Infinite DC: The Legend of Cthulhu

Chapter Seventeen: The End of Cthulhu

Not only was it a challenge for Skeeta and Penz to set up the pylons whilst underwater, it was a greater challenge to do so during a six-on-one brawl between Cthulhu and the Jaegers. Doing their best to avoid their feet, the two Time Lords did well in their arrangement, with only the last two pylons left.

And then, they suffered a major setback.

Penz failed to catch the gigantic foot of a Jaeger that rushed her way, knocking her out cold and the pylon out of position. They floated towards the enormous stomping feet. Skeeta's attention was squarely on setting up and activating his pylon. With the exception of his own breathing and the thunderous stomps from the battling titans around him, he couldn't hear anything else from inside the diving helmet.

Once he was finished, he turned to check up on Penz's progress, finally noticing his sister's unconscious body and the final pylon perilously floating into dangerous waters. He was suddenly left with a big decision to either save his sister or the pylon. The choice was obvious.

He swam for Penz as fast as he could, but she was too far to reach in time.

"PENZ!" he cried out in his helmet, though she wouldn't have heard him, lacking the proper two-way comms between their helmets.

For a moment, he believed he was about to witness his sister's death, as she floated along the path of Cthulhu's risen right foot, prepared to crush both Penz and the pylon. Thankfully, two accomplished swimmers – neither wearing any proper scuba attire – succeeded in pulling her away just before the foot came down with a massive stomp. The only casualty was the last pylon. Skeeta, Penz, and Penz's rescuers were knocked back several feet from the shockwave.

As soon as he was able to recover, Skeeta realized the two swimmers who saved Penz were Ruth and Debbie. He figured they had been watching from Maureen's TARDIS and, in seeing Penz in danger, swam out to save her, temporarily abandoning Samuel. He followed them back into the console room, lugging the inert Penz and leaving huge puddles across the sleek floor. Skeeta removed his helmet before removing Penz's, gently slapping the left side of her face. "Penz, wake up. C'mon, sis. Wake up!"

After a few more slaps, Penz snapped awake with a loud gasp. She sat up, coughing and looking around, confused to see she was back in the TARDIS console room. "My pylon! It wasn't activated! We need to—"

"It's gone," Skeeta told her. "It was crushed."

Hearing this, Ruth was stricken. "Wait. We can still do that thing you said without it, right?"

Skeeta shook his head pessimistically. "We needed all seven."

"And, with one out of commission, we're screwed." It didn't take rocket science for Debbie to come to that conclusion.

Meanwhile, above the surface, an even grimmer situation occurred.

The Jaegers Guardian Bravo and Saber Athena fell to Cthulhu, killing their pilots in the process. That only left the Gipsies (Danger and Avenger), Scrapper, and Bracer Phoenix still in the fight. "He's kicking our asses, guys!" said Scrapper's pilot, Amara Namani.

"Don't give up, Amara!" Jake encouraged from the cockpit of Gipsy Avenger.

"He's right!" Si supported from inside Danger. "We can still win this!"

The other surviving Jaeger pilots believed the faiths of Jake and Si to have been misplaced, until some activity happened along the lakebed. Skeeta, Penz, Debbie, Ruth, and Samuel could see it from their place in the submerged TARDIS: a rift was forming from a fiery orange crack in the bed.