Luca cried onto the deck until his eyes were bone-dry. His body, numb with exhaustion, he made his legs willfully move. Slowly, he walked into the wrecked ship and searched for leftover supplies. All he could find were broken water barrels-long since emptied of their contents. The fact slapped him in the face: no food, no water, nothing to survive on.
Desperate, Luca tried calling for Psyros's powers. He snapped his fingers, shouted into the void, and screamed with all his might, but nothing happened. No power answered his calls. Three days passed; Luca hadn't eaten a thing or drunk anything. His body was weak; his mind was slipping into hallucination from dehydrating and starving.
On the fourth day, Luca woke up to the sound of voices on deck. Familiar, his friends talking and laughing in personal conversations, as if nothing had ever taken place. A surge of hope suddenly appeared in his heart as he hurried to the deck, but he was too weak after days without nourishment. He crawled across the floor, trying desperately to reach the voices. When he finally made it outside, the deck was empty-nobody was there. His friends were gone.
Luca lay on the deck, staring up at the sky, his mind spiraling downwards into despair. Is this the end? Is this how I'm going to die? Just by giving up? His eyelids grew heavy, and his brain started to slip away, teetering on the edges of unconsciousness.
But in the bottom of that despair, something stirred inside Luca-a spark of hope, a denial of defeat. He struggled to his feet, his body shaking with weakness. He reached the edge of the deck and reached out with his telekinesis, trying to regular the water. He knew the danger associated with drinking ocean water, but he didn't care. He reached out, cupped a handful in his hands, and brought it back in for a drink. The salt burned his throat and he coughed uncontrollably, threatening to vomit the taste from his mouth.
Then he remembered reading some old book from the lost civilization, a book describing the boiling of ocean water in order to create drinkable vapor. Collecting as much sea water as he could, Luca started boiling. It took hours just to fill a cup, but it worked. He began restoring his strength with slow determination.
He used his telekinesis to catch fish from the sea and ate them raw. He had solved the problem of food and water, but there was another challenge over him-his power was far weaker than before. Every day, at night, he tried to use the abilities of Psyros, calling for him, but there was no response.
Determined to survive, Luca changed the course of the ship and headed for the nearest island. One night, he felt a sudden shake and immediately went to the deck, which was already surrounded by Naxons. He knew that, without Psyros' power, he didn't even have a slight chance of resisting. He therefore took to the skies in the hope that they would leave him alone. The Naxons did not retreat but instead razed the ship to the ground, burying it deep in the ocean. Luca had lost everything once more.
He had no choice but to fly towards the island. He couldn't sleep; every time he tried to, he felt himself falling into the water. The second day, he practically collapsed due to lack of sleep, until he saw it in the distance: an island. With his powers weakening by the second and severe dehydration setting in, he flew closer and closer to the shore as desperation began to well in his mind. He tried, as a last resort, to lift water from the ocean using his telekinesis and attempted to separate the salt, but he was too weak to do so.
As he struggled closer to the island, Luca's body gave out, and he fell into the water, his consciousness slipping away. By pure chance, the waves in the ocean pushed his body onto the shore. Luca awoke, staring up at the sky, breathing heavily. He ran towards the trees with his last bits of strength and found a banana tree. He plucked the fruit and ate greedily. He came across an orange tree and had more; the water from the fruit saved his life.
Tired from not having slept, Luca took to the sky to see whether the island was safe. Flying over the landscape, he finally saw a small wooden house in this forest. He landed next to it and carefully approached the building. The house was modest, with broken wood steps leading to the door. Luca stepped inside; his steps creaked on the floorboards. Suddenly, Luca heard a noise from inside the house, and a shiver ran down his spine. The impact sent him backward, startled, and he bumped into the wall, and a light flickered on inside the house.
The noise was coming from a nest of birds that sat in the corner of the room. The house was empty, abandoned for God knows how long. Luca went outside, walking around to the back of the house, where he found huge solar panels generating energy. Whom did this place belong to? he wondered. Further back, he came upon a field full of vegetables, potatoes, and corn. A sparkle lit up in Luca's eyes. He could survive here.
Luca began the next morning. Since nobody's occupying this house, that means this place is not safe either. I have to turn it into a safe place. He instantly began using his telekinesis to cut down trees and started building a huge fence around the house and the field. The wooden stakes were sharpened into sharp, pointed spikes, preventing any sort of climbing over them.
After three days, Luca finally completed the barrier. He sat down in a chair, his mind outside with his friends. How could he save them? Day by day, Luca trained. The first day, he did weight tests of how much he could lift with his telekinesis. The three long trees were lifted at the same time. Then he experimented with separating the water and salt from the ocean water. At the third attempt, he succeeded.
Meanwhile, Luca continued to perfect his skills and find new ways of attacking. He stood in front of a tree and telekinetically punched into it, creating a huge hole in the trunk of the tree. No matter how hard he tried, he could not tap into his Symbiote form. Every night, he would stand still, close his eyes, and try to draw out Psyros' power. Sometimes, he'd feel a flicker-a spark like from a light trying to turn on-but it always dissipated.
Eight days had gone by since Luca had come to this island. On the ninth day, Luca was in the garden, collecting food. A cracking sound rang out. He felt alarmed and flew into the sky, his gaze following the periphery of his barrier. At one length, a Naxon stood peering at the wall. Luca hoped that if he stayed quiet, the Naxon would simply leave him alone, but a piece of fruit fell from his grasp and hit the ground with a thud. The Naxon's head flew around in his direction and let out a shrill scream, calling many other Naxons to his side.
Before he could get away, one Naxon leaped forward and snatched at his leg, yanking him down. More Naxons descended on him, dragging him to the ground. Right when Luca was sure he would be overwhelmed, a flickering light began to glow around him. That familiar aura-the energy, the color-it was his Symbiote form. And in a sudden surge of energy, the power burst from Luca.