"It looks like that storm is clearing out now..." Leorio stated as everyone headed back outside.

"Oh man..." Tonpa said breathlessly. "Is it really over?"

Before anyone was able to ask a question or even relax Kurapika pulled out the book and flipped to the same page as earlier. "But we shouldn't get careless just yet. There's another one coming and it's only a day away. This next one will be..." he trailed off as he looked up the ship. That only made everyone else look up with him and have anxiety wash all over their bodies and minds. "A-are you telling us that the tides will suddenly raise up to that level?" Leorio asked.

"No," he bluntly said. "Withing twenty-four hours from now, all you see here will be underwater."

'Underwater, he says.. That's dangerous, especially when everyone here is still stranded...' Kiyoko said.

'Well, we can prevent getting caught in the storm, but we can't prevent it from stopping now, can we?' Kuromi asked herself before heading closer to the group. Apparently, the sun was already about to come back up which indicated their loss of time. Everyone was now making guesses with how much time they all have left before the storm hit the ship again. "I believe we only have twenty-two hours left before the next storm hits us," Leorio said.

"Then that'll be our official time limit," Kurapika said as he looked behind him.

"If we exceed that time limit we have and stay here, we'll all dead. goners," Hanzo stated.

"Then we just have to get ourselves over to Zevil Island somehow before it comes," the Kurta replied.

"But that's the problem. HOW?!" Leorio asked.

"There's no escape. We already tried water and by air, but non of them worked at all," Geretta reminded everyone. "We'll just end up getting caught into the storm that way too."

"There's just not a single ship here that will withstand the water's current during the storm," one of the Amori brothers said.

"YES! THERE IS ONE!" Gon suddenly exclaimed, earning everyone's attention. The boy was waving his arm up in the air trying to indicate where he was from above with Killua standing behind him. "Gon?" Kurapika called curiously.

"C-CAREFUL NOT TO FALL OFF!" Kuromi exclaimed when she saw him leaning over the railing. The boy then gave a quick nod and got off the rail into a safer spot before telling everyone what was in his mind. "We have this ship RIGHT HERE!" he said.

Everyone went quiet until Leorio broke the silence with, "GON, DON'T BE SILLY! THIS THINK IS JUST A HUNK OF JUNK! A SCARP OF METAL!" Kuromi looked at Leorio and rose a brow, an uninterested look taking over her face. "Leorio, don't doubt the kids. You know what happens if you do."

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

"The engine is still working?" Kurapika asked curiously.

"Well that that is checked... Do you think this ship is still capable of moving off further across the sea?!" Leorio asked doubtfully.

"How should I know? Don't ask me," Killua said irritably. Kuromi crossed her arms as she rolled her eyes and glared at Leorio just as annoyed. 'You know, you are very annoying at the moment...' she muttered, low enough for Leorio to hear.

"Haah?!" he exclaimed. Kurapika groaned and rested his head into his hand so he didn't lash out on the two. "No, there is a chance that it will move. We may get out of here alive if we can make this afloat and break free. Everything must goes smoothly though."

'Easier said than done,' Leorio grumbled. Kuromi closed her eyes and tilted her head downward to hide her twisted up face, her fingers curling up into a ball. 'How about quit complaining...?' Kiyoko sighed as she tried to recover a little more of her strength due to laying for so long when she fainted. 'Calm down, Kuromi, you'll just make it worse...'

"That sounds like a plan," Ponzu said.

"We're switching gears now, huh?" Hanzo said approvingly. "Instead of running away from said fort, we're running WITH the fort. This HAS to be the objective of this phase."

"Our problem now is whether or not we can get everything together and finished before it comes and hit us," Kurapika said has he turned around. "We'll all spread out around this ship and check the condition of everything thoroughly for our escape. Report here within one hour!" Kiyoko wasn't registering in anything through her head as she listened to everyone talk. After all, everything happened while she was unconscious or just plainly tired to the point where she forgot. 'What's going on again?' she asked herself.

'The storm, remember? There's going to be another one soon so everyone is getting ready to escape the area,' Kuromi repeated as she walked off.

'I see..'

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

As time continued to pass by, the applicants all set out to split up and check out the ship and it's conditions, from the devices to the engines, anything that will help them get out of the area and across the ocean to Zevil Island. An hour has passed and everyone was reunited in the control room once again, but this time, Hanzo had a blueprint on him.

"You found the ships blueprint?!" Leorio asked as everyone scanned the page.

"Yeah and it's manual."

"Okay then, we should start listing up things we need to check as carefully as possible," Kurapika said.

"But first, we need to see if we can get the ship loose from all the rocks surround it," Hanzo pointed out. "We can dislodge the hull and sides without a problem, I believe." A man with a giant red nose suddenly approached the ninja and gave off a smirk. "Are we using explosives?" he asked.

"Wait. Wait, who are you?" Hanzo asked awkwardly.

"I'm Kyu," he replied smugly. "I'm an expert in handling explosives. There's still plenty of ordnance on this ship and they should be good of use."

"But then our problem will now be set on the bow," the ninja said. "It's stuck in that giant pile of rocks. And to blow it out of our way and get it free, we'll need a lot of ammo for such a thing."

"Then we'll use the ship's gun turret for this job," Kurapika stated.

"This rusty ship's?" Killua asked. It was now his turn to ask whether such a thing would work or fail miserably. 'Oh look, Leorio's worries has finally rubbed off on someone,' Kuromi snickered.

"Well if we had a steady barrage of each of the four cannons.." the Kurta said. By then, Kuromi was just drowning out all the information she thought was boring and pointless for her to listen to. Of course she didn't need to work the cannons or anything. Or so she thought. But then again, both Yukimuras don't actually have any experience with cannons before. All she knows now is that they're going to try and break free from the rocks with the canon, make sure everything works, and get a move on across the ocean to safety.

But then what about the engine room? We don't know where it is," Pokkle suddenly added. Hanzo looked back at the map and pointed at where the engine room was located on the ship. Right here, though it's passageway is flooded."

"Then we'll just travel through the air ducts from C-deck from there," he replied.

"Alright then, Pokkle and I will go. Just to be safe, we'll also take Kiyoko," Ponzu said. "We may need an extra hand hand we can also watch over her in case anything happens."

'Why... Why me...' Kuromi thought.

"I believe we have to displace as much water flooded into the hull back to the stern for some balance in the ship," Hanzo said, trailing his finger on the map. "The front of the ship was fixed up to become a hotel, so.."

"The weight is uneven now?" Kuromi asked. Hanzo nodded in response and drew a circle with his finger at the front of the ship on the map. "Don't forget about the seaweed that grew and tangled up onto the propellers of the ship."

"I suggest we blow a hole into the storage house," Kyu proposed. "That way the water can flow in evenly."

"Then Killua and I will take the job of removing the seaweed from the propellers!" Gon jumped in. "Right?" The boy turned over and looked at Killua as a look of disapproval crossed his face. "What? Sounds like a lot of work to me...!" he groaned.

"Let's do it! Come on, Killua!" Gon encouraged the boy.

"Alright, fine..." he mumbled. Hanzo sighed at the two before speaking. "Anyways, those are our current problems that we all have to deal with," he said.

"Now let's move," Kurapika ordered.

"Do you think we'll get all of this finished before the next storm front?" Leorio asked the Kurta.

"Well, we don't have a choice now, do we?" he replied. "Everyone here will need to work together to complete these tasks if you want to live. And it's also the only way to get to the island."

"Alright then.." Leorio said. "Let's go everyone and get to work!"

'Bossy guys..' Kuromi grumbled as they all ran off to their assigned locations.

'Better than having carefree leaders,' Kiyoko countered.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Ponzu, Pokkle, and Kuromi climbed into the vent located it the C-deck and began to crawl over to where the engine room was located. No one said a thing to each other, but Kuromi and Kiyoko were secretly having a conversation mentally in which the other two had no idea about.

'I know Leorio-san said that there was an underwater storage, but do you think he'll be okay?' Kiyoko asked.

'Now it's your turn to doubt people? Seriously, this guy rubs off on everyone..!' Kuromi thought. 'He'll be fine, Kiyoko. You just have to believe in everyone's ability for this including your own.'

'How supportive of you this time around,' she replied. 'Very indifferent... Say, are you finally changing your attitude?'

'As if!' the girl screamed. It was a good thing she didn't say it out loud or Pokkle and Ponzu would of had some questions for her to answer. 'Don't worry. I won't tell any of them. It is your job to tell them how you feel after all, not mine,' Kiyoko giggled.

'Ugh whatever.'

Pokkle kicked open the vent cover and slipped into the room without any trouble, moving out of the way for Ponzu and Kuromi to drop in as well. The three looked around and stared at the room before locking their eyes on a giant steam turbine engine. "D-do we even have enough fuel for this...?" Ponzu asked.

"If this thing doesn't move, we'll all drown and end up at the bottom of the ocean..." Pokkle concluded.

"Well standing here to think won't do us any good," Ponzu said.

"We should start the inspections then," Kuromi said as they all walked closer to the engine.

Time passed by quickly as everyone worked and worked without rest, getting rid of things they didn't need, fixing up devices that seemed to stop working, and trying to even out the water on the ship. Kuromi suddenly stopped tinkering with the engine and remained stiff. Ponzu noticed and walked over to the girl giving her a quick pat on the shoulder. "Is something the matter?" she asked curiously. Kuromi stood up straighter and looked around the room as if she was outside the ship.

"Sorry if that scared you," Ponzu said.

"No, that's not the problem... The storm is coming a lot quicker than I have expected.." she announced earning Pokkle's attention as well. "I.. can hear it.. getting closer."

"This isn't good.. And the engine isn't ready yet!" he said, trying to pick up the pace.

'Pokkle, Ponzu, Kuromi! What's the status on the engine?!' Kurapika exclaimed hurriedly.

"Pokkle! Where are we at?" Ponzu asked.

"It's almost ready!" he replied.

"Did you get that?" Ponzu asked the Kurta.

"I got the power circuiting to where the guns are," Kuromi told the two.

"Okay, we found a way to send power to the guns. Now let's just hope that we can get the engine to work and run successfully," Ponzu said.

'Alright. We'll start the countdown,' Kurapika said.

"Pokkle, Ponzu, I'll go check up on the canon rooms and see if there's any trouble going on. I have a feeling something might go wrong," Kuromi said, running back to the vent. "Can you two handle the rest from here?"

Pokkle and Ponzu looked at the girl, but nodded in response, allowing her free from the room. Pokkle ran over to the girl and allowed her to use his hands as a stepping stool to boost herself up without exceeding too much energy and ran back to check on the engine.

'Hope nothing bad does happen like what she said..' Ponzu said quietly.

'It'll only cause more trouble,' Pokkle added.

The girl traveled back the way she came from and hopped out of the small space, stretching herself out before running off to the cannon room.

'Gon went after Leorio, so don't worry about that, but look outside!' Kuromi heard Hanzo say. 'The waterspout is beginning to close in! You can estimate the time we've got left judging by the speed it's going at! The command of operation will be left at you're hands! Killua and I are going to handle the cannons!'

'What the...' she thought, stopping and running to the ninja. It looked like he's finished contacting the Kurta in the main part of the ship and was now dragging Killua with him. "Kuromi," Killua said. The boy grunted and looked away in a displeased manner before grabbing her hand and running off after Hanzo. "I'm sure you're aware of what happened just now?"

The girl frowned and looked behind her before look back at the boy. "Look, I feel that this is going to effect Kurapika so you should go check on him before this entire operation fails."

"And you're now telling me to babysit him?" Kuromi asked. Killua frowned at her response and stopped running, swinging her arm away from him. "I'm not here to listen to you whine or anything." That only tick Kuromi off, but her expression faltered a little into hurt as she knew she was being as moody as she could ever be at the wrong time. "Fine, I'll check on him. Now hurry up and don't leave Hanzo waiting for you," the girl said, pointing at the ninja who waved his arm.

'Hurry up, Killua!' he called.

The girl left the two males and looked for where Kurapika was at, grumbling to herself as she wondered where Gon and Leorio were and if they were safe. 'I hope everything is fine... We haven't been really lucky lately..' Kiyoko said. It was taking way longer for her to look for the boy than to actually help fix up things in the rooms, but she had to do what Killua told her to do.

Kuromi finally busted into the room the Kurta she was looking for was located in after getting lost so many times on the giant ship due to panic. It was almost time for the cannon to shoot and she was aware of it, staying close to the side as she traveled up to Kurapika. "I know you're worried, but you're clearly dozing off now. That'll affect everyone if you don't get you head out of the clouds," she growled, snapping him back to reality. But as soon as he came back he immediately dozed off again, completely scared and worried about both Gon and Leorio. It was a good thing she wasn't very clear to everyone else, she'd feel uncomfortable.

'We can't wait any longer!' Hanzo called. 'The shells won't work if the cannons get soaked! Kurapika! We have to fire now! Kurapika!' Kuromi growled in anger as she stomped over and grabbed the boy's arm before landing a hard slap across his face, a red mark coloring in his left cheek. "Worrying will do us no good. We're all going to die if you're not going to snap out of it soon. There is no second chance in a situation like this, but those two will be fine," she said in a shaky tone. He was now staring at her, completely shocked as Killua suddenly took over to send him a message. 'Kurapika! Gon and Leorio! They're okay! They're coming back up!' he exclaimed.

That allowed him to get back to himself completely as he ran back to the front and check up on the cannons and the storm. "I-I understand!" he said, ignoring the pain Kuromi inflicted on him. "All stations, we'll fire in exactly thirty seconds! Target is the rock surrounding the bow at twelve o'clock!"

Kuromi sighed and then left the room running over to the cannon room as quickly as possible. Slamming the door wide open and checking up on everything with Hanzo, the girl panted heavily as she looked around to see everything in place. "He's coming," she said, smiling a little. "It's a promise. They'll be fine."

Killua smiled at the girl and decided to relax a little, waiting for the sudden concussion the cannons will give off. The countdown began, tension slowly filling up the ship again and weighing down everybody's mind. 'FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ... FIRE!' he ordered. The cannons went off ad the ship began to shake and jolt violently as everyone ran around to check for damage and prepare for the ext shot. No damage has been set to the damage, thankfully enough and the next shell was now set into place. Kuromi stood up after the shaking stopped and sighed in relief, when the first barrage was a success.

A few more shots were ordered and the ship was starting to move with the help of the cleaned off propellers and cannon shots. Sailing out further across the sea the ship began to go wild and shake violently, causing people to go unstable and hang onto the closest thing to them. Unfortunately for Kurapika, he was knocked out cold without anyone actually knowing it. "What happened?!" Hanzo exclaimed.

"We probably hit a rock on the way out," Killua stated. "After all, you saw how covered it was with rocks."

"He may be right," Kuromi said, standing up from the floor. Feeling the ship lean over to the side dangerously, the ninja immediately reported the ship's status to the unconscious teen. "Kurapika! The ship is starting to lean and the storm isn't helping us!" Hanzo exclaimed. "We're going to have to overturn if we don't do something quick! Kurapika!"

Kiyoko groaned worriedly and silently told Kuromi to go check up on the boy again. 'But it's unsafe!' Kuromi argued.

'Just this once! Something must have happened when the ship suddenly jolted!' the girl said.

'Okay fine! We'll go immediately,' Kuromi sighed, as she ran off again. 'You know, that slap kind of stung...'

'Your fault for hitting hard,' Kiyoko muttered. The ship jolted again when the cannons fired, making her go unsteady, but Kuromi switched with Kiyoko and continued to run until she made it to the bridge. Just as she suspected, the boy was unconscious, but there was another figure guiding the boat to safety, one she has never seen before. She then remembered about the unconscious boy and went up to him to see blood trickling down his face.

"Don't worry, he's fine," the man with long black hair said. "Just a minor injury." Kiyoko looked up and slowly nodded as the person continued to guide the boat to safety.

It was finally bright out again as Kiyoko continued to wait for Kurapika to wake up. The boy groaned in pain and began to move, holding his head in his palm from the collision he had during the storm. Kiyoko felt him shifting around and opened her eyes to check on him, seeing him blink to try and get a clear vision of what was going around him.

"Oh, you're okay!" she sighed, helping him up to his feet.

The boy trailed his fingers around the white bandages wrapped around his head, then to his cheek and looked over his shoulder only to flinch as well as try to block the light. "Is it... over?" he suddenly asked curiously. Kiyoko nodded and pointed out the door where Hanzo was standing, looking out into the sea with a smile on his face. Kurapika headed out, but had to block some of the sunlight to see where he was going, lowering it down after he got used to it. 'At least he didn't hit his head hard enough to have amnesia,' Kuromi stated, a sign she was relieved with the results as well. An airship suddenly appeared over where they all were now located at, the applicants curiously looking up. "I guess this was only the beginning of the next phase.." Kiyoko mumbled.