The remnants of the Xenon radiation began to cool within their membranes, leaving behind a suffocating void. This newfound consciousness arrived alongside an agonizing sensation: hunger. Balt was the first to feel a strange pulse in his cellular core—a hollow tug demanding energy. He tried to move his dense body, but all that occurred was a coarse friction between his cobalt blue gel and the sharp seabed sediment. The first sting of pain pierced him—an electrical signal informing his newly formed brain that his skin's integrity was under threat.
Beside him, Amber began reacting to the temperature. The near-freezing chill of the Mariana Trench felt like thousands of needles stabbing into her orange molecules. Amber vibrated violently, and those vibrations traveled through the water, colliding with the bodies of Veri and Blu. They had no words yet, only frequencies. However, in the dense water, vibration was everything. Instinctively, Balt returned the vibration with a lower frequency—a primitive attempt to soothe the "mass" nearby.
This adaptation process did not happen in an instant. For hours, they simply rolled and pulsed, trying to understand how their gelatinous muscles functioned. Veri, with her elastic green body, accidentally extended an arm until it brushed against the organic remains of a krill carcass that had drifted down from the upper zones. As her sticky hand touched the nutrients, absorption occurred automatically. Veri's cells glowed brightly as chemical energy surged into her system.
Seeing Veri, Balt attempted to mimic her. He used his heavy mass to press down upon the remaining nutrients. Through skin contact, they began to "speak" via chemical exchange. As their membranes touched, data flowed: Cold. Pain. Hunger. From this molecular exchange, the concept of language began to take shape. Their voices did not emerge from mouths, but from the contraction of micro-air sacs within their jelly bodies, producing sonar waves.
"Ba... lt..." A heavy vibration emanated from the deep blue body. It was the first identity to crystallize, born from his dominant molecular density.
"Am... ber... Light... hungry..." Amber replied with a faster, unstable tremor. She was not just hungry for nutrients; she craved the blue glow that had awakened her. Her newly functioning eyes remained fixed on the pitch-black water sky, searching for the last of the vanished photons.
Veri retracted her elongated body, shifting into a more aerodynamic shape. "Body... changed," she pulsed flatly. Veri was the first to realize they were no longer a bound colony. They were separate individuals, yet they needed one another for navigation. Meanwhile, Blu, the smallest, could only curl up and emit very delicate waves. "Hurts, Balt. Water... heavy."
Balt approached Blu, enveloping the sky-blue body with half of his own to share the warmth of the residual radiation. "Don't... fear. We... are one." Balt began to lead. His logic processed that to eliminate this "pain" and "cold," they needed a greater energy source than mere krill carcasses. They needed the light they had seen before.
"The light went up," Amber vibrated enthusiastically, her orange body glowing brighter. "Above... much light. No pain. Only warm." Amber's obsession began to infect the others. She started to move slowly, fighting the undercurrent, attempting to swim away from the stable but dead seafloor.
However, Blu resisted. His body's tremors showed immense fear. "Don't go up. Above... there is no floor. Above... is empty. Here is safe." For Blu, the darkness and the crushing pressure were a protective home. Going up meant facing an uncertainty that could shatter their fragile jelly bodies.
Veri calculated the frequency of the currents around them. "Pressure... decreases above. Body could burst," Veri provided a logical warning. Yet, she added, "But here... we will die when the radiation in our bodies is spent. We need to 'eat' the light."
Balt fell silent, feeling Blu's fear and Amber's ambition. As the most vocal, he had to make the choice. He pressed his membrane against Blu, sharing what little heat he possessed. "Blu... look at Balt. If we stay here, we are just jelly waiting to dissolve. Above, we could be... suns."
Blu hesitated, but his trust in Balt was stronger than his fear. With a polite movement, he wrapped a small portion of his body around Balt—a passive sign of agreement. "Together?" Blu asked faintly.
"Together," Balt answered firmly. He issued instructions through more structured sonar waves. They would not ascend immediately; instead, they would wait for the light to return and follow it to the top.