Disclaimer: I don't own either "Danny Phantom" or "Pirates of the Caribbean". Most of the characters you see are either property of Nickelodeon or Disney. Some others are my own.
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The Spirit of the Ship
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Chapter 13: Serpant, Dead Ahead!
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As Don was steering the ship closer to the lost treasure of Jupiter, Captain Jack came up looking fairly peeved. "Buona mattina, Jack," Don greeted. "How are the seas?"
"Give me the wheel, Don," Jack said.
Don was verysurprised with Jack's tone. "Jack," he started, "are you still angry over that 'better navigator' arguement? We're both good navigators, so just..."
"It's not about navigation," Jack interupted. "It's you."
"Me!" Don said, almost outraged. "Jack, I don't mean any harm to you."
"I really doubt that," Jack said. "I've lost a great deal of trust in you. I know you're an important member, but I feel you're a... oh, how do you say it? 'Serpente nell'erba' is that password you use, isn't it?"
"Jack, how do you think I'm a snake in the grass?"
"Let me count the ways: you recruited yourself on my ship, threw in a cannon to be friendly, helped us be prepared for one of the obsticles, you know that vase more than anyone else, our bickering over navigation, and recently, I heard you were the cause of Danny's emotional downfall. Not only all that, but you're more about getting to that staff that vase's been saying about than any of us."
"What are you trying to tell me?"
"What I'm saying is you plan toget us to the treasure, get a hold of Jupiter's staff, kill us all with it, loot all the gold, sail back home and become the most powerful man in Italy. That, mate, is called 'greed'."
"Jack," Don said, explaining himself, "we've known eachother for a long time. I'd never betray you. I told you the first day, that we should destroy the staff once we get to it. Then we can take all the treasure."
Jack gave the heavy Italian a long stare before deciding, "Alright, you can stay. But once we get to the treasure, I'm tying you to the mast."
"That sounds fair," Don agreed, offering his hand for Jack to shake, who accepted. Jack then looked around as if something was wrong.
"Did you feel that?" Jack said.
"Feel what?" Don wondered aloud.
"A shift in the waves," Jack answered. "That's not normal." Jack then widened his eyes and asked, "Donny-boy, what was the next challenge?"
"If I remember," Don recalled, "a giant sea serpent. Why?"
"I think we just found it."
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A half hour after Jack's suspicion, the crew of the Hairy Turtle found themselves in an violent storm, with the ship being tossed around like a rag doll. As jack was doing what he could to keep the ship on course, he heard Danny on the crow's nest shouting, "Thar she blows!" Looking to where Danny was, Jack felt a feeling he never had: fear.
A giant, red sea serpant, looking over 40 feet long, with two long whiskers and a razored back, was seen in the distance letting out a mounstrous roar. At the sound of the roar, the entire crew showed up on deck, showing horrified reactions to the beast they saw. Jack ran over to where the rest were as Danny flew down from the crow's nest. There, he gave out he hoped was not his final speech.
"This is it, mates! This overgrown snake is what lies in the way between us and Jupiter's treasure! We can be richer than kings or die trying! Once it's slain, we'll know for certain! Don, Adriana, ready that cannon! Danny, Gustavo, and I will take down the monster! If we can't make it, then I just want to say that you're all my friends, and that we'll meet again somehow! Onward!"
Danny grabbed Jack and Gustavo by their arms and took. Swords in hand, they were prepared. Don and Adriana hustled below deck to arm the cannon.
Some twenty yards away from the Hairy Turtle, Danny, Jack, and Gustavo were over the head of the serpant. Danny dropped them in an effort to attack it when it least expected. As soon as Jack and Gustavo landed, the serpant noticed. It wriggled wildly, but not after Danny threw some ecto blasts at its head. The serpant thrusted itself forward to attack the ghost-boy, biting whenever it got close enough, all of which Danny easily dodged.
On the serpant's back, Gustavo went to stab the wild beast with his sword. Right when he did so, his blade bended. He looked over to Jack and said, "Well, we now know what doesn't work."
"Well I know how to get his attention," Jack said. He thrusted his sword though on of the beast's fins, making it roar in pain. "That should make it realize who it's dealing with." The beast did know, and quickly retreated underwater. As soon as it dove, Danny went with it to help his friends.
Back on the ship, Adriana and Don were readying the cannon. After loading it with powder and putting in a cannonball with required both to lift, they rolled it to the hatch, opened at and had the cannon pointed at... nothing. The two were surprised that the could lose sight of such a behemoth.
Below the surface, the serpant was swimming deeper into the sea with Jack and Gustavo on its back, both doing their best to keep their breath. Danny was coming after it a little faster. He zoomed to its face and grabbed its whiskers, pulling them up like horse reins, which led the serpant back up to the surface. It started wildly thrashing itself at a force where Jack and Gustavo couldn't hold on any longer. Jack and Gustavo were fortunate enough to land on the ship. Jack was thrown rolling onto the deck, with nothing to worry about. Gustavo didn't exactly land on the ship, but he did land on the cannon that Adriana and Don had readied. Just not the way he wanted to land.
"Right in the huevos," Gustavo said, a few octives higher than he normally speaks. Don and Adriana pulled Gustavo back onboard while Jack came rushing down.
"Is the cannon armed?" Jack asked.
"Ready to fire!" Don confirmed.
"I'll fire it," Jack said. "I know how to fire one of these. Give me a light." Don hurried to do so. He gave a candle to Jack, who took it and waited patiently for the serpant. After several of the longest seconds, Jack lit the fuse. After the cannon fired, it landed a direct hit on the serpant. The serpant showed that the crew got the result they wanted.
"Yes!" Jack celebrated. "Get me another ball!" At the end of his sentence, the sorry sound of Don Rotondo sucking in air was heard. Jack turned around to see the fat man nervously playing with his fingers. "What is it, Don?"
"That ball," Don said, at a loss of words, "it was our only one." Jack slapped his head in defeat.
"Are you telling me," Jack said, starting to fume, "that you gave this ship a cannon, but only one ball?"
"I didn't think we'd use it that much," Don said, low on excuses.
"Well, can we fire anything else?" Jack said, improvising his next move.
"How about him?" Adriana joked, referring and pointing to Gustavo, who reacted with an urge to strangle. Maintaining his composure, Gustavo went to the captain.
"Jack, listen to me," Gustavo started. "We can't win this battle. THAT MONSTER IS TOO POWERFUL!" He pactically screamed his last sentence at Jack.
"Calm down, paper-boy," Jack said. "Hopefully, Danny can handle that thing on his own." The instant Jack finished his sentence, Danny came flying through the ship via intangability. It wasn't that way on the other side, as he hit it like a bug on a windshield, then reverting back to his human form.
"Where were you guys?" Danny accused. "I couldn't handle that on my own." Jack was then rewarded by Gustavo with an evil eye.
"Strike," Jack said, "reverse that. I now agree that we're doomed."
"It's coming this way!" Adriana warned, looking through the cannon hatch. Everyone looked in for a peek to see the girl was right.
"That's it," Danny yelled, losing sanity, "we're doomed! We're gonna be mauled!" The monster was then heard roaring, as if prolonging the inevitable. Prolonging a little too long, though. "Um, why aren't we mauled yet?"
"I'm going up deck to find out," Jack said, in which the others followed.
It was more plainer on deck, as the crew saw the giant serpant roaring and thrashing everywhere.
"It's gone bloody mental, it has," Jack said.
"No," Don corrected. "It's in pain." After a few more seconds, the serpant stopped thrashing about and fell, heading straight for the Hairy Turtle.
"Heads up!" Danny panicked. The serpant fell and landed on the ship, completely destroying it. Danny was knocked out by a piece of debris, but not before catching a glimpse of something he thought was flaming and green.
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Wowwy, I liked this one. Leave your reviews and await the next chapter for a few shocks.