"Wow..." Chloe uttered, her lily-white cheeks turning rosy. "Are you really gonna save me from being incarcerated, anchor lady?!"

Chief Inspector Valcom looked away and turned her head to window. It over looked the flowing waters of the Underpass. "It's not that I want to save you, Queen Annabell. You are a traitor to our country. The Mainland needed a strong ruler like you to govern us. But instead, you chose to play pirates with a tailor, a gangster, a circus clown, an admittedly beautiful swordswoman and...uhh..."

Valcom squinted at Abacab. "Are you a..."

"A pirate, big lass!" Abacab said. "So I am perfectly certified to play pirates with young Chloe!"

"Right," Valcom said with a cool roll of her eyes. "But that's beside the point. Queen Annabell is a treasonous coward who shirked her bloodline granted responsibility so she could pursue a ridiculous dream."

Chloe crossed her arms. "Hey I thought you were helping me. Not criticizing my questionable life choices!"

"They are indeed questionable" Valcom said in her husky tone. "And that's why, it's not because of you, I've decided to help you...but me...Chief Inspector Dolores Valcom."

"Dolores?" Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey!" Valcom snapped, with her nostrils flaring. "You don't choose your bloodline and I don't choose my birth name!"

Valcom closed her eyes and took a deep breath of meditation. "But anyway, the reason I'm helping you is because as a chief upholder of justice, I cannot let an unfair and rigged court case happen under my watch."

Now it was time for Buckeye's nostrils to flare beneath his hooked nose. "Rigged?!"

Valcom calmly pointed her anchor arm at Buckeye causing Chloe to swoon. "Yes, you pirate scum. I see exactly what you're doing here. And I'm not gonna stand for it."

"But," Laura said sweetly. "Y'all are already standin'"

"Ignore her," Chloe muttered. "She's still the new swabbie here. How are you going to help us?"

Valcom brushed aside her sea sunken hairdo. "I witnessed what happened in the pun last night. I was watching from the window, desperate for a drink since I had been hiding in the salty waters all day and I saw...that blind pirate run his leader through with a sword."

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Everyone gasped. Even some of Big Joe's crew. Buckeye desperately tried to maintain calm. "Those two were the only two in that pub last night," Valcom shouted. "And now he's trying to pin it on Queen Annabell."

Big Joe's crew all looked at Buckeye in disbelief. Antonio shook his head. "How do we know you're not lying, big, buff beauty?! Do we really have to take your word? If I do recall, you are the leader of a police state that wants to do away with us banditos."

"Yeah..." Navi said softly. "I don't trust you at all."

Gino Taur grunted heavily and shrugged his shoulder.

Big Joe's crew began squabble amongst each other while Chloe's crew remained silent. Chloe was at a loss for words too, and to make matters worse, she began to feel a strange turn in her stomach. She hasn't eaten any food so it wasn't indigestion. No...something demonic was flowing through her veins. She hunched over the stand like she was about to puke. But instead of puking, a voice escaped her mouth in another tongue.

"Hey you dunderheads! A booming voice said, much befitting for a behemoth man than a young girl.

Navi immediately sat up. "That voice," she said, her freckled face turning a shade of red. "I'd recognize his voice anywhere."

"Big Joe!" they all exclaimed.

Chloe's non demon eye darted around helplessly as Big Joe's deep and gruff, but not unsophisticated voice blasted from her throat.

"Crew...I want you to know this, "Big Joe said. Last night, I was stabbed and murdered by the man I trusted most. Buckeye Jones."

The blind man nearly flinched and fell of his seat in response.

"He wanted to have a meeting with me to discuss a demon who has managed to take over the whole ocean...pirate king Fienmond."

Chloe stood up and puffed out her chest. She continued to speak in the voice of a big bold pirate leader. "I said, 'we will never submit to a scum that thrives millions of leagues beneath the sea...for we have something that will protect us from his wrath."

Chloe dismounted the stand and began to pace over to Big Joe's crew. "None of you knew this, my loyal crew, but on one of my private plunders, I located something that could turn the tables on Fienmond. Buckeye demanded it from me and then..."

Chloe's head gazed forlornly towards the floor where Big Joe's body once lay. "That was," Big Joe announced. "When I knew that my long time friend, Buckeye Jones was no more. Replaced by a demon doppelganger."

Big Joe's crew all gaped at the young girl who somehow contained the spirit of their leader.

"With the help of a being called Rosemary," Big Joe said. "I have possessed this wee girl's body. She may be small, but she has a big ambition. I hope in my stead, you will follow her words. For my time has passed and now it is the age of a new pirate ruler. A pirate queen."

Big Joe's crew all exchanged glances. At last, Navi said, "Aye aye capm" with a playful salute.

Big Joe in Chloe's body returned the salute and grinned. "I'm off to plunder my fortune in the next life and trust me...dead men tell plenty of tales!"

Chloe gasped as she an enormous spirit exhumed itself from her body. "Uhh..." Chloe, slightly dazed by the fumes of a powerful ghost leaving her brain, muttered to Big Joe's crew. "That was a spirited conversation, eh mateys?"

Nobody spoke so Chloe turned to Buckeye. "Looks like the jig is up, Buckhead!"

Buckeye was silent. But slowly, reached for his eyepatches.

"What are you..." Chloe said wincing.

Buckeye lifted his patches to reveal two empty eye sockets. But almost immediately, two blood red eyes formed inside of them. He stuck out his tongue and slobbered saliva all over the floor "You found meeee out, all thanks to traitor Rosie!"