《Two Doors》Chapter 8. Some more pirate trouble
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After Eric and Aiya gather everything they need they head back to the docks. There's a man sitting on a medium-sized fishing boat, smoking a cigarette.
Eric pulls a chest full of beli and walks up to the man.
“I’ll trade you this chest full of beli for your boat.” Eric smiles at the man.
The man glances at Eric, then at the chest.
“How much is in there?” The man looks at the chest with wide eyes.
“Donno. You're free to count it.” Eric shrugs
The man jumps off the boat and walks up to Eric and he hands the chest to the man. Eric isn’t worried about the man trying to take it.
After a few minutes of counting the man tells Eric he can have the boat and everything on it and walks away laughing maniacally while looking at him with a gleam in his eye.
Eric jumps onto the boat and, without looking at her, says “Well ya coming?” to Aiya.
“Yep,” Aiya pulls herself onto the boat.
“Then let's go,” Eric says as he walks into the main cabin.
The cabin is small, only 10 feet by 5 feet. It had two small single beds hanging off opposite walls with storage space beneath them. A fridge, sink, and a small stove were between the beds.
“It's kinda cramped” Aiya states the obvious.
“Really?” Eric rolls his eyes.
“There's no need to be a dick” Aiya scowls.
The helm was on the roof of the cabin.
“Alright, let's hit the sea,” Eric tells Aiya.
Aiya just looks at Eric confused for a second before going up to the helm. Aiya steers the boat out of the docks and into the open sea. Eric spends his time staring into the ocean, while Aiya spends her staring at her compass.
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Several days fly by, and Eric is bored out of his mind. The reason he doesn't just fly is that he would get lost and using his jet pack for long periods of time isn't possible. It uses his energy for fuel, and he only has enough for about 4 hours of flying.
Luckily, it doesn't take long for someone to cure his boredom. A large boat flying a pirate flag comes out of nowhere and floats up next to Erics. 6 pirates jump down onto his boat.
“Give us all your valuables and we’ll let you go” One pirate sneers.
“Finally some action.” Eric smiles maniacally at the pirates.
The pirates growl and jump at Eric all at once.
“DIE-” The pirate's warcry is cut short by a kick to the chest.
The pirate Eric kicked flys back into their boat, crashing through the hull. Eric grabs two pirates and slams them together and hurls them at the last two pirates, throwing the four of them into the ocean. “Wait, wasn’t there 6?!” Eric spins around only to take a knife to the cheek.
Eric screams in pain as the pirate pulls the knife out and grabs his gun. He points at Eric and puts his finger on the trigger when a gunshot rings out and a piece of the pirate's head explodes.
Eric sighs in relief and looks at the shooter. Aiya shakes like a leaf and says with a trembling voice “I can’t believe I shot somebody.” She drops the gun and falls on her ass.
Eric grits his teeth and grabs the gun.
“Go hide in the cabin,” Eric says as his helmet covers his head. “Shoulda done that earlier”
Eric turns around only to dodge a swing from a pirate. He shoots the pirate in the face and jumps onto their ship. The 20 pirates either point their guns or point their swords at him.
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Eric just smiles and makes a crooked smile appear on his helmet. The pirates gulp in fear and step back.
“Who is the captain of this ship?” Eric asks in an even tone.
“That would be me.” A pirate with a club speaks up.
Eric launches himself at the pirate leader and they clash. Eric with his sword arm, and the captain with his club. The two struggle for a few seconds before the pirate captain faulters and, in one well-placed swing, is severed in half.
The rest of the pirates scream in fury and jump at Eric. He weaves and dodges all of their attacks, slicing as he moves, and eventually all the pirates fall. Eric raids all of the pirate's corpses for valuables and checks the ship for beli.
He heads under the deck and finds several chests full of beli. He was about to head back to the deck when he sees a stack of wanted posters sitting on a barrel. Curious he walks over and picks them up. There are several pirates worth thousands of beli.
As he flips through the stack he comes across a familiar face. It's the Captain of this ship. He's worth 1 million beli and some change. Suddenly an explosion rocks the ship. Eric runs up to the deck and sees a marine ship approaching quickly, firing as it comes.
He quickly jumps back onto his boat.
“Aiya! We need to get out of here!” Eric screams.
Aiya runs out of the cabin and onto the deck, grabbing the helm and sailing in the opposite direction of the marine ship. As the marine's ship catches up to the sinking pirate ship Eric locks eyes with the captain. The captain scowls and starts yelling orders to his marines as Eric sails away.
The captain boards the pirate's ship. He looks at the many bodies littered across the deck and water. He walks over to a bisected body.
“That's Captain Groff for sure, Captain Regan .” One of his marines tells him.
“I think it’s the same guy from Sweetfish island. Get me a piece of paper and a pencil. I need to draw him before I forget. He had a helmet on so I don't know what he looks like, but we can identify anyone with a helmet like his.” Regan orders.
“Yes, sir.” The marine runs off and comes back with a sketchbook.
Captain Regan sketches out a pretty good depiction of Eric's helmet.
“Alright burn the ship, and take the beli.” Captain Regan orders.
“Um, sir there isn't any beli.” A marine tells him.
“Goddamn it, that bastard took it all. He had to have, there's no way these guys were broke.” Regan growls.
After setting the boat ablaze they set sail for the nearest marine base to report a new pirate.
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