Poke-Perils Part 15: Skyla

    Above the oceans of Unova, a small cargo plane flew among the clouds. The Mistralton gym leader sat at the controls, meticulously looking over the instruments inside the cockpit. Everything seemed fine so far, and Skyla simply enjoyed being above the endless sea.  
"Kzzzt....Mistalton to Swanna 1. Come in Swanna 1," a voice said through her radio.

She glanced at her radio and picked it up. "This is Swanna 1."

"You've been radio silent for half an hour. Is everything alright?"

"Everything is fine, Mistalton." Skyla smiled. "Just enjoying the nice weather, over." 

"It's important that you stay in constant contact with us. Who knows when disaster might strike?"

    Skyla rolled her eyes slightly. "Don't be so dramatic! What are the odds of that happening?" 

"Higher than you think. We're expecting a storm to roll in later today. You'd best be careful up there, especially since you decided to leave your pokemon behind."

"It's fine!" she smiled as she leaned back against her chair, kicking her feet up."It's all sunny up here. A few clouds but nothing too bad.."

"Alright then. Just stay safe. I'll check in on you again in a little while. Over."

    She put the speaker back on the radio before resting her hands behind her head in a relaxed pose. 'A few rain clouds aren't going to ruin my day,' she thought sighing contently.  The sun was bright and the plane had plenty of fuel. She closed her eyes for a moment of relaxation. Upon the horizon, the clouds slowly began to get darker. She wasn't asleep for more than five minutes before she felt the plane begin to shake. The vibrations were small, but jolting nonetheless as she opened her eyes, blinking slowly. "Hrmmn..." She stretched her arms and looked through the window. "There's the storm. Time to turn arou-"

    CRASH! Lightning filled the cockpit in the window, temporarily blinding her. The sounds of crunching metal could be heard behind her.

"WHOA!" She covered her eyes with both arms. She been struck while flying before, but it was never a good sign. The plane began to tilt downward. Suddenly the alarms and sirens in the cockpit went off, indicating a complete engine failure. The lighting bolt had fried it entirely.

"Not good!" Skyla tried using the radio. "Mayday! Mayday! Swanna 1 is going down! Repeat! Swanna 1 is in free fall!"

"Bzzt....bzzt..." All she got back from the radio was static, the lightning strike short circuiting it.

"Not this, too!" The plane entered a nose dive, giving her only a few moments to strap herself to her seat. "This is gonna hurt."

She flinched and closed her eyes as the blue abyss of the sea drew nearer. In an instant, the plane crashed into the water with in an impressive splash. The sudden jolt caused skyla to bump her head against the dashboard, knocking her out.  The gym leader laid back limply, strapped into her seat for the ride as the plane sank into the ocean depths.


"Ngh....gh...my...head..." Skyla clutched her forehead feeling a small gash upon slowly waking up. "What...happened?" She softly grunted in her seat, what she saw in front of her through the window was not a very welcome sight. A sandy plain, surrounded by water. Worse still, she felt sea water rising up around her, already up to her shoulders.

"Oh, no. Nononono..." She felt the chilly water against her clothes. She needed to unstrap herself, or she'd end up held under. She pulled against her safety harness, but it was jammed in place, keeping her from from doing so much as floating.

"Grr..." She glanced down at the straps holding her tightly to the chair. In any other instance, this would be outstanding, but not when seawater was rising to touch her chin. 

"Need to...get...out....haaaah....." She took a deep breath as the water passed over her head, streaks of red hair floating freely. Her cheeks puffed out instantly, the girl trapped in her seat as the cockpit quickly began to be filled up. "Mmmmff....Mmmmmf!" Bubbles slipped from her nose with every labored pull. Skyla felt the exhaustion setting in already from her efforts, the girl fighting against heavy duty straps and the weight of the water as well. "Hrrnmblmbl!"

But it was no good. She wasn't strong enough to I strap herself. She brought a hand to her mouth, moaning lightly, lungs filling with stale air. Her face slowly began to turn red. 

'Need air. Think Skyla. Think.' She checked for anything within reach that might help her.  Bubbles escaped from the fingers over her mouth as she did, red hair flowing as she turned her head. The instruments and radio were completely busted.

'Wait...my air mask!' Skyla reached under the dashboard and pulled out a black face mask. Skyla quickly strapped it over her face and flicked a switch. Water was pushed out of the mask as it filled with air. "Hhhh...Ahhh..." She gasped as her reddened face returned to normal. "That's better...good job, girl."  She checked the meter to see how much air there was. "Now I gotta get out of this chair."  Skyla took conservative breaths, tugging at the straps again with both hands. But the buck was still caught too well. The girl huffed, fog filling up her mask as she shook her head.

"Ugh! There's gotta be a way out of this..." She reached around for anything that could cut her loose, finding her grip on a broken shard of glass from the window.  "I hope this works." Skyla brought the shard to the harness, careful not to sever the air hose to her mask.  She cut the harness rather slowly, but the glass managed to cut through the heavy nylon. She ripped the rest off of her with her free hand and floated up from the chair.

"Now how far can this hose go?"  She decided to test it, swimming away from the wall slightly to see where the limit was. The thin hose reached as far as the door to the cargo bay, which was unfortunately blocked off by bent metal and debris.  She glanced at the intrusion, not wanting to get into it and risk pinning herself on any stray debris. "That won't work..."

    She looked at the front window. There were a few holes and craks formed from the impact, but none large or wide enough for her to fit. "That won't work either.." She frowned, running out of options quickly.  Bubbles emerged from her mask as she breathed out. It looked like she really was trapped.  "What am I supposed to do now...?" She huffed, checking on the air in her mask. It was still relatively full, but that would change the longer she stayed down here.   Skyla frowned, floating inside the cockpit filled with water where she was trapped, with dwindling air.

"What are the odds of that happening?" she said mocking herself and fogging up her mask. "You just had to say it..." She had always been very relaxed about flying, never thinking something like this could happen.  She looked up through the window at the distant surface. The sky was like a second home to her, but the sea felt more like a prison.  "The bottom of the ocean is the opposite of the sky..." She said softly, pressing her palms against the window. No radio. No exit. No escape.

    The girl put her hands on her arms and hugged herself, looking down. Several minutes passed. Her mask had only a quarter of its air left. Her gaze never left the floor as she waited silently, out of options. "It looks like I'm going to drown soon."

    Her self-loathing was interrupted when the plane suddenly lurched to the side.  She looked up as the water shifted a bit. "Wh..what the?" She quickly swam to the window to try to see what was happening.  The air hose was being stretched to its limit. She grunted, and like being held on a leash she moved back to the wall.

    But it was too late.  With a loud snap the hose broke.  Skyla's eyes widened as her air left her.  "NOOO-MPPHBLM!" She didn't have much time to take a full breath in preparation as water filled her mask.  She ripped it from her face and clamped a hand over her mouth, cheeks bulging.

"I need to get out of here! Now!"

    As fate would have it, the sudden movement of the plane had caused a hole in the window to widen enough for her to fit.  Skyla wasted no time and frantically swam to it and squeezed through.  For a brief moment she felt unbridled happiness as soon as she made it through, avoiding her plane becoming her grave. But now came the hard part.  Skyla began the long swim upward, hoping her lungs would hold out until she reached the surface, which was a very long way.

'Come on, Skyla. Final stretch.'

"Hrmbl..." The face behind her determined eyes began to redden as she kicked her legs. The waves above her had calmed as the storm passed, but the surface was still far off.  Her legs started to ache slightly as she continued, this was quite a workout after sitting in her seat for hours.

'Keep going....keep going....'  She could see the sun shining down on the surface. She longed to feel it again on her skin. "Hrmblblm!" Her face turned blue. She was so close.

'Come on, girl...' She strained, legs and body aching. She could see the sky and the clouds above the water.  She reached her free hand upward, hoping something would pluck her right out of the ocean.

"Hrrnmg..blbl...." Bubbles escaped her fingers even more rapidly, her vision began to slowly blur, her view of the sky becoming disrupted.  Skyla could feel her heart beating rapidly against her chest, her lungs burned along with the rest of her body.

"I'm....so......close...."

Time seemed to slow down as the last of her air left her mouth, and her hand reached above the surface.

"PWAAH!" She took the longest gasp she ever remembered as she burst through the water. She coughed violently as she tried to keep herself afloat. Though the waves were calm, she was far too exhausted to keep herself afloat.  "Ugh...huh..." Her legs kicked limply as she attempted to breathe fresh air, chin and nose dipping below the surface.   She looked around for land, boats, anything that could help.  But as her head dipped above and below the surface, all she could see was water.  

    She kept her face up looking at the sky. She wanted to fly now more than ever.  Skyla kept her hand outstretched towards the blue sky and the clouds, struggling for breath.

"Please..*cough* helpbgblg..."  Her head dipped back under, her body wet and heavy. She couldn't support herself for much longer. "gblgbmm....mmblm...."

"Skyla! Hold on!"

"Mmllmbm...." She had a glazed over look at the sky as she began to dip slowly into the water.  A hand grabbed onto her just before she could sink again.  Her barely conscious form was pulled up into the rescue chopper.  She was placed in a seat and a blanket was wrapped around her immediately.

"We got her.  Take us home."