The Red Blur was well on its way to breaking another record, full sail around the turns and bends of the island of Derzy with the Rocketstalker right on its tail.
On the quarterdeck of the Rocketstalker, captain Christine Muso stood behind the helm, viciously whipping the wheel back and forced to stay in the draft behind the Red Blur.
The mighty wind in the wake of the world's fastest ship was deafeningly loud, men standing right next to each other would have to shout just to hear one another.
Also on the Quarterdeck was first mate Damien Smire who was struggling to stand, while behind him was Captain Dwayne Strickman who was practically on the floor.
Both of these men were experienced seamen but both might as well have been landlubbers as they bore witness to the worst sea sickness imaginable.
"What's wrong boys? Can't handle a little sea sickness?" Christine mocked
"I've never been on a ship this fast, with this much bumping around!" Dwayne said as he struggled to keep his stomach contents down.
"Yeah! Apparently when my ship gets caught in the wind behind the Red Blur, it becomes faster! That's a pretty cool discovery!" Christine shouted
"Amazing!" Damien yelled
Though Christine acted strong she herself was also falling victim to sea sickness, and after nearly an hour of these conditions she could bare it no longer.
"Damien take the wheel for a bit!" She said
Damien then stumbled over to the wheel. Christine lunged towards the side of the ship, she wrapped her hands around the edge. Every last bit of her breakfast then came flying out of her mouth at a tremendous rate of speed, the mixture of milk, bread, and stomach acid splashed into the Ocean and on the side of the ship.
Christine looked over to her side to see that the back portion of the ship was covered in tan slime, the putrid smell of puke hit her nostrils causing her to vomit again.
"Aw! Dwayne that's disgusting!" She shouted
"You're the one who wanted to do this!" Dwayne replied before peaking out over the edge of the ship to vomit again.
"Maybe if you hadn't spent all morning drinking, you wouldn't be throwing up so much!" Christine jeered
"What's your excuse!" Dwayne snapped back.
As the ship slowly came to a crawl right beside the Red Blur, Dwayne was able to stand again alongside Christine who was helping him up.
Atlas walked to the side of the Red Blur and mocked them
"Aren't you guys a little too experienced for sea sickness?"
"Cease your squeaking Atlas." Dwayne commented
Karma came up and said
"Congratulations on second place Christine."
"Fuck off." Christine replied
As the two groups picked at each other, a thin cloud of white smoke could be seen approaching the area. By the time anyone noticed they were already surrounded in it.
"It's a bit hazy around here." Damien said
"Something in the city must be burning." Atlas replied
The smell of smoke overpowered any other scent in the vicinity and before long it was apparent that something had been burning.
Then a cannon shot could be heard ringing out from the town.
Everyone looked at each other in shock. Everyone made a beeline for both ships' respective wheels.
The two ships swiftly navigated around the final corner of Derzy Island through the thin white smoke cloud to see what must've been the literal embodiment of chaos.
The smoldering remains of three Sloop of War ships sat just below the waves of the shallow beach water, plumes of white smoke billowed from the burned carcasses of the ships.
Around five other ships appeared to have fire damage, with smoke coming off the burned wood of their hulls.
On the beach the scene was even worse. An absolutely massive melee was taking place with pirates and some other faction both attacking each other, across the beach were the bodies of the dead and dying, and on the shore line, a peasant woman was holding the body of a little boy in her arms, the boy had a massive wound in the center of his throat and the woman was crying uncontrollably with Edgar standing over her.
Both the Red Blur and the Rocketstalker sailed up to the scene, and each ship fired a single shot from their cannon to break up the fighting.
The unknown faction then retreated, charging into the densely packed streets and alleys of the city.
Karma, Christine, and Damien all jumped off the ships and into the water to rush to shore.
On the shore Christine reached down to help up a pirate who had fallen down.
"Are you okay?" She asked
"Yes, just got knocked down." The man replied
Edgar then grabbed a man whose arm had been lobbed off in the fighting.
"Don't worry buddy I got ya." He said
Karma ran over to help Edgar carry the man off.
"I'll help you." She said
"Okay." Edgar replied
Christine then ran up to Aulga who was performing chest compressions on a clearly dead man.
"Come on, you can't die on me. Wake up." She pleaded
Karma while helping collect the wounded came upon Momoud, who was covered in blood.
"Momoud what happened?" She asked
"A group of deranged locals just started attacking us. They burned three ships, and set a few more on fire, they burned the brothel, they burned a bar, they even attacked the brewery." Momoud answered
"The locals did this?"
"Yeah."
Captain Derek Commel who had overheard them then pulled out his cutlass and rushed at two local children spying on the scene.
"Retribution!" He shouted derangely
Karma quickly struck him with a lightning bolt.
Derek clenched his side and fell to the ground in pain.
"Momoud, make sure that mad dog doesn't kill anyone." Karma demanded
"Don't tell me what to do." Momoud replied
"Please."
"Oh alright."
Dwayne and Atlas walk up on the shore.
"What the hell happened here?" Dwayne muttered to himself.
Christine then walked up to Dwayne and practically in tears.
"I...i...i can't believe this happened" Christine said
"What happened?" Dwayne again asked
"My ship got burned by those filthy farm peasants!" Captain Rossem shouted
Everyone looked behind them to see Rossem's ship, the Mary Monne still smoking just below the waves.
"Did everyone make it out?" Christine asked
"No, half my crew were on board sleeping when the ship was set a lit." Rossem said
"My condolences."
Continuing to look back Rossem recognized the two other sunken ships
"That's the Conquestor, captain Molly was still asleep on board. The other ship is the Kill Dagger, her entire crew was also on board." Rossem said
"Must've still been early when they were torched, we couldn't have been too long gone by the time the attack happened." Atlas commented
Then Ellis frantically ran up to Christine.
Ellis was a beautiful brown skinned woman, with dark black hair in a pony-tail, Ellis was a local to the island of Derzy and her father was the wealthiest man on the Island.
"Christine! Oh Christine it's awful!" She cried
She then embraced Christine and fell to her knees,
"They took him!" She yelled
Christine kneeled down to comfort her.
"Took who?" Christine asked
"Dave! They took Dave." Ellis complained
Dave was Ellis's cousin and the owner of a small shop that serviced everyone local or outsider.
Ellis grabbed onto Christine even harder with tears running down her face.
"Don't worry Ellis, I'll get him back." Christine said
"You will? How?" Ellis asked
"Ellis I've gone up against the Goddess of Suffering herself and came out fine. I can take a few armed peasants."
Ellis then wiped away her tears and began smiling
"And she'll have the flashiest swordsman right next to her." Atlas added
"You mean the guy who hides behind his witch of a wife. Anyway I'm game. Can't have a guerilla army running around the island sneak attacking our ships." Dwayne commented
"I'd follow you into the depths of the Underworld." Damien said
The quad then walked towards the end of the city looking for clues, as they walked through the city they saw locals cowering in fear afraid of both the pirates and the attackers.
Pirates were all on high alert, standing with their muskets and cutlasses protecting their favorite establishments. Many pirates joined Christine and the gang ready to take the fight to the enemy.
When they reached the Sailor's Inn they saw Ethel standing outside with her blunderbuss (Old timey shotgun)
The bar had been vandalized by the attackers. All the windows were broken, and the door had bullet holes through it, and on the ground was a dried pool of blood.
"What happened here?" Atlas asked
"Those freaks attacked my bar, they planned on burning it down, until I brought out the Blunderbuss. Shot one of them dead right in front of me." Ethel replied
"Did you see where they went?"
"They went outside the city with a few hostages, they ran south."
"Where could they have gone south?" Christine asked
"While we were racing around the island, I noticed a few cabins on the coast. I grew up on this island and I've never seen it before." Atlas commented
"That's most likely where they went. Let's go."
The group stalked through the thick jungle forest through the darkness of night, while the men cautiously navigated through the jungle brush below, Christine used her Grapple gun to swing from branch to branch and act as a look out.
Eventually Christine spotted the light of a campfire through the trees.
She used the grapple gun to grapple down to the jungle floor to tell the men.
"I see a campfire up ahead." She informed the guys
"So what's the plan?" Dwayne whispered
"I don't know? But maybe you guys could sneak around to the other side of the camp, and I stay here, and draw their fire."
"Christine, that's a terrible idea."
"Oh so what's your idea?"
"I'll tell you."
Not too long later Dwayne walked out of the brush and into open sight of the enemy militia.
"Tisk tisk tisk, you guys are in the worst trouble imaginable." Dwayne said
The faces of the men were one of pure terror, they were too terrified to even grab their muskets right next to them.
Dwayne walked up to them and put his foot down on one of the logs where three of the men were sitting.
"So tell me, who's the leader of this operation, whose corpse will I have hanged from the masts of my ship?"
Dwayne said, using a well known intimidation tactic against the men.
"Whose!" Dwayne shouted
All the men jumped back. Then Christine came down right behind them right to where they had all the hostages tied to poles and bound and gagged.
Christine used her cutlass to free the hostages. All of them then ran as fast as they could for the forest. The enemy soldiers seeing this went for their muskets, causing Dwayne to pull out his pistols one by one to shoot them.
The doors to the cabin flew open and the other enemy combatants swarmed out of them, muskets in hand with bayonets at the ready. The pirates then charged them leading to another massive melee.
Meanwhile with Christine, she, Dave and others ran through the forest with adrenaline pumping through their very being, all around them in the trees they could hear the sound of someone or something following them. This sound kept them all running, running long after they had run out of stamina. Still sprinting at full speed.
"May the Gods ever throw blessings down upon you Christine, because you are truly an angel." Dave said
"Don't thank me yet, we aren't out of the woods." Christine replied
Just then a gunshot rang out through the forest. Then a trio of armed men sprang out right in front of Christine, Dave and the other hostages. Then to Christine's other shock and awe someone shoved the men aside, someone she knew.
Nearly falling to her knees, Christine could hardly believe her eyes.
"You! You're supposed to be dead!" She shouted
Standing before her was none other than the aforementioned Captain Molly.
"Why would I be dead?" Molly asked with an evil smile on her face.
"Your ship, your ship was burned." Christine cried
"Yeah, after I burned it."
"Why? Why would you do this? I don't understand."
"It's simple really, I grew tired of you and yours constantly stealing magical items, and other rare valuables while me and everyone else were only left with gold."
"What's wrong with gold?"
"It's a common currency, nothing too special about a chest of gold coins, a lot of value, in platinum and magical chests. Eliminating all of you will leave me with no competition. The seas will be mine to rule."
"But why kidnap me?" Dave asked
"No reason. It really was just a heat of the moment thing." Molly said
"Boys execute them." Molly demanded
Dave held onto Christine tightly, squeezing the life out of her, mere seconds before the men pulled the trigger, all of them mysteriously fell dead.
"What the?!" Molly shouted
Christine looked and upon closer inspection it appeared that the men had all been hit with tiny little darts.
Molly reached into her own pocket for her pistol.
"Not so fast." A feminine voice announced from above. Everyone looked to the tree line to see a woman standing in a bright red cloak standing there. The woman jumped down and landed right in front of Molly.
Molly instantly fell dead, before she could even cry out in terror.
"Gods. It's the Red Medjay." Dave said
"The what?" Christine replied
Christine walked up to the woman seconds before she held a glowing yellow orb to the sky. She then vanished.
"Ah, teleportation orb. Drat I really wanted to question her." Christine said.
Later at the Sailors Inn bar everyone was back to partying as usual. Everyone except Christine, Karma, and Edgar
Karma and Edgar would spend the rest of the night and early morning hours tending to the wound. Yet Christine wasn't partying because she was still trying to wrap her head around what had happened.
"What's wrong Christine?" Dwayne asked as he walked up to her.
"Nothing, just in the jungle. Someone saved us, I don't explicitly know who it was." Christine answered
"What do they look like?"
"An older brown skinned woman, wearing a red cloak."
"Ah, the Red Medjay. You saw the Red Medjay?"
"Yeah, that's what Dave called her. What is she? A witch, a ghost or something?"
"No she's just an older lady. She's one of the original founders of the island. Well the pirate part of the island that is."
"So she just stalks around the island?"
"Not really, she goes many places, but she loves pirate island. At Least that's what I heard. I thought she was a legend before you said that."