It is time for another Sunny Story! Just a little while ago Sunny had a big adventure encountering a Kaiju on Paradise Island, but sometimes you need the proper tools! Now that Steam Punk Month has arrived Sunny and his inventive streak are bound to yield different results! Reason enough for a new and fun story set on Paradise. So fishermen and fishy friends.. let’s see how Sunny is doing!
For days now there have been mysterious clanking and clonking and sawing and buzzing and flaming noises drifting out of Sunny’s shed. No one has been invited by for an old movie watching night, or to play a new game. In fact, the boy has gotten quite secretive. Big, heavy boxes from Amazon and eBay have arrived and been spirited off into the shed to be opened. One day a big truck pulled up piled high with a wide variety of metal junk – bits, it looked like, of cars and boats, and who knows what all. They vanished into the shed, too. It must be much bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside! Perhaps there is a basement.
At long last, Sunny appeared, a bit begrimed and smudged with grease, but smiling. He walked himself down to the beach for a dip – clothes and all.Once he seemed to think he was clean enough, he walked back up and into one of the beach showers where he rinsed off the salt and the last of the grime. Looking a lot more like our beloved space cadet pool boy, he walked jauntily up to the inn and called everyone outside.
“Wait ‘till you see this!” he laughed, “Hey, hold my beer.” He added, laughing even more. This did not inspire confidence in those Americans present who know that “hey, hold my beer” is usually the prelude to a redneck about to do something spectacularly stupid and dangerous.
Sunny reached into his shed and grabbed the pull handle of a little red wagon. As it emerged it’s burden became clear. Well, easier to see, but much harder to understand.
It looked rather like a fish. One of those weird deep sea fish with a lantern dangling over it’s head and a retractable lure in it’s … mouth? Huge eyes, or windows, revealed cameras mounted in the center of it’s head on a swivel so it spins from one window view to the next. On each side instead of fins retractable arms are mounted. On the left a great big claw ends one, on the right, a smaller claw ends the other. Towards the middle of the body, on each side there is a vertical screw – a sort of propeller like thing – and then towards the back on either side of what must be a rudder, but looks like a tail, there are something like jet engines.
With enthusiasm approaching shiny eyed awe Sunny explains that the little sub, dubbed the Sunfish – is actually steam powered. The little jet like engines really are steam powered uh, jet like engines. A new invention with an old time source of energy.
Steam is produced in a mini-boiler in the rear of the Sunfish, heated by a chemical reaction that also just happens to make oxygen for the sub, too.
The vertical screws force the sub down into the water – as it has a positive buoyancy profile. This means, Sunny tells the manager reassuringly, that if anything goes wrong, the Sunfish will pop to the top of the water and float rather than sink. Very safe, he says, patting Pinkie gently on her shoulder. Nothing to worry about.
He shows you all how the “jaw” drops open to deploy the lure – a short pole with something that looks like a big, fat worm – or a spanish dancer if you like. The lantern dangling over the head is exactly that, a light to make the whole thing even more alluring – and easier to see in the dark waters below the sparkling waves.
I’m sure everyone remembers the episode with the monster sea serpent? A typical deep sea fishing rig was no match for that great kaiju, but Sunny hasn’t been able to get the creature out of his mind. He would really like another good look at it. Not so much for fish fillets (he’s pretty sure they would be tough as tires), as for – you know – scientific research.
Okay, curiosity.
Sunny picks up the handle of his little red wagon and tugs it creaking and groaning under the heavy looking submarine down the beach and out the dock. Tilting it at an angle he slides the Sunfish into the sea, where, by golly, it does float! Sunny gives a merry wave and climbs in through a hatch in the top. You can clearly see him as he settles into the pilots seat between the two huge eye like windows in the front of the Sunfish. With a sudden jerk the sub put-put-putts out into the bay where it proceeds to screw itself down in the water.
You can see the top of the lantern mounting bobbing in and out of the waves as Sunny pilots the little sub around the inner bay just below the water. He pops up again, waves to let you know he’s just fine, and burbles back down.
This time, he sends the Sunfish off the ledge and over the vast depths that surround the island a few thousand feet offshore of it’s beautiful sparkly pink beaches. The blond tanned pool boy is ecstatic with his new toy and can’t stop grinning as he watches delightful little fish of every color, but especially pink, darting past the big windows of the Sunfish. He turns on the camera, so he can share the amazing scenery with everyone up above. He thought about looking for a camera that would share in real time, but that would mean he had to drag a cable around, and he likes the idea of the Sunfish being free to move up or down or wherever he wants to go without a tether to the upper world.
Of course, there are pink squid, and octopi, and something that looks a lot like a Horsea, and is that a Mantine? Hoping he doesn’t run into a Gyarados – but a Relicanth would be cool – Sunny pilots the Sunfish down, down, down past the pink rocks and pink coral and pink starfish, and pink and black clownfish in their pink anemones. Down into the dark.
At last the Sunfish finds the soft, sandy bottom and Sunny is happy to see that it’s PINK sand down here, too. He makes sure the camera pans around so Pinkie can see that the island really is pink right from its roots to the flowery tree tops. He wishes he could turn the engines completely off and be quiet, but then the Sunfish would float to the top. Still, he tries to just stay in one place and look all around. His little lantern glows pale yellow in the dark.
Sunny pulls the lever that will open the jaws and deploy the lure. It waves gently in the wind like a banner – here, here I am…
It’s so quiet now. There’s no fish in sight and no coral or rocks to look at. Slowly, his eyes drift shut and Sunny dozes.
A nudge wakes him up. It might have been a gentle nudge – if you were a great big sea serpent type kaiju – but it gives the Sunfish quite a bump. Sunny’s eyes fly open. Because, you know, he wasn’t sleeping. He finds himself nearly eyeball to eyeball with a pair of glowing yellow eyes. Another bump. A jerk.
The kaiju has grabbed the lure.
Sunny bangs the button to fire the jet engines and yanks the lever that twirls them around so they are thrusting in reverse.
Of course, he’s gotten a bit fond of the old kaiju thing, and has only put a humane hook on the end of the lure.
Which is to say, the kaiju is not really hooked at all, but feels a bit of a tug on it’s lower lip just the same. It gives the Sunfish a head butt, which stuns both the kaiju and Sunny and causes the Sunfish to jerk back and start floating towards the top in a sort of less than controlled manner. Shaking his head the kaiju tosses the Sunfish from side to side, and Sunny inside bounces around like he was in a pool boy float in Kuro’s drink blender, binging and banging and bonging against the sides and windows and steam boiler inside.
The next thing he sees is nothing but teeth, tongue, and blue-red gums as the kaiju tries to get a bigger bite of the Sunfish, not once, but three times. Sunny grabs the throttle and blasts the steam jets in reverse. The kaiju doesn’t like the burst of warm air past his face and lets go and the Sunfish darts like it’s namesake towards the surface. The kaiju in hot pursuit.
Sunny gets the Sunfish whirled around, changes the thrust to all speed forward and takes off for the surface in the direction he thinks is towards the little bay. The kaiju probably doesn’t like the shallows and won’t follow. Right?
There’s no speedometer on the Sunfish, but however fast it is going, the kaiju can clearly go faster. It swims around the Sunfish, bumping and nuzzling the sides while Sunny clings to his seat and tries to remember what made this sound like a good idea?
Suddenly the Sunfish breaks the surface, popping out of the water like a cork and starts to steam towards the beach, the kaiju swimming easily alongside (The Sunfish is even slower on the surface) keeping one eye on Sunny. It appears the monster has finally made the connection between the pool boy in bright yellow with a little bitty fishing rod, and the submariner in bright yellow bopping around inside the funny metal fish.
The kaiju nudges the sub a few times. He seems to be wondering if maybe it ATE Sunny, and the little fellow may need rescuing. Sunny gets another good view of the inside of a sea serpent as the kaiju gives a few more experimental nibbles. For a beast with needle shaped teeth easily a foot long, it seems almost…gentle.
Sunny slows the Sunfish to a stop and the kaiju stops beside him. It nudges the little sub again, rocking it gently. Sunny laughs. The kaiju nudges. Sunny laughs. The kaiju nudges and opens it’s mouth, making a sort of dolphin like chuckling noise and bobbing it’s head. Sunny waves. The kaiju bobs.
Sunny thinks about it. He opens up the Sunfish’s “jaw” again and puts out the lure. The kaiju inspects it and looks back in at Sunny.
To the horror of the guests waiting anxiously on the dock, Sunny pops the hatch and sticks his head, arms and shoulders out of the hatch. He’s holding a grilled cheese sandwich in one hand. The kaiju raises it’s head to be level with Sunny.
Sunny waves the sandwich a couple of times, like you would do to get a dogs attention. And tosses it towards the kaiju. Who opens his mouth and neatly catches it in midair. There follows a few minutes while the kaiju apparently moves the sandwich around it’s mouth, munching and tasting. Then a swallow.
Blinking, the kaiju cocks his head as if thinking. Then he swims around the Sunfish and, I almost hesitate to tell you this but, he sticks the tip of his tail out of the water and…well..WAGS it.
Sunny laughs. Waves. Ducks back into the sub, and appears – with another sandwich. He tosses this one, too. The sea serpent catches this one, then dives below showing off every inch of it’s 30 feet or more of scaly loops humping over the water before reappearing on the other side of the Sunfish. It makes several quick circles around the little sub, tossing spray, nodding it’s head and making that chuckling noise. Sunny shows empty hands and shrugs. He’s out of sandwiches. He wasn’t planning to be gone down there a week, you know. The serpent lowers his head to half in and half out of the water. And sighs.
Sunny holds up one finger. “Wait!” he says. Diving back into the Sunfish he put-put-putts right up the beach, hops out, runs to his shed, and runs back with an armload of baloney, sliced cheese, and lettuce.
Last anyone saw, Sunny was standing on the beach tossing various foodstuffs to his new best friend, who gulps down cheese and lettuce and baloney but spit the leftover BBQ fried chicken back. The cook has barred the kitchen door.
Pinkie's Paradise 