"Wakey wakey Ecco! Today's the first day of crystal catching. C'mon wake up!" Coral said as she tried to wake up Ecco. She poked her beak at him, but he just rolled over and moaned.
"Agh. Five more minutes." moaned the dolphin as he squirmed away from her. Coral was getting impatient, and wanted to travel.
"You leave me no choice Ecco." She said carelessly as she swam to the surface and took a massive breath of air. She swam back to Ecco and began aiming her beak at his head. Coral released out all the air she gathered and turned it into a loud high-pitched screech. Ecco immediately woke up and jumped far out of the water, passing the height of the Guardian and touching a near-by seagull. Ecco could feel the breeze blow by, and was interrupted by getting hit by a flock of the seagulls. He immediately fell back down and splashed into the bay near Coral who was smiling at Ecco's experience. She swam towards him and was ready for another screech. "still asleep?" she asked with her eyes half-closed, and with an evil grin on her face.
"I'm awake! I'm awake! No more screeches!" he screamed. Coral nodded and the two swam towards the rest of the group near a tiny indent. Aqua was happy to see Ecco awake.
"Had a nice night sleep, buddy?" he said with a grin, since he knew what Coral was going to do to Ecco if he overslept.
"Yeah, I had this dream. You and a bunch of other whales like yourself were singing some song that was quite catchy." Replied Ecco as he swam up to the killer whale. Aqua just chuckled while Shauza swam up in front of the small group.
"I saw something glowing near a large round thing on the other side of this indent. A bunch of dolphins are playing a game, and boy one won't stop yelling about getting focused. I think your first ones there." She said. Everyone nodded and at one at a time each adventure swam through the indent, and began the longest adventure in Ecco's history.
The little tunnel was short, and Ecco was the first to come out after blasting the sealed exit open with his new beam. Hammer swam out next and was interested about the new and beautiful ray of light out of Ecco's forehead.
"Hey Ecco. What would you call that beam you just used?" asked the hammerhead, hoping for something neat.
"I don't know. I never thought of naming it. What do you think it should be called?" replied the dolphin puzzled about the beam he is now equipped with.
"Guess."
"Ray of light?"
"Nah."
"Crystal beam?"
Hammer just stuck out his red tongue and spitted air and bubbles from his mouth.
"I got it. How about… Guardian beam?" Ecco was beginning to get frustrated about the name of his new attack.
"Suites me." Replied the shark as the rest of the group swam out of the tunnel. Ecco turned around and noticed that someone was missing.
"Hey. Where's Shard and Shauza?" asked Ecco feeling a tad concerned for their selfish, yet helpful friend. Aqua immediately opened his mouth revealing a wide-eyed seahorse in a fetal like position. Shard slowly swam out of the whales mouth and turned furiously at the him. He tried to say something, but turned away with an angry expression. Coral swam over to Ecco explaining the missing dolphin.
"We got him since he can sense the presence of, and Shauza wanted to help by asking any passerby's about anything that looks like what the Guardian mentioned."
"Makes sense. Now where's that…" Ecco noticed a large structure overhead a wall. He swam to the near-surface and saw a huge rock and metal construction in a shape of an oval. "a boat. That must be where Shauza found those color sticks." He thought to himself. He then noticed a few dolphins bouncing a brown ball and passing it to other dolphins, then one of them took a shot at a bunch of rocks in a shape of an arch. The ball missed, and one of the dolphins went crazy yelling at the bunch. Ecco ignored the angry dolphin, and saw a glow form behind the small crowed, which was the very first crystal.
Ecco whistled to his friends and swam towards the sunken ship. Finally he found the entrance to the ship and swam inside and to meet with the other dolphins who were still being yelled at by the same dolphin, who was wearing a silver like instrument. Ecco swam towards a common dolphin who was watching some of the dolphins try to block a pass to a dolphin from one side to the other. Both groups had to be made up altogether of ten dolphins, excluding the common dolphin, and the one Ecco wanted to meet. The rest of the gang was right behind him. "Excuse me. What's going on here." asked Ecco to the common dolphin, who sighed heavily after a miss block from one of the players.
"We'll if you haven't noticed we missed seven passes in a row to our fresh recruits. I just about had it. Nothing will get us going to block those passes." he faced Ecco and the gang and raised one of his brows. "Ever played soccer son?" Ecco nodded and so did Coral and Aqua. "hmm. Can you do me a favor? Can you block those two recruits for me? I quit asking for them to do some defense." The three just stood there and nodded. They swam and took over three positions. The player began swimming the ball left and then right, bouncing it with his beak. Coral swam over and guarded the dolphin with her entire body, blocking his view. He desperately banged the ball hard at his teammate, which then the player smashed his beak at the goal, which then Aqua charges at the ball which sailed down the area. Ecco with his speed out swam the two players and bounced his way into the empty net. The dolphin coach smiled, and the yelling coached turned around at what he saw. He turned back with a big simile and said, "Now that's what I call being Focused!"
"Not bad son. Not bad. Uh, run that drill again." ordered the coach. The players tried a different play, but this time Coral tail whacked the ball down the field. Again the players were out swam, and this time she scored. The other players were enjoying what they were seeing.
"Kill guys! Kill!" screamed Hammer as he was enjoying the humiliation of the other players.
"Okay were done here today. Call it up and get some sleep. Big day tomorrow." Said the coach. The players now tired swam away from the sunken ship. Ecco and gang moved towards the crystal, but was stopped short from the coach that Ecco ran into.
"Nice moves you guys. We're did you learn to play like that?" asked the coach with a smile.
"We we're just bored, sir. And we wanted that crystal that you have here. It's very important that we have it." Replied Aqua as he was being padded on his skull by the coach.
"Swimmeyer. Finny Swimmeyer. Coached the best soccer team in the sea for twelve tides." He pointed his beak at the crystal. "that's our good luck charm. Since we had it, we won five championships. That was our first award from my first year. Team hasn't been the same after the fifth. I really don't need it, since it brought some bad memories after winning it."
He turned to Ecco and Aqua with a tiny tear from his eyes. "This is the first time our guys actually played tough against someone. Their now pumped up for tomorrow, and as for my gratitude, I want you to have it." He grabbed the crystal with his fins and gave it to Aqua who placed the crystal in his mouth.
"Thank you coach. This really means much to us." Replied Hammer. Shard swam up forward to the group.
"Okay. We got our crystal now lets go. There happy, we're happy, we're done. So lets go chop-chop" the coach stared at the seahorse with a very intimidating glare which made Shard's heart pound.
"You know if you were one of my players, I make you swim five miles right"
"Gee look at the time, I think I hear the Guardian calling." And the seahorse swam off as fast as the wind. The rest of the gang laughed and began swimming back to Atlantis.
"That was fun wasn't guys?" asked Ecco feeling happy about the collection of their first crystal.
"Yeah. We pummeled the tailfins of those guys for two straight hours!" replied Coral as she opened Aqua's mouth and grabbed the crystal from his mouth and darted to the Guardian tossing the gem into it. The Guardian glowed a light white color and reactivated to it's blue state.
Pretty easy wasn't it? But eventually that will get harder as you progress. Remember, there are holders that will fight for the obtainment of the crystals. Right now I sense one somewhere near a small group of sharks. This shouldn't be to hard. Good luck.
The Guardian turned off again. Aqua looked at everyone with a determined grin on his face.
"Let's go whack some shark tailfin!"