AN: Rated T+ for language later on

The crew frayed what little patience he had left as they broke the LOG pose of all things while 'sparring' on deck and the virus nearly threw off his disguised form as he glared out at his 'crew members'. There's a few things that he could do at this point. One might be to just be over and done with all that the crew's doing and just navigate the damn ship by himself to get his 'skin' to stop crawling.

Two would be…

Actually two would just be the same as one, only with a bit more violence to the 'pirates' that he's traveling with and a bit more biomass to be stored for later. Lucky for the crew that a storm appears with no warning and he's forced to help out if ONLY to get out of the damn rain that drenches the virus as he scowls into the sky.

'Don't think I'm letting this off the hook you stupid ocean. Do your worst.' he thinks with a snarl, and somehow he's answered back in the form of a typhoon breaking apart the only 'dry' thing for mi-LEAGUES- around.

If there's any survivors near him, he'll be sure to rip them apart first before consuming them.

"Twenty-seven" he calls out as he lays awkwardly on the flotsam, the sun scorching his already weakened body. He needed to let loose a good part of his biomass when the ship sank and had to let even more go just to even hold onto the pieces of wood without it tipping over and getting more water soaking him.

The virus started talking out loud on day fifteen, trying to drown out the quiet noises of the waves slapping against his lifesaver that were somehow even more annoying than the few memories that stuck around in his head. His voice was getting hoarser and even more gravelly sounding but without anyone else around to give him input, it just sounded the same to the virus.

The surprising thing is that no Sea kings have gone after him as they did the other survivors of the storm. He could hear their screams of terror and cursed the beasts that ate them didn't even swim close enough to grab with his now-limited Whiplash ability.

"Whipfist." he corrects himself at some point, dulled blue eyes staring at a point in the distance. Even though he had no need to, the virus blinked several times before realizing that the point in the distance was not another illusion due to mirage. There really was a ship there. "not Whiplash."

It was bigger than he expected…much, much bigger. A bigger ship meant a bigger crew, and a better chance to hide out and restore his lost biomass. He could even get the people on it to turn on each other just as he did the last crew. They had it coming anyway, disgusting slave traders.

He could feel his 'skin' moving around, actual eagerness making the virus rise out of the lethargy that appeared while being half soaked through nearly a month out at sea. The faint noises of shouting only make him more…excited. He takes a few unnecessary breaths to calm himself and then starts to regulate his breathing to act more human. He's the predator, NOT prey.

The virus has to remember not to openly stare at the rescuers that come down the long rope ladder. Prey have a tendency of spooking if he launches his trap too soon and they're carrying him up the ladder because of 'dehydration' and 'holy cow, why's he so heavy?'.

"Twenty-seven" he says and it nearly causes his doom as the rescuers startle at his harsh voice and they sway a bit in the air. Hmm, maybe he should stay quiet. The virus didn't want to end up right back where he was so close to the water. "days."

They keep up a peanut gallery of 'no ways' and 'good gods' all the way to the top and its such a relief to STAND on something and not worry about tipping the rest of his dried out parts back over into the water. He sways a bit as the rescuers call out for more help and There's so MANY-His remaining biomass starts squirming and they still haven't noticed-WOLF in the midst of LAMBS slaughter-breathing-heartspumpingsoclosesoCLOSE-

FOOD.

He doesn't notice that he said it out loud but someone else did and the group of people suddenly back away at that person's shout and are not NEAR don't they know he needs to FEED and- "Just what the hell-" is said several times as he uses his limited abilities to get close enough and JUST ONE BITE and its IRKING that he can't CATCH-

Something ALIVE flies by his face and the virus is distracted long enough to snatch it out and consume it, his biomass making the familiar sounds of his own ways of eating. He only has a moment of 'fish…?' to himself before more things-ALIVE-fish- are thrown close to him and its only due to his weakened state that he lowers himself to actually grab and consume all of the thrown fish.

During one particular throw someone bright thinks that they could sneak up on him just because he's twisted around but he swings his 'hands' out and catches the satisfying sounds of screaming and the 'CRUNCH' noise that the ribs make.

They don't break and kill the prey instantly, he's still too weak to even do that? The virus growls and just as he's about to consume something tackles him to the deck. Shouts of warning are ignored as the human male straddles the virus as he starts hitting his face. Several punches later he's holding a blade against his throat, the biomass suddenly squirming as the blade seems to remind him of the ocean GET IT AWAY-

"Alex! Stay still ya dumbass, I'm trying to help you not get killed here!"

Now THAT was a voice he hadn't heard in quite a while. He blinks a few times in a row and the human male is now-

Several shouts of "Ace!", "Just what were you thinking?!", and even a "What's going on here?!" are said as Alex takes a better look at the annoyed look on the freckled face-was he wearing an orange hat?- before it blanks out and the virus is left with a snoring Ace flopping onto him as his biomass grudgingly covers the bladed weapon to move its sharp edge away from the both of them.

"Fucking narcolepsy." Alex growls as he goes upright, ignoring the tense looks from everyone else onboard as he moves around Ace's snoring form so that the teen's-or would he be a man now?- head is not flopping around. If he actually cared about what anyone else thought, he might've moved the body off of him from embarrassment with the way Ace sat on him. "Swear its got a shit sense of humor."

Everyone's staring at him, with distrustful looks speckled in between fearful ones and there's even a few blank ones as Alex narrows his eyes at the brunette with a scar on his face and a pompadour of all-

The virus didn't get a chance to think more of the odd hairstyle as a sudden feeling of POWER came across the deck and made him twist around to snarl at the gargantuan form parting the crowd surrounding him and the sleeping Ace. The narrowed eyes didn't help as his biomass started moving around in preparation for a battle.

"You'd lose this one, he's super tough."

The memory came out of nowhere, blurring Alex's current vision on the giant and making it form back to the time when he was still confused and angry and that THING wouldn't stop following him-there were more now, two to make the one three, and the smug look on the tiny freckled face plus the blond curly haired ones were making the virus growl as he kept eye contact with the gargantuan thing despite all the other details striving to catch his attention because he was the top PREDATOR here and he won't lose this staring contest.

This was bad, so very bad. Whatever this thing was, he wasn't human at the very least with the way it grabbed and stretched to reach the fish that Ace threw to lead the thing away from everyone else. The impromptu plan however was shot as Tom of all people tried to attack it and forced Ace to get close to it and now this stare-off with Oyaji as it sat in the middle of the deck while the fire-wielding logia snored away in its arms.

Thatch shook his head as he moved his thoughts away from the few horrifying scenarios that wanted to sprout out from the way the thing moved around in its attempts to 'eat' them and instead stared at the 'human' underneath Ace. He seemed about six feet tall with the jacket and pants an unfamiliar style to the chef as Thatch kept on observing the growling 'man'.

"How long's it been?" he said, sighing a bit as he shifted on his feet when the growls got a bit louder. Not surprising that the guy heard, seeing as how everyone still on deck else seemed to be holding their breaths as Whitebeard finally blinked. Thatch grinned sheepishly. "Whoops, sorry Pops. Didn't mean to make you lose, just wondering if we're all still gonna stand out in the sun is all."

The skeptical looks from his brothers and sisters shown his way were ignored as Thatch saw that he managed to get the attention of the growling 'man' and he had a very deadly look to the already ice-blue eyes that locked onto his own despite Ace snoring directly into his ears.

"I mean, I gotta find something else to cook since almost all those fish you guys caught are gone." the brunette continues as he manages to look away from the deadly gaze and look elsewhere. Its scary for sure but not as frightening as Oyaji's Stare-down of DOOM. "I don't blame you, you know. Twenty-seven days out at sea can make anyone ravenous for a meal."

Thatch looked back to see the icy gaze had shifted down to the deck, or maybe to Ace who's snores were getting a bit louder before the logia awoke with a loud yawning groan as he stretched. The man growled some more and it was when Ace's face looked startled for a moment before he started full-on shouting at the guy with the same tone of voice that the brunette realized:

That was a language? Apparently everyone else got the same point as they shouted out several similar versions of Thatch's realization, making Ace jump and the guy's ice-blue eyes narrow into slits at all the noise before the growling began again.

"Alex." the annoyed sounding tone plus the slap got the stares of everyone as the now named 'guy' glared at Ace as the logia stood up and ran a hand through the short hair. "just let me handle this."

"Who's your friend Ace?" Thatch pipes up from somewhere behind him and the freckled man sighs as he rubs a hand over his face while taking his fallen hat from Alex's hands as the virus stands up and stares at him for some reason.

"His name's…Alex." the logia says slowly, gauging the crowded Whitebeard pirates before looking over to the captain himself as he tried not to shuffle his feet in hesitation. "Pops, he won't be a problem. I told him what he shouldn't do while-"

"You're different." the hooded man interrupts, making Ace look over to the narrowed yellowed eyes and oh damn it- "you weren't this…color before."

He's not nervous as the virus moves closer, eyes still narrowed though they changed back into blues as the rest of the crew shuffles and mutters nervously at the tiny distance between the two of them. Ace nearly rolls his eyes at the unnecessary tension that the virus makes and instead shows off his 'new' powers by making his shoulders flame out.

"…I ate the Mera Mera no mi Alex. I'm now literally a hot head." he says with as little sarcasm as he can put in, though judging by the look on the virus' face it doesn't work. Ace rolls his eyes because its all he really can do with the odd expression on the 'older' man's face. "it doesn't hurt-"

"Of course it doesn't." Alex hoarsely says as he grunts at the shocked noises of the others around him. Ace's witty comeback died out in his throat as the shout of 'MARINES!' has the virus' head snapping up so fast that a few crewmembers still watching them look alarmed.

"Alex wai-" the logia begins but he blinks and Alex is gone from sight, the shouts of surprise clueing him in on where the virus went 'park-cowering' off to. "Damn it- Pops! Don't send anyone over, not while Alex is fighting!"

The surprised looks on the faces that stopped to listen to him are ignored as Whitebeard looks down, a curious yet still suspicious look on the ancient face as Ace continues.

"Let's just say he's a bit…well bloodthirsty if its anything to do with the Marines." he says as the Whitebeard pirates' eyes widen at the faint sounds of screaming and the nervous look on Ace's face making the crew members sweat drop.

AN #2: Why should the Strawhats have all the fun?