Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean in any way. But I do own the original characters such as Cora Harper, Erik Fox, and his crew.
Maelstrom
Summary: Takes place between Dead Man's Chest and Curse of the Black Pearl. A scheming pirate named Erik Fox persuades Captain Jack Sparrow to help him find a lost treasure belonging to a long-dead pirate captain. But neither plan on sharing, and the treasure has secrets of its own. Please R&R! Please excuse the amount of new OC's into the story. And forgive the spelling because some people have odd accents.
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Chapter One: Off the coast of Georgia
A large barque in rather good condition plowed through the gray waves. An English flag flew from a mast. A few sailors walked the main deck. The name Herald was carved neatly on the stern of the ship. Inside the Captain's quarters, Captain Bull, the rest of the officers, and a few passengers on board the ship were having a fine breakfast while the crew had to settle for gruel or hard biscuits.
"So Jerry," the captain was saying, "the man says: ahem 'I said no mustard!'" Most of them burst out laughing drunkenly, some spitting out gobs of food. Cora Harper, a young woman with auburn hair, immediately regretted coming aboard this privateer's ship. But she reassured herself that she was lucky enough to be let on any vessel. Her green eyes stared at the tasty looking bacon and eggs on her plate. It was hard to refrain from gorging into it.
As Cora was about to dig in, some sailor burst into the cabin. His eyes were wide. "Cap'n, cap'n! Luke says 'e sees a ship! Off to bow!" The captain threw down his silverware and stormed out, everyone else followed him. With a groan, she too put down the fork in her hand. She hadn't eaten since breakfast yesterday. The cold, morning air greeted them harshly as they started shivering all at once. She took a glance at the note she hid within her sleeve. It was still safe. She hoped to get to Nassau quickly.
Sure enough, not to far ahead a sleek frigate was calmly sailing with their backs to the Herald. Its hull was red with some black lining. A golden Okinawan-style lion decorated the prow in place of the usual maiden/mermaid. A French flag flew from the mast. The frigate had an obvious advantage in speed, and it was getting away. Cora nervously asked Captain Bull, "Are we at war with the French?"
He shrugged. "At the moment? I have no idea. These days you can never really tell. I don't think we are." He pulled out a spyglass and inspected the French ship. The name Fool's Bane was scrawled on the stern below the cabin. There was a small amount of people on deck, and none were dressed in French naval uniforms. In fact they all had dirty and disheveled clothing and very little weaponry showing, which Bull considered odd. It seemed like a bunch of French merchants. He weighed his options.
"Okay gents! It's a bunch of Frenchmen; let's show them our own… 'special' brand of hospitality, lads!" The privateers cheered and whooped. The Herald speeded up by unfurling all their sails. "No need to get ready the guns, lads, just a bunch of unarmed Frenchies!" While some more crewmen laughed, he told Cora, "No worries, we'll tell the authorities this was just a 'little' misunderstanding." As it pulled closer, less than thirty yards away and closing, she got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She dismissed as hunger. Breakfast was still waiting. Captain Bull fired a warning shot from their bow cannon.
He called out to the frigate's crew, "Surrender! Heave to or we'll have to blow ye out of the water! Did ye hear me? Give it up!" Now Cora was clenching her fists. She meant to get to Nassau as soon as possible, not to be interrupted by the privateers' greed. She had an urge to speak with the man named "M. Shales" that her note mentioned. She noticed something odd about the frigate's crew as they pulled along side them; some of them were actually grinning mischievously. The Herald's crew were calmly pacing the decks or taunting those aboard the Fool's Bane. For the last time, Bull said, "Surrender! Or you'll all die!" And it was then they all heard a man on the frigate yelling, "Let fly!"
The other ship pulled down their French colors and raised a black flag bearing the dreaded skull and crossbones. An intense feeling of fear and helplessness fell over the crew, freezing them wherever they stood. They had very little combat experience, and now pirates had caught them by surprise. Only a few seconds after they raised the flag, the vicious-looking pirates had pulled out all their bombs, guns, cutlery, and cannons as the privateers started to head for cover at the last moment. Captain Bull just stood there gaping when the pirate captain gave the command to fire.
Cora ducked just in time. A thunderous volley of cannons, muskets and pistols nearly deafened Cora. Right in front of her, several shots went through the captain's chest, and one through his head, as a spray of blood issued forth. Several other crewmen were killed before they had a chance to fight. As Bull's body fell she quickly headed below the bloodstained decks, tripping over another bloody corpse. And yet another man fell dead right in front of her, his lifeless eyes staring into her own as blood poured from the gunshot wound in his neck. She finally crawled down the hatch right before two bombs exploded on the main deck. The pirates threw grappling hooks and boarded the Herald.
Cora grabbed a loaded musket on the gun rack right next to her. Crewmen scurried back and forth in complete panic. Instead of rushing to battle like a foolish sailor or pirate, she hid in the Captain's Cabin where the pirates would inevitably come. Her knees buckled and she almost collapsed from nausea after witnessing that bloody spectacle. Through the closet door, she could see the gruesome battle settling down as the crew of the privateer ship surrendered at last. A broad-shouldered man wearing a dark coat paced the deck, brandishing an axe and pistol. "I told y'all to surrender. Now yer all prisoners of Erik Fox and the Maelstrom!" The other pirates cheered and the pirate turned around and the first thing she noticed was his chocolate-brown eyes and crazy grin.
She accidentally bumped the musket against the closet door. The pirate, Erik Fox she assumed, snapped his head toward her direction and gazed into the deceased captain's room. "I heard you. Get out you little rat!" Cora's heart stopped for a second until a rat crawled out from behind the closet and scurried toward the brown-skinned pirate. He picked it up and hoisted it onto his shoulder, feeding it some cheese he had in his coat. She gave an audible sigh. "What the?" Erik rushed toward the closet and swung open the door. Before she could point the musket at his face he grabbed it and raised his axe.
"Not so fast!" He pried it from her grip. "Now, sit with the other prisoners… Wait a second! What's woman doing aboard a privateering vessel, eh? Suspicious wouldn't you think, a female pirate…" She nodded nervously. "I do have some experience in these matters. So what are you doing here, looking for a certain pirate named Jack Sparrow, perhaps, Miss Sue?"
"Jack who? And my name's not Sue, it's Cora, Cora Harper."
"Oh, sorry. Hmm… did pirates kill yer father and you're now seeking vengeance? That story seems to be almost as popular." Cora shook her head with a look of puzzlement all over her face. "Oh, come on! You must have some kind of trinket or bauble on you! A locket? Or maybe a note of some kind?"
"Oh yes! I mean, no!"
"Aha! Give it up!" Seeing as he had a pistol and an axe, she handed him the crudely written note that was stuffed up her sleeve. As Erik was reading it very slowly, she quietly reached for the musket on the floor. Before she could react, he noticed, kicked the musket away, and grabbed her by the shoulders. Cora, while struggling in his grasp, elbowed him in the stomach and tried to grab the musket again. When a pair of pirates saw the struggle, she quickly locked the door and pointed the gun at Erik.
"Well it looks like I'm done for, don't it?" The pirate asked. She nodded and pulled the trigger. But just in time, Erik knocked the musket upwards so it shattered the cabin windows. "You tried to shoot me!"
"So. You did kill several people on board this ship."
"Oh yeah…" While he was distracted Cora rammed the gun's butt-stock into his stomach, smacked him across the face with it, and then shoved him out the open window, hearing a splash one or two seconds later. She rushed over to watch both the unconscious man and the note slowly sinking into the depths of the Caribbean. "Damn, I missed." Fortunately for herself, she had memorized the note. A pair of pirates rushed over too and one shouted, "Erik!" The other, an African man, asked Cora, "Wow. Looks like you can hold your own in a fight. Want to join us, as a crew- err… crewwoman of the Maelstrom?"
"Sure. Hey, I got a good idea of where some treasure could be… Let's go to Nassau."
"Alright ma'am!"
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A British soldier patrolled a lonely pier in Savannah, Georgia. He had no idea why his superiors made him guard this useless dock, at this late hour too. He never got a good night's sleep these days. Maybe he shouldn't have called his commander a pompous fool. And the humid air was attracting many mosquitoes. As he slapped on his cheek, he thought he heard something move.
He quickly turned around. Nothing. No more than just a few barrels and crates that had been there for the past three hours. After he turned around again, he saw a slight movement in the corner of his eye. But it was nothing. He took a second glance at one of the barrels. He swore it must have moved an inch or two.
"Just my imagination," he told himself. "Don't let the cold to get to your head." He sighed and continued his watch. Just two more hours remained in his shift. He looked out at the harbor and saw only two ships. And he thought he saw the silhouette of another, but he dismissed it again as his own imagination.
Behind the red-coated guard, Jack Sparrow gave a quiet sigh of relief. He was getting even more tired of sitting in a small, cramped barrel. After ten seconds, he lifted it up a bit and starting tiptoeing to the edge of the pier again, ever peering through the small eyehole. He moved about five feet before the guard started to turn around.
"Hmm… is somebody there? Must be my imagination, again. Or maybe rats? I hate rats…" He turned around yet again and started shuddering. Jack proceeded to walk at a faster rate. The end of the pier was in sight! The sleepy soldier suddenly heard the boards creaking. He glanced behind and saw naught but a barrel walking away. He glanced again and realized what was wrong with that. A pair of brown boots was scurrying under the wooden barrel.
"Hey, you!"
"Oh, bugger!" Now Jack started sprinting with the barrel still covering most of him. The soldier lowered his rifle and got ready to skewer him with his bayonet if need be. But before he could, Jack rolled off into the bay. The soldier got ready to shoot Jack as he floated away. He aimed, but a black ship came into view with cannons aimed directly at him. He immediately lowered the rifle and cowered away.
"This will always be the day you remember as… Ow!" The barrel had collided with the Black Pearl. "You could've warned me!" Gibbs and the rest pulled him onto the deck. "Sorry, sir." He explained, "We didn't want to interrupt ye." Jack crawled out of the barrel and took a breath of fresh air.
"Next time we try to repair at a dock that's not crawling with soldiers." He loudly declared. He headed for the helm and thought of their next destination. "How 'bout Nassau?" Marty the Dwarf suggested. Everyone stared at him. "What? I was just makin' a suggestion."
Jack grinned suddenly. "Aye, Nassau it is!" Sparrow headed over to his cabin and decided to take a nap before going ashore in the morning. After jumping into his bed and closing his eyes, Jack thought he heard a monkey screech. That brought memories of Barbossa and the curse.
He heard another screech. "How I hated that monkey," he muttered. After yet another screech, he opened his eyes and sure enough, Jack the Monkey was sitting on him. "Monkey!" It stole his hat and began jumping all over the cabin, knocking over papers and some trinkets. Jack the captain tried to chase after it, but ended up knocking even more stuff down. "Bloody monkey!"
Jack got a hold of his hat, but the monkey wouldn't let go. And the thing possessed demonic strength! So he swung the hat and the monkey flew out the door. It ran straight at Leech, an Indian pirate, and jumped onto his red turban, making him panic. "Don't worry, mate, I got 'im!" Captain Jack assured. Jack the Monkey gave him the nastiest glare he'd ever seen. He tried to snatch it but the monkey jumped away and caused him to tackle Leech. The monkey landed on Gibbs's back and made him run around reaching it until he ran straight into the mast. The monkey dodged through pirates' legs, and tripped a few. It started biting and gnawing on Sweepy's ankle until he kicked it away. While most of the crew was just staring or trying to get up, the monkey got in a fistfight with Marty. And it was winning. While the monkey had Marty on his back, Jack Sparrow smacked it overboard. "That was the most foul-tempered monkey I've ever seen."
"Help!" Everyone looked around. "I didn't say it." Marty explained. Anamaria, who had just woken up, rushed to the side of the ship to see someone in the water. "Man overboard!" They threw ropes out and the person held on as they pulled him onto the deck. The man put a dripping black tricorn hat back onto his head after taking a soaked note out of it. Jack asked the man, "Does this kind of thing happen to you often?"
"Yeah, it's my third time, thank you very much. Hey, you're pirates aren't you?" The crew of the Black Pearl nodded. "Good, where can I sign onto the crew?"
Jack, pleased at the prospect of getting more able-bodied people to man the guns and stuff, nodded his head towards Gibbs's direction. "What's your name, pirate?"
"Umm… Erik Fox, matey! So, where are we going?"
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I truly hope you enjoyed this! It is my first fic! Please Read and Review! And you shall find out what Erik and Cora's plans are next chapter! Until then, I bid you adieu.
