Fused together, Otto and Mo climb toward the surface.
The Russians can sense their approach on sonar, of course. Depth charges roll over the sides of destroyers. Mo deploys construction foam that hardens almost immediately in the water, and absorbs the worst of the impacts, but it also keeps the pair from getting near their objective.
“Too big,” Otto tells Mo, realizing the problem. Ever since the Invisible Invasion, the navies of the world have been on a quest to improve their sonar. They can pick up man-sized figures now. But the depth charges are big, slow things compared to a fast swimmer - they’re meant for things like submarines.
The fused pair ejects Otto’s human shell, with him inside it. Mo dives, drawing the attention of the sonar operators and depth charge gunners. And Otto deploys his jets, and streaks for the surface.
Out of the water, out of nowhere, he flies and lands on the deck. Seamen are everywhere, frantically operating the systems of the ship, directing fire at Safe Harbor. But this ship in particular has the emitter that’s guiding Titalion as well.
“Outta the way!” Otto roars, and charges at the nearest men. He bulls them out of the way, some over the railing and into the ocean, as he frantically looks for some kind of hatch that’ll take him inside. Gunfire bounces off him - but thank god it’s just regular ammo. It looks like the Navy is saving its special stuff for the soldiers inside the city.
He sees a sealed steel door leading into the interior of the ship. He doesn’t pause to open it - he simply smashes through, and leaps down the staircase beyond it.
The medics have attended to Tarasenko. The man is sedated and tied up, with his arm in a cast. Aria ordered them out of City Ops.
“C-135,” Aria calls over comms. “You’re at risk of flooding. Please unseal your door and move to emergency shelter A-5, three floors down. There’s a risk of soldiers, so please be careful…”
Summer, at the Launch System, is busy flipping through camera feeds. She can’t tag and track every individual Russian soldier throughout Safe Harbor. But she can get a sense of their activities. Almost none of them are complying with the order to stay put in the public zones.
One by one, room by room, family by family, the calls go out.
Some spheres report back negative on evacuation. Some have worse news. “We spotted soldiers, so we retreated.” “They captured Edward and Corey.” “We haven’t heard back from that group, Ms. Newman.”
Aria hangs her head. She wants to cry. She wants to put it all on pause and just let go of her emotions. But she can’t. There’s other people who need her.
She turns back to look at Leo, just for a moment. His steady gaze is both reassuring and profoundly concerning. None of what’s here seems to be reaching him.
How far gone is he…?
But she can’t even save him right now. She returns to the board.
“Hopper Sphere citizens, stay put, there’s hostile activity right now. Get to the closest point of safety, whatever that is. D-92, begin evacuating to shelter T-4, three floors above you…”
The first calls come in. Aria knows what they are. Demands from Russian soldiers who are holding her people hostage.
How long can she ignore them for?
Big Bill, without the added propulsion from Mo, can’t swim as fast. But he doesn’t give up. As Titalion resumes ramming its head into one of the Deep Leviathans, he has time to close the distance.
He swims behind the great lumbering beast, looking for anything mechanical or artificial that might stand out. Nothing - nothing - nothing!
The creature is battering his new home, and Bill has never felt more useless.
Think - think - THINK, damn you!
He’s inherited the brain of a genius, filtered through Otto’s practical wisdom and situational cleverness. He’s gotta have something upstairs!
What do we know - what do we know - what do we know
Few people really know anything about Titalion. It’s just one of those things Earth has, a weird giant monster that comes out of nowhere sometimes and causes chaos. So–
The European supers. They managed to knock it off balance by shooting it in the ears. And horses are steered with bits in their mouths.
This happened during “406 - The Beast That Blocks Out the Sun!” – Ed.
He’s on the wrong side of Titalion. But the creature’s face is smashing into the city–
He swims left, looking into the shaggy ear of the creature.
There! A glint of metal.
Big Bill launches his grapples at the thing. They take hold, and he begins yanking.
Titalion’s scream of pain echoes through the ocean, and it turns to face the source of its agony.
Aria has delegated the evacuation operation to Summer. She can’t put the Russians off any longer.
The voice is in heavily accented English. “Woman! We have your people! Surrender city! Or they die! You have 3 minutes!”
She has to buy time somehow. “Who am I surrendering to? I’ve had five calls like yours in three different spheres. And none of you are here with me. So how do you want to do this?”
The desperation of the soldiers in taking hostages is also their weakness. They know their fellows will have done the same. But beyond that? There’s no plan. This is a job for officers, and they acted against their commander.
“If you attack us, we will kill the hostages!” the soldier announces.
“As I said, I can’t–” Aria begins to explain.
There’s sounds of screaming, the sounds of violence and gunfire, and Aria pales and begins to tremble. What must have happened?
But a moment later, a new voice comes on the radio. “City Ops. The exiled Atlantean ninja have not forgotten your kindness. We defend our home. Leave this matter to us.”
“City Ops acknowledges,” Aria says, as tears pour out of her eyes and down onto her hands.
Summer is doing what Aria does. But she can’t do it the way Aria did.
“F-14. Hi, Alan, hi Mitsuki. Listen, there’s people shooting at us. We’re really sorry, but if the hull gives way it’s gonna break into your section… I know we said to stay inside, but for right now please get to a shelter..”
She jumps off the call and onto PA. “Hey, folks. I know there’s a lot of uncertainty right now. There’s soldiers inside the city and Navy outside. We’re gonna do whatever we can to help you out right now. If there’s anyone who is hurt, medical teams are standing by. Please call it in if you need help. We’re all scared right now and we’re gonna get through this together.”
It sounds corny and cheesy and all that. There are life and death stakes here. But right now, this is all she can do. So by god, she’s going to do it.
Mo has dodged all the depth charges he can. The destroyers and their sonar sets are still hunting him, but they’re also having to dodge Deep Leviathan tentacles. It’s chaotic no matter how you look at it.
Otto’s aboard the control ship, doing whatever Otto shit needs to be done. It’s time for Mo to step up. What can he do?
Give the Navy another target.
He jets out of the ocean, scanning the assembled ships for a likely candidate, and spots the biggest and baddest ship he can. Fine.
He comes down on the deck. The turreted guns can’t traverse to hit something like him, but the guns on other ships can target him.
Time to hustle.
He launches himself at the nearest turret, and grabs one barrel. The weight of two vehicle shells gives him the leverage, and his strength is enough to physically bend the barrel. The gun crew doesn’t get the word quite in time, and a shell tries to fire through the barrel–
The explosion obliterates the turret and knocks Mo to the deck. Some of that weird purple shit has cut into him, and he can feel the pain of the injury.
Round two, assholes, he tells himself, and rises from the deck.
Otto tears through the lower decks of the ship. Guns don’t matter. Knives don’t matter. The sailors bring to bear everything they have. None of it’s enough.
Of course he has no idea what he’s looking for. Everything’s labeled in Russian. But he’s got a solid understanding of mechanics and electronics, a reasonable grounding in power plants thanks to the work on fusion power, and a good sense of what warning signs look like. You’re gonna put special stuff in safe places.
There. He sees a bunch of stuff that looks like it means “power plant” in Russia. Gauges showing amperes and voltage. Warning signs that have lightning bolts. It doesn’t smell like oil, either - it smells like ozone.
Otto charges in, grabs hold of whatever he can reach, and starts tearing.
Aria is keeping the Russians talking, while the Atlantean ninja living in her city mobilize and deal with the intruders.
We’re supposed to be keeping them safe, she tells herself.
She hears Summer’s voice over the PA.
Objectively she doesn’t like it. Summer spends way too much time in the personal stuff, looking up names. She could be making announcements at least three times faster without that. But…
It’s comforting.
I should have asked her to do this immediately. It’s not just me. It’s us.
She glances over for a moment, and spots Leo. But he’s doing something–
He’s wiring himself to the Heart Factory. He’s plugging it into the City Ops controls.
He’s connecting himself to the Leviathans, she realizes. He’s doing what I was going to do to him.
“Leo, no–” she starts to say. Don’t do this. Don’t become one with these - these animals we made. Don’t go any further away from me than you already are.
But he looks back at her. She sees his eyes, looking at her.
What’s in those eyes isn’t an animal. It’s - it’s not the Leo Snow of the Menagerie, not the Leo Newman she married, not the man with dreams and hopes and plans and joys and sorrows. Not the ordinary mortal man.
It’s him. It’s whatever is at the core of him.
It’s at the core of her too.
My pain will not permit this harm to be inflicted. My love will destroy all those who hate.
He makes the connection, and the Deep Leviathans howl in unison.