Chapter 24: Fighting Scroop and The Trap
Jim, Rose, B.E.N., Morph, and Artemis silently take the longboat back up to the ship.
Jim and Rose cautiously glanced around the ship. There was not a single soul in sight. The atmosphere appeared to be dark and unwelcoming. The teens cautiously climbed over the railing and stealthily landed on the deck.
B.E.N. accidentally slipped and landed roughly, and made a loud yelp.
"B.E.N.!" Jim hissed, shushing the robot.
"Sorry, sorry. Sorry," the robot whispered.
Jim, Rose, B.E.N., Morph, and Artemis looked around the Legacy with caution. The sight of the empty decks caused ice to travel up and down the length of the girl's spine.
"This place is quiet," Rose muttered. "Too quiet."
Jim led them down a set of stairs, leading to the engines and longboats. They halted at the bottom.
"Okay, I'll get the map. You two wait here," Jim whispered.
"Roger, Jimmy. I'll neutralize laser cannons, sir!" B.E.N. said, saluting his arm and hitting Morph unintentionally.
"B.E.N.! B.E.N.!" Jim whisper-yelled.
"Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate's life for me!" B.E.N. sang, rolling away on his knees and turned to a right corner.
Jim sighed in annoyance and dragged his hand on his face. He walked away with Rose, Morph, and Artemis following him.
B.E.N. hums his tune and makes his way to the control room. "Disable a few laser cannons. What is the big deal?" he asked himself, before jumping up to his feet and went to the control panel. "All we gotta do is find that one little wire…" The robot opens the main circuit board and gasps in shock. Inside, were tons of wires! "Oh, mama…"
Meanwhile, Jim, Rose, Artemis, and Morph entered the launching area, the last area where they saw the map. Jim looked in both directions and spotted the pile of rope, where Morph dropped it in. The boy got down on his knees and moves through the rope to find the map still there. He sighs with relief and picked it up.
"Yes," he said, smiling. Suddenly, an alarm started to blare, alerting the teens.
"B.E.N.!" Rose groaned.
Back in the control room, B.E.N. was holding a wire and realized that it wasn't the one for the laser cannons.
"Bad, B.E.N. Bad. Okay, fixing," he puts the wire back to where he unplugged it, stopping the alarm.
Jim and Rose sprinted back down the hallway with Morph and Artemis. "That stupid robot's gonna get us all..." Jim ranted as he and the girl turned to the stairs to get to the deck. But, then they came to a complete halt.
"Killed," Jim finished.
At the top of the stairs, Scroop was blocking the top to prevent the teens from escaping.
"Cabin boy and little runt," Scroop hissed evilly, opening his claw.
"Oh no!" Rose cried.
Jim, Rose, Morph, and Artemis yelped in terror and began to run for their lives through the cargo hold of the ship. The boy knocked over some barrels and other items to slow down the spiden.
But Scroop managed to dodge them by crawling on the ceiling and running across the floor, gaining in on the heroes.
Morph turned around and squeaked. He turned himself into a cream pie and smashed himself into Scroop's face.
Scroop stopped and growled in annoyance at the blob. He ripped poor Morph off and threw him into a pipe. The little shapeshifter was sucked in and traveled through the ship's pipe system.
Jim sprinted and turned to a corner, dragging Rose by the hand and hid behind a wall. He took deep breaths and powered up his gun. Jim jumped from his hiding place and aimed his weapon towards Scroop, causing the alien to halt and freeze.
Then the lights went out, sending the entire ship into darkness.
In the control room, the only sign of light came from B.E.N.'s large eyes. "Whoops!" he exclaimed. "Okay, d-don't panic. Breathing in," he took a deep breath, "breathing out..."
The emergency lights come on and the cargo hold was illuminated in eerie red light. Jim gasped as he looked for Scroop, pointing his gun in each direction.
Rose stood behind him and trembled in terror. Artemis grew terrified of the dark and jumped into the pocket of Rose's skirt. The spiden was nowhere to be seen. They both backed up and panted.
Behind them, Scroop was above them stealthily planning to attack them.
Suddenly, Morph popped out of the pipes and went right up to Scroop's face. The blob screams and turns himself into a hand in the shape of a peace sign and pokes at Scroop in the eye! The alien yelled in pain as the blob was sucked back into the pipe.
Hearing the commotion, Jim and Rose look back to see Scroop above them, but he knocked them both to the floor, causing Jim to drop his pistol and Rose to hit her head. The boy stretched his hand out to reach for the gun, but Scroop jumped on them, trapping the teens on the floor.
Meanwhile, B.E.N., unaware of the danger Jim and Rose were in, continued to look over the wires. "This has gotta be cannons." He pulled a plug, only to begin floating up. This cord was connected to the ship's artificial gravity. "Maybe not."
Jim, Rose, and Scroop began to float up off the floor. The boy used this opportunity to kick the alien in the stomach. The impacts caused Scroop to break through the grate and floated up higher to the deck.
The brunette and auburn-redhead followed pursuit and attempted to grab onto the main mast, but they missed it.
Scroop grabs onto a rope and secured himself to the main mast. He looked behind to see the teenagers floating past him. He tried to grab them, but missed.
Jim and Rose flipped in the air, both hitting the underside of the crow's nest. They latched themselves onto the end of Silver's pirate flag up hanging onto the mast. Jim and Rose manage to grab onto the edge of the flag and held on for dear life.
They looked down, and their eyes widened in horror. Scroop was crawling along the mast with a malicious grin and making his way towards the teens.
Jim looked around to see his gun floating above him. He reached his arm out, trying to grab it.
"Come on, come on, come on." He grunted and ends up accidentally smacking it away. "No!"
Scroop made it to the crow's nest and glanced up at the teens, chuckling sadistically. "Oh, yes," he snickered, and starts to cut the rope holding the flag with his claw. "Do say hello to Mr. Arrow."
Hearing those words from Scroop made Rose's blood run cold.
Jim managed to crawl down the flag and grab onto the flagpole.
Seeing this, Scroop gasped and growled. "Rraar!" He jumped up towards Jim.
"Tell him yourself!" Jim yelled.
"This is for him!" Rose added.
Jim kicked Scroop into the flag, causing the rope to snap. The spiden looked down to see the teens holding onto the mast as they looked up at him.
Scroop could do nothing but scream as he floated away, with no gravity to bring him down.
"Back you go, you naughty plug!" B.E.N. shouted, plugging the gravity plug back into place. "Oh!" A light purple aura flashed through the room and the robot landed on the floor.
Outside, Jim and Rose fell back down to the crow's nest with a rough land. They sat up and panted. The girl shook with fear and shock... she and Jim had killed someone. She didn't mean to kill Scroop, but at least it was only in self-defense. Despite what she and Jim had done, they still managed to avenge Mr. Arrow.
Rose hugged her knees tightly, and began to tremble.
Jim went over to Rose, and wrapped his arms around her to calm her down.
Artemis crawled out of the girl's pocket, and went up to her shoulder.
The pipe next to them rattled, and Morph popped out, all covered in soot and shooting out smoke. The little blob coughed out the soot from his mouth and returned to his pink color.
"Morph?" Jim asked.
"Are you okay?" Rose asked.
Morph looked over at the teens and smiled, chirping.
"Laser cannons disconnected, Captain Jimmy, sir!" B.E.N.'s voice came.
Jim and Rose looked down to see B.E.N. below deck, covered in sparking wires, meaning that he pulled most of them out. "Gee, that wasn't so tough."
Jim held out the map in his palm.
Rose looked at it in relief, before glancing at Jim. They were both proud, having succeeded in retrieving the map. Now, they can back to Delbert and Captain Amelia, and get to the treasure before Silver and the pirates.
Later on, Jim, Rose, B.E.N., Morph, and Artemis arrived back at B.E.N.'s place.
Jim climbed through the trapdoor first and turned around to pull Rose up. The girl had her flats on, so she can endure the search for Flint's trove and a leather brown satchel to carry the treasure. After being pulled to safety, she turned back to help up B.E.N. until he plopped down on the hole.
The teenage boy took the map out of his pocket and hurried over to the corner where Delbert and Captain Amelia were last seen. Rose followed after Jim, she was ready to share the good news.
"Doc! Doc, wake up! We got the map." Jim said.
"Now's our chance to get that treasure!" Rose said.
But to their surprise, a familiar robotic hand appeared from the shadows and grabbed the map from Jim.
It was Silver!
"Fine work, Jimbo and Rosie. Fine work indeed."
Muffled yelling was heard and the teens whipped around.
Captain Amelia and Delbert were gagged and tied up, with the pirates holding them against their will.
"Mother! Doctor!" Rose yelled.
Jim and Rose glanced to the other direction to see the pirates surrounding them in a circle.
"Thanks for showing us the way, kids," said Mr. Turnbuckle.
Jim and Rose tried to run away in order to escape. But the pirates managed to grab them by their arms. Jim was grabbed by Mr. Turnbuckle and Meltdown, and he struggled to fight back. Rose was grabbed by Mertock and Pigors, and her arms were yanked back hard. She felt as if her arms were about to be ripped from her sockets.
Morph grew angry of seeing Jim and Rose in danger. He flew down to Meltdown's tail, forms sharp teeth in his mouth and bit him hard.
Meltdown yelled in pain, but shook Morph off, slapping him to the ground with his tail. Poor Morph whimpered, and flew into Jim's pocket to hide.
Artemis turned red in rage. She crawled up her mistress, leapt off her head, and landed on Mertock's face. She shot her tongue out and struck it in his eye. Mertock cried out, but then he used his other hand to pull off the reptile, and threw Artemis to the ground.
The chameleon turned blue, crawled back up Rose's skirt, and hid in her pocket.
Bird Brain Mary pulled B.E.N. out from the trap door, put him in an arm lock, and placed her knife to his throat. "What's this sorry stack of metal?!"
"Not the face!" B.E.N. yelled nervously.
"Yer just like me, Jimbo," Silver said, snidely tossing the map up like a ball. "Ya hates to lose."
Jim growled, and attempted to break free from the grip of the pirates.
Silver chuckled and began to open the map. But, then he realized he didn't know how to open it, and grew frustrated. His robotic arm switched to various tools to activate, but to no avail, it didn't work.
"What the devil's the..." Silver grumbled and stopped, realizing that he could not open it.
The cyborg glanced at Jim, who was smirking and shaking his head. Silver thrusted the map in front of the boy, making Turnbuckle and Meltdown release their grip on him.
"Open it," Silver demanded.
Jim took the map, and glared at the pirate captain, refusing to move his fingers.
The pirate captain glared back at the boy, seeing that he wouldn't cooperate. This made Silver switch his arm to his gun.
"No, Jim!" Rose cried frantically. "Don't listen to-"
She was cut off when Mertock used one of his hands to cover her mouth, and gripped his other arm around her waist. Rose muffled, and felt a sharp blade near her neck, making her eyes widened in terror. Pigors held his knife close to her throat.
"I'd get busy," Silver warned, pointing his gun towards Delbert and Amelia.
"Do what he says, or we'll slit her neck!" Pigors said, threateningly.
Captain Amelia glared behind her gag and shook her head. Delbert nodded his head, but looked at Amelia, he glared and quickly shook his head.
Silver cocked his pistol and glanced at Jim, giving him a final warning.
Realizing there was no other choice, Jim pressed the buttons on the sphere, twisted it, and it opened, revealing green light that flew out and formed into Treasure Planet.
Silver and the crew stared at it and murmured in awe.
"Oh, the powers that be. Would you look?" Silver grinned.
The hologram of Treasure Planet transformed into a beam and shot through B.E.N.'s window. It was pointing the way towards the treasure.
Silver hurried to the window, looked out, and he gave a laugh. He glanced at the teenagers, and changed his expression to a glare. "Tie 'em up, and leave 'em with the others till we…" Silver ordered, but was cut off when the beam disappeared. "What?" He looked back to see Jim locking up the sphere.
"You want the map, you're taking me, too," Jim said.
Silver groaned in annoyance as his eye glowed red. "Hmm…" He smirked and shook his head, chuckling as his eye turned yellow. "We'll take 'em all."
