ch 34

_Jade's POV_

"it's the mark of the royal family" the dark haired mermaid said.

"what? what does that mean..."

"Oceane. my name is Oceane. and this is Mira." the dark haired mermaid said. the pink haired mermaid, Mira, waved. Mira swam over to oceane and whispered something to her. Ocane nodded.

"C'mon! you have to meet someone!" Mira gestured for me and Mikey to follow her. outside of the little room we had been in before was a series of tunnels leading in every direction. there were some doors in holes carved into the coral. some merkids were swimming around and playing what looked like tag and a few mermaids and mermen were swimming around the area.

"what is this place?" Mikey asked.

"our hideout" Oceane answered.

"Hideout?"

"yes. it's in the city, but it's hidden."

"why is it hidden?"

"because of axel, we have to stay hidden from him."

"who is axel?"

"you sure ask a lot of questions, don't you"

"he's the evil king, sort of" Mira said.

"sort of?" I asked.

"he's not really the king, but he calls himself that" Oceane started to explain. "it started because Axel wanted to be King, to get that he gained the queen's trust. about 18 years ago he made a strange potion. he used it on the queen to take her powers and give them to himself."

Mira interrupted "normally only the royal family have powers. All merpeople can have a human form, but that's about it. it's super rare for someone not in the royal family to have powers, like 100 times more rare than it is for a Histioteuthis hoylei to glow bright pink, and let me tell you, THAT is rare" (A/N I made that up, they don't really glow pink (as far as I know). but Histioteuthis hoylei is a real thing, it's also called the Jewel squid, it's so cool!)

Oceane sent her and annoyed look before continuing "after axel took the queen's powers he took over. no one was allowed to leave the city, or be out after curfew, and if he wanted something he would just take it. the queen manged to escape to the surface and went to live on land. my Mom began a rebellion against Axel and found this place. this hideout is like a safe zone, it's hidden. but we still do have to leave to get stuff from the city and the surrounding areas, witch is really dangerous. Anyways, when I was about 2 my Dad and twin brother, Kaito, escaped to live on land. my Mom wanted to stay to lead the rebellion and I wouldn't leave because I wanted to be like my Mom. when I was 4 the queen came back. she said her husband and daughter had been killed and she barely survived. she healed eventually and then Joined the rebellion too. Then, 7 years ago, when I was 10, my Mom and her group left to get food and never came back. after that I took her place, I lead the rebellion now until she comes back...if she comes back"

"wow" Mikey said, trying to take in everything Oceane had just said.

"we're here!" Mira yelled.

"where is here?" I asked.

"the headquarters!" Mira yelled again.

"follow us, there's someone you should meet" Oceane said. we swam into one of the tunnels. it felt like it was going on forever. we finally came to a large room with spongy corals everywhere. "wait here" Oceane swam out of the room.

"you can sit down if you'd like" Mira said, sitting on one of the sponge corals. Me and Mikey sat down.

"it's so soft" Mikey said.

"well I guess we just wait here then."