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Chapter 4: Fishboy and the Underwater World of Atlas Part 1

Kyle stirred in his sleep due to the feel of his hair sweeping across his closed eyes and tickling his nose. He flinched when he felt something barely touch his face. Kyle twitched and slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurred, and he felt drowsy. It took him a few seconds of blinking to see glimpses of his surroundings in a higher clarity. The young mage raised up, confused. He turned from side to side, seeing nothing but blue, rocks, and coral.

"Where am I? ...What is this?" He waved his hand around in front of his face. "Water...? Ahh!"

His eyes widened in shock, and he held out both of his hands.

His fingers had webbing between them like the toes of a frog. There were strange red and silver spots on his arms that had taken the place of his freckles. He ran his fingertips over them, not sure of what they were.

"What's going on?" Kyle was coming close to panicking but managed to keep calm. That was, until he caught sight of what had become of the lower half of his body. "My legs!"

His legs had been replaced with a fish's body. The ventral side was silver, and the dorsal side was red. He reached his arm up and bent it behind his back. As he expected, there was a dorsal fin that started a few inches after his spine. None of this was making any sense to Kyle. He wanted to believe that they hadn't made it into that portal at the bottom of the valley, and he was probably dead somewhere. Or maybe, he was still in his warm bed, sleeping. This was all just a silly dream that would end as soon as he woke up. Yeah. He just needed to wake-

"Hiya, Ky!"

The wizard jumped, heart pounding.

"Oh, did I scare you?"

"No. I just like jumping in place!"

"That's weird. You should get a hobby."

Kyle made one of his typical annoyed expressions when he couldn't find the words to respond with.

Tobias completely ignored him. "Anyway, guess what!"

Kyle sighed, there was just no winning with him. "What?"

"We're fish people!"

Once Tobias had popped out from behind the rock Kyle had been laying on, he had turned his head away so he didn't have to see the boy's once again chipper face. Now, that he said we're, he faced him. Indeed, he also had the fish body and skin markings that were black and white bands on his arms and chest. Tobias's body was orange with the same markings. He recognized the species as a clownfish. Hm. How fitting for him. The name at least.

"You're all weird looking and boring and red."

Kyle swam off the rock. When he was taking in bits and pieces of his surroundings earlier, he had noticed something shine in the rays of sunlight that were reaching through the water. He assumed it was a mirror; one that he could use to get a better look at himself. Tobias followed him and stopped when he did.

"Nothing about me looks weird!" Kyle shouted at him as he observed himself in the mirror shard that had sunk to the bottom of whatever body of water they had ended up in. He couldn't help but to honestly find his new fins, located in the place his ears should be, a bit strange. "And what do you mean by boring?! I'm a redfish!"

"Just look at me!" Tobias spread out his arms for Kyle to get a good look at him. Indeed, he did look more interesting than him... "Hey, have you seen Yo?"

"Are you kidding me? I haven't seen anyone or anything yet. You probably just led us off that cliff into some strange dimension where we are merboys. What if we can never leave. Ever! What if Yo ended up in the right place?"

Tobias grabbed a hold of his wrist and pulled him along. "We'll never know unless we find out!"

Kyle's protests went unheard, but he soon ceased his complaining when he payed attention to the setting they passed. He stared in awe at the beauty of the sea life.

Beautiful underwater planets swayed with the water's current as though they were dancing. Colorful rocks and coral decorated the area, adding a very vibrant touch. Kyle's eyes followed schools of fish he had never seen before. They were of all shapes and sizes. Tobias swam through a school of fish, allowing Kyle to touch one of the fish in the large group. In the spot where he poked it, the scales lit up. He watched it leave, scales still glowing. Several items from dry land had met their fate at the bottom of the ocean, or at least that's where Kyle figured they must be. He saw a few bottled messages and broken jewelry that could have belonged to a person of royalty. He picked up a pearl necklace, using his thumb to rub circles around the smooth material that was once under the ownership of an oyster. All around them, rocks had gathered together in unique and interesting formations. They swam through the opening of one of the said rocks. It led them to a gaping hole in the ocean floor that was littered with bright anemones, a clownfish's home. One of them brushed past Kyle's stomach, giving him a strange feeling. Oh, how I wish I had clothes on...

"Umm... Do you know where we're going?"

Tobias replied right away. "I saw a giant oyster shell over here that looked promising."

"Wait a minute... By that you mean you've been swimming around all this time? While I was knocked out on that rock?"

"Yupp! I found you after a long time of swimming in circles." He said carelessly. "This is so cool! I wish Chum Chum were here to see this..."

Realizing that even though he seemed rather unusually happy at the moment, he was still sad underneath it. Speaking of which, why was he acting like his normal self again? What had he been doing before he found Kyle? Kyle shook the thoughts out of his head. He decided that he would ask them later.

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"Hmph! Fine. Believe what you will. Live on believing in a lie!"

With those final words, the beast, gas, and fire disappeared, leaving the man alone. He collapsed, face first into the dusty ground.

A woman dressed in black and pink, also adorned in a cloak, ran out of her hiding spot. She got down next to her friend, checking to see if he was alright.

"You need to stop rushing head-first into everything!" She warned him. "You could of actually died this time! Its just like you to not think things through properly!"

He continued to breathe heavily, his face turned the opposite direction from her. The man got to his knees, shaking with every move. The woman placed her hands on his, looking desperately into his cold eyes.

"I don't know what I would do if I lost you next." Her voice lowered. "Promise you'll be more careful next time."

He merely nodded at her, giving her some kind of sign he understood, but then, his stubborn side kicked in.

"... We need to get to the past! I have to tell him! I have to do something! … Before... it's too late. Only he... can stop Crates."

With no clear room for objection, the woman helped him up.

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"Well, maybe you can tell him all about our crazy little adventure when we find him." Kyle made an attempt at a decent smile even though Tobias wasn't looking at him.

They had passed through a gate. Beyond the gold structure was an underwater town filled with many mermaids and mermen. The strongest difference between a lot of them and Kyle and Tobias, was that they appeared to have more fish-like features than human. Kyle had begun to feel like they stuck out. It wasn't the first time he hadn't felt like he fit in. It was a feeling all too familiar to him.

They passed many buildings made from whatever the ocean had to offer and houses built from seaweed or colored rocks. Some of the merpeople had more natural homes that were just the location that species of fish called home.

"The oyster is just up ahead!"

"That's great. Now, may I please have my hand back? I can swim just fine!"

"Oh." Tobias paused. "I didn't realize I was still holding it. Heh."

Kyle jerked his hand away. "I'd hate to ask this..." He hesitated. "Have you-"

"There it is!" Tobias pointed to a large crowd gathered around an even bigger oyster shell.

Kyle awkwardly rubbed his arm. "Yeah... So it is..."

Right now isn't even the time to be asking a question like that, Kyle.

Tobias swam faster and pushed his way through the intrigued crowd. Kyle did the same but was stuck in between someone who had a tuna's body and an overweight largemouth bass.

Inside the oyster was a yellow-skinned girl, raven hair moving over her face. She brushed it away with one simple, graceful motion of her hand.

"Yo!" Tobias and Kyle said in unison.

Yo's lower body resembled a juvenile queen angelfish. She had mostly blue and yellow scales with a few narrow, neon blue stripes. Her dorsal and anal fins were long and triangular. There was seaweed that had little pink flowers tied around it wrapped around her waist. Her lips were also pink like the seashells covering her chest. The Japanese girl was wearing neon green and baby blue eyeshadow that glittered. In Tobias's own opinion, which was completely opposite of the other's, she looked hideous.

"Ugh! You look like a fat, triangle shaped clown!"

Yo's smile faded as soon as she heard the word fat. Forcing herself to put aside her new adoring fans, Yo swam down to him and slapped him across his face using her bright yellow tail fin.

"Shut up! You're a really ugly looking orange color! And you look better with a shirt on."

Tobias held a hand over the reddened mark on his face. "You didn't have to do that!"

Kyle squeezed through the barrier of wide bodies in front of him. "I'd hate to break up your almost fight, but we have something very important to do. After this I couldn't care if you try to kill each other or not."

Yo sat on the edge of the oyster shell. She rolled her eyes but smiled at the boys. "I guess I'll be the mature one here."

Kyle held Tobias back before he could do anything to her.

"Who are all these people? Why do they like you so much?" He asked her while grabbing onto Tobias's shoulders.

"Oh. I woke up in this oyster, and a lot of people were staring at me. They think I'm beautiful~"

"Pffft! You're almost as ugly as Marsha!" Tobias stuck his tongue out at her.

Yo gasped. "Take that back now!"

Kyle clapped his hand over the other boy's mouth, preventing him from saying anything more insulting.

"We need to leave now! Tell your fan club good-bye." Kyle gestured his head towards the mermaids and mermen.

Yo blew a kiss at them, causing them to cheer, clap, and whistle. Kyle glared at her. "Don't let this go to your head! That's all we need is someone else with a bigger ego." He glanced at Tobias.

"Yeah, whatever~"

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They had been swimming around for at least twenty minutes. Yo and Kyle had realized they were wandering into unknown territory. Digging in the back of his mind for minor information he had learned about the ocean, Kyle grimaced at the uglier scenery they passed.

"The farther we are away from light, the darker and more dangerous things become." He stated.

Tobias shivered in the cold waters and glanced at a rusty anchor with skeletons littered around it. The chain to the anchor went somewhere way above them, completely out of sight. He ignored the skeletons and swam faster, leaving behind a trail of bubbles in his path with every movement of his tail.

Since none of them knew where they were going or what they were looking for, it had been decided that they would pass the time by explaining what had happened to them when they arrived in the underwater world. Tobias eagerly went first. He told them that a portal had spat him out and he hit a massive cave. After taking a moment to observe his new body, he swam around, not so much in search of the others but just because, he had admitted. Yo and Kyle were hardly offended but told him to proceed with his story. He then said that he found Kyle sleeping and watched him for a few minutes.

"Wait. Say that last part again." Kyle stopped.

Tobias continued to move forward, whistling as though he hadn't heard him. Kyle brushed the incident off and went next. He didn't remember how he got on the rock or how long he was there for. He could only tell them about how he calmly reacted to seeing a fish's body instead of his legs. Once he got to the part where he and Tobias went to that village to find Yo, said girl picked up. She informed them that when she realized what was going on, a group of other, scary looking mermaids and mermen had gathered around her. They believed she was incredibly beautiful compared to the rest of their society. Kyle actually secretly agreed with that, even though Tobias still didn't. Apparently, they wanted to use her like a trophy of some sort, something to stare at.

"Guys, I really think we should turn around!" Yo exclaimed a short while after story time had ended.

Tobias used this as material to tease her for. "Getting scared already, Yo?"

"N-No!" She gulped.

Tobias crossed his arms over his chest with a devious smirk. "I bet you couldn't swim... Uhhh... Over there to that hole! That really dark one covered by that black smoke!"

Hold on. Dark hole. Black smoke. Kyle followed the direction Tobias's finger was pointing. Far into the distance was an empty part of the ocean. It looked as though it had been stripped and left bare by the hole- That was no hole. It was a long crack in the ocean floor. It would only lead to an even deeper part of the ocean. A section of the ocean that had absolutely no light to speak of. Down there, the pressure from the water would be too much for someone like Yo to handle. Who knows what dangers lurked way over there.

"Yo! Wait, stop!"

Kyle was too late. He saw the eleven-year-old making her way over the mound they were above and across the empty ocean floor. He would have tried to go after her, if it weren't for the fact that he himself was terrified. Who was that next to Yo? Tobias wasn't there beside him... While he was contemplating about the life of animals who were completely blocked from light, they must have wanted to race each other there, leaving Kyle to wonder where they went.

"Those annoying ninnies!" Kyle was usually kinder to girls, but Yo really crossed a line. "Do they want to get killed?!"

Speaking of that, the thought of potentially dieing in a watery grave loomed over Kyle's mind. What if they left him, and he was the only one who could save Chum Chum? A blood curdling scream rang out through the ocean, making Kyle freeze. Yo and Tobias were out of sight. He didn't want to lay eyes on whatever caused the scream. He held on to an unidentifiable object sticking out of the ground while he kept his eyes shut tight. There was a sudden rumbling noise being brought on by what felt like an earthquake. Kyle barely opened one of his eyes. Something was slowly making it's way out of the crack in the ocean floor.

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

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The only reason why this got split in half is because it would have ended up being too long. I already have a good bit of the next part worked out. So, because I have off from school all next week, I'll try my best to focus on this story.