The Wasp Chronicles #1: Into the Hornet's Nest

Attack of the Sea Scavengers

I woke up the next morning, and as I was slipping on my shoes, I heard a booming noise so earsplitting, that all of the multitude of fish of the sea could hear it.  The deafening sound I heard turned out to be roaring cannons shot fired from another ship that had a black flag with a skull and crossbones symbol.  That could only mean one thing: pirates.  After I got my shoes on, I went to investigate what was going on when, without warning, my friend, Clément, signaled me to follow him.  I followed him and he led me to the bottom of the ship.  "Louis," he said in a frantic voice, "Amy has just evanescenced!"  "Amy's disappeared?" I asked.  "Yeah, she did without a trace along with Blossom, Helen, and Stella!" Clément explained.  Abruptly, we both heard banging noises from the room across from where we were.  I listened to the emotional melody of an alto saxophone playing, but then it stopped and suddenly, I intercepted four girls' terrified screams and the ripping noises of fresh duct tape and, spontaneously, all of the yelling for help the frightened girls did became silent.

So Clément and I attempted to open the frigid-fiery (like baked Alaska), metal door, but the icy-hot door knob was locked and jammed.  We chose to break the door down.  It did not budge. We grabbed a stick of dynamite that we found in a storage room on the ship that a pirate was ransacking (apparently, this ship had concealed explosives that they kept hidden from the passengers because it was once a battleship) and lit it near the door.  Amazingly, it did the job, and we rushed in there only to find Blossom, Helen, and Amy on top of the mysterious creep (described by Clément and Amy earlier) who was bound from head to toe with duct tape.  How ironic is it to find an eerie guy who looked menacing and intimidating to actually get overpowered by three teenage girls.  "You'll never stop the Sea Scavengers from controlling this valuable ship!"  The weird, bald man announced.  He continued. "You might as well give up now, because you cannot stop us! You hear me? You can't..." Blossom slapped a narrow piece of duct tape over his mouth before he could finish speaking.

"Are you girls alright?" I asked the girls. "We're fine, but Stella was captured by two sea scavengers who were dressed as pirates.  So now we have to go stop these sea scavengers who ruined our vacation.  So, are you in or are you out?" Blossom said.  "Oh, we're in, but are you girls in or are you in?" Clément asked.  Later on, we ran into Mr. C. who took my hat on the charter bus.  "Where's my cap Mr. C?" I asked.  "I threw it in the water" He said.  "Give me my hat back!" "I told you I threw it overboard" Mr. C lied.  Later on, after all the arguing, he finally gave me my hat back.  But, the vacation cruise was still being invaded by sea scavengers and the main one was their leader, Brownbeard, who looked like Blackbeard except his beard was brown.

Anyways, Brownbeard and his so called sea scavengers started ransacking every part of the ship.  On the spur of the moment, I peered towards the wooden plank and caught a glimpse of Stella, tied up and blindfolded, being forced to walk the plank by Brownbeard.  "Time for ye to walk the plank me dear.  Yo, ho, ho," Brownbeard yelled.  "Yo, ho Brownbeard," I verbalized, "why don't you come and face me like the scallywag ye are or are ye afraid to lose to a scurvy land lover like me?" "Afraid of a land lover like ye? Yo, ho, ho! Never in Davy Jones' locker would I back down from ye scoundrel!" "Then we fight before dawn.  Unguard ye scallywag of the sea!" I declared.  Okay, so maybe I was a bit overdramatic, but we did duel before dawn.

He drew out his long sword first; its razor-sharp blade laminated like the lunar moonlight. Luckily, I had a thick, narrow steel pole to battle with.  While we were dueling, Clément helped Stella out, but one of the filthy sea scavengers that Blossom knocked overboard grasped onto one of Sapphirine's legs and dragged her overboard with him.  They both fell in the warm, tropical depths of the sea while I continued to fight Brownbeard.  "It seems ye have lost this round land lover!" Brownbeard shouted with self-confidence and pride.  Unknown to him, I had him right where I wanted him.  "Any last words ye have before I finish ye with me sword?" He asked while pointing his sword at my neck.  "Yeah, I have something to say.  I hope you sleep with the fishes!" I yelled, and, without a moment to waste, I performed a leg sweep and made him plunge into the temperate waters.

"Clément," I uttered, "help me with this rope so I can dive into the monstrous waters and save Sapphirine." "Okay!" He answered.  Without any hesitation, Clément assisted me in rescuing Sapphirine from the lukewarm clutches of the sea.  Coincidentally, the rough rope was strong enough and long enough or we would have both drowned.  After retrieving her from the water, she didn't move.  To save her life, someone had to perform CPR and I was willing to do it. So I took the chance and performed CPR.  Immediately, she coughed up some sea water and a ball of seaweed with a miniature tuna swimming inside.  On the bright side, she did have a seaweed wrap.  We wrapped towels around her to keep her warm.  Nonetheless, that wasn't the end of our troubles.  More thrills and exotic perils still lie ahead for us.  And some of us might even lose more than trust, friendship, excitement, and even self-respect...