Chapter Six

     The clouds were on them like beasts, clawing and scratching and crawling over their skin – chilling and deadly as the world was pitched into darkness. Linus forced his eyes closed, his hand clasping over his nose and mouth in desperation. He could vaguely determine where Vint and Peter stood about him – Vint no-doubt in his same circumstance – but Linus found no worries or fears or thoughts for the two boys. No, he didn't have much to focus on than his crying lungs and curious pulse racing for some answer.

     No words could describe his situation. The adrenaline cajolingly telling him to dive from the side, a new, arched and heavy posture riddled with bruises only he could see, silence that challenged his lips to want to part and fill with smog. But he pushed aside the suicidal desires and focused on the only thing he could. The image.

     His father was perched in his usual arm chair, elbows resting on his knees. A furtive light danced across the room, drawing irritation from them all as it shut off once more.

     "Just ask the Kumars down the street." His mother sighed, stepping over a young Linus who had sprawled himself out on the floor. Linus listened, careful not to draw attention from his already-vexed father.

     "You know I can't do that," his father groaned, rubbing his face over with coal-stained fingers once more. His father was a proud man and refused to ask for help unless his hand was forced into it – and rarely did anyone challenge him into such positions.

     He was running out of air.

     "If you try to repair it anymore you're sure to break it for good," his mother insisted. The bottom of her pants brushed the ground as the made her round back once more, this time holding the dish she no doubt had come to retrieve. She nudged Linus with her bare foot, sending him a look that ordered he straighten himself out. Linus rose to a proper sitting position from his place on the floor and she disappeared into a doorless frame to the kitchen.

     A large commotion broke out, muffled yells, but Linus couldn't open his eyes. He wanted to open his eyes. Become a part of the overcast he'd spent so many years looking up at –

     "And the water's yet to return! You must get to asking or to fixing. We haven't all day for this, Linus has school in the morning."

     "I'm sure the boy can go a day without washing."

     "Oh, I don't want him showing up in his condition!"

     The 'condition' she pandered on about was the usual look for any six-year-old. While his father was attempting to fix their coal stove, he had turned a blind eye to the boy getting into the open coal bags as his mother was at work. Using fists of the black rocks he had successfully covered himself head-to-naked-toe in black. He was playing shadow, slinking bout the house and leaving quite a mess. His mother had washed him off the best she could, using a wet cloth she was able to dampen as the water came in sporadic intervals as the electricity, but there was still a fine film about him.

     He, of course, didn't mind. It was his first day of school in the morning. His coal dusted skin was but a conversation started. He may even interest some of the other kids to play with him!

     "Why don't you take him to the public baths then?"

     "They're not open at this time, you know that!"

     "Then go and ask the damn neighbours to use their water!" his father bit back, tipping his weight further into his chair and closing his eyes to encourage an end-of-conversation."

     "Ah yes," his mother retaliated, "and while I'm waiting for the kid to finish up I'm sure one of the Kumars would be delighted to come and take a look at the stove!" his father gave another open groan as his mother swooped down and grabbed Linus by the hand, a streak coloring her already tinted skin.

     "Mom," Linus whined, dragging his feet grumpily. "I don't wanna go! I'm fine – mom!" His mother swatted his hand firmly, pulling him to the door where his shoes lay expectantly.

     "Socks, Linus," she ordered. He groaned but dug through a door side table until he found a thick pair of grey wool socks. His mother went through the same ritual, and soon they were ready. His mother took his hand once more, as if afraid he'd bolt away, and opened the door.

     A blinding light broke Linus from his thoughts.

     A swirling ghost travelled down his body and hovered over his ankles. He squinted his eyes open, loosening his iron clad group around his mouth and take a shaking breath. The world came into fuzzy focus. A deep panging ache spread through his jaw as he took in the scene before him. A film of black smoke swirled about the bottom of the deck, spilling over and atop of them from the one upper deck before them. The wind tossed the smog around, the black waters draining from the sides like a drowned ship being pulled up from the ocean floor. The ship held two large oars on either side, and they twisted and twirled away with long, deep swishes as if swimming through the clouds. As they neared the top of their predestined circles they glowed almost white in the glory that was the sky.

     Suspending above them was a waterless ocean. It was as if their world had been flipped upside down, the black now beneath them and the endless blues hovering above. The syline was blinding, impossible, made possible by the ball of fire that was pinned above them. It blazed over the crew lazily, offering only imagined heat as the altitude supplied a chill Linus was sure he'd never experienced. All of it almost even pried at Linus's fear of heights away. Almost.

     His silent awe was shattered in an instant. "Stonely's been arrested!" someone yelled, tugging his mask over his head hastily. "The tecs got him and that scum of a water captain, looks be it!"

     A murmur of confusion passed over the bunch. Linus and Vint looked on, both battling whether or not to say something. Their mission had begun – no matter how screwed the set-up – and so they both bit their tongues.

     "What did you see?" the boy who had been calling orders asked, coming down from the top deck to join the rest of them.

     "Seen em being taken at gunpoint, seemed like," the man beside the original announcer said. "Couldn't catch much through the fog."

      "Ain't nothin' we can do bout that now," someone else offered, stepping forward. Long, thinning hair lay slicked back with sweat on his head, and he held his chest out with the air of a honcho.

     The man who had made the original announcement growled, his dark skin glowing gold beneath the syline. "You're not the captain of this ship, Norman -–"

     "Captain Norman!"

     "—don't go barking orders!"

     "He's got a point. We don't really have a choice," another retaliated, canines poking threaten out behind thin, orange lips. His olive skin was washed out mercilessly by the sun, the whites in his eyes enhanced by the pale green irises.

     "Shut yer trap, Darius." Yet another joined. Soon, a battle throughout the men shot the peace out of the birdless sky. Though their volumes were reaching booming levels, no one made move towards physical violence – yet.

     "Hey – HEY!" one man yelled, waving his hands irrelatively. A few people piped down, though there was still a few boiling topics and glares. "There's no use fighting about captains now. There are more pressing matters at hand."

     "Yeah, and what's that?" Darius sneered.

     The man spread over a prowling glance. "Do we kill the water pirates aboard?"

     Bullet stares caught Linus in the gut, one of them a surprised Peter.

     "Bring them forward," Captain Norman ordered. This time no one challenged him and a hand materialised, catching Linus by the shoulder. Vint was pushed forward in a similar manner. They were taken to the centre of the stretched-out metal deck, joined by four other men Linus was relieved to see had made it. Two of them sunk back into each other – the twins, Linus knew them as. Neither of them really cut out to be on such a mission. One of the others, Warren, gave Linus and Vint a subtle, almost nonexistent nod. He had a powerful gaze made of copper and soon focused it onto Darius who stepped dangerously close.

     "I think killings them the best thing we can do," Darius said.

     "I don't think you think very much at all," a small voice murmured from Linus's side. Linus looked over to see that Peter had stepped forward, standing far enough away that he wasn't with the group, but close enough that Linus could catch the snide comment. 

     "As you said," Warren began, shouldering a close hand away, "both captains have been captured, and that means we should work together to figure out a plan."

     A pause of eye rolls or thoughtful musings.

     "And how do we know that this isn't one of your plans?" someone broke in.

     Linus averted his gaze to the ground, the smoke having cleared out quite a bit. A morsel voice fed to him that they would read something from his face, but it was drowned out by a cascading anger that settled into his chest. One of their plans? To what? Get blown up by some tectonic air Force? "How do we know," he demanded, raising his gaze to meet the speaker – a tall man with long dreading locks – "that you didn't plan it? We all know how much you birds like to play with your bombs!" Linus caught the sight of Peter stiffening, but he paid it little mind, busy clenching his fists in an attempt to calm down. He found he was prone to anger more and more since his childhood. "I've never heard of any tec-military using such technology. How do we know that you didn't hijack one of their ships, and now your little plans gone to shit?"

    "You'd know a lot about that, wouldn't you?" Darius yelled back. "How many men was it now? Forty? Fifty? I'm sure you have better count than us." Darius's fire brimmed eyes locked with Linus's. "How many, water boy?"

     "How many what?" Vint joined. He took a defending stance, but the confusion of the topic was fresh on his features. 

     "How many of our men have you taken?"

     "What?"

     Darius laughed humorlessly. Another kid came up from behind him. His hair spiked around his head messily, his sleeves rolled up over his biceps. A pair of goggles sat in the nest of hair snuggly and though he looked younger than some of the crew it was obvious he was older than Linus. "Ye know what," he said. "Ain't no coincidence that yer crew members start poppin' up the same time ours start goin' missin'."

     "We haven't taken your crew," Warren assured, genuine incertitude furrowing his brow.

     The kid rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and putting his weight into one hip.

     "Come on, Alex," Peter said, this time loud enough for everyone to hear.

     Alex threw Peter something of a sly smirk. "Yeah, yeah. I know how improbable it is."

     "Then why are you accusing us?" Nadir demanded, taking a dangerous step forward. Warren threw up a wary hand and the twins seemed to sink into one another nervously. Alex focused golden eyes on Nadir, a scowl replacing his smirk.

     "Because there's no other explanation. No matter how improbable it may be, there's somethin' happenin', and I've a bet yer people are behind it." Alex strode forward himself, craning his neck downwards in an act of intimidation. "And so, I gotta agree, kill 'em."

     A few cheers broke out and Peter stepped forward with his arms out stretched. "Alex! There's no need for that!"

     "Pipe off," Darius growled to the blond. "you're not a pirate, you're a scholar. You're lucky we haven't thrown you from the side."

     "Big words from a man who'd be nowhere without scholars!" Peter bit back. "Or did you recruit us just for laughs?"

     "It definitely became a joke somewhere down the line-"

     "Darius—" Alex defended with a glare. He uncrossed his arms and dug something square from his pocket, throwing it over to the green-eyed boy. Darius caught it close to his chest. Peering down curiously brought an ugly toothed grin to his face. Peter, however, looked unbelievingly at Alex.

     Alex just shrugged, turning bout, a skirt of smoke following his steps. Darius threw the box into the air with his finger on the side lever, dangerous blue electricity protruding from it. Linus flinched back, recalling the near experience he had just escaped with such a thing.

     "Who are you to make that decision?" Captain Norman demanded.

     Alex fed him a deceivingly curious expression. "I've made no decision, Nordy."

     "Captain Norman!"

     "Not round here you're not," Alex teased with a wink. "I think it's our Quarter Master's call. Second in command and all."

     The boy who had descended the top deck earlier stepped forward, a visible tension lifted "Thank you, Alex."

     "Don't mention it, Jerry-boy."

     "Alex," he growled.

     "Yeah, yeah," Alex groaned, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "But Jericho is such a killjoy. You should consider changing it."

     Jericho sighed. "I could change it to anything and you would still refuse to call me by my name."

     "Change it to 'Pumpkin' and I'm sure we wouldn't have an issue."

     "Yes!" Captain Norman decided abruptly. "This is how my crew got into this mess! Stonely runs a ship of children!"

     "Hey," Jericho turned his attention dangerously fast. "You accepted the invitation. No one forced you to come."

     "I was promised answers! If you don't remember, my son is one of the pirates that went missing!"

     "Sure he didn't just run away?" Alex mocked, auburn hair rustling in the breeze.

     "So do we kill them or not?" Darius cut-in – moments before Norman's fist attempted to catch Alex in the jaw, too late as the auburn haired boy was already twirling away smugly.

     "Yes – I mean," Jericho shot up a hand with lightning speed, cutting off the premature hoots. "I mean no. We don't kill them. They have a point."

     "What? What if they're spies?"

     "'Nd if theys plannin' tah take us long with 'em!"

     "Where exactly is that, Tyrell?"

     "Yeah, 'nd shut yer trap, Cailen."

     "We don't kill them," Jericho expanded, "because we'll use them as bait."

     "Bait for what?" Peter demanded.

     "Petey, stay out of the grown-ups conversation, aye?" Alex warned with a snap of his fingers. Darius smirked.

     "To get our captain back," Jericho said.

     "So you're just going to leave us in some lot? Take us back to Upito? Reek habic and blame it on us? For what? In hopes we get captured, well—"

     Jericho furrowed his brow at Warren, shaking his head with a simple, "don't be daft. We'll use you as distraction to get into the base. What would having you killed accomplish?"

     "It'd make me feel better," someone laughed.

     Navir shook his head, scrounging his nose up. "We're the daft ones? If you hadn't noticed there was more than one tecmilitary down there. How you supposed to know which one to infiltrate?"

     Jericho took a moment in silence to muse that over before shaking his head. "We'll tell you the plan when it's time to take it out. Until then," he looked over the crowd quickly, pulling together a quick list of names. "Alex, Darius, Tyrell, Cailen, Fabrice, and Peter, put together a recruit session. Start in the morning."

     "What?" Darius demanded.

     "The longer they live the more time we've to find the captain. Teach them how to fight---"

     "We can kick your ass any day—"

     "We'll see about that tomorrow," Alex teased –

     "Don't question orders, Darius," Jericho finished, ignoring Alex and Warren's little match.

     "You're not the captain!"

     "Best you've got," Captain Norman produced a growl from the back of his throat, Jericho continued. "The rest of you!" He turned to the rest of the crew. "We will go over order and civility. You will be assigned jobs either by myself, Alex, or the pilot." A man stepped forward, his jacket different from everyone's else's with golden buttons and a chest pocket with an accumulation of what looked to be a mini gun tucked away. "Follow the pilot if you know about, or wish to learn about, flying, Alex for generator work, and me for basic chores. Everyone will have a job whilst aboard, and any who do not wish to participate are free to step off the brig." A wave of murmurs went round before the groups broke apart. Alex motioned wide with his hand for his group to follow him to the upper deck.

     "What about the scum?" Darius asked loudly, motioning towards Linus's group.

     "They train tomorrow, give them a tour if you're so insistent about keeping them under watch." Darius scowled, but a small smile crept onto his face. Jericho caught this. "And Darius," he hashed, "wait until it's aired out before taking them down."

"Already on it, Jers!" Alex yelled, pulling down on something that sent the ship to groan and shake dangerously.