Caribbean Magic
Stripe: I realise that I shouldn't have posted my intro before I had the whole first chapter typed up, but... oh, well. It's done now. Just so you know, I have all of my stories on paper, and have to type them up before they can be posted... hopefully I haven't already mentioned that, cuz then I'll have just repeated myself. Esa es vida...Chapter 2: Interdimensional
Okay, time for my very first disclaimer: I do not own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh characters or concepts, nor do I own anything about the Pirates of the Caribbean. Cleo and Ish started out as my friend's characters, which she oh-so-kindly gave to me.
"Please tell me why we didn't do this sooner," Ishara asked, not bothering to look over at her best friend, Cleo.
"You tell me," she replied. "I'm thirsty, Joey. Bring me a drink. Make sure it's cold, too." She clicked her fingers, and Joey sighed.
"Why did I accept that bet again?" he asked Tristan, grumpily searching the esky.
""Because," Mai interrupted, "you didn't believe Cleo and Ishara could beat you at two-on-one tackle football."
"So now my uncle is taking us all on a pleasure cruise on the bay with you waiting on us hand and foot!" Ishara finished triumphantly.
Cleo laughed at her friend's enthusiasm. She sat up and took off her sunglasses. Ishara was sitting up the same way. Joey gave Cleo her drink and sat down himself. They were lounging around on the deck of a magnificent yacht, with Mai and Ishara wearing bikinis to catch some sun. Ishara's was, obviously, blue. Cleo was also wearing one, but it was hidden by the enormous, soft beach towel she had wrapped around her. Joey and Tristan were watching matchstick girls windsurf, Tea was scolding them, and Yugi was laughing at all three. Ishara relaxed on her deck-chair, lifted her own sunnies and noticed that Yugi was still wearing that pretty puzzle of his, even though he was wearing just board shorts for swimming. She and Cleo had decided there was something unusual about it; how often does someone wear a puzzle around their neck? She shook her blonde head to clear it and lay back to enjoy the trip.
"Hey, Skip, how about the Caribbean? I've always wanted to go there!" Cleo called jokingly.
There was a flash, and they found themselves sprawled on another wooden deck. Cleo and Ishara, experienced in falling in fighting and horse-riding, had curled up to prevent injury. Cleo rolled to the base of a really tall mast, and Ishara uncurled to find herself staring at a pair of soft leather boots. She looked up at their owner, like everyone else. Only she was looking through the barrel of a pistol.
"Eep," she squeaked.
"Whaddya doin' on my ship?" the man growled.
Cleo jumped up and raced to her bestie's aid. "We dunno! We just landed here! Don't point that at her!"
The sound of metal on metal sounded behind her. Cleo turned to see another, younger man pointing a sword at her throat. The others were on their feet by that time, and Tristan grabbed the second guy from behind. "Let go of me!" the guy yelled, surprised.
"If you want your little girlfriends to remain the way they are, you'll let him go," the first man said calmly.
"LITTLE!" Ishara suddenly looked dangerous. She leapt up and performed a perfect jump kick, knocking the pistol out of his hand. It went flying and neatly landed in Yugi's hands. He promptly dropped it as though it was going to eat him. Mai rolled her eyes behind his back and picked it up. She cocked it expertly and pointed it at the first guy.
To both men, she asked, "Who are you, where are we, how did we get here, and how do we get back? The longer you talk, the longer you're out of danger."
Tea looked outraged. "You're not actually going to shoot them, are you! You wouldn't! You couldn't!" The others, besides Yugi, stared at her; cue panic drops. "Oh. Right," she said sheepishly. Mai wasn't about to fire; she just wanted information. It was an empty threat.
"I don't see what's in it for me. What do I gain from telling you?" the first man asked. After a moment, Cleo offered, "How about a crew until you get wherever you're going?" She had noticed that there were only two men to sail the huge ship. The men looked at each other, before the first guy held out his unharmed hand to Ishara, who stood closest to him after her impressive kick, watching him carefully.
"I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, mates. This 'ere is Will Turner."
Ishara didn't move.
"Come on, love, I'm not gonna hurt ya," he said. She finally shook his hand.
"The name's Ishara. The blonde with your gun is Mai, and the short guy next to her is Yugi."
"Why must you insist on mentioning my size?" Yugi asked sadly.
"Because I love having someone smaller than me around. Anyway, the guy behind Yugi is Joey, the brunette boy behind Will is Tristan (He nodded to Jack in greeting and stepped back as Will turned sharply to look at him.), and this gorgeous friend of mine is Cleo," Ishara finished, carefully not making eye-contact with Cleo, whom she knew was glaring at her.
"Well, my new allies, welcome to the H.M.S. Interceptor. I am your captain, and we are headed for Tortuga to pick up a real crew. Sadly, Miss Mai, I have no answers for your questions, but I'm sure you won't mind staying and working here anyway. Oh, and be careful of Will; he likes his sword far too much."
"At least he's a law-abiding citizen," Yugi murmured, inspecting his shoelaces.
"What?" Joey asked.
"You're a pirate, aren't you, Captain Sparrow?" Yugi continued to watch his feet.
"Aye, young sir, that I am. If you aren't capable of sailing under the command of a pirate, feel free to jump overboard. I've just finished telling Master Turner the same thing," Jack said pleasantly.
"Don't worry, Cap'n Jack, he's not going anywhere," Cleo said quickly. While she and Jack tried to stare each other down, Ishara reasoned with Yugi, and persuaded him to go with the flow, at least temporarily.
When she looked up, Jack was back at the helm, shouting instructions to Will, Tristan and Mai, who were trying to untangle Joey from the rigging he had somehow got caught in… upside down, far above the deck, in mid-air. Cleo was still with Yugi and Ishara, watching Joey struggle and trying really hard not to laugh. Tea was directly beneath Joey, looking more than a little worried. "It's okay, Cleo. Everything's under control here. We should probably help the others, but thanks for staying," Ishara said.
Cleo beamed at her and grabbed her arm just below the elbow. "I'll give you that super-boost we've been practicing, then you can throw down a rope for me to climb up. It'll be easier throwing you, since I'm stronger than you and you're lighter than me."
"Alright! I've been waiting for this!" Ishara replied, enthusiastic as usual.
They moved under the lower support of the sail nearest Joey. Cleo folded her hands low in front of her, palms up. Ishara climbed easily into them, her feet in Cleo's hands, her back to Cleo and her hands resting on the insides of Cleo's elbows.
"On three, Isha. Ready?" Cleo asked.
"Ready," her friend confirmed.
"One, two, THREE!" Cleo cried, throwing Ishara high into the air, who stretched out to get even more height.
She neatly flipped and landed catlike on the wooden beam. She lightly walked across it as though it was solid ground until she reached a coiled rope draped over the timber. Picking up the massive coils, she dropped them to the deck for Cleo, ensuring the end was tightly secured to the sail support. Cleo quickly climbed up like a pro and jumped the gap to the beam with ease. Yugi called out to them to be careful, since they were running along it and he was sure they'd fall off. The beam ended four and a half metres away from Joey, suspended in the ropes. Ishara did a round-off on the end and made another flip to force herself upright. When she reached the ropes, she swung to the tangle that was Joey.
Cleo followed, simply leaping off the end of the beam and curling herself into a ball as she jumped. Halfway across, she loosened and twisted sideways so that she was spinning side-on.
Ishara pouted when Cleo joined her and Joey. "Show-off." Then she smiled. "I'll have to try that sometime."
The others, who had been watching, let go of the breath they hadn't realised they'd been holding. It all looked very dangerous.
With four people on the deck, and the two girls in the air with Joey, he was starting to unravel from the ropes. Cleo examined a tight knot around Joey's wrist. It seemed complex, but she pulled a single loop, and the entire thing came undone. Ishara, however, had the opposite problem. As she wrestled with a seemingly simple knot that become more complicated as she got further in, she had to ask, "How on earth did this happen?"
"Jack told me to climb up and untie one of the ropes from the port mast, which I found out means left, and it snapped back and hit me. I grabbed another rope, but it wasn't attached to anything, and I fell onto these. I think it's called the ringing."
"Rigging, Joey, not ringing," Cleo corrected absently, picking apart another knot. "Hey, Isha, pull apart that knot, then hang onto that rope there. Make sure you've got Joey. You'll swing to the mast, then bring back the rope for me to climb down, please."
"Is it the last knot then?"
"Nah, the last one's over here, but it's so tight, I'll have to cut it. Okay?"
Ishara checked that Joey was hanging onto the rope, pulled apart her final knot, then held on herself. "Okay."
Cleo climbed up until she was above the knot, and twisted her ankles in the rope so that she could hang over the snarl free-hand. She drew a sharp knife from the back of her shirt, grasped a loop of the knot, and, with a fluid, practiced movement, sliced through it. The rope around Joey's ankle released him, and he and Ishara swung over to the mast, as Cleo had said. Ishara tried and failed to get Joey to balance on the cross-beam, then shrugged apologetically to Cleo (who was still hanging up-side down), and helped Joey get safely back to the deck. Only then did she climb all the way back up to take the rope back to Cleo. Cleo shimmied down first, closely followed by her best friend. Tea inspected some rope burns (most of them Joey's), as Ishara noticed the change in costume.
There weren't any bikinis or board shorts to be seen. Instead, the boys were wearing long pants with a peculiar sash around their middle and long-sleeved shirts. Yugi's pants were dark blue, shirt was black and sash-thing was bright red. He also had a lighter blue, knee-length jacket, and a black hat with a long red feather in it. Besides the hat and sash, he didn't look much different. Joey's pants were black, shirt was cream-coloured, sash was blue and so was his hat, which was smaller then Yugi's and had no feather. Tristan had a brown shirt, black pants and his sash was creamy. He had a black jacket on. Tea and Mai were wearing heavy dresses in elegant patterns, and, judging by their pale faces, they had corsets too. Mai noticed Ishara studying her, and made a face at her. Ishara then looked at Cleo and herself. They wore long, silk pants (Ishara's blue, Cleo's black), silk shirts (Cleo's red, Ishara's creamy), longer sashes than the boys (Creamy for Cleo, red for Ishara), and exquisite hats (both were navy blue). The both wore long jackets that almost reached their ankles; Cleo's was dark blue, and Ishara's was black.
Cleo had also been admiring their new look. "Now this is fashion I can deal with!" she said with a cheeky smile. Ishara giggled, knowing it wasn't often Cleo said something like that.
Jack shouted some more instructions for them to follow in sailing the huge ship. As they hurried to do his bidding (if they didn't, the main mast might fall over), Mai saw the soft leather boots of everyone minus Tea and herself, who'd gotten dainty but useless slippers, and envied Ishara and Cleo. "How come they get cool silk and I'm stuck in a tent of a dress?" she muttered darkly to herself, pulling hard on yet another rope.
Stripe: Ta da! My first real chapter! (well, the intro doesn't really count in my eyes). Now I get to start typing up the next chapter... lucky me. :)