SharkMageddon

Lieutenant Stapler sighed as he gazed into Containment Tank 8-A. He was standing above the glass on the metal balcony. The massive monster below gazed back at him, it's dark eyes looking at him, a glimmer of intelligence in the blackness. Its massive, shark-like body flexed and rippled in the water. The limbs on it pulsed with raw power.

One of the guards paced by him. "Pretty scary, innit?"

Stapler shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. Big. Smart. Strong. Good thing the Corporation put it away."

The guard stopped and stood by him, looking down on the shark. The thing looked back at the two men, standing above its prison. "Where did we get it?"

"One of the Dark Worlds. It was just all ocean. I was there, you know. Took a lot of manpower to tranq him and bring him over here." "Here" was one of the Void Foundation's secure Containment Buildings- pretty much a big concrete box designed to hold beings from the Dark Multiverse. It was a lonely job, watching over these world-killing freaks.

The guard nodded. "I thought I heard something about that. A job for Alpha-1, right?"

"Yeah."

They both relapsed into silence, watching the monstrosity below them.

And the Shark watched them back.

* * *

Site-Director Stone was not a calm man. And he was even less calm today. They were getting a transfer- some big ugly beast from one of the more obscure Dark Worlds. The problem was, the guys on the top wanted it in the box that the Shark was in. Who the hell did they think they were? That thing had killed 10 of his best men when they had tried to feed it the first time. More had died trying to just contain the fucking thing.

Who the hell did they think they were?

Stone paced faster around his office- a clean little room, stacked with file cabinets and books. There was a potted plant here once, but it was dead now- Stone didn't care much for green stuff like that. Or any animal, for that matter.

His mind was abuzz, his heart pumping. Possibilities ran through his head. ''Maybe we just kill the Shark. Or build another cell''. But both of these couldn't work. The water-filled palladium-glass tank took over a month to build, even with all of the Void Corporation's assets and manpower. The other monster was coming tomorrow. Tomorrow, for God's sake. What did they expect him to do in that amount of time?

Only 18 hours, and he had to move fast. He had to get rid of the Shark somehow.

That brought him to his next option: kill the thing. But even that wouldn't work- the Corporation's rules were very strict on how euthanizing the monsters was to be handled. First he'd have to get it through the Extermination Committee. Because it was something this big, it'd have to go to the Council too. That'd take a few weeks. And he only had 18 hours.

* * *

10 minutes later, Lieutenant Stapler was striding through the concrete hallways that led away from the containment cell. He was in a good mood- his lunch break was in a few minutes, and he had eventually tired of watching over the Shark. A group of soldiers walked passed him, full combat gear on. They looked grim, but Stapler ignored it. Probably just another drill.

But then another tactical squad passed. And then another.

This was obviously not just a drill. Curiously, he stepped in front of a passing company, flashing his Corporation insignia at them. They stopped short, and their commander stepped forward expectantly.

"What's going on here?" asked Stapler. "This isn't a drill, is it?"

The soldier shook his head. "We've got orders to move the Shark. Director Stone ordered it less then five minutes ago."

Stapler froze in shock. "No. No no no no no. He can't have done that. Do you know what that thing could-"

The soldier lifted his gloved hand. "Listen, sir. We're not here to debate what we're going to do. Just here to follow orders." He made a move as if to pass Stapler, motioning to his company to do the same. Stapler pushed to soldier back aggressively.

"No. You know as well as I do that this is a suicide mission."

But the soldier pushed by him angrily. "Out of the way, sir. It may be a suicide mission. But we have orders. And you can't stop us." The rest of the company went forward too, bumping Stapler to the side. "Pull something like that again and you're in big trouble," called the soldier over his soldier.

"You're right," answered Stapler as he ran down the hall. "I'm in big trouble, you're in trouble... and we're all in big trouble."