Treasure Planet: The Real Treasure
Chapter 21
Jim pulled the longboat right up to the side of the ship. He tied it to one of the ropes of the shrouds to keep it from floating away. He climbed over the side of the ship, helping me up after him. B.E.N. fell over the side of boat with a crash, muttering sorry as we told him to be quiet. We knew the pirates probably left someone to watch over the ship, and we definitely didn't want to deal with them.
"Okay, you two stay here, I'll get the map," Jim ordered.
"Roger, Jimmy! I'll neutralize laser cannons, sir!" B.E.N. said, giving us a salute. He dropped to his knees, which were actually wheels, and rolled off to go disconnect the ship's laser cannons.
Jim tried to stop him, but the robot was already gone, singing a song about pirates along the way.
"Let's go get the map," I said. We went down to the launch bay and Jim pulled the map out of the pile of ropes, right where Morph had left it. We smiled at each other in relief. Just as I thought we were home free, the ship's alarm started blaring.
Jim and I both gave each other the same knowing and exasperated look.
"B.E.N.," we grumbled simultaneously. Jim stuffed the map in his pocket and started running back towards the deck. I was following right behind him.
"Stupid robot's gonna get us all-" Jim stopped abruptly at the bottom of the stairs, and I just barely stopped myself from running into him.
I looked over his shoulder at the top of the stairs and saw why he had suddenly stopped.
"Killed," he finished, staring at Scroop in horror.
"Cabin boy," Scroop hissed.
"Run!" Jim yelled.
He didn't have to tell me twice. I started running as fast as I could down the hall. I could hear crashing behind us, so I assumed Jim was trying to shove things in Scroop's way to slow him down, though I wasn't sure if it was working. I didn't dare turn back to look. I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other and praying that I wouldn't trip.
After we turned a corner, Jim grabbed my hand and told me to wait. He pulled his gun out and loaded it. When he heard Scroop come closer, he jumped out from around the corner and pointed the gun in Scroop's face. The pirate stopped dead in his tracks, mere inches from the barrel of the gun. Right at that moment, everything went dark.
A few seconds later, red emergency lights came on, but Scroop was no longer in front of Jim.
I cautiously came around the corner and stood as close as I could to Jim. He was frantically searching for Scroop.
I thought I saw some movement in the corner of my eye, but when I looked, there was nothing there. I became increasingly terrified, and every hair on my body was sticking up, sensing danger, but unable to locate where it was.
I heard a screech and a growl, and looked up to see Scroop and Morph, who had just poked the pirate in the eye. Scroop dropped down on top of us, pinning Jim to the floor and sending his gun flying. I just managed to jump out of the way, and grabbed Jim's gun, pointing it at Scroop. He froze, looking petrified for just a moment. But then he noticed how I was trembling.
"You can't do it," he smirked.
He was right. I couldn't shoot anybody, even a murderer like Scroop. I had never shot at anyone before in my entire life, and I'm not so sure if I wanted to start now. Luckily, I didn't have to make that decision as the gravity suddenly turned off; no doubt B.E.N.'s doing.
While Scroop was distracted, Jim kicked him away. The momentum of Scroop's body broke the wood grating above them and sent him floating up towards the deck. We all started floating up, and I let go of the gun while frantically trying to find something to hold on to. I was finally able to grab the mast right at the top. I saw Jim coming up towards me. We reached for each other, but he was too far away. For a second, I feared he was going to drift off into space, but at the last moment he grabbed onto the waving pirate flag.
I started to reach out for him to try and pull him back towards the mast, but Scroop grabbed my ankle and pulled me down, away from Jim. He pinned me to the mast by my neck with his claw. Something glinted in his eye, and his gaze was drawn to my necklace for the first time. It had flipped open on its own during all the mayhem. He peered closer at the pictures inside. He chuckled evilly before snapping it shut with his giant claw.
"Looks like you'll get to watch your boyfriend's demise before you join him," Scroop hissed, reaching his claw out and sawing at the rope holding the flag.
"No!" I growled, struggling to get out of his grasp.
"Do say hello to Mr. Arrow for me," he called. When he realized what Scroop was doing, Jim scrambled down the flag and grabbed ahold of the mast. Scroop growled and jumped at Jim, but he jumped out of the way and kicked Scroop into the flag.
"Tell him yourself!" Jim shouted.
Kicking Scroop propelled him down to me, so I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards me. He clung to the mast as he looked up at Scroop.
The rope had snapped, setting the flag loose from the rest of the ship. Scroop tore through the flag and looked down at us angrily. He quickly realized that the distance between us was growing, and screamed as he floated off into space.
The gravity came back on a short while later. After climbing down from the crow's nest back to the deck, I hugged Jim fiercely, glad that we had both made it out of that ordeal alive.
"Hey, maybe I should put my life in danger more often?" he said, obviously enjoying my attention.
"No! Don't you ever scare me like that again!" I said, stepping back and smacking his shoulder. I didn't do it to hurt him or anything, I just wanted to get my point across.
"I'll try," he said.
"I don't know what I would do without you," I said, looking up into his eyes. "When I'm with you, I feel…well, I'm not really sure. Brave? Powerful?...Loved…I don't know exactly, but I do know that I love it, and well, I literally don't think I could live without you. I've lost count of how many times I've come close to dying on this trip," I finished.
"You're amazing, you know that?" he said lovingly.
"I don't know," I said teasingly. "I think I need a little convincing."
He smirked and started leaning down to kiss me, but then B.E.N. showed up on deck.
"Laser cannons disconnected, Captain Jimmy Sir! See, that wasn't so tough," B.E.N. said. He was covered in sparking wires and looked like he had just had the workout of his life.
"Way to ruin the mood B.E.N.," Jim muttered under his breath.
"Come on, let's get back to Doc and the Captain," Jim said.
"Hold on, let me go grab something real quick," I said.
I raced over to the sleeping quarters and groped around under my hammock in the dark for my drawstring backpack. When I found it, I dumped out its contents before slinging it onto my back. I ran back on deck to join B.E.N. and Jim.
"What's that for?" Jim asked.
"I gotta use something to hold all that treasure we're gonna find," I said, giving him a smile.
We climbed back onto the longboat and headed towards the pirates' camp. We could just barely make out their sleeping forms in the early morning light, but I found it odd that most of them were no longer snoring. I didn't think much on it though as we quietly snuck back to the entrance we had come through before. We traversed back through the machinery and opened the door to B.E.N.'s house. Jim was the first to climb out, and he reached his hand down to pull me out before running over to the dark corner where he had left Delbert.
"Doc! Doc wake up," Jim said, pulling the map out of his pocket. "I got the map."
A mechanical hand reached up out of the shadows and grabbed the map from Jim's hand.
"Fine work, Jimbo. Fine work indeed," Silver said.
My eyes widened and I immediately looked around, only to find that we were surrounded by pirates. Captain Amelia and Delbert were tied up and gagged on the other side of the room.
I tried to make a run for it, but there were too many pirates. They grabbed me and painfully pulled my hands behind my back. I looked over and saw that two of the pirates had gotten ahold of Jim. One of them even had a knife against B.E.N.'s metal throat. Morph tried to help Jim out by biting the tail of one of the pirates. While Morph's bite did cause the pirate some pain, he was more annoyed than anything. He used his tail to slap Morph against the ground, causing him to whimper and hide in Jim's pocket.
"Yer just like me; yeh hates ta lose," Silver said with a chuckle, smirking at Jim as he attempted to open the map.
While Silver's mechanical hand was good for many things, none of his settings could get the map to open. He struggled and looked over to see Jim smirk and shake his head. Silver thrust the map in front of Jim, which prompted the pirates holding him to let go of his arms, and placed it in his hand.
"Open it," Silver ordered.
Jim just glared at Silver.
Silver rotated his mechanical hand to his gun and pointed it at me. Jim's eyes widened.
"Don't do it Jim," I said.
One of the pirates slapped me hard across the face, completely turning my head to the side. The pirate holding me forced my head back up, exposing the tears in my eyes and the angry red mark on my cheek. But I refused to show them weakness. Even with tears threatening to spill, I held my head high. I looked at Jim, telling him with my eyes not to open the map.
"I'd get busy," Silver warned, taking the safety off.
Jim glared at Silver, but his hands began to move in a pattern he had learned all too well with practice. Without even looking at it, Jim opened the map. Green light flooded from it and formed a holographic replica of Treasure Planet.
"By teh powers t'at be would yeh look!" Silver exclaimed.
The green light then formed a blinking path that most surely led straight to the treasure.
"Tie 'em up, and leave 'em with the others until we – what?" Silver asked when the beam disappeared.
"You want the map, you're taking me too," Jim said, holding the now sealed map in his hands.
Silver considered Jim for a moment. He had an angry expression, but then he chuckled.
"We'll take 'em all," he stated.
We were loaded onto the longboat and began following the blinking beam of light. Silver let us remain untied, but poor Doc and Amelia remained tied up at the back of the boat, though their gags had been removed. Silver was at the front of the boat, with Jim and I right next to him.
"Jim, I'm scared. What's gonna happen?" I asked, clutching him fearfully.
"We're gonna be alright," he reassured me, petting my head with the hand that wasn't currently holding the map.
I hope you're right, I prayed.