Agwé jumped onto the boat and was met by the Captain.

“Thank God, you’re here!” she cried.

“You sent a distress signal? Is your crew all accounted for?”

“No, we’re missing one. Hence the distress signal. They were on the night watch. And we came up this morning and they were gone.”

“So they could have gone at any time last night? Did none of you hear anything?”

“Ok, less of the judgement please. I was hoping you’d help us, not criticise. There was some heavy clunking from on deck, which isn't that strange but we usually hear it on the side of the boat. This time it was coming from on deck. Like footsteps,” the Captain explained.

Agwé looked at her. They could be anywhere by now. “What work are you doing on here?”

“We’re researching and collecting seismic activity data.”

“How so?”

“By recording the effects of subaquatic explosions in the sea bed.”

Agwé began to connect some dots. “Right, well leave it with me. I think I know exactly who is behind this. I suggest you stop with the explosions for now.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m about to go down there and find who’s doing this and I’d rather not have to dodge explosions.”

“Sure, that’s fair enough I guess.”

The ocean below was strangely empty- the explosions and the subsequent seismic activity evidently scaring the sea life away.

After swimming for a while, the first sign of life came from a pod of Clymene dolphins.

“Hey all of you. Please stop! Have you seen a non-fish man diving about?”

“The life shakes. We need to flee,” one panicked.

“Tell me first, have you seen a non-fish man?”

“Yes, it preys that way,” another said, gesturing the way they had come.

“Ok, thank you,” Agwé said, leaving the group to swim off.

After a few miles, her target came into view, the legs under the surface of the water. Agwé torpedoed up silently, erupting from the water a few metres in front of him, standing on a water manipulated platform.

“I knew it would be you,” she announced.

“And yet, it took you this long,” replied Iron Lung in his deep, raspy voice. He ascended through the water, coming to stand on it. “The suit’s new. And your hair, you’ve done something new with your hair, right?”

“A lot of things are new since we met. My suit, and my grasp on my enhancements… You seem to be getting up to the same crap though.”

He sighed impatiently. “You do know what they’re doing down there?” he asked.

“Yes... I do. But it’s for science. And that doesn’t justify you killing one of the boat’s crew!”

“Oh come on. It was just a warning. You know I could have done far worse. I made a whole Navy crew... disappear.”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

“So, we’re going to fight it out?”

“Well yeah, you’re still wanted after escaping from Terri. You’ve killed someone and I’m pissed as hell at the world and I need to take it out on someone.”

Agwé released the water holding her up and dove towards Iron Lung, crashing them through the water. She pushed him down, ten metres, twenty metres, fifty metres, all the way down into the blue.

Iron Lung squeezed back, wrapping his huge copper clad arms around her. She wriggled and kicked, but she wasn’t budging. With all her strength, she tried to push her arms out but the grip was too tight.

As the tension built up, so did the feeling that something was going to happen. Something that had only happened once before. A black liquid emitted from her, blinding and distracting Iron Lung just long enough to loosen his grip and get free.

She spun round, creating distance and waited for the ink to dissipate.

“Don’t ask how,” Agwé said. “It just... sort of happens.”

“It’s disgusting.”

“Its… unpleasant, sure. But disgusting is harsh,” she protested.

Iron Lung readied himself for another attack but his opponent’s distraction caught him off guard. Coming straight towards them was a rush of fish. They swam straight past the two in such a hurry.

“What the-?” Iron Lung called out as the school of fish engulfed them.

“They’re fleeing from something,” Agwé stated, torpedoing up to the surface.

“What about…?” Iron Lung asked, following her up.

She broke through first, scanning the horizon around her for a clue.

Just as Iron Lung came up beside her, she spotted it. “We have to help them,” she said. A fiery wreck of a downed light aircraft, a Physeter 650 LL, bobbing on the water, lay before them around two miles away.

“No way,” Iron Lung scoffed, but before he could argue any more, Agwé sent them high up into the sky on an ever growing column of water. They sped up, reaching higher and higher until they were at least one hundred feet up.

“It wasn’t a question. We have to help them. Either that or I drop you from this height.”

The deep sea diving menace looked down and reluctantly agreed. Agwé released the water column and they descended safely to the surface, and swam off in the direction of the plane, with Iron Lung following.

The plane was a type of private jet and was so far sat on the water in two pieces. Flames were coming from one of the wings so Agwé quickly put a stop to it with a wash of water. The two parts were still quite close to each other and it looked as if it had come apart on impact with the water rather than in the sky.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Agwé swam between the parts and could see the dozen passengers stuck in their seats, waist high in water. “Can everyone hear me?” she called out. “If you can get out of your seat, please do so now!” she waded down the aisle of the front half, checking on the passengers like a stewardess would do during the flight. But it was taking on water too quick.

“Please help. My husband… he…” a weak and injured man said as she passed.

“Where is he?”

“He’s in the water somewhere…” he groaned.

She turned to Iron Lung who was stood in the middle of the two plane halves. “I need you to go and look for a man while I get the plane out of the water.”

The man grabbed at Agwé desperately. His health was deteriorating fast, but he was trying to speak. “Our d-daughter is with him.” Agwé’s eyes widened with horror.

“Go now, you’re looking for a girl too! Now!” Iron Lung hastily obeyed, submerging into the ocean below. She sure hoped he would find them, but she still had the rest of the plane to worry about.

Agwé walked back through the plane where the water was now chest high, back out to the middle. From there she was able to lift the plane halves up into the air, them sitting on columns of water six feet above the sea.

The water from inside drained out, saving the trapped passengers from drowning in their seats. That was the easy bit. Iron Lung still hadn’t emerged from the water with the lost husband and daughter, and the trapped passengers were still trapped in the plane halves and some of them could still be heard groaning or wailing in pain.

She needed more hands. She could set them back down again and quickly try and release them before needing to repeat this process to drain the water.

“Hold on!” Agwé called out to all the passengers. “I’ll get to you as soon as I can work out how to.”

Just then, an air horn sounded behind her. She looked back and saw the research boat she had been to earlier now coming to her aide. Relief spread across her but she was still wary that Iron Lung hadn’t come back up.

The boat came to a slow stop just behind Agwé.

“We saw the plane come down and came as quick as we could. The Coast Guard are on their way too,” the Captain shouted.

“Good, thank you. I’m going to need your help. If I lower these plane halves do you have equipment that will be able to remove those trapped?”

“Yeah, we can do that,” was the reply, before she hurried into the boat. Moments later, she returned with the rest of the crew, kitted up and holding equipment able to do the job Agwé needed them to do.

They jumped into the water as Agwé lowered the plane to just a foot above the surface, so that the boat crew could climb up and inside.

Still, there was no sign of Iron Lung.

“If they’ve passed away,” Agwé heard the Captain say to her crew, "leave them for the Coast Guard to recover. Focus on those alive.”

It was commendable of them to work so diligently whilst they were reeling from the disappearance of one of their own.

However, it suddenly dawned on Agwé that if Iron Lung did resurface, they’d come face to face with the thing responsible for their loss.

The first two survivors were brought out and passed to the boat crew’s medic who was on the boat to receive them. Twenty metres from Agwé’s left, her attention was drawn to bubbles on the surface. Seconds later, Iron Lung’s domed helmet poked through. Then the whole helmet, and the shoulder. He headed for Agwé.

“Well? Did you find them?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Where are they?"

"I’m holding onto them, they’re just under the water. But they were dead by the time I found them.”

“They drowned?”

“No, I think they were dead before.”

“Shit,” Agwé muttered. “The man’s husband and the girl’s father is on the boat now. Can you carefully place their bodies in the plane for retrieval later?”

“Is that the-?”

“The boat crew that you went on board of and killed their colleague? Yeah, that’s them.”

Iron Lung looked at Agwé, but she couldn’t see inside the helmet well enough to know the look on their face. She held the stare and sighed. “Put those two on the plane and slip off. I don’t have the will or the time to deal with you now. But mark my words, I’ll be back for you one day and you will face consequences.”

Iron Lung ascended out of the water with the two deceased bodies. Agwé winced when she saw the grey lifeless six year old girl. But at least there was a body to bury after. Hopefully some peace could come from that.

“And Iron Lung,” Agwé said before he slipped back into the water. “Thank you for helping.”

***

“So he got away? Did you at least find out where the boat’s missing crew member was?”

“I was a little busy with the plane actually,” Kimona shot back abruptly, which caught The Secretary off guard. She blinked in quick succession, whilst Kimona remained stone faced.

“Quite. Yes, well I appreciate that. You did a good job. Only three people died, but it could have been a lot worse,” The Secretary said, trying to sooth any simmering tensions.

“Right, well I best be off.”

“Kimona, is everything alright? Since the whole public apology and your return from England, there seems to have been a shift in your... approach."

Kimona looked at her stone faced. “Everything’s fine Ma’am,” she lied.