Chapter 1

Bubbles woke up on a bed of roses.

Except she found herself resting on golden flowers that most certainly were not roses.

She sat up slowly, aching for reasons currently unknown, and looked around at the garden she was sitting in, confusion clouding her mind and slowing her processing. She took in the way the flowers were getting crushed beneath her and felt a pang of guilt that had her quickly crawling out of the garden she may have inadvertently ruined.

"Sorry," Bubbles squeaked to no one, the word hanging loosely in the empty room. She reached for the flowers, attempting to sit them upright, admiring how pretty they were.

With very little effort on her part, the flowers straightened once more, stems stiffening and petals popping back up like they hadn't been suffering beneath her weight. Bubbles sighed in relief. She patted the soil that held the flowers gently, congratulating the flowers on their job well done while simultaneously expressing her gratitude.

Her attention was diverted into examining the rest of the room, bare and dark save for the spot that illuminated flowers. Searching for a light source, Bubbles looked up... and up... and up...

The walls went up forever, reaching into the sky that was so far away from her place on the ground, quickly turning a dark shade of blue as sunlight began to fade, and memory of what happened came back to her abruptly.

Bubbles jumped to her feet with new awareness, fingers brushing along the cuts on her arms, her cheeks, the one down her lip. Her gaze continued down her scruffy lime green t-shirt, now a few crudely placed letters short of spelling Camp Echo Crest across the front. Passed her jean skirt, she saw her scraped knees, and noticed, much to her dismay, that she was missing a sneaker.

She'd fallen.

She'd fallen down a mountain.

She'd fallen into a mountain.

Which was quite the feat considering how she could fly.

Bubbles ran her tongue across her split bottom lip, feeling her eyes begin to prick with tears as she tried to recall. When? How?

There were blanks that popped up in her memory between the time she was spending with her sisters at Camp Echo Crest, exploring the surrounding woods, touring the nearby town to the moment where she stood now.

Bubbles crouched down, getting ready to dart herself out of the mountain, deciding to deal with the problem once she was out of thick of it.

She leaped, feeling her feet leave the ground... and immediately reconnect. She stumbled forward on wobbly legs and windmilled her arms to balance it. She fell regardless.

Looking up, Bubbles felt dread curling in her stomach alongside the hint of nausea and beginnings of exhaustion, recent recollection flashing through her mind.

There... there was something at the top of the mountain, something that had prevented her from leaving. No matter what beams she had blasted out, or punches and kicks she threw, each had proved ineffective against the invisible barrier. The worst results coming from when she had tried flying straight into it with all of her might.

During the moment of collision, there had been a brief moment that felt like time had completely stopped. Her body felt jolted, the barrier seemingly holding a grip on her and taking, until she finally rebounded off of it, being spat back into the caverns below and losing consciousness in the process.

Bubbles sniffled and brought her hands up to cup around her mouth. She redirected her face back up towards the darkening sky, screaming loudly, hoping that the sound would reach her sisters.

Instead of the expected super sonic, her voice came out in a pathetic croak, barely making its way up from the confines of her throat.

She tried again, tears gathering in her eyes as she received the same results and fully absorbed her situation.

She was stuck in a mountain alone and her powers acting wacky. It was dark and she was scared and what was she going to do? She could rot here all because she had wanted to... to...

'To what?'

Bubbles hiccuped and roughly wiped at the tears now staining her cheeks and stinging her cuts, partly out of frustration and partly out of hysteria.

"I-I-I don't wanna b-be heeeeeeree!"

"What's w-wrong w-with meeeee!"

"Where's m-my shoe!" Here, her voice broke, and she slammed her fists down to the ground to drive her frustration home.

The sound resonated around her, emphasizing how empty it was down there and how alone she was... or how alone she thought she was.

Bubbles's sobbing immediately halted and she frantically looked around her dark surroundings, suddenly feeling as though she were being watched from the shadows.

"Hello?" she called out tentatively, sincerely hoping no one answered (because who else would be down in a mountain?), afraid that maybe the owner of the golden garden had seen her crush it after all-

'The golden garden!'

'...Why is there a garden down here?'

'No, not the point!' Bubbles shook here head, eyes widening with hope. The owner had be near! Maybe she could get some help!

Bubbles squealed, jumping to her feet, quickly feeling disoriented once she did so. She brought a hand up to her head, exhaling tiredly, and looked to up towards the opening with narrowed eyes. 'What's right there?'

With slowed movements, Bubbles reluctantly made her way into the dark.