“Okay.”
“We’ll help any way we can but I can't risk my daughter's...”
“Don't risk them. Keep them safe, stay safe,” Netto urged, a hint of worry in his voice. It sounded strange to him. Any emotion coming from his lips sounded strange.
He put his foot on the railing and prepared his body to shift. Zeph was at his side with the last of their weapons hooked over his shoulder.
They watched the beast slap its head down in quick succession. It crushed the ground with each impact and as Netto surveyed the port around it, he noticed the piers of the marina were nothing more than floating debris in the sea.
He didn’t see any more corpses but amongst the grey water and smoke, the currents threaded and split to reveal a bevy of creatures below the surface.
Netto didn’t know how many could rise up like the elongated starfish; how many were large, dangerous, carnivores. It was easier to assume the worst.
With one last lingering look at the watership, he dove into the ocean and shifted into his shark. Something was immediately off...
The water was different here. He gulped it down as the fin on his back sprung out, powering him through the incoming wake of the monster and the myriad of creatures that swam around him.
Phosphorus.There was an abundance of phosphate. Netto stopped swimming toward the shore, momentarily stunned by the influx of the substance coursing through his systems. It was natural in smaller dosages but what existed around him was anything but small. It was pollution.
He shook it off and continued swimming, finding that the levels of the chemical remained the same closer to shore. Netto dipped down and inspected the ocean floor, finding nothing but petrified wood, an excess of algae, and partially decayed trash. It churned up and muddied the water and was unlike the rest of the beaches he had encountered thus far.
Zeph swam past him, undeterred by the unusual makeup of the shore. Netto expected a moderate difference but not to this degree...
This was on par with some of the tainted Earthian waterways. Unusual and unexpected from an environmentally-forward government and the EPED’s current standards. His fingers sank into the shifting sand. He watched as it flowed over his knuckles. When he brought his hand up to inspect the silt, it was covered in algae scum.
A shadow cast over him and he peered up to see Zeph hovering above, his eyes narrowed and shielded from the frothy water.
‘‘Phosphates, simple inorganic phosphates, but they seem to be complexed to bio-uptake regulators,’ Netto transmitted to him.
‘Man-made or natural?’
‘Hell of a lot of it for it to be natural.’
He released the remaining air in his lungs, loosing bubbles from the corners of his mouth. There were a half-dozen trails of blood Netto could follow but shucked down his need for it. His taste buds were tainted. He joined Zeph at the surface.
‘Let’s get this over with.’
‘Let’s.’
They swam through the waves and dodged the minor beasts. Many went after them, seeing fresh meat, but were dead before they could attack. Netto rammed his blunted head through the worst of them and tore those that swam in his way in two. He left his own thick wake of blood and gore behind him.
His mouth filled with the putrid taste of toxic water and fish. It made his stomach knot around the parts he swallowed. The algae-laced ocean and phosphate were enough to turn his back on feasting on his fresh kills in the future.
Netto clamped his sharp teeth together and glanced at the crocodile.
Zeph appeared to have a similar disposition toward the meat and water.
They were upon the beast before it was aware of them.Surprise!He roared glumly in his head, only half-focused on the eventual kill, his mind warring between Rylie’s safety and the state of the beach.
Netto didn’t stop to think; he split his mouth wide open and attacked the ridged side of the serpentine starfish. Tough sinew and skin caught between his teeth as he muscled his jaw closed to tear it off. His eyes glazed over as he was thrown about, the speed and chaos fueling his need to kill.
To obliterate and riot against the monster. An ear-splitting crackle filled his ears.
He fused his legs together, his nanosuit opening up, and swam in tight circles, rushing, biting, swimming away, dodging its tail, only to bite again.
Red filled his vision. The scent of copper rushed up his snout, and the sides of his thick neck opened up to form gills.
He gave himself over to the shark. He barely registered Zeph yelling at him to attack the creature’s vitals. He didn’t care; he wanted to tear it apart into a million pieces. The control he had so carefully cultivated vanished under the haze.
