Zone D -- The Foam

[The Future Warrior]

She was now on high alert as she scampered and swam through the tunnel, her aura flaring a brilliant wash of deep pink, lighting her way far more effectively than the flashlight of her scouter. Pulling herself along with both hands, now and then kicking softly against the walls with her legs. In some places it was more slow motion hopping and floating than proper swimming, but it was still constant, easy movement. Her eyes constantly swept across the tunnel before her, wary for any other sudden surprises that might jump out at her. Every now and then she even came to a stop, turning back around to scan behind her, eyes wide and alert. It was probably bordering on paranoia, how attentive she was being, but one close encounter of the toothy kind was more than enough for her. She didn't care for a repeat incident!

Thankfully, she didn't run into anything else along her way. The tunnel gradually started to slope upward, growing wider and easier to navigate. And...was that? It was! Natural light up ahead. Dim as it was, given the probably still terible weather, it meant she was getting back up to the surface. A place she was more than ready to return to. She left the tunnel behind, emerging into what might have at one time been a moderately deep pond or natural pool, some twenty or thirty feet deep. She rocketed up in a strong push from the base of the tunnel and tumbled into a slow motion somersault, landing on her feet on the sandy bottom of the submerged pond.

She shuffled forward, the harsh and flaming glare of her aura dying down to a dull shimmer. Almost at the surface, almost free. Then she could check her tablet and map, and see how off course she'd gotten down there in those tunnels. As she lumbered along the bottom, toward the slope that would lead up to the 'shore' of the sunken pool, she failed to take note of something else disturbing the seafloor.

Her focus on regaining the surface left her completely unaware as a massive form rose up from the depths, spreading a number of long, undulating tendrils. And nearly as one, several of them lashed forward, lashing about and curling around the blue girl's limbs, tugging her back away from her escape to the surface. A (mostly) noiseless shriek left her, the sound mostly muffled by the water and only a torrent of bubbles (the last of the air still in her body, and the primary thing letting her get any buoyancy to swim at all) exploding from her mouth.

"I was almost out of here!" she mentally complained. "Why did this have to happen now?!"