A/N: Hello, hello, hello, everybody! I have returned with another chapter just for all of you. I had a lot of free time today and a huge burst of creativity so that is why this chapter is out so soon after the last one. Quick update, I did revise the last three chapters as I was informed by Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps that I had some pretty glaring errors in my crew sizes and has been helping me create a genuine story that accurately reflects the timeline so I patched all of those up that I could find as well as made some quick edits such as missing/mixed up words. For the crew size edits, I'll leave a brief summary at the end of the author's note in case you don't want to reread everything to find them yourselves. Thanks so much to Cimar for the help there! Now, leave a follow/favorite/review if you enjoy the chapter!

-Eragon

Disclaimer: I don't own Zootopia, only my stories and OCs.

Crew Size of the Wildfire: Changed from 70 animals to 400 or so animals

Captain Wilde's Arsenal: Four flintlocks, a blunderbuss, and a cutlass and short sword, not two cutlasses

Number of Crewmembers Manning the Cannons of the Storm: Changed from 10 animals to 30 animals

Number of Crewmembers on the Storm Hiding Below Deck: You'll find out in this chapter

ZOOTOPIA: SEAFARER'S TALES-THE CHOSEN SIX

CHAPTER 4

LOCATION: THE STORM, VESSEL IN THE FOXBLOOD WATERS

DATE: AUGUST 15th, 1800

Even in the victory, something was still just off about everything. It all seemed to be going far too easily. The guards and cannons taken care of with just seven animals? That just didn't add up for him. He had sent a two of his animals below deck to investigate twenty minutes ago and they had yet to return. Another sign that something was amiss. He still had over 150 animals on board this ship, but he didn't like losing any of his crew. He called over his top animal on the chain besides Finnick, "Rotfang!"

A large lion quickly ran over to him and stood at attention, "Yes, Captain?"

"Sal and Garl haven't reported in. It's leaving a worse taste in my mouth than your tooth leaves in yours. Take thirty with you and find them. If you find any remaining crewmammals, capture them and bring them back here. If any of them resist, you have permission to slit they're throats. Go."

"I won't let you down, Captain!" Spinning, Rotfang quickly gathered a group and led them below deck. Wilde turned to look at the rabbit lieutenant his crew had tied to what remained of the main mast as he began reloading his flintlocks and blunderbuss. She was a fairly attractive doe, and if he was that kind of pirate, he could most likely amount of gold for her with slave tradesmammals. He had just finished his the flintlocks when he noticed the smallest of smiles pass over her muzzle before it went to mock unconsciousness. The fox stormed up to the rabbit, pushing his flintlock under her chin, "You and I both know you aren't sleeping so open those pretty eyes of yours so we can talk like grown animals."

Amethyst eyes opened and glared into his emerald ones. "What do you want to talk about, oh great Captain Wilde?"

The voice practically dripped sarcasm with every word, but his scowl ceased to waiver, "Well would you care to tell me what is the cargo this ship is carrying?"

"Even if I knew, why would I ever tell you, you pirate filth!" She spat in his muzzle, causing the fox to take a couple steps back.

Wilde sighed as he wiped off his face with a rag from his coat, "Well that was just plain unnecessary. We were just having a nice-"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three gunshots in a row were followed by a cacophony of more shots from rifles, flintlocks, and blunderbusses alike as well as yells and screams all from below deck, then finally the clashing of metal that meant melee combat. At the first shot, Wilde had drawn a second flintlock and started walking towards the hatch to below deck. His crew had done likewise, preparing for the worst with each sound of battle below them. Suddenly the noise stopped, then Rotfang cam barreling up the stairs, holding his side as blood poured out of a bullet wound. "Captain Wilde! Captain!"

He was gasping for air when he finally reached the fox, "Captain...they...below deck...they got a...it was all a-"

BANG!

The lion never finished the sentence as a bullet tore through his skull and he fell forward onto the deck, Wilde barely managing to avoid being flattened and turning to where the gunshot had come from to see a massive water buffalo standing at the top of the stairs and holding a the largest flintlock he had ever seen. The buffalo's booming voice carried to every animal on the ship and even some back on the Wildfire. "Your days are over Wilde! You are done terrorizing these seas and stealing from Britantler!"

The fox put on his most obnoxious smirk as he replied to the bold statement, "You know what I really hate? When animals kill my crew. It really just gets my blood boiling. Look! I'm so angry my fur is on fire!"

The pirates laughed as the buffalo's face seemed to become even more serious, if that was at all possible. Wilde stopped the uproarious laughter with a raised paw, silencing his crew and continuing. "Now, I won't be surrendering if that's the ploy your playing here. If anything, you should put down your gun and sword and get on your knees before my crew kills you."

The shadow of a smile displayed itself on the bovine, "What I said wasn't an attempt at your surrender. It was what is going to happen."

With that, animals in red jackets stormed up the stairs shouting a war cry, firing all sorts of guns and charging Wilde's crew with cutlasses of their own. There was easily close to 200 animals storming the deck, catching Wilde's drastically outnumbered crew extremely off guard, but they quickly recovered and began firing back. Wilde may have great faith in the abilities of his crew, but there was no way to win this fight without extremely heavy losses. Realizing this as he shot two animals heading towards him, he began yelling out commands as he drew his other two flintlocks. "Everymammal back to the Wildfire and start firing the cannons! This isn't worth the fight!"

His crew immediately began listening, and slowly began withdrawing along their boarding planks back to the pirate ship. The fox captain had another plan, however as he noticed the water buffalo had been attacked by his crew, and had momentarily forgotten about the pirate captain and taken to the fight, leaving the stairs wide open. He took off at a sprint to the stairs, dodging under and between all sizes of animals, both his own and the enemy. Few to none noticed him, and even if they did, they're attention was quickly drawn away from him by the battle they were in the midst of. Diving down the stairs, Wilde took a moment to gather himself before running towards were he knew every cargo ship's hold to be. He reached the hold fairly quickly, the large oak door with a lock an obvious sign of the importance of the room. You'd think they would change it up once in a while to prevent these kinds of things from happening.

He fired one of the flintlocks, busting the lock and allowing him inside the hold. Opening the door, he entered cautiously to find...nothing? The whole room was empty. Nothing except wooden walls all around him. It didn't make sense. Why would this many guards be on a ship with nothing on it? It could have been just to get him, but his contact would never have betrayed him like that, and he said there was something of value on this ship. So where was it? He looked around the room again, searching for anything out of place. If I was a shipmaker, what would I have done to create a hiding spot?

He scanned the room over one more time and an idea came to his mind. He slowly ran his paws along the walls, searching for anything out of place. The room was built large enough so an elephant could stand, but if his idea was correct, he would still be able to find what he was looking for. After a bit, he found a board that stuck out just a tiny bit more than the rest. Cheering in his head, he threw his body weight against it and...nothing happened. He growled slightly as he continued running his paws along the walls, and sure enough there was another board just like the first about ten feet down. He threw his weight into that one, and again nothing. He tried pulling on each board. Nothing. He heard the battle above his head and knew he didn't have too much time. In his frustration, he kicked the wall between the two boards, only for the wall to begin swinging out towards him.

As angry as he was at how simple the secret door was to open, he would worry about that later. There was a cast-iron safe to be cracked. Seeing it was a simple keyhole safe that was built for medium-sized animals, he pulled out his lock-picking set and got to work. It took him only moments before he heard a satisfying click and he pulled the heavy door open, revealing a very small wooden box trimmed in gold. He reached his paw out, about to open the box, when a particularly loud cannon shot followed by the sound of splintering wood on this ship reminded him of the battle above deck and decided he would worry about what was in the box later. He grabbed the box, taking note of how light it was, and stashed it in one of his coat's many pockets and dashed back to the surface. Keeping a flintlock and his cutlass drawn, he entered into the nearly over battle. His crew had just finished retreating and had dropped the boarding planks, along with some of Bogo's crew, into the sea. No one noticed the fox as they were all focused on firing at the Wildfire and its crew as it began sailing back in the way it had come from. Except Hopps, who was still tied to the remnants of the mast, both the pirates and the Navy crew forgetting about the small rabbit.

She had been frantically clawing at the ropes with her blunt claws throughout the entire battle and was about to give up when she saw the fox captain making his escape from below deck. Running out of options, she reached her head down and began gnawing at the rope with her teeth. Finally, the rope gave way and she chased after the pirate as he sprinted across the cargo ship. Right as she was about to catch up to him, he turned midrun and fired at her, causing her to dive out of the way or be on the unfortunate receiving end of the bullet. Using the small lead he had earned himself, he had time to reach the prow of the Storm, and use it's guard rail as leverage to launch himself from the cargo ship onto the deck of the Wildfire. He landed with a little roll before bowing to his crew and turning to face the Royal Navy marines, smirk plastered on his face as he brought up the box he had stolen with a flourish.

Hopps watched this all with a rising fury on display. The pirate ship had begun making a larger and larger gap between itself and the cargo vessel. She quickly grabbed a some rope and tied a smaller cannonball to the end of it as she ran towards the prow as well. Leaping off the guard rail in a similar manner to the fox, she threw the cannon ball towards the larger ship and watched it wrap around the guard rail of the Wildfire's stern as she descended into the sea, still holding onto the rope. She started climbing, determination evident in every action. Reaching the top of the ship, she peeked over the edge toward the deck. Even with the ambush, there were still hundreds of pirates on board surrounding their captain and cheering, and there was no way for her to fight through all of them. There was only one chance of getting back that box. Pulling herself up and over onto the deck of the enemy ship, she yelled out to Wilde. "Captain Wilde, I have come to take back the property of the Britlantan Royal Navy!"

The cheering immediately halted at her voice as all eyes turned to the soaked rabbit standing head held high on their ship. Two pirates, a wolf and another rabbit, drew there cutlasses and attacked her. She drew her cutlass, parrying the first sweeping slash from the rabbit and ducking under the other from the wolf. Before the wolf could recover from the overswing, Hopps' cutlass swung into his back, planting itself firmly in the canine. The rabbit, in an attempt to save his fellow pirate, took another go at Hopps, which she sidestepped, leaving her cutlass in the wolf, and watched as the lupine pirate lodged his blade in the back of his crewmate's neck, killing the wolf. Hopps then detached her cutlass from the wolf and slashed across the shocked rabbit's throat, killing him as well. Then all eyes went to their captain as he stepped forward, classic smirk still on his face. "Well I see you know how to make an entrance! If you haven't noticed, though, Carrots, you're a bit outnumbered. But I am impressed you managed to make it onto my ship. That is one daring feat. Just for that, I'll let you jump off my ship right now and live, or you can stay and die, whatever you would like."

"I'm not here to fight your crew, Wilde. I'm here to win back that box. From one fighter to another, I want a duel with you. I win, I get the box and you take me back to that cargo ship and you let it have safe travel to its destination. You win, nothing changes, you get the box and the Royal Navy is off your tail for now."

He held a paw to his chin, mock pondering the decision. "See, why would I take a risk like that when I already have the box and the victory?"

The bunny pointed her cutlass at the fox, "Because Captain Wilde never turns down a duel."

The pirate clapped his paws together before replying, "Well said, Carrots, well said! In that case, I'd be happy to take you up on your challenge!"

He shrugged off his coat, handing it to another pirate along with the box as he took out his swords to prepare them for the duel. Hopps spoke up again, "And no guns! It wouldn't quite be the even fight if you have all your guns to my one. And pick one of your swords, you don't get both."

Wilde continued to smirk, "It's already not a fair fight since you're dueling me, but if it makes you feel better, I promise not to use any of my guns and I'll only use my trusty cutlass here."

He took out his four flintlocks, blunderbuss, and short sword and put the weapons on a barrel next to the pirate holding his coat and the box. The rabbit did likewise, placing her flintlock next to the pirate's arsenal of firepower. The pirate crew formed a makeshift ring around the two small mammals using themselves as the walls. Wilde had his cutlass drawn and stood relaxed, waiting for the rabbit in case she had any more rules. She only had one more, "First to be incapacitated loses. Be it death, unconsciousness, or surrender, all count as a loss."

"Sounds good to me, Carrots. Can we get this started already?"

Anger shot through the rabbit's eyes at him calling her that name again. Normally, Wilde would have been happy at this, as it made animals make mistakes while fighting him. This time, however, he was worried. That was a raging anger, no, it was a controlled anger. One that could be used to fight with every last breath and do whatever it takes to win. It was an anger that he himself normally showed when fighting, and that made him nervous internally. Outside, though, he looked every bit as calm and relaxed as before the flash of anger the rabbit had shown.

Then she charged him, moving faster than anyone he had dueled before. He only just brought his cutlass up in time to block the first slash, deflecting it wide to his right. He turned to slash back, but Hopps was faster, swinging again before he got the chance and causing him to change the course of his blade midswing to parry the slash down into the deck. This time, Wilde got the chance to swing, going downward at first and forcing her to bring her blade up over her head to block before sweeping across her right side. She deftly rolled under this swing and kicked the back of knee, bringing him down for a moment before taking a go at his exposed neck. Wilde saw it coming and ducked, feeling the breeze of the blade as it passed just over his ears. He used the momentum of his dodge to drop to the deck and kick out the rabbits legs, then back somersaulted to his feet, preparing for another series of sword clashes. He was not disappointed as Hopps hopped back to her feet and charged him again, with crash after crash of metal sounding around them. After seven sets of slashes, parries, and counters, Hopps managed to pull off a feint at Wilde's head, causing him to flinch as she slashed and cut his left arm just below the elbow. Glancing down and seeing blood seeping out of the wound, Wilde knew he needed to end this quickly before the blood loss got to him. He took a couple steps back and reached the makeshift wall of his animals around him. The rabbit followed, unrelenting in swing after swing at the fox. He managed to deflect each one, but inevitably collapsed under one particularly hard swing as he reached the animals of the circle, dropping his cutlass and landing on his stomach, face towards his crew.

Hopps held her blade to the back of his neck. "No one else has to die today. Just surrender and this is all done."

She was surprised to hear Wilde start laughing, "Actually, Carrots, I believe you should be the one surrendering."

In a blur he had turned, pointing a flintlock at her. Hopps was in shock, "You promised no guns!"

The smirk had returned to the fox's muzzle, "Actually, I promised not to use my guns. I said nothing about my crew's. It's what we pirates call a hustle, sweetheart."

Anger again flashed over the rabbit's features, but this time it was a rage, not controlled. She lifted her cutlass to swing down at him. "I'm going to kill you, you mangy pirate bastard!"

BANG!

Wilde had fired the flintlock...and shot the cutlass right out of Hopps' paw. Before she could pick the weapon back up, the fox was up in a flash, dropping the flintlock and holding his own cutlass to her throat. "Now surrender, Hopps. You said it yourself, no one else has to die today. Not right now at least."

With a sigh and defeated look, the rabbit held out her paws for binding. She knew it was over. Wilde called for some rope and tied her paws before leading her to the brig. The cells were surprisingly clean and well taken care of for a pirate ship. He put her in one and closed the door, locking it as she sunk down against the wall with her head in her paws. After he had walked back up to the deck, she began crying. She had failed.

Wilde walked back to his crew, them cheering all the way. He gave them a smile, but inside he felt horrible. It didn't make sense. He had done far worse to animals and never felt any remorse. Hell, he cut off Drago's arm just weeks ago and felt good about it. What made this so different? He looked at his still bleeding arm. Was it the fact that she had actually been his equal in a sword duel? Then her face flashed through his mind. No, it was that look. That look of pure and utter hopelessness that made him feel like filth for the first time since he had started on this path in life.

He grabbed his gear and the box and headed to his cabin, the ship doctor tailing him all along the way. The doctor was a kind old otter that had been with Wilde since he recruited his first crew. The otter's wife had recently left him and he was out of his previous job due to a client dying from an infection he could not stop. So he was overjoyed when Wilde offered him a job as the ship doctor, and the fox believed he had made few better decisions in all his life. The otter, Herman, had saved at least a hundred of his crew from near death, including the captain himself. So when the doctor followed the captain right into the cabin, no one batted an eye. Herman worked fast, creating a tourniquet at the elbow joint to stop most of the bleeding and then cleaning the wound with rum and cloth. Wilde hissed as the alcohol ran over the fresh wound, but kept his arm still as his doctor worked. After cleaning, Herman began stitching the cut. The monotony of doing so brought the otter to start talking to the fox. "So what's bothering you, Captain?"

"What do you mean, Herm?"

Herman gave his captain a knowing look, "You know exactly what I'm talking about. You're never this quiet and you look like someone just stole all your rum."

Wilde sighed, "I don't know, Herm. For the first time since I began doing this, I feel guilt for that rabbit. And I don't know why."

The doctor nodded as he finished stitching up the cut, "I getcha, Captain. It happens to all of us. There's always that one moment where we feel like the nastiest barnacle in the sea. But we just gotta push through that and do what we do best. Don't worry, Captain. Once you open that box, I bet you'll forget all about that guilt you got going right now."

The pirate captain's face lit up and the remembrance of the box. He fished it out of his coat as Herman packed the last of his medical supplies away into a bag. "Thank you, Herm. You always seem to know just what to do."

With a less-than-humble smile, Herman walked out the door. "Don't mention it, Captain. Glad to help."

The fox turned back to the gold-trimmed box. It had no keyhole, only a latch. Slowly, he flipped the latch. He opened the lid just a crack while holding the box as far from himself as possible just in case of a trap. When nothing happened, he brought the box up close and flipped it all the way open. He was confused at first. What did this mean?

A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger...not really, it was kind of fun actually. XD Normally I wouldn't put an author's note at the end of a chapter, but this is kind've important. I will be pretty much completely unable to write this week besides in late nights when I'm not exhausted as I have multiple college scholarships to get done before this weekend so if I don't get another chapter out soon, I apologize in advance as my brain will be creatively and emotionally fried this week. Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoyed!