Quest to Nowhere: Black Hat

Chapter 3: Santa Maria

“Captain on board!” yelled one of the pirates as Amate and Robin landed on the deck.

Robin put on the gun holster she had taken from Sibak, and put all the guns away in it before getting rid of her second set or arms.

The crew all turned and saluted them before Amate ordered, “Get this ship moving. I want to see the Navy disappearing over the horizon real fast.”

Everyone shot off to get to work on hearing the orders. There were small outbursts of crewmen yelling “It's good to have you back Cap'n!” and “We missed ya sir!”

Out of the noise of the crew they suddenly heard a high pitched voice yell out, “Captain!”

They turned to where the voice was coming from only to see a girl running at them. Although based on how she was dressed some might have assumed otherwise. She wore a white buttoned up long sleeve shirt, that was tucked into a dirty brown pair of cotton pants that were held up with suspenders and a belt. Attached on each side of her hips was a sheathed rapier sword that bounced around as she ran toward them.

Her long blond hair trailed behind her as she ran, held aloft by her momentum. She also wore a black fedora style hat with small white pinstripes on it. The hat seemed to be made for someone with a much larger head then her, since it obscured most of her face as she ran at them.

Amate smiled, “It's been a long time All...” he started to say before she ran up hugged Robin very tightly. Due to the height difference between them her face ran straight into the middle of Robin's chest.

“Captain I'm so glad your back!” she said to Robin.

Robin sighed a little, which 'cause the girl to suddenly let go of her hug and back off a few steps and then bow. “I'm sorry Captain... I meant to say it's good to see that you are alright.” she said.

Amate reached over and picked the black hat off her head while she bowed and put it on his head. “Seems she's grown attached to you it seems,” he said to Robin who gave him sort of a mock angry look.

“Nya?” The girl said looking up at Amate with her blue eyes. She paused for a second as her mind seemed to process something.

“Captain Black!” she yelled and hugged him.

“Good to see you still remember me Al,” he said messing up her hair.

She let go of the hug to fix her hair. “Don't call me Al! It's Allanah!” she protested.

Amate let out a laugh. “You've certainly grown up, but still the same old Al.”

She glared at him, and him and Robin shared a laugh. Which caused her to make an over dramatic pouty face at them. “What's so funny?!”

“Still the same old stubborn 12 year old girl I left behind,” he said continuing to laugh a little.

Her face turned red as she growled a little, then stuck her tongue out at him before marching off loudly.

“You should be careful she's a lot stronger now, she's not the same as she was and you should treat her that way,” Robin said to him

“I know, and I could tell the second I saw her,” he replied. “But truthfully she may have gotten stronger, but she's still a good kid. She's still very much the same girl she was when we found her.”

Robin nodded in agreement.

“I guess I should thank and congratulate you for doing such a good job taking care of her while I was gone. You were what, 18 at the time?”

“20... and your making me feel older.”

They shared a little laugh as they walked down the deck towards the bridge.

“You know you should really say something to the crew,” Robin said quietly to him.

“I did earlier,” he said referring to when he first boarded.

“No, I mean something more inspirational. They haven't seen you in 5 years, you need to remind them you're the captain, and remind them why they are here.”

“I hate speeches,” he said as he tipped the front of his hat down to cover his eyes.

“Listen up!” Robin yelled, catching Amate and most of the crew by surprise. “Captain Black has a few things he wants to say to you all!”

Amate glared at her for the little trick she pulled, and as the men gathered around he climbed up a few steps on the staircase to the bridge. Robin stood at the base of the stairs looking up at him, and he could see Allanah slip through the crewmen who had gathered to stand next to Robin. Most of the crewmen stayed at their stations on the ship, and merely turned their attention to him.

“Well firstly, I guess I should thank the crew for sticking with my plan so far, and following Robin as she led you over these last five years,” he started sounding a little shaky. “But now that the plan is over, things will be a lot harder. It's not going to be as easy as the last five years, probably not as prosperous either.”

“But that's not why we are pirates. Unlike those poor saps on land, we live free. Free of tyrannical rule, and laws that only seek to control us. Free to do what we want, and what we choose, and to follow our hearts, 'cause that's how we got here. And so far it's served us well,” he continued, his words starting to raise the moral of the crew. “But remember that you don't have to answer to me, heck you don't even have to answer to yourself. The only thing you have to answer to is that.”

He pointed up to the top of the mast. In the wind flapped a black flag with a skull and crossbones. The skull wore a black hat with white pinstripes that was tilted down to cover most of its eye sockets.

“Seek freedom, and your world will stand stretched out before your eyes. If the endless dream guides your spirits, conquer it! Bear conviction behind your flag!”

A loud crew exploded from the crew as they cheered. They seemed completely re-energized as they got back to their duties. Amate slowly walked down the stairs as Robin looked up at him and gave him a smile. Next to her Allanah looked like a ball of energy about to explode.

“Cap'n that was amazing!” she squealed before hugging him tightly.

“I knew you'd you do alright,” Robin said to him.

“Yeah, seems like Al even forgot she was mad at me,” he said.

Allanah let go of her hug and took a step back, and with a confused look on her face said, “nya?”

Robin and Amate laughed while Allanah continued to look confused and turned a little red.

“CAPTAIN!” yelled a voice from behind Amate, he turned around to see the navigator at the top of the stairs. “Where would you like us to set our heading?”

“Point her north, we are going to head for Sirako,” he answered.

Robin grabbed his hand and pulled him away saying, “I'm taking the captain to his quarters for a well deserved nap. You're in charge until I get back Allanah.”

Allanah saluted, “Yes ma'am!”

Robin continued to pull him until they got inside the door of the captain's quarters. The room was dark since the one large window of the room was covered by a large piece of fabric, which made the room enough bright enough to see, but not that bright.

The walls were lined with bookshelves, each equipped with doors. Some of the doors had small windows on them allowing one to actually see the books on the shelves. There was a large desk and chair right in front of the big window, spaced perfectly at the center of it. It was covered in some papers and various nic-nacs. On the opposite side of the room in the corner was a large bed, big enough for maybe three people to sleep comfortably.

“It's a lot cleaner then I remember,” Amate said after looking around.

“Well I wasn't about to keep it as it was for five years. It would have been very hazardous to my health.”

“It wasn't that bad,” he protested.

“There were books everywhere! I almost got buried on two or three separate occasions before I put them all away.”

He paused for a second, “Are you sure Allanah is ok running the ship? I mean...”

Before he could finish his sentence, Robin had made herself eye level to and kissed him passionately.

“Don't worry, she was my number two while you were away. But that's not really important right now,” she said before kissing him passionately as they moved towards the bed.