Shrouded Seascape

A group of individuals clad in black combat uniforms surrounded Charles as they walked down a smooth, clean floor with their muddy, filthy boots.

They were in a massive underground garage, but there weren't any cars around.

Charles no longer felt suffocated. But rather than saying that the feeling had disappeared, it was more like Charles was starting to get used to it.

With a diary in hand, Charles glanced at "Seal" next to him. "Seal" was a large-framed man towering over 1.9 meters tall, and his well-defined, bulging muscles remained evident despite his layers of equipment.

"Seal" had a square jaw, and his eyes glimmered with resilience beneath his short, cropped hair.

"Are you members of a task force?" Charles asked, turning to "Seal." All of you seem to be well equipped and with enough experience handling a variety of anomalies."

"Seal's" eyes glimmered in surprise, but he chose not to engage in a conversation with Charles. Soon, the group arrived at the farthest end of the garage, and they were standing before what seemed like a dead end.

"Seal" stepped forward just then and reached out with his right hand clad in a fingerless glove toward the wall. A series of chimes echoed as he tapped rapidly on the wall with his exposed fingers.

Charles peered over, wanting to take a glimpse of what "Seal" was typing in on the wall, but "Seal" had strategically used his entire body to block Charles' line of sight, making sure that the latter wouldn't catch even a glimpse of the password.

The wall split open just then, revealing a room the size of a classroom.

Boom!

A dull explosion echoed, and the lights flickered as a tremor ran across the garage.

"Let's hurry up. They're back at it again," "Seal" said, leading his squad members into the room.

Charles glanced briefly at where they had come from before walking into the room with his crew. The doors closed behind them, and Charles turned around, instantly noticing two triangular buttons on the wall—one inverted, one upright.

Charles realized that they were in an elevator rather than a room.

"Seal" pressed on the inverted triangle. A light tremor ran across the room, and a sense of weightlessness briefly took over them as the elevator began its slow descent toward its destination.

"What were those things earlier? How come those planes have the wings of an animal?" Charles asked, probing "Seal" for more information.

However, "Seal" remained unresponsive.

"Are you not going to tell me that, either? We've fought them together earlier, so we can be considered comrades."

At Charles' remark, "Seal" replied belatedly, "Their identity isn't my concern. My duty is to send them packing away the moment they reappear."

"Why not just kill them? Don't tell me they can't be killed?" Charles asked, extrapolating from "Seal's" remark.

"Seal" shook his head and replied, "No, they can be killed. However, they'd eventually reappear like pests. You can consider them the ghosts eternally haunting the skies of Island 68."

So they cannot be eliminated, and they have such bizarre appearances as well… Are they perhaps special relics that the Foundation inadvertently made by experimenting with certain relics? Charles thought, but even he thought that his assumption was quite wild.

Charles extended a hand toward "Seal" and said, "My name is Charles. Nice to meet you."

"Seal" glanced at Charles before reaching out with his free hand toward Charles' outstretched hand. The two shook hands as "Seal" introduced himself, "I'm Parker. I have no idea how outsiders like you are aware of the task force, but you were right."

The elevator bell rang, and elevator doors soon opened. The seawater inside was quickly drained away, but the outside was dry, devoid of any seawater.

Before Charles could enjoy the sensation of being able to breathe freely once again, a plethora of red dots landed on his glabella and heart along with the glaring beam of a searchlight.

Outside the elevator, over a hundred members clad in the same black combat uniform as Parker and his squad members were at attention. Every single soldier had their weapons pointed at Charles and his crew.

Clearly, Parker had contacted them in advance.

"Please surrender your weapons and cooperate with our investigation," Parker said coldly. The coldness of his voice made the consequences of refusal stark clear to Charles and his crew.

Soon, Charles and his crew were disarmed, and they were detained separately.

Sitting in a brightly lit white room, Charles was no longer wearing his jacket as he sat quietly, waiting for something. He glanced at the silver electronic handcuffs that shackled his hands and nodded in approval.

The handcuffs were well made, and Charles had nodded because it meant that the people here were highly likely the successors of the Foundation. In other words, it was most likely that the colossal key was on this island.

Charles looked up and stared at the smooth mirror on the wall in front of him. "How long are you going to keep on observing me from the other side? A mere observation won't be enough for you to understand me, so you should send someone here to talk to me."

A clicking noise echoed just then, and the smooth mirror became a transparent glass wall, revealing a group of men and women. It seemed that they had been there and had been observing Charles from the very beginning.

"Captain Parker told us that your name is Charles. Can we talk, Charles?" A gentle female voice echoed from the corners of the room.

Among the group of men and women before Charles, none of them was speaking into a microphone, which led Charles to believe that the woman speaking to him was located somewhere else.

"Are you members of the Foundation? What exactly happened to the surface?" Charles asked, going straight to the point.

The female voice's reply arrived belatedly, "I'm the one asking the questions here."

Just then, someone pushed Charles' diary against the transparent glass, and the female voice asked, "What are these characters? And how did you learn them?"

"Can you answer my questions first? How long have you been here? And have you been observing the world outside?" Charles asked. A discussion was soon underway, lasting over fifteen minutes.

Both sides engaged in a back-and-forth, but they avoided answering each other's questions. As a result, neither obtained any useful information.

The female voice sounded impatient. "Charles, I really don't want to do this, but you're forcing my hand. Keep this up, and don't blame me for resorting to 'alternative' measures."

Crackle!

Charles quivered and spasmed as a high-voltage current of electricity zapped him through his handcuffs.

"Answer. My. Questions!" the female voice exclaimed, enunciating each word.

Charles initially thought that diplomacy would reap him the most rewards, but it seemed that he wasn't going to find any clues if this were to continue. Most importantly, Charles detested being treated like a beast.

Charles looked down and chuckled. He then stood up and approached the glass wall. "Hey, flip that diary to the last page for me. I recorded something in there."

The bespectacled man holding Charles' diary was startled briefly, but he recovered rather quickly and flipped to the last page, where he discovered a drawing of an indescribable cluster of tentacles riddled with eyeballs.

Charles tapped the glass wall with his prosthetic. "Sparkle, come to Daddy."

Under everyone's horrified gaze, the indescribable cluster of tentacles riddled with eyeballs squirmed, and a green eyeball popped out of the cluster of tentacles.

The drawing had come to life!

Crackle!

Charles' handcuffs emitted a wave of high-voltage current in an attempt to restrain him. However, black smoke rose from the handcuffs as they were disabled by the radiant white lightning arcs jumping about Charles.

A piercing alarm blared throughout the room, and the ceiling pulsed with an ominous red light. The response mirrored the Foundation's response to a containment breach in one of its facilities.

A shrill noise echoed as the thick glass wall crumbled to pieces. Sparkle in her massive true form floated up to Charles and asked, "Daddy, where are we?"

Charles patted one of her tentacles and said, "Come on, let's show them what true 'diplomacy' looks like."

Charles then jumped over the glass wall, arriving in the observation room littered with glass. Sparkle and Charles then walked out of the door and traversed the long corridor until they reached a large, circular plaza.

The members of the task force, including Parker, moved quickly to surround them.

"Go ahead and play with them, Sparkle. Be gentle, and remember not to kill them."

The unknown was the scariest in the Subterranean Sea. However, the inverse was true as well, which meant Charles had nothing to fear.