"Parker?" Eliot pushed away from the hole in the hull he was investigating and looked around-
"Parker!" Hardison yelled, just as a flashing, dull red light passed by Eliot's shoulders and was gone with a buzz of energy sliding over him through the water. He'd trained himself not to react badly to it, any more, or be startled by the flash of red.
"She's already gone." Eliot said, narrowing his eyes at the path of the swirling current shooting up from Parker's wake. He muttered to himself and stuck his head back in the hole. "I think this's more your type of problem, Hardison." he called.
"Where did she go?" Hardison said as he approached from around a corner, rising up along some rotting scaffolding. His fins fluttered anxiously as he edged nearer to Eliot, shimmery edges ruffling. ". . .Eliot?"
"It's Parker." Eliot pointed out with a sigh, gesturing Hardison towards the space he'd cleared out, ripping a few boards out of place. He let his tail drift to rest up alongside Hardison's reassuringly as he moved out of the way, however.
Hardison's jittery movements calmed a little, and he stuck his head and shoulders right into the hole Eliot had made without hesitation. Of course, Hardison was designed a little more for backwards mobility than Eliot, but he still wouldn't have quite so unwarily wedged himself in there if it were him.
Then again, as skittish as he could be, Hardison didn't have much of the wariness Eliot carried. Eliot smiled slightly, looking at his friend, and let the trailing tip of his tailfin brush over Hardison's as he flicked his tail and headed upwards. He was glad Hardison didn't have any of the scars Eliot carried from his own background.
"I'm going to check on the top end of this." Eliot said, brushing a hand over Hardison's hip - about the highest part of his body that wasn't inside the wall, now, and it was bare as his shirt slid up his body with his movements.
Hardison offered something muffled from within the wall, and Eliot raised an eyebrow, then rolled his eyes and moved up again, spiralling idly around the nearest mast - it rested at an angle, but still mostly upright. Little swarms of brightly-coloured scavenger fish stirred as Eliot passed by, and he occasionally had to resist the urge to snap after one of them if they caught his peripheral vision just right.
He fought it down. He wasn't hungry right now, they weren't a problem, and Hardison got all . . . distressed when he saw Eliot scrapping with and biting into bigger fish or other attackers, he could imagine it would be worse with little - and harmless - ones like this. Eliot snorted and tossed his head, brushing his hair out of his face, and told himself he wouldn't care anyway.
An electric pulse made all his fins quiver, and Eliot twisted and rolled over in the water, eyes flicking over the wreck - brief pause on Hardison, who was still half in the wall, bright orange-and-white tail an easy banner, then moving on - looking for-
Another blue-red flash from a dull red tail and Eliot cursed under his breath as he angled downwards and arrowed towards Parker. Either she had gotten into trouble or she was electrocuting things for fun again, and either way. . .
"Ow. Hey!" Parker yelped, and Eliot scowled, squeezing himself through a narrow space past her tail with a brief prayer he wasn't about to be shocked.
He made it through without the telltale sharp-edged tingle, and found himself in a dim space with currents around him informing him of . . . at least nine others in it. Parker marked off - her tail coiled and she sank back close to him; she wasn't afraid but she was smart - that meant eight others.
Eliot closed his eyes and pulsed a low tone which came back to him, lighting up the electrosensors behind his cheekbones, shoulders, and along his sides with a little more information on his opponents' locations - and shapes - this time. Only one other shark, bigger and more solid than Eliot but also trapped in a narrow space with several other mers packed around him.
His size wouldn't give him much of an advantage here. Rather the opposite. Eliot grinned just as Parker's tail lit up - the lights starting near the tip and flashing up in blues and reds all the way to her ribcage, just below the snug black wrap that sat around her chest and shoulders. One of the other mers drew back with a shudder of his tail.
Eliot's grin widened, showing off more of his teeth, and he snapped his tail, lunging towards the nearest of the mers who hadn't pulled back with wary regard. A high-pitched shriek made Eliot wince and Parker flash again, warningly, her tail uncoiling and flicking towards the entrance. Try and flee, but risk a nasty shock.
Eliot twisted around the nearest target, slamming his elbow into the back of his shoulder and then just above the base of his tail, making him flail and thrash, then waver, weak with the blows - Eliot was just passing by him, though, towards the other shark. He likely had the best perception of the space, other than Eliot, with Parker's stress and the high-energy waves she was pushing out with it, and that made him dangerous, even so confined.
Best to take him out first, then. He was a great white, Eliot saw as he got closer, shoved down and seeing scarred white flesh on the underside of the bigger mer's tail. He slashed his tail through the water and wrapped an arm around his opponent's thick tail, twisting it painfully and digging his fingers in at the base of the dorsal fin.
The other shark yelled insults - like Eliot would care; also he was clearly winning, so not very accurate ones anyway - but his struggles were formless and couldn't even reach Eliot with his body thus restrained. The harder part was keeping him so while holding off the others who had shaken off their shock and wariness enough to try attacking Eliot.
Eliot thrashed his tail again, keeping anyone from getting a good hold of it and letting his fins inflict painful bruises and temporarily blind at least one of his opponents with a well-aimed flick of his tailfin. The mer in question fell back, howling in pain and alarm, his thrashing tail getting in the way of at least three of his fellows as he tried to flee blindly.
Parker's high-pitched giggle made Eliot duck a little, behind the other shark whose tail he was still restraining as he worked his way up. He glanced warily out and saw her folding her arms in tight, small fists held up and tail undulating across the doorway as she faced off with another eel - this one without the flashing or warning colours of her own tail, and he was falling back holding his face.
Eliot left her to it, smelling the blood from her opponent already. Another few moments and he'd gotten the right angle to hold the other shark's throat with one arm and slam his other fist against the mer's temple. A couple of blows and he flailed, teeth bared, then drifted limply. Eliot shoved the shark away with the side of his tail and turned on his other opponents, grinning threateningly and flaring his recurved fins.
"Hey now, we're just doing a job." One of the fish-tailed mers said, holding up his hands, eyes darting over Eliot whenever there was enough light to see. When it was dark he was moving his hands rapidly over himself, possibly searching for weaponry hidden in his bright green jacket. "There's plenty of space for us all to work, and no need to-"
Eliot's fist interrupted him, and a moment later a knife streaked towards Eliot's belly. He rolled - more fluidly than most people expected a shark to move - and caught the mer's forearm, twisting the knife from his grip and slamming the pommel into the nearest other attacker before he could even lay a hand on Eliot.
"Damn it, we were here first! You and your scrawny little scavengers can get lost!" One of the others said, curling his tail up as though as a barrier between them and pulling something long from a case along his back.
Eliot tipped his head, then slashed out at the mer whose knife he had stolen, nose twitching as more blood poured into the water, and lunged for the argumentative one. His teeth sank nicely through the fine scales, and iron-rich blood welled up against them.
Wide eyes following him made Eliot snort as he twisted away, lashing out with tail, knife, and fists. Clearly the shark they had been working with had restrained himself from fighting in every way he could - probably to only options they'd see as more civilised. Foolish of him, especially in such tight quarters as shipwrecks and deep caves, which was the environment they were clearly equipped for.
Eliot struck out again even as his current assailants drifted away with a last thrashing twitch, both of them unconscious, their gills fluttering perhaps a bit weakly but still quite enough to keep them alive.
Eliot refused to be held to such constraints as this shark evidently had, even if it meant sometimes his team flinched away from him after a battle. He grit his teeth and reminded himself that he didn't care - and if this team did. . .
If they were alive after a battle to look warily at Eliot and the blood on his teeth, then he'd done his job and he would be proud at the results. He'd make that choice again every time. That was his job.
"Parker?" Eliot growled, and she shot across the room to him with a press of her coiled tail. Her hands were callused and hard, but careful, as they smoothed over his side where the larger shark had slammed him into the wall - he hadn't realised she'd noticed that - he shrugged her off. Lightly. "I'm fine. What were they doing?"
"I was investigating - did you know whoever came through here first gave up without even getting the first door open? And I can smell the rust from here, it'll hardly be a challenge," Parker snorted disdainfully, pouting a bit, "and they . . . they cornered me. He was first, and he was silent, I couldn't- There wasn't even the current to tell me. . ."
"He's a great white, it's how they hunt." Eliot told her. All sharks hunted silent, but not all mers were good at exploiting that. "Come on, get what you need. Hardison's decoding a hidden puzzle upstairs, but I want to head back. I have some words for Nate." he added in a rough rumble, heading towards the exit.
He palmed his ribs once he was out, allowing himself a wince. They were bruised - not too badly, but still painful - a deep-down ache - especially for tight manoeuvres, or, likely, after a long-distance swim. Like the one waiting for them - heading back to base with their new intel and, if he had to guess, it would be another one to wherever the place they were scouting for turned out to be.
Eliot dropped his hand from his ribs and gave a lazier stroke of his tail, making his way smoothly back up the outer surface of the ship. Hardison's fins were wriggling when he came into sight again, and Eliot briefly thought he was stuck, but he slipped free of the wall a moment later and twisted around in what was almost a little dance, smiling triumphantly. Eliot rolled his eyes, lips quirking, and headed towards Hardison.
"Done playing?" Eliot asked, rubbing the back of one hand across his jaw. Hardison twitched, startled, but settled quickly when he saw Eliot and grinned again.
"Yeah, man, I got it all- Eliot, what happened?" he asked, expression shifting. He flicked his tail and moved up towards Eliot, slinging his bag further around him until it rested on his back just above where his scales began. "Eliot?" he prompted, reaching out to Eliot with only a brief hesitation.
"Someone else was after the same prize." Eliot said, rubbing his mouth again and glancing at his fingers. "Parker'll be up in a minute, she had to grab something but she said it should be easy. They just interrupted her."
"Parker?" Hardison's eyes widened and he made to dart off, probably to check on her. Eliot sighed and caught his arm, dragging him back. Really, Parker was much more able to defend herself than Hardison's helpless tailfin, not even remotely taking into account the ability to electrocute things. "Is she-"
"Everything's fine." Eliot told him, and scowled a little. Like he would have left Parker to fend for herself if she wasn't all right, or if there was any risk of the mers he'd knocked out coming back to consciousness in time to cause a problem for her.
"Got it!" Parker crowed, throwing herself at Eliot, her tail slinking around his waist and drawing almost painfully tight as she pressed against his back. Hardison startled, but Eliot had felt the slightest warning through the currents before she was on him, and only gave a lazy stroke of his tail. He flicked the uppermost coil of Parker's tail lightly, but she only squeezed him tighter for a moment.
"See?" Parker held out one hand in front of Eliot, holding a stack of papers - a few beginning to rot away, at least one brand new - and a piece of thin stone or coral almost as big as Hardison's largest fin. "And look at this!" she added, sliding around Eliot and rummaging in the bag over her hip to show him something that sparkled.
As she drew back Eliot saw that it was a piece of jewellery studded with medium-sized diamonds, the fine links flowing smoothly over Parker's fingers, like scales, as she toyed with it. "One of the mers down there had it which means it's fair game to steal, right?"
Eliot raised his eyebrows and shrugged. He wasn't thrilled with Parker going through their belongings, but as far as he was concerned it was fair if she wanted to strip them of everything they had on them.
"Other mers?" Hardison said, looking confused for a moment, looking through the stack of information Parker had found. "There were- Wait, Eliot-"
"Eliot took care of them." Parker said, waving a hand idly and then turning it over and admiring the diamonds trailing over the back of her hand. "I don't think there's anything else interesting here, are we ready to go?" she asked, sounding bored.
"Let's get back." Eliot agreed, snorting. He shooed Hardison on in front of him with a light shove and then a flick of his tail, and smiled slightly as Parker began complaining about the lack of challenge the safe under the wrecked ship had proved for her. Hardison made sympathetic and confused noises alternately, and Parker began speculating on what they would find once Hardison decrypted the information they'd acquired.
Eliot's family, whether he'd originally wanted them or not.
He shook his head and chivvied them both on a little faster, wanting to get back to their home base before they got too absorbed in this, though there was no one anywhere near enough to overhear any . . . plans they made.
This was written for a prompt from Mad-Madam-M on Tumblr; Leverage, merpeople AU, and buried treasure.
I pictured Parker as an electric eel, Eliot as a thresher shark, and Mad-Madam-M herself suggested Hardison as a clown shark. (I have . . . plans for Sophie, so I will have to revisit the mer!AU idea for Leverage again at some point.)
I'm still accepting prompts on Tumblr (I'm Kalira9 there) as I work on Camp NaNo, so feel free to come drop me a line there.