Chapter Seven
Everything was chaos as the metallic stalactites blew up and fell to ground engulfed in fire. Chasms began to open up, causing the treasure to fall into the abyss. The pirates were screaming and running for their lives.
"Run, Lynnie! Run for your life!" B.E.N. exclaimed shaking my arm.
"You go back! lf l'm not there in five minutes, leave without me," I said running to a machine I had seen nearby. I crawled under it and began messing with some wires. So glad my dad taught me how to hot wire a car!
"l am not leaving my buddy Lynnie," said B.E.N. grabbing my legs and pulling me back out. I gave him the Death glare to let him know I was being serious. "Unless she looks at me like that. Bye, Lyne!" He released me and took off running.
Silver watched in horror as his treasure spilled into the chasms. "No! No! Oh, no! Oh, no!" No matter how hard he tried keeping everything from falling, it all slipped between his fingers. Some of his crew fell into the firey abyss, while others took off running. "Come back here, ya blighters!"
Noticing movement on a nearby ship, he used his cyborg eye to zoom in and saw Aralyne working furiously."
The ship was mechanical and could fly, and I had managed to get it working again. "Yes!" I exclaimed grasping the wheel, the little pink blob floating by my head, "Morph, we are so out of here!"
"Ah. Lynnie! Aren't you the seventh wonder of the universe?"
I spun around to see John Silver had climbed aboard and was walking towards me. Picking up the sword at my side, I pointed it at his thick gut.
"Get back!" I warned.
"l like you, lass, but l've come too far to let you stand between me and me treasure," he said ominously stalking closer.
Great. He was after the money on my ship. Couldn't I get a break?!
One of the stalactites fell from the ceiling and split my ship in half. The force of the impact, caused me to fly through the air and I lost my sword. I slid into a chasm, holding on to a ledge of the metallic wall, but my fingers were slipping.
"Lynnie. Reach for me now!" I turned my head to see Silver leaning over a ledge, his arm outstretched to me, while he robotic hand held onto the ship full of treasure. "Reach!"
"l-l can't!" I stammered my hand a foot short of his. I couldn't hold on much longer!
"l - Oh, blast me for a fool!" Silver cried.
And to my surprise, he released the ship and leaned over the edge to grab me right as I lost my grip and fell. His hand held onto my wrist and for a heart stopping moment, I stared down at the fiery abyss below me. He swung me up onto the ledge, and together, the two of us jumped to our feet and took off running through the portal out of the cavern.
"Silver, you gave up?"
"Just a lifelong obsession, Lyne. l'll get over it," he said waving away my question.
"Aloha, Lynnie!"
We glanced up to see B.E.N. had somehow found another mechanical ship that could fly and he had it positioned right above us.
"Hurry, people! We got exactly two minutes and thirty-four seconds till island's destruction!" B.E.N. shouted out. He threw out a rope ladder, and Silver and I quickly climbed aboard.
"Take us out of here, metal man!" I exclaimed.
The robot saluted and began steering the ship. All around us, the island began to explode and chasms opened. Bits of foliage were blown into the air, and a tree ended up breaking our main mast. The mast then crushed a part of the ship that was helping us fly at such a great speed. We began slowing down.
"Missile tail demobilized!" said B.E.N. with worry, "Thrusters at only 30% of capacity."
"30%?" I repeated, quickly doing the calculations in my head, "That means we're- We'll never clear the island's explosion in time." I leaned over the side of the ship and stared at the portal falling further behind us. "We gotta turn around."
"What?" said Silver gaping at me in disbelief.
I grabbed what was left of the missile tail, which was still emitting sparks.
"The portal back there. lt can get us out of here!" I quickly explained.
"Pardon me, Lyne, but didn't that portal open onto a raging inferno?!" B.E.N. shouted.
"Yes, but l'm gonna change that. I'm gonna open a different door," I said grabbing a piece of metal about the size and shape of a skateboard.
"Lynnie, really, l don't see how this could possibly-" said the robot.
"Listen to the lass!" Silver snapped.
"One minute, twenty-nine seconds till island's destruction!" B.E.N. warned.
"What do you need, Lyne?" Silver asked kneeling beside me as I tried to work under this pressure.
"Just some way to attach this," I said motioning towards the missile tail and other piece of metal.
"All right. Stand back. Stand back, now," said the pirate using his robotic arm to weld the two pieces together, "There you go."
"There you go," Morph repeated.
"Okay. Now, no matter what happens, keep the ship heading straight for that portal," I commanded.
"Fifty-eight seconds!" yelled B.E.N.
I clicked a lever with the heel of my shoe and my homemade hoverboard burst to life. As I flew ahead of the ship towards the giant door, I heard Silver yell, "Well, you heard her! Get this blasted heap turned 'round! Head us back to the portal!"
Honestly, the whole thing would have been amazing if it weren't for the fact I was racing against the clock to save our lives! As pieces of the island were thrown about, I dodged on my hoverboard, missing death multiple times by inches.
Twenty-five seconds!
My missile tail suddenly guttered out of fuel and I couldn't click it back on. "No! No!" I screamed, my heart pounding as I began to lose altitude, falling into a chasm.
Seventeen seconds!
I glanced up at the metallic walls rising around me and shifted my hoverboard so that the missile tail scraped against it, creating a multitude of sparks. It caught on fire, and I shot up out of the chasm right as the ship flew over head.
Seven, six, five, four, three... I passed the ship and got to the map, pointing at Nesidy. Two...
The portal closed, then opened and we passed through so that we were out in the ocean, several miles away from Nesidy's port. There was a huge explosion behind the ship, the portal collapsed, the map being destroyed over on Treasure Island.
Debris flew about us, landing in the water, and I cheered. We made it!
"You done it, Lynnie!" shouted Silver, as I flew the hoverboard by him to give him a high-five, "You done it, lass! Didn't l say the lass had greatness in her?"
I landed on the ship and clicked off my hoverboard, jumping to the deck.
"Unorthodox, but ludicrously effective," I proudly said to myself placing hands on hips and grinning.
"Lynnie," said B.E.N. coming up to me, "that was unforgettable! l know you don't like touching but get ready for a hug, 'cause l gotta hug ya!" He threw his arms around me, and I embraced him. "Hey, you hugged me back. Oh, l promised myself l wouldn't cry. Does anyone have a tissue?"
Looking up from the sobbing robot, I was surprised to see Silver had gone to the other side of the deck and was quickly untying a longboat. I pulled away from the robot and followed the cyborg.
"Morphy, we gotta make tracks."
"l know," Morph replied.
"You never quit, do you?" I asked, surprising him.
"Ah, Lynnie!" he chuckled nervously, "l was merely checking to make sure the longboat was safe and secure."
"Mmm. Well, that should hold it," I said properly tying the rope, he was fumbling with.
Leaning in towards me, he whispered, "lf you don't mind, we'd just as soon avoid prison. Little Morphy here, he's a free spirit. Being in a cage, it'd break his heart." I gave him a small smile and untied the rope to the longboat, lowering it down into the water. He grinned. "What say you ship out with us, lass? You and me, Chanson and Silver, full of ourselves and no ties to anyone!"
I thought about it with a half smile, but shook my head. "You know, a week ago, l would've taken you up on that offer in a second but, uh, l met this old cyborg and he taught me that l could chart my own course. That's what l'm gonna do."
"And what do you see off that bow of yours?" he asked.
"A future," I replied, "without Siren."
Silver chuckled. "Look at ya, glowing like a solar fire. You're something special, Lyne. You're gonna rattle the stars, you are." He teared up, as did I, and I gave him a hug. After a moment of embracing me, he cleared his throat and pulled away. "Got a bit of grease in this cyborg eye of mine."
Morph began sobbing and literally dissolved into a puddle of tears, which I caught in my hands. "Oh, hey, Morph. l'll see ya around, okay?" I said to the shapeshifter.
"See ya around," he said regaining his blobby form.
When he had returned to Silver's side, the pirate gazed at me then said, "Morphy, l got a job for ya. l need you to keep an eye on this here pup. Will ya do me that little favor?"
"Aye-aye, Captain," said Morph nuzzling Silver before returning to my side.
Silver jumped into the longboat and began rowing away.
"Stay out of trouble, ya old scalawag," I called out to him, waving.
With a laugh, he said, "Why, Lynnie, lass, when have l ever done otherwise?"
I watched him go until I could no longer see him on the horizon. With a sigh, I turned to my last two companions. "Well that was fun."
"Yes it was, Lynnie!" B.E.N. exclaimed, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, "Let's do it again!"
"Let's not, and say we did," I replied, removing his arm.
"Aralyne? Aralyne!" a voice shouted from the sky.
I glanced up, shielding the sunlight with my hand to see Danny Phantom flying towards us.
"Danny!" I shouted grinning and waving towards him.
He came at me way too fast, and collided into me, his arms wrapping around me. "Aralyne, you're okay!"
"Whoa! Hey! Dan- Danny!" I laughed as he nearly knocked me over, "Of course I'm okay! You know me! Can't keep the savior down!"
He pulled away and studied me, noting the scar on my left cheek. "What happened there?"
"Just a scratch," I said with a shrug, "Nothing to worry about. So what did I miss?"
"How can you be so calm?! You've been missing for a month, again! I found the dead body on the beach and signs of a struggle! What happened?!"
"Oh, this and that," I replied waving away his inquiries, "Can you take us back to Nesidy, Danny? I'm rather tired and would like to get some sleep."
The ghost boy finally looked over at B.E.N. who was waving eagerly and Morph hovering by my shoulder. The pink blob dove into my pocket right as Danny grasped my hand, and B.E.N.'s and he flew us off the ship, all the way back to the Benbow Inn. Below us, everyone in Nesidy noticed and waved, shouting out hello's, and she's returned!
Once he dropped us off at the front door, he opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it.
"Later, Danny. I promise." I opened the door and stepped into the inn, motioning for B.E.N. to follow. He did, and after saying a quick hello to Mrs. Hawkins, I introduced her to the robot, and he asked for a job right on the spot. Morph had come out of my pocket and took a shining to Jim right away. With the lot of them distracted, I snuck upstairs to my room, where I immediately collapsed onto my bed. The second my head hit the pillow, I was out.
Siren dropped the now useless trident onto the floor. She didn't know how, but she had ended up absorbing the magic powers from the object. The villainess had first discovered this when the trident stopped working, but magic shot out of her hands instead.
Thanks to her spies in the ocean, she had discovered what had happened to Aralyne. The goody-goody had been kidnapped by John Silver, and instead of killing her like he was supposed to, he kept her alive to locate some stupid treasure! And to make matters worse, he had gone soft, treating Aralyne like a friend or daughter, even! He left her alive!
Siren waved her hand before her, and John Silver suddenly appeared looking surprised and then wary when he saw her. He even noticed the scar on her left cheek exactly where Aralyne had hers.
"Siren, lass! Why, aren't you as bonny as -"
"Shut it," she snarled her scarlet eyes flashing dangerously, "You have betrayed me, Silver, and you know full well what happens to those that are against me."
Before he could say a word, she waved her hand once more, and a large part of the ceiling fell, crushing the cyborg. His robotic eye had popped out of its socket and now wizzed around in a circle on the floor.
"No one betrays me. Now let's see who's next in bringing me Aralyne's head."
Grandpa had gotten the news that Aralyne had returned and rushed to the Benbow Inn. Nesidy was lucky that nothing happened while she was missing! Upon arriving at his destination, Mrs. Hawkins quickly explained that Aralyne was asleep and instead introduced him the the robot, B.E.N.
"Another one of Lynnie's friends!" he exclaimed, shaking Grandpa's hand, "You wouldn't believe the adventure on Treasure Island! It - She was incredible!"
Treasure Island? So that's where she had gone!
"Tell me everything, B.E.N.," said Grandpa taking a seat to hear the story.
The robot eagerly went into detail, starting with seeing Aralyne wander around the jungle, and ending with seeing John Silver row away on the longboat.
"That is indeed an incredible story," said Lao Shi, his eyes roving up towards the ceiling.