The man ran, stumbling as branches reached out from the darkness to pull at his legs and uniform. He'd dropped his flashlight, so he'd have to slow down if he wanted to properly navigate the small forest in the darkness, but that wasn't remotely an option.

Not with that thing behind him.

Questions like why that monster was in Mill Creek, how she'd gotten here, and what sort of disaster she was planning on causing were ignored, Martin's thoughts focused exclusively on survival. First, he needed to get to the police station. There wasn't much his coworkers could do but run as well, but perhaps the abyssal would be reluctant to-

A sudden drop sent Martin tumbling forwards, the man landing hard in the creek bed. While his vest took the brunt of the fall, a stone jammed into left shoulder, pain lancing down his arm. The creek's water, higher then it had been a few minutes ago, happily rolled over the prone policeman, but it's freezing temperature made it feel like an angry rapid.

The shock and pain was soon dulled by adrenaline, however, and the police officer scrambled to his feet, sloshing out of the creek. As he frantically blinked the water out of his eyes, he frantically flailed his hands forwards, catching a tree trunk he almost barreled into.

He wasn't far from the station. Light from downtown was starting to filter into the forest, allowing him to move with steadily-increasing confidence.

With his hands trembling, his heart thundering in his head, and with a fucking eldritch abomination hot on his heels, Martin didn't bother messing with the security mechanism on the back door. Instead, the soaked and muddy officer tore around to the front of the building, throwing the glass door open the best he could.

"Martin?" The man at the front desk asked, his hand snapping to his sidearm as he noticed his comrade's disheveled appearance.

"There's-" he paused, his muscles screaming as he heaved for breath. "John, there's a fucking Abyssal out there!"

The officer at the desk paused, his hand frozen over his holster. Instead of fear, however, confusion dominated his features.

He didn't believe him. With a sudden clarity, Martin just realized how ridiculous that sounded.

"L-l-look." He stuttered. He glanced towards the front doors, half expecting the abyssal to burst through the glass like a Terminator. His mind raced and he started patting down his soaked bulletproof vest, until his hand finally settled on a particular gadget latched onto it. "I have my bodycam."

His colleague didn't relax, instead looking wearily outside as well.

"I hope you're wrong, Martin."

His breathing was starting to get under control, his panic starting to give way to a deep, urgent dread.

"So do I, John." He agreed.

Rumors flooded the police station after he entered the station proper, trading his uniform for one of his spares. By the time they'd uploaded the footage and gotten to the encounter, almost everyone on duty in the station was watching over Martin's shoulder.

When the supposed hobo opened her eyes, looking up at the camera with an obvious, malignant glow, everyone was forced to admit that Martin wasn't wrong.

The clouds had thickened, the ever-present glow of human territory dimming as thick sheets of rain absorbed and reflected most of the light. Water came down in uneven waves, drawing flickering cones underneath the street's lights. It soaked into her boonie hat, running off the brim in steady rivulets to join the new river streaming next to the sidewalk.

This wasn't as thick as most squalls Trinitite had been in, but she'd take it. Anything that made her more difficult to identify was good, especially considering what had just happened.

What had just happened?

The abyssal wasn't very sure herself. She'd managed to drift off to sleep, her crew either focusing on recovering from the vibrator's damage or on getting rest themselves. For security, she'd relied on the usual marine detachment to patrol the area around her, which had been the worst mistake she'd made since… Trinitite wasn't sure she'd ever screwed up this badly before! Okay, there were misjudgments during the defense of convoys that led to charges or fleetmates sinking, which were probably worse, but it all depended on what that human back there did.

Thankfully, her marines hadn't been so incompetent to betray their presence to the intruder, so he'd barged into the abyssal's makeshift anchorage still thinking Trinitite was human. Why he was there, or what reason he had to wake her up in the first place was beyond her, because Trinitite's disguise cracked the moment she opened her eyes.

She wasn't just mad at her marines. There had been no reason for her to keep her island lit up when she drifted off, yet she'd done so anyway. She guessed she had assumed it wouldn't matter, which made the issue one she had run into before. It was the problem that Mother had warned of over and over again: Complacency.

Calling it a stupid mistake felt like an understatement.

The drowsy abyssal hadn't immediately realized her rangefinders were glowing, of course. She'd spent a few moments looking up at the speechless human, but thought his presence alone didn't mean disaster.

It took far too long for her to recognize the expression of shock on his poorly-lit face. Instead, she'd been trying to think of an excuse being there, sleeping in a forest instead of an… anchorage or barracks or something. She sat up in the process, however, and that broke the human out of his inaction.

Jumping a little, the human stumbled backwards. The sudden movement woke Trinitite up fully, the Wo-class finally realizing something was wrong, but before she could get to her feet, he was gone.

Things had been a bit of a blur after that. Afraid she didn't have much time, she picked her embarrassed marines up without investigating their failure, ditching her stove and utensils and running. That was over a day of work left to the humans, but with… someone out there, calling the Police or the Navy, the seconds it would have taken to slip them into her hold would be far too much time wasted.

That had been another mistake. If Trinitite had had the presence of mind to summon her rigging and deal with the interloper, she at least would have had time to load up all that expensive equipment, but no. The fancy propane stove was wasted money, now. Maybe it was because, as a carrier, chasing down the enemy to engage them in close combat was never an obvious choice to her, but that was just an empty excuse.

As plenty of abyssal princesses would say, Trinitite had fucked up.

Now that she'd put a few miles behind her and the disaster area, slowed down to what she hoped was a non-suspicious pace, her thoughts moving away from her recent mistakes.

What now?

Firstly, she was never sailing through Mill Creek again. That meant she'd have to find another library and source of ice cream.

…She could really use some ice cream. Passing on it in the Shelton raid had been another stupid mistake.

The Wo-class shook her head, the rivulet of water trailing off her hat drawing small arcs as she did so. Just like the mistake she'd just made and countless others, those were in the past. What mattered was what she could do now that The Navy knew she was near Everett.

She probably wouldn't have to flee her current fleet. The construction site was over 16 miles by air from Mill Creek, not much by nautical standards, but she was starting to realize just how hard it was just to travel over land, let alone search it. According to her charts, the 34-mile wide search area they'd need to locate her there would cover a heavily-forested mountain range, dense fields of towering apartment buildings, and the installation at Everett itself.

If they were putting that many resources into finding her, she'd already know about it.

It didn't feel right, just walking into work as if nothing had happened, and acting like nothing had happened would be pretty difficult, but Trinitite couldn't think of any better option.

The abyssal stopped at an intersection, focusing on the sidewalk as a human vehicle rolled by. Hopefully there weren't any ships in that car who'd be able to recognize her, but she was suddenly unsure if they would be able to if she was too covered in human clothing. The Wo-class sighed, darting across the road once the coast was clear. She should assume that they could recognize her through her mundane disguise and thoroughly-soaked makeup, so that meant she should be staying away from major roads whenever possible.

Maybe a return to normal at work could help her calm down. This had been a nasty surprise, but it probably wasn't fatal.

Probably.

Sorry I didn't post this a bit sooner.

Okay, random one-word title is a go. Might change it before this chapter is reposted to other sites. It's kind of annoying how accidently tapping enter just throws the entire chapter out there.

I know some people wanted more of a... meaningful interaction between Trinitite and the Police officer, and might consider this a missed opportunity. I... understand where they're coming from, and hope they'll trust me when I say I'm blowing this setup so I can write a better one in the future.