The Wongadibles and the Mysterious Island

Chapter 4

        Ty paced back and forth across the galley, not even touching the food Morgan had laid out for him. The shock of finding out that Charlotte had an older sister, a bounty hunting one at that, was still sitting on his mind. The whole crew stood in the galley, save for Alex, who was running last minute checks on the engine. Mark, Raven, and Kesha were standing behind Ty, Kesha was filling in Mark and Raven on what they had missed.

        "Really?" Mark asked. "You mean she took both of you down, alone?" Kesha looked mad.

        "She took us by surprise. If we had known what she was capable of, we wouldn't have taken it so easy on her." She defended, though Mark rolled his eyes in disbelief. Finally, Ty sat down and looked across the table at Charlotte, who was fidgeting uncomroftably, most of the attention was on her. Morgan at her right. Morgan was the ship's cook, and Charlotte's close friend. She was a short woman with dark hair. She placed a cup of tea in front of Charlotte, for which she was very grateful. Laurel sat on Charlotte's left. She seemed to have waste no time in making herself at home, which could be seen by her cloak sitting on the floor and her dark glasses resting on the table in front of her.

        "So, I'm still a little confused, you're telling me she's your sister? I didn't even know you had a sister." Ty said.

        "I left home a long time ago," Laurel explained. "Back when I was eighteen. I traveled around a lot, made money by collecting bounties, eventually I got tired of walking and paying for horses and hitching rides on passenger ships."

        "And I'm guessing that's when you met Alex?" Ty asked.

        "Yeah, that was about four years ago. Found him working in one of the scrap yards and asked him if he knew about a place where I could buy some cheap transportation. Next thing I knew he was building me that airship I got tied up outside."

        "Really? How?" Ty asked incredulously.

        "Wasn't that hard, given the fact that it was built for one person." Alex said, walking into the galley, grime and rust on his hands. Morgan glared at his hands, she hated having a dirty kitchen. Alex shook off the look and poured himself a hot cup of coffee.

        "How are we doing?" Asked Ty.

        "As well as can be expected, given the circumstances. She'll hold, though I can't garuntee for how long, not to mention she still has hull damage." Alex sighed.

        "She'll hold for as long as we need her to. Genesis is strong, she's never let us down before." Ty reassured. "Go fire her up, it's high time we got out of here, that treasure ain't gonna find itself."

        "Hold on," Raven finally spoke up. "What do we do about her?" she looked at Laurel. Ty thought about if for a while, until he seemed to finally reach a conclusion.

        "Why don't you sign up with us? I realize that it would be a complete carreer change, but it would give you time to reunite with your sister."

        Laurel looked surprised, was he actually asking her to become a pirate hardly an hour after she had tried to kill him? Laurel looked around, expecting this to be some sort of joke, but everyone around her had a serious expression, some of them even smiled expectantly. She didn't have to think about it too hard, it wasn't as if being a bounty hunter was her life's work or anything.

        "Sure, sounds like fun."

        Ty let out a small laugh of amusement. Alex walked out of the galley, bumping into Antoinette as he did.

        "What is all the commotion about?" She asked politely.

        "Go meet our new crewmember and find out." Alex smiled, walking past her and into the engine room.