Chapter Four: No Single Madman

KA-Boom!

Theresa and the rest of the crew of the Tengu awoke with a start at the sound of the explosion that rocked the ship. Thinking they were under attack, the pirates quickly jumped to their feet in a hurry and grabbed their guns, swords and whatever weapon they get their hands on. As the scrambled around like scared cockroaches, Howard entered the crew's quarters while holding the ship's physician/explosives expert Julian by the collar of his vest. According to what Bucky once told the pirate in training, Julian was an orphan in Haiti who was raised by a voodoo priest and trained in the mystic arts as well the ways of medicine, he also had an unhealthy knack for mixing chemicals that proved to be…hazardous for the Crew's well being.

"Settle down lads, it was just this moron trying to blow the ship up again!" he informed them as he shoved the doctor to the floor

"I wasn't trying to blow up the ship…intentionally" he meekly replied "I was simply testing the reaction of hydrocolloid when mixed with nitroglycerin. The results, shall we say…were very conclusive"

"Well your little test almost blew a hole in the bloody ship!" Howard scolded as he snatched the boy's top-hat off his head and began to smack him with it "I swear the next time you do that again, I'll throttle you all the way to Davey Jones Locker!"

"Duly noted!" Julian yelped during his beating

Just then, Captain Cunningham entered the crew's quarters, fully dressed and looking as regal as ever in Theresa's eyes. With a just a simple glance, he silently commanded Howard to stop his assault on the ship's doctor. He then gently took the top-hat out of his first mate's hands before handing it back to its owner before helping him back to his feet.

"Julian, haven't we talked about this?" the captain asked as if he was a parent talking down to a child

"Yes sir" the voodoo boy answered sadly

"And didn't I tell you what would happen if you did this again?" Randy continued

"Yes…" the crewman answered again, his head hanging low

"Toilets. Go. Now" Randy ordered in a sharp tone as he pointed his finger out of the quarters "And they better be spotless to"

Without any arguments, Julian sadly made his way to the ship's bathrooms, not ready to spend the rest of the week scrubbing them clean. Once Julian had left, the captain of the Tengu turned to face the rest of his crew.

"Alright lads listen up, while you've all been in dreamland I've found us our next target while sailing the ship" Randy began "A Spanish frigate and by the looks of things she's all alone. If the winds are in our favor, we'll be on her in less then two hours tops"

Theresa started to feel a bit uneasy; she did not like the idea of going into combat; obviously dew to the fact that she did not like the idea of taking someone else's life.

"Now just because the Frigate's alone doesn't mean she'll give up without a fight" he continued "But as long as we watch out for one another, we will prevail as we always have. Now get ready lads, we'll be on them soon"

And just like that, the band of pirates began to make preparations for the upcoming assault of the Spanish ship. However, Theresa still wanted no part of this fight and wanted to make that perfectly clear to the captain, but as she approached him, Howard cut in front of her and asked his leader if he could speak with him in private, to which he allowed and the two teens left the crew quarters.

"Hey Theresa, catch!" a female voice called out to her

The admiral's daughter turned around just in time to see a cutlass that was being tossed to her and quickly caught the handle of the blade before it hit the ground. The girl in question that had tossed her the sword, it was Debbie Kang; another girl that sailed under Captain Cunningham. Like Bucky and Flute Girl, Debbie and Theresa became friends after the whole 'hazing' fiasco (which she still didn't like in the least) in truth, she had befriended many of the crew of The Tengu from mid-shipmen Buttermaker to Accordion Dave, she had spent time with them all and was on good terms with her former captors.

Well, everyone except Heidi that is.

The older girl still had no love for the new crewman and still remained cold and bitter toward her no matter what she did, it also came to Theresa's attention that now she was giving the cold shoulder to the captain himself, even when he was simply saying hello and while she couldn't put her finger on it, she had a theory that the rift between the two may be her own fault, but she keep that thought to herself and stay out of Heidi's way. Said older pirate was currently sitting on a box in the coroner away from everyone, sharpening a hatchet with a piece of flint, ready to bury it through some poor soul's head when the time came.

"Bucky said you had some training with a sword" Debbie said to her, breaking her contact on Heidi "Your gonna need that when we board the ship"

"But I don't want to kill anyone!" Theresa admitted "Can't I just stay behind on the boat?"

"We need all hands on deck if we're gonna take that ship Theresa" Debbie explained "And trust me, no one here likes to kill for fun, but we need to in order to survive"

"If you don't like it then you can jump off the ship" Heidi's mentioned harshly as she kept sharpening her weapon, not taking her eyes of it as she did "Because if your not fighting with us, then your just dead weight"

Theresa didn't respond to that, instead she gave a look in determination and began to hold the sword in a stance that she was trained in, she took a few quick swings at the air around her before sheathing the blade under her belt. It was her silent way of telling everyone that she was agreeing to the fight ahead of them, even though inwardly she still feared the worst.

"That's the spirit!" Debbie said with a grin "Here, your gonna need this to"

The Asian teen then handed the new pirate a flintlock pistol and small bag with a few bullets within it.

"You've only got three extra bullets in that bag, so use them wisely. I'd give you more, but we're kinda running low on ammunition as it is" she informed her before asking her obvious "Let me guess: You've never shot a gun before, have you?"

Theresa nodded in response.

"It's easy, just point the gun at someone you don't like and pull the trigger, simple as that" the girl explained "Reloading is a bit tougher though. Here, let me show how to do that"

As Debbie began to teach her friend in reloading her pistol, Heidi rolled her eyes at the sight and made her way out of the crew quarters, slamming the door as she did.

"She's still in a bad mood?" Theresa asked as she put the pistol in her belt

"Well you did beat her face in a couple of days ago, so I'd imagine she'd still be a bit sour about that" Debbie answered "Trust me, if Heidi was in a really bad mood, she would've put that hatchet of hers right between your eyes by now. If you really wanna be on her good side then just stay away from her and you'll be fine; and still breathing to"

"I'll keep that in mind" the admiral's daughter replied

Meanwhile back in the captain room, Randy and Howard we're busy discussing the upcoming situation. As they talked, the captain of the Tengu was busy arming himself for the battle ahead of them while his raven perched itself on his chair's armrest and ate some fruit its master had given it.

"I'm just saying that we should skip the frigate and find a smaller ship" Howard said to his friend

"And normally I'd agree with you, but we're running low on gunpowder and ammo" Randy answered "And even lower on food and water for that matter"

"But we don't have enough firepower right now to even stand a chance against it!" his first mate argued "we're a twenty gun ship going up against a well-armored forty gun ship, we'd be sunk before we could make a dent in it!"

Despite all stories and rumors that we're told about the infamous firepower of the Tengu, it was in fact not a Man-O-War class ship, but really a Brig class ship with only twenty cannons to bear instead of the fifty some stories claimed it had. Even Theresa was shocked by this revelation when she was told of it by Howard one day, to which he thought was hilarious that an admiral's daughter couldn't tell any type of ship apart all.

"I understand the risks Howard, but we don't have a choice" his captain said sharply as he put on a strap over his shoulder and holstered two more pistols within it "It's either we take the frigate now or skip it and pray something else comes along. Besides, you're forgetting what I can do"

"I know Randy, I'm just concerned for your well-being" Howard admitted with a hint of sadness in his voice "If either you or the ship gets hurt, then-"

"I'll be fine" he assured his friend as he patted the wall to his room "We'll both be fine"

Having said that, Randy put his hat on and headed toward the door to his room, however he stopped just as he was about to touch the doorknob and turned to face his friend once more.

"By the way…I wanted to talk to you about Heidi" he began "I assume you already know that we had a spat last night and I-"

"What's going on between you two is none of my business" the portly boy cut him off "But I will say that you two should probably work something out before you lose control again like you did last time"

Randy only nodded in acknowledgment before letting both himself and Howard out of his room so that he man the helm and set off for their raid on the frigate.

"Ok, not bad, but your not grounding yourself properly" Debbie informed Theresa "If you don't have the proper footing then your enemy can knock you off balance and take you out just like that"

Even though the young girl had some lessons in the ways of the sword, Theresa was by no means a master at it; therefore she was getting some last-minute training in before the raid began from Debbie while Dave, Bucky and Flute Girl looked on.

"Try to keep your knees locked and feet planted firmly on the floor" she continued

"I'll keep that in mind" Theresa answered before bringing up something "Can I be honest with you?"

"Of course Theresa" the fellow teen said

"I still know if I'm ready for all this" she told her friends "Taking another person's life…god I can't even think of it!"

"Theresa, I know you're still not ok with all this, but like Debbie told you earlier; we do this because we need to survive" Flute Girl spoke up "Tell you what, when the fighting starts you can stick with Bucky and me during the raid, we'll keep you safe"

Just then, Howard entered the crew's quarters once more.

"It's time" he informed everyone

The sun was still slowly rising up into the sky as the crew walked onto the front deck and from where Theresa was standing, she could see the frigate they where hounding just off in on the horizon. It was then that Captain Cunningham made his way drown from the wheel of the ship and to the rest of the teens. He then jump up onto a box and began speaking to his loyal crew with Howard and Heidi on both side of him.

"There it is lads, the EL Gato Blanco" he began "Most likely their still waking up and having breakfast right now. If we catch them now we can have the upper hand, they may have the stronger guns, but we have the faster ship and so long as we can out maneuver them; then we can win"

The admiral's daughter couldn't help but be amazed by how Randy carried himself before his peers; he was like king giving his loyal knights a speech to instill strength before riding into battle like the books she had read as a child.

"Now as you all know, we do not follow the choice of no single madman" he continued, earning a few laughs from the crowd "But rather we follow the collectiveness of our insanity"

The young pirate then drew his cutlass to further the point.

"So if you want to take that vessel, raise your voices and proudly shout aye!" he proclaimed "all opposed, whimper nay and cower under your bed sheets"

It goes without saying that the pirates were inspired by Randy's speech, even Theresa found herself cheering in agreement alongside the others. The pirates then began to spread out across the deck, loading the cannon that where lined up alongside the ship ad making sure they where in good condition for battle. It was in that moment that Theresa realized that not only might she have to kill people today, but she herself may also die on this day as well. The very thought of that made her feel uneasy about the whole situation, but she couldn't show weakness, not after what happened last time. So despite every part of her mind telling her to run and hide, she stood her ground and prepared for battle.

"Theresa" Randy said to her as he walked up to her "I've got a job for you"

He then led her to a much smaller cannon that was bolted down on the side of the ship.

"I need you to man this swivel gun" he explained "When we get in close, I need you to shoot at the ship's weak points"

"Aye captain" she answered

"'Aye captain?'" he repeated like a question before making a smile form on his lips "If I didn't know any better, I'd say your starting to like this life miss Fowler"

Truth be told, she didn't she still didn't know what to make of this life of a pirate yet, but she just couldn't say no to the captain. She manned the swivel gun as ordered and mentally readied herself for what was to come. The frigate was getting closer into view as the Tengu began to hone in on it, making everyone onboard begin to feel the anticipation in the air. Suddenly a long blast was heard from the frigate, then came a high-pitched whistling sound could be heard. Before anyone could react, two spots of water erupted in front of the pirate ship.

"They have aft cannon!" Howard exclaimed in shock

"So much for the element of surprise!" Heidi said

"Hang on everyone!" Randy shouted to his crew as he quickly spun the wheel to the right

The Tengu went hard to starboard to avoid the frigate's aft cannon, nearly knock several crewmen off of their feet. Once the pirate ship was brought broadside it had its cannons where brought to bear.

"Fire!" he commanded

A roar of cannon fire exploded from the Tengu, ripping into its prey side as its cannonballs tore open huge holes into it. In retaliation, the Spanish vessel fired back with an even greater firepower.

"Brace!" Randy yelled out

A hail of huge cannonballs slammed into the Tengu, knocking many of pirates including Theresa off of their feet. The pirate-in-training, shot back up and to hold of the swivel gun once more, but out of the coroner of her eye, she noticed Randy had fallen onto his knees, clinging to the wheel for dear life, spitting up blood onto the floor. Theresa scanned him over to see if he had been struck by debris, but much to her surprise, he didn't have a single scratch on him. Before she could say or do anything to help him, the captain got back to his feet and began to steer the ship out of their enemy's firing range.

"We're ready sir!" Bucky called to his leader

"Then fire again!" Randy shot back

As ordered, the pirates launched another volley of cannon fire as it circled around the frigate, blasting away more metal and wood from its hull as it did.

"Theresa, shoot at the hull now!" Randy ordered her

The admiral's daughter took aim at the damaged hull and without even thinking, she fire a round off into the weakened part of the enemy ship. She felt a rush of excitement course through her as she watched an explosion rock the area she and fired at, it was a sensation she was both thrilled and ashamed off at the same time.

The frigate attempted to fire back, back the Tengu had already prepared its cannons and launched another assault on it, blasting more holes into it as it did. The frigate attempted to turn its broadside cannons in range to fire, but the pirate ship clearly had the seed advantage in this match, but the pirate knew .

"Ready the chain shot Bucky!" Randy called out to the cabin boy

"Aye Captain!" he replied before turning to the rest of the crew "Load the chain shot!"

As commanded, loaded the chain shot into the cannons as Randy made another sharp turn in order to get a closer shot at their target.

"Fire on the mast!" Randy shouted

Once again, the Tengu's cannon's blazed, this time firing the chain shot at the mast, splintering the wood and ripping through the sails when it made impact. Like a tree being cut down, the mast of the enemy ship broke off and splashed into the waters below, crippling the Spanish vessel.

"Reel them in and take the prize!" Randy proclaimed

The crew of the Tengu them drew out grappling hooks and began to swing them over to the damaged ship, then they began pull their prey toward them with all their combined might. Soon enough, the two ships where besides one another and they real fight was about to begin. Bullets flew threw back and forth in the air as the crews of two ships shot at one another. Randy took hold of a rope and swung over to the Spanish ship, this loyal crew following soon after him as they jumped over to the ship.

"Do your worst lads!" he called out to his crewmen as he gunned down two sailors with his pistols

Without even thinking, Theresa drew her sword and jumped onto the other ship and looked upon her first taste of battle. Howard aimed his blunderbuss at a group of on-coming sailors and fired, killing them all in one blast before putting his gun away and pulling out an ax in order to clash with more of the sailors. Julian was currently dropping bombs into the lower parts of the El Gato Blanco, killing any who were unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast while laughing like a madman as he did it. Buttermaker was busy impaling one of his foes with a harpoon while Dave and Debbie kept him cover with musket shots to who ever tried to stab him in the back.

Heidi was like a warrior woman, with only two hatchets she was cutting down sailors left and right. One of the sailors aimed his rifle at her and was about to fire, only to have Heidi take hold of the end of the rifle with her weapon and make him shoot one of his own men at last second before cutting his throat open with the other hatchet. Morgan was high in the Tengu's crow's-nest, picking off Spanish sailors with well placed shots from her arrow, never missing a single shot. Bucky and Flute Girl where back to back as they locked blades with the enemy, shouting and swearing like drunks as they did, she was to far away to reach them and their to many Spaniards fighting it out with the pirates to even try.

Among all the chaos there stood Randy, locking blades with the ship captain, matching him blow for blow as their swords crashed against one another again and again. To Theresa, he looked like he had walked right of the stories of swashbuckling heroes her mother used to tell her when she was small.

Suddenly, Theresa felt a strong blow strike her back, knocking her down in the process. She looked up to see a massive man carrying a battle ax in his hand looking down at her with murder in his eyes. As he held his ax over head and prepared to bring it down on her, the new pirate drew her cutlass and in that instant, jabbed the blade through the man's stomach. The man cried out in pain as he dropped his ax and dropped to his knees, keeping his now fading eyes locked on his killer as he did. Theresa gasped in horror at what she just did, pulling out the now bloodstained blade as she did as she watched the man bleed to death on the ground. She dropped her sword like it was burning piece of coal, still unable to believe what she had done.

Just then, she heard a cheer from the pirates and turned to see Captain Cunningham standing over the captain of the El Gato Blanco's body with a bloody sword in his hand. As she slowly picked herself up off of the floor, she saw the sailors surrendering to the pirates, loosening the will to fight on now that their leader was gone.

"Who here speaks English?" Randy asked the Spanish sailors "Anyone at all?"

"Little bit" one of the sailors spoke up meekly

"Tell your friends that we're taking most of your food, water, ammunition and whatever else we like and if you'll all stay clam and do as I say, then we'll be on our merry way in no time and you all get to live" he explained casually "Savvy?"

"…please to repeat?" the sailor asked, dumbfounded

"Oh for fucks sake, lock 'em all up in the lower deck!" the pirate captain said to his crew

As instructed, one half of the Tengu began to round up the Spaniards and escort them to the lower decks while the other half began to gather up the rescores they desperately needed. Suddenly, one of the sailors broke away from his fellow crewmen and drew his pistol and aimed it at Randy, who was busy wiping the blood off his blade.

"Captain, look out!" Theresa shouted out to him

Randy spun around just as the Spaniard pulled the trigger, striking the captain dead-on. The pirates looked on in frozen shock as their leader fell to the ground in a slump, even Theresa was stunned by what she saw. Without even thinking, she drew her pistol and fired at the sailor who might have just killed the captain of the Tengu, hitting him right in the temple and killing him in under a second. Once again, she had killed another man she had no knowledge of, however this time she did not feel sorrow, but satisfaction. Terrified by both this strange sensation and at the thought of Randy dying right in front of her, she ran back to the Tengu. The rest of the crew didn't notice her flee; they were all rushing over to their fallen leader to hopefully find him alive.

As Theresa jumped back unto the Tengu, she saw something leaking out of the ship's mast. Suddenly taken over by a sense of curiosity, the young woman walked up to the mast and placed her hand on it, swiping off some of the strange liquid that was oozing out of it and gasped in fright when she realized what it was.

The ship was bleeding.