AQUA
WORLD
Chandler felt
himself being stretched, and pulled upwards.
After about 5 minutes he felt himself being pulled abruptly downwards at
an alarming speed. As he fell faster,
he began to materialize and saw what was below him.
Water…a huge mass
of water. That was the next world… Water!
Chandler felt
angry suddenly. He had almost gotten
killed in 3 worlds and now to be transported to water? Suddenly,
he saw Tor flutter towards him, smiling. He sighed. Maybe Tor could explain it
to him.
“Hello, Chandler!
It’s good to see you! I’ve been waiting for quite a long time for you and Holly
to come back”, Tor said.
“Where is Holly?”
“She’s gone under,
Chandler.”
“WHAT!?” Chandler
demanded.
“Underwater,
silly!”
“Oh. Sorry. I
thought…”
“Bye, Chandler!”
Chandler was
suddenly engulfed by water. He was shock
by the coldness that seethed around him, and he flailed wildly. As he kicked, he began to sink. He was not just sinking, though. It was more like falling through the
water. He stopped flailing and righted
himself. This could not be water. He stood
up! He opened his eyes, but felt no
sting of water. He wasn’t in water. He was
encased in a bright coil of light that twirled downwards like a little tornado
to the ocean floor. He couldn’t see the bottom as the water was extremely deep
and seemed to stretch into infinity. A small light that looked like a huge
bubble slowly came into view. The coil of light abruptly jerked downwards
toward the bubble, and it became a flash that nearly blinded Chandler. Chandler opened his eyes, and he was
suddenly inside a city… or a bubble… or a city inside a bubble!
***********************
The temperature
was warm and it was humid inside the city.
There seemed to be little ducks walking around the city. They were short and stubby, and some of them
had little stripes on them. They had no
arms, and little beads that seemed to be eyes imprinted on their little
faces. They walked with a comic gait as
they waddled around the city.
Chandler looked
around and discovered a small shop on the corner of a crowded street. He ran over to it, and almost tripped over
the little ducks that looked up at him with nasty faces. As he walked inside the shop, he saw more of
the little marbles, grappling hooks, a few sticks, and strangely, a bubble gun.
"Too bad we didn’t have these in Volcano
World", he thought.
He looked in his pocket, and pulled out the small coins that Lester had given
him. He walked up to the counter, handed the coins to the clerk, and asked,
“Is
this money good here?”
The
small duck peered over the counter, and his eyes grew wide. He snatched them up with his feet greedily
and barked out to Chandler a mishmash of words that might have been English. Chandler looked at him, confused, and the
duck shook his head. He walked into the
back room and came out with a little probe that he slapped onto Chandler’s left
ear.
"~Come
with me!~" the small duck was speaking to his brain!!!!
Chandler
hesitated. Should he follow it, or take back the coins and abandon the
shop? He followed it, and the duck led
him to a wall. He talked his mishmash
again, and the wall shuddered and opened.
Chandler hesitated and walked in carefully.
"~
What you have given me are very rare coins that haven’t been seen in Aqua World
for decades! For even one of these tiny
coins, I could buy my own shop! For
even the big ones, I could buy an entire aquasection!!! This is my room of
secret weapons from where I test my inventions. You can have anything you want in this room for a small coin, and
3 things for a big one! Choose! ~"
Chandler
walked over to a small looking squirt gun (it sure looked like a squirt gun)
and picked it up. The duck was watching from a distance.
"~
I’d be careful with that if I were you. ~"
Chandler gripped
the trigger of the squirt gun, and he flew backward into the wall with a
painful “Oww!” He shook his head and
got up to see a small bubble floating upwards with the duck in it.
"~Help me,
you!!~" he shouted angrily. The
bubble got nearer and nearer to the ceiling, and popped. The duck fell to the floor, and a small
crack showed in the floor.
"~Didn’t I
tell you to be careful? I can’t have
you playing with these like they’re toys!
They’re very dangerous! Hurry up!~", the duck growled. Chandler set
the gun down carefully on the floor. He
then walked over to another set of marbles.
"~DON’T TOUCH
THOSE…~"
BAAAMMM!
A smokescreen
filled the room. Chandler was knocked
again to the back wall, but this time he was pressed against it until a set of
small dots filled his eyes. The smoke
turned to haze and Chandler crawled on the floor to escape the gas that had
turned pink and finally settled to the bottom of the floor. He spotted a little
black dot on the opposite wall and crawled over to it. It began to wiggle and the duck fell from
the dot. His entire body was black with
soot. He shook himself briefly and did
a little cough followed by a sigh.
"~ If this
weren’t for money, you’d be out of this shop.~"
“Sorry,” Chandler
said. He took a big coin out of his
pocket, and handed it to the duck.
"~ Right,
then. Take that bubble gun with you. It
never did me any good. Any thing else
you want?~"
Chandler was
finishing stuffing the gun in his bag and the marbles inside a brown pouch.
“Do you have any grappling
hooks?” he asked.
"~I have a
retractable hook that is a hundred feet long.
Would you like it?~"
“Sure”
"~Fine then.
Three small coins, please.~"
Chandler handed the coins to the duck, and it
handed him a grappling hook.
"~Is that
it?~" the duck asked hopefully.
“Yeah, and thanks
for the stuff” he replied.
"~Alright,
then, out you go.~"
The duck pulled open a small control box with
a single red button and pushed it.
Small coils of red light began to wave around the room. One of the coils wrapped around
Chandler. The other light waved around
for a second, and then zoomed over to Chandler. They entwined together, and a flash of light brought Chandler out
of the store. Chandler looked around,
and walked along the plaza a little dazed and confused.
****************************************************
As Chandler walked
further, he noticed the outside of the bubbles getting darker. Since he still
had the probe attached to his left ear, he could hear all the different ducks busily
talking as they passed him. He
eventually came to a bridge. It was
amazing! It had to be 10 times larger
than the Golden Gate Bridge in California!
Chandler looked in awe at the size of it. It seemed to connect two bubbles with each other.
As he walked
along, Chandler noticed that the air was getting dry and thin the farther he
walked. The
bridge was a combination of different shades that resembled tones of blue, the
lighter tones on the top and the darker tones on the bottom. These ducks were different shades, too,
being light shades of blue and pink. The ducks seemed bigger than the average
ducks, and their eyes were narrow and pointed downward. They waddled along in a fast pace, pushing
other ducks out of the way as if they had something to do and had to do it in a
hurry. Chandler heard a buzzing noise, and a motorcycle zoomed past him. The ducks on it were carrying weapons that
looked like spears with bubbles tips on them that quivered and shook. The weapons suddenly produced a humming
sound. Chandler looked behind him. A
motorcycle zoomed toward him and a bubble shot out from the tip of a
spear. It was heading right for
him! He threw himself onto the ground
and managed to dodge the bubble. He
looked up to see it hit another motorcycle, which crackled and creaked.
"~Get out!!!
Bail!!! Go, Go, Go!!!!~"
The motorcycle
produced a blue miasma and began to encase
itself in ice. The ice crumbled upward with the motorcycle trapped inside and
hit the bubble canopy. The canopy
stretched and broke as the ice made its way up.
WHOOOOSH! A wave
of water hit Chandler and flushed him off of the bridge into the open
ocean. Chandler saw a bubble headed
toward him and felt a cold cocoon encase him.
He was trapped inside the ice!
He started to feel sleepy. He
tried to lie down or move his eyes, but they would not budge. He fell
unconscious.
**********************************
Chandler awakened
to see half of the ice gone. He felt
warm air on his left finger, and tried to move it. It wouldn't move. He
noticed that he could move his eyes and looked around to see where he was.
TSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!
Chandler saw that
the right half of the ice was gone, and felt after a few seconds warm air on
his right finger.
TSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!
The top
of the ice fell to the
ground. It crumbled and broke into
pieces. The ice was fresh, Chandler realized.
TSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!
The ice covering
his face was gone. Chandler no longer
saw fragmented pictures but had clear vision.
He looked to the right. Holly! She was encased inside the ice on the other
side of the room, and lasers were blasting it away.
TSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!
TSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!
Chandler was free
from the ice! He felt cold, though, and suddenly felt an overwhelming blast of
heat. He collapsed onto the floor.
"~ Get them into
the stabilizer before they thaw too quickly!
Well, what are you standing there for?
Get them into the chambers! You,
there! Hurry up! Finish that laser
blasting!~"
"~Yes, sir,
I'm done. The alien is thawed.~"
"~Then get
them into the chambers!!!!~"
Chandler saw
himself being carried by a good number of blue and pink ducks. They were
waddling fast and talking to each other quietly about their leader, "Lord
Vaporium". He heard air escaping
from somewhere and felt cold again. His feeling of numbness was gone. He swung his arms and moved his legs and
head to loosen himself up. Then he
slammed himself against the glass.
BZZZZZZT!
Chandler was
slammed back into the chamber. He sat down and used both his legs to kick at
the glass.
SHHOOOOMM!
The glass formed a
crack. He kicked again.
SHHOOOOMM!
The crack grew
wider.
SHHOOOOMM! CRASH!
The glass fell to
a mess on the floor. He climbed from
the chamber and looked upwards to see huge glass dome was overhead.
"Hmm, how
does this work?" Chandler pulled the grappling hook that he bought at the
store out of his pocket and pointed it upwards. He pressed a small trigger on the side.
Zippp! A rope shot
out of the funnel and Chandler was pulled upwards. After about a minute, he landed atop the dome and looked down
into it. There was Holly's capsule.
Chandler thought about how to break her out, but no ideas came to
mind. But wait! The marbles he
purchased had exploded when he threw them!
He pulled them from his pocket and dropped them through the dome.
SHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!
A veil of pink
smoke filled the room and shot out in a plume through the roof and the
dome. He swung himself down and saw
Holly coughing and climbing out of the chamber.
“Chandler! What
are you doing here?” she asked.
The smoke settled
and started to fizz.
SLAM! The door suddenly flew open to reveal a troop
of ducks armed with spears. Chandler
took out his bubble gun and pulled the trigger with the gun pointed at the
ducks. Too late. The bubbles on the
tips of the spears flew towards him and Holly.
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