"We plunder!"
"We get drunk!"
"La-la-la!"
Jack staggered across the deck of the Black Pearl, swinging a bottle and singing.
The bottle soon emptied; he booted it into the sea and kept singing, "We kick Davy Jones aside!"
Jack was elated—most of the plan had succeeded. Find the chest key and Davy Jones would be at his mercy.
Even if the key stayed lost for a while, the chest itself was here; Jones would have to think twice.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
A strong wind whipped across the deck, snatching Jack's hat clean off.
"Eh? Cheeky little breeze."
He scooped the hat up, dusted it off, and planted it firmly back on his head.
What kind of pirate Captain goes hatless?
Then Jack noticed Gibbs and the rest staring past him, faces white with terror.
"What spooked you?" He turned, unconcerned. "Jones chasing—"
The words died: a thick tentacle lay coiled across the Black Pearl's deck.
Jones hadn't come in person—but his pet had.
"Er... hi!"
Jack hoisted the chest.
"We've got your Master's heart—we're on the same side!"
"Roar!"
The Giant Squid answered with a roar and a gush of slime.
"Bleh, bleh!"
"Any chance you speak English?"
Jack muttered, then jerked his chin at Gibbs—open fire and get us out of this.
But Gibbs pointed again, trembling. Jack followed the finger and his face drained of color.
A battered pirate ship was racing toward them, and Jack knew better than to scoff.
"The Flying Dutchman..." he croaked, certain he was about to become seafood.
"Fire, fire!"
Still, Jack wouldn't surrender; he barked at the crew to shoot the monster.
Jack wasn't Beckett—he'd never quit after one setback. He'd fight to the last breath.
"Boom, boom!"
Scattered cannonballs punched pocks in the squid's flesh, only enraging it; its grip on the Pearl tightened.
"Boom!"
A deafening blast boomed from afar, rocking Jack and the whole crew.
Before Jack could spot the shooter, the shell burst across the squid's tentacle in a spray of blood, severing the limbs that held them.
Jack spun around and laughed. "Hahaha—The Jackdaw!"
The Jackdaw surged forward with seven more ships, Fang Yuan standing proud at the prow in his Black King mask.
Only The Jackdaw could deliver a broadside that perfect.
"We're saved!"
Gibbs and the crew cheered, spreading every sail to race toward The Jackdaw.
"Haha, look at the state of you!"
"Don't you agree, Jack?"
As they drew alongside, Jack caught Barbossa's familiar taunt.
"Hardly—I was magnificent," Jack shot back.
Barbossa ignored him, tickling the monkey on his shoulder. "I was asking this Jack—why butt in?"
Yes, Barbossa had named his pet monkey Jack too.
Jack fumed, glanced around, grabbed a crab from a bucket and perched it on his own shoulder.
"Meet my pet—Barbossa."
"Don't worry, Barbossa," Jack yelled, "tomorrow I'll make you Pirate King of the Caspian Sea!"
Hector Barbossa's face darkened; among the Nine Pirate Lords he ruled the Caspian.
Everyone knew the Caspian was more lake than sea; Barbossa nearly starved there.
He'd fled to the Caribbean and thrown in with the rising star—Jack's father.
When Jack took over, Barbossa became his first mate, and the rest is pirate history.
"Captain, this is Davy Jones's heart!"
Jack hastily passed the hot potato to Fang Yuan.
Let the Black King deal with it—leave me out.
"Did you get the key?" Jack asked quickly.
"Not yet."
Fang Yuan studied the lock; looked ordinary, but magic warded it—he couldn't force it open.
"Divine power?"
With Poseidon's trident he could pop it, but for now he didn't have the relic.
No rush—Old Turner would move heaven and earth to get that key for his son.
Before that, though, The Jackdaw had a battle to fight.
"Elevation forty-two—broadsides, fire!"
Fang Yuan shouted, and The Jackdaw opened fire at once; the concentrated broadside slammed into the Giant Squid chasing the Black Pearl, tearing the Sea Monster's flesh so badly it fled beneath the waves.
Davy Jones winced at the sight.
Seafood is so delicious—why shoot it?
Ahem, looks like the late-night snack crowd is switching channels.
"Guns, fire!"
Davy Jones gave the order as well.
The Flying Dutchman carried only forty guns, far fewer than a first-rate ship-of-the-line like The Jackdaw, but she mounted multiple triple-barreled pieces—one section worth three—and, being a ghost ship, could repair herself. Against the nine vessels of the Black Emperor Pirates, Davy Jones feared nothing.
He still had his pet; though the Giant Squid struggled against The Jackdaw, against lesser pirate craft the monster's terror remained potent.
Yet Fang Yuan's objective was never to sink The Flying Dutchman.
He couldn't; the Dutchman could sail even underwater.
All Fang Yuan needed was to throw her into chaos.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
Pirates and oceanic soul-ferriers clashed in roaring battle. With one ship and one monster Davy Jones charged the Black Emperor's nine, a lone hero barring the pass.
"Boom-boom-boom!"
The Dutchman's hull was battered to splinters, but when the damage grew too great she simply sank, repaired, and rose again good as new.
"Captain, watch out!"
Seeing a cannonball hurtling in, Bill Turner threw himself on Davy Jones; thankfully the smoky shell obeyed the law of "no damage on-screen" and left them unscathed.
Jones shoved Old Turner aside, wondering why this barnacled relic was suddenly so loyal—
but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Keep firing! I'll show them the ocean's might!" Jones roared.
Yet amid the smoke he failed to notice the key at his neck had passed into Old Turner's grasp.
"Our guns are useless—she repairs herself!" Barbossa sighed, lowering his telescope.
Inside the Black Emperor line, only the flagship trio—The Jackdaw, the Black Pearl, and the Caspian—held formation; the rest scattered to dodge the kraken.
Not every crew had a calculation genius like Fang Yuan to time a perfect broadside.
The Caspian was Jackdaw 2.0.
After swapping flagships Fang Yuan had given his old vessel to Barbossa and made him her Captain.
"Wait!"
Barbossa spotted something.
"That wound… black pearl!"
Snapping the telescope shut he shouted, "The Dutchman can't heal fast from the Pearl's hits—cover the Black Pearl!"
Fang Yuan understood at once: the Dutchman bore Poseidon's blessing, while the Black Pearl had been enchanted by Davy Jones himself; near-identical origins meant the Pearl's strikes bit deeper.
Even in the tale Sao Feng and Beckett had called the Pearl the only pirate vessel able to stand against the ghostly Dutchman.
Now the Dutchman closed within pistol shot, and Jones heard Barbossa's cry.
With a sweep of his arm he ordered, "Close the gap!"
The Dutchman's hull and crew alike were spell-bound, turning ever more seafood-like even as their combat strength soared.
Jones knew his gunports were outnumbered—so he would win the old way: boarding action.
Old Turner answered the call first, charging toward The Jackdaw with the rest of the sea-creatures in his wake.
"Bootstrap's eager today," Jones mused, his tentacles wriggling in approval.
But midway through their dance his face froze.
"Damnation!"
He lowered his head, tentacles frantically patting his neck while his hands swept the area.
"Gone?"
"My key?"
Jones was aghast; he'd checked it was there when he woke… wait—
With a furious roar that carried across two ships, he bellowed,
"Bill Turner!"
"Bill Turner?"
Barbossa blinked and promptly shrank back; showing his face now seemed unwise.
Rage nearly roasted Jones's own head into calamari.
No wonder the old barnacle had been so helpful—he'd been biding his time.
"Seize Bill Turner!" Jones commanded.
But Old Turner had bolted the instant he knew discovery was imminent, and with Fang Yuan's men screening him he delivered the key into Fang Yuan's hands before Jones could react.
Fang Yuan flipped open the chest, plucked out the still-thudding heart, raised it high in one hand and a dagger in the other, and yelled, "Hey, Octo-face!"
"I call your name—dare you answer?"
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