The Cooper Crew
Told by Mutitoon90
Chapter Two: The Secret to be Found
"I wasn't expecting this." Penelope said to Shade, who was rowing the boat that was pulling Jing King's dinghy by the pully-paddle system.
It had been, at least, an hour since Shade and Penelope met Jing King and agreed to help her escape her cruel and relentless suitor, General Tsao. While Shade rowed the boat, Penelope, who shallowed her pride and talked to Jing King, trusting that the raccoon's judgement better than her own.
"Amazing!" The child of China exclaimed, "I would have never thought of leaving that place if I was in your postition; I would have been too afraid."
"Yeah, I guess so..." The blonde female nodded in slight modesty; normally, people would not have approved of such actions for them.
"Hey, Penelope!" Shade called out as she stopped rowing the jolly boats, "How long until we reach our destination?"
"Not too long now, Shade." The mouse replied.
The answer activated the raccoon's curiousity, causing her to turn around to the opposite direction of her fellow runaways. Shade said as she said the name of what was in front of her and her destination...
"The Misty Depths... We're here."
The girls saw a wall of mist; a cloud of mist is one of the few places of the sea that any pirate with enough sense their mind to avoid, due to sharp rocks and other things hidden in the mist. It is also a good place to hide from any navy ships that would chase after them.
However, the Misty Depths is the only place that the pirates would not dare to enter; if the pirates were trapped between the navy and the depths, they would surrender to the navy, knowing that they had gained a few more days longer to remain in that world. Shade and Penelope knew very well of the reason that the sea dogs refuse to enter the Misty Depths.
"The home of the Crusher." Proclaimed the rodent, which received the response of Jing King, who was unfamiliar of the sea that she was at with her new allies.
"Excuse me, but I know nothing of this 'Crusher.'
The mouse looked at Shade, who answered very casually.
"It's simple: the Crusher is a sea monster that lives in the Misty Depths. No pirate, unless he was an arrogant fool, would dare enter there."
Jing King was a little startled about the sea creature that every pirate feared, and the fear exposed itself in her voice as she asked the two females, "If no one would dare to traspass the dethps, why are you so willing to tread those waters?"
Shade smiled, like a mother to her child, and answered just as sweetly.
"Granted: you're right about the reasoning behind in staying away from the Misty Dethps, however, Penelope and myself have some 'research' before making the trip."
"Research?" Inqurred the larger of the females, "What form of research?
"Research by ear." Penelope answered in a deadpan tone.
"Research by ear?" Jing King repeated in the confusion, but she realized what the lavender female meant and voiced it, saying, "I understand now! You listen to others!"
"That's right, Jing King." Shade nodded as she confirmed the answer, "Here's what we've learn from those who've claimed to have survived by escaping the Crusher's fury: one thing is the ships that would enter these misty waters were normally larger than the dinghies we're in right now, and second thing is that the only time the Crusher would ever attack a jolly boat is when it's trying to sink the larger ship."
Then, the sound of a horn pierced through the air, telling all that hear it. The two friends, who lived the life of a sea drifter, were unfamiliar to the custom, but the child from China turned around and gasped a single word: "Tsao..."
Shade, upon hearing the name of the self-proclaimed bridegroom of Jing King, pulled out her spyglass and looked into it, seeing the far-off object. The raccoon saw the ship that had a sail that had a foreign symbol on it with wooden poles within the sail.
"I don't know about this ship, but Jing King might." The raccoon spoke as she gave the handheld telescope to Jing King.
The panda took the spyglass and saw what Shade had observed; old horrors became new once again to Jing King, whose eyes filled with fear and tears as she dropped the spyglass that landed in the boat.
"I have been discovered again!"
"Maybe so," Shade spoke again to the daughter of the Panda King, "but you're not caught yet!" Then, the raccoon swiftly turned to the mouse and barked an order at her.
"Penelope, full speed ahead!"
"Aye, aye, Shade!" The smaller female saluted her friend before going to the pulley-paddle system and started turning the winch as fast as she could in an attempt from the on-coming ship.
The two dinghies were speeding off, but the she-raccoon knew that Penelope's invention was not going to be enough to fully escape General Tsao, causing her to take the oars and started rowing again. Jing King saw this and wanted to help, and she did by grabbing the paddles that were in her jolly boat and started rowing herself. With the combination of the three females, the dinghies were going faster and entered the Misty Depths within minutes.
Once in the fog-covered waters, the girls slowed their pace, yet they refused to stop, knowing that the Crusher was going to reveal itself soon. Treading through the home of a creature, like the Crusher, was an unwise course of action, in normal circumstances, and it stirred fear into their hearts. More fear entered their minds, when they saw the wrecked ships that rested on the rocks and beaches that were hidden in the fog.
"Come on, girls," Shade announced, trying to calm herself and her friends, "things seem to be bad now, but if we don't hurry our pace, Tsao is sure gonna catch us."
The speech did its job: inspiring the other females into continuing the trek through the Misty Depths. As the horn was sound once again, the girls hastened to escape the Crusher, until they reached land, nearly ramming Jing King's dinghy into Shade and Penelope's jolly boat.
"Whoa!" The trio exclaimed as each of them reacted to the clashing of the boats.
Shade, Penelope, and Jing King fell backwards upon impact. Shade bumped the back of her head, while an oar flew out of her hand and landed on the beach's sands. Penelope fell onto her side, covering her eyes from the flying wood from the boats hitting each other. Jing King's hair fell loose as the panda fell back herself, making her the first to speak out.
"Is everyone all right?"
"Well," spoke the raccoon in the dinghy in front of the panda's, "all I have is a bump, but that's all."
The mouse pushed herself up and announced, "I'm a little bruised, but that's better than being dead."
"And I am not harmed myself." The Panda King's daughter announced, "Then, we are safe?"
"We're all right," Shade spoke out, "but 'safe' isn't the word I would use right now."
"Better stay here." Penelope said to the others, "Things are about to be interesting."
"Soon enough, me hearties." The raccoon spoke in the pirate's speech in her own accent, "Soon enough..."
As the girls hid themselves and looked on at the hidden waters, the ship of General Tsao cut through the mists, bringing a sense of hopelessness to Jing King. The girls ran off to the horn for the third time, but this time, the bellow was followed by another horn blast.
"What in Heaven's name was that?!" Penelope exclaimed from her hiding place, which was a broken brig of an over-turned ship of the French navy.
"I don't really know," Shade replied as she appeared from the same hiding place, "but I'm about to find out."
Pulling out the silver and brown cane, the she-raccoon climbed up the battleship by using parts of it to reach the crow's nest. Once that was accomplished, Shade pulled out her spyglass and peered into it.
Mostly fog and mist entered her sights as the raccoon saw a ship coming towards the Chinese craft. Soon, she was looking at a silver serpent's head, telling her that ship is under the command of one of the most clever of pirates in the world.
"Impossible..." The raccoon gasped out before she climbed down to Penelope and Jing King.
"You're not going to believe what crew just came over the horizon!" Shade announced to her companions, who was confused by Shade's strange change in behavior. Then, the brown and black mammal said, "Here's a clue: I saw the Silver Serpent!"
Jing King failed to answer due to her lack of knowledge. Penelope, however, gasped upon hearing the name of the ship.
"The Cooper Crew's here!? Why!?"
"Don't know." Shade answered, "I do know that it has something to do with Tsao's battleship."
"But why?" Jing King asked, oblivious of the situation at that time.
The raccoon mused on the question for a moment before she gave her reply.
"Hmm, my guess: to rob it. Although, the Cooper Crew probably all ready did. Either way, things are definitely gonna fly around here, once the Crusher shows up."
"Wait a minute!" Penelope halted the raccoon's words, "Maybe the Cooper Crew did rob Tsao of his ship, why would they sail it all the way to the home of the Crusher?"
"It must involve one of the many theories of how the Cooper Crew is known as one of the most powerful groups of pirates ever to said any sea: a mystic, or something that, that can control the Crusher."
"Hmm, my guess: to rob it. Although, the Cooper Crew probably all ready did. Either way, things are definitely gonna fly around here, once the Crusher shows up."
"Wait a minute!" Penelope halted the raccoon's words, "Maybe the Cooper Crew did rob Tsao of his ship, why would they sail it all the way to the home of the Crusher?"
"It must involve one of the many theories of how the Cooper Crew is known as one of the most powerful groups of pirates ever to said any sea: a mystic, or something that, that can control the Crusher."
"Did you hit your head too hard?" The mouse was aback at the raccoon's words.
"No, I listened those pirates that talked about the Cooper Crew." Shade announced with a grin.
"Alright," the lavender rodent tried to prove her friend wrong again, "if you're right about the mystic, how is using the Crusher to sink the ships going to help them get more gold into their pockets?"
"Simple: the Crusher could get most of the bigger cargo, but the diver could get the rest."
"The diver?"
"Yeah; he could dive into very deep dethps and place a bomb onto a hull of a ship without being noticed, usually when a sea battle's going on. Besides, he might be related to Reme Lousteau."
"Great!" Penelope groaned out loud, exposing her annoyance, "There goes our payday."
"Maybe not." Shade shook her head, "However, first things first: let's get out of the battlefield before the fight gets started."
"Good point." The mouse finally agreed to the raccoon's words.
"Jing King," Shade turned to the young panda, "let's go."
"Understood." The Chinese native nodded in response before following the two girls to the next hiding place in the Misty Depths.
As the trio hopped from ship to ship, Shade was always the first to transport herself, seeking for ways that her friends to traverse themselves to the other ship safely. By the time they had reached the third ship, all were very tired from the journey, but Shade was the most exhausted of the group.
"How long must we go before we can sleep?" Jing King said, nearly out of breath from the trip and the scares that she had when she watched the raccoon and her stunts with the cane with the silver hook.
"Now's good enough, Jing King." Shade yawned out, showing that she was ready to sleep herself.
"Yeah..." The mouse managed to say before laying down and falling asleep in a matter of seconds.
"Man!" The raccoon tried to exclaimed, but she could only yawn, "Looks like I'm on guard duty... again."
Shade turned to the Chinese girl, but she was also fast asleep.
"Looks like it's just me, myself and I." The she-raccoon joked to herself.
"Man, I wonder how the Crusher destorys a ship?" Shade said as she pulled out her spyglass and looked through it. She saw the tentacles of white, blue and light purple smashing things, grabbing the deck and tearing chuncks of the ship. However one thing puzzled her: "Where's the men?"
With the exception of the Crusher that she could see, Shade could not find any sign of life on the ship's deck: no sailors, no nobleman, no cabin boys, no one!
"That's very strange..." Mused the brown raccoon, who remove the small telescope from her line of sight, "If no one's on broad, then how did the ship managed to get here?"
Returning the spyglass to her eye, she watched the Crusher pull and drag the ship down into the briny and misty depths of its territory. Shade placed the spyglass to her belt and bowed her head, believing that someone might have been in the doomed vessel of the sea. As she fell silent for a moment, a loud splash roared through the air, causing the she-raccoon to lift her head and pull out her spyglass again.
Reaching for the bag that she managed to received from the jolly boat and pulled out her favorite and most dear thing in the world: her flute. Yet again, Shade could not play it, because another interruption occured; this time, it sounded like something being broken and crushed. Knowing that it was the Crusher, Shade placed the flute into her belt and climbed the ship's body and reached the highest point of the ship.
"What was that?!" The brown and black female exclaimed in the sudden shock from the sound as she peered through the telescope.
A creature of dark purple sat on top of the Crusher's white, huge, trianglular head waved at the Silver Serpent, confirming the belief that the Cooper Crew was controlling the Crusher of the Misty Depths. In addition, the diver theory would be proven as well as a head rose from the sea only a few yards from the creature.
"Oh, I can't wait to tell Penelope about this!" Shade giggled in delight as she returned the spyglass to her belt and turned around to return to the friend and Jing King.
Upon nearing to the area where she last saw her allies, Shade stopped herself as she witnessed her companions being rudely awakened, grabbed and bonded, offically captured by a small band of pirates. She knew that attacking the pirates was not a wise idea for many reasons: the possiblilty of more pirates nearby, traps and her friends being prisoners. Because of this reasoning of the raccoon, Shade decided to follow close behind the captors of her allies; a feat that is very diffcult for most. However, Shade was a gifted person.
"Come on!" The white and cream colored dingo leader of the small group shouted to the huge bull dogs, "We can't have anyone 'round here to spill any secrets that might casue trouble for us!"
"Aye, aye!" The group barked up before yanking the rope that confided Penelope and Jing King from escaping them.
As the females were being 'escorted' from the ship and onto the sand, Penelope kept looking back, looking for something. One of the pirates noticed this and pushed the mouse, telling her to continue walking. The lavender mouse obeyed, but she still looked back, hoping to see something in the sand.
"I said, 'Keep moving!'" The dog that yelled at Penelope before barked again, "If you don't stop draggin' yer feet, I'll use you as an anchor! Got it?!"
The blonde haired girl nodded nervously as she turned her head towards the front, praying that her friend would rescue her and Jing King.
Making their way to a rock's surface, the dingo turned to his men and barked out, "Blindfold them!"
Two of the sea dogs quickly pulled out a bandana and wrapped them around the girls' heads, preventing the females from seeing everything that happened next.
The dingo went to a rock and open it: a wooden lever was hidden behind a stone-like compartment! The leader of the pack pulled the lever down, and a larger slab of stone moved, revealing a secret passage into the formation of nature. Soon, all the pirates and their prisoners went inside the doorway before the rock-door returned to its resting place. As the pirates pulled the girls farther down the hidden path, a set of footprints made of damp sand followed them, but none of the canines noticed this as their sights were towards the light at the end of the passageway.
Soon, the rouges of the sea reached the end of the tunnel's path, and the leader commanded the bull dogs to remove the bandanas from the girls. The dogs obeyed again, causing the girls to winced in slight pain from the light entering their brown eyes so suddenly.
"Ow!" The mouse turned her head from the bright light, when a thought entered her mind: light inside a rock could mean one light! Penelope looked back at the light and looked below it. What she saw was a whole town and port!
"Amazing place, it is!" One of the dogs announced to the girls, who were in pure awe, "Too bad, yer going in the holding cell; Captain doesn't like traspassers 'round here."
"What!?" Penelope managed to said before the pirates yanked the rope that held her close to the captors, pulling her to town below.
As the young women were being led into and throughout the town, Penelope and Jing King could not help themselves from being in awe of the town and the life that it held: the children playing on the streets made of pebbles and bits of stone, the men and women working together on and in the homes and the happiness that they had. Jing King was in awe of such a happy-filled place, but Penelope could not help herself from sheding a tear, due to her hard, miseriable life at the orphanage and the difficult lifestyle on the sea with Shade.
"Move it!" The dingo barked as he yanked the rope, sending them to the ground.
Then, a fruit flew in the air and landed right on top of the leader's head, showing how rotten it was by how it imploded upon hitting the dingo, who was not pleased by the decaying vegetation dripping from the top of his head and into his shoulders and white, sleeveless shirt.
Seeing their captor humilated in such a manner, Penelope and Jing King managed to smile through their gags, but they were not the only ones to find the sight amusing; several people giggled, laughed, and snickered at the dingo, who barked at his men.
"Who did that!?"
As expected to anyone with some sense about these matters: no answer that truly answered the huge canine's question.
Following the loud demand, another rotting piece of fruit landed on the back of the dingo's head and neck. The reaction from the slime streaking down his back was a disgust-filled shudder, which caused the others to laugh even harder.
"Come on!" The beady-eyed bully whipped around, sending slime soaring in the air, "I'll take ya on!"
Then, a barrel fell over, causing the dingo to pull out his pistol and fired it. However, the result was not what he expected; the flintlock pistol backfired, causing his face to be covered with gunpowder soot. This led to even more laughter at the dingo's expense.
"Now, you've done it!" The canine growled out loud to the air, "No one makes a fool outta me and get away with it!" With a huff of haughtiness and a puff of pompousness, the leader of the small pack left with his men following not too far behind, leaving the girls in the dust.
Thankfully, some of the people that saw the dingo's humiliation and helped the girls to their feet and untied them.
"Man!" Penelope said as she took a deep breath of relief as the gag's hold on her mouth was removed, "Thanks for freeing us."
"Non," a black and white cat with a French accent replied, "it is us who should thank you and your invisible friend."
Penelope stepped back and denied the statement all together.
"No way, that's impossible!"
"Demoiselle," the lady cat responded to the denial with a growl in her voice, "around here, we do not like les menteurs with their filthy lies. We are not les imbéciles, believing the words of everyone that enters this place."
Penelope, not accustomed to being accused of lying, continued to say that she need nothing of a 'invisible ally,' only to experience more accusations from the French cat, who was gaining more allies in the forms of her neighbors.
"Man," Shade's voice rang out to the gathering crowd, "if this a way to talk to people, this town's not as good as I first thought!"
The crowd looked around and failed to see anyone, and Jing King was withdrawing from the sudden announcement of the unseeable Shade. Penelope looked to an nearby torch and saw Shade's shadow, truly knowing of the she-raccoon's secret: Shade can become invisible, which had proven its useful everytime.
"Show yourself, Demoiselle!" begged the feline looking around for Shade, "We want to thank you for teaching that creature a lesson."
The shadow of her friend retreated from the flame, causing Penelope to wonder where Shade was hiding. Following that, the voice spoke again.
"As much as I want to, but there's one problem: the dingo's looking over here with his underlings."
"What?!" A gruff voice roared out, causing the group of citizens to turn towards the small band of canines.
"I thought you'd be long gone by now." A British-sounding vole popped up from behind the French feline.
"Quiet, Wagga!" The dingo shouted; his voice toned with fury. Then his attentions were turned to Penelope, barking at her with this statement: "Where's da yeller-bellied tramp of a shela?!"
Penelope, knowing of Shade's fury, moved away from the dingo, who was confused by the lavender mouse's actions.
"'Ey, why'd ya back off, like that?"
"You're opening Pandora's box, and I'm not sticking around to see what happens next." The she-mouse answered before grabbing Jing King and running away.
The dingo huffed as he mocked Shade, who was still hidden from the view of all, saying, "That shela's a weakling, if she's hidden in plain sight."
"Dying to find out?" Shade's voice echoed from behind the dingo, who grabbed a small sack from his belt and throw it at the hidden creature. However, a bull dog was hit with the horrid substance that was hidden in the pouch.
"Show yerself, so I can kill ya!" Howled the furious dingo.
"Kill me?" The she-raccoon's voice gasped mockingly before adding, "The only killing done here would be me killing time."
The dingo only response was, "Ya might be able hide yerself in plain sight, but ya forgot one thing: yer friends can't!"
Then, the outraged canine pulled out a flintlock pistol, aimed it at the girls, and pulled the trigger. Smoke covered the sight of everyone that was there.
"Je suis aveugle!" Screeched the feline that confornted the mouse earlier.
"What happened?" Jing King's voice rose from the gunsmoke.
"I don't know; it's too smokey here!" Penelope exclaimed as she tried to fan some of the discharged powder from her mouth and nose.
"What's going on here!?" A women's voice rang out to all people at the smoke-covered area.
Then, a strong gust blew at the airborne powder, which flew at the command of the artifical wind, revealing many things: the safe females, the confused citizens, the bewildered bull dogs and most important, the knocked out dingo.
"It never fails!" The new, Spanish-sounding voice spoke again, "As the captain would say, 'He huffs and puffs himself up with his own fury, and he ends up blowing himself up.'"
"That's a good way to describe it." Shade laughed out, liking quote greatly.
"Good to hear that, señorita," a gloved hand grabbed an invisible shoulder, revealing Shade, "I'm sure the captain would very much to talk to you."
The raccoon turned to the direction of the hand and saw a red fox with blue, wavy hair, bright yellow-brown eyes, and an outfit composed of an orange shirt, brown pants, black boots, yellow gloves and a huge pistol-like weapon at her side. Shade knew she was caught and visible and admitted surrender by raising her hands, which was followed by a heavy sigh of defeat.
"Put your hands down, kid," the vixen shooked her head and laughed at the same time, "I'm not going to arrest you, not after what you did."
Lower her hands, Shade was confused by the fox's words, asking, "Why are you-"
"Helping you?" The rred fox finished before answering, "Razor's been giving everyone some form of trouble since that dreadful day he was allowed to live here. I've been arresting him and sending him to the holding cell, but it does little good."
"Sending him to the holding cell?" Penelope intervended into the conversation, "That doesn't work."
"I know," the fox's head drooped in shame, "but the captain refused to do anything about him everytime I've reported that dumb dingo!"
"Something must be up," the she-mouse mused at the thought, "with these frequent complaints about Razor, he would figure that something's a little amiss here."
"Agreed." The vixen announced to the girls, who looked at each other in confusion, and the fox noticed this.
"What's wrong?"
Shade and Penelope looked at each other again, not knowing what exactly to said to the vermillion woman, who had been very kind to them. Managing to figure out how to reply to fox's question, Shade said, "A couple of things, but one of them is this: we don't know your name or why you're so willing to help us."
"Oh, yeah." The vixen realized the same thing. Then, she suggested, "I'll explain myself once I've tucked Razor into the holding cell again."
