[center][URL=http://s17.photobucket.com/user/nowhereman716/media/godzilla_legendary_pictures_by_heli_horse-d3b1ei3_zpsmsny0wgp.jpg.html][IMG]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/nowhereman716/godzilla_legendary_pictures_by_heli_horse-d3b1ei3_zpsmsny0wgp.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/center]

[b]Fishing Vessel [i]Xingyun Long[/i]
121 miles off the coast of Madripoor
Saturday, February 12th, 2017
02:46am ITC[/b]


[color=DarkSalmon]"Damned useless weather app,"[/color] Zhiao cursed as he wrenched hard on the helm, struggling to keep his footing as the [i]Xingyun Long[/i] lurched starboard.  [color=DarkSalmon]"'Calm seas,' my ass."[/color]

In fact, the sky was clear, the moon bright and not a single cloud obscuring the glittering stars above.  The sea, however, had grown unusually turbulent, swelling and crashing as if in a typhoon.  It battered down on the small fishing boat, slamming against the sides and threatening to capsize her more than once.  While deckhands scrambled to make sure everything was secure, captain Zhiao Sun Fan fought to keep them all above water.  He could not explain why the seas were so rough, so for now, he would settle on blaming the new LexCorp Global Weather app he had installed on his GPS system to tell him what to expect.  With the latest and greatest of modern technology failing him, Zhiao had to rely on his instincts and his years at sea to ride out the.....well, he would say 'storm' were there a storm at all.

[color=DarkKhaki]"Captain!"[/color] shouted Hu Shin, his first mate, [color=DarkKhaki]"The port engine's out!"[/color]

[color=DarkSalmon]"I know, I know,"[/color] grumbled Zhiao, cursing the half-hearted job his mechanic had done before they set sail.  [color=DarkSalmon][i]'Doesn't matter,'[/i][/color] he'd said at the time, [color=DarkSalmon][i]'the money we get from this next catch will be enough for a whole new one.'[/i][/color]  But the fishing had been bad the past few days, nets either coming up empty or full of fish that were strangely already dead.  Zhiao was never the type to believe in omens and signs, but between the nets of dead fish and the roiling sea under a calm sign was enough to make even the most skeptical man start to wonder.

Over a hundred miles between the ship and home, only one working engine, and a sea that was determined to bring them down.  Still, the old sailor thought as he gripped the helm so hard his knuckles turned white, there was no boat he'd rather be on in the situation.  His father's boat, and his father's father's boat before that, and it had survived everything from monsoons to World Wars.  This moldy old pile of junk had more than earned the name [i]Xingyun Long[/i]-- 'Lucky Dragon.'

[color=DarkSalmon]"Get everyone below deck,"[/color] Zhiao shouted over the crashing waves to Hu, [color=DarkSalmon]"I'm going to get us out of this mess!"[/color]

Hu nodded, and began shouting to the deckhands to drop what they were doing and get below to safety.  Meanwhile, the old captain gritted his teeth, and turned again hard to starboard, trying to turn the ship back south towards Madripoor.

A large swell rolled over the deck, water splashing into the cabin.  Zhiao's concentration broke when he heard the water hissing, steam rising from the floor.  In fact, the usual mist of choppy water grew thicker, as more steam churned in the air above the rolling sea.

[color=DarkSalmon]No.....not rolling,[/color] Zhiao thought.  [color=DarkSalmon][i]Boiling.[/i][/color]

On the port side, Zhiao noticed another swell coming, this one far larger than anything they had seen before.  There was no crest, no break in the wave, just a rolling rise in the water like an enormous hill.  As if something were moving just underneath the surface......a submarine?  No, something else....

....something impossibly huge....

From within the watery hill, Zhiao saw a faint blue glow, barely illuminating the dark mass beneath it.  The glow became stronger, and Zhiao became aware of a low humming sound in the air, one that grew louder and higher-pitched as the colossal shape beneath the waves approached.

Vaguely, he remembered hearing an old friend of his father telling stories that Zhiao wasn't old enough to hear at the time.  A low hum, a blue glow, things that his father's friend had seen before....in Tokyo.....

[color=DarkSalmon]"No,"[/color] he heard himself say, the word a kind of powerless denial that utterly disintegrated in the face of an unimaginable reality.

The old fisherman had been in some tight scrapes in his life before, and on more than one occasion he'd confronted the possibility that he would die.  Never, though, had it ever been more certain to him.  Never before had it been such an immutable, horrible fact that froze his blood and seized every muscle in his body.  He could not even bring himself to scream.

The top of the watery mound broke, pierced by what looked like giant crude blades that sliced through the ocean in three uneven rows.  The blue light, now searing to Zhiao's eyes, emanated from these jagged fins, and the low hum had become a frantic buzzing, like a thousand high-voltage wires brimming with power.

For a moment, Zhiao could see two points of red.  Two monstrous, hateful eyes peering at him from the boiling waves.  He knew that no turn of luck, no act of any god, could save him now.  The devil had risen to take him.

There was a flash of white light, and for a split-second, everything was heat and pain and terror.....


......and then there was nothing.