-----Chapter One-----

Don Karnage stood watching his pirates as they prepared for their next raid. It was an inspired plan. He'd heard the Diaphin Assoication blabbering on about how air transport wasn't safe anymore, and that they were sending the Viritian Diamond, which was the third biggest in the world, on a cruise ship of all things. Karnage snorted derisively. They'd have to do better than that to fool him. The plan was simple, wait for the ship to get within range, land, steal the diamond, terrorize the passengers a bit, then leave before the Sky Police could get there.

"What could possibly throw a monkey's wrench into my perfect plan?" Karnage said to himself as they took off.

------

Camdyn sighed and began to clean up the props. It had been a terrible expirence. First, Camdyn had mis-stepped, then Pirilla had, purposely, Camdyn thought, stepped on the back of her dress and tripping her up.

"Oooooo. I'd like to get even with them all! How do they know what it's like? I'm surprised the snobs actually watched." Camdyn stopped suddenly as she stepped outside with an armload full of clothing and other items used in their act. She listened closely. A thick fog had set in and she couldn't see far, then again, she couldn't have seen far anyway with all the stuff she was carrying.

"Swear I heard something..." she muttered. Camdyn shrugged as best she could then started walking along to the room she had to share with Pirilla. She ran into someone about halfway there.

"Pirilla? Is that you? Help me get these things to the room, ok?"

When silence greeted her words, she knew something was wrong, Pirilla would have mocked her, a passenger would have yelled at her. So, who had she just walked into?

"Hello?" she said tentatively. She sighed and dropped the armload of clothing. There was no one there.

"Aw, geez." she muttered. "Pirilla! Quit fooling around."

A high pitched giggle sounded behind her. Camdyn jumped around and was face to face with a very insane looking ferret. Her eyes went wide and he giggled again.

"She does not knooooooooo-ooooooow..." he giggled out. A red wolf stepped through the fog.

"Well she is knowing now, idiot!" He drew his cutlass and pointed it at Camdyn. "Get her and keep her mouth closed up."

Camdyn didn't wait for the pirates to make their move, she ran as fast as she could to her room. It was the first thing that had come to mind. She reached it with the pirates right on her tail. She tried the door, it was locked.

"Pirilla! Open the door! OPEN!" she howled. The spaniel inside spat back an insult.

"There are pirates! Big scary ones!"

"You've lost your mind!"

"EEEEEEEE! They're coming!" Camdyn couldn't run any farther as their room was at the end of a hall.

"If there really are pirates, what does their leader look like?" Pirilla asked through the door.

"He's a big red wolf! With a really sharp sword!" Dumptruck picked Camdyn up off the floor, barely avoiding a savage kick aimed his way.

"Hrumph. What's his name? He sounds cute."

By this time, Dumptruck was having trouble holding onto the squirming vixen. At this last comment however, she stopped struggling entirely and just stared at the door. She looked back at Dumptruck and Mad Dog.

"Now you all know why they're called Cocker Spaniels." she said wryly. "I hope he makes you walk the plank, Pirilla!" she shouted back at the room.

"I told you to keep her quiet like the baby-type mouse person!"

"We tried Captain...she was trying to get inside." Mad Dog cringed.

"Yeah, unfortunately my 'friend' was more interested in your looks than her apparent danger."

Karnage glared at the vixen.

"If you do not shut yourself up, I will use the peanut butter and duct tape on you."

Camdyn merely gave him a puzzled look, but said nothing.

"Now, you, go and look for the diamond." He pointed at the crazy ferret. The ferret nodded and moved off quickly.

"Cabin 14A"

"What?" Karnage said looking at the vixen.

"That's where the diamond is. I saw 'em put it in there."

"You do not know what you are bubbling on about."

"Seriously! I heard the guy telling someone that they had this rock the size of my fist and that they were transporting it to a museum."

"Rock? I thought we were after a big diamond..." Dumptruck said, scratching his head with his free hand.

"I would hit you in the head with something, but you would not be feeling it." Karnage snapped as the passengers realized just what sort of danger they were in.

"I know all kinds of things...like there's this hippo, right? Well he hides all his money in his shoes! This other one, she a cat, she has so much money that her pet Pug has a solid gold collar..." Camdyn muttered more to herself than anything.

"Shut. Up." A large hand clamped over the vixens muzzle, effectively silenceing her.

"MmmmmMMMMM! Mmmm mmm MMM!" Camdyn mumbled.

"Do you want to annoy him? You want Don Karnage to use the mangos and nail polish?" a large cinnimon colored bearess asked. Camdyn shook her head slightly.

"Mmmm Mmm Mmmmmm?" Camdyn asked.

"Of course he's Don Karnage!" the bearess grasped the vixen's shirt and motioned with her muzzle for Dumptruck to go. "I can handle one little fox. You go. Free for all."

Dumptruck took off and left the vixen with the bear.

"Now, if you promise not to go trying to run off or scream, I'll put you down."

Camdyn nodded as best she could.

"Right. Here." the bear dropped her to the floor. "Sorry about the silenceing."

The white-furred vixen squinted up at the big bear. She was going gray around her muzzle, before Camdyn could say anything she was being herded along to where the other pirates were holding the crew and passengers.

"This is all YOUR fault!" Pirilla screeched.

"What do you mean MY fault? I didn't do anything!"

"You should have warned the Captain." the spaniel growled.

"YOU should have let me in! Then I wouldn't have been caught by the pirates. Why didn't YOU tell him?"

"Because he's over there knocked unconcious." Pirilla pointed.

"Ah...that would explain a lot." Camdyn conceded looking at the lump on the captains head.

"I fooooooooooooound iiiiiit! Heeheheheheheheheheh!" the crazy ferret rolled to a stop at Don Karnage's feet.

"Well?!"

"It was in the cabin the vixen said it would beeeee." the ferret giggled again uncontrolably as he handed over a hatbox.

The red wolf looked thoughtful as he pulled the diamond out of it's hiding place and looked at it. If she'd been right about the diamond, she could be right about some of the other things as well.

"You! Whatever-your-name-may-be...come here." he snapped pointing at Camdyn.

"Me?"

"Of course you! Who else would I be talking to with my wonderful voice?"

Camdyn thought he might be slightly mad, and since there was no sense in making him go completely mad she complied.

"You know where other pretty things like this would be hiding themselves, yes/no?"

"Urmm...I," Camdyn hesitated, if she told Karnage where to find the other valuables on the ship they'd turn her in for aiding and abeiting. She'd almost bet her life on it.

"Come come, let us not be shy." Karnage had a dangerous look in his eye. Camdyn would almost bet her life. Almost was the key.

"Yes."

"Good. You will show my crew where they might be."

"Wait, what do I get out of this?"

The wolf looked at her.

"Why, you will be able to go home in one piece instead of many small teensy pieces. Is that not good enough?"

Camdyn gulped. "Good enough for me."

She found herself being followed by a motley group of scroungy pirates. A grayish-brown mutt kept his rifle trained on her. The implication wasn't lost on the vixen. She directed them to the rooms of the richest passengers on the ship.

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you exactly where they'd be hiding the stuff, but I showed you where the rooms were. May I go back to the passengers now?"

"You move and you're a dead fox."

After the crew had gathered up what they could find they marched Camdyn back to the group of huddled passengers and crew.

"Don't you DARE try to come back here! You're nothing but a pirate wench!" a fat female cat exclaimed as Camdyn moved toward the group.

"Yes, go over there with your friends you little fiend!"

"You led them to our valuables!"

Camdyn backed away from the increasingly hostile crowd. She jumped as she bumped into the bear who'd restrained her earlier.

"Sorry..."

"Shh. Come with me." she said pulling the vixen along with her. "You want to stay here and take the rap or do you want to get away?"

"I would prefer to get away, but I don't see how..."

"I'm going to argue for you. So you just sit there and agree with anything I say, right?"

"Yes, but, I don't even know who you are!"

"Name's Mina. Mina Bayr."

"I'm Camdyn. Camdyn Everly." She ran into Mina again as the bear stopped abruptly.

"Did you just say 'Everly'? As in decendant of Jerimiah Everly?"

"Yes-he's my grandpa." Mina took off again as quickly as before.

"This is better than I thought! You know what your grandfather did for a living don't you?"

"He always told me that he was in the shipping trade."

Mina looked at the vixen, then burst out laughing. "Shipping...that's good. That sounds like 'im. You're grandfather, my dear, was in the trade of _stealing_ ships, and their cargo. He wasn't very infamous, but that's how he managed to settle down and actually enjoy his plunder."

"That can't be right! My grandfather is a decent person!"

"I didn't say he wasn't decent. Shush."

"What are you doing?"

"Ah, I just thought that since the girl here did a service for us, we should at least get her somewhere where she might actually stand a chance of getting away."

"Do not try the quick talking with me. I am quicker than you." Karnage growled.

"Well, you know the pirates code as well as I do."

"The Pirates Code only works for PIRATES. She is not a pirate. She is just a really bad dancer."

"I am NOT a bad dancer! I can dance as good as anyone!" Camdyn snorted, realizeing her mistake seconds before Mina's sigh.

"I say you are." Karnage retorted with a pointed look at the torn hem in the skirt she was wearing.

"Ok...maybe I am a bad dancer...but I can sing well."

"What use is a pirate who sings? You would sing lullabies to put them to sleep like tiny baby-type children?" Abruptly Karnage turned and walked toward the rest of the raiding party.

"Come on. I trust you can get in a plane?"

"But..."

"He's giving you a chance. You have to learn how to read between that affront to the English language. I'll explain later." the bearess shoved the vixen out onto the wing of a double seated plane.

"I fly the trainer. It's more stable...well, at least since Ratchet made all those customizations I asked him for."

"Ratchet?" Camdyn mumbled from her upside down position in the rear cockpit.

"Oh, you'll meet him. And all the others too." Mina said climbing into the pilots seat. "Get yourself turned over and I'll give you the five-eighty on the raiders."

Camdyn struggled a bit and finally managed to get herself upright. Mina began pointing out pirates to her.

"See him? Not the ferret, the mutt. That's Mad Dog."

Camdyn found herself looking at the same dog who'd held the rifle on her during the 'tour' as she'd begun to mentally call it.

"Why do they call him that?"

"Well, it's a long story really. Oh, that's Dumptruck...they call him that because you can hit him with just about anything and he won't feel it. Not that you wouldn't be feeling it of course. Then there's Zoll, and Cyn and Jess." Camdyn began to lose track of who was who. She winced as Mina fired the engine in the plane. She felt her stomach doing flip-flops and scrunched down into the seat as far as she could.

"You aren't afraid are you?" Mina asked after a while.

"No."

"What was that?"

"I said NO!" Camdyn shouted.

"That's better! You have to shout to be heard up here." Mina shouted as they passed low over an uninhabited island. Camdyn thought that they might land there and was surprised when the planes passed low over it but changed course on the other side.

"What are you doing?" Camdyn asked. When Mina didn't answer she assumed the bear hadn't heard her or wasn't going to answer.

"We're tricking the Sky Police. We got a little delayed and they're closer than we'd like. They'll think we landed on that island or one of these others." she gestured out at the surrounding archapeligo. "But, as you can see, we didn't land on anything. And by the time they realize it, we'll be long gone on a crazy camel!" Mina laughed.