Xx-xX

Chapter 4:

Bad Magic

Phantom had almost lurched from their hiding place the moment the youth had leapt out initiating the game with the other teens. He stared on, form bristling as he watched the boy lead the youngsters farther from the cave, wanting to scream his lungs out at such a reckless idea. If that game turned into a true chase, the youth would have bigger problems.

It was when the adults gave chase that the older black mer couldn't stand it anymore, letting his form rocket out from their original hiding place. The youth had disappeared off into the rocky depths, having continued going out of adrenaline having not realized the game had ended. Though any wound like that, however small, would still pose a problem in these waters. The scent would carry about, and he knew that there were other things than just this foreign shiver to worry about.
It was only a matter of moments before some of them took notice of him. One of which that drew near to inspect him was turned upon within an instant. Phantom's fins flared, in a luminescent threat, fangs bared in the warning that if he wasn't left alone he'd tear limbs off. The threat was enough this time. It was a younger male, maybe only a year or so younger than himself, but obviously not one of the higher rank. He was quick to back off; more interested in protecting what scraps of meat he'd gotten ahold of rather than picking a fight with a male who meant business.

Phantom held the reptilian hiss within his throat as the other backed off before turning sharply and descending into the depths. His form aglow in the dim, he looked very much like one of their own, aside from the fact that not a single band of jewelry could be seen on him, and the speed at which he moved was almost alien. Pushing past the group of adults that had joined in on the game, they startled, bewildered as to what had just occurred. It was almost like being hit with a rogue wave as his form shot through into the dim.

It was too deep for his liking, as the waters were dark and heavy, pressing in on all sides; and the deeper he went, the more danger he was in. The more danger the teen was in. This was foreign territory, and it was only a matter of time before the mers that had risen to the surface to feed, started coming back down, or realized what exactly had shot past them and came after him. He grimaced as the pressure caused his stomach to turn, feeling the cold sensation of the wild magic spreading through him in defense, shifting him from the appearance of a rather dark surface dweller to one of the deep as his fins came to life with the luminescent colors, his lateral line and emerald eyes burning a toxic green. The glow becoming more and more prevalent as he dived deeper, more so than the faint shimmer it had had at the depths of the sea mounts.

He paused as he reached a new depth, having suddenly lost the scent of the teen's blood. His eyes darting about in a panic as he tried to find some sign as to where the boy had gone. Gritting his teeth, he didn't like his options, knowing that one way or another they'd probably end up finding him, but trying to call for the boy in the heart of the stranger's territory was a death sentence in itself. There was also the strong chance that the boy had passed out due to his injuries, leaving him vulnerable to attack.

A snarl broke him from his frantic search, his form whirling round, coming face to face with a large, healthy, aggressive female, and a number of others that were with her. Phantom swore mentally as he pulled back, attempting to distance himself from them, only to find that the few others with her had shifted to practically surround him. He clenched his jaw, forced to bare his teeth in a defensive threat. He may be outnumbered it warned, but he was more than capable of severely injuring the lot of them if they made any move.

When the teen awoke, he was incredibly disoriented. He didn't know where he was, he didn't know what was going on. His throat was parched and he felt incredibly dry. It took a few minutes before the other remembered what had happened. His hand instantly went to his left shoulder, cringing as he felt the wound.

Danny sighed before his accidental movement caused him to slip back into the waters. He flailed for a minute before righting himself and pulling himself back up halfway on instinct. His eyes narrowed in self-irritation as he pushed his wet bangs out of his face.

Quickly ducking back into the water, he was surprised when he found the exit; it looked far too small. He had actually fit through that? He groaned a bit as he wiggled his way out of the little underwater cavern. The young mer looked from side to side to see that he had apparently gone further underwater than he had thought; far enough down that his eyes and fins had taken to giving off a brilliant glow.

And then for the first time he looked to the injury on his shoulder, his face twisting in annoyance. The wound had stopped bleeding, thankfully, but it didn't take away from the fact that it hadn't completely closed, meaning that if he moved fast he risked reopening what part of the wound that had healed. This was the reason that he hated playing the game; because he always lost.

It didn't take long before Danny's attention was drawn to the deep waters as he saw a bright light approaching him. In fact there were several of them. Then he heard his name.

"Danny?! By Ceto, is that you?!" He recognized that voice; Sedna! The familiar scarlet tailed mer appeared not too long after that. Danny didn't have any time to even close his mouth before she had tackled him in an embrace, her dorsal fins spreading out behind her.

"Danny? He's alive?!" Nyx, an older male with an emerald fin tackled him in an exuberant hug not long after giggling and whooping.

"I can't believe that you're alive! When you nearly exceeded the time limit we thought that you were a goner!" The blond male had the younger at shoulders length to examine him.

"By the way, where's that hunk of man that was with you earlier?" The red haired woman asked brushing her shoulders against the younger tauntingly.
Danny looked at the other shocked and opened his mouth as if to yell something at her before his mouth was covered by the male, Nyx.

"Of course we were watching guppy! You didn't actually think that we were going to let you go through this alone did you? Besides, I say that it was quite entertaining, especially how you used that upper sea mer." The mer said in distaste.

"It was truly brilliant, the innocent act you put on for him. Such a success! Considering he's about to get torn to pieces in just a few seconds," Sedna added, examining her nails.

Danny, in the meantime, was staring at the them in horror. Torn to pieces?! He shook his head before tugging at Nyx's arm. The man looked down, confused.

"What's wrong guppy? You wanna go home? We're going so-" He was stopped when the teen attempted to claw his face.

"Hey! What's gotten into you?!" the woman exclaimed as she moved towards the younger and grabbed the boys arms in order to keep him from lashing out anymore. He continued to struggle, mouthing profanities and all sort of things as tears welled up in his eyes.

"What did you do to him?!" They turned around to see a new mer approach them. This one had a much darker tail then the rest of them; actually a deep blue, the dark coloring obviously signaling that he was actually quite young. He had a tan complexion despite his obvious identity as one of the deep sea mer, and reddish orange hair that came with dark blue eyes to match.

"Nothing, we swear Ran! We were just congratulating him on his first completed mission!" The blonde said confused.

"Have you puffer fish forgotten that he was human? That maybe your praise made him feel bad?" The two became silent at that before looking at the younger who was now crying. The three panicked at that.

"Oh no!"

"Look what you did!"

"Me?! It was-"

"Would you both shut up!" The younger of the three exclaimed in annoyance, bearing his fangs and exposing the spikes that had previously lay flat on his back and shoulders in warning.

Still angered, he took Danny's hand and placed it on his own. "Tell me what you want us to do."

The boy looked at the other and weakly shadowed the symbols on top of the others palm. The young adult's eyes widened before hardening in determination.

"Come on you two." The man said, taking the boy's hand and pulled him along at a hurried pace.

"What? Where are we going?" The other two asked.

"We got a bloody mer to save." The others obviously wanted to protest but didn't want to upset the 'guppy' any further.

The screech that tore through the water was definitively the phantom's, though the sound was completely unearthly, echoing out at an abnormal wavelength. Those with more sensitive ears were forced to cover them as it rang at decibels that all but deafened, heaven forbid what it sounded like above water. It was a battle cry.
The sight that unfurled around the corner looked like a full on war zone; especially when a disoriented mer went tumbling past them with a startled yelp, obviously having been flung. A number of mers were circling around the reef mer, ganging up in groups of two or three when they charged to lash out at him. The white haired mer whirled round, fangs snapping and claws drawn in retaliation. He seemed to be holding his own, if barely.

His form was riddled with gashes from claws and teeth, but his eyes remained aglow, slitted pupils darting about, catching sight of the nearest attacker and lashing back in response. He'd apparently done enough damage to the others that they'd kept a wary circle around him, calculating their chances before more than one of them would attack, with more of a chance at landing a hit that one alone. This apparent tactic was currently working as the black mer was visibly wounded. However he'd yet to lose any of his aggression or seemingly, his energy. If anything, he seemed to grow nastier with each approach.

The next mer that dove at him had made the mistake of coming in a bit too fast in comparison to the others that had joined the assault. This turned out to be a dangerous mistake. As its claws slashed Phantom's shoulder, his form had whirled on the mer in an instant, fangs tearing into the other's arm before his whole body twisted violently. The attacker giving out an agonized screech before being flung off a few lengths, cradling where its arm should have been.

It hadn't stopped there though, the reef mer still held the disembodied limb within his jaws. A snarl twisting upon his face as his jaws clamped down upon the limb, the sound of the bones cracking echoing out. That however, wasn't the part that frightened a number of them, it was how the limb changed, reacting to the pressure in the water as the black mer pulled in whatever magic had remained within the limb; his lateral line pulsing in response to the foreign magic. He then spat the limb out, flinging it back towards its original owner whom stared on in a mix of pain and horror.

The sensation of wild magic shifted through the water like lightning. Leaving the whole area feeling charged with energy. But it wasn't a comforting feel that the deeper water mers associated with magic. It was heavy, intoxicating, blood chilling... madness... It started off as a chuckle before it broke out into a full, terrifying laugh between heavy pants... A sick, unnatural sneer had curled itself onto the reef mers lips as his tongue licked over his blood stained teeth.

"I'll kill you... I'll kill you all... And BASK IN YOUR DAMNED BLOOD!"

Danny's eyes widened when heard the roar, the promise of death coming from a familiar voice, completely in rage. He recognized it well, but he didn't want to know what had driven the other to that point.

"Please don't tell me the one screaming is the one we're supposed to save?" Sedna queried, trying to control herself. She felt the dark, so very dark, voice that had echoed, probably for miles, and it shook her from within.

Danny was barely deterred as he swum ahead of them, ignoring their screeches for him to get back over there. This was not good, this wasn't good at all. He pushed himself faster as he made a turn around the rock, exiting the maze from the entrance in which he had come. He was nearly knocked over by a couple of mers; he faintly recognized them as the ones he had taunted into playing earlier.

There were so many deep sea mers, some with their faces twisted with fear and others with pure rage.

"It looks like he can handle himself pretty well. Let's go!" The scarlet painted mer yelped and tried to swim away only to be caught by her tail.

"No. You stay with us you coward!" Nyx hissed.

"We've got to calm the one in the middle down. It looks like he's gone mad. What's wrong with him?" Ren questioningly at the darker mer, "You know him best. What's happening?"

Danny's eyes widened in horror at seeing the madness in the other's eyes, from the vantage point they had outside of the ring that surrounded the Phantom he could feel the energy. Magic he realized. Conveying the message to Ren was fairly easy as the other finally realized why the water around the other shiver seemed to be so murderous.

"Did he absorb some magic from the others? Surely so little magic couldn't have had-"

"No you idiot, he's got an overdose of it you dolt. He has too much running through his system and his kind isn't made to handle that much active energy at once." Nyx explained.

"So what are we supposed to do?"

"Drain it."

"And how the bloody fuck do you suppose that we do THAT?!"

"You've been listening to those sailors again haven't you."

"Wha-shut up!"

"Make m-"

"Both of you be quiet or I will cut your tongues off and feed them to a twin pair of Hatchet fish," the blue eyed mer growled, the others flinching at the thought.
Their attention was brought back to what was happening at the moment when another screech rang through the air, and another, and another. The deep sea mer were attempting a full on assault on the center male.

"They're dead." Nyx said plainly.

"You do-"

"They're dead" He repeated again.

"What do you suppose we do now? We can't do anything unless we involve our own shiver and we are not losing any mers because a reef mer drunk on magic." Sedna proclaimed.

Danny... didn't know what to do. He... was at a total loss. He really didn't want to get in between them but... The boy removed the satchel from his person, handing it over to Ren before diving head forward into the war zone.

The blue mer's words hadn't been far off as a number of screeches shook the waters once more. A near blinding pulse of magic whipped out at them as the phantom's form whirled, pulling the water with it. He continued to motion, faster and faster, the magic's pull growing stronger as the water spiraled into a violent vortex, a water spout, a tornado of current sucking in those that had charged. Many of which gave out screeches of surprise, attempting to backpedal from the sweeping mass before being pulled into it.

The screams spoke of death as the water began to turn a sickly red before the vortex burst, shooting the current outwards, scattering those that remained trying to reconvene their numbers at a safer distance. It practically rained with the shredded forms of those unfortunate, disembodied limbs and tattered bodies falling into the depths, trailing blood in their wake. Gnashing jaws and toxic green eyes burned through the dim like fire. The phantom's form shifting slightly, dispersing the blood as it continued to sink, heavier than water.

His fangs were bared to their full length, blood staining his face and claws, arms and the like. He snarled at anything that moved near him, threatening, daring the other's that remained to come at him. Drunk of magic, and drunk off blood, the crazed look that held within his eyes only burned with a satisfied, sadistic delight. Another blood curdling laugh escaped him as he took in the sight of his bloodied claws.

In some sense he seemed to be growing more disoriented, distracted with the little things. The negative side of such overwhelming magic starting to show its effects on his mind, the kind of sickening madness that had been the reason his mother had chased him from home in the first place. Whilst reef mers could all but not use such magic known to the deep, colorless reef mers were susceptible to magic, capable of using it and being twisted into crazed variations of their old selves as it consumed them...

He let out another laugh before baring his teeth at the remaining shiver, "I'M KING OF THIS BLOODY OCEAN! SO SAY YOUR CORPSE!"

He screeched, mock charging at a few of them. It was enough to make the less experienced ones that still remained retreat slightly. He then turned his head to the sky, letting out another earth shaking call, the water vibrating from the magic that wafted off of it. At this rate, there would be nothing left to salvage of the older mer, recessing into that of a vicious beast that could only be saved by slaughter.

Something moving fast towards him caused him to whirl round, half snarling, half sneering at the thought of someone still attempting to challenge him; his head quirked slightly upon the sight of the mer that approached him. Eyes narrowed, in his haze, the youth looked almost like an inverted version of himself, except everything had remained black. The confusion was evident as the teen would be able to find that he had approached far closer without ill effects than any of the others that had drawn in with the intention to kill.

A half murmured, "what...?" escaped his throat as he stared at the boy, his mind murky with the sheer overhaul of energy that he couldn't comprehend the tricks his eyes were playing on him. His reaction, then did something unexpected, as he screeched, shoving the boy away from him as he flung himself back a few lengths, his hands clutching his head, claws digging into the skin.

"This... isn't real... YOUR NOT REAL!" He screamed, still cradling his head as his form shook severely, his eyes unable to focus, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

Danny had been near horrified when he saw the sea of blood created by the one who had guided him so far. He was glad to see that some, smarter, mers were actually deciding to flee. Danny, on the other hand, stayed moving closer to the other who was now spouting out words filled with madness and rage.

It took a few moments for the other to recognize his presence and he could hear the worried chatter of his friends behind him, telling the boy to get his newborn ass back behind the rocks. The half-crazed mer's grin faded into confusion at the others presence, as if confused that the boy wasn't attempting to attack. Danny on the other hand simply stared at the other sadly, almost in disappointment though that wasn't the intent. He reached out to comfort the man, and if he could touch skin, then draw the excess magic away from the other.

However, the younger mer was surprised when the other flung the child away before doing the same to himself screeching about him to being there; about voices in his head. Danny looked at the other in surprise before smiling softly. The other didn't need him frowning or sending more negative energy.

The deep water mer then repeated the same actions he had in the cave when hiding from the now dead shiver. He tapped his temple before tapping his chest.

'Reminds me of myself'

Though, perhaps not to this extent but the boy had gone mad for a while after his shift from upper water to deep sea mer. The Sea witch had overwhelmed him with so magic he had felt like he was going to have to rip himself open. She had him locked up for a good long while after that one incident...
The boy attempted to go closer once again.

Upon the younger mer's attempts at approaching again, he screamed, a number of profanities escaping his lips as he curled inward, away from the youth. His hands still remained holding his head; likely it was throbbing at this point, and his eyes glowed to the point where they could be seen behind closed lids. His face scrunched up in pain and a snarl as he continued to scream over and over about how none of this was real, how the teen shouldn't exist, couldn't exist.

When the boy had reached out to him again, he'd snapped his teeth at the offending hand. Fangs barred, but the hiss barely audible in his throat. His actions were however getting sluggish as his mind was now conflicting against the magic's pull and the slowing of his adrenaline making his injuries and exhaustion more and more prevalent.

At a third attempt of approach, the older mer simply shifted backwards, shaking his head repeating a mantra of, "no... no..." over and over again. His whole form was shaking at this point, making most movements difficult, and having all but lost control of his hands. In another attempt to get away from what he thought was a mirror image of his former self, he shook his head before crying out again, "NO! I'M NOT HIM!... YOUR NOT...him... I'm not...me..."

The last parts of his words were slurred, almost coming out as a whisper towards the last part. His form then swayed slightly before losing consciousness, his form starting to fall down into the depths below.