This one is relatively quick, since I've been writing a bunch and not updating. Sorry about that little part, but on the upside, you can expect one or two more chapters soon... if I get around to posting them. *Sigh* the struggles of an author... Eh, oh well!

By the way, I screwed up with a small thing, I've been saying that the hoodie is red, when it's meant to be maroon. So if you see it anywhere, please point it out so I can change it. Thank you!

Read & Enjoy!

I took a sip out of my mug, the drink sweet and smooth, and watched as the other patrons mingled and partied or stayed where they were and made merry among friends. It was loud and happy, with no one in the mood to start a fight, and I found myself relaxing despite being in the company of strangers.

I was currently sitting in a U-shaped booth, the seats cushioned and the table attached to the floor. I could only guess it was to help keep people from flipping them, though anyone with any decent strength could accomplish it. I had a hot meal in front of me, something I haven't had for a good few weeks, and my injuries from Reverse Mountain were completely healed.

I had parted with Keys and his crew, still unnamed, a good month ago, after we had reached the first habituated island. They had been reluctant to let me leave, since my ankle and shoulder weren't fully healed, but I promised I wouldn't get into any fights or trouble until after I had healed completely.

I got into a few fights not long after, but none of them were all that challenging even with my injuries. I had been continuing my island hopping, wandering around and collecting informants where I could. I received updates from my network at least once a week. Some had already called on their favours, getting rare plants or looking for good towns where some of the less-than-pure-intentioned informants could 'set up shop' in the Grand Line.

It was strange to be here. In the Grand Line, in the world of One Piece, and not be a pirate or a marine or anything like that. I was just a wanderer, a traveller. This place was where Devil Fruit users went to test their mettle, where pirates went to achieve their dreams, where the most powerful Marines were stationed. And then there was me, just me, a single little person with otherworldly knowledge and a strong right hook, trying to change the course of the world. It was moments like this, when my thoughts got away from me, that I felt truly insignificant, I felt scared and frustrated and overwhelmed.

'But you're not alone' a voice whispered over my turbulent thoughts, calming my mind and steadying my heartbeat. No, I wasn't alone; there was Ronan and probably others like us. I wanted to talk to him, to ask if he knew anything about how we got here, why we were chosen, I know I had that chance before but I was a little more concerned that there was someone else like me.

Suddenly someone burst through the doors of the bar, silencing any and all noise. He looked panicked and like he had just run from the docks all the way into town.

"Pirates! Pirates are heading right for us!" he yelled, dread and panic giving his words extra weight as they settled in everyone's mind.

"Oh, so he did run from the docks" I muttered into my cup as I took another sip. I doubt it was any pirate crew I knew, the strongest ones were off in the New World, and I was still a good three years early in the timeline. I figured since Laboon doesn't have Luffy's mark, I was before his time, and with no sign of Ace's wanted poster, I was before him as well. Though, there actually was a chance he is currently a pirate. He was captain of the Spade Pirates before joining Whitebeard, wasn't he?

The sound of a panicked ruckus broke me from my thoughts, and I realised everyone was running about like headless chickens. Collecting valuables, trying to get out the door, some people were even trying to finish off their meals. Finishing my drink, I left my meal where it was along with some money for the food, grabbed my bag and left via window.

I walked towards the docks calmly as the rest of the island ran about. Though, now that I looked at it seriously, it seemed like there was a sort of awareness going on among the locals, they were all heading in the same general direction and most had bags on their backs. So, it seemed they had a plan in case of an attack or something. Well, at least they're prepared, if poorly so.

The ship was a large one, and the Jolly Roger was the typical skull and bones design, but with an axe sticking out of the cracked skull. I was briefly reminded of Bifur from The Hobbit, and as such was completely unimpressed with the lack of originality. 'Different worlds' be damned, that was Tolkien's thing!

Setting my bag down on the brick road just before the docks, near one of the buildings, I stretched a little and cracked my spine to release the pressure there. Really, I need to have that checked out; I doubt it was a good thing.

The first round of cannon fire echoed into the town, the cannons themselves following shortly after. Leaning a little to the right, I twisted my torso slightly to avoid one of the incoming projectiles. It passed by me, the tailwind whipping my clothes and hair around wildly, and crashed into the town behind me. I winced a little, I'll admit I probably could have stopped that, but with the other buildings exploding around me, did it even really matter?

"Oh well" I shrugged to myself, turned back to the ship, and smirked. Tensing my legs, I waited a moment before shooting off at high speeds towards the ship, moving in the familiar zigzag pattern.

Bullets whizzed past my head as I moved, and I grimaced at that. It seemed this wasn't a very good technique for sneaking up on people, granted with the giant splashes I'm making behind me it's not really surprising. I jumped up and landed on the railing of the large ship, the men who had been shooting barely jumped as they swirled their guns to me. Well, at least they're professional.

I jumped out of the way as they pulled the trigger, causing them to accidently shoot their own, and I landed in the midst of the crew. It took me a split second to realise that most, if not all, had some kind of weapon on them. Knives, staffs, guns, swords and was that a mattock? Yes, yes it was.

I ducked under a swing from a giant hammer, and performed a low spin-kick to send him crashing into the crowd. After that, it was like the signal to start attacking, and everything was a blur. Ducking, spinning, kicking, jumping, moving, attacking, fighting, winning, surviving, it was all the same blur of movement. It was a volatile mix of instinct and intellect, forms of flexibility and attacks dependant on availability. Half the time I didn't even know what I had done, not registering my actions before I was moving again. They had swarmed me, I had barely any room, and whenever I managed to beat them back, they just closed back in as soon as I stopped for breath.

"Enough!" someone called, the men automatically stopped and backed away. I didn't relax, in fact I'm sure I tensed further, and slowly turned to stare up at the apparent captain. He was tall, a good head above me, and lean with muscle. Strapped to his back was a giant battle axe, silver and black in colour, and looking sharp and deadly. Dark hair cropped in the typical army style from my old world, wearing a black tank top and grey camouflage pants and army boots. He looked like a typical grunt, but by the discipline of his crew, he wasn't one to be underestimated.

"Looks like the little kitties got some claws" he threw his head back and laughed "So what are you? The local hero?" he asked mockingly. I grinned and shrugged, acting carefree about a situation like this generally pisses off ones opponents.

"Nah, just a Traveller, and I don't like it when people interrupt my meal. That was the first hot meal I've had in weeks, you know" I replied casually. This actually threw off the captain a bit, and he stared at me like I was just a few notches above crazy. Which, considering the circumstances, probably isn't too far off. The he started laughing again, pulling out an old newspaper out of his back pocket, and flicked it open to a page with a photo I recognised.

I was standing next to Ronan, his crew lined up behind him, and we were all staring at the camera. He was wearing a serious, noble expression, the men all stone-faced, and I had an arm wrapped around the man's shoulders and flashing the peace sign at the camera with a shit-eating grin on my face. The image was black and white, but still crisp and clear. I had a copy of it in my personal journal, cut out from a newspaper.

"Traveller, huh?" he said in contemplation as he pretended to read the article about the saving of the town I was involved in. "Says here you lifted an entire mast and flung it at one o he enemy ships" he sent me a mocking, questioning look, and I bit my cheek to keep myself from retorting. This bastard was a real asshole. Looking around his crew, I didn't spy a single female member, and while that's not saying much since the number of women in the pirating business is a lot fewer than men, most crews have at least one woman in their crew.

"What, nothing to say to that?" he asked, a mocking tone in his voice, and I sighed at his behaviour. Standing straight, I turned to him fully and crossed my arms. It seemed the man-sized brat was going to drag this out.

"Not to you, no" I stated casually, like I was commenting on the weather. A muscle beneath his left eye began to spasm violently, and my eyes narrowed at that. Something like that shouldn't piss anyone off so easily, I mean it was disrespectful, don't get me wrong, but he's acting like I insulted his mother or something.

'He doesn't like being disregarded, dismissed, he craves attention' the fighter in me whispered, and already my mind began to work out how I could use that against him. I shifted into a deceitfully relaxed stance, and gave the axe-wielding captain a bored look.

"I have nothing to say to your kind" I said dismissively, almost lazy in my confidence. It was almost insulting how easily he fell for it, I didn't even have to try, but then he moved. By the time I realised he was gone, he was already behind me.

Instinct and my reaction time saved me from losing my head as I ducked under the swing of the large weapon. The tailwind it kicked up was almost enough to unbalance me, the force was that great, and suddenly I was doing a quickly manoeuvred tumble roll forward. By the loud cracking sound, I think it's safe to say I avoided getting cut in half as well. Dammit, if this guy was a swordsman I could just use my experience with Zoro to disarm him and kick his sorry ass back to the Blues.

I stood and whirled around in time to see the blade swinging towards my side, ramming my knee upwards and jerking my elbow down I managed to catch the blade between them and stop its collision course with my ribs. Still, I skidded several feet to the side from the momentum alone, the force of his swing causing my elbow and knee to throb from the pressure I was exuding to keep the blade from slicing my to pieces.

The man smirked at me, I glared in return, and he pulled his weapon the other way, throwing me off balance long enough for him to deliver a powerful kick to my gut. The air didn't even get a chance to leave my lungs before I was sent flying through the railing and skipping across the oceans' surface. After the fourth or fifth skip, I right myself mid-air slid across the water in a kneeling position for several metres before I had slowed down enough to control my own movements. I raised my head slightly until I could glare balefully at the ship before shooting forward with as much force as I could muster.

I closed in on the ship at alarming speed; I could barely register how close I was before it was just a few metres away. Kicking up a magnificent splash, I pushed off the water and rose above the ship, the giant spray of water rising behind me like some water beast trying to devour everything around it. Probably looked pretty cool, but I digress.

I landed with surprising gentleness on the yard of the main sail, despite my less than pleasant mood. I had really hoped I would enjoy this fight, but the captain just had to go and be a complete flibbertigibbet.

I looked down in time to see a black and white blur heading towards me at high speeds. Cursing under my breath, I leapt out of the way just before the wood where I had been standing exploded upwards and the image of the captain stood tall and proud on the damaged spar. I grit my teeth when my back hit the mast, how the hell was I supposed to beat this guy? His weapon kept me at a distance, where he had the advantage, and for all his hot-headedness he used his weapon like it was an extension of his arm.

I ducked as he swung, the axe imbedding itself into the mast, and aimed a sweeping kick for his knees. He jumped over it and landed in a casual crouch on his weapons handle, grinning down at me like he already won the battle. A snarl tore through my throat as I aimed an uppercut with my left fist to his weapon, wishing it would just shatter.

It didn't naturally, but it did dislodge the weapon and send it and the captain flying into the air. By the surprised yell, he wasn't expecting it, and I took the chance I had. Leaping after him, I aimed a series of fast-paced kicks to his gut and chest, sending up high and higher into the air. He had let go of his weapon long ago, and it fell to the force of gravity to either land in the ocean or the ship, I didn't care which.

When we both started losing momentum, I hooked my bandaged feet under his arms and did butchered mid-air backflip to throw him under me. We fell for a while, and then I twisted and slammed my heel into his chest with an almighty battle cry. He was a blur as he shot away from me and crashed into his ship with an explosion of dust and debris. I landed on an undamaged part of the railing, a safe distance from the cloud, and watched as the air cleared to reveal a gaping hole in the deck where their captain had landed. Huh, maybe I should have gotten his name.

"Captain Carter!" one of the crewmates yelled in distress.

Oh, never mind.

I sighed and turned my back from the scene, looking towards the island and its port town, and was about to head back to my cold meal when I heard the ruckus behind me quieten. Just as I turned my head, however, I felt something slam into me and send me soaring over the ocean and straight into the town.

I don't know how many buildings I crashed through, but I did know that when I finally stopped I had broken more bones that ever before. I hacked for breath, and turned my head as I heaved my half eaten meal mixed with no small portion of blood. I forced myself to stand, staggering and stumbling as I tipped too far one way. My sense of balance was off and my left eye was tinted red. I place an unsteady hand over it and when I pulled it back my palm and fingers were covered in red, I blindly searched for the cut. I found it, starting from the centre of my forehead just below the hairline, it continued down the left side of my face, just skimming the hairline, and stopping millimetres from my ear. The entire left half of my face was coated in the red sticky liquid, making it look like some kind of morbid war paint.

I limped and staggered out of the crumbled ruins that had once been a large building, and onto the main road. My right leg kept giving out, and I could feel my knee. My mind distantly whispered it was probably dislocated, and when I felt it I found that my mind had been right, it was dislocated. How did one relocate a knee? I might have to sit down to do it, but I didn't want to sit down, if I did sit down I might not be able to stand back up. That would be bad. Maybe if I kicked something, it would be forced back into place? Yeah, let's try that.

I limped back to a wall; half collapsed, and sloppily drove my knee into it, destroying what was left of the structure. I felt and heard the pop of bone returning back into its socket, and suddenly I was able to feel my leg again, though it was all tingly. Like when you lean on your arm for too long and it gets pins and needles.

"Ow…" I whined, stumbling backwards and into the main road again. It was oddly abandoned, probably because everyone else had run off to wherever it was they went when shit like this happened. I stretched my back, and my spine twinged painfully. Somewhere in the back of my head, alarm bells were going off, but right now the rest of my brain was too busy reminding me just how much pain I was in.

I heard a distant laugh, and looked up to see Captain Carter standing on the roof of one of the intact buildings. I couldn't see his face from this distance, but I could imagine he would be smiling condescendingly at me. I frowned at that, and then my frown evolved into a scowl before descending into a snarl. This bastard…

I shot forward, ignoring my body's protests, and smashed my fist into the building he was standing on, enjoying the feel of the stone giving and breaking under my touch and jumped away. Watching with satisfaction as the building crumbled and collapsed, but I kept my eyes on my enemy. Making sure I remained aware of my surroundings, the bastard wouldn't surprise me again.

I saw him coming, this time, as he exploded from the smoking heap of the decimated building, swinging his axe in a horizontal arc. Waiting until the last second, I shot my foot up to connect with the flat of the blade and sent it careening upwards. The grunt could only watch in surprise as his weapon was forced to go off course while he was still moving forwards from his own momentum. I cocked my fist back before driving it into his passing face, and he disappeared through another building while his weapon finally lost its' upwards momentum and fell to dig itself into the dirt road with the handle sticking up into the air.

I wouldn't take another chance with this guy, however, and shot forward to follow my opponent. I moved just in time to avoid a fist heading for my face, manoeuvring my body so it flew past the fist and arm, but I drove my knee upwards to drive it into his chest again. We both went flying, but where I skidded along the damaged wooden floor, he crashed through several more buildings.

I was half way through standing when I crumpled to the ground when a sudden pain in my chest stole my ability to stand and robbed my lungs of air. It burned and I felt like I was drowning, I coughed violently until I threw up again, this time it was entirely blood that landed on the ground. Yet no matter how much of the red liquid I removed from my airways, they didn't open up again.

'Pierced lung' my mind supplied, I cursed around another hacking fit. I forced myself to stand, no matter how it intensified the burning feeling in my pierced lung. One arm wrapped around my torso in an instinctive attempt to protect the damaged organ, and looked through my good eye to try and find my opponent.

As it turned out, I didn't need to find him.

By sheer luck, I leaned to the side far enough to dodge his kick aimed for my head, I swerved out of range of his follow up punch. I stumbled back from his attacks, dodging them by a hairs breath or moving just enough for them to be glancing blows that did minimal damage. How many times had I put this guy through a bunch of buildings? How many crushing blows had I delivered?

'In the Blues they're crushing blows, you're in the Grand Line now, if you can't get stronger then you better get out or die' that annoyingly helpful voice in my head whispered, it was obviously not going to disappear anytime soon if it's consistency was anything to go by. Well, that just settled it then.

After stumbling back from another blow, I planted my feet firm and far apart, knees bent and elbow tucked into my side. Ducking under the next attack I threw my fist and slammed it into the man's stomach, the force of the blow made a shockwave pulse through us and the air, causing displaced wind to swirl and whip around us, picking up dust and debris as it went.

I didn't stop there, cocking back other my fist, I drove it into the man's face this time, another shockwave and violent whirlwind swirled around us. Again and again I struck him, driving him farther and farther back until he was forced against a wall, then I punched him through that as well, and then we were back in the main street. Breathing heavily, I acknowledged what I was about to do.

Pulling my fist back as far it would go, I gave a pained yell as I put as much force as could behind the swing. I felt his skull cave in before he flew away from me like a bullet, his feet following his head, and then he crashed violently into his ship. The structure exploded as the middle was torn asunder and nearly split in half. Even from this distance I heard the sound of the impact, and the screams of the crew.

I managed to stand tall for a total of three seconds before pain crippled me once again, piercing me even through the haze of adrenalin and endorphins. I gave a soundless scream and a pitiful whimper as I collapsed onto the ground, darkness beginning to creep along the edges of my vision. Whether from the pain or the blood loss, I didn't know.

As I welcomed the black numbness of unconsciousness, I saw distant and blurred figures beginning to converge and move.

I'll be the first to admit it, I'm not very good with fight-scenes. Hopefully I did alright, and some feedback would be wonderful. Reviews are welcome, and I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. I tried to add some realism into it, with Alex realising that while she is strong, she is nowhere near the level she needs to be to make it in the New World.

Reminder: Maroon hoodie, not red, help me find the typos! Please and thank you!

R&R!

Imma Outta here!