Carried Away By a Moonlight Shadow (Invite)

“That's…actually true.”

Jagaimo had opened her mouth to argue with the blue haired man but what he had just said, more to himself than her, about how earthquakes behaved was pretty accurate. She’d never heard of it happening either…maybe a gravity shift? She’d encountered some strange stuff on her travels, maybe that was something that was worth considering…but why then…why now when someone had come to see her that could actually talk and who wasn’t seemingly forever trying to slice her in two with a giant blade. What had changed in the last few days for all these events to start piling up…it had been days, had it been days? She couldn’t remember the sun overhead moving or the night creeping in but it must have happened…anywhere with a sun and weather conditions like that had to have cycles…

She helped pull him to his feet as he took the hand she’d forgotten she extended to him, pulling her from the odd train of thought, watching him nod and confirm she’d heard his name right.

“Has it only been a week?”

The young woman ran a hand through her unruly hair and shook it out with a breath, casting her gaze across the seemingly endless rolling waves, settled after the massive flood that had wiped away all traces of the arena she’d occupied before.

“An exit? In an ocean?”

She looked at him raising an eyebrow,

“Oh you still think we’re trapped in some kind of other place…just expecting a door to appear are you?”

She waved her hand out at the expansive waves and water that filled their view in every direction,

“Doors don’t just appear out of thin air but sure…why not…lets see…”

She put her hands on her hips and turned slowly…the sun directly overhead shining down on them as she looked out in every direction…all the same except for what she saw of the boat from the different angles,

“Where look’s good to you?”

Jagaimo chuckled and moved to stand on the prow, looking out into the deep dark blue waters, something reminding her that the dark colours meant there was a lot of depth below them, but how much was impossible to say without diving down. The splash towards the rear of the boat told her Russ had jumped in already, the sceptical look on her face about his swimming speed fading away as they started to move, his legs churning up a white wake that was comparable to many water craft she’d see on Earth. The boat rolled under her as they cut through the small waves, propelled forwards by the Saiyan with the blue hair, wind whipping her hair back and the water splashing up into her face. She licked her lips, something nagging at her memory…was water meant to taste so…metallic…didn’t it have salt in it on most worlds?

The young woman on the prow strained her eyes to see ahead of them, scanning back and forth along the empty horizon. Several times she thought she saw something from the corner of her eye but she she turned to focus there was nothing there…and to make matters worse as the minutes passed the sun began to dim, not move…just dim…the dark rolling clouds beginning to return, the swell battering against the small boats hull as the waves grew.

Something thudded against the bottom of the boat, making the wood creak but not interrupting their pace.

Something brushed against Russ’s bare legs, like something grasping that couldn’t find purchase.

As the sky darkened and Jagaimo looked into the deep a flickering green light looked back up at her from more points than she could count, before in a blink they were gone and the endless blue was there once more.

The first drops of rain splashed down as something appeared off in the distance on the horizon, a dark shape, nothing more than an outline…

The young woman's arm lifted, waving a direction to the man powering the boat, glancing over her shoulder at him, eyes going wide and mouth opening at the sight between them, staggering and almost falling back. The Shadowy figure was there, calmly sitting on the rear bench seat, that huge sword trailing over the side of the boat into the water, leaving no trace of its passing. It cocked its head to one side and raised a finger on its other hand to where its lips might be if it had a face, the expression almost mocking like before it shrugged its shoulders and dropped the blade into the blue.

Something bumped into Russ’s feet as they powered through the water, something with weight just for a moment…before it was gone again.

The rain began to hammer down into the boat, great sheets of gray falling in every direction as the black clouds blocked out the sun once more.

Jagaimo lunged at the figure as it dropped the sword, screaming as her fingers caught against something before it fell away at her touch. It was like trying to hold on to smoke, seeping through her fingers and just drifting away on the breeze despite the downpour. Her eyes flicked to Russ and then back past him, to the growing swell and rapidly expanding patch of blackness some way off behind them, gaining with its own bow wave like something vast pushing through the water from below.

Jagaimo’s hand slapped the side of the boat and her knuckles turned white as she gripped it,

“Faster Russ, we need to go faster…now.”

The shadowy figure was gone and whatever it had summoned was rising like an island behind the boat, higher and higher as the water cascaded of its scaly looking sides, red orbs...1 pair...3 pairs...7 pairs all looked up towards the vessel as no matter how fast Russ pushed them it kept pace. A vast chasm of black yawning below them, replacing the blue with nothing but abyssal dark. Jagaimo's fingers crushed the side of the railing she was holding on to, her heart caught in her throat, all knowledge of being able to fly seemingly ripped from her memory at the sight of this thing. She couldn't scream, she couldn't shout. It was as if her voice had been torn from her and in its stead she could feel nothing but a constricting pressure that made it hard to breathe. 

Her body shook.

------

The tank glowed a strange mixture of colours, the purple light from its occupant mixing with the green of the water and bouncing off the reflective surfaces that were part of various pieces of equipment scattered around the medical facility. Two Tuffles in white coats ran round the room in slightly panicked but controlled manner, adjusting dials and checking readouts, calling to each other as numbers slide past their eyes. One of them was hurriedly prepping a hypo injector, its micro needle sharp enough to pierce almost any skin to deliver its dose. While this Tuffle moved over to the prone blue haired form, pulling back his shirt collar to jab the needle into his neck, the other was rapidly moving dials, various liquids mixing and filtering into the tank water.

------

Jagaimo watched Russ vanish. One moment he was there, the next there was nothing and the boat drifted alone on the wave of the ever approaching creature. The vast blackness rose up on all sides before it slammed shut over head, blocking out the rain and the sun, pulling her back into a warm suffocating embrace.

-----

"She's stable! What in the Hells is going on here? Who is he? Get him to the damn medical bay and get him checked out. When he wakes up make sure he gets escorted out by security...the damn nerve of some people!"

The small Tuffle was running around the tank, the lady from before...watching the convulsions get weaker and weaker until all signs pointed to the girl in the tank once more being in a healing sleep. Something was off but there machines told them very little except that she might be dreaming. What that had to do with the blue haired man she didn't know, or why he'd been found unconscious

A problem for another day. Right now the girl needed to heal and that man needed a swift kick up the behind if he thought messing with delicate medical machinery was a smart idea...