AN: To all those living in the U.S. Happy 4th! :)
Jumanji seaQuest Style
by Shell Lee
The darkness surrounding Tony was complete. Not a scrap of light made it to his eyes. He couldn't see anything. He could feel though. He could feel the table something had knocked over on him. He could feel the fresh water that felt strange running over his gills. He could feel the slight eddies and currents that his body made as he moved in the water.
Unfortunately he could smell too. Some people thought you couldn't smell underwater. That was only because to smell you would need the water to run over your old factory nerves, you can't do that without breathing the water. Tony didn't consider it a good thing right then. He could smell the bat shit in the water. He could smell his own blood. And there was something in the water that smelled like fresh cut plants.
Time slowed down to a trickle. There was no way to tell if it had been an hour or a day since Tony had last seen light. He struggled with the table but it didn't budge, no matter how hard he tried. Miraculously he had held on to his knife, but a search yielded nothing more useful within arms reach.
Eventually he gave up. He had seen the game board after everyone had gotten out of there. At the very least they had to come back for it. Right?
He caught glimpses through the ran of the others running from the room. All his shouts were swallowed up by the noise of the storm. After the water reached above how high up he could reach for air, Tony could see clearer, but his friends were long gone. Once they realized they had lost Tony, they'd come back. That hope was dashed when he saw that the entire room had filled up.
Time passed. He got used to the smell of blood in the water, and of bat shit.
An indeterminable time passed in silence. Silent except for the groans of steel put under pressures it was never meant to handle. Still he struggled.
Suddenly the table shifted and Tony was free. He swam out from underneath his prison. His first thought was that he had to find the game board.
'Where is that game board? Damn it, it could be anywhere. I'll never find it in this darkness,' Tony thought. Tim and Lucas were behind some tables, right? Just find the tables and there the game board would be. Easier said than done, considering he had to do this in complete darkness.
By touch alone Tony guided himself along, carefully checking behind and around every table. Before long something bumped into his head. He hadn't considered the possibility that it could be floating. The fact that he had found it so soon just added to the impression that the game had its own brain and that it was just playing with them.
A crash echoed through the water. A few moments later, he could smell something new in the water. He could smell salt. If that's salt, then that meant that crash he heard was the sound of the aqua tube's glass breaking.
Weren't the tubes filled with sharks?
His hear rate went up. His heart started to pump adrenaline into his blood stream. The water shifted slightly and he struck out. His knife gripped tightly in one hand. The smell of fresh blood exploded in the water. He had hit something.
Tony wasn't about to depend on this to stop the shark, even though it buy him some time to get out of there. If another shark didn't find him first. Quickly turning in the direction he thought the door might be in, he swam for all he was worth. A few minutes later found him hitting a wall. He pick a direction and went with it, swimming with one hand along the wall so he didn't miss the door.
While he did this he didn't dare let himself think, because thinking led to fear and fear led to the realization that he could very well be facing the last few precious moments of his life. So he didn't think.
One moment he was following wall the next his hand went through the wall. He was out, but he didn't know if the shark was still following him or not. Off to one side there was a very faint light coming through, and Tony was off swimming again.
***
Tony swam down the flooded corridor. He could smell the rotting flesh. The sharks, opportune feeders that they were, would feed on that instead of coming after him. At least that's what he hoped.
The emergency lighting was on here. There wasn't enough water to short them out. That told Tony he was going in the right direction, unfortunately that also meant him could see even though he was trying desperately not to. The bloated dead bodies that floated through the water were more horrible than the ones he saw above water.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lonnie's room. A strange morbid curiosity filled him with the desire to look, if only to confirm that she wasn't there, that someone he knew wasn't dead. Or maybe it was his desire to bring the whole horror of the game that much closer to him.
There weren't any sharks close, so he risked it. Tony swam up to the small window in that seemed to be in every door, and looked in.
Only to have Lonnie's dead eyes staring back at him. Addison still clutched in her hands and a vine through her chest.
The image would haunt Tony's nightmares for a long time.
Eventually he came to the end of the parts of seaQuest underwater and the adrenalin wore off. The wounds that had never really stopped bleeding slowed him down and exhaustion threatened to bring him down on every step.
It was a credit to how tired he was that he didn't even notice he had a helper until the man said, "Here let me help you."
And he was so out of it he didn't hear Lucas call out his name.
***
"Tony!"
Lucas just stood there dumbly. He could barely believe his eyes. He had come out of the transport, having done all he could for the moment, and he sees Ray carry someone in. A closer look revealed that it was Tony, the missing member of the foursome that was playing the game. Commander Ford had been wrong-and didn't that just sound so weird.
Lucas watched the rise and fall of Tony's chest that singled he was still among the living. Lucas was in shook but it was a good kind of shook.
"Ohmygod." That was Tim. Vaguely Lucas' mind wondered if Tim was as shocked as he was. Yeah, he hadn't actually seen the body, but Ford had been so insistent that Tony must be dead Lucas thought he had seen the body and just wanted to spare him the grief.
Here it was though. Unequivocal evidence that Tony was alive. Tony was alive and had somehow held on to the game board. Lucas would've hugged Tony if he was still awake and Lucas thought he wouldn't injure him.
"What happened? Where did you find him? Is he hurt badly? Did you see what got him?" Ray looked up. It was obvious that he hadn't caught a word of that rapid fire speech.
"Say what? One more time, a little slower." Ray ripped up the rest of Tony's tattered shirt, using the strips to try and stop the bleeding.
"Let's start with, 'How did you find him?'" Tim spoke up before Lucas had the chance.
"I found him outside the door. I was making sure there wasn't anything nasty out there. Saw him coming down the hall and helped him in here." Ray tied off a bandage around a rather nasty looking deep cut on the unconscious man's arm. "I haven't the slightest how he got to be the way he is. I figure he'll have to wake up before we can figure that out.
"I've got him. Why don't you finish the transports and I'll call you when he wakes up?"
Tim, Ortiz, and Lucas still had to finish fixing the transports. This was something they should've done from the start. Get everyone off the ship so that they didn't die while Tony, Tim, Lucas, and Ford finished the game.
Besides there wasn't any more they could do for their friend than Ray was already doing.
***
Tony was floating through the water. He didn't know where he was, and it didn't matter. For once he just was. The salt water sliped through him as he moved forward. He could pull water over his gills but it was easeir to just swim.
Darwin swam along side him and ahead just a tad. It was one big game. Every time he got close to catching the dolphin, Darwin would swim that much futher away. A simple pleasure but a pleasure none the less. Each time Tony would get closer and closer to catching the dolphin.
This time he was so close. A little closer and...
He was awake. The one place he didn't want to be. It hurt to be awake, although the pain was less than the last time. Wait he had to do something... the game board. Tony started to struggle.
"Hey, buddy. Don't do that. You're fine." That voice was familiar. It had helped him along.
"Yeah that's it just relax." And he did.
Darwin was just ahead of him again.
***
Lucas was done and he knew the others were close to finishing what they were doing. Tony still hadn't woken up completely, but he had woken up a few times. Mostly he was exhausted. Lucas could relate to that. This whole thing had been a nightmare from the start. At least he was getting some sleep.
It was time to go. They had decided that it was best to leave Tony with Ray while they went back and got the others. Wendy could help him just as much here as she could in med bay. Lucas hated leaving Tony here but he knew he was needed to help carry others injured worse than Tony.
They were done and it was time to go before Lucas knew it.
Jumanji seaQuest Style
by Shell Lee
The darkness surrounding Tony was complete. Not a scrap of light made it to his eyes. He couldn't see anything. He could feel though. He could feel the table something had knocked over on him. He could feel the fresh water that felt strange running over his gills. He could feel the slight eddies and currents that his body made as he moved in the water.
Unfortunately he could smell too. Some people thought you couldn't smell underwater. That was only because to smell you would need the water to run over your old factory nerves, you can't do that without breathing the water. Tony didn't consider it a good thing right then. He could smell the bat shit in the water. He could smell his own blood. And there was something in the water that smelled like fresh cut plants.
Time slowed down to a trickle. There was no way to tell if it had been an hour or a day since Tony had last seen light. He struggled with the table but it didn't budge, no matter how hard he tried. Miraculously he had held on to his knife, but a search yielded nothing more useful within arms reach.
Eventually he gave up. He had seen the game board after everyone had gotten out of there. At the very least they had to come back for it. Right?
He caught glimpses through the ran of the others running from the room. All his shouts were swallowed up by the noise of the storm. After the water reached above how high up he could reach for air, Tony could see clearer, but his friends were long gone. Once they realized they had lost Tony, they'd come back. That hope was dashed when he saw that the entire room had filled up.
Time passed. He got used to the smell of blood in the water, and of bat shit.
An indeterminable time passed in silence. Silent except for the groans of steel put under pressures it was never meant to handle. Still he struggled.
Suddenly the table shifted and Tony was free. He swam out from underneath his prison. His first thought was that he had to find the game board.
'Where is that game board? Damn it, it could be anywhere. I'll never find it in this darkness,' Tony thought. Tim and Lucas were behind some tables, right? Just find the tables and there the game board would be. Easier said than done, considering he had to do this in complete darkness.
By touch alone Tony guided himself along, carefully checking behind and around every table. Before long something bumped into his head. He hadn't considered the possibility that it could be floating. The fact that he had found it so soon just added to the impression that the game had its own brain and that it was just playing with them.
A crash echoed through the water. A few moments later, he could smell something new in the water. He could smell salt. If that's salt, then that meant that crash he heard was the sound of the aqua tube's glass breaking.
Weren't the tubes filled with sharks?
His hear rate went up. His heart started to pump adrenaline into his blood stream. The water shifted slightly and he struck out. His knife gripped tightly in one hand. The smell of fresh blood exploded in the water. He had hit something.
Tony wasn't about to depend on this to stop the shark, even though it buy him some time to get out of there. If another shark didn't find him first. Quickly turning in the direction he thought the door might be in, he swam for all he was worth. A few minutes later found him hitting a wall. He pick a direction and went with it, swimming with one hand along the wall so he didn't miss the door.
While he did this he didn't dare let himself think, because thinking led to fear and fear led to the realization that he could very well be facing the last few precious moments of his life. So he didn't think.
One moment he was following wall the next his hand went through the wall. He was out, but he didn't know if the shark was still following him or not. Off to one side there was a very faint light coming through, and Tony was off swimming again.
***
Tony swam down the flooded corridor. He could smell the rotting flesh. The sharks, opportune feeders that they were, would feed on that instead of coming after him. At least that's what he hoped.
The emergency lighting was on here. There wasn't enough water to short them out. That told Tony he was going in the right direction, unfortunately that also meant him could see even though he was trying desperately not to. The bloated dead bodies that floated through the water were more horrible than the ones he saw above water.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lonnie's room. A strange morbid curiosity filled him with the desire to look, if only to confirm that she wasn't there, that someone he knew wasn't dead. Or maybe it was his desire to bring the whole horror of the game that much closer to him.
There weren't any sharks close, so he risked it. Tony swam up to the small window in that seemed to be in every door, and looked in.
Only to have Lonnie's dead eyes staring back at him. Addison still clutched in her hands and a vine through her chest.
The image would haunt Tony's nightmares for a long time.
Eventually he came to the end of the parts of seaQuest underwater and the adrenalin wore off. The wounds that had never really stopped bleeding slowed him down and exhaustion threatened to bring him down on every step.
It was a credit to how tired he was that he didn't even notice he had a helper until the man said, "Here let me help you."
And he was so out of it he didn't hear Lucas call out his name.
***
"Tony!"
Lucas just stood there dumbly. He could barely believe his eyes. He had come out of the transport, having done all he could for the moment, and he sees Ray carry someone in. A closer look revealed that it was Tony, the missing member of the foursome that was playing the game. Commander Ford had been wrong-and didn't that just sound so weird.
Lucas watched the rise and fall of Tony's chest that singled he was still among the living. Lucas was in shook but it was a good kind of shook.
"Ohmygod." That was Tim. Vaguely Lucas' mind wondered if Tim was as shocked as he was. Yeah, he hadn't actually seen the body, but Ford had been so insistent that Tony must be dead Lucas thought he had seen the body and just wanted to spare him the grief.
Here it was though. Unequivocal evidence that Tony was alive. Tony was alive and had somehow held on to the game board. Lucas would've hugged Tony if he was still awake and Lucas thought he wouldn't injure him.
"What happened? Where did you find him? Is he hurt badly? Did you see what got him?" Ray looked up. It was obvious that he hadn't caught a word of that rapid fire speech.
"Say what? One more time, a little slower." Ray ripped up the rest of Tony's tattered shirt, using the strips to try and stop the bleeding.
"Let's start with, 'How did you find him?'" Tim spoke up before Lucas had the chance.
"I found him outside the door. I was making sure there wasn't anything nasty out there. Saw him coming down the hall and helped him in here." Ray tied off a bandage around a rather nasty looking deep cut on the unconscious man's arm. "I haven't the slightest how he got to be the way he is. I figure he'll have to wake up before we can figure that out.
"I've got him. Why don't you finish the transports and I'll call you when he wakes up?"
Tim, Ortiz, and Lucas still had to finish fixing the transports. This was something they should've done from the start. Get everyone off the ship so that they didn't die while Tony, Tim, Lucas, and Ford finished the game.
Besides there wasn't any more they could do for their friend than Ray was already doing.
***
Tony was floating through the water. He didn't know where he was, and it didn't matter. For once he just was. The salt water sliped through him as he moved forward. He could pull water over his gills but it was easeir to just swim.
Darwin swam along side him and ahead just a tad. It was one big game. Every time he got close to catching the dolphin, Darwin would swim that much futher away. A simple pleasure but a pleasure none the less. Each time Tony would get closer and closer to catching the dolphin.
This time he was so close. A little closer and...
He was awake. The one place he didn't want to be. It hurt to be awake, although the pain was less than the last time. Wait he had to do something... the game board. Tony started to struggle.
"Hey, buddy. Don't do that. You're fine." That voice was familiar. It had helped him along.
"Yeah that's it just relax." And he did.
Darwin was just ahead of him again.
***
Lucas was done and he knew the others were close to finishing what they were doing. Tony still hadn't woken up completely, but he had woken up a few times. Mostly he was exhausted. Lucas could relate to that. This whole thing had been a nightmare from the start. At least he was getting some sleep.
It was time to go. They had decided that it was best to leave Tony with Ray while they went back and got the others. Wendy could help him just as much here as she could in med bay. Lucas hated leaving Tony here but he knew he was needed to help carry others injured worse than Tony.
They were done and it was time to go before Lucas knew it.