[Of course Mae, Gabe needs a friend!]

Gabriel was quite set on walking towards the untouched lands away from the bustle of town when he heard another familiar voice cutting through his thoughts. Only this time it was a male voice speaking to him.

Stopping in his tracks the dirty-haired blond turned to Phillip and offered a smile of his own. A bit forced but he was sure Phillip wouldn't notice. "Phillip, I'm surprised to see you out here. Shouldn't you be preparing for battle?" Although he was quick to change the subject of pretty women and good weather, Phillip's natural warm personality was getting to him, making his smile real.

Word had traveled fast over the seas and the knowledge of Sparrow and his band of pirates had reached Port and his father was creating a troupe of redcoats to bring the pirates down.

---

Why had she not gotten off the ship with Varianna and Rosalind. Damn Dante for distracting her. Well, in all honesty it had been her constant requesting (for she would never beg) of his stories of Tortuga that had caused her to linger on the ship and miss the departure of Jack and the other crew members.

So instead she was stuck here, the ships edge, staring senselessly at Nassau waiting.

Aurora-Rose let her bare elbow rest on the side of the ship, cheek pressed against her palm and allowed her eyes to glaze over. Her other hand went up to play with auburn strands of hair.

In the midst of a day dream of fields and blond hair she felt a hand coming to rest on her shoulder and a slew of red hair passed through her vision. "Gunshots?" No sooner had she spoken the words then the sound of bullets passed her ears.

Attention duly thwarted, her gaze moved from the dark abyss of her mind to land where she saw Jack, Vari, Rosalind, and Barbossa hightailing it towards the ship. "Aye, finally...You were right then." A-Rose said to Christine, a smirk on her lips.

Now she could partake in some action other than watching. Aurora-Rose never did well having to stand in one spot.

---

The ringed hands pressing into the kinks of his shoulders felt amazing and the little sighs he gave told his masseur just that. Dante set the half empty bottle of rum on the table, head meanwhile turning to the side and pressing his lips against the nimble fingers of his lover.

"I think our luck has just turned round. If I be not mistaken Jack is due to arrive any moment. A reign of gunshots and that untimely thud on the deck above are proof enough."

As much as Dante would rather just sit back and let Soren work on him more he knew they had to join the rest of the crew, rolling his shoulders a bit he stood and turned to look into the blue eyes of the man now in front of him. Taking the red ribbon around his wrist he gathered his raven colored hair into one hand while using the tie to hold the tresses back at the nape of his neck.

"Let's go meet our fate, then we can have dinner." With a lascivious grin and the brush of his shoulder against Soren's own, Dante made his way to the upper deck where he was sure he would see some semblance of chaos.

_________________

The waves that C R A S H E D upon
The R O C K S that you were trying to step along

And in my head I heard them play a S O N G

_________________


~~Siggy by Lembas~~

Ragetti and Nighthawk raced towards the ship as fast as their legs could carry them, avoiding soldiers and other obstacals. They arrived at the ship to see Pintel waving franticly at them. "Come on, you two! I don't want to have to leave ya behind... again."

The boy grinned ruefully, "Sorry uncle. Where's Jack?"

"Over there." Pintel gestured to where Jack was staring woefully into the water.

The girl peered around Ragetti at Jack, then groaned. She had high hopes for her uncle, but they usually met a foul end, like today. "Somebody tell me that I only think I'm seeing that look on his face."

"Naw, I see it too, Gwennie. Lets get on the ship before Barbossa blows a blood vessel and we get left behind." Ragetti half-dragged his best friend onto the ship, then called out to Rosalind, "What happened?"

_________________

Married Artemis Fowl on July 16, 2007
[!+^$%=#?&]
The Seemingly Nice But Actually Really Nasty Nazgul
School ate my life. *sigh*

Phillip grinned and pulled Gabe under his arm and pointed towards the docks. His grin widened as he let the excitement build, although he was getting a few stares from the point - it was rather rude to do that in a crowded street filled with worried onlookers.

"Y'see those? All the higher officers are after them pirates...us low lives - meaning me, considering you will be an officer in less than a week after you're settled - are stuck with the clean up. Which is fine with me, plenty lasses needed a shoulder to cry on and someone's bound to give me a free meal for assisting and being brave," he said the last sentence in a high pitched voice that was very close to the older woman who ran the local pub.

"What's say you join me in the spoils, ay?" The man didn't give Gabe a chance to answer and pulled him along down the road for the promise of free food.

------------------------------------------------------------

Christine watched in a mixture of worry, annoyance and surprise as her friend ran up the gang plank the young recruits at his heels. With a sickening cry of alarm and splash which caused her eyes to close she knew Jack had done something incredibly dumb. When her eyes cracked open she saw the Captain staring down in surprise at where a chest used to be.

"Oh Jack," she muttered looking around for the bad tempered first mate Barbossa. "That was ill done."

"Gods above!" She heard a deep bellow from behind her that was so clearly Gibbs that she didn't even check. "Chissy, did yah..."

"Yes." She said shortly.

"Devil's name," he continued and raked a hand through his hair causing the tied locks to be mussed. He would have encouraged the captain to jump in and get it, but the redcoats were hot on his heels and it wasn't worth that much to him. "Jack! Get up here! Hurry, lads." He yelled.

The bullets were too close now, he could hear a few hitting the side of the hull and he ducked to keep himself safe. "Watch it boys!" He yelled to the crew. "They're comin' in fast. Keep down if ye can!"

Christine was working on doing exactly what the man said when one of those too close bullets went astray and found its way into her forearm. The red head cried aloud and looked at the offending wound quickly tearing off the fabric and bandaging it. She ducked down at the side rail and the curses that came from her mouth nearly made Gibbs blush.

"You alright?" He yelled over the incoming din.

"Fine." She managed through gritted teeth. "Nothing important was hurt."

_________________
Heavens no. Hell Yeah.


Set 1: Nurr | Set 2: Me

Before Hector could even process what had happened, he suddenly felt a weight fall onto him, knocking the air out of his chest. Having a difficulty finding the right words, he could only look up at the blonde woman in disbelief and anger; the latter of which ultimately prevailed. His dark eyes flashed in a way that would make even the bravest pirates flinch - what did this lass think she was doing?! But there was no time to think or even breathe as the soldiers started closing in, and without a word Hector rolled over and leapt to his feet, and yanked Andrea from the ground - subconsciously grasping her hand as he dragged her along behind him. They ran for what seemed like miles and miles, and by the time they finally reached the gangplank, the soldiers had begun boarding the ship as well. With a forceful kick, the wooden board fell into the water with a loud <i>splash!</i> as the <i>Pearl</i> began sailing away, preventing any more of the redcoats from boarding. But… there was something that had been forgotten…

<i>The chest!… he didn’t do what I think he did…</i> Peering through a haze of red and white, Hector rolled his eyes in disgust and frustration when he found Jack’s arms empty where once had been the metal box of gold and jewels. “Sparra, Pierce; Get yer lazy ar<i></i>ses movin’!” Quickly discovering that his pistol was out of bullets, Hector unsheathed his cutlass and began cutting through the masses of soldiers who had made their way on board.

Although she had no idea how she had managed to keep calm, Vari pushed aside her own anger and frustration to place a comforting hand on Jack’s shoulder. “No time fer mournin’ our losses now, Captain…” she said, wind-whipped hair flying about her face in every direction, before pulling out her pistol and sword and charging forward to protect the ship and crew.

But it seemed that the redcoats had other plans; two men dumped a barrel of gunpowder across the deck and set it aflame; within seconds the wooden deck was falling prey to flames taller than most of the men on board.

Soren gasped as he stopped dead in his tracks on the third stair from the top deck, with Dante trailing close behind. The two men were quickly met by a wall of fire, blocking any exit to the upper deck, and black smoke was quickly filling up the lower corridors of the hull. “What are we going to do?”

"You're not a low life, Phillip, my father speaks highly of you every chance he gets." Gabriel smiled, all thoughts of a certain female slowly drifted from his mind. He knew she would never truly leave, but for now she was subdued enough from his memories that Gabriel could function without a pained expression on his face.

"Alright, you've convinced me. Take me to the spoils..." It didn't take much convincing though, free food was just that and who would every deny such a delicacy.

Phillip and Gabriel had only just reached their destination when he heard the voice of his father calling his name. "Father?" Gabriel turned and noticed that the older man, dressed in his general's uniform, looked more than distraught.

"What is it?" Gabriel knew something was wrong as Jonathon focused his attention first on Phillip and then him.

"It is worse than we thought, the pirates have ransacked Nassau and have killed many soldiers. We are needed right now and must sail as soon as we can. Gabriel, you will come with us, there is no time to wait a week to make things official."

---

Aurora-Rose found slight amusement at the fact that Jack had dropped the chest into the sea. Amusement mixed with anger and frustration, yes, but amusement all the same.

Unfortunately she didn't have time to bask in this pleasure because some of the redcoats had made it onto the gang plank. Drawing her sword from her hip she wielded it with the ease of a blacksmiths daughter.

So caught up in parrying with the soldiers that she didn't see the deck catch on fire until the heat became overwhelming and the sparks flickered in the corner of her eyes.

"Fire!" Well, what else could she say? Now this was the adventure she had been waiting for...

---

Dante was staring at the man in front of him, a smirk on his face the entire time. He was much too busy looking that he did not notice that Soren had stopped. Brows furrowed in confusion and Dante leaned his body so that the could look around Soren.

Only then did he see the upper deck engulfed in flames, said flames quickly making its way down the steps and towards them. They were trapped in the lower decks and had no means of escape.

Dante rarely panicked, but for the first time he was truly stunned and didn't know what to do. His first thought was the barrels of rum, but he knew that would only make things worse. His next thought was their water supply, it was their only choice... at least the only logical choice.

"We have to go to the lower decks, you know where Sparrow keeps the water. We have to get to it before the fire spreads more, we have too may things below deck that will explode..." Dante heard the crackling of flames and looked around, they had to move fast.

He grabbed Soren's wrist and pulled him down the steps, just in time before charred planks began to fall onto the steps.

_________________

The waves that C R A S H E D upon
The R O C K S that you were trying to step along

And in my head I heard them play a S O N G

_________________


~~Siggy by Lembas~~

Phillip was humming to himself thinking about the pretty day and good friends and all in all wonderful time he was having. He and Phillip paced down the down town area which after being vacated of pirates and the squads sent after them had begun to resume their normal bustle. People were picking up their goods and none seemed to be injured, just terribly annoyed.

He was about to start assisting a barmaid belonging to his favorite pub with a table that had been thrown from the establishment in the tussle when Gabe's father hurried to them. The man was so obviously at his wit's end that Phillip did not even offer his usual playful greeting involving grey hair and wigs. Instead he stood straight, unwrapping his arm that had been swung up on Gabe's shoulder in comradery.

"Sir," he said in a stiff, but polite manner. He listened intently to the man as he spoke to Gabe and was dumbfounded for such a long moment that he had to hurry after them to get in his words.

"Sir, perhaps it is a bit out of my league, but I would like to volunteer to accompany you on this. I am anxious to capture these scoundrels that vandalized our city," he said honestly, while falling into step with the general and Gabriel. Truthfully he really just did not want to be left out of the fun, but that would hardly seem a good reason.

-----------------------------------------

Christine while useful on the boat was utterly useless in battle even more so with her injured arm. She attempted to haul herself across the deck on her hands and knees to avoid the smoke, but it unfortunately backfired on her. The bandage that had been holding her arm together fell off and blood began to pour from the bullet wound once more.

"Gibbs!" She yelled over the roar of the fire, though her words were quickly swallowed by coughing. Her eyes burned from the smoke and she could see nothing. "Jack!" She continued and went through several other names before she decided no one could hear.

The curses too began to spew from her mouth and she fought to her feet seeing that crawling was to get her no where. Between the two methods of transport she managed to make her way to where the blast started. The woman backed away from the flames and stumbled over a fallen Jack who had been knocked down by the blast. It was not at all her day as the wind flew from her chest and she struggled to regain it.

"Found one," she said moving away from the Captain whose chest she had fallen onto. Her first reaction was anger because of the lost chest than fear at seeing the front of his shirt bloodied.

"Oh no!" She cried aloud, an arm coming up so that she covered her mouth with her hand. Unfortunately it was the wrong hand and she quickly dropped the injured appendage and gleaned from it that the blood on the captain's shirt was probably her own. But she was still uncertain. "Are you hurt?"

_________________
Heavens no. Hell Yeah.


Set 1: Nurr | Set 2: Me

[[Sorry if it's kinda rubbish, it's 2am and I can hardly keep my eyes open.]]

Jack looked to the woman lying on his chest, to the blood stain on his shirt then back to the woman, taking in the wound on her arm and the flames around them.

“Oi!” He cried suddenly, leaping up and pulling Christine with him by her good arm. “Stop setting fire to my ship!”

The flames were spreading and growing larger, forming a barrier between one half of the ship and the other. Shouts of panic and pain filled the air and Jack looked around desperately. He turned to Christine.

“We need water! Where’s all the bloody water?” He shouted over the roaring fire, not realising the stupidity of his words. “Go grab a bucket love, quickly!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Andrea stared with surprise into Hector’s bright blue eyes, taking in the emotions flying through them. She always felt a connection whenever they met her own sea green orbs, like a spark shoot between them. She often wondered if he felt it too.

Hector recovered and leapt to his feet, pulling her along with him, subconsciously keeping hold of her hand. She felt like her arm was about to be ripped out of it’s socket as they ran towards the gang plank. As soon as they were on board she saw, or rather felt, Hector kick it into the sea before she took in the scene in front of her. Jack lay on the deck, gazing over the side and at his empty hands whilst shots rang out. He’d lost the chest, the same bloody chest she’d almost been killed over. She was just about to go and apply a swift kick to his face when she heard a roar and was hit with a strong wave of heat and smell of burning. She turned to look at the rest of the ship, only to be faced with a wall of flame mere meters from where she stood.

She leapt back, not noticing as she let go of Hector’s hand and felt a wave of sheer panic spreading from her stomach. It was happening again and she was helpless to stop it, the same as last time. With a jolt she came to her senses; she wasn’t helpless, there had to be something she could do? She looked around desperately until her eyes came to rest on a few bags of sand leaning against the railings. She turned back to Hector.

“Give me a hand with these!” She cried over the roaring flames. “The sand should help suffocate the fire.” She leant down and grabbed her dagger from her boot and sliced the top of one of the bags open, before lifting it and dumping it’s contents on the base of the fire, grinning triumphantly as the flames quickly shrunk and spluttered.

_________________


Illuminate the way to my heart,
It's twisting on a thread
+ COME RAISE THE DEAD +

Christine looked at Jack and then at the rest of the crew scrambling about on deck coughing and wheezing from the smoke quickly filling the air. Luckily she noticed that Andrea had begun to stop the flame, the redcoats had begun to fall back from the dangerous floating powder keg. She could barely make out their terrified faces through the flames.

At first she thought that Jack had gone mad. She was hardly in the condition to lug anything about, but more than anything she wanted to help. So, with another look cast around the deck at everyone struggling, and sucked in a deep breath in hopes of belaying the pain.

"Right," she yelled to the Captain. It was probably a little ridiculous, but Christine could not help but laugh - more than likely as a way to cope with the stress of the moment and swiftly sped off, the piece of fabric previously used to tie off her wound fell to the ground forgotten.

The red head was running on adrenaline as she rushed headlong down below through a hole created by the flame in an uncharacteristic show of impulsiveness. The lower deck was not much better off than the upper, beams had been destroyed and there was more smoke than above given that it had nowhere to go. She heard a familiar voice and then was met with a swift push to her chest as Gibbs pushed a bucket into her hands.

"Joshamee!" She said a little to brightly considering the circumstances.

"Git through that hole there again, Chrissy before the entire deck gives way," Gibbs yelled pushing the woman out in front of him, carrying his own bucket and an extra.

When they reached the (relatively) open air, both Christine and Gibbs felt light headed and more than a little worse for the wear. Christine had turned an unhealthy white color and her swaying resembled that of the Captain, while Gibbs stumbled and coughed trying to catch his breath.

"Jack!" He yelled over the flames, tossing the man a bucket. "Tie a rope off and throw it over," he ordered the man who was clearly to shocked to actually consider what was going on. He and Christine did the same and soon they were pulling up buckets full of sea water which they sloshed onto the slowing fire.

_________________
Heavens no. Hell Yeah.


Set 1: Nurr | Set 2: Me

“Really A-Rose, you don’t say?!” Vari yelled back, half-teasingly. Under normal circumstances, their witty exchange would have gone back and forth for quite a while, but now was not the time for making jokes. The brunette knew this as gunshots and the crackling of burnt wood continued to fill the atmosphere aboard the <i>Pearl</i>. Unsheathing the dagger at her side, Vari quickly embedded it in a soldier’s neck, stabbing him repeatedly and removing his limp body from the blood-stained blade. She didn’t miss a beat, whirling about and punching another man in the jaw to disorient him, then pulling her pistol and putting a bullet through his spine.

Soren was panicking. Thick black smoke was becoming unbearable to breathe and making it difficult to see. The fire had quickly spread to the lower decks, consuming everything in its path, and it was getting closer and closer to the gunpowder stock. “Dante, we need to get out of here - it’s all going to explode!” He yelled, tugging on his lover’s arm and pulling him further away from the direction they’d been traveling. There was no use trying to put out the fire if it meant risking their lives. “Let’s go!” But it was too late. They had only managed to get into the next room before everything quite literally blew up before them.

“Brilliant, lass!” Hector exclaimed to Andrea over the chaos on deck and bent over to lift a particularly heavy bag of sand. The words had barely come out of his mouth before an explosion shook the ship, sending splintered wood and shards of glass raining down into the sea and upper decks. Hector watched in horror before snatching Andrea and Vari (the two closest people to him) and pressing the three of them down onto the deck, shielding their faces from the falling debris.

[[ Soren and Dante are not dead; just trying to leave it suspenseful… ha ha ]]

(I am now completely lost... x.x What would be conveniant for ya'll to have Nighthawk, Pintel, and Ragetti to jump into the fray?)

_________________

Married Artemis Fowl on July 16, 2007
[!+^$%=#?&]
The Seemingly Nice But Actually Really Nasty Nazgul
School ate my life. *sigh*

[[Sure ~ you could always have their reactions to the explosion and fire on deck I hope it's not too confusing? ]]

General Phillips looked to his sons friend and nodded. "It would be most welcome if you were to join us. We need the best of the best to stop these pirates before they create more chaos."

With that said he turned and began to walk off to the center in the city where the rest of the Recoats were gathering to prepare for their departure.

Gabriel was too shocked to react in any way and so he just followed after his father. Trying to wrap his head about, not only what was going on, but what he was about to do.

----

Aurora heard Varianna's comment over the clashing of swords, gunshots, and through the mist of smoke and couldn't help but laugh. Any other time she would have returned with some witty off-the-cuff comment but for now, her attention was on the man before her and burying her cutlass through his chest.

This was chaos that Aurora-Rose enjoyed, the rush of adrenaline was making her giddy as she moved from one Redcoat to another.

----

What Soren was saying barely made it through his mind. Dante was trying like hell to figure out what to do, he had to find a way to get this fire to stop, any way.

Only when Dante felt Soren tugging on his shirt did he realize just how much danger they were in. Dark eyes watched, as if in slow motion, as the traile of fire made its way to the barrels of gunpowder. There was no way out... this was it.

In what Dante thought were his last moments, he pulled Soren to him and wrapped his arms around the blond man, using his weight so they both fell to the floor, his body atop of the others in a protective hold just as the world around them exploded and things went black.

----

On the top deck the ship trembled and Aurora-Rose found herself falling back onto a pile of both dead and living bodies. Shards of wood and glass exploding around them like acid rain.

[Thank goodness, I was scared for a second xD]

_________________

The waves that C R A S H E D upon
The R O C K S that you were trying to step along

And in my head I heard them play a S O N G

_________________


~~Siggy by Lembas~~

Before Andrea knew what was happening, a loud explosion ripped through the ship sending debris and splintered wood flying. She felt a sharp sting on her left cheek as one of the splinters caught her face, barely missing her eye. A strong arm wrapped around her waist and pushed her down onto the deck. Landing awkwardly she felt her arm bend back painfully as someone fell on it and she cried out before the back of her head hit the hard wood. Her vision swam as she floated between consciousness and unconsciousness. Slowly everything stopped swimming and her mind started to clear. Her ears rang and she felt something heaving lying on top of her which then shifted. Casting her eyes downward she saw Hector, straddling her waist with an arm partially around Varianna.

Andrea tried to sit up but was immediately stopped by a sheer amount of pain in her shoulder, causing her to gasp loudly. Glancing over she saw her arm bent at a funny angle. Gritting her teeth she managed to drag herself up and into a sitting position, carefully holding her arm. the pain was so intense she was convinced she would pass out. She looked at Hector and swallowed hard.

“I think my shoulder is dislocated.” She said in a ragged whisper.

-

Jack hurried to tie the rope off and throw the bucket over before pulling it back up again when it was full of water. He had just turned to douse the flames when there was a rumble from below deck followed by a deafening explosion which threw Jack backwards onto the deck. He and sat up slowly, shaken but unharmed. He looked around at the damage the explosion had caused and cursed.

“Right!” He shouted, trying to stand up without falling back down again. “Which one of you mangy curs blew up my ship?!” He attempted to march over to the remaining redcoats but found himself landing flat on his face with another groan as his legs gave way.

_________________


Illuminate the way to my heart,
It's twisting on a thread
+ COME RAISE THE DEAD +