Gamma Accidents #2: Creatures from the Deep

by Erin Sheena Byrne

  Doubt began to seep in. What if this was not the right place? Ethan's photographic memory had never failed before. But Ethan could only remember where they parked the Duck, he didn't know exactly where Jack went while following the jellyfish.

  It had to be here: Jack hadn't imagined the whole thing.

  If his sight (enhanced though it may be) couldn't find anything, then maybe a different sense would improve his chances of success.

  Tentatively, he stretched out his free hand and began inspecting the empty water around him, swimming slowly, hoping he would stumble upon something - anything - to further unravel this mystery.

  As he blindly dabbed about through the water, he began to wonder if what he had seen was even real. What if those jellyfish were just the product of some elaborate light show? What if there was nothing more to this entire story than some over-the-top special effects master pulling a stunt? What if -?

  "Aha!" Jack exclaimed with triumph as his fingers brushed against something smooth and solid. The victorious little shout came out as nothing more than a string of bubbles, floating to the surface.

  Glass. His fingertips most definitely felt glass. Carefully, he swam down, towards the seabed, keeping his hand on the cool, smooth glass all the while, afraid that if he so much as moved his hand away an inch, it might disappear.

  Now that he knew where to look and what he was looking at, he could see the faint distinction between the water and the glass. If it weren't for his enhanced sight, he would never have noticed.

  Relying on his sense of touch to guide him, he followed as the glass curved, all the way to the ocean floor. He moved along the perimeter of the glass dome until he came across an area where the structure abruptly protruded, much like the entrance to an igloo.

  Jack quickly realized this protrusion must have been the airlock he had seen the previous night.

  Slowly, he traced his way to an opening. A simple, free-for-all opening.

  7

  Jack assumed anyone smart enough to alter jellyfish and enable them to roam freely above water would have an underwater lair swarming with sophisticated security measures.

  But, here he was, staring at an unguarded, door-less entrance.

  With cautious, snail-like speed, Jack swam through the transparent tunnel, remaining painfully vigilant, ready to fend off any security defence this structure could yet contain.

  It wasn't long before the glass tunnel gave way to a wide, cove-like inlet. Despite the lack of security measures, this underwater base was still masterfully crafted. As Jack broke the surface of the shallow water, he marvelled for a moment at the intricate glass construction that vaguely mimicked a beaver dam.

  Jack treaded water and reached a ledge. Pulling himself up, he wasted no time in freeing his friend from the plastic bottle he had not forgotten about for a second.

  As carefully as possible, he placed the bottle on the ground, unscrewed the lid and tipped it on its side, allowing his friend to crawl through the narrow, plastic neck.

  Ty immediately resumed his regular stature.

  "I swear, I have lost all desire to visit amusement parks," he said, looking a little dizzy.

  "Sorry," Jack apologized. "I tried not to shake you around too much."

  Ty waved it off. "Don't sweat it: let's just... wow," he abruptly interrupted himself as he suddenly realized where they were.

  "It's sure is something," Jack agreed.

  The structure resembled an underwater aquarium: the transparent glass affording a 360 degree view of the clean, sunlit, vacant, shallow water.

  Looking around inside the dome, Jack could see a number of glass passageways splitting off to other areas.

  "We're not here to sightsee," Jack continued. "We're here to figure out why jellyfish are impersonating seagulls."

  "Got it," Ty said, instantaneously reverting back to the matter at hand. "So, what are we gonna do?"

  Jack shrugged. "Snoop around, I guess."

  "Why don't we split up? Cover more ground?"

  Jack frowned and shot a sceptical look at his friend. "Did you just suggest what I think you just suggested?" he questioned, disbelievingly.

  Ty quickly held his hands up, defensively. "Dude, it was a joke."

  "Actually... it's not a bad idea."

  "No!" Ty said, immediately, stressing the word as much as he could. "Nuh-uh. No way. Forget it! That is not a smart plan."

  "But -" Jack began but his friend did not allow him to finish.

  "Dude! Do you want to get us killed? Because splitting up always ends with someone dead. And I don't want it to be me!"

  Jack rolled his eyes. "That only happens in those lame mock-buster movies we watch on Friday nights. Look, it's simple. You go left and I'll go right. We've got lots to see and we'll see more in less time if we each go our separate ways. If you go too deep and you start to feel uncomfortable, just come back here. And if you find some - I don't know - heavily armed and angry henchmen, then just shrink. Nobody's gonna die."

  "Whatever," Ty grumbled as he gave up fighting and marched, reluctantly, off to the left, towards an offshoot of the airlock.

  ~~~

  Based on many movies and TV shows, Ty had developed a clear, mental image of what nefarious, underwater lairs should look like. This place blatantly defied that image.

  He split away from Jack and wandered down a glass passageway. Where the passage led, Ty couldn't even guess.

  Everything was so clean, bright, and transparent that Ty began to think whoever was behind all this couldn't possibly be as bad as he had initially assumed.

  Eventually, the tunnel came to an abrupt T-junction.

  "Oh, great," Ty muttered to himself as his eyes flicked back and forth between his options. "Now I have to make another decision that will inevitably turn out bad for me..."

  Shaking his head and continuing to mumble inaudible grievances to himself, Ty veered down the right tunnel.

  It wasn't as long as the main tunnel, and soon he found himself in another dome, much like the first one Jack and him entered. Except, this one contained furniture.

  A canvass privacy screen stood next to a smooth, wooden wardrobe; an assortment of artistic lighting fixtures followed the curve of the glass dome; a white, oversized, shaggy rug covered most of the heavy-duty metal floor; and a neatly made bed dominated the centre of the glass room.

  No way jellyfish sleep here, Ty thought to himself, smiling, goofily, at his own, internal joke.

  Suddenly feeling like an intrusive trespasser, Ty crept into what could only be someone's bedroom. He began inspecting the surroundings, trying to remember techniques he saw detectives use in movies and TV shows. (Honestly, though, he couldn't remember ever watching a show where a teenager tried to snoop for clues wearing nothing but a damp rash vest and board shorts.)

  Ty made it a point to step as lightly as possible as he carried out his amateur investigation. He walked up to the wardrobe, deciding it would be the only item of furniture in the room that might offer informative clues.

  His first impulse was to simply open the wardrobe doors, but he stopped short, realizing such an action would leave behind fingerprints. Ty did not want to do anything that could create a trail tracing back to him.

  He considered shrinking and slipping through the crack between the doors, but he had no clue how he would navigate inside the dark wardrobe.

  Deciding to look somewhere else for the moment, Ty stepped over to the bed.

  A sleek, modern, wooden frame with neat, clean sheets with an artistic pattern swirling from one far corner to the other. Nothing sinister there. He couldn't even tell if the bed belonged to a man or a woman: the neutral pattern and colours weren't something he himself would have chosen, but they weren't exactly "girly" either.

  Ty gave up there, figuring the bed couldn't give him anything to go on, and focussed his attention on one of the many lamps that decorated the sleeping quarters.

  This lamp stood next to the head of the bed and
Ty realized it must've doubled as a nightstand. Little ledges protruded from the lamp's body, holding various items like a digital clock, a newspaper, and a cell-phone.

  "Aha!" Ty exclaimed, triumphantly, as he snatched the phone up without a second thought.

  Before he could even turn it on and further his unofficial investigation, however, a loud, persistent noise suddenly interrupted the otherwise peaceful silence.

  An alarm?! Ty frantically thought, panic exploding in his chest. Did I just trip an alarm?!

  His mind seemed to switch off as he simply reacted. He stuffed the phone into the pocket of his board shorts, dashed out into the passageway and ran as if a tornado of fire were chasing him until he reached the main glass dome.

  Jack approached, flying like a speeding bullet. Even though he was moving at high speed, Ty still saw the frenzied look on his friend's face.

  "Dude! What did you do?" Ty questioned, unable to eliminate the hysterical tone from his voice.

  "Shrink! NOW!" Jack shouted, urgently.

  Ty miniaturized before he even comprehended Jack's command.

  He felt Jack scoop him up, clutch him tightly in his fist, and Ty just knew his friend had entered the water.

  8

  When Jack wandered down the arched, glass passageway opposite to the one he directed Ty to, he honestly didn't know what he'd find.

  He followed the passageway until he reached a point where the tunnel split off in two different directions. Feeling childish, Jack resorted to playing a quick, mental game kids use to determine the first person to initiate a game of tag. His result: turn left.

  This passageway very quickly gave way to more aquarium styled structures. Jack couldn't figure out what each area was used for, but one vaguely resembled a laboratory.

  Stepping carefully, cringing when he realized he left small puddles of salt water wherever he went, Jack continued to sneak around the glass underwater base.

  It didn't take long for his search to yield results of sorts.

  As he walked along, keeping his eyes peeled for anything that could aid this amateur investigation, a small school of bait fish swam past him. At first, he assumed the fish were in the water just outside the glass. It was only when a stray little silver fish bumped his shoulder that he realized they were swimming in the air, in the tunnel alongside him.

  He whirled around and watched as the school swam through the passageways, easily navigating the twists and turns, determinedly heading somewhere.

  Not just jellyfish, then, Jack mentally noted.

  As he carried on, more and more marine life swam past him. Sardines, tuna, even an octopus pulsed through the air. None of the creatures paid any attention to Jack.

  Eventually, he reached a small, domed area with more tunnels leading off in various directions. Jack turned around and around, dizzyingly trying to decide which passageway to go down.

  Something caught his attention. One of the passageways actually had a door. He'd seen many passageways so far, but he had seen no doors: this was odd.

  Curious, he walked up to it. He examined the handle, realizing there was no way any of the fish could get in here. Only a human would have the dexterity to operate the handle.

  He tried to ignore the sudden rush of excited anticipation as he reached out, curled his fingers around the handle and pulled down.

  The door opened, smoothly. But Jack never got a chance to step over the threshold.

  Within moments of opening the door, an alarm went off.

  Jack immediately covered his sensitive ears.

  As he turned to run away, he saw movement in the corner of his eye. He stopped for a moment and looked around to get a proper view of what his peripheral vision had noticed.

  He picked up his speed when he saw a Great White shark barrelling along an adjacent passageway, headed straight for him.

  Must be the guard dog, Jack thought as he ran, struggling to retrace his steps.

  The robust shark easily closed the distance and Jack instinctively sped up.

  Normally, Jack chose to run if he was going to use his enhanced speed. He had a hard enough time trying to land smoothly when flying as it was; flying at break-neck speeds and trying to land were near impossible for him.

  But he was faster in the air than on the ground.

  He picked his feet up and shot through the tunnels at lightning speed. The shark was much slower than him, but it was determined: he couldn't shake him.

  Jack reached the entrance dome. He saw Ty, looking panicked and confused.

  Ty asked him what he did. Jack responded with a terse command.

  Ty listened, thankfully, when Jack told him to shrink. Jack flew by, scooped his miniature friend up and balled his hand into as tight a fist as he could. Then, he shot like a torpedo into the water.

  ~~~

  "Would you rather... eat raw eggs or... sleep in a haystack, surrounded by chickens?" Bella asked, lazily laying on her back on her surfboard, her head resting on her crossed arms.

  "Eat raw eggs," Ethan replied, unenthusiastically, laying on his stomach on his own board.

  "Nah, I'd sleep in the haystack," Caleb said, softly splashing water between his hands as if he were trying to throw and catch it.

  "Okay, my turn, I guess," Ethan said. "Would you rather -?"

  Before he could finish his question, something shot out the water, right in the middle of the group. Water cascaded around the waiting friends like a fountain.

  Immediately, they snapped to attention.

  "Was that Jack?" Caleb asked, squinting as he tried to visually locate the zooming projectile.

  "Why was he going so fast?" Ethan questioned, confused and concerned.

  As if to answer Ethan's question, something else shot out the water. It disturbed the water, suddenly, causing waves that knocked the three, unsuspecting friends off their boards, into the water.

  "Is that a... shark?" Bella said, quickly bobbing back up and holding onto her board to keep her afloat. A look of bewildered disbelief contorted her soft features.

  "It's chasing Jack!" Caleb exclaimed, scrambling, clumsily, to climb back on his board. "What do we do?"

  "We need to get to shore," Bella said, trying to level her tone and establish some kind of calm. "Jack doesn't have any way of communicating with us, so we're just gonna have to get to the car and follow. I'm sure we'll figure something out."

  The boys asked no further questions and made no more remarks as they followed Bella and began paddling towards shore, eager to assist their friend and brother.

  The adrenalin the situation sparked made them move faster than they would have otherwise. They reached the shore in record time, abandoned their boards without a second thought, and ran up the beach, heading for the carpark.

  "Bella, you drive," Ethan ordered as he fished the jeep's keys out the pocket of his board shorts where he kept them protected in a small, water-tight container and tossed them over to the girl-next-door.

  "What? Why me?" Bella asked, puzzled, as she instinctively caught the keys.

  "Because you're ruthless," Ethan summed up, quickly jumping into the passenger seat.

  "Fine, whatever," Bella gave up arguing and slid into the driver's seat, hastily clipping in her seatbelt, slipping the key into the ignition and starting the engine. "Caleb? Follow Jack."

  "On it," Caleb said, pausing for a moment to visually check if the immediate vicinity was free of onlookers. As soon as he was certain there was no danger of his picture winding up on the evening news, Caleb leapt into the air and began pursuing Jack and the shark, bouncing along the roads of Crashton.

  "Hold onto your holograms!" Bella said with bubbling excitement as she speedily accelerated and mercilessly steered the old jeep through the public beach carpark and onto the roads.

  Ethan did his best not to scream.

  9

  Caleb jumped from point to point along the thankfully vacant roads. He kept his sights locked on Jack and the shark, desperately tryin
g to keep up.

  Caleb did not possess any super-speed abilities like Jack, but he managed to catch up to him, nonetheless, thanks to his ability to cover large distances with a single leap.

  He got closer and closer, until he was jumping right alongside the shark. It was a Great White, he realized. He recognized the distinct two-tone colouring and robust body.

  "Hey, Jack!" Caleb called as he bounced alongside the predator of the deep.

  Jack spared a look over his shoulder, relief tinting his panicked expression when he saw his friend keeping pace with him.

  "Got any ideas, Mission Control?" Caleb asked. Gravity pulled him back down, but he immediately sprang back into the air, constantly propelling himself along.

  Jack waited until his friend reached the peak of his leap before replying. "I can't shake him. He's too determined. I don't know what to do. And I have Ty in my hand," he summarized.

  Again, Caleb fell down to the ground but shot back up into the air. "Pass Ty to me, I'll get him to the others."

  Jack nodded, tersely, and quickly arched upwards, momentarily confusing the shark. He swooped downwards and as he breezed past Caleb, he placed a miniaturized Ty in his hands with surprising gentleness.

  As Jack resumed his aerial game of cat-and-mouse with the large shark, Caleb doubled back and jumped over to Ethan and Bella who hadn't caught up yet, though they were making rapid progress.

  Caleb started bouncing alongside the jeep.

  "Here's Ty," he said to Ethan as he passed his shrunken brother to his older, regular-sized brother.

  Immediately, Ethan twisted around in his seat and placed Ty on the backseat. Caleb hung around, just long enough to watch his brother resume his normal size and make sure he was okay.

  He looked a little shaken and dizzy, but he seemed fine, otherwise.

  "That shark's bent on chasing Jack," Caleb informed Bella and Ethan. "He doesn't know how to get rid of him... her... uh... it."

  "Tell him to lead the chase," Bella told Caleb whilst maintaining steady focus on the road ahead. "It's the only advantage he has."

  "Got it," Caleb said, ready to bounce away and relay the plan.

  "Wait!" Ethan called before his brother got too far. "Give him this," he instructed as he threw a walkie-talkie out the window. Caleb caught it, expertly.