Zack woke a while later, his back hurting from the previous day's endeavors with Ocelot, but humming with a pleasant tingle aside from that. He sat up, running his hand through his hair and looked around the room as he held the blanket up over his naked torso. The man was gone from his side, along with Vicente and Tretij, which meant that they must have already been in the other room and working on his training. The boy allowed himself to move slower than he had in a while and pulled on his uniform, tying his hair up into a ponytail before stepping out of the room. He walked towards the room where he knew the men and his brother would be but stopped just before reaching for the door knob when he noticed the same neon green butterfly he had seen in Afghanistan land on his finger. He'd been seeing these for years and they were usually a sign of things to come.
Lifting his hand slowly, he looked at the creature a little closer.
The wings were transparent but bared very faint patterns of yellow and darker greens on them. If he squint, he thought maybe he could see what looked to be a skull on the smaller of the wings and a chill went down his back as the little creature disappeared in a haze as if it was never there to begin with. He had never told anyone about seeing the little insects because he thought maybe it was something in his head, but seeing that mark on the wings made him wonder if instead of being something in his head, it was indeed some kind of sign. He lowered his hand as he took a moment to contemplate what had always followed a sighting of one of the little insects. The first time he saw them, Tretij's father had showed up and died on their doorstep. The second time one appeared to him, Kaz left them and went back into the field. The last time was more recent and that was when Calamity and his mutated hounds had showed up at the camp where Kaz was abducted.
They were a warning.
This made him enter the room and found Ocelot sitting next to Tretij, both of them seemed to be speaking with Vicente who was now dressed in a t-shirt that had the Diamond Dogs logo on it and a pair of clean sweatpants, his hair pulled into a ponytail at the base of his skull. The gunslinger looked over at Zack and noticed the expression on his face just before the teen nodded for him to come over to him. He stood up, looking at the two he had been in the company of.

"Excuse me for a moment," he said politely before stepping around the table and going over to Zack who stepped off to the side of the door on the outside. The sound of the wooden heel on his boots hitting the floor and the jingle of his spurs would usually comfort Zack, but he seemed more distressed than usual. "What's wrong, Nymph?"

"We need to stay on guard," the teen told his lover who looked at him in question. "I had a premonition that something bad is about to happen. Have you overheard the crewmembers saying anything about bad weather or other vessels near by?"

"Not since I woke up." He noticed the boy was on edge so he reached out and gently placed his gloved hands on Zack's upper arms. "Talk to me, Zack. What's going on?"

The teen sighed and decided that if there was ever a time to tell the man what had been going on since he was a child, now was probably the best point. He reached up and took his hands, holding them in his own and began to explain to him what he had seen just before entering the room. Ocelot listened closely, his mind running through the details as the boy explained to him that the butterflies always came as a warning that something bad was about to happen. The gunslinger let go of the teen's hands when he was done speaking and placed one on top of his head.

"I'll go talk to the captain, you go start working with Vicente," the man said comfortingly, moving his hand down the boy's head to cup his cheek. "I'll work something out with him and get us off of the ocean just in case."

"Thank you, Ocelot," the boy replied softly, putting his hand over the man's. He turned his head and kissed his palm before letting him go and watched him walk away.

He turned and went back into the room, seeing Tretij stand up in question and walked over, placing a hand on his shoulder to tell him telepathically something was on the horizon. The red head looked at Vicente who was rubbing his eyes in fatigue as if he hadn't rested well. The red head looked back to Zack who lowered his hand from his arm.

"I am going to check the ship and see if anything is amiss," the psychokinetic said, nodding to Zack. "If I find anything, I will tell Ocelot and we will come to get you and Vicente."

"Alright, be safe Mantis," Zack replied, watching his brother disappear from view. He then turned his attention to the man who was now sitting with his cheek resting on his hand and looking at him in question. "It's time to start getting you back up to shape, Venom. We're only a week away from our destination so we need to get you up to par."

Zack walked over and put his revolver in front of Venom, looking at him seriously but with a softer undertone. Zack noticed the distant haze in his blue eye and knew he must have been struggling to find his correct train of thought. He had to wonder, as he folded his arms over his chest in thought, if the revolver reminded him of something from his father's past with Ocelot. After a moment, the man looked up at him in question as he lowered his hand from his face and sat up a little straighter.

"What do you expect me to do with that?" he asked, seriously. Zack let out a sigh; this was going to be the start of a very long training process.

"If you're going to be of any use to Kaz, we need to get you back into the mind set of a soldier. Pick up the revolver and unload it," the boy instructed, watching the man closely as he eyed the gun then looked at his prosthetic. "Venom, don't be afraid of the struggle. Be afraid that you may not have gotten the chance to do this again. Now that you do, use that as motivation!"

The words seem to bring the man some kind of resolve before he grabbed the gun and swung the chamber open, clearly thinking it over. Zack smiled as he wondered which half of him now had actually handled a revolver because even though he looked like he knew what he was about to do, some part of him didn't. The man got the bullets out and the teen nodded when he looked up at him to see if that had been good enough.
At least they hadn't fallen off of the table he was sitting at, Zack thought to himself.

"Good. Now load it," the teenager said, seeing Ocelot step back into the doorway as if he was about to say something but noticed the man was busy.

"You expect me to do that with this?" Vicente asked, moving his prosthetic before seeing the boy looking passed him so he looked too. The gunslinger nodded to them, as if to say that everything was okay before stepping back out and disappearing off somewhere.

"Part of a soldier's resolve comes from the idea of helping others, regardless what we will sacrifice to do so," Zack replied, looking back at the man who looked at him in question. "You jumped in front of Big Boss and gave up the use of your arm and your eye to save his life. Use that same resolve to think about what we're on our way to do and figure this out."

The man seemed to look at the revolver in thought for a moment and then glanced at his prosthetic for a moment. Just as Zack opened his mouth to say something else, he closed it and raised both brows as the man put the handle of the gun between his upper arm and his chest, holding it firmly and began to load the bullets with his hand. The boy smirked, watching how quickly the man put the bullets in and swung the chamber closed, taking it back into his hand and placed it down on the table, looking back at him. Zack nodded and unloaded it, putting it back down in front of him and instructed him to do it again, quicker this time. After the sixth time, Vicente had finally gotten a good rhythm for holding the pistol and loading it when the sound of Ocelot's boots caught both of their attention.

"I got something to make your life a little easier," the gunslinger told them, setting down a prosthetic on the table next to Vicente. It was highly advanced, the wrist and fingers looked like they'd move fluidly. "It'll help spare yourself a headache and maybe us as well."

"Do I dare ask where you got that?" Zack asked the man who looked at him with a expression that asked him if he was joking. The boy thought for a moment then smirked. "Ah, Miranda, of course. I remember her mentioning these when he was talking to Mantis and I a few times."

"A parting gift, if you will. I knew he'd need one, so I had it on hand. Pun not intended." The man smirked and looked at Vicente who seemed to have a different body language at the sight of the prosthetic. "Come on, Boss, let's get you strapped in so you can get to training for real."

The man took off his shirt and Zack watched as the gunslinger helped him out of the harness for the prosthetic he was currently wearing, taking it when the man handed it to him. He had a good idea where this thing needed to go, but he holstered his revolver for the time being as he held it in his free hand and watched Vicente stand up so Ocelot could get him into the harness of the new prosthetic and the man slid the metal arm up onto their team mate's arm.

"A little loose," the man told Ocelot who nodded and adjusted the arm and then the harness. The medic turned soldier flexed his fingers and the prosthetic followed the motion.

Zack couldn't help the fond smile as he took the prosthetic to the other room and put it in his duffle bag to throw it away later. He returned to the room where he had left the two men and found the brunette was now working on doing push-ups so Ocelot stepped over to him, speaking quietly.

"I spoke to the captain and he said there's a bad storm ahead of us," the gunslinger told Zack, both of them watching their team mate. "It's going to slow us down by a couple of days but it'll give us more time to get him up to the strength he needs to be. The warning that you got must've been about that because he didn't know until I informed him to check the radars. You may've just saved everyone's lives."

"I don't know if we should keep going passed that point," the boy replied, watching Vicente for a moment longer before turning his attention to Ocelot who looked at him in turn. "I still have a bad feeling that the butterflies weren't just warning me about the weather."

"We're going to change transport at Port Said. I'll radio the Diamond Dogs and have them secure us another vessel to take us further inland by river."

"Will that make up for the time we lose from the storm?"

"It'll help, but I'm not sure how much it'll cut back. D-Horse and Annie Oakley will be transported out to the LZ outside of Da Ghwandai Khar when we're a day out from there. The ride will take a while, but it's better than getting spotted and jeopardizing Kaz's safety further than what it already will be." The two of them looked at Tretij as he appeared beside them and walked over. "What's the ship looking like, Mantis?"

"The ship is fine, but there are some strange creatures following us in the water," the second teen noted and Zack looked at him in confusion. "They are staying close to the ship but just out of view of the crew members to avoid the nets."

"What do they look like?" Zack asked, clearly worried that these things may also have something to do with the butterfly he had seen earlier.

"They appear to be aquatic equine of some sort," the red head replied, which surprised Zack but Ocelot stayed silent for the time being. "They've been following us for some time, if I guessed right. We gained their attention about three hours out of Cyprus."

"Hippokampoi?" Zack held his chin in thought, trying to recall what he had read about the creatures up to this point.

The creatures were known to follow aquatic royalty, such as Nereid Nymphs or Merfolk, acting as messengers or guardians for a hierarchy of whatever tribe they came from. To see them so close to a human vessel was very out of character, though there were stories from fishermen on the Indian Sea that they had been seen in abundance. He figured they must have been hunting since the vessel was pulling in a lot of fish and if that was the case, the tribe that they followed may not have been far behind.

"Keep an eye on them Mantis," Ocelot finally said, as if remembering he had a voice so the two teens looked at him, Zack lowering his hand from his chin. "Without a doubt Nymph told you about his premonition, so if those creatures are around, there may also be mermen or sirens. There's a storm up ahead of the ship so they could be hiding in the rough tides. For now, let's just assume they're looking for food and leave them be."

"Understood," Tretij replied with a nod and Zack did as well. "I will check in on them once in a while to make sure nothing has happened to any of the crew mates."

"Good. Now, let's get back to Venom's training, shall we?" The gunslinger turned and went back into the room with the man who had finished his push ups and was waiting for them.

The two teenagers glanced at each other before looking back at the man in the room: A silent agreement passed between them that Ocelot seemed a little put off by the news of the Hippokampoi following the ship. It wasn't like the gunslinger to be nervous about something regarding the unknown; usually he just acknowledged it and kept going. So for the water horses to have caused such a reaction in their mentor must have meant that there was something more significant to their presence near the ship.
What that was, though, Zack couldn't be sure.