Hi everyone! I'm back! Sorry for the long wait, my family has been moving houses like you wouldn't believe! So we've basically been packing and unpacking like crazy. Story of my life..
Well, anyway, here's chapter 12! (trumpet fanfare!) I made it longer than the others, like some of you guys requested, and I hope you enjoy it. ^_^
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot and my OC Eden. I just hope I've done the great Herge justice! :)
Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus made it on deck just as the gangplank began to draw shut. The Captain spared a few seconds to pant and recover, and then he tugged the oblivious Professor around a familiar corner to hide their presence from the oncoming shipmates.
We need to find a way to hide from or blend with the crew," he whispered to the professor.
"Taming of the Shrew?" Cuthbert asked incredulously. "A play? At a time like this? Pull yourself together, Captain! We must find poor Snowy and bring him to the vet!"
Haddock groaned, realizing that he'd forgotten who he was talking to. He shook his head, not bothering to waste another breath. Seizing Calculus by the collar of is trenchcoat, he ran swiftly but silently to the stairs that led belowdecks, ducking behind walls and into corners every time a familiar shipmate came into view.
"So, what? Are we just going to stay here and twiddle our thumbs until the Captain shows up?" Eden demanded, resigned.
"No, we're not," Tintin answered, pulling the girl up to her feet. "We're going to get ourselves out of this hold and find them on board before they give themselves away."
"And what do you propose?" Eden inquired, raising a testy eyebrow.
"Oh, I could propose a lot of things," Tintin replied, his lips turning up at the corners. (A/N: sorry, I just had to! I couldn't help but make him have the mind of a normal 18 year old bloke! No hatred, please!) Eden rolled her eyes, but reddened nonetheless. "But for now," the young man went on, "I think we should try to use these chains as some sort of rope to climb from the hold to belowedecks."
"Right," Eden said. "That sounds like a plan."
"And we can talk about those proposals later," Tintin added jokingly.
"Oh, shut up," Eden snapped.
Tintin chuckled, reveling at seeing his rival made uncomfortable, and picked up the chains.
"You take one end, and I'll take the other," he instructed. Eden complied, gathering up her end of the chainmail. "Now pull," Tintin continued. "I want to see how long this is. I wonder if we can escape the same way Snowy and I did the last time."
"Sounds perfect," Eden remarked, pulling her end of the chain and making her way to the door of the hold. Tintin went towards the porthole. Between them were several feet of chainmail.
"I'd hazard about twelve feet," Tintin mused, surveying the length between the two of them. "This should do. I've worked with far less before and it worked out for the best. Although Captain Haddock did end up with a bit of a bump on the head afterwards."
"We're talking about the ropes, right?" Eden asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course, what else?" Tintin returned, smirking. "Why, Eden Angelica Irvine, I never!"
"And here you were, pretending to not know my name," was Eden's mild rejoinder.
"Now where on this rusty tub do we go?" Captain Haddock grumbled. "It's crawling with sea rats!"
"Gnats? Where?" Calculus asked, waving away the invisible insects. He swatted the poor captain's nose.
"Billions of bilious blue barnacles!" he exclaimed. "You deaf nutcase, you! Watch where you wave that insufferable hand of yours!"
"Who's there?" a harsh voice called, echoing down the corridor. Footsteps were heard clanking against the metal floors, approaching the clandestine intruders quickly.
Captain Haddock, realizing his blunder, grabbed Calculus once more, pulling him into a darkened storage room. Listening carefully, he covered the oblivious professor's mouth with is hand. As the footsteps faded down the corridor, the captain breathed a sigh of relief and ducked out of the storage cabin, followed closely by Professor Calculus.
They made their way down the hallway as silently as they possibly could, reaching an area of the ship that grew exceedingly familiar as the Captain neared it.
He reached for the knob of one of the cabins and turned it, entering the chamber with the curious yet clueless Calculus in his wake.
"All right, are we ready to do this?" Tintin asked Eden and Snowy as he bound the pieces of plank together with the chains.
"Quite ready," Eden answered as Snowy yipped excitedly. "But the only problem is that I have no idea how to climb a bloody chain rope."
"Well, it's quite simple, really," Tintin explained. "Think of it as a ropes course in games period. You have to secure your legs around it and keep pushing yourself up, And in any case, you won't be doing much climbing."
"How's that?" Eden enquired.
"I'm going to go up first and then I'll pull the chain up, bringing you into the cabin with it," TIntin replied, making his way over to the porthole with the planks of wood. "Not very heavy, are you?"
"What kind of a rude question is that?" Eden sputtered, looking indignant.
"Oi, it was just a joke!" TIntin protested. "Snowy, are you ready, boy?"
The small terrier barked joyfully, climbing up onto his master's back. He slipped into the back of Tintin's trenchcoat, keeping his paws tightly fastened to the young reporter's neck.
"All right," TIntin said, taking the length of chain and sticking his head out of the porthole. He eyed the one above as best he could and took a deep breath, hoping for a hole-in-one. He held up and the blanks and threw them, listening for the sound of a clang to know whether or not the plank would return. There was none. So he pulled on the chain, feeling an unyielding yank back from above.
"Good?" Eden asked.
"All good," Tintin responded, ducking back into the storage hold. "Wish me luck."
"Good luck," Eden said, feeling quite anxious.
"Oh, get that look off of your face," Tintin chided. "I'll be fine." He pushed himself out of the porthole, Snowy on his back, clinging to the chains for dear life. "Right, I'm off!"
"Captain Haddock, what a wonderful surprise!" a familiar mate exclaimed, the sarcasm very evident in his voice. "Have you figured out whether you sleep with your beard over or under the sheets?"
"How did you know we were here?" the Captain demanded.
"Tintin never does anything without backup, Bluebeard. Give us enough credit to figure that much out," the mate retorted. "And what backup indeed! A drunken old swab and a barmy professor."
Captain Haddock had very nearly forgotten about the presence of the professor. At his mention, inspiration struck.
"He called you barmy," the Captain said, nudging the old man. "Barmy, you old goat!"
"GOAT?!" the Professor shrieked, all of his hair standing up in a manner reminiscent of an electrocuted cat. "How dare you use such language on me, you undereducated upstart!"
With this, the professor went completely berserk (see: Destination Moon). Hoisting his umbrella up, he aimed a blow at the captain, who cleverly ducked behind the shipmate. The poor henchman bore the blunt of the ferocious blow, crying out loudly in pain as he crumpled to the floor, quite stunned.
Captain Haddock took the umbrella from the Professor and whacked the mate over the head once more for good measure.
"Now help me move him," he said to Cuthbert, bending over and squaring his feet.
"Improve Jim?" the professor asked, his eyes wide and unblinking. "Who on Earth is Jim?" He had apparently overcome his rampage and had returned to his normal state of docile hard-of-hearingness.
"Never mind," the Captain grumbled.
So? What did you think? Liked it? Read and Review please! And no flames, I'm still a fanfic baby. T.T Well, stay tuned for more!