Another little random story, this time for the wonderful Stingray!
Disclaimer: I do not own Stingray!
"Hey Troy?" A thick Southern drawl cut through the silence.
"Yes Phones?"
"Did you know that bananas are curved because they grow towards the sun?"
Troy blinked slowly, trying to process what Phones had just said to him. He rolled his eyes in response, readjusting the cushion behind his head and pressed back against it, trying to get comfortable. All Troy wanted to do was have a nap in peace during the little free time he had in-between work shifts aboard Stingray, but Phones clearly had other ideas.
"Oh wow, skipper! Did you know that it's illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day in the UK? Those Brits sure are strange." Phones chuckled and turned over the page to read more silly facts aloud, not realising that Troy had started to doze off.
Troy felt himself slipping away to the lull sound of Phones droning on and soon he drifted off into sleep. But before he could completely settle down into a peaceful slumber, he was abruptly woken up by the sound of a high pitched scream, startling both him and Phones. The two aquanauts shot to their feet, running in the direction of the main control room towards where they could hear Atlanta screaming.
Troy and Phones abruptly arrived in the control room to see Atlanta standing on top of her chair, endeavouring to get as far away from the floor as physically possible. Marina had also taken to her friend's chair and although confused to why the older woman had started screaming in the first place, she had naturally become alarmed at Atlanta's fear so had scrambled up the chair after her, clinging onto her legs as not to fall off of it.
"G-Get it away! Get it away!" Atlanta's wobbling arm pointed at the floor signalling that the culprit was somewhere nearby.
Troy's eyes darted along the floor to see what Atlanta was referring to. "Get what away, Atlanta?"
"T-That thing! Get rid of it, please!"
Troy shot a glance at Phones who shrugged his shoulders half-heartedly, starting to search around for whatever the auburn haired woman was scared of. "Is it a spider?"
"N-No, much worse!" Atlanta whined, closing her eyes tightly. "I-It was big and ran straight for me!"
Troy raised an eyebrow and looked up at Marina, who was still looking a little bewildered as to what was going on. "You okay, honey? Do you know what scared Atlanta?"
Marina just shook her head slowly, shrugging her shoulders and cluelessly pointed towards one of the desktop control panels, hoping to help solve the mystery.
"Is it underneath there?" Phones narrowed his eyes and ducked under the desk, finding nothing out of the ordinary. "Well it's not here, skipper." He shuffled back out and stood up again.
"T-Try over there! I think I saw movement!" Atlanta pointed a trembling hand towards a control panel on the wall. Phones and Troy moved towards it and Troy gently kicked it, trying to entice whatever it was to come out. For a few minutes, nothing moved and Phones got onto his knees to see if he could find the creature, then suddenly burst out laughing, apparently finding the source of Atlanta's distress.
"Why, it's only a mouse!"
"A mouse? Oh Atlanta, how could you be so scared of a mouse?" Troy laughed as Phones managed to remove the mouse from under the control panel, causing it to run across the room.
Atlanta squealed and closed her eyes tightly. "Hurry up and get rid of it!"
"Alright, alright, I'm sortin' it." Phones replied coolly. "Hey Troy, do you reckon I could use Commander Shore's lunch box to catch it?" He asked, pointing at Shore's lunch box which the Commander had left on the table in the lounge area.
"I don't see why not. Just remember to take out his food first, alright?"
"Of course I will Troy, I'm not a savage." Phones walked through the double doors leading to the lounge and grabbed Shore's lunch box, taking out his lunch and placing it on the table before walking back. "Now then, where did that little critter get to?" He looked around.
Marina pointed to another set of control panels and Troy nodded his head, confirming that the mouse had in fact ran under there. Phones made his way over to the controls and ducked down, seeing if he could see the mouse. Once he had found it, the aquanaut managed to use the lunch box to corner the mouse and then struggled to get the mouse inside of the box. Once he caught the mouse inside, he loosely placed the lid on top of the lunch box to keep the mouse from escaping and he wriggled out from under the panel. "Alright, threat eliminated."
"Thank you, Phones. It's much appreciated." Atlanta smiled, finally opening her eyes again.
Troy laughed, helping both girls down from the chair. Marina looked at the lunch box in confusion, still not understanding why her friend had gotten so frightened over this small 'mouse' which appeared so gentle and fragile to her, so looked at Troy for clarification.
Thankfully the aquanaut could understand what she was asking of him and smiled. "A mouse, Marina, is a small mammal. Sort of the equivalent to... a small fish? Uhh... or maybe a squid. Anyhow, they're harmless creatures but Atlanta's still scared of them."
Marina mutely laughed and shot an amused look at Atlanta, who had gone completely red.
"W-Well, it's not my fault I'm afraid of mice! Besides, it's not just me - a lot of people are! I even heard a rumour that the socialite Lady Penelope is afraid of them!"
Phones snickered and crossed the room, "Okay Atlanta, we believe you."
Atlanta just pouted and sat back down in her chair, defeated. Marina walked over to Phones and glanced into the lunch box, looking at the mouse. She smiled, finding the animal to be rather cute, and then began considering keeping it as a playmate for Oink.
Phones seemed to read her mind and shook his head. "Sorry Marina but I don't think Oink would get along well with the mouse. He'd probably try to eat him!"
Marina opened her mouth in a gasp and looked over at Troy, who also nodded his head in confirmation. The mute sighed and gesticulated to Phones asking if she could come and see him release the mouse back into the wild, which he happily agreed to.
Before the two could make a move, Commander Shore wheeled into the control room with Lieutenant Fisher walking behind him, holding a stack of paperwork. Phones quickly hid the lunch box behind his back, knowing that Commander Shore would not appreciate that it was being used as a mouse trap.
The Commander narrowed his eyes at the gathered aquanauts, pointing at Troy, Phones and Marina. "Aren't you three supposed to be on break?"
"Well we still are, Captain. We just wanted to say hi to Atlanta, since she was in here on her own." Troy lied.
"Yes sir, totally not catching mice or anything." Phones put in, wincing when Troy subtly elbowed him for making such an obvious statement.
"Catching mice?" The Commander snapped, glaring at the trio.
Marina stepped forward and decided to purposefully gesticulate a story to the Commander which he wouldn't be able to understand, confusing him even more. Shore raised an eyebrow and looked at Fisher for clarification. "What did she say?"
John stared at the aquanauts before him and noticed how Troy was intensely staring at him, obviously wanting him to make up a lie to his boss. Fisher was smart enough to figure out that they'd caught a mouse in the office but didn't want to tell their commander for some reason. "Um... I think Marina was trying to tell you that... uh... Atlanta was teaching her about the three blind mice!" He stuttered, "Y-You know, the nursery rhyme? I think that's what Phones meant by catching mice?" He sweatdropped, hoping Shore would believe his reading.
Shore studied Marina who nodded her head and he gave her a small smile. "Alright then." He looked at the two aquanauts and mute mermaid, "Me and Fisher will take it from here. You three get back and enjoy the rest of your break - you're on duty in forty minutes." Shore turned and wheeled himself over to the radio, leaving Fisher to exhale loudly. Troy shot him a thankful look and the trio left the room, with Phones still holding the mouse in the lunch box.
Once the control room doors had shut behind them, all three members of WASP let out a sigh of relief. That had certainly been a close call. Troy walked over to the sofa and face planted it, leaving his legs up in the air as he pondered what could've happened if Shore found out they'd caught a mouse in his lunch box. He slowly turned on his side to see Marina giggling at him and Phones making his way over to the door which led outside to free the mouse.
"That was way too close for my liking." He said, "But at least it's over now." Troy shuffled the cushions about and resumed his original pose, laying on his back with his head against the cushions resting on the armrest. Marina stood by the arm of the chair and patted his head then looked over at Phones, watching as he freed the mouse from the box. Soon the Southerner stepped back inside and made his way over to the sink, thoroughly disinfecting and washing the box so that he could place the commander's lunch back inside of it.
Phones was just about to do just that when the doors leading to the control room shot open with Commander Shore sitting in the doorway. He looked over at Phones and then over at his lunch which had been unceremoniously dumped on the table, no longer in his lunch box. "What in the blazes do you think you're doing?"
Troy and Marina shot a horrified look at one another, trying to think up a viable excuse to explain why Phones had Commander Shore's empty lunch box in his hands, but both knew the task would be impossible since Shore wanted an immediate answer from the trio and they had ran out of time.
Phones gulped and scratched the back of his head nervously.
Boy was this one gonna to be fun to explain!