hachacha! i finally updated! and yes most if not all the facts in this chappie are real (that means not made up) and i had a bit of fun poking at the scientifically impossible in hollywood movie magic, though part of this is scienfically impossible i like to make more in touch with the real world (you know the one we live in).
now on with the reviews!
Methos: like i said before, they're here for me not you ;o
me: oh just shut up will you!? god its like living with an egomanical rockstar! :::smacks Methos upside the head:::
Zediir: thank you for pointing out my misdirected crediting. though indirectly Tolkien did create it.
wajag: ahh actually when i was refering to stories about Atlantis, (and i'm sorry i didn't clarify) i meant ones pertaining to the Immortal relm that we all know and love.
Elle Knight: ahh yes the idea for toying around with a "Dawn of the Dead" scenario. well that actually started waaaaaay late one night in a Reno hotel room after watching said movie ::::shivers:::: god that thing was scary. i just wanted to experiment with the immortal healing capabilities. (that i wanted sooo badly to write a fanfiction for Highlander) however many roadblocks stopped me from going forth in creating such a story. but if anybody is willing to give it a try, they are more than welcome to take the evil plot bunny off my shoulder and let it whisper in their ear.
Now on with the show!
Ch. 4 Science Versus Hollywood Magic
"Come on Cory! You do the best work I've ever seen. All I need is an ID for a 23 year old blonde female. I'll bring her into the DMV and you can have total creative freedom from there. I just need something that will get her into a club," Methos pleaded with his friend over the phone. Cory worked in the DMV and by chance had stumbled upon Methos' uncanny ability to "resurface" every now and then with a new name. Methos had helped the young mortal out of a really tight jam by chance and the grateful Cory offered his useful ID manufacturing services in gratitude. Now, however, Cory was being quite reluctant.
"Adam man, I am treading on very thin ice right now. I almost got fired last time and I think my boss is getting suspicious of the missing cards. If this girl is as old as you claim, why doesn't she have an ID of her own?"
A fair question to be sure, but Methos hesitated to tell Cory why she didn't even have a birth certificate, much less an ID.
"She's new...," he paused, wondering where to go with this. "To the game, she's new to the game Cor, and she had to leave everything behind, even her ID."
There was a slight pause from Cory's end before he gave his answer, "Alright, bring 'er in, I'll see what I can do this late at night without arousing suspicion. I get total creative freedom right?" the excitement leaking into his voice.
"Yes Cory, you get to make up her name and everything."
"Here ya' go, hot off the press, an ID for a 23 year old blonde bombshell (she's a real looker man! Where'd you find her?)" Methos nudged his friends in the ribs at the last comment and slipped him a crisp $50 dollar bill.
"For services rendered," Methos whispered back.
"Ho ho! It was my pleasure Adam. You always seem to meet the hottest babes. Why don't you hook me up man?" Cory waggled his eyebrows in suggestion. Methos just rolled his eyes and began to look over Cory's handiwork as he headed out the door. Methos stopped dead in his tracks as his eyes wandered to the name Cory had given Arreyetti.
"WHAT!?! Ariel Pierson!?!? What kind of joke are you trying to pull?"
"Whoa, dude! You said I had total creative freedom. I thought it was kind of cute and it would be my little joke. Geeze, if I had known you'd get so worked up over a simple name I would have done something generic."
Methos sighed and shrugged. He again thanked Cory for his late night work and walked Arreyetti to the awaiting car.
"Alright, time to party!" Amanda cheered.
After a few hours in a club, Arreyetti had become a bit used to the blaring music and flashing lights. She no longer covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, rather she danced in her seat to the rhythm that pounded from the bass. A few Long Island Iced Teas helped loosen her up enough for Methos to question her about her father. Though she danced around the truth, he was getting close to the answers he wanted.
Duncan had been dragged onto the dance floor by Amanda, so it was just Arreyetti and Methos at the high stooled table. In order to keep the truth flowing like water, Methos had to keep refilling her glass. Now was one of those times where he needed to refill it but he loathed leaving her and missing some information that she consciously omitted after wising up. All he needed to get that last barrier down was one more drink, well that and he needed another beer. He pardoned himself and walked up to the bar. The man next to him had just received his Long Island Iced Tea and Methos saw something drop from the guys hand to the drink before it quickly dissolved. 'It's sad that some guys have to resort to drugs in order to have a good time'
"Pick your poison," the bartender said, bringing Methos out of his musings.
"I'll have a Long Island Iced Tea and a Fat Tire."
"A Fat Tire beer?" Methos nodded, slightly annoyed. "Not many people ask for those, surprised you knew about it."
"I'm very picky about my beer."
"Ahh I'll be back with your Long Island and Fat Tire." The bartender walked over to the other end of the bar where the man who had spiked the drink earlier slipped him a large bill to take his sweet time with Methos' order. The mystery man then headed towards where Arreyetti was sitting alone.
'God he sure is taking a long time for a beer and an iced tea. It shouldn't take half this long'
He turned around to check on Arreyetti and all he found was an empty table with one more empty Long Island glass. 'That bastard!' Methos began to panic, not knowing how long she had been gone or where she had been taken. Duncan and Amanda met Methos back at the table and noticed the worried look on his face. The absence of their guest besides him only heightened their fears. They fanned out toward all the exits, combing through the crowd hoping to find her before it was too late. Methos was lucky to catch a glimpse of long golden locks swaying back and forth to reveal a coral colored dress. As he hurried toward the sight, he found Arreyetti meekly struggling against her captor, though with the tranquilizer in her system she was barely even standing with out help. This infuriated Methos that a man would take advantage of someone in this state.
'But you saw him drop the pills in the drink and you didn't stop him then'
'Yeah but this is different. I'm not as righteous as the boy scout, I don't mettle in a mortals affairs because its too risky to be so out in the open. But when they cross my path, they have traveled too far.'
Methos quickly closed the gap between him and Arreyetti, his anger growing with each step. He tapped the fool who had dared cross him on the shoulder and punched him square in the jaw as he turned around. Without the support of her captor, Arreyetti stumbled backwards as Methos reached out to stop her fall. The crowd dispersed as the man began to get up and charge at Methos in retaliation. Methos quickly sat her down on the floor before turning around to defend Arreyetti. But there was no need. Duncan had made his way through the throng of people and was currently dealing with enraged man. With that taken care of, Methos turned his attention back to his tipsy friend. He placed a caring, practiced hand on her forehead and used his other to draw the stray hairs back behind her ears. 'That's odd. Her ears seem elongated, pointed even.' He gently turned her head to the side and sure enough they were pointed. 'Heh. She's an elf.' But no this was not unheard of in the medical world, pointed ears had been reported on newborns in the middle ages and were immediately killed thinking they were children of the devil. Every once and awhile, over the past few centuries, news would come up of a child with "elf" like features and as technology progressed they learned it was a recessive maternal trait. He vaguely remember almost everyone in Atlantis had pointed ears and had not really thought about the connection until now. 'Descendants of Atlantis. So the legacy lives on' Nowadays, this trait was remedied by plasticsurgery either in infant-hood or late teens. It was sad really, he thought the ears were kind of cute.
Seeing that all Arreyetti needed was a good night sleep, they all decided to leave the club. By the time they got home, Arreyetti had fallen asleep on Methos' shoulder. He gently tried to shake her awake, but she didn't move, didn't even flinch. He shook her again a bit more urgently but still she did not awaken. 'Shit! Alcohol poisoning? Or did she O.D. on the drug? He gave her two capsules and the glass was empty.' Methos checked her vital signs and found that she wasn't breathing and her heart beat was very faint. He picked her up and set her down on the driveway. Not knowing how long ago she had stopped breathing, he titled her head back into the proper CPR position and began to breath air into her lungs. He switched over to pumping her heart with his hands for five counts and breathed for her again. 'Third times a charm,' Methos thought as Arreyetti coughed at the sudden intake of air into her lungs. However as soon as she stopped coughing, she fell back into unconsciousness, though not as severely as before. 'She needs to sober up is all,' he thought reassuringly to himself.
"Amanda! Go turn the water on cold and full blast in your shower! Duncan, help me get her inside!" Both Duncan and Amanda just stood there for a moment dumbfounded until Methos yelled at them.
"What are you waiting for! Go! Move!"
Amanda scrambled inside to the bathroom, while Duncan bent down to help his friend. The chilling cold water was pounding on the tile wall inside the shower by the time Duncan and Methos got Arreyetti through the door. They gently set her down in the ice cold waterfall and the water thrum upon her face and chest. Her eyes shot open in the frozen shower around her and the rest of her body began to seize and convulse. 'My this was unexpected.' Her legs twisted together and melded into one uniform leg that ended in a ..tail? The "tail" was turning into a dark shade of purple and reminded Methos of his beta fish Fred. Unlike most mammals however, Arreyetti's tail was lateral, meaning that it didn't flop up and down like a dolphins, rather it moved side to side like a shark or any other "true" fish. She grabbed his collar in desperation and was also holding the slick wall with little help. There was webbing that seemed to sprout from in between her fingers and her skin took on a glowing, silvery tint. She seemed to be having trouble breathing, but... 'that's not how it happened in Splash! Madison just sat there enjoying the water after she added salt! Duh! Real fish can't handle tap water she needs hard water from outside. Oh and salt! We need sea salt!'
"Duncan! Grab the hose outside and thread it through that window above the shower tile! Amanda, do you by chance have any pure dried sea salt?"
"Yeah but that stuff's expensive. You have no idea how long it takes to-"
"I don't care! She needs to breath until we can get her dried off. Now help me here and get the salt! Oh and a funnel."
Duncan had fed the hose through the window and Methos had turned off the faucet in the shower. Arreyetti's "tail" kept hitting him and the shower wall as she slowly began to lose consciousness again when Amanda finally showed up with the salt and a large funnel. Methos quickly poured the salt into the funnel and added the water from the hose as Arreyetti grabbed it and put it in her mouth. All three watched in amazement as gills opened just below her collar bone and the water that she drank flowed out like a high speed filtration system. She sat up and kept drinking as Amanda shooed the men out of the bathroom before proceeding to peel off her soaking wet dress. She sat Arreyetti up in the tub and began to towel dry her as well as use her heavy duty hair dryer. Soon all that was wet was her hair and that was up in a fluffy white towel. Amanda rushed to get some dry clothes for Arreyetti as the boys waited impatiently on the couch in the living room.
Now that the crisis had been averted and Methos knew never to throw her in a pool (damn!), the four tired party-goers settled in for the night.
"Remind me again why we want to blow our eardrums out and listen to annoying repetitive noise. I mean it's not even music! Queen! Now that was music, they knew how to play a guitar. But these new "bands" if they can even be called that, play and reproduce the same recycled dribble as the person next to them. God it's a disgrace to music," Methos complained as he plopped down on the couch, nursing a pounding headache from the combination of bad music and alcohol. Arreyetti unknowingly plopped down right next to him, earning her a quizzical look from the ancient immortal, not that he minded the company but it was his friends daughter and he wasn't about to cross that line. She smiled at him innocently, like the little child he remembered and put her head on his shoulder. Maybe he wouldn't cross that line yet.
"Oh quit complaining already, Methos! We all need some sleep so just shut up will ya'?" Amanda quipped as she threw the extra pillows and blankets at him. She then looked from Methos to Arreyetti and shook her head. She said nothing as she sauntered back to her bedroom where Duncan was already asleep.
(A/N): nyaha! soo you see why i called it splash with a twist hehehe! but sadly u will have to wait to see just how this happened to a normal little girl. and i actually do know a few people who have "elf" ears. i tell them their cute, but they hate them and want to get rid of them. makes me sad too! T.T my brain is buzzing with new ideas and i can't wait to see how you all liked this latest chappie! remember to review!