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Chapter 7

Angel
March 23

"I should've eaten before I left," grumbled Roger.

I ignored his complaint as I was completely fascinated by the view beside me on the window. There were beautiful stingrays gliding in the ocean beyond the glass and I felt so physically near to these animals as if I was just of them. It was honestly a one-in-a-lifetime spectacle. These creatures looked so... free. So elegant. So calm. They were not angels yet still had their wings.

"Huh?" I said half-mindedly, not really caring. I didn't want to care about anything more. "What?"

"Err... Never mind. Anyways, it doesn't make any difference. This was all your fault. I should've just taken the ship myself," he said.

Whatever happened to not bringing up the past? He needed to follow his own advice first before shoving it down my throat.

"Well, that really does a lot of good-- bringing it up now," I said scolding.

Oh, Roger. Why couldn't we be like the stingrays and just keep floating on, looking like we didn't have a care about anything at all?

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Roger
March 21

He just sat there, unnerved, smoking.

"What? But I told you I was going to rent it!" I demanded.

He smiled contentedly. "That woman paid more for it. I couldn't exactly say no, could I?"

I hate it when things go against the status quo. I heard the rev of an engine and turned towards the dock. I saw a yellow ball maneuvering through the ocean water lit orange in the sunset. The hatch of the marine vehicle was topped open and a certain blonde with a pink suit was waving at me calling my attention.

I growled.

"Roger Smith! Roger Smith! Thank you for finding this sweet little boat! Mwah!" she screamed as she blew me a butterfly kiss. She waved her hand.

There was no way I was going to let the yellow vehicle go. Not after all the work I've done. I needed to solve the damn case. I started running, grabbing my shades off.

"She's a two seater. Have yourselves a good time," I heard Readerman chuckle behind me as I took off in a mad sprint down the wooden pier.

I felt my adrenaline running. I was not going to let that mad bitch get away. I was so close to the yellow ball that I could see the glint in Angel's eyes. Gotcha.

Her eyes widened in realization. "Hey, wait! What are you doing?"

I leaped off the pier and with a scream Angel plopped back into the submarine, narrowly dodging my hard fall through the vehicle door. I closed the hatch as the yellow ball descended in sea level.

I was sweating anger. There was not a lot of room in this thing and I was gonna be stuck with HER throughout the entire ride. I heard a click as she turned on the vehicle's headlights. Worst of all, she had the pilot's seat.

"I rented this boat and it's mine!" she yelled like a defensive child. "Who do you think you are, barging in here like this?"

"I have just as much right to be here. I rented this ship first."

Angel flipped on the interior light and then from her seat searched interior of the cabin for something. "You would've really stopped bothering me if you were a gentleman."

"Never mind gentle. Look ahead," I said, sighing.

She shifted her head up. Without my warning, we'd have bumped into that sunken building. She suddenly jerked the submarine and we were in safety. We drove past the underwater buildings, taking a straight route clear of any obstacles and heading deeper into the mysterious place.

It suddenly became quiet in the cabin. The only other sounds were our breathing and the hum of the propeller as it sifted through the currents.

Beyond our yellow ball to the right was an old city underwater with tall majestic skyscrapers. Obviously, some tragedy had occurred over 40 years ago that had caused the unlikely scenario. The sight was unfortunate yet eerily beautiful. Welcome to Atlantis.

Angel set the submarine on autopilot and both of us struggled to see through the single tiny round peephole on the side. What was interesting was that some of the windows of these buildings were lit as if everyday life was in occurrence within them. But... how?

"That's interesting. Looks like some places have electricity," I mused.

"It's almost as if there are still people down here," she said quietly as she took a seat again and took off the autopilot. We passed by a lit building and could see what used to be some sort of high class restaurant with broken yet beautiful chandeliers and knocked over tables.

Angel smiled in admiration as she gazed through the main window, gently maneuvering the vehicle. She actually was not that bad of a driver; she checked all the gauges and indicators to see that everything was as it should.

Then there was a great audible thud as an upside down face smacked the watershield. There were more bangs affecting the exterior of the vehicle. We were not alone. A face that resembled a frog's, a face with two bright glowing orbs that was all too familiar to me and caused Angel to scream in horror.

I jumped myself as well.

"So these are the people passing themselves off as a titan," I said as the face slid off. I had seen two very human eyes under the bright glowing orbs.

Sounds of squeaking filled the cabin as the men in wetsuits left our submarine. Angel was wide-eyed in fear; she stared about the vehicle, expecting another frog man to manifest itself.

BOOM!

Angel and I fell forward. It felt like something had crashed into the submarine from behind. There were several explosions followed by more of Angel's screams. We braced ourselves against the unexpected turbulence. The frog men had attacked our ship by attaching explosives to its sides.

The damage indicator switched on. The sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the cabin and water started pouring in, reminding me of a similar time when Angel and I were in a emergency predicament in Electric City. Angel screamed.

As the submarine started taking in more water, the more it sunk uncontrollably. And so did our spirits. Angel, panicking, stood up and started unwinding the hatch.

"No way! I'm not going to die in a place like this!" she said, closing her eyes in effort as she struggled to move the wheel. So much for a good driver.

"Stop it!" I ordered, dashing into the pilot's seat and assessing the situation. I hated it when people didn't know what do, I hated it when people couldn't calm down and think before they react.

But then again she was a woman. The woman named Angel, that is.

"The water pressure would crush us if we went out without suits," I said, staring at the looming scenery beyond the watershield.

Angel immediately dropped down from her efforts.

The failing submarine swerved without warning, causing more turbulence within the cabin. Angel yelled as we made a very dangerous and hard landing onto the ocean floor. The sides of the submarine grated against the tops of cars and we narrowly missed hitting a sky bridge. I did my best to decrease the speed of ship and still react quick enough to obstacles.

There was a bang as the bottom of the submarine touched the floor. The ship shook hazardously, skidding across the sunken concrete.

"The boat will never hold together!" Angel insisted in trepidation.

The submarine was approaching the staired front of what used to be an important federal building that must've looked royal and majestic in its day. Angel became amazingly quiet, realizing that there was nothing she could do. Even she was at awe at the marvelous white architecture which stood out amongst the entire gray. But awe was once again replaced by the urge for fight and flight. The vehicle quaked as our speed propelled us upwards on the wide stair steps. Angel and I were bouncing upwards. From beneath our feet arose a horrible grinding noise as the bottom of the sub began to degrade due to the massive amounts of uncontrollable friction. The front of the institution was approaching us fast the higher we went. I struggled to hold the steering wheel steady, one of the slightest things I could to help an otherwise unresponsive sub which exceeded its normal intended speeds. The danger of the situation had sank in to my senses, causing a rush of adrenaline in my body.

As I feared, the ship and the front of the building made impact as we burst through the wall of concrete, causing further damage to our already cracked watershield and sending debris from both objects everywhere. The water was already to our knees. The force of the collision caused our bodies to heave backwards. I in fact flew out of the chair like a beanbag, unintentionally letting the direction of the propellers be free reign. I almost landed on Angel who was lying motionless with closed eyes and several bruises from the collision in an awkward sitting position at the rear of the sub. Not good. I fell on my back. The several feet deep pool forming in the sub helped cushion my fall, thank goodness. I got back up on my knees heavily; the sub was still moving at a dangerous speed, but I could feel it slowing down wherever it was. I sat next to Angel, scowling, not knowing what I was doing but letting instincts kick in. I grabbed her shoulders, keeping her next to me. I did a quick check on vital signs while trying not to fall. She was still warm and had a pulse. She was just a bit unconscious. I closed my eyes in fear for the fate of the ship. The sound of the breaking hull and the scent of her blonde shampooed hair drowned me.

The ship screeched unnervingly as it lurched to a stop. All the banging noises stood to a silence. I let my eyes be closed for a few seconds at first; unsure whether I was dead or alive, feeling a bit numb. But my senses refocused and I knew I was still in existence. I felt something warm against me, something breathing, smelling the scent of perfume. I heard bubbling and the slosh of water, the faint clinking of the mechanics of the sub as it began to rest. I blinked in surprise to see her face, her surprisingly blemishless pale face set against thick black mascara and pink lips. I could tell she cared a lot about appearances.

This was the closest, strangest encounter I've ever had with this woman ever since she first stepped into my office a month ago.

I noticed I had somehow cushioned the troublemaker's head on my chest during the hard landing, protected her under my arm. For a second I realized it'd actually been a record couple of months since I slept with a woman. And then I shoved the thought away in disbelief. Me? Her? How could I even possibly have thought such a-- she was a loathsome woman anyways!

I scowled, picking her body up and sitting her on the front chair in what was the closest thing attainable to a comfortable position for a unconscious woman. She would hopefully come to in the next hour or so, I estimated, remembering the emergency training I had learned at the military police.

I looked through the watershield. Surprisingly, I saw very few blue. We were inside the federal building that still thankfully had plenty of pockets of air. However, I knew the air was a thing too good to be true and thus wouldn't last long; eventually the water from outside would seep in like a tide. I looked around the dripping interior of the sub, which was smashed up pretty bad yet surprisingly held intact long enough for us to land in the building. I grunted as I began to unwind a stunted side hatch.