"How on Earth-" Jake began.

"How on New Earth." Victor corrected.

"We are not calling it 'New Earth'!" Casey retorted. "We should at least change it to Terra or Gaia or something like that."

"How on whatever the fuck planet we're on did you manage to make this?!?" Jake growled, ignoring the other two.

"Well, you know, the Technocracy had a bunch of technology just lying around after that archmage came by and blew them up, including the thrusters for their vehicles, so…" Greg trailed off, gesturing towards his creation.

"So you decided to make a giant, flying pirate ship?!?" Jake asked incredulously.

"Giant levitating pirate ship." Greg corrected. "It doesn't really go up, it just floats."

"But why is it a pirate ship?!?" Jake asked again.

"Dude, why are you even surprised at this point?" Carlos replied, rolling his eyes.

"Honestly, Greg doing weird shit is just par for the course at this point." Tessa sighed.

"How is this weird?" Greg asked, sounding slightly offended. "Who wouldn't make a floating pirate ship if given the chance?!?"

"I dunno… I think I would have gone for a helicarrier." Victor commented.

"You know, I considered that, but again, it's just levitating, not flying, so… we wouldn't have been able to get it out of the valley. The ship can make it through just fine." Greg explained.

"Ah, good point." Victor nodded. "So, how do we get in then?"

"Well, there's the ladder." Greg gestured to a rope ladder hanging from the side of the ship. Tessa turned to give him a look, slightly raising Ash in a 'how the hell do you expect me to climb that with a baby' motion. "But, for those who aren't interested in the genuine pirate experience…" Greg gestured and the side of the ship fell open, turning into a set of stairs into a comfortable looking living space. "There are the stairs."

"Yar!" Debbie exclaimed, jumping for the ladder. "I'm gonna set up in the crows nest!"

Casey gave the ladder a look, before handing Scott off to Victor and rushing towards the ladder as well. "Wait for me!"

Victor looked down at the baby that had suddenly appeared in his arms. "I wanted to climb the ladder…"

Brittany rolled her eyes and took the baby. "Go."

"Love you." Victor chuckled, leaning in to give her a kiss, before heading towards the ladder himself.

Greg shook his head. "Alright, everyone can go get set up, I'll make sure everything gets inside." He waved for everyone else to get in while his other selves began picking up bags and carrying them inside.

In all, the ship had five levels, though the fifth was just the captain's quarters, so it was more like four and a half. The fourth was split between the mid deck, a storage room in the fore, and the kitchen and dining room in the aft. The third and second level both had four bedrooms, two on either side, with a communal area in the middle, while the first level had more storage and a recreational area. Greg and Tessa were obviously in the captain's quarters, which included a bedroom and a living room.

"Okay, this is nice." Carlos commented appreciatively as they gathered in the common area on the third level. "Though I don't know if it's necessary for my bedroom to be that big, with an attached bathroom. I was honestly kinda hoping for a hammock hanging from the rafters, you know? Get real authentic with it."

"That's still an option, you know." Greg pointed out. "Debbie already got one set up in the crow's nest… you know, when she said she was going to set up up there, I didn't think she meant she'd be living up there. Do you think I should put a roof on it?"

Tessa shook her head. "Let her get rained on a few times. Then put a roof on it."

Greg shrugged. "Well, she does still have a room she can- ah, crap I forgot about Narita." Greg cursed after mentally going over the rooms. Tessa and him were together, as were Victor and Brittany and Casey and Emily, but the rest had separate rooms. "Eh, I'll just turn the fore storage into a room. We'll give Debbie that one, since she needs a bathroom anyway." He shrugged, quickly making the change, which was easy since the fore storage wasn't being used at the moment. That was the nice thing about the ship being made out of his smoke: any change was as simple as waving his hand.

The room was silent for a moment, before Jake spoke up. "So this is it, huh? We're really doing this?"

"Well, we've wasted a lot of time packing if we aren't." Victor chuckled.

"It is a little hard to believe this is actually happening." Brittany commented. "It seems like such a big step, yet we're just… doing it. It feels almost surreal."

"I think it's because it feels like it should be a big step, but… it really isn't. With our capabilities, deciding to leave and start a life traveling the world in a damn flying pirate ship, is just as easy as that. With little to no preparation, we can just pick up and go… and that feels weird." Tessa explained.

"It's also an unknown." Emily added softly. "We don't know what we're going to encounter out there, how dangerous it will be, if we'll all make it… anything could happen, and it's a little scary to think about."

They all fell silent once again, until Jake broke the silence once more. "So again, we're actually doing this, right? Cause this is it. We either stop, or we go. Right now, we could all just pack up and head back into the city-"

"Uh… was I supposed to wait for something?" Greg asked. "Cause I got the ship moving the moment everyone was set up."

Jake just blinked at him while Victor let out a low whistle. "Damn, this is a smooth ride, isn't it? I didn't feel anything!"

"The benefit of levitation." Greg grinned proudly, before turning back to Jake. "But I could turn back around, I suppose, if anyone wanted to leave. It's just like fifteen minutes back."

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"No, it's fine." Jake shook his head. "We're all on board. We've all been on board. It was just… I don't know, I wanted to tell myself that it was an option, when… it really wasn't. This- this is our life now. Let's make the most of it."

*

"Oh, what do you do with a drunken sailor~ what do you do with a drunken sailor~ what do you do with a drunken sailor, er lie in the mornin'~!" Debbie continued to sing happily from the crows nest, quite early in the morning.

"Do you think she knows you made all the rooms basically sound proof?" Tessa asked, stepping up next to the Greg at the wheel, sipping at her cup of coffee.

Greg chuckled. "Seeing as she's been going on like that ever since the sun rose… I'm going to say no. I'm honestly just impressed she's been able to maintain it for this long without repeating herself."

Tessa smirked. "Say what you will about her, Debbie is certainly creative." She paused for another sip. "So, how much further to that yellow zone?"

"We should get there around lunch, I think?" Greg shrugged. "We've been making good time, but this thing isn't exactly fast. It's just too big."

"It's okay, we aren't in a hurry." She assured him. "Plus, this will give us some time to plan. We need to figure out how we're going to hunt."

It took a few more hours for everyone to be up and ready, gathering in the dining hall for breakfast and to discuss their plans. "So first, let's take inventory of our capabilities." Tessa began. "Both Debbie and I are at tier three, while Jake, Carlos, Casey, Emily, Victor, and Brittany are at tier two. Then we have Meredith, Sarah, and Rachel at tier one. However, Jake's telekinesis can influence tier three effects, while Emily and Casey can both hit tier four in attack, and Carlos can hit tier four in defense. Victor's stealth capabilities are unmatched, and Brittany's illusions need at least a tier five detection method to see through. Meanwhile, Meredith's healing abilities are as potent as ever. So, as a basic outline, I think we should split into two groups. Group one will include Carlos, Casey, and Emily as the combat group, with Victor as a scout. Group two will be me, Debbie, and Jake, with Brittany as a scout. Meanwhile, Meredith, Rachel, and Sarah will stay with the ship to watch the children. Any questions?"

"Where does that leave me and Narita?" Greg asked, scratching his head.

Tessa sighed. "Honestly, I'm not sure what Narita's capabilities even are." She turned to her. "If you think you can help in combat, you're free to join group two, which could use the help. Otherwise, you're free to stay back and help look after the ship. I trust you know your own capabilities well enough to make the right call."

Narita smiled back at her, giving her a short nod. "I still have some growing to do, so I will remain with the ship for now."

Tessa nodded back. "Okay." She then turned to Greg. "As for you… Greg, what would be the point of assigning you to a group? You can be anywhere and everywhere you want to be. You can be in all three groups, and go off on your own. Your presence is just assumed at this point."

Greg paused for a moment. "Ah… that makes sense."

"Though, in relation to that, try to act more as support when you join the hunting groups." Tessa added. "You may be our strongest member, but we all need to grow and combat experience is a part of that. Let us do our thing, and only step in if it's necessary."

Greg nodded. "Gotcha. I'll make sure to restrain myself."

"Good. Now, are there any other questions?" Tessa asked, looking around, and everyone shook their heads. Maybe they'd have more comments after they'd spent some time hunting, but for now, the groups seemed fine.

"Wait." Victor raised a hand as he realized something. "You're obviously going to be in charge of group two, but who's leading group one?"

Tessa paused, looking between the four people in group one, narrowing her eyes. Victor was obviously not an option, and Casey and Carlos were a bit… unreliable, which left… "Emily. She'll be in charge."

"Me?!?" Emily protested. "But- I'm- I'm not-"

"Oh, hush, you'll do fine." Casey assured her.

"Plus, would you really want to put one of us in charge?" Carlos asked, gesturing to the three of them. "Casey gets too into the fight, I depend too much on my barriers, and Victor… Well, he's Victor. You're obviously the best choice."

"What about Greg?" Emily proposed a little desperately. "He'll be there too, right? Why not put him in charge!"

"Because this isn't a Greg thing, it's an us thing." Casey replied. "The whole point of this is to grow without him. We can't do that if we're depending on him."

"Don't worry, being in charge isn't as hard as it sounds." Tessa assured her. "Your focus is making general decisions, not micromanaging everything. Trust your group to know what they're doing while you focus on the big picture. Most of your decisions will just be where to go, and whether to attack or retreat."

Emily let out a final groan, before giving in. "I- I'll give it a shot. But I want Greg to step in if I mess it up!"

"Can do." Greg assured her, giving her a thumbs up and a smile.

With that, the two hunting groups split up to discuss strategy. However, while they were doing that, Greg stepped away to test something. With all the tier discussion, Greg realized he didn't actually know how powerful his attack actually was, and he wanted to fix that. Of course, the lightning ball was a bit hard to test, since it was more of a sustained erosion than a singular blast, but he could at least test the energy blast from the suit. So he found an empty field and made a hundred inch cube of solid steel, before stepping back and releasing the strongest blast he could. He then made a tape measure and… "Forty-four inches…" He muttered with a frown. "That's… tier six? About a third of the way to tier seven?" He looked at the way the energy was still eating into the steel. "Maybe a bit less on something with mana… but at least tier five, that I'm sure of. Which means I definitely have the strongest attack in the group. For now."

Greg frowned. That was the problem, wasn't it? As far as energy blasts went, this was his limit. He literally couldn't make anything stronger, or he'd overload the device. Unless he managed to scavenge something stronger from the Technocracy, which was highly unlikely at this point seeing as they were gone, or he managed to improve the device himself, which was probably even less likely, this was his limit. He didn't see much growth potential when it came to his lightning ball either. He could mess with the polarities a bit more, giving him a little bit of a boost, but nothing major. Nothing that would let him jump to a new tier at least, that was for sure. Of course, he always had the option of exploding himself, condensing all his available smoke into a ball of energy, then letting it boom, but he didn't have any control over it, so there was no way he could use it anywhere there might be collateral damage. He didn't think the bad guys would be nice enough to follow him out to an empty field, either. Which meant… Greg sighed. He really needed to work on his magic. And not the sound manipulation kind. Which he never even got to use! He'd had a soundtrack planned and everything…

Then the question became, what kind of spells did he want to work on? Fire seemed like the obvious choice. He wasn't looking for defense, he just wanted power, and fire was the classic element of power. However, none of his bodies had elemental mana, so getting to fire would be difficult… he'd probably want to focus on pure force, at least to start. Not that pure force couldn't be powerful, but it was a bitch to shape. Jake's telekinesis was essentially force magic, and while he was strong enough to influence tier three effects, he couldn't shape it well enough to damage or defend against anything over tier two. So maybe he shouldn't go for force… should he take a page out of Tessa's book and go for light? Though she might have had an advantage there because of Patrick…

Greg frowned. Maybe he was looking at this wrong… if he wanted to focus on pure attack spells, he was going to have to put in work, because his innate mana just wasn't built for it. So then the question was, what was his innate mana built for? He had three, one for enhancing his mental capabilities, one for projecting emotions, and one for binding people to their word. That last one made him a bit uncomfortable, because it reminded him of the sharkman's ability to bind people using that collar tattoo thing, but he supposed it'd be useful if he ever had to make any deals. Anyway, the common theme was that all his abilities were mental, subdivided into enhancing, projecting, and binding. So he wanted to find spells that incorporated at least one of those categories… Well, no, he probably wanted to find a mental attack spell for all three, and then have the one work on enhancing, the other work on projecting, and the final work on binding. Which would have to wait, since he had no way to access the network at the moment, and none of his friends used those kinds of spells… maybe he'd just spend his time working on the network spell for now. That was mental, right? Shouldn't be too hard.