STRIKEFORCE: MORITURI
SEGMENT 046
“Jaw vs. Maw”
The waves began to rise and the crests became a brighter white. The Dragon Maw rose and fell between swells. This storm was in the shark’s favor, not the Champions or the crew. Still, the large unnatural creature followed slowly and out to the side. It would disappear between waves but remained on the surface. It was playing with them …terrorizing them. Or was it? The two Captains would not rule off the other factor. Sahuagin. Could it be waiting for them? Would it wait for them?
Jean was ready to attack from the air but had not yet. She was waiting for the word.
The storm became stronger as the winds increased. Still the undead monster merely followed the ship. It was clearly waiting for something. But what and more importantly…when?
Then the crew lost track of it. Two minutes went by. Then five minutes. At ten the crew wondered if the creature gave up. The Champions suspected otherwise. Megamania caught himself humming rock songs to himself.
Fatal strikes
We lie on the wild side
No escape
Murder rape
Doing time on the wild side
A baby cries
A cop dies
A day’s pay on the wild side
Wild side, wild side
Tragic life on the wild side
Wild side, wild side
Kickin’ ass on the wild side
© Motley Crue
Girls, girls, girls
1987
Once he caught himself doing it he stopped. He feared he was cracking under the strain. This was a bad idea from the very beginning. The self-righteous Captain had went got him killed …a second time!
“Jim- go into the crow’s nest and see what you can.” Demanded as much asked The Captain.
Jim climbed up carefully. He pulled off his face mask part way just in case he got sick. The pitching of the ship made the nest sway several dozen feet. Now he was convinced the Captain truly wanted him dead and to suffer a bit first.
After reaching the top he looked long and hard. The heavy rain made it hard to see. Then the lightning began again. Even though his equipment was nylon plastics Jim was certain he would get zapped before long. He wondered if he could absorb normal lightning as well as magical. He didn’t want to find out just now. Then he saw it. The creature was on the surface several swells away. It turned his way and slowly rose and fell with the waves towards the Dragon Maw.
“HERE HE COMES!!!!” Screamed Megamania pulling out his energy pistol.
The ship’s crew braced for the worst. They couldn’t even try to swing the ship around. To do so would lead to it being overturned in a wave. The crew saw it coming now as the lightning flashed. Christina and the Champions could hear the crew scream at it. No wait- they are screaming. Christina looked over her shoulder and saw the cause- Sahuagin! Their tridents already killed three men. Men that were securing lines keeping the ship steady in the storm.
“SAHUAGIN!” Screams Christina. She tries to approach them but finds her armor counters her attempts as keeping balance. “Damn this world!”
The Captain lets fly his shield. It strikes several Sahuagin and throws them back into the raging waters. Jean is both morbidly transfixed and disgusted as its brothers in a blood rage attack the near dead creatures. She takes to the sky as planned by the winds and hard driving rain fight her boots of flying. It is as if the very world is against them. The creature has submerged having done its job of drawing attention away from the sahuagin’s first attack.
Vander steps to Christina. “Do it.” He says in a grim voice.
“Do it?”
“Magic.” His stare never leaves the Sahuagin. “Make me breathe in the water.”
Knowing this is hard for him as it is, Christina quickly gives him a potion supplied by the governor. Without guessing if it worked, Vander charges straight ahead at the Sahuagin. He crashes through the rail taking several creatures with him. His scream can not be heard over the howl of the wind.
“VANDER!” The Captain yells. He feared Vander would do this. For a professional mercenary, Vander is nearly as much of a wild cannon as Megamania. Nearly as much.
Lightning narrowly misses Megamania and instead strikes an iron tipped mast support. The sail erupts into flames and a rope and beam swing violently out of control. It slices a sahuagin and its just dead crewman in two before bouncing off of the Captains readied shield. The effort throws him dangerously near to going over board.
Megamania looks again for the shark and sees it. Along with a man swimming next to it.
HUH!?!?!
He wipes his lenses free of water and stares again. There is a man out there with him. The man is holding up his fist at the creature. Now why would a man be out here much less doing that? An instinct rides over Megamania that he acts on without thought. He leaps out of the crow’s nest and tucks his weapon into his belt under his vest just in time to reach the waters below. Fortunately, the sahuagin are very busy with Vander. He hopes the gun is still as water proofed as ever and begins to fire under the waves. Even here, he rises and falls in short dips. After taking out a few, he turns hoping he has not outlasted his luck. He swims towards the man…and the shark.
Jean has pelted three lightning bolts into the Jaws of Sorrow. It just sits there and takes it. Suddenly a green colored bead of light rises from the dark waters next to him. The fiery explosion of magic flame bursts above her. She easily has avoided it but her clothes and hair are singed and her arm is in bad shape. She begins to fly in irregular circles around the creature. There is a mage here somewhere. She thinks of a rarely used spell she knows. It stops magic on a limited level. Not very weather related but required when one is well known for weather specialization. She stops and opens her arms after finishing her last words to her spell and purple bubbles appear and surround her. Another fireball spell is released. The green bead strikes three bubbles and an audible pop is heard …with no explosion. 15 more bubbles protect her as she prepares to strike again.
Sushi and The Captain are doing well holding the sahuagin at bay. Christina does all she can to aid and heal the crew whom was defeated by the creatures. The Captain takes a critical hit from a four-armed beast that then threatens to throw him over board. Christina, half way through a healing spell, drops to her knees and finishes the spell. A wave of positive energy sweeps out from her and touches the dozen or more wounded crewmen and Sushi. The Captain’s eyes snap open as the energy waves over him. The Sahuagin had no idea what hit him as the shield swings down and critically severs his head nearly in two.
“Thankyou Priestess of Infiniti” Sushi says as he kicks another creature off the rail.
Then it happens.
The Jaws of Sorrow attacks!
The creature strikes the burning ship at the height of a wave making the ship go airborne. It crashes heavily in the waters. Cannon balls and ballista break free and toss across the deck followed by a rush of water. Many crewmen are swept over the rail. The Captain hold son but can not catch Christina or Sushi as they are carried over board. In a near panic, Christina fumbles for a potion as she begins to sink. It is very difficult for her to swallow when submerged but does so. She can see the dark shape that is Jaws slowing down and turning to make another attack.
Pushing through a red mist polluted with body parts comes Vander. He complete concentration is on the creature. Somehow he knows it comes down to the two of them. Christina holds his arm for a moment and begins to caste spells to protect and enhance him but the creature strikes!
Vander slashes the shark. Christina is too shaken to act. The six inch jagged teeth scrape and squeal on Vander’s back then come down on his leg. Vander screams then feels himself pull free …without his right leg. Christina’s armor is crushed on the teeth and she feels ribs pop and internal bleeding as it bites down. Terrified- she takes no action unlike Vander whom begins to strike in a fever pitch. The beast swallows him, Christina and chucks of its own mouth in one long greedy gulp.
“JEAN! HELP PUT OUT THIS FIRE!” Yells the Captain. He is unaware that she is in a mage duel. The fire has spread despite the heavy rains. The ship is crippled but not yet defeated. No sahuagin have attacked now in the past five minutes. The Captain figures that Vander has done his job. He hasn’t seen Megamania and fears the worse. Sushi, the first mate, begins to call out orders. The captain of the Dragon’s Maw appears to have been killed.
Megamania swims through the waves thinking about the Navy Seal training he should have done. He swims past several bodies. Bodies of crewmembers killed but not yet eaten by the sahuagin littered the sea. Not paying attention to it, Megamania continued on. There was a mystery ahead and he planned on taking care of it.
Once he cleared the section of bodies, one figure opened its eyes. A cruel smile developed and it uprights itself. The crewman’s features shifted from pale white to blue. The hair lengthened and became dark. Jarella the doppelganger assassin was there!
Christina was concentrating immediately on a quick healing spell for first herself then for Vander …poor, poor, poor Vander. Her pain was less distracting than his bellows of rage and pain as the stomach acids ate at his cleaved foot. Seawater, acid and tears streamed down his face in torrents. One tooth broke under the pressure of his clench when something struck his open wound. Even as she felt a lung expand in her chest and a rib painfully wiggle back she noticed something. There was a method to his rage. His wild thrashing and attacks were carving out huge chunks of undead flesh. He was cutting the creature open from the inside. He was going to win!
Jim was spotted by the mage when he was about ten feet away. The mage was about to do something to Jean when Jim reached him. He slugged him several times. The blows did little with no leverage behind them but the spell fizzled anyway. Jim grabbed his wrists hoping to overpower the man and drive him under and drown him. The mage’s hand glowed and suddenly Jim felt himself being pushed away. No …not pushed away …lifted away. He looked down and messed himself.
The Jaws of Sorrow had swam under him and now tried to push him away from the mage. Jim quickly let go and began to wonder why the attack was not more lethal until he saw the backside of the beast. Entire pieces were missing! Something was tearing it up from the inside out! “VANDER!” With that, a glowing falchion erupts up and through the armored plate of the head narrowly missing Megamania. The creature falters. Megamania turns to the mage and sees something truly horrifying. The Mage’s ring glowed and was pointed at the undead shark. The chunks of cut free flesh began to nit together! The ring was healing the creature! Screaming in rage, Megamania leaped from the shark and at the mage.
Vander and Christina climbed out of a hole even as it was closing. Vander was still without his foot from mid-shin down and required her aid to stumble along. He dropped to his knees and began stabbing at it with his falchion. The body trembled as his psionic gems exploded in it’s gut causing more damage. Still, it healed as commanded by the mage. Once Christina realized this she suddenly knew the horrifying truth. This mage held the very ring they were sent to get. He was using its powers over the undead to control and heal this creature.
“JIM! The ring! Get the ring!”
Jim had him in a strangle hold trying to push him under the water but the mage was a much better swimmer than he was. And strong! Jim reached for it and grasped the ring to break the mage’s fingers or anything to stop his use of it. Instead he felt glorious. It began as warmth, then feeling light then he glowed. He was absorbing the ring’s magic! The mage looked in horror now. Jim was controlling the ring …not him. This foolish man was taking his power away!
The burning continued and suddenly the mage’s hand seemed to melt in Jim’s own. The ring fell free and hit the water. The man screamed then turned with bitter hatred towards Jim. His eyes became black and his teeth folded back onto themselves. Jagged serrated teeth rose in their place. The f***er was becoming a shark screamed Jim. And indeed, he was. A ten-foot long shark with a damaged fin. Jim struck out at it even as he attacked. The explosion killed the man-shark instantly but Jim had a shark bite across his thigh that was bleeding profusely.
The Jaws of Sorrow seemed to break apart and then turned over and sank …piece by piece into the ravaged waters. Dead …again.
Below, a blue skinned humanoid with fins caught the ring. She knew its power would return. She had won. She activated her magical device and left the Plane of Dread behind her in a series of bubbles.
Nearby, a hulking figure kept swimming south. The magical device pointing him onward. He was so close, he could almost smell her sweetness. He grinned a smile that none should ever have to see.
The storm seemed to quiet a bit but did not leave. Jean figured they were in the eye of the storm now. It would get bad again in a few minutes.
Never has anyone ever understated something like this before.
