Chapter 7

"Were you scared?"
"Hell – yes."
"What did you do?"
"I ran. I ran all the way here. It started raining halfway so I had to run faster."
"You're not out of breath."
"That's the strangest thing. I don't know what came over me."
"Thank you, James, we'll take it from here. But what about the guests?"
"Thanks, officer, I sent them away with a refund.
Right now, the Benbow Inn is too grief-stricken to operate."

BEN got released later, the police wanted to check his circuitry for a recording of the raid. But none of their machines worked with anything as outdated as BEN, so they went back to basics. They asked him to give them a verbal account.
"No – speak slooowly… Yeah, that's good. Now, tell me what happened."
"I'll-tell-you-wahat-happened-Capatin-Flint-has-a-daughter-see-and-she-came-into-Jim's-room-in-the-middle-of-the-night… Actually-I-don't-think-it-was-the-middle-of-the-night-more-like-five-in-the-morning
why-does-he-want-to-wake-up-so-early?
seriously-he-is-like-some-kinda-night-creature-or-something
he-hates-waking-up-to-the-sun-but-he-likes-it-when-I-let-him-up-before-dawn-weird
huh-is-that-any-slower?"
They asked him to speak slower again. And again. And again… They slowed him down until they could understand what he said word for word. But then, when they wrote out what he said, it just sounded too stupid to be real. Who ever heard of Nathaniel Flint actually having an immortal daughter that targeted James Hawkins (The James Hawkins! You know? The one that thinks he flew to Treasure Planet and back? What a moron.), raided his house, took Sarah Hawkins with the aid of a male Patherian-Felind and a girl that turned into a jungle cat, and – finally, the little cherry on the cupcake – vanished without a trace?
BEN still stuck to his story, though. He even wrote them a swell little account, too. He thought that maybe the story'd make more sense to them if he did the writing. But the sergeant simply gave it a glance once he took the paper, crumpled it into a ball and threw it over his shoulder. No one could really read his handwriting, anyway.
They tried to be sporting, though. They humored him, laughed at the funnier parts, and sent him back with a pat on the shoulder. They filed it as a kidnap case by 'unknown assailants'. There were no proper witnesses, and the few that saw it were too distraught to be thinking correctly.
When he was good and out the door, they sunk back into their chairs with a sigh and an exasperated: "Lord, give me strength,"
Back outside, he had to run super fast to catch up with Jimmy. Apparently, Mister My-Mom-Was-Taken-Hostage-By-Marauders-Brimming-With-Evil-Intent didn't like himself getting wet. And – gee golly wonkers – will you look at how fast he's running nowadays! It's almost like… He's not human…
…He's no human…
…Or something…
He kept trying to convince himself it was 'Or something'.

Doctor Delbert Doppler wasn't expecting anyone that night. He had just made a cup of coffee, set some logs into the fireplace, and slumped himself into his armchair. He was fresh from a bath, and a leather-bound edition of Discoveries in the Etherium sat on the lap in his best robe.
It was raining again. The Doctor loved rainy nights. Rainy days made him depressed but nights were something else. Nights were when the sky bloomed purple with clouds and rhythmic rain drummed the ground. He could fall asleep like that. With everything so peaceful as it was…
"Ah, blast it!"
The Doctor wrenched opened an eye lazily. A cat paced the room, hissing as insistently as the rain that came down outside the window.
"I hate rain," The feline woman ran a hand through her copper hair. "You know, Delbert, when I was a child, my parents convinced me that rain came as a harbinger of misfortune?"
"That's nice," Her husband slumped down deeper into his chair. He didn't feel like decoding her again. Too much work. And what were 'harbingers' again?
She rolled her eyes with a grunt.
"Everytime I see rain, I keep thinking that somewhere out there… Someone's miserable because of it. Suffering because the rain brought it upon them." She paused at the window, her claws digging into the ledge. Old as she was, that story always set her on edge.
She looked out into the night. So, she asked, "Who is it this time? What happened? Are they in mourning? Was their father taken away? Their mother? Has their house come apart? Has their ship capsized? Has business gone downhill? Have you even been listening to me, Delbert? Oh, Deeeelbeerrrt?"
"That's very nice, Amelia…"
His coffee lay untouched.
She took the cup greedily and downed it all. She felt terrible. She always got uneasy when she didn't get answers. Answers kept her grounded. Without them would be as if there was no gravity – without gravity, she'd be spiraling off into space with no idea where she would go…
She shuddered. How terrifying.
"So, who is it this time?"
BLAM!
The door flew open. A river of icy wind flowed into the house. In the middle of the doorway, forced to its knees by the wind, lay a tired, dripping figure. He announced his presence with a sick groan and a snap of lighting in his wake.
The creature shook itself like a wet dog. A sodden mop of brown hair fanned out.
It seemed like ages before it calmed itself enough to speak. And what remained of its voice was shaking, partly drowned out by thunder:
"H-hey, C-c-captain,"

He was in the Doctor's observatory, snug next to the fireplace and a dry towel draped around his shoulders, but Jim's teeth still clattered.
By the Doctor's orders, he'd changed into one of his old robes. If he stayed in his soaking clothes, the Doctor chided, he'd catch a death of cold. Jim didn't have to be asked twice. He hated getting wet. He only wished that the Doctor had better taste in clothes – he looked like a dork from the Masterpiece Theatre.
He told them the story again. It wasn't easy when his teeth were clicking like castanets. Morph helped act out the… the bits he didn't feel right talking about. The little blob did a pretty good imitation of him vaulting over a railing.
He told them everything. From the break-in to the attack, even the abduction. The Doctor nodded meaningfully throughout the most of the story, but halfway through, excused himself. He needed more kindlewood. He came back without any, his cheeks trailing wet.
"And then I ran here from the station," Jim finally concluded. The last word was like a pebble, rolling down a hill and away into the night.
Silence followed – not a good silence – the kind of silence that came during funerals when no one could think of what to say.
Finally, the Doctor cleared his throat. "Where… where do you think they'd take her?" He began uneasily.
"I don't know. But… but BEN knew that pirate woman! Yes! He called her by name… What was that again…?" Jim's face tightened, he wasn't all that good with names. "Elizabeth… Elizabeth… Uh…"
"Flint." The bronze robot said to the carpet. "She's the captain's daughter."
Amelia leaned forward in her seat. "The captain Flint?"
"Uh, well, there were many Flints in history, we may not be talking about the same one…"
"The bloodthirsty, vindictive marauder who built and lorded over Treasure Planet?"
"Yeah, we're talking about the same one."
"BEN," Jim pressed, "Who is she?"
"I said it already – she's her daddy's little girl." The crew stared him down. "It's a long story."
"We've got nothing but time."
"Okay…" BEN leaned back, accessing memory files from long before. He drummed him fingers on the bench he sat on. It helped when he had a rhythm to think to.
"I already told you fellas, that I used to work for captain Flint, right? Well, he was an evil, sick guy. He liked to spit in my face if there was fly in his rum. He keelhauled. A lot. And he whipped." The robot massaged his rusted, brown bottom. "A lot of that, too. We never thought anyone could like a fella like him.
But one day, he surprised us all. We had a prisoner in the brig, right? One day, she gave birth to a kid! We were so shocked – one of the hands went into cardiac arrest!"
And that baby girl… well… she named the kid Elizabeth and moved into the Captain's cabin. Flint never told us he fancied her until she gave him a baby. I think I know why he chose her, though."
"See, this woman was a Siren."
"So, she was bombshell?"
"No – not that kind of Siren – she was a magical lady. Put simply she had superpowers.
Put complicatedly, Sirens are magical creatures – blue and beautiful and pretty pretty – the captain got her in a raid and some tough dealings. In a way, she belonged to him from then on. They weren't in love, I guess, that's because they fought a lot. But Sirens are attached to certain pieces of treasure and they're bound and gagged to help whoever gets it – I guess that's how Flint kept her to him.
So Missus Flint, Flint and baby Flint grew up on Treasure Planet. They never told me where they lived exactly, but it's hard to imagine a little cottage by the sea on that bucket of bolts. Elizabeth grew up there into a fine little lady, and I was put in charge of making sure she stuck to being fine whenever I saw her. I know Elizabeth – she likes sticking to things she knows. That includes places."
The room died down into silence again. The fireplace gave a dying gasp and went dead. BEN gulped before concluding:
"If Elizabeth took your mom, I bet she's headed back for Treasure Planet. She'll take your mom back to the place she grew up. And, Jimmy, you gotta find her before she does."