Sonic and the Half-Genie Hero

Chapter 1: Grand Theft Jewelry on the Trail Ablaze

   But by under the stars it was really only Tails who was, since he had the higher bunk with the overhead skylight from which he could actually see them. That made Sonic feel like he was missing out, and so that night he laid his sleeping mat, sleeping bag and rings out against the electrical socket starpost and slept with a good view of the night sky.

   Yet as slumberous as Sonic was now, at such an hour in a whole other reality there was not a moment of rest. It was in the high seas in which the pirate Queen Risky Boots this was so. For the crew upon a ship of which raised a mast of her own had just almost finished ransacking, slashing, and tossing overboard the deckhands of a rather small freight boat shipping valuable imported herbs, fruits and drinks worth many a man's salary. But items such as those were only second priority to the Queen's attack. What she was dead-set to get was a treasure map, rumored to have been sold to the captain of the ship and likely combination-locked within his quarters inside a safe of water-tight stainless steel.

   "All right you sea dog, where you hiding it?!" The Queen hollered, now scanning the room finally after having battery ramming the door down. But to little surprise she had seen the captain had already made his way out from the porthole and to the deck above. "Men, after him! He's headed starboard of the bow!" Risky ordered. The bandits did so, and in a desperate attempt of escape the captain was sabotaged by the invaders slashing the ropes holding the captain's escape boat.

   Risky Boots had now caught up to the sailor, who had with him the safe on his back and a handy bastard sword sheathed at his hip. But with his means of escape gone and his enemies now taking the ship for their own, his fate seemed sealed.

   Risky pulled him by his shirt collar and pointed her scimitar to his throat. "You drop the treasure before we take your life along with it!" She ordered. "No!" the captain yelled, as he kicked her in the stomach in retaliation, drew his own blade and made haste in stabbing overboard the few of her surrounding crew. The pirate Queen saw that this was a fight she would have to finish herself, and so she did. With a whistle she called to all under her rule to finish raiding the ship cargo in order for her to finish off the captain personally. And so their duel began.

   The captain slashed the straps holding the safe from his back and took a lunge head-on for Risky. Risky quickly countered with a block using her own blade, and pushed him back while tearing a rip in his left sleeve. The two were in heated combat on the bow, and with every clash and stabbing thrust they neared closer to the edge. And it was there, at the tip of the boat in deadlock with Risky that his weapon had finally been slashed from his grip into the vast, briny blue-black waters behind him, leaving him done for at last.

   "Any last words, buccaneer?" Queen Risky asked the captain with her scimitar pointed at his face. "Your greed shall be your folly, you marine crime lord!!!" he yelled just before being slashed upward from the face and kicked into the sea.

   Following directly this fatal exchange was Risky's departure from the vessel with a Molotov cocktail to set the hollowed boat ablaze and the steel safe in her grasp. And so by means of riding the anchor back up on her own ship, she headed into the decorated captain's quarters she called her own to attempt to crack into the safe she now had before her, as the Auto-Pirate sailed to an isle the crew could rest at for the moment.

   Upon Risky's desk sat the container that held the map she sought after. And all that was left between her and it was a combination lock of which she had to figure out herself. So then she opened her desk drawer to get out an earpiece to listen for the combination. After some hours into the night, listening for sound and trying to keep record of possible codes, she had eventually done it.

   "Bingo, jackpot!" Said Risky when she finally cracked the safe open. Combing through the valuables she eventually came across the rolled up paper map. "Hmm, now where exactly does this pinpoint..?" she pondered, looking at the lower left portion of the map. It seems as though it doesn't cross off the isle where the treasure may lay, but rather has a circle if India ink around the nautical miles in which a chain of a few tiny islands reside.