In the wake of her conversation with The Secretary, Kimona had spent the last few weeks, when she had time, looking for Iron Lung.

The search had taken her out into the North and South Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. She was chasing reports of missing or killed people out at sea but they were days old by the time she was able to anything about them. Most times they were non-Iron Lung related too.

Sat on a sun lounger in her yard, Kimona was talking to Adam on the phone. Adam was one of the two boys who came to her rescue when she first resurfaced in Truumdale. Ever since, she remained in close contact with Adam and Raj whenever she could.

“I trust you of course to not say anything about it.”

“Definitely not Kim. Mom’s the word,” he replied, having been brought up to date on what Kimona was working on since her conversation with The Secretary. “But you’ve had no luck finding him?”

“Nope. I’m waiting for a call back from a friend I have in Jamaica who is keeping an eye out for me. So we’ll see… Anyway! How are you? You have any plans for your birthday next week? Sweet sixteen!”

“Well there’s the party on the weekend but on the day... I’m not sure. Think my Pa will take me out on my first driving lesson.”

“Nice! I’m going to do my best to come and see you on the day.”

“Thanks, that would be great if you could. But I understand if you couldn’t.”

A beeping sound came through on Kimona’s phone, notifying her of an incoming call. “Bingo! Sorry Adam, my friend is calling me now. I’ve got to go.” She quickly accepted the new call. “Santianna! Hey!” she said, greeting her friend. Kimona had met Santianna Simpson in Jamaica when working on a conservation project for sea animals. “Do you have anything for me?”

“Your friend has been sighted off the coast from Conpa Bay, just on the northern part of the island.”

“How long ago?” Kimona asked, getting up and sliding into her flip flops.

“Only this morning.”

“You’re a star, thank you!”

“No worries. I’m here if you need anything else.”

“I’ll be in touch. Thanks again!”

***

Agwé parked her jet in hover mode just off the coast of Jamaica and made her way deeper out to sea.

Half an hour in, The Secretary came through on her communicator. “I know you’re looking for Iron Lung, but we have had reports of him killing the crew of a fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico.”

“Ok, thank you. I’ll check it out,” she responded, leaving out the part about her already being there.

After a while longer, Agwé came across a pair of tiger sharks.

“Have you seen any human in an orange hard skin?” she asked, using simple words the sharks would understand.

“Yes. It hurt my teeth,” one of them snarled, circling around Kimona. “He smelt of blood.”

“Do you want another go at him? Will you help me find them again?”

“Yes,” the other tiger shark responded, before they swam off together.

“We’re close,” the first shark announced after a short time.

“Iron Lung!” Agwé shouted out loud. “Show yourself, you arsehole!”

The tiger sharks hung around, swimming round in wide circles, as Iron Lung appeared from the darker depths.

“I see you met my old friends,” he said.

“Yeah, they’ve come back for a bit more. But we first need to talk about a couple of things.”

“Me hungry now,” one of the sharks growled.

“All you ever want to do is talk,” Iron Lung said, coming closer and ignoring the sharks.

“I need to know if you came from a storm.” There was a pause as Iron Lung didn’t say anything for a moment.

“And what’s the other thing?”

“Well it’s about the boat crew you’ve just killed. So you’ll get your fight over that, once you’ve told me if you came from a storm. Like I did.”

“Uh, so that's what this is,” he muttered looking her up and down.

“What is?”

“You have an… energy about you. One I hadn’t felt since…”

“Since you fought Old Glory?”

“Bullshit. Old Glory? Don’t make me throw up in my helmet. His name is Grady Stone. Old Glory’s a pathetic name.”

“Fine, whatever. But you said you felt an energy?”

“Well, don’t get excited, Miss. I just knew there was something about you, but I didn’t know what... until now. I’ve merged with his suit and live under water nearly all the time, so I’m not an authority on all these things big stormy. When did you get lost in it?”

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“1939.”

“And when did you resurface?”

“The week we first met.”

“That’s a long time. And you’ve been unable to leave me alone since then.”

“Get over yourself. So it’s true? You did come from a storm. I really thought I was the only one.”

“And you only just found this out? Your superiors have a habit of keeping this stuff from you?”

“Not normally, no.”

“Can we eat him yet?” one of the sharks impatiently asked.

“Hang on,” Agwé replied. “They want another go at you,” she said to Iron Lung.

“You said we could if we help you,” the other shark said.

“They can try all they like, but they’ll regret it,” Iron Lung said squaring up to them.

“Why do you stay down here?” Agwé asked.

“I was exiled down here. To stay in the seas.”

“But Old Glory is retired now. And all that was decades ago. I’m sure you don’t need to be here needlessly killing anymore.”

“No way,” he said defiantly. “It’s a different world up there. One I’m not ready for. And one that isn’t ready for me.”

“It was like that for me. When I resurfaced... You adjust.”

“Adjust? Now I know you've lost the plot woman. We’re done here,” he snapped.

“Well, if you want to be like that, then there’s the matter of that boat crew. I’m here to get justice for them.”

“Like you did when that plane crashed? You let me go that time, when it suited you.”

“Screw you,” Agwé growled. “You can have him, sharkies!”

Instantly, the tiger sharks torpedoed at full pelt towards Iron Lung, who despite his strong armour, did flinch a bit in fear. These sharks wanted blood and their pound of flesh, if they could get to it.

Agwé watched on as the three struggled with each other, Iron Lung desperately trying to get the sharks off him. She didn’t plan on letting them completely succeed, but she was happy for them to wear him out for the time being.

“Ok, that’s enough now. He’s mine,” she eventually said. The sharks obliged, letting go of their grip and turned on Agwé. They were bleeding profusely from their jaws, where teeth had evidently fallen out.

“You said!” one of the sharks snarled. Before they could advance any further, and before Iron Lung could exploit the situation for himself, she pushed out with both hands, sending a wall of water at each shark, hitting them with the full force of a train and propelling them out far away, leaving her and a harassed Iron Lung suspended in the water.

He turned and started to swim away himself but Agwé used the water to slam Iron Lung vertically down towards the sea bed.

She caught up with the descending armoured brute in time to slam him head first into the bed itself. There was an eruption of sand, dirt and dust which continued as she dragged him, head first along the sea floor towards a large clump of rocks, which Iron Lung smashed up against.

Iron Lung lay there disorientated where he had stopped, his helmet dented and caved in.

“You’re… a relentless … bitch,” he muttered.

“I’m the relentless bitch finally taking you in.”

“Don’t… Please. I need to be down here. I need… to stay… I won’t go…”

It then dawned on Agwé. “Are you waiting for the other two? For them to resurface?”

“I need to be here,” he puffed. “I just want to be here… when they do.”

Agwé rolled her eyes. This was her second chance to bring him in for his crimes. But she found herself taking pity on him.

“That could be for years yet. I can’t keep coming down here and doing this to you when you kill people. You can’t keep doing that. I can’t keep letting you.”

Iron Lung reached with both hands to his helmet, twisting it slightly to unlock it and then lifting it off. What Agwé saw caused her to push back in horror. Iron Lung had shown his face and she began to understand why people were being killed. She could feel the contents of her stomach rising back up into her throat.

“You feed-” but Agwé stopped when she saw huge snakes emerging from the sea bed. Dozens of them, snaking up and scaring her half to death.

She kicked up and rocketed towards the surface. She kept going, not daring to look down on the now hundreds of snakes following her up.

When the time came, she crashed through the surface, being elevated by a column of water. She looked back down on the water, and there were no snakes.

“He gave me the bloody bends again, didn’t he?” she said to herself, almost laughing with relief and the embarrassment of falling for it. He was getting rid of me.

Things were starting to make more sense now. At least in regards to Iron Lung. But to find out more about the storms, there was someone else she could try.

Old Glory.