Trollhunters: welcome to the darklands

Chapter 11:PLAN K

"With unbridled speed, the gyre rocketed down the tunnels crisscrossing beneath the Earth. Toby, Claire, Blinky, and NotEnrique held on for dear life inside the Troll vehicle, while Draal manned the controls.
"Can you go easy on the clutch, dude?" Toby groaned, rubbing his belly.
"No," said Draal, pulling a lever and sending the gyre pinballing down another tunnel.
Toby's face turned as green as NotEnrique's before Draal slammed on the brakes, and the gyre came to an abrupt stop within an active volcano.
"Oh, boy, here come yesterday's tacos," warned Toby.
Claire shuddered as Toby leaned out of the gyre and puked into the lava flowing beside them. A few feet ahead, the magma started to churn and swell under a slab of igneous rock, raising it upward."

"We'd better hurry or we'll miss our connecting flight," said Blinky. "So to speak."
Draal opened the gyre door and started handing heavy bundles to everyone. Claire unfolded her bundle and discovered that it was some sort of strange uniform. The suit was hewn from heavy-duty fabrics, with colorful gemstones dotting the seams. A large hollowed-out crystal sat at the top, like a helmet, with another bulky crystal attached to the back, like a scuba tank. Toby weakly wiped the side of his mouth with the back of his hand, then inspected the suit's gloves. They only had spaces for four fingers.
"I'm guessing you didn't buy these at the boutique on Delancy Street," Claire said.
"Graven Garb," said Blinky as he donned his own uniform. "AAARRRGGHH!!!'s tribe—the Krubera—designed these millennia ago to withstand the crushing pressures and absolute darkness of their deepest mines."
"Hold on a tick," NotEnrique groused. "This is one dwarf who ain't going a-mining! Besides, I don't even see one of those Graven Garbs for me."

"Maybe the Krubera have a petites section," Toby joked while nudging NotEnrique.
"Unfortunately, RotGut only had four suits in their inventory," Blinky explained. "You'll have to share with someone."
"Not it!" said Toby, Blinky, and Draal before Claire did.
She threw her hands up in the air and said, "Fine! But that better be a fresh diaper on you!"
NotEnrique hopped into Claire's baggy suit, while the others finished dressing. The volcano rumbled, and the lava level started to rise.
"Helmets!" Draal yelled.
The group latched the hollow crystals securely to their Graven Garb and followed Draal onto the floating slab. The rock began to quake beneath their feet as the volcanic pressure built.
"Hold on to your horns," Draal said. "If you got 'em."
Without warning, the lava surged under the igneous platform, launching the team up, out of the volcano's caldera, and into a dark and weightless void.""Um, did that volcano shoot us straight into outer space?" Toby asked.
The gemstones studding the Graven Garb suddenly glowed. The spectrum of color revealed that they had not traveled to space—but to the bottom of the ocean. From inside their watertight helmets, Toby and Claire looked down and realized that they had just erupted out of an undersea volcano.
"NotEnrique, you've got to see this!" Claire said in wonder.
But the Changeling remained clutched to her side. Claire thought she felt him shivering.
"Nope!" NotEnrique said quickly. "I'm good!"
"Welcome to the Mariana Trench!" Blinky exclaimed.
Somehow, the others could clearly hear Blinky's voice in their ears.
"Whoa!" Toby said. "These helmets have better reception than my cell phone!"
"These crystal helmets have been attuned to share the same frequency," said Blinky. "Think of them as something similar to a human child's crude communication device—"

"the two cans connected by a string. Only without the string. Or the cans, for that matter."
"Blinky, this is amazing," Claire said. "But why are we even here?"
"Perhaps it is time that I shared with you the K in my Plan K," said Blinky.
Blinky pointed above them. The group craned their heads up and stared through their crystal visors in awe. A gargantuan Deep-Sea Troll stepped over them as it walked across the ocean floor. Unlike other Trolls, its body was made of living coral, not rock, and a crust of barnacles and seaweed clung to it like a thick coat.
"Behold," announced Blinky. "The Kelpestrum!"
The Kelpestrum trod along the ocean floor, each of its footsteps kicking up huge clouds of silt.
"Oh my gosh!" Toby hyperventilated. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"
"The Kelpestrum . . . ," Draal whispered in awe. "My father used to tell me stories of him. How he's a prehistoric Deep-Sea Troll, the last of its kind. How he's related to Mountain Trolls like Gatto or Craggen and his Brothers"

"Three. Kanjigar said the Kelpestrum doesn't care about anyone or anything. He just keeps to the seabed, always walking, always consuming everything in his path."
"Everything . . . including rare Troll artifacts," Blinky added.
Putting his four arms to use, Blinky swam toward the Kelpestrum, and the others joined him. NotEnrique still trembled inside Claire's Graven Garb, clinging tightly to her waist.
"Stop fidgeting, NotEnrique!" Claire told him. "What's the matter—scared of a little water?"
"What? Me, afraid?!" said NotEnrique.
His elfin eyes darted to the sides nervously as NotEnrique became more and more aware of the dark, deep, endless ocean around them.
"Uh, don't be silly, Nuñez!" he said, trying to sound brave. "Yer just, er, kickin' me in the gronk-nuks every time ya doggy paddle!"
"Wait, did you say rare Troll artifacts?" Toby asked Blinky. "You mean, there could be another Glamour Mask inside of that thing?"
"Precisely, Tobias!" said Blinky. "Legend holds that the Kelpestrum once swallowed an"

"entire undersea Trollmarket—the factual basis for your absurd human tale of Atlantis."
"Whoa," Toby said, fogging up his visor.
"Whoa, indeed," Blinky went on. "Before they were eaten, the aquatic Troll villagers used to manufacture many powerful totems, most notably the Glamour Masks."
"So we enter the Kelpestrum, get the mask, swim back to the gyre, and return to Arcadia Oaks to convince everybody that Jim's still around, even when he isn't," said Claire, all in one breath.
"Correct," Blinky answered. "Except for the part about swimming back."
His six eyes went crossed as they watched a small crack etch along his crystal faceplate. Little drops of moisture started to bead along the fissure and dribble into his helmet.
"It appears these Graven Garb might not handle the oceans as well as they handle the mines!" Blinky worried. "Perhaps RotGut sold us defective models."
"Or cheap knockoffs!" said NotEnrique's voice from somewhere around Claire's midsection."

"In either case, I fear they won't last much longer at these depths!" Blinky added as everyone's suits started to take on water."