The Crew

Sunlight pours into Thomas eyes, and he looks around the unfamiliar bedroom he has woken up in. He has no idea where he is or how much time has passed, but he knows that he will not allow himself to be kidnapped again. He leaps to his feet and bursts out of the room. He sprints through the hallway.

"Stop right there!" Jean shouts.

She is holding a steel staff weapon and is standing in his path in front of him. Thomas runs into the room on his left and jumps through the open window. However, Jean easily catches up with him. She swings her staff and hits Thomas in the side of his stomach. The hit is not very strong, but it does add on the pain Thomas has suffered from Grimnir's hits. He clutches his stomach. He then kicks Jean in the face. She recoils, momentarily stunned, but regains her composure. She tries to hit him with the staff again, but he rolls out of the way and punches her in the face. He is about to make a run for it, but William Aleyn jumps at him. They roll on the grass floor, and William ends up above Thomas. Thomas tries to escape his grasp but is unable. William is extremely large and muscular compared to him. Grace, John and Wimund all arrive to the scene.

"Who is this guy?" William asks.

"Let go of me!" Thomas commands.

"Or what? You will shout me into submission," William mocks, a smirk on his face.

Thomas feels a deep, burning anger rise in his chest. His fists are clenched. The anger grows bigger and bigger. He has usually tried to keep it under control, but now, he is going to let it run wild. He yells his anger out. A floating translucent purple mouthless ghost comes out of Thomas's body and carries William up in the air and throws him powerfully at the ground. Thomas has no idea how he had just done that. He succeeds in regaining control over himself, making the ghost disappear. He looks at his hands, which are burning with purple flame and shakes them making the fire disappear. Jean kicks Thomas in the stomach. This time she does not hold back. Thomas is knocked back and falls on the ground. The pain of multiple strong hits in his stomach is excruciating.

"Do not move," Jean commands, her tone colder than ice.

Thomas looks at her. She is holding a spear made entirely out of water. He stares blankly, shocked by what he sees. Jean channels crackling lightning through the spear, just to threaten Thomas and intimidate him.

"Get up," Jean instructs. "Slowly," she continues.

Wincing from pain, Thomas attempts to get up, but he is unable to. Jean lowers her spear slightly, her expression softening.

"Help him up," she says, glancing at the others.

Wimund steps forward. With a supportive hand under Thomas's arm, he helps him to his feet. Thomas coughs out blood. Jean turns around towards William.

"Are you okay?" she asks him.

"Yeah, my back hurts a little, but I will be fine," he answers.

"Woah! That.. that was crazy! How did you do that? A water spear? And where did that scary purple thing come from? And this guy's hands, they were on literal fire but not normal fire!" John exclaims, his eyes wide with astonishment.

Everyone else is less excited than John is as they all have experiences with superpowers. Thomas looks down at his hands again. What has just happened? The purple fire has come out many times before but never the ghost. Was this one of the voices inside his head?

"Well, I see that you have all met," Captain Demetrius says. "Let's go inside and have a talk. There is much to discuss," he continues.

Despite all the chaos that has happened, Demetrius keeps his calm expression. The group trudges back into the castle. Wimund is still supporting Thomas, who is barely able to lift his gaze, alongside William.

William whispers in Thomas's ears, "Listen, buddy, just because I am helping does not mean that we are friends."

Thomas looks at him and says nothing. He has no energy to reply and say that he does not want friends anyway. William does not want any friendship with Thomas either after his encounter with the weird ghost. Demetrius finally leads them to chairs and asks them to sit. Tension hangs in the air, laden with unspoken questions, distrust and the weight of the journey ahead.

Demetrius surveys the group, his eyes shifting from Jean, intrigued to know how Demetrius plans to defeat the Evil Lord with these untrained recruits, to Grace, just happy and optimistic. He then looks at Thomas, who is angry and tired, and then at William, tense with anticipation. John remains excited and confused while Wimund is silent and unreadable.

"I gathered you all for very important mission," Demetrius announces.

Before he can elaborate, Thomas interrupts him, "Whatever it is, I do not want to take part. I need to go save my sister and mother."

"How are you planning on doing that? You will defeat the Cave Trolls army all by yourself?" Demetrius asks.

"You do not understand. I cannot lose. Whatever I have to do, I will do it and get them back because I cannot afford losing any of them. Besides, why should I trust people who kidnapped me?" Thomas insists.

"Thomas, we will help you save your family but not now. We must become strong enough to do so first. As for your kidnapping, we did what he had to. It was the only way to get you here quickly," Demetrius says.

Thomas stays silent. He knows that Demetrius is right. He is not strong enough to save his family.

"Our mission is to defeat the Evil Lord and the Cave Trolls. I know that it sounds impossible, but each of you has a power that is capable of anything and everything. If we work together, we will succeed. It has been weeks since the Evil Lord's forces have moved. They do not aim into going past the Mutiny River, and I know the reason," Demetrius explains.

Demetrius then proceeds to tell them about the backstory of this situation: how they got their powers and how the Evil Lord was corrupted. He then tells them that the reason the Evil Lord's forces are not progressing is that the Evil Lord is looking for the shattered fragments of the orb. He says that the orb has split into four fragments after it was struck. Demetrius gave them to a former friend of his to hide years ago as they seemed powerful, and he did not know what to do with them. He is not sure if they can be useful in any way, but he knows that he must get them before the Evil Lord does as he is searching for them right now. The Evil Lord has a map that shows where these fragments are as he has captured Demetrius's friend and got the info out of him.

"Do I have powers too?" John asks.

"Yes, you do," Demetrius answers.

"How do you know that? How did you find out about us?" Wimund asks, his skepticism evident.

"That is a long story for another day," Demetrius answers.

"Do all of you know about your powers?" John asks.

"Yeah, for a while now," William answers.

Demetrius introduces them to each other and points at them one by one, "William the plant elemental, John the metal elemental, Wimund the light elemental, Thomas the spirit elemental, Jean the storm elemental and Grace the wind elemental."

Some of them wonder again about how Demetrius knows all of this, especially John as he never knew he had powers. Thomas is asking himself many questions. Spirits? Are these the voices inside him and the ghost that came out of him minutes ago? What does flame have to do with it?

"How do we gain control over our powers?" Thomas asks, desperation creeping into his voice.

"I do not know. That is for you to figure out," Demetrius says. "You must understand that this is not going to be a fun pirate adventure. It is going to be brutal and dangerous. There will be a great responsibility bestowed upon you. I am asking you to join my crew. If you refuse, you are welcome to do whatever you want with your life. The only rule in my ship is loyalty to each other and to your captain. There was an ancient saying used during the beginning of piracy. A true pirate crew is bound not by the treasure they seek, but by the loyalty they hold for each other. For it is in unity and trust that they sail through the stormiest seas and conquer the greatest of challenges. Who is in?"

Grace and Jean immediately stand up. Demetrius already knew that they would always follow him anyway. The problem was the four boys.

William rises to his feet and declares, "This is probably the only worthwhile thing I will ever do with my life. I am in."

"I will join to make my parents proud," John says excitedly as he stands up.

"If it means saving Harbor's View from constant threat, I will join you," Wimund says.

All eyes turn to Thomas.

"No," he states flatly.

Everyone is shocked.

"May I ask why?" Demetrius queries.

"I do not trust anyone. I mean sure you all seem like good guys, but the last time I trusted someone who looked like a noble guy, I was robbed. Since then I never trusted anyone outside my family, and I am not planning on changing that," Thomas replies.

"As you wish. You are free to go wherever you want and take any boat from the dock. Just remember that you refused to help millions of suffering innocents," Demetrius says.

"Where was help when I needed it?" Thomas replies with frustration. "I have endured more suffering than anyone in the whole world, and nobody cared. Even before the Evil Lord attacked, I needed help but never got it," Thomas says with tears in his eyes.

He is remembering bad memories. He stands up and heads towards the door. However, he is stopped by a young girl, Grace. She is holding a bowl of fruits in her hands.

"You look hungry. Please take this. Consider it compensation for your troubles," she offers, her eyes shimmering with innocence and kindness.

Thomas looks at her eyes and her beautiful smile. She reminds him of his sister when she was young and always grabbing fruits from trees for Thomas to eat. She reminds him of the time when he used to be happy. Thomas recalls when the Trolls kidnapped him and his sister, remembering how much she suffered. As he looks at Grace, he feels an overwhelming sense of responsibility wash over him. He cannot bear the thought of her enduring the same torment his sister has faced. A fierce determination ignites within him and he knows he has to stay and protect her. Thomas grabs an apple then turns around.

"I guess it would not hurt me to give this thing a try. After all, I need help to get my family back," Thomas says.

No one understands why he has suddenly changed his mind. Demetrius nods, satisfied with Thomas's change of heart.

"Excellent," Demetrius states firmly. "Well then, what we need to discuss next is how to find the orb fragments. As I said, the Evil Lord already has a map. There is only one other map. It is inside Thomas," Demetrius says.

"What now?" Thomas questions, bewildered.

"Thomas, that friend of mine who gave the Evil Lord the map. He was your father," Demetrius says.

"My..," Thomas gasps. "You knew my father?" he continues.

"Yes, he was a good friend. He and Anicetus were the only two I ever trusted. He was a brave man too," Demetrius explains with nostalgia in his tone.

"That pirating adventure he left for when I was six… It is the same one as the one you were talking about," Thomas realizes. "Brave? How was he brave? He told the Evil Lord about the locations of the orbs," Thomas continues.

"That is because the Evil Lord threatened to kill his family. He loved you dearly by the way. He used to talk about you all the time. He was a wizard. He knew that the map needed a backup and implanted the map within your mind. It can only be seen by a spell, which he taught me," Demetrius explains.

"Where is he now?" Thomas asks.

"I do not know. I never saw him after he escaped the Evil Lord to tell me that he was forced into revealing the map. He did not even want to give him a fake map, afraid that when he finds out, he would kill his family," Demetrius recounts.

Demetrius approaches Thomas and puts his hand on his forehead gently. Demetrius starts murmuring some incomprehensible words. Suddenly for Thomas, the room fades into darkness, and it feels like he is being pulled backwards. The map then suddenly appears in Thomas's mind, revealing locations he has never known before. Demetrius sees it too. Thomas sucks in a sharp breath of air as Demetrius lowers his hand, and they are both launched back to reality. Thomas returns to reality breathless.

"Are you okay?" Wimund asks.

Thomas calms himself down and takes a deep breath.

"I feel.. more okay than I ever was," Thomas answers.

Demetrius tells them that they should all get some rest. He informs them that they will start their journey the day after tomorrow.

The boys have to help Thomas up. Thomas is very overwhelmed by all that happened today. The boys guide him to his room. He falls to sleep as soon as he lays on the bed. Wimund makes sure to close the room's door as quiet as he can.

"I do not like that guy," William says.

"He looks like he has been through a lot. Give him a chance," Wimund replies.

"So I am really the only one to never use his powers?" John questions.

"Yeah, I am afraid so," William says.

The three boys talk for a bit. They then start yawning and rubbing their eyes and decide to go to their rooms and sleep in order to prepare for what is awaiting them.