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ICHTHYOSAUR

A 10 man sub with two mechanical arms and a glass bubble window propelled through the ocean, searching a little ways down through the Abyss.
"Lights." a man named Stewart Seltzer called out. Seltzer was a man in his mid forties. He had little hair left but stood tall and proud.
He had retired from the navy at age 39. His family thought that was too young but then he had told them about the job that was offered to him by the Cowley Ocean Institute. (COI) he had packed his bags the next day, said bye to his family, and left on a bus to St. Long's. A town, in between St. John's and Clarenville on Newfoundland, Canada.
When he got there, he was greeted by the headman himself, Jay Cowley. He had been an even older man, short, glasses, white hair at the back of his head. Probily about 70 yrs old, Seltzer had guessed. Jay had shown him to his room and then after a quick nap, gave him the grand tour of the facility. It was half on land and half over the ocean. It was a really big place with more then enough room for a small town of people to fit in.
They did research on Sharks, Whales, fish, jellyfish, and all types of sea life.
Seltzer had remember asking Jay why he needed him and the boss just answered, "you were good at taking control I was told. I need a man to be in charge of the subs when they go under."
That had been 5 years ago. Now, they had built a smaller facility above the Abyss and that was where Seltzer was moved too. He hasn't talked to his family since he left them five years earlier.

The lights on the sub came on as it lowered into the abyss.
"Look at the strange dolphins." one of the crew pointed out.
"We're not here to look at wild life." Seltzer said. "We're here to lower into the abyss and collect plant samples at as low as we can go."
"But Dolphins can't go down this deep." the same crew member said. Everyone else looked out the window.
"And they look weird. I think they might be a new species. Think of the fame!"
"What's your name?" Seltzer asked.
The chubby crew man answered, "David Ambrose, sir."
"Mr. Ambrose, take your pictures as we descend. But no more talk of the dolphins after this."
"Thank you sir." David took some pictures with his camera he had around his neck.
David was a young, pudgy 24 year old man. He had just graduated from university and got a job with the COI. He had studied Photography for under pictures of fish and other sea life. Jay Cowley needed more photographers and one is recommended to be on every sub.
Sea life had always interested him as a child and he had collections of models of sharks. As he grew older, he also began to like photography but he didn't want to give up his dream as a Marine biologist. So he combined the two and went to university.

The dolphins were strange. 20 feet long with their long snout, large eyes, limb paddles (fins), back fin, and their tail fins. They were blue with small white streaks like lightning going all over their bodies.
Only the snout was a little too long and their were small fins close to the back as well. And they just looked different. David couldn't put his finger on it but knew they were different. He had also seen them from something else along time ago.
The creatures swam by the sub and went over it and beyond into the darkness.
"Steady." Seltzer ordered to the pilots. As they lowered into the darkness, the light got less and less useful.
Suddenly, the light fell upon a batch of fish eggs of unconsidrable size.
"Hold it." David shouted.
"What is it, Mr. Ambrose?" Seltzer asked, annoyed. "What do you see that's so important as to throw us off schedule?"
"That batch of eggs." he said, taking pictures. "No fish lays eggs that big. Not even sharks."
"What about whales?"
"Their mammals, sir. They don't lay eggs."
"Vary well." Seltzer said with a sigh. "Since we are out here to retrieve specimens from the Abyss." then he yelled to the pilots. "Grab a bunch."
The two arms of the sub reached out towards the cliff face and grabbed one of the eggs. It pulled it towards the sub where scientists were a scientist was waiting to preserve it.
"Continue on down." Seltzer ordered the pilots. The sub did just that.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty much boring. They collect some plant life and had to return back to the surface because they couldn't go any deeper or the sub would have been crushed.
As they docked at the facility, the scientist brought the egg to the lab right away.

In the lab, scientists were examining the egg closely. Cowley, Seltzer, and David stood watching. Then, after several hours, a scientist came over.
"It's defiantly new."
"Ha. Yes." David cheered. "There's a whole batch of them. Does it belong to those weird dolphins?"
"We don't know." earlier on, David had depheloped his pictures and shown them to Cowley and the scientists.
"When well it hatch?" Cowley asked.
"Don't know." the scientist said. "We are, however, putting it in the water room."
"Fine." the water room was a gigantic room made for injured or sick sea life. It was filled with water except for the entrance. They would put the creature in the entrance, close the door, and push a button.
The entrance would then fill with water, while opening another door. The creature would be flushed out into the water room, where there was almost 50 metres above the water for a whale or some kid of fish that needs air.
Then the door would close and it would flush the extra water back into the water room and automatically dry the room.
They did this for the egg.

Seltzer went up to his room to catch some shut eye. As he laid in bed, he wondered what could be inside the egg.

The next morning, he was awakened in there was a knock on his door.
"Coming." he said, tired. He got up and rubbed his eyes. He got changed and answered his door.
"Mr. Ambrose?"
"Sir, the egg hatched."

Down in the science lab, Cowley was already with the scientists by the camera. The door behind him opened and David and Seltzer entered.
"Ahh. Stewart." Cowley said. "Come look."
Seltzer looked at the underwater camera following the movements of the baby creature. He turned and looked at the smiling David and then back at the screen.
By god, the kid was right. He thought. The creature that had hatched was a baby version of the strange dolphins from the day before that so interested David but bored Seltzer.
"Do we know what it is?" Seltzer asked.
"No." Cowley said. "But a palaeontologist is flying in later today."
"Why?"
David stood up. "We think it might be an extinct preastoric shark called an Ichthyosaur."
The look on Seltzer's face was one of total surprise and full of questions.
"An ichthy?"
"Yeah." Cowley answered.
"Oh no." he turned and looked at the camera, watching the creature as it swam about.

Later that evening, the palaeontologist, Dr. Robert Willams, a 36 yr old man with a beard, boarded the facility. As soon as he got out of the helicopter, it flew off again. He was greeted by Cowley and then he followed him inside.
Willams loved dinosaurs since he was a kid and was always made fun for it until university where he aced the math and every other course he had to do. His best friend, however, didn't. Oh how he missed her. He was accepted by a museum and they put him on a team, when after a few years, he made a team himself.

"This way, Dr. Willams." Cowley led the way to the observatory. When they got there, Willams looked around. The observatory was an elevator that was attached to a steel cable going through the water room.
The elevator could go up or down this cable, allowing viewers to observe any sea life they might have in their at the time.
"In here." Cowley led Willams into the elevator. Right before it closed, David jumped in.
"This is our photographer, David Ambrose."
"Hi." David said as he shook hands with the palaeontologist.
"He's our little discoverer of the creature." Cowley added on.
"Oh. I suppose your were excited." Willams said.
"Vary. But thanks to Stewart Seltzer, I was able to bring the egg on board the sub for study. Then we brought it back here."
"And do I get to meet this Seltzer?"
"Of course." Cowley said. "He commands our Subs." Cowley pushed a button and the elevator shot up into the water with so much speed, the three fell to the floor.
When it got into the water, it slowed down tremendously, going really slow.
"Been meaning to fix that." Cowley said with a chuckle and they all laughed.

Out in the Water room, the baby Ichthyosaur swam towards the Observatory. It looked the same as the strange dolphins back in the abyss, only it seemed bigger since they were a lot closer to it. This one was about 10 feet and it was still a baby!

Back in the observatory, the three watched in awe as the creature swam by them and back into the further reaches of the water room.
"It's amazing!" Willams stated with amazement.
It swam by again. This time it opened it's mouth and they could see rows of sharp teeth as it screeched. It closed it mouth and continued to swim.
"It makes those noises all the time." Cowley said.
Doesn't look vary dangerous. Doesn't even look like a type of shark." David said.
"That's the problem." Willams said. "We have to find out why they decided to come up closer to the top of the abyss before it's too late."
"Too late for what?"
"If they get to the beaches, think of what would happen. People would think they were dolphins. Go to pet them, and than SNAP. There goes they're arm."
"Oh."
"We can't tell anyone else. Not yet." Cowley said.
"But this is an amazing discovery you guys made. You could very well be the most famous people on the planet." Willams tried to convince him.
"Not yet, Robert. If we do tell the world now, think of all the people trying to capture and hunt them. We don't yet know if they are endangered or not. Once we find out, we can tell them we found them in the pacific. In the Marinas Trench or something."
"Ok." they watched as the large fish swam about.

5 years later, Seltzer was on land. We now worked at the home base for COI. Then one that's part on land and part on water. Cowley was still on the facility above the abyss, not wanting to leave the ichthy.
Sure, he had made trips to all his other facilities, but mostly stayed on that one. The shark has grown to be full size and Seltzer had requested to be transferred to this facility because now he could visit his family and he had a bad feeling about the ichthy.
He had seen it grow to be 30 feet long! And it was still growing when he left. He doesn't know what happened to that annoying photographer or the palaeontologist, but he knew he was safe incase anything happened with the ichthy.
He was walking down one of the halls in the facility on his way to the computer room to talk with Cowley over the radio.
He walked into the room and was greeted by computer tech Josh Hartly.
Josh was in his late twenties and graduated from Harvard in the states. That was as much as Seltzer knew about him. But he liked him though. He was a smart kid with a sense of humour when you needed it the most.
"Cowley's on line sir."
"Thank-you Josh." he was always nice to Josh, even on the worst of days.
"Hey Jay."
"Hello Steward. It's been awhile. How long?"
"3 months."
"Ah yes."
"How's the Ichthy?"
"It's doing fine. It's now up to 40 feet! The biggest one ever reported, even in fossils!"
"Wow!" then Seltzer's voice changed to one of worry. "Sir, with all due respect, I think you should leave that place."
"I understand your concern, but the ichthy's not going to break out."
"But.."
"Listen. I have some observers coming by in a few minutes flown in from Europe. I have to go. Bye."
"Bye." Seltzer ended the transmission.
"I believe you."
He turned and saw a young red haired girl. Couldn't have been more over twenty. She was smiling at him from the doorway.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the new Sub Pilot that Cowley ordered here."
"From the abyss facility?"
"Yeah."
"Then you've seen the thing?"
"Of course. I don't know of anyone in America who hasn't."
"He's letting anybody see it?"
"For 25 dollars per person."
"Damn." they walk out into the hall.
"I'll show you your quarters."
"Thank-you." the girl replied. "I'm Danielle Conner."
"I'm Stewart Seltzer. Nice to meet you." they shook hands.

At the COI facility above the abyss, Cowley opened the door and escorted the Europeans into the now much bigger observatory.
Mothers, fathers, singles, children, teens, all sorts of ages piled into the elevator and looked out the glass.
"Have a fun ride." Cowley smiled as he closed the door. He ran back to the control room to watch the reactions of their newest customers.
"Sir," one of the techs said.
"What?" Cowley asked, not looking away from the screen as the elevator was shot into the water room.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea."
"What?" this time he turned to look at the tech. He had glasses and lots of freckles. Cowley hated him already.
"The ichthy's been behaving violent today."
"It's just that he's hungry." and as soon as he said that, he turned to the camera and saw the preastoric shark swim towards the elevator.
"Bring them back in."

Out in the water room, the passengers pointed and laughed as the ichthysaur swam by, occasionly showing it's teeth as it made it's screech. They were all muttering different Europe languages.
One person looked up and saw they were close to the surface and then they slowly went down again.
A young child watch the 40 foot long shark swim by again and this time came at the observatory sideways, it's jaws opened.
A couple people screamed as it tried to fit it's mouth around the tube but couldn't. It back up and swam away.
Everyone started to laugh.

"See." Cowley said to his tech. "It's just giving them a fright. Nothing's going to happen."
"Ah sir," the tech said.
"What?"
"You spoke too soon."

Back in the water room, the ichthy swam full speed ahead, ramming the observatory with it's long snout.
Several of the passengers scream as they saw the glass crack.

"Hurry." Cowley shouted. "Get them out of there."
"I'm trying!" the tech shouted back.

As the elevator shot down through the water at top speed, water started to leek in though the cracks in the window.
All the passengers were screaming now.
Then as the observatory was close to the exit, the shark rammed it again, shattering the glass, filling it up with water in a second, the passengers getting sucked out into the water room.
Many tried to swim to the top, to where there was 50 metres of air. Some couldn't hold their breath that long and drowned.
Some didn't even make it up that far because the ichthy swam up behind them and swallowed them and ripped them apart. The few that made it up to the surface struggled to stay in one spot.
Then one of them was pulled under the water and the screaming started again. By now the water room was full of blood.
Another person was pulled under. And another. And another. Now all that remained were three people.
One was lifted out of the water as the ichthy jumped out of the water straight up, holding the person in it's jaws. It went back under the water.
The last two people started shivering and the shark jumped out of the water and went over their heads. Then as it was landing, it twisted it's body and landed on the last two people, crushing them.

"No." Cowley staggered. "We're going to be sued for so much, those bums on the side of roads are going to be rich compared to us."
"It's not over." the tech said.

Back in the water room, the ichthysaur started ramming the side of the wall, bending the metal. It swam in the blood soaked water, pieces of people floating around. Then after a bunch of hits, the wall broke open and the biggest ichthysaur ever to live swam out of the facility and out into the ocean.

"Oh no." Cowley said, at a lost for words. "Stewart was right."
"Want me to send a transmission to him?" the tech asked.
"Yes." as Cowley stood up, the whole facility shook and the lights went out.
"The beast just knocked out our power." the tech said.
"It's smart. It's going to attack the facility. Do we have any helicopters?"
"Yes." the tech replied. "But only enough for maybe 5 people including a pilot."
"Get a pilot and 3 people in there."
"Three?"
"I'm going in it too."
During the next hour, there had been many shakes and blows from the shark. As Cowley, the tech, a pilot, and two of Cowley's best men were running down a hall to the helicopter, they heard a smashing sound as tons of water flowed into the facility and rushed their way.
"Run!" Cowley shouted. They all ran down the hall and up some stairs onto the deck.
When they got there, the tech noticed that one of the people who were with them, wasn't anymore.
They climbed into the helicopter and started it up. It took off just as the water flowed onto the deck and the facility sunk into the abyss.
As the helicopter was flying low to the water, about to go higher, the giant ichthysaur jumped out of the water and caught the landing poles on the bottom of the helicopter between it's jaws and then it went back under, dragging the helicopter with it.
"No!" was all Cowley could mutter before they all went under, never to surface again.

The next morning, at the head facility, there was a knock on Seltzer's door. He put his cup of coffee on the table and answered his door.
A person he never saw before was at his door. He resembled Cowley.
"Hi. I'm Gary Cowley. Jay's brother."
"Oh yes. Come in." Gary walked in the room as Seltzer closed the door.
"I'm Stewart Seltzer." they shook hands. "What can I do for you?"
"Oh, nothing." Gary said with a chuckle. "I'm leaving again in a few minutes. I just flew here to tell you that there's been an incident."

A half an hour later, Seltzer rushed into the computer room. "Josh, hail the abyss facility."
"Right away sir." a minute later, "they're not responding."
"It's true."
"What is?" Danielle asked, walking in.
"The ichthysaur escaped last night. It killed all the observers and then broke out. It returned and brought the facility down. Bringing Cowley and everyone in it with it."
"Oh my god."
"Now we've gotta track it. Before someone thinks it's an oversized dolphin. It wouldn't occur to them that it's a preastoric shark."
Then he turned to Josh. "Locate Dr. Robert Willams. He's a palaeontologist. I susposse David Ambrose was on the facility when it went down."
"No." he turned to Danielle. "He left when I did. He was brought to the facility in Florida."
"Josh, you hear that."
"As loud as you did, sir."
"Good. Get him too. He'd be a photographer."
"Right away."
Seltzer and Danielle walked out into the hallway. "He wouldn't listen." Seltzer hit the wall.
"Then he deserved what he got."
Seltzer looked at her coldly then said, "I suppose you're right." he walked back into the computer room.
"Oh and Josh," he paused. "Get us the best damn fisherman on the face of the planet."

Down in Australia, Michael Child, a 50 yr old black fisherman was taking his vacation. He was a muscular man.
When he was younger, he had always went out fishing when his uncle did. His dad always wanted him to be in the army but Child never wanted to. When he got to grade 10, he dropped out of school and ran away. He went and lived with a bunch of fishermen in a small fishing village and they taught him what they knew. A few years later, he had ran away again and this time bought a house and started his fishing career.
He was in his Australian summer home, his cowboy hat over his eyes as he slept on the lawn chair, his feet on another chair.
He moved his hat up to the top of his head and stood up as a helicopter landed and a bunch of men came out.
"Are you Mr. Michael Child?" one of them asked.
"Yeah." he lit a cigarette.
"Can you come with us please?"
"What's this about?"
"We'll tell you in the air."
"Ok. Just let me get my stuff first."

In Florida, David Ambrose got a knock on his room door. "Come in." he was looking at pictures he had taken of the sea life earlier that week. On the walls around his room, he had blown up pictures of the Ichthysaur.
A man in a black government suit was there.
"May I help you?" David asked.
"There's been an accident at the COI above the abyss and Mr. Seltzer asked me to retrieve you."
"Mr. Seltzer?" oh no. Something happened to Cowley.

At a dig site in the Montana badlands, Dr. Robert Willams just finished digging up some dinosaur bones.
"The stegosaurus is wonderful. In perfect shape." he said to one of his men. Then a helicopter flew close and started to land.
He yelled at his men to cover the bones so the dirt doesn't get blown on top of them, causing the palaeontologists to loose it.
As the helicopter landed, Willams saw two people in the passenger seat, a pilot, and a man in a black suit get out and walk towards him.
"Dr. Willams?"
"Yes. That's me."
"There's an situation of extreme urgangy that you have to attend to."
"Where at?"
"The head facility for Cowley Ocean Institute."

Back at the facility, Seltzer and Danielle were waiting by the main doors by the helipad. They watched as a helicopter landed and three men got off.
"Hey Seltzer!" David said, his camera around his neck.
"Stewart." Robert said. They shook hands and when they were done, Seltzer looked at Child.
"Michael Child? The fisherman?"
"In the flesh."
"Nice to meet you." they shook hands.
"Everyone. This is Danielle Conner. She's a sub pilot."
Danielle shook hands with everyone.
"Danielle, this is Michael Child, the best fisherman ever. Robert Willams. He's a palaeontologist that saw the ichthy when we first caught it. He's the one that identified it. And this is David Ambrose, Photographer, as you already know."
"Yes. We know from the facility."
As they walked inside and down the halls, Seltzer asked a question to Child.
"You were told on the plan what's going on?"
"Yes."
"Do you think you can help us?"
"I don't know. I've never dealt with a preastoric shark before. But I'll try my hardest."
"I can't believe Cowley's dead." David said.
"It was a great loss." Seltzer said. "And by god, that creature's going to pay."
Seltzer showed them to their rooms and then after that, brought them all down to the computer room.
Seltzer asked a tech, "Where's Josh Hartly?"
"He's on his break."
"Ok." then he turned to the new comers. "Josh Hartly is the best Tech on this facility. He's been my best friend since I transferred here."
"Do you want to start the briefing now?" the tech asked.
"Sure." Seltzer said. He led the 3 people into a room with carpeted floors and stairs and four walls, a roof and a door.
Seltzer left the room and closed the door. Suddenly the lights went out.
"What's going on?" Child asked. "I can't see a thing."
Then Seltzer's voice was heard over the intercom.
"It's pitch black so your mind can't wander."
"Oh thanks, buddy." David mumbled.
"As I remember,"seltzer said, "I always did find you annoying, Ambrose."
"Ah shut up." they all laughed.
"Now to get down to business." Seltzer started the briefing. "As you know, an egg for a preastoric shark called a ichthysaur was found five years ago. It was raised on the COI above the abyss for five years.
"You also know that it killed over 40 people that were viewing it at the time of it's break out. It then ripped through the wall of the facility and escaped into the ocean. But then it came back and attacked the facility, putting a large hole in it, causing it to flood and then sink.
"Everyone aboard it drowned or was killed by the shark. Including Mr. Jay Cowley himself.
"Now. Somewhere out there, is that shark."
"One question." Child said. "I studied dinosaurs as a kid like we all did and I know that an ichthy can't be as big as you make it sound."
"It is. It's the biggest one ever recorded. It's forty feet long. Now. Our job is to track it down and kill it. As well as find out how come the ichthyosaurs surfaced. As far as we know, they have gone back down into the abyss because there have been no sightings of them. But that is not to say that this one won't stay. It Probily will now that it has a taste for human blood Dismissed."
The lights came on and the doors opened. The three piled out into the computer room.
"So now what?" Robert asked.
"We wait and try to find this thing." Danielle answered for Seltzer.

Out in the sea at night, there was a fishing boat with 2 fishermen on it.
One was tall and skinny with glasses. His son was the same.
"Don't lean over too far, Jr."
"Don't worry dad." said the 12 year old.
The father looked back down at his fishing net and heard a splash. He turned back to look at his son, but he wasn't there!
"Jr?" he ran over to where his son was leaning over the edge and saw his body floating in the water.
"Here. What did I tell you?" he grabbed onto his sons arms and pulled him out of the water.
He dropped his son back in the water when he saw that he was ripped away from the waist down and the water around him was full of blood.
"Jr, no!" the body of his son floated away. He brought his fishing nets up and started the engin on the boat. As his boat sailed away, back to shore, he shone a flashlight at the water and thought he saw a large dolphin swim close to the surface underneath.
The fin on the back came p for a second and went back under.

In the town close to were the fishermen's son was killed, the father rushed up to the police station.
"My son!" the father was hysterical.
"Calm down Frank. Now what happened to Jr?"

Later that night, Seltzer was awaken by his intercom. "Sir, we have a sheriff Hurk here that wants to talk with you."
"A sheriff this late at night? I'll be right down." he got up and changed. On his way to the main doors on the land half of the facility, he also woke Danielle, Robert, David, and Child up. They all got dressed except for child who walked out into the night in his boxers.
At the main gate, the four met with the security guard that had called Seltzer. Next to him was Hurk, vary angry.
"I got a shark attack." Hurk said. "Only the guy that saw it said it looked more like a giant dolphin. I was wondering if you knew anything."
Child looked at him, tiredly, "man, we don't know nothin. Now let us go back to sleep. He turned to go in, but Seltzer stopped him.
"Can we talk to the victim."
"The victim's dead. His father is the witness."
"Oh. Could we talk with him?"
"Be my guest."
"Danielle, stay here and wait for my to call." Seltzer ordered. "Mike, go get changed and come right back."
"Ok." the two walked back inside.
"We're going to the police station." he said to Robert and David. "Once Mike gets back. We might have a lead.

A half an hour later, they arrived at the police station and was led to Frank-the father.
What did it look like?" Seltzer asked, kneeling before the chair that Frank was sitting on.
"Like a giant dolphin. Only different in a way I can't put to words."
"How big was it?"
"Really big. At least 35 feet. But I only caught a glimpse of it."
"Thank-you." Seltzer, Robert, David, and Child walked out into the hall.
"Think that's the one?" Child asked.
"Possibly." Seltzer said. "Just incase, we're going to have to close the beaches and all swimming and fishing in this area until further notice."
Then Hurk walked out. "Close the beaches? Make the ocean off limits? You do understand this is a fishing community."
"Of course I do." Seltzer answered. "But more people will die if you keep them opened."
"No. They will stay open. You guys have 3 days to catch this shark or dolphin or what ever."
"Why three days?" Robert asked.
"Cause in three days is our annual barbeque. It's held on the beach and part of it is boat racing."
"We'll do our best." Seltzer said. Seltzer, Child, David, and Robert leave and go back to the facility and go to sleep.

The next morning, Child was the first up. He was loading his boat and getting the best equipment he could find. As he was loading his boat, he was listening to MOUTH remix from the soundtrack of An American Werewolf in Paris.
He loaded a harpoon. Then he loaded 5 more. He went below deck and turned the sonar on. He turned to another computer and turned it on. This computer tracks a tracking chip they're going to plant in the ichthy.
He heard footsteps on deck and walked up to see Seltzer.
"Nice boat."
"Thank-you. I've got the chip you requested."
"Ok. Thanks. Load it into a flare gun."
"Ok." Child disappeared below deck again.
Robert and David also climbed aboard.
"How long we gonna be out?" Robert asked.
"All day."
"Are we going out tomorrow?" David asked.
"Depends on what happens today."
The Danielle hopped on the boat. "I'm coming."
"No, you're not. You're going into the computer room with Josh Hartly and staying by him for when I call incase anything happens."
Danielle sighed and climbed back onto the dock and went back inside the facility.
"Looks like it's going to be a nice day." Child said, getting back on deck, the flare gun with the tracking chip in it in his hand.
"The forecast is saying there's not going to be a cloud in the sky."
"Good." Seltzer said. "Now lets get going."
Child went around and up the stairs to the pilot house. He started the boat up and steered it out into the ocean.
When they got out there, he let it go on it's own and went to the deck to join the others.
Child said, "Dr. Willams, could you go down and watch the sonar? We'll all take turns."
"Sure." Robert went below deck.

Back in the facility, Danielle and Hartly watched the sonar monitor. They had hooked it up with the one on the boat so that they could watch it also.
"What was that?" Danielle asked.
"What?" then there was a bleep on the sonar.
"That!"
"Oh my god," Hartly yelled. "It's forty feet long!"

"Guys!" Robert yelled up from the bottom. "I think it's coming towards us!"
Child picked up the flare gun and Seltzer and David picked up harpoons.
"We're almost on top of it!" Robert yelled up.
Then, right beside the boat, a small whale surfaced and went under again.
"It's ok." Child yelled down. "It was just a whale."

What happened?" Danielle yelled into the com. It was right beside you guys!"
"It was just a whale." they heard Roberts voice say.
"Oh."

During the day, they had changed shifts watching the sonar and at lunch and supper, they all eat in the bottom of the boat.
By evening, it was starting to get dark.
"Time to get back." Seltzer said. "A wasted day."
Child steered the boat back towards the facility.

There were three people on the beach at night by a camp fire.
"Hey John," one of the girls said. "Did you and Jenny do it yet?" she giggled.
Jenny hit her and her and John said at the same time, "no."
Then Jenny whispered to John, "lets go for a walk." her and John get up.
"Be back in a minute." John said. As they walked, hand in hand, across the beach and looking at the star filled night, the other girl laughed and laid down and closed her eyes.

Jenny and John were walking up to their necks in water. They heard a screech sound and jenny looked down.
"Oh John, look at the dolphin!" she started to pet it. "Good girl."
"I think you should get away from it. I've never seen a dolphin like this before."
The all of a sudden, it opened it's jaws and clamped down on Jenny's arm!
"Ahhhhhh!" John rushed towards it and began to punch it.
The ichthy pulled away, ripping Jenny's arm off.
John stopped punching it as it gripped his legs and pulled him under, swimming out to sea.
"Nooo!" Jenny began to cry. She stumbled on her way back to the beach, fighting the blackness that was overcoming her from her loss of blood. Then when the water was up to her chest, she blacked out.

The girl up on the beach woke up and saw that the sun was coming out. She walked around calling out John and Jenny's names.
Must of gone home. Think I'll do the same. She packed up and walked back to her house, up the beach.

In the facility, seltzer, Robert, and Child were preparing to go out.
"Where's David?" Child asked.
"he's sick." Seltzer explained.
"We need another man."
Seltzer ran back into the facility and ran down the halls to the computer room where Danielle and Hartly sat, looking at the sonar screen.
"There a problem?" Hartly asked.
"No. We just need another person."
"Yes!" Danielle jumped out of her seat.
"Not you." Seltzer said, his tone flat. "Josh, you're coming."
Hartly stood up and followed Seltzer out the door. Danielle made a face behind their backs and sat, sulking.

Back on the boat, Seltzer and Hartly climbed on board.
"You can take the first watch for sonar." Child told Hartly.
"Sure." Hartly went below.
"Where are we going today?" Robert asked.
Seltzer answered. "To where that man said his son was killed."
"Ok." Child went up and started the boat up, steering it out towards the sea.

Back at the facility, the phone in the computer lab rang and Danielle answered it.
"Hello?"
"Hi. This is Sheriff Hurk. Is Mr. Stewart Seltzer there?"
"I'm sorry. He's gone out to sea to look for the shark."
"Well can you tell him something for me?"
"Sure."
"A girl and her boyfriend are missing. The girl they were with said that late last night, they went down to the beach and had a fire. Those two went off somewhere and never came back. She figured that they had gone home so when she went to check, they still hadn't gotten back."
"Ok. I'll tell him. Where was this?"
"About a half hour sailing west of your position."
"Ok. I'll tell him." as she hung up, she got Hartly on the radio.
"Josh, I need to talk with Stewart."
"Hang on a minute."

On the boat, Hartly went above deck and told Seltzer that Danielle wanted him. They both went below deck and Seltzer got the radio.
"Yeah?"
"A girl and her boyfriend went missing last night. They were on the beach, possibly in the water."
"Where to?"
"About half an hour west from the facility."
"Ok. We'll go check it out. Thanks." he turned the radio off and told Hartly to watch extra carefully as they approach the cordnets.
Seltzer went up and told Child to change directions. He told Robert and Child what was going on and as they neared their destination, Child took out his gun and Robert and Seltzer got harpoons.
"Anything?" Seltzer yelled down to Hartly as they slowed right down.
"Nothing yet, sir."
All three watched out towards the sea.
"Where could it have gone?" Child said out loud, but to himself.
A little ways, on the opposite side of the boat, a fin rose out of the water and head towards the boat.
"Sir!" Hartly ran up out of the basement and the other three turned to look at him.
Hartly stood right next to the edge the ichthy was on. "The sonar said it was on this side." he leaned over and pointed.
No sooner had he said those words, then the ichthysaur jumped out of the water and held Hartly in it's jaws.
It fell back into the water, taking Hartly with it.
"Ahhhhhh!" the scream was cut off when he hit the water.
"Josh!" Seltzer ran over and fired his harpoon into the water, missing the creature. There was some blood floating where the shark pulled the computer tech over.
Child aimed his gun out to see. A little ways form the boat, the ichthy jumped out of the water, flying through the air.
Right before it hit the water, Child fired his gun. The tracking chip shot into the shark as it went back under.
"Ha. We have it." Child ran below deck to watch it's movement on the scanner.
Robert aimed his harpoon out and Seltzer reloaded his, then joined the palaeontologist.
"It's swimming away." Child yelled up from the basement. "But don't worry. We can track it all over the world now."

Back at the facility, David Ambrose walked into the computer room and joined Danielle.
"Any signs of the creature?" he asked, very tired and sick.
"Yeah. It just left. I'm waiting for Stewart to call us."
Then over the radio, they heard Seltzers voice. "Danielle, you there?"
"Yeah. David's here to, but he still looks pretty sick."
"Never mind that. We got the tracking chip in the ichthysaur."
"That's great!" Danielle and David cheered.
"That's the good news. The bad news is that Josh is dead." there was a long minute of silence in the computer room.
"We're going to track it for all of today and come back later tonight. Hope fully with the shark on a pole. Over and out."
He disconnected their transmission.
"Hartly's dead?" David asked.

For the day, Child had the ship going full speed, right after the ichthy. But the shark was always one step ahead.
Seltzer had remained below decks on the sonar and tracking systems since Hartly was killed. Child had liked the kid and didn't blame Seltzer for not wanting to be around people to much. He knew that the kid and Seltzer were close friends.
So he didn't bother him. Instead, he's been sailing almost all day and Dr. Willams had been looking out for the ichthysaur, looking at the sea.
Finally, Seltzer came up on deck, all the harpoons in his hands.
"What did you do to them?" Robert asked.
"I tipped the blades with poison." Seltzer explained. He handed them out between the three of them.
Child went back up and steered the boat.

About an hour later, a fin rose out of the water close to the ship and Robert ran up from the basement with his harpoon.
"It's here." he shouted. Child and Seltzer came running to the edge of the ship, all aiming their harpoons at the fin that was getting closer.
All three aimed their harpoons out at the sea.
When the shark rose out of the water, swimming along with his top half above the water, all three fired their harpoons.
Robert's missed. Child's just scratched it and went into the water, and Seltzer hit it!
The ichthysaur immeditly went under the water and shook the harpoon out before the poison could take effect.
"No!" Seltzer shouted as the ichthysaur rose out of the water once more, the harpoon gone.
"Brace yourselves!" Child shouted. They all grabbed onto something as the ichthy rammed the boat.
"He's trying to bring us down!" Robert shouted.
As the beast struck again, Seltzer lost his grip and went flying to the other side of the boat.
As fast as he could, he ran over to the harpoon holder and grabbed three more. As he was running back to Child and Robert, the boat shook again, knocking him down. He got back up and handed out the harpoons.
"Here he comes again." Child said. As they all fired, the ichthysaur went under the water and rammed the boat again, this time, creating a small hole.
"We're taking on water in the basement!" Child shouted. "Seltzer, go unplug all the equipment and move it as far from the water as you can. Dr. Willams, watch out for the ichthy. I'm going to steer this thing all the way back to home base."
As the three went to their assigned duties, the ichthy's fin came up for minute, chasing after the boat. Then it went all the way under water and turned around, heading another way.

Down on a beach, there were three cops, searching for the Jenny and John.
Two of the cops heard a whistle and ran over to the third one which was out in the water up to his chest.
The two cops looked at each other and then ran into the water up to the third one.
What they saw there, was the one armed girl, tangled in seedweed, dead.

Back at the facility, Danielle and David had been trying to raise the boat but they weren't responding.
Then the door opened and Seltzer and Robert walked in.
"What happened?" Danielle yelled.
"We were attacked." Seltzer replied. "We started to go down and had to move the equipment."
"Are you guys ok?"
"Yeah. No one was hurt." Robert said. "Except for that tech though." his voice trailed off.
"Where's Child?"
"He's ok. He's out repairing his boat."
"Ok." she took a deep sigh of relief.
"What's going on tomorrow?" David asked.
"We're going to hang around the annual barbeque." Seltzer said. "And we're going to have police patrol boats and the coast guard out further, all searching for the ichthysaur."
Then he turned to David. "You going to be ok, tomorrow?"
"I think so."
"Good."
"I was just thinking." Danielle said. "What if Child dies?"
"What if Child dies? What if Robert or David or me dies?" Seltzer answered.
"No. What I mean is that he's the only one of you guys who can sail a boat."
There was a quietness among them.
"No way." Seltzer said.
"Come on." Danielle pleaded. "I'm qualified."
"I'll think about." then Seltzer storms out of the room.

Later that night, Seltzer was in his room, thinking about all that died. There was Jay Cowley, everyone that was on the facility when it went down, all those observers, that kid in the fishing boat, Josh Hartly, and possibly those other two kids that went missing.
Then his personal phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hello. This is sheriff Hurk."
"What can I do for you?"
That girl that went missing was found."
"Oh good."
"No it's not. She was missing an arm and tangled in seaweed. She was dead when we found her."
"Oh. What about the boy?"
"He's still missing but presumed dead. Have you caught the shark yet?"
"Not yet. We did have an encounter with it today and one of my men died."
"I'm sorry."
"That's ok. Look, we'll need police boats out looking for it tomorrow as well."
"Sure. Anything to keep the annual get together going."
"Ok. Bye." Seltzer hung up.
He went over to the window and looked out at the sea. Why did the ichthys surface for that small amount of time. I know it had to do with the facility, but what?
Then it came to him and he rushed out of the room down to the computer room.

"What?" Danielle asked.
"Yeah. Come again." Child said. Danielle, Child, Robert, and David were all meeting in the computer room. Seltzer had explained it to them, but talked too fast.
He started again, this time slower. "I know why the ichthyosaurs surfaced."
"Ok. Why?" Danielle asked.
"When they first built the facility above the abyss, they kept on sending subs on down. They also sent flares on down to see how close they were to the bottom. They also sent explosives down there to blow away part of the walls to the abyss. All the commotion sent the food source else where or killed them off.
"The ichthys were forced to find more food so they surface. When we found the egg, we stopped all our previous actions and centred on the ichthysaur that hatched from it. So all the food source went back, causing the ichthyosaurs to go back down before they bothered anyone."
"It all makes sense now." Robert said.
"The only thing that doesn't," Danielle said. "Is the fact of how the ichthy broke out. We now that it was enraged because it was hungry. But why was it hungry? They always feed it on a regular basis and it never got hungry like that before."
"So?" Child asked. "What's you're point?"
"I know." Seltzer continued for Danielle. "Someone sabotaged the facility, allowing the ichthy to get out. Now, the last question is, who done it?"
Everyone stood and steered in silence.

Later that night, David Ambrose was alone in his room. "Who would let the ichthy go?" he asked himself.
"Maybe it was someone who went down with the place. Or maybe it's one of them."
Only two people he could think off. It wasn't Stewart because he hated the thing and was here the entire time. It wasn't Michael because he just found out a coupe days ago and was in Australia. It's either that Ms. Conner or Dr. Robert Willams. He was there up to the point that Danielle and himself left.

Seltzer was walking down a hall to his room and he saw Child pushing a cannon down the hall.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm loading my boat with this cannon as well so if we see it, we can litterly blow it out of the water."
"Good thinking." he started to walk away, but turned back. "Oh, and tip the rest of the harpoons with poison."
"Sure thing." Seltzer walked back to his room.

The next morning, Seltzer, David, Robert, and Danielle all met at the boat, Child already on it.
"We're going out early today because the town is holding an annual get together." Seltzer said. "It's best if the ichthy is found and killed before it starts. We well have police help, but they don't know what exactly to look for."
They piled onto the boat and it started off.
"Robert, go down and take the first shift with the tracking and sonar."
"Yes, sir."
"Child, get up there and start this baby up."
"Ok."
"Danielle, help me look for it out at the sea."
"Sure." they all go to their assigned jobs. Seltzer and Danielle grabbed harpoons and Danielle stood by the cannon as Seltzer stood by the other side of the ship.
As they were going out, they saw a couple police boats and waved to them as they sailed by.
As they got close to the beach where the party was going to be held, they could see that some sailers were already getting their boats ready for the races.
"Keep you're eyes peeled." Seltzer shouted.
"Robert, anything?"
"No!" Robert yelled up from below.
"What about the tracking system?"
"It's not working. I think the water damaged it yesterday when we were attacked."
"Damn. Is the sonar working?"
"Yeah."
"Good."
"Danielle?"
"Nothing."
Seltzer looked back out at the water with a sigh.

One of the police boats were speeding through the water, covering it's ground. There was one pilot, and two look outs.
"Anything yet?" the pilot asked.
"Nope." one of the look outs answered back. Then as they were going super fast, they were shot out of the water, the two look outs being flung from the boat.
The pilot was still on it when it crashed down, braking all over, including the pilot's back.
The two look outs swam in one spot as they tried not to panic.
"Must have been a rock." one of them said. Then he felt sharp pain on his legs and was pulled under.
"Jerry!" the other cop started to swim to the closet boat which was a while away, but the shark rose out of the water behind him and swam up behind him, opening it's snout.
It's dolphin beak was full of teeth. It made it's screeching noise and brought it's teeth down on the last cop of that boat.

On Child's boat, Danielle walked over to where Seltzer was looking out at the water.
"Any sign?" sh asked.
"No."

Back at the beach, more and more people started to show and set things up. Some with blankets and beach balls. Others dressed to go in the water, some with stereos. Others with hot dog stands and boats.

"They're getting ready to start." Danielle said.
"I know." Seltzer said back. "I think we're going to find the ichthy soon."
"We got something on the sonar!" Robert yelled from the basement.

Back at the beach, people were starting to go in the water.

a few minutes from the beach, the ichthysaur fin rose above the water and swam towards the group of swimmers.

"Any sign of it?" Child asked.
"Nope." Danielle and Seltzer. They looked back out at the sea and they moved away because the boat races were about to begin.

At the beach, the people moved out of the water as the sail boats were loaded and lined up. The announcer was in a floating box that had poles sticking to the bottom of the sea bed.
"On your marks." the announcer said.

Back in Child's boat, Danielle drew her attention to the race.

"Get set! Go!"
The sail boats took off, opening their sails, the crowd from the beach, cheering.
The there were lots of boats. A few wee identified with colours-blue, red, green, and black, and the others were identified by names.

Out at sea, another police boat zoomed by. One of the watchers raised his radio. "Sir, there's no sign of the shark anywhere."
"Ok. Keep looking."

On Child's boat, Robert came up from downstairs. "It's weird." he said. "Nothing's showing up on sonar."
As he went over by the cannon with his harpoon, Danielle sneaked away and down the stairs to the basement.
She gasped as she saw that on the sonar, the ichthy was almost at the boats that were racing.
She ran back up, shouting, "the ichthy's going right for the boats!"
David came down from the pilot house where he and Child were. He grabbed a harpoon.
"But I thought you said there was nothing on sonar." he said to Robert.
"There wasn't!" he began sweating.
"Mike!" Seltzer shouted up. "Steer towards the boat races. That's where our little fish is!"
The boat turned and headed for the boats, Danielle and everyone else looking at Robert.

Once the race was well under way, some kids wandered into the water to play.

The boats were racing. The green one in the lead. Then all of a sudden, it was flipped out of the water and landed, upside down, cushing the sail.
"What happened?" one of the boat controllers asked the black boat.
"I don't know!" the black boat owner yelled back. Then his boat was flung out of the water.
"Oh, man!" the other boat said. He looked back ahead and crashed into the first ship that was attacked.
That was the beginning of the chaos.

On Child's ship, they could all see the boat race go havoc.
"Hurry!" Seltzer yelled. "We'll decide to do with our traitor afterwards!" he was talking about Robert.
As the neared the sail boat wreckage, they slowed down. There were boats up side down, on their sides, on fire, pieces of some smoking.
"Get those kids out of the water!" David and Seltzer yelled, but of course, they were too far away to be heard.

At the beach, one girl of about 7 was further out then the rest of the kids. She saw what she thought was a big dolphin swim up close to her.
"Hi." she said as she reached to pet it. But before she could, it jumped up and snapped at her.
She fell back screaming, the ichthy missing her. She fell under water and the large fish swam over her towards the rest of the kids.

At the girls scream, the other kids turned around and saw a shape move below the surface of the water.
Then the fin rose and they all screamed, racing out of the water. One of the last kids was pulled under the water.
The, one kid that was on a blow-up water balloon duck, started to paddle towards shore.
As a wave came up and hit him, he began to fall off.
As he was falling, the large mouth of the ichthysaur came out of the water and closed around him and the duck, blowing the balloon up.

From the shore, the adults could see the kids shouting and screaming and running towards shore.
They ran out to pick up their kids and bring them to shore. As one father picked up his 5 year old boy, he felt a tug on hid feet and stopped, staying perfectly still.
The as he felt a large tug, he went under, dropping his crying child in the water. A second later, blood filled both their places in the water.

On the boat, they got closer to the ichthy.
"Fire!" Child yelled from his position. Seltzer, David, Danielle, and Robert all fired their harpoons, two of them hitting the ichthy, but not doing anything to it.
Robert ran over and pushed the cannon over.
"Trust me now?"
"No." Seltzer pushed him out of the way and aimed the cannon at the shark.
"Now!" Danielle shouted. Seltzer fired the cannon just as the ichthy changed directions.
"Damn!"
David picked up another cannon ball. "Here."
"He was about to pass it to Seltzer as the boat was hit and the cannon ball dropped to the floor, landing on David's foot!
"Ahhhh!"
"David!" Danielle shouted. She ran over and moved the cannon ball off.
"You ok?" Seltzer asked.
"No." David snapped more then he wanted to but Seltzer let it slide.
As the ichthy rose out of the water as it was going for the ship, Child backed it up, the ichthy just missing it.
"Lets lead it away from here!" he yelled down to Seltzer.
Seltzer gave Child the thumbs-up sign and the boat was turned around, going back out to the sea.
Seltzer ran down to the basement and looked at the sonar. He backed away when he saw it was all smashed!
He ran back up and looked around the deck for Robert.
"Where's Robert?" Seltzer yelled. "He destroyed the computer equipment!"
"What?" he turned around and Robert was there.
"You've done it now." he punched Robert in the face, sending him back.
He picked him up and Seltzer led Dr. Robert Willams to the side of the boat, shoving his head over.
"Maybe I should feed you to the thing!"
"No." Robert chocked.
Then as a giant wave came, the ichthy splashed out of the water, biting Robert's head off!
"Ahhh!" Seltzer through the body overboard.
He walked back over to the others and got a harpoon. He ties a rope to it and loaded it in the launcher. He walked back over to the side and aimed it down at the ichthy.
It swam next to the boat, half of it's body out of the water.
Seltzer was going to fire, when he heard, "no."
He ignored whoever said it. He wasn't paying attention. He was just about to squeeze the trigger when he was whirled around.
"I said no!" he was staring at Danielle!
"I figured that they lived longer then humans have." she said, her hand clamped over Seltzer's neck really hard, choking him.
"If anything gets destroyed here, it should be us! I sabotaged the feeding system back at the facility that made the ichthy to first go into a frenzy. Then I requested to be transferred because I knew what was going to happen."
From David's spot on the boat, he said, "no."
"One thing." Seltzer said. "You forgot this!" right before blackness overcame him, Seltzer jammed the poison tipped Harpoon into Danielle's stomach!
She let go of Seltzer as she backed up, blood coming from her mouth. She took the harpoon out and threw it overboard.
She charged at Seltzer, hitting him, and sending him flying. As she got ready to run at him again, the ichthy rammed the boat, sending her over the edge.
"Danielle!" Seltzer ran over to the edge of the ship and looked down.
"Help me!" Seltzer lowered his hands for her to reach, but the ichthy came up beside her and held her in it's jaws sideways as it swam back under water, moving it's head back and forth rapidly, her body breaking in two!
"Noooo!" Seltzer ran over to a bucket of fair sized fish and began shoving dynamite down into them!
"What are you doing?" David asked, having troubles walking over.
"I'm going to blow it up!"
Then the boat was hit so hard, it toppled over onto it's side and began to slowly sink!
Child stumbled out form the pilot house, meeting David and Seltzer in the water, by the side/floor of the ship.
"What now?" Child asked.
Seltzer grabbed the dynimte fish in the bucket and began to through them out into the water.
A minute later, the ichthysaur swam close and began to eat the fish.
Seltzer held his breath and went under the water. He reached down onto the deck of the ship and took a harpoon from it's holder and grabbed a launcher. He came back up out of the water and loaded the harpoon into the launcher.
"Watch big fish go boom!" he said.
the ichthy came out of the water and clamped it's jaws around Child's legs.
"Help!" he screamed as he was pulled away, under the water and away from the boat.
"No!" Seltzer screamed. He raised the harpoon and waited.
"Maybe it's gone." David suggested.
Then it appeared out of the water right in front of them, and Seltzer fired the harpoon and it went right into the ichthy's mouth!
"Under!" Seltzer yelled. he and David held their breaths and went under the water, just as the ichthy exploded when the harpoon hit the dynamite fish that was inside the ichthy.
The explosion was so big, it blew up half the boat, also sending ichthy pieces with it.

From the beach, the crowd watched the explosion as they saw pieces of the ichthysaur go flying, they clapped and cheered.

When the explosion finished, David and Seltzer surface again.
They looked at each other and began to laugh.
"Should have gotten a picture." David said and they laughed again. A minute later, a police patrol boat came by.
"Saw the explosion. Thought you might need a lift." one of the look outs said. Seltzer and David climbed aboard and the police boat zoomed off towards shore.

THE END