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.*･｡. EFF IT! .*･｡.
————THE FORBIDDEN ZONE
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023.
THE ROYAL MERCHANT.
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It was still warm the next morning.

The sun was out, the sky was blue, and there was a faint chirping of birds as Sonny strolled along the docks. As she walked past her family boat, she winced. Sure, it was good now, all patched up and ready to sail, but her parents were pissed about it still— which Sonny found dumb, especially since it had cost nothing to fix.

After miraculously finding that missing piece on the deck, which was actually just left there by JJ at a later date, her dad had been able to repair it himself for free.

That wasn't so bad, was it?

"Mornin', princess!"

   Sonny rolled her eyes, it was too early for JJ's voice.

Actually, it was too early in general. But apparently Pogues were early risers, waking at the crack of dawn, ready to head out on the water and find the Royal Merchant before the sun disappeared and set them back again. Sonny knew it was the wise thing to do, but she was personally half asleep when she approached Heyward's boat, not having had enough sleep to warrant such an early start.

Not enough to warrant watching JJ balance on the side of the boat so recklessly, either, with his arms stretched out and his usual smirk on his lips.

Sonny debated pushing him, but decided it would be even better if he slipped off by himself.

    "Need a hand?" He chirped.

Sonny walked past him, "Only if it's severed."

JJ blinked.

    "...so that's a no?"

   Sonny ignored him, hopping onto the rim of the boat just left of him, and then onto the deck, knees bent. JJ mumbled something about her being a total show-off, so she just flipped him the bird and walked away.

"Madame Penbrook," John B tipped his cap.

Sonny saluted him in response and he grinned, pleased to see her actually respond.

"Captain," she said. "Heyward," she nodded at Pope, "Mother Teresa," she finished.

Kiara frowned, "Hilarious."

"What?" JJ piped up from behind her, no longer standing on the boat's edge but following her closely. He faked a pout, watching her turn on her heel. "No greeting for little ol' me?"

    "I don't feel like it," she said bluntly. He clutched his chest and pretended to fall over. Sonny watched with a blank look, unamused, and turned away again.

"Ready for today's voyage?" John B asked.

She shrugged.

"If I have to be."

"Ouch," he muttered quietly.

"Hey, how come we never take Sonny's boat?" Pope asked as he started to sail away from the docks, eyes glued it. There was a moment where they all followed his gaze, watching the boat get further away. Pope sighed, "I just wanna set sail on a real Kook boat, man."

"Shit like that is gold on water." John B answered him. He gave Sonny a nod as he fiddled with the water drone, as if it implied she was worthy of gold on water, but Sonny was too busy frowning at him to notice. He clearly didn't know what he was doing with the drone. Why didn't he just leave all the complex science stuff to Pope? "We don't amount to gold on water, my dearest Pope."

"Not yet," JJ reminded them.

"Not yet," Kiara echoed with bright eyes. "After this, we'll have our own boats. One each."

"Yeah, and my boat'll be bigger than that," JJ said.

They all rolled their eyes.

"That's just one of our boats, sunshine." Sonny said with a tight smile. His smug face fell. "Maybe I'll show you guys the one we have in the Bahamas sometime. Makes this one look like a safety raft."

"Oh, to be rich..." John B sighed.

   Pope nodded, "To have a boat in the Bahamas..."

   Slipping her bag off her back, Sonny plopped down on the deck next to John B and crossed her legs. She routed through it, unzipping the side. After a few moments, Sonny pulled out a crate of beers and passed them out, making sure to leave JJ last. He whined about it being unfair, so Kiara opted to hand him hers to get him to shut up. Sonny replaced it for her and raised her own in the air.

    "To going full Kook," Sonny said, almost mockingly.

   They all nodded.

    "To going full Kook!" They recited.

————

   After an hour or two, when they were sat somewhere near the coordinates John B's dad had left him, the teens finished their beers and began their preparations. The weather could change at any moment, so if they wanted the gold, they had to hurry up and get it now.

There was no time like the present.

It was hard to get the coordinates exact, especially when it was so far out in the water, where the tide was unpredictable and reckless, even on a sunny day.

But JJ was proving himself a good sailer— like the one he claimed to be. Sonny was actually surprised he kept the boat as steady as he did. JJ was the opposite of steady, busy racing around like a bumper car, but his sailing was good. She didn't want to admit it, but she might've actually been impressed. He would never know that, though.

"Can you stand fucking still, Booker?"

He looked at her, frowning.

Maybe she was just irritated that she was stuck with Kiara and the crappy job of feeding the drone line, but all John B's ambling was pissing her off. She understood he was a bag of nerves, flitting between each station while navigating, but his bumbling was stupid.

    "No," he replied, simply. "Alright JJ, pin it here!"

    "Roger that! X marks the spot!"

   While Pope nodded, Kiara looked at Sonny with a frown, "Are we meant to say ahoy?"

   Sonny scoffed, she sure hoped not.

    "Alrighty, ladies and gentlemen!" John B clambered up to stand on the edge of the boat, holding the stolen drone in the air. He looked proud as he stood there, reminiscing on all the crazy stuff that had brought them this far, and everyone took a moment's silence. "To going full Kook!"

    "Amen, brother!"

    "Amen!"

    "Just throw it in, asshole."

   Ignoring Sonny, John B kissed the drone and then carefully lowered it into the water. Kiara took ahold of the line, gently dropping it lower and lower, and Pope wiggled his shoulders, readying himself to take control.

   Sonny grabbed the chalk Kiara had brought and started to mark how low it went, while John B then picked up the tablet he'd brought along, squinting down at it.

    "JJ, we're right over it!" He called over his shoulder, "Ten seconds northwest!"

    "Got it! Ten seconds northwest!"

   The boat turned slightly.

    "One-hundred feet!" Kiara announced.

   Sonny tallied another line on the side of the boat. It was a long way off still, another nine-hundred feet to go, but it was only the start and it made them jittery. Even Sonny cracked a small grin. The whole thing still felt like a crazy dream. Were they actually doing all of this?

   Were they insane?

   The atmosphere was broken by Pope after a second, as he jumped away from the screen in shock. Their heads shot up, eagerly waiting to see what he had found, but their faces fell when his cheeks flushed crimson. Everybody sighed. John B asked what happened, and Pope reluctantly admitted that he hadn't found anything. He'd probably just got a fright from a fish or something, knowing Pope. Sonny's time spent in their group had shown her he wasn't as fearless as John B and not as brazen as JJ. Even Kiara had more muscle on her than he did. But it was okay. Pope was Pope.

    "Don't do that to me, man..." John B groaned.

    "My bad, I just thought I saw—" Pope cut himself short, too embarrassed to say.

    "What?" Sonny teased, "A shark?"

   JJ snorted, "Puss—ay!"

   Pope rolled his eyes at the taunting and turned back to the drone screen with a grumble. If anything, he preferred when Sonny and JJ didn't get on. It worked out much better for him in the long run. Probably better for everybody else there too.

   With a warning glare from John B — one that told Sonny and JJ no one was in the mood for them to be mean —, the drone had gained another three-hundred feet. Pope recited a quote from The Hobbit, which made it really hard not to make any snide comments, and shortly after, the group were closer to the ship than ever before.

    "Four-hundred feet!"

   Marking it, Sonny leaned over the edge of the boat, feeling it start to shake and toss. She sighed, "Guys— tide's turning."

   A silence fell over them. There was a silent debate, unsure whether they ignored the faint roll of thunder up ahead and kept looking, or reigned in the drone and head back before it got too dicey. It was ultimately John B's decision, and the rest of them watched him intently, trying to guess what moves he would play. They all knew the risk here— losing the drone to the tide, losing control of the boat. While JJ was proving a competent sailor, Sonny wasn't sure the Royal Merchant was worth the risk of capsizing. But maybe John B was worth it. Because this meant more to him than money. This was his father's dying wish.

   Eventually, John B ran his tongue across his bottom lip and faced the cockpit. His uncertain glance travelled between the boy at the wheel and his tablet.

"Hey, JJ?" He called.

    "Yup?"

    "Ten seconds easy, south-southeast."

The tension dissipated.

    "Copy that!" JJ spun the wheel, adjusting his hat.

   Kiara and Sonny continued to feed the line and mark the depth, sharing uncertain looks when the sky started to cloud and darken. They weren't sure how this was going to go but they were willing to try.

     "JJ, twenty seconds mid-speed, alright? South!"

    "Copy that! Aye, aye!"

    The drone line pulled to a halt, starting to fight Kiara as it went down. Sonny's brows furrowed and she swiftly moved to the barrel, a grimace on her face when she realised it had just stopped in its spinning. That definitely shouldn't be happening. Sonny breathed a curse, "Shit..."

   JJ turned to look at them briefly, "Kie! You gotta keep the tether outta the prop!"

    "I'm trying!" Kiara yelled back.

Her arms yanked around awkwardly as she tried to steady the wire. The boat made a groaning sound and she looked to Sonny in a panic, her eyes wide. Sonny wasn't sure how best to help keep her emotions at bay.

"It's stuck!" Kiara told the boys as she and Sonny tried to calm the line, "What do we do?!"

   Abandoning the line, Sonny peered over the edge and into the water. She didn't know how far the line had gone since it had jammed, but she knew no amount was a good amount. If it was stuck, it wouldn't take long for the propellers to give in, or slice straight through it. Then they would lose their drone, forever. They would lose it.

   Sonny stepped back and gripped her shirt, lifting it up and over her head. She tossed it aside, her shorts going next, and then her sunglasses, until they sat in a pile.

    "What are you doing?" Kiara asked, alarmed.

    "It's stuck in the prop!" She replied as she pulled her hair into a bun, "Someone's gotta fix it!"

   John B frowned, "Woah, are you insane?"

    "Yeah— you can't go down!" Pope agreed, feverishly.

    "Why not?"

    "It's a literal death trap!"

   Rolling her eyes, Sonny slid off her sandals. Okay, it wasn't her best idea to jump into troubled waters, but what choice did they have? She couldn't lose that drone. Not for her own sake, but for the Pogues. The damn Pogues.

For John B, whose dad left him the trail to follow. For Pope, who wanted a good scholarship to appease his hopeful family. For Kiara, who wanted to feel free. And for JJ, who wanted to go full Kook. Who needed a lucky break, who wanted his best friends to find happiness.

    "Don't be an idiot, princess." Speak of the devil.

    "If I don't go down there, we lose the drone!" She called, clambered onto the ledge of the boat, arms out to keep her balance. "No drone, no money!"

    "What's a drone on your life?" JJ reasoned.

    "I can do it!"

   John B shook his head.

"Have you seen that tide?" He asked.

She looked down at the water. Sonny suddenly felt a little whoozy. Okay, that didn't look good.

   Sonny steeled herself, "I'm a good swimmer!"

   And then she jumped in.

   It took a moment for her eyes to clear, the toss and turn of the tide making it blurry. She kicked her legs and swam down a little further, fighting to get to the underside of the boat. As she followed the drone line, she realised it had bunched up, a knot in the propellers.

   She kicked back up to the surface and sucked in a breath, then dove back down. Gripping the line in her hand, Sonny gave it a tug to see how hard it would be to untangle. Turns out, it was going to be hard. Really hard.

   Fuck.

   Sonny continued to pull and tug, paddling fast to prevent the water tossing her about. She worked as swiftly as possible while trying to keep her fingers intact, fumbling to figure out which way the line was looped around the prop. It couldn't have been long before it loosened but she wasn't able to celebrate, not when her vision blurred and a sharp pain struck her jaw. Sonny reeled backwards.

Stupid fucking drone hit her right in the face.

Everything was hazy for a moment, and the only thing she could feel was the pounding in her head and the line gripped tightly in her hand. It was quiet.

The mess around her cleared and her lungs began to burn, and for a moment, Sonny actually wondered if she had died.

   At least the line was loose.

   The realisation was enough for Sonny to let it go, pushing up to the surface with sloppy kicks of her legs.

    "She did it!" Kiara near shrieked as the line started to roll again, the barrel spinning as it went. "Okay— okay, we're at seven-hundred feet!"

Pope paused, "Where's Sonny?"

    "D'you see her?" JJ called, "Did she come up?"

    "I don't know..." John B chewing his lip anxiously, leaning over the side of the boat. He squinted his eyes, hoping to see her above the choppy tide, but it was hard to see anything in those waves. It made his stomach stir. "Hold her steady, we'll turtle in this storm JJ!"

    "Where is she?" Kiara yelled.

    "I don't—"

    "Hey!" A voice choked out.

They all sighed in relief, watching Sonny Penbrook's head break through the waves. Without missing a beat, John B let go of his tablet and hoisted a leg over the side of the boat, a hand outstretched. He gripped Sonny's tightly, when she got close enough, and hauled her out of the water. Letting out a light laugh, John B ruffled her hair.

"You scared the shit out of us, Penbrook..."

    "Ah, fuck—" Pope helped him set her down, slowly. "Your face, dude..." he grimaced at her bloody lip, briefly recalling her patching his face up. "You got hit?"

She gave him a blank look.

    "No shit, Heyward."

    "Not concussed," he decided, "She's fine."

   Sonny scoffed, shakily wiping the wet strands of hair away from her eyes. She grimaced when it made her face ache. All for a stupid stolen drone.

    "John B! Switch!"

   She didn't really pay attention as John B disappeared from view. Sonny just tried to comprehend Kiara's reports of how deep the drone had gone but, in a blink, JJ appeared in front of her. Pope left too, back to navigation, saying something to JJ about the medical kit being in the hull. So then it was only the two of them, and Sonny blinked slowly as JJ crouched in front of her. He shook his head.

    "Idiot Kook." The boy muttered.

   She sighed, "Fuck you."

   JJ took off his hat and then his grey crewneck. It left him in only a tank top and shorts, typical JJ attire, and Sonny hardly registered what he was doing before he tapped on her elbows and gestured upwards with a hand.

    "Arms up," he told her. She listened blindly.

She'd never done that, before. JJ might have revelled in the moment if it weren't for the trail of blood down her chin. It made it bitter-sweet. Jaw set, JJ pulled the crewneck over her torso, muttering sorry when she winced. He sighed, "Told ya not to be an idiot, princess."

    "And I told you, sunshine—" she coughed, pushing at his fussing hand when the pad of his thumb brushed the cut on her lip. "—I'm a damn good swimmer."

   He stared at her.

Then he grinned, "You're insane."

    "Insane got the line free, didn't it?" She retorted.

    "Yeah," JJ gave in, "I guess it did, Kook."

    "JJ! I need you, up here!"

   Sonny cast him a look that told him to go, and JJ (for once in his life) listened to what she was telling him. There was far more at stake than a busted lip and bruising jaw, and as soon as he returned to his spot at the wheel, Sonny hauled herself up and moved to Kiara's side. Because you know, all hands on deck, and all that shit.

    "Nine-twenty!" Kiara told her, arms moving over-time to keep up with the drone. Sonny nodded and marked it down.

    "Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds!" John B yelled for JJ to hear. He glanced at his tablet and then at Pope. He'd tried to monitor every post and it was making him all jittery. "Pope, how are we doing?"

   Pope nodded, "Almost there!"

    "There's too much current!" It was Sonny who alerted the boys this time, chalk abandoned as she helped Kiara hold the drone line. The weather was against them and it wouldn't let up, even a little. "We're gonna lose it!"

    "South, southwest, JJ! Hard!"

Turning his cap to sit backwards on his head, JJ exhaled a breath and did as told. He had to rest an arm up against the wall to keep from being jostled.

   When John B spoke next, "Half speed! Steady at this bearing, JJ!" the blonde wiped his brow and did as told, just able to hear above all the noise.

   Ping!

John B's tablet flashed, the little boat now red.

   They all tensed.

"What do you got, Pope?" John B threw himself towards the drone screen, eyes desperately analysing the dark depths below. He looked back at Pope, almost hopefully. "Come on, man... what do you see?"

"Nothin'," Pope huffed, "A whole lot of nothin'!"

"We should be right above it, brother!"

"Kiara! Sonny!"

"Nine-sixty!" Sonny had given up on marking. It wasn't of any use now, anyway. Especially when the girls were using all their efforts to keep the line going. It had to be there, she looked at the next red strip on the line, it just had to be. "Nine-seventy! Nine-eighty! Anything?"

Pope jumped, "I'm at the bottom! I'm at the bottom!"

"Okay— steady here, JJ! Steady here!" John B hollered at him, "Quarter speed, alright?"

Kiara dropped the line, running to look at the screen with John B and Pope, leaving Sonny and JJ to stand anxiously. It wasn't like JJ could leave the wheel, and Sonny wasn't sure it was a good idea to look at all. She wasn't sure she wanted to know if it was there or not. Because if it wasn't, then she had no intention of seeing John B's face.

   His devastated face.

"You should be seeing something, man..." John sighed. His stress was palpable.

    Pope looked even closer.

"I know— wait! Wait—" Pope's jaw dropped to his feet. It made them all seize up again, and Sonny changed her mind. She couldn't wait. She had to know. She had to know it was there. "Oh, good god..."

"What?" She asked, "What is it?"

JJ was restless too, "Guys? See anything?"

Nodding slowly, face aglow with amazement, John B gave the softest laugh of relief and disbelief. Kiara and Pope were just as stunned. It was enough to tell Sonny and JJ that they did see something. A very big something. The something they had been looking for, all this time.

"It's the Royal Merchant."

No fucking way.

━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━

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