Alex was breathing hard. His pulse was racing. The pirate ship's rocking was making him sick.
It was only a matter of time before he was caught.
With a burst of energy, Alex sprang out of the lower decks and onto the main one. He had to abandon ship! But there was only one boat on the horizon. There was nowhere to go.
"Arr, I've gotcha now, laddie!" shouted the peg-legged captain. "Ye may've wre-ecked havoc in 'dem lower decks, boy, but now I'm'a gonna wre-eck havoc on you!" Alex had blown up a few things, including the galley and captain's quarters on his way to the surface. It was unfortunate that the captain was not in his quarters at the time, Alex supposed.
"I couldn't just let you take over the world!" Alex exclaimed. "You're crazy! Pirates exist, but not the old-fashioned kind you're pushing for!"
"Arr, ye bloody liar! I'll make ye walk da plank!" He began, swinging his sabre, freshly drawn from its shiny, custom-made scabbard.
Alex looked behind him. Sure enough, the plank was sticking out. He was struck by the thought that pirates never actually had planks – or so his teacher told him. But that really didn't matter right now.
"Back up; on da plank with ye!" the crazy man shouted. Alex had no choice: either be minced or drowned. And perhaps eaten by sharks.
Alex was getting nearer and nearer to the end. The captain was cackling madly and swinging his sword wildly. His strange garb and self-amputated leg really helped the pirate look realistic to any old-time sailor. The teenager glanced over his shoulder.
The other boat was coming! It looked like it would save him. Must be MI6, for once, he thought. It was within firing range, but it couldn't stop the captain if Alex was in the way.
Alex took a step backward and dropped down, but he grabbed the plank at the last second. Dangling from it, he heard the familiar sound of a gunshot, and pirate-y cursing from above.
"Arr, ye blasted meh bloody leg off! Ye bastards!" Alex heard a splash and looked down. The sabre had fallen into the water. Now he stood a chance.
With a heave, he hauled himself up onto the plank. It took a simple side-kick to take down the captain, who had been jumping around on his one foot. Inwardly, Alex found the fact that none of the crew helped the captain quite funny. It showed how much they cared about the man's dreams.
"Alex!" a voice called out. "Are you alright?" It was someone from the MI6 boat, for sure.
"I'm fine. He was hopping mad, that's all."
AN: Thanks to With The What Now for beta-reading!
There are more of these - they're made by flipping through an idiom dictionary and then forming a idea. After all, who doesn't love the ever-ambiguous English language?