Invaders of the Caribbean

Curse of the Black Pearl

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me…"

The sound of the quiet voice drifting over the mist was the only thing that made the old ship seem alive in the middle of the ocean. The soft music echoed off the still water and over the ice floes, drifting away in the otherwise eerie silence.

The singer? The young Gazlene Membrane, daughter of the governor Membrane Membrane. She was stuck on the ship with a bunch of adults, and not a single other soul under the age of thirty. She'd read the books she'd brought on the voyage a hundred times over each.

She was so BORED.

And so, Gazlene, or Gaz, as she was to those familiar with her, had resorted to singing, something she normally despised. At least she was singing about pirates, who were pretty cool. They blew stuff up and killed people. Gaz, being a morbid child in upbringing, had been rather fascinated with them, especially tales of Irkens, pirates who had devises beyond her eight-year-old imagining. Supposedly, they weren't even human, some sort of mystical, evil race. Not that Gaz would show interest in such frivolous things, especially since, according to her father, they didn't even exist. So here she was, singing, otherwise known as doing something she hated. Ugh.

"…We pillage, we plunder, we sack, we loot, drink…" Gaz's singing was very suddenly stopped by a none-too-friendly hand on her shoulder. She gasped despite herself, and glanced up to find the glaring faces of Commander Red and Commander Purple. At least, that was what everyone called them. Supposedly, they were Irken, but Gaz had yet to see proof, and she wasn't interested enough in rumors to go check it out herself. Besides, if they were, they did a pretty good job of hiding it.

"It's bad luck to be singing pirate songs on the ocean, Miss Membrane."

"Yeah. You wanna sink our ship? Huh? Huh?"

"Red, Purple, I suggest you hurry back to your posts. You're not supposed to be here." The new voice surprised Red and Purple, but Gaz had seen the man come up behind the two idiots.

"But she was singing about pirates!"

"That's bad luck! It's bad enough luck to have a woman on board, but a woman singing about pirates…"

Red and Purple were cut off, again, by the voice of authority. "To your posts, gentlemen."

The two potential-Irkens grumbled and stalked off, leaving only Gaz and her new companion at the bow of the ship.

"They are right, though, Gazlene. There's nothing good about pirates, and ESPECIALLY not those Irkens."

"I thank you for your help," Gaz took a quick glance at the General next to her. "Iggins, but I assure you, my interests are firmly set. I just happen to find pirates somewhat interesting."

Iggins did his best not to look informal around the governor's daughter, and failed utterly. "Please. You've just never met one before, is the only reason you think that. They're worse than vampire piggies. It's my goal to make sure every pirate and every Irken gets the right punishment: A short drop and a sudden stop."

Gaz glanced back to where Red and Purple were guarding deck. Upon seeing her fleeting glance on them, they took the opportunity to signal hanging with their neckties. Gaz's morbid nature kicked in, and she gave it an 'eh', shrugged, and glanced over to where her father was approaching. Iggins popped into salute as Membrane gave him a short talk.

"General Iggins, I fear that this conversation with my daughter goes rather against the principals of REAL SCIENCE that I have been bringing her up with. It takes some effort to teach REAL SCIENCE to a growing girl, so I'd appreciate if you and your sailor nonsense stayed far away from her mind." At the words 'real science', Membrane stopped what he was saying and hit a pose, pointing into the distance. He would then continue upon his regularly scheduled talk as if nothing had happened.

Iggins started, probably to protest that he hadn't been talking about 'sailor nonsense', then realized that he was talking to Membrane Membrane, and closed his mouth. "Yes, sir." Was all he got out of his clenched jaw, before heading off to the back of the ship, followed closely by Membrane. Gaz, once again alone, turned to the front of the ship and stared out into nothing.

And promptly caught sight of something.

Gaz threw her normal sullen disposition to the wind and pointed, then turned to the retreating back of her father. "Look!" It came out in a slightly more panicked voice than the calm she'd intended, and she mentally kicked herself for showing such weakness. "There's a boy down there! There's a boy in the water!"

The response on the ship was immediate and palpable. All crewmates, including, but not limited to, Red, Purple, Iggins, and even Membrane, rushed to the front of the boat. Sure enough, there on a makeshift raft lay a boy, pale as death with a mop of stark black hair, cloaked in tattered remains of what had probably been clothes before nature had made it's way to him. There were also, Gaz noticed, shiny spots near his eyes. While the adults rushed to and fro trying to get the boy onboard, she stood still, like the eye of a hurricane. It wasn't until they boy was actually on the ship and she distantly heard her father tell her to go see him that she snapped out of the stillness and went to see the newcomer.

When seeing the boy up close, Gaz noticed a few things she hadn't before. Firstly, he didn't have shiny spots on his eyes, he was wearing spectacles. They were broken, however, with a cobweb of breaks decorating them. Secondly, he looked pretty young, younger than she'd thought. He was maybe a year or two older than she was. Thirdly, he looked pretty beaten up, to the point that she was sure it wasn't just from nature. Something had been attacking him, she was sure.

The first instinct Gaz had was to remove the boy's glasses. Bad move. His hand shot up and caught one of hers, his eyes popping open and his voice suddenly spluttering in panic. Gaz did her best to calm him down which, unfortunately, went about as well as you might expect.

"Hey, let go of my hand! Chill out, would you? I'm not gonna hurt you." Her glare sharpened. "Unless you don't let go of me right now."

The boy, understanding quickly, released her hand, but held his glasses on. Gaz felt a tinge of sympathy for this kid. If she wasn't incapable of it, she would have apologized, but her pride made it impossible. She decided to leave the glasses alone and look to the shredded clothing. "You'll have to get new clothing. I'll ask Iggins if he's got anything spare. He's an irritant, but I bet he'll lend you something. If I get you clothes, do you think you could change into them yourself?" The idle chatter she supplied surprised even herself. She was usually the quiet one, sitting in a corner and reading while others tried to communicate. This was probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing for this kid.

The boy nodded, and Gaz turned to leave, but turned around when she heard a weak noise from the kid. "Yeah?"

"…My name's Dib. No last name." After seemingly using all his leftover energy, the boy, who's name was Dib, let his head drop back onto the wood on which he was resting. Gaz sighed and returned to find something to prop his head up with until she would come back and wake up. But, as luck would have it, she found something else, something around Dib's neck.

A golden coin, with a skull engraved on both sides. Gaz blinked. "Pirate, huh…?" Without thinking, she ended up taking the necklace from his neck and looking at it, only to turn suddenly and hide it behind her back as her father approached.

"What did you find out, Gazlene?"

"He's called Dib…Nameless." It took about two seconds to come up with an appropriate last name. "And he'll need some clothes. Let Iggins figure it out. Where is he?"

Membrane pointed to the other side of the ship. "He and the other insane sailors are talking about insane things. Things that have nothing to do with REAL SCIENCE!" Membrane posed and Gaz sighed. Leave it to her father to call sailors insane.

"Yeah. Sure, dad. Whatever. Listen, I gotta go." Gaz navigated around her father and headed over to where Iggins, Red, and Purple were looking out over the ice floes at something bad. Iggins passed the telescope-thing (Gaz didn't care what it was, really) to Purple, who opened it.

"Mary Mother of God…" The man mumbled. Gaz turned and strained to see, though it was hardly a strain at all in a few moments.

A huge shipwreck, from the very direction Dib had floated from. It shocked even Gaz, who was sure (incorrectly, in this case) that she'd seen and knew everything. Fire licked broken masts and the flammable canvas of the sails, jumping from barrel to barrel that sat in the water. The hull was barely together, and everything else was floating about in the water nearby. Gaz was focused on the wreck, but soon enough felt a gaze fall on her. She looked up to meet the eyes of Red, who was glaring down at her for the second time that morning.

"I told you!" He hissed. "It's bad luck! Now you've called pirates down on our heads!" Red pointed dramatically while Purple cut in.

"Well, not really our heads…but they're certainly around. Thanks, Gaz."

And suddenly Membrane was behind Gaz, backing her up. "Don't be ridiculous, you two. That superstition goes completely against REAL SCIENCE, and therefore, I don't believe a word." You know the drill about him and 'real science' by now, don't you?

But Gaz wasn't paying attention to Red or Purple or even her father. Her eyes were on the boat on the distant horizon, sailing away from the wreckage. It's sails were huge, dark, and sent a strange pulsation through her body, starting with her hand, where the coin she had taken from Dib was grasped inside her pocket…

~!~

Gazlene's eyes shot open. Quickly, however, they narrowed again.

Stupid dreams.

~!~

Hey there, everyone! It's me again! Chokopoppo!

Now, before you all fall into a mindless panic about incest, CALM DOWN. There will be NO relationship between Gaz and Dib beyond a bond similar to sisterly-brotherly B.S. Everything works out fine, TRUST ME.

I want to apologize in advance if the characters seem a bit O.O.C. This is my first time doing a solo I.Z. fanfic, and it may be really crappy, but I'm gonna do it. And, hopefully, I'll come out all the better for that. Hoopalah!

So anyway...

Love it? Hate it? Maybe even...read and review it? *wink wink*

INVADER ZIM BELONGS TO JOHNEN VASQUEZ. I'M JUST A RABID FAN WHO HE'D PROBABLY LIKE TO HIT MULTIPLE TIMES WITH A BASEBALL BAT FOR BEING UNCANNILY OBSESSED.