Spike and his new crew had gone back to Avery's Office. Avery explained, "Well, it seems your crew is together. Now, if you haven't noticed the explosions every few minutes, I'll explain. A crewman of mine, Finn Dorsal stole a Jade Amulet from me. He fled to Skull Mountain and roused the native Troggies. They stole a lot of powder kegs in a raid, and now their flinging it back at the town. If you can stop the Troggy bombardment and catch Finn, I'll give you a new ship. Do we have an agreement?"

Spike nodded, "Aye. We'll take care of those overgrown dart frogs and get your amulet back."

After they left his office, Spike's crew headed across a rope bridge to Skull Mountain. A fox woman saw them and called out, "Over here!" When Spike's crew approached them, she told them, "So yer the ones Avery sent to help with these blasted frogs. There's a lot of 'em out there, we're outnumbered. We've got reinforcements coming, but I could use some help. The Troggies are using slingshots to shoot the kegs they stole back at the town. Take this map and mark the first two slingshots. The farthest one is out of our cannons' range, so you'll need to take it out yourselves."

Spike smiled, "Not a problem, I've been waiting for some action." Spike and his crew snuck past the Troggies in order to mark the first two slingshots, and approached the third one. Spike snuck close and lit a trail of powder on fire to set off the kegs. However, the trail wasn't long enough for him to get to safety, and he got caught in the explosion.

Buff Biceps yelled out, "Cap'n!" and rushed to take out the confused Troggies before they saw Spike.

Zecora and Adagio rushed to get Spike to safety. Zecora sighed, "The captain is out cold. His idea was far too bold."

Adagio smacked Zecora over the head, "Enough with the damn rhymes woman! We need to get him back to the infirmary!"

Time Turner agreed with Adagio, "She's right, the captain's in bad shape. We'll retreat for now and return once he's better."

Buff Biceps had taken care of the Troggies near the slingshot and lifted Spike over his shoulder. The crew ran back towards Skull Island and went to the infirmary.

The medic sighed when they got there, "Well, he's not in as bad shape as you'd imagine for being that close to an explosion. His left hand's as good as gone though, not even Hoodoo can fix that. Let me patch him up first." As the crew sat down and waited for the medic to finish helping Spike, the medic stitched up Spike's minor injuries. Since Spike was still out could, he took his left arm and put the area his hand had been on a hot iron. It sealed up the wound, and he was done.

As his crew rushed to his side, Spike had started to wake up, and groggily said, "Good god, what happened?" He looked at his arm and saw that his hand was gone, "Wh-What the hell!?"

Time Turner explained, "You got caught in an explosion when you were destroying the third slingshot. You should count yourself lucky you only lost a hand; you could have lost a lot more than that."

Adagio rolled her eyes, "Lucky isn't exactly the word I'd use, a pirate with one hand isn't a very good one."

The medic came out from the back room, "Actually, I've done so many hand amputations, I always have something in store. I just got this." He pulled out a brass trident head from his bag and a carved piece of wood. He stuck the trident's small rod in a hole of the wood and welded it in place. After that he took the weapon and stitched the wood to the end of Spike's left arm. "It'll take some time, but you'll get used to it."

Spike sighed lightly, "Great, my first day as a pirate, and I've already screwed up."

Zecora put a hand on Spike's shoulder, "Do not feel bad cap'n. None of us could have known this would happen."

Adagio nodded, "As annoying as Zecora's rhyming is, she's right. Everyone makes mistakes, and there was no way to know the trail wasn't long enough."

Spike smiled and thanked his crew, "Well, we've gotten the slingshots taken care of, now let's go get Finn!"

Spike and his crew went back to Skull Mountain, and fought their way through Cutthroat Sharks. After a while, Spike had gotten used to fighting with his prosthetic.

Buff Biceps showed Spike a note he found while they were fighting the sharks. It said, "Our buyer won't be here for a while. When the buyer comes, bring him to me, I'll be waiting in the temple. The temple is in the Skull Cave."

Time Turner tipped his hat, "Seems we're going spelunking."

The crew made their way into the temple, but when they came to the throne room, the entrance was flood with deep, fast-moving water. A voice called them over "You there, come 'ere!" The Marleybonian pirate who called them over said, "That water's too rough to swim. But there's another way. At the other end of the temple, there's a shrine. If you activate the three keystones in the shrine, the water will drain. I was able to find a key, but there's too many Troggies in the shrine for me to deal with. Take the key."

Spike thanked the pirate and led his crew to the shrine. He unlocked the door and then his crew went in. Buff Biceps looked around and saw nothing, "Looks like the Troggies are gone. Let's activate those keystones before-"

As croaking could be heard, Time Turned sighed, taking his hat off and pulling out his sniper rifle from his jacket, "Seems like we jinxed it, didn't we?"

Adagio cracked her knuckles saying, "Wouldn't be any fun without a fight?"

Spike chuckled, "You've got a point. Let's give 'em hell!"

Spike and his crew fought through the Troggies, but they just kept coming, and they couldn't get close enough to activate the keystones.

Time Turner pulled something out of his jacket pocket and said, "I've got an idea cap'n! Take this, it's a miniature powder keg. Spread the powder around the drain, and I'll light it off."

As Spike spread the powder around the drain, Adagio growled as a Troggy broke her buckler shield. "Hurry cap'n! We can't hold them off forever!"

Spike finished spreading the powder and said, "Everyone take cover! Doctor, are you sure this will work!?"

As the rest of the crew got away from the drain, Time Turner chuckled, "I have no idea!" and fired off his weapon, lighting the gunpowder and causing it to explode, destroying the drain and opening it up.

As the water drained, the Troggies fled from the shrine. Spike sighed in relief. "Now we've got to go back to the throne room and take care of Finn. Let's go back to town and rest first. I need some disinfectant for the stitching on my hand, it's starting to burn a bit."

Spike and his crew headed back to the infirmary to get disinfectant and then went to the tavern for a drink. As his crew drank, Spike thought to himself, "This Finn bastard cost me my hand. I'm going all out when I fight him. An eye for an eye." It seems that Spike is out for blood against Finn Dorsal. Will he be able to get his payback?

Next Chapter: The HMS Pinafore Arrives Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 4 Minutes