Chapter 56: Mechanical Giant Squid VS Ripjaws (X2)
After clearing out the surrounding swarm of lesser Mechanical Giant Squids, Ripjaws—currently piloted by Klein—floated in the murky water. He turned toward the deep-sea submarine, raising a webbed, clawed hand to wave at Edwin through the reinforced glass, gesturing for the boy to follow. Without waiting for a response, Klein whipped his powerful tail and darted toward the Underwater Resort. Beside him, the second Ripjaws, Ben, mirrored the motion, his own tail propelling him swiftly through the water.
Inside the cockpit, Edwin gripped the steering controls. His knuckles were white against the yoke. "What should we do? Should we follow them?" he asked, his voice trembling as he glanced over his shoulder at Gwen.
Gwen did not hesitate for a second. "They saved us! Follow them!"
Edwin swallowed hard and shifted the gears. The deep-sea submarine hummed to life, trailing closely behind the two alien fish-men.
Flanked and protected by the twin Ripjaws, the submarine handled the treacherous waters safely, eventually docking back at the Underwater Resort.
The situation inside the resort, however, was rapidly deteriorating. The massive panoramic glass walls of the facility were completely swarmed. Countless Mechanical Giant Squids clung to the exterior, their hard, metallic mouthparts slamming against the transparent barrier in a frenzied, rhythmic assault. Spiderweb cracks fractured across the supposedly indestructible glass. In several corners, high-pressure seawater was already hissing through the structural failures, pooling rapidly on the expensive tiled floors.
Alarms blared overhead. Staff members sprinted down the corridors in a chaotic, panicked evacuation. Amidst the rushing crowd, Grandpa Max and Donovan stood their ground near the central hub, anxiously scanning the faces of the evacuees for the kids.
The moment Klein and the others stepped out of the docking bay, they broke into a run, searching for the two older men.
Edwin jogged alongside Klein, panting heavily as he turned his head to glare at the older boy. "Where did you run off to just now? And why did you suddenly reappear out of nowhere?"
Klein kept his gaze forward, his expression completely blank. "Don't concern yourself with Plumber business."
The flat, dismissive tone shut Edwin up immediately. Klein had absolutely no intention of explaining the Omnitrix or his sudden disappearance to an outsider.
A few corridors later, they spotted the familiar Hawaiian shirt of Grandpa Max.
Donovan rushed forward, grabbing Edwin by the shoulders. His eyes darted over his grandson, frantically checking for injuries. "Where did you go? Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
Grandpa Max stepped in, cutting off Donovan's frantic questioning. "Let's save the scolding for later, Donovan. We need to leave this place right now."
The group hurried toward the primary evacuation device, a massive, teacup-shaped escape pod designed to ferry guests to the surface. They piled into the circular seating area. The heavy doors sealed shut, and the pod groaned as the ascension sequence initiated.
Grandpa Max noticed Donovan staring blankly at the floor, his shoulders slumped. The resort owner looked utterly defeated by the destruction of his life's work.
"Donovan," Grandpa Max said, placing a heavy, comforting hand on his old friend's shoulder. "I know things went wrong here, but look around. We are all fine. Everything is normal, isn't it?"
"Grandpa." Ben reached over, tugging urgently on Max's sleeve.
Max did not look away from Donovan. "Wait a moment, Ben. Can't you see I am busy?" He turned back to his friend, opening his mouth to offer more reassurance.
"Grandpa!" Ben yanked the sleeve harder, his voice cracking with panic.
Max finally turned his head, following Ben's trembling finger. The boy was pointing directly at the massive glass dome just outside the ascending pod's path.
"Is that normal too?!" Ben yelled.
The escape pod had not yet reached the height required to fully exit the Underwater Resort's main dome. Clinging to the exterior glass was an absolute nightmare.
A gargantuan Mechanical Giant Squid, easily ten times the size of the others, had attached itself to the dome. Its metallic tentacles whipped through the water, each one dozens of meters long. To a creature of this terrifying magnitude, the resort's reinforced glass was nothing more than wet tissue paper.
The colossal beast reared back and slammed its massive, hardened beak into the dome.
The glass exploded.
A deafening roar filled the chamber as millions of gallons of pressurized seawater surged inside. The sheer kinetic force of the turbulent flood caught the escape pod, violently shoving the teacup-shaped device upward through the vertical shaft.
But the water was not the only thing rushing in.
A massive, segmented mechanical tentacle shot through the breach, surging upward through the shaft, relentlessly pursuing the ascending pod.
The metal appendage closed the distance in seconds, its clawed tip opening wide to crush the escape vehicle.
Klein did not hesitate. He slammed his hand against the release buckle of his seatbelt. The restraints snapped back. He vaulted over the edge of the open-topped pod, plummeting straight down toward the rising mechanical limb. He landed with both feet squarely on the thickest part of the tentacle, the heavy impact causing the metallic appendage to violently shudder and halt its advance for a crucial split second.
"Cousin!" Ben and Gwen screamed in unison, leaning over the edge.
Ben slapped his own buckle, throwing off the straps. Without a second thought, he dove over the edge after Klein.
Gwen scrambled to unbuckle herself, fully intending to follow suit, but a large, calloused hand clamped down on her shoulder. Grandpa Max hauled her back into her seat.
It was not that Max did not want to stop his grandsons. The boys had simply moved too fast, diving into the abyss before his reflexes could catch up. Gwen was the only one he managed to secure.
"Max!" Donovan shouted over the roaring water, his eyes wide with horror as he pointed at the dark waters below. He looked ready to offer his own frantic comfort to the grieving grandfather.
Max merely shook his head, his expression remarkably steady. "I believe the children will have the miraculous power to overcome this disaster."
Donovan stared at him, utterly dumbfounded. To think that Max, a man who always seemed like the absolute picture of a loyal, warm-hearted grandfather, could stand there so calmly while his grandsons faced certain death. Donovan felt a deep sense of betrayal. He had truly misjudged this man!
Down below, Klein and Ben had already crashed into the churning seawater. From the vantage point of the rising pod, Max and the others only saw a brilliant flash of faint blue light, immediately followed by a blinding flash of emerald green. Then, the dark waters swallowed everything.
The escape pod continued its rapid ascent toward the surface.
Deep underwater.
Two monstrous, fish-like figures darted through the debris-filled water. The twin Ripjaws easily evaded the sluggish, sweeping strikes of the giant tentacle, their powerful tails propelling them downward, tracing the massive limb back to its source.
They needed to eliminate this colossal Mechanical Giant Squid right here, right now.
However, the giant boss was not the only threat in the water.
"Cousin! They are coming again!" Ripjaws—Ben—gurgled through the water, his glowing lure bobbing as he pointed a webbed claw.
From the shadows of the flooded resort, a massive swarm of the smaller Mechanical Giant Squids was rapidly swimming toward their position, their metallic bodies cutting through the water like torpedoes.
"Ignore the small fry for now," Ripjaws—Klein—commanded, his voice a harsh, aquatic rasp. "We deal with the big guy first."
To emphasize his point, Klein lunged forward. A smaller squid darted into his path. Klein did not even slow down. He swung his massive, razor-sharp claws, tearing the mechanical creature in half with a sickening crunch of metal. Without missing a beat, he accelerated toward the towering boss.
Ben mirrored the action, driving a devastating punch straight through the glass dome of another approaching squid, shattering its core before kicking off the sinking wreckage to follow his cousin.
After swimming another fifty meters through the ruined resort, the two Ripjaws finally caught up to the colossal Mechanical Giant Squid. For some unknown reason, the massive beast was ignoring them, swimming purposefully forward into the depths of the facility.
Up close, the giant variant looked identical to the smaller ones, just scaled up to a terrifying degree. Its head was a massive, elongated dome of thick glass, glowing with an eerie blue light from within.
The two Ripjaws flanked the creature. Finding purchase on the smooth, curved surface of the giant glass head, they unhinged their massive jaws, exposing rows of terrifying, steel-crushing teeth, and bit down hard.
A loud, grinding screech echoed through the water.
"So hard!" Ben complained, pulling his head back. He rubbed his jaw with a webbed hand. His bite had only managed to leave a localized spiderweb of shallow cracks on the thick glass. He could feel a dull ache in his teeth.
Klein, however, possessed a far stronger bite force. His jaws clamped down with brutal efficiency, his teeth punching straight through the reinforced glass. He ripped his head back, tearing a jagged hole in the dome.
Instantly, a thick, glowing blue pulp began to ooze out of the breach, dissolving into the surrounding seawater.
Klein stared at the viscous, unknown substance floating near his mouth. His face contorted in disgust. He found it incredibly difficult to force himself to take a second bite of that foul-looking sludge.
Before Klein could decide on a new angle of attack, the colossal Mechanical Giant Squid went completely berserk.
Whether the machine felt pain or simply registered critical damage, its reaction was violent. It whipped the majority of its massive tentacles upward, forming a cage of thrashing metal designed to crush the two pests attached to its head.
Klein reacted instantly. He kicked off the glass dome, using the recoil to shoot backward into the open water. He twisted and spun through the chaotic flurry of metal limbs, his claws lashing out to deflect and slash at the tentacles as he maintained his distance.
"Hmm?...Oh my god!" Ben, who was still distracted by his aching teeth, looked up just in time to see several thick tentacles converging on his position.
He managed to contort his body, narrowly dodging the first three strikes, but his reaction time was a fraction of a second too slow. A fourth tentacle slammed into his side like a freight train.
The impact sent Ben tumbling through the water, spinning out of control until he crashed through a submerged decorative pillar. Shaking the dizziness from his head, Ben righted himself, his eyes narrowing in annoyance as he kicked his tail, swimming right back into the fray.
Once they adapted to the rhythm, the battle became surprisingly manageable. As long as they maintained focus, the colossal Mechanical Giant Squid's attacks were easy to predict and evade. The creature relied entirely on its tentacles for offense, and its attack patterns were wildly uncoordinated. It possessed terrifying destructive power and incredibly thick armor, but its intelligence was severely lacking. It was the classic definition of a heavy bruiser: maximum attack, maximum defense, zero accuracy. Every single strike hit nothing but empty water.
Ben darted around the sweeping limbs, treating the monster like a massive, slow-moving buffet. He dodged a strike, latched onto a tentacle, and bit down. It took him two or three consecutive bites to chew through the thick exterior plating, but eventually, his teeth met the internal mechanisms. Thick streams of glowing blue pulp and dark, viscous fluid that looked suspiciously like engine oil bled into the water from the severed limbs.
Combined with Klein's relentless, surgical strikes, the giant beast was rapidly falling apart. More than half of the glowing blue pulp had drained from the massive hole in its head, and several of its primary tentacles drifted uselessly in the current, cleanly severed by Klein's claws.
Perhaps its primitive programming finally calculated that victory was impossible. The colossal Mechanical Giant Squid abruptly ceased its attack, turned its massive bulk, and fled deeper into the resort.
Oddly, the direction it chose was a complete dead end.
The two Ripjaws shared a look. They had absolutely no intention of letting the monster escape. They kicked their tails, pursuing the bleeding behemoth relentlessly.
The colossal squid tore through the submerged Underwater Resort, its massive body smashing through walls, walkways, and decorative structures with terrifying speed. The sheer velocity of its retreat was staggering; despite the heavy damage inflicted by the two Ripjaws, the creature did not slow down in the slightest.
Finally, the beast reached the deepest sector of the facility. It perched its massive bulk atop a reinforced, bunker-like building. Rearing back, it drove its thickest remaining tentacle downward, punching a massive crater through the roof.
The tentacle snaked deep into the building's interior. A moment later, it retracted, ripping a large, heavy mechanical device out of the rubble. The thick power cables connected to the bottom of the machine snapped like cheap string.
Klein recognized the machinery instantly. It was the exact device Grandpa Max had been highly suspicious of earlier during their tour—the very same machine Donovan had casually brushed off as standard equipment. It housed the true, hidden energy core of the entire Underwater Resort.
Swimming closer, Klein locked his eyes on the small, reinforced glass window on the side of the device. A vibrant, pulsing purple light emanated from within. The pieces clicked together in his mind. He finally understood the monster's true objective.
"Ben! Stop it! Don't let it eat that!" Klein roared through the water, his tail whipping furiously as he shot forward like a torpedo.
Ben felt a sudden, heavy knot of dread form in his stomach. He watched the massive tentacle lift the glowing device toward the creature's shattered mouthparts. He did not need to be told twice.
The colossal Mechanical Giant Squid registered their approach. It positioned the tentacle holding the core behind its bulk and unleashed every single remaining tentacle in a desperate, frenzied barrage to block the two Ripjaws.
Klein and Ben abandoned all offensive strikes. They did not waste a single second trying to damage the beast. Instead, they focused entirely on evasion, twisting, rolling, and weaving through the chaotic storm of thrashing metal, their eyes locked solely on the prize.
The monster's sluggish, inaccurate strikes were completely useless against their focused agility.
In a matter of seconds, they broke through the defensive perimeter. Ben lunged upward, his jaws snapping shut with bone-crushing force, cleanly biting off the tentacle holding the device.
As the severed limb drifted downward, Klein swooped in, snatching the heavy device from the falling wreckage.
"You are out of luck, ugly!" Ben taunted, floating in the water with his hands on his hips, flashing a triumphant, razor-sharp grin at the giant squid.
"Wait... something is not right," Klein's voice cut through the water, heavy with realization.
Ben blinked, turning his head to look at his cousin.
Klein was holding the heavy metal device, inspecting it closely. The machine felt entirely too light. He looked at the small glass window. The vibrant purple light was gone. Turning the device over, he saw a massive, jagged hole ripped into the back casing.
He looked through the hole. The interior was completely empty.
A cold chill swept through the water. The two Ripjaws slowly turned their heads back toward the colossal Mechanical Giant Squid.
High above them, one of the creature's smaller, hidden feeding tentacles was holding a brilliantly glowing purple sphere. Before either of them could move a muscle, the beast shoved the sphere directly into its grinding mouthparts.
The monster had played them. It possessed a terrifying level of cunning.
The moment the colossal Mechanical Giant Squid swallowed the purple energy core, a violent shockwave rippled through the water.
The remaining blue pulp sloshing inside its shattered glass head instantly boiled, rapidly shifting into a deep, toxic purple. The transformation was explosive. The jagged cracks in its glass dome fused and repaired themselves in the blink of an eye. The severed stumps of its tentacles erupted, new metal limbs shooting outward, growing thicker, sharper, and infinitely more dangerous.
The beast's entire body expanded, its metallic plating shifting and groaning as it grew exponentially in size. The water pressure around them spiked as the monster doubled, then tripled in mass.
When the horrific metamorphosis finally ceased, the creature blotted out the ambient light of the resort. Just a single one of its newly formed, purple-glowing tentacles stretched well over a hundred meters long, whipping through the water with terrifying, lethal grace.
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