William found Pike climbing the rope ladder to his personal galleon, The Beast Tamer. It was deep blue and a bit bigger than a typical galleon, boasting a much larger crew and a second set of cannons poking out from the lower deck. The orange haired pirate slid into the water and took hold of the last rung on the ladder as the ship began to pick up speed. Heading out of the harbor, he saw The Snake Pit coming to life, taking on the chase. William saw the glint of telescopes and waved his arm to let it be known he was concealed by the ladder hoping The Pit would hold its cannon fire until he boarded completely. He climbed up halfway and used the porthole awnings to reach the balcony behind the captain’s quarters.
Through the window, Pike was pacing back and forth. Men were frantically running about trying to get the ship moving and ready to fight. William flashed his scope to The Snake Pit to signal he was safely hidden on the back. Cannonballs blazed from The Snake Pit like venom from a viper’s fang. Three marines died instantly in the initial blasts and others fell back for cover. William took this chaotic opportunity to rush into Pike’s cabin. He toppled Pike with a surprise attack and quickly rose to lock the door. “Nowhere left to run, Pike. No court to hide behind. The truth has caught up to you.”
Herb and his daughter were firing a hailstorm onto The Beast Tamer. Elsa was a natural at the canon and inherited her father’s natural talent for ranged weaponry. Her blonde hair swished about as her small frame masterfully aimed the cannon to shatter boards into splinters on The Beast Tamer, but she was careful not to target the stern where she knew William to be. At the helm, Esmeralda held onto the wheel for support. Her leg was leaking from the briskly fashioned bandages Herb applied, and Brandy was propping her up from under her arm, but Esmeralda was not one to lose focus on a target. “So who is that orange haired guy?” Brandy asked. Esmeralda winced in pain as she turned the wheel to keep an angle on The Beast Tamer. “That’s William. He used to work for the merchant alliance, worked his way up their ranks quickly by completing hundreds of flawless runs moving goods. Pike started sending my crew to go after William’s shipments. He’s a great helmsman. Hard to keep up with and that made him a dangerous rival to the Navy’s own merchant operations. He bit into their profits and Pike took notice. I hate to say it,” Esmeralda adjusted her leg in discomfort. “but William ducked me every time. Once in a while I would get his product, but never him. One day I found him sailing with another pirate crew. He said they had laid a trap for him one night and forced him to join their ranks. Slipperiest sailor I’ve ever seen at a helm. They eventually let him go, but Pike put fake evidence together making it seem as though William chose to become a pirate on his own will. This led to him being ousted from the merchant alliance, becoming a wanted man, and Pike’s greatest competitor leaving the business. It’s a sad story really, but I like to think Pike did him a favor. That boy may have a kind soul, but he has the fighting pirate spirit in him. Free range suits him, treasure suits him. I have kept in contact with him over the years to enlist his aid when I have need of a talented captain. I sent him a messenger pigeon to meet us here. For William, this is personal. Now is his opportunity to exact revenge. I wonder what he will do with it.”
The Beast Tamer began to lower into the sea as it took on more and more water. The half a dozen marines still alive on board desperately tried to keep her afloat, all of them too busy to notice the Admiral’s absence. “William, you should have stayed gone. You challenge me and you will always lose, didn’t you learn that already? How low do you have to sink before you will give up?” Pike teased as he twirled his cutlass. “You’ve done your last twisted deed, Pike. I came to terms with my lot in life. I almost feel like I should thank you for setting me free of the confines in the merchant alliance, almost. But I can’t allow you to continue building up your throne on the backs and bones of innocents. People too good to win a dirty fight against the likes of you. I may have been green then, but you’re dealing with a pirate now!” William shouted and lunged at the Admiral with his sword. Pike parried and pushed William into the boarded wall where he dropped his sword. Pike’s cutlass slashed at William who dodged just in time leaving the Admiral’s weapon stuck in the deep wood of the wall. A quick right hook sprawled Pike onto the captain’s table with William jumping right after him. Ink and parchment scattered as the men wrestled for the upper hand. They rolled off the table onto the ground, hands clutching at one another’s throat.
Outside, the daylight had grown black with thick, surly clouds. Lightning began to sizzle in the air, and the wind seared by, screaming along its way. The Beast Tamer came to an abrupt and dreadful stop, dead in its tracks causing everyone aboard to tumble about. The water filling the hull below was sucked out of the ship with supernatural speed. Cannon holes in the ship sizzled and crisped over with thick black scabs to keep the rushing water out. All marines below deck looked around in confusion that swiftly turned to panic as they saw their fallen mates begin to rise from the deck. Not in a human way. They stood up directly from the flat of their backs, never bending a knee. Flesh and tissue that once covered their body quickly rotted away to reveal their chilling white bones. They watched on frozen in fear as the skeleton’s eyes lit up with a small teal fire in each of their dark sunken eye sockets. A screech fired from the jaws of one skeletal creature and he smashed the lantern swaying from the ceiling. Darkness swallowed the lower deck and the fiery green eyes of skeletons displayed brightly as they ravaged everyone in their reach. William and Pike burst through the door to the captain’s quarters. Ignorant to what went on below, they continued to brawl.
“Drop anchor!” Esmeralda voice choked out from the helm. Herb ripped the capstan and the ship tore in the direction Esmeralda spun her wheel. The Snake Pit had flown past The Beast Tamer as it stopped with such unearthly speed. “This is bad. We need to get William off that ship. Storm this bizarre and out of place can only mean one thing. Damned skeletons are coming.” The Captain warned her crew. Herb and Elsa had never seen such creatures. They only heard stories of ships being ripped apart or captured at sea by the fiends. Brandy knew of the skeletons. They were one of the many evils that came from the portals to the underworld to impose their will on the recently deceased, inhabiting their bodies to accomplish evil deeds until their skull was removed. Brandy’s father would hunt them from time to time for gold. It was dangerous work, but quick money as one of The Devil’s Own crewmen had an exceptional ability to find them.
William and Pike pounded each other blow for blow until finally Pike’s stamina gave way, making him stumble. One final kick to the chest knocked the Admiral down the first steps leading into the lower decks. The men’s battle of sheer will power had come to an end. “It’s over! You have nothing left, Pike. Give it up.” William said towering above the man fallen from grace. “Shut up! You’re just some welp! I say when it’s over!” Pike picked himself up to attempt another round, but before he could take a step forward, boney white hands clasped his ankles and jerked him down. His face hit the deck with a sickening smack and his barrel shaped body was hauled below. William leaned forward to investigate the dark decent into the ship’s belly but reeled back as he heard Pike regaining his senses and shrieking, “Get off of me! GET OFF!” Ghastly sounds rose from below and out of the eerie green light sauntered the heavily blackened bones of Admiral Pike’s remains. “Pike.. is that you?” William’s frightened question crawled into the soot hued skull of the deceased man. He snickered and replied, “Was that the name of this shell? If you miss him, take comfort young lad.” The skeleton took a heaving breath and as a small cloud of green fire spewed from his mouth, he said, “Because like him, you are not long for this world, and soon, you all will be together in the underworld while my kin rise to take your place!”
William fell to his rump and scurried as a crab from the monster as it approached, swiping serrated claws violently close. He got to his feet and ran up the galleon stairs to the p**p deck. Some of the skeletons from below began to populate the top deck and went to guard the stairs, boxing William and the black skeleton in together. The tattered blue admiral jacket swayed in the storm gusts from the undead being. It approached the orange haired pirate, dragging its heavy boots, with jaws agape and claws held high. Nowhere left to run, and his weapon lost in the captain’s cabin, William raised his arms to fight. He ducked the skeleton’s slashes and dodged under his arm to fire a punch into the skeleton’s ribs. This would have done well against a human Pike, but the undead version just laughed as William pulled back his injured hand from smashing it into the hard bones trying to kill him. Suddenly, gunfire shouted out from the top deck. Herb and Elsa boarded The Beast Tamer as The Snake Pit passed narrowly by. Herb laid a cover of shrapnel down and gave his daughter a chance to fire percisely into the white hoard of bones. They knew to target the head causing skulls to roll onto the deck one after another. Elsa stunned them with the force of her blunderbuss and Herb destroyed necks, spines, and skulls with the butt of his. The daring action had not gone unchecked however.
In coming so close, the skeletons below deck were able to use The Beast Tamer’s special lower deck cannons to put a hurting on The Snake Pit. Esmeralda was no longer consciousness after losing so much blood and fell limp in Brandy’s arms. Brandy pulled the wheel all the way left and tied it there to keep the ship circling in place perpetually while see labored carrying Esmeralda into the captain’s quarters to rest. The captain was very pale and blood was spilling everywhere. “What am I going to do?” Brandy fretted. “Just stay still one more moment, please?” Someone said. Brandy turned just in time to see Griffin slam the hilt of his sword down on top of her crown.
Herb and Elsa fought their way to William who was using every tactic he could think of to avoid the black skeleton toying with him. Still, he had taken several little gashes that would serve as reminders of this day long after it had passed. The trio vaulted down to the deck, diving inside, and locking the hatch that led down below. This would buy them some time from the dozen remaining skeletons up top, but there were still a few to watch out for below. Elsa raised her lantern to illuminate the area. They could hear the quiet snarls from skeletons lying in wait, but encountered no one until they came upon a cage at the back of the last deck. Boney figures clamored around a small brig desperately reaching their claws as far between the bars as they could reach, but they could not get a finger on the man laying inside. “Daddy, there is someone there! We have to help!” Elsa whispered hurriedly. Herb and William nodded and they fell on the undead cronies, blasting their skulls clean off their shoulders. As the skeletons crumbled into dust leaving only their heads behind, the man in the cage opened one eye and said, “Could ya keep it down out there? How’s a man supposed to get any rest around here?!”
Brandy sat on the floor of the captain’s cabin, her arms lashed behind her back and her head still throbbing. Her eyes hazily began to take in the room. She saw Esmeralda laying on the bed with her wounded leg and arm suspended in the air by ropes pulled from the storage deck below. Her cuts also appeared to have new dressings tightly fitted across each injury. Some color had returned to the Captain and she seemed to be resting more comfortably. Moments later, Griffin entered the room having finished repairs to the hull underneath. His royal blue coat was soaked from the rain starting to pour outside. He removed his black tricorn and slid his hand through his smooth mix of dark and golden hair looking down at a map on the table. “You do that?” Brandy nodded at Esmeralda. Griffin looked to the Captain and Brandy briefly, then back to the map ignoring her question. “Thank you for helping her.” Griffin looked straight ahead and pondered that statement for a minute, then replied without looking, “She can’t stand trial for her crimes if she’s dead now can she?” Brandy sucked her teeth at Griffin. “What a jerk! Are you serious? I take it back. No thank you! No thank you for bashing my head. No thank you for kidnapping my Uncle. No thank you for doing whatever you are doing now!” Griffin, angered, kneeled down a few inches from Brandy gesturing with his hands for emphasis. “You. Are. A. Pirate! Your ‘Uncle’ is a pirate. Esmeralda is a pirate. Do you know what pirates are? They are criminals, Brandy. I work for the crown, for peace and stability, to help our citizens. How do you not get this?” Brandy looked shocked. “Excuse me!? I am not a criminal! And I have helped tons of people out!”
“Really? Tell me then. Have you taken anything that didn’t belong to you recently? My informant in Ica sent word by pigeon messenger with a wanted poster of a young pirate lass who stole her most valuable sword. Oh, tell me also, how many people have you killed lately?” Brandy remained silent as he continued, “That’s exactly what I thought. I know of what you and your gang did at Ica. Those men may have been pirates, and while I don’t approve of their use, the crown had employed them to keep order where our thinly stretched numbers could not. And that’s just within the past week or two. Brandy, you are the one who cannot possibly be serious. If that were me on the bed would Esmeralda have taken care of me? I think it is rather unlikely.” He said turning back to the map. Brandy struggled with Griffin’s words for a while. She had always justified what she did by trusting her gut and doing what she thought best for herself and the few she cared for. Did pirates really just serve to hurt others for their own gain? Is that what Esmeralda had warned her about. Was her father’s legend only built on the tragedy of others?
Herb and Elsa unlocked the brig and James Silver Blood was finally free again. He rejoiced when he found out Brandy had lead them there to rescue him. “So the child already has a crew, got boarded by mermaids, and taken on Esmeralda’s betrayers, the navy, and now a skeleton crew? I bet even Revan couldn’t top that in his younger days.” James was pulled back to reality as William explained the dire situation above deck. Skeletons usually weren’t too bad to deal with, but a black bone was nothing to scoff at. They were much stronger spirits and at night they became ten times more difficult to deal with. James explained this after checking his silver encrusted watch and knew things were about to get much worse as night fell. They arrived at the hatch only to realize it couldn’t be opened. Through the cracks in the deck floor, William spotted the skeletons dropping a gun powder barrel on the hatch. “GET BACK!” He yelled and everyone dove for cover. The blast shook the whole ship to its core and skeletons poured through the opening. James had recovered his weapons from below and held back the monsters while William used James pistol to pop skulls and Herb did what he could to knock the fiends about, using his gun as a club since his ammunition had run out. Fear had made Elsa lose her nerve and she stayed laying low, too afraid to join the struggle. William’s pistol went dry and James stamina was draining fast as he hadn’t fully recovered from his prior wounds. He dropped to his knee exhausted by the supernatural onslaught and Herb stepped up to block two skeletons who dropped in and began to battle for his blunderbuss. Just when things got desperate, loud battle cries sang out. Bones could be heard busting all over the top deck. Shots fired and swords clanked against one another. Things quieted down and two white, thin hands reached down, pulling the two demons straight up the stairs and away from Herb. Powder and bone bits fell back down the steps into the lower deck and everyone looked at each other in disbelief. James smiled and said, “No need to worry lads, the Devils are here.”
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