Let us all thank L. VanDattae
"Pops, seriously?" Jericho asked, as he watched the nets pick up Nightwing out of the water. "Why separate them if, in the end, you're just going to make them perform together?"
"They need one-on-one training time," Slade said, as he watched them putting Nightwing into a portable tank before pulling the net out. "Besides, it will get things done faster."
"How is it going to get things done faster?" Jericho waved at the tank. "Can't you hear him? He's crying."
"Actually I'm trying to curse your father," Dick whined. "But that works too. Boohoo, help the poor little mermaid, Jericho, save me... I'm hungry again."
"You can't know that," Slade said, walking over to the tank and looking at the mermaid. "Besides, I have a feeling they're not as dumb as you think they are, son."
Floating upside down, Dick looked at him with wide eyes and forced a smile on his face. This man might catch onto them. They would have to be very careful around him. Cooing a bit, Dick went into a circle to try and distract him.
"Pops, he just wants attention." Jericho sighed. "Come on, you pretty much ripped their family apart, tossed them into a pool, and on top of that the trainer even said that they depended on each other."
"So, you think you can train them better than the trainer?"
"Sure can." Jericho tapped the tank before pointing to the pool. "Nightwing, go."
Splash.
"Stop doing that." Slade glared as Nightwing swam back to Red Hood after jumping out of the tank.
"I accept your challenge, Pops. I'll have them trained by the time you get back." Jericho patted the water, making the two mermaids pop up. "By the way, where are you going?"
Slade smirked as he walked away. "To get one more mermaid."
Both Dick and Jason looked at each other, wide-eyed. "Tim."
Bruce glared at the boats as they floated around the island. They hadn't left for two weeks since they had captured his two oldest sons. They had set up nets around the island, but they didn't know about the hidden cavern under the land.
A little head pushed up under his chin and Bruce looked down at Tim before looking back up at the boats. He knew what they wanted. They wanted to add Tim to their catch. After all, land dwellers preferred younger merfolk, because they could control them easier than they could full grown mermen.
"Bruce, I'm hungry," Tim said, looking around for anything to eat.
"Yes, it has been a few days since we ate." Bruce looked at his son. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine. It's just… my stomach's hurting."
Nodding, Bruce looked around and saw a school of fish, but they were in the spotlights of the humans, and if they dared to get them then they would be spotted. They had to stay out of sight until the boats and humans left. So far they had been eating the fish that had wandered over to them, bust mostly they stayed in the darkness.
A bad thing.
Tim needed the sun.
None of his children were fully grown, and even though both Dick and Jason had gained their colors, they were still dependent on him, and as their father, like other merfolk, he brought his children to the island where they could lie in the sun and absorb it.
He hoped the older two had the sun. He hoped that someone knew enough about merfolk to give them shade, cold water and plenty to eat. Bruce really hoped that the both of them were okay. Thoughts of all the horrible things that could happen to them filled his mind until he heard Tim whimper as his stomach growled.
Gritting his teeth, Bruce glared up at the boats. If they weren't there he would have caught plenty of fish or other things for his son to eat. What made it worse was Tim was too small. He needed to grow and grow soon.
"Bruce?"
"Yes?"
"What if I sing?" Tim asked, looking at the fish. "Would they come to me?"
Bruce looked down at Tim. "Do you think you can?"
"I could try." Tim took a deep breath (of water, of course) before singing.
It was beautifully haunting, just like a song for their kind should be. Bruce felt proud as the fish started to follow the sound, and once they were in the hidden cave, Bruce hypnotized them so they would stay in place as they ate them.
Tim ate five without complaint and Bruce ate ten. "You should eat more."
"I'm fine, Tim. Besides, we have to ration out food."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Tim said, looking at the mostly eaten fifth fish guiltily.
"No, you have to eat or you could get sick. I don't need to. Come on, the sun's setting and we need to rest," Bruce said, as he gathered the fish and put them into a pocket of the cave before putting a larger rock over it so they couldn't get out. "There. Now then, let's get some sleep."
They settled on a rock that was cloaked in darkness. Bruce laid down first. Tim curled up on his father before closing his eyes, falling asleep. Bruce wrapped his arms around him. That was another thing to be worried about. A starving child was bad. Tim never went to sleep that easily. He often stayed up for hours just lying next to or on him until he fell asleep, so this was another bad sign.
Sighing deeply, Bruce held him tighter, trying to block out the sound of the boats and the bombs the humans were throwing into the water to try and drive them out. As they slept, it sounded like thunder raging on and on.
"All right," Jericho said, sighing deeply and looking at Red Hood. "Just… one trick, okay?"
Red Hood was scowling at him from where he was perched on the water platform, resting his chin on one hand and staring at Jericho like he was an idiot, his tail swishing back and forth slowly, judging him.
The mermaid hadn't tried to do a trick all morning, and now that it was noon, there was still no progress with Red Hood. Sighing, Jericho waved a fish and watched the teal eyes follow it with the same bored expression.
"Come on, please? One trick?"
Red Hood scoffed, tail swishing faster now as his eyebrows knitted together. It was clear that he wasn't going to do anything Jericho told him to do. Sighing again, Jericho sat down and pulled out his lunch. Might as well eat if Red Hood was already fed and not moving any time soon.
Opening the bag, he pulled out a sub. Unwrapping it, he wondered how in the world he was going to be able to get Red Hood to listen to what he said. After all, there were books on how to train merfolk from the time mermaids had first been discovered, but all of them included acts of one torment or another. Like with the old man, Grant, starving them.
There had to be some way to get Red Hood interested. After all, Nightwing had been able to do three tricks before deciding he didn't want to anymore and was now swimming around and around the pool, restless, and for some reason liked to spin in circles like under water flips.
Bringing the sandwich up to his mouth, he looked up and nearly had a heart attack. Red Hood was right there less than a half a foot away from him, staring so intensely at him that for a second he thought the mermaid was going to either kill him or kiss him.
Jericho didn't expect the mermaid to snatch the sub right out of his hands and dive back into the water, scurrying away like a thief. Jericho sat there in shock for a full minute before he realized that a mermaid had just stolen his lunch.
"Hey!" Jericho slapped the water. "Hey! Give that back!"
Nightwing floated to the top, peeking out, wondering what was going on. Jericho saw that Red Hood was ignoring him and was quickly pulling the sub apart until it was only bread before eating it quickly. Slapping the water again, Jericho called out again. This time Red Hood gathered the remaining contents of the sub and returned to the platform.
"Bad, Red Hood, bad!" Jericho yelled, and blew a whistle at him. "Understand? Bad!"
Smack!
All the sub's contents hit him in the face, and Jericho swore that the mermaids took off laughing.
To REBD: Which name? Jericho? I was told about it by a friend but I didn't know he had a two other kids lol
To expat19: Thanks, I hope this is soon enough, lol! I'm into mermaids at the moment
To 5-STAR: Thank you 8D
To L-VanDattae: I know right?! I love when someone wants to be a mer-person instead of human. I love it being magical and all that. I know the drowning cliché had to be there but I didn't know how to make it without it and I wanted to keep the background of both the older two being adopted but not like Bruce and Tim who were both born into high class families although I did do a twist with Tim's dad though. I needed him out of the way lol. I can't answer any of your questions or I'll give the stories away :O. Yes, I would love a Beta reader but I know not how to give you the chapters D8
To Noon: FEELS… THE FEELS! Embrace the feels !