HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Diving

    I wiped the sweat off of my brow and sighed, hating the scorching sunlight. At this point, the deck was so hot that you could drop a bit of bacon and fry it on the deck, which, much to our dismay, Cookie had figured out already. As the ship slowly drifted up to the shipwreck site, I went down into the hold, mostly to escape the insufferable sunlight, and also because Marine was holding a meeting in the medical bay. I passed up the galley, going through all of the tables and dodging the lanterns, and I got up to the door to the Medical Bay, where I grasped the iron handle and forced the heavy wooden door open, revealing Marine, Jansen, the Storyteller, Noel, Amelia, Botan, and the girl with the mask, who, while the others were gathered around one of the tables, was laying in a cot, her throat having already been prepared for Amelia's operation to repair her voice.
    "Alright, I have a recipe for a potion that you can drink, and it'll extend the time that you can hold your breath." She said. "It should help you out a lot for the diving operation."
    "Thanks Amelia." Marine said, then grabbed the potions and slipped them into her pocket. "Alright, who is going for the treasure?"
    "Well, I always like diving and swimming, so I think I'll be pretty good there." I said. "Also, it sounds really exciting."
    "Aye, it does." Jansen said, looking around at all of us. "I will be going as well. I can breathe underwater."
    "Well, thats pretty handy for what we're doing." I said.
    "Aye, and I'll go as well." Marine said. "I can get a rough estimate on the treasure."
    "Alright then. Anyone else want to go?"
    "Not really." Noel said. "I still have to clean out the bottom deck."
    "Yeah, and I've gotta swab the galley again, like Jansen told me." The Storyteller said.
    "Aye, I did." Jansen said. "Botan? Have you learned to swim yet?"
    "No, I haven't." She said.
    "Aye then, its settled. A party of three will do."
    "Aye, lets go." Marine said, and the three of us filed out of the medical bay, careful not to knock any of Amelia's things over.
    We got out of the medical bay, then got up to the top deck, where the crew were using most of the ropes to hoist this gigantic, metal bell over the deck. We walked over to the side of the ship, looking at the water below us, and after a minute or two, Jansen peeled off of our group and started talking with Noel, who had followed us up to see us off.
    "Okay, there are some things you might need to know." Marine said, her eyes scanning the water. "So, do you have sea urchins in your world?"
    "Yeah, they're little spiky ball things that live in the ocean, in clusters." I said. "And if I remember right, they're poisonous."
    "Thats all?" She asked. "Well, that's not that dangerous."
    "Well, how are they here then?"
    "Well for one thing, they live in big clusters like your world, and yes, they're spiked, but these guys stick you with a spike, and when you pull away from them, the spike stays attached to the body by this big long tongue thing. After a moment or so of excruciating pain, it then starts to eject its stomach all over you, and as you thrash and fight, you get more and more spikes stuck into you, until you're literally digested alive."
    I contemplated the idea of being digested, while drowning, covered in spikes from the sea urchins, and I shivered.
    "You a little afraid?" She teased. "The big strong Micheal is afraid of a sea urchin?"
    "No, I'm not, and I'll prove it to you." I said, pinching her on the arm.
    "Oh come on!" She said, holding her arm. "That stung!"
    "Oh boo hoo." I said. "Okay, anything else I gotta know about before we get down there?"
    "Well, just stay away from anything that looks dangerous."
    "Aright, sounds good."
    The crew hovered the Diving Bell over us, and Marine jumped up inside of it, grabbed the inside compartments, and hoisted herself up inside the Bell. I followed suit right after her, and I kicked off of the railing and grabbed the bars on the inside and got up inside the compartment. Finally, Jansen was the last of us to get inside, and both Marine and I reached down and grabbed his hands, pulling him inside the Bell.
    "Alright, lower us, SLOWLY, on the starboard side!!" Marine yelled, the noise reverberating off of the sides of the metal bell.
    The Diving Bell moved to the right side of the ship, and it hovered over the crystal blue water, before descending slowly, the water coming up closer and closer, before it suddenly hit the rim of the bell, and to my shock, the water didn't come up inside the bell at all. It just stayed there, like a floor to the bell, as we descended further and further in the water. The noise from the outside, like the howling of the wind, the sounds of the crew working, and the rustling of the waves were slowly muffled by the water around us, until the only sound was the deep rumbling sound of the ocean.
     The air inside the Diving Bell also cooled off a lot, turning from hot and dry to a very cool and muggy, almost relaxing levels of heat, a far cry from the scorching sun above. I looked through one of the windows of the Bell, and I saw the shallow floor of the ocean, which was densely populated with Coral, seaweed, and other kinds of plants dominating the sea floor. And maybe about thirty or so feet away, there was our target, which was the shattered remains of a giant ship, like a man-o-war that I had seen in the old town. The ship was in three pieces, with a bow section, a midsection, and a stern section, the one in the front being overgrown by coral, the midsection having a forest of kelp coming through it, and the stern section was just resting against the rocks, with the masts having long collapsed, growing seagrass over the entire surface. Finally, the Diving Bell slowed to a halt, and we stopped, the deep rumble of the ocean having grown slightly louder.
    "Alright." Marine said, pulling two of the potion bottles out of her pockets in her jacket, and she handed one of them to me, then pinched her nose with her finger.
    "Bottoms up, aye?"
    "Aye." I said, trying the word out.
    I tipped the bottle to my lips, and I let the potion flow through my mouth, and in that moment, it taste really nice, like a strawberry milkshake as it flowed down my throat. Immediately, I doubled over, my lungs beginning to hurt, and I felt Jansen drop his hand on my shoulder to steady me. My lungs burned, and my chest spasmed, until slowly, slowly, the chest spasms and the lung burning stopped, and my breathing slowed down, immensely. I looked up at Jansen, and for a solid thirty or forty seconds, I didn't feel the need to breathe at all.
    "Wow, I think its working." I said.
    "Aye then, lets not wait around here. Let's go."
    He jumped down in the water, being swallowed by the crystal blue water, and Marine got to the edge of the Diving Bell, before looking at me, her golden eye gleaming.
    "Treasure awaits." She said, balancing herself against the rims of the bell. "Try to keep up!"
    She dropped straight into the water before I could say anything to her, and I shook my head, before waiting in the position, and dropping down, letting the cold, crystal water encase my entire body.