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#1
MAY 11 |
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Mera's face began to crack. Her slender fingers crawled over her skin, peeling flakes away. Her hand was coated in tiny fragments of her own dermis, peeled and warped by the infection that exploded inside of her.
She leaned against the nearest surface, her body attempting to sweat, but something inside of her prevented the biological processes from happening. Biology was rebelling against her, as she could feel something swishing and swilling around in the pit of her belly. Her gills were fluttering lightly in place inside of her chest, as her lungs sucked in air like increasingly sticky bellows. She felt as though she was dying, and perhaps she was.
Technology from another world, another walk of life entirely, was attacking her. It was inside her cells, drilling away at her DNA, replacing segments of it with hard-technology. She coughed into the sand and collapsed onto the shores, the water lapping against the left side of her body, as she continued to crack and collapse.
Sand dug into her face and her eyes began to suffer the same treatment as the Aqua inside of them was slowly sucked back into her body. She screamed a silent dehydrated scream as her body was slowly rolled, through maligned purposes, into the water of the ocean. The cool liquid splashed against her back and slowly covered her face.
Her eyes, as they slowly began to lose focus through extreme loss of water, focused on the only thing they could see through the dark, murky waters.
Green, clasping hands.
When she awoke, she was no longer on the beach. In fact, Mera had no idea where she was, but she felt as though she'd been dragged through hell. She hung, suspended in water, straps around her wrists and her ankles, pulling her tight into a star shape. She snorted a little as she came out of her fainting spell and looked around the tiny enclosure to which she was lashed.
It was a small opening, a dimple in the surface of a large cave. She coughed as quietly as her bonds would allow her as her eyes continued to focus on the scenery around her. She felt something rolling around inside of her, trying to grasp and scratch at her inside. She winced and tensed, feeling her innards almost rebelling against their flesh boundaries. As her ears began to fill her brain in on the sounds that were occurring around her, she listened to the guttural voice of what she could only assume was her captors began to ring in her mind. She arched her back, pushing her head forward to try and hear more.
“GO, YOU TROLLS!” it bellowed, smaller voices offering responses in the forms of screams and roars. “ATLANTIS IS TO FALL! GO AND KILL FOR YOUR HATE MOTHER!”
Mera strained against her restraints but ultimately failed. She wasn't strong enough yet. Her eyes snapped closed as she felt the reverberations through the water toward her and the beasts’ footsteps against the stone floor.
“Why are you not awake yet?” he asked, his huge hand reaching up and touching her soft chin gently, his thumb pressing into the divot under her bottom lip. Mera's mouth flopped open as she quickly brought her teeth down over his thumb and bit hard.
The huge green monster smiled and pulled his thumb forcibly from Mera's mouth, shaking it as though he were shaking off the pain. “You are awake. Good.” He turned from her and walked toward the other corner of the room, where a small collection of shells lay. “I am Slig, from Apokolips. We fight now for our Hate Mother, the Mistress, who will destroy this world and remake it in her image. In Our image.”
His hands began to glow as he touched them gently against the collection of shells. Slowly but surely, it began to gain size and mass, followed by jets of flesh that shot into the air like spires of meat. They twisted around each other, knitting together to form the body of the creature that was appearing before Mera's eyes.
A singular eye, or rather hundreds of eyes melted together to create one omni-directional orb, grew on a stalk that split off into horns from which the shells hung, like decorations on a tree. Slig watched it with glee as it transformed further, a long mouth dripping pus and saliva from it's opening as the creature, gifted with a single flat, slime excreting leg like slug, slowly made its way towards Mera.
“What...is that thing?”
“It's an Extractivore,” Slig said with a matter of fact tone as his hand touched her stomach. “We are here for what you grow for us inside of you. Your birthing chamber will rupture and spill its contents into this world, and from it...we will destroy this watery expanse.”
The creature edged ever closer to Mera, the slurping tube swinging violently, beading in on her stomach. “Keep that thing away from me,” she spat, pulling her body back from its reach. The creature edged further.
“It will pierce your skin in a most painful manner. In fact, it is designed so that the pain will continue even after your nerves are burnt out. I make my creatures with a divine intent.”
“Divine intent? Don't you think too much of yourself?” she snarled, pulling at her bonds again with increasing strength. The creature watched her with it's multitude of eyes before edging towards her, increasing her anticipation and, ultimately, her fear.
“You've turned my Brothers and Sisters into aberrations,” came a voice from behind Slig. A thin man stood in the shadows just outside of Mera's vision.
Slig turned around violently and growled. “Surprised?” The voice said again, purple tentacles whipping outwards and slapping Slig across the face. The God dropped to his knee from the force and stared upwards, as the creature's tube finally reached Mera and plunged itself into her stomach.
The pain was so intense she couldn't even compose herself to scream.
“How dare...” Slig was batted down again by the tentacles of the man as Mera's vision failed once again and she slipped into darkness.
It was becoming a large source of embarrassment and frustration for Mera. She'd managed to pass out not once but twice from ailments and pain in the last few hours. Her eyes once again strained to focus on what was ahead of her and she found that her arms were not restricted this time. She was able to move her hands before her vision unencumbered.
“You do not know what is happening to you, do you?” the entity said, its words strained and its eyes bunched together as it rolled its tongue over teeth and clicked its lips. “Apologies. Words from a mouth of teeth and flesh are not my usual form of communiqué.” It offered a weak smile as though it knew what would approximate human interaction but didn't quite understand.
“What are you doing to me?” she asked, noticing the etheric tentacles that had pierced through the flesh of her stomach and chest and were easing the pain and dehydration that she was feeling.
“I am known in many circles as a name that does not translate to this shoal of life.” It smiled that odd, confused smile again, as the semi-transparent tentacles appeared to be filling with substance. “You may call me the Proselyte, I believe,” It said again.
“Are you from Atlantis? A meta-human?” Mera asked, running a hand through her crimson hair and rubbing her temple with a frustrated and pained look.
“I am from neither, though my home is the ocean.”
“Do you have to be so damn cryptic?” she asked, angrily, closing her eyes and balling her fists.
“Mera,” it said quietly, “you have been through much in these few short hours. Your body is being attacked from the inside by Other-Theological technology. You are aware of the New Gods?”
Mera nodded slowly as she tried to stand up, holding and bracing herself against the narrow walls of the cave she was located in.
“This technology is what is considered to be alive by many races. This technology is able to inhabit both living and Mechanoid-theological space. It is living God Technologies.”
Mera just stared at the man. He was lithe in body, with eight tentacles jutting from his body, primarily from his chest area. With purple-nodule covered skin and arcane markings covering his face, he cocked his head in interest as Mera’s reaction.
“You have no idea what I am speaking of, do you?”
Mera shook her head and looked down at her chest. “Make it easy for me. What are you doing with your tentacles?”
“The technology I spoke of is known as Hydro-Mechnical. It operates in the same process as a starfish's movements. Pumping water into itself, it has created an Epipelagic Ocean in your stomach.”
Mera stared at the man before her with shock on her now thin face. “I have an ocean of machines in my stomach?”
“Well, something akin to that. The adhesion of grouped water makes it much better for the transmittal of electrical impulses, like liquid hardware.”
“So, what is it doing to me?” she asked, rubbing her forehead gently.
“I am unaware. What I am doing currently…” He paused and gestured with an impossibly thin hand towards the tentacles currently embedded in her body. “I am draining this from you, so that my...”
He paused for a moment, his mouth moving almost against his will as he tried to speak the word he could not think of. “My God wants to look at this technology. She wants to understand it.”
“Your God? What is it with all the Gods recently...” She sighed and attempted to move again, finding it quite difficult. “How long is this going to take?”
“I would imagine a few hours. I am attempting to reintroduce water into your system, while I drain off this liquid machinery. It is fascinating to see your body reject my aid.” He offered what appeared to be a tooth-baring smile devoid of any sort of happiness or joy.
“My body isn't a big fan of outside influences,” Mera replied calmly. “It's not really from around here.”
The Proselyte smiled and crossed his arms. “I am of the same persuasion.”
Mera smirked at his response and narrowed an eye.
“What are you? What does your God want with my gut ocean?”
“It wants to understand why these Gods from another-when are trying to compile the Death Dot on our World. In her oceans.”
“Death Dot?”
“The infinite point of Death, a place where Death and Life become non-existent and there is only infinity compressed tomorrow forever recurring in a single moment.”
Mera stared at the man before her again as a loud crash outside the cave rocked them both in their position. “What was that?”
“Hrm…” He turned to look at the cave mouth that was sealed behind them and then, with a look devoid of concern, casually replied to Mera. “That would be the Lillin attempting to gain entry.”
Mera looked from the thin man to the shaking wall of the cave mouth. “What the hell are they?”
“THEY'RE DEATH!” came a scream as a green hand exploded through the granite barrier. The Proselyte's attention quickly turned from Mera as she threw herself to her feet. Slig appeared and, across his back, several huge fish were slung. The Queen of the Ocean recognized them as marlin, which were huge fish with long bills that were as sharp as any surface knife. Slig's abilities for mutation had transformed them into javelins of flesh and metal.
He hurled one of the massive fish towards her, the length of its bill tearing through her shoulder and pinning her to the wall. She gritted her teeth and swore under her breath in pain as Slig smiled and licked his lips in anticipation. “Such courage in the face of your death. I would almost imagine that you are from Apokolips yourself...”
“Shove it,” Mera grunted as she ripped the marvelin from the wall and returned it to it's owner. He reacted quickly, quicker than she would have thought, twisting his huge body away from the trajectory of the weapon and allowing it to shoot harmlessly through the opening behind them.
“Come then...” The huge New God tore through the water toward the crimson haired Queen of the Oceans and was met with her fist to his jaw. He floundered sideways into the narrow mouth of the cave as Mera broke free of the Proselyte's tentacles and hit Slig in the stomach with both fists, powering the pair of them out into the open ocean before them.
“You cannot hope to win a fight against a God, pygmy!” Slig's hands gripped either side of Mera's head, pushing their elongated fingernails into her flesh and drawing blood. She snarled through her teeth and continued to power herself upwards.
“Your kind did this to me,” she began, yanking her head back with the ferocity of a shark tearing at a seal's skin. “You put your disgusting watery machines inside my body!”
Slig smirked, hanging in the water for a moment, his fingers glowing with mutating energy, waiting for something to touch, to transform into a creature he could use to murder her.
“You chose the wrong host,” Mera said simply, her arms drawing down to her sides and her eyes closing. Slig cocked his head to one side in confusion, before he charged towards her. “I control the water, it doesn't control me,” Mera informed the New God as a barrier of hard water formed before her, the huge green entity rebounding off it in confusion.
“You tried to turn it against me, tried to create a secret sea of technology inside me,” she continued, lifting her hands up through the water as her skin began to crack and bleed. Her wrists opened up and every available orifice pushed liquid through it.
Slig's insane smile was replaced with a look of increasing frustration and irritation as he realized what was leaking from the woman. It wasn't blood at all but the technology they had tried to grow within her…the technology that would make up one of the five corner stones of the God-Planet.
He swallowed loudly as that very technology, designed to poison the stomachs and bodies of sentients with thinking-fluids, slowly began to form into the shape of a mace. He turned around, trying to get some distance between Mera and himself before he felt the sharp impact in his back. The mace and momentum persisted, pushing Slig toward the bottom of the ocean floor. Light began to fade around him as his adapted eyes spied something shooting from the ocean's depths to meet him.
She shot from the depths like a Banshee, her body perfectly straight and her wounds still purging themselves of the foreign technologies. Her hands were linked together to form a powerful fist, her arms outstretched running the length of her breasts and outwards. Her face was full of anger and rage. She collided with Slig, her arms hitting him in the stomach as she guided them both at high velocity toward the surface of the water. Their explosion from its grip was met with an ear ringing collaboration of her fists hitting Slig's face.
The God snapped backward, his body sliding back underneath the surface of the waves, only to rise slowly to the surface. He was completely unconscious.
She floated near him for a few minutes, watching and waiting to see if he recovered, her openings stinging from the salt in the ocean. She hissed through her teeth as she finally dove back under the waves and returned to the cave that had housed her briefly.
“Proselyte?” she asked, floating in the cave mouth, her hands either side of the opening. A bright light shone over her body as she pushed herself into the cave. She covered her face to prevent it from blinding her and allowed the current to pull her away for a moment.
Her eyes shot around, darting for the source of the light only to find nothing that could have possibly given off that level of illumination. Nothing in the cave except the spent form of an octopus, who's purple, nodulated skin seemed to be much smoother than normal. She knelt down next to it and touched its face.
“I am sorry this became of you,” she said gently, holding it's tentacle in her hand gently and offering a sad smile.
Her thoughts returned to the Proselyte as she pushed herself through the cave using her hands and swam out into the open seas to return to the beach from whence she came. Seemingly purged of the New God technology that had threatened to destroy her, she was now much more concerned with the state of her husband.
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The End...
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