Chapter 8: Operating Water Currents

Troy bolted up into Perry's room, and actually side-kicked the door open because he suggested that it would be a lot more faster, Perry was jolted up wide awake and he was staring at Troy in disbelief.

"What are you doing up here when it's midnight?" Perry said, particularly annoyed by the noise.

"I'm sorry for waking you up a time like this," Troy sputtered, "But we have an intruder and we need to guard the moat."

"A reasonable answer!" Perry sighed, got out of bed quickly and ran out past Troy.

"Let's go!" Perry said as he ran down the staircase. Troy was determined to take down this intruder, or whatever the person was big time, so he quickly jumped over the railing all the way down, and as he landed, he rolled.

"Okay, follow me!" Perry exclaimed as he rushed behind the staircase. Troy followed him as he saw him run past a few more doors to some new rooms he didn't even know. The only rooms he knew was the troop's quarters, the elixir storages, and what looked like to be some kind of ancient library. He finally saw a trapdoor and followed Perry as he opened it up and climbed down a ladder.

"All right!" Troy excitedly exclaimed as he jumped down, and slammed the trapdoor from above him.

When he reached down, he was in total shock. The place was SUPER MASSIVE, like some kind of factory for water. There were giant glass windows all over the place which showed what was below the surface of the moat, and there were giant rectangular golden barrier walls about a few feet high under the ground and attached which were different to Troy. He didn't really know why they were there.

"Those are water filters." Perry explained just as he caught sight of Troy's staring at those rectangular storages.

"Thanks for that quick explaining!" Troy said. Troy could see Konah at a control panel with a bunch of levers and windows all over the place. The Dashboard was shaped like a half hexagon, and Konah was operating in the middle portion of it.

"All right Perry and Troy, come here quickly!" Konah urgently shouted.

Perry and Troy ran over to the dashboard, and there were some golden seats attached to the ground operating the other two thirds of the dashboard.

"Please take any seat!" Konah said as Perry and Troy arrived at the dashboard. Perry took the left side, and Troy took the right side.

"All right, so it turns out that this particular intruder is swimming south of the moat, towards the drawbridge is, and it appears to me like a circle was slit inside the drawbridge." Konah explained.

"Of course! That must be the entrance that the intruder took!" Troy said, as a matter-of-factly.

"Precisely," Perry said. "We need to activate the hydro rush currents to knock him out cold!"

"Good idea!" Troy said.

"Very well then." Konah replied as he pulled a lever from an attached compass rose on his portion of the dashboard. The lever was attached the "S" part of the Dashboard, and Troy could hear violent water rushing out.

(NEAR THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE MOAT)

Fred was frantically swimming towards the drawbridge, and he could see Jimmy just a few meters away. He breathed out a sign of relief which gave him extra strength. He burst out really hyper and started swimming faster than ever; however he could see what looked like to be a golden giant bowl connected to the south side of the castle, just underneath the drawbridge. The giant bowl was facing sideways towards Jimmy, and it was pouring gentle water into the moat.

"Ha! That's no problem!" Fred said confidently and was now a few yards away.

All of a sudden, all that hope and confidence was washed away when that giant bowl all of a sudden gushed out giant loads of water quickly and super-fast! That water was so fast, that it was turning white a little bit because of all the force put into it.

"WHOA! AH!" Fred screamed, and finally Jimmy could hear.

"Huh? What in the world?" Jimmy said, and saw Fred being pushed down to death by the water currents.

"Oh man!" Jimmy exclaimed to himself. "This is not good."

Jimmy could see the rope was just swinging a few yards away from him. He reached out with all his might and managed to grasp it. Then he yanked it away from the red arch and threw it down to Fred. "Grab on to it!" He said.

"I can't! The water currents are just…AH… to strong!" Fred said helplessly and tried grabbing on to the rope. He managed just in time, but he could not see what was about to come up next!

(IN THE MOAT CHAMBER CONTROL SYSTEM)

"Quickly Perry! Activate the the swirling spiral vortex currents!" Konah said, and Troy couldn't even understand what he was saying. But of course, it was much easier to see it, than to rather HEAR it. Large circle like currents shot out of the golden giant bowl and they were smashing Fred right on the face! They could hear the faint sound of him swearing in Finnish.

"Anything else we should do?" Troy asked.

"Hmm, I guess we could strengthen the pace of this current! I'll activate the increaser by forty percent!" Konah said as he jabbed at a button that had the number "40%" in it.

"All right! Now this is a great water show!" Troy said and laughed at the sight of Fred's frightened face, trying to escape the deathly waters of the southern golden bowl, but with no luck.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm and that this looks like good entertainment Troy," Konah said, "But remember, I ordered this to be built as defense underwater!"

"Sorry." Troy sighed and then realized that he didn't even see ANOTHER guy behind a tree helping Fred out with a rope, but it was useless. "Hey! There is another guy helping out that intruder there!"

"You're right!" Konah exclaimed.

"Then allow me!" Perry said as he pulled on a rather large lever that had the symbol of a microphone on it.

"What does that do?" Troy questioned.

"Don't worry, it allows me and dad to communicate around the castle just fine from here!" Perry said.

"Ah! I understand now!' Troy finished.

"Attention archers!" Perry spoke through the intercom. We need five of you to come guard the drawbridge. An intruder is there and we need you to guard it with your arrows!"

Somewhere, in the archer's quarters, the lead archer work up abruptly from that announcement, and she quickly notched up a bow.

"Everyone! I want four of you if you are brave to come with me!" she said.

Thirteen archers woke up slowly, but there were four fast archers who got up and followed the lead archer who ran outside the door and headed towards the drawbridge. The rest of the archers looked at each other and shrugged, then just went back to sleep. Perry quickly turned off the intercom and took a deep breath.

"Hopefully I called just enough to defend!" Perry said. "We need to conserve our supply of archers, because we are currently trying to save for some more certain upgrades!"

"That's good to know." Troy said calmly, and looked back outside the window.

The water vortex current was extremely powerful now, that it actually cut open the rope! Fred screamed in terror but there was really no hope for him. Fred slowly let go of the rope and then disappeared down way below the moat.

"Any idea where the moat's below is?" Troy thought that was really good question he just asked.

"It goes down as deep as the ocean floor, and if you touch the ocean floor, it is actually heated up by super-hot elixir, so when he lands in the floor, he is vaporized up, and then adds to part of the elixir contribution with his you know what!" Konah explained.

"Anyways, we still have to get rid of that intruder outside!" Perry said.

"I am quite sure that the archers are arrived in their desired positions!" Konah exclaimed.

"I'm sure they are." Both Perry and Troy said.

The five archers rushed down towards the drawbridge, which was already blocking their view of Jimmy, but thanks to the open circle slit, they managed to have at least an open spot for firing.

"NOOO!" Jimmy screamed at the loss of his teammate, and quickly rage started to form in him. He quickly rolled behind the tree and started firing at the open slit, because he knew there were archers. The five archers were in that kind of position where the lead archer was in the middle, and they dodged those arrows swiftly. Three archers crowded around and shot a total of nine arrows back at Jimmy, and Jimmy jerked back.

"Uhmp! Going to need a bit more!" Jimmy said angrily, and another archer got up and shot at Jimmy. Jimmy jerked backwards again, and then swiftly shot another arrow at the archer. The archer didn't have fast enough reflexes however, and the arrow shot her in the head. She fell backwards and exploded into elixir.

"I think I got her!" Jimmy excitedly said.

The lead archer breathed heavily and shot four arrows simultaneously at Jimmy. Jimmy snickered and jerked back again to the left, and then shot another arrow. The lead archer jerked to the right and then notched up another arrow. Two more archers crowded around and shot a total of five more arrows, and Jimmy quickly stayed behind that tree.

"Not great timing! If I do say so myself!" Jimmy said to himself, and they jerked forward again to take another shot. However, he fell in the trap the archers were making. Another archer fired again, and Jimmy thought they were duck because he was going to fire another arrow. Jimmy didn't barely have time to dodge it, and the arrow pierced his right arm, and he twisted back.

"Ouch!" Jimmy cried out in pain as he struggled to get back up. The archers smirked and then fired multitudes of arrows towards Jimmy. Jimmy jerked back again behind the tree, but this time there was one arrow fired every second. However, the lead archer stopped all the archers.

"Hold your fire!" The lead archer commanded. "We need to save our ammunition of arrows!"

"That's what I wanted!" One of the archers exclaimed, and the lead archer rolled her eyes.

"Now's my chance!" Jimmy snickered and shot three more arrows at the open slit, unfortunately, an archer tried to go up to the slit to fire again, only to get shot down by the three arrows.

"Whoa. *Gulp* we are now down to only the two of you. We have to act fast!" The lead archer nervously said.

"We still need a new strategy." Both of the archers replied back. Jimmy laughed quietly and reached in his bag to find only one arrow left!

"WHAT?! Jimmy said, shocked.

(FLASHBACK)

"Only seven arrows?" Fred said, a bit afraid.

(END FLASHBACK)

Jimmy notched up his last arrow, and then walked out where there was a clean shot on him.

One of the archers got up and fired at him, and Jimmy rolled to the right, which was one of his brutal mistakes. He forgot that his right arm was wounded, and he screamed in pain which interrupted his perfect roll. He lay on his back yelling in pain for a few seconds then rolled back up, only to find another arrow streaking towards him.

"AHH! Take this!" Jimmy said, and shot his last arrow, but he did no good. It stuck straight into another part of the drawbridge, and that archer arrow pierced him in the chest. Jimmy stumbled backwards, and then stumbled forwards so much, that he collapsed at the edge of the ground. He then fell forward and splashed at the moat, and there was no more sign of him.

"Whew! That was close!" The lead archer said.

"Yeah, I guess so Allie." One of the archers said.

"Well then, let's head back to bed." Allie suggested, and the two archers and she made their way back to their quarters.

(IN THE MOAT CHAMBER CONTROL SYSTEM)

"HOORAY! WE DID IT!" Konah, Perry, and Troy said.

"And it couldn't be possible thanks to Troy!" Perry said.

"Yeah," Troy started. "I kicked that intruder out of the castle window, which gave him a better disadvantage."

Just then, Priscilla walked into the chamber system, and she looked tired and sleepy.

"What's this entire racket about?" Priscilla said, really sleepy.

"Oh, heh heh *Blushes* it's a long story." Troy stammered and smiled back.

"Can you tell me about it?" Priscilla questioned, and tried to resist her tiredness.

"Sure, I guess." Troy said.

"A bedtime story," Priscilla gave a slight smile at Troy. "Been a long time since I had one of those read to me."

"Well, maybe this story is great for waking you up! Er, I mean bringing you back to sleep I hope!" Troy excitedly boasted.

"That's a wonderful idea Troy." Konah chuckled.

"Yes it is!" Perry exclaimed. Then he yawned after he said that. "Well I'll be going to bed now. I'll see you in the morning!" And with that Perry walked past Priscilla and back to his room.

"Yes! I'll be going as well now!" Konah said, as he walked past Priscilla and Troy. "You two have a good time together!" He called to them as he left for his room.

"Er... it's only a bedtime story!" Troy called back, and blushed madly.

"Well then *chuckles* let's go to my room!" Priscilla said excitedly but still sleepy which was a weird combination. She even noticed Troy's blushed but didn't know why.

"Right! Let's go!" Troy said excitedly as he followed Priscilla up to her room.