The Jolly Jack Cruise 2

75 The Jolly Jack Cruise 2
Previous chapter 74 The Jolly Jack Cruise

Italics = characters personal thoughts

Short Intro: In the previous chapter Sally Acorn, Fiona Fox, and Amy Rose are all on a charity cruise to collect funds for the ARFC* initiative that Fiona will lead. Fiona senses the really big money donors want to hear her stories and they ask her questions on her past, most of it involving  not so good events. They become impressed by her and donate to the cause but not without a far share of drama involving Sally. This drama leads to Sally seeking “some fresh air” and the trio find themselves on a balcony of the huge luxury yacht when pirates attack the charity cruise.
(*Acorn Republic Food Charities)

Captain Jack:  “Not only will me gets mounds of booty from the fancy guests, me reckon we will get a hundred times more in ransom money for them!”
Pirate First-Mate: “Aye cap’N! The bridge reports thar ship is at full stop”
Captain Jack:  “Tell the bridge to steer out to sea after the boys get the boxes of glycerin aboard from the speed skiff. I wants to make cover while we wait for the ransom to be sent”
Pirate First-Mate: “Aye cap’N, right away. I’ll also have all the boys collect phones from the crew and passengers. Just to make sure no contact is made”
Captain Jack:  “Good, then we run dark” (grins as her thinks of the riches) “We will be swimming in a sea of gold and silver bullion before the day is out! HAR HAR HAR!”

Sally, Amy, and Fiona back away from the door and close it after seeing Captain Jack laugh. They talk quietly on the balcony:

Sally: (takes out her phone) “I’m going to contact Nicole and tell her what’s happening”
Fiona: “I doubt most of the passenger’s phones can reach shore”
Sally: “No, but our phones sure can, they are specially made to connect to Nicole” (dials Nicole)
Fiona: “I wonder what they have boxes of glycerin for? And run dark??? It’s a sunny day”
Amy: “I say we go in there and stomp them”
Sally: “We have no idea how many pirates there are Amy” (connects with Nicole) “Hi Nicole” (a miniature 3D image of Nicole appears projecting up from Sally’s phone)
Nicole: (the miniature 3D image smiles and waves) “Hey guys, are you enjoying the cruise?”
Sally: “We have a BIG problem. The cruise was just hijacked by pirates!”
Nicole: (the miniature 3D image looks stunned) “Oh my goodness!”
Sally: “Yes, conference the team together now!”
Nicole: (the miniature 3D image waves her hand and several calls are ringing)
Rotor: (first to answer) “Hi Princess, how are you?”
Sally: “Not good, the charity cruise was hijacked”
Rotor: (on the phone) “Oh No!”
Bunnie: (answers her call) “Howdy Sal sugar, I hope Sonic, you and Fi are having a good time with that fancy stroll around the big pond”
Sally: “Sonic’s not here and the cruise has been hijacked by pirates. Antoine is with you right?”
Bunnie: (giggles) “Don’t tickle me sugar, I’m talking to Sal about somth’N serious”
Sally: (grins a little) “Okay, that’s a yes”
Nicole: (the miniature 3D image shrugs her shoulders) “Sonic and Tails aren’t answering. I will go look for them”
Sally: “You can look later, right now alert my brother and the port authorities to come out to the luxury yacht. They are going farther out to sea and have taken everyone’s phone. We were lucky not to get caught when they attacked”
Fiona: “You know Sally, it’s not going to take them long to figure out they don’t have the princess among those captured”
Sally: “Oh crud, you’re right”
Rotor: (on the phone) “I’ll go get hovercraft ready”
Bunnie:  (on the phone) “Ant and I will skedaddle back to the city to meet up”
Nicole: (the miniature 3D image rubs her chin) “I know Sonic left his phone behind, Tails seems to have his on silent mode. I’ll work on overriding that and get a hold of him. I bet those two are together somewhere”
Sally: “Good, I need to hang up now, but will call you back once we learn more” (hangs up)
Fiona: “They probably know about me too, but you’re a far more valuable prize than me Sal. Amy is probably not even on the guest list. We better move fast, we are running out of time until they find out”
Sally: (looks at Amy and then Fiona) “We better find out how many there are of them, how tough they are, and where the passengers are? We have to make sure they are safe”
Amy: “How do we get past them?”
Fiona: “Oh that’s easy, we can drop down from this balcony to the next deck below”
Amy: “In these dresses?”
Sally and Fiona look at each other and then back at Amy
Fiona: “Seriously? You’re worried about ruining your dress right now?”
Sally: “I’ll get you another one”
Amy: (frowns) “Well I didn’t just mean that, I meant the next deck is pretty far down and-“ (sees Fiona quickly kick off her heels, then she hops up on the balcony railing and goes over the side)

Sally and Amy quickly go over to the balcony and look down. They both see Fiona below and she’s waving to them to come down. Sally kicks off her heels and goes over the side and grabs the railing on the way down to the deck below with ease, she slinks down on to the deck next to Fiona. The chipmunk and fox watch as the pink hedgehog slowly hangs down from the balcony railing above.

Sally: (said quietly) “Let go and we will catch you”
Amy let’s go and both girls below grab her and pull her onto the deck
Fiona: (noticing Amy still has on her clunky white ankle boots) “You know it would be easier and quieter to move around without boots”
Amy: (looks down and cracks a smile) “Oh yeah, he he” (she takes them off)
Fiona: “Hey Sally, how about taking off these inhibitor bands”
Sally: (eyes Fiona for a moment) “You better behave, I’m trusting you” (pulls out the key for Fiona’s inhibitor bands and Fiona pulls off her opera length gloves, Sally unlocks the inhibitor bands)
Fiona: (rubs the Anarchy beryl crystals on the back her wrists and then slides the black opera gloves over them again to conceal them) “That feels good, now we have a fighting chance with any pirates we come across” (The Anarchy beryl crystals allow Fiona to create Anarchy energy shields from her wrists)
Amy: (a bit taken back by the thought that Fiona thinks she is weaponless) “Hey, I have my hammer, I can summon it anytime”
Sally: (points at them both) “No attacking unless I say so”
Fiona: “We should split up and scout out how many pirates there are”
Sally: (eyes Fiona more than Amy) “Alright, I will check this level and Amy the level below. Fiona, you think you can sneak up to upper deck and the bridge?”
Fiona: “No problem” (turns to go)
Sally: “Fiona, remember what I said, no attacking, stay out of sight”
Fiona: (grins and waves her phone) “I got this, we can communicate by phone”
The red fox moves quickly down the deck way and up a ladder towards the upper deck. Amy and Sally then look at each other:
Sally: “Where’s your phone?”
Amy: (nervously smiles) “I think I left it back at home”
Sally: “Uuuugh! Just go search and come back to this spot, I will meet you here and you can tell me what you found out”
Amy: “Okay”

Sally sneaks down the outside deck on this level, she looks in the windows and sees dozens of passengers being herded on to this deck. This deck has the buffet, dining, and lounge areas, it’s the biggest deck. She counts about a dozen pirates pushing and shoving people as they are forced to give up their valuables to the buccaneers.

Amy goes down to the next deck and she sneaks up to a window and sees this deck has the kitchen, crews quarters, and leads to the engine room below this deck. She sees two pirates checking around for any passengers or crew. When they find any they are herded upstairs to the deck above.

Fiona gets to the upper deck and sees it’s the observation deck and has been converted into a dance floor, the deck has a retractable roof and it’s open to show the bright blue sky above. At one end of the deck is a large Jacuzzi pool (Hot Tub) and a pirate is dumping boxes of something into the hot water of the pool. The substance that’s being dumped in is causing huge amounts of thick white fog to bellow forth from the steaming hot pool. The other pirate on the deck is herding the last few remaining guests down to the deck below. She sneaks past the pirates and to the bridge deck that rises above the observation deck. Fiona creeps to a window for the bridge and sees only two pirates manning the ship’s controls. She pulls out her phone and contacts Sally

Fiona: “Hey Sally, I’ve got two pirates on the bridge, another one down below looks like he’s making fog… that’s what the glycerin is for. Hot water and glycerin make fog”
Sally: “Fog? That’s what the captain meant by going undercover and dark. They are going to hide the luxury yacht in a fog bank”
Fiona: “Hmm kind of clever, it will hinder any rescue effort. My deck has been cleared of passengers and sent down to your deck. My pirate count is 4 including the two on the bridge”
Sally: “Got it, I see the people coming down, they are herding everyone on this deck, the count is 16… 17…18 pirates beside the captain”
Fiona: “I’m sure I can take these two on the bridge, then figure out how to turn the boat back towards the city”
Sally: “No, they might raise the alarm and the passengers come first. Come down here so we can devise a plan to rescue them, I’m hoping Sonic and the team can get here soon”
Fiona: “Awww, alright” (ends the call)

Meanwhile on the inside the first mate of the pirates comes up to the pirate captain.
Pirate First-Mate: “Cap’N the men say they can’t find the Princess”
Captain Jack:  (laughs) “HA! That’s not a surprise! Thar princess is the leader of the Freedom Fighters.”
Pirate First-Mate: “So you T’nking she’s hiding?”
Captain Jack:  “Aye… Get me the mic, I’ll show ye how to get the beauty out of hiding”
Pirate First-Mate: “Aye cap’N” (Gets the intercom microphone and hands it to the pirate captain)
Captain Jack:  (clicks on the mic) “Princess Sally Acorn, I know ye is hearing this! Show ye’selves!”

Sally: (crouching outside on the deck watching through the window, she hears the message on the ship’s intercom system) “Crud, they find out I’m missing!”

Captain Jack:  (pulls out a pistol) “Come on Princess, don’t make me start shooting ye pretty guests for ye fancy party!” (points his pistol at a guest who gasps in horror) “I’m going to give ye the count of three to show ye’selves” (grins at the quivering guest as he points his pistol to shoot her right between the eyes) “One…”

Sally: (pushes the doors open to the outside deck) “I’m here!”
The pirate captain and pirates all turn their guns towards Sally as she stands in the doorway. Unflinching, Sally slowly strides towards the captain while the pirates continue to point their guns at her. The big kangaroo Mobian pirate captain grins at the princess’s audacity and puts away his pistol.

Captain Jack:  “Al’right me mates, lower ye weapons, her highness has finally graced us with her presence”
Sally: (standing with her hands on her hips) (I need to stall for time so the team can come)  “You won’t get away with this, I’m sure the authorities know this ship has missed it’s CHECK IN”
Captain Jack:  (beaming brightly at the princess) “Aye princess ye fancy ship has already missed it’s Check In, but that won’t matter, we is going far out to sea and soon won’t be found”
Pirate First-Mate: “Shall I search her, cap’N?”
Captain Jack:  (waves and nods) “Aye, her highness is a spunky beauty”
Pirate First-Mate: (finds her phone) “Cap’N her phone!” (holds it out for the captain)
Sally: (surprised) (DARN IT! I should have left it behind!)
Captain Jack:  (takes the phone and then grins at Sally as she frowns back at him) “Hmmm… I wonder who was the last person ye called ye highness?” (fiddles with the phone)

Meanwhile Amy has gotten back up to the deck where Sally is at and had heard the intercom message for Sally to give up on her way up. She secretly watches the princess through the window and then feels a hand on her back

Amy: (gasps in fright and turns to see Fiona behind her)
Fiona: (grins at scaring Amy) “Hey Amy, I see they finally figured out Sal was missing”
Amy: (breathes a sigh of relief and then scowls at Fiona) “Don’t do that again!”
Fiona: (pulls out her phone) “How many pirates did you count below decks?”
Amy: “Two, but they went upstairs after finding all the crew and passengers below. What do we do now?”
Fiona: (looking inside and quickly counts) “That makes about 23 with the captain and the two on the bridge. As for what to do… first I need to figure out how to answer this call” (looks at her phone as it’s vibrating with a call from Sally’s phone)

Fiona can see it’s the pirate captain trying to call her, she ignores the call.

Amy: “They know you’re here on this ship, you are going have to give up or maybe we can storm them? Oh I wish Sonic was here!”
Fiona: (starts typing on her phone) “Relax Ames, we need to play it cool. There are too many of them to fight right now and the rest of the FF is still coming”
Amy: (hears Fiona’s phone vibrating again) “You can’t keep ignoring the call. He will threaten to shoot passengers next!”
Fiona: (smirks at Amy) “That’s why I’m sending a text to Sally” (hits send on the message)
Amy: (confused) “A text??? But the pirate captain has Sally’s phone” (looks back inside at the captain as he reads the text)

Captain Jack:  (confused, he reads the text he got from Fiona) “It says she’s in the bathroom and can’t talk???”
Sally: (gives a little smirky grin) “She has a bit of an attitude problem”
Pirate First-Mate: “She’s hid’N too cap’N!”
Captain Jack:  (gives a condescending look at the first mate) “Of course she’s hiding, send some men out to search the heads of this fancy yacht… No wait! She knows she ship is being hijacked. I will text her back to answer the phone” (starts to type into the phone and hits send)

Fiona: (looks at her phone, the text says “this is Captain Jack, ANSWER THE PHONE!”)
Amy: “What does it say?”
Fiona: (jokingly replies) “That I’m running out of time… time for a new plan”
Amy: “What new plan? I hope it’s better than the last one. Seriously? Texting???” (looks back inside and sees the pirate captain is calling Fiona again)
Fiona: “I think we need to divide and conquer” (then answers the phone) “Hi Sally, since when have you called yourself Captain Jack?”

Captain Jack:  (growling into the phone) “I know ye knows this ship has been hijacked! Come out and surrender!”

Fiona: (covers the phone as she talks into it) “Wow princess your voice has gotten really bad, has your cold gotten worse?”

Captain Jack:  (getting annoyed) “Don’t toy with me trickster vixen, I know who ye are!”

Fiona: “Don’t you mean Arrrg? As in “I know who ye ARRRG?”

Sally: (hearing the conversation and snorts) “Told you, attitude problem”
Captain Jack:  (frowns at the princess and near yells into the phone) “If ye don’t surrender right now I will shoot a passenger!” (pulls out a pistol)

Fiona: “Go ahead, I don’t care, I’m leaving the ship”

Captain Jack:  (looks at the phone and then the princess confused) “What???”
Sally: (hearing Fiona’s answer she looks back surprised) (WHAT ARE YOU DOING FIONA?!) (She gasps)

Fiona: (let’s put my bad girl rep to the test with these pirates) “Tell the princess that I’m jumping ship, I’m going to take the speedboat at the back of the yacht and save myself!”

Sally: (hearing what Fiona said she drops her jaw open in astonishment) (I’m going to strangle her!)
Captain Jack:  (grins at the princess’ expression) “HAR HAR, your vixen has mutinied again ye highness. HAR HAR HAR” (he waves his pistol to a bunch of pirates) “You six quickly go to the back of the boat and stop her from taken the speed skiff”
Pirate First-Mate: “Cap’N should we worry about the bridge?”
Captain Jack:  (stares a moment at the first mate then says) “Take four men with you and guard the bridge, just in case the mutinous trickster is heading that way”

11 pirates leave the huge main deck with six going towards the aft of the ship and five going up to the upper decks. As soon as the men leave the room Sally quickly realizes what Fiona just did
Sally: (OMG, Fiona’s spilt the pirates in half! There are only 11 here not counting the captain, she’s going to attack)

Amy: (watches the pirates leave and turns to Fiona) “Okay... I admit… that’s pretty dam crafty!”
Fiona: (grins at Amy) “You ready to kick some pirate ass?”
Amy: (holds out her hands and her massive mallet materializes out of thin air) “oh yeah…” (she says quietly with a sneering smirk on her face)

Meanwhile back inside Captain Jack takes Sally’s phone and drops it on the floor in front of her. He takes one of his blaster pistols and shoots it. It sparks and fizzles as it burns in pieces on the floor.

Captain Jack:  (sneering at the princess) “I know ye phones are special, once we capture ye foxy mutineer then we will destroy her phone too!”
Sally: (haughtily says back) “It doesn’t matter I already phoned the port authorities, they are on their way”
Captain Jack:  (jeers at the princess) “Ye and the council members here will be me ticket to a safe passage away” (waves his pistol at some guests as they are shoved towards the princess by a pair of pirate)

Sally looks at the guests and quickly recognizes them as the council members Isabella, Rosemary, and Dylan. They are all dressed up for the event and have frightened looks on their faces

Isabella: “Are you alright your highness?”
Rosemary: “Are the Freedom Fighters on their way?”
Dylan: “Yes please say they are”
Sally: (tries to reassure them) “Yes they are, we will be saved”
Captain Jack:  (belly laughs as he walks away) “HAR HAR, look out the window ye highness, no one will find us in this fog bank!”

Sally and the Council members look out the window and see that the bright sunny blue sky day is now suddenly covered in a thick white fog. It looks eerie and strange and the passengers all gasp as the sunlight slowly fades. Sally catches, out of the corner of her eye, the shadow of figures moving, one with a large mallet, going towards the doors she came in from the outside deck.

Sally: (says quietly to the council members) “Get ready to tell the people to duck and hide, something is about to happen”
Isabella: (covers her mouth) “Oh my…”
Sally: (worried that the pirates around them will notice her reaction) “Act normal…”
Rosemary: “Really Isabella, my son and Sonic will be flying in to rescue us any second now. No need to panic”
Sally: (I wish that was true) (She quickly looks around her for some sort of weapon, she spots only champagne bottles)

Suddenly the doors to the outer deck burst open and the roaring screams of a red fox and pink hedgehog come charging in. Fiona is in front with her Anarchy energy shields up. No inhibitor bands on her wrists means she’s fully free to make them big and spin and throw them. Behind Fiona’s shield cover is Amy and she has her large hammer cocked and ready behind her. The pair moves quickly and separates against two different pairs of startled pirates. Amy leaps at her pair and with two swings Amy sends the pair of pirates flying across the room and smashing into furniture and walls knocked out. Fiona brings both of her Anarchy shields back and spins them. One after another she flings the discs at her pair of pirates from a distance. The startled pirates both stand there and get clobbered by the spinning Anarchy discs which jolt their nervous systems upon impact and they go unconscious falling to the floor without firing a shot.

With the element of surprise gone Fiona reforms both her shields and places them in front of herself and leaps to cover Amy. The rest of the pirates start shooting at the pair of girls, Fiona uses her large shields to block the blaster shots aimed at her and Amy. The red fox moves forward despite the streams of blasters impacts on her Anarchy shields. Amy keeps up right on Fiona’s back as they go towards the next pair of pirates. The pair of pirates becomes scared and witless at the sight of the seemingly impenetrable Azure shields coming at them. They turn to run only to be clunked on the heads when Amy leaps out from behind Fiona and clocks both of them. They fall to the floor seeing stars in their eyes.

Meanwhile the passengers have screaming since the first shots rang out and have been diving for cover. Sally has gone for the bottles of champagne, grabbing one in each hand.

Captain Jack:  (screams while shooting with his blaster pistols at Fiona) “Surround the vixen! She can’t block from all sides. Shoot the pink one behind her!” (the remaining  5 pirate crewmates start to fan out instead of moving in pairs)

Amy leaps behind a table as the pirates fan out, she can’t get back behind Fiona in time before they start shooting another volley. Blaster shots rain against Fiona’s Azure energy shields and the table Amy jumped behind is peppered by the pirate’s blaster fire. Sally leaps at one of the pirates as he shoots at her comrades and smacks him in the back of the head with a champagne bottle. The bottle shatters into pieces and the pirate’s eyes roll up and he slumps to the floor unconscious. A pirate nearby hears the shattering glass and turns to try and shoot the princess. He’s sudden stuck by a spinning blue disc flung from Fiona. Sally then chases after a different pirate as he tries to circle Fiona. Sally catches up to him and smashes the champagne bottle over his head as he is about to fire his blaster again, he crashes to the floor in a heap.

Then one of the pirates runs up to the table that Amy leaped behind and sprays it again with blaster fire while grinning from ear to ear at the destruction. The table is laced with holes and he pauses to see if there is any movement, suddenly the table is smacked from behind by something large. Amy has swung her hammer at the wooden table like a baseball bat and sends it flying right at the pirate, it smashes into him and he’s clobbered under in a pile of broken timber. Amy runs up to the last pirate who is reloading his blaster and knocks him clean across the room and into a garbage can. She twirls her hammer in her hand at the sight of her “scored basket” and smiles. Then Amy hears a loud footstep behind her. She spins and sees Captain Jack toss his two empty blaster pistols to the floor.

Captain Jack: (grabs two brass knuckles from each side of his wide belt) “I don’t need guns to take care of you missy!” (he clinches his fists around the metal knuckle weapons and they glow magically with hue of dark green mystic energy) “Ye gonna tastes Captain Jack’s chaos fisticuffs, I brought these along to fight Sonic with” (moves his fists like a boxer)
Amy: (unfazed by his bravado display she twirls her hammer and swings hard straight down on his head) “I’m gonna knock you-“

Captain Jack: (quickly puts one of his mystic green energy knuckles up and catches the mammoth mallet as it comes down, this stuns the pink hedgehog) “Guess again PINK squeak!” (steps forward and kicks the smaller hedgehog in the midsection and sends the pink Mobian flying backwards and tumbling across the floor)

Fiona: “AMY!” (she flings one of her Anarchy discs at Captain Jack)

Captain Jack: (blocks her blue spinning Anarchy disc with his other Chaos power knuckle, the clash of energies sets off a blinding bright luminance) “I can stop you too trickster!”

The passengers gasp as they see the bright magic light and Sally tells them to keep down.

Amy gets up and holds out her hand, her huge mallet disappears from the grasp of the big Mobian kangaroo pirate and reappears in her hand. She roars as she comes at the pirate captain again, this time swinging sideways

Captain Jack: “Come back for more little girl?”

The roo captain grins as he steps forward and puts out both hands and catches Amy’s swing. He twists his body around and continues the pink hedgehog mighty swing and pulls her by her own momentum twisting Amy farther as she can’t stop her herself and his pull at the same time. This yanks the hedgehog around in a wide circle and Amy smashes across the buffet table, sending food platters scattering everywhere. Amy looses grip on her hammer handle and continues down the table and lands head first into the huge fruit punch bowl at the end of the table. A huge red wave erupts into the air from the impact.

Captain Jack: (raises he fist in triumph) “HAR HAR HAR” (then has to block a spinning blue disc flung at him)
Fiona: “Celebrating a bit premature” (as she saunters towards the large Mobian kangaroo with her Anarchy shields ready and tail swishing)
Captain Jack: (walks towards her as he growls and brings his chaos knuckled fists ready to fight) “Me gonna knock that trickster smirk off ye face”
Fiona: “When it comes to fighting I rely on skill more than tricks”

Fiona holds her Anarchy shields up in front of her like boxing mitts in a training match. She can see the Roo pirate grin at them as he slides side to side looking for a opening between them. He lets fly a combo of fist strikes which she blocks easily while backing up. Each time he strikes there is a brief “snap” on sound and flash of light when Chaos meets Anarchy. The kangaroo captain then comes at her again with a fury of fists and then tries to kick Fiona and missed her as she side-fades her body away from the powerful extended limb.

Captain Jack: (laughs) “Well well the mutinous beauty knows indeed how to fight!”
 Fiona: (noticing how the big Roo rocks back on his large tail to stabilize his kick) “You know the trick to fighting is knowing when to strike!”
Captain Jack: (keeps laughing because she hasn’t even thrown a strike at all) “All ye pretty dancing isn’t gonna do ye any good, Suddy fox”

Captain Jack comes at Fiona again with a more fists strikes and then rocks back on his tail again to try and land a heavy kick. Fiona has been waiting for this move and drops down and sweeps his leg sending him to the ground. As he tries to get up Fiona smashes his face with one of her Azure shields and it sends blotches of red blood into the air. The Mobian kangaroo gets back on his feet fighting through the pain.

Captain Jack: (his grin replaced by a scowl as blood trickles down from his lip) “ARRRG you just got me ire up missy, I can take-“

The pirate captain doesn’t finish his sentence as a big bottle of champagne hits him on the back of the head. He stumbles forward a couple of steps and Fiona wastes no time pulling back her Anarchy shields spinning them and flinging both one right after another at the stunned kangaroo pirate. The Anarchy discs hit him and jolt his body with mystic blue energy. He collapses on the floor revealing a chipmunk Mobian princess standing behind him with a broken bottle neck

Fiona: (upset with the loss of her opponent) “I had him! You didn’t need to do that!”
Sally: (tosses the broken bottle neck to the floor) “We don’t have time for this! Those other 11 pirates are going to be coming back!”

Amy: (slides off the table, her hair and face covered in red fruit punch, she looks at her cleavage,) “Ugh I think I got an ice cube stuck in my dress!” (the pink hedgehog wiggles in her bright red dress with wide white stripe down the center, only the dress is covered in a multicolor of sauces and bits of food from the buffet)  “BRRRRR” (she pops the ice cube out of her cleavage)

Sally: “Are you okay Amy?”
Amy: (looking down at her messy sauce covered dress) “Yeah I’m okay, but I’m a mess!”
Fiona: (jests) “I’m sure you can find some gentleman to lend you a tongue… I mean a towel”
Sally: “Enough with the jokes, Fiona. You both did pretty good, nice job covering each other’s back”

Amy and Fiona look at each other and both remember the earlier conversation about not wanting to watch each other’s back. They both give each other crooked smiles at their kickass handy work.

Fiona: (with a coy smirk to Sally) “You like my little ruse to get the pirates to split in half?”
Sally: (a bit annoyed) “Don’t you dare tell anyone what you said, it will look very bad. Honestly threatening mutiny again Fiona?”
Fiona: “Hey pirates mutiny all the time, besides the look on your face is what sold it to the pirate captain. Amy and I were watching the whole time during that phone call”
Amy: (nods) “You were totally fooled”
Sally: “It was clever I’ll admit, but don’t tell anyone. I mean it”

Sally: (calls out to the passengers) “Listen up everyone!” (points to the high society bodyguards)  “You bodyguards grab their weapons and turn the tables on their sides facing the door. You others tie up the pirates! The other pirates will be back any second and will storm the room.  Everyone else hide behind us!”

Within a minute the tables are turned on their side and the fighters take up positions facing the door. Everyone else clears away and behind cover. Fiona and Amy are crouched waiting for the doors to fling open with Fiona in front with her shields and Amy bringing up the rear for the surprise heavy hitting. There is a rumble of noise from the doors and then the pirates come charging in.

Meanwhile the Freedom Fighter hovercraft is zooming towards the large luxury yacht. Despite the heavy fog bank generated to conceal the large boat the FF are homing in on the ship.

Tails: “I see the ship, Nicole. You’re homing in on Fiona’s phone worked perfectly!”
Rotor: “I’ll bring us next to it for docking”
Nicole: (A miniature 3D image of her on the hovercraft’s communicator) “Oh I hope Sally is okay. I lost contact with her phone” (she hangs her ears down and bites her holographic fingernails nervously)
Sonic: “Get ready guys and let’s hit the deck running!”
Bunnie: “Right behind ya sugar”
Antoine: (pulling out his sword) “Oui!”

The Freedom Fighters all hop out on to the deck. Sonic leads the way towards the main deck. They crash through the doors to the main deck and find Sally directing a cleanup effort. The pirates are all tied up in the center of the room. The guests are talking to one another and quite a few turn and start smiling and laughing upon seeing Sonic arrive as they are already safe.

Sally: (puts her hands on her hips) “Well it’s about time you arrived!”
Sonic: (looking around at the scene) “We came as fast as we could, you know running on water isn’t my thing”
Sally: (eyes him) “I see your feeling better, short sickness?”
Sonic: (knows he’s busted) “Yeah that… I’m sorry… If I had known you’d be attacked by pirates I would have come along” (gives a grin)

Amy: (Come charging in and hugs Sonic) “OH SONIC! I’m so glad you made it”
Sonic: (getting squeeze by the pink hedgehog and smells something sweet on her) “Umm thanks for the hug. What’s that sweet smell?”
Amy: (posing his her tight bright red tank dress with a wide white stripe down the center) “Oh I got a little sauce on my dress, you like my dress?” (You can lick it clean if you like big boy)
Sonic: (looks at her dress and how it shows off her curves, he blushes) “Uh yeah… it’s looks great. SOoooo did Fi come too?”
Fiona: (saunters over in her tight black dress) “I’m right here, I see you’ve gotten over your “SocialSnobFluenza”
Sonic: (just realizes that if he had came he would have had to deal with Sally, Fiona, AND Amy at the same time) “You’re going to razz me too huh?”
Tails: (his eyes follow Fiona’s tight black short dress and her opera gloves) “OMG Fiona… you look beautiful”
Fiona: (blushes and tires to pull the high hemline on her dress farther down) “Oh hi Tails… thanks”

Then suddenly the three council members show up.

Dylan: “Ahh there you are Sonic. A bit late as her highness has taken care of everything”
Isabella: “Yes and the yacht captain said the ship is heading back to port now”
Rosemary: (gives Tails a hug) “I’m so glad to see you” (then sees Fiona in her tight black dress) “That’s a bit revealing… hmmmm Miss Fox?” (giving a disapproving look)
Fiona: (tries to cover up with her long opera gloves, her Anarchy beryl crystals start to glow) “Ummm... I borrowed it from Sally”
Sonic: (looks over at Sally) “Really now?” (oh yeah, she would look hot in it)
Sally: (Fiona’s trying to throw the attention on me now) “I think we should put your inhibitor bands back on, Fiona”
Fiona: (great excuse to walk away) “Sure! Sure I will go get them” (quickly walks away)
Rosemary: (covers Tails eyes as Fiona walks away)
Tails: “Seriously mother???!” (I have half a mind to tell you I already slept next to her)
Sonic: (pulls on Tails arm to avoid a scene) “Come buddy let’s help with the clean up” (they both leave)

Dylan: (to Sally) “You know I was worried about you giving Fiona this lead role for the ARFC*. I think this definitely earns you my vote on the matter” (*Acorn Republic Food Charities)
Isabella: “Oh yes, you certainly have my vote too. Don’t you think she a great fit for it too Rosemary?”
Rosemary: (asks Sally) “This ARFC initiative, it requires Fiona to leave the city?”
Sally: “Oh yes, she’s going to travel to distant places to oversee the food distribution”
Rosemary: (folds her arms) “Then you have my vote too”

Chapter ends