The sun was ridiculously bright in Jackie's eyes. And hot. Way too hot. There has gotta be a better way to wake up a man. We don't have much water left as it is...

He dragged himself up, and started wandering around the beach. Eddie was sitting on a rock a bit further out in the lagoon, trying to catch some fish using a makeshift fishing rod made using a long tree branch and leaves cut into thin strands and tied together. As for the girls, he couldn't find them anywhere.

He did suspect something though, but he sure as hell wasn't gonna ask Eddie of all people about it. And so he skulked around the beachside quietly, until he finally found them.

They were taking a bath in a small isolated part of the beach, where the seawater flowed into a circular basin, making it seem like a tiny lake. He peeped from behind a fairly large rock, enjoying the view of the two naked girls laughing and playing in the sparkling seawater.

Of course, the main attraction was Elma, and her massive chest. Rosa was nowhere near as good as her up there, but made up for her medium sized breasts with a plus-sized ass.

It was very difficult to compare the two. Elma had a very dominant personality, but was kind underneath the iron blanket of toughness she had built up. She had light brown hair, so light as to almost be orange, and was taller than most girls her age. And of course, her tits were simply astounding.

Rosa was somewhat the complete opposite. She had short, black hair, and had a rather nice personality for a pirate. She wore glasses, but Jackie always thought she looked better without them. Although she only had medium sized goods up top, the ones down low most certainly made up for it, even though Jackie wasn't an ass man. She had joined his crew only six months ago, so he felt bad that she had to go through a disaster like this.

The two splashed each other, laughing and giggling, their silky white skin wet and shining in the morning sunlight. Elma only ever showed her playful side to other girls, so seeing her laughing and playing around was rare to him.

After crouching there for some time, he finally decided to let them be and retreated back to camp. As he stumbled across the rocks along the rough part of the beach, he saw Eddie furiously waving at him.

He ran towards him, and Eddie threw the telescope to him quickly. "Look to the horizon, to your right!" Jackie held the telescope to his right eye and gasped.

He saw three massive ships approaching the island. They were all painted white, perhaps signifying they were with the British empire. "You've gotta be fucking kidding. Those could be Brit soldiers." He muttered, quite upset at this interruption to the fine morning he was having.

Eddie took his telescope back, and kept his eye on the approach of the fleet. As they were standing there, Elma and Rosa walked back towards them, having finished their bath. Elma had tied a large leaf from a banana plant to her chest, since the white top she wore had been ripped up in the wrecking of the ship. The blue trousers she wore were a little torn, but wearable. Rosa was in better condition, and continued to wear her usual blue jacket coupled with a short blue skirt over black tights.

But right now, Jackie was more worried about the possible approach of the government than their clothes. "Elma, Rosa, we think there might be government ships coming our way. If they find us, we can get the hell off this island. What do you guys think?"

Elma shrugged. "I don't have the tools I need to work on a boat here, or the time. We're pretty much out of drinking water too. I think we'd be screwed either way." Rosa hid behind Elma, a scared expression on her face. Sometimes, Jackie couldn't believe she was older than Elma.

"So I guess we'll be going to the guillotine, eh?" He murmured. Jackie had a two million gold bounty on his head, thanks to the two million he stole from the Brits a year ago. He couldn't see the government ignoring that and granting him pardon.

Eddie suddenly gasped in shock, startling the other three. "Guys...I don't know if this is good or bad, but there's a man on that ship...a man we've all heard of at one point." He said grimly as he gave the telescope to Elma.

Elma took it and looked through the lens. She gasped, and muttered to herself, "Oh no...he's hot!"

"Excuse me?" Jackie stuttered, taken aback by her reaction. He swiped the telescope from her, earning a swift kick to his shin in the process.

He stared through the lens, and saw a tall man who looked to be in his 40s with his foot on the long bowstrip which jutted out of the front of the ship. He had long black hair combed to the right of his head, and had a jagged scar running across his left eye. Under the scar was an impressively done chinstrap, which made him look quite haggard. With his hair flowing through the wind and the large white captain's coat he swung behind his back in an increasingly swaggering manner over a gray shirt, he was an intimidating presence even from half a mile away.

Jackie shook his head as he handed the telescope to Eddie. "I don't know who that is, Ed. If he's a famous pirate, I guess I haven't seen his wanted poster. The government only sells the posters with their pictures to bounty hunters and troops interested in the reward, after all." Eddie looked at him like he was the stupidest person on Earth.

"Are you telling me you've never seen Whitebeard's face before?" He asked, clearly taken aback by this.

Now it was Jackie's turn to be shocked. And quite plainly horrified. "WHAT?"

Elma smacked him on the back of his head. "You bloody idiot, you haven't seen Whitebeard's face before? The Whitebeard's face?"

Of course Jackie knew about Whitebeard, but he really never cared about a pirate that strong who he could never possibly get anywhere near in terms of strength. He'd heard stories though, especially during the days of the Great Spanish War. There were stories of a man named Whitebeard actually defeating the king of the seas, Blackbeard.

He hadn't believed it at first, but later on, just a year before he set off on his voyage, there was another incredible war near the coast of South Africa involving twenty thousand British officers, one hundred ships part of Whitebeard's fleet and one hundred ships belonging to Blackbeard. This particular battle occurred at one of the main trading routes, and escalated to such a level that even the English Royal Army got involved. The war lasted forty two days, and in the end, Blackbeard had managed to escape both Whitebeard and the Brits.

As for Whitebeard himself, nobody knew where he went or how he escaped the Royal Army, but he disappeared somehow, and that was the last Jackie had ever heard of him.

And now he was staring at the face of the man himself, who stared back with fierce eyes that seemed to pierce straight through Jackie's soul. It was strikingly similar to the glare Blackbeard had, but lacked the murderous feeling in it.

He sighed, and looked at Elma. "We have two choices. Either we run and hide on this island and try to get away later, or we get killed, captured or tortured by the Whitebeard Pirates." Just as he expected, Elma first looked back worriedly at Rosa. She had told Jackie something a long time ago that lingered on in his memory.

"Why would I fear death?"

Even though he was 15 and she was 12 back then, her voice sounded much older when she said this. As though she had seen everything there was to see. And it was still the same today. She was worried for Rosa, who was like a little sister to her, despite Elma being a year younger.

"I don't think we have a choice. If we're going down, let's do it together." She said, brushing her brown hair aside. Rosa nodded furiously, despite half her face being hidden behind Elma's back. Eddie grinned. "Most of our friends may be gone now, but we're still the Jackie Pirates, aren't we?"

Jackie grinned from ear to ear. He scratched his blonde hair and shook his head. "You lot are too eager to get yourselves killed for my sake, you know that?" Everyone laughed at this. Even Rosa perked up a little.

It didn't take long for the mood to switch back to their dire situation, though.

Elma looked through the telescope, and saw the smaller boats descending from the main ship, lowered down by several ropes tied to a clever pulley system. Guess our fates will be decided in the next minutes...

On board the Ivory, Captain Whitebeard looked through a telescope at the four people on the island. One was a tough looking girl who looked in her early twenties, with brown hair and large breasts binded with banana plant leaves. There was a second girl behind her, but he couldn't quite make her out since she was hiding behind the first girl.

The two men looked just as fierce. One wore a white doctor's coat, and had silky blonde hair that flowed to his shoulders. The other was tall, with ragged blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a determined look to his face, which Whitebeard liked.

"So you're telling me that boy with the scraggly hair is captain Jackie?" He asked his second in command, vice-captain Leonardo. He nodded, his black hair whipping into his eyes in the wind. "We've confirmed that those are the last surviving members of the Jackie pirates. Blackbeard wiped everyone else out, it seems." As always, Leo's sharp black eyes held no remorse or emotion, only full focus on the next task.

"So, boss, are we gonna shoot the kid full of holes when we bring him on board?" Brice asked as he appeared from the galley, somehow getting the words out perfectly despite having three chicken legs and a cigar in his mouth. Whitebeard glared at the plump man with annoyance. "We don't do that here, Brice. I prefer to negotiate, not jump into war." He skulked down into the cabin, to the lower decks. "Bring them over to me. I'd like to have a chat with them."

On the beach, Jackie and the others watched the two landing boats arrive at the scene. They were fairly large boats, each carrying five people. There was enough room for the four of them as well.

"Ahoy! You're a rather interesting bunch we have to pick up, eh?" The voice came from an old man who appeared to be in his sixties. He was skinny and bald with a cross-shaped scar on the side of his head, and leaned heavily on an oakwood cane. Even for his age, he looked very pale, and his eyes had a dead look about them. He wore a white shirt with black buttons, though this was almost completely covered by an old, torn up black cloak with a ripped hood thrown over his bald head.

Jackie didn't trust him one bit.

He glanced at the people disembarking from the boats. Three of them headed away from them to the island. As they headed off, Elma asked, "What do you plan to do with us now?"

The man made a strange wheezing noise she could only interpret as a dry laugh, and waved his hand. "We don't plan to do anything to you, I can assure you. We're only interested in a little interrogation." There was a strange glint in his eyes, though.

"Of course, for safety reasons, we must handcuff you before you can be presented to Whitebeard." He continued, and two men carrying metal handcuffs jumped off the boat behind him.

Jackie didn't like the idea, but he didn't exactly have a choice. He raised his arms, and the men clicked the handcuffs in place. Eddie did the same. Elma had a bit of a scuffle with the nervous bearded man who tried to cuff her, but eventually let herself be done in. Needless to say, Rosa offered no resistance at all.

The old coot chuckled and scared the crap out of Jackie as he somehow leapt into the boat with an unnatural athleticism, landing on his feet perfectly. "How the hell aren't you dead yet old man?" He asked as he was raised up by the two others on the boat.

"Dumb luck and Whitebeard's protection, I suppose!" He grinned, revealing a missing tooth.

Despite being handcuffed and possibly about to be brought to his death, it felt good to have the wind in his hair again. He sighed, feeling the refreshing cool breeze flowing through his hair. Elma closed her eyes, and smiled. "It feels good to be on a boat again, huh?" She asked. They all nodded.

The old man watched all this with great interest. It seems these children have gone through quite a bit together. He smiled to himself, remembering his days together with Whitebeard.

None of the Jackie pirates paid any attention to him. At the moment, they had a bigger problem in their hands.

Whitebeard's ship towered in front of them...