MAELSTROM

CW: Physical violence, gore, sexual abuse

The Aqua-Marine was the greatest hero that ever came out of World War Two. Strong, golden, looking like a young Sea-God, a youthful Poseidon. It sure didn't surprise me when Timely Comics based their Sub-Mariner on him in 1939, and National did the same thing with with Aquaman, in 1941.

But none of them could hold a candle to the real thing. Man—the adventures we used to have! Anything from fighting the Sea-Witch, to fending off the Mu Empire's invasion, back in '42!

Best buddy a kid could have—Prince Thag, come all the way up from sunken Atlantis because the Nazis were setting off these bombs in the North Atlantic and he had left his people to stop them doing it. He offered his services to the navies of every one of the Allied powers, and they were grateful to have his help—heck, if they'd let him, he might have won the war by himself, all by his lonesome!

But the world doesn't know what happened to him in 1949. They just figure out he went back to his own people, since all the trouble was over. But I know the truth. He's been with me, here in the Bunker, recovering in that giant tank of his. And I've been right here, keeping an eye on him.

1950—that was the year it all came down—World War Three. That's when the flying saucers strafed the skies. But they didn't count on good old American know how. We used up our stock of atom bombs but we saved the Earth!

Of course...there wasn't too much left of the Earth after that. That's when Captain Nefartat locked me up here in this Bunker.

The Aqua-Marine was recovering his strength. I'm the only one who can wake him up.

Been here so long I've got no idea what things are like out there. Total radio silence, communication blackout. It's got to be at least five years. But I'm sure they'll be able to fix it, no matter how bad it might have gotten. This is America! We ain't never lost a war yet and we ain't gonna lose this one! And I'll just keep up my lonely vigil until the Captain comes to let me out—or the time comes I have to wake up Prince Thag.

Don't feel sorry for me. I've got the biggest collection of serials you ever did see. One of the rooms down here filled with hundreds of canvas and wood boxes holding dozens of film reels. I've got all the great ones—The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Flash Gordon, Captain Midnight, The Blue Meteor, the Raptor—

But they all pale before the 24 Aqua-Marine serials Balaur Studios produced from '39 to '49. I never get tired of watching them. And why should I—I was there! We spliced actual newsreels of Aqua-Marine in action into the made-up parts of the story.

Revenge of the Sea-Witch? Raiders from the Deep—great stuff! But for now I need to find out where I misplaced my Oxynite. It's a medication Captain Nefartat impressed on me the necessity of taking three times a day. Enriches the oxygen content of my blood. Haven't been sick a day since I've been taking it. But it's not like me to misplace something like that.

“Looking for these?” It was the soft mellifluous tones of a woman's voice coming out of the shadows of my playhouse. I spun around. There's no way anybody can get in here. And why did that voice seem familiar, as if I'd heard it before...?

The woman's of medium height, long black hair billowing down her shoulders over the straps of some silken evening gown. She holds the pill bottle in her hand. It takes me a second to recognize her. It all comes rushing back.

'Julia? Julia...Chandler?”

“Long time, Jackie—you're looking well.”

“So...are you.” Can't help myself but I start feeling really, really awkward. I'm sure she never picked up on it, but I was so in love with her back in '43, when we both starred in The Aqua-Marine and the She-Wolf, the ninth Aqua-Marine serial. She played Ursula, the She-Wolf, this gorgeous pirate maid, more ruthless than the Dragon Lady from Terry and the Pirates. I played myself, Jackie Harkins, like I always did, Prince Thag's kid sidekick. Well, partner is more like it, since I wasn't just a kid anymore. I'd just turned sixteen. I never found out how old Miss Chandler was, but she always had a lot of the guys around her in attendance and I figured, what could she see in a kid like me?

But she doesn't look like she's changed a bit. She's just the way I remember her. But if that was back in 1943, and I've been in here since 1950, and...how long have I been here? She would have to be in her fifties now...

“It's me, alright, Jackie. If I tell you somethings that only I would know, would that convince you?” She proceeded to do just that. There was no doubt about it. This was Julia Chandler, there was no doubt about that. But something started nagging at the back of my mind, something that should have been obvious, but whatever it was I just wasn't quite getting it.

“Look, it's great to see you, but could I have those pills? I need them to...”

“You mean the Kheft?” She shook the bottle in her hand and slowly approached me.

“Kheft? No—this is Oxynite.”

She smiled and held the bottle sideways in her two fingers. “I know what Nefertat told you. You need it to enrich your oxygen levels while you're down here. But that was only so he could keep you dreaming down here all these years. You have no idea how long you've even been here, do you? Or even what you really are.”

She had gotten really close by now. The closer she got the more uncomfortable I was getting—not because there was this beautiful woman two feet away from me, a woman I'd loved for years, but because the feeling that something was just not right wouldn't go away.

“In some ways, you're still like a young boy. Not been around too many women.”

“Well...” I was beginning to feel uncomfortably hot though the room was cool enough. “...there hasn't been too much time for girls, what with all the...adventures.”

“And saving the world like the two of you used to do. You've given up a lot...but I know how you really feel.”

And suddenly, so suddenly I didn't even register how, she was in my arms.

Or rather I should say I was in her arms. It all happened so quickly and, not that I didn't like it—I had fantasized about that woman ever since the first time I'd seen her. Something magnetic in her eyes. But up close like this, that wasn't how I'd pictured something like this happening.

I needed to think this out and I started trying to push her back. This was all happening too quick for my comfort. I couldn't budge her. I could feel the cords and tendons in her arms. They felt unyielding as steel. Her voice whispered kissing soft.

“Relax. Just close your eyes. I know you want this...” I felt her lips touch my neck.

It felt like tiny needles piercing my skin. I'd been gripped by octopus suckers before, it felt like that. I pushed against her, hard as I could but her grip was too strong.

Suddenly I knew why this had all felt wrong. From somewhere inside me came a surge of strength I could not have imagined I actually had. I broke her grip on me. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see a series of small round marks, like those an octopus' suckers make on skin.

The woman crouched like some predatory beast. Her fingers became curled claws. But it was her mouth that shocked me most. Something like teeth jutted out of her mouth, but they were too long and thin and sticking out at right angles to her face.

And her face. It was no longer that of the actress who had played Ursula in the serial. How could it be? Julia Chandler had died in the same shipping accident that had taken out the Aqua-marine in 1949.

“What...are you?”

She still had Julie Chandler's face, but it was like it was some kind of liquid mask and was now slowly rolling off her face. To my horror I saw hers was not the only one. It's like there was a whole host of them, fighting for their place on her head. It was almost like watching candle wax drip.

Her voice hissed out. “Not exactly the seaweed draped corpse you might be expected to find. I'm surprised you found your strength. I took the Kheft away from you too quickly. Your human self was the weakest link and you're waking up too quickly.”

“What the hell are you?” I'm not used to using profanity but all this was too much.

“”Follow me to your Prince Thag if you'd find out.” And then she whipped out the room. I'd already had an example of her speed. She had tried to kill me! There was no way I should have been able to fight her off. But I knew where she was going.

The tank Thag floated in was vast—fifty feet by fifty and a thousand feet deep. The outer airlock door was open. No—torn open. How could any living thing be so strong as to tear steel like that? Of course, my friend could do it easily.

The inner door had a window, three feet thick, but clear as crystal. The woman—whatever she was—had gotten in somehow. Her skin was covered by fish scales, fins sprouted from her arms, legs and back. A dark figure floated in the middle of the tank.

It was my friend, Prince Thag of Atlantis, just as I remembered him, completely human, silvery hair moving with the motion of the waters. A face, movie star handsome, just the way I remembered from all our times together.

But even as I watched it was like looking at an image made of smoke and watching the smoke blow away. Julie had said that the kheft made me dream. By God—was the dream fading and was this the reality?

He was no longer the man I remembered. Fish scale. Fins. Armor plate. This couldn't be Prince Thag of Atlantis, my friend! He looked exactly the way he did in the film, that accursed film!

The woman-thing was attacking him. Her claws was tearing at him. I don't know what was happening. I didn't know why Thag was looking like that. I had no idea what had changed him, but he was still my friend, and I had to help him, somehow.

But how?

In fury I punched at the inner door. Futile. Even if I could smash the door open I'd drown. I wasn't an amphibian like Aqua-Marine. Nonetheless, I kept on punching. It was the only thing I could think of to do.

And suddenly I felt like I was floating. I opened my eyes and saw a face. But what looked at me through hate-filled eyes was only human in the vaguest fashion. There was a lust there that was more dangerous than any I could have ever have conceived. I moved suddenly, striking at her, defending myself to the best of my ability. The woman-thing drew back. I had won a brief breathing space.

But I wasn't breathing! The shock hit me immediately. Water was coming into me through the sides of my throat. I looked at my arm. My hand raised before my eyes. Scales like a fish. Skin hard as a rock. I was in the water tank! Somehow I had awoken in the body of my friend. This was Thag's body!

But Thag was completely human in appearance. He couldn't look like this! Webs between his fingers. And still the She-thing kept attacking me. Why was Thag so helpless? Why was I in his body. If I was in here, where was he? No time to think, this woman was intent on murdering him—me—and all I could do was fight. Waves of her hatred washed over me, and her thoughts—such malice and loathing!

“The only one of your kind. The only male. Oh, how long we've hunted you, you would have brought death to the Siren Race. They finally bred you, nothing but a killing machine. Killed your fifty brothers in battle, mindless, brainless.”

All the while these insane thoughts flowed from her mind to mine, she kept on striking, ripping and tearing but Thagimasidas' armor held.

“But you had to develop a soul—needed to be weak, vulnerable, learn humanity. Spawned a human from your side. Developed a mind, feelings, emotions—a soul!”

Her madness was worse than her physical attack. And I had had just about enough of it! I was taught to never hit a woman—but this was no lady!

“Captain Nefartat lied to you, boy—told you a comic book story. Kept you locked up here for over a hundred years. You'll never get to see what they've done to the world—I'll see to that!”

Killing machine. Despite the swiftness of her attack I seized her in an iron grip. I could feel the cracking beginning in her armor. Was that panic showing on that fish-like face. With a great surge of strength she suddenly broke free and darted toward the airlock door. She had manipulated the lock from the outside but in her panic tore through the steel door. Three feet of reinforced steel!

I followed her out but she was gone, probably out the same way she had somehow found to get inside. Thousands of gallons of water poured out from the ruined doors. The entire bunker might be flooded. But at least I had escaped her madness.

The human body I had lived in for I had no idea even for how long had been washed into a corner. Dead. There would be no returning to it. I hadn't believed the story she had mentally thrown at me. How could I look at it as anything but a psychic attack?

But I looked at the face—formerly my face—of the man I'd once been. The truth was even now fully seeping in. I had been the Aqua-Marine, no hero, but a mindless killing machine who had spawned a human body to learn kindness and compassion. But it had served its purpose. I had kept young for decades and not even known it. But the body before me had attained its true age. A man that must have been over a hundred fifty years old.