Genesis

Prologue: Oceanic

I dropped out of the sky headfirst, diving with my arms pinned to my sides. I waited, and I waited, and I waited further until the very last second I could ticked by. I flung my arms in front of me and clasped my hands together, diving straight into the depths of the ocean.

It was a place I had discovered months ago, and spent those months exploring. It was one of the largest sub-oceanic caverns I had ever encountered, and I had discovered quite few. One of the most notable before this was tucked within the Great Barrier Reef off of the coast of Australia. It was the first time I had discovered that I could breathe underwater.

I don't have gills, and I'm not some fish. I am Korbin Ian Amazia. I'm human; but, I also happen to have super powers. Before any thoughts start swimming, I am the only one. There are none others like me, at least that I know of.

My power manifested over eight years ago during a sickness that took over my body when I was only eight. It brought me to the point of death, but, this power awakened in me and somehow healed me.

No one knows what I can do. No one will.

I have no desire to fight in wars, to right chaos in a world that seems to be doing just fine on its own. My power would only do more harm than good. So, as a result, I spent my time in exploration of the depths of the oceans, to places where no man has ever set foot...or set float, whatever it's called.

I propelled myself downwards with the motions of swimming, a flourish of sweeps that pushed me deeper and deeper towards the vast caverns far below. I can fly through the air at Mach speeds. I have that same capability through water, but, something about the motions of swimming gives me a greater sense of euphoria than no movement at all.

A bull shark began to sweep by me the deeper I got, circling around me like a carrion bird as if I could die at any moment. It wasn't the first time it had done this. Every time I dropped beneath the ocean surface of the South Pacific, a hundred miles off the coast of the Polynesian Islands, this shark drew near.

As expected, the shark came in close and brushed its tailfin lightly against my foot as I swam deeper. I had never known sharks to be territorial, but, according to this one, he liked his space.

It had never attacked. I doubt it ever would. It only ever touched me once every time I descended.

Little light reached this deep, but my eyes drew in whatever light they could. Even in the darkest depths of the ocean, somehow, I was capable of seeing, if only just outlines of objects. However, that wasn't the case now. I could see nearly the whole way to the bottom, where the large hole burrowed itself into the ocean floor.

The hole was the size of three of me with outstretched arms. I was about five foot, ten, short black hair, dark green eyes, and a complete inability to grow any sort of facial hair. I think I am cursed, but my father, Darius Aleppo Amazia, as if his name is important, just says that it takes time. I've spent a lot of time waiting, but I've still got nothing.

After a few hundred feet more of swimming, I got tired of the constant motions of pumping my arms back and forth and began to increase my speed, gliding through the water as if it were, well, water. Cutting through it like a knife, I quickened my progress. After another two thousand feet, which took less than a minute, I finally came in range of the hole.

I looked from left to right, as if what I was about to do was incredibly suspicious, or just that someone would even see. As expected, there was nothing around me that could see. Except for the eyes of the fish, who swam about as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

The hole led to a large tunnel with a large array of twists and turns. By now I had the path memorized, but when I initially discovered the caverns it took a lot of trial and error to find my way through the tunnels without getting lost. There were at least a dozen off shoots from the main tunnel that led to nowhere, and I had traveled them all.

Eventually, with the right turns, I was deposited into an enormous cavern full of light. I had come to call the cavern the Spectral Cavern because of what the light looked like. The light itself was caused by large huddles of bioluminescent corals, which clung tightly to the ceiling and around all seven of the offshoots from the main cavern. The light it gave off appeared to float through the cavern's water and constantly shifted in form, like a specter. But, the light had a blue tint to it. There were other variated of corals as well, but the blue overpowered the others by a mile.

Each of the offshoots led to somewhere, whether that was a dead end of another cavern, but none have yet to lead to anything of intrigue. I was hopeful today that I would find something spectacular. I tuned my ears to listen.

There was a multitude of sounds reverberating throughout the cavern. Most of them came from above, where the long tunnel reached to the open ocean. Some, however, were unique to the caverns.

I could hear echoes of stones breaking off of the walls and ceilings, colliding with the floor and rolling until they stopped. I had desired to explore these caverns without much use of my power, but, after the first three tunnels I had explored, which led me nowhere, I decided that it was better to at least attempt to use my gifts. It was paying off.

One sound in particular drew my attention. It was nothing like the others. It sounded like a pattern, and it was constant.

I dove down, following the sound.

I barreled through a long series of tunnels, moving as fast. The tunnel never broke off, nor did it drop off into other caverns. It remained constant like the noise, which continued to grow louder.

It didn't take long for me to reach the origins of the sound. I slowed down at an expanse of tunnel that appeared to be carved out of the stone. The walls were smooth and moderately circular, as if something rough had rubbed against them almost constantly. Portions of the wall were carved deeper than the others. I wondered why.

The smooth tunnel continued on for about a mile until, up ahead, I could see it open up into a large, cavernous room. I drew close to the wall and peered out into the room, deliberately choosing to stay within the confines of the tunnel.

The room was full of shallow coves, which pocketed the walls in intervals of about a foot, all the way up to the ceiling. There were thousands of them within the massive room. I couldn't tell how the room was illuminated, but it was lit by a deep violet light. It seemed to be pervading the air by way of tiny cracks at random intervals between the otherwise seamless walls.

Something was peculiar about the cavern. It was strange, eerie. It made me fearful, but I couldn't place why.

I took a step into the cavern and immediately felt the pull of a mild current, as if something in the cavern caused the water within to swirl like a whirlpool. I took a second step into the cavern. Immediately I felt the force of a battering ram crash against my chest, sending me careening head over heels back through the tunnel behind me.

I came to a stop as my back slammed heavily against the wall, which had been nearly forty feet behind me. I felt disoriented. Nothing had ever been able to push me back like that. What could this be?

I shook my head and looked back towards the violet cavern. A shadowy creature floated at the entrance, slowly shifting itself back and forth to withstand the pull of the current. Its crimson eyes bore into me.

The eel-like creature began to writhe as a series of vibrations rippled towards me through the water. A sound like hissing reached my ears and the writhing stopped. I could see a sense of madness in the creature's eyes, a desire for blood.

The creature lurched forward, putting on a sudden burst of speed and surged towards me. The wave of compressed water from the speed of its movement hit me first, but the creature was far more relentless. Its fury overshadowed me.