The Cult of Kishpu

by J. J. Shetland

  Before Rustom came along, while everyone got on well with the elephant demon, Paula was the one who understood her best. And while the penguin herself was on good terms with everyone, she viewed Mengy as her best friend. Probably due to the fact that she couldn’t talk, question and argue back. Despite this friendship, there were times when Paula had to work out what Mengy was saying like right now. She soon worked out what the elephant was trying to say. “Pedro and Larissa?” After getting a nod from Mengy, she thought about it. “Well, I suppose it is possible, but I don’t think they would be that cruel.”

  Mengy pointed her tongue to the penguin and then to each of her eyes.

  “I was underwater fighting monsters for so long, I started to lose focus. Even a penguin can only breathe underwater so much.” Then Paula saw her friend closing her eyes. “Oh, what are you doing now?”

  When she saw Mengy’s manacles starting to sizzle, she knew what was happening and her hopefulness started to grow. “Keep going, Mengy,” she encouraged. “You can do it.”

  Mengy was also grinding her teeth as the manacles were sizzling with black smoke. Then she opened her eyes and gasped for air.

  Paula saw through the clearing black smoke that the manacles did not so much have a scratch on them. “Well, you gave it your best shot.”

  “Oh, yes, her very best.”

  The noise of applauding made Mengy and Paula face forward to see a ginger haired, green eyed merman with a brown fish tail. He clapped his hands in a mocking way. All they could do was scowl at him.

  “Good try, land creatures,” he said. “But those manacles are created by magic itself. And your elephant buddy should know that fighting magic with magic is like firing a gun bullet on a piece of metal.”

  He drew out a revolver and fired at a rusty anchor on a big rock at the corner of the cave wall.

  “A very educational lesson, Mer-Chief Pavia,” Paula muttered.

  Pavia aimed his revolver at the prisoners.

  “Whereas firing a bullet with blood and bone…”

  Mengy and Paula closed their eyes and jumped when the revolver went off. After a while, they felt nothing. They checked their bodies and they felt no pain. Then they realised that Pavia had fired on an empty pistol.

  “It’d be boring,” he said, throwing it away. “Just for it to be all over like that.”

  “Okay, I’ve had enough games, Pavia,” Paula snapped. “Did you bring us here? Why are we your prisoners? What have you done to our friends?”

  Pavia scoffed. “What friends? You two were the only ones my soldiers and I could find in the Atlantic Ocean.”

  Paula was shocked to hear that and very confused. She wondered what could possibly separate her and Mengy from their friends in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It couldn’t have been the squids or rough waves as the ocean was unusually calm.

  “As for why you guys are under arrest,” Pavia continued, “it’s for killing the very last three colossal squids in the oceans.”

  Paula thought something would happen like this. “Those squids were not the very last three. And even if they were, the oceans would be no safer with them around because they were dangerous squids that couldn’t let anyone past without killing them!”

  “That’s still no excuse for what you did,” Pavia told them.

  “Do you know who we are?” Paula asked.

  “I thought I did. I don’t know any more.”

  “We are soldiers of the great Sergeant Rhys Lukeson. The human being who made negotiations between you merfolk and us land creatures.”

  “Well, I guess all good things must come to an end,” Pavia said. “Or should I say you guys decided that when you killed three marine lives. In our laws, it’s punishable by death. Whether I take pleasure in this or not, I’m just following orders. Orders always come first. Being soldiers, you should know that.”

  Pavia had always been Squad J’s least favourite merman to work with due to his arrogant and irritating attitude. Rachel Rhodes once said he was a merman version of Lieutenant Skipton. He had never been fond of them in return, probably only because they came from the land. Paula wondered why he stayed with Mer-King Coralbeard of the Atlantic Ocean if he didn’t approve of the truce he and the other mer-kingdoms had made with G.C.A. when he could have left the service and joined something that was not ruled by the Mer-Kingdoms. Then she remembered. “Where is your king?” she demanded.

  “Here.”

  Paula and Mengy turned around to see a young red haired mermaid with a white bikini top and a purple fish tail swimming to them, followed by an old merman with a black fish tail and a grey-black beard. He had a golden crown on over his long grey-black hair. The prisoners recognised the king immediately, but they had never seen the mermaid with him before.

  “Your Majesty,” said Paula. “With all due respect, you have made a mistake.”

  “I had no choice,” said Coralbeard. “We made a deal with your Sergeant Lukeson and yet you land creatures still make our oceans very difficult to live in, you let all the sea creatures die and, worst of all –” Tears started to pour out of his eyes. “– you let those nasty humans kill my daughters.”

  “What?” Paula looked ahead and saw three wooden coffins carried by two mermen each being brought to her and Mengy. The mermen opened the coffins and they saw three beautiful mermaids. One had blonde hair and a brown tail wearing a green bikini top, the second had black hair and a brown tail wearing a blue bikini top and the last one had ginger hair with a red bikini top and a green tail. They had smaller silver crowns on their heads. They were all deceased with scars, scratches and stabbed wounds all over their bodies.

  “What’s your proof that this was done by humans and nothing else?” asked Paula.

  “Lady Clam,” said Coralbeard.

  “Your Majesty.” After bowing to him, Lady Clam opened a small wooden box and the prisoners saw it had three daggers. “These were in their bodies when we found the princesses,” she explained. “These are not daggers from the sea and it was stabbed right through their hearts.”

  “Just because it’s not from the sea doesn’t mean the land creatures have done it,” Paula said. “It could be a marine creature framing us or a creature from the sky.”

  “Creatures from the sky?” Lady Clam turned at the king. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Your Majesty?”

  “Yes,” Coralbeard replied. “I shall have the remaining missiles fired to the sky as well.”

  Remaining missiles fired to the sky as well? Paula started to wonder why the merfolk want to launch missiles at the sky. Then she had a shocking thought. “Was it you guys who launched the missiles at the countries on the land yesterday?”

  “It was us,” Coralbeard replied. “We fired at India using Chinese missiles that I had my mer-army steal. Then we fired at Italy using British missiles. Then we fired at Canada using American missiles. Then we fired at every country we had with different missiles from another country.”

  Paula wondered why the land armies couldn’t track down where the missiles were launched on their advanced systems or noticed their own missiles being stolen. Unless the merfolk hacked into their tracking system and deactivated their tracking devices on them.

  “I did try to contact your Sergeant Lukeson,” Coralbeard said, “but I couldn’t get in touch with him. We tried to contact him three more times but still had no reply, so I assumed our Land Ambassador has betrayed us. Therefore, there was no option but to go to war.”

  “So you launched the missiles to the entire human race just to avenge your daughters when you don’t even know for sure that it was actually them!” Paula was reaching the end of her rope. She could usually handle difficult times very easily, but she couldn’t handle the fact G.C.A.’s sea allies were turning their tails on them.

  “And for our protection,” Coralbeard added. “Now we revealed ourselves to a secret organisation who swore to protect us from the damage coming from the very thing they live on but failed
to do so, we are in more danger than we ever have been.”

  This was making no sense to Paula or Mengy at all. The Lukeson they knew would never let something like happen. Then Paula remembered that no one could make contact with him at all. So something must have happened to him. If only she and Mengy could find him and find more clues to this mystery, it would be solved quicker.

  Then the penguin remembered two more allies she and her squad made from the sea. “We demand to see Mer-Privates Colonna and Orlan! Where are they?”

  “They deserted me,” Coralbeard told them. “I sent some squads after them, but they have not been found. I guess their loyalty to your commanding officer is much stronger than their loyalty to me. They were fine soldiers, but I can’t let them bring the death of the seas just because they can’t accept that our alliance is over for good. As for you two, by the Laws of the Oceans, I have no choice but sentence you two to death.” He and Lady Clam dived back into the sea. The soldiers closed the coffins that contained the deceased princesses in up and followed them.

  Paula looked at the mer-chief and closed her eyes. “Just make it quick.”

  “Boy, you girls are the most boring creatures I have ever encountered.” Pavia pressed a yellow button on a metal panel on the cave wall. “I’ll be generous enough to let you live a bit longer to worry about your deaths.” He laughed cruelly as he dived back underwater.

  Mengy cried a terrified elephant cry as she looked up. Paula joined her in seeing the cave walls were sinking down. Then they looked down to see that the water was rising. Then they both realised that the cave was sinking deeper into the water and they were joining in.

  “Don’t worry, Mengy,” said Paula. “We’ll find a way out of here.”

  But, secretly, she had no idea at all. She had no gadgets to get them out and Mengy’s powers were completely useless in the manacles. What could be done apart from holding their breath as the water took over them?

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Kathy woke up and spat the disgusting wet sand out of her dry mouth. She found that she was lying down on a beach. She hoped there would be a mouthwash nearby for the remains of sand still stuck in her gums. She didn’t know which beach she was at or which part of the world she was in. All she knew was that it definitely wasn’t the one in Blackpool and she wasn’t with her squad mates anymore. As she got up to stroll around the beach, she tried to find them but there was nothing except cold and damp sand. She also began to wonder how she got away from those terrible squids in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean and stranded on this beach. And quickly too.

  On the one hand, Kathy was glad that there wasn’t a single human in sight because there was nowhere to hide and she would be forced to kill them if she was discovered. She was lucky that Adofo from Egypt was very understanding, but she reminded herself that the whole world wasn’t like him. Then the other hand told her that she needed to find some help to know where she was and continue the search for Lukeson.

  Then something caught her eye. The closer she ran to it, the more she saw it was a person she knew.

  “Larissa!” And it was.

  Kathy ran and knelt to the little penguin to check her tummy. She opened the beak and threw air down her throat. Then she pushed down on the tummy really hard. After performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation Larissa multiple times, the zebra sadly decided to give up. She sat down and buried her head in her hands. Despite being a soldier who fought in many battles, handling death of others was not one of her strong points. Three years ago, she lost Petunia. Eight days ago, she lost Rachael Rhodes. And now, five minutes ago, she lost Larissa. Only now did she realise that she was so blinded about the deaths of Petunia and Rachael that she never knew how much her fellow squad members meant to her, especially little Larissa. Only now did she realise that the young penguin was like a little sister to her. Maybe even like a daughter. Kathy never knew what was so inspiring about herself that Larissa always kept looking up to instead of Paula and Pedro.

  Kathy started to think where the rest of her friends could be. Because she didn’t have her own G.C.A. weapons and gadgets, she couldn’t track them down. She wasn’t worried very much about Mengy because she was magical and could probably magic her way out of anything and Paula was a technology genius that could hack into anything and destroy the deadliest computer viruses or even create them. Kathy still hoped they would be all right. She didn’t worry too much about Rustom because he was indestructible and the rudest creature she had ever worked with, though she still hoped he was okay.

  Kathy was more worried about Lukeson because, despite being so motivating and inspiring, he had no special powers and was not immortal. She was worried about Pedro because he was young and had never been the brightest of the squad. But the one she worried about the most was Stu Pot. Even though she kept denying to everyone including herself, deep down, she knew she had feelings for the Scottish zebra. He did have problems and was unconfident about himself, but she still found him to be handsome and an effective leader; the right one to take over from Lukeson. There were many things she admired about Stu Pot, but the one thing she mostly admired about him was his caring and considering-of-others attitude to everyone he ever met except his enemies, though he gave them a chance first to negotiate before having to take their lives whenever he could. And what was upsetting her most was that she never had the opportunity to ask him out on a date… yet, hopefully.

  Then Kathy heard coughing. She turned around and saw water spitting out of Larissa’s beak. The young penguin started to cough as she opened her eyes.

  “Are you okay, Larissa?” the zebra asked.

  “I’m mad!” cried Larissa.

  “Well, we are dehydrated. Maybe our brains aren’t working at their best. That could be why.”

  “No! I meant I’m mad at that brainless, carefree, happy-go-lucky, put-others-at-danger-when-he-acts brother of mine!”

  “Well, just focus on the fact that you’re still alive,” said Kathy.

  Larissa got up and looked around. “Where are we?”

  “It looks like Cocoa Beach to me,” Kathy guessed. She remembered reading a book about beaches around the world at the Blackpool G.C.A. library.

  “As in Florida?” asked Larissa.

  “Yes. But why we’re here, I don’t know.”

  “Maybe we were just magically teleported away when we killed those squids.”

  Before she knew it, all Kathy could see was the inside of the paper bag. Then her hands were tied together. “Larissa! Larissa! Run!”

  “Shut up and get your tail moving!” The voice was female.

  Kathy tried to kick her capturer with her legs, but they got kicked themselves by a lot stronger legs. So strong that her stripy legs were badly bruised. But there was something about those kicks that made her think she recognised those feet.

  Then Kathy got shoved off the sand and onto something higher. She thought it was a vehicle and was proven right when she felt she was moving and the bag was taken off her head. She discovered that she was in the back of a decorator’s van. It was full of used and dirty paint brushes and empty paint pots. When her hands were cut free from the strong ropes, Kathy turned around and attacked her capturer. Then both her right leg and her right arm were held by large scaly green hands.

  “Is that any way to welcome a friend back from the dead?”

  Kathy stopped resisting and took a moment to see who was holding onto her legs.

  “Rachael?” After blinking her eyes thrice to check she wasn’t daydreaming and her brain was working proper, Kathy knew she had no doubt that she was seeing her deceased crocodile friend Rachael Rhodes alive and in front of her and in her British Army uniform.

  “Yes, Kathy, it’s me,” said Rachael, letting go of the zebra’s hand and foot. “And no hard feelings for assaulting me for kidnapping you and Larissa.”

  “And no hard feelings for bruising my feet.”

  The best of friends laughed and happily embraced each other. Word
s could not describe the wonderful feeling Kathy hadn’t had since she thought Rachael had died. She felt happiness and hope had returned to her front door after a very long while. She felt that she had banished her stress and depression for good. Then she remembered. “Larissa?”

  Rachael pointed to a loose sack bag on the floor. Out came Larissa, gasping for air. Then she thought she was still unconscious when she saw the crocodile. She couldn’t believe she saw her thought-to-be-dead friend alive and well. “Rachael? Can it be? I don’t believe it!”

  “Nice to know you’re still you, Larissa!” Rachael greeted.

  They laughed and high-fived each other.

  “But how did you survive, Rach?” asked Kathy. “We saw you die and gave you a sea burial.”

  “I knew that killing Akins would not be the end but rather the start of a war,” said the crocodile. “So, against my instincts and pleasure, I felt that I had to fake my death to go out and investigate on this case further. So I knew that I would be in a wooden coffin when you guys thought I was dead. When it went underwater, I connected my portable control panel to it and I was able to move it away.”

  “Portable control panel?” Larissa said.

  Rachael went to a small shelf and fished out a plastic mini control panel with a red and a green button and a black wheel. It was no bigger than a toddler’s toy wheel, but it was more powerful and dangerous than it looked. “A little gadget I borrowed from your aunt, Larissa. I steered the coffin away so I could continue this mission.”

  Despite being overjoyed about her best friend not being dead, Kathy was still puzzled. “But that pike that went through your heart?”

  “Didn’t you notice it was only a piece of wood that only scratched the surface of my skin?”

  “And the hole in your body and the blood rushing out?” asked Kathy.

  “Remember when Pedro fooled us with that fake internal bleeding toy he used to avoid going to school for three weeks?” said Rachael.

  “Not really,” said Kathy.