Chapter 29: Isla de la Fatalidad

Another droll day in the office of KaibaCorp.

Seto Kaiba sat at his desk, looking over the various financial needs and worries of his corporation. Stocks were going up and down, business propositions were being made and broken, and all manner of data was passing through the lone monitor as the president checked through them all without so much as blinking. Or if he was blinking, he was doing it so quickly and so subtly that no one observing him would have been able to tell whether he was alive or zombified.

A ringing phone sounded out, startling the intense concentration of the president. He looked at the phone and growled. "I thought I told that secretary to hold all phone calls until further notice," he grumbled to himself as the phone rang a second time.

"Mr. Kaiba, there's a very important phone call coming through," rang out the voice of the secretary.

"Who could be so important that-"

"He says his name is Montalban."

Kaiba's eyes grew wide. "Montalban?!" he asked.

"Yes sir."

Kaiba snarled. He had been getting calls from Montalban over the past few weeks, pestering him over acquiring KaibaCorp. Hadn't he made it clear yet that KaibaCorp was not up for sale? After the Paladius incident, Kaiba had maintained a series of strict regulations over his company's stocks, making sure to own as much of it as was reasonable such that no one could properly take over KaibaCorp without going through him.

And yet here was Montalban, constantly bothering him with offers of grandiose amounts of money, positions of unfathomable power, and an easygoing lifestyle for the rest of eternity. As tempting as such offers might have been to lesser companies, Kaiba wasn't so easily swayed. He wrestled that company from the clutches of his stepfather, the late Gozaburo Kaiba, and he intended to keep it away from anyone else's.

Especially Montalban.

Kaiba finally answered the phone and demanded, "What do you want now?"

"Having a bit of a temper today, are we Mr. Kaiba?"

Montalban's distinctly elegant and yet sinister voice gave Kaiba good enough reason to scowl without knowing who was on the other end. "I'm really not in the mood to discuss a proposition I've already turned down," he growled irritably.

"But of course," Montalban replied. "I've decided to come to you with another offer instead."

"The answer's still going to be no," Kaiba stated flatly.

"That's just it, Kaiba, the answer could be yes or no," Montalban continued. "I've heard you're good at the game Duel Monsters."

Kaiba's eyes narrowed. "Who wants to know?"

"Why I want to know," Montalban exclaimed cheerfully. "Let's make a deal, hm? I think it's only fair that we settle this on grounds anyone can respect."

"You've got five seconds, or else I'm hanging up the phone," Kaiba snarled.

"I'm challenging you to a game of Duel Monsters," Montalban declared. "It's very simple terms: you win, I give up on acquiring KaibaCorp for the time being. If I win, though...well, I think it goes without saying."

"So you want to try and best me at my own game, hm?" Kaiba sneered, a hint of pride in his voice.

"Don't be too hasty to assume you've won just yet," Montalban retorted. "All I ask is that we prepare ourselves for the duel: one week from today. Then we'll settle this once and for all, you and I."

"We'll see," Kaiba replied.

"Then it's settled! I'll see you in one week's time!" Montalban remarked, and a dial tone signaled that he had hung up the phone.

Kaiba clenched the phone in his hand firmly before finally putting it back down on its holder. Challenging him to a duel would be Montalban's biggest mistake, and at this point there was no way he would back down from the challenge. It would make him look weak, and Seto Kaiba wasn't weak.

But he knew this would happen eventually.

Kaiba picked up the phone again, pressing a single button, and waited. The other end picked up silently.

"One week," Kaiba stated, and then he placed the phone down again in the holder and continued working away on his computer.


"You don't know where we're going, do you?"

"Of course I know where we're going! Shannon, where are we going?"

"Why are you asking me that? I thought you were the captain!"

"Well Matt, where are we going then, since you're the captain?"

"Captains don't navigate, that's what navigators are for."

"Says the man with the compass in his hand."

"Compass medallion, thank you very much."

The ongoing argument onboard the Poseidon was not entirely unjustified. Having rendezvoused with Matt successfully, Andrew, Shannon, Yugi, Joey, Tea, and Tristan now abandoned their original vessel and moved onboard to help Matt in his search. It had been a few days since the encounter in Tortuga, and Andrew kept pestering Matt as to the stolen God Card, which Matt dismissed every time as he wasn't done using it yet. Naturally, this led to the argument of where they were going, seeing as Matt who held the compass medallion should have known just where they were going. This was now the second day arguing out at sea, much to the chagrin of those onboard. Even Malcolm, who had just managed to get onboard before they set sail, was getting annoyed of their bickering as he scrubbed the deck with the other crew members.

"So why don't we know where we're going if you've got the compass medallion?" Andrew asked.

"There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that," Matt replied, "and I just don't happen to know about it yet."

"I thought all it was was, 'Wherever your heart's desire will be, this compass leads over to Tripoli,' or some such rhymey thingie," Andrew chimed in.

"That's, 'Wherever your heart's desire may be, this compass points towards victory,' by the way," Matt corrected.

"Whatever! The point is if you don't know where we're going, we're as good as going nowhere!" Andrew retorted.

The argument stopped in a moment as a certain ringing noise came from Andrew's pocket at that moment. Matt turned as his eyes grew wide when Andrew pulled out what was very clearly a communications device. Andrew answered the phone silently, putting it up to his ear for only a couple of seconds before putting it back in his pocket again.

"What was that?" Matt asked.

"A reliable contact," Andrew answered as a small chill breeze blew by, causing a few of the people on the deck to shiver.

"Is that traceable?!" Matt pressed insistently.

"Don't be daft! It's on a secure channel," Andrew replied, "and it's only linked to one person! Regardless of that, we've got bigger fish to fry at the moment."

"If Montalban catches even a whiff of where we are-"

"Don't go paranoid on me now, Matt, we've got to focus!" Andrew interrupted. "We don't know where we're going, and that's got to be-"

"Land ho!"

The call rang out from the crow's nest as everyone looked in the immediate direction of where the man above was pointing. Sure enough, just off the horizon, was a small patch of what appeared to be land. Matt quickly handed off the compass medallion to Andrew and quickly spoke, "Your heart's desire is to help me find the chest of Rommel, as that's going to help make everything go back to normal."

Matt then headed to the port side of the ship where the island was and brought out his telescope. Andrew, a little flustered over the matter, looked at the compass medallion with some contempt.

"You better not tell me you guessed the location of that island!" Andrew called out, walking up to his brother as the latter looked over at the island. Matt then lowered the telescope and scoffed, "Alright, I didn't guess the location of that island," before immediately resuming his scoping.

Andrew threw his hands in the air and walked away from Matt, taking a moment to himself before checking the compass medallion. He closed his eyes and focused on the one thing he hadn't a clue what to think of: the chest of Rommel. He opened his eyes again to find several crew members all looking at the compass medallion, which at that moment shone a light pointing in a single direction - the direction of the island.

Matt looked down at the medallion and smiled, a look of hope in his eyes. "Looks like we've found it."


After the ship was within a reasonable distance from the island, and with only a couple of lifeboats headed over, the motley crew of Matt, Andrew, a few assorted crew members including Malcolm, Izzy, and Shannon, as well as Yugi, Joey, Tea, and Tristan, rowed their way as quickly as they could. A couple of rowers even got to arguing over the speed at which they rowed.

"You're rowing too fast!"

"Well you're rowing too slow!"

"I'm trying to get us to shore so we don't gotta face that Leviathan thing."

"Well I'm saving my strength for when it comes."

The bickering continued until Matt called for a hushed silence, and even then it was only lowered to a mere grumbling. Meanwhile in the other boat, Joey, Tristan, Malcolm, and Willaby all rowed smoothly and clearly while Andrew, Yugi, Tea, and another crew member all sat evenly on the boat.

"So Andrew, how old are you and Matt?" Tea asked, working to strike up a conversation on the tensely quiet boat.

"Well, I'm about 21 myself," Andrew replied, "and Matt's only a couple years older than that."

"And he's been captain of the Poseidon for a while?" Yugi asked.

Andrew sighed. "It's complicated," he answered briefly.

"How did he get the Poseidon in the first place?" Tea asked.

"Bartered it, he did," Willaby remarked. "See he'd been searching into the history of the Trinity and had managed to find one clue that would lead him on his chase: 'The secret lies with the Crimson Rose.' Well naturally, that got his mind to whirring about, and he ended up discovering that the ship was located off in the city of El Dorado."

"You guys keep mentioning El Dorado like it's a real place. Ain't dat just a legend?" Joey asked.

"Most people think it is, and most people will continue to think that too," Willaby replied. "Just as the legends say, El Dorado had a grand assortment of treasure in it, but it's all been cursed in some manner or other. The only artifact that wasn't cursed was a small little trinket, located on the wreckage of the old Crimson Rose."

"Wait, so what was that?" Tristan asked, joining in on the storytelling session.

"That would be the compass medallion," Andrew interjected. "It's supposed to be something the Trinity used a long time ago, and supposedly it would've been used to help him find the hidden sanctuaries they built."

"Aye, the medallion was the key," Willaby continued. "Now Matt didn't find out the secret of El Dorado so easily, oh no. He stole the information from Montalban's corporate files, and that led him to getting pursued by Montalban, and it all led out into a brilliant battle right there in that temple!"

"Fighting a battle in the midst of a golden temple? Dat's awesome!" Joey commented.

"Oh it sure was, as was its ending!" Willaby exclaimed. "See, in the midst of the battle, one of the ancient gods that ruled over El Dorado came about and started wrecking the place, meaning to take down everyone inside! Matt and Montalban and a few others - myself included, no less - managed to escape, but the city sank into ruin, consumed by the fires of a vengeful deity, a final sacrifice of blood given as tribute to its remaining treasure trove."

"Wow...that's deep," Tea said.

"..and a little ironic," Andrew chimed in, at which he and Willaby laughed a bit.

"And to think that was only a few months ago!" Willaby chuckled, to which the two of them continued laughing. Their laughter became infectious as the others onboard began laughing in spite of themselves. Even Malcolm managed to crack a smile over it.

The boat continued to rock a bit with laughter as the group finally reached the shore and the other party as well. Once the boats were safely beached, Matt commanded for a few crew to stay behind and watch the boats as he brought along Andrew, Malcolm, Izzy, Shannon, Yugi, Joey, Tea, and Tristan with him, the latter four with some reluctance and at their insistence. Andrew proceeded to lead the way around the island's beach with the compass medallion in hand, glowing and leading the party towards the other side of the island. Eventually he got to hovering around a particular point, walking back and forth as the compass continued to point towards its target.

"I think it might be here," Andrew said after the umpteenth loop around the same spot, tapping his foot down on a particular point. "Right here."

Matt then handed Malcolm a shovel and pointed to that point. Begrudgingly, Malcolm took the shovel and began to dig away at the spot in question. It took him a while, and with no one else really digging at it, the lot had very little to do.

"Man, it's hot out here," Joey complained after a while.

"I'm so relaxed but so uncomfortable at the same time," Tristan concurred.

"I wonder if there's a way that this could go any faster," Andrew wondered aloud as he laid out on his back.

"A little help might not kill you," Malcolm snorted from within the hole.

"Ehhhhhh, too hot," Andrew replied.

Even Yugi found that he was succumbing to the heat. "Man, I didn't think there could ever be in a place this hot," he remarked, turning over. "Hey Tea, what do you-waaaaAAAHHH!"

Yugi was startled suddenly as Tea's bodacious body sat on the sand in nothing but a bikini. Next to her was Shannon and Izzy, who had also stripped down to just bikinis. Joey and Tristan perked up at Yugi's yelp, only to find the same sight and ogle over it.

"Da girls are working on dere tans!" Joey ogled.

"It's getting even hotter, but I'm only feeling better!" Tristan added in.

THWACK

"No one is going to watch me tan, especially not you dweebs, got it?" Shannon berated, knocking the two in the head.

"Yes ma'am."

THUNK

The new sound echoed from the hole, catching the attention of everyone nearby. As the girls reclothed themselves, the boys began to dig away at the hole. Soon they pulled out a large ornate rectangular chest from the depths of the sand and placed it on the beach. The chest itself was only held together by a latch, which was quickly unlatched to open up the chest. Inside was all manner of papers and notebooks, stuff that one would find in a common desk.

Except for the smaller chest within.

If the large chest was ornate, this chest was far more elaborate in design. The carvings in the sides of the chest were exquisite and intricate, much of it carved in runes and patterns that seemed to suggest something sinister. The carvings seemed to indicate monsters of a terrifying design, creatures of an unspeakable form that were as hard to make out as the runes themselves.

This chest was pulled out carefully and cautiously by Matt, who then closed the larger chest and placed the smaller chest on top of it gently. The group surrounded the chest and all leaned in with tentative ears. If this had been any normal chest, the group might have been called a bunch of loonies and taken away, but this was far from any normal chest.

BA-DUM

The group recoiled back. Each one of them had heard it, there was no mistaking that. From that chest came the sound of a beating heart.

"It's real..." Izzy marveled.

"You actually were telling the truth," Malcolm sneered to Matt.

"Why do people keep saying that?" Matt remarked, insulted.

"Some with good reason!"

The group turned to face the soaked young man from whose voice was spoken those few words. There was hardly a need to state the shock and surprise felt within that group as they saw-

"Creighton!"

Izzy was the first to react to Creighton's sudden appearance, running up and glomping him to the ground. The rest simply looked on, some in confusion and others with surprise.

"I thought you said he was on Rommel's ship," Andrew looked over at Matt, who had notably gone pale at the thought.

"I was," Creighton announced, working to push Izzy off and stand up. "And I think you'll be happy enough to see this."

Creighton then held out a particularly curious object in his hand. Matt recognized it immediately and smiled.

"You got the key."

"But how did you escape Rommel's ship?" Izzy asked.

"I had some help from a friend," Creighton nodded, to which Matt nodded back knowingly.

"Right then, let's have the key then," Matt said as he began to walk towards-

SHWING

Suddenly there was a metal blade at Matt's throat, stopping his forward progress. Matt turned to look over at the wielder and was mildly surprised.

"Andrew?" he asked. Andrew simply smiled.

"You know, I could always just barter the chest off in exchange for a certain Egyptian God Card you have," Andrew said. "Then I wouldn't have to worry about too much else beyond that."

Matt smiled. "I suppose that could be a fair trade," he replied, "but I would appreciate it if you didn't mention that with a blade at my throat."

SHWING

"I don't think I'm going to let either of you have the chest at all, quite frankly," Malcolm said, holding up a sword at Andrew and his bladed Duel Disk at Matt. "So sorry."

"Truly your kind are a dime a dozen, Malcolm," Matt said. "I imagine this is to get in good with Montalban, then?"

"I'm sure Montalban would love to have control over someone who's immortal and commands the seven seas," Malcolm replied.

SHWING

"I'm gonna have to borrow the chest first," Creighton said, having pulled out his own sword as he stopped Matt from reaching for his own sword. "If I can use it, I can probably barter it off in exchange for Bonesman's life."

"To be fair, Bonesman doesn't really have a life," Matt pointed out, now somewhat uncomfortable from all the blades pointed at him.

"I can get it back for him," Creighton said, though with some uncertainty.

"You do know who Rommel is, right?" Andrew asked.

"Met him in the flesh, he doesn't seem unreasonable," Creighton replied, to which Andrew rolled his eyes.

"Well then, I guess there's only one real way to settle all of this," Andrew sighed. "We're going to have to-"

"HAH!"

Quickly Malcolm swung his blade down at Andrew, missing him as the latter dodged in a panic. Creighton took the opportunity to strike at Andrew, only to be warded off by a parry. Matt ducked out of the way as Malcolm charged in, taking on Andrew and Creighton at once with his dual wielded blades and just like that entering a three-way swordfight. The scuffle continued down the beach as Malcolm worked on trying to snatch the key from Creighton, only to be fended off by Andrew who also tried snatching the key, only to be fended off by Creighton who continued to maintain control over the key while also fending off a sneaking Matt, who simply tried snagging the key and avoiding the flurry of blades.

"What are you guys doing?! This isn't a time to be fighting!" Izzy started shouting, leaving the others behind who simply looked on with the most dumbfounded expression on their faces.

"Huh. So dat's happening," Joey said.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Yugi asked.

"Well, I mean, they do all have swords and stuff," Tristan mused. "Maybe it's better if we stayed out of this one."

"Yeah...wanna just take da chest?"

"Joey, you can read me like a book!"

And with that, Joey and Tristan grabbed the chest and started heading off towards the nearby jungle without a care in the world. Yugi, Tea, and Shannon simply stood there looking agape at this ongoing spectacle of madness.

"I'm going back to the lifeboats," Shannon said.

"Me too."

"Me three."


The fight continued on for quite some time, with no one person gaining any advantage or leeway on the others. Creighton was working the hardest to fend off the attacks from Malcolm and Andrew and the occasional sneaking hand of Matt. Eventually Andrew kicked at Creighton, only to be dodged and hit Matt instead.

"Sorry!" he apologized as he continued to fight against the other two, leaving Matt to wallow on the beach with a bloody nose.

"Sonuva-!" Matt cursed, holding his nose as Izzy came up alongside.

"Matt, are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm fine, grab the chest," Matt said nasally, grabbing his sword with his free hand and charging into the fray again. Izzy just stared on in complete bewilderment before taking into account what he had said. At that moment, she turned around to see Joey and Tristan running off with the chest.

"Are you kidding me?!" she yelled out as she ran after them into the jungle.

Meanwhile, Malcolm, Andrew, and Creighton continued fighting about on the beach, deflecting blades and parrying and dodging and striking in all manner of directions. Eventually the group hit a clashing moment as Andrew and Creighton struck at Malcolm at the same time, the latter of which blocked both with each of his blades.

"The two of you have gotten better since our last fight," Malcolm complimented, "but you'll find that I've gotten better too! I wasn't just sitting around moping all this time!"

Malcolm then heaved and threw off both of the combatants at the same time, kicking sand into Creighton's face and grabbing the key.

"By your leave then," he bowed, running off into the jungle. Creighton hurriedly began scrubbing the sand out as Andrew stood up and prepared to run after Malcolm until-

"OI!"

Andrew turned around and had just enough time to block Matt's incoming strike. The two continued fighting each other for a bit as Creighton recovered and ran after Malcolm. Andrew saw Creighton run by and quickly began shouting, "HEY HEY WAIT STOP HEY WAIT STOP!"

Eventually Matt ceased his attack and asked, "What?!"

"I don't have the key."

A short pause between the two brothers occurred as it dawned on them what they should have been doing. And then they pursued Malcolm as well.

Eventually, Malcolm made his way to what appeared to be an old abandoned mill. He looked behind him to find Creighton in hot pursuit and the brothers not far behind. With great haste, Malcolm ran into the mill and looked inside, only to find a spiraling staircase in his midst leading up to the top of the bell tower attached.

"Of course," he muttered to himself. "It's going to be El Dorado all over again."

"Aha!"

Malcolm turned and dodged Creighton's attack, and the two began to fight their way up the spiral staircase. Meanwhile, Andrew and Matt arrived at the entrance, having been fighting with their blades for most of the way up and continuing to do so right outside the entrance.

"Admit it! I was always the better of the two of us!" Andrew called out.

"Only at Duel Monsters, meanwhile your money management skills suck!" Matt retorted.

"At least I have money management skills!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"I don't know, I'm just trying to annoy you!"

"Well it sure is working!"

"Good!

At that point, Matt managed to shove Andrew away and run into the building working on ascending the staircase with Andrew recovering and pursuing him. The two began to fight each other up the stairs.

"You know, this is just like that time with the flamingo and the pie!" Andrew retorted.

"What?! What does that have to do with anything?!"

"Still trying to annoy you!"

"Well good, it's still working, so you can just go straight to-"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute!"

The two brothers then stopped fighting again.

"Why are we even fighting?" Andrew asked.

A brief pause. "You know, you bring up a good point," Matt replied. "It doesn't matter which of us gets the chest, I'd just be giving you Slifer back anyway."

"Right..."

A thoughtful pause. "So where's the key?"

"I think Malcolm has it."

Yet another pause. And then the brothers began hurriedly climbing the stairs in pursuit of the key. Further up the stairs, Malcolm and Creighton continued fighting each other, matching each other strike for strike.

"I'm not about to let my vengeance just disappear from my clutches when it's this close!" Malcolm shouted out, knocking Creighton back down the stairs. He turned around and raised the key to examine it.

WHOOSH

And suddenly the key was gone. Malcolm watched a sandbag go down the tower and looked up to see Andrew swiftly rising to the top of the tower.

"By your leave, Malcolm!" Andrew taunted accompanied with a rude gesture, much to Malcolm's chagrin and anger.

Creighton continued to roll down the stairs until Matt stopped him and stood him back up, dusting him off. "Right then, up we go," Matt said, with Creighton nodding and the two now heading up to the top.

Exiting one of the windows up high, Andrew found himself now on the roof of the building between the tower and the mill wheel. He then waltzed towards the wheel without a care in the world until a certain thud told him he was being followed. He turned and managed to block Malcolm's attack just in the nick of time, and the two continued to fight each other on the roof.

"Can't we just talk about a negotiation of sorts?" Andrew asked.

"There won't be any negotiations with the likes of you!" Malcolm snapped back, managing to strike a disarming maneuver and tossing Andrew's sword off the roof. He then pointed his sword at Andrew, who simply raised his hands up in surrender.

"Well will you at least consider negotiating with them?" Andrew retorted, pointing behind Malcolm.

Malcolm turned and looked, only to be attacked by both Matt and Creighton! Andrew jumped off the roof towards his sword, key in hand, while the others continued to fight their way across the roof. Creighton managed to maneuver his way around Malcolm and get behind him, putting Malcolm between the two of them.

"Ah-ha!" Creighton called, thinking he had the upper hand, only for Malcolm to quickly disarm him immediately and put another pause in the fighting.

"I'll deal with you in a minute, but first if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to the man who proceeded to ruin my life," Malcolm spat out coldly.

"By all means, be my guest," Creighton begged, holding up his hands as Malcolm turned his attention towards Matt.

"If I may interject on that claim for a moment," Matt countered. "Just who exactly, as you'd recall, saw fit to, in the moment you had a full-blown criminal in your grasp, help to release said criminal and thus put your life into a misery? And who is it really then, taking that into account, that has led you to become a washed-up has-been that takes orders from such criminals of said kind?"

"ENOUGH!" Malcolm yelled out, slashing as Matt ducked out of the way and fell down from the roof onto the ground below. The two watched as Andrew helped Matt off of the ground.

"Unfortunately, Creighton...he's RIGHT!" Malcolm then proceeded to slash at Creighton with both blades.

"Oi!" Andrew tossed up a blade for Creighton to use, which Creighton somehow managed to grab from midair. "Still rooting for you by the way!"

The two brothers then turned and walked off, with Andrew showing Matt the key he had. And then suddenly Andrew fell into something, allowing Matt to grab the key out of his hand as he fell. Matt then proceeded to walk around the empty grave plot that Andrew had fallen into so ignorantly and waltz away into the jungle.

The fighting on the mill's roof quickly moved onto the wheel as the bloodthirsty Malcolm backed Creighton into a corner of sorts, with Creighton desperately working to fend him off.

"To my credit, it was a joint effort!" Creighton shouted out.

"Good, that just means I get to kill more of you!" Malcolm replied, stomping hard and advancing on Creighton.

Unfortunately, this stomp reverberated through the old rotting wood of the mill wheel, and alongside the additional weight of two bodies, the beam holding the wheel in place crackled and broke. This in turn landed the wheel on the riverbed, which being slightly sloped allowed for it to begin to roll. As the two combatants continued fighting on top of the wheel, they each began to realize that the wheel was now moving and picking up speed.

Meanwhile, Andrew had finally managed to clamber up out of the grave plot and poked his head out on top.

"Geez, well that was uncalled for," he murmured, brushing himself off. "First thing I do after getting that shower I need right now is walk right up to Matt, hold out my hand, and say...what in the world is that rolling sound?"

Andrew then turned too little too late and suddenly found himself in a compromising position as the mill wheel rolled over him entirely, taking the three into the jungle.


Matt hummed along to himself as he played with the key.

"Ahhh, I love it when a plan works out," he commented to himself. "First thing I'm going to do when I get the heart is go up to Rommel, wave it around in his smug face while it's coated with dirt so he can't touch it, and say...what in the world is that rolling sound?"

Matt then turned around only to find a massive wheel rolling after him. Yelping, he quickly began to run off further into the jungle, the wheel continuing to follow him relentlessly.


Joey and Tristan had run quite far into the jungle but had for the moment stopped to catch their breath.

"You'd think running straight through the island would have been faster, since it's a straight line to the boats, but noooooo, jungle fauna stops that progress," Tristan moaned.

"Man tell me about it," Joey concurred. "I haven't been dis beat since dat time we got stuck lugging around Rex Raptor out in the middle of the desert."

"I still say we could have just left him, and he'd be fine over there," Tristan remarked.

"Now's not da time to talk about dat," Joey retorted. "We gotta get dis chest back to da boats!"

"We may not have that much time!"

Joey and Tristan looked up and found Izzy standing nearby, huffing and puffing. "Finally, I caught up with you two," she breathed, tossing her sword towards them. "And hear I thought it would be easy to cut through that fauna."

"Oh good, we could use a blade like dis!" Joey remarked, picking up the sword and attempting to pick the lock on the chest.

"You realize that won't work, right? It's got three different holes to open simultaneously," Izzy pointed out.

"Eh, it was worth a shot," Joey shrugged, tossing the sword to Tristan. "So now what?"

"Well, the only thing to do now is take this back to the boats," Izzy replied. "We'll be able to get over there, shove off, row back to the ship, open the chest, get the heart, put it in the dirt, and finally say...what in the world is that rolling sound?"

The three looked up to see a little distance away from them Matt running away from a giant mill wheel, on top of which Creighton and Malcolm were fighting and inside of which Andrew was half-running half-rolling. The three watched the wheel roll onward until Andrew jumped out of the wheel and rolled onto the ground nearby. The three ran over to him, chest in tow, and picked him up off the ground.

"No mommy, I don't want the strawberry-chocolate swirl, I want the bubble gum-banana swirl," Andrew blubbered out deliriously, his eyes rolling around in his head.

"Geez, you okay? You don't look so good," Joey asked.

"Yeah, maybe you should sit down for a while," Tristan said, bending himself and Andrew down onto the ground.

"No, I don't wanna get off the ride, I wanna keep going foreeeeeeverrrrrrr..." Andrew fell onto his back on the ground. Clearly he wasn't getting up in a while.

"Well great, now we gotta carry him back too," Izzy bemoaned. "Can this possibly get any worse?!"

"You bet it can."

A grim voice's response was not welcome to anyone's ears. Even Andrew perked up at the sound of it, albeit still very much dizzy and delirious.

"Oh good, the fish people are here!" he laughed, pointing to the jungle from which several of Rommel's disfigured crew members appeared.

"RUN FOR IT!" Izzy shouted, hastily helping Andrew to his feet and dragging him along as Joey and Tristan hauled the chest with great haste, the legion of fiends in pursuit of them.


Continuing down the path of the wheel, Matt worked to continue evading it as the wheel rolled after him, not hesitating even for a moment. Any track athlete would probably have had trouble with keeping up a steady pace in a situation like this, and Matt wasn't a track athlete by any stretch of the imagination. The wheel had only continued to get closer as he grew tired of running away from it. Finally, he ducked off to the side just dodging the wheel as it continued to roll downhill.

In the meantime, Creighton and Malcolm had continued fighting on top of the wheel and eventually clambered inside of it to continue fighting, only for the rotations to begin affecting their heads as they worked to clamber around the wheel and hang on.

"Oh no..." Creighton moaned as his dizziness brought up his nausea again. Malcolm caught sight of Creighton's green face with great concern.

"Don't you even-"

BLECK


"Sword!"

"Sword!"

"Sword~!"

"Sword!"

"Sword!"

The quartet of Joey, Tristan, Izzy, and Andrew kept passing around the pair of swords they had, all in the attempt to fend off the legion of fish fiends that surrounded them. Sometimes in lieu of a sword, Joey and Tristan would rely on the chest or even their fists to ward off the attackers as they continued to be pursued through the jungle.

"TAKE THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS, AND THIS, AND THIS, AND THIS, AND THIS AND THIS AND THIS AND THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS AAAAAAHHHHH!"

The commotion broke up the fighting as everyone turned to see Izzy wailing on some poor crewman rather violently. She finally finished and turned to see everyone was now looking over at her. An awkward silence seemed to follow.

"Well that was a bit overkill, don't you think?" Andrew asked.

One of the crew members finally took advantage of the moment to snag the chest away from Joey and Tristan and run off with it, prompting the party to flee the scene.


Matt finally stood up after taking his breather, wiping the sweat off of his brow.

"Sheesh, I should've just done that ages ago!" he remarked to himself, stepping over some brush.

He looked up and caught sight of a lone sailor - one of Rommel's, notably with a hermit crab shell for a head - running across with an extraordinarily grim and ornate chest in his hands. Matt watched and gave some thought to it, then picked up a nearby coconut and held it in his hand for a few seconds before throwing it an impressive distance to hit the sailor in the head.

This in turn knocked the sailor to the ground and his head clean off. Matt shrugged and wandered over to the chest with the key in his hand. Ignoring the tirade of the unfortunate mutant sailor, Matt proceeded to place the key inside the lock and turned it, opening the latch and consequently the bounty inside.

Matt peered inside to find exactly what he was looking for: the lone beating heart of one evil captain of the seven seas. He smiled to himself, admiring the organ with curiosity and a keen interest.

"Bingo."

The sounds of oncoming conflict approaching disrupted Matt's thoughts and reminded him of the haste he was in. Quickly he grabbed a small pouch from his jacket, stowing the heart away into it, and closed the chest which locked itself before proceeding to flee the scene.


Just at that moment the two conflicting groups arrived, with Joey and Tristan picking up the chest in haste as Izzy and Andrew continued to fend off the fiends. The group ran through the jungle without stopping to take note of anything, such as the flattened grass from the passing of a giant wheel, the small pile of sick left behind by one of sad wheel's unfortunate occupants, and the head of one mutant sailor that proceeded to get kicked around recklessly and with abandon.


"So how do you suppose things are going in there?"

"If I had to take a guess, lousy."

"Don't say that, I'm sure they're all just fine."

Yugi, Tea, and Shannon continued to wait in the boats, having prepared with the other crew members to shove off at the opportune moment.

"I mean at least Rommel and his goons aren't on the island pursuing them through the jungle," Willaby joked. "That would probably complicate things even more."

"I just hope they're safe," Tea hoped.

"Joey and Tristan are tough, I'm sure they're alright," Yugi reassured calmly.

"I sure hope you're right..."

"Oi!"

The group turned to see Matt racing down the beach. A group mix of relief and wonderment worked its way through the group as everyone welcomed Matt's return.

"So did you get it?" Willaby asked.

"Where's the jar?!" Matt asked, ignoring Willaby's question.

"In the boat, right where you left it," Willaby answered.

Hastily, Matt ran to and rummaged around the boat for his jar of dirt, promptly taking it and removing some of the dirt in order to prepare the heart for storage.

"Oi!"

Another distressed call rang out as the others turned to see Joey, Tristan, Andrew, and Izzy emerge from the jungle next. And being very quickly pursued by a legion of Rommel's goons.

"I had to say Rommel's goons," Willaby murmured, biting his thumb before drawing out a sword. "Let's help 'im out!"

The few and able crew members who could then charged into the fray as Joey and Tristan ducked by with the chest. As Matt finished pouring some dirt into his jar, Joey and Tristan placed the chest in the other lifeboat and grabbed a fishing net to prepare for battle.

WHAM

And then out of nowhere, half of the battle was mowed down by a giant runaway mill wheel, which continued to roll down into the shallows until finally tilting over and landing in the water. Matt looked over at this fine mess of people and simply said, "Well that was highly improbable."

The group finally wandered out of the mill, some still dazed, some still dizzy, two of them dazed, dizzy, and tired. Creighton finally felt his nausea decreasing while Malcolm thoroughly washed his face off in the salt water. Taking note of the remaining battlers, Creighton proceeded to charge into the fray as Malcolm wandered over towards the lifeboats. The battle continued with Rommel's minions slowly but surely pushing the party back towards the lifeboats. Soon enough, there wasn't much room between the lot of them and the minions.

"There's too many of them!" Izzy yelled out.

"We're surrounded, huh?" Creighton asked.

Matt stood his ground, saying, "They can have what we've got when they pry it from my cold dead-"

"I've got it!"

The entirety of the people there turned to Malcolm, who held the chest above his head.

"Are you crazy?!" Andrew called out.

"Maybe, but I've had some practice with that too," Malcolm called out, and then he dashed away, drawing the minions away from the rest of the group.

"I suppose he wants to die a hero?" Creighton wondered aloud.

"And who are we to not respect his last and final wish?" Matt shrugged. "LET'S GET OUTTA HERE!"

And with a resounding, "Aye!" in response, the group headed to the lifeboats and shoved off.


Malcolm continued running as far as he could into the jungle. It didn't matter where he went now, though, he knew he was as good as dead with the chest in his hands. He just knew he needed to get away-

SLIP

-over that one trail of sick left behind. Malcolm cursed to himself, how could someone possibly be affected so badly by simply nausea? His luck was slowly slipping as the motley crew of fishes and fiends approached him, hungry looks in their eyes. He stood up quickly and held the chest in his hands, looking around at the group in front of him.

"You want this chest?" Malcolm asked, indicating the chest in question. A resounding assortment of hisses and growls pervaded through the crowd. One particular member called out, "Give it up already!"

"Well...go get it!" Malcolm said, tossing the chest away and running further into the jungle, sending the group of fiends charging after the chest. He got away.

Somehow, he got away with it all.


AUTHOR'S NOTES

Would you be surprised if I said Malcolm was in part based off of James Norrington? No? Of course not? Why would you even ask that question you silly author? Well then.

Believe it or not, Malcolm was thought up as much more than just a mere character swap. He never existed in any of our role-plays. He's not the only character that's ended up like this; Bonesman and Auntie Margareta also never showed up in any of our role-plays. The characters they've come to replace for the story were just used. So yeah, my brother would go visiting Tia Dalma, be warned by Bootstrap Turner, and get attacked by Norrington in Tortuga. I'm the one who's replaced them all with these characters.

Malcolm serves the same general purpose as Norrington does in the movies, i.e. he's in pursuit of the questionably-moraled protagonist, has his life ruined as a result, and sails with him to the island just like in the movies. I just needed a bit more than a mere vendetta to establish the character of Malcolm; the confrontation in Tortuga is riddled with this, and the tale of what happened in El Dorado lends some backstory not only to Captain Matt but also to Malcolm, serving to give an inside look as to why he ended up the way he did in Tortuga and why he went back on his morals and such. Now will he redeem himself later on as Norrington later does? We'll see.

Next time: Matt's sailing away with the heart of Rommel! But will he get away with it?