This story is based off of another story I wrote that I will keep only to myself, which means it will not be posted on Fanfiction. It has the same basic storyline, and that makes it easier for me to write this. This chapter has been revised somewhat, so now it's even better than before. Also, I would like to give thanks to two people for reviewing for this first chapter at last, but I'm sure I'll receive more pretty soon. This story has waited for ages for a decent review! And readers get ready. Dragons are introduced into the Treasure Planet world for the first time ever! D Yay! I write this story because I love Treasure Planet and dragons. So I thought: why not combine the two? But I know I'm not the only one with that idea, so I'll throw out some acknowledgement to whoever did come up with the idea first, and I'm sorry I don't know what your name is. I wasn't aware of the idea until fairly recently. I first saw the dragon/Treasure Planet idea on DeviantArt and I have to say that that one dragon (the one eagerly trying to open the map) really looked like it belonged to the Treasure Planet world. Excellent work, by the way. For this story I have come up with my own type of dragon that is nothing like the dragon I saw on DeviantArt. Finally, there will be some good action involved as well. So, here it is, The Purest of Heart.
Full Summary: B.E.N. makes a new friend, an alien girl named Annie, who crash-lands on Montressor. But what they don't know is that a prophecy has been put into play, and now bounty hunter pirates and a sinister being are after them both! Will they make it out with their very lives?
Disclaimer: All characters of Treasure Planet are copyright of Disney. The only characters I own are the ones that never appeared in the movie.
Chapter One: The New Girl on Montressor
A few clouds streaked the early afternoon sky, drifting lazily in the peaceful atmosphere. But something else was shooting through the sky. A lifeboat of some kind, its small solar sail ablaze with fire, the thruster sparking and smoking. A young girl fought with all her might to keep her little lifeboat at bay, determined to land as safely as possible, but her efforts seemed to be in vain as she neared the planet's rough surface. "Those stupid pirates!" she screamed.
The market at the square of the town of Benbow was bustling with activity this fine afternoon. A little robot strolled along through with his happy-go-lucky air, a jubilant tune carrying on his throat. "Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!" B.E.N. hummed to himself. "I don't like pirates, but I like the song," he said and went on, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me."
B.E.N. had been out in the market a little while, shopping for a few essentials, by order of Sarah Hawkins. A new family of aliens, named Crumbleton, had recently arrived to Benbow, and Sarah had mentioned earlier today that she was planning a big dinner with plenty of guests. Besides, the Crumbletons were very high-class, wealthy, snooty, and completely self-absorbed, but no one, not even Sarah, was about to let their nose-in-the-air attitude get the better of them. Everyone involved was determined to make this dinner perfect. And it was going to be somewhat expensive. The preparation time was planned to run for three days, then the third would be the day of the dinner with the Crumbletons. This whole thing was going to take some work. A lot of work.
"Gosh, I knew it would be expensive," said the robot, looking at a piece of paper with the total amount that he'd spent so far, "but I never thought it would be this much! Sarah sure is putting a lotta money into this one!" Then he smiled brightly. "But I can't wait to meet the new family! This dinner's gonna be so much—"
B.E.N. was suddenly cut short by a small crowd that was gathering in the area. Aliens of all kinds pointed and looked on wide-eyed at something in the sky. Seeing this, B.E.N. was befuddled and followed the crowd's gaze. "It's a lifeboat!" someone shouted out. Now he could see that is was undoubtedly a lifeboat careening out from the atmosphere, thrashing out of control as it went.
No one else was aware of this, but B.E.N. could barely pick up a faint scream coming from the lifeboat! There was a person in there! He gasped, beginning to fidget and panic. "That's not good, this is not good!" he cried. Finally...CRASH! That truly worried him, even more so than it did the crowd. "Definitely not good!" he screamed, wrapping his arms over his head as if feeling the victim's pain.
A quiet murmur rose from the crowd. B.E.N. was able to make out some of the words being exchanged from one person to another.
"Someone should help..."
"That person may already be dead..."
"The authorities could..."
"But the area is..."
"That person needs help..."
Now under the influence of these words, B.E.N. made a brave attempt to arrive to the crash victim's aid. He rushed through the diminishing crowd, stopped at the edge of a small cliff, and discovered a deep trench below. Down in the trench, he caught sight of the lifeboat, which was now a complete and total wreck, the solar sail torn and burned, the thruster smoking and petering out. "Hold on down there!" he called. "I'm comin' down to help ya! Since no one else is," he shrugged nervously.
Courageous, B.E.N. took a small leap from the ledge down to another one five feet below. He staggered in his landing, but kept his balance. Then he slid down the rough side of the trench and reached the wreck successfully. Broken shrapnel from the boat and what remained of the solar sail covered the victim, and he threw aside whatever was there. The victim's face and body now revealed, he caught his breath and dropped open his maw, his eyes meeting the sight of who lay there, in the midst of the destroyed boat, before him. "Well, for heaven's sake," B.E.N. smiled.
The victim was a young and beautiful female felinid. Short, green face-painted marks, which resembled the facial stripes of a tiger, streaked horizontally across her cheeks, two for each side. She had golden blonde hair, cut at shoulder length, and it was fixed into a ponytail. She wore a sage green shirt, long, dark blue pants, brown leather boots and a belt around her waist, and what appeared to be brass bands on her wrists. Around her neck was a simple necklace. Attached was a round, darker green pendant with a leaf emblem in the center. A shoulder bag hung across her torso. Her exposed left shoulder had the same green streaks marking the skin; the sleeve had been torn at the seam.
What devastated B.E.N. the most was the slew of cuts and scratches on the felinid's arms, only a few scrapes on her face. And she seemed to be unconscious. Scared, he placed his hands on the tops of her shoulders and gently shook her in an attempt to wake her. "Oh, come on. Speak to me! Miss! Say something! Anything!"
He then desperately lifted her arm and put two of his fingers on her wrist where there was a slight pulse. The felinid stirred slightly, barely moaned, her breathing a bit shallow and soft, but she slipped back into unconsciousness. "Oh! Fantastic! You're alive!" B.E.N. exclaimed happily, carefully placing her arm back down. "Ooh. These cuts look like they really hurt. You wouldn't happen to have any bandages on you, would ya?"
He glanced frantically about. Then he noticed that the shoulder bag was open. Curious but reluctant, he began to fumble through the bag and pulled out a little, metal box with a handle. Lifting open the top, he discovered a small collection of medicines, tools, and remedies. It was like a first aid kit complete with what was necessary to heal wounds like that of the felinid's. B.E.N. smiled.
"Oh, wow! Look at how smart you are!" he complimented. And he used the tools and medicines to tend to her wounds. "I just can't imagine how someone as lovely as you could get into this big mess." Bandaging the wounds, he said worriedly, "Oh, I sure hope it wasn't pirates. Well, at least you're safe now, right?" he chuckled to himself.
The felinid's eyes fluttered. She began to stir again. Now she was more aware of a pair of metal hands touching her left arm. By instinct, her right hand snapped up and gripped at B.E.N.'s thin arm. She gasped out loud while he screamed, "Whoa! Wait! Take it easy! I'm a friend here! Oh, please don't hurt me!"
The felinid released her grip, letting her arm drop down beside her and exhaled, relaxing. "I'm so sorry," she breathed. "I thought...you were a pirate or something."
"What, me? A pirate? I don't even like pirates!"
"Well...after hearing your voice, I know now that you're not. Where am I?"
"Well, I saw your lifeboat careening across the sky and you crashed here on Montressor! I can't tell ya how frightened I was when I saw you, and your boat was just outta control!"
"I remember that. I thought I was dead. And I'm sorry I grabbed your arm like that."
"Yeah, you scared me there!" B.E.N. then continued to bandage the felinid's arm. "One more second...there." He finished by tying a bowed knot with the ends of each of the bandages, smiling. "Better, huh?"
"Thanks, so much," said the felinid, returning the smile.
"You are quite welcome, Miss. Oh! How rude of me!" the robot laughed. "I-I'm sorry! Hi there. My name is B.E.N., by the way. Bio-Electronic Navigator." He pointed to the large compass on his front. But the compass fell open. "Oops. Hate when it does that." Embarrassed, he closed it back up and held out a hand. "And you are...?"
"Annabelle Norrington," replied the felinid.
"Oh, what a pleasure to meet ya, Annie." B.E.N. very gently shook her hand, keeping in mind that she was physically weak from her injuries.
"Pleasure to meet you, B.E.N."
"You don't mind if I call ya Annie, do ya?"
"No, not at all. I've hardly ever been called Annie, except by my friends." Suddenly, her left arm pulsed with a shooting, burning pain. "Ah! Ow! Oh, my arm!"
B.E.N. pulled back cautiously with a gasp, concern filling him up. "What's wrong with your arm? It's not broken, is it? Oh, I'm so sorry!"
"No, no, it's okay. It's not your fault," Annie grunted through gritted teeth. "But I think it is broken." She winced painfully, trying not to cry.
"Oh, here! Lemme fix ya up!" B.E.N. hurriedly but gently used a strip of cloth from the bag and created a comfortablesling for Annie's broken arm to hang until it healed. "How's that? Better?"
"Yeah. Thank you so much for all your help."
"No problem. Hey! You must be from the planet Felinor! Oh, beautiful planet up there! It's been 120 years since I've been there myself, personally."
"Have you lived here all this time?"
"What, on Montressor? Nah. Well, it's kind of a long story." He then began to speak a little bit quickly, broadening his gestures as he came to the climax of each sentence. "I was built on a planet far, far away from here. And then I got stolen by this vicious pirate named Captain Flint, who made me his personal servant! You've probably heard of him." Annie nodded. "Then he marooned me on Treasure Planet for a hundred years after pulling my primary memory circuit so I couldn't tell anybody about the booby trap he set in the centroid of the mechanism. Well, that's when Jim Hawkins came along, and then he put my memory circuit back in. Then we only had two minutes and thirty-four seconds till the planet blew to smithereenies! Now that was really intense, lemme tell ya!"
Annie giggled timidly at the robot's amazing storytelling antics. "But we all got out in time," he went on. "All thanks to Jimmy and his solar surfing techniques. The way he maneuvered around the flying space trash, it just blew my mind! I tell ya, it was unlike anything I'd ever seen! And he lives here, ya know."
"He does? I've heard of him. He's a famous captain now isn't he?"
"Yep. That's my good buddy, Jimmy. And the best solar surfer I know!"
The two laughed.
He's the one, Annie thought. The one you told me about, Mother. "B.E.N.," she said, lifting her head slightly to get a better look at the robot. "Can you give me your hand? I just wanna examine it for a quick minute."
"Well, sure!" B.E.N. held out his little hand, allowing Annie to hold it in her right hand. As soon as they made contact, B.E.N. felt a brief warm pulse in his own hand and pulled it back in question.
Annie smiled to herself and exhaled slowly, laying her head back, closing her eyes. I've done it, Mother. I still don't understand what this delivery was about, but I did it.
"Hey, uh, did you feel something?" B.E.N. asked, curiously examining his hand.
"Huh? Feel what?" Annie replied, opening her eyes and acting as if she knew naught what he was talking about.
"Oh! Jim! Here he is! I found him! B.E.N.! He's down in this trench! And it appears he's got a lady friend with him!" Delbert Doppler called out from above. B.E.N. looked up and saw, besides Doppler and an oncoming Jim Hawkins, a small gathering crowd at the top of the trench. What was more, there was also a pair of robot constables, who were keeping the clamoring crowd at bay.
"B.E.N.! What were you doing down in there?" Jim wanted to know. B.E.N. grinned nervously and waved a small wave. "And who is that? How did she get here?"
"Oh! Yes! Well, uh, i-interesting question. Funny story. See, what happened was—" the robot tried to explain, but the constables suddenly took notice of his position. They interrupted him by grabbing him by the arms.
"Please remove yourself from the trench, sir," one of the constables ordered.
"This is a restricted area," added the second gruffly. "That was the direct movement of violation 9-0-1, section 15, paragraph 3."
Poor B.E.N. was taken aback. "What?" he gasped, tongue-tied. "Violation? But I had no—I-I was just—I-I didn't mean—You-you got the wrong robot!"
Just as two aliens moved into the trench with a stretcher, Jim stepped in. B.E.N. remained flanked by the robot constables, both of his arms in a tight clutch. "Officers, will you please explain to me what's going on here?" Jim wanted to know.
"Captain Hawkins," replied the first constable. "This robot was positioned in a restricted area."
"I could see that, thanks. And I'm sure he just tripped and fell in. He does that a lot anyway."
Annie then came up and out of the trench, lying face-up on the stretcher. "Wait," she said. The aliens stopped at the top of the trench, between Jim and the constables.
"Annie!" B.E.N. smiled.
"B.E.N. meant no harm," Annie told the constables, coming to B.E.N.'s rescue. "I know, just by looking into his eyes, he isn't the least bit capable of ill intentions. In fact, I can prove to you all that he saved my life. Look." She held up her bandaged arm for everyone to see, even though just holding it up was excruciating. "The wounds I received from the crash would have been enough to kill me. But B.E.N. rescued me."
"I did that?" B.E.N. asked himself.
One of the robot constables leaned in and said to Annie, "Ma'am, we are bound by the law. He violated one of the most—"
"He violated nothing! Had he not found my first aid kit and used the medicine inside it to heal my wounds, my soul would be lost to the etherium right now. B.E.N. saved my life...and that's all that matters." The crowd murmured in agreement. "Now, technically speaking, how was he to know that the trench was restricted if there was no barricade indicating so?"
"I thought you put those up," the first constable whispered to his partner.
"I thought you did," replied the other.
"Also," Annie went on, "I know from his kindness that, even if there were barricades, B.E.N. is a robot with the heart to do the right thing and help me from the trench rather than the smart thing and obey the law...only to let me die." The crowd ooh-ed and aww-ed and murmured when she finished.
B.E.N.'s lower jaw quivered; he was touched by her words. His metallic blue eyes glistened with oily tears, and he smiled through it as his finger wiped his tears away, sniffling to himself. "So beautiful. Does anyone have a tissue?" he sniveled.
"She makes a very interesting point," observed Doppler, adjusting the little pair of lenses on his large dog nose.
"Well, officers?" inquired Jim. "Let B.E.N. go. After all, he did do the right thing."
A pause.
The constables pondered the matter. B.E.N. glanced up at them, pleading in his mind for them to free him from their grasp. "Fine," said the first one at last. "He's free to go." And they finally released their hold on B.E.N., who grinned and exhaled in relief. The crowd cheered and Annie smiled.
"Thanks for getting me out of that fix," B.E.N. said to her, leaning in for a moment. "How can I ever repay you?" he wanted to know.
"There's no need," she answered gently. "You saved my life. Now I'm returning the favor." Aware that she would be carried off in the next instant, she added in, "I should be fine in a few hours. I'll come by the Benbow Inn as soon as I'm rested in the hospital house." And off she went, on the stretcher, to the hospital house to recuperate from the mental and physical stress the crash had had on her.
B.E.N. waved enthusiastically after her. "Okay, bye!" he called. "Bye." Then realized. "Hey, wait a minute. I don't remember ever telling her where I live. How did she—? Oh, she's good!"
"All right, everyone!" ordered the robot constables. "Move along, there's nothing more to see here. Move along." The crowd obeyed, beginning to die away. Doppler made his way back home. Jim and B.E.N. followed suit.
On the way, B.E.N. smiled ear to ear, Annie running through his mind. There was something about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Something that didn't have a name. One thing was sure: he really liked her.
Without warning, B.E.N. felt a twinge in his consciousness. His eyes flashed white, he grimaced with a shudder, and his limbs jerked askew. When the sensation subsided a second later, he blinked and shook his head, befuddled. "Whoa!" he said to himself. "Hello! That was sure weird." He shrugged off the subject and continued on his merry way.
To be continued…
Ever wondered what Annie was talking about in her thoughts after she touched B.E.N.'s hand? And what was this sensation that B.E.N. had just experienced? Is it some kind of glitch, or something more? Please read on to the next chapter to find out! Or at least get a hint of it. Please review for this chapter. Now would be nice!
Caution: updates take me a little while, so bear with me and be patient.
Minor note: I didn't know what to call the alien species that Amelia is. After reading a couple of other stories, I found the name "felinid." Whoever came up with the name for Amelia's alien race, I hope you don't mind if I borrow it for this story. If you don't want me to use it, please say so and I will try to think of another name, although it will be very difficult to do so, I'll try anyway.
Yes! Chapters Two and Three are finally up!