I recall the moment my power chose me. The Zookeeper led me to a solitary chamber, assuring me it was sink or swim time.
I was swallowed by the water.
Suddenly, I was swimming, instinctively, in the boundless ocean of Arcadia. No light to guide me, no familiar landmarks to anchor me.
Just black.
I find myself there again.
All I can do is relentlessly push forward, fiercely fighting with every bit of strength I possess. Battles wage around me. The waters roil beneath me, each one striving to claim my spirit. Below, I feel the icy clutch of Panther’s betrayal, laying in wait to ensnare me. The moment I cease struggling, he’ll snatch me and cast me into the void.
If my blood taints the water, they’ll come for me.
Above, a maelstrom of the Zookeeper’s deception swirls, threatening to throw me out of the currents and into his treacherous clutches. The ocean only grows deeper and darker, filled with sorrow and regret.
It’s a game of betrayal against loyalty, but neither provides comfort. There’s only the ocean, and the struggle to survive.
I keep passing relics drifting in the water, a grim testament to those who failed before they reached the end.
My brothers. Individuals who were once like me, burdened with the power of the Blue Shark.
A ship with a gaping hole, the invading water dragging its occupant down into the abyss.
I narrowly avoid a discarded horse’s saddle, its rider succumbing to death after losing the war against pestilence.
I count my strokes as I witness a man sacrificing everything for seven lousy credits.
Seeing my predecessors illuminated the harsh reality. Each had made it as far as I had, but all had been broken by the burden. They all believed that outswimming the rest equated to strength.
But the ocean is vaster than that.
It doesn’t care about those who sink or those who rise to rule the deep blue. The ocean only endures. It’s all it knows, all it ever will know.
Live. Die. It doesn’t fucking matter.
That’s what the Zookeeper wanted, to throw another lamb to the slaughter that is his Kingdom.
My eyes grow cloudy. Falc is in danger. The Uprising and Apokalpsis wage war in Arcadia, in a fatal game of tug-of-war for all who get in the middle.
But I choose the sea. I choose to fight.
I see the truth.
Even as the Black Panther reaches up to claim my spirit, he can’t grasp me. I won’t stop fighting.
All of my predecessors? They embraced the pandemonium, but they believed the fight actually had an ending. They gave their all, only to fall short.
Me? I’m going to keep swimming. I’m going to keep fighting.
Because there’s nothing else. The truth is there’s no damn victory here, no happy ending to this harsh reality.
I may be a lamb, but I’m also a shark.
The Blue Shark. And I will bear that mantle forever.
Because all there is the fight, and just like the sea…
…the fight never fucking ends.