After the pirates left, the freckled siren child picked up the abandoned book and mysterious metallic tube on the floor. Settling on his favourite rock, he inspected the damp book.
As he peeled the pages open, small, clumsy handwriting greeted his eyes. A child's handwriting, Will thought. Just like me!
The water had caused some of the ink to fade away. Nevertheless, he read the first page aloud, skipping words he couldn't read:
"I got this notebook for my … day, as well as the metallic tube - no, the telescope . … told me that I could use the metal telescope to … night sky. All you have to do is to point … become bigger! … so fascinating!
"Using this notebook, I will record all … I can see in the sky. One day, I'll show this book to … , then I'll finally … !"
As the first few rays of the sun bled through his eyelids, Will reluctantly stirred awake. He rubbed his eyes and stretched his tail - thunk! The siren's tail snapped back in pain. Will forced his eyes open, expecting see the sunlight through the seawater above him. Instead, he only saw an unfamiliar wooden ceiling. Why was there so little space...wait, was he in a tub?
Panicked, Will flipped his tail straight upwards, resulting in a large, loud splash. Where was he? Where were his siblings? Why was he here? What happened -
"What's wrong with you?" grunted a voice from the other side of the room.
Will sharply snapped his head around. Beside him was a man with his head on the table, presumably sleeping before Will woke him up. Something about the man's black hair, severe eyebags, and sickly pale skin stirred up Will's memory.
Di Angelo.
Oh, and also: Pirates.
Great, Will thought glumly, sinking his head beneath the water.
The man peered over the tub. "So, how's the weather in there?"
Will remained silent, sulking.
The man snorted. "Hey, I know it's not an everyday thing for sirens to get kidnapped, but you just gotta deal with it…" he glanced at Will's golden scales. "...sunshine."
"My name is Will, not Sunshine," Will said underwater (resulting in bubbles popping up to the surface). "Will Solace."
"Nico di Angelo."
"Yeah, I heard your friends saying the 'di Angelo' part. Pleased to make your acquaintance, angel."
"Ha ha ha."
Will smirked in satisfaction as the man, Nico, stood up. He settled himself beside Will's tub, eyes resting on his golden scales.
"Solace, huh. So, you're one of the sirens skilled in healing?"
Will froze. Had he somehow accidentally revealed his vitakinesis? Maybe he had, considering how badly injured he was yesterday from the extended period of time he was out of water. As he spotted a gash across the back of his right palm, he decided that it was highly possible.
"How'd you know? Did you see me healing yesterday?" Will tested.
Nico raised an eyebrow. "Did you? If you did, I didn't see you healing."
Will was just about to challenge that statement when someone came bursting into the room. "Nico, my favourite Death Boy! I heard some loud splashing sounds, so Uncle Leo McShizzle, Bad Boy Supreme, has come to check whether you're having fun swimming as well!" The pair of dark brown eyes found Will's. "Oh hey, so the pretty merman is awake!"
A pair of completely befuddled blue eyes stared back, barely registering this bizarre man's curly black hair and scrawny build.
Nico sighed. He sounded as though he had to deal with this on a daily basis. (No wonder he looked like a zombie.)
Coughing awkwardly, Will regarded the mischievous sailor. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name. You're Leo McShiz...what? Bad boy supreme or something…?"
Nico snorted exceptionally loudly while the other man burst out laughing. Will shifted uncomfortably, not getting the joke.
Sighing again, Nico introduced them to each other. "Leo, this is Will Solace. Will, this is Leo Valdez, not Leo Mcshitty King of Shit or whatever you decide to call yourself."
Leo burst out again into a fresh peal of laughter as Will's face went red.
Nico shot an unforgiving glance at Leo. "Valdez, please learn how to knock. Show some respect to your quartermaster. What do you want?"
Leo straightened up and looked at the siren. "Well, for starters, I wanted to look at the human goldfish!"
Nico snickered as Will sunk underneath the water again.
"Also, I've brought food. For you both."
Will nearly fell out of the tub with the eagerness his head shot out of the water at the mention of food. Leo handed him the plate of...was that a burnt piece of meat? Will looked flatly at Leo, unimpressed. "That's burnt. Don't think I don't know."
Leo laughed again. (Seriously, what was it this time?) "This, my dear aquamarine friend, is called cooking . Cooking means that you burn food with so much love and passion that it becomes delicious. And I, the great Leo, am the loveliest and most passionate person you could ever meet, so of course the food that I make is the best! Not to mention that I -"
"Just eat it," Nico deadpanned, taking the plate from Leo and handing it to Will. Will, despite having not understood what Leo had said at all, proceeded to swallow the piece of meat whole. While Leo and Nico continued to bicker, Will did find that the piece of meat was the tastiest food he'd eaten before.
Licking his fingers clean, he briefly assessed his situation.
Currently, he was stuck with eight (or possibly more) pirates, who were currently taking care of him to an acceptable extent. However, he couldn't afford to push his luck, as he knew that sirens could be sold for a lot of money. Even if they didn't sell him, there was also a fair chance that they'd kill him because of the many uses of various siren parts. The likelihood of something bad happening to him was greatly heightened by the fact that Nico seemed to be a very well-informed man, or on the aspect of sirens at the very least.
There was no better word to put his situation in than: bad.
A sudden question occurred to him. "What's a quartermaster? I heard you call Nico that just now."
Nico thought about the question for a while before answering the siren. "Well, the quartermaster is something like a second-in-command in a pirate's ship. But if you want to learn about the system down here, I should probably start with the captain."
Will nodded eagerly, so Nico continued.
"The captain is the leader of the ship, and often leads in battle and the navigation of the ship. The captain is usually decided by their skill, bravery, and ability to win loot. Our captain is the guy with the blond hair, Jason Grace - one of the two doofuses that was hypnotized by you."
Right, about that! Will was just about to ask why Nico didn't fall under his spell when the quartermaster raised a hand for silence. "I know what you want to ask, but I'll answer that later.
"Anyway...where was I? Oh right, the captain. Well, contrary to most other captains, Jason doesn't decide where we go next, whether we put the ship to port, or whether we engage another ship in battle. He prefers to call for a vote instead. Rather than ruling with an iron fist, Jason's more like a natural leader."
"More like a father of a big family!" Leo added. Nico glared at him before continuing.
"The quartermaster, like I said before, is something like a second-in-command. The people aboard our ship don't believe in all the power resting in a single pair of hands, so as the quartermaster, I decide things such as the distribution of rations, work, prize and punishment. I also decide whether to burn or keep the prize that we find."
"Why would you want to burn something you find?" Will thought out loud.
Nico smirked evilly. "Sometimes, we don't have enough storage space so we can't keep it ourselves. So, we decide to burn them so the ships after us can't have them."
Nico continued to explain that there was actually a second mate for the role of a quartermaster (like a vice-quartermaster), who was Jason's girlfriend, Piper. As second mate to the quartermaster, Piper settled the quarrels and fights that happened on the ship.
Percy, the other man that Will had hypnotized, was the First Mate to the captain. The First Mate was basically something like a successor of the captain, and ranked right below the captain. Following the First Mate, there was also the Second Mate, which was Nico.
Leo was the carpenter, pilot and boatswain (or "bos'n" for short) of the ship. The carpenter's job was to make repairs to the boat if needed, and the pilot's job was to steer the ship. People who were good at both roles were very valuable (although Nico obviously didn't want to admit that in front of Leo). The bos'n's job was to keep the ship afloat, as well as rigging, docking etc. Leo was assisted by a Percy's girlfriend, Annabeth, in his tasks as a bos'n.
Annabeth was the navigator of the ship as well. The navigator was in charge of reading and correcting charts, determining their location, as well as thinking of potential obstacles that the ship could face in her journey such as hidden reefs and dangerously shallow waters. Annabeth was apparently a very skilled pirate in her field, which could be seen from her rare knowledge of determining locations by observing the moon, as well as her ability to predict when a storm was coming.
Frank, the strongest and tallest aboard their ship, was the ship's gunner. He had talent for using the bow and arrow, so he was also the striker. The gunner operated the ship's cannons, while the striker was the ship's hunter. Frank's girlfriend, Hazel, assisted Annabeth in navigation and Frank in gunning.
By the time Nico finished his explanation, Will's head was dizzy with names and new information. How did a crew of eight pirates manage to accomplish so many things?
Leo chuckled at Will's confused expression. "I know what you're thinking, goldfish. 'How does the Argo II accomplish so many things with so little people? Whoa, they're so cool!' Well, you haven't heard the coolest of it yet! Did you know that we have the famous Big Three, all aboard this fabulous ship?"
Nico's face darkened. "Now is not the time, Valdez! Save that for later."
A large smile spread across Leo's face. "Aww, look at our Death Boy being so shy and humble! Tell you what's cool, Willie. Did you know Nico that has a skeleton army?"
Will spat out fresh water in the direction of the door.
"You know that I got that from the ship Hades , Leo, for the love of -" Nico sputtered, promptly interrupted by a grinning Leo.
"Golden Boy Jason, Aquaman Percy and Death Boy Nico are the infamous Big Three, all right! Do you know what rumors surround them?" Leo leaned in eerily, wiggling his fingers. "They say that Jason has the power to summon lightning and strike you down dead where you stand, and that Percy can summon waves to shatter your bones and swallow you whole! And our favourite zombieman Nico, they say…"
Leo's voice dropped to a bare whisper.
" That if he unsheathes his blade, all that will be left of you is grey, powdery dust."
Will gulped, admittedly intimidated by Leo's words. The temperature had definitely dropped a few degrees just now.
"Is...is that true?" he asked Nico, expecting a scoff or snort in return.
But it never came.
Nico sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Well, it's not that they aren't. But all these come at a price , Solace...we'll never be the same as we were before."
As Nico looked up, Will saw for the first time just how tired he was. Within the dark eyebags were hidden,dark emotions that never made their way out, despite how hard they tried. He looked like he had lost a piece of himself that he knew for sure would never return, and yet he had to live up to his reputation as a broken masterpiece. Will couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness for Nico. Nobody deserved to look so hopeless and so empty and Nico's age, no matter what they did or how bad they were. He wondered what exactly had happened to Nico that could do such permanent damage on a human...?
His thoughts were interrupted as Leo broke the silence. "But hey, let's not talk about how awesome Nico is. Let's talk about how awesome I am for once! Did you know that I am also the ship's surgeon? Like, the doctor? How cool is that?"
All traces of weariness vanished from Nico's face as he smirked. "Yeah, the surgeon that can't actually heal a fractured arm, but can cut it off because you're the only one with the saw. Fantastic surgeon. I couldn't ask for a better one."
Leo puffed up his chest with pride. "Thank you, Death Boy! I'm not, like, a temporary replacement, because with the skill of amputation, I am a surgeon with high qualifications. It's not like you guys don't have enough money to hire a proper, loyal surgeon or anything. "
That was when Will finally put together the pieces of the puzzle.
Money. They needed money for a surgeon.
"Great. So you guys are just gonna sell me so you can have enough money for a surgeon?" Will said glumly. "Good luck, though. It's probably going to be difficult to convince traders that I'm have a real siren. Yellow scales aren't exactly their expectations, you know."
However, instead of earning frustration from the pirates, a smirk played on Nico's lips. Dark, abyssal eyes bored into clear, sky blue ones.
"No, Sunshine," he said. "You are going to be our new surgeon."