The Cooper Crew
Told by Mutitoon90
Chapter One: Escape and Discovery
The sea was calm as the port of Blood Bath Bay was being guarded from those who would loot the ships that rested there. Most of the crews of the ships, which were pirates, go to the local taverns and become intoxicated within an hour or so, and once they have returned to their respective crafts, they would sleep off the ale, beer and grog. As for the ones who remain sober, they were watching out for any would-be bandits.
On that night, there was a single person that did not belong to any of the crews at the most lawless town in all of the seas. This being would not travel by the normal route for people, which were the paved paths that laid over the port town, and used the riggings of the buildings, which were from destoryed seacrafts, to make the way to the bay.
On the way, there were a few close calls, when the lone person almost was caught by the lantern-carrying guards, and once the guard had passed without noticing the being, the being would make their way to the rooftops. Soon, the being was at the port, looking for someone while trying not to attract any attention of the crews.
"Shade?" A hush voice that belonged to a young girl called out, "Shade, is that you?"
Turning to the source of the voice, the being grinned as they saw a boat-like shadow and gave an answer in a female's voice.
"No one here but us pirates of Blood Bath Bay."
"That's not funny." The meek voice quietly scolded the being known as Shade, who was making her way to the source of the first voice.
"What's wrong with a little verbal jest, Penelope?" Shade asked her friend.
"Really?" The quiet voice of Penelope responded harshly, "If the pirates of this bay doesn't frightened you, then LeFwee should, at least, put some concern into your mind!"
LeFwee, the captain of the Death's Hen and the lord of Skull Keep, had captured Penelope and bounded her in chains until she would agree to be his lover, however Penelope knew her way out of captivity and escaped her prison. After her escape, LeFwee doubled the guards and the reward on her capture. Such attempts failed to deter the girls from trying to escape.
The voice of Shade had the tone of consideration as it released its owner's thoughts.
"Maybe that's a good point. But we are escaping from the guy."
"Just get in the boat, or we'll never escape." Growled Penelope, who wanted to leave as soon as she could.
"All right!" Shade defended herself, "I'm getting in!"
As the being that was Shade entered the jolly boat, the oars were pulled out of the way of the arriving female by Penelope. Once settled in, Shade took the paddles and started rowing. The darkness was a great cover for the escaping females, who wanted to leave Blood Bath Bay as soon as they could.
It took some effort, but Shade and Penelope managed to row out of the bay of pirates. However, the female that was Shade continued to row, knowing that if she stopped rowing that LeFwee's ship, the Death's Hen, would catch up to them and capture them for sure. Keeping this in mind, Shade rowed until morning's first light.
The sunrise allowed sight to any touched by its warm light. Shade, a brown raccoon with hair that went down to her shoulders wearing a torn attire of a white blouse, a black, buckled belt that held a raiper in its sheath and something silver hidden by the leather, gray trousers that were torn to the mid-thigh, striped stockings of yellow and blue that covered the shins and ankles, and black shoes that required to be buckled, saw a slumbering lavender mouse that had long blonde hair, which had a red bandana on it and was tied at the tip by a ribbon of dyed cotton, wearing a pair of glasses, a blue pants that was covered with patches of similar shades, a brown vest and a pair of shoes similar to the raccoon's footware, which was Penelope. Catching a glance of her dear friend with her strangely blue eyes, the she-raccoon shook the mouse, who quickly arose from her sleep and opened her brown eyes.
"Wha- Oh! It's you, Shade!"
"Good to see you up." Shade said with a yawn, "Can you take over the rowing for a while?"
"Okay." The mouse answered with a nod.
Figuring that she was going to rest, the female raccoon moved to another part of the jollyboat and curled into a ball and tried to get some sleep.
That was not the case, however, since Penelope had a device that would make the boat go faster. After Shade was in a ball-like postion, the lavender rodent pulled out from a burlap bag that was placed in the boat by her and removed its contents from the bag, making some noise that disturbed Shade from her sleep.
Shade, wanting to sleep, allowed her friend to continue her work. For as long as she could remember, Shade always saw Penelope as a very intelligent girl and determined to a fault. However, not everyone saw Penelope's intelligent as a good thing; frankly, everyone else, who knew both girls, tried to discourage the young mouse from inventing and building things. Then, with her freedom regained from LeFwee, Penelope was free to build things once more.
As Penelope built her lastest device, Shade recalled the days of her childhood, which were not horrible, and yet not so great. Shade had lost her family at the young age of five, and she was sent to the local orphanage, which was ran by a self-rightous, over-confident and over-bearing woman that treated the female children as slaves. Causing much of the pain in the orphanage and under the impression that a woman's place was in the house, the woman made all of the girls do all of the housework, while the boys were allowed to goof around and be lazy, when they were not doing the 'manly' work. Shade hated living in such a horrible place, but the only good thing that came from it was meeting and befriending Penelope, who lost her dear family at the tender age of ten years. That very woman that ran the orphanage made Penelope's life there miserible, allowing the boys to tease and harm her, causing Shade to fight the boys. Making sure that Shade would learn a lesson, the 'perfect woman' would starve the young raccoon. The head of the orphanage did teach a lesson to Shade, and that was how to be a survivor.
Three years following their first meeting, Shade and Penelope decided to run away, guessing that the old woman wanted them to act like 'proper women' and arranged marriages for the both of them, while posing as their mother. It took some time, but the two good friends managed to make their escape. Since then, the duo had been stealing from pirates to support their lives at sea.
"I'm finished!" The mouse shouted in joy upon completing her project, waking Shade from a light sleep.
The raccoon sat up and saw the end result of the mouse's work, asking, "What is it?"
"It's a pulley-paddle system." Penelope answered before she gave an explaination about how it worked.
Shade listened to every word, and when the mouse was done, the raccoon repeated everything she believed that she heard.
"So, let me get this straight: that device is put on the back of the boat, and the fans are placed in the water, so when you paddle the winch, the fans would push the boat through the water, allowing us to move quickly?"
"That's a good summary of my pulley-paddle system." Penelope nodded in comfirmation.
"All right." Shade smiled at her ally, "Are you going to try it out?"
"Of course, Shade. Trying and testing things to see if it's functioning or not is a part of experimenting new ideas."
"Do you need me for this venture?"
"Not now, Shade; you just get some more sleep."
"Thanks," yawned the raccoon, "I needed to hear that."
As the mouse started to use her invention to move the boat, Shade went back to her curled form and went to sleep. The last thoughts in the brown mammal's mind was how she and Penelope got themselves into the situation with LeFwee.
It started when both girls were working at the most popular tavern in Blood Bath Bay, the Maroon Lagoon, as barmaids. Shade often heard stories from a co-founder of Blood Bath Bay, Black Spot Pete. When he was drunk, the old, green parrot would brag about how he and his shipmate, Cantankerous Tim, stole a boatload of gold and treasured body gear from a man that was called Reme Lousteau and buried in Dagger Isle, an island that was not very far to reach by any boat. Then, the old pirate would lament about how the map to find the treasure was stolen by LeFwee.
Shade and Penelope decided to search for a way into Skull Keep, LeFwee's stronghold, and they found it in the form of floating boxes, which led to the backdoor, and a few ramps that went to top of the stronghold, which was also where the courtyard resided. That was when the female raccoon and the lavender mouse first saw LeFwee, a parrot of red with a gray-black beak and a heart darker in shade. After finding the self-proclaimed 'Smartest Man on the Seven Seas,' who executed one of his men that possesed a different opinion, the two friends waited until the dark-hearted pirate captain went inside to make their move. Shade used her slingshot to hit one the guards, who accused another for popping him in the back of the head, and soon a brawl ensured, allowing Shade and Penelope to search for the map.
In the first room they searched, they found a chest completely covered in traps: saw blades, swords, spears and a even miniature cannon. Both friends were impressed, but the mouse still saw the simplicity in the chest's protection. Concerned about being caught by LeFwee's men, Shade looked out for any trouble, while Penelope managed to deactive the traps, which took the mouse a few minutes. That time passed, the chocolate and licorice colored raccoon heard LeFwee ending the fight by killing the one that started the accusations to his men. To make things worse, there was one trap that the friends overlooked: a dust that blinded people, and Penelope was hit with a full blast and made an exclaim of surprise.
Shade, worried about her friend's possiblily of being blind for the rest of her life, heard LeFwee cursing and yelling at his guards for letting some trasspassers enter the fort. The raccoon quickly grabbed a saber from the booby-trapped chest and use it to bar the door that connected the courtyard to the room. After that action, Shade grabbed the blinded rodent and jumped out of the window. As the girls ran off into the night, both of them heard the deadly pirate's words of revenge. Since then, LeFwee had setted up an reward for the capture of the 'men' that stole the treasure map.
Once Shade led her friend to safety and Penelope recoved from being blinded by the dust, both friends chose to wait until things cooled down a bit before they would make their move to Dagger Isle. Soon, the girls returned to their persona of barmaids and stayed that way from a while. Soon, the reward and the thieves were forgotten by most of the residents of the Bay.
One day, Penelope was waiting for Shade outside of the Maroon Lagoon, due to an agurement became violent, when LeFwee confornted the poor mouse. Catching the girl off-guard, the blood-feathered bird tricked her into confessing to her part in breaking into the Skull Keep and taking the Dagger Isle map. As luck would have it, Shade saw and heard the whole thing and quickly dislodged a hanging boat, which landed on the intelligent pirate, prevent any harm to her friend and allowing Penelope to escape.
After the escape from LeFwee's fury, the girls knew that the blood and ebony pirate would most likely raise the reward to ensure the friends' capture. To counter this, Shade devised a plan to keep the pirates from catching the both of them. It was simple: Penelope would stay out of sight in town, while Shade would seek out the treasure, but she was not going to uncover it. Once she learned of the exact whereabouts of the treasure, the raccoon was to return to Blood Bath Bay and pick Penelope up and escape from the port town with the intentions of hiding out until things calm down once again, so they could retreive the buried treasure.
Over the course of two weeks, everything went according to the plan, until Shade returned to Blood Bath Bay. However, when she arrived at the hideout that she and Penelope, the raccoon was met with an ambush. Pirates of all sizes and shapes attacked her with full force, but Shade was a swordplayer herself; her weapons were a rapier and a silver cane that had a hook that was shaped of a 'C,' and the female raccoon managed to fend off the sea dogs.
Once she finally evaded the guards, thoughts of concern entered the raccoon's mind; she did not know if Penelope was captured or killed. Her answer would come to her sooner than she thought.
A week after her return to the bay, Shade wondering around on the rooftops, when she heard a familiar voice. Recognizing it was Penelope's voice, the raccoon looked around for the mouse and found her in disguise as a cabin boy. Once the friends were reunited, Penelope explained what had happened in the two weeks Shade was gone.
The mouse said that LeFwee had sent a spy to follow them, because LeFwee come at the girls' hideout and captured the mouse and made her his prisoner. In the days that followed Penelope's capture, LeFwee had offered her freedom, if Penelope would agree to love him. The mouse bravely said no, stating that she would rather be hanged at the gallows. The rebuff outraged the pirate, and he ordered his men to bind her in chains and to make sure that she stayed in the prison. During that time, Penelope managed to figure out how to free herself from the chains and made a strong effort to hide her knowledge from LeFwee, until she finally freed herself and escaped from Skull Keep. By the time the friends returned to each other's company, the young she-mouse had been free for a night and a day.
The friends knew that they needed to leaved and soon. Shade suggested that they leave the port town the following night, which was accompanied by a wink. Penelope saw the wink and knew that her friend was saying that in case of a spy.
In the following night, the she-raccoon's guess was correct as the friends saw the collection of pirates searching for them. Patrols covered the ground of Blood Bath Bay, and every roof had a minimum of one pirate each. Clashing with the barbarian-like brutes was a very unwise, and the girls knew it very well, so they decided to wait until things were more calm. In the following week, the girls made their escape, which led to where they were.
Shade, who had slept for a couple of hours, woke up and saw Penelope, who had fallen sleep after paddling for some time. Allowing a smile, the she-raccoon breathed in deeply, enjoying the salty air of the sea, which was more like the sweet oxygen of freedom to her. Feeling renewed in spirit, Shade sat on a bench, and reached underneath it, pulling out a small burlap bag. She opened it and grabbed a flute; it was normal for the raccoon to play her instrument when she was alone and very sure at no one would listen to her play. She was placing the fipple into her mouth, planning to make some music...
"Hello?!"
The call make Shade growl a little, because she truly wanted to play the flute, but she quickly swallowed her anger and pride as she stuck the flute into her belt and looked at the direction of the call. In the distance, the raccoon saw a huge figure in a jollyboat. Seeing this, Shade went to her belt and pulled out a spyglass to gain a closer look at far-off rowboat.
In the other craft, a huge figure was black and white and wore a foreign attire. At first glance, Shade thought the being to be a male, but once she had a better look, the raccoon laughed at herself for mistaking the large female for a man. The next thing Shade made a third look and saw the boat belonged to a rich person, telling Shade that the woman was in trouble.
Putting down her spyglass, the raccoon turned to her napping friend and shook her, waking the mouse.
"What?" Moaned the young mouse, "Shade, what's the emergency?"
Giving Penelope her telescope, the raccoon pointed at the other boat and said, "Look over there!"
The blonde took the spyglass and saw the large, black and white being and the gold-decorated jolly boat. Seeing this, the mouse looked at Shade and asked, "What's a person like that doing out here?"
The question, of course, was silly in Shade's mind, since she and the mouse were out here by themselves, but she replied, "Could be lost or trying to get away from an unwanted suitor."
"Or they trying to catch us for LeFwee." Penelope guessed, still paranoid about being recaptured by the black-hearted fiend.
"Don't think so." The raccoon disagreed, "A foreigner in the middle of the sea? Something tells me that this one's lacking the intention to harm us."
The rodent glared at her friend, but she realizied that Shade was wanting to help the stranger and almost nothing would deter the brown and black raccoon from trying to help. With a defeating sigh, Penelope said, "Let's go, Shade."
Grinning victoriously, the she-raccoon grabbed the oars and rowed all of the way to the gold-covered rowboat. Once there, she and her friend saw the figure crying bitterly.
"Ahoy, there!" Shade announced to the stranger, who looked up at the raccoon in shock with red, tear-filled eyes.
Shade and Penelope saw a female panda with blue-black hair that was slipping out of her comb and hairpins. The foreigner wore a long-sleeved mandarin gown, which looked more like a robe. She was truly someone who needed help.
"Oh, thank you!" The panda bowed to the duo, "I was beyond hoping that you would have heard me! You are noble-hearted men indeed."
Hearing this, Shade and Penelope looked at their clothes and remembered that they were not dressed in the normal clothes for women. In that realiziation, the two friends laughed, confusing the panda that did not know what was so humorous. The duo, seeing the confusion in the panda's eyes, revealed their true gender to her.
"Oh!" The bear exclaimed as she blushed, "I apologize; I meant no disrespect to you, but your clothes..."
"Our clothes are doing their job: hiding the fact we're women." The raccoon smiled at the black and white creature. Then, she remembered something.
"Before we go on, introductions are needed here. I'm Sandra, but I'm called Shade. This is my friend and compaion, Peneplope."
"My," the female bear exclaimed slightly surprised, "such imformal introductions!"
The opinion caused Shade to chuckle a bit before she responed.
"On the sea, which is a cruel thing, being formal doesn't keep you alive for long. Now, your name?"
"Oh, I am Jing King, the daughter of the Panda King." The larger of the females bowed again.
"Nice to meet you." The raccoon smiled kindly, calming the she-panda a little, "Now, why is a girl like yourself doing out here all alone?"
At first, the stranger was hesitant, but she needed to speak, so she answered.
"I am from the land of China, where my family lived happily for many years. Then, one day, a cruel man known as General Tsao came into my home and captured me. Soon, I learned of his intentions for me: he wished for me to be bride for the sake of his own bloodline. Fortune smiled on me, because my father with the assistance of a renowned pirate crew recused me from Tsao and the forced marriage. After the events, my father sent me to the home of my aunt and departed from his homeland, promising that he would return once he paid his debt.
"Wow..." Penelope processed the information as she continued to listen to Jing King's story.
"Some time after Father's leave, Tsao found me and my aunt. As he did before, he took me to his palace, but he did not wed me." At this point of the tell, Shade and Penelope were curious about the gerenal's decision of prolonging the wedding, but the answer came.
"Tsao planned on marrying me as soon as he could prevent any other means of escape from his palace. However, a brave fiserman managed to help me escaped and sent me to a port town, allowing me to seek out my father. Sadly, Tsao managed to follow me and kidnapped me once again, keeping me captive in a cabin. Then, I managed to escaped once more by sneaking to one of the lifeboats and quietly lowering myself to the waters and rowing in the opposite direction."
"That's an amazing story, Jing King." The raccoon said, but the mouse was not impressed, believing it to be a tall tale.
"I do not believe that so," the frightened foreginer countered, and then she added, "but I am in need of some assistance. Will you please help me?"
Shade and Penelope looked at each other; The raccoon's face said, 'Let's help her,' however the mouse's expression spoke in volumes that they should not trust Jing King, which Penelope expressed verbally.
"Maybe you've forgotten the last time we've helped someone 'in need,' Shade. That-that-that you-know-what sold us out for her own amusement!"
"I recall that event," Shade smiled at her good friend, "and as I remember, it was you, who wanted to help that person out. Remember?"
The reminder made Penelope blushed in embarassment; Shade was being accurate about the information of the situation the two companions recall.
"Can we just get going?" The mouse grunted, trying to conceal her embarassment.
Shade smiled, knowing that Penelope meant well, but the lavender and blonde mouse had a somewhat bad judgement of characte. The raccoon, then, remembered a question to ask Jing King: "What do you remember of the pirates that your father's sailing with?"
"Not very much; Father would not allow me to see any of them." A dishearten Jing King announced. Then, she quickly remembered something and said, "I do recall seeing one of the pirates!"
"What did the guy look like?" The raccoon was curious about the pirate, knowing it would help her and Penelope's effort to find the runaway panda's father.
"Well, I failed to see his face, but I saw something that he had."
"That's helpful..." Penelope groaned in annoyance, earning a disapproving nudge from Shade, who told Jing King to continue.
"Yes, the object that I saw was golden, and the shape reminded me of the crescent moon."
"A golden crescent moon?" The two friend inqurred out loud and looked at each other, hoping for an answer from one another.
"Do you two know of such a thing?" The panda asked the friends, who were still lacking a reply.
Shade released a hard sigh and placed her hand on her belt. Once she did that, the raccoon felt the letter-shaped hook that rested in belt. Making a guess, Shade pulled out the cane and asked Jing King a question: "Is this the shape you saw?"
Seeing the cane, the Chinese girl's face froze from shock for a few moments before she reacted verbally.
"Yes, this is the shape I saw that day! How did you come to find it?"
The excitement in Jing King's voice was evident to both females, who lingered for a moment before they answered the question.
"Don't really know myself." Shade said with a shrug of her sholders, and Penelope added, "Been with her for almost a long as she could remember."
"But how is this possible?" Jing King asked the females, who only moved their shoulders in their own confusion.
Then, Shade quickly changed the subject, saying, "Jing King, you still have a general after you. It's best that we start getting you farther from him."
"If there is one..." Penelope muttered again, causing the raccoon to glare at her before turning to the panda.
"Do you have any rope with you?"
"Yes," the girl in the gold boat answered, "I obtained it when it snapped, dropping me into the water. Why do you need it?"
Shade smiled sweetly as she spoke her response to the question.
"It's very simple: Penelope has a bit of a trust issue, but I know you're just a girl in trouble, so I'm compromising by tying the boats together."
"That does make sense." The panda mused at the blue-eyed raccoon's logic, "You shall have it."
"Thanks." The she-raccoon nodded to Jing King as she received the rope from Jing King.
With the rope in her hand, Shade noticed that the rope was very weak, not appropriate or very useful in the ship, and she voiced it to her companions.
"Why would he use such a weak thing on his ship?" The three-time runaway bride asked in her own confusion, "It is not like him to buy such cheap materials."
"Cheap materials?" Penelope mused at the statement for a moment, and then she understood Tsao's thinking with the rope.
"A trap!"
"A trap!?" Jing King gasped at the assumation.
"That's sense to me." Shade spoke out. Then, she added as her attention was aimed at the she-panda, "Tsao must've believed that you would escape during the wedding."
"That's right." The lavender mouse confirmed with a nod.
"If that's the case," the raccoon announced, "we better get going!"
"Yeah!" The mouse agreed firmly, "Good chance that this Tsao guy's noticed that you've escape by now."
"But the rope-" Jing King tried to point out to the girls, but Shade said, "We have strong rope with us; we're smart enough to hide it so that no one would sabotage or take it."
The panda sighed in relief as Shade removed the rope from its hiding place and said, "Thank you."
Making sure that the jump was successful, the raccoon hopped into Jing King's jolly boat. Quickly, Shade put the rope through the rings on the stern transoms, which were on the sides of the boat, and she tied the ends of the rope together. However, a complication arose: the rope was too short to reach Shade and Penelope's transoms.
Penelope saw this and spoke, "Well, that's a surprise..."
Shade said nothing for a moment, looking at the short rope. The moment was followed by a smile and a statement.
"Yes, and there's another one's coming."
The panda and the mouse had confusion on their faces, as Shade continued to speak.
"It's not long enough to tied them to the transoms, but it still can reach our jolly boat."
"How?" Penelope asked the raccoon, who gave a confident smile.