Everyone wobbled back and forth as the ground rumbled. Astrid, in particular, having had to carry the crystal coconut was in danger of dropping it. When she nearly lost her balance, Roger fired a shot from his pistol, narrowly avoiding her chest.

"Drop that coconut, lady," the cruel captain growled, "And we're dropping your body in the ocean to feed the gulls."

"You heard the cap'm," Nasty Ned added, "You're a lot tastier than potato fries to them!"

"I'll try to remember that," Astrid said, panting hard with bulging eyes.

As they ran, Elise saw a change in Rotten Rogers demeanor. He barked orders at his guards and he used his silly puppet voice a lot less.

"Lower the plank, you ingrates," he demanded at his ship. "And if anyone doesn't make it on, we'll leave yar to sink on the island."

As the plank dropped, Rotten Rogers observed his four prisoners. "You're all coming aboard. Each of yee's got a role to play in me master plan!"

Elise reluctantly boarded Rogers' ship, which she now noticed had a bow shaped like a rubber cleft chin. Even the fact that it looked like a butt didn't make her laugh, especially with Terrible Tom pointing a pistol at her head.

When Elise reached the deck, she was surrounded by even more Rubber Chin pirates. These ones wore prosthetic chins, like their leader, and all flashed their chins in salute to Rogers.

"Sir," one of them said, "We have donned the ceremonial ceremandibles in your honor."

"Very nice," Rogers remarked, paying no attention to the quaking island. "Though they will always pale in comparison to my number one mandible!"

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"That said," a wide grin spreading on the pirate's mug. "This shall be a ceremony like none other…Now, retrieve the casket…"

"Yes sir," two Rubber Chin pirates said, sticking out their chins and running off.

"The casket?!" All four prisoners said in unison.

Rotten Rogers eye darkened; he took his remaining hand, and removed Nasty Ned from his other hand, revealing nothing but a stump. "Today is the fateful day that Nasty Ned's soul escapes his puppet body and returns to his mortal body."

"You don't mean…" Astrid said, her tanned skin turning pale in the sunlight

"Aye…" Rogers said, "I will use the essense of the crystal coconut to restore my first mate to his former self. He will yet again sail the four great oceans with his beloved cap'm."

Elise frowned. "Don't you care you'll be killing all these nice islanders?"

Rotten's singular eye gazed straight into Elise's soul. "You know what they say," the bad captain said, pointing to his remaining eye. "An eye for an island."

"Don't try to reason with him, Freckles," Archibell remarked. "This is a man who talks to socks."

"Now now," Rotten Rogers said, ignoring Archibell. "Each of you will have a valuable part to play in the ceremony."

He pointed directly at Astrid. "The Hellohaian beauty will be the one to use the coconut's magic to revive me first mate!"

"What about me?" Elise asked.

"You, being a useless, but pure child," Rogers decreed, "Will be the soul sacrifice to restore his soul!"

"What the sea shell?!" Elise said, hysterically tearing up. "Please don't kill me!"

"Yeah," Archibell snapped. "Don't kill the teenybopper. Take this ol' captain instead!"

"How noble!" Rotten Rogers gushed. "But you, Captain Jonas Archibell, will serve a different purpose…"

"That is?" Archibell remarked.

A madness brimmed in Rogers' eye. "When my first mate is resurrected"--Rogers produced his pistol--" Nasty Ned will have the honor of shooting the man who laid him to rest in the first place."

"And whatta bout me?" Tony gruffly accosted Rogers.

Rogers winked at the land fish. "We can always have a cookout later. Nasty Ned loved fresh trout."

"Of course…" Tony whimpered. "I'm always da meal!"

The Rubber Chin pirates retrieved the casket, bringing it up to the deck. It was jet black and shiny with a golden chin emblazoned on it.

Rogers lifted his one hand in the air. "Now let the ceremony begin!"