𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 , shuri udaku - discontinued

THE DARK SEA

CITY OF STARS.
47. ❛ the dark sea. ❜

SOMEWHERE IN THE Atlantic Ocean, a helicopter navigates expertly through the sky and lands on a rig in the middle of the sea filled with American operatives. "This is Rotor 625, requesting clearance to land."

An older man, Smitty, waited on the helipad with two coffee cups in hand as a brunette gets out of the helicopter rather hastily.

"Hey!" The woman, Doctor Graham, waved with a smile, "I thought you retired!" She shouted over the loud noise of the helicopter rotor blades.

"I thought I had too." Smitty chuckled as Dr. Graham hoisted a duffel bag over her shoulder. "They said that machine had a one in a billion chance of finding vibranium."

Dr. Graham thankfully took the coffee cup and moved some of her brunette hair out of her face. "Oh, it's less than that."

Meanwhile, in the middle of the rig, some workers use cables to lift concrete up which created an opening into the sea.

Two divers, a woman and a man, get situated in two bulky expert diving suits, which are soon lowered and submerged into the dark water.

Somewhere else inside the rig, Dr. Graham and Smitty sat in a control room where they monitored the divers' vitals and looked through their cameras.

"Here we go." Dr. Graham smiles as she sips her to-go coffee, watching the divers' cameras on a large screen.

"Cabin pressure stable at negative one P-S-I." The female diver, Salazar reported as she sunk deeper and deeper into the cold, dark ocean. The lights on her diver suit glowed in near darkness as she and her partner descend into the depths. "At 800 feet, passing through thermocline."

"All my life support's in the green." The male diver, Jackson, notified the control room as he kept sinking.

Dr. Graham watched the vitals on the screen from the control room and nodded, pressing down on a button to unmute her microphone, "Copy you."

The divers slowly approach the sea floor as the lights shine from a massive machine already in place illuminated at least 10 feet.

"We've touched down," Salazar reported as the bottom of her diving suit clunked against the floor. She and Jackson powered up their suits and glided along the shaft of an enormous drill bit.

"Perfect." Dr. Graham spoke into her mic and squinted her eyes as she inspected the drill bit from Salazar's diving suit camera. "So, Salazar you are near the site right there."

"Yeah, it's astonishing," Salazar spoke in awe as she stared at the messed up drill bit then her eyes drifted down to the sea floor where a black rock seemed to be glowing with a purple hue. "The drill seemed to make contact with a metallic substance."

Jackson rose his eyebrows as he too stared at the metal lodge in the sea floor then up at the drill, "Whatever it is, it's solid. I've never seen a drill bit chewed up like this before."

"I'll be," Smitty smirked as he leaned over Dr. Graham to get a closer look at the vibranium displayed on the screen. "Vibranium in the ocean."

Dr. Graham smiled and clicked on the mic, speaking to the divers once more, "Let's go ahead and get the detector out of there since it's the only one we've got."

"Heading towards the vibranium detector," Salazar reported and started making her way toward another machine several yards away. Suddenly, all the machinery around the divers went dark.

Dr. Graham's eyes went from screen to screen as Salazar's and Jackson's heart rates increased and the cameras went out. "Okay, Salazar, we just went dark."

"Yeah." Salazar responded, looking around, "The rig lost power."

"Copy that. I'm gonna fix it up here." Dr. Graham clicked on a few buttons as she and Smitty tried to help the divers.

Meanwhile, a guard who was patrolling the rig stopped when he heard something. He took out his binoculars and looked down at the dark, calm water. And just when he thought it was nothing, he saw a thermal image of a figure peeking just above the surface.

Underwater, a figure darts passed the two divers. Jackson swallowed the lump in his throat, "What the hell was that?"

"I-I don't know," Salazar responded, her heart rate increasing. "I saw blue. L-Like hair, blue hair." She breathed out shakily and moved forward slightly, examining the vibranium detector. The faint glimmer of a red jellyfish appeared before the two divers. "Jackson, tell you're seeing this?"

"Hang on. Salazar's heart rate." Dr. Graham notes from the control center, "Hey, uh, Salazar, Can you give me a visual?"

Jackson furrowed his eyebrows when the screen and lights on his diving suit went dark. He tried to look around so anything but didn't see anything.

Salazar stared in awe and fear as the jellyfish drew near, "It's a phantom jellyfish. I've never seen one this color."

Blue hair, that's what Jackson saw first before a young woman appeared in front of him. Jackson's eyes scanned her appearance, taking note of the crown with blue and green feathers and also what seemed to be lionfish fins propped up. Her entire aura just screamed 'royal'.

He opened his mouth to scream but the girl chuckled and shushed him as she held a finger to her lips, motioning for the diver to stay silent and not move.

Jackson thrashed around, that was his mistake. Aria hummed slowly, the hypnotic melody reaching only his ears, which made Jackson seize all movement as his eyes glazed over and a sirenic trance washed over his body.

"I told you not to move," Aria whispered with a tut with a merciless glint in her eye, her mother's seashell necklace glowing around her neck as she watched the diver open his suit and suffocate from the lack of oxygen, a result of using the siren song on the poor man.

Back in the control room, Dr. Graham furrowed her eyebrows as she read 'signal lost' on Jackson's vitals screen. "Salazar, uh, we just lost Jackson's vitals. Can you see him?"

"Emergency dive team, stand by," Smitty spoke into his walkie-talkie, watching the screen light up red.

The air hissing in Salazar's diving suit provided an eerie noise as she turns, her bulky suit providing light in the murky water. She saw the end of Jackson's tether and shuddered slightly, "No. He's gone."

"Can you clarify? What do you mean by, 'He's gone'? Dr. Graham questioned unsteadily from above.

"I-I don't-" Salazar started to hyperventilate as she looked all around the water, a faint woman's laughing taunting her. When Aria popped out in front of her with a grin she absolutely lost it.

Staring at the rapid heart rate, Dr. Graham leaned forward, talking over Salazar's whimpering and gasping. "Salazar, do you copy? Salazar?" After Salazar let out a terrified scream, the mic cut short and a a 'signal lost' message appeared on Salazar's vital screen just like Jackson's.

"Smitty, we got a situation out here." One of the guards informed the two over the radio.

As Aria swam up quickly to the surface, her head broke above the surface and she started harmonizing with the other sirens, luring the soldiers on the ship to kill themselves.

"What's that sound?" Dr. Graham stood up after hearing the beautiful eerie melody of female voices.

Smitty breathed deeply and radioed some soldiers, "West, you got a visual on what's making that sound? West, how copy, over? West, you got a visual?"

Unbeknownst to Smitty, West had dropped his binoculars and neared the railing. Tempted and in a trance, West stepped o the railing and jumped over as other guards followed on suit.

Dr. Graham activated the security cameras and watched with horror as dozens of men and women jumped over and drowned, succumbing to the sirens call.

Aria smirked slightly from below the surface and dove deeper down,  swimming to Attuma's side as they both neared the ship, dodging bodies left and right as they fell in the water.