[MV] The Super Wizard From Space #15: The Tragedy Of Sharkasaurus Rex, Part 5

[Wil Alambre]

Geisel was gone, his phantasmal form torn apart in savage fury by the 
recently de-crowned Sharkasaurus Rex.

The equally ethereal Theodor watched the entire sudden rending in still 
shock. As did the rest of the infinite school, millions of fellow ghost 
fish that had all gathered to psychically leash the mighty megalodon. 
They didn't even realize such a thing was possible. They had survived 
life. They had survived death. They were supposed to be free... not fragile.

Even Sharkasaurus Rex seemed surprised. The great megalodon floated in 
the upper atmosphere aimlessly. It's pitch black eyes wide and it's 
simple animal mind confused. It's jaws flexed open and closed. It's 
ghostly body faded transparent and then back solid. All as if a child 
experimenting with new experiences.

Theodor felt a hand pass through his small form. Hovering beside him was 
the Super Wizard From Space, trying to get his attention while still 
watching the great shark. With growing worry he started to say, "We 
should back away..."

Suddenly Sharkasaurus Rex snapped its leashes and launched into the 
midst of the infinite school.

The shark's massive mouth opened and closed with ferocious speed.

A dozen of the ghost fish were instantly shredded. Spectral scales and 
transparent fins were torn apart by monstrous teeth.

A quick swallow and the shark rocketed forward, snapping at more prey.

"Scatter! Hide!" called out Theodor in pitched fearful thoughts. "Rex is 
mad! Rex is hungry! Everything is his food!"

The school started to dart away in every direction, streaks of 
transparent colours fleeing from the ferocious mass. Waves of telepathic 
fear crashed into each other, multiplying panic upon panic.

But in their terror, instinct still gripped most of the ghost fish. Even 
when bolting chaotically, they unconsciously bunched together with 
others of their kind.

The larger groups just made easier targets for Sharkasaurus Rex, who 
slammed into them with rows and rows of terrible teeth. His massive body 
flitted in frequency. Many of the small ghosts popped. Many were chopped 
up in gnashing bites. Some lucky few passed through the megalodon's body 
unscathed.

"Run! To the mountain!" yelled out the Super Wizard From Space. He 
clapped his hands and then slashed them out. Another flat plane of 
blinding light cut through the air and across Sharkasaurus Rex's eyes. 
The beast flinched at the painful brightness passing through his 
spectral form and reflexively dimmed it's solidity.

The other fish were awash in their own horror, nothing but unyielding 
blues in their minds painting over rationality. But Theodor was a blue 
fish, used to swimming in such grim waters. He circled around the 
closest of the groups he could, roping their desperation with his own 
frayed images of practicality. They grasped at the thought strands and 
followed, dragging their own brighter hopes behind them.

He caught as many as he dared in his psychic net before he saw the dull 
calcium of fifty-five rows of giant teeth start to reappear, 
cheshire-like. They seemed bigger than before, each one now easily 
taller than several men. His courage ran out and he dived toward the 
planet, dragging any ghost fish that still clung to him.

Down, down, down he swam, back into the thick of the atmosphere and 
finally into the rock solidity of the invisible monks' mountain 
monastery. Passed rooms and halls and corridors, into the walls and 
floors and the thick bedrock roots of the peak. Only when the school's 
panicked thoughts finally lightened up into calmer pastel hues did 
Theodor finally relax his hold. He watched them a moment, their spectral 
forms seemingly safe, milling about within the core of the mountain, 
before he alone rose up and out again.

The invisible monks were in an uproar, marching in organized perfect 
order at breakneck speeds. They all were headed to the craggy surface of 
the mountain, faces firm with discipline. Theodor followed some of them 
outside, watching them spread out in a perfect grid pattern. No point of 
the mountain side was too steep or too slippery to their trained 
balance. Each man took their position, planted their bare feet, and 
looked straight up.

Drifting upwards, Theodor eventually reached the balcony where the other 
space-champions had been watching. Brody Dharma was standing on the 
railing, his tail wrapped around the wood for extra balance, his large 
gecko eyes staring up into the sky like the rest of his order. His 
jovial nature was masked by a ready cautiousness.

They all watched the night sky, still, as the dark shadow chased fleeing 
rainbows, with a single star flinging bands of light. And the shadow was 
growing. Rapidly. With each terrible bite.

Then the rainbows came straight down at the mountain. And the shadow 
dived after them. Moonlight reflected off dull white teeth as they 
gnawed away the slower pricks of running colours at the end.

"The surface of even the stillest lake can be broken by the humblest of 
pebbles!" called out Brody Dharma, reaching into his robes and pulling 
out his little silver gong.

"This is our shoreline! We are it's many stones!" answered out a hundred 
thousand monks in unison. They all reached into their own robes and 
pulled out similar silver gongs.

The rainbow of ghost fish dove at the mountain monastery and, like rush 
of water, scattered in a splash of directions once they skimmed through 
the surface.

The invisible monks ignored the running school. They all raised their 
gongs to the falling shadow.

The darkness opened it's great jaw. The beast flung itself at the mountain.

Brody Dharma struck his gong. A single simple note rung out.

A hundred thousand monks heard the tone and, a half second later, a 
hundred thousand mallets all hit a hundred thousand silver gongs at the 
same time.

The musical sound slammed into Theodor's wraith-like form and shook 
every fibre. The musical sound pushed him into a more real state, a more 
real place in the universe. For the first time since his death, for a 
brief solid second, he felt heavy and cold and alive again.

Sharkasaurus Rex bellowed a ghastly unnatural sound as the tone washed 
over him. The echo tried to drag the megalodon toward reality.

The beast resisted, angered. It glared at the mountain side and all the 
glints of silver causing it pain.

Brody Dharma struck his gong again. A hundred thousand monks responded. 
The perfect tone rung out again.

Sharkasaurus Rex cried out again, the music pulling at it's spectral 
skin. But he pulled back, against the weight of the living universe. It 
opened it's massive mouth, now gigantic in size, and bit side of the 
mountain.

A chunk of the peak almost a mile in size was ripped out. Boulders and 
trees and snow were destroyed by rows and rows of hill-sized ivory. A 
sizeable chunk of the planet was swallowed down the megalodon's gullet. 
Thousands and thousands of screams were heard and then silenced. A 
rainstorm of blood sprayed out between the beast's jaws, washing the 
wounded mountain.

The remaining monks scattered. Feet skipping along loose stones and tree 
branches and falling drops of their fallen comrades, they flitted 
through the air away from the shark's wrath.

The night sky brightened, and a whip of fusion fire snapped. It passed 
through the ghostly body of Sharksaurus Rex, blasting the hole in the 
mountain. A explosion of molten stone and burning wood spun out into the 
shark's face. The beast roared at the mountain, shaking off the hard 
light and noise and debris, and shot down into the mist to hide.

The Super Wizard From Space pulled back and snapped his arm again, 
flinging a whip of fusion fire after the running monster. The end 
disappeared into the low clouds unseen, only a terrible explosion as the 
star power slashed against the planet's surface. The mist glowed, as if 
a wide forest or plain had caught fire, and a long dark shadow could be 
seen sliding away. A single dorsal fin poked above the mist's surface, a 
sizeable hill that slid amongst the hidden valley.

The super wizard rose further up in the air, watching the fin start to 
circle the mountain range. There with a quiet din coming from under the 
mist as the simpler people living on the valley floor saw the god-like 
horror prowling. It was only a matter of time before Sharkasaurus Rex's 
courage returned and he fed on the helpless. Or struck again at the 
monastery.

Theodor threw out luring thoughts to the super wizard, bringing him up 
to the balcony. The cosmic crowns of all the space-champions were aglow, 
their combined power slightly warping the area they stood. Brody 
Dharma's own seemed to flare more violently than the others, as if it 
was betraying his passive expression.

"You tore at our sun. You struck out against our mountain. You gashed 
wounds across planet Amity itself." said Brody Dharma with measured words.

"I could barely affect him," replied the super wizard when he landed. He 
seemed to lean over a bit, as if catching his breath. "Even deprived of 
his laurel wreath, Rex is one of the most powerful beings in the 
universe. And it's clear the infinite school cannot hold him anymore.

"I'm sorry, Theodor. He must be stopped. By whatever means."

Theodor looked at the grim countenances of the gathered space-champions. 
He knew the super wizard was right. Geisel was the exuberantly hopeful 
one, but he didn't realize how much he leaned on that bright yellow 
emotion. Now, in an ocean of deep blacks and blues, he found his own 
yellow spot. And it was slowly being stamped out.

"What..." he managed, cutting through the thick silence, "what of the 
sound. The little music. From the little gongs. They made me all real 
again. They made Rex all real again."

"Sound seems to cage the near-dead," agreed Brody Dharma. "Emperor M 
shared that secret with us. The right tone stirs the strands of the 
universe enough to catch the spirits on our side of reality. At least 
momentarily.

"But Rex has fed on his own students. He has added their own 
insubstantial mass to his own. Already he's exponentially larger than he 
was when he first arrived. And our combined harmonies did not have the 
ability to completely manifest him."

"Then you're gonna need a bigger gong," said the Super Wizard From Space.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES

Another instance of a story arc that I was figuring was going to wrap 
itself up a lot earlier. This was going to be the last issue in the Rex 
bit, but a 1700+ word count and only being half-way through meant there 
was going to have to be a part six.

The switch to Theodor's point of view actually helped a lot in this 
writing. I was correct in my discover last time, that I should have done 
it from his point of view the whole time. I also downplayed the other 
champions, not wanting them to clutter up the action just to have a line.

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Wil Alambre, follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wilalambre