*Looks at my other unfinished works* SO HERE'S MY NEW FIC! I also know I'm super late to the merman!AU but here we are nonetheless because this idea popped into my head and refused to leave, so please take and enjoy this!
Also this was done as a super indulgent spur of the moment, I honestly don't know if it will even get any further than this. I may also come back later to tweak and edit but for now this is it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom
The waves crashed against the side of the boat, the sea vessel pitching to and fro. Thunder crashed in the distance as salty water sprayed the dark skin of the sole woman desperately trying to steer the wildly under prepared boat in the heart of a storm.
Its engine struggled to fight against the raging sea, the propeller spinning wildly spraying water and foam in all directions when the crest of a monstrous wave pulled it from the water. Any and all unsecured cargo slid, rolled and tumbled to all sides of the boat.
A quick glance over her shoulder through the windows behind her showed that a canvas wrapped bundle was still the only thing safely secured above the danger on a couple long crates.
The surface of the boat suddenly dropped out from beneath her feet a moment before the sudden rush downwards had the young woman stumbling to keep her balance. When she finally regained her footing, she looked up and her eyes widened in horror.
The faint line of the horizon had disappeared, to be replaced with white capped water stretching up as far as she could see.
Holding down the rising panic as best she could, the woman grabbed firm hold of the wheel and pushed the motor into full speed. If there was any chance of surviving this, she would have to crest the wave head on.
The downward plunge had given her a slight advantage to getting over the wave, but as she started the ascent, it was clear the boat would not make it.
No matter how much she resisted, the sea was stronger than she could ever hope to be and with a cry to despair, the wheel was torn from her grasp. Immediately the boat swung to the side in a violent fashion and once again the woman lost her balance, this time falling to the floor. The momentum threw her into the wall where the wind was knocked out of her lungs.
She could only watch in heart-wrenching, breathless terror as the water rushed up to meet the side of the boat and everything turned upside down.
Glass shattered as water rushed into the cabin and before she could draw in a breath from still dysfunctioning lungs, her head was completely submerged.
The force of the water tore the boat in twain, the metal screeching as if in pain itself.
On reflex, the young woman inhaled as her lungs once again started to work, but only succeeded in drawing in a lungful of water. Choking she coughed trying to expel the liquid to no avail as there was no air around to appropriately replace it.
Panic fully set in as she flailed desperately to find an air source. As the vessel sank down towards a watery grave, prepared to take its captain with it, darkness started to creep in on her field of vision.
A screeching grinding sound drew her fading gaze towards the back of the boat.
Something was tearing open a hole in the side of the cabin, it had a vaguely human shape and eyes that glowed in the darkness like two pinpricks of light. It moved purposefully towards her but she felt no fear, it wouldn't hurt her. Nothing would hurt her anymore.
As her vision faded and her body and mind began to shut down, a shape appeared in front of her. Something touched the side of her face and she knew no more.
The roar of the boat engines died and the lurch of the boat coming to a stop in the water bobbed up and down beneath Valerie's feet. Releasing the anchor, she secured her position on the rocking waves.
Finally, after months of anticipation and preparation she was finally out here beginning her three week research trip. As a Marine Biologist, trips like this to learn about the creatures of the sea were crucial for understanding the wonderful and unique creatures of the depths.
Stepping out onto the deck, the sunlight blinded her momentarily as her teal eyes adjusted. It was exciting to think about what kind of creatures could just be waiting for her to discover them! Adrenaline pumped itself through her body. She couldn't wait to get started but the sun would start to set soon, and dusk was the most dangerous time to be in the water.
No matter, tomorrow morning Valerie would be up bright and early to begin her assignment tomorrow.
Monday
After suiting up in her wetsuit and grabbing her scuba gear, Valerie splashed into the open water. The bright sunlight filtered through the water creating shifting beams of light that reflected off the silver scales of the fish swimming in the distance.
Grabbing some test tubes and nets with which to catch fish and specimens Valerie quickly got to work.
The morning would be spent gathering information and specimen for testing and then the afternoon would be spent running said tests and writing reports. The reports would be compiled and await further inspection and debate back at the Amity Park Marine Life lab.
The evenings Valerie would have to herself to relax and contact family and make any reports to her superiors that warranted immediate action or attention. She had been warned before leaving that these emergency reports were to be for emergencies only. Anything that wasn't deemed as an emergency would likely result in disciplinary action.
Wednesday
While collecting samples, a pod of humpback whales swam by.
Valerie watched in awe from a distance as she blindly felt around to grab her camera. The team back at base would be excited to see this! There was concern that their numbers were dwindling but this was a promising sight as there were several calves trailing along beside their mothers.
Today was going to be a good day.
Thursday
"Goddammit shit!" Valerie cursed. Like an idiot she accidentally cut her hand getting back into the boat. Whether luckily or unluckily- as she did not have to clean up as much of the mess- the majority of the blood fell in the water. On the other hand however, it would be ill advised to be in the water in the near future as the likelihood of sharks responding to the scent of blood.
As a positive note, she planned to observe sharks from a distance on this trip anyways. Use a pressure reader on the bait hook to determine jaw strength, the number of sharks that show up, what species of sharks show up, etc.
So with any luck this would draw them in faster.
Valerie threw the bait in the water with a pressure sensitive hook attached and waited. Sharks were usually fairly prompt once the scent of blood was in the water but not always, she would have to settle in to wait.
An hour passed.
And then two.
Three…
"What the hell is going on?" she cursed silently to herself. After four hours with no activity Valerie grew a little suspicious and worried. This was unusual for sharks but maybe throwing in some more bloody meat and chum into the water would entice them out.
As the young woman waited out another hour watching the chum and red liquid dissolve and disperse into the deep blue of the ocean waters. The sun was now high in the sky, and her watch read that it was now almost noon.
Maybe after some lunch there might be some activity and her stomach growled in agreement. Getting up from her seat, Valerie went below deck to wrestle up some food confident that something will have changed by the time she returned upstairs.
A little while later, stomach full from her meal, the young woman returned to her previous post.
The bait remained untouched.
Thoroughly disappointed but not willing to let it go to waste, Valerie set up a camera to see if she would at least be able to get some footage of what kind of sharks would be passing by. Work complete she headed back downstairs to continue working on some samples she had collected in the previous days.
As night started to make itself known and the sun started to set, she once more checked the bait setup. Like before, it remained untouched. Frustrated but refusing to give up, she switched out memory cards and set the camera up to film during the night, a bright spotlight illuminating the space with the bait. After once more checking that the camera was secured and not going to fall over unless under the most dire of circumstances, she once again headed below deck, to have a good night's rest. She would check the previous footage tomorrow.
Saturday
As always, Valerie rose with the sun and this morning she decided to have a cup of coffee up on deck while the sun rose. The first thing she noticed was that part of the bait had been eaten.
A thrill of excitement blasted through her entire body. Quickly reeling in the lines the first thing she noticed was that it had not been eaten in a true shark fashion. A shark will take a huge bite and attempt to eat it in one solid chunk, but this had been torn and bitten with a jaw much too small to belong to a shark. At least a shark native to this area of the ocean.
There also seem to be some long, deep, lateral incisions that didn't line up with teeth marks. Valerie stared intently at them, even going as far as to probe to see how deep the lacerations went with a gloved finger. She was somewhat disturbed to find they went at least a couple inches deep.
Something uneasy settled in her stomach and told her she should stay out of the water today. The other piece of bait remained untouched, perhaps she would spend the morning monitoring it instead.
The morning passed uneventfully into an equally bland afternoon. Valerie was running out of samples to run tests on, tomorrow morning she would once again have to venture into the ocean. She would need to collect more, maybe even grab some live specimens this time.
As afternoon progressed into evening, Valerie once again checked the last bait trap. Once again, it was untouched. Frustrated with her failure, she pulled it completely from the water and gasped in shock, "Jesus Christ..."
Sitting on the surface of the water it had looks like nothing had touched it, but now hanging from the rope, dripping onto the deck of the boat, Valerie could see that the submerged parts had been torn to ribbons. Bits of raw flesh dangled like streamers, sea water cascading down the shredded and ruined meat.
Whatever had done this hadn't done it to eat it.
It had been done for sport.
Sunday
The next morning Valerie awoke feeling sick to her stomach. Not out of sickness, but out of fear.
Whatever had done that to her bait was still out there. It was possible that it was the reason no sharks had appeared despite her generous offering, which made her worry all the more.
If it was so bad that sharks were avoiding it, then what could it do to her?
But she had to try. She had no more work left- beyond watching the tapes of her cameras that she had left to record the bait and see if she could catch any activity.
A hopeful thought struck her. What if she didn't go into the ocean today? What if she just stayed inside and watched those tapes? That would count right?
For a moment she allowed herself the brief hope that this would be something she could do in lieu of wading into open water where she was totally exposed and vulnerable.
Another indignant part of her rose up. No. she couldn't let mere suspicion of an unlikely "mystery" creature hold her back from doing what she came here to do.
Resolve steeled, she started to get suited up, refusing to let a silly superstition keep her from her goal.
In record time she found herself standing at the edge of the boat ready to jump in. Valerie hesitated for only a moment before her eyes were drawn to the side where a large bait hook sat. Working quickly, she fashioned a sling to tie around her wrist where the hook could float within easy grabbing distance.
Feeling better with a weapon of some kind to defend herself the young woman jumped in the water with a great splash.
It was only after she was fully submerged that she realized that maybe such a dramatic entrance into potentially dangerous waters was not such a good idea. For a moment she waited and observed around her to see if there was anything out of the ordinary or if there was anything trying to make a move on her.
Only after several uneventful minutes had passed did Valerie allow herself to relax and once again focus on her mission at hand.
Within only a couple more minutes she had completely lost herself in the joy of her task. There were a bunch of new species here to find that hadn't been present a couple days ago and she was excited to collect new samples that she hadn't yet examined.
A half hour passed peacefully this way until the hair rose on the back of her neck, she could feel it even under the thick heavy weight of the wetsuit. Valerie stopped what she was doing and grabbed the bait hook that still hung near her hand. It was at this moment, she realized there were no fish surrounding her.
The ocean was silent as if it was fearing to breathe.
Her own breath sounded heavily in her ears as she scanned the open water around her. The boat was close behind her and she was now suddenly aware of that fact.
The sunlight filtered through the water creating shifting rays that gave everything an eerie uncertain light. It revealed everything and nothing at the same time.
After she's carefully scanned the area surrounding her as far as the eye could see, Valerie began to think she was imagining it and letting her nerve get the better of her.
Until he saw a silhouette against the green background.
At first glance it appeared to be a shark, long slender body with an unright fin.
...but something was wrong.
There was no dorsal fin but a spiny fin that ran the entire length of its body.
Its front fins were too long and bent at an awkward angle in the center.
Alarm bells screamed and echoed in her head as every cell in her body screamed for her to get out of the water and get out now.
As if sensing her fear and sudden realization, the creature's head turned towards her to reveal glowing, front facing eyes.
Without pausing to think valerie exploded into action racing back to the boat as fast as her body could propel her. She had never swam so fast in her life and she practically flew out of the water.
Landing on the lowered part of the boat for entering and exiting the water, Valerie scrambled backwards to get as far from the water's edge as she could. Her heart beat wildly in her chest as she breathed rapidly to sustain her heightened state of awareness.
But once again after several moments of watching, there was nothing. Not a ripple out of place.
Whatever that… creature had been hadn't given chase. Not that Valerie was complaining one bit, she would count her blessings where she could get them.
That afternoon Valerie spent in the safety below deck trying to process what had happened this morning in the water.
Clearly it was a new species of ocean life and her team needed to be aware of this but recalling the images of those eyes turning towards her, glowing under the bright sunlight still sent a deep chill down her spine. It was like any species she'd ever seen so far. A part of it even seemed like it was… human.
The more she thought about it, the more she would loop back to the conclusion that it had connections to the human genome. The weird bend she saw in the front fins would be explained by an elbow joint and the more she was convinced by that thought the more she began to see human musculature in the body. It would also explain how it had been able to turn its head towards her. Most fish and aquatic species did not have that kind of capability.
One of the few creatures that did have that capability was the sea turtle. And there was no way this thing was in any way related to the sea turtle.
Hours passed this way. Valerie spiraled into a dangerous panic and a violent internal debate over whether or not this counted as an emergency to call. It hadn't attacked or given and indication it was going to attack. Plus it might present an excellent study opportunity for an entirely new species. Her team would most likely encourage her to get samples and tell her she was only being hysterical and that "they never should have let a woman do an important job like this".
It was just one of the many reasons she had fought so hard to get this assignment.
Something inside her steeled. She would not give in to this fear. She would power through it herself. She would be prepared for whatever this thing could dish out. Valerie stood up and observed the treasure-trove of lab equipment around her, not to mention the vast selection of fishing equipment that occupied almost the entire upper deck.
There is no way this thing was going to win. She was the superior being and she would prove it if she needed to.
After supper had been finished and the sun had gone down, Valerie was getting ready for bed, she decided to have a calming cup of tea to send her off to a good night's sleep.
At the very bottom of the boat there was a depression with glass surrounding the open area for viewing fish and the ocean while remaining dry and comfortably safe within the confines of a boat. The glass was super thick and created specifically to be on the underside of a boat like this and handle the constant water pressure pressing in on it constantly. Not only that but it was sloped backwards to allow for the least amount of drag possible when moving forwards.
At this time there were no fish or marine life of any kind milling about the boat. Being night time there was not as much activity. A few glowing jellyfish floated around creating a magical lighting effect.
Content to sit and watch for a little while, Valerie lowered herself into a cross legged position and admired the glowing sea creatures that continued to baffle biologists with their ability to survive without a brain. Taking a sip of her warm tea, the young woman leaned against the cold glass. A shiver chilled her back for a moment before the glass warmed with her body heat.
The peaceful atmosphere combined with her tea calmed Valerie and soon after only a few minutes she found her eyelids drooping. Setting her now empty cup to the side, Valerie fully leaned into the glass and closed her eyes. Within seconds she was dozing in a semi-aware resting state.
Flashes of random imagery and thoughts flew across the back of her eyelids as her brain fired randomly generating images that had no rhyme or reason. As she slipped deeper into a REM state, the images changed and became more dreamlike. They floated across her vision changing from one thing to the next so quickly she could no longer remember what the previous form had been by the time the new one took its place.
An unknown amount of time passed this way before it all changed.
Valerie was launched back into full awareness of her surroundings but without the ability to do anything to defend herself. A form of sleep paralysis her brain thought for a brief moment. A chill ran up her spine as all her instincts began to scream something was wrong.
She was not alone.
The chill on her back intensified on the small of her back and radiated outwards to her entire body. Every muscle in her body strained and tensed to get away, to do anything, but yet she remained immobile and pressed against the rapidly cooling glass. Adrenaline started to pump through her body as the fear took hold. The dreamlike images faded as Valerie opened her eyes and jerked away from the glass.
She shivered as she immediately turned to look at what had driven her body to react so violently and her eyes widened in horror. The heat from her body had contrasted with the cold of the glass and the water beyond so starkly that there was a fogged section where she had been leaning. And in that quickly disappearing fog was something that chilled her to the very core, clearly part of the source that had been responsible for waking her.
A hand print.
Tuesday
Monday had passed in a cloud of fear and anxiety for Valerie. She could barely remember what happened, what she ate, or if she even ate at all. It wouldn't have been surprising even if she hadn't eaten. It would explain the pit she felt growing at every moment within her. Either that or it was the debilitating fear she felt at the prospect of a monster waiting in the water for her to jump back in.
Clearly whatever it was also had a high level of intelligence if it could discern the barrier between her and it when she had been in the observation chamber- as she called it. While it hadn't shown any aggression towards her yet, there was no telling what it was capable of or if it would suddenly decide she looked like dinner just when she got comfortable enough to once again venture out into the open water where she would be vulnerable once more.
It would be tough to capture it or get any kind of sample she could analyse because it clearly had some intelligence to avoid bait traps and it could see clearly enough to detect glass so a net would be out of the question most likely. At least anything strong enough to capture it fully. If the size of the ghostly handprint was anything to go by, it was at least the size of an adult human.
She thought of watching the tapes to try and determine whether or not she could catch any actual footage of whatever this thing happened to be. A shudder wracked her body, she wasn't sure she wanted to know what this thing looked like what if it was a thing if nightmares? She was already scared enough. She didn't want to run the risk that even just the sight of this creature would drive her insane with terror.
The data card in question sat innocently on her desk beside the camera that contained the second set of footage. It continued to sit untouched for the rest of the day as Valerie remained curled up in a blanket wishing the world away.
At some point she must have fallen asleep because the next time she groggily opened her eyes everything was dark. No latent light made itself known from the minimal windows Valerie had into the outside world.
That wasn't what had woken her though.
There was a chill in her spine and the hair on her body was standing straight up. Every sense was on high alert. Something was wrong.
Grabbing the flashlight on the table beside her as well as unplugging her table lamp to use as a makeshift weapon, Valerie set out to investigate the boat.
The lower level where she had her living quarters as well as all her scientific equipment to study seemed untouched. Everything was in its place and there was no evidence anything had been tampered with and then replaced.
The level below her was the observation room with the glass walls to view ocean wildlife. It too didn't appear to have any evidence of someone there.
Neither of these areas came as any surprise that they were empty, it was the main deck that concerned her the most. Swallowing heavily she approached the ladder leading up. Immediately alarm bells started going off in her head and every instinct told her do NOT go up there. But she needed to.
As she grabbed the first rung all sorts of horror images flashed in front of her mind. Pirates come to plunder her meager ship that would do god knows what to her. Aliens come to abduct her in the middle of the night for her never to return. Or worst of all, some of her teammates come to ruin her work, a little extreme of a situation but it has happened before and they were really the only ones who knew where she was.
Thump. Clatter.
The sound of something heavy falling over. Someone or something was definitely up there. Heart beating so hard and fast she was sure it was going to start rocking the boat at any moment, Valerie turned the handle and carefully lifted the trap door open.
Peering out through the crack she tried to gauge the situation but with the darkness surrounding everything there was not much she could see. More rustling and the sounds of objects being dropped sounded from the rear of the boat. The exact opposite direction that the trap door opened, dammit.
She took a deep calming breath followed by another until she felt the shakiness of her hands steady. Carefully pushing the door open, Valerie scanned her surroundings doing her best to preemptively find any potential threats. As she searched, her immediate area remained devoid of activity. The only sounds continued from behind her.
Taking one last deep breath, Valerie quietly pushed open the door fully to allow herself to sneak through. Letting the wood down gently, it clicked back into place with barely a sound and then she unwound the lamp from around her back and quickly readied it to defend herself. There's no telling how good her makeshift weapon would hold up, but it made her feel better to at least be holding it.
Rustling and breaking equipment could be heard. She swallowed heavily, fear and adrenaline pumping through her body. Whoever it was, clearly didn't care about any research she was carrying out. Unfortunately, this did not rule out her "colleagues". Stealthily, and crouched over, she approached the door leading out to the deck with all the activity.
Taking hold of the handle, the young woman slowly turned it and just like the trap door, slowly and carefully pulled it open.
It creaked loudly.
Cold terror lanced through her body like lightning as she stared at the door whose hinges had betrayed her.
Silence from the previously noisy deck drew her attention out into the dark. At first she didnt see anything, she could only see the night sky and its twinkling stars. Two stars didn't look quite like the others though, they were large by comparison and had an eerie glow.
Then they blinked.
Her body moving on its own, Valerie shot to her feet and leapt into a fighting stance brandishing her not-so-fearful weapon screaming what she hoped was a valiant battle cry. For the briefest of moments, she could see a human silhouette before whatever it was turned and jumped into the water.
Immediately she gave chase, following it to the edge of the boat and shining her flashlight into the water.
It revealed nothing. The light refused to penetrate the waters deep enough to discern anything unusual within its depths.
Backing up from the edge of her vessel, Valerie quicky located her large bait hook she'd previously armed herself with and sat on the cold, wet deck and prepared herself to sit watch for the remainder of the night. There was no way she could sleep after this.
Wednesday
Valerie jolted awake as the first rays of light touched her face and then immediately leapt to her feet, her head whipping back and forth to see if there was anything out of the ordinary.
Just as it had been the day before, the boat was empty except for her.
Relief swept through her as she collapsed back to the deck. At some point she must have fallen asleep, but it was impossible to know at what point that had been. The memories of last night haunted her, something had very clearly been aboard her boat that hadn't made the trip out here with her.
Without a doubt, it had been the monster Valerie had seen lurking in the water before. It did seem to be mostly active and dangerous during the night, however, so if she waited until close to noon, she should be safe to enter the water. Or well, as safe as she could possibly be.
In the meantime she would make breakfast and make sure to keep herself busy to avoid dwelling on what had happened.
After lunch had been finished, Valerie suited up and without giving herself time to question her decision, dropped into the water.
It was a warm day, so the cool water felt nice on her overheating body. As she meandered away from the boat, she noticed that there were very few fish swimming around unlike the time previous. It was likely due to the abundance of jellyfish however and she didn't think much more of it.
Valerie took new water samples and captured what few fish she could to study further in her lab. She did make sure to keep a respectable distance between herself and the dangerous wall of jellyfish though. She was well aware what kind of damage they could do and she wasn't wanting to deal with that on top of everything else.
Being underwater calmed Valerie like nothing else, the feeling of being weightless seemed to lift all the problems from her shoulders. The ocean seemed to be the only thing that didn't have any expectations of her, the fish quietly minding their own business and keeping a distance while also doing their best to examine her as much as she did them.
As she turned from the jellyfish, an empty ocean greeted her and at that moment Valerie's blood ran cold. The hair on her neck stood straight on end and she knew what this meant.
Movement from her peripheral vision caught the same dark silhouette of her mystery creature off in the distance, glowing pinpricks for eyes trained on her with predator precision.
All ration fled her mind as she turned and swam as quickly as she could back to the boat. She stood no chance alone in the water, at least on a solid surface she stood a chance. Her legs kicked as hard as her muscles would allow and Valerie was sure that she broke olympic records on her mad dash back to safety.
Her heart beat wildly, as she grasped the handles to pull herself swiftly from the water. The liquid shifted in an unusual pattern around her legs, as if a current had suddenly sprung up around her body. There were no currents strong enough to do that so close to the surface though.
As Valerie lifted herself from the water, she desperately crawled forward away from the dangerous edge where the unknown horror dwelled. Something caught on her foot and she turned around in sheer terror, a stray nail sticking out of the boat is the last thing she wanted right now.
She could not have been more wrong. It wasn't a nail or a screw or anything else that had caught her foot. Her teal eyes widened in absolute terror as a whimper escaped her throat. "What the actual fuck," she breathed in terror.
A webbed, green hand trapped her flipper against the boat, the sharp claws at the end cleanly sinking through the rubber to the metal of the boat beneath.
Slowly it sank back into the water, slicing incisions into her footwear and heavily scratching the boat.
Whatever that was had been mere inches from having her in its grasp. Clearly she was in over her head here. There was something out there, something she wasn't prepared to deal with. Valerie needed to report this back, she needed to inform them that...
...There was something in the water.
Alright that's it for this chapter! I hope to have more but I also want to see if i can finish at least ONE of my other ongoing Dark Gray fanfictions.
Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a review with your thoughts. I'd love to hear them!