I'm back!
Hostfanatic is in the house!
I know it's been a long time, and I'm so, so sorry! My life has just been super hectic right now with exams coming up and all.
I'm almost done with the story, though, so enjoy!
"We have to kidnap Adam," Brittany said firmly.
"I'm not letting him on the same ship as Jeanette for three weeks!" Simon snapped. They had been having this argument the entire way down the passageway.
"We have ways of containing him," Brittany insisted. "We can find out how to do it. We can't wait until we get home, Simon. He'll have moved already!"
Simon paused and took a deep breath as they reached the front of the caves. The same way they had come in the first time. The ship was far out on the waves, bobbing calmly under the light of the full moon.
"All right," he said at last. "I have to go make sure Jeanette is all right. If I have you go back and plant a GPS chip on Adam, then we can track him to wherever he's moved."
"Yeah," they all chorused.
"So you guys have to go and find a way to get the GPS on him, and then get straight back to the ship so that we can get out of here," Simon said firmly.
"All right," Brittany said quickly. "But we have to work fast, Simon. We've got to get out of here before he comes after us."
"All right. Brittany, could you please get me to the ship?"
Brittany nodded. She jumped over the ledge, doing a perfect swan dive into the water. There was a flash of light, and she resurfaced as a mermaid.
"I missed that," she sighed.
They rolled their eyes, but didn't comment. Simon gulped.
Jeanette, he reminded himself. You're doing this for Jeanette.
He turned and carefully began inching his way down the rock wall that led into the ocean. Brittany waited patiently in the water at the bottom.
When Simon was there, he cautiously reached out and clambered onto Brittany's back, being very careful not to touch the water. She rolled her eyes but flicked her tail and sped Simon to the ship. He gratefully grabbed a rope and pulled himself up and away from the water.
Brittany waved to him. "Wait," he called, and pulled the GPS chip out of his pocket. He tossed it down to Brittany, and she caught it in her hands. "Put that on Adam," he told her, and then waved back. He turned to clamber up the side of the ship.
He flipped himself up and over the rail, landing on the deck with a firm thud as Brittany and the others vanished back inside the rock fortress.
I hope that I did the right thing, he thought to himself.
He ran down the short flight of stairs that led to the cabin Jeanette was in.
He knocked on it. "Jeanette?" he called.
"I'm not speaking to you," came the grumpy answer from inside.
He rolled his eyes, but relief flooded through him. "Are you all right?"
"No." Still sarcastic. "I'm on the floor, bleeding to death. You'd better come in here and save me. Then again, you might want to stay out there, or you might JOIN me here on the floor."
"Ha, ha," Simon said, equally sarcastic. "You're real funny, Jeanette." He couldn't help but smile as he prepared to unlock the combination lock on the door, but he knew that she was smiling, too.
"What's funny, then, pretty boy?"
The rough, gravelly voice that came from behind him certainly did not belong to Jeanette.
Simon whirled around and saw a chipmunk standing on deck, bathed in moonlight. He was wearing black from head to toe.
And he was pointing a gun straight at Simon.
Jeanette heard the strange voice, and then the loudest silence she'd ever heard came after.
"Simon," she barely breathed, "what's going on?"
She heard the barest hint of a whisper come back. "Get away from the door."
She carefully moved away from the door.
"Adam sent you, huh?" Simon's voice was loud and sarcastic now, and she knew that he wasn't talking to her anymore, but the strange intruder that she'd heard.
"Just give me the girl."
"You wish."
BANG!
The sound was unmistakably a gunshot. There was a thud, and the bullet ripped through the doorway. Jeanette pressed herself against the wall, horrified, and now understanding why Simon had told her to get away from the door.
But did Simon get hit?
Her heart began pounding, faster and harder and louder still, and she was sure that the stranger could hear it.
But then she heard Simon's familiar voice, a bit mocking, a bit sarcastic. "Temper, temper."
Jeanette let out a tiny sigh of relief. She was suddenly glad that Monique had gone to the lower decks for a while, and could only hope that she had decided to stay there. She didn't want her friend getting hurt.
Then she realized that the handle had been completely blown off the door.
The lock…that means the lock's broken! I can get out! I have to help Simon!
"Move away from the door," she whispered to Simon.
"Why?" he whispered back, clearly suspicious.
"If you hover by the door, he'll know something's in there!" she hissed. "Hurry!"
She heard him moving up the stairs. "Funny, I never had Adam pegged for the type that would send someone else to do his dirty work."
"I ain't here to make conversation," she heard the other chipmunk snarl. "I'm here for the girl. Now where is she?"
"She's here somewhere, clearly." Simon's voice was lazy.
Jeanette waited until she was sure that they were on the upper deck. Then she tiptoed over and tested the door. It swung silently open, the combination lock broken and on the floor.
She saw them up on the deck, and neither one was facing her. They were near the rail.
"What did you do to the others?" The chipmunk's voice was suspicious.
"I'm not telling you." Simon's voice was firm. Neither saw Jeanette sneak on deck and begin to climb up the mast.
She heard the chipmunk cock the gun and winced, but continued to climb. Neither one saw her.
Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down, she chanted in her head as she focused on getting higher.
"All right, all right," Simon said quickly, taking a step back. "They're on the lifeboat, trying to contact our emergency backup, okay? They went east somewhere. I don't know where. But they said they'd be back soon."
"I don't have time for this." The chipmunk was impatient. He suddenly dove and snatched Simon's anklet, snapping it off and throwing it overboard. Simon lunged for it, but it sank into the waves below. Terrified now, Simon faced the chipmunk again…who was getting ready to shoot him.
Jeanette stood up on the mast, wobbling slightly as she grabbed the rope tightly. You only have one chance to do this, she told herself firmly. Do it right!
Then she looked down.
She had to stifle her shriek as she nearly fell off the mast. Her world spun dizzyingly as she clung hard to the wooden beam.
Focus! Focus!
But it's SO HIGH…
Jeanette shoved her fear of heights to the back of her mind as hard as she could. She squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed the rope tightly.
Then she jumped.
She screamed as she flew through the air, and both Simon and the strange chipmunk looked up in astonishment. She soared down over the deck on the rope. As she got lower and lower and nearer to the two, she put her feet out.
WHAM! She drove both of her feet into the strange chipmunk's chest as hard as she could, and he went down like a bag of rocks. The gun skittered across the deck.
Jeanette slipped.
She tumbled to the deck, slamming into it hard and landing sprawled out with her face against the wood.
Simon instantly dove forward and snatched up the gun. He aimed it carefully at the chipmunk on the deck who was just getting to his feet.
"Are you all right, Jeanette?" he called over his shoulder, not daring to take his eyes off the black-clad chipmunk.
Jeanette groaned as she shoved herself to her feet. "I am so not doing that again," she gasped, the wind knocked out of her. She tried to step forward but wound up on the deck again. She managed to pull herself up onto the bench, coughing.
Simon grinned. "Thanks, Jean. You saved my life."
"Don't mention it," Jeanette gasped, still clutching her chest.
Simon, concerned, turned to face her—and the black-clad chipmunk slammed into him, hard. Simon fell to the ground and the gun skittered across the deck once again.
The chipmunk lunged for Jeanette and grabbed her around the throat with both hands. She choked, gasping for breath.
"You little brat," he snarled. Jeanette looked desperately, but a bench had fallen on top of Simon, and he was trapped.
"I'm going to need some type of story when I get back," the chipmunk hissed in her face, lifting her into the air. "Maybe I was trying to get to her, but Simon blocked me. So she fell overboard." Jeanette's eyes widened as she gasped for breath. He squeezed her tighter. "Poor, helpless Jeanette. I wasn't able to save her. And Simon was killed, of course."
Simon was desperately trying to shove the bench off of him.
"Say goodbye," the chipmunks snarled at Jeanette.
Then he whirled and hurled her overboard.
Jeanette screamed as she fell through the air. The sky spun above her, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
Then she felt a cold, stinging smack, and felt as though she were weightless, floating…she felt nothing.
This is what it's like to drown, she thought sadly.
Then she opened her eyes.
She couldn't see anything but light.
The light from her gem?
It was surrounding her, weaving itself into a cocoon. She looked around desperately, but she couldn't see anything. The silvery swirls and patterns flew out of her gem and sunk into her body one by one. She shivered. It was a cold, tingly, delicious feeling.
Then the light faded.
And she found that she wasn't in the water at all.
She was floating in midair.
She let out a gasp and stared down at herself in wonder. Then she turned and let out another gasp.
She had wings!
They were a beautiful light purple color, and they were streaked with a deep indigo. She shivered and expertly flapped them, and she instantly shot several feet into the air.
Laughing with delight, she flapped them harder, and she went shooting higher, spiraling upward into the sky. She let out a whoop as she twirled and spun around, stretching her wings out and feeling the rush of wind in them. She shivered in delight and stared down at the sea, so far away. She felt no fear at all. How had she been afraid of this sensation before?
Then she remembered Simon.
She instantly halted and hovered in the air, trying to find him. Then she saw the black-clad chipmunk aiming the gun at her.
She instantly swerved just as he fired, and she felt the bullet whistle past.
She let out a little gasp and dipped several feet before remembering to flap.
Quick! Focus. Get to Simon. He can help.
She whirled, tucked her wings in, and rocketed toward the deck, pulling out of the dive just in time to hit the deck near Simon. She tumbled slightly, made a mental note to work on her landings, and ran to Simon. Together, they shoved the bench off of him.
Then Jeanette screamed and shoved Simon down to the deck as another bullet whistled past.
"Hang on!" she cried. She pushed the bench in front of him to shield him and then dove overboard.
She spiraled high up into the sky, and then aimed herself downward and went into another extremely fast dive. She closed her eyes.
SMACK!
It hurt so, so bad to hit the water that hard, but she got what she had been aiming for—she rocketed underwater, going farther and farther down. She knew that it was hopeless to get to the bottom of the ocean, but she had to try to find Simon's jewel!
Then she spotted part of a rock, the underwater part, that was near the ship. Hanging from a crevice and sparkling dimly in the underwater light was…
…his anklet!
She unfolded her wings underwater, an odd sensation, and pumped them as hard as she could. It propelled her, underwater, over to the rock. She grabbed the anklet tightly in one hand and then pushed herself above the water. She gasped in a lungful of cold air.
"JEANETTE, LOOK OUT!"
She instantly swerved so that the rock was between her and the ship. The bullet hit the rock and bounced off.
She climbed up onto the rock, shook the water out of her wings as best as she could, and took off again, launching herself into the air, still gripping Simon's anklet as hard as she could. She soared over the ship and dropped it, and he caught it in his outstretched hands. He wasted no time in slipping it onto his ankle and thrusting his hands out.
Instantly, a force field surrounded him, and he stood up. The chipmunk fired desperately again and again, but he couldn't hit Simon.
Simon ran straight for the chipmunk. The chipmunk screamed and swung the gun at Simon's head.
But then Simon vanished.
"What the…" The chipmunk gaped, dumbfounded.
Jeanette, still in the air above the ship, laughed with delight.
Then the invisible Simon smashed into the chipmunk from behind, yanked the gun away from him, and hurled it overboard into the sea.
The chipmunk instantly fell to the deck and cowered. "Please, don't hurt me!" he begged. "I was just working for Adam—he's got my family! I didn't have a choice! Don't hurt me, please!"
"Jeanette, come on down, please," Simon called, not tearing his gaze away from the chipmunk.
Jeanette carefully flew downward in ever-diminishing circles before landing lightly on the deck. She stumbled slightly before regaining her balance and rushing over to Simon. The two hugged tightly.
"Are you okay?" she asked him urgently. He nodded and hugged her to him even more tightly.
He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "By the way, the wings make you look very hot."
She giggled and blushed.
"What do we do with him?" he asked her in a louder voice, gesturing to the scared chipmunk on the deck.
She looked down and shrugged, biting her lip.
But then it was taken out of their hands as the chipmunk sprang to his feet and vaulted over the deck, vanishing over the side. They hurried to the rail and peered over to see him swimming toward Adam's rock fortress.
"Didn't have a choice, right," Simon muttered, glaring after him.
Jeanette flexed her wings. "I can go get him if you want," she suggested.
Simon considered it, and then shrugged. "Might as well just leave him," he sighed. "He's not worth our trouble.
Jeanette hugged Simon again. "Don't ever do that again!" she cried. "You scared me."
She took a step back and carefully focused. There was a flash of light, and her wings vanished. Smiling, she looked down at her gem and saw that it was the same light purple color as her wings, not changing anymore. The silvery stuff was gone.
"I guess I have my powers now," she giggled.