As Akagi, Enterprise, Warspite and Atago all arrived at the battle-group's last known co-ordinates, their eyes widened in shock at the sight that befell them.
The whole fleet was in ruins, some ships lay half sunk, their ends sticking out of the water at odd angles, one ship, a cruiser, was completely capsized, somehow broken in half, but there was no signs that it had been hit by a torpedo or any other weapon. Smaller bits of wreckage and flotsam littered the water's surface all around the damaged ships. A small number of lifeboats were also scattered across the area with varying numbers of sailers inside each one.
As the kansen glided closer Akagi looked around for Fleet Admiral Riley, or any other ranking officer or captain. She and the others asked around the lifeboats for the Admiral, noting every sailer was in a state of shock or terror. Some of them had their heads in their hands, screaming into them in sheer panic or sobbing quietly.
"What the hell happened here?" Warspite asked, looking around at all the carnage surrounding them.
"Hard to say, I've never seen anything like this after a Siren attack, especially the mental states of these men." Enterprise pointed out. Akagi turned to the others.
"Enterprise, you and me will keep looking for the Admiralty, Warspite get your hull out and get these men aboard, Atago you investigate that capsized cruiser, I want to know what happened to it." The kitsune ordered. Everyone nodded and set off to do their tasks.
The two carrier kansen carefully moved around the various debris on the water as they searched for more lifeboats, worried about how few of them they had seen for a fleet this big. They kept scanning the area, but not seeing any more signs of life amongst the wreckage. The storm hadn't let up either, throwing large waves around the whole area, the occasional lightning flash and thunder roll making their presence known.
"Akagi, none of this debris is from a carrier, whatever attacked them must have either sunk it mostly intact somehow or it got away." Enterprise stated.
"If it sunk intact we should have sensed it by now, and if they got away, it doesn't explain why we can't see them from here, they wouldn't have gotten that far away, something isn't right here..." Akagi trailed off as she thought to herself, then looked back at Enterprise. "We need to speak to the survivors, hopefully at least one of them is lucid enough to talk." She added.
"Akagi, Enterprise, you need to see this!" Atago called to them from the upside down ship. The carriers zoomed over to the Sakura cruiser girl as she pointed out the damage on the wreck. "These holes and tears in the hull? There's no burn marks on them, it wasn't done by an explosive weapon like a torpedo or a Siren laser, looks more like it was... torn apart by physical force." Atago explained, her normally playful tone replaced by a shaky nervous one.
The kansen all looked at each other with pale faces, wondering what kind of force could rip a warship apart like this, before any of them could say anything else, there was a commotion on Warspite's hull, first their was panicked shouting from the survivors, interspersed with Warspite herself trying to yell at them over the noise to calm down, but she was almost drowned out by the clamouring and the storm
"Its after us! Its still out there! We need to go NOW!"
"Just calm down! You're safe now!"
"You don't understand! We're still in danger! It'll come back for us! We're dead! We're ALL dead!"
"What are you talking about?!"
As the other kansen leapt onto Warspite's deck, they found the British battleship trying try corral a panicking sailer along with two other men. His arm was injured and blood both fresh and dry coated his pale face, a wild expression plastered across it.
"I was told there's no devil...but I saw it! We all saw it!" He was screaming, gesturing up to the stormy sky.
"What did you see, was it Sirens?" Enterprise asked the man. He looked at with a crazed look in his eye and grabbed her shoulders. The carrier grunted and staggered back slightly, holding onto his arms.
"That was no Siren! Sirens just shoot us, this thing...it...it..." He couldn't finish and started sobbing on Enterprise's shoulder, she gently held him away as she looked back at the others for help. Atago and another sailer came over to pull him away and comfort him.
"Is there anyone more...calm I can talk to?" Enterprise asked, looking over the crowd of men. One other sailer stepped forward, less injured than the first man and simply looked at the deck of the battleship with a blank stare. A lieutenant by the marks on his uniform.
"We don't know what it was that hit us...but its nothing like anything else we've ever seen." He began. Warspite and Akagi both stood next to Enterprise to listen to him. His voice was breaking, tired and on the verge of tears.
"It was small, fast, bright red and...cube shaped. For some reason just...just looking at it terrified me, everyone else said they felt the same way...like it we could sense it was...angry... just being looked at... It slammed into our ship, tore right through our hull like tissue paper, our captain gave the order to abandon ship, then one of the other vessels opened fire on the thing...that's when everything really went to hell."
The lieutenant sighed and leaned against a wall. "The...cube thing...it didn't care...machine guns, explosive shells, AP shells, missiles, it didn't care, we might as well have been shooting BB guns at it. Then it somehow...picked up the ship that fired on it...and crushed it...just like a tin can...all without ever touching it. Anyone that was outside was pulled towards it, red lightning zapping everywhere...torching whoever shot it..."
The man convulsed for a moment before he ran to the railing and threw up. After a brief coughing fit and more puking he continued. "We were all inside the ship when it happened, The captain had gone outside...to coordinate the evacuation. They were all pulled towards the cube along with the ship's wreckage...then the screaming started...oh god...those screams..."
He threw up again with Warspite gently patting his back, his face visibly pale. "I don't know what it did to them...but it sounded hellishly painful...more ships were crushed, twisted and broken. Even the carrier..." Enterprise and Akagi looked at each other briefly at those words before looking back at the Lieutenant. "Then as quickly as it appeared, it flew away, taking most of the metal and people with it...still alive...and screaming...crying..." He finished, he then started bawling...covering his face with his hands.
All the kansen felt their stomachs tie up in knots listening to the story. A small, red cube, ripping ships apart without touching them? As well as shooting lightning and kidnapping people for God knows what? Akagi suddenly remembered the other half of the task force and the red light they chased before.
"We need to warn the others! Get these men to safety!" She yelled and jumped off the deck into the sea.
"Akagi wait!" Enterprise called after her, but Akagi was already too far away to hear her as she set off after the cube.
Meanwhile...
Cleveland and Belfast had been following the red light for a few minutes now. They needed to work their riggings hard however, barely managing to keep up with this thing. The constant far off screams of agony weren't helping their concentration either, both cruisers felt completely unnerved by whatever this thing was, Cleveland called out to Belfast, her cheerful demeanour disappearing as she got closer, the screaming must have been getting to her.
"Its stopping above that rock formation up ahead." The American cruiser's voice was quaking, she was apprehensive, and visibly shaking a little, despite not knowing what was really up ahead of them. The big waves and strong winds wasn't helping either, just navigating through these waters was no easy feat, even for veteran kansen like these two cruisers.
"Miss Cleveland listen, I have a horrible feeling about that red object, couldn't you hear the screams as it flew past us?" Belfast asked her, her dignified tone not quite masking her own anxiety. "We need to wait for Bismarck and Prinz Eugen before we even think of getting closer." She added.
Cleveland growled a little as she looked back at the light, her fists clenching and unclenching, her teeth grinding in frustration as she listened to the screams coming from the object on the wind. Belfast glided a little closer to her and put her hand on the American girl's shoulder. The maid could tell she was agitated, her muscles tensing and trembling under her skin.
"Can't you feel it? Something is...wrong with that thing...we should just blast it! Now!" Cleveland shouted, readying her cannons. Before Belfast could stop her, the blonde cruiser darted forward towards the cube shaped entity.
It was surrounded by an orbiting ring of scrap metal and debris from various warships, roughly ten meters away from it. Arranged in a tight sphere formation around itself, attached to the cube by strands of red electricity were the ragged forms of people. Their faces locked in horror and pain, still alive, screaming and writhing in agony. Some of them were then yanked towards the cube and...consumed by it, still screaming and wailing the whole time as they were dragged below the Crimson Cube's glowing crystalline surface.
"I don't know what you are, you're letting those people go!" She yelled before firing a barrage from her rigging at the cube.
To her amazement the cube evaded the attack at incredible speed, stopping and starting its movement on a dime. Cleveland then heard noises from the ring of metal and her eyes went wide as she saw a Harpoon missile rapidly be constructed from the debris, like the metal just willed itself to become a missile.
The instant it was finished, the missile ignited its thruster and rocketed towards Cleveland, who put her arms in front of her in a boxer guard as the missile impacted her, exploding in a fireball. The explosion knocked Cleveland backwards into one of the rocks, leaving scratches and burn marks all over her exposed skin, yet she managed to keep her footing. It seemed the missile had just annoyed her along with the minor damage inflicted on her.
"Cleveland get out of there! There's more of them!" Belfast yelled from the rock she was taking cover behind. Sure enough over the sound of the screaming people, metal clanked and banged together as more missiles were willed into existence by the cube. The American kansen finally came to her senses and turned away to escape the cube. But it was too late; the missiles crashed into the sea around her, blowing huge columns of water all around Cleveland, between the loud explosions and the spray of the sea foam, the cruiser was rendered disoriented and dizzy.
"Whoa...wha...I uh..." Cleveland muttered, looking around herself, hearing a ringing in her ears and seeing two of everything. Belfast ran out from behind the rock to save her, but yet another missile landed in front of her before she could get close, throwing the two girls away from each other. Belfast hit her head on a rock and fell into the water face up, the impact severely winding her. Using what little was left of her strength, she craned her head up to look for Cleveland. She wasn't prepared for the nightmare fuel of a sight she witnessed.
Cleveland had been knocked out by the last missile, her unconscious form lifted into the air chest first, her head hanging limply behind her, she stopped just in front of the cube, a black bolt of lightning blasted the blonde girl's body, literally jolting her awake. She howled in pain, struggling to do something, anything to get away, even firing off her rigging uselessly into the sky above. As she did, just beneath her breasts a blue light was emerging from her body.
Belfast could only look on helplessly, holding up her arm towards Cleveland, trying to reach for her, weeping as watched Cleveland's wisdom cube be forcibly yanked out of her body by the black lightning. Once it separated fully from her, the American girl fell limp once again, the light gone from her watery red eyes, looking back at Belfast with an empty stare.
The Wisdom cube was pulled towards the much larger Crimson Cube and just like with some of its prisoners, it absorbed the blue box. It glowed brighter for a moment and pulsed with energy, then for some reason it gently placed Cleveland back down on the water to Belfast's confusion. Then confusion became shock she realised Cleveland was still standing, but how? With no wisdom cube she should be dead...right?
Belfast didn't have much time to ponder, the last thing she saw before falling unconscious was the Crimson Cube flying away, her head then tilted too far upwards to see what happened to her friend before she blacked out.
Later...
"Belfast? Belfast!" A German accented voice called her name, when the maid opened her eyes she was met with Prinz Eugen looking down at her, an uncharacteristically worried look on her face. She also realised the storm was fading, becoming little more than a light drizzle and patches of blue sky could be seen through the cloud cover.
"Eugen...urgh...my head..." Belfast groaned, holding her forehead as she sat up. Then she looked around urgently as she realised something. "Cleveland! Where is she?!" She yelled, She tried to get to her feet but then almost tripped, making Eugen catch her.
"Easy, you took a hard knock to the head, we need to have Vestal look at yo-"
"Forget about me! Miss Cleveland's wisdom cube was pulled out of her!" Belfast blurted out angrily. She then fell to her knees and started sobbing into her hands. "I couldn't save her...that thing...it stole her...everything about her, it just took it all right out of her..." She stated in a breaking voice, nothing like the refined tone she'd normally have.
"Mein Gott..." Another voice uttered. Prinz Eugen looked up in surprise, Bismarck was looking back at her with a look that mirrored hers, a pale look on her face and her blue eyes widened in shock. "What could do such a thing...how is that even possible?" She wondered, while she was going her best keeping her trademark poker face, Prinz Eugen could tell her superior was rattled by this.
"She was still standing..." Belfast looked up at the two Germans, whos jaws hung open at that. Between her wailing fits Belfast then told them: "I don't know how or why...but Cleveland was still standing up on the water when it finished with her...I don't get it...she should be dead..." the maid went back to crying, still too wrecked with guilt and sadness over Cleveland to function.
Prinz Eugen helped Belfast to her feet, the British cruiser cried into her shoulder as they started moving. She then stated to Bismarck: "We need to warn the rest of Azur lane about this thing...or whatever happened to Cleveland..."
"Could happen to us all..." Bismarck finished for her, as they both put one of Belfast's arms round themselves, the three of them went to find Akagi and the others.
Unknown place
The Crimson Cube had consumed the last of its human prisoners, now it was flying towards a small island, beneath it was Cleveland, or what was left of her, being 'towed' by the Cube via a few strands of red lightning around her wrists and chest. Upon reaching the shallows of the island, the Cube slowed down, its floating ring of metal and debris matched its speed exactly.
The Cube then left the centre of the ring and pulled Cleveland onto the beach, she still had her eyes open, but still no light or life behind them. That didn't seem to matter however, as she walked onto the beach following the Cube like an obedient pet on a lead.
Once she was a few feet from the glowing object, she started to glow red herself. Like it had suddenly turned into brittle glass, her rigging then exploded into metal shards. She didn't react to it at all. The shards of metal then joined the rest in the spinning ring, now hanging above the pair like giant halo. Once it was off her, the cube then blasted a gout of red fire at Cleveland, her clothes were completely incinerated, leaving her as exposed as the day she was born, yet strangely her body had no serious burn marks, and any minor ones that cropped up started to instantly heal over.
The Cube then started its real work. Metal and other material from the ring hovering above, then floated down and was absorbed by the Cube from the side facing away from Cleveland. As one piece was consumed, a new piece emerged from the other side, into something that resembled either a piece of combat armour, a gadget or a futuristic version of her old cannons, looking more like something the Sirens would use.
The new pieces of gear then fly at Cleveland and attached to wherever they seemed appropriate: Armour plating was literally nailed to her body, causing blood to briefly flow from the wounds before they closed, like whatever punctured her skin had always been there. Once the armour and other objects was finished being assembled onto her, Cleveland looked more a like a cyborg than a human.
A camera was implanted where her left eye used to be, her feet and shins were replaced by rocket boosters, her right arm and hand was replaced with a claw attached to a massive cylinder. Most of her head, left arm and thighs, as well as a small part of the left side of her chest still had areas of exposed skin, however right over her heart was now a glass dome, glowing with a red light that pulsed in time the Cube's own glow.
The most drastic change was to her rigging: She now had black and red versions of her old cannons, looking more like something you'd see on a space ship, their tips glowing with red lights and electricity. But the biggest change was two huge tentacles bursting from her back, tipped with spikes that, just like her new cannons crackled with electricity.
With that same dead look in her still uncovered eye, Cleveland robotically turned to the water. With her boosters she hovered over the ocean's surface and blasted away from the island, leaving the Crimson cube to its own devices.