Chapter 7: A Sinking Feeling

Hiro's out-of-body self was horrified. She could see Button blinking as he tried to talk to her, but she was no longer there to hear. Her body was sinking slowly to the bottom of the pond in the middle of this cursed cavern of magic. If she had been given any prep or advice by the mysterious headquarters maybe she wouldn't be about to drown.

Hiro's spiritual self followed her body into the water. Her emotional armor of hoodie and sweatpants flickered and then disappeared. She looked unconscious. Red hair fanned around her head, but that wasn't all. Her body started emitting a horrible brown and yellow substance from all over, blood was leaking from her eyes, ears, and nose.

"What the hell?" She thought. Hiro saw her body try to breathe before convulsing as it sunk lower. "Shit!" She might not be inside her body, but the sky was still hers to command. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Nothing answered. She couldn't feel any of her magic but the feeling of Time passing. As her body convulsed again she could hear a ticking sound growing louder as if approaching her. She didn't need the auditory clue to know this was bad.

Just moments ago she could command the air around her. If Time was the only thing available to her, she would use it. Gritting her metaphorical teeth Hiro reached backward through time. She had the power before, so she could have it now. A membrane between the past and present separated her from her previous power. She couldn't have that. She was dying. She called the electricity to her from the other side of the membrane. Hiro used it to burn through the membrane. Her spirit lit up with the electricity and she used it to power what she did next.

Hiro's spirit burned through the power as she pulled the sky down around her spirit and body creating a pocket of air. She reached out with her metaphysical hand and sent a spark through her breathing body. Hiro watched her body tense and then throw up. Expelling the water while still exuding viscous goo. The ticking sound stopped getting louder as her body continued to breathe. She felt like she was being electrocuted and burned at the same time as she held the atmosphere in place while her body floated oddly in front of her in the air.

She wasn't the one holding it up. Her hair still floated as if she was in the water. She tried to focus through the pain. Suddenly Hiro's vision shifted to a time when she had not been able to pull air down and save her body. A timeline in which she was still drifting in the water drowning. Her body still looked like that. She had not finished changing events. She concentrated, realizing there was a time when she died here in this lake and a time when she saved herself.

The two timelines lay over each other. She saw them both as if they were shining white threads. They were tangled up and she had to figure out how to make sure the one in which she lived was the one that endured. She was burning through her spirit quickly, the ticking was slowly getting louder once again. She screamed soundlessly into the metaphysical void as she reached forward once again. Hiro touched the timeline in which she drowned, burning it with her light. In this timeline she saved herself, and this timeline was going to be the only one. She imposed her will over time and made it a reality.

The two visions of herself, one breathing and one drowning vibrated as she claimed the one she wanted. Suddenly it all snapped together. Her body decided it was in the air and not water and without her ability to fly, her body dropped. Right on top of the pedestal that had been sitting at the bottom of the pond. Directly over the orb.

It touched her bare stomach and her body draped itself face down still expelling various vitriol from her pores. Hiro's body convulsed, at the same time as the air around her spirit thumped. The world seemed to rumble. If she had eyes in this form, they would be wide and panicky. A bright light was running through her body centered where the orb touched. She could not see what was happening. Everything trembled again. The ticking sound was retreating, but that didn't comfort her. The powers she had been calling through time leaped from her back into her body. The connection Hiro had pulled through time itself snapped. Water rushed back into her protective sphere carrying her spirit self with it to crash back into her body.

The world around her went black once more. A faint vaguely familiar voice followed her into the blackness. "What an interesting path change. And during your transformation at that. I knew you were the one to pick."

Hiro dreamt of the time when she had taken her dog Niss to Drool at the Pool, with some friends. They were having a fun time running around and in and out of the water. Niss was an Australian shepherd mixed with something and she didn't particularly like full-on swimming. Running through the kiddy pool and sniffing other dogs was more her jam. Hiro had plenty of fur on her from all the pups she was petting, so she decided to jump into the lap area for a moment. Niss anxiously paced back and forth at the side of the pool as she slowly backed away enjoying the deeper water. Hiro lay back to float, and Niss came into the water with a splash. Her pup panicked, thinking she was drowning, and swam to her. She tried to grab her with her front paws as if to try and save her. Instead, Niss pushed her underwater, surprising Hiro and making her take in a huge gulp of water.

Hiro came awake trying to cough up water as she had when Niss had dunked her unexpectedly. She couldn't get the water out though. When she pulled in a breath it was just more water. She thrashed, she was drowning! She kept pulling in water as she heard her companion. She was laying face down over some stone. Was she at the bottom of the pond?

"Hiro! Miss! You're awake! Can you swim upwards for me Miss?" Button hummed in her head, clear as day despite the water all around her.

She was laying face down over a pedestal she pushed off it trying to strike upwards still coughing and panicking. As she started frantically swimming upward something occurred to her, she was pulling in the water in her mouth, and coughing out bubbles. She still felt the air in her lungs. Experimentally she tried to slow her breathing and control the reflexive coughing to having water in her mouth as she breathed. It felt thick, like a humid day, or breathing in a fog bank, but she could breathe. She looked down at the pedestal that held an orb the last time she had peered into the deep pond. It was empty. Brow furrowed she swam towards the surface again so she could ask Button what the hell was going on. She had some spotty memories after she landed in the water.

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"That's it Miss, get to the surface. I'll let headquarters know you woke up." She couldn't feel the flickering like she had before when he communicated with Headquarters. She wondered if that was because she was underwater.

She knew she had been out for an hour and forty-eight minutes. She remembered activating her power to see outside her body. Somehow she used some of her powers that way? Her head broke out of the surface of the water and she spat the water out of her mouth. A few coughs later she was breathing air again.

"What," she gasped a few more times then, "Happened?"

"We don't know Miss. Can you get to shore?" Hiro, exhausted and cold, tried to will herself over there with her sphere. When nothing happened she started paddling instead. She must be too tired to use her magic.

"Yes, good Miss Skylark. The platform and sphere you woke up on is a teleporter back to headquarters. They dispatched a team to try and retrieve you but they won't be here for a few more hours. It would be best to get you back as quickly as possible."

The pond wasn't very wide, it did not take her long to reach the shallow pebbly side. She waded out hip-deep. As she emerged everything started hurting. Hiro crossed her arms over her chest. Once again she had no clothes. The light-based clothing she had summoned was gone. She couldn't feel the light inside her, she must have used all her power reserves during whatever happened. Maybe that is why she couldn't feel the sky around her. No reason to panic. Deep breaths. This whole situation has been weird. What's one more thing?

She stood there for a minute as goosebumps prickled her skin. She probed her memories. Hiro had flown and it was amazing, then the change Button warned her about took over. She remembered being ejected outside of her body yet again. A lot of goop came out of her. Luckily the water had washed it all away because she was clean now. There had been a lot of pain. The memory of it was like the time she accidentally touched the metal progs on a plug while pulling it out of a wall but one hundred times worse. The whole episode was fuzzy, but she remembered being scared but defiant, and there had been a ticking noise. Hadn't she drowned?

"Button, why didn't I drown?" She stared at the water around her. She didn't want to leave its embrace. Though it was chilly, it soothed her. Half of her outside of the water ached. The half inside felt fine. She was getting a bad feeling about the whole situation.

"It seems you fell on top of the water essence during your change and somehow absorbed it. We didn't know that was possible. Absorbing it gave you the ability to breathe underwater. We don't know what other effects it had on you. Headquarters is anxious to get you back. They were not sure you'd wake up which is why an extraction team is on their way. Can you keep moving Miss? To the platform, you woke up on?"

"I hurt all over except what's in the water." She said staring at the dark waters. They were still crystal clear though she had watched her body pour out abundant goo and blood.

"Water often can heal, perhaps you can heal yourself inside of it."

"I don't feel it though Button. I can't feel anything happening, only the absence of pain."

"Sometimes you don't. Please keep moving Miss."

She swiveled her head around looking for the nearby patch of light. She wanted enough power to put on clothes before meeting the people at headquarters. She waded further out of the water, each step getting harder as her whole body tingled and burned. "Did I get a sunburn or something when I was sunbathing?" She muttered as she trudged to the patch of light.

She walked into the light and felt its comforting warmth. She tilted her face back, eyes closing waiting for the feeling of power to come. Taking a deep breath she held her lungs full for a second. All at once she expelled the breath. She couldn't feel it. Her heart thudded in her chest. She couldn't feel her power. She looked down at herself arms unwrapping so she could examine her arms. "Button, after the change are folks unable to feel the magic like before?"

"I don't know what you mean Miss, if anything the change makes your connection to your magic more powerful. The change just adapts your body to better handle the specific flow of magic you need. Everyone is different of course, but the is no record of not being able to feel your magic anymore." Button's answer finally broke the calm she had tried to foster since she had emerged from the water.

She sank down and sat where she stood. Her breath came in quickly and she heard rushing in her ears. "Something is very wrong." She whispered staring eyes open but unseeing.

"Headquarters can help. Plea.."

"You said this had never happened before!" her voice rose, "How are they supposed to help? They dumped me down here! They gave me a weird thing behind my ear without my consent and didn't tell me anything!" All of her frustration, pain, and fear hardened into anger. Standing up she directed it at the only being she had access to. "I was dealing with the whole fucked up situation because I was getting magical powers and that was cool. But you are their little spy and I don't want you here in my head!" She was screaming by the end. She had raised her hands to her head and was digging at the gem behind her head.

"I'm sorry Hiro, but headqu" Button began

"Fuck you and fuck your headquarters!" She yelled and then screamed in frustration. In a flash of light and a clap of thunder, a lightning bolt rushed up through the ground and out to the sky. It followed her body like a lightning rod. The gem under her prying fingers cracked. Her fingers explored it while she panted. Apart from the tingling sensation getting worse, she felt fine.

"Button?" her chest was still heaving, "I think I called lightning." There was no reply from the gem. Nothing vibrated in her inner ear to speak to her without the world hearing. "Button?" She asked again but only silence answered. Not even the birds twittered after the thunder had scared them into silence. She lifted her head and looked around. She dropped one hand from her head and the other still touching Button's cracked gem. The vast cavern sounded a few soft drips before the birds picked back up their calls.

She was alone. Truly alone. No personal guidance A.I. to help. Tears started streaming down her face. Hiro realized she didn't want to be alone. She didn't want the powers she had had for only hours to not be working. She wanted to go home. She wanted her dog. Niss could always cheer her up. She cast about through the haze in her eyes to see the platform she had arrived on. It wasn't too far away. Hiro stumbled over to it sobbing. She climbed up on the low platform and curled up on her side.

"There Button, take me to your headquarters now." She said though it came out a bit garbled through the sobs. When he still didn't reply her whole body shuddered with a breath before her crying redoubled. "I'm so sorry Button." she gasped before letting all her emotions out with her tears.