Broker

Chapter 131

Kingshark lumbered forward, swaying left and right. Bullets grazed past his face and scraped over his arms and shoulders. One struck him in the arm and dug in an inch. He grunted and pushed it out of his body, the bone coated ammunition hitting the deck of the ship with a sad little thunk. Around him, mayhem continued. The crew of the ship desperately tried to fight off the tentacles that were now trying to crush the superstructure. One tentacle whipped up at a particularly aggressive man with a knife and speared him through the chest, yanking back and slapping down on his head, leaving a smear on the ground.

Kingshark spat out a laugh while he kept walking towards the captain, he held his belly and shifted to a full-on chortle, “Doughnut!” He barked out, “Now I get it!” He snickered, a conversation with Marta coming to mind. He tilted his head and shifted it to the left a bit, directing one of his eyes at the man standing outside of the bridge, his rifle trained helplessly on the supervillain. “You gonna keep shooting or do I gotta come up there?” He asked, showing his rows of teeth while he swatted his right arm out, folding a man in half with the blow and sending him hurtling into the ocean.

He showed his neck a little and pointed at the spot where the first bullet hit, “Sensitive, ya know? Don’t like getting nicked there,” He paused in his step, faltering a little. His lips curled back, “Nick,” He grumbled and reached up to rub the spot, “Didn’t get to finish where we left off,” He spat and started marching forward again, his footsteps now digging into the deck, “Didn’t get to finish, didn’t get my fuckin’ rematch!” He bellowed, the tentacles growing frantic, slapping against the hull, grabbing men and just throwing them. 

The man stared at him in confusion. Did he think Kingshark was crazy? Probably. Did Kingshark care? No. An impotent fury was boiling underneath his skin. He had sworn to have a rematch with Firestorm when the young man was stronger. He had assured himself that he’d get his revenge for the wound on his neck that simply wouldn’t heal. Something he knew was impossible now. Out of his reach forever. A dead man can’t put up a fight. Fury blossomed into rage, his mass increasing again as he broke through to fifteen feet in height. He was at eye level with the man on the deck now.

Mist began to boil out of his mouth, “I’m gonna bite your fuckin’ head off, bitch boy.”

The captain staggered back a step, the glow in his eyes faltering for a moment. He swore in his native tongue, Kingshark didn’t know it, didn’t care. The man raised his rifle again and Kingshark jerked his head to the left, barnacles spreading out at his feet and up the wall. A tentacle erupted from the surface and slapped the guy across the face before grabbing hold of the rifle and tearing it out of his hand. He tilted his head to the right and the weapon was brought back around, the stock of the rifle crashing into the side of the man’s head before he could react. 

A noisy crack of wood against something very hard rang out. The man’s head jerked to the side before he looked back at Kingshark over the cloth wrapped around his face. Something grew over his skin, it looked like scales. No, not quite. Before Kingshark could consider what he was looking at a bang sounded behind him and he felt a sudden pain through his chest and back. He glanced down, perturbed, and blinked at the harpoon sticking out of him. “Huh,” He chuckled and looked up at the man, “Guess I didn’t kill all of-” He was cut off when the harpoon retracted, a jolt went through his body and he took a few scrambling steps back through the growing mist.

“Hey now!” He snarled and looked back over his shoulder, across the deck covered in flames, impermeable mist, and bodies. One of the harpoon guns was trained on him, a rope coming out of it. Standing behind it was a wild-eyed young man, the cloth of his mask torn to shreds. The youth frantically reached for the trigger to keep the retracting going. Kingshark snarled, “Oh no ya don’t!” Kingshark grabbed hold of the rope as the tentacles wrapped around the hull started to squeeze. “Rude! I was gettin’ ready for a monologue!” He bellowed and with a titanic pull yanked the harpoon gun, the bolts that affixed it to the ship, and the young man towards him. 

Before he could get ahold of the young man he felt something new dig into his back. Tiny blades that dug into his flesh and cleaved it. He roared in pain, his hand turning into a fist. There wasn’t much left of harpoon-guy after the impact. A cry of fury rang in Kingsharks ear and he whipped his head in the direction of the man clinging to his back. His own mask had fallen open as well, revealing a flat snout that extended out from his head. His body was changing, thin, leathery little plates growing on his skin like scales. His eyes were glowing brighter as he dug his claws into Kingsharks flesh. He opened his mouth and revealed a set of razor sharp fangs.

In that moment, the guy must have felt triumphant. There was an eager glee in his eyes. Kingshark could feel the scalding venom spreading through his body from the points where the claws dug into the meat of his back. The captain barked out a raspy laugh as the veins on Kingshark’s neck began to turn dark even through the leathery skin of his transformed state. Kingshark just stared at the guy. Waiting until he began to notice that the supervillain hadn’t so much as moved since the last member of his crew died. Around them the ship was on fire, the bulkhead creaking as the tentacles continued to work on crushing it. Where there wasn't fire, mist filled the air and began billowing off the side of the ship.

The laughter finally stopped when the first pufferfish spine poked its way out of Kingshark’s jawline. More began to form. The huge man didn’t so much as blink, staring back at the tiny ‘human’ on his shoulder while the minor alteration to his body purged the venom from his blood. It was quiet for a few heartbeats. The man was staring horrified at him. His body started to tremble and vibrate as his breathing grew rapid. Kingshark just stared at him.

“Is that it?” Kingshark growled. The captain squeaked and tried to pull is claws out of Kingshark’s shoulder only to find himself stuck, the skin and flesh having already closed around the claws, preventing him from getting any leverage. “Really? After all that wind up?” Kingshark growled, “You ain’t the boss, are ya? Is there another ship near here?” He asked and the man shouted something in his native tongue, shaking his head, “You don’t understand a fuckin’ word I’m sayin, do ya?” He grumbled and let out a sigh as desperate limbs frantically struggled to break free of Kingshark’s body. The supervillain tilted his head back and opened his mouth fully, the mist going straight up out of his mouth into the air, creating a cloud that swallowed the ship whole.

Soon, even from this distance, the captain could only see Kingshark’s glowing red eyes.

“Guess you’ll do, for the first test,” Kingshark growled, his voice coming from everywhere.

The panicking man whipped his head up, looking around, his chest heaving, a little whimper coming out of him. Then his entire body went rigid as a strange sound began to seep into the air. It was somewhere between chittering of vermin and the clicking cry of a dolphin, it echoed and bounced about, going high before dropping so low it sounded like heavy bass. The man seemed to be giving every ounce of strength he had not to turn his head, to look away, to not return Kingshark’s stare.

“LoOK iNTo mY eYeS,” The words weren’t from Kingshark’s voice, it was as if the chittering, clicking, rumbling drone had a voice of its own. As if it could shape itself into something imitating spoken words. The droning intensified, a million bees buzzing in the captain’s head. Claws scraping at his senses. Sweat dripped in streams down the side of his head as he slowly, slowly turned towards Kingshark. Their eyes met and blood began to pour from the man’s nose, from his eyes, from his ears, he opened his mouth in a silent scream as he went wall-eyed. His entire body vibrating before jerking and going very, very still.

“Not bad,” Kingshark grunted and reached over his shoulder to pull the corpse off, tossing it to the deck of the ship with the other corpses.

“Didn’t even have to go full size,” He rumbled as the ship creaked again, something groaned and snapped behind him as one of the tentacles finally crushed a portion of the bulkhead, bending it in half. In a cascade, the ship began to break down, more and more tentacles squeezing it like a soda can. He turned in the direction of the distant fighting between the speed boats and his crew. He stalked to the edge of the deck and stepped off, plunging through the cloudy mist and back into the water as the Ship bent in half and something inside exploded.

The blessed depths spread out around him and he took a deep breath through his gills, savoring the coolness of it for a moment with closed eyes. He opened them and looked out across the water, opening his mouth and releasing another sonic chirp. He was about to count the number of speedboats remaining when he raised an eyebrow. The hell is- He cracked a grin. Oh. Well. Guess they won’t be needing me. He chortled before blasting forward to get a good view of the coming show.

–

Trigger clicked his tongue and pulled another pellet magazine from his belt, slipping it into his airsoft rifle. He grabbed an air canister next and popped it in as well. A bullet whizzed past him and he tilted his head a bit, shifting his jaw left and right. “Boss sure is taking a while,” He said lazily before pointing the gun at one of the speedboats below that was trying to make a move on the side of the cargo ship. He aimed at one of the men who was waving an assault rifle around and pulled the trigger. A single pellet slammed into the man and exploded with the force of a stick of dynamite, blowing the man’s torso off, the obliterated remains sloughing off into the water.

To his right, relaxing against the reinforced wall that formed the outer rail of the cargo ship’s deck, Wake lit a cigarette and glanced up at him. “He’s just having fun.”

“You aren’t going back out?” Trigger asked, snapping off another shot before slipping back down to sit next to the guy. Around him, the rest of the crew, most of them with abilities in the areas of mundane to uncommon, used traditional weapons, firing off shots to keep the speedboats busy as were their orders. 

Wake shrugged and exhaled off to the side, “They’re shootin’ at anything that gets too close, almost got them to shoot each other in a panic. They’re wise to my shit,” He said with chuckle, “I’m givin’ em a second to get focused on fighting our boys again before going back out there,” He added as he checked his gun, opening the magazine and checking it once. He slapped it back in when an explosion shook both of them. They blinked and looked at one another before glancing towards the direction of the sound, two crew members were on the ground, covering their heads, a faint blue light flickering on their skin. Behind them, smoke was rising from a wrecked portion of the reinforced wall.

Trigger scowled, “RPGs? Oh come on,” He groaned, “They’re gonna piss me off in a minute.”

“Least we got Haus with us,” Wake said absently, leaning back against the wall again, “And Stitches.”

As he spoke two men ran over to the guys who’d been knocked down by the explosion, keeping their heads low. The first wore light clothes that had the clear look of post-pandora armoring, an off gray bone color making up most of his gear. He slid to a stop next to the two men and tapped their shoulders. The blue light that flickered became steady before he grabbed them and pulled them towards the second man who pinched his own finger and drew a glowing red thread out of it, he brought it down to their legs and started working on mending their wounds.

Trigger pursed his lips, “Still, this is getting tiresome,” He grunted and took a chance to poke his head over the wall for a moment, squinting down at the speedboats. It looked like they were adjusting their formation a bit to line up some shots. “Getting ready for another run it looks like,” He said with a huff. “I-” He paused and squinted, something big and dark moved beneath one of the speed boats. It couldn’t be commodore, not big enough, but it wasn’t an orca. It didn’t look like the boss either, “What the fuck is that?” 

Wake hazarded a chance to look up as well, peering down with him, “Uh… I have no idea.”

The two of them looked at one another as the big shape dove. “I think it’s gonna…” Trigger murmured.

That was when the shadow came back up and all they could see was a cavernous mouth filled with teeth like a ring around one of the speedboats. Trigger hopped to his feet, “Ho-holy shit!” He laughed just as the humongous shark breached the surface, its mouth clamping down on the speedboat and pulling it under in an instant. He threw his fists into the air with a whoop, “He fuckin’ did it! The boss did it!” He laughed as bits of speedboat and corpses floated to the surface with little splashes, another speedboat flipped as a powerful shape crashed into it from below.

“Is that Red?” Wake shouted, incredulous.

“He’s Big Red now!” Trigger laughed, “Look at that big guy go!”

Whoops and shouts from the rest of the crew began to rise up as the great-white turned megalodon began its rampage. The attacking pirates scrambled to try to shoot into the water only to get knocked off their boats when a tail slapped to the side or the entire ship was pulled under by mighty teeth. One ship tried to peel away only for a huge wave to push it right back into the killing field. Trigger smirked, “And now the boss is back.”