Rayman Legends Adventures in Atlantis: The Lost Empire/Script

"…in a single day and night of misfortune, the island of Atlantis disappeared in the depths of the sea"
Plato, 360 B.C.
In the middle of the ocean, everything seemed calm until there was a bright flash of light and then suddenly, machines that were being driven by humans started flying off from a giant tidal wave.
"The wave is winning!  We have to warn Atlantis," a man shouts in some sort of language.
"Too late," a human shouts in the same language and then most of them were buried within the wave.
The ones that managed to make it drove their flying vehicles towards a huge city, that city was known as the ancient city of Atlantis.  Above the heavens, the floating rocks that circled around a giant powerful crystal started showing off red lights that went all around the city, grey clouds covered the heavens and the watchman gasped at the sight of the oncoming tidal wave that was going to destroy the city.
Then he announced through some sort of ancient microphone.  "Everyone to the shelters!  Everyone to the shelters!"
Men started banging on the gongs and then every citizen started shrieking and running to the shelters.  Then a royal guard warned King Kashekim Nedakh, his wife Queen Kashem Nedakh and their adopted 5-year-old human daughter, Kida.  "Over here, Your Highness!  Swiftly!"
"Kida, c'mon," Kashem said as she caught her daughter and started running with her husband.
Kida dropped her doll and was about to go back and get it as Kashem stopped her and then knelt in front of her as she said, "Kida, just leave it alone!  There's no time to waste!"
Suddenly, one of the red lights from beamed down on her and then changed to blue.  Kashem stood up and looked to the heavens as her crystal glowed and floated into the air.  Then Nedakh stopped and watched as his wife's eyes glowed blue, but all the lights shone down on her and there was a bright flash of light and Kashem suddenly fell unconscious and began floating into the air.
As she started floating up, she took Kida's bracelet with her.  Then Kida wept as she watched her mother floating up to what looked like to be a star in the heavens.  "Mother!  Mother!"
Suddenly, the giant statues that circled the main part of the city began creating a giant force field around the city.  All the citizens ran to get inside, but as the shield closed, not all of them made it and they all shrieked as the tidal wave began destroying the rest of the city.
"Mother," Kida wept again.  Nedakh knelt down and held her tightly as he said, "close your eyes, Kida!  Look away!"
Kida buried her face in her father's chest and wept while Nedakh looked on at the heavens and watched as the force field became full.  Then Atlantis began to sink underneath the earth, but as the waves that completely covered the entire spot where the once great City of Atlantis stood and was now gone forever from the world.
In a town called Washington, 20-year-old Milo Thatch worked at the Smithsonian Institute as linguist, translator and boiler room operator.  Just like his father, he had studied the legendary city of Atlantis and wanted nothing more than to prove to the world that the place had actually existed.  He was standing with a blackboard and in front of some practice dummies rehearsing his proposal to find Atlantis for today, he was meeting with the Board of Directors.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen," he began as he stood behind a speech podium, "first off, I'd like to thank this board for taking the time to listen to my proposal.  Now we've all heard the legend of Atlantis, a continent somewhere in the mid-Atlantic that was home to an advanced civilization, possessing many technology beyond ours.  Which, according to Plato, was struck by a cataclysmic event that sank it under the sea."
"Some of you may ask, why Atlantis?  It's just a myth, right?  Pure fantasy.  Well, that is where you'd go wrong," he continued and then started showing some pictures about what people had warned about Atlantis, "ten thousand years before the Egyptians built the pyramids, Atlantis had electricity, advanced medicine, even the power of flyers!  Rumors and ancient culture around the world agreed that Atlantis possessed an energy source from some type, more powerful than steam, than coal, more powerful than our modern internally damaged engines."
"Sirs, I propose that we find Atlantis, find this source of energy and bring it back to the surface," he concluded.  Then he showed them a picture of a book page as he continued, "now, this is a page from an illuminated text describing a book called the Shepherd's Journal.  It is said to have been a first-hand account of Atlantis and its exact whereabouts."
Then he stepped off from the podium and turned to the blackboard where there was an ancient Nordic writing and the translation underneath it that read the Coast of Ireland.  Then Milo explained, gesturing to the blackboard.  "Now, based on the translation of a Nordic text from a century ago, historians have believed that the magazine resides in Ireland."
Then he pulled out a really heavy Viking shield and then changed the R to a C on the blackboard as he continued, "but after comparing the text to the ruins of this Viking shield, I found that one of the letters was mistranslated.  Then if you change this letter and insert the correct one, you'll find the shepherd's diary, the thing in Atlantis.  Lies not in Ireland, gentlemen, but in Iceland."
He was about to continue to rehearse but suddenly, the phone rang.  He walked around the blackboard and responded the phone.  "This is Milo Thatch."
The person on the phone spoke and he nodded, knowing what they wanted and said, "just a second."
He put the person on hold and then walked over to the boiler.  He turned a couple of dials and then hit it with a wrench.  The boiler made a sound and then started up again.  He walked back over to the phone and picked it up.  "Is that better?"
The person spoke up again and then he hung up with them.  He went back around to the blackboard and then flipped it over to reveal a large picture of a map on it with a plotted route and he finished, "now, as you can see on this map, I drew a route that me and a crew will take to the south coast of Iceland to recover the newspaper."
Then Milo looked at his watch and saw that it was four o'clock.  His meeting with the board of directors was in thirty moments.  He grinned and gathered everything and placed it in a bag as he said, "showtime.  Well, this is it, I'm eventually out of the dungeon."
He walked over to a mirror and made sure his white-collared shirt was tucked in and neat, but he turned and grinned at the picture of him of him as he was eight years old with his grandfather Thaddeus Thatch in a frame.  He picked it up and continued to grin warmly at it.  His grandmother died as he was just two years old, leaving his grandfather to take care of him and his older sister alone.  Thaddeus Thatch was a paranormal scientist and archaeologist like Milo, he always believed in the impossible myths and legends, including Atlantis.
Then his computer beeped, indicating he had an email.  He opened it and saw it was from the Board of Directors.  He read it out loud.  "Dear Mr. Thatch, we inform you that your meeting today has been moved forward from 4:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m."
His eyes widened and he checked his watch to see it was only ten past four p.m.  What was going on?!
Then another email came from the Board of Directors again.  He read it out loud.  "Dear Mr. Thatch, due to your absence, the board has voted to reject your proposal.  Have a good weekend, Mr. Harcourt's office."
"THEY CAN'T DO THIS TO ME," Milo shouts in frustration as he realizes that the board does that on purpose.
Mr. Harcourt walked out of the meeting room with the Board of Directors and said, "I swear, that young Thatch gets crazier every year."
"If I ever hear the word Atlantis, I'll stand in front of a bus," one of them said, which caused them all to laugh.
"Mr. Harcourt, please wait," Milo called out as he ran towards them, holding his paperwork.
All the members of the board immediately ran in fright and locked them in their offices, but Mr. Harcourt made a run for it out of the museum, but Milo chased after him and kept calling out.  "Wait, Mr. Harcourt!  I have new evidence!  Please, Mr. Harcourt, stop!"
Mr. Harcourt ran out of the building and then jumped straight into his car and then started driving off.  Milo runs behind his window and shouts, "but there…there's a newspaper.  It's in Iceland!  I'm safe of it this time!"
But Mr. Harcourt kept driving forward.  Milo growled and then landed on the front bonnet of the car and said as he pulled out a piece of paper.  "Sir, I really hoped it didn't come to this, but this is...a resignation letter.  If you reject my proposal…"
Mr. Harcourt swerved, which knocked Milo off his car and he landed on the side of the road.  Then he shouts as he sits up.  "I'LL QUIT!!"
Mr. Harcourt stopped and then reversed back, but he rolled down his window and continued to frown at Milo.  Then Milo said, "I mean it, sir, if you refuse to fund my proposal…"
"Are you going to what?  Flush your career down the toilet just like your grandfather," Mr. Harcourt cut in, "you have a lot of potential, Milo.  Don't flush it all away chasing fairy tales."
"But I can prove that Atlantis exists," Milo shouts.
"You want to go on an expedition?  Here," Harcourt said as he tossed him a five dollar coin, "take a cart to the potomac and get in!  Perhaps the cold water will clear your head!"
Then Mr. Harcourt drove off and his wheels splashed water all over a brokenhearted Milo Thatch.  He sighed and then rubbed the water off his face.
Milo returned to his apartment and went to turn on the light, but it wouldn't work. Then lightning struck outside and suddenly standing in the living room of his apartment was a woman with long blonde hair and wearing her red lips that revealed her blue eyes.
"Milo James Thatch," the woman said.
"W-who are you? How did you get in here," Milo asked, fully taken aback by his unexpected visitor.
"I came down from the chimney. Ho-ho-ho," the woman responded as she sat down in a chair, "my name is Helga Sinclair. I'm acting on behalf of my employer, who has the most intriguing offer for you. Are you interested?"
"Are you your employer? Who is your employer," Milo asked.
Milo agreed and then Helga drove them to a large mansion on the other side of Washington. On the gate, the only fact Milo saw was the letter W on it. Helga parked the car and then they entered the mansion. The butler took their coats and then Milo followed Helga to an elevator.
"Keep your phrases short and clear or understandable," Helga instructed as the elevator went down.
Milo gulped hesitantly, not knowing what kind of person he was about to meet. He exited the elevator and watched as Helga went back up. He looked around the huge library around him and then stopped at the large family portrait of Milo, Thaddeus and Whitmore hanging above the fireplace.
"Best researcher I've ever met," a male voice said.
Milo turned around at the voice and then grinned at the sight. His name was Preston Whitmore as he preferred to be called and he was Milo's older brother.
"Ah, Preston, man," Milo said happily as he hugged him. He chuckled and said, "what's up?"
"What is this," Milo asked as they let go of each other, "it's a yoga."
"Awesome," Whitmore said, "certainly awesome."
Milo walked over to the table to see the paper-wrapped package with a writing on it that read "To Milo with love Thaddeus Thatch".
"It's from my grandfather," Milo said. Whitmore nodded and said, "he brought me this package many years ago. He said that if anything happened to him. I should give it to you if you're ready, however that means."
Milo opened the package and to his shock and amazement, it was the Shepherd's Journal. Then he stuttered. "It can't be. It's the Shepherd's Magazine. Mr. Whitmore, this magazine is the thing to finding the lost continent of Atlantis."
"Atlantis?! I wasn't born then," Whitmore said.
"No, no, look-look at--look at this. Coordinates, tips. Everything's fine here," Milo said. Whitmore shrugged and said, "yes, this seems nonsense to me."
"That's because it's written in a dialogue that no longer exists," Milo said.
"Oh, it's useless," Whitmore said.
Milo shook his head and responded, "no, no, it's just hard. I've studied dead languages all my life. It's not nonsense to me."
"Oh, it must be a fake," Whitmore said, sitting down at the table across the room.
Milo closed the book at that statement and said as he walked over and sat at the other end of the table. "Mr. Whitmore, my grandfather would know if it was a fake, I would know! I will do everything I have, everything I believe is a real Pastoral Magazine."
"OK, that's it, then what have you done with it," he asked.
"I...well, I'll get funding," Milo stuttered, "a museum..."
"They'll never believe you," Whitmore cut in.
"I'll show them! I will make them believe," Milo said. Whitmore looked skeptical and asked, "how are you today?"
"Yes! Well, you know...how did you...forget about them again! Nothing," Milo said. Then he looked more determined than ever as he stated, "I will find Atlantis on my own, even if I have to rent a rowboat!"
Whitmore grinned and said, "hello, Milo. This is exactly what I wanted to hear. But forget it, son. We'll travel in style."
She pushed a button on the table and then out of the table, a large model of some sort of very high tech submarine came up, along with everything that came with it. Milo looked at it in awe as Whitmore said, "it's all arranged. An entire ball of wax."
"Indeed," Milo said, yet shocked, "do you understand?"
"Why, for years, your grandfather bent my ears with stories about this old book. I didn't buy it for a moment. Then I eventually got bored and bet on the old coot. I said that if you ever actually find this so-called magazine, I won't only fund the expedition, but I'll kiss you on the mouth," Whitmore explained. Then he blushed as he finished. "It's my embarrassment as he found this damn fact."
Then he walked over to the fireplace as he said, "now I know your grandfather's gone, Milo. Heavens rest him, but Preston Whitmore is a man who keeps his word. Do you hear that, Thatch? I'm going to the afterlife with a clear conscience by storm!"
Then he just stared at the portrait of their family and looked down mournfully. Milo walked over to him and gave him a mournful grin as he said, "er, your grandfather was a wonderful man. You probably have no idea how beautiful he is. These jesters in the museum dragged him down, made fun of him. He died a broken man, if only I could bring only one piece of proof of this I'll have enough."
He sighed and then Milo pulled him into a comforting hug. After getting out of it, he grinned and said, "oh, Thatch, what are we standing around for? We have a job to do."
"But Mr. Whitmore, you know...in order to do, you need a crew to do what you offer," Milo pointed out.
"Take care," Whitmore said as he walked over to a pile of files. Then Milo said, "but you'll need engineers and geologists."
"I had them all. The best of the best," Whitmore said as he showed Milo the files, "Gaetan Moliere, geology and excavations, and a nose for dirt. Vincenzo Santorini, demolitions. He was expelled from a Turkish prison. Audrey Ramirez, don't let her age deceive you, she has forgotten about engines more than you and I have ever known. This is the same team that brought the magazine back."
"Where was this," Milo asked.
"Iceland," Whitmore responded as he showed him a picture of Thaddeus and the crew in Iceland with the journal.
"Yes! I knew it! I knew it," Milo cheered.
"All we need now is a nonsense specialist," Whitmore said as he sat back down at the table, "well, it's time to make a decision. You can build the foundation that your grandfather left you, or go back to your boiler room."
Milo slumped down in the chair, yet in shock as he said, "that's right. Alright, hold on, I'm going to have to quit my job......"
"It's done. You resigned this afternoon," Whitmore cut in.
"Well, my apartment, I'll have to report it," Milo said. Whitmore continued to grin as he said, "take care. That is where we're going. If you dare to leave, look for me."
"Sure," that was Milo had to say.
Whitmore stood up with the journal in his hand and handed it to him as he said, "your grandfather had a saying, our lives are remembered by the gifts we leave to our children. This magazine is his gift to you, Milo."
Then he offered him a jacket and asked, "Atlantis is waiting. What do you say?"
He grinned and accepted the jacket and put it on as he said, "I'm your husband, Mr. Whitmore! You won't regret this. Boy, I'm so emotional I can't even hold it in!"
Unfortunately, Milo was unable to hold much emotion in as he stood at the side of the ship and boy, was he lost. For the past fifteen moments, he had been throwing up, feeling a little seasick. Today was the day they were going to launch the submarine and begin the expedition to find Atlantis.
"Carrots...why do you always have carrots? I didn't even eat carrots," Milo moaned, trying to fight the migraine coming on.
"Attention. All hands to the launching stall," a woman announced over the speakers, "whoever took the L out of the parking lot sign, ha-ha, we are all very amused."
Milo took his knapsack and headed back inside the ship where they were loading all the vehicles that would be coming with them on the journey. Then Milo saw a woman near a car, where he walked up to her and asked, "excuse me? Do we need, uh, to report inside?"
The woman turned around and revealed herself to be Helga Sinclair with her gun, which was practically her weapon on her back and wearing a jacket over her clothes. She smirked and said, "yes, Mr. Thatch?"
Milo was about to say something, but suddenly, a male chef named Cookie floated down near his food car and said with a frown. "Blondie, I have a bone to choose with you."
"Hold that thought," Helga said and then faced Cookie, "what is this time, Cookie?"
"You just filled my cart to the point of bursting with non-essential facts! What's a coriander," Cookie asked as he held a lettuce.
"That would be lettuce. It's a vegetable, Cookie," Helga said, "men need the four basic food groups."
"I have your four basic food groups! Beans, bacon, whiskey and lard," Cookie shouts, fully serious by the vegetables.
An alarm went off, but Helga said, shoving the lettuce back into Cookie's hands. "Alright, cowboy. Pack your bags and take it outside!"
"Attention, all hands to the launch stall! Final loading in progress," the woman announced once again over the speakers.
Milo followed all the men to the large elevator, but they all went down and Milo was amazed to see the large submarine as if complete size. He was walking off the elevator platform slowly, but stopped as he felt something behind him bump into him.
"Hey, junior. If you're looking for the pony rides, they're here," an Italian demolition expert about Milo's age asked with three large boxes complete with stuff. Milo turned to face him and then moved out of the road. He recognized the person as Vinny Santorini, the technical genius and demolition expert from the files Milo had.
Then Milo said as he held a stick of dynamite hesitantly. "Uh...excuse me? You dropped your, uh, dynamite."
Vinny stopped and caught the stick of dynamite from him as he asked, "uh, what else do you have there?"
"Oh, right...gunpowder, nitroglycerin, notepads, fuses, wicks, glue and paperclips," Vinny responded, "big ones. You know, just, uh...office supplies."
Milo nodded and then Vinny moved on. Then Milo heard Whitmore call out. "Milo, where have you been?"
Milo walked over to his brother, who was walking with a pale white man wearing a warden's suit. He grinned as Whitmore introduced him. "I want you to meet Commander Rourke. He led the team from Iceland who brought the diary back."
Rourke continued to grin as he shook Milo's hand and said, "Milo Thatch. Nice to meet old Thaddeus's grandson. I see you have this diary, beautiful pictures, but I prefer a good western myself."
"We're going to be rich," Milo said in awe, "boy, if you hit a bet, you hit a bet."
"Well, your grandfather always believed that you couldn't put a price on the quest of knowledge," Whitmore said.
"Attention, everyone. The launch will start in fifteen moments," the woman announced.
"Preston Whitmore. It's time," Rourke saluted and then walked onboard.
"Farewell, Mr. Whitmore," Milo said as he gave Whitmore one last hug and then entered the submarine.
"Make us proud, boy," Whitmore called out as the large doors closed.
"Prep the ship for diving," a sailor called out, "yes, sir! Prep the ship for diving!"
"Lieutenant, take her down," Rourke commanded. Helga nodded and commanded the crew. "Diving officers, submerge the ship. Make your depth 150 feet."
The crew got to work and in just a matter of moments, the submarine was released from the ship and began diving. Milo watched them go deeper and deeper into the water through the large window at the front of the sub. He couldn't believe it that it was really happening. They had just begun the adventure of a lifetime.
Milo went into his cabin where there was three bunk beds. He took off his coat and dropped his bag, but he laid down on the empty bottom bunk bed to try and get some sleep. Milo heard a noise and then jumped as a small light turned on, causing him to bump his head in the process.
"You have bothered the dirt," the voice sneered in a French accent.
"Uh, forgive me," Milo said in confusion.
The man who turned out to be an obese man wearing a brown overcoat, goggles and headgear. He had a shaven face, briefly mustachioed and buck-toothed, but Milo's eyes widened as he recognized this man from the files Whitmore had shown him. His name was Moliere and he was the team's geologist.
Moliere jumped off the top bunk and yanked Milo off it while shouting. "You bothered the dirt!"
He pulled the blanket back to reveal small piles of dirt that had flags of different countries in them. "Filth from all over the world stretching over countries! What have you done?! England must never merge with France!"
"What's it doing in my bed," Milo demanded.
"You ask too many questions? Who are you? Who sent you," Moliere demanded, but before Milo could respond, Moliere caught his hand and suddenly pulled something from under Milo's nail of his second finger with his pair of tweezers.
"There you are. Now warn me your story, my little friend," Moliere said as he pulled out some sort of high-tech binoculars and zoomed in, revealing some of Milo's DNA, "2 years old, third in a litter of 7."
"These are all the microscopic fingerprints from the card maker and linguist," he concluded with a frown.
"Hey, how did you..." Milo began to ask, but was cut off as Moliere suddenly shoved his bag and coat into his arms and started pushing out of the room, shouting. "This is outrageous! You have to go immediately! Get out! Shoo! Shoo," he growled in frustration before shouting out an enraged "STEELE!!"
This yell was so loud that it echoed across the cottage. But with one more push, Milo was suddenly pushed into someone standing in the doorway. Milo recognized the Native American man standing before him also from Whitmore's files. His name was Sweet, the 21-year-old was the crew's medical officer and doctor.
"Oops. Sat in the dirt, wasn't it," Sweet asked with a knowing look. Then he turned to Moliere and crossed his arms at the geologist as he said, "oh, yes, now what have I warned you against playing nice with all the other children?"
But before Moliere could complain, Sweet smirked as he pulled out a bar of soap and said, "get back! I have soap and I'm not afraid to use it."
Moliere hissed in fear and then crawled back onto the top bunk bed and hid under the covers, cowering and shaking from the fear of being washed. Sweet chuckled and then said as he shook Milo's hand. "The name's Sweet, Joshua Sweet. Medical officer."
"Yes, Milo Thatch," Milo said. Sweet grinned and pulled out a saw as he said, "you're my 3 o'clock. Well, no time like the present."
"Oh, boy," Milo said hesitantly.
"Nice, isn't it? The catalog says this little beauty can saw through a lemur in twenty-eight seconds. I bet I can cut that time in hand," Sweet said and then put the saw away.
Then he pulled out a thermometer and his stethoscope and placed the thermometer in Milo's mouth and started listening to his heart as he asked, "then where are you from?"
"Washington," Milo mumbled with the thermometer in his mouth.
"Really? I have such a family," Sweet responded. Then he pulled out two large jars and said, "you have to fill them up."
Milo spat out the thermometer in shock and asked, "with what?!"
"Will Milo Thatch please report to the bridge," the woman announced over the megaphones.
Milo sighed in relief and said as he ran away with the journal in his hand. "Nice to meet you, Sweet."
"Nice to meet you as well," Sweet said back, hearing the frustrated geologist shout his name.
As the submarine dove deeper and deeper under the water, a woman named Packard, who was in charge of the communications was on the phone speaking to her sister Marge and looked really bored.
"Then I said to him, 'what's wrong with my meatloaf?' and then he said to me..." she was saying, but then was cut off by a beeping on her controls. She moaned and then said, "wait a second, Margie, I have another call. Sir, we're getting close to coordinates."
Then she went right back to speaking to her sister. Milo entered the main room and then up the stairs to the bridge where Rourke, Audrey, Vinny, Moliere, Sweet and a few other members were waiting for him.
"Welcome to the bridge, Mr. Thatch," Rourke said, "alright, everyone. I want you to give Mr. Thatch your complete attention."
"Uh...good afternoon," Milo said hesitantly as he stood next to a projector that was placed near a whiteboard, "is everyone hearing alright?"
No one said anything. Milo just nodded and then turned on the projector, showing a picture of some sort of crab creature attacking a ship and then Milo explained, "this is an illustration of the Leviathan, the creature guarding the entrance to Atlantis."
"With something like that," Vinny said, unimpressed, "I would like white wine, don't you think?"
"It's a mythical sea serpent, it's described in the Book of Life," Milo said, "from its mouth are burning lights! Sparks of fire shoot! But more likely, it's a carving or a sculpture to frighten the superstitious."
"Then we find this masterpiece, then what," Rourke asked.
Moliere jumped in emotion and asked, "where do we dig?"
Milo turned off the projector and then drew on the whiteboard as he explained, "actually, we don't have to dig. You see, according to my research, the route to Atlantis will take us along a tunnel on the ocean floor and we'll go up a curve in an air pocket right here where we'll find the remains of an ancient highway which will lead us to Atlantis. Kind of like the grease trap in your sink."
"Cartographer, linguist, plumber," Helga commented with a smirk, "it's hard to believe he's yet single."
"Captain? You better come and see this," the helmsman said hesitantly.
"Alright, class has been closed," Rourke nodded and walked up there and then ordered, "give me the outside lights."
The spotlights turned on and all of them in shock, awe and horror as they saw all over the ocean floor was shipwrecks. Millions of them.
"Look at that," Helga whispered, yet in shock.
"There are ships here from all ages," Milo said.
As they continued ahead, something huge began to move in the water as a spotlight awakened it and then as it swam underneath them let off a loud moaning noise. Packard grimaced as she heard it over the hydrophone and then looked confused.
Milo read a passage of the book of Rourke and Helga out loud. "Enter the Leviathan's lair and there you'll find the path to the door."
"Commander," Packard called out.
"Yes, Mrs. Packard, what is this," Rourke asked.
"I'm picking up something from the hydrophone that I think you should hear," Packard responded.
"Put it on the speakers," Rourke ordered and then Packard flicked the switch and then everyone heard the noise.
It was louder and sounded like moaning and roaring at the same time and it was moving. Outside the ship whatever it was, was now swimming behind them hiding behind some rocks. Rourke walked up to Packard and asked, "what is this? A pod of whales?"
Packard shook her head and said, "uh-uh, bigger."
"Is this just me or is that getting louder," Milo asked and then suddenly, everything went silent and the noise stopped.
"Well, however it was, it's gone now," Helga said, "it could be an echo from one of the rocks."
"Helmsman, bring us here," Rourke began to command, "tighten our search pattern and slow us down to..."
But then, suddenly, they were all knocked over as something hit them hard and fast.
A giant crab-like fashion outside the sub, started whacking them on the side with its giant claws. It was the Leviathan and it was certainly doing its job in the guarding the entrance to Atlantis. Audrey ran through the hallways of the engine room and stood at the top of the stairs. Her eyes widened at the sight of the water flowing in from a hole that the creature had created.
"Warn Cookie to melt the butter and bring out the bibs! I want this lobster served on a silver platter," Rourke commanded.
"Charge the torpedo bays! Sub-pod crews, battle stations," Helga commanded and then was tossed around as the Leviathan hit them with its claws again.
Vinny and Moliere, along with some other sailors, jumped inside the sub pods and got ready to launch. Suddenly, the Leviathan caught the end of the submarine with its claws and held it in front of its face. Milo wobbled from the movement and then fell on top of the front glass, but his eyes widened as he saw the Leviathan had a mechanical eye.
"Jiminy Christmas! It's a machine," Milo shouts, which catches them all by surprise.
Meanwhile, Audrey ran over to the door and pulled the steering wheel. The last of the engineers jumped out of the main engine room as the door shut and cut off the oncoming water.
"LAUNCH SUB PODS," Rourke ordered.
The sub pods were released and all the sailors, including Vinny and Moliere, went around the Leviathan in separate directions.
"FIRE," a soldier commanded.
They all fired missiles at the mechanical monster, hitting it dead on and causing it to let go of the submarine. With the sub free, the helmsman immediately steered out of its road while the sub pod group kept it distracted. The Leviathan growled and then destroyed one of the sub pods with its giant claw and murdering the sailors that was driving it.
"We're free. Everyone forward is drunk! Fire torpedoes," Rourke ordered and then the soldiers occupying the torpedo guns on the sub immediately fired and hit the Leviathan dead on in its face.
But there was no damage and then suddenly, it fired an electrical burst of energy and blasted a larger hole in the side of the submarine. The bolts that were keeping the door secure started firing away from the hard water pressure. Audrey immediately ran out of there and climbed the ladder out of the main engine room and into the secondary engine.
She pulls out her old-fashioned radio and shouts in it. "GIVE ME THE BRIDGE!!"
Packard picked up her radio and said, "sir, it's engineering at four."
"Rourke! We took a big hit here and we're taking water fast," Audrey shouts, "I don't want to be with it hitting the boilers."
"How many time do we have," Rourke asked. Then Audrey responded. "Twenty moments, if the shot holds.....you should do it five."
"You heard the lady," Rourke ordered, "let's move!"
Milo duplicated and sent them off to catch people, while he swiftly ran and phased through the walls to catch his stuff from the hut. Helga ordered Packard. "Packard, sound the alarm!"
But she wasn't listening as she was yet speaking to her sister. "He took his suitcase? Marge, darling. I don't think he'll return."
"PACKARD," Helga shrieked in annoyance.
"I have to call back. No, no, I'm calling you," Packard finished.
Milo ran down behind Audrey with Sweet running behind them. He watched some of his duplicates place some soldiers and sailors down in the large emergency sub, which contained most of the trucks and all their supplies they would need for the trip. He suddenly felt weak and his duplicates disappeared.
"Touch it, people! Someday today, it would be nice," Helga shouts and then they all jump inside, along with Rourke, "c'mon, everybody have a seat and buckle in!"
They all took their seats while Helga and Rourke took the driver's seats. Then Rourke commanded. "Lieutenant, get us out of here!"
Helga pushed the lever just before the Leviathan launched another energy beam and hit the engine and the boilers. The lid burst open and the three large emergency submarines launched out of the sub before it exploded.
But the Leviathan wasn't going to give up and immediately began to follow them and the sub pod groups that trailed behind them.
"Where to, Mr. Thatch," Rourke asked. Milo opened the book and said, "we're looking for a big crack of some kind."
Then Rourke noticed the large hole in the floor of the ocean and pointed it as he said, "there, forward!"
Helga immediately started heading for it and then said to the other groups through the radios. "All crafts, make your mark twenty degrees down."
"Roger! Twenty degrees downward," all the soldiers in the other subs replied.
"Right behind you," Moliere responded.
The Leviathan caught up with one of the emergency subs and one of the sub pods destroyed the first sub and then the pod. The rest of them swiftly dove down into the hole, causing the Leviathan to get stuck at the top, but it sent another energy beam and destroyed another sub pod which went its debris straight into the other submarine and immediately destroyed it.
Helga kept on steering the sub through the long winding tunnel with Vinny and Moliere following behind them in the last sub pod, dodging the energy beams the Leviathan kept sounding through. They eventually made it to the curve and dived up and reached the air pocket.
The submarine emerged first at the surface and then Vinny and Moliere in the sub pod emerged. One of the soldiers opened the top of the submarine and put on the spotlight. They shone straight where they could see land and found what they were looking for; a statue that led them on the highway to Atlantis.
A couple of hours later, after unloading all the remaining vehicles and equipment from the submarine, everyone gathered in front of the water to say a farewell to the fallen members of the crew during the Leviathan attack. Out of the 200 men and women who came on the expedition. There was only 65 of them now left.
Sweet placed a candle in a bowl and then lit it with a lighter, but he placed it in the water and allowed it to float down the water, but everyone bowed their heads in despair and prayed for all these who died.
They all opened their eyes and then Rourke said mournfully, "seven hours ago, we started this expedition with 200 of the best men and women I've ever known. We're all that's left."
"I won't cover it, gentlemen, we have a crisis on our hands," he continued, "but we've been to this particular creek before and we've always gotten through it, paddle or not. I see no reason to change this policy now. From now on, everyone has a double duty. Everyone drives, everyone works."
Then he turned to Milo and said, "looks like all our chances of survival lie with you, Mr. Thatch. You and this little book."
Milo looked on in determination. "We're all going to die," Packard said.
Rourke nodded and then said, "alright, folks, get in the saddle. Lieutenant, I want this convoy to leave five moments ago."
"Moliere, you're on point. No, Vinny. Audrey's taking the oil can, you know the rules. I want you to always be 50 yards behind this truck. And Packard, put out that cigarette," Helga called out as everyone headed for their vehicles.
Rourke was about to head for his own truck as he saw Milo looking at the truck he would be driving hesitantly where he walked over and asked, "are you sure you checked out of this vehicle?"
"What," Milo asked, not understanding. Rourke sighed and clarified, "can you drive a truck?"
Milo scoffed and said with confidence as he got in the driver's seat. "Of course I can drive a truck!"
"Make sure you have your steering wheel and your throttle and your brakes and of course this metal, um...looking...fact," Milo said hesitantly as his confidence began to drop.
Rourke gave him a look and then Milo admitted, "Alright, then it was a Coney Island bumper car, but it's the same basic principle."
Rourke sighed in annoyance.
Milo did try to drive the truck, but he kept on stopping and going, making everyone annoyed and frustrated at his lack of driving skills. A few moments later, Milo sighed mournfully as someone else took over driving the truck and the journey to Atlantis had begun.
As Milo led the road with the journal, trucks had to be lowered down holes onto the rest of the roads and they drove down winding roads until they reached the large stone head that had two roads going through its two eyes.
Milo looked down at the journal to see which road to take and then pointed for them to go down the left road, but as soon as one of the trucks was about to go through it, they were stopped as some sort of a giant bug-like fashion jumped out, roaring at them and forcing them to drive back.
They waited for the creature to leave and then Milo looked at the journal again and realized he read the passage upside down. Then he weakly grinned and indicated to down the right road, making the others frown at him in both annoyance and frustration.
As they continued their journey, they were unaware that something was following them and watching them as they traveled down the ancient highway. As they all stopped for a break, Milo had just finished having a drink out of a soda can and then Vinny came up to him, looking really afraid.
"Didn't you drink this alone," Vinny asked. Milo nodded and grinned, but then it dropped as Vinny said, "that's no good! That's nitroglycerin!"
Milo instantly froze and began to panic.
"Stay put and don't breathe and don't do anything, except...pray, perhaps," Vinny said and then suddenly, Moliere sneaked up behind Milo and shrieked, "BOOM!!"
"AAUGH," Milo yelled, but then saw it was Moliere and then Vinny and Moliere laughed hysterically at the prank they pulled.
As they continued their journey, Milo spent most of dinnertime, studying and translating the journal, making sure they were going the right fashion and being practically ignored by most of the others. They all continued to drive until they came to a stop at a broken part of the road and a giant stone pole. Milo looked at it in amazement while Vinny set up a bunch of dynamite around it.
"Good night, would you like to see how big this is? It must be half a mile high," Milo said in wonder, "it must've taken at least hundreds and thousands of years to make this fact."
Then Vinny pulled Milo back and typed something on his TNT.
BOOM!!
The dynamite exploded and caused the large pole to fall and the end of it landed on the other side, creating a bridge for them to continue. While Milo looked on in shock at what Vinny did, Vinny himself just grinned and said, "hey, look. I made a bridge. It just took me....what? 10 seconds, 11 tops."
As they continued on, but something that was following them was some sort of group, wearing masks and carrying spears. One of them stopped and watched them drive across the bridge they made out of the pole. Their journey took them through cold snow and ice caves. They were all relieved as they got out of there, but then they came to a roadblock. A huge stone wall was officially blocking their path.
"Looks like we have a small roadblock. Vinny, what do you think," Rourke asked.
"I could unblock that if I had about 200. The problem is, I only have about ten, plus, you know, five of my own. A few cherry bombs, a torch," Vinny responded. Then he smirked as he said jokingly, "hey, too bad we don't have nitroglycerin. Right, Milo?"
Milo frowned at Vinny while Moliere laughed hysterically, remembering their little prank on Milo a couple of days back. Then Rourke said, "looks like we'll have to dig."
Moliere smirked and said, "it would be my pleasure."
He started up the digger, but then smoke came from the back and the digger stopped just as it made the staring hole in the wall. Realizing that his whole army had been murdered, Moliere's rage grew as he let out a huge yell of frustration. This yell was so loud that it echoed across the canteen. Milo and Audrey heard this yell and were confused.
"I don't understand. I just adjusted this fact by morning," Audrey said as she began to look at the bike. Milo looked at it and immediately saw the problem. But before he could say anything, Audrey cut him off and started heading for the other trucks as she said, "looks like the rotor has shot. I have to get a spare tire from one of the trucks."
"May I," Milo asked. Audrey turned around and put her hands on her hips as she challenged, "don't touch anything! I'll be right back."
Milo smirked and just like he did back at the museum. He turned the dials and then whacked the pipe with the wrench and just like that, the digger started working again. Moliere grinned and cheered. "She lives!"
Audrey frowned and asked, "what have you done?"
Milo continued to smirk as he responded, "you know, the boiler in this baby is a humac model P54 circuit 13 that we get the 814 back in the museum. The heating curse on the entire humac line has always been a bit temperamental where sometimes you have to...you know. Convince them a little bit."
"Yes, sir, thank you very much. Shut up," Audrey said as she shut the engine door.
She turned and was about to punch Milo in the arm, but he flinched and she said, "two to shrink back."
With that said, she punched him in the arm twice and went back to her own truck. Milo rubbed his sore arm while Moliere laughed before continuing digging through the wall and getting them all back on the highway. They all continued and by nightfall, they stopped at a place where on the roof was some sort of large green glowing rock lantern with holes in it that was hanging over a bridge.
Milo looked at the book and recognized it in the image and said, "this is it. It must be."
"Alright, we'll camp right here," Rourke commanded.
"Why does it glow," Audrey asked. Vinny shook his head and said, "that fact will keep me up all night. I know my place."
But as they finished setting up the campfires, the glowing green light dimmed down and they all sat down, waiting for Cookie to finish cooking dinner.
"Come and get it," Cookie called out.
Audrey, Vinny, Sweet, Moliere and Packard all sat together around one of the campfires, each of them holding a food tray ready for dinner. Then Cookie came over and they all flinched in disgust as she put some sort of orange fish stew on their trays.
"I'm not going to steal this, boy," Cookie said with a grin, "I have to charge you twice."
"How about today, sir," Audrey asked as she winced at the sludge on her tray, "see you, boy."
Moliere, of course, dug right into it, bearing strange looks from the others. Then Cookie came up to Milo, who was sitting in his work study area and handed him a tray.
"This is from me to you. I'll be waiting, bud," Cookie said as he placed the food on his tray, "I have it with my pocket money. Have fun!"
"Thank you, Cookie...it looks..." Milo began to say hesitantly. He knew that he would get often get really mad if you insulted his meat dishes where he lied with a weak grin, "greedier than usual."
"C'mon, boy. Here she goes," Cookie said with a bright grin and then headed for the other campfires.
"As you know, we had a lot of damage with our children. What do you say we cut him a little slack," Sweet suggested.
"Yes, that's right," Audrey said and then called out, "hey, Milo, why don't you sit down with us?"
Milo grinned and nodded. He picked up his food tray and the journal and headed over to them as he said, "hey, this is great. That is, you know, I'm honored to be in you..."
But as he sat down on a rock, Moliere placed a whoopee cushion underneath, which made a noise as he sat down. Then Moliere laughs hysterically at his prank, but the others are not amused and they all frown at him and shout, "MOLE!!"
"Ah, forgive me! I couldn't resist," Moliere protested as he finished laughing.
As they silently ate some of the food in silence, Audrey noticed that Milo was reading the journal and asked, "hey, Milo, why don't you close that book?"
"Yes, you must've read it a dozen times so far," Sweet said after eating a spoonful of the food.
"I know, this doesn't make sense. You see, at this point here, the shepherd seems to be connected to something. He calls it the heart of Atlantis. Legends mention it. It could be a power source. But-but it's just...it's gone," Milo explained, "it looks like the page is missing."
"Boy, relax. Overtime isn't paid," Vinny said.
"I know, I know. Sometimes I get a little crazy," Milo said with a chuckle as he closed the book, "but hey, you know, that's all for right. I mean discovery, teamwork, adventure. Perhaps, unless you're just for money."
"Allowance," all of them responded.
Then Milo started rubbing his sore neck. Sweet noticed and asked, "did you have any problems with your neck?"
"Oh, yes, if I must have wounded it......" Milo responded.
Sweet stood up and then held Milo's head, but he twisted it to the left and then the right, causing Milo to yelp in pain for a second. But after Sweet let go, he felt his neck was all better and it was better than ever.
"That's better," Sweet said, returning the grin as he sat back down. Then Milo asked, "yes. Hey, how did you learn to do that?"
"An Arapaho medicine man. My father, who was born and raised with him, with a military medic," Sweet responded, "he settled in Kansas Territory after meeting my mother. No, I have sheepskin from Howard U and bearskin from old Iron Cloud. I was dragged in the middle of medical school. One day, I'm studying macroscopic anatomy at the classroom. Next, I'll sew a rough rider at San Juan Hill."
"Main curse," Cookie offered.
"I couldn't eat another bite. I'm watching my weight," both of them responded.
As soon as Cookie turned around, they all dumped the rest of their food in the campfire. A few moments later, everyone had finished pitching their tents and were placing their bed mats inside, ready to get some sleep.
Milo got inside and laid down on his stomach in his tent as he said, "oh, yes. I think it's yet a little rusty. I haven't been to summer camp since then. Well, since my grandpa took me the last time."
"I never met my grandfather. What kind of person was he," Audrey asked as she laid out her sleeping mat in her tent.
"Where do I start? He really was like a father to me," Milo responded, "if I was young, my parents died and he took me."
"What," she asked, grinning. He nodded and continued, "what was he thinking? If I was eight, I was hiking a stream and saw something shining in the water. It was a real zinc. Well, a civilization lost like an opponent. It wasn't until I was old that I noticed that the shade was a compression mixed with crushed pirate zinc in isolated triangles."
"Oh, this is so cute," Moliere gushed as he walked past them.
"Audrey, no attack, but how did a teenager become the chief mechanic of a multi-million dollar expedition," Milo asked.
"Well, I have this job if my dad retired, but what's interesting was that he always wanted a son," Audrey began as she laid down in her tent, "one runs his machine shop and the other becomes a middleweight boxing champion, but he had my sister and me instead. She's 24 and 0 in the title next month. I'm too old for this. Any matter, I'm saving for my dad and me. I can open another shop."
"Forget your pajamas, Mrs. Packard," Milo asked.
Vinny laid down and responded with a shrug. "Well, as far as I'm concerned, I like to blow facts up."
"C'mon, Vinny. Warn your child the truth," Sweet pressed.
Vinny moaned and admitted, "my family ran a flower shop. They sold roses, carnations, gypsohpila, etc."
"Then what have they done for the rest of the time," Milo asked.
"One day, I'm making about three dozen corsages for this prom. They put it on my wrist. And everyone, they come 'What is this?', 'What's going on?', 'Wouldn't it be fine?' It's a nightmare. Anyhow, this leak is next to the gas station. What do you think there was? BOOM!! No more laundry in China. I blew me through the front window," Vinny responded, "it was like a sign from heaven. I noticed myself this boom."
Then they all heard the sound of digging and turned to see Moliere digging himself in a hole and then nothing but a chuckle. Then Milo asked. "What about Mole's story?"
"Believe me in this. You don't want to know," Sweet said, "Audrey, don't warn him. You shouldn't warn me, but you did so. And now I warn you. You don't want to know."
Then he blew off the lantern and everyone laid down and went to sleep for the night.
In the middle of the night, as everyone slept, the figures that had been following appeared in the shadows. One of them came close to Milo's tent, holding a spear in its hand and a large mask over its face caught Milo's knapsack and opened it. It started pulling some stuff out such as a compass, a hat and then stopped as it pulled out a photograph with Milo and his granddad. It gazed down at the picture, but then froze as it heard movement from the tent.
All the figures ran away as Milo came out of the tent and yawned in tiredness. He turned on his light and in his other hand was a roll of toilet paper and a small shovel. He walked over to a rock behind and placed the shovel and toilet paper down. He held the light in his neck as he started unbuckling his pants, but was unaware as his torch light flashed at the dimmed glowing rock on the ceiling. It lit up again and out of it came several glowing fireflies.
Some of them started buzzing around Milo, who stopped trying to unbuckle his pants and started swatting at the annoying bugs. He eventually had enough and squashed one of them with the toilet paper roll, but as soon as he squashed it, the paper caught on fire. He yelped in fright and dropped the flaming paper, but he watched two more of the fireflies land on two of the tents and they immediately caught on fire.
He saw thousands of more flying out of the rock and then immediately pulled up his pants as more tents were set aflame and he started running throughout the campsite, shrieking. "FIRE! FIRE!! FIRE!!!"
Rourke moaned as he looked at his watch and saw the time. He frowned in annoyance and mumbled, "I'm gonna murder him."
He came out of the tent and was about to warn Milo to go back to bed as he saw the huge fire and the millions of fireflies flying around them. His eyes widened at the sight as people scattered, trying to put the fire out.
"Drink some water on that fire," Helga shouts.
"No time! Let's enter these caves! Move it, move it, move it," Rourke ordered.
Everyone swiftly got dressed and inside the trucks and began driving away. Audrey sees Milo running behind the truck she is in and sees that the truck behind them catches on fire and shouts, "Milo, jump! Right now!"
Milo jumped straight into the back of the truck with Audrey just as the truck exploded. As they were driving over the bridge, one man lost control of his truck that had caught on fire and before he could do anything, it exploded and the debris hit the rock and caused it to fall off the roof and hit the bridge, causing a large crack at the end of the bridge and the explosion caused the other end to break.
The bridge began collapsing as all the trucks and digger began to fall backwards. The digger pushed them all back as the bridge fell as it landed hard on the ground. All the trucks swerved out of control, heading towards many rocks and with one last shriek from all of them...
SMASH!!
Rourke lit up his match with his hand and called out, "alright, who isn't dead? Turn it off."
Everyone let out moans of pain as Rourke put his match out and then he put one of the spotlights that was yet working on his truck. Then he asked, "Audrey, please report the damage."
She turned on her flashlight and looked around at the vehicles and then concluded, "it wasn't as bad as it did. We put leagues 2 and 7 together, but the seller seems to yet work. Luckily, we landed on something soft."
Moliere took a sample of the dust that came off of Helga as she wiped it off her. "All of this ash. We are standing at the foot of a dormant volcano."
Helga sent a blast with her gun straight up into the air of the volcano and they all watched as the light went up and up. Then she said, "it just keeps going. Perhaps that's the ticket out of here."
Then the energy stopped at the top, showing that the top of the volcano was solidified closed and then she said, "perhaps not."
"The magma has been hardened into the intestines of the volcano, effectively blocking the exit," Moliere explained.
"Hang on, back up. Are you saying that this entire volcano can fly off at any time," Sweet asked hesitantly. Moliere shook his head and responded, "no, no, no, no, no! You will need a lot of explosive power."
Then all of them turned to Vinny, who was working on a homemade bomb, but then immediately stopped after hearing Moliere's response and said, "perhaps shall I do this later, right?"
Then Rourke thought of something and said, "if we could blow the top off of that fact, we'd be able to shoot straight into the water. Mr. Thatch, what do you think?"
There was no response and it was the first time everyone noticed that Milo was missing. Rourke tried calling out. "Mr. Thatch? Thatch!"
There was yet no response. Milo was unconscious flat on a rock on the other side of the volcano. He moaned as he awakened slowly to the sound of different voices speaking a language, but his eyes completely opened and widened at the sight of some people wearing tribal masks observing him. Out of fear, he backed up against a rock, but then stopped as he felt a sear near his shoulder and saw that there was a deep cut.
One of them knelt down to his level and looked at the cut as he held it in pain. The person lifted the mask to reveal a woman, who looked the same age as Milo with long white hair and blue eyes and around her neck was a glowing crystal.
Milo's gaze and his hand left his cut and looked at the woman before him in awe. The girl looked at the cut closer while Milo looked at her in confusion, but she lifted her crystal near the cut and touched it with it and then placed her hand on the cut, causing Milo at first to flinch in pain, but then stopped as he felt relieved. As she moved her hand, there was a small flash of light and the cut was fully gone.
Milo was fully amazed and shocked at the same time he couldn't find the words. He just looked at the woman and then said, "thank you all."
She grinned warmly at him and then placed the mask back over her face, suddenly, there was a rumbling noise and it spooked them off. Milo turned and saw it was just the digger coming, but he started running after the figures while calling out. "Hey! Wait!"
"Who are you? Where are you going?! Come back," he called out as he continued to go after them, but lost sight of them somewhere in the caves.
Then he saw them heading out of a hole and then followed them, but he landed at some sort of cliff and called out as he lost them. "Hey, wait a moment! Who are you?!"
This yell was so loud that it echoed across the island. Then he stopped in full shock as he saw something in the distance. The digger came out from behind him and everyone stopped where Milo was standing in full shock and awe as they saw on the other side where waterfalls were falling was the City of Atlantis.
"Sweet mother of Jefferson Davis," Cookie said in shock.
"It's beautiful," Audrey said in awe.
Sweet patted Milo's shoulder and said with a grin. "Milo, I'll pass it to you. You really have passed."
Suddenly, the same people in tribal masks appeared behind them and held their spears at them, ready to attack if needed. "Holy cats! Who are these guys," Rourke asked.
"They must be Atlanteans," Milo said.
"What?! That's impossible," Helga said as she held her gun ready.
"I saw this again in Dakota," Cookie said, "they can smell the horror just by looking at you and keep it silent."
The woman from before, but spoke to Milo in the same language from before. Then Milo replied in the same language. The woman removed her mask, but spoke in a different language. Milo grinned and replied back in Italian. The woman grinned back and spoke back in Italian and then Milo asked something in French and then the woman grinned and said, "yes, siree."
Mole grinned and said, "they speak my language!"
Then he walked up to the woman and asked something in French to her ear, but her eyes widened and then in frustration, she punched him right in the face, which caused everyone to laugh hysterically.
"Ooh, I like her," Sweet said. Then Audrey said, "huh, it's about time someone hit him. I'm very sorry it's not me."
The other Atlanteans removed their masks and grinned at their visitors. Then Audrey asked Milo. "How do you know all these languages?"
"Their language should be based on root dialogue," Milo replied. Then Rourke said, "well, perhaps English is somewhere."
Then he spoke to the woman. "We are explorers of the earthly world. We've come in peace."
"Welcome to the City of Atlantis," the woman said. Then she dragged Milo along and said, "c'mon, I have to speak to my father now."
"Squad B, go back to the shaft and get what it can do," Rourke commanded before everyone got inside two of the remaining trucks and followed the woman and the other Atlanteans across the bridge to the city.
As they drove over the bridges to the main part of the city, they saw most of the rest of the city was under the water. During the drive, Helga whispered to Rourke with uncertainty. "Rourke, they weren't the people here. This changes everything."
Rourke, however, whispered back with seriousness. "This doesn't change anything."
They arrived at the palace as Milo, Rourke, Helga and the woman entered the throne room where a man wearing a blue cloak and blind eyes sat across the room where there was a small creek with stepping stones to get across.
They crossed the stepping stones and then the woman knelt before the tan-skinned man and said in their language. "Greetings, Your Majesty, I brought a visitor."
Milo knelt in respect before the man, knowing he was the king. Then the king whose name was Nedakh said in reply in their language. "You know the law, Kida. No outsider can see the city and live."
"Father, these people will be able to help us," the woman, whose name was revealed to be Kida, retorted back in their language.
"We do not need their help," Nedakh said sternly back, "we will discuss that later."
Then Rourke said, "Your Majesty, on behalf of the crew, welcome to your city."
But before Milo could warn Rourke, Nedakh stood up and said, "you think you are welcome here."
"Teacher, we've come a long road....." Rourke began to say, but Nedakh cut him off and said, "I know what you're looking for. You won't find it here. Your journey was in vain."
"But we're peaceful explorers," Rourke said, "the science guy."
Nedakh scoffed and pointed out. "But you need a weapon."
"Our weapons allow us to get rid of obstacles we may face," Rourke said.
"Some obstacles cannot be eliminated with a simple display of power," Nedakh said, "go back to your people. You must leave Atlantis immediately."
"Teacher, trust me. It's good to do what he says," Milo recommended strongly.
Rourke thought about it and then requested, "I'll politely ask you to stay overnight, and you'll have time to rest, resupply and get ready to travel until the morning."
Nedakh pondered on this request and then said with a nod. "OK, one night, that's it."
"Well, thanks, your majesty," Rourke said with a respectful bow and then they left the room. Milo turned back to Kida, who sighed mournfully as she watched them leave the throne room.
"Your heart is softened, Kida," Nedakh said, "a thousand years ago, I would've murdered them before my eyes."
Kida crossed her arms as she walked up to her father and said, "thousands of years ago, the streets were lit up and our people didn't have to wander for food on the edge of a crumbling city."
Nedakh sat down on the throne and said with a sigh. "The people are satisfied."
"They do not know better! We were once great people, but now we live in ruins," Kida said mournfully, "the kings of the past would cry if they could see how far we were."
"Kida," Nedakh said as he rubbed his aching forehead. Then Kida said, "if these outsiders can unlock the secrets of our past, maybe we can save the future."
"What they have to teach us. We've already learned," Nedakh said sternly.
"Our fashion of life is dying," Kida retorted.
"Our fashion of life is preserved," Nedakh said. Then he pulled Kida into a hug and said, "Kida, take the throne and you will understand."
Milo, Helga and Rourke walked back down the stairs where the rest of them were waiting. Then Sweet asked. "Then how'd it go?"
"Well, the king and his daughter don't look exactly eye-to-eye," Milo responded, "he looks like us, alright, but the king...I don't know, I think he's hiding something."
"Well, if he's hiding something, I want to know what this is," Rourke said.
Helga smirked as she thought of something and said, "someone needs to speak to that girl."
"I'm going," Moliere said eagerly. Then Vinny caught on and said, "someone with good human skills."
"I want to do it," Moliere said. Then Sweet said, fully ignoring Moliere. "Someone who doesn't frighten her off."
"I volunteer," Moliere repeated with determination. Then Packard said, "someone who can speak their language."
"For the sake of the mission, I will go," Moliere stated one last time.
"Good man, Thatch. Thank you for volunteering," Rourke said with a smirk, causing Milo to look in shock and Moliere to weep in despair.
"Go get him, tiger," Audrey said with a wink.
A few moments later, Milo watched from behind a pillar as Kida walked out of the doorway of the palace and started walking his road. Then he turned around and said, "alright, Milo, don't take no for a response. Look, I have some questions for you, and I won't leave town until they're responded to."
With confidence, he walked out from behind the pillar to face her, but she was no longer there. Confused, he didn't notice Kida jump down from a rock with a smirk behind him. Suddenly, she covered his mouth and whispered, "I have some questions for you, and you will not leave this city until they are responded to."
But before he could say anything, she dragged him away. She took him to a clearing behind a waterfall and they both stood on a broken statue as she said, "oh, there is so much to ask about your world. You are a scholar, aren't you? Judging from your diminished physique enlarged forehead, you're not fit for something else. What is your country of origin?"
"Wait a moment. I have a few questions for you as well. Then let's do it, alright? You ask one, then I'll ask one and you'll get it," Milo suggested.
"Very well," Kida said, "what is your first question?"
"Well, alright, uh...how did you get here," Milo asked.
"It is said that the gods became envious of Atlantis. They sent a great catastrophe and banished us here. All I can remember is that the heavens are getting dark and people are shouting and running," she responded. Then she looked down in despair as she finished, "and then, a bright light shone like a star hovering over the city. My father said it called my mother to it. I never saw her again."
Milo looked at her with sympathy and said, "I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, I know how you feel because I lost my..."
Then his eyes widened in shock and he said in full amazement. "Wait a moment, wait a moment! Woah, back up! W-What are you warning me? Do you remember that because you were there? No, that's-that's impossible, because...I mean, it would make you around, you know...85...88 hundred years old!"
"Yes," Kida said, thinking it was fully normal.
"Oh, what? Hey, uh...looking good," Milo said, getting over his shock swiftly, "do you have another question for me?"
"Yes. How did you find your road to this place," Kida asked.
Milo pulled out the journal and handed it to her while responding. "Well, I'll warn you it wasn't easy. If it weren't for this book, we would never have reached it."
Kida looked at the pages of her book and then her eyes widened as she asked, "you mean can you understand this?"
"Yes, I can read Atlantean just like you," Milo responded, "I'm a linguist, that's my job."
Then he noticed that she was just looking at the page instead of reading the words and asked, "you can't, can you?"
"No one can. Such knowledge has been lost to us since the time of the Mohicans," Kida responded.
"Oh, the great flood," Milo translated. Then Kida handed him the book and said, "show me."
"Alright," Milo said. Then he opened a random page and started reading the words in Atlantean and then Kida translated. "Follow the narrow passage for another leak, and there you will find the fifth marker."
"Yes, yes, that's it," Milo said.
"Here, let me show you something," Kida said and then started walking down a left path with Milo following behind her.
They stopped at something large being covered by a cloth. Kida removed it to reveal it was some sort of large stone vehicle in the shape of a fish. Milo said in amazement. "Well, it looks like...like some kind of vehicle."
"Yes, but no matter what I try, it will not reply," Kida said.
"Alright, let's see what have we here," Milo said as he looked it over. He saw the instructions written around a large circle and above was a small slot. Then he read, "place the crystal in the groove, and place your hand carefully on the inscription."
"Yes," Kida said. Then Milo asked, "alright, did you return the crystal a quarter of a turn?"
"Yes, yes," Kida responded. Then Milo asked, "while your hand was on the inscription pad?"
"Yes...no," Kida admitted, realizing her mistake. Milo smirked and chuckled as he stood up and started, "well, there's your problem. Right there, it's an easy street to miss. You know, you deserve the credit for getting this far yourself..."
He stopped as soon as he saw Kida frowning at him with her arms crossed. He gave her a weak grin and just said, "alright...I'm trying it."
Kida took off her crystal and placed her hand on the pad, but she placed her crystal in and turned it one quarter back. The vehicle whirled to life as Kida removed her crystal and they both jumped back as the fact lifted above the ground.
Then Kida said something in Atlantean with amazement. Milo nodded and said, "yes, you're right."
"This is amazing! I'm wondering how fast it's going," Milo wondered as he placed his finger on the pad.
Suddenly, the vehicle zoomed away and bounced off the walls at incredible speed. As it was about to hit them, Milo caught hold of Kida just at the last second and the vehicle went straight through them and smashed into the wall.
Kida gave Milo a look while he chuckled hesitantly and said, "well, who's hungry?"
A few moments later, Milo was lifting Kida of a statue as she instructed him to do so. He placed her down and then they both looked at the view around them. Milo grinned and was amazed by the sight of the city. He didn't realize he was starting to weep.
Kida noticed the tear falling down his face and asked as she placed her hand on his shoulder in comfort. "What is wrong?"
Then Milo noticed and wiped the tears off as he said, "oh, it's nothing. I have something in my eye. You know, my grandfather used to warn me stories about this place as far back as I can remember, I just wanted to wish she could stand here with me."
A few moments later, they were both looking around as the Atlanteans fished did what they usually did in their everyday lives. Then Kida said, "warn me more about your companions."
"Well, please...allow me to introduce you to the Company," Milo began to explain, "this one here is Sweet, this is Vinny and this is Cookie."
Audrey and Cookie were walking throughout the market. Audrey spotted someone getting a tattoo on his arm and said in amazement, "wow, look at all these tattoos."
"That ain't nothing," Cookie said. Then he said romantically to her. "Look here what I have! All 38 in the US. Watch me get Rhode Island to dance. C'mon, darling, dance! Dance! There you go."
Two children laughed as they ran past Milo and Kida, him, along with everyone else, except Helga and Rourke, who said they were busy with something, joined some of the villagers for dinner. "Cookies are sweet, but yours are not," Kida said, "Sweet is kind, but that's not his name. Audrey is sweet, but she's not your doctor and the little digging beast named Mole...is he your pet?"
"Close enough," Milo said with a chuckle after swallowing some food.
Vinny sat with Sweet and Moliere. He picked up some sort of cooked creature with lots of eyes and wondered whether or not to eat it. Sweet, however, ate it and said, "oh, and don't forget to eat your head. This is where all the nutrients are."
Meanwhile, back at the trucks, three of the soldiers walked over to one of them and pulled out a box. He placed the box on the ground and opened it up to reveal some guns and another one revealing razor sharp weapons. They pulled them out and looked, ready for action.
Later that night, Kida had taken Milo to a place near the river with a lantern. Then Milo said in amazement. "You know, Kida. What we hoped most found were collapsing buildings, perhaps broken pottery. Instead, we'll find a living thriving society. These guys are kind of cute, unless they've come to death as a pillar of fire."
Kida looked down in despair as she said, "we are not thriving. Our true people are alive, but our culture is dying. We are like a stone that the sea strikes. Every year, we wear a little more of us."
Milo looked at her with sympathy and said, "I wish I could do something."
"I have brought you to this place to ask for help from you. Here is a mural where the image is surrounded by writing," Kida pleaded.
Milo nodded and said, "I'll do it."
She grinned and then stepped into the water. Milo changed into his boxer shorts and then stepped into the water with her. She said, "alright, that's a reasonable distance to where we're going. Are you swimming?"
"Oh, I swam beautiful, girl," Milo said. Both their eyes widened and they both blushed, but Milo stuttered as he corrected himself. "I mean, I swam pretty well. Pretty good."
"C'mon, we're wasting time," Milo said and then he dove under the water. Then he came back up and said, "why don't you lead the road, because I have no idea where we're going."
Kida chuckled and then took a deep breath and dove with Milo following pursuit. Her crystal lit the road like a torch as they swam. Thanks to Milo, he could swim longer under the water without the fear of drowning. They kept on swimming until they reached an old building and entered inside. Then they both swam up where there was a small air pocket at the roof and their heads emerged above the water.
"Are you alright," Kida asked after taking a deep breath. Milo nodded and said, "well, I wasn't drowned. Then..."
"Alright, follow me," Kida said as she took another deep breath and dove back under with Milo following her.
They both swam down to the mural and then Milo lit his hand with his crystal to see the writing around the pictures. After reading some of it, they both went back to the air pocket. Then he said in awe, "this is amazing! The full history of Atlantis. Just as Plato described it. Well, you know, he had a few details."
"The light I saw. A star in the middle of the city. What does the scriptures say about this," Kida pressed.
"I don't know yet, but we'll find out," Milo said and then they both went back under and swam back to the mural, "c'mon."
Milo read the writing, surrounding the picture of the star that Kida had described. He swam along the wall, reading the writing. Then he saw Kida's crystal and grinned as he realized something and gestured for Kida to submerge.
They swam back to the air pocket and then Milo said, "the Heart of Atlantis."
"What," Kida asked in confusion.
"It's the Heart of Atlantis! That's what the shepherd was speaking about. It wasn't a star, it was some kind of crystal like that," Milo said as he held up Kida's crystal, "don't you understand? The power source, which I've been looking for the bright light you remember, they're the same fact."
"It can't be," Kida said in amazement. Then Milo finished. "It keeps all these facts, you, the entire Atlantis alive!"
"Where is this now," Kida asked.
"I don't know, it's hard to move it. You think something is reluctant to have been in the diary, but...unless...the missing page," Milo realized, "that's a deliberate lie, you monkey-faced little rumpot!"
Milo emerged from the water back to where he and Kida started before Kida and was instantly met by a smirking Rourke sitting on the stone steps.
"You have a nice swim," Rourke asked.
In his hand was a gun and behind him some of the soldiers, Audrey, Vinny, Helga, Cookie, Moliere and Sweet with weapons in their hands as well, looking very serious.
"Hey, boys, what's up? What about all the weapons," Milo asked. None of them responded him where he tried again. "Boys?"
None of them responded once again, but his eyes widened in realization as he came out of the water. Then he frowned at Rourke as he said, "I'm such an idiot! This is just another treasure hunt for you! You're looking for the crystal."
"Oh, you mean this," Rourke said as he pulled out the missing page from the journal, "yes, about that, I had warned you before, but it was strictly on a need-to-know basic and well, now you know. I had to be sure you were one of us."
Then he put his weapon down and held out his hand for Milo to shake as he said, "welcome to the club, son."
Milo pulled his hand off and said, "I'm not a mercenary."
Then Kida emerged from the water. But as soon as she did so, one of the soldiers caught her by the hair and lifted her out of the water, causing her to yelp in pain. Milo was about to fire a machine gun at the soldier that caught her, but then a soldier pulled out some sort of small device with chains and cuffed Milo with it, choking him in the process.
Milo yelped and shrieked in pain as he was gagged by the noose and he suddenly felt his powers vomiting and he fell to his knees. Then he looked up at the soldiers who had done it. Then he turned his head and watched Kida catch the soldier by his head and throw him over her shoulder and straight into the water. As she ran up the steps, a soldier tried to catch her, but she caught the front of his gun and kneed him the gut and then pinned him to the ground. She pulled out her knife and was about to attack, but suddenly, it was shot out of her hand.
She turned to see it was Rourke who had done it, but the two soldiers caught her by the arms and pulled her away from the soldier and then held her silent. Then Rourke said as he put his gun away. "Mercenary? I prefer the term fairy tale capitalist. Besides, it was you who got us here, you led us straight to the treasure chest."
"You don't know what you're messing with, Rourke," Milo said as he stood up from the ground.
"What are we going to know? It's big, it's shiny and it's gonna make us all rich," Rourke said, ignoring Milo's statement.
"You think it's a kind of a diamond? I think it was a kind of battery, but we're both wrong," Milo said, "it's their life force. The crystal is the only fact that keeps these people alive. If you take it away, then they'll die!"
"Well, that changes facts," Rourke said. Then he turned to Helga and asked, "Helga, what do you think?"
"If I knew, I wanted to double the price. I thought triple," Helga said, smirking the whole time.
"Rourke, don't do this," Milo pleaded.
"Academics will never get their hands dirty. Think about it. If you returned all the stolen items from a museum, you'd be left with an empty building. We're only banning a necessary service to the archaeological community," Rourke said, fully ignoring Milo's pleas.
"Not interested," Milo snapped in frustration and defiance.
"I have to admit I'm disappointed," Rourke said, his smirk dropping to a frown, "you're an idealist just like your grandfather. Do yourself a favor, Milo. Don't be like him. Do it smart for once."
Milo, however, wasn't changing his mind and continued to frown at Rourke in defiance. Rourke sighed and rubbed his forehead as he said, "I really hate it if the negotiations get sour."
Then he snapped his fingers and then one of the soldiers forced Kida to her knees and held her there by her arms while the other soldier held his gun right at her, ready to shoot. Milo gasped in shock and then Rourke showed the page to Milo once more and said, "let's try this again."
The door to the throne room exploded. The smoke cleared to reveal Vinny holding a stick of dynamite in his hand, Kida being held by Helga tightly in her grip, Sweet, Rourke, Moliere, Audrey and the soldiers with weapons in their hands and Milo looking down in defeat.
Boris raised his guns at them ready to fight, along with a poacher named Finias, who transformed into a weasel. Helga caught her gun and held it at Kida's back and demanded Nedakh. "Warn them not to drop their weapons. Now!"
"Do as they say," Nedakh commanded his bodyguards, who then followed his orders and dropped their weapons.
All of them started tearing the throne room apart, looking for the crystal, but they couldn't find it. Rourke growled impatiently and held Milo by his shirt collar and said as he shoved the book in his face. "You're not exercising yourself, son. There must be something else."
"Well, it's not! It just says the Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king," Milo said with a frown.
Rourke dropped Milo and walked up to Nedakh with two bodyguards standing behind him as he said, "well, then perhaps old King Cole here can help us fill in the blanks. How about this, Chief? Where's the Crystal Chamber?"
"You will destroy yourself," Nedakh said defiantly.
"Perhaps I'm not so sure," Rourke said as his smirk turned into a frown.
He suddenly pulled out a match with a ring of fire and blazed it in Nedakh's arm. But before he could react, Nedakh moaned and fell to the ground in pain as his body began to glow red.
"Father," Kida shrieked and tried to run to him, but Helga held her back. Then she snapped at Rourke in Atlantean.
Sweet shook his head and knelt down to Nedakh, checking him over.
"Rourke, this was not part of the plan," Sweet said with a disapproving tone.
"Organizational change, Doc," Rourke said and then he snapped his fingers, ordering the guards to hold the weak Nedakh up.
Then Rourke pulled out a deadly explosive device and held it at Nedakh as he said, "now I'm going to count to ten and you'll warn me where the crystal is."
"One, two..." Rourke began. Sweet, Vinny and Audrey looked at him in shock and horror, but didn't say anything. "Nine, ten..."
He stopped counting as he looked behind Nedakh at the water and stepping stones, but he looked at the book and saw that the stones made the exact same circular symbol on the front cover. Then his eyes widened as he realized that he had found the entrance to the crystal chamber.
"The Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king," Rourke repeated as he stood up. Nedakh looked down in weakness and despair. "This is it. We're inside!"
He shoved the book in Milo's hand and then dragged him in the water while Helga dragged Kida along by her arm. Then Milo pleaded once more. "Rourke, for the last time, you have to listen to me. You have no idea what this power is."
"True, but I can imagine some countries that would pay anything to find out," Helga said.
Rourke walked to the middle and saw the platform. He stood on top of it and then the platform began to lower down. Then he caught Milo and forced him onto the platform while Helga dragged Kida onto it. The stone platform lowered all the road down into a dark chamber that was surrounded by water and the only source of light in the room was the giant glowing crystal that floated a hundred feet above them and large rocks that had faces carved on them floated slowly around them.
"Jackpot," Rourke said with a smirk.
Kida looked up in awe at the rock carvings and whispered, "the kings of our past."
Then she knelt down with her head down on the floor and started speaking in Atlantean prayers. They all watched her for a few moments and then Rourke said, "Thatch, warn her not to pack it. We have a schedule to meet."
Milo frowned and then knelt down to Kida and touched her shoulder and said, "Kida."
She gasped and looked up at Milo and accepted his hand to help her stand up as he said, "I'm very sorry."
Rourke looked at the crystal and then kicked a small stone in the water. Suddenly, the crystal glowed red and red beams of light started dancing around the room as if it was looking for something.
"C'mon, let's finish this," Helga pressed, "I don't like this place."
"Alright, Thatch, what's next," Rourke asked.
"Alright, it's a giant crystal that floats 150 feet above our heads over a bottomless pit," Milo pointed out, "do you have any surprises?"
"Mother," Kida whispered and then her eyes glowed blue and she started walking slowly towards the water as if she was in a trance.
"Get it now," Rourke demanded.
"I don't know how to move it! I don't even know what keeps it up there," Milo shouts and then all three of them notice Kida walking past them.
Milo was about to go do something, but Rourke held him back and watched as Kida stopped just in front of the water.
"Speak to me, Thatch," Rourke pressed, "what's going on?"
"Look, the only fact that says here is that the crystal is alive somehow...I don't know how to explain it," Milo stammered, "that is...this is their power source."
"Well, do better," Rourke warned, about to pull his gun out.
"Well, I know, why don't you mean and I wave the gun around," Milo said sarcastically.
"Everything will be fine, Milo Thatch. Do not be afraid," Kida said in Atlantean as she turned to face them.
Milo caught what she said and nodded in a fashion where Rourke wouldn't notice. Then Rourke asked, "what did she say?"
"I don't know. I didn't get it," Milo lied to cover his tracks.
Kida turned back around and started walking on the water towards the crystal. They watched in shock and amazement as she continued to walk to the crystal and then stopped and stood right underneath it. Then the rocks opened up and all the beams of lights came into the middle and reflected away Kida's crystal. There was a bright flash of light and then Kida's head rolled back and her eyes shut like she was in a very deep sleep.
Then she was lifted into the air and the rocks closed down around the crystal as she was floated inside, but the rocks began spinning around her and the crystal faster and faster as the crystal shone brighter and brighter than before.
Then the rocks slowed down and the crystal formed into the shape of Kida. The rocks stopped moving as she floated down to the water and stood upon it. Now standing before them was Kida as the crystal.
"Kida," Milo called out.
Then her eyes opened to reveal blue pupiless eyes and she began to walk towards them. The rocks fell into the water, but none of the water splashed on her as if there was some kind of force field surrounding her.
As she walked on the land, Rourke was about to catch her, but Milo stopped him and said, "no, don't-don't touch her."
Ten moments later, they had Kida locked in a metal crate with a circular glass window, showing only her face. Audrey stood on top of the crate and tightened the bolts, but she looked down at Milo, who looked at them all in disappointment. Audrey turned her head and jumped away from the top of the crate as they started loading it up onto the truck.
The soldiers kept Milo and the Atlanteans surrounding them back. Milo frowned at the soldiers as Moliere pulled the crank on the truck and the crate was pulled on the back.
"Well, I think that's the end of it, isn't it? Well, fine! You win. You wipe out a whole civilization. But wait, you're going to be rich," Milo said, "congratulations, Audrey. I guess you and your dad can yet open the garage sale."
Audrey stopped and looked down in guilt, but didn't face Milo as she just jumped into the driver's seat of his truck. "And Vinny, you can start an entire flower shop chain," Milo said, "I'm sure your family will be very proud."
Vinny sighed and wouldn't look at Milo either. The other members such as Moliere, Cookie and Packard looked down, feeling guilt and regret as well.
"But that's about it, right? Money," Milo finished with disgust.
Rourke continued to smirk, however, walked up to Milo and said, "remove the soap dish, Thatch. You read Darwin, this is called natural selection. We just help him."
"Commander, we're ready," Helga said.
"Yes, give me a moment," Rourke said, "I know I'm forgetting something. I have the cargo, the crystal, the staff...oh, yes."
And without hesitation, he punched Milo right in the jaw, sending straight to the ground and the picture of him with his dad fell out of his bag. As he sat up, Rourke stood on the picture and broke the frame's glass before he could pick it up.
"You're looking like that, son. You were the man who discovered Atlantis, and now you're part of the show as well," Rourke said with a cruel chuckle as Milo frowned at him and wiped the blood off his mouth from the punch.
Audrey, Moliere, Vinny, Packard and Cookie looked at Milo mournfully as he took the picture out of the frame and looked at it with despair. Then Rourke ordered. "Let's move, people."
Audrey made no move to start the truck, but Helga said, "that was an order, not a suggestion. Let's go!"
Audrey shut the truck door, but yet made no movement to start it. Then she sighed and opened the door and jumped out of the truck. They all watched as she walked over to Milo and helped him stand up as he rubbed his sore cheek and then she frowned at them, all showing that she made her decision to stick with Milo. Vinny nodded and then walked over to them and stood past Milo's side.
Suddenly, Moliere and Cookie came over and stood with them, showing they had made their decision to stick with Milo as well. Packard took one last puff of her cigarette and walked over to them as she said, "we're gonna be dead."
They all crossed their arms at Rourke, who saw them and said, "aw, you can't be serious."
"That's wrong, and you blew it," Audrey shouts.
"We're close to our biggest payday so far, and you choose to grow your conscience every time," Rourke asked in disbelief.
"We've done a lot of facts we're not proud of robbing graves and looting tombs, double parking, but...no one was hurt. Well, perhaps someone was hurt, but no one we didn't know," Vinny said.
"If you want to, it's alright! I'd rather be me," Rourke said as he got into the truck Audrey was meant to be driving, "P.T. Flea was right."
Then the trucks drove away and as soon as they left the city over the bridge, the waterfalls stopped flowing and they all turned around to see everyone's crystals had dimmed down from the loss of their power source.
"We can't let him do that," Milo shouts as he is about to go after him, but Vinny holds him back and says, "wait a moment."
As soon as Rourke and the other truck got over to the bridge, Rourke pushed a button and set off the dynamite that were set under the bridge and it exploded into a fiery flame. Everyone ducked as debris was thrown everywhere as Milo and Vinny looked up to see that there was no longer a bridge standing over the lava below.
"Alright, you can go now," Vinny said.
Gertie, from the palace, came down and said to Milo, "Milo, you'd better get up here."
Milo followed Gertie back to the throne room and saw Sweet listening to Nedakh's core and looking down solemnly. Then Milo asked. "How's he doing here?"
Sweet shook his head as he pulled back his stethoscope. "I'm afraid it's not good. Internal bleeding. I can't do more."
"What a nightmare! And I brought it here," Milo said, looking down in guilt and regret.
"Ah, don't beat yourself," Sweet said, "you've been after the crystal since Iceland."
Then Milo remembered as Kida had used her crystal to heal his wound after the smash and said as he held up Nedakh's crystal. "The crystal? Sweet, that's it! These are the crystals. They have some kind of healing energy, and I've seen it work."
"No," Nedakh said as he stopped Milo, "where is my daughter?"
"Well, she...she..." Milo said with a sigh.
"She was chosen like her mother before," Nedakh said weakly.
"What," Milo asked.
"In times of danger, the crystal chose a master from one of the royal blood, to protect itself and its people. He wouldn't accept anything else," Nedakh explained.
"Then this fact is alive," Milo asked.
Nedakh nodded and responded. "In a sense, the crystal thrives on the collected emotions of all who have come before us. In return, it forbids power, longevity and protection. As it has grown, its own consciousness has evolved..."
Nedakh stopped for a moment as he started getting weaker from the poison before continuing. "In my pride, I sought to use it as a weapon of war. But its power proved too great to control, flooding us and leading to our destruction."
"That's why you hid it under the city," Milo said in realization, "where that history doesn't repeat itself."
"And to prevent Kida from suffering the same fate as my beloved wife," Nedakh said.
"What do you want to say? What will happen to Kida," Milo asked. Nedakh moaned and responded. "If you are attached to the crystal, you can lose it forever."
"All I was left with the daughter's love. My burden would have been hers as the time came," he said. Then he took off his crystal and held it out to Milo as he said, "but now, it's up to you."
"Me," Milo asked, feeling unsure as he caught the crystal. Then Nedakh caught his hand and said, "give back the crystal, save Atlantis....save my daughter."
Then Nedakh's hand went limp and with one last moan, he died before them. Milo gasped, but then closed his eyes in a moment's silence. Carmelo Gomez knelt before their now completely dead king and mourned silently, but Nedakh's body started fading and then in one flash of light, it disappeared from the world forever.
Sweet closed his medical bag and sighed mournfully. Then he turned to Milo and asked as he stood up. "Well, what will it be?"
"Excuse me," Milo asked in confusion.
"I followed you in and I'll follow you out," Sweet said, "it's your decision."
"Oh, my decision," Milo said in agitation as he stood up and faced Sweet. He was tired of people paying for his mistakes and decisions lately. "I-I think I saw how effective my decisions were. Let's recap. They lead a gang of robbery vandals to the greatest archaeological discovery in recorded history, thus allowing the toy-making or murdering of the royal family. Not to mention the personal delivery of the most powerful force known to man in the hands of a mercenary suitcase that will probably sell it to the geyser! Did I leave anything out?!"
"Well, you set fire to the camp and threw us into that big hole," Sweet added.
Milo moaned and said sarcastically. "Thanks! Thank you very much."
He sat down on a broken rock and pulled out the Shepherd's Journal. He shook his head and threw it to the ground. Sweet could see and relate to how Milo was feeling. He picked up the journal and said, "of course, it was my experience if you got down. The only place left is upstairs."
"Who warned you of that," Milo asked.
Sweet grinned and responded. "A guy named Thaddeus Thatch."
Milo's eyes widened and he looked at the crystal the king gave him, but then his look changed to a look of determination. He walked out of the throne room with Sweet where the others were waiting for them and started heading for the stairs.
"Where are you going," Audrey asked.
"I'm going after Rourke," Milo responded.
"Milo, this is crazy," Audrey said. Then he retorted as he walked down the steps. "I didn't say it was a smart fact, but it's a fair fact."
Audrey sighed and said, "c'mon, we better make sure he doesn't hurt himself."
They followed him and found him climbing onto a large stone fish. Then Audrey asked in confusion. "Milo, what do you think you're doing?"
"Follow my example," Milo said and just like he showed Kida, he placed the crystal in the slot and kept his hand on the pad as he turned it.
Then the pad glowed and the fish began to float. Audrey climbed up and sat behind Milo as he began to explain. "It's simple. All you have to do is......"
"Yes, sir. We understand, alright," Audrey cut him off and then placed her hand hard on the pad.
But before they could say anything, they were flung backwards and the fish fell to the ground and shut down. The noise gained the attention of some of the Atlanteans, who walked over after to see what just happened.
"Gently, just gently," Milo finished.
"Hey, Milo, you have something sporty? You know, like a tuna," Vinny asked jokingly.
"How do you do that", Keith Davenport asked.
"All you have to do is use the crystals. Kida showed me," Milo said as he jumped away from the stone fish. Then he went to one that looked like a hammerhead shark and presented to everyone as he explained, "half to the right, quarter of the back, hold your hand on the pad."
Milo grinned in determination. All the Atlantean soldiers followed Milo's lead and used their crystals to activate their vehicles, along with Vinny, Sweet, Milo and Audrey. Moliere and Cookie stood with Keith with the other members.
"Get up, partner. Bring jerky and ammunition," Cookie roared.
Milo flew in front of his vehicle and said, "OK, that's it. We'll save the princess, we'll save Atlantis, or we'll die trying! Now let's do this!"
They all followed Milo to the volcano. The other Atlanteans cheered for their heroes as they flew over them and prayed that they would be successful in their mission.
Inside the volcano, one of the soldiers let off a missile straight for the top of it. The missile exploded and rocks fell from the roof and hit the ground. A bright light shone down in the middle, indicating that the road to the surface was open.
"I like it if I win," Rourke said with a smirk, believing he had been victorious.
Milo and the others started flying down the volcano just as the soldiers unleashed the large balloon that would carry them out of the volcano.
"Alright, here's the plan! We'll come in swiftly and silently and we'll take them by surprise," Milo said.
"I have news for you, Milo. Rourke is never surprised and has a lot of weapons," Audrey pointed out.
"Alright! Well, do you have any suggestions," Milo asked, a little frustrated.
"Yes! Don't shoot yourself," Vinny called out.
The crate holding Kida was now attached to the balloon and was starting to float up, but Rourke gasped at the sight of Milo and the others coming straight for them.
"Stop him," Rourke shouts as he and Helga jump inside the balloon and unattached the rope.
Keith and the other guards started firing bows at Rourke's soldiers while the Atlantean members fired arrows at them. The soldiers ducked down and then started firing their guns for them. Some of the soldiers pulled out hover boards and started going after them in an aerial assault, which one blast almost hit Milo.
"Saintly smokes! You warned me he only has weapons," Milo shouts.
"What I said was that he was never surprised," Audrey corrected.
One of the soldiers aimed their guns at Vinny, who just barely dodged it. His hand incidentally hit down on the pad and then suddenly, an electrical blast came out of his vehicle's mouth and hit three of the trucks that the soldiers were firing shots from.
Vinny grinned and said, "alright, now facts are going well."
Milo flew behind him and said, "Vinny, heads up! We can't let them reach the top of that tree!"
All the ones in the stone vehicles started firing electrical blasts at the trucks and stopping the soldiers from firing their weapons. Milo started slowly feeling his powers returning, but he flew up behind Vinny, Sweet, Audrey and Heinz to warn them his new plan.
"Vinny, new plan! You and I will be baits," Milo explained, "Audrey, Sweet, fly under this fact and take her off."
"We're on it," Sweet said with a thumbs up.
Milo, Vinny and Heinz flew straight for the balloon and drew Helga's flare blasts and Rourke's blasts towards them while Audrey and Sweet flew underneath and stopped at the metal crate. Audrey stood on the end of her vehicle and started using Sweet's saw to cut the chains away from the crate, but it was taken time as Sweet stood up on the back of Moliere's vehicle, trying to hold the crate silent.
"I thought you said this fact could cut a lemur in twenty-eight seconds," Audrey shouts in agitation.
"The less you speak, the more you saw," Sweet shot back.
As Rourke kept firing bullets at Milo, he was suddenly knocked back by Vinny, who fired a blast at him with his own gun. As he stood up, he saw Audrey trying to cut the chain.
"Looks like someone's working overtime," Rourke said to Helga, who gestured to Audrey.
Helga threw her gun and fired a powerful blast straight at Audrey's vehicle and destroyed it. Audrey caught hold of the crate and held on. Sweet caught her before she could fall off. Milo saw what just happened and then suddenly felt his powers completely return.
"OK, Milo, that's it. Any last words? Yes, I really wish I had a better idea than this," Milo shouts and then flies his vehicle straight for one of the balloons holding them up, but he jumps right out of the vehicle and allows it to tear through the material and the one balloon deflates as he holds onto it.
The balloon starts going down and Rourke shouts. "We're losing altitude! Lighten the load!"
Helga threw off the very heavy barrels and said, "that's it, unless someone wants to jump."
"Ladies first," Rourke said and then suddenly zapped over her with the same device that was used to short-circuit Milo's powers and pushed her away.
Helga shrieked as she almost fell, but managed to swiftly catch hold of the bar and lift herself back onto the balloon and delivered a very hard kick to Rourke's face. She was really mad at him now.
"You said we were in this together," she shrieked as she kicked him in the face again, "you promised me a percentage!"
She was about to kick him again as he managed to catch her leg, but he pulled out another flame filled with a ring of fire and blazed her with it. She shrieked as she felt the deadly flames in her body.
"Next time, take it in writing," Rourke yelled and then threw her away from the balloon.
"RoooooOOOOURKE," she shrieked as she fell to the ground. Then he yelled to her. "Nothing personal!"
With Rourke distracted, Milo flew down and pushed him right away from the balloon. They both caught hold of each other as Rourke swung down on some rope and landed where the blades were near the bottom of the balloon on the platform.
Rourke stood up and said, "well, I have to give it to you, you're a bigger sore throat than I ever thought possible!"
Milo stood up and then fired a blast straight at him, but Rourke deflected the blast with a shield and then caught Milo by his neck and punched him right in the face. Then Milo pulled out the device that short-circuited his powers that he caught from Rourke as they tackled each other and zapped him.
Rourke yelped as he was zapped by the device and threw Milo off, causing him to break the bars and almost fall off the balloon, but the metal bar got caught in between the blades and stopped them from moving as Milo held on.
"I consider myself a really temperamental man. It takes a long time to get under my skin," Rourke continued, "but congratulations, you just won the solid gold falcon doll!"
Milo swung himself on the bar and caught hold of the chains that was holding the crate, hoping to cut them away.
Helga moaned in pain as the flames were destroying her from the inside. She slowly turned onto her back and pulled out her flare gun. Then she aimed it at the balloon and said, "nothing...personal."
She fired the flare and it hit the main engine of the balloon and it started to fall down again. Rourke caught an axe and jumped down onto the metal crate and tried to strike Milo with the axe. Milo dodged left. He dodged right and held onto the end of the crate.
"Tired, Mr. Thatch," Rourke asked sarcastically.
Then he swung the axe again. Milo dodged the swing as the blade hit the window and broke the glass on the crate. Then Milo caught a piece of the glass that had been touched by the crystal and had an idea.
"Ah, that's a damn disgrace. Because I'm just warming up," Rourke said in frustration as he caught Milo by the throat and held him up.
Rourke was about to swing the axe. Milo acted swiftly and cut Rourke's arm with the glass, causing him to shout in pain and let him go. Milo climbed up a safe distance away from Rourke as he held his arm in pain. Suddenly, his arm started turning dark blue and hardened like a crystal and before he knew it, his whole body was transformed into hard crystal and the inside of him became an explosive compound.
The metal that was lodged in between the blades fell and the blades moved again. Milo looked down to see the now crystallized Rourke and sighed in relief as he said, "thank heaven."
Suddenly, Rourke moved and roared, causing Milo to jump back in fright. He leaned down onto the chain and then took a deep breath and let out a loud, anguished shriek. The force of the lament pushed Rourke closer and closer towards the moving blades and with one final shriek, Rourke was crushed among the blades and he exploded in a thousand pieces.
The broken crystal pieces hit the chain and the metal crate fell to the ground with Milo tumbling behind as he jumped away from the exploding balloon. Milo looked up and saw the balloon heading straight for them. He swiftly pushed the crate out of the road and then he jumped just as the balloon hit the ground and...
BOOM!!
The Atlanteans, Vinny, Sweet, Moliere, Packard, Cookie and Audrey landed their vehicles where Milo was and then suddenly, they heard rumbling in the ground and cracks began to form. Moliere's eyes widen in fear as he shouts. "The volcano! She awakens!"
"Hey, I had nothing to do with this," Vinny said positively, earning strange looks from everyone.
"This would be a good place not to be," Cookie said.
"No, wait! We have to take her back, otherwise the entire city will die," Milo said as he caught the end of the chain and attached it to the crate.
"And if we don't leave here, we'll die," Audrey said as she caught the other end.
"It's the only fashion to reverse this! You just do it," Milo yelled as steam started shooting out of the ground.
Audrey tied the chain around the end of the stone fish and then she jumped on with Vinny as Milo started floating in the air. They started heading away, but the end of the chain snapped off the crate.
Milo caught the end of the chain and wrapped it around the crate. Then he shouts. "GO!!"
Then Vinny followed the others while dragging the crate. The lava exploded out of the ground and Milo did his best to avoid the sea of lava chasing after them. They exited the volcano and got back to the middle of the city square and Vinny carefully placed the crate in the middle as everyone else landed.
Milo landed as he ran over to the crate, but Keith handed Milo a spear to open the crate. Then he heard Moliere shout. "THE RIFT! IT IS ABOUT TO LAUNCH ITS FIERY RAGE!!"
"Milo, Mole says the wall will hit," Sweet yelled at Milo, concerned that he might get hurt.
Milo pulled harder and harder and then eventually, the crate opened and released Kida. She pushed her arms out and then the whole city started glowing. The stoned faces of the Kings of the Past glowed once again and started floating and broke through the ground and surrounded Kida.
They floated up into the heavens and they all watched in shock and amazement as the rocks spun faster and faster that all could be seen was bright lights, but beams of light shot throughout the city as fiery rocks shot through the air.
The beams hit the head of giant stone statues that was buried in the water and they all rose up as the volcano was exploding more lava and fiery rocks. The statues all stood at the edge of the city in one giant circle and just as the whole volcano wall exploded, the statues clapped their hands and as they opened them, a large energy field started surrounding the whole city like a force field and protected them all from the oncoming lava.
Everyone watched as the lava sprayed all over the dome, but none of it penetrated the shield, but the lava stopped flowing and solidified into hard rock by the power of the crystal. There was a few moments of silence but then suddenly, a burst of light cracked through the rock, but more beams of light cracked through and all the hard rock started falling off the shield.
Some of the rocks broke the edge's earth and water fell onto the remaining lava and created steam as the shield they fell. Milo looked around and then saw the same beam of light from the crystal shining down in the middle of the city square. He looked up and watched as a now normal Kida was floated down gently to the ground, yet in a sleep-like fashion.
Milo walked over to her and caught her gently as she touched the ground, but the light released her and she slowly awakened, feeling as if she was sleeping this entire time. Then she looked at Milo wearily and said silently, "Milo."
He grinned at her and she returned a grin to him, but she felt something in her hand and opened it to reveal the bracelet she wore if she was a child. The one that her mother caught just as the same fact happened to her as Atlantis fell.
She now knew the truth about everything. Her eyes tightened to hold back her tears as she flung herself into Milo's arms and hugged him, and he wrapped his around her and hugged her back. Milo looked behind her and saw something as his eyes widened in amazement.
She let go of Milo and looked behind her. She grinned as she saw the rest of the city was now above the water. Milo stood behind her, along with Sweet, Vinny, Audrey, Moliere, Cookie and Packard stood and looked at the rest of the city in awe, but Milo and Kida linked their hands together. Thanks to them, Atlantis had been reborn once again.
The next day, the team stood near a giant floating stone dolphin that some of the Atlanteans were putting some treasure inside. Milo had decided to stay in Atlantis to be with Kida. The others were returning to the surface as heroes. He was now wearing the crystal the king had given him around his neck.
"Atlantis will honor your names forever," Kida said as she finished giving them all crystal necklaces, "only I could do more for you."
"Uh...you know, thanks a lot. But, uh...I think we're alright," Vinny said as he gestured to the treasure they were given.
"They'll take you as far to the surface," Milo said.
"We're really going to miss you, Milo," Audrey said.
"You know, I'm going to reopen a flower shop and I'll thank you guys every single day," Vinny said, "Monday through Friday. From 9 to 5. Saturday until 2. Sunday. I'll be taking Sunday away, I guess. And perhaps I'll drop by a couple hours ago, but...August. I'll take August."
Cookie suddenly gave Milo a bone-crushing hug and said, "I'm sure you miss your family as well."
Then he handed him an entire jug of root beer and said, "I ain't so good at classifying, but I wanted you to take this. It's the bacon fat for the entire trip."
"And I hope you find them one day," Milo said with a grin.
"Ah-ah! Two for flinching," Audrey came up and playfully punched him in the arm and said, "see you, Milo."
Then Moliere came up and was about to hug him, but Milo stopped him as he noticed he was surrounded by flies and patted his hair as he said, "farewell, Mole."
"Are you sure you want to stay," Sweet asked, "a heroic welcome awaits the man who discovered Atlantis."
"No, I don't think the world needs another hero. Also, I heard there's a vacancy here for a gibberish expert," Milo said.
Then Sweet and Milo shook hands, but then Sweet pulled him in and gave him a hug. Then Milo asked. "Sweet, uh...before you leave, right?"
"No problem," Sweet said and then twisted his neck left and right, fixing it.
Milo grinned as he rubbed his neck and said, "thank you."
Sweet grinned and nodded. Then Packard asked. "Can we go home now?"
"C'mon, you! Let's take another shot in front of the fish," Sweet said.
They all stood in front of the fish after Packard handed Bradford Coleman her camera and they all grinned as he took the picture from them.
A few days later, they had returned to Whitmore's mansion and warned him everything that happened. Then they decided to keep the discovery of Atlantis a secret. They all sat in the living room of Whitmore's home, wearing fancy suits and dresses while Whitmore looked at the pictures of their adventure and practicing what they were going to anyone who asked.
"Now let's go look at it again, then we get it all," Whitmore started, "didn't you find anything?"
"No, just a lot of stones and fish. Small fish. Sponges," Vinny replied.
"What just happened to Helga," Whitmore asked.
"Well, we lost her as she was hit by a blazing blimp, uh...missing," Cookie responded.
"Right," Whitmore nodded and then asked, "and Rourke?"
"A villainous breakdown, you could say it fell to pieces," Sweet said with slight humor.
"In fact, you could say that he was transformed and then turned into a million," Cookie said, "he also disappeared."
"What about Milo," Whitmore asked. Then Audrey responded. "Descended with a submarine."
They suddenly heard a noise and turned to see that Moliere had removed his nice clothes and started digging deep into one of Whitmore's large pots filled with dirt. Sweet flinched in embarrassment and said, "oh, Lord, give me strength."
Whitmore sighed in despair as he looked at the picture of Kida and Milo standing together and said, "I'm going to miss this boy. At least, he's in a better place now."
He opened it to reveal a blue glowing crystal necklace and a note written on the picture of Milo with their grandfather Thaddeus Thatch as a child. He grinned as he read the note.
Dear Mr. Whitmore,
I hope this piece of proof is enough for you. It sure convinced me!
Thanks from both of us,
Milo Thatch
He grinned with pride for his brother and then placed the necklace around his neck, feeling he would always have a piece of his brother always.
Meanwhile, back in Atlantis, Milo was now wearing an Atlantean robe and he had now finished carving the face of Kida's father onto a large stone. Kida was now wearing a royal gown with her own crown on her head. She was now the queen of Atlantis.
She looked down in despair for her father as she removed her crystal from her neck and then blew on it, causing it to glow brighter and then touched the stone. Then the stone glowed and all the citizens watched as it started floating into the heavens.
Milo led Kida up to the top of the palace and watched as it joined the other stones that floated around the crystal. Then Milo and Kida looked at each other lovingly and slowly pulled each other in and kissed deeply and passionately.
Atlantis was once again thriving and a new era had begun.
Executive ProducersDENNIS DESHAZERSHERYL STAMPS LEACH
Senior ProducerJIM ROWLEY
ProducersJEFF GITTLEMARTHA DATEMA LIPSCOMB
DirectorBRUCE DECK
WriterREBECCA SELF SNIDER
Production DesignerJESS NELSON
Musical DirectorBOB SINGLETON
Lyricist/ComposerSTEPHEN BATES
Educational SpecialistsMARY ANN DUDKO, Ph.D.MARGIE LARSEN, M.Ed.
Performance DirectorPENNY WILSON
Cast:Voice of Barney... BOB WESTBarney's Body Costume... DAVID JOYNERVoice of Baby Bop... JULIE JOHNSONBaby Bop's Body Costume... JEFF AYERSVoice of B.J. ... PATTY WIRTZB.J.'s Body Costume... JEFF BROOKS
Cast:Shawn... JOHN DAVID BENNETT, IITosha... HOPE CERVANTESStella the Storyteller... PHYLLIS CICEROJason... KURT DYKHUIZENKathy... LAUREN KING
Cast:Juan... MICHAEL KROSTCarlos... COREY LOPEZMin... PIA MANALOJulie... SUSANNAH WETZEL
Associate DirectorERIC NORBERG
Stage ManagerTERRIE DAVIS MANNING
Lighting DesignerSTEVEN BRILL
EditorMCKEE SMITH
Audio DirectorDAVID M. BOOTHE
Art DirectorELIZABETH SAGAN VELTEN
Wardrobe Supervisor/DesignerLISA O. ALBERTSON
Technical Operations SupervisorRANDY BREEDLOVE
Video EngineerBINK WILLIAMS
Camera OperatorsLARRY ALLEN OZ COLEMANTOM COX BRUCE HARMON
Production AudioRONALD G. BALENTINE
Boom OperatorsJAMES JOHNSONDAVID SMITH
Lighting DirectorCASEY COOK
Key GripBUZ CANNON
Lighting Board OperatorTODD DAVIS
Grip/ElectricJAMES EDWARDS
Construction SupervisorCHARLES BAILEY
Craft Shop SupervisorRAY HENRY
Art/Craft CoordinatorAMY ATHERTON
Set DresserAGGIE DAVIS-BROOKS
DraftspersonCHRISTOPHER MCCRAY
Craft/Prop ArtistMARK BROGAN
Props/Special EffectsDAVID COBB
CarpentersTY M. BURNSDANNY SMITH
Scenic PainterE. (BILL) SLETTE
Swing CrewCARMELLO GONZALES
Costume Shop ManagerGEORGIA FORD WAGENHURST
Costume TechnicianD.J. SEGLER
Costume SewingNATALIE SERGI-SAARISUSIE THENNES
Make-Up DesignerJEANIE L. D'IORIO
Hair StylistDEBRA HERTEL HAEFLING
Costume/Wardrobe AssistantsBRIAN N. BLEVINSJANET BUSH CHRISTINE STOLP
Field ProducerSANDY JANTZEN
Post VideotapeDUDLEY ASAFF
Post Production AudioDENICE CROWELLCRAIG CHASTAIN
Production Office ManagerSUE SHINN
Script SupervisorCATHERINE REYNOLDS
Production CoordinatorsJULIE HUTCHINGSKELLY MAHER
Production AccountantDEBBIE COTTLE
Production SecretaryAUSTIN GRAY
Asst. to Performance DirectorDAVID VOSS
Production AssistantJOEL ZOCH
Barney Music DepartmentJILL HANCE CHARLES KINGJONATHAN SMITH ETHEL WADSWORTH
For Singleton Productions, Inc.JIM CUMMINGS LARRY HARONMIKE PIETZSCH
Educational Research StaffPATSY J. ROEBLES GOODWIN, M.Ed.KIMBERLY THORNTON, M.Ed.JOY STARR
Children's TeacherSANDRA GILPIN
Children's SupervisorMARY EVANS
Barney and the Backyard Gang™ and Barney & Friends®were originally developed by Sheryl Leach,Kathy Parker and Dennis DeShazer.
Vocal Performances Enhanced with Help fromSingleton Productions, Inc.
"I Love You" • Lyrics by Lee Bernstein (BMI)
"Text and illustrations fromFEAST FOR 10by Cathyrn Falwell. Copyright 1992.Used by permission of Cathyrn Falwell andSimon and Schuster Books for Young Readers,Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division."All Rights Reserved.
Special Thanks to the Children's Workshop • Plano, TX
Original Barney, Baby Bop and B.J.Costumes byIRENE COREY DESIGNASSOCIATES
Produced byTHE LYONS GROUP ANDCONNECTICUT PUBLIC TELEVISION
For Connecticut Public TelevisionExecutives in ChargeLARRY RIFKINSHARON BLAIR
Executive in ChargeRICHARD C. LEACH
BARNEY & FRIENDS • Shopping for a Surprise!Copyright 2001 • Lyons Partnership, L.P.