The Rookie Pirates (Parts 1-6)

Prologue

Part I: Captain Kirk

Prologue

The landlord standing behind the bar of his tavern quivered in his boots, terrified of the pirates sat at his bar. They were drenched from head to toe with water and were looking for a place to stay the night while the storm passed over the island. They didn't want to be disturbed, and their disgruntled faces spoke a thousand words. They looked ready to strike down anyone who dared to bother them. All eight of them ate their supper of bread and meat potato pie in silence. They gorged on their food like savage animals with endless, bottomless pits for stomachs. The captain was worst of all as his dirty hands clawed into his bread and stuffed the contents into his already-full mouth.

The captain's ripped leather tricorn hat shadowed his face, making it hard to distinguish his features, most likely to hide a hideous face no woman could look upon without fainting from sheer horror. The rest of his crew sat hunched over their food wearing different coloured cloaks. Out of all of them, only the first mate didn't wear a cloak. Instead, he sported a brown jacket and black leggings with muddy boots. His hair was a dirty blonde, and his eyes gleamed a soft green, like the colour of fresh spring grass. His face was tense with anger, and altogether, he gave off a hostile aura. He showed off his red-bladed longsword, a warning to stay back. Its lethal red glint reflected into the eyes of the jittering barman. He could feel the trapped spirit within the blade taunting them with malicious intent.

All at once, the locals jumped out of their skins when the tavern door burst open, followed by the flash of lightning illuminating a shadowed figure dressed in an all-black outfit. A strong breeze gushed through the bar, and the barman's skin turned to gooseflesh from the cold evening air running down his spine. The pirates looked up at once, except the captain, and debated whether the stranger was a friend or foe. The barman's eyes darted between the captain and the stranger, expecting a fight to break out as a result of the thick tension radiating throughout the tavern.

The stranger pulled back her black hood, revealing a middle-aged woman. White makeup covered her face, and her red lips shone the colour of blood. She had styled her silky black hair into a high braided bun and wore a black hanfu with a red sash tied around her thin waist. The pirates recognised her as the infamous Pirate Lord Madame Cheng, an emissary of the Pirate King, Blackbeard. A formidable foe in the pirate world, Madame Cheng had the barman diving for cover. He knew full well the power she held. No man had ever survived her wrath. Even nobody-pirates such as the ones at the bar knew not to mess with a Pirate Lord.

"Mad Man!"

The oblivious captain's head shot up, only now noticing that someone new had entered the tavern. His tricorn hat no longer shadowed his face, and the barman opened his mouth, surprised to find a boy no older than seventeen years old instead of a bloodthirsty pirate. The boy had baby-like features, shaggy black hair, and brown, doe-like eyes.

"That's me." A big wide grin split across the captain's freckled cheeks.

Feeling the deadly aura coming from the Pirate Lord, the first mate curled his hand around the red hilt of his longsword, ready to defend his captain. The captain placed his hand on his first mate's sword and shook his head.

"What can I do for you, Madame Cheng?" The captain hopped off his barstool.

The rest of his crew glanced amongst themselves, all of them intrigued to know how their captain knew the Pirate Lord. Madame Cheng's black eyes started to swirl into a shade of red, and she raised her hands. A dark ball of demonic energy started to accumulate between her fingers.

"I know who and what you are." She compressed the ball of energy. "And people like you need to die for the greater good of mankind!"

Madame Cheng released her ball of demonic energy, and it smacked the captain directly in the chest. The seventeen-year-old boy went flying across the tavern like a rag doll, smacking into the tables and causing a cloud of splintered wood to explode up into the air. He rolled around on the ground, screaming as the dark, demonic energy pulsed through his veins. His cries died down, and the captain's body lay still on the ground. Madame Cheng stood over him and kicked him in the torso. His limp body flopped to the side. She had killed him. Content with her actions, the Pirate Lord strutted out of the tavern, her chin held high. Before exiting the bar, the sound of movement could be heard from behind her, and her body stiffened when an uneasy feeling washed over her body. Steadily, her head turned over her shoulder, and she gasped.

"You're going to have to do a lot more than a demonic blast to kill me, Madame Cheng."

The captain picked up his tricorn hat and dusted it down, placing it back on top of his head. The hat hooded his face with dark intent, and violent anger consumed his body. The Pirate Lord stumbled back as fear shone in her wide eyes. She had awoken the darkness within him.

"You forget that I'm Mad Man Levon!"