Chapter 4

John Silver closed his eyes with a tired sigh. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been in this infernal cell, but it was far too long for his tastes. The cell he was trapped within was dark, with only a dim red light shining in. Even with his cyborg eyes, he couldn’t see many more details of the room. All he needed to know was that he was within an empty cell with a thick metal door directly in front of him. In the door, there was a small opening, where three metal bars blocked any means of escape, if he could move in the first place. The laser-tether shackles he wore kept him from crossing more than half the room. The sound of footsteps alerted him to someone’s approach. Silver opened his eyes to see the outline of a Canid man. He couldn’t see the man’s face, but knew who he was, all too well.

 

“What do ya want?” Silver demanded.

 

“John, Silver, you old fool. You knew what happens to Children of Water, and yet you have two of them. You even tried to hide what they were by naming them after two different elements, but you couldn’t fool me,” the man answered with a dark chuckle.

 

“I was afraid this’d happen to Gale, but not Em.”

 

“You should have figured out what her mother’s name meant first. ‘Heaven’s dew.’ Honestly, John, you’ve only brought this upon yourself. Soon, your children will be mine.”

 

“You won’t touch them!”

 

“I may not have to. Such a pity, too. Your daughter was beautiful.”

 

“Was?” Silver asked, fearing the worst for his children.

 

“Calm down, old fool. They’re still alive, but they’ll be corpses by the time you see them again.” The man walked away with a sinister grin and Silver howled in anguish.

---

 

“Ember, this crazy. No, this isn’t just crazy, it’s stupid,” Jim whispered harshly. He, Gale and I were standing behind an old building a short distance from the prison my crew was being kept.

 

“Shut up, Jim. Do you know anyone better for the job of finding my pirate father without arresting him?” I hissed.

 

“Now you’re acting more like a pirate,” Gale whispered with a smirk and I smiled. We were just waiting for the right moment to enter the prison and break my father’s old crew out.

 

“Do you even know where they are?” Jim hissed and my smile faltered. That was the small detail I’d neglected think of when I planned this little jailbreak.

 

“No,” I admitted and Gale groaned quietly. “But I know how to find them.”

 

“What?”

 

“You think my dad’s crew and I wouldn’t have come up with some kind of unspoken language? How else do you think I was able to control them without you, Arrow or Amelia knowing?”

 

“What about the Doc?”

 

“That man’s oblivious to half the world around him.”

 

“This is a lovely conversation,” Gale whispered, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “but can we hurry this up? I’d like to be out of here as soon as possible and on to finding our father.”

 

“Right. Of course. What we’re going to do is sneak in through that window up there.”

 

“Great plan, but how do you expect us to get to the second floor without being caught?” I rolled my eyes at my brother’s sarcastic remark. Oh, ye of little faith. I glanced at him and my husband, taking note of the all-black clothes I had made us all wear.

 

“We’re dressed in black, it’s the middle of the night and Jim has some old hover-disks that we’ve been modifying. I think it’s time we test these puppies out.”

 

“You’ve lost your mind!” Jim exclaimed in a whisper.

 

“Do I have wires sticking out of my head? I think not.” Gale gave me an odd look. “Long story. Now come on.” I grabbed the six, dinner-plate sized disks and passed around two to each of us. I flicked mine on and jumped onto them, firmly planting my feet on each of them.

 

“How do we move these things?” Gale asked as he and Jim got onto their disks.

 

“Lean in the direction you want to go, that’s all,” I answered. With a nod, the three of us hovered up above the building we’d been hiding behind.

 

“Ember, how much do you know about the security system here?” Jim asked and I rolled my eyes.

 

“I studied up on it, just in case we ran into any problems. We’re in the clear for the next three minutes, now hurry up or we’ll have to wait another day.” I pulled a screwdriver out of my pocket as the three of us just about flew to the window we’d be using as our entryway. I jammed the screwdriver into the windowsill and wedged the window open.

 

“No alarms?” Gale asked in a whisper.

 

“Like I said, three minutes in the middle of the night. That’s when almost everything shuts down. It’s a glitch in the system that the inmates don’t know about.”

 

“And how do you know?”

 

“BEN.”

 

“Who in the Etherium is Ben?” he asked as we slipped into the prison.

 

“A very helpful friend. Now, shh.”

 

Gale glared at me, but I walked past him and into the dark hallway. All was silent, but for our footsteps and the snoring of various men. I tapped lightly on a metal bar near me, sending a quick message in the code the crew and I had come up with long ago. I listened intently, but didn’t hear more than I had before. Then…

 

“Well,” Gale prompted.

 

“Shh. I think I hear something,” I hissed. I listened closer and heard the light rattling of metal on metal, in our code. I motioned for Jim and Gale to follow me and ran to follow the sound. I stopped at one of the cells to see Mr. Onus.

 

“First mate Silver,” the Optoc exclaimed in a whisper and blinked his dozens of eyes in surprise.

 

“Actually, it’s Hawkins now. Mr. Onus, where are the rest of the men?” I asked. He told me every cell they were in, each close by.

 

“But why are you here?”

 

“Dad’s been captured and we need the crew to help find him.”

 

“The Capteen? How?”

 

“Don’t know. Will you help me, old friend?”

 

“Of course, Ember, but I don’t know about zee rest.”

 

“Then we’ll take what we can get. Jim, hand em the laser-pick.”

 

My husband gave me the small, pen-sized device and I shocked Mr. Onus’ shackles to make them stay dormant, even if he was gone. Once he was free, the three of us went around, freeing each and every member of my father’s crew. They all wanted to escape, probably more than the resentment they felt towards my father for leaving. Then again, they’d sworn loyalty to him and me… for life.

 

“How are we going to get these two out of here?” Gale asked, jerking his thumb towards the four-armed one I’d nicknamed Grappler and the living torso, Remus. His twin brother, Romulus, rested on top of him.

 

“We have to take a few out at a time. Because that window’s still open, it doesn’t register that anyone broke in. We’re almost done here. Lead up and get my crew out of here,” I answered, pulling Mr. Onus, Romulus, and Mr. Splice onto the hover-disks with me. Once we had gotten a little less than half of them out, an alarm was tripped. Jim, Gale and I were back in our hideaway building with the crew members we’d been able to free.

 

“Nice going, sis. We’ve got half a crew and we’re stuck in an old building,” Gale muttered.

 

“Stuff it. I didn’t trip the alarm. It was probably Dogbreath.”

 

“Who?”

 

“One of the stupider members of Dad’s crew.”

 

“Which we only have half of.”

 

“Then we’ll all just have to work harder to make up for it. Just be thankful we have a crew at all.”

 

“Will both of you quit arguing?!” Jim yelled, commanding our attention.

 

“Capteen Hawkeens?” Mr. Onus said.

 

“What?”

 

“No. Capteen.” He pointed to me and I stared at him in surprise. In the absence of my father, I was to become captain of the crew. It was now time for me to take that responsibility.

 

“Aye, Mr. Onus,” I answered.

 

“Who ees he?” he asked, pointing to Gale.

 

“He’s Gale Hollow, my brother. And now, we’re going to get Morph from the Inn and head out to find my father.”

 

“Aye, aye, Cap’n!” my crew answered.