A Fantasy Story Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Leviathan Storm and Sacrifice

            I swam out under the airship and with my own two hands I grabbed an available ledge. Flexing as hard as I could I pushed up on it, lifting it just enough to push it out the doors without the rudders scrapping against the floor. My legs kicked back torrents of water as the airship slowly drifted forward safely out the doors. What I didn’t anticipate was that the ship would sink down into the drop off just outside the hanger doors. But with my luck it was to my advantage, for it gave me just enough time to get beneath the airship and catch it before it slammed into the ocean floor. Dust kicked up all around me when my feet collided with the ground allowing me to stop the ship just in time.

“Hey Van! Be more careful, I don’t want the bottom of the ship all dinged up” I heard Kat say on the head set she gave to me.

“Hi Kat, I’m just fine, thanks for asking”

“I’m just saying that if I bring back an airship that’s all beaten to hell, not only I will suffer, but you’ll probably get it the worst”

            I cringed to think what unknown torcher methods the people of Dynasty have adopted over their past history.

“But if I get this thing where it needs to go then I won’t die, right?”

“Technically speaking, yeah”

            Pushing off the sea bed, we shot up surprisingly fast; although because of the sheer size of the airship we only got half way before we slowed down to a halt. From the height we reached I finally got a good look at the lab we escaped. It was built into the side of a cliff that was covered in every color of coral you could have imagined and the fish looked like they were ten times the size found on earth. There was even a school of unusual fish that appeared to be tiny orcas, perfectly scaled down to the size of a house cat. I watched them swim down to the lit up run way and saw several bigger fish circling the spot lights that had big umbrella eel heads attached to the body of a shark.

“This world has far too many sharks. They really need to reduce the amount of sharks here cause this is ridiculous” I said informing Kat about the abnormal amount of visible sharks.

“Well if you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to see the “Night Sky Shark”; largest shark in the world”

“Tell me something Kat. Does this shark have a black body with lights on its belly and freaking humongous?” I asked as this humongous creature loomed right beside us.

“Yeah that sounds like it. How do you know what it looks… Whoa!” I heard Kat say; I assumed that by then she had looked out the observation window and saw what I was looking at.

“It’s amazing! I have never actually seen one for real. And it’s close enough to see its night sky”

“It’s night sky?”

“Yeah; it’s the lights on its belly. Stories say that these sharks would break the water and jump over sail boats and when they did it looked like a night sky was falling as they landed on top of them”

            The shark was beside us at the time but when Kat described about its night sky she gave me a brilliant idea.

“Well let’s go see it” I said as I lowered the airship to see the underside better.

“Can you see it now?” I asked as we pasted underneath.

            Now I didn’t hear her say anything, but I could tell that the view was breath taking. A few moments later we rose up past the other side of it, right up to its eye. I looked over into the shark’s eye; I got a strange feeling, as if the shark was trying to tell me something.

“Hello there friend; It’s a pleasure to meet you!” I yelled out as if it would actually understand me.

“Who are you talking to out there?”

“The shark of course, I was just saying hello. My friend here says hello too!”

“OK crazy, let me know if it has anything important to say” Kat teased.

            Eventually we reach the surface but in spite of crossing the finish line, I had to stay below and hold the airship up so it didn’t sink back down to the bottom again.

“Hey Kat! How long is it going to take for the ship to get here?” I asked trying not to show that I was getting tired.

“Just a few more minutes, the ship is already here”

“Well that’s good”

“Um, well there is a small problem however” I could hear Kat say outside with the others on the ship nearby.

“Go on, what is it?”

“The airship might be a little bit too big for our ship to haul, but were gonna try strapping it anyways. If it’s light enough then it’s no problem. Sit tight!”

            They were quick, for moments later I saw Bunny dive into the water with a ribbon trailing behind her. She went under the front of the ship and just after that I heard another splash behind me. It was Molly this time with the same ribbon.

“That must be the strapping Kat was talking about. I hope that this works, the ship is starting to get heavy. Apparently fatigue still happens even though I got this power chain on” I thought to myself.

            Two more people splashed into the water, this time it was Vivian and Kat who took a brief moment to stop and look at me. Kat took off my head set for me and they took off there’s as well.

“You see? He pushed the whole thing up by himself” I heard Kat say.

            Vivian gave Kat a look as if to say “yeah right”, then she turned her attention to me; she looked around for hidden wires or something else that was helping me hold the airship up. So I stopped swimming up and let it sink a little bit, just enough to make her flinch.

“Hmm. I guess your right Kat” Vivian said as she gave Kat a handful of silver coins.

“You made bets on me?”

“What can I say? You seemed weaker than I thought, but I guess you proved me wrong” Vivian said rubbing my arms making me tremble slightly.

I wondered why she looked into my eyes like that as she swam around to get the strapping hooked up. Kat, on the other hand, stayed behind and unexpectedly hugged me. It was awkward; but I wasn’t against it.

“What’s up?” I asked wondering what was wrong.

“I just wanted to say thank you. You’ve done so much for us from giving us the map to the lab, to pushing this ship all the way up here. Not to mention the many times you killed monsters for us before anyone was seriously hurt. It’s just so nice to have someone finally give us a chance, so thank you, so much”

            A symphony of heavenly music began to play as Kat’s words tugged on Vans heart strings making him blush a vibrant shade of red. Luckily for him Kat was behind him so she couldn’t tell how much his face illuminated; imagine a solar flare then times it by ten. I kid you not; solar flare.

“Shut up Mr. voice-in-my-head!”

“What was that?”

“I-I said, shu-sure thing! I’m just glad I could help you guys out. But you know, you helped me out just as much as I helped you. You’ve shown me how to be brave and made me realize that I can be a hero instead of a coward. And you gave me some awesome goggles too! So I guess I should thank you too; but I got my hands full right now so I can’t give ya a hug or anything” I said ending with a short laugh.

“Oh right let me fix that for you”

            A few minutes after Kat left, the airship began to fell lighter and lighter as a hum of a machine sounded from above. The next thing I knew I was being dragged out of the water along with the airship; water poured off it as the crane lifted us up and onto the ship. Gradually I was lowered with care onto the deck of the ship, which had transformed into a flatter surface so nothing would collide with the precious cargo. I truly believed I was closer to the deck then I thought when I let go of the ledge I hung off of.

“Ouf! That didn’t hurt at all” I said as air escaped my lungs.

“Get up power man, a fall like that can’t hurt you” Bunny said as she stood over me, looking down on me. The bunny ears that were attached to her hood dangled close to my face, surprising me a bit with her adorable cosplay.

“I’m ok, I’m up” I said as I carefully gathered my feet underneath me and arose to an upright position.

“So the airship can fit on this boat”.

“Yeah, it does. Though I’m not too sure how, cause anything this size made out of regular metal would be too heavy. Molly and Joy are inspecting it now to see if they can figure out what it’s made of exactly. Oh right! I’m supposed to help make supper tonight! I gotta go” Bunny said before kart wheeling over to a trap door and jumping down.

“What an amazingly strange girl”

            Not knowing what else to do, I wondered over to Molly and Joy to see what I was going on.

“Hey Joy, hey Molly. What’s up?”

“I’m telling you this airship doesn’t have any weapons on it!” Joy exclaimed pointing at a picture and completely ignoring me.

“I hate to admit it but I think your right. These photos show missile tube here and here but obviously; they aren’t here”

“Yeah you’re right” I said while looking over their shoulders.

“Oh Van! Sorry; I didn’t notice you there” Molly said jumping a bit as if I scared her.

“Sorry, I was just wondering what you’re up to”

            Joy quickly whispered into Molly’s ear saying something about the airship.

“Well; why don’t you tell him? You have a mouth and understand English”

            Joy looked at Molly as if there she was asking her to do something ridiculous. Although after a short staring contest, Joy yielded and began to talk to me in a reserved shy manner.

“The illustration that we found, describing the airship, shows that it is fully armed. However, as you can see, there are several things missing on this airship when compared to the one in this picture” Joy held up the picture they were looking at and it looked exactly like the one they had minus a few tubes that are meant to hold missiles.

“So if there aren’t any weapons on this airship; does that mean one could equip their own weapons onto it? Like customize it. Pimp it out” I asked thinking about the custom flame job that could be painted onto it and under lights.

            Joy had to take a moment to look off into space to think about what I said. Then she turned back to the airship and started to size it up, holding her hands out to take quick measurements.

“Huh; I hadn’t thought of doing that” Joy said as she jotted down something in her pocket sized notebook.

“Nice going there Van; she was really starting to get upset about the fact that no weapons equipped on it” Molly said as she messed up my hair.

“Huh? What did I do?”

“Just look at her; she only gets like this when she really likes the project she gets. I bet you just made her whole week by saying she could add her own weapons and gadgets to the airship. But now we’ll probably need a crow bar to get her to let go of the darn thing”

“Yeah, but isn’t it kind of alright as long as she’s happy?”

“Oh! Careful ladies and gentleman, this one has a brain” Molly said stepping back with her hands up”

“Oh Whatever” I said playfully swiping at her. We both got a pretty good laugh out of it.

“You know if you keep this up, Joy might even be able to trust you. Hell she still talks about the green winged angle that saved her form the spider. Where are you hiding those wings anyway?” Molly asked patting my back.

“I don’t have any sort of wings on me; and stop trying to take my jacket off, it’s cold out here”

“Fine. If you’re really that cold you should go down below and warm up. Do you no good to get sick cause your stubborn”

“Are you sure? Isn’t there something I should be doing or something? Like out here or something?” I asked confused about what exactly what my purpose is on the boat.

“Yeah it’s alright. Try to stay out of the kitchen though, cause Abigail doesn’t like strangers in her kitchen when she’s cooking”

“Thanks for the advice; and if there’s anything ya need me to do, just let me know ok?”

“Alright then, you’ll be the first person I’ll come get”

“Take care now Joy!” I yelled up to her as she hung upside down inspecting areas that one could attach a plasma cannon to.

            She waved but didn’t say much of anything as she was too indulged in what she was doing. Disregarded, I went down below to warm up and see who else I could talk to. There were many hallways inside the ship and it made me feel like I was in the navy as I lunged though the small doors and listened to my footsteps clunk on the metal floors. Minutes passed by as I explored the labyrinth inside this boat, looking in random rooms, such as the sleeping quarters, the navigations center, the broom closet, and the engine room who I meet a very nice man that was wondering what the hell I was doing in the engine room and then proceeded to kick me out. Eventually I found the mess hall that was reasonable decorated and homely; it is here where I found Vivian.

“Oh hello there” I said feeling slightly awkward as I struggle for conversational topics.

“Yo. What’s going on?”

“Oh ya know, just checking out this ship. It’s pretty big”

“Yeah, yeah it is”

            This is embarrassing Van, you really need to get on with the story here or else I’ll fall asleep. Why not try asking her where they are going? And while you’re at it ask about they’re history, what did Kat mean when she said “It’s nice that someone finally gives us a chance”? There you go, now you have several topics to talk about, so get on with it; goodness sakes.

            I decided to take the advice that the voice-in-my-head said and ask Vivian where they are going with the airship now that they have it.

“So Vivian, where are you going to go no that you got this airship?”

“Hmm, we have a base about a day’s travel away. We’re going to take the cargo there and let our guys look over it. For blueprints and whatever Joy can do with it”

“What kind of base is it? Is it like a military base or a secret base?” I continued wondering what kind of organization they are a part of.

“Wow really? You really can’t figure out who we are? Even from the way we look?” Vivian asked astonished.

            All I did was looked back at her confused, head tilted like a dog.

“Where do you come from that you’ve never seen a colonial?”

“What’s a Colonial?” I asked trying to divert her attention from my origin. Who knows what they would do if they found out that I’m from another dimension.

“My goodness, you haven’t even heard of us?! Did you hit you head and forget everything or something?”

“Um… I think I did actually, sorry” I said chortling to lighten the mood.

“So who are the colonials? Are you apart of them?”

            She took a moment to contemplate whether or not to tell me their origin; in the end she began to tell me.

 “Ok, since you know nothing, I’ll tell you”

            I took a seat and readied my mind for the information I was about to receive; though I could have gone without her snooty attitude.

“There has been a war going on for about ten years now and it is between the five kings. One day they decided that they had the right to rule over all of Dynasty instead of them just keeping their truths to their own lands. And it was nine years ago that our people were framed for killing the king for the land of stone. This assassination of him made the war burst out into a battle royal and we were the team with no friends. Every country made us their enemy because everyone was convinced that we were all murderous thieves. Out of desperation our people scattered across the land and, like us, made colonies where we gather and stand strong against people trying to wipe us out. These bases, like the one we’re going to, are our homes now and we do what we can to try and survive”

“Wow, that’s just horrible, I can hardly imagine what it would have been like to have everyone hunt you and hate you for what someone else did. That’s just unfair!”

“Yeah it is. But you know; there are those, like Kat, who want more than to survive and will try their hardest to rebuild our reputation for the better. That why she was so obsessed with finding this airship; she wanted to use the technology from it to start a new business where we transport goods from one place to another without the use of boats or carts”

“Oh, like a mail order system and then because of the airship it will take less time to get there! Nice thinking, but why wouldn’t she want to use it and take some sort of revenge?”

“Because Kat’s not like that!” Bunny said as she sat unusually close to me.

“Bah! Why are you so sneaky?!”

“It’s because I’m a spy, Shhh” she said holding her pointer finger over her mouth.

“But yeah, Kat has never been the type to take revenge on anyone really. Even when we were young and became orphans, she was always looking at the positives and trying to make others see that we aren’t bad”

“Orphans? So your parents are… I … I’m so sorry” I said as the reality for these girls weigh heavy on my heart.

“It was such a long time ago that it shouldn’t matter anymore. I can’t forgive those who left us without parents at such a young age; but Kat doesn’t see it like that. She sees opportunities where there is despair and somehow convinces people, like me, to help her out” Vivian said looking out the small window into the watery abyss.

“But that’s because when she talks about her dream of a day where everyone can live together again that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside” Bunny continued.

            There tale of how they have lost mostly everything and then banding together to fight for a better tomorrow lifted Vans heart too as he listened to their story. It was then and there that he decided to dedicate his time to help these people out instead of standing by idly without doing anything to assist those who may need it.

“Well then, I think I shall stick around here then. I mean, I can’t just leave ya for no reason at all. Besides I kinda like it here”

“Well there’s just one thing you’ll need then” I heard Kat say behind me.

            I turned around and saw her walking over to me from the doorway with something behind her back. When she got closer she reviled that the mysterious item was a pair of hand crafted goggle with green leather bands and silver metal rings with rivets that held a glass lens.

“Are… Those for me?” I asked bewildered at the possible gift.

“Indeed they are. I just had to make them after our adventure in the laboratory”

“You made these by hand?! That’s amazing!” I said as she put the goggles in my hands.

“It’s nothing to be amazed at. They’re just goggles” Kat said trying to keep her cool.

            I put the goggles on and adjusted the straps so they fit just right. They fit perfectly with no abnormal pieces rubbing on my face that would cause discomfort; which was rather convenient.

“Come on now! Bring it in, you too Bunny and Vivian. It’s time for a group hug” I said wearing my new goggles and arms wide open.

            Bunny was the first to jump up and give me a hug; Kat joined soon after. Vivian didn’t want any part of it, but she had no choice when I reached over and grabbed her hand and dragged her over. With that, our day was complete with nothing else going horribly wrong. Suddenly the ship started to shake about violently; knocking furniture about the room as if something big had ran into the ship.

“Yup, nothing bad happening at all” I thought to myself as we tumbled about the room.

            I managed to hold onto one of the girls, keeping her safe from hitting anything that would cause injury; the other two managed to escape my flimsy legs and grabbed onto a sturdy piller.

“You ok Bunny?” I asked once we stopped rolling around.

“MmmHmm” She hummed as she snuggled in closer.

“OK, I think that’s enough of that” I picked ourselves up and set her away from me.

“What was that?!” Kat said looking out the window.

“I Don’t know” Vivian said pushing a chair back to the table.

“Oh no! Joy and Molly!” I said before running out of the room.

            Quickly I turned back into the room and got them to lead the way so I didn’t get lost again. We all ran out and turned right down the hall before taking a left up some stairs. At the top there was a small landing with three paths that led up stairs; we took the right set. Another left and straight ahead was an open hole where a trap door was, allowing us to jump out onto the deck.

“Molly! Joy!” we called out as we scoured the deck of the ship.

            The sky was cloudy and dark gray, almost black with a strong wind that wisped around in all sorts of directions. Before we could find them something rammed the ship again, knocking the boat straight sideways for a few yards. I had made my way over to the edge of the boat and looked down into the dark whirling water to see a huge shadow pass underneath us.

“Over here!” I heard Molly yell from a bottom door to the airship.

            Kat and Vivian ran over to them to question about what they know about what’s going on. Just then a gigantic thing burst out of the water and spray water down as if it was raining.

“What is that!?!” I asked yelling so someone, anyone would be able to hear me.

            Nobody could hear me unfortunately as I gazed upon the unveiling of the monolithic figure in awe. It had spiky fins and a dorsal fin that followed all the way down its neck. Covered in dark scales and glowing red eyes that left a stream of light whenever it moved. As the water ran off I finally got to get a good look at it; it was a dragon of the ocean. It let out a roar that shook the ground and made some of the others hold their ears. Unexpectedly the sea dragon used its tail to spin the ship around a couple of times like a merry-go-round that wasn’t merry at all. It was then I saw Bunny slowly start to slide off the deck of the ship and levitate as if to be thrown overboard. Then it happened; Bunny had begun to fly through the air towards the edge of the ship and once again the others were too far away to catch her in time. This is where I prove myself that I will go to any lengths to protect those who are important to me.

            Time slowed down as I sprinted toward Bunny, who was no at the edge of the boat and about to fly off into the water. Even though it would mean that I would be trading places with her, I still jumped off after her and tossed her back onto the boat where Kat and Vivian caught her. Second dragged on as I plummeted head first into the dark water below where the unknown holds my fate in its hands. I didn’t really know what to do or how I was going to do it at first, but then I decided that I had to stop that dragon from attacking their boat at any cost.

            When I opened my eyes I saw that there was a familiar face down here with me. The night sky shark had found me and was looking eye to eye with me. My mind thought about how I had to stop the dragon over and over again as we locked eyes.

“Friend. I think I need your help” I said as if it would actually understand me.

            Just then I got a strange feeling of calm and excitement boiling in my soul. I knew what I was going to do about the dragon and this night sky shark is going to help me.

            The Leviathan that was attacking the boat had stopped spinning the boat now and started to inspect its contents. Kat’s entire team stumbled around on the deck, dizzy and unsettled. The Leviathan gazed upon them as if they were its next meal, drooling with desire. It got close enough that Kat could touch the ginormous fangs the beast had in its mouth. Suddenly the Leviathan’s attention was diverted by a growing amount of bubbles, burbling just on the other side of the boat. Van had convinced the night sky shark to swim all the way to the bottom of the sea and preform a jump over the boat; just like in the story Kat told him. Kat’s team looked over just in time to see the mighty shark break the water and sore over top of them with its dazzling lights underneath it lighting the dark. What they didn’t see was Van riding on top of the shark, guiding it to where they needed to land. The Leviathan was stunned at the amazing sight as the night sky came crashing down on top of it, missing the boat by inches.

            My plan was to ride the night sky shark just until I was close enough to jump back onto the boat. However, due to a zero gravity effect I suffered in mid fall I couldn’t reach anything in time to propel me to my destination and I fell back into the drink. For a few seconds Kat and I maintained eye contact long enough for me to give a thumbs up to let her know that I was going to be alright. I knew I wasn’t going to make it back onto the ship when we fell into the water and the sea dragon Leviathan thing was still kicking. I had to do whatever it took to keep them safe; and if fighting this thing was the only way, then so be it.

            Although it is unfortunate that I couldn’t keep myself conscious long enough to see my task through as I slammed into the very hard rocks and the Leviathans tail followed by more head smashing rocks. I swear, if I get any permanent brain damage from all this, I’ll be very upset.

A Fantasy Story Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Under Water Disco with Monster Battles and Airship Troubles

                We made our way down the stairs to the second level, which was enchanted gear and medical supplies.

“Hey Kat; we should take a quick look in here. There could be some treasures to be had”

“Nah, we should just keep going and not waist time”

“Oh come on it would just take a second” I said grabbing Kat’s hand and jaunting through the door.

“You see? They took everything with them. There’s nothing here” Kat said as we looked over the mess of scattered papers and empty open drawers.

“Oh, your right” and with head hung low, we went back to the stairs.

“If they had enough time to take all the gear here; then why did they leave a battle airship behind” I thought to myself.

                Our progress was soon hindered when we arrived at the third level. Water that came up to my knees has flooded the whole level, which meant that the last two levels are completely submerged.  

“Awe come on! This is going to be harder than it needs to be” I said whining to Kat.

“It might be easier to swim down anyway instead of walking anyway”

She walked over to the top of the stairs and leaned on the railing, looking down into the submerged levels. When suddenly a rumble from below caused a section of the staircase to break off and fall on top of Kat.

“Watch out!” I yelled as I grabbed and yanked her out of the way of the falling debris.

                I held Kat close as the staircase fell and blocked our way down to the lower levels.

“Damn it! Now where do we go?” Kat said frustrated and shaken.

“Here, listen to me. Buildings like this should have more than one stair case. If we go through this room then we should see another set of stairs” I said trying to calm her down and keep hopes up.

“Right! That’s right, let’s do that”

                We entered level three of the laboratory and the label on the door said “Rec Room” however there was far more to this room than meet the eye. At first glance one could see that there wasn’t a whole lot inside the rec room, aside for a couple of tables stood about the plain tile floor.

“Whoa! What is this?” I exclaimed pointing at a huge control panel built into the wall beside the door.

“What is that?”

“I think it turns on the lights, maybe. Here give me a second to try some of these”

                There were so many buttons on the panel that it boggled my mind. However there was one green button aside from the panel that caught my attention right away. With a click the room lit up with simple florescence lights.

“There we go, now we can see what we’re dealing with” I said looking back at the control panel, looking for something more useful than plain florescence light.

                Upon closer inspection I saw that the buttons where actually labeled with tiny symbols like a hamburger, a lightning bolt, a phone, and so on, however the most interesting button was the chrome button with no label at all.

“I must press this button” I thought before pressing the button.

                With a click of the unknown button, gears began to clink and clank about the walls and soon the entire room began to transform. Walls began to rotate and expand, the floor grew and lit up in an assortment of colors, one of the walls opened up and let loose a bunch of multi colored balloons, the ceiling opened a trap door and lowered a sphere with many tiny mirrors covering it, reflecting any lights that were to shine off it.

“What did you do?!” Kat yelled at me.

“Things are getting funky in here”

 “I’m serious here, what’s going on”

                Just then; two giant speakers popped up from the floor and started to play a familiar song.

“What!? How in the hell did these guys get Michael Jackson here?” I said surprised to hear “Billy Jean” blasting from the sound system.

                Just when I thought things couldn’t get any more far out, I accidently pressed another button on the control panel. This time the music changed and a door opened up from one end of the room letting a conga line of robots into the room. They didn’t seem to be attacking or security robots; instead they just cut one hell of a rug as they snaked through the party rec room.

“What is going on?” Kat asked befuddled beyond comprehension.

“Well you could try to figure out why this is happening and why you now have a wicked awesome afro now, or you could just go with it. I mean come on! There’s a conga line right there. What else could you possibly want?”

“Argh, I can’t take any more of this crazy. Let’s get out of here”

“Oh fine”

                We barely escaped that groove with our lives as the robots busted out the limbo poll. Unfortunately the flooded lower levels made it difficult to escape as quickly as we wanted to, but it didn’t stop us from going to level four.

Level four is where they contained the biological creatures that they did studies and experiments on. As we dived down further and further down my funky freshness withered away and fear replaced what space I had vacant for courage. My hands started to shake as we ventured passed the entrance that lead into the horrible creature room and they didn’t stop shaking, not when I saw the massive claw marks engraved on the walls that seemed to shrink smaller and smaller as we swam down the long corridor to the next set of stairs. Paranoia started to grab hold of my conscious making me see and hear things that weren’t actually there. I grabbed Kats arm to tell her about the claw marks but it came off in my hands. Red blood filled the water as her body was devoured by a shark’s head with tentacles swaying about around him. Suddenly I am caught and I am helpless to do anything but stare into the blood soaked fangs as I entered inside the mouth watching the flashlight flicker off and on next to Kat’s torn of foot.

“AHHHHHH!” Van screamed as he imagined the pain of his body being torn apart by this monstrous beast.

                The next thing I know I’m being shaken by Kat trying to get me back to my senses. Slapping my face like it was her day job.

“What is wrong with you!?”

“Wha-wha-Who-whats, you’re alive!?” I asked confused, concerned and mentally unwell.

“Yeah” she said obviously “What happened to you? You just stopped and screamed like a maniac”

“But I saw you being eaten by some sort of monster shark with tentacles” I said grabbing her arm and pointing at where it happened.

“It was so horrifying, so real”

“HEY!” Kat shouted startling me.

“Now look, you can see nothing’s there. If there were something there, then not only would we see it but the radar on my pack would have let me known about it, see” She held up a gadget that had a blue ping ring and two dots on the map.

“There are two dots on it and that’s us. Everything within thirty feet of this thing will be reviled and we’ll be the first to know about it, got it?” Still too scared to talk properly, I shook my head yes.

“GOT IT!?” She asked making me have to answer.

“Yes, got it”

“Good, now we don’t have far to go before we get to the hanger. Can you stay with me until we get there or am I going to have to take you back up?”

                Another decision has found me and I know my answer will definitely affect the outcome of, not only, the mission; but also my adventures I can have with Kat and the rest of her team. The path scared the hell out of me and I know that going back would keep me at least safe than heading down into the unknown. However I’ve always been kept away from getting into trouble all my life, making sure that I didn’t see anything bad and that only made me board and depressed.

“Ah, I’m going to stick with you and continue this mission” I said slapping my face and chest, trying to psyching me up.

“Well now, it’s about time. Let’s get going”

“Alright!” I said thankfully and with a smile on my face.

                We have finally made our way to the rusty door that leads to the hanger. Security looked tight and gave Kat a hard time, who worked on the digital lock with her gizmos and hackery. It was me who had to open the rusty door though in the end.

“Whoa” we both said as we gazed upon the gigantic airship just sitting there, ripe for the picking.

                Kat fiddled with one of the cluster of wires from the lock system and got power to some emergency lights, giving us a better look at what we were working with.

                The airship was spectacular to look at and I can’t really bring myself to describe the awesomeness of what I’m seeing right now.

                So you’ve come to me, the narrator, to give you, the reader, a little bit more insight to what our hero Van is looking at. The airships body shines with a silvery gloss and the shape looked like a futuristic nuclear submarine with the sail located towards the back, allowing there to be a window for the command center. There are four rudders on the back while only two near the front and a few small thrusters underneath that seemed too small to lift the entire ship into the air. Van thought that the front of the ship resembled a blue whale because of the ridges that ran along the belly, which was separated by a black ring that went around the whole ship. Upon closer inspection you could see spaces where lights were, as if it was a spaceship. Ok, that’s enough of me now, let us get back to the story and see what Kat is doing at the back of the hanger where she has found a generator that can power up the entire hanger and the runway outside of the lab.

“Van, can you give me a hand over here?” Kat asked me from the back of the hanger.

“OK, what do ya need?”

“I found this generator power hub for the hanger, but it needs a small jump. If you pull the cord over there then I can use this sparker to get this up and running” She shown me the flashlight that we have been using and it had a pull cord attached to it which reminded me of a weed whacker.

“Wait a second. Isn’t it bad for sparks like that to be underwater? I don’t want to be electrocuted”

“Idiot, look at your hand. Remember? You’re wearing the ring still”

“To breathe underwater” I said sarcastically.

“These also have been enchanted to be electoproof. That means electricity bounces off of you” Kat explained as if talking to a child.

“Oh, well that’s convenient”

                It didn’t take me long to get the mini sparker it’s charge and the generator soon began to hum as life flowed through the lines.

“Purrs like a kitten. Can we get the airship out now?” I asked.

“Sure can, just got to get those two stainless, three hundred foot, five ton doors open”

                I look at her thinking that she can’t be serious. There’s no way I could push those doors open by hand.

“Luckily for you this generator can open them up. No muscles needed”

                A flick of a switch and the engine roared, sending volts of power throughout the hanger to the doors. They swung out rather quickly as the lights outside lit up a runway and the things outside.

                My hands shook violently and fear began to well in my soul as the very monster that I saw before stared me down like an eagle looking at the mouse lunch it’s about to receive. Then Kat grabbed my shoulder making my reflexes move my body in an amazing way. Within one second I had drawn my sword, spun around behind her and held the business end to her throat.

“What are you doing?” she said scared for her life.

“I don’t know, I just moved. I’m sorry” I said removing the sword and lowering to my side.

“You really are scared, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, just a little bit”

“What changed? You killed that spider in the castle with ease, what’s different now?”

                Her words rang through my mind with a calm, allowing me to focus a little more.

“Your still strong, animals are still animals and I still need your help. Are you going to be the coward; or are you going to be the hero?”

                I couldn’t help but to have an earth shattering epiphany that changed everything I thought about myself. Power started to pulsate through my body and I even felt lighter, as if I could levitate.

“Kat. Stay behind me. I won’t let anything harm you. Not while I live”

                What happened to Van was astonishing. He approached the monstrous experiment slowly as his aura emanated a green and gold hue. Kat was helpless to do anything but look upon him as she saw the outline of a winged beast surround Van’s body. However his intimidation didn’t work against the shark-squid as they became mere feet away from each other. Seconds seem to drag out to hours as the underwater standoff sent waves of extreme spiritual energy throughout the area.

Without warning the shark-squid sent Van torpedoing up through the floors of the lab, causing rubble to sink down to the hanger floor.

“Balls” Kat said as she was left to face the monster by herself. The shark-squid spotted Kat and began to stalk his pray slowly. It got closer and closer and just when it got into the ping range of Kat’s radar, music began to get louder and louder.

                Van burst through the floor and slammed into the shark-squid with a boom box and afro wielding robots. Kat was flabbergasted as Van kicked the monster aside and walked over to her to give her the boom box.

“Hold this for a sec will ya” he said nonchalantly.

                With hands free and newly found enlightenment, Van was now ready to make shark-squid sushi and just in time for it was inches away from chowing down on his body. One handed, Van stopped the barrelling shark-squid in its tracks; making the monster tapped within his death zone. However before Van could, it disappeared as it swam above to avoid its impending doom. Unfortunately for the shark-squid Van was too fast to evade and the hunter became the hunted.  Slowly he got closer and closer to the shark-squid as they danced about the hanger with great speed and grace. Just then the monster turned its attention to the boogie bots and began to eat them one by one; they were helpless to stay alive. The reason the monster started to eat them was because it fuses with anything it ate and therefor began to form a metallic shell around its skin making it more difficult to pierce its skin; for a normal human that is. It wasn’t until the monster turned its attention to Kat that it sealed its fate. She stood there as the fangs of the shark-squid opened up and charged her, desperate to eat something human.

Kat didn’t worry for she had a little surprise for just such an occasion. In her hands she had turned the flashlight into an electopulse emitter, which basically was a gun that shot a pulse of electricity, stunning its victims. Only a few feet away, Kat shot off a pulse and stopped the monster just enough for Van to deliver the final blow. In a blink of an eye the sword had cut through the shark-squid twice and was sheathed before the monster could fall apart. Van straightened out slowly as the aura dimmed down and disappeared.

“Victory!” I yelled out with excitement as I punched the air and twirled around.

                Kat palmed her face in embarrassment realizing that her saviour still acts like a kid. However at the same time she couldn’t help but to smile and join me in my victory dance. We ended our victory in a high five and arm wrestle hand shake before agreeing to board the airship.

“If this thing has a transmitter then we can call the ship instead of sending up the floatation beacon” Kat informed me as she opened the hatch up.

                Soon after we walked into the control center and found the radio that Kat was talking about before.

“Huh? What is this? There’s no power at all”

“So we can’t use the radio then?”

“Not just the radio, there’s no way to get the airship running!”

“And that’s bad I’m guessing?”

“It means we got to tow this dame thing all the way up. Ahh! This blows”

“There’s no way to get a power source to it? Like gas or something?”

“Well, a machine like this is going to take Dragonitthyum and I don’t know about you but I don’t have any Dragonitthyum on me. Do you have any? Perhaps just sitting in your pocket maybe?” Kat said sarcastically and slightly ticked off.

“Well no, I’m just wondering if there’s something I could do to help. Don’t need to get all angry at me”

“Sorry, it’s just going to be a lot of work to get this out now after we’ve come so far”

“Come on now, don’t get frustrated. We’ve got it! You have this airship in your hands and you know where it is. No matter what you got to do to move this thing, it doesn’t matter cause you have got it” I said trying to cheer up Kat and get her focused on the victory we have achieved.

                She had to take a moment to admire my optimism but then she realized I was right and regained her train of thought.

“Alright, the ship is in one piece but no power. To tow something this heavy we’ll need chains, however chains can damage the hull and rudders if hooked up like a tree. If we could get the cargo nets under it then it would preserve it and not crush the hull. But if the airship doesn’t exit through those doors straight then it could collapse the whole lab on top of it and then we’d have nothing but scraps and one hell of a head ach”

“Sounds like the perfect job for me. I’ll get it through, no problem”

“This thing could weigh more than the doors! You think your just gonna push it?!”

“I think I’m gonna push it out and all the up; cause I got dez big mah-souls!” I said doing my best Arnold Schwarzenagger impression and flexing what muscles I had.

A Fantasy Story Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Teams to the Laboratory!

            My luck continued to prove its worth as I lay outside under the stars. There were so many stars that night and I even saw a couple of shooting stars zoom by. I didn’t even care about the fact that I was taken hostage, tied up like a bandit, stolen from, threatened, roughed up by a fourteen year old girl and then left out here to brave whatever elements the sea would offer me; my luck gave me a beautiful night sky with a warm breeze that soothed the soul. Curiosity caught my attention again though, as I wondered about my escape plan.

“I could try to swim away when we get close to a well-populated port” I thought.

“No I can’t do that, not with my arms tied up like this, and who knows what swimming around in that water” I said while I looked down to see a huge shark fin beak the water for a moment, then submerge back below.

“I could wait until they cut the ropes off, and then make a run for it. But if they have me in chains before I can run away, it would be pointless”

            The leather belt sat on the deck from when Bunny took the map out of it and showed everyone else. I played with it with my feet, trying to look through the other pouches for something I could use to cut myself free, but found nothing but five gold coins, a letter about the magika serum that didn’t work, and some very important pocket lint that, I’m sure, will be very crucial for later adventures. Fighting gravity, I stumbled about trying to stand up to look around for something more useful. The magic serum lingered in my mind as I searched for a freeing myself kit.

“What a waste” I thought to myself, for if I had saved it for someone who could actually use magic; then they would have been better and maybe I could have helped them a lot.

“Although, now that I think about it, if someone evil got their hands on it and decided to kill me and everyone within a square mile. That would be terrible”

            Finally I found a glass bottle on top of one of the wooden crates they had on the back of the boat. Victory poses had to be postponed while I made sure that no one was within ear shot before I broke the bottle carefully on a crate. The bottle shattered into a few more pieces than I would have liked, but I held onto the bottle neck so I didn’t have to fumble with broken glass behind my back. Gently I began to stab the ropes with what little leverage I had. My plan was to get the ropes off of me, get my belt, sword, and that power chain from Bunny before making a break for it to shore. I felt that I could pull it if I had my gear because in one of my games, the character could use his sword underwater to fight off monsters, so how hard could it really be?

            At first I knew I had all the time in the world to get the ropes off, but as time progressed on I started to become impatient and tick off at the broken bottle. My hands started to rub the ropes faster and faster as I grew frustrated that it wasn’t working as well as I wanted it to. Then a piece of the bottle broke and stabbed my hand. With clenched teeth I held back any cursing that would have alerted the girls who probably through me in a cage after seeing me trying so hard to escape. That made me worry even more for my wellbeing. Panicking, I discarded the bottle and jaunted to the front of the boat where they had left me. The shard of glass stung as I pulled it out of my hand and hit the deck with a “tink”, letting see the two inch blood smeared glass that had been in my hand; it felt cold and tingled as the blood flowed out of my hand. I quickly concealed my hand in my back pocket so a trail didn’t form all around me, and I patently waited for it to heal.

            Seconds later Kat comes join me along with Bunny.

“Hey Van, here let me put this back on you. You’ll be better off with it, trust me” Bunny said skipping over to me.

“Wha-Why are you giving me this back again? I thought I was the bad guy”

“Well at first when we didn’t know who you were, you were bad. But then after you told me who you are and gave us the map we’ve been looking for, Forever; we started to think that maybe you’re not all bad. Right Kat?” Bunny said looking back at Kat.

“Yeah, but it’s not like your apart of the gang now. You still might be trouble” Kat said frowning at me trying to hide a smirk.

“That’s right he needs goggles in order to be a part of the team right?”

“Goggles?” I asked intrigued at their requirements to join the gang.

“Yup, defiantly got to have goggles. Everyone has them” Kat pointed to hers on her head, bunny had them around her neck.

“I like goggles, can I join?” I asked with excitement.

“I don’t know, It’s pretty hard to get in; what do you think Bunny?”

            Bunny hummed and walked around me as if inspecting a used car for damages and worth. She walked away back to Kat and then turned back to take another look at me.

“Yeah I think he would be cool to have around” I felt happiness flow into my soul for this is the first time that I someone else allowed me to join them, without them being forced to out of pity or guilt.

“You really wouldn’t mind me hanging out with you guys?” I asked reinsuring that I understood what they were saying.

 “Yes, I think he will be very helpful with our missions” Vivian said as she sat on the railing of the edge of the ship smoking a cigarette.

“We think it would be good too” Joy said standing next to Molly from the doorway.

“Besides, Joy thinks he’s kinda cute”

“I do not! Don’t say such things out loud” Joy exclaimed at Molly while covering her mouth.

            I could hardly believe what was going on right in front of me. Other people wanted me to join them and said that they wouldn’t mind having me around. In all my life back home, I never had such a joyous privilege bestow its glory onto my life. As long as I could remember the other kids would always form groups and play games all the time, but when I would come to join them they would run away to leave me behind and alone. Other times they would trick me to play games meant to hurt me specifically. Many times the other kids would go out of their way to bother me and remind me that the reason no one wants me around is because I am stupid and annoying as hell. But now there are five girls standing right in front of me, like no one has ever before, and said to me they want me around. I almost started to tear up right then and there but I held back so I didn’t seem pathetic.

“Thank you, just. Thank you, I’ve never been on a team before, but I won’t let you down, I promise”

            Kat quickly walked up to me and whispered in my ear.

“You better not, because if you give me one reason to regret letting you in our group; I’ll end your life before you can say. I’m sorry” she said as she put wicked awesome goggles on my head. My body was frozen with paralysis as I understood the seriousness of the situation.

“Damn it, now I’ve done it. It’s gonna take everything I’ve got just to keep them from killing me!” I thought questioning whether or not I’ve made the right decision.

            The boat started to slow down and came to a stop soon after.

“Hey we made it here already!” Bunny said looking over the side.

“It was closer than I thought, but it makes senses” Molly added.

“I’m assuming you’re talking about what was on the map, right?”

“That’s right” Kat answered.

“Oh, Oh! Allow me” Bunny perked up “The map lead us to this underwater lab that Von Ravenblood made for submarines and other underwater experiments. Molly caught wind of a special combat airship that was built here and never left. If we could retrieve it, our colony would have the technology to make leaps and bounds that would help protect us and help out others who are being harassed by the king’s army and other rebels trying to fight them”

“The Kings? There hasn’t been a king for centuries, and what’s this about rebels?”

“What are you talking about? Have you been living under a rock or something? There has been a war raging on all over dynasty for fifty years. All because someone convinced the kings that there has to only be one true ruler” Molly explained.

“Oh, that sucks. . . Wait! Did you say Dynasty?”

“Yeah, you know Dynasty; the name of the land, the sky and all things around you. Hit your head pretty hard huh?”

            Van could hardly believe his fate. He had gone through the portal and ended up in a whole new world. A shining shimmering splendid, if you will. And it was right there and then that our hero had a decision to make. Does he find his way back home with the help of his new team mates, or does he stick around and see how much fun this adventure could be. Tick tock Van, time is running out faster than you think.

“Yeah, must have” I said rubbing my head as if it still hurt. Then I realized that I wasn’t tied up anymore. Vivian walked by me casually putting her dagger back in its holster.

“Oh, you’re good” I said as I watched Vivian turn and give a little smirk as if to say “yeah I know”

“OK” I said clapping my hands together. “What’s the plan?”

            Kat was surprised with my enthusiasm at first, but then she saw the fire in my eyes and knew that I was ready for anything.

“Alright, you want to help that badly? Then you’ll accompany me down there to find the airship and bring it back up here”

“You got it! So what gear do we need? Scuba tanks, wet suits, masks” I started to list off everything one would need to dive underwater back on earth. However this wasn’t earth and things here were done differently.

“Scuba tanks? What’s that?” Molly asked. All I could do was stare blankly while thinking of a way to explain how things work in another dimension.

“Does it matter?” Vivian interrupted. “All you need for diving far underwater is an enchanted ring”

            She pulled out a ring from her back pocket that was silver with a blue gem placed on top.

“This ring is enchanted with the power of the sea serpent. That means the wearer of the ring is granted the ability to breathe the air underwater and not drown”

“That. Is. Awesome!” I said as I equipped the ring onto my finger.

“Now then, shall we go?” Kat said from the side of the boat holding my sword.

            I paused for only a moment before running over to the edge and jumping up on the railing.

“You know it!” and I jumped off, letting Kat toss the sword to me in mid-air.  I had to flip backwards to grab it before diving down into the water. Kat followed soon after.

            Van entered the depths below and took a moment to look around at the hidden world beneath the reflective glass surface of the sea. The world was vast and it continued on far beyond what he could see from the surface, driving his curiosity wild with fiery passion. Kat didn’t take long before his sightseeing was interrupted and he had to get back to work. Using hand signals Kat instructed Van to follow her down to the lab closely. He gave thumbs up to show that he understood what to do. There was only one high powered flash light to show them where they were going so they had to swim right beside each other and not get lost. They were so close that they bumped into each other a couple of times, which scared Van a little thinking that Kat would get upset. However it seemed to bother her at all.

            Finally the both of them reach a giant round steel front door to the lab. Normally it would take a code from a submarine to open the door; however this door hasn’t met the likes of Kat before. She quickly swam over to the control panel and started to work her hacky magic, while Van held the light. Seconds later the door powered up and began to open for them. Then suddenly the doors screeched with rust and fried the hydraulics causing them to stop a mere foot apart. Kat frantically tried to get them to open up more but her efforts were in vain. Van looked at the door way while Kat tried to smack some sense into the control panel, and came up with an idea. Handing the light back to Kat he swam to the doors and wedged his hands in the middle, squeezing the steel in his grip. With a deep breath he reefed on the doors and moved them open just enough for them to enter. The doors had a lot of resistance and Van knew that they would soon close after he let go. His grip was getting shaky after Kat had entered inside and it was his turn to fling himself inside before the doors slammed closed, crushing whatever is in its path. Ca-Clang went the door sending Vans body into the room, almost into Kat. They were inches away before he stopped in fear of repeating what happened when they first met. Luckily for him, she didn’t seem to care and instead just kept moving.

“Why is she being so nice to me now?” I wondered to myself as we made our way to the purge room.

            The waterproof doors close behind us and Kat turned on the drain, letting all the water out of the room. When the other doors finally opened it was too dark to see without a flashlight, and once again they had to stay close together so they didn’t get lost in the labyrinth that was the laboratory. The atmosphere reminded Van of one of the many horror based games he had played about zombie monsters and demons in damp, dark and abandoned labs just like this one.

“One step at a time buddy. I can do this” I said to myself with clenched fists and shaky knees.

“What we need now is a map of this place. That way we can go directly to the airship, instead of wondering around for hours” Kat said, voice echoing in the halls.

            We wondered down the dark hallway and came upon a big desk; the kind you would find when you walk into a high class business building.

“Hey Kat, let’s check that desk. If it’s what I think it is, there should be a map near it”

            She checked the right side while I looked at the left. We checked the drawers for some sort of folded up printed map. My memory conflicted with my actions because I knew that the map I was talking about wasn’t on paper, it was posted on a wall. I looked all around on the walls and then noticed something strange on the wall behind me. It looked like there was a pane of glass with metal tubing around it. Upon closer inspection I saw a control panel in the bottom right corner with a button that said “ON”. I flipped the switch and the screen lit up with a short animation that said “welcome” followed by a selection screen.

“Now we’re on to something” Kat said looking at my discovery.

“Ah! There’s the map right here” I said poking the bubble that said “directory”.

            The turquoise glow of the map illuminated the desk brightly enough that the flashlight could be turned off, to save power.

“It looks like there are five levels to this place” I pointed out.

“The hanger is on the bottom level. We’ll have to take the stairs, or find a way to power this whole lab up for the elevators”

            Oh great another decision, I have never been good at making decisions like this.

“Uh, I don’t know. What would be faster?” I asked pushing the responsibility back to her.

“Well it would be easier to take a working elevator but if we take the stairs now then we should be there in the same amount of time anyway, if not faster”

“Then it’s agreed, we take the stairs” I said with a smile and took the lead.

            Van and Kat left for the stairs leaving the information screen on. What they have failed to acknowledge was what was displayed after the information hub updated. It described the damage the lower levels suffered from and the specimen security breach on level four.