Locksmith

by QuartzScale

32. Lost Empire: Diving

Author's Note:

So... things might get dangerous now. What is Rourke's motivation now for going after the heart. Would you like to know? So would I XD

It took a few more minutes before we could confirm that the entire dock was clear of heartless. Luckily enough we managed to get out of trouble with everypony meeting back at the point where we split up. Spitfire and Redheart seemed to be lost in thought but didn’t say anything and merely kept vigil on everything around us. Octavia, on the other hand, was looking a little red and Fresh Coat looked as though she was laughing.

“You ladies good?”

There was a chorus of yes’s being muttered and I merely accepted it before another man started walking down from the ship. He looked a little older than everyone else and was dressed like a military commander. He stood before me and seemed to appraise me before he fully spoke.

“Welcome soldier… Have you ever served before?” The old man asked cordially enough.

“Sorry sir. I merely was a police detective for a while and only had up to the advanced training for that particular field.”

“Hm… Too bad. You fight well and thought you had enlisted. Rourke. Commander of this particular group. I suppose you’ve already been appraised of what we are doing and how we are doing it.” Rourke said with a jovial smile on his face.

“I have. My ship will be brought in tonight before the voyage begins. This is my crew in a sense. They’re all well trained and ready to handle anything that comes their way.”

All the ladies appeared to look confident but I could tell by Rourke’s eyes he knew otherwise. I knew he was the bad guy and I knew he would do something. The problem here was figuring out whether or not he would act on anything. There was always a chance to change things. When I watched this movie when it first came out… all the people except for eight of this crew were killed during the entire film. There was a chance that I could shift and change that but that was a pipe dream at this point. They didn’t know who I was and I wouldn’t trust some stranger.

“I’m sure they are assets to your team. Thanks for the assistance in destroying the monsters and keeping my team safe.” Rourke looked me in the eyes when he said it. I hardened my stare back at him. I wouldn’t break that shield I’ve built at this point. I needed to look tough otherwise he could find a way to take advantage of us. I would need to watch out for him in the long run.

“No problem. It’s what we do.”

“No kidding. It’s been a pleasure to meet with you. Meet up with our doctor before you head out then. Also get a rig from Packard. We’ll need to keep in touch while we make our way down into the depths.” Rourke pointed to the ship but I had to shake my head at him.

“I have a very capable medic on this team. Don’t you worry about these things. We’ll get the equipment from her as soon as the ship gets here.”

He gave me a very sly smile and nodded before traipsing his way back into the ship. Most likely to go over the last minute preparations. I merely headed for the first empty drydock. From the look on everypony’s face they didn’t like him. When we finally reached the end of the final drydock I tried to summon the gummi ship with my keyblade. I had no idea if it would work though. It took several minutes before the ship flashed into existence in the water and sent all of us sprawling on the floor confused and disoriented by what happened.

“This is gonna take some getting used to isn’t it?” Vinyl mumbled as I got her back up and absentmindedly placed her on my back. Her frown instantly disappeared and she snuggled into my back.

“It’s probably only gonna happen here. Let’s get on and get things secure before we head down underwater. I’m pretty sure we just need to check around the limbs of the ship. Spitfire and Sunshower can you handle looking around the outside.”

“On it.” Spitfire cried out as she started to circle the ship, “What am I looking for anyways?”

“Leaks and tears. I can fix them up but I need to know where they are.”

“Okay. Spitfire and I can handle it.” Sunshower answered and took off as well.

“I need two of you to handle making sure everything is secure. I need to go get the equipment they want to give us.”

“Okay… uh Octavia and I will stick around making sure everything is ready to go.” Vinyl waved as she dragged Octavia back onto the ship.

“Wait- Vinyl!” Octavia cried out as she was dragged into the gummi ship.

“You two mind coming along then?”

“Of course.” Redheart answered while Fresh Coat merely nodded enthusiastically.

We made our way back towards the main ship and traipsed our way into it. There were a few missteps on figuring where to go but eventually we made it to the communications station where we found Ms. Packard chatting away.

“No Margie you need to switch over to the real butter. No it’s not a scam you just gotta get it. Yes you’ll probably keep Jerry around this time. No I don’t know what you mean by that. Yeah I can see that…” Ms. Packard kept her monotone tone throughout the conversation only stopping long enough to point at something nearby.

“This thing?”

“Yes. Remember 205.76 is our call sign and keeps us in touch. No Margie I wasn’t talking to you. Yes I know you need help with Jerry. Look I know what you need to do and it involves that butter. Yes Margie I know it’s weird but it should work.” She continued.

“She was nice.” Fresh Coat stated as I walked with the equipment on my back.

“I suppose but I don’t see how butter will save a relationship.” Redheart muttered as she made sure to keep the equipment on my back. To everyone else it looked like the stuff was in my hands. I had seen it in my reflection while we walked back out of the ship.

“Let’s not dwell on it… It’ll probably be a bit too much for our minds.”

“What do you me- Oh… oh…” Redheart started to blush.

“What are you thinking about?” Fresh Coat asked innocently enough.

“Nothing.” She quickly answered.

“But-” Fresh Coat started.

“Nothing!” Redheart screamed out while I merely rolled my eyes and chuckled.

“I want to know…” Fresh Coat mumbled.

“We’ll teach you later.”

That got Redheart to instantly froze up and looked at me while being all red. Fresh Coat smiled and bounced around a bit in glee. Redheart seemed to want to do something about me until I opened my mouth again.

“We’ll find a book to explain it all.”

She looked me in the eyes and I couldn’t stop that smug grin on my face. Fresh Coat nodded in approval and bounded off for the ship while Redheart stepped closer to me.

“You shouldn’t tease a mare like that you know…” Redheart grumbled to me.

“I know. I was going to find chocolate later for use on you. I only can eat so much ya know.”

“Yeah that- wait what!?” Redheart turned entirely red. She truly matched her namesake at this point.

“Let’s get back to the ship and get things set up already. We’ll need to make sure everything is set before we head underwater.”

I trotted ahead forcing Redheart out of her fantasies as Vinyl and Fresh Coat made sure I didn’t drop anything while I entered the ship.She stumbled in trying her best not to look as though I had pressed her buttons a bunch but I felt it was appropriate to tease everypony a bit. I’d never been in this sort of situation since most of the relationships I had back in the human world were very much one night stands rather than long term plans. It was time to get things ready for departure.

---

After working throughout the whole night and figuring out multiple cords I found out that the radio that was prebuilt in the gummi ship could configure the audio equipment to allow us to reach the other ship on the fly. The equipment merely allowed us to extract the necessary channels to reach the ship… I was pissed at the very least to figure out my efforts were basically worthless in the short term. I sighed and laid on the floor partially defeated.

“You good Gray?” Vinyl called out and saw me on the floor.

“Yeah… just annoyed.”

“It was the wires wasn’t it?” Vinyl looked at the mass of wires and instantly placed them where they needed to place them.

“Why didn’t you tell me you could handle the communications wiring?”

“You never asked.” Vinyl chuckled as I felt my wing rub in between my eyes as if trying to ease the tension from the aneurysm I was starting to feel.

“Right… Well I guess we’re ready to head out. Can you be our Communications Officer then?”

“Sure. That just means I’m the one who handles the messages between the ships right?” Vinyl rubbed her hoof against her chin.

I picked her up on my back and nodded as she got herself comfortable on my back until we got back to the bridge. She carefully slid off and I got behind the steering for the ship. The was a sudden crackling of a radio and Vinyl played the sound for us. Hindsight really was killing me slowly and I should have given her control of it earlier.

‘This is Commander Rourke of the Ulysses. Captain Gray have you been appraised of the situation?’ Vinyl quickly flipped a few of the switched and gave me a nod.

“Yes for the most part. We’ll be following and providing support if necessary.”

‘Good man. Have course set along with ours as soon as we launch the Ulysses into the water. Keep up visuals out there.’

The radio cut out as our ship followed alongside the cargo vessel while everypony just looked out the cockpit to the sky. It was going to be a long trip.

---

“I’m thinking of a number between one and ten.” Fresh Coat hummed out.

“Is it seven?” Octavia groaned.

“Yes! How did you know?” Fresh Coat cheered.

“It’s been seven the last twelve times we’ve guessed Fresh…” Redheart chided making Fresh cringe.

“Are we there yet, Gray?” Spitfire moaned. She wasn’t taking the small confined spaces well… neither was Sunshower.

“Sorry but we’re still making it. Eventually we’ll be diving so I want you all to be calm while we do this. I know it’s gonna be scary but we’re in this together. We’ll be fine.”

While it didn’t exactly calm them down a lot they all sat back and waited for our cue to come up. The creaking of the cargo ship began as the Ulysses was finally let go deep underwater. A small ping came from the radio signaling us to follow close behind. I inched the steering up… when the hell did I switch it to inverted controls… Anyways the ship followed course and dove into the sea. Both of the pegasi on the ship were having mini panic attacks forcing Fresh Coat to hold them down with her telekinesis. Octavia had to physically help with Sunshower because she was being overly dramatic.

“Girls! Please breathe. You’re fine.”

They eventually stopped freaking out visibly but I looked at Octavia and Fresh Coat and shook my head. They knew not to let go until we made it where we needed to make it to. At first it was very calming and slightly eerie underwater.

‘Gray what is the designation of your ship?’Ms. Packard’s bored voice rang through the PA system.

“Diablos. It makes sense in context.”

‘Right… Anyways Milo is giving an introduction on what we’re looking for. I shall be patching in the feed now.’ Her voice went silent as another voice came on.

‘...of the Leviathan the creature guarding the entrance to Atlantis. It’s a mythical sea serpent. He’s described in the book of Job that the Bible says out of his mouth go burning lights sparks of fire shoot out but more likely it’s a carving or a sculpture to frighten the superstitious.’ Milo’s voice droned on in explanation.

“We’re facing a Leviathan? What would that be like?” Redheart held her hooves against her muzzle while the rest of the explanation came up a few seconds later.

‘Actually we don’t have to dig see according to the journal the path to Atlantis will take us down a tunnel at the bottom of the ocean and we’ll come up a curve into an air pocket right here where we’ll find the remnants of an ancient highway that will lead us to Atlantis kind of like the grease trap in your sink.’ Milo finished up speaking.

‘Keep following our heading Diablos. We’ll be your guiding light. Now Margie…’ Ms. Packard began speaking before the radio died out.

The external lights of the Ulysses turned on illuminating more than I thought they would. What was out there made every mare cover their mouths in horror. The entire sea floor was covered in the wrecks of ships over the ages each trying to find Atlantis. Spitfire managed to break the telekinetic field surrounding her and looked out the window in a seething fury.

“So many good ponies all drowned just for trying to explore somewhere. What could have done this kind of damage…?” She slammed her hoof on one of the panels luckily not breaking anything.

“The Leviathan is out there. I suggest everypony strap in right now. I’m more than likely gonna need to stop it from hurting us and we will be going fast…”

A low reverberating roar sounded out all around us traveling through the water. I couldn’t even hear myself think as everypony immediately clammed up and looked around for any exit. Luckily they were strapped in and kept following my advice. I knew this would be dangerous and I couldn’t lie to myself. Pony instincts had been slowly changing me and I could tell. The sounds of beasts made me want to run. The smells of mares drove me crazy. I had to force my more human sensibilities to keep pushing forward and for the most part they worked. I wasn’t weak minded or overly powerful in mental discipline but I knew I needed a clear head to deal with what comes next. The Leviathan would strike soon if my knowledge of the movie was accurate.

“Gray… There’s something swimming out there…” Sunshower pointed out the cockpit window and showcased a large crab like being with the tail of a fish swimming around and it was made entirely out of metal.

‘Mayday! Mayday! Diablos provide support!’ Commander Rourke’s commanded as the Leviathan attempted to attack the Ulysses.

“Hold on!”

I piloted the Diablos near the Leviathan and began shooting off the laser and the magically placed turret snapping off a few of the wires that were positioned around the mouth of it. I really wished I hadn’t as it focused its mechanical eyes on me and gave chase. I veered the ship off as I punched the engines and forced it around several of the pillars which the Leviathan ignored by plowing straight through them firing a beam of lightning at the tiny ship.

By sheer luck I managed to move erratically enough to get out of the way as it charged towards us snapping its claws around at the ship. It didn’t pay attention for long though as we got out of range and zoomed back for the Ulysses firing a beam of lightning through the center of the ship.

I forced the Diablos back and fired the laser and gun several times all over the ship. The laser was the only thing that caused any damaged as the Ulysses started sinking faster into the depths. I forced the Diablos too close to the Leviathan as several more of the sub pods came out firing torpedoes at the creature. It lashed out wildly destroying several of the pods in the process as the Ulysses exploded in the water and several of the large carriers dove deeper into the ocean into a crevasse nearby.

Sensing something wrong the Leviathan charged straight for the escaping ships forcing me to fire at it from the side getting a lucky shot in it’s eye forcing it off to the side. I immediately charged the ship into the crevasse and lead my descent by the skin of my teeth at the Leviathan recovered and came after us. Several of the small sub pods had been smashed by the claws of the creature as the Diablos swerved down into the crevasse avoiding the shots of lightning that tracked our ship.

“We’re not gonna make it!” Vinyl cried out as she clung to the console.

The lightning spear nearly struck us spearing through another of the sub pods and downing it immediately. We reached the bend in the tunnel leading back up as another of the sub pods lost control and blew up in front of us. Luckily, the gummi ship was much tougher and pushed through the explosion without too much trouble. As we started to float up to the surface several of the larger subs managed to breach first. Plenty of people survived thankfully. When i looked towards everypony though I knew I would have to address this issue.

“You all okay back there?”

“We barely survived…” Vinyl breathed out, “ that… was… AWESOME! Dude that was so much thrill seeking I don’t know if anything on Equestria could top that ever!” Vinyl cried out in glee.

“You got that right… still I’d rather not be underwater anymore…” Spitfire chuckled nervously as she fiddled with her straps managing to get them off. She was still shaking slightly but we almost breached the surface.

“That was a fun trip!” Fresh Coat called out while she waved her hooves around in glee.

“So many of those pod thingies got destroyed though… how many people were on them?” Octavia quietly asked though the moroseness of her question brought everypony down.

“Only four of the pods made it here. They saved the larger ships at the cost of their own. Two to each pod.”

“Do you think they’ll do anything for them when we surface?” Redheart coughed as a few tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Yeah… I’m sure they’ll do what they can with what they have. It won’t be fancy mind you. Their survival rests now on finding this city.”

“What are we going to do? We have a means to get out of here mostly unscathed… We’re not going to leave anytime soon right?” Sunshower asked though her trembling voice betrayed how she felt.

“I’m sorry but we can’t leave anytime soon. I made a promise to Mr. Whitmore.”

“What kind of promise…?” Octavia quirked her eyebrow at me as did a few of the others.

“Keep Milo alive. Help him make friends.”

“That doesn’t seem like you though… No offense. You seem more distant with strangers and we’re still learning about you as well.” Vinyl brought up raising her hoof as if to get my attention.

“I know. I’m trying to set a better example of who I was rather than who I had become.”

“What do you mean?” Fresh Coat finally undid her strap and trotted over to me looking me in the eyes.

“After my time on earth… I shut down a lot of my empathy. Those reasons while something I don’t like talking about are the reason I seem a bit blase about certain things. I try not to do it on purpose but I was dealt a bad hand when I reached adulthood. Personally, I have a second chance and I want to make the most of it. That means making sure he makes his way towards being an adult and dealing with whatever comes in his way to the best of his abilities.”

“This seems more personal to you than just helping someone out.” Octavia pointed out.

“He reminds me of my brother…”

I mumbled out that last line as the mares around me stopped and didn’t say a word. I needed to speak about it. I wanted to say anything about. I wanted that feeling off my chest and away from me. It was Redheart who finally asked me.

“Can you tell us a bit about your brother…?” Redheart gently spoke.

“Where do I even begin… My brother was older than me but strangely he was more scholarly than I. He knew what to say and when to say it. Dragged me out to several times just to go for a drink and enjoy life. Before I knew it he managed to have a family before I could even land someone who was actually loyal. Unfortunately, when it came time to the end of the world… he wasn’t strong enough to make it. A beautiful family and it fell apart… Sister-in-law was the first… Brother followed her soon after to their own despair. I took in my niece and raised her as my own…”

“Gray… Gray are you ok? Gray!” Fresh Coat called out. I shook my head and looked around noticing a lot of concerned looks.

“What? Did I blank out…?”

“Was it bad…?” Spitfire asked merely finding the most tact to ask what I was thinking of.

“Yeah… Let’s save this for another day. We should join the rest of the survivors of the Ulysses. I want to keep my word…”

“We’re all in with you Gray. You know that right?” Vinyl questioned me removing her glasses and looking me directly in the eyes to tell me how serious she actually was. Her stare bored into my soul.

“Yeah. I’m glad all of you are.”

I docked the ship and the six of us wandered off to join the others. From a quick look over the crew at least one hundred of the ship’s personnel managed to survive and make it off the ship. A large african american man took a nearby helmet and placed a small candle in it before setting the makeshift ship off on it’s lonely voyage to guide those that lost their lives at sea to the other side.

“I’m not going to lie to you folks. We’re up the creek without a paddle in this situation. From two hundred of the best and brightest we were viciously cut in half. Our only hope rests in this book. Unfortunately everyone is pulling double duty. No one left behind.” Rourke called out to his crew before pulling me aside.

“Seems like things are rough around here.”

“Yes but now I gotta ask you something. Why did Whitmore hire you in the first place?” Rourke stared me down and I stared him back.

“Take care of any creatures that may pop up. They went after Milo so there is not telling if they’ll also take care of the people here as well. We’ll be advanced guard clearing a path should any of them appear.”

“Fine. Take care of it. I’ll situate our linguistic expert. Hopefully the boy can do something beside read.” Rourke muttered as he trekked over to Milo.

Several of the mares gave him sour looks as we took point with the large digging machine which they were all awed by. I really needed to teach them about human accomplishments with Merlin next time.

---

Rourke was pragmatic. He knew that this trip would be dangerous. He knew most of his men may die under the circumstances. The problem was that there were factors completely out of control at this point. New faces and more cuts to the pie than could be handled. He wouldn’t let this chance go to waste. He wanted that heart… He wanted it so badly he could taste it. While he looked over the last page he slowly stroked something that was wrapped around his shoulder.

Wrapped around said shoulder was a large reptilian creature with a large goofy grin. It was a mixture of greens and purples with large yellow eyes and darkness pouring out of its mouth. On it’s chest was the emblem of the heartless.

“Now Snapagator… You keep whisperin’ in my head that getting the heart will solve all my troubles but now we have keybearers around. Any plans for this or you just gonna watch like you usually do?” Rourke eyed the creature.

It didn’t say anything but it seemed to understand. It nodded and summoned another heartless from it’s mouth sending it ahead deeper into the tunnels. It made no noise but if it did it would look as though the heartless was laughing. Rourke grinned as he patted it on the head and traipsed his way back into the convoy as they made their way down into the depths.

Comments

[Fluffy-Boi]

Rourke... You piece of (Swear words) Lol. Love this chapter. Can't wait for more.

[Lorddarkrai2000]

Wrapped around said shoulder was a large reptilian creature with a large goofy grin. It was a mixture of greens and purples with large yellow eyes and darkness pouring out of its mouth. On it’s chest was the emblem of the heartless.

Snapagator is a heartless that is smart. it is the voice that whispers sweet nothings to make people do the work for him(?). I'm sure he's(?) no slouch in combat but he(?) prefers the stealthy approach.
Can Heartless that aren't humanoid have genders? the heartless tend to look male in the rare cases like the banana slinging monkey heartless whitch are female. The problem is with the heartless that are too monstrous to have a clear gender, like the morning stars(spikeballs that slam the ground) and the shadows that have few features at all.