POV Rio
"Still nothing?" Peggy asks.
"Yeah, still no signs of any survivors," I reply.
We had just looted the ruins of Talo-Kan, and I was now searching the seas alongside a few others for any survivors or at least an idea of what happened to the city. Large sections of the city had been pulverized, and my investigation didn't indicate any weapon did it. If anything, I had evidence it was caused by something living, which obviously makes you question what caused such devastation.
Whatever it was, it was very likely massive unless it could change its size. I had a few theories, but I would need more info to be sure. It didn't help that all the various computers and electronics were almost completely absent in Talo-Kan, and those that did exist were thoroughly wiped out or destroyed by someone other than the one who destroyed the city.
Normally, I could summon the spirit of the dead to ask some questions, but in this case, it wouldn't work as the corpses were eaten by the creature, taking them far from here. And even more, the spirits were not given the chance to linger for some reason.
"I think I found something," Lara comments.
"Send the coordinates," I request.
When I arrive at the coordinates, I see what she meant by something. The entire area was devastated. Large swathes of the ocean floor were shattered, and craters could be seen all over the place. A few underwater mountains or hills had been leveled.
"Wow, something really put up one heck of a fight here," I comment with surprise.
"No kidding, just look at the size of that crater over there. What caused that, your mom?" Tony jokes while pointing to a truly massive crater.
"Oh? You calling Gaia fat? I bet she will find that interesting," I say with a wide smirk in response.
Tony freezes, and then it finally hits him.
"GAIA EVERFREE IS YOUR MOM!?!" Tony screams.
"Well, yeah, she raised me for the majority of my life, so she is basically my mother," I say with a wide grin.
"Wait then.... Oh god... Don't tell her I said that! I didn't mean that; she's very lovely and perfectly sized for her... species?" Tony says, unsure of himself.
"Hmm, I dunno, you were really rude to my mother, and I care for her quite deeply," I say with a fake unsure tone.
I made sure to really ham it up so even Tony wouldn't miss the obvious.
"How much?" Tony says with a defeated sigh.
"Are you suggesting I would accept a bribe?" I ask in a fake-shocked tone.
While Tony was wearing his armor, I could just feel the annoyance, confusion, frustration, and various other emotions rolling off him before he just settled into defeat.
"Fine, you got me, you happy now?" Tony says with a shake of his head.
"Sure, now can you start scanning the area for anything... Unusual. If I had to guess, I would think we should find some DNA that doesn't seem right," I comment.
Tony doesn't say a word and quickly leaves my vicinity, likely to avoid being messed with more. To be fair to him, I had been messing with him a decent amount. Fun fact: Tony is really creeped out by spiders. Well, specifically large and very realistic spiders. He hides it really well when interacting with Spider-Man and Woman, but it shows up after I show him a recent form I unlocked.
After the Thanagarian Template was done assimilating, I got a few decent templates. Nothing that amazing. First was Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of NerveGear from SAO. The knowledge was decent, and I could see some uses for it, but otherwise, there wasn't anything that interesting. He did come with a complete NerveGear set and the World Seed, which would speed things up massively, but overall, it was a decent find, nothing that changed much for me. At least it only took a week to assimilate him.
After Akihiko Kayaba came a far more interesting template. Admiral Trench. He didn't give me much in terms of power or physicality, but that was more than okay with me, as he gave me something that was more than worth the exchange. I got the Providence-Class Star Destroyer Invincible, which was a 2 km-long vessel that came with 14 Heavy quad turbolaser cannons, 34 Dual heavy laser cannons, 2 Heavy ion cannons, 12 Twin light point-defense ion cannons, 12 Heavy flak cannons, and a massive 102 Proton torpedo launchers. It also came with a total of 40 Fighter/Bomber Squadrons: 10 Droid Trifighter Squadrons, 10 Vulture Droid Squadrons, 10 Belbullab-22 Starfighter Squadrons, and lastly 10 Hyena Bomber Squadrons. Though only 2 of each squadron could exist at any given time.
And the best part is the ship was fully automated; I didn't need any crew for the ship to operate at peak efficiency. The ship operated as if I were playing Star Wars: Empire At War. Which basically meant as long as the ship wasn't fully destroyed, it would never run out of ammo and would automatically repair all damage between battles. The key to abusing this was making sure that I engaged in different battles. This meant I had to fully end one battle either by destroying all enemies, making them flee the battle, or I would have to flee. This would also replenish all starfighter losses, again as long as it is a new battle. But any starfighters not back on the ship when a new battle begins will count towards the total starfighter limit, so I can't abuse it by creating an endless number of starfighters.
But wait! There's more! The ship functions under the rules of the game in another way. You can't instantly destroy the ship. So Captain Marvel can't just smash through the ship and instantly destroy it. But she could still damage it, and if all hardpoints on the ship are destroyed, the ship is instantly destroyed, but thankfully, my template gave me a little extra insurance for that, as well as Trench is really good at not dying, so I can respawn the ship after 30 days of the ship's destruction, so long as I am alive and in the same universe for all 30 days. But it should also be noted that, like other items, I can't modify the ship.
Beyond the amazing ship and the technology I could use from it, I also gained the impressive skills of Admiral Trench in terms of warfare. I wasn't sure when I would use them, as his skills are meant for large-scale space battles, not really ground combat. But I would take what I could get.
Now, back to how I learned Tony doesn't deal with spiders very well. Admiral Trench is... Well, to be honest, not a pleasant face to look at. He is basically a bipedal spider in human form. And I mean that literally. In cartoon form, he doesn't look that creepy, but this world doesn't look like a cartoon, so I look very scary from what I can tell, maybe the scariest species in the universe. I know cause I went to Knowhere, and even the hardened criminals steered clear of me, and everyone was scared to get close to me. Tony didn't react very well as he peed himself in fear when I popped out from a corner.
Ever since then, Tony has added Spider Repellent to his suits in case I try that again. I tried to convince him Shark Repellent would be a better choice, or maybe even Dolphin Repellent, but he ignored my suggestions. That's fine, as I have Shark Repellent in my Batcopter in case of emergencies. I also have Whale, Manta Ray, and Barracuda repellent, also just in case, though that last one makes no sense to me.
'Maybe it's to scare away rockers?'
"Looks like you were right. I found some DNA that doesn't match any known species. The best I could confirm was that it is likely a kind of Cephalopod," Tony comments over the comms.
He sends over some data, and I look it over and get enough to guess what caused this battle. Or at least one side of this battle.
"Then I think I know what caused some of this destruction," I reply.
"What? Really?" Tony says with surprise.
"Yep, I'm almost certain that it was the Kraken," I reply.
"The Kraken as in the old sailors' tale?" Lara asks with slight surprise.
"The same one. But this one is of more ancient origins," I explain while I pull up the info I knew about this creature.
I gather a decent amount and start explaining the sparse details I had. The main issue was that the Kraken was a fairly modern invention, at least historically speaking. But I did have a few accounts from Greek Mythos in relation to the Kraken, or at least something similar. In fact, the best source I had was purchased from Monstropolis before it was destroyed. I was very shocked when I heard and felt the destruction. I wasn't sure what or who did it, but I had a strong suspicion.
"While I can't vouch for the exact authenticity of this book, it should be accurate enough. Also, given that Atlantis and Talo-Kan exist, it isn't that far-fetched to think that the Kraken, which is often tied to Atlantis specifically, exists as well," I explain.
We searched for quite a bit longer this time to see where the beast had gone, but even with satellite coverage, we didn't find anything. Even my compass wasn't able to help, as it just spun in circles, indicating that what I was looking for either didn't exist or wasn't on this plane of existence. I wasn't sure what was worse.
We were, however, at least able to confirm it was the Kraken by finding where it was sealed originally. And I had to admit whoever created the seal was a far superior mage than me by a massive margin.
'I would almost think this was divine in origin if there wasn't a lack of divine aura or magic that I can detect.'
It is theoretically possible that such an aura had faded since the seal was undone from the outside, but I couldn't be sure. Regardless of who made the seal, they were very likely long dead; the best I could hope for was some old books on their work. But that would take a while, given the state of Atlantis, which was nothing but rubble. At least in this case, we have a better chance at finding some intact computers to retrieve data from. Or at least that was the idea. Time would tell if that was feasible.
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Author's Note:
The previous chapter had an additional Author's Note added earlier today; it might answer some questions in case anyone is curious why Rio doesn't instantly find the Creature behind this. Until next time, Ciao.