Author's Note:

Oh… the end is near! But yet, not too near… Hee, hee...

Chapter 31: Tricked by a Dead Guy

The crew watched with bated breath as the triangular door closed and opened, then they proceeded to step through the portal. Jim and Ariah were shoved forcefully forwards through the entrance in front of the crew.

"Wait for me! Wait for me!" BEN yelped, desperate to avoid becoming marooned again.

They walked out through a plateau and gasped at the sight before them. They were bathed in a golden light as they viewed a sight that was once only spoken of in legends… Flint's Trove. The pirate crew cheered loudly at the sight of the seemingly infinite treasure.

"The loot of a thousand worlds." Silver whispered to himself, his eyes shining from loot.

Onus laughed as he led the rest of the crew out into the mountains of treasure. "We are going to need a bigger boat!"

The pirates trudged about the treasures, ignoring their hostages while they admired and worshiped Flint's limitless booty.

"This is all seeming… very familiar." BEN tapped the side of his head. "Can't remember why…" He squinted around the loot of a thousand worlds.

"BEN, come on." Jim tried to keep the mindless robot on task. "We're getting out of here, and we're not leaving empty-handed." He motioned towards an empty vessel near the centre of the trove.

The two teenagers immediately took off from the metallic plateau –situated at the entrance of the treasury- and they began wading through the dense amount of treasure to reach an ancient ship.

"But- but, Jimmy! Ariah!" BEN clanked after the two teenagers. "WAIT!"

Silver knelt down in a pile of treasure, seeing thousands of mirror images of his face in the reflective surfaces of every coin and jewel.

"A lifetime of searching; an' at long last..." He scooped up two fistfuls of the legendary loot and look down upon it. "I can touch it." The cyborg's eyes glimmered; his long-anticipated dream had finally come true.

"Do you know what's strange?" BEN asked as he slowly began climbing up the side of the ship. "I can't tell you how frustrating this is, Jimmy..." The robot tried desperately to remember. "'Cause there's something just- it's nagging at the back of my mind."

The robot ended his sentence with a rather petrified scream, which caused the two teenagers to scramble up onto the ship's main deck.

"Captain Flint?" Jim and Ariah exclaimed simultaneously at the recognizable shadow.

"In the flesh!" BEN gasped.

The trove shed a bit of its golden light on the legendary pirate lord, revealing him to be nothing more than the skeletal remains of Captain Nathaniel Flint.

"Well, s-sort of," BEN rubbed the back of his head. "Except for skin, organs... or anything that- that- that resembles flesh..." He winced. "That's not there."

BEN cleared his throat, tapping his chin thoughtfully while the two teenagers looked over the skeleton.

"And yet it's so odd, you know? I remember there was something horrible Flint didn't want anyone else to know but -- just can't remember what it was." BEN gripped his metal head as he tried to think. "Oh, a mind is a terrible thing to lose!" He sobbed morbidly.

Jim's pale blue eyes widened as he saw what was clutched in the bony hand of the notorious captain, a small memory chip.

"BEN, I think I just found your mind." The brunette teenager pulled the chip loose from Captain Flint's skeletal hand. "Hold still." Jim began attaching the coloured wires of the memory chip to the coordinating wires in BEN's head.

BEN yelped in alarm. "Jimmy, your hands are very, very cold." The robot's conscious faded slightly as he fell silent, for once.

Jim stepped back once he had finished connecting the wires and he clicked the chip into place. BEN's head snapped back up as he regained consciousness.

"Whoa!" The short robot cleared his throat. "Hello."

For a moment, the teenagers feared that the robot who need to be reintroduced to them.

The rusty robot casually leaned against Jim's shoulder. "You know, uh, Jimmy, I was just thinking..." The robot blinked as he realized what he had said. "I was just think--" BEN gasped in surprise and his eyes brightened. "It's all flooding back!" He exclaimed. "All my memories!"

The android jumped up and down excitedly on the spot on the main deck of the skiff.

"Right up until Flint pulled my memory circuits..." BEN recalled his last memory stored on his primary circuit. "So I could never tell anybody about his booby trap!"

Ariah and Jim gaped at the robot. Suddenly there was a crash from one of the overhead mechanisms as a cannon-like object plummeted from the treasury's ceiling and broke into the planet's core.

"Speaking of which..." BEN chuckled nervously.

The pirate crew, now covered with jewellery and other riches, came to realize the inconvenient situation and began retreating from the treasury.

"Flint wanted to make sure that nobody could ever steal his treasure..." BEN quickly explained. "So he rigged this whole planet to blow higher than a Kalepsian kite!"

Gold coins and other riches, worth more than entire worlds, slipped from the grasps of the pirates. Each treasure jingled melodiously as the proton beams of the planet's core began cutting across the surface of the trove as a hot knife would to a pat of butter.

Some of the unluckier crewmembers plummeted into the hellish core of the planet to their deaths while the rest ran for the exit.

"Run, Jimmy! Run for your life!" BEN grasped the brunette teenager by the forearm and tried to tug him out of the way.

The young man pulled his arm from the robot's grip. "You go back and help the captain and Doc!" Jim ordered as he crawled under the control panel of the ship. "If I'm not there in 10 minutes; leave without me."

"I am not leaving my buddy, Jimmy." BEN pulled Jim out from under the control panel by the boots.

The young man gave the short robot a firm glare as he held two live wires between his hands, intending to hotwire the skiff.

"Unless he looks at me like that." BEN chuckled nervously. "Bye, Jim!" The robot dropped Jim's feet and ran for the treasury's entrance.

Ariah knelt down to the control panel and pulled Jim out by the boot. "Let me hotwire this thing." She offered.

"You go help BEN…" Jim ordered, clambering under the control panel to continue hotwiring the skiff.

"Oh please..." Ariah pulled Jim completely from under the control panel and planted her hands on either side of his head. "If you're going to play hero and get yourself killed then I'm coming with you." She glared down at him firmly.

Jim looked up at Ariah oddly; confused by her statement.

"Besides…" Ariah pushed past the brunette teenager and pulled herself under the skiff's control panel. "I can hotwire this thing faster than you can say 'Orcus Galactacus'…"

Jim stood from the treasure-covered deck. "Orcus Galactacus?" He raised an eyebrow.

"That's right." Ariah smiled as she scooted out from under the control panel.

The young woman hopped to her feet and curtly pulled a lever. The skiff's engine fired up and all was in working order.

Jim chuckled. "Did I ever tell you that I love you?" He asked, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and looking at the black-haired teenager amorously.

"This would be the second time, Mister Hawkins." Ariah smirked and gave Jim a playful nudge in the shoulder. Then she and Jim began preparing the skiff for flight.

"No! No! Oh, no! Oh, no!" Silver clawed at the loot that was slipping from his grasp down the crevasses.

The surviving crew yelled for help as their fellow members fell to their untimely deaths through the ravines. The survivors then ran for their lives through the triangular portal.

"Come back 'ere, yeh blighters!" John Silver hollered to the retreating pirates.

An unnerving rumble was heard off in the distance from the RLS Legacy's remaining functional longboat; indicating that something was going wrong. Delbert's ears drooped, his wrists were tied to together behind his back and his back was to Captain Amelia's.

"All my life, I dreamed of an adventure like this." The canine-human stated and then sighed hopelessly. "I'm just sorry... I couldn't have been more helpful to you."

"Oh, don't be daft." Captain Amelia stated to him. "You've been very helpful. Truly."

"I feel like such a useless weakling..." Doctor Doppler held his head in his hands and then realized that he had slipped out of the pirate's poorly tied bindings. "With abnormally thin wrists."

The astrophysicist paused to think up a quick escape plan. He then cleverly pretended that his hands were still tied behind his back and he cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, brutish pirate." Delbert called to the only pirate left to guard them.

The fat dark brown-scaled pirate belched loudly as he turned to face the dog-man.

"Yes, you." Doctor Doppler inhaled. "I have a question." He narrowed his eyes. "Is it that your body is too massive... for your teeny-tiny head... or is it that your head is too teeny-tiny... for your big, fat body?" Delbert enquired.

Meltdown charged at the dog-man, chubby fingers balled into a fist. "I pummel you good!" The salamander hollered at the doctor, obviously noticing the insult.

"Yes, I'm sure you will," Doctor Doppler winced slightly at the volume of the enraged pirate's voice. "But before you do… I have one more question." The swift dog-man pulled Meltdown's laser pistol from his holster and pointed it barrel-first into the alien's large stomach. "Is this yours?" The laser pistol began to charge threateningly.

The skiff fired up, Jim was steering the ship and Ariah monitored the vehicle's controls.

"Yes!" Jim shouted as he turned towards the exit of the treasury. "We are so out of here!"

Ariah laughed in agreement, but her laughter was soon overwhelmed by an unambiguous chuckle that stopped the ship cold.

"Ah. Jimbo!" Silver casually stepped aboard the ancient ship. "Aren't yeh the seventh wonder of the universe?" He smirked.

Jim looked in the pile of treasure to the left of the ship's wheel and pulled out a golden sword, pointing it at John Silver's torso.

"Get back!" He yelled.

Silver glowered dangerously; the explosive flashes from the planet's core cast eerie shadows upon his half-mechanical face.

"I like yeh, lad…" The cyborg slowly stepped forwards, gritting his teeth. "But I've come too far... teh let yeh stand between me an' me treasure."

"Too far from what?" Ariah snapped, glaring up at the cyborg. "Too far from abandoning me and mom while you went on a treasure hunt?"

She seethed angrily as she stepped into the space between Jim and Silver.

"Well, let me tell you something..." Ariah's eyes watered. "Growing up without knowing my father… it really sucked, and -now even though you finally have your treasure- you lost something… you lost mom."

Tears spilled from Ariah's copper-brown eyes and she kept glaring at the pirate captain.

"And I know you say that you gave up things to chase down this dream; but it wasn't only half of your body." Ariah stated shakily. "There was a chance of us finally being together, like a family."

Her fists shook as she clenched them tightly against her palms.

"You, mom and me…"

Silver was speechless, hardly expecting such an outburst from his only daughter. Jim gapped at Ariah and then at Silver. Morph mimicked this expression.

Jim lowered his sword. "He- he's your father?"

Suddenly, the treasure-filled skiff jolted from one of the proton blasts. The three passengers were deposited violently off of the ship; two hitting the hard metal of a small plateau while one fell down a crevasse.

"Oh, no, yeh don't!" Silver's mechanical hand grasped the side of the skiff, halting its approach towards the powerful proton beam.

"Jim!" Ariah screamed. She scrambled towards the edge of the ravine and saw Jim clutching to a mechanism at the opposite wall of the crevasse.

"Ariah, you've got to save yourself." Jim yelled over his shoulder to the young woman.

"No!" Ariah shouted back, reaching her arm down for Jim's hand. "I'd rather be incinerated with someone I love than lose another friend."

Morph chattered feverishly in Silver's ear, trying to draw the cyborg's attention to the teenagers in danger.

"What?" Silver turned around to see his only daughter reaching for Jim's hand. The two teenagers were hardly close enough to graze each other's fingers. "Jimbo."

Silver extended the mechanisms in his cyborg hand, so there was more slack to grip onto the skiff, and he edged closer to the drop off of the cliff. He grasped Ariah's free hand with his own human hand.

Ariah looked up at the cyborg nervously, wondering if he was helping her save Jim or pulling her away so they could escape.

"Go get him, darling." He ordered.

Ariah nodded and stretched out as far she could. "Reach for me now!" She yelled to the dangling teenager. "Reach!" Their fingers were only a hair's width apart.

"I-I can't!" Jim hollered.

Suddenly, the mechanism Jim was dearly clinging onto for his life became a part of the smooth metal wall and he fell down the crevasse. He only just managed to snag a hold of the next mechanism, which was considerably further below the reaching young woman.

Ariah gasped, straining further. "I need more slack!" She stated to the cyborg.

Silver fought between the treasure that he had sought for his entire life verses friendship and the only family he had left in the Etherium.

"Dad, I need your help!" Ariah's voice pierced through the old cyborg's thoughts, snapping him to his senses.

"Oh, blast me for a fool!" He shouted.

The mechanical hand was released from the side of the skiff and he gave Ariah an appropriate amount of slack. Ariah lunged forwards and grasped Jim's hand, moments before he could drop into the hellish fires of the planet.

Gradually, the two sailors pulled Jim back up to the plateau, until he was safely beside them. Ariah hugged Jim tightly and Morph cheered loudly at their victory.

The ancient skiff, carrying the last of Flint's Trove and the remains of Captain Nathaniel Flint himself, was explosively blown to kingdom come by a proton blast.

The trio quickly made their way back to the triangular entrance of the colossal treasury, lest things should get anymore chaotic. The two teenagers helped the older man along while Morph chirped feverishly in panic.

"Silver, you gave up?" Jim looked up at John Silver with immense surprise while he held up the cyborg's mechanical arm.

"Just a lifelong obsession, Jim." John Silver sighed tiredly. "I'll get over it." He stated with amazing nonchalance while giving a careless wave towards the planet's exploding treasury. "Besides, now I've got somethin' worth more in the Etherium teh me than every last penny of Flint's Trove." Silver smiled down at his daughter under his human arm.

Ariah smiled back and then continued helping her father along towards the approaching tall ship. His cyborg leg was still damaged considerably and things were getting more hectic every passing second.

"Aloha, Jimmy!" BEN's voice called from the RLS Legacy. "Hurry, people! We got exactly two minutes... and thirty-four seconds 'til planet's destruction!"

Ariah sighed. "Great…"

"You're doing fine, Doctor." Captain Amelia instructed the beginner; who was commandeering her esteemed vessel while she sat helplessly behind him at the helm of her ship. "Now ease her over gently--gently!"

There was a loud crash as the RLS Legacy's starboard side crunched against a cliff beside the portal's entrance.

The now tied-up crew locked in the brig yelped in fright through their gags.

"We were better off on exploding planet!" Onus -one of the few who hadn't been gagged- whined frightfully.

Quickly, Silver, Jim Morph and Ariah climbed aboard the RLS Legacy and prepared to escape the raging hellfire of the once beautiful jungle.

"Take us out of here, metal man!" Captain Amelia ordered to BEN, who was now at the aft managing the main control panel's functions after tapping into the Legacy's system.

"Aye, Captain!" BEN fervently got to work. His original functions as a navigator came to him naturally and he fired up the RLS Legacy's thrusters from the main control panel.

"Captain," Silver kissed-up to the injured feline who sat at the helm. "Yeh dropped from the heavens in the nick of-"

"Save your claptrap for the judge, Silver!" Captain Amelia snapped curtly, apparently she hadn't injured her quick tongue in the longboat's crash landing.

Silver chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. Ariah sighed and glanced at Jim who smiled weakly. Doctor Doppler quickly lifted the RLS Legacy into gear and drove through the planet at maximum speed.

While they were flying skyward -ready to exit the planet's atmosphere- a flaming chunk of the explosive planet collided with the mizzenmast. Many of the mizzenmast's shrouds snapped under the tension and the mast itself broke in two. The mizzenmast fell, colliding with the mainmast and taking out the great pole.

The twin poles lurched to the starboard side, taking out a laser cannon and heavily denting the main deck.

"Mizzenmast and mainmast demobilized, Captain!" BEN reported urgently as he hacked into the RLS Legacy's main control panel. "Thrusters at only 30% capacity."

"30%?" Doctor Doppler gripped the ship's wheel fearfully. "That means-" The dog-man bit his bottom lip.

All experienced sailors knew what it meant. If a vessel's thrusters were at less than 50% of their initial capacity, then there was no way that the vessel –no matter its size- could penetrate a planet's atmosphere in adequate time. Albeit it was able to leave the atmosphere, but such time was spanned in lengthy hours rather than the few, dire seconds that they required.

"We'll never clear the planet's explosion in time." Doctor Doppler groaned morbidly.

Author's Note:

Eek! And intense action sequence is coming up! Thanks to Whisperwings for editing…

MG#6