A/N: Well here goes nothing.

Disclaimer: I do not and will not ever own one piece, I own all none canon characters unless otherwise stated.

A similar path.

Chapter 1.

Idle Hands.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Shells Town though most days were. Gulls were in chorus and the sound of the waves slowly rushing against the adjacent shoreline could be heard through the streets. The local populous went about their daily routines quietly and-

*THUD*

"Ow! That hurt ya old bat!"

*SMASH*

"Whoa that nearly hit my head. What are ya trying to do, kill me?"

The commotion disturbing the tranquility of this particular part of town was coming from a small house just outside the centre of town. It was a fairly ordinary home a white exterior and a flat roof with two- *SMASH* - one window at the front with a blue painted frame and a red front door.

"Now look what you've done you ungrateful little… watcha-call-it, idiot." The voice was different to the first, older and opposed to what you would think from hearing it, female.

"Gran, you threw a frying pan at me. How the hell is it my fault?" The first voice replied angrily. It was that of a teenager. More precisely it was the voice of Silva Rook.

"Because you're… what's-it-called, lazy and you don't have a thing-your-awful-at-y'know… job. Now go and find one." The front door swung open and a 5 foot eleven, nineteen year old boy was shoved out into the street by a four foot two, seventy year old woman. The boy's short messy brown hair blustered in the strong coastal breeze as he begrudgingly stepped out into the light of day.

"Why do I have to wear this stupid thing?" He whined tugging at the black tie round his neck. "You always make me wear this kinda stuff." He fidgeted in his dark red shirt (that was much too big for his scrawny physique) while he complained.

"Because no-one will employ a scruffy… thingy… tramp. Now go get a job ya bum!" She promptly slammed the door in Silva's face knocking him backwards into the street.

Silva sighed and rubbed his nose. It was always like this, everyday the old hag would throw stuff at him and send him out to find a job. There was no chance anyone would employ him, he knew it and she knew it but that didn't stop her, nothing did. It wasn't that he didn't have any skills; it was that no-one could afford to give him a job.

Morgan's heavy taxation saw to that. Silva had big plans though; he was going to become a pirate, one of the best the world had ever seen. He just needed a boat… and a crew… and knowledge about sailing… and maybe figure out what exactly his devil fruit did. That stuff didn't really matter anyway, they were just minor details. He knew how to fight; he had a punch that could stop anyone dead in their tracks. Well it had done on the people he had fought so far, that was proof enough for him. He did get into a lot of fights.

Silva rubbed his eyes; he was having the best dream just before his grandma had so rudely woken him up. He had just defeated Lieutenant Morgan, knocked him out with a single punch. He was replaying it in his head. Though his conscious mind was a lot less forgiving than his sub-conscious. As he approached Morgan to deliver the fabled punch, he brought down that giant axe hand of his cleaving Silva clean in half. After a momentary look of horror he waved his hands above his head to rid himself of the gruesome thought.

"Dammit reality why do you have to ruin it?" He complained still shaking the images from his mind.

Behind him two boys had just come out of the Food Foo restaurant one of them looked very content the pink haired one looked distressed.

"I could understand why they'd be scared after hearing Roronoa Zoro's name, since he could escape at any time. But why would they be afraid of a marine lieutenant's name too?" The pink haired one said, looking completely baffled by it.

"Well, he could've done something bad, right?" Replied the taller guy with the hat as they walked out of ear shot.

"Ya got that right pal." Silva chuckled to himself. Those guy's better figure it out fast or they are gonna be in trouble. He thought as he yanked at his tie loosening it considerably and undoing the top two buttons on his shirt. He rolled up his sleeves to complete his scruffy look and idly looked around, half-heartedly, for a job.

(-)

"That's it." Silva said pounding his fist into his open hand. "Today I'm gonna steal a boat and become a pirate."

"What was that sonny?" The old man sitting next to him asked, bringing his hand to his ear. It was mid afternoon and after having no look with his job search Silva decided he would just have a couple drinks until it was time to go home.

"I said I'm gonna… Ah never mind Ossan."

"Oh, it's about ten past four I think." The old man replied. Silva shook his head and left the bar, he went and found a table to sit alone and contemplate what his plan should be. His attention was momentarily drawn to a couple of men a few tables away.

"Did you hear? Some guy punched Morgan's son earlier."

"What? That guy is a dead man. Who would be stupid enough to do that?"

"I don't know apparently it was some kid wearing a straw hat."

"Doesn't sound like anyone I know. Must be someone from out of town. Pirates probably."

Wow that guy isn't gonna have much of a pirate career now. He has pissed off the wrong guy. He thought to himself before getting back to the matter at hand. Then it hit him. Morgan would probably hunt down those guys with all the force at his disposal, which would give him the perfect opportunity to steal a small boat from the naval port. All I have to do is wait here for the commotion to start and pop in to take a ship. Perfect.

Within half an hour Silva had packed a small bag with some clothes to wear and a small amount of food to be getting on with. This is my big chance. He thought, crouched outside the docks waiting for the opportunity to present itself.

Suddenly in the distance Silva heard a large bang like someone had dropped a boulder off a cliff. "That must be it." He whispered before sneaking into the marine controlled docking area.

He slowly crept from crate to crate, barrel to barrel and from any other object large enough to hide behind to similar. Gunshots rang off outside causing Silva to pause for a moment. Rest in piece straw hat. Maybe it will be a comfort to you, whoever you were, that you've enabled me to implement my genius escape from this place. He carried on sleuthing through the various cargos until he reached the moorings. There was still two guards at their post near the boats. Why aren't they off helping Morgan take care of things? It's too late now. I have to go through with it. Silva tip-toed out from his hiding place, in a rather overplayed fashion, he looked like he was doing an impression of a velociraptor.

*Budabudabudabuda-budabudabudabuda*

"Gahrah." Silva froze on one foot placing his hands over his mouth to quell the surprised noise that had escaped. Luckily the den den mushi drown him out.

"Yeah what is it?" The marine who answered it asked grumpily.

*SCHHUURK* "Lieutenant Morgan has been defeated. I repeat, Lieutenant Morgan has been defeated."

"What!" The two marines on guard and Silva yelled out in shocked unison.

"Gahrah." He placed his hands over his mouth again. But this time the damage had already been done.

The two marines slowly turned round to see Silva still stood on one leg with his hands over his mouth. The tension could have been cut with a knife as the opposing sides stared at each other in stunned silence. That is until Silva lost his balance and toppled forwards. He quickly jumped back to his feet trying to look as though nothing had happened. The two marines raised their rifles aiming them at Silva while he stood motionless, like a deer caught in the headlights.

"I-I'm warning you guys. I'm a fearsome pirate." He scanned through his head for something else to say that might convince them it wasn't worth the trouble. "I'm with the guys who just defeated Morgan."

The marines hesitated for a moment shooting each other quick nervous glances. One of them narrowed his eyes and gripped his gun a bit tighter. "Oh yeah? Then why are you here and not with them?" He asked as doubt began to seed in his mind.

"That's er, a very good erm… they er…" His eyes darted back and forth around his surroundings for inspiration. "They sent me to steal them a boat, that's right yeah. A boat for their big escape." This seemed to convince the marine who then further tightened his grip on his gun.

"Wait a minute you're just that kid from town. The old lady Yama's grand kid. Sitta or something. Nice try brat." With this Silva attempted to run for it, the tensed up marine fired instantly. The bullet hit Silva in the forehead knocking him backwards off his feet, he arched through the air and hit the ground with a dull thud.

"What the hell are you doing? You shot him Dave!"

"I-I didn't mean to. I was on edge. Then he moved and I just…"

"Dammit, if Morgan is really finished then this won't just be accepted, we need to fix this or it'll be our asses on the line."

"What we gonna do?"

"Go and put a weapon on him then we can claim self defence."

The marine addressed as Dave walked over to Silva's body with a pistol, ready to put it in his hands.

"ACHAAAA!" Silva sat bolt upright covering his forehead with both hands. The two marines leapt backwards screaming like school girls. "EEEYAAAARH! My head, my freaking head hurts so bad." Silva yanked a piece of flattened lead from his skull. A large bruise had formed in the centre of his forehead.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! DEMON!" Marine Dave shouted, pointing accusingly at Silva who was now getting to his feet clutching his head.

The other marine raised his gun and fired, Silva quickly ducked and darted forward missing the bullet completely, it seemed that having to dodge fast moving projectiles every morning from his ex military grandmother was finally proving useful.

He charged toward Dave with his fist readied, without breaking his gait his swung his fist forward hitting the marine square in the face. He flew backwards with tremendous force, much to the dismay of his fellow marine. The remaining soldier threw away his empty weapon and drew his sword. Silva slowly backed away, a fist fight and a lucky avoidance was one thing but a sword fight was a bit much at this stage. He knew as a pirate this would come up, but facing it for real was something else entirely.

The marine grinned menacingly and lunged at Silva who quickly raised his arms to try and defend himself. A torrid succession of slashes came down on him, sparks jumped off his arms with every blow, and he felt a burning sting of pain run down to his fingertips. The marine suddenly stopped, glanced down at his sword then became transfixed on Silva. The blade was beginning to bend out of shape and had chipped in several places. The marine ran over to his fallen comrade to grab the pistol he had intended on planting. Silva was dazed and disoriented from the severity of his pain. He was several metres away from the marines in a crouched position attempting to clutch his arms but his hands were shaking too much. He swung out a punch in desperation, a cylindrical metallic pillar burst out from where his hand had been, it was as thick as his forearm and had a flat tip. The attack hit the marine in the chest knocking him off his feet and into a wall. Silva slowly rose to his feet and staggered forward into a small sail boat, his vision blurred and he fell. He felt his hand return to normal and watched as the world faded to darkness.

(2 Months Later)

The drinkers pub in Orange town had finally recovered from the recent pirate occupation. Like the rest of the town it had been restored to its former glory and was finally drawing in the crowds, as the villagers had been freed from the tyrant Buggy after a visit from a pirate named Monkey D. Luffy. The customers were more subdued than usual as a pirate crew had come into town and were currently being quite raucous. The towns people had become very weary of any pirates that arrived after, past experiences.

"Hey chump. You're in my seat." The pirate was red faced and clearly looking for trouble. He looked as though he had gone out of his way to look more like a pirate. A red bandanna, raggedy clothing and an eye patch that he clearly didn't need. Somehow he looked in the mirror that morning and decided 'yeah I look just pirate-y enough now that I have this unnecessary eye patch.'

Silva sat tapping his finger against his glass with a *clink*. He had brown medium length hair that had been swept back and two gold ear rings dangled from his left ear. "There's plenty of other seats." He loosened the black tie around his neck and unfastened his top two buttons of his red shirt which fit much better now, he was still slim, but was much more muscular. He scratched his leg through his black trousers with tip of his black shoes.

"I don't care how many other seats there are. THAT one is mine." The pirate drew his curved blade and a grin played across his face. His crew watched, full of expectation. A small smile crept across Silva's mouth. "Let's see how much you can drink without your mouth!" The pirate swung his blade horizontally toward the boys head. Silva swung out his left hand and stopped the blade in its tracks with a metallic clash when it hit his palm. His fingers slowly pushed away the blade as he rose from his seat. He turned to face the pirate with an eager grin.

"I've been looking for a bit of exercise." He immediately threw a punch.

If you had been stood outside the drinkers pub you would have suddenly seen an overly pirate-y pirate come crashing through the wall and across the street into the building opposite. The pirates throughout the bar stopped smiling instantly and all drew their weapons in unison ready to take Silva apart. It was strange but he could have sworn that the sound of them drawing their swords was quieter than the sound that came from them simultaneously ceasing to smile.

"Guys guys, can't we all just have a drink 'n' get along?" A bullet narrowly missed his head and lodged itself in the wooden wall behind him. "I'll take that as a no then." Silva turned and ran out of the bar into the street. Two dozen pirates flooded out after him. With a man who must have been their captain at the centre. "Have any of you got a bounty by any chance? I could really do with the money." He unintentionally let out a long yawn which further enraged the hoard of pirates.

"I do." The man in the centre stated with pride pointing a colossal thumb to his chest. He was a large man, at least 7 foot tall and very muscular, easily 3 foot wide. He had a shaven bald head and a hook nose. It appeared that he was very proud of his muscles as he wore a black tank top to show them off as well as flared red and white striped trousers. The man began to flex forcing his muscles to contract and shift while he postured vainly. "I am Captain Juro. A world class pirate with a bounty of forty five million beri." He waited for the look of fear on Silva's face but it never came. "Ready. Aim." As he said this his surrounding comrades raised their rifles. "Fire!" A hail of bullets collided with Silva knocking him onto his back with a heavy sounding thud. A look of pain shot across his face while he fell.

Silva lay motionless on the floor. Captain Juro smiled psychotically and raised his fist to signify his victory.

"That is what you get for messing with the Ju-" Juro's celebration was cut short by the sound of loud snoring coming from his victims general vicinity. Silva was fast asleep, flattened bullets mottled his chest and head. "What the hell!"

"Huh, what?" Silva slowly sat up rubbing his eyes. The flat pieces of lead cascaded off him when he pulled himself to his feet. He patted his chest tentatively attempting to alleviated some of the pain from the impact. "Did I fall asleep? Wow that's embarrassing, I must be really tired. Anyway where were we?" Silva looked thoughtful for a moment while panic spread throughout the pirates ranks. "Gusha Gusha Sweep." Silva swept his right arm horizontally from left to right while at the same time his hand became a shiny metal cylinder and extended out to around ten foot. The thick metal rod swept a large group of the pirates through an adjacent wall to the right which caused some of the proprietary building to cave in on them.

"What the hell!" Captain Juro repeated as though confusion had somehow caused something in his brain to skip slightly.

"Captain snap out of it. What should we do? He ain't normal." The pirate was obviously becoming quite panicked.

Juro shook his head to help his mind catch up and snap back into reality. "Beat the crap outta him!" The pirates roared and charged forwards. Silva's hand had returned to normal and was balled into a fist. The incoming attackers drew their cutlasses, swiping and stabbing ferociously at every given opportunity. Silva managed to dodge most of them and the ones that did hit him emitted a metallic screech as they scraped against his skin but left no damage. He managed to connect several punches which immediately ejected the recipients from the crowd. Silva slid along the floor through the legs of the nearest pirate to him to escape the ring of pirates. Unfortunately for them they had failed to notice him leave and were still fighting each other.

"He's escaped you idiots!" Juro shouted as he witnessed the ineptitude of his crew.

"It's too late now." said Silva, cracking his knuckles which created a sound like metal buckling. "Gusha Gusha Jack Hammer." He punched rapidly, each one extending into a metal rod and colliding with a pirate in the crowd. Each hit sent a pirate smashing into the cobbled street causing it to crack under the impact. Within seconds all of the pirates were taken care of, all except Captain Juro that is.

"C-Captain H-Help us." One of the pirates was just about managing to stay conscious despite being almost bent in half in a crater in the street. Juro stared opening and closing his mouth in silence, his eyes were bulging at the scene before him. Then he threw his sword to the floor and ran.

Silva watched as the muscle bound captain fled down the street, he shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand then sighed. "Gusha Gusha-" he pulled his arm back and raised his leg as though he was about to throw a base ball. "Piston!" He threw a forceful right punch which extended into a pillar and continued to extend several metres down the street and hit Juro in the base of his back producing a sicken crack then continued to plough him forward through the fountain at the end of the road. Now the entire crew including the captain were unconscious. Silva clapped his hands together as though he were shaking off dust and smiled. This is where it really begins.

(-)

"Lying bastard!" Silva stormed out of the marine offices with a bag of money. "Forty five million beri my ass. He was barely worth ten million. What a gyp." He kicked a stone in frustration and watched it soar through the air and hit a large scary looking pirate in the bag of the head. The entire crew turned round and stared at him.

"You are going to regret that kid." The large pirate he hit growled slightly as he spoke.

"None of you would happen to have bounties." Silva smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Would you?"

A/N: Oki doke that was that and this is the bit after that. Please review and let me know what you think and any constructive suggestions are welcome. What are more than welcome are character submissions, in fact I would say they are encouraged, so please send any character submissions by pm as some people get a bit tetchy about it being submitted in reviews. Obviously I won't be accepting any characters who are admirals or shichikubi as they are of limited number and already exist but crew members, enemy crews and marines ranked vice admiral or below would be awesome. Thanks for reading and have a great day.

This here is the character submission watcha-call-it... sheet. So yeah I think that's about it.

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Specialty/Position:

Race:

Devil Fruit/Weapon/Attacks:

Physical Appearance:

History:

Personality:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Dream:

Other: