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America, the Colonies?

Chapter 1: The City


Jack watched the big carriage-like thing continue its trip with a confused look on his face. He had never seen anything like that; he'd seen big ships like the Flying Dutchman, Troubadour and, of course, his own ship, Black Pearl, but this was something else. The ships were things he encountered every day, but these things were something new.

Jack then turned to look away when he couldn't see the new encounter anymore. The people he'd spotted earlier hadn't even noticed him yet and were in the middle of laughing at something. Jack looked around, looking for the thing they were laughing at, expecting something like someone passed on mud or something, but didn't find anything he found even remotely funny. As such, Jack decided to go ask them, since he didn't have anything better to do. They didn't seem to notice him even when he approached them, continuing their laughter. Only when he was right next to them did they notice one thing: his smell.

"Honey, what's that smell? It smells like someone died", the man, who was incredibly fat, asked the woman next to him.

"I don't know, James. Maybe it's some car that passed", the woman, who was too thin for her own good, replied with a high-pitched voice. Jack decided it was his turn to speak and cleared his throat.

"Sorry t' bother yer, but where might we be?" he asked, and as soon as the two heard the slang, they turned to look at Jack. The woman instantly paled. After a couple of minutes of silence, Jack spoke again: "What? Never seen a pirate before?" That was when the woman let out high-pitched scream and ran away, with the man following almost as fast behind. Jack remained standing there for a couple of seconds, before shrugging and continuing his journey.

The people who passed him sent him a variety of different looks: some looked like they were about to burst out laughing (some of them did), some looked frightened and tried to get as far away from him as possible, some older people looked at him with disapproval. Jack just smiled at all of them mockingly, revealing his rotten teeth. The thing he found most curious was the way some of them just passed him with a blank face, not even looking at him.

When Jack got to the end of the park and saw the road, he just kept on walking, earning looks of disbelief from some people who were walking and angry looks from the people in those "cars", like he had heard the woman call them before. The fact that he still had the headache from drinking the other day didn't help the situation at all. After he had wobbled across the street, he came to a narrow alley, from which he heard some loud noise coming from. On the alley were some dark-skinned people, laughing and taking puffs of smoke from small sticks. When Jack walked past them, they all looked at him in disbelief and started laughing, making Jack turn to look at them.

"What, pray tell, be yer laughin' at?" Jack asked, earning even more laughter from the group.

"H-He said, 'what be yer-'! HAHAHA!" one of them said in between his laughter and collapsed to the ground. Jack just ignored them and continued walking out of the alley.

Jack walked for a little longer after that, before sitting down on a bench next to a sleeping person. He then removed his hat and placed it next to him. His day was just getting worse and worse: first, he discovers himself in a weird place, then he finds his ship as a wreck and, to top it all off, people laugh at him for no reason! And all this without rum...

It was then that he heard the sleeping guy groan as he woke up from his slumber. The pirate Captain looked at the man, who looked almost as filthy as Jack himself and smelled like him too, not that Jack cared. The man suddenly took a bottle from his pocket and took a swig from it, before offering it to Jack, who stared at the man with confusion evident on his face.

"Take a swig, it's not like you have any", the man said, gesturing for Jack to take the bottle, which he did after a couple of seconds passed. Jack took a swig from the bottle and sighed in content; it was no rum, but it was better than nothing. Jack gave the bottle back to the man and looked to the sky, or at least all he could see of it from the tall buildings. It was getting dark.

"So, what's your story? It's not like you're out here for nothing", the man asked curiously, which actually surprised Jack. He was so much different than the other people he'd seen today. Jack sighed tiredly, deciding to reply, "I went to the sea, ship crashed, 'ave nowhere to go." The man nodded, looking at the empty bottle in his hands, before throwing it to the ground.

"I had a big company once. It all went well, until some bigger company came and offered to buy mine. I refused, and they just laughed and went on with their business. I thought they wouldn't come back, but the very next day I saw people building a big building right next to mine. After some time, I went bankrupt", the man told with sadness in his voice. Jack just nodded, even if he didn't understand all of it.

"I'm Nick Johnson by the way", the man added, offering his hand to Jack, who took the hand.

"Captain Jack Sparrow", Jack replied, before going to the bench next to the one Nick had slept on. He took his coat off and put it over himself like a blanket. If his crew saw him now, they would laugh their asses out.


Anthony "Tony" Stark sat down on his coach with a bag of chips in his hand and a TV remote in the other. He switched on the TV and flipped through the channels, before finding CNN where a special news report was airing. Tony threw a chip to his mouth and took in the scene: there was a huge 18th century ship wreckage right in the middle of the Battery Park.

"... Spectators say they saw someone wearing pirate clothes walking through the park near 2 pm." The scene shifted to an obese looking guy. James Thompson, if the text on screen was to be believed. "I was walking in the park with my beautiful wife, when suddenly some guy, who smelled so bad I can never forget by the way, came to us and asked if we'd ever seen a pirate before. We decided it was better to run from the crazy man." Tony narrowed his eyes and changed to Channel 4, where the same news was airing.

"... We were able to get a hold of a picture of the pirate from a spectator." The scene changed to picture of a man with long dreads and a goatee. He had eyeliner on, and he was wearing a red scarf under a tricorne-styled hat. He looked like what Tony would assume a pirate would look like.

"Jarvis, search everything you can about that man and the case", Tony ordered his computer system, which replied in a thick British accent: "Certainly, sir. Want me to do anything else?" Tony nodded.

"Yeah, get me a drink." Just as he said that, the door to the room he was in opened and in stepped Pepper Potts.

"You heard the news, it seems", she said as she walked to Tony, who just nodded and took a sip of his drink.

"I'm trying to find any info I can on the man, but so far I've found nothing except for some camera footage from security cameras. I can't even find his name- AHA!" Tony told her, before suddenly shouting in joy.

"What is it?" Pepper asked the man, trying to see what he was looking at, which turned out to be a camera recording.

"I found out where he is. He's sleeping on a bench near the Washington Street", Tony replied, before taking his jacket from his table, where he'd left it earlier.

"Where are you going?" Pepper tried to ask, but Tony just ignored her and rushed out of the room. "TONY STARK!" she shouted after the man, but to no avail. Pepper slumped on the coach and sighed tiredly, rubbing her eyes. Sometimes she didn't understand the man at all.

Tony jumped into his Acura and started the engine. He needed to get to the so called pirate before the S.H.I.E.L.D. He knew he was smarter than the people working for them, but they had more resources. If anyone wanted to look into the case of the pirate, it was the S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony sped down the streets of New York faster than the speed limit allowed. He even got the police after him, but he evaded them easily. After ten or so minutes, Stark arrived at the Washington Street.

"Now to look for the pirate", Tony muttered to himself. Couple of minutes later, he found the man still sleeping on the bench. Tony parked the car near the bench and approached the man, only to halt as he heard a familiar voice filled with sarcasm speak behind him.

"Tony Stark, what a surprise."

Tony turned towards the voice and saw one Natasha Romanoff standing there, accompanied by Clint Barton and few more S.H.I.E.L.D agents. Tony blinked in surprise, before asking in a casual tone of voice: "So, does S.H.I.E.L.D always send so many people after one person?" This seemed to annoy Natasha, but she masked it pretty well. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I was here first. So, if you could go on your way, please", Tony added and gestured for them to leave, which only succeed to annoy Natasha even more. Even Clint was looking a little annoyed.

"Now, look here, Stark. We got orders from Director Fury to get that man to the headquarters. Now, if you would be so kind to-", Agent Romanoff started, only to be cut off by Tony once again: "Now, look here, Natasha, if you were to be so kind to be on your way and tell that Director of yours that Tony Stark was first and he's sorry about all that happened we could live in peace once again." Tony had a smile on his face as he said that, and he managed to make things worse for him, as per usual.

"Stark, if you don't step aside, I will go over you and complete our mission, understand? You don't even have your Iron Man suit with you", Natasha said with an expression that clearly said she didn't want any of Tony's crap right at the moment. Some of the agents even backed off a little.

Unknown to them all, Jack Sparrow had woken up from the noise and was listening to the conversation carefully. Multiple questions were going through his mind, such as why those people wanted him. He was just an ordinary pirate! Okay, not so ordinary in this place, admittedly, but he still couldn't think of any reason why they would want him. The only thing he was sure of was that if the man the woman called Stark didn't keep his mouth shut, he would be slapped hard in the face in a minute by the woman. Jack knew from experience.

Then it hit him - the compass!

He then decided to let them know he was awake. "Excuse me, gentlemen, m'lady", Jack said, earning their attention. They all looked at him in surprise as he continued with a smirk, "As entertaining as listenin' to ye lot arguin' 'bout the little ol' me is, I've got to be on my way. Don't be sad, since ye will always remember this as the day that ye almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!" When he finished his little speech, he took his hat and jumped to the wall of the building behind him, grabbed a hold of a window ledge and continued to climb the wall with the skills of a parkour expert.

The disbelieving faces of the people below him were buried to Jack's mind for the rest of his life.