Second battle squad: Team Corry and Pool.

  Once Corry and Pool left the main ship, Corry is seen setting the coordinates into the piloting computer. Pool was standing at his side, observing what he did.

  "There, these should be the coordinates that Nond got... We're going to the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, so let's get ready for some cold weather." Corry says with a cheeky grin on his face.

  "Are the Rocky Mountains cold?" Pool asks curiously.

  "Well, they go pretty high into the air, the Rockies are the rgest mountain range in the United States, they span through several of our states!" Corry replies happily.

  Pool just stares at him, her head slowly tilting to the side.

  "...You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?" Corry asks shortly.

  Pool shakes her head no in response.

  "Ehe... I probably should have expected that, you don't really know much about the world outside of the ocean." Corry says thoughtfully.

  "Either way... You said it was going to be cold, but don't worry, merpeople are used to low temperatures, we live pretty deep underwater if you'll remember." Pool expins.

  "That makes sense! Alright, now we just wait for this little transport ship to arrive at our location, then we can take down this Grandmaster person!" Corry excims loudly.

  "Yes!" Pool replies, trying to copy his enthusiasm.

  The waiting begins. Corry sits on the chair at the front of the transport and unsheathes his bde. He digs his hand into his pocket and pulls out a ft sharpening stone, setting it on a counter before grinding his sword against it, small sparks flying off every so often. Pool sits by a window and peers out of it, watching the ndscape below fly by as usual. She was still so intrigued by the world above the ocean, but with the beauties of it all, she also noticed the dangers that were presented with it. This was, however, a risk she was willing to take, because she found friends that would help her and protect her. She felt happy, so even if the upper world was more dangerous, she was happy to be there. After only about 30 minutes, the computer already speaks up with news.

  "Now approaching your destination, prepare to unload." The computer says in a monotonous voice.

  Captain Corry, who had been spinning in his chair, falls onto the floor as soon as he hears the message, quickly hopping to his feet.

  "We're here! Are you ready, Pool?" Corry asks, shaking like an excited chihuahua.

  "Ah- Yes, I think I'm properly prepared." Pool says with slight confidence, rising from her seat.

  Through the many windows on the transport vessel, it can be seen that they were descending through a field of white clouds. A few seconds pass before they emerge from out of the clouds, below them were tall, snowy mountaintops. The nding AI on the computer eventually finds a ft spot to nd on, the legs of the vessel slowly sliding out from under it and sinking into the snow. the door opens, a bst of freezing air quickly entering the vessel. Pool stumbles from the wind, and Corry shivers from how immensely cold it was, putting his hood on.

  "Y-Yep... Definitely pretty cold!" Corry stutters.

  "This certainly isn't as bad as I thought it would be... Shall we be off?" Pool says casually.

  "You're so lucky you were born a mermaid, hehe..." Corry chuckles, walking outside of the transport.

  Corry and Pool walk out of their transport vessel, inspecting the area. The snow was heavily caked onto the rocky ndscape, Corry and Pool were about knee length in.

  "So... This vessel should have nded us as close as it could to this signal, correct?" Pool asks.

  Corry continues looking at where they nded... It was certainly unusually ft. He looks at the ridge that the outcrop was connected to, piecing things together.

  "...Hey Pool! I think this ptform is exactly what we used it for, a nding ptform!" Corry excims.

  "A nding ptform?" Pool asks quizzically.

  "Yeah, and I bet that this Grandmaster used all of this snow... To cover up an entrance!" Corry says, walking up to the spot that the supposed nding ptform was connected to.

  He starts digging through the knee-deep snow before coming across something hard and smooth, a wide grin forming across his face.

  "Yo Pool, snow is water! Can you manipute that too!?" Corry asks loudly.

  "T-This is water? Umm... I don't see why it wouldn't work..." Pool says softly.

  Pool raises her hands, her palms beginning to glow a light blue. She pulls her hands apart and sure enough, the snow slides away from the spot she was aiming at. The hard thing that Corry had touched was a metal hatch in the floor of the mountain.

  "There we are! A secret hatch!" Corry calls out.

  He grabs the cold metal hatch and tries turning it, having to put in a lot of elbow grease before it finally manages to turn clockwise. Once the hatch was opened, it revealed a hole leading down into darkness, a bottom hardly in sight. There were metal bars on the side of the hole, most likely supposed to be the way in and out of the hole.

  "Wow... That was easy for you to find?" Pool asks, amazed.

  "Heh, I guess I just have good intuition... Anyways, as your captain, I'll do the honors of heading down first to scout for danger! See you there!" Corry shouts, jumping down the hole without even considering using the dder.

  "C-Corry!! The dder!!" Pool squeals.

  Corry was already too far down to hear her voice, falling into the darkness of the hole, showing no signs of stopping.

  "...This is... Uhh... A pretty deep hole... I'm still falling-" Corry says, chuckling to himself nervously.

  After finally seeing a light at the bottom, he gulps loudly, quickly whipping out his sword.

  "I'M GONNA CRASH-!!" Corry screams.

  He jabs his sword into the side of the hole, using it to slow his descent. It works in slowing him down, however he was still in for a painful nding, his bde disconnects from the hole as Corry leaves his own hole at the bottom. with a crash. Mere moments ter, Pool comes down the dder calmly. When she gets back on her feet, she looks down the Corry-shaped hole, crossing her arms.

  "There is a dder for a reason, Corry..." Pool says quietly.

  Corry emerges from the floor, seeing stars flying around his own head.

  "Y-Yeah... Uh huh... I'll remember that next time..." Corry groans.

  Corry shakes his head and hops back to his feet, getting back into his excited attitude.

  "Alright! Off to face the Grandmaster!" Corry states.

  "You're definitely something, Corry..." Pool sighs, shaking her head with a light smile.

  The two of them look ahead through the tunnel before them. There were tons of nterns that were strung together, making the halls very bright. The walls were rocky and had wooden supports, like that of a mineshaft. On the walls was colorful abstract graffiti, there were lines and shapes of all different colors. Corry and Pool begin walking through the tunnel, inspecting the area.

  "Very... colorful." Pool mumbles.

  "You know, I was expecting there to be, like, guards or something. It just seems really quiet and empty, kinda creepy-" Corry says.

  "That's a fair point... If there is a Techway Grandmaster here, where are the other members of Techway?" Pool asks curiously.

  Out of the blue, a rge fireball comes shooting out from one of the branching tunnels. Corry quickly notices and grabs Pool, jumping to the side. The fireball bursts when it hits the wall, burning the seat of Corry's pants as Pool and him hit the floor.

  "Corry!" Pool shrieks.

  "YEOUCH-!!! F-FIRE!!" Corry yelps, dragging his butt against the rocky floor to extinguish the fire.

  By the time the fire was out, his boxers were visible from the seat of his pants. Corry looks down the hallway with an annoyed expression, noticing a hooded figure at the end.

  "Why you little... I'll get you for that!" Corry shouts, getting up and bolting down the hallway.

  The robed figure runs down another tunnel and out of sight from Pool, Corry following after them.

  "H-Hey, Corry!! I can't catch up to you, don't leave me here-!!" Pool calls out.

  Pool's cries were to no avail, Corry was already gone.

  "Oh, that boy... He needs to learn to listen..." Pool mutters exasperatingly.

  She gets up and starts walking around the tunnels on her own, the paranoia finally beginning to catch up to her. She had to find Corry, she was scared, who knew what this Grandmaster was capable of? Pool quivers lightly as she treads down the rocky tunnels. When she felt like she was finally reaching her limit, tears forming in her eyes, she hears a familiar voice.

  "H-Hey, over here-!" Corry calls out.

  Hearing Corry's voice, Pool quickly looks down a neighboring tunnel and nearly faints from the sight: Corry had been beaten and bruised, there was blood running down his face and one of his arms seemed to be completely dysfunctional.

  "CORRY-!!!" Pool shrieks, running up to him.

  "We... We need to... get out of here-! The Grandmaster is too dangerous...!!" Corry wheezes.

  "W-What did he do to you!?" Pool yells.

  "Not "he"... It was a "she"... She got away after mutiting me..." Corry groans.

  "Ah... Yes, we need to regroup with the others, it'd be best to do this as a rger team... I wonder how Chris and Nond are doing against the other Grandmaster... No matter, let's get you patched up!" Pool excims.

  "A-Ah... Right..." Corry sighs.

  As Pool turns to walk back where she came from, a devious grin forms on Corry's face. He lifts his sword up in the air, over Pool's head... Pool turns to look at Corry, only to see him preparing to attack her. With a gasp, she tries jumping backwards, but is barely unable to avoid the attack, receiving a cut on her midriff. The cut wasn't deep, but it was enough to draw blood. Pool squeals in pain, tears flying from her eyes as she tumbles to the floor, holding her belly.

  "C-Corry... Why?" Corry whimpers through pained tears.

  "Just ending what you started." Corry says suddenly...

  When Corry was about to deal the finishing blow... Another Corry darts in and cshes bdes with the first one! It was as if Pool was seeing double, but this Corry wasn't hurt whatsoever!

  "W-Wha..?" Pool stammers.

  "I found you... You coward!! You run away and then you turn into me!?" The new Corry shouts before noticing Pool on the floor with the cut on her belly.

  "You monster... You don't hurt my friends!! Just who do you think you are!?" The new Corry excims angrily.

  The first Corry seems to chuckle, his brown hair slowly changing to a cyan color...

  "I'm... a Grandmaster of Techway!!" He decres...

  TO BE CONTINUED