Chapter 13: Caught with a ship full of pirates

Last time Simon and company were stowed away onto the Cademecan air ship.

It had been a two days since Luke stowed Simon and friends onboard the airship. They had some close calls of getting caught due to Simon's sneezing and coughing, whenever Luke would let them out for the bathroom, and Kanonno's muttering in her sleep. Simon was glad he didn't wake up screaming from any of his nightmares. Though that night in particular, Luke was waiting for Simon to be done when he spotted Chloe. He intercepted her and asked her what she was doing so late at night, she told him that she had to use the head and asked if someone's already there. He quickly lied and said that Asch is there. Once Simon was done he got out of the head and noticed that Chloe was talking to Luke, he panicked for a brief moment then he ran for the closest hiding place.

"What was that?" Chloe asked, turning her head.

"That's nothing." Lied Luke getting in the way of Chloe's vision.

"Are you all right Luke?" She asked, "You seem a little jumpy."

"It's the … um … altitude! Yeah!" Luke took in a deep breath, "Ah! Yep that altitude!"

"Okay …" Said Chloe, a bit scared of Luke's attitude, "be careful with the … altitude … don't pass out, now if you excuse me." She shoved Luke aside and ran towards the head. Luke ran over to Simon's hiding spot.

"The coast is clear." Luke whispered. Simon crawled out of his hiding spot. The two started heading back to the crate when Asch found them. Simon shivered, fearing that he might get deported to Sakriny. Asch glared at Luke then he ran off.

"Asch!" Luke shouted chasing after him, they headed to the ship's hold. Luke froze when he saw Asch at the crate where Simon and friends hid. "Asch please …" Asch opened the crate. He had an "I knew it!" look on his face.

"Now what do we have here?" He said to himself, "Stowaways?" His smirk quickly turned into a frown as he walked over to Luke. Simon got between the two brothers.

"Listen, I got Luke involved in this, I told him about our situation and he agreed to help. If you should scold anyone it should be me." Said Simon.

"What?" Questioned Asch raising both eyebrows, Luke looked just as shocked.

"Scold me instead of Luke, I got him into this mess." Simon repeated.

"Simon …" Luke began.

"Let me explain." Said Kanonno standing up from the crate.

Asch sighed, "Fine tell your story." Kanonno started from when she found Simon unconscious on the roof of her work place. She explained Simon's amnesia and the worry of being unable to find a family tree, thus smuggling him out of Sakriny. She told them about someone reporting them to Reltih's soldiers, which is why she, Laurel, and Marianya escaped the country days after Simon made it to St. Gabriel.

"You see after Simon head a rumor of guild members from Cademeca, we were a bit skeptical at first but when Simon claimed he saw your airship I thought we could have Simon be friendly with you to get some information so we can sneak onto the ship." She explained.

"Really?" Said Asch, "You didn't get confirmation for what your friend said? And you do realize that you could've snuck on once you saw the ship or ask one of your guild friends to sneak you on board?"

"Well …" Said Kanonno getting nervous.

"Asch she-" Luke began.

"Stay out of this Luke." Asch snapped back, "Well?"

"The only one really associated with the guild is Simon and I didn't want to wait a week in the ship." Said Kanonno crossing her arms

"Well why the hell not?" growled Asch, "You could've stolen our canned goods."

"That's the thing, I hate canned goods." Kanonno stated. Asch face-palmed, his eyes rolled off as he slimed his hand off his face.

"Oh for the love of …" He muttered to himself. "You, not willing to wait got my brother dragged into this mess…"

"Well actually I …" Simon began.

"You! Shut up!" Asch shouted.

"Asch what are you yelling about?" They turned to see Chloe with a lantern. She was caught by surprise upon seeing Simon, which quickly turned calm.

"I'm inquiring some stowaways, all I'm able to find out is that man's name is not "Simon" and this woman is insane." He said.

"What about the other two?" She asked nudging her chin to Marianya and Laurel.

"We're just innocent bystanders that got caught up in this mess." Said Marianya.

"Are these stowaways refugees by any chance?" Chloe asked.

"Yes." Asch replied. Chloe left them she came back minutes later with a drowsy Natalia. The two exchanged some quiet words then Natalia left.

"We'll let them stay."

"What?" Luke and Asch said in unison.

"You heard me." She said, then turning to Simon, "We'll let you stay under one condition. You work on the ship, understood?"

"Yes, Mam." Stated Kanonno.

"Good, I'll see you in the morning." Said Chloe, leaving.

XXX

The next morning Natalia and Chloe gave them jobs to do and informed the captain of the stowaways. Marianya and Laurel were in the kitchen, Kanonno had to work in the engine room and Simon was the temporary cabin boy. He was given a mop and bucket. It was also advised that they would wear goggles outside if they didn't want the wind bothering their eyes, especially on rough drafts.

"So about last night, when Kanonno was explaining your story," Luke began while Simon swabbed the deck.

"What about it?" Simon asked.

"You remember absolutely nothing correct?"

"Yep not even my own name." Simon shrugged, "Why'd you ask?"

"You seem awfully calm about it."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Not necessarily I mean I personally would be more frustrated about it I might even suspect that I could be an artificial human." Luke shrugged.

"Is that even possible?"

"Well it's not possible now but technology during the Apocalypse period-" Luke said.

"Wait." Simon interrupted, "How do you know about the Apocalypse period? I heard it's not common knowledge." Luke cringed

"Well … the name's … common knowledge … is it really that uncommon?" Luke stammered.

"I'm sorry, I'm not very book smart, I just heard a little from some summoners." Said Simon.

"I … I was taught about the Apocalypse period by a summoner as well." Said Luke.

"I'm sorry, as you were saying about the Apocalypse period?" Simon asked.

'Thank god he didn't get suspicious, it could put our family in danger if he was …' Luke relaxed then cleared his throat, "In my lessons, I heard that they were able to create mechanical people that looked very human and they were able to clone humans. Thought the clones don't have a memories about the originals. Some of the technology was found for the mechanical people and the governments are doing research on them."

"Amazing!" Said Simon, "Could I be one of those … fancy artificials?"

"Highly unlikely." Said Luke bluntly. That's when Asch came in.

"You should be working." He said to Simon, then he grabbed Luke's arm and dragged him away into a cabin. Simon continued with his work.

"Are you insane?" Asch whispered peering out the window of the cabin.

"I know I almost gave him away, I'm sorry." Luke whispered back. Asch grabbed the collar of his shirt.

"We were lucky he didn't get suspicious about your knowledge of Apocalypse period technology or you didn't give away anything about the spirits." Asch hissed.

"Other wise you would've killed me, I know." Luke muttered.

"Sometimes I wonder if you really do know, idiot." Asch said to himself, "Never mind."

"We probably shouldn't worry about Simon, the boy confirmed himself that he's not very smart." Said Luke looking out the window, "I mean he fell for the summoner excuse very easily, I'm worried about his friends figuring out though, I mean it took a long time to convince them to hide in the crate."

"Then don't slip up about him around them, got that?"

"Yeah yeah, you be careful too." Said Luke, just then they heard explosions outside, and the ship tilted over causing them to fall. Then Simon burst through the door panting.

"We're under attack!" He said.

"Really, we haven't noticed." Said Asch in a sarcastic tone, "And why didn't you tell the captain?"

"Well she was-" Before Simon could finish his sentence a bell sound went off outside, Luke shoved Simon out of the way as he and Asch ran to below deck. Simon heard more explosions that rocked the ship, knocking him over.

"Simon!" He heard Kanonno shout, she ran over to him to help him up. "What are you doing here don't we have a ship to guard?"

"I guess but shouldn't the crew be handling it?"

"This is a guild ship it uses guild members to run it because guild ship captains can't look for civilians to get a crew for some reason." She explained dragging him outside where a ship is with a black flag sailed closer, Simon heard explosions from the ship he was on blowing two holes onto the side of the airship. Nonetheless the ship grew closer.

"Help Luke and Asch with the canons." Kanonno ordered, Simon nodded and ran below deck when the ship got close enough that grappling hooks were being latched onto the side of the ship. Simon turned around and drew his sword just as men with loose clothing, red vests and bandannas on their heads climbed on board. Kanonno loaded her rifle and shot at whoever came up while Simon would cut up the ropes before any more men would climb on board. Then a large dog jumped over them and landed behind them. On the dogs back was a man with messy red hair and eye patch and dressed like most of the men except he didn't wear a red vest and the bottom of his pants were torn up over his boots. Accompanying him was a girl with short brown hair with a grey cap on top of it she wore a yellow vest and a brown skirt, her boots were mismatched as one boot had straps while the other was laced. She also had a bag slung over her right shoulder.

"Thatta boy Geit." Said the man patting the large dog.

"Thanks for the ride Spot." Said the girl getting off the dog then running off. Simon tried to go after her, but he heard a click then he felt an agonizing pain through his leg, he collapsed to one knee, dropping his sword. He looked down and noticed that there was an arrow through his thigh. He looked over to see the man had gotten off his dog with a cross bow. He had a cocky grin on his face as he loaded another arrow. They heard a bang and a small cone like object would've hit the man's foot if he didn't step back. The dog yelped. Simon turned his head to see Kanonno with the gun pointed at the man she peered through the scope with a narrowed eye and gritted her teeth as she place her index finger on the trigger.

"You got some guts li-" Before he could finish Kanonno fired another shot and the man dodged the bullet. "Hey I wasn't done talking!"

"Oh I'm sorry, continue while I shoot your brains out." Said Kanonno loading another bullet. Simon turned his attention back to his leg and ripped the arrow out he took up his sword he charged for the red head when he heard a gun shot behind him, he spun around to see a young girl with blonde braids wearing a black vest over her shirt and a red skirt over black leggings. She had a hat on but it was a tricorne hat. She had a pistol out, pointed at Simon. Her grin seemed to advise Simon not to attack the red head. He turned back to see Kanonno shooting at the man making him dance away from the bullets, not giving him any time to load his crossbow. He stood frozen, unsure what to do. If he tried to help Kanonno he'd get shot, if he attacked the girl he would also get shot but he was more bothered by the fact that he'd be attacking a little girl.

"What are you doing Simon? There are other men climbing a board!" Shouted Kanonno loading her rifle. "Forget about the girl and worry about them!"

"Though you'd probably have to go through me to get to them." Grinned the little girl.

"Photon!" A woman shouted a ball of light blasted the girl to the side, Simon turned to see Marianya skimming pages of a book and muttering some incantation, "Heal!" She said and a light surrounded him and the wound in his leg disappeared without a scar. She gave him a reassuring grin, Simon nodded and charged for the men in red vests. He slashed them across the waist and stabbed a few in between parries. He quickly became overwhelmed with the men coming on board and the rest of the crew was busy with other members from the ship. Suddenly he felt something hit him and wrap around him, he dropped his sword and fell over from the force of the thing that bound him. He looked down to find rope around his limbs, he tried to squirm out.

"There's no use trying to escape lad." He heard a man say, Simon turned his head but he couldn't turn it far enough to get a good look at the man's face, all he saw were shoes a pair of black boots. He looked over to see Kanonno in the same position, except she wasn't moving.

"Put them in the brig." Ordered the man.

XXX

The very few people that were running the ship were tied up below deck, in the brig, including Simon and the ship's captain, a young girl with dark skin and blonde hair named Chat. Luke was passed out, bleeding from his head while Asch breathed heavily. Chloe also breathed heavily but she tried to hide the pain in her shoulder she received from a bullet. Kanonno was also out though she wasn't bleeding. Simon could feel his allergies acting up being next to Laurel. They were being watched by the red head man who shot Simon through the leg, who the leader called 'Moses.'

"Great, just great, we pick up some extra baggage and then get attacked by pirates." Chat groaned to herself.

"Are you all right … Natalia?" Asch asked.

"I'm fine Asch, but are you okay?" Natalia responded looking at Asch's side which was bleeding. "Should I heal you?"

"There's … no need." Said Asch turning away from Natalia.

"I'm sorry I wasn't much help." Said Simon, sniffing.

"We all got overwhelmed. Some of these sky pirate crews can have several men so there is a chance that we would get outnumbered." Said Marianya.

"What exactly are these sky pirates?" Simon asked. Everyone, except the unconscious ones looked at him shocked, in some cases ignoring their wounds.

"How hard did you hit your head?" Marianya whispered to Simon.

"Did I hear you correctly boy?" Moses asked, "You do not know what sky pirates are?" His voice sounded close to laughing. Simon decided to keep his mouth shut.

'You were right Luke.' Asch thought wanting to grab his side to stop the blood.

"You don't know who or what we are?" Moses taunted.

"No … I do not." Stated Simon.

"My my …" Moses chuckled, "what type of rock do you live under? We're the white rabbit!"

"White rabbit? Thank god." Chat sighed.

"Why is this a good thing?" Natalia asked.

"We have a higher chance of surviving with the White Rabbit, compared to getting captured by the Siren's Fang, or the Babbage Device." Said Chat. "I hear the captain refuses to kill his hostages for some reason."

"And you heard right miss." Said Moses, "Though the captain think he has good reasons for letting his prisoners live though it creates an inconvenience."

"That's enough Moses." Said the captain, a man with strawberry blond hair tied back with a goatee wearing the same type of hat the blond girl wore. He also had a reddish long coat that seemed to match the rest of his outfit. His eyes were a bit blood shot from a lack of sleep. He had a rapier strapped to his hip, much like Simon. "Forgive my crew they have a tendency to be a bit … unruly."

"Which is quite ironic, I would think Captain Adrian Reynolds would take over ships through persuasion." Chat mocked.

"Quite a shame, isn't it?" Captain Reynolds snarked back, "but they're pirates what are you going to do, especially when the first mate is probably plotting something behind your back?" He looked over Chloe, Luke, Asch, and Kanonno. "Moses."

"Yes Captain?" Moses responded.

"Get Norma and tell her to treat the injured prisoners." He ordered. Moses ran back up stairs. The Captain went over and started untying his prisoners one by one, starting with the injured.

"Captain Reynolds is it?" Natalia asked. "Why are you so kind to your prisoners?" The Captain looked at her then turned his attention to untying Luke.

"Between you and me, let's just say there are people I want to teach to be functional members of society." He said, "Having a crew that will murder people simply won't do."

"Then why the hell do you call yourself a pirate?" Asch said through his teeth.

"Don't get me wrong I still steal from trading companies I just use different tactics." Said the Captain untying him. "Oh, and bless your parents for having to put up with you and your brother." The Captain said to himself.

"What?" Said Asch as the Captain pat his shoulder and laughed. The girl in the yellow vest came down and casted a healing spell on each injured hostages, he then dismissed her.

"I took a look through your ship, you don't seem to have anything of much value, but it seems that I may be wrong." He said eyeing Natalia, "It won't do me much good to hold President Ingobert's daughter hostage I'd rather not be hunted by Cademeca, I already have enough trouble with Speg and Sakriny."

'Sakriny? What did he do to Sakriny? Unless … no it couldn't be, it was a dark that later got sent to a labor camp. Then again, this wouldn't be the first time the government has lied to us …' Marianya thought.

"Is something wrong?" Simon asked.

"I was wondering if he was behind the Saligrad incident …" Marianya whispered.

"I can say that I worked for the man behind the incident when I started out about five years ago. I've robbed military ships more recently." The Captain said to Marianya, "It's surprising what Sakriny's military keeps on their airships, anything found on those things is enough to feed and clothe a family of four for a year."

"Is that it?" Simon heard a murmur, he looked over to see Kanonno waking up. "Those pigs in the military keep things that could feed a family for a year? And what do we get?"

"Kanonno …" Simon began.

"We get closely monitored rations handed out to us weekly, some of them with questionable quality and whatever isn't used can't be saved for the next week but returned. I wouldn't complain about it if rations aren't half eaten or rotten." She vented, "And those rations clearly aren't enough to feed a family of four, they're only meant for one person!" she took a deep breath and calmed herself.

"Is that all Kanonno?" Laurel asked.

"No, there's plenty to rant about Sakriny's broken system but it would take far too long. There's not enough time cover it all." She said stretching her arms.

"I couldn't agree more madam." Said the Captain, turning to Chat, "Shall we discuss any terms miss …?"

"Chat," She introduced, "What is there to discuss we don't have anything of value on this ship." Simon sneezed distracting the two captains.

"Sorry…" He said, his face red and buried in his knees. The Captain walked over to Simon.

"As you were lad." He said. Simon looked at him confused. The Captain examined his face while rubbing his chin. "Have we met?" He asked.

"I … I don't know." Said Simon. "I don't think so."

"My mistake, you look someone I knew." He said turning his attention back to Chat. Just then a man with dark hair wearing fashion similar to the captain, minus the hat ran in. "What is it?"

"The crew is going nuts." He said, "Eliza is throwing a fit, Adam and Allen are fighting over something." The Captain ran out of the brig with the other man. Not too long after Luke woke up.

"What happened?" He moaned.

"Not much." Said Asch, "Except meeting the captain of the White Rabbit."

"Oh." Sighed Luke "Lucky."

"Are you all right Luke? That gash in the back of your head look pretty bad." Natalia stated.

"Really …" Said Luke rubbing the back of his head then examining his hand for any blood. "I'm fine."

"That's because one of Reynolds' men healed us." Said Asch, meanwhile Simon's vision was getting blurry, he rubbed his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Marianya asked.

"I'm fine it's just allergies." He answered, followed with a moan for his headache.

"Are you sure?" Marianya asked, wrapping her arms around Simon's shoulders. Faded images of Captain Reynolds flashed in his mind, he said something but he could hear gibberish come out of his mouth.

The images stopped then an unfamiliar voice said: "Winters … your name … Winters." He couldn't make out the sounds that came before the word "Winters." His headache stopped and his vision became clear again.

"Simon?" Marianya said.

"I'm fine …" He said, "I think I remember something."

"Really?" Said Kanonno turning to him.

"Yeah … I remember my last name, it's Winters, and something about Captain Reynolds … I think I knew Captain Reynolds some time ago and he asked me something … it might be a favor, I'm not sure."

"Simon Winters …" Said Kanonno, "That's a nice name, even if your first name is fake and it gives you a clue to who you are."

"Wait …" Said Chloe, "Didn't you just say that you don't know him, and didn't Reynolds say that you look like someone he knew, just because you look like that someone doesn't exactly mean you are that someone."

'She's right … that man could just be a man that looks like Captain Reynolds, and if I met him some years back, I would've been younger than eighteen I met him.' Simon thought, just as he was thinking about the images of Captain Reynolds. The Captain came back down with a child holding his hand. Everyone gawked at them.

"Pardon me, this is Allen, he's in time out could you keep an eye on him?" He asked.

"Daddy!" The boy whined.

"Daddy has some work to do, he has to talk to this young lady. I'll be back in a minute, mean while you think about what you did." He said to the boy, then he turned to Chat, "Should we talk above deck?" Chat nodded the two left the brig leaving the boy with seven young adults and a flying cat.

XXX

Sorry I haven't been able to update for a while, I've been too busy with AP exams, and making sure I graduate. Summer's coming soon so expect updates coming more often than once a month. Meet Adrian Reynolds, and yes, he is a father. I was planning to have him appear just this once but then I developed this back story and he wound up being a major character so you'll be seeing more of him and you'll be seeing a little bit more pirates, hell I might end up as a pirate cameo.