by Jeff Hook
Paradise Cracked
Pirates and Powers volume 1
Jeff Hook
Copyright 2019 Jeff Hook/Happy Programmer LLC
All rights reserved
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
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Prologue
Two hundred feet below the surface, beyond the surging waters of this artificial storm, a school of iridescent green-orange fish swam happily, ignorant of the chaos above.
Freddy chose to focus on them.
If he’d been calm and safe, he would’ve been seeking out something dangerous to watch, but in the middle of a deadly storm he sought false peace. As rain pelted his arm hard enough to sting and sailors screamed around him, he clung to the mast and used his super to watch happy fish. They were kind of like the ones he’d kept in the pond, back on the farm, back before the banks and creditors and bill collectors, before this whole nightmare had begun. Before Sink 'em Sam had gone from terrifying legend to Freddy’s immediate superior, from erratic swashbuckler to the only person on this boat that seemed halfway sane.
A shark interrupted the fish’s lethargic swimming, the disturbance sending them into a flurry of motion. The shark moved on — had it caught one? — and the fish reformed as if nothing had happened, going back to their slow journey through the water. It was a cruel world on the ocean, among fish just as much as among pirates.
The boat shook and Freddy lost his hold on the mast just as a wave crashed into his side. He spent a few terrifying seconds in midair, completely unmoored, body spinning uncontrollably even as he watched the fish swim lazily below.
If he didn’t do something, he might be joining them soon. He wouldn’t look quite as peaceful as those fish as he drowned.
He broke out of his super, leaving only his bare power, seeing through all but the most solid of objects. Three seconds until it cooled down. Three seconds of horror. At one point he was looking up at the stars, his power cutting through the storm clouds and showing him the pure points of light beyond. Then he was facing down, seeing the ship’s decks as little more than ghostly shadows that provided scant protection against the hundreds of creatures below. Fish, sharks, cœurbrute, and greater horrors that didn’t show up even in the legends, all shadows and wisps flitting about. The only thing solid was the sea floor three miles below. These two views alternated in rapid succession, intercut with views of far-too-distant horizons that did little to lessen the terror.
His roll carried him into the legs of a pirate, a painful crash that he welcomed. It meant his uncontrollable journey to the edge of the ship was over. He would live a bit longer.
The deck here was dry, which meant that he’d run into Jack. “Come on, buddy,” said the pirate as he extended a hand. “We can’t lose you yet.”
Freddy’s super had cooled down, so he could turn off his power and see the world as everyone else did.
Jack stood confidently near the side of the ship, calm and dry despite the storm. His bizarre-looking but perfectly-fitted clothes held their shape, raindrops rolling off them without touching as if he were wearing an invisible raincoat. His hair stuck up in thick wild spikes, untouched by moisture and suggesting a far greater amount of power than he actually possessed. Water retreated from him until the deck under his feet was dry as a clear summer’s day.
Freddy grasped the man’s hand and felt the water flee his arm all the way up to the elbow. After applying his power to the hull and to himself, Jack didn’t have enough left to apply to the entire crew, but the effect tended to leak onto everything he touched.
It still felt weird working with pirates, even fourteen months into the mission. Even with the ones that were kind of okay. Freddy grimaced as he stood up.
“Don’t be so sad just because our mission’s almost over,” said Jack. “We’re gonna be Mezazi citizens. We’re gonna be rich.”
“What we’re going to do is die,” said Freddy.
“You think this is bad?” Jack moved his head a half foot to the left, smoothly dodging a fist-sized piece of debris. “I hear that once she blew an entire fleet ten miles.”
“I want to go home.”
“You will! After we’re done serving our country or whatever.”
“They call her Evyleen the Uncatchable. Our job is to catch her. You do the math.”
“Good always wins in the end!” said Jack. “At least, that’s what they said when they arrested me.”
Freddy didn’t know about that. His creditors certainly didn’t seem like the good guys, throwing him in jail just because he couldn’t pay.
“Think about it. Throughout all of history, every major war was won by the good guys. Can’t be coincidence, can it?”
“And what makes you think we’re the good guys?”
“I hear she kidnaps children.”
“I don’t know…” Freddy dropped his voice to a whisper, just in case others were listening. “I’ve heard that when she comes to a new town, unhappy teenagers line up and ask to be taken.”
“Is that so?” sneered Syldris. Freddy jumped at her sandpaper voice and slipped on the deck, landing painfully on his butt. He scooted around to face her, letting the wind and rain hit his eyes, so he could get advance warning if she tried to kill him. “The Mezazi Empire holds our leashes right now, so it’s best you don’t get caught believing the wrong things.”
From a distance Syldris was an ordinary-looking woman of average height with symmetrical features, pale skin, and black wavy hair. Then you got closer and you saw the two vicious bony spikes on either side of her forehead, the oozing scabs on her arms where she’d pulled some out recently, and the scars all over her body and face from a lifetime of spike production.
Her power made her monstrous in a fight. She could make a partial shield of spikes cover any part of her body at will, and she never ran out of weapons. She could impale a man just standing next to him, no hand movement, no warning. It was better to be loved, she said, but she’d settled for being feared.
Syldris scowled mockingly. “She kidnaps children, she burns villages for fun, she’s the devil herself… but, most importantly, she refused to provide wind for our benefactor’s navy, which makes her our target. Now, where is she?”
“That way.” Freddy pointed while backing up further. “Last time I checked.”
“Last time you checked?” growled Syldris. “You do know that ships move, right? Use your power!”
Freddy scooted backward past Jack until he was pressed against the railing. Something to grab, finally… but on the other side were choppy waves and, if he went down far enough, sharks. Another wave like the one that had knocked him over before would send him straight over the edge.
Syldris approached until she towered over him, trapping him against the railing, then ejected a bony spike from her shin so it was inches from his throat.
He slunk down further. Being around pirates was terrible. He could use his power to navigate by the stars and seek out Evyleen, but aside from that he was useless on a ship, and they knew it
. Some, like Jack, tried to give him mentorship in the pirate ways: sword fighting, skullduggery, drinking. Others, like Syldris and most of the swordsmen, seemed to enjoy having someone they could kick around to relieve stress… usually figuratively, but not always. They’d all been pirates for years and there was no way he could stand up to them.
“Are you using your power?” hissed Syldris. She knelt down, driving the new spike on her shin into the wood. Freddy’s eyes followed it, watched it split the plank. “Tell me where—”
The door to the captain’s quarters slammed opened, revealing a strong, bulky man who had seen better days. Sink 'em Sam, once the most terrifying pirate in the Olvanzle Basin. “Don’t go threatening my crew,” he said roughly. “It’s bad for business.”
“Not threatening your crew enough is what landed you in jail,” countered Syldris. Still, she stood up quickly and turned her back to Freddy, letting him breathe a sigh of relief.
“Using an untrusted crew and then getting unlucky is what sent me to jail, but it won’t happen again. You know why? Because I reward loyal crew members. And the disloyal ones… they were sent to the bottom before I got put away. Clothes turned to tin before they got kicked off the ship. Completely unrescuable….” Sam turned just his mouth into tin so that it creaked when he smiled. “Up until the very end, I served justice. Would you like to reconsider your insubordination?”
Syldris frowned and tried to stare down Sam, but eventually looked away.
Sam’s metal grin creaked wider, glistening in the rain. “I’m very receptive to feedback, so I’ll do like you say. Here’s your threat: if you hurt one of my crew without my permission, you will sink to the bottom of the sea. Those spikes can’t go through tin very well, can they?”
Syldris cowered more bravely than most pirates, but she cowered nonetheless. Freddy wished he had the power to make that happen himself, instead of always being on the receiving end… it would feel so good to make Timorah and Syldris bow at his feet, make them regret every single torment they’d heaped upon him.
“Okay,” said Sam, satisfied that he was on top again. “Freddy, where’s Evyleen?”
Freddy got on his hands and knees so he was stable, took a deep breath to calm himself, and turned on his power.
He shouldn’t have been looking down. He saw immediately through the ship’s decks, the three thin layers of wood separating them from a near-endless sea, each registering in his vision ghost-like. Below them were hundreds of sea creatures, many of them probably sharks or cœurbrute or worse, all of them faint whispers of what they would look like with normal vision, the distant ocean’s floor the only thing that looked even close to solid. Every time he did this it was just as terrifying as the last.
“Of course he does it for you,” spat Syldris.
Freddy drew his gaze upward until it was level with the sea. He saw into infinite space, a field of stars, their locations showing him precisely where on the globe he was. He focused in closer, to the ghost of a ship, and applied his super to Evyleen’s vessel.
One out of three people could use their super piecemeal, and Freddy was one of them. He’d discovered through experimentation that his energy ran down when he first triggered his super, and that the more he focused, the more energy it took… and the more accurate it was. At about eighty miles, it took up his entire energy store to use his super with any accuracy, and he had to wait for it to recharge before using it again. Anything past that and he had to either play the odds on hitting the right spot or accept that he would pass out right afterward and not wake for a day or more, depending on how much he focused.
At this distance, Freddy could get an accurate view of Evyleen’s ship every five minutes with no problem.
Her pirate band was a motley sort. Mostly humans, lots of Odzu and a couple Mezazi. Their powers were undetermined, but the amount of spiky hair was worrying.
Equally worrying was the Baltese sailor — a fearsome doglike creature with a goofy grin, a slobbery tongue hanging out, and two giant swords on its back. Most breeds of Baltese were smaller, but this one… when it stood on two legs it was taller than most humans, even though it looked to be a mere teenager! And then… a Lapine? Sea and sand! When — and how — had Evyleen gotten a ninja rabbit to join up? It walked confidently on deck, a very bad sign… when one of their species took to sea, they usually cowered below decks until they arrived at their destination. This one was dangerous.
Freddy shuddered. If they closed the distance and Sam’s first attack didn’t take down Evyleen’s ship, they could very well all die.
“Have you found her yet?” asked Sam.
“Less than a mile that way,” replied Freddy, pointing. He stopped his super and clenched his teeth to make it through the come-down.
“She must’ve wasted some of her power on making this squall instead of traveling fast,” said Sam.
“She’s trying to make us stop without hurting us,” muttered Syldris. “Weak.”
“And stupid,” said Jack. “She doesn’t know we have me.”
“There’s a lot she doesn’t know,” said Syldris. “Stay out of trouble. I’m going to go rouse the others.”
Sam’s mouth twitched, but instead of speaking he turned and lumbered off toward his cabin.
“That was pleasant,” said Jack.
Freddy ran to the mast, hugged it tightly, and prepared to wait out the storm.
——
Freddy hugged the mast for a long time.
The squall followed their schooner, tracking them with unnatural precision though these normally placid waters. This part of the ocean was famous for having no wind, no currents, and no islands, so of course Evyleen would lead them here.
The heavy wind and torrential rain only stopped once they were in sight of Evyleen’s vessel.
He let go of the mast and sighed in relief.
Now that they were out of the storm, he felt the attraction of remote danger. He compulsively checked Evyleen’s ship, using his super to see the enemy’s calm, determined expressions. Shouldn’t she and her little band of abductees be panicking?
A hand clapped him on the back, making him jump and breaking him out of his super.
Freddy cursed as he waited for normal vision to return.
Gum-Gum Guffy.
Guffy’s arms could stretch to fifty times their normal length, meaning he could reach every bit of the ship from one spot, win every boxing match, and clap someone on the back without the sound of approaching footsteps. He often said that if his legs and body could do the same he’d already be king of the pirates, but it was no good wishing your powers were different.
“Oh hey,” yelled Guffy, still twenty feet away, grinning goofily. “I didn’t see you there.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Five times a day for the last fourteen months and the joke still wasn’t funny. At least the man wasn’t trying to kill him.
Guffy walked over to Freddy so he could pester more efficiently. “Come on, buddy. We’re gonna be rich! We’re gonna be the best pirates in the world!”
Freddy look around to see if anyone else was close enough to hear before hissing, “Are you blind? Pirates are terrible. Besides, we’re working for the government.”
“Exactly!” said Guffy, completely ignoring everything Freddy had just said. “Evyleen kidnaps children, and kidnapping children is wrong. We’re doing a good thing!”
“Consider me out of practice.” Why did this guy have to be so cheerful? And so oblivious? No one else saw the sharks circling, not yet, and no one would believe him if he told them about the Lapine, but even so they should be acting a little more rational. She was nicknamed Evyleen the Uncatchable, not Evyleen the Gives Up Easy When In Sight.
“Jail does terrible things to a man,” Guffy said happily. “Good thing we’re all free now!”
“You’re one to talk,” said Freddy. Guffy was the only one who hadn’t been in jail before starting this mission… and the only one who wouldn’t end up back in jail if
they returned to the Mezazi Core without a captured Evyleen. Freddy’d been in there for debt, pulled out because of how useful his power was for chase and navigation, while most of the others had been career pirates. “Why’d you join up again?”
Guffy grinned stupidly and got a far-off look in his eye. He couldn’t actually see very far, he just had that look. “We’ll be heroes.”
“Sure, sure. I’ll tell you what, you get my share of being a hero, and I get your share of the reward.”
Their conversation was interrupted by a loud yawn from Animal Ezra. Ezra was a big, beefy man, almost like the creatures he loved to manipulate when on land. For this mission he would be controlling the birds, to make them dive bomb Evyleen’s crew, and the sharks, to do what he could to make sure they tore up the right bodies in the aftermath.
Based on what Ezra had shared previously, he could control one animal at a distance; the closer he was, the better he could control the animal. Not that he would actually do anything to save a crew member if he didn’t feel like it.
“Let’s get this over with,” he grumbled. “I hate being birds.”
“I’d love being a bird!” exclaimed Guffy. “Imagine if—”
Ezra clobbered Guffy on the back of the head, knocking him to the deck and interrupting any happy thoughts. Guffy bounced right back up as if nothing had happened. He put his arm around Ezra, then extended it until it was wrapped around the angry and growling animal manipulator three times over. Guffy did like his hugs.
“How’s my favorite grumpy old man?”
“You would never do this to Syldris.”
Guffy shivered at the name. “It’s amazing a woman like her would take such a heroic mission.”