A Young Crocodile

[ Third Person POV ]

 Hades, before Crocodile's intrusion

"Alright, you should be all set!" Tom remarked happily before handing a sealed scroll to Stussy, "You are to hand over this to nobody other than Boris. He and I have a prior arrangement, and he already knows what to do with it."

Stussy smiled before nodding and placing the item within her bosom. She had been aware that some important conversations had happened when Boris had commissioned Tom to create a ship for them.

Soon, the entire 0 Division was slowly cruising away from Water 7. The ship had been given the name Hades, a testimony of how deadly Tom had crafted it.

Stussy promptly informed Boris that they were on their way to pick him up, and soon, the Division was smoothly sailing into East Blue. However, troubles immediately emerged when the crew had passed the Reversed Mountain.

That problem in question was none other than the man who promptly landed on their ship without warning. Stussy hadn't spotted any ships in the distance, questioning how the young man had landed on our ship.

"Hmm.....So this is the 0 Division Ship. I shouldn't have expected anything less," he remarked as he thoughtfully looked around.

"I appreciate your compliments, but could you leave~? Stussy asked kindly.

"To get to that treasure Roger had mentioned earlier, I will need a pretty nice ship. I'm hoping you can relinquish the ship without too much of a fight," the young man smiled as he looked at Stussy.

"What makes you think that we'll give it to you so voluntarily~?" Stussy asked calmly. Ken, who happened to be listening to this conversation as well, seemed to be slowly losing patience with the young man in front of them. 

After all, it was rare for the Whitebeard Pirates to be treated in such a fashion. Especially the 0 Division.

"That's a pity; looks like I'll have to take it by force then," the man shrugged as the sand slowly began pouring out of him, "Since I want to take down the Whitebeard Pirates, I figured I should start on a small scale before facing your Vice-Captain and Captain!"

Stussy hummed as she continued looking at the accumulating sand beginning to fill up the ship's deck. Pato and Carla, who had been training at the back of the hull, immediately rushed towards the ship's bow.

"What's happening?" Pato asked anxiously.

"I believe that the Desert King Crocodile is attacking us," Carla replied.

"Who's that?" Pato was now asking curiously.

"Crocodile is a man who devoured the Sand-Sand fruit, a logia type; he's been making rounds across Paradise. However, he's probably here because of the execution of the Pirate King," Carla calmly explained.

Crocodile laughed when he heard his past and reputation brought up. 

"It appears even the Whitebeard Pirates know of my infamy!! You don't have to worry because I'll be showing you first hand, Sables!!" With a simple flick of his finger, Crocodile sent several sandblades at Stussy and the rest.

They all immediately jumped out of the way before the sand crashed with the ship's deck. The Devil's Wood, however, proved worth its reputation. It didn't even leave a mark; instead, sand grains could be littered across the deck's floor.

"I've heard about how the 0 Division moves. I don't think it's that impressive, though," Crocodile remarked.

"Ms. Stussy, please let me handle this fool. I'll make him understand what it means to attack the 0 Division," Ken hissed as lightning began sparking from his body.

"Fine, just don't let him litter the sand around too much, or you'll be cleaning this mess up," Stussy relented as she slowly walked towards the cabin.

Carla and Pato kept looking at Crocodile for a bit longer before they began to follow Stussy into the cabin. Leaving Ken alone with Crocodile.

"If you think you can face me alone, then you're heavily mistaken," Crocodile chuckled as his golden hook gleamed.

"If you think that I can't take you in combat alone, then you're heavily mistaken," Ken glared at Crocodile as lightning began to sparkle from him.

Ken didn't waste any more time and immediately lunged right at Crocodile. A lightning spear had already been created as Ken swiped down on Crocodile. Crocodile smirked as if he already won and was about to let the lightning spear phase through him. Only to be smacked across the ship and hit a railing near the bow.

Ken wasn't done, though; he immediately turned into lightning before appearing right in front of Crocodile and going for the killing blow, aiming the tip of his spear at Crocodile's heart.

Crocodile immediately turned into sand and appeared right behind Ken before raising his golden hook and swiping down at Ken's back. Ken's eyes flashed red before twisting his torso to avoid the hit. In response, he swung his lightning spear right through Crocodile's midsection, pushing him back as he tried to regain his balance.

Glass could be seen where Crocodile's midsection was. Puzzling Crocodile as he slowly got up and tried to remove the glass from his body.

"Sand turns to glass if burned at a certain temperature; I bet you probably didn't know, huh?" Ken teased as he raised his lightning spear.

Ken was a lightning human, and due to the heat normally caused by lightning, he could turn parts of Crocodile's body into glass. As a result, Crocodile's body was forced to materialize by default and get hit by Ken's attacks. The side effect was that rather than hurting Crocodile; it simply impaired his movements because the glass would be formed at the part of his body that had made contact with Ken's lightning. The only disadvantage to this was that the vice versa could happen to Ken; because he is a lightning human, sand that makes contact with him will turn into glass into his body, causing similar effects.

Crocodile's face slowly turned ugly as he realized he wouldn't breeze through the fight as simply as he had initially thought.

"Then, I'll just make sure you never touch me then, Sables!!" Crocodile swiped across the deck as he sent numerous blades of sand right at Ken. 

Ken immediately turned into lightning as he weaved through the sandblades and reformed right on top of Crocodile, raising his lightning spear above his head and viciously sweeping downwards.

Crocodile immediately coated his golden hook with Armament Haki as he slammed it against Ken's spear. Causing a brief shockwave that shook the ship a bit. Ken immediately kicked away from Crocodile before summoning multiple balls of lightning and sending them at Crocodile.

Crocodile instead turned into sand as he weaved through the balls of lightning. He immediately appeared before Ken and delivered a series of blows at him.

Ken, who would be at a disadvantage because of his lightning spear, immediately changed the spear into a sword as he began blocking Crocodile's attacks. They seemed to have been pretty much evenly matched in terms of physical combat. Moreover, it was obvious that both of them had been using their Observation Haki to the max to try and get one over the other.

Ken immediately saw an opening when he deflected Crocodile's hook upwards. Summoning lightning to his foot, he immediately twisted his body.

"Mjorlnir's hammer!!" 

Crocodile could only coat his body with haki as he was slammed with a dense kick of lightning. Slamming into the deck of the ship once more.

"Fucking bastard....!" Crocodile growled as he slowly got up. The side of his body was smoking as a result of the hit.