New story, and apparently the only of the Digimon – One Piece crossover genre. Let's see if it'll work!
Also, as for my other stories, I might update them soon, at least one or two before Christmas!
Digi – Disaster!
Odaiba: Kamiya Residence
It was a warm August day, with leaves blowing in the wind leaving behind a golden trail to complement the bright, clear blue sky that engulfed all of Odaiba and surrounding areas. However, this light was soon to be replaced by a digitally woven sky that was as erratic as Davis's attendance record lately.
The DigiDestined, old and new, had gathered at Izzy's apartment having decided to visit the Digital World as a means to celebrate T.K. finally asking out Kari, and also Matt managing to secure a record deal with the foreign label 'Roadrunner'. However, even with almost all the Destined gathered, Davis was nowhere to be seen. Izzy had made it a point that they should wait for him to arrive before heading off to the digital world.
"He's still not here!" rasped Yolei, beginning to lose her patience under the strain that was Davis's poor time keeping skills.
"Y-Yolei, please don't go berserk again!" cried Cody, knowing and fearing the ungodly wrath that the fiery tempered purple haired girl held before him, almost bracing himself when her Medusa like eyes met his small, insignificant eyes.
T.K. held his girlfriend in his arm, tightening his grip and pulling her in at seeing Yolei rise and tower over them, causing Kari to flinch slightly and fall into T.K.'s reassuring chest while cowering slightly.
"No, not this time!" she screeched, raising her fist in the air and causing the entire group that was convened to move back slightly "I'll kill him!"
"Kill who?" said a very familiar voice, almost echoing in the terrified silence that followed its announcement of its owners presence. They all slowly turned to Davis, carrying a small blue reptilian creature on his shoulder as he gave a quizzical look to the Destined. DemiVeemon tried to move as he sensed a very potent bloodlust from Yolei.
Yolei smiled at Davis warmly, all the while walking toward him with a chilling malice trailing behind her footsteps, finally standing before the confused boy with a small, pink bird like creature in her arms and blushing slightly before giving a malicious knee into Davis's special spot, turning back and respectfully asking if the Destined could leave now. Davis simply flopped to the ground apologising incoherently, barely managing anything beyond a whisper.
Everyone cringed at the mere thought that Yolei would be questioned by Davis as to why such force was necessary. Sora, Mimi and Kari looked on with the most anguish as they knew full well that must have hurt, but luckily for them not to the same level of understanding of the boys.
"Mimi, are you about ready to go?" asked Izzy, speaking into the small mobile he was holding in his right hand whilst reaching for his Digivice with his free hand, receiving a very warm compliance from Mimi, and turning back to the other Destined.
"Joe... have you got medical supplies?" he said with somewhat of a squint as his eyes met the currently unable to move Davis, almost as an indication to his elder friend to attend to Davis's... 'wound'.
"Yeah, but Izzy, I can't repair manhood with a bandage." Joe was quite sarcastic in his undertone, almost ready to double over laughing at the injury his friend had received before him thanks to a still pissed off Yolei. Everyone let out a chuckle, even Kari, who just a moment ago was feeling anguish at the pain Davis must be feeling and Yolei who had caused said pain and anguish with a girlishly innocent smile.
"So, yeah... we ready to go?" Izzy asked, all the while staring at Davis as he sluggishly began to stand and walk toward the group before falling back on his knees again. The rest of the group nodded, and pulled out their varying generational Digivices, pointing them at the screen before them as an enveloping blue flash began to surround them and give an unusual tug.
The blue flash still pulled the children in as usual, but once inside the Digital tunnel, it begun to break apart, cracking and breaking like glass fragments, putting the children into a free fall as they screamed at the top of their lungs.
Suddenly, a new scream was also heard. It was deafening as the owner came closer and closer to the falling Destined, revealing their friend Mimi, who had entered the Digital Gate at the agreed time from America. The fall lasted several minutes and the darkness thickened, until a light glittered within the black void, almost cushioning the children for a moment before the free falling recommenced above a large volume of water next to an islands rim. Silence followed after the Destined had finally made their way to the sea, as a thunderous crash could be heard from the local island not 50 meters away.
Hitou Island: Grand Line
It was a warm August day, with leaves blowing in the wind leaving behind a golden trail to complement the bright, clear blue sky that engulfed all of Hitou Island and surrounding areas. It was a mostly deserted island with few inhabitants, mostly only visited as a resupply point for pirates heading toward Water 7 and the Shabaody Archipelago, the half way point of the Grand Line.
Coming outside of a local tavern wearing a disappointed face was a relatively tall, stern young man wearing a cream coloured hat over his eyes with a set of large beads dangling atop his well toned chest and wearing several bangles and a strange magnetic compass on his wrists. He wore black shorts with several pouches upon them, wearing a loose belt with the insignia of an 'Ace' on it.
"Another dead end... has no one seen this bastard at all?" He muttered to himself, lowering his brows violently at the mentioning of an individual he had been searching for vigorously for a full year. Looking upward at the clear sky, he sighed deeply, lamenting at his newest dead end as he held a note in his clenched hand entitled clearly "Brownbeard Tab."
Whilst walking down the small row of shacks assembled by the few inhabitants of Hitou, he glanced back up at the sky remorsefully as he walked within 30 feet of his specially constructed Stryker ship, hearing 16 screams echoing from the sky, recognizing only 11 human cries and left astounded at the 5 inhuman cries resounding in his ears. He kept looking intently up at the sky, bracing himself for any danger that may befall the quiet community of Hitou Island that had catered him so kindly and not reported him to the nearest Marines.
Finally, he made out 11 human shaped shadows followed by what seemed to be 5 mere dots upon the unblemished sky as they quickly descended upon the port area, landing about 50 meters out to sea from his Stryker with a thunderous crash that shook him and the sleeping fisherman nearby into attention, as he ran over to the awakened man with a curious but concerned look upon his face.
"Old man, can you get those people back inshore!" barked the jet black haired youngster, who received a confused and dazed look.
"W-what's...? Why don't you go then?" said the fisherman, clearly uncaring toward the young man before him as he rubbed his eye "W-wait! That mark on your back! Who the hell are you, kid?"
"You've gotta be freaking kidding me! ...my name is Ace, and people are drowning because you are being a lazy old -!" He stopped, noticing out of the corner of his eye two heads surfacing, Tai and Matt, followed by others that were being supported by their fellows. Deciding to help, Ace ran furiously toward his Stryker, jumping forward and gliding into the small vessel, untying it from the wooden in one fluid motion and jarred as his ship began moving toward the children and their pets in the water with a fiery kick-start caused by Ace's ability.
Hitou Harbour Area
Tai felt winded upon impact with the water. He was almost certain he may have fractured his rib, but nothing else. He opened his eyes to a violently stinging pain in his eyes because of the salt in the seawater, eventually adjusting slightly and seeing two of the Destined sinking before him.
It was Izzy and Mimi holding each other in a tight hug while unconscious, having held each other like that ever since the second free fall began just as Kari and T.K. where doing around 15 meters behind them in the shallow but still rather deep seashore, separated by Hitou's shoal that cut across it and met an abandoned shack on the opposite side of the small village. He madly made a B-line for Mimi and Izzy, noticing Matt doing the same for Kari and T.K. whilst heading off toward Cody and Yolei as the others where sinking at a much slower rate than the four huddled ones that were grabbed by the two best friends. Upon surfacing with insane kicking strength, Tai and Matt's red burning eyes adjusted painfully to the surfaces light, tearing up unintentionally because of it. They spotted the shore nearby and screamed weakly for help, gasping at remembering the force of impact had on them. They thankfully noticed a strange looking one man craft speeding toward them at an abnormal speed, leaving steam trails in its wake, but not being ones to question anything in the sea with several unconscious people still underneath them in the water.
As the Stryker slowed and stopped before them, they saw Ace loom over them, blocking out the suns rays and letting them get a full view of him.
"Pass your injured here and get the rest up! I'll take them to shore and come back in about 30 seconds, alright!" ordered Ace, giving a focused look at the two teenagers below him as they handed the four unconscious youths to him, for a second admiring his raw strength as he managed to carry all of them atop his back and broad shoulders without any sign of exertion. After he headed back to the shore, Matt and Tai dived back down to retrieve the remaining Destined with Tai attempting to carry Davis as well before he woke up and gruntingly dived down to retrieve the Digimon that had arrived with them.
Everyone had been saved, all with slight injuries upon impact but still rather safe. Mimi and Sora remained unconscious on a mattress found in the isolated shack across the sandy shoal, as the others warmed up around a fire whilst Ace simply stared with astonishment at all the children surviving the incident with little or no injuries, but mostly staring intently at the Digimon sitting beside their respective partners. He had seen many phenomena over his three years in the Grand Line; Giants, Devil Fruit users and his dear friends that resided within the mysterious pirate graveyard known as the New World such as Oars Jr.
"So... who the hell are you?" Ace said, receiving many confused and secretive sneers from the teenagers before him, as the partner Digimon stood proudly before him, bracing for any unwanted movement that might befall them. "And... what are you?" he said with a lamenting smirk, as he had discovered something new within the Grand Line.
As the children looked at one another, wondering who would answer him, Tai turned from the small fire they had surrounded to face the man sitting beside the wall while resting his head lazily in his palm. "How about you answer a question and then we do?"
"...Fair enough, I guess." He said, bracing his arm so as to not look bored before his new interrogators, but upon thinking of it that way, let out a great smirk that irked all the children that where conscious except Joe and Izzy.
"Is this the Digital World?" Tai asked almost scornfully at this brash new ally he had made at sea. But was rather unnerved by the curt, questioning brow Ace directed back at him.
"The Digital... wha-?" Ace lifted his head from his palm, raising it to remove his hat and reveal his confused face that was hidden previously to the Destined.
"I'll take that as a no..." Tai said somewhat disappointed at the response he had received. "Your turn."
"What are those creatures?" he pointed at the closest Digimon, Upamon, and followed the small creature as it made an escape to Cody's arms and revelled in the embrace and protection he felt at his master's touch.
"Their called Digimon, their a lifeform made up of data from the world's data stream network, all forming a duplicate 'shadow' world in which Digimon live. But when we tried to get to the Digital World, it all broke apart like glass... and we fell here..." Izzy took on the role of the scientific explanations expert, but gave a simple answer as he was still bewildered at the mysterious destruction of the Digital Port and their following fall into the sea, wherever it is. But the biggest reason was his concern for the girl lying unconscious behind him, Mimi, who he felt a great tug towards lately when he began webcam calls with her just a little while before.
"Like glass, eh?" Ace thought deeply for a moment, as he believed such a thing sounded familiar to him. Upon realising, he also thought about how different wherever the children came from must be if they didn't know. "Maybe it was a Devil Fruit ability."
"Devil Fruit?" The group unanimously said, all showing signs of delirium as they brainstormed on what he meant, to which he gave a heavy sigh.
"Fine, I'll explain. Devil Fruit's are great treasures that lie dormant beneath the sea. They were enchanted long ago by sea devils, and the consumer of the fruit gains a unique ability, but becomes unable to move when in seawater, not exactly something to take likely in this Golden Age of Pirates, however..." Ace lifted up his right hand and extends his foremost pointer finger at the ceiling, with his finger becoming iridescent for a brief moment before a small flicker sparks above it and created a small flame "...I ate the Flare – Flare Fruit, and as such I can convert my body into a natural element with no set limit as to the amount of the element produced. This is the power of a Devil Fruit group named Logia Fruits."
Everyone gawked at Ace, staring with a mixture of expressions at his finger, all seemingly disappointed when the flame was put out by Ace moving his hand and planting it onto his knee. "So... what are these groups... and the Golden Age you were talking about-"
"I get to ask a question first, right?" Ace's carefree expression darkened quickly, as he stared intently at the group he faced, causing them all to flinch at the man of fire. "Have you seen or heard of a man called Marshall D. Teach?"
A deathly silence ensued and made the whole group that were awake to look at Ace with a wince, knowing that he may not like the answer he received.
"N-no, why?" Kari broke the awkward silence, gaining a lightened glare from Ace, who sighed heavily and looked depressingly at the floor as he clenched his fists in a silent outburst of anger as the children stared on in disbelief over their situation in this strange world that possessed humans with similar abilities to a Digimon, such as Ace and Flamedramon.
A mumbled yawn was heard behind them, as they looked hesitantly around to see Mimi staring on dazed at the group and shaking Sora awake when she realised that her best friend slept beside her sweetly. As she got up, she looked over toward Ace, and recognised Matt and Tai sat beside him as she received a quick summary over what had been discussed up to that point while she slept with Mimi on the mattress.
"So, what are these Devil Fruit groups then?" quizzed Davis, raising his trademark cheesy smirk to lighten Ace's distressed mood after receiving another dead end to Marshall D. Teach, the man he had been hunting for with the finesse of a bounty hunter.
Ace smirked back weakly and raised his hand toward the ceiling, igniting another small fire, but this time with three fingertips in a listing motion.
"Logia is the name of my Devil Fruit type. It allows the user to become a certain element such as fire and generate limitless amounts of it from their bodies, almost making the user immune to physical strikes by converting the point of impact into that element. It is one of the powers that are considered invincible." He said as he slowly closed his foremost finger back into his palm and put the light out before fully lowering it.
"Paramecia is the name of a Devil Fruit that grants a unique ability such as being immune to sword strikes. My brother is also a pirate that uses this type of power, making him a rubber man." Ace begun to lower his middle finger, leaving his index finger raised with a fiery glow.
"And finally, the Zoan type Devil Fruit. It gives the power to become a hybrid and a fully transformed animal. My friend Marco possesses a very powerful type of Zoan fruit that allows him to turn into a phoenix with the power of flight."
As he fully clenched his fist together, he was left with an uncomfortable silence as the Destined found difficulty believing everything that Ace had said to them. Deciding it would be better to let them talk, he rose from his seated position against the wall and began walking back to the local tavern while the Destined tried to find out why they were in such a strange world. After hearing the creak of the door closing and his footsteps die away, they all turned to each other with intent faces, unanimously turning to Izzy, hoping he had the answer they so desired.
"I have no ideas, guys... either this is a different world or reality... or the past."
"The past?" whispered Joe, still remaining a fitting example for the younger kids, although he did want to freak out after Ace's fiery demonstration.
"Well, he said this is the Golden Age of Pirates, right?" he received a curt nod from many of the Destined "well that era ended long ago in our world, not to mention these Fruits... a man of fire, prodigious!" Izzy framed his confused face upon a curled fist, all the while garnering Yolei's ire for his lack of usable information in such a tight situation.
"How about we sleep on it and ask him in the morning where we are?" interjected Matt, holding Sora in a tight hug while looking nervously at the insanity that was Yolei. At that, Ken calmed the fiery girl and promised to sleep next to her, much to her delight and everyone's silent relief.
"Okay, Mimi, stand watch with Izzy for about an hour and then switch, okay?" ordered Tai, already lying comfortably on the mattress, earning himself a scornful look from Mimi, to who he smiled mischievously.
"Welcome... oh, I thought you left this afternoon, young man." Stated the barman rather bluntly as he dried off a pint glass behind the bar.
"Why, miss me?" Ace seethed.
"No, but you might want to go soon. A Vice Admiral is resupplying here tonight."
"Oh? Thanks for that. But I can handle a Vice Admiral on my own."
The barman scoffed and laughed hysterically, admiring the gall of the young man before him. Last night he had a drinking contest with Ace, and as such considered him a friend. "But anyway... there's a rumour that some kids fell from the sky or something. That batty old fool Roshi, I swear he's going senile nowadays."
"Well he did piss me off a little... I had to save those kids myself, and I can't even swim!" Ace sat at the bar, grabbing a small glass of grog and downing it in one shot, enjoying the unique fiery tail of it as it passed slowly down his throat.
"Well, you shouldn't have eaten a Devil Fruit so easily, 'Fire Fist'." The old man went back into hysterics and laughed uncontrollable as Ace pouted at the fact that he vows never to hit a friend. "So, kids actually fell from the sky?"
"Yeah, what of it?" Ace's voice carried scorn within it, as he placed the glass menacingly back on the counter, staring at the barman.
"Why not use them in your search for that guy?"
"What should I do about those guys?" Ace's voice trailed of at the last part of his thanks, realizing that a Vice Admiral might arrive and arrest the kids as pirates for being sighted with the infamous 'Fire Fist Ace', second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.
Suddenly, before he could even turn to the door, he heard a very stern and provocative voice behind him "Fire Fist Ace, I presume?"
Ace turned nervously, veiling it thinly with a mockingly confident smirk as he saw a fairly tall man with a white jacket draped over his shoulders like a cape, wearing a pristine double breasted green suit with a blood red shirt and slightly darkened tie. He wore spotless black shoes and sported a very bushy cream coloured beard that extended to his sideburns and cream coloured hair kept in a ponytail.
"I am Vice Admiral Dalmatian, and you are hereby under arrest. The tip we got from that fisherman would appear to have been legitimate, don't you agree, Lieutenant Ryuusei?" He carried a certain grace with his voice, unfazed by Ace's reputation and sizable bounty. But Ace saw this as nothing but ignorance and overconfidence in his own abilities.
"Sir, shall we take him?" Ryuusei coldly stared at Ace's equally cold yet belittling glance.
"Let's go!" cried Ace, his knuckles converting to flame as he used his Devil Fruit power, preparing for the battle he wouldn't get to dodge. Dalmatian himself smirked defiantly as he took off his shoes, much to Ace's distain, as he believed this to be a challenge or an insult in battle. But much to his surprise, Dalmatian began to quiver as his body changed shape and his legs morphed into a hind shape. After a couple of seconds, he looked up with a scornful face as he had changed into a hybrid form of a Dalmatian and a human, Ryuusei steadying a gun he pointed toward the foe before him.
"Sorry about this, barkeep... Fire Fist!"
What will become of Ace in his battle with Dalmatian; and will the DigiDestined be able to help or are they truly helpless in this world? Find out next time!
First One Piece x Digimon, and I truly found the idea of Digimon in the One Piece world exciting. And I know this isn't the best opening ever, but great stories can still be made, even on the weakest of foundations!