The Black Sail Of The Storm Hawks (Pirate AU)

Chapter Forty Five - Solving The Puzzle

After uncovering the metal piece from Polaris Pointe, Aerrow gathered the Storm Hawks in the Captain's Cabin of the Condor. In the table were all the metal pieces they had found throughout their search. As Aerrow looks over the pieces, Aerrow read an entry of Captain Arygyn's journal. 

Aerrow: ""O what Protean forms swim up from men's minds, and melt in hot Promethean plunder, scorching eyes, with divine shames and horror... And casting them down to Davy Jones. The others, still blind, yet in it see all the divine graces and to Fiddler's Green sent, where no man is suffered to want or toil, but is... Ancient... Mutable and unchanging as the she who girdles 'round the globe. Them's truth."

Junko: What an...ominous entry.

Stork: And we're trying to find HIS treasure. 

Piper: We've found all these metal pieces. What is your plan now, Captain Edwards? 

Aerrow: We solve the puzzle, Piper. It's clear that Captain Arygyn had a plan for these pieces. All we need to do is to put the pieces together.

As Aerrow said this, he began attempting to piece together the metal pieces. He failed multiple attempts, but could feel himself getting closer to the answer. 

Finn: Goddamn puzzles.....

Aerrow took a moment to think over the situation. Aerrow took a deep breath and decided to go with his get feeling. As he did so, he manages to piece together the metal pieces together. What is pieced together is a strange looking medallion.

Finn: What the hell is that thing?

Piper: It looks like some fort of...medallion. 

Finn: And how exactly goes that help us find the treasure?

Aerrow took a moment to inspect the medallion. Within the medallion was five open circles. At first, Aerrow couldn't make sense of it. He then turns the page to the last entry of Captain Arygyn's journal. 

Aerrow: "Should pale death, with treble dread, make the ocean caves our bed, God who hears the surges roll deign to save our suppliant soul."

Aerrow looked over the words of the last entry. Below it was a drawing of a map. He then glances over to the map on the table. Without hesitation, Aerrow places the medallion on the map. When he does so, Piper starts to see a pattern. 

Piper: I see it now!

Aerrow: What do you see?

Piper: When you place the medallion on the map, it highlights places on a map. 

Finn: Meaning?

Piper: Meaning if we can place the medallion over the places where we found the pieces, then we can triangulate these coordinates and find where Arygyn's treasure. 

Aerrow: It's worth a shot. 

With that, Aerrow places the medallion to where it positions over the locations to where they found the missing pieces. After much maneuvering, Aerrow positions the medallion to where it highlights Fort Neverlandis, Havana, Terra Deep and Polaris Pointe. As he goes so, the last open circle was positioned over to an plot of land called Xoam. 

Junko: Xoam?

Aerrow: Wait....I've seen that name. 

Aerrow then looks through Arygyn's journal. As he does so, Aerrow finds an entry mentioning Xoam. 

Aerrow:  "Hark Triton, hark! Bellow, bid our father the Sea King rise from the depths full foul in his fury! Black waves teeming with salt foam to smother this young mouth with pungent slime, to choke ye, engorging your organs til' ye turn blue and bloated with bilge and brine and can scream no more - only when he, crowned in cockle shells with slitherin' tentacle tail and steaming beard take up his fell be-finned arm, his coral-tine trident screeches banshee-like in the tempest and plunges right through yer gullet, bursting ye - a bulging bladder no more, but a blasted bloody film now and nothing for the harpies and the souls of dead sailors to peck and claw and feed upon only to be lapped up and swallowed by the infinite waters of the Dread Emperor himself - forgotten to any man, to any time, forgotten to any god or devil, forgotten even to the sea. In the heart of the Forbidden City of Xoam, first impressions are always wrong, and nothing is what it seems. Doldrums. Doldrums. Eviler than the Devil. Boredom makes men to villains, and the water goes quick, lad, vanished. The only med'cine is drink. Keeps them sailors happy, keeps 'em agreeable, keeps 'em calm....."

As Aerrow read over the entry, the entry seemed to be that of the ramblings of a mad man. It was a stark contrast to the normally calm and composed writings. But as Aerrow read over this entry, he understood. 

Aerrow: Captain Arygyn, you clever pirate! The answer was right under our noses this whole time! He gave us the answer long before we began searching for these pieces.

Stork: I've heard stories of the Forbidden City. Dark stories. None who set foot on the Forbidden City survive. 

Aerrow: None until us. Set a course for Xoam, Mr. Stork! It's time to make history! Onward, lads and lassies!

With that, the Storm Hawks set out for Xoam. As the Condor sets out, Admiral Cyclonis spots the Condor sailing away. 

Dark Ace: They don't see us. Shall I give the order to attack?

Admiral Cyclonis: No. Not yet. Perhaps they'll lead us to our goal. Follow them. 

With that, the Cyclonian Armada would tail the Condor. In that moment, both the Storm Hawks and the Cyclonian Empire were on a collision course. For better or for worse, the search for Captain Arygyn's lost treasure was about to reach it's climax.