Chapter 29

For mermaids are the most unnatural of creatures and their hearts are empty of love.

- Imogen Hermes Gower, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock


The Neptune High student body was packed into the auditorium for Mrs. Ishiyama's special assembly. Danny figured out the contents of said assembly within three seconds of entering the room.

For stretched across the top of the stage, painted in black and neon green letters on a silver banner, were the words:

Fenton Merfolk Awareness and Prevention Program

"If it lives in the ocean, we'll kill it for you!" - the Fenton Guarantee!

"'If it lives in the ocean, we'll kill it for you'," read Sam. She scowled. "Your parents are unbelievable."

"They're just… enthusiastic," said Danny, slumping forward in his seat and burying his face in his hands. Shivers ran up and down his spine, and his muscles were tense in the expectation of danger. His so-called 'fishy sense' had been triggered since Jazz pulled into the parking lot that morning. It was no wonder, when the world's top merhunters had their blood up and he was their number one target. "Haven't we sat through this stupid seminar enough times?"

"Knowing merpeople are real kinda gives it a whole new meaning," Tucker pointed out. "I think people actually want to listen this time."

Danny scanned the room. It was true, what Tucker said. There was a completely different energy among the students, nervous and expectant, whereas all of the years before had students napping, mocking the Fentons under their breath, or scheming ways to disrupt the presentation.

The worst had been in junior high school when someone rigged a bucket of raw fish to fall on his parents as they began their speech. Danny had felt so ashamed - of them, for them. He never understood how they managed to take it in stride. But they had just cleaned themselves up, finished their presentation, and went on to the elementary school as though nothing had happened.

His eyes landed on his parents, who were standing at the side of the stage, chatting eagerly with Mrs. Ishiyama while Mr. Lancer and the other teachers finished directing students into the auditorium. Danny also noted several large metal crates lined up on the stage behind the podium, silver and marked with the green-and-black Fentonworks logo. Just imagining what was inside of them was giving him a stomachache.

Finally, all of the students had shuffled into the auditorium and taken their seats. Lancer tapped on his mike, said, "Testing, testing," a few times, and began.

"All right, people, settle down, settle down. I see you, Mr. Burks, put that away or you're out of here! Right. Ahem. Today we have two very special guests joining us who I'm sure will have a lot of useful information to tell us about merpeople and, more specifically, how to stay safe in these uncertain times. Please welcome to the stage, Jack and Maddie Fenton."

There was a polite amount of clapping, and then the entire auditorium fell silent as Danny's parents strode onto the stage. For the first time that Danny could remember, Jack and Maddie Fenton had everyone's attention, and their audience was prepared to take them seriously.

No one was taking them more seriously than Danny.

He felt a warm hand cover one of his fists, which were clenched in his lap. Glancing down, Danny saw Sam's delicate fingers resting on top of his hand; he loosened his grip, and Sam intertwined her fingers through his, giving them a gentle, reassuring squeeze. Her pulse was steady and strong - magnified through the hyper-awareness of his water mode. Danny offered her a small smile of gratitude and turned back to the stage, focusing on Sam's heartbeat, until his own was syncing up to it and calming him down.

"Hi kids!" Maddie greeted the room cheerfully. "We are so excited to be here talking to you today. We have a lot to cover, so let's dive right in!"

She clicked a remote in her right hand, and behind her, an image appeared on the projector. It was a hand-drawn diagram of a merman, from head to tailfin. It was anatomically correct, generic in its features, but its face was contorted into a snarl, deep furrows etched between its brows, on its forehead, in the lines beside its nose, its lips pulled back to reveal long fangs. Its eyes glinted black and cold, like a demon's. At its sides, its fingers were curled so that each one of its black claws was visible.

"This," said Maddie, voice suddenly cold, "is a merperson. Just like the one that we saw on the beach nine days ago, and just like the one we saw last Friday night at the town hall. There is almost no one in this room today who hasn't been affected by these monsters. My husband and I are here to tell you what we are going to do about it - and what you can do about it."

Maddie clicked her remote again, and the slide changed to an image of the wreck on the beach following Vlad's party, alongside a screenshot from the news report of Danny using his hydrokinesis to knock people out of the Mernotaur's path. His face was stark in his concentration, fangs bared - aggressive.

"The first thing to know is that merfolk are incredibly dangerous. Their physical strength is that of an average human, but by leveraging their telekinetic control over water, a single merperson can gain the destructive force of an army.

"Merfolk have been plaguing the east coast of our country for decades. Twenty years ago, they attacked my husband, myself, and our friend Vlad Masters on a research vessel, killing almost everyone on board. Since then, with the support of Vlad's DALV Corporation, my husband and I have been tracking their attacks on ships up and down the coast." Here, Maddie took a moment to click through several slides showing pictures of abandoned freighter ships, a beached yacht, an overturned fishing vessel, its hull bobbing in the waves amongst the cargo. "These creatures have a deep hatred for humankind, and they don't stop at trying to kill us. Given the chance, they will eat us - alive. None of the victims of these attacks has ever been found, their bodies ever recovered."

She let that thought hang in the air for a few seconds before she continued.

"We've long suspected that telekinesis was not the extent of their powers. Legends from various cultures dating back hundreds, even thousands of years have talked of the merfolk's ability to shed their tails and come on land." Her next slide showed an old painting, depicting from left to right several beautiful mermaids walking out of the sea, seducing men, dragging their victims back into the water, and swimming around with their skulls clutched in their hands victoriously. "Not until recently have we had definitive proof of this, but now we do.

"This," said Maddie, clicking to the next picture, "as you well know, is the merboy who attacked us on Friday." It was another photo of Danny from the town hall, this time using a hydrokinetic tentacle to hold a man in the air. "And this," she continued, "is a photo of him our buoys took three weeks earlier, when he first breached our security and came on land."

It was the photo. The photo. The stupid photo that he had stupidly let his parents' buoy take of him when he had stuck his head out of the water like an idiot.

The image was bright but clear. There he was in his merform, visible from the neck up above the small crests of the waves. He was squinting into the sky, mouth slightly ajar, white hair plastered against his head while his pointed ears poked through it. Gills open as they struggled to pull oxygen from the air. Not the most flattering picture, but he hadn't known at the time that his floundering in the bright sunlight was being documented.

Danny tightened his grip on Sam's hand, and she rubbed reassuring circles into his skin with her thumb.

"What we have is an enemy who has come out of the ocean to terrorize us on land. His appearance at our beach and later at the town hall, his impartial transformation into his aquatic form, was most likely deliberate - because these creatures can fully disguise themselves as human. After fleeing from our fight, it's very likely that this merboy is still hiding somewhere among us."

"That's why you've gotta stay vigilant!" Jack jumped in, his booming voice crossing the room even without a microphone. "Who knows where that merboy is hiding, and how many other merpeople he mighta brought with him! Your neighbors, your classmates, even your own family members could be human-eating monsters in disguise!

"Now I bet you're all wondering - how can you tell if someone's a merperson? Well, there are several signs you want to watch out for," explained Jack as his wife clicked to the next slide, a list of 'How to Tell if Your Neighbor is a Merperson'. There was a visual aid in one corner of the slide, a cartoon of a businessman wearing a suit. One half of the man was in the light, and he looked like your Average Joe. The other half, in darkness, showed a vampiric grin, glowing red eyes, and a face covered in scales.

"The merperson will probably be someone whose background you don't know, someone who just 'moved to town'." Jack said this skeptically, as if the idea of moving anywhere was a ludicrous thing no upstanding citizen would even dream of doing. "Some long lost uncle, or a foreign exchange student from a country you've never heard of. They'll try to get you alone with them. They'll especially try to lure you to the beach, so that they can drag you under the water and share you with their buddies! But no matter how good their human disguise is, there will always be a flaw. Maybe they'll smell like fish. Maybe they've got webbed toes. Maybe they won't even have any vocal chords.

"In the end, what I'm saying is these fish people don't know us as well as they think. And that's the good news for us! 'Cause as soon as we can spot 'em, we can beat 'em! So, if you do suspect that someone close to you may actually be one of these half-fish freakazoids, the best thing you can do is to call us immediately. We've got our own hotline!"

"We'll investigate, and if we find any merpeople, you can count on us to get rid of them, quickly and efficiently," added Maddie.

"And in most cases, painfully!" said Jack before spinning around to face his wife. "Can we show them the weapons now?" he asked, squirming with excitement.

Maddie smiled back at him brightly. "I'm ready when you are, hon!"

No, said Danny. He felt Sam flinch as his voice unexpectedly entered her head, saw Tucker on his other side wincing and turning to look at him with a troubled expression. Danny couldn't bring himself to care or to apologize. He was too angry - too unsettled. This isn't right. This is… they're making this up. Kaima was literally the first merperson they've ever seen, so why are they…?

He didn't get an answer, not that he was expecting one. This wasn't a safe place to talk.

On stage, his parents were holding up their first merhunting weapon, a classic and a favorite, the Fenton Harpoon.

The weapons came out one after the other and were soon lining the stage at the Fentons' feet. The Fenton Harpoon joined the likes of the Fenton Extendable Porta-Harpoon, the Fenton Harpoon Hurlinator, the Fenton Fisher, the Fenton Grappler, and the Fenton Electrocutioner.

Then out came the gun that had haunted what snatches of sleep Danny had been able to get the past few nights: the Fenton Bazooka.

"And this here is the Fenton Bazooka!" said Jack, proudly brandishing the enormous weapon. "This baby shoots a special blue goo designed to corrode merfolk flesh! Totally harmless to humans, though - and I'll prove it to you!" Saying that, Jack used his teeth to yank off one of his gloves, opened up the valve storing the aforementioned 'blue goo', dunked his hand inside, and pulled it back out again, covered in the viscous, glowing chemical. "See?" he said around the neoprene glove dangling between his teeth. "Perfectly safe!"

Danny couldn't help but remember the sound of the Mernotaur's skin sizzling where the Bazooka had hit it, the burning sensation in his own nose and throat at just the smell of the stuff, the feeling of having that gun inches away from delivering a lethal blast to his head.

He still had a bruise on his back from where his parents had shot him with it.

Danny didn't realize he was trembling until Sam's grip on his hand tightened. He forced himself to take a deep breath, let it out, shove the memories aside.

Next on the list was one that Danny had never heard of, probably one of his parents' more recent inventions.

"The Fenton Desiccator!" proclaimed Jack, having wiped off the 'blue goo' on the stage's red velvet curtain - much to Mrs. Ishiyama's displeasure. "Still just a prototype, but once we get the kinks out, this lil' guy will pack a real wallop, especially against any of the merfolk coming up on land. What's it do? Well, it sucks up all of the moisture from anything you aim it at! Guaranteed to leave merpeople as nothing more than mummified husks when it's done with 'em! Haven't quite figured out how to make it safe for humans, but that's why it comes with a protective suit installed right here in the handle."

Jack flipped open a panel on the back of the little silver gun, revealing a large red button which he promptly smashed his thumb against. Then, somehow, enough metal plating shot out of the back of the gun to completely wrap around the hulking form of Jack Fenton. Once it was all in place, a thick plastic shield unraveled from the head piece and snapped over his face.

Danny's dad immediately lost his balance and, despite frantically windmilling his arms, fell over backwards with a crash.

"Yup, that's one of the kinks!" he called out from the floor.

At that point, Danny's mom took over the weapons presentation. She showed a picture of the Fenton Merfolk Assault Craft and then one of the Fenton Buoys, while she held up an actual Baby Buoy in her hands for the audience to see. Her explanation of how they used these devices, however, was probably too technical for most of her teenage audience to understand.

"Now we want to show you something we are extremely excited about," she said, and she went to the next slide in their presentation. "The Fenton Siren Speeder!"

By this point, Jack had extracted himself from the Fenton Desiccator and was ready to leap back into the weapons presentation. He jabbed his thumb back at the picture of the submarine with an almost manic grin. "I designed her, and she's my best invention to date! She even outclasses the MAC!"

"The Speeder," said Maddie, "combines the chemical- and sonar-based tracking capabilities of the Buoys with the underwater maneuverability of a submarine and is outfitted with not only weapons to fight and capture the merfolk but also shields to repel them and their telekinetic abilities."

"She's basically impenetrable!" exclaimed Jack. "So we're gonna use her to track down the merfolk's nest and wipe 'em out at their source!"

"We should - if everything turns out - be ready to take the Speeder out into open waters in a matter of days," added Maddie.

"And now," said Maddie, turning to one of the crates and pulling out a cardboard box, "souvenirs!" She placed the box on the stage in front of her and pulled out one of the 'souvenirs' inside. "The Fenton Anti-Creep Stick!"

What she held in her hands was a perfectly ordinary wooden baseball bat with a green sticker on the side.

"I know what you're thinking," said Jack. "'Isn't that just a baseball bat?' I asked the same thing first time I saw one. But it turns out it's not just any baseball bat - it's a baseball bat with the name 'Fenton' on it!"

"Remember," said Maddie, "you should call us immediately if you see a merperson, but in a pinch these will help you to defend yourself until we can get to you. And the best part is they're free! Who wants one?"

At once, a dozen hands shot into the air; Danny noticed that most of them belonged to the jocks, Dash included. He scowled, imagining them going around hitting their usual targets with the Anti-Creep Sticks in the name of self-defense. It was, in short, yet another bad idea with the name 'Fenton' on it.

As Danny's unsuspecting parents handed out Anti-Creep Sticks, the auditorium filled with the chatter of restless teenagers. For the moment, it was safe to talk again. Mostly Danny was just happy that the weapons presentation was over.

"I'm not sure whether we just sat through a safety seminar or a marketing campaign," Sam remarked, rolling her eyes. "And what good is anyone going to do with an Anti-Creep Stick?"

"I guess hitting sirens with a baseball bat is better than not hitting sirens with a baseball bat," replied Tucker with a shrug.

"You okay, Danny?" asked Sam. Danny realized that she was gently pulling at her hand, which he was still squeezing in his own. He quickly released it and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"I'm just glad that's over," he muttered, too flustered to look at her.

"Want to tell us what the mindspeak was about earlier?" asked Tucker in a low tone.

Danny cast a furtive glance around to make sure that no one was paying attention to them - and yes, business as usual. One of the nice things about being a social outcast, he supposed.

He sighed. "I just don't get why they're suddenly acting like they know everything about merpeople coming on land, when again, they have literally seen three merpeople in their entire careers. And nothing that they were saying is even true! Me and Vlad are the only merpeople who can come on land, and I don't have webbed toes or smell like fish!"

Tucker frowned thoughtfully. "So, I've been wondering this for a while now, but… if your parents have never captured any merpeople, how come all their equipment works?"

Danny raised his brows at that. Until recently, he had always assumed their weapons were bogus, because he had always assumed merpeople were also bogus. But, all of their tracking devices had immediately picked up on Kaima, and their corrosive blue goo was definitely effective against merpeople - and only merpeople.

"Well, think about who's funding them," said Sam. "DALV Corp? Vlad's company?"

"Of course," Danny growled. "And of course he'd be feeding them all this info on merpeople, because he wants their weapons to work because he wants them to hunt down the Merfolk! And when he's done letting them play merhunter, he can disable all of their gear with a freaking app on his phone!"

By this point, Danny was gesticulating something fierce, and both Tucker and Sam grabbed at his arms to pin them down.

"That's terrifying," Tucker said. "And what's worse, it makes sense."

Sam chuckled half-heartedly. "Hey, look at the bright side. At least he can't disable a harpoon."

Danny offered her an equally half-hearted smile, which quickly fell back into a frown. "Even if everything they were saying is wrong, it's going to have the entire town paranoid that there are merpeople hiding among them."

"You're going to have to be extremely careful, Danny," said Sam.

"Luckily you've sworn off using your powers and don't have to worry about transforming on accident anymore," Tucker pointed out.

Danny nodded, but he didn't feel very comforted.

On the stage, Lancer had taken the microphone again. "Alright, back up here, we're not done yet." He waited a few moments for the students to settle down, which they did surprisingly quickly. It showed how invested they must have been in the assembly so far.

"Before we send you back to class, I want to introduce to you a new member of the Neptune High staff. Please welcome Dr. Penelope Scylla."

As the students clapped and craned their heads to get a better look, a woman in a red skirt suit walked onto the stage, her matching red high heels striking the planks of the stage with every step. When she stopped next to Lancer and turned to face the audience, Danny noticed that she was wearing sunglasses even though they were indoors and that her red hair - Geez, this lady likes red - was absurdly coiffed atop her head.

She plucked the mike from Lancer's hand. "Good morning, Neptune High!" she greeted cheerfully. "Let me tell you what an honor it is to be here in this, Amity Beach's time of need."

Dr. Scylla handed the mike back to Lancer, who continued the introduction. "Dr. Scylla is a licensed teen therapist and has agreed to come onto our staff to help us sort through some of the feelings we've been experiencing since the… unpleasantness of the last couple of weeks. She'll be on campus for the foreseeable future, so if you feel like you need someone to talk to about all of this, please make use of this excellent resource."

The therapist slid up close to Lancer so she could speak into the microphone again. "Please, come on by! My door is always open, and I'm so very much looking forward to meeting all of you."

"No thank you," muttered Danny, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat. He was getting enough 'therapy' at home without having to be subjected to it at school, too. Dr. Scylla's office was a place he would be staying far away from, if he could help it.


Jazz squeezed through the students on their way out of the auditorium until she was close enough to wave at Mr. Lancer and get his attention. He smiled at her, nodded, and hung back to give her enough time to reach the foot of the stage.

Once Jazz was standing in front of him, he turned to Dr. Scylla at his side and said, "Dr. Scylla, I'd like to introduce you to one of Neptune High's best and brightest students, Jazz Fenton. Ms. Fenton, this is Dr. Penelope Scylla."

Jazz shook Dr. Scylla's hand enthusiastically. "I'm so excited to meet you, Dr. Scylla! You are just what this school needed. I've been offering my classmates some impromptu counselling the last couple of weeks, but I'm sure I haven't been doing nearly as good a job as an actual licensed therapist."

"Jazz is planning to study psychology after graduation," Mr. Lancer explained. "And truly, you won't find a more brilliant mind here."

"How wonderful to meet you, Jazz!" said Dr. Scylla. "I'm sure you and I will have a lot to talk about. You wouldn't happen to be related to Jack and Maddie Fenton, would you?"

"Yes," said Jazz, frowning. "Unfortunately."

"Oh, don't say it like that!" the therapist replied. "I'm sure your intimate knowledge of the merpeople helps you to give your classmates an informed response to their questions, wouldn't you say so?"

"Well, I guess…"

"I myself have been spending hours of my free time catching up on your mother's publications. They're absolutely scintillating! But stop me before I go on and on about it - I'm sure you don't need me to tell you what amazing work your parents are doing."

To be polite, especially because she hoped to talk to Dr. Scylla more and more as colleagues, Jazz offered the lady a smile, even though it felt more like a grimace. "I really don't."

"I'm still in the middle of unpacking my office," said Dr. Scylla. "I want to be ready to 'open shop' by lunchtime today! So why don't the both of you join me and let's continue this conversation…" At this point, she slid one foot forward across the floor, pointing both fingers towards the door with exaggerated motions. "... over there!"

Jazz and Mr. Lancer glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes, stumped. Eventually, Mr. Lancer stepped up. "Of course! Lead the way."

Dr. Scylla's office was a few doors down from the front office, so, centrally located, well labeled, and easy to find. There was already a nameplate installed next to the door, and a sign hung underneath that read, Come on in! in cheerful blue and gold letters next to a smiling picture of the Neptune Narwhal.

She definitely has the 'spirit' part of 'school spirit' down, mused Jazz, following the therapist into her office.

Just as Dr. Scylla had said, she was in the middle of unpacking. There were a few decorations up, books on shelves, her credentials hanging on the wall behind her desk, but most of the room was filled by stacks of cardboard boxes.

"So tell me, Jazz!" said the therapist, immediately bending over a box and pulling out various fidget toys, which she lined up on the edge of her desk with meticulous attention to their spacing and orientation. "Why do you want to study psychology?"

"Oh! Err." Jazz chuckled, a little off guard. She shouldn't have been - she had written about it enough in her college entrance essay drafts. It had just been a long time since a real live human being had asked her that. "I've always been a very good student, and from the beginning I could tell that I was smarter than a lot of kids my own age… I guess you could say that I wanted to use my talents to help people, and one of the best ways to do that, in my opinion, is through psychology. It also bothers me how stigmatized mental illness is, so if I could do something to change that, I really want to try. And I'm really interested in how the human mind works. It's one of the last great mysteries of the universe!"

"Wonderful!" responded Dr. Scylla as she straightened the fidget toys. "You really are your parents' daughter."

"Ah…" With those six words, it felt like all of the wind had been let out of Jazz's sails. "How… how so?"

"Two geniuses, dedicated to helping people while also exploring the ocean, another of the last great mysteries here on this planet. The parallels are astounding!"

Mr. Lancer, seeing that Jazz was not taking Dr. Scylla's commentary the right way, stepped up beside her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Ms. Fenton certainly embodies the best qualities of her parents, it's true, and so very many more qualities all her own."

Jazz flashed her teacher a genuine smile, which he returned.

It was, perhaps, time to tactfully change topics, away from Jazz and especially away from her parents. "Dr. Scylla? I was actually hoping you could talk to my brother."

The therapist's bright green eyes darted up to look at Jazz over the tops of her sunglasses. "Oh? Do you have a brother, Jazz?"

Jazz nodded. "Yeah. His name is Danny, and well, he's been taking all of this merperson stuff really badly. He's not acting like himself, and he even ran away from home a few days ago. He won't talk to anyone, especially me. Maybe you could get him to open up?"

"I think that's an excellent idea, Jazz!" Dr. Scylla replied.

"As do I," agreed Mr. Lancer. "I think Daniel would greatly benefit from talking to you. I'll send him to your office as soon as it's ready this afternoon."

"Oh, marvelous!"

A knot of tension released from Jazz's shoulders. Dr. Scylla was definitely a little over-peppy, but she had way more experience than Jazz did in dealing with hard-to-reach teenagers, and a proper counselling session was probably the best thing for Danny right now.

Glancing around the office, imagining how her little brother might feel sitting in this room, Jazz noticed a huge glass tank in the back corner of the room, on a large table sandwiched between a bookshelf and the wall. In the tank were a few inches of sand, some plastic decorations, a bowl of water, and a gigantic, bulbous crab the size of a small dog. Its body alone was as big as a human head, and its front pincers looked like they could snap a person's fingers right off.

Dr. Scylla looked between Jazz's dumbfounded expression and the tank and laughed. "Oh, that's my coconut crab!" she explained. "I call him Bertrand! Did you know coconut crabs are the world's largest terrestrial anthropods? They're omnivorous, too - they've been known to eat cats and birds and even cannibalize one another. Isn't that just fascinating?"

"Uh, sure…" said Jazz. "And you're keeping one in your office because…?"

"Everyone needs a hobby, don't they, Jazz?" Dr. Scylla beamed, batting her eyelashes.

Jazz had no answer to that, but it did confirm that Dr. Scylla was undeniably weird. Then again, most adults who chose to work for a school had some eccentricity. An obvious example was the balding English teacher standing beside her.

Glancing at her watch, seeing that she was missing her second period class, Jazz began to excuse herself. "I guess I should get back to Pre-Cal! Thank you again, Dr. Scylla!"

"No, thank you, Jazz!" said the therapist. "And don't worry - I'll take good care of your brother!"


"Look, I don't mean to be rude, but why am I here?"

Danny glared at the red-garbed woman over her small army of fidget toys. He really wasn't trying to be rude, but this was the last place he wanted to be today, or any other day, for that matter.

Anyway, it wasn't like his problems were the kind he could just up and tell a stranger.

How would that conversation even go? Hi, my name is Danny, and I'm part-merperson. Also, Vlad Masters - you know, the famous billionaire? - he's actually evil and wants to take over all of humanity, killing my dad, marrying my mom, and making me some sort of evil apprentice in the process.

It was very unlikely that a high school counselor could help him with this, or would even believe him in the first place - and if she did believe him, the first thing she would probably do would be to hit him with an Anti-Creep Stick, run screaming from the room, and call his parents' hotline.

This was a waste of time. And humiliating. Whose idea was this, anyway?

Dr. Scylla raised her eyebrows at him over her sunglasses and steepled her fingers in front of her. "Wow, your sister was right. You are a handful, aren't you?"

Danny blinked. "Wait, Jazz said that?"

"The way she described it, you've been causing a mountain of problems at home, putting a huge burden on her, on your parents... She's given up on trying to help you, and I can't say I blame her."

He gaped at the therapist, mouth trying to form words. "So… so this was her idea? Is she the one who talked Lancer into sending me here?"

"I'm sorry if Jazz thinks you're a lost cause, Danny, but I can assure you, I don't think that at all. I can already tell you're a great kid. You're just going through some problems right now, and that's not your fault."

Danny was stunned. Was that really how Jazz felt about him? He knew he had been blowing her off the past couple of days, but this was Jazz, the girl who had spent five months working towards a breakthrough with Spike Spencerman, who Danny had to this day never heard utter a single word. He knew his parents expectations for him were shot, but even Jazz had given up on him?

Dr. Scylla leaned forward, smiling kindly. "Don't worry about what she thinks. We're here to focus on you. No matter what anyone tells you, Danny, you deserve to be happy, and we're going to make sure that you believe it."

Danny sighed, feeling suddenly incredibly tired and just a bit… hopeless. Tears pricked at his eyes; he quickly looked away, turning his gaze to the blanket-covered terrarium in the corner of Dr. Scylla's office. "I just wish I didn't feel so miserable," he whispered.

"Of course you do," she said. "No one wants to feel miserable. No one deserves to feel that way."

Dr. Scylla stood and walked around her desk until she was standing beside Danny's chair, where she crouched down to his level and reached out a hand to his shoulder. "Now, Danny, today I just want to introduce myself to all of the kids who need someone to talk to, but Mr. Lancer has arranged for you to spend a half hour with me every day after lunch, for as long as it takes. We'll get to the bottom of your misery and then we'll boot it right out the door."

"Do I have to?" asked Danny in a small voice

"Officially, yes, you have to. But don't look at this as a punishment, look at it as an opportunity! An opportunity to create a better you!" The therapist patted his shoulder and then nodded her head to the door. "Now go on, I know you have places you'd rather be."

Relieved, Danny quickly scrambled to his feet and made a beeline to the door.

"See you tomorrow!" Dr. Scylla called after him.


Scylla watched the boy run from the room with a feeling of delight. So that was Danny Fenton?

She straightened, walked over to Bertrand's tank - relishing the rhythmic sensation of her two legs moving her across the floor - and pulled away the blanket covering him. She trailed her fingers over the glass, imagining the possibilities.

Her king had told her the boy must not be killed. However, he had strongly suggested that anything else she might do to him was fair game.

Scylla grinned, her canines like fangs. "Oh, Bertrand - this is going to be so much fun!"


A/N: So, there you have it! Chapter 29!

I hope my adaptations are acceptable! Scylla is, for everyone's reference, identical in appearance to Spectra in her human form. The name Scylla (sil-uh) comes from Greek mythology. Scylla is described as one of two sea monsters that Odysseus must sail between in Homer's Odyssey, her counterpart being Charybdis. Scylla is also a more seaworthy name than Spectra.

I'm not sure how big a fanbase Bertrand has, but I hope I have not offended anyone by reducing him to a coconut crab. However I sliced it, poor old Bertie in his original form just didn't fit into Treading Water. But coconut crabs are terrifying, and I encourage everyone to look them up.

Anyway, I would love to hear any theories you have about, well, anything. There are a lot of subtle things weaved into this chapter, and I'm really curious about what details y'all pick up on and how you interpret them.

A tremendous thanks to: kyoukaalldey, Invader Johnny, dragondancer123, zixalZane, GhostWriterGirl-1, Rush721, TabbiCC, Ardsta, Waffle, Dp-Marvel94, Isa Wilson, ChangelingRin, MistFlame54, LuckyClover3, Foxprints, DuskPuffin, MsFrizzle, Odd Lady of Light, ViandDash, and Guests for your reviews of Chapter 28!

Also, something has been bothering me. I don't think I ever gave a shout-out to WastefulReverie, who used mer!Danny from Treading Water in their Phanniemay 2019 Oneshot collection. "Chapter 8 - Into the Phantom-Verse". I encourage everyone to check it out if you haven't already. ;D

Until next time,

T.F.C~