[spoiler]wrote this instead of doing schoolwork. Sue me.[/spoiler] [b]2: The Depths of Ambition[/b] The rush of bubbles and smooth, aquatic silence was sweet relief from the stinging winds above the water. The slight acid tinge of the sulfurous abyss was pleasant against well-adapted skin and gills. Amidius floated for a time in the refreshing, mint-green water, stretching his arms and legs to make sure his dark, lightweight stillsuit was well-fitted. He ran his slightly webbed hands over his head-mounted pressure regulator, then lifted his left arm to check his vitals. Briefly before turning on the vital monitor, Amidius glanced his reflection on the proto-glass. His handsome dolphin-like visage was marred by the green tinge of sulfur adaptation. His dark blue eyes were narrowly missed by the scars left behind by his frequent engagements with sulfur-eels. The vital monitor lit up with an anatomical outline of his humanoid body. It showed the exchange of water through his filters and into his gills. It showed the various nicks and cuts across his rubbery skin. Amidius felt at his back for his S-AD, or Sulfuric Aquatic Distortion, trident, which could swing through water as easily as air. He checked the heat regulators and synthfuel propellents attached to his suit. All set. Amidius reflected as he began descending into the void. He usually wasn’t nearly this cautious, but he had pin-pointed the site of a huge energy source three days ago, and wasn’t about to miss his shot to be the greatest abyss diver who had ever lived, or at least get his recognition for such. Here on Eidolon-6, it was survival of the fittest. Amidius was, by his own estimate, the best of the abyss divers, which was about the only significant occupation on the godless planet. He’d descend into the twisted depths, searching for remnants of the nameless and advanced civilization who had once lived here, and salvage their tech for profit. It paid well, but wasn’t without its dangers. Far worse creatures than sulfur-eels lurked in the deep. Creatures a kilometer long and massive beyond scale. It wasn’t certain what had happened to the ancient civilization, but those creatures were a pretty safe bet. Amidius turned off the noise of his radar as he approached the site; here in the absolute silence of the depths, he didn’t want any distracting sounds. He needed his ears to listen for any warnings of danger. He could currently hear a dull hum about a half-kilometer away. He knew from experience that this meant the facility was still online, performing its self-maintenance functions as it patiently waited for its long-dead owners. Entering a living facility was taboo; no one would risk activating the defense systems and being shot or, more horribly, attracting [i]something[/i]. It was far safer to pinpoint the room of a facility you needed to access and cut directly into it, grab your tech, and get out. The water was now tinged red from the distant emergency lights of the facility. As Amidius grew closer, those lights appeared as tiny red pin pricks in the abyss, steadily growing larger. Amidius took a moment to orient himself as the large facility came into view. It was impressive—built out of white metal and into the side of an underwater mountain. The hum of the lone citadel was now close enough to feel in his chest. He almost got the feeling the hum was not alone in its pursuit of sound. Amidius approached the huge vacuum-doors at the front of the facility, long ago disabled and left to flood. Instead of entering, he propelled himself to the top of the opening hangar and activated his scanner, sweeping along the roof until he located a strong and advanced power conduit. He began following this conduit, pausing to determine the source direction at each intersection, until he paused at a break in the facility’s ceiling, where the conduit had been knocked away. If Amidius wasn’t so distracted by his work, he may have noticed a stirring in the deep. He did notice, however, the gray outline of an impossibly long wyrm snaking through the water only a half-kilometer from the facility. Amidius froze. He normally wouldn’t be alarmed by such a creature so long as he had done nothing to alert it, but it was frighteningly close. He gazed upon its pock-marked body as it dragged endlessly across his vision. It seemed to crawl slowly, but he knew it hurtled through the water at a rapid pace. At long last, the end of the wyrm disappeared. Only for a similar wyrm to appear on his other side. Now this was bad. Really bad. Two wyrms couldn’t mean anything good. They could be fighting. Or mating. Amidius was certain that no one had ever even heard of wyrms mating before. Perhaps they were drawn by some signal in the facility. A third wyrm began snaking its way only a quarter-kilometer above him. Amidius stopped thinking and started panicking. What the hell was going on? Had they somehow seen him? Had he let out some kind of signal? Just then, the previously stable emergency lights began flashing, followed by a horrible, horrible noise. [i]OOH-UAH. OOH-UAH[/i]. It was the alarm siren of the facility. The massive movements had retriggered the emergency protocols. One by one, the facility functions attempted to restore themselves. The external floodlights to the facility finally switched on, and Amidius was greeted with something no man should have to imagine. In place of what had read as the top of a stone mountain was an eldritch monstrosity of incomprehensible proportions. The three wyrms were only a few of its many, many arms, rivaled only by the countless eyes scattered across its cyst-ridden mass. This pillar of flesh moved for what had likely been the first time in millenia, and [i]looked at him[/i]. And it screeched. A sound like no other permeated every bone in Amidius’s fragile body. It cracked the proto-glass of his monitor and left his head spinning as if concussed. He was filled with such primal terror that he plunged himself through the gap in the facility roof without hesitation. Another screech. Another pounding headache. Something happened, and the facility space behind Amidius crashed inward with a shower of shrapnel from the brittle insulating materials. He felt a sharp pain in his side, and Amidius felt another wave of nausea, not from the sound this time. Every terror-filled kick brought new pain to his side. Another screech. A heart-breaking burst of fear. Another, followed by nausea and the taste of blood. There were crashing, ripping sounds throughout the facility now, like [i]it[/i] was trying to find him. Amidius devotedly followed the central pathway until he finally reached the room deepest in the facility, where everything seemed to lead. The room held nothing but the entrance to a cave. A god damned cave. A flash of rationality ran through his brain, as warm as a surge of dopamine. Whatever had caused the energy signal could well be in that cave. Amidius just hoped the signal was coming from below, rather than above. He noticed the cloud of blood that had begun to fill the water as he hovered in place. He pushed forward, hoping he could leave the bad things behind. As he descended into the pure blackness of the cave, the bad things tried to follow. Another screech, followed by bad memories. Memories of his parents deaths, of coerced labor and brutish leaders. Another screech. Amidius felt numbness crawling up from his extremities. Another screech. The expense of the cave became endless. Another screech. The aquatic man lost all sense of the things around him. Another screech. He looked back upon his past, at the constant feeling of inferiority and the constant drive to be good enough. Well, he had done it. Here he was. He had found a hell of a something. For all his ambition, the small entity floating in nothing had done what no other could. A painful, raging roar. A mind collapsed in on itself, and a body died, left drifting down an abyssal, forgotten cave. … … ... Ambition awoke upon a strange and distant shore. [spoiler]hope you liked it. This is probably possibly maybe the last character I’m making.[/spoiler]