(Somewhat) New Discoveries

A/N: I know that it's soon, but I wanted to get it out there. I present to you, chapter two!

-Tate-

Great. I'm stuck in a video game world with the biggest Haytham fangirl in existence. Don't get me wrong, I like the Assassin's Creed series, it's just that I rather be trapped in Skyrim or Mass Effect. You know; a game that doesn't really CONSTRAIN you to follow the official story line. At least I'm not trapped in Resident Evil or any other zombie apocalyptic game . . . Geez that would be a nightmare.

"This is awesome," she said, clearly forgetting that we had no way out and were on a ship with a trained killer. "Tate, do you know what this means?"

"We're going to get ourselves killed?" I ventured.

She slapped me on the back of my head. "No, you idiot." She got that dreamy fangirl look on her face again. "We can screw with the video game's plot! This is gonna be fun!"

While the fight between Haytham and that other dude went on, Andy decided to make herself queen and tell us all what to do. To be honest her plan was actually pretty good. She was the more creative one out of us, wanting to become a political journalist and all. She loved anything that had to do with history, and knows the facts down to the core. So I guess putting her in charge wasn't a bad idea.

"Alright this is how it's gonna go," she started. "Our parents are in the colonies. Anything beyond that, make up on the spot, but stick to it– Matthew!"

Poor Matthew was starting to doze off while Andy was giving her orders. She slapped his shoulder and he jerked, becoming fully alert. "What happened?"

"You weren't listening, that's what!"

The redhead shook his head. "I'm not sticking around with you guys," he said. "I'm out of here and onto making weapons as soon as we hit the colonies."

Andy's eyes turned to slits. "I don't think so, bro." She got close to his face and said, "We are sticking together until we get back. I'm not going to explain to your parents why we came out of the Theatre's costume room without you, saying, "Matthew wanted be cool and invent the machine gun in the video game universe we just got back from. If you wanna see him, he's now on the Assassin's Creed Wiki!"

Matthew raised an eyebrow at her outburst. He then put his hands up in mock surrender. "Fine, you win. We'll stay together."

Tyler turned his attention to Andy. "Can I work with Ben Franklin?"

Andy shrugged. "I don't see why not. If we're going to be here, might as well make the best of it."

Tyler looked happier than a little kid in a candy store.

"My would you want to work with him?" Brooke asked, her face scrunched up in disapproval.

"Are you kidding? Why wouldn't I want to meet him! He discovered electricity-"

"Yawn."

"Invented glasses-"

"Double yawn."

"And created swimming flippers!"

"And that- wait, what?"

Tyler shook his head vigorously. "Yep! Swim fins!"

Brooke's eyes widened before she sat back and started shaking her head. "Well there's my bit of useless information for the day."

"Alright," I said, rubbing my hands together. "Let's do this thing."

Before we could get up however, Brooke yelped, "Wait!"

Matthew sighed. "If you're so scared of heights, you can go down on my back-"

"No, it's not that," she whispered. "Let's make a pact."

"-and why would we do this?" I asked, wanting to get on with this stupid charade.

"Because," she huffed. "We need to remind each other that no matter what happens, we'll still be friends."

We were all silent until I started busting out laughing. What was this, some sappy friendship show like My Little Pony?

I would have kept laughing were it not the evil death glare Andy was giving me was wrecking my nerve. She turned to Brooke and asked, "Do you really want us to make a friendship pact?"

"Yeah," Brooke huffed, puffing out her bottom lip.

Andy looked at the rest of us and sighed. "Alright, what have you got in mind?"

Brooke busted out into a bright smile and clapped her hands together. "Andy, get a marker and some paper from your bag."

Andy looked confused for a moment before she looked behind her. She made a face and shrugged. "I guess I forgot about it."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second," Matthew said. "If we're going to do a pact, it's gotta mean something more than a piece of paper." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pen and jabbed the point into his index finger until it bled.

"I am not poking myself with a pen," Brooke stated with her arms crossed over her chest.

"It's either that or none at all," Tyler argued.

Huffing in defeat, she reluctantly took the pen and stuck it into her finger. When all of us were done, Brooke held up her bleeding finger and said, "From this day forward and until we get back to 2013, we will look out for each other and protect one another. We promise to make sure that this new predicament won't separate us or change us. All in favor put your finger in the middle."

We did as she said, and once our fingers touched, our blood smudged against each other at the pads, which kind of grossed me out. "Some pact," I mumbled when we pulled away.

"Now let's go!" Tyler said. "The sooner we get down, the sooner I can go meet Ben Franklin!"

When we got down, the fight was over and Haytham had already gone back below deck. The Captain had left his quarters to mope around the deck, and when he spotted us just getting down, he stopped us.

"And why were you lot up there instead of in your cabins?"

We froze, almost forgetting the entire plan. Well, we didn't have one in the first place. "We umm. . ."

He waved his hand, signaling us to stop. "Never mind; just go back below deck. First it was you young things and now that Kenway fellow. Well I won't have you guys distracting my crew out of boredom! Not at all!"

Recovering my sense, I started ushering the others down the open hatch. "We're sorry sir, it won't happen again."

"You're bloody right it won't," he mumbled.

After getting us below deck, Tyler whispered, "What the heck was that?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea. Do they think we're part of the crew?"

"He couldn't," Andy said. "If we were, he would have threatened to cut our wages and give us no food. For now, let's just act natural."

"As if that's possible," I muttered under my breath.

Matthew nodded. "Sounds like a plan. But now we have a problem. . .where are our rooms?"

After about thirty minutes of walking around, we discovered several things.

1. The guys- Matthew, Tyler and I- shared a room not too far from Haytham and that other British dude you can talk to that almost everybody skips because he's not important. The girls had their own not too far from us, but far enough where they still had their privacy.

2. Our electronics still worked. Of course we didn't have a signal or Internet access, but we were still able to look at movies we had saved to our phones and music we had downloaded. How long that would last, we had no clue.

3. Andy had a HUGE pack of batteries in her backpack.

"They're for my Beats!" She said, refusing to let go.

"Andy," Tyler pleaded. "We can use the batteries for a charger I can make so our only form of entertainment isn't gone."

Safe to say we got to keep our movies and music.

4. Andy liked to horde a bunch of junk in her bag.

"Why do you carry pajamas with you?" I asked picking up something lacy.

She grabbed the clothing out of my hand and thumped me in the back of my head. "Those are not pajamas, they're my underwear!"

That's when I decided to make like a banana and split back toward the Boys' rooms.

5. This is something that concerned Andy more than it would us: William Johnson had slaves. She said she wouldn't be AS troubled about it if he wasn't the BIGGEST slave holder in the Northern Colonies.

"I'm sure he won't try anything with you," Tyler said.

Andy shot him a look. "It doesn't matter. The point is, how can I act calm around a man who keeps people like me as property?"

"She's right," Brooke said, going through some cargo that the crew wasn't paying much attention to. She had said she wanted to find some other clothes besides her jeans and Aeropostale t-shirt, and found herself picking through all of the stuff that was supposed to be going to the colonies. "I mean, if someone that I was going to meet had slaves, I would act the same way. Maybe even worse." She took a break from her looting to look at Andy. "You're actually taking it calmer than I would."

Andy let out a deep sigh and ran a hand through her hair. "I'll just play it cool. I mean racial tensions between people of color and whites didn't get bad until the turn of the century. I just hope that I don't meet George Washington."

"Oh?" I said, raising an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

She let out a small laugh. It wasn't a humorous one, but more like a "this is going to kill me, so might as well say it," laugh. "He owned more than two hundred slaves, bro." It was quiet for a bit before Andy added, "He did give them their freedom after he and his wife died. Keyword: AFTER."

Walking up to her, Matthew put a hand on Andy's shoulder and said, "I think it's best if you don't dwell on it much."

She looked down at her pumas and sighed. "I guess you're right."

Matthew cracked a smile. "Of course I am." Soon we started hearing the sounds of the crew turning in for the day. "And that is my cue to leave, and get some shut eye. I suggest you guys do the same."

-Matthew-

"So what brings you to the Colonies, lad?"

We had been on the Atlantic for a while – about ten days – when I found myself talking to the Grand Master Templar himself, Haytham Kenway. I was attempting to put on a pair of boots like the ones the sailors were wearing, but they were pinching at the sides of my feet. I was about to give up when Mr. Kenway came and offered me an extra pair of his.

"Thanks," I mumbled as I took them. I could tell he had questions, but I didn't feel like talking at the moment. The last of our phones died four days ago, and Tyler said he would've been finished with his "homemade" iPhone charger today around noon. The only things we were able to do were read (did it, done it, don't wanna do it again), draw (not much of an artist), take pictures with the school camera Andy borrowed from Yearbook class (she kept it to herself), and sleep in all day. With that charger ready to be used, I wanted to be the first one there so I could finally emerge myself in my illegally downloaded music and TV shows.

As I finished lacing up my boots, I said, "My parents are sending me to study under a blacksmith."

"Oh?" he asked with an eyebrow raised. "And why not study with one back in Britain?"

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. This man was obviously not getting the hint that I was pretty busy about other things. Well, he did lend me his boots. As I took a closer look at them, they seemed to be pretty well made; they fit like a glove on me, and when I tried walking, I wasn't tripping over the raised heels like Brooke did when she first put on high heels. Maybe a little bit of conversation wasn't a bad thing.

"I come from a nice family," I stated. "To make a long story short, money was getting tight and my father scraped enough money to send me to the Americas. He thought that I'd get a better chance there than back home."

Mr. Kenway leaned against a stack of crates, taking his tricorn off his head, fixing his hair and putting it back on. "That explains your being here," he gestured around the ship. "But," he continued. "Do you mind me asking about your little group of friends? An odd combination you all are."

Before I could tell him that his face was a weird combination, Brooke ran down the steps from the top deck with a huge smile on her face. She looked around until her eyes landed on me and she came rushing towards us. When she saw who I was with, her smile faltered for a bit. She acknowledged him with a slight nod of her head. "Mr. Kenway," she greeted.

Haytham smirked as he took off his hat and dipped his head. "My Lady," he said. "And how are you on this boring day at sea?"

Brooke forced herself to smile and said, "I'm fine, and you?"

"Quite well actually. I was just making conversation with your dear friend here." He leaned off the crates. "But if you will excuse me, I will be returning to my quarters," he said, and left me and her alone.

Making sure he couldn't hear us, I put my arm around Brooke's shoulders and lead her up to the main deck. "So what's going on?"

Brooke's old self started to show again. "That's right! Tyler said it's done! We have our phones bac-" I didn't waste time pushing her out of the way, practically throwing her down the steps.

"Hey," she yelled after me. "You jackass!"

I was already on my way to the lower part of the ship by the time she got up. "Tell me something I don't know," I shouted back.

There was this small part of the ship that was populated by "dangerous" cargo, so the crew and other passengers stayed clear from the area; creates of gunpowder, cannons, and other explosives were down there. Dangerous my ass. I used twice as much of this stuff to blow out my pool on the Fourth of July. Now we were using the space as our "secret" meeting place. The captain probably knew we were here, but just didn't care enough to say anything. I found Tyler sitting on a crate that said "caution" on it, messing with a few wires and the phone charger we took from Tate. The latter was lying in a jacked up hammock that looked as though it was put together in less than a minute. Andy was sulking in the corner with her camera; going through the pictures she had taken from the view our little perch at the top of the ship provided

Suddenly Brooke came sauntering in with a frown on her face. When she looked at me, she stuck her tongue out, and sat next to Tyler.

He looked up when he noticed the space next to him occupied and then went back to working. It was a few seconds before he said, "I've got it."

Andy's head shot up from her camera. "For real?"

"Yep," he smirked. "Feel free to try it." He placed the charger on the crates and went to lay in the place Tate left while we fought over who got first dibs.

"It's my charger!" Tate argued, trying to rip it out of our hands. He struggled, but gave up when our hands didn't even budge. Throwing his in the air, he said, "Fine! Be that way!" and went back to try to reclaim his spot from Tyler.

Since Brooke had just done her nails, she decided to sit this one out. It was just me and Andy, and neither of us were backing down. "How about we flip on it?" she proposed.

I smiled. "Fine by me." Not taking my eyes off of Andy, I called out, "Tyler, flip a coin. I got heads."

He got out the coin and flipped it in the air. When we heard it hit the ground, he said in a mock announcer voice, "And the charger goes to Matthew!"

"Ew, ew, ew..." Tate decided to echo in.

"Yes!" I yanked the thing out of Andy's hands and sat back down on my crate.

"Damn it!" She glared at me through her squinted eyes.

I held my hands up in mock defense. "Don't hate."

Andy rolled her eyes and went back to her camera, mumbling under her breath.

Now that I had my entertainment back, maybe things wouldn't be so bad.