The disclaimer is still standing. I only own Kio. Nothing else here belongs
to me.
Jim was rudely awoken by Mr. Snuff 'talking' in his sleep, on the cot hanging over his own. He rolled onto the ground and began pulling on his boots while he was still pretty much asleep. Kio was over at a corner below deck, whispering something to Morph, slyly watching Jim, making sure he wouldn't see them. Morph nodded vigorously and changed into an exact replica of Jim's other boot. As the cabin boy reached out for it, it hopped away a few inches. Kio had to cover her mouth to muffle her laughter.
"Morph?" Jim asked, rubbing his eyes to awake himself and crawled over to where the boot flew over behind a barrel. "Morph, knock it off. It's too early." The boot flew behind Jim and kicked his rear.
"Ow! Hey! Morph!" Jim was finally woken up to that and went to chase the flying boot which stuck out its tongue and laughed at him, along with Kio in the corner. Morph went back to his original form and grabbed the real boot to take away from him. He flew in circles, Jim chasing him until they soared on deck. Kio was right behind them. Jim grabbed his boot from Morph as the shapeshifter flew into vent to hide from him. Kio balanced on the tips of her cattish feet right next to Jim, watching to see what Morph would do next. Morph surfaced and was blown upon by Jim, so the shapeshifter changed to what seemed to a blowfish and flattened itself, spitting water on Jim's face, sending Kio back to laughing, until Morph did the exact same thing to her, making her quiet and giving Jim and chance to mock her. Then he went back to Morph.
"That's it, you little squit!" Jim said and readied his boot to play 'smack a mole' with Morph as the mole. Morph surfaced as a copy of Jim's head and mimicked his words.
"Little squit!" the shapeshifter chimed, diving and surfacing many times, each time as more. Morph finally flew from the vent, resorting to let Kio and Jim chase in down to the galley, as where he was headed.
Jim fell down the stairs while pulling on his other boot scanning the room for Morph. Kio ran into the room right after Jim fell down and was listening intently as a hunter would, searching for the little mischievous shapeshifter as well. They both subconsciously shared a thought: the barrel. Both ran to it and were greeted by nothing but perps. Until one of them obtained a pair of eyes.
"Busted!" Jim remarked and dove into the barrel, clasping onto Morph and telling him to be quiet as the crew came down into the galley. Kio dove behind the same barrel and peered out from the side.
"I say we kill 'em all now..." Mr. Scroop hissed to Silver. Silver in return grabbed and shook the spider alien's long muzzle angrily.
"I'll say what's to say around here! You wanna blow th'whole mutiny before its time!? Like that stunt y'pulled with Mr. Arrow! An' tryin' t'finish off Kio, then 'eadin' fer Jim!? Ye'd be lucky if we weren't all tied up by now!" Silver threw Scroop at the barrel Jim was hiding in and Kio was hiding behind. Scroop muttered something once he recollected himself.
"Y'got somethin' t'say Mr. Scroop?" Silver asked the alien with slightly less rage, but very annoyed with him. Scroop thrust his claw down into the barrel that he was thrown at and reached for a perp inside of it. Jim carefully stuck one into the grabbing claw of the alien's.
"It's those kids," Scroop hissed, rotating the perp about. "Methinks you have a /soft/ spot fer 'em." He pricked the perp with a claw and let it's juices spill from the side. The rest of the crew began to close in on Silver, their eyes accusing and loyalties beginning to doubt.
"Now listen up – the lotta ya! I care about one t'ing an' one t'ing only! Flint's Trove! Y'think I'd risk it all for the sake of some, nose- wipin' lil' whelps?" Silver began in a fit of rage.
"Oh you got the makin's of /greatness/ in ye..." Scroop mocked.
"Shut yer yap! I cozied up to those lil' brats t'keep 'em off our scent! But I ain't gone soft..." Silver growled.
"Land hoi!" a shrill voice yelled from the deck. The pirates moved out. Kio and Jim were left speechless and severely hurt. Not wanting to believe what they had just now had to hear. They slowly moved out from where they hid, joy gone. Not even caring about how they reached Treasure Planet at last. Silver quickly returned to grab his spyglass. Kio jumped out of his way oand positioned herself on a wall out of fear that was rapidly growing, but also a large portion of it was hatred for all the lies he spat at them. Silver was taken aback of her startle and was aiming to see if things were ok, but after he took one step towards Kio she was out on deck, hoping to stray as far from the cyborg as possible, yet her loyalty told her to stay put and wait for Jim. Even more so it told her not to desert him and leave him with the traitor cook. She slowly came back, but only two steps back down the stairs into the galley. Silver was looking for his spyglass and was greeted by Jim's cold, harsh glare as he backed up to the table.
"Jimbo! Playing games...?" Silver asked, slightly startled by Jim glaring and backing up. What was up with them?
"Yeah... Playing games..." Jim muttered.
"I never was good at games... Always hated t'lose..." Silver said, changing his robotic hand to a gun. Kio gasped inwardly and mouthed the word 'gun' to Jim several times. Jim reached for a sharpened knife from on the table after seeing what Kio was trying to tell him.
"Me too!" Jim rammed the knife into Silver's robotic leg and ran, Kio right behind him. Silver ran up on deck, with much trouble as his leg wasn't working correctly. A shrill whistle interrupted all else onboard.
"Change in plans, lads! We move now!" Silver yelled, after spotting Kio and Jim run into the captain's stateroom.
"Pirates on my ship – I'll they all hanged," Amelia stated full of rage. She tossed a pistol over to Doppler.
"Doctor, familiar with these?" she asked. Doppler began to say somewhat of him knowing how to use them, when he accidentally fired to a globe in Amelia's stateroom. She looked up alarmed.
"Um, no, no I'm not," Delbert reluctantly confessed. Amelia rolled her eyes. She took out the map and tossed it to Jim.
"Mr. Hawkins, guard this with your life." However just as she did Morph came and snatched the sphere.
"Morph let go!" Jim grabbed the map and finally got him to let go.
"Will ye be takin' all day about it!?" Silver asked impatiently loading a cannon in his arm and fired through the door, yet disappointed to see that they had escaped in a hole in the floor.
Jim, Doppler, Kio, Amelia, and Morph dove into a boat and readied it to be launched when the pirates burst through the door.
"Chew on this, ya pus filled boils!" Amelia yelled and fired at them. Doppler closed his eyes and fired the pistol at a heavy object above them. It came crashing down and took the lives of the pirates coming to attack them. Amelia was impressed.
"Did you actually aim for that?" she asked.
"You know actually I did," Doppler mentioned, then was pushed down by the captain as a shot nearly hit him from Silver. As for Jim, Morph had stolen the map and he was busy chasing him to where the shapeshifter dropped it. Kio was still in the boat with Amelia and Doppler. Silver went out to try and get Morph to give him the map, and Jim was just as persistent. Morph gave up and dropped it into a pile of ropes, which Jim got to first. He waited to run from Silver, a note of sympathy emplaced in his eyes, then he ran. The boat's escape route was already being blocked – the closing of the door underneath them. So as Jim came into view Amelia and Doppler fired, knowing Jim would be able to reach the boat in time. As it fell into the sky Jim jumped aboard, but nearly fell off completely and was hanging on the side for dear life. Kio rushed to aid him alongside of Doppler. They pulled him up and to safety.
However it was not over yet. A large, fat alien was working the cannons and fired.
"Captain! Laser ball at twelve o'clock!" Doppler yelled completely out of fear, ducking. Amelia tried her best to move the boat free of the target, but it was fruitless efforts as the laser still hit them, and hurt Amelia badly on her side. The ship flew in no control into the mists of the planet. They crashed through a plant of some sort, sending the ship to spiraling through the air and landing upside down, continuing to skid like that until it finally slowed down and stopped. Delbert climbed out and turned it on it's side first off, breathing heavily.
"Heh... Well, that was more fun than I'd ever like to have again," he said as a somewhat comic-relief. Jim took out the map as the captain requested, but it floated up and came undone. This was Morph's doing. The little shapeshifter started laughing hysterically.
"Morph! Where's the map!?" Jim asked enthusiastically with much anger towards Morph. He displayed the map falling into the rope pile.
"Are you serious!?" Jim yelled. "It's back on the ship!?" Morph obtained a guilty, yet still humored look.
"Stifle that blob and get down. We have company," Amelia muttered sternly to them all as a ship that was full of pirates flew overhead.
"We need a more defensive position. Mr. Hawkins, Kio, go scout ahead," Amelia ordered and then was forced to lay down and be still while Doppler made sure she was alright.
"Aye captain," Jim said, taking the offered gun. "C'mon Kio," he said, and Kio followed him obediently. They were making their way down slopes and such, soon moving on to a densely forested area. As they went on they noticed a few plants clumped together as if they were a bush moving. Jim grabbed the gun and told Morph to be quiet as he slowly wandered over to where the 'bushes' were, Kio at his side. It was all too quiet after they had moved, and were paranoid of being watched. Both slowly looked over the odd plants, expecting something jump out, and that it did.
"HI!" a robot made his appearance so startling that Jim fell over, Kio simply tripping backwards. The robot pinned Jim to the ground while blabbering on.
"Finally! A carbon based life form coming to rescue me at last! I just wanna hold ya and squeeze ya and hold ya close to me!" He hugged Jim, was brutally pushed off then went to Kio whom just stood there being hugged and shuddered, not knowing quite what to do, and was paralyzed with fear of this new loud robot whom had just knocked them to the ground by scaring them. Jim pulled him off of her and was hugged by the lunatic robot again.
"Look would you let go of me?" Jim asked irritated as he freed himself from the robot's grip.
"Sorry! It's just I've been marooned here for the longest time... I mean, solitude's great and all but, say, after a hundred years, YA GO A LITTLE NUTS! Ha ha ha!" the robot explained. Kio raised an eyebrow. This robot was fascinating, but a little too much.
"Heh... Okay, um... I am... My name is, uh..." the robot struggled hard to remember. Kio wandered away from the robot, out of fear that it would spaz again and yell.
"B.E.N.! Of course! Ben! Bio Electronic Navigator! And you are?" B.E.N. asked.
"Jim," he said, none-too-interested in continuing talking to the spastic robot, B.E.N. .
"Ah what a pleasure t'meet ya Jimmy," B.E.N. said, shaking Jim's hand roughly.
"It's Jim," he repeated himself, getting tired of B.E.N. all too quickly.
"And who do we have here?" B.E.N. moved over to Kio.
"Kio..." she said, backing up from B.E.N.
"Nice to meet ya Kimmy!" B.E.N. made up a nickname for Kio as she continued further away from him, ignoring the handshake he offered, resulting in Kio obtaining another hug from B.E.N. She looked over at Jim, who was finding this amusing now, seeing Kio paralyzed from the hug she got, and glared somewhat, mumbling the words, 'Get him off me.' B.E.N. hopped off of Kio and went back over to Jim who was picking up the gun that he dropped.
"So anyways," B.E.N. started, sitting on Jim, who pushed him off.
"Look we really gotta get going; there's pirates around, so," Jim was starting to leave when B.E.N. leaped in front of him exclaiming,
"Pirates! Don't get me started on pirates! – I don't like them!" Jim and Kio ignored B.E.N.
"I remember – Captain Flint! This guy had such a temper!" B.E.N. went on, sitting on some sort of machinery.
"Wait – you knew Captain Flint!?" Jim asked in disbelief, turning around and coming back over to B.E.N.
"I think he suffered from mood-swings personally, I don't know I'm not a therapist – You let me know when I'm rambling!" B.E.N. continued on.
"Wait, then, than that means – you know where the treasure is!" Jim pointed out.
"Treasure...?" B.E.N. asked himself, more than Jim, really.
"Yeah, the loot of a thousand worlds!"
"It's all a li-little fuzzy..." B.E.N. began. "Wait! I r-r-remember. Treasure! Yeah – lots of treasure! Buried in the centroid, centroid, centroid of the mechanism! And Captain Flint wanted to make sure no one would ever find it! So I helped him – aiiigh – Inaccessible! Reboot, reboot, reboot!" B.E.N. was nearly out of control.
"Ben!" Jim slapped him.
"And you are?" the robot asked.
"Wait, wait, wait! What about the treasure?" he asked, getting stressed out.
"I wanna say, Larry," B.E.N. stated.
"But, what about the centroid, of the mechanism?" Jim asked, getting frustrated with this robot.
"I'm sorry. My memory isn't what it used to be. I've, lost my mind! Heh ha, I've LOST MY MIND!" B.E.N. cackled. "You haven't found it have you? My missing piece? My primary memory circuit?" the robot asked, pointing to the back of his head where a few loose wires stuck out.
"Uh. Hey, B.E.N., we really need to find a place to hide, so we're just gonna be, y'know, moving along," Jim said, trying to ditch the robot. "C'mon, /Kimmy/," he said, making sure Kio was following. B.E.N. was left on the ground in sorrow.
"Oh... Well, then, I guess this is good-bye... I understand. I'm just sorry I'm so... dysfunctional," he began to slowly roll away. Morph and Kio both were silently pleading Jim to let B.E.N. come along. Even if Kio saw him as somewhat frightening. Jim gave in to their requests.
"Look, if you're gonna come along, you're going to have to stop talking," he said.
"Huzzah!" B.E.N. yelled of victory and jumped into Jim's arms. "This is /fantastic! Just me and my buddies out looking for a... uhm...I'll stop talking." he pretended to zip his mouth shut.
"And you're going to have to stop touching me," Jim ordered and set B.E.N. down.
"Right-o! Touching and talking! What, like, heh, two big no-no's," the robot exclaimed.
"Ok, then we best get going," Jim started to walk another way, but B.E.N. grabbed him.
"Hey, mind if we make a quick pit stop at my place? Heh, kind of urgent..." B.E.N. said showing them a large building in the distance behind some plants.
"B.E.N. I think you've just solved my problem."
B.E.N. went about his 'house' tidying up the past with much effort, yet only getting a few things done. Doppler walked in carrying Amelia and laid her down with her head propped upon a rock.
"Aww, I find old fashion romance so touching. Drinks for the happy couple?" he offered, shoving a tray with two pots of grotesque looking bubbling oil sitting in it.
"Uh, no, no thank you. We don't drink. And we're not a couple..." Doppler said, receiving an odd, yet comforting look from Amelia.
"Look at these markings... They're identical to the ones on the map," Doppler said, taking a look around, "Almost like some foreign ancient language."
"Hey look it's some more of your buddies! Hey fellas! Were over here!" B.E.N. yelled and jumped about, dodging laser shots here and there until Jim pulled him away and shot at the pirates. Soon the shots stopped and Silver was spotted holding a white flag, asking to bargain for the map.
"He thinks we still have it!" Jim stated out of excitement and left to greet Silver with hostility. Kio seated herself in the rim of the opening of B.E.N.'s 'house' armed with a gun she had borrowed from Delbert. Her ears were back in anger, watching Jim and Silver talk, but all her hate was pointed to the pirate captain. Kio's eyes narrowed as they went on, soon Silver spotted Kio, with the gun in her hands, pointed at the sky, obviously she was not the sweet young girl he had used to know. This pained him, as he was lying to the crew about having no soft spot for either Jim or the girl.
Out of watching them continuously, Kio had begun to fret if Silver had tricked Jim, until the yells came.
"That treasure is owed to me, by thunder!" Silver bellowed.
"Well try to find it without /my/ map, by thunder!" Jim yelled at Silver, gaining an Irish accent. Both went back to their camps.
Kio set aside the gun and went to Jim, asking what happened and such. He told her, but with little to no detail.
Nightfall came quickly that day, Kio was leaning on the wall opposite from Jim, staring out the window, listening to Doppler and Amelia.
"She's lost her mind!" Delbert exclaimed.
"Well – you, you gotta help her!" Jim said.
"Dangit Jim, I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor! I am a doctor, but the kind of doctor who just sits there and you're useless!" Doppler said, pressing his hands to his head in stress. Jim comforted him and then went back to his duty of guarding the entrance. He sighed and fell against the wall, defeated.
"Without the map we're dead... If we try to leave were dead... If we stay here," Jim muttered, then was interrupted by Morph chorusing in joy that only one ignorant of their situation such as he could display -"We're dead! We're dead, we're dead, we're dead!" Jim sighed. Kio slumped to the ground with her head in her arms.
"We won't make it out of here alive..." she mumbled, more to herself than others. One of the first times she had lost hope.
"Well, I see we all could use some, quiet time, so I'll just slip out the back door," B.E.N. said.
"Back door?" Jim asked, Kio slightly looked up from her knees.
"Oh yes," B.E.N. said, grunting as he pushed open a door in the ground, which was a rotating sphere in one place, basically. "I get a delightful breeze through here, which I think is important, because ventilation, among friends –"Hardly anyone in the room was listening to B.E.N.'s ramblings.
"What is all of this stuff?" Jim asked with much curiosity, coming over to the door, Kio slowly was following.
"You mean the miles and miles of machinery that runs throughout the course of this entire planet? Not a clue!" B.E.N. said as they looked downwards into it all.
"Hey doc, I think I may have found a way out of here!" Jim called out to Doppler.
"No, Jim, the captain ordered us to stay here and-"he began to protest.
"I'll be back!" Jim said and went in, legs first.
"Cannon ball!" B.E.N. yelled and did one in after Jim. Kio inspected the place first, the she gathered up her courage and slipped in, legs first such as Jim, but a bit more carefully than the rest of them.
"Woof," Doppler muttered in his frustration.
Jim pushed open what seemed like a rusted bronze rock in the ground in the camp of the pirates, that was embedded with green vegetation. Kio poked her head out second, standing next to Jim and scanning the area.
"So what's the plan!?" B.E.N. asked, rather loudly, interrupting any thoughts between Kio or Jim.
"B.E.N., shhh!" Jim warned him. "Okay, the plan is that we sneak onto the Legacy, disable the laser cannons, grab the map and come back," he whispered harshly.
"That's a good plan, I like that plan," B.E.N. muttered from the corner of his now muffled mouth. "But, how do we get up there?" he asked.
"On that," Jim pointed out a boat behind the pirates.
B.E.N. screamed somewhat loudly as he fell into the RLS Legacy after Kio and Jim pulled him into it.
"Shh! B.E.N.!" Jim said harshly. "Okay, I'll go find the map. Kio, come with me, B.E.N. you stay here."
"Right-o, Captain Jimmy, sir! Disabling laser cannons, sir!" B.E.N. went flying down the corners before anyone could stop him, singing 'yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me.'
"Disable a few laser cannons, what if the big deal? I mean, all you have to do is find that one little wire –"B.E.N. opened up a 'closet' filling up the whole wall with a mix of yellow, red, blue, and white wires.
"Oh mama."
Jim had just found the map from a pile of ropes, and was relieved to have found it so quickly. Kio was glad too. Maybe they /would/ make it out of there alive. Until the alarms went off.
"That stupid robot's gonna get us all – killed..." Jim said, stopping face to face with Mr. Scroop. "Cabin boy and girl..." he growled, flexing a claw and obtaining an insane look on his long face, happy to get the chance he'd been waiting for to finish them off.
Jim was rudely awoken by Mr. Snuff 'talking' in his sleep, on the cot hanging over his own. He rolled onto the ground and began pulling on his boots while he was still pretty much asleep. Kio was over at a corner below deck, whispering something to Morph, slyly watching Jim, making sure he wouldn't see them. Morph nodded vigorously and changed into an exact replica of Jim's other boot. As the cabin boy reached out for it, it hopped away a few inches. Kio had to cover her mouth to muffle her laughter.
"Morph?" Jim asked, rubbing his eyes to awake himself and crawled over to where the boot flew over behind a barrel. "Morph, knock it off. It's too early." The boot flew behind Jim and kicked his rear.
"Ow! Hey! Morph!" Jim was finally woken up to that and went to chase the flying boot which stuck out its tongue and laughed at him, along with Kio in the corner. Morph went back to his original form and grabbed the real boot to take away from him. He flew in circles, Jim chasing him until they soared on deck. Kio was right behind them. Jim grabbed his boot from Morph as the shapeshifter flew into vent to hide from him. Kio balanced on the tips of her cattish feet right next to Jim, watching to see what Morph would do next. Morph surfaced and was blown upon by Jim, so the shapeshifter changed to what seemed to a blowfish and flattened itself, spitting water on Jim's face, sending Kio back to laughing, until Morph did the exact same thing to her, making her quiet and giving Jim and chance to mock her. Then he went back to Morph.
"That's it, you little squit!" Jim said and readied his boot to play 'smack a mole' with Morph as the mole. Morph surfaced as a copy of Jim's head and mimicked his words.
"Little squit!" the shapeshifter chimed, diving and surfacing many times, each time as more. Morph finally flew from the vent, resorting to let Kio and Jim chase in down to the galley, as where he was headed.
Jim fell down the stairs while pulling on his other boot scanning the room for Morph. Kio ran into the room right after Jim fell down and was listening intently as a hunter would, searching for the little mischievous shapeshifter as well. They both subconsciously shared a thought: the barrel. Both ran to it and were greeted by nothing but perps. Until one of them obtained a pair of eyes.
"Busted!" Jim remarked and dove into the barrel, clasping onto Morph and telling him to be quiet as the crew came down into the galley. Kio dove behind the same barrel and peered out from the side.
"I say we kill 'em all now..." Mr. Scroop hissed to Silver. Silver in return grabbed and shook the spider alien's long muzzle angrily.
"I'll say what's to say around here! You wanna blow th'whole mutiny before its time!? Like that stunt y'pulled with Mr. Arrow! An' tryin' t'finish off Kio, then 'eadin' fer Jim!? Ye'd be lucky if we weren't all tied up by now!" Silver threw Scroop at the barrel Jim was hiding in and Kio was hiding behind. Scroop muttered something once he recollected himself.
"Y'got somethin' t'say Mr. Scroop?" Silver asked the alien with slightly less rage, but very annoyed with him. Scroop thrust his claw down into the barrel that he was thrown at and reached for a perp inside of it. Jim carefully stuck one into the grabbing claw of the alien's.
"It's those kids," Scroop hissed, rotating the perp about. "Methinks you have a /soft/ spot fer 'em." He pricked the perp with a claw and let it's juices spill from the side. The rest of the crew began to close in on Silver, their eyes accusing and loyalties beginning to doubt.
"Now listen up – the lotta ya! I care about one t'ing an' one t'ing only! Flint's Trove! Y'think I'd risk it all for the sake of some, nose- wipin' lil' whelps?" Silver began in a fit of rage.
"Oh you got the makin's of /greatness/ in ye..." Scroop mocked.
"Shut yer yap! I cozied up to those lil' brats t'keep 'em off our scent! But I ain't gone soft..." Silver growled.
"Land hoi!" a shrill voice yelled from the deck. The pirates moved out. Kio and Jim were left speechless and severely hurt. Not wanting to believe what they had just now had to hear. They slowly moved out from where they hid, joy gone. Not even caring about how they reached Treasure Planet at last. Silver quickly returned to grab his spyglass. Kio jumped out of his way oand positioned herself on a wall out of fear that was rapidly growing, but also a large portion of it was hatred for all the lies he spat at them. Silver was taken aback of her startle and was aiming to see if things were ok, but after he took one step towards Kio she was out on deck, hoping to stray as far from the cyborg as possible, yet her loyalty told her to stay put and wait for Jim. Even more so it told her not to desert him and leave him with the traitor cook. She slowly came back, but only two steps back down the stairs into the galley. Silver was looking for his spyglass and was greeted by Jim's cold, harsh glare as he backed up to the table.
"Jimbo! Playing games...?" Silver asked, slightly startled by Jim glaring and backing up. What was up with them?
"Yeah... Playing games..." Jim muttered.
"I never was good at games... Always hated t'lose..." Silver said, changing his robotic hand to a gun. Kio gasped inwardly and mouthed the word 'gun' to Jim several times. Jim reached for a sharpened knife from on the table after seeing what Kio was trying to tell him.
"Me too!" Jim rammed the knife into Silver's robotic leg and ran, Kio right behind him. Silver ran up on deck, with much trouble as his leg wasn't working correctly. A shrill whistle interrupted all else onboard.
"Change in plans, lads! We move now!" Silver yelled, after spotting Kio and Jim run into the captain's stateroom.
"Pirates on my ship – I'll they all hanged," Amelia stated full of rage. She tossed a pistol over to Doppler.
"Doctor, familiar with these?" she asked. Doppler began to say somewhat of him knowing how to use them, when he accidentally fired to a globe in Amelia's stateroom. She looked up alarmed.
"Um, no, no I'm not," Delbert reluctantly confessed. Amelia rolled her eyes. She took out the map and tossed it to Jim.
"Mr. Hawkins, guard this with your life." However just as she did Morph came and snatched the sphere.
"Morph let go!" Jim grabbed the map and finally got him to let go.
"Will ye be takin' all day about it!?" Silver asked impatiently loading a cannon in his arm and fired through the door, yet disappointed to see that they had escaped in a hole in the floor.
Jim, Doppler, Kio, Amelia, and Morph dove into a boat and readied it to be launched when the pirates burst through the door.
"Chew on this, ya pus filled boils!" Amelia yelled and fired at them. Doppler closed his eyes and fired the pistol at a heavy object above them. It came crashing down and took the lives of the pirates coming to attack them. Amelia was impressed.
"Did you actually aim for that?" she asked.
"You know actually I did," Doppler mentioned, then was pushed down by the captain as a shot nearly hit him from Silver. As for Jim, Morph had stolen the map and he was busy chasing him to where the shapeshifter dropped it. Kio was still in the boat with Amelia and Doppler. Silver went out to try and get Morph to give him the map, and Jim was just as persistent. Morph gave up and dropped it into a pile of ropes, which Jim got to first. He waited to run from Silver, a note of sympathy emplaced in his eyes, then he ran. The boat's escape route was already being blocked – the closing of the door underneath them. So as Jim came into view Amelia and Doppler fired, knowing Jim would be able to reach the boat in time. As it fell into the sky Jim jumped aboard, but nearly fell off completely and was hanging on the side for dear life. Kio rushed to aid him alongside of Doppler. They pulled him up and to safety.
However it was not over yet. A large, fat alien was working the cannons and fired.
"Captain! Laser ball at twelve o'clock!" Doppler yelled completely out of fear, ducking. Amelia tried her best to move the boat free of the target, but it was fruitless efforts as the laser still hit them, and hurt Amelia badly on her side. The ship flew in no control into the mists of the planet. They crashed through a plant of some sort, sending the ship to spiraling through the air and landing upside down, continuing to skid like that until it finally slowed down and stopped. Delbert climbed out and turned it on it's side first off, breathing heavily.
"Heh... Well, that was more fun than I'd ever like to have again," he said as a somewhat comic-relief. Jim took out the map as the captain requested, but it floated up and came undone. This was Morph's doing. The little shapeshifter started laughing hysterically.
"Morph! Where's the map!?" Jim asked enthusiastically with much anger towards Morph. He displayed the map falling into the rope pile.
"Are you serious!?" Jim yelled. "It's back on the ship!?" Morph obtained a guilty, yet still humored look.
"Stifle that blob and get down. We have company," Amelia muttered sternly to them all as a ship that was full of pirates flew overhead.
"We need a more defensive position. Mr. Hawkins, Kio, go scout ahead," Amelia ordered and then was forced to lay down and be still while Doppler made sure she was alright.
"Aye captain," Jim said, taking the offered gun. "C'mon Kio," he said, and Kio followed him obediently. They were making their way down slopes and such, soon moving on to a densely forested area. As they went on they noticed a few plants clumped together as if they were a bush moving. Jim grabbed the gun and told Morph to be quiet as he slowly wandered over to where the 'bushes' were, Kio at his side. It was all too quiet after they had moved, and were paranoid of being watched. Both slowly looked over the odd plants, expecting something jump out, and that it did.
"HI!" a robot made his appearance so startling that Jim fell over, Kio simply tripping backwards. The robot pinned Jim to the ground while blabbering on.
"Finally! A carbon based life form coming to rescue me at last! I just wanna hold ya and squeeze ya and hold ya close to me!" He hugged Jim, was brutally pushed off then went to Kio whom just stood there being hugged and shuddered, not knowing quite what to do, and was paralyzed with fear of this new loud robot whom had just knocked them to the ground by scaring them. Jim pulled him off of her and was hugged by the lunatic robot again.
"Look would you let go of me?" Jim asked irritated as he freed himself from the robot's grip.
"Sorry! It's just I've been marooned here for the longest time... I mean, solitude's great and all but, say, after a hundred years, YA GO A LITTLE NUTS! Ha ha ha!" the robot explained. Kio raised an eyebrow. This robot was fascinating, but a little too much.
"Heh... Okay, um... I am... My name is, uh..." the robot struggled hard to remember. Kio wandered away from the robot, out of fear that it would spaz again and yell.
"B.E.N.! Of course! Ben! Bio Electronic Navigator! And you are?" B.E.N. asked.
"Jim," he said, none-too-interested in continuing talking to the spastic robot, B.E.N. .
"Ah what a pleasure t'meet ya Jimmy," B.E.N. said, shaking Jim's hand roughly.
"It's Jim," he repeated himself, getting tired of B.E.N. all too quickly.
"And who do we have here?" B.E.N. moved over to Kio.
"Kio..." she said, backing up from B.E.N.
"Nice to meet ya Kimmy!" B.E.N. made up a nickname for Kio as she continued further away from him, ignoring the handshake he offered, resulting in Kio obtaining another hug from B.E.N. She looked over at Jim, who was finding this amusing now, seeing Kio paralyzed from the hug she got, and glared somewhat, mumbling the words, 'Get him off me.' B.E.N. hopped off of Kio and went back over to Jim who was picking up the gun that he dropped.
"So anyways," B.E.N. started, sitting on Jim, who pushed him off.
"Look we really gotta get going; there's pirates around, so," Jim was starting to leave when B.E.N. leaped in front of him exclaiming,
"Pirates! Don't get me started on pirates! – I don't like them!" Jim and Kio ignored B.E.N.
"I remember – Captain Flint! This guy had such a temper!" B.E.N. went on, sitting on some sort of machinery.
"Wait – you knew Captain Flint!?" Jim asked in disbelief, turning around and coming back over to B.E.N.
"I think he suffered from mood-swings personally, I don't know I'm not a therapist – You let me know when I'm rambling!" B.E.N. continued on.
"Wait, then, than that means – you know where the treasure is!" Jim pointed out.
"Treasure...?" B.E.N. asked himself, more than Jim, really.
"Yeah, the loot of a thousand worlds!"
"It's all a li-little fuzzy..." B.E.N. began. "Wait! I r-r-remember. Treasure! Yeah – lots of treasure! Buried in the centroid, centroid, centroid of the mechanism! And Captain Flint wanted to make sure no one would ever find it! So I helped him – aiiigh – Inaccessible! Reboot, reboot, reboot!" B.E.N. was nearly out of control.
"Ben!" Jim slapped him.
"And you are?" the robot asked.
"Wait, wait, wait! What about the treasure?" he asked, getting stressed out.
"I wanna say, Larry," B.E.N. stated.
"But, what about the centroid, of the mechanism?" Jim asked, getting frustrated with this robot.
"I'm sorry. My memory isn't what it used to be. I've, lost my mind! Heh ha, I've LOST MY MIND!" B.E.N. cackled. "You haven't found it have you? My missing piece? My primary memory circuit?" the robot asked, pointing to the back of his head where a few loose wires stuck out.
"Uh. Hey, B.E.N., we really need to find a place to hide, so we're just gonna be, y'know, moving along," Jim said, trying to ditch the robot. "C'mon, /Kimmy/," he said, making sure Kio was following. B.E.N. was left on the ground in sorrow.
"Oh... Well, then, I guess this is good-bye... I understand. I'm just sorry I'm so... dysfunctional," he began to slowly roll away. Morph and Kio both were silently pleading Jim to let B.E.N. come along. Even if Kio saw him as somewhat frightening. Jim gave in to their requests.
"Look, if you're gonna come along, you're going to have to stop talking," he said.
"Huzzah!" B.E.N. yelled of victory and jumped into Jim's arms. "This is /fantastic! Just me and my buddies out looking for a... uhm...I'll stop talking." he pretended to zip his mouth shut.
"And you're going to have to stop touching me," Jim ordered and set B.E.N. down.
"Right-o! Touching and talking! What, like, heh, two big no-no's," the robot exclaimed.
"Ok, then we best get going," Jim started to walk another way, but B.E.N. grabbed him.
"Hey, mind if we make a quick pit stop at my place? Heh, kind of urgent..." B.E.N. said showing them a large building in the distance behind some plants.
"B.E.N. I think you've just solved my problem."
B.E.N. went about his 'house' tidying up the past with much effort, yet only getting a few things done. Doppler walked in carrying Amelia and laid her down with her head propped upon a rock.
"Aww, I find old fashion romance so touching. Drinks for the happy couple?" he offered, shoving a tray with two pots of grotesque looking bubbling oil sitting in it.
"Uh, no, no thank you. We don't drink. And we're not a couple..." Doppler said, receiving an odd, yet comforting look from Amelia.
"Look at these markings... They're identical to the ones on the map," Doppler said, taking a look around, "Almost like some foreign ancient language."
"Hey look it's some more of your buddies! Hey fellas! Were over here!" B.E.N. yelled and jumped about, dodging laser shots here and there until Jim pulled him away and shot at the pirates. Soon the shots stopped and Silver was spotted holding a white flag, asking to bargain for the map.
"He thinks we still have it!" Jim stated out of excitement and left to greet Silver with hostility. Kio seated herself in the rim of the opening of B.E.N.'s 'house' armed with a gun she had borrowed from Delbert. Her ears were back in anger, watching Jim and Silver talk, but all her hate was pointed to the pirate captain. Kio's eyes narrowed as they went on, soon Silver spotted Kio, with the gun in her hands, pointed at the sky, obviously she was not the sweet young girl he had used to know. This pained him, as he was lying to the crew about having no soft spot for either Jim or the girl.
Out of watching them continuously, Kio had begun to fret if Silver had tricked Jim, until the yells came.
"That treasure is owed to me, by thunder!" Silver bellowed.
"Well try to find it without /my/ map, by thunder!" Jim yelled at Silver, gaining an Irish accent. Both went back to their camps.
Kio set aside the gun and went to Jim, asking what happened and such. He told her, but with little to no detail.
Nightfall came quickly that day, Kio was leaning on the wall opposite from Jim, staring out the window, listening to Doppler and Amelia.
"She's lost her mind!" Delbert exclaimed.
"Well – you, you gotta help her!" Jim said.
"Dangit Jim, I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor! I am a doctor, but the kind of doctor who just sits there and you're useless!" Doppler said, pressing his hands to his head in stress. Jim comforted him and then went back to his duty of guarding the entrance. He sighed and fell against the wall, defeated.
"Without the map we're dead... If we try to leave were dead... If we stay here," Jim muttered, then was interrupted by Morph chorusing in joy that only one ignorant of their situation such as he could display -"We're dead! We're dead, we're dead, we're dead!" Jim sighed. Kio slumped to the ground with her head in her arms.
"We won't make it out of here alive..." she mumbled, more to herself than others. One of the first times she had lost hope.
"Well, I see we all could use some, quiet time, so I'll just slip out the back door," B.E.N. said.
"Back door?" Jim asked, Kio slightly looked up from her knees.
"Oh yes," B.E.N. said, grunting as he pushed open a door in the ground, which was a rotating sphere in one place, basically. "I get a delightful breeze through here, which I think is important, because ventilation, among friends –"Hardly anyone in the room was listening to B.E.N.'s ramblings.
"What is all of this stuff?" Jim asked with much curiosity, coming over to the door, Kio slowly was following.
"You mean the miles and miles of machinery that runs throughout the course of this entire planet? Not a clue!" B.E.N. said as they looked downwards into it all.
"Hey doc, I think I may have found a way out of here!" Jim called out to Doppler.
"No, Jim, the captain ordered us to stay here and-"he began to protest.
"I'll be back!" Jim said and went in, legs first.
"Cannon ball!" B.E.N. yelled and did one in after Jim. Kio inspected the place first, the she gathered up her courage and slipped in, legs first such as Jim, but a bit more carefully than the rest of them.
"Woof," Doppler muttered in his frustration.
Jim pushed open what seemed like a rusted bronze rock in the ground in the camp of the pirates, that was embedded with green vegetation. Kio poked her head out second, standing next to Jim and scanning the area.
"So what's the plan!?" B.E.N. asked, rather loudly, interrupting any thoughts between Kio or Jim.
"B.E.N., shhh!" Jim warned him. "Okay, the plan is that we sneak onto the Legacy, disable the laser cannons, grab the map and come back," he whispered harshly.
"That's a good plan, I like that plan," B.E.N. muttered from the corner of his now muffled mouth. "But, how do we get up there?" he asked.
"On that," Jim pointed out a boat behind the pirates.
B.E.N. screamed somewhat loudly as he fell into the RLS Legacy after Kio and Jim pulled him into it.
"Shh! B.E.N.!" Jim said harshly. "Okay, I'll go find the map. Kio, come with me, B.E.N. you stay here."
"Right-o, Captain Jimmy, sir! Disabling laser cannons, sir!" B.E.N. went flying down the corners before anyone could stop him, singing 'yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me.'
"Disable a few laser cannons, what if the big deal? I mean, all you have to do is find that one little wire –"B.E.N. opened up a 'closet' filling up the whole wall with a mix of yellow, red, blue, and white wires.
"Oh mama."
Jim had just found the map from a pile of ropes, and was relieved to have found it so quickly. Kio was glad too. Maybe they /would/ make it out of there alive. Until the alarms went off.
"That stupid robot's gonna get us all – killed..." Jim said, stopping face to face with Mr. Scroop. "Cabin boy and girl..." he growled, flexing a claw and obtaining an insane look on his long face, happy to get the chance he'd been waiting for to finish them off.