Return Of The Champion Part 1

Sitting outside against the wall of the room that held his teacher's body, Jack felt lost. He was grieving over the death of Seagull, sad over not being able to do anything about it, and mad at himself for not realizing that his friend had been suffering for so long without him even noticing it.

While he was sitting there the unpleasant thought that he had to do something with Seagull's body came to his mind. Wondering just what to do, as he can't exactly bury him. The ground is nothing but stone and he has yet to be able to even leave a mark on it. Another possibility that came to mind was a burial at sea but he wasn't a fan of this either. The thought of just dumping his body into the water for it to become fish food seemed to Jack like a disservice to his memory.

In the end, he decided that cremation is the best option available to him. That way he can keep his body from rotting and can save his ashes to give to his family when he finds them. Making his decision, Jack moved to put it into action. Getting the amount of wood necessary seemed left him in a bit of a pickle, unfortunately.

It seems that they only had a finite supply of wood that Seagull had managed to scrounge up from around the settlement and it would take most of it to make a pyre big enough. Jack was unwilling to skimp on the amount of wood even if he has to start eating raw fish, as the thought of not using enough and being left with a half burnt corpse horrified him.

With a huge stack of wood prepared Jack came to a challenge that he never wanted to face. Getting Seagull's body up on top of the pile of wood. The man's great height and weight made just trying to drag him off the bed a herculean task.

After a lot of time and much struggling, he managed to get his teacher's body to where he had the pyre set up. Now he just had to figure out how to get Seagull on top of it. Trying everything he could think of to make it work Jack just couldn't lift Seagull's body high enough.

Feeling slightly defeated he could only unstack half of the wood. Doing so allowed Jack to just barely manage to lift his teacher up on to the lowered stack of wood. Piling the rest on Seagull's body Jack hopes that it will still work this way, as in all the movies he has seen the body was on the very top.

With the pyre prepared, Jack stands there for a moment in silence remembering all the that has happened in the last year. All the memories of his time shared with this man now laying before never to move again ran through his mind. Knowing he will never hear his teacher's boisterous laughter or listen and gain knowledge from him that was given so freely brings new tears to his eyes.

Wiping away the moisture from his eyes Jack makes a silent vow, if the world forced him upon the same path as Seagull then so be it. He would honor the memory of his teacher by becoming the greatest pirate to ever sail the seas. By the time he is done, he will be sure to make all the world tremble at the name Jack Sparrow.

Standing before the body of the person that without whom he would be lost in this new world, a determination fills him with an intensity that he has never felt before. His resolve hardens to the point that it manifests physically and radiates off him in waves.

A single resounding thought playing repeatedly in his head, 'Conquer Everything'.

The World Government wants to control him? He will shatter their authority.

The Nobles want to vilify him? He will crush the scum beneath his feet.

The Marines want to hunt him? Let them come.

He will destroy anything that gets in his way. He will create a force that will shake the very foundation of this world and establish a new world order. He will correct the failings of the original World Nobles and create a system that will ensure true prosperity for all. He will eradicate slavery and snuff out any who dare ply that vile trade.

(A/N: Jack Sparrow 2020, "I approve this message" -Jack Sparrow)

Coming out of his thoughts and plans for the future, Jack lets out a sigh sad that his mentor won't be able to see it. After a bit of doing, he manages to light the wood on fire with the flint stone that Seagull had in his possession. Standing back he watches the flames burn with a solemn face. Jack stands vigil through the day and most of the night as the flames burn his friend down to ashes.

Once the glowing of the tree roots brightens overhead, signifying the start of a day, jack gets up from where he had been resting. Moving to stand before a still smoldering pile of ashes, a grimace comes to his face.

He was unsure what to do with the ashes as he had nothing to put them in. Deciding to pile them up on one of Seagull's old shirts and tie it up. This was the best he could do for now until he manages to get out of here and find something more suitable.

With everything he can do for seagull for the time being done, he decides to focus on his training to get stronger. Sitting at the edge of the water Jack thinks about what he can do the make his training more efficient and what he should focus on with his time.

Now that he doesn't have to worry about having to come up with an excuse about his martial arts and can practice with them in the open he should put more time into them. He will also need to continue working on his water manipulation and underwater movement.

The next thing he needs to focus on is starting to master his transformation. Seagull told him that every Zoan has two forms besides his regular human form. The first one he will try is the hybrid form and once he masters that he will move on to his full leviathan transformation.

Just thinking of being able to turn into the legendary beast of the deep seas that he remembers hearing about in Bible study makes him excited. If the version from his fruit is anything like what he remembers of the legends then the powers that be better be ready for the shock of their lives.

Deciding to dedicate is mornings to underwater movement. His early afternoons were given to body training, martial arts, and transformation practice. The rest of the day went to his "waterbending". With this setup, he put together a training regimen for the foreseeable future. Setting to it immediately, he decides to start with his water manipulation as he thinks this technique has the most potential out of his current skills.

Thinking back to that movie he saw that had something a lot like it Jack tries to remember what all the people from the movie were able to. From what he recalls, they were not only able to manipulate the water in the oceans creating large waves and such but lift it up into the air making the water float. Using that floating water they could attack and defend in various ways. Going even further, they were even able to make the water freeze and unfreeze at will.

One of the friends that saw the movie with him said that there was a tv series as well, but Jack never saw it, unfortunately. Remembering that on the way home his friend went on to explain about all the things the movie left out, one thing in particular caught in his memories. His friend talked about how the waterbenders were able to manipulate not only regular water but also the water found in plants and even people.

All this had Jack's mind racing with ideas for what this ability of his could do. For the time being all of that is nothing but speculation as it will take a long time and even more hard work to develop his ability to those levels. As of right now even making little waves, one could mistake as ripples, took all his concentration. Not getting discouraged at this, he just told himself that practice makes perfect and kept at it.

Like this several months go by with Jack progressing steadily. He is now able to move freely in any direction with great agility as long as he is under a certain speed. Every day he pushes that limit just a little bit further becoming faster and faster. His body training has come along very well. Almost too well in fact, as he just seems to keep growing taller at a noticeable pace with his muscular physique increasing to match.

His waterbending, as he has taken to calling it, has developed frustratingly slowly and he can't help feeling like he is going about it wrong somehow. Giving out a deep breath and loosening his tense body, Jack lets the frustration seep out of him. Once he has regained a calm mind, he goes over all that he has done in trying to improve this ability so far.

Going over everything he knows about how water acts in his mind, he tries to think of what could pertain to his situation. After a while, he starts thinking about how he has been trying to manipulate water. Jack realizes that this whole time he has been trying to force it to move at his will, and wonders if that is the right thing to do.

Doesn't the saying go, 'Flow like water'? Perhaps he shouldn't try to force it and instead try letting it flow with his will. Thinking that is easy but trying to figure out how that may work is hard. Deciding to try meditation Jack sits cross-legged by the edge of the water and closes his eyes. Clearing his mind and sitting in silence and trying to sense the water next to him.

After a while, he starts to feel that now familiar sensation of comfort and familiarity creep into his mind. Recognizing it as what he feels when in the water he doesn't hesitate and fully embraces the feeling. Delving deeper into this sensation then he ever has before Jack feels himself fall into a kind of conscious trance. It was almost like his mind was leaving his body and merging with something greater.

As time goes on he starts to become aware of something like whispers that weren't whispers, sound but with no sound to be heard. It was a strange sensation like suddenly becoming aware of a constant background noise that had always been there but because of the fact that it was constant, you never noticed it.

Keeping a calm and open mind, this sound that wasn't heard as much as it was felt increased to the point that it was almost all he could sense nearly drowned out his awareness completely. Just when he was about to be overwhelmed he felt it stabilize and become a constant murmur of something just out of reach. Feeling that whatever it is was waiting, Jack tried to form a connection with it to his mind.

Reaching out with his consciousness he felt that the moment he willed his mind to touch it a connection was established and all at once he became aware of the water around him like never before. All around him he felt like he could see with his mind's eye, with clarity and precision, the water down to even the most basic molecules.

It truly felt like before he had been a blind man and now he had gained the ability to see and opened his eyes for the first time. Not just the water beside him but he could now sense the very moisture in the air.

With this connection established, instead of trying to exert his will over the water directly Jack tried channeling his will into this connection. Sending his desire to create a wave beside him, he can see in his mind's eye how a small amount of water rose then flowed out forming into a wave.

Sensing this he opened his eyes to look at what he had done and felt the connection he had fade when no longer focusing on it. Feeling this caused him to frown a bit but seeing the remnants of the wave he created made it hard to stay displeased. This little wave was more then he had ever been able to do before and using the connection to will the water to move had almost felt effortless.

Seeing that he had found the right path to develop this ability caused him to feel relief. After so long with little to no progress had Jack worried that he was never going to be able to do more than just make ripples in the bathtub.

The focus of Jack's afternoon training shifted to trying to maintain his inner connection with the water even when doing other things and was able to finally feel like he was making constant progress. Even training his transformation benefited form this connection and he felt like he was closer to attaining his hybrid form.

More months go by with all his abilities steadily increasing. The one year anniversary of Seagull's death was coming up and remembering his last words Jack spends some time investigating the keep at the back of the ruins. Its giant door was shut tight with no handle or any indication of how it was opened.

Jack has searched every inch of the ruins for a clue as to how to get inside the keep but has found nothing, greatly vexing him. Jack isn't too worried though, as with his abilities and strength growing every day if he isn't able to unlock the door he will just break the damn thing down when he is strong enough.

More time passes with Jack training like a man possessed, dedicating his every waking moment to increasing his strength. With two and a half years since he started training, he was finally able to maintain his inner connection with the water of the world at the back of his mind even when doing other things.

With the ability to maintain his connection without constant focus he is able to drastically increase his waterbending skills. Able to now lift up a basketball sized globe of water into the air. With this water, he is practicing to be able to move it freely and manipulate its shape any way he wants. Having to channel his will through his connection slows down the process so he is practicing his speed as well.

Jack continues to train through the months to increase the amount of water he can manipulate, his ability to control its shape and movement in the air, and also his speed at giving the water commands. With three years spent in this cavern and his ten year birthday coming up, Jack was finally able to attain his first transformation.

After jack turned into his hybrid form for the first time, he wills up a sheet of water to look at his transformed appearance in its reflection. Immediately as he wills the water to move he can feel that his connection has increased in size and scope causing the amount of water that he is able to manipulate to grow by an entire order of magnitude. Shocked at the increase in his abilities that this form grants him, Jack turns to admire his new looks.

Seeing what he now looks like he has to admit, he looks like a badass terrifying denizen of the deep. First off, what was once a human head now became some kind of scaled draconic looking face with red piercing eyes that almost seemed to glow. Instead of a regular nose and mouth, he now had a short snout with a maw filled with sharp teeth that look like they could shred through muscle and bone as easily as biting through butter.

On top of his forehead, he had a large horn that angled up and forwards looking shaped like the blade of a knife with smaller ones encircling the top of his head making it almost look like he was wearing some bizarre horned crown. Behind his jaw and going up to the back of his head there were many small to medium sized, spike-like horns angled towards his back.

His height increased by half when he transformed and his entire body became encased in beautiful blue armor-like plates with small lighter colored scales covering all his vulnerable joints. The thick plates that cover the majority of his body are covered in flowing ridges and sharpened points that make it look as though they were some aquatic armor designed by a master artist for Poseidon himself.

Jack's hands end in razor sharp claws that are long enough to be dangerous yet still short enough that he is able to close his hand into a fist. On both arms, the outside forearm has a fin with many sharp spines that runs from his wrist to a large spike that looks like it could do serious damage coming out of his arm right below his elbow.

Where he once had toes now there were only three large claws with another on the back of his heel. It will take some practice to get used to it, but once he does they will add a devastating weapon to his already dangerous kicks.

Looking behind him it seems that connected to his butt is a long scaled tail that looks to be double his height in length. Seeing that he now had a tail was a little off putting, like seeing he suddenly had an extra arm or leg. Trying to move it was like moving a muscle he never knew he had. Just another thing to add to the training.

The last thing he noticed is that down the center of his back is a row of long, sharp, spikes that were connected with a thin membrane making what seemed to be an intimidating looking dorsal fin. It lay flat on Jack's back and didn't seem to impede his movement but he could raise them up by flexing the muscles in his back when he wanted.

All in all, to Jack's trained eye this form looked like a walking weapon that gave him many ways to attack his enemies and the thick plates of his armored appearance seemed like it would make a stout defense. Add to all that the increase to his waterbending abilities, and attaining this form was well worth the effort.

With three and a half years now spent here Jacks form, at ten and a half years old, has already reached a hulking six foot eight inches tall with broad shoulders and muscles that made it look like even his abs, had abs. With no end to his phyical growth in sight, Jack feels that he has mastered all his abilities to the best extent that he can for now and is ready to attack the damn door that has vexed him for so long.

Walking up to it he looks it over once more. Seeing all the intricate carvings centered around a circular symbol that he doesn't recognize he decides that will be his target.

Going back to the water he summons up as much as he could even transforming into his hybrid leviathan for max power.

Carrying all this water in a huge globe above his head he plans to the keep he shoots it in a constant high pressure stream as hard as he could at the center of the door. His hope is that he will able to drill through it and eventually crack the door open. Staring his assault and keeping it up, he can start to feel something give so he stops his spray to check his progress and gathers up all the water that had splashed away after hitting the door.

Seeing the center symbol pressed in like some kind of giant button makes Jack thrilled and he continues his assault with even greater fever. Feeling the circular symbol being pressed in more and more until it suddenly stops moving Jack stops again and regathers the water that he used.

Walking up, he takes a look to see that the center symbol has been pushed about a foot into the door and now exposed on the sides are several small holes that were previously covered.

Thinking that these could be some sort of keyhole, Jack inserts his water to see if he could press any lock pins that would open the door. Once the water goes inside the holes Jack suddenly loses his connection to that water and can no longer feel it.

Trying to figure out what just happened he suddenly hears the loud clanking of gears along with some type of whirling sound. Stepping back Jack hears a sound that is like music to his ears.

*CLICK*

*Creeeeeeeeek*

The door that has been sealed for untold years has been opened.