2010-07-27 - Cretoxyrhina mancelli vs. Basilosaurus cetoides
From Four Color Comics MUX
| Cretoxyrhina mancelli vs. Basilosaurus cetoides | |||
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| Summary: Mesozoa and Nereid meet at sea whilst the former is playing in the form of a plesiosaur of some kind. Mr. Pleistocene makes his first appearance in a surprise assassination attempt since Paleogene sea life is the absolute coolest. | |||
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It's open water in all directions. There might be a ship or two on the horizon sometimes but that's actually an infrequent occurrence. Above the surface, nothing much is happening. Below, there is a school of mackerel swarming about, twisting into spirals and curls beneath the waves almost like a single organism while the members feed and try to evade predators. There are predators about, oh yes. Sharks. They aren't in a frenzy or anything, but they are swimming about snacking on those they can reach.
There's one other predator on the loose today. A plesiosaur, four distinct flukes, a round body, and long slender neck complete. It also hunts the fish, paddling as fast as its sinuous body will propel it after its prey. It isn't as quick as some of the more modern species, but it's fast enough to succeed and big enough to ward off others who might try to intrue.
It's also about eighty million years extinct.
The sharks might not panic, but the smaller fish will surely do so when it becomes obvious someone is snacking on them. Eventually they'll dive and dart around faster.
For her part, Dynamene is on her way back to Atlantis. Monthly reports and all. But it's on her way back when she feel something odd moving through the water. She frowns; she's never felt any sea creature move like this. To sate her curiosity she changes directions and heads for the creature. The herald of her approach is the mass of bubbles her speeding through the water causes, which slows down as the shape of the creatures comes into view.
The plesiosaur continues bobbing about, swiveling itself rapidly to snag unwary specimens that pass by, eventually starting to lose the school as they make their retreat in the name of continued survival. Of course, she's also distracted by an oncoming column of bubbles that stretches back a reasonable ways through the ocean, a rapidly-dispersing wake, but still long for the velocity involved.
She (it is a she) pulls up short to regard this new arrival with surprising intelligence, flukes waving idly to hold her stationary within the water. Sharks and school spiral slowly downwards.
When the bubbles finally fade, they reveal the blue fishscale-clad form of the Atlantean princess, who begins to eyeball the pleisosaur with increasing curiosity. Long neck. Strong jaws. That explains the fish hurriedly leaving the area. She's not one to attack something strange immediately, especially when that something happens to be an animal that was just feeding. Talking helps. << Greetings... >> The 'what are you?' comment she always feels an urge to ask isn't going to get her anywhere. Animals don't know a biped's words for them, most of the time.
The plesiosaur's nostrils flare at the greeting, and it paddles itself a little bit closer, though not at an aggressive speed. << Good day,>> It answers, speaking an archaic form of fish-words. << What manner of being are you?>> It seems somebody else isn't as hesitant with such inquiries; it does not have the cadence or limited diction of an animal, either. No 'Hello Nereid' here. Its head tilts a bit to regard the sea-princess, fangs jutting out around its jaws by nature rather than intentional menace.
Which just makes things more interesting, doesn't it? Dynamene's normally stoic expression shifts. That's almost a smile, there. With normally fish, with a few exceptions, she has to be unbelievably patient when they try to talk to her. Here... well, this seems to be a different story, doesn't it? << I'm from a place just beyond the pillars of Herakles, >> she replies, using a very old descriptor for the location of Atlantis.
<< Just beyond the...>> Bubbles travel from the gills on the plesiosaur's sides as it ponders this data, trying to place it. The archaic speech is archaic because it was god-taught; this is a modern animal, though the distinction may be hard to see at first. << Is that somewhere in the region of Gibraltar?>> She finally inquires. << Uh, I mean, I do not mean to be rude, I just wasn't expecting mermaids.>>
A pause, more bubbles, and then: << I'm Mesozoa.>>
Nereid turns in the appropriate direction, pointing to the straight of Gibraltar and the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea many miles away. << In that direction. Just a little to the northwest, >> she explains. 'Gibraltar' means nothing to her. Her next project is to learn modern place names, but she has yet to embark on that project. She frowns and shakes her head, << I am not a Siren, >> she insists, gesturing at her lack of tail. << My name is Dynamene. >>
First the long neck cranes back a bit to peer in the direction Nereid points, as if she could see that far. Then she looks back at the woman in the scaled bodysuit. It's somewhat odd to observe, but the plesiosaur does its best to squint. Its face is a fish-face and not entirely made for such expressions, but having the idea of how to make them, she puts up a good attempt. << Not a siren? A-alright. Nice to meet you anyway Dynamene. This isn't anyone's lawn or anything is it? I mean, so to speak. I was just playing.>> With fish.
Nereid shakes her head. << You are on the edge of Atlantis' territory, >> she tells the seeming-marine reptile. << But nobody inside would give it another thought if another creature swam through their waters... Besides, >> she adds sounding maybe more than a little prideful, << not just anyone within can speak to animals of the sea. >>
<< Atlantis? For real?>> Mesozoa should really read her files more closely. Or like, Geography books. It's marked. << Wait, really, you can't all talk to fish? I mean I can't really talk to fish either. I just uh, eat them sometimes.>> The bestest sashimi. << I was exploring a little. Is it just something you can do?>>
Oh, that just makes her swell up with pride even more and the tension vanishes from her face, replaced by a big smile. << Just me, >> she replies. She pauses and considers; every time she's mentioned Atlantis to other animals, they understand it in vague terms - a home for these weird things with legs that can survive down here. No fish has stopped and spoken of Atlantis as if they know about it more than as a home for undersea beings. << You you know about Atlantis? >>
<< Well, I mean, I know legends and stuff. >> The Plesiosaur answers a bit hesitantly, sure now that she's overplaying her hand a bit, something her spy training says not to do even you have totally met the most awesome talking monkey or something. This is a talking fish...woman...something but same idea. << I mean and news reports about weird stuff but I didn't pay a lot of attention. I am actually from Detroit. Or Dinotroit now I guess. >> She paddles uncertainly in the current.
Nereid looks blank. << Legends? Stuff? ...Where? >> Too many questions. The Atlantean princess frowns. << You are more talkative than the whales and dolphins I know. >> Smarter too, from the sounds of it. Though the whales and dolphins she knows are pretty bright themselves, they didn't quite speak back to her the way Mesozoa is. They also name themselves, which is why she didn't bat an eyelash at the name revelation.
Now Mesozoa looks a little bit blank herself. Then she just seems to shrug--sort of a ripple of a sinuous body--and goes on. << I am not a dolphin or whale I guess. >> She finally concludes. << You're more talkative than most sea-residents I've met too. >> The school of mackerel and their shark friends are long out of view, now, though there is another silhouette off in the distance, moving with an odd vertically anguilliform pattern through the water.
Nereid shrugs right back. Though before she answers, she peers at that shape in the distance. As she resumes speaking, she periodically looks over her shoulder to keep an eye on the thing. << You are not a whale or a dolphin, >> she agrees with a nod. << I... don't know what you are. >> She's seen marine reptiles before of course - mainly turtles, but a few snakes. Nothing like a pleisosaur.
<< I'm a plesiosaur! >> Mesozoa declares proudly. She felt the ancient form deep within herself and had to try it on for a bit. << Which is I admit not a normal modern occurrence in these seas--what is that? >> She has finally noticed the strange silhouette, and is sort of puzzled by a faint familiarity in the shape and motion. Not enough to like, be able to identify it.
It comes closer, and is moving fairly fast. As it grows larger, it is also apparent that it is a fairly large animal--no, a gigantic animal. A basilosaurus. It doesn't seem to be pausing to say hello.
The Atlantean's eyes go wide. Today's just a day for animals she's never seen before, isn't it? << ...What is that? >> she asks, hoping the talkative plesiosaur might have some idea. Why not, it seems smart enough!
<< I don't...I don't know. >> Mesozoa sounds upset by this. She thrash-flails a bit in the water, suddenly forgetting how to use her flukes effectively. It's a bad time for mistaking how to swim, because the basilosaurus charges them both at the last moment, a surge of a 60ft animal roaring towards the both of them with jaws agape.
It does have a little bit to say, though it's not very nice: << Stay dead!>>
Mesozoa is not bitten by a half-seconds' sufficient thrash, but the wake sends her rolling in the water for several feet, ending with her belly-up towards the surface, peering back at the threat with her craning neck, anxious.
Nereid dives downwards as the basilosaurus charges, but only at the last second when she is sure that Mesozoa is all right. She heads all the way down to the sea floor, scooping up a handful of dead coral that she finds below. Considering how far along they are, it might have been something temporarily lodged in a boat. As she rises back to the level she left Mesozoa, she immediately starts looking for the basilosaurus, the coral in her hands seemingly growing without a specific shape or pattern.
<< Ahhhhhhh! >> That Mesozoa, screaming as she dodges away from the basilosaurus and dives further in the water, sort of after Dynamene. She is swimming as fast as she can, which is not very fast until she remembers about the shapeshifting--at which point her form morphs, shimmers a little, and grows into a vast shape of its own--a Cretoxyrhina. Enormous, sinuous, and quick.
Of course, she continues screaming and running away anyway.
The basilosaurus chases, gnashing great teeth and seeming to almost ignore the pint-sized human alongside its path.
A thrill rushes through Nereid as she acts. She's not sure if it's her own doing, her own personality, or something within her that reacts to doing something that can be seen as protecting Atlantis. If the beast isn't stopped here, pint-sized human things could be snacks later, right? By this time she has shaped that bit of coral into something large and approximating a trident and as the basilosaurus passes her and lunges for Mesozoa, Nereid strikes. She thrusts her arm out, aiming at the great beast's flank with her tri-pronged weapon.
The trident strikes home in the basilosaurus's side. It would be hard for it to dodge, really, given its extreme size and committed vector. It roars and comes to a halt, circling around to address this new threat. A trail of blood flows into the water from where its side is pierced. It thrashes its whole body at Dynamene, both in pain, and a deliberate act of attack: it is creating a massive current with its body, a sudden shock in the water meant to push the smaller woman away and also overwhelm sensitive underwater senses.
Mesozoa turns now as she can't hear the thing chasing her, with a << Whoa, >> as she spots the trident. She didn't quite see where it came from, but she'll like, explore that later if there is an opportunity. For now she will swim straight back up and latch her teeth almost daintily onto the basilosaurus's tail on the down-swoosh.
This elicits an almost comical expression of dismay from the great fish before it shakes the Cretoxyrhina off. << I'll kill you again, and again, as many times as it takes! >>
Nereid does indeed get buffeted by the current, tumbling backwards through the water. The appearance of the Cretoxyrhina surprises her - it's shark-like enough for her to recognize the shape, but she has never seen one. And where did the plesiosaur go? It takes her a minute or so, shaking her head clear after that tumbling, before she darts through the water to grab the trident, pulling it from the basilosaurus, only to stab it again. Hopefully those sharks are still in the area.
<< What is going /on/, what is this thing? >> The Cretoxyrhina asks, in Mesozoa's voice, though at a slightly lower timbre now. She doesn't respond to its words directly, and instead swims around it, trying to avoid jaws as it snaps at her, recoiling only when it gets a trident in the side again. Another roar, some particularly aquatic curses, and it loops away, swimming up and over before its body splits into a school of large ocean-going fish that might be somewhat ancestral to sturgeons--including being kind of big and toothy in their own rights. They all sport wounds in their sides, leaking faint blood. If there are sharks, that will probably bring them.
<< Mesozoa? >> She transformed herself into something else? That's... kind of amazing, really. She pulls her trident out as she says this, and gets ready for a follow up stab before the thing splits into a group of large sturgeonish fish. << I have no idea. But bleeding is a good sign! >> Something her tutor burned into her brain. IF you're fighting something and you make it bleed, that means it -can- be hurt. And that's always a good sign.
<< Bleeding is--yeah, it's something anyway! >> Mesozoa thrashes out of the way of one bite, only to get chomped by a couple of others. She chomps back, and she's bigger, taking a chunk out of a side. Meanwhile, three others dart around Nereid's trident-wielding form, jaws snapping.
Other oceanic silhouettes begin to approach, sharks on the return path now that more prey has made itself known.
Instead of trying to just fight the fish that came at her, she instead starts swimming towards one of them. And once the much smaller fish is in front of her she latches onto the beast and keeps swimming. Faster, faster... and right in front of the shark. << Food for my favourite shark! >> she chimes merrily. There are sharks around Atlantis of course, like the ones out here. Atlanteans keep them fed for various reasons. Here, Nereid's just trying to earn a little more goodwill. She stops and lets go of the fish, letting it tumble through the water, towards the bigger shark.
The pre-sturgeon yells as it is grabbed; they all yell and shout in a cacophany of identical voices, the same man's voice split into six pieces. As the one sturgeon falls into the shark's path, it is bitten and beset and immediately tries to retreat. Other sharks follow, home in. The sturgeons swim back together and start to retreat as a group, swimming fast, with sharks right behind. Mesozoa snaps at her as they go, but really she's content to let them escape--and is bleeding a little herself, which isn't entirely unnoticed by local shark populations even if they don't come straight for her, given her size. << Oh dear, >> she comments, watching them. << I should... go back to land I think, >> she mutters. << They look hungry. >>
Nereid tries to tell the sharks that they're not allowing chewing on Mesozoa. Let them ponder that one. << The shoreline is this way. >> She'll carry Allison through the water if she needs to, but if not she will simply guide the woman the quickest way through the water, away from the sharks and towards the land.
Mesozoa can still swim--she just got some fancy teethmarks on her, and keep sparing nervous glances sharkwards, though a combination of persuasion and the lack of a really easy target is enough to protect her as she skedaddles back towards the shore. << Th-thanks, >> she murmurs. << Man HQ is gonna be angry. But they said to try and practice... >> She rambles a little bit, still adrenalized from the encounter.
