What Lies Beneath ( A Subnautica story)

(Chapter 8) Scrapped

The next morning James was out trying to find the elusive figure, Squishy had swam up to the lifepod to check on Connor.

The two small creatures conversed for about two hours before James appeared from the hatch.

" Oh there you are!"

"I've been looking for you two"

James clambered up the rest of the ladder and closed the hatch,

"Okay so, I didn't find that figure, but i did find something else."

James pulled out his PDA and lay it in front of Connor and Squishy, the two hopping closer to get a better look.

The screen showed that James had completed the blueprints for both the Seamoth and Mobile Vehicle Bay, "Isn't this great?!"

Squishy bubbled a noise of agreement, while Connor gave a look of dismay.

"Dont worry Connor, you wont be in it."

Connor let our a relieved chirp, while Squishy giggled at the small bird's response, as James stood up,

"Im gonna go back to searching, you wanna come with me this time Squish? I could use an extra pair of eyes"

Squishy bubbled an "Ok!" As he climbed onto James' shoulder, "We'll be back in a few hours, kay?" James scratched under Connor's chin, the Skyray giving a small coo in response.

James leaped into the water, Squishy's eyes adjusted to the salted water before James equipped his Seaglide, before it started pulling them in whichever direction James was currently facing (heheh, currently).

The two explorers hadn't found anything of interest after nearly an hour of searching so they moved on from the Creepvines and began heading to the Grassy-Plateau, after avoiding the occasional Stalker and a single previously unknown Mesmer, James and Squishy had reached the Plateau and began searching, spitting up for the time being to more efficiently complete their task of finding the Elusive Figure.

Squishy was silently swimming around the large rocks before spotting a greyish tail behind one rock they were about to swim to, curiosity overtook the squids sense of danger making Squishy swim closer.

When Squishy got to the other side of the rock, they found a Sand-Shark feasting on a small shoal of fish, Squishy made a suprised squeak which got the Shark's attention, making it turn to face Squishy, They could see the endless hunger in its eyes as it made a lunge for its new prey.

Squishy barely managed to dodge the attack before the Sandshark recovered from its charge and tried another attack, this time Squishy released ink to blind the Sandshark before hastily swimming away to find James.

Squishy had found James in combat with another angry Sandshark, unlike Squishy, James managed to take down the Shark with a knife to the eye, blood seeping into the water as the creature floated down to the seabed.

"Oh there you are!"

"Sorry i didnt come get you, i was kinda preoccupied"

Squishy bubbled an 'Its okay' while grimacing at the floating corpse.

The two decided to head back to the Lifepod for now, James had checked his PDA for the mobile vehicle bay blueprints and decided to find a few that he was missing before getting back.

They decided (albeit begrudgingly) to gather the titanium first, so the two swam tp the nearest crepvine forest and began their search, Squishy spotted a decent size pile of titanium scrap in a dent in the rock formation, and swam over calling James excitedly.

"Shhhh be quiet!" James whisper-yelled.

"The Stalkers will hear you".

Squishy quieted down and took up the job of lookout while James shoved as much scrap as he couldget into his inventory capsule.

(Ok so, in James' story au kinda thing your inventory is a little capsule that can grow and shrink to fit in your pocket)

James was nearly finished packing up the scrap before hearing Squishy's muffled scream, as he turned around he saw a pair of Stalkers stopped at the entrance to the almost den.

"Uh oh"

James took his knife out of his pocket, the stalkers charged at the sight of the knife, James attempted to dodge but one Stalker caught his left arm with its teeth, James yelled in pain, as he dropped his knife.

While the Stalker was sinking its teeth deeper into his flesh, the other one was trying to catch Squishy as they swam around desperately trying not to get eaten.

James was slammed into a wall, his head was aching and his arm was throbbing with pain, he looked around for his knife while the Stalker that was attacking him went to help its mate catch Squishy.

He spotted it over to his right, so he swam for dear life grabbing the knife and Inventory Capsule, as he
Exited the small cave he saw a large orange ink cloud, no doubt that Squishy was there he swam over into the cloud, he could barely see through all the orange coloured water, eventually he spotted Squishy wrapped around a thrashing Stalker, its mate swimming around not wanting to bite its lover.

James swam over with his knife and took advantage of the creatures panic, he swam behind the beast and thrust his knife into its back, the Stalker let out a screech and turned to face him, James waited for it to attack before dodging successfully and slashing the creatures throat, as it bled out it let out a groan as it hit the seabed.

James was interrupted from his victory by a tail hitting his already sore back, he turned and saw Squishy still holding onto a tired Stalker, James quickly swam over and stabbed it in the eye.

As its tired thrashing ceased, Squishy let go and sat on the seabed, clearly exhausted from the whole ordeal.

James picked up Squishy in his right arm and swam to the Surface to catch a breath, before spotting the Lifepod's silhouette and began swimming.

(This Time-skip was brought to you by the love of two dead stalkers)
They were almost at the Lifepod when James heard what sounded like a Skyray, but uncharacteristically angry, he looked over at the Lifepod (that was now closer than originally thought), and saw Connor fluttering aggressively around......the figure?

As James swam closer he began to hear the figure speak.

"Hey! Get offa me!"

"Shoo! Shoo!"

James hurried to the Lifepod's ladder And saw a person standing over the hatch Connor was pecking at them and chirping angrily to the intruder.

"Hey!"

The person turned at the sound of James' voice and was visibly startled by James' presence.

"What are you doing?"

"None of your business"

"It becomes my business when a stranger is disturbing my Skyray on my Lifepod"

"Yeah the thing wouldn't leave me alone"

"Maybe because your intruding on their home?!"

"You got a problem with me wanting out the water for once!?"

"As a matter of fact yeah I do!"

"Well I ain't leaving til those Stalkers leave!"

"What do you m-"