(A/N: Um. So. I have no real excuse for not updating. I got caught up in other stories, and honestly thought this story was a tad dead? I don't know, I haven't really been keeping up with the fandom and I apologize for that. But I got a review to another one of my stories by an anonymous reviewer begging me to update this, so I revisited it only to see it's been about two years since I've updated. I'm really sorry! I plan to knock this thing out of the park right now, so it can be done before that happens again. There's only a few more chapters to go! Enjoy!)
Lewis had taken off running.
Mr. Sertori was apparently following, but Lewis hardly noticed. He was faster, and a tad bit more frantic. Also, he'd seen firsthand what the three girls were capable of under the influence of the full moon. It got him whipped up in a hurricane and stranded in the middle of Mako Island once. Not fun times.
But this…this was ten times worse. At least before, Lewis had been the only one in the line of fire, and it had been contained to the island. Now, it was contained to the whole beach line and Mako, and ninety percent of Gold Coast's population. No one over the age of fifteen skipped the festival unless they were sick and dying.
Not to mention who knew what kind of power or powers the girls might develop in this bout of moon exposure. Cleo already seemed to have controlled a tidal wave, way more mojo then she usually had. And either Emma or Rikki or both had created a gust big enough to send him and Mr. Sertori flying. But Lewis severely doubted that was all the moon had in store. Each time it seemed the effects grew stronger.
Feet pounding on the pavement, Lewis felt the gravel give way to soft sand as he reached the beach and thundered down the steps to the shoreline. Rounding the cropping of rocks, he hoped to God that –
Oh. Oh, no.
Panting met his ears as Mr. Sertori finally caught up just then, resting a hand on the rock as he attempted to catch his breath. "You're fast," he commented, before looking round the rock to where Lewis was staring listlessly. "What is it?"
His face went slack just as Lewis' had. "My stars."
"You got that right," Lewis managed.
The festival was utterly devastated. Tents were flown this way in that, drenched and tattered. Picnic tables were in splinters, food was splattered on everything and everyone. Tables overturned and in the waves, glass bottles shattered, litter and damaging human waste everywhere – it was every ecoscientist's worst nightmare. The property damage was probably substantial, too.
Mr. Sertori just blinked at it all for a moment. "Did Cleo do all of this?" he breathed.
"Probably not just her," Lewis murmured, biting his lip. "Let's find out."
He stalked over to where Wilfred, the JuiceNet Café owner, was just getting to his feet in his demolished juice bar.
"Wilfred!" he said with concern, helping the man to his feet and leading him away from the large amount of broken glass. "What happened?"
Wilfred coughed sickly, spewing out a shoot of seawater. "What, you mean you didn't see it?" he gargled.
"No, we, er, were just walking down," Lewis explained quickly as Mr. Sertori joined him. "What happened?"
"Tidal wave," Wilfred coughed. "But biggest and weirdest wave I've ever seen."
"What do you mean, 'weird'?" Mr. Sertori pressed.
Wilfred blinked at him through dripping eyelashes. "It came out of nowhere," he explained, shaking his head. "It didn't seem to come from the ocean at all, like it just appeared from behind and washed right through the festival line."
"That was all?" Lewis pressed him thoroughly. "You didn't see anything else? Just the wave?"
"Yeah, just a wall of water and I was knocked off my feet!" Wilfred recounted. He shook his head. "Weirdest thing was the water," he muttered. "It was neither cold nor warm."
"Oi, what are you on, Wilfred?" a voice spoke up just then and Zane Bennett emerged from underneath a part of the juice bar's whicker roof, spitting out salt water as well. "The water was hot. Like, scalding!"
"You daft, Bennett?" another voice added to the fray as Byron picked his way out of the glass field gingerly, holding a ruined surfboard. "That water was ice cold!"
The three ensued into bickering, as expected. Lewis shot Mr. Sertori a tight-lipped look. "I suppose that answers your question," he said.
"Yes," Mr. Sertori agreed. "But where did they go?"
Lewis grimaced as his eyes followed the clear and obvious path of destruction all the way to the girls' usual rock. "I can take a guess," he said grimly. "Is your boat in the dock?"
"'Course," Mr. Sertori said, already turning as he inferred Lewis' meaning. "Let's go."
~O~
A couple minutes later and the two boys were zipping out to sea in the direction of Mako Island, Lewis sitting pursed-lipped at the bow and Mr. Sertori steering from the helm.
"Should I be prepped for this?" Mr. Sertori asked over the sound of the seawater spraying in their wake.
"Probably," Lewis answered, never taking his eyes off the shadowy outcropping that was their destination. "The first time the three of them caught moon effects at once I was thrown up in a hurricane."
"Excuse me?" Mr. Sertori exclaimed.
"Yeah, that was about my thinking too," Lewis agreed. "But the bottom line is, we don't know what they'll be capable of so just be ready for anything. Least of all one of three temperature tidal waves."
Mr. Sertori was silent for a moment. "I don't know how I feel about this," he said finally.
"Honestly, I don't either," Lewis agreed, sighing.
A couple minutes later and the fishing boat ran ashore. Lewis helped Mr. Sertori pull it gently out of the water before the two of them stared grimly at the waiting volcano.
"Please don't tell me they're in there," Mr. Sertori said.
"Sorry," Lewis sighed, clicking on his flashlight and shouldering the spelunking gear as he began the trek to the non-underwater entrance to the moon pool.
It took a tad longer than normal to get there in the dark, but they made it. Mr. Sertori peered down the partially-concealed hole skeptically.
"You want me to slide down that thing?" he assumed.
"If you don't want your daughter creating a tsunami, you are," Lewis told him straight, before chucking down his flashlight and going in after it. He tried not to scream. At night, the hole was twice as bad.
He landed in the sand with an oaf. Scrambling towards his flashlight's beam, he grabbed it and aimed it toward the water as Mr. Sertori came yelling down above him. He too came down with an oaf.
"Shhh," Lewis whispered, staring at the calm water intently. The full moon was evenly reflected in the center of the pool, eerily casting white-blue rays around the cavern. "We don't want to startle them."
Mr. Sertori made a guttural sound and tapped Lewis on the shoulder. "Uh, Lewis…"
"Shhh, I think they're in the water," Lewis whispered, edging closer. "Just be careful not to touch it, it might do things to you."
"Lewis…"
A soft breeze flew through Lewis' hair and he ruffled it as the pool rippled a little bit. "I mean, this water has some sort of connection with the moon. It's fascinating, but unpredictable."
"Lewis!"
"What?" Lewis snapped, whipping around only to freeze in horror.
"That," Mr. Sertori gulped.
Hiding in a shadowy corner at the edge of the pool was all three girls in human form, standing in a triangle with Cleo at the head. Well, two of them were standing.
Cleo was sort of floating.
And all their eyes were glowing blue.
Lewis yelped and abandoned his flashlight, scrambling back until his back met rock. Mr. Sertori followed suit.
The three girls' heads snapped in unison to look at them, their glowing eyes rebounding off the cavern walls.
They didn't attack, but as Lewis watched, wind began to pick up around Cleo's bobbing form, whipping her hair around her head and making her glowing eyes twice as scary. Behind her, Emma's hands sparkled with blue light as half the cavern suddenly froze over, icicles forming above her head. Rikki, on the other hand, merrily touched the wall to her left and her hand glowed a slight red, causing the rock to melt into molten lava.
Mr. Sertori swallowed thickly. "Ready for anything, huh?" he croaked.
"Surprisingly, this isn't new," Lewis squeaked weakly. "But a bit more powerful. And the glowing eyes are a novelty."
"Fabulous!" Mr. Sertori exclaimed. "Now, what do we do!?"
"How about leave?" a snarling voice interrupted and Lewis found himself not for the first time shooting up into the sky on a giant gust of wind, screaming his head off. "LEWIS!" Mr. Sertori screamed.
"Wait!"
FWISH! The wind stilted suddenly and Lewis was no longer ascending, but descending. Screaming twice as hard, Lewis began to make crash course for the moon pool.
Squeezing his eyes shut and saying his prayers, Lewis prepared himself for the worst, but just before he touched the water another powerful gust appeared, leaving him hovering right above the surface.
He managed to pry one eye open, breathing heavily as he saw Emma holding Cleo's wrist. Her glowing blue eyes were fixed on him and Lewis gulped.
"Maybe he can be of use to us," Emma said menacingly. The glow in her eyes intensified drastically and Lewis whimpered. He'd never heard Emma speak like that.
"YEAH?" a booming voice exploded suddenly, and all three girls' heads suddenly whipped in the other direction. "WELL, NOT ON MY WATCH FISH-GIRLS!"
With resounding screams, all three mermaids were drenched in water as Mr. Sertori sprayed them with a few flicks of the end of his fishing rod in the water. The wind holding Lewis afloat promptly left and Lewis screamed as he fell again, but this time Mr. Sertori was ready and managed to catch him.
"You're lucky she had you floating not far from the edge," Mr. Sertori hissed as Lewis fell to the sand with his second oaf of the night. "And that I always keep my rod with me." Lewis nodded gingerly, eyeing the moon water worriedly.
"C'mon!" Mr. Sertori wheezed, pulling himself and Lewis to their feet. "We have to get out of here. Their transformation will only hold them off for a sec – "
" – ond."
Both boys stopped in their tracks as they whirled around to break for the volcano hole, only to see all three girls standing in front of it, arms crossed and eyes still glowing. Water dripped from their hair and clothes.
None of them had tails.
"How in the name of – " Mr. Sertori began, but he cut off quickly as he watched the girls' hair all magically begin to dry before his eyes. Their clothes and bodies did too, the water droplets quite literally seeming to seep into their skin.
Mr. Sertori swallowed thickly. "Did they just absorb the water and not grow tails?"
"The moon," Lewis groaned. "The stupid moon!"
"Stupid to you, maybe," Rikki said, her hands shinning red again as she took a few steps forward, the sand beneath her churned with heat. Emma smiled sadistically as her breath chilled in the air and icicles formed in her wake with each step. Cleo's glowing eyes merrily intensified as she too advanced, mini hurricanes swirling in flurries all around her.
Lewis and Mr. Sertori scrambled back as far as they could before their hands met the edge of the moon pool.
"Any ideas?" Mr. Sertori squeaked.
"Run," Lewis stuttered, "but I don't think that's an option anymore."
"Plan B?" Mr. Sertori exclaimed fearfully, staring with horror into his daughter's gleaming eyes.
"I don't think there was ever a Plan A!" Lewis screeched as he tried to scoot back further, but his hand only met air. Looking back, he was greeted only by the shimmer of the moon pool's magically unpredictable waters.
They were trapped. Lewis gulped, his mouth dry as he looked back at his former girlfriend in terror as she and her two mermaid friends advanced on them with murder in their luminous eyes.
No escape.