Chapter Text
“We’ve got a fugitive alert!” Sara announced, hearing it pop up on the monitor connected to Ray’s Magic-o-meter. The team gathered in the bridge to get a look at the map. A red dot appeared in the Atlantic Ocean.
“Alright, I know you guys have got a screw loose about protecting history, but that doesn’t look like a threat.”
“Charlie’s got a point. Do we even need to go after this one?” Zari asked. “It could just be minding its own business.”
“Well it says here that it sank a cruise ship, killing all 3,128 people onboard, including author Dan Brown, just a year before he was meant to publish the Da Vinci Code .” Nate read.
“Sounds like we have a mission.” Sara concluded.
The Waverider shifted into floatation mode, cloaking itself and landing on the water just behind the cruiseship. “Alright, Gideon, can you scan the water for whatever fugitive we’re here for?” Sara requested.
“Certainly, Captain” the AI replied, using SONAR to search for any large organisms under the surface of the water. With a soft ‘ping’ Gideon displayed the resulting image on the ship’s monitor. There was a faint outline of a beast of colossal proportions. It was long, with several sets of large, lobey, fins. A thin line along the middle of the creature indicated the presence of powerful spines running along its back. At its front, the creature’s outline had strange curves in a blurry, indeciferable mess. Gideon sent another round of SONAR and updated the image. The creature was gone.
In the distance, a large wave arose, coming towards the two ships as a silver creature burst out of the water. It had large, metallic scales, each sitting flush against the others in a tight configuration. The team understood what had caused the SONAR imaging to have a blurry front end for it: the creature had seven heads, with large necks twisting and meandering together. One opened its jaws and let out a roar. The people on the deck of the cruise ship in front of them clasped their hands over their ears and ran for cover inside the ship. Despite the Waverider’s insulation, even the team could hear the monster’s battle cry.
“What is that?” Ray wondered aloud. He stood, mouth open, observing the creature. It was several times larger than even the dinosaurs he lived among after the time scattering incident. Its shape seemed to break the laws of physics and Ray wondered how such a large creature could ever swim or eat enough to survive, but here it was, with fourteen cold black eyes staring mercilessly at the Waverider and the Cruiseship.
“Leviathan.” Charlie recognized.
“We need to lure it away from all those people.” Sara stated. She marched to the ship’s controls, readied the engines, and flew the Waverider out of the water. After turning off the ship’s cloaking, she fired a laser canon at Leviathan and flew past the monster, catching its attention. There was burst of smoke as the attack landed on the target’s chest but the creature seemed unharmed and merely pissed off. Four of the heads let out roars as the monster slowly turned around (forming another giant wave) and began to swim after the Waverider.
The monster dove its many heads under the water, then resurfaced, lunging out of the water towards the ship, with jaws snapping, sending another collosally sized wave out into the rest of the ocean. Sara pulled the ship higher into the air, just dodging the monster’s attack. Leviathan dove beneath the surface once more.
“What’s the plan here, Cap?” Nate asked.
“Yeah, how are we supposed to catch that ?” Zari wondered.
“Charlie, do you know of any weaknesses it has?”
“Other than it being destined to be the supper of the righteous?” Charlie answered “Haven’t a clue. Even the most dangerous kept away from that thing in the prison. It’s supposed to be invincible.”
“Awesome.” Zari commented, sarcastically.
“A common power to keep men in awe...” Nate murmured, thinking about Hobbes’s book. The Waverider’s alarms interrupted his thoughts. Leviathan had made another attack and this time it had struck. Sparks flew and the lights went out as the jaws of one of the heads tightened around the ship.
“Nate, prepare the jumpship.” Sara commanded. Nate ran to the back of the ship. He stumbled as the beast let go and threw the ship through the air. He ducked inside the jumpship, letting out a short sigh of relief that he had made it before he began readying its engines.
A jolt shook the ship as Leviathan swung its tail like a club and hit the ship into the water. Sara jumped back as a piece of tech fell from the ceiling, crashing onto her leg, bringing her to the ship’s metallic floor. The monster dealt the ship another blow and more sparks flew. More tech broke. The impulse that carried through the ship knocked the team off their feet, sending them crashing into the walls as water surrounded the ship and it sank, the light fading from the windows as it plummeted to the bottom of the ocean.
~
Charlie felt a pain in her abdomen as she lay on the metal floor of the bridge. She was on her back. Zari lay slumped against the wall a few yards away. “Z-aah” Charlie tried to call out to her friend, only to feel a stabbing pain. ‘Stabbing’ was right: a part of one of the lights had fallen and embedded itself in her abdomen during the crash. Charlie groaned, fighting against the pain as she forced herself into a sitting position and ripped out the fixture. A thin line of gold light shon around the wound as she shapeshifted, healing herself. “Zari!” Charlie finally called out, standing up and approaching her friend. She kneeled at her side and gently shook her shoulder. Zari’s eyes snapped open.
“Aghh” Zari moaned, reaching to her head, though there was no noticeable would. Charlie offered her a hand and Zari took it, rising to her feet. A wave of vertigo struck her and she emptied her stomach contents on the floor. Charlie steadied her until she gave a nod that she was fine. Zari looked past the woman beside her at Ray, who sat cradling his right wrist. It curved at an unnatural angle. “Ray! Are you ok?” she called out. She started to walk over when Sara caught her eye: her leg was broken. There was a clear bump in her leg where the bone inside was no longer aligned, made obvious by the purple bruises marbling the skin at the wound. Sara met her gaze.
“Is everyone alright?” The captain called out. Ray let out a groan as he climbed to his feet.
“My wrist is broken, but I think Gideon will be able to fix it.” Ray replied. The team was silent for a moment, waiting for Gideon’s confirmation, which didn’t come. “Gideon?” he tried again.
“I think we’re gonna have to do this the old fashioned way.” Zari noted.
“I think you’re right about that” Sara agreed. “Zari, go to the medbay and get supplies. We’re gonna need to make some splints.”
“And some adrenalin” Ray added, looking at the darkness outside the window. In the distance, a faint light highlighted the large jaws of an angler fish. “I don’t think we’ll be getting out of here before our current fix wears off”
“I’m going to check on Nate” Charlie volunteered, walking into the hallway towards where the jumpship was attached. Zari started towards the medical bay, almost tripping as another wave of vertigo caused her to lose her balance and end up leaning against the wall.
Sara stared at the anglerfish in the distance. Ray was right about the adrenalin: she could barely feel the massive wound in her leg. Her heart pounded as she worried about how they would get the ship off of the bottom of the ocean. “You know, I’ve always wanted to see one of those.” Ray chirped. Sara could sense the insinserity in his voice, coupled with the desperation to find a way to stay positive. All of the ship’s lights were off, save for the dim emergency lights they probably couldn’t shut off if they wanted to. The outlines of the brighter - now broken - bulbs were visible, as was the shattered glass and scattered machine parts on the floor.
Zari looked around the dark room that was the medbay. She approached the cabinet in the corner, which was not brightly lit as she had been expecting. She pulled open the door, and peered through its contents, blinking several times as she tried to focus on what she was meant to collect.
Charlie let out a sigh of relief when she saw the jumpship was still attached. “Nate, are you alright in there?” she called out as she walked towards its door.
“I’m alright.” Nate confirmed. Charlie saw the outline of his fingers and most of his palm pressing through the gap in the door. “The door’s stuck though. I can’t get out.” Charlie heard him turn to steel, followed by the sliding of metal as he pressed against the door, willing it to open just a few more inches. It didn’t. “How are the others?” he asked.
“We’ve got a broken leg and wrist” Charlie listed.
“That sucks. I think Gideon’s down.” Nate responded. He sighed, “Look, I think I ought to be pretty low on the priority list right now, but do me a favor and try to get me out soon?” He asked.
“On it.” Charlie confirmed. She turned around and returned to the bridge. “He’s alright, but he’s trapped on the jumpship” She reported.
“Right.” Sara nodded. “Go help Zari. I don’t know why she isn’t back yet.” She instructed. Charlie turned and made her way towards the medbay.
“Hey Z! What’s takin’ so long? Huh?” She called out. Upon entering the medbay, she found Zari sitting by a panel she had taken off the wall. She watched as the other legend peered at the wires, checking that the risisters were intact and none of the wires needed replacing. “What are you doing? I thought you were getting supplies?” Charlie asked. Zari turned to look at her and her jaw dropped.
“Amaya!” She greeted her. Zari clumsily attempted to reattach the panal to the wall. She rose to her feet and walked over, crashing into Charlie as another wave of dizziness coulded her coordination. Charlie tightened her arms around the Legend, and took a quick step back, hoping to balance their weight and keep them both from falling.
“Z - are you o-”
“What are you doing here? I thought you were back in Zambesi.” Zari asked cutting her off. She let go of Charlie and stepped back, grabbing onto the arm of the medchair next to her to steady herself. Zari looked around the medbay, as if only now noticing that all the lights were off. “Hey, what happened to the medbay?” she wondered aloud. Zari turned back towards the panel she had been looking at, carefully pulling its cover off of the wall.
“We’re supposed to be grabbing medical supplies” Charlie reminded her. The shapeshifter walked towards one of the corner cabinets and began pulling out materials necessary to make a splint. Zari followed, furrowing her brow.
“You haven’t answered any of my questions.” She stated. Charlie handed Zari some of the materials.
“C’mon. We’re taking these to Sara.” The two left the medbay, returning to the bridge.
“Seriously, what happened to the ship?” Zari asked as she followed Charlie. She leaned heavily against the wall as she walked. Her eyes darted around the ship as she realized that power was off for the entire ship, not just the medbay. She stopped in her tracks upon seeing Sara and Ray sitting injured on the floor. “Sara… your leg!”
“Thanks, I hadn’t noticed, Zari” Sara replied sarcastically. Charlie kneeled down next to her, muttering about how on earth she’s supposed to realign a leg. She took an ice pack, snapped it so the chemicals inside could mix and produce the cold temperature, and handed it to Sara to press to the wound.
“We should get her to the med bay.” Zari stated. “Gideon can probably-”
“We were just there?” Charlie interrupted, incredulously, now working on a splint for Ray’s wrist. “You know Gideon isn’t working.”
“Why? What happened?” Zari asked. “Is that why the lights are out?”
“You don’t remember the crash?” Ray asked. Zari’s eyes widened and she shook her head.
“She doesn’t remember that I’m not Amaya” Charlie noted, realizing why her friend had reacted to seeing her in that way. Zari narrowed her eyes and looked at her, clearly confused.
“That isn’t good.” Ray muttered.