(Thursday, 8th of Dancing Fool Moon, 2021)
Pirates.
Of course there are pirates.
"BATTLE STATIONS, MEN!" The pirate captain shouted to his soldiers whilst holding a crimson colored minigun with a shark-like design.
"Let me guess, artifact?" Jack pointed his finger at the minigun with a shark design.
"Yep, specifically Red Shores." Valerie summoned four bats around himself. "You catch on fast, so you want to call dibs?"
"Oh I'm sorry, do you see anyone else with the ability to use every single artifact in the history of existence?" Jack asked the vampire while Thor stood beside him on the ship deck, twirling his hammer.
"WOOOOOOOO, IT'S SHOWTIME!" Thor shouted whilst excitedly glaring at the pirate ship making its way towards the group.
"Is that plant really going to do nothing?" Ned asked whilst aiming one of his revolvers at the boat. "Like, I'm not sure what they can do."
"Quit whining, I'm trying to focus." Simo looked annoyed for some reason. "The swaying of the boat is making this hard enough."
"But the boat is barely moving?" James looked at the clam sea around him, the sun shining down atop of their faces without a cloud in sight. "It's a calm sea."
"Please, even the slightest movement can ruin my shot." Simo kept the barrel of his gun aimed at the pirate ship. "Damn, I should have got myself an anti-tank rifle or something. James, can't you tell your sister to keep this boat still?"
"Now now children, try to get along!" Cheng shouted whilst leaning up against the wall.
"After all, you'll be helping each other fight off the pirates while I sit here and watch." Cheng smirked while Adrian pulled out a thick greatsword that rivaled him in height with curved ends and blue stripes decorating the chalk white blade.
"Wow, not even going to help us?" Jack summoned Storyteller and prepared to use it to get close to the captain.
"Well it's not too bad, we can take these pirates." Milunka aimed her grenade launcher at the pirate ship. "So who's firing the opening shot?"
"Mary's trying to save the ship cannons for sea monsters we may come across, so it's just us." James prepared his anchor in one hand and cannon in the other. "Luckily, ship destruction is my specialty."
"Oh James, you need to save your stamina." Cheng smiled. "If we relied on you the entire time, you'd be out of energy the moment we set foot on the island where the fruit is growing from. Thor, Gaia, you too. This is a threat for Jack, Valerie, Ned, Simo, and Jojo to handle."
"She's right, but why did she mention Gaia?" Jack asked, and Valerie shrugged. "Okay, so...I'll head over there and cause a ruckus with Jojo. You, Ned, and Simo take care of them from a distance."
"Wait, I have a bard skill." Ned holstered his revolver and pulled out a banjo. "While I play this banjo, I can boost someone's abilities to a certain degree. My guess is that it's only a 15% increase in everything, but it could be less if I use it on multiple people."
"Hey I can use my bats to drain health and make people weaker like that too, but mine gets stronger the more targets I use." Valerie explained, and now Jack saw what Cheng meant when she said they alone can handle this.
"Alright, Ned, support me, Jojo probably won't die unless it's a shotgun blast directly to the brain." Jack summoned Beowulf, and the armor covered his entire body. "Alright, YEET!"
Jack picked up Jojo with his spare hand and threw the Badger onto the deck of the pirate ship, which was now five meters away from the ship at its closest point. Jojo landed on one of the pirate's heads, and Jack used Storyteller. Apparently, he could teleport to the location of other artifacts, but Jack must know what they look like before he could teleport to them. In order to do that, Jack has to see them in person first. Jack used Storyteller to appear right beside the pirate captain right at the helm of the ship. Jack appeared behind the captain and grabbed Red Shores' barrel. The captain of the ship noticed Jack right away, but he used his prosthetic leg to kick the pirate captain in the chest. The force of his kick managed to send the pirate captain flying off of his ship, and landing face first onto the ocean water, leaving Jack with Red Shores.
"Well Happy Holidays to me." Jack made Storyteller disappear before clasping Red Shores in one hand, and summoning Pandora in the other.
Jack opened Pandora in one hand and aimed the open case at the ship crew, who now all aimed their weapons at him. Jack noticed how some of the pirates at the front of the ship held harpoons, and the inside of Pandora began glowing a purple color before something came out of the briefcase. That something took the form of a set of purple tentacles with golden colored suckers. The tentacles reached out from the case and wrapped themselves around eight of the pirates' necks before crushing the necks of the pirates and sneaking back into the case. At the same time, Jack aimed Red Shores at the pirates with harpoons. Jack pulled the trigger of the gun, and the barrels began spinning before red colored bursts of energy shot out from the barrels. They weren't as big as Little Daylight's bursts of energy, but were large enough to tear holes into the bodies of the pirates. Billy began playing his banjo, and a greenish/yellow aura surrounded Jack's body. Feeling stronger, Jack made Red Shores and Pandora disappear. Jack delivered a powerful kick to the stomach of a pirate behind him, sending him into the air.
"WHY THE HELL IS THERE A BADGER HERE?!" One of the pirates getting attacked by Jojo shouted at the sky before his throat got ripped out by Jojo.
Jack summoned Captain Hook, and three pirates swung on ropes until they were directly in front of Jack. The first pirate was shot through the head by a bullet, and Jack noticed Simo put another bullet into the chamber of his rifle. That left two remaining pirates, who backed away from the body of their fallen ally, but Jack used Captain Hook to make hooks shoot out from the ground beneath them and pierce their skin, holding the pirates in place. Jack ran forward and delivered a solid blow to their chins. The two pirates' jaws shattered upon impact, and they fell to the ground. Jack heard a ping on his back, and Jack turned around to see a pirate aiming his flintlock at Jack, with the barrel still smoking. The pirate had a look of fear as Jack rushed towards him and delivered a powerful blow to his temple. Jack looked at the pirate deck to see ten more pirates left, all of whom were quivering in fear as bats circled around their heads. Jack was about to attack them all head on, but he stopped after noticing how they all had their hands raised in a surrender position.
"Looks like we won." Jack commented whilst looking at the ten surrendering pirates. "So now what? Is there a pirates' way we do this?
"Oh we just bring them aboard and either put them to work until we get to land, or we put them in the prison we have." James answered. "Either way, we hand them in to the authorities when we dock."
"Dope, so what do you guys wanna go with?" Jack looked down at the horrified pirates, who huddled together for a moment to think about their options.
"Screw it, let's go with imprisonment." One if the pirates suggested, and James used his anchor to reel the ship in by gently throwing the anchor onto the ship and pulling it towards the navy ship.
One by one, Valerie used his bats to put handcuffs on the pirates, and James led them down below deck. Jack followed behind the precession of captured pirates out of curiosity of what the jail cells looked like. James opened one of the many metal doors on the ship, and it revealed a dark stairwell with steel stairs. James turned on the light using a light switch, and guided the prisoners below the deck of the ship. There were hand rails on the side, and Jack held onto them, trying to keep balance on his one good leg.
"You alright man?" The pirate in the back of the line asked while looking at Jack. "You look like you're having a stroke."
"Oh, yeah, I'm still not used to stairs." Jack rubbed the back of his neck as he awkwardly walked down the stairs. "Missing leg and all that."
"Shit, to think we got our asses handed to us by a cripple." Another pirate sighed in disappointment. "So where is this ship docking at?"
"Atitihad." James informed the pirates as the man reached the bottom floor and turned on the lights. "Alright guys, this is the prison. Make yourself comfortable, we'll be arriving in half a day."
The prison James was talking about did look like a large jail cell, with prison bars leaving gaps wide enough to see into the prison, which did look like an average jail cell, but extremely clean. James opened the cell door and let all the pirates into the cell before closing the door, and locking it with a key from his pocket. Jack looked around the room outside the cell, and saw that there were only metal walls and a metal floor, illuminated by a white light.
"Kind of empty here." Jack looked around the room, noticing how there wasn't even a chair outside of the cell.
"Yeah, that's because we don't spend a whole lot of time down here." James informed Jack whilst locking the cell door. "Mary and I only come down here when we capture someone who either needs an eye kept on them or has information we need. Usually the latter, and I'm usually the guy who does it."
"Because you want to protect your younger sister in case someone escapes?" Jack questioned, trying to make small talk to pass the time.
"That, and because she does a way better job at driving the ship than I do." James admitted in an embarrassed tone. "Like I honestly could find a way to crash it in the middle of open water."
"Hey, you'd still do a better job of driving it than I would do." Jack watched as James climbed the stairs. "Oh come on, we just came down those stairs, now we need to go up them?"
"Your leg giving you problems?" James asked, and Jack nodded. "Here, I'll walk behind you and help catch you if you fall."
"Thanks." Jack walked to the stairs and gripped the hand rail with his left hand before he began making his way up the stairs. "It's not painful or anything, but difficult. It just feels like walking on a boot with an extremely thick sole, with tight laces that go all the way up to your knee."
"So that's the feeling of having a prosthetic?" James asked as he walked closely behind Jack. "I heard that people feel pain around the areas where they lost their limbs."
"I don't really experience anything like that, and maybe that's because my amnesia makes me believe I've always had one leg." Jack walked up the stairs step by step, struggling to keep his balance. "Still, I'm grateful for my prosthetic because it's honestly my most reliable weapon."
"Who made that prosthetic anyways, it's crazy strong?" James pointed out, and that's when Jack realized that he had no idea where his prosthetic leg even came from.
"I'm not sure, Uncle Enrique said it came from a friend." Jack answered after reaching the main deck of the ship. "I'll give him a call when I can."
"You don't have too, I was curious because I wanna know if I can take notes from him." James exited the stairwell behind Jack and closed the door to it. "I may not be good at driving the ship, but I like to think I'm decent at repairs."
"Well you're also on par with Mifu, TJ, Saorise, and Galahad in combat, so that's something to be proud of." Jack complimented the man. "Like Saorise's got endurance, TJ's got speed, Mifu's got technique, Galahad's got power, and you have maneuverability."
"Are you sure you're not a tactician?" James wondered as the ship he was on began to move once more. "You tend to notice a lot of stuff."
"Maybe, I'm not sure." Jack answered honestly. "Maybe it's a perk of my archeologist class or maybe my magic."
"Hey, you never said what magic you use anyways." James questioned. "Like you always go on about 'class skills', when in reality they're more like labels to our skills."
"I think I use a kind of time necromancer magic." Jack answered. "I can't control time like Hassan, and my summons are limited, unlike Hel's ability to raise all things dead. Instead, I can learn ancient magics that are on the brink of being lost to the world, conjure up fossils, and use the abilities of historical figures."
"Damn, that's better than my pirate class." James smiled. "All I got is an anchor and cannon that never needs to be reloaded. Say, do you know how many dinosaurs were in the ocean back in the days of ancients?"
"No clue, amnesia, remember?" Jack pointed at his head whilst leaning over the rail to look at the ocean.
"Well there's quite a lot of fossils down there, so maybe brush up a bit while we're out here." James began walking to the main cabin of the ship. "I recommend you go hide, Mr. Criminal, we're approaching Atitihad."
"Got it." Jack walked back to his room, and as he walked, he began to get ideas.
Jack entered the storage room and sat down in the dark corner, texting Simo to take care of Jojo while Jojo wandered the ship. Jack set his phone away and placed his palms on the floor. An orange magic circle appeared on the ground, with a t-rex skull in the middle of it as the outer rings began spinning counterclockwise. Jack had a bead of sweat drip down his nose, and he began focusing on the bones of the deep blue ocean.
(Later that same day)
Simo was wearing a simple t-shirt, jeans, sandals, and a thin mask to cover the lower half of his face whilst sitting atop of the roof of the boat. He had a cap on his head to help block the sun from his eyes as he watched the ship port in the port of Atitihad. The port of the country was surprisingly inactive, with only the bare minimum amount of people walking around, namely businessmen. Simo's eyes were glued to the plank of wood between the dock and ship deck that allowed Mary and James to carry crates onto the ship. Simo was keeping a watchful eye over the area, making sure no one unwanted got onto the ship, an issue no matter where the Kidd siblings went. Only now it was a particular issue just in case some extremists learned that Jack, someone they hated, was on the ship.
"Simo, how are things up there?" Valerie's bat appeared beside the sniper and spoke in his voice, was the bat a kind of walkie talkie?
"So far, so good." Simo had his rifle laid on the side whilst keeping a watchful eye. "So far, it looks like there aren't any royal assassins going after my boss."
"That's good, we don't need any stowaways on this ship." Valerie then made his bat disappear, leaving Simo alone once more.
Simo looked at his palm, and began focusing before a single snowflake began dancing in the middle of his palm. He didn't want to use that ability just yet because he wasn't sure if he could control it. That's right, this entire time, Simo was fighting exclusively with his guns, never even using his newly acquired abilities that he obtained after being brought to this world. Aside from this world making him feel much lighter and better than he was on Earth, he noticed however is that whenever the situation was stressful, his eyesight would become unparalleled, being able to see the movements of targets, see invisible targets, and more. This was a power he still needed to practice, yet his ace was too powerful for him to handle at the moment.
"Damn, I should really practice when I have the chance." Simo thought about Jack, how he was too stubborn to back down from a fight, no matter how challenging.
Simo looked up at the sky, and laid down on the metallic roof, placing his hands behind his head. He wondered about this world he found himself in. This world is so similar to his own, yet so different. It was more peaceful than the world he came from, yet it still had conflicts for similar yet petty reasons. The biggest difference in Simo's eyes was the presence of heroes in this world, and not in his home world. Of course, the biggest difference in reality was the presence of magic.
"I wonder if I was given this magic when I came here, or if I had it all along and it was suppressed in the old world?" Simo wondered, remembering the stories of seemingly supernatural things from his own world. "If I had magic all this time and it was suppressed, then how many others in my home world possess something like this?"
If everyone did have magic in his home world, then how is it being suppressed?
"Better question, is there anyone else like me in this world?"