Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
The morning greeted the eager pirate crew with loud crashes and blasting winds. The Grand Line was a dangerous place for the inexperienced, and this pirate crew had their own share of experiences previous to their "capture". Everyone was crammed in the gun deck, which was large enough to fit them all between the cannons and barrels of water and gunpowder.
"Alright," a gruff looking, big jawed pirate wearing a bandana on his head announced, "let's get this meeting started. First off, we need to establish a chain of command if we want to survive. Therefore, I nominate that we choose our captain from the two most qualified applicants."
The pirates looked among themselves and whispered agreements and arguments to the statement, but no one spoke up. It was a good idea, no matter who was arguing.
"Now then," the pirate continued, "where are those two?"
Bard and Rezland were up on the deck trying to adjust their course. Rezland had plentiful experience sailing, so he decided to navigate for the time being, while Bard was hastily pulling up and dropping down the sails on the Sloop-of-war as the waves tossed it in every direction but straight. Rezland was trying to steer, but most of his strength was focused on not letting go of the wheel for safety.
"Drop that sail!" he attempted to yell over the wind. Bard heard him and rushed to a random rope to untie it. He couldn't hear Rezland yelling that it was the wrong one, however, and the ship jerked sharply sideways.
The pirates started making their way to the deck, but as soon as they reached it the wind was gone. The clouds were all gone, and the waves had ceased. Many feared the storm being over meant only one thing could have happened, but the gentle winds that moved the ship forward quickly calmed everyone.
"At least there's wind now. Let's go! Hey, Navigator! Are we on course?"
Rezland was slumped over the steering wheel with exhaustion. He had the log pose strapped firmly to his wrist, nearly cutting his own circulation to keep it safe. They were sailing straight with the calm wind. Bard was lying down on the deck next to the mast and panting from all the work he had done alone. Both managed to give a weary thumb up from their positions.
The crew looked back and forth at each other with smiles and sneers of approval. An idea was simultaneously formulated between every one of them.
"We need to decide on the captain." The gruff pirate from earlier announced to the two candidates. "I'm Marco if you didn't know, the head chef of the ship."
Bard and Rezland looked at each other with confused looks.
"I thought I was going to be the captain," Rezland said to the group, "since I was the first-mate."
"We had thought of that, but that was before this guy kicked your ass." Marco replied, pointing to Bard.
"If the captain ain't strong enough then his crew won't be respected." one of the pirates randomly interjected.
"Well," Bard began, "what were you going to make us do to prove our worth?" he finished as he stood up, towering over the rest of the crew. His startling presence and overall strong appearance was what made him an excellent captain, but his knowledge of the sea was brought into questioning by Rezland.
"You can't even work this ship properly! How can you be a captain of anything?"
Bard turned his head slowly. "You don't need to worry about that. We'll just steal a ship that I can understand and sail with that." He faced down at Rezland, who was standing with his hands on his guns now and snarling at Bard. "Just leave everything to your captain, buddy." Bard gave him a childish smile as a finishing blow to his esteem.
Araly walked out from the crew quarters, looking terrible. Her clothes were stained and she was holding her mouth, trying to stave back the last of her sickness into her throat. She staggered warily, with her hands on the fencing of the deck, until she was right up to Bard. With her free hand she motioned him down to her face, as if to tell him something. Bard bent down and tilted his head.
A swift and powerful punch was placed on Bard's face, sending him tumbling off the deck and into the water with a loud splash. Araly's eyes were ablaze with palpable anger.
"CAN'T YOU LEARN TO STEER A SHIP WITHOUT KILLING ME, DAMMIT!!!!!?"
Bard resurfaced himself and climbed up the face of the ship back onto the deck. He was exasperated and nervous to climb back up the whole way and just stayed peeking over the edge.
"I wasn't steering it, though. That guy was." He said while pointing a finger at Rezland. Rezland gave him an unbelievable look that was ended abruptly by Araly's fist burrowing deep into his skull and sending him crashing through a closed door across the deck.
"Maybe we should make her the captain." An anonymous pirate announced. Marco stepped forward and moved towards a door that led to the rear of the ship. He opened it and announced, loud enough for both potentials to hear,
"First one laying on the captain's bed is our new captain!" Bard and Rezland looked up and almost in synchronous, rushed into the door. Despite his handicap of having a slightly unhinged jaw, Rezland ran in first, and was greeted in the face very firmly with solid metal.
Bard stepped over Rezland's body to find another man in the captain's quarters of the ship. On the bed was a man sleeping deeply, not even moving, with a shovel lying across his body. His hair was greasy and drawn back in a ponytail that was drooping over the side of the pillow. He had ample scars on his arms that were displayed through his tank top shirt.
"This," Marco whispered from behind Bard, "is 'Grave-shift' Max. He's the original captain of the Buster Pirates. However, because of a rare disease he caught that will kill any man if he moves too much, all he ever does is sleep. That's why our previous first mate took charge."
Bard gave them a puzzled look. The image of the loud and ugly guy that was rallying the pirates back on the island came to his mind and he gave a mental shudder.
"If all he ever does is sleep," Bard started, "then why is he in my bed?"
Marco stared at his expression, validating the question and believing that Bard couldn't reach the conclusion on his own.
"We carried him here."
"Ah. That makes sense." Was Bard's answer, which gave way to a number of objectifying gazes and sweat drops forming form embarrassment. "Still, if he never moves how did he attack Rezland?"
Rezland grunted and growled from beneath Bard, then raised his face off the floor enough to speak.
"Because," Rezland said with struggle, "he never attacks his original crewmembers and I joined after he started sleeping like fungus on a---" Another shovel to the head sent him straight down again. Bard looked over at the man on the bed to see that he was still sleeping, and he had only moved part of his arm to hit Rezland.
"So, first to get him to move wins?" Bard looked down at his prey and cracked his knuckles enthusiastically. "Piece of cake."
Marco leaned toward Araly, who was looking on with a ghastly-surprised face.
"You know, you could try too. You're certainly assertive enough to be a good captain."
"Who's steering the boat?" Araly asked, with a hint of anger in her voice, but never showing it or turning from the cabin's wall. The collective group's faces twitched slightly as they heard a wave break on the deck of the ship. In a second they were stuffing their way onto deck and into the heavy rain, while Araly was left behind to monitor the participants progress.
Bard stared his objective down venomously, while Rezland was playing dead to avoid another crushing blow to his already bruised head. Araly laid herself down in the hall to control her sickness, but couldn't get over the new sound of Max's incredibly loud snoring. The whole journey so far was sucking pretty bad for her.
