Bestia: an ancient energy that allows Pokémon to use their powers. Lucca Aska is a plucky Brionne raised as a hero in a world devoid of Bestia, where Pokémon must use weapons and armour to survive. Destiny has chosen Lucca and five other outcasts to...
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From one mess to the next. That's how things always were. Even when she was staying in the desert to build that village, every day was just a messy situation. What's another life-threatening mess to throw into the pile?
Fighting the Wishiwashi storm and then being thrown into an ocean of black water wasn't unfamiliar – the swimming in the sea part, at least. Or so she thought. What should have happened was the current would throw her and her teammates around, and then when they were deposited in a calmer section of the ocean, she could surface.
A minute in and that hadn't happened. It didn't even feel like there was a current. The Pikachu, Cyndaquil, and Steenee were kept beneath the surface by some magical curse, as if the will of the sea itself didn't want them to ascend. Brine kicked her feet, paddled her arms, even used her powers to geyser herself up, but all she got was pressure as if she was crushing herself against an invisible ceiling. To make matters worse, the surface was getting further and further away, and her chest was beginning to ache. She was running out of time.
For a brief moment, she floated steady to gain her bearings. Ruby and Elise were having the worst of it, with eyes clenched and hands over their mouths, yet bubbles leaked between their lips as they strained and moaned for oxygen. They were so far below the surface that the sunlight was a dull, wavy sphere miles above. Posia was nowhere to be found. If they had any chance of survival, Brine had to do something, and now.
With a growl and a shout, Brine unleashed the strongest water move she could muster, and formed a geyser beneath the three of them. It definitely worked, and yet that ceiling of force that kept them down persisted. A splitting pain surged across Brine's body as a current punched her stomach, while that ceiling crushed her back, and she let out a cry.
A nasty snort and a cough instinctively followed. Panic and anxiety swamped her form as all logic went out the window. She scrambled to fight that current as best she could, still to no success whatsoever. Only when her energy started to give out did she realise, for a Pokémon who was drowning, she was awfully aware.
"What?" she whispered, astonished as bubbles came from her mouth with those words. Her heart raced, but she dared to take a deep breath. Bubbles went in, and bubbles went out. "I'm breathing the water?"
She snapped to Ruby and Elise, where they were coming to the same conclusion. The trio were way out of their element, and yet they were breathing just fine. Brine approached to link paws as their descent continued.
"Did I die already? This has gotta be a dream, right?" Ruby asked.
"Your amulet's still good, so I hope you're not dead. Something cool's happening, that's all," Brine replied. "And now that I look around..."
"This ain't anything like the sea around Van Aken," Elise remarked.
In the distance was terrain one would expect from under the sea. Rocky coral reefs, mossy trenches, and colourful algae, most of which was obscured by the dark distance of the black water. Not a single Pokémon or even as much as a bubble was in sight, telling of a truly dead ocean.
