Nightmare

'Now this is interesting.'

What was swimming in front of me was peacock mantis shrimp.

These shrimps, to some degree, physically resembled prawns and if one wasn't careful, they would find it hard to distinguish between them.

But the Peacock mantis shrimp's multi-colourism made it easily distinct among the crustaceans.

I used to eat fried shrimp sold on the streets during my school days in Seoul. I liked 'em spicy.

I wouldn't have known about this little thing's awesomeness if it were not for the movie 'Project Power'.

Do most humans care about the history of the food they eat? I highly doubt it.

A primal urge like hunger normally overwhelms such trivialities.

Anyway, I didn't enjoy 'Project Power' that much and only watched it due to the interesting concept behind it.

It was a movie about people popping pills to gain power under a timer. Nothing much nothing less.

The main character pops a pill that gives him a destructive power similar to that of a pistol shrimp near the film's end.

The peacock mantis shrimp noticed my ginormous silhouette overshadowing its existence and immediately went into alert mode.

Its club-like appendages were elevated for a possible confrontation while it stood its ground as if goading me.

'Come at me if you dare, pal.'

'I am not afraid of you.'

'You shall know true pain once my punch lands on you.'

I wished I had telepathy to know what was in its crustaceous mind instead of simulating its thought process.

'What? Are you afraid, punk?'

'Don't ya know that lil' Tyson's my student?'

I just couldn't… pfft … couldn't stop visualizing what it was thinking. I was that empathetic, pfft.

I didn't heed its warning as I swam within its range.

BANG!

The peacock mantis shrimp swang its club, its motion accelerating with each millisecond.

Bubbles of vapor began to materialize in front of the tip of its club-like appendage. These cavitation bubbles then started to spread irregularly in the visible water space and when that destructive punch landed on my chin, a blinding light momentarily flashed.

The peacock mantis shrimp, which was expecting me to lose some chunks of flesh, was dumbfounded by my listless reaction.

'Eh? How can this guy endure the cosmic punch that has made me unrivaled under the sea?'

The peacock mantis shrimp then did the same again but I remained unfazed.

I sighed at its 'weak' punches that moved with the velocity of a .22 caliber bullet.

'You fought well, my friend.' Imaginary tears rolled down my eyes as I swallowed it in hopes of getting a skill in remembrance of his short-lived existence.

'Ah, how long has it been since I ate shrimp?' I reminisced lightly.

***

[You have consumed a peacock mantis shrimp.]

[ gained!]

[Remodeling of muscle fibers in progress…]

[Remodeling complete!]

[ gained]

[Genetic material has successfully been stored in the genetic bank.]

***

I felt changes being rapidly transmitted over my muscles. It was as if numerous tapeworms were crawling underneath my skin. It all happened in a matter of seconds.

'I cast fist. Who is ready to rumble?' I acted smugly.

My senses then tingled as my electroreceptors picked up sudden shifts in the electric fields miles away.

There were also radiation signatures being produced in that direction. One region came to mind.

The Breach.

'The Jaegers and the triad have already started to fight.' I immediately began to swim towards the quasi-final war between humanity and the Jaegers.

'Oh holy mother, how have I missed the similarities between this underwater world and Fontaine?' A random thought entered my mind as I excitedly began to sing some Disney underwater songs.

'Arabian nights…'

Of course, the songs were out of sync with the mood and environment.

***

Humanity was currently on a mission to finally end the apocalypse.

The pilots who had decided to stake their lives for the future prosperity of humanity steeled their hearts and will to do what had to be done.

It was simply inevitable for sacrifices not to be made.

Inside Striker Eureka, both Chuck Hansen and Stacker said their last touching words in preparation for an unavoidable confrontation with two relentless Kaijus.

Scunner and Slattern.

'Mako…' Stacker muttered lightly over the comms.

'Dad…' Chuck followed suit, his voice and mood, similar to Stacker's.

It was their last moments and to give Gipsy an opening to jump through the Breach, they had to eliminate both Slattern and Scunner at the same time.

As both Scunner and Slattern opened their maws to deliver their judgment upon the human intruders, the pilots inside sighed with emotions.

'Now.' Chuck shouted and looked at Stacker.

Stacker nodded and then…

BEEP.

The illusion of time stopping came into being.

The thermonuclear blast began to spread, breaking the intermolecular forces of water and vaporizing everything within its range.

BOOM!

The extremely high pressure and radiation generated due to nuclear fusion displaced megaliters of ocean water into high heavens.

The pilots perished. Scunner met the maker. But… Slattern, the eldritch-tailed bitch, survived the 1.2 megatons of TNT.

Slattern screeched in pain as she struggled to balance her injured body.

She had never faced such a self-destruction attack in her entire life.

Slattern tried to use the [Hive mind Connection] she had with her brethren but only found the thread-like connection to have been severed.

They were all dead except for her.

Slattern was currently not at her best and even when she was, she would have found it hard to notice the camouflaged lurking shadow of another predator.

It was your local mutated wolf, a flying abomination from the otherworld.

SHWAAH!

Like a hurricane, the winged silver-furred wolf rushed toward a seemingly defenseless Slattern.

Slattern sensed the disturbance in the water currents but she was too late to react as the winged silver-furred wolf used an Explosive Supersonic claw, amped with thousands of tons, to cut one of her arms off.

Slattern released a high-frequency sonic screech due to the pain as she tried to escape after losing an arm.

Slattern left a trail of blue luminous blood behind as she tried to get as far away as possible from the foreign enemy.

SWAASH!

Alas, another arm left her body. The enemy was too fast and she just couldn't escape.

It was hopeless.

Slattern lost forward movement support as her head and body slid on the ocean floor due to the momentum gained.

Slattern tried to crawl, to spring her body upward via her two remaining legs but…

SHWAAH!

A leg ceased to exist.

Slattern screeched and wiggled like a worm on the ground, unaware that the being who was psychologically and physically torturing her, was on a sadistic trip.

Slattern looked at the pitfall leading to the Breach and began to hurriedly wiggle toward it.

The last vision she had was of a widening mouth as big as her head, opening in front of her face and then…

Silence and Darkness ensued.

Gipsy Danger's pilots watched as the extraterrestrial creature that they had been warned against, enter the fray to finish the job.

They witnessed in horror as the Category V, Slattern, was devoured until nothing was left. Soon, the corpses of Scunner and Raiju suffered the same fate.

With no Kaiju DNA to mask their presence and help them pass through the Breach, how were they going to end the apocalypse?

Both Rayleigh and Miko weren't prepared for the sudden eventuality.

A new, more intelligent and powerful monster had availed itself.

Given their current critical state, Gipsy Danger could barely walk even an inch due to one of her legs being rendered obsolete.

The only option that there was, was to initiate a nuclear reactor meltdown and send the winged bastard to Hell.

But then what if it survived?

What if this new monster was part of the Precursors' ultimate plan?

The variables and questions were far too many.

Rayleigh faced Miko who was slowly losing oxygen.

"Miko, it seems our plan can't be actualized on this day."

"It's a failure."

Miko was barely hanging on as her vision and surroundings began to go blurry.

Before the monster could turn its attention to them, Rayleigh sacrificed his oxygen reserve to Miko and dragged her body into an escape pod.

With a press of a button, Rayleigh catapulted the escape pod to the surface.

But when it was his turn, Rayleigh was held captive by unimaginable fear when a huge abominable eyeball gazed at him through the cockpit.

Rayleigh knew he was finished. It was over.

Rayleigh calculated in his mind that before he could even escape, the monster would have already ripped off Gipsy's head.

The literal embodiment of Death was right in front of him.

Luckily, after a few seconds of scaring the human, the big bad wolf left him and gave him the chance to escape.

Rayleigh didn't waste the only chance at survival, he didn't even harbor the thought of detonating the nuclear reactor.

Rayleigh immediately used the escape pod, promising himself to never again try to confront that monster.

Nightmares were going to follow him, from there henceforth.

***

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