Home Again

Mission Atlantis 1: Into the Deep

A/N: Missing Atlantis is gonna be interesting ;) Also, there's no shipping.

"It's nice to have you over, Alice," Mighty Penguin said, grinning at me. We were seated on his couch, in his sleek, modern house. The walls are pale blue and the floor is soft, grey carpet. The couch is big, red and fluffy, with a wooden coffee table in front of it. A TV, naturally, is on the wall. It was playing football, I think. "I mean, the last time we saw each other..."

"...we had to save the world," I finished, sighing. "I know." I took a sip of the lemonade Mighty Penguin allowed me to have. "Um, recently... I set this psychopath's house on fire. I know he's bad and all, but... I can't help but feel... guilty."

"I kinda agree that's a bit extreme, even for a psycho," Mighty Penguin admitted, shaking his head. "But... is he in jail?"

"Yeah. Fierce Fox told the police he tried to kill us." I explained.

"Well then he won't need his house anymore." Mighty Penguin laughed. Then he looked serious. "Still, Al... y'know. But I think you've done worse, right? With the whole Zeus and Louisa business. Yet again, just apologize to him or something. I dunno. You'll figure something out. I'm not so good with the whole forgiving and apologizing thing."

"Okay," I said, tapping my chin. "Thanks, Mighty Penguin." I eyed him. "So, were you born here? On Time Tangled Island?"

"Uh-huh," Mighty Penguin replied, smiling. "Because of this island, I'm never late for anything... And I care about timezones a lot, heh."

"I saw all those clocks in your room." I sighed, shaking my head.

"Just a thing growing up here." Mighty Penguin said, shrugging. He flipped his baseball cap around on his head. "So, what about you? Where did you grow up? Aren't you, like, supposed to be from another world or something?"

"Um... yeah," I told him. "This place called Earth. It's sort of like here... but sort of not. We don't have island quests, medallions, super powers and adventures. We just have... lives. Going to school, working, and so on."

"Oh," Mighty Penguin said, looking away. I saw a glimmer in his eyes. "Sounds... boring."

"For a thrill-seeker like you, it would be," I laughed, fingering my scarf. "But for me... it's half my life."

"Mmm," Mighty Penguin replied, daydreaming. "Boring, yeah."

"Yeah..." I said, feeling awkward. It seemed Mighty Penguin wasn't telling me something. But what? I'd felt that way with Fierce Fox, too. It seemed everyone was hiding things from me.

Fierce Fox and I landed on a large, silver, oil-coated boat in the middle of the ocean. The sun's high above our heads, sprinkling sunlight upon us. There are various boat materials onboard, such as ropes, donut holes, and so on. A famous film director called Cam Jameson was in front of us. He had an anxious expression.

"What's going on?" Fierce Fox asked, raising her brow.

"I need help filming some underwater footage of these fish," Cam explained. He handed us a file full of descriptions. "Find the key to the sub and we'll make the greatest fish story ever told!"

"Probably won't be able to top Finding Nemo," I told him. "But we'll do it anyway." I gestured Fierce Fox to follow me. I led her over to a dark green, dirty, pole. It and some others held up the hoists to the ship. On one was a silver bucket full of water. With my instruction, Fierce Fox removed the water by tipping it onto some vain guy's helmet. She then filled up the bucket with oil and repeated the process. The guy was so disgusted he dropped the key to the sub, since it was locked in a crate.