Under the Bridge (IC) (GM)

[Ari]

"So this is our murderer is it? Big enough, I'll say. Straight out of some B-Movie. Well, Mister Fish face, looks like I got you all wrong. Seems you have caught the beast, fair and square. Guess you might just be some kind of hero after all..."

"For your race? Yes, I think I am somewhat like one. But I didn't really catch it, I killed it and dragged it here" he shrugged gloomily "I didn't even try to find out if it was the right giant squid, or if it had ever killed a human. That it approached like it was going to attack struck me as suspicious enough" he sighed and sat on a rock, a flash announcing his tail returning to a bipedal configuration. His teeth clicking against each other as he mock chewed in thought, a habit he had long ago begun and never had any reason to stop.

To Skull Face he said a little more lightheartedly "At least this was simple, and didn't get any other humans injured in the process. Not what i would have hoped but also not a terrible first try at serving your people, eh Skull Face?"

[Supercape]

GM

To Skull Face he said a little more lightheartedly "At least this was simple, and didn't get any other humans injured in the process. Not what i would have hoped but also not a terrible first try at serving your people, eh Skull Face?"

"My people are dead" replied Skull Face "Butchered, murdered, countless years ago..." he sounded bleak and bitter, and angry too.

"...I...I think I would like a moment alone, I'm sorry. Just put me down, facing the sea..." he said in a softer, more subdued tone.

"Hey, Fish Face!" yelled Detective Mead "We are cutting open your squid! come over here and give us a hand! you probably know more about the depths than we do..." he said, a hint of respect in his voice.

"Yup" said Blonsky, stretching his neck as he followed Mead towards the Squid Carcass.

[Ari]

Nochehuatl was at a loss for words, but supplemented that with a habit of silence around touchy subjects. He placed Skull Face on a high rock, at an angle that gave him an unimpeded view of the grey Atlantic.

Trudging heavily over to the corpse, he surveyed it with pursed lips, a mistake that caused him to jerk them apart with a slight hiss of pain and a trickle of blood. He took on the bulk of the heavy lifting and arranging of the body, as well as any needed muscle to cut through the tough hide of the squid. Wherever the autopsy expert needed a third hand to keep a fleshy sack from collapsing around his knife, it was there. He noted with surprise that the human needed little correction about the anatomy of the beast They grow quickly he mused to himself, with no little admiration.

[Supercape]

GM

The detectives, the forensic officers, and a roped in Marine Biologist, a leather faced sprightly woman of 60 called Doctor Heinrich, worked their way around the Squid.

"Das is gut, ja?" said the eager Doctor, congenially hacking away at the Squid with a large machete.

"Aha! Die Stomach Organs! Now we see what Die specimin has had for dinner? Ja? Here, hold this, and cut here..."

The Stomach was made of a tough rubber coating. The smell had already pretty bad, cutting through muscle and fat and fibres of all sorts. Now, the Professor handed Wave-Eye the Machete and indicated where to slice.

"I am thinking you are ze Strong-Man, Ja? Atlantean?" she asked, gleefully pointing at the stomach.

"I think I'll give this a Miss..." said Detective Mead, pinching his nose and wandering off.

[Ari]

"Triton" corrected Wave-Eye quietly as he took the heavy human knife and began his laborious work. Prying and carving open the beat's stomach wasn't too hard for him compared to the human, but it was still frustratingly slow going, and he had to remind himself several times not to just use his claws to tear it open. The smell didn't bother him too much either, an odor he was well-acquainted with from years of washing up beaten senseless on seashores.

After much struggle, he finally tore open the beast's gut, revealing its contents for all to see. He made sure none of it splashed on him, long experience telling him that ended with burns. He peered at the insides for a few seconds before asking "So..how do we discover what it ate? Is your science delicate enough for such a task?" curiosity gripped him, what would the humans do with this?

[Supercape]

GM

"Ja Ja" said Doctor Heinrich as the putrid acidic contents spilled over their feet. The smell was overpowering.

"What, did you forget to wear die rubber boots?" smiled the Doctor at Wave-Eye, pointing proudly at her own impermeable footwear.

The Doctor poked around the contents "fish...more fish...even more fish..." she muttered.

"I see no human..." she said as she poked around the fetid contents of the stomach.

They were interrupted by Detective Mead, with four police officers. He was carrying his pistol and had it pointed at Wave-Eye.

"So, you did do it!" he said with a steely voice and a steely eye. "Guilt got to you? had to confess up did you? I heard you. I even heard you say how you dumped the bodies. I guess Freud was right...every criminal does want to be caught."

The man was deadly serious.

"I can't believe you lead us on about that squid. Trying to put us off the scent, then blabbing it all to us. Don't worry, I'll send some divers down to where you said the other bodies were. Beats me what's going on it that little head of yours..."

[Ari]

Nochehuatl stared at Det. Mead for several seconds, his face immobile as several emotions warred for dominance over his next course of action. At last anger won out.

"SO" he snarled "Because there are no human corpses within this squid, that means it didn't kill anyone? Ridiculous! I have seen many animals kill, and not eat! Search at the deepest point under the bridge for the bodies" he called over his shoulder as he marched back toward the water's edge, ignoring the human weapons pointed at him.

Picking up Skull Face he said flatly "I appears I have made a mistake. I am sorry. I will go back into the water and not return until I have found out who sent the animal after those dead. It could take a while" he added carelessly, beginning to walk into the water.

[Supercape]

GM

"Hold it right there mister!" said Mead, followed by Blonsky and four officers.

"Hey! Listen! I said HOLD IT!" he yelled at Wave Eye as the submarine hero walked off. "Don't you walk off on me, mister! I'm the cop and I'm the one holding a gun!"

"Damnit!" he cursed as Wave-Eye walked off and picked up Skull Face.

"This is your last chance, hero! stop now or I fire! you are under arrest!!!" he yelled, livid of face, as he aimed his pistol right at Wave-Eye. The man actually looked serious.

"I'm gonna say resisting arrest on top of your confession to murder!" he said "Don't think you can escape the law!!!!"

[Ari]

"Mead, don't be a fool" growled Wave-Eye, glaring down at the mortal before him "your weapon cannot pierce my skin, and you may arrest me as you please LATER, once I have figured out what is going on. I have no reason or desire to kill humans, and indeed a vast incentive to try and protect your kind! What good would it do for me to expose myself so? If I were such scum as you accuse me of being, I would gladly stuff that thing's belly with the bodies of your race to perpetuate a deception. I'm tough, not a total idiot" he leaned closer to the furious human "Now let me pass, I don't fight children of your years" he glared into the man's eyes, as angry at himself for his sloppiness in this as at being so insulted(logical though it was for him to be the prime subject). and he itched for an open combat with whoever had done this, not to mention whoever had brought a squid into their service.

[Supercape]

GM

"Child now is it?" sneered Mead "you got some cheek on you...listen, fish-face, I don't know how it works in the slimy hell hole you crawled out of one miserable day, but up here in the civilised world, we got a thing called the law..."

He cocked his gun.

"And I am a duly appointed officer in it. With a gun. And that mean's you do what I say when I arrest you, do you hear? you leave now, you are a fugitive...and if I can't stop you, then I call in the STAR squad, the army, and navy. Because you are under arrest...for the murder of...well, come to think of it, I don't know who of. Perhaps you can fill me in on that, and how many poor souls you have dragged to a watery death. Seeing as you were in a mood to relieve your guilt back there..."

[Ari]

"You don't even have a case!" Wave-Eye barked "Just a suspicion that I might be who did this because I happened to be around! If you had never seen me, if I hadn't offered to help(which I'm still going to to besides this gross insult, you're welcome) you would never have even found out about all the other people killed by whoever's been doing this. Besides, I'm in a unique position to help solve this, if you will merely step two foot-lengths to the side, and let me pass I'll bring you the one or many responsible for this, or else in one week i shall return and give myself up for your race's judgement. If not you may rest assured I perished in the attempt" he looked around the shore in increasing frustration, asking at last "Look, human. Could you..shoot me in the arm? I need to make a blood oath to formalize this promise"

[Supercape]

GM

"A blood oath?" replied Mead, confused.

"Look buster, I don't get you. I don't get you at all..." he said in a genuinely vexed manner, irritated and perplexed at the same time.

"First, I heard you, I swear it, confessing to killing all those people. Clear as you speaking to me now. Then when I come over to confront you, you suddenly have a change of heart. "

"And now, a blood oath?"

He sighed, considering his options.

"This is messy, real messy, fish-man. And I don't know if my superiors are going to like me shooting an unarmed man, not on no accounting for no blood oath. Smells fishy to me, my friend, this whole damn thing smells rotten as hell. But I guess if you want a bullet..."

He took up his gun, aimed, and fired.

[Ari]

Wave-Eye had been shot many times before in his long life of war. He knew what it was that the tool Mead was holding did.

He had never been struck by a bullet from a gun, however.

He lay stretched on the ground, ears ringing from the report of the explosion, staring at the sky and feeling the throbbing in his arm. Gruggh he thought to himself I may need to try and dodge these things next time. They hurt. Argh with surprising grace, he nonetheless got back on his feet. "My thanks Mead" he said brusquely, though a little softer than his earlier tone "It would have taken a while to pull open my skin with just my claws, and I do not have my knife with me" so saying, he painfully dug out the bullet, inspected the flattened chunk of metal that had struck hard against his humerus and holding it aloft declared in a measured gurgle "I, Nochehuatl, the Wave-Eye, son of Chalchiuhtlicue and once bearer of the drowned to the Tlalocan, swear by this shed blood to find whomever has shed that of those buried in the waters below this bridge. I vow on my immortal and inviolate soul that I shall find them, bind them with all that they can bear, and bring them to face judgement, or else perish in the attempt. If I have not found them or died in one week, I shall return, and suffer whatever justice the humans of this realm decree. I shall not veer from this, I shall not flinch from whatever must be done, and may I be torn to pieces and eternally barred from passing to the afterlife if I do not keep my word"

He buried the bullet under a stone on the shore and faced Mead. "Are you satisfied?" to Skull-Face he added "I am sorry for the sudden drop, I did not expect their weaponry to be so...forceful"

[Supercape]

GM

Detective Mead looked shocked.

"You got some strange customs, that's fer sure!" he said, in a somewhat subdued tone.

"I should probably bring a shrink down, get a psyche evaluation on you. Saying one thing, then the other, then asking for a bullet..." he shook his head.

"Technically, I gotta arrest you..." he said, looking Wave Eye squarely in the face.

A soft smile curled up one side of his face.

"But you know, you kinda did move fast, didn't you? I mean, I tried to stop you..." he said.

"Just make sure you get whoever is behind this...and soon...I can't protect you forever...."

With that, Mead and his associated about turned and walked off, to continue the forensic examinations.

[Ari]

"It shall be done" Wave-Eye hissed comfortingly "I have sworn it, haven't I?" he added more lightly, and with a few crunching steps on the gravel he tossed himself into the river mouth, a dull flash of light signalling that once again his powerful dragon's tail sped him through the waters.

As he swam peacefully along, through the murky, rather polluted channel, past drifting bits of human, vegetable and inorganic rubbish that fell slowly down to the depths, he said to Skull Face casually "About that back there..that oath? It is now quite impossible for me to NOT seek out this murderer. I hope you don't mind the trip?" he asked with a tinge of real concern, the recollection of what the disembodied skull had said about his people ringing warning bells that carrying him through the sea might not be the best thing to do. At the very least, he wanted to know early if he would have to drop Skull Face off somewhere(the 'somewhere' did raise worrying questions though...).

[Supercape]

GM

"About that back there..that oath? It is now quite impossible for me to NOT seek out this murderer. I hope you don't mind the trip?"

"Mind the trip?" replied Skull Face "All I got was silt and beer cans for the past few decades. Seeing something new is pretty exciting after that!"

"So, what is the plan?" he asked more subdued "you do have a plan, right?" he inquired. Somehow he gave the impression of raising an eyebrow even when there was none.

"Atlantis? the Deep Ones?" he chattered on, intermittently bidding a passing fish a greeting.

"There probably a few submarines down here too..." he laughed.

"I hear plenty of stuff. Nothing wrong with my ears. Well, I haven't got any. But I hear very well!" he jabbered on "I know all the ways of the depths. Got nothing else to do for millenia than listen to the rumour mill..."

[Ari]

"I have a very simple plan" answered Wave-Eye as he otherwise ran silent through the darkening water "I will find the biggest, oldest fish on this coast and ask them if they've heard anything about someone sending squid against humans, or if some Deep One raiding party has worked up the nerve to slink up from their holes."

Speeding up his descent into the gloom he continued airily "Should they be ignorant of what is happening, I will simply keep asking around, perhaps I will meet some wandering water sprite who knows what's going on beyond their own tail. If I can't find any clues among THOSE flighty things, I'll..." he sounded a lot less confident "...Ask the Atlanteans for help. They are quite wise, I do not doubt they will be able to help somehow."

He didn't sound too pleased with the idea of meeting them though, and became rather more subdued as the darkness of the deep closed around the pair, Wave-Eye following the distant thrums and thuds of some massive sea-beast, perhaps one who knew something about the recurring tragedy of the bridge.

Meanwhile, the fact that someone knew his name and had carved it into a human's skull was starting to deeply worry him.

[Supercape]

GM

"Biggest, oldest fish?" replied Skull Face "well, you know, there are plenty of old fish around here. Down below, that is. Nasty, cold, and dark. Not a pleasant place. Don't leave me down there..."

If he had shoulders, one could imagine him shuddering.

"There is a real mean beast I know of, a prehistoric creature. A kraken. I wouldn't fancy facing him. Old as the hills, and twice a stupid. And makes his little cousin we met look like a puppy dog. " he jabbered on, musing the possibilities.

"Then, we could ask some sharks. They normally keep their noses clean. Although they aren't the most charming of creatures. And they do pick at bones..." it trailed off, in an anxious tone.

"Of course, there is also the possibility of the dead..." it continued "deep down, a field of skeletons, more like fossils really, a mass grave in the depths of the oceans from centuries past. They are old, for sure...."

[Ari]

"A pretty vast array of possible answers, ol' Skull Face" commented Wave-Eye as his tail sent them racing downwards. It was hard to tell as the light dimmed in the depths, but he was grinning.

"I see no reason not to work our way down that list, I will ask those sharks you mentioned(and don't worry, if they attempt anything I will demonstrate their error) first, as they will most likely have the newest information about movement around these waters. That kraken you mentioned I shall go to second, as doubtless it has a great store of knowledge, and third I shall seek out that field of bones, as I dare say they will know much nobody else would, and understand more as well. The animals of the sea are not what I would term wise."

He bent his body to the task of sending them rocketing further out to sea, feeling the water stream over and around him as he searched out the cunning predators of the sea, those which never rested, ever-hungering, who he had seen overwhelm many a strong position in the field.

[Supercape]

GM

Out at sea, a little while later...

There were five of them, sleek, ancient, and deadly, out at sea but not to deep...where there was plenty to feed on before the cold and dark made life less tolerable and thus less abundant.

The creatures were not aggressive - at least to Wave Eye. Irritable, perhaps, and born with an innate predators personality, but they kept their distance from Wave-Eye, recognising a threat when they saw one.

"Charming fellows, eh?" whispered Skull Face to Wave Eye.

"I spend a decade lodged inside the belly of one of their biggest beasts once. Not the highlight of my century, I can tell you..."

[Ari]

"Don't worry, I'm no friend of theirs either" Wave-Eye drily assured his traveling companion. For this, he would need very different body language and ways of making himself understood compared to his interactions with more..intelligent life.

Approaching to within ten meters of the slowly-moving killing machines, he spoke in his best shark, carefully keeping his jaws as taut as he could to get the sounds out right, his head raised a little higher than normal to give himself a 'higher' vantage point. "Hail, O ever-hungry ones" he grated "I search for a slayer of humans, one who enslaved a giant squid to their purposes, have you heard of any such beings in these last few years?"

He kept Skull-Face close in case the meeting became violent, for whatever reason the sharks could think up.

[Supercape]

GM

The Sharks drifted along at a pace - although one Wave-Eye could easily keep up with.

They responded with characteristic singularity of mind and speech.

"Blood Blood Blood...

...We smell no humans. Bony, crunchy....

...Blood Blood Blood...

...Move away, bony...we seek meat and fat...

...Blood Blood Blood...

Out of way.."

Whilst not aggressive, the pack could only be described as irritable and annoyed, and in no mood to help Wave-Eye today.

[Ari]

"Feh, your race was only ever good for chewing your way through battle-ranks" muttered Wave-Eye scornfully, and with a flick of his tail he shot downward, calling over his shoulder "Don't let your brains fall out, you might eat them in your haste to fill your bellies!" he swam deeper intot he depths, muttering to himself for several minutes about the uselessness of sharks. At last he stopped, sighed gloomily and spoke to Skull-Face "I am..sorry. I just can't STAND those beasts. Who next, the kraken?" he was only a little more confident the massive sea monster would be more knowledgeable than the sharks, but he wanted to put off the boneyard as long as he could.

[Supercape]

GM

"Pfaaah" grumbled Skull Face.

"I told you they weren't good company. All they can think about is the next meal. And that's not particularly interesting conversation. Plus, they always seem to be in such a filthy mood. I wish they would lighten up..."

Deeper into the depths...

"Now, the Kraken, I guess that's some old relic before even I was born. Or you, for that matter. And on that subject, how old are you...?" it asked "What's your story?"

Down in the depths of the ocean, something stirred. Something bigger than the squid, who was just a pale imitation of the seething giant below. Wave Eye could make out the huge form from a mile away. It was beyond enormous, something that would tear cities apart...

[Ari]

"We are in accord, friend Skull" Wave-Eye declared warmly, flashing a fanged smile at the severed head on his belt. With a flick of his dragon's tail, he followed the distant noises that only the truly vast among the water's denizens...

..."I easily forget how big they get" he murmured, awestruck despite himself at the leviathan. He had often served alongside mighty beasts that humans now dismissed as legends, but long years among humans and in the shallower parts of the sea had diminished them in his mind.

"How old am I? Ah, Skull Face" he stared glumly at the mighty animal before him "I have lived long enough to see the great halls of ice retreat, I saw the lands of Lemuria and Atlantis not long after they sank, I felt the spell woven by the humans that placed the wards and barriers between worlds to prevent the gods and demons and other spirits casual access to the Earths. I am very old, as far as my reckoning goes I am somewhere around 12,000 years of age. And keep in mind," he added dourly "There are creatures beyond number far older than I, who count the likes of me as mere children. For all I know, that kraken is many ages older than I, and saw the halls of ice in their first conquest" he shrugged his broad shoulders "It is not important, what is is whether he knows who killed those of your race and carved my name into one of their foreheads."

He slid closer to the enormous horror of the deep, slowly propelling himself forward with his tail until he was within a hundred meters of the beast.