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SwordOfTheGods: Even with the canon weaknesses, there are already plenty of characters who consider eating the Devil Fruit to be worth it. That's why even here, Will would've been automatically conscripted into the Marines for his Devil Fruit if not for Swann putting him under his protection. And only Norrington's desire to not force the existence of a child soldier prompted him to not report Will's existence to the Crown.
3rd Voyage: Raid of Port Royal
Later at the night, a fog began to roll onto Port Royal, it's unnatural darkness stealing the nightly cool and small glimmers of light from around.
Of course, Jack knew little of this as he sat in his own little cell within Fort Charles, a little entertained at his fellow prisoners' efforts in enticing the guard dog with a bone. If not for the Seastone cuffs and chains on him, he would've made himself scarce long ago.
"You can keep doing that forever." Jack sighed as he sat against the wall, his hat covering his face. "The dog is never going to move."
The inmates turned to glare at Jack, the one with the hoarse voice huffing in affront. "Oh, excuse us if we haven't resigned ourselves to the gallows yet!"
Jack just grinned and tilted his hat further down. The idiots had no idea just how well his Dad had trained that dog, even if he had no idea why it was here of all places.
Elizabeth stared at the book in her hands while she laid on her bed, not really reading it as her mind kept going over the day's events.
"There you go, miss." Estrella said as she slid the filled bedwarmer between the sheets at the end of her bed. "It was a difficult day for you, I'm sure."
Elizabeth hummed. "I suspected Commodore Norrington would propose, but I must admit, I wasn't entirely prepared for it."
"I meant you being threatened by that pirate!" Estrella unknowingly hit upon what had been occupying Elizabeth's thoughts, shaking her head as she drew up her blanket to cover more of her body. "Sounds terrifying."
"Oh..." Elizabeth wryly smiled. 'Wild Card' Jack had been that, but there was still the fact that he had saved her unprompted... "Estrella, do you think all pirates are like him? He didn't strike me as a cruel sort..."
"It's not in my place to say, miss, but pirates come mainly in two breeds." Estrella fretted a little after checking back for eavesdroppers. "Peacemain are the kind that you like to read about, those types gallivanting about with their adventures and the like. It was a pair of peacemain and morganeer Pirate Lords who created the Code I taught you about."
Elizabeth gasped softly in realization. While Estrella had taught her bits of the Code little by little (and she had wisely never questioned where her maid herself had learnt it from), she never knew that the Code had a peacemain involved in its creation.
Then again, it did make some sense that it would be a peacemain that would instill the little civility pirates rarely showed.
"The other breed of pirates be morganeers, the type that pillage and plunder. These are the types that deserve to hung 'till their eyes pop out." Estrella hissed before shaking her head. "Still, there's rarely any pirate that perfectly fits into a sole category. Nine out of every ten pirate out there will always be a mix of the two types. But still..."
Estrella drew herself up after finishing tucking Elizabeth in. "Beware the pirate that is pure morganeer, for they have zero regard for the Code."
And with that, Estrella bid her goodnight and exited, leaving Elizabeth to her thoughts. Elizabeth tried to read, toying with the medallion chain around her neck, but her attention stayed diverted from the book.
Then suddenly, the medallion's usually supernatural warmth sharply rose. Just as quickly, the lamp flame beside her dimmed as well before becoming snuffed out.
Will paused in his hammering upon the ingot as the smell hit his nose. A thick, choking, smoky smell that he hadn't smelt for years, not even in his career as a blacksmith.
A smell that he hadn't smelt since that day he had been saved by Betty...
A smell... that was coming from outside...!
At the mouth of Port Royal Bay, a dark vessel with black tattered masts crept into the harbor, the smoky mist thickening around with it's presence.
Up at Fort Charles, Weatherby and James walked together along the battlements, conversing idly. "Has my daughter given you an answer yet?"
"No, she hasn't." James replied a little despondently.
"Well, she has had a very trying day." Weatherby reasoned. To narrowly escape death after falling into the bay, getting rescued then held hostage by a pirate, and worst of all, it had been a pirate bearing an epithet and that blasted middle initial. "Very trying for myself as well, if I'm to be honest."
Weatherby shook his head as he looked around for a distraction from his thoughts. "Ghastly weather, don't you think? Not to mention how it smells."
"Smell...?" James paused in his walk as he sniffed curiously, raising an arm to block his nose as he looked around warily. "This... This isn't fog..."
Weatherby stilled at James's deduction, shifting side to side when he heard a muffled booming sound. "What's that?"
However, James acted quicker when he suddenly shouted and tackled Weatherby down. "Cannon fire!"
Right behind the two, a parapet exploded as a cannonball hit it.
"Return fire! Sound the alarm!" James immediately recovered and shouted his orders to the nearby marines. "It's a pirate raid!"
Inside his cell, Jack perked up at the sound of familiar cannon fire and the smell of...
No...
This smell... This dense, sickly, heavy, black smoke...
"Sulfur..." Jack breathed in realization.
And when there was sulfur impossibly nearby...
"Hector!" Jack stood up to peer through the bars of his cell window. Outside, barely visible in the middle of the bay, was his ship. The Black Pearl bombarded the town from it's port side while the starboard side focused on Fort Charles, the cannon balls flying much farther than they normally could had they been fired from any other ship. "The Pearl leaves devastation in it's wake as usual."
"The Black Pearl?" One of his neighboring inmates said in horror. "I've heard stories. She's been preying on ships and settlements for near ten years. Never leaves any survivors."
"No survivors?" Jack questioned with a cheeky grin. "Then where do the stories come from, I wonder?"
The inmate blinked in confusion and glanced at his cellmate.
Ashore, the terrified people of Port Royal ran for their lives as explosions from the ominous ship struck the town many times over, a few of them already dead.
"Mamaaaa!" A terrified toddler boy cried out for his mother amongst the chaos. Behind the boy, a cannonball hit a scaffold, tipping it over towards the child.
Thankfully, Will got there just in time to create a quick support of ice that held up the scaffold and provide some protection for the boy.
"Th-Thank you!" A woman panted as she grabbed the boy and ran off with him to safety, leaving Will to regard the pirates he could see approaching with their boats.
Well, they'd have to be disappointed. Slamming his hands upon the ground, a giant glacier shot up into the sky, the sudden ice wall not only denying the pirates entrance into Port Royal as it spanned as far as he could make it, but also blocking the cannonballs that smashed into it but left no more damage than large cracks.
"There!" Will shivered as he stepped back only half exhausted, rubbing his hands gingerly. "That should hold them off for a bit."
Meanwhile, at Fort Charles, the marines were grabbing their muskets and rushing outside to fight the pirates. The fort received heavy cannon fire from the Black Pearl, killing or wounding several marines. One cannonball even hit the gallows, shattering it to splinters.
"See that?!" James shouted as he sighted the ice wall go up and block most of Port Royal from view, a few of his marines stalling to gawk. "That is the work of a civilian logia doing his part against the pirates! Are you men willing to fall behind him?!"
While the men didn't give a vocal reply, James nodded in satisfaction as their movements doubled in haste. "I need a full spread, fore and aft! Mr. Stevens, more cartridges!"
Then he noticed Governor Swann still beside him on the battlements, completely overwhelmed by the destruction. "Governor! Barricade yourself in my office."
A nearby explosion forced Governor Swann to protect his eyes from the debris. "Good God!"
"That's an order." James demanded, firm and final. "God does not waste His time on those without sense."
Aboard the Pearl, the Captain hummed in curious acknowledgement at the durable wall of ice and raised his hand, a molten ball of heat igniting in his palm.
The air boomed as a powerful vermillion blast of scorching smoke and blinding heat fell down from the sky and landed upon Will's defensive wall. Upon impact, the bit of ice wall immediately before him detonated into a devastating eruption of superheated water that knocked him off his feet and defeaned his ears.
By the time Will could get on his feet again without feeling likely to keel over, the pirates were already upon him while blobs of steaming rock surrounded him.
"Familiar power, that is!" One of them roared as he charged forward with a sword held high.
Will huffed as he met his clash with his own sword, nearly being overwhelmed before he twisted about and kicked him down while the pirate fell before freezing him in place.
Then he did the same for the other approaching pirates, the growing sheet of ice trapping most of them.
"You bastards..." Will shivered, misty gasps escaping his lips. "You're not getting past me-"
"And who are you to decide that?"
Will didn't even notice him until it was too late to react, the massive dark-skinned man somehow having sped up to his side before slamming a fist into his unguarded stomach.
Will immediately blacked out from the pain as he was swiftly hurled clear into the bell tower four miles away, stuck in his wall crater eight meters above the ground.
Back on the beach, the dark-skinned pirate hummed as he lowered his will-fueled fist. "Pretty durable. I had meant to punch clean through him."
Elizabeth gasped at the sight of the town from her bedroom balcony, the dense smoky fog barely allowing her to see the numerous fires burning down below while cannon fire continued to echo through the night.
Merely two minutes ago, she'd cheered at the sight of Will's ice creating a sturdy wall of defense only to shriek when a powerful blast from the invading ship tore it apart. Rushing out of her room and down the stairs, Elizabeth hissed at the sight of her butler. "Jeremiah!"
"Make your way to the fort, milady!" Jeremiah sharply replied, unsheathing the sword in his hands as he took a position before the shaking door. "And quickly! Be sure to not look back no matter what!"
Then the door broke open only for the first of the pirates to get his chest cleaved through by Jeremiah before he could fire the pistol that had already be raised up.
"GO!"
Elizabeth only waited a second more before leaving Jeremiah to rush back upstairs. Entering into her bedroom again, she slammed the door shot and immediately locked it.
"Milady!" Estrella called out, causing Elizabeth to turn about and regard her maid. The woman stared back with clear relief in her eyes, a dagger in each hand. "Thank goodness. We can't allow those pirates to get you."
Elizabeth's mouth failed to produce proper sentences, so overwhelmed by the past events of just ten minutes. "Wh-What?"
"On top of being a beautiful woman, you're the governor's daughter." Estrella warned. "You need to leave and head for either the fort or William, whichever you reach first."
"W-Will?" Elizabeth questioned helplessly.
"A logia you trust can do a lot more than many unpowered marines can." Estrella commented wryly just as the door rattled from the pirates trying to barge in. "Now go!"
Just as the door broke open to allow in a stout and lanky pair of pirates, Estrella pushed Elizabeth aside and swiftly flung her daggers deep into their foreheads. Ignoring Elizabeth's sharp gasps, Estrella strode forward and yanked her daggers out before moving out of the bedroom.
As for Elizabeth, she leapt over the bodies and took off back downstairs as fast as she could. On the ground floor, the other terrified servants screamed and ran for their lives while the pirates ransacked the mansion.
Elizabeth nearly reached the ground floor when a pirate vaulted over the balcony above and landed at the base of the stairs, blocking the way. Staring in shock, Elizabeth flinched back in shock only to see the stout pirate blocking the stairs behind her. "Didn't my maid just put knives through your heads?!"
"She did!" The lanky pirate whined while gesturing with the torch he held. "It hurt a lot!"
Just then, a third pirate emerged from a double set of doors across the room, his arms full of loot. Then, a stray cannon ball tore through the foyer, hit the third pirate dead on, and sent him flying through the doors with a crash.
With the other two pirates distracted at their comrade's misfortune, Elizabeth raced for the dining room, narrowly avoiding a falling chandelier as she went. Slamming the doors shut behind her, she grabbed a candelabra and rammed it down over the door pulls. The makeshift bolt worked as it held the pirates at bay while she looked around for something to defend herself with.
No hopefully forgotten knives on the table, but above the fireplace were two crossed swords on a wooden mount.
Sighing in relief, Elizabeth ran to the swords and grabbed one by it's hilt with the intention to pull it free, only to yank the entire thing clean off the wall.
"Come out!" It only took her a few frustrated shakes to realize that the thing had merely been a decoration. She should've had Will sneak a sword into her room like he'd joked about last week!
By the time the pirates finally burst in, Elizabeth had quickly hidden herself in the cabinet after opening a window to throw them off. The lanky pirate immediately went for it, only to be held back by his stout companion.
"We know you're here, poppet." The stout pirate declared. "Come out... and we promise we won't hurt you."
Elizabeth resisted the urge to loudly scoff, their words very contrary to their deeds tonight.
"We will find you, poppet." The stout pirate went on threateningly. "You've got something of ours, and it calls to us."
Elizabeth winced as the medallion thrummed warmly against her breast, slowly fishing it out to regard the golden coin as it seemed to get warmer and warmer with each passing moment, glinting in the thin line of light spilling through the crack between the doors.
"The gold calls to us..."
"The gold..."
Then the light vanished. Elizabeth looked up... and saw the stout pirate's eye peering through the crack between the doors.
"'Ello, poppet."
The doors were yanked open and a pistol was raised up right to her face-
"P-Parlay!"
-but suddenly halted.
"...what?" The stout pirate asked in disbelief.
"Parlay! I invoke the Right of Parlay." Elizabeth repeated, her heart beating desperately. Seeing as she still hadn't gotten shot at, she pushed on. "According to the Code of the Pirate Brethren set down by Pirate Lords Morgan and Bartholomew, you have to take me to your Captain!"
"I know the Code..." The stout pirate narrowed his eyes, which only relieved a tiny bit of Elizabeth's worries. If both of the pirates before her were pure morganeers...
"If an adversary demands Parlay, you can do them no harm until the parlay is complete."
The lanky pirate pointed his sword at Elizabeth. "To blazes with the Code!"
"She wants to be taken to the Captain!" The stout pirate snarled at his partner, causing him to reluctantly back down before glaring back at her. "And she'll go, without a fuss. We must honor the Code."
Will groaned from where he was stuck in the tower he'd been smashed into, looking down into the chaos below. About to pull himself free, he paused in his tracks when he sighted Elizabeth being escorted roughly by a small group of pirates.
"Betty!" Will launched himself forward, ice surging him forward as he flew towards them. "Release her at once!"
"I got it!" One of the pirates, a cackling one with the shaggiest beard he'd ever seen, flung a bomb right at Will's face.
The explosion that followed shattered Will apart from the force, the icy pieces of him falling down while the others moved on.
Jack dove for cover when a cannon ball impacted the wall behind the cells, letting eerie moonlight in as the wall burst apart. Unfortunately for Jack, the damaging hole was centered mostly on the other cell. The portion of the hole in Jack's cell was too small for him to squeeze through.
"My sympathies, friend." The neighboring inmates commented as he and his cellmates scrambled through towards freedom. "You've no manner of luck at all."
Now alone and desperate to escape, Jack reached into the other cell and picked up the bone he'd earlier ridiculed, sticking it through the cell bars and waving it around while whistling. "Come on, doggy! It's just you and me now."
The dog peeked out from under a bench, having been hiding from the cannon fire with the key ring still thankfully in it's maw.
"It's you and old Jack... Come on." Jack beckoned. "Come on. That's a boy!"
The dog slowly came out of it's hiding spot and started walking towards his cell.
"Come on, a bit closer, a bit closer... Get your bone!" Jack kept on as the dog eventually reached just before his cell. "That's it! That's it, doggy-"
Just then, a crashing sound came from up above. Startled, the dog whined and fled down the hall with the keys.
"No! Come back!" Jack called after the fleeing dog before turning his attention to the commotion above when two familiar Voices entered the range of his Observation.
There was shouting, then a gunshot, then a dead marine tumbling down the stairs followed by Koehler and Twigg.
"This ain't the armory!" Twigg angrily commented.
Koehler ignored Twigg as he spotted Jack, sheathing his sword as he approached. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here."
"Captain Jack D. Sparrow..." Twigg said mockingly while Koehler spat at Jack's feet. "Last time I saw you, you were all alone on a godforsaken island, shrinking into the distance. His fortunes aren't improved much. So much for the famous Ds."
"Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure that you've busted out of cells tougher than this one..." Koehler paused at the sight of Jack's Seastone cuffs. "Oh, he gone and gotten himself a Devil Fruit. Which logia are you anyways? Apart from the ice one we saw earlier?"
"Now why would I lay out my cards before walking corpses like you two?" Jack retorted. "The deepest circle of Hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers, and I have every intentions of sending you all there after I start with Hector."
Koehler and Twigg's smiles dropped, the former's hand darting forward to seize his throat, only for Jack to grab and crush his forearm instantly.
...and then regard that he was grasping a crunched skeletal limb adorned with tattered clothes beneath the moonlight. "So, there is a curse... that's interesting."
"You know nothing of hell." Not even showing the slightest bit of pain for his arm, Koehler pulled his limb free, the now fleshy arm gruesomely snapping back into place seconds later as the two pirates left.
"...that's very interesting." Jack muttered as he glanced down at the bone still in his other hand. "...doggy! There's a bone here still waiting for you!"
Elizabeth shivered as she sat in the longboat being rowed towards the Black Pearl while the massive ship kept firing it's cannons. Up-close, she could see it to be a tall galleon bristling with many guns, dark wooden planks, and bearing tattered black sails while it's bow was decorated with the ornately carved figurehead of a woman releasing a bird into flight.
It was undoubtedly the same ship she seen eight years ago, Will having been the sole survivor of it's prey vessel at the time.
After the boat got winched up to the deck, Elizabeth and the pirates disembarked. Suddenly, a man took her attention, being dressed in a long coat and an ostrich feathered hat while a monkey hopped onto his shoulder.
She might've considered the sight of him ridiculous, if not for the sore fact that she was struck with the sudden urge to never expose her back to him.
"I didn't know we was takin' on captives." A large man of African descent inquired having approached the group.
"She's invoked the Right of Parlay with Captain Barbossa." Pintel, as he'd earlier introduced himself as, hastily explained.
Elizabeth immediately noted that this man might most likely be the First Mate and stepped forward to speak. "I am here to negotia-"
"You will speak when spoken to!" The First Mate slapped her across the face, cutting her off.
A hand immediately grabbed the wrist, causing the First Mate to wince as smoke started curling off the grip. The man with the monkey had already approached them, allowing Elizabeth to note his features better. He seemed middle-aged with weathered features and unkempt facial hair, the monkey with him wearing a shirt, vest, and pants. "And ye will not lay a hand on those under the protection of Parlay."
"A-Aye, sir." The First Mate complied, wincing as his burnt forearm was released.
"My apologies, miss." The apparent Captain gave a smile that revealed rotten teeth. "My name be Hector Barbossa, Captain of the Drakon Pirates."
'Drakon'... Dragon when translated from Russian. Elizabeth immediately thought of the First Mate's burn and the blast that had decimated Will's ice, promptly realizing the epithet that the pirates were called after. "Captain 'Helldrake' Barbossa, I am here to negotiate the cessation of hostilities against Port Royal."
"...a a lot of long words there. We're naught but humble pirates." Helldrake chuckled before asking directly. "What is it you want?"
"I want you all to leave and never come back." Elizabeth's cheeks might've burned from the wave of laughter that prompted if not for the fact that Helldrake stared back without a change in expression.
"I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request." Helldrake replied loquaciously.
Elizabeth stared, both in disbelief and surprise.
"Means 'no'." Helldrake clarified with a smirk, eliciting more chuckles from his crew.
Well, Elizabeth had at least been prepared for this. "Very well."
Fishing the medallion out, she approached the ship's edge and dangled it above the dark depths, resisting the urge to smirk at how all of their gazes snapped to it. "I'll drop it."
"Me holds are burstin' with swag. That bit of shine matters to us?" Helldrake's claim might have been more convincing if not for the weak chuckles of the men still staring at the medallion. "Why?"
"Because it's what you've all been apparently searching for, isn't it?" Elizabeth answered, carefully studying his expression. "Eight years ago, were you or were you not the pirates I saw on the crossing from England?"
"Did you now?" Something changed in Helldrake's countenance, as if he were on the cusp of confirming something just as much as Elizabeth herself was currently doing.
"Fine. I suppose if it is worthless there's no point in me keeping it." Elizabeth let the chain slip just a tinge lower, her hunch confirmed as everybody took a panicked step forward. "...I guess this bit of shine does matter to you."
"I suppose that you be the victor of this argument." Helldrake chuckled as he stepped forward, prompting Elizabeth to keep away the medallion. "You have a name, missy?"
"Elizabeth... Turner." Elizabeth finished, having just remembered Estrella's warning. "I'm a maid in the governor's household."
Helldrake's eyes widened in recognition at Will's surname before grinning widely as he turned to face his crew. "Miss Turner!"
"Bootstrap...!" Pintel muttered to a wide-eyed Ragetti.
"And how does a maid come to own a trinket such as that?" Helldrake questioned. "Family heirloom, perhaps?"
"...I didn't steal it, if that's what you mean." Technically, she had stolen it, but Will would've either been killed or thrown off the ship if she hadn't done so eight years ago, so there!
"Very well. You hand it over and we'll put your town to our rudder and ne'er return." Helldrake held out his hand for the medallion.
Elizabeth hesitated for a second before relinquishing it to the Captain, who then handed it over to the monkey, who then chittered and clambered away onto an overhanging rope.
"Our bargain?" Elizabeth pressed.
Helldrake turned to the First Mate and jerked his head to the side before heading elsewhere.
"Still the guns and stow 'em." The First Mate hollered to the others. "Signal the men and make good to clear port."
Gaping, Elizabeth chased after Helldrake. "Wait! You have to take me to shore! According to the Code of the-"
Helldrake wheeled on Elizabeth, interrupting her. "First, your return to shore was neither part of our negotiations nor our agreements so I must do nothin'. Secondly, you must be a pirate for the Code of the Pirate Brethren to apply, and you're not. And thirdly, the Code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules. If there's one thing peacemains and morganeers have in common, it be to live free from restrictions, not adhere to 'em!"
Elizabeth's jaw dropped, failing to properly express the horror at what she'd gotten herself into.
"Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner." Helldrake finished in a faux-affable tone as Pintel and Ragetti came up from behind to seize her arms. "Let's hope your voyage with us to be a short and memorable one. Kahahaha!"
KingVessel: The more things change, the more things stay the same...
