Vanessa woke up in the middle of the afternoon the next day. The first thing on her mind was Jim's kiss. The feeling of his lips on hers made her heart flutter and she sighed contently. When he kissed her, she didn't feel scared or panicked, she felt loved when he pulled her close.
And then her mind drifted to the last time she left him, how down in the dumps he was. She sat up on her cot and ran a hand through her hair, concern showing on her face. She was going to find him and see if he was better today.
I hope he hasn't done anything stupid, she thought.
Vanessa opened the door to find Captain Amelia gone. She traveled up to the deck, and found no one there either, except for Mr. Turnbuckle steering the ship and Mr. Onus in the crow's next.
Where is everyone?
This was beginning to freak her out. Without the crew members around, the ship felt different, almost eerie. She passed over the entrance to the galley as irritated grumbles and mutters reached her ears.
"What we're sayin is we're sick of all this waiting,"
"There's only three a them left,"
"Ye sayin' we could bring 'er to our side? Convince her somehow?"
"Convince, or force. She was one a 'em after all,"
Vanessa crept closer in order to hear better. This was the same stuff that she heard yesterday.
"We are wanting to move!"
"We don't move till we got the treasure in hand!"
She felt her heart come to a complete stop. That was Silver's voice.
"I say we kill 'em all now," that must have been Mr. Scroop.
"I say what's to say! Disobey my orders again like that stunt you pulled with Mr. Arrow, and so help me, you'll be joinin' him!" she heard the whir of motors and something heavy slam against wood.
"Strong talk," Scroop panted, "But I know otherwise."
"You got something to say, Scroop?"
"It's that boy," he hissed, "Me thinks you have a soft spot for him,"
Her heart had restarted, and it was beating faster than ever.
"Now, mark me, the lot of ya. I care about one thing, and one thing only! Flint's trove! You'd think I'd risk it all for the sake of some nose-wipin' little whelp?"
Oh, poor Jim. After all they went through together.
Vanessa couldn't stay there any longer. She had to tell the Captain the crew was planning a mutiny. She turned to climb the stairs.
A floorboard creaked piercingly beneath her.
"What was that?"
The next thing she knew she was being grabbed by the collar of her shirt and lifted into the air by a bright red claw. Her legs dangled in the air and she struggled to break free. She was brought into the center of the crowd and dropped hard on her ass. The pirates all glared down at her menacingly, except for Silver. Silver looked completely surprised with an indication of humiliation.
"Look who we have here," Scroop hissed, "A little sssspy,"
"Nessie," Silver muttered under his breath. Vanessa silently begged him to help her. Then his expression turned malevolent with the others, "How much have you heard, girl?"
"E-Enough," she answered, willing herself to be courageous and not back down. Trembling, she got to her feet to face him, "Y-You're not going to g-g-get away with this. I won't l-let you,"
"Oh, is that true?" he challenged, "I'd like to see you try,"
"Want to see what happens if you do?" Scoop questioned. He grabbed Vanessa's upper arm and drew her to him. His claw came out and quickly jabbed at her collar. Vanessa shrieked and thrashed around, desperately trying to break free. The shock seemed to not affect Scroop in any way, as he only kept smirking at her pain. Then he roughly pushed her back to the floor.
"Rip out her tongue so she can't tell anyone!"
"Cut her legs off so she can't walk!"
"Slice her heart out!"
"P-please, Silver, d-don't do this," she whispered, low enough not to be heard in all the commotion, her breath sharply coming in and out, "J-J-Jim trusted you,"
Silver's face softened just the slightest. He opened his mouth . . .
"PLANET HO!"
The crew looked up to the ceiling, daring it to be true.
"PLANET HO!"
They screamed and shouted with all their might, some racing up to the deck to get the first look. Silver smiled, and in his distraction he loosened his grip on his captive. Vanessa tore her arm away and managed to get two steps away before she was caught again.
"Let me go!"
"Oh no ye don't lassie," Silver swung her into Scroop's grasp, "Take her to the brig and don't harm her,"
"Have a soft spot for this one too, don't you?" Scroop chuckled. He held the tip of his claw over her jugular, "What if I were to slit her throat right now?"
Silver rolled his eyes and headed up to the deck, "She be the captain's pet, and any harm to her means more to us if this don't go through. Just do what I tell you for once,"
Scroop exhaled annoyingly, "Come, cabin girl," he clenched his claw around her waist and lifted her into the air. Vanessa scratched at it, her legs swinging and whimpers of pain escaping her mouth as he dragged her off.
He couldn't believe it.
Silver never cared about him. Not once.
Jim climbed out of the barrel of purps, feeling horror envelop him like a smothering blanket. Silver and the crew were pirates this whole time. And Vanessa . . . he knew she wasn't on their side, at least not this particular crew, but if he couldn't trust any of them, how could he trust her?
There was no time to waste standing here. He had to get to Doc and the captain, he had to find Vanessa, they had to get off the ship.
He was stopped at the stairs by none other than Silver.
"Jimbo," said the cyborg, a hint of surprise in his tone. He entered the room further, forcing Jim to back up, "Playing games, are we?"
"Yeah . . . yeah, we're playing games," Jim agreed, blue eyes shooting daggers. He had been backed into a table. His hand swept across its surface, searching for some kind of weapon.
"Oh, I see," he mumbled, rubbing his chin, "Well, I was never much good at games. Always hated to lose,"
He heard droning and clicking behind Silver's back, and a second later he hit what felt like a pair of clippers.
"Mmm . . . me too!" he ducked down and rammed it into Silver's mechanical leg. He didn't look back as he heard the hissing of gas and his enemy's pain filled cries, running as fast as he could to the captain's room. He blessed his lucky stars that she and Doc were already there.
"Whoa, Jim, where's the fire?" Doc questioned.
"There are pirates on the ship," Jim explained as he locked the door, Morph managing to slip in right before he did, "Silver's their leader, and they've got Vanessa,"
"How can you be so -?" Captain Amelia began.
"Captain, Jim, come look at this," Doc interrupted, motioning for the two to come to the window. The proud, red-crossed and white flag had been replaced with a black one, decorated in a skull and cross bones.
Huffing with irritation, she went to her cabinet and retrieved one of her many personal guns, "Pirates on my ship? I'll see they all hang," she threw a charged pistol to Doc, "Doctor, familiar with these?"
Doc looked a bit uneasy as he held the pistol by the tips of his fingers, "Oh, I've seen, uh – well, I've read -" he accidently fired a shot to the captain's right, shattering a globe, "Uh, no, no. No I'm not," he dejectedly put the gun down.
She rolled her eyes, "What did you say, Mr. Hawkins? They have Ms. Kendrick?" she asked as she pulled the map out of its box. Morph flew up to it, admiring his reflection in its gold metal.
"Yes, she was . . . listening in or something. They took her to the brig," he replied. Jim turned to check the door, and saw the lock glowing bright red and emitting sparks. They were about to break in.
"We have to get her. Mr. Hawkins, defend this with your life," she tossed the map to him. Morph, however, intercepted it.
"Morph, give me that!" Jim shouted, grabbing one end of the glove and twisting it out of his mouth.
They were running out of time, and there was nowhere else to go. Captain Amelia took the last gun in her arsenal and burned a hole through the floor big enough to jump into the ship's inner workings.
"We can get to the long boats this way. Mr. Hawkins, you go to the brig and break out Ms. Kendrick, we'll meet you later,"
Bound and gagged, Vanessa sat in a corner of the same cell she was in when she first arrived on the RLS Legacy. She struggled against the ropes on her wrists, finding some way to untie it, and finding it hopeless. She was stuck.
She heard footsteps pounding their way toward her. Suddenly Jim appeared at her cell door, missing his bulky black jacket and her bandana still wrapped around his lower arm, looking down at her with hesitance. Vanessa mumbled his name through the gag with joy and got to her knees waiting for him to break her out. But all he did was stand there, staring at her.
"Vanessa," he addressed carefully, "Are you part of them? The pirates?"
She shook her head violently, so violently it made her spin. How could he think that?! Why would he think that?!
Jim stared at her a minute more before deciding there was no time to waste. He pointed his laser pistol at the bars and cut through them, then raced to her side and tore the gag from her mouth.
"J-Jim, I would n-n-never willingly join any b-band of pirates, you sh-should know that," she shuttered.
He sighed as he went around to untie her wrists, "I know, I just . . . I feel so betrayed right now," when her wrists were free, he took her hands and helped her to her feet, "Come on, we have to get out of here,"
They ran through the mechanical inner workings of the ship. She could hear footsteps and shouts following them, guns being fired. Every now and then Jim shot a few rounds behind him to keep the pirates off their tail. They finally made it to the entrance of the room where the long boats were held, where Doc and the Captain stood waiting for them.
Good, you've got her," the captain noted, ushering them inside.
Jim and Vanessa ran down the steps after Captain Amelia and inside. Doc, however, tripped and fell flat on his face. The pirates were right in front of the door as she grabbed the back of his coat and flung him inside, closing the door and sealing it off with the laser from her gun, "To the long boats, quickly,"
Jim helped the ginger into the boat as Doc was left to clamber in. The captain pulled the handle to allow the gate below them to open. Vanessa cringed at the spastic banging and angry shouts that surrounded them.
Then she felt Jim take her hand and squeeze it, "We're going to be okay, we're going to get out of here safely,"
There was a high cackle from behind. Morph flew into their eye sights, the map captured in his mouth.
"Morph, no!" Jim shouted, jumping over the edge of the long boat and chasing after the pink blob. The door bust open and the pirates charged in, guns a blazing and eyes red with greed. Vanessa ducked down as a shot was fired just over her head.
"Chew on this, ya puss-filled boils!" Captain Amelia shouted, firing round after round. Doc quaking in his loaders, stood carefully, pointed his gun, and, with his eyes closed, fired. His shot hit a heavy metal object hanging from the ceiling. It fell on a hand full of traitors, causing the wood to break beneath them and sent the men tumbling to their death.
"Did you actually aim for that?" Captain Amelia inquired.
"You know, actually, I did," Doc replied, surprised himself. He had no time to say anything else as a laser beam headed for him. The captain pushed him down.
The whirring of gears made Vanessa peek over the side of the boat. Silver stood at the controls, a smug jeer occupying his face, and the gate was closing, "Um, C-Captain?"
"Oh, blast it!" she spat. She glanced up at the ropes holding the boat above the ground, "Doctor, when I say 'now', shoot out the forward cable. I'll take this one,"
Vanessa glanced back over the side, "Jim?!" she called as a warning, hoping he would be able to hear her.
"Morph, here! Morph!" Jim chased the blob, turning this way and that, trying to get his hands on the map.
"Morph!" Jim heard Silver's voice, and his heart beat kicked up a notch, "Morphy, come here,"
He whistled, "Morph? Morph, bring it here," he would be damned if he let Silver have the map, "Morph, come here,"
"Come here, boy!"
"Morph, over here!"
"Come to your dad! Come here, boy!"
"Come here, Morph!"
"Come on!"
"Morph, Morph! MORPH!"
"MORPHY!"
"HERE, MORPH!"
Poor Morph whimpered and dove into a coil of rope. Silver made a run for it, however, his injured leg would only let him go so far, and he ended up crawling. Jim retrieved the golden glove first and swiftly ran to the long boat.
"Now!" the captain shouted. The two adults shot at the cables and they snapped. The boat fell through the half open gate just as Jim flung himself over the gap and gripped the side of the boat. Vanessa hurried to help him in, but she wasn't strong enough.
"Doc, h-help!" she cried.
"Jim!" they grabbed his shoulders and together heaved him to safety.
The captain made quick to pull the sail down and turn on the cylinders, "Parameters met, hydraulics engaged," and they were off. Vanessa sat back for a minute, feeling relieved that they had escaped, but that it wasn't over.
She was right. A minute later they heard the sizzling of electricity and looked up as a violet laser ball streaked toward at an unavoidable speed.
"Captain! Laser ball at twelve 'o' clock!" Doc shouted, pointing behind her at the threat.
Even though she tried to avoid it, there was no way she could. It hit the engine and sent the captain hurling forward. With nothing to power their vessel, they were sent plummeting into Treasure Planet. Vanessa's heart was sent into a panic as the dreaded weightlessness took her over. She grabbed onto Jim to gain some kind of stability. The captain strained to steer through the moss covered, mushroom-like trees, even blasting right through one. The impact was enough to make Vanessa pass out, and the last thing she felt was the boat falling to the side before her eyes closed for a short amount of time.