The Murky Water Syndrome
Part 9: The Jaws Of Death
Zed paced his office, what was taking his agents so long? He had to admit, but only to himself, that he was a bit worried about their safety. Even with Kay on the job, he was only trained to fight aliens, not sharks. Zeeltor accompanying them didn't ease Zed's mind a bit, if anything, it worried him more. Finally Zed sighed with relief as the volunteers cautiously waded out onto the main floor. It puzzled him a bit when he noticed Elle in X's arms. Was she leaning on him for support or---he didn't even want to think about any other reasons she might have for letting him touch her like that.
"There's our fourth shark." Yazmine stated when she spotted the dorsal fin of the hammerhead sticking up out of the somewhat shallow water. "Darts ready? We've got to nail this thing on the first try or whoever it charges is dead meat."
"Do ALL you scientists talk like that?!" Jay shouted, backing off towards the hallway again.
"Not so fast Slick," Kay called, grabbing Jay by the collar and pulling him back into the room.
X took the dart out of his pocket, "Don't worry, I'll head up to Zed's office with Elle and if anything swims up…" he twirled the dart around in his fingers, "…I can handle it."
Elle was lost in her own thoughts, she wasn't worried about the hammerhead, she had bigger fish to fry.
"There you are!" Agent I screamed from on top of a large floating desk, "In case you haven't noticed, we've got a little problem here!"
"No kidding," Kay nodded, drawing the dart out and wading towards the shark.
"KAY?!" Jay yelled to his partner. Kay may as well have been a zillion light years away. Jay shook his head when his partner continued wading towards the shark. "Dude's gonna get himself eaten."
"Give him some credit Jay," Val scolded, "the man's a professional."
Kay could still hear Val and Jay's conversation, although he almost twenty five feet away from the shark, or where it was last seen…
Zed and the other agents and aliens were watching the dramatic scene from his office. The water was so murky that one couldn't tell if the shadows seen were furniture or something worse. 'Careful Kay,' Zed thought as he gazed at his old friend. Something large and dark was indeed making it's way up to him from beneath the water's surface. In fact, it was about to surface, right behind him, "KAY! WATCH OUT!" Zed shouted, banging his fists against the glass.
Kay noted the noise and turned. The thing approaching him surfaced, water running off it on all sides, Kay let out a slight gasp.
Jay had shut his eyes, Val buried her face into his shoulder. When he didn't hear screaming Jay opened his eyes. "It's luggage." Jay laughed nervously, "Just some extraterrestrial luggage."
Val took her head off Jay's shoulder and tried to hide her reddened face, "You'd think that these tourists would keep up with their stuff," she mumbled, pretending she hadn't turned to Jay for help.
Kay sighed a little but his relief was cut short by sudden screams from a few counters down. "SHARK!" one English speaking alien shrieked as his companion was swallowed, nearly whole, by the large hammerhead.
X cringed at the bloody sight and held his hand over Elle's eyes. "I've seen this kind of carnage before you know?" she shouted with annoyance.
A few of the female aliens wept while the men held them away from the water. Agents stood atop anything sticking outing of the water, panic stricken and without a clue as to how to react.
'Oh for the love of---it's just a shark attack people!' Elle wanted to shout out loud. They couldn't have expected something that horrendous to be pretty! Elle shook her head and turned to Yazmine who also seemed unaffected by what happened. "If everyone doesn't get themselves together that alien won't be the last casualty today!" Yazmine called. This seemed to snap Kay out of his momentary state of shock. He gripped the dart tightly and dove in after the shark.
The agents and aliens watching from above saw a magnificent struggle between man and beast. To be more specific---between Agent Kay and an enormous hammerhead shark.
Kay didn't seem to be fairing well against the creature. It had plenty of furniture and support beams to ram the agent into. It's thrashing made it almost impossible for the poor man to hang onto it's dorsal fin (the way he'd seen Elle do), Kay stabbed at the shark's mouth, missing each time. Jabbing it in the eye once, causing it to sling him off into the water. Kay let out a surprised noise as he was sent flying through the air and splashing down a good thirty feet away.
"Oh dear," Zeeltor frowned, "I don't think Agent Kay can handle that shark on his own. He really needs assistant. Otherwise---the prognosis isn't good!"
Jay looked around and saw everyone staring at him, "ME?!"
"I've kind of got my hands full!" X grumbled, lifting Elle up slightly.
"He is your partner Agent Jay," Zeeltor smiled.
Val wasn't paying attention, she was looking around, "Where's Yazmine?"
Yanei stared in the direction of the shark (which was rapidly approaching Kay), "She's out of her mind!"
The dorsal fin was barely out of the water, the agents and aliens could see nothing more. Well, Kay could see more, but only because of how close he was. The shark drew closer and opened wide. "KAY!!!" screams came from all around. Kay couldn't focus on those screams now. He had to concentrate, to drown out all the noises around him, if he didn't…well, he was doomed.
The shark's head sprang forward out of the water, Kay was inches away from the jaws of death. He stabbed the shark's jaw with the dart, at least he'd go down with a fight.
Yazmine's claws dug into the shark's fin, it was her chance to maneuver it away from Kay. Her only chance.
"What in the name of Guloptorse does she think she's doing?!" X said aloud to no one in particular.
Elle watched, she knew that Yazmine was an expert, but dealing with sharks and being unable to swim…that worried her. "Hopefully, she's saving Kay."
Yazmine held on tightly, it didn't look good for Kay. The hammerhead had it's bottom teeth caught on his sleeve.
"Who's idea was it for long sleeve suits anyways?" Delia muttered, staring at the scene. R had his arms wrapped around her, just in case the crazy little human tried something insane like rushing in on the struggle.
The shark's thrashing was dying down. Kay's sleeve had been torn off from just above the elbow.
Yazmine finally let go and was thrown into the water.
Kay swam around the shark, intent on saving Yazmine. It's tail whipped around and knocked him hard in the stomach. He was sent sprawling back into a counter. "Ouch!" the other volunteers cringed.
The shark was belly side up by the time R and X waded over to Kay. Elle had been deposited safely on top of a desk where she watched the scene as Kay was reluctantly drug away from the shark and forced back towards herself, Jay, Delia, and Val. Something was off, there were no cheery helpful suggestions from Zeeltor. He seemed a bit devastated as Elle watched him stare at the bloody water. "Zeeltor?" Elle called softly.
He didn't hear her, he was fixated on the spot where Yazmine had been thrown beneath the murky water. Delia had noticed Zeeltor's less than merry expression too. She was puzzled at first, the water wasn't all that deep, surely Yazmine could swim out…then it hit her, four sharks down, one more to go.
"Yazmine?!" R looked up when he heard Delia's frantic cries. Zeeltor was looking down at the water now, a saddened expression on his usually cheery face.
Once he and his cousin had finally hauled Kay to safety they turned and waded back to find Yazmine. "Delia, stay there where it's safe!" R begged her as he turned to leave again.
"How does he know it's safe here?!" Delia griped to herself.
She turned to sulk off to where Elle was lying down and caught a glimpse of Zeeltor out of the corner of her eye. A twinge of sorrow washed over her, he looked---heartbroken.
Zeeltor stared at his blurry expression in the murky water, why hadn't he gone out to help Yazmine? Why had he let his assistant swim out there and risk her life in the first place, knowing perfectly well that she couldn't swim? Yazmine and Zeeltor hadn't always seen eye to eye on everything, especially in the ethics department, but he still cared about her safety. If only he had it to do all over again, he'd do something different to save her life. If only he could bring his dear assistant back somehow. How would he break it to Blitz? And LUCY?! His lovable little bacteria had certainly taken a liking to the scientist and now---
Right on cue something broke through the surface of the water right in front of Zeeltor, right through his reflection.
All the other volunteers, agents, and aliens leapt back, thinking it was another shark. The Great White! Zeeltor merely stared down in front of his chest in wonder, "YAZMINE!"
Elle smiled as the good doctor through his arms around her. Embracing his assistant and holding her tightly. "It's nice to see you too." Yazmine chuckled after spitting out the last of the water.
"Hey Doc!" Jay exclaimed happily, "You're okay!"
Up in Zed's office there were sighs of relief all around. At least the worse case scenario hadn't occurred.
Or had it?
With all the volunteers distracted there was nothing to stop the gigantic terror lurking just beneath the surface, swimming towards two unsuspecting life forms, perhaps even seeking revenge. Nothing would oppose it, no one could get in it's way…except one blonde human who had witnessed all the carnage before.
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