Spike/History

Spike, the Pirate
Spike first started out as a young boy aboard a pirate crew. Having been born as the son of the crew's captain, Spike inherited a strong sense of adventure, which would end up resulting in his daredevil attitude in the years to come. However, even if he was the captain's son, he was nothing more than a simple cabin boy, and performed menial chores for the crew. He spent many of his earlier years living the life of a relatively minor pirate; braving each journey he faced, fighting off enemies, and enjoying the company of his crewmates. However, this didn't last long. Out of hunger, and not having known any better, Spike consumed a Devil Fruit the crew had found, and hoped to sell. Enraged at his son's foolish actions, Spike's father immediately disowned him, and decided to maroon Spike on the nearest piece of land they could find. Having been close to the Sabaody Archipelago in the Grand Line at the time, Spike was forced to call this strange new place "home."

Feeling resentful towards his father, Spike decided to go back out to sea and enact his revenge against the crew that deserted him. However, as he had no proper understanding of how to take care of himself, his many attempts to gather resources and return to the ocean ended in failure; sometimes even coming close to killing him, due to his Devil Fruit weakness. It was also implied that when Spike was "strengthening up" to go out to sea, he may have ended up in constant conflict with pirates, bounty hunters, Marines and various other dangerous figures while at Sabaody Archipelago. It was around this time that his Dino Dino Fruit, Model: Kentrosaurus powers finally appeared, giving the young boy the fighting chance he needed to make it in the lawless areas of Sabaody.

One day, after Spike's usual routine of stealing, scavenging and fighting, he had finally created the next in a series of poorly constructed log rafts, with which he attempted to sail into the Grand Line on. It didn't take long for it to fall apart however, which threw Spike into the ocean, causing him to splash about helplessly before losing the strength to fight for his life. Before Spike could sink any further, a mysterious silouhette arrived from seemingly nowhere and carried Spike out of the water and back to safety. After coming to, Spike realized the man who had saved him was a large orca fishman. While the fishman only saved Spike out of pity, Spike grew curious and interested in the man, as he had never seen a fishman before. After following the fishman to his home, and attempting to strike up a conversation with him, he eventually managed to create a sort of friendship with him, and even came to learn his name, Urufu. As their friendship grew a little more each day, due to Spike's constant visits, Urufu's pity for the child and his current living conditions also grew, until the day came he decided he'd take care of Spike personally, as Spike's new foster father. In time, their friendship grew into something more powerful; a bond between parent and child. They shared laughs, stories of piracy, life lessons, meals, and even came to blows with one another at times. And together, they were genuinely happy.

A few more years went by, as Spike grew and Urufu lived out his long sought peace from piracy and discrimination. Still a child, Spike heard tales of what piracy meant to Urufu, who claimed to still have the heart of a pirate. Spike learned the importance of the jolly roger, as well as what a crew should mean to its captain, and once Roger's execution had passed, Spike was told the story of the famed Pirate King, and of how a Great Age of Piracy was starting, due to Roger's prized treasure, the One Piece. These stories renewed Spike's interest in piracy and adventure, to the point he boasted to Urufu and his friends that he would go out and find the One Piece, in order to become Pirate King. Urufu smiled and praised the boy's strong spirit, although Spike's friends called him out as being crazy, if albeit brave.

The good life didn't last long though, as Spike's foolhardy actions and inexperience finally caught up to him. After overhearing some local Marines harassing a band of pirates after successfully capturing them, Spike took it as a personal offense towards him and Urufu, and decided to stand up against the Marines' authority. Publicly declaring himself to be a pirate, and not willing to go back on his word, Spike was hunted by the Marines, who were simply trying to follow the strict order of arresting anyone who dared to call themself a pirate. Having returned to Urufu for help, and knowing he was in over his head this time, Urufu aggressively assaulted the Marines for threatening his son. While the incident died down for the time being, Urufu's presence and identity as a former member of the Sun Pirates started to escalate the situation Spike accidentally caused. Knowing a real pirate was in the vicinity, the Marines too action to arrest Urufu. Even with Urufu pleading for the boy to escape, and the Marines promising to leave Spike alone, Spike's reckless immaturity got the better of him again, and he declared he would stand and fight. Forcing Urufu to savagely attack and scold his own beloved son to get him to leave, Spike finally withdrew from the skirmish. However, as he simply couldn't allow anything to happen to Urufu, he carefully watched the fight unfold from the sidelines, hidden away from view.

Sometime during the fight, when a particularly aggressive and vile Marine landed a serious hit on Urufu, Spike went into a frenzy, and ran into the fray in his human-Kentrosaurus form. Even though Urufu was OK,, Spike mercilessly continued to attack the Marines. The loathsome Marine who harmed Urufu, a younger Tombstone Grim, finally snapped, and ordered that both father and son were to be arrested, if not outright killed. With Spike now coming under fire, Urufu flew into a blind rage, and fought a massive battle against Grim, while Spike took on the weaker subordinates. In the midst of battle, Grim gained the upper hand, and landed a fatal blow to Urufu. Now in despair, Spike broke down in the middle of his fight, which almost got him killed too. With the last of his strength, Urufu managed to grab Spike and break away from the fight with the Marines. Having temporarily lost them for the time being, Urufu began to rest, knowing he was slowly dying from his injuries. The parent and son took the chance to try and apologize to oen another for what they got each other involved in; with Urufu the most upset for having laid a hand against Spike earlier. They had one last talk about important matters, such as what the term "monster" meant (as years prior, Spike was called out for being a monster due to his Devil Fruit, and Urufu was familiar with the word, because of his fishman heritage.) Spike tried to suggest getting a doctor, with Urufu mentioning that no human doctor would want to save a fishman's life; ultimately bringing back his spite against humanity, except for his loving son.

With the Marines closing in, Urufu used the last of his strength to tell Spike what really mattered to him. Personal ideals, his regrets, and how much Spike meant to him, despite not having much of an interest or care in the boy at first. Spike told Urufu of how he felt, saying Urufu was more of a father to him than the captain who abandoned Spike years ago, and that he owed Urufu a lot for everything he had done for Spike. With their heartfelt and tearful moment drawing to an end, Urufu passed on his prized weapons, two brass knuckles made of Eve Steel known as the Plated Fists to Spike, with the hopes that Spike would become the Pirate King he always knew he could be. Spike promised he'd go out to sea one day and become the Pirate King as Urufu quietly passed away before his eyes. Overcome with grief and pain, and knowing that antagonizing the Marines only made things worse for him and his loved ones, no matter how gutsy he acted, Spike ran off into the depths of Sabaody Archipelago, carrying his lifeless father with him in the hopes that his body wouldn't fall into the hands of his newfound enemies, the Marines.

Spike slowly fell into obscurity over time, as relative peace managed to return.

Spike's Soldiers
Sometime after the incident with the Marines, Spike called together his childhood friends to help him give Urufu a proper burial at sea. His reasoning being that not only would it hide Urufu from anyone seeking to make profit off of him, but that as a fishman and as a pirate at heart, the ocean was a fitting place for his final, eternal rest. Upon saying his final farewells to his father, all the while recalling fond memories he shared with Urufu, and even the day they met, when Urufu fished Spike out of the water, Spike solemnly began to withdraw back into anonymity. One of Spike's friends, Meso, tried to comfort Spike, and asked him what his plans for the future were going to be. Managing to temporarily fight back his sadness in order to answer Meso, Spike stated he'd form a pirate crew of his own and go out to find the One Piece, as he had promised Urufu before his death. Amused by Spike's resolve and dedication to his loved ones, Meso commented that Spike's dream was a noble one, before leaving Spike to grieve alone.

It wasn't until weeks after Urufu's death that Spike would show his face to his friends again. When he reappeared, he seemed dead serious about something, which the others called him out on. Spike stated that he would enlist his close friends to be a part of his pirate crew, if they were willing to risk their lives for his ambition. Shocked, albeit understanding Spike must've had plenty of time to think this through, the group tried to come to an agreement of sorts. While some of them sympathized enough to accept Spike's offer, and others were refusing to go to such extremes right away, the group eventually decided that to help support Spike, they would go along with his plans. Satisfied with the answer, Spike told his fledgling crew that they would have to start gathering recruits and supplies before they could call themselves a crew. In order to do so, he officially started the group that would come to be known as Spike's Soldiers; a gang of delinquents and criminals alike, who would target pirates, bounty hunters and Marines alike, among others. It would later become a large street gang that would take control over Grove 22 of the Sabaody Archipelago, with the reputation for behaving like pirates. And while Spike and his childhood friends had been biding their time until they could go out to sea for good, they were ultimately bogged down with the responsibilities of taking care for the newer recruits, leaving them unable to go through with their plans as promised. Years would pass as Spike and his growing gang of like-minded delinquents lived out their lives somewhat peacefully, as they awaited the day they could start their journeys as a pirate crew.