Chapter Forty-eight: Unquenchable
Once King Neptune had bestowed godhood upon Michiru, the Guardian of the Deep Seas gained insight. She couldn't read minds like she thought gods could, but she was aware of the presence of every living being under the sea, from snails to sharks.
Happened to think about Mrs. Puff. An image of Mrs. Puff appeared in her mind, the pufferfish standing in Rock Bottom Museum, gazing at the paintings that the Guardians had returned.
Curious.
She thought of Haruka. An image of her girlfriend appeared, sleeping upright against the polyurethane, alert and ready to fight even in sleep. In the background, Minako lay, sprawled, on the grass, mouth agape, snoring lightly. In contrast, Rei lay beside her, arms tucked at her sides, mouth closed, sleeping silently. All looked younger than when they were awake, the burdens of being Guardians forgotten while under the peace of sleep.
When she thought of people, she could see them, but not the robots, perhaps because they weren't conscious beings with hearts and minds. Regardless, her newfound power would be helpful in tracking down her friends and allies.
What would happen to the rest of her friends once they separated into different areas?
Images, like movies, crashed into Michiru's mind, but she could see and absorb every one of them simultaneously. In one movie, parts of the group had separated into Kelp Forest and the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard. Others slept in the middle of a circle of rocks, nothing but the sky protecting them. What were Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, Mamoru, SpongeBob, Plankton, and Michiru, of all people, doing? If Michiru was sleeping, vulnerable, primed for robots to attack them, then there must be a good reason, unless Michiru had gained the ability to guard others while asleep. Or the Dead Moon Circus had forced them to sleep, trying to break them using nightmares. Had to remain vigilant.
Even though she could see the sleeping group, she couldn't read their minds to figure out why they slept, what they dreamed about. Couldn't read even her future self's mind.
In another scenario, Makoto bounded through Kelp Forest, alongside Ami and SpongeBob. Weren't Makoto and SpongeBob sleeping in the first scenario? Michiru must be seeing all the future's possibilities.
She was running alongside her friends but seeing the future at the same time. By the way her friends kept looking ahead, her expression didn't betray what she was watching.
Michiru could watch each scenario all day, every day. She turned her mind toward the Chum Bucket, where the source of their issues, the Duplicatotron 3000, was housed.
In one scenario, Sailor Neptune destroyed the Duplicatotron. The Guardians eradicated the rest of the robots and then finished the Dead Moon Circus. Bid goodbye to the sea creatures and returned to Japan. The ideal ending.
In another, the robots overtook the group, drowning the Sailor Team, Makoto's hand reaching out of the swath of robots. They were surrounded by and would perish from the electricity. A scenario that, with her powers, should be nigh impossible.
The last scenario was…
Michiru wasn't one to run away from her problems, but she would not let that happen. The first scenario, the happily-ever-after, would come to pass.
The fact that she'd seen the worst one meant that Michiru, as calm and level-headed as she believed she was, could succumb to emotions.
In the scenario, her expression had been fierce. Focused. What had she been thinking?
She would never know, because she would not let it happen.
She, SpongeBob, Patrick, Plankton, and Makoto continued toward the Chum Bucket. Poking his head out of Patrick's pocket, Plankton kept his eyes fixed on the steel, bucket-shaped building.
Muttering, "Karen."
Michiru asked who Karen was, but Plankton declared that it was none of her business.
"It is our business." Michiru didn't want to wield her power over him. Unlike King Neptune, who reduced everyone to caricatures that existed only to worship him. Michiru wanted a relationship with each of the creatures in Bikini Bottom, under the sea. "After all, Karen could have been caught in the crossfire of these robots."
Plankton cringed. "I know." His voice was soft, delicate.
"You were saying her name when we first met you," Makoto said. "It's time you let us know who she is."
Plankton scowled. "Fine. If you must know, she's my W.I.F.E. A computer, stationary and exposed to anything these robots or your enemies might throw at her."
Makoto's eyebrows shot up. "You built a wife?"
Michiru narrowed her eyes. "Makoto…" The younger Guardian shouldn't have interrupted with ignorant words, especially when such a sensitive topic arose. Building a wife was bizarre, though. Things like that didn't happen in Japan, an island full of weirdness. Although Japanese technology was booming, no lonely bachelor had built a wife. Yet.
A flush blossomed on Makoto's cheeks. "I'm sorry, Plankton. I didn't mean—"
Plankton waved Makoto away. "Go ahead and insult me like everyone else does. I'm used to it by now."
She shrunk, opened her mouth and then closed it. No words could remedy her gut reaction.
"When the robots took over the Chum Bucket, they kicked me out, too. They might hack into Karen and turn her into someone she's not." Plankton balled his hands. "I can't let them do what they want with her." His eye became glossy, filling with tears. "Even worse, they could purge her memories, make her forget that she was ever my wife." He wiped his eye furiously. "Karen, she's all I have. They can't take her, too." His voice cracked.
Once the robots and the Dead Moon Circus were defeated, Plankton would be alone once more. His loneliness had to be the reason why he'd built a wife in the first place.
Plankton was the way he was because he was lonely. Maybe part of his loneliness was his own fault, separating himself from society, obsessed with stealing the krabby patty secret formula. But something other than ruthless ambition dwelled within. Something…human.
Hopefully, Michiru wouldn't be the cause of—
Couldn't think about it. Had to excel and conquer.
Plankton tightened his grip on Patrick's pocket. "First, they stole the Chum Bucket. Second, my chances of stealing the secret formula. Third, possibly Karen. Most importantly, Karen."
"Oh, Plankton, that's so sad." SpongeBob whipped out a handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose, a trumpet blast echoing, several fish glaring at SpongeBob, some robots startling. "We shall avenge Karen, no matter what's happened to her."
They arrived at the Chum Bucket. On Plankton's command, Patrick pulled the door's handle. The door didn't budge. He tugged the handle several times, but to no avail.
"Locked." Plankton grit his teeth. "Dastardly robots are smarter than they seem to be. I made them geniuses, but not as smart as I." He pointed to the door. "I command you to break down that door by any means necessary."
Patrick took several steps back, aiming his shoulder at the door. "Aye-aye, boss."
Michiru drew on the sea. "Patrick, wait." The sea swirled about her. A good time to practice wielding the sea with her godhood so she wouldn't be the cause. "I'll break down the door." Roaring, the sea hurtled forward, crashed into the Chum Bucket's door. The sea nearly bombarded the Chum Bucket, but Michiru reigned the sea in, and it settled.
She had control.
After drawing on the sea so many times, she no longer grew tired. She smiled from the high of using the sea's unlimited power.
She had to keep control. Her vision could not come to pass.
Plankton jumped out of Patrick's pocket and rushed inside his restaurant and home. The obedient, excited Patrick hurried after him, SpongeBob on Patrick's heels. Makoto and Michiru ran inside.
The Chum Bucket was covered in whiteness, no plants or paint coloring the dining area. Steel chairs and tables were dotted about. No pictures hung on the wall. A lonely window hung in the corner, far from the tables. Not an inviting, homey place for anyone to dine. Perhaps fish didn't much care about restaurants' atmospheres as long as the food was delicious. Since the Chum Bucket never had customers, the food must be subpar, too.
On her way toward the double doors ahead, the menu caught Michiru's eye. The Chum Bucket served chum, chum, and more chum. From Chumbalaya, to chum puddles—eating a puddle?—to chum cake, the Chum Bucket served any food and stuffed chum inside. Whatever chum was. Michiru wasn't chomping at the bit to taste it.
Plankton dashed through the second set of double doors, into a laboratory filled with clanking machines that looked like wine presses, primed to crush anyone who dare venture near them. One screen showed a Labrador Retriever barking and panting. A contrast to killing machines, perhaps to make victims feel warm and fuzzy before being flattened.
A giant Duplicatatron was erect in a corner.
Its switch was set to, "Not Obey."
No wonder the robots weren't obeying Plankton.
Instead of the D3000, Plankton scurried toward a computer standing at one side of the wall. "Karen. Karen, they haven't gotten you, have they?" He shook his head. "Of course not. I installed so many failsafes on you, you should be fine." Didn't sound as convinced of his genius as usual.
The screen was blank.
"Please, say something." Plankton ran to the front of the monitor, reached toward a button. The screen flickered on, a line running across it, like a heart monitor in a hospital.
"Don't touch me," she said. Plankton flinched. "He'll become angry, and I don't want him to hurt you."
Plankton cracked his knuckles. "Who is he? Tell me, and I'll rip him limb from limb."
"You're lucky he's in the bathroom right now. Quickly, you have to destroy the Duplicatotron. That's the only way he has power."
He bit his lip. "But, but, it's the only way I can steal the secret formula."
"No, it's not. I tease you a lot, Sheldon, but I believe in you. I know you can think of another way. That Duplicatotron has made him too strong, and he'll do worse than steal the krabby patty secret formula."
Regardless of Plankton's reservations, the source of their problems was standing in front of them. Apt to be destroyed.
Tuning out the rest of Karen and Plankton's conversation, Michiru drew on the sea's power, facing the Duplicatotron. The sea filled her, thundering in her ears, the high sweeping in. She aimed the palms of her hands toward the D3000.
Maybe she hadn't amassed enough of the sea to destroy the machine. Maybe she wanted to use more of it because she pined for more of the elation of being the most powerful being in the world.
She wasn't selfish. Needed more only because of the D3000's mountainous size. Closing her eyes, she willed more of the sea from the outside.
The Duplicatotron quaked and smoked. Robots pumped out of its funnel. Michiru would need more of the sea to destroy those robots, too.
Her brow creased in concentration; couldn't lose control. The rest of the world faded as she gathered more power.
For some reason, more of the sea wasn't coming.
"Michiru-san, what's going on?" Makoto said.
Outside, the sea bellowed. A boom buffeted the Chum Bucket. Michiru's eyes widened. The sea had been coming, but she had been rallying so much power that it took a while for it to come. Now it was here, making its presence known, almost knocking the Chum Bucket off its foundation.
The power swelled around her.
I am a goddess.
She couldn't let her power get to her head. But by the way the Chum Bucket rocked, she'd lost control.
Sensing the urgency of her thoughts, the sea was coming to her in any way necessary, no matter who or what blocked its way. She tried to steer the sea to break through the double doors instead, minimize the damage.
The Chum Bucket lurched.
Plankton hollered. "What are you doing? Don't take the Chum Bucket away from me, too." A new pain laced his voice. Whatever had happened between him and his wife, she wouldn't cause him more anguish.
She drew back her hands, called back the power. The windows shattered, and the sea burst through, smashing through tables, chairs, computers, robots, the Labrador, cutting off the picture of it playing with a chew toy, being gentle enough to not shred it.
The sea raged around everyone. SpongeBob was screaming, and Patrick was screaming because SpongeBob was. Makoto tensed, arms spread, electricity crackling at her fingertips. Her attacks were storm-based, only complement the unruly sea.
"Everyone, run." Michiru's eyes watered. Was she crying, or was the wind from the raging sea making her tear up? "I can't, I can't control my powers."
It was happening.
Makoto sprinted, snatching Plankton, who reached for Karen, howling as his wife screamed like a human. Makoto swept up SpongeBob and Patrick, carried them in the crook of her elbow. She took to the air, swerving to dodge the sea.
She stopped above Michiru. "Michiru-san, what about you?"
Michiru had to be destroying the D3000. That part of her vision must be right. "I-I'll figure out how to stop it. Just go." Couldn't drag them into her mess.
Makoto worked her mouth.
"Go," Michiru barked. "You can't do anything. Your powers will only amplify mine."
Makoto stared at Michiru, eyebrows arched. SpongeBob had managed to open his eyes, knuckles white against his bubble wand. Patrick kept hollering. Plankton screamed for his now unresponsive wife.
The sea struck toward Makoto. The Guardian dodged and then flew toward the exit, not daring to risk SpongeBob's, Patrick's, or Plankton's lives.
She was gone. Leaving Michiru to deal with the consequences of her hunger for power.
Once more, she tried to suck in the sea. Like a horse whose reins had been pulled, the sea reared back, but parts still raged.
Shouldn't she have heard the D3000 explode? She couldn't stay and make sure it'd been obliterated, or the Chum Bucket would be destroyed.
She backed toward the door. The sea wasn't calming fast enough. But it followed her.
It reacted based on her emotions, her panic. She let out a breath, steadied herself. The sea slowed but kept raging, like it had cooled from a tsunami to a large wave. She drew back the power, and the sea grew slower. Almost there.
The robots' screams had died down. Either destroyed or Michiru had lulled the sea enough that the robots were no longer in danger.
The sea hovered around her. Watching her. Waiting for her.
Controlled.
As she backed out of the restaurant, the sea followed her, settling into where it had been before she'd tried to wield it.
Michiru stood outside the Chum Bucket, not daring to go back inside. What if she somehow drew on the sea again, demolishing the restaurant's shambles?
Through the doorway, fallen chunks of the robots and shattered glass covered the floor. Cabinets swung off their hinges. Chum slopped in steaming piles.
Remnants of a computer were scattered about.
She couldn't be fearful forever. Michiru rushed inside the laboratory. The Duplicatotron was gone but, unlike the computer, none of its remains had spilled throughout. Instead, a note lay in its place. Michiru picked it up. Written in blocky, precise handwriting was:
Nice try.
No signature. Nothing indicating who had written it. Consumed by her transgression, Michiru couldn't speculate who the culprit was.
Michiru couldn't ask Karen. The computer's screen was shattered.
Plankton had begged her not to take anything else away from him.
On her first day as the new goddess of Bikini Bottom, Michiru had devastated someone's life.