The steel-hulled destroyer was accompanied by three others, these ones sharing Trinitite's dual nature. If that was the full extent of the force, Trinitite would already be in trouble, but the enemy had been reinforced when a helicopter had landed on the destroyer. It could have been anything from a squadron of destroyers to a line of battleships. As the human ship towered over the fishing trawler, she was starting to feel a little cornered.

"Are you certain this ship can't go any faster?" This wasn't the first time Trinitite asked this question, but with the task force hovering behind them, the helpless Abyssal found herself querying the Captain with greater desperation. The fishing trawler wasn't built for speed, yes, but surely without armor and weapons they could go a little faster?

"Aye." The captain replied, nodding solemnly. She'd plotted a course for a section of the American coast that didn't seem particularly inhabited, and so far it seemed the Captain was holding to it. Trinitite reviewed the trawler's navigation equipment again, including the ever-intriguing 'GPS' device, but couldn't find anything suspicious. It seemed like they were cooperating with her, although she knew their true loyalties lay with her pursuers.

"Attention Pacific Lilly!" Trinitite jumped, spinning to face the approaching destroyer. The human ship had closed to less than 100 yards, and on her bow stood a sailor with a surprisingly small speaking trumpet.

Huh. When she muted the radio, she hadn't expected them to just sail up and start talking, although of course they would. Trinitite, you idiot! Stupid, stupid Wo!

"Abyssal Vessel. I can see you in the bridge."

Trinitite stared blankly at the enemy sailor, her mouth agape. What now? Obviously they weren't going away any time soon. Should she tell The Captain to talk to them? Just walk out and start speaking? What would she even say? She needed a moment to get her thoughts together.

"Captain…" Trinitite started, grabbing the back of the man's jacket and pushing him towards the door. "Deal with them!"

Captain Kelly paused, turning craning his neck to get a look at the abyssal. "What, they clearly want to talk to-"

"You first!" She barked, grabbing a similarly small speaking trumpet from the bridge's bulkhead and shoving it into the larger man's chest. Over the week she'd spent riding on The Pacific Lilly, the crew had started to relax around her. She was starting to regret that.

As The Captain stumbled outside to face the destroyer, Trinitite plopped down in his chair, staring into the GPS screen. The Pacific Lilly was over four hundred miles from the mainland. Hopefully keeping the crew of the trawler intact would stop them from outright sinking her, but they had plenty of shipgirls. What was going to stop them from boarding, wrestling Trinitite off the ship, and then sinking her? The ship had to throw Trinitite a rope to let her board, but the massive destroyer next to the trawler provided a great point for them to to throw a rope themselves or just jump.

So… she had to convince them to let her onto their mainland. She briefly thought of telling them about her princess, but that thought was crushed in an instant. These were the people who had almost used her mother up, then turned on her the moment the opportunity for a better weapon presented itself. These were the people who would sink her in a heartbeat if she wasn't surrounded by some of their own. These were the people who took her Princess from her.

If she wanted the time to make it to the mainland, Trinitite was going to have to get creative, wasn't she?


"That's a relief."

Nashville blinked, turning away from the CIC's display.

"What?"

"Looks like the target is an aircraft carrier. Easy pickings, at this range."

Like almost every officer Nashville had encountered, Commander Michael Iniguez was younger than his rank would hint at. Between massive casualties at the beginning of the war, more than one political shakeup, and the Navy's major expansion, pretty much everyone in the prewar navy found themselves at least one paygrade above where they'd started. Nashville didn't know how the man landed his post as the Captain of the Benfold, but so far he seemed worthy of it.

Nashville looked back at the screen, currently displaying a feed taken from a sailor next to Lieutenant Murray. As the ONI Lieutenant started interrogating the Pacific Lilly's Captain over megaphone, the camera focused on the monster huddled in the fishing trawler's bridge. Nashville had studied her identification charts whenever she had the time to, but she couldn't immediately draw a parallel from the cowering girl in the ship and the tall, mushroom-capped monsters who defined any fleet they were a part of. Here, seeing her without her most identifying features and through a camera, her true nature was pretty obscured.

"You can tell from the cape." Captain Iniguez continued, his voice echoing even in the busy CIC. "That toothy neck guard seems to stay behind when they dismiss their rigging."

"I didn't know abyssals had rigging." Nashville replied. She felt something like that would be good to know, although she couldn't think of many situations where it would be useful knowledge. Then again, she wouldn't have thought this could happen, either. Better throw that suggestion up the chain of command when she had the time.

"We see it pretty often when we spy on them." Captain Iniguez replied, not taking his eyes off the screen. "You were part of the force that hit Bikini, right? You must have missed them in the reconnaissance reports."

Nashville grunted noncommittally, turning back to the live feed. The Captain of the fishing trawler was saying that so far none of his crew had been hurt by the creature when the Wo-class abruptly stood, striding out of the bridge and grabbing the megaphone from the human. She brought the thing to her mouth, said something which the camera's microphone couldn't pick up, then brought it down and looked at The Fisherman. He pointed to a spot on the device, and the Abyssal nodded. When the megaphone finally crackled to life, the Abyssal's surprisingly human voice emanated from the computer's speakers.

"I'm borrowing this ship. Go away."

There was a moment of silence as the intelligence officer mulled over the abrupt statement. Nashville recalled something from her initial briefing. She'd said the same thing over the radio, right?

"…I'm afraid we can't do that, Miss." Murray's reply was exactly what she would expect.

"You'll get them back." The Abyssal replied, and Nashville couldn't help but snort. Did an Abyssal think her word meant anything?

"Forgive us if we don't trust you." Murray replied. Why was he bothering with such politeness? Was this a game to him? "How about you hand her crew over and we'll talk about this without resorting to hostages?"

"No! I know why you haven't sunk me already!" The response was immediate, hurried.

"Okay." The Lieutenant replied, drawing out his response. "You're heading for land, correct? Why don't you leave these poor fishermen alone and come aboard? We can take you where you need to go."

"I'm not letting that thing on my ship." Captain Iniguez growled, and Nashville found herself nodding. What was the Spook trying to do?

"Really?" The Abyssal's voice rose in excitement, before she suddenly stopped and shook her head. "No, you're trying to trick me."

"I guess it was worth a try?" Nashville commented, shaking her head in return. That got a lot closer to working than it had any right to. She didn't realize 'hopeful' was an adjective you could use to describe abyssals. This one must be particularly desperate.

"If you don't trust us not to give you a ride, why do you trust us not to sink the Pacific Lilly?"

"You wouldn't do that! You're belong to the same nation, right? Humans don't kill their own people!" Somebody behind the pair barked a laugh, but when the Captain turned the CIC's crew had returned to their duties.

"I think my theory was correct." Nashville stated, watching the monster's pose as she shouted back at the Benfold.

"Your theory?" Captain Iniguez asked, turning away from the monitor.

"This Abyssal's an idiot. We're overestimating her."

"It could be an act." The Captain pointed out, but Nashville only returned his statement with a shrug.

"You know, a carrier like you probably has a lot of bombers. At this range, our ship's guns would down anything you launched, but once you get on land? She couldn't follow you, and you could launch them with impunity. If we let that happen, how many people could die?"

"I'm not going to hurt anyone!" The abyssal shouted. Nashville wasn't sure if she was a camera artifact, but it seemed like the abyssal's eyes were glowing in different colors. That meant she was, at least to some degree, a veteran of the war so far. 'Not going to hurt anyone' her aft.

"We don't know that." The Lieutenant replied, his voice even. "How many people could you kill with your bombers? More than the crew of the Pacific Lilly?"

Silence descended between the two ships as the Abyssal stared back at the Lieutenant. Nashville could almost feel the little carrier's plans falling apart around her.

"You're threatening them?" She shouted, incredulous and desperate. "Isn't that my job?"

"You seem pretty reasonable, so I'll give you this to think about: Whatever it is that's so important you have to get to the coast?" The abyssal said nothing, so Lieutenant Murray continued. "If you keep doing this, you won't make it. We've given you other options, ma'am, consider them."

At that, the Lieutenant brought the megaphone down, turned his back on the Abyssal, and walked away.

"She could break him in two, yet he played her like a fiddle the entire time." Nashville piped up, watching the Abyssal drop the megaphone and dash belowdecks. "Remind me never play that man in poker."

"She might also be more inclined to talk next time he calls her." The Commander looked away from the feed, shaking his head. "But I'm afraid the Abyssal going to be more likely to try something desperate."

"Let her." Nashville replied, flexing her fingers and letting her knuckles pop. "I've never gotten to sink another ship before." There wasn't any way to be sure, but Nashville was certain Benfold agreed with her statement.


Well, that went out faster than I expected. Hope you enjoy!

We're looking at one more part of this ocean shit before we move on to the point of this fic. (Retrospective edit: I don't)