🪐Lucy's POV🪐

Once the boat finally stopped moving, Jim pushed the boat onto its side and sat up, groaning. "You alright?" He asked me. "Yeah, I just hit my head," I replied, rubbing the back of my head.

I tried to stand up, but I got dizzy and my legs gave out under me. I huffed out a frustrated breath as I sat there on my knees. Jim smiled at me and got down on his knees with me and put me on his back for a piggyback ride.

"Jim, I'm fine, this really isn't necessary," I argued. "Really? You aren't feeling dizzy or weak at all right now?" he asked skeptically.
Unfortunately, he was right. My legs didn't feel stable and I was extremely lightheaded.

"Well..." I admitted. "See. You have a concussion. It's probably just a mild one. Hopefully you should feel better in a few minutes. Until then, we'll be like this." I nodded my consent. "Oh, my goodness," Mr. Delbert said as he and Ms. Amelia got to their feet.

"That was more fun than I ever want to have again." "Not one of my more gossamer landings-ah!" Ms. Amelia said before collapsing, clutching her side. "Captain!" Mr. Delbert gasped. Mr. Delbert helped her stand. She pushed him away and brushed herself off, trying not to appear weak.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Oh, don't fuss. Slight bruising, that's all. Cup of tea and I'll be right as rain. Mr. Hawkins," she said, turning to Mr. Delbert. After squinting and realizing that it wasn't Jim, she looked at us, "The map, if you please."

I pulled the map out of his pocket and gave it Jim. He presented it in his palm to the Captain, a smile on his face. Then the gold sphere floated in Jim's hand and turned into a laughing pink blob. "Morph!" Jim yelled. "Morph, where's the map?"

The blob depicted the map inside a pile of rope. "Are you serious? It's back on the ship!" Jim demanded. Frustrated, I tried to get a hold of Morph, who darted around us playfully, thinking this was all fun and games.

"Stifle that blob and get low," Ms. Amelia ordered. "We've got company." Another longboat flew overhead and we hid behind our own until it passed.

"We need a more defensible position. Mr. Hawkins, Miss Lucy, scout ahead," Amelia ordered, handing Jim a handgun. "Aye Captain," he replied. Unable to ignore her pain any longer, Ms. Amelia once again let out a cry and fell to the ground.

She attempted to use her rifle to hold herself up, but it didn't work very well. Mr. Delbert helped lower her to the ground and began to examine her wounds. Jim, still piggyback riding me, walked away from them and into the mysterious forest of the planet.

🪐🪐🪐

After a few minutes of trying to walk, the dizziness stopped and I felt like I could walk on my own again. I expressed as much to Jim and he carefully let me go, making sure I was steady before we continued.

Jim and I were gaping at the jungle-like planet surrounding us as we tried to find a good hiding spot. It was less of a jungle and more like a bunch of giant mushrooms and moss and other weird fungus-like plants. But all I could think about was Mr. Silver and how he had betrayed us.

I was so lost in thought that I tripped over a root and fell. For some reason, my emotions decided to overwhelm me at that moment. I started crying, still on my hands and knees on the ground. Jim turned around and knelt down on the around and knelt down on the ground next to me.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked tenderly, putting his hand on my back. "I-I trusted him! He betrayed us, and I trusted him!" I blubbered.
"I know. I trusted him too," Jim said softly. "I'm scared. What's gonna happen to us?" I asked my brother looking up at him with tear-filled eyes.

"Don't worry. We're gonna be okay," he said, giving me a reassuring smile and pulling me to my feet. "Oh, I almost forgot," he said, reaching into his pocket. "I found this on the floor last night. I thought you might want it back." He was holding my locket in his hand.

In all the commotion, I had completely forgotten about it. "Thanks," I said as I fastened it around my neck. "You still have it." He pointed out. "Yeah." I nodded. I heard a rustling noise behind me. Jim heard it too. He pulled his gun out, which made me even more afraid than I already was.

"Jim," I whispered. He brought his finger to his lips, warning me to be quiet, then slowly headed towards the bushes. He glanced into them to see if anything was hiding in there. I squeezed his hand.

Suddenly, a robot jumped out of them and yelled. This caused Jim to scream, which made me scream. The robot tackled Jim to the ground. "Oh, this is fantastic!" the robot yelled. "Two carbon-based life forms come to rescue me at last! I just want to hug you and squeeze you and hold you close to me," it continued, embracing Jim as he stood up.

"All right, okay. Would you just let go of me?" Jim said, pushing the robot away. Then it immediately latched onto me. "Get off!" I yelped, shoving it away and running to hide behind Jim. "Oh, sorry, sorry," the robot said.

"It's just I've been marooned for so long. I mean, solitude's fine, don't get me wrong. But for heaven's sake, after a hundred years, YOU GO A LITTLE NUTS!" he yelled. While talking, the robot had unwittingly started leaning against Jim.

He only realized that he was touching Jim again when he was given an annoyed glare. He immediately backed away. "I'm sorry. I'm... I am, uh... My name is..." it started, searching its mind for something it couldn't find.

Morph turned into a miniature of the robot with the bird of a cuckoo clock coming out of his head. Jim smirked and shut the lid on his head, causing him to turn back into his regular pink form. "Morph," I giggled in a whisper, smiling at him.

"B.E.N.!" the robot exclaimed, finally remembering. "Of course, I'm B.E.N., Bio-Electronic Navigator." A piece of his chest started falling off. "Oops. And you are?" Jim put the gun back in his pocket, realizing the robot wasn't a threat.

"Jim," he replied.

"Lucy," I answered shyly.

B.E.N. took our hands and shook them vigorously. "Oh, what a pleasure to meet you, Jimmy and Lulu!" he said. Jim pushed him away again. (Not me thinking of Hooty and Lilith from The Owl House.)

"It's Jim," he corrected. "Please don't call me that! My name is Lucy," I said, grimacing at the horrible nickname. "Anyway..." B.E.N. said. "Look, we're kind of in a hurry, okay," Jim started. "We've got to find a place to hide and there's pirates chasing us-"

"Oh, pirates! Don't get me started on pirates! I don't like them. I remember Captain Flint. This guy had such a temper," B.E.N. interrupted. Jim and I both whipped our heads around in a double take when we heard the robot mention Captain Flint. [Pfft-]

"Wait, wait, wait. You knew Captain Flint," Jim asked. "I think he suffered from mood swings, personally," B.E.N. answered, "I'm not a therapist in anyway, but I - you let me know when I'm rambling."

"But that means," Jim mumbled.
"Wait! But then you must know about the treasure?" "Treasure?" B.E.N. repeated. "Yeah. Flint's trove?" I said. "The loot of a thousand worlds," I added. Morph turned into a chest of gold to emphasize our point.

"It's, well," B.E.N. started, "It's all a little-little-little fuzzy. Wait! I...I r-r-r-remember. I do. Treasure! Lots of treasure! Buried in the centroid - centroid - centroid of the mechanism! And there was this big door opening and closing and opening and closing! And Captain Flint wanted to make sure nobody could ever get to his treasure so I helped him," he was cut off by sputtering sounds.

"Aah! Data inaccessible! Reboot! Reboot!" "B.E.N.! B.E.N.! B.E.N.!" I yelled. The robot's voice had been steadily rising in volume as he tried to remember. But now he seemed to be malfunctioning. When he wasn't responding to us anymore, Jim smacked him, causing his head to spin around.

"And you are?" the robot asked, completely forgetting the last couple of minutes. "Wait! What about the treasure?" I asked. "I want to say Larry." B.E.N. replied. [This robot will soon be the death of me.]

"The-the centroid of the mechanism, or-" Jim prompted, trying to jog the robot's memory. "I'm sorry, my-my-my memory isn't what it used to be. I've lost my mind! Ha-ha! I've lost my mind! You haven't found it, have you?" B.E.N. asked, patting Jim down.

He reached out to do the same to me, but I pushed his hands away. I backed away, trying to avoid him.
"What are you talking about?" "My missing piece? My primary memory circuit?" He pointed to the loose wires in the back of his head.

"Look, B.E.N., we really need to find place to hide, okay," Jim said. "So we're just gonna be, you know, moving on." "Oh, uh, so, well, then... I guess, uh... this is goodbye, huh?" The robot looked and sounded so depressed.

"I'm sorry that I'm so dysfunctional. So, uh, go ahead and... I do understand. I do. Bye-bye." B.E.N. had dropped onto his knees and lay pitifully on the ground. I was a very empathetic person, so I couldn't just leave him there like that. I looked at Jim, pleading with my eyes. Morph gave him a sad look too. [Jim: I taught you too well.]

"Fine," Jim relented, rolling his eyes. "Look, if you're gonna come along, you're gonna have to stop talking," he said. B.E.N. leapt to his feet joyously. "Huzzah! Hahaha! Oh, this is fantastic," B.E.N. yelled, leaping into Jim's arms and hugging him.

"Me and my best buddies out lookin' for a-" He cleared his throat when he saw Jim glaring at him again, and upon realizing that he was yelling.
"Being quiet," he whispered, zipping his lips. He continued to hug Jim though. "And you have to stop touching me," Jim insisted.

B.E.N. jumped out of his arms. "Touching and talking. Those are my two big no-no's." "Okay. Now, I think that we should head-" Jim started. "Say, listen, before we go out on our
'big search'," B.E.N. made air quotes with his fingers, "um, would you mind if we made a quick pit stop at my place," he asked, moving some vegetation to reveal an oddly-shaped building in the distance.

"Kind of urgent." The robot was standing as if he had a desperate need to use the restroom. I didn't know that robots could use the restroom, but I didn't care at the moment.
"B.E.N., I think you just solved our problem," I said, a wide smile on my face.

phoebe has something to say!

i can't to write the scene where lucy and b.e.n. disable the laser cannons.