On the beach, a sentry poked his head out of a concealed corner to look.
All he saw was a warship sitting motionless on the sea, with soldiers faintly visible running around aboard it.
He turned toward his captain nearby and said:
"Boss, that warship has stopped out at sea."
"Did they notice something?"
The captain of the Brady Pirates frowned deeply:
"Impossible. That Iron Bird fellow only just escaped back here."
"And we've been lying in ambush here since this morning. How could we have been exposed?"
"Wait a little longer."
The sentry continued keeping watch:
"Yes, sir!"
Elsewhere.
The bandaged captain of the Iron Bird Pirates hid behind a house.
Several captains from other Pirates crews mocked him:
"Hahahaha."
"What happened to you, Iron Bird?"
"Weren't you strutting around yesterday? Down to one ship out of three, huh?"
"You'd better have our payment ready for helping you this time."
"That warship is ours."
The captain of the Iron Bird Pirates looked grim:
"No problem."
"As long as you deal with these Marines, you'll get your treasure."
He despised these fellows, but things were different now. Just yesterday, he and his crew had been brimming with confidence.
Barely half a day into their voyage, they had encountered Doberman's warship and been crushed. They had fled back here to seek help from the very people they normally looked down on...
With a powerful enemy before them, they maintained a semblance of civility, but both sides were considering how to dispose of the other afterward...
Suddenly, a subordinate beside him shouted:
"Boss! It looks like they've fired!"
Iron Bird frowned slightly. Fired? Why hadn't he heard any cannon fire?
He shifted and peered out, only to see something trailing white smoke arc through the sky and land on the beach not