NOTICE! I do not own anything in this fanfiction, save for two characters.
They had finally found it: Gold Roger's Loot of a Thousand Lands. Hogarth stood with the pirates, Ren, Stimpy, and GIR, staring at the globe of treasure they were standing on!
Unfortunately, the pirates wouldn't let Hogarth take any for himself. This he was sure of.
Ren and Stimpy both felt like they recognized all this, somehow. "This is all seeming...very familiar," Stimpy muttered, "I-I can't remember why..."
"Me neither," Ren growled, frustrated that he couldn't remember if this was important or not.
Hogarth, meanwhile, noticed a frigate sitting atop one mound of the treasure. He glanced at Jumba, who was too enthralled with the treasure around him to notice Hogarth or his friends.
Hogarth nudged Stimpy and walked toward the ship, with GIR following. "Guys," he whispered, "c'mon. We're getting out of here, and we're not leaving empty-handed."
Ren and Stimpy looked at each other, then followed Hogarth whispering along the lines of, "Wait a minute! Hogarth!"
Jumba, meanwhile, knelt into the gold coins that made up a vast majority of the Loot. "A lifetime of searching," he murmured in awe and excitement, clutching two handfuls of coins, "and at long last..." Here, a wide grin broke out on the alien's face. "...I can touch it!"
"You know what's strange, Stimpy?" Ren asked his feline friend as they climbed onto the ship with Hogarth and GIR, "There's something bad, I just know...something bad happened here, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was."
"I can't remember either, Ren," Stimpy replied, "That's really frustrating!"
Ren glared at Stimpy. "No crap, Sherlock." By that time, he'd reached the portside of the ship and, as Hogarth was helping him on, he happened to glance over the boy's shoulder...
"AAAH!" he screamed, falling onto the deck.
Hogarth saw it, too, staring with wide eyes.
Stimpy was pulled up by GIR. "What's up, Ren--?" At that point, Stimpy saw why Ren had screamed, and he gasped.
GIR stared at it, too, but being the "genius" robot he was, he didn't understand it.
"...Gold Roger!?" Hogarth breathed.
Ren shot up. "In the flesh! ...Well, except for skin, organs, or any of the other things that count as flesh. Those aren't there..."
Sure enough, Gold Roger's skeleton was right there, sitting in what seemed like a throne. He was wearing a proud-looking crimson coat with gold trim, and his tri-peaked hat sat on his head as it did in life.
"Something just struck me, Ren," Stimpy told his canine friend, "Remember that guy in Roger's crew that had the temper--what was his name?"
"...Klaus," Ren reminded Stimpy, "Yeah, Orimez Klaus wanted us to keep something secret, and it was something horrible, and I still can't remember it! Can you?"
Stimpy hung his head in shame. "No..."
Ren's eyes welled up. "A mind is a terrible thing to lose!" he wailed, leaning his head into Stimpy's bloated belly. The fat cat sympathetically patted his friend on the back.
As Ren and Stimpy were talking, Hogarth noticed the remains of someone else. There was another skeleton lying near Roger's seat, and it was holding something in its hand. Hogarth pulled the object out of the skeleton's bony grasp.
It was a book, and Hogarth then remembered Ren and Stimpy talking about a book. A log...
Hogarth opened the book. Sure enough, the entries were, he could tell, written by Ren and Stimpy!
He turned to his (currently weeping) animal friends. "Guys, is this yours?"
Ren and Stimpy slowly turned to Hogarth...and shared a humongous take when they saw the book he was holding!
"Th-Th-The--!" Ren stuttered.
"THE LOG!" Stimpy exclaimed in utter joy, bounding at the book and grabbing it out of Hogarth's hand!
Ren ran after Stimpy and they both opened their log. "It's all here!" Ren said excitedly, "All our memories with Gold Roger's crew!"
"Uh-oh..." Stimpy murmured, his smile disappearing.
"What?" Ren asked. But then he saw what. "Oh, God, that's right! We were forced to help Klaus rig that booby trap!"
BOOM! CLANK!
Everyone heard these noises above their heads.
"Speak of the devil," Ren whimpered, fearfully looking up with Stimpy.
Everyone else looked up out of confusion. What was that noise?
There were explosions going off in the laser cannons on the ceiling/wall(s).
"Klaus wanted the treasure all for himself," Ren explained, "so he murdered Gold Roger, and then forced us to help him to rig this whole island to blow HIGHER THAN A KITE!"
Finally, one of the cannons fell and smashed into the gold-covered core, causing it to crack. One of the lasers went off course, and moved towards the pirates. Of course they ran away, abandoning all thoughts of treasure for the instinct to preserve themselves.
"Run, Hogarth!" Stimpy pressured Hogarth, "Run for your LIFE!"
"You and Ren go back and help the captain and Chopper!" Hogarth responded, ducking under the ship's control panel, "If I'm not there in five minutes, leave without me."
"You heard the kid!" Ren said to Stimpy, "Let's move!"
"I am not leaving my pal Hogarth!" Stimpy insisted, pulling Hogarth out by his feet from under the control panel.
Hogarth glared at Stimpy; he was in the middle of hotwiring the ship, as evidenced by the two cables he was holding together.
"...Unless he looks at me like that," Stimpy said, grinning nervously. He then dropped Hogarth's feet with a "Bye, Hogarth!" and he and Ren dashed toward the Door that led to the surface of the island.
Meanwhile, the lasers were making the cracks in the core wider, and all the treasure was falling in, much to Jumba's dismay!
"No! No! No! No!" he kept screaming, trying to grab whatever coins he could. This was definitely not supposed to happen. Fortunately, he was standing high enough above the falling treasure to avoid falling in.
Any other pirates that tried to get whatever treasure they could weren't so lucky; they fell into the core (which, by the way, was hot enough to burn anyone who got close enough to a crisp). Among those that died here was Mr. Turnbuckle.
When Jumba saw several of the pirates running towards the Door, he shouted at them, "Come back here, you quitters!" At that point, he noticed Gold Roger's old ship getting fired up.
He whipped out his Quadroculars, and through them, he saw that Hogarth was the one firing it up! He also saw lots of treasure onboard the ship.
Jumba grinned. He had two thoughts going through his mind: What a clever boy, and Yes, a way out!
Meanwhile, back on the surface of the island, Chopper and Midna were sitting in one of the floating boats, bound and under the watchful patrol of Wapol. Midna was bound with some strange rope that impeded her Twilit abilities, and Chopper was restrained with Sea Stone Cuffs.
They all heard the muffled explosions that were coming from underground.
Chopper let out a dismayed sigh. "I only wanted to prove I could be useful...but I couldn't... I just wish I'd been more helpful to you, Captain Midna."
Midna looked back at the young reindeer, giving him a reassuring smile. "Don't be dumb. You were a great help. I mean it."
"But I still feel so useless." Chopper's eyes started to well up. "I think I'm gonna be sick," he muttered, clutching his stomach.
Suddenly, he realized something: How was he able to clutch his stomach if his hooves were cuffed behind his back, and with Sea Stone Cuffs!?
Chopper looked at his hooves. Indeed, there was the pair of cuffs, but it was dangling from only one of his arms!
The problem was obvious: His arms were too small for the cuffs!
Chopper could see a lightbulb flickering on in his mind. He had an idea.
Quickly, he hid his hooves behind his back, taking off the cuffs as quietly as he could, then he shouted, "Wapol!"
The former Tin Tyrant turned to Chopper. "Huh?"
"If you think you and the other pirates are getting their hands on that treasure," he said angrily, "if you think you can burn down the home of innocent people like Hogarth's family and get away with it, you're dead wrong!" He glared at Wapol. "You're gonna pay now. Luffy beat you once before, and if he could, then so can I!"
Wapol was now pissed. He stomped over to Chopper and grabbed him by the neck. "That's it! I'm gonna eat you alive!" The metal-jawed pirate smirked. "I've always wanted to eat raw venison."
"You won't get the chance," Chopper said, then suddenly went into Heavy Point and punched Wapol across the face! The pirate stumbled back, quite stunned from the punch (as well as the fact that Chopper shifted his shape when it was thought he couldn't).
Chopper quickly untied the ropes binding Midna, and they both glared at Wapol, who could only look back nervously. He knew he was in trouble.
Back in the core, Hogarth finally got the engines working again, and all the treasure that wasn't on that ship was molten in the core.
Hogarth grinned as he turned the boat towards the . "YES! GIR, we are so outta here!"
GIR cackled happily in response.
"Ah, Hogarth!"
Hogarth and GIR whipped around. There, climbing onto the boat, was Jumba. "Aren't you the Seventh Wonder of the World?" he laughed.
Thinking quickly, Hogarth grabbed a nearby cutlass and pointed it at Jumba. "Get. Back." he growled.
The alien halted and looked down at the sword. Then, slowly, he lifted his great head, glaring at the boy. "I like you well, Hogarth," he rumbled, "but I've come too far to let you stand between me and my treasure." As he said this, he started walking toward Hogarth, forcing the boy to back away slowly until his back was against the ship steering "wheel".
Suddenly, a huge beam hit one side of the ship, sending Hogarth, GIR, and Jumba overboard! Jumba was able to grab onto the side of the ship, one foot landing on a small platform nearby. GIR clinged to Jumba's back until he could climb down to the platform.
But the little robot saw something that frightened him: Hogarth wasn't as lucky as the other two!
No, he fell down a chasm and ended up grabbing onto a symbol-shaped protrusion that was slowly pulling itself back into the wall!
What was more, as Jumba held onto the ship, the same laser that knocked everyone overboard was destroying the ship and the treasure on it!
Jumba's eyes widened. "Oh, no, you don't!" he exclaimed with determination, and he started pulling the ship away from the laser.
"MASTER! MASTER!" GIR suddenly screamed, frantically pointing into the nearby chasm.
"What?" Jumba asked. Then he saw what: Hogarth was about to fall!
"Hogarth!" Jumba gasped. He then glanced back at the ship full of treasure and grabbed it tighter with one hand. He turned and used the other hand to reach for his young human assistant. "Reach for me, boy!" he shouted, "REACH!"
Hogarth tried very hard to grab Jumba's hand, but he had to admit it...
"I-I CAN'T!"
The protrusion disappeared and Hogarth fell again, but he was able to grab onto another protrusion. Unfortunately, this one was pulling itself in, too.
Now Jumba was in a desperate situation. He glanced back and forth between the treasure on the ship and the boy in the chasm. If he let go of the ship and the treasure, he'd be giving up his life-long dream, but he couldn't leave Hogarth to die!
Finally, Jumba exclaimed,"Ohh, I'm such a FOOL!" and let go of the ship to rush over and grab Hogarth!
He swung his young friend up onto the platform, then climbed up himself. They both looked up, to find the ship full of treasure blow up thanks to the laser.
They then spotted a way to the Door that lead to the surface. Hogarth Hughes, Dr. Jumba Jookiba, and GIR ran as fast as they could to the Door and out onto the surface...