Go to…

Chapter_1 Chapter_2

Chapter_3 Chapter_4

Chapter_5

BZZZZ! "Lisa, time for school!" the girl's mother yelled.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," grumbled Lisa, waking up from a sound sleep. Getting dressed, she ran downstairs. "What! No cereal?!" she exclaimed as she opened the cabinets.

"Nope. I'm afraid you'll have to deal with good ole' oatmeal."

"Oatmeal? Blecchh!"

"I thought you liked oatmeal," her mother said.

"No. That was-"

A brief silence.

"Jonathan," her mother finished. The dreaded word. Ever since Lisa's older brother had mysteriously disappeared at sea, the Johnson family wasn't quite the same.

Lisa silently ate her oatmeal and left for school. School proceeded as usual: good grades, unappetizing lunch, and an action-packed recess.

When she got home, Lisa's mother looked over her report card. "A+ again!" she exclaimed.

"That's my girl," her father, Robert, said in a compassionate voice.

The next day after Lisa came home from school, her mother exclaimed, "Your uncle's taking you for a trip on his sailboat on Saturday!"

"Oh, great," Lisa said in a dull voice.

"What?" her mother asked, "You're not still afraid of the water, are you? Come on, it'll be fun!

"OK."

"Besides," her mother added, "it'll be a good experience for you."

"OK," Lisa repeated, although she wasn't feeling very reassured.

The rest of the week zipped by like a zipper on a jacket.

HONK! HONK! Then it was Saturday. Lisa, who, in preparation, had worn her clothes to bed, stumbled down the stairs.

"Ahhh! It's my little Lisa," her uncle said.

Lisa was thinking, I'm not 'little', but then again, in the towering presence of her uncle; she felt kind of little.

"Oh, Dan!" the girl's mother exclaimed as she pranced into the room.

The two hugged for a while, but then brother and sister parted and Lisa's uncle said, "Well, it's time we two folks get going."

"Bye!" Lisa's mother yelled. "See you tomorrow night."

The two drove down to the ferry dock where they would board their ferry to Long Island. When the duo finally reached shore, they once again got into Dan's SUV. The two drove through varied countryside to Lisa's uncle's land near the tip of the island. They had a pleasant evening and went to bed.

"What a beautiful day! Not a cloud in sight!" Dan observed in the morn. It was soon time to leave. "Come on. Easy does it," Lisa's uncle was saying as he eased her into the boat. Her uncle showed her how to pull up and maneuver the sail, and he even let her drive for a while.

"Uh-Oh!"

"What?" Lisa asked.

"See them there thunderheads?"

"Yeah."

"They're headed right for us!"

Soon, fierce winds were ripping at their sails. "Lower the sails and hold on tight!" Dan yelled through the tempest. Large waves crashed about them. Suddenly Lisa's uncle was hanging off the side of the boat! "Hel-BLUB-me!"

Lisa fumbled around for a rope.

"Give ma-me a hand!" Lisa held fast to his hand.

"Look out!" her uncle gasped. A wave crashed onto the deck, cracking the sail pole and launching it toward Lisa. But it was too late. The girl was hit unconscious by the pole, and, losing her grasp, her uncle fell into the churning water.

Back to Top

As far as Lisa could see, there was nothing but water - flat and gray and lifeless. How long had she been in the sailboat? She wondered. The last thing Lisa could remember was the boat tossing and turning in a massive storm. Where is my uncle Dan? She wondered.

The girl stood up to get a good look at her surroundings. But, as she did so, the boat cracked in two and girl and craft were sucked into the cold water. All of a sudden, Lisa found herself rocketing through a tube, somewhat like a water slide. Suddenly a hatch opened and Lisa zoomed out of the tube. "Aahhhh!!" she screamed as she flew through the air. SPLASH! Now I'm going to drown. Lisa thought. But instead, she found herself floating in the pool of an elaborate fountain.

"Ha Ha Ha!" children were laughing at her, drenched in salty water. But then, a girl and a boy, about Lisa's age, broke the crowd.

"Zorfax Lungardi," said the boy, holding out his hand. Lisa grabbed it, and he pulled her out.

"Ligfardz Irga Sanatri?" the girl questioned Lisa.

"Huh?" Lisa said.

"Irg, Ligfardz Irga Sanatri!" the girl yelled.

At this time someone yelled, "Mamo Rosani Futaki!" and the girl and boy went running into a shadowy alley nearby. The other children departed silently.

Soon, some guards came and grabbed Lisa by the arms. "Let go of me!" she screamed, but she knew they wouldn't understand. The two men threw her into a dark room and barred the door. "Hello?" Lisa asked, peering into the darkness, "Is anyone there?"

"Yesh," a scratchy voice answered.

"Good," said Lisa, "I'm glad somebody speaks English around here."

"What brings you here?" the voice asked, "And where are you from?"

"Well," Lisa said timidly, "I came here by accident - I'm from Connecticut."

"Ahhhh."

"Wh-who are you?" Lisa stammered, trying not to sound frightened.

"My name's Frank. I'm from Caddyshire - that's near Lundon." the man said.

"Oh," Lisa said, "where are we?"

"Well," Frank said, "from what I've gathered, we're somewhere in the Atlantic."

"Underwater?"

"Yep. It seems like we're in some sort of underwater city."

"Atlantis…"

"Beg yer pardon?"

"Atlantis," Lisa said thoughtfully, "the legend of the ancient city that sunk beneath the seas."

"Well, it looks like it's survived, hasn't it?"

Both of them looked out the thin slit of a window nearby. Huge skyscrapers towered above them. People rocketed through gleaming tubes below. Glittering fountains dazzled the eyes beneath the huge clear dome enclosing it all.

"I've spent half my life in this place," Frank said. "The security's horrible."

Lisa started to whimper; "Do you think I'll have to spend half my life in this place too?"

"Awww! Don't cry!"

"It's-it's just I don't want to spend all that time in this ugly little place!"

"Well," Frank said, scratching his beard, "we might be able to get you, well, maybe us, outta here."

"Wow!" Lisa exclaimed, "Do you think you could do that?"

"Uh - well, well, well, it looks like you got a visitor!"

It was the girl. "Me not know you Engliksh."

"You speak English?" Lisa questioned.

"I learn ahh second langwaj. I got go!"

"Bye!" Lisa yelled.

Frank asked, "You know that kid?"

"Sort of. I met her when - you might say - I touched down."

"Oh."

"Frank, how did you get here?"

"To make a long story short, I was net fishing one day and when I tried to pull the net in, it wouldn't budge. So, I yelled for the other sailors on board. We tugged and we pulled, and then the net broke. All of a sudden, the people around me were being vaporized, and I said 'Stop! I'll do anything!' and they brought me here."

"They?"

"The folks in the thing that broke the net. They were from 'ere."

"I'm tired," Lisa said with a yawn. "Goodnight."

The next time Lisa was about to go to bed, the girl came by. She had some sort of amplifier in her hand. When she spoke into it, it sounded like she was speaking English.

"I've got a plan," said the machine in a computerish voice.

Lisa spoke: "What is your name? And what's your plan?"

"Iglagarius. My brother's name is…Monalacacus."

"Oh."

"Anyways, I plan to get you out of here."

"Yippeeee!!" Lisa yelled.

"Quiet!" Iglagarius said, "The guards will here you! In a while, I'll be back to get you out of here. I'll keep you in the toxins corridor. My mother and father only go there when there is an emergency, and that's only once in a while. Any questions?"

"How do you guys tell time?" said Lisa.

"Time? What's that?"

"Uh-"

"Wait."

When she lifted her hand, Lisa continued, "Never mind. Where did you get that - uh-"

"Languiguno Plas."

"Yeah. That."

"Well," Iglagarius began, "I got it from one of the King's servants. He's a good friend of mine. He secretly took from the King's storehouse during a false breakout alarm he caused."

Whirrr went the machine.

"Oh," said Lisa, "you mean like someone broke out of jail?"

"Kind of. I can't really tell you. It's one of the secrets of Atlantis."

"So I really am in Atlantis! Iglagarius, I have a question for you: why haven't humans detected Atlantis?"

"Well, I think it's because we're in anoth-" the girl suddenly shook. "I've gotta go!" she said and ran into the darkness.

Back to Top

When her friend returned, Lisa's waterproof watch said it had been two days. However, time didn't seem to exist in this under-water world. No stars, no sun, no sa- Wait! Lisa thought. There is sand! I doubt they use it to tell time though.

Iglagarius arrived with a young man. "This is Raminies. He's my friend - the king's servant." Lisa nodded. He unbarred the door and took a robot from the hallway. Raminies rewired the circuits in the robot's core. Gibberish streamed out of its mouth.

Soon, the huge gates came open and Lisa popped out. "Bye Frank!" she yelled as she ran down the corridor. Robots rocketed after the trio, sensing the noise.

Raminies grabbed the Languiguno Plas. "Follow me!" said he. He pushed a button and they were sucked up into a tube. Lisa briefly felt her body pulling apart, but then it all clattered together again. Lisa faintly heard a robot say "Ignermos!" (She later learned that meant 'Idiots!')

"Grab my foot!" the man said. The girls obeyed. Raminies grabbed a bar and the suction soon stopped. "Don't look down, " he said, but Lisa already had. There was something glowing red far below them, and it was rising quickly.

"Oh no!" the man said, "Not now! Run!" They clattered up a ladder and a suction tube opened when they reached the top.

"Whaaa!" exclaimed Lisa.

"Ipanafak!" exclaimed Iglagarius.

"That's Iglagarius' house up ahead," the young man said.

"Oh."

There was a brief tremor, and then huge geysers of lava came out of the ground, spitting with pride onto neighboring homes.

Iglagarius spoke into the machine: "This is an emergency."

It seemed like everything around them was melting. Suddenly there was no suction. "Look out!!!" Raminies yelled.

A torrent of bubbling lava was heading straight toward them. "Run up that rise!" Raminies commanded.

Lisa was starting to feel like all he was doing was giving orders, and all they were doing was getting them into trouble, but she listened to the young man anyway.

The lava stopped below the trio. They heard a crash, and they then slid down the swiftly tilting tube. "Prepare to die," said Raminies. Lisa closed her eyes, expecting to burn up soon. SPLUSH! Lisa sunk into warm water. She quickly surfaced, just in time to see a house they were about to crash into.

"Oof!" a woman said as she opened her door and they came in. Raminies pressed a button and they were sucked onto the roof.

"There's my house!" Igla (as Lisa would call her) said.

"We'll have to make for the roof," said Raminies.

"You mean we'll have to jump?" Lisa asked.

"Looks that way to me," the man said as he looked across the precipice.

Just then the woman came up. "Irg oogies! Girlamani Fup!"

"I don't like what she's saying," said Igla.

"Let's go girls!" The trio jumped off the roof. Swift Raminies, however, was the only one to make it to the other side.

Iglagarius and Lisa splashed into fairly deep water. "Ahh! A whirlpool!" Lisa exclaimed as she was sucked into the liquid tornado. It deposited her into a room. She slid over dry ground, stopping in front of a box marked: [cannot show picture]. Lisa wondered what this meant.

Then her friend slid into the room, translator in hand. "The toxins corridor," she whispered, peering around. Come on, I'll show you where you'll sleep." She pointed up at the ceiling where Lisa saw what looked like a bunch of Jell-O. "That's a platon bed. It's water mixed with minerals." She pressed a spot on the floor and a soft material popped out. "Lay down on your back," Igla ordered.

Lisa obeyed.

"Now I'm going to press this button and you'll be asleep immediately, understood?"

"Yup."

"Sweet dreams!" Lisa was sucked onto the bed as it spun, hidden, into the ceiling.

"Iglagarius, where are you?" her mother yelled in her native tongue.

"Down here - in the toxins corridor."

"You got us so worried! We were about to call the Inter-Oceanic Police! Shame on you!"

"I'm sorry," Iglagarius said.

"Well, go up to bed now," said her mother.

The girl slinked up to bed, for she was very tired, and was sucked into her squishy sleeping quarters.

Back to Top

"Ooof" Lisa woke up with a start.

"Time-to-get-up," said a robotic voice.

Lisa looked up.

"Eat-your-breakfast."

"Wha-"

"Here-is-your-morning-paper," the droid drawled as he dropped a torn parcel into her bowl of sludge.

Lisa stared at the colorless soup in her bowl in disgust. She heard someone on the stairs.

"Hey Lisa! Did you have a nice sleep?" Exclaimed Igla.

"Uh…I guess you could say that."

"Did you meet Glisnordz? He's the family droid." Iglagarius looked at the soggy newspaper. "He's a little rusty, but mom insists on keeping him."

"Do your parents know I'm here?" Lisa questioned.

"Well…uh…I'm sure they wouldn't mind if-"

"Iglagarius! Iglagarius!" words came from above.

"I'll be right up!" Igla said. "Listen Lisa, I gotta go. I'll see you around bedtime."

"OK." Lisa walked around. She still had to figure out a way to get Frank out of jail. And how would she get back to Connecticut?

Whoooshhh…SPLASH! Lisa ran to the window. Outside she saw her parents in a pool, brushing themselves off! She wanted to run out and greet them, but then the girl remembered: she would get taken away along with them.

But her parents were given a different treatment. A guard spoke, "Ee ga vantrasi!" into some sort of radio. Two men in long white cloaks escorted the visitors toward a grand tower across the street. Robert and Brenda Johnson looked quite nervous as they entered the courtroom. The couple sat down near the front of the room and waited.

"You! You there!" a voice boomed from across the hall, "Speak for yourself!"

"Uh…well my name's Robert and this is my wife Brenda and we're from Connecticut and 'er we went in a boat looking for our daugh-"

"Silence!" the judge boomed. Robert cowered in his chair. "Now," he said, "do you two know why you're on trial?"

"No sir," Robert trembled.

"Disturbing the peace. And illegal entry. And driving your above-water craft in a no-go zone."

"Listen," Brenda said, "we were looking for our daughter and we came here by mistake. We didn't mean to do it."

"What is your daughter's P.I.C.?"

"You mean her name?"

"Yes."

"Lisa. Lisa Johnson," Brenda said.

"Features?"

"Brown hair, wears glasses - what I'm wearing - hazel eyes, wearing a dress when last seen…"

A long silence ensued as the assistants checked the database.

"Oh. Her," the judge said, disgusted.

Lisa fit the garment over her head. Her plan was complete. Lisa opened the trap door of the Toxins Room and climbed out. She passed through the crowd unnoticed. After watching the crowd carefully from inside, she had gathered this was Founding Day. Although she knew not why, she had noticed everyone was wearing the same thing. The tradition was to wear the same clothing that the inhabitants of Atlantis wore thousands of years ago.

Lisa silently crept into the courtroom, as the guards were busy watching the trial. The girl sat down a few rows behind her parents, but she didn't dare speak, for fear that her identity might be revealed.

"OK. If you can find our daughter, we will leave your city for good."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible. Your daughter is dead."

"What?!?!" Robert said in rage.

"She drowned after escaping from jail. She would've been put on trial the day she died," the judge said, as if in mourning.

Brenda sobbed, "Our family is cursed!" Robert still looked as if he was ready to knock out the judge.

"Also, I'm afraid because of your wild family history, you must be put in prison for life," the judge said maliciously.

"OK! That's the last straw!" Robert yelled as he pulled up his sleeves. He launched himself at the judge. To his surprise, however, he bounced backwards as if he hit an invisible bubble.

The judge laughed, "You land slugs think you know so much!"

Robert landed next to Lisa with a thud. Lisa exclaimed the only phrase she could think of, "Irg oogies!" She tried not to look at him as he glanced at her a moment. Lisa sighed a sigh of relief as her father walked back toward his seat.

"You!" the judge boomed, pointing at Robert, "You have been much too aggressive! You must be put to death immediately!"

Back to Top

There was quite a shuffle in the room after that was said. The guards practically jumped with glee from the excitement, Brenda sobbed, Robert punched the air with his fists, and Lisa was caught somewhere between her parents' two emotions. On the one hand, she was angry that this civilization could be so cruel to outsiders. On the other, the girl felt like she was going to cry. First her brother, then her uncle, now her parents, who thought she was dead as well. Lisa wanted to rip off her disguise, run up to her parents, and hug them as long as she could. But then she would die too.

"Teek toki!" the judge commanded. Two guards grabbed Lisa's parents by the arms and guided them out a door at the back. Lisa returned to the Toxins Room. She was thinking the whole thing out for a while when she heard something on the stairs.

"Igla," she said, grabbing the Languiguno Plas, "I saw my pa-" but it wasn't Igla on the stairs. It was Raminies. Lisa remarked, "Oh, I thought you were Iglagarius."

"Oh, I thought I'd just drop by to see how things were going."

"Great. Just great. My parents just landed in a fountain, now they're gonna be put to death, and they think I'm dead. Listen Raminies, I need your help."

"I'm all ears," the man said.

"Well," Lisa said, "I need a plan. A good plan. You know the king, maybe you could work something out."

"Ohhh no! Relations with me and the king ain't been so good since I got the Languiguno Plas from him. Anyways, I'm just one of his servants. We ain't chub-chub or anything."

"B-but! You have to do something!"

Raminies thought a while. "When's the drowning?"

"Dunno," Lisa shrugged, "but the courthouse is across the street. You could ask there."

When Raminies returned, he said "Meet me at Kangashalani and Gunio at blackwater tonight!" By this time Lisa had heard 'blackwater' meant night.

"Wha…"

"The street outside is Gunio. Take it flow (Lisa had also learned this meant the direction of the water currents) until you hit Kangashalani."

Lisa put the directions in her pocket and bade Raminies farewell. She went into the chilly night air and looked up. A massive school of fish was floating gracefully above the dome. The sea was so expansive yet she felt trapped inside this dome a quarter of the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Would she ever leave Atlantis, and if she did, would she survive?

The girl suddenly noticed it was getting dark. She broke into a run toward the death site. A huge crowd of people had gathered, awaiting the event. Lisa searched frantically for Raminies. Then she saw him, leaning on a wall in a back alley. She ran over and greeted him, "Hey! What's your plan?"

"I told Igla about the problem and she was glad to help."

"So??"

"So she's borrowing her parents' sub, 'I just want to take a casual cruise', and she's waiting for us to get on."

"And then?"

"We cruise by the drowning site, pick up your parents, and make our escape."

"To where?"

"Ask questions later - act now!" Raminies popped a lid off the ground and jumped in. Lisa followed. She landed on one of the most beautiful crafts imaginable. The entire ship was clothed in shimmering gold, with strips of emerald between.

"You're here!" she exclaimed. Lisa noticed that instead of a translator, her friend had a belt and headpiece. "Oh!" Igla exclaimed. "Like my new translator? It's a lot easier than carrying around that bulky old one. I've gotten one for you and Raminies, too. But there's no time to lose! Let's go get your parents!"

Soon they were coasting along through several air locks until plowing into the inky-black Atlantic. Igla pushed the throttle into 'TURBO' and they were off! Fish zipped by like cars on a racetrack. The ship slowed quickly as they neared the death site.

"Now," Igla said, "your parents will be coming out of that little opening there. We'll have to use an air blanket to keep them from hitting the water."

"A what?" Lisa asked.

"An air blanket. Raminies can tell you about it while I find the button."

"An air blanket is a watertight fabric that can be ejected to create an area free of water. It could be a living space, a studyi-" Raminies was interrupted by the appearance of a huge, billowy tent emerging from the top of the sub. It suctioned itself to the shell of Atlantis, and small vent-like cylinders burrowed themselves into the sand. All at once the vents began violently spinning. The water level slowly dropped and soon all that was left was air.

"OK. Now we'll need something soft to absorb the blow when they're shot out. Hmmm…"

BONGGG! BONGGG! "Oh no!" Igla gasped, "That's the death call! Your parents will be here in seconds!"

Back to Top

Chapter VI coming soon!!!