Plethora of Pirates
Summary: After being sucked into one of Raven's books, the Titans are caught in the middle of a massive battle at sea. Corsets, swords, cross-dressers, treasure, cursed jewels, and tons upon tons of pirates. Sound like fun?
Ooh! Has anyone read Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur Trilogy? It's absolutely wonderful.
Okay, this whole thing was inspired while reading an article about pirates on the web and partially by Piratica by Tanith Lee.. If you're interested here it is: http / members .tripod. com cathreese/ Defiant Women/ pirates /pirates html#mary, story is very loosely based off of some actual stuff. Female pirates were real.As was the practice of selling them (Well, women. Not pirates.). So here goes folks. First attempt at a Titans fic, I'd love to know what you think.
"To the starboard side!" The call rang clear and loud even over the loud clashing of steel on steel and metal to flesh.
The men took up the call and began to move across the boat steadily, cutting down enemies in their path and helping comrades. "Starboard! Starboard!"
Alas, there were many many navy officers. One could scarcely look across at any part of any boat without seeing red, be it the deep and wild hue of blood slowly drying or the brightness of a uniform--still, bleeding, or still fighting. Pirates fought fierce, but no matter what the legends say others fight fiercer.
It was becoming increasingly apparent that this was a battle to be survived by the lucky, and the lucky alone.
Captain Tanwen seemed to realize this as he continued to gather his men to the side of the rail, and prepare for their last stand.
"For the Hester
"Raven..."
The men once again echoed his cry, a name none of them knew the full meaning of. Hester. No one had dared to challenge him when Tanwen, the new captain by vote and by steel, had declared that to be her new name.
One or more had protested softly that no one would take them seriously with that wimp of a title, but he was hushed at edge of newly sharpened sword.
Such were the way things were on any given pirate ship. One could except it, take off at the next stop to the noose or nights upon nights of empty bellies, or they could jump overboard and hope they drowned before consumed by sharks or kraken--a dreaded sea monster of old.
There was a rather odd thing on this oddly-titled boat. A violently blue jewel, stowed away in a chest within a chest.
"Raven..."
All that beheld its beauty had different and deadly unpleasant reactions to it. Many attempted to steal it on sight, only to be caught by the local magistrate a few miles down the road. A few stared upon it for hours upon hours , days upon days, and weeks upon weeks, until their bodies--deprived of every comfort and necessity for just a moment too long, gave. A few, a very precious few, were selected by the jewel to do great and terrible deeds.
Foolish, you say? That a jewel could select anything at all. Well, you think that dear Elizabeth would dare risk what could be a war between her pirate allies and her government appointed navy over a mere jewel?"
"Raven!"
The spirit of many a mage, hedgewitch, and wizard of old rested in that jewel. With each one it ate, it grew stronger, and wiser, yet no matter how many souls is never allowed to wander in this life or move on to the next it was completely incapable of moving about itself. Thing of legend you say? Well, you'll soon find out.
Pirates live and die in the company of danger, so there was absolutely no reason for this set of the Hester to be any different. But to fully understand how it came to this we have to take you back many many years...To a market in Oxford where it is to be purchased, to exchange many hands, and to cause many deaths. For this is a grand tale, and I am not bragging for saying as much. This was told to me in a dark cellar by a badly tortured man accused of piracy who was due to be hung in a mere hours. His last and only request was to have his story heard.
So we return to that time...When the kings had true power...When Atlantis was no fable...
"RAVEN!"
"Yes?" The lamp she was using to read by had blown up, and that little vein on her forehead was pulsating madly, but all Beast Boy grinned wickedly at her nonetheless.
"Have you ever heard of-"
She turned back to the book, just to read that last sentence, to finish out the chapter before she had to listen to BB babble about Burning-Corn-Chip-In-One-Of-Cyborg's-Old-Legs ball...
When something quite extraordinary is about to happen.
With a blinding blue light, six uncannily similar screams and the shadow of a snicker Raven never did get to hear what Beast Boy was so adamant about sharing with her. They were down the rabbit hole, and bound straight for Wonderland.
LINE
"Okay, next one up!" A decidedly unhappy looking blond girl, no older than eight, stood on a crude stage--it was truly many crates that once contained whiskey and other such things stacked upon one another--and stared down the whole of the people that had even considered buying her. She bit her lip, stuck out her chin and...
"EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The shriek echoed through the whole place, as the auctioneer desperately tried to laugh it off as though he still had a hope in hell of getting anything at all for her at this point.
"Hehehe...Good lungs on this one, I'm sure with a bit of training she'll be quite good entertainment for parties, captured fresh from a pirate ship...So she's a little rough around the edges so I'll give you a quarter off..."
"EEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Oddly enough, the first thought through Robin's head was not: A. Where the hell am I? B. Erm...Slavery was outlawed. At least around here. Civil War? Anyone? C. Hmm...This is interesting or D. I'm really hungry.
It was, in fact: Does she BREATH?
"EEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
He swayed slightly in his brand new body, and took a good look at himself, carefully taking stock of everything as he saw it so he could keep note of it...in case. Just so he might be able to get something useful out of this decidedly impractical garb he had found himself in. Plain black pants and boots with points so sharp he could already feel bruises and blisters welling up. For walking: Fine. For running: Maybe. For jumping off tall buildings, tackling things ranging from giant slime monsters to Starfire's older sister, halting the Apocalypse in its tracks and other such things that were the stories of Robin's life: Not so much.
At long last he had found something worth having, a sheath and rapier strapped onto his belt, he say something that massacred that rebellious little grin that was forming on sight. It was on his shirt. At first glance it was fine, slightly dirty and an off-color cream, slits in the sides to reveal glimpses of a gray-blue shirt underneath. It was something at the top, against his chest that he noticed rustling as he walked around. It was not a plain color. It was not a leaf caught in the top of a perfectly normal colorless shirt.
They were ruffles.
It was just too much for his masculinity to handle.
Finally, Robin's overloaded brain stopped gathering information and pounded out one bewildered thought.
What the hell?
He slumped against the far corner of the stage (Where the screaming girl had just been slapped hard and had settled for muffled sobs.) buried his head into his hands, and sat down.
Hard.
LINE
She was choking. She opened her mouth, to speak, and nothing came in. She started gasping and wheezing, and grasping at her throat pitifully. Typically, she would remain calm in any situation, even a potentially lethal. But choking...It was much too similar to drowning.
As a last final attempt to delay her death for a while, she ran her hand down her throat, grasped at something restricting and pulled. With a sickening snap, it ended. She inhaled desperately drinking in the air desperately.
"Whoa...Raven. Are you okay?" The voice was light, female, and familiar.
"I'm not exactly sure."
Not exactly sure at all.
"Are you sure?" Still woozy from lack of oxygen, she tried desperately tried to place it, and got a pack of memories instead. A little blond girl...Crushed a robber with a rock...Tried to drown her...To kill her family...Dirt flying everywhere...A sickening crack...Long discussions...Guilty tears...Terra.
"Terra?" She croaked vaguely, shaking off the last hints of her rage at some of those memories.
"Yeah..."
"What the hell happened?"
"Well," she make a vague gesture at something white near Raven's...DRESS?
A corset, with little half-moon fingernail marks and a broken ribbon in the back.
NOTES
Okay, if you read this, will you PLEASE review? I don't know if it was incredible (not likely.) I don't know if it sucked and I would be doing the world a favor by walking off a cliff. I am depending on YOU PEOPLE TO TELL ME!
Oh, and the next one is going to be a lot more interesting. But only if I'm motivated enough to write it.