Visions of the Sea

Charles had watched Dr. Grant quickly move away from him, pushed by a great force.

One that he knew.  

Megaladon.

Charles removed his mouth piece, and exhaled.  The hammerheads around him began to circle quicker, but not by choice... by the force of something giant in the deep.

Not the force that pushed Dr. Grant away, a much larger, much older power pulled him in.

The sea lords were going through the ritual of old.  To consult the madness, they created a virtual black hole in the deep.  Controlled chaos.

He couldn't fight it.  Nor would he have wanted to.  His only anxiety was how his brother in law was going to react. 

Thaddeus Grant wasn't about to just tuck his tail and run.

And Charles knew exactly who was going to be keeping the good doctor company.

But there was no point fretting over things out of his control.

Concentrate on the problem at hand.

He came up to the sea lords, chanting their mystic lament, seeking guidance from the universe, from the madness which spawned them.

He was offered no greeting, his invite only to sit in. 

No new practice to him, Charles slipped into the speechless telepathy invoked by the ritual.

The black hole below him opened to reveal stars, being swallowed by it.

The galaxy we inhabit circled it vigorously, being torn apart, bit by bit, star by star.

Vividly magnifying, a thick bolt of light shone out from our solar system, piercing the black hole, inverting it, causing it to push the stars and galaxies away from it, stretching time and space.

The sea lords continued to chant, but the controlled chaos they had been able to harness shrunk into nothingness, but for a grain of heavy sand, which Megaldon quickly snatched.

And as he did, Charles felt the tables of fate turn.  A heavier gravity than the black hole itself, something only his connection with the madness allowed him to perceive.  

Unsure of what he was even being told, he could only stare into the gaping maw of the gigantic shark, but not seeing Megaladon at all.  

But what he did see was definitely a shark.

...

And he forced himself to hide not just his smile, but his thoughts as well.

Because he could see the light.

And it was monstrous.

The Beast

Warmth, blessed warmth.
Doctor Grant removed his helmet and breathed deep the sea.

His host passed him a drink.

He knocked it back vigorously, producing a smile from the young man.

"So tell me doctor, what possessed you to venture this far into the unknown? "

"That would be destiny, I believe."

"Ha!  And I suppose destiny is why I can smell my blood in you?"

"Indeed."

"But that's all my fathers intuition, now isn't it?"

"Your father?"

"Yes.  He's with the Don now.  But we'll see him soon enough."

The Don...
How in the hell had Dr. Grant found himself in such terrible company?  Even though he was acutely aware that the young man in front of him was basically the harbinger of the end of the world, he found it difficult to not feel relaxed and welcome.
He kept reminding himself that he wasn't dreaming.
Unless, he was already dead, and this was only a dream of the madness?
But regardless, breathing in the sea, drinking under water... truly this was madness, no matter what way you cut it.

The waters outside the boat were calm.
Dr. Grant lounged on the deck overlooking the garden, lost in the fragile peace he had been so fortunate to enjoy.  Completely unaware of where about on the planet they were, he stared into the sky.
It was clear, all but for a patch of clouds to the east which seemed to be moving towards the boat, perhaps only hours away.

Moments passed as he reflected on his relationship with his wife, whom Charles had assured him would be alright.  Despite the hassle of being questioned by the law, she was free of any direct harm.

Those clouds seemed to be moving a little closer...

Indeed they were rain clouds, but there appeared to be land behind them.  The boat was heading towards an island.

"Hilo."

"-Oh, Charles,"  Dr. Grant was caught off guard.
"you have quite a knack for creeping up on old men.  I suppose you must have put that on your resume for the secret society."

"Hysterical, Thaddeus."  His tone was less than playful.
"The island off the starboard bow is the island of Hilo.  Also known as the big island of Hawaii.
Have you ever been?"

"No.  Not yet anyhow."  his tone brightened.

"Don't get your hopes up, doctor.  We won't be going ashore.  Our business is down below.  Way down."

The doctor shivered, even though the sun shone and the day was warm.
"Am I to join you in this adventure?"

"That is what I had in mind, yes."

"Judging by your tone, this is no sight seeing pleasure dive.  Why do you wish to bring a tired old soul like myself?"

"Like it or not you're a part of this game now.  As such, I think it wise for you to be aware of some of the other players.  We're going to be spending a lot of time in the sea, at least this turn you won't be entering with any bullets in your back."

"Indeed... "

"When you're ready, Thaddeus."

Charles motioned to the laboratory, indicating the place to meet when he was ready, then stepped off across the deck, leaving the doctor to his own thoughts.
Curiosity and apprehension battled in his head, and as a result, he found himself in the laboratory within the hour.

"You're right on time doctor."  greeted the eagle faced woman from before.

"It runs in the blood!"

"You have no idea." she spoke mysteriously.

"So what am I on time for, dear?

"Your shots, doctor."

"Of?"

"What we have here is a blood extracted from Miriam's child."
Dr. Grant's eyes widened in horror.

"Now, now, doctor," she reassured him, "this won't mutate you.  But what it will do is allow you entrance into the hidden world of the ocean.  This is a great privilege, one that not many people will ever get."

"Privilege... yeah..."

"Now hold out your arm."

He did as she asked.
She tied his arm off, and asked him to make a fist, while she drained some of his blood.
She took the vile out of the syringe attached to his arm, and gave it a slight shake, peering into it.
"You haven't been taking care of yourself very well, doctor."

"Thank you, mother."  he responded sarcastically.

"No matter.  Now turn around, and take your shirt off.  This one's going in your shoulder."

And with that, she injected him with the blood of the beast.


*                               *                                   *

Charles walked the doctor through the lower decks of the ship.  They came into the launch room of several small deep water crafts.  Jones was waiting for them, standing beside a low lying craft, with room enough for four people to sit.
The craft itself was shaped like a whale.  Angular and curved, the only propeller system the doctor could see lay under the 'fins' on either side of the craft.

"What do you call this piece of work?  I'll bet you had a whale of a time putting this one together!"

"You don't know how accurate your jibes are, doctor."  Jones seemed slightly amused.  "We call this one the Jonah craft, or just Jonah, if you prefer.  And yes, it was a 'whale' of a task to create. This craft creates relatively no waste, and moves through the water with the same principles as a porpoise.  The fins on the side move much like that of a whale, allowing us great speed with little mechanical propulsion.  As you can see, below the fins, and on the bottom of the craft are propellers, which are mostly for leaving the ship."

"Mr. Jones and I have been working on this ever since Miriam had her child.  It seems like an eon ago."
Charles reflected.

"Well, what are we waiting for?  I've got the blood of a beast and the heart of a senior, let's get down to business.  I ain't getting any younger!"

"You sure about that?"  Charles gave Dr. Grant an inquisitive look, raising one eyebrow and looking deep into him.

"Uh.."

"Ha ha, just pulling your leg." Charles sported a shit eating grin.
"But you are right.  Enough mucking about, let's go see what we can see."

So they got in, and dove down deep.

"Alright chuck," after countless silent minutes, Jones finally spoke.
"we're near the spot."

"And just what spot might that be?" questioned the doctor.

"This is where Miriam rescued me from the grip of the sea.  Coincidentally, its also where she was taken."

"So what exactly is it that we're supposed to find here?"

"The Madness."


"And the Madness is what, exactly?"

"Well, that's the trouble.  You must think of the Madness not as something tangible, but more like a god of sorts.  The ocean bends to it's will, and as humans and inhabitants of this planet, its in our best interest to understand what that will might be."

"So, you've talked with this Madness?"

"I wouldn't say that.  In fact, there aren't really words for it.  Like a god, if you open yourself to the idea and spirit of the Madness you can sense what it's conveying to you.  But none of it comes in words, only in ideas, thoughts, and feelings.  The best way to tell if it's imparting its consciousness on you is to judge the thoughts or emotions your experiencing.  You must know yourself enough to know when a thought isn't yours.  It takes time to define... But once you have it, you may not want it to stop."

"So how are we to come across this god?"

"I'm not sure that we will, Thaddeus, but we have to start somewhere."

Charles slid his chair back towards the tail of the craft.  As Dr. Grant was beside him, he leaned over and found the lever on the side of his seat, and followed suit.  Charles nodded to Jones, who flicked a switch and raised a divider between the two of them and the rest of the craft.

"Helmets on."  Charles ordered as he pulled his own over his head.
Again, Dr. Grant mimicked his movements.  Charles turned him around and attached his tank and fastened his hose, then performed the same on himself.

"Well, you dirty scottish prick, today's the first day of the rest of the end of your life!"

And Dr. Grant found himself speechless.


*                               *                                   *

The two swam through the murky depths wearing flashlights, looking into their surroundings, but always with the warm glow of the light from the Jonah craft behind them.  They came across a rock wall, running from the deep up to about 2 km from the surface.  Charles motioned for Dr. Grant to follow him downwards.  They went slowly, as the pressure from the sea made them weary, eventually coming upon an indent in the rock face.  Dr. Grant became excited and moved ahead of Charles, but stopped immediately as he found himself brushing against the body of a hammer head shark.

Charles put his hand up to Dr. Grant's body to tell him to stay, and shone his light down to illuminate the school of hammerheads.  Before they had entered the sea, the two had worked out a series of hand signals, and Charles moved his hands to tell Dr. Grant to remain calm and still.
After doing so, he produced a vile of red fluid from his wetsuit.
The doctor looked on in horror, even in the dark, he had a good idea of what was in that bottle.
Blood.

Charles opened it with ease, and let the blood flow into the water around them.
The sharks began to bang into each other in a ferocious frenzy, swimming and biting closely at the pair of humans, but never directly harming them.

Dr. Grant smelled the blood.  Even with his breathing apparatus on he could smell the same blood that had gone into his veins hours earlier.
The blood of the beast.
...but not quite.
He could smell it on his breath, but the blood in the ocean was different, lighter somehow, and he had the image of youth in his head.
Strong, hideous, and somehow, righteous.
Atlas.
But how?

Charles grabbed his arm.
Dr. Grant looked at him, and Charles nodded.  He tapped his finger to his own head, and the doctor nodded back at him.
The Madness.

The sharks slowed.
As if they had burned all their energy, like burning out after an incredible high.
Even the water stilled.
Until a massive force pushed the doctor up towards the light from the Jonah craft.
But not Charles.

Dr. Grant paused from shock. The Jonah craft blinked it's light once, checking to make sure the divers were alright.  Dr. Grant shone his light back, and flicked it on and off 3 times, the signal for more time.
He turned down and began swimming with all his strength.
He felt like he was intruding on a family meeting.
Like a scolding was taking place.

A shark brushed by him.  But not a hammerhead.  A shark with a great mouth, almost the size of a killer whale.
Without a second thought, Dr. Grant grabbed on to the back fin, conveniently shaped to allow him an easy grip.
The thought of an uneasy host flashed through his mind.
A picture of himself locked in a cozy room with a warm light followed.

He looked back for a second, and the glow from the Jonah craft was quickly fading out of sight, as the megamouth took him deeper
and deeper
and deeper.

Bad morning

Ariel woke up in bad shape.  
Not good at all.
Bad.
Busted arm, busted body, and a remorseless nurse to deal with.
Not to mention that she'd been locked alone in a room for a few days, and hadn't eaten anything but bread and water.
A room with only a bed and a table.
No windows. 
Didn't matter though.  She couldn't escape if she wanted to, she was right fucked up.
Oh, and even better, Miriam has just come to sit down with her.
Great...


"Mrs. Mano, I understand how you must feel right now, confused, in pain-"


"Then why don't you give me some food?!"


"I shall.  But there's something that I need from you first."


Ariel's eyes  hardened.  Her bargaining position was quite dubious..


"Go on." She allowed.


"I need to understand how your pregnancy came to be."




Brief silence




"A sperm entered one of my eggs, and it grew into a child."


"Don't be smart."  Miriam warned.
"You were never very open with your friends and family about it.  You must have wondered WHY your baby was so, yet neither you nor your husband sought counsel for the difficulties of the pregnancy.  
Why, Mrs. Mano, were you so secure about the child?"


"We knew he was special..  
What do you want me to say?  We thought that it would be better if we raised him away from judgement."


"Don't lie to me, Mrs. Mano.  Someone came to see you."


Ariel choked.  
In the dead silence, it was loud enough for both of them to hear.


"Yes,
you've met Charles haven't you?"


Ariel paused to take a deep breath, and just stared at Miriam. 
This loathsome nurse.  
Her prominent cheekbones, looking gaunt with age.
She looked a woman of long lost beauty, ravaged by evil, determined and spiteful.


"How do you know about Charles?"  


"We go back.  
He's been hunting for your child for quite some time."


"Oh?"


"Yes.  And I'm sure that he filled your head with grand tales,"  Miriam paused for a moment, to give Ariel the chance to volunteer to the conversation, but she ignored the lure.
"But don't be mistaken.  He's not in himself an absolutely dangerous man, but the outfit that he belongs to did not want the best for your child."


"You said DID not." Ariel spoke harshly.
"What makes you think my baby isn't alive?"


"I never said that, Mrs. Mano. 
I'm only suggesting that he's no longer yours.  I'm afraid that child can no longer be considered human.
Now you may not want to hear what I have to say, but ma'am, the world is in danger of your child.
I need to know where you were at the time of the pregnancy."


"Wh..What should that matter?"  


"It matters."


"On our anniversary," her and Osmond had always awkwardly laughed about the ocean being the father,
"... our 4th."


"And where was that at?"


Ariel was feeling light headed, suddenly fiendishly drowsy.  She didn't want to tell this woman anything.  She wanted to spit in her face and tell her to go to hell, but couldn't fight her curiosity. She had to tell her, she had to know what she thought!


"Hawaii."


Miriam stared into her eyes for a moment, looking for any lie, and found none.
She sat back in her chair, and chewed it over.
Then stood up and walked out of the room. 

  

How to fool yourself, 101

The child's parents had lain in the basement of the church house for almost a week.

The priest and nuns of the parish thankfully trusted Miriam's wisdom.

And why should they not?  She was constantly on a one to one basis with the almighty.

She had to be.

She'd given birth to his enemy's pawn.

'NO!  It's not true!' she screamed silently to herself.

Her child couldn't be the beast of the devil, he just couldn't be!

This shark creature, he was more of a beast than her deserted son, and had a heathen name, none the less!

Atlas....

ATLAS!!!

He had to be the REAL beast.  His namesake implied it!  

Atlas, who carried the heavens on his shoulders.. The heavens of heathen gods...

But what plagued her mind, was how?...

How had Ariel become pregnant with such a child?  Was is the same force that had given Miriam her baby?

Could they both have become entangled in the will of the ocean?

It seemed logical enough, but Ariel wasn't afflicted with the same irrationalities and maddening that Miriam had suffered...

In fact, she was much stronger.

Bitch!

How could she be?!  She had lost her child after only days, and she remained defiant and confident, even more so than her husband.

"If only my man had been as supportive, my child could have been properly loved," she softly said to herself, then frowned in reflection, "Charles...You bastard."

If she could see him again, she'd crush him.  She'd break him.  

Spanish inquisition style.  She'd make him admit that he was wrong, that God loved their child, and that he was the father.  No madness of the ocean had created her baby!

He was mad!  He couldn't deal with being a father!

He was weak!  Weak, pathetic men, creating ways to disprove God.  They would learn...

They'll all learn!  

'When my baby comes for me,' she said to herself, 'and destroys this monstrous Atlas!

When God comes for us all... 

And destroys this monstrous world!

Then they'll all see!

Bastards!

Then they can look to their Atlas!  Then they can have their evolution, and their theories, 

and they can all rot in hell!'

Especially Charles!

But for now, she'd have to settle for finding out just how the parents were cursed with that infernal child.

Dinner... is served

The Ogopogo slithered back to it's murky home.
A cave outside of the Okanagan Lake, with cleaner water, and enough seclusion from the human race to raise it's head above water when it felt the desire for air.  An ideal place to foster the fledgeling man shark.
The child had been in it's care for several rotations of the sun, barely eating anything, as the ancient creature was unsure of what the child's body could even process.  But after endless amounts of searching, it had found a nest of mollusks, easy for the child to swallow, and shells that the ogopogo could easily open.

But it returned to an empty nest.

The giant sea snake opened its enormous ears.  Like sails raising to catch wind, the angular webbed fins on the sides of it's reptilian skull opened into a conical shape, shifting and turning from side to side, scanning the reverberations of the water for signs of the child.

'Interesting', it mused.  Atlas was in the middle of sticking his head out of the water.
The Ogopogo slithered it's tremendous body up to just below the surface, perched itself on a submerged edge of rock, and raised it's monstrous head into the air.

Baby Atlas was struggling to crawl on to a rock, while feebly whipping his under developed tail.
"Silly thing.."  The Ogopogo thought to itself, as it stared in derision.
As he did, Atlas opened his eyes, becoming aware of its presence, stretched his frail arms, and pulled himself up, suddenly not sure how to breath, as his mind wasn't yet developed enough to automatically switch from breathing through gills to lungs.

As his head, neck, and torso emerged from the water, Atlas paused.  His eyes bugged out, unsure what to do, simply frozen between his worlds.

The Ogopogo leaned close to Atlas, opened it's nostrils, and inhaled, curious as to what exactly this unfortunate little miscreant's smell would be.
He smelled like a man.  A salty, scaly man.
The Ogopogo snorted in disgust, the power of the air escaping its nose blowing Atlas back into the water, where he breathed deep through his gills.

The Ogopogo waited above water to see what Atlas would do next, and to it's amusement, Atlas swam back to the rock, wagged his tail until his tiny arms could catch hold of the rocks face, and he began to pull himself up.

He failed.

The Ogopogo opened it's mouth and emptied out the mollusks, kept in a pouch located under its tongue, which was forked and long like a snake's.
It rolled them onto the rock, and picked one up with the two prongs on the end of its tongue, raised the shelled mollusk to it's mouth, and placed it between it's back teeth, which unlike it's pointy spiked front teeth, were wide and serrated.
It waited for Atlas to make his way to the surface again.
When he stuck his head out of the water, crawling onto the rock, Atlas matched eyes with the great sea snake, who at that moment, cracked the shell of the mollusk between it's teeth, and rolled the pulsing mussel out on to the top of the rock.

Atlas stared at the mussel, and then at the Ogopogo, then slank back into the water.

The sea snake waited.

In a mad splash, Atlas popped up out of the water, getting his entire body onto the rock, scrambling to the top.  He'd never used his legs before, and they scraped and scratched against the rocks face, while his arms worked to pull him up, and his tail pushed against the granite slab, giving him the balance and base he needed to force himself to the top, and open his mouth to devour the mussel.

But it wriggled away from him and fell into the water.

Dumbfounded, Atlas momentarily just stared after his evasive meal, then finally dove for it, catching it on the way to the bottom.

The Ogopogo felt his lips curl, and caught himself smiling at Atlas' efforts.
But before he would allow himself a father's pride, he cracked another shell, rolled out the mussel from within, and waited for round two.
 

Tea and conflicts

The elevator opened into the room that the three heads of the organization occupied.  Charles' return was of no surprise to them, and they received him with the same sedate welcome that was shown to Dr. Grant the morning prior.
Charles moved around the room as if it were his own.  He bowed his head in salutation and strolled over to the left side of the chamber where he found the tea pot, and set it on top of a black mat underneath several mirrors, coming down from the still open ceiling.
The mechanics of the kettle involved heating the water inside it via solar power, but quite rudimentary.
Like cooking ants with a magnifying glass, the mirrors reflected concentrated sunlight to heat the black mat and the water in the kettle.
He walked to the back of the room, and where the doctor hadn't noticed another door handle, Charles opened a hidden door which led into a greenhouse, where he picked a fresh bunch of dandelions.  He walked them back to the shelf where the teapot heated, and tore the weeds into bits, then put them into the top of the teapot.

After a moment he removed the kettle from the pad and mirrors, and sat it down in the middle of the circle of men, leaving it to steep.

"Gentlemen," he eased into conversation, "as you may have already concluded, the child has been taken by the lake."  he paused to confirm that his peers understood, saw that they did, and went on, "This isn't immediately a problem, as the Ogopogo has been living in the murky waters of the Okanagan to long to be of much trouble.  It's highly unlikely that it would hurt or damage the child, if anything, the presence of new life may cause the ancient creature to rebirth itself."

As he said this, Charles stepped over to the shelf again to retrieve cups, which he filled, and handed out one at a time to his peers.

"The ocean has become aware, too.  Like little birds, the rivers and streams carried the news to the sea.  I could feel it stirring as I came here.  There is much unrest in the sea.  The beast is growing, I could sense him... I could feel him,"  he paused to find the right words, "blaming me."

"For separating him from his mother?" Smith suggested.
"It felt more like, it blamed me for not treating it like my own son.  It thinks I'm its father.  But I never had the chance to be.  That child is half madness, half Miriam."

"So... all madness?" Dr. Grant put in.
"Hah!" this prompted a cynical snicker from Charles.  The other men just ignored the jib.
"She wasn't always the She-bitch that she's become today, Thaddeus." he scolded his brother in law, "The child made her that way.  The madness made it's way into her womb, like a twisted version of the Mary Magdalene story, but instead of an angel delivering the messiah into her womb, it was the madness of the ocean, the living chaos that twists the fate of the earth to its own will, that delivered the beast into her body!  It's the same principle that the Ogopogo will employ if it decides to rebirth. To create a new body able to host an intelligent mind, it requires the DNA of an aptly evolved egg!
For ages there were plenty of pickings in the ocean, and the sea lords thrived as the madness gave birth to new life time and again.    But the poisons we've introduced into their natural habitats; oil, sonar, excrement, all these things cause deformities and obstructions in the random course of evolution in the sea.
Hence why the madness inseminated a woman with a creature bent on destruction of our species.  It's the ocean's way of retaliating!"

"Then why the shark child?  Was one affliction upon us not enough?"  Dr. Grant was trying to piece it together.

Charles smiled.  Even the elders of his organization pricked their ears and paid close attention to the wisdom that he was revealing.
"That, my dear man," he drew out his words, relishing the truth he was laying upon them, "is the beauty of the madness.  It creates a demon to inflict suffering and false hope upon our species, and then without a second thought gives us salvation in the form of something even more hideous and unwanted!  The madness doesn't see the world in good or evil, only in struggle!  It thrives on conflict... Or rather, it feeds on conflict.  The natural order of the world outside of our species is to eat and be eaten.  That's the balance that is spawned from the madness.  But in all its chaotic intent, order is inevitably formed.  So it forms new life, forcing evolution and adaptation for survival of those that have settled into dominance.
Now it's our turn."

"Why ours?  Are we not beasts of land, feeding on the sea?"
"Yes, we have been for an age, but the waters are going to rise, and if we are to survive, we're going to have to learn the rules of the sea.  The age is about to turn, brother.  The age of man is going to change.
We're going to have to put our faith in someone who understands both worlds."

"Someone like a half man, half shark."

"Precisely."