Chapter Text
Laying down his pencil, Cody takes a second to look over the deep, clear blue ‘waters’ that stretch on in different directions for miles and miles. The only thing out here is the Griffin Rock (a large boat moving through the Northern Oceans, much like other ships, both big and small, in different parts of the planet). The firehouse is a section of the ship at the bottom to allow easy access to the ocean outside, it’s where the bunker is also located and where Cody spends most of his time.
His dad and Kade were tasked with tending to the ship, Graham works with the other scientists in researching the planet, and Dani is out testing different planes while mapping out the area that they are in. Which is everything that his family have been doing since their ancestors – Horace and Betha Burns – had founded the Griffin Rock.
Cody set his sketchbook on the ground while leaning closer to the window; watching the still ‘water’ below. They docked a few hours ago due to his dad having to meet with a scout boat about something. He never stated what the meeting is about but Cody sure he can learn something later. That’s when he caught sight of something red moving through the ‘water’.
He jumps to his feet, grabbing his helmet to attach to his suit, before going through the staffing door where there’s a small docking station that’s attached to the bottom of the ship. It can retract back into the ship when moving at higher speeds. The Darby Ava is normally parked here but it’s gone at the moment.
That flash of red is gone and the ‘water’ is too thick – despite being clear at a distance – to see anything useful. There’s a reason why they had set up base on this planet even though it shouldn’t be as livable as it is. The researchers found evidence of life but also that the Energon can be used as fuel and whatever else that live in the Return Ships want with it.
Glancing into the Energon below, there’s a faint glow of lights that quickly blinks out of view.
…
“I think there’s something beneath the ship,” Cody said.
“The readers were destroyed again,” Graham states; completely drowning out Cody’s words. “And now we’re going to have to rebuild everything for the tenth time.”
Cody set down his fork while his family talk around him about everything that they had done today, mostly about the readers and spotting that Cody was always trying to tell them about. He asks to be excuse, which his dad given without even asking why, and went down into the bunker. Night had settled over the planet which cause the Energon to light up even more than normal; casting a soft, shimmering light into the bunker that bounce off the walls.
“Then we’ll force them to leave.” A radio next to the staff door crackles to life, startling Cody out of his thoughts. “Those creatures will never understand us…”
Cody grabs the code from the radio and hook it up to his comms. before sneaking out onto the dock. There doesn’t seem to be anything on the surface…until Cody takes a closer look into the Energon.
There’s a flick of red that disappears between spike metal rocks; it reminds Cody of scales on fish that he had seen in the documentary that Frankie shown him once. Then there’s another flash of blue and white…and there! Green scales that knock into an orange and white figure. Cody leans forward a bit more in the attempt to see what it could be. There’s life on this planet but most theorized to be just small cells and whatnot.
“They’ll never belong here, no matter how much they want to.” The red scales come flashing back in; causing Cody to jump back. It seems that there’s a few patches that would light whenever they ‘speak’. Maybe it’s their way of talking between one another. There’s a grumpy huff; “No matter how much we want to.”
Cody hiss and pulls his hand away from the Energon; he stumbles towards the Darby Ava to grab the first aid kit. He flinches when the boat suddenly rocks and breaks away from the ship; he couldn’t think of that until he stops his hand from burning. It takes far to long to find the spray and went about wrapping his hand.
“It appears that one of their boats have broken free,” a voice comes through the comms.
“Maybe, a late-night trip?” That’s a different one but it feels closer than the two voices. “I mean, the flying ones tend to do trips at this time of night sometimes.”
“No, I think there’s something wrong,” the final voice said. “Heatwave, what should we do?”
Heatwave? Cody thought about catching a glimpse of the creatures below but even the thought of it tires him out before he even attempts it. His hand still hurts and the ship is getting farther away…and he doesn’t know when his family to going to notice. It’s possible that whatever is down there could help him but that’s a big if.
“I know what you mean,” Cody said; hoping that maybe they could understand him. “About not belonging somewhere.”
It’s a long shot…something brushes against the boat causing Cody to flinch and accidently hit his head against the side of the boat. He winces before pulling himself up the side of the ship to see the red scales are much closer than before. If he doesn’t want to burn himself again, it’s attempting to touch. Instead, Cody tries to find the others scales but couldn’t see them.
“Don’t bother, you’re not fooling anybody.” Cody moves to the other side of the boat and waves into the Energon in the hopes of them seeing; wanting to appear friendly. “Trust me. Living on Griffin Rock, I know about ocean life, and you guys are the worst at pretending.” Cody takes his hand away from the comm. in hopes of getting a reply.
“We failed in our mission.”
“Our cover is blown.”
“If this creature knows, he’ll tell the others.”
Cody pushes the button again; “Are you kidding? And waste a chance to know something they don’t, something this huge?” He never done anything this grand nor important like his siblings and Dad. He’s always been overlooked and forgotten. “I’m the best thing that could happen to your mission, whatever that may be.”
The ocean is still and even the faint light below have frozen in time. Cody wonders if the creatures have left until his boat rocks for a moment and he comes face to face with some kind of machine dinosaur type thing behind him. It’s the orange and white scales one, who watches him with bright orange eyes that blinks and follows every movement Cody makes.
“Can you make the flying things stop coming so low?”
Flying things? Oh, its talking about the planes. Cody only knows one pilot that flies that low and it happens to be his sister. “Dani? I don’t think anyone can do that.” Cody thought about putting his hand out but he doesn’t know if they even understand what shaking hands is but he does it anyways. The metal being’s eyes flick down to his hand before leaning forwards until Cody touch its beak; it’s strangely warm and it felt like the metal is actually breathing beneath his hand. “I’m Cody, by the way.”
“I’m Blades,” the creature said; pulling away from Cody before being replaced by Green Scales.
“Boulder.”
Boulder slips back beneath the Energon long enough to pull up Blue and White Scales, who clearly did not want to give anything away. “Classified,” it states which only earns a look from Blades and Boulder while Cody giggles.
Boulder chuckles – causing the old radio to crackle; “that’s Chase.”
The trio slips back into Energon to be replaced with Red Scales who’s watching Cody as much as Cody is watching it. “And I’m Heatwave;” the creature causes the boat to rock for a second before settling it when noticing how unstable Cody gotten. “So, Cody, now that you know what we are; name one good reason why we shouldn’t force your ship to leave this part of the ocean?”
Cody glance back to the ship – luckily, not drifting farther away from it. He doesn’t know what Heatwave means by force but with their size and numbers, the group could easily force (whatever that means) them out of this area but that could risk anything from life support to food supplies or even their connection to the Return Ship. He needs to come up with some kind of reason and fast.
…
Bringing them onto the ship probably wasn’t the best idea but knowing they could change their size is pretty cool. Blades has been busy with checking Cody’s hand over while Heatwave and Chase are making sure the area is clear of people. Boulder is somewhere behind Cody; he can hear things being moved around so hopefully, he doesn’t break anything.
“If you knew Energon burns you than why would you touch it?” Blades question; wincing at the sight of the burn on Cody’s hand and face. It could have been worst but that doesn’t seem to ease anyone in the slightest. “Unless, it was our fault you got hurt.”
“Only a little,” Cody said; knowing he couldn’t fully lie.
“Cody, who’s does this belong to!?” Boulder asks.
Blades finish wrapping Cody’s hand before he went over to where Boulder is looking over some research. One of the readers are still plugged into the computer where there’s information going past that Cody couldn’t understand even if he wanted to. However, that’s not important at the moment. Cody takes a second to look over the desk before spotting Graham’s name plate that was made by Doc Greene for Graham’s official first day of work.
“It’s my brother’s desk, Graham.”
“Huh, it seems that he’s been researching the ocean floor.” Boulder looks at the reader before the string of code and numbers on the computer that’s still running. “Strange, it seems that the reader stopped working when the quake happened.” He notices the confuse look that Cody is wearing, along with Blades’ own expression when the creature came over. “There’s a volcano in this area that we were tasked with keeping an eye on…along with other things.”
A volcano? Cody hasn’t heard about that but maybe Frankie would know something.
“It’s clear,” Heatwave said through the comms. “Where are we heading too again?”
“The drive-in.” Cody pulls out his ComTab – pulling the sticks apart for a screen to pop up between them – where he shows Boulder and Blades a map of the ship. “It’s on this floor in the center of the ship; don’t asks why it was placed there.”
“What’s a drive-in?” Chase asks.
Cody leads the way – though Blades had to grab Boulder to make him follow. “It’s a place where you can watch a movie from the comfort of your vehicle; it plays on a large screen but the sound comes from the radio inside the vehicle.” It’s an interesting thing that Cody really happy that they have one on the Griffin Rock. “It was an Earth thing.”
“What’s Earth?” Boulder asks next.
“It was our home planet…” Cody takes a second to pull up the last known picture of the planet. “From what I read, we had to leave due to an invasion from the Quintessons.” He ignores the look that Boulder and Blades share over top of him, deciding he’ll ask later when he convince them to allow the Griffin Rock to remain here. “But that was way before I was born.”
It’s clear that Heatwave and Chase were discussing something – probably about the Quintesson comment – but drops it when Cody gets into earshot. He takes the lead and takes them farther into the ship.
…
A robot dinosaur was the last thing Cody was expecting to see but he faintly remembers Frankie talking about a project for deep sea research. The dinosaurs (three were made) were made out of the same metal that they had found and were built to handle the depths which is why Cody had asked the creatures to not destroy the T-Rex.
Specially, when his family got involved.
The only one to not be surprise is his dad, who spoken to Heatwave without any of the caution that his siblings have. Cody has a blanket wrap around his shoulder while Blades and Boulder have taken up either side of him. Chase keeps glancing back at Cody before going back to watching the areas. He flexes his hand, wincing softly at the pull of skin and the burning warmth flood through his hand.
“This is insane,” Kade said; finally finding his voice. “Dad, you have to find this insane.”
“They are part of our convoy crew,” their dad explains. “They are the reason why we remain in this area and why we are even allowed to be here in the first place.”
“What do you mean exactly?” Dani asks before anyone else could.
“It means that our people have made a deal with your ancestors; we hide you here away from the Quintessons and you help us in saving our planet.” Heatwave’s voice startles Cody’s siblings since it echoes through the comms. while also being spoken out loud. “Which is why the Griffin Rock will remain in these waters until then.”
Cody can tell that things aren’t going to work out like they hoped; guess he has to help out where he can.