Hi, I rewrote this chapter a dozen times and it still sucks. But I'm glad it's finally over and posted. THE END IS IN SIGHT. It is late and I am tired. Here are a few quick review responses:
0ttoke: not exactly! You don't have to be a demigod to see through the Mist. Some humans can, but almost all mythical creatures can! Cleo, Emma, and Rikki are mermaids which originate in Greek mythology, thus automatically allowing them to see through the Mist. However, due to being turned into mermaids and originally born human beings, this means that the Mist does not protect them from the eyes of ordinary humans. They're caught in the middle between these two worlds.
FireFlames2018: all I can promise you is a satisfying ending :)
SirRoland: much thanks for your constructive criticism.
otherwise, enjoy this chapter!
Emma was pinned against the on top of the operating table, wrists and tail still bound. Her hair was plastered against her forehead, lips slightly parted, eyelids closed, and palms uncurled. She could hear the scientists that hovered over her form but it was just noise to her now. They walked back and forth between her, getting new tools or collecting samples and storing them in the nearby cabinets. She couldn't feel them touch her anymore, nor could she feel the spray of water from the ceiling. Her body felt so heavy-so heavy that it was impossible to keep her eyelids open. The only other thing she could feel was her chest rising and falling as she breathed deeply.
The door burst open and a younger, frightened scientist rushed into the room.
"Doctor-Doctor-" he gasped, wiping his sweaty brow.
"What do you want? Don't you know not to disturb us during the experimentation?" Swanson hissed.
"There's-lions, ma'am! Lions on the ship!" he announced.
"We don't have time for jokes," Finley scoffed.
"I'm not joking! There's three of them! And they're huge!" the young scientist protested.
"How on Earth could there be lions on this ship? Surely we would have known if we were had lions with our cargo," Swanson said.
"I don't know! But they're here and they're attacking everybody! We have to leave!"
Swanson rolled her eyes, "we have a dozen security personnel, all fully armed. They can kill the lions with their guns, dump them into the sea, and we'll be on our way."
"That's the thing!" he sputtered. "The bullets aren't working! Three guards are missing and at least one more is confirmed dead. We have to abandon ship!"
"This is ridiculous!" Finley barked. Emma's eyes lifted up to him, unfocused yet attempting to focus on the blurred people. "We are not about to throw away all of our research! And we are certainly not going to let go of our specimens so easily. This is a research lab, not a zoo, goddammit!"
The young scientist opened his mouth to protest more but was interrupted by a distant yet distinct roar that had the scientists stop breathing. There was a fourth scientist in the lab with them, a young blonde, standing behind the equipment board. She looked equally terrified as the man who came running into the room but held her tongue until this moment.
"Surely we can just transport the mermaids, can't we?" she squeaked.
"This has got to be some kind of joke!" Finley protested angrily. "What are the odds? Hmm? Never, in my wildest dreams! Dr. Swanson, you're not seriously suggesting we abandon ship? Can't we just take a couple of guns and shoot them down?"
"The bullets aren't working, sir…" the young scientist reminded. Emma's eyes drifted shut and her head lolled to one side.
"Oh, and I suppose these lions are wearing bulletproof vests too? They must be magic lions who appear and disappear at any moment and also happen to repel bullets!" Finley straightened his glasses. "Well, I've had enough of this nonsense. I expected more from you, Cecelia."
Finley rammed his shoulder against the young scientist as he stormed out of the lab. Swanson looked at the mermaid tethered to the table in front of her. She was completely out of it, probably unaware of the opening slit from her abdomen to the upper part of her tail. Then, Swanson's eyes lifted to the cabinets, which were filled with samples of all three girls. These samples most consisted of scales plucked from their tails, separate samples of the scales from their upper halves, strands of hair, saliva swabs, and packets of blood.
There is absolutely no way to transport the mermaids while the ship was out on the open ocean without giving them their legs back. They wouldn't fit well in a boat and even if they did, they would be impossible to disguise. The doctors would have to dry them, let them have their legs back, and risk them fighting back for their freedom. Swanson had a gut feeling she was going to end up as a fool, reputation ruined, just like Linda Denman.
Swanson left the lab, leaving the intern alone with the heavily sedated mermaid. The young intern bit her lip and nervously eyed Emma, whose eyes remained closed. After a moment, she quickly followed the doctor.
Finley had gone to his sleeping quarters where he had a safe tucked away. The safe contained mostly his valuables, but also a pistol and ammunition. He loaded the gun listening to the roars of hungry lions. Unbelievable.
He quickly went to the source of the roaring. It wasn't hard to find the lions because everyone onboard was running away from them so all Finley had to do was walk in the opposite direction. Everyone outside of the quiet lab was in such a panic. People screamed and lions bellowed. What a mess.
And then, Finley finally saw the lion. It was a female, for there was no mane, and she was chasing one of the security guards. The guard shot at the lioness's face a couple of times, before running out of bullets, but Finley saw every bullet simply bounce off the lioness's face. When she ran out of bullets, the guard quickly fled to a door and hid herself there.
While the lioness attempted to follow the guard she pursued, Finley pointed his gun and fired at the lioness's exposed side. Just like the bullets to the face, his bullets merely bounced off the fur as if he was shooting at a flat surface. Absolutely absurd.
The lioness's attention was caught and she barrelled down the boat deck-it was almost too large to fit on the deck, one of her sides appeared wet and matted from hitting the railing and getting the salty sea breeze brushing against her golden fur. Finley retreated, cursing the whole way, and was able to escape the wrath of the lioness unscathed.
Swanson watched him from the beginning through surveillance cameras. She was in the primary control room. Her suspicions were correct-the other two mermaids have escaped. Their tanks are shattered and the mermaids are not in them. Those two would probably go to free Emma. It didn't matter. Not now in this most bizarre situation. It didn't matter because Swanson was currently downloading all of their data and research onto an external hard drive. Just in case.
She recently instructed all the remaining security guards to dedicate their efforts to recapturing the mermaids without harming them and get them on a boat off the ship. They were going to have to heavily drug them to keep their resistance down. Once they got to the mainland, they will move them to a secret location while they waited for a new ship and the current one to arrive to their original destination via autopilot. The team at the destination would be notified and militarized to destroy the ravenous lions.
There was no doubt they would escape. In fact, Swanson assumed that this whole situation was to blame the mermaids. What other explanation could there be? This was magic. The mermaids must have more powers. Swanson had men watch the mermaids for weeks, studying every detail, capturing every movement on camera. There was no trace of powers that involved bulletproof lions. The tanks were designed to prevent magic from being used. Emma was tied down to a table, so heavily sedated she could barely remain conscious. It was quite the mystery how this unfolded.
One of the cameras displayed a teenage boy racing across the decks of the ship. He carried a golf club, of all things. Swanson recognized him as someone who has accompanied Emma as the project studied her. He was her cousin and his name was Percy. He was visiting her on vacation because he lived in New York City. He was a normal human being. He did not have powers nor a tail. It was clearly a rescue mission, a poorly attempted one at that. The lions could have him, for all Swanson cared. If the lions won't take care of him, the backup team will.
"Lab A...Lab A...Lab A…" Percy cursed his dyslexia. He reached the third deck, the highest one. It was empty of all people. Most scientists and guards were in too much of a panic to stop him. They were all evacuating on motorized boats. There was no sign of Annabeth but the good news is that he lost the manticore and the sphinx.
And finally, he had arrived. For once, all the letters aligned perfectly and he saw the little sign next to the windowless door, LAB A. Praise the gods. He was here and he slammed a hand on the wall in triumph. Without hesitation, he had the door flying open and ran into the room, unprepared for what was inside.
The room was very white and very clean. There was a lot of bright lights and a lot of equipment. But Percy didn't pay any attention to that. In the heart of the room was a table with a mermaid bound to it. She had a orange, scaly tail. There was an open wound stretching from her fishy bottom half to her pale human half. Her halter top matched her tail and her blonde hair was drenched. Her arms were pinned on either side of her body. But her face-lolled to one side facing him, eyes closed, and lips slightly parted-she was unmistakeable.
"Holy shit…" Percy breathed, not realizing he held his breath the whole time. "Emma!"
He couldn't have ran faster to her side.
"Emma! Hey, Emma!"
He used one hand to hold Emma's head from the back while the other hand patted her pale cheek. She was still breathing but Percy had stopped. His whole heart stopped beating. There was a huge lump in his throat and his mind was racing so fast it was impossible to generate a coherent thought. Emma had a tail. Emma was kidnapped. Emma was pinned on this table. Emma was cut open. Emma was bleeding. Emma wasn't responding to him. Emma wasn't opening her eyes. Emma's breathing was shallow. Emma felt cold. Emma was very wet and very cold. Emma had to get out of the cuffs. Emma had to return to normal. Surely, she can return to normal, right? She's not a mermaid. She's a girl. She was the sole stable thing he had in his life at the moment. She was his last strand of normalcy, his last strand of maintaining sanity. Emma-his cousin-Emma Gilbert. The last time he saw Emma, her eyes held such coldness that it burned. The last time he saw Emma, it was so early in the morning. The sun was shining so brightly. Apollo really had that sun going. The last time he saw Emma, he was in such a rage that he said things he didn't mean. He said he hated her and he never meant it. But that was the last thing she may have heard. Because she left and she never came back. She never came back because she was taken by some terrible people and now she was bleeding out on the most frigid table Percy has ever felt. Oh gods, how he wished he could have just taken it all back. If only he had known that Emma was a mermaid. And if only she knew he was the son of Poseidon! Maybe the fight would have never happened. Maybe they could have understood each other and been there for each other instead of constantly pushing each other away. Percy pushed Emma away. He did. He did. He did. This was all his fault. He could have protected Emma and he didn't. He failed her. He messed up. Oh gods, he so messed up. He's never hated himself more.
"Emma, hey! It's me. Wake up. C'mon, you're okay. C'mon. Open your eyes. It's okay. I'm here now. Wake up, Emma. Wake up!"
Suddenly, a spray of water rained over him and Emma. Percy was so badly startled he cursed and nearly released Emma's head. The water was harmless and explained why Emma was so wet. Emma did not respond to his calls, face pats, nor the water spray.
Percy let Emma's head down and turned his attention to her bleeding side. He opened his hand and gathered some of the water coating her body to cover the slit entirely. The tiny pool of water started to glow very softly and within seconds, the cut was gone. Her skin was completely unblemished, perfectly healed.
"Mmmnn…" Emma croaked. Percy's head whipped around. Emma straightened her neck and her eyes fluttered open with great difficulty. Her blue eyes narrowed as she attempted to look at the person before her.
"Emma!" And his heart started beating once again. He let out a loud sigh of relief but Emma stared at him bizarrely.
"Percy?" she cried, her eyes widening in realization. It couldn't be. Dark hair. Tan skin. Sea green eyes. It's impossible. How on Earth would Percy Jackson be here? No way. Not possible. But it was. Emma couldn't believe it. There was hope. "Percy! What are-how are you-why-ow!"
Emma had strained against her restraints and she felt that painfully sharp prick in her wrists again, prompting her to cry out. Tears pricked her eyes and Emma wasn't sure if they were tears of joy or tears of pain.
"Emma, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for you to end up like this. This is all my fault-"
"Your fault? How is this your fault?" she demanded. "You didn't kidnap me, Cleo, or Rikki."
"I said such stupid and mean things. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean any of it-I don't hate you- You're not a bitch-"
"Percy, it's okay," Emma cut in. "It's okay. I don't mean to cut this short, but can we please have this conversation when I'm not tied down here? I need you to get me out of here. You have to help me. Please, Percy. Before they come back."
Percy suddenly remembered that there was a manticore and a sphinx and his girlfriend still on the ship.
"Yes. Yes, we have to hurry. You're okay. I'm going to get you out of here," Percy promised. He tried to pry open the cuff over her wrist with his fingers but no luck.
"Percy, try going over there. There might be a button or a key or something," Emma urged. Percy nodded and jogged over to the computer board lit up with a dozen different colors and decorated with levers and buttons. "And what's with the sword?"
"You can see the-hey, wait a minute! What's with the tail, huh? You're supposed to be the normal one!"
"It's a long story!" Emma groaned. Percy pressed a random button. Suddenly, the water sprayed over Emma again, prompting her to wince.
"Sorry," Percy muttered.
"How did you find me?" Emma questioned.
"It's...a long story…"
Percy picked the button that looked important and suddenly, all three cuffs retracted and disappeared into the table. Emma let out a cry, Percy hoped was relief, but it was in pain. Tears threatened but she blinked to keep them at bay. Emma lifted her arms and squinted at her wrists, where she started to bleed. Now she knows why the metal hurt so much-the insides of the cuffs contained a prick that pierced her wrist in attempt to block her powers.
The demigod rushed to the freed mermaid's side as she sat up unsteadily. It was suddenly impossible for Emma to stop the tears from coming and a sob couldn't be swallowed. She threw her arms around her cousin and clung to him tightly while releasing a cry into his chest. It was as if there was this great weight lifted off her-not off her shoulders, no, but off her chest. She felt like she could breathe again. Her heart could beat steadily again. There was nothing holding her down, literally and figuratively. The tension trapped in her form was liberated all at once and a sense of security returned to the mermaid.
"Whoa, hey!" Percy gasped in surprise. He couldn't seem to recall the last time he had received a heartfelt hug from Emma-or anything heartfelt from her at all. She was always a stone cold ice queen who rarely showed weakness or vulnerability. Percy was not ungrateful, in fact the opposite. He welcomed her hug and rubbed her shoulders reassuringly, for he knew that Emma needed this more than anything right now. "Hey, it's okay. You're okay now, Em. We're getting you out of here."
"Thank you, Percy…" Emma said softly. She clung to her cousin for just another moment but not any longer and she pulled away. The blonde sniffed and dabbed her eyes and sure enough, she was freezing over again. "Sorry. Something just...came over me. I'm fine. Really."
"You know," Percy smiled, "it's okay to not be fine. I mean, I'm not fine almost every day!"
Emma snorted, "You're handling all of this surprisingly well." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Except you can't stop staring."
Percy closed his mouth immediately and blinked, "Well, this isn't one of the weirdest things...no, I take that back. This is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. But I've seen a lot of weird. There's something I gotta tell you, Em."
Emma rubbed her wrists; she had lost feeling in her arms and tail. Crap. Her tail.
"Percy, listen to me very carefully. You can tell me later. Cleo and Rikki are somewhere in this place locked up in tanks. You have to get them out and you need to bring Rikki to me," Emma said.
"And let me guess: they're mermaids too! Anybody else? Is Aunt Lisa a mermaid? Elliot?"
"Please, Percy! This isn't time for games. You have to go,"
"What? Leave you here? No way! There's-" A manticore and a sphinx running around trying to eat him. "We have to get off this ship as soon as possible."
"And we can. Go get Rikki. She can help me," Emma insisted.
"Help you? Help you with what?"
"Rikki has powers and she has the power to heat water. She can dry me off and that's how I get my legs back. It's how I return to normal and we can get out of here," Emma explained.
"You need to dry off?" Percy asked. "That's what you need? You need to be dry?"
"Yes!"
"Well, why didn't you say so!" Percy threw his hands up but did not move his feet. When he lowered his hands, one of them made a gesture similar to a gesture she, Cleo, or Rikki would make when using their powers. His features turned into a deep concentration as he willed the water on Emma's body to do as he commanded. Every water molecule was pulled off her body. Each droplet floated off her and went to him, collecting and forming a small ball of water that hovered in mid-air. It was only just a moment and Emma had her legs, returned to normal.
"Wow. That's gotta be the weirdest thing I've ever seen since I got the tail," Emma confessed, sliding off the table. Her legs nearly gave out on her when her feet hit the floor, but she steadied herself on the table. "You're not-"
"A merman? Nah. I'm way cooler. That's what I meant to tell you," Percy said.
Oh my God, Cleo was right all along, Emma thought. Emma just wanted to smack herself a hundred times over for being so stupid.
"We have to hurry and find Cleo and Rikki," the blonde insisted as she walked briskly to the door.
"And Annabeth," Percy added, trailing her.
"Hey! You there! Stop!" Blocking their exit was a large male security guard. "She's coming with me."
"Oh, sorry. My bad. Here you go. She's all yours. I was just here to deliver her to you." Percy gestured to Emma, who stared at him in shock.
"Percy!"
The guard stared at Percy dumbfounded.
Percy snorted, "I had you believe me there for a second, am I right? This is a rescue mission and you honestly think I'm going to turn her over? Like I'd actually allow anything to happen to my family? I like this guy, Em. He's funny."
Before Emma or the guard could react again, Percy swung a fist in the guard's jaw. All it took was that one punch and the guard hit the floor. Emma's jaw dropped as her blue eyes moved from the unconscious guard to her cousin who just did that.
"What?" He didn't wait for her response. Instead, Percy tugged at Emma by her elbow and ushered her around the guard, out the door, and closed it behind him. The blonde whipped her head around and opened her mouth to protest but was abruptly cut off by the sound of a distant roar.
"Percy-what was that?"
"There's also monsters trying to eat me," the demigod added with nonchalance. At the end of the deck, the sphinx prowled around the corner. The third deck was the shortest of the three, only standing several meters away from Emma.
"There you are," the sphinx drawled. "I've been waiting for this."
"Percy," Emma squeaked, taking a step back. "What...what is that…?"
"Called a sphinx. Let's just say, we're not friends," he answered. Percy pulled Emma by the arm and pushed her behind him. "Stay behind me."
"This place is deserted," Rikki mused. She kicked open a door to a darkened storage room, Annabeth and Cleo trailing. "That manticore must have scared them off."
"I don't think they saw a manticore," Annabeth informed. "They might've saw like a lion or a tiger-"
"And a bear! Oh my!" Rikki said jokingly. Annabeth and Cleo did not laugh. Rikki cleared her throat and distracted herself by wandering away from the girls, deeper in the storage.
"We should be trying to find Emma. And Percy," Cleo suggested.
"Cleo's right," Annabeth agreed. "There's nothing for us here."
"But wait a minute," Rikki protested. "Think about it. These guys aren't just going to run away after they went through so much trouble getting us in the first place. And they ran so many freakin' tests on us!"
"So they must have left with all their data then?" Cleo concluded. Rikki nodded.
"Or they have it stored," Annabeth said. "Like maybe in a cloud where they can access offsite. And possibly even go public. But there has to be the main computer. The primary hard drive to hold everything."
"Go public?" Cleo repeated as she bit her bottom lip. "What does that mean?"
Rikki stopped, seeing the end of the storage room, and turned on her heel to face the ladies she left behind. There was nothing in there for them.
"Rikki, behind you!" Cleo squeaked out.
Before Rikki could react, large hands clasped over her forearms in an inescapable grip. A tall man had lunged at her from the shadows behind where she stood.
"Rikki!" Annabeth's instincts kicked in and she dashed to the pair.
"Come any closer and I'll snap her neck," the guard threatened. Annabeth halted, not wanting to test his bluff. Rikki squirmed but his grip tightened and she grunted in pain. "I don't want to hurt you. The brunette is coming with me too."
At first, there was a low chuckle from Rikki. And then, the chuckle grew louder until Rikki was laughing outright. The guard frowned at the blonde in his grasp and Annabeth and Cleo stared at her dumbfounded. Cleo was certain...Rikki had finally lost it.
"Good thing you can't!" Rikki bellowed before she twisted her body around. In the next instant, Rikki had flipped the six foot guard on his back. Cleo and Annabeth's mouths dropped open and she waggled her eyebrows at them. "Hey, Annabeth, it worked!"
"I told you, you could do it with practice," Annabeth remarked, her surprise turning into pride. She was impressed.
"Can you teach me that too, Annabeth?" Cleo asked.
"After we get out of here. C'mon, let's hurry!" The guard was already getting up. Rikki ran around him and quickly caught up with the other two girls, who made a run for the door. Rikki knocked over boxes behind her, blocking the guard's path as he attempted to pursue them.
The three girls ran as fast as they could to get away from that storage room from which an angry guard could be coming out from any second now. And despite the very dangerous situation, the girls all had smiles on their faces, unbelieving that Rikki just did what she did and got away with it. It's bad enough they had a manticore on the loose and they didn't need the scientists' security pursing them either.
Speaking of the devil, just when three thought they were in the clear, the manticore from before came around the corner. He licked his lips and approached them almost lazily.
"I'm baaaacckkkkk," he hissed. Annabeth immediately pushed Cleo and Rikki behind her and readied her dagger.
"Stay behind me."
This was not a good place to fight a monster. The deck was narrow and if things went horribly wrong, Annabeth could end up thrown overboard, leaving Cleo and Rikki defenseless and Percy and Emma still missing. She could not just run at him. Or run away.
"I've waited so long for this. I've always wanted to taste a mermaid," he drawled. Rikki made a disgusted face.
"Eww," Cleo groaned quietly. Her eyes went to the ocean. If it was just her and Rikki, all they had to do was jump. Jump and swim away from all their problems. But they couldn't do that with Annabeth. She couldn't swim across an entire ocean. And besides, Cleo and Rikki were not going anywhere without Emma or Percy either.
"What's so special about a mermaid?" Annabeth questioned. The demigod and the manticore were inching towards each other, both ready to pounce but neither daring. "I heard demigod tastes way better. It's what all the monsters want to eat."
Wait, Cleo thought. She just had a brilliant idea. Annabeth couldn't swim across an open ocean and she doubted this lion-scorpion monster could too! Cleo eyed Rikki but Rikki's blue eyes were set on the manticore.
"True," the manticore agreed. "Demigod does taste the best. It's my favorite." Rikki was concentrating. Her arms were at her sides but her fingers were curling in her hands. "But alas, you're just a snack tonight, my dear. They're the main course!"
With a thunderous roar, the manticore pounced on the spot at the girls. Cleo screamed and ducked while Annabeth blocked the monster's glistening claws with her dagger. She evaded a swipe from his paw and slashed her dagger across his snout. The manticore cried out in pain and a red line formed but his cry turned into a deep growl.
"Run!" Annabeth commanded Cleo and Rikki. Annabeth couldn't keep dodging the manticore's attacks on this narrow deck and it certainly didn't help that the monster was as wide as the deck, not to mention taller than herself.
Cleo and Rikki did not run. Instead, Rikki summoned a fireball like she did before. She threw fire like she was throwing a baseball. Her aim was for the manticore's face and missed, but luckily, it was so big that it was impossible for it's body not to get hit by the fire. It hit it's fur and it must of hurt, for the manticore cried louder than it did when Annabeth cut him. It's fur became singed but the fire diminished immediately upon impact.
Angrily, the manticore sent a thorn from it's tail flying in their direction. All the girls ducked out of the way and Annabeth was quick to counter with another swipe of her dagger. The manticore jumped back and fired another thorn but missed. Rikki summoned a fireball in each hand this time and threw them each. Both struck the manticore and he wailed in pain from the heat and the hit. Annabeth took the opportunity and lunged at him with her knife but didn't strike him hard enough to turn him to dust.
But a pattern formed. Rikki didn't stop with the fireballs. She threw one, Annabeth would stab the manticore with her dagger, and the manticore was forced to back away from them. The more Rikki burned him, the faster he tried to get away. It was working. The manticore was retreating and the girls were moving forward. He was wildly shooting thorns from his tail but they either went into the ocean or into the walls. Annabeth was growing frustrated that the manticore wasn't turning to dust yet but maybe as soon as they back it into the corner, she would have the opportunity to end this once and for all.
The manticore was backed into the corner. It tried to turn down the corridor it came from but Rikki blocked his path, her hand alight with fire. Her heart was pounding in her ears; one misstep and they were dinner. Rikki was not fully confident she could actually get rid of this thing with her firepower. And Annabeth's dagger...didn't look like much compared to the lion's mouth. She seemed to know what she was doing and Rikki prayed that it was so. She glanced at Cleo out of the corner of her eyes but Cleo's eyes were locked on the manticore.
The manticore released a wild, booming roar that it poured it's very being into. It was as if it was his final cry before his demise. The girls stiffened, bracing themselves for his next move. His body crouched to pounce but suddenly, a wave rose over the railing and crashed directly over the manticore like a waterfall.
Instantly, Rikki and Cleo jumped back, avoiding every drop of water possible, but Cleo did not break her eye contact. Annabeth shielded herself with her arms and when the water passed, she lowered them, and saw that the manticore was gone. She turned around to see Rikki and Cleo so far behind her and stared at them in shock.
"Did you do that?" she asked.
"It wasn't me," Rikki answered, the flame in her palm extinguished.
"I did! I didn't think that would actually work!" Cleo shouted gleefully.
"Wow! Way to go, Cleo!" Rikki and Cleo exchanged a high-five while Annabeth went to the railing and peered over. Down below, in the water, was the manticore. Alive, but there was no way for him to get back on the ship, even if he reverted to his human shape.
"That was amazing," Annabeth complimented. "Both of you! I don't think I would have been able to handle him by myself." She probably could, but it did make her life a thousand times easier when mermaids with magic powers had her back.
"We should find the control room and shut this boat down," Cleo suggested.
"Get rid of the scientists and every data they've got on us," Rikki agreed.
With that, the girls set out. They found a stairwell and went to the highest floor, the third deck. It is usually the highest deck that has the control room, or so they suspected. And it wasn't long until they found it. It was clearly labeled and luckily for the three, it was unlocked.
However, the mermaids were shocked to see Dr. Swanson awaiting inside. Dr. Swanson's back was to them and she stood before the window, gazing out at the chaos that unfolded aboard her ship.
"Hello, ladies," she greeted calmly but did not cast them a single glance. She looked down and pulled something from her coat pocket-something that resembled a phone or a small remote-and pressed a button.
Without any warning, nets fell from the ceiling over the girls. Annabeth instinctively rolled out of the way and nets draped over Cleo and Rikki. The mermaids fell to the ground and became entangled in them. The more they struggled against the netting, the more trapped they became. Annabeth cursed under her breath. She led them right into a trap.
"You're making this much too hard on yourselves," the doctor continued.
"Let them go," Annabeth commanded. Dr. Swanson chuckled at Annabeth's reflection in the glass.
"You don't understand, dear," she said. "You're witnessing the greatest scientific discovery since the Earth revolving around the sun. Meddling with something so much bigger than you would just get yourself hurt."
"And what do you plan to do with them, exactly?"
"You'll find out all in due time. It will be in the headlines of every news article for years."
"In your dreams!" Rikki and Cleo spat in unison. The woman pressed another button and all of a sudden, the nets started sparking. Cleo shrieked in pain as the net shocked her body, forcing her to curl into a ball.
"Stop it!" Annabeth protested. "You're hurting them! Have you not realized that you're kidnapping teenage girls? Experimenting on them and hurting them?"
Dr. Swanson scoffed, "I'd never hurt my subjects. But they're not girls. They're not human beings like you and I. They are things and these things need to be controlled and understood. For the sake of humanity."
Annabeth rushed to the screaming Cleo and tried to pull the net off her but her palms were shocked painfully. She was forced to step back and recover.
"Do not test me. It forces me to punish them," Dr. Swanson threatened, pressing the same button and the electrocution halting. Annabeth narrowed her eyes at the woman. She was tired of trying to reason with the unreasonable. That woman disrespected the name of science in every way and it disgusted Annabeth so much that it made her sick to her stomach.
The demigod impulsively lunged at Swanson. She slammed the woman against the window and pinned her arm behind her, Annabeth's free hand on her head.
"Do not test me," Annabeth hissed.
Swanson grunted and twisted herself skillfully and freed herself from Annabeth's grasp. She swung a punch at the younger, who dodged. She pressed the button on the remote again and shocked the mermaids, Cleo's cries resuming. Annabeth elbowed the older and kicked the remote out of her hand, where it slid across the tiles. Rikki awkwardly stretched to snatch up the remote and turned off the shocking.
Annabeth continued to assault the doctor swiftly and although Dr. Swanson was trained to defend herself, she tumbled to the ground when Annabeth slammed her head against the ship's wheel in the center of the window. As soon as Swanson hit the floor, Annabeth pulled her dagger from her hip on the woman. It didn't matter if the Mist disguised the dagger, it was more than enough to threaten with.
"Now listen to me," Annabeth ordered in a low tone. "You have approximately thirty seconds to get out of my sight and never come near my friends again. If you don't, I'll feed you to the fishes. Got it?"
Swanson narrowed her icy blue eyes at Annabeth but swallowed thickly.
"Understood," she gritted out. Annabeth's gaze never faltered from the woman's as she took a single step back. Swanson pushed herself to her feet and paused to smooth out the loose strands of hair that slipped from her bun. Without another word, without a single glance to Annabeth or the mermaids she stepped around, Swanson left.
As soon as her form disappeared from Annabeth's line of sight, she rushed to the fallen mermaids. She dropped her knees and immediately started ripping the nets to shreds with her dagger.
"Are you guys okay?" Worry had replaced the determination in her features. Cleo slowly uncurled herself. There were red marks over her body where the net touched her skin.
"Y-yeah…" she said quietly. "I'll...I'll be okay…"
"You don't look so hot, Cleo," Rikki pointed out, pulling the last of the net off herself. "I didn't get shocked. I mean...I did but it didn't hurt me. I saw the sparks flying but I felt nothing. It was the weirdest thing."
"It's probably your powers," Cleo suggested. "You can control electricity. Maybe you're immune to it too."
"Okay, Cleo, I'm not a Pokemon," Rikki teased. She helped the brunette to her feet while Annabeth watched them carefully with concerned eyes. Cleo was in pain, she could tell, but recovering. Rikki was virtually the same so there wasn't much worry there.
"Annabeth, you said they might have a cloud with all of our data?" Cleo asked. Annabeth nodded and her eyes drifted to the left. The room consisted of a ship's wheel and a large control panel behind it. The left wall, however, looked like a giant hard drive, decorated with dozens of little lights and buttons. She was positive this wall held every bit of information the L.A.I.U.S. Project had on this ship.
"Yeah, and I think it's all in here," Annabeth motioned to the wall. She then glanced at the control panel by the wheel. The control panel definitely controlled most of the ship but it also had to be connected to the computers and the cloud.
"How do we destroy the data?" Cleo questioned. Annabeth frowned.
"I don't know. I'd have to figure it out from here." Annabeth propped herself up against the control board and examined it thoroughly.
Rikki's lips curled into a smirk and there was something wicked twinkling in her eyes that unsettled Cleo. "Fortunately, destroying is my specialty. Step away, ladies."
"Wait, Rikki," Annabeth cut in. "You can't just-"
Rikki already had both hands out and channeled all the electricity in the room in both palms. Magic pumped through her veins like adrenaline as her fingers curled and the room responded to her will with electric sparks. The sparks got larger and louder. Rikki's hands were now fists and sparks flew wildly in every direction that forced Cleo and Annabeth to duck out of the way. The lights of the machines flickered off and smoke slipped out from them. The whole ship went eerily silent.
"Rikki!"
"What?"
"What did you do?" Annabeth demanded. "You shut down the whole yacht!"
"Right. And that's a bad thing because…?"
There was a loud, long groan. And it didn't come from any of the girls. Instead, it came from the ship itself; its source coming from the levels below where they stood. Annabeth and Cleo looked at Rikki while she looked away from them and examined her surroundings, all three straining to hear anything else.
"That sounds like a bad thing," Cleo said. Rikki said nothing. They listened for more sounds but there was nothing.
And then, there was an explosion.
sorry for this less-than-stellar chapter. I tried my best and this time it really didn't work out as well as I wanted it to. But thanks anyway for reading :)