Chapter 2

Two

Arges

Arges hated the achromos, as they called the colorless ones who lived in the walled in city. He’d been but a child when he had his first run in with their kind. He’d been small enough to be stupid, finding time to stay in front of their windows so he might see them. Their bodies were so strange. Those ugly, two finned monstrosities had once been intriguing to his young mind.

He remembered the searing pain of their weapons. It was hard to forget the sensation of heat blasting along his side as one of them had shot him in the tail. The blood had bloomed in the ocean that day, not just his own, but also that achromo’s.

His father had murdered the creature who had dared to attack his son, and he’d paid with his life as they had all started shooting at his father. The achromos were monsters. They had ruined this sea and they would continue to ruin it if they were allowed to do as they wanted.

Thus, he became the monster who fought them.

Arges moved a strand of kelp out of his way, eyeing the piping system he and his pod had been planning to attack. It was their secondary choice, unfortunately. the achromo who had challenged him, the woman he’d seen in the last dome he’d broken into, had ruined his first plan.

The piping system he’d scoped out was right in front of the dome she’d fixed. That would have caused an issue if they returned and there were achromos there. She’d ruined everything, that little sea nymph who had stared back at him with too much bravery.

He’d shown her why that was dangerous. Arges still got a flash of pride when he remembered the fear in her eyes as he approached the crack she had so foolishly pointed out. It had proven difficult to break, but he’d managed.

Unfortunately, that had only brought more attention to the room. The achromos were ever so effortless in their tenacity. A trait that might have been admirable if they hadn’t taken over far too much of his world already, polluting it with their stench and refuse.

“Ready?” his brother asked. Daios was the eldest of his blood, a terrifying brother whose coloring was mostly blood red. Considering the amount of scars that covered his body as well, it was difficult to see Daios as anything but a weapon.

“Ready.” For all Daios’s aggressive visage, Arges had led their pod for years, much to his brother’s discomfort.

Even now, he could see Daios eyeing him as though seeking out any form of weakness. Arges knew what he was thinking. They should have attacked the achromos weeks ago. They should have drawn them out of their larger domes and into the tunnels that were easy to collapse.

But they couldn’t fight like that. Not with the weapons the achromos had, or the strange metal creatures they’d been creating that crawled all over their homes. He’d seen what had happened at Gamma. Their mother had spoken of the city they’d captured that had suddenly come back to life only a few cycles after.

He had to be careful. They all had to be careful around these weak creatures who used their minds to their advantage.

“You know the plan,” Arges said, coiling his body and flicking his tail powerfully through the water. They sped away from their hunting grounds, and instead returned to where their pod waited. “There are six different pipes. Each one needs to be broken.”

“Why are we breaking the pipes?”

“The achromos need air to breathe.” Air like he and his brothers didn’t need.

Just like the first time he’d been told of their air needing bodies, he shivered in disgust. Fluttering his fingers over the delicate gills along his ribcage, he feathered his touch over their barely noticeable texture before he focused his attention on the pod waiting for them.

Six other males. All massive specimens who had fought sharks, battled against the achromos, and lived to tell of both. One of them was rumored to have fought a squid longer than the achromos’ homes were tall.

Arges paused in front of them, floating next to his brother, who had crossed his arms over his chest. “The pipes hold the air the achromos need to live. We will kill many of them when we destroy these pipes. And the ones who flee will be stuck in the central tower. We are leaving only two pipes for air. If that does not kill them all, then it would leave them exactly where we want them. The second attack will be ours to win.”

All the others released out their battle cries like the orcas that attacked without conscience. His people were terrifying and great. They would take this sea back from the achromos who thought they deserved to live here.

Pride flushed through his chest, turning his normally gray skin mottled with dark splotches. He could feel that pride coursing through his veins. It heated his blood and sent him careening along the currents. The ocean drew him to the farthest corner of the achromos’ city. To the place where he knew his pipe waited. This was where he would make his final stand. This was where he would destroy them, force them all into the smallest section of their city, and then they would drown.

Baring his teeth in a feral grin, he lashed his tail behind him as he descended toward the pipe.

It was gray and long, a silly contraption that had no use on the ocean floor. It dug through the plants, bubbling in a few places where the air escaped. It destroyed everything around it, and the metal gave off a horrible scent. Like blood. Nothing grew around it, and he knew that it never would.

The achromos coated their pipes in some disgusting material that burned anything that touched it. He knew the feeling well. His webbed palms had been calloused since he started this work, after he dared to touch what the achromos created.

And still, it had never stopped him.

Arges gathered the largest rock he could find and turned his attention to the pipe. With a ferocity that his mother would be proud of, he beat upon the metal. Over and over again, he lifted the heavy stone above his head and used his coiling body to strike it down.

Fighting against the ocean with every movement, he continued until his muscles burned. Until his body ached, and still he continued. Blood rose from the webs between his fingers where the stone had bitten through the thin membranes. But he would persist. He would defeat the achromos, and avenge his father, and...

The pipe burst.

Air blasted through the water and sent him tumbling away from the pipe. It struck him so hard that it threw him back against the stone wall behind him. A far distance to be thrown, for certain.

He hit his head against the rock. Speckles danced in front of his eyes, white and black, glimmering like the scales of his favorite fish. No, that wasn’t right. He shouldn’t be thinking of food. Not right now. Where... Where was he?

Shaking his head, he let the salt water sting the wound as he rapidly blinked. Right. The air that blasted diagonally was now rising through the water. Bubbles, so many of them that surely his brothers could see them even where they were in the distance.

His pod cried out. The long, echoing wails of their glee could be heard from miles away.

And again, pride puffed out his chest. He had been the first. Of all the pod, all those who had fought and battled, Arges was the first to destroy his pipe.

Daios might think he wasn’t worthy enough to lead this pod, but he had been the first. The only one with the dedication to actually crack through the metal in such a short amount of time.

Breathing hard, gills flared wide, he found that he couldn’t stop himself. He had to see what he had done. The pipe trailed along through the rock, straight through the peaks of stone, blasted with fire and explosions. He followed the trail of destruction, looping over the broken stones and through a kelp forest before he found where it connected to their metal tubes. There were no windows on this one, though. He couldn’t see them.

And oh, he wanted to see them. He wanted to see the terror in their eyes as they realized all their life bringing air was running out. He wanted to see their expressions as they looked through the glass and knew he had been the one to do this. Arges, the black tailed monster, who haunted their dreams.

Left or right?

He looked toward the right and saw the dome he’d already cracked through. The woman had been there, fixing it for some reason or another. The achromos always liked to spread.

But did that mean... His eyes trailed along the metal tubing from that dome. It led to a spiderweb of tubings that eventually went to the tall buildings that had more levels than he could count.

Which meant if he went left, that should lead him to the quarters where she must have come from. So he went left, letting the currents carry him all the way to a larger room with flat panels of glass that allowed him to see the few stragglers. They hurried through the tube, heading toward a much larger section where he’d seen rooms opening and then disappearing into higher sections.

Some of the dirty achromos held their hands near their mouths, their forms shuddering as they staggered toward the life saving room that opened and closed far too slowly. They might all die. Ah, and he would stand here watching them suffer for all they had wrought.

Until one of them saw him.

The male was larger than the others. His chest was barreled out, his shoulders wide, and his jaw strong. He pointed at Arges, face red and mouth open wide. He could just barely hear the man’s shouts.

Who knew what he was saying? the achromo’s language was simplistic and grating. Short, staccato sounds like the cracking of stones striking against each other. It grated on his ears and anger flashed again.

The pride he’d felt at killing them wouldn’t be ruined by this one fool. He swam closer, antagonizing the man. He wanted to see the life disappearing from his eyes. He wanted to watch the man gasp and writhe like an eel in the throes of death.

Like a school of fish, the others parted around the man who stood shouting at him. Most of the achromos wilted next to the strange disappearing room. They waited for their opportunity and then darted into it. Packing in so close that they looked like one being, with many eyes and many limbs.

And still, Arges drew closer. Like he and the man were connected. They drew so close that they could have touched if the glass hadn’t been between them. He glared into the man’s eyes, which glowed with hatred just as much as Arges’s did.

He hated them. He wanted them all dead. But this was the first opportunity he’d ever had to actually watch the life flood out of one. Strange and wondrous it would be.

Until the man hit a button on the wall. Red color flashed all around them. The color was one he’d seen from the achromos before, a warning signal they used for the others. But a small flare of worry hit him hard in the chest as the man backed away from the glass.

What was he doing?

Why did he suddenly appear so... pleased?

Something struck Arges hard in the back. He tried to spin, but a metal arm had gripped him from behind. It wrapped around his waist in three sections. And though he wriggled in its grip, pushing at it with his arms until he thought they might break, he could not free himself from the demon the achromos had created.

It dragged him through the water, closer and closer to the wall of the metal tubing.

the achromo was going to crush him, he realized. He would be flattened against the side of their wall until his blood billowed around him.

But then the metal tube opened. Water rushed into the space beyond, dragging his tail with it as the suctioned force yanked him and the metal arm in. It deposited him before the wall closed with him and the metal arm inside.

Panicked now, he slammed himself against the glass. Once, twice, three times, snapping his shoulder out of place in the process. The damned metal wouldn’t give. He couldn’t get enough room to move his tail, so he had to bunch it underneath him and use only his abs to thrust himself forward. They’d trapped him. Trapped like he had trapped the tiny schools of fish in his palms when he was a child.

His twin hearts fluttered in his chest and he felt a flash of oil slick his skin. The panic reaction was meant to make him glide faster through the water that would no longer pull upon him, but there was nowhere for him to go. Only darkness surrounded him.

A hissing sound flooded through the room and suddenly, another rush of movement.

He was forced out into bright light, tumbling head over fin and striking yet another hard object as he landed. Trying to get his bearings, Arges stared around him and immediately sealed his gills along his sides. He was inside the tube.

He was inside the achromos’ home.

Horror sank in. They’d not only trapped him. They’d drawn him into their own death. The big man stood in front of him, though his face had paled as Arges drew himself up to his great height. His tail looped behind him, long and deadly as spikes slowly rose along the back of it. They dripped poison already, and each drop sizzled as it hit the metal floor. He had to balance himself on the glass of the tube, but that wouldn’t stop him from killing the man. He opened his mouth, all his teeth flashing in the red, blinking light, and he hissed long and low.

The man didn’t hesitate. He turned and fled down the tunnel to stand with the few remaining achromos.

They would seek their safety in the upper levels. And though he dragged himself toward them, slow and lethargic already with lack of air, he knew he’d have to take a breath soon.

The water.

He needed the water.

But he would terrify them with every ounce of his remaining life, if that’s what it took. And if he could destroy one of them in the process... all the better.

He’d always wanted to know what an achromo’s blood tasted like.