CHAPTER 13, YEAH! SHIT IS GONNA HAPPEN IN THIS CHAPTER SO BE PREPARED.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR REVIEWS AND SUPPORT AND STUFF.
AND ONCE AGAIN, I DON'T ACCTUALLY KNOW THE LAY OUT OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, SO EVERYTHING ABOUT THE LIBRARY MENTIONED HERE IS FICTIONAL OTHER THAN THE NAME OF THE PLACE AND THE FACT THAT IT'S HUGE. I REALLY DON'T THINK IT HAS AS MUCH SUCERITY AS I'M WRITING IN HERE BUT OH WELL, PLOT DETAILS.
Neither Alex nor Tye had slept well that night.
Seeing all of those dead bodies, going in to rescue a stranger from a collapsed building, setting off explosives for the first time, seeing all the gore they did, the bodies, nearly becoming a dead body themselves, and then learning about a crazed mermaid out to do something really bad and then planning a break in….
It was too much for one day, but they had to cope.
They didn't know why they trusted Jessica. It was just this feeling they got, like it was important that the three of them stayed together. It was completely irrational for them to just trust someone on sight, but at the same time, Alex and Tye felt like it was the most rational thing in the world to be with this mermaid.
They just charged into a unstable building to save this girl just because she told them she needed help from a chat room. Everything they just did went against all those internet safety rules that they drilled into your head at school.
Apparently those rules hadn't been drilled in enough because not only did they got meet a stranger, but now they were going to do something illegal with said stranger.
But it was all essential that they did this… for everyone.
Alex, Jessica and Tye stood in front of the New York public library. They all knew what they had to do.
"You guys ready to do this?" Tye asked.
"Let's do it," Alex sighed.
The three girls entered the library and split up after a moment of taking in the view of the library. Tye and Alex went towards the security office and Jessica began making her way to the private collection door.
'Remember, don't start working on the lock until the camera's deactivate, the room starts to get extremely warm and people begin to clear out. Work even faster when the alarm goes off.'
Now Alex and Tye saw the door to the office just ahead of them. Most of the other people in the area were looking down at books, so they didn't see the two teenagers open the door to the office a crack.
There was one, extremely bored looking security guard playing on his phone, sitting in front of a monitor with all the feeds from the security cameras coming in. Apparently watching people reading on cameras all day long isn't exactly the most exciting job in the world.
Alex grabbed hold of Tye's arm and turned invisible. Fun fact that Jessica shared last night:
'You do realize you can turn something your holding onto invisible with you right.
They cautiously entered the room, well aware of the 60 second time limit on the invisibly spell. Alex's invisible had reached over and slammed the door shut loudly, startling the guard to the point that he nearly fell off his chair.
"Who's there!" he demanded, looking around the room only to see no one there.
The guard left the room to go see if there was anyone on the other side of the door that could have slammed it. Alex let go of the invisibility momentarily, let go of Tye's arm and left her visible and then re-activated the invisibility, giving her another full 60 seconds. She slipped out the door while the guard still looked away, then wandered off to her next location.
Tye locked the door before it closed, locking the guard out and her inside.
'Now to mess with the cameras,' Tye thought to herself and looked at the billions of buttons in front of her.
Outside the room, Alex was right behind the guard now. The guard was trying to open the door, and just realizing it was locked.
As quickly and quietly as she could, invisible Alex swiped the keys from the guard's belt, they too became invisibly with her.
Now the guard would think he left the keys inside the room and he couldn't get in.
Alex ran behind a shelf of books where no one currently was and let the invisibility wash away. She placed the keys in the messenger bag she had brought with her. Each girl had brought one, Alex's was red, Tye's was green and Jessica's was black.
Now to get into her first of many positions.
Back in the security room…
TYE POV
I looked over the billions of buttons on the control panel that was connected to the various monitors of the security feed.
I was expecting there to be a bunch of cameras, but not this many. I could see everywhere in the library plus a few areas outside it.
And it was a good thing I was in here rather than that confused security guard outside who was still trying to figure out where his keys were. There was a camera pointed right at the spot where Alex became visible again… also, it was kinda funny to see the keys just randomly vanish from the guy's belt a while ago. I watched as Alex got into her first position next to a water fountain, a vent and under a light.
I could also see Jessica sitting at a table just outside the door to the private collection. She looked ready to do this. I wonder if she ever got to do anything similar to this when she was with her Secret organization of her's.
There were also various cameras inside the private collection room. It looked a lot different that I imagined it. There were more tables than shelves. And some a lot of the table space was covered in ancient looking books and there were even a few slabs of rock and tablets and stuff with writing that defiantly wasn't English on it.
There were also a bunch of computers and some sciencey equipment in there that looked like it belonged in a science lab rather than a library.
All of this was a bit hard to see though, seeing as the lights in there were off and there were no people in sight… makes our lives easier then.
Anyway, I decided I should probably stop starring at the security feed and get back to work on making it so no one could see the security feed for the next little while.
Turning my attention down to the buttons, I began reading labels.
Intercom button, nope don't need that yet, fire alarm, not quite, emergency panic button that calls the police, defiantly not that one.
It took me a minute to connect that panel that was full of flip switches with C-1, C-2, C-3 lables underneath each one that they were the things that turned the cameras on and off. There were a lot of cameras in the place and there was a switch here with a C-# label for each of them.
My life just got so much easier.
I experimentally flipped one of the switches and one of the monitors went black and the words, Camera Disables appeared. I smirked and flipped as many switches as I could until all of the cameras were down.
'Alright, time to go,' I thought to myself.
I went over to the door and cautiously looked out the small window in the door to see if the guard was still there. Lucky for me, he was walking away, probably to see if he could get another set of keys. I just hoped we could do this before he came back.
Once he was far enough away, I quietly unlocked the door from the inside, slipped out and re-locked it before it closed and for extra insurance, I pulled a water bottle out of my bag. I looked around to make sure I wasn't being notices, then I took off the cap.
I manipulated the water to go under the door and up onto the door knob then froze it then I also froze some water inside the actual lock. So now even if they got a key, they would have to wait for the ice to melt or risk breaking their door, which would give us a bit of extra time.
ALEX POV
I saw a few nearby cameras suddenly point down and the little green light on them turned orange. Tye did it, she shut down the cameras. Now it was my turn.
I looked around at the people around me. There were about thirty people that I could see at the moment. I just hopped I could do this quickly enough to not get noticed.
I used my powers to manipulate some water to come out of the water fountain I was near. I willed the water to stay as close to the wall as I could so it wouldn't be seen as easily. I guided it towards the vent and pushed it in. The water slid down it.
I guided more water into the vents then did the best I could to force the water to move around everywhere in the vents.
Step one down, step two beginning now. Once again, I forced a bit of water out of the fountain, looking around to see if anyone was watching, no one was.
I formed a few, slightly bigger than marble shaped, water pebbles and froze them solid. I looked up at the florescent light directly above me, and the other lights close to me.
What I was about to do would defiantly get people out.
With one hand, I levitated the frozen water pebbles up along the wall and places one under a few of the florescent lights. I moved over to the side so that I was no longer under the lights.
And with the other hand, I began boiling the large amounts of water that was inside the vents. And with a surge of energy, I pushed the pebbles up into the lights. They exploded and released the gas that I knew they would.
I boiled the water completely and steam rose out of all the vents in the building. Now not only did the lights explode, but the steam was making it seem a lot worse than it was and it was getting really hot in the library and visibility was getting a bit hard.
'Now to get to the door,' I thought and took off.
As I began running I used my powers to spread a little bit more water around and I also broke a few more lights with water pebbles. Once more lights were broke I ran a bit faster to get to the doors.
JESSICA POV
I began working the second I heard the explosion followed by the scream. It was literally seconds after I saw the camera power down. Tye got those cameras out pretty fast, and the way she planned to get rid of the guard was smart. She probably could of actually done it herself if she had learned the power of invisibly yet.
I walked over to the locked door, which I had checked to be in fact locked earlier, and pulled out a water bottle.
Steam filled the room as I began to work. I splashed water all over and inside the lock, then I formed the water to fit inside the lock perfectly. Then I jellified it.
Yep, I just made a key out of water. I turned the jelly key in the lock and the door opened with a satisfying click.
Just as I did, the fire alarm went off, signaling everyone to get out of the building.
I smiled, the plan had worked. That steam made it seem as though a lot more of the florescent lights had been broken rather than just the few Alex had probably broken. I had to give her credit for coming up with that one, she's pretty good at getting out, or in thing case, getting everyone else out of places.
I saw Tye emerge from one hallway and just second later Alex came out another one.
"Everyone's clearing out now, I don't know how much time were going to have," Tye stated.
I nodded and raised my hand. A gust of wind picked up and pushed the heavy doors open just enough for us to get in.
"That's really cool," Alex commented on my power.
"Thanks," I replied. But I was kinda surprised. Most of the mermaids I know have this power, no one ever really comments on the powers where I come from. It's just a normal thing for us. But Alex and Tye are not from my world… completely anyway. Sometimes i forget that.
I also forget that I just met these girls yesterday and the day before that I was still stuck in the base.
Such good friends I can predict them to be in the future… and in the present.
Although, I can't help but think that Alex looks a bit familiar. She has from the moment I saw her, I can't quite figure out why she's so familiar to me… probably nothing.
Anyway, we entered the private collection room and closed the doors behind us.
We were in.
The three of us spread out to look for anything that could help us find out what Issantris is doing.
NORMAL POV
Jess looked at the shelves, Tye looked at the tables in from and Alex at the tables in back. They began looking at all of the old books, tablets and even a few scrolls that were in the collection. A few things were in glass cases, but none of the things behind glass were of use to them.
'There has to be something important here,' Alex thought to herself as she put down a book about the 13th century.
There were a bunch of papers that turned out to be notes and stuff. There were notes on deciphering certain things, names of books, date figurations and other stuff that didn't totally make sense to the girls.
"Guys I think I found something," Tye said.
Alex and Jess joined her on looking at a three inch thick book that was open on a table. The pages looked really, really old and parts of the cover was crumbling, but it was holding together.
"This things got mermaids all over it, but I don't recognize the writing," Tye continued.
"Characters unidentifiable, possibly a lost language, possibly stories or legends of mermaids," Alex summarized the notes.
Jess chuckles, "No, the writing characters are just gibberish."
"What?" Alex and Tye ask in union.
"This is defiantly what we're looking for. There's mermaid magic practically radiating off this book. Its pretty powerful magic, probably took dozens of mermaids to perform the spell. It's in English, it's just been heavily disguised," Jess explained.
"Whoa," Alex said.
"I know. I'll put it in my bag. It's gonna take a while to get the spell off it," Jess said, sliding the book into her bag.
"Wait, wont it get ruined or something. I mean, that thing's pretty old," Tye said.
"There's more than one mermaid spell on this thing, one of them is defiantly a preserve spell. Plus the spell makes this thing look way older and frail that it looks. Trust me, this book is nowhere near as old as some mermaid books, but it should have something we need," Jess shrugged.
"Wow, I need to learn some of these spells," Alex muttered.
"Trust me, they're not easy. Most of the high level spells need a lot of mermaids and moon stone energies to do or they just crumble. Whoever wrote this book must of really wanted to keep it hidden. I'm surprised there's not a cloaking spell on this book so no one can even see it with all the spells placed on this book. Wonder how Land People were even allowed to find it."
"How can you tell which spells are on the book?" Tye asked.
"Mermaids can always sense magic, it's like a 7th sense… but it's harder for some, but it can be learned if you need to. I could teach you how to do it, but later. Right now, I think we're running out of time." Jess replied.
"7th? Don't you mean 6th?" Alex asked.
"Nope, 7th, the 6th is something different entirely," Jess said like it was the most normal thing in the universe.
"Okaaaay," Tye muttered, "Let's do one more quick search then we should get out of here."
"Hey, anyone got the keys to this door? Think I heard someone inside," they heard a voice from just outside the door.
"There ain't supposed to be anyone in there," another voice said.
"I think we should leave now," Alex whispered.
The others nodded. They turned off the lights and made their way over to a window. They heard keys jingling and being inserted into the door. They were out of time.
The large doors open just as they disappeared from sight of the window. They started to run and turned a corner, ended up facing a busy street.
"Well that was fun," Tye said.
"HEY I THINK SOMEONE'S BEEN IN HERE! WINDOW'S OPEN!" the voice they earlier heard yelled from the window they had just escaped from, luckily, the three were out of the window's view.
"We should get back to my house," Alex said.
"No, the moon pool will be a safer place for both us and to examine the book, the magic from there should make it easier to do anything with it," Jess said.
"Is that thing waterproof?" Tye asked.
"Yea, all mermaid related things are. Otherwise a lot of mermaid history, among other things, would of been lost a long time ago," Jess replied with a shrug, "I mean, you can't actually have non-water proof things when you live under water."
"True."
The girls made their way to the docks, unaware of the people following them. They dove into the water and swam off.
"I have to admit, they did really well for their first time doing stuff like this," Natasha commented.
"I just can't believe they actually pulled it off and we didn't even get to intervene," Clint sighed. He had really been hoping to do some action today, but it had all been more surveillance for the archer and his accomplices.
"Let's just get to Mako, we'll talk to them there," Steve said.
All of the Avengers, minus Thor of course, had been monitoring the whole thing, and all nodded at the thought of finally doing something.
The Avengers hopped onto one of Tony's boats and headed towards the island. As expected, they lost all radio, Wi-Fi, cell and any other reception when they got close enough to Mako.
Tony had been exploring the island, a lot, since he bought it. And during his exploration, he found that tunnel slide that lead into the moon pool, so he lead the others there, and one by one, they slid down into the underground tunnel below.
Quietly, the Avengers walked down the hall. They could hear the sound of water splashing slightly and three different female voices bouncing off the walls, though very few vague words could be made out.
A minute later, they were just behind the wall that lead into the moon pol chamber.
"So how long you think it'll take to get the spells off the book exactly?" Tye asked.
"Days, weeks maybe, but if we keep the book here, in the moon pool, that should speed up the process, until then, all we've got is the few things that we can see by just being mermaids," Jess replied.
"Which is literally just the real pictures," Alex sighed.
"Well it's better than the garbage Land people will see," Jess said, "All they see is the ugly interpretations of mermaids and sirens. Honestly how did the Greeks see Sirens as the ugly monsters displayed in the legends and artwork. Sirens are just mermaids with their skills set more tuned to the forbidden songs, they aren't ugly bird things, I could be a siren if I wanted to- and if I knew the songs and how to channel my power through music."
"Didn't we get this rant last night?" Alex asked Tye in a joking manner.
"No, we got the Little Mermaid story rant last night, remember?" Tye corrected likewise.
"Oh yea," Alex smirked and rolled her eyes, "How could I ever forget that story."
"Still can't believe how wrong land people got the story," Jess sighed with a small hint of amusement.
"Well it's not like you guys could just show up and set the story straight," Tye said.
"From what I've heard, there is nothing straight about that story," Alex replied, "But I still think its way better than the Disney version, as nice of a story as it was."
"Yea…" Jess said, "But anyway, I don't have a lot of experience with breaking spells this powerful… or any kind of spells in general, I might need a bit of help."
"Tell us what to do and we can do it," Alex said confidently, "…probably."
"Sounds like the crazy kind of thing you'd try to do," Tony said, revealing himself from behind the tunnel wall.
"Tony? What the hell are you doing here?" Alex exclaimed.
The other Avengers stepped out into view.
"Correction, what the hell are you guys doing here," Tye said with a scowl.
"You're doing something stupid and dangerous that you shouldn't be doing. Why else would I be here?" Tony replied.
The three mermaids back away from the edge of the pool, Jessica clutched the book to her chest. The avengers took a step forwards, but not more. They just stood standing-and swimming- face to face.
"You should leave," Jessica said, "This doesn't involve you."
"From the way you've spoken about Issantris, I'd say it does," Natasha replied calmly.
"And my niece means-" Tony began but Alex cut him off.
"Means you don't have any say on what I do and should go away. Like, now."
"And besides, this is mermaid stuff. And didn't we only tell you guys about five thousand times to back off when it comes to our mermaid shit," Tye added.
"And you leave the saving the world shit to us," Clint replied.
"Why do Land People always think they need to get involved with everything?" Jess asked.
"We 'Land People' like to know what's going on," Steve said.
"And besides, aren't Alex and Tye technically Land People? So they shouldn't be here of we shouldn't," Tony said smugly.
"I'm sorry but do you have a tail and water powers? No? Didn't think so," Tye replied.
"Anyway, how about we go talk somewhere else where they won't bug us," Alex said.
"We're not bugging you, we're helping you," Bruce said.
"You haven't stopped bugging me since you found out about my tail. All you do is follow us around and study us like we're you next science project," Alex shot back, "You're not helping anything."
"So do you want to kick them out of here or just go somewhere else?" Tye asked.
"You can't kick me out of here, I bought the island, technically you're all trespassing," Tony replied.
Jessica chuckled, "You bought the island? Don't expect to hold onto it for long."
"Was that a threat?" Tony was slightly confused.
"No, it was a fact. Do you know how many people have tried to buy islands or areas with moon pools in them? No one manages to hold onto them for long; it just doesn't happen," Jess replied, "I would be expecting to lose it within a week or so."
"That's not going to happen," Tony said confidently.
"Oh yes it will. It always does, to everyone, no matter who you are or how big you pocket is."
"That's impossible."
"Tell that to every single person in history who's tried to buy this island. You included. Look it up, this island's not even owned by the government, let alone some billionaire."
There was silence in the cave as Jessica and Tony glared at echother for a half a minute or so, though Jess had a slight smirk on her face at Tony's disbelivance.
"You still can't make us leave. And you need this place to get your 'spells' off that book of yours," Tony snapped.
"You honestly think that? The moon pool and Land People rarely mix well. If anything, it would be so easy to get you to leave," Jess said and lifted her hand out of the water, "Don't you feel that urge to leave about now, and if not, I can help."
Though none of them wanted to admit it, all the Avengers did get the feeling of dread and worry, a bad vibe coming from the cave that actually did want to make them leave, maybe even fear. It was unlike anything they ever felt before, even on their previous visits to the moon pool.
"So would you like to go now?" Alex asked.
"Because it really is time for you to go. Now!" Tye added.
"Why won't you let me help you?" Tony asked Alex directly.
"I told you before, I don't need someone to save me. Ever since you found out about my powers you've acting like you're my dad or something. You're not. You hardly even knew I existed before that stupid party. I kinda wish you'd go back to that right about now. Mermaid stuff means mermaids, not SHIELD, not the Avengers and not Iron Man."
And with that, three heads disappeared below the surface of the water.
Alex didn't look back as she torpedoed through the water, her friends close behind. She didn't know why she was so angry right now. Sure, the avengers were smothering them for information that they shouldn't know, but this was more than that.
No, it was not the feeling that Tony didn't give her enough attention, it was nothing like the feeling of feeling like she's been abandoned. Really it wasn't. This was something else, but Alex couldn't quiet put her finger on what the heck it was. It was like someone had turned up her anger.
And this wasn't just Alex, all three of the girls felt angrier than they should of. Tye didn't voice her's as much, but during the argument, she felt like she was struggling to control the urge to use her powers to drown the Avengers.
Jess felt the same and nearly did use her powers the way that the Organization had strictly taught her not to use them. And she had accidently let loose some important info. And why didn't she sense someone was there before the Avengers got the chance to eavesdrop on them?
No one had noticed the dark clouds that had begun to form around Mako at the time, mainly because they disappeared the moment the girls exited the moon pool.
The three swam to find another hideout, and to figure out what was going on; both with Issantris and with themselves.
WHAT DID YOU ALL THINK OF THAT CHAPTER? PLEASE REVIEW, LEAVE A SUGGESTION OR TWO AND CHAPTER 14 WILL COME SOOM ENOUGH, HAVE A NICE DAY.
ALSO, TELL ME IF YOU WOULD MIND IF I PUT SOMEHTING EXTREMLY DRAMATIC/MAYBE A BIT SAD/ OR SOMETHING LIFECRUSHING THAT WOULD HAPPEN TO ONE OF THE THREE. IT'S IMPORTANT THAT I GET YOUR FEEDBACK BECAUSE I HAVE TWO IDEAS BUT I NEED HELP DECIDED WEATHER TO DO ONE OR THE OTHER AND THIS QUESTION DECIDES IT.