-Chapter 5: The Key to Pirates-

-Part 3: That Sinking Feeling...-

Mario's mind was clouded with thoughts. Standing out on the front deck, staring out at the horizon where the sun was currently setting, he spaced out, letting his mind take over. Peach was out there somewhere, and he hadn't thought about her in a while. He had saved her many, many times in the past, but he always had momentary doubts on himself. He knew he simply had to save her...but what if he didn't? What if, by chance, he was too late when they find her?

What if she would already be gone?

"Hey."

Mario turned to see Dipper standing there, his Super Hammer attached to his back...somehow.

"Um...what's with your hammer?" Mario asked.

"Oh, uh...I built a sort of…"sheath" for it, I guess, though it isn't really a sheath…" Dipper answered. "Just something to hold it when we aren't beating things up. It can be really heavy at times…"

"I can agree, I once had a hammer like that of my own." Mario said. "On my previous adventure, I found one like that in a pyramid."

"...back in Glitzville, in the Glitz Pit, you mentioned something about fighting Clubbas with some other companions in your last quest." Dipper said. "Who were they?"

"Well, one of them...was a boy with a problem quite like yours." Mario said. "His friends and family were scattered around a different portion of this world, and it was certainly an adventure I'll never forget…"

"What was his name?" Dipper asked. "If you don't mind me asking…"

Mario hesitated for a moment before sighing. "...his name was-"

CRASH!

The boat shook violently, almost throwing Mario and Dipper overboard. Falling to the hard wooden floor of the deck, the two quickly got up and looked around. What just happened?

Their mentally exchanged question was answered as strange, small blue fiery bubble looking creatures with piercing yellow eyes lacking any sort of irises. There must have been a few hundred, if not a thousand of them circling the boat. People started rushing up onto the deck.

"W-Whoa, what the hell is this?!" Dipper readied his Super Hammer for combat, though he was trembling. He was about to fight when someone stopped him with a nudge.

A purple bob-omb with an eyepatch.

Pa-Patch.

"It's no use fighting, the boat has a hole in it!" He shouted. "These damn ghouls, or whatever they are, are flooding the ship from underneath!"

"But what do we do now?!" Dipper asked.

Then a violent wave attacked the boat, sending passengers overboard as the fiery spirits began to attack people on the deck. Dipper stumbled around, trying to save as many people as he could. He would have been thrown overboard, however, had it not been for Pacifica.

"Be careful, will you?!" She glared, hanging onto the boy's arm. "Get to a lifeboat, the ship is going down!"

"But how are we supposed to get to Keelhaul without a true vessel?!" Dipper shouted. "We have too many people to fit in our two lifeboats, we can't all escape-"

Another violent wave rocked the boat, sending Pacifica overboard. She screamed as she fell into the cold sea water, though Dipper was relieved to see her surface and crawl onto a small raft.

However, Dipper felt the need to fight. He was willing to go down with the ship. He stared at the strange enemies, who stared back at him.

"Alright, let's try this new move out…" Dipper held one hand out in front of him. "Kuro-"

Dipper was interrupted as a large drill came out of nowhere, piercing his side and sending him over the edge of the boat.

'Ow, damn it! What was that?!' Dipper thought as he shrieked in pain as he fell. He landed in the water and struggled to get to the surface, his metal leg weighing him down.

Then, just as he gave up hope, a hand reached under the water and grabbed his flailing wrist.

Wendy began pulled him aboard a wooden raft. "Dude! Are you alright?!"

"Wendy...you saved my life!" Dipper smiled. "Wait, where are we? What's happening?!"

"Did getting hit off the side of the boat take away your memory?" Wendy asked, glaring slightly. "The ship is being attacked, and it's sinking!"

Dipper looked back up at the ship, now swarmed with the ghostly embers, as it began to rain. He gained a sudden feeling of determination right then and there.

"I'm going back up there. People need help."

"Are you crazy?!" Wendy went wide-eyed. "It's too dangerous! How the hell do you even plan on getting up there anyways?!"

Dipper thought for a moment. He looked down at his hand, then back at the water. "It's worth a shot..."

He leaped into the air and pointed his hand at the water. "Kurogane!"

His arm began to glow as a large, gray, metallic cannon formed around it, pointed down at the water. It was incredibly heavy, and the weight was already pulling Dipper down quickly.

Then, much to his and Wendy's surprise, he fired a large cannonball of sorts out of the cannon, and the force sent him rocketing upwards. The cannon vanished once he landed flat on his back on the ship's front deck.

As he slowly stood up, he heard a shriek nearby. He looked to see Pacifica about to fall off of the ship over the railing. He sprinted towards her, but slipped, landing on the damp wood. Pacifica swung her scepter at the ghosts, trying to fend them off, but they just kept coming. Then, she finally lost her balance and went over the railing, plummeting towards the water below.

Then Dipper's hand caught her by the wrist.

"D-Dipper!" Pacifica panted, gasping for air as she hung in the air above the thrashing waters below.

"Hang on!" Dipper grunted, trying to pull the girl back on board. "I'll pull you back-"

Something struck Dipper's back hard. He let out a cry of pain as he lost his balance and went flying over the edge of the boat, along with Pacifica, and into the water.

The two of them quickly surfaced and gasped for air, treading the water and looking around frantically.

The ship was tipping on its side, there was pretty much no hope for it now. Multiple holes let water into the lower decks, and the mast was nothing more than a burning stake that had broken off and fell into the raging ocean.

The waves tried to push them under, and when that didn't happen, the ghostly embers would attack, being surprisingly resilient to the water.

"We have to get to somewhere safe!" Dipper called out as he and Pacifica swam away from the destroyed ship towards any possible life boats or rafts.

"But where?!" Pacifica shouted back.

"I don't know, just...look!" Dipper pointed towards a raft in the distance.

"We can't swim that far, Dipper!" Pacifica retaliated.

Dipper thought for a moment before he had an idea. He looked at Pacifica with a serious expression. "Just don't question anything that's about to happen, okay?"

"Um...okay...?" The girl cocked an eyebrow.

Dipper outstretched his hand and focused.

Here goes nothing...

"Pick!"

A large black box appeared in a flash of light surrounding Dipper's hand. Then, a stream of yellow and black checkerboard patterned boxes shot from that main box towards the raft in the distance.

Pacifica stared with wide eyes at the technique before looking at its user. "How did you-"

"I said don't question it!" Dipper snapped. "Now get on and run across to the raft!"

Pacifica nodded and climbed up on to the main box without asking any more questions. Then she began running across it towards the raft. Once she arrived at the other side, Dipper focused and made the Pick disappear entirely.

"Alright, now to figure out-"

"Dipper!"

Dipper turned in the water to see Wendy on another raft, waving him down.

"I'm coming!" Dipper started swimming, but now he remembered his prosthetic leg. It suddenly felt heavier than it ever had that night. He frantically tried to reach the raft, and just before he could be completely submerged by the raging waves...

Wendy grabbed his wrist and started pulling him aboard. "I've got you! Hang on!"

"I'm trying to get up!" Dipper pulled on Wendy's hand to try and lift himself up. "Just give me a sec-"

"Let go of him, Wendy."

That stern reply came from Robbie. As he shot a neutral glare towards the struggling boy.

"What- no! Robbie, help me!" Wendy glared at her ex.

"Oh, I'll help alright..." Without another word, Robbie activated his Second Level technique, the flaming kick, and brought his heel down on the connected hands.

"Ow, damn it!" Wendy grasped her burned hand and fell back against the raft.

Then her eyes widened as she saw Dipper's horrified face become completely submerged in the water.

No matter how much he flailed or thrashed or did anything, he just sank more and more.

As the darkness of the deep undersea blinded him, he lost all of his oxygen and passed out.

-(End Of Chapter)-

Sorry for taking forever to get another chapter out, just been stressed lately.

I'll try and get more chapters out soon.

Until then, though, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, reviews are highly appreciated, and as always...

Stay Tuned!

~087-B