Zone D -- The Foam

[The Future Warrior]

Through the water they trudged, now being guided by their fearless leader, holding his tablet well out of the water to check the map. "Okay, so...according to this we should be getting pretty close..." He looked up, casting his eyes around for anything that stood out. Nothing around but water. Yeah, that was expected.

"Sso...we came all the way out here, and have no idea where the damn thing is?" Cell spoke up. "Jusst to clarify and all that."

For a good several seconds, their short, waterlogged blue comrade was quiet, just staring ahead intently, eyes narrowed in focus. Studying something intently, off in the near distance.

"Yeah, it's looking that way...maybe it landed on like a rock or something? Some kinda chunk of whatever sticking up out of the water." Archer cast his eyes around again, searching for anything that might match that description.

Bubbles emerged in an energetic stream from Graowr's submerged mouth. She'd spotted something, by the look of it. Both of her arms splashed up out of the water, and she hopped up, well out of the increasingly rough brine, leaping through the air. "Hey! Hey, Zedd!" She splashed back down, some dozen paces forward of where she had been, and continued forward in short, quick hops. Out of the water, and back down under the surface, splashing and foraging along. She was sure of it now, it was him! Standing there, glaring at the ocean like it had insulted his mother.

The skinless galactic tyrant had scarcely time to register something was coming toward him, much less register what it was or turn around to greet it, before a soaking wet blur of blue and black exploded out of the water, diving for him in a (admittedly, very comically) majestic flying tackle. It hit him like a sopping cannonball, sending him staggering drunkenly half a pace. "What in the—?!" He recovered himself, doing his best to glare over his shoulder at whatever had latched onto his back. In the end, he resolved to heft his Z-Staff, peering into the polished metal as a makeshift mirror. When he saw a pair of wide, bright pink eyes staring back at him from a blue face, the tension and aggression in his posture eased (very, very slightly) and he heaved a sigh. "Release me, cerulean abomination," he demanded in a tired, resigned tone.

"Glad to see you again, too!" she said brightly, leaning forward to shift her grip to drape her arms over the dark tyrant's shoulders, her head shifting forward into his peripheral view. "Where've you been? I was starting to think I'd never find you!"

"I have been stuck wandering among these accursed floodwaters since I arrived!" Zedd snarled, smiting at the water with a backhanded strike. "And I said release me!"

The only response to that was the majin's arms curling inward in an unmistakable hug. "But the water's over my head!" she whined.

The former galactic warlord was practically seething by this point, and it was a wonder the water around them hadn't started to boiling yet. "Fine!" he finally snapped. "Until we are on dry land I will support you. But only until then!" This earned a soft, delighted 'yay!', to which he only let out a muted, angry growl.

"Oh, found a new friend, did ya?" Archer's voice came drifting out of the background.

"Or an old friend, more like," came the hissing voice of Cell shortly after.

Zedd whirled around to face the newcomers, staff in hand, only for Graowr to lift a hand in a wave. "Oh, sorry for running off guys! This is Zedd—"

"Lord Zedd," the skinless warlord interrupted.

"—yeah, Lord Zedd!" she went right on, completely unperturbed. "He's a friend, and we both work for the Empire! I didn't know he joined until a couple days ago, but I'm glad to see him again!"

"Well great, that's just super. While you were re-acquainting, we found the item drop." Archer held up his tablet, showing a zoomed in map of their current location.

"It'ss jusst up ahead, there," Cell spoke up again, pointing further out to sea. "Another few dozen yardss, that little outcropping there."

Zedd's visored face whipped around as the location was pointed out. He turned slowly back to face the other two, studying them intently. "You are also after the item drop?" he questioned, words slow and precise.

"We're all going for it!" Graowr piped up, interrupting anything further. "Maybe we could all go and look for it. More eyes would make it quicker to find!"

"....true enough, perhaps," Zedd reluctantly agreed. Even with such a definite location, perhaps it could have fallen into the surf or gotten dislodged by the waves. Who knew exactly where it lay?

"Great, everyone's one big happy team, now. Let's go."

Colosseum Bros: Zedd joined the party!
Searching for item drop. I'll be holding onto it.