HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

That's Not a Reef

I very, very slowly drifted awake, trying to blink the sleep out of my eyes, and as I slowly started to wake up, I heard Marine's heartbeat start to fill my ears.
"Mmmmmm." I moaned, leaning further into her bare, warm chest.
Thankfully, as I made that noise, there wasn't any response from Marine. Her light breaths filled the silence of the cabin, and I snuggled up to her, feeling cold from just waking up. Underneath me, Marine shifted, and she got out from underneath me, laying on her side as she cradled my head in her arms. I moved further up in the bed, then wrapped my arms around her back and pulled her in closer, cuddling with her to keep her warm. Honestly, in the darkness of the Captain's Cabin, holding her in my arms, I was so much happier than I was back at home. Finally, after sitting in that position for a while, just cuddling with Marine, she shifted under my grasp, and she inhaled deeply.
"Mmmm. Micheal?"
"Aye?" I murmured.
"Stop moving so much, you woke me up."
I chuckled at that, and when I moved yet again, she lightly slapped my arm as she laid her head against it, trying her damndest to get me to stop moving, and I giggled at her rather futile attempts. As I giggled at her, however, the entire ship shook, the force of which nearly threw both of us off of the bed.
"What the hell was that??" Marine said, siting up immediately.
"I don't know." I replied.
I reached over to the table and grabbed the flintlock postal, clicking the hammer back and holding it at the ready.
"Let's get to the deck, I'm sure the crew is out there." She said.
"Aye, good idea."
Both of us got up, throwing our clothes on as fast as we could, and we rushed out onto the deck, blinking away the morning light as best as we could. Once we were able to see, we saw that the entire crew was bustling about, mostly looking over the railing of the ship. At the bow, there was Noel, Jansen, and Chloe, and when Jansen saw us, he came bounding up to us as fast as he could.
"We must've hit a reef!" He said. "I've already ordered the crew to free the rudder and put the ship in reverse."
"What about a damage report?"
"The report is fine, Captain." He said. "There isn't any damage down below, and so far, we're dry in the hold. I was going to dive in the water to try and see what it was, but-"
Suddenly, and right in the middle of his sentence, the ship shook yet again, and it was so violent that it threw all of us right on our butts, hitting the deck hard. I looked around as I blinked the stars out of my eyes, but before I could say anything, an unearthly sound cut through the air, shaking the timber's of the ship.
"GUUHHHHHHHHHHHHRRROOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
I looked around as the roar shook the ship, and I saw that Marine's eyes were as wide as coins.
"What the fuck was that?!?" She yelled, both of us struggling to get to our feet.
"I haven't got a clue!" Jansen said, holding his musket at the ready.
Without listening to another word of what they said, I ran straight up to the railing of the deck and looked over at the swirling waters below, and I saw a large, dark mass wriggling around in the dark waters below us.
"What the hell is that thing?" I murmured to myself.
As if it was trying to answer my question, a large purple tentacle burst out of the water, wiggled through the air, wrapped around one of the crew, plucked him straight off the deck like its prey, and dragged him straight into the water.
"HOLY FUCK!!!!!" I said, backing away from the railing as the crewman was dragged in kicking and screaming.
I turned straight around to Marine, but she already had her sword drawn out of instinct, holding it ready to slice, dice, and stab.
"Its the Kraken!!!" She yelled. "Man the guns and defend the masts and engines!!!"
"AYE CAPTAIN!!"
The crew snapped into motion and ran the guns out of the ports, trying to get as ready as possible in the very limited time we had. Noel and Jansen both ran past me and grabbed muskets, and Botan crossed my path, holding her giant spear at the ready. And boy, did we get ready right on time, because right as the crew ran out the cannons and readied their weaponry, the water around the ship started to bubble again, surging around the sides of the ship as the Kraken decided its next move.
"Maybe it went away?" Chloe said, holding her blood red dagger.
SPLOOSH!!! The waters around the ship exploded as eleven gigantic tentacles came out of the water all around the ship. But now, as I got a real hard look at them, I backed away from them as fast as I could. The tentacles were pink and purple, and mostly fleshy, but, where there were battle scars and wounds, somehow, there were elastic-looking ship parts that covered the areas of the wounds. So if a tentacle had a chunk taken out of it, there would be bending planks that patched up the wound, or, on one of the other tentacles, there was a cannon that was sticking out of the fleshy wound on its side.
"Oh good God." I said, holding my sword and pistol at the ready. "Orders??"
"OPEN FIRE!!!!"
Instantly, there was a hail of gunfire as every single crew member, including me, opened fire on the tentacles, raining shards of metal, bullets, grapeshot, and cannonballs right into the mounds of flesh, blowing them apart as a smoke screen from the cannons settled over the ship. The Kraken bellowed in pain as the tentacles flailed about, and, acting as one, the now injured tentacles all rose up, farther above the ship, and they paused in midair. Amidst the mass confusion of the crew as they readied another round of shot from the cannons, both Marine and I reloaded our weapons and waited for the inevitable attack from them.
However, the tentacles stayed absolutely still, until, as we both watched in helpless amazement, the suctions on the tentacles started opening up. And, from the insides....things started to crawl out of them, and they jumped down from the tentacles, landing on the decks with thuds and splats. And when I saw them, even after everything that I had been through, of all the magical and weird things that I had seen, this one took the cake. These things that hit the decks were humanoid-ish, but instead of being fully human, or even fully Atlantean, these things were part human, part actual fish, some being crab, some barracuda, even other kinds of fish and crustaceans that I didn't recognize. And all over their bodies, there was pieces of coral and other kinds of plant life, no doubt adding armor. And, in unison, they drew swords, claws, fangs, and other various natural and unnatural weaponry, and they began roaring at us.
All of us backed up away from the creatures that now stood on our deck, but, as one, we stood ready to fight.
"GET THEM!!!!" Marine yelled.
And we charged.