"Uh, pardon the mess, people," B.E.N. said as they entered. "You'd think in a hundred years, I would've dusted a little more often, but you know, when you're bachin' it…you tend to, uh, let things go." He watched as Doppler carried Amelia in and set her down gently on the ground. "Aw, isn't that sweet?" he gushed. "I find old-fashioned romance so touching, don't you?" He grabbed a tray from behind a curtain. "How 'bout drinks for the happy couple?"
Danica grimaced at the black goo inside a couple of flower pots.
"Uh, no thank you," Doppler said. "We don't drink. And uh, we're not a couple." Amelia smiled up at him awkwardly. "Look at these markings," he said in an attempt to change the subject. "They're identical to the ones on the map. I suspect these are the hieroglyphic remnants of an ancient culture."
"Mr. Hawkins," Amelia said with a very strained voice. "Stop anyone who tries to approach." She groaned in pain again and held her side.
"Yes, yes, now listen to me," Doppler said firmly. "Stop giving orders for a few milliseconds and lie still."
"Very forceful, Doctor. Go on. Say something else."
Danica looked at Jim with a raised eyebrow, seeing if he saw the evolving chemistry between the pair.
Their thoughts were interrupted by B.E.N. screaming, "Hey, look! There's some more of your buddies! Hey, fellas! We're over here fellas!"
Danica wanted to strangle that stupid robot. So much for a good place to hide. Lasers started firing at the robot. Jim pushed him down and started firing back.
When the lasers stopped, Jim started reloading his gun.
"Hello, up there!" they heard a familiar voice call out. "Jimbo! Danica! If, uh, it's alright with the Captain, I'd like a short word with the two of ya!"
Danica shut her eyes, the betrayal still fresh in her mind.
"No tricks, just a little palaver."
The two of them looked over at the Captain. "Come to bargain for the map, doubtless," Amelia said. "Pestilential—" She was cut off by another wave of pain.
"Captain," Doppler said sternly.
"That means that he thinks we still have it," Jim put together.
He and Danica left the safety of B.E.N.'s home and went to go meet Silver.
Morph immediately flew over to him and nuzzled him. Danica was jealous of the little thing and how he was so innocent and knew nothing of betrayals and hurt. Silver took a seat on a rock. "Oh, this poor old leg's downright snarky since that game of tag we had in the galley."
Jim had hurt his leg? Danica's respect for him increased by a lot as she heard those words.
"Whatever you heard back there, both of ya, the parts concerning ya, I didn't mean a word of it." Danica scoffed loudly, but he just continued, "If that bloodthirsty lot had thought I'd gone soft, they'd have gutted all three of us."
"I could've handled them," Danica said.
"You can handle one of them at a time, but not all of 'em at once." Danica chose to remain silent because despite it all, she knew he was right. "Listen to me. If we play our cards right, we can all walk away from this rich as kings."
"Yeah?" Jim said, sounding intrigued. Danica couldn't believe it. Was he actually buying this?
"You get me that map, and uh, an even portion of the treasure goes to you both." He held out both hands for them to shake.
"Boy," Jim said. "You are really something. All that talk of greatness, light comin' off my sails? What a joke."
"Now, just see here, Jimbo!"
"Not to mention after taking care of Danica for nine years, you completely blow her off!"
"I didn't—"
"I mean, at least you taught me one thing. Stick to it, right? Well, that's just what I'm gonna do! I'm gonna make sure you never see one drabloon of MY treasure!"
Danica smiled at him for putting Silver in his place and defending her.
"That treasure is owed me, by tunder!" Silver roared.
"Well, try to find it without my map! By tunder!" Jim shot back.
"Oh, you still don't know how to pick your fights, do ya, boy?"
"No," Danica said. "I think he's picking this fight just fine. Let's face it, Silver. You lied to both of us. This whole trip, the whole time you've known me, all you've done is lied! Well, I'm done falling for it, and so is he!"
"Now, mark me. Either I get that map by dawn tomorrow, or so help me, I'll use the ship's cannons to BLAST YA ALL TO KINGDOM COME!" He turned to leave. "Morph, hop to it." Morph looked at him with scared eyes. "NOW!"
Morph squealed and hid behind Danica's shoulder. Silver growled and took off.
"Nicely done," Jim said to her as they headed back up.
"Same to you."
Hours passed and the day soon turned into night.
"Gentlemen," Amelia muttered. "We must stay together and…and…"
"And what?" Doppler yelled. "What? We must stay together and what?!"
"Doctor, you have wonderful eyes."
"She's lost her mind!"
"Well, you gotta help her!" Jim said urgently.
"Dang it, Jim! I'm an astronomer, not a doctor! I mean, I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a doctorate. It's not the same thing. You can't help people with a doctorate. You just sit there, and you're useless!"
"It's okay, Doc," Jim said as he patted his friend. "It's alright."
"Yeah, Doc!" the robot said. "Jimmy knows exactly how to get out of this! It's just Jimmy has this knowledge of things!"
Jim ran his hair through his hands.
"Got any ideas?" Danica asked.
He looked up at the ship floating in the sky. "Without the map, we're dead." He looked out and they saw a fire burning where the rest of the crew was camping out. "If we try to leave, we're dead. If we stay here…"
"We're dead!" Morph chirped. "We're dead, we're dead, we're dead!"
The two of them sighed, trying to rack their brains for a plan that didn't end in certain death.
"Well, I think Jimmy could use a little quiet time, so I'll just slip out the back door."
"Back door?" Jim and Danica said together.
They turned and helped B.E.N overturn a piece of his home. "Oh, yeah. I get this delightful breeze through here, which I think is important because ventilation among friends—"
"Whoa," Jim interrupted as they looked down the hole. "What is all that stuff?"
"You mean the miles and miles of machinery that run through the entire course of the inside of this planet? Not a clue!"
"Hey, Doc! Doc!" Jim yelled. "I think we found a way outta here!"
All three of them jumped down into the hole and ended up right next to the crew's camp.
"So, what's the plan?!" B.E.N. shouted.
Jim and Danica quickly covered his mouth before he woke anyone up. "We sneak back to the Legacy, disable the laser cannons, and bring back the map."
"That's a good plan!" B.E.N. said through closed lips. "I like that plan. The only thing is I'm wondering, how do we get there?"
"On that," Jim answered as he pointed to a skiff floating nearby.
It took some effort, but they managed to get the skiff untied and into the air back to the ship without waking the crew.
They boarded the ship on the lookout for any crew members who may have stayed behind.
"Okay," Jim whispered as they made it to the lower deck. "We'll get the map. You wait here."
"Roger, Jimmy!" the robot said. "I'll neutralize laser cannons, sir!"
"Wait, don't! B.E.N! B.E.N!"
The stupid robot didn't listen and wandered off to find the wires. Jim groaned and rolled his eyes as he and Danica took off to where the skiffs, and more importantly, the map were.
Suddenly, alarms started ringing and no doubt B.E.N. was the cause. They both ran back to the stairs as fast as they could.
"That stupid robot's going to get us all…killed."
They saw with horror that Scroop was waiting at the top of the stairs for them.
"Cabin boy," he growled.
"Jim," Danica said, neither of them taking their eyes off Scroop. "Go find B.E.N., disable the cannons, and go back to Doppler and Amelia. I can handle this."
Jim reluctantly set off in the direction the robot had gone.
"I've been waiting a long time for this," Scroop hissed at her.
"Likewise."
Danica took off down the passages and Scroop came after her, crawling on the walls and the ceilings to get to her faster.
When she got to the end, she hid and then jumped out with the full intention of beating Scroop to a pulp like she had before.
She came face to face with him just when the power went out. While terrified, this wasn't the first time she had a fight in pitch blackness. She remembered what to do in a situation similar to this. She closed her eyes and took in some deep breaths as she focused on everything around her. Through her closed eyes, she could tell the lights had come back on. She then opened her eyes and jumped up and pulled Scroop's body down from his position over her and threw him on the ground. His claw came in contact with the side of her face and she got knocked over onto the ground.
Scroop landed overtop of her but she grabbed one of his legs and twisted it in the wrong direction. There was a sickening crack and Scroop screamed in pain. He made a gash with his claw on her arm in anger. Suddenly, the gravity was turned off on the ship and they all began to rise up higher and higher. Scroop crashed through the floor to the upper deck, but he managed to grab onto the mast safely.
"Danica!"
She looked over and saw Jim floating up with her. Scroop made a grab for him but narrowly missed. Jim floated up and just barely managed to grab onto the flag. Danica grabbed onto the mast just below the flag.
Scroop was climbing up the mast and began to cut the rope on the flag. "Do say hello to Mr. Arrow."
"Jim!" Danica screamed. She held out her hand and Jim quickly took it and she pulled him off the flag.
Scroop growled and lunged at the both of them.
"Tell him yourself!" Jim screamed. The both of them kicked him up into the flag with just enough force for the rope to break and send him off into space never to return.
The gravity finally turned back on and they fell into the crow's nest.
"I always hated him," Danica panted.
"What did he do to your arm?" Jim asked with a panicked voice as he noticed the gash.
"This? It's nothing. Believe me, I've had much worse!"
"Laser cannons disconnected, Jimmy, sir!" they heard. They looked down and saw B.E.N. covered in tons sparking wires. "Gee, that wasn't so tough!"
The group headed back to their hideout with no time to lose.
I hope that whole fight scene wasn't too confusing! I wanted Jim to do what he did in the movie, but I also wanted Danica to have a hand in most of it since she was the one who had had to put up with him more.