I drifted in a sea of white.

Memory escaped me and thoughts came and went and I had no concept of time. I simply…existed.

Then the image of the largest man I had ever seen loomed over me. He was over two and a half times the height of the average human male and was heavily muscled, scars crisscrossing his chest and shoulders. A long white coat, similar to those worn by members of the navy, hung from his shoulders like a cape, while he wore cream trousers with a black sash around his waist and black boots completed his attire. In one massive hand, he wielded an enormous polearm with an equally large blade on its tip.

His face was rugged and stern, with an enormous white crescent-moon moustache and yellow hawk-like eyes. Atop his head he wore a black bandana.

"So, you're the one who called out to me." He said in a deep voice filled with age and absolute commanding presence. Clearly he was a leader.

I tried to speak, but my body wasn't listening to me.

"You did." The man said, "I am dead and my spirit was passing on, when I heard a cry for aid, for someone, anyone, to help you. It was a cry that echoed across worlds, child. I was merely the one to take heed of it."

A frown etched itself onto his brow. "I know what had been done to you and, had it been one of my sons, one of my crew, who had suffered such indignities and injuries, the perpetrators would not live to see the next sunrise."

He chuckled and a warm smile came across his face. "I may not be able to aid you directly, but I can grant you power. That louse Teach thought he stole all of my power when I died, but I kept some of it with me. It is this I now give to you, if you wish me to."

"P…power…?" I croaked, "Wh…why…?"

"I have gotten a grasp of your character, being here." The man gestured with his free hand, "Had you been born in my world, I would have gladly had you as one of my crew, as my daughter. I am not using the little remaining power I have; I merely kept it to spite Teach. It is yours should you wish it. I would only ask that you use it to be free, child."

"F-Free…want to be free…" I said, "Please….I…accept…!"

"Gura-hahahaha!" the man guffawed, "Then take the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit! Take the last of the power of the Great Pirate Edward Newgate, of Whitebeard, one of the Four Emperors! Bow to no-one and forge your own path, Taylor Hebert!"

I felt a wave of strength slam into me, infusing itself into my very being. It was as if I was a container being filled up with hot water and I was already approaching full capacity! And this was only a fraction of his power?!

Much to my relief, the flow of power tapered off and ceased a minute or two later, allowing my body, which had arced in pain, to sag back down in release.

Whitebeard spun the weapon he wielded in his hand for a moment before placing it next to my body and placed my hand over its shaft.

"I think you'll get more use out of this than I will." He said with a smile. I returned the smile even as the darkness closed in on me.

Three Days Later

Ward, Brockton Bay General Hospital

Danny Hebert looked down at the comatose figure of his daughter on the bed and wanted to hurt someone. Taylor had been trapped in her locker, filled with used tampons and other assorted toxic waste, for over seven hours. The fact she had been freed could be attributed to pure luck, when the janitor had forgotten something and had heard her screaming for help.

'He should have found her sooner! Hell, someone, anyone, should have found her sooner!' he raged to himself.

"Danny, how is she?" Kurt asked as he strode into the room and then cursed as he caught sight of his goddaughter. Taylor was pale and had several wounds on her chest and hands from her vain attempts to break out of the locker.

"She's in a coma, Kurt." Danny replied, a lump in his throat, "The doctors are thinking about calling Panacea in because they think a virus has affected her."

"Shit! It's that serious?" his friend asked in dismay before frowning, "Wait, I thought Panacea couldn't affect brains with her power?"

"She can't, but she can still see them, monitor them." Danny replied with an exhausted sigh. He hadn't slept in the last couple of days. "Hopefully she can tell us why Taylor won't wake up."

Kurt looked at his friend in concern. He had pushed himself too hard to remain awake and if he kept on like this, his health would suffer.

"Danny, I think you should get some sleep." he said softly, "You know that Taylor wouldn't want to see you like this."

"I…Yeah, you're right." Danny sagged in his chair, "Can you get one of the guys to drive me home? I…think I'd crash if I tried to drive myself."

"Already got someone waiting." Kurt said, "I'll stay with Taylor and if anything changes, I'll send someone to kick you out of bed, ok?"

That was a lie. He'd send someone to wake him up only if someone tried to attack Taylor. Danny always did push himself too hard, especially since Annette died. This was likely to do the same.

As a member of the Dockworker's Union led Danny out, Kurt settled in to watch over his goddaughter.

Days Later

Abandoned Warehouse

CRACK!

I gaped as my punch literally cracked the air. Then my jaw dropped even further as a wave of force erupted from where my fist was and slammed into the wall, destroying it.

Hastily beating feet out of there, I moved to the other side of the docks before continuing my practice. The powers that I had been given by Edward Newgate…by Whitebeard…were very strong. The source, which he had called the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, was aptly named. I had the ability to use vibrations or shockwaves to a frightening extent. My experiments were still in the early days, but I seem to be able to control the point of impact, and thus the epicentre, as well as the magnitude, of every 'quake' that I create. The main problem was throttling the damn things enough to not instantly liquefy any bones it touches.

I shuddered to think of what would happen if I hit someone with one from point-blank range.

Deciding to move on to another experiment for now, I extended my hand and the large polearm Whitebeard had given me appeared, although it had shrunk to fit my size. Looking it up on the Web, I had discovered that it was a Japanese weapon called a bisentō. It seemed that Whitebeard had also gifted me with his knowledge and experience with wielding his weapon, which I had to adjust to take into account my slimmer body and different centre of balance.

Not that I was physically weak; far from it. I was definitely a Brute, with strength beyond that of a regular man, as well as being more resilient and possessing a healing factor. It wasn't especially fast, but it healed any cuts up without much issue in less than six hours.

Spinning the bisentō around in my hand, I went through a basic kata for the weapon, which was already becoming familiar after just two days of practice. Panacea had healed me and confided in me that she knew I was a Parahuman, but she wouldn't tell anyone who I was, which was really nice of her. The first thing I had done when I got out of hospital was send her a gift basket as thanks.

Ever since I woke up though, I had flashes of images, memories rather, that must have been of Whitebeard's world, one where they used some kind of weird snails as phones and was swarming with pirates who ate 'Devil Fruits' to gain supernatural powers instead of 'Triggering' as Panacea had put it. Some of the memories had been fragmented, but most of them showed that Whitebeard had been known as the Strongest Man in the World, even when he had been murdered at the age of 72. His Tremor-Tremor Fruit had granted him that title, at least in part, and he had used it well, but I could see all kinds of little modifications and tricks I could pull with his powers that I could leaver which he hadn't thought of.

Stopping the kata, I focussed on adding a sliver of vibration power to the business end of the bladed staff. Immediately, a slight shrieking sound came from the blade and I felt the weapon vibrate slightly in my grip. Out of curiosity, I picked up a rusty pipe, threw it into the air and chopped at it with my weapon.

With a shriek of torn metal, it was cut in half.

Further testing indicated that the more vibration power I put into it, the cleaner the cut was. I resolved that unless I was up against someone like Hookwolf or Lung, I wouldn't even use the bladed side of the business-end against anyone.

The remaining two questions were what kind of costume should I wear and what Cape name should I have? As to the costume, I had no idea, but she thought she should have something…fitting for her name. Newgate perhaps or simply Tremor after the Fruit that granted her benefactor his powers?

Either way, I was going to be a hero. Watch out Brockton Bay.

So yeah. Seen a lot of stories like this and decided 'meh. Why not?' I've had to restrain my sillier ideas, such as a Tinker Taylor with Doctor Robotnik's Badniks as her specialty. A fun idea, but I have no clue how to make it a reality. Someone try it and PM me if they have a solid idea.

It should be noted that Taylor, in this particular fic, only received a small portion of Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit power, so while she can pull off Seaquake, Severe Earthquake and Helmet Breaker, she is unable to use Island Shaker or Heaven and Earth Quake, at least initially. Her power will grow as the power of the Fruit regenerates inside a living body, but no telling if she'll ever reach Whitebeard's power level.

Shaker: 1 (Able to manifest a bisentō at will, sized to be used by her rather than Whitebeard.)

Striker: 3-5(Able to infuse objects she holds with vibrations, allowing blades to cut with relative impunity.)

Shaker/Blaster: 6-7 (Is able to control vibrations or shockwaves. If directed at a target, able to pulverise it depending on the power behind it. If directed at the ground, able to cause earthquakes affecting the entire area. Is able to control the epicentre and magnitude of the earthquakes and shockwaves, but the effects do not discriminate between friend and foe. The vibrations can travel through almost any medium, but can be stopped by certain metallic alloys and can be resisted by sufficiently large or dense objects. Is able to fire a 90 degree shockwave that can pulverise bones. Is able to fire a 360 degree shockwave in the form of a twister that sends anything and anyone caught in it flying high into the sky.)

Brute: 4 (Is far stronger than any ten men and is capable of tanking severe blows. Is partially immune to pain and has a moderate regeneration factor.)

Thinker: 3 (Has knowledge of how to use the bisentō in combat. Has slight precognition that may or may not forewarn of an action she is about to undertake.)