The Atlantis Expedition

Chapter Five: Airship Pirate

Metalbeard sighed to himself, shaking his head. He often wondered why they ever bothered to convene. Pirates by nature were a rather tight-lipped lot around other crews, jealously guarding their maps and information. And right then there was a lot of arguing over who should open and get the meeting started. Metalbeard had had enough.

The giant cyborg rose to his feet and fired his gun twice, putting an effective and very sudden end to the bickering. "If ye all be quite done actin' like children, I'd like to find out what we were all called here for and be on me way," he boomed, "and ye all better be findin' someone to open quick or I be nominatin' Caesar." That threat always worked like a charm.

"Noon!" someone else barked. "You're the one who called us all here in the first place, why don't you tell us what the big deal is?" Metalbeard watched as Captain Noon grumbled and stood from his seat, clearing his throat several times before he finally got started. Must be big news, indeed.

"We have a new enemy, my brothers and sisters," he stated, his gravelly voice reinforcing the seriousness of the matter. "I have seen with my own eyes, a new crew of corsairs that have taken their plundering to the skies! The captain, a young lass who goes by the name Airheart, has a ship that can fly."

So does me best mate, Metalbeard wanted to point out, but Benny wasn't a pirate. Pirates that could fly would be the worst kind of trouble, he knew, and it seemed the other captains were of like mind on the matter. When Captain Noon showed them an illustration of the ship, Metalbeard knew his stomach would be churning, if he still had one. She was a beautiful frigate, retrofitted with engines and canvas wings- the sturdiness of which could only point to one thing. Someone on that crew had to be a Master Builder.

Ships built to sail the seas were never meant to sail the skies as well.

"How are we supposed to be able to defend ourselves against that?!" another young captain cried out, but no one had an answer for him. They all glanced at each other helplessly, wracking their brains for any ideas. Inevitably they turned to the one Master Builder among their numbers, who could only shrug.

"I'll let ye know when I figure something out," was all he could offer.

"Next order of business?" a lady captain called out, and there was a stretch of quiet.

"I be lookin' for somethin' of a... restorative nature," Metalbeard finally broke the silence. "A relic, perhaps a spell."

The other captains glanced between each other, and Metalbeard could see it in their eyes that they had nothing for him- not that they were hiding something they might know of, but that they were utterly clueless as to which direction to point him.

"I might have something for you," drawled another voice, and Metalbeard was certain his mechanical heart locked up for a few seconds upon hearing it. He'd always had a sneaking suspicion that Caesar was Vitruvius' brother, possibly even twin- the two certainly sounded almost exactly alike, and even looked quite similar, but neither brought up anything about family in all the time he'd known them.

Man Upstairs, he missed that crazy old hippie.

There was a collective groan as Caesar got up to launch into his latest tale of insanity. Nobody could ever quite decide if the retired captain was completely off his rocker, or if he just enjoyed sending everyone after nonexistent treasure so he could sit back and laugh at the ensuing chaos. "Ladies and gents, I present to you, a map leading to the location of a lost civilization!"

Metalbeard rolled his good eye and stood up with every other captain at the table. "Stuff it Caesar, we're not falling for any more of your stories," a lady grumbled as she stomped out.