After a night of hanging out with some of the Crustaceous crew and a short and rocky sleep, the team headed up to the roof of the ship and waited for something to happen. Since Jax joined the team, he and Iggy not only collaborated on making gear for the team to use but also on how to make jobs easier for them wherever they could. One of the duffel bags they brought on board contained several small cameras with remote-controlled spider legs. On missions involving extended surveillance or whenever the team felt they needed extra eyes, they would deploy their drones to their blind spots, and either Jax or Iggy would watch the console for anything they would need to be aware of. Jax had deployed the drones one by one the night before and moved them to various positions around the ship. They all had magnetic tips on the legs, so they could traverse around the hull and over the railing where no one could go unless they too had specialized magnetic feet.

  Lindy and Donna were in their skivvies, using their undersuits as towels so they could lie on the hot metal roof without burning their skin. Dane and Nate had opted out of tanning so they could be ready to engage and allow the girls time to get suited up again should they be attacked. It obviously wasn’t the smartest strategic move, but it kept the girls happy, so the boys obliged. Gemini had positioned herself in the crow’s nest, where she too was basking in the sun. Her skill set was best used at range, so when it came down to a fight, their enemies would look for a half-naked Lizzan firing at them from hundreds of yards away. Jax had brought his link up to the roof so he could hang out while they waited for something to happen.

  “Wait, did anyone bring any games?” Nate asked.

  “I brought ‘Monster Fight’?” Dane shuffled through one of the duffle bags and produced a set of playing cards that was a self contained role playing game where you were a monster and the cards gave you power and then you fought each other.

  “Oh, nice one. Jax, you got anything?” Nate turned to Jax.

  “Actually, yeah, I brought ‘liar’s dice’. You know, since we are on a ship waiting for pirates to come and attack us? It’s in the other bag, Dane.” Jax pointed at the bag next to Dane.

  “Ooo, time to see what kind of men you really are.” Nate pointed to Jax and Dane as he ran and grabbed the cups and dice out of the duffle bag.

  “These are nice. Did you manufacture them yourself?” The dice themselves looked like regular dice, but on closer inspection, one could tell they were made of aluminum and were covered with a white powder coat. The divots had traditional black paint marking the numbered sides.

  “Of course?” Jax responded with a tone that questioned Nate’s intelligence.

  The boys gathered in a circle to play. It took only a few rounds before Nate was knocked out. He played riskily and paid for it dearly. It was down to Jax, with two dice left, and Dane with one. The opponents stared each other down. They took their dice and cups and shook vigorously before slamming them down on the metal surface of the roof. Jax looked at his dice, and Dane at his. Nate was almost sweating as the tension was building.

  “Two Threes.” Jax called.

  Jax had one three, and it was a one in six chance Dane had the other. Either way, Dane was almost forced to call him a liar because he surely couldn’t call three of one die face. He could, however, keep the same number bid but raise the die count. The decision was racking his brain. Jax either had two threes and played it safe, luring Dane into a trap. Or he bluffed and was goading him into calling him a liar.

  “Liar!” Dane yelled.

  Jax raised his cup to reveal a three and a four. Dane cheered as he raised his cup to reveal a four. The brief celebration was interrupted, though, by a loud clang and the ship violently rocking to the side, nearly knocking Dane over.

  “Jax!” Dane shouted.

  Jax scrambled and grabbed his link that was sliding away from him because of the sudden movement of the ship.

  “Starboard, pirates in a submersible, clamps are locked on to the side and their top hatch is opening.” Jax reported.

  Dane tapped his ear to speak with the Captain. “Captain, pirates are locked on the starboard side. Sound the alarm and get your people to the safe room.”

  “Aye,” Captain Dusant responded.

  “What side is starboard!” Nate yelled as he was looking out at the deck of the cargo ship that was closing the roof to its hold.

  “Right side!” Jax yelled back.

  “Nate, batter up! Girls, time to rock!” Dane shouted.

  Lindy and Donna had already sprung up and were halfway through putting on their suits. Lindy helped Donna, and then they switched. Nate pulled his batons off his back and locked them together to form a long staff, or in this case, a bat. Dane’s dried bone armor finished settling itself to cover every inch of his body. He then formed his shield, also made of dense, nearly indestructible bone, in his left hand. Nate and Dane shared a nod, ready to employ the move they worked on that helped Dane traverse a battlefield faster since he didn’t have a movement ability like him. He jumped in the air and tucked his legs in as if he were about to cannonball into a pool. This time, he was more like an actual cannonball. Nate swung his shield-empowered bat, which sent the bulky bone man flying towards the right side of the ship. He then warped a few times quickly, following his friend.

  Gemini was looking through the scope of her rifle, scanning for enemies along the deck of the ship. Though she couldn’t see over the side of the ship, she could see the tens of grappling hooks that were being flung up and attached to the railing. She took careful aim, knowing she wouldn’t be able to get them all, but she could get some. A couple of taps on the outside of her headphones quickly switched her audiobook to a girls pop group that she listened to when she was a kid. The familiar tunes and beats drowned out her mind and calmed her heartbeat, allowing her to be more accurate when shooting this far away. It didn’t matter to her at all that her Lizzan lady bits were free to the ocean air while she was on top of the world in the crow’s nest.

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  Lindy and Donna finished putting on their suits and hustled their way to Nate and Dane on the deck of the ship. By the time they got there, the Pirates still had yet to begin their assault.

  “You see, time to get a tan, and fight bad guys.” Lindy joked.

  Nate shook his head as he focused on the grappling hooks flying over the side of the railing. Lindy and Donna engaged their armored suits, which unfolded like a parachute at first, but then each piece finally latched on and locked into place. Their matted navy blue finish did a good job of absorbing any glare while still making them look ready for battle.

  All at once, the pirates shot up and over the railing as if the pulling of their grappling gun had too much pull. They were a mix of different species, wearing many styles of clothing. They did not in any way look like an organized outfit on the surface, but their submarine, and quick deployment to the top deck said otherwise. As fast as they had come up over the side, the chest of the pirate in front of Lindy exploded with blood, followed by a distant popping sound. The two groups charged at each other, except for Lindy, who used her “Bastion” ability to summon an impenetrable bunker that she would shoot her cannon from. Another pirate’s back exploded, sending him dead to the ground in seconds. Lindy switched her cannon to offensive mode so she could use the evolved version of her healing goo, which produced a corrosive acid. The cannon made its signature thinking sound as she aimed and fired her acid at oncoming enemies. When her acidic goo connected, it was always followed by screams and howls of pain. The acid was so potent that it could tear through someone’s skin down to the bone in mere seconds.

  Donna removed her pistols from their holsters and began firing beams of yellow light into the oncoming pirates. The shots weren’t powerful enough to stop someone dead in their tracks like a bullet, but they left a serious fourth-degree burn that was excruciatingly painful. She also had a rare passive ability that made the tendons in her body supernaturally strong, allowing her to run faster and jump higher. She used this to leap like a frog over the pirates charging her, landing behind them like the deft Cattan she was. Quickly following her jump, she swept her leg along the floor, tripping most of the enemies in front of her. She pulled her daggers from the sheaths on her waist and infused them with another ability that made them glow with bright yellow light. Donna sliced legs, arms and abdomens as she weaved her way through five pirates.

  Nate grew a little bored while his teammates fought hard around him. His shield ability and gravity aura alone were two of the most powerful abilities on the team. His overly oppressive aura inexplicably pushed pirates down, causing them to fall flat on their faces as they ran up to him. Nate walked along the deck of the ship, smacking each pirate in the head with his staff to knock them out. He looked over to Lindy and found a few pirates actually making some headway digging into her bunker with crowbars they had brought. He warped and appeared behind them on the ground before swiping them off the top of the stone formation like he was dusting a ceiling fan. Nate saw that the pirates had lost many members since they boarded the ship, so he jumped over the railing to the submersible.

  The warm sea air flew through his hair for a moment before he warped to the surface of the submarine. He casually put his staff behind his neck and rested his arms on it as he walked to a curved pipe turning left and right before settling on him. Realizing it was the periscope, he took his staff and swiped it with his empowered shield and sent the top of it flying, then resumed his casual walk to the entry hatch to the interior of the sub. Unsurprisingly, the hatch was locked when he tried to turn the wheel to open it. This left Nate with three options. First, he could ask and threaten the sub’s inhabitants to open the door for him. Second, he could force the door open with his shield ability. Or third, he could pound into the side of the sub until he made a hole. Since the second and third were basically the same option, Nate went with the second.

  Dane had finished pounding the last of the pirates into the deck of the ship with his shield when he called for a status report from everyone on the team.

  “Check in.” He ordered.

  “All good.” Donna said.

  “Good,” Lindy said.

  “Good. Surveillance shows their forward loading hatch didn’t deploy properly, so Nate is going to walk into a bunch of bad guys once he makes it into the sub finally.” Jax reported.

  “Hey now.” Nate said through huffed breaths. “This little hatch is proving to be more of a pain in the ass than I thought it would be.”

  “My clothes are on now.” Gemini said, causing the entire team to erupt in laughter.

  “Nate, I’ll be down there in a second.” Dane got out through his intermittent laughs.

  The only way that made sense to Dane to get down to the submarine from the top of the ship was to jump in the water. To make sure he didn’t sink to the ocean floor, he retracted his bone armor before leaping over the edge of the ship. After making a large splash, Dane swam to the edge of the submarine and found climbing inserts in the side where a ladder normally would be on a bigger ship. When Dane got on top of the sub, something finally dawned on him as he looked at the connection to its cargo ship. How the hell did a submarine latch on to a ship floating above the water? He would need Jax to explain how the sub launched enough of itself out of the water, but for now, the sub had done it, and he needed to beat down the guys that were trying to steal the stuff he was hired to protect.

  “Alright, a couple more ought to do it.” Nate said.

  Dane looked down at the hatch that was crumpled up and well beaten in by Nate’s ability and had an idea.

  “Do you mind if I…?” Dane asked.

  Nate watched as Dane lifted the hatch with ease. The lock on the door had long been broken, and Nate had been exerting unnecessary energy for some time now.

  “Oh, yeah, well, I knew it was ready.” Nate said.

  “I’m sure. After you.” Dane gestured to the open hatch for Nate to climb down.

  The pair climbed down the short ladder into the belly of the submarine to find all of the lights off, leaving them in pitch black darkness except for the light that made it in from the open hatch above. Nate turned on a flashlight and led the way to the front of the sub that was connected to the ship. The pair took their time to clear every room but found only emptiness. They finally made it to the command deck and found twenty pirates with all manner of weapons ready to attack. Like the pirates on the deck of the ship, each of them were a different species, some of them Crustacean. They were standing still, but Nate couldn’t tell if they were scared or something else.

  “You know, I’ve never tried my Aura ability in open water?” Nate said, turning back to Dane.

  “Do you maybe wanna focus?” Dane nodded toward the pirates staring them down.

  “Do you guys wanna fight or surrender?” Nate asked point-blank.

  A pirate dressed in a long leather coat with a fur fringe around the top stepped forward.

  “To be honest with you, if you beat all our guys up there, then I think we’ll forgo getting our faces kicked in. If you’re willing, of course.” The white tiger humanoid said.

  “Are you even scared?” Nate asked.

  “I wouldn’t say scared. More like a flinch before you get hit, you know? We know it’s going to hurt; we’ve been beat before, but if we can negotiate our way out of it, then we’d rather do that.” The pirate said.

  “Well, alright then. Bring your crew on deck, and we will tie you up.” Nate walked away disappointed. Dane shook his head at him as he walked by.