Am I crazy for starting this and Starfall too? Absolutely. Crazy's not so bad.

Chapter 1

It was mid-morning, and all fishing boats had left the docks hours ago. Something was currently making relatively large waves moving through the ocean. Really it was more like skimming. And this skimming continued past the docks, and was a good football field from the island, so it didn't really matter what the rider of the interestingly colored Jet Ski did. The water surfer looked, by all appearances like it was nothing fancy. It was certainly slim, just like its single rider and the Ski was compact and the only thing of real interest was the words Fenton Master Ski in thick letters on its back flank. And perhaps the name of the vehicle, painted on its left front nose, 'Ghost.' The words were currently a blur, as its rider shot it over the ocean, apparently alone.

The Jet Ski had made a long winding path with wide turns, creating a snake like bundle of waves in its wake. It petered out a bit, then headed on a much straight path, shooting over the waves with a mechanic roar. Danny Fenton was pressed almost flat against the seat, hands gripping the gears as he pointed the Jet Ski in a straight line and coasted out, nose pointed to the horizon.

It's at this point the rider looked over his shoulder, grinning widely at the fin he saw cresting above the water like a sharks. Except no shark was capable of doing this speed. The fin had three thin fingers with shimmering webbing between them, and streaked through Danny's just made waves with little problem. It waved in the sunlight, glistening as it moved. He turned back once to check the water in front of him, and by the time he looked over his right shoulder again, the fin was already four feet from him and closing the distance rapidly.

"C'mon! Is that the best you got!?" Danny shouted over the engine and the crashing waves. The fin flattened from the force of its movement as they became neck and neck. A huge black and tan shape was surging just below surface, ignorant of the waves made by Danny's Jet Ski. Suddenly the shape sank and the fin vanished. Danny smirked and turned to his left, watching the fin suddenly rise on that side. Once or twice, there was a flash of soft sea foam green amidst the dark blue of the sea, like flicks of a butterfly's wing. Another roll beneath the Ski and the fin was cresting through the waves on his right once more, righting itself from an absentminded roll. The human on the surface pointed the Jet Ski deeper over the waters, laughing. Danny flew atop the waves, as something was flying under.

Danny turned to his right again, watching with a grin.

The fin flattened and pulled back, changing its momentum from forward to up.

A second later, and with a loud roar, Phantom burst from beneath the waves, rolling upward and to the side. A huge set of pectoral fins snapped open and caught an air current, sending Phantom in a smooth arc right over Danny and the jet. His sea-green four finned tail was glistening in the sunlight, tiny diamonds of water flying everywhere as Phantom coasted overhead. Danny ducked, laughing from the exhilaration of it all.

The merman grinned down at him toothily as he rolled in mid air over the young man and Ski. The human whopped as Phantom slammed into the water on his left side and twirled, picking his speed back up stay by the jet's side.

"Yes!" That was Danny, watching the merman bound beside him easily.

Phantom jerked from the water but maintained a low height, leaping like a dolphin alongside the Jet Ski. The massive fins rowed and beat the water, providing extra momentum. Phantom continued this movement until suddenly he lifted higher from the water, and his hip fins spread again. The wide webbing of his pectoral fins arced gently as it caught the air and held Phantom above the water for a few more feet than normal. The merman was then suddenly back down in a smooth descent and went back to bounding above the waves at Danny's side.

Danny grinned down at him, reaching his hand down. A second later the merman smacked it in a high five and Danny yanked hard on the handles of the ski, making it bank to the right. He turned to face the oncoming waves he's just made, and hit the gas. He had a second to turn yank on his goggles and narrow his eyes in determination as the Jet Ski slammed into a wave and was sent careening sharply upwards. Danny went with it, up until the point gravity began pulling it down.

Danny stayed behind, letting go of the handles and shouting from the pure exhilaration of the weightlessness. He fell a few feet before taking a diving posture and nose diving into the ocean. He was only a little less graceful than Phantom, but come on, how could you compete with a merman? Riderless, the blue and green Jet Ski coasted to a stop and bobbed among the current, even as Danny himself slowed from water's low force of gravity and he hung there in the deep blue a moment.

He opened his eyes, grinning around his bulging with air cheeks as Phantom swam around him in loose circles. The merman closed in and swam so close Danny spun with him, bubbles floating upwards as the human grinned. The merman swooped by again, the hip fins now beating the water every so often to allow tight turns and extra speed. A fin shifted and Phantom rolled to one side, heading back to Danny with a cheerful bellow. Danny moved his hand to his belt, quickly unclipping two green squares and letting them go. Then he straightened up and swam for the surface as quick as he could, because he needed air.

With a gasp the young man flung his head above ocean, sucking in lungfuls of air. He paused a moment, catching his breath, and simply enjoyed treading water in the middle of the ocean.

He spotted the fin coming up in front of him and had no time to react except to draw in a huge breath. It was slow, and smooth. Uh oh. Seconds later Phantom lunged out of the water and dived down on top of him with a happy warbling shout, slamming into Danny and sending them tumbling down under the waves. They went spinning under the water, Danny rolled and grinned as he felt Phantom stop wrestling with him and promptly haul him back to the surface.

He laughed breathlessly, treading water as he watched the silver haired merman poke his head out beside him, grinning widely. Phantom shook his head like a puppy, long stringy hair flicking every which way. Danny laughed and held up in his arms in surrender from the flicks of water.

After he was finished, Phantom looked over at him and smiled wryly.

"You know, I wasn't sure I was going to catch up with you, Mister I need two minutes head start." Phantom snorted in amusement. He grinned, bearing his four pointed canines. Anyone else might have been fearful in the presence of such sharp teeth, but Phantom wasn't exactly a wolf, and Danny was certainly no Red Riding Hood.

No, Danny was far from most people. Phantom loved him for it.

"Aw, I had faith in you pal." Danny said easily, fiddling with a bracelet around his wrist under the water. There was a faint beep from the Jet Ski a good 4 yards away, and suddenly the engine purred to life and it began moving toward their position slowly.

"That was your first jump you made it without your tail hitting the ski or me this time. What happened, did you catch the wind just right? Lucky timing?" Danny shot back.

"Pfft. Please Minnow. My timing is always nothing less than masterful." Phantom tossed his head proudly as Danny clambered onto to the suddenly much closer Jet Ski. The engine died, lifeless once more.

"So you wanted to hit your tail those last times we tried the jump. Right. Got it." Danny nodded, making an 'ah' face. Danny went on.

"I'll have to put that in the records Mom keeps. 'Phantom enjoys almost hitting things and throwing his flight pattern completely off balance. Check for head injuries.'" He added with a cheeky grin at the merman.

"...keep that talk up and I won't give your weights back." Phantom snorted up at him, holding the two squares Danny had pulled off his waist before ascending.

"Wow. Touchy." Danny reached down snatched one little green block and clicked it back onto the weight belt with the other three. Phantom tossed him the other and swam up to the Ski.

"Thank you." Danny sat back with a happy noise, adjusting his goggles.

He looked around at where they were, a good two and a half miles out in the open sea. They floated there a moment, falling into a comfortable silence. Phantom floated by his side, and Danny leaned over the handles of the Fenton Ski, getting lost in the peaceful view that spanned before them.

"You wanna go again?" He finally asked, still staring out at the soft cerulean horizon.

"You have to be back to help your parents unload their boat, Minnow." Phantom's words were gentle, but had a hint of maturity to them that Danny was usually envious of. Except right now.

"And you promised Samantha you'd go with her and Tucker to that movie." The merman reminded.

"Well, yeah…" Danny shrugged. "But they won't know. We can say I lost track of time. That my watch needs a new battery. Or something."

"Hmm." Phantom's head fins flicked back and forth as he eyed his human. The long curly ends of his head fans that had grown in one year ago bobbed from the movements. His larger frills waved gently before flattening.

"You don't want to go back to land." Phantom surmised. He didn't have to phrase it like a question. He knew Danny too well for that. Danny deflated a second later, caught. He shrugged and glanced tiredly at his best friend.

"It's not that, it's just…you know. Work. College. Vlad."

The merman shot a look at him at the last word and growled under his breath his breath, curling his lip back to expose his long canines. An animalistic sound that was as threatening as it sounded. Danny wasn't surprised at it, he didn't even flinch. It wasn't like Phantom was growling at him, anyway.

"I know, I know." Danny rubbed the back of his head and made a face himself.

"I don't care how helpful that man has been. I hate that how your parents have just let him live with you!"

"I know Phantom." Danny tried, but it was no use. Phantom was off now, waving his hand dramatically out of the water.

"And help with their projects! Humans forgive too easily, I've always said that." The words were rough and broken by Phantom's snarls and hisses, but after four years Danny knew exactly what the merman was saying.

"It's a treacherous habit, Minnow, one that can come back around to—"

"'To bite you in the tailfin,' I know, Phantom."

"To bite you in the tailfin! Yes!" His hand came down with a splash and a disgruntled snort.

Danny smiled a tiny bit at Phantom's predictably. Same old Phantom.

"You're even using his equipment still, I see." Phantom grumbled, swimming on his back to gaze reproachfully at what Danny was sitting on as it slowly moved toward the Island.

"Hey, it says Fenton Masters Jet Ski. Fenton first. Besides…after our last accident mom wouldn't let me leave the docks without it." Danny rolled his eyes. He glanced at the high tech ski, unable to stop from patting its side. It had already helped them out on more occasion than one, to be honest. And it was nice that it had the Call Back feature so Danny didn't have to swim after it every time, among a few other gizmos and gadgets he and his Dad had both built. Vlad was just the bank, basically. Danny was quite anal about letting the man have anything to do regarding sea equipment, especially if Danny knew it was going to be used around his 'other half.'

"You did break your arm…At least it's of some use, Yes." Phantom relented when he recalled that, and sighed. He wasn't in a hurry to panic that much again. Four years of being so close had really only increased the merman's protectiveness over his human. Phantom would swallow his pride if came down to Danny's wellbeing, and they both knew it. Danny just tried not to take too much advantage of it.

"No, I thought I broke my arm before that. Wasn't it when we crashed into those rocks? Well, when I did." Danny asked. Phantom shook his head.

"Incorrect Minnow. The rocks were from you being unable to see me so you drove too close to the beach, got stranded and thrown off from the waves. And then you landed on the rocks. To this day I still don't know how you didn't break open your skull."

"Oh, right." Danny frowned in mild confusion. "What am I thinking off?"

Phantom shrugged.

"Either way, the Jet Ski is staying. And just because Vlad had a hand in making…most…of its upgrades and single handedly funding Mom and Dad's research doesn't mean we all love the guy." Danny snorted. "I certainly don't."

"Yet still he remains." Phantom's tone wasn't lost on the human, who shot him a faint reprimanding glare.

"Well, Jazz had a good point. With him always so close by we can tell if he decides to do anything. The whole families keeping an eye on him. Okay, except Dad. But Dad's not the greatest for that kinda stuff."

"And the second that traitorous bastard does anything, you will bring him to me to be dealt with. That was the deal Clockwork and your family made."

Danny snorted. "Not if you keep swearing like that. Now I know where sailors get it from. You guys!" He laughed at his own little joke.

Phantom sniffed and wiggled his ear frills, turning his nose up. "It was Samantha's fault she taught me those words. I only learn by example."

"Uhuh, sure." Danny grinned, ducking when Phantom's huge tail swung water at him playfully.

"It was, Minnow!"

"Yep." Danny popped the p, putting his goggles back on. He was going to need them for the ocean spray.

"Race ya back to Amity." Danny grinned.

Phantom was sitting there, back to him, arms crossed.

"….Phantom?" Danny ventured, leaning over, worried he might have actually hurt the merman's feelings for once. The merman stared up at, face unreadable.

"Looser has to help the Clock Worker organize the weapon cave." Phantom said quickly, before diving out of sights with a flash of his fins.

"Aw—hey no fair! Dammit Phantom!" Danny gunned the Jet as quick as he could to make up for the lost distance as Phantom plunged ahead.

"Phantom!"

The merman's cackling could be heard as Danny chased his tail all the way to back shore.

oOo

To Danny's credit, he had every intention was making to the docks on time. He really, truly did. He knew exactly what he was going to do and how in order to assure he'd meet up with Sam and Tucker before the movie started. Heck, before even the previews started, if luck was on his side.

Sadly, it was not.

His race with Phantom was completely and utterly lost when he spotted something moving to his far left. It had just streaked out of his vision, and was moving too fast to be a boat. Danny turned to look without thinking, a glint of sunlight giving the thing's position away. It had to be a Jet Ski, like his.

Except there weren't any of that color and size in Amity's bay. It was a small bay, and Danny knew. Still coasting over the waters, Danny kept watching the Ski Rider. And the closer he got, the better the soft blue haze lifted and he could see the Ski and rider better. The suit had a lot of red, and a bit of black. Strangest of all was the fact the person was wearing a helmet, leaving Danny with no way to identify whoever it was that was moving round a certain spot of Amity's cove.

They were strangely near a sect of little caves and tide pools, too.

"Weird…" He muttered, pointing the nose of his Ski toward the other rider. It could have been someone just taking a new Ski out for a ride. Which was fine, except that part was sort of restricted, mostly because of the merfolk that lived below those waters. It wasn't illegal, just highly recommended. Rocks kept away boats, but even Phantom could get injured from a wild roaming Jet Ski. For the most part, locals simply avoided the spot out of common courtesy. That and, a merman could defend its territory by tipping you over. Danny bit his lip, worrying internally. And he was just plain curious, he couldn't help it. He shoved his drying bangs out of his eyes and considered the situation for a moment, chewing his lip. Oh, a quick look wouldn't kill him, right? They just wouldn't get to see the previews, was all.

He heard Phantom ahead of him change directions too, shooting a questioning yapping noise at him. After receiving no answer, Phantom's green eyes roamed across the horizon, and landed on what Danny was currently captivated with. Phantom murred in curiosity, and Danny knew what he was thinking.

The small Jet Ski vanished behind the rocks with hardly a wave. You didn't move like that unless you were aiming for stealth. And who the hell aimed for stealth on a joyride on their new Jet Ski? Something was fishy here, merman treading water at his excluded. Danny slowed his own ride down, coasting to a stop. Beside him, Phantom stopped too, and popped his head out of the water.

"Did you see that?" Danny muttered to his friend.

Phantom snorted and cast him a look as if to say, of course he had.

"Well…come on. Let's go check it out."

Phantom gave a hesitant snort, but obediently slipped under the water, swimming after his human. They made it to the area, and Danny had to kill the engine to avoid getting the Ski stuck in seaweed or worse, hitting someone below them. Thankfully, Phantom was there. The merman shoved against the back of the ski like he usually did, guiding it into the shallows. Phantom gave it a final smack with his tail and it drifted nearly atop some rocks. The ski bobbed as Danny clambered off. He hooked his goggles over a handle, and jabbed a little red button on the dash with a finger. There was a beep, and under the Ski a slot opened up. A tiny clasping, metal mouth shot out on a thick bit of cord and was fired into the sandy turf, anchoring deeply into the ground. Now, the ski could drift as much as the taught cord allowed, and nothing short of an earthquake would get the claw from the deep sand it had wedged itself into. One of his Dad's better inventions, to be honest.

"Ready?" Danny asked as he waded up toward the mouth of the biggest cave. The water was soon dropping from his waist to knees, before finally stopping at his calves. Phantom followed him up until the opening. Suddenly his frills flattened, and his nose wrinkled. The merman snorted like he was trying to get rid of the scent and curled his lip, shaking his head.

Danny glanced down at the recoiling merman.

"Phantom…"

The merman balked and glanced at him.

"Oh, come on. Whatever it is it can't be that bad. Probably just some old shellfish or a dead eel." Danny coaxed the merman in. And because Phantom knew Danny would go in with or without him, the merman eventually slunk in after him, glancing warily into the dark tunnel. Water sloshed softly from their movements, but the tide was out. Danny didn't see or hear another human yet. There wasn't even any sign of that strange red Ski. This was just getting weirder, to be honest.

"I can't see a thing." Danny muttered, resting a hand against the wall to feel his way.

"Gimmie a little light, yeah buddy?"

The merman, wiggling through the shallow water by his right side, complied with a warble. A moment later the merman's grayed scales illuminated, casting him and some of Danny in an unearthly glow. It at least gave the human enough light to see where he was going so he didn't trip over a rock and break his ankle. The illuminated tail moved with him, Phantom's own eyes sizzling an eerie green in the darkness.

"See anything?"

"No. But I smell something." Phantom growled, sneezing suddenly. Despite this, Danny walked forward.

"Smell? What do you—oh, god," The stench didn't hit Danny. It walked up behind him, dragged him into a back alley and mugged him of his senses for a good two minutes. Danny recoiled, grabbed his mouth and nose as his eyes watered. The only reason he didn't topple in the surf was Phantom's huge tail gently bumping him forward to regain his balance. Danny did, clumsily, and ventured further. The cave was ending soon; a little tiny rocky beach was barely visible from the glow of Phantom's scales. Danny knew the smell, but it was magnified. Whatever fish had died, this one was big.

And lying on the beach, taking up most of it, was a long still body. Scales glimmered, and so did blood and wide, glassy eyes. Hair was matted in its eyes. Danny's heart skipped a few beats, staring in horror at the body of a merperson. He couldn't make out much, but what features he did, none he recognized.

"God, shit, P-Phantom…what," Danny tried, at a loss for words. Beside him, Phantom scowled and shook his head, frills flapping this way and that like a dog trying to shake water from its fur. He didn't like this one bit, and he edged closer to Danny, glowing eyes raking through the darkness for any answers. There were hardly any. Blood, torn skin and scales and fins. A dead body. That was it.

"They were mauled. And they have been dead for a while, Minnow." Phantom muttered simply, softly. He wasn't the sort of sympathetic, bleeding heart his human was, but he certainly didn't think little of Danny for his reaction. Besides, just because he didn't feel remorse didn't mean he was cruel. He was uneasy about the whole problem, because this meant something was out there attacking merfolk and just letting the body wash up. They wouldn't have found it if not for the red Jet Ski they had been following. They had no way of knowing if this was the only body, after all.

"Shit…" Danny moaned, feeling helpless and not liking it one bit.

Danny turned away from the gruesome scene, closing his eyes. He took a breath, and let it out slowly. He heard movement, water sloshing a bit. Water always gave away your position if you were in it, only Phantom could slip soundlessly though water. The noise wasn't particularly quiet, nor was it loud. Someone currently was, up at the mouth of the cave.

Danny spun on one foot, quickly snapping his fingers. Immediately the illuminated merman down by his side darkened his body. His scales melted to darker than black. He felt Phantom's long body curl around him, knew the gentle brush at his ankle was Phantom's huge fluke, spread protectively in front of Danny. He could imagine Phantom's slight bearing of his teeth, too. The figure at the mouth of the cave was just standing there, backlight by the shining sun outside. They were cornered, at least, to Danny they were. One glance into the dark told him Phantom wasn't in an 'ask questions first' mood.

"Easy…" Danny muttered, moving to a crouch. The word was more for his own nerves than they were for Phantom, but the merman responded anyway. He continued his defensive posture, muscles tensing up just a bit as he regarded the newcomer guardedly. The fond, large black pupils were gone and in their place, thin lines of black with toxic green surrounding them bore out from the dim light.

There was nothing to be done for the poor creature behind them. They hadn't gotten there in time, and who knows how long it had been there to begin with. Danny saw the figure slowly reach for something at their hip, their red outfit blotted by various black straps and other pockets. Being backlight by the outside did nothing to help Danny ascertain who or what was standing there like that, blocking their only exit.

"Not very friendly, huh pal?" Danny breathed to his merman.

Phantom hissed softly, a sound like hot water hitting a sun baked stone. The noise was an agreement, and a warning to the stranger that Phantom wasn't feeling very friendly himself. Danny didn't blame him.

No mistaking it, this was the rider he'd seen before. A thousand questions whirled in Danny's head in that instant. And he almost asked them, until he saw a thin glint of metal. Sharp. Knife. Danny's heart beat sped up.

And like that, Danny decided he was in a no questions mood too.

Holding his hand out, he made sure to position so Phantom could see his fingers.
Tucking all his fingers into a fist, Danny calmly lifted his pointer finger. One. Danny kept his blue eyes locked on the slowly repositioning figure, going for something else, as if the knife wasn't enough. A net? Gun—with bullets? Danny didn't want to stick around and find out.

Danny's middle finger joined his pointer. Two.

Danny knew body language when he saw it. If you didn't, you wouldn't last a second down in the sea. This person wasn't here to make friends. That posture was so far from friendly it had come round the other way. Well, they couldn't afford to stick around any longer. Time to fallback and regroup.

Three.

The third finger flicked and Phantom sprung into action the second he saw it. Uncoiling his body, he rose and plunged into the ocean, taking advantage of the sudden rising tide. An arm and a fin had wrapped round Danny's body and he sucked in air, trustingly letting himself be yanked into the black sea. Phantom charged at the entrance of the cave, dorsal fin poking out from the shifting water. His tail pumped and the large fins folded, decreasing resistance. Danny grabbed hold of Phantom's dorsal, and simply hung on, putting his head down as he heard Phantom start up his trademark wailing shriek.

Something splashed clumsily out of their way. Danny didn't blame them. Few things had come out on top of Phantom's glare. Add in about 350 pounds of wailing, powerful muscle plunging at you like a train on a one way track, most things only scattered quicker.

What he did not expect, was the glint of steel as something dark streaked toward them. The raised arm holding the short knife swung down, and the only reason it didn't find purchase in Phantom's skin was because Danny had pushed he and Phantom both apart, gurgling bubbles as he pointed to their sudden attacker. Danny sank from the effort, but Phantom was already moving over him to shield him and assess the situation briefly. Phantom shrieked angrily as he saw what was going on, and swung his tail around. It connected hard with the person's waist and slammed them against the cavern wall.

Phantom righted himself in half the time it took for their attacker to get their breath back. The merman reared up, spreading all his fins in an aggressive action. He was half out of the water as he swiped his claws out and reached for the masked person. Instead of English, he roared his displeasure at their brazen actions. They had good reflexes, whoever they were. The figure rolled back, which is maybe why their clothes got shredded a bit instead of their stomach getting eviscerated like Phantom was aiming for. But Danny had clambered to his feet in the shallow surf and scrambled to get hold of the situation, and his merman.

"Phantom, stop!" He commanded, throwing a hand out. They didn't need more bloodshed, and sometimes Phantom didn't know his own strength when it came to others. (Then again, maybe he did, which was just as scary.)

Withdrawing his nails inches from the ducked person's neck, the merman grumbled but went for the knife instead with a swat of his ebony claws. A simple switchblade was snatched, and Phantom pressed it into Danny's hand when he swam back over to him. Now they stood, Danny and Phantom against on wall of the cave, and the person on the other, the opening to everyone's immediate left. Danny rubbed his cheek where he'd scrapped it on a rock under the water, and glared at the person across from them. He didn't pull out the switchblade or anything like that. Phantom was enough of a weapon, and Danny didn't really like violence.

"Look, I don't know how you think you are, but my friend and I don't appreciate this sort of thing!" Phantom growled beside him in agreement, his four fangs bared threateningly.

"And we don't appreciate hunters either on Amity, so if you came here to hunt merpeople—"

"Save it for your soapbox, fish boy," A voice spat. "You think you're the best thing to hit these waters since hooks, don't you? But you got another thing coming." The figure pointed to the back fo the cavern.

"That wasn't my fault, got it? Now stay out of my way!"

Danny couldn't quite place the voice, but he wasn't really focused on the tone or pitch or anything. He was angrier at the words, at the knife that had nearly been used to hurt his partner, at the dead merperson lying there in the back of the cave for the tide to wash out.

"How can I stay out of your way—I don't even know what you want!"

Phantom saw the person move before Danny did. Their hand moved. Something struck a rock, hard. Phantom tugged Danny right down and curled round him, shielding him with his wide fins and tail as smoke billowed out around them in a flash. Despite the merman's best efforts, Danny came out of the little tent coughing, trying to swat the annoying, albeit harmless smoke away.

They both heard something moving hastily through the water, but it was too their left.

"They're running—do we hunt them?" Phantom snarled, glaring over Danny's shoulder with dangerously slitted eyes. He still wasn't entirely convinced the threat was gone and wasn't letting Danny out from under him just yet. But Danny shook his head, gently but firmly freeing himself from the merman's larger girth. Phantom reluctantly lifted a pectoral fin.

"No. No…whoever they are…I guess their gone now." Danny coughed out, getting his breath back.

"And we don't hunt people, Phantom." Danny corrected quietly as he headed out of the cave. Phantom didn't convinced, but he moved into deeper waters and swam after Danny anyway. He gave the area a dark look, calculating look, listening to the soft fading noise of an engine.

Danny didn't have to check to see if Phantom was following. The merman lifted his head above the water as Danny was shoving his hair out of his eyes. He waded for the still anchored Jet Ski, relieved nothing had happened to it.

"Well that was…"

"Strange." Now certain there was nothing dangerous around, Phantom scratched an ear frill idily as he waited for Danny to disengage the anchor system and mount the Ski again.

"Yeah. I mean…what was that? Who was that?"

"A human." Phantom supplied helpfully.

"A human, really? That's all you got?" Danny deadpanned. Phantom shrugged.

"I could smell them. It was a different scent. But they were human, and that was it."

"Well, any Spidey senses tingling on what they were doing cornering us in a cave? You think they were responsible for the…the body we found?"

Phantom made a face, lips stretching as he gave a little shrug.

"It's…hard to say Daniel. The body wasn't that fresh to tell. And blood scent could be gone either by age or the ocean."

"Good point." Danny deflated, frowning as he slipped his goggles back on.

Phantom heard the anchor system recoil, and the merman helpfully shoved the Ski out of the shallows and deeper into the ocean. Danny started the engine, glancing at the sun.

"Well, we're late again." He winced, and had the decency to look sheepish.

"Too late to make your movie with your friends, Minnow." Phantom hummed at his left.

Danny nodded, then sighed heavily.

"Yeah. Sam's gonna kill me."

Phantom crooned softly at Danny's gloomy tone, but said nothing as they headed back towards the docks. That was fine, because Danny was lost in thought himself.