Somewhere in the lost world of Delirith, somewhere far away from the shores of Boneyard Badlands, sailed the rocket-powered hover-propelled Sparrowhawk across the salt plains of the Sea-less Sea. Inside the captain’s cabin stood our duo protagonists; Mako and Fyra, and the captain of the Sparrowhawk pirates. A huge paper map was seen on the table in the middle of the room. It was a map charting the entirety of the Sea-less Sea.

“Aye, for 50 years I have sailed this sea, battling through tides and storms fearlessly with my trusty crew,” the captain spoke. “It wasn’t until 15 years ago the waters suddenly drained for no good reason. I could still recall clearly when it happened- a great whirlpool spanned across the entire sea, pulling apart our vessels to shredded scraps! Every ship in the sea was in great despair as one by one they were swept into Daryl Joe’s Locker…”

“Dang…” Mako remarked. “Were you killed?”

“Sadly, yes- but I LIVED!”

[ CAPTAIN HOURAI ]

SHE LIVED!

Hourai clenched her fist proudly. A big smile formed on her face. “And so do other captains, commodores and admirals of the strongest will! We built ourselves up, made our ships fly so that even without the waters of the sea, the spirit of sailing lives on!”

“But that’s not to say I like the way we are right now! Plunderin’ and treasure huntin’, they both aren’t the same without the thrill of waves and tides! That’s why I’m determined to find the devil that drained the waters, and bring back the sea!”

“And after years of searchin’ and askin’, I’ve pinpointed the place where I believed to be the center of the titanic whirlpool that day! And that place was right HERE!” Hourai stabbed the map with a knife, strucking it at the point she believed to be the origin of the sea’s drainage.

“NOOOOO!!” a voice suddenly shouted. The three of them turned and were greeted by a random crewmate.

“GODDAMMIT CAPTAIN! I’VE SPENT YEARS CHARTING THAT MAP AAAAAA-”

“Oh- uhh... No worries lass! It’s just a wee hole-” Hourai grabbed the map- “Ye can still stitch it up with another paper.”

She pulled the map off the table, not realizing that her knife was still stabbed on it. Because of this, the map was ripped in half from her yanking.

“Well shite. Uhh… You can have this back-” Hourai placed the ripped map on the speechless crew’s hands- “and that people, is why I prefer to go digital!”

She returned to the table and pressed a button on it, where a 3D hologram of the whole Sea-less Sea’s terrain projected onto the table. Mako and Fyra were amazed seeing this and noticed a red dot beeping on a point marked as 'Rockhard Isle'.

“That island, me hearties, is where we’re going next!” Hourai announced. “We’ll come and go with our swords and guns and bring back the sea for every man and beast! Now, any questions?”

Fyra raised her hand, “You said you’ve sailed the seas for 50 years. How old exactly are you?”

“Hah! I'm as young as ever! Always been 18, matey,” Hourai replied proudly. “Thrice!”

“18? Thrice?” Mako counted with his finger only to be more confused. Math had never been his strong suit.

Needless to say, the duo was left confused with her young teenage-like appearance not aligning with her supposed age. They decided to shrug it off and carry on with their lives.

The Sparrowhawk traversed the salt plains that day, setting course to Rockhard Isle. Their journey was supposed to be postponed to drop off the two kids first, but it all changed when Mako asked Captain Hourai about the lack of seawater around them.

Now, the duo signed themselves up to join the Sparrowhawk pirates in bringing back the sea. Their own journey can wait, for the devil and the witch were more than happy to help bring back the good ol’ days of sailing. Plus, they both had never experienced nor even witnessed the sea throughout their life.

And so, the pirates sailed for hours on. Though raging tides and violent typhoons were no longer a thing, rough sandstorms and towering tornadoes terrored the Sea-less Sea proving that sailing will and always be a challenging act. Despite that, the Sparrowhawk braved through it all, for none could falter the legendary Captain Hourai and all who sailed under her.

****

Somewhere on the crow’s nest of the Sparrowhawk sat a prosthetic-filled cyborg gorilla, stretching and yawning as it got up from it’s seat.

[ SHARPEYE TENSHI ]

Gorilla Sharpshooter

Tenshi drew out its sniper rifle slinged on its back and pointed it onwards to use it’s scope to spy whatever’s up ahead. Adjusting the scope's zoom until it got a clear vision, a surprising sight caught the gorilla’s attention.

“OOH! OOH! AAH! AAH!” Tenshi shouted to everyone.

Alerted by the gorilla’s screeching, Captain Hourai pulled out her own telescope to observe what’s ahead from the quarterdeck. Needless to say, she too was surprised by the sight.

Dozens and dozens of vessels were seen battling each other several hundred meters ahead. Ships ramming and clashing towards each other, firing volley after volley of missiles and cannonballs, all while crewmates jump onboard each other's vessel to bring their battle up close.

However, it wasn't the sight of battle that surprised Captain Hourai, rather, it was the participants. On one side she identified some ships bearing the Diamondback Navy Clan flag but the other was completely unexpected.

"When the hell did the Skull Clan start sailing our sea!?” Hourai exclaimed in disbelief, and so too were everyone around who heard her.

“The Skull Clan? Are you sure it’s them?” Mako asked.

“Aye. No mistaking it lass. Everyone knows that damn skull insignia when they see one-” Hourai put down her telescope- “and I know damn well why they’re here! Them and their stupid-ass conquest- they’re gonna claim the Sea-less Sea for themselves!”

“So, what should we do now, cap?” the helmsman asked.

“I’d rather spend a hundred years fighting the navy than being ruled by this f***s!! Main the cannons and draw your swords mateys! We’re charging straight into battle!!!” Hourai drew out her chainsaw cutlass and raised it up high, raising her crews’ morale as they cheered and raised their swords as well.

The Sparrowhawk pirates immediately charged straight into battle at full speed. As the ship closed in ever closer to the battlefield, Mako and Fyra noticed a dark-purple war paint painted on Hourai’s face as she walked past them, which was peculiar as the two didn’t recall seeing her putting anything despite having their eyes on her this whole time. Nevertheless, the pirate captain jumped onto the bowsprit, standing proudly on it as she pointed her sword onwards.

Meanwhile on one of the Diamondback’s ships, a navy clan captain was seen dueling a cyborg skeleton nearly twice his size, while the rest of their crew duked it out in the background. Both captain and cyborg clashed blades; the captain with his plasma cutlass and the cyborg with an oversized inverted-blade Ogunite butcher knife.

“WEAK CAPTAIN! YOU HIT WEAKER THAN A KITTEN!!” The cyborg parried one of the captain’s strikes hard, throwing away the weapon from his hand. He pointed his butcher knife right at the captain’s throat.-

[ CRANIA-KHAN ]

OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!!

“NOW DIEEE!!!” Crania charged at the captain, but was quickly intercepted as the captain suddenly pulled out two belt-fed gatling pistols from his hip holster and fired away!-

*Bang!* *Bang!*

*Bang!* *Bang!*

*Bang!* *Bang!*

[ PAUL A. JONES ]

“First I have to deal with pirates, now I have to deal with these f****!”

Crania flinched and guarded himself with his blade. Though the bullets barely did any damage to the cyborg admiral’s Ogunite-alloyed body, it did interrupt him from landing a decisive blow.

Crania waited till Captain Jones stopped firing, and charged at him as he reloaded his gun. Unfortunately, his charge was interrupted once more as another ship suddenly rammed to the ship they’re on.

Looking to their side, both Captain Jones and Crania-khan were surprised to see the interruptor, but the former had a huge grin beamed on his face.

“Ahoy Kapitan! I see you need an extra hand for that boney scrap!” Hourai greeted.

“Normally I’d hate seeing you show up. But damn am I glad yer here for this one!” Jones replied.

“Hear that crew! Navy-boy’s happy we’re here! Now bring ‘em hell to them f****ing Skullies!!”

“HURRAAAAAH!!!”

A horde of pirates jumped onboard the navy ship as they instantly engaged in battle with the Skull Clan’s skullies. Captain Hourai cocked her machine-gun peg leg and opened fire at everyone in front. Both navy and pirates fought side by side like brother-in-arms, warding off the skullies as best as they could much to the Seared Admiral’s irritation.

“BRING IN MORE SKULLIES HERE, DAMMIT! BRING MORE REINFORCEMENTS!!” Crania shouted at his wrist comms device, earning a simple ‘aye admiral!’ as a reply.

Immediately after, cylindrical landing pods launched from their mothership and crashed into the scene, releasing dozens of skullies reinforcements to help aid the battle. Landing pods after landing pods bombarded the ship as more skullies emerged. To make things worse, the Diamondback ship was also bombarded by missiles and cannons, though blocked by thin-layered forcefield shield blanketing its whole body, dealt quite the damage as some parts of the forcefield depleted leaving a vulnerable spot open.

Seeing this, both Captain Jones and Captain Hourai took action and commanded an order for their crew. Jones ordered other ships in the Diamondback fleet to turn their attention to the enemy ship attacking them right now through a comms device, while Hourai simply shouted her lungs out to the helmsman to “Screw off from this place and f*** the other ships”.

Both sides took action, and their problem was momentarily solved.

“DON’T THINK THE FIGHT’S OVER YET! YA STILL GOTTA DEAL WITH ME!!” Crania swung his blade to Hourai who parried it just in time.

Both blades clashed as Hourai and Crania dueled it out amidst the chaotic war. Jones tried to join in the fight but was stopped by a group of skullies, forcing him away from the two’s duel. Both Hourai and Crania showed great ferocity in their clashing, and unparalleled skills in their swordplay. It was a complete stalemate for now- the fight could go both ways at any time.

Meanwhile, Mako and Fyra just boarded the ship with their Boomthorn, powered bracer and a plethora of various flavoured bombs. They immediately sprung into action; burning, shooting, bombing, freezing and blinding anyone that got into their way.

Mako threw his cube-shaped pocket turret to the ship’s foremast and it instantly stuck on it, reconstructed itself to a proper turret, and shot down any unlucky fellow detected by its laser pointer. Unfortunately, the witch forgot to recalibrate his turret so it pretty much just shoots down anyone it detected regardless of friend or foe.

“Oi kid! Your gun’s killing my man!” Captain Jones shouted.

“Shi- Sorry Cap!” Mako pressed a button on his wristwatch causing the turret to self-destruct. The explosion was a bit too powerful however, completely destroying the foremast's body as it collapsed and crushed several people regardless of their side.

Jones sighed in contempt, before dodging a swinging blade just in time.

Back to Hourai and Crania, the two kept on clashing blades on the quarterdeck- slashing, slicing and gunning down anyone that got caught in between. Lunging forwards, Hourai threw a downward cut right above Crania's head. He blocked it as expected, but the Seared Admiral was caught off guard by the pirate captain's unnatural strength. Despite being a foot taller, Crania was pushed down to his knees.

It's only a matter of time though before the cyborg skeleton pushed himself back up. Putting an extra effort, Crania got back to his feet and now, it's Hourai's turn to be on the lower end in their locked blades.

"YOUR SAILING DAYS ARE OVER PIRATE! ALL OF YA WILL BOW TO THE SKULLIES OF THE SEA!!"

"Gotta put more flesh and fat in ya then, mate. Can't sail if the captain's knee-deep into scurvy~" Hourai mocked smugly.

"LAUGH AS MUCH AS YA WANT NOW PIRATE! I'LL STUFF YOUR KIND WITH ROTTEN CHUM UP YOUR A**HOLES, TIE YA TO AN ANCHOR WITH YOUR GUTS AND KEEL HAUL YA BEHIND THE THRUSTER BUT ONLY UNTIL YA ALMOST DEAD BEFORE FEEDING YA HALF ALIVE TO THE SHAAAARRRKSSS!!!"

Hourai paused after hearing his threat. "Mate, what the f***! You gotta be that graphically detailed for your torture?"

"OF COURSE I DO! HOW ELSE AM I GONNA THREAT ANYONE THAT GOT ON OUR WAY TO THE DELIRNIUM ORE DEEP UNDERNEATH ‘ROCKHARD ISLE’ THAT DRAINED AND BLOCKED THE SEA 15 YEARS AGO, HENCE I’M PLANNING TO ABSORB ITS POWER GIVING ME THE STRENGTH OF THE SEA ITSELF SECRETLY WITHOUT ALL OF YA KNOWING!!!!"

"...."

"..."

"I blurted out my plan just now, didn't I?"

"Aye. Down to every last detail.”

“F*** IT! ALL THE MORE REASONS TO KILL YA!!”

Crania swung his oversized butcher blade to Hourai who quickly parried it and instantly followed up with a stab. Her chainsaw blade went right through the cyborg skeleton's body. Crania fell to his knees in disbelief.

"Heheh, looks like I got ya there~" Hourai taunted. "Your exploit ends here skully. The sea's ours!" Hourai took hold of her sword's handle with both of her hands. She pulled the blade upwards- intending to slice Crania in half.

However, the pirate captain was unable to pull it off as Crania gripped firmly the chainsaw blade with his bare metal hand. Furious, the Seared Admiral began spitting out flames from his beard and head. His body glowed brighter and brighter in blinding purple light.

Everyone was surprised to see this, but more worrisome was when every skullies on board were seen jumping off the ship fleeing in panic, completely abandoning their leader. Crania kept glowing brighter and brighter- eyes locked on Hourai who desperately tried to pull her sword off but was prevented by his vice grip.

"Ah screw this! You can have my blade-" Hourai let go of the sword and tried to flee, but was grabbed and choked by Crania by her neck.

“YOU AIN’T GOING ANYWHERE, MISSY!”

“HOURAI!” Captain Jones shouted.

In the heat of the moment, Jones charged towards Crania and chopped off his arm that choked Hourai, freeing her from his grip. The Seared Admiral was unflinched, but furious by his action.

Crania’s glowing body became uncontrollable at this point, and with one thunderous roar, he punched the ship’s deck below with all his might. The whole place tremored, steaming cracks began forming beneath everyone’s feet. Seeing this, Jones carried Hourai away as everyone jumped off the ship for not long after-

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

-the Diamondback galleon exploded to smithereens.

“ *cough!* *cough!* Ar- are you alright, Hourai?” Jones asked, getting up from the salty ground as dust and debris from the explosion settled.

“Fine as I’ll ever be cap-” Hourai got up, dusting off her hat before adjusting it back on her head- “thanks for saving me there. Could’ve gone to the locker if that maniac’s punch hit me.”

“Y-yeah.”

An awkward silence ensued between the two, not sure what to follow up in their dialogue. Fortunately, they were reminded of their situation which quickly broke their quietness.

“Where’s Crania?” They both spoke at the same time.

“CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN! F***ING HELL- RESPOND DAMMIT!”

Several hundred yards away, the Seared Admiral was seen sprinting across the salt plains towards one of the Skull Clan’s ships, still engaged in battle with Diamondback Navies and the Sparrowhawk. He contacted one of the ships’ captains with the comms device on his wrist as he continued sprinting across the place.

“CAPTAAAAAIIIIN!!!!”

“CAPTAIN HUX RESPONDING, SIR!” the comms device finally replied.

“ABOUT TIME! COME PICK ME UP AND THEN WE BAIL OUTTA HERE!!”

“BAIL? YOU’RE ORDERING US TO RETREAT SIR? BUT, OUR FLEET ARE STILL PLENTY! WE COULD OUTLAST THEM IN BATTLE WHICH SHOULD END THIS EVENING!”

“I KNOW, BUT NEW CHANGE OF PLAN! WE NEED TO HEAD TO ROCKHARD ISLE ASAP! THEY SOMEHOW GOT HOLD OF OUR SECRET PLAN!”

“THEY GOT HOLD OF- You accidentally shouted it out didn’t ya?”

“JUST COME AND PICK ME UP!!!”

“AYE SIR!”

“OH, AND ONE MORE THING-”

“Hey Fyra, what’s that?” Mako pointed to the sky.

Observing where the witch had pointed, Fyra noticed a few dozen or so round-tipped missiles flying across the sky. As it reached nearly right above them, the missiles began to slow down until finally, all dozen or so were seen falling right towards them.

“EVERYONE RUN!!” Fyra shouted, though her warning was not really needed as everyone too saw the missiles heading towards them.

Mako immediately deployed Silverbolt and the two rode off, dodging missiles after missiles that crashed and exploded into towering mushroom clouds. Everyone scrammed the place in panic. Some unlucky folks were blown to chunks of meat, a good number of others were sent flying here and there. The salt plains continued to be bombarded, turning itself into a heath of flames by the Skull Clan fleet several distance away.

While fleeing from the bombardment with the rest of his men, Captain Jones ordered a rescue from other ships of his fleet. They sent in a flotilla of hoverboats to pick up the fleeing troops and anyone else involved. The same was done by Captain Hourai, but since she only had the Sparrowhawk, they only sent in two.

“While you’re at it, destroy those bastards bombing us right now!” Hourai added to her order.

“Y’all heard what the captain said- BLOW EM ALL DOWN!!” Hourai’s second mate shouted after receiving the order at the ship.

Without a moment’s waste, the Sparrowhawk ship charged straight towards a Skull Clan’s ship seen shooting a barrage of missiles to the sky. They rammed right at its broadside, almost flipping over their enemy’s vessel. Enraged, the skullies retaliated as both sides boarded each other's ship and clashed bullets and blades.

Despite this though, the Skull Clan’s missile launchers kept on launching. Seeing this, the barrelman of the Sparrowhawk; Sharpeye Tenshi, swapped its sniper rifle and pulled out a scoped bazooka. Taking aim at the missile launcher’s weak spot, the gorilla opened fire from the crow’s nest.

*Pyoom!*

*BOOOOOOOOOM!!!*

“OOH! OOOH! AAAH! AAAAAAAH!!!!”

The missile launchers exploded much to the skullies’ surprise. In panic, they retreated back to their vessel only to be gunned down on the way back or sniped by the sniper gorilla once they boarded their ship. The Skull Clan’s ship was blown away to smithereens by the Sparrowhawk pirates who cheered for their victory.

Back to Hourai and Jones, both captains and their crew were picked up by their summoned hoverboards. Remainders of enemy missiles crashed near them as they quickly left the scene. Mako and Fyra on the other hand sped across the place on their Silverbolt heading straight towards the Sparrowhawk ship. Unseen by them, a missile crashed merely a foot or two away right beside the duo. They both were thrown away by the explosion from their bike.

“Ugh… F-Fyra.. You good?-” Mako was about to get up when he heard a whistling noise right above him. The two looked up and to their horror, one last missile headed straight towards them, less than 50 feet above.

They had yet to regain energy to flee, thus could do nothing but stare helplessly at their doom. It was at that moment two hoverboats sped towards them, and each instantly picked one of them up as it passed the duo.

Mako and Fyra were separated from each other as the two hoverboards split paths. The one that rescued Mako went towards the Diamondback Navy fleet, while the other that rescued Fyra headed straight to the Sparrowhawk pirate ship.

****

“So you’re telling me that Captain Hourai is setting course to Rockhard Isle to bring back the sea, while the Skull Clan are also heading there to harness the Delirnium said to be there?” Captain Jones questioned Mako inside the captain’s cabin. The witch nodded frantically.

“Yes! That’s what I heard from the skully leader’s shouting! Pretty sure everyone heard it as well, his screams are pretty loud y’know? I’m surprised you didn’t catch that at that time.”

“Yeah nevermind- what’s important is at least we now know where to go next-” Jones got up from his seat and headed towards a set of radio comms devices placed on a counter. Mako followed him from behind as the captain contacted his superiors.

“Captain Jones, reporting! I’ve received reports about the Skull Clan’s next whereabouts…-” the navy captain went on explaining the enemy’s next move; their motives, their numbers, and the source of this information. Needless to say, the conversation went on for a full 10 minutes, and throughout the whole ordeal a dissatisfied expression was written on Paul Jones’ face.

“Understood commodore. I will do as you told-” Jones turned off the comms device, before picking up a stool beside him and flung it across the room in anger. Mako was caught off guard by his sudden action.

“GODDAMMIT! HOURAI’S LIFE IS IN DANGER AND YOU WANT ME TO DO NOTHING ABOUT IT? F****NG-” Jones vented out his rage by throwing and flipping several pieces of furniture all over the room. Mako dodged and ducked the flying chairs, stools and tables- taking cover throughout the captain’s tantrum before he finally cooled down.

“Sighhhhh… Alright, commodore doesn’t want me to do anything. Guess I have to commit mutiny against that order-”

“Uhh.. cap, are you okay?” Mako asked, getting up from a cupboard he just hid underneath it. “You seemed pretty worried for someone that’s not your ally.”

“And you? Fyra’s with Hourai right now! Aren’t you worried that she might get ambushed by the Skull Clan or something there?” Jones replied with his own question.

“Of course I am! Fyra’s my devil, she’s all I got in this world. If this ship ain’t moving I’m ditching all of ya and go there alone,” Mako answered blatantly. “But even then, I know she could take care of herself cuz her ass-kicking skills are better than mine.”

“Now you on the other hand, I thought you and Hourai are enemies? Why are you so worried for her?” Mako asked once more.

Sighing in defeat, Jones sat down on his chair and gestured to Mako to do so as well.

“Alright, fine. But promise me one thing; what I’m about to tell you- this never gets out of this room, understand?” Jones requested. “No one will know about this but you, me, and probably Hourai one day.”

“Witch’s promise cap!-” Mako placed his hand on his chest- “If I break it, I’ll give ya my iron leg!”

Captain Jones sighed. “Alright. The truth is; I sort of had a crush on Captain Hourai…”

Silence ensued between the two.

“What? You’re not gonna comment on me about that?”

“Naaah, not yet. So go on, captain.”

“ *sigh* Aight. I’m in love with Captain Hourai. I enjoy her presence whenever she decides to drop by plundering my ship. I don’t know if she feels the same but- our rivalous relationship- I like it that way alright!

“And now, she’s sailing to her doom assuming she’s heading straight to Rockhard Isle- No, she will DEFINITELY sail to that place after this! I’ve been fighting her throughout my whole life. I know exactly what’s going on in her head right now. That’s why we need to save her Mako! I can’t let her die under the Skull Clan’s hands!” Jones blurted out his long speech.

“Hmmm… Yep, this definitely justifies your reaction,” Mako concluded. “Though, I don’t know if you know, but you do know she’s like, more than 50, right?”

“Wait what! How!?”

“I don’t know! Said it herself that she’s been sailing this place for 50 years-”

“That makes it even better!”

“What?”

“What?”

They both uttered at the same time.

“Ahem! Anyways, I’m glad you understand the position I’m in right now Mako.” Jones diverted their conversation back into topic. “As for now, I have a plan in mind that may or may not piss off the higher ups.”

“I’m all for it, cap! Not like I’ll be the one to get shouted at if your bosses find out,” Mako replied. “But before that, remember the promise I made just now? How you can have my leg if I ever decide to break it?”

“Yes..?”

Mako took off his prosthetic leg, slammed it on the table, and hopped one-footed to the cabin door. He pushed the door open and took a deep breath.

“HEY EVERYONE!! CAPTAIN JONES IS IN LOVE WITH CAPTAIN HOURAI!!!”

“OOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The whole deck cheered upon hearing the witch’s announcement. Captain Jones was speechless seeing Mako casually breaking yet not breaking his promise.

~To be continued..~