“The o is the most terrifying thing in our world.

  Despite the stant alien invasions, super-powered samurai, and amoral corporations doing everything they to cause chaos, nothing pares to the hostility of the waves. Yet, the o is humanity’s lifelihe most important asset to our survival. It leaves little doubt in my mind as to why the humans of the past worshipped it.

  Personally, it makes me rather anxious.”

  Olivia ‘Zealot’ Meier, during a interview with Samulyfe, June 2050***

  For a moment after the impact, as I float there above the deck of our ship, the world seems frozen. Nobody around me moves, her the four ures besides Desmond and Starfall nor the girls behihe pin prick feeling of their eyes pierg through me is discerting, but I don’t move, unwilling to give up the advantage I just gained.

  “Ha.” Standing up straight, Desmond spits out a tooth, which ctters against the deck. “I know I trained you, but I really didn’t expect you to do that.”

  I bite my lip for a moment, then slowly utter, “I have a lot of questions, and I want you to ahem for me.”

  Desmond huffs, raising up his slowly g fist. “There is no world where I answer any of your questions without first giving my granddaughter what she’s due.”

  Fling back a bit as he takes a step forward, I realize how foolish what I just did was. Spping a first gen samurai? With my tail?! Do I want to be killed? I don’t think so but-

  Before my train of thought tiarfall floats forward, raising both her hand and a ball of energy that forms around Desmond off of the ground. “Stand down, mongrel. After what she’s been through, I think she deserves the answers she seeks.”

  “Dammit, woman! This is between me and her!” Desmond puhe inside of the orb, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. “Let me go!”

  Clig her tohe woman jostles the man around a bit. “Calm yourself, dumbass. I’ll free you, on the dition you do not attack her.”

  “Fug-” Throwing his hands up in the air, Desmond growls through his teeth, “Fine! I won’t touch a hair on her. Let me down.”

  With a chuckle, she does just that. “See, that wasn’t so hard.”

  For a short sed, I stare at this absurd se in front of me, pletely dumbfou the ease at which Starfall restrains him. My attention immediately shifts however as Emme walks up, then slips her hand around mine and squeezes.

  “Well, today is starting off entirely strange.” She quietly giggles, and my heart does a little flip at the harmonious noise. “If you told me yesterday I’d see Steel Hound being pyed around with like this, I’d probably ugh and call you an idiot.”

  As everyone else approaches, it bees clear that there are three distinct fas here at the moment. Moving to stand behind Desmond are Haifisch, in all his sharky glory, and my brother. Beside Starfall stands two figures I immediately tell are samurai, between the fae is just a golden baby ahing and the other has pitch bck cyberics that intimidate me a bit. Emme squeezes my hand again, and Lissa walks up to stand beside her.

  The Monteros, The Family, and us.

  …

  Whoever we are, I guess.

  Annoyingly, two hushed versations arise amongst the roups, quiet enough that we ’t make out the words, but loud enough that you tell they’re discussing somethiween themselves. We’re forced to just stand there and wait for them to approach, and we do just that for a long thirty seds. At least, until Emme seemingly gets impatient.

  She takes a deep breath, then releases my hand as she drifts away from me, slowly entering onto ter stage. With each step she takes, her gait shifts from the tired drudge she began with into a fident, bouncy stride. A hush falls over the dece again as she positions herself right in the middle of everyohen performs a deep bow. Slowly she rises, and once her back is ramrod straight, she boldly announces:

  “Wele aboard the Starchaser, everyone! We on the crew are delighted to have you aboard, but you’ll have to pardon our ck of pleasa the moment. You’ve caught us after a particurly… rough night.”

  Starfall snorts as she turns towards the frozen crater, then responds, “Sure, I don't see any issue. Care to introduce yourselves before we get started?”

  Taking a step back, Emme throws a hand up in the air as she fmboyantly decres, “I have been graced with the name of Limelight, but my two lovely panions are; The magnifit mermaid Ghost-light and the secretive Shadow-”

  “Phantasmagoria.” Lissa cuts in, sounding pletely exasperated.

  Emme chuckles under her breath as she repeats, “And the passionate performer Phantasmagoria!”

  Emme does a little spin as she turns back towards us, taking a few steps before she looks over her shoulder and asks, “Now that we have that done, perhaps you all share your identities as well?”

  The man with the biggest ego begins to grumble, “How do you not know who I am? I’m Desm-”

  Emme cuts him off, a sheer amount of disdain ione.

  “We’re from New Houston, we know. I was asking the other, more iing group.”

  As Desmond blubbers a bit, the woman with bck cyberics steps forward, putting a hand on her hip.

  “Ha! I like this girl!” She throws a hand over her shoulder at the two other samurai behind her. “The woman in the chair pretending like she’s better than everyone is Starfall, and the gold gremlin is Illuminati. My name is Zealot, I’ll do the talking because her of these twerps have a good speaking record.”

  Starfall moves her chair forward a bit, bumping into Zealot’s back. “I have a fine speaking record, and don’t lump me in with Lumi, I’m in my sixties.”

  The cherub shrugs at that, moving over to sit in the older woman’s p. Zealot cracks her knuckles, then crosses her arms as she asks:

  “Okay, shoot kiddo. What questions do you have exactly?”

  Emme turns towards me, and I nod to her. We both likely have the same questions anyways, so it’s fine if she talks for all of us.

  “Well… First and foremost, I suppose would be…” Emme jerks around, throwing her hands out behind her. “What the fuck took you so long to get here?!”

  Desmond immediately answers as he takes a step forward. “We were in space. It takes time to get there and back.”

  Putting her hands on her hips, Emme straightens her back to attempt to match up with the man. “Bullshit. I know samurai have quick ways up and down. There’d be no point otherwise.

  As Desmond starts to refute her point, Starfall sighs, pushing her fato her palm as she puts a forcefield over his mouth. “As much as I hate to admit it, this one is on me.”

  Emme pauses, then takes a step back. “Pardon?”

  “I…” With a deep sigh, the woman reaches up to scratch the back of her neck. “I may have muted all alerts, including incursion warnings, in the feren when I was trying to expin a cssified topic to the Monteros.”

  There’s a silence for a moment, before Lissa loudly puts it into a set of words that makes sense. “What the fuck?! Why the hell would you mute ALL alerts?!”

  “The issue at hand is potentially more dangerous and important than any terrestrial incursion,” Starfall points towards Desmond, who nervously shifts a bit at the gesture. “And that man wouldn’t have listeherwise!”

  Zealot lightly s Starfall over the back of her head, before softly expining, “I know you didn’t tell me he was there because of our past, but that doesn’t mean you just do something stupid like that. THIS is why I call you twerp, Gabbie.”

  “But…” Starfall rubs the back of her head. “You’re right, I’m sorry. Probably should have had Monye warn me about it, but hindsight is twenty twenty.”

  Emme turns towards the frozen remnants of our one. “I’m not sure sorry makes up for the amount of lives lost st night.”

  Starfall tightly ches the armrests of her chair. “I know. I’ll take responsibility for it all. Send me trol of the submarine when you get a d I’ll make sure it’s taken care of.”

  Emme gives a thumbs up, then turns to Desmond. “, you three idiots. What the fuck roject Davy Jones?”

  Desmond huffs, putting his arms behind his back. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Visibly annoyed by the defle, Emme throws a hand towards the icy pit. “This! This roject Davy Jones! A b owelfth where Montero-Wisteria Labs were dug some kind of sick live Antithesis research! I saw the way they grafted the alien parts onto those people. I will never be able tet that image.”

  “Wha-” Desmond turns towards Tristan, who just shrugs, then bae. The incredulous toakes takes me a bit aback. “You’re not fug with me right?”

  Emme takes a deep breath, then nods. The veins in the man’s neck visibly thi as his arms drop to his side.

  “They were doing that scale of xenobiology research?! IN MY CITY?!” I almost feel his bloodlust as he begins to storm towards the shuttle he arrived in. “I’ll fug KILL THEM!”

  A wall of energy appears in front of him, blog his retreat. Starfall floats over as she states:

  “Not so fast. They’re not done asking questio.”

  The man hits the bottom of his fist against the wall, and as he responds, his voice is shaking with rage. “One. more.”

  Realizing I may not get another ce, I swim forward and put a hand on Emme’s shoulder. She turns to me, and though I get a split sed glimpse of her eyes once again, I move past her til’ I am just behind the man who defined my life until today. I open my mouth to talk, but no words e out at first. Then, I force them to materialize, regardless of my stutter.

  “W-Who is my biological mother?”

  The sigh that the mas is just so exasperated.

  “I suppose it’d be the maid that is always standing by your fool of a father. Marianne, I think her name was?” The man in front of me chuckles ruefully, tapping his foot impatiently against the ground. “Though, I suppose after everything they did to you while you were in the womb, it’d be a bit muddled. I holy couldn’t care less, it only matters you have my blood, and that’s what makes you important.”

  As I momentarily pause to prehend all of that, Emme grabs my hand again, bluntly exg:

  “You’re a fool, Desmond Montero.”

  Suddenly, the air around us goes stale, and the man in front of us goes perfectly still.

  “Do you want to repeat that, maid?”

  “You. Are. A. Fool.”

  Emme pulls me down, pullio a hug as she expins:

  “Despite eople like you say, we as humans have the freedom to choose our own families. Blood doesn't mean jackshit, beyond indig whht you ience.”

  Desmond is ominously silent for a moment, before drawing his sword from his sheath as he quietly asks, “Is that an ideal you’d die for?”

  Emme pushes me behihen steps forward to meet him tit for tat. There is ation in her response.

  “Gdly.”

  Desmond tosses the sheath away, holding his sword out to his side as he begins to approach. “Let’s see if that’s true.”

  It’s nearly silent as they approach each other, no noise beyond the heavy thunk of Desmond's boots against wood and Emme’s calm breaths seeming to e from anywhere nearby. I nervously gowards the other samurai, but not even Lissa seems to move to intervene. Biting my lip, after a moment I resolve myself and start to move forwards.

  Only to see how in one swift movement, Desmond stabs his sword all the way through Emme’s stomach.

  My mind goes utterly bnk as I look upon the se, the old sword the old man has wielded as long as I’ve known him visibly stig partially out of her back. It swiftly retreats from view though, as my frandfather callously pushes my partner off of his bde with his foot. She stumbles back a few feet, clutg her stomach, but doesn’t fall over.

  Her entire body trembling, Emme then flips the man off before she falls backwards, a pool of blood beginning to pool around her body.

  He just deeply exhales, holding the crimson soaked bde up to the sunrise.

  “I suppose you were not bluffing, then. Respectable.”

  I’ll fug kill him.

  The world dims, and my sciousness shatters.

  You’re a fug idiot.

  Achys’ words echo in my mind as I fall onto my ass, the burning pit in my stomach quickly being covered by new viral flesh. I don’t think it’s a perma fix, but it works for now.

  I ’t help but grin as I intone, ‘Maybe, but fuck him. There was no way they actually let him kill me.’

  It’s not him I’m worried about.

  Frowning, I start to say something, only for a white fsh to enter my vision.

  Prism.

  ‘Oh no.’

  The usually timid mermaid once again rushes at her frandfather, but something is very, very different this time. She’s visibly ged. Her scales have grown out to cover nearly the ey of her arms and neck. As she opens her fists, it bees clear that she has grown thick cws with the same material as the scales as well.

  She shes out with a speed inparable to the first time she did this, raking her cws across his face before he eve. He visibly heals as he reaches up to touch his fa shock, only for Prism to stab her fingers forward, stabbing into his throat and ripping out his jugur. Seemingly not going to die from just that, Desmond reaches out and grabs one of Prism’s arms, but she breaks free, shifting back a few feet.

  She’s still as sharp as ever in this freate, but I don’t think she win this.

  Fling as I see Desmond ssh at Prism with his bde, I mutter, ‘Quick, I need something to help me up, I have to stop her.’

  Got it.

  I catch the ior, stab myself, then shakily stand back up. As I do, Lissa gently puts her hand on my back, and I turn to her to find that she’s looking up in fear at the raging mermaid.

  “Emme, what is she?”

  I scowl up at my sister as I respond, “She’s Prism, and always will be.”

  I chuckle under my breath, then put my hand out again.

  “Achys, I need something that will knock her out without killing her.”

  Are you sure? This might be something that you resolve peacefully.

  I nod, wing at the pain in my stomach. “I suppose you could call it a gut feeling.”

  Right, so those are always so accurate.

  I hobble forward as a rge hammer drops into my hand, only to see that the fight has drifted farther away. Steel Hound has fallen over rather pathetically, and every time he tries to get back up, Prism knocks him back down to maul at him some more. Before I get close, though, Haifisch does.

  The huge shark man, who sort of looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger if he was a Nazi shark on steroids, rushes to get Prism off his mentor. He grabs her shoulder, and immediately, Prism’s target ss to him. She slips out of his grasp, going low as she dives underh his legs, where she sshes the back of his ankles. He falters for a moment, then heals a bit as he lifts up his foot and stomps it onto Prism’s tail. I wince, but Prism doesn’t eveo feel it as she begins to rise up behind his babsp;

  As Haifisch tries to turn around to face her, Prism simply shifts to stay mostly in his blind spot, then whes high enough she abruptly s herself around his head. I pale and start running as I realize what’s about to happen, but it’s far too te. There’s a siing crack as the mermaid crushes the man's head into paste with her tail. The now headless body colpses to the ground, and Prism once again starts towards the still rec Steel Hound.

  Fortunately, I mao meet her about halfway there. As I arrive o her, she doesn’t eveo reay preseaking it as a sign of good luck, I bite my lip and swing the hammer down, bonking her on the back of the head. She crumples, but I mao catch her before she hits the ground.

  “Eren…”

  I gnce over to beside me to find the heir to the Montero glomerate standing over the very dead samurai’s body, a crestfallen look upon his face. The three family samurai e running over, as does Lissa, all of their faces twisted in a variety of emotions. Steel Hound groans from off to the side, rising up to his knees as his wounds fwlessly heal.

  Zealot runs a hand through her silver streaked hair, groaning as she mutters, “I didn’t think the girl would just kill him mercilessly like that… Fuck.”

  I sigh, looking down upon Prism’s now serehough blood-soaked face, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. The scales that grew while she was raging begin to fall off one by one, and her hands revert back to normal before my eyes. I g some of the pces that she blocked Steel Hounds bde, only to find the scales slightly chipped in pces.

  “Idiot.” I mutter, then pick her up in my arms, the virus greedily slurping down the blood off of her body before I begin to return to the bridge. Lissa looks up at me in fusion as I begin to move, but still follows me without questiardless.

  “Wait!”

  I pause, then turn to look back over my shoulder at the heir stomping towards me, his face burning crimson with rage. “He was i! All he wao do was stop the fight and she just killed him! She o pay!”

  I scoff, tilting my head. “You sure didn’t say anything wheabbed me.”

  “But you’re just-” Realizing what he’s saying, the heir pales.

  “A maid?” I look dorism and a small smile appears on my face. “We both are, actually.”

  The man looks at me like I’m crazy, then growls in frustration as he starts to turn away.

  Ugh. This will fester into something annoying if I leave it, won’t it?

  I sigh, then shift Prism to one of my arms while raising the other, sending a tendril spiking through his chest. The heir falls unceremoniously on his face, the impact catg the attention of everyone who hadn’t been paying attention to us.

  I resume my exit, but pause to yell, “As captain of the ship, I must inform you all that we’re leaving in five minutes! If you aren’t off the ship by then and aren’t crew, you will be forcibly ejected!”

  Nobody says anything.

  As we step baside the ship, I walk up to the stairs, then pause when my sister approaches me, on her face. “Emme, are you…”

  I put on my best facsimile of a smile, then shake my head. “I o sleep. you go che our parents?”

  “I…” Lissa’s face is pained as she nods. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Rest well.”

  I wait until I see Lissa disappear into the side hallway before I begin my ast, bringing up the floor pn Achys had shared with me earlier. We climb to the very top of the ship, where the captain’s takes up most of the square footage. The room is fairly bare at the moment, with not much more than a rge bed situated on a wall fag a huge forward fag window. The sunrise illuminates everything with a warm glow, and I yawn as I pce Prism onto the bed, then take a seat beside her.

  “Achys, did you pass the submario Starfall?”

  I did, and the samurai have, albeit relutly, taken the bodies ahe ship. They’ve sent requests for unication, but I’ve deed them.

  I flop ba the bed, finally feeling the day's exhaustion begin to take hold. “Great. Let’s get the gravity ehe going.”

  I’m assuming you still want the oalked about earlier?

  “Yeah, that’s fine.” I yawn, then wave my hand in the air. “I’m too tired to think too deeply about it anyway.”

  Uood.

  New Purchase!

  7-C Heavy Anti-gravity Engine: 7000 Points

  Assault Battery: 200 Points

  Quikfix: 20 Points

  Total Cost:

  7220 Points

  Final Total:

  1308 Points

  There is an audible thump and hum as the engine slots into pd turns on, and I sit up for a moment to look out over the ruined city for the st time. The pce I had spent all my life, the people I had grown up around, reduced to scrap metal at the bottom of a frozen o. I grind my teeth, then shout, “Achys, set course for the mainnd!

  Right away, Captain.

  Emotion welling up, I throw up my hand to give the order.

  “Starchaser, set off!”

  There is a rumble and a momentary feeling of weightlessness as the ship breaks free from the ice, slowly rising up into the sky. I flop backwards again, peeking over to look at the peacefully resting mermaid beside me. I huff a little ugh, then pull her into my arms as my exhaustion truly sets in. Achys seems to notice, as the window suddenly is covered up by something and darkness envelops us.

  I have one final thought before sleep takes me.

  I won’t let her bme herself.

  Aliapanacea