Chapter 2

AN: Hello again! This is the second chapter of Ian's story, and if you guys think he's gonna be OP, think again! He gon' get f*cked! *Muahahaha* Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Cold, dark, dead, I swirl about in a void, black and damp, Cold, too cold, dark, damp. My mind races, trying to remember how I got here. Something about a boat, on the word 'boat', I catch a glimpse of red in the corner of my eye. I somehow spin about in that soupy darkness, now facing the shape of my grandfather's boat, the Nicholas II. I swim over - how did I do that? - to the familiar wooden construct, running my hand on the smooth red cedar, and pull myself in, sitting where my grandfather always had.

A strange warmth emanates from the seat, and it slowly seeps through my bones, surrounding me and staving off the void. A soft glowing flows out from its red shape, lighting up my surroundings, and the boat gradually begins a gentle rocking, giving the feel of being at sea.

The light stretches out, purging all the dampness and shadow, and I can just barely make out dark blue waves splashing against my vessel's side. The warmth, fully enveloping my saving grace, is becoming hotter, much hotter than before. Like fire, it begins eating away at the void, consuming the dampness with a furious vigour.

Warm.

Warm.

Warm.

Hot.

Hotter.

HOT!

"OHDEARSWEETGOD!" I scream, my body on fire. My eyes snap open, and a flash of light illuminates the world, revealing an intensely blue sky with white clouds dotting the scene. I lurch up from my position on the bottom of the boat. The first thing I notice is how badly sunburned my exposed chest is, each movement sending an ache spiking through my brain. Owowowowooooooowooooh, I groan and squeeze my eyes closed as I roll onto my knees, and glance around me.

Water. Water all around me.

I just stare at the massive ocean I'm in the middle of for what seems like hours, attempting to make sense of what had happened. How did I get here? Where is here? These questions roll through my consciousness several hundred times, each cycle confusing me more than the last.

"Coo!" a loud noise echoes off the waves, coming from above me.

"Who?" I wince as I stretch my lobster-red skin, my voice coarse and rough from disuse. How long was I out? Another question to the pile as I take in the creature above me.

"Coo!" the animal was avian, of that I was sure. It looked to be a seagull, but something was just off. Its body was too thick, too bulky, and a little decorative marine hat sat on its head. The plumage was a ruffled white, and as it descended in a circular motion, I caught sight of a bag strapped to its chest, holding what looked to be newspapers, which flutter in the breeze. The image of the bird itches at something in the back of my brain, like I've seen it before, but I can't remember where I would have seen such a strange animal.

The beast settles on the bow of my little life-vessel, and immediately brings a wing up in a makeshift salute. What the fuck, bewildered by the gesture, I hesitantly salute back.

The - seagull? - brings down its wing, and with a taloned foot, pulls out one of the newspapers inside its bag. "Coo?" it pushes the article towards me, and I gingerly reach out a hand.

"Is this… for me…?" I ask it, simultaneously berating myself for talking to a bird wearing a hat of all things.

Just as I'm about the grasp the paper, the bird yanks it back. "Coo coo coo!" it waves a wing in what I can only assume is a 'nonono' gesture, and holds out the other.

I blink, confused until the avian brandishes a bag, and I can hear the clinking of coins inside. "Do you want money for it?" I ask, and the bird nods, "Why would you need money?" the itching at the back of my mind has become a full-on feather-fest, and the term for this bird was right on the tip of my tongue… frontal lobe…

I'm snapped out of my train of thought by a small pamphlet slapping me in the face, and when I glance at the bird, it's… whistling? How can a bird whistle? I snort as I pick up the smaller paper, and halt as I catch sight of the seal on the front. It was a blue cross, with circles printed in the center and at the ends of each limb. The words 'World Government' were scrawled across the bottom, and the clouds drifted away. "Ohfuckme," I breathe, realizing my position. I'm in the world of One Piece, aren't I? I gently lower my face into my hand, and start shaking, my heart pounding as fear courses through my veins.

"Coo?" the bird - a News Coo - well, coos, tilting its head as my head touches down on the floor of the Nicholas II.

"GRAGH!" I snap, flinging the pamphlet as far away from me as I possibly can, and the Coo squacks indignantly, flapping up into the air. In my blind rage, I yank off one of my sandals and hurl it at the bird. "Leave me alone, you damned chicken!" I scream, voice cracking as my reality sets in, "Leave… me… alo-o-one…" the surge of energy leaves me as crushing depression takes its place, and I collapse of the small deck, sobbing.

I shake uncontrollably, remembering my family, my friends, and everyone that I most definitely left, just to get stuck here. I'm never *hic* going to see any of them again… I hiccup, tears flowing down my nose, getting absorbed into the wood, And I'm all alone out here… I think back to minutes earlier, when I drove off the News Coo. Despite how cruel it seems, I could have eaten him… her?... it's hard to tell animal gender without getting wierd. A the very least, I could've had him lead me to land or something.

And so, curled up in the bottom of my grandfather's hand-made boat, I cried. I cried and cried and cried, cried until night covered the vast blue sea, the once-blue water now a voided black. I cried until my metaphorical darkness became pure reality, and I dissolved into the shadows of my mind.

I cried because I, Ian Kelly, was alone.

=(Two Days Later)=

"Ca… Ca… Ca…" the loud cawing of some avian creature draws me out of my rest, and a quick glance upwards confirms that yes, I am being circled by a group of four vultures.

Ungh, I wince as my stomach growls, I can't go on like this. I had been pressed for food the moment I found myself here, and in that time, I - not really - recovered from the shock of likely being stuck in… Wow, I realize, Oda never once gave this world a name, did he?

The past forty-eight hours were an amalgamation of me sobbing myself dry, trying to shield myself with my remaining sandal and swim trunks, and figuring out how to go to the bathroom without throwing the boat's weight to hell and back. Overall, I'd say it was mediocre at best, hellish at worst.

I glance down at the rest of my body, and grimace as I take in the state of my skin. Where it was once lobster-red, it was now a flaming crimson, with patches of my epidermis practically falling off at random intervals. Already, I had started to become dehydrated, and I'd experienced at least one sunstroke so far. If I kept going like this, I was going to die.

"Skra!" an outburst from the vultures circling above me halts my self-inspection, and I glance at the feather-rat. Two of the four were getting into a small conflict, with talons flashing and beaks pecking at exposed necks. I'm pretty sure that despite how lethal it looks, this was their equivalent of a spat. I'm pretty sure it was over my remains as well.

THUD

I stagger and fall to the deck as the Nicholas II lurches, having struck something ahead. I clamber through the wooden benches up to the bow, and to my ire, find that the haunting image of a sunken ship is not the most pleasant thing to see.

Through the clear water, the silhouette of a massive galleon dominates the area, its cargo floating this way and that on the vast waves. How did I not see this earlier? I ask myself as a crate drifts by, I checked around me… I must be getting delusional or something… I gulp nervously, my parched throat rubbing against itself, If that is the case, then shit. Another crate makes its way by, a dried-out human arm disturbingly hanging over the side, with a strange but far too familiar device attached to its wrist.

I shakily reach for the disturbing limb, fear coursing through me as I remember all of the zombie games I had played before I got thrown in this mess. Swallowing my fear, I snatch the skeletal forearm and tear the Log-Pose from its possession, tossing what's left into the ocean. Jittery, and extremely horrified by what I had just done, I give my new possession a once-over.

To my dread, the Log-Pose had three orbs, each with its own needle and base. "Ca!" the sounds of the vultures echo the death bells that I now hear in my head, and I slump down onto the foremost bench.

"I'm in the New World…" I breathe gently, simply paralyzed with fear at the idea, "I'm in the New-goddamn-World… Heh…" I chuckle, a quiet sound at first, but with each heave, I grow louder, "Heh… heh… heheh… heheheha… heheeheheh… hahahahahaHAHAHAHAAAAHAH!" I laugh, as big and loud as I can. It all makes sense now… I think as my reality is true, I'm going to die here, and there is nothing that I can do about it! HAH! My grin is wide, wider than it ever has been, and I'm light, lighter than air.

Cracking up, I pop from my seat, clawing my way to the red cedar bow, and scream. It's a hollow, haunting sound, echoing across the lonely sea. I'm still light, but the hairs on my neck raise as I see clouds quickly forming above me, and the waves become more chaotic as the wind howls, chafing against my sunburnt skin. My scream is drowned out as a flash of lightning tears down through the sky, slamming into the sea next to me.

"THIS IS IT!" I bellow, falling back into the boat, knocking my head on the wood. The pain begins, but ends just as quickly as I tear at my skin, which is burning, and I tear off the layers in massive swaths, exposing the raw flesh underneath, "COME ON, NATURE! SHOW ME HOW TO DIE!"

As if in response, I see a mountainous mass of ice and water break through the clouds, sending the vaporious material trailing behind it. Then, the water next to me exploded.

Droplets of concentrated salt-water solution splash against my raw skin, causing it to burn like all hell, but the source is what garnered my attention. A whale, gargantuan in size and the color of powdery snow tore through the sea, and a flash of lightning illuminated the pitch black sky, revealing figures standing on top. I hear someone faraway bark orders, and see a fiery flash of blue and yellow dart towards the massive ball of hail that was hurtling toward me, and in a brilliant whirlwind of fire and steam, the colossal block split cleanly down the middle.

I stare in awe as tiny flakes of ice drift down like snow, becoming lost in the spectacle of power I had just beheld. "What… was… waaa…" What little speech I could muster was hoarse and scratchy, but that didn't matter - I was just that awed.

"Quite the spectacle, isn't it?" a confident baritone sounds out behind me, giving the speaker a sense of being cocky, but also humble.

I stretch my neck, tilting my head back, but after my rush of adrenaline, the aches and pains are beginning to set back in. "Who's there?" I said, or at least tried to. It came out as more of a 'ose hair?'

The stranger chuckles. "Wow, you look like shit kid. Who let you out near the exit of Fishman Island anyways?"

I stay quiet, not knowing what this newcomer had in store.

"Not much of a talker, kid?" the voice huffs, and I hear rough leather on wood, like some kind of sandal, "Well, you're in bad shape, so I'll help you. Hey, Pops!" the man - yes, it was definitely a guy - yells in the direction of the whale, just as rain starts to pelt my oozing skin, "There's someone in this little boat over here! He's pretty messed up!"

"Father says to bring him onboard, Marco!" I hear the voice of another man sound from the whale, which I guess could be a ship. This voice is much less rugged than that of the 'Marco' that is next to me.

"Alright!" 'Marco' says, "I'll bring him up, Vista!"

Marco, I think to myself as I feel my vessel lurch, being lifted up into the air by some strange force, And Vista! Where have I heard those names before? Damn, I furrow my brow as I come up short, Why can't I think right now!?

"Hey, what ya got there, Marco?" a deep bass rumbles, and the Nicholas II shifts as this Marco guy answers.

"Don't know who he is yet, Jozu, but he's young," my carrier responds, "How he survived on his own this long has to be a miracle in and of itself," my grandpa's boat jolts as it's set down on a solid object, and the entire thing tips to the side, spilling me from the small wooden deck onto a larger… wooden… deck…

Wait, I think to myself, dehydration clawing at my sanity, What's that? While someone talks behind me, I stare up at what appears to be a black flag, with a skull and crossbones emblazoned of both sides. It's impossible to make out the design, but just knowing that I'm on a pirate ship sends ice coursing through my veins.

"Hey, kid!" I feel someone sit me up from my sprawled position on the much larger deck, "Pops asked you a question, now answer him!"

"F… flag… pi… rates…" I mumble numbly, unable to muster any kind of coherent speech.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" a scratchy voice caught somewhere between bass and baritone sounds a lonely echo in my ears, and it compels me to attempt looking up, buuut the skin on my everywhere begins to explode in spikes of pain whenever I try, "That flag has been on the top of that mast for over thirty years, and this ship has sailed for just as long."

"Who… are you…?" I painfully force out the question, each syllable impossibly difficult.

"Guuuurarararara!" the voice booms, each blast echoing off of the wood, the waves, and the clouds. In that moment, I realized where I had heard the names Marco, Jozu, and Vista. I knew what symbol was on that flag, and I knew it well.

Holy shit, I stare up into the sky, taking in the clouds and the pure light, I… can't believe it…

"You've got some balls asking me a question like that, kid!" the massive figure of one Edward Newgate slams his gargantuan glaive into the wooden deck as if to emphasize his point, "But nevertheless, welcome aboard the home and ship of the Whitebeard Pirates! Welcome aboard the Moby Dick!"

AN: Okay, allow me to explain why I updated so quickly, and then my plan for future ones. My plan is to update every Friday, so you can expect longer chapters in the future. I just updated so quickly because I wanted to get the baselines of how Ian gets to meet the Whitebeards and all the commanders. Next chapter is going to be focused on our dehydrated boy's interaction with the crew, so if you want to see a specific Whitebeard Commander, PM me or leave a comment or something. See ya next Friday!

P.S. I was NOT expecting this much support on my first day, so seriously, thank you. It really helps my writing motive knowing that people want to see more.