Thomas paced around as Morgan sat still on a crate. He older man was pacing around until he found himself in front of a restaurant instead of the ink store and was made to sit still.

“Okay so we lost our newest crew member. But it’s not like something bad could happen to her right? She covered her hair and eyes so no one would think to sell her. So as long as she stayed still he should be able to find her right?”

“Lane’s going to kill you-boya.”

“She’s going to kill you too. You weren’t supposed to leave the ship.”

“You told me to go with you-boya.”

“Why did you listen? I’m nineteen you’re thirty-three. Shouldn’t you know better? Don’t answer that, you clearly don’t.” Morgan simply nodded in agreement. “Okay I’m going to go search for her, you go back to the ship and act as if nothing happened.”

“Where’s the ship-boya?” Morgan asked as he got up.

Thomas turned him in the proper direction and said, “Just go straight. Don’t turn, even if there’s something blocking your way, just go through it or wait for it to pass okay?”

“Okay, just go straight-boya.”

The two men went their ways. Thomas ran around, looking for any signs of Victorian. No one seemed to see her. As he ran from end to end, he saw a familiar figure in the crowd in front of him. The young man went around the citizens and grabbed the figure’s shoulder.

“Mo! You were supposed to go straight.”

“I did-boya. I don’t think your directions were right-boya. The ship isn’t here-boya.”

Thomas just stared at him. When Morgan first joined the crew, Thomas thought that he was an amazing man capable of extraordinary feats. Now he wonders why how an amazing navigator had the sense of direction the same as a new born babe when he was off of the ship.

“Mo, I thought you to go straight. The docks were right there in front of you! You just had to pass two buildings! How did you end up in the centre of the damn island?”

“Who knows-boya.”

The trio that went to complete their job continued to wait for their payment. The employer had asked them to wait for the past two hours as the money was being prepared.

“They shouldn’t be taking this long to prepare the money. They knew we would be arriving,” Elena said. She tried to scout around but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, they just seemed unready.

“Take a break Elena. We did the job and we’ll get the money one way or another,” Baise said he laid on his back for a nap. “Wake me up when the money, or food, arrives.

“Senorita Lane, you should take a break, relax a bit.”

“If I take a break, do you expect to wake up the next morning with that in charge?” She pointed her thumb at Baise who was already in dreamland.

“Excuse me but the money has been prepared. If you would follow me,” Ricardo, a middle aged man in a suit said.

Elena and Alzono followed him to a different room in the warehouse only to be greeted by a few thugs with swords.

“So, we’re not getting paid are we?” Alzono asked. He and Elena were back to back with their weapons drawn.

“It will be when I turn your entire crew into the navy and collect your bounty. Isn’t that right Lane the Piercer and Alzono the Fox?” He asked while he held up their wanted posters along with the rest of the crew. “The poster said dead or alive, let’s go with dead, it’s less of a hassle.”

“You should be more worried about your lives, especially your captain’s.”

Outside in the other room, Baise found himself dazed and greeted by a few swords pointed at him. He scratched the back of his head and said, “Well this is troublesome.”

With Morgan gone, hopefully to the ship this time around, Thomas returned to his search to find Victorian. He asked around the restaurants and some of the shop owners but no one saw her. It did make sense as her distinct red hair was tucked under a hat.

“Young lad, young lad,” a grandmother called for Thomas. “I think there was someone who matched your description pass by some time ago.”

“How did they look like? How long ago?”

“Let see, I was watering the flowers when a young girl in a cloak followed a few men. You see I only remember because she spoke too properly but talked about returning to her ship and crewmates.”

“That’s her. Where did they go?”

“Those men usually bring girls like that to the salon. They like playing a good game of cards.” When he heard their location, Maes ran off before the grandmother could finish. “But be careful, they’re bandits for a, oh my, he’s gone. I guess he’ll figure it out. Poor boy.”

After a few wrong turns and directions, Thomas found the salon. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

Ricardo was in shock as he watched twenty of his hired bounty hunters fall to the ground by two lowly pirates. He ran outside, to see the status of the ones he sent to attack Baise only to find a similar outcome.

“Elena what happened? Did you get paid?” Baise said while holding back a yawn.

“But, but,” Ricardo said, “all thirty of the best bounty hunters, beaten by three pirates.”

“So that’s what they were? Man they were annoying, waking me up from my nap. You guys had them too?”

“Lowlife bastard didn’t want to pay us. Tried to cash in our bounties instead,” Elena explained as she pointed a sword at Ricardo. “Our payment. Sir.” 

The door busted open to show a young man. He looked around, only to find the salon to be void of the woman he was looking for. Instead, he was greeted with ten men, doubled his height and tripled his weight playing cards.

“Tora are you here?”

There was no answer so Thomas headed inside and tried again. In the storage room, Victorian managed to remove the tape on her mouth.

“Maes?” Victorian tried to shout as loud as she can, she had managed to remove the gag on her mouth. Good thing it wasn’t the first time she was kidnapped.

The men playing cards stopped and turned to Maes. Some of them prepared to grab their swords and others cracking their fists with a wicked smile of their face. His name brought them joy.

“Iron Horse Maes, who would have thought we’d run into you here.”

“Actually it’s just Maes now. Well actually Thomas but no one really calls me that, ‘cept for Cap, so yeah, Maes, just Maes. Not a pirate.”

“Your bounty says elsewise. It’s a nice amount. I could feed a town with it.”

“You can also feed a town with hard work and diligence. So if you don’t mind, I’ll just grab my friend and leave.”

“I’m sorry but we can’t let you do that.” The large men ran towards Maes with the swords and their fists.

“Like I said, I need to grab my friend and leave.”

With each word, Thomas lived up to his old epithet and gave them a punch with the force of a bullet train. One by one, the thugs fell and Thomas made his way to the backroom where Victorian was being held.

The door opened to show a terrified Victorian who was tied to a chair. Thomas immediately went to untie her. With her arm around his shoulders, the two friends left the room and back to where Going Sunny was.

As they were leaving the group of defeated men, one managed to get back up on his feet and ran towards the two.

“Iron Horse!” He shouted and he brought his fist back.

“One second.” Thomas brought a shocked Victorian to the side before bringing his one arm back for one more punch. “It’s. Just. Maes.”

The thug fell down, for good this time, and Thomas made went back to helping Victorian walk out of the horrible place.

Thomas and Victorian eventually made their way back to the ship after they tracked down the groceries Thomas left behind during his search for Victorian. Morgan, surprisingly, had already arrived back on the ship and was busy disposing the bodies of heavily beaten up men.

“What happened?” Victorian asked.

“Ah Miss Tori, Mr. Maes you’re back,” Julian said as he dusted off his pants. “Just the usual bounty hunters. You know, it’ll be a lot nicer if we didn’t have our stupid bounties. Mr. Navigator!”

All eyes turned to Morgan who, instead of heading back to the ship after he finished dragging the bounty hunters off of the ship, headed back into the town.

“Why did you guys move the ship-boya?”

“Just come back here before I beat you.”

“Um… I see you forgot about the blueberries I asked you to get,” L’Roux, who as usual appeared out of nowhere, mumbled as he shifted through the bags.

“You asked for them?” Victorian asked. However, L’Roux had already disappeared from her sight but she was pretty sure she heard a typical mumbled somewhere.

Shortly before nightfall, the trio returned from the job and the ship set sail again. This time for Beghonia where new information about the lost island of Crohcus was rumoured to exist.