Chereads / Trinary Chaos: The Azalea Effect / Chapter 10 - The Deep

Chapter 10 - The Deep

The water began to swirl, forming a vortex. Deep in the ocean, a softly glowing sucked the water, drawing the whirlpool to full power.

The ocean began to drain through the time portal, gallons of water flowing through. Along with the water, a creature was sucked in, one large and powerful.

Ten meters long, Tylosaurus was truly a force to be reckoned with. A fast predator, sleek, and unstoppable.

But the force of the portal still drew it in, and the creature was instantly transported into the modern day.

Towering over the city of New Archangel was a large dam that provided much of the energy used in the city. But this was not to be held for long, as the salt water of the prehistoric oceans began to add to the fresh.

The sudden, quick, increase of water began to strain on the dam walls, creating ever the slightest crack. Already, the security towers managing the dam were already picking up the weakness in the foundations.

With a final gush of new water, the dam cracked, booming loudly above the city. Heads turned to all look at the crumbling dam.

With a final boom, a wall of water gushed through, and the walls crumbled, being crushed over water, reducing them to dust.

The towers weren't lucky, and they too, fell, and the magnificent tower of water was brought down upon them.

The sight was one to behold. It was as if the towers were simply crushed by a blanket of solid water, as if a child had stepped on a sand castle.

Humans frantically ran to cover as the wall of water began to make its way down from the mountain towering over New Archangel, rushing to flood the city.

And with the blanket of water that began to flood the city, the merciless Tylosaur began to hunt, hungry, and confused at its new surroundings. Up ahead, it saw a perfect victim, trying to swim against the tide of water, trying to reach a house.

The man never made it. A simple swish of a tail, and the fearsome Tylosaur snapped, taking the man head-first, then chomping down, severing the legs. And that, was that.

Six hours later, Xavier Krassant got a call. "Ah, yes, Director Reid, what can my team, the DCU do for you?"

There was only four words spoken in a monotone voice: "New Archangel, come alone."

"Director? What?"

"There's a highly classified case at New Archangel- check your personal mission file. Go to those coordinates alone," the voice, deep and robotic ordered. "One of your time portals opened up six hours ago, breaking a dam. Something came through."

"Got it." Xavier clicked off his phone.

Xavier stood up, opened his office door, and walked out. When confronted by a curious Jack where he was going, he told them it was to pick up some food at the Wyvern Base Food Court.

But instead, Xavier made his way into another plane.

"Computer!" he shouted, summoning the plane to life. Lights activated, buttons twirled, and pristine drinks appeared in the kitchen area of the small plane.

"Yes, passenger?"

"I am Xavier Krassant," he began, an authoritative tone making sure the machine would understand. "Take me to the Coded City of New Archangel."

"Your passcode?"

"XK-90253."

With that, the plane roared to life, and took off.

The windows of the plane shut, to prevent Xavier from knowing where in the world was the city of New Archangel. The cockpit was inaccessible, closed off by blast doors. Navigation wouldn't be accessible from the medical bay console or the kitchen.

After an unknown amount of boring hours, Xavier finally felt the plane touchdown, and the windows pop open. Outside, Xavier saw that he had landed on a large building.

The doors opened, and the computer ordered him to leave.

Xavier did so, and now he could see the disaster the flood had caused. Sticks, stones, dust, and cars were strewn in the streets around. People were looking for loved ones and items, water still waist high in the aftermath.

"Agent Krassant of the so-called DCU," a soft, young voice greeted. "Your reputation precedes you. We at the U-D-A call you the Dinosaur Hunter."

"Marie-Eliza Reid," Xavier replied, turning to look at the agent, who was clad in a gray coat that seemed to cover her entire body. Her hands were not visible, hidden by the draping sleeves. Triangular glasses shielded her eyes from the sun, and most strangely of all, a jet-black umbrella shielded her from the light. "What can I do for you?"

"Due to the nature of the… infestation my team was dealing with, we were hesitant to report the event."

"Well?"

"A time portal opened, bringing in lots of water. It broke the dam, but something else came through- something we aren't prepared to deal with."

"Ah, so it's what my team usually deals with. Prehistoric animals."

"Precisely," Reid answered. As the agent began her new sentence, she pulled out several pictures of a chewed off leg, and a mass of regurgitated flesh. "This was one of my best agents."

"I'll need my paleo-"

"Only you. But, I'll permit you to call your friends at the DCU, and send these… photographs. Anyways, if it's still alive, it will be in the ocean. Catch it- I need it alive."

"I'll need a-"

"Boat? I've got a small submarine prepared. Now, if you do your job, my team won't bother you. Me and my team have an infestation to deal with."

And with that, Agent Reid walked away, down the stairs.

"Wait!" Xavier called, running down the stairs to ask where they couldn't just let the animal go instead of catching it.

Xavier sighed.

Still, Xavier carried on, quickly finding the submarine at the docks. It was small, and was designed to be manned by two or three people. Sadly, Xavier would have to deal with his loneliness.

The submarine was indeed small, and was just a transparent sphere with the engines sticking out to the side like wings.

He entered the vehicle, took a seat at the small sphere that was the cockpit. The main console has plenty of buttons, ranging from speed settings to stun nets.

Xavier decided to pilot the submarine underwater. Next, he activated the radar, and set it to detect traces of tachyon particles.

As he drove, Xavier forwarded the images to Stacy, who called him as soon as she had gotten them. "Ah, Doctor Sykes," Xavier greeted.

"Xavier, what are you doing?!"

"Classified, now, do you know what sort of sea animal could have done that?"

"No, but something large, at least eight meters! Now, would you mind telling me what you're doing with this information?!"

"Classified," Xavier replied, clicking the radar to detect animals larger than eight meters. "I'll tell you more in a while. Agent Krassant out."

"Wha-"

Almost immediately after Xavier had set the radar, a large blip notified him that an animal was nearby around the size of his projections.

The submarine headed towards the animal, who swam far below.

But at last, Xavier could see the Tylosaur, dark blue, and spotted with white swimming away.

"There you are," he muttered, snapping a quick photograph to send Stacy.

As if the animal knew that it was caught, it turned, and began to swim towards Xavier's submarine, rushing.

Xavier found a blue button that said 'capture-stun nets', and fired. Dual cylinders shot out of hidden compartments.

Unfortunately, one missed, and the other only managed to hit the tail, transforming into a giant net that caught the tail within. But the Tylosaur seemed to snarl, turn away from the submarine, and shake off the net.

As the Tylosaur turned, the creature's powerful tail slammed into Xavier's submarine, creating a large, noticeable crack on the outer glass layer.

"A Tylosaur?!" Stacy replied, texting Xavier her input.

"How do I catch it?" Xavier replied.

"No idea."

Left with no choice, Xavier proceeded to chase after the Tylosaur.

The Tylosaur turned, suddenly realizing it was being chased, and swam over the submarine.

"Oh no…"

With a deafening crack, the Tylosaur chomped on the engine to the right of Xavier. It sputtered in defiance, sending waves discordantly.

Xavier panicked, pressing the targeting button, causing another to launch, swirling towards the Tylosaur. This time, it's body was hit, and the stun began to take effect.

But before Xavier could press the button once more, he heard the slight click of a gun right behind him.

Xavier turned, whipped out his gun and aimed at a dark silhouette of a figure, dressed in a standard police uniform and aiming a gun at him. "What the hell?! Get off my plane- Who are you?!"

"I could ask you the same," the policeman returned. "This is a government submarine! Who are you, and why have you put guns on it?!"

"I am the government- well, sort of!"

"Yeah, I'll need to see your credentials."

"Alright, I'll pull out my ID badge," Xavier lied, knowing full well he had no credentials. He reached into his suit, hand looking for his imaginary badge.

"Hold up!"

"What am I gonna do? Pull out another gun?"

"Oh, right. I see my error."

That was exactly what Xavier pulled out, another gun.

It was fast and quick, and before the policeman could shoot, Xavier fired, and a grouping of TSC needles appeared on the man's chest. The police officer fell to the ground with a thud.

"Ugh, people these days."

Xavier walked over to the fallen body, picked up the officer's gun, and sighed in annoyance. But something was wrong with the officer, because he did not have an officer's badge. Instead, there was an insignia of a blue-yellow Asian dragon. Next to the badge was a phone, which Xavier opened.

Inside, he saw a passcode, but there was something odd. When he swiped right, he found a log of events all encoded. Along with the codes were photographs of prehistoric animals, the DCU plane, and the team members.

Someone had clearly been spying on the team.

In the confusion, the Tylosaur had managed to escape.

Xavier got the radar, and began to search for the Tylosaur.

Suddenly, out of the shadows, the jaws of the animal appeared and bit down upon the spherical glass, causing cracks outlining the jaw to occur.

"Perfect," Xavier muttered, as he pressed the 'fire' button.

The net fired straight into the monster's throat, stunning it and causing it to faint almost immediately.

Three shots labeled 'drag' were pressed, and small, painless hooks were hooked into the animal's skin.

Xavier then proceeded to drag the creature away, back to the surface, where Marie-Eliza Reid would await the creature.

Six hours later, Xavier found himself back at Wyvern Base, presenting the phone and badge to Milo Krassant. During the submarine journey back, the unconscious man had mysteriously vanished without a trace. After Reid had extracted a chip from the Tylosaur, it was sent to Wyvern Base, where it now lived inside a large habitat.

The Krassant twins were seated across the habitat, looking through the glass at their newest addition to the menagerie. The lights reflected the water, casting a dim bue upon their bodies.

"A spy?" Milo wondered aloud. "Who could it be?"

"I don't know."

"On the other hand," Milo started, swiping to some pictures of animals in cages, "these aren't our bases. It isn't Scorpion, because that badge wasn't their insignia. Who could these people be? Some of these animals haven't been encountered by us at all."

"Indeed, something very strange is going on. Agent Reid didn't recognize the insignia either."

Far away from Wyvern Base, a chandelier-like device clicked and whirred. Each 'candle' lit with multiple colors and faded. This device was above a table. A computer was on the table, and a seemingly infinite number of wires connected the 'chandelier' to the computer.

A man dressed as a police officer sat down at a table.

He began to type.

Your orders are complete. Now they know.