Chapter 14

In The Waters

Dana and Kyne had finally arrived at the sewage treatment facility, where their next target, Aqua Jaws, would most likely be located. The detective’s car came to a stop at the facility’s parking lot and the two of them got out. The detective wrinkled her nose a bit in disgust, as there was a nasty smell in the air from the filth that came with the sewage. She could already tell that she wouldn’t like this at all.

“God, that smells like shit,” Dana said. “Are you sure the guy we’re looking for is here? I can’t imagine anything wanting to live in a place like this.”

“If there is any place for him to hide, this is it. It’s just too fitting for him to pass up,” Kyne replied. “Besides, he wouldn’t mind the filth. His immune system will keep him from suffering from any infections and he was never exactly the cleanest guy in the first place.”

“If you say so… Kind of wish you hadn’t, though…” the detective said as the two of them started walking towards the entrance. “By the way, I forgot to say this before, but I would like to apologize.”

“For what?”

“For not listening to you back a the sawmill. You knew that Jennifer and her friends were beyond saving, yet I stubbornly went to them without even considering your warning,” Dana explained. “I should have listened to you and I’m sorry for how I acted back there.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve already moved on from that,” Kyne said in response. “You were only doing what you thought was for the best. That is all.”

“Still, I should have taken your view into consideration. You have far more experience than I do, when it comes to dealing with these things,” the detective said. “From now on, I will listen to your input first before acting.”

“I appreciate that. Thank you,” the telekinetic said in a surprised tone.

The duo walked up to the entrance, where a security guard was stationed behind a desk. The guard looked up from his newspaper upon hearing the door open and put It away in order to give proper service to the visitors.

“Hello, how may I help you?” the guard asked politely.

“Hello. I am detective Dana Colt and I have come here to investigate the disappearances of some of your workers,” Dana introduced herself while showing a police badge. “Do you have someone who could show me where the missing workers were last seen?”

“I’ll contact someone right away. Just a moment,” the guard said as he quickly got up from his seat and went to make a phone call in another room.

Now that they were alone again, Dana took the moment to show her badge to Kyne.

“It’s a fake one I got from a toy store,” the detective said with a smirk. “Still helps me greatly, when I have to get into places most people aren’t allowed into. Just flash a symbol of authority, even a fake one, and most people pretty much submit automatically.”

Kyne simply nodded in response.

After waiting for a bit longer, the guard finally came back with a new person with him. It was a bald man wearing a brown suit, so Dana figured he was someone important there.

“Hello, detective. Glad you were able to come here,” the man in the brown suit said with a smile as he shook Dana’s hand. “My name is Peter Hendriks. I am the head of our HR department around here.”

“Dana Colt, detective. A pleasure to meet you,” the detective replied politely.

“Excuse me for asking, but who is the child with you?” Peter asked while looking at Kyne. The telekinetic boy had pulled up his hood and was wearing a scarf to hide his less than pleasing features. “If this is your child, I’m sure we can arrange a break room for him to stay at while you do your work.”

“There’s no need for that. He’s with me,” Dana replied, earning a confused look from the man in a suit. “He is actually involved in this case in a manner that I’m not allowed to discuss. However, I need him with me in order to properly conduct my investigation. I trust that this won’t be an issue?”

“It’s a bit odd… but I’m sure we can manage,” Peter answered. “Anyways, please follow behind me. I’ll show you some of the places that the disappeared workers were last seen at.”

As they were walking down the facility’s hallways, Peter was explaining the strange things that had been going around recently. Apparently, it had all started with strange noises, where some of the workers had claimed that it sounded like something was moving in the pipes. Soon after that the first disappearance occurred, where one of the workers tasked with fixing a leaking pipe had seemingly vanished. While disturbing, it wasn’t made into such a big deal and they had just filed a report to the police about a missing person in the hopes of him being found soon.

However, while a single missing person could be seen as an unfortunate accident, having multiple people disappear one after another was far from something one could simply excuse as an accident. It had been so bad that apparently some of the workers had quit in fear. All of these cases had been reported to the police, but so far nothing had been done to solve the cases.

“I have to say, I was starting to lose hope. I didn’t think we would see anyone come and help us,” Peter said with relief in his voice. “Good to see that the police haven’t completely abandoned us, like so many like to believe.”

“...I wouldn’t get my hopes up too much if I were you,” Dana said with a frown, thinking about the current chief of police and how she handled her job. It was no surprise to the detective that nothing had been done so far. “Anyways, is there anything else you can tell about what’s been going on? For example, has anyone seen anything unusual? You said something about strange sounds.”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you much,” Peter answered. “As far as I know, nobody has seen anything worth noting, whether it’s about the missing workers or whatever is behind all of this. As for the sounds, I believe the workers explained that it sounded like something was crawling in the pipes.”

Kyne’s lone eye narrowed upon hearing this. This was obviously the creature they were looking for.

“Thank you. Anything else I should know?” Dana asked.

“There have been some… strange smells. Workers have described it like the smell of rotting meat,” Peter answered. “Some people seem to think that it’s the missing workers, but this hasn’t been confirmed. No one has had the courage to actually go in and see if that’s the case.”

“Don’t you have security guards here? Why can’t they go take a look?”

“None of them are really armed. They only have pepper spray and a taser on them to defend themselves. Not only that, but some of the missing workers were security.”

Dana and Kyne were eventually led to the place where the disappearances happened. There were pipes of all sizes running along the walls and the ceiling. There were also large containers that were used to purify the water, before letting it go either back to the lake or to the households using it.

“I unfortunately can’t give you an exact location for where the disappearances happened, but I have a list of places the people were heading to, when they went missing,” Peter explained as he handed out a piece of paper to Dana. “I’ll see if I can find someone to help guide you around here.”

“That won’t be necessary. I’m sure we can-”

“Please, I insist. Even workers that have been around here for a couple of years get lost, so I think you-”

“You should just go back home! This place is freaking cursed or something!”

The group turned to look at where the shout had come from and saw a small group of workers heading their way. All of the workers were running and had horrified looks on their faces, like they had seen a ghost or something.

“What are you people doing here!? Did something happen!?” Peter asked, already fearing the answer.

“Something did happen alright!” one of the workers answered as he stopped by Dana’s group, while the other workers ran past them. “Bobby just vanished without a trace! He went to work on pump three and we suddenly heard him scream! By the time we got there, there was nothing left of him!”

“How is running away supposed to help in this case!? There might be something that can be done to save him!” Peter argued. “Didn’t you say you needed this job to feed your family!?”

“If I die here, then no one is going to feed my family!” the worker argued. “Besides, what the hell are we supposed to do!? After all this time, no one has even seen whatever it is that’s causing this and the police aren’t helping! This place is finished and we aren’t allowing it to take us down with it!”

With that, the worker ran past the group and went after the others that were running away. Feeling the weight of the situation on him, Peter fell to his knees in desperation.

“Well, I guess we won’t get someone to show us around now,” Dana said. “For some reason, I’m getting the feeling that those were the last of your employees around here.”

“Yes… Yes they were…” Peter replied in a broken tone. “My God, what am I supposed to do?”

“You shouldn’t blame them. They were obviously terrified,” Kyne said. “Once you let fear take you over, there is nothing you can do. I’m honestly surprised they have stuck around for so long.”

“No kidding,” Dana said in agreement with her partner. “Anyways, we gotta go there and find out what’s causing all this. Whether or not we have a guide with us.”

“No, you do have a guide,” Peter said in a determined tone, surprising the investigators. “I will go down there with you. We’ll start with pump three and move to the other areas from there.”

“Are you sure about that? It could be dangerous for you,” Dana asked. “There’s a good chance you won’t make it out alive.”

“I know, but someone has to do something. I, along with the other higher-ups have been telling our workers that we are going to solve this whole thing, yet we never actually did anything,” Peter said as he took the paper he had given the detective back and heading towards their first stop. “I think it’s time someone did something about this. Even if it doesn’t amount to much.”

With their new guide leading them, Dana and Kyne began heading towards the place where the latest disappearance had occurred. As they were walking, the detective began to whisper to her partner in order to find out what he thought of the situation.

“So what do you think?” Dana whispered. “Do you think the guy we’re looking for is here?”

“Definitely,” Kyne answered. “The thing’s that have been happening around here have to be the work of a Bio-Gladiator. Considering where we are, there is no doubt that it’s Aqua Jaws.”

“Still can’t get over that stupid name… Anyways, how hard do you think this is going to be for us?” the detective asked. “How good are our chances?”

“The only thing I can say for certain in regards to our chances is that as long as we don’t get in the water, we gave a chance,” the telekinetic explained. “Other than that, it’s hard to say. From what I heard, our overall situation could be better or worse than before.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“From what we’ve been told, Aqua Jaws hasn’t given any signs to his existence until now,” Kyne began to explain. “While there were strange noises and the disappearing workers, no one saw or heard anything concrete, making it seem like people simply vanished. This time, however, the victim was able to make enough noise to alert the other workers. If my guess is correct, then Aqua Jaws has been having difficulty getting more prey lately, most likely due to the lack of workers. Now hunger has made him desperate and impatient, which has made his attacks sloppy.”

“How exactly could that be a bad thing?” Dana asked. “If he is getting sloppy, won’t that make it easier for us to find him? Not to mention, if he is getting hungry, can’t we use that to our advantage?”

“Those are valid points, but you fail to notice something very important,” the telekinetic said. “With hunger, comes desperation. And with desperation, he’ll be even more driven to tearing us apart. This is a scary idea, considering the fact that our opponent can literally rip people apart with his bare hands.”

A shiver ran down the detective’s spine. She hadn’t considered that the opponent they were facing was a monster on the level of Hive Queen. On wrong move and you would end up as its dinner. Not to mention, this one was very hungry and would most likely do anything for a piece of meat. It wasn’t exactly the advantageous situation she had hoped for.

“We’ll soon be at pump three, where the latest disappearance occurred,” Peter suddenly called out to his two guests, breaking Dana out of her thoughts. “Hopefully we can find something that will shed some light on things around here.”

The pump was a large cylinder-shaped structure with pipes attached to it from two sides. One one side, the pipes were letting fall out while on the other side the pipes were taking it in. The pump also had a steel ladder on it that would allow one to climb on top of it.

“The water that’s taken in is the dirty sewage from the city. Once inside the pump, it gets cleaned before being let out again back into the lake,” Peter explained. “There are multiple pumps just for the occasion if one breaks down, the other ones can still go on. That way we ensure that the water is getting cleaned no matter what.”

“I see… You know, I didn’t get to say something because of everything that was going on,” Dana said as a displeased look came to her face. “This place smells like shit.”

“I’d be more surprised if there was no such smell. After all, we have raw sewage running through these pipes,” Peter said. “You do know what’s in that, right?”

“Smart-ass..” the detective muttered before turning her attention to her partner. “How are you holding up, buddy? You doing okay?”

“As bad as the stench is, this is nothing new to me,” Kyne replied as he was looking around. “I’ve dealt with worse.”

“I don’t even want to know where you encountered that,” Dana said with a sigh as she began to look around herself. “So where do you think we should start looking?”

“I was just thinking about that,” the telekinetic answered before looking at their guide. “Is there any way to get in and out of these pipes?”

“Yes, actually,” Peter answered. “If there are any issues, we often close down the pump and have a maintenance crew go look for whatever the problem is. After the pipes have been drained, that is. During such times, they often have to cut a hole into the pipe in order to enter.”

“I meant when the pumps are active,” Kyne clarified. “Is there a way for someone to get inside right now?”

“I… suppose you could get in them either by swimming from the sewers in the city all the way here or by entering the pump from the top,” Peter explained. “But that would be suicide. Not only would you be stuck underwater for long hours, there is all sorts of filth in the water that is sure to kill you. Not only that, but the machinery in the pump could also kill you.”

“Well, we aren’t exactly dealing with a normal person here,” the telekinetic said as he walked up to ladder that led to the top of the pump and started climbing it. “Luckily, I’m no either.”

“Wait a second! You can’t just-!”

“Hey, I told you he’s involved with this case, right?” Dana said to Peter as she walked past him and followed her partner. “Believe or not, he has far more knowledge and experience in regards to what’s going on here than both of us combined. The way I see it, our best bet is to let him lead.”

The detective climbed the ladder and was soon on top of the pump as well, where Kyne was waiting. In the middle of the pump’s top, there was an open area that showed the water that was being cleaned at the moment, as it was swirling around like a whirlpool.

“Think this is the place will come out of?” Dana asked, as she prepared her pistol.

“Hard to say. He could have moved away before we got here,” Kyne answered. “But if what we heard is correct, it’s these spots that he most likely comes out of to feed. The way I see it, this is our best bet.”

“Then we’ll go with that. Any idea as to how we’re going to lure this guy out?” the detective asked.

“By doing what we are doing now. We just wait at the entrance to his hideout until he comes out to us,” the telekinetic explained. “I understand that you might not like this, but we don’t really have other options. Going after him into the water would be suicide, so we have to draw him out. Luckily he seems to be getting hungry. Not to mention, I’m here as well, so I doubt he’ll pass the opportunity to make me his lunch.”

“I’m not exactly fond of the idea of using you as bait, you know,” Dana said with a frown. “How about we use me as the bait instead?”

“No. Since I’m one of the Bio-Gladiators, he is more likely to come for me,” Kyne explained. “Besides, you already told me that you would listen to me, didn’t you?”

Before the detective could reply back, Peter climbed up the ladder and soon joined the other two on top of the pump. The man had an angry look on his face as he glared at his two guests.

“Okay, what is going on here and who are you people?” Peter asked angrily. “I was listening to your conversation and you are clearly not working with the police, yet you seem to know what’s happening here.”

“Look, all you need to know is that we are here to put a stop to all of this, okay?” Dana said with a frustrated sigh, cursing herself for not being more careful. “It would be best for you to leave and-”

“DON’T YOU GIVE ME THAT BULLSHIT! WHY THE HELL WOULD I TRUST EITHER OF YOU ON ANYTHING YOU SAY!? NOW YOU’RE GOING TO TELL ME JUST WHAT IS GOING ON, BEFORE I-”

Peter’s angry rant was cut off, as something suddenly jumped put of the water and landed on top of him. He didn’t even get a chance to scream, before sharp teeth tore his throat open.

Dana and Kyne stared in shock at the monstrosity that was now standing between them. It had a humanoid form, but it’s appearance was far from human. Its skin was slimy and scaly, like that of a fish, and the scales were pale white on its front side and light gray on the behind. It had a slender yet muscular build, perfect for a quick predator that needed to go after its prey. Its long and thin limbs ended with webbed hands and feet, where each toe and finger had a sharp, black claw. On its back was a large fin like that of a shark and it had smaller webbed fins on its head, wrists and ankles. Finally, its face didn’t have a nose, but two nostrils, a mouth full of sharp teeth and a pair of pale white eyes, devoid of any humanity and emotion.

This was Aqua Jaws, the Bio-Gladiator specialized in underwater combat.

Snapping out of her shock, Dana aimed her gun at the monster before her and fired a couple of bullets. Aqua Jaws responded by raising his arm up to block the bullets, which sunk into his flesh but didn’t cause any significant damage. With a furious shriek, the creature charged at the detective, intent on tearing her apart like he had done to Peter, but was stopped by Kyne using his telekinesis to pull him back.

The telekinetic had hoped to pull their opponent down, thus giving them an advantage in attacking him. Unfortunately, Aqua Jaws was quick to respond to the invisible attack and switched its attention to its fellow Bio-Gladiator instead. Using the momentum from the telekinetic pull, the underwater monster was able to land on top of its smaller opponent, pinning him to the floor.

Just as Aqua Jaws was about to sink its teeth into Kyne’s neck, Dana suddenly came to the rescue by jumping on the aquatic beast’s back and putting her arms around its neck in a tight hold. She had decided to use this strategy instead of her gun for two reasons. First, she didn’t want to risk hitting Kyne by accident, and second, she knew her pistol was unlikely to do cause any significant damage to a monster that had just shrugged off a couple of shots like it didn’t even hurt.

Aqua Jaws got off from Kyne, like the detective had hoped, but unfortunately for her, that was the only good development. The underwater creature decided to make things easier for himself by getting back in the water, where he had the advantage. This meant that Dana got dragged along as well.

Despite being dropped into ice cold water suddenly, the detective kept her hold on Aqua Jaws, knowing that the moment she let go she would be at the creature’s mercy. In response to this, Aqua Jaws twisted and swirled around, hoping to throw her off, but couldn’t get rid of her. In the end, he decided to simply ram his back against the pump’s wall, smashing Dana between himself and steel.

The impact was heavy and painful, causing the detective’s grip on her enemy to come loose. This moment was not wasted by Aqua Jaws, who quickly got away from Dana. The underwater killer was now ready to charge at its prey and dashed forward like a speeding bullet.

However, before sharp claws tore into soft flesh, Dana was suddenly pulled out of the water by an unseen force, causing Aqua Jaws to smash into the steel wall. Kyne had managed to use his powers just in time to drag the detective out of the waters.

“Are you alright!?” Kyne asked as he readied himself for another attack.

“Yeah, I’m okay. He just took me for a bit of a rough ride,” Dana managed to answer as she coughed up water. She then looked at her pistol and frowned. “Dammit. With gunpowder wet, this won’t do me much good. Any ideas on how to take out this bastard?”

“Only one. We need to switch the area and quickly,” the telekinetic explained. “If he pulls us in there, it’s over for us. We need to get him somewhere where he doesn’t have the advantage.”

“How do we do that?”

“Follow me.”

The two of them started to run back to the ladder they had used to climb on top of the pump. As they did so, Aqua Jaws tried to attack them again, but Kyne managed to push him away with his telekinesis. It didn’t take long for Dana and Kyne to get down from the pump and back on the ground floor.

“Alright, so what do we do now?” the detective asked as she stared at the pump. “We might be away from the water, but he’s still there.”

“Now we drag him out of his hiding place,” Kyne replied as he readied himself. “I’m starting to get tired of this game.”

Before the detective could ask what her partner was planning, the telekinetic suddenly used his powers to make a large dent on the side of the pump. He then began to slowly tear the pump open, causing water to leak out. At first it was nothing but a small stream, until it became a cascading spring.

“HOLY SHIT, KYNE! WHAT THE HELL!?” Dana yelled out of shock at her partner’s actions, as she moved out of the way of the raging water.

“LOOK, WE NEED TO DRAG HIM OUT OF THE WATER IN ORDER TO WIN!” Kyne yelled back. “IF WE DRAG THIS OUT FOR TOO LONG, HE COULD MOVE TO A BETTER LOCATION! AT WORST, WE MIGHT EVEN GET ATTACKED BY OTHER BIO-GLADIATORS!”

It didn’t take long for Aqua Jaws to fall out of the pump, having been taken along with the current. Despite being a bit disoriented over what had happened, the underwater killer was soon on his feet and ready to fight, letting out an angry roar at his enemies.

However, Kyne wasn’t going to let the fight go on any longer. In an instant, he used his telekinesis to slam Aqua Jaws against a wall, where he pinned his opponent with the use of his powers. The underwater Bio-Gladiator was doing his best to fight back, thrashing around and biting at air, almost like trying to get at limbs that were holding him down.

The defiant struggle soon ended, as Aqua Jaws was suddenly screaming in agony. At first, Dana didn’t understand what was happening, but then she saw the underwater beast have his arms torn off by Kyne’s telekinesis. Once the arms had been torn off, he fell to the floor where he continued to scream in pain. Things only got worse for Aqua Jaws, as his legs were torn off next. Once he was certain that his opponent couldn’t fight back anymore, Kyne granted him the mercy of death by tearing off his head.

Shocked by the brutal display in front of her, Dana could only stand still, as the actions of her partner caused her to freeze. Her face was completely pale, as she tried to make sense of what she had witnessed. It wasn’t until Kyne walked past her did the detective finally break out of her frozen state.

“We’re done here. We should leave,” Kyne said in a completely calm tone. “There are still other Bio-Gladiators left.”

“...H-Hold on just a moment!” Dana yelled. “What the hell just happened!?”

“What do you mean? I killed our enemy. That’s all,” the telekinetic asked. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“You might have done that, but what was up with the way you did it!?” the detective argued. “I have seen crime scenes of serial killers that were less horrifying than that!”

“I only handled the situation in the most effective way with my abilities. That is all.”

“Don’t you give me that crap! I’m sure you had no need to-!”

Dana was cut off when Kyne suddenly fell to his knees and began to cough violently. The detective immediately rushed to the boy’s side, only to find out that it was worse than it initially seemed, as Kyne was coughing up blood.

“Kyne, are you alright!?” Dana asked worriedly. “Did you use your powers to much!?”

“It seems that way. I must have overexerted myself by using all my powers to end the fight quickly,” Kyne answered. “I should be alright, though. Just a bit of rest and I’ll be good to go.”

The telekinetic was about to stand up and continue walking, but the detective was not going to let him. Instead, she picked him up and started carrying him on her back.

“What are you doing? There’s no need for this,” Kyne asked.

“I’m helping out my partner. What else does it look like?” Dana answered.

“I thought you were upset with me…”

“You damn right I am! But I’m not about to let that stop me from helping you! You had your reasons for doing what you did and I’m going to hear it from you once I’m sure you’re gonna be okay! So just sit back and let me carry you, got it!?”

With that, the two of them left the water treatment facility. On their way, they were stopped by some security guards, but Dana was able to get past them by using her fake badge and telling them about a horrible accident that had happened. With the attention of everyone away from her and her partner, Dana and Kyne were able to leave easily.

Now the detective just had to make sure her partner was alright before getting some answers out of him.