We hit the water like a meteor, the surface exploding upward in a massive spray of luminescent blue-green liquid. The shock was instantaneous - freezing cold mixed with an odd tingling sensation that made every nerve in my body feel like it was being simultaneously shocked and numbed.

Vespera's magisteel armor sparked wildly underwater, creating strange lightning patterns. Cinder's wings spread out, creating a protective bubble around me as we tumbled through the rushing river.

The water dragged us on and on and on, tumbling up and down and sideways, slamming us into random rocks, making my shield-bracelets ignite as the impact was reduced.

Then the water let go and we were falling, plummeting over the edge of a waterfall and into a dark lake somewhere far below.

The impact knocked what little air I had left out of my lungs. The dark water was impossibly deep, pulling us down and down into its endless depths. Bioluminescent mites swirled around us like falling snow, creating eerie patterns in the darkness.

Cinder finally ripped me away from the sinking, heavier Thunderbird and swam upwards.

We broke the surface gasping for air. The lake stretched out around us, its dark waters reflecting the bioluminescent mites that drifted down from above like glowing snow.

Cinder used her tail, arms, legs, feet and wings to swim forward towards a small rocky island, holding onto a few of my hexasuits with her teeth as if I was a kitten. She pulled me onto the slate-rock shore, panting hard and then opened her jaw, dropping me and then falling onto me completely exhausted.

"Fff... fff... huff... friggin bird... going to murder her...." She panted. "You... okay?"

"I'm... fine," I coughed out water. "Where's Vee?"

Cinder looked behind us at the lake. "Don't know.... huff... too much magisteel on her... heavy...."

"We have to help her!" I tried to stand but Cinder's weight kept me pinned.

"No," she growled, wings wrapping around me possessively. "You're… staying right… here. I'll go get the stupid bird. Just... let me... huff... catch my breath..."

She reached towards her belt and pulled a silver-blue metal bottle off it. She downed the potion swiftly and her entire figure ignited with red-violet-orange, making my eyes water.

She released me and dove back into the dark water. I watched anxiously as glowing rainbow feathers disappeared beneath the surface, illuminated by the falling mites that created an ethereal underwater light show.

Minutes passed.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, two figures burst from the water - Cinder dragging a limp, waterlogged Thunderbird. They collapsed onto the rocky shore beside me, both gasping for air.

Vespera's magisteel armor was sparking weakly, her feathers completely soaked and drooping. Her usual crackling energy was gone, replaced by exhausted trembling.

"You... absolute... KNOB!" Cinder weakly smacked Vespera.

"You... are... hfff... the... knob," Vee smacked her back. "Crashed... pfffhh.... into... me."

"ME?!" Cinder sputtered, pushing herself up on shaking arms. "You... kidnapped... My... huffff... Human."

"Our... pffhhh... human," Vee corrected, grabbing onto my wet boot and then face planting into the flat rocks with a thump.

Cinder weakly kicked at the passed out Thunderbird and crawled to my side, panting and wheezing.

"Stupid... huffff... beerch... ughhh, so wet," she let out. "Bloody... middle of nowhere, soaked, covered in glowing death-mites... Arghhh!"

She tried to shake the water out of her wings, flapping left and right like a dog.

"Here," I pulled off my jacket, laying it on the rocks. "Got a warming rune in there. Should help you dry off. No wing holes... but good as a warm surface."

Cinder continued shaking, sending water droplets everywhere. The bioluminescent mites that had gotten on her feathers made her look like she was covered in tiny stars.

"They're not hurting you, are they?" I asked, concerned about the glowing parasites.

"No..." she let out. "Just... losing mana. Bit by bit. Not good."

"Should we move a bit up?" I asked, looking around our small rocky island. The dark lake stretched out in all directions, its surface occasionally disturbed by something large moving beneath.

"Can't," Cinder panted, collapsing onto my jacket. "So... tired. Used up... too much mana... chasing after you… two idiots. That potion... only gave me enough to save Vee."

"Right. Lemme know if you drop to like 20 mana," I said. "I'll up you. You too, Vee. You alive there?"

I shook my boot.

"Mrghhh," Vee let out. "B-barely. S-s-so cold... w-w-wet."

Her teeth chattered.

I exhaled, stretched and pulled power from my hexasuits. Then I stood up, grabbed the Thunderbird and shoved her into Cinder's arms.

"Hug," I ordered, pulling off one hexasuit after the other, laying each atop them and setting the cores to the 'heat' function. "Dry off. Neither of you can fly if you're wet."

"Don't tell me… hufff… what to do," Cinder grumbled, but wrapped her wings around the shivering Thunderbird anyway. The warming hexasuits began to steam as they dried their feathers.

I sat down beside them, watching the dark lake warily. Something large moved beneath those waters, creating ripples that disturbed the falling mites' reflection.

"Y-you're not m-mad?" Vee's teeth chattered.

"Of course I'm mad," Cinder growled, but didn't let go of the shivering Thunderbird. "You could have gotten all of us killed! What were you thinking?!"

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"I w-wasn't," Vee admitted, curling closer to Cinder's warmth. "Just... got overwhelmed. Twenty-eight years... of possibility. Of hope. Of... freedom. Of change. Of being able to do something new. Something that's me. Us. Our town. Our rules. Our... everything. Do you have any idea what this means to me?"

I pulled the wet, dead hexasuits off them, taking more off myself and igniting the next core.

"No and I don't care," Cinder hissed. A blue eye glanced up at me. "Alex? Did you hit the rocks? Why is your head bleeding from both sides?"

"Oh," I touched my temples where Vee's talons had dug in during our flight. Drops of blood came away on my fingers. "That's from earlier. Vee clawed me a bit."

"She did WHAT?!" Cinder's wings flared with angry reds, jostling Vee.

"Sorry. M'sorry, k? I just... I've never been this happy about something. About someone. Mmmm' srrryy." Vee buried herself harder in Cinder.

"Still mad at you," Cinder grumbled, but her wings settled back around them both. "And you!" She glared at me. "Stop taking off your hexasuits! You'll freeze!"

"I'm fine," I said, removing another suit and laying it over them. "I still have like 14 of them on me. Humans are surprisingly resilient to cold. Besides, you two need them more than me right now."

Something large breached the surface of the lake about fifty meters out, creating a wave that smashed against our little island.

"What-the-shit-is-that?!" Cinder yelped.

I squinted at the broiling lake. "Maybe that thing from Tolkien? You know the thing in the lake with the Friendship door?"

I dug into my pocket and pulled out the lighter, spinning the wheel. The little flame brought me no warmth whatsoever.

"The Watcher of the West-gate of Moria," Vee muttered through chattering teeth. "Ancient guardian of deep places. Usually harmless unless provoked..."

"T-thank you, birb of wisdom," I grinned, holding the lighter and watching my stats go bezerk.

[Mana: 268/7] Sparks danced in my eyes.

Another massive shape moved beneath the dark water, creating ripples that disturbed the falling mites' ethereal glow.

"How's your mana?" I asked my companions.

"Going up," Cinder let out. "Three hundred now."

"Oh the suits n’ jacket are getting so warm. This is nice!" Vee let out from Cinder's embrace.

The beast cores on the suits flickered erratically, growing brighter. The outfits were steaming now, hot to the touch.

"Hrm," I commented. "Guess it powers beast cores too. The more you know."

I set a single hexasuit on me to 'heat', drying rapidly.

Just as I was starting to feel somewhat warm and dry, a massive tentacle burst from the lake's surface, sending a spray of glowing water high into the air. The appendage was covered in bioluminescent growths that pulsed with an eerie blue-green light.

"Sheet" Cinder hissed, wrapping her wings tighter around Vee.

The tentacle was easily as thick as a tree trunk.

"Use your wings to tell it to piss off!" I barked, pulling out the magisteel katana from its dimensional sheath at my side.

"Tell it what?!" Cinder yelped, her feathers shifting through panicked grays.

"Flash your wings! Be threatening!" I waved the sword in one hand and lighter in the other. "Come on, you're a predator! Show it who's boss! Vee, take the lighter! Finger on the button, don't let the flame die!"

Cinder's wings flared wide, blazing through aggressive reds and warning oranges. Vee's armoured hand grabbed the lighter.

The massive tentacle froze directly above us, moving left and right with each pulse of Cinder's wings. I swung at it with the sword, amplifying my strength with the suits.

The blade connected with a solid thunk, sinking halfway into the bioluminescent appendage. The tentacle recoiled slightly, then slowly began to retreat back into the dark water as I pried the blade out of it, nearly plummeting into the water.

"Ha!" I grinned. "See? Just needed to show it who's..."

Five more tentacles erupted from the lake, sending waves crashing over our little island.

"...boss," I finished weakly as the appendages loomed over us.

[Mana: 824/7]

The nearest one swung at us.

Vee's right hand shot out, humming like a power transformer. I grabbed onto her left hand that was still holding the burning lighter with my fingers, picturing, focusing, pushing, willing magic out of my non-Thunderbird self into my Thunderbird-stolen skill, my eyes shut tight.

Current rushed down my arm across Vee and into her right hand, detonating into a massive bolt of pure electrical energy that split into multiple arcs, striking each tentacle simultaneously, visible even though my closed eyes. The discharge was blindingly bright, illuminating the entire cavern for a brief moment.

The monster beneath the surface thrashed, its tentacles writhing in pain as electricity coursed through its body.

The water around our island began to boil from the intensity of the discharge.

[LV 1 Skill gained: Chain Lightning] Sparks wrote in my eyes.

[Mana: 32/7]

"Abyss damn it! At least warn me when you do that!" Cinder hissed, blinking and rubbing her eyes. "Bloody thunderknobs!"

The tentacles retreated beneath the roiling surface, leaving behind a strong smell of ozone and cooked calamari.

"Did... did we just..." Vee blinked rapidly, still gripping the lighter. "Did you just... channel lightning through me? Or did I channel it through you? Hrm."

"Yeah," I grinned, watching my mana rush back up as she held the flame. "That was pretty cool, right? We should do that more often!"

Cinder's look of betrayal was crushing.

Somewhat.

Survival seemed more important.

"Can you two fly yet?" I asked as water slapped against the island from the other side. "I think that the angry squid is coming back for round two. Or maybe it's his wife, annoyed that her husband came home drunk and smokin'."

A massive head covered in glowing barnacles emerged from the water, a red, glowing eye peering at us. Another tentacle, larger than the previous ones, burst from the water behind us.

"Mrs. Squid looks extra-pissed," I commented. "Time to go?"

"Can't," Cinder groaned. "Wings still too wet... not enough mana.... Need more time."

I spun through the air, chucking the magisteel kanana at the eye with all of my hexasuit-amplified strength.

The blade struck true, sinking deep into the glowing, slanted orb. The creature let out a deafening screech that shook our tiny island, its tentacles thrashing blindingly, missing smashing us by only a few inches.

I pried the hexasuit control mechanism out of the suit with amplified strength and set the pattern into a spiral and then threw the beast core and the mechanism into the lake, towards the thrashing squid.

"Close your eyes and ears!" I yelled, ducking into Cinder. "COVER ME!"

Rainbow wings wrapped around me just as the hexasuit's beast core detonated underwater, creating a massive shockwave that sent glowing water spraying in all directions. The explosion was deafening even through Cinder's feathers, the concussive force making our little island shudder.

When the water settled and Cinder's wings pulled back, the lake's surface was still once more. Bits of glowing squid-flesh floated nearby.

"What? WHAT?" Cinder choked out. "What the shit was that?"

"Beast cores can implode when overloaded and set to a spiral pattern that draws power in," I replied, my ears ringing. “I thought it would be like a smaller explosion though. Guess the lighter really maxed out the mana there.”

I looked at the remnants of the squid.

“Great job team,” I smiled. “Looks like a chonky calamari was no match for our…”

A magisteel arrow flitted through the air, going through my chest and all of my hexasuits. The ward-shield bracelets flashed erratically, failing to stop the projectile.

I blinked at it. Pain exploded from my left lung.

I looked ahead through the murk and glowing mite-snow. A human-ish, lanky figure was on the distant shore with massive glowing antlers sprouting from its head and shoulders. The thing methodically placed another arrow into its bow and pulled back the string.

“H-help,” I hissed out, colorful spots dancing in my vision.

The second magisteel arrow let loose, flying straight at my head.