The group at the house had spent much of the last hour tossing out theories as to how all of this had happened. Most of their ideas were just as quickly discarded. The moon had been an ordinary crescent, and hadn't even been directly overhead when the change took place. They had been out swimming together many times and nothing strange had ever happened. No one had been using their powers, so that wasn't it either.

Bella, Rikki, and Cleo flopped down onto the couch together, completely drained. Lewis and Will were still sitting side by side on the smaller couch in the room. They both felt very much like animals in a zoo being studied. Will had attempted to speak up and offer help in figuring things out, but he really didn't know enough about mermaids to offer up anything constructive. He knew he loved swimming with them, but he couldn't come up with any scientific ideas.

Lewis, on the other hand, was coming up with a theory a minute. He didn't like this and he just wanted things to go back to normal. He felt nervous and paranoid and he jumped every time someone moved sharply. Lewis took a deep sigh, trying to relax himself. He knew that Will hadn't exactly hated having a tail, and that really irritated Lewis. Still, they were kind of in this together, so he was trying really hard not to be annoyed.

Lewis stood, frustrated. So far, not a single one of his ideas had gotten him anywhere. He walked to the middle of the room, still a little bit shaky.

"I need to get home to my lab." Lewis announced. "I have loads of research there. Something I have has got to have something in it that will help us."

Cleo stood as well and walked over to him. "He's right. I'll bet there's something in one of those mermaid legend books."

"About boys growing tales?" Rikki said skeptically.

"Got a better idea?" Lewis shot back.

Rikki shook her head. No, she didn't have any other ideas at all.

Bella stood as well and spoke, "Are you sure you want to leave here? Now?"

Cleo took Lewis's hand in hers. "You absolutely aren't going anywhere alone." She informed him. "I'll go with you."

Bella crossed to the other side of the room as she worried. "I don't know..."

Lewis followed her, Cleo right behind him. "We'll be careful," He assured the rest of the room."Plus, it's better to go now while it's still nighttime. We can be back here before morning. If that's ok with Zane, of course. Speaking of Zane..."

"Ugh!" Rikki exclaimed. "Where IS he? Should we put together a search party?"

Lewis looked at his watch. "Give him one more hour. Sixty minutes. Then we'll split up and start a search. For now, I think you guys should stay here. And be careful." He added.

They all nodded in agreement. Cleo and Lewis made their way to the front door, their ears filled with warnings to be careful and strict instructions to call the others once they'd made it to Lewis's house safely.

The door clicked shut behind them and the remaining three looked at each other.

Breaking the silence, Will stood and spoke up. "What now?"

Rikki answered confidently. "Now, we go out to the pool."

Will found himself once again headed to experiment in the water with Bella and Rikki. But at least this time they were headed to the beautiful sparkling pool outside. There was a huge gated fence around it, no one would be able to see in. Will took a deep breath and followed the girls outside.

Meanwhile...

Zane had managed to pull himself up out of the water and far enough up on the sand to begin letting himself dry off. It had not been easy dragging himself and he was totally exhausted. He was also very nervous.

"This was not a good idea." Zane muttered under his breath.

He was utterly exposed laying there on the beach. Absolutely anyone could come walking by and see him just laying there, as a fish.

Zane laid his head back, nervously flicking his eyes back and forth. He was completely on edge, just waiting to hear voices coming his way. He held his breath and listened. Nothing. Just the sound of the waves breaking on the shore. Now, more than ever, Zane wished he hadn't been so stupid in leaving the house. Now look at what he had gotten himself into. He wished Rikki was with him. He would do anything to see her face right at this moment. His phone was a few feet away, tucked into one of his shoes. He used his arms to drag himself over to where he'd dropped his things. He located his phone and slid it open to dial Rikki's number.

Just then, Zane saw a faint glimmer of a flashlight, maybe half a mile away. In a total panic, Zane managed to pull himself back into the pool of water. His phone still lay in the sand, now several feet away. Zane rose to the surface so that he could just see over the water line to the beach. The couple with the flashlight were laughing with each other, and had veered off the beach to head into town.

Zane cursed under his breath. He could have stayed where he was and he wouldn't have been found.

Frustrated and incredibly angry with himself, Zane once again began to pull himself out of the pool. This time, his strength gave out on him. His arms just couldn't pull anymore. Zane let himself hang there. Out of the water up to his hips, he allowed his upper body to fall onto the sand. All he wanted to do was get home.

Zane felt a strong surge of anger flow through him. He was angry at his own stupidity and utterly fed up with himself. The feelings raced through him and in a fit of frustration he slammed his balled up fists down onto the sand, letting out a yell.

At the moment his hands hit the sand something strange happened, causing him to pull back immediately, falling once more into the water. Very slowly he raised up and looked carefully at the sand where he had hit it. Two thick columns of steam rose up into the air. The sand itself had melted together into two fist-shaped blobs.

"No." Zane couldn't look away from the melted sand. "Way."

Zane held his hands up to his face, turning them over. they looked normal, but he knew exactly what was happening.

"I have Rikki's power."