Disclaimer: Oda owns One Piece...but I own a laptop and at least half a brain...so let the fanfiction commence!

Chapter 1: An Average Day

It was close to noon on a frankly average Sunday afternoon. However, the word average is best put down as a 'relatively' average day up here. It was in God's Land, Skypiea! Forget about the troubles of the Blue Sea people, pirates rarely traveled up here due to the risks involved, the Marines let the people up here do whatever they wanted as long as they were semi-governed, and even the Slave Traders saw it as too much of a hassle when Mermaids sold for more and were more accessible, up here the people of Skypiea had their own troubles. And they had a name for that trouble, James Foreman.

"Woo-hoo!" screamed a young brown-haired boy as he blew through the small town. He was wearing a very loose and heavy brown jacket that was probably one size too big, but he didn't seem to mind. As a matter of fact as it fluttered in the wind as he raced through the town the unmistakable look of joy was spread across his face. Beneath the obviously too large jacket is a plain white T-shirt and due to its sagging length his blue jeans could also be considered beneath it. He wore large heavy boots, however, none of this was the most interesting thing about him. It was a large silver almost three inch thick surfboard. The center of the surfboard had a small hole in it that was two inches deep and had three larger circular shells in it, they were called Jet Dials. They shot a large amount of wind out of them and due to the current make-up he had, they even managed to lift him and his surfboard into the air, effectively giving him a hover-board. And with that hover-board he was famous for terrorizing the town. Perhaps terrorizing was a bit too strong of a word, but whenever the White Berets came to this island there was always one name that was certain to be on their list.

"JAMES FOREMAN!" shouted one of the White Berets as he came pounding on the door. He was at the Dial store, one of the many store fronts that James often came to and bought stuff in using the money he got from questionable sources. The White Beret sighed, James was just one of those kids, he grew up here in Skypiea like everyone else, but something was always going wrong with him. He got F's in the classes he did attend and yet he easily managed to build a hover-board. He was always goofing off and getting into trouble and yet he rarely hurt anyone. He was a good kid, or so the White Beret wanted to believe, but sadly as soon as that thought managed to plant its root in its head, James showed up. Or at least he believed it was James...he couldn't quite see anything on account of having a hover-board slammed into his face. The White Beret was sent flying back, a stream of blood pouring out of his face as James turned around flashing a peace sign to him before focusing on the task at hand of driving his hover-board through town for another run.

"THAT DAMN JERK!" shouted the White Beret, picking up a crossbow and taking aim. He huffed for a second before lowering it to his side. "Damn it, kid...I'm not here to arrest you, I just need to bring you in for questioning," he muttered beneath his breath, ashamed that the kid managed to once again get the better of him.

"Questioning for what?" asked the store owner as he poked his head out of the store. He was bald and had a bit of a wide red nose. The White Beret turned and looked at him, but let out a huff as if signaling that the news wasn't for citizen's ears. The store owner quickly swatted him upside the head, but the White Beret didn't even budge from the blow. "Listen that kid is in my store so often that he's practically family to me." The White Beret kept quiet. "Fine, the next time I see I'll ask him whatever this is that you want to ask him, deal?" the White Beret looked at him questioning. "Face it," continued the store owner, "if that kid doesn't want you to catch him, you can't catch him. With that board of his...the people of this town call him..."

James rocketed over the short cliff, landing on the sea clouds and accelerating over them. He leaned down, easily snatching a small fish out of the water and throwing it onto a nearby fishing boat, who immediately waved at him with a happy smile. Jame eagerly returned the smile and wave, continuing to accelerate over the clouds, eager to break his latest speed records which it looked like he may do any moment now. Suddenly James hit the one piece of Verth around, God's Land. He went straight up, traveling completely vertically through the air. "Heaven's Hurricane."

The White Beret sighed and nodded, "we got unsettling reports about some slave traders in the recent vicinity." The store owner shivered. Skypieans weren't as popular as mermaids down on the earth below them, so for the most part nobody bothered them. Slave traders also tended to be cowards and not willing to risk their necks by traveling all the way up here to get to them. "We know James tends to go to God's Land and he spends a lot of time in the slums, we were hoping he heard something about these slave traders."

"I'll warn him about the slave traders for ye," hacked the old store owner.

"What? No, ask him about them for me, don't just warn him!"

"You can't hide it from me, White Beret, you like that young boy, don't you?" asked the store owner as he turned around and returned to his shop. The White Beret looked uncomfortable for a few seconds before sighing. "I'm not going to fault you," he laughed once more as he began tending to the Dials, picking up one of the Flame Dials and beginning to polish them off. He lifted them up and looked at them against the light, "true, he may be rough and unpolished, but I'm fairly certain anyone can tell you the truth. He's a diamond if I ever saw one." The White Beret nodded, he was hoping one of these days he could talk James into joining the White Berets. However, the more he looked at it the more James seemed like a free spirit than a White Beret. Physically speaking James wasn't the strongest man up here, but in terms of intelligence, cunning, and techniques he was unrivaled. James would be best categorized as...a genius.

"I FORGOT TO INSTALL THE BRAKES!" screamed James as he jetted forward towards the island. The problem with hover-boards was that they tended to float off of the ground and as a result there was little to no friction...which meant he couldn't just lock down the wheels or anything cause there was none...turning off the Jet Dials would only cause him to fall and crash. And just like he predicted...he crashed...into a tree...again. "Trees...nature's emergency brakes," he whispered quietly as he slumped down.

He shook his head and tried to clear it...he grabbed onto the now off hover-board and tucked it under his arm. It looked like there were still a few bugs to be worked out. Oh, well, it got him to where he wanted and...with a quick check to his watch (a fabulous Blue Seas invention) he made it here in record time. He pumped his fist silently, proud of his small victory. It was silent because he wasn't supposed to be here. Skypieans were not allowed on God's Land during regular hours. They were only allowed during special festivals and weekends. All the other times it was designated as Shadorian lands...apparently such an agreement was only decided on due to some intervention by some Blue Sea People awhile back. However, that didn't matter to James...he wasn't here to steal gold or Verth or anything. He just wanted to talk to one of the Shandorians.

"You're still an idiot, you know?" asked a young woman as she came around the corner. She was a little bit shorter than James and she was dressed in furs. They were wrapped around her chest, but they revealed her mid-section. She also wore a fur skirt and boots. She had long black hair that stretched down to her waist, but it was up in a ponytail right now so it was raised a little higher. "Whenever there is a loud noise on this island you are behind it." She looked over at the tree. "Forgot to install the brakes again, huh?"

"Eh, what can I say," asked James as he laughed it off, "slowing down is for losers. Winners just get faster." The girl shook her head, obviously unhappy with his stupidly simple response. She sighed and shrugged it off. "Anyways, what did the Knock-Up Stream bring this time?"

The kid was obsessed with anything he could get from the Blue Seas or anything new in general. She shrugged it off and waved for him to follow her. "Sadly we didn't get anything too interested like the guns from the last time." Despite that she knew that the Shandorian elders wouldn't let them have the guns anyways, especially James who would probably accidentally shoot someone trying to take it apart. "No just a bunch of your average run-of-the-mill materials." She said as she took him to the small vault and opened it up. "See, clothes, books, teddy bears, nothing new." James had to admit that she was pretty much right, there was nothing special amongst these things. He picked it up and shuffled through the trash heap. Suddenly he stopped, pulling something out of it.

"How do I look?" he asked turning around and showing her. It was a straw hat with a red band running around it. She laughed at him and shook her head. "Well, I'm keeping it anyways," he said taking it off and blowing on it to clear it of the dust. "Wait a second," he said leaning forward another few inches and pulling some more of the trash away. "What's this?" he asked pulling a small black box out of the mess. The girl cocked her head and leaned in closer too. "This is new."

"Yeah," she said tapping her chin, trying to remember it, "but it wasn't here this morning." James flipped the box around until he saw a series of blinking red numbers. It was currently on 30 and it was steadily going down. It also emitted an annoying beeping noise. "I wonder what it is," she asked leaning in and growing closer. "It looks like its counting down to something," she said quietly. James nodded, also putting two and two together. "Something is definitely up. I wonder if its anything special." The countdown was soon at 10. "Eh, just ditch it. It doesn't look like anything special other than the numbers."

James flipped it over, checking out the remaining sides, hoping to see something of note, but when he didn't he threw it over his shoulder. It was at four and the beeping seemed even more frantic. "I guess you're right...I guess I'll just make do with this new hat." Suddenly there was a flash of white light emanating from the black box. James turned his head to the side and looked over it. Out of nowhere an incredible burst of flames and gunpowder covered the entire room. The two of them were forced out of room as the entire house exploded. James hit the ground horribly hard and soon the girl followed him.

"What the hell!" screamed James as his vision slowly started to black out. He saw some sinister silhouettes creep up on him. He could barely make out what they were saying however he was fairly certain that it was something about...a Black Market?

A Slave Trader

Okay, I got about 20 chapters of this thing written figured I'd finally post it. First off, let me say this. Yes, it is a bit of a slow start. No mention of One Piece, no OCs, however, I do promise you things will pick up. The first OC appears in Chapter 12 (let me remind you I wrote a lot of this prior to deciding to upload it and getting OCs). The first arc begins around Chapter 7, the second Chapter 13, and so on and so forth. I place to upload this quickly as I got enough backlog to sustain that. Form on profile page.

Those who know me know I got a story that's 190 chapters long that's still ongoing and two other ones, so you can count on this one continuing and getting better. But I have other duties. Other then that I promise to take you all for a high action thrill ride filled with suspense, laughter, maybe some death, and a whole lot of corruption! So, get on the edge of your seat and hold on tight!