Fifteen months since I last updated this. Fifteen months. Yikes.
Still, slowly, but surely, I'm trying to come back into the Total Drama fandom. Especially as I have to finish a certain other fanfic as well...
The pressure of the swirling water hit Bridgette instantly as she forced herself into it.
It took her a bit, but she somehow managed to steady herself inside of it and not let it carry her off to the deepest trench at the bottom of the ocean, as her dearest newly-discovered aunt liked to send her merpeople to...
She waved to her worried-looking new friends that she could just make out through the swirling water, then turned and pushed herself forward.
"Celestial Comb, Celestial Comb... Where could a magical undersea comb be lurking in all of this?" Bridgette wondered. "And why do I even need a comb to defeat an evil mermaid queen anyway? It's not like she's a mop of unruly hair that needs to be tamed..."
An image of Queen Heather with a bunch of messy hair piled high atop her head and Bridgette herself swimming towards the evil queen brandishing a small, golden, handless, wide-toothed comb with silver teeth and pearls embedded along the sides and top formed in her mind and made Bridgette giggle.
"The idea is pretty silly, but the Destinies said I'd need it..." Bridgette shook off her giggles and moved forward. "I don't know what good a comb will be but everything happens for a reason. A few days ago, I wouldn't have said or believed that mermaids and magic actually exist and here I am, so..."
As she pushed through the torrents, she thought she saw the form of something large and uneven ahead of her, though with the foam in the water and the way it moved around her, it was hard for her to see too far ahead of herself clearly.
She pushed herself just a bit more and was able to power through the most violent part of the water, though it wasn't entirely calm around her just yet.
"This must be it!" she exclaimed, once she got closer.
A few large caves loomed ahead of her, all of them emitting a faint, silvery glow.
"It's actually kind of beautiful." Bridgette stopped to admire the sight properly when she reached it, finally getting through the rough water.
The caves themselves looked to be made of a silvery sort of rock that emitted the silver glow she'd seen earlier while large, white crystals stood together in bunches on each side of the various cave entrances.
Around the outside of the caves, a pearl coloured mist gathered, making it look as if the caves were floating amongst the clouds far above the ocean floor.
"This is just amazing..." she looked around in awe. "I wish I could take some pictures of this place. It looks like something right out of a fantasy movie!"
She swam around the caves for a bit, noticing now, small, white crystals growing out of them when she looked closer.
Bridgette reached out to touch the crystals and felt that with the exceptions of their points, they all felt smooth and even to the touch beneath her fingers.
"Maybe I should bring some back for Gwen and Lindsay. They'd have loved to be here..." she reached out and plucked two small crystals and put them in her pocket. "Perhaps one for Geoff too..." Bridgette reached out and plucked another one.
"Now, back to the mission at hand..." she swam down to where the cave entrances were. "Which cave do I go into? The Celestial Comb has to be in one of them... but which one?" she mused aloud.
She glanced at her wrist, the communicator watch/mini-computer still on it, despite the rough ocean that she'd just had to fight her way through.
"Hmm..." Bridgette mused.
She reached for it and turned it on.
Tapping the screen a few times, soon the image of a large, lavishly decorated room appeared on it, with Lindsay's voice calling out somewhere off screen.
"Gwen! Geoff! Get up here! Bridgette's calling!" Lindsay plonked herself down in the computer chair, directly in front of the camera.
The sounds of running footsteps suddenly started and soon, Gwen and Geoff had joined Lindsay in front of the camera, hanging out just behind the blonde girl's chair.
"Hey, Bridgey! How's things hangin' under the sea?" Geoff asked her.
"Okay, so far. Made some friends that are willing to help me, got some help from some underwater psychics, managed to avoid the psycho queen that's after me... yeah I'm fine." Bridgette answered.
"What's up now?" Gwen asked her.
"I've reached the caves where the Celestial Comb might be. Problem is: which one is it in?" Bridgette twisted her wrist and moved around a bit so her three land bound friends could see what she saw around her.
"That place is so beautiful..." Lindsay spoke in awe, her eyes wide.
"I know, right?" Bridgette smiled. "But that doesn't help me find the Celestial Comb..."
"Eenie Meenie Miney Moe might help..." Lindsay suggested sheepishly.
"You know what?" Geoff straightened up. "That might actually not be such a bad idea. It couldn't hurt to try it at least, right?"
Bridgette shrugged. "It certainly wouldn't hurt..."
Her little game of Eenie Meenie Miney Moe led her to try out the centremost cave first.
She swam in and as she did, she could hear the exclamations of awe coming from her watch as her best friends and boyfriend saw what she saw.
"Yo, Bridgey, after you claim your mermaid heritage and all that, could you could get us, like some Aquarius visas or something so we could come down and see all this amazingness ourselves?" Geoff asked.
Bridgette chuckled. "First things first, Geoff. Finding the things I need to beat Queen Heather."
"Why would you need a comb to beat her anyway?" Gwen asked. "What good does a comb do? It's not a weapon and you've not said anything about it having any sort of magic powers..."
"Who knows? With the way things have been going down here, I wouldn't be surprised if it did have powers..." Bridgette pointed out.
She swam further into the cave and came upon a cliff, where down below, an underwater lake formed, several particularly large crystals clustered together around the lake at random intervals.
The lake seemed to be even clearer than the surrounding water and seemed to give off an ethereal sort of light, reflected by the crystals.
"How is it even possible to have an underwater lake?" Gwen raised an eyebrow when Bridgette checked her watch to see her friends' reactions.
"Magic, maybe?" Bridgette shrugged, before swimming down to it.
One large, smooth rock- big enough for her to sit on sat in between two clusters of crystals right by the edge of the edge of the lake and it was here that Bridgette sat, looking around her.
"There doesn't seem to be any sign of an sort of comb- Celestial or otherwise- in here..." Bridgette said after a while. "Maybe I should just try another-"
She trailed off as a golden glow came from the centre of the lake and spread out until the entire lake had a golden sheen.
It glowed brightly; enough for Bridgette to shield her eyes and judging by the exclamations coming from her watch, it affected her friends and boyfriend as well.
Bridgette could practically see the glow even with her eyes closed and had to wait for it to subside before she could safely open her eyes again and not fear being blinded.
"What... what was that?" Gwen wondered.
"I don't know..." Bridgette got up and looked into the lake.
There, at the very bottom of the centre of the lake, sat a shiny object.
She couldn't clearly see what it was, but, maybe...
"Is that the Celestial Comb?" she asked aloud.
"There's only one way to find out!" Lindsay exclaimed.
Bridgette nodded, taking a deep breath to calm herself (the fact that she could breathe underwater now still amazed her) and waded into the lake.
Flipping herself over so she could swim to the bottom of it properly, her main focus was getting down to the bottom of the lake to see if the shiny object she'd seen from the surface was indeed the Celestial Comb she was looking for.
Using her faux-tail she propelled herself the last few metres to find that the shiny object she'd seen sat atop a small, marble platform.
A small, golden, handless, wide-toothed comb with silver teeth and pearls embedded along the sides and top sat in the centre of the aforementioned platform.
The Celestial Comb, just as she imagined it earlier.
She reached out to touch it and felt a tingling sensation pass through her fingers as she took hold of it.
It wasn't an unpleasant feeling however; it actually felt quite nice. Warm. Comforting...
"Guys," Bridgette said as she held up the comb to examine it. "I found what I came here looking for."
Geoff and Lindsay burst out in cheers, while Gwen, although pleased for her friend, simply settled for applauding her.
"See, Bridgette? I told you Eenie Meenie Miney Moe works!" Lindsay squealed.
Bridgette giggled. "I guess it does, Linds!"
She admired the comb some more and imagined herself wearing it as decoration in an elaborate updo.
Fit for a princess.
Shaking off her daydream, she slipped the Celestial Comb into her pocket.
"Time to get out of here. Katie, Sadie, Beth and Janey must be worried about me." Bridgette told her friends. "I'll catch you guys later."
"Bye Bridgette!" the three chorused before Bridgette turned off the watch.
She smiled as she made her way out of the lake and out of the cave, heading back towards the rough patch of sea that she'd have to do battle with once again to get back to her newer, aquatic friends.
When she made it back to them again, Katie and Sadie swam over to her, giving her hugs.
"Yay, Bridgette! You made it back! You survived!" Katie squealed.
"Did you find the Celestial Comb?" Sadie quizzed. "Did you? Did you? Did you?"
Bridgette paused, letting the suspense build up.
She pulled the Celestial Comb out of her pocket and brandished it for them, Beth and Janie to see.
At the sight, Beth too, joined in the squealing and hugging but although Janey looked noticeably happier, she was the only one who didn't squeal.
"This is amazing! Part one already complete!" Beth cheered.
"One down, two more to go!" Katie exclaimed.
"Bridgette can totally do it. I know it!" Sadie squealed.
"Just remember the two other things we have left to get, ladies." Janey piped up, silencing the cheering girls. "The trust of a Dreamfish and Queen Heather's necklace. It's not going to get any easier, you know. It's going to get harder- and possibly more dangerous..." the dolphin reminded them.
"You're right, Janey," Bridgette acknowledged. "but even one success is encouraging. I made it out of an extremely rough patch of water that no full-blooded mermaid has ever managed to do and retrieved an item that has only been known to legend..."
Janey nodded. "Yes, an ancient artefact of the royal family that was thought lost forever..."
"Oh..." Bridgette looked at the Celestial Comb in a new light. "I didn't know..."
"Now you do." Janey said. "Now, let's get going. Aquarius isn't going to save itself, you know!"
