Ved: Happy 4th of July!

Milo: Hey, Moron!

Ved: (mutters under his breath) Oh great! (says aloud) Hey, what's up, Milo?

Milo: 1) Independence Day was yesterday, and 2) You made me look like a yutz in my first debut!

Ved: ...you are a yutz, Milo.

Milo: At least I don't have a rocket stuck to my back!

Ved: Yeah, well-wait, what? (looks at rocket with lit fuse on back) Oh...waitistillhavetosaythatidontownonepieceandmilosmyoc-(rocket launches) Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Milo: Wow, he even exploded red, white, and blue...

Chapter 2: Port Town Beam

"PIRATES!"

This is Beam, a quiet port town on Dusk Island. It was usually small and peaceful-just not today. Right now, the town watch was ringing, and screaming, his head off because pirates were headed right for the village! "PIRATES ARE COMING!"

The situation at Beam was a) they were too far from the nearest Navy base, and b) no one in the whole town could fight worth their spit. So, the town elder came up with a method to deal with pirates-pile all valuables in a chest, offer it to the invaders, and hope they leave. This was the system being used on the Crescent Moon Pirates. Nervously, a large group of villagers watched, and hoped, as the pirate captain looked at the chest's contents. The elder, sweating in anxiety, plastered on a fake smile. "So, I take it you like the offering? Every single valuable in Beam is in that chest."

The captain looked up from his inspection, and sneered at the old man. "Fool!"

"Huh?" The elder replaced his fake smile with confusion, and slight fear.

"You call this garbage treasure!" the captain emphasized his point by kicking the chest over. "No gold, no jewels…I am not some small fry!"

His crew cheered him on. "You tell 'em, Captain Gally!" a random pirate yelled.

Captain "Crescent-Moon" Gally laughed gaily at the praise. He was a middle aged man of average height and weight, sporting typical pirate garb. The unusual thing about him, just barely, was his crescent-moon shaped beard. "Ya-he-ha! You praise me so much, my loyal crew!"

One pirate pulled out Gally's bounty poster. "Get a look, wussies! You're facing a man with 5,000,000 beri on his head!"

"But of course!" Gally was reveling on his "pedestal." "I am the pirate that will top all pirates! I deserve no better than the best!"

At this point, many citizens were worried. A pirate with no name was one thing, but one the Navy notice was something they had never encountered before. The town elder was sweating even more. How was he going to protect the village now?

The town square was the most beautiful part of Beam (if the townspeople don't say themselves). What gave the area charm were the quaint shops, the bubbling fountain, and the east side's mini garden of sunflowers. What was giving it attitude was the blonde girl tied to a post, ticked beyond measure. "Damnit! Let me go guys!" She kept screaming for another minute, until finally taking a breath. "…They can't hear me…or want to ignore me…geez, giving into pirates so easily! They should be standing up for themselves!"

"Oof!" The girl turned her head to the sunflowers, where the noise came form, confused. Wasn't most everyone in town at port? She mutely watched the stranger-for, when she thought hard she had never seen him in town, until now-get up and dust himself off. Apparently, he must have fallen out of sunflower garden. Was he napping in there? How did he sleep through the town siren? Finally, he looked right at her and locked eyes. They both stared at each other, silently thinking. "So," Milo started, "are you a slave, or something?"

"I'M NOT A SLAVE, YOU DOLT!" the blonde comically shouted. She just decided this guy was an idiot, hands down!

Silence pasted between them before-"So, you do this for fun?" Milo's cheeks were now tinged with red. He had officially decided this chick was weird!

"What!? No!" Now she was blushing too! 'Moron!' "The town tied me up so I wouldn't attack the pirates attacking us!"

Milo's response was a quizzical look. The girl sighed in exasperation. "Would just untie me?"

"Alright, alright," Milo said passively as he undid her binds.

Milo tossed the rope over his shoulder as the girl flexed and stretched her sore muscles. She had brown eyes, slightly lighter than Milo's and was wearing a sea-green short sleeve blouse with white pants ending at the calves, sandals, and a saber at her hip. "Er," Milo began, "you're welcome. Name's Milo."

The girl turned to look at him looking him up and down. "Thank you," she finally said. "My name's Silk."

"Okay, Silk," Milo stuffed his hands in his jacket pocket before continuing, "care to tell me where the cotton picking heck I am?"

Silk looked surprised. "You didn't see the sign when docking? Or the pirate ship," she added after a pause.

Milo's face changed from puzzled to skeptical. "I'm too far inland to see a ship, let alone the sea-especially on top of Everest!"

"What is Everest?" Now it was Silk's turn to be confused.

"Ha ha. Very funny. You know, Everest? Big honking mountain? Tons of snow? Taller than any building made by man?"

Silk blinked at him in bewilderment. "That sounds more like the Red Line-except for the snow."

"Huh? What's a red line?"

"No, it's-What am I doing!?" she screamed all of the sudden. "I don't have the time for this!" She immediately turned and ran.

"Whoa! Wait up!" Milo ran right after her. "I still don't know where I am!"

"Was that your idea of a fight? How sad!"

Back at the Docks, the Crescent-Moon Pirates, at Gally's command, had attempted to raid the town. In response, the town elder led the men of Beam to defend. The result was the pile of bloody villagers between the two parties. The town elder was now the only one standing-er, kneeling-against the horde.

'Damn Pirates!' The elder coughed heavily and glared out of his unharmed eye. 'How can we defend this town when there are cutthroats like this out at sea!?'

Gally laughed proudly at the work of his crew. The crowd looked on horrified. "A-are any of them even alive?" A crying woman covered her eyes and looked away.

"Ya he ha! You fools thought you could challenge us with rakes and dull swords!?" Gally's smug tone ran over the crowd like cold water. He nudged a comatose man with his boot. "You ants need to learn your place! Now…" He pulled out his pistol and put it to the elder's head.

"Pops!" Not a single kid had a dry eye in the crowd.

Gally looked up at the gathered women, children, and elderly. "Gimme everything that glitters in this town, or this man dies."

"We…told you," the town elder spoke up, "everything valuable…in our town…is in that…trunk-"

"Don't lie to me!" Gally was ticked now. "That garbage isn't fit for a bandit rat to steal! All valuables now, or else…"

"STINKIN' TROUTS!" A yell sounded from behind the crowd. Everyone looked at the source. The townsfolk, if possible, looked more surprised than the pirates. It was Silk!

"Oh no," Several of the residents despaired instantly, "how did she get out?"

"Pops!" Silk ignored the group and ran to its front. "What's happened to you? Are you alright!?"

The elder looked out of the corner of his eye. "Silk…"

"Eh? Who's she?" Gally looked gob smacked. Silk's answer was her raised sword and a furious glare.

"How dare you insult Beam's pride? Know this, pirate scum, I will fight anyone who disturbs the peace of these kind people!" With two strides, she lunged at Gally.

KLANG!

A subordinate of Gally's easily stepped in and knocked the girl back. Silk was so surprised, she failed to notice the man swung again and knocked the sword flying.

"Silk!" The chief was relieved she was alive, but that was too close!

"Ya he ha! Foolish weakling!" Gally smirked at Silk. "My men would even strike down women!"

Silk glared daggers at Gally, who just threw back his head and laughed. It seemed there was no way to get these pirates to leave…

CRASH!

There was a pause as everyone stared at the spot the cackling pirate captain was standing at before following the trail of dust cloud.

Milo got up, dusted himself off, and looked right at Silk. "Aha! There you are! Your parents must be proud raising (Milo moved the man's sword at Silk's throat without a second thought. "Ah, excuse me.")-raising such a proud woman who won't answer someone's questions and runs away from him!"

Everyone just stared at him. "Huh?" Milo looked around at the gawkers. "Don't mind us, sorry, just having a talk like civilized-"

"Do you realize what you've done?!" the town elder croaked, looking mortified.

Milo blinked at him and followed the old man's gaze to Gally. "Whoa! What happened to him? Looks like a freight train hit him!"

"Milo…" That was the only warning he got before getting jacked up like California. "What the Hell! How did you not notice you ran into a pirate!?"

"I'm sorry" was all a dizzy Milo could weakly mutter during the onslaught.

"You…" The voice rang out freezing many citizens to the core, and gaining Milo and Silk's attention. There stood Gally, messed up from beard to boot, and livid. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!"

TO BE CONTINUED

3/1/15 A/N: "Piece?" How did I miss that? Hm? Oh hey! Rate and review below please. I'm eager to read your thoughts! Ved17 signing off!