48. Monster Island SOS
Halloween must be celebrated, just not at Lillian's.
Dressed as a ghost, Carly was intent on bringing party food into the decked living room. The party wouldn't start for another hour, Seventeen strolled around the set table, but pretented to walk away when Carly's new waddling step heralded her arrival into the room.
"Don't touch anything," she warned, having already figured him out.
A laptop chimed somewhere, interrupting the music. Carly stepped on to take Krillin's video call.
"Oh! You can't tonight...I'm so sorry you two won't be here Krillin," Carly sighed to the screen.
"Did he really need to use video?"
Seventeen wisely kept himself out of the webcam's field of vision even though he couldn't help but eavesdrop.
It irked him how Eighteen would usually blame him for never making time for her, only to decline the invitation to his little party last minute.
She had no excuses, her army of roommates-free babysitters could have taken care of Marron.
"I know, Carly. Please let Seventeen know it's on me. I was the one asking Eighteen to stay home. Marron has a temperature, I felt she needed both of us here."
They had given up a night out for the sake of their daughter. Seventeen's slight resentment dispelled and was replaced with curiosity about fatherhood. Would he, one day, become Krillin? An overprotective dad who needed not to lose sight of his barely sick child?
/
At 9pm the party was well off.
"Why are you doing this to me? Malibu… "
Brent looked really upset. Lillian had dressed as the coconut liqueur he'd got drunk with two Halloweens before.
"Did you expect, like, a porn nurse?"
Brent conjured up that image of his leggy sweetheart.
"To be honest? Yes."
"Do you know what I should have dressed up as, instead?" Lillian shouted over the music.
"As me! As TOP RANGER. "
Seventeen, who was passing by, snorted in sympathy. Lillian dangled the governor's medal in front of him.
"Suck it, Seventeen! Suck it! "
Elliott was the last to arrive, in the company of his girlfriend.
"Welcome back to the North!"
Brent, dressed as a patriarch/holy man, toasted in honour of the chief MIR.
The pair seemed to have just come out of a game.
"We put our love to the test," Defiance winked, wrapping tubby boy with her long arms. "With a basketball game."
In the Southern continent everyone raved about basketball, that very evening the main team of South City had played against that of the Northern capital.
Elliott clenched his fist, "North City Yetis VS South City Dragons."
That innocent conversation reached the ears of the master of the house, causing his heart to rise in his throat.
"What is Dragons?"
Elliott was pleased to see him, "Ah, Seventeen. I can finally introduce you to my Defiance. "
While the cyborg dressed up as a ninja still thought of the Dragons-marked clothes he had seen in his dream, Elliott's girlfriend stood mesmerized, sizing him up.
"The notorious Terminator?"
Had Elliott told her the latest? Seventeen glared at him.
Defiance felt like interacting with him, but more than anything she was impressed by his eyes. They looked identical to the unmistakable ones on the pictures, but it wasn't in her mother's old albums that the head MIR had come across the Terminator's face.
She thought, thought again.
"You! With your blasted Lambo!"
June. Parking lot in North City.
Seventeen also remembered her, "You made me get the fine?"
/
"And so, I still end up with you."
The ninja leaned against the wall with the Malibu bottle.
"How awkward, Sev."
Lillian looked away. Too many memories.
"I'm sorry, could you just keep away and not talk to me tonight?"
Seventeen understood all too well.
As Lillian passed he touched her butt with the tip of his shoes, enjoying the outraged expression he got in return.
"Yeah, how awkward."
Meanwhile, Elliott had gathered everyone around his girlfriend, he had to show off her superpower.
Defiance felt humbled by that audience requesting her pint trick. When she was done she put down her glass, inhaled and coughed politely.
"Three seconds, folks!" Elliott clapped.
Many tried to challenge her: Leni was too slow, Brent scored the three seconds but a third of the pint ended up into his beard.
Others dribbled, spat, failed.
At that point the defeated Northern tribe only had one last avenger.
"Bring it on, Terminator!" Defiance challenged Seventeen. As a cyborg he must have nice drinking powers, she just wanted to see it.
"Tear her a new one bro!" Brent had to defend his honour.
"That's easy. Twoseconds, two pints. "
So he did, without dribbling or spilling.
"Two seconds. Suck it MIR!" Lillian yelled.
/
In early November, a herd of neoceratops started living in Monster Island.
It had been a step planned for many months, in ten days the dinosaurs had settled in well.
And then the unpredictable had happened: a monster had shown up out of nowhere, attracted by the juicy new arrivals.
It had swooped down on Monster Island and started predating neoceratops.
It was a creature that everyone believed was extinct, it could attack anything on Monster Island, it was far worse than mega-rexes.
Rikki De Villiers had now to handle a mess going beyond the predation of neoceratops: how could anyone handle a monster without killing it?
Although the MIR were the best rangers in the world, the owner of the island had to solve the matter without risking anyone's life. She also had to keep Commander Klintsov from growing impatient and aiming her cannons.
It was a prized creature, in the end.
Rikki knew the Monster Island Rangers one by one, she wouldn't have anyone slain by an eparrowhawk.
However, Defiance was standing there on the doorstep of the dining room, listening to her mother talk about that monster.
"It's decimating the dinosaurs, we should put it down sooner or later. Either us or Malina."
"Daughter, Monster Island is my business and killing goes against our interest and ethos. Think about how bad it would make us look."
Yet, she didn't want the MIR to intervene.
"So how do we solve the problem?" Asked their young chief.
"I'm thinking about it. I might reevaluate the idea of not having you guys face the monster. If not you, who can..."
Defiance kept thinking: as far as out of the box, there was a solution. It was almost obvious.
"Ha! What if I brought someone from outside."
She hadn't gauged the real capacity the solution (drinking aside) but from what Elliott had told her it was worth trying.
"We're lucky, Mum."
Rikki watched Defiance text Elliott; she had kissed and hugged that lad when Defiance had introduced him to the family, but as much as Rikki liked him he looked terribly unfit for the job.
Defiance handed her her cell phone, "Call this number."
She watched her mother's face as she read the contact's name, raising an eyebrow.
"Monster Island and we are in your best interest, right?"
Rikki looked at her daughter's cell phone as if about to authorise the launch of nuclear warheads. "True. But this?"
It wasn't with outside help that Rikki solved problems but the circumstances were desperate and, ultimately, it wasn't a shame.
Rikki trusted her daughter. The best MIR.
Defiance left her cell phone, "Your decision, Mum. Remember you have to be a little flexible."
/
Rikki ended up calling the chief of the Royal Nature Park rangers, she needed no introduction.
"It doesn't matter how I got the number, Mr Dubochet, there's something I need to discuss with you."
"An eparrowhawk, darn it. I thought you were the one dealing with fantastic creatures, Madame De Villiers."
"You've got someone who can help us."
"If you're calling me for my-"
"No, not Miss Dahl. In fact, accept my apologies regarding her."
"What do you want, Madame?"
"...I don't want anything, this is an SOS. I need to borrow the Terminator."
/
No one had ever seen an eparrowhawk but everyone knew what it was, a bit like they knew about phoenixes and dragons.
John summoned Seventeen and told him about Rikki De Villiers's proposal.
"Boy, if you don't make it they're done for."
"I can even ride it, that eparrowhawk creature."
Seventeen saw no reason for failure, although his availability depended on the heavily pregnant Carly. If Carly felt ok with being home alone, he would go. Flying to famous Monster Island would have saved him so much time.
On November 15th Carly kissed Seventeen goodbye, looking even more excited than he did.
"I'm so proud of you! They'll see what you're capable of."
Carly felt it was almost time, but she and the baby were fine. Lapis could go and come back without worry.
Seventeen would take off with John soon, but first he headed to a near-empty pub in downtown Verny, where he had asked his brother in law to meet him
"So sorry I couldn't make it two weeks ago. I owe you one, I figure."
Krillin smiled between mouthfuls of crisps while Seventeen listlessly chewed his burger.
The warrior found the lack of panache odd and studied the cyborg's look, deadpan against the still feisty summer freckles. He couldn't tell whether he was really tense or really disengaged.
Seventeen's child would be born soon, Krillin's gut told him to go with the first.
"My niece or nephew is coming soon...How do you feel Seventeen?"
It was a little too much for the machine-man. At times it seemed almost a cruel joke, to repay him for his many misdeeds.
He grunted softly, "I don't know."
As positive as it was, it was an emotional storm to process. Yet another.
Krillin didn't let him beat himself up, "The month before Marron was born I couldn't sleep at all. Eh eh. Too nervous."
Seventeen wasn't nervous. What was he worried about, though? Becoming Krillin?
Marron had just had a temperature, and her parents had worried.
Hell no, whining over a temperature wasn't sustainable. Or cool.
He was Seventeen, he would always be cool.
"Why am I even thinking this deep?"
He must go straight to the point, "I'm going to Monster Island for work today. Need you to keep an eye on Carly, will you?"
Seventeen said no more about Monster Island and Krillin didn't ask.
The latter had felt tricked into owing him one, at first, but he put all of his empathy at work.
Seventeen simply worried for the mother of his child, but he would never tell: at times, Eighteen and he weren't all that different.
Krillin recalled the last battle and Seventeen rushing to shield him from Cell's corrosive jet.
Seventeen cared. He respected him. No tricks.
Krillin wished perhaps he would have talked to him openly...
"Yeah, yeah sure. Don't worry, you go to Monster Island. Besides, first-borns tend to be late, Eighteen says-"
"Just please keep an eye on her."
Seventeen wasn't sure where Krillin was going. He shyly patted his shoulder and walked away, leaving Krillin to finish his cider all by himself with enough cash to pay for everything.
/
Krillin waited for Carly to open the door, and it was with a puzzled-but-polite look that she appeared at the threshold.
"Hey! I hope Marron's well now, I wasn't expecting to see you,...Wait."
Carly narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms over her bump. "Did Lapis send you?"
Krillin understood that she was a strong mama, strong enough to stay home alone, but he couldn't lie.
"Yes, he did. And it's on me, I owe him one. We stood you guys up on Halloween."
Carly accepted the courtesy, "Fine, come on in. I'll make us dinner."
The warrior stepped between the door jamb and his sister in law's giant stomach, he held her shoulders warmly.
"No don't bother, I'll do."
/
In the South the sun was still shining.
Defiance met Seventeen and John at the port of the capital.
"Thank you for being here. We were expecting you for tomorrow, we thought you would take a plane..."
Rikki and Commander Klintsov would arrive shortly thereafter.
"Greetings, Obedience."
The cyborg made his entrance, provocative but not belligerent.
Defiance had the same desire to play, "Hello to you, T-17."
Shortly thereafter, a white cruiser parted the shallow waters of the port and extended a gangway over the dock. Seventeen covered up with his large hood and followed John and Defiance into that ship which kept his nose up. He wasn't particularly fond of ships, yet that one thrilled him.
Defiance saw that and smiled, "Welcome to the White Star. She will take us to Monster Island."
The MIR girl covered her nose and mouth with a face mask, gave one to John and one to Seventeen: everyone on board had to wear it.
John wasn't expecting it, "Defiance, is there a problem?"
"You never know what germs people bring from all over the world: neoceratops are still delicate, anyone who sets foot in here and on the island must take precautions."
The rescuers from the North had just put on their masks when a woman wearing one studded with rhinestones appeared at the top of a deck.
"It's protocol. I hope you two don't mind if we won't shake hands today."
Rikki De Villiers herself had to come down to play this time.
"This is John Dubochet." Defiance gently pushed him toward her mother, the old man nodded respectfully.
"And this is Seventeen, the big gun."
Between hood and mask, all Rikki could see of the latter were eyebrows as black as a raven's wings, and...
"My! Look at those eyes. If they were to cast someone without a soul for a movie, it would be you."
That was a pretty insulting statement. Seventeen preferred not to react, for the good of all.
"Madame?" Dubochet scolded her.
"Oh forgive me, dear, don't get me wrong. A sister of mine had pale but glowy eyes like yours, they could actually be a little creepy..."
"Mum!" Defiance pleaded.
That sister had been dead for more than two decades. Rikki didn't think she would ever see something like that again, it was almost a shock.
Too bad she couldn't see the rest of his face...
"Did I come here from the North to talk about your sister?"
Those eyes had gone even paler when Seventeen had finally spoken. He wasn't there to hear whining, nor to be aesthetically appraised.
"... Sure, come up to the deck. The Commander will brief you."
/
Malina Klintsov wore a face mask and a uniform, she was short and her fair hair, furtherly lightened by the sun, caught one's attention. She walked briskly, holding a tablet.
"The eparrowhawk is a five-metre wingspan monster bird with a human-looking face and claws as hard as steel."
Seventeen was having a good time with the accent of all those people, they sounded like Kate. He looked on the screen at the illustration of the fantastic creature: iridescent blue plumage, a long neck with a face at the end.
"We have reason to believe that it feels and understands. It's nearly human-clever, be careful."
Malina looked eloquently at his face, no weird comment about his eyes came from her. Seventeen felt comfortable in his mask after all.
All he had to do, Defiance and Malina explained, was to get the monster out of Monster Island. He could pick it up and throw it, he could fight it, it didn't matter.
All that mattered was that he didn't take it out.
"Who wants to see my boat?"
Malina had obviously turned to the kid, who looked unusually still- and very, very impatient-.
He looked grown-up and Malina had no way of figuring out his age, but something told her he was a kid.
Perhaps it was the jaunty, tangerine-coloured scarf that broke the pattern of his all-black biker jacket, jeans, and combat boots.
Malina quickly showed him the control room, the engine room, and the cool cannons.
Seventeen was amazed by the White Star, even though he couldn't help thinking that he could crush those cannons with his foot.
On the island, tourists would not be in the way.
"Eparrowhawk aside, we check the comings and goings with a fine-toothed comb: people can't enter without wearing a mask. If you only knew how many people don't wear masks and still want to come in!"
Were there really people uncivilized to the point not to care about the dinosaurs?
"Yeah, so many don't bother," the commander shrugged. "If it were up to me, I'd shoot at them."
"Sweet."
Seventeen had more or less got an idea of those three.
The old De Villiers, oh please no.
Defiance, meh ok...
Commander Klintsov? Yeah, ok!
"There is the nest." Defiance pointed to a mushroom-shaped structure in the distance.
They had arrived at Monster Island. The ship entered through a canal that led to a lagoon, docked when the water became too shallow.
Seventeen was there for that monster, yet the thought of the challenge wasn't what filled him the most with adrenaline.
The North was different from the Centre, but not radically. When Seventeen had moved it had felt like an extension of home, with a similar climate and light, it was just so much better for him.
Beginning to descend to South City to meet Defiance, Seventeen had seen instead that the South would be a new experience.
Looking around at the brown rocks, cyan water and bright jungle made him feel alive.
The North was home, reassuring. The South was adventure, exciting.
He wondered what had prompted Kate to burn all the bridges, if it was only for Mr Parent.
Seventeen instantly appreciated Monster Island: he thought it could be the place to ask the question for which he had bought the ring long ago.
/
The MIR were stationed with cranes, a tank and even weapons under the hill on which the monster had nested.
The White Star floated not far away.
Some rangers had prepared to receive the intervention of the Northerners with cameras and parabolic microphones.
"Now we have to turn off our cell phones, you two too. Because of interference."
Malina ordered and all the crew obeyed.
Defiance was aware of the situation, "Let Seventeen keep his on. His girlfriend is nine months pregnant."
"Don't worry." Seventeen turned off the phone. It bothered him that people knew his business.
"Go figure!" Defiance hoped that Elliott would never do that, in case.
"Oh boy dear!"
"Congratulations."
Malina and Rikki gasped, Seventeen didn't blame them: with his misfit hooligan face, even he would have found himself hardly credible as a family man.
Everyone was brought back here, now by the screeches of the eparrowhawk: towering in its nest, far more imposing than the biggest mega-rexes, a neoceratops in its claws.
"Another one?" Rikki shouted angrily.
Whenever it saw humans or their tools move, the monster croaked and caused gusts of wind with its immense wings. Although no one could come near, he seemed in pain.
"What happened here?" John could not explain the dump of metal, wood and dented cars scattered under the hill.
Seventeen saw every detail of the monster, even without binoculars.
"You're stressing it out."
Rikki pulled down her large sunglasses, "Come again?"
"You're stressing it out. That's why it's breaking everything."
Defiance felt irritated by his condescending tone. "Well then, go and put some sense into it."
Sooner said than done, before the incredulous eyes of everyone, the cyborg-ranger leaped effortlessly from the White Star to the nest.
/
The eparrowhawk wasn't afraid of the new intruder. He couldn't smell bullets on his, nor did he yell from megaphones.
As soon as Seventeen stomped his combat boots on the nest, the animal locked its large yellow eyes in his, turning its head ninety degrees and emitting a series of clicks and trills.
It was a bit upsetting.
Its face was creepy, most importantly its body was huge.
Seventeen had no strategy to approach a fantastic creature: he began with the poor neoceratops struggling weakly in its claws.
"Man you shouldn't have taken the dino. You must bring it back down."
The monster twisted his neck even more, looking at Seventeen as if to say I don't like being teased.
"What do you want? I have no guns, it's just my water bottle."
The bird stared at him, Seventeen had to toss the bottle. It also seemed to him that he should have uncovered his face.
When he declared that he wouldn't do it, the eparrowhawk raged and flapped its wings.
A small wooden cabin fell down nearby, Seventeen complained of the dust in his eyes.
Malina Klintsov had declared that the monster was sentient: it was probably frightened by the MIR, it looked like it wanted to see the face of his interlocutor before listening to him.
"Okay, I can only take off my hood."
So many binoculars rose from the White Star and from the island as the sun bounced off the silky lengths of Seventeen.
Unfortunately, the act of taking off his hood had upset the monster.
Malina was the first to feel her heart pounding as the eparrowhawk snapped dangerously towards the kid. Seventeen did not suffer the collision with the face of the eparrowhawk: he sat cross-legged in the nest, with his hands raised, waiting for the bird to understand that he wouldn't harm it.
/
Carly had loaded the dishwasher and was preparing to say goodbye to Krillin, although opening the door she saw Brent, Elliott and Lillian coming up her driveway with everything one can need for a long gaming night.
"Did Seventeen told you too to come here?" Carly questioned them.
Elliott shrugged, "Actually this was the plan."
Yep, she had forgotten, they had been planning to have a gaming night for weeks.
Too bad if Seventeen wasn't there.
The gang greeted cheerfully the legendary husband of the beautiful twin sister.
"What's up my man!" Said the tallest Northerner -Brent, that was his name- clapping his hand on Krillin's. "K-dog. Stay and play."
Krillin feared to impose but Carly authorised him to stay if he wished.
She returned the warrior's smile before he walked into the kitchen to notify Eighteen about his change of plans.
Soon, snacks and drinks were laid out all and the five sat nerding before the 60-inch screen. Carly was standing on the couch, in full battle mode with her joystick.
"Imagine if she gave birth now."
Krillin looked at her absently.
"No, it's early." Lillian reassured him.
/
At 11pm Carly had gone to change, Krillin and the gang were taking a break from wild gaming. It was then that they heard a moan.
"What is that?"
"Is it the cat?" Krillin blurted out, but Pencil slept peacefully in her basket.
The sound repeated itself, almost from a distance.
"Maybe someone is having a colic?" Lillian threw it out there.
Everyone looked at each other.
"Carly?!"
They burst into Carly's room, found her brushing her teeth and watching a video on her cell phone.
"Aren't you giving birth?"
"...No?"
Carly heard too, she went out with the others on the balcony.
"Maybe we need to go see if anyone is feeling unwell."
Lillian and Krillin threw themselves out the back door. The chalet behind was the unmistakable source of the moans.
With their knocking, the inside of the house went silent.
"Iris, wait!" A voice called.
The duo came face to face with a petite girl with dyed black hair.
"Are you okay?" Asked the warrior. "We heard-"
"Oh, sorry! I'm ...uhhuuu!"
The girl grabbed her belly, which was as big as Carly's.
Lillian shivered.
"Iris?" A burly man with an Eastern accent hurried through the hall and ran to support her. "Sorry...my wife is in labour."
"Did I wake you up?" Iris gasped, almost regretfully.
/
Everyone could sleep there but Carly had said good night, feeling so enormously uncomfortable she couldn't wait to go to bed.
Snacking constantly for two hours (it accounted as a second dinner) had had her feel like a python that has swallowed a zebra, there was no Coke zero to fix that.
Carly thought she was no longer pretty: her feet had disappeared from her sight, Lapis's shirt fell like a sack on the indistinguishable ensemble of her breasts and belly.
And under the shirt, the skin taut like a drum resembled a city map with blue and green streets. Carly wondered how Lapis didn't find her repulsive.
At around 1am everyone was seriously considering hitting the road, Carly was probably sleeping. But...one more game! There were still a lot of drinks to finish and the wife still hadn't claimed K-dog back.
In the heat of the last game of the night everyone caught Carly tottering awkwardly toward the door, taking her car keys and slipping a bag over her shoulder.
"Lock the door when you leave."
"Ok sista!"
"See you later."
"I'll see you."
Carly left home. Silence fell.
The four looked at each other. "Carly?!"
They hurled after her onto the frozen driveway.
"Carly, wait up. Do you need anything?" Krillin gasped.
Carly aimed the remote and opened the car doors. She stopped to rest for a moment.
"Going to the hospital. My water broke."