Disclaimer: I don't even own Katie or Nick. My evil twin owns Katie, and a friend from school owns Nick.
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A/N (3/20/04): I had the first part of this typed up, then the computer was restarted, then restarted again, so I lost it. C'est la vie.
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"Why didn't you use your swords against the pirates?" Nick asked.
Lyn shrugged. "Didn't think o' it."
Tom raised his eyebrows. "I thought o' it, but there wasn't enough room. Soon's I bolted, though, I drew my sword, just in case."
"Were you really stranded in Tortuga?" Lisa asked.
"Of course they weren't," Nick replied. "This is just a story they're making up to explain how they got them swords."
"Will Turner gave 'em to us," Lyn insisted. "I swear on me black little heart that we're tellin' th' truth. We were stranded in Tortuga. Why, I've even got the scars to prove it!"
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Lyn and Tom went back to the tavern, swords drawn (at Tom's suggestion). Lyn also had out her pepper-spray, her weapon of choice. The pirates, stupid men that they are, attacked them again. For their trouble they got sprayed in the face for the nth time that day. "Damn," Lyn said, looking at the can of pepper-spray. "This stuff won't last forever."
"Too bad we don't have any replicators," Tom remarked. "Or better yet, phasers."
"For once, I actually agree with you about that bloody Star Trek nonsense."
Lyn got them a room (with a lock). They walked up the stairs. Every time a stair creaked, Lyn winced. You may have noticed that Lyn has the soul of a thief, and creaky stairs are the bane of thieves the world over. The hallway also creaked. This meant that Lyn and Tom would know whenever anyone approached, so long as they were awake.
After they'd checked out their room, Lyn and Tom went back downstairs for supper. One of the other customers tried to take too many liberties with Lyn. He was lucky that he didn't find himself minus an important part of his anatomy before Lyn was through chastising him. Lyn retreated to the room and locked the door.
Tom, meanwhile, was trying to fend off the unwanted attention of the tavern owner's daughter. Eventually he fled upstairs to the room, only to find the door locked. He banged on the door and said, "Lyn, it's me! Let me in!"
"I don't particularly like pirates," Lyn announced as she opened the door. "Vile and dissolute creatures, the lot of them."
Tom shot her a surprised look.
Lyn relocked the door. "I've been thinkin'."
"Really?" Tom asked. "That's new."
"I know," Lyn admitted. Tom began to edge away from her. What had happened to his sister? "I really haven't thought at all since this all started. I've been thinkin', an' I've come to the conclusion that the pirates here in Tortuga really need somethin' to get them worried. Scare away all o' the cowards who should never 'ave become pirates in th' first place."
Tom gave a sigh of relief. This was more like the Lyn he knew. "So what's yer plan?"
"The plan is, we start stealin' things. Like Skif when he was mad. Break holes in houses, scatter valuables all over the place—that sort of thing."
First they raided a shop for some kohl. Lots of kohl. "It's not jes' fer me eyes," Lyn explained. "I need t' cover me whole face wi' th' stuff." Then they raided another shop for some dark clothing. "Shades o' gray," Lyn insisted, "not jes' black. If I'm wearin' all black, I'll be a man-shaped black splotch amongst the shadows." Lyn sewed herself an outfit from the cloth. "We need some rope." Unfortunately, the shop they found that had rope was guarded, night and day.
"I've got an idea!" Lyn said. "We could steal rope from a ship. A pirate ship."
That night, Lyn, wearing her new clothes and with her face covered in kohl, snuck down to the docks. She slipped from shadow to shadow, breathing shallowly, careful to keep quiet. She kept moving even when she stepped on a leaf, knowing it was best to get away from where she'd made the noise.
Several ships rose tall at anchor in the harbor. She chose one she knew to be a pirate ship and swam out to it, careful to keep her face out of the water so the kohl wouldn't wash off. She climbed aboard the ship, knocked out the sentries left to guard it, and used her dagger to cut away quite a bit of rope. She wrapped the rope around her waist and swam back to shore.
After that, things were easy. Lyn would use the rope to climb to the roof of a building, knock holes in said roof, and skeddadle. But she wasn't satisfied.
"Maybe you could sing to them," Tom suggested. "That would be torture."
Two days later, they walked into a shop (wearing masks, of course). Lyn pointed a gun at the customers (mostly pirates), and Tom pointed a gun at the cashier. They'd stolen the guns from a pair of drunken pirates. As Tom got the cashier to hand over all the money, Lyn began to sing: "I hate you, you hate me, let's tie Barney to a tree with a knife in 'is back and an arrow through 'is head, now that purple dino's dead."
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That's the end of that chapter. Short, I know. But I'll (hopefully) upload the next chapter tomorrow. I have it written, so all I have to do is type it. Please review!