Chapter Text
Thunder clapping. Waves crashing. Sailors… screaming .
These sounds clouded every sense in her… the red devil of the sea. Or so the pirates of these oceans dubbed her as. On this night, these fearsome tales would be justified.
As the broken planks of a sinking ship flooded into the waters, the light of the full moon glistening against its soaked wooden surface, the innocent sailors of the ship struggled to stay afloat. This was supposed to be a simple job. Just deliver a few supplies and a few new trinkets to the city of Atlantis, and be paid handsomely by its famous and almighty ruler: Poseidon, God of the sea. But before the ship could even make it halfway, a force of nature struck them… along with a raging thunderstorm. It had almost felt calculated, and the beast that took them down had unfortunately won.
A lone sailor struggled to pull himself up onto the only remaining lifeboat, dragging over the side and slumping over in exhaustion. The rain felt like cold knives piercing his body, but he was too worn out to shield himself. With his remaining energy, he desperately fished for the flare gun in the boat’s supply bag, hesitantly holding it towards the sky before firing. With the task done, he slumped back into a sitting position, eyes shut to allow some small semblance of peace within his mind. The flare burst into light seconds later. His eyes fluttered open one more time, to be sure the flare made it to its destination… and his heart nearly stopped.
Before him, staring from the other side of the boat, was her. The flare’s blinding light illuminated her from her hiding place in the dark, delivering the sailor a sight so many pirates who spoke of her existence would always fail to see before she fled. A woman, with blood red pirate attire covering her form… a small but thick build, built clearly on a diet of meat and battle. Long shaggy dark brown hair, flowing in the storm wind like a swarm of eels. And piercing eyes… staring right into his soul. She of course had all their loot held firmly on her back, clutching the bag with hands adorned with small black claws. Was this truly a pirate… or some kind of sea monster? Before the sailor could even process the thought, a flash of lightning blinded his vision… and she was gone.
The red devil of the sea was on the loose once again.
-
“…and that’s all the details the sailor could recall.” Gordon finished reporting. A thick stack of papers was neatly tucked between his two front tentacles, filled out with information of the recent delivery boat robbery. “What do you think, sire? Should we send guards out to look for the thief?”
Towering above him, Atlantis’ most important figure was busy as usual: though not with paperwork like his cephalopod assistant, but instead with finding the right style of uniform to wear.
“Hm? Ah, but why bother, Gordon? Another pirate pilfering a few barrels of fruit and fish isn’t worth that level of investment.” The sea god twirled around in the mirror, his eyes still fixated on the rhinestone encrusted tights holding onto his thighs for dear life. Poseidon twirled the other way to give his assistant a good look at his backside. “How’s this for Zeus’s party, Gordon? A little too flashy?”
The octopus jumped in surprise at the show in front of him, covering his now reddening face with his stack of papers.
“Uh… y’know nothing’s too flashy on you, your lordship! But, I really do think we should be taking this robbery more seriously.” Clearing his throat, he flipped through the files as he explained. “According to multiple reports and eyewitnesses, this particular pirate has been a real menace in your waters for ages now. Boat crashings, stealing boatloads of rations and gold, multiple deadly assaults both on sailors and even on other pirates! Other pirates fear her so much, they’ve taken to calling her the ‘red devil’ of the sea.”
Gordon flipped through a few more articles before grimacing at a particular one. “And while this claim has no physical proof, she, uh… may or may not have eaten somebody before.”
“Maybe the fuchsia tights then? No, it clashes with my skin color too much. Perhaps the aquamarine ones with the vine patterns on it…” Once again, barely anything Gordon said had been registered by his extremely self-absorbed boss. He cleared his throat louder this time, finally grabbing the sea god’s attention again as he sighed. “Hm… while she definitely is a pest, if she’s got other pirates fearing for their safety then is she really that much of a threat to me specifically? I mean, it’s not like she broke in and took any of MY gold!”
“Actually, sire, that happened in the most recent report. Your proto-type golden bobblehead of yourself was on that ship, and she made off with it.” This finally made the sea god freeze in place, the pair of hot pants he was about to try on dropping from his hands like a lead weight. One could almost feel the air pressure change in the room as Poseidon’s rage boiled inside him. With a swing of his trident, he aimed it right at Gordon, his eyes blazing with fury.
“GORDON! SEND THE TROOPS TO FIND THIS VILLAIN! NOW! I’ll have her HEAD when I’m done with her!” his voice boomed throughout the room, nearly making the octopus trip onto the floor. Adjusting his glasses, he grinned proudly.
“I thought you’d say that, your highness! So I had already prematurely sent guards to hunt her down right after the report was made! They should have that demon in here in handcuffs any minute now! No need to thank me, your greatness.” As if right on cue, the doors to the office swung open… to reveal several badly beaten and torn up Atlantian guards. Before they could get a word out, they all flopped onto the ground in a heap. Gordon was left speechless, shifting his eyes back and forth between the pile of broken men and his boss, who simply raised an eyebrow at the sight.
“Oh, great plan, Gordon. Now we have no reinforcements left to find this beast!” The sea god groaned, collapsing into his office chair. His assistant tried to stutter out a defense, but quickly gave up, sighing and grabbing a nearby broom. Poseidon stroked his beard in thought, watching the cephalopod sweep the guards’ bodies out of the room before they could stain the carpet. “I suppose our next best bet is putting out a reward for her capture… but if she’s this terrifying, who would be stupid enough to even attempt the job? And if it's anyone from my court, they’d have to be expendable just in case she decides to eat them too…”
Pausing for a moment, Gordon suddenly clapped two tentacles together in realization.
“What about the pirates? They’re expendable AND stupid!” Once again acting like he barely heard him, Poseidon continued to ponder, before sitting up with a grin.
“Of course! We get the pirates to do it! They’re expendable AND stupid! Golly, I always come up with such great ideas.” As the god sat back with a satisfied grin, his assistant simply rolled his eyes. However, the grin disappeared quickly. “Wait, my son is with those pirates. We can’t send them out there to get that monster, she could tear poor Newt to pieces! TERRIBLE idea, Gordon.”
The cephalopod wasn’t even surprised at this point, holding his face by his tentacles in exasperation.
“Well, maybe if we equip Newt with some extra protection, she won’t be able to chew her way through before the others somehow manage to wrangle her down. You were able to catch and tame whole sea monsters with less effort, your lordship, one pirate shouldn’t be THAT difficult to take down with the right tools.” The octopus gestured to a wall of victorious portraits beside him, all of different encounters Poseidon had with many sea monsters. A large one drew attention to the center of them, depicting him wrestling Leviathan into a headlock using the famed Horned Gauntlets of Joppa. His eyes focused on the gauntlets, the god sighed and leaned back into his chair.
“Very well, then. Call Newt and his crew effective immediately! And don’t forget to load him up with as many tools from my monster stable’s toolshed as you can find.” Poseidon leaned down to glare at the octopus square in the eyes. “And if my son is devoured by that cretin, it’s on your head.”
Gordon gulped nervously at that. As quickly as his little tentacles could muster, he didn’t waste time pulling out his shell phone and speed dialing the fish boy’s number.
-
“…and that’s the plan! To summarize, we lure her in with the fried fish that Booli made, rush at her all at once from every angle, and shove the muzzle and cuffs my dad gave us onto her while she’s overwhelmed! It’s a foolproof plan! Got all that, guys?” Newt finished rambling, his hands firmly on the wheel of their ship. For once, however, a certain bluebearded pirate wasn’t trying to tug it in the other direction. The fish boy swiveled his head around in confusion for the sight of his crew. “I saaaid, isn’t that right-…Guys?”
Stuffed together in a shivering pile in the doorway to the lower decks, the members of the Pirate Express currently better resembled a nest full of terrified baby birds than they did rough n’ tough sailors. Lapoutine yanked a trembling arm out of the pile of men and pointed it towards Newt.
“You’ve lost yer flippin’ mind in the trenches if ye think we’re goin’ out there to get eviscerated by that shebeast!!” he exclaimed, very clearly trying to shove himself past the others to flee and hide in his room. Sadly, he still couldn’t budge an inch under his trembling crew. Newt rolled his eyes, leaning against the ship’s wheel.
“Oh, come on! You’ve never even seen this person with your own eyes before, she wasn’t around before you guys got stuffed in a bottle. What’s so scary about her?” he questioned. Booli shoved his large hat over his eyes in fear.
“We heard the stories ‘bout her at Smuggler’s Bay! Someone told me she once tore an entire great white shark in two with just ONE nasty bite!” he whimpered in terror.
“I heard she can throw a cannonball harder than the cannon itself! She took down three navy ships at once tossin’ that bloody thing like a baseball!” Burt shuddered, retreating back in the barrel he took shelter in.
“Armando is forever haunted by the tales of men she seduced into submission, before tearing their faces off with her teeth!” Armando yelled. He turned away to speak to himself under his breath. “I am both terrified… AND a little aroused .”
“And none of you thought maybe people were exaggerating even a little bit? Or just straight up lying to you? Something pirates like to do pretty much all the time?” Newt’s words finally made the crew pause in their collective terror. He had a point… the stories were terrifying, but hardly did anyone they spoke to have physical evidence of them being anything but rumors to entertain the gullible drunkards at the Captain’s Club. Newt sighed, tossing them the cuffs and muzzle his father had lent him. “Look, even if she might be tough, there’s still only one of her and six of us. I think with our numbers, and all the cool equipment Dad gave us, we have a chance!”
“Ye sure that lunky hunk of metal on your shoulders is, er… useful?” Lapoutine raised an eyebrow, pointing at the armor covering Newt’s whole body. Sure, it would probably protect him even from a demon pirate’s bite, but it was also just as good at making him look like a walking talking trash can. Newt huffed as the others began to snicker, trying his best to pose triumphantly to emphasize the suit’s awesomeness: to say the least, it just looked stupider.
“My dad tamed a bunyip at my age using this armor! If it worked for him, it’ll work for me.” Their debate was swiftly interrupted by Spewey’s frantic squawking, the bird perched in his usual lookout spot in the ship’s crow’s nest. His little flippers pointed outwards toward the water, where a ripple was forming, signaling the movement of… something down below. Newt gasped at the sight and quickly waddled in his suit of armor to a hiding spot behind some barrels. “That must be her! Booli, throw your fried fish onto the deck like we planned!”
“Oh, it feels so wrong wastin’ perfectly good swordfish meat on that crazy monster…” Booli muttered, reluctantly sliding the tray of food towards the center of the ship before scrambling to his own hiding place.
After a few minutes of still silence, something collided with the ship. And then again. And again. The sound and vibrations grew heavier and closer with each second… before something flew up and landed with a deafening thud right onto the ship. The crew could only see her silhouette from the cracks of their hiding places, but what they saw sent a cold shiver down their spines… The soaked and lumbering figure, face and body covered in strung seaweed, slowly made her way to the center of the ship. She seemed to be surveying the area, her head slowly swiveling around as she stomped forward. Finally, she stopped on a dime, staring right over the tray of food left abandoned before her. Strangely though, she didn’t make a move to eat it… just continued to stare at it, as if expecting something to happen (or maybe she just didn’t like the look of Booli’s cooking). Regardless, they couldn’t wait all day for her to begin her free lunch, Newt silently signaling to Spewey from up top the crow’s nest. The penguin nodded obediently… and loudly whistled to the others. There was the signal!
“EVERYBODY, CHAAAARGE- AGH!” Newt screamed, having waddled as fast he could towards the woman before being immediately flung backwards. In a split second, he was now stuck within the wall of the ship, the armor dented in the middle by the tray of fish she had whipped at him at lightning speed. The sight made the others retract even further into their hiding places. Luckily, Spewey wasn’t going down without a fight, and flung himself from the crow’s nest onto the pirate's back. A cacophony of angry squawks and haunting growls could be heard as the tiny penguin tried to hook his flipper around her throat, the muzzle in his other wing. She was just seconds away from bucking the poor bird off, finally making the others suck in a breath to steel their nerves.
“C’mon, lads!! We ain’t gonna leave Spewey hangin’ like a bunch o’ scared baby seals! ATTACK!” Lapoutine burst from the doors of the galley, sword waving in his good hand as he rushed at the woman from behind. As he got a foot away from her, she managed to finally throw Spewey off and right into the bluebeard’s face, making him stumble back.
Burt rushed at her from the other side, laughing blissfully as he hurled a barrage of lit dynamite at her. The shebeast became a red blur as she dodged each one, running up to Burt and grabbing him by his sausage shaped throat. The yellow in his skin nearly became a shade of blue as she immediately attempted to choke him out. Booli couldn’t handle the sight anymore, whimpering as he blindly sped forward and headbutted her onto the floor, making her release Burt. The growling only became louder, more terrifying… Booli could feel his heart drop into his stomach as he froze in fear, watching the red demon stand up and glare right at him. The seaweed covering her face had half-fallen off, now revealing her bared rows of sharp teeth. The cook nearly vomited from fear at the sight.
“Stand back, amigos! Armando will fend off this diablo rojo while you help Capitan Newt!” Armando shouted, the conquistador jumping right between Booli and the woman with a sword in hand. Booli and Burt quickly ran off to help free Newt, leaving their friend in a stand-off position with the beast before him. He had to be swift, and crafty, and most of all… a long enough distraction. Taking the opportunity, Armando twirled and whipped the sword across her face, knocking the rest of the seaweed off. A sharp growl filled the air… that was a mistake. In a heartbeat, the monstrous pirate tackled the spaniard to the ground, violently slamming him against the floorboards. The speed and impact made his vision blur, as he desperately tried to clutch at her clawed hands now tightly held around his neck.
“ARMANDO! Don’t worry, we’re coming!” Newt called, still struggling to push himself out of the wall, even with the help of three other men tugging on the other side. Armando continued to struggle, kicking his legs harshly against the wood beneath him in a last attempt to push himself up. He couldn’t die here, not like this… not when there were still so many beautiful faces for him to see in the world! The last thing he should see before meeting Davey Jones should be the face of a stunning and gorgeous maiden, not… the face of this stunning and gorgeous maiden?
Armando had finally opened his eyes, his vision clearing as he got a good look at the shebeast here to end his life… and it felt like his breath had already been stolen before she could even begin to strangle him. A round and soft face, burned red by the sun and her own adrenaline. Strands of her thick brown hair falling over the sides of her face, framing it so perfectly. A row of jagged shark-like fangs sat between small and plush lips. While sharp full eyebrows furrowed over… the most mesmerizing eyes he had ever stared into. The minute their eyes locked, it felt like a harpoon of pure passion and bliss had pierced his heart, leaving him powerless and completely under her spell. A deep red blush filled Armando’s cheeks, and without fear his hands slid up to gently hold her own. He had somehow managed to find the strength to sit up ever so slightly, so that their noses brushed against each other, as the now smiling lovestruck sailor whispered the first and only words on his mind.
“ Marry me .”
…What? The she-pirate’s rage fell completely silent. She had barely processed what he had said due to the shock. In surprise, she finally let go of his neck, her deadly glare now morphed into one of pure bewilderment. Not to mention, a little bit of pink in her cheeks. Why in the name of Gaia would he-
“ GRAB HER! ” In her moment of confusion, the remaining crew had managed to catch her off guard and tackle her to the ground. Even with the tactical advantage, she had managed to yank at least two of them off before Spewey finally slammed the cuffs on her hands, shoving them behind her back. The restraints only made her angrier… With no hands to grab at the nearest living thing, she resorted to her second deadliest weapon: her teeth. She lunged towards Newt, biting at the armor shielding between him and a fate of being turned into gutted trout. Unfortunately, it wasn’t holding on for much longer, with cracks already beginning to form in the front as she gnawed at the metal.
“We gotta get this damn muzzle on her before she kills the squirt!” Lapoutine quickly tossed the muzzle to Spewey, who made quick work climbing back onto the shebeast’s back a second time. Her body collided back and forth, between trying to throw Spewey off once again, and trying to tear Newt’s suit open like a can of tuna. The poor fish boy could only sit back in terror, as the sight of her razor sharp teeth within the metal started to become visible. Finally, with one hard yank that threw Spewey back into Lapoutine’s arms, the front of Newt’s armor flew off into the ocean waters. The beast loomed over the shivering Atlantian, teeth bared and dripping with drool, preparing to bite… but then stopped. Once again, the look of bewilderment returned to her face as she quickly sat back. Newt simply blinked back at her through wide terrified eyes.
“…You’re just a kid?” she finally spoke, her voice low and gravelly like a worn dirt road. Was that why she didn’t kill him right away? Newt timidly nodded, still not moving from his huddled fetal position in the broken suit. Any next words the woman would have spoken were silenced in an instant by the muzzle now snapped onto her face. Pushing her to the ground, Lapoutine, Burt, and Booli all pinned her down as hard as they could. They had done it… and without a single casualty!
Well, if you don’t count brain cells.
“Be GENTLE with her, you ruffians! That is no way to treat a lady!” Armando barked at them, already trying to pry them off, though his spindly arms had little success. Lapoutine scoffed in disbelief.
“What LADY? This barracuda in a wig hardly counts as a woman, don’t ye think??” The insult didn’t go unheard, the shebeast aiming a swift kick right into Lapoutine’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Armando took the chance to push him off completely, gently helping her into a sitting position. Newt just rolled his eyes. Figures, even when the girl tried to turn them all into chum, Armando couldn’t keep his hands off. Luckily, she was restrained enough that she couldn’t take his own hands off his body.
“Woman or not, we managed to capture her! Good work, team!” Newt congratulated, finally climbing out of the rubble of the suit. His eyes momentarily locked with the beastly pirate, her face reading obvious signs of rage and confusion. “Listen, no hard feelings, ma’am. But my dad needed us to bring you to him, and the god of the sea doesn’t take no for an answer, not even from me.”
At the word “god”, the woman’s eyes widened in horror, and an audible gasp could be heard muffled from under the muzzle. Interesting response… Newt slowly stepped forward, taking note of the woman now cowering back as he did, but continued until he was eye-level with her.
“Don’t freak out, we’re not gonna hurt you! But, uh… you stole from an important delivery ship of his, and for lack of a better word he’s… pretty pissed.” A muffled whimper could definitely be heard this time, and Armando instinctively put a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch. Newt frowned in worry. Keep up the small talk, maybe she’ll calm down… The Atlantian boy crouched down. “While we take you to Atlantis, we promise to make the boat ride as comfortable as we can. We’ll try to do everything we can, Ms…. um…”
Her eyes slowly gazed up at him in contemplation. She couldn’t believe she was even humoring this. But if this was the end of the line, what was the point in secrecy?
“I’ve taken to going by… Crimson. Cutthroat Crimson.”