Not dead. I promise. I'd lost interest in writing for a while but I haven't given up entirely, I just needed some time for other ideas which I also temporarily lost interest in. Procrastination, maybe this one time, am I right children? I know I'm late to the party but Happy Holidays/New Year. I've also noticed that the website is not fond of the big acronyms, so I'll just be writing out SHIELD from now on. I was getting sick of all those dots anyway.
I rolled over onto my belly on the bed, the springs shifted noiselessly under my weight. I'd logged onto a private chat program that Tony had made just for us to communicate without fear of anyone listening in. And by "anyone" I mean Nick Fury. I really don't like him. Pendragon sat down next to me and leaned over.
"Is he online?" The blond merman asked.
"Yeah, let me give him a ring." I said, clicking the cursor over the big red call button. It rang long enough to make me wonder if he'd passed out on the computer, or just forgotten to log off. But answer he did.
The screen lit up with a grumpy looking Tony Stark, looking very tired. The background looked domestic, like a well lived in home, but it didn't look like anywhere like the Tower Pen and I called home.
"Yeah? What's up?" Tony croaked into a mug of coffee.
"Tony? Did we wake you?" I started to wonder before he interrupted.
"It's 3 pm, I just overslept." Well that explains it.
"So, any mermaid yet?"
"Three, lovely girls the lot of them. Creepy though." Pendragon announced while I nodded in confirmation.
"Three?" Tony perked up right away, "What can you tell me about them?"
"That they've had unpleasant run-ins with a marine biologist by the name of Linda Denman. She captured them and tried to claim them as her own scientific discovery, they deterred her but we're kind of hoping that you can hack her systems and remove any information she has stored there. We just want to send her a message, you know?" I smiled hopefully while Tony stared back looking awfully bleary-eyed.
"Tony? You awake man?" Pendragon asked, and Tony snapped out of his trance.
"YEAH! Yeah, Linda Denman bad scientist lady, got stuff on mermaid girls. I got it…" He trailed off and his head started to droop.
"Jarvis, can you make sure this ends up on the to-do list? It's kind of important."
"Gladly." I sighed and ended the call. Tony obviously needed his sleep and Jarvis would remind him to do as he said he would.
"So," I dropped my face into the blanket, "What do we do now?" It was hard to breathe but I didn't move.
"I can't hear you when you're talking to blankets, "Pendragon chuckled, "But I think a nice swim is well in order." I lifted my head from the overheated quilt from hell and smiled. I liked the sound of that.
"Let's go tomorrow."
It didn't take us long to find a nice quiet location to hop into the ocean, the beach was pretty empty that morning. We had one more day before we needed to return to the Tower and we might as well enjoy it, the beautiful, clear water. The reef with bright colorful fish. The occasional dolphin. I'd miss this. I considered moving to Florida or somewhere else warm and bright like this. Cold water doesn't bother me, but this is where I belong. I wondered if Pendragon would come with me.
Pendragon grabbed my wrist and yanked me towards him, camouflaging the both of us. I froze, knowing that meant danger was nearby. Now that I was out of my trance, I could hear the sound of a diver breathing through a respirator, a harsh hissing sound followed by loud bubbles. I wondered why I hadn't noticed it before.
Maintaining our invisibility, we drifted away from the human and behind a safer reef before Pendragon dropped his magic. It was difficult for him to maintain for so long, but we'd stayed hidden and that's what mattered. I still had my power if the human paddled towards our new hiding spot.
We continued to hide until long after the diver was too far away for us to hear, more interested in being safe rather than sorry. We made our way to the Moon Pool to rest and breathe.
"That was exciting," Pendragon muttered after surfacing. He pulled himself up to sit on the edge of the pool, his tail dangling down into the water. I laughed breathlessly, pulling myself up to sit next to him.
"So, anything you want to do while we're still here?" I asked, flopping backwards to lay on the sand with my tail in the water, "Last chance and all, for this trip at least."
"This trip?" Pen smiled, "So you do plan on staying contact with these girls?" I lifted both of my hands up in the air to frame the caldera.
"Well of course, fish are fairly social animals, more friends means less stress," Pen shoved me playfully.
"I was kidding, Jackie," he chuckled, "But yeah, I know we're going to be coming back, maybe next winter. As for what to do, I was thinking it would be fun to check out the marine park. We came here posing as tourists, why not do something touristy?" I bolted upright, startling him.
"LET'S GO!" I sang loudly, enjoying the echo of my voice in the hollows of the stone. Sinking back into the warm water, we power-swam to the shore and dried ourselves off quickly. We would only have half the day, but that should be enough to enjoy ourselves.
And we did. There was a dolphin show that we got to see and it was wonderful. Leaning into Pendragon's shoulder, I hissed into his ear.
"We ought to learn how to jump like that, out in the ocean away from the ships." Pendragon nodded in agreement, it sounded like a really fun idea.
On our way out of the park, my phone rang. Without glancing at the caller ID, I could already tell who it was.
"Tony? What's up?"
"Hey, Jackie. I've got some stuff I'm doing for those people. Steve and I are both going to be away when you get back to the Tower. Just don't have a crazy party, okay? And remember to stay away from my mini bar." Those people? He was talking about SHIELD. And if he and Steve are both working with them, it means something big is going on currently.
"What happened?" I asked, "I need to know if we should catch a plane tonight or leave on time tomorrow." Pen shot me a worried glance.
"It's all good," Tony insisted, "You gotta trust me on this, kiddo."
I swallowed nervously, and said my goodbyes quickly. Hanging up I turned to Pendragon.
"SHIELD called both Tony AND Steve in, which means something crazy has happened. I think it's a good idea to get back to the Tower sooner rather than later."
"Then let's go catch us a plane."
We stepped foot in Stark Tower the following afternoon. Jarvis apologized for having everything shut down, he hadn't expected us until much later today, but it didn't matter much. We unpacked quickly and settled down in front of the TV.
"Hey, Jarvis?" Pen asked, "Can you tell us where Tony and Steve were sent?" There was a long silence.
"That information is classified." Well damn.
"Can you tell us why at least?" Pen tried.
"That information is also classified." Shiiiiit.
"Well can you tell us something about all this that isn't classified?" I bit my lip hopefully.
"It involves a threat to global security. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were not the only people called in to deal with it." I sighed in relief.
"At least it's not just them," I forced a smile, "But global security? How dangerous is this thing?"
"Very." Jarvis said. Well there goes the hope I had left.
Pulling my knees up to my chin, I chewed my lip and worried at my hands. How high were the chances of whatever this issue is killing one of my friends? My first friend in New York, or my awesome housemate? How likely is it that I'll never see either of them again?
Pendragon must have noticed how worried I was because he took my hand and gave it a squeeze.
"How about we go for a swim, that should help take our minds off of things." I rubbed the damp from my eyes and nodded quietly. We went to the pool instead of the bay, and dragged one of the inflatable rafts into the water. With torsos on the raft and tails in the water, the calm lulled the both of us into sleep.
"Miss Thompson, Mister Marbend. There is a problem." Jarvis said urgently, yanking me from the warm blanket of dreaming.
"Whatdya want?" Pendragon groaned as I rolled into the water to swim to the side.
"There is an intruder in the building, he only just arrived." That woke me up. Pulling myself out of the water, I felt my heart pounding.
"Where is he?" I asked, struggling to focus on heating the water on my scales.
"He's on the balcony level, though I must warn you it would be unwise to confront him."
"We're the only people in the building what do you expect us to do?" Pendragon asked, steaming his scales next to me, "We've got water powers, what does he have?"
"He's the threat to global security. His name is Loki." That rang a bell.
"The Norse god?" I asked, disbelieving, "but they're just myths, right? I mean, we're supposed to be myths but we aren't…" I trailed off. Slowly, getting to my feet, I turned to my now dry boyfriend.
"Let's go see what he wants." I said.
SO. How's that for a cliffhanger? Sorry again it took me so long to get this uploaded, but that's kind of how a lack of motivation goes. This was a pretty hard chapter to write though, transitions always just drag on and on. But yes, I'll try to make more of an effort to post more often because you know, like that worked the last time I promised that. But now we're getting into fun stuff and I LOVE writing fun stuff. Remember kids, reviews make the author happy!
