“It looks a normal submarine engine to me,” said Stu Pot.
“It’s meant to look normal,” said Paula. “Because what no one including you guys is meant to know is that a couple of years ago I upgraded this beauty with a new engine.” She explained, despite looking normal, the engine can help the Rouge Wave travel at the speed of a speed boat and the long distance of a cruise.
“Great!” Stu Pot said. “Let’s try out this beauty, shall we?”
Everyone held onto the safety straps hanging from the ceiling as Paula started to play with the controls. The Rouge Wave came to life and started to dive down. It was approaching the twenty-foot metal undersea gates.
“Mengy, in your own time,” Stu Pot said.
Mengy spread her arms out and the gates started to open.
“Stop!”
The elephant was confused when Stu Pot ordered her to stop. Then she understood when she saw the two walruses, three crabs, two octopuses and a one white shark swimming in front of the sub. They must have been the Aqua Security Team that Tugson sent out to stop Squad J.
“By the order of Captain Tugson, you are to surrender immediately!” the shark shouted through a microphone.
“Paula, don’t stop, keep going!” Stu Pot ordered. “Mengy, you know what to do!”
“If you don’t surrender,” the white shark said through the microphone, “we are ordered to shoot you down!” Then he turned to his team mates. “Be ready to aim and fire on my –”
Stu Pot jumped when he saw sonic booming trapping the Aqua Security Team. He turned to Mengy who had her eyes shut and was holding her arms out. Then he saw the security team dropping their weapons, covering up their ears and starting to fall to the ground.
“Okay, Mengy, that’s enough,” Stu Pot told her, as the submarine overtook the Aqua Security Team.
The elephant demon immediately ceased her sonic booming powers.
The Rouge Wave went out through the doors and went under the chopping waves of the Irish Sea. Mengy turned around, clapped her hands together and the doors closed before the recovering Aqua Security Team could get after them.
They were feeling good about their success of escaping until a big shudder took over the sub.
“Kathy, Rustom, check the back for any damage,” Stu Pot ordered. As they went back, he went to the wooden periscope. He checked the back of the sub on the outside and it was completely untouched by the missile explosion. Hearing more missiles made him move the periscope to the surface to find the town of Blackpool in flames. Buildings were falling down and half of the Blackpool population were trapped on the pier. Some even dived into the rough water and started to swim away from town.
“What’s happening up there, Stu Pot?” Kathy asked. She and Rustom came back.
“By the way, everything is as smooth as a baby’s ass back there,” the rhino reported.
Stu Pot told everyone what was happening on the surface of Blackpool.
“Those humans are crazy,” Rustom said. “Swimming in rough cold waves isn’t the best way to avoid ablaze towns.”
“But it could the only way,” Kathy said. She took over the periscope. “Look. The fire goes all the way to Lytham St. Annes, Fleetwood, Poulton-Le-Fylde and Thornton.” She was glad to see the Fire and Rescue Service doing their job and prayed that they would do all they could to end it soon. She faced Stu Pot. “Do you still think we made the right decision coming out of here?”
“We might have been safer back in Blackpool Underground,” said Larissa.
“For how long?” Rustom asked. “If whoever started this war is trying to rule it, they will find out about us and try to rule us or kill us too. There’s no way where anyone in the world, including me, will be safe from this.”
“And think about those poor humans,” Paula said. “The only way to stop more humans suffering this fate is to find out who is causing this and stop them.”
“And since we don’t exist to the human world,” said Pedro, “that gives us more advantage than any human.”
Stu Pot smiled. “This is exactly what Lukeson would have decided if he was here now. Besides, since we’re out here, there’s no turning back now. So, full speed forward, please, Paula.”
“Yes, Stu Pot.”
And they were on their way.
* * *
“We should be approaching Lukeson in an hour’s time.” Paula hacked into Rustom’s T.M.D. on her Spy Pad to be sure they were on the same page with each other on whereabouts they were in the Atlantic Ocean right now before she left the controls on auto-diver. She stayed a little bit to check that the Rouge Wave was moving smoothly on its own as when she manually controlled it. It was. Then Paula went to join her squad mates in the mini lounge. They each sat in comfy armchairs around a nice wooden table with posh white cups of green tea and posh white plates of vegan coconut biscuits.
“Great job, Paula,” said Stu Pot.
“And we still have about a dozen urchins of milk fuel left,” Kathy said, slurping her tea.
“I assume that this milk fuel is an alternative fuel?” Rustom said.
“Well, cows, sheep, goats and animals still need to be milked,” Larissa said. “The Great Mutant Storm hasn’t changed that bit. But unlike the humans who let a lot of milk go to waste, we take every unwanted bit and Aunt Paula puts the milk to good use by turning it into a fuel for our vehicles. Along with the garden weeds and brown leaves we get in our cities.”
“G.C.A. has been running on that fuel since the early days and it works,” Paula said. “It doesn’t release emissions like petrol or diesel and it save trees, plants, food and land being used for biofuel.”
“Well, as we have plenty, let’s hope this mission will be worth it,” said Kathy.
“Oh, I’m sure it will be,” said Stu Pot. “When has Lukeson ever let us down?”
Kathy acted like she was thinking for an answer. She tried her hardest, but she kept on thinking more of her old mentor Petunia and how she never let Kathy down. “Never,” she finally said. She only said that because she was still not over Rachael’s and Petunia’s death and didn’t want to get more upset than she was now by having a heated conversation.
“Why does this Lukeson mean so much to you, anyway?” asked Rustom.
“Only because he’s the one who started G.C.A. in the first place,” Larissa explained.
“Oh, how inspiring,” Rustom said.
“Well, if you think that’s inspiring,” Pedro said, “you should hear the whole story.”
Rustom didn’t really want to hear the story. He just said that to be as polite as he could, which wasn’t really polite. When no one moved their heads or changed the subject, he knew everyone was waiting for him to listen. “Fine, let’s hear the whole story.”
“When he was a just wee lad,” Stu Pot said, “Rhys Lukeson had no parents, no siblings, no cousins, no relatives, no legal guardians and no godparents. He certainly had no friends at all, even at the Talgarth Gobeithio Orphanage where he lived.”
Rustom was not surprised. Anyone who does things differently is likely to get picked on. “I bet the orphanage staff wasn’t any friendlier to him than the other orphans.”
“Then one day after school, a twelve-year-old Lukeson was rescued from some human bullies by a giant deer and giant wolves that walked and talked like humans. He followed them to a secret hideout in a small secret mountain called Mt. Heddychlon in the Brecon Beacons. As you know, ‘Heddychlon’ is Welsh for ‘Peaceful’. It was a kingdom full of walking and talking animals that welcomed Lukeson into their family and raised him. That must have been why he had always been more interested in animals than his own species. Ten years later, he saw British Army soldiers who had tracked down some animals that were affected by this Great Mutation Storm wave that gave most animals the abilities to act like humans.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” interrupted Rustom. “Just for the record, I know about this Mutation Storm, but neither me nor any of my colleagues from wh
ere I come from were affected by it. Besides, this storm only happened two decades ago; hardly a milestone on my two millenniums of living or Mengy’s age, whatever that is.”
“That is why G.C.A. has built their research laboratory,” Paula said. “So we can know which creatures are mutated, which aren’t, which are demons and which are monsters.”
“And I take it that Lukeson arranged that part?” asked Rustom.
“Now, here comes the part which makes Lukeson the most inspiring person to most of every talking animal,” said Stu Pot. “These soldiers were under orders to arrest the animals to do experiments on them and find whether they’re dangerous or not. Lukeson confronted two soldiers who were Lieutenant Robert Skipton and Captain Matthew Tugson. He persuaded them that the animals were not dangerous and should be treated equally as humans.
“The soldiers arrested them anyway, but after hearing a rumoured goblin attack in Poland and no human could investigate it, they decided to use Lukeson and his animal friends to help them. The goblins were real and they were attacking Poland, but the animals put them to a stop. The mission was a success and Skipton and Tugson were so impressed that they decided to start their own company to protect every vulnerable animal so they could live peacefully. They were caught by a very rich lady whom we still don’t know the name. Lukeson, Skipton and Tugson helped to convince her to sponsor them to build a secret organisation to provide food, shelter and protection for animals all over the world from the uneasy human race and all of the problems from the world.”
“And you still admire Lukeson when he bullies you?” Rustom asked.
“He’s a sergeant,” Stu Pot said. “He has to give –”
“You know that’s not what I meant,” Rustom said. “He knows you have dyslexia and yet he still forces you to do reading and writing exercises on paper, instead of letting you listen to audio books.”
“Well, he lets me use audio books in my spare time,” the zebra told him. “He’s only trying to help me be independent as best as I can be. He’s just trying to make sure I can read important stuff like reading signs or paying bills, unlike Skipton who’s just trying to make me out to be worthless.”
“We’re soldiers,” said Larissa. “We don’t get bills.”
“All I’m saying is that,” Stu Pot went on, “I will never read as easy as you and I don’t like it when Lukeson makes me do it, but I’m glad he’s doing it because it’s his way of believing in me and telling me that nothing including a disability like my dyslexia can stop me.”
Rustom wondered whether Stu Pot was ordered to say that or not.
Then the Rouge Wave started to shake roughly. Paula ran back to the sub’s seat, turned the controls back to manual and looked through the window. She could see nothing except bubbles – big bubbles popping and fast.
“Rustom, you got any weapons?” Stu Pot asked.
“What kind?” Rustom asked.
“The kind you’d choose if you were fighting sea monsters,” said Stu Pot. “If you believed in them.”
“Well, I don’t believe in them. I know they exist.” Rustom reached for his back. “And these are the weapons I would use to defend myself.” He chucked them to Squad J.
“A revolver?” exclaimed Kathy. “Is that all you got?”
“Guzman?” said Rustom. “Care to help me out?”
“This is an AAI underwater revolver from the USA,” said Paula. “It may be small, but it’s useful and –”
Mengy gave a terrified trumpet cry, pointing with her trunk to a window. Everyone saw where she was pointing at, but they couldn’t see anything at all.
“Mengy,” said Stu Pot. “Have you been drinking seawater?”
Then the sub shook more violently and sent everyone flying around.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Is everyone all right?” Stu Pot asked. All he got from his teammates was mumbling as they got back on their feet. He rubbed his banging head. “Boy, I was nee expecting that at all.”
“Who’s doing all that rumbling?” Larissa demanded.
No one knew because there was still nothing to see in the ocean. Not so much a ripple.
“Maybe we’re past the rough currents,” Pedro said.
Stu Pot thought whatever it was that shook the sub was a lot rougher than sea currents. And he strongly believed that it could happen again so he didn’t want to take a second risk. “All right, listen up,” he called. “Kathy, Rustom, get to the turrets. Paula, get back in the driver’s seat. Mengy, keep an eye on the outside. Pedro, Larissa, take shelter. I’ll keep an eye on the radar. Move!”
Everyone went to their positions. Even though no one protested or argued with him, he was still unsure about being in Lukeson’s boots at the present situation. No one saying ‘Yes, Sir’ to him didn’t boost his confidence much, though he was never a glory or attention seeker and he knew he was only a private.
* * *
The young penguins went into the locker room to take shelter by the orders of Stu Pot.
While Larissa went into one of the wooden lockers for shelter, she saw her brother taking an orange lifejacket and putting it over his head. “Yeah, that’ll really protect you from drowning, bro.”
“Nice to know you’re finally seeing the real genius in me,” Pedro said through the lifejacket.
Larissa grinded her teeth. Even in dangerous situations, her brother could not use his head. She always considered herself to have all the brains between them. Even though Pedro had never been diagnosed with a mental illness by the vets, Larissa knew there was something still wrong with him; more than him just being an idiot.
In turn, Pedro said she was the one with the mental illness, not suffering fools gladly and always making everyone feel stupid, especially him. Like him, she was never diagnosed with anything, not even depression, bipolar or mood swing. So everyone decided to let this sibling rivalry sort itself out, though they were recently began to wonder if it was ever going to get sorted out.
* * *
Rustom followed Kathy to the turret room
“I’m on the left,” she said, sitting in the chair.
Rustom took the turret on the right side. He saw the wooden turret was on the outside with tiny solar panels on top of it in front of the recycled glass window. He practiced moving it around.
“It should be as a piece of cake,” Kathy told him. “You don’t have to worry about running out of bullets. We have plenty of solar panels on the sub’s top.”
“Underwater solar panels, huh? Boy, you guys have really outdone yourselves. Not only do you guys protect this planet from villains but from pollution as well. I’m really impressed.”
“Well, thanks.” Kathy noticed that Rustom was giving out more compliments than he had been since he joined them. Like everyone, she wondered whether G.C.A. was growing on him or if he was still up to something.
* * *
Stu Pot had been looking at the radar for five minutes and nothing showed up on it. “Can you see anything, Mengy?”
Mengy shook her head. She kept on looking through the periscope. Then she thought she saw a tall dark red thing moving away. She tried to follow it through the periscope, but it disappeared. She thought it wasn’t worth alerting Stu Pot.
“Stu Pot!” Paula cried.
The courageous zebra ran to the cockpit and couldn’t believe what he and Paula saw. He grabbed the wooden microphone from the controls. “Kathy, Rustom, see the giant tentacle?”
“Not just one,” Kathy reported.
“We can see three,” Rustom reported.
“Three?” Stu Pot cried.
“Not three tentacles,” Kathy went on. “Three colossal squids!”
“And they don’t look very friendly,” Rustom added.
Then the Rouge Wave was shaking and wobbling out of control. So the colossal squids were the things that had been knocking it.
“Fire at will!” Stu Pot ordered.
As he watched the squids getting hit by the solar t
urret bullets from Rustom and Kathy, Stu Pot saw squid blood covering them up, but they were still moving around. As he wondered if they were normal colossal squids or not, he noticed the sub was heading forty-five degrees down and towards the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
“They must have hit the engine badly,” Paula reported. “I’ll have to take a look.”
“Go, go!” Stu Pot said, taking the helm. “Mengy, can’t you do something?”
Then he could see one squid glowing purple and it looked like it was struggling. He checked another one and it was suffering the same fate.
Stu Pot knew what was Mengy was doing to them. “Keep going, Mengy,” he encouraged. “You’re doing great.” Then he remembered he couldn’t see the third one. He tried to find it.
A massive whack on the sub knocked him off the chair. As he got up, he saw water gushing in from the radar room. He knew straight away that the Rouge Wave was beyond saving now. “Everyone, to the escape pods!” he ordered.
He found Mengy unconscious on the floor. “Mengy, come on, wake up!” he cried, as he freed her from the fallen periscope on top of her. But the elephant didn’t move a muscle. He wondered what it was that had knocked her out. It could be the periscope, but it was quite light. There was no rubble in from the ceiling either. He didn’t have time to work it out as more water came rushing in. He decided to pick her up and run to meet up with the others. For a magical and powerful demon, Mengy wasn’t a heavy one. Stu Pot was very grateful for that.
They bumped into Rustom, Kathy and Paula.
“There are no escape pods onboard,” Kathy said.
“What?” Then Stu Pot noticed the water rising to their chins.
“Guys, over here!”
They followed Larissa’s voice to the locker room and saw the lockers floating. They saw her and Pedro in an open locker.
“Quick, into the lockers before the water reaches the ceiling!” Stu Pot went to the nearest locker, shoved Mengy and himself in and closed it up.
The Cult of Kishpu Page 14
