A three-masted sailing ship launched from the island. Violet went out on the balcony of the dirigible with binoculars. She could see Mirage on deck with a crew of blond women. Intent on the view, she didn't hear The Man with a Beard and No Hair when he came out and stood behind her.
The Woman with Hair and No Beard opened a door in the base of the hovering jet. She opened the cages of the eagles she had stowed aboard. The eagles streaked out through the door and circled high above the pirate ship. Jack-Jack crawled close to the door to watch.
On the Karimelita, Syndrome made a radio call to the ship. "You betrayed me, Mirage! And here I thought you were drawn by my boyish good looks."
"I told you I was drawn to power, Syndrome," said Mirage. "Power for me and my pirate crew, to survive in this strange new world. Knowledge is power, and with the secrets of the sugar bowl I have all the power I need."
"What's to stop us from taking it from you?" Syndrome asked.
"I have hostages: Captain Widdershins and a young boy named Phil," said Mirage.
A pirate woman led the captives onto the deck, with hands manacled behind them.
"I'm supposed to care about them?" Syndrome sneered.
"My stepfather!" Fiona gasped. "Syndrome, you promised me if I joined you that you'd help me find him."
"Mission accomplished; he's found," said Syndrome. "I didn't promise he'd live."
Fiona stared at him in horror.
Kari Melita Spats also looked at him strangely. "Are you really a superhero? How come you don't care about hostages?"
"Of course he's not, you little fool!" said Esmé, shoving her to one side.
He surfaced the submarine and pulled a lever to pop open the top of its head. "Time to break out my secret weapon, the super-swatter."
A flyswatter-shaped field of glowing energy emerged from the top of the submarine, growing until it reached high in the air.
"Now hand over the sugar bowl or get swatted!" he commanded into the radio.
"I have a secret weapon too," replied Mirage. "I have summoned the Surma."
"Surma?" said Buddy. "Sounds like a mattress."
"Named for the Finnish guardian of the underworld. It is a sea monster created by Gregor Anwhistle which can crush your submarine. We found and tamed it to obey us," said Mirage. "As for your companions in the air, we have energy cannons aimed at them."
"I think we can take a gang of has-been pirates," said Syndrome.
"Last chance to back off," radioed Mirage. "I am holding the sugar bowl. Attack and you will risk breaking..."
It was the last thing she had a chance to say before events went out of control. The Woman with Hair and No Beard whistled a signal to one of the eagles. It dived like a stroke of lightning and snatched the sugar bowl from Mirage's hand.
An instant later, a laser blast from the jet severed the top of a mast and sliced straight through its attached sail, dropping the rest of the sail onto the pirate crew.
"Truce's off!" yelled the Woman with Hair and No Beard. She ran from the cockpit to the open door in the bottom of the plane. She kicked Jack-Jack into it and dived through herself before anyone could react. Two eagles caught her shoulder pads and helped her dive toward the eagle with the sugar bowl.
That was the signal the Man with a Beard and No Hair was waiting for. He shoved Violet off the dirigible balcony and also dived out into space. Two eagles caught him also.
Jack-Jack was falling, but he had no intention of letting the villains get away with what they had done. Drawing on Quigley's power of cutting energy that he had absorbed earlier, he neatly sliced through the shoulder pads of the two villains and sent them falling toward the sea.
A moment later Jack-Jack was saved. Fiona, who no longer had any reason to be loyal to Syndrome, had flown up through the swatter opening and caught him. Jack-Jack instantly absorbed flight, strength, and most importantly the ability to talk with birds.
The Menacing Duo had begun to whistle frantically for the eagles to catch them again, pads or no pads.
"Kreee! Kawwaaa!" called Jack-Jack, meaning (in eagle) "You don't have to help them. Let them drop and you're free!"
"Kreee! Kawwaaa!" the eagles repeated to each other. The Menaces continued to fall, screaming. The message reached the eagle which had the sugar bowl, and it released that burden, which also plunged toward the sea.
And from the depths of the sea came the tentacles of the Surma. It was a horrifyingly gigantic chambered nautilus, smelling of slime and death. It gripped the Karimelita and began to crush it. Up close, it didn't look much like the "question mark" shape it has appeared to be on the radar screen.
Just as the crushing began, Syndrome activated the giant flyswatter, possibly hoping to swat the monster. But what he really hit was the dirigible, tearing it beyond repair.
"I'll help you, rescue sub. Aye!" called Captain Widdershins. He twisted free from the dazed pirate who was holding him and dived into the water. It didn't matter to him that he was manacled -- water was his element and he could breathe in it. He attempted to call the monster off in squid-language.
Unfortunately, the distorted mind of the Surma did not respond as expected. Without letting go of the submarine, it charged the pirate ship and grabbed that too, along with Widdershins himself.
The pirates, who by this time had pushed the sail aside, fired their energy cannon at the jet, scoring a direct hit on one engine. With no pilot on board to compensate, the jet went nose-down toward the water.
Some people have accused me of ending each book with a "cliffhanger." This means "ending a chapter or a book at a suspenseful point, such as having the hero dangling off a cliff." But this time they are clearly wrong. I am simply ending book the 12th with almost everybody in peril of being smashed, crushed, or drowned. No cliffs are involved at all.