Star of Fantasy

by Jacky Qian

  As the fish closed its mouth, the warm sun disappeared. There in utter darkness, the gushing seawater carried them forward into the foul mouth of the fish, and they tumbled into each other as they want. The monster headed for the depths, causing the boat to bash violently into its teeth. That slimy tongue started to wriggle and turn like clothes in a washing machine.

  Silverstar fumbled in the darkness and finally closed his arms around the mast, where he could steady himself. He wondered why the fish hadn't eaten them. How could they escape?

  A violent collision distracted him. The fish opened its mouth, and for an instant he glimpsed the sunlight. It was just enough time for him to see his friends. Mandis was there, holding fast to a rope, and Nicholas held the edge of the boat. Catherine was just beside him; and there was a spear gun. It was dark again. Silverstar wanted to bend down for the spear gun. A big wave threw him down, forcing a mouthful of salt water down his throat.

  Cough! Cough! Nicholas struggled to his feet despite the violent movements. His sight had accustomed itself to the darkness, so he was able to see the spear gun. Nicholas assumed that although the creature's exterior was tough it wouldn't necessarily be that way inside. So, the moment the fish opened its mouth he picked up the spear gun, did a 360-degree turn like a fast rider astride a Palomino in a classic Western, and launched the weapon.

  The fish uttered a cry, opening its big mouth. Some dazzling light spread in. Silverstar was the first to step forward and grab the halyard to stabilize the boat. He then realized that the fish hadn't immediately eaten them because it wanted to take them to its hangout before enjoying its meal.

  They were already quite far from land, but the enormous thing was still headed out to the open sea. To attract Silverstar's attention, Catherine caught hold of him and said, "If we don't escape, it will dive deeper into the sea!" Silverstar answered: "So, we have to stop it from doing that!" He seized the spear gun from Mandis and thrust it into the creature's thick, heavy tongue. The fish shook its head violently because of the pain and spit them out. Then, with a great splash, the predator dove deeper into the sea. However, it soon turned and came back. It wasn't eager to surrender its catch.

  Seeing two reefs in the distance above the surface, Silverstar patted Nicholas on the shoulder and winked at him. Silverstar said to Mandis: "Speed up!"

  "It won't work!" Mandis shouted, "and…… Wait a second, I've got it!" He also saw the distant reefs and continued, "I'm speeding up! Steady yourselves!"

  The fish was also accelerating to catch up with them. As their boat drew closer to the reef, Nicholas shot the speargun again, which planted firmly in the reef. Catherine stepped vigorously upon the deck, holding the halyard, and did a 360-degree rotation, spraying a circle of diamond drops. Silverstar sprang up and threw the last grenade at the fish. Disoriented by the huge explosion, the fish pursued them blindly. Its huge body bumped violently into the two reefs, and it crashed upon the rocks. At last, the prey in its mouth could escape.

  Continental Shelf

  Catherine said out of breath, "what a close shave! It must be a feeling of adventure!"

  "Sure!" Silverstar said, "I've got something to write about, later!"

  After escaping the hunting fish, Nicholas wrung his wet clothes and said, "I have never done it before!"

  Mandis laughed and said, "So, don't I look like a real sailor?"

  Silverstar asked, "Umm…where are we right now?"

  The sun was in the middle of the sky, so it must have been noon. Nicholas took a look at the sun: a white-hot orb that was expected to have dominion over the earth for 300 million years to come…and hopefully much longer than that.

  Silverstar said, "We can't tell directions from the sun now, can we? It seems we'll be here for a while."

  "Hey, guys!" shouted Catherine, "Look down!"

  Instead of a pitch-black mass, it looked like a submerged island, no more than 10 meters below the surface.

  "It's a continental shelf," said Nicholas, "It was a continent in the Ice Age, but the glacier melted at the end of the Ice Age. The continent ended up in the bottom of the sea, extending from the north of Japan and Russia all the way to the west coast of the United States."

  Mandis was confused. "But this is a warm era. Where are the glaciers from?"

  "How do I know about that?" Silverstar replied with a casual shrug of the shoulders.

  It was then that they could just make out several human figures in the water. They were swimming fast toward the boat.

  Silverstar stood at the edge of the boat, gazing at the sea. Suddenly, a hand reached out of the water, seized his leg and stole the boy into the sea.

  The hand had a powerful grip, and the swimmer shot toward the depths with Silverstar in tow. It didn't matter how much Silverstar struggled, because the being simply didn't let him go. They were diving fast. The swimmer and his cohorts dragged Silverstar to a cave in the continental shelf, and there a light appeared. The man raced onto the shore and, rising out of the water to his waist, unceremoniously dumped Silverstar onto the ground.

  Coughing violently, Silverstar said, "You really don't know how to treat your guests well!"

  Only until now could he see clearly the sturdy man who had taken him. He kicked Silverstar in the stomach. It hurt so bad that Silverstar found it difficult to breathe.

  "Wie alt bist du Junge!?"

  "What?"

  Bang! He drew his musket and fired, missing Silverstar by two centimeters.

  "Wie alt bist du?" the man demanded. Then Silverstar realized that he was speaking German rather than English.

  Silverstar stuttered in reply. "I… I… Does anyone here speak English?"

  After a few words with his own men, he let forth a hoarse laugh that was truly intimidating. Then he punched Silverstar hard on the shoulder, causing deathly pain.

  Cough! Cough! Just then a teenager emerged from the group. He looked slightly older than Silverstar. He cleared his throat and lifted Silverstar by the collar. "Kid, which era are you from?"

  "The twenty-first century," said Silverstar. At least he knew there were other human beings in this prehistoric era.

  The teenager was not impressed. He leaned in and roared: "You'd better behave yourself, kid! I'm liable to yank your tongue right out of your head!"

  Silverstar's face was pelted by spit. "Well. I came on the thirteenth voyage of Titanic II, which was on July 25, 2026."

  "A lot of changes in eighty years!" the teenager said. He turned to the others and spoke with them briefly. Judging by their evil tone, Silverstar believed they were discussing how to deal with him.

  Silverstar began to assess the cave. At the top, nature had created a tube-like outlet. The pipe must link directly to the sea surface, because he could smell the water. They had an oil lamp in the cave. As for their identity, their clothing and tattoos indicated that they were Nazis.

  Mandis and Nicholas were swimming toward the cave, braving the pressure that hurt their ears. Mandis started the fight. He jumped up in the water and hit the muskets of several men with his gun like a sharp shooter. Then he knocked off one of them with a punch. "Ah! It seems that you have company! Listen carefully!" Again, the teenager warned Silverstar, "Don't mess with me! Otherwise, you'll regret it! Call me Liquor if you like!" He drew out an iron dagger, pointed it at Silverstar and continued, "That's because I'll beat the heck out of you, like a man who's crazy with booze. I'll become a complete savage. And now…" Before he could finish, Mandis knocked him senseless with the butt of his gun.

  "Damn it!" said Silverstar, "I don't want to stay here even for one more second."

  They hurried back to their boat, and they could see that the sun was headed toward the western horizon. To prevent any chance of pursuit, Mandis blew up a grenade and released their boat.

  Sellars

  It was the morning of the fourth day.

  "Those filthy Nazis!" Nicholas said. "That muscular guy nearly strangled me. If I didn't kick him in the nuts
, I would have wound up dead."

  "I didn't expect Nazis to cross over." said Runt. He paused for a second and then said quietly as if wondering aloud, "I've never heard of any missing Nazis in the World War II."

  "The man even calls himself Liquor," said Silverstar. "He's a foul-mouthed scumbag."

  "We have to fix our situation," Mandis said as he winced over the pain in his wounded arm. "They outnumber us, so we need to find the ones who saved us."

  "Come on!" said Hicks. "Why did they just stare at us instead of saving us directly? If they really want to save us, they would have already been here!"

  There were now only five sailors at the boat. Sellars had always ordered them to help him with the excavation of the sunken ship so that he could look for his personal belongings.

  "Ah!" cried a sailor. Mandis hurried over to him and asked, "What's up?"

  "I scratched my hand on a piece of iron, and it's bleeding heavily. Uh…does anyone have a bandage?"

  "Well!" shouted Sellars like a boss, "I'm your passenger! As a sailor, you have the responsibility to protect me and help with my activities! Don't act like a spoiled kid!"

  The sailor gave an angry expression and then simply continued with his work. Mandis heaved a sigh and complained, "Sellars is way too stubborn. We don't know how to deal with him." Silverstar answered, "It'd be better if we could get back to our own era soon. Otherwise …" At that moment, they heard a clear gunshot and then saw a wounded sailor fell onto the deck. Sellars had a "C-T2" in his hand, which continued to emit sparks due to the friction between the sound wave and the air. The C-T2, if you don't already know, is the latest generation sound-wave weapon, and it's more sophisticated than a sound-explosion gun. The sound waves it emits is so lethal that it was able to dent an iron plate even after blasting a hole in the sailor's heart.

  "Morris!" shouted Mandis. It was only then that Silverstar realized he hadn't previously known the sailors' names.

  "What are you doing!?" Mandis yelled. Sellars turned with the C-T2 and fired haphazardly. The supersonic wave broke several strands of his hair. Mandis snarled, "What the hell are you doing? Are you crazy!? I swear, I… Ah!"

  Sellars hit Mandis on the shoulder, and the blow dropped him to the ground. Runt rushed to help Mandis. Catherine moved closer to Silverstar and said, "Look, over there."

  They saw four sailors with two huge chests beside them. The chests were open and filled with sea-blue gems. They probably weren't jewelry, given their opacity.

  "They found it!" laughed Sellars. These sailors had excavated the stuff he wanted when he got back. But that sailor fumbled among them out of curiosity. As a result, he found the letter. He had a glimpse at the dead sailor. "The letter contained a plan, which I designed very carefully. Since it had already been found, there was nothing I could do about it. That guy even pointed his gun at me. You know, there was a reason I went through KGB training."

  "What plan?" demanded Mandis as he tended to his wound. "What could you possibly want?"

  Sellars did little more than shrug. "Since you've discovered my secret …" Then he bellowed at the four sailors: "Hey, you guys! Come over here! How dare you touch my stuff!" He took another shot, hitting Mandis in the thigh. Mandis cried out in pain. Sellars, unmoved, said, "A couple of months ago, I got news that Karls Thule, one of our business partners, had died for no apparent reason. This suggested that our plan to rule Europe wouldn't work. It's likely that some of the other partners feel pretty disappointed."

  "Did you expect him to honor his commitment?" said Silverstar. "He's probably having a good time inside the belly of a skorpiovenator."

  "You know him?" Sellars answered in surprise. "But it doesn't matter now. Later I have to go on with my businesses. Like Karls, I only have eyes for interesting people with power and ambition. When we were treasure hunting in South Africa, we found a kind of ore that had never been seen before. We call it blue gold because it has the beautiful color of sapphire but the solid appearance of gold.

  We believe this kind of ore could be sold for a great deal of money." Sellars had another look at the big chests filled with the blue gold and continued, "But later we found that this kind of ore has a magical power. When it comes into contact with energy, it explodes." He grew more excited as he continued. "Even the electrical current in a desk lamp would be good enough to ignite it. With the impact of such intensive energy as that generated by a fusion engine, the ore could generate more power than a nuclear weapon! It could be made into a weapon with a totally new kind of energy and unrivaled power! So, we planned to hijack a ship. More specifically, it was to be Titanic II during its voyage on the Atlantic. We'd rob the rich passengers of their money before blowing up the ship to obliterate any trace of evidence. I didn't expect the whole thing to end up this way. I planned to send some of the blue gold as a present on the first meeting with our new partner: a group of terrorists in Iraq… Damn!" The more Sellars thought about it, the angrier he became. Then he raised the C-T2 and aimed it at Mandis, shooting him in the left leg and both arms. "A-hahahahha!" laughed Sellars wildly. "I'll join those Nazis you talked about. They'll certainly appreciate what I've done, and… Ohhh!"

  Before he could utter another word, a dark haunter jumped him from out of nowhere. Sellars attempted to stop the attack, and in the process he dropped the C-T2. Meanwhile, more dark haunters jumped down from the trees. Among them were several that had assaulted them the other day. Apparently, they had found reinforcements.

  "Watch out!" cried the sailor Maxon Lawrence before turning to slug one of the haunters in the face.

  Sellars uttered a cry when a dark haunter closed its teeth on his right arm. The bite wasn't as bad as that of a skorpiovenator. He tried to reach for the C-T2, but was immediately attacked by another dark haunter. Seeing it, Nicholas rushed over, picked up the C-T2 and shot the dark haunter wildly. The supersonic wave shot through its hard shell, causing a splash of green blood.

  Runt helped Mandis get back on his feet before they walked toward Silver Angel. Hicks, in a state of panic, jumped into the car. Two dark haunters pounced on Maxon and finished him. Mandis didn't have the heart to look at the horror of it. He had no choice but to scramble into the car too Runt shouted, "You three, get out of here!"

  Sellars didn't want to abandon his blue gold. He had to find a way to take it with him.

  "You want to commit suicide?" shouted Silverstar, "Hurry up!"

  "Go away!" Sellars shouted, pushing him away. "I must…!"

  The masked figures appeared again from the sky. Each of them carried a huge bow across its back, and as a group they fired deadly wooden arrows at the dark haunters below on the ground. Their bows were powered by eight springs! The arrows shot forth like bullets, easily piercing the brains of the dark haunters.

  "Wow!" said Catherine in awe. "That was cool!"

  One of them removed his mask and said, "Follow us if you want to live! We're here to save you!"

  Silverstar jumped into the car together with the rest. Catherine insisted that she drive. Runt stopped her and said, "It's far too dangerous for you to drive! Get to the back, quickly!"

  "Well, okay," she said in disappointment. Meanwhile, several masked figures continued to battle the onrush of dark haunters. Sellars looked at the blue gold and reluctantly left it behind. Runt stepped hard on the gas pedal. Silver Angel shot forward.

  The leader of the masked men heaved a spear into the chest of blue gold, whereupon the ore began to emit a blue light. The masked men opened their gliding wings, and almost instantly they vanished. Behind them, the blue gold exploded, turning to ashes the camp and every living thing around it.

  Wounded

  "I didn't expect so many of them," one of the sailors said. "Dark haunters could still be seen wandering around." Hicks, meanwhile, busied himself by helping to treat Mandis' wound.

  "Shut up, Nemo! I'm the first mate, and that means I'm tough!"

  "No more talking!" continued the sailor. "You know what happ
ened! A dark haunter bit into his neck and dragged him away from the car."

  Runt said, "We'll slow down when we get into the forest, but it won't work for long. We just lost a wheel, and soon we'll crash into one of the huge trees!"

  "Our bones will be crushed!" said Sellars. "We can't let it happen!"

  "We're about to run into a tree!" shouted Runt, "Get ready to jump!"

  "What!?" asked Nicholas.

  "Jump! Now!" The car ran smack into a tree with a tremendous bang, causing an explosion that sent several dark haunters flying.

  Runt went before the wounded Mandis and Nemo, the last sailor. Nicholas collected his nerve and scanned the area to see what he should do. He saw Sellars run while holding his shattered arm, so he caught up in order to help him. Unexpectedly, Sellars caught Nicholas' hands and threw him aside toward a dark haunter. The dark haunter jumped at Nicholas with its jaws open wide. Nicholas drew a dagger and plunged it into the creature's throat. Quickly he yanked out the blade and stabbed the haunter's jaw several times, finishing it. He turned, stowed the sticky weapon in his pocket, and ran.

  Based on the snarling of the dark haunters, Silverstar knew he was surrounded by them. Just as he wanted to turn to see them, he fell onto the ground under a ferocious attack. Silverstar seized its pincers to prevent it from biting him, but the dark haunter was powerful. At this critical moment, Silverstar mustered all his strength to get clear of those claws. As he reached toward his waist for his dragon-fang dagger, the dark haunter bit into his shoulder. Silverstar shrieked in pain. Then he stabbed the hunter in the eye and twisted the blade as he withdrew it. The boy stood there, covering his wound with his hands. Another dark haunter sprang from the shadows and bit his belly. He didn't feel the pain because his body wasn't immediately sensitive to extreme pain. Another dark haunter jumped on him, and Silverstar fell to the ground. He suffered a nasty scratch from a poisonous claw, and the blood gushed forth.