#lucpete

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Leave it to the Gentleman Pirate to show up in the middle of an ambush.

Now Ed's got two immediate problems on his hands, and he's not sure which one's bigger—the crew of the attacking ship pouring over the starboard side of the Revenge, swinging their cutlasses, or Stede Bonnet's crew charging across the port rail with their knives and clubs, yelling loud enough to drown out the enemy cannons.

Fucking fuck.

Ed bellows at Fang and Frenchie over the exploding fray—"'S many guns as you can, now!"—but before he has time to calculate a reasonable tactical response to whatever the fuck this is, he's slammed from the front.

It feels as if the sea herself has decided to attack him—a crushing force rams his chest, knocking him on his back and into the splintered rail. Ed's ass makes hard contact with a cannon mount, sending a shock of pain through his hip and bad knee. Luckily, his head falls clear of the barrel. He gasps for breath and grabs at his chest, where the left half of his ribs feel like they're on fire.

The chaos of the fight roars around him, and it might as well be fire and brimstone too, because it looks like Ed's died and gone to hell. The Gentleman Pirate himself is looming over him, backlit by a flaming sky, a smirk jutting across his pale face.