Dead Man's Race, Part 3: The Deer-fox Hikers

The Raccoon Pirates sailed the rim of the great chasm before finding a thin path leading toward the cloud mountain. Before bringing the ship onto the clouds, Isabelle tied a rope to herself and jumped into them. They had the same density as Sea Clouds, lighter than water, but sturdy enough to support the ship. "It's good, guys! Let's bring 'er on up!"

"There are too many steep inclines to sail up directly." Ralph said. "Looks like we'll have to steadily work our way around it."

"Like a giant ice cream, haha!" Mali clapped, thinking the clouds looked like a swirly ice cream.

"Could get up there a lot faster if we were allowed to fly!" Shimmy shouted.

"We're keeping it traditional, Shimmy!" Jason grinned. "Up the ice cream we go!"

Ralph kept the boat at a steady balance to stay along the swirling path, but on the way up, vultures flew from the island and tried to drop boulders on the deck. Mali swat the rocks away like volleyballs while Isabelle shot arrows at the hostile birds. "Wouldn't you guys have liked the desert better?!"

Hey, Jason. Trella began. When we get to the island, can I go with you this time?

"Why do you wanna go, Trella?" asked Isabelle.

I feel a lot of spiritual energy here. I might be able to help somehow.

"Wouldn't it be more fun if we all went together?" Mali asked.

"Well, it'd be faster if we split up to search more of the island." Jason reasoned. "Or else we'd take too long if I had to wait for all of you!"

"Sorry for not being superhuman." Ralph shrugged.

"Oi was mostly thinking of Silica." Jason glared at the inattentive gamer in the corner. "Oi don't think I 'eard you say one thing since we started."

"I helped fight the bandits." Silica said.

"I thought you'd wanna explore a little bit." Isabelle said, gazing up the cloud through her telescope. "You can get inspiration when you make your own games. …Wait, Captain! I think I see a ship up there!" She could make out a pirate ship around the corner of the cloud. Its cabin resembled an actual log cabin, and instead of a normal mast, it hoisted twin poles with its sail in the center, sort of similar to a camping ground's entrance. The name "Deer-fox Hikers" was splayed on the sail, with its Jolly Roger being a white fox with antlers. "I think I remember seeing that design with the other starting ships."

"Dang it!" Jason stomped. "The enemy crew's already here ahead of us! Mali, catapult, now!" The captain jumped in.

"Jason!" the child pouted reprovingly. "Say, 'pretty please with a big ice cream cloud.'"

"Ugh! Pretty please with a big ice cream cloud." Trella giggled at his compliance as she climbed in with him.

"Mommy says ice cream tastes better when you ask nicely! Enjoy your ice creeeaaam!" Her childish call signaled their flight toward the mountaintop. (Play "Land of Livid Dead Medley" from Rayman 3!)

Map 2: Land of the Lost Ones

Destination: Herman's High-Rise

Jason and Trella landed just on the edge of the peak. Their first sight was a small garden of stone henges, with little grass growing between the stepping stone ground. A trio of bunnies perked up seeing the strangers, fleeing around the henges. The gate leading forward was locked, and not even Jason could break it down. He and Trella divided to catch the bunnies, being awarded with treasure! "None of them have a key." Jason said. "Maybe it's… Trella, what're you doing?"

Trella hadn't sensed three bunnies: she sensed four. A gold, ghostly bunny only she could see, Trella quietly crept up and caught the creature. It morphed into a key, which Trella used to open the gate. The gate led into a dark tunnel with humanoid silhouettes in different poses. In Trella's vision, some of the designs were glowing. She could Wall Jump up between two who had their hands facing each other, stand on one whose hands were up, and Jason would follow her. They would need his Tail Hover to reach further "platforms," and they would afterwards slide down a series of steeply-posed silhouettes. Trella would hint when to jump gaps in the slide, but they sadly bypassed some Wall Jump poses overhead, which would've led to a chest. Regardless, the two flew out of the cave's exit.

They were shaded from the sky beneath towering pine trees, but were assaulted by bullet-fast acorns. Sergeant Squirrels were based within the trees, but Jason applied the same strategy he normally would with tree-bound enemies: he punched the weak side of their trunks and toppled them down. Trella shook in disapproval, but was glad Jason could KO the squirrels, at least. The bad news was that Jason needed to climb one of them to find a chest. The good news was one of them made a bridge across a chasm. Across that chasm, they would have to pass through a narrow trench. A duo of Kloaks hovered at the end of the path; invisible specters with a green trenchcoat and eyes in the collar.

"Ah-ah-ah!" They would laugh each time they threw a conjured spikeball. The duo needed only dodge around or jump them—Jason bumped his head on something invisible midjump and got spiked. Trella realized more of those silhouette designs were on the sides, lain flat to indicate ceilings. They could only dodge around the balls while underneath them. It satisfied Jason to give the Kloaks a good sock to the… face? The trench let out into an open field where a herd of spiked boars were stampeding, a cloud of dust in their wake. "Hey… what's that they're chasing?"

It was a girl: defining blue hair with a black beret, she wore a red sweater with matching boots, a yellow scarf, and a blue skirt. Jason! Isn't that Hilda?!

"Trella, that's Hilda from Sector GF, ain't she?"

Crud, I forgot you can't understand me. Perhaps they should've launched with Isabelle, too.

"Oi, Hilda!" Jason bolted her direction, the blue-haired looking over in shock. "Leave these bears to me!" Jumping in their wake, the boars were bulldozed by his spinning fists.

"Huff, huff…Jason! Trella, too! I guess this place was on your route, too!"

Hilda, did your sector join the race, too?

"Oi, did you join-"

"Yes, we did." She didn't need to hear the same question twice. "We saw you guys in town. I wanted to say 'hello,' but we weren't sure if you were on a secret mission or something." Hilda spoke with a British accent.

"We're in it because we're pirates!" Jason beamed. "Which is why I'm wondering why YOU'RE here."

"Ah ha ha." Hilda scratched her head sheepishly. "Truth is, we kind of heard about this event and decided to 'sneak' into it. Thought it would make a good excuse to explore some new places."

"Hehe, that's all the excuse you need to get in! But you would've 'ad to tell Perry, right?"

"I guess he wanted us both to be surprised. If you're wondering, we haven't found the compass, yet. David's watching the ship, but I kind of got separated from the others."

Let's find them and look for the compass together! Hilda translated Trella.

"Hold on, we ain't supposed to ask help from outside parties." Jason reasoned. "Wouldn't that include helpin' other racers?"

Jason, they're allies!

"Oooorr…" Hilda drawled out, "what if one of us finds the compass, and the other chases after them as they head to the next island?"

There's no rule saying we can't do that, right?

"Hehe, good point! Orright, the search is on!"

Sector GF was another exploration sector, with Hilda being their main expeditionist. She acquainted herself with Jason and Isabelle as fellow explorers; her main specialty was forests and mountains, environments Isabelle also enjoyed, so they joined each other on a couple trips. Hilda was also a naturalist who tried not to be too reliant on technology, something Isabelle admired. "By the way, 'ilda, any idea what world this is?"

"Not really. But, I remember seeing these boars in an intergalactic animal book." Hilda went to prick a spike off a boar. "It's a boar-q-pine, one of many hybrid species on the Avatar Realms. It makes me wonder if we're on that planet or if the Contest Crew imported them."

"Well, Oi suppose knowing's not important, anyway. Heck, it makes it more mysterious!"

There were three altars with slots at the edge of the field, over a foggy chasm. The three split up in search of whatever would go in them. Hilda saw a Booty Bird floating behind a pillar with a red stone in its talons. She lured it down with some birdseed and took the stone. Jason found a ring of small pillars with rocks on top, but one of the rocks was green. He took it to place in one of the slots. Trella heard two pirates playing "catch" with a blue stone, but they were adamant in avoiding her and keeping the stone away. Trella summoned a monkey spirit to bash one of the Katches, so the remaining one had no choice but to throw the stone at his KO'ed body. Sadly, she had to call Jason over to carry the heavy stone. Placing all three in their slots caused air currents to rise from the fog. The trio each had their own way of gliding in the currents; butterfly wings for Trella, a white parachute for Hilda, and Jason's tail.

The gusts led to a foothold over another foggy chasm, but the shadows of several fallen objects were seen beneath: they were giant tribal masks, clothes, and staffs. Trella sang a heavenly song: the area grew dark, lit only by the ghostly bodies that took shape within the equipment. "Nice, Trella! You're makin' them float!"

"Jason, don't you see them?" Hilda asked. "They're beautiful!"

"If you say so!" The girls shared disbelief at his obliviousness. They could cling a giant mask as its owner danced around, afterwards jumping to another one, having to climb to positions to go between Zingers (giant bees) that were floating in place. They jumped to grab a staff held up by another spirit. It would quickly twirl it every few seconds, and they'd use the momentum to fling onto the armored back of a giant animal spirit. They climbed its neck to its head: the next spirit was holding a staff with four swaying jingles. The crew jumped from the animal to swing these jingles, and from there would have to land in a cannon… but Jason first jumped over the cannon to land on a platform with a chest.

Once in the cannon, a spirit raised it up and aimed at a row of floating masks that would move aside every few seconds. The kids timed it to fire when they would move away, landing on stable ground. There was a box marked with the shape of what Hilda recognized as a deer-fox's head. Gasping, Hilda smashed it open: inside was a small, white-furred hybrid of said animals, its eyes and antlers small and cute and tail fluffy. "Goodness, I was afraid we'd never escape!" Atop that fox was a Minish with white skin and red clothes. "I know they're pirates, but I feel like that Contest Crew is taking this a bit too seriously."

"Twig! Alfur!" Hilda knelt down. "Thank goodness you're okay."

Awe, what a cute little puppy!! Trella, this being her first time meeting them, ruffled the creature's fur.

"Ah, the ops from Sector V." Alfur knew. "What a chance meeting! Twig and I got taken by the pirates and stuffed in that box. I'm not sure where the others are."

"I'm sure they can't be far. Twig, can you sniff them out?"

The deer-fox nodded and began sniffing along the ground, the crew following. The fox would dig up certain patches of ground, uncovering a few gems, but Gnawtys would crawl out of nearby bushes and try to bite the deer. The kids thwacked the animals before they'd have a chance. Twig climbed a tree leading to a thin walkway above a foggy chasm, while the kids could only jump platforms. Twig's route led him atop tall pillars where he could dig for treasure. However, a Kloak appeared by the beginning of the path, dropping giant beetles that would skitter along to nip Twig. Jason sniped them down before they could make it. On the last stretch of Twig's path, two Katches were throwing a baseball, but Jason needed only punch a sphere at one so the ball could no longer threaten Twig.

The deer-fox dug up a treasure chest before rejoining the crew. The sky grew dark as rain drizzled the mountaintop, a soft thunder livening the air. Amidst the mist, the crew wandered into a wide ring of stone henges. "Hey! It's Frida!" Hilda gasped. Frida was African-American with black hair tied in a large puff, a teal hoodie, and black pants. Four ghosts closed in on Frida, "oooing" as they waved their arms… they were obviously pirates in white sheets. "This is just sad." Frida drew a magic wand and cast simple Blast Spells at the Kreep Sheets. "Hilda!"

"Hey, Frida! Where's Abel?"

"The pirates caught her and dragged her in this direction. I haven't been able to find her."

"Twig seems a bit confused, too!" Alfur said as the deer-fox propped up on its hind legs, sniffing the air. "You're not saying Abel took off and flew away, are you?"

"Oi, what're you doing, Trella?" Jason had called out to the Pumparian dancing to each of the pillars, mimicking the poses depicted on them. She hummed a silent song in the rhythm of the spirits' voices. Her dance lit all the pillars in a full rotation: the kids were in awe as an expansive tower arose to the heavens. Even Jason wasn't blind to such a magnificent beauty. "Blimey… I'm sorry you 'ave to miss this, Trella."

Jason, I can see it, too, you dope! …Wait, you mean you can see it?

"I guess the spiritual power is that much stronger." Hilda figured.

A call came in on their wristwatches. "Jason, Trella, it's Isabelle, we're on the island. Are you guys over where that big blue light is?"

"We're under some kinda big tower, we're gonna start climbing it! By the way, Sector GF is here, too!"

"We know! We found David on that ship."

"I think I'll wait outside and watch out for them." Frida said. "It looks like there's a lot of platforming up there."

"Don't you have a broomstick you can fly on?" Jason wondered.

"I'm still a novice mage; the most I can do are blast spells. Let me know how it goes!"

The initial three kids and Twig first traversed up some stairs before having to hang onto Jason in swinging some hanging lights. Zingers in tribal masks floated between some swings, requiring careful timed jumps. They landed on a pair of spiritual hands, which would split and curve up vertically. The right hand led to the next pair while the left led to a sleeping butterfly; Trella was on this hand, so she touched the bug, shining gold as it fluttered to life. The later hands would reposition in different ways, once with one hand going under a Zinger while the other was correct, another where they had to Wall Jump between hands, and the last pair would have each hand rapidly spin, requiring the kids to jump to the safe hands until they made it up. Once on a safe foothold, Trella glid to a separate platform to awaken another butterfly.

Hook-handed pirates called Krooks descended on parachutes, throwing their boomerang hooks to impede the kids' ascent up some high platforms. What made it especially annoying was that Twig insisted on jumping ahead of the group, requiring Jason to keep up and quickly punch down the Krooks. "Hehe, you're a good jumper, Hilda!"

"Thank you! My auntie Madeline trained me in mountain climbing. Though she says she used to climb way scarier mountains." The highest platform had a dirt patch where Twig dug up an emerald, and there was another separate platform with a butterfly. The tower would turn diagonally, the kids in awe as shooting stars slowly descended from that section. Jason's Light Ropes could swing them (a trick he already learned from a prior battle), but the randomly scattered stars left no clear path to take, so they could only climb them by instinct. As expected, they saw the 4th butterfly asleep in one corner, so they swung to wake it. The star tunnel curved the opposite direction, where Kannons would try to snipe the ops amidst their swinging.

Despite this nuisance, the crewmates made it back to the main tower, traversing stairs around a floating pillar. Hilda dropped to a platform beneath the stairs and awoke the 5th butterfly. All five butterflies made a star formation against one area of the main wall: a monochrome kitten blasted out of that star, dressed as an astronaut with a jetpack. The kitten rocketed to the sky while the butterflies made a trail to the newly-opened chamber. Jason swung them via Light Ropes and landed inside a treasure trove, complete with a good point combo and a journal page.

When I was 14, I snuck into my uncle's kabin and opened his special treasure chest. Inside, I found… my father's diary. I spent the next few nights reading every page… immersed in every sentence. I learned the truth of who my father was… about what I was… and I felt something awaken inside me. As if knowing all along, my uncle confronted me after I had finally finished. And I asked… "Who am I?"

Jason rejoined his friends at the top of the tower. A great updraft would carry the kids through a hole in the stormy clouds, greeting the crisp morning above the White Sea. Their destination seemed to be a ring-shaped alignment of islands, grass growing along them. In the center of the ring was what was clearly a giant turtle shell. There was flagpole atop the turtle and someone tied to it: a girl with dark-blonde hair, her ponytail hanging over the left shoulder. "ABEL!" Hilda called. "Abel! Are you awake?!"

"Ah'm guessin' not." Jason judged by a lack of response.

"Yooooo!" a different voice called back. "More kiddos! I was hopin' I'd get a better fight." The head of the turtle emerged from the clouds, wearing sunshades and speaking with a skater accent. "How you kids like my little cloud pond? Pretty dope, right?"

"Yes, it is quite lovely." Hilda said. "By the way, you seem to have misplaced my friend on your back. May I have her back?"

"Nah, brah. The boss says we gotta capture anyone who can't beat us."

"Wot's that mean?" Jason asked. "What boss? Ain't you blokes from the Contest Crew?"

"Haha, that's classified, home brah. All I can say is, the boss thought the Dead Man Race was too easy for rookie pirates, so he wanted to mix things up, ya know? He wants to find rookies that'll really put up a fight. Rookies that pack the right 'juice' or somethin'. I don't think he means actual juice, but like-"

"Then why are you capturing the losers?" Hilda glared. "What are you doing with them?"

"I dunno… throwin' them in the brig or somethin'?"

"'ey, that don't sound cool at all!" Jason shouted. "You lock up racers if they're too weak?! Who cares about that, as long as they love bein' pirates, you should let 'em be free!"

"But like, don't pirates blast each other all the time? Then if your ship gets sunk by stronger pirates, you ain't good pirates, man. Maybe these rookies don't know what bein' pirates is all about. If they think it's all fun, they're dead meat, dude."

"Yeh, well Oi don't like some turtle decidin' who gets to be a pirate! Oi'll knock you outta the sky!"

"Sounds fly, my man!" (Play "Savory Stu" from Donkey Kong!)

Boss fight: Herman

Cannons emerged from the turtle's shell, blasting several islands and flipping them over to reveal a spiky underside. Herman would then aim directly at the kids, who would jump the spikes to the safe islands, but each prior island would be flipped over. One of their islands had a mask lodged into it: feeling a presence, Trella sung for a spirit to take shape in it, its hands aimed forth to catch a cannonball. It passed the ball to Jason as the turtle realized this anomaly. Herman decided to ram the spirit headfirst, but Jason would chuck the ball past the vanishing spirit, bashing Herman's head! As Herman rotated dizzily, Jason punched Light Spheres at several of his cannons, destroying them.

Herman returned to the center, furious as he flipped and splashed the surrounding water, flipping random islands. The kids were blown backward into the Sea Cloud, so Herman seized this chance to shoot torpedoes. Jason punched the torpedoes away until they could make it to a safe platform. "At least cloud water dries faster than normal water." Hilda said. Herman would keep up the random splash technique, the kids jumping and relying on gliding to determine the safest place to land each time. Eventually, another mask was splashed up on one of the islands: Trella sang the spirit to life to hold the island steady during the splash attack. Herman charged them, but with no cannonball to throw, the kids would leap before the island was blasted away. Jason Ground Pounded onto Herman's head, landing a blow anyway as the dizzy turtle swayed back to the center.

The kids swam onto and relaxed on a safe island while Jason destroyed more cannons. Herman began to splash greater waves to wash the islands away. Shining butterflies appearing around the ring, the girls holding onto Jason as he swung Light Ropes. He swung them in quick succession to avoid Herman's waves, the turtle throwing hefty force into each splash and drawing gasps out of him. When Herman tried to splash a greater wave—washing away Trella who was caught up in it—the turtle wound up belly-up and too tired to flip back. Hilda swam to check on Trella while Jason glid toward Herman. Jason landed on the turtle's armored belly and hurried to the head, Ground Pounding him. Herman jerked up and flung Jason onto a single island platform that had returned.

Herman's sunglasses were knocked off, nothing to hide his vengeful glare. Herman ducked and unveiled a larger cannon above his neck. As he began to charge a high-speed cannonball, Jason realized the rising sun was at his back. Perhaps now was the best time to test out his namesake: Jason stretched his arms behind him and absorbed the sun's rays directly onto them. With a forceful upward swing, Jason threw a sudden, arch-shaped ray right into Herman's eyes. "OOOOHH!" The turtle impulsively flipped his head up, splashing water up in his eyes- BAM. His high-speed cannonball fired against the back of his head, flipping it underwater.

Knowing he was seconds from losing consciousness, Herman groggily brought his head back up. "Tha…was… a cheap blow… dude…"

"Hey, Turtleneck! Why does your boss wanna find a good rookie to fight, anyway?"

"Because, man… he just wants to find himself… He wants to fight people that'll help 'awaken' himself… and, like… that's so deep…" Herman said no more as his head hung below the clouds. (End song.)

As the shell slowly began to sink with him, Trella and Hilda climbed atop it, cutting Abel free of her rope. Hilda pumped Abel's chest to make her cough up the cloud water she had ingested. "Cough, cough! Hilda! W-Where are we?"

"Atop a giant turtle in the clouds."

"Whoa, get out, no way…" Abel confirmed her surroundings to affirm this. She also gave the shell a good stomp. "Yep! I know my turtle shells when I step on 'em!"

They found themselves submerged when the shell finished sinking. Jason waited for the top of the flagpole to reach his level, grabbing it, taking the compass, and earning the Gold Flag!

Scurvy Sands

Matilda's family rented a scurvy chalet in the local inn, the parents taking the bottom bunk while she took the upper. "Yaaaawn…" The Jolley-Rogers had been sailing an ocean deep underground, dodging stalactites and outrunning a giant octopus-mollusk hybrid. As happy as she was to be able to watch Jim, it didn't feel as thrilling simply seeing it on a screen. Just how would it feel to actually be there with them? Would she be scared for her life or marveling at the foreign seascape around her? Either feeling had to be better than feeling numb in bed.

"Matilda, it's time to go to sleep now." Mum called up.

"But I don't want to miss anything."

"Jim will still be there when you wake up, darling. Besides, they should be going to sleep soon, too."

"We don't even know what time zone it is there…yaaaaawn…all right." Matilda turned away from the small tele, laying sideways and drifting to sleep.

…

The Jolley-Rogers had never encountered a clam quite as big and fortified as Clamity. However, once Dad and Mum were able to chop the neon membranes sticking both its shells together, the clam was unable to close it. Twin cannons seemed to be installed in the monster, unloading rounds of softish pearls, but Nugget had a cannon of her own: they had acquired a Cannon Box on the Mushroomian sky island, fitting perfectly atop the child's head. By pulling a lever, the box blasted cannonballs that were magically stored inside, striking the armor over Clamity's core until it was down. Once exposed, her elder relatives impaled their swords into Clamity's single eye.

The flagpole and compass were found in the secret room behind Clamity. The flag would become a gold one with their Jolly Roger before they marched from the cave. "You were the star of that skirmish, my little Nugget!" Dad cheered, mounting his daughter on his shoulders. "Soon, the Seven Seas will fear the terror of Cannon Head Nugget!"

"Any cretin what mocks me will be blown headless!"

"And it looks like we made it before any rival crews got here!" Jim declared with a spring in his bare steps. "'Guess we're faster than I thought!"

The Blackhole would resume sailing the underground sea, following the compass's arrow with vigor. "Let's 'ave a toast!" Grandad raised a bottle of grog. "To our little cannoneer—ARH!" His hat blew off at the bang of a gunshot.

"HA HA HA HA! You can't f*** tell me you twerps actually found the compass!"

"Who dares mock me family with a foul lubber's tongue?!"

Jim Lad looked through a telescope: a PT boat was tailing the wooden vessel, waving a skull flag with guns for crossbones. Horrified, Jim recognized the huge, dark-skinned man with a green vest and sunglasses, and the Chinese-American woman with burgundy hair and blue jeans ripped at the hips. Their ship name, Black Lagoon, definitely rung a bell. "Blimey… I saw those guys in town! They look like monsters!"

"Don't think I'll go easy on you just 'cause you're a kid!" the woman, Revy yelled, wagging a gun. "Give us that compass or we'll blast you to smithereens!"

"YOU'LL TAKE THIS COMPASS OVER MY DEAD CARCASS!" Grandad bellowed.

"You heard him, Dutch! KILL THEM ALL!"

"If we blast them now, we'll lose the compass." Said the large man. "Give it a minute…"

The Jolley-Rogers fired cannons backward and kept forward, staying ducked to avoid Revy's gunfire. "Grandpa, take us through that tunnel!" Jim directed, unaware of the intruder climbing the hull. "The compass is pointin' toward a wall, so we might need to head-"

"JIM LAD!!" Before he could register Grandpa's cry, a man in a green tie and white shirt dashed past, swiped the compass from Jim's hand, and dove in the water. Seeing the man swimming back to the Lagoon with heavy breaths, Jim leapt on top of him, wrestling on the surface. "GIVE IT BACK! WE FOUND IT FIRST!"

"Get the hell off me, kid!"

"Hurry, Jim, grab on!" Mum yelled, throwing a rope down.

"YOU'RE TOO LATE!" Revy threw a rope for Rock to grab, she and Dutch tugging with such strength that he and Jim were yanked away from the Blackhole. "BENNY, TORPEDO!"

A crewmate inside the ship launched such a weapon, dread consuming the family's eyes as their home was engulfed in flame.

Avalar; Under Sea

The same fate befell the Bucky, proud ship of Jake and his Neverland Pirates. The Gabi Gang had relentlessly blew down its mast and its rudder. "WOOHOO!" roared the victorious captain. "Looks like you guys are NEVER gonna LAND now! WA HA HA HA HA!"

"Haha, good one, Gabi…" Falco laughed awkwardly.

"All right! We got the compass, so let's make way to the next island!"

The Under Sea was a labyrinth of tunnels spanning beneath Avalar's ocean, complete with its own islands. The walls, ceilings, and pillars of currents were a wonder to behold… but the younger rookies had no reason to enjoy it now. Gilda couldn't help but look with sympathy as their rivals drew further away. When Bucky's bell began to ring… Gilda heard a voice. "I'm sorry, guys. I didn't know if we could win… but I thought we could at least make it to the end…"

"It's okay, Bucky." Izzy, the pigtailed Neverlander, patted the cabin's broken wall in comfort. "What matters now is getting you fixed."

"S-Should we go back to the island?" Cubby stuttered. "We got too far away…"

"Hey, Gabi, I think we should turn around and help them."

"No way, Gilda! They're our enemies!"

"But it's not fair to leave them stranded out here."

"If they weren't prepared for this, they shouldn't have become pirates! Besides, if we let 'em tag with us, they might stab us in our sleep!"

"They don't look like they would do that." Don reasoned.

"Not taking the chance! That's one rival down and prob'ly plenty more to go, so we can't fall behind now!"

Remorseful, the kids faced the sea ahead. They would soon make a turn around a tunnel and be out of view of their rivals. Young Nel, however, shared their sympathy. The Neverland Pirates were kids, too, and Dad likes kids. …The 5-year-old cabin girl got an idea!

"Jake, look!" Izzy pointed. "Something's coming!"

Nel had stolen an inflatable raft, some planks, and a sail stored down in the brig, using her own little hands to row it to the stranded pirates. The Gabi Gang sailed on as if they had no idea. "Heeeey! Nel here to heeeeelp!"

"I saw her on their ship!" Cubby cowered. "She's here to finish us off!"

"No she isn't! She brought us supplies!" Jake beamed.

"We really appreciate it!" Izzy called. She didn't want to say that wouldn't be enough supplies to fix the damage… but another concern dawned. "But you just abandoned your crew…"

"It's okay! Nel give you stuff and paddle back before they know Nel gone!"

"You'll never catch up in time." Jake frowned. "Just stay with us for now."

"Jake! There's someone else coming!" Cubby cried.

His crewmates spun stern-side with a gasp: a trio of ships were approaching, flying the flag of the Contest Crew. "Oh! I think the Contest Crew's gonna help us. Maybe they can take her back to…" But Jake's hopes sank as the ships trained guns on them.

…

"Well, folks, it looks like the Jolley-Rogers and Neverlanders are out of the race!" Itomimizu announced, the T.V.'s showing the final clips of either crew. "I pray for the next rookies to confront the Gabi Gang and Lagoon Company!"

"Snooooore…snooooore…" Matilda was so sleepy that the low volume of the small tele didn't disturb her.

"The Shorescrubbers have yet to find their second compass. Meanwhile, it appears the Raccoons are on the run from the Deer-fox Hikers!"

Land of Lost Ones

"After them, me hearties!" Captain Abel declared with an aim of her finger. "They may 'ave gotten the compass, but they shan't get away from us!"

"Pow! Pow! Boom!" David cheered, the brown-haired, beady-eyed boy blasting blank rounds of his cannon.

"She sure warmed up to the atmosphere!" Isabelle laughed. "That was a pretty nice island. It had such a rich energy, don't you think?"

"It was a'ight." Silica stayed glue to her game.

"UGH, I swear!" Laruta huffed. "You know, Jason has a problem with running ahead, and YOU have a problem with not being invested at all! Silica, I hereby demand you go with Jason on the next island!"

"Mmmmmhhhhgg…"

"I wouldn't even know how to write that sound."

"Yeah, you're going with me, Sil! Captain's orders!"

"Only if her bestie gets to go, too!" Christina conditioned. "Say what, let's hear it for the bestie, woo!"

"Here's hoping the next island's even nicer!" Ralph smiled. "Oughta find us a nice place to settle down and have a pic-"

They were swept up in the Sky Tunnel and whooshed off to the next ocean! The toxic ocean reflected the light-green sky, a noxious scent filling their lungs. "…nic."

The acidic environment betrayed their hopes. They anticipated the sickened reactions of the Deer-fox Hikers upon their exit from the vortex. Jason loved the spiritual island, and he liked the cowboy country in truth… but he dreadfully hated environments like this. "Is it too late to trade routes with another crew?"