The moment the sonar operator whispered his discovery, every heart in the command room lurched.
"There's… there's something ahead. A glowing red dot. Straight line, less than a hundred meters."
"Activate the searchlights!" the commander barked.
Snap!
A blinding beam cut through the void. Darkness peeled away, unveiling what lay beyond.
For a heartbeat, no one spoke. Then came the gasps.
Just outside the cone of light, a faint orange radiance pulsed—too large, too alien. It shifted in the shadows like a living continent.
Someone whispered, "What the hell is that? A whale? No whale's that big."
Another muttered, voice shaking, "That thing must be a thousand meters long…"
James stood silently, eyes narrowing. His instincts screamed at him that this was no animal. This was a manifestation of the Abyss itself.
"Report Hume index," he ordered.
The intercom crackled. "Current reading… fifty-one."
---
Reality Collapsing
Fifty-one.
The room froze. Researchers, soldiers, even hardened MTF operatives sucked in sharp breaths.
At S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Natasha Romanoff nearly dropped her tablet. "Fifty-one? If one hundred is normal, then this isn't just unstable—it's collapsing!"
Nick Fury's expression darkened. "If space anomalies are already appearing, the worst hasn't even started."
Onscreen, the orange light swayed gently, vast as an underwater sun. No eyes, no mouth, no features—just an endless aura pressing against fragile reality.
One researcher finally voiced the fear gnawing at everyone. "Why would something that large exist in a trench this narrow? And why has no human ever seen it?"
Before an answer could come, the MTF captain's voice cut through.
"This isn't the f***ing Manila Trench."
The words hit like a thunderclap.
Confusion broke into panic. If it wasn't the trench recorded on charts… then where were they?
---
The Knock
Bang. Bang. Bang.
A low, deliberate rapping echoed through the submarine's hull.
Everyone stiffened.
"Something's knocking on the porthole!" a diver shouted, panic edging his voice.
Three thousand meters under the ocean. No human hand should ever reach there. Yet something was tapping—knowing, testing.
The livestream chat exploded:
"No way—who knocks at that depth?!"
"That's not a fish… that's something intelligent!"
"Oh God, don't open the lights…"
James leaned forward, scanning feeds until his gaze locked on Camera 18.
What he saw made even him frown.
A pale hand pressed flat against the glass. Long fingers, thin, with faint webbing between them. The rest of the figure melted into the dark.
The old minister gasped aloud. "By all that's holy… is that a human hand?"
---
Sirens in the Deep
Natasha pressed closer to the screen. "That… that looks like a mermaid."
"No," Fury snapped, his voice like iron. "Not the fairytale kind. That's a siren. And I've got a bad feeling it's real."
The hand lingered, palm to glass, before sliding away.
"It's running!" the MTF captain shouted. "Engines, full pursuit!"
The submarine surged forward. Unlike ordinary craft, it was equipped with reinforced plating and specialized thrusters designed for Foundation missions. It sliced through the water, hunting.
"Target locked," the operator cried. "We've got it!"
Seconds later, cheers erupted.
"Captured! We caught the entity!"
---
The Mermaid Speaks
"Restrain it! Analyze immediately!" the minister barked.
Static buzzed as the translator engaged. At first only distorted murmurs, then—
"…humans… what are you doing here?"
The voice was sharp, inhuman, layered with a current-like echo. But the words were unmistakable.
The command room erupted. "It can speak?!"
Even James felt his chest tighten. Language meant intelligence. And intelligence meant history.
The researcher leaned in. "What race are you?"
The entity's reply came cold. "We are the People of the Abyss. Your ancestors called us mermaids. It is true—we are the ones nearest to the trench, the jailers of this place."
The word jailers rippled through the room like a curse.
---
The Abyss of Oblivion
"Where do you live?" the researcher asked.
"We have always lived here. In the Abyss."
The submarine crew exchanged uneasy looks.
The next question came quickly: "Then tell us—why are there so many giant monsters? What is this trench?"
A hiss, then the translated response:
"The Abyss of Oblivion is the cradle of madness. The monsters you fear are remnants—creations abandoned, forgotten, rejected by the world. They were sealed away by our ancestors. We remain only as jailers."
The command room erupted in disbelief.
"Abandoned… by the world?"
"Sealed by who? By gods?"
"Are these creatures divine rejects?"
Onscreen, the minister furiously scribbled notes.
"Then what of the giant humanoid in the divers' dreams?"
The mermaid's voice deepened.
"You speak of the demon in the deepest waters. The First Darkness. The servant of the Dragon Mother. Chaos."
The name struck like a hammer.
"It has many names: Pontus, Abzu, the Forsaken One. From the world's birth, it was destined to be cast aside. The Abyss is its prison."
---
Chaos, Son of Yaldabaoth
The livestream audience lost control.
"That's it! Chaos is one of Yaldabaoth's six angels!"
"So SCP-CN-492 isn't just a trench—it's a cage!"
"My God, we're looking straight into a divine prison!"
The mermaid's final words were worse still:
"If you were a forsaken god, chained in the dark for eternity… what would you do when you finally woke?"
Sweat beaded across brows in the command room. Fury clenched his jaw. Natasha whispered, "Then it's not if—it's when."
---
The Reactions
At Stark Tower, Tony Stark stared wide-eyed at the feed. "You're telling me this entire trench is a holding cell for a god? Yeah… no suit in the world is handling that."
Rhodey muttered, "If this thing breaks free…" He didn't finish. He didn't need to.
At Kamar-Taj, the Ancient One trembled. "A divine son of Yaldabaoth imprisoned at birth? What kind of power could bind him?"
And far above, in the Watcher's realm, Uatu's voice dripped with dread and fascination. "A god imprisoned since creation… but the cage weakens. What kind of madness will he unleash when chains break?"
---
The City of the Deep
Then it happened.
The screen flickered—then went white, then black. Static washed across feeds.
"What's happening?!" the minister shouted.
The mermaid's voice cut through, eerie and calm:
"This… is our city."
A city?
The submarine's lights steadied. Slowly, as cameras panned, the darkness parted to reveal a sight that silenced the world.
Carved into the trench walls and illuminated by strange bioluminescent growths, colossal spires rose like drowned cathedrals. Bridges of coral and bone arched between towers. Statues of forgotten gods loomed, eroded but unmistakably divine.
It was a metropolis… an entire civilization beneath the sea.
The command room froze. The livestream went utterly silent. Even S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stopped breathing.
James alone leaned closer, whispering to himself:
"Not a kingdom… a prison."
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