Elemental Cats

Toz didn't know how, but word about an upcoming Pirate Meet had somehow begun to spread through Pirate Haven. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing since it meant a lot of pirates would partake in it. But Toz wasn't entirely satisfied with how much strength the Blue Lounge still had left.

However, now that things had already come to the point where pirates were clamoring for the Pirate Meet to actually take place so that the big three could stop fighting, Toz had to seize the initiative. Finding out the source of the rumor would be near impossible and meaningless since the Pirate Meet was already about to happen.

Toz wanted to take charge of the Pirate Meet before Stris, and the Blue Lounge, could find an opportunity to make use of the Pirate Meet and turn the situation in their favor. After contacting Retsy, the Red Hook Pirate Crew, and the Cult of Nihiltas, Toz and the Bunglehoppers began overseeing the production of a fourth island.

Since the big three pirate crews were the only pirate crews with enough capital and resources to create a large enough island to host the Pirate Meet, one or more of them had to make the island. However, everyone knew that the Pirate Meet was taking place because those three pirate crews had trouble getting along. Getting the three of them to cooperate would be next to impossible since the pirates of each crew fought as soon as they saw each other.

The relationship between the Red Hook Pirate Crew and the Cult of Nihiltas was amicable enough for them to create the island together. However, that would leave an opening for the two of them to team up against the Blue Lounge League of Pirates. Such blatant unfairness made even the meanest pirates hesitate to support the island's construction.

And so, popular opinion assigned a supposedly neutral party to oversee the construction's progress and make sure the Red Hook Pirate Crew and the Cult of Nihiltas didn't pull any tricks. However, there was only one crew suitable for monitoring two of the three big pirate crews of Pirate Haven.

The Bunglehoppers. As the crew closest in strength to the big three crews, they had enough authority to oversee the construction. They were also powerful enough not to be intimidated or coerced into submission by the crews they were to supervise.

Of course, to the Bunglehoppers and the big three crews, it was nothing more than a farce. Everyone with some brains inside their skulls knew that the Bunglehoppers were also deeply involved in the feuding against the Blue Lounge League of Pirates. However, due to their numbers and limited range of operations, no one else knew how much damage the Bunglehoppers had put on the Blue Lounge's business.

Even if the Blue Lounge wanted to expose how unfit the Bunglehoppers were, it wouldn't change anything. The Bunglehoppers, the Red Hook Pirate Crew, and the Cult of Nihiltas had the advantage in information, so even if Stris wanted to, he wouldn't be able to convince the other pirates of Pirate Haven.

Besides, dismissing the Bunglehoppers from their position as overseers wouldn't change anything. Any other crew would just get beaten into submission by the two big crews.

However, Stris wasn't all too upset about the situation. The Red Hook Pirate Crew and the Cult of Nihiltas would have to expend some resources and manpower to construct the island for the Pirate Meet, which would lessen the burden on the Blue Lounge League of Pirates. It would also allow Stris to reorganize and prepare for the Pirate Meet. It didn't take a genius to realize that the other pirates were teaming up against him and the Blue Lounge League.

Stris didn't falter at the hurdle he had to face in order to succeed with his mission and didn't stop preparing for the Pirate Meet for even a second.

The Bunglehoppers only pretended to monitor and oversee the creation of the island. As long as the Red Hook Pirate Crew and the Cult of Nihiltas didn't go overboard or do things that would harm the Bunglehoppers as well, they could do what they wanted.

However, Toz, who knew that Red Hook, at least, didn't have any intention of fulfilling their agreement to the end, kept an eye on the island's creation. He and the cats made sure to investigate the materials and the construction techniques so that they would be able to prepare for anything that the two big crews might throw around when the fighting breaks out.

Although the Pirate Meet island needed to be big enough to host all the pirates that would attend, as well as strong enough to maintain the enchantments that would create a life-sustaining barrier, the island didn't have any other requirements. The Red Hook Pirate Crew and the Cult of Nihiltas gathered materials and scraps they had lying around in their storages. They also used things they looted from the Blue Lounge to build the island, which was a slap in the face to Stris, who hoped he would at least be able to save some resources by not contributing to the island's creation.

Despite the mountainous undertaking, with hundreds of pirates working around the clock, it didn't take long until the island began taking shape. Although it looked like a monstrous amalgamation of random scraps found in the Void, it was still an island that would serve its intended purpose as being the location where the Pirate Meet would be held.

Although there had been a few Pirate Meets in the history of Pirate Haven, pirates weren't exactly the greatest at keeping history books, so the details regarding how those Pirate Meets had gone down were practically nonexistent.

The pirates creating the island didn't really have anything to go on while building the island, so they just designed it according to what they thought was enough.

A large, almost circular, platform hovering in the Void outside Pirate Haven with a raised stage where speakers would be allowed to hold their speeches and bring up whatever issue they wanted. No one was really sure what would happen, but most pirates in Pirate Haven thought that the big three crews would argue, maybe fight, before coming to an agreement regarding resource distribution.