"If you say so." Exodus replied.

"If you're done chatting, come with me." The man said with such disdain that I glanced up at his face.

"Are you the captain?" I asked.

Of course, he isn't.

Chihre's reply came before the man's, so I completely missed what he'd said.

"Right, I should have known that," I said, as much to the man as to Chihre.

"Fine." He snapped. "You can all come, but Captain Spider won't be happy."

Exodus tried to stifle a snort but failed miserably. "Is he a giant spider?" He asked, barely keeping from bursting out in laughter.

"No, he isn't." The man said, clearly very irritated. "He is, however, rather snappish about his name. You would do well not to irritate him."

"You don't talk like a pirate." I blurted. I had realized it hearing him talk. He was using complete sentences and a few slang words.

It seriously took you this long to realize that?

Chihre and Raven both blurted it out at once, disorienting me slightly.

"Uh, right." I stammered.

"You're coming with me." The man repeated.

Go with him.

"Coming," I said, squeaking slightly. We followed him out of the room we had woken up in, up onto the deck. While the ship had been mostly stable while we were waking up, it now lurched to the side, and I fell over rather ungracefully.

You can be ungraceful?

Of course, did you think I'd ever been on a ship before? Have you been on one that's lurching around underneath your feet?

I have actually, I didn't fall over though.

Show off then.

Hmph. But you did have the powers of your friend to help stabilize you.

My friend as you put it, was no help in this situation. To be fair, Raven and Exodus staggered and fell onto their backsides. I was the only one who managed to fall all the way over.

Congratulations. My questions are answered, you can go back to telling the story now.

Staggering to my feet, I noticed the man staring at me. "What?" I demanded.

"I didn't realize your powers didn't come with super stability." He said, a hint of laughter in the words.

"I've never been on a boat before," I said defensively. "And the ship like, lurched to the side."

"That?" He wondered. "That was hardly a tiny tremor. Definitely no lurching."

"You sure?" Exodus asked, standing up.

"Cause I'm not." Raven finished.

"I'm sure. You should see the deck in an actual storm." He said, continuing to walk on as if nothing had happened.

We sort of staggered after him, drawing more than a few stares from the rest of the crew.

I suppose that three teenagers in modern clothes would draw more than a few stares.

Totally. Especially if they were staggering around the deck like they had just been spun in circles a lot and were really dizzy.

Something like that. I'll continue now if you don't mind.

Right. Continue, please.

Following him, I noticed something odd. I could see into the mist off the right side of the ship. There was another ship approaching, and on the side of its hull, the word CHAOS was printed in huge letters. In addition, I could hear murmuring noises coming from that direction I assumed was probably the ship's crew talking.

Ah, you've noticed the enhanced senses my power grants you. Good for you.

"What?" I asked under my breath. "Enhanced senses? What do you mean?"

You know, being able to hear stuff really far away and being able to generally sense stuff from really far away.

"Okay, is there some way to turn it off? I need to concentrate on the matter at hand and it is really distracting when I can see between the floorboards." I muttered.

"Did you say something?" Raven asked quietly.

"It's nothing," I whispered back.

"If you say so." She said, dropping the subject.

As you wish. But I can't do this all for you, you have to figure this out on your own sometime.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take." I murmured.

"Risk?" Exodus asked.

"Nothing" I replied quickly.

"If you are done chatting under your breaths, I'd like to talk to you." This was a new voice, and I looked up to see someone that couldn't have been more than eight years old.

"Are you the captain?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Of course." He said, slightly affronted. "I am assuming you were expecting someone a bit older?"

"At least my age," I admitted, still in shock. "I'm 13 by the way."

"While I am around eight, I am a perfectly capable captain." He replied.

"Clearly, after all this ship hasn't been sunk, had a hole blown in it, or anything," I commented. "Just wondering, do you know anything about the ship named Chaos?"

"Chaos?" He asked. "Of course. People your age come through here sometimes and people from the Chaos pick them up and take them somewhere else."

"Where is this other place?" I asked cautiously.

"We don't know. Why do you ask?" He wondered, suspiciously.

"Well," I continued. "If that ship with Chaos printed on the side is coming for me I'd like to know where I'm going."

"What ship?" He, Raven, Exodus, and the man who had lead us to the captain all said at once.

"The massive ship that is coming up on us really fast from that side." I pointed to the left as I spoke. Just as I finished talking, the figurehead of the Chaos came out from the mists so we could all see it.

"Good eyes," Captain Spider said, distracted by the ship.

"Very" I replied, also watching the eagle figurehead coming out of the mist.

"They won't hurt you... probably."

I frowned, that wasn't reassuring in the slightest. "Probably?"

"Your friends will not be going with you."

That is acceptable, they need not come with us.

I glanced at him, he was looking out, staring at the Chaos, a slight frown on his face. "What is it?"

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing. So many people have come through here, none of them had friends though." Captain Spider glanced at me, then looked back at the Chaos. "Make it back to your world safe, okay? It's going to need you."

And, I'm stopping you here for a bit. The recorder needs to charge.

Fine. I'll stop.