Aqua's Deep Dive

The water was a heavy blanket, pressing in, a familiar embrace that usually soothed Aqua’s restless spirit. But tonight, the ocean’s depths hummed with a discordant thrum, a sickness that seeped into her very bones. The residual energy from the Void’s final assault, though contained and seemingly eradicated from the surface world, had found a new, insidious path. It had tunneled into the planet’s veins, the vast, interconnected network of oceans, and was festering.

She descended, the pressure a mere whisper against her augmented form. Bioluminescent creatures, usually a kaleidoscope of vibrant blues and greens, flickered with a sickly, unnatural yellow. Schools of fish darted erratically, their movements jerky and panicked, their scales dulled, their eyes vacant. Aqua felt the distress of each one, a chorus of silent screams that echoed in her soul.

“Anything, Aqua?” Kareem’s voice, tinny and distant, crackled through her comms. He was monitoring from The Pocket, his consoles a constellation of glowing data points.