CHAPTER 8: SEARCH AND RESCUE

Hiro was beginning to think knowing the exact passing of time was a curse. She had cried for twenty-three minutes and seventeen seconds before she became aware of the seconds ticking by. It had startled her out of her tears. It took a further two minutes and forty-nine seconds of sitting up and deep breathing before she felt calm. She counted each second as she breathed in and out. Hiro felt meditative and in a better headspace to problem-solve.

Hiro was used to problem-solving in the machine shop. She was often the one called to fix issues. So she started breaking the problem down into pieces. She was alone. No AI telling her anything. When she had fried Button she must've blocked any signal getting to the teleporter. She hoped the team Button had told her about was still on its way. It would be nice not to greet them naked, but her powers weren't responding anymore. She had called lightning and had woken up breathing underwater. Hiro reasoned her magic was somewhere inside her still but something was blocking it. Whatever had happened during her change messed with her ability to access them. How did her powers work in the first place? It was all instinctive. Maybe the key to fixing the block lay in figuring out how they worked.

Hiro sniffed. Her face was covered in tears and her nose was dripping. First, she was going to go back to her favorite pond to wash her face. That would make her feel better and it would make sure she didn't look a mess when the rescuers came. If they didn't show up after a few hours she'd make a backup plan to escape the cavern. Until then she could sit down and figure out why she couldn't access any of her magic. Well, access any of them on purpose.

The path between the platform and the pond was second nature. Her whole body ached as she walked between the stalagmites and pedestals. No orbs called to her, and she didn't give them a second glance. She arrived at the side of the pond and squatted down. Scooping her hands in the water she began splashing her face. She scrubbed away all traces of tears and snot. The water soothed her hands where they stung with the after-effects of her change. The water seemed to also make the headache behind her eyes fade with every splash.

Hiro squatting by the side of the pond stared contemplatively at the water. Shrugging she stood up and stepped into the water. She waded in until she was hip-deep, relief from her burning and stinging skin flowed up her body as more of her made contact with the water. Once it was deep enough, Hiro dropped herself into the pond. It was an instant relief. The water soothed her whole body. Her face and head were the only part of her still buzzing with pain.

"Well, I survived the first time." She muttered before dipping her whole head underwater. She opened her mouth and let it fill with water but she couldn't bring herself to take a breath. Hiro's instincts screamed at her that breathing in water was bad. She popped her head up and spat out the water. It ran down her face, and she could feel prickles of the pain start-up as the water slid off her face.

"This is just ridiculous. I can do this. I did it before." She said out loud. The empty cavern was beginning to unnerve her. Closing her eyes she began to count her breathing again. In for four seconds, out for four seconds. After she had picked up the rhythm she slowly lowered herself into the water. At first, a trickle of water entered her mouth. She kept breathing. It didn't impede her breath at all. She kept sinking. Eventually, her whole mouth was filled with water but as she breathed in only air entered her lungs. It was as if an invisible barrier was at the back of her mouth and only the air particles were allowed past it.

Hiro opened her eyes, her forehead and eyes were the only parts of her above the water line. She was breathing with little trouble. It felt thick, but pulling air out of the water probably wasn't the easiest process. Her brow furrowed. How could she do this but not be able to feel the light or the sky around her? Her body was slowly feeling better just being in the water. An idea occurred to her. She wanted to test the healing the water could do. She ran her hands along the pebbled slope of the pond's floor. All of them were as smooth as river stones. Sighing, she stood up. As the water dripped off her the pain returned. Not as intense as before, but not pleasant.

She made her way over to where she had sheared off one of the stalactites in her target practice earlier. Hiro found what she was looking for. A jagged shard of stone. She picked it up and went back to the pond and waded back in. She looked down at her arm and hand. Where was she going to try her idea? With a flicker, she saw a flare of red at her wrist. She reached out for the feeling and it slipped out of her grasp. Concerning, but with a heavy sigh, she flipped her hand palm down. She never understood why people in movies cut their palms. So many nerves. Besides she just wanted a little scratch to test her healing powers. Nothing so dramatic.

Hiro took the shard and ran it swiftly and shallowly against the back of her forearm. A thin scratch about two inches long appeared. It beading up with a couple of drops of blood. She walked further into the water breathing with the beats as she had done earlier. She held her arm up as she did until she was chest-deep. She was at the edge of the drop-off to the deep part of the pond. She lowered herself keeping her eyes open to watch as she kept breathing in time.

The magical process was fascinating. The blood was instantly washed away as she lowered her arm into the water. Her face was inches away to see what was happening in the dim light. She saw the wound she had made covered by water. She was fully submerged now. First, the red welt around the cut was soothed away. She no longer felt the slight pain of the cut. Then it began to scab over. Finally, it became slightly itchy. When she picked at the corner of the scab experimentally it fell off revealing pink healed skin underneath. Soon even that was smoothed away and all that was left was smooth unblemished skin.

The whole process took less than five minutes. She stood back up to look at the healed wound without the water in the way. Nothing much changed as she rose. The water hadn't impeded her vision at all. But she spat out her mouthful of water and poked at the spot. Oddly enough the prickling burning sensation she felt all over was now gone in her forearm.

"I wonder if the water has a hard time getting past my skin to heal internal problems." She mused. She felt no desire to make a bunch of cuts to figure it out. There was an easier way to get water inside. She stuck her face in the water and pulled in a mouthful and drank it. Slowly, starting from her stomach and moving outward she felt the pain that had been with her since she woke up fade. It stopped before getting very far. She took another mouthful and it spread a bit further.

"Who knew water was a health potion?" She said and began to drink in earnest. Soon her whole torso felt better. Her limbs were still a bit tingly. Like they had all fallen asleep, except for her forearm. She was full up on water though. Hiro suspected it just took time for it to move down her limbs. She had time. Button said the rescue was a few hours out. She had only woken up thirty-seven minutes ago. She had some time to kill and still needed to figure out what was blocking her magic. The water was comforting, so she was reluctant to leave it. She could work through things in the water just as well as out. Skinny dipping in the dark water also made her feel less exposed than laying on the mossy platform.

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"Well, I can meditate in the water just as well as outside of it." She thought to herself. "I might as well practice and get used to breathing underwater," she said out loud. She dove into the chill water. The pond was deep in the middle. Almost perfectly circular it had to be deeper than an Olympic diving pool.

She swam down to where she had woken up from her change. The pedestal in the water was surrounded by carvings of waves and drops. The water was still. The only turbulence was caused by her movements. She reached out and pulled herself to the pedestal. It was only about a half meter in diameter. Perfect to sit on without getting rocks or sand in places she had no desire to have them. Pushing the water with her hands and feet she maneuvered herself into a cross-legged position. Once settled she was shocked that she stayed where she had placed herself. Dark red hair fanned around her, but she didn't have to hold herself down. "I used to float in water. The density must be right to hold me here," she thought absently.

Time to get on with what she needed to do. Figure out her magic. She had taken a yoga class in high school for a P.E. credit. She thought back to what her teacher talked about with mindful breathing and introspection. She and her friends had made fun of it outside of class, but now she used what her teacher had said years ago. Hiro set her breath in a pattern; closing her eyes and looking inside. She reached inward to try and feel the magic inside her like she had before her change.

It took a long time, but Hiro slowly began to feel the edges of what she had before. Everything was bogged down. No that wasn't right. Everything felt flooded. The pathways the light and electricity had followed through her felt sturdy and powerful, but wrong. The powerhouse in the center of her chest was still there. A small amount of power was within where she had cried in the sun. Not nearly as much as she pulled in before in the same amount of time before, however. She tried to call the light, but it could only move so far before refracting in the water inside the pathways. She pursed her lips. What about her other powers?

Shifting gears she switched to lightning. She had already called it once. Maybe it would be easier to move. Lightning could move through the water after all. She called to it. She could feel it respond and she tried to call a small amount to her hand. Pain exploded as it streaked upward through the water. It hurt as it moved through her. She stopped, panting through the pain, and drank a mouthful of water to help.

"Water conducts electricity. Of course," she thought. "But I thought electricity couldn't harm me anymore? Maybe I can't protect myself from myself right now?" She mused brow furrowed. "Either way I'm not doing that again right now. That hurt like the dickens."

What about her sense of the sky? Hiro reached for the sky and it felt as dead as when she tried to sense through the earth. She almost slapped herself. All she could sense was water. She shouldn't be surprised that sitting underwater she couldn't feel the sky. She would come back to that one when it didn't hurt to be in the air. Instead, she reached out for anything magnetic. She couldn't feel anything near her. Was that because there was nothing magnetic near her? Or was the water in her power channels affecting that too? Why would water mess with magnates though?

"Inconclusive on the magnets. All I know is I couldn't feel the sky earlier, but with all the pain from the change, maybe my senses weren't the best. I'll come back to both later." She thought. "Messing with Light didn't hurt. Seems like the best option for experimentation."

Concentrating on the light inside her chest she focused on it. She began to try different things. First, she tried to direct a stream to her chest to make a shirt. She could see flashes of light through her closed eyelids but could tell it wasn't working. Maybe making it brighter would evaporate the water inside her and allow the light to pass.

Hiro tried making the light brighter. When that didn't work, she narrowed the stream of light to pass through the water in a beam. It bounced around getting further but not lasting. She made it hotter, to turn the water to steam. This worked briefly and she had a shirt made of light on. She was exuberant! However, the moment she wasn't wholly focused on the power, the water flowed back into the channels. Shutting the flow of power off. She let out a bubbling scream of frustration. Her internal battery still had some charge, so she kept going.

She spent hours on the experimentation process. She would try things the same way she had before but with slight changes. Trying to force her light through the water. The only good thing about the process was whatever power she used, the water let it flow right back to her internal battery. The power only dispersed when she got some outside of her body flickering in the depths.

Three hours and four minutes later, she had her first success. She had been experimenting with the different wavelengths of light. Red and orange were pointless. Impossible to move far. But Hiro discovered she could get the blue light down her channels with the least amount of trouble. She let it form on the surface of her skin. Not forming a shirt but rather a swimsuit. When it kept in contact with her skin it was easier to maintain. She smiled. She could feel the light form a covering over her chest. Starting just between her breasts and shoulder blades. It crawled along until it met itself under her arms and over her shoulders. She kept going, letting it creep down to cover her bare bottom and the rest of her nether region.

She slowly backed off on the pushing, trying to tell how much she had to devote herself to paying attention to stay clothed. She could go for a whole body suit like a wet suit, but she could tell she didn't have enough energy to maintain that. Instead, Hiro pulled back until she could maintain the connection, but also think of other things. It was like having a song stuck in her head, while in a conversation. She could think of other things, but there was always the hum of power taking up some of her brain power. It took up way more energy and focus than before the change.

She smiled, a blue one-piece bathing suit was better than nothing. She was exhausted, and feeling drained. She looked down at herself. The blue swimsuit was sparkling in the water. It made her shine like a pool light. Shrugging she leaned back and closed her eyes. Taking a break. Still humming the song of power to keep her swimsuit up, but otherwise relaxing for a while occasionally taking a drink of water.

She was just starting to think she should surface and see if the rescuers were here when the still water of the pond was disturbed. She opened her eyes wide as a figure rushed down. A pair of determined sea foam green eyes met her confused hazel ones. The figure had on a divers body suit revealing a lean female form. She didn't so much as swim as move like a torpedo through the water. It reminded Hiro of how she could move through the air but much faster. She moved around behind her hooking her arms around Hiro's torso under her arms and moved them both up through the water in one swift movement.

Hiro didn't struggle against who she assumed was someone sent to rescue her. She just tried her hardest to maintain the concentration on her swimsuit made of light keeping the stanger from touching her chest directly. In less than a second she was at the surface spitting out water. Three other figures stood on the shore. In a wave of relief, one thought was at the forefront of her mind. She was no longer alone.