Hello everyone. Well my two faithful readers anyway, Buddie and Laura. No hello everyone. I know this has taken a long time but its been crazy with the holiday and all. But today we had a snow day and I finished this chapter. YAY and there was much rejoicing! So on with the story! Please read and review. Thanks.

Disclaimer: I do not own any thing related to Pirates of the Caribbean. (Though I wish I did.) Any characters that you do not recognize are mine and hopefully the plot is mine. Thank you and please don't sue me.

Chapter five: Cannon Fire!

Once Carrissa was securely locked inside her room, the boys took the ship out of the port of Tortuga and began, once again, their search for Mercedes and her captor(s).

"We should be catching up with them soon, right?" asked Jaimy, rather nervously for someone who didn't have any romantic feelings for Mercedes. (hehehe)

"Mummhumm." Was all Mur said distractedly as he stared at his compass, which strangely enough wouldn't point north. (Hmmm… now where did he get that, I wonder? Family heirloom perhaps?)

"Do you even know where we're going?!" asked Jaimy alarmed.

"What?" asked Mur sharply, looking up, only just realizing Jaimy was talking to him. " Did you just say something?"

"YES!! I just asked if you even knew where we were going." said Jaimy exasperatedly.

Mur looked back down at his compass, avoiding Jaimy's eye.

"Well…" answered Mur evasively, " I know the general direction." Still not looking up as he waved his arm in a random direction.

Jaimy sighed and then looked in the direction that Mur had waved in. Jaimy blinked and squinted into the distance. He saw them.

"Mur," Jaimy exclaimed excitedly, "We gott'em!"

"Got what?" asked Mur confused. He was still staring intensely at the compass. Jaimy smacked Mur in the back of the head.

" Not what, who. The ship. Look." Jaimy pointed to the horizon.

Mur looked up from the compass. The needle was pointing directly at a Ship.

"Ohhh YEAH!! GO me. I am the BEST! GO ME! GO ME! GO ME!!" said Mur in a singsong voice, as he did a little circle over and over with his arms. Jaimy looked over Mur's shoulder at the compass; it was pointing directly at the ship, no matter which way it turned.

"Mur, the needle points directly at the ship, why?" asked Jaimy.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. This compass used to point to where ever the cursed treasure of Cortez was, remember? Well, after the treasure was all recovered and the curse reversed you know the story, my dad had it recalibrated. He was always worried that something like this might happen."

"Your father was worried that Mercedes would be kidnapped?" interrupted Jaimy.

"Well…yeah. I mean he did make quite a few enemies in his day, ok granted most of them were Royal British Naval Officers, but still. Anyway, he had this compass adjusted so that it would point toward where ever Mercedes was. "

"Wow, but he only cares if Mercedes is taken? You're his only son. Does that one work for you too?" asked Jaimy interestedly.

"No he had one made for me too. Clever, eh?" inquired Mur, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

So the boys unfurled every available sail and made way toward the second ship. They had the weather gage, so it wouldn't take long before they caught up…

Mercedes glanced around her; to make sure Matt wasn't coming. Then she slipped into the shadows. As one of Matt's crew passed by, Mercedes reached out a hand, grabbed him and pulled him into the shadows with her.

"Not now, not here. Chelsea, I told you we can't meet during the day…"

Mercedes put a finger to the strange babbling crewman's lips and made a shushing sound.

"Shut up. I'm not Chelsea, so what ever weird thing you have going on keep it to yourself."

The crewman gasped, "You're the girl Matt kidnapped! How'd you get out? He locked that door."

Mercedes made a sickened sound. "I'm not a Sparrow for nothing. I picked the lock."

"Whoa," exclaimed the crewman in awe. " Do you remember that stunt you pulled, the one where you stole the Commodore's wig before the Election Day speech, I just gotta say, Brilliant."

"Well thank you," Mercedes swept him a curtsy. "But 'stole' is such an ugly word. I prefer, 'creatively pilfered'." She smiled. "But back to why I pulled you in here. I am planning an organized riot and you and the rest of the crew need to be a part of it. "

"Ohh this is so exciting. We never get to do anything against the law with just Matt."

Mercedes raised an eyebrow at him. "Right, 'cause kidnapping people is legal. ANYWAY, when I yell, I want all of you to start clapping, savvy?"

"Got it, when I yell, you start clapping."

"No no. When I yell you start clapping." Repeated Mercedes.

"Ok, so when Matt yells we, that is you and I, start clapping."

"UHGHGHGH!! Get out." And Mercedes pushed him back into the sunlight on the open deck. The next person that walked by she grabbed and told the plan to. They understood it and passed the plan along to the rest of the crew. They seemed to think that this 'organized riot' was a good idea.

Just as Mercedes was leaving the confines of the dark space she was hiding in she spotted Matt.

"Ohh NO!" she exclaimed. She rushed toward the door of the room that she was supposed to be locked in. But Matt was coming fast toward her, she didn't know if she could make it in time without Matt seeing her. She wasn't even sure that Matt hadn't already seen her. She rushed as fast as she could to the door, pulled it open, pressed the lock from the outside, and swiftly closed the door.

Matt hadn't seen Mercedes and ambled to the door in oblivion. When he finally reached the door, he paused, stuck his hand into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a ring of about 15 keys. He looked down at them, puzzled.

"Hmm," Matt sighed. " Now, which one of these opens this door?" He looked up and around him at his crew.

"You!" shouted Matt.

"Who…" asked a confused crewmember, looking over his shoulder. "…Me?"

"Nooooo… your mother," started Matt.

"My mother's not on the ship," interrupted the boy sadly, bowing his head.

Matt made a disgusted sound. "That was sarcasm! Which one of these," he thrust the ring of keys under the boys nose, " opens this door?" He pointed at the door.

"I dunno," shrugged the sailor.

"FOOL!! INCOMPETENT FOOL!! Chelsea throw this … this…ugh I'm so flustered at his stupidity…word."

"Cough Moron cough" coughed Chelsea

"Right… thanks… throw this MORON overboard! Ok let's see… house key," Matt held up the first key. "Same house key copied 13 times."

Chelsea rolled her eyes at Matt's stupidity and threw the moron sailor overboard.

"Ah ha! Here it is," Matt said as he placed the key into the lock and turned.

After Mercedes had made her mad dash to get back into the room and closed the door, she had leaned back against it and slid to the floor to catch her breath. Her head was resting on the door and her eyes were closed when she heard the click of the lock. She looked at the door and then watched in horror as the handle slowly began to turn.

"Where should I go?" Mercedes asked herself. She ran to the bed and sat on it with her elbows resting against a pillow in back of her and her legs over the side. (Not a really great position for someone to be in if the person coming into the room is obsessed with you. They might get…ideas…)

The door opened and in walked Matt. Mercedes realized the position that she was in and quickly stood up; too late though, Matt had seen her and got an idea.

"So, " Matt tittered, "you've changed your mind about me then." He turned his back to her and did the revised fellowship dance minus the electric slide part, which looked like… um… lets just say really stupid. Then he turned back around.

"You wish," said Mercedes coldly.
"I really do," muttered Matt.

Mercedes narrowed her eyes. "Why do you even like me? I thought you were taught to hate all pirates."

"I was, but…ahh… I'm so confused! How do you do that my minx?" asked Matt with a strange air of a hero worshipper.

"First don't call me a minx, second do what? And third I happen to like someone else!" Spat Mercedes, turning redder and redder as she said all this. After Mercedes said the last thing she clapped her hands over her mouth, she shouldn't have said that to anyone, especially Matt. She wasn't really even admitting it to herself.

Matt gasped then choked. "PARDON!!?? You like someone else?! WHOM???!!! Tell me… Tell me NOW!" spat Matt advancing toward Mercedes threateningly.

"Never," said Mercedes calmly and frostily, taking a step backward.

"Fine, don't tell me. See if I care, I'm pretty sure I know who it is anyway! But it doesn't matter anyway; you're with me now! SO HA HA HAHA!" Matt said angrily as he stormed out of the room and slammed the door, making the panes of the windows rattle.

"This day is NOT going as I planned!" pouted Matt to anyone who was listening, which no one was. " I was supposed to woo her!" And he continued muttering to himself.

Chelsea, who had been looking out over the ocean spotted a ship.

"Sir," Chelsea cried to Matt.

"What?" asked Matt exasperatedly.

"Um, you might want to have a look at this."

"What now? How could this day get any worse?"

Matt walked over to Chelsea and took the spyglass and looked to where Chelsea was pointing and he saw them.

"Prepare for battle, BEAT TO QUARTERS!!" barked Matt. "It's Mur no doubt. CURSE HIM!!! Chelsea bring my utility belt."

Chelsea did and Matt strapped it to his waist. It held his sword, gun, powder, shot, and his toothbrush.

"Whoops," said Matt sheepishly, "better take my tooth brush off or Mur will laugh at me."
"Good plan, Sir." Said Chelsea mockingly and the crew rushed around them, making ready for battle.

"Right," said Matt as he peered through the spyglass. "Fire a warning shot across her bow. And I won't be too disappointed if you 'accidentally' hit them…" He smiled hungrily, while below decks the cannons were being primed and aimed toward Mur, Jaimy and Carrissa.

"Sir," said Chelsea, " all cannons are standing by."

"Good, good," sneered Matt. "Fire at will."

The fuse was lit and it slowly crept its way toward the powder with a faint hissing sound. The fuse fire hit the powder and Matt's ship lurched sideways as the cannon ball exploded from the gun port. There was a flash followed by blinding white smoke and a thundering boom and the cannon ball whizzed toward Mur, Jaimy and Carrissa….

Cliffhanger? Hmm… that wasn't intentional, or was it? Well what do ya think? Hmmm…. Reviews please…please?… thanks and until next time.