AMETHYST

"Wh-what the heck? Did you just t-transform from a human to a dolphin?" Rose asked.

Geneva nodded. "Yeah, I guess I did."

"Where were those powers four hours ago, Beast Girl?" Kai asked.

"I'm not sure," Geneva admitted. "I was sinking, and suddenly, I was a dolphin."

I frowned. "But how did you do that? I don't know anybody who can shape-shift, much less a daughter of Hebe."

"Well, about a month ago, I had a dream where Hebe was trying to talk with me. I was angry at her, so I didn't listen to her, but there was one thing she said that stuck with me," Geneva explained.

We looked at her expectantly.

"She said something about how I was special and that I had powers that no other child of hers had. Maybe these abilities were what she was talking about."

We all stood silent, not sure what to say.

Kai then broke the silence, "Well, that was nice. If you'll excuse me, I have a certain GHOST member to shut up."

Kai headed down to the bottom deck. Alexander and Rose followed after him, leaving Geneva and I on the top deck.

With nothing left to say, I began heading down to my cabin, but before I could go down the staircase, Geneva grasped my shoulder, pulled me back, and said, "Before you go, I have a few questions."

I nodded slowly. "Ok, feel free to ask anything."

"When I was swimming towards the Sirens, I saw some weird vision. I was with Arthur in a secluded garden surrounded by brick walls. Outside, people kept banging on the walls, trying to get inside. Arthur kept asking me to let them in, but I didn't."

"So, what's your question exactly?" I asked.

"My question is what did it mean? Why did that vision show up?"

I rubbed my chin. "Technically that's two questions, but whatever. Anyways, Sirens will usually show you your fatal flaw via the use of visions and apparitions. This is why so many sailors ended up dying to Sirens. They were shown visions that they couldn't resist trying to go to."

"What's a fatal flaw again?" Geneva asked.

"A fatal flaw is a weakness all heroes have that can prove very costly, like Hercules having an excessive wrath or in my case, curiosity," I explained. "For you, I think yours is mistrust. It takes time for you to let people into your life, which is what might lead to your downfall. The people banging on the walls were trying to get you to open up, and the wall showed how you blocked them out. That's what the vision was trying to show you, or at least that's what I think it was trying to tell you."

Geneva stayed quiet for a moment before talking. "Thanks for explaining, Amethyst. See you around."

With that, the two of us headed to our cabins.

I was actually glad Geneva had gone to me for her questions. The last month, she hadn't spoken to anyone at all really, and when she did, it was never a personal conversation about what she was going through. So it was definitely nice knowing that she trusted me enough to ask me questions about what was going on with her.

I cleared my mind and picked up the book I was reading before the entire Siren incident and went back to what I was doing. Reading was certainly my happy place, not just because I enjoyed reading into the lore of something and getting immersed in a really good topic, but also because I felt separate from reality, in peace and tranquility with no unwanted thoughts crossing my mind. No thoughts about the prospect of death which I so commonly faced, no thoughts about the past, no nothing.

Just as I was getting to the good part of the book, the ship began to rumble.

"Why can't I just read?" I grumbled.

I put up the book and ran to the top deck, where I was greeted with a terribly huge surprise.

Wrapped around the hull of our ship was a huge creature that looked like a mix between a shrimp and a crayfish. It was about two hundred feet long and had a long beard that was shooting out tentacles. It had a pink chitinous shell, a flat tail, and a bunch of millipede type legs. Its face was a slimy pink color that had glassy dead eyes and a toothless maw.

"What in the Sharktopus is that?!" Kai yelled.

I racked my brain for the answer. "I think it's a Skolopendra, a child of Phorcys and Keto."

The rest of our group joined us up on deck.

"Ah! It's a living fish stick!" Alexander screamed. "Except.. It's not a fish stick. What is that thing?"

Rose and Geneva were similarly baffled, their faces fraught with confusion and imminent panic.

The Skolopendra bumped into the hull with its large head, knocking all of us off our feet.

"What in tarnation is a two-hundred foot shrimp doing on my ship?!" Oman shouted.

He tried steering the ship away from the large creature, but it wrapped another of its beard tentacles on the ship.

Kai ignited Scorcher, yelled some incomprehensible battle cry, and jumped at the creature. He was able to slash off one of its tentacles, but a trio of tentacles came out and wrapped him up. The chopped-off tentacle then regenerated, a new tentacle taking its place.

The action reminded me of the old Greek saying about Hydras, how when one head was cut off, two more grew back in its place, though the situations varied slightly.

I shot a plethora of arrows at the creature, but it continually swatted away my projectiles with its tentacles. Meanwhile, Rose and Geneva tried freeing Kai from the Skolopendra's clutches, and Alexander kept trying to slash away at the creature's oncoming tentacles with his axe. None of these plans really came to fruition though, as Kai was still in the Skolopendra's grasp and Alexander wasn't having any success.

The next attack fell to Oman, who smashed a button on his console and from the sides of the BBB, cannons came out and shot at the creature. The cannon balls seemed to damage the creature, evidenced by its sudden opening of its mouth and subsequent grunts of pain, but the Skolopendra still didn't budge.

It was essentially invincible.

Come on Amethyst, you're supposed to be the brains of the team, I thought.

The tentacles continually regenerated when we slashed them away, so we couldn't just keep slashing them off. We couldn't get close or it would just knock us away with its tentacles, and our weapons seemed to be doing nothing. As I tried thinking of a solution, I spotted something very intriguing. Kai was finally able to burst out of the Skolopendra's clutches in a fit of flames, and in response to being hurt, it opened its mouth wide for a brief few seconds before closing it. The same thing had happened not too early on when Oman had shot the ship's cannons at the Skolopendra, the creature opening its mouth in pain that time as well.

I now had a plan.

"Everyone, try damaging the monster all at one time!" I yelled.

My friends all obliged, Kai shooting blasts of fire at the creature's sides, Rose casting a bunch of fire and electricity spells, Alexander morphing his shields into a bow and began shooting at it, and Geneva slashing away the tentacles wrapped on the ship.

In one brief moment, the creature opened up its mouth and roared in pain, giving me the perfect opportunity.

I took a deep breath and shot a celestial bronze-tipped arrow in the creature's mouth.

The creature closed its mouth and swallowed as my arrow slipped in with perfect accuracy, it's eyes opening wide. Suddenly, the Skolopendra sank deep into the ocean. It had either disintegrated or didn't want to continue fighting us.

Kai clapped me on the back. "Now, that's my little sister."

"Thanks, Kai," I said.

The rest of the group congratulated me before we headed back to our cabins. I sat back and went back to reading, feeling good that I could finally relax and that I could just read.

But it didn't take long for everything to go wrong again.

Fifteen minutes after we had taken down the Skolopendra, Oman screeched into the speaker, "AHH! PIRAT-"

The five of us rushed up the steps to see what was wrong.

I opened up Oman's cabin, where he was tied to a chair and had tape over his mouth. Two guys were standing behind him, one of them holding a curved sword to Oman's neck.

The two guys were both dressed in classic pirate attire, ripped up brown jackets, belts, boots, pistol sheathes, and black tricorne hats. The first guy carrying the sword had dreadlocks with beads while the second guy had shaggy black hair and a goatee.

"If ye want yer matey t' live, come wit' us," the pirate with the dreadlocks said.

Kai snorted. "Oh no! I be so scared! Scuttle me!"

Suddenly, Kai's feet were taken out and he collapsed onto the floor. A group of pirates hoisted him up and wrapped him in a thick rope. We were now surrounded by pirates, all of which were carrying swords and pistols.

"Watch yer mouth son," the pirate said again. "Come aboard the' ship or ye die."

Before anyone could protest, I said, "Fine. Take us."

The pirates escorted us out of the cabin, ropes around our arms and their swords to our necks. Timmy then came out from the bottom cabin, yelling as the pirates dragged him across the staircase.

"I'm not with them! They forced me here against my will!" Timmy yelled.

"Oh shut up, mate," a pirate replied.

A pirate ship pulled up to the side of us, casting a long shadow across our ship. It was about as wide as the BBB, but that's where the similarities ended. The masts of their ship towered over ours, and the sails had a skull drawing on them. The ship was decorated with a golden railing and had a large cabin in the back that overlooked the main deck. There was also an anchor and cannons to the sides.

From aboard their ship, a pirate dropped a plank down, connecting our two ships.

The pirates ushered us across. They then threw the plank into the water after we had all been brought to their side and began sailing.

"My ship!" Oman exclaimed.

A couple of the pirates had stayed on our ship and took it, now sailing it behind us.

They had taken us hostage, they had taken our ship, and now, they were probably taking us to our deaths.

As Kai would say, lovely.