Sparks Fly

Part 2 Open Ocean

The dark haired and darkly tanned sixteen year old, sang a ditty he was working on as he was swabbing the deck. His dark scales that are strategically placed up his arms, shoulders, neck, and legs, didn't seem to be the best condition compared to the rest of the crew's. If horns meant anything on the dragon scaled ship Jack was traded to be part of, his horns would probably put him on a lower rank as well, seeing as they were smaller compared to the heartier pirates.

"Oi!" One of the pirates called out to Jack.

Jack's body stiffened and he stopped singing on instinct, as he slowly turned to see the larger, also dragon scaled, pirate sway his way over to him. His breath smelt strongly of grog and rum.

"I think you've been drinking all of the captain's rum," He said accusatively.

Jack shrank into himself and looked down.

"Oi! You hear me, little shrimp?" The pirate said, grabbing him by the horn.

"It's Jack," he replied softly.

"Huh?" the pirate said, lowering Jack's head a bit.

"You've been calling me little shrimp since we were in port, It's Jack," he said slowly lifting his eyes to meet the other pirates.

"And saying little in front of shrimp doesn't make a shrimp smaller," Jack added.

The pirate quickly lifted his knee and slammed it into Jack's face, narrowly missing his nose but definitely giving Jack a black eye. Then dropped Jack to turn and leave. Jack quickly shook himself from the stun of being kneed and then dropped, and pushed himself back to standing position.

"Is that all you've got?" Jack asked, putting his fists up ready to fight.

"That's all you're going to get," a stern voice said from behind Jack.

Jack didn't have to turn around to know it was the first mate standing behind him.

"A'rry. Clean that splatter of blood up. Your turn to swab the deck now. And Jack?" the first mate said as he looked down on him. Jack felt a chill run up his spine.

"Yes, sir?" Jack said cautiously.

"Remember you're 'ere as a visitor on this ship. Screw up again and you won't be going back to your old one," the first mate said to him with a glare.

'I wasn't planning on it,' thought Jack.

"Yes, sir," Jack replied begrudgingly.

The first mate lifted his eyebrow at the teen and was sure to interrogate him further, when another dragon scaled crewmate called down from the crow's nest.

"BATTLESHIP DEAD AHEAD! COQUINA COLORS!"

The first mate quickly ran to the captain's quarters and Jack and the crew ran toward their stations. Being a powder monkey he was on his way toward the stairs below deck. Before he made it to the stairs a shockwave rocked the ship knocking Jack off balance. There was an uneasy pause as the pirates looked around to see what was going on, seeing as the Coquina's ship wasn't close enough to fire at them yet. The air was still. Then it breached the water.

There was one more shockwave, much like a canon hitting the side of the ship. By the side of the ship the crew was starting to gather around. And yelling something about a new weapon Coquina must have been breeding. Jack even saw the captain go to the side of the ship to look at this new weapon. Jack carefully made his way to the edge of the ship and saw it.

A monster sized mantis shrimp with Coquina's flag painted on the side of its shell started to climb its way up the side of the ship. The mantis shrimp was about the size of a wagon. It was brightly colored with its natural blues greens and reds contrasted its large punching adapted forelegs climbed up the side and latched onto the ship. There were cracks around where the shrimp was latched. Behind the shrimp there were sharks, also painted with the Coquina's colors swimming their way towards the ship.

The captain looked at the scene and frowned.

"I heard about these guys." He stated as he addressed the crowd. "These are The Killing Crew. Coquina has a new 'zero tolerance' policy for piracy in their waters. They were going to get rid of pirates no matter the costs. In Coquina's government's eyes, the people that were trafficked into piracy, like Jack here, were just another pirate to them, and the ones that were just freshly captured? Just the price to pay to make the pirates disappear. Now here's what we are going to do. We are going to kill the jumbo shrimp or go down trying. Anyone who is too cowardly to try, jump on the lifeboat now."

Jack looked around and started to move backwards.

"Right everyone to their stations! Let's kill this thing!" The captain said cheering on the crew as they got psyched up to fight to their dying breath.

Jack turned around and walked around the corner, and then ran straight to the lifeboats.

The Killing Crew? These guys with only one ship to take them on? It was a death sentence and the captain knew it.

Jack jumped in the lifeboat and expertly lowered it into the waters. Once he was in the water and cut the ropes from the ship, he noticed a pack on the lifeboat that wasn't part of the usual emergency equipment. The captain's pack. Jack spat on it and started to row, leaving the sounds of pirate carnage behind him.