[Author's Note : Enjoy the chapter/story (depending on how much I end up writing.) Disclaimer: I don't/never will own One Piece." Enjoy!]
Ace twirled the knife between his fingers. It was one of his favorites; with a pure black hilt with feathers carved into the design. He had been hired by the captain of the Red Fang pirates to assist them in taking down the Whitebeard pirates. Ace wasn't one to usually agree on helping defeat such a powerful foe, as he very much values his life, but he had to admit, they offered quite a large sum of money; and in advance no less.
So he had ended up agreeing, which brings us to the present. He was currently preparing for battle, going through the various weapons in his belt to check sharpness. Once they were sharpened and fastened back to his belt he fastened his belt to his pants, and draped his signature black cloak over his shoulders. He tied the cape together in a neat bow and pulled the hood over his face. His beloved cowboy hat was left hanging on his neck, shrouded in the folds of his dark cloak. He moved from the desk which he had been sitting at, and went out the door in search of the captain.
It didn't take him long, the captain was in the navigation room conversing with his navigator. After a short while, Ace's presence was known. The captain was a tall brunette, quite cocky, and frankly, as Ace would call him, a dick.
"Ah Laelaps! We we-"
Ace interrupted them.
"When will we reach them." The captain, that Ace never bothered remembering the name of, smirked.
"The Moby Dick is coming into site. Soon I will be the most powerful man in the sea." The brunette chuckled, way to cocky.
'This guys is completely insane. Maybe I shouldn't have taken this job. Fuck they paid ahead though. No backing down now.' Ace folded his arms,"Yeah yeah right. Quick reminder, if you die then the job is-."
"Immediately severed." He waved it off casually, finding the idea of him dying not likely.
"But I'm keeping the money if you do die."
The pirate captain again brushed it off. "Yeah, yeah." The man just walked out to get his crew ready to fight the giant man.
'Asshole' Ace thought when the man disappeared out the door. 'Man I hate that guy.' Ace walked outside, heading over to the stern of the ship.
He sat there until they reached the Moby Dick. When they did he went to the back of the Red Fang crew. He was generally used as a trumpet card; Ace of Spades as he liked to put it, and choose to be inconspicuous as to not arise any suspicion over his character. He carefully let his black dog ears and tail come out, blocked by his cloak so it wasn't noticeable. His devil fruit may not have given him any unique powers in his hybrid form, but it enhanced his strength and his senses; which helped greatly when fighting.
He followed closely behind as the group transferred onto the ship belonging to the senior captain. He listened as the cocky younger captain gave his speech.
"I Captain Kalido Leo will on this day end the life of Whitebeard! I will take his place as Yonko and as the most powerful man in the sea!" In Ace's opinion the Whitebeard pirates didn't look impressed, but then again, neither was Ace. He was getting pretty sick of this guy's antics, and was losing faith pretty quickly that they had any chance of winning.
"You are a century too young to be challenging me. Get off my ship this instant." The man stood up from his chair, and slammed his staff into the ground, increasing the intimidating level of what he said. Ace slightly paled,'Oh crap. That idiot doesn't stand a chance. Wait. Don't fucking tell me he's planning to...'
"Come at me old man!" The ever so cocky captain just couldn't stop. Whitebeard swung his weapon, aiming to blast the man to the next dimension.
"LAELAPS!" The captain commanded. 'Of fucking course this was his plan. Make me fight the guy.' Ace thought nasty things about the coward captain as he leapt to intercept the attack. Two twin daggers from his belt were his choice of weapon, and he had them in an x position to try and block the staff. It was extremely difficult to not go flying and Ace's body was quivering under the pressure. He jumped back to prevent the attack from going through his block and possibly killing him.
He was still in front of the coward, which pissed him off, but right now he had to focus on not dying. He got in a defensive position, which apparently pissed off the guy behind him.
"What the hell are you doing?! Attack him!" A tick mark appeared on the mercenary's head. Keeping his position he quietly growled so only the person behind him could hear.
"What the hell are you doing?! I'm a fucking mercenary not a god damn attack dog." God, Ace really wanted to just chuck this guy into the ocean and hope a shark eats him. He is just a serious asshole. His vision was still on the Whitebeards. He really was not planning on dying today. A blond haired guy stood next to the Yonko, and whispered something to him, the captain took a moment and replied. Then the captain made a gesture and before long both crews, and Ace, were tangled in a fight.
From that point on Ace could literally give two shits about the Red Wing or whatever captain. His efforts went to avoiding any and all that tried attacking him, only doing damage to others to defend himself. He thought he was fucked when he saw that most of the crew that had challenged the Yonko was defeated and retreating back to the ship. 'Cowards' he thought, 'Not so cocky now, huh?' He was going to try to make his way over to get on the boat when he was stopped by the same blond guy from earlier blocking his path. Ace got in his defensive position again. "Relax yoi. I just want to ask some questions." He put his hands up to show he meant no harm.
Ace nodded, not breaking his defensive position just yet.
"Are you a part of their crew, yoi?" Ace hesitantly shook his head, glancing over at the other ship. "Mercenary, right yoi?" Ace nodded wary of where this conversation was going. The blonde smiled at him,"Join our crew, yoi." Ace tensed, his surprise quite visibly shown.
"Yeah... No." He was really freaked out, and glad the cloak shadowed most of his face.
"How about this yoi? If you beat me in a battle you can leave, but if I win you have to stay here for six months then you can decide to stay or leave, yoi."
"And if I don't fight...?" Ace was wary yet again, this crew seemed full of surprises and he didn't like that.
"We'll kidnap you instead." Ace paled, there was only one way out of this and he didn't like his odds. He had a reputation for always getting his prey, which might be because he was careful in actually choosing his prey or because of his fruit. He didn't want to make this guy prey though, because he would win, but he would have to kill him; and he'd really be fucked then with the killer crew after him. After moments of consideration, Ace agreed.
They stood across from each other on the huge deck. He got into position, choosing this time his silver hilted dagger, with a sapphire on the middle. As the blond attacked he coated himself with fire; a strange array of blues and yellows. Ace blocked a left flaming hook with his blade, jumping back to release the pressure on his dagger. Pulling out another almost identical dagger; this time with a black hilt and ruby in the middle, he position himself with one in both hands and lunged at the commander. He tried to cut at the male's upper arm, but the elder dodged it moving quickly to the right. Ace flew to the floor, but moved so he flipped back upward, running at the man again. They clashed, Ace faltering at the other's strength; but he was not ready to give up yet. He jumped back again and leaped forward dodging an attempt at grabbing him and succeeding to cut the man's forearm. However to his surprise, the cut lit on fire and healed itself. Marco went at the boy this time, landing a burn on his left thigh; to which Ace couldn't heal. Ace gritted his teeth and tried going at the guy again; this time he covered his blades in haki. Marco, seeing the blackened blades, was more careful and dodged more of the attacks attempted by the younger. They cloaked guy was a good fighter, but not good enough to beat him yet. The most Ace got was a small cut on Marco's cheek, but he himself was supporting several burns. He could still go on though, he gripped his weapons tighter; back in an offense position. He was going to try to cut the man again, when his vision started to blur.
'No. No! Not now. Damn it!' He fell on his back, snoring, surprising the White Beards, Red Fang pirates already long gone.
(Whitebeard Crew POV)
At first, Marco was a little worried when the person fell back; it seemed that he could and was going to fight for quite some more. It surprised him even more when he heard light snores. He went over to check the fallen opponent, to see that had fallen asleep...mid-battle.
Pops laughed," GURARA. It seems we got an interesting one over here. Marco, can you take him to the infirmary." Marco went over to were the mercenary was asleep, and bent down to pick him up. He carried him bridal style, and he wasn't really heavy or anything so it didn't take much effort to carry him. He brought the hooded man to the infirmary, and laid him down in one of the empty beds. One of the free nurses came over to treat the patient.
"Marco-San, can you remove his hood? I need to go get some bandages and gauze for the burns on his arms and legs."
The pretty orange haired nurse didn't wait for an answer, and left the bed to get the objects from the supply cabinets. Marco moved first to untie the ribbon that kept the cloak fastened over his shoulders. After he untied the ribbon he pulled back the hood, revealing a boy seeming to be in his late teens. His face was adorned with freckles and his raven hair framed his face. The most surprising feature, however, was the almost wolf like ears sticking out near the top of the boy's head. They were the same color as his hair, and the right one slightly folded over in a floppy fashion. Overall he had to admit the boy was cute. He pulled back the rest of the cloak, revealing a similarly black canine tail. He folded the black cape, and set it on a table nearby, waiting for Nurse Sia to return.
When she returned she stopped and looked at the boy's dog like features.
"Devil fruit?" She questioned, still looking the ears and tail over.
"I'm thinking that would be most likely, yoi. I just thought that the dog fruit was already eaten, yoi."
The nurse got started in dressing the teen's wounds.
"Maybe the user died. Or perhaps it's a different fruit all together."
Marco nodded, intrigued by the male on the bed.
"Anyway, Marco-San, I'm noting to have to ask you to leave now; nurse policy. I can call you when he wakes up if you'd like."
Marco moved towards the door, "Thanks, yoi." The nurse took a second to smile back at him then continued her work.
(TIMESKIP: Ace's POV)
He felt extremely groggy. He slowly opened his eyes, and flinched at the light. Slowly he shifted, until he was sitting upright. He yawned, and tried rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He was semi-successful, as he was much more alert with every passing second, and brought his attention to his surroundings. He gazed around the room, it was filled with beds and smelt an awful lot like medicine.
'I must be in an infirmary. Did I have a fit in town or something?'
He rubbed at his head, trying to remember why he might be here. His eyes widened as he remembered the past few days; taking a job, fighting a Yonko, and getting blackmailed into fighting...crap. He tensed up, he had a narcoleptic fit, the fight didn't count...right?
'Fuck my life.' He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and got up, quickly realizing he wasn't wearing his cape. 'This day just gets better and better,' He looked around, hoping to find it. He thanked the seas when he saw it was on a table not to far away. He grabbed it, and fastened in over him, his cowboy hat was still on his back; slightly smushed from him laying on it. He pulled his hood over his still out dog ears; it was more comfortable to him to have them out. He went over to the door, avoiding the few others that were in the room as well.
When he reached the door he opened it and looked both ways before deeming it safe to go. He walked out and was met with the site of the ocean. Grabbing onto the railing he looked out for a short moment, holding his cloak with one hand so the wind didn't blow it off. He continued onward though, choosing to find a way off of this hell rather then enjoying the view. He continued left, where he could see the main deck up ahead.
He was almost at the deck when he felt a hand on his shoulder, sending a shiver down his back at the sudden touch. He turned around quickly, shrugging the hand off in the process. He came face to face with an orange haired man.