Rio Riddick

 "Good morning," a voice sounds out in the dark. "The sun is not yet risen but morning is morning."

 Rio opens her eyes and the only thing she can sense is the direction of where the voice is coming from.

 "Let's shed some light," the voice says.

 Lights come on illuminating an extravagant room that was fit for royalty. Rio scanned the room and could see she was laying in a bed with the softest silk sheets she had ever felt, a dresser, wardrobe, and the nightstand looked like they were made by the finest carpenters Sharsen had to offer and the white marble walls had designs carved into them looking like an mason worker put all their blood, sweat, and tears into it. The rooms color tone was maroon, deep purple, and hints of gold. Not the light brown and blood red color tone of the Barbadian Pirates but the color tone of the coat of arms of the old king.

 "I hope you're satisfied with these conditions we've set up here for you," The voice said. Rio whipped her head around to see the Captain of the Barbarian Pirates standing at the doorway with a smile on his face. Captain Jason Bardrick of the Barbarian Pirates. The Pirate Conqueror of the Sharsen Continent and successor to the Sharsen Throne of the slain King by his hand.

 "Pretty snazzy living accommodations for me. You took us by force. Were the dungeons too crowded?" She asked.

 "You were one of many that came willingly," The Captain replied. "Those of you who did get special treatment like getting your own room. The other two who came from your same community, Deedee and Mimi, are sharing a room since they're sisters. Or twins, as a matter of fact."

 "I know," Rio replied. "Of course I know that" she thought to herself. "I grew up in that community with them. They're still so young. I remember bringing cookies to them and her mother around the cold seasons. We're only four years apart but we would still sing and play together when we were younger. Honestly, watching their mother die at their own hands was shocking. That was unexpected. I still have no idea what's going on here."

 "Of course you do," he says, "Anyway so-"

 "Hold on a damn minute!" She burst out. "What day is it?"

 Captain Bardrick looks at her with an angry expression on his face, "Don't interrupt me."

 "Don't ignore my question," Rio replied sternly.

 He sighs and says, "Tuesday."

 "Is he for real?" Rio thinks. "That's not- I- Oh my Neptune. You're such a guy," she says facepalming herself. She sighs and looks back up at him and says, "Are you daft? The month and the day!"

 "Oh," The Captain says, now looking a little pale at how he answered the question the first time, "It's only been a night since we took you. It's Takaber 13th."

 "So it's only been a day," Rio thought to herself. "Six days until my 18th birthday."

 "Are you done?" The Barbarian Pirate Captain asked. Before she could reply, he continued, "So, today marks the first day for the rest of your life. You, the twins from your community, and a few other volunteers will be new honorary members of the Barbarian Pirate Army. Sure, I'm a Pirate Conqueror, so why am I stopping at the Sharsen Continent when there are other continents and island's just waiting for me to take them!" He starts laughing then composes himself after realizing the puzzled look on Rio's face.

 "He's out of his damn mind," Rio thinks. "He was seriously just monologuing just now. Does he know that? Who the hell does that?"

 Not getting the traction he wanted, Captain Bardrick opens the door to her room and says, "Take her. It's about time we got started." And the large man Rio recognized from the raid named Barney walked in and grabbed Rio and threw her over his shoulder. Accompanying him were Deedee and Mimi, not resisting. She wasn't either so she wasn't sure why she was getting carried. Moving down a hallway, Captain Bardrick continued talking, "This is Barney. Our crews Tank. He will be in charge of making sure you all stay in line."

 They entered a room at the end of their hallways with tall, large, charcoal gray, and heavy double doors to a much larger room that looked like a gothic laboratory straight out of the medieval era of Neptune over 1,000 years ago. Rio could only make that assessment from the books and photos Thia had shown her through her homeschooling. Aside from that, there were many things that looked modern as well, tubs, vials, large tanks full of different colored liquid, some looked like they had things in them, some were covered up, hiding their secrets.

 On one side of the room were about 20 boys and girls. Surely all the other volunteers from other communities were raided like her own. As scared as you'd assume they should be, they were not. Rio fears they were only as ruthless as Deedee was before she shot her mother with no remorse and no hesitation.

 "I guess these are the last girls, Captain?" A dashing man said walking up to them in all black underclothes and an ivory white lab coat.

 "You're guessing right," Captain Bardrick replied. "Ladies, this here is the Vice Captain of the Barbarian Pirates. He's a Technician and a Scientist."

 "Nice to meet you ladies. Deedee, Mimi, and Rio. My name is Brandon. Aside from my Captain's introduction, I am also his first mate. But yes, I am a technician and a scientist. So aside from the experiments we will be conducting, I will also be training you in the aspects of combat as well. We can't let you protect and attack enemies without skills. You'd die and that's not our intention of making our captain's dream come true."

 "Couldn't have said it better myself," Captain Bardrick was beaming at his first mate's praise. "I will leave it to you now, Brandon. Barney will be here too, of course. And I'll send the cook and some servants in at their appropriate times. And-" he paused before he could leave the laboratory and scanned the room and changing his expression to disgruntled said, "Where is Phestus?"

 "Oh," Brandon started laughing. "That half-wit, Phestus," he pointed to one of the large tanks that was covered and continued, "Fell in when he was feeding what's in there. The first of the children here had the honor of watching it happen."

 "Hmmm," The Captain hummed. "So, you need a replacement servant?"

 "I need a replacement servant," he repeated in the form of an answer.

 Captain Bardrick just nodded as he left the room.

 Mimi's hand shot up immediately once the captain was gone and asked, "What's a Phestus?"

 "It's a person who's not good at their job," Brandon answered. "Now you three, please join the other children over there please."

 When Deedee, Mimi, and Rio joined the other children, one thing was now clear to her, "I'm probably the oldest one here but compared to my size, I look the youngest." All the other kids were very tall or at least a few inches taller than her. From their features she figured the youngest child had to be at least 12 years old with the oldest, aside from being her, might also be 17 too. But she couldn't be sure. 16 and 17 all look the same age. She's a young girl and aside from their situation she did catch the eye of another boy who she thought was very cute. Though she brushed it off quickly as she got past his looks and analyzed his bluish hair. "Go to hell."

 A woman burst through the doors wearing a sleeveless tight black uniform similar to Brandon's with black sleeves going from her wrist to the top section of her biceps, similar to a volleyball uniform. She bowed to Brandon and said, "Captain ordered me here to aide you in the absence of Servant Phestus."

 "Absence, he said?" Brandon smiled.

 "Is he not absent, Master Brandon?" She asked, still bowed.

 He sighs and says, "At ease, Lieutenant Marigale."

 Lt. Marigale stands straight up facing Brandon and begins again, "Master Bra-"

 "Marigale, please," Brandon cuts her off. "I think we've been over this time and time again."

 Breaking eye contact, looking down at the ground, and easing her tense posture, she blushes, then looks up at Brandon and says, "I'm sorry, Uncle."

 "That's better," Brandon smiles. "I believe I told you that your professional formality only needs to be with the captain, not me."

 "I know," she admitted longingly, "I just want to be the best for you."

 He puts his hand on her shoulder, so she looks him in the eye and says, "And you already are. But you will always be my niece first, and my Lieutenant second."

 "And what about me?" Barney cuts in from the side of the room where he's positioned.

 Brandon turns to him and says, "And you will always be the pleasant thorn in my side that only a rusty pipe wrench can remove."

 Barney started laughing a low bellowing laugh.

 Brandon turns Marigale around to the children and says, "Don't think I forgot about you three." He walked over to a table and pointed bags and said, "So now that we conveniently have another woman here, we can not break community standard rules and have you shower up and change into these uniforms. We might be pirates, but we're not perverts."

 "I am!" Barney cuts in.

 "Oh for the love of Neptune! Being attracted to woman over three times your age doesn't make you a pervert, Barney!" Brandon lashed out. He sighs and pinches the bridge in between his eyes and then composes himself again and says, "Marigale will take the girls to one of laboratory bathing chambers, and I will take the boys. You will all wash up, dry off, and then change into the uniforms in the bags. As you can see mine and Lt. Marigale's outfits, yours will look the same."

 Lt. Marigale began to lead the girls away and all Rio could think was, "This place is a mess, and I seriously have to live in this now? This is going to be a long 'rest of my life.' Maybe I'll die sooner than intended."

The girls exited the bathing chamber after getting dressed and Rio blushed looking at her uniform and thought, "Wow. This is actually comfortable." Her expression changed when Deedee and Mimi exited and thought, "Hell. I know they were taller than me but in all black, they look even more so." She observed their legs and thought, "Damn long-legged flamingos." The other girls didn't compare to those two.

 Once they returned, Marigale went up to Rio, bent down to her level and whispered, "How long have you had that mark on your back?"

 "Oh, that?" Rio scoffed. "Since birth."

 "Do you know what it means?" Marigale followed up.

 "Of course," Rio lied. "I'm a special little girl to have an abnormally colored and shaped birthmark!"

 Marigale's expression was content because she was not amused by Rio's answer. She just sighed, smiled, and replied, "Yes. You are a special girl."

 "That expression on her face really screams that she doesn't believe me. That I'm full of shit." Rio thought.

 Marigale sighed as she stood up and walked over to Brandon.

 Rio was now alone in her thoughts, "I mean, I am full of shit, but I also still don't understand exactly anything Evelyn said the other day about it too. Thia seemed like she did, to an extent." Her thoughts stopped in its tracks. Her bright expression changed to a content state of sadness, "Oh Thia. I hope she's okay. I hope Evelyn found her and that she's okay. That she'll take care of my dear older sister. Our community is gone and she's probably the only one who can take care of her now. All she has ever had was me, and all I ever had was her. My dear older sister," Rio was now fighting back from shedding a tear. "I was the one who acted mature yesterday. I HAD to leave so she wouldn't be forced to be killed. I didn't want to be forced to make a decision as sadistic or more chaotic, more brutal, more evil than Deedee and Mimi were forced to make. I don't know what's going to happen here, or what they have in store for us. I may not be myself after all this. If this is the fate I'm forced into, I pray to you, Neptune, protect my sister. Guide her in a way to go on without me. Join Evelyn! Go on adventures! Set out to sea and leave Sharsen behind. Shun the damn blue-haired nobles who cast us out of the orphanages. You've taken care of me long enough! Thank you for being the greatest sister a girl could ask for!" Rio's expression changed to a slight sense of pride, "I do swear, if I ever do leave her with my memories intact, I would search the seas, venture past the storm barrier, in search of you. To be reunited! I will not die here. For you." Her thoughts were silent again. "I really wish I could have celebrated my 18th birthday with Evelyn's 20th birthday."

 Marigale reached Brandon, leaned into him and whispered, "That short pipsqueak girl is a fucking Siren. No mistaking it. In the shower she has an intricate yellow sigil on her back. She's aware of it. I did ask her about it but her answer sounds like she knows what it is but she's not going to say it."

 Brandon eyed Rio from where they were and whispered back to his niece, "I may be in charge but trust your opinion. A Siren could be very useful, or very dangerous. I have some of the lost books on them. You said yellow, correct?"

 Marigale hummed a yes.

 Brandom smiled and whispered, "Despite everything we're going to be testing on, her power stone will be predetermined. So when she awakens, her power will be amplified, tenfold."

 He looked at Marigale and said, "Testing will still continue as usual. No special treatment for any of them." He then approached the children to draw their attention to him and said, "So, you're all here to be tested, trained, and honor to join the great Captain Bardrick's Barbarian Pirates! Our precious leader's vision to conquer kingdom after kingdom with you lot leading the armies into victory!"

 Not a single person reacted to his short speech, "Is he being serious?" Rio thought. "His monologue is worse than their Captain."

 "Oh for fucks sake," Brandon says under his breath, then calls out, "Let us begin!"

The next couple hours are what Rio could describe as Hell. Aside from the main area of the laboratory, all around in were testing centers and apparently day one is nothing but physical testing and training. "I'm not cut out for this!" Rio though. "Running? You kidding me? Running? I don't bother with that since Thia is naturally gifted with that!"

 "Pick up the pace cadet, or we'll have to get rid of you!" Marigale ordered as Rio was doing her best to pick up speed on the treadmill they were hooked up to.

 All the kids were taking turns on the treadmill but being familiar with Deedee and Mimi, that's all who she was comparing herself to. Foolish based on the size comparison.

 "Freaks of bloody nature, they are." Rio thought. "Not a lick of sweat on them and here I am, fucking drenched!"

 Moving on, the strength training wasn't any better. Brandon made them lift and carry weights and make laps around the perimeter of the laboratory and at every lap it would increase starting at one pound then adding another pound at every lap and ending when they could barely move the weight at all. Rio maxed at 15 pounds where she was dragging the weight, where Deedee and Mimi lapped her 20 times, maxing out at 35 pounds. Although their state of maxing out was not near the same state Rio was in.

 "Now I think they're getting special treatment," Rio thought as she collapsed at the finish line of her final run.

 "Get up cadet," Marigale ordered. "We're moving on to the next task."

 "Oh, of course," Rio replied trying to catch her breath and stand up.

 "Kill me. Kill me. Kill me," Rio repeated in her head.

 The next task to take on was an awareness, evasive, and reactive test. They were put into the middle of a circular room and from all sides, balls would shoot out at them and their objective was to stay in the middle of the room and not let any of the balls touch them.

 At the end of the test, still comparing herself to Deedee and Mimi, Deedee dodged 123 out of 200 balls, Mimi dodged 93 out of 200 balls and Rio dodged 175 out of 200 balls.

 Despite the sense of pride she felt, Brandon said it did not count and she would have to do it again because huddled up in the fetal position on the ground is not a tactic that would work in battle and if she did it again, he assured her that she'd get an extra 100 balls at a higher speed aimed at her.

 After her second attempt, Rio successfully dodged 12 out of 200 balls. "This is going to bruise tomorrow, isn't it?" She thought to herself poking herself in certain places that felt for tender than others.

 Lunch finally came through the doors and Rio's excitement quickly went from excitement to despair. What looked like a feast turned out was meant for Brandon, Marigale, and Barney. And what came for them were bento boxes that seemed to only be half full. "That's it," Rio thought. "I might have been guessing before but now I'm sure of it. They're not training us for shit. They're trying to kill us."

 "Don't sweat it for the crap they're giving us," The cute blue haired boy she noticed earlier whispered as he sat next to her. "It's just enough so we don't die but a tactic, so we're empty enough when they try to control our mind."

 "You don't seem phased about it," Rio whispered back. "Being a noble and all."

 "A noble?" The boy was fighting back a laugh. "Darling, I get your misconception because of my hair color, but I'm from Breens."

 "Breens," Rio repeated in her head as her eyes widened. "Breens is the poorest city on Sharsen. Since the king was killed, max life expectancy age of Breens went from 75 to 30."

 "What the hell are you doing in Breens?" Rio asked.

 "Not dying," he said. "I voulenteered because anything is better than there." He looked down at the small portion of food they had and said, "This is more food than I could scavenge for in a week."

 Rio couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Am I an asshole taking what I had for granted when Breens exists?"

 He dug into his food, and after his eyes returned to normal after rolling into the back of his head for tasting the first bite of food, which looked like the first time in his life, he said, "I'm Xodeus. No last name. Not many of us from Breens know who our parents are. What's yours?"

 "Rio," She said. "Rio Riddick."

 "Well, Rio," Xodeus said, "I hope we can be good friends while we're here, if they let friendships happen."

 "How old are you," Rio whispered with a demanding tone.

 Xodeus was taken back by he question and said, "Well, there's no documentation in Breens so they just took whoever looks young. I volunteered, claiming to be 17, but I actually turned 19 just two months ago. The closeness of 17 to 19 is good enough for the lie to be believable." He put a finger to his lips and said, "Don't tell anyone."

 "Listen up, Cadets!" Brandon called out walking over to the children. "I understand how trifling these tasks had been for you just now, but I promise, you are done, for today." He said, "And now," he signaled to Marigale and Barney who wheeled in two large tables covered by a cloth. "We have obtained power stones for each of you. We will teach you to use the power you are gifted with. So much that the next time we run these tests, they will be much more of a breeze. Dodging 200 balls? No, 1,000 at a speed ten times faster. Carrying weight around the lab? Imagine that weight being well over 100. Running? That too, ten times faster." Brandon was smiling. "Apologies, I get too carried away sometimes."

 "Sounds nice," Rio thought. "If I'm stuck here then I might as well obtain and harness a power."

 "They can't do that," Xodeus said from beside her. "Unless your power stone grants strength or speed, that's not happening."

 "You sure know a lot," Rio whispered.

 "A number of people had power stones in Breens before it went to shit. The ones who had powers either died or left us all behind." Xodeus said sadly.

 "So before we hand these out to all of you, there are four of you whom the captain requested personally to be given specific stones to. Once, I call your name, step up," Brandon said pulling out a piece of paper.

 "Woah," Xodeus chuckled.

 "Wonder who the lucky four are," Rio said.

 "The four are," Brandon cleared his throat, "Deedee, Mimi, Rio, and Xodeus."

 "Fuck," Rio thought. She caught the expression on Xodeus face next to her that screamed the same word. "I guess we should face to music?" She thought as she walked to the stage, uneasily with Xodeus behind her.

 They stood about four feet apart from each other facing the other children as Brandon walked between them. "So, children. You'll get to witness these four be gifted with abilities from power stones. Specifically selected by yours truly," Brandon gestured to himself. He then signaled to Marigale who pulled out four chests from below the cloth covering the tables. She then handed each one to the designated person on the stage. "When I call you name," Brandon continued. "Please open your chest and grab the powerstone in the chest." Brandon smiled and started, "Deedee."

 Deedee opened her chest and grabbed the blood red stone in her chest and dropped the chest as a blood red aura swirled around her. Once it settled, her skin was pale, she had bat wings, curled horns, blood red iris' in her eyes, fangs like a vampire, and her appearance looked like she was more adult than child anymore.

 "Yes!" Brandon exclaimed. "You have claimed the power of a Vampire Demon!"

 Deedee calmed herself down from the exert of power she had just had and reverted back to normal.

 "You have all witnessed a power stone transformation. It takes a specific understand and training of Qi to control your powers to, not only its full ability, but to transcend past it!"

 "Neptunes sack. He's really getting off on these power stones bologna. Talk about a bloody fanatic," Rio thought.

 "Mimi, if you'll please go next," Brandon said.

 Mimi opened her chest and grabbed the white and black stone in her chest and he body transformed into the form of a humanoid white tiger with female features and like her sister, looking like that of an adult.

 "The Tiger Empress of Combat," Brandon said. "Not only is her prowess superior, but so is her prowless."

 "I want to hit him," Rio groans loudly in her mind.

 Mimi too reverted back into her original form.

 "Now, Rio," Brandon said.

 "Really? Now flashy introduction? Thanks," She thought as he opened her chest and gazed at the bright yellow stone inside it. "Here goes nothing." She grabbed it and her world opened up and ignited into lightning and electricity everywhere. And then, she collapsed.