Wow, it's been quite awhile, hasn't it? I apologize for the long hiatus in this story, but I had a semester that was quite overwhelming. My 2D Design class has me up to my neck in projects that all took anywhere from 5-28 hours to complete! Anyway, now that the semester is tapering off, I found some time to write this next chapter!
This is officially the beginning of the second part of the story, where it takes off in an entirely new (but still related) direction. I hope you enjoy it, and that all of you that were reading this before don't hate me for not updating for nearly four months! ^^; Please R&R!

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A large roar erupted through the dark chasm, disturbing all of the fish and plants near its mouth. There was a fierce rush of water, and a flash of metal swirled by, crackling with electricity.
"Whooo! I win!" cried a tinny voice over the airwaves, followed by a peal of laughter. A second burst of electricity followed, in an attempt to catch up. The fish darted to hide from the two speeding submarine watercraft, but some of them weren't lucky enough.
"Aw man, I hate fish splatter!" the same voice laughed again, and the first craft's jets fired to life, the forward momentum clearing the mess from the front glass panel. Inside the craft, Aiden brought it to a halt, and let go of the throttle. He stretched, bumping his hands against the ceiling of the tiny cockpit. The second arrow-shaped ship idled up, and Aiden could see his friend Eric inside of it. Aiden wiped his sweaty brown hair off his forehead, and spun the knob on his crackly radio.
"—on to White Dove, I repeat Red Lion to White Dove! Do you read me?" an important sounding voice seemed to spit over the air. Aiden grinned, and picked up his radio.
"Red Lion, this is White Dove. I read you loud and clear. There must have been some sort of interference before," he stated, his smile seemingly unable to be wiped from his face.
"Interference my ass, Dove. What the hell are you guys doing out there? You were supposed to report back nearly an hour ago!" the voice barked, its angry undertones unmistakable.
"Ah, Lion... I think the interference is back—I can't hear what you're saying! Please repeat..." Aiden coughed, and rolled his eyes, turning the knob on his radio again.
"You know, we are going to get in a lot of trouble for this," another voice came in, loud and clear in Aiden's cockpit. Aiden looked over at the other craft to his buddy Eric, who was wearing a grin that matched his own.
"Ah, like we don't have a JP file the size of a whale anyway," Aiden laughed over his ship-to-ship headset. "I doubt we'll get into anything serious over this anyway."
"Avoiding contact with the base, faking interference, failure to check in on time, and illegal racing in government owned equipment near off- limits areas? Nah, we'll be fine as long as we've got a good enough excuse," Eric replied with a laugh. Aiden could see his blonde companion looked a little nervous, despite his confident words.
"I'm the master of excuses Eric, don't lose faith in me now. Want to race again before we head back?"
"Sure, but let's go somewhere else. This place has lost its luster after six rounds, ya know."
Aiden peered at their designated raceway. This shallow part of the ocean was extremely barren and flat, allowing for their watercraft to reach their highest speeds. It was great for a racing zone because there was nothing but sand for miles around and therefore there was less to possibly have a collision with. The government would certainly be less than impressed should one of their multi-million dollar X-3 SMS (Submarine Sonic Craft) Runners should be smashed because of illegal racing. Less than impressed, indeed.
These crafts were designed for high speeds and had tight handling, but they certainly weren't meant for racing. They were designated as research equipment, and had robotic arms that could collect samples and move small objects on the ocean floor. They also had pressure-resistant metal frames, and had a special anti-corrosive compound integrated into the hull to keep the highly acidic levels of the water from eating right through to the cockpit. Just as much as the water was acidic, it was also charged with an unnatural amount of electricity. So, the craft was also built to translate the electricity from the water into useable energy, so that it never needed any outside source of power. The same system continually purified the air, so there was no need for oxygen tanks, either. All of these perks made this model an extremely useful (and expensive) tool for the government in their exploration of the Corros Sea and its surrounding tunnel network.
Aiden smirked. He had always thought they called it the Corros Sea because it was short for Corrosive, although he knew that wasn't the case. This sea was a vast body of acidic and corrosive chemicals that had a faint purple-pink tinge to it. Not many forms of life thrived down here, and the ones that did were odd species of fish that came in neon-bright colors. They usually had nasty spikes on their skin, and nasty personas to go with it. I'm quite glad that I squished some of them earlier, Aiden thought to himself.
"Earth to Aiden!"
Aiden snapped back to the present, blinking. He frequently went off on his own little mind trips. He glanced over to the other X-3 Runner, seeing Eric staring at him impatiently.
"Heh, sorry. Off in La-La Land again," Aiden replied through his headset.
"As always," Eric replied. "Let's race over that canyon this time," he continued, pointing towards the hefty chasm that they had crossed by multiple times during their races.
Aiden nodded in agreement, and then two idled their crafts over to the small crack in the sand where the gorge began. The fans of their ships disturbed the sand in small bursts, and the energy created by the conversion generators hummed and crackled, allowing bolts to escape every now and then. Concentrating, Aiden gripped the throttle in his hand, waiting for the beginning of the race.
"All right... GO!" cried Eric over the headsets, and the chemical ocean roared to life with sound. Both crafts open throttled to full, and the jet fans screamed. A huge cyclone of sand swirled up, and in the blink of an eye, the two craft were gone.
Aiden's craft shot ahead of Eric's, and he coaxed it into a dive. He raced his ship right along the top of the canyon, following its path directly. Glancing at his radar, he noticed Eric's ship just on his flank. Aiden grinned.
"You wanna lose hard this time, eh?" he taunted, and swerved to the right, nearly clipping the front of Eric's Runner. Eric yelped, and lost some of his speed.
The two craft thundered along the canyon, the electric aura having grown some since more energy was being used. This was something that Aiden absolutely loved. Sure, he liked irritating his superiors, but great amounts of speed and agility was something that really made his blood pump. He guided the craft expertly through a series of loops, and cut a sharp left right along with the pattern of the canyon. It was then that he spotted something on the edge of the canyon. Was that a... plant?
Aiden blinked, thinking back to the splattered fish. There had been quite a few tiny plants all along that part of the ridge! He pulled off his course, and quickly killed the speed, allowing Eric to rocket past him. Aiden circled close to the plant, hovering in for a better look.
"Aiden, what the hell?" Eric's voice complained over the headset. "Are you letting me win now?"
There was no answer, because Aiden was engrossed in using his craft's robotic arm to pluck the plant from the sand. It sure was a plant, alright. It was green, had long leaf-like appendages, and had an entire root system. Aiden stared at it, confused. Plants can't survive in this toxic atmosphere... how is this here? Is this someone's idea of a practical joke?
Eric's voice sounded over the radio again. "Uh... Aiden? I think you should see this..."
"I found a plant!" Aiden proclaimed, cutting Eric off. "A real, live green—"
"Um, yeah so then you should come see this, then," Eric shouted. Aiden put the plant in a species containment box, and hurtled off in the direction Eric had gone. He had followed the chasm further up, and Aiden noticed several more plants along the way. Here the ridge lifted slightly into the air, and created an odd hill-like structure.
It was covered in plants all along the edges of the ridge. They got denser as the canyon descended, and it seemed to go down for quite a distance.
"Oh... holy..." Aiden gasped, staring at the immense amount of plants.
"I haven't seen this many plants anywhere besides in a Hydro Garden!" Eric exclaimed.
"How could this be? It's not possible..."
"Want to go check it out?" Eric questioned.
"You bet your ass! When we report this back to base, they won't care that we were out racing anymore, will they?" Aiden grinned, and guided the nose of his craft into the canyon. He proceeded slowly, not wanting to hit the walls and damage the Runner. He flicked on his lights so that he could see better, and was amazed by the huge mass of green leaves that surrounded him on every side.
It was then that he spotted the glowing blue light a few yards ahead. He pulled ahead as quickly as the navigation would allow, letting his curiosity have the better of him. There was a small mound of dirt covered in plants, and a large school of strange looking fish hovering around it. They scattered when the lights hit them though, revealing a very large blue crystal.
"Eric, are you seeing this?" Aiden shouted. He was so excited that he nearly bumped his craft into a wall.
The crystal was probably over six feet in height, and two to three feet wide. It looked cut, since it had facets, and had a faint glow to it. It was also very cloudy inside.
"Wow, I wonder how much that thing is worth?" Eric commented.
"Red Lion will be quite pleased with us today!" Aiden said, and commanded his robotic arm to extend. As it bumped against the crystal, the engine of his craft cut out suddenly, and cockpit and external lights disappeared. Aiden watched as his craft floated down and landed with a thump in the middle of the dark sea of plants, his eyes filled with confusion and fear.