby continued to shake with fear. Swords tore through the door behind us. We were trapped. The woman in front of us—who I presumed to be this Lady Alvida we'd heard so much about—rested her giant mace on her shoulder and looked at Coby with a smirk … at least, I think it was a smirk. I really couldn't tell because of how hideous she was. Alvida took a look at Luffy and her smirk(?) widened.
"So, I'm guessing you're not Zoro the pirate hunter?" she asked, though I could tell it was rhetorical. It would appear that she'd expected somebody more threatening. I guess she got more than she bargained for in the end.
"Zoro?" Luffy wondered aloud.
"Who the hell is Zoro?" I asked, my own thoughts echoing his own.
"COBY!" Alvida shouted. Coby gave a yelp and near jumped out of his skin. Damn, this woman's really left a mark on the poor kid. "Who is the most beautiful of all on these seas?"
"Er, well, I, um …" Coby was trying to find the right words to answer the question, it seemed. I could see the debate raging on in him. I hoped he'd make the right choice. "Gimme a sec. I know this …"
Luffy pointed at Alvida. "Hey, Coby, who's the fat lady?"
Silence. Complete and utter silence. All of Alvida's crew (who had been watching from the massive hole now in the deck of the ship) had expressions of the utmost disbelief. Coby, once again, looked at Luffy like he was insane. So what did I do? Well, I decided to add to the pile, of course.
"I'm guessing from the reactions that she doesn't like being called fat," I said, placing my hand to my chin in mock thought. "Does 'fugly' sound any better to you? Deformed? Inhuman? I've got loads more, take your pick." And now everyone was looking at me like I was crazy. Come to think of it, I may well have been, but it didn't change the fact that it was fun to mock people like this. Especially if their reactions were this priceless.
Alvida's teeth were clenched. There was finally something I found recognisable on that ogre-like face of hers: rage. Complete and unadulterated rage. She was pissed off at me and Luffy both, and it didn't look like she was going to let us off easy.
Good. Killing may not be fun to me, but fighting is!
"…" Alvida was silent as a brewing storm. Her hat shadowed her eyes. She looked at us, her eyes contorted in rage, and she shouted at the top of her lungs. "YOUUUUUUUUUUU RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNTS!" And then she brought her giant mace down hard on the wooden floor we were standing on. Luckily we were all able to dodge it. Coby was cowering, his arms over his head. Luffy and I approached him in a crouch. Luffy forcibly grabbed his hand and jumped the ten feet to the deck of the ship, something only he could truly accomplish, at least to my knowledge. I employed some basic climbing skills and scaled the debris until I was also on the deck of the ship, standing side by side with Luffy and Coby.
I noticed that quite a lot of the pirates were staring at Luffy in shock. Probably marvelling at his inhuman jumping abilities. One of the pirates managed to pluck up some courage, and charged at Luffy, swinging his sword at him. Luffy back-flipped out of the way and brought his head forwards, making it connect with that of the pirate and knocking said pirate unconscious. Another pirate came up from behind, only to receive a fist directly to the face courtesy of Luffy. Luffy's grin was only wider now than it had been before, something that should have been impossible by conventional standards.
A crowd of six pirates all charged Luffy at once, only for him to jump backwards out of their reach, shouting "Missed me!" before landing about ten feet away from them. They looked at him, dumbfounded, whereas I simply smirked. They correctly deemed him the larger threat, so they were all going for him, but I doubt they'd expected him to do things like this. Luffy stood tall, raised his left arm, and slapped the top half as if to show off his muscles. He let out a chuckle.
Then I noticed something. There was a pirate on the higher deck behind Luffy, and he was charging and about to jump off to attack. Not on my watch. I ran and got behind Luffy, and as the pirate landed I plunged one of my baselards into his chest, causing his eyes to widen for a moment before he slipped off the end of it, landing dead on the deck of the ship.
"It's not nice to sneak up on people," I warned the rest of them. "Now, as much as I'd like to finish you all off, I don't really want to make too much of a mess. Someone has to clean this shit up, you know. You're more likely to survive if my captain here fights you, so you can just deal with him." I smirked, turned towards them and crossed my arms. "I'll just sit here and enjoy the show."
Just as I said that, a whole lot of other guys turned up and glared at Luffy. It seemed they were still going to go for him, even after the little show I'd just put on. Oh well. They made a point of glaring and growling at my captain, and my captain made a point of widening his eyes and letting out a cry of panic. Seeing this, they seemed to gain a new confidence, and charged at Luffy, who ran away as quickly as he could, screaming at the top of his lungs. Oh, you poor, gullible sods.
Running, Luffy grabbed onto one of the masts of the ship, not letting go even after he'd passed it. I watched with a smirk as his arm stretched to an unnaturally long length, his hand never giving even a hint of moving from its spot on the mast. The pirates noticed, too. They all paused by his hand and stared in confusion … then looked at Luffy in fear. It seemed that they'd figured out his plan. They screamed and tried to run away.
Luffy turned back and grinned. "Got ya!" he said. His arm began shaking quite badly. "GUM … GUM …" The looks of fear on the faces of the retreating pirates was hilarious to watch as Luffy said the name of his attack. "ROCKET!" Luffy lifted his feet from the ground and allowed his arm to retract at an alarming rate, sending him flying towards the pirates like some kind of giant slingshot. He crashed into them and they went down like a sack of spuds, completely knocked out. I gave a rapid round of applause for my captain with the smirk still in place on my face. Oddly enough, Coby and Alvida both had the same look of shock on their faces.
"Luffy … what are you?" Coby asked as he and I approached my superhuman captain.
"Oh," Luffy said. He took the side of his face in one hand and stretched it out, making his voice sound slightly muffled when he next spoke. "I'm a rubber man!"
"So you're … made of rubber?" Coby asked.
"No shit," I told him. "What do you think 'rubber man' means, that he has a massive amount of condoms?" Luffy didn't get the joke, but Coby stuttered some so he must have understood. Then Coby looked behind me and started shaking again. He hid behind Luffy and I turned around to see Alvida stood before us.
"So, you've eaten one of the Devil Fruits," she said, addressing Luffy.
"Yeah, I ate the Gum Gum one," Luffy told her. That damn smile never left his face … you'd almost think he was talking to a friend.
"I'd heard that they existed," Alvida told us, "but I've never seen any evidence that they existed before today. You're more skilled than the average deck-swabber. Are you a bounty hunter?"
"I'm a pirate!"
"Pirate? Ha! All by yourself on these waters?"
"I'm not alone, I have Stu." He gestured to me and I nodded in acknowledgement. "I'll find the rest of my crew tomorrow … or next week or something. I need like, I don't know, ten guys. Yeah, ten."
"Ha! Tell me, if we're both pirates, and we're not under the same flag, then that would make us enemies, am I right?"
"Uh, Luffy," Coby said, getting my captain's attention. "Let's go."
"Why?" Luffy asked him.
"You saw how powerful her club is! And of all the villainous cheats in these waters, she's easily the most …" He stopped speaking. Me and Luffy were giving him a look. A look that told him his next words would determine his future, and how he stood in our eyes. A look that asked 'how will you live the rest of your life?'
"Go on," Alvida urged Coby, that terrible smirk back on her face again. "Tell me."
Coby shook in place for a few seconds before a look of sheer determination came over him. He looked at Alvida, and he yelled, "YOU'RE THE MOST UGLIEST THING ON THE SEA!"
And with that sentence, Coby had earned my respect.
The rest of the Alvida Pirates had their jaws hanging so far open I could swear they were about to hit the floor. Alvida herself looked more pissed off than ever before. Coby had his eyes and mouth firmly shut. Then Luffy started laughing as loudly as it was possible for him to laugh at anything. I grinned and said, "Couldn't have understated that more if you'd said she was slightly unattractive."
"What did you say!?" Alvida demanded.
Coby walked a step closer to her and shook his fists. "I'm leaving and I'm gonna join the Marines! Then I'm gonna spend the rest of my life beating up dirty pirates like you!"
"Do you have any clue what you're saying to me right now?" Alvida asked him.
"Of course I do!" Coby yelled. "And I'm gonna do what I want, and no one's gonna stop me, and when I join the Marines I'm gonna catch your lousy ass first!"
"YOU'RE DEAD, KID!" Alvida screamed at him. She charged him with her mace. Coby was screaming and holding his head in his hands, but he wasn't backing down. You've got to give it to the kid, he had balls.
Then Luffy stepped in between him and Alvida. "Well said!" he said to Coby. The mace came down and Luffy was still … but he hadn't died. If possible, his grin only widened further. "That won't work!" he mocked.
"What!?" Alvida exclaimed in shock.
"I'm rubber!" Luffy exclaimed as he raised his head, pushing the mace up along with it. He reared his fist back and knocked the mace away from him. His arm stretched to unnatural lengths once again, and Luffy shouted, "GUM GUM … PISTOL!" His arm came shooting back at unfathomable speeds and his fist connected directly with Alvida's stomach. The ugly pirate captain did something that she shouldn't physically be able to do, and left the ground, flying miles away from the ship, screaming the whole time. I still don't know how far she was sent … though I do know that she was far enough away that I never heard the splash of her hitting any water.
The Alvida Pirates were now paralysed with fear of Luffy.
"Hey, you!" he shouted at them. When they stood up straight he continued on. "Go find a boat and give it to Coby! He's leaving your ship to join the Marines, and you're not gonna stop him!"
"Yeah, sure!" all of the remaining pirates said at once.
"Thanks, guys," Coby said. For the first time since I'd met him, there was a genuine smile on his face. I smiled, too. It was a fulfilling feeling, helping somebody start on working towards their dream.
Then three cannon balls impacted the water around us.
The impact made the ship shake, causing us to loose our balance, nearly toppling over. When I looked to see where the cannon balls had come from, I saw three heavily armoured ships. And in situations like these, that could only mean one thing.
"Marines," I said. I turned to face my captain. "Looks like it's time for us to go, Luffy."
"Yep!" Luffy said. He then spoke to Coby. "What are you waiting for? Head on over there and tell 'em you wanna join! But we're pirates, so we're out of here." Luffy and I jumped over the railings of the ship and into one of the small boats that were attached to the side of the ship.
"No! Wait! You can't be serious!" Coby yelled at us. "If I go to them like this, they'll just arrest me like another pirate!" He climbed into the boat after us.
With my baselards, I had little trouble cutting through the ropes that held the boat to the ship. After a short plummet, we hit the water with an almighty splash, sending water flying all over the place. Including another boat not far away, as it happens. I turned my head briefly to get a look at whoever was occupying it and saw a young woman with orange hair staring at us with curiosity and some annoyance. Probably from the fact that we'd just splashed her.
"Lovely day, isn't it?" I said to her. I winked at her and turned my head to concentrate on the matter at hand. In no time at all, we were sailing away from the ship, and away from possible arrest at the hands of the Marines.
"We actually managed to get away …" Coby said in relief.
"Coby, did you ever doubt it for a second?" I asked him. "If there's one thing you should know after this whole experience, it's that we're brilliant at what we do."
Luffy laughed loudly. "What fun!" he yelled.
"Hey, Luffy," Coby said. Luffy turned to listen to him. "If you two're going after the allusive One Piece, then you must be headed to the Grand Line, right? You know, the people I've talked to call that place the pirate graveyard."
"Right, and that's why I need an extra strong crew," Luffy told him. "You guys mentioned some pirate hunter. So what's he like, Coby?"
"Oh, you mean Zoro," Coby said. "Last I heard, he was being held prisoner at some Marine base."
"Oh well. Weakling, huh?"
"No, you're wrong! He's as violent as a demon, and three times as horrifying! … Why are you asking about him, anyway?"
"I figured if he's good enough, I'd ask him to join my crew!"
"Chasing him down is just plain reckless!"
"You never know, he might jump at the chance to join."
"He's a bad enough guy that the Marines caught him! No way! Not a chance! Forget it! No! No! Ow!" Luffy had hit him again. "Why'd you hit me?"
"'Cause I felt like it!"
"And thank you for doing it, Luffy," I said. "Coby, you need to learn one very simple thing about us. You ready?"
"… Yeah?" he asked in confusion.
"We don't care how dangerous it is," I told him. "If it's a step to reaching our goal, then it's a step we'll take. Simple as that."
"… What's your dream, Stu?" Coby asked me. "I've heard Luffy's, and you've heard mine. What's yours?"
I smiled softly at him, a smile that contained the full force of a promise made to people long since dead. "To go on an adventure."
And that's a wrap, folks! How did you like it? Are you liking Stu so far? I know he's coming across as a little morally questionable, but there's a reason for that which you'll find out eventually. You'll actually be getting a little of that from pretty much everybody; I mean, come on, they're PIRATES! They may also be good people, but they would still be doing some pretty questionable shit. Just look at Nami; even after Arlong Park she steals from pretty much everyone. I'll be using the animé rather than the manga, in case you were wondering.
Did you catch what I said in the first Author's Note about this being the first in a series? Well then, I'd like to tell you that this is going to be the first in a series of fanfictions. Y'see, One Piece is just too long to put into one story, so I thought I'd do what plenty of other authors have done before me, and make a series of them. The titles are fairly basic, each one being named after the saga in which it takes place. Just from that you should probably be able to guess the titles.
How many of you are curious about how Stu met Luffy? Well, you shall get your answers in time, my friends. I only hope you are patient enough to handle it.
See you next time!