Rikuo swam towards the voice and found himself looking into a sunken derelict ship, covered with algae and coral. Staring through a busted out porthole, he found the very precious thing that had drawn him into this new adventure. "Ricky," he exclaimed, "My beloved child. I thought I'd never find you. I darn near searched all seven seas at least 5 times over and wound up helping my old buddies fight some crazed maniac while I was looking for you." Father and son embraced tightly until poor Ricky thought he'd be crushed to death or suffocated. The hug seemed to go on forever but all too soon, it gave way to an even worse pain, that of a father pinching his son by the ear flap (assuming those fins on either side of their heads count as ear flaps.)
"What were you thinking, small fry?! We've told you not to go so far out without one of us to accompany you and you always listen. You had me worried sick to my gills and not to mention your poor mother. She's probably shed all of her scales and torn her beautiful fins to shreds wondering if she'd ever see you again. You've never disobeyed us before, son but do you realize the stress you've put us through?!," and finally the punishment, "You're grounded for the next 5 full moons and believe me for what you put us through, it would be twice as long if I weren't so happy to see you right now so you'd better be on your very best behavior after this. GOT IT?" Ricky's ear fin felt as if it was going to fall off, so great was the pain and his father's fury. Speechless and sobbing, he could only nod his head in affirmation to Rikuo's orders and even then only slightly. Once Rikuo let his ear flap go, the poor mer-kid threw his head back and broke into a fresh set of sobs the tears coming in fountains from his eyes (yeah I know they're underwater, but treat it like manga or anime. No matter where they are when someone starts bawling the tears just gush out.)
"I'm really sorry Dad. I didn't mean to upset you guys. And I really was on my way back home with a surprise for you. But then some big whirlpool popped up out of nowhere and I couldn't make it and I had to hide in this ship and wait for it to go away but it wouldn't and I'm sorry!"
Rikuo felt sorry for his son then; after all, part of the reason Ricky couldn't get home in the first place was because that blade-winged freak had begun altering the Maki realm, sealing him off from what would have been a short swim back to his family. On top of that, Jedah had used Ricky's distress to lure the mighty former mer-emperor to him so that he, along with the other Darkstalkers would be forced to fight their way out. The plot had been that they'd all be destroyed and their souls would be fed into his hideous Shintai infant so that it could have enough power to attain full form and bring about his dark revelations. The point was, it wasn't all Ricky's fault and more than anything, Rikuo was glad to see his son safe and sound. He turned to let his son know that even though he was still under punishment, all was forgiven and only then did he realize that Ricky wasn't exactly alone and what his son meant when he'd said he was bringing home a surprise.
Standing next him in the old wreck was another mer-child. A young girl to be exact. Rikuo's eyes widened in wonder. Up till now, he thought that he, Aqueria, and Ricky were the last of their kind but now this. It had to be another of Jedah's tricks, he thought at first. Perhaps that demon hadn't been defeated as soundly as he thought but he distinctly remembered the entire pseudo realm that Jedah had created being dissolved away, its maker having been utterly destroyed by all of their combined effort and reduced literally to nothing. So she had to be real…
"Ricky, who's this girl," he asked sounding somewhat more apprehensive than he probably should have at that tense moment. As if to illustrate this, the girl, having witnessed Rikuo's tirade on his son, hid shyly behind Ricky, barely daring to peek up over his shoulder. Ricky's smile returned and his eyes brightened. "Dad, this is my new best friend. Her name's Micky and she was trapped just like I was. I was actually on my way to bring her home to meet you guys but then all this happened so we hid out in that old wreck and waited for it to pass…"
"And when Jedah started screwing around with the boundaries, you guys were in plain sight but I couldn't even see you let alone reach you without getting sucked into his realm." Rikuo finished. Then scratching the back of his head and feeling embarrassed for his unnatural but understandable loss of control, he apologized "Sorry about the yelling. I was very worried about my son's safety. I didn't mean to frighten you, child."
"It's o.k. Micky. My dad's cool. Go meet him." Ricky stepped, er swam, aside and revealed Micky in full view. Superficially, she was the same as Ricky and Rikuo but there were differences (aside from her being magenta scaled which most mer-people are usually different colored anyways). Her earflaps were waist length as opposed to the Aulbaths' short ear fins. She also had something that they didn't: two large bioluminescent bulbs protruding from her forehead. Curious, Rikuo had to ask, "Micky are you from Atlantis by any chance?" Maybe his people had moved deeper and evolved to deal with the darkness and the pressure. "No sir, I am from Sargasso," the mer-girl replied and a light went off in Rikuo's head. He'd heard stories about Sargasso City, it was the sister city to Atlantis but had mysteriously disappeared some time ago. "Say, kids, what say we head home, get you fed and then Micky, you can take us to your city if you think they will have us." "Sure," she replied, "Sargasso City is known for its open arms when it comes to visitors and new comers." As they headed off in the direction of the Aulbath's residence, Rikuo sidled over to his son and gave him a playful nudge in the ribs. "So how did you get lucky enough to find her?" "
"Uh, well I was at the coral formation I told you about then I heard someone singing. Sounded like Mom but it was higher pitched so I followed it and there she was. We started playing hydro tag after introducing ourselves and next thing you know, that vortex sprung up and nearly sucked her in. I pulled her out of the way just in time," Ricky was beaming with pride at this, "and then we went into that old ship to wait it out."
Rikuo's mouth formed into his trademark smug grin: "You sure you weren't just trying to get to know her better?"
Ricky, blushing and embarrassed replied, "Eeeew Dad, come on. It's not even like that between us. We just met."
"And you're already calling her your best friend. I think something's definitely going on."
"Cut it out Dad, she might hear."
"So you poor mother and I are pulling our scales out, I wind up fighting a psychopath who wants to reform the world by basically destroying everything on it and you are out picking up mer-chicks. Way to go, sport."
"Dad please….."
"You know I met your mother when she was singing……"
"DADDY!"
