Tales Of Connections

Chapter 8: Under the Sea

As Beth portaled through to the middle of the citadel, she found ruby still embedded into the ground. She extended her hand and helped him back up to his feet. "Where's cosmos."

"He left like an hour ago," Ruby responded, adjusting his shoulder to be back in its socket. Beth pinched the bridge of her nose. "Exactly what we needed. Where are the other two?"

"Outside somewhere. What are you doing back here anyways, I thought you were fired."

"I got over it. Come on, we're on a McGuffin hunt."

"Oh, I love that," Ruby responded, rolling his eyes, just wanting to rest. Beth looked at her gauntlet, a blinking-like showing up in the middle of the ocean. "Why would the crystal be in the middle of the ocean?"

"Probably the mermaids. You're gonna need aqua if you're going down there." Beth then opened up a portal in response to Ruby, and they stepped outside. Se ran over to Aqua while Ruby walked over to granite. He extended his arm. "Come on man, we've gotta save the universe, again."

"I'm getting real tired of this." granite responded, before looking over to his side. Seeing Beth, in her full guardian uniform, other than the helmet. Beth helped Aqua to her feet. "I thought you were fired, not promoted."

"It's a whole thing, I'm still fired, we just stole some tech, and one of the higher-ups. Look, I'm here for the crystal, and if cosmos is gone, we're moving now."

"And the crystal is where?" Aqua asked, understanding the stakes, folding her arms, and looking back for the others. "Underwater, in the Atlantic kingdom. It's why I'm taking you and not them."

"All right, Let's go." she began to form a wave to transport them on, Beth just opened up a portal, water spilling out, her helmet flew over her face, Aqua following, the portal closing behind them. As Aqua began to talk, her voice was muffled by the water, and the thick helmet Beth had on didn't make talking to much more viable.

"All right, where is it?" Aqua asked, Beth, pointing down to a gigantic underwater kingdom, almost every piece of architecture made of some kind of solid metal, Aqua gulped. "The Atlantic kingdom, this isn't going to go well, they kinda hate us, surface walkers."

"And we don't have time to care, if it's a smash and run so be it. We can't let him get that crystal." the pair began swimming, Beth opening portals to help them get closer faster, still having to get used to being able to open them on her own. She looked over at Aqua and knew that worried look. The moment they entered the gates, they were surrounded by mermaid guards, Aqua extended her hands and managed to create a water current, the current causing the guards around them to start spinning, With beth opened up a portal to get herself to safety, however as she looked back she saw a massive mermaid in the distance, likely the kind, and along with that, she saw another two mermaids with him, one who was slightly smaller than the king and their daughter, almost definitely Adella from what Beth had been told about her. She opened up a portal under Aqua and pulled her through, causing the current to stop. Aqua and Beth looked at the king, ready to fight if they had to, however, Adella quickly swooped in and swam in front of them.

"Dad, there are my friends, and I'm sure they're here for a good reason, right?" she looked back at them, Beth swimming forward slightly. "Yeah so, I'm tired of explaining this again and again. We have a multiversal nuke of a man looking for this thing called the cosmic crystal, if he gets his hands on it, kaboom," she explained, the king looking over at Aqua, who turned some of the water in front of her to ice through pure pressure. She held it close. "You expect me to believe you after you scramble my guards and bring one of them here." the king stated, the queen staying back, Adelaa still blocking his way. "Dad, I'm serious, we need to trust them, they know what they are talking about, they're the reason I was even able to get back." she started to explain but the hot-headed king wanted to hear none of it. "You surface walkers stole our core, and now I see what has become of it, we used that core to power ourselves, to power our lives, so if you think I'm going to let you just waltz on in into my castle and take it." Beth started talking.

"We'll give it back when we're done, I'm not that heartless. If your city needs it we'll return it, but right now we do have something bigger going on." Beth began to explain, spears of cosmic energy being shot down at them. Cosmos was aware of where they were, although after a second it stopped. "Looks like our hours are up, and it's been like 10 minutes." Adella swam over to them. "Right, so what do we do now Ava?"

"I'm not... forget it. We're getting that crystal, even if I need to portal over there myself. And rip it out. This isn't something we can mess around with. How many of you know what an elemental titan is." the king looked down at her. "Well, the only other person who can use those things to their full potential was able to kill them with just one. Right now my team is out gathering them to keep them away from cosmos. I'm sorry King, but I'm getting that crystal."

"And what makes you think...?" Beth opened up a portal and swam through it, and Aqua and Adella followed. The portal closed behind them. "Quickly to the castle." the guards, queen and king began swimming towards the castle. Meanwhile, inside of the throne room, Beth needed a moment to orientate herself. "Still getting used to the portal generation thing. It's way more draining than I thought it'd be." Beth explained, her voice muffled by the water around them. "You sure you wanna do this Adella?"

"I trust you two, but also, you're not Ava are you?"

"Beth, nice to meet you."Didn't really get meet back in midtown." aqua cut in.

"Guys, Crystal."

"Right, you need the king's DNA to get in there, i'm pretty sure my DNA is close enough. It kinda incinerates anybody who goes in there without him. Or me i guess."

"Best plan we got, where is it?"

"Does that thing have the ability to take coordinates?" she swam over to Beth's gauntlet and began tapping at it, finding the setting. "I guess it does." Aqua looked outside and saw the king swimming towards them, she extended her hand and managed to compress the water around the castle to make a 3-foot thick wall of ice. She looked over at the others, to see eth had managed to open a portal, she tried to wipe away the sweat from her forehead, however, she failed to do so because of the helmet blocking her head. The three swam through the portal, ending up behind the king's throne, Adella laced her hands on the scanner, a massive, metal door opening, looking as if the wall was just being ripped out from the wall and sliding back, it had previously looked completely flush like there was no opening.

"Even down here tech's better than back home." Beth quipped as they watched all the security turn off, the crystal now just sitting there. "As soon as you grab that crystal, the lasers and security and stuff will immediately turn back on."

"Thanks for the heads up, I'll have a portal ready." Beth ripped open a portal, Aqua swam over to the crystal and yanked it out, with the portal spilling water out, the pair made their way, a second portal letting Adella back out. "We'll be back to return this."

"You better, or I'm dead," she responded, going through her portal. The pair found themselves at the ocean of midtown, as they wam out of it, Beth took off her suit, leaving her in her dry clothes, as she lay on the beach, Aqua standing over her, handing the crystal to her. "You should probably keep a hold of this."

"You sure?"

"You're the guardian, right? Plus you can instantly get it away if needed."

"What? We're going back and grabbing them, and then heading back to midtown."

"Oh, let's go them."

Beth opened up a portal, returned to the other two core bearers, and she placed a portal under them, causing them to crash into the living room of Onyx's home, Beth and Aqua followed.