Chapter Text
It was art class, and I could barely pay attention to the teacher's instructions because I had to focus on ignoring two things occupying my attention.
The first was one of my bullies, Sophia. A slender, athletic, dark-skinned girl who tended to be the more physical of my three main bullies. It was almost midway through the semester, and the art teacher was attentive, so she rarely got to do anything too bad in class. Though I had gone through this before and knew that the attention the teacher was showing would wane. There was another aspect of Sophia that kept her in my head.
She had powers. Sophia Hess had powers, and I recognized those powers. They were the same as one of the local junior heroes, Shadow Stalker. One of the people bullying me for almost two years at this point was a fucking Ward. I had been wandering at night after a run, even if I shouldn't have, and ended up near Emma's neighborhood. Emma was my primary bully and was someone I used to call a friend, maybe even a sister. I had spotted the two of them in an alley, and I watched them put on concealing clothes before I saw Sophia turn into a shadowy form and phase her arm through a wall to pull out a crossbow.
I... I didn't know what to think at the time. I had only been out of contact with Emma for a week due to a summer camp, and she had jumped to Sophia like a new toy and abandoned me. Worse than abandoning me, she had turned on me. Sophia might have been the physical bully, but Emma was the one who led the campaign against me. I hated her more than anyone else. Using every secret I told her and every moment we spent together as kids to torment me. Even the death of my mom was used against me. I think I blacked out for a second when that realization came, and I stumbled home in a daze.
"Boooring. Pay attention and get to drawing. The melodrama is boring. Drawing is at least kind of fun. Make something cool... Like an explosion!" A bubbly voice complained in my head before exclaiming.
"Do be quiet, James. I'm interested in seeing how writing and art have changed since I've been around." This voice reminded me of flowing ink for some reason, despite the voice often making very dry remarks. It also had a slight accent that could have been Welsh.
Another voice, this one felt twitchy, defended my actions. "She's just being cautious. You can feel the bad vibes from here."
"Paranoid as always, Adventure." The ink voice responded.
"It's not paranoia if they're actually out to get you!"
Right. The voices in my head. A full sixteen of them. All with distinct voices and personalities. They had appeared after I had woken up at home the night I saw Emma and Sophia. Like Sophia, I also have powers now. I think. I have been doing my best to ignore them for the last few days. A challenge because of how many there were and the fact that not all of them got along.
I had been worried that some other parahuman was responsible for the voices. The Butcher was an example of someone with multiple powers and voices in their head. The power of the Butcher was that when they were killed by another parahuman, the killer would inherit all the minds and powers of the past Butchers. I think I remember reading that the fourteenth Butcher had inherited a few months back. I could at least be certain that I wasn't a new Butcher because, for one: the Butcher has been in Boston for a while, two: at least half the Butchers had been dudes, and every voice in my head was feminine, and three: I've never killed anyone.
I could feel some powers in my reach. Yes, powers, as in multiple. The majority felt associated with the voices, a set of powers with each voice. One of the only exceptions was that I could feel something in the distance. Something outside the bay, sitting at the bottom of the sea, unmoving. Waiting.
I hadn't touched a single power since I had gotten them. I don't know what I was waiting for. Maybe I was hoping they would just go away? Some part of me wanting to stay normal and refusing to acknowledge that my life wouldn't be the same?
"It is quite interesting to see how things have changed. Though the way people speak now makes them sound like a bunch of blatherskites." A smug voice with a slight Scottish tinge to it said. "It is a shame to be stuck with so many pirates. Isn't that right?" She directed the question at another one of the voices.
"...I'm sorry, were you talking to us?" A sharp and stiff voice bit back. "Because it seems like you think you're with us."
"I concur, last I checked, you were a pirate as well." A soft and calm voice added to the previous one.
The voice lost its smugness. "Those charges were false! My captain didn't do anything outside his letter of marque!" I could feel the sting of betrayal radiating from the voice. It was one of the ones that had picked up on how Emma had betrayed me and gotten furiously mad on my behalf. That had been nice until she started openly planning ways to kill and torture Emma, with the other voices inputting their own ideas.
Yeah, I doubted my life was ever going to be normal again. I had withheld for the entire school week, but I needed to address this soon, or I was going to go crazy. I at least hadn't gone to school on Monday because Dad noticed how under the weather I was feeling. It was Friday now, and I still hadn't told him about the voices, and I don't think I am ever going to tell him. There was no way to say it that wouldn't freak him out.
The art teacher arranged some random objects on a table, and students started pulling out sketch pads, so I just copied what they were doing. The teacher put on some quiet music, so there was something nice for us to listen to while we worked.
"I like all the music I've heard since waking up!" A voice with what I've learned is a Persian accent exclaimed. They were consistently upbeat, and there was some hypnotic quality to their voice that drew my attention. "The devices they use can play such a variety of music! I wish I could have a body and dance. It would certainly be a novel experience."
"Oh! That does sound fun, Ms. Ganj! I want to go to the ocean and talk to the fishies. I always saw them swimming by me and never got the chance to say anything." That was a child's voice. They sounded very young. I have no idea how someone who sounded ten ended up in my head. They weren't the only young voice either.
"I'm interested in some of the food." Another young, sleepy voice that didn't sound like they had become a teenager yet. "Those bags with crispy chips in them look good. Wouldn't mind trying some sweets either. Well, if someone could go get them for me."
Yet another voice laughed at the remark, thankfully an adult. This one sounded... slimy wasn't the right word. It was... gooey? Yeah, gooey sounds right. Warm and thick. "Haha! Sounds about right! I wouldn't mind trying some new types of alcohol after all this time myself. I need to break this sobriety."
I internally told them to shut up, and as always, it didn't work. No matter how hard I tried, the only way they could hear my words was if I spoke aloud and made myself look like I was going crazy. Though it at least gave me a little privacy in my own head. Still, there was at least one other way I could communicate with them that was sneaky enough that only those looking over my shoulder would notice.
I stopped drawing for a second and wrote 'shut up' off to the side, underlining it twice, before quickly erasing it so no one else would see and went back to drawing. It was met with a few grumbles and complaints.
"Okay, okay. We were just making some comments. If we could talk without bothering you, we would. Still, you can't ignore us forever. We need to talk sooner or later. An actual conversation. Not just you telling us to stop talking." The voice had unknowingly echoed my earlier thoughts and made me feel a little bad. This one reminded me of fire. A hot flame that flared occasionally when speaking.
I paused drawing and thought for a few moments. It was true that I needed to talk to them. My life as a normal civilian was officially over. Well, at least being a normal person full time. I wasn't going to leave school or my dad. I had held out the last two years from lashing out or running away. This just gave me options.
Off to the side, I wrote 'today after school at home' before once again erasing it. This message had more positive reactions.
"Hmph. Finally, it's about bloody time. Did it feel good to keep beings as powerful as us contained for this long?" It felt like something large and commanding was staring straight into my soul. I minutely shook my head as I continued working. This one was always a little intimidating.
"Agreed," a solid voice with what might be a Spanish accent said, "I, for one, wish to feel the breeze pushing me and the sun kiss my skin once more."
"Ah~ That does sound great, São Martinho." This voice was... a lot. For some reason, I felt an association with mist or smoke in it. I could feel her attention turn to me. "I just can't wait to finally hold you close and keep you away from those hurting you. Just a little longer." Her voice turned to a whisper near the end, and I fought to keep my face from heating up. Her voice was very nice. She chuckled, and a shiver ran up my spine. Honestly, a lot of the voices in my head sounded like a siren from Greek myth was whispering in my ear. I didn't not like that part.
"Heh, down girl. Tone it down before you scare her off." This voice had been one of the kinder ones out of all the voices. I felt an association with water in it. I'm not sure why, but this voice felt like one of the only ones that had never been in a fight. Less aggressive. "To be fair, I'm also aching to stretch for the first time with a body that can move on its own. I'm the youngest here, and it's still been over a century since I've interacted with a human."
"Humans..." the strangest voice spoke, "it has truly been ages since I have seen them before waking here. I feel as if we have forgotten much with time. The tearing of muscle, the shattering of bone, the bursts of gunfire. If you would have us, this city will quake with our might, as our enemies are crushed beneath our power. You simply need to say the word." This one was the tipping point among the voices that sealed it for me that the voices in my head did not belong to humans. The other voices at least acted like humans with maybe a few weird quirks. This one was alien. Completely and utterly alien. There was something off about the sound of the voice as well. Some of the sounds she made while talking didn't sound like they could be produced by the human tongue. Odd whistling and piping sounds.
If the voices in my head were to be believed... Wow, that was certainly a sentence. Anyway, if they are to be believed, they were never human and used to be ships. Actual ships from the age of sailing. Nearly two-thirds of them were ships belonging to pirates; the rest were a ghost ship found adrift, a privateer ship, a treasure ship, two pirate hunting ships, and a flagship of an armada. They had memories of their time as ships and fondly remembered the crew they had, especially their captains. Some of the names they listed were ones I knew. A handful of them had been with the infamous pirate Blackbeard, and the crews of the two pirate hunters had been the ones to kill Blackbeard. That naturally produced some animosity, but it wasn't as spiteful as I expected it would be.
The music cut out, and I tuned back in to hear the teacher say that class was about over, and we could go ahead and pack up. Everyone did so, and I could practically feel Sophia's eyes on me the entire time. I glanced over and saw that she was, in fact, looking at me. I froze, and she smirked. I quickly turned away and packed my things a little faster. Art was the last class of the day, so all I needed to do was dodge my bullies and get home without being stopped by them. Just needed to make it to the bus.
"Ugh, not this shite again." At least the intimidating voice didn't want to see this anymore than I wanted it to happen.
"Honestly, bullying you can't be this important to them. It's a little pathetic they're doing all this," the ink voice remarked. I agreed. I could at least think of myself as the bigger person for never giving in to their bullying. After getting powers, I could tell I was a lot more durable and stronger. By how much, I did not know. If I didn't want to expose myself, I either needed to avoid them or get acting lessons to not accidentally reveal myself.
I was out the door as the paranoid voice from before piped up, "Hey, hey, you want to get out of here without running into them, right?" I had a small idea of where this was going and nodded as subtly as I could. "Use my power. I'm getting the gist of how it works. Just tap into a little bit of it, and you can tell where they are. Nothing obvious."
That... Maybe. I don't know. I was unsure if I wanted to use powers in school altogether if I had the choice.
"Don't worry," the fire voice said, "it's just to get us out of here. None of us want to see this. Go ahead and get us out of here before they manage to corner you. You can do this."
I... Okay. Fine, just this once. I siphoned from the power, and I could feel everything around me. Levels of danger everywhere. One of the tiles on the ceiling was getting loose. A puddle on the floor I might slip on. Some of the students walking around had knives stashed away in their pockets. A distance behind me, where I knew Sophia was, I could feel the inherent danger of a parahuman and the bad intentions she had for me. Elsewhere in the school, I could feel another person with bad intentions for me that was greater than Sophia's. That had to be Emma. There were a few others; the next highest with bad intentions would probably be Madison, the last of my main bullies who did most of the pettier shit like pranks. The rest had to be the flunkies, those that did what my bullies told them to do in hopes they could get in with the popular girls. There was a small handful of other dangers in the school that might be parahumans, but I felt no bad intentions directed toward me, so they weren't important at the moment.
Now that I could tell where they were, I could avoid them. I made sure to break line of sight with Sophia and lose her around a crowd. From that point, it was a matter of avoiding the main bullies and avoiding the attention of the flunkies. I could feel the fire voice burning a little warmer as I got further from them.
The danger flared, and I noticed that a flunky had spotted me and was now typing on their phone. I internally cursed and started walking a little faster. I felt my bullies change direction and start making a beeline toward where I was going.
I kept walking until the inhuman voice spoke, "Stop. Take a right at this corner." What? That would put me in sight of Madison. The voice must have noticed me hesitating. "They are planning to cut you off at your destination. The short one is dimwitted and will not notice you behind the crowd. She will be too focused on making sure she is there to bully you than pay attention to her surroundings."
Huh. That made sense. Sure enough, when I turned the corner as instructed, Madison didn't notice me and kept walking. The little shit had actually been too self-absorbed to focus. Lucky for me then.
It was trivial to get to one of the side entrances without getting harassed, and I barely managed to make it to the bus that would take me home. The rest of the ride was alright; none of my bullies' hangers-on were on it. I turned down the power when it started noting things like unsafe infrastructure and people who were carrying guns. That was normal enough in Brockton Bay. You didn't get to be one of the top ten cities in parahuman numbers while not being in the top fifty largest populations in the US by being a good place to live.
The bus dropped me off a block away from my house, and I let out a sigh of relief at getting home safe. I skipped the rotten bottom step of the stairs to the front door of my house and locked the door behind me. Dad's car wasn't in the driveway, so he would still be working at the Dockworkers' Union for the next few hours. Sure enough, he left a note that he wouldn't be home till later tonight on the kitchen table. Perfect.
"Okay, let's talk," I spoke for the first time that day and went up the stairs where my room was. Some of the wood that made up the second-story floors creaked as I stepped on them. I went in, tossed my backpack next to the chair of my desk, and hopped into bed. I stared at the ceiling and asked, "Maybe we could start with introductions? I've been trying to ignore a lot, so I would appreciate having names to voices. I'll start. My name is Taylor Anne Hebert. I'm fifteen and have lived in Brockton Bay all my life."
The mist and smoke voice went first. "Greetings, Taylor. The name I am most known by is Golden Hind. I was launched in 1577 and captained by Sir Francis Drake. I completed my circumnavigation of the world in 1580 and returned to England to spend the rest of my retirement until I fell apart in 1650. I did a little privateering against the Spanish while in the New World. It is a pleasure to get to know you, little one." Fifteen seventy-seven? Damn, that was ancient... And I was never more glad they couldn't hear my thoughts. Hey, wasn't that around the time Galileo was alive? My thoughts were interrupted by the next voice.
"I am the mighty São Martinho," the solid Spanish voice said, "and I was built in Portugal in 1580 before becoming the flagship of the Grande y Felicísima Armada. My captain was Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y de Zúñiga-Sotomayor, seventh Duke of Medina Sidonia, and commander of the Spanish Armada. I led my sisters in battle against the English, but we were defeated, and a storm spelled my end in 1588. I wish to once more bask in the golden light of the sun." Another one from the fifteen hundreds. She felt powerful, which I suppose makes sense for someone who had been the flagship in a war.
"Nice to properly meet you, Taylor!" This was the Persian voice. "I am Ganj-i-Sawai, and I was made by the Mughal Empire in 1616. I was a treasure ship, and I spent a lot of time sailing to and from Mecca. I was built by order of Empress Mariam-uz-Zamani. I lived through the reign of three emperors. My career was over when I was captured by pirates in 1695." She didn't sound too saddened by that fact.
The inhuman voice broke in. "Yes, and I was the one that got you." I felt her attention turn to me. "I was originally an English frigate in service to Spain before Henry Every, my beloved captain, wrested me from my bonds in 1694 and named me Fancy. I was the last, greatest, and fastest ship used in his piratical career. I brought a few others with me to take the Ganj-i-Sawai and her escort, the Fateh Muhammed, as they were traveling to Mecca in 1695. We succeeded. The Mughal Empire was infuriated and cut off trade with the English until my captain was captured. They launched one of the first truly global manhunts to capture him. They failed. My captain and I disappeared from the pages of history to never be found." I felt my eyes widen a bit. She was the first one of the pirates to have spoken, and her career sounded astounding. I would need to do some research after today to find out just how much she had stolen. I wondered why I had never heard of her captain. Did she count as a villain?
"Ah, good times." The fire voice sounded wistful. "Hello, Taylor. I am Amity. My captain was Thomas Tew, and I was given to him in 1692 to start privateering from Bermuda, but he quickly turned to piracy in the Indian Ocean. We had a few successful voyages until I accompanied Fancy for our attack on Ganj-i-Sawai and Fateh Muhammed. I went ahead and attacked the Fateh Muhammed first, where my captain was sadly disemboweled by a cannon. I was forced to surrender, but Fancy rescued me from the wounded Mughal ship. I went back to Madagascar, where I was traded for another ship and taken apart." I felt a little ache in my heart at that. Losing someone dear to you before being thrown out like trash and traded for something newer.
"Oh! I remember that! Shame that happened to you, Amity." That was the youngest voice in my head. "Hi there! I'm Dolphin! I was a Spanish ship before Richard Want got me. I liked him; he wanted a lot of treasure and so did I. I left Philadelphia with my best friend, Porty, and later joined Fancy on her hunt. The Spanish didn't do a good job making me, so I started falling apart right before we even got to fight! My crew transferred to Fancy and burned me so that they didn't leave any evidence behind." I could feel her sulking, and my heart hurt a little more. I technically knew she wasn't human, but she still sounded like a child, and she was talking about being burned alive.
"Yeah, I was one of the only ones that made it to the Ganj-i-Sawai alongside Fancy." The gooey voice surprised me by speaking. She must be 'Porty.' "Portsmouth Adventure, at your service! I'm friends with the little one and joined Fancy with my captain, Joseph Faro. I think I got a little too drunk at one point because I swear I remember fighting alongside Fancy, but she said I never fired a shot. Whatever. Anyway, after that I got too drunk again and wrecked on Mayotte, where Fancy had to get my crew like she did Dolphin's. That was a little embarrassing. I need a drink to forget that." Weird, because she didn't sound embarrassed or guilty in the slightest. She also sounded like she was a little drunk already.
"Whatever..." It was the voice with a slight Scottish accent. She sounded young, not as young as Dolphin, but definitely a teenager. "Name's Adventure Galley, captained by William Kidd." Hold on, wasn't there another voice by the name of Adventure? I hoped this didn't get too confusing. "I was supposed to be a pirate hunter and privateer, was built for it, but I couldn't find any damn pirates. Tew was actually on my list of pirates to get, but he was dead before I was even launched." I heard her huff. "I did what I had to, to survive. You understand? Spent about two and a half years in the Indian Ocean capturing ships. Started rotting near the end when people started hunting us down. Had to burn and sink me in 1698. My captain was later tricked and betrayed by a governor we were working with. Got papers saying we could get a pardon like other pirates were getting. He was arrested and hanged when he showed up. Be wary of false promises, kid." I... Huh. I understand why she hated Emma so much now. Also, I think the government might still be doing stuff like that today. When villains were captured, they either went to prison or disappeared where no one heard from them again.
The sharp and stiff voice cut in. "His Majesty's Ship Lyme. Pirate hunter. Built in 1695 and dismantled in 1739. My career was spent chasing pirates across the North Atlantic Ocean. A while before I was rebuilt in 1719, a small portion of my crew joined a portion of Pearl's crew to commandeer two merchant ships and ambush the pirate Blackbeard at Ocracoke Island. The plan succeeded, and the pirate was dispatched." She was clearly the no-nonsense type. I noticed, unlike the others, she hadn't mentioned a captain. Did she not care?
The soft and calm voice followed. "His Majesty's Ship Pearl. Pirate hunter. Built in 1708 and dismantled for rebuilding in 1722, where I was reborn and launched once more in 1726 before being sold and broken up in 1744, though my memories of my second life are shrouded in fog. Captained by George Gordon in my first life. I was given orders to hunt Blackbeard, and my first lieutenant, Robert Maynard, led the successful mission that Lyme mentioned..." She paused. "...they never rewarded him for getting such an infamous pirate under their orders." She sounded reflective and regretful to me. All of that over the calm I felt her radiating.
I heard one of the voices yawn. It was the young, sleepy one. "My turn? Just call me Whydah. Built in 1716 to bring slaves over the Atlantic. Did that for a year. Boring. Didn't really like it. Then I was captured by pirates." She started to sound happier at that. "My new captain, Samuel Bellamy, Robin Hood of the Sea. Those were a good couple of months. Sadly, I got caught in a storm, and I sank south of here. My captain and the crew came with me. Of the one hundred and forty-six aboard me, only two survived." Her voice got duller as she continued till she was mumbling by the end. I really wanted to give her a hug.
"Oh! Me next!" The bubbly voice butted in. "I prefer Royal James! My captain was Stede Bonnet, the Gentleman Pirate! I was made and bought in 1717 for the purpose of being a pirate ship after Stede fell on hard times. I had Blackbeard aboard for a while back when I was the Revenge, but Stede is the man I love. Blackbeard left me and the crew behind for Stede to take back anyway. Didn't start my career well, but I got better with more experience. Late 1718, got trapped in the opening of the Cape Fear River against two pirate hunters. I managed to hold my own for a while! Got close to beating them, but the tide wasn't on my side. We all got stuck, and the two ships got free before I did. Stede wanted to go out in a blaze of glory and got ready to blow me up and take out as many of the bastards as we could. But nooooo, 'that will kill us, Stede' 'just surrender, Stede' 'we had a good run.' Cowards! All of them! I'm just looking to have some fun now. Explosions sound like the best way to do that!" Okay... Mark her down as possibly suicidal. Or at least a danger to herself and those around her. I would need to keep a close eye on her.
The intimidating voice moved to the forefront. "My name is Queen Anne's Revenge. Remember it." I immediately consigned it to memory. "I started in 1710 as the French La Concorde. I was primarily used to move slaves across the Atlantic. This was until 1717, when I was captured by pirates. My new captain was Edward Teach, whom you may know better as Blackbeard. Together we became known throughout the world as the epitome of what pirates are. It may not be as bad as you are thinking. Edward disliked violence." Blackbeard, the most famous pirate, didn't like violence? "He much preferred to use scare tactics to get what he wanted. I was his flagship until I ran aground in an inlet in 1718. As much as he tried, I could not be saved. Adventure also ran aground alongside me while trying to get me free." I was starting to see a pattern; both in how long each ship was active for and final fates.
The paranoid voice whose power I used to escape my bullies was next. "Call me Adventure. I was actually two ships, both named Adventure and serving under Blackbeard, but at different times. The first time, I was lost when I tried getting Queen Anne's Revenge unstuck. Got stuck myself, and I remember going to sleep before waking back up. I was with Blackbeard again with a slightly different body, but close enough. He had taken a pardon but went back to piracy with me. Took some ships for a few months. Then we were ambushed by some pirate hunters. Blackbeard fought well, but they tricked us. I think this was one of the only times I saw Blackbeard kill someone. Didn't give him a fair fight when he boarded. Shot him five times, stabbed him twenty times, cut off his head and hung it from the bowsprit of their ship before throwing his body overboard. I don't remember much after that." It felt like she was starting to shake by the end of it. I felt a little bad for her as I felt Lyme and Pearl focus on her as she finished talking. It seems that even the non-criminal voices could be violent.
"Hmph. Poor girl. I actually heard they hung the head from a pole for a few years." That was the ink voice. "I am collectively the Royal Fortune. My captain, Bartholomew Roberts, wasn't the most creative man. I have memories of being four different ships, all named Royal Fortune. Despite his lack of creativity, he was quite successful, capturing over four hundred ships in our few years together. My first body was a French ship he captured in 1720. My second body was an even larger French warship a few months later, and we headed toward Africa. That one started to leak, so it was abandoned, and the Sea King was renamed and became the third me. Barti found a better ship that was originally a warship called the Onslow, and it became my fourth and final body. In 1722, a few smaller ships I was traveling with and I picked a target. We picked poorly because it turned out to be a pirate hunter. One of the ships went ahead to get 'em, and we stayed behind. Never heard from her again. During the night, we threw a party, and everyone was drunk. The pirate hunter returned, and everyone tried to escape. Let me tell you, drunk people aren't the best at running away. I got hit with a broadside twice, and a piece of grapeshot hit my captain in the throat. He didn't want his body to be used as an example like previous pirate captains, so the crew weighed the body down and bound it in one of my sails before throwing him overboard. Battle continued for another two hours till we surrendered, even if only two other people besides Barti had died. One crazy bastard tried to blow me up so I wouldn't be captured, but two others tackled him. I was looted by the pirate hunters and then taken as a prize, where a storm later sent me to the depths. From what the rest of us had gotten out of Mary, the death of my captain was the start of the end for the age of piracy. Heh. 'A merry life and a short one' indeed." The story she wove enraptured me until the very end. She had a voice fit for audiobooks. I guess the 'a merry life and a short one' was some sort of motto that her captain had. It certainly fits with how short it seemed the average pirate career was.
The last one was the kind water voice. "Guess it's just me left, huh? Well, I was christened the Mary Celeste. I'm the youngest of the ships here, and I never saw any combat like the rest of them, but I'm willing to do my part to help. I was built in Nova Scotia in 1861. I simply traveled back and forth across the Atlantic while the Union and Confederacy were fighting," wow, the youngest one here was around for the American Civil War, "till a storm tossed me ashore. I was taken in by the Americans in 1868 and sat in a harbor for a few years after getting repairs and then an upgrade. I was then bought by Benjamin Briggs in 1872. He took his wife, infant daughter, and seven other crewmates aboard me for a voyage across the Atlantic, leaving his school-aged son in the care of his grandmother." She stopped talking for a few moments. "A ship found me adrift with no crew aboard, hundreds of miles away from any land. I would rather not say what happened; I don't like to think about it. I was salvaged, sold, and then later wrecked off the coast of Haiti in 1885... Please don't leave us, Taylor." I was listening intently enough that I was taken aback when she said my name.
I tried to relax, lying bonelessly on the bed, and tried to take all of it. All their stories. So many of them had been either thrown away or lost in uncontrollable accidents. People they loved torn away from them by an uncaring world.
"I won't," I whispered. "I won't be abandoning any of you," I promised. I meant it. Their stories had resonated with me, and now I was their only connection to the world. Even if they had done wrong in the past, they could think for themselves now and get a second chance. All of them had been hurt as I had. Inside my head, it felt like they were pressing closer to me.
Besides, with this much power, I might be able to do some genuine good. Adventure had some sort of danger sense power that had been really useful. I wondered if all of them had powers on that scale. Best to just ask.
"So, do you all know what your powers are? Adventure had that power that let me sense threats and people with bad intentions. If I focus, I can kind of get a feeling of what your power might be related to."
I felt Amity do the mental equivalent of a shrug. Impressive for someone who currently doesn't have shoulders and didn't have any to begin with. "Hmm... We're not too sure ourselves. These magic abilities we've seen people use are new to us. Can you explain what's up with that?"
I nodded. This was the sort of information almost everyone knew from history class and daily life. "Yeah. It started on May twentieth, 1982, when some people on an ocean liner saw a naked golden man floating above the surface of the ocean. They got closer, and he didn't really react. Before he left, he cured a man of cancer. It was only about two years later when everyone noticed that some people were getting superpowers. Things changed. These people with powers, now being referred to as parahumans, started becoming heroes and villains. Other world-shaking events happened. A guy calling himself Professor Haywire opened a portal to another world." I got cut off there by around a dozen voices.
"Wait, wait, wait! Hold it there. Another world?" Ganj-i-Sawai asked.
"Did you open a way to Hell or something?" I could feel Adventure's fear.
I shut down their concerns. "No, no, it was a portal to another version of Earth. We're still in communication with them. They started getting parahumans too, but they have a lot less, and the ones they have are a lot weaker. The portal itself is pretty small, so we can only exchange information. We call ourselves Earth Bet, and they are Earth Aleph. We haven't found any other Earths."
"That you know of," said Adventure Galley. Which, yeah, I didn't really doubt that someone might be messing around with that kind of stuff.
"Maybe. Anyway, after that came the giant monsters." Time to break the news to them.
I felt Lyme raise an eyebrow. "Giant monsters?"
"We call them the Endbringers. It's... a little taboo to talk about them. At this point, there are three of them, and they attack a city once every three to four months. They're basically unstoppable. I can tell you more later, but I would rather not talk about them."
"Any other life-altering news you wish to give us, or is that all of it?" Royal Fortune asked with exasperation.
I thought for a few moments. "Hm. No, nothing else other than countries falling and civilization itself being on the decline." That got more groans and sighs. There was a general sense of unease.
"Oh, quit 'tcher bellyaching, girls!" Queen Anne's Revenge shouted over the commotion. "Have some bloody pride in yourselves! We've got enough experience and power between us that I have no doubt we could take on whatever opposition we face. That's our lot at the moment. Now, we just need to figure out what we're working with. Taylor, you're up."
I stiffened at the sudden instruction. I followed what felt natural and reached for every voice. I stopped before I did anything stupid and pulled just a little bit. It felt like a small opening had appeared before each voice. All at once, they reached a small bit of themselves through.
I suddenly felt very crowded on my bed. Not with the bodies of other people. No, no, no. Something much weirder was taking up my personal space.
A dozen tentacles had appeared around my bed. Each one with different color combinations. Blacks, blues, purples, one with red, a green one, that one was gold at the tip, and there was a bioluminescent one as well. Some looked wet. A few had ink or something thicker covering them. Some had chains or cloth draped over them as decorations. All of them were emerging from the surfaces around me. Surrounding me on all sides. That wasn't all either. Near the right foot of my bed were some hovering golden scales, each the size of my palm. They glittered so beautifully I had to force myself to look away. Hovering over the left foot of my bed was a... cloud? Were those bubbles? No, the color they were iridescent with, and the texture, looked more like pearls. A cloud of pearls bigger than my head. Up to my right was a disembodied wing that had three eye markings on it, with some feathers fluttering around the wing, all of which were cream colored and softly glowing. Up to my left was a weird sword with strange markings hovering precariously over my head.
I just blinked and stared at the wall, wondering where it all went wrong. Right, my mom's death and Emma choosing Sophia over me. Tentacles, golden scales, a cloud of pearls, a wing, and a floating sword. Crap, I needed somewhere to let them all out, didn't I? I couldn't let them out at home. There wasn't enough room, and someone might see.
A soot-colored tentacle flexed. "Well... This is certainly unique." That was Amity's voice.
The sword inched away from my head. "A sword... Fits, I guess." That would be Lyme, and I couldn't find it in me to disagree with her.
A light blue-grey tentacle with a tan underside and small golden chains covering it reached down from where it was coming out of the wall behind me. It stayed in my vision before the tip flicked and booped me on my nose. "One step closer, my dear Taylor." Ah, Golden Hind.
The cloud made of pearls, which I was going to take a wild guess and say was Pearl, moved till it was hovering over my legs. Sure enough, it was Pearl. "Taylor, do you think you can find some place more open to go?" She asked, unknowingly echoing my earlier thoughts.
I put a hand to my chin and thought, idly wiping the small amount of slime on my nose from Golden Hind off with my thumb. There was a place that fit our needs, where we could go and not be seen. "You girls saw the place with all the wrecked ships, right?" There were agreements all around. "Some people say it's a place where people go to test their powers. That might mean it is watched, but I think Adventure's power can stop us from being seen as we go in."
A black tentacle with an electric blue underside contorted itself so that it looked vaguely like a thumbs-up. "Sounds good to me, if it's all the same." That was Mary Celeste.
There was a general all-around agreement, and the decision was made. "The Boat Graveyard it is." I clapped my hands together and pinched the openings with each voice till they closed. The tentacles retracted back into the walls, and the others fizzled out of existence.
I hopped out of bed and started down the stairs. "Do me a favor and try figuring out what your powers might be before we get there." I got affirmatives all around, and I nodded to myself. I was planning to figure out that one thing that none of the voices had mentioned. Those things sitting outside the mouth of the bay.
It was pretty easy to catch a bus. Brockton Bay had a road that ran through the entire city called Lord Street. Basically, everything was next to the street or connected to it. Anyone who lived here long enough learned how to use the buses that ran along Lord Street. The PRT ENE Headquarters were located on it, and part of it branched off to Lord Street Market or just 'the market.' The Boardwalk, which was the main tourist spot along the coast, was also within walking distance of the road.
While on the bus, I mentally poked the underwater things. It took a little experimentation, but I managed to get them to do something. Parts of whatever they were started to glow, and they ever so slowly lifted off the ocean floor. I poked them in a specific place, and they twitched. Other than that, they stayed where they were. I would figure that out later. We were at our stop.
Our stop was on the northern side of the market, and I began walking toward my destination. It had been visible on the bus ride over, and I could feel the ships focusing on it.
"Hard to believe those are ships." Royal Fortune said.
Ganj-i-Sawai scoffed, "I'll say! Those things are way bigger than I was! They look like they're made of metal as well!"
"How do they move? I see no sails." São Martinho asked me.
"They use propellers," I explained from what I could remember, "basically a bunch of spinning blades that push the ships through the water. All of it is powered by a generator that needs fuel." That was simplified as much as I could make it from what knowledge I had.
"I'm thinking of something like a windmill," Royal Fortune put forth.
I snapped my fingers. "Yes, kind of like a windmill." I tapped into Adventure's power and kept myself aware of anything that might put me in danger of being spotted. People were up and about, but I didn't feel any particular danger from any of them. A few people had weapons on them, but I kept walking. The Boat Graveyard had a chain-link fence surrounding it to keep people out, but no one really maintained it. It was easy to slip through an open section where prying eyes weren't looking.
"How did this place come about anyway?" Golden Hind asked as I avoided open areas that felt dangerous, possibly cameras.
I spread my hands and motioned to a few of the beached ships around us that had been exposed by low tide. "Welcome to the Boat Graveyard, formerly known as Lord's Port. Brockton Bay used to have a large shipping industry that sustained the city," I was mostly repeating things I heard Dad say. "Due to some economic factors, which I can't remember the specifics of, the local industry started to collapse. A lot of the people that worked in the docks started to protest. The shipping companies trapped some boats in the harbor to keep them from leaving. Protests escalated. It got kind of violent. A protester sank that big container ship over there, and that marked the end of the port. It's too expensive to remove it, and so they just left all of these ships to rust." The container ship was a Panamax, and it dwarfed the other ships in the port. Of the over forty ships, many of them were larger than the skyscrapers downtown.
I found a medium-sized ship that had a hole in the side of it I could enter from when some of the metal making up the hull had fallen off. There was the smell of seawater and rust in the air, but nothing that felt inherently dangerous. I could at least tell that nothing was in danger of collapsing like some other ships. Well, at least not anymore. A few parts of the ceiling had caved in, but that allowed some natural light in and made everything easier to see. I think I was at least durable enough at this point that I wasn't in danger of cutting myself on rusty metal. The floor must be below high tide because sand covered the bottom, which made it much more comfortable to walk on.
I stood in the middle of the room, took a big breath of air, and released it. Openings wide enough for each voice opened before them in my head, and I could feel them move through.
All around me, glowing points the color of the sea appeared in midair. Despite it hurting to look at, I squinted at one of the points through my glasses. It looked like a... what was that thing that was a four-dimensional version of a cube? A tesseract, right? With every moment it shifted, and the sight of it hurt my head even more than the lights in my eyes did.
Soon enough, the glow faded, and I was no longer alone in the ship. I couldn't contain my first thought.
'Wow, that is a lot of exposed skin.'
I squeaked and covered my eyes in embarrassment. I peeked through my fingers and saw that none of them were totally indecent. They technically weren't more exposed than some people who went to the beach were. There was even a famous hero in Canada whose only costume was using her power of creating forcefields to cover her skin in fine scales. Some of them felt like they were pushing it, though.
I was distracted when one of the ships, now a young girl, turned toward me. She was definitely younger than me and had long white hair with blue eyes. She was wearing some swimwear with a white blouse that opened to expose her navel. This was combined with some sort of cape that reminded me of a stingray and some kind of pirate hat on her head. Small golden trinkets were attached to her clothes. When the girl turned and spotted me, I saw an incredibly happy smile appear on her face. "Taylor!" She shouted and sprinted at me before jumping. I was just able to recognize her voice as Dolphin's before I caught her. She hugged me around my midsection, and I noticed how hard she was squeezing me. I was feeling a lot less durable after releasing them, and I'm pretty sure that Dolphin was a lot stronger than any normal human.
Despite the slight pain, what caught me off guard was how nice the action felt. Like I had been needing a hug from someone who wasn't my dad for a long time. I... could get used to this becoming more common.
I patted the back of her head as I tried not to suffocate. "I'm right here, Dolphin. Nice to meet you properly." I tensed when I felt something grab the hand I was using to pat Dolphin's head. Off-blue tentacles a little shorter than my arm were grabbing my hand and holding it there. Following where they started, they appeared to be coming out of the back of Dolphin's head.
Surprised by this development, I looked around at the others. While some could pass for a human, the image fell apart at any closer inspection. Some had things like horns, pointy ears and teeth, strange colors for their hair and eyes, and a handful also had tentacles emerging from their hair. A few even had halos and angel wings.
I heard Amity beside me. "It certainly is nice to meet you face to face." I looked at her, and I think I had a heart attack, something I didn't think someone my age could have. Amity was the spitting image of a slightly younger Emma. There were some differences. Her hair was a richer red and longer. She was in some sort of fancy black cocktail dress with an almost glowing orange underside with a pattern like the suction cups of an octopus. Oh, her left eye was also on fire, and she had a twisting horn above that eye that was on fire as well. "I'm looking forward to working under your orders. Here's hoping we get along." She gave me a kind smile, which I attempted to return, though I think I failed at that.
"How interesting..." A distance away was Queen Anne's Revenge. Out of everyone here, she looked the most like a normal human. The only oddity was the pink irises of her eyes that seemed to glow. Even if I didn't know squat about fashion, I could appreciate how she was dressed and her makeup. A detailed short dress that was covered by a large, expensive-looking old coat with a large pirate hat. She had extremely long black hair with pink streaks in it that went past the tops of her knee-high boots. On her hip was a sheathed sword with a handle that looked like it was made of bone. She was examining her hands that were covered in expensive rings, and she combed a hand through her hair to examine some of the ornaments woven through them. There was something about her face that vaguely reminded me of my mom.
A pair of arms wrapped around me from behind. "Caught you, little one. Pleased to finally make contact, skin-to-skin." I shivered from Golden Hind's voice and looked up. Leaning over me was a woman with long, straight black hair and blue eyes, with a smirk on her face. Her hair was kept out of her eyes by virtue of the golden deer antlers coming out of her forehead. I could feel her chest pushing against my back, and I realized I might have made a mistake.
Looking around, I noticed that the others were getting closer to me, and I realized I wasn't used to this many people focusing on me. I had no idea what I was going to do, and I felt myself start to panic.