Dark Waters (Warriors S1B5)

Chapter 3

Earth date: 01/03/2012, 16:04

A truculent debate was fulminating when Max and I came to the table.

"Why do you get to be Hotchner? I want to be Hotchner!" Joey said indignantly.

"Joey, I am obviously Hotchner. You can be Rossi," Frazz smirked cheekily.

"You are Seaver at best, Frazz. Joey's Hotch," Jay deadpanned snarkily.

"Why are you having this debate? It's so stupid!" Margaret groaned exasperatedly.

"So, we're all in agreement Margaret is Seaver, right?" Frazz queried curiously.

Margaret looked at him in disbelief. "I am not! I'm JJ! Or Morgan! Or Re—"

"Margaret, if you are Reid, then I'm the f*cking Green Ranger," Max interjected profanely as he sat down.

"Who do you think you are, Max?" Margaret shot back at him.

"Somebody who doesn't watch Criminal Minds."

The door opened, and Mr. Cole walked in, followed by Monica, Bette and Will. The four of them sat down.

"Before we get down to business, how was everyone's first day back?" Mr. Cole asked.

"Awful," Margaret monotoned.

"Great!" Kristi chirped cheerfully.

"It was good to be back," Joey said.

Max, Jay and Frazz all shrugged. I could feel eyes on me. I glanced to my left and saw Bette giving me a curious expression. "It was OK," I squeaked out.

Mr. Cole nodded and continued, "Sorry to call you in right after New Year's, but we have an emergency. An alien emergency."

The lights dimmed, and the center of the table started to glow. The light resolved into a video, seemingly recorded on a home security camera. The camera was pointed towards the street, which was empty.

"What are we looking at?" Kristi questioned quietly.

Mr. Cole shushed her. "Wait."

I started to hear a noise. It was an odd, staccato noise, like someone tapping a beat or clicking a pen. Then, dogs started barking. Not one dog, seemingly every dog in the neighborhood started barking and howling like someone had flipped a switch. Something passed through the camera's line of sight. It was low-slung, whatever it was, flashing through the bottom of the camera view like a kid not tall enough for the camera to capture their full face. I heard a metallic crunch, either the mystery creature hitting a car in the driveway or a fence.

The view shifted now. The camera was looking into a backyard, where two hound dogs had emerged from their dog houses and were barking and growling at the mystery creature. I heard a door opening, and their owner walked out, carrying a baseball bat. "Lucy! Molly! What are you two barking at?" The man paused, and I could see him tensing up. "Holy J*sus!" he screamed suddenly.

There was an awful noise. It was something of a gargling growl, like a hybrid of a dog growling with a throat full of drool and someone blowing bubbles underwater. The man ran out of the camera's range. I heard several sharp clangs and then the man screamed in pain. The dogs ran to the end of their leashes, foam flying from their muzzles as they strained against their restraints, barking at whatever was attacking their owner.

"Stay inside!" the owner yelled at someone off-camera. "Get back inside! Call the police!" There was a louder, more final-sounding clang, followed by a deep moan of pain from the mystery creature. The owner hobbled over to his dogs and yanked the stakes out of the ground. His leg was gushing blood. He picked up both dogs, leashes, stakes and all, and limped up onto the back porch and into the house. I heard the door slam, followed by the click of a turning lock. And then it came into view.

I could only see a little of its body. But its head was like that of a prawn or a shrimp, albeit with a wide mouth grinning with needle teeth. A bony bump jutted from its forehead, and as it turned its head to and fro, seemingly trying to find a way in the house, I could see it had whiskers like a catfish. After a few moments of searching to no avail, the creature growled, as if it was frustrated. Legs flashed by the camera as it turned tail. I heard more of the staccato noise—the creature's legs tapping on the cement, I realized—followed by the metallic screech of the creature rubbing against something.

The hologram flattened and disappeared, and the lights came back up.

"Mr. Cole, what the h*ck was that?" Frazz asked.

"That was security camera footage from a neighborhood in Windsor, Canada, a few miles from the Detroit River. Since Christmas, sources have told me of some kind of crustacean creature, first in Lake Erie, now seemingly heading west towards Detroit."

"We have sources?" Joey asked.

"Worldwide. As for the alien, we believe it's a Hautik. They're apex predators on an aquatic planet in NGC 4568."

"So what is it doing here?" Joey asked.

"Ain't that the million dollar question?" Frazz said.

"No, the million dollar question is whether you can stop it," Will said.

"The Hautik has attacked Canadian civilians, and if it crosses the Detroit River, we can assume it will attack American civilians." Mr. Cole said.

"So, we're not only capturing an alien," Margaret said.

"You're also trying to prevent an international crisis."

"No pressure, though!" Frazz said with a wide grin.