L: Having been called in for a new mission, Lenn checks in with the spy agency he works for, making absolutely sure no outsiders saw him go there. He meets up with his boss, knowing better than to keep them waiting. "So, you called me for a mission... What needs to be done?"

S: the boss turns to look at Lenn sternly
"Glad you made it here Lenn, we've got a serious problem... some kind of weapon agency is planning on releasing a very dangerous kind of chemical that could instantly kill other living beings. We don't know for certain if that's exactly what's happening, but that's the gist of what we know... we need you to go down to their deep underwater base and investigate this further"

L: "Jeez, okay... I'll do my best to look into it. Hopefully it's not gonna be too rough for me to go that far underwater."

S: "I'm sure you'll be able to handle it fine, oh...I also like you to take our newest member here with you... I'll be his first mission and I wanna make sure he can handle things fine around here"

L: "Alright then, that should be okay... So, who's that going to be? I'd heard there was someone new, but I don't think I've met them yet."

S: "It's a Marowak, they don't even know that they are doing this mission as I haven't told them yet, but they should be waiting for you out in the main lobby, just tell them what's going on and then you two get to work on finding out what's going on"

L: "Okay, I'll let them know. Might be nice to have someone with me on one of these... Is there anything else you need me to know?"

S: "Be careful down there... we don't know what we're dealing with, and protect the newbie as well... they may have agreed to be a part of this spy group, but I can tell how scared they are for the missions they may have to deal with..."

L: "I'll do what I can to keep them safe. I don't feel like this'll be too hard, but I'll be careful, don't worry."

S: "Good...now get outta here and go to work!" the boss knows he can trust Lenn with this and nods firmly

L: Lenn nods back, and leaves the room, starting to look around for the marowak.

S: the marowak can be seen sitting on a bench in the main area of the spy faculty, he twiddles his thumbs nervously as he waits to get started with the mission he has no clue about

L: Lenn walks to the marowak. "Hi, you must be the one my boss told me about. I'm Lenn, you're going to be with me for your first mission."

S: the marowak looks up at Lenn with a shy smile
"Hi Lenn... I'm Marcus and yeah, t-the boss told me that I was gonna be with someone for my first mission, I still don't even know what it is..."

L: "Just got briefed on it myself. Hope you're good at swimming, since we're going to be heading to a deep underwater base to investigate some kind of chemical weapon being developed."

S: what Lenn just said made Marcus's mouth drop open
"Oh no... not water...anything but water! I was hoping there wasn't gonna be any of that when I signed up for this spy thing..."

L: "Oh boy... Didn't they make it clear to you that you had to be ready to do anything your body is capable of?"

S: "W-well... I thought they ment that in a fighting sense, not in an environment sense... great, I'm so screwed...I hate being in water, especially underwater... I mean I can swim for survival and all, but that's about it... I don't want any part in this!"

L: "They're not gonna be happy if you turn this down... Plus, kind of looking forward to not being alone on a mission for once."

S: "I mean I get that and all, but I was hoping there wasn't gonna be any water involved when I took this spy job...I'm really scared and I really really don't wanna be swimming for my first mission..."

L: "You wouldn't really have to actually swim, just holding onto me would be fine. I could carry you no problem."

S: Marcus sighs heavily
"This sucks! I don't know what to do...something like this shouldn't be my first mission... especially with how bad I do in the water in general"

L: "I'll make sure to let my boss know you hate water, but I already know they're not going to be assigning you to anything else yet. As much as it'll suck, you're just gonna have to put up with it..."

S: "Awww man...." Marcus tears up at that "I really don't wanna do this... but I suppose I don't really have much of a choice... ugh!"

L: "Hopefully I'll be able to make it at least tolerable to you... Tell you what; if you go through with this, I'll show you something cool I can do that I think is unique to me."

S: "Huh...well, I guess I do like seeing unique things... alright alright, fine...I'll try it out then... but I'm probably gonna need goggles"

L: "I'm sure there's plenty around here somewhere, shouldn't be hard to find a set for you to borrow."

S: Marcus looks around the lobby and sure enough he sees a box with swim goggles in them, he smiles a bit and goes over to pick up a pair of yellow ones and putting them on his forehead before returning to lenn

"Found some"

L: "Perfect! Try them on, then we should get going. We need to get this mission done with as soon as we can."

S: "F-fine..." Marcus puts on the goggles and lowers them over his eyes
"D-do I at least look good in these?"

L: "Yep, they do look good on you! Think we're all set for this now... Physically, at least."

S: "Definitely not mentally, but I'm gonna try my best to not get scared... It won't be easy tho..."

L: "At least this'll be good practice for putting up with things you really don't like doing... Come on, let's head out."

S: "Ugh, I guess your right...let's go then..."
they both walk out and head to the lake where the underwater base is located

L: Lenn looks down into the water. "Alright, this should be the place... Hopefully it's not TOO deep, don't want to put you through too much."

S: Marcus looks down at the water below and yelps
"Oh, that's deep...way too deep for me! I don't think I can handle depths like that!"

L: "It's gonna be fine, I imagine there'll be air in the base. We just have to get down there, then we won't really be underwater for a while."

S: "And if there's not? Then I'm so screwed.... I don't know about this anymore Lenn..."

L: "Look, we have to do this... The sooner we get down there, the sooner this can be done with."

S: "Whyyyyy....." Marcus frowns as he looks down at the deep water again, it looks like it can easily be over 300 feet deep

L: "This kind of depth is gonna be a bit tough on me too... Could be worse though, at least you've got someone aquatic willing to help."

S: "That's true... fine fine, let's do this thing already, I just hope I don't chicken out the second we have to submerge..."

L: "Alright then..." Lenn gets into the water, holding out a hand to Marcus. "Just hold onto me, and I'll get us both down quick."

S: "Mama mia!" Marcus was really scared, but ultimately reaches out to grab Lenn's hand, holding onto him tightly

L: Lenn gives Marcus a hug. "It's gonna be okay, just take some deep breaths... That'll help you stay under longer too, if that comes up." Lenn starts doing some deep breathing of his own.

S: "O-o-ok..."
Marcus's body shakes heavily with fear as he whimpers, but he also does take some deep breathes of his own

L: After a while, Lenn feels ready. "Alright, it's time to give this a try. 3...2...1!" With one more deep breath, he goes underwater, hoping that Marcus will as well.

S: still holding onto Lenn, Marcus takes a deep breath as well and submerges with him, but only for a few moments as he immediately gets himself back up to the surface, gasping in the air
"I can't do it!!!"

L: Lenn comes back up just after. "I was worried about that... There's got to be something we can do to make you feel better..."

S: "I'm sorry, but I don't think anything is gonna work... I'm just too scared... there's no way I'm surviving this..."

the boss meanwhile looks through the window and notices the two of them still not underwater yet, he starts to get a little worried and upset and hopes they will hurry up and go down

L: "We can't just not do this, people are going to get hurt if nothing's done about that chemical the people down there are making!"

S: "I-i know, but why does it have to be underwater... if it was in space then I wouldn't be as afraid since I love to watch the stars at night through a telescope, heh... I probably wouldn't mind going up there, but underwater I can't handle, it's just too creepy for me and I don't go down often"

L: "Maybe at some point after this you'll be sent on a mission in space? But you're probably not gonna be getting another mission if you can't start your very first one..."

S: Marcus sighs heavily again
"Yeah... I know, I'll be nice if I did get sent on a mission to space, but I gotta get through this watery mission first somehow"

L: "We've got to figure something out... Hugging underwater might help, have you done that before?"

S: "No... I dont think so... but I kind of doubt that'll help, I'm not really a hugger kind of person yknow... sure they are nice every once and a while but I'm not big on them"

L: "Okay, maybe not that then... Well, there's got to be something we can do to help you..."

S: "Yeah...but what exactly...cause i don't know"

L: "Um... Well, remember that I've got that cool thing to show you once this is done. Not sure that'll make it worth it, but you'll at least have that to look forward to."

S: "I don't think it's gonna be worth it anymore if im honest... that depth is super intimating for me"

L: "...Then I think I'm out of ideas. I don't know what else to try at this point... Sorry."

S: "Aw dang... well, yknow what just screw it, I may have to just suck it up and do it... cause even I'm out of ideas... I mean I'll at least look forward to your cool thing when I do this.."

L: "Yeah, seems like just getting it over with is going to be the best strategy here. Come on, let's at least make it quick down there."

S: "I really don't wanna... but at this point I'm just delaying everything... I don't know how I'm gonna be able to tolerate this... I'm gonna run out of air so fast since I'm not the best breath holder"

L: "I imagine so, with how much you hate water... What's your breath holding record like?"

S: "For protection purposes my parents got me up to 2 minutes... yeah, my parents kind of forced me to learn how to swim when I was younger... heh...and I haven't gotten that high since the day my parents taught me"

L: "Hm... Well, that's not gonna work at all... Maybe we should see about getting you some scuba gear or something..."

S: "I guess...but I think the boss told me during my orientation that they on are on a budget, so I don't know if they can provide the scuba gear for me..."

L: "Right, yeah, money's been a bit tight... There's a friend of mine that could help, but I doubt he'd be up for this, and I don't want him knowing about it to begin with..."

S: "Huh? What do you mean? Who's this friend of yours? I wanna take any help that I can get here"

L: "He's a dragon named Blubby, he can blow bubbles with his breath that others can inhale underwater. Even if he were okay with helping out, I'm not really sure where he is right now..."

S: "Oh, well that would help... but yeah I don't think you should be telling anyone your spy secret... I've realized that's a big no no at this place...well, I guess we could at least ask the boss if he has something that'll help, even a simple rebreather would be good..."

L: "There MUST be at least something, yeah. We should go ask, just one would be fine since I'm pretty good at holding my breath."

S: "Yeah...alright, let's do that then... but we better we be quick so we can get back here as soon as possible" Marcus jumps out of the water and runs back inside to the boss' room

L: Lenn follows him back there. "Hey, um... Boss, I don't think this'll be happening without Marcus getting something to help him out underwater. Do we have, like, a spare rebreather or something?"

S: Boss - "I was...afraid of that... you know how tight our budget is right now... but, since it's Marcus's first day I'll go a bit easy on him..." the boss goes into a vault and unlocks it, closing it back up after he retrieves a rebreather "I only had one of these rebreathers left so I had to hide it in case someone wanted to steal it...you can use this Marcus, but it only has 45 minutes of air in it, so I would use it wisely and not too often"

Marcus - "W-well, anything helps, thanks..." Marcus takes the rebreather from the boss

L: "That should make this a lot easier, maybe even for me... Thanks. I can see about bringing back something expensive from that base to help out with our money situation, if you want."

S: Boss - "That would be great! I'll definitely give you bonus points for doing that, now hurry and get down there before things get bad!"

L: "Yep, and this time we hopefully won't come back before the mission's done!" Lenn heads back outside toward the lake.

S: Marcus - "Wish us luck...heh" Marcus follows lenn back to the lake, the boss looking at them as they leave

Boss - "...you've got this Marcus..."

L: Lenn gets back into the water. "Alright, this should go WAY better now! Ready to get started?"

S: Marcus - "Yeah, I guess... I just hope this rebreather will last the whole time we're down there, I really don't wanna hold my breath..." Marcus gets in the water as well, still holding his rebreather in his hand

And little does Marcus know that the rebreather has less then 45 minutes, it actaully only has 10 minutes on it... the boss forgot to actaully check it to make sure it was full

L: "Boss did say it has 45 minutes, so we should be fine. Anyway, hold onto me and we'll start heading down. Hopefully I'm not gonna be needing that rebreather myself." Lenn starts taking deep breaths.

S: "Yeah..." Marcus holds onto to Lenn again and puts the rebreather in his mouth, this time feeling a lot better about this

L: After a little while, Lenn holds his breath and dives, assuming that Marcus won't have as much issue this time.

S: Marcus does get scared for a brief moment, but it quickly goes away when the rebreather gives him air when they submerged, relaxing a bit as he takes in those gulps of air, silently hoping the rebreather will hold out until they are done with their mission

L: Lenn looks back at Marcus, smiling. "There you go! We'll have this done in no time, don't worry." He starts quickly swimming deeper.

S: Marcus gives a little thumbs up as he holds onto Lenn as they go down deeper...

however, because of how scared Marcus was getting when they were quickly plunging deeper he was using up those 10 minutes of air really fast, and once they get a bit over halfway to the bottom towards the base, that's when the rebreather gave a beeping sound, warning the user that it's almost out of air, likely running out in the less then 20 seconds, which in turn made Marcus's eyes go wide as he heard the beep

L: "Wait, is that the rebreather? He said it had 45 minutes! Ugh, I don't want to just turn back, we've wasted enough time already... Take it out and hold your breath, we have to make it last!"

S: what Lenn just said made Marcus panic, he didn't wanna take the rebreather out and start holding his breath, so he fearfully shook his head no, really wanting to make this rebreather last as it ticks down to 15 seconds remaining

L: "Look, if you don't conserve it, I'm not sure we'll EVER be able to do this. The boss said this is the only one, and you need an air compressor to charge these! I think, anyway."

S: Marcus whines, the air is getting lesser and lesser, they are almost at the bottom, but Marcus still refuses to take off the rebreather, 10 seconds of air remain as he starts to think to himself if he should just suck it up and hold his breath

L: "Marcus, please... Neither of us want to tell our boss that you couldn't do this, especially after we went back to get help..."

S: that just makes Marcus whine even more, 8 seconds of air left and he knew time was running out... with a resigned look, he takes the biggest deep breath and holds it in fearfully before taking off the rebreather, his cheeks puffing out... the rebreather itself closes up, and now the remaining air is trapped inside it, Marcus was immediately thinking about putting it back on with how scared he is

L: "I know you hate this, but it's really our only option at this point. Come on, let's see about getting into that base, hopefully that'll help distract you."

S: Marcus tries his best to hang in there, bubbles constantly escaping him with how deep down they are, and they do eventually reach the bottom, however Marcus's face is fully red, grunting from strain, it's very clear he's a very bad breath holder

L: "Hang in there... Maybe the pressure will be better once we're inside, I don't know." Lenn starts carefully making his way toward the base.

S: there seems to be no guards on the front side of the base, but there are some on the sides, the whole base looks be submerged inside and out

Marcus starts to get desperate for air, so he grabs the rebreather and shoves it back into his mouth to catch his breath with the 8 seconds of air left, which he sighs out bubbles of relief when he gets the air

L: "Try not to let out too many bubbles, if you can...", Lenn whispers to Marcus as he looks for an entrance, trying to stay clear of any guards as well.

S: Marcus is now relaxed as he has the air, but not for much longer as he tries to stay clear of the guards as well, they manage to find an opening on the base, but it's right next to a guard who seems to be flushing red from their need to breathe

L: Lenn thinks to himself about what to do for a moment... He does his best to sneak up to the guard, planning on squeezing them as hard as he can to force out their air.

S: Marcus slowly follows, but stops when the rebreather starts to beep rapidly, meaning it only has 3 seconds left of air which made Marcus's eyes go wide again

L: Hearing that prompts Lenn to change up his strategy a little, and he looks over the guard to see if they have some kind of air source of their own.

S: they don't seem to have any air source on them right now, this particular guard having to rely on his lungs for this job as they grunt from strain

L: After confirming that, Lenn resumes his original plan, grabbing the guard and squeezing their belly hard, trying to force out their air.

S: the guard was completely caught off guard as their air gets forced out suddenly, quickly turning their face purple as they cover their mouth

Marcus meanwhile has now used all the air in the rebreather, so he was unfortunately forced to take a last deep breath and hold it in before taking off the rebreather once again, whimpering out bubbles

L: Lenn smirks at the guard. "Better get a move on, the surface is pretty far..." He lets go of them and looks over at Marcus, seeing they're holding their breath. "It's out of air, isn't it?"

S: the guard looks around nervously before swimming off somewhere with his hands over his mouth

Marcus looks up at lenn with a very scared look
"Mmhm...." he was very much scared as he covers his mouth, his face already red

L: "Well, there must be some kind of air source inside... If we don't find one right away, we'll head back up and try to figure something out."

S: Marcus nodded his head, unable to speak as he tries to conserve his air, still constantly losing bubbles

L: Lenn leads Marcus inside the base. Knowing that the base has air-breathing guards, he hopes he won't have to look far to find some way to breathe.

S: as mentioned before the whole base is completely underwater, Marcus grunts from his need to breathe again as a couple of guards are blocking a door, both of them having red blushes

L: "Maybe there isn't much air to be had here...", Lenn whispers at the sight of more breathless guards. With there being two of them this time, he knows his previous strategy probably won't work, so he starts trying to think of some other way to get past them.

S: Marcus hopes he'll get to breathe soon... the guards air was getting lower and they didn't seem to be good at dealing with breathless feelings like this, so they swim off... thankfully, they didn't even see that there's a decent sized air pocket space just 10 inches above where the guards were at

L: "Oh, nice, there's air!" Lenn gestures up to it, and helps Marcus get there quickly so they can breathe.

S: Marcus immediately gets to the air pocket and gasps in the air heavily
"Hah...hah...hah, oh man i thought I was never gonna breathe the air again back there!"

L: Lenn surfaces alongside him. "Yeah, that got closer than I'd like... Weird that the guards here don't have any kind of air supply of their own. Hopefully we'll be able to find one so this isn't as stressful for you..."

S: "Y-yeah...that would be nice, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to go back under now...at least not for a while... that whole situation was terrifying!"

L: "There's no WAY we can just stay here, we have no idea how long those guards are going to be gone!"

S: "Ugh, I mean I know that...but there's no way I'm gonna convince myself to duck back under, I've already been through too much already"

L: "We have to! If we don't, at best we'll be stuck here, and at worst we're gonna end up being captured!"

S: "Well i-i don't wanna get captured, but..." Marcus looks down at the water, he knew that they still had to find the actaul thing they are looking for in the first place and just waiting time will get them in more trouble, so he sighs very heavily

L: "Come on, we have a job to do, as scary as it is to be here... Might be fun to mess with the people here, at least."

S: "Yeah... but I don't feel as comfortable now that I have to hold my breath because this stupid rebreather ran out..."

L: "I know... There should be more air pockets like this around, we can take a break in each one we find."

S: "I guess... but I still gotta get myself back underwater and I don't know if I can do that with how shooken up I am"

L: "Maybe we'll find something that'll make this trip worth it for you? We're not gonna find out unless we keep going."

S: "Maybe... but I don't wanna hold my breath again... and it's looking like I have no choice"

L: "Yeah, we really have no other option... Heh, maybe there's something they're making here that'd give you gills or something, who knows?"

S: "That'll be nice...well, alright...let's go back down...i-i guess"

L: "Alright... Deep breaths, like I said earlier. That's gonna really be helping this time. And by the way, if you need air, I can probably exhale some of mine into something so you can breathe." Just in case, Lenn starts deeply breathing.

S: "O-ok then... thanks" Marcus starts to do some deep breathing as well

L: After a little while, Lenn is ready, and he dives under again, waiting for Marcus.

S: Marcus was very scared to go back under, but after a final breath he pinches his nose shut and dives under as well

L: "Okay, let's keep looking around..." Lenn continues to sneak through the base with Marcus, wondering what they're going to find.

S: Marcus was feeling scared again so he side hugs Lenn with his free arm, that's how desperate he is as he hopes to find whatever it is they need to find and get outta here

L: "Hang in there... Hopefully we won't have to be doing this for much longer."

S: "Mmmm...."

they find what looks to be a meeting room, and there's a few people in there talking, most of it is bubbletalk but there are some that are clear and that they can hear

L: Lenn motions for Marcus to stop as he listens.

One of the people talking is an orca. "Any ideas on what we should be adding in to finish off that chemical weapon? We're getting pretty close at this point..."

S: Marcus stops and listens in on what's going on

another one who's talking, which is a gray lizard, chimes in

Gray Lizard - "I-i donblt thblink sblo...  mablybe somble extblra poisblon would be niblce... reblally makble sublre itbls deadbly! Hehble..."

L: A third, a raven, laughs out some bubbles at that. "Webll, whblateblver thblat'lbl ble, wble hblave tblo nablme iblt ablt soblme poblint! Cabln't jublst keblep cabllinblg iblt chblemiblcal 17, cabln wble?"

S: the gray lizard couldn't help but giggle out bubbles at what he just said

A fourth one, which is an Umbreon chimes in too

Umbreon - "Mablybe wble shoubld call iblt "Thble Poisobln Destbloryer!" Hehble!"

the gray lizard claps his hands at that suggestion and giggles, he definitely seems quite young for this kind of stuff, but he seems to be always evil at the heart

Gray lizard - "Ooh I liblke thblat!"

L: Orca: "Yeah, that sounds good to me!"

Raven: "Deblfinblitebly! Wble shbloulbld asblk arblounbld anbld seble whblat thble otblherbls thblink!"

S: "Uh hublh! Uh hublh!" the gray lizard's face is fully red as he wasn't the best at breath holding

the umbreon starts to ask some of the others if they think it's a good idea to call it that

Marcus meanwhile from the outside grunts quietly from strain as his own face turns full red

L: Lenn covers Marcus' mouth for him.

Most of the people in the room agree on the name.

Orca: "Alright! Let's go let the boss know we've finally come up with a name!"

Raven: "Anbld Ibl cobluld usble abl brbleatblh, toblo. Dobln't wablnt tblo inblhblale wablter abl thblird tiblme thblis weblek..."

S: Marcus smiles faintly at that

Umbreon - "Goobld idblea..."

Gray Lizard - "I havblent inhalbled watbler oncble thankfulbly, and I rblather not sbltart todblay...thblen I'll be toblo scablred to go unblderwater..."

L: Orca: "Let's get going, then, you're already pretty red." He, the raven, and the others all file out of the room, thankfully none of them seeing Lenn or Marcus.

Lenn: "Alright, we know what to look for now. Stuff that refers to "chemical 17", since it'll take a while for all references to it to be changed."

S: the gray lizard covered his mouth as they all swam out of the room

Marcus nods his head, he's feeling a tad bit better now as he's more used to the water

L: Lenn and Marcus resume exploring... Eventually, they come to what seems like a lab of some kind. "Perfect, we should be able to find out what the poison's made of here."

S: by now, Marcus's face is turning blue again, whining a little as he tries to stay focused

L: "Crap, you need air, um... There must be something in here I can blow some of mine into..." Lenn starts quickly looking through the lab.

S: Marcus does too, trying to keep a tight hold of his air, little bubbles constantly escaping him

L: Thankfully, Lenn soon finds an empty bucket. "Okay, this'll work!" He holds it upside-down above his head, blows a lot of bubbles from his blowhole into it to fill it with air, then he passes it to Marcus.

S: Marcus immediately sticks his head inside the bucket and gasps in the air heavily
"Hah...hah, this feels so weird but I'm glad I could breathe now...I don't wanna do this anymore..."

L: "Just have to find out what's used to make that poison, then we can leave. I think our boss will be satisfied with that."

S: "I'm keeping this bucket on, I don't wanna hold my breath anymore...my lungs are so tired..."

L: "I'm gonna need that air back at some point... Don't think I can surface in time like this..." Lenn is already blushing a little bit.

S: "Aww come on! I can't catch a break... I think the air is getting stale already tho...I'm having a hard time breathing!"

L: "No matter how stale it is, it's still gonna be better than hardly having anything in me!"

S: "So...your telling me I should start holding my breath again huh? Oh boy..."

L: "Y-yeah, sorry that that air's so short-lived... But like I said, we're probably almost done here."

S: "Oh alright...before I do I just wanna say I'm sorry I was so stubborn and scared earlier...I really do struggle with this stuff..."
after a final deep breath, Marcus ducks his head back under and hands the remaining air back to lenn

L: Lenn quickly breathes the air back in, his blush fading some but not entirely. "Don't worry about it, this isn't my first time helping someone with their first mission. Now, let's have a proper look around here..."

S: Marcus nods and starts to look around for anything suspicious...eventually Marcus finds something off...noticing a sort of source to the chemical that everyone was referring to...he points to it and gets Lenn's attention

L: "Oh, did you find something? What's up?" Lenn swims over to take a look at what Marcus has found.

S: it seems to be the main source for this chemical that's planning to go out very soon, this whole lab is connected to it, Marcus shows lenn the emergency stop button that may seemingly stop this whole process all together!

L: Lenn smirks as he looks it over. "May as well raise some havoc while we're here, huh?" He hits the emergency stop button.

S: Marcus giggles out bubbles as Lenn hits the stop button, and sure enough once the process stops, everyone in the base starts to go crazy, Marcus looks at Lenn and tries to gesture that they should get outta here

L: "Yeah, let's get going, they're gonna be MAD if they find us now." Lenn holds Marcus' hand as he starts swimming fast, hoping to get back outside without issue.

S: Marcus tries to help out and they managed to get back outside the base...however... a guard notices them swimming away

Guard - "Freeze!!"

Marcus - "Uh oblh..." Marcus hears that then points upwards so Lenn can hurry up!

L: "Crap, hang on tight!" Lenn rushes upward at full speed, doing his best to outswim the guard.

S: Marcus holds on tight as they swim up a full speed

thankfully this guard is a very slow swimmer so he doesn't even bother to chase them, he's just hoping they didn't do anything suspicious

L: Not really paying attention to the guard, Lenn keeps rushing toward the surface, and soon he and Marcus get there, the dolphin taking in a light gasp. "Hoo boy... Well, we did it!"

S: Marcus meanwhile gasps heavily, he finally smiles after so long
"W-we did do it! Oh fresh air I missed you!!! Never again...never going underwater again! Uh uh... but...thanks for at least making it tolerable for me, I think that guard didn't even bother chasing us! Now let's report back to the boss and then you can show me your cool thing!"

L: "Yep, I was just about to remind you of that thing! I need to be in water for it, but we can use that training pool in our base." Lenn swims to shore and starts heading with Marcus to report to his boss.

S: "Well, ok then...hopefully I won't have to be underwater to see it...heh" Marcus follows and heads back to the boss as well

L: Once they arrive, Lenn smiles at his boss. "Well, we're back, and... We didn't find out a whole lot about the chemical, but we now know they're calling it "The Poison Destroyer", and we messed with the production of it while we were there!"

S: "Yep!"

Boss - "Ah well done you two! The poison destroyer, I'll make sure to look into it when I can, Marcus I'm very proud of you for facing your fears, I know this wasn't easy but you did it!"

Marcus - "Hehe....thanks boss"

Boss - "You guys are free to go now, thanks a bunch for your help"

L: "Thank you, sir!" Lenn leaves.

Once Marcus leaves as well, Lenn explains a little about what he has planned. "So, that thing takes me half an hour to do, and not much happens before that. I imagine you know where the pool is, so meet me there in about 28 minutes. And don't worry, you won't have to go in the water."

S: "Hmm, well alright then...cool!"

about 30 minutes later, Marcus heads to the pool area and looks around for Lenn

L: Lenn is there floating on the surface... Glowing! "Ah, there you are! And yes, I'm glowing, but this isn't it. You're just in time though, only about 30 seconds left."

S: Marcus's eyes go wide
"What the... what's gonna happen..."
he waits the 30 seconds to find out

L: In the last couple seconds, the glow tints blue, before there's a flash. When the light is gone, Lenn has become a feral dolphin instead of an anthro one! "Tada! I have two different forms!"

S: now Marcus's mouth drops open
"What?!?! No way that's so cool! Your an actual dolphin now! That's awesome! How in the world did you end up getting this amazing power!?"

L: "Happened across a shrine in an underwater cave, and some magic there let me do this! And, fun fact, this here is actually my natural form - my anthro one is what that actually gave me."

S: "Whoaaa....that's amazing! I'm kind of jealous... I want some magic to get me to stay underwater longer, heh... you look so much more cuter as a feral dolphin!" Marcus blushes a tad at that

L: "I think I look better like this too! And I could take you to that shrine if you want, the magic recharges every month. You've got a REALLY good reason to start practicing with water now!"

S: "That's true... but definitely not right now that's for sure"

L: "Yeah, take some time to relax first. I'm up for helping you get more used to water whenever you feel like it's time."

S: "Thanks Lenn, I appreciate that... hehe! I seriously do love your feral form...you think i could ride around on you for a while? But stay on the surface...heh" Marcus smiles happily

L: "Of course! I was planning on going for a swim to relax anyway, and I prefer doing that in my feral form. Hop on!"

S: "Thanks Lenn!" Marcus gets in the pool and climbs onto Lenn's back
"Hehe... your body is so soft, I already love this"

L: "I've heard I feel a fair bit different in each form, so I'm glad you like it!" Lenn starts swimming around on the surface of the pool.

S: "Heh I guess so!" Marcus holds on as he spends the rest of his time with Lenn, so relieved he managed to get all of this done