Title- Champy Author- Olivia olivetree@mail.com Date- finished August 6, 1999 Rating- hmm, I don't know Keywords- X-File, M/S friends, MSR, kind of, barely Spoilers- mentioned stuff from 'Quagmire' Disclaimer- If we didn't watch the X-Files, it would have been canceled a long time ago so I think Chris Carter owes us a debt of gratitude, but no he has to sue people with no money because of copyright law, well fine then, we will disclaim all ownership of them, you own them because of a law, but we own them spiritually because we support the show, you would be nowhere without us, but please don't sue. Archive- Anywhere, but I like to know where, send a url? please? Summary- People are disappearing in Lake Champlain, Mulder thinks a legendary lake monster is to blame. Note- We all love Champy and He has never eaten a person, to my knowledge, but I needed something to bring Mulder and Scully here. I live in this area and all the characters are people I know but names have been changed drastically, except for Gib, he's real, (and I hope he never reads this! :P) all the places are real, I should know. There may be a few embellishments on some things, but I try to be as true as possible. Feedback- I would love to know if you hated it, I don't care when you respond, just write! ()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<> 10:30 a.m. Plattsburgh, NY Mulder and Scully walked off the plane at Plattsburgh International Airport and onto the tarmac, they had just arrived in Plattsburgh, New York to investigate a series of disappearances and possible murders. They headed to their rental car and started on their way to the State Police headquarters, to meet with the lone FBI agent stationed there. They parked in front of a ranch-style brick building that housed the NY State Police. "Agents Scully and Mulder to see Agent Perron." Scully said to the person at the desk. He directed them down the hall and to the right. They came upon a lone office where a woman with gold brown hair was looking over a file, she glanced up and immediately put down the file. "Agents Mulder and Scully?" she looked at them with bright blue eyes. At their nodded response she smiled. "Hi, I'm Agent Anastasia Perron, call me Ana everyone does. I was just looking over your files, I like to have an idea of what to expect, I must say I am a little surprised that the Bureau was sending you, this case doesn't seem to be what you usually investigate." She said. "Well, Agent Mulder may have some insight may involve our department." Scully answered with a wry smile. Mulder spoke up "I have heard the legends and sightings about Lake Champlain, and I wonder if a old legend would tie into your case." "You mean Champy? If he exists, I'm sure he's harmless." Ana replied. "You never know. Anyway I could imagine you could use the extra manpower, excuse me, personpower." Mulder said, smirking at the two women when he said obviously the wrong thing. So they headed out. Mulder and Scully wanted to head across the lake into Burlington, VT to talk to the police there, and Agent Perron accompanied them. They headed to Port Kent to take the ferry directly to Burlington. After boarding the ferry they had a hour to wait. "So no one has been found?" Scully inquired. The case involved disappearances of people who were in or on the lake, no one heard anything, and there was only one witness a sixteen year old girl who saw her friend just pulled under the water. No one else had seen anything. It always occurred at night. "There has been one development, yesterday evening something that resembles a arm, kind of, washed up on shore, it was pretty mangled, there was a gold wedding band on it and we made a id from it, that gives you an idea of how badly it was torn up, it's sitting in the morgue at CVPH if you want take a look at it." Ana confirmed. "I think we will have to do that." Scully nodded. They spent the rest of the time exploring the ferry which was quite large and even had a gift shop on board, Mulder surprisingly didn't get sick, this ferry didn't rock or really respond to the water, it just plowed through, a good thing for him. "Mulder I hope this isn't another 'Big Blue'." Scully said sitting next to him on a bench outside the passenger cabin, the wind whipping her red hair back. "It can't be, we don't have Queequag." Mulder answered. Scully punched him, he winced. They then just sat there enjoying the sun and scenery. Eventually Burlington came into view and they had to head back to the car. After meeting with the police in Burlington and discovering they had no real insight into the case, they headed back, they had covered all the bases. Another hour on the ferry and they then headed to the Champlain Valley Physician's Hospital or CVPH. "Hi. We need to go down to the morgue, please." Scully said flashing her badge to the clerk at the front desk, Mulder did the same. "Ok, just let me get someone to escort you down there" She said picking up a phone. Mulder and Scully took this time to glance around their surroundings, the place was pastel, muted pinks, blues, green and cream, and there was this silence that only a hospital could possess. "This place would drive me insane." Mulder commented. "That would be a change how?" Scully asked. "I have a firm hold on my sanity, Scully, sometimes" Mulder smirked and crossed his eyes. Scully rolled her eyes and shook her head. By then they were headed down to the morgue. As it turned out the whole place was pastels, and Scully could see what Mulder was talking about, or maybe it was just Mulder. They requested to see the appendage, which belonged to a Mrs. Elizabeth Hathor. It was a mangled piece of flesh, torn and shredded, there were three missing fingers and the whole thing just did not look anything like a arm, more like a piece of meat. "Mulder there are teethmarks." Scully said, "this must have been done by a animal or animals." "Yeah, something with very dull teeth," Mulder agreed leaning in for a closer look "The arm was gnawed on, and theses marks are not characteristic of a meat-eater." "Whatever it is, it is a meat-eater now." Scully confirmed. After taking a few pictures to remember the arm by they headed to their hotel, which was actually very nice, a Comfort Inn, Ana had made their reservations, not Mulder, Scully thanked her profusely. They were going to be there for awhile, because the disappearances happened at odd times far apart, and according to the timeline, they had almost a month until something might happen. It was summer in Northern New York so they decided to have a little fun. This Comfort Inn housed a restaurant called 'Bootlegger's' which had all sorts of games and food. After Scully beat Mulder at Air Hockey and he was finished vowing for revenge, they decided to go outside and play miniature golf. "You will pay, red. I will kill you at golf." Mulder promised. Scully grinned, they were actually having fun, no work involved, and she liked this change. So they grabbed a couple of clubs and a couple of oddly colored golf balls and headed out onto the course. Scully had the neon purple one and Mulder got the teal green. Scully proved to be very good at putting, but so was Mulder. This course was not that challenging, it was just sets of astroturf, with twists, turns, water and hills, no windmills. Halfway through the course they were tied, as Scully was about to putt Mulder whistled, and Scully gave him a dirty look, he just grinned innocently back, so she decided to ignore him and deftly hit the ball into the hole, she grinned triumphantly at Mulder, as he went to take his swing, and just about as he was going to hit it, she poked him with her club, causing him to hit it into the water. "Water, 1 stroke penalty, Mulder." She remarked. "Cheating Scully?. I thought you were above that." He said. She smirked at him. After that they went all out, each trying to win, they lost several golf balls to the goldfish pond, but Scully brought replacements so the game went on and Scully won by the barest stroke, and once again Mulder swore revenge. "Face it Mulder you can't win against me." Scully taunted. "Just you wait until I find a real miniature golf, windmills and all." He remarked. "Ok then Don Quixote." "Be ready Sancho." They headed back to their rooms laughing all the way. "That was fun Mulder, we should do that again sometime." Scully said to Mulder as they headed to their rooms. "Don't worry, I vow revenge, remember?" Mulder replied "You won't get it." Scully predicted, "You will never beat me." "Just you wait." The next day they headed out to talk to January Tierce, the girl who watched her friend disappear under the water. January was a slightly short girl, with bright red hair and green eyes and tons of freckles. She replayed to the Agents what she had seen. "Brad was in the water and was just swimming around trying to get me or one of my friends to jump in too, I looked over the edge of the boat and he just was pulled down, he had this look of total shock on his face, and then he was gone, no blood, no scream, he just went under." she said shaking her head. "No one else saw anything?" Scully inquired, though she already knew the answer. "No, I was the only one on that side of the boat." She answered "Who else was on the boat?" Mulder asked. "Gib Brown, he owns the boat, the Chinook, that's a type of wind, Gib's a meteorologist, Nick Wawl, William Juniper, and Christina Nereid. They are all friends of mine." January supplied. "Do you know where we can find these people?" Scully asked. January supplied the necessary information and they set off to interview these people. The first person they found was William, a.k.a. Will, in a computer lab busily working on a computer, upgrading and reformatting various equipment. When they talked to him, he just seemed a little odd, and was extremely pleasant. He worked in the computer lab and was very efficient with computers, he was also very good at hacking, but he made Mulder and Scully promise not to say anything, like they would. "Sounds like a contender for the Lone Gunmen, Mulder." Scully commented. "I wonder what the guys will say if we tell him about the Gunman in training, they will probably take him under their wing." Mulder said. "A scary thought" Scully smiled. "You know the Lone Gunmen?" asked Will. "We are friends" Scully said. "Wow, I read all their stuff." he said, "Who are they?" "Just three repressed males." Mulder said with a evil grin. "Mulder" Scully said. "Do you know anyway I can contact them?" Will asked. Mulder didn't want to give out their email to just anyone, so he asked Will for a his email and told he'll see what he could do, but the Lone Gunmen where very private people and were very paranoid. "More than very, to the point of insanity" Scully muttered. "Scully do you have something you would like to contribute to the rest of the class?" Mulder asked innocently. "Oh nothing." came the innocent reply and Mulder got a poke in the ribs, "Ok, Will if you have nothing else to contribute to our case I guess we should be heading on to the next person." Scully said. "I'll talk to the Lone Gunmen for you." Mulder promised, and they headed out. The next person to interview was Gib Brown and they found him at the News Station WPTZ, channel five, ironically at Five Television Drive, he was about to go on air and deliver the weather. So they had to wait. "I always wondered how they did that map thing." Mulder said, fascinated, by the fact that Gib stood in front of a plain blue wall but when you looked at the monitor there was a weather map behind him. "Mulder are you telling me, you have never known about blue screen and digitally imposing a map behind the meteorologist?" Scully asked. "I always had a idea of how it was done, but never seen it in person, besides these are better than pictures Scully, these maps have moving clouds and rain patterns." He said. "Yeah, amazing," She replied unimpressed. At twelve thirty, the noon news was over and Gib was free to go. And of course like their earlier witness had nothing helpful to contribute, but he and Mulder got into a conversation about weather technology. "You guys are from DC right?" Gib asked, "You guys have Willard Scott and he isn't even a meteorologist and he makes about 20 million a year, and never does anything compared to what we do and we make a lot less. We read the maps, and have to understand what we are talking about, Willard can read off a teleprompter." "I knew Willard never did anything! People in DC love him though." Mulder said. "Weather-forecasting is not my true profession, I'm a teacher at a local school and forecast on the weekends and during the summer." Gib confessed, and I have a lot of student friends and that is how I ended up on the boat, poor Brad." "Well, Mr. Brown we are sorry to take up so much of your time, thank you for putting up with Mulder, but we have to find two other people." Scully interrupted. "Scully I'm not that much trouble am I?" He asked. "You are so much more." She replied They headed out and found Christina Nereid on the softball field pitching for the Adirondack Diamonds. So once again they had to wait, but they had something to occupy their time. Christina was a superb pitcher, and struck out every batter, so the Diamonds were ahead 0 to 12, she was a tall blonde girl. Mulder and Scully soon found themselves cheering for the Diamonds, though it was clear who was going to win. The Diamonds won easily, and they got to question Christina, a.k.a. Chris. "You saw nothing also?" Scully asked. "Yeah, nothing, I was on the other side of the boat, staring into the water, and Jan just yelled that something had pulled Brad under, so we all ran over and waited to see if he would resurface, and he didn't. So Gib called the police or the Coast Guard and they came over to investigate, but found nothing." Chris answered. "Ok, thank you." Scully said. "So where did you learn to pitch like that?" Mulder inquired. Chris smiled, "I just have the talent, I've been on varsity forever." "Play basketball?" Mulder asked, "You have the height. What about the talent?" "I live on varsity, always have, swimming, basketball, and softball are my sports." Chris said "We should play some while I'm around, I play a little basketball." Mulder said. "Ok, you're on" Chris said with a grin. "Come on Mulder, we have to find Nick Wawl, Chris do you know where to find him?" asked Scully. "Nick just changed jobs, again, I believe you can find him at the AuSable Chasm in Keeseville, try the gift shop, if he isn't there they should be able to point you in the right direction." Chris supplied. "Ok, thanks." Scully said. They headed on their way. "So Mulder are you trying to make new friends?" Scully asked as they were driving to their next destination. "Hey I need all the friends I can get Scully,." Mulder defended himself. "Considering all the rumors, 'Spooky', the truth will come out about you. Eventually" She said with a grin. "You going to turn all my new friends against me?" He said with a hurt look. "I think you will be able to do that yourself" Scully replied. "Hey I still have you." Mulder said. Scully drove across the stone bridge spanning the Chasm and into the parking lot, Mulder and Scully then headed into the gift shop and inquired where they may be able to find Nick. Mulder stood over by the glass-blower's booth transfixed by the flame and the twirling glass. "Hey Scully you want something breakable?" he asked her. "If I bought something, you would break it." She said with a smile. "Anyway, they have these grab bags with a mystery piece of glass in it, want one? They cost a dollar, my treat." He offered. Scully smiled, she was really having fun on this case, if that was possible, so she decided to humor him "Sure Mulder, go ahead." He paid his two dollars and grabbed a couple of the bags and they headed out to find Nick. Scully got a little glass charm of a little singing bird, it was blue and you could tie it around your neck, Mulder got a figurine about the same size of a little fish. "Ahh, finally a fish that won't die on me" Mulder exclaimed. Nick was working in building that had a large parking lot in front of it that was largely empty, and there was a playground to one side up a steep hill that had steps set into it. Strangely enough the sign on the building proclaimed miniature golf, yet there was nothing on the outside. So they headed in. Inside was a large miniature golf structure, and it was the real thing, windmills and all. Mulder grinned at Scully with a evil gleam in his eye. Scully was up for the challenge, but they first had to find Nick Wawl. It didn't take long he was a hyper teenager with dirty blonde hair, brown eyes and a mischievous grin. "So you guys want to take a chance at our golf?" He grinned. "Actually we were looking for Nick Wawl." Scully said. "You found him." he said. ""We would like to ask you some questions about the disappearance of Brad Triton. What happened that night? In your own words." Mulder said flashing a badge. "FBI, so they brought in the big guns, you guys didn't seem like golfers anyway." he said gesturing to their suits, "Well anyway, moving on, I was standing with Gib at the wheel, he was going to let me run the boat for a while, when Jan yelled something about Brad disappearing in the water, I first think, she's playing a joke with Brad, so I went over to watch to see when he would come up and he didn't and Gib called some people and they came over to try and find him but he was gone." Nick said with a somber look, "I'm sorry I can't be more help." "Thank you." Scully said. "You don't sound like you're from around here, no northern accent, no dropping of 'g's" He said, "So where are you from?" "We came all the way from DC." Mulder replied. "Wow, you sure you don't want to play any golf? There is golf in Plattsburgh, but this is the real thing." He said temptingly, waving a club. "We played in Plattsburgh, and I sort of vowed revenge on someone." Mulder said grinning at Scully, "And since we are done with everything we had planned to get done, and if my lovely partner would agree to be beaten at miniature golf, I will play." Scully rolled her eyes. "You just can't get over defeat can you?" She said. Scully grabbed a club from Nick, who was grinning through this whole proceeding. So they headed off. "You know Mulder I have to play in heels, and that is a unfair disadvantage." Scully pointed out. "So? You wore them." was the response, "No one is making you." "Fine then." so Scully kicked off the shoes and left them by the first hole, and Mulder to make it even more fair, removed his shoes. So they played miniature golf shoeless. "I feel like I should be in the 'Brady Bunch' with all this astroturf" Mulder commented. "You know, I hated that show, it was so fake." Scully said. "Yeah, six kids in one house and they all basically got along? Get real." he agreed. Scully once again proved to be superior in miniature golf and Mulder was defeated much to his chagrin. "Someday we have to play something that I can win at." Mulder said. "Where's the fun in that?" Scully asked. "You are so cruel." They said good-bye to Nick, got their shoes and headed out to the car. "Hey Scully, let's go on the swings!" Mulder said and ran up the steps, Scully followed shaking her head, but smiling. The playground had swings, slides, teeter-totters, merry-go-rounds, and a sandbox made out of a old red tour boat. Scully went and sat next to Mulder on the swings. "I wonder why this place is so deserted. It is really nice." Scully pondered "Well, I think its because it is so isolated, I don't expect many people to come out here. They are missing something though." Mulder replied. He got up and began pushing Scully on the swing and almost got hit in the head with a shoe as they fell off. "I hate it when that happens." Scully said, "Sorry Mulder" "No damage done." Mulder replied. "We have to go." Scully reminded him. So they stopped retrieved her shoes and headed off back to headquarters. Ana met them at the office, there were no new developments so she told them to go and play tourist for a while, visit the beaches, go shopping or something. "Hey Scully, want to go to Canada?" Mulder asked. They were about a half an hour away from the border. "Mulder, what are we going to do in Canada?" She said. "uhh....." was the response. "That's what I thought." "Maybe tomorrow." "Come on, let's go to the lake." Scully said. They went back to the hotel and went to the beach. They ended up at AuSable Point Beach, where they lay on the sand enjoying the sun. "Scully, let's go in the water." Mulder pressed, They were aways from the regular beach, but they didn't care, they were both good swimmers, they walked out into the sand, and kept walking, the water never got any higher than waist deep. AuSable Point is a delta for the AuSable River, so it dumps a lot of sand into that one area and it builds up, and in places you can walk out for thousands of feet and never get over your head, but there is a big drop off once you reach the end. Mulder and Scully just kept wading out farther into the water, the shore was extremely far way yet they had not even gone over their heads. Eventually they reached where the sand just drops off and were immediately over their heads, they could barely see the shore. As they treaded water, Mulder saw something in the corner of his eye shift under the water, and oddly enough, it looked like a tail. It was greenish, thick and shiny. "Uhh, Scully, head back to the shore, now." He said, firmly, as calmly as possible. Scully glanced at him sharply, trying to figure out what was going on, but did as he asked. He followed fast behind. "Mulder, what's wrong?" She asked, concerned. "I saw something in the water. This is going to sound crazy, but doesn't everything I tell you, but I saw a tail." Mulder informed her. "You're kidding me, you sure it wasn't seaweed?" but one glance at his face told her that he was serious. "I don't think it was seaweed, it looked nothing like the seaweed I have ever seen." He replied. Scully wasn't sure since she hadn't seen it herself, but the skeptic in her always rang true. "Maybe it was an animal native to the lake." she offered. But to herself she said it was seaweed. They made it back to the beach. Mulder wanted to go back to the hotel and look on-line for anything that might match his description of what he saw. So they went back and conducted a search on-line for Mulder's 'tail'. "Mulder look at this there is a type of freshwater eel that kind of matches your description." She showed him the picture. It was of a dark green eel that lived under rocks in lakes. "That could be it, but what I saw was a lot longer than that." he pointed out. "No one knows how long these eels grow, they have been found in deep parts of lakes, and the longest was four feet, but there is not much else known about them." Scully argued. "Maybe Scully." was all he said. She sighed. The next day they wanted to explore the area where the disappearances occurred and where the arm was found. Ana accompanied them on the boat. "Over here is where Brad Triton was pulled under. All of the disappearances have occurred in the same general area. The depth of the water is about 100 feet here. A problem with recovery is the fact the water is murky and hard to see through." Ana said. Scully and Mulder glanced around, they were surrounded by water, almost in the middle of the lake and there were no islands around. The people just disappeared under water. "There have been sightings of Champy since the days of Samuel De Champlain, why does it start eating people now?" Mulder questioned. "Maybe it isn't Champy." Scully supplied. "So you believe in Champy?" Mulder said with a grin. Scully rolled her eyes, "Shut up" "What lives in the lake?" Scully asked Ana. "Basic game fish, sturgeon, seaweed. Now we have had a problem with zebra mussels they have shown up in the lake. Same thing with the weed milfoil." was the response. "and Champy." Mulder added. Ana and Scully rolled their eyes. "Have you warned people about boating?" Scully asked. "Yes there is a warning about boating at night, but as always there are those who don't listen." Ana replied. The group got off the boat and headed over to where the arm had been found. There was a classic drifting pattern so it had come from about the same area as the disappearances, so if anything was going to drift ashore it would turn up in about the same area if the current stayed the same. The beach had been closed off for that reason. They waded around but didn't find anything insightful into their case so they called it quits for the day. Mulder and Scully headed out to interview people about Champy sightings. There had been numerous sightings over the years, from before the country was even formed, dating back to the Indians who told tales of a strange creature living in the lake. All the descriptions were of a long necked creature, like the drawings of a seamonster on old maps, where deep, unexplored sea was marked. The sightings occurred all around the lake mainly targeted where the water was the deepest, which made sense. Mulder and Scully thanked the people they had interviewed and headed back to the hotel. "Mulder we are getting nowhere with this case." Scully commented, "What are we going to do?" "Well Skinner was nice enough to allow us as much time as needed to solve it, and basically, we are just going to have to wait until the next attack." Mulder said. "So we are helpless, great, we have to wait until someone dies before we can do anything." Scully crossed her arms across her chest. "Well, I contacted the Lone Gunmen and they are sending us some information on Champy, Nessie and others." He answered. "So they have an interest in 'seamonsters'?" She inquired. "Of course, they write about everything else." he replied. Scully fumbled with the radio and found a radio station, at the frequency 99.9. "99.9 the Buzz" said a odd voice then there was static and odd noises, then a deejay came on "Today's news, the missing people in the lake have not been recovered, but a few days ago the remains of an arm were found matching one of the people reported missing, police have no leads on a suspect. Makes me wonder if Champy has gone human eating, you know I heard that the FBI has been investigating from DC, and that they are examining the angle that Champy has attacked people, is that outrageous or what? Wonder what else they investigate, UFOs? Anyway here's a song by Live." as the music filtered out of the speakers Scully glanced at Mulder. "UFOs? I think he's closer than he knows." She said with a grin. Mulder grinned "Think we should visit him and ask him about UFOs?" The following day, there was nothing for them to do, so Ana sent them off sight seeing. They decided to explore Montreal, in Canada. They headed up to Quebec on I-87. In a hour they were in Montreal. "Where to Scully?" Mulder asked, Scully was staring at a map of Montreal. "Main sights are, LaRonde, a amusement park, Botanical Gardens, Biodome, and the Olympic Park, there are also numerous things all around the city, but these are the basic ones." Scully said "LaRonde!" he declared. "Mulder, no, let's go to the Biodome." Scully argued. Finally Scully won and they went to the Biodome, which housed the biomes of the Americas, a rainforest, marine, arctic, and deciduous/conifer. There were all kinds of animals from all over the Americas. Mulder, at first was a little disappointed, was then absorbed looking at all the animals. Eventually the time flew by and it was time to see if there would be another attack. It was decided that they would hold a stakeout where the other attacks had occurred. Mulder and Scully boarded the boat "Now what is this supposed to accomplish?" Scully no one in particular. "Well, whatever it is maybe we can get a photograph, Ana got ahold of a underwater camera, and we are going to try and photograph it." Mulder replied. "Who's the 'bait'?" She asked. "Didn't you know? Its you. Oh I volunteered you and neglected to mention it." He answered jokingly. Scully grinned and punched him. The 'bait' was actually some meat, to tempt whatever it was. They lowered the meat into the lake and left the camera on a time lapse to take pictures and waited. Hours later the stakeout seemed to be going nowhere. Scully and Mulder stood on deck staring out into the darkness. "Mulder, I don't think it is coming tonight." Scully said. "So it isn't a disappearance anymore, there's a 'it'." He commented. "I don't know what it is, personally I don't think it will be 'Champy', but there is something out there taking people." She responded, "If it is 'Champy', remember I'm only humoring you, why would it start to abduct people from the middle of the lake?" "Have you heard about the fact that zebra mussels and milfoil have invaded the lake?" Scully nodded, "Well I think that they may be connected, you see zebra mussels filter the water removing nutrients the other plants need, therefore other things such as fish and plants cannot live, milfoil is another thing choking out the natural plantlife, maybe Champy lives on fish and plants and now that they are being wiped out he has to resort to another source," "Humans." She finished "Right. Brilliant deduction Scully." Just then a movement could be felt pushing the boat, it was like a shockwave. "What the hell is that?" Scully said. "I think we have a visitor." Mulder said. Something pulled the wire holding the meat taunt and it started to pull the boat. Mulder grabbed onto Scully to steady her and they both looked over the side of the boat with their flashlights, they saw a dark shape under the water. Just then the wire snapped sending them overboard with their flashlights. Mulder sputtered to the surface but Scully hadn't, he glanced around frantically and dove under the water. He ran into hard surface that was slick like a whale's skin but was more like a snake. He dove farther down, reaching for anything that may be Scully, just then he felt it, Scully's hand, he grasped it and pulled her up toward air, she was unconscious, something must have hit her. He pulled up and held her next to the boat. They both had to get back on board as soon as possible because whatever was out there could come back. He swam dragging Scully over to the ladder at the stern of the vessel. Ana reached down and helped Mulder pull Scully from the water. He climbed up quickly and went to help resuscitate her. He started CPR and she soon responded coughing up lake water. "What happened?" She asked. "We went for a swim, remember?" Mulder replied. "Kind of" Scully said with grin. "So we ran into Champy, literally." he said. "Now what?" Ana asked. They took Scully to CVPH to get her checked out and she was released with a small fight over whether she should stay for observation, so they released her to Mulder's observation, not that it would do much, and they went back to the hotel. "Scully are you sure you are ok?" Mulder inquired concerned. "Mulder...I am fine. So you want to play some air hockey?" She challenged. Of course he wouldn't pass that up, and they played a few games, Mulder winning some, Scully winning some. He escorted her back to her room and placed a chaste kiss on her lips when they reached her door. "Goodnight." He whispered. She smiled and headed into her room. The next day they went to the State Police offices to see if the film had been developed, they had to wait until the afternoon to see anything so they headed out into Plattsburgh, where they found a coffee shop called the 'Coffee Cat' and ordered mocha lattes and discussed the developments in the case. Because of their stakeout no one had lost their lives and all they had lost was a side of beef. "Scully did you see anything?" Mulder asked. "It is all kind of hazy, I remember falling into the water, and while under the water I got hit in the head by something, then nothing, and I then I was coughing up water in your arms." Scully answered. "Well I saw something while I was looking for you, rather I ran into it. It was something like a large snake or eel, it was hard and slippery like a whale's skin. It wasn't scaly or anything, just smooth and very large." Mulder remarked. "Maybe it was one of those eels we were reading about." Scully supplied, sipping her coffee. "Who knows, maybe." He said hesitantly. They finished their coffee and wandered around downtown Plattsburgh, there was a Chinese restaurant, an second hand bookstore in which Mulder found a copy of a book he had been looking for but couldn't find because it was out of print, a small park, a farmer's market, and tons of specialty shops. They walked down the sidewalk hand in hand and were having a lot of fun. Scully bought Mulder a alien sticker for him to put on his company car as ID in a store called 'This and That' which carried everything a 'Phishhead' or 'Deadhead' would need for life. They walked over to the bridge and stood over the river and watched the fly-fishers try and catch something. Eventually they had to head back to the offices and examine the photos. So they did. The pictures were very murky and dark, but a distinct shape could be made out, it looked like a eel or snake. Mulder kept proclaiming it was Champy until Scully sharply told him to shut up. They compared the pictures to the one of the freshwater eel and they were very similar. So the conclusion was drawn that there was a very old eel in the lake eating people, and they called it Champy. Or at least Mulder did. Now what to do about it. How does one catch a eel? They decided that they were going to have to tempt it with more bait and kill it, there was nothing else they could do, it couldn't be allowed to continue to eat people, so preparations were made so that in month's time they would catch and kill the eel. The time passed quickly and again they were on a ship this time trying to catch a eel the width of a orca, and about ten times longer. The meat was again lowered into the water, and the wait began, but this time there were people in shark cages prepared to shoot the creature, they had instructions to wait until the bait was swallowed and then shoot so they could recover the body. Hours later the eel showed up doing the very same thing, and the swimmers shot the thing, it started to thrash around at the sting of the gunshots, blood pouring out of its wounds, it nearly upset the boat, and a few people were thrown overboard, and of course Scully had been standing at the time and was tossed over, again and Mulder jumped in to save her, again. But this time they had to deal with a thrashing eel, they were both hit numerous times before they could get out of the way of the tail, but eventually it slowed and gave up. Mulder and Scully climbed onto the boat bruised and bleeding with a couple sprained or broken limbs. Mulder passed out upon getting onto the boat, he was seriously hurt. They had to get him to a hospital. "Mulder you'll be ok." Scully said holding his hand. They made it to the hospital, Mulder had a concussion which wasn't that serious but he was still unconscious, he also had a broken wrist and some internal hemorrhaging, and tons of bruises. Scully had a broken leg and bruising but she was lucky. She sat the whole time by Mulder until he woke up. Slowly everything came into focus, "Scully?" he rasped staring at her face forcing himself to focus. "Yeah its me." she replied softly, grasping his hand. "That was fun wasn't it?" he smiled. "Oh yeah, tons" she grinned back. The eel was 956 feet long. The body was recovered and tests upon the body showed an abnormal mutation in its genes, no one is quite sure what it was but a cause that was under investigation was the fact that there are PCB contaminated wood chips placed at the bottom of Cumberland Bay, and some suspect this may have caused the mutation of a large man-eating eel. The contamination is being cleaned up by Georgia-Pacific who denies any responsibility and says they were put there by another company years ago, and is cleaning it up for the good of the lake. "Well, I guess there is no more Champy." Mulder commented looking out across the lake. "Its just as well." Scully said, and they turned to head home, leaning on each other. Yet behind them a creature raised its head, it had a long thin neck and a small head. Quickly it dove under revealing a short body with four flippers and a tail, it looked suspiciously like something out of a dinosaur book. <>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>() Well? What do you think? Was it terrible? Please respond. I know the ending was reminiscent of 'Quagmire' but I didn't want Champy to die! Ok I have no idea what happens to eels once they are contaminated with PCBs, but hey this is fiction! Any other strange things, I may have made up too, I guarantee nothing. email me at olivetree@mail.com Also this was written at four in the morning, so there could be some rather odd or strange grammar or writing, if there is anything, tell me and I'll do my best to fix it.