Stupid captain. Stupid cyborg. Stupid mop and bucket. Here he was, on the greatest adventure of his life, and he was swabbing the deck. Jim should have been exploring the R.L.S. Legacy and all its secrets from head to toe, not doing chores for the cook. It was humiliating.
Jim stopped his mopping and looked up into space, his nerves suddenly shot with excitement and adrenaline. He thought of all the things he would see that no one else was lucky enough to, especially Treasure Planet. Maybe he could do something right this time, and he wouldn't feel like such a screw up.
The teenage boy went back to swabbing. His mood soured once more, "Yeah, I got your Mr. Mop," he muttered under his breath.
A tall, brutish man with four arms and grey skin lumbered past Jim, pushing him out of his way. Jim stumbled, holding onto the mop for support and looking somewhat startled. The alien turned back to him. His face was colored red and both his eyes were looking in different directions, making it hard for him to tell if the guy was high or if he had some kind of sight problem.
"Watch it, twerp," the brute threatened.
You're the one who bumped into me, Jim thought with annoyance. His blue eyes wandered around the deck and spotted three of the crew members having a conversation over a barrel. He couldn't hear what they were saying; their tones were hushed and hurried.
Jim didn't like the crew Doc hired for this ship. Each one of them looked shifty and untrustworthy, most importantly Silver, the cyborg. Everything about him said he was trouble. Jim had become suspicious of him the moment he saw the man's mechanical arm, leg, and eye. A cyborg on the crew going to Treasure Planet, while just last night the Inn was burnt to the ground because of a cyborg chasing after an old salamander for a treasure map? Coincidence? He thought not.
Jim kept an eye on the three crew members as they talked. Looking up to see he was watching them, one of the men shushed the other two and they glared over at him.
"What are you looking at, weirdo?" said the shirtless, bearded man. At least, Jim thought it was one man until the head detached from the body and crawled onto the barrel. Then a face appeared on the now headless torso with arms and legs.
"Yeah, weirdo,"
Sure, I'm the weirdo, Jim thought.
A hiss sounded above his head and Jim looked up to find some kind of spider thing with big yellow eyes and an elongated jaw climbing down toward him from the shrouds.
"Cabin boys should learn to mind their own business," the spider alien hissed.
Jim got cocky as he dabbed his mop into a bucket of soapy water, smirking, "Why? Got something to hide, bright eyes?"
The spider's sideways pear-shaped eyes widened in astonishment of being talked back to, and then narrowed perilously. He gripped Jim by the front of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. Jim struggled, his legs flailing.
"Maybe your ears don't work so well," he suggested, face close enough to Jim's for his putrid breath to wash over his face. Jim cringed and cocked his head over his shoulder in attempt to get the smell out of his nose.
"Yeah, too bad my nose works just fine," he coughed.
"Why, you imprudent little - !"
Jim was slammed roughly against the mast, the action accompanied by encouraging shouts from the crew. It was pointless for him to fight as he was in no position to do so, but he fought anyway. The spider psycho snapped one of his large claws before bringing the sharp end to Jim's throat.
"Any last words, cabin boy?"
None too appropriate, he thought.
Just before the spider could slit his throat, his claw was caught by Silver's motorized arm. He was dressed in a long, dark coat and a black captain's hat, and in his hand was a small purp. Silver casually took a bite of the fruit, smacking his lips,"Mr. Scoop – do you know what happens when you squeeze a purp real hard?" he squeezed the spider's arm and twisted it backward, making Scoop scream in pain and drop the boy on his ass. Jim looked up at Silver disbelievingly. Why would he defend him?
A fight most definitely would have broken out if it weren't for a dark shadow that cast over the scene. The crew's eyes widened, their expressions apprehensive but eager. A loud roar, and suddenly the ship rocked, jerking Jim forward and flat onto his stomach.
"What the - ?"
"We're under attack!" Captain Amelia shouted.
When Jim looked up, he saw a ship the size of theirs, though worn out and damaged from years of battle, floating above theirs. Atop their mast waved a black flag with an alien skull and crossed bones.
A pirate ship.
"Prepare yourselves, men!" Mr. Arrow ordered. A second blast of bright purple light headed towards them and hit the side of the boat, making it lurch sharply. Jim pushed himself off the floor and ran to the edge of the deck. The pirate ship lowered to their level, close enough for him to see the ship's captain. He was tall, so tall and thin he could be mistaken for a light post. His skin was made up of bright orange scales, and he had two sets of green eyes, and an extra one on his forehead.
"Drop your sails and prepare to be boarded, or face death!" the captain shouted, jabbing a sword at them.
"Who is that?" Jim asked Silver. He must have sailed around enough to know most of the pirates in the galaxy.
Silver squinted his eyes, his right one glowing bright red, before he answered, "Aye, that'd be Captain Tromis and The Twilight Horror. Nasty man,"
"Your orders, Captain?" Mr. Arrow asked immediately.
The cat woman captain pondered the situation, but not quickly enough. The pirates shot a third laser ball at them that rocked the ship so badly everyone was knocked off their feet. A hole was created at the bow, the wood splintered and wires frayed.
Captain Amelia got to her feet quick as possible and yelled, "We fight!"
The pirate ship leveled with theirs with practiced ease, their cannons blasting at the exterior of the enemy ship. Four claws came from the outer compartments and attached to the deck, pulling them close for the kill.
Jim's nerves were screaming with excitement as he watched someone unlock the weapons vault and pass around laser pistols to the riled up crew, who were ready for battle. As the pirates stomped onto their boat with confident jeers, the crew countered their attack.
Somewhere in the chaos, Jim was handed a charged pistol, "Alright!" Jim shouted keenly. He looked around for a test subject and found an alien with an eye patch and a pirate tattoo on her arm coming at him. Aiming the gun, he shot a laser at her stomach area. The alien stumbled in pain and with a grunt she fell off the side of the boat.
"Now this is what I'm talking about!" Jim climbed into the shrouds as high as he could to get a better look at the situation. The crew had pushed the pirates back to their own ship, though a few were still on the Legacy. The fight was going faster than he expected. Jim pushed the gun into his pocket and grabbed a hanging rope, ready to swing onto the enemy ship.
"Jim!" he glanced down to see Doc cowering under the control panel gaping up at him, "Be careful! I want to bring you back to your mother in one piece!"
"I will!" and with that he pushed himself from the shrouds and swung down to the bow of the buccaneer vessel, knocking over a few pirates with his feet on the way. He landed smoothly on the wooden floor and removed his pistol, charging it and shooting at anyone he believed not to be from his boat. Most of the time he aimed successfully, but sometimes he missed, like when he hit Scoops in one of his legs. Jim ducked behind a group of barrels when the spider psycho glared around for the cause of the not-so-random attack.
And then he heard a girl's shriek.
"Let go of me!"
A few feet behind him stood the captain with a human girl that looked his age in his clawed grasp. The girl writhed to get away from him with such desperateness that it shocked Jim.
"Where do you think you're going, girl?" Captain Tromis snapped in a scratchy voice.
"Get away! Let me go!"
Captain Tromis picked her up by the front of her shirt, bringing her to his height. She gasped and screamed, her legs kicking around for something solid. He shook her violently, making her head bob backward.
"I'm not done with you, my trinket. You're staying right here until the day you die,"
Jim cocked his pistol and subtly aimed it at the captain when he heard the girl sob. His shot hit the alien man's shoulder and he cried out, dropping the girl in surprise. Jim fired another shot, and another, until Captain Tromis was too injured to get up. He ran to the girl and helped her to her feet. She flinched from his touch.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
She didn't answer as the ship suddenly shook. Someone was at the control panel, pulling wires and smashing random hardware.
"It's going to blow!" someone shouted
Something grabbed Jim by the scruff of his neck and threw him against a wall, making stars appear in his eyes. Captain Tromis knelt in front of him with a ferocious glare that sent his insides into a panic.
"Bad move boy," the captain said, and it was then he noticed that he had taken his own gun and was now pointing it at his chest, "You're going to wish you'd never been born,"
Gritting his teeth, Jim followed the first idea that came into his head and kicked the man in the stomach. He doubled over, his finger slipping on the trigger. Jim heard the ear splitting shot before he felt pain in his lower stomach area. Pain so bad it brought tears to his eyes. The force of it sent him back against the wall again and made his vision fuzzy. But he had no time to sit there unless he wanted to be blown to pieces. Pushing the agony into the far back of his mind, Jim mustered inhuman strength as he grabbed the arm of Captain Tromis and threw him overboard. He didn't look to make sure that the pirate was floating off in space.
"Retreat!" called Captain Amelia, "All hands back to your positions! Retreat!"
Jim looked around for the girl and saw her on her knees a few feet from him. She was gaping with awe while holding her upper right arm.
"Why did you - ?" she croaked.
He didn't let her finish her sentence, "Come on, we gotta go!" he grabbed her hand and felt her tense up, but ignored it. She let him lead her through the bedlam of people to the Legacy, where they collapsed on the deck. The pirate ship jerked violently, releasing a series of whirring broken hardware and sizzling.
"Get us away from that contraption as far as possible!" Captain Amelia ordered.
Four members of the crew detached the claws that held the two ships together and Mr. Turnbuckle, the navigator, steered them away at full speed. Jim watched as the pirate vessel grew smaller and smaller, and then exploded into a ball of fire and debris.