Gamma Accidents #2: Creatures from the Deep

  ~~~

  Jack zoomed through the air, glancing, periodically, at the oceanic beast tailing him.

  He didn't have a fear of sharks, mostly because he had never had the unpleasant experience of meeting one, up close and personal. And he always had the confidence that he could get away.

  But now, in real life, catching glimpses of teeth designed to shred and a robust, streamlined body multiple times larger than himself; Jack felt true terror.

  He couldn't think straight. He knew he had to fix this situation before someone got hurt... or worse. But his panic-stricken mind couldn't find a solution.

  Jack flew, his heart thumping like a crazed, caged animal. He subconsciously balanced his speed: fast enough to evade the Great White, yet just slow enough to keep the chase interesting. Somehow, he knew he didn't want to outrun the shark just yet. He had no idea what it would do if it lost its target.

  The shark suddenly burst forward, lunging at Jack. Working on pure reflex, Jack twisted away, dodging the bold advance.

  Instinctively, Jack curved through the air, steering away from Crashton, following a road that led out of town.

  "Jack!"

  He whipped his head around to see who had called him, but he continued flying straight.

  He saw Caleb, eagerly bouncing along the relatively empty road (save a few travelling tourists just entering the popular vacation town). He extended his arm and Jack realized he was holding something.

  As Caleb got closer, desperately bouncing as high and as far as he could, he threw the item towards Jack.

  Despite Caleb's sloppy, tired throw, Jack caught the object.

  A walkie-talkie.

  Jack and the others didn't care how much others scoffed at their partiality for the novelty communication devices: they worked, and that was all they cared about.

  "Bella says..." Caleb called, panting and pausing as he descended. He jumped back up and continued, "you should lead the chase... it's all you can do."

  "Lead it where?" Jack yelled back, desperately. The shark boldly lunged at him again, but his massive, powerful jaws clamped down on thin air as Jack quickly jerked out the way at the last second.

  Caleb leapt into the air. As he reached the peak of his bounce trajectory, he dramatically shrugged his shoulders and raised his palms towards the sky.

  Jack understood the "I don't know, you think of something," gesture.

  The panic faded and a feeling of reassurance settled in as Jack spoke with Caleb. It wasn't much, but it was enough to unfreeze his problem-solving capabilities.

  Caleb told him Bella said to lead the chase. She had a point: in this cat-and-mouse chase, Jack had one significant advantage as the figurative mouse.

  The shark would determinedly and blindly follow him wherever he steered this aerial pursuit.

  With a sudden rush of hope, Jack held up the little radio.

  "Hey, Ethan? You there?" he said.

  He had no response for about a minute. But, as expected, his trusty friend replied. "Yeah, I'm here."

  "I have a plan."

  "Thank goodness. What is it?"

  "I don't have time to explain the details. But, are your parents out of town?"

  "Uh... yeah, they left this morning for some art expedition in Rockwell City. Why?"

  "I need your garage."

  Jack could just imagine what was happening on the other end of the silent radio line. He could visualize Ethan's scrunched-up, confused expression. He could see the moment that expression melted into a wide-eyed, slack-jawed realization.

  "No," Ethan said, simply.

  "It's for the greater good."

  Ethan groaned. "Dude..."

  10

  "Jack is an idiot."

  "Can't argue with that," Bella said, nonchalantly, driving along the coast road, trying to keep up with said idiot. "What, in particular, is our resident idiot scheming now?"

  "I think he wants to lure the shark to our house, and lock him in our garage," Ethan explained.

  "Aren't your parents out of town for a few days?"

  "Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't want a shark in our garage!" Ty emphasized.

  "Well, I think it can work," Bella said.

  "I thought you just agreed with me that Jack's idea is stupid," Ethan countered.

  "I agreed he's an idiot. I never said he wasn't a smart idiot that sometimes manages to come up with weird and wild ideas that strangely work."

  Ethan shook his head, disapprovingly. He breathed in, deeply and loudly, then let the breath out in a dramatic sigh. "Fine. If we're gonna lock a shark in our garage, we better get there before Jack does," he finally said. "Bella?"

  "On it!" she said, speedily whipping the steering wheel around and expertly performing a three-point turn in the middle of a coastal road. Once turned around, she floored it.

  ~~~

  Neighbours, friends, and even brief acquaintances, described Kendall and Savannah Black as "eccentric and creative" types. Obviously, that meant the Black family did not live in a "normal" house.

  Situated along the old coast road stood a long forgotten fire station that had long since been put out of business. When the triplets were eight years old, Kendall and Savannah moved to Crashton and purchased the dilapidated building. Within two years, they had completely refurbished and renovated the forsaken fire station.

  The family lived there ever since.

  Right now, the fire station turned family home was only needed for one thing: its large garages, previously used to shelter fire trucks but now acting as a three-in-one workshop, art studio and car shelter.

  Bella pulled up on the driveway, stopping suddenly, making everyone inside the jeep involuntarily jerk forward, their seatbelts straining.

  "Move it, people!" Bella yelled as she swiftly unbuckled her seatbelt with one hand and removed the keys from the ignition with the other. "We need to get that garage open yesterday!"

  Ethan and Ty catapulted out the vehicle and ran up the long driveway to their front door. Bella followed behind, but stopped to stand just outside the garage.

  The brothers scrambled to find their house keys.

  "They're not in my pocket!" Ty exclaimed with obvious panic.

  "That's because we gave them to Caleb to keep safe," Ethan reminded his brother.

  "Great lotta use that is: he's on the other side of town!"

  Bella heard the entire exchange. Rolling her eyes, she marched over. Without a word, she promptly lifted up a random paving stone from the driveway. Taped to the bottom of the sandy-coloured stone was a dirty key. Smoothly and quickly, she ripped off the tape and tossed the key through the air to the panicked boys. Ethan caught it, clumsily.

  "How did you...?" Ty began, confusedly.

  "Seriously, we've known each other for almost a decade," Bella replied, plainly. "By now, we know each others' homes better than we do our own. Now, move your backsides and get the garage open!"

  Ethan fumbled with the key but managed to open the door in record time, regardless. Knowing his brother was faster than himself, Ethan stepped aside and let Ty bolt inside to retrieve the garage remote.

  "I got it!" he yelled, triumphantly, dashing back outside.

  Bella whipped her head around and stared up at the sky, shielding her eyes from the sun with one raised hand. She could just barely make out Jack and the shark, racing against the backdrop of a vivid blue summer sky. From her point of view, they looked no bigger than a pair of seagulls.

  "We've got incoming!" she yelled, as she saw the distant figures increasingly looming closer.

  "Yeah, I got it," Ty said, acknowledging Bella's warning. He pressed the little button on the remote, his hands shaking due to a mixture of adrenalin and anxiety. He watched the large garage door, expectantly.

  Nothing happened.

  "Ty... what are you doing?" Bella questioned. She kept her sights trained on Jack and the shark, but she could hear Ty behind her, pressing the button, repeatedly. But
she couldn't hear the mechanical whir of the garage door responding.

  "Of all the times for the remote to go bust, it had to be today!" Ty complained, completely stressed out.

  "I'll just lift it up," Ethan offered, sprinting over to the door, bending and trying to lift it up as fast as possible.

  A wave of worry washed over Bella. The garage remote was bust, Ethan could not ever hope to be fast enough, and Jack and the shark were approaching like bullets.

  Her mind racing like lightning, Bella leapt into action.

  She whipped around and faced the garage door. Then, working as fast as she could, she trained her glow into a stream of electric-orange hardlight. Manipulating the beam of tangible light, she slipped it beneath the garage door and swiftly flicked it up.

  In the nick of time, the door rolled up, smoothly and speedily, exposing the empty workshop/art studio/unglamorous garage.

  Ethan jumped, pushing Bella out the way as Jack zoomed into the spacious garage, the frighteningly large shark following suit.

  "Close the door!" Ty shouted, urgently.

  Bella, sprawled ungracefully on the grassy front lawn, thrust a hand out, reflexively, and conjured a hardlight beam. She waited just a split second longer, making sure Jack escaped before she shut the door.

  At the speed of light, Bella's light beam stretched out, curled under the door's rim and slammed the roller door down, trapping the angry predator of the deep inside.

  Jack crashed on the triplets' front lawn, lifting up the grass as he skidded. Eventually, his speed died and he stopped. He got to his feet and stumbled over to join his friends, totally unperturbed at the dirt smeared, haphazardly, over his entire body.

  Exhausted and panting the friends gathered around each other, a strangely heavy feeling, like that of when a disastrous storm has passed, hanging in the air.

  Ty helped Bella and Ethan to their feet as Jack walked, wearily, toward them. The four of them slung their arms around each others' shoulders to share their weight. Without a word, they unanimously agreed to ignore the thrashing, thudding, crashing and clanging sounds coming from inside the garage.

  Caleb arrived a few minutes later, his leaps half-hearted and tired. He immediately slipped in and joined the huddling circle.

  "That... is something we are never doing again," Ty said.

  "Agreed," the others said in unison.

  "But... now what?" Jack asked, worn-out.

  A loud shattering noise, like glass breaking, emanated from within the garage, as if to punctuate Jack's question.

  "Uh... I'm sure we'll think of something," Ethan said. "But, first things first: can we bunk with you guys for tonight?"

  "Yeah, I really don't want to sleep with an angry, trapped shark so close," Ty elaborated.

  "I call dibs on Jack's couch!" Caleb said.

  "Guys, I haven't even said 'yes' yet," Jack pointed out.

  "Fine. I call dibs on Bella's couch, then."

  Bella shrugged her shoulders intertwined with Ty and Jack's. "My house is practically Grand Central Station: I don't think Mom and Dad will even notice a few extra people hanging around."

  11

  The friends made sure the garage was locked and as secure as it could possibly be, what with an aggravated Great White shark trapped inside. Then they made their way back to the public beach to retrieve their boards they had had to discard without a second thought as the wild chase began. Once they had managed to find all the boards (some aimlessly floating atop the waves, drifting with the currents; the others lying carelessly on the sand), they made their way to the suburb Jack and Bella lived in.

  Bella (still acting as designated driver) pulled up on the kerb, between the houses.

  "Welcome to the Sweet residence. Please do not steal the towels or soaps," Bella announced, playfully, as she got out the car and led the way up the path to her front door.

  "Do we get complimentary breakfast?" Ty asked, jokingly.

  "If by 'complimentary breakfast' you mean you'll leave my cereal alone and eat Mark's... then, yes."

  She unlocked the door and led the group inside. "Make yourselves at home, boys," she declared, sweeping an arm through the air, gesturing to the living room off to the side of the entrance corridor.

  She didn't have to tell them twice. They were used to visiting each others' homes.

  "I better get home before mom does," Jack told Bella as the triplets began a debate over who would sleep on which couch.

  Bella nodded, understandingly. "Sure thing. I can handle these numbskulls. Hey, do you have work tomorrow?"

  Jack blinked, a little stunned by the question. "With all the crazy stuff that's been going on, I totally forgot. Uh... yeah, I think I do. But, I mean, I could always call for a day off to sort this out..."

  "Don't sweat it, Mission Control," Bella said. "You did a lot today. We all did. Go to work tomorrow, deliver pizza like everything's normal, and we'll deal with it for now."

  "Thanks," Jack said, gratefully.

  "Hey, don't thank me. As soon as your shift is over, it's back to work figuring out what to do with Jaws."

  Jack chuckled, lightly, at her quip as he walked away and let himself out. Bella watched as he crossed the conjoined front yards to his own house, unlocked the door and got one foot over the threshold before Rosie, his little sister, ran up to greet her brother with a crushing hug.

  No one knew for sure if Rosie had inherited her father's powers, just as her brother had, but everyone had their suspicions.

  Bella turned and walked back to the living room. Before she entered, she heard two pairs of footsteps rushing down the stairs.

  "Hey, Bella, why are the triplets staying over?" Josephine, Bella's ten-year-old little sister, asked.

  "Because their parents are away for a while," Bella simply replied.

  "But Mr and Mrs Black have been away before and they just stayed in the house on their own," eight-year-old Irene pointed out with an expression of innocent confusion.

  "Yeah, well, there's a bit of a... pest problem at their house. It should be sorted soon."

  "Does it have anything to do with the flying shark?" Josephine ventured.

  Bella's eyes widened. Her full attention suddenly snapped to her little sisters. "Okay... how do you two know about that?"

  With feigned innocence, the two girls shrugged and held their hands up, palms facing skywards.

  Bella bent down to their level, which wasn't far, considering they weren't that small and she wasn't that tall. "Listen very carefully, you little schemers," she said in a serious, low tone. "Don't breathe a word of this to Mom or Dad. Got it?"

  "Why?" Irene asked, inflicting a small blow to Bella's patience.

  "Because this is something the triplets, Jack and I are gonna sort out. But if Mom and Dad find out, they'll get worried. I don't want to worry them, okay?"

  Josephine and Irene exchanged a look. They didn't say a word but Bella knew an entire conversation had just silently been held between them.

  "Don't worry, Bell," Josephine said, eventually. "We'll keep it all on the down-low."

  "Mom and Dad won't learn a thing until you're done," Irene added.

  "Thanks," Bella said. She didn't know exactly what she had just gotten her little sisters to agree to, or what they were going to do from here, but she counted them and their scheming ways as an asset. "Now, onto further business: can you guys round up spare pillows and blankets for our guests?"

  "Sure thing!" the two, inseparable sisters chorused.

  ~~~

  The next day, just as the sun began rising, the triplets and Bella snuck out the house and into the jeep to go check up on their aquatic guest.

  "We should get Dean back on board," Ty recommended as Ethan drove through the empty streets, towards their house.

  "He couldn't talk to the jellyfish, what makes you think he'll be able to talk to the shark?" Bella questioned, attempting to tie her unruly curls up, out of the way.

  "Even if he can't s
peak with it, he does know a lot about animals," Caleb said. "Maybe he can help us some other way."

  "Alright, Dean is probably gonna be useful," Bella said. "Caleb? Give him a call."

  "On it!"

  "But who else should we call in?" Ty asked. "I think a flying shark calls for more back-up."

  "Lacey Smallwood helped us out a lot back in Hero High. Maybe she can help us again," Ethan suggested.

  "We're dealing with land-roving sea creatures, not man-eating plants," Bella pointed out.

  "I'm sure she can do more than just grow roses at will," Ty advocated.

  "We should call Rust in," Ethan said. "He'd definitely be helpful."

  "I guess, but -" Bella began.

  "Dean says he'll meet us in a minute or two," Caleb announced, unintentionally interrupting his friend.

  "Good," Ethan said, pulling up to the driveway of the old fire station.

  "I hope the garage is still intact," Ty said, anxiously, as he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out the car.

  "I hope the shark didn't escape," Bella countered as she got out the passenger side.

  The four teenagers stood outside the garage, apprehensively.

  No noise came from within the garage, so they quietly concluded the shark must've calmed down.

  "We can just wait until Dean gets here before opening up, right?" Ty said, nervously.

  "Yeah, because, you know, we still have to call Rust and convince him to come over," Bella said, the unease in her voice admitting she, too, was just as fearful as Ty was of the next few minutes.

  "Yeah, we totally have to call Rust," Ethan agreed. "And who knows how long that'll take?"

  "It won't take that long," Caleb said, puzzled by the exchange. "I'm dialling him right now."

  12

  In record time, Dean arrived, pulling up alongside the kerb in a dark-coloured pick-up truck.

  "Did you guys really trap a shark in your garage?" he called, sceptically, as he hopped out the vehicle and jogged up to the Gamma Accidents (minus Jack).

  "Do you think that's something we would joke about?" Bella asked, honestly.

  Dean frowned but shook his head. "Never mind. Can I meet your sharp-toothed guest?"

  "Well... it seems to be a lot calmer... I guess we can try make contact," Ethan said. "Bella? Mind playing garage remote again?"

  "Unlimited power to create and manipulate light, and what do you guys have me doing?" Bella muttered as she quickly shot out a bluish-green hardlight beam and lifted the garage door. "Opening doors."