The smell of smoke filled the air as I walked out of my apartment. I heard the sound of countless sirens in the distance, cutting out the sound of distant screams. In the course of one minute, the city I’d lived in my entire life had transformed into hell.
The bracelet pulsed, and I could feel the direction the creature was in, like some fucked up bird’s internal compass. Hurriedly, I walked down the stairs, trying to ignore the clicking sound coming from my new shoes I’d been “gifted.”
Answers for what the hell was going on with this bracelet were absolutely necessary, but I’d have to shelve it for now. Despite the chaos, my apartment complex was scarily quiet. I figured everyone had already taken cover in their apartments, or evacuated to somewhere else.
I shook my head to focus on the task at hand, and jogged towards my car. I was incredibly dismayed to see that the damage to my apartment windows was shared with my car. Also, apparently, this dress didn’t have pockets, which meant I had no idea where my keys were.
The bracelet pulsed once more, and I felt a rush of strength flow across my body. On instinct, I applied pressure to my legs, and the concrete cracked as I jumped straight in the air. I began to fly impossibly high, and adrenaline filled my brain as I began to screech like a child as I soared upwards. It didn’t take long for gravity to reclaim me, and I plummeted towards the earth.
So this is how I die, huh?
My life flashed through my eyes, before calm set in, and I closed my eyes.
I don’t know what I had expected to happen, given I had jumped that high in the first place, but splatting face first into the dirt was not on the list. Dirt covered my face, and I pushed myself into a sitting position. A perfect imprint of my expression of horror, contorted into a scream, decorated the ground in front of me.
I blinked away the dirt in my eyes, and wiped my face.
“Holy shit, are you alright?” I heard from behind me.
My face flushed red as I slowly turned around. To my horror, the witness of my embarrassment was someone I was vaguely familiar with— a neighbor from the same building. They had a shocked expression on their face. Great. I climbed to my feet and tried to reclaim some modicum of dignity as I brushed dirt off of me.
With the heat of a thousand suns, I turned my face away from their gaze, jumped as hard as I could, and I flew.
Leaving the gasp of my neighbor behind, I pushed myself towards the ocean. Each time I reached the apex of my jump, I managed to prevent face planting again using my tail to balance mid-air. In the back of my mind, my sudden deftness with a new limb surprised me.
It didn’t take more than a few minutes to reach the sea at this pace, and the beach swiftly approached. I concluded my last jump by letting myself drop into the sand, scattering it as I tucked into a roll to stop my momentum.
The beach was deserted, showing signs of recent life from the multitude of upturned umbrellas and scattered beach towels. I took in a deep breath as I looked towards the center of the bay. The water roiled from movement underneath, and barely showed the shape of the creature under the waves, its massive tendrils wriggling.
As I was trying to contemplate how to take this thing out, I heard movement, the fluttering of cloth, behind me. I turned to see a figure hovering down from the sky, their figure blotting the sun out.
“Need a hand?” A voice asked cheekily.
“You can fly? I turn into a fish and you get to fly?” I groused.
The figure came into sight as they chuckled. He was wearing a black skin-tight suit bearing a red logo on the front of it I couldn’t recognize. A regal cape billowed behind him. The suit seemed custom made to show off his ridiculously toned body, sporting muscles a greek statue would be jealous of. His visage was contoured by a sharp, masculine jawline, and an eye mask covered the upper part of his face, although it failed to conceal the shockingly bright blue eyes beneath. His short black hair seemed to wave in the wind, despite me not feeling a breeze.
“At least you make a cute fish.” he said, cheekily. My face grew somewhat hot as I heard his compliment.
“Are you going to fly there and flirt, or help me kill this thing?”
He smirked and raised an eyebrow.
“Glad to know that’s an option,” he replied, “But for now let’s see what we can do.”
I looked towards the water. “You got any ideas? I’m a little new at this.”
“Same here, I was hoping you’d suggest something, considering you’re the fish.”
I glared daggers at him for a moment, before frowning in thought.
“I’ll try to get it to the surface; think you can lift it out of the water?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him
He shrugged with a noncommittal smile, “Hell if I know, let’s try it anyways.”
I nodded and took a step into the sea. I gasped, and felt my body shake as I felt energy flood through me, like the bracelet’s but magnified tenfold. I continued forward, and sunk into the water. I had expected that familiar sensation of being underwater, ears popping, light burning from my eyes. What I experienced instead was akin to stepping into a warm home after standing in a blizzard for an hour with no clothes on. The euphoria I felt from being “home” shook me to my core.
I breathed deeply as if the water wasn’t there, and a smile fell across my face. I swam forward, and the water churned as I short forth as swift as a torpedo. The ocean spread before me in perfect clarity, the water proving no obstruction to my vision, and in the distance I saw it. A sprawling impact crater sat at the deepest point of the lower shore face, the stone causing the water to bubble from its lingering heat, and the surrounding wildlife devastated from the force of it.
A massive creature sat in the middle, it’s lumbering form reaching from the crater itself to the surface of the water. The closer I swam the more my confidence fell. The sheer scale of it awed me as I approached.
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This thing is 60 fucking feet long, how am I supposed to fight this?!
My thoughts were interrupted when it began to move. A tentacle rose and suddenly struck towards me. Its speed was so intense, I nearly didn’t have time to react before it hit me. At the last second my mind caught up with me and I pushed towards the left with my tail, shooting out of its way. My breath caught as I realized I had almost ended up as fish paste.
I swam towards it again, using my tail in tandem with my limbs now, and shot forwards considerably faster than before. It raced a whip-like limb towards me once more, but I was able to react quickly enough to spin out of its way. The water itself bobbed me along with it as the massive tendril flew by.
I willed myself forward again, and faintly noticed the water’s movement seemed to shift towards the direction which I had begun to swim.
The creature suddenly shifted, using its tentacles to turn towards me completely. Two massive eyes stared me down, and I swore I could feel the rage emanating off of it. It rose, crossing into a beam of sunlight, and for the first time I could see it clearly.
It was a massive thing; it had a central body mass containing two titanic, human-like eyes, 9 gargantuan tentacles spread from the base of it in even intervals, each covered with the same red scales covering its form. Directly between its eyes laid an orifice that was more like a chasm than a mouth. I could see thousands of body-length teeth lining it.
For the first time in my life I think I understood what a deer caught in headlights thought as it was hit by a car. I couldn’t make myself move as one of those limbs whipped towards me, and I felt pain spread through my body as I was smashed through the water. My vision went white as my body flew from the bottom of the bay to the surface, the force so impactful I skipped twice on the surface like a rock before something caught me, jarring me to a halt.
My vision slowly faded back into focus as I realized I could feel the warmth of my own blood dripping from my nose. Dazed, I came back to my wits, only to realize that not only was I floating in midair, I was floating in midair carried in someone else’s arms princess style. My head slowly tilted up as I saw a handsome face looking down at me in concern.
“Are you ok?” Mr. Handsome Jawline asked me.
“I— um, yeah, I’m fine,” I lied, “I’ll be ok, just set me down, please.”
My face blushed somewhat as I cringed at my own tongue-slip. He smiled as relief flickered across his face.
“I won’t lie, I thought you were a goner.” He stated, as he lowered me back to the water.
“I won’t lie, I thought I was a goner.” I responded, and wiped the blood from my nose.
As he set me back in the water, I was very much surprised to find I didn’t break the surface tension. My body floated on the top of the water as if a boat.
“Oh, that’s new.” I said, pretending this wasn’t something of biblical proportions.
I shakily stood to my feet, and felt that same strength flood back to me. The burning pain of my nose faded, and the blood stopped. Gingerly, I reached up and felt it. No pain.
I looked towards Mr. Handsome Jawline and nodded, “I’m ready.”
He gave a cocksure grin and folded his arms, before replying “I’m waiting.”
A small smile fell across my face as I let myself fall beneath the waves.
I shot towards the creature once again, and its eyes glowered at me. An arm reached towards me at impossibly fast speeds, yet I was faster; I turned my tail at the last moment and careened towards the side, before pushing myself forward again. Tentacle after tentacle came flying towards me, but I danced between them with ease.
The more I moved, the more I could feel as if the water bent to my will. I used it to move even faster, forming it into a slipstream. One of them flicked towards me, and I put my hands out to stop it. Instinctively, I willed the water to harden in front of me, and a shield of ice formed to block the hit.
As I was pushed back, I noticed a second limb flinging towards me, and I used my tail to spin out of the trajectory. My heart dropped as a third one wove its way through the water to collide with me. I flicked my tail to flip backwards, and used the motion of my body to send water shooting forwards, willing it to harden like pressurized water. The blade of water sliced straight through the tentacle, and blackish blood spurted from the stump as the creature roared. My chest vibrated as the sound rippled through me, and I grit my teeth in pain.
Pissed, I put both of my hands in front of me and sent another water blade towards the creature’s eye. The shot narrowly avoided the creatures attempt at blocking it with another tentacle, and I watched as the monster’s left eye popped from my attack.
The beast reeled in pain, and I saw my moment in its distraction. I streamed towards the creature’s center, deftly avoiding its tentacles, and dipped beneath it. Luckily, my guess had been correct— its tentacles were fast but its body was much slower. I shot towards the ocean bottom, and spun around to land against it feet first. Still in a crouch, I looked upwards towards the monster, and shot up with all of my strength. The rock gave way as the sheer force of my push rippled the water around it, and I rocketed upwards, my hands outstretched.
With an underwater yell I didn’t stop to think about the mechanics of, my hands collided with the beast, and its flesh rippled as my momentum carried us both up. The sheer force of my jump began to make my hands tear at the flesh where the force was centered, but thankfully its tough skin held out just barely long enough for us to breach the surface. My arms strained, and I couldn’t help but grit my teeth to block out the pain.
With a tremendous fountain of water, I pushed the creature more than 20 feet in the air before gravity won out. We began to free fall before I heard, “Good job!” from the masked figure, who flew up next to me and grasped the creature with both hands.
“I’ve got it from here,” He said with a wink, before he began to spin. I dislodged my arm from the body and dove back into the water. I felt my strength return to my arms as I treaded the surface, and saw an incredible sight above me.
Mr. Handsome Jawline threw the creature further into the air, and brought his hands together into a clapping motion. The sound barrier broke as the air gushed forth, and sliced the creature neatly into two. Despite this, however, it still wriggled as it began to fall back towards the ocean.
What if it can heal like me?! I thought in horror. It was then that I noticed the gleam of a red jewel buried somewhat in the flesh of its center. I cocked my arm back, then shot it forwards, willing the water to shoot in a pressurized line. A jet of water erupted from where my arm surfaced, and streaked towards it. It struck true, and a shattering sound could be heard as it was pierced. The pieces began to fall back into the water, violently swaying the waves I was in.
I slowly climbed back to the surface of the water. I stood up, and tracked Mr. Jawline as he floated down towards me, hands on his hips. He hovered right above the water, just enough for his toes to not dip.
“Couldn’t have done it without you,” he said, smiling.
My chest fluttered at that smile, and I nodded.
“Good job with all the, uh, ‘slicing it in half with air’ and stuff,” I said, lamely.
“Good job with all the, ‘Slicing it apart with water thing.’” He replied, before reaching hand out toward me.
“My name is Obelisk, nice to meet you.”
I blinked a couple of times before I reached out to grab his hand, and returned his smile.
“I’m, uh,” I said, trying to come up with something, before my eyes landed on my bracelet.
“Seastone. Likewise.”
“Mind if I give you a lift? A lady such as yourself shouldn’t be walking by yourself in all this chaos.”
My face reddened slightly when he smiled, and my chest fluttered again.
“Oh, yeah, thank you…”
Slowly, he floated upwards, and rather than feeling my arm yank, as I expected, my body began to float with him. We flew towards the city, and he landed us back on the beach.
“I can take it from here, but thank you!” I said, flashing him a smile.
He nodded in response, before lifting into the air again. I felt soft billows of wind flutter across from him.
“It was nice to meet you, Seastone. It’d be a shame if it we didn’t do it again.”
“I—um, yeah,” I managed to squeak out, “Hopefully not when the world’s ending.”
I smiled dorkily at him, and he gave me a two finger salute before zipping off.
I walked back into my apartment door, and realized I had managed to forget about my windows shattering earlier. I angrily muttered and grabbed my broom to sweep the mess up as I thought back to the day’s events. What had that creature been? How did I manage to change forms as I had? Who was Obelisk? Thoughts swirled in my head as I dumped the glass into the trash. I grabbed some packing tape and curtains before covering my windows up. Hopefully they’d be fixed soon, but considering the state of the city I didn’t count on it.
A sudden wave of exhaustion passed over me, and I sat on my couch. I felt that energy recede from across my body towards the bracelet, and it flashed once more before my body glowed, and returned to its non-fish form, taking the dress with it. I looked at my hand. Still a woman, it seemed, but at least I didn’t have to pretend to be a cosplayer 24/7. I sighed, and took in my form once again.
I had to assume that I’d be in this body for a while, if not forever, and had to think of what to do. My head throbbed at the implications, and I pushed the thoughts away. Luckily, I had long developed a solution for days like today. I walked over to the fridge and pulled a beer out. Good ‘ol IPA’s never disappoint.
Thankfully, it seemed that everything within my apartment had been spared the fate of my windows. I sat at my computer desk and cracked the beer open. Within a few clicks I navigated to my town’s news website and took in the headlines.
Meteoroid Strikes Clivesdale, Casualties Unknown, Widespread Panic
Unknown Creature Terrorizes Town
First Contact in Clivesdale, Aliens Not Friendly
Man and Woman Send Sea Creature Packing, Superheros in the Making?
I looked at the last headline and blanched, wondering if the universe had it out for me. Obelisk gets a badass costume with a cape and flight, and I turn into a magical girl? Actually, for some reason that didn’t seem to bother me as much as it should. Thoughts for later. Maybe after a few dozen beers.
I sighed and closed the news. After chugging the rest of my drink, I stood up to grab another. Was this creature a one and done? Would I have to fight something like this again? I shook my head and cracked open another drink, when I received a text. I picked up my phone and checked it, only to see about a half a million missed texts and calls from my parents and friends. I grimaced as I looked down at the prominent extrusions on my chest, before I shot my parents a text.
I’m ok. Drank too much, passed out. You guys ok?
I didn’t like lying to my parents, although it hadn’t stopped me before, but I hoped I would be able to come up with a reasonable explanation. It was about then that I was struck with horror. Dread filled my entire being, and my head creakily turned towards the door. I nearly fell to my knees in despair as I saw the most horrifying thing I’d ever seen.
My poor, poor sushi had been lying forgotten and dirtied on the ground. I cried.