A little thing called logic...(Open)

[Jilak]

The air rushing around him was deafening. Because of his position in the air, it was too painful to open his eyes. He couldn't SEE where he was. Couldn't HEAR. He merely knew he was thousands, perhaps millions, of feet into the air. And falling fast.

But we'll get to that in a moment. First, a recap of what lead to this.

"Oh come on. What's the WORST that could happen?" He'd asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, according to the warning, we could, oh, BE SENT TO ANOTHER DIMENSION."

"When has that EVER happened to anyone?"

"Well, last week on Danger Dave..."

"...you still watch that show?"

"Is that a CRIME?"

"When I become king of the universe, yes, yes it will be. But that's beside the point. The machine isn't DANGEROUS, it-"

"Then why do you want to press the button?"

"...alright, touche. BUT BESIDE THE POINT." He had then, abruptly, grabbed his comrade's arm, yanking him forward into the machine. However, he hadn't expected him to jerk away at the last second the way he did. It had tossed him off balance, turned an unseen dial.

And this is where you came in. The boy known as Dr. Science had awoken bright, happy, with high expectations for the day. Mistake number one. Mistake number 2 had happened much earlier in the week, when he'd refused swim lessons. Mistake number 3 would soon follow mistake one, as he pressed the button on the aforementioned machine.

Mistake number 4 was, of course, forgetting necessities, such as a parachute. However, he had quite a bit of time to think about it. The fall, considering his starting height, took a total of four minutes. This was enough time to contemplate his inevitable death, rethink his actions, and eventually grow bored and wish to just 'slam into the friggin ice already'.

Mistake number 5 was, surprisingly, not attempting to move in mid-air. Sure, he could've exhausted himself, and he would surely need that energy, but had he moved at least three feet to his right, he'd have landed on more solid ice, and not the shallow end he soon crashed into.

And then he went under. It was a struggle for survival, the frigid liquid slowing him down. He thrashed. He didn't know how to swim, but he felt if he could thrash enough, he'd manage to make it to the surface. No such luck. His body began to tire, hypothermia began to set in. He began to sink, merely able to push one hand towards a surface that was a million miles away. To him, at least. In reality, he couldn't have been more than a yard away from it.

"Help... me..." He gurgled. It was probably a bad idea to speak, but he was growing desperate.

[gantzgun74]

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It was horribly depressing down here... A temple inside a kind of magical barrier that allowed normal people to breathe if they could reach this place. But no-one even knew it existed, it was doubtful anyone would ever see it.

Sure the temple had it's ups; beautifully hand-crafted hallways, with statues of a god possibly long forgotten to the world above. Delicately designed chandeliers hang from the cieling of this place, their weight keeping them from floating up to the cieling itself, made of pure gold. The temple itself was a dull grey that seemed to shine a little despite how far it was from the surface. Their were so many new places to explore, and so many new things to discover...

But Mizuno still felt trapped, depressed, and lonely.

Sitting inside one of the temples top towers, Mizuno was sitting crosslegged on the floor. His body had long since grown used to the frigid water in this place, and if anything, it matched his new state of mind...

For those that knew of his previous life, they'd know that Mizuno had a life once, a group of friends that treated him similarly to family; it was the closest thing to a family he had... And in one fell swoop...

They were gone. Taken away from him by a cruel fate. The Dark Insects came, and there was not a thing he could've done to stop them... Now here he was, cold, unloved...

And alone...

"I told you did I not?"

Well... Mostly alone.

Thanks to events the poor fish humanoid was unsure of, he had an odd voice inside his head that usually nagged at what he should be doing rather then what he wanted to do. Before, he used to listen to this voice, thinking, possibly even knowing that it just wanted what was best for him. But after meeting Gantz and the others, he had either ceased listening to it, or it just left him alone.

Until only recently anyways.

"I told you that you would regret trusting them."

Mizuno lowered his head sighing. "They were my friends..."

"Exactly. WERE. Friends are a fleeting pleasure in life. They only provide us company until they find it best to move on. It was a lesson you shouldn't have had to learn now, but one you were bound to learn eventually." Mizuno sighed. Another oddity about this temple was that it allowed him to breathe like a human when the place was clearly filled with water. He had gills so breathing underwater like a fish was one of his other strengths though. "Now then? Are you going to actually listen this time? We have to stay focused now don't we? Especially if we want to find a way to get what we need."

Before he used to listen to what the voice told him, but these days, the voice was just considered by Mizuno to be an annoyance... ... ... ...

But an annoyance that seemed to know he wanted something otherwise. "Okay... I'll stay focused then..."

"Good boy. Now, we just need to-"

'Help me'...

.........

Mizuno's highly sensitive ears suddenly perked up catching the slightest trace of a voice somewhere.

"Did... Did you hear that?"

"What did I say about staying focused?!"

But Mizuno had just pushed the voice aside. He KNEW he hadn't imagined THAT one.

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It took a quick second for Mizuno to figure out that the human breathing stopped working once you were far enough away from the temple, but thankfully his underwater instincts kicked in (As did the gills) and, using the currents of water, swam like a jet at where he heard the sound.

He was almost surprised to see what appeared to be an odd looking human floating in the frigid water.

[Jilak]

He knew he was sinking. That was all he knew. He knew he was sinking and running out of air. And he knew that running out of air lead to death...

He also knew he was cold, cold to a point that he was surprised he hadn't frozen to death yet. Perhaps he'd survive drowning to death by freezing to death first. It happened. But he had a feeling he wouldn't be that lucky. He was in another dimension, all alone, no friends, no family, nothing but the cold embrace of the Crystal Lake...

He could feel something... or maybe he could hear it. His senses were disoriented as well, he wasn't sure which it was, he couldn't choose. His body wanted to stop moving, stop fighting the inevitable, sink to the bottom... but he'd never sink fast enough to make it to the temple.

And then his eyes opened, perhaps for the last time, and he managed to focus enough to see something coming towards him. It appeared to be a Merman... or maybe it was a shark? Dr. Science was too out of it to tell. And then he felt his last seconds of awareness fall away from him, his body going limp as he slipped out of consciousness.

[gantzgun74]

Mizuno looked over the odd figure, trying to figure out what to do... He was WAY too out of air to reach the temple in time...

But how was he supposed to break through the tough ice and get him back on dry land? It's not like he tried to break out of the ice before... But would he have enough power?

... ... ... ...

NO.

The time for second guessing was over. The time for action was now.

Quickly Mizuno grabbed the boy, and floated up to the ice; all he needed was a weak section of ice just big enough to punch his way through. Knocking on the ice, Mizuno was disappointed to find that the ice was pretty thick all around. How was he supposed to get out? Starting to panic he looked around some more and hoped to find some opening in the ice that he could take advantage of...

Suddenly, he saw it. A hole in the ice not too far off it looked just big enough for him and the boy to get out.

Excited, he swam over at fast speeds...

As he passed the hole however, he was unaware that the back of his trenchcoat became caught on a hook at the end of a fishing line...

[XDDD Do you see where this is going? Now all we need is a fisherman.]

[Jilak]

Well, the first thing he noticed was that he still had air pumping into his lungs. Which meant he hadn't been gifted with the power of dead yet. Darn.

Ah, well. Lost super powers aside, he was alive. Which turned out was more fun than being dead. By a long-shot. But... it didn't make sense. HOW was he still alive? Had those epic Superman-esque abilities finally kicked in? Had he magically learned how to swim?

Or had he been saved by some unknown, seemingly aquatic, life-form? One connected to a fishing line? I'm personally leaning towards that one. Unfortunately, there was now a very disgruntled character standing on the ice. NPC or not. He'd just had a MERMAN leap through the ICE at HIM/HER. That wasn't something you recovered from easily, this author speculates.

"Huh buh duh wha?" Dr. Science gasped out, coughing up a considerable amount of water.

[gantzgun74]

Mizuno felt like he had been yanked out of the water by the back of his trenchcoat... Which honestly? Was exactly what happened. At the end of the whole thing, Mizuno felt like he was floating in mid-air, unable to reach the ice that was beneath his feet... ...

He suddenly felt himself being turned around in mid-air...

Before he finally came face to face with the angler that had caught him. "Hmmm... Now this is an interesting catch."

Bark the Polar bear had come out to Crystal Lake hoping to catch some fish to eat with Bean... But he honestly hadn't seen Mizuno coming. Mizuno felt intimidated by the fisherman; understandible since said fisherman was a muscular looking polar bear. "Who... Who are you?"

Seeming surprised at this, Bark raised an eyebrow. "I think the better question is, who are you, kid?"

[Jilak]

You know, it's never good when the first thing you see upon awakening is an aquatic being and/or a polar bear. Even worse when you see both. Worse still when the aquatic being is attached to a fishing line of some sort. The fishing POLE being held by the polar bear.

Which, of course, didn't mean the boy was 'scared'. Mind you, the polar bear did seem rather intimidating. But the fact that Mizuno seemed to be experiencing the same level of intimidation was slightly helpful. In the most odd of ways, sure. But still.

"...talking polar bear? Merman wearing a trenchcoat? This is one of THOSE universes, isn't it?"

[gantzgun74]

Bark looked to the young man with an odd eyebrow raise; apparently that comment had thrown him off a little. After a second, he finally spoke again. "Even more interesting..."

Finally Bark moved the fishing rod away from the hole he had made to ice fish. With another movement, he set Mizuno and Dr. Science on the ice, it was solid ice, so it was hard enough that the two could step on. With that done, Mizuno found and removed the hook from his coat, before turning back to Bark. "Th... Thank you." Mizuno couldn't meet Bark's eye when he said that, but it barely mattered to the Polar Bear, he sometimes talked similarly.

"Think nothin' of it. I was only trying to catch some dinner for me and my partner." Bark shook his head as he said this. After a second, he cast his line back out... ... ... .. .... ...

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........................................He finally noticed Mizuno had not moved from where he was. "Don't you have someplace you need to go kid? Friends, family?"

Mizuno looked a bit surprised at this, before he sighed. "N-no... I... I don't have any friends..."