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Chapter 9: Isla de Muerta

(The next morning in Tortuga, a group of worn down demon pirates are lined up on a dock. Angel Dust introduces Alastor and Vaggie to them.)

Angel Dust: (proudly) Feast your eyes, Cap'n. All of 'em faithful hands before the mast, everyone worth their salt and crazy to boot.

(They look at each crew member carefully and get to a short female cyclops with a big orange-pink eye and fluffy pink hair.)

Niffty: (cheerfully) Hi, I'm Niffty! It'll be so much fun being part of crew and sailing the seas! If the ship's filthy, you can count on me to give it a lady's touch!

(Vaggie looks at Alastor unimpressed.)

Vaggie: So THIS is your able-bodied crew?

(Alastor nods and gives her an assuring smile. He continues down the line and stops in front of a cat demon with dark-gray and white fur, brown and orange eyes, and red eyebrows. On his shoulder is a macaw with red and orange feathers and blue wings.)

Alastor: You, sailor!

Angel Dust: Husk, sir.

Alastor: Mr. Husker. Do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death?

Alastor: (firmly) Mr. Husker! Answer me!

Angel Dust: He's a mute, sir. Poor devil had his tongue cut out.

(Husk opens his mouth to show his lack of a tongue. Alastor slightly grimaces in disgust.)

Angel Dust: So he trained this parrot, Sergio to talk for him. No one's yet figured how.

Alastor: Mr. Husker's parrot. Same question.

Sergio: (squawks) Wind in your sails! Wind in your sails!

(Alastor and Vaggie look confused.)

Angel Dust: (smiles) Mostly, we figure that means "yes".

Alastor: (approvingly) Of course it does. (to Vaggie) Satisfied?

Vaggie: (frowns) Well, you've proved they're mad.

Voice: And what's the benefit for us?

(Alastor curiously moves down the line to the source of the voice. He stops in front of a sailor with a hat over their face. He takes the hat off and sees the face of a tall curvy female cyclops with white skin, pink freckles, a pinkish red eye with an X-shaped pupil, and long blonde hair with pink accents and a ponytail. She looks at him with displeased expression.)

Alastor: (smiles) Cherri Bomb!

(Cherri slaps him hard and he turns around facing Vaggie.)

Vaggie: I suppose you didn't deserve that one, either?

Alastor: (guilty) No, that one I deserved.

(He turns to Cherri again.)

Cherri Bomb: (enraged) You stole my boat!

Alastor: Actually-

(She slaps him again and cuts him off.)

Alastor: (innocently) Borrowed. Borrowed without permission, but with every intention of bringing it back.

Cherri Bomb: But you didn't!

Alastor: You'll get another one!

Cherri Bomb: (threateningly) I will.

Vaggie: (assuringly) A better one.

Alastor: A better one!

(Vaggie points to the Interceptor anchored in the bay.)

Vaggie: That one.

(Alastor turns to her.)

Alastor: (confused) What one?

(She looks at him hard and motions to the ship. The whole crew simultaneously looks over at it.)

Alastor: (incredulously) THAT one?!

(The whole crew simultaneously looks back at him. He looks back at Cherri Bomb.)

Alastor: (smiles) Aye, that one! What say you?

Cherri Bomb: (confidently) Aye!

Crew: Aye!

Sergio: (squawks) Anchors Aweigh!

(The newfound crew gets ready to board the ship. Angel turns to the captain.)

Angel Dust: Glad you like them, Smiles. They'll do us well.

Vaggie: (reluctant) Can they really help us save Charlie?

(Alastor glances up at the sky.)

Alastor: It'll be far worse not to have them.

(Vaggie and Angel look up and see dark storm clouds starting to take over the sky. They all board the Interceptor and set sail. They soon sail through a big thunderstorm. The crew proves to be experts in sailing keeping the ship afloat even in pouring rain, howling wind and against rough waves. Alastor is at the helm steering the ship and using his strange compass to navigate their course. Vaggie and Angel watch him as they struggle to control the ship.)

Vaggie: (bewildered) How can we sail to an island that nobody can find with a compass that doesn't work?

Angel Dust: Aye, the compass doesn't point north. But we're not trying to find north, are we?

(Angel goes over to Alastor at the wheel.)

Angel Dust: We should drop canvas, sir!

Alastor: She can hold a bit longer.

(The ship tilts a little. Alastor manages to keep it stable.)

Angel Dust: What's in your head that puts you in such a fine mood, Captain?

Alastor: (grins) We're catching up!

(Later when the storm passes, the Black Pearl is anchored in the bay of an ominous uncharted island surrounded by fog. Charlie looks out the window of the cabin at the island. The door opens and Moxxie and Millie enter.)

Moxxie: Time to go, poppet.

(On the deck, Baxter ties Charlie's hands together. Pentious then puts the medallion around his neck. Some other pirates watch and Millie chants weirdly.)

Millie: Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo.

(The crew gets in rowboats and heads into a sea cave in the island. Pentious stares into the cave in front of them while Charlie observes the place with anxiety. They have arrived at the Isla de Muerta.)

(On another side of the island, the Interceptor slowly comes through the fog. It moves through the wreckages of old ships. Sergio is perched on a railing at the front.)

Sergio: (ominously) Dead men tell no tales!

(The crew looks out at the island with caution.)

Angel Dust: Puts in a chill in the bones, how many honest sailors have been claimed by this passage.

(Alastor checks his compass and navigates the ship graveyard. Vaggie glances at him and turns to Angel.)

Vaggie: (curious) How is it that Alastor came by that compass?

Angel Dust: Not a lot's known about Alastor Sparrow before he showed up in Tortuga with a mind to go after the treasure of the Isla de Muerta. That was before I'd met him, back when he was captain of the Black Pearl.

Vaggie: (shocked) What? He failed to mention that.

(Angel takes a swig of rum from his flask and gets ready to tell her a story.)

Angel Dust: Well, he plays things close to the vest now. And a damn hard learned lesson it was. See three days out on the venture the first mate comes to him and says everything's an equal share. That should mean the location of the treasure, too. So, Al gives up the bearings.

(He leans in and speaks quieter but intensely.)

Angel: But that night, there was mutiny. They marooned Al on an island, and left him to die. But not before he'd gone mad with the heat.

Vaggie: Ah. So that's the reason for all the...

(She imitates Alastor's bizarre mannerisms.)

Angel Dust: Reason's got nothing to do with it. Now, Vaggie, when a pirate's marooned, he's given a pistol with a single shot. One shot. Well, that won't do much good hunting, or to be rescued. But after three weeks of a starving belly and thirst, that pistol started to look real fuckin' friendly.

(He makes a finger gun and points to his head indicating that Alastor considered shooting himself to end his misery. Vaggie gets intrigued remembering that Alastor's gun only had one shot in it and that he wouldn't use it until the proper moment. She had wondered why until Angel gave her the answer.)

Angel Dust: But Alastor, he escaped the island. And he still has that single shot. Oh, but he won't use it, though, save on one man... His mutinous first mate.

(She knows exactly who he's talking about.)

Vaggie: Pentious.

Angel Dust: Aye.

Vaggie: How did Alastor get off the island?

Angel Dust: Well, I'll tell ya. He waded out into the shallows and he waited there 'til all manner of sea creatures came acclimated to his presence. Then he roped himself a couple of sea turtles, lashed 'em together and made a raft.

Vaggie: (bewildered) He roped a couple of sea turtles?

Angel Dust: Aye. Sea turtles.

Vaggie: What did he use for rope?

(Angel starts to answer but realizes that he doesn't actually know. Then the two of them notice Alastor standing right next to them looking smugly.)

Alastor: Hair from my back.

(He then calls out to the crew.)

Alastor: Let go of the anchor!

Crew: (in unison) Lowering the anchor line!

(They get to work to stop the ship.)

Alastor: Miss Turner and I are to go ashore.

(They get a rowboat ready. Angel comes up to them.)

Angel Dust: Cap'n! What if the worst should happen?

(Alastor pauses and looks at him with sincerity.)

Alastor: Keep to the Code.

Angel Dust: (nods) Aye, the code.

(Alastor and Vaggie set out in the boat with Vaggie feeling concerned about the whole thing.)

And so the rest of the cast has been introduced playing Alastor's crew. There's Cherri Bomb as the pirate lady Anamaria, Niffty as the dwarf pirate Marty, and Husk as the mute pirate Cotton. And just for a little fun guest role, Cotton's parrot is played by Sergio the pet bird from the Nickelodeon cartoon, The Casagrandes. Just thought that'd be amusing to include.

And we now know the backstory regarding Alastor and the Black Pearl as well as the purpose of his gun with only one shot.