Chapter 20: A Bumpy Road
"WHERE?!" Emilia screamed. The only thing that answered him was another wave of mind piercing pain. Everyone within the hive was forced to grab their heads and let out a shriek of pain which was muffled by the water they were in. The pain was greater than the last time, causing Amun's mind to start spinning. The feeling stopped and he was able to recover quickly. However, it meant that the source was is getting closer.
"I don't know but we need to move, fast!" Amun explained to Emilia and his daughters. "Keep heading west, the same direction, until we locate it."
No one needed to answer, they all obeyed and took off at full speed towards the west. He watched as his daughters naturally spread out as they swam, knowing they would be harder targets within the water if they were not clustered together. Clever girls. Amun then looked to Emilia who was moving towards him and not following the rest of the hive.
"Emilia go! You will be safer if you keep moving. I will follow once I know where they a-" Another blast of pain cut off his ability to think. It was once again stronger, not good.
He recovered from the pain and looked at his queen, they shared a moment of silence before Emilia closed the distance between them quickly and gave him a quick kiss, then took off after their daughters. Amun watched as she disappeared into the gray void of the ocean before making a short swim to the surface. His large crown broke first, splashing water all around, he was not being subtle. Taking a very large breath in, he quickly went back under the surface to find the mechanical beast that was hiding.
It did not take long for another flash of pain to sweep over him while he searched. This time Amun had been waiting. He focused on the wave, pushing past the pain, trying to locate which direction it may have come from. It was hard to tell when it came on so fast, seeming to flush his entire body with pain. He did not want to sit still, thinking that it would not help, so he started to follow his family. He did not want to get to far from them in case they ran into the vessel before he did. However, a low rumble that caught his attention answered that question.
The sound came far to his left, he glanced in the direction, but whatever was making it was still shrouded by the deep water. So he watched, his vision darting from point to point, looking for anything that would indicate where the machine was. He kept track of the sound, getting louder and louder with ever second. He started to feel the vibrations from within the water from something that seemed to be moving too fast to be a sub. And that's when it clicked.
"Torpedo." He said in his own mind as his adrenaline spiked. He needed to find this thing, and fast. He prayed that he had been the target because he might be able to survive such a weapon of war. His daughters, however, would not. He double his effort and frantically focused on attempting to locate it. Thankfully, he quickly noticed something in the distance. A large long, cylindrical object that was quickly darting through the ocean. That was it! Something was wrong, it was not coming towards him, it was traveling towards...
"O no..." He took off towards his family, desperately trying to intercept the torpedo. "Emilia! To your seven o'clock, torpedo!" He called out as a warning. He swam as fast as he could, he had to get to them before the weapon did.
His muscles began to ache and burn from the all out sprint he was doing in the water, but he kept moving, he had to! The threat to his family fueled him, keep his muscles moving, kept him moving forward. Thankfully, he noticed that he was moving fast enough that he would make it to them before the torpedo would. However, he had no idea what that would do to help, it would not stop the device. So he turned slightly, heading to intercept the gliding weapon.
"Amun!" Was all he hear from Emilia, the words filling his mind. He ignored them as he was thirty, twenty, now ten feet from the torpedo. Amun slammed into the side of the twenty foot long metal tube, causing it to veer off course. He was glad that it did not explode from his impact, but he now had to deal with a live torpedo that he now reached out and grasped with his claws. As he tumbled through the water with it, he looked over its smooth surface, looking for anything that would help destroy it. The perfectly smooth device gave no aid, but Amun's gaze froze when he came to the propeller, the only thing projecting from the weapon.
"Amun, what's going on?!" Emilia exclaimed, still worried for the king.
" Emilia, keep going, I'll take this out. Just keep going!" He told her, a feeling of confirmation told him she would listen to him. His attention went back to the torpedo that was still attempting to travel towards its intended target, propeller still spinning at full speed. Amun was lucky that no one had their finger over a trigger, ready to blow him up. It must be more automated then that. Thankfully.
He quickly used his claws to hold the torpedo in place, then pulled the rear end of the cylinder closer to his face. While still in his grasp, he started to rip and tear away at the metal casing near the spinning blades, hoping to dig into the motor that was within. The metal groaned and shrieked as his teeth and claws pierced and cut through piece after piece of the device. He pulled plate, tube and random parts from the interior with haste until the propellers slowly came to a stop. Satisfied that it was disabled, he released it from his grip and watched for a moment as it began to disappear into the depth of the ocean below him. He was glad it was not him that was now making its way into the depths of the unknown.
His victory was short lived as suddenly, a second torpedo darted through the water in front of him, ignoring him completely and heading towards his family. He body reacted at took off after it, catching it easily. He repeated the same process as the first one and disabled the motor that was within. Only this time he did not release it to let it sink, he had a better idea. He turned to attempt to locate the submarine that it had come from, which was not easy for someone who's vision was based on pheromones. He searched regardless.
The dark gray of the ocean was all he could see in every direction, but he knew they had to be close. The mind piercing ring flooded him once again, almost causing him to drop the torpedo he now held. His claws dug into the metal sides from the pain. The sonar blast was painful, but told him that they were nearby, searching once again for their targets. Amun continued his search until a small shadow of a shape caught his attention. He could barely see it against the gray of his surroundings, but there was definitely something in the distance.
It had to be them, it had to be! He took off towards the object, torpedo in hand. Emilia had noticed his presence moving away and called out to him.
"Amun, where are you going!" She was afraid, it was coving her words like a thick honey.
"Giving these bastards back their bomb." He told her as he swam fast towards the vessel. He went straight towards them, not wanting to waste time and allow them to fire off another warhead. Thankfully Amun closed the gap extremely fast thanks to the physical power he possessed, even with the protesting that his body was yelling at him.
He hugged his gift with one arm, he slammed into the nose of the vessel, wanting to make his presence known. He wasted no time in moving to the side of the ship, using his second hand to grasp the outer hull of the submarine. The claws on his hands and feet dug in deep, giving him an excellent hold as he felt the large machine begin to turn. He stopped for just a moment and thought over his options for disabling this contraption sent after them by Wayland.
He did not feel like sinking the vessel, the thought of a few hundred souls drowning on his account was not a nice one. As much as he hated them, he was not a monster. His thoughts were interrupted by the growing rumble of the large propeller at the rear of the sub. That was it! He didn't need to destroy the submarine, he only needed to cripple it. Just as he had done to the torpedo.
Amun threw away the torpedo that he had brought with him, not needing it anymore. He watched as it sank into the darkness and it caused him to realise something. He made his way to the nose of the ship, to where he knew the torpedo bays would be located. He crawled along the metallic surface, digging his claws in deep. He was also doing this on purpose to distract the crew with the water that was now coming through the new holes.
Once at the front, it was rather obvious where the torpedo tubes were as he looked upon six, circular holes. He went to work. Tearing at the metal of the outer hull and then bending it all to block the torpedo exits. One, two then three holes were disabled by his tearing and destruction. However, he felt that it was taking too long. He came to the forth and decided to simply punch at the rim of the exit, distorting the shape so dramatically that there was no was a torpedo would fit through. He repeated this for the last two.
Satisfied that nothing would be able to be fired at him or his family, he started to make his way to the back of the submarine. As the king crawled along the smooth surface, punching new holes the entire way, he was glad to hear the soft sound of alarms blasting from within the military vessel. The crew had a lot of things to deal with at the moment. Perfect, Amun kept moving.
He was now face to face with the spinning blades of the ships propeller. Thankfully he noticed that is was not spinning dreadfully fast, which made sense for something that did not want to make much noise in the water. He looked over his options for a moment just before he felt the ship suddenly jerk and began to move upwards. The captain must have ordered the ship to surface, and fast. They were beginning to move rather quickly.
Amun did not have time to think, he went for the connection point between the ship and the moving blades, ripping and tearing at the metal. Parts began to fly off and sink into the depths as he bent and broke the metal hull. He kept pulling part after part away until the props slowly began to come to a stop dead in the water. He then released himself from the hull of the ship and swam a short distance away, before turning back towards it. With all his power, he swam as fast as he could towards the side of the nose of the vessel. When he knew his aim was true, he lowered his head, flattening his large crown.
The impact made a loud, low rumble as it rippled through the water. The metal, not enjoying the strength behind the hit, giving way and buckling inward. Amun had to take a second to recover, his head not really enjoying being rammed into such a hard object. He had been more accustomed to destroying trees than metal objects. However, it had done what he had hoped for. The nose of the ship was now drifting away from where his family was, and would not be able to turn back towards them anytime soon. He did notice that it was still making its way towards the surface. Good, they would not all die on the bottom of the ocean.
Satisfied, he reached out with his mind to locate his family, which was easy enough to do within the openness of the ocean. He made his way towards them. As he did, the rage within him grew as he thought of how much he hated doing this. How much he hated hurting people, how much he hated having his family at risk. He was tired of fighting someone that he did not wish to fight. It made him furious, and an angry alien was a dangerous one. Once he had re-joined his family, his anger was diminished by concern, he had to make sure everyone was alright.
"My daughters, is everyone alright? Is anyone hurt?" He received a wave of replied as he looked over the closest of his daughters, taking them in hand and looking them over. All of the responses within his mind were positive. Good, it seemed no one was injured. "Emilia?" He reached out for his queen.
"I am fine Amun, but we have something else to deal with." Her words were not filled with concern, but sounded strange. He made his way towards her, noticing that she was looking down. He followed her gaze and noticed something below them. "It's the bottom, we are close to land." Amun looked to her as she met his gaze. The two them began to make their way to the surface.
As each of their large, crowned heads broke the surface, they both froze as they noticed the land line on the horizon. They had made it. As the two stayed upon the surface, they were joined by their daughters, each one of their long, domed heads breaking the surface softly. They all paused and looked towards their destination with a nervous gaze. They all knew that this new land came with many new dangers, ones that they all feared.
Amun turned to his queen, looking long and deep into her beautifully smooth face. Amun then turned to face his daughters, specifically looking for two of them.
" Molly, Erica...It's time."