May sat waiting for something to happen, she watched Q as he closed his eyes. A split second later she felt something cloak over her mind, enveloping it in a sort of haze. As she waited longer, the haze started to dance and move, mesmerizing her. At once, she received Q's memories and knew exactly what had happened to him on his journeys. Thane, as the memories ended, she felt Q's mind leave hers as the haze disappeared and she felt a longing to have that sensation of haze back; however the moment passed soon enough.
…
After it was over, and he retreated from their minds, May stared in shock at him.
"Were those true?" She finally asked a second later.
"Yes, and I'm still gaining crew. Now, can you tell me where I am?" Q asked them as they looked at him.
"I think I can." the old lady replied before continuing, "Right now, you are on the Maiden Island in the Calm Belt next to the Grand Line, and the East Blue ocean; one of the four oceans in this world. Recently, the Straw Hat pirates made it to the end of the Grand Line, received the valuable treasure One Piece, and crowned King of pirates. They are also followed by the Hurricane pirates, the four of whom are commanded by Luffy and Nami's (the Straw Hat navigator) daughter; Monky D. Namika, or also known as Mika. Unfortunately, that's all I can give you."
"That's fine, I now know what world I'm in; a fanfiction of One Piece. Mika doesn't exist in the original" Q replied as he turned to the window and noted it was already dusk.
"Well, we better be off to bed. We have to rise early" the old lady said to the pair.
"Well then, good night." Q said politely as he made his way to the bedroom that was specified for him.
…
May was curious, she wanted to know more about this man and his adventures. As she sat in her bed looking up at the roof of the Darkened cottage, she decided to go and see Q for more information.
'Well I better see him in the morning.' She thought to herself; but, as she sat there in the middle of the night, staring at the bright moon, her curiosity got the best of her and she thought, 'I wont be able to sleep tonight unless I see him.'
With that, she quietly opened the door and walked down the hall towards Q's room. As she got to Q's room, she quietly opened the door and looked around inside the darkened room. As she looked in the room, she saw Q sleeping heavily in the bed, and her eyes rested in a small blue ball.
'I wonder What that is?' May though as she quietly snuck into the room and grabbed the blue ball before sneaking back out of the room. May closed the door to Q's room and started walking along the hall, holding the blue ball in her arms close to her chest. Without warning, the ground started to shake, May slipped and fell with the ball still clutched in her arms, and landed on the ball. As she landed on the blue ball, clutched in her arms close to her chest, to her surprise; instead of landing on it and getting a bruise, the ball absorbed into her chest. As soon as this registered in her mind, May fell unconscious in the middle of the hall.
Next morning, May woke up on the floor and and remembered what had happened in the middle of the night. Remembering this she quickly made her way back to her room and closed the door. After closing the door wondering how, on this planet, she was going to explain to Q what had happened in the night, she started to change her clothes when she noticed a black gear symbol tattooed right on her left side. As she fingered the mark, not knowing what it meant, she tried to slip on her shirt and noticed that it was tight around her shoulders. Curious and afraid, May took off her shirt and felt her back. After running her hand up her side, she felt some feathers, slowly, she pulled on one of the feathers and a blast of pain shot down her back. With that, she ran out into the hall.
…
As Q got ready the next morning, he looked everywhere for his heart, the blue steam ball,he could have sworn that he put it next to his coat and jacket, but it wasn't there. Still worried, Q opened his door and headed down the hall and sat at the coffee table, waiting for someone to wake up. As he sat there, he heard a loud bang followed by running foot steps and around the corner came May. The first thing that Q noticed was that May didn't have a shirt on, quickly hiding his reddening face with his hand. May ran to him and hysterically asked him what happened to her. After a moment of confusion, Q sighted the Gear mark on her side; immediately knowing what she meant he immediately facepalmed. As he continued holding his hand over his face in realization about what happened and, partly so he didn't see May without a shirt, Q explained that he better wait for Mrs. Bowa to come out.
After Mrs. bowa came out of her room and found, Q sitting at the coffee table holding his hand over his face and May sitting across from him without a shirt on.
May stood up and showed the old lady the mark on her back and explained with a tomato-red face what had happened to her in the middle of the night. after that was done, Q walked over and explained the transformation to May and the old lady. As he wrapped up his explanation he said that he will have to take May with him in order to train her on how to control her powers.
May turned and looked at him with a look of excitement in her eyes, it was obvious that she wanted to go with him off the island.
"I give my consent that she go; but, we have to go and see the empress about it. No one leaves the island unless they're a man without her permission." the old lady said to the pair.
"Ok, let's go see her!" Q said to the pair before turning away from May and saying quietly, "And May, please put on a shirt."
…
After a half hour of walking into town, and some accidental arrows being shot at him by little kids, the trio arrived at the palace where they were immediately rushed to see the Empress. after they entered the throne room and the doors were shut, Q explained why they were there and what had happened to May to the empress.
"So, whose fault was this? And what do you mean by powers; like the cursed fruit?" the empress asked as Q wrapped up why they were there.
"First off, it was May's flat for snooping when she should have just waited until the morning." Q said bluntly.
"It was not! Your the one who had that out in the first place!" May retorted, swung her finger up, pointed at him, and accidentally issued a lightning bolt that hit him; much to her surprise and the rest of the group.
"Ow, nice shot, that was stronger than the first one I got when a little kid join my crew." Q said as the electricity dissipated.
"Now I see what he meant by powers; May, you are free to leave this island to train. I don't want that accidentally happening to anyone here on the island." the Empress replied.
After they were excused, and were out of the palace, Q turned to his newest Crewmember and pupul and replied, "So, now that is done with, we're going to head to the outer edge of the island to help train you."
"What! You can't be serious!" May complained.
"Well what did you expect, when you started snooping around his stuff?" the old Lady replied to May before continuing, "I need some items from town, so it will give you something to do while you wait for this Young man's ship to arrive."
"You cant be serious!" May complained to the old lady.
"Well come on, We need to get to the aria I found earlier." Q said and started to walk along to the forest with May in tow.
…
May and Q walked into a clearing in the woods ten minutes after leaving the farthest reaches of the village.
"Welcome to our temporary training ground." Q said as he walked to the middle of the area.
"So~, how does this work?" May questioned as Q sat in the grass on a small hin in the middle of the area.
"Very simple, take a seat in front of me first," Q said as May sat down before continuing with his explanation,"How this works is; I reach with my mind to yours and give you all the information you need to learn how to use your abilities, since I had to learn all of them; then, you practice on refining them down to where you are skilled at them."
"Ok, but one question, will it hurt?" May asked worriedly.
"There is a little pain but not much." Q replied as he notice that his answer seemed to relieve some of the stress on her face.
"I'm ready when you are." May said as she closed her eyes.
Q extended his consciousness till he felt heres and balled all the knowledge he had and shoved it at her mind. Instead of being absorbed into May's consciousness as it hit, it bounced off to his surprise. Q gathered his mind around hers and felt why, she had a natural ability to protect her mind. Pondering this he slowly retracted his mind from May's and thought, 'this is unusual and going to be a pain.'
"What was that?" May said as she opened her eyes.
"You May… have a natural armor around your mind, a strong one at that. I have two choices I now have to ask you, do you want to learn all the powers by hand; or, do you want me to smash your armor and forcibly put the information in your mind, be warned; all your memories will be seen by me, and you will see all of mine if you choose the second." Q explained to her.
"But, how did you show me your memories earlier?" May asked confused.
"I'm able to show you stuff and you can see it through your armor, but I can't give you anything. Your armor blocks it, most of the training I need to give you are feelings. Connect two and two together." Q explained.
"Is there anything you can teach me first that's easy?" May asked hopefully, "I don't want you to see all of my memories."
"I understand…how about we start with flying?" Q replied respectfully.
"Great! what do I need to do?" May said full of eagerness.
"First you need to learn about your new body." Q replied as he took off his shirt.
"Your wings, like mine, are protected by covers of skin that unzip or open up to let your wings out. Note, you need to clean these to keep them from becoming infected." Q explained as he turned around and demonstrated how the sacks worked.
"Now, can you move your wings at all?" Q asked her as he put his shirt back on.
"I can try." May replied after taking in the information.
After a moment of her sitting there, her wings didn't move and she looked at Q expectantly.
"Ok, I'll have to help you move them the first time, don't worry, it happens to most people." Q explained to her.
"Now follow me, You probably don't want people watching you while I help you." Q explained before going up to the cliff at one side of the clearing and entering a hidden cave.
...
May hesitantly entered the cave and found that it opened up into a huge cavern, several hundred feet high, and several yards long.
"Ok, now you need to relax."Q said as he tuned to her back and pulled apart the skin that held her wings.
As Q pulled them apart, she felt new muscles moving and as he gently pulled out her wings for the first time, she felt like she was stretching after staying in one position for too long. As Q stretched one wing to it's limit, which was about fifteen feet, May got a look at them for the first time, they were light blue on the underside and a camo on the top.
"You have very strong and healthy looking wings, Take good care of them and maybe one day you will be the best flyer." Q praised as he showed her how to control the flight with the feathers along the edge. As he finished with the one wing, he stepped around it and extended the other and repeated the process.
When Q was done he came to face the front of her and asked her to slowly flap her wings. May slowly gave two flaps and then did two powerful downstrokes; immediately, she was lifted several feet in the air. Thinking Quickly May flapped two more times and started to fly forward, unfortunately, she didn't know how to turn yet and accidentally crashed into a hanging stalactite, causing it to fall. As it began to fall, May jumped off and fell into Q arms just as the stalactite crashed to the floor in the doorway, completely blocking it.
"Now how are we gonna get out!" May said in despair.
"By your next lesson, look at the floor in the middle of the room." Q told her to try to calm her nerves.
May looked and saw that there was a small pool with light coming out of it in the middle of the room. upon closer inspection she found that it ran down to far for her to hold her breath.
"It's too deep for me to hold my breath." May said to Q as he neared the pool.
"Now, tuck your wings away, they will only get in your way, and the salt water will ruin them; then join me in the pool your next lesson will be learning how to breath underwater." Q said as he dived into the pool.
'This is going to be the death of me.' May though as she obeyed Q's orders and dived into the pool.
As she came up for air, Q suddenly grabbed her leg and dragged her back under the water. Frantically holding her breath, May struggled to get to the surface to breath. Then, Q let go of her foot and swam up to her and smacked her back; knocking her breath away in a stream of bubbles. as she breathed in she took in water and then stopped; 'Im' fine.' She thought as she took a couple of deep breaths.
Then, she noticed Q making a movement with his fingers, he was putting them in his ears and pulling them out fast. May did the motion on her own and found that it popped the air from her ears, so she was able to hear underwater.
"Sorry about 'drowning' you, it's the only way to get a person to learn how to breath underwater." Q said.
"You nearly gave me a heart attack!" May said and noticed a slight ring to her words.
"But it was worth it." May continued as she looked around and noticed all the fish swimming by her.
"Come on, there's more to see." Q said and grabbed her wrist and pulled her along.
"Do you know how deep, we can go?" May asked as they swam along the cave.
"I have never actually found a limit, but you have to stop at a certain depth an adjust to the pressure or else it gets uncomfortable." Q replied as they swam along.
"By the way I forgot to ask, how high can we fly?" May asked him as they neared the end of the cave.
"We can go to space; but, we can't move once we get to a certain point. I was stuck up there once when I was training. No matter how hard or fast I flipped, I didn't go any where. I was eventually rescued by Exile and the rest of the crew." Q replied as they swam to the surface and popped out near one of the many sheer cliffs on the island.
"So how do we get up onto the cliff?" May asked as they swam towards the shore.
"I'll fly us up." Q replied. as they neared the shore, Q let go of May and dove under the water. After a moment of diving down, he shot back up and into the air. As he reached the peak of his jump, he opened his wings and swung down and plucked May out of the water. As he pulled her up, he let go of her, she opened her wings and soared beside him. He only helped her when she needed more speed.
"To land, back flap as you get to the ground and bend your knees, you'll land softer and not die." Q said as they approached the clearing that they were in before.
"Thanks for the encouragement." May told him sarcastically.
As they landed, Q alighted softly on the grass; while, May more crash landed and face planted the ground.
"You ok?" Q asked as he helped her up.
"Yeah, just bruised." May replied with a hint of pain in her voice.
"First off, you'll get better with more practice; second, you will get hurt landing, trust me, I Know from experience." Q said as he checked her over for broken bones.
"Shall we go back to the house; it's getting late." May asked after he was done and confirmed that she had no broken bones.
"Sure, could you lead the way?" Q asked politely, seeing how he still didn't know his way around the island.
…
As May and Q entered the house, the old lady tuned from reading the newspaper and asked happily, "Do you want some tea? And how was your day?"
"Yes please, and I had a good day as a teacher, watching May accidentally hit a rock and drowning her." Q replied as he walked over to the coffee table and sat down.
"You drowned May?" the old lady said as she raised an eyebrow from behind her newspaper.
"He tried to teach me how to fly in a very large cave and I... accidentally sealed us in." May said as her face reddened from embarrassment.
"You hit a stalactite, and it fell. The only way you were NOT crushed under it was because I caught you."Q replied as he sipped his tea.
"And to get out we had to swim through a long submerged tunnel; which he drowned me in." May said rather hotly as she sat down next to the old lady.
"It was the only way for you to learn how to use another one of your powers, If you had swum to the surface, you would have latched onto the ledge and I would've had to forcefully drag you away, and it probably would have led to an embarrassment for you." Q replied tartly as he set down his tea.
"You also gave me the simplest instructions for my first landing after we got out of the water too: Back flap, bend your knees, pray to god you don't die" May said angrily.
"Those sound like enough instructions for a first time flyer, did he at least see if you were alright?" the old lady asked from behind her paper.
"Yes.." May replied with embarrassment, and looked away in hopes of hiding the slight blush on her face.
"Good, now lets eat, and go to bed it will be an early morning." The old lady told both of them as she folded her paper away and Q finished his tea.
…
After diner, Q was walking down the hall to his bedroom, when he was called by May.
"Umm...thanks for giving me a fun day." She said in a very small voice and a slight blush on her face.
"No problem." Q said as he walked up to her and added jokingly, "Now, is there anything that you're curious about before I go to bed and you do something like last night?"
"No, I'm sure I'll find out soon enough." May replied with a slight chuckle before going back down the hall.
Then, as they began to walk away from each other, the floor began to tremble slightly. Worried, he turned around and saw a hint of nervousness and fear in May's eyes before going into his room to bed.
…
Outside, the slight tremble continued. Slowly, the stars above the small island began to blink out in a dark line; as if something monstrous was covering them up.
…
The next morning, Q was woken up by a hard slap on the face.
"Oww.. Why did you do that?" he said sleepily.
"To get you up! There's something wrong outside." May practically yelled in his ear.
As Q walked out onto the deck of the house, all he saw was a light grey wall of fog. He turned to May and the old lady and said, "What's wrong, it's just fog."
"Were in the calm belt we don't get fog or wind." May and the old lady explained to him.
"Then that means Exile is here." He replied simply.
"What do you mean?" May asked.
"I'll show you, lets go into town I need to find something." Q replied to the baffled pair.
…
In the village, the fog was so thick, that the trio had to hold hands or risk getting separated. After a few minutes of fumbling in the fog, the trio arrived at a small metal shack with a watertight door on it, and open windows an all sides, with a glass roof.
"The reason you have fog today is because it isn't fog at all; it's cloud," Q explained as he stepped into the shack and May and the old lady followed.
Inside the shack was a bank of levers with colorful handles and dancing gages to the side. Q stepped up to the bank and pulled a small switch; instantly all the gages ran up to the red and slowly settled back down and started to dance again. As one gage in particular ran way up, a loud steam whistle sounded above their heads and echoed all around. After a second, a deep, loud, and long moan from a steam whistle sounded back, startling May and the old lady.
"Now, lets get out of the clouds, shall we?" Q asked rhetorically to the pair and heaved back on a lever with a black handle. May watched as the gages responded, by rising, and felt herself rising. Then, she noticed a churning sound and a rumble began to grow. She looked up through the glass roof and saw the fog thin, before a pair of humongous blades slowly descended down towards them.
"Aww.. Amazing. It's monstrous!" the old lady replied in awe as she saw the spinning blades.
"Opps.. better stop and go the right." May heard Q mutter to himself before he shoved the black handled lever back upright and the gages that had risen went back down. May watched as Q expertly hauled back on a different lever with a red handle, and shoved a sky blue handled lever forward. As the levers moved to their positions, May saw a decline in some of the gages, while others danced high up on the faces, and Q then hauled again on the black handled lever. As the third lever moved, May watched as a third set of gages danced higher on the dials, and the other two sets descended a little.
After a few minutes, the fog cleared and May and the old lady saw that they had popped above the clouds and that the island was attached to a mountainous ship by a large chain and that they were being slowly towed by the ship. Q swung the island back behind the ship and set all the levers to their original positions before turning to the pair with a sweep of hands and replied, "This is Exile."
…
Two hours after he had raised the island out of the clouds, Q stood in the throne room explaining what had happened, "Apparently, Exile thought it would be fun to pick up this island and tow it around. I intend to put it back exactly where it was before Exile picked it up."
"Good, good, I'll be pleased when we are back down. You are excused now." the Empress said as guards escorted him out.
Outside the palace, May was ready to go and Mrs. bowa was there to see her off.
"Ready to go?" Q said as he looked at the small bag of clothes that she had brought.
"Yep!" May replied enthusiastically.
"Then lets go." Q said and scooped her up with her bag and took off.
As they flew towards Exile, May turned to him and asked, "Why can't I fly there?"
"You haven't learned how to properly control your wings, one misstep and it's a long way down." Q replied as he alighted on the deck and set her down.
Q opened the nearest door and lead May into that familiar corridor.
After he had gotten May through the corridor and he had explained to an angry Exile about why May was with him, Q lead her down one of the halls and towards her new bunk room. As he opened the door to her new room he found to his surprise that it was also his room; with an extra hammock and locker.
'Exile, why is May's bunk room also mine?' Q asked the ship.
'Because I don't have enough rooms for the rest of the crew and May. Especially since we have seven more people than we should!' Exile responded ticked off.
"So this is my bunk room?" May asked from behind him.
"Unfortunately yes, and it's also mine." Q said annoyed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I don't understand, why can't I have my own room?" May asked as she set down her stuff in the corner.
"Apparently, Exile doesn't have enough rooms for all of us because of a mistake that was made before you joined." Q explained.
"Also, how are you going to teach me since I have my mind's armor?" May asked as she settled into her hammock.
"We'll find an answer later. Wander around and learn the ship, I'll be back, I'm needed at the bridge." Q answered as he walked out of the room and onto the bridge.
…
Three days later, May was enjoying herself up in the crow's nest of Exile. Her first day on the ship she wandered around, found several rooms and met all of the crew. On the second day however, she had opened her locker to find a new set of cloths, a coat like Q's except cloud white, a bag that could hold anything, and a single new katana sword that was also cloud white.
Today through, May was excited because later today she was going to train with Q and Ray. Apparently Ray had the same natural armor as her and had agreed with Q to break it, so Q was going to break both of theirs on the same day.
As May kept searching the horizon for land, she spotted a small, red ship sailing slowly through the waters below. As she looked closer, she saw that the sail was limp and the anchor was down. As May relayed her find to the bridge she asked Q, who was on the bridge, what they were going to do.
"They're part of the crew that we need to pick up, but since they're not going anywhere soon, we'll head to another place that I want to check out." Q replied to May.
"Now that we have their location, I've set the course for our new destination so would you please join me in the training hall." May heard Q tell her a moment later.
…
When Ray and May arrive in the training hall, Q was sitting on a large rock waiting for them.
"Take a seat, there is something we need to discuss before I break your minds' armers." Q said as the two approached the rock he was on.
As the two sat down, Q explained to them, "When I break your armors, not only will I know all about you memories and secrets, but so will anyone else in the room. Are you both sure you want to continue?"
"Yes." the two courses.
"Then I will start with Ray." Q said.
Q closed his eyes and extended his mind to Ray, who's armor instantly went up and shielded it. Q expertly moved his consciousness around Ray's armor trying to find a weak spot, After finding none, he formed a hammer with his mind and smashed down as hard as he could on Ray's mind. After a moment, he felt the armor give and was assaulted by the broken shards of Ray's mind for a second. As the shards of Rays mind hit Q, he knew all about Ray and his every secret; while Ray knew all of Q's. After the fragments hit his mind, Q retreated while the fragments of Ray's mind joined back together and were slowly covered over again by new armor.
After checking to see that all the fragments were back, Q opened his eyes and saw a out-cold, slumbering Ray slumped over a shocked May's shoulder.
"He just slumped over and I saw pieces of his mind!" May replied still in shock.
"Then he took it better than I thought." Q said exhausted from smashing Ray's armor, before continuing, "The first time I had that happen, I was out cold for a whole day, but he's just sleeping. We could wake him up right now and he'd be fine.
"Now…" Q said as he wearily walked over to May and sat down behind her so they were back to back, "..I'll do your mind, and I'll sit here so you can lean on me if you get knocked out."
"Ok, but I have one question, will it hurt?" May replied as Q closed his eyes.
"It will sting for a moment, and you might get knocked out, or you might stay awake and possibly you'll just know what I'm thinking right then." Q told her as he extended his mind to hers and looked for weak spots in her mind's armor.
After finding none, and found that her armor was even stronger than Ray's, he molded his mind into a hammer and smashed May's mind with full force. May's armer cracked but held, so Q repeated the motion and put all of his energy into it and finally broke through. When May's mind fragmented he found, to his surprise, her to still be conscious, but felt her pass out a second later before he also passed out immediately from the exertion of braking the two armers.
…
As May woke up, she opened her eyes and looked around; Q was asleep behind her and Ray was still sleeping. Then, as she felt Q stir against her back, May froze as she heard, 'Man, that was exhausting, I won't be doing that again."
'What was that?' May thought and felt Q freeze. Slowly, they slowly turned to face each other.
"Did we just…." Q began before thinking, 'Share thoughts?'
'Yep, and this is totally freaky!' Q heard May think in response.
"This is not good." Q said as he looked away from May and held his head in his hands.
"I thought you said that I would only know what you were thinking at that exact moment?" May asked as she moved in front of Q.
"Please, for now, just talk to me and not think it. **sigh** The chance of one whole mind fusing to another is extremely low; however, the chance of a small piece of two minds switching or fusing is very probable, but there are some requirements: First, they both need to be smashed together extremely hard; second, as I'm told by Exile, those people have to be extremely close in skill with something and have to have exactly the same powers." Q slowly explained to May.
"So what are the chances of me having the same powers as you?" May asked curiously.
"So low that the chances of finding a gem worth more than the one piece in your pocket right now, looks like a hundred percent." Q replied before quietly continuing with a red face from embarrassment, "And since I'm the king of of Exile, that makes you….the queen."
"C-c-c-come again?" May stuttered.
"Since I have all the powers, the other person who has my powers is my Queen…. the Queen of Exile." Q said as he buried his face in his hands. As Q buried his face, May felt embarrassment as she understood what Q meant and also felt it coming from Q through their connection.
'He is correct.' the two herd Exile say through their connection.
'Why didn't you tell any of us?' Q asked starting to get angry.
'I didn't know! I only knew when you broke her armor, I couldn't get through it to find out!' Exile replied defensively.
'Sorry, **sigh** I just can't believe that I was able to find her, and I don't even know if she like me!' Q continued.
'Well, you were never able to feel if she likes you.' Exile replied.
'**sigh** Do you like me?' Q asked her and as he turned to her, she felt her face become hot.
May started to answer but was interrupted by Ray, much to her relief.
"Ug, What'd I miss?" Ray slurred as he slowly woke up.
"Apparently May here is the Queen of Exile." Q filled him in.
"Oh, I better get back to my bunk, I'm tired." Ray replied as he stumbled off, nearly hitting the wall instead of going through the door.
"We should be going to bed too." Q said with a yawn.
"Yeah lets go." May replied sleepily.
...
As May and Q got back to their bunk room, Q stripped off his cloak and weapons, stowing them in his locker. But, as he stripped off his shit, May saw the mark on his back and gasped in surprise, "Q! Your Mark is huge!"
"Yeah, I got it when I had my first crew mate join." Q replied as he stowed the shirt away.
"It has a small white gear inside that's moving and a segment of the outer gear is white!" May gasped out as he grabbed his new shirt.
"White and moving? It must be from when I connected to you." Q theorised.
"Here, lets check mine." May said and raised her shirt where her mark was, but as they looked they were surprised; her mark was missing.
"I think I may know where it is." Q told May thoughtfully, "I think it's on your back."
May turned her back on Q and mumbled, "May as well," as she took off her shirt.
"Ahh…..May?" Q said as he looked at her back.
"Well? Is it there?" May asked.
"Your mark is on your back. And it's also large like mine,but it's white, has a section that's black, and it also has a small, black gear…..that's moving." Q told her quietly.
"Moving? Like actually traveling on my back?" May asked surprised.
"Like mine." Q replied.
"Now, which hammock do you want?" Q said as he gestured to the hammocks hanging above each other in the corner.
"Top." May said as she climbed up into the top one.
"Well, see you in the morning." Q said as he climbed into the bottom hammock.
"Night." May answered back and thought about how she felt about Q; she actually liked him.
Q sensed May's feelings for him through their connection and a minute later Q chuckled disturbing May, "I just realized, you made a mistake in choosing hammocks."
"How?"
"You allow me to do this." Q said as he reached up and poked his finger between the ropes of May's hammock, directly in her side eliciting a scream and a giggling laugh from her.
"Stop~! **laughs** That tickles! You are so getting it tomorrow!" May said as she slowly stopped giggling.
…
the next morning Q woke up and changed his clothes while May was still asleep. As he went to his locker, he saw a brand new, white, katana sword leaning against May's locker.
'May will like this a lot.' he thought as he picked up the sword and looked at it.
'What would I like?' May thought through their connection as she grabbed Q's neck surprising him.
'I need to remember we're connected, and here is a new katana from Exile, I now know what we are on the same level sword skills.' Q replied.
…
several hours later Q was on the bridge and was searching out the bridge windows for their door to their destination. Then, Q spotted what he was looking for, a thick ceiling of clouds. As Q pulled Exile up and through the thick clouds, he saw a second layer and keep going. As Exile came through the second layer, he found an island straight in front of the ship. As he approached and pulled Exile beside it, Q heard a light heavenly ringing coming from the island and he put his plan into action.
Several hours earlier, Q had Exile make a massive brass bell that had a deep heavy ring to it.
'Engrave it.' Q thought to May.
...
Meanwhile, over on the island, May stood next to the giant bell that was giving off the light heavenly tone. As May heard Q's instruction and using one of her many powers, the power to mold cold metal which she was way better at than Q, engraved this message on the bell's lip:
This is the Bell of the Mother.
We, the Exiles, have the Bell of the Father.
On the island of Marineford is the Ox Bell, or the Bell of the Son.
When all three bells are joined, the bells shall ring of peace and harmony, heaven shall join the ground. This is the prophecy of the; Family of the Bells.
After she was done, May ran into the trees and watched as a group of people ran to the bell and exclaimed from the message engraved in the bell. As the group stood around, May thought to Q, 'Let it ring.'
Two minutes later, May heard a deep, long, rich, tone ring out across the island; then, the Bell of the mother started to ring by itself. May watched as the Bell of the Mother started to ring and the people ran to get the others.
'Good job, come back and we'll pick up the next crew.' May heard Q think through their connection.
…
Two days after visiting the island in the sky; Q and May flew down to the little red ship that was anchoredon the ocean below.
'Are you sure that the new crew is on this ship?' May asked Q through their connection.
'Yeah, this is the Hurricane pirate's ship. And we are getting good at telekinesis communication' Q thought back.
'Yeah well, it's easy when all your privacy of thought has been removed.' May countered as they landed on the deck of the ship.
"Halt! Who are you and what do you want?!" a teen fish boy said as he came out of the door to the cabin, holding an anchor.
'You have no clue how much I hear that when I pick up crew' Q told May as he looked her way.
"We came here to see the Hurricane pirates and give them a proposal." May said to the fish boy.
"What type of proposal?" the boy asked them curiously.
"Ahh, where are my manners." Q said to the boy and May stifled a giggle behind him. Q turned towards May and raised an eyebrow.
'Since when do you have manners?' May thought to Q.
"Fair point, But you shot an arrow at me when we first met." Q countered.
"Umm, did I miss something?" the boy said to the pair.
"Sorry, After an...accident….she can telepathically talk to me." Q explained to the confused boy.
"Ahh." the boy said.
Then, a brownish-red hair teenage girl wearing a Katana with yellow lightning bolts on it, ran out and yelled at the top of her lungs, "Bounty hunters! I'll knock you off the Draco Bliss!"
As the girl yelled at them, she raised her arm towards them and started to crackle with electricity before a yellow ball about the size of a baseball shot out of her hand towards Q.
BOOM! The ball hit Q straight in the chest and exploded in a ball of smoke.
"Ha! Sent him flying in record time!" the girl cried as she say her attack hit Q.
"I must say I'm impressed. But unfortunately it doesn't work on a power plant" Q said as the smoke cleared, revealing him relatively unharmed.
"What! How-" the girl began.
"Now let me show you mine." Q said and slowly walked towards her.
"Get down!" May said as she grabbed the fish boy and dragged him to the floor before joining him.
As Q approaches the girl, he started to crackle and lightning started to arc off of him and hit the ground in a small circle around him. The girl stood rooted to the deck and started to look frantically around before saying, "I can't move!"
When Q got to the now terrified girl, he placed his hands on her shoulder and discharged all of his built up power to her. As the power transferred, the girl fizzed slightly, then looked at him and smiled before saying, "You're dead."
…
Bazap! May watched as electricity exploded where Q and the girl were standing.
'Are you hurt?' May asked worriedly to Q through their telepathic connection.
'Owww… that~ hurt.' Q thought back and May felt pain in her back through the connection.
May got up and walked over to where Q was before the blast; to her surprise, Q was still there, just one deck down with the girl sitting safely on top of his back as he looked up through the hole in the deck.
"So, How did you end up on the floor Q?" May said with an amused grin.
"You need to ask the one sitting ontop of me May." Q replied from his position
"So~ What did you do Mika, these two had something to tell us, and they are not bounty hunters." the fish boy said to the girl.
"But Ryudo~! They just appeared out of nowhere!" Mika said as she continued sitting on Q.
"Just gather your whole crew so I can ask you guys to join me before I get mad and bring my ship here!" Q said through gritted teeth.
"And how can you bring your ship here with me pinning you?" Mika asked Q with a victorious grin.
"Like this." Q told her simply and called Exile with the steam whistle on his hat.
"What the?" Ryudo uttered as he heard Q's whistle, which was returned by a long bellow, and Exile came out of the clouds, landing in the water right in front of the Draco.
"Now will you get off of me?" Q ascended from under Mika.
"I'll get everyone and Mika, GET OFF HIM!" Ryudo said hurriedly.
…
When the rest of the hurricane pirates had gathered, Nicole, a black hair and brown eyed girl with a plant wrapped around her waist, and Liz a sandy haired girl with twin hand guns strapped on her waist, Q explained why they had come for them and did the rest of his spiel to the pirates. After several more minutes of discussing what will happen to the Draco Bliss with Ryudo, they all agreed to join the Q's crew.
"So, how do we get the Draco up into Exile?" Ryudo asked as he looked at the side of the towering ship.
"Like that." May said as a large section of Exile's hull slid back and a pair of hooks came out and gently grabbed the Draco. Then after the hooks were secure, they hoisted the Draco out of the water and pulled it swiftly inside, into a drydock about the size of the Draco.
"Welcome to Exile." Q proudly announced as he stepped off of the Draco.
…
Half a day later they were flying above the clouds and were just above Marine ford, or that's what the tower at the center of the island said. The island looked like it had suffered a war, there were scorch marks on the pavement, along with craters and a trench that looked like someone had pulled the ground apart. Q slowly steered the ship down to the water and ordered the anchor dropped as Exile glided to a stop in front of the small harbor.
As May came onto the bridge, she was followed by Mika, who May was given charge of introducing to the ship.
Q turned to the pair and said, "We have arrived at Marineford, you are both coming with me to engrave the Ox bell."
May and Mika nodded and followed Q to the island. As the trio landed on the road, Q noticed a large silver bell, on a small marble stand, that was off on the square,s other corner.
"There it is." May said as they approached the bell.
Just as the trio got to the bell, a group of marines appeared around the corner, followed by a group of reporters. the Marines ran to the trio and surrounded them with their guns before one of them spoke up, "Who are you and what are you doing here with the Hurricane Pirates!"
"This." Q said as he pulled out his swords and swiped along the ground around the small square stand that held the bell. Q then sheathed his swords, grabbed the corners of the marble stand, and grunted as he lifted the heavy bell out of it's foundation before gently setting it down. After he had set the bell down, Q reached into his bag, pulled out a small brick and pushed a button on the top. As he stepped away, the brick suddenly expanded into a large, grand, and silver stand. Q deftly grabbed the bell and set it on the top of the new stand.
"This bell, is the Bell of the Son. We, the Exiles, have the Bell of the Father; the Bell of the Mother is on Skypiea. When all three bells are joined, the bells shall ring of peace and harmony, heaven shall join the ground. This is the prophecy of the; Family of the Bells." Q announced as he engraved it into the rim of the silver bell. After that was done, Q slowly walked down the steps on the new stand and rejoined the group.
"That's not true! You have now desecrated the Ox Bell! Please surrender quietly, or we will use force!" one of the soldiers said as they raised their weapons.
"Don't believe us ehh?" Q said calmly to the soldiers, unnerving them.
BOONNNG! Then, as the soldiers prepared to fire; one deep, long, harmonic bell strike rang across the island. Everyone looked at the source of the sound and were amazed to see a massive brass bell sitting on the deck of the ship in front of the island.
Behind Q, the Ox bell suddenly started to ring without someone pulling on it's chain.
The Ox Bell rang twelve times before it suddenly cracked right next to the engraving.
"It was calling to the bell on that ship." An old marine wearing a cloak said in astonishment as he stepped out of the ally shadows.
"No," Q replied as he calmly shook his head, "It morns that it's separated from it's family: the Bell of the Mother or Mother bell, and the Bell of the Father or Father bell." Q explained to the astonished marines.
"And if I'm not mistaken, Skypiea is as close as it will be for the next hundred years and we should be able to hear them all together." Q calculated.
From Exile, the Father bell sounded again and was soon followed by a heavenly tone from above them, and the Ox bell behind Q. As silence began to settle over, all three bells started to ring simultaneously, producing a sound like over a hundred bells in harmony; as the bell symphony rang throughout the aria, Q counted the beats of the bell, all sixteen times.
"They rang sixteen times! That's usually the number used each century to signify a new era!" a reporter shouted from behind the marines before finishing quietly, "What does this mean?"
Q started to walk away with Mika and May in tow. Q turned to the reporter as they walked through the contingent of marines and replied with his head bent, causing the shadow of his hat to cover his face, "A new beginning."
...
Three days later they were at the far end of the Grand Line, after stopping at Marineford and stamping their sign on the Ox bell, Q and co. were now on the look out for a flame red ship sailing the waters below them. Q had previously proposed that: the first group to spot the ship could spend the entire next day at the hotsprings on Exile island with whoever they like with them. So, for the first time since getting on Exile, all the crew was on the top deck searching for the red ship.
Then, as Q looked for himself, he looked straight below and under slightly and spotted it.
"Found it!" he cried, expliciting a groan from the rest of the crew at their loss of a relaxing day at the hot springs.
"Hey! I didn't specify a limit on the invite group did I?" Q shouted at the pouting group, instantly brightening up.
"Everyone to your stations, drop altitude to zero, full speed ahead, lets go get that ship!" Q commanded as the group hurried to follow orders.
…
Ten minutes later Q was in a staring contest with the pirate Monkey D. Luffy, captain of the flame red ship Thousand Sunny; After a second both of them burst out laughing and Luffy turned to him and said, "Sure we'll join with you but there has to be a bunch of meat!"
"EHHH! Just like that!" Luffy's crew said behind him; Brook, Franky, Zoro, Robin, Sanji, Chopper, one very mad Nami, and Tashigi, an ex-marine.
"Ohh, I forgot to mention, I have a surprise for you guys too." Q said as he calmed from his laughing outburst and the Sunny was hoisted into a drydock.
"Follow me." Q said as he stepped off the Sunny and opened a door to the hot springs.
"In the hot springs you will find someone that you haven't seen for a while" Q said cryptically.
After the pirates had changed out of their clothes and into swimsuits, they entered the spa and were surprised to see Mika and her crew relaxing in the springs.
"Mom! Dad! Everyone!" Mika said as she spotted the group and ran over to greet them.
"What are you doing here?" both pirate groups corused.
"We joined his crew to get stronger." Mika replied.
"Same reason we joined too!" Nami exclaimed in surprise.
"Then prepare for hard work." Ryudo said as he sat back down in the warm spring.
"It's a little hard on my part to train this many people at once." Q explained as both groups sat in the relaxing water and looked to him for explanation, "I usually get one or two people from each world and train them in groups for a little while before sending them on their way to train in private."
Then, as they relaxed in the spa springs everyone felt Exile lift and gain speed.
"That's Exile, never gives us a break." Q said depressed.
"What do you mean 'never gives us a break'." Nami asked as the shifting continued.
"This ship has an entity like all ships that are build, but this one can talk to you and can work on its own." Ryudo explained as he got out and changed into his cloths.
"Actually, it can't work on it's own that's why you guys are here with me, and your ship has one too Ryudo. I've held a conversation with it, but it talks like a child." Q said as he got out of the spa.
"Every ship has a entity in it because it was forged by hands that love and care about what they do. You just have to look with your new powers." Q continued as he got dressed.
"Huh, I'll have to talk to my ship then." Ryudo replied simply.
…