286 273: A Plague of Phantoms: Dueling Competence III

"I can see the sea dock! Just in the distance!" The fisherman exclaimed as he pointed far ahead of us.

I had been able to see the sea dock for a few minutes now thanks to Bone-lasher sharing his electromagnetic vision. The sea dock container was a large floating platform that had a cage attached to it underwater. The size and shape of the cage depended on the size and shape of the evos that it housed. Which in the case of the Ancient Liger Shark was quite massive.

[The closer we get to that thing the more I get a bad feeling.] Damon said through the manacite communication rings.

[Me too.] Alberto admitted.

[We'll be fine…] I reassured them.

"Finally!" Cross grumbled then looked to me. "Can't wait to see the 'great' Chase Kingston claim his prize!"

"Didn't realize you were such a fan." I said sarcastically. Earning a sneer from Cross. I ignored him and looked out into the distance. The sun was setting and we'd probably have a good four hours before it was completely dark. Not really a problem since the combat demonstration was set to only take two hours, plus however long Viola's and mine's fight would take.

For the rest of the ride everyone stayed silent. For everyone else it was mostly due the tension and resentment that Logan and his squad had for me. For me it was because the closer we got to the sea dock the more and more I thought about what Madilyn said. The evo that Beaufort was most likely going to give me wasn't a true Ancient Liger Shark but one of the original mark ups, the first experiment.

"We're here!" The fisherman said as he maneuvered his evo to float beside the sea dock's pier. Beaufort, Thomas and their security team quickly got off the evo, not bothering to even thank the fisherman that brought us here.

"Thanks for the ride." I told the fisherman as I disembarked. The fisherman beamed.

"Your welcome Master Kingston!" He exclaimed. Damon and Alberto disembarked after me and stayed close as we stood on the sea dock. The top side of it was flat, square in shape, and made almost entirely out of wood, save the very center of it which was made of glass. Probably a viewing window into the underwater cage itself.

"Well here we are!" Beaufort exclaimed, gesturing to the dock. There was nobody on the dock but us, which would have made anyone else nervous considering the earlier events of today. However for me it made things a lot easier.

"There's nothing here…" Damon said looking around.

"Oh yes there is…" I said softly then walked towards the center of the sea dock where the glass window was, Damon and Alberto followed close behind.

There was a guardrail around the entire window to keep people from stepping on it but still allowed them to look over into the water. The water was murky and dark thanks to the late afternoon sun so you couldn't see anything unless you relied on a different kind of vision. Thanks to Bone-lasher I could see the Evo caged underwater.

A normal Ancient liger shark; according to the lysdale scripts that Madilyn gave me; was over seventy feet long and weight over a ninty tons. They were the combination of a extinct animal called a Megalodon, a tiger and a lion. In terms of appearance they had the same looks as a regular liger shark only larger and much more aggressive according to Madilyn. This one however wasn't that, not exactly.

"Now, I didn't actually bring a ancient liger shark that I could just give away." Beaufort said as he and hos entourage approached. "I didn't actually count on anybody being able to beat Logan here. Figured most splicers never even held a gun before so it was a safe bet. But down there is something close…it's the…umm…what was it called Thomas?"

Beaufort turned to look at Thomas who looked more than happy to verbally vomit what he knew about the evo. Too bad I wasn't in the mood to listen to him.

"Subject XX01 codename: Poseidon's wrath. First and only successful specimen from project Aquarius. Father of all Ancient Liger Sharks." I interrupted. Beaufort looked stunned while Thomas had a terrified look on his face.

"H-h-how do you know about that?!" Thomas demanded. I rolled my eyes and groaned.

"Seriously? Come on even Logan should have figured it out by now." I replied then turned to face Beaufort, Thomas and their security. "I know because I have a bunch of Justice Technologies files. Lysdale scripts, research notes, handler reports. That lab in Egypt was practically bursting with information."

"So that was you!" Beaufort snarled. He took a step towards me and Logan and Cross immediately jumped in front of him to block him. A smart move on their part though Beaufort tried hard to get past them. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH MONEY YOU COST ME?!"

"And here I thought you'd be upset about all the American citizens that died inside that facility…" I said.

"YOU MEAN ALL THE INNOCENT PEOPLE YOUR EVOS KILLED!" Private Oliver bellowed. I looked at the private calmly and shook my head

"Contrary to popular belief, my evos and I didn't really kill anyone in that laboratory. That was those modified thrads and the Thradiz doing." I said.

"YOU LIE!" Oliver snapped and started towards me only to get yanked back by one of the unnamed privates.

"Calm down!" The private warned Oliver. Oliver sneered at the other private and pointed at me.

"Don't tell me to calm down! HE KILLED REAGAN!" Oliver snapped.

"And Reagan tried to kill a family, a child. Sounds to me like he got what he deserves." Damon said with a huff.

"YOU CRYSTAL CURSED SON OF A WHORE!" Oliver bellowed as he tried to rush Damon but the two privates had a good hold on him. Damon looked down his nose at Oliver and huffed.

"PRIVATE FIRST CLASS OLIVER! STAND DOWN!" Logan growled in Oliver's face. Oliver flinched and for a second looked like he was going to resist Logans direct order but his slumped as he relented and stepped back. Thomas stepped forward and looked at me with a serious expression.

"The fact you know the name of that evo means you probably also know how it came to be…the Thradiz." Thomas said. This time I sneered and looked down my nose at Thomas.

"You mean the fact you used an infant as material to create it and all those modified thrads! You blackmailed his parents to keep them working for you! And let's not forget the little secret with the Ascended that attacked St. Louis!" I snapped.

Oliver, Cross, and the two unnamed Privates all frowned when I said the last part. While Beaufort, Thomas and Logan all looked a little concerned. This surprised me a bit, I figured that everyone in Logan's squad knew the truth about St. Louis but that reaction said otherwise.

"You sure can talk boy but did you think about the fact that were miles away from anyone that gives a damn about you. You got no evos, you got two worthless splicers for security, and I got four soldiers with guns!" Beaufort said cockily. Logan drew his side arm and pointed it at me. The others in his squad quickly did the same.

"Good threat…not the best but I'll give you points for verbiage." I said with a shake of my head. I then looked to Thomas. "You going to tell you're your blockhead son to lower the gun before he gets you all killed?"

Thomas frowned then turned around and placed a hand on Logan's wrist and forces him to lower his gun.

"Dad?" Logan said.

"Everyone lower your guns! He didn't bring evos because he didn't need them to keep us in line. He's using the Subject XX01 to do that." Thomas said.

"What do you mean dad?!" Logan demanded. I leaned back against the guardrail and vaulted over it, stepping onto the viewing glass.

"Subject XX01 codename: Poseidon's wrath! It is the first and only successful specimen from project Aquarius. While success is a relative term. It successfully emerged from its gestation tank, it successfully acclimated to salt water, and it successfully destroyed the entire facility that created it, killing approximately five hundred security staff, fifty scientists, and two thousand civilians!" I exclaimed reciting the texts from the ancient liger shark's file while skipping across the glass with every word.

"CHASE STOP! ARE YOU INSANE!" Thomas bellowed.

"Yes." Damon and Alberto replied with deadpan expressions.

"Dr. Kingston what is going on?!" One of the unnamed privates asked. I spun on my heel to turn and look at everyone.

"Dear old dad remembered something important about this evo! Too large for no reason, aggressive beyond measure, and wickedly intelligent! In short its batshit crazy!" I exclaimed. "This sea dock is little more than a guide to get it here to Evo-cution, it can't really contain it! This fucker could escape any time it wanted, all it needs is a little incentive!"

"Incentive…?" Beaufort said. I reached down into my holster and pulled out the manacite knife that had the crystal genesis spell enchanted on it then pressed the knife into my palm.

"CHASE! NO! DON'T YOU FUCKING DO IT!" Thomas exclaimed while frantically pointing at me.

"What's so fucking bad about him cutting his hand?!" Oliver demanded.

"THERE IS A EVO THAT IS OVER NINTEY FEET LONG AND SEVENTY TONS DOWN THERE THAT IS PART SHARK! ONE DROP OF BLOOD AND IT'LL TEAR THROUGH THE DOCK LIKE COOKIE DOUGH!" Thomas bellowed. All of the soldier's paled instantly as they looked at each other and then at me.

"Chase put the knife down! If you do that the evo will kill your friends! Aren't you worried about them?!" Logan asked. I arched a brow and pretended to think about it when a shadow suddenly eclipsed.

The large and familiar figure of Midnight stopped down and grabbed Alberto and Damon in her claws before quickly flying up and circling the sea dock. I saw Bo riding on Midnight 's head and giving me a thumbs up before leading the void drake back towards the island.

"That answer your question?" I asked. Beaufort's eyes widened as he watched Bo and midnight fly off towards the island with Alberto and Damon. He turned and looked back to me, his face red with rage.

"So this was your plan! Lure us here so you could unleash subject XX01 and kill us all! A glorious murder suicide!" Beaufort exclaimed. The others all looked even more panicked now. I threw my head back and started laughing loudly and admitted almost manically.

"Seriously? No!" I cackled and shook my head. "Why the hell would I make a plan that ends with me dead? That's stupid and short sighted. Plus you were the one that decided to give me this thing instead of a real Ancient Liger Shark."

As I spoke a shadow stirred in the water below the glass I was standing on. Though it didn't take a genius to figure out what the shadow was. Which meant that it was time to stop playing around.

"Wait, if that's not your plan then…?" Thomas started only to get interrupted by me.

"Why did I pull out the dagger and threaten to cut myself which would send the unstable evo below us into a bloodlust induced frenzy?" I finished for him.

Movement below me caught my eye and I looked down in time to saw a massive eyeball floating past. It was as large as the entire pane of glass I was standing on and distinctly predatory. The pupil contracted as it focused solely on me, then faded from view as the evo swam away, affording me a good look at it's body as it passed underneath the glass and into deeper waters.

"That's simple! I don't plan on dying!" I exclaimed and slashed my palm then crouched and slammed my hand down on the glass. I channeled vibrate attribute mana into my palm and the glass shook so violently that it shattered and I fell into the cool sea.

At first I couldn't see anything but that was because I was trying to see with my eyes. When I focused with Bone-lasher's vision I saw the sea dock's cage in its entirety. It spanned for miles, being so wide and deep that it could only be moved in the open ocean. I saw the evo as well, thought first I thought it a mountain because of the size.

It came from the deepest apart of the sea it could reach with the cage and swam at speeds I thought impossible for its size. Its mouth open, reveling tens of dozens of row of teeth. Many of which had the remains of its prior meals stuck between them. It's mouth was too wide for me to dodge, even if I channeled accelerate attribute mana. Instead I held injured hand out in front of me and channeled harden attribute mana through the trail of blood leaking from my hand and into the water in front of me, I was vary careful to not let any mana touch the water around my body.

The water solidified into a see-through wall that got expanded wider as my mana flowed with the undersea current, quickly reaching the farthest edges of the cage and slicing through the metal bars like a hot knife through butter. The evo didn't notice the wall until it swam right into it with a force so strong I felt the ocean quake, then felt it rush past me as I rapidly ascended towards the sea dock. Pushed by the undeterred evo towards the opening in the dock where the glass used to be.

The impact of my hardened water wall and the sea dock felt akin to a volcanic eruption. The entire dock surged at least two dozen feet into the air. A geyser of water rushed past me as I was jettisoned even higher than the dock through the hole in the center. This broke my connection to the mana I was channeling and the water wall liquefied again.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" I screamed as I flailed in mid-air. Below me the subject XX01 flailed about while snapping its jaws and finding contact with the wood and steel of the sea dock. The dock broke like dry kindling under the power of Subject XX01's jaws.

'Fuck? Is Beaufort and them dead?!' I thought. A split second later I saw the sky skimmer that we all arrived on swimming away from the area at top speed, Beaufort and company holding on tightly to its back along with the fisherman. 'Nevermind…'

The sound of a enormous splash followed by several smaller splashes brought me back to my own situation and the rapidly approaching, debris laden ocean. Subject XX01's dorsal was still visible above the turbulent waves, sticking about eleven feet into the air, which was impressive since I knew that wasn't all of it either.

Just as I was about to channel float attribute mana to slow my descent when Subject XX01 twirled in the water and a massive webbed paw shot out up and slapped me in mid-air. Every part of my body screamed in agony on impact and I was went skipping across the water like a stone. Bouncing who know how many times before crashing under the waves and sinking deeper.

[BOSS!] Bone-lasher screamed in my ear. For once I was grateful. It was the only thing keeping me conscious while my body healed.

[I'm fine! Don't come! That goes for all of you!] I ordered Bone-lasher and all of my other evos through out connection while I righted myself underwater. All of them immediately complained and disagreed but I had bigger concerns and tuned them out. Subject XX01 quickly homed in on me and closed the distance in a matter of moments.

I quickly channeled shock attribute mana throughout my body, circulating it like through my viens to collect and condense inside my heart. I had one plan that didn't involve asking my evos for help and it was totally stupid. With little to no air left in my lungs if this gambit didn't work I was fucked.

I swallowed my feelings of dread and fear as subject XX01's open maw seemingly eclipsed then entire world and I was plunged into a cave filled with razor sharp daggers. I released the collected and condensed mana in one huge wave. I was wrapped in a sphere of purple electricity that arched in every direction and lit up the inside of Subject XX01's mouth.

Subject XX01 let out a loud agonized roar while shaking and convulsing. Without a moment to lose I channeled accelerate attribute mana throughout my body and swam out of the subject's mouth and quickly to the surface.

I took a deep breath once broke the surface and looked over in the direction of the subject. It's massive body floated to the surface and caused huge waves that knocked me even further away from it. At first I thought it was going to attack but then I realized that it was paralyzed from the electric shock and decided to take the chance and claim it. Channeling gravity attribute mana I flew out of the water and straight towards the subject's head and slapped my hand on down on the tip of its nose.

"Sorry to break it to you but I'm not tasty!" I exclaimed and channeled mana into its body. I immediately felt a rush of emotion as our minds linked and felt the world around me quickly fading into darkness, floating in a vast nothingness.

I blinked and suddenly found myself falling into a crimson sea. I felt myself being pulled deeper and deeper into the thick red murk, a faint thudding sound reverberating through the liquid around me. It took several seconds to recognize what the sound was, a heartbeat. The further I sank into the liquid the louder the heartbeat became.

I suddenly stopped sinking and the liquid became translucent as the source of the heartbeat appeared before me. A warped and malignant evo's fetus wrapped in a embryonic sac, this was how subject XX01 saw itself.

[IT HURTS! EVERYTHING HURTS!] Subject XX01 screamed over the sound of its own heartbeat.

Subject XX01 codename: Poseidon's wrath was the only successful specimen from project Aquarius. It was the first successful attempt of creating a tier four evo using techno-splicing. It was a combination of Megalodon, lion, Siberian tiger, and komodo dragon. Though you couldn't tell any of that from the form in front of me, it looked more like a massive tumor.

[That why you destroyed the facility you were created in? You were in pain?] I asked. I quickly realized that speaking out was bad idea. The subject was unconscious and I was inside his subconscious so he wasn't aware of my intrusion until then.

[SLAUGHTER! KILL! SLAUGHTER!] Subject XX01 screamed. I suddenly felt like I was being bit and slashed by invisible fangs and claws. I gritted my teeth against the pain, knowing it's all in my head.

[HOW DARE YOU!]

Two bolted of lightning suddenly streaked past me and struck the subject fetus, electrocuting it. Two figures emerged from the lightning and flew to my side.

[Bone-lasher! Alpa'nagia!] I exclaimed as I looked up at my two evos.

[I sensed your pain Star Shaper and came to your aid.] Alpa'nagia said.

[The big bastard is getting too full of itself! We've come to take it down a peg.] Bone-lasher growled.

[All of us…] A voice suddenly said. I looked behind me and saw Grimm-Guard, Fours, Empress, Jiggles, and Bellial, all floating in the liquid behind me.

[I keep forgetting you all can enter someone's mind with me…] I said to no one in particular then turned to face the subject. It was undamaged, at least in ways I could visibly verify but it was now cautious.

[SLAUGHTER! SLAUGHTER!] Subject XX01 screamed repeatedly. Phantom liger Sharks suddenly appeared around it and charged all of us, snapping and biting. Everyone moved to engage them, attacking how they pleased while I just dodged while keeping track of the fetus.

[It's mind is fractured, judging from the lysdale scripts that Madilyn showed me for it. It's like the primordial, or you Grimm-Guard when Jane first spliced you. Large gaps in its genetic structure that they couldn't patch.] I informed everyone.

[Do you want us to destroy its mind so it dies naturally?] Empress asked.

[No, I'm going to claim it and then fix those gaps.] I replied.

[Like you did with me Savior?] Bellial asked.

[And me Star Boss?] Grimm-Guard asked as well.

[Yeah! I just need to get close to it!] I exclaimed as I dodged a swarm of fangs and claws. Jiggles barreled into the swarm and cut them to ribbons with his new claws. He retracted the claws in his right hand and grabbed me by my shirt and threw me towards the subject fetus.

[Then we'll get you there!] Jiggles shouted.

I was catapulted through the crimson waters and crashed into the side of the fetus. The instant I did I grabbed hold of its embryonic sac then channeled as much mana I could into it. Chains of blue energy wrapped around the subject, hooks dug in and bore through the sack before hooking into the subject.

[SLAUGHTER!] Subject XX01 screamed as he tried to throw me off.

[PEACE!] I bellowed the order.