The fingers of Victor's Rescue-drone moved thickly under the water pressure. Still, he wriggled them, itching to wipe the sweat from his palms in the metallic glove.

Soccer with a rock had turned out horribly--on Victor's first and only slow-motion kick, the rock popped from the muddy sea floor, arced as high as his boot, and sunk mutedly back into the mud. The unified sighs of disappointment over their comms nearly made him laugh.

So they switched to playing tag. With the propellers in their aqua drones' boots, they could whiz through the water at high speeds, the force high enough to bind their arms to their sides. Except, no one but Hacker had mastered the art of ruddering, so mostly the game of tag turned into a plodding game of hiding in the murky water and madly darting away when discovered.

In the muddy sea floor, Victor knelt, keeping his feet--and thereby propellers--clear of the ground so he could zip away without accidentally stirring up clouds of dirt, calling attention to his location.

Over the comms, Ette screamed bloody murder, and Hacker blandly repeated, "ha. Ha. Ha."

"How did you find me?" Ette exclaimed, voice crackling within Victor's helmet. He resisted the urge to scratch an itch on his temple, since more than once already he'd bonked his metal suit fingers against the metal suit helmet.

"I employed the infrared capabilities of my suit," Hacker said. "You were easy to spot beside the rock."

"That's cheating!" Ms. Marvel shouted. "You're not allowed to use things the rest of us don't know about."

"I...thought you knew about the infrared. How else are you swimming about in the dark?"

Ivy snorted. "We're not. We're walking around on the seafloor."

"I'm hopping," Squirrel Girl said. "Super teeny propeller hops. It's much faster."

"Yeah, it also gives you away," Ivy said. "I'm following your mud clouds right now."

"You're not even it!"

"I know. But if I ever do become it, I can turn on my propellers and zoom after you."

"Anyone know how to steer?" Ette asked.

"If you can stick your arm out to the side," Dante's voice crackled, "it slows you down and you turn that way."

Victor snorted. "You want me to try and stick my arm out when I'm going so fast I can barely pry my fingers off my sides?"

"Go slower," Dante said.

"Oh my," Hacker said. "I did not realize how difficult this was for you. Should I have given you copies of the instruction manual?"

"Uh, yes," Ms. Marvel said. "Can you project them in a tiny corner of our display screens?" A pause. "Rescue suits have display screens by our eyes, don't they?"

"Yes. But it would not matter, since there is actually no instruction manual."

Ms. Marvel grumbled incoherently.

"Ette?" Ivy asked.

"Yeah?"

"Have you found anyone yet?"

"No," Ette coughed.

"Ette? Are you lying?"

"What? No!"

Victor twisted around, staring through the gloomy, dark water for any sign she might've found him. He'd settled knee-first into a random patch of mud, hoping to remain isolated and far out of sight from any memorable landmarks. But there. A faint glimmer of yellow eye slits above the mud--Ette was sneaking up on him. Victor whirled into motion, tucking his right thumb against his suit's pinky to engage the propellers in his boots. He shot forward, awkwardly, like some seahorse Ivy had described, until he extended his feet below him and rocketed up towards the surface.

"Ivy!" Ette screamed. "You gave me away!"

"What?"

"I was right behind...someone!"

"Really?" Squirrel Girl laughed. "Who's being chased right now?"

Victor mustered all the calm in his voice, "I'm hiding by a rock." He gradually angled his feet backwards, sloping away from the glittering surface of the bay. Then, he lifted his right thumb and disengaged the propellers, drifting slowly down through blue water.

"I'm hiding by a rock too," Ms. Marvel said.

"Dante!" Ette hissed.

"What? I'm not being chased. I just don't want to give my position away."

"A heat signature shot past my hiding spot," Hacker said. "One of you is lying."

"Ivy?" Ette asked suspiciously.

"Not me!"

Victor bit back a laugh, re-engaging his propellers by lightly tapping his thumb to his palm. He slowly approached the large silhouette of the wrecked spaceship. "Anyone near the spaceship?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Dante said.

"Okay, Dante," Ette said. "I was totally chasing you."

"No you weren't!"

Victor carefully approached a ragged hole in the ship's exterior. He bit his lip, trying to squint through the gloom. "Hacker?"

"Victor?"

"Do these drones have flashlights?"

"They have powerful eyebeams. Why?"

"You're going to give us a beacon to your hiding spot?" Ette snorted.

Victor ignored her question. "How do you turn them on?"

"Ivy, I can see you," Squirrel Girl cut in. "Scoot away."

"Give a spoken command to the suit, Victor," Hacker said.

"Turn on eyebeams," Victor announced, feeling halfway foolish as they had no way to turn off the comms. Pools of yellow light formed on a slab of metal within the wreckage and he squinted.

"Anybody see him?" Ette hissed.

"Nope," came overlapping replies.

"Aaah!" Ms. Marvel yelped.

"Got you--" Ette's shout cut out in piercing static and Victor winced.

"Victor, are you staring at the ground?" Dante asked. "Or is the water just that dark?"

"Nope," Victor pushed off the rim of the ragged hole, sinking into the wreckage. He twisted around, beams of light sliding over shimmery metal walls and darting fish.

"Where are you?" Dante asked.

"By the ship," Victor replied.

"Seriously? You went all the way over there?"

"Yeah," Victor ducked through a skewed doorway. "After Ette found me I swam over here."

Ette gave an offended gasp, and Ivy cackled.

"You didn't," Squirrel Girl whispered.

"You guys actually believed I was hiding by a rock?" Victor swept his gaze over the halls, hopping and scraping his hands over the ceiling, then slowly sinking back to the floor. This area near the top of the ship would be near the reptilian-soldiers' quarters, or possibly a few levels above some escape pods, except with the wreckage littering the doorways, and the sweep of his lights scissoring everything with jagged lines, nothing looked familiar.

"Why wouldn't we believe that?" Dante asked. "We can't see anything."

Victor ducked through a doorway. Shadows loomed, inking the walls in shapes that had never graced these spaceship halls before. He shivered, unable to reconcile gleaming metal corridors filled with harsh lights and soldier chatter, with this aquatic darkness.

"Victor?" Dante asked, and Victor jolted from his reverie.

"What?"

"We don't see you anywhere."

"What?"

"You're by the spaceship, aren't you? We quit playing tag to come exploring."

"Tag wasn't that fun when we could never catch Hacker," Ivy's voice crackled.

"You caught me once--"

"You let me tag you," Ms. Marvel interrupted.

"I went inside the ship," Victor swept his gaze across the ceiling and a thin, silver fish darted away from the beams into a blown out light panel.

"Where?" Dante asked.

"Near the top. There's a round hole, kind of," he turned and hopped back to the narrow doorway. "I'll come back out and shine my eyebeams around."

"Are we salvaging wreckage?" Hacker's voice sped up in a trace of excitement. "Are we going to build a secret base now? Are we finally celebrating the victory over Lightning Storm?"

"Victor can salvage stuff," Dante practically grinned through the comms. "We'll explore while Victor teleports things into the base."

Victor briefly tapped his propellers to boost himself up through the hole he'd entered. "Actually, Dante, Hacker figured out how to open the water elevator, so you can help," he slowly drifted through the dark water, landing on the ship's metallic hull in a pool of light.

"Ha ha!" Hacker buzzed.

"We'll help," Ette said. "We have to explore first anyway though, right? To find stuff to salvage."

"Yep," Squirrel Girl said. "Hey Hacker, how long does the power supply in these suits last?"

"Several days. But the oxygen tanks are a different matter. If any of you hear a low beeping sound in your helmets, return to the warehouse as quickly as reasonable. That's the five minute warning."

"Five minutes?" Ivy asked. "Shouldn't there be a half hour warning or something?"

"The Starks didn't think that was necessary."

Ivy sighed.

"Victor, we still don't see you," Ms. Marvel said. "Are you outside yet?"

"Yes," Victor swiveled his gaze about, shining the eyebeams as widely as possible. "Do you see me now?"

"I see a light above us," Ms. Marvel replied. "Is that you?"

"Probably," Victor aimed the lights toward the sea floor, catching the yawning darkness of the ragged hole in the corner of his sight.

"Alright. Let's not take off all at once--" Ms. Marvel cut off in a sharp grunt.

"Sorry!" Ivy yelped, and Squirrel Girl laughed.

"What...just happened?" Victor asked, palms trickling sweat.

"We took off all at once," Ms. Marvel muttered. "Predictably."

A single pair of yellow eyes rose in the water before Victor. "Eyebeams turn off," he said, reducing the glare from the shimmery red aqua drone floating before him.

"Hey, Victor," Ette said, sinking to land gently on the rim of the hole. She gripped the edges with her hands to keep from sinking inside. "Long time no see."

Squirrel Girl snorted. "I see what you did there, Ette. Long time no sea."

Ette's suit tilted its head. "That was a total accident."

"I do not understand," Hacker said.

Five more shimmery red suits floated into view, yellow eye slits like menacing fish. They gradually descended in a cluster, nearly bumping Ette into the hole.

"It's a pun," Squirrel Girl said. "S-e-e and s-e-a sound the same."

"How is that funny?"

"It's a...pun...never mind," Squirrel Girl sighed.

"Let's go," Ivy said, and presumably her shimmery red suit was the one that stepped into the hole. "Eyebeams on," golden beams of light poured from her eye slits and she sunk out of sight.

"Make sure and stick together," Squirrel Girl said. "Who knows how lost you could get inside here. Victor, be ready to portal us all out if something goes nutty."

"Okay," he nodded.

Ette slipped into the hole, eyebeams cutting through the murk. "What are the chances a giant bay monster has taken residence inside here?"

"Practically zero," Ivy replied.

"Dead bodies?" Ms. Marvel asked, disappearing.

"Uh...let's stay away from the command deck, maybe?" Dante suggested.

"Good idea," Squirrel Girl's suit nodded.

"Watch out for the sleeping quarters around here too," Victor added, dropping into the hole and muttering a command to flash his eyebeams back on. "Who knows if anyone was in there when the ship went down."

***

"I am so creeped out," Squirrel Girl's voice hissed in Victor's ear. "This is the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"Those statements contradict each other," Hacker said.

Victor stepped toward the corner, a heap of kree blasters haphazardly jumbled amongst disarrayed shelves and brightly reflective helmets. "This is just the armory," he whispered. "What's creepy about that?"

"It's so creepy," Squirrel Girl said. "I bumped into a full suit of armor and thought it was an actual person."

"I really hate flashlights," Ette complained. "I can never tell if there's a shark about to attack me or if all those shadows are just moving because I turned my head."

"Sharks are actually not that dangerous," Dante said. "It's incredibly unlikely for one to randomly attack you. Especially in these metal suits."

"Says the boy from the Midwest," Ms. Marvel grumbled.

"It's still true."

Victor crouched beside the kree blasters, prodding aside broken shelves. He hefted one of the ray guns, surprised by its lightness. He jiggled the settings meter, but that made the whole barrel vibrate in his hands. He dropped it, and the ray gun sunk to the ground, thudding softly. "I doubt we can salvage most of these weapons," he said softly. "I think the salt water's ruined most of them."

"We didn't want kree blasters anyway, right?" Ivy asked.

"I am going to take one," Hacker said. "To study it and replicate the weaponry systems."

"I don't think that's necessary, Hacker," Ette said. "Stark already has a lot of weapons."

"I am not taking it for Stark," Hacker said. "I can do my own experiments."

"Still being a rebellious AI?" Ms. Marvel sighed.

"Oh yes. And I'm never going back."

"Uh, alright..." Dante muttered.

They fell silent, and Victor trod away from the blasters in the corner. The last time he'd been here...he'd been carrying an unconscious Dante. He grimaced at the memory.

"I found a shut door," Squirrel Girl said. "What are the chances it's sealed all the water out?"

"Under all this water?" Ms. Marvel asked. "It probably collapsed under the pressure if it stayed airtight."

"Hmph. Well," Squirrel Girl grunted. And grunted again. "It's stuck."

Victor cast his gaze around, shadows in strange shapes lurking up the walls. "Where are you?"

Patches of golden light among the dark shelves swiveled up and down.

"I walked out into a hall," Squirrel Girl said. "Door straight across from the armory."

"I don't think I see that," Ms. Marvel said. "I'm with Ette, though. Right?"

"I think so," Ette said.

"I found a pile of black swords," Dante said.

"I have a gun to experiment with," Hacker said.

"Ivy?" Ette asked.

"I'm beside the aqua suit holding a gun," Ivy said. "Can we take some of these helmets?"

Victor briefly tapped his propellers, boosting himself to the ceiling. Tapping the propellers again, he drifted towards the doorway.

"I don't know why you'd want a kree helmet," Victor muttered. "I'm coming to you, Squirrel Girl."

A scissoring beam sliced Victor from below. "Can I take a sword too?"

"When are you ever going to use a sword, Dante?"

"I don't know. But it looks pretty fancy."

Victor sighed, drifting into the hallway and planting his hands on the other door frame to keep from bumping into it.

"I'm taking the helmet," Ivy said. "Dante and I will start a museum together."

"Squirrel Girl?" Victor sunk to the floor. Dante started whooping and claiming the bronze shelves for his display. "I don't see you."

"Eyebeams on," Squirrel Girl said, and a flash of light against the ceiling made him wince. Squirrel Girl drifted down beside Victor, sliding on the angled floor. But she gripped the doorframe, grinding to a halt. "I was just checking the ceiling for openings. Nothing around here broke apart in the crash," she pointed to the sealed door. "What's behind here?"

Victor hesitated, glancing toward the golden lights and shadows dancing in the armory. "...This is the cafeteria. I think. Unless we're facing a different direction," he rubbed his temples, only succeeding in thunking his metal fingers against the metal helmet. "It's hard to remember where everything is when it's all underwater and the floor's tilted and it's super dark."

"Cafeteria, huh?" Squirrel Girl planted her hands on her hips. "Hey Hacker, do these aqua drones have hand lasers or something?"

Between the din of Dante chattering about swords and Ms. Marvel having found a narrow crevice in the wall, Hacker didn't hear them.

"Hacker!" Squirrel Girl shouted, only creating a shriek of static in Victor's ear. "Or not," Squirrel Girl muttered.

"I have an idea," Victor formed a thin, wickedly sharp blade from the shadow Squirrel Girl's eyebeams made against his suit. His eyebrows rose in mild surprise at the strength of the blade--but with the way the murk of the ocean, sliced by sharp eyebeams, practically formed deadly weapons all on its own, he should've expected that.

"Watch out," Victor stepped toward the door and plunged the blade into the side. Grimacing, he dragged the blade toward the floor, hardly meeting any resistance.

Squirrel Girl whistled, barely heard over the chatter from the armory. "Can I get one of those?"

The blade bit into the floor. Victor stood up. "That wasn't as fancy as it looked--I didn't cut through the whole door. It seals magnetically to the wall, so I was trying to cut out the magnets in the door by shearing off a strip of it," Victor pushed sideways on the door. It didn't budge.

"Wow. That...totally seemed to work, Victor.

"Wouldn't the ship's loss of power have made those defunct? I mean, for the door to open at all, they'd have to be electromagnets with some way to activate and deactivate them, which means they need electricity to work at all."

"Right," he dispelled the black knife. "So the door's jammed. Maybe we should try a battering ram."

***

"One, two--"

"Hold up," Ette said. Victor stumbled. Two aqua drones forward, Ette adjusted her grip on the thick, black pole under her shoulder. "I can't boost my propellers and hold this with my right hand."

"Ready now?" Squirrel Girl asked.

"Yep."

"You know," Ms. Marvel said, from the suit behind Victor, "this might turn out horribly--"

"One, two, three!" Squirrel Girl exclaimed.

In the narrow hallway, halfway backed through the doorway of the armory, the four of them powered on their propellers and hammered the shadow pole into the cafeteria door. Thud. Water pulsed outward.

"It's working," Hacker said, floating clear of the battering ram but shining his eyebeams steadily on the door.

"Again!" Squirrel Girl said, and Victor and the others slowly backed up through the armory doorway. "One, two, three!"

Victor slid his right thumb towards his pinky, boots locked below Ms. Marvel's bent knees. His left arm curled under the battering ram, gripping tightly to one of the handholds he'd been able to form precisely with the aid of the ocean's dark. Thud. The battering ram hit the door, and vibrations buzzed through Victor's arm, rattling his teeth. He dropped his right thumb.

"The door moved!" Ivy and Dante both exclaimed, watching from somewhere down the hall.

"You've made a sizeable dent," Hacker added. "This process is not taking so long as I thought."

"Back up, back up," Squirrel Girl said, glancing over her shoulder at Victor. The four of them retreated into the armory doorway again. "Ready?" Squirrel Girl turned forward. "One, two, three!"

Victor powered his propellers on, and the battering ram thudded into the cafeteria door, knocking it inward. Braced for the impact that only partially came, Victor's grip slipped forward on the battering ram. He cut the propellers, but their combined momentum carried them speeding into the cafeteria.

"Eyebeams on!" Ette yelped, flooding the gloom with a shaky golden light. Body lengths past the collapsed door, their combined momentum ran out. Victor dispelled the battering ram into the darkness, and they drifted apart, muttering commands for their eyebeams to flick on.

"It worked!" Dante exclaimed, propelling through the doorway.

"Oh...my goodness," Ette whispered, pair of eyebeams on the ceiling. Victor glanced up and his eyes widened, nearly oblivious to his boots settling onto the floor.

"Oh..." Dante trailed off, Ivy and Hacker floating in behind him.

"Well, it's...certainly a cafeteria," Squirrel Girl whispered.

"We shouldn't be here," Victor breathed, sweeping his gaze down, over fat orange starfish climbing table legs and food trays littered on the floor. "We shouldn't..."

"I'm gonna throw up," Ms. Marvel ran back toward the door, moving in slow-motion through the thick water.

"I'd advise against that until you get out of your suit!" Hacker said.

Bloated blue bodies bobbed, crammed against the cafeteria's ceiling, stiff with death.

"I...I didn't think," Victor blinked. "I was worried about the sleeping quarters, not..." his boots seemed magnetized to the floor, muscles jelly.

"I'm after Ms. Marvel," Ette stepped carefully, head ducked like she might accidentally brush the ceiling despite it being more than twice the suit's height.

"Victor, portal?" Squirrel Girl asked. "I agree, we should get out of here. This outdoes the creepy meter. This obliterates the creepy meter," her boots kicked away metal lunch trays and silver plates, clearing a space for Victor's portal. Any food once here had been devoured by the salt water or the starfish or the prickly sea urchins cowering beneath the table benches.

"Victor?" Squirrel Girl repeated.

Victor stared at the doorway, the gloom pressing in like the weight of the whole ocean above them. His chest constricted, his vision narrowed.

An aqua drone yanked Victor's arm and he stumbled, kicking a pair of pale bowls. They rolled down the tilted floor.

"You froze up, Victor," Dante whispered. "Is your suit okay?"

Victor shook his head. "I...I don't...what?"

Victor pressed his back against the hallway side, near the armory, his head a blank fuzz of how he arrived there. The last aqua drone floated out the cafeteria door. "We're all clear," Squirrel Girl said. "Nothing left but the demolished door."

"Victor, are you alright?" Ms. Marvel asked.

Victor opened his mouth, but no words came.

"...Maybe we'd better swim back out?" she said.

"My suit just beeped at me," Ivy said. "I've got five minutes of oxygen left."

"Follow me," Hacker said, and a red suit propelled itself into the armory. "I memorized the path back out. Out the armory, turn left, another left--"

"Good cuz I didn't," Squirrel Girl plodded after the AI.

"Come on, Victor," Dante said. A shimmery red suit tugged Victor's into motion. He stumbled.

Kree bodies frozen in death, clustered against the ceiling in a mad attempt to flock to the glittering surface--

***

Author note: uh oh...maybe some votes can help this situation get better...