He could feel… something sharp cutting through all the fuzziness. He blinked a few times gaping over at the deep blue ship slowly pulling closer to them from a distance, his task moving metal crates momentarily forgotten.

“... you hear me? Oi! Eric!” shouted Derrick from next to him. He waved his half healed, half mangled left hand in his face.

“Hmm?” Eric responded serenely.

“Yo watch the crane!” Derrick shouted. “Qué te pasa, wey? HEY”

Eric finally looked back to what he was doing, but it was too late; the crane had swung too far to the other side. “Oh crap!”

He tried to salvage the situation but only succeeded in dropping the crate into the ocean.

“Idiota!” Derrick slapped him on the back of the head. “Dios mío! That’s dangerous!” He went over to try to look at where the crate went. “Thank god that was an empty crate! Pay attention, estupida!”

“S-sorry," Eric glanced back at the Blue Beast, some activity seemed to be happening on the ship but it was too far away to see clearly. He focused his meandering thoughts back on the controls for the crane in an attempt to gently pull the dangling arm back into a safer position.

He was interrupted by the sound of yelling coming from behind them.

“What’s happening?” Derrick asked, peering behind them then back at Eric. “Eric… stop…” He reached over to turn off the controls for the crane, giving him a look. “Just in case.”

Rapid footsteps could be heard coming up the metal staircase to the control room they were in. A tan skinned lean figure burst into the doorway, her sharp brown eyes shooting daggers, dark hair streaked with gray unraveling from the hair-tie attempting to hold it all together.

“Derrick! What, I thought I told you to watch him!” the woman shouted. Her name was Isabella, another crew member and Derrick’s senior.

“Relájateee, mujer!” Derrick raised his hands in a defensive gesture. “No one was hurt and it was an empty crate.”

“Don’t tell me to relax, you guys just crushed a boat!” Isabella glared, shoving a finger in his face.

“Wait what boat?” Derrick said abruptly. He pushed past her. Eric followed.

By the time they had gotten down from the crane to the deck there was already a small gathering of people looking down the side.

“Woah-hoho~! You do this, Eric?” one of the onlookers, a friendly looking middle aged man asked.

“Thaat... looks like a lot of damage…” another onlooker pulled air in through her teeth, her head cocked to the side.

“Everyone stand aside," Isabella hollered. “We sent anyone down yet?”

“Aye, ma’am," one of the onlookers with a crew uniform named Mateo snapped to attention. “Rosario and a few other guys are heading out right now.”

They looked down the edge at the remains of what looked like a crushed inflatable motorboat with a large shipping crate flattening the center. They could see a few limbs sticking out from beneath it. Eric’s stomach turned and he felt cold sweat down his back.

“Dunno how much good that's gonna do," the previous onlooker woman said. “That boat looks pretty crushed to me.”

“Well the crew’s still gotta go check it out, Cindy," her husband next to her said.

"Mierda!" Derrick swore, then he asked, "Anyone know who's boat this is?"

“Well it ain’t ours,” said Isabella. “Hopefully it isn’t from the Ocearana, that would spell big trouble for us.”

“It’s funny though,” Mateo said. “I didn’t hear it at all, wonder what they were doing sneaking around over here.”

“Huh now that you mention it, I was packing some stuff over here too," the kindly middle aged man from before said. “Didn’t hear a thing.”

“Well, we’ll get our answers soon enough," replied Isabella. There was a faint rumble of a motor engine as Rosario’s small rescue boat pulled into view.

***

“What’s happening?” Becca looked up from her task clearing out a section of wall from the tanker ship they were on. She lifted the welder’s mask from her face.

Lizzie was piloting a rickety old construction frame mech. Despite its age and wear, Lizzie was able to adeptly maneuver its bulky form around using its continuous track treads and maneuver its two robotic arms to pick up construction materials without damaging them.

“Hmm…” Lizzie turned up the radio speaker duct taped to the vehicle frame above her head.

“All units be on the lookout for small seaborne vessels approaching your positions. We have reason to suspect we are under attack by intruders launched from the ship known as ‘The Blue Beast’.”

“You guys hearin’ this?” a brown skinned limber looking young man jumped down next to them from a hole in the deck above. He spoke rapidly, “Pirates? You think we’re under attack? Think we should tell James?”

“Oh hey there, Pranav," Lizzie gave him a little wave with a robotic arm. “Hmm… I think James already knows though?”

“Don’t just jump down like that, that’s dangerous as hell," Becca said, giving him a frown. “I would be surprised if James didn’t know. You know how uptight he is about the rules, he probably has his radio glued to his ass.”

She put down the welding torch she was holding and pulled the welder’s mask from her face. “We should probably still gather on deck though. We don’t want to get caught on our own.”

“Oh yeah, good idea!” Pranav scrambled up the side of Lizzie’s construction suit before any of them could react. “Meet you guys on deck! Don’t get kidnapped or anything!” He then disappeared back into the hole in the ceiling.

“I’m taking the stairs," Becca announced as Lizzie unbelted herself from the machine.

“You think we should crane this thing out of here or…” Lizzie said, patting the construction suit.

“Nah, too dangerous right now," Becca replied, “We’ll do it later.”

Once they had unhooked and powered down their tools, they stepped out into the narrow hallway and moved toward one of the two ladders in this section of the ship, their footsteps clanking on the metal flooring. Becca had brought along a wrench and a hammer just in case, while Lizzie was holding a crowbar. As they rounded the corner to the trapdoor, Becca felt it.

A sort of trigger feeling, like a focused point amidst static in the forefront of her brain. She shoved Lizzie backwards and jerked behind the wall as three needles whizzed past her face.

“Hoi lookit this Babunda! We got two girlies to play wi–!” a voice called out.

There the sound of a smack and a barely hushed, “Shut the fuck up ya dumb cunt. Ya wanna bring the whole colony down on us or wot?”

The conversation devolved into a series of angry whispers as Becca slowly backed away signaling Lizzie to go back the way they came. She wasn’t entirely sure how many there were, perhaps two or three?

“We need to call in for backup," Lizzie whispered to her, then after a moment: “Shoot, we left the radio with the mech.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Becca thought for a moment. The way back was rather far. This narrow corridor was not a good place to be caught in as there wasn’t much that could be used for cover if the intruders started shooting at them. There wasn’t much space to dodge either.

She perked up, she could hear the pirates approaching. Footsteps moving quick, at this moment she knew there were three of them, but wasn’t quite sure how she knew. Normally she could feel objects moving at high speed like projectiles, but a person walking cautiously would not move fast enough to trigger her gift. She quickly scanned the hallway and spotted a door cracked open near them.

“Let’s go back!” Lizzie said as she stood up, but Becca caught her arm and pulled her into the room she spotted easing the door shut behind them, hoping they hadn’t been spotted.

“Shhh…” Becca said. The boots had turned the corner. She could sense it, there were two of them coming toward them, the other had gone down another hallway perhaps to look for others. It was now that she realized she could feel their intentions. The intruders were both feeling a bit nervous, sneaking because they didn’t want to expose their presence too brazenly just yet… but one of them had a sort of excitement. Hot and raging. She didn’t want to find out what that was.

Lizzie was listening for their approach and had her crowbar ready to swing in case they came into the room they were in, her figure wanly lit by the crack in the door. Becca looked around, the room was quite dark and cramped. she could make out a large boiler of some sort behind them.

“Where ye think they’ve gone, Tim?” said a voice outside their door.

“Well check that door there first,” said a deep rumbling voice. “I’ll check that other one down there. Make sure we don’t get flanked," Heavy stomping footsteps moved slowly away from them.

Lizzie stiffened up and shrank farther from the door as the other figure approached. Becca grabbed a wrench from her tool belt and spun it in anticipation.

The door slammed open, shining light on Becca. She was confronted by a red faced blonde haired man with wild eyes.

The man licked his lips and grinned, “Hoo little girlie, so this is where you we–aUUGH”

Lizzie swung the crowbar right at his face but because of the angle she had to swing left handed. The blow was softened but he was still hit pretty hard. He swung his right arm up –he was holding a pistol-form needle launcher– letting loose a few scattered shots as it went, which Becca deftly dodged by skipping to the side. She swung the wrench down with pinpoint accuracy aiming for his wrist.

There was a crack as they met in the middle and he howled in pain looking down at his misshapen wrist. The pistol clattered onto the floor. Becca reached for it, but the man suddenly lunged forward, headbutting her in the face.

Becca fell backwards, stars flashing before her eyes. She staggered backwards trying to regain her balance as Lizzie swung the crowbar again. It connected squarely this time with a solid CLUNK! spraying blood and fracturing the man’s face. The man crumpled as Lizzie swung again this time from above hitting him squarely on the head.

There was a moment of silence.

“D-do you think he’s dead?” Lizzie panted as the adrenaline wore off. She dropped the now slightly dented bloody crowbar on the ground, staring wide-eyed at the figure laying in front of them.

“I hope so," Becca said as she quickly leapt forward to snatch the pistol off the ground. “You don’t wanna know what was going through his head.”

She peaked around the doorway pistol at the ready. Then withdrew sharply as a few needles pinged off the doorframe. She poked back again and squeezed the trigger a few times as a large figure disappeared into the room they had left the mech in. To be honest, she wasn’t entirely sure how the pistol worked but it seemed squeezing the trigger did the trick just fine as a few needle shots rang out.

Lizzie poked her head out of the doorway next to her, kneeling on the prone figure on the ground. “How do you know what was going through his head?”

“I’m not totally sure actually…” Becca said, eyeing the hallway carefully. “I think I might’ve picked it up from one of the gifted in my dreams.”

“Wooow that’s cool! So you guys can like download special abilities now?” Lizzie exclaimed as Becca fired a few shots off before ducking back into the room. Needles clattered onto the floor next to them. Lizzie was about to look out again when Becca motioned her back. More needles pinged off the wall. “I wonder what we should name this ability? I guess to go with your current kineti-sense we could call it ‘intent-sense’ or ‘inte-sense’? But then that sounds too much like ‘incense’ hmmm…”

Becca reached around the door without looking and fired off a few more shots. She felt like she had gotten a good grasp of the positioning of the man.

She was correct. She heard a grunt and a swear.

It felt like she had landed maybe 2-3 shots, but she wasn’t sure where she had hit him. Didn’t matter though, just one of them was enough to knock out the average person.

“I think you got him," said Lizzie, peering out once more.

Becca no longer felt any intent from the man, “I think so too, let’s go. And keep an eye out for the other guy.”

They made their way toward the room they had been working on this morning. Becca glanced in quickly, ready to pull back if necessary. Sunlight streamed in from the hole in the ceiling. The rest of the tools were right where they left them along with the mech, and sure enough, there was a large tattooed man with an eyepatch sprawled on the ground.

“Alright, let's radio in what we’ve got," Becca could hear shouts coming from the deck above. There seemed to be an altercation happening. “Lizzie?”

Becca turned around and saw Lizzie standing in the middle of the hallway. She was looking at the prone figure of the man in the boiler room. “W-was he really a bad guy?” Lizzie asked, voice trembling.

Becca walked over and pulled her in for a hug. “Yes… the worst.”

“I-it’s just I could feel him when I swung th-the crowbar," Lizzie said, her whole body was trembling now. “I c-could feel the crunch. I-I…”

Becca could feel the guilt and fear washing over her. She pushed back, trying to soothe her. “Don’t worry Lizzie, he headbutt me remember? You were protecting me.” She could still feel the pain from the impact on her right brow, her eye had begun to swell up.

“Y-yeah… I guess so.”

Becca looked her in the eyes, soft warm brown matching the wild distraught emerald green. She brushed a copper strand of hair from her cheek. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you a therapist later, you can cry all you want then. For now we’ve still got one more guy to worry about ok?”

“Ok… ok!” Lizzie gave her a teary smile. “Do we even have a therapist in the colony?”

“I dunno actually," Becca said as she led her into the sunlit room. “Worst case, I’ll be your therapist.”

“Yeah you’d better," Lizzie said, a hint of her mischievous grin shining through. “Now I got lifelong trauma from saving your butt.”

Becca went over to the radio while Lizzie stood guard near the door with the needle-gun she took off “Tim’s” unconscious form. “Hello this is Becca and Liz, anyone there? Over.”

Now that they were right under the hole, they could make out shouting and sounds of needles whizzing through the air. Then, there was a loud popping noise followed by screaming.

“Is that…?” Lizzie gave her a scared look.

Then, the radio crackled to life, “Is that you Becca? This is James. Over.”

“Yeah it is, James, what’s happening? Over.”

“Thank god you’re safe!” There were sounds of commands being relayed in the background. “It looks like they launched a bunch of small boats to try and sneak in and hijack the two biggest ships they saw: the Whiskernash and the Vestuge. We’re holding the helm pretty well… Wait… hold on!”

“Get down they’ve go firearms!” There was that rapid popping noise again followed by glass shattering over the radio.

James came back onto the radio. “We should be able to hold out till reinforcements arrive." There were sounds of a construction mech whirring followed by metal clashing. “It’s a good thing we weren’t caught off guard or we would’ve been toast. We are running a bit low on ammo though we only have a few needle launchers.” He was interrupted by more noise in the background.

Becca used this pause to yell into the radio, “Alright me and Lizzie are pretty close. We should be able to make it back. Over.”

“No! Hold your position, it’s too dangerous over here! I repeat, hold your position. Over.”

“It’s not much safer here, we just took out two intruders and there might be more coming down here to loot," She beckoned Lizzie over to the construction mech and pointed upward. Lizzie began climbing the mech. “Over.”

There was a pause on the other end of the radio. “Ok, but please stay safe, they’ve got actual firearms. At this point, though, I think they’re just looking to grab what they can and leave. Don’t get grabbed! Over.”

“We’ll try our best I guess. Over and out," Becca cut the radio loose from the mech frame, keeping her eye on the doorway. She was beginning to get a minor headache. “Anything happening up there?”

“I don’t think so," Lizzie said. “At least I don’t see anything right now… just some bodies I guess?”

“Well keep low, the piping should give us some cover," Becca began climbing after her. “Scoot, we gotta move before the other guy finds us here.”

She jumped up and grabbed the jagged edge of the hole trying not to cut herself. How did Pranav do it so easily? Lizzie was crouched near her checking for enemies. Becca could see figures moving near the helm of the ship. There were a LOT of bodies on the ground.

Hopefully they were just unconscious.

Just then she felt the tingling again. Behind her!

She was in no position to dodge, though. She felt burning pain as the needles hit her ankle. “Shit!” Becca grunted.

Lizzie looked back dropping to the ground as needles flew past her. She let loose a few shots at the muscular blonde haired man in a tank top down below, but the shots went wild, missing completely. However, this caused the man to retreat to cover behind the doorway.

Becca was quickly losing consciousness, she started slipping, falling back down. The last thing she saw was Lizzie yelling her name as she grabbed her by the arms to hoist her up.