26: Under the Boardwalk

Close-up on CHI-YUN's face. Her hand shades her eyes as she gazes into the distance.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Sunday October 26.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Atlantic City. Nearly.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Dear Grandfather,

VOICE (off-panel, from below):

Are we there yet?

Now a BIG panel to show the setting. The group's RV sits in stationary highway traffic. The traffic extends as far as we can see. CHI-YUN is standing on the RV's roof and looking down the road.

VOICE (from inside vehicle):

Don't encourage her, Sara.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Even with the eyes of an eagle I couldn't see the end of the traffic.

CHI-YUN:

I'll change into a bird and fly ahead—

FOUR VOICES (simultaneously, from inside vehicle):

No!

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Being a superhero is boring sometimes.

Inside the RV, FRED, SARA, and HARRY sit in the small living area in the back. We should have a POV that lets us see forward to JAMES in the driver's seat. FRED has a notebook computer open in front of him.

HARRY:

We won't be there by nightfall at this rate, James.

JAMES:

Doing my best, Harry.

Close-up on FRED slamming down the lid of his computer in frustration.

FRED:

Damn!

FRED:

Every hotel in Atlantic City is booked solid.

Close-up on SARA. She has her cell phone out and is typing on the keypad with her thumb.

SARA:

You're not doing it right, Fred. Let me try.

Same close-up. She's now talking into the phone.

SARA:

Hello? Atlantic City Hailey?

SARA:

I'm looking for a room, actually five rooms or a suite—

SARA:

You've just had five cancellations? That's—

SARA, still on the phone, sticks her tongue out at FRED as he speaks.

FRED:

Lucky?

CHI-YUN is now sitting on the roof of the RV, cross-legged, and writing her letter (the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper).

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

I know I haven't written for a while but it's difficult when we are being chased by alien werewolf soldiers.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

I'll try to catch you up on the news. We are heading to Atlantic City. You have probably seen on TV about their sea monster sightings.

A view of JAMES behind the wheel. Our POV is in front of him so we can see the others behind him (or at least FRED).

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

James (he's our leader, but nobody else will admit that) thinks it's important that we investigate. Everybody else thinks it's a

FRED:

Wild goose chase.

JAMES:

Yes you said that already, Fred.

JAMES:

Several times.

Closer view of JAMES (we don't need to see behind him in this panel).

JAMES:

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's a hoax. We have nothing to lose if it is.

JAMES:

But what if it's someone with powers, maybe shape-changing into a sea creature? They might need our protection. Isn't it worth the trouble to find out?

In the back, FRED has stood and is putting his leather jacket on.

FRED:

Yeah, right. We can't even protect ourselves.

He has opened the side door and is stepping out.

FRED:

You might be happy to sit on the freeway. I'm going on ahead.

CHI-YUN leans over the edge of the roof to watch FRED unlocking his motorcycle from the rack on the back of the vehicle.

CHI-YUN:

Where are you going?

FRED:

Sunday night in Atlantic City. There's gotta be a party somewhere.

CHI-YUN:

I'll come with you!

He's sitting on the bike and putting his helmet on.

FRED:

No you won't.

Big panel of the bike roaring down freeway between two lanes of stationary traffic. Keeping pace with it, slightly above, is a large bird -- probably a big gull or something.

No dialogue.

Close-up on FRED's eyes. (Yes, they're hidden inside his helmet, but this is a comic panel so our POV can be inside the helmet.) We see the gull reflected in his eyes (standard shorthand for his psychic powers working, as hopefully all our readers know by now).

FRED (thought):

I mean it, Chi-Yun.

GULL (thought):

Meanie!

Back inside the back of the RV, SARA and HARRY look at the door as FRED enters again.

FRED:

I changed my mind.

SARA:

The voice is a little high.

HARRY:

And we didn't hear the motorcycle.

Identical panel, except CHI-YUN is standing exactly where FRED stood -- in exactly the same pose.

CHI-YUN:

D'oh!

Panoramic view of the highway again, showing the RV still stuck in stationary traffic.

VOICE (from inside vehicle):

Are we there yet?

FRED races down the middle of the congested freeway. He is passing a large sign: "WELCOME TO ATLANTIC CITY"

No dialogue.

This is a full-page splash panel to show off the Atlantic City scenery. CHI-YUN, SARA, and JAMES stand on a wooden pier. Behind them is a big, gleaming, high-rise city (Atlantic City). In front of them is the ocean. The ocean is dotted with boats of various types and sizes. The sun is high in the east (over the ocean) in a cloudless sky, but it's still October on the eastern seaboard so they are dressed suitably in outdoor coats. JAMES can be assumed to be wearing his costume under his clothes, but it shouldn't be visibly obvious. He wears a flat, square, SHIELD-sized backpack.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Opened on June 26, 1870, the world-famous Boardwalk stretches along six magical and glittering miles of Atlantic City beachfront.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

I copied that out of the hotel brochure.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Somewhere along here, monsters came out of the sea.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Like Godzilla.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Only much smaller.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Fred wasn't out of bed yet and Harry had gone to talk to some people who had seen the monsters.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Leaving the rest of us to do some real investigating.

Close up on the group. SARA shades her eyes and looks over the ocean.

SARA:

So many boats!

JAMES:

Everyone is hunting sea monsters. That's why the hotels are full, the roads were jammed—

SARA:

Must be great for the tourist industry.

CHI-YUN (softly):

Up from the depths, thirty stories high...

JAMES is kneeling at the edge of the pier, looking down.

JAMES:

It doesn't make our job any easier, though.

JAMES is disappearing, head-first over the side of the pier!

No dialogue.

Underneath the pier is a framework of wooden supporting beams. JAMES stands on one, looking around. SARA is dangling upside-down over the edge, so we can only see her upper torso.

SARA:

What do you expect to find?

JAMES:

Do we have to go through the "what do you expect to find" routine every time?

SARA is swinging acrobatically down to where JAMES stands.

SARA:

Um. Yes, I think so.

JAMES and SARA are leaping from beam to beam beneath the pier, talking as they go. Above them, CHI-YUN is crawling upside down along the underside of the pier, clinging to it like a spider.

CHI-YUN (softly):

Breathing fire, his head in the sky...

JAMES:

The sightings have always been at high tide, so the water would have been right up here.

SARA:

But not right up. Somebody could climb under the boardwalk like we are.

Still leaping along, but now CHI-YUN is dropping down next to them.

JAMES:

Exactly! That's why we are going to explore along here while Chi-Yun explores underwater.

CHI-YUN:

Godz—Who, me?

They stop while JAMES looks at CHI-YUN.

JAMES:

Can you do it?

CHI-YUN:

Breathe water? I suppose so.

SARA:

Start with a dolphin. They breathe air.

Now a long shot of them so we can see that they are at the end of a long pier, balancing on beams with water swirling around beneath them. They are looking out over the ocean. CHI-YUN is standing with her arms out in a "diving" posture.

CHI-YUN:

I can do that.

CHI-YUN:

Easy.

CHI-YUN:

Get ready to pull me out.

CHI-YUN is diving towards the water...

CHI-YUN (thought):

Dolphin.

...but it's a dolphin that smoothly enters the water, making barely a splash.

No dialogue.

The dolphin is leaping out of the water, in the way that dolphins do when performing in aquariums. From a nearby boat, people make "oooo!" faces and point at it.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

So I went

DOLPHIN (thought):

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Now we see a shark fin passing menacingly close to another boat, where people make "aaaaaaaaa!" faces and point at it.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

And then I went

SHARK (thought):

Dum-dum. Dum-dum. Dum-dum.

Still under the pier, SARA and JAMES look out to sea.

SARA (softly):

Oh my God.

JAMES:

Don't worry. She'll calm down.

SARA:

Are we talking about the same Chi-Yun?

HARRY, in his usual overcoat and fedora, settles himself onto a bar stool. On the adjacent stool is a big, bearded, overweight man in a flannel shirt, baseball cap, and one of those sleeveless padded jackets. We'll call him BAKKER.

HARRY:

Jack Bakker?

BAKKER:

You a reporter?

This can be a wider view to establish that they're in a bar. And show that BAKKER's beer glass is almost empty. HARRY is motioning to the barman.

HARRY:

I might be.

HARRY:

Straight bourbon, no ice.

HARRY:

I hear you got a shot off at a sea monster.

BAKKER is lifting his glass to his lips.

BAKKER:

Damn straight. You paying for a story?

BAKKER puts his empty glass down as the barman puts a drink in front of HARRY.

HARRY:

I'll buy you a beer.

BAKKER:

You're on.

HARRY:

And another beer for my friend.

FRED, dressed in his habitual black leather jacket, steps out of the door of the HAILEY HOTEL (there should be an obvious name plate to let the reader see where he is). He squints and shields his eyes, even though it's not particularly bright. He's going to be talking to himself (for the reader's benefit, but hopefully that won't seem too contrived).

FRED:

Ouch.

Close-up on FRED putting on dark glasses.

FRED:

Bad beer.

Now we see him looking across the busy street at the BLUE SEA CASINO -- a big, ostentatious building, and one that's obviously doing a lot of trade at the moment.

3. FRED:

Fantastic. Good choice of hotel, Sara.

FRED is about to enter the casino when a uniformed doorman stands to block him.

DOORMAN:

I'll need to see some ID.

FRED:

You don't need to see my identification.

FRED continues into the casino. The doorman doesn't look at him.

DOORMAN:

I don't need to see your identification.

Back to JAMES and SARA under the boardwalk. They are once more leaping from beam to beam, neither one of them showing any concern for the precarious footing because that's how good they are at this stuff.

JAMES:

I didn't want to discourage Chi-Yun, but I don't think she'll find much.

SARA:

Oh my God! Is that uncertainty?

Now they are facing each other and she's poking him in the chest.

SARA:

Where's the real James? What have you done with him?

JAMES:

That's hardly fair.

SARA has turned away from JAMES and is leaping to the next beam.

SARA:

You've always got total confidence in your methods. That's what makes you so—

JAMES:

So—?

Close up on JAMES frowning.

SARA (off-panel):

Annoying.

JAMES:

Oh.

Now a close up on SARA smiling.

JAMES (off-panel):

I'm annoying?

Back in the bar, BAKKER is in full flow.

BAKKER:

It came right at me, across the parking lot. Must have been seven feet tall. So I got my rifle out my truck—

HARRY:

Did it attack you?

An outdoor scene at night. BAKKER stands by a 4x4 in a parking lot. He's dressed basically the same as he was in bar. Running towards him is a big SEA MONSTER. It's the same creature as we saw in ISSUE 23 PAGE 19. It is humanoid but bigger than a man (perhaps seven feet tall, although BAKKER might be exaggerating), with scaly green skin festooned with weed-like growths, big webbed feet, big webbed hands, and big bulbous yellow eyes. BAKKER has a hunting rifle raised to his shoulder.

Of course, this is a flashback panel. BAKKER's and HARRY's dialogue will be given in voice-over captions (hopefully the reader will understand who is saying what from the context).

CAPTION (BAKKER's voice-over):

"I didn't give it no chance to."

CAPTION (HARRY's voice-over):

"Did you hit it?"

BAKKER fires and we see an obvious hit on the creature's left upper arm.

CAPTION (BAKKER's voice-over):

"Dead center."

CAPTION (HARRY's voice-over):

"And?"

CAPTION (BAKKER's voice-over):

"An' it just kept coming. I tell you, buddy, it weren't human."

Back to the two men in the bar. HARRY is frowning.

HARRY:

If you didn't drop it, how come you're still here to tell the tale?

BAKKER:

I ain't ashamed to admit, I turned tail and ran.

BAKKER:

When I looked over my shoulder, it had gone.

JAMES and SARA are still under the boardwalk. But now the background is a concrete (or possibly stone) wall -- the sea wall at the landward side of the boardwalk. There is a round metal grill on the wall, about a metre in diameter, which appears to cover an outlet pipe.

CAPTION (BAKKER's voice-over):

"I ain't got a clue how it vanished so fast."

JAMES:

Look at that.

They're now standing on wooden beams and looking at the metal grill. We can now see that it is old, rusted iron. But the heads of the bolts which hold it to the wall seem shiny and new. A trickle of water comes from the pipe behind the grill.

SARA:

What? It's a storm-drain outlet.

JAMES:

Look at these bolts. They're brand new.

SARA:

So the city's taxes are maintaining the sewers. Whoopie.

JAMES is crouching and looking more closely at the grill.

JAMES:

But the rest of the thing is rusting away. And look—

He lifts the grill clear away from the wall.

JAMES:

They don't even fit. It's just hanging here.

SARA (softly):

Oh, no. Don't say it.

We see JAMES's legs disappearing into the pipe. SARA looks on in horror.

JAMES:

Come on.

SARA:

You have got to be kidding!

Time to go back to CHI-YUN. She's in the form of a shark and is swimming along the sandy ocean bottom. We'll make this a big panel to make the shark look suitably imposing (actually so I can fit a lot of captions on).

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Did you know that sharks have to keep swimming to force water through their gills, or else they drown?

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Well after a whole day of swimming I got pretty tired.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

I could change back to CHI-YUN and float on the surface to rest.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

But sharks have the best sense of smell. Like bloodhounds.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

But with gills.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Of course, I didn't have a clue what sea monsters smelt like.

In a smaller panel, the shark is angling up towards the surface.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

But—

SHARK (thought):

Blood!

A dolphin's head breaks the surface of the water. It is looking at a small motor boat which contains three men in wetsuits. We'll call them DIVER #1, DIVER #2, and DIVER #3. Note that DIVER #3 is a huge, muscular, body-builder type.

DIVER #1:

How's the arm?

DIVER #3:

Hurts like hell. But it's not gonna stop me doing the job.

A closer look at the three men in the boat, so we can see their faces clearly. (I'm not saying that they're important to the story... but the reader might need to recognise them again later. Ok, ok, so they're important to the story. Well see them again in the next issue.)

DIVER #2:

Looks like it's still bleeding.

DIVER #3:

I said it's okay!

The dolphin dives down again.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

False alarm.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

But there was another smell. Weird, like...

This is a flashback panel (so it's shown in muted colours, or some other visual trick). It shows SARA and CHI-YUN standing in the middle of a road. It's actually a scene from ISSUE 13 PAGE 15, and for you continuity buffs out there you'll see that I've combined two panels into this one to make the dialogue work.

SARA:

Can you sniff out explosives?

CHI-YUN:

I could if I knew what explosives smelled like!

Back to the present, and the dolphin is swimming along.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Explosives.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

But that made no sense at all.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

So I forgot about it.

HARRY is interviewing some more "witnesses" -- a youth and a girl sitting parked in an open-topped car and looking up at him.

HARRY:

How many did you see?

GIRL:

One.

BOY:

Four.

Another scene -- HARRY is at the drive-through window of a fast-food place (the attendant's uniform shows us it's a CRUNCHY MUNCHY BURGER joint).

ATTENDANT:

Just the one but that was one too many!

Back to the boy and girl from panel #1.

GIRL:

One.

BOY:

Or maybe two.

GIRL:

One.

HARRY talking to an old guy sitting on a bench.

HARRY:

What time was it?

MAN:

Musta been, oh, one-thirty?

HARRY:

And you're certain there was only one creature?

Back to the boy and girl from panel #1.

GIRL:

Only one.

BOY:

Well—

Back with the CRUNCHY MUNCHY attendant from panel #2.

ATTENDANT:

I'd just come on shift. That's two o'clock.

ATTENDANT:

You want fries with that?

HARRY sits on a wall in some open space -- the plaza in front of a big building, or something. There are other people around, sitting or hurrying by, probably cars in the background, etc., but none of that is important for the scene. He's eating a BIG MUNCH burger (we know it's a BIG MUNCH because of the CRUNCHY MUNCHY logo on the Styrofoam box). On the wall next to him he has laid a large sheet of paper that looks like an unfolded map, which naturally is blowing in the wind. And he has a cell phone held to his ear. He's struggling to juggle the phone, the map, and the burger, as you might expect.

HARRY:

Doesn't make sense.

HARRY:

If there's only one, it's going round in circles.

Closer view of HARRY and the map (which he's holding down with the hand that holds his burger). We can see it's a street map of Atlantic City -- details are not important, but we should be able to see he's circled several locations in red pen and joined them with red lines along the lines of the streets.

HARRY:

And it comes out of the sea but nobody sees it go back in.

HARRY:

But you know the really weird thing?

Close up on HARRY's head. He has the phone in one hand and is just about to take a bite of his burger from his other hand.

HARRY:

Weird thing is, in the middle of this circle of sightings each night is the hotel you booked us into.

HARRY:

I'm just saying, it's a weird coincidence.

HARRY watches the map blow away on the wind.

HARRY:

Say again?

HARRY:

You're breaking up.

HARRY:

You're in a what?

JAMES and SARA are walking along the round concrete drain pipe, JAMES in the lead. It isn't quite high enough to stand erect so they're stooping. JAMES is carrying a small torch but that's the only source of light. We might see SARA putting her phone away in her back jeans pocket (that's where she usually carries it). A trickle of water runs along the bottom of the pipe but apart from that it seems reasonably clean and dry.

JAMES:

At least it's reasonably clean and dry.

SARA (softly):

Oh, we're so lucky.

They continue along the pipe.

No dialogue.

Our view is now from in front of JAMES, so he's walking towards us. He's looking at something small in the palm of his hand (we don't need to see what; it's just a compass and he's going to refer to it anyway). That's the hand that's not holding the torch, obviously. In this panel we probably can't see SARA clearly because she's behind him and it's dark.

JAMES:

We seem to be heading due west.

SARA:

How can you tell?

JAMES:

I've got a compass in my utility belt.

SARA:

Oh.

They continue along the pipe.

No dialogue.

They continue along the pipe.

SARA:

Wait a minute.

SARA:

Utility belt?

JAMES has now stopped and is shining his torch at the ceiling of the tunnel.

JAMES:

That's odd.

SARA (softly):

You're telling me.

JAMES:

No, I mean that.

This panel shows just their faces, upturned to examine the ceiling. In the beam of the torch, we see some chalked symbols: a big X, a couple of arrows, and some numbers.

JAMES:

What do you think that's for?

SARA:

Surveyor's marks?

SARA:

Or the ancient language of sea monsters?

SARA:

Yep. That one seems most likely.

They're still looking at the ceiling.

JAMES:

I wonder what it means.

SARA:

Well unless you keep a civil engineering text book in your utility belt—?

SARA:

No, thought not.

SARA gestures down the tunnel past JAMES.

SARA:

Come on. That looks like a way out.

A shift to an outdoor scene. It's a quiet side street running behind a large building. The focus of the panel is the metal grill of a drain. We can see the fingers of two gloved hands grasping the bars of the grill from below. Gloves that look suspiciously like part of JAMES's spider-silk costume.

JAMES (from drain):

Give me some room, it's going to be hard—

The drain grill has not only opened, it's actually flown a few feet through the air -- as if somebody has shoved it with much more force than was necessary.

SFX (drain landing):

Clang!

JAMES (from drain):

Whoops.

JAMES has left the drain and is dragging the cover back towards the hole. SARA is in the process of climbing out.

SARA:

You don't have to impress me with how strong you are.

JAMES:

I wasn't—I mean, it must have been loose already.

SARA is walking off down the street while JAMES puts the drain cover back in position.

SARA:

Where are we? We must have come way down town.

JAMES:

I'm thinking this might be how the monsters return to the sea. Through the drains.

JAMES and SARA, now side-by-side, turn a corner into a much busier street.

SARA:

I thought so! This is the big casino opposite our hotel. Great, I need a shower!

JAMES:

Makes sense, doesn't it? All the eyewitnesses saw them come out of the sea. Never back in to it.

SARA turns to JAMES.

SARA:

James, I know you like a mystery but really you're obsessing way too much over these mythical sea creatures.

SARA:

Really, finding them isn't this important—

A pulled-back view to show more of the street they are standing on -- just so we can see a car driving past them. The car isn't important, the caption coming from it is. It's a news broadcast on the car's radio.

RADIO ANNOUNCER (from car):

Police have appealed for any information on the whereabouts of two young boys missing since early this morning. Brothers Martin and Gary Abel, aged eight and ten, took their father's boat and vanished from their family home, leaving a note to say that they were hunting sea monsters.

RADIO ANNOUNCER (from car):

Their empty boat was recovered by the Coast Guard earlier this afternoon.

JAMES and SARA look at one another, both serious.

JAMES:

It's important.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

As you can probably see, we already had all the clues.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

It just needed me to put them all together.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

And I'll tell you how I did that in my next letter.

CAPTION (CHI-YUN's letter):

Love from Chi-Yun =^..^=