Excalibur gave a low chuckle, looking at the swarm of crabs; and extended his arms forward; forming a tunnel through the water, hurtling himself through them like a bullet; and when he came to a stop, several hundred meters on the other side... turned around to watch the shockwave... as the crabs; even the ones he had missed; convulsed with the wave of overpressure slamming through them. A few more quick bursts; and the crabs around the frigate were all dead, floating towards the surface; as he pulled himself up out of the water, getting ready to push the frigate further from the carrier, to protect the unshielded crew... only to stop.
The unprotected crewmen were looking around, confused, readying weapons; and clearly no longer in pain; though the boat was rocking a bit from his underwater shenanigans. He frowned, floating closer.... had he destroyed whatever device was nearby, perhaps it was a smaller one they deployed.... No.
Excalibur stared at the growing pile of crab corpses left behind the ship, floating on the surface. "...There's no weapon, or device. The crabs themselves are creating the effect. They're some sort of bio-engineered Psi-weapon. I bet it gets more intense the more of them are together...." He studied the carrier. "I'm going to make a few passes at speed; enough to kill them just by passing nearby. If whatever it is makes me collapse, just remember to get me."
He studied the creatures moving on the deck of the carrier. Two of them; at least seven feet tall; were tearing at the flesh of one of the former carrier crew. Undoubtedly hundreds of similar scenes were playing out aboard the craft. "Diving and making my first pass now. Keep an eye on my stats."
In the doomsday scenarios, Lightning would do something like this, only with air, and run so fast that the air would ignite behind him; letting him destroy entire cities just by running through them. He couldn't manage such a feat, even if he tried; but he could do quite a bit of damage without even touching a target. He braced himself, focusing on the carrier. He would submerge; pass through the swarm of crabs fast enough to cause lethal shockwaves; and fly up out of the water on the other side.
He closed his eyes; and dipped back into the water, feeling that strange pressure again. There were no crabs left nearby; but he could see the swarm gathered around the carrier up ahead. He focused, arms outstretched; and moved.
***
Jason knelt atop a blanket laid out on the floor in the Swords HQ, watching the display as it showed the assault on the carrier. One of the flying heroes was retrieving Exalibur's unconscious form; the second time this year he'd been struck by a mental attack, which might prove to be problematic.
With the underwater swarm dealt with, he could see a team of flying metahumans; armed with rifles, energy blasts, and one who simply sang and caused crab exoskeletons to burst; sweeping the top of the carrier; and then a trio entering. There were bursts of gunfire; strange shrieking sounds; but some of the men who had appeared to be dead initially were struggling to their feet; albeit looking confused, hurt.
He exhaled slowly. Okay. They hadn't needed him. And Excalibur would be fine. If some random, unshielded marine was okay, then someone behind some of the best shielding money can buy would definitely be fine. Unless it was a 'last straw' sort of situation.... no. It'd be fine.
By the time the aircraft containing backup arrived; Imperious among them; the situation on the carrier had been dealt with. The drones hadn't really been needed; most of the crabs were too big to get very far into the carrier, and the few dozen that weren't got crushed rapidly. He shook his head as he watched the video... and went back to practicing. There was a pile of glass shards laid out on the table in front of him; a few glasses on his left; and a stack of additional glasses on the right.
One by one, he was working on moving them from one side to the other; but doing so without breaking them was a challenge. He would regret having decided to go for it... if he didn't know the potential these irritating little organic field effectors had. At least his precognition didn't seem to be on the fritz. Not that he was likely to need that for more than just making sure his training didn't hurt anyone.
***
"Director... Doctor Disaster is outside. No appointment. He's insisting he needs to talk to you about the crabs, immediately."
Thomes glanced down at his desk, then up at the door. "...Hmm. Let him in." The lunatic had already proven his worth. Perhaps he had a solution... or knew something they didn't.
As the door slid open, and the man; wearing a short-sleeved labcoat, arms each covered by a heavy metal gauntlet... stepped in, Thomes frowned for a moment; those things might contain weapons... not that he was worried. He might be old, but he could still handle anything he needed to.
"Director! I need to speak with you at once! About the crabs, and the people who released them?"
He gave a slow nod. "People. Some of our people thought they might be Jotun weapons. Something left over from their incursion."
Disaster grimaced... and glanced back at the door. "...They are a blend of Coconut Crab and Lobster with a few spliced-in genes of electric eels and some wholly artificial genes. There were hundreds of eggs for them in a vat in my lab... that were supposed to be destroyed. I left detailed notes regarding the handling of the materials in the lab. Clearly, labeling something 'feed these through a woodchipper, and then either burn them, feed them to pigs, or dump them in an acid bath' gave an impication they were dangerous."
Thomes sighed, resting his head on his hands, leaning forward onto his desk. "...You made them. Crabs that could make psychic attacks. Why?"
He reached over to a gauntlet, and pulled out a USB cable. "May I?" Thomes stared at it for a moment... and decided he would be replacing his desk after today. He took hold of the cable, and plugged it in. Moments later... a display appeared over the desk, showing what almost, but not quite, looked like a coconut crab; at roughly ten feet tall, with a human beside it for scale.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"As you may know, certain kinds of crustaceans grow, and keep growing, theoretically living forever; only finally dying when they molt and are unable to escape their old cast-off shell. By accelerating the metabolism of the coconut crab, and instilling both the molting habits of certain lobsters, as well as key predatory genes to turn them from omnivorous scavengers into hunters, I was trying to create a species of giant crab that could be used as foot-soldiers or guards. Once they got past about eight feet tall, they would no longer be able to survive on land long-term, and once they got past about twenty, they couldn't survive in the water, either. So... my plan was to introduce a certain electricity-generating organ, and make them into cyborgs; charging a capacitor that, when they emerged from the water, would pump their blood hard enough to let them fight and move despite their massive size. Even better, the implants would stop the continual growth, resulting in them remaining at roughly ten feet tall; big, impressive, able to fight on land for several hours before needing to rest, or to operate indefinitely underwater."
Thomes looked at the display; and it showed a small cylinder being implanted behind the crab's skull, animated, pumping fluid through it. "...You still haven't said why."
Disaster sighed. "Partially as a hobby, partially because while I was interested in pushing the limits of genetics and cybernetics, the Cartel wanted monsters to throw at its enemies. They were supposed to be sterilized before being deployed en masse, and only the survivors converted into cyborgs. The Cartel must have acquired them, and released them, seemingly without sterilization. Whatever the crabs are doing.... its a distraction. They're using them to draw forces away from something else."
The director slowly slid to his feet. Some random policeman on the southern side of the border could easily have seen them. Decided they were worth something. Sold them to the Cartel. It would certainly explain them going after ships.
"And the psi attacks? How does that happen?"
"Pure accident. I wasn't trying to create those; it just happened. Possibly somehow related to the eel genes, or just a mutation in the original sample."
Thomes rubbed his face, shaking his head. "Well. That's useful information, at least. Thank you. I'll contact you if I need you."
"Wait! I've got a solution. I actually have one for any of my creations, should they go astray, but this would be the first time I ever had to use one." He tapped his gauntlet a few times; and this time, the crab was simply shown starting to molt, freeing itself from its shell; then dying. "I tailored a bacteria to them that will cause the chitin in their exoskeletons to malform when they try to molt. It might cause some secondary effects among other crab species, or even among eels, but we need to produce it, and deploy it, as quickly as possible."
"Ahh! Well now, that's useful. I'll have whatever equipment you need brought down. I wouldn't worry about the rush, however. We're diverting traffic away from the area, and the nearby islands should have things handled for now; a few rows of razorwire should be all we need."
Disaster sighed.. and tapped his gauntlet again. "If there were thousands of adults there, which apparently was the case... there will be hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of juveniles and eggs. Even worse, what if they weren't dropped there, but the carrier just happened across the edge of their range? We might be looking at hundreds of millions of crabs expanding, causing ecological devastation..... and starting to clamber up onto the shores of mexico and the united states. Until they reach around seven feet, they're perfectly comfortable with running about and living on land... so we might be seeing an endless tide of crabs pouring out to attack us unless we do something rapidly."
"...and what if this bacteria of yours creates an even bigger disaster?"
"At worst, it will kill off more crabs than we want it to. Humans don't have exoskeletons. We're not going to have molt issues."
Thomes nodded... and smiled. "Well then. We'll start production. We can just consult our resident precognitive about whether to release it or not."
***
Imperious stared at the island below; what had once been a small fishing village where a few boats would stay docked had been wiped out. One of the boats had run aground, crashing through the docks and embedding itself in a local shop; and scattered everywhere she could see, there were crabs. Scattered bits of blood and cloth. A few dead crabs, with an axe embedded into their flesh, or any number of other oddities. A harpoon. A shovel.
She was surprised they'd been able to fight back as well as they did; from what she saw on the ship, these things were pain just to be near, much less to charge in and lay weapons on. She spent several minutes checking over the island. Not a single living, moving, human soul. Just crabs. They weren't just eating the people, either; they seemed to be peeling the leaves off of the trees, digging up roots; eating just about anything they could find... and even each other.
One of the massive corpses, a 10-foot tall behemoth of a crab, with a harpoon embedded in its head, was being devoured by dozens of smaller crabs, tearing it apart. She slowly shook her head... and then spotted something interesting; relatively. One of the larger dead crabs had a whole mass of red marble-sized eggs clinging to it; but the consuming crabs, rather than eating the eggs, seemed to be adhering them to their own shells somehow, collecting them.
It... was odd behavior. Still.
She raised her hands to the sky, flail held in one of them, and started focusing. Light magic was always easiest in sunlight; and when handled properly, it could be dramatically effective. She shaped the humidity in the air, and started forming a massive lens, focusing the sunlight; and creating a narrow focal point; a single spot; where a dead crab and its mass of eggs started to steam... and then burn, catching aflame.
She shaped a second. A third. One by one, she created a series of over a dozen of the temporary magical constructs; each of which created a path of random burning death and destruction across the island; setting buildings ablaze, cooking crabs; by the end of it, nearby watchers would have seen the entire island ablaze. Sometimes she fed a bit of magic into it to make it a visible pillar of light, just to make things look cool to the viewers at home; but there was no-one to impress here. Just.... pest control.
At some point, the crabs further inland started trying to escape; she focused several of the lights onto the most direct paths off of the island, out to the beach; letting the creatures cook themselves in their attempt to reach the safety of the ocean; and near the end, the innermost part of the beach had turned into a pool of molten sand, the creatures shrieking in pain as they fell through it; doomed even should they manage to reach the water at that point.
She stared at the remnants, dissatisfied. Sure, she'd killed thousands of the things; and could kill many more. But this scale of nonsense was, unfortunately, beyond her. She needed to call in an expert. She sighed, and hooked her flail up to her waist, carefully opening an armored pouch to reveal her cell phone; and tapping a button to shut off the comms she shared with the local naval forces. "Hey, mom. I'll talk to my bosses about it, but... I think I've got something thats more than just a US thing. Would you mind calling Loki? I think he and his dad might need to get involved on this one, its.... bad."