Hello hello! Very happy to be back!
Unfortunately, I've run out of the parts of Treasure Planet on Youtube. So the next chapters are going to be a bit slow, while I find a way to watch the parts that aren't up. Seriously, after Jim finds BEN, Youtube just stops with the Treasure Planet clips.
Anyway, please read and review!
"Pardon?" Amelia asked. She wasn't sure if she had heard the cabin boy correctly.
"Jim, wha-what do you mean?"
"The crew's mutinying. They're pirates."
"P..p…pirates?! As in sp-space pirates?" Delbert fumbled as Amelia went to her gun closet.
"Pirates on my ship? I'll see they all hang!" She opened the closet and found what she was looking for. Pistol. Laser. Six shots per charge. Not the ideal, but circumstances did not warrant discretion. She cocked it and tossed it to Delbert. "Doctor, familiar with these?"
Delbert caught the pistol. "Well… not exactly..I've seen, er, I've read…"
The pistol fired a blue and orange laser. The globe mounted next to the closet exploded into shards.
"No. No. No, I'm not."
Amelia rolled her eyes and sighed. If they survived it would be a miracle. How fitting she should die like this. But not without a fight.
"Mister Hawkins. Defend this with your life." She tossed the map to him. If anyone had the best chance of protecting them, it was him.
Rather unluckily, Silver's pink blob snatched it out of the air. Jim yelled at it and struggled to regain it, stuffing it in his back pocket.
But Amelia's attention was now on the door to her stateroom, which Jim had pulled shut and locked upon arrival. It was splintering and fizzling. Clearly the pirates must have broken into the arms-room and were now trying to laser their way in. There was no time to lose.
"Follow me!"She snatched her rifle from the closet. Before they could question her, she fired a shot into the floor, blowing through it to a hallway below deck. She leapt through it and set off running, Delbert and Jim following closely behind. She heard an explosion, which only could have been the pirates blowing through the door. A few moments later, a chorus of footsteps rang out after them.
She turned down the hall to the door leading into the longboat dock. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hands, Longbourne, and several other crewmen chasing after Delbert, who was at the back of the pack.
For a moment, she feared that he wouldn't make it. Her chest seized up slightly. Please Delbert…
Delbert, at the last moment, jumped through the doorway, landing flat on his stomach in front of her. She yanked him out of the way and slammed the door closed, barely hearing him yell "Thank you!" over the noise.
Huh. Surprised I can still do that.
But she didn't have time to marvel for long. Knowing the crew, a flimsy wood door and unenforced metal lock would be easy pickings for them. She pulled out her laser rifle and fired it at the lock, welding it into a mass of hot iron. It wouldn't stop them, but it would slow them down enough to escape. "To the longboats, quickly!"
Her two shipmates nodded and ran to the closest boat. Holstering her gun, Amelia went to the lever. She tried to operate it. It didn't budge. For a moment, she was confused. Why isn't…
A small nudge reminded her of her new center of gravity. Quickly, she readjusted and tried again. This time, the lever yielded, and she pushed it down with a small grunt. The hatch cracked open.
Amelia heard the pirates running down the hall. Not waiting for the hatch to open completely, she ran to the longboat where Delbert and Jim waited. She grabbed the side of it and jumped in, doing a somersault as she did so. She landed and cocked her rifle, ready for the pirates who were already burrowing their way through the door.
She glanced over at Delbert and nearly laughed in spite of herself. He looked as if he had just witnessed the impossible.
"What? Pregnant women can't do flips?"
He babbled something incoherent. Poor man must be going into shock.
"Morph! No!"
Amelia and Delbert turned to see what had happened. Silver's blob had stolen the map, and Jim jumped back onto the landing docks to chase after it. But their attention was soon drawn back to the door. The pirates who had been chasing them broke through with an ear-splitting crack. Within a minute, they swarmed the room, blasting their guns at full power.
Ready for attack, Amelia fired back on them. "Chew on this, you pus-filled boils!" she yelled as the blue from the lasers and the orange from the laser impacts lit up the rom and threatened to set the Legacy ablaze. Delbert cowered next to her. Not preferable, but not unexpected either. After all, he was a man of learning, not of doing. But had he known how to shoot a pistol, his help would have been gladly appreciated. The pirates were advancing fast, and she couldn't take them all on her own. She ducked behind the longboat's mast to recharge.
Suddenly, Delbert stood, gun raised. Before Amelia could think as to what he was doing, he fired. The laser cut across the dock, severing the chain keeping one of the ship-weights secured to the ceiling. The weight fell, decimating the wooden walkway and sending the pursuing pirates falling out into the Etherium.
Amelia looked at Delbert surprised. "Did you actually aim for that?" she asked, equal parts sarcastic and serious.
"You know actually I did!"
Before she could decipher if he was bluffing, she saw a laser fire at them out of the corner of her eye. Quickly, she yanked Delbert down under the cover of the longboat. Not a moment too soon, a barrage of blue hit the hull.
Amelia peered over the top, trying to assess how many there were. Among them, she saw Mister Silver. Of course. I should have guessed that blasted Cyborg was a pirate…
Silver smiled evilly at her. He pulled the switch back up, and the hatch began to close.
"Ah blast it!" There wasn't time to scramble out of the longboat to reactivate the switch. Desperate, Amelia looked around the dock for other means of escape. Her eyes fell on the pulley system keeping the boat in place. That's it!
"Doctor, when I say now, shoot out the forward cable, I'll take this one."
Delbert nodded and readied himself, although it was obvious he was keeping an eye on the young Mister Hawkins.
"Don't worry, we won't leave him behind."
"I wasn't thinking that Captain, I…"
"Don't be daft, of course you were."
"Fine." He paused, lasers going off around them. "Captain?"
"Yes?"
"What was it you wanted to talk about?"
"Delbert, this isn't the best time."
"Oh. Yes. Of course."
Not a moment too soon, Jim leaped at the longboat.
"Now!" Amelia fired her rifle.
Delbert fired his pistol. The ropes snapped and the boat fell, tilting slightly against the closing hatch. Lucky for them, the ship continued out of the Legacy's docks at an alarming speed.
"Jim!" Delbert exclaimed, pulling him up into the ship. Just as well, Jim was the one with the map after all.
Amelia yanked out the sails. There was no time to lose. The sails quickly filled with air. She went next to the control panel, ready to make a speedy getaway. "Parameters met, hydraulics engaged…" Once everything was adjusted properly, she grabbed the metal tiller and sped towards Treasure Planet.
All was going well when suddenly she heard Delbert yell, "Captain! Laser ball at twelve o'clock!"
She yanked the tiller sharply towards her, hoping to narrowly avoid it.
No such luck. The laser ball collided with the sail. Amelia lurched forward. She felt a sharp pain, heard a crack, and realized all four babies were moving at once. Something was wrong. Something broke.
But she didn't have time to worry about that now. The longboat still needed steering. She grabbed the tiller again, wrestling with it and the pain in her arm and her side. The boat hurtled toward Treasure Planet, barely avoiding bouncing off a large, tree-like fungus.
Amelia's vision was cutting out. Through the blurry inkiness she could see Delbert holding on for his life and Jim looking back at her, concerned.
Vision nearly gone, she couldn't avoid the fungus in front of them. They burst through it, hurtled toward the ground, skipped like a stone against it, then flipped over, front-first, and continued skidding before coming to a stop.
It was then Amelia lost consciousness.