Under the sky of gentle waves, the sun was but a sparkling desk-lamp bulb, its fingers of warmth barely brushing a hair on the dark-depth’s head. The easy lull of the marine heavens were momentarily disrupted by the splash of one, two, three, four seal-like creators. Dressed from head to toe in foamed neoprene suits, black flippers, and glass masks, burdened by the cylinder tanks containing their source of air, the quartet descended from their surface world to the mysterious depths below.
As the sandy bottom neared and the sun’s alluring influence fell behind, they engaged their helmet-lamps. The thin fluorescent beams cut through the dim and guided the squad to their destination: the ship, lopsided and bisected in two equal halves.
The eldest motioned for the youngest to stay by his side while the second pair aimed for the aft of the boat.
Ivara kept an even distance behind the fire-caster, trying to take in the destruction of the massive ship. Though the ship had only been submerged for five days, four nights, a sheen of algae had already begun its colonization of the exterior. As the girl ran her light over the hull, large golden calligraphy caught her eye. Queen Emma. Ivara wondered if Nic, a mechanic who appreciated the beauty of modern engineering, felt the same pang of sadness she did for the broken ship, forever lost to this watery grave.
“Keep your eyes peeled for anything out of place,” Seeker had instructed when they had been on the boat above, dressing in their gear.
“How are we s’pose to know what’s out of place and what was just damaged in the sinking?” Ivara had inquired.
“I’ll show ya,” Blaze had promised to the youngsters. “We’ll make proper investigators out of you two yet.” And now, as they swam through the narrow corridor that had once served as a staircase, the girl tried to run her meager source of light over every detail, desperate to make her Superior proud. They duo paused at the opened door at the base of the stairs.
No, not opened. Demolished. A perfect circle had been seared into it by some source of heat. Or Energy. Ivara recognized it as Superior Titanium’s handy-work. This was how he had gotten into the room to get his trapped partner, she thought to herself.
She glanced up to meet Blaze’s eyes, who’s raised brow and cocked chin seemed to be asking See? This is what I meant by details. The brunette nodded to tell him she understood, then followed the fire-boy through the hole to the room.
With the narrow beams their only guidance, the duo were careful in their movements so as not to puncture tubes of their oxygen tanks on the splintered pipes. The far wall was completely missing, replaced by a floor of sand. The rattling realization occurred to her.This is where it went off. The explosion that had sent this yacht to the bottom of the sea.
Wary of what she would find, though excited to prove her worth to the Superiors, Ivara took a deep breath and activated her ability.

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Jace trailed behind Seeker as they swam around the exterior in the opposite direction Blaze and Ivara had gone. As they neared, a swarm if fish zipped past, their silver scales glinting in the fluorescent beams. A much larger fish with many more teeth careened past. A rushed stream of bubbles escaped the boy’s mask as he pointed his harpoon gun at the beast, but the elder blonde laid his gloved hand on the barrel and forced Jace to lower the weapon. The tiger shark continued its lurking, taking no notice of the humans.
Seeker cast a disapproving look to his trainee, then circled around and swam into the ballroom. Forever condemned to this murky grave, the crystal chandeliers, velvet rugs, and rose wallpaper had given up on putting on a vision of fairytale dreams and resorted to the dreary appearance of a decaying ghost.
Most depressing of all were the empty glass cases. Even in the wave of panic, the billionaires had thought to snatch their jewels. LIke a green layer of a dust, algae covered it all.
The one case they had come to examine was on the far end of the left wall. To Jace’s eyes its appearance matched its companions: empty. But when he looked to his Superior for confirmation that the mission was over, that the search for the one treasure of the manifest that had not been rescued had been in vain, he saw that the assassin was staring intently at the pedestal.
Following his line of vision, Jace spotted a dark square. The lock, he assumed, fingerprint activated. Each case could only be opened by the jewel’s original owner or the auctioneer. The pad seemed fine in the dim light, but Seeker was intensely observing it. He ran a gloved hand over it, paused, then wedged a finger where the metal met the cracked ceramic of the podium. It came loose and slid out.
Teacher and student exchanged glances. Seeker motioned for the boy to swim back out and notify their companions, and the mechanic of the crusaders, of the discovery. Jace nodded and complied, clutching the harpoon, ready to fire at any monster who took advantage of the small, lone human in this underwater wreck-becoming-jungle. Turning his head on a swivel as he made his way toward the aft of the yacht, Jace spotted the dark shape overhead.
The oblong shape was far above near the surface, cutting through the water at an unnatural speed. As it came slowly to a halt near the base of what Jace knew to by Common Sense, Blaze’s speedboat in which the four had driven out to the site on, he realized it was another vessel. No one was supposed they were here; no innocent fisherman would have been in such a fast ship. Even is it were a random passerby, why were they so quick in their actions; not at all hesitant toward the abandoned boat?
Pulse pounding in his ears, Jace whirled around and kicked furiously back toward the ballroom, all worries of hungry carnivores forgotten.