Chapter 7: Chekhov’s monster, first meeting

I walked around confused for a few days, wondering what I should do. Would I really follow Will's advice, and if so, who should I turn to for help?

The solution came suddenly, or rather, it passed me by at a tremendous speed, even by my standards-my eyes caught only a vague mirage in the red tones, so fast the guy was moving. And at that moment I was not only struck with a crazy idea, but also with the determination to do it.

"Hey, wait a minute!" There was no time to think, I acted impulsively.

Though it was useless to shout, the recent presence of the Russian runner was only reminded by a haze of water splashes, which rose belatedly over the water and stretched from one edge of the horizon to the other. Yes, I forgot to specify, it was in the ocean, during one of my training sessions. I was still not having time to think about my actions, so I rose above the water and flew after the runner.

And, of course, I didn't succeed. It was the Red Rush he was too fast for me. Trying to catch up with Oleg (the name of the Russian member of the Guardians of the Globe) was doomed to fail from the start. He hardly even noticed me; the sound waves were much slower than he and I.

Damn, and that was such luck! What are the odds that he would run next to me in a place like this, and just as I came up from the depths to breathe oxygen? It's the ocean, not downtown, and not even the scene of a major accident to attract the attention of one of the Defenders, unless...

Oh, shit, that sleeping monster it's right in the direction Red ran off to. Maybe that thing woke up and decided to pay a visit to its species' historic homeland. Which means there might be other Guardians out there, if the threat is serious enough for a general gathering. And where there are Guardians, there are media helicopters. There are media outlets in this world that specialize specifically in disasters and superheroes, and they often have guys with abilities who are pretty desperate to do their reporting right from the battlefields, in addition to cool equipment.

The risk of detection is pretty high, but Dad certainly can't be there - he's back in space. This time, the threat wasn't aimed directly at Earth -- just two belligerent alien races clashing in dangerously close proximity to our system. Not very prudent of them, they must know that the system is under the influence of the Viltrumite Empire, and that violation of borders, especially in the process of battle, will be punished immediately. Lucky for them, Nolan is still playing the role of a do-gooder for Earth, and is unlikely to carry out a massacre in such close proximity to the planet.

I decided to check if it was the underwater monster, and soon I saw the confirmation of my fears. However, the monster had not yet reached the coast of Japan, but decided to test the teeth of a passing tanker loaded with Japanese cars. The tanker, and more importantly its crew, did not appreciate the visitor, but they could not stop him in any way. It was not the guns of their escort group that were needed here, but something ten times bigger - as big as the enemy. That is assuming that the animal in front of them is relatively ordinary, with no supernatural qualities, as it sometimes is... in the latter case, the Japanese need to urgently call to huge humanoid fighting robot and schoolchildren from their homeland.

And yes, that was the big guy I didn't touch the last time I saw him. He seemed dangerous enough not to expect a quick and quiet victory, and yet I remembered nothing about his rampage in the last world. So I hoped he would sleep a little longer until I could act more openly. He didn't. Maybe I'd forgotten something, or maybe I'd just missed it, or maybe this time he was provoked by something that wasn't in that timeline.

Last time I couldn't get a good look at him-just a vague silhouette in a black-blue haze almost three hundred meters deep. But now it appeared to me and everyone else in all its glory. And it was a very strange creature. In its body structure it looked not like an underwater inhabitant, which it undoubtedly was, but like a giant bald gorilla with green skin. There were bony growths protruding from its back, like those of some herbivorous dinosaurs, but the most remarkable thing, and the only thing connecting it with the ocean, was the presence of six tentacles: four large, quite classical octopus-like tentacles, and two smaller ones without suckers around the mouth. And not, like Davy Jones, instead of a beard, but from the mouth upward, instead of the face. And the absence of eyes, perhaps, could also be considered a sign of deep water.

Oleg was hovering between the ship and the distant six horizons of the Japanese coast, pulling surviving crewmen and passengers from the ship. He didn't even try to attack the monster itself, only to save people - that's what he's really good at. Apparently such strong and large-sized creatures are beyond the speedster's abilities, so he decided to leave the battle to his more adapted to such things colleagues. Except that these colleagues were not visible, and the monster itself began to notice the problem - that his blows on the human figures, every time hit into the void - and because of this he became angry.

He wasn't keeping up. It's obvious. It's three hundred kilometers to the coast of Japan, which is quite significant, given the volume of the crew - the creature will break the ship faster. Oleg, of course, is fast, but not that fast, and... he gets tired. If at first I could barely distinguish the shadow of his movements, now I can already quite see the silhouette. And the monster, no matter how it navigates space without eyes, feels something, too. A pattern began to emerge in its movements-it was trying to hit the runner as it returned to the ship.

"Where is everybody?" I looked over the horizon, but I didn't see any heroes or even media helicopters.

The plan was to avoid the big mess and keep a low profile, but... this was not how I had imagined my debut... certainly not in a diving suit. But not in only my underpants, either - let's count ourselves lucky.

We could not wait any longer, we had to make up our minds, otherwise the Russian speedster was already walking under the death himself, in a desperate attempt to save the victims. I accelerated properly and rammed my body into the creature's neck, hoping that it would be more or less normal, and I would be able to penetrate through the soft tissue.

But that would have been too good. Alas for my luck, the monster's soft tissues weren't as soft as I'd hoped. Its hide and the muscles beneath it were harder than, and much harder than, the hardest rock, because any rock would have turned to dust on impact with me; here, only my bones and insides felt like they were turning to dust.

But the impact didn't go to waste, because I didn't manage to pierce the monster's skin; all the momentum was transmitted to its body, and it was enough to throw it back into the water off the deck of the ship. This gave me some time to recover from the collision and check the integrity of the humming bones.

Nothing seemed to be broken, but it hurt like hell. My hands are shaking.

"Ugh, nice hit, boy!" the speedster reappeared on the deck, and he managed to gibber at a speed that was barely audible to the ear and breathing heavily at the same time. "I don't know who you are, but it was about time! I was starting to get tired. What idiot came up with the idea of transporting people along with cars?"

Then I heard the creature roar from under the water, so indignant and deafening, and then it reappeared, not all of it, only the head and tentacles were sticking out over the water, and it went back to the tanker.

"Shit!" swore at the hero. "And I thought you were going to help me evacuate."

And he was gone again, back to saving people.

"And this thing you're leaving on me?" I asked him into the void.

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And, as if it had heard me, the Kaiju turned its eyeless face toward me with its, uh, tentacles, and it even stopped swimming toward the tanker.

"Um, hello?" I tried to make contact. "How about we settle this peacefully and, uh, go our separate ways?"

"GR-A-A-A!" The creature answered me quite eloquently, obviously recognizing me as the offender, and once again began to work with its paws, this time quite confidently raking in my direction.

"Great," I said to myself as I started to steer the creature away from the tanker and looked around to see if anything was flying.

He's not very nimble in the water. Especially given its sort of maritime origins.

The next second the monster, who seemed to me to be very heavy and slow, decided to prove that I shouldn't have underestimated him. The face tentacles of the creature, which was nearly forty meters away from me, suddenly shot toward me with very decent speed. They appeared elastic enough to lengthen several times.

"Easy!" I still managed to get out of the clenching ring of flesh, and then, with a few evasive maneuvers, I rushed toward the creature myself to lash out another mighty blow at its head-where the tentacles ended.

The monster's head obediently went under the water, but I experienced that feeling of futility in my attacks again-it was too damn solid! Strange, how is it that I hadn't heard anything about this monster in a previous life? Or am I overestimating myself and just too young for this battle, anything is possible.

Son of a...

One of the tentacles caught on my leg before diving in, gripping the suction cup firmly in my skin-the suit fabric was no obstacle in front of this thing at all.

I tried to free myself, of course, but even her suction cups were as abnormally stiff and strong as her skin. All I had to do was grab plenty of air with my mouth before I dived involuntarily. Already underwater I felt an insistent tentacle braid around my body, it was so thick that it eventually bound me from my shoulders to my knees. That's it! Now someone's going to get hurt!

I tensed, intending to tear the blob of muscle that had swollen around me in the most ruthless way possible, but instead I just felt my bones cracking and the oxygen being pushed out of my lungs... what the fuck? I can't overpower her? This thing... it's stronger than me... or rather, there's enough power in one of its tentacles to make me fart ineffectually fart from exertion. It pulled me into its mouth.

How could it do that? My first reckless heroic impulse had brought me down with such a powerful creature. There shouldn't be a dozen of them on the whole planet! My God, what a vile jaws... I don't want to go there!

Come on! This time I used not only my muscles, but my ability to fly, trying my best to move away from the unnaturally round, clinging mouth of the monster. And I was beginning to succeed, no matter how absurdly strong the monster's muscles were, it wasn't too heavy for me. Certainly not underwater.

The tentacles stretched like strings, trying to hold me back as I tried to return to the sky, but I still made it to the surface... and then it got harder. I got the carcass halfway out of the water, but I couldn't take off with it.

"Fuck you!" I was angry, I was going up as fast as I could, but the ballast was too much and my strength was not infinite.

I was beginning to get tired, because before all this I had spent an hour training underwater in the depths. There was no way I could take off with a carcass like that...

But when I had almost resigned myself to the fact that, like in the joke, I would have to find another way out, I heard the familiar battle cry of the news broadcasts. The next thing I knew, the most militant woman on Earth was collapsing on the creature's head. And the collapse, of course, was accompanied by the crowning blow of a mace to the impenetrable skull.

The creature let out another growl, painful this time, and loosened its grip on my tentacles.

At last, I rushed out of its grisly grasp and, a hundred yards away, looked around. The War Woman, who had saved me from repeating the exploit of Baron Munchausen, and the Immortal had already arrived to deal with the monster, and the first press choppers appeared on the horizon, in the direction of the Japanese islands.

The former president meanwhile picked up one of the cars from the deck of the tanker and checked its emergency safety by throwing it into the jaws of the monster. The car failed the crash test - one tentacle was enough to crush it like a tin can - but this distracted the monster for a moment, so War Woman, who was wrestling with the tentacles, could breathe a sigh of relief. And in the next second, the Immortal joined in her fight, already on his own.

They seem to be doing just fine here, and it's about time I had my honor.

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