THE SEA

The sea is a strange place. Some scientists say that we know more about the vast cosmos than our own dear planet. The water that is, and all of the creatures and mysteries it possesses. There are those that dive right in, regarding those possibilities, but with a grain of salt or two. Some come out unscaved, some come out insane, and some just die. However, there are some that survive. Not live, mind you, but survive, mutilated by the unknown. Grimm, was one of them. He had gone out in search of the source of "The Slow Down" a sound that had been classified, but unidentified. Grimm thought they were wrong and took it upon himself to find it. He bought a bright orange submersible and set out to find the source. The submarine was tested for five-hundred meters, and was a top of the line device. He spent his time shining it and fixing it whenever it was broken. It was his baby. He needed a partner, of course. Stamper was his name. Stamper was the suit guy, he loved his JIM suit. It was one of his most prized possessions. He got it on release, not like it was a consumer product, but he managed to get ahold of one. JIM suits are described as "personal submarines", they have bubble shaped parts where the joints are to help with motion, and have a hunched over back. Stamper's was white and stood over six feet tall, they are made completely out of metal and some parts glass, and are sometimes also called "hardsuits". Stamper would rather tag along with Grimm in his JIM suit, tethered to the sub to keep from falling. The suit was quite heavy, half a ton, and would plummet to the sea floor before Grimm could catch up. Stamper had earned the name because of the suit, it was heavy and Stamper often ignored the crane and just hobbled off the boat into the water. Or most of the time dragged because of Grimm's sub. Everything was going fine until. Ah, funny word, until. Until the sound rang. In the Mariana Trench. How convenient Grimm thought, excited but the sound. He angled the sub down, filled the ballasts, and put on a full throttle in his excitement, abruptly pulling Stamper down with him. Stamper's voice cried out on the two way radio the two had to communicate. "What the hell are you doing?!" Grimm ignored Stamper and continued downward towards the sea floor, disregarding the pressure limit on his machine and his friends suit. The acrylic dome on Grimms sub started to crack, like a cracking egg, it sounded like. Grimm's expression changed from ecstatic to horrified as his instruments started going haywire. The radio was just static for a while, and the only sound was the cracking of glass. One of the ballast tanks imploded, sending the craft into a spin. A scream was heard from Stamper after a series of cracking noises. Time seemed to slow down as they fell closer and closer to the bottom, The acrylic dome split, causing water to rush into the cabin, Grimm blacked out to the continuing screams of Stamper and the sound of rushing water.

When Grimm woke up, the first thing he saw was Stampers upper body, he tried moving his arms to get up. A rush of pain burst through his left arm. He looked outside of the damaged dome, it was oddly bright, despite the depths, and the submersible had landed upside down on top of him, leaving his left arm crushed under the water. The sub was creaking and groaning, and so was Grimm. As soon as he came to his senses, he started yelling out for Stamper. He tried to move but couldn't, and started to convulse, the water was slowly leaking into the cabin, and was now at his mouth and nose. He suffocated and passed out again.

When Grimm woke up, he was in a bed. Well, a "bed" would be over stating. It was a metal sheet, Grimm in the middle, and what appeared to be moistened, weaved seaweed on top. It had a proper pillow though, which confused Grim. Not the fact that he was inside what seemed to be a ship. There were pipes everywhere and a porthole window as well. It was no longer bright outside, and the port was leaking a bit. Grimm realized that Stamper was gone and lurched out of bed. "Stamper?!" He ran down the hall out of his room. The ship was well lit, but was not humming or buzzing. Each door that he ran past had a window in it, presumably for people to look into. Grimm saw Stamper's suit laying on top of a man wearing a bright orange survival suit, the man had a pool of blood expanding around him, and a couple of ribs were sticking out. Grimm threw up a little bit and moved on, having confirmed that Stamper must be in the vicinity somewhere. He looked for hours, running in circle, checking the places that he had checked before. He leaned on the wall, wishing for some water when he heard pounding on the floor down the hall. Grimm looked up in surprise to see the Stamper in his JIM suit waddling towards him. "Oh, there you are Stamper, where have you been?" He was delighted. Stamper waddled closer to Grimm, not saying a word. Grimm grabbed Stamper's arm. It was dry. And pulled him towards the lab he had seen earlier. "Let's get that thing off of you." When they arrived at the lab, Grimm sat Stamper down on a metal table and grabbed hold of the hinged helmet and tried to undo the locks. They wouldn't budge. "Sorry, man, I, Can't, seem, to, get, these, locks, un, done." He said, jerking the locks one by one between each word. "Oh! I know!" Grimm ran over to the wall and grabbed a crowbar from the wall of weapons that the ship had. Stamper put his hand up. Well, claw. JIM suits don't use gloves, but rather claws that the user manipulates from the arms on the inside. Grimm was confused. "Why not?" Stamper awkwardly tried to gesture for Grimm to come closer. Grimm understood and walked toward him. "What is it?" Stamper peered into one of the five small portholes the JIM suit had to see. There was no one inside. Grimm tried the other ports. Nothing. Nothing but a faint glow. Grimm slowly backed away, holding his arm in front of his face. The empty JIM suit pushed itself off of the table, leaving the two foremost legs bent and wrinkled like broken bendy straws. The suit rhythmically thudded towards Grimm. Grimm started backing up faster. "What are you?" His voice was quivering with fear. He yelled it again, his voice loud and desperate, "WHAT ARE YOU?!"The suit reached over to the desk by the door and fumbled with a clipboard for a second. It gingerly grasped it in its claw while scraping it with the other. It dropped it when it was almost done, and clattered to the ground. Grimm continued to back away and looked at the clipboard. The suit hobbled backwards and tripped over itself, smashing to the ground. The suit left a dent in the floor, and lay there, unmoving. Emitting a whining sound and struggling to curl up into a ball, but was left unacomplished when it had to stop almost immediately. Grimm approached the clipboard slowly, as if it would fly away. He snatched it off of the ground and read the scrapings. In jagged and unfinished letters it said. I AM STAMPER. And then below it, KILL ME.

Grimm looked down to the catatonic suit and raised his eyebrows. "Tell me something Stamper would know." The suit was quiet. Grimm shoved his hand into his pocket and dug around to find a pen. When he retrieved the pen from his pocket, he grabbed a notepad from the desk. He handed both to the suit and hit it a couple times in the head. The suit responded and grudgingly picked up the pen and pushed it around on the notepad. The result was an almost illegible, "you stripped naked on your tenth birthday in a tent." Grimm looked at the paper. "Stamper?" He said, as if discovering something. He tried to hug him, but Stamper was laying on the ground. Grimm ran out of the room in search of something that could help Stamper get up. He arrived back to the lab with a car jack, and placed it under Stamper. Grimm then preceded to jump on it repeatedly until Stamper was at a more approachable angle. Grimm grabbed Stamper's metal arms and struggled to pull him up. His feet came level to the ground, and he readjusted himself to walking. The boots of the suit were stiff, and not articulated, and Stamper had to readjust every time he moved. They walked carefully out into the hallway, Grimm occasionally looking up at his friend, checking for the face inside. "So what exactly am I going to eat then?" Grimm wondered out loud, trying to bring any normality into the one sided conversation. "And why is…" Grimm looked at his own arm, his left one, and noticed that it was no longer crushed or in pain. In fact, he couldn't feel it at all. It was gloved, and when Grimm pulled back his sleeve, he could see metal. Brushed chrome metal, that shone in the fluorescent light. He stared at it for a second before Stamper noticed and turned to face Grimm. Grimm moved his fingers around and Stamper fell onto the wall. Grimm noticed the bang and looked up. Stamper was angled leaning against the wall, arms out in front as the suit is, and arched back as the suit is as well. There was no energy or hope in Stamper, he just stood there, making Grimm's problems seem insignificant. Grimm tried to pick him up. "C'mon Stamper, I've got to eat and drink, just come with me!" Grimm's patience was tested, he burst out in a fit of somber

and rage and kicked Stamper. He didn't respond. Grimm did it again I said come on you lazy metal bastard!" , but this time harder. Stamper lifted his left leg to kick back and almost fell over, Grimm moved towards to catch, but Stamper limply held out a claw in defence. Grimm slammed into it driving the metal claw into his chest. He screamed and Stamper solemnly took out his arm and brought the two clawed hands up to his portholes. Then, lost balance and fell over, growling at himself. Grimm looked at his chest, it had been torn open, but not too badly. He was losing blood fast, and passed out.

Grimm woke up to Stamper's helmet, his chest was sewn together and had been dressed in gauze . They were still in the ship, in the laboratory. "What? Stamper? How did you?" Stamper held up his right claw and opened it and closed it repeatedly. "Well!" Grimm said, "Lets go eat!" He rushed out of the room, Stamper thudded after him. in about five minutes, Stamper had reached what appeared to be where the food was kept. He found a bend and dropped down onto it. It buckled, but held him off of the wet ground. Grimm went rummaging about around the room, looking for anything that could possibly nourish him. Nothing was found. All rations were gone, and not a single one was present, and Grimm was disappointed. "Do you know where any of the food is?"

Stamper growled and held out his claw. "You know what? Just salute for yes, and do nothing for no, alright. Hold out your hand when you cannot answer with either, okay?"

Stamper saluted. His energy seemed to be returning. Grimm smiled.

CHAPTER 2

The next week was eventful, Stamper's mood improved, his walking improved, his handling with the claws improved as well. Granted, none of the things were easy, and Stamper was still getting used to being a JIM suit. All the while, Grimm had been working on a way to get out of the ship. For the past week, he had been sending Stamper out to go get fish to crush and seaweed to eat, and Grimm was tired of it. He wanted out. Stamper, however, would not function in society, and Grimm didn't want to lose his best friend. Surprisingly, Stamper found the way out, and it was because of the same bloody thing that was powering the ship the whole time. A submarine. Grimm's submarine. It was above a vent, using the heat energy for electricity. HE had come across it when he had to go get some sponge for Grimm to eat on the days where no life would dare enter the Mariana Trench. The humming was outside, and Stamper had to take out the pen and paper to tell Grimm about this. When Grimm got the news, he was ecstatic. "Oh, my god." Grimm said, looking up from the messy chicken scratch that was Stamper's handwriting. Grimm jumped up and embraced Stamper, Stamper tenderly wrapped his arms around Grimm, and then let go to get the pen and paper. He wrote something on it and handed it to Grimm. "You can leave, I will just stay here." Grimm scrunched up his face, "No, Stamper, you're going with me. Just grab a tether and we can skid adle. Stamper did nothing. Then, after hesitation, saluted and got up to go to the airlock. He rushed, not for himself, but for Grimm. Grimm wanted out, and Stamper was useless now unless he was helping, so he had to.

Grimm heard a banging on the airlock door and moved towards it. The first door opened, and then the second, revealing the wet and hunched over Stamper with the submersibles cabin in the outer doorway. Grimm rushed towards it and gazed at the glas dome around him. It had been fixed and was as clear as it could possible be. "Alright Stamper, now get out there. Stamper stood still. Then started toward the cabin. "Aww yeah, you can sit in here. I would love that." Grimm put his hand on Stamper's back as he walked in and sat on the second copilot chair with his legs half extended and his back hunched over. Grimm watched as he tried to reposition his bumbling arms into a more comfortable position. Stamper gave up as Grimm shut the watertight door and lifted off. It was a while before they made it to the surface, but they did. And then they moved for hours searching for land or a ship or something. Occasionally, Grimm would look over at Stamper with a smile, and Stamper would sit there, unmoving. Occasionally looking down at his legs. When Grimm spotted a ships hull. He surfaced and saw that it was a tanker. A distress signal was sent out and the submarine was lifed out of the water. "Aren't you excited Stamper!?" Stamper slowly saluted, disinterested. When they were on the ships deck, Grim opened the hatch. The two sailors that had lifted them up helped Grimm and Stamper off board. The first sailor walked up to Stamper and put his hands on the locks around his head "Alright, let's just get that off ya-" the first sailor was cutoff by the lack of face staring back at him through the port hole. He backed away quickly.

"Wha- what is that thing?" He pulled out a shotgun from his side and aimed at Stamper. Grimm was stunned and froze. Stamper hobbled feebly forward on the metal, rocking floor and outstretched his arm. The first sailor loaded the gun and cocked it. His finger depressed in the trigger, and time seemed to slow down. Grimm leaped in front of Stamper, the slug tore through his chest wound , and straight into Stamper. The front porthole shattered and hit the back. Stamper collapsed on his back, his arms in front. Grimm rushed to his side, coughing up blood onto Stamper's white body. "I'm sorry Stamper, I-" he was cut off by his own blood, and collapsed onto Stamper. The sailors watched as a blue dust arose from Stamper's shattered porthole. It rose into the sky and dissipated. The Sailors kicked the two off of the boat and left the two of them to the mysterious sea.

The sea is a strange place, with all kinds of creatures and evils and mysteries, not all of which have been explained. Even the greatest minds have trouble figuring out what makes us tick.