Chapter eleven of The Prom.
Story[]
The SNCASE SE.200 suddenly found itself under attack by air-pirates: their new Me 309 and Me 609-fighters fire at the engines, disabling all but two, which were not enough to keep the airliner aloft and it crashes into the sea. All onboard were recovering from the free-fall and landing. "Is everyone alright?" Rey calls out and most answered yes, at the same time the Iron Vulture arrives, lands near the airliner and unleashes its boarding party. "Hello rich passengers-type peoples in the big cruise-plane! It is I, the dreadful pirate, Don Karnage, you may now all tremble in fear of my truly magnificent self" Don Karnage announced, and the majority of the passengers and crew did just that: whimpering wailing and shrieking they made a mad dash for the far corner of the room, Kit Rey Ernie and Emily didn't follow their fellow schoolmates' examples: the four stood where they were in the middle of the room with defiant sneers etched on their faces, "why if it isn't Don Garbage, the scourge of the air," Ernie jeered, not breaking eye contact with Karnage, he gently pushed Emily behind him, "what's wrong, Karny? are cargo planes too fast for you? you gotta hijack slow airliners now?" Kit taunts, an ugly scornful smile appeared on the pirate captain's face, revealing a mouthful of sharp pointed teeth, "ah Kit, we meet again yes-no?" he retorts, then noticed his skinniness, "did you lose weight or something?" he wondered, "unfortunately yes: I got infected by a deadly disease called appendicitis a few weeks ago, I'm just starting to recover from the surgical treatment so I can have a relaxing date" Kit admits showing the scar on his belly, "ew" Karnage wretched when looking at the scar, then turned eye-to-eye with them, "and I hear you were on a date? so you two finally turned a knot eh?" he laughs, getting the other pirates and even the passengers and crew to join in, much to the duo's sheer embarrassment, "but anyway, we shall-" Karnage began when he sees most of the passengers were just high-school kids rather than rich people like he hoped, naturally he blames his subordinates, "you dip-thongs: these are not rich-type-people, these are juvenile-delinquent-type-children" he lectures, "well that's because it's a prom for our school" Emily reveals, "well that explains it, but, we can still find some benefit from this" Don states and faces his nemeses, "Cloudkicker, you and your girl-type-friend come with me!" he orders the duo, once more sparking some laughter, they were roughly escorted between Mad Dog and Dumptruck onto the Iron Vulture. Ernie and the others were herded together like cattle, Gibber whispered a hasty message in Karnage's ear, "you may have a point on your head" he replies, then turning to the bear and dinosaur, "because you two are masters of escape like the magician, you will be placed in my special occasion cell, one with heavy duty locks!" he declares, but stops and faces their new planes, "oh by the way, what do you think of our new planes?" he asked gesturing to the me-fighters, "they are impressive, I'll give you that, especially the twin-fuselage ones" Kit admits, "I knew you'd be impressed boy, we got a hold of these when flying over Hounsland one day, they are called the messer...messer..." Don began, "Messerschmitt?" Kit guessed, "yeah that's it: Messerschmitt me-309s and 609s, these fighter-type-planes were intended to be their newest, but sadly they disappointed the dog-type-peoples with faultiness, the twin-type-fuselage-ones started out as an idea, but never came to life, not sure why though, but oh well, their loss is our gain, so we raided their scrap-type-yards, stole the me-309s and the blueprints for both, and ta-da: we made them ourselves, someday we'll replace the CT-37s with them" Karnage described, Kit had to admit he was impressed: the two Swatzi-fighters were quite beautiful if it weren't for their owners: Kit hasn't seen a lot of twin-fuselage-aircraft before, but he has heard of them (like the Savoia-Marchetti S.55-flying-boat), nor has he seen a single-engine fighter with a nose-wheel. Their admiration was brief though as the pirates forced them to walk to the prison-area and they were shown to the special-cell, "have a nice stay!" Mad Dog snickered, shoving the two teens into the dark prison cell secured with a thick door: this thick door, equipped with three locks, had a tiny window crisscrossed with thick bars, Dumptruck was assigned guard duty over them, after Karnage and the other pirates left Kit rattled the solidly-built door, unfortunately this only resulted in some pain in his scar, "I wouldn't try anything funny if I was you" Dumptruck warned shoving the barrel of his musket between the bars, "I think my appendix, or what's left of it, agrees with you" Kit moaned clutching himself: he still hadn't completely recovered his strength after the surgery, Rey rushed to his side and walked him to the dingy cot, "Kit be careful: you're still weak" she advised, "what's an appendix?" Dumptruck suddenly asked, "it's the corridor between your large and small-intestines" Kit answered, Dumptruck looks at his body, "where?" he wonders, Kit gets up and walks over a bit unsteadily, "right here at the bottom-right of your bellybutton, you just can't see it because it's inside of you" he explained gesturing to his scar, Dumptruck pulls his shirt up to look at the area where Kit said it was, "how do you see it?" he asks dumbly, Kit actually gets an idea at this: these pirates were so easy to lie to, "well if you let me out, I can show you" Kit proposed slyly, Dumptruck looked conflicted: he didn't wanna let his enemies out at the risk of them escaping, Karnage would murder him for that, but he is curious, real curious. In the end the curiosity won and he opens the door, "alright, but no tricks, or you'll be hanging by your pinkies like the captain says" he warned, Kit nods and steps out, "you see you need something called an x-ray and I happen to have one, first you close your eyes" Kit instructs and Dumptruck does so, "oh goodie I love surprises" he cheered like a little kid, "then you're gonna love this" Kit humors and picks up the stool Dumptruck had for sitting, quickly he hammers the pirate on the head with it knocking him out, "that was a really useful stool" he comments to the now damaged-stool, however he suddenly received another pain in his gut from the effort, "Kit you okay?" Rey asked alarmed, "yeah, just more aftermath of the surgery" Kit assured, "Kit you're in no condition to fight, I'll handle it" Rey orders, "okay" Kit relents and they run off.
In the airliner, the pirates were looting anything of value from the plane itself and everyone onboard, Karnage however stopped at Ernie, noticing the look of fearlessness in him. "Well hello there hyena-type-boy, and who might you be?" he greets, "names Ernie, Kit's friend, and like him I'm no stranger to danger, so I suggest you back off and surrender right now if you know what's good for you" Ernie threatened, "ooh I am so scared" Don mocks, "I'm serious, I even had military-training" Ernie informs, "ain't you young to be in the military?" Karnage wonders when Hal rushes over looking frantic, "captain: we got some unwanted company" he informs, "what!?" Karnage gasped and rushes to the window, outside he's sees three approaching Consolidated PBY Catalina-flying-boats: these planes were designed for maritime patrol and rescue, yet they were armed as well, perfect for when needing to save lives from air-pirates, "to your battle-stations men, we are about to have the uninvited guests" Karnage roars to his pirates and instantly many scramble back to the Iron Vulture to meet the local-enforcement.
Stay tuned for The Prom, Chapter twelve