Maria:
"Ahhhh...," I moan, opening my eyes after seeing a weird white light. "Wha—what happened? Wait! Where am I? This...This isn't my ocean."
I can't explain it. Maybe it's a sort of feeling. Maybe it's how the seawater feels against my scales. Maybe it's all in my head, but I know this isn't my ocean. It's not the ocean I was born in, grew up in, or trained in.
"What happened?"
Placing my hand on my head, I try to remember.
"Come on, Maria. Come on. Think. Think! What is the last thing you remember?"
The last thing I remember, before finding myself here, wherever here is, is seeing a bright blue light.
I screamed and raised my hands to shield myself from the stream.
"Wait! The steam! The volcano field!"
Retracing my steps, I remember more.
"Stop him," the guard captain yelled, he and the other guards swimming as fast as they can. "We cannot let him escape!"
"Captain," I screamed, kicking my feet. "I'm close!"
"Maria! Hold. Hold! That's the volcano field!"
"No! I can make it! I won't let him get away!"
"Maria!"
About to grab the escaping fugitive, a burst of steam blinds me.
Was I hit? Am I dead?"
I look at my hands, arms, and body before pinching myself.
"Ouch. Okay? Either I'm a spirit that can still feel pain, or I'm not dead. Then, what happened to me?"
Scratching my head, I look around again. I don't see any underwater volcanoes or burning hot streams of lava. The only things around me are this new ocean and schools of fish. As I keep looking around, I see something not too far in the distance.
"Light! That could be Aqualatics. Home!"
Rocking through the ocean, kicking my feet, I head for the lights. Reaching them in only a few minutes, I slow down when I see people. A lot of people walking, not swimming, above the ocean, not in it. They're surface people, not aqualteans.
"Shoot," I whisper, hiding in the water and drifting away from the surface people. According to aqualteans' rules, we aqualteans are forbidden from interacting with surface people.
I carefully and quietly watch them from below the wooden pier. As it turns out, the lights I saw are thousands and thousands of colorful lights strung up on wooden posts. There are more surface people than there are lights. All of them are walking, talking, laughing. They're playing fancy electronic games or eating weird-looking yet deliciously smelling food. Even from under the dock and partly underwater, I can still smell it. I lower my orange bandana and lick my lips.
As I try to remember how long ago I ate, I hear a strange sound and turn.
"What the flying fish?"
I see something moving. Whatever it is, it's small, black, fast-moving, and not alone. Looking something like black sand, it moves up and down the wooden beam. As they cover the beams, the beams begin to crack.
Swimming back, I watch as more and more beams crack, and the whole dock begins to collapse. The surface people begin screaming. They stop talking or laughing and begin running and crying for help.
I remember the aqualteans' rule that we aqualteans are forbidden from interacting with surface people, but I also remember the oath I took as a guardsman.
"We are given the power to change the world, and we will use it wisely."
Diving into the water, I make a sharp turn, flipping and swimming back up. As I swim back up, a massive wave appears. It carries me higher into the air, allowing me to jump right out of the water, over the wooden railing, and right onto the collapsing dock.
QuickShot:
"What is that?" I ask this before grabbing Ms. Justice and pulling her back.
"I don't know," Ms. Justice answers. "It looks like a sea monster."
"Everyone," the man, or teenage boy, in the business suit yells. He starts grabbing and pushing people away from the sea monster and the collapsing dock. Running with the people, the man grabs Ms. Justice's hand.
"Come on," he yells, "Let's go!"
Seeing this, I slap his hand away.
"Ouch," he cries.
"Let her go," I shout, grabbing Ms. Justice's soft hand. "Come on. Let's go!"
Not wasting a second, I pull Ms. Justice away from the man. Joining JumpStart and SpeedBlade, we run to the end of the dock and down the street. Turning a corner and hiding between two buildings, I look at Ms. Justice.
"Who was that?" I ask.
"Uhhh," Ms. Justice starts. "Can we talk about him later? Right now, we have bigger things to focus on. Did any of you see that? What was that thing that jumped out of the ocean?"
"And the air," JumpStart adds. "Don't forget about the air. What was that thing? It looks like a giant bat. There are giant bats here?"
"No," Ms. Justice yells. "Of course not. The only giant bats here are during Halloween, and that's months away."
"Hall-o-ween," JumpStart slowly repeats. He turns to SpeedBlade before turning to QuickShot.
"Kids dressed in dumb costumes and go door-to-door asking for candy," I answer. "It's a holiday."
"Asking for candy," SpeedBlade repeats. "That is odd."
"Guys," Ms. Justice yells. "Not the time! We have to help those people! Those--monsters are still attacking the dock, and the dock is still collapsing."
"Aye," SpeedBlade says. He grabs his hoodie, pulls it off, and throws it to the ground. "Ahhh. Wearing that attire was very hot."
"Justice told you to take off your armor," JumpStart says, taking off his earmuff. Taking off our disguises, SpeedBlade, JumpStart, and I bring out our weapons.
"You all brought your weapons," Ms. Justice asks.
"Yeah. You didn't?"
"I left my shield back at the OutPost.
"Then stay back. Leave those monsters to us."
"I'm not just going to sit back and do nothing while my friends fight and people are in danger."
"Well, what are you going to do? You can't fight without your shield."
Ms. Justice turns to SpeedBlade.
"SpeedBlade. Can you please go back to the OutPost and get my shield? It should be in my room."
"Aye," SpeedBlade says with a nod. He pulls back one of his legs. About to run off, Ms. Justice stops him.
"Wait," she says, bending down to pick up our disguises. Grabbing them, she hands them to SpeedBlade.
"Also, take these. It took us all morning to find these. We might need them later."
SpeedBlade nods and takes the clothes.
"Stay safe, friends," he says before running and disappearing.
"Let's go," Ms. Justice says, running back toward the dock.
"Wait," I yell, shooting out my hand. "Justice. You don't have your shield. You cannot fight."
"Then I won't fight," Ms. Justice yells back. "You and JumpStart will fight. Hold them off while I help the people."
I open my mouth to object, but freeze when I look into Ms. Justice's serious blue eyes. In the moment, Ms. Justice runs past me.
"Come on," JumpStart says, nudging his head as he follows Ms. Justice. Shaking my head, I grind my teeth.
"Fine," I say, following Ms. Justice and JumpStart.
SharpShot:
"So glad I made an extra suit," I think, smiling as I lower my goggles and raise the mask over my mouth. Now fully dressed, I slam my truck closed and run back to the dock.
Running back onto the shaking dock, the first thing I do is drop to one of my knees when a sudden jerk almost throws me into the water.
Thankfully, most of the people are already gone. However, there are still some trapped beneath fallen displays, stuck in rides, or clinging onto broken wooden planks.
Running as fast as I can, about to reach a woman as she tries to climb up, I stop when I see the giant half-bat, half-human thing rocketing toward me. Appearing in front of me, almost like out of thin air, I fall back.
As the giant "bat-man" grabs the woman trying to climb up, I pull a blaster out. About to shoot the monster, it flies away before I can, carrying the woman away.
"Help," the woman yells, "Help me!"
"Hold on!"
I push myself up and back onto my feet. Closing one eye, I aim at the giant bat. About the fire, the monster in my sight, I stop when I see what it does.
The giant bat monster, or giant bat-man, carries the woman off the dock. It carries the woman into the air before dropping her off at the beach. The woman rolls around for a bit before pushing herself up and running. She screams while running up the wooden stairs and into the nearby parking lot.
"What in the world?"
I open both eyes and lower my blaster. "It didn't hurt her. The giant bat thingie didn't hurt that woman. It saved her."
Hearing screaming, I turn around and see the second monster, the half-fish charging toward a man. Before the man can do anything, the fish monster tackles him through a hole in the dock and into the water. Running to the ledge of it, I raise my blaster again but stop.
The sea monster, after tackling the man, carries him toward the beach, just like the bat monster. Swimming fast, faster than I can track it, it reaches the beach and throws the man onto the sand.
Coughing after stumbling onto the beach, the man, just like the woman, screams and runs toward the parking lot.
"Okay," I say, nodding and lowering my blaster. "This is all very confusing."
Hearing more people screaming and running, I turn around.
"Now what? Oh, yes. Finally, something not confusing."
Relief to see Ms. Justice, JumpStart, and QuickShot running onto the pier. I quickly approach them.
"SharpShot," Ms. Justice says. "What are you doing here?"
"The same thing you three are here to do," I answer, raising my blaster. "Wait, why are there only three of you? Where's SpeedBlade? And Ms. Justice, where's your shield?"
"Back at our base," QuickShot answers. As she does, QuickShot also holds out her bow and looks around.
"Did you see them? Those monsters. Where are they?"
"Hold on a second," I say, putting up a hand. "Yes, I did see them, and you three are not going to believe what I just saw. Those 'monsters' just saved a bunch of people. Look. The people they saved? They're right there on the beach."
Pointing at the beach, Ms. Justice, JumpStart, and QuickShot watch as dozens of people run off the beach and toward the parking lot.
"Yes. They're probably scared out of their minds right now and are more than a little confused, but they're also okay," I say. "And it's solely because of that 'bat-man' and 'fish-person'."
Looking again between the people and me, Ms. Justice turns to me.
"Wait, wait, wait," Ms. Justice says. "If what you saw is real, that the 'bat-man' and the 'fish-person' really did save those people, then they wouldn't have destroyed the dock, right?"
"Yeah, I answer, nodding. "That would make sense. Why destroy a dock full of people only to save them minutes later?"
"Well, if they weren't the ones who destroyed the dock," Ms. Justice starts, "Then what did?"
Before anyone can say anything, the whole dock erupts, knocking us back.