A.N:This story is based on one of my many childhood films Atlantis: The Lost Empire, just because I think it deserves recognition and I wanted to create a somewhat more adult version. So, I do not own the plot Atlantis or any of its characters, but anything that you may not recognize is of my own making.
Mira grasped the hand of her life- long friend Doc as she jumped from the army vehicle which had collected her from the back woods of the city, in her hand she clutched firmly to the straps of her duffle bag, and slung it halfheartedly over her shoulder. The bear sized hand of her friend directed her along the gangplank towards the large naval boat, also protecting her from the sharp gazes of the military men around her.
The strong voice of her friend directed her attention.
"I gotta go, my 1'o'clock is waiting, you gonna be okay?"
Waving her hand at him in an 'oh please' gesture earned a smile from him and he gave her a small wave as he threw his doctors coat over his shoulder, and carried on towards the medical quarters.
Re-arranging the strap on her shoulder she trampled towards the loading bay, joining a scurry of men and vehicles. Upon reaching the bottom she gazed upon the sub which she had only seen blue prints of and watched in awe as men were completing final checks.
"Well look who it is?"
Without turning, Mira gave a small smile in recognition of the voice – no doubt belonging to an Italian.
"Well isn't in Vincenzo"
Gazing upon his trolley overflowing with every explosive under the sun, including some of which were some of his own which he had just put together.
"I see you've actually come prepared this trip"
Giving her a sarcastic grin, he pulled her into him and enveloped her into a brief hug.
"Yeah Yeah"
Letting her body go they walked alongside each other to the gangway of the sub, stopping quickly on their journey as a speckled, lean young man with a perplexed expression on his face slammed into the trolley, allowing some items to dash to the floor.
With a sigh, her Italian companion knelt down to pick up a fallen stick of dynamite, and the posted a serious yet playful grin,
"Hey junior, if you're looking for the pony ride it's back there" He gestured behind him, but was stopped as the geeky young man gestured to the dynamite in his own hand.
Taking this as her cue to leave, Mira gave a brief goodbye to Vinny, and planted a small kiss to his cheek, stunning him for a brief moment before he went back to taunting the young man.
Throwing her belongings underneath her bunk bed, not bothering to unpack, she jumped onto the bed, nestling her head into the pillow and letting sleep take her.
Undecided as to whether she was dreaming or not, she heard the sound of the metal room door opening and the sound of steel toed boots trying to tip toe along the floor. Pushing the noises to the back of her mind, her mind went blank again succumbing to sleep, but her eyes jerked open as she felt a strong grip on her ankle, shortly followed by someone pulling her out of bed and onto the cold floor, strong hands followed around her waist and she was thrown over someone's shoulder.
Crossing her arms in annoyance, she turned her head as best as she could to glare at the dark brown eyes of the man looking back at her as he marched down the hallway towards the bridge, she gave the smiling face of the man the finger and then she returned to her helpless position, gazing down at the floor or the man's butt before her.
Vinny gave a small chuckle which vibrated across his shoulders and into the pit of her stomach.
Mira positioned herself on the other side of the balcony so that she could be as far away from Vinny as possible, who kept gazing at her from across the balcony and giving her cheeky winks and smiles, which was always followed by the rolling of her eyes.
Vinny and Mira's entrance provided a ruckus amongst the crew and the bridge filled with laughter.
Giving a small dose of attention towards the geeky young man from before as he started to explain the starting point to their voyage, Mira smiled knowingly as she saw that their expert geologist 'Mole' was glaring at the man. She tugged on Doc's coat next to her and he rested his arms on the railing behind him as he moved his head closer to hers.
"He sat in the dirt didn't he?"
Doc nodded his head, a laugh echoing in the back of his throat.
Mira's mind went hazy as she tuned out the small meeting, the boredom allowing her body to feel sleepy, and she leant back as well on the railing behind her, leaning on her elbows. Her head nodding in and out of consciousness, her arm slipped as a shrieking, grinding sound filled the speakers.
She looked around the crew, and saw that Vinny was shaking his head at her, but the rest of the crew on the bridge and the helmsman's faces where filled with confusion and unknowing. The sound became louder in volume until it stopped altogether; giving a sigh of relief the crew relaxed their shoulders, as they were tense from worry.
Helga Sinclair, a beautiful blonde haired woman was the lieutenant for the voyage gave swift instructions to the crew below, to start changing course and widen the search pattern for anything that may lead to this 'air pocket', which had been described jokingly to the crew, by the geeky man which she know knew to be named Milo, as a grease trap in someone's sink, however his humour fell upon deaf ears of the crew.
Mira walked towards a Spanish looking woman named Audrey, both woman became close friends quickly on the Iceland trip before this one recovering the journal, as they were both around the same age, and both being woman provided a relief for both women. Audrey gave Mira a full blown smile and a wave when noticing her, and both of them went back to leaning against the railing behind them.
Suddenly however, Mira and Audrey were thrown off balance as an unknown force jolted the entire sub with a tremendous force, which threw Audrey over the railing, her hands quickly grasping the metal bars. Turning her head around her and seeing the placement of her friend Mira got to her feet quickly ignoring the huge metallic figure with beaming red eyes shining through the glass panel. Her hands grasped Audrey's and she started to pull her up over the railing, a few times her body had lost its balance and she almost found herself tumbling over the railing as well, but with another huge jolt, a tattered military jacketed sleeves joined hers in grasping onto Audrey's overalls and with a combined effort Audrey was tugged over the railing and fell on the floor next to Mira, patting her shoulder in thanks before sprinting towards the steps leading towards the engine rooms.
Mira gasping for breath gazed up at Doc next to her who was also hunched over, but regained a strong composure as he offered her his hand and tugged her upright.
The bridge was filled with a red aura as the beacons above their heads flashed in alarm.
In shock, Doc grasped onto his fallen doctors bag and pushed her shoulders towards the stairs, the commander and the main crew following suit. Helga held the hatch open to a large escape vehicle as she ushered people with force in side, an angry but worried tone to her voice.
Throwing themselves in, Mira gave a sigh of relief as she placed herself next to Audrey, Doc sitting quickly to her other side. With haste she harnessed herself into the seat. Gazing at the people around her, she swore to herself as she noticed that Vinny and also Mole were not present in the escape pod. She muttered another swear, as she remembered that they were both apart of the attack team in the smaller pods, no doubt attacking the mechanical monster/ 'sea serpent' which was hell bent on destroying everything and everyone.
She gave small screams as large rocks rebounded the outer walls of the pod, and gazing out through the front window she could see that they had entered a small rock tunnel, narrowing in width she gathered as she could hear the scratching and creaking of metal. The pod turned 90 degrees upward as they saw the light of the surface, someone behind in one of the smaller pods, slammed into the back of the larger one, not prepared for the change in course and a large crack snaked its way across the glass.
Like a whale reaching the surface all of the pods crashed through the water, and came to rest on the small waves, upon reaching the dark cave, the hatches of all of the pods opened in relief and the scared and upset faces of the remaining crew members arose from the pods.
Large lights from the main pod zoned in on a large rock serpent with its mouth agape, an eerie road leading up to it.
Floating to the sand, what was left of the crew cascaded down and turned towards the water, all mourning, except Mira looked at the group of soldiers behind the group and wandered what expressions actually etched onto their faces, as their gas masks covered the whole of their faces.
Doc from the corner of her eye knelt down at the water's edge, a helmet turned upside down and within it held a lit candle, and he pushed it out into the water and rubbed his eyes and his face with a large hand and got to his feet. Commander Rourke moved forward, his hands clasped behind his back.
"Seven hours ago we started this journey with 200 of the bravest men and women I have ever known, we are all that's left."
At the last sentence everyone gazed at each other, Mira knelt down beside Doc and helped him bandage an engineer's leg, which had been burned badly during the escape, giving him a small saddened smile in which he returned.
"We've been up this particular creek before, with or without a paddle. From now on everyone works double shifts, everyone drives, and everyone works. Our hope for survival rests on you Mr Thatch, you and that little book"
Milo gazed at the book in his hand and the un-hopeful faces of the men and women around him.
An elderly woman, known as Whilemina Packard, with a radio attached to her back and tendrils of grey hair coming from her helmet where headphones and a receiver sat, puffed heavily on a cigarette, before flicking it out in front of her to the floor.
"We're all gonna die."
Mira sat crossed armed in the front seat of one of the many trucks now in convoy, Vinny sat in the same position next to her as he was banned from driving any of the trucks remotely nearing the huge drill leading the way. However, every few seconds the vehicle jolted as the truck leading the trail, was being driven by Milo, who clearly had no experience driving. The annoyance of everyone in the convoy showed clearly by the constant bleating of horns as well as the shouted curse and insult.
"Stupid idiot" Mira looked to Vinny next to her as he constantly muttered to himself.
Mira huffed at his consistency, and turned to the window.
"Just because he was allowed to drive and you're not."
In the reflection in the side mirror she could see Vinny gazing across at her. She blinked for a second, but felt a small hit to her upper arm, making her jerk in alarm towards the door.
Vinny only smiled at her slightly angered face, and pushed up on his arms as he straightened up to look at what had caused the stopping this time, but he chuckled as he saw that the commander had ordered Milo's truck to be hitched to the back of the huge drill, and the machine carried on with Milo following useless behind it.
Vinny clapped his hands together and threw them behind his head in self-content, pleased with the outcome.
Vinny leant against the truck bed, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched Mira jump from a truck and began stretching her arms and legs, he narrowed his eyes as he watched as many of the soldiers wearing masks turned and watched in her direction, their masks failing to hide their gaze.
Vinny then proceeded to look around at the rest of the crew, Rourke and Helga where sat on two boulders many other crew members around them obviously having a very in depth conversation, which he didn't bother to go join. He watched as Doc did his medical rounds, but his eyes narrowed joyously as he watched the linguist Milo reach into one of the trucks and grab a canister of water, Vinny seeking the opportunity to bully the young man, picked up some of his junk and walked in his direction, winking at Mole as he walked past and giving a nod of indication in Milo's direction.
Milo cleaned his mouth in satisfaction with the corner of his sleeve and sighed.
"You didn't just drink that did you?" Came the worried voice of Vinny as he pointed towards the canister in his hand, in which Milo nodded.
"That's not good that's nitro-glycerine"
Milo froze at the words and began to slowly put the canister down, Vinny put his hands up.
"Just don't move, don't breath, don't do anything – Just pray."
At the last word Mole popped out from behind Milo, and throwing his arms in the air shouted loudly "BOOM!"
At Milo's scared and shocked face Vinny walked past, laughing to himself.
Mira was dusting her pant legs off as she lifted her head as Vinny rounded the corner still laughing at the outcome of his prank.
Mira narrowed her eyes at her friend, and stuck her tongue to her cheek.
"What have you done?"
Vinny calmed his laugh to a chuckle, but gave her a wink and a pat on the shoulder, replying with a simple "nothing"
Mira sat in the background with everyone else as they watched as Milo who was perplexed at a large carved pillar type structure which stood at about a mile high, he was to engrossed in the makings and history of the object that he didn't take notice that the rest of us just saw it as another obstacle, and Vinny grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and put him into a kneeling position beside him as he pushed down on the lever of a red box, connected by a crisscross of wires leading to a small pile of dynamite, which at the command blasted the pillar down across the gap, making a quick but ready bridge to the other side.
Milo stood up in shock, turning his head towards Vinny who was dusting himself off – he couldn't believe that only moments ago he was only telling the man that it would have taken thousands of years to build and carve the structure, but Vinny only shrugged his shoulders and motioned to his work.
"Look I made a bridge, and it took what like 8 seconds – 10 tops."
The rest of the crew didn't have to be told, and where already positioning the vehicles in convoy to cross the pillar. Vinny as if it was second nature to him grasped the outside of the truck that Mira was in and pulled himself through the door, sitting himself next to her, narrowing his eyes at her position in front of the wheel.
The trail of vehicles stopped at a large circular area just before a long curved bridge, over their head was a cone like structure hanging from the ceiling which was glowing yellow – Rourke decided that this would be the best place to stop for the night, but even what would have been night finally came, it made no use as the glowing type chandelier above their heads still shone brightly. Everyone dispersed to get ready to eat.
The main crew sat themselves on an assortment of boulders and boxes, sitting in a circle around a small fire, the group had become close friends due to the Iceland trip before in which they retrieved the journal which allowed Milo to navigate them towards what would hopefully be Atlantis. The group consisted of Doc or Sweet, Audrey, Vinny, Mrs. Packard, Mole and Mira.
The crew was chatting animatedly, but Mira, Sweet and Audrey kept looking behind their shoulders at Milo who was sat alone at a small desk with piles of books and other pages all around him, his face was stressed and tired. The crew had been lately ignoring Milo as of late, due to the fact that he was sort of a newcomer, he once or twice sent them in the wrong direction, he had corrected Audrey on her mechanics; in which was a mistake on his part and to the group he was all around useless.
Sweet sighed and looked at everyone around him.
"I think we're being too hard on the kid."
"Yeah you're right" Audrey said quietly, "Hey Milo! Why don't you come sit with us?"
Milo got up excitedly, bringing the journal and his food tray, which Cookie the mid-western cook had spilled which could only be described as slop over everyone's trays.
"Really you don't mind?"
Audrey motioned to a smaller rock next to her with a wave of her hand. "Nah, park it here."
Milo nodded to everyone in recognition. "Wow thanks, you know this is such an honor " Milo was cut short from his little speech as when he went to sit himself on the rock Mole quickly planted a whoopee cushion, which sound finished Milo's sentence.
Everyone shook their head as Mole fell to the ground, rolling in laughter.
"Mole!"
"Oh pardon me! I could not resist." Mole replied in his non mistake-able French accent, wiping a small tear of laughter from his eye.
Everyone shook their heads at the French man's behavior, all playing with the 'food' on their trays with looks of disgust on their faces.
Mira shook her head and looked worriedly at Milo in front of her, "Milo, don't you ever close that book."
"Yeah you must have read it a dozen times by now." Sweet said, picking up the tray and observing the food on it.
"I know, but it just doesn't make sense, see on this page here the shepherd mentions something about the heart of Atlantis, which could be the power source, but then it just cuts off – like there's a missing page." Milo flicked between two pages.
"Hey kid! We don't get paid over time." Vinny said chucking the tray to the floor at his feet.
"I know, I know – but this is what it's all about isn't it? Adventure, discovery, or-"Milo looked at the disinterested faces around him "unless you're just in it for the money."
Everyone replied with conclusive "Money".
Mira rested her chin in the palm of her hand, and her eyes caught Vinny's as they just continued to stare at each other, not listening to Sweet tell Milo of his American-Indian upbringing and army days.
Cookie emerged from behind a large tent wheeling the large barrel of mixture, the same as before.
"Second course".