"Dr. Hanji, do you think its wise being out here again? I'm not trying to stop your work or anything, but we were shot at last time we tried this," Moblit stammered as they climbed over the wet rocks towards the cove.
"They just put out new traps so no one should be in the area," the woman in front of him called back, "Besides, I brought back up with us this time."
"I don't think four of your students counts as back up," the man muttered sadly, but his worries were drown out by an excited cry that came from Hanji.
"Theres one in a trap!" She bolted forward, nearly falling on the slippery rocks.
Moblit sighed and picked up his pace to follow, climbing over the bolder that his friend had nearly fallen off of, when he got to the other side he saw her kneeling next to something splashing in a small tide pool.
Moblit glanced back to see if the four students who were dragging the transport carrier were ok before hurrying to his friends side. As he got closer the creature splashing in the pool came into view. It was
indeed what they had come out here to rescue, a young mermaid; 'rather merman' Moblit thought noticing the trapped creature was a male.
Hanji was lowering herself into the pool to help the creature out of the trap. As she did, her students finally caught up with the two adults. "Alright, I'm going to cut him loose then the hard parts going to start, Jean, Marco stand over there and stop him if he tries to hop over the rocks and into the cove, Armin, Mikasa have the carrie open and be ready to shut and lock it. Moblit and I are going to lead him in," Hanji instructed.
As Moblit lowered himself in he noticed that the merman as more interested in freeing his tail then the people that were coming closer to him, but the second that Hanji grabbed the base of his tail the calm creature began to trash. Moblit was quick to help subdue the creature as Hanji worked on releasing the clamp that was digging into the mermans tail. The second that the trap was off the merman attempted to flee. After finding all his routes blocked he went under the three feet of water and and flattened himself against the rocks. "Ok we're going to let him calm down then work on getting him into the carrier," Hanji stated, dragging the trap out tossing it a ways away.
"Why did he flatten himself like that?" Armin asked, "We can still see him."
"Well he's hurt, trapped and now he's trying to figure out what to do next and laying like that protects his underbelly and lets him rest while he thinks." Hanji replied.
Moblit rested up against the rocks, "How do you want to deal with this?"
"Well we can just grab the tail and drag. It's not the best plan but, I'd rather not have to deal with those teeth."
"We could use the rope, loop it around his tail then pull him out and into the carrier." he suggested.
Hanji nodded and told armin to pass the rope down to her. The blonde did as he was told, getting a rough rope out of his backpack and passing it to his teacher. Hanji made a slip knot and then slowly moved toward merman. Moblit got out of the water and stood next to Mikasa and Armin ready to assist in dragging the creature out. Hanji worked fast and carefully to get the rope around the end of the boys tail then gave a quick yank.
By the time that got the merman into the carrier all six people had gotten drenched, but they had managed to get the boy locked away before the tide came in and washed them out. It took another hour to get the carried back to the truck and the sun had set by the time they got back to the aquariums/school. Hanji said goodnight to her students and friend before wheeling the carrier to the back where they held injured or sick animals. Upon entering the back room she ran into Erwin, the aquarium owner, "Hey Hanj, I see you managed to find one. I hope with this we can finally stop the poachers in the cove."
Hanji smiled, "I brought back the trap. This one wasn't as bad as the other one we found, he's still going to need stitches, but hopefully we can release him in a few months," Hanji replied, "I'm going to put him in with Levi for the night, I don't think Ymir would like him in with her and Christa."
"You think that Levi is going to like him any better?" Erwin said with a chuckle.
"Probably not, but this guys bigger than Levi already so I'm guessing he can hold his own for a night," she said wheeling the carrier up a ramp and over to a large tank
Erwin helped lower the carrier and open the latch, the second he did the merman darted out and down toward the bottom of the tank.
The second he got into a good hiding Eren took sometime to calm down, his mom was going to kill him if these humans didn't first. "How could I be so stupid, " he muttered.
He knew that the cove had become a hunting ground for the humans now and many of his friends had already been taken, but the cove had the best fish and clams and his stomach had gotten the best of him. He sighed and looked around wondering where he had been placed. He grimaced as he flicked his tail and felt a sharp pain shoot up his spine. That trap had really done more damage to him then his captor had said to the other human. He swam around and found he was in a very large tank, filled with rocks and caves and one other merperson. When Eren turned a bend he came face to face with a small thin northern-mer. The other gave him a cold glare, piercing pale blue eyes looked him over then a sharp clawed hand scraped his face. "Get out of my tank brat, your grim is soiling the water," the merman demanded.
"Huh! That was that for!" Eren yelped gently touching his face, "As if I want to be here!"
The pale merman growled and swam off towards the tanks walls, looking for the doctor. 'No way in hell am I sharing a tank with a brat." Levi thought looking for Hanji. Seeing her on the far side of tank feeding the sharks in the other tank he raced over and pulled himself onto the ledge.
Hanji jumped a little and looked up over at the merman pulling himself over to her. "Get thhat filthhy thhing out of my tank." he hissed.
Hanji smiled, "Your english is getting really good Levi!"
"Fuck my englishh, get him out!"
"Sorry buddy I can't he's hurt and there isn't a place to put him."
"Put him in withh thhe shharkss"
"Oh yes let me put injured prey in with sharks."
"Sssoundss like a good idea," Levi said.
"Have a panic attack clean freak," Ymir snickered poking her head out of the water.
Levi bared his teeth, "You don't scare me shark."
Hanji sighed, "Come on you two, no fighting. Levi go get the new guy, unless you want me to toss the fish into the water."
Levi let a small hiss escape his throat before diving into the water and looking for the boy.
Eren heard the splash and dived into one of the caves and hid in the shadows. "Come out brat its dinner time," Levi called, when that didn't work he began to sniff around, easily finding the reeking boy.
Eren screamed when Levi grabbed him and dragged him towards the surface, "Don't kill me please! I'm sorry I'm in your tank."
"Shut up, I'm not going to kill you."
"For some reason I don't believe you," Eren whimpered.
Levi rolled his eyes letting the boy go and pulling himself up onto the ledge. Eren frowned, but followed suit when he saw the other getting fish.
Eren slide behind Levi, eyeing the human carefully, "Hey there buddy, you're looking better then you did at the tidepools," Hanji said holding out a fish to him.
Eren sniffed it, pulled himself forward, took it then made a move to go back into the water. "Don't you dare!" Levi hisses stopping him, "Do you know what fish blood and guts do to the water."
Hanji laughed, "You'll get use to Levi and his germaphobia, now lets patch up that tail of yours."
She carried the kit over to Erens tail using fish to distract him. Eren began munching away glance back to see what the human was doing. When she began to touch the long gash, he hissed and moved forward, "What is she doing?" He asked Levi.
"Trying to help you so sit still unless you want to be put under, thats not fun," Levi replied, carefully stripping his fish of its meat.
Eren made a nervous chattering noise in his throat, but didn't move again when Hanji went back to doing what she was doing.
Hanji frowned, the gash on the mermans tail wasn't to bad luckily but a few inches over the cut there was a swelling starting. 'I need to get an X-ray,' she thought. Standing up she walked down the ramp to get the carrier and Erwin.
Erwin heard the woman coming before he saw her, but when she came into view he instantly knew something was wrong. "Whats up?"
"The new merman has swelling around his tail, I need get him in to X-ray now," she replied, "Normally I would wait until the morning, But if the trap cause a fracture on his spine then a night of swimming could cause some permanent damage."
Erwin nodded and follow her back to the tank, luckily they creatures were still eating and hadn't gone back into the water. Hanji grabbed the carrier and wheeled it up to the top of the ramp. Erwin moved towards the newest inhabitant, carefully stepping over Levi in the process. He could see a large knot forming toward the end of the mermans tail as he got closer and sighed, "Damn porchers," He muttered, "I'll pick him up, open the carrier."
Eren pulled himself up and hissed at the new arrival,moving away back towards the water. Erwin moved fast and quickly had the creature in his arms and was walking back to Hanji and the carrier. "Sorry little guy," Erwin said as Eren made a loud protest to being placed back inside the dry carrier, "Today just isn't your lucky day."
Eren tried to get out not liking the cramp area he had been move to, the the gated door was closed and locked and he was wheeled away from his meal.
Hanji lead the way past her medical office and into the X-ray room, "Do you think we should put him out before attempting this?"
Erwin nodded, "It isn't the best idea, but i don't think he'll sit still long enough. I'll go get the anesthetic, you can set up here."
Eren was listening to the humans carefully, 'What are they planning to do to me,' he wondered.
He stuck his fingers out of the grate and felt around for anything that could help him get out. A few minutes he stopped and laid down, watching the humans feet walk around the room.
Erwin came back with the medicine and other items they might be needing. He set them on the counter and then went to open the carrier. Eren slid out and looked around the room. He slowly pulled himself towards a corner careful of his tail and the strange objects around him. Erwin filled a syringe with anesthetic and move toward the merman, kneeling down he ran his hand over the smooth scales of the creatures tail, feeling for the large vein that ran down the tail. When he found it he peeled back a scale and stuck the needle in. Eren yelp and swung his tail away, but Erwin had manage to get all of the drug into his system. It only took a few minutes for the drug to kick in and soon Eren's body felt heavy and tired. He fought it for awhile then his arms gave out and is upper body slumped to the floor, after that his vision blurred and he fell asleep.