Hi! Sorry for the late update once again. I've been busy with school works and projects as usual -_- I hope I could find more time to write more fanfictions, and I am doing my best, so sorry if this takes a long time to update :) I hope you enjoy the story... And review your thoughts please!

~Elysa~

Chapter 2: 6 Mers Enhanced

Will, Zane, and Lewis looked horrified when they looked down. They had long, scaly blue tails (In case you didn't know, in "Mako Mermaids", [H2O based], mermen tails are blue, so I guess that is suppose to be that), and they looked from their tails, to the other boys, to the girls who also had shocked faces.

"Guys... Er... I think we should really climb out," Bella suggested she clumsily got out of the pool with her heavy tail, who was followed by Rikki and Cleo. Plus the boys who needed a little bit more work on getting used to the weight of a giant scaly mer tail. Rikki each dried their tails, not saying a word, but staring from her own tail to the boys' tail.

"Uh... Did that really... Did tha-" Lewis stuttered a bit, but came to his words, "Did that really just happen...?!"

The girls wouldn't reply. They couldn't reply. To be honest, none of the three, or five including Lewis and Will, could even process what was happening. All were in shock. You would think really the boys would be more surprised than Bella, Rikki, and Cleo.

You were wrong.

The girl's eyes traveled from each boy, to each girl and back. All boys knew that this changed their own lives forever, but each girl also knew this changed their own lives as well as the boys'. The 6 all sat there in silence, no mer thinking it was awkward, or if anyone should speak. Finally, Cleo broke the silence, "Uh... I think we're in reality here..." She started, awkwardly and shyly smiling, "And all of our lives... Have been changed by a lot!"

"That's... 'true'," Bella added, not knowing what or when to say whatever she wanted to say. It was all pretty confusing.

"Wow... Uh..." Zane didn't look at anyone but at the pool. "What are our powers? We must have them, I mean, if we were to have tails, right?"

Will, Lewis, and the girls all nodded. "Let's start with you Zane, since you're so confident," Bella pushed Zane to the front of the pool. "Here, just try to focus on, heating, manipulating, or whatever power."

Zane quickly nodded, and tried to copy what Rikki had done so many times. Heating the water. Zane had obviously wanted to obtain Rikki's powers, so they could share it, while maybe Will could get Bella's, and Lewis could get Cleo's or something. Zane held his hand up, fingers spread, and he slowly clenched his hand into a fist, as the water in the pool started to bubble, and dry. "Don't over do it, Zane," Rikki grabbed his arm back. "You don't want to dry the whole Gold Coast," Rikki said sarcastically.

"Okay, so your power is heating. Who's next? Will? Lewis?" Cleo turned to the two boys. Both seemed distracted, but eventually Will walked up.

"I'm next."

"I'll show you how. Try to do a gesture. Like mine, or like Cleo's. Something like that," Bella explained. "Look, all you do is this," She held her hand up into her gesture, down to the pool. To her surprise and shock, nothing happened. "Cleo? Rikki? Uh... Why isn't my power working...?"

"Let me try moulding a bubble for you, then try it on that," Cleo said, she focused her mind on creating a bubble in the pool, then lifting it next to Bella. "Here, now try it. Maybe you just couldn't do it with seawater or something," Cleo said lamely.

Bella shrugged and tried to jellify the bubble of water. Still, nothing happened. She tried and jerked her hand, but still nothing happened. "This is pointless," Bella lifted her hand and accidentally created a 'stop' gesture by accident, and the bubble of water immediately froze, and fell to the ground, breaking the ice. All of the six jumped back, a bit startled. "Did... D-did I do that?" Bella turned to Will, Zane, Lewis, Cleo and Rikki. They all shook their heads, not saying that Bella didn't do it, but that none of them did it. "I don't- I don't even have that power... But again, I don't have my... My original power either...? What happened? It makes sense the boys got their tails, but why did I get stripped from my powers?"

"Maybe it's because Mako isn't normally used to seeing powers with gelatin substances. So maybe when you got in the pool, the moon affected your powers, which were different from the island's original ones. It's just like if we were to go to the Sea Caves you turned into a mermaid in, we would probably get the same powers as yours," Cleo explained. "But, you should try again; just to make sure that you did that power." She waited for Bella's nod, then she lifted a small bubble of water, and sent it to Bella. "Go ahead."

Bella tried to focus. It was quite hard though. My mind is spinning. How could my power of just changed? My old power was my original one, why couldn't I of kept that one? She naturally made the same 'stop' gesture, and again, like last time, the ball of water froze in midair, and dropped breaking the ice into small chunks. "Wow. That really is my new power now I guess..." Bella sadly said.

Bella's P.O.V.

You might think changing a power would be... Ehh... Who cares? Before, I might've thought that too. But now that my power has actually changed, it's really quite sad. I mean, I loved my old power...

I controlled it perfectly, it was my original power. Freezing water was good and all, but all of it... It just didn't... It didn't, it all didn't seem like... Seem like me. My power was suppose to be the power I first experienced, the power I last experienced... But now that I've gotten this, this new power, it wouldn't happen. I was supposed to live and die with the same power. And that was note the power of ice. I felt like I would collapse.

You would think, Who cares? Why collapse over some stupid power... It's just not worth it, at least you still get your power. I would honestly, honestly, have no power at all, than have a power that doesn't belong to me. I would disable my whole mermaid life. But right now wasn't the time to do that. I knew Will, Zane, and Lewis needed our help. And 'our' did include me, and Rikki and Cleo. We were all in this together.

I heard Rikki beside me say, "Okay, why don't you show Will now? Just right now instead of showing him the jelly power, just show the ice power. You've got it all covered already, right?" Rikki asked.

"B-b... B-but what if I don't have control over my power? Well, at least not this one. This is completely new to me. I've never experienced, not to mention, never heard of a power like this. How am I suppose to demonstrate it?" I asked.

"Bella! It's simple," She rolled her eyes. I felt a small surge of anger bubble through but I shook it off. Why can't she just understand that power was important to me? "Just show him, you don't have to be perfect at it either?" This made me quite furious. It's not like I wanted this to happened! I have no control whatsoever. I don't even know for sure how I did it! How would you feel if your powers were exchanged for a power of ice?! I yelled in my head, I didn't say anything though. I didn't want to, and I necessarily didn't need to.

I just sighed and walked up to the edge of the moon pool, where Will was already standing. Try to be calm, Bella... Stay calm, I spoke to myself in my mind, though I wasn't really the one thinking of those words. Those words always popped into my head. "Okay, start like this," I held my hand up to the water, carefully. I gestured for Cleo to make a bubble of water, and she obeyed. I showed him the correct movement to freeze water. "Okay, so what you do is you try to make a 'stop' gesture. That's all, do it as if you're trying to stop some people from coming in here. But in this case, you're just stopping the water molecules from flowing... I think..." I randomly said. I didn't know how I found out to say those things. Words were coming out of me, in reality, I was giving advice to myself rather than to Will in reality.

He nodded and lifted his hand to face the surface of the ball of water, he made a stiff stop sign with his hand, and immediately the ball of water froze, the sound echoing through the cave. The frozen ball of water fell down since Cleo had no control over ice, making a big SPLASH! All six mers fell to the floor with a few ows from the boys. The girls laughed at their boyfriends. They definitely weren't used to falling down onto the ground, especially as a mer.

"Nice tails," Cleo complimented sarcastically. "You get used to it," She answered in between high pitched giggles. "When I became a mermaid at first it took me only about 3 weeks to get used to it. When you've been a mermaid as long as us. Or as long as Bella, it really won't affect you as much," Cleo informed them. She used her power to shake off the water off her tail so it would dry and she stood up next to Lewis. "Rikki, don't dry Lewis's tail. I want to show him how to use his power and dry his tail this way," Cleo told Rikki. Rikki nodded silently. "In fact, just to keep the tail from evaporating..." Cleo laughed as she controlled some water, splashing Lewis.

Lewis rolled his eyes, but you could see he was smiling and laughing as well. "Of course," Lewis smiled. He was used to his girlfriend always splashing water onto him. No matter if it was playfully or anything else. "Well. How do we do this thing? We go like..." He tried to copy Cleo's gesture, but failed.

I felt some sympathy for him for once. When I was 9, I first tried using my power, I was no where near close to mastering it. And now, here I am again. With an all new power. An all new mermaid life. Especially now that Zane, Lewis, and Will have entered the picture.

Cleo knelt down beside Lewis and showed him her gesture. "Pretend like, your holding a ball. Not a huge basketball, just something small like a baseball or a tennis ball. And at the same time, twist your fingers a bit. In this case you're really just holding the ball of water. It's like..." Cleo tried to find the right words to say it. "It's like you're... Like you're holding the ball of water as a solid form, except you could change it's form, you could mould it at the same time however you like. Like this." Cleo picked up a small droplet off of Lewis's scaly blue tail and molded it into different shapes in the air, and then dropped it back down. "Try it, it's not as hard as it looks."

Lewis nodded and he used his hands to try to pick up the water droplets on his tail. Fortunately, he successfully picked up lots of droplets and formed them into one bigger ball of water. He held them into the air, and brought them to right above the surface of the moon pool and dropped. "I did it! I found my power!" He boasted, smiling from cheek to cheek.

"Yes. Well, so did I," Rikki said playfully smacking him on the back, being the always-take-a-chance-to-tease-Lewis-kind-of-girl.

We all laughed, at first Lewis just frowned but then he couldn't even pretend to stay mad at Rikki and started to laugh. "Well. Now that that's over, want to go for a swim? We all learned our powers and all. How about for some swim practice?" Cleo asked. She looked at all of us. Will, Zane, and Rikki all nodded eagerly. I just stood there, unable to speak, along with Lewis. I was still uncomftarble with the fact that I had lost my power. "Bella? Lewis?" Cleo asked us.

I really didn't feel like taking a swim. Even so, if I was to, I didn't feel like swimming with Rikki and Cleo or any of the boys. They were great and all, and they were my best friends but... I really just needed some time alone, I guess. I shook my head. "You guys go on without me, I want to stay... For a while. I'll see you guys later, okay?" I asked.

"Bella...? What's wrong. You always enjoy swims with us. This is no different," Cleo said to me. Her words seemed to taunt me. "This is now different," she said. This is a lot different! I tried to relax myself, and to my luck, I did succeed.

"No. Don't take it the wrong way. I just... Want some alone time," I made an excuse. Otherwise known as lying. I really didn't want to lie. To be honest, I didn't even know why I wanted to stay back. My mind might've been telling me I wanted to stay back because... I needed alone time. The truth was, the least thing I needed was alone time right now. But I couldn't go swim with them either. It just didn't seem like I should do it, at least not right now.

Will gave a concerned look. "I'll... I'll go find you guys later. Uh... You guys just go ahead without me. I'm fine," I lie again. Yes, "I'm fine". How obvious, Bella. "I'm Fine"- the girl's biggest lie, I thought to myself harshly. "Really."

Cleo nodded slowly and dived in the water, Rikki and Zane and Will following. I looked slowly to Lewis. He didn't dive in. "Lewis? Are you going?" I asked.

"No." He replied firmly.

I looked at him curiously. "Why not?"

"I don't really like water," He admit. "It's just not my thing. I can't swim anyways."

"You're a lot like Cleo, you know? At first, you already know this, I know. She hated water as well. You could swim. It's a natural feeling for a mer. Especially in the ocean. It's unnatural for humans, but once you dive into the water, you could hold your breath forever. The underwater sights are amazing. The sensation of just wiggling around the water is amazing. Your tail isn't going to work against you no matter how heavy it is. It'll propel you through, it'll help you," I replied. "Just try."

Lewis chuckled a bit. "You seem like you really want to get rid of me." He joked.

"Maybe..." I smiled a bit. "Not in that way. I just want some alone time I guess..." I answered shyly. "Just try to swim. If you really have trouble then... Swim back up here. I'll teach you. Then, you could leave and I have my alone time." I answered.

He rolled his eyes. "Fine." He dived into the water, taking a few deep breaths before entering the water of the ocean. I smiled. A few minutes later, of course, Lewis's head pops back up. "Nope, I can't do it. The water is just way too not me. How could you live under the water like that?" He asked.

End of Bella's P.O.V.

With Rikki, Cleo, Will, and Zane

Cleo, Will, Rikki, and Zane sat on the edge of the rocks by Lewis's secret fishing spot. "Well... What was that about? Bella? And Lewis?" Rikki asked. "It is not like Bella to miss out on swimming. For god's sake, she's always the first one to beat us in the race. Bella'd take any chance, any chance to beat us in a race... This time was so different!" Rikki shook her head.

"Well. Maybe she wasn't feeling well. And Lewis. He's always been a little frightened by water, he'll probably be here soon anyways," Cleo shrugged it off. "Besides, it's not like they're going to die."

"I guess," Rikki said. "I'm just a bit worried about them."

Zane, Cleo, and Will couldn't take this moment to waste. They all burst out to laughter. Rikki just squinted her eyes going like, "What?! What's so funny?"

Rikki just simply asked. "What? Why are you guys laughing like that?" She looked around but nothing was there to laugh about. "Why are you guys laughing like that...?"

"You... You said that you were worried about them!" Cleo giggled out, her words blurred from laughter. Rikki rolled her eyes. "Breaking News, Rikki Chadwick said that she was worried!" Cleo joked.

Rikki just rolled her eyes, smiling, and she brought both hands up to "shrug" or possibly go like "wow, really?" But just as she did that, fires enflamed a rock next to the rock they were sitting on.

They all jumped back in surprise and yelled. "Whoa, what?!"

Hi guys, sorry for taking this long to update. I've been busy with school. And please don't expect me to update within a week. When I return on fanfiction, I see messages like, "You haven't updated in so long!" or "Hurry up with the updates!" Yeah, those really don't make me want to update faster. Please, I'm trying to make my updates as fast as possible. So just please try to ask nicely. I'm almost always on fan fiction, writing for my different stories. I have a couple upcoming ones. As for the people reading my Back to Ireland story, I will do my best to upload another chapter of that ASAP. I will update that next, followed by A Mermaid Tale. Thanks for all the reads, by the way!

I'd like to give a special thanks for all those reviewed...!

Lord of The A.U. Fanfiction,

MysticalMerman,

Noriana26,

She'll (guest),

Guest (guest).

Thank you guys for reviewing my story! It means a lot! And please do keep reviewing your thoughts about the story! Make comments-nice or strict, I don't care, just try not to be rude about it! Thanks for a couple reviews, and keep reviewing your honest thoughts! Thanks! Ilyasm 3

~Elysa~