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Carl wiped the sweat from his brow as he walked out of the kitchen and onto the deck. He pulled out his cigarettes and his sunglasses. The rest of the crew could mock him all they wanted but the Sun was downright blinding when it hit the water just right.
Like it was doing right now.
Carl looked out over the endless expanse of the Atlantic ocean. He lit his cigarette and enjoyed the dance of the cold ocean air fighting the heat of his lighter. If he strained his eyes to the east he could almost make out the silhouette of another cargo ship.
If he looked to the west there was the sun. And something else he thought. Carl squinted but the hazy blob on the horizon stayed a hazy blob. Carl shrugged then glanced back at the kitchen.
Reggie was almost finished washing the last of the dishes from lunch and Lewis was somewhere. Probably rewatching the latest Protectorate video showing off Hero’s latest gadgets.
Carl understood the appeal abstractly but he couldn’t help but feel something sour in his stomach whenever he thought about, what was the word, “parahumans”. Sure they could fly and shoot lasers outta their eyes but they still hadn’t killed Behemoth.
Carl gave one last drag on his cigarette then, after looking around, flicked it over the railing. He’d lost a brother in New York to Behemoth. Never found the body. They’d had to bury an empty casket.
He shook his head to dislodge the thoughts and walked back into the kitchen. He finished his duties then took off to rest in his quarters until it was time to start preparing dinner.
He’d made it halfway there when Lewis suddenly ran up behind him.
“Carl, you gotta come see this,” said Lewis, already half-pushing Carl.
“What? See what?” asked Carl.
“There’s some kinda superhero stuff going on in the water,” said Lewis as he gave up on trying to push Carl. Lewis took off at a gallop with Carl following after a moment of hesitation.
They rushed towards the forecastle at the stem of the ship. There was already a crowd pointing at what looked like tornadoes made of water off in the distance.
“Please tell me someone has let the captain know that we need to change course immediately,” said Carl, not bothering to keep the shiver out of his voice.
“Steve already called him,” said Johann, one of the engine crew. “Should be turning any second now.” Just as the man finished speaking the ship rumbled and began to veer off to the portside of whatever was in front of them.
“Can anybody see what’s causing it?,” asked Carl. His mind raced. Something he’d read in the newspaper not too long ago came to mind. “Think it’s some kinda super-powered pirate thing like what happened down in Florida last year?”
“I think it's some kinda new Coast Guard thing the Protectorate are doing,” said Lewis.
“We’re still at least two days away from American waters. And they woulda signaled the captain and the bridge already,” said Carl.
“Maybe it’s that monster that hit Oslo a few months ago,” said Johann. A collective shudder ran through the crew.
“Look!” exclaimed Lewis. “There’s a boat coming.” He pointed and everyone turned to follow his finger.
True enough there was a small boat, about the size of a Coast Guard patrol boat approaching. Which didn’t make sense as those things didn’t have the fuel to get this far into open water. Unless it was Tinkertech.
Carl could only watch in apprehension as the small boat got closer and closer. Curious and concerned conversations broke out around him as he squinted. He could make out a couple of figures at the wheel, one of whom was wearing some kind of metal helmet. He saw a couple of the men run back towards their quarters and the bridge. Carl was tempted to join them but a larger part couldn’t fight the need to see what was happening with his own eyes.
A small part of him wondered if his brother had thought something similar.
The sound of a loudspeaker crackled to life and Carl strained his ears to listen. Eventually the boat came close enough to be audible.
“Please retreat to your quarters. This is an ongoing c-combat zone. Your safety cannot be guaranteed,” said a male voice. Carl figured it belonged to the helmeted figure.
At this point most of the crowd followed the voices commands and left the forecastle. Only Carl, Lewis, and Johann remained. Meanwhile the chief mate, a sturdy gray-haired man in his 40s with an impressive beard, ran up with a megaphone in his hand.
“This is the cargo ship LMHG under whose authority are you operating?” called out the chief mate.
“We’re an independent group operating as concerned citizens for the safety of our fellow men,” came the response. Carl and Johann exchanged confused looks.
That answer apparently wasn’t enough for the chief mate as he proceeded to demand an answer in between strings of profanity. Eventually the chief mate calmed down long enough for the smaller boat to answer.
“We are a group of independent heroes who have come together to hunt down and kill the Leviathan that attacked Oslo back in June. We have people specialized in aquatic combat and we have brought some very big guns to kill it. It’s been a slippery opponent so far but we’ve finally managed to corner it,” said the helmeted man.
The small boat had maneuvered alongside the ship and gave Carl a chance to get a proper look. The helmeted figure looked appropriately superheroish enough. There was some kind of purple logo on his chest and the small boat had definitely been modified.
Unless green glowing engines were always on the market and nobody told him about them.
The chief mate took in a breath but whatever he was about to say was cut off by a deep boom. Carl snapped his head to look at the gargantuan cloud of water emerging between the water tornadoes.
Carl’s mind went blank as his body moved on trained instructions. He ran and grabbed a life-jacket from a box where they kept emergencies. The shockwave hit as he was shrugging on the vest. He felt the pressure on his body before he heard the boom. It wasn’t as loud as he’d feared but it did seem to echo in his head.
He didn’t know where Lewis, Johann, or the chief mate had run off to. All he could focus on was the plume of water as it fell down. Carl felt the ship lurch as thousands of tons of metal were jostled by hundreds of thousands of tons of water.
Then something strange happened. The rocking stopped abruptly. All of the rocking. All at once.
Carl cautiously peeled himself off the capstan he’d been clutching onto for dear life. He slowly looked out at the water. It looked strange and it took him a moment to realize what was strange about it.
The ocean wasn’t moving. The waves had frozen mid-motion without turning to ice. Carl looked where the water tornadoes and the explosion had been. Now there was a column of water sticking out of the Atlantic with sunlight streaming through the water, silhouetting shapes moving around inside of it.
Carl wasn’t sure when he started running. He wasn’t sure where he was running to either. This was something far beyond his understanding and he wanted to be as far away as possible.
Memories of his brother flashed unprompted through his mind.
He was halfway back to the crew quarters when the ship lurched again. This time it was moving at a speed Carl had never thought possible. He grabbed onto a railing for support and tried to see through the sharp wind assaulting his face.
The whole ship was being pulled towards the column of seawater like some kind of reverse whirlpool from a kid’s film. What in the name of God could do something like that, thought Carl.
He got his answer before long.
The cargo ship was pulled right alongside the water column. Close enough to let Carl see the shape of the Oslo monster chasing some kind of Tinkertech submarine.
Both the sub and the monster were making hairpin turns at speeds that looked impossible even as Carl watched. Something seemed to shift and then the monster started swimming faster.
The chase ended as the sub was seized by the monster, pushing the sub partly out of the column of water. Exposing a Tinkertech engine now burning uselessly in mid-air by the monster’s grip.
Then the beast swam to the top of the column, keeping the sub out of the water the entire time. It leaped out of the top of the column still holding the submarine. For a moment Carl had the image of a child playing with a toy as the creature soared through the air leaving an trail of water behind it.
He watched as it reached the peak of its leap then, as if deliberately allowing gravity to take hold, fell back down to the ocean. The submarine hit the water first as the Leviathan, for what other word could fit, started swimming down almost faster than Carl could track and carving a furrow of air in its wake.
The column began to collapse in on itself as the leviathan dove down and out of Carl’s line of sight. He didn’t dare move.
He could only watch as the ship began to lean. Where there was once a pillar of water there was now a rapidly deepening pit. A deep and black thing surrounded by water that still refused to act like water.
Carl held onto the railing for dear life as the ship threatened to tip over completely and send them all plummeting down to the muddy ocean floor.
Carl caught a glint of something metal at the bottom of the pit but it was quickly obscured by the Leviathan. The head turned and Carl swore those four eyes were staring into his soul. Then it was hidden behind a rushing wave of water as the power holding back the water ended.
The pit closed and another huge plume of water shot up into the sky. The ocean began moving again as the plume of water crashed down on the deck of the ship.
Carl tried to maintain his grip on the metal railing but the water crushing down on him tore him away. Carl flailed about blindly as he was washed away.
He slammed against something metal. He felt something break in his legs and if there was any air left in his lungs he would have screamed. Then there was a horrifying feeling of weightlessness and then water everywhere.
Carl thrashed but his leg screamed in agony and he could only twist about in the water helplessly.
Carl felt his vision go dark.
When he regained consciousness Carl would have been extremely surprised had his legs not demanded his full attention.
He was floating on his back, thanks to his life jacket, staring up at a blankly blue sky. His right leg was in agony but the rest of him seemed mostly intact. Carl tried moving but his right leg meant swimming anywhere was out of the question
Carl just let himself float there, bleeding and broken but alive. He started to cry. For several reasons but none he could put words to at the moment. He only dimly registered seeing a small boat with a glowing green light speeding away.
His tears slowed enough to let him clearly see the water part and swallow the small boat in its entirety.
Eventually a rescue party found him floating there and got him out of the water. The LMHG survived but Lewis and the chief mate were lost overboard.
The damage to his leg was extensive and by the time they reached land some of it became permanent. Carl quit his job soon after and moved inland as soon as he could. He no longer questioned why the heroes couldn’t kill the Endbringers as they came to be called.