Hmmm…. I'm out of witty things to say for now. Humph. I'm stumped. Well, enjoy it while you can. I'm a little sick of the romance scenes for now… What say we make a treasure discovery today? Not the treasure discovery, but a treasure discovery definitely... I do not, have not, and sadly will not ever own this title- KatPhish

The Legacy and Silver's pirate ship were weighing anchor at some abandoned planet. It was marked on the map, so it had some kind of significance. Jim was set the task of preparing long boats. The captains, Delbert, the first mates, B.E.N., Alyss, and he were to be going ashore to look for clues to the treasure.

"All the map says is to 'Be wary for the glint of gold, though treasure be not in your hold,'" Alyss complained, waving her arms in the air, frustrated.

"You could be helping me with this," Jim commented, looking at her humorously over his shoulder. Alyss stuck her tongue out, but came to help. Once they had enough longboats supplied and armed with the docking gates open, they straightened back up and started for the deck.

"Jim, aren't you ever going to tell me why you and Dad are fighting?" she asked seriously.

Jim shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Come on, we need to let the captains know that we're ready, or we'll never get to figure out what the map's being so mysterious about."

Alyss frowned but followed him anyway, parting only to notify Silver. Once everybody was in the small boats, they took off.

An hour later they landed on the planet. It was grassy, but tall, slimy plant life grew higher than any of them stood. B.E.N. whimpered. "Why do we always have to go to the creepy, abandoned planets for treasure? Huh? Anyone?" Nobody answered him, though a few responded with exasperated looks over their shoulders. "Oh… I've got a bad feeling about this…" he reluctantly followed the train of people, half-covering his electric blue eyes.

Everyone had their blaster pistols in hand at the ready. It wasn't as bad, thought Jim, as scouting for the Treasure Planet expedition because there weren't any vicious pirates trying to kill them. For once, the pirates were on the same side! The down side was that nobody had any idea of what did live on the planet.

As if to partially answer the question on everybody's mind, a low growl sounded from the foliage surrounding them. Alyss shrunk almost imperceptibly closer to her father, but he smiled and put an arm around her shoulders. "Doan worry, the worse ting that'll come from those trees is nuthin' scarier than that old walkin' piece o' space junk behind us."

Alyss glanced over her shoulder at B.E.N. and suppressed a laugh as the robotic navigator yelped and jumped closer to Jim, wrapping his metal hands around the young man's arm. Jim tried to shake off the skittish robot but to no avail.

They continued to walk in the eerie silence until darkness fell. By then, the captains had no choice but to order that camp be set up. The first mates, Jim, and Alyss fell to the work, allowing Delbert and the captains to plan for the next day and to try and further decipher the map's clues. B.E.N. was too worked up to be of any help.

"Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim Jim," B.E.N. whimpered, tugging on Jim's sleeve.

Brushing the cold fingers out of the way, Jim shook his head. "What, B.E.N.?"

"I'm scared, Jimmy," the navigator whispered loudly, looking around them into the forest, his fear clearly written on his face.

"There's nothing to scared of. We're setting up camp, there's a fire, and we're armed. Anything out there doesn't stand a chance."

"Okay, whatever you say, Jimmy, but, the thing is, there's eyes watching us."

As B.E.N.'s words sank in, Jim straightened and examined the forest. Just as B.E.N. had said, there were pair of yellow and green eyes peering at them from the darkness. The light of the fire they had built in the clear reflected in those eyes. Alyss looked around as well, the fear rising in her chest. Moving over to the captain's gathering, she told Amelia and Silver.

Delbert looked up, got to his feet and walked around the clearing, examining each pair of eyes as he went. Everyone watched the doctor nervously, though both captains allowed him to continue his inspection.

"I do not believe that these enemies- er-entities, are going to cause us any trouble tonight, though I suggest a double guard be posted," he proclaimed at the end of his circle.

Amelia smiled and nodded at her husband. "Thank you, sweetheart. Now, about these directions." Turning back to the roll of parchment that the map was on, she shook her head. "They look as if they lead us around in circles, but it can't be. The coordinates of these circles become too small to be able to walk them…."

Hours passed before anyone fell asleep. Jim and Silver were assigned the first watch and they regarded each other warily at first. Neither knew what to say to the other. Silver was the first to speak.

"Jimbo, ye hav' te forgive me. It's been a long time since I knew the mot'er of my two children. I know that love ain't somet'in' ye control. I'm jest askin' ye te not push me girl into anyt'in'. She's young and ne'er known love afore, and neither have ye, I'll reckon." He gave Jim a pointed look, but the young man just sullenly looked into the forest.

"She begged me fer years, ye know, te get me te let her come along on a spacin' trip. She always wished te sail across the stars, getting' lost in the majesty that is the galaxy. Ye see, Jimbo, I'd hate fer either o' ye te get hurt…"

"Silver," Jim began in a warning tone.

"No, Jim Hawkins, ye'll listen te me…"

"Silver!" Jim yelled, raising his blaster pistol in the direction of the forest.

Silver turned his head and saw what Jim was looking at. Grabbing the young man by the collar of the back of his shirt, he pulled him out of the way as the beast lunged.

It was a large animal; standing on all four feet, it came up to Silver's shoulders, towering well above Jim's head. Green scales covered its back from the top of its head to the tip of its tail, but tawny fur peered out from its underside. A malicious, cat-like face curled its lips and snarled. A forked tongue pierced the air.

"OY! GET UP YE LAZY COGSWALLOPS! WE NEED TE MOVE!" Bellowed Silver, pushing Jim toward the tents. "Make sure everyone wakes up. We won't be leavin' behind anybody fer a snack fer this beast!"

Silver swiveled his cyborg hand around so that his pistol was out. He shot at the animal, hoping to deter it. However the creature didn't seem to want to abandon its new quarry. Instead, it tucked itself into a ball and exposed the scaly side of its body to the blast. The plasma glanced off and harmlessly vanished. As Jim was rousing the other members of the scouting party, Silver kept the beast busy. He didn't want to use the larger plasma cannon until there was no other option because it was slow.

Everybody was up within seconds, luckily. Gathering what little they could, The group ran. Amelia was leading the group, keeping a firm hand on her husband as she did so. Jim shoved B.E.N. along in front of him and looked behind him to see Alyss yanking on her father's arm. Silver stopped shooting at the creature and ran along in the back of the scouting party. The animal followed at a close pace. Amelia seemed to have an idea of where they were going, because soon they came upon a large mouthed cave.

Delbert's shout, "Of cour-aaaahhhh!" floated back to the rest of the group, but it was too late for any of them to turn back. B.E.N. and then Jim careened into the cave as well, following the first mates and closely followed by Silver and Alyss.

There was no sign of Captain Amelia or Delbert, and the first mates disappeared as well, right in front of Jim's eyes. B.E.N. let out a loud scream, turned to cling to Jim, and the two of them plunged down a hole in the cave's floor, sliding down a stone chute.

Alyss's high-pitched shriek filled the chute as she and then Silver followed the rest of the group down…. Down into the darkness of the unknown….

OOOOhhhh….. cliff hanger. Sorry for the delay in this chapter. It hit me after I started writing it that I had no clue what I was doing, so I did some more plot work and am happy with what I came up with, hope you are too! If you would love to travel down and hit the review button as much as I would love you to, you definitely should right away!