Chapter 11: The Raid
"Team Hammerhead in position."
The night was a calm one. The winds were negligible, it was warm, and it was overcast with the moon's light just breaking through the cloud layer. Waves gently lapped against the pier I was standing on, creating a monotone but calming rhythm that I was more than familiar with. Ages ago I would sit on the beaches of Wake Island during the night and just lose myself to their calming tunes, that time of night demanded nothing from me. Tonight though?
"Team Tiger in position."
There was an unassuming trawler docked nearby a small rundown warehouse. Such a sight wasn't uncommon around here, but we knew better. "Dockworkers" unloaded crates and cargo, ferrying them into the building. If we weren't here, criminals and gangs would have access to military grade equipment within the week. And even more ominous, there was supposedly a wolfpack of Yo-Class U-boats in the harbor, making sure everything went to plan. It had been too long since I'd even met a Yo-Class. My memories were impeccable, but horribly outdated. I had faith in the heroes, I had faith in myself and Gang Orca… But it was still worrying…
"Team Mako in position," I heard Gang Orca rumble over the radio. Seconds later I heard a splash to my right as the Orca hero leapt into the water. A minute passed and he leapt back onto the pier, turning to face me. "Directly in front of us, one hundred meters, three hundred meters, and 500 meters. All three are at periscope depth."
I nodded my head and relayed the locations. "The moment I strike, engage. You'll know when I do," I said over the radio. As I finished I heard the familiar whine of Hellcat engines. I pulled my headphones over my ears and crouched. "If they try running, have your sidekicks herd them back towards me. Don't join the fight unless absolutely necessary."
"I'm not letting you fight three on one." He growled in response.
"They might be submarines, but they're still Abyssals. Plus, I need you to watch for others. There's three that we know of, but there may be more." Without another word I launched into the air right above the middle target. The click-whistle of depth charges being released filled the air around me as I angled my own guns towards the sea. I clenched my gauntlet covered fist and threw a punch, belching fire and smoke as a sixteen inch fuse shell left my barrel and plunged into the water. The night was peaceful for just one more second before the sea erupted in geysers and explosions.
I landed on the ocean in a crouch, bobbing up and down from the suddenly rough water. I pivoted as a hand shot out of the water right where my ankles was and grabbed the wrist, yanking the ship above the surface. Shocked aquamarine eyes met my own and I got my first look at a Yo Class submarine. She stood a few inches shorter than myself, wearing a one-piece swimsuit and a black officer's coat. The shock turned to rage and the submarine threw a kick that landed against my side, causing me to grunt but doing nothing else. My free hand's gauntlet vanished and I punched her in the face before shooting her with a shore gun. I didn't want or need to kill her, but blowing a hole in her hull would keep her above the surface. Raising my leg I roundhouse kicked her towards the pier, watching as she was pinned with concrete from Gang Orca's sidekicks. One down, two to go.
[CONTACT REAR]
I ducked as a kick flew over my head and twisted to the side as a shell whizzed past my jacket. The second I got eyes on my attacker I had to lean my head back to avoid a kick and raise my gauntlet to avoid the second. The submarine springboard flipped off of my gauntlet and flipped, shooting her deck gun at me and diving below the waves again. Before I could train a gun on her I had to dodge another kick from the third submarine. And from there a pattern quickly emerged. One would attack and by the time I set up for a response I would be forced to dodge the second. They were in sync, very in sync.
I leapt over the water as a torpedo sailed underneath me, twisting mid air to avoid another shot. Fighting villains had given me a fair bit of practice in aerial combat, and that experience was coming in very handy here. This couldn't go on forever. Something had to change.
[Bracket my position with depth charges!] I radioed to my pilots.
I grunted as I felt an impact against my back and I was suddenly twisted to the side as the second submarine grabbed my arm and tried pulling me beneath the waves. I grabbed the arm with my free hand and yanked her into the air, ripping my arm from her grasp and punching her in the gut. I was rewarded with a pained grunt and gasp before I gave her the same treatment as the first, throwing her over to the pier after blowing a hole in her hull. The next moment the water around me erupted as depth charges bracketed the water around me. I counted to five and the last submarine breached the surface, coughing and shaking. It wasn't hard to see why as her side stained black and leaked oil into the water. I grabbed her by the throat and hoisted her in the air.
"What's your hull number?"
"Verdammt, Verräterin!" She spat back.
"Was ist deine Nummer?" I tried again, more forcefully.
"A-Acht und vierzig." She bit out, glaring at me. I narrowed my eyes.
"Warum sind Sie hier?!" I tightened my grip a little. All the submarine did was glare at me and tilt her chin up.
"Mariana!—"
"I would like you to release my subordinate, if you'd be so kind~" I twisted around as fast as I could before my vision erupted into stars and my ears rang. I vaguely felt myself skip off of the water before I righted myself and landed in a crouch, blinking the spots out of my vision. I moved my jaw and winced as it flashed in pain. When I looked at my attacker and my eyes went wide.
She was wearing a slightly torn up one-piece swimsuit with bicep length black armored gloves. Jagged Abyssal armor reached up to her left knee and up to her right thigh. Long silvery blue hair fell over her shoulders and covered one eye. The visible eye was completely black except for her electric blue irises. She pulled off a rebreather and gave me a sadistic grin. Behind her the injured Yo class fled beneath the waves and out of the harbor. Damn it.
"I wasn't expecting to see a Demon out here." I said, forcing the pain out of my system. Every gun I had was trained on her.
"And I wasn't expecting to see the traitor herself, but here we are, fräulein." She giggled before running her tongue across her lips. "Oh if only we had the time, how I would relish hearing your screams, verräterin~"
The Submarine Shark Water Demon.
A mouthful, but one that even the Abyssals were wary of. Demons were incredibly rare in our ranks; powerful enough to rival some Princesses and dangerous enough that they rarely operated under one. Demons also tended to sneak ashore and sew chaos on land. The one in front of me had a reputation. I'd heard horror stories; fishing vessels that braved the Atlantic would disappear only to return a day or two later. Always they'd have a single survivor, always that survivor would disappear soon after. Their accounts? The demon in front of me would eat them alive, one by one, forcing the others to watch until only one was left. She would make it as painful as possible. Her victim's agony was the best part, according to her. Then she'd set the boat on course to their home country and leave. But that last survivor? She would stalk them, appear when they least expected it out of the corner of their eyes. She would drive them mad, and then they would disappear without a trace. Her methods were cruel and sadistic, unnerving even to us during the war.
And now she was in Japan…
"Why is the Atlantic Fleet here?" I growled, summoning my gauntlets.
She giggled again before cupping her cheeks, "We're picking up the slack, doing what you're supposed to be doing~" She sighed wistfully, "it's already begun, and it can't be stopped~ All of the pain it's going to cause will be sublime!" I frowned, getting into a fighting stance. There wasn't a chance in hell where this would end peacefully, not with her.
"What's begun?!" I wasn't about to let this peace fracture because of this lunatic in front of me.
A sudden wind blew across the harbor, and for a moment I saw the other eye that was previously hidden by her hair. One electric blue, and one slitted red eye stared at me with hateful desire. "WerWolf, the end of Japan~ And you, meine Liebe, your pain will be the most delectable dessert~"
The water in front of me erupted as a massive black shark leapt at me. It's hide was scarred, the cracks glowing a sickly blue, and its mouth was full of jagged metal teeth. It was wrong. I raised my gauntlets in front of me as it bit down, barely blocking the attack, but my heart sank as I heard the horrifying grind of tearing and buckling metal. Pain erupted in my arms but I forced it down, I had to or else this would be a very quick fight. With the shark biting down I opened fire with everything available, but the only result was a shower of sparks as the rounds ricocheted or shattered.
What the hell is this thing?!
Then gravity caught up with me and I found myself being pulled down, alarmingly fast as well. Thinking fast my gauntlets vanished and I ripped my arms away as the monster's jaws closed with a loud crunch. The thing disappeared beneath the waves but that wasn't the end of it. All the while the Shark Demon cackled, not moving an inch.
I ran a damage report; a third of my shore batteries were crushed, and among them was the sixteen inch battery. Of course…
"Mariana! Hold back that shark and we'll engage the Abyssal!" Gang Orca yelled through the radio.
Absolutely not.
"No! You're way out of your league, she'll kill all of you!" I yelled back, watching as the jagged fin circled me.
"I won't just stand here and do nothing!"
"Then–" The fin suddenly angled towards me and charged. It was gonna jump! I ducked as it shot out of the water, shooting it in the stomach as it sailed over. But all I got were more sparks and shatters. Seriously, what the hell was this thing?! I cursed as it dove beneath the waves again and began circling me. While it did I got to thinking. The outside of this thing was durable; like I was fighting a battleship. But that didn't mean the inside was the same.
"I have a plan! Get your sidekicks off of the pier in case it goes pear shaped!" As I was speaking I launched a single Hellcat.
"What are you planning?!"
"Something explosive! Make sure to cover your ears!" I brought out my damaged gauntlets again, grinning as I was still able to move my fingers. When I looked up the shark was charging again. "Come on ugly, just like that!" Like before the shark launched itself out of the water, but this time I sidestepped and let it sail by me, but rather than letting it go completely past me I reached out and grabbed it. I felt my fingers crumple on its teeth, but I was able to yank its jaws open. Then it tried biting down, but my generators beat out its bite force, if barely.
The hellcat pulled a hard turn and dove straight toward us. This specific Hellcat was carrying a special payload of two "Tiny Tim" rockets. I watched twin jets of fire explode from the bottom of the hellcat and the 'whoosh' reached my ears seconds later. "Open wide!" I yelled, ducking as the two massive rockets flew in the mouth of the monster in my arms. Without a second to lose I let go, watching the jaws clamp shit, before using the shark as a springboard to leap away. I landed in a crouch, and the next second the shark-thing detonated in a massive fireball. Chunks of meat and metal rained all around me and my hair was blown back from the shockwave.
I heard clapping and looked up to see the Submarine Shark Water Demon clapping and shuddering, a large blush on her cheeks. Was she turned on by this?
"Meine Liebe, what a beautiful display of violence~ Wunderbar!~" She giggled before dissolving into a full on cackle. She didn't even care that I destroyed whatever she sent after me.
"You're insane…" I said under my breath, but of course she heard it."
"Oh you wound me, Meine Liebe~ I think we have quite a bit in common!~"
I shook my head before growling, "like hell we do!" My eyes flashed a sickly electric blue.
The lunatic jumped slightly before shuddering again, "there she is~" She sighed, "there's the Abyssal Princess… Prächtig~" She stood up straight, rolling her shoulders. "I'll be seeing you around, Meine Liebe~" and before I could even fire a shot she disappeared beneath the waves. She wouldn't be coming back up.
"Mariana?"
"She's gone. What's the status of Hammerhead and Tiger?" I took a step back and powered down some of my generators. Then the pain slowly started coming back. I looked at my gauntlets, the top of my right was crumpled with jagged bite marks, and the same went for the bottom of my left. The fingers of both were torn up. That shark's teeth were designed to tear through Abyssal Steel. Was it an effort to target Abyssals? An old weapon to deploy against Shipgirls? Or was it meant to target me specifically?
My Hellcats landed before I sent away my gauntlets. And then I saw the jagged holes and rips that marred my jacket. Brackish oil stained the fur and dripped down my arms. Any damage that I received on my gauntlets translated to my actual arms, and in this case that translated to bite marks. My arms were throbbing when I leapt back up to the pier, dripping onto the ground below.
[DAM-CON, get on that.] I ordered as I walked towards the warehouse. All the while Gang Orca's sidekicks parted, watching me with something akin to awe or morbid amazement. They did just watch me clobber two Abyssals and then destroy a horribly mutated shark, after all. After a minute or so I passed Gang Orca himself.
"Your arms," he said, or rather pointed out. I looked down at my soaked jacket and the small trail I was leaving behind. Or the sidekicks were staring at that. It was a likely possibility.
I took off my jacket and tied it around my waist, no use soaking it more than it already was. But that also had the unfortunate side effect of showing off my torn up arms.
"You need to get looked at," he rumbled.
"Damage control's already on it. I'll stop leaking soon." I waved him off, ignoring the painful throbbing. There wasn't anything anyone could do until I either fixed it myself, found a repair bath, or I got a mechanic to look at me. I looked towards the city of Sendai when I heard sirens in the distance. We knew the raid wasn't going to stay secret for long, we took resistance into account when planning the raid. Nobody planned on facing an Abyssal Demon.
"You guys might want to handle the press, I'm not exactly a pretty sight right now and I wanna avoid talking about what could have caused this. I'll meet you back at your agency for the debrief." I didn't wait for a response before moving away from Gang Orca and his group. I met up with Jeanist closer to the warehouse. "I'm fine, trust me when I tell you it looks worse than it is."
"I heard you fought an Abyssal." The sirens were getting closer.
"Leave it for the debrief… Don't breathe a word about the Abyssal presence, and spread that around. Press catches word of that and the peace is finished, doesn't matter who's faction they're a part of." I winced as pain flared up in my arms.
"You're still injured." Most wouldn't notice it. Jeanist wasn't an expressive person, and the fact that he was almost entirely covered in Denim didn't help much. But I saw the way his brow furrowed ever so slightly, I picked up the change in his tone, the slight shift in my direction.
My eyes softened. "They're not clean cuts, my repair crews have to remove the damaged sections and replace them with new ones. I'll stop 'bleeding' but I don't have the supplies to repair that yet. I'll be fine."
"Mariana–" He started up, but I cut him off.
"Trust me when I say I've gotten worse than this, I'm a war vet, remember? These," I raised my torn up arms, "are bite marks. I fought an overgrown shark, not a battleship."
He nodded, albeit reluctantly, and I passed by him with a brief pat to his shoulder. As I passed by I took a look at the twenty or so thugs being loaded into police vans and the scores of crates being loaded into unmarked vans. All of them had the symbol I had seen in the briefing. A snarling wolf, with its head being pierced by a barbed trident.
What a Night
"We have a name." I spoke up at the debriefing. On the screen was the symbol that was on the crates. "Operation WerWolf."
"Catchy," a voice piped up. I ignored it.
"We have confirmed the presence of the Atlantic Fleet in Japanese Waters, and I have no doubt that they're elsewhere as well. The U-Boats haven't spoken yet, but the last contact was… informative." I shook my head before continuing. "She said that their goal was to cause pain and suffering, 'doing what I'm supposed to be doing.'"
"Do we know what their end goal is?" Gang Orca asked.
I paused for a solid few seconds before replying, "She said that WerWolf is going to be the end of Japan. How specifically I don't know, but I do know her." A series of pictures showed up on the screen. One was from the beginning of the war, with the Demon holding a German Destroyer by the throat. Others were combat photos, reconnaissance pictures, and the last one was from tonight. I took that picture. "Meet the Submarine Shark Water Demon, an Abyssal Demon from the Atlantic Theater."
"Wait, what's an Abyssal Demon? I've never heard of that before." One of the heroes asked, I never bothered learning her name.
"Abyssal Demons are a rare class of Abyssal Warship, usually not conforming to traditional ship classes like cruisers or battleships. All of them have above average strength and combat capabilities and all of them have tendencies for extreme violence and brutality. They were unliked even by Abyssals, and didn't often operate with larger fleets. The Submarine Shark Water Demon, or just The Shark as we'll be calling her, is probably the single most sadistic Demon that's ever sailed under our banner." I pulled up an old report from my own archive and one I took from the Royal Navy. "The Shark had been known to go ashore on multiple accounts with the sole goal of hunting down humans. Sometimes targeted, sometimes at random. She hunts them down for sport, playing with them, hurting them, then she eats them. Sometimes she leaves remains for authorities to find. I want it to be incredibly clear that she doesn't do this out of hate for humans, she does it because it's fun to her." I took in the disturbed and enraged faces of the heroes and police in the room. I went on to tell them what she did to fishing vessels and it only made the faces more abundant.
"Going forward, when not focusing explicitly on this case I would pay particular attention to reports of extreme violence and cannibalism, especially around coastal cities or deep water ports. But what I'm going to recommend next may be hard to accept…" I paused, wincing already at the response I was going to get. "If her presence is confirmed, do not engage." As soon as the words left my lips there was an uproar.
"You can't seriously ask us to just sit by while she goes and eats people!?"
"You're just biased since she's an Abyssal!"
"Are you insane?!"
"Quiet!" I yelled, my eyes flashing. When everyone quieted down I spoke normally. "This is a veteran of the Abyssal War with centuries of combat experience against opponents much stronger than you are. If you decide to engage her in combat, there's just going to be one less hero walking the streets. This isn't a run-of-the-mill villain. She won't run, she won't knock you out and leave you, she'll kill you. And she'll play with you while she does it! Increase police presence, make the cities a less appetizing target. If there's a high chance of being caught or found out she won't try anything. We'll get her, but we need to be careful about it. I'll be talking to the submarines in a bit, and I'll turn this over to Crust. I have nothing else to add at this time."
I half-paid attention as the debrief continued. All I could think about was The Shark Demon and what her presence could mean. WerWolf, the raid, the smuggling, it was all worrying and I still wasn't sure what to make of all of it. It was nothing good, and it would probably get worse, but how worse was what was worrying me. We now knew that WerWolf would be "The End of Japan," but how? A small group of Abyssals couldn't bring down a country, and with the amount of heroes even causing chaos wouldn't bring down the government…
They had an ace up their sleeve, but what?
"Der mächtigste König im Luftrevier ist des Sturmes gewaltiger Aar~" The Submarine Shark Water Demon, though she preferred Erika as it was much prettier, sang as she skipped through the halls of the hidden lair. Hehe, an actual lair!~
"Tirallala~ tirallala~ tirallala~ tirallala~ Oi! Oi!~" she giggled, lost in her own little world. Even later her mind was still on the traitor, the Supply Depot Princess. She was so beautiful, especially with the anger on her pretty face~ And when she was all bloodied up, with that gorgeous display with her pet, she couldn't help herself. It took all she had to not charge then and there. How much better she would look covered in blood, face marred and torn in exquisite agony~
"Haaah. Meine Liebe," she clutched her face as her cheeks heated up, "meine liebe, meine liebe meine liebe~" She wasn't paying attention anymore, because apparently she arrived!
"Quiet you psychotic Nazi, your voice makes my skin crawl…" came the kid's voice.
"Ah! Hände Kind!~ How wonderful to see you again~" Tomura Shiguraki, or as she liked calling him 'Hand Kid,' just shuddered and took a step away from her. He was just so cute!~ covered in those hands and constantly scratching his neck. She'd offered to do it for him but he kept refusing… not even her puppy eyes got him to let her~
"Just stay away from me, you give me the creeps…" She pouted at his cruel dismissal.
"Please don't make our guest feel bad, she's an integral part of our plan!" Another rougher voice came from out of her view.
"Ah! Sanitäter!~" she called out, giggling as she skipped over to him. This man she liked as well, he had that crazy German scientist vibe about him, and that automatically gave him points. The fact that he let her eat terminal patients was just a bonus!
"It's doctor, I didn't get the PhD for fun, thank you very much. How did the experiment treat you?" The man didn't look up when speaking to her, focused entirely on the computer in front of him.
"Wunderbar! You do excellent work~ The fusion of Quirks and Abyssal Magic blended perfectly, though its intelligence was rather lacking~" she giggled. "It was like an overgrown watery puppy, except with a lobotomy! Haha!" She gave the doctor a shark-like grin, showing off her sharp and recently bloodied teeth, "when can I have another?"
"You're crazy…" Handsy muttered.
"Yep!~" She gave a thumbs up.
"It's not ready yet. Fusing Quirks is still all very experimental, especially when taking Abyssal Magic into account. We've already run out of the materials you've provided for us as well. You'll just have to wait a little while longer."
She sighed, "we'll it can't be helped~ Also! The shipment was caught, they knew we were coming. We might have to find another way to smuggle in weapons."
"Good to know, but aren't you supposed to handle that front?" The doctor turned to her.
"But that's just so booooring!" She whined, dramatically leaning back as if she were about to pass out, holding herself at an unnatural angle and grinning sadistically. "If you want to sew chaos then just let me loose~" she purred, "you know I won't be caught~"
"No." Another, deeper, voice said from a tv on the wall closest to her. Its mere presence sent chills down her spine, and she relished that feeling. "I know how hard it is for you to restrain yourself, but please hold on for a little while longer. Everything is proceeding as I've planned it."
Erika put a hand on the ground and flipped, doing a single handstand before letting her body fall back and sitting with her legs crossed, smiling happily. "Ok Boss, you got it!~" she gave the tv a finger gun, laughing.
"I haven't forgotten our deal, my demented friend," the voice said again. "When all is said and done, you and your benefactor will get your traitor–"
"And you'll get your All Might~" She finished, her maddening cackles echoing across the large underground room.
I'm alive, and far later than I would have liked! I was out of the country for two weeks and then, because I was having too much fun, I got sick again! Yay! :D
Regardless, I am getting better and it's nowhere near as bad as what I went through when I took a hiatus on this story, so don't worry! We'll get back to our regular… "Schedule." Not that there was one to begin with, but I will be posting again.
First and foremost, I apologize to my German readers if I have any. I used to be a pretty regular speaker but I haven't muttered so much as a sentence in years, which is rather unfortunate since I like speaking German. I'm pretty sure I got the words right, and I'm hesitant to use Google Translate since it's… Google Translate, so I fully recognize that it may not be perfect, but don't worry! There won't be any crazy rants in German, even if we have a crazy lunatic German Demon Ship! Speaking of which, our Abyssal Hero can't just catch a break, can she? Just managed to build a shaky but lasting peace, and now she has a psychopathic yandere U-Boat after her blood.
What was that weird mutated shark? Who are these weapon shipments going to? Who is this mysterious benefactor, and why is there an alliance between the future League of Villains and the Atlantic Fleet? How will our hero deal with this new threat? And will she even have enough time? All of that to come and more~
Next story in the rotation: Absolute Radiance
For now, thanks for reading, you're the best! I'll see ya'll next time!~