A sea breeze pulled playfully at my hair, throwing it in my face and probably tangling it. I spat hair as Pendragon approached me, holding a couple smoothies from Juicenet. I smiled at him, accepting the cup. In the corner of my eye, I saw one of the girls from the café watching at a distance. It had been several days, and we'd continued asking around. Other than those two boys, no one else had any sort of reaction. And those girls seemed to always have their eyes on us. That, and the strange woman from before also passed us occasionally, unnerving me with her stare.
"Still being stalked?" Pen asked with a soft laugh. The corner of my mouth pulled up and I nodded.
"Ever since I had my dramatic exit from the café." I hadn't gone back in since, too anxious. Pendragon was kind enough to get takeout, and we were both content to eat outside. The weather was lovely. My boyfriend put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in for a hug. I giggled as he planted a big kiss on the top of my head.
"Well, what do you say we go hang out at the Moon Pool after this? Just the two of us for a while, no one to watch us, no clothes…." He said softly in my ear. A shiver went up my spine and I felt my face flush.
"I… Ah…" The words caught in my lungs. Pendragon giggled, not a cruel laugh or a teasing one.
"I was kidding!" He assured me, "Get your mind out of the gutter, Jack. Since when are we ever properly dressed in the water?" I blushed even deeper, and hid my face in his shirt.
"Shut your face." I mumbled into his chest. Pendragon barked a laugh. I removed my face from his clothing and sipped my smoothie. I looked up; the girl had been joined by her friends and the blond boy from the docks.
"We've got a whole audience now," I said thoughtfully.
"Really? Let's give them a show, then," Pendragon said. Confused, I looked up at him, only to be surprised by his face up against mine. My lips met his and I felt my heart race. He drew back, smiling.
"I love you Jackie," He said, a soft blush on his face.
"I love you too, you jerk!" I shoved him playfully.
We finished our smoothies and started to walk towards the beach. A subtle glance behind us confirmed that we were being followed. They were anything if not persistent. The breeze increased as we walked through the sand, sandals off. We'd been careful to make sure that we were as obvious as possible. When we reached a secluded, rocky area, we simply dropped our shoes and ran into the water.
I only felt the pull of the currents on my clothes for a few seconds before I transformed. I glanced over at Pendragon, who floated next to me, already scaly and shirtless. He smiled at me and I nodded. He was off in an explosion of bubbles, with me close behind.
It didn't take long for us to reach the Moon Pool. Pendragon rolled over onto his back, sitting down on a small, underwater ledge. I sat myself right next to him, leaning onto his chest.
"So," I murmured, "Now what?" Pendragon hummed.
"Mmmm, I don't know. I suppose bursting into song is out?"
"I thought you hated my singing!" I laughed.
"Ah, about that…" He started, but I cut him off.
"If you want me to sing, just ask." Pen looked at me, his bright blue eyes meeting my golden brown ones.
"Could you sing a song for me, please?" He asked politely. I felt my insides liquefy and a blush rise to my face. I swallowed nervously and nodded, my mind racing through the lyrics of every song I knew trying to find the perfect one. Taking a deep breath, I started to sing.
"Someone's always coming around here, trailing some new kill… Says 'I see your picture on a, hundred dollar bill.' What's a game of chance to you here is one, of real skill… So glad to meet you, Angeles…" I sang, long and sad. Pendragon hugged me closer as I sang, and I felt my heart rise to my throat. I trailed off, suddenly paranoid.
"Is something wrong?" Pendragon asked, concerned.
"Someone's coming, I can feel it," I said under my breath.
As if on cue, someone swam into the Moon Pool through the tunnel we'd come in from. Then another, and another. Three heads rose to the surface, eyes wide and mouths open in awe. The three girls from the café were staring at us, and they all had tails.
[Rikki's P.O.V.]
I couldn't believe it. Those two strangers who had been snooping around, asking about Mako and the Moon Pool were mermaids. Or, mermaid and merman. The boy had a tail too, and it was blue!
"Uh," The boy said, startled, "Hello there." He looked just as surprised as the rest of us felt.
"You're, mermaids?" Cleo asked. Oh yeah, as if their tails weren't enough to convince anyone.
"Yeah…" The girl said, just as the boy exclaimed, "Oi! Merman! I am male, thank you very much!" Emma giggled a little at that.
"Well, it's nice to meet you." Cleo said, "My name is Cleo, this is Emma and Rikki." She nodded at each of us in turn.
"I'm Pendragon," the merman said, "And this is Jacqueline." The mermaid smiled nervously.
"This must be your Moon Pool then?" she asked, softly. She looked almost scared.
"If you mean the one we turned in?" Emma asked, "Yeah, this one is ours. Where is yours?"
"America," the merman, Pendragon, said, "Specifically, eastern Pennsylvania, but I don't really expect us to know where that is… We haven't managed to find one where we live in New York yet."
"You're from New York? You mean where that guy Tony Stark is from, right?" Cleo asked excitedly, she loved seeing Iron Man on the news.
"Tony? Yeah, that's the place," Jacqueline smiled, lighting up.
"You say that like you know him," I said, exasperated.
"We do," Pendragon said, and I choked on air.
"What." Emma said flatly.
"He's a good friend of ours," Jacqueline confirmed, shrugging her shoulders.
"No way…" I started to say when the newcomers both tensed up.
[Jacqueline's P.O.V.]
All of a sudden, I heard footsteps approaching from the cave behind us. Swearing internally, I grabbed at the mermaids' wrists. Pendragon did the same. We turned invisible right as the blond haired boy from before stumbled in.
"Cleo? Rikki? Emma?" He asked looking around. Cleo fought my grip, pulling free from my power and becoming visible again.
"Lewis!" She exclaimed, "We're right here!" Lewis' eyes widened when I dropped my spell, and they widened even further when Pendragon dropped his.
"Wait, you two!?" He gasped, stumbling over the words.
"Yep," Pendragon said, before Lewis burst out with…
"You're mermaids!?"
"Merman!" Pendragon groaned, "I'm not a girl! I don't have gold scales, see? And no scale bra!" I giggled. That makes twice now he's been called a mermaid.
"Yes, we're merpeople." I said, using a gender neutral term, "Or merfolk if you prefer." Lewis nodded slowly, bewildered. Pen chuckled.
"We've already introduced ourselves, but I'm certain you've already forgotten. I'm Pendragon, and this is Jacqueline, my lovely girlfriend." I held my hand out.
"Nice to officially meet you." Lewis took my hand and shook it warmly.
"Lewis, Cleo's boyfriend." I turned to grin at Cleo.
"He's cute," I mouthed silently. Pendragon must have guessed what I said because he pouted and splashed me.
"So… Merpeople… That does explain why you freaked out when I splashed you." Lewis said to himself.
"Well now that we've confirmed that we're not the only merpeople in the world," Rikki said loudly, "What do we do now?"
"Share powers?" Pendragon asked, "What can you do?"
"Well," Cleo said, "I can control the flow of water, Emma can freeze it, and Rikki can boil it." Huh.
"Pendragon and I have the same skill set, camouflage, which you just saw, the same three that you mentioned, and turning water into gel. I'm still discovering some powers. I've been a mer for years now, much longer than Pen, so I'm teaching him." The girls gaped.
"That's a lot of powers…" Emma said slowly, "How long have you been a mermaid?"
"Like I said, a couple years, the line between 'fish' and 'not fish' kind of faded a while ago, but I'd have to say two?"
"I fell into her Moon Pool about 6 months ago," Pendragon added.
"That's how long we've been mermaids," Rikki said.
"Wow, what a crazy random happen-stance." Pen replied with a straight face. I choked on air.
"Huh?" Lewis asked, confused.
"Nothing," Pen frowned. I guess Dr. Horrible isn't as well known around here as it is in America.
We ended up talking for a long time, sharing full moon experiences and such. We learned that the girls had had a much harder time than we had dealing with keeping their identities a secret. The girls had also been captured by a marine biologist by the name of Dr. Denman.
"She's probably out there looking for other mermaids now," Rikki muttered.
"Jack, we'll need to let Coulson know," Pendragon turned to me, "He can make sure she never gets close to another mer again." I nodded.
"Coulson?" Emma asked, "Who's he?"
"Top secret," I smiled, "We're sort of under government radar, making sure that Moon Pools aren't weaponized. That's how Pen turned; he fell in while studying the pool. After I had a nasty bout of lunacy and destroyed possibly millions of dollars worth of equipment, they backed off and left Pendragon in my care. We live with Tony Stark now, he has plenty of windowless rooms to hide from the full moon in."
The girls stared at us, eyes wide. Pendragon was nodding, smiling. He was loving this kind of attention, and so was I. We know Tony Stark, we're cool fish.
After several hours' worth of conversation, we all left to go home. Lewis went to fetch his boat, which Cleo, Emma, and Rikki left through the tunnel like us. We parted ways on the beach after drying off, and Pendragon and I headed back to the Home Base. We certainly had a story to tell Tony once we got online.
So I'm in a good enough mood today to have written a new chapter, second one this weekend! And it's longer than the last one! I had some fun with this, but writing dialogue for soooo many characters at once is tiring, because I really didn't want to neglect anyone. I hope you guys are pleased with this chapter, because I could have been playing Skyrim instead of writing, but I've gotten several new follows/favorites since my last update and that makes author happy and updates happen when author is happy. I have also gone back through all of the previous chapters and named them. I feel clever.
