FicWad

One sphere travelled to the city of Atlantis, enveloping and terrifying a small fish. The little fish swam around in the sphere frantically, bumping against it and being repelled, the experience more like hitting a current than a rock. The fish was very glad in its fishy way to eventually be released to go back into the safety of a school, but it never reached one. It wandered for a little before a Singer spotted the lone fish and ate it.

But the Metasphere did not know this.

Ecco was swimming for the City of Forever in Atlantis' heart. He had to destroy the time machine before anything else could happen. Near the entrance to the City of Forever, he swam into a current going in the direction he wanted to go, and he saw that it was driving him toward a Metasphere. He didn't have much time to wonder what it would change him into before -

- he was very small. There were others around him, others of his kind - but what was his kind? He looked as the group started swimming, and realized he was a small fish, the kind he often fed on. Now, Ecco was afraid; before the transformation, his song had seen a pod of little grey dolphins that had taken up residence in Atlantis, and he could hear that they were hunting. There was nothing to do but swim and find whatever negated this Metasphere as fast as possible, and so Ecco swam.

It was a very long, very frightening swim, even worse than his first entrance into the open ocean. Several times the Singers came near him, almost unknowingly ate their hero. Ecco was as quick as a fish as he had been as a Singer, and the fish had enough of a brain that he could still be cunning, but eventually one of the Singers outmaneuvered him, grabbed him -

- and a confused Singer was holding Ecco's tail in her mouth.

"Let go!" Ecco cried, nodding his head. "I have to get to the Atlantean time machine!"

The Singer obeyed. She was still dumbstruck, but one of her podmates said "How did -"

Ecco cut her off. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. Perhaps I will come back and sing to you what happened later." Ecco started to move off, and a member of the pod called at him.

"Wait! There is a Vortex creature past there!"

Ecco halted and spun around in one motion, very surprised. "What?!"

"Yes! We saw it go by some time ago!"

"Hey! Hey, the marks on your head... you are Ecco! Did you come to defeat the last of the Vortex?"

"I... um, yes. Yes, now that I know it to be here." How can there be any more Vortex without their Queen?

"What do you mean?"

"I have to go. I have no time, much less than I thought I did. Goodbye!" With that, Ecco swam into the heart of Atlantis, leaving the pod confused. After a time, they went back to hunting, deciding that whatever other business Ecco apparently had, he would also be able to take care of the Vortex creature.