Riptide

Summary: Mermaid AU – In which Buttercup is a professional surfer who just so happens to have a run in with a rather large, rather dangerous shark man… literally. GREENS.

Authors note: A world in which merfolk co-exist with humans more peacefully than one might imagine. The Powerpuff girls do not belong to me and as always they have human appendages.

*This will be the last story/update I put out for the foreseeable future. Life is very strange right now.

Riptide

A strong current pulling towards the sea.


Living in California had its disadvantages.

For starters, the state was located right on the Golden Coast and personally, Buttercup Utonium was convinced it was slowly slipping into the sea due to de-forestation and excessive human development. Not to mention that it was constantly in the middle of a drought regardless of what time of year it was; and of course – one could not forget that it sat on the cusp of two decently active tectonic plates that liked to make themselves known every once in a while, in the form of very large, very scary earthquakes.

But living in California also had its advantages.

For starters, some of the best beaches in the world were located there, and it was home to some of the top-ranked marine schools that the world had to offer. The people that called the Golden Coast home were – more often than not – kind and down to Earth, and when there weren't forest fires or mini earthquakes battering the state – it had some pretty spectacular views.

Buttercup liked to think that the good parts of California outweighed the bad.

She, like many who lived on the coast, surfed, and she was good at it. Real damn good. At twenty-four, she was one of the top professional surfers in America. She had traveled up and down the states, surfing in national championships anywhere from her home state of California, all the way down to Pipeline Hawaii.

She had become so good in fact, that at her last competition, she had captured the attention of several judges from overseas, and had been accepted into internationals, and was set to compete in the South African finals in two months.

For now, she was just practicing until the competition. She had heard about South Africa's notorious beaches, and she didn't want to go underprepared. Not that she was intimidated, she had always enjoyed a challenge, and she was more than ready to see what the other side of the world had to offer her in the way of surfing.

The raven-haired woman grinned as she zipped up her black wet suit and tied back her hair, taking a deep breath in as she gazed out at the spread before her.

The weather was ideal for surfing; all clear skies as far as the eye could see and powerful waves pounding the shore repetitively. The sun was just starting to sink into the sea, painting the ocean waves with soft oranges and reds, but still giving off plenty of light for her to see her surroundings. This was prime surfing time for her.

Normally, most surfers were against going out into the waves past dusk, but the green-eyed woman found that there were less people around and the waves seemed to be bigger and wilder when the sun set, which was what she was looking for.

A quick glance around the beach confirmed that no one was in the immediate area and that she had this strip of the beach all to herself. She grabbed her electric green surf board from out of the sand beside her, and bolted towards the sea, letting out an excited yell as her feet touched the warm water before sliding onto her board and paddling out into the waves as fast as her arms could take her.

Ducking under the water and rolling under several waves with her board pressed to her stomach, she breached the surface and pushed herself into the deep before sitting up on her board as she served the surrounding waters. She breathed a content sigh, allowing her feet to hang down in the water, and looked around for more waves as she bobbed up and down on her board. She grunted irritably after a moment, as a few promising looking swells that flowed around her proved to be mediocre waves and not the large ones she was hoping for.

The ravenette was so distracted that she didn't notice that a dark shadow was circling just under her feet.

Just before the unseen shadow could brush up against her toes, the board lurched to the side, catching the dark-haired woman's attention. She squinted, just as the beginnings of what looked like a large wave slowly began to form out on the horizon. She turned her surfboard towards it in interest, with a hopeful grin pulling at her lips.

Buttercup felt her grin grow wider as she looked at the massive wave that was slowly starting to rise up out of the water behind her. Oh yeah, she was right. This was going to be a big one.

She pulled her legs out of the water and crouched on her board, mentally preparing herself for the roll of the crest that followed. In the next second, the wave was upon her, and the dark-haired woman steered herself along the outskirts of the wave, allowing the powerful current to slowly bring her in. The roar of the water washed over her and suddenly, she was coasting along the innermost part of the wave.

This, was when she felt most alive. In those few precious seconds, surrounded by surf, just her in the tube, she felt free. This was what she was born to do-

A dark, black shadow swimming along side her on the other side of the water wall caught her attention. Buttercup blinked in confusion. "What the hell…?" she muttered as she surged forward towards the end of the tunnel, keeping one eye on the dark shadow beside her. She had to make it out of the tube before the wave collapsed, trapping her and pulling her under, but the shadow that was following after her was concerning.

She broke free of the tunnel a second before it closed behind her with a roar. She angled the tip board upwards towards the still peaking crest – intent on getting the most out of the wave as she could – but now the shadow was under her, and quickly making its way past her towards the top of the wave.

She narrowed her eyes at the dark shape, trying to discern what it was. It looked like a shark, but the top half of the silhouette was wrong. If she really squinted, it looked almost… human.

Her eyes widened as she desperately tried to angle herself away from shadow in front of her as she realized what it was a second too late.

Her board crested the wave and made a sickening thwacking sound as it collided violently with the head of the Merperson swimming around her. Buttercup barely had time to close her mouth before she was knocked off her board and hit the water hard, feeling the massive wave roar over her with overwhelming power. As soon as she felt the worst of the swell wash over her, she forced her eyes open and managed to grab hold of her surf board just as it flew by her on its way to the surface. Before she could swim towards the surface, she felt a sudden jerk, and her eyes widened as she found herself being ripped away from the shallows where she had landed and dragged back out into the open sea.

Shit. Shit. She was caught in a riptide. If she didn't get out, she was going to be pulled out into the deep sea and end up God knows where. Buttercup tried to pull herself out of the strong current, but it was no use. The pull was too strong and it was dragging her out faster than she could stop it.

Buttercup knew better than anyone that you shouldn't fight a riptide. Surfer's lesson number one: if you end up in one, you didn't fight it. You just had to let it take you out and it would taper off eventually. She knew that too many people died trying to get out of them, only to lose their strength and drown; but the sudden appearance of the Merperson had knocked her off guard (literally) and she hadn't been prepared when she hit the water. Now she was running out of oxygen and if she didn't try and get out of the pull, then she would drown before she reached the open sea.

Her vision began to swim as more air bubbles escaped out of her mouth. Fuck, so this was how it was going to end, eh? The surfer of her little family – who was the best swimmer out of all of them – was going to drown within walking distance of her house, and she hadn't even gotten to go to internationals yet-

Something grabbed her arm in a death grip – interrupting her dark train of thought – and suddenly, she found herself yanked out of the riptide's pull, knocking her surf board out of her hands in shock.

Before Buttercup could processes what was happening, she felt another massive wave roar over top of her. The force alone was enough to pull her up from off the bottom of the beach and roughly fling her back towards the shallows with bruising force. The ravenette hit the sand hard as the salty water splashed down around her. Sputtering and coughing, she forced herself out of the swell and onto wobbly legs. She grabbed her board, that had somehow washed up beside her, and made a beeline for the beach, coughing violently as she forced more salty water out of her lungs.

She collapsed onto the sand and retched painfully as she frantically sucked in air, suddenly grateful that no one was around to see her like this. That was too close. She had damn near drowned back there. She couldn't remember the last time she had wiped out that badly. It was almost embarrassing that the fear of death had passed.

As she gradually slowed down her frantically palpating heart, she felt irritation creep over her. Fuck. That had been an incredible wave, probably the biggest she'd get all night, and that Merperson just had to collide right into her-

Shit. The Merperson. Where was it.

Buttercup looked around the beach, trying to see if she could spot it. She didn't have to see the thing to know that she had hurt it. She knew how fast she had been going when they had collided, and she also knew that she had hit it dead in the face.

Something large and dark laying in the shallows a few feet away from her caught her attention. Buttercup staggered to her feet and ran into the water by the unmoving shape, and suddenly; it felt like the air had been sucked out of her lungs once again as she stared down at the unconscious Merperson.

He was a male with dark, black hair. A very attractive, very well-built male from the torso up if one overlooked the large black shark tail, dorsal fin and silted gills that ran up along his ribs and neck. He had tan skin and little patches of black scales decorated his toned abdomen.

Damn. She had no idea that Merpeople could be so attractive. Then again, it's not like she was ever this close to them.

Without thinking, she reached down, grabbed his muscular arms and hulled him out of the water and onto the beach so she could properly assess his injuries. She wasn't worried about beaching him, everyone knew that Merpeople had advanced lungs aside from their gills, that were capable of filtering both water and air. Thankfully, from what she could see, he wasn't cut anywhere, but now she worried that his injuries were internal in nature.

"Hello?" she shook him frantically, knowing how stupid she sounded. Merperople didn't speak English, they spoke Merish. Everyone knew that, but that didn't stop her from shaking him again. "Hey, hey! You! Are you okay?"

No response.

"Shit." She muttered as she pressed two fingers to his neck – mindful of the slits running along the sides – as she checked for a pulse. When she couldn't feel one, she pulled her dark hair away from her ears and gently rolled him over onto his side to see if she could hear a heartbeat.

Nothing.

"Oh fuck." Buttercup muttered as she sat up, running both hands through her tangled mess of hair. "I've fucking killed him. I'm going to jail. This is a federal offence."

The shark man suddenly let out a raspy cough and the slits on either side of his neck and ribs fluttered, letting her know that he was not in fact dead, but his eyes did not open. Buttercup breathed a sigh of relief. Well at least she wouldn't be going to jail today.

Buttercup bit her lip. He was breathing which was good, but now she was more worried about what he would do once he woke up. She looked around the beach, but there was no one else around except for them.

"Fuck." She muttered as she resigned herself to sitting beside him. As much as she didn't want to, she didn't feel right about leaving the unconscious Merperson alone on the beach… That, and she would be lying if she said that she didn't want to take a closer look at the fish man.

She glanced at his face to gauge if he was awake or not, but his eyes remained shut. Buttercup breathed a low sigh of relief and went back to her pseudo examination.

He was huge for starters, and she wasn't just talking about the human half of him. He had to be at least over eleven feet long from the tip of his tail to the top of his skull. His tail and dorsal fin were that of a great white's and she noticed that his hands were slightly webbed with sharp, dark claws for fingernails.

He was incredible. Buttercup thought to herself as she looked the dark-skinned man up and down in amazement. She had never seen a Merperson this close before. The species as a whole, were rather private and solitary, unlike how old fairy tales had painted them.

The only time she had actually seen one up close was at the lab where her Father worked as a professor. He specialized in the Merfolk and knew just about everything there was to know about them, from how they bred to their culture and language. When one washed ashore, (normally beat up and near death) he was one of the first people there to take them back to his privately funded lab where he would help rehabilitate them and study them further, before eventually releasing them back into the ocean once they were deemed healthy enough.

He had tried to teach her and her sisters about them on several occasions, but she had never been very interested in learning much about them. Her sisters on the other hand; had eaten up everything he showed them, to the point they were both interested in becoming researchers themselves. Now Buttercup was starting to wish she had paid more attention to what he had said about them, because it would have been useful in this situation.

Buttercup shook her head and gently continued to examine the man in front of her.

His tail, torso and arms were covered in long, white scars, some of them looked quite old, others looked more recent. She did remember her dad saying that Merpeople were highly territorial and the ones that came from the deep sea, were fiercely so, so perhaps he came from deeper waters.

She looked at the shark tail again and frowned. He had to have come from the open sea. The Merfolk that hung around the shallower waters were more 'tropical' in appearance. He was most certainly not one of them. She knew there was more then one breed of Merperson, some resembled fish, others porpoises and some – like in his case – resembled sharks. That at least she remembered.

She frowned slightly. That didn't make sense though, if he came from out in the open sea like she suspected he did, then what was he doing so close to the shallows?

She snuck a glance back up at his face only to reel backwards on all fours as two dark green eyes stared back up at her. She cursed violently and backed up as fast as she could, as the shark man sat up slowly with an irritated growl, eyes bleary and not focusing on anything as he rubbed his head.

"Vac mire man pas. Ven ri tear na sheer."

Buttercup didn't speak any Merish whatsoever, but she was almost certain that that was a swear.

The shark man sat up slowly and let out a small growl as he looked around, seemingly confused as to how he ended up on the beach. He glanced in her general direction and paused as his dark eyes met hers once more, and he froze.

Buttercup swallowed painfully as she hesitantly gave him a little wave. "Hello." She tried tentively. The attractive shark man gave no response. "Are you okay?" the dark-haired woman tried again, speaking slowly, knowing that it probably wouldn't help anything.

This time he blinked and leaned towards her, seemingly realizing that she was addressing him. She kept her distance regardless. She had seen video's showcasing how strong Merpeople were back in high school. He could easily tear through her skin like it was nothing more then paper with his claws, or break her bones with one slap of his tail. It didn't matter that he didn't have legs – Merpeople were deceptively fast on land too, able to pull themselves easily across the sand with just their powerful arms.

She swallowed at that last thought. She definitely didn't need him grabbing onto her and dragging her into the depths of the sea like they did with most of their pray, so she maintained a respectful distance between them – just in case he was pissed that she had knocked him unconscious.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry that I hit you with my board." She pointed to her surfboard, lying forgotten in the sand. "You startled me there."

The shark man shook his head and focused in on her with an unreadable expression on his face. Buttercup felt her heart speed up as he gave her a slow onceover. Fuck, was that the wrong thing to say? Was he going to kill her now or-

To her surprise, the shark man ran a clawed hand through his thick black hair; the salt from the sea causing it to spike up and hold its shape, almost like hair gel, as he sent her a slow grin, causing Buttercup to wince as she noticed that his teeth were pointed and sharp, just like a shark's.

"Vor gana mer, does min toros. Orinin gara vin." He almost purred at her, his eyes taking on a hooded look. "Di brunan veris tordnana." Buttercup blinked, thoroughly confused at his change in demeanor. What the fuck was happening here-?

Before she could move, the shark man had hulled himself over to where she was crouched, faster than she could blink, causing her to fall back onto her ass with a startled yelp. He grinned as he leaned over her, his chest almost flush with hers as he gazed down at her with that weirdly content look still plastered across his face.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back the hell up!" Buttercup snarled, temporarily forgetting that this was a being that could snap her neck without so much as breaking a sweat if he wanted to. To her surprise, he allowed her to push him back slightly and sit up. "Don't do that!" she snapped at him, knowing full well that he didn't understand her. "You can thank me for saving your fishy ass in a different way. I don't even know your damn name for Christ sake."

A deep chuckle came low from in the shark man's throat as he studied her. His dark unnatural eyes washing over her in a way that could almost be described as lecherous. "Tor donna vera. Ian greas vas fera."

Fuck. She was really wishing she had paid more attention to her dad when he had tried to teach her Merish on several occasions-

Wait, her dad, he could help her!

She might not know the reason behind the Merperson's unusual behavior, but Buttercup was certain that her father would. If nothing else, the man in front of her was dazed and confused, but she wanted to be sure.

"Wait one second." She held up a finger, causing the much larger male to fall silent as her eyes swept across the beach, looking for her bag. "I'm going to call someone who can help you."

She highly doubted that the shark man could understand a word she was saying, but she hoped that he'd get the message.

As luck would have it, they had washed ashore a few feet away from her bag. Not wanting to take her eyes off of the shark, Buttercup scooted on her butt over to her back pack, where she reached in and pulled out her phone. Scrolling through her contacts, she hit the first name that came up under D, and held the phone to her ear, praying that her dad was back home from the lab.

Her phone rang a few times before sudden burst of static and a cheery "Hello Buttercup." Answered her on the other line. She fought the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. "Hey dad, I need your help."

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Bless him, she could already hear the concern in her father's voice. Maybe that's what having three girls did to a man.

"I'm fine." She interrupted before he could panic. "I was out surfing and I kinda hit something… or I guess you could say, someone."

"Oh jesus-"

"Yeah, the thing is… he's not exactly… human." The tall woman sent the shark man a sideways glance, only to see that he was resting his chin on one of his palms as he looked at her through hooded eyes.

Buttercup felt a shiver run up her spine. There was something about the way he was looking at her that she didn't like, but couldn't figure out what it was. She didn't feel threatened, but the way he was eyeing her was uncomfortable.

The line went silent for a moment as her dad mulled over what she was implying. "Oh… you… did you… you didn't hit a Merperson, did you?"

"Head on collision." Buttercup confirmed. "I'm fine, but I hit him pretty hard, and he's acting strange. He's awake, but I'm kinda worried that I've concussed him."

"Well luckly for you I just got home. Where are you? I'll come check it out." She heard the jingle of keys on the other end of the line and smiled.

"Usual spot, West side of the beach, near the parking lot." She confirmed. "Wonderful, I'll be there in ten minutes. If he's awake, stay away from him, and give him space. He might be aggressive. Do you know what kind he is?"

"No, but he looks like a shark. You know; the ones that stay out in the open sea?"

The line went quiet for a moment, and she could almost see her dad frown on the other end. "That can't be right. They don't come here unless… oh never mind, I'll be there soon, just keep your distance from him in the meantime. The shark hybrids are notoriously aggressive."

"I know. Thanks dad, I'll see you soon." With a click, she hung up and put her phone back in her bag, casting a curious glance at the dark-haired man, who hadn't taken his eyes off of her for a moment.

"Someone is coming to help you." She told the shark man, knowing it was useless to try and explain it to him. "He knows how to help you better then I can."

"Mer dovea, por vrosa motosi." the man purred as he shifted so he was closer to her. He almost seemed to purposely flex as he sprawled out on the sand beside her, and Buttercup inwardly shook her head.

Even though he wasn't human, she had to admit that he was attractive. She could tell just by looking at the collection of scars that ran up and down his body that he was a fighter, much like herself, and if the behavior that he had displayed to her had anything to say about his personality: he was also a shameless flirt.

Very different then what she had expected from the shark breeds.

She knew she had no right to assume anything about them though. She had barely paid attention to her teachers when she and her friends were learning about them in school, and didn't listen much to what her father tried to teach her about them. Since she spent so much time out in the ocean, one would have thought that she would have taken in interest in learning about the reclusive sea-folk, but surprisingly, up until today; Buttercup had never actually run into one while surfing.

She had heard from others that the shark hybrids were dangerous and aggressive, and wouldn't hesitate to kill a human if they happened across one… but so far, the one that she had hit had yet to kill her. In fact, he was quite calm, relaxed even, and rather touchy with her.

"Moros sheem, dos var mimir nore braca." The dark-haired man rumbled, pulling her out of her thoughts as he traced up her leg using one long claw. He fixed her with a smirk as she slowly shifted her leg out of his reach. "Oh? Grivera mos terus vor? Mua dor."

Damn she really wished she had taken up her father's offer to teach her Merish. She would love to know what he was saying-

She sighed as she reluctantly allowed the content hybrid to lightly feel up her arms, bracing herself to push herself out of his reach again if necessary, but thankfully, he didn't try and force himself on her again.

She allowed him to examine her gently with his claws for a while before he suddenly took her hand in his own large one, inspecting it carefully. She blinked. He was colder than she expected him to be. She knew she shouldn't have been too surprised; one of the few things she had managed to retain about the Merpeople was that they were cold-blooded in nature, but it still caught her off guard with how much colder he was compared to her. She let out a little gasp, catching his attention. He looked up at her inquisitively as she gazed back at him.

"What are you doing so far from home-"

"Buttercup?"

Buttercup turned around from her spot, only to see her father, still dressed in his lab clothes, standing a few feet behind her in the sand, looking mild impressed.

The second that the attractive shark hybrid saw her father, his playful demeanor changed. The gills lining either side of his neck and sides flared up aggressively, somehow making him look even bigger than he already was. He dropped her hand as he pushed himself up onto his muscular arms, getting ready to pounce if need be.

The dark-haired woman watched in shock as he physically began to change in front of her. His dark green eyes deepened until they were almost pitch black, much like that of a normal shark. His claws hyperextended against the sand, becoming hooked and razor sharp, leaving deep gouges in the wet and. The skin around his mouth began to split, giving him a semi-Glasgow grin, showing off his teeth, but the most disturbing change was happening to the skin on his upper half.

His dark, tanned skin was quickly turning dark gray, almost black, that matched the colour of his tail. Now he didn't look like he had a moment ago. Currently, he looked more shark then human.

Buttercup knew that every Merperson had, what people called an 'attack mode', which they really only showed off when they were hunting or fighting. She had just never seen it up close, and not on a shark breed. She would be lying if she said the sudden shift wasn't unnerving, but she wasn't about to sit back and allow the shark man to lunge at her father either. Without thinking, she grabbed his powerful forearm, almost taken aback by the surprisingly rough skin underneath her fingers.

"Wait, wait, just hold on a second. He's not going to hurt you. He's going to make sure you're okay – just… just don't hurt him, please." Buttercup felt pathetic as she tried to sooth the pissed off hybrid. He probably couldn't understand a word she was saying, and if her father ended up getting hurt trying to help him, she wouldn't know where to begin to help him aside from basic CPR.

To her surprise however, the shark man seemed to relax slightly. She saw him look at her from the corner of his eye and she pointed at her father – who had smartly stopped in his tracks. "That's my dad." She told him gently, not sure if it would make any difference. "He studies your kind; he just wants to make sure I didn't hurt you earlier. Please don't kill him."

The shark sent her another sideways glance, and she watched as his skin became less gray and returned to its normal tanned colour. She watched, fascinated, as the apex predator slowly allowed his gills to flatten down and his claws to retract to their normal length. As the muscular shark man turned to look at her, she watched as his eyes cleared and returned to their normal state – turning back to dark green.

"Well done Buttercup." She heard her father praise her gentle as he slowly came closer to the pair, stopping and sinking down into a crouch in front of the hybrid. "I don't understand." She admitted as she sent him a sideways glance. "There's no way he can understand me, right?"

"He might, they are a very intelligent species after all – but he also might be going off the tone of your voice." Her father chuckled as he reached into his bag and pulled out a small flashlight. "It also helps that you're a female. He's probably acting aggressive towards me since I'm a male. They're very territorial, and judging from the scars on our friend here, he's aggressively so."

"Great." Buttercup muttered as the attractive hybrid turned his attention back onto the older man and let a low guttural rumble to echo out of his throat, as his gills flared up slightly. "Dad-"

"It's fine hun, he's just showing off. He can growl as much as he likes as long as he doesn't take my arm off." Her father laughed as he shined the small flashlight in the shark's eyes, testing his basic responses. Buttercup couldn't help but roll her eyes at her father's off-brand humor. There was something about research scientist's, and their lack of fear or potential death that she had to admire, but she still didn't move from her spot next to the shark, just in case the hybrid changed his mind about allowing the older man to look him over.

After a few tense minutes and several other tests, the older man nodded contently and slowly sat back, satisfied. "Well, that's all of the tests I can do right now."

"So…" she wrung her hands. "Is he going to be okay, or-?"

Her father laughed as he stood up. "Good news, he'll be just fine. His basic responses are normal so I don't think there's any internal damage, he's just lightly concussed. All he needs to do is rest for a little while and he'll be good to go back into the sea. We'll just hang out here and keep an eye on him until he's ready to go."

"Yeah, about that." Buttercup muttered as she caught the sultry look the shark man was giving her again. "I don't think he's in much of a rush to go anywhere."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, he's been talking… a lot. To me. I have no idea what he's saying exactly, but he keeps giving me these weird looks-"

"He's been talking to you?" her father's eyes lit up excitedly. "This will be a wonderful time for me to practice my Merish! The ones we have back at the lab aren't particularly chatty – not that I blame them really – but I've always wanted to test if I was fluent enough in their language to hold a conversation with them. Let's see if he can understand me-"

Buttercup watched, amused, as her father dropped back down and hesitantly scooted closer to the shark man, who at this point, had stopped growling and looked almost confused at the older man's apparent lack of fear.

"Barda. Tone grara John. Vos mana pass?" She almost laughed at the look of shock that passed over the shark man's face before he quickly recovered and began to speak lowly.

"Tone gara Brurutus… morro Butch."

Buttercup watched as her father turned to her with an ecstatic expression. "He says we can call him Butch… I can't believe I'm having an actual conversation with a Merish denizen!"

"Ask him what he's doing so close to shore." Buttercup pressed him, running a hand through her salty hair, as she straightened out her legs, which were becoming cramped from sitting for so long.

Her father returned to conversing with the shark – no, Butch, she reminded herself – who had visibly relaxed at this point, through he was still shooting her sly glances while speaking to her father. The longer the two spoke however, the more Buttercup noticed the smile leaving her father's face, and his lips pulling into a concerned frown.

"Ah, well." Her father coughed after a momentary lull in the conversation. "It's as I thought, he's here to breed. Normally his kind in particular stay out in the deep sea, but once a year or so, they'll migrate to shallow waters to find a mate… which is what our friend here was doing before you both collided into each other."

"Okay, and?" Buttercup pressed before she suddenly felt a clawed hand ensnare her wrist and found herself being gently tugged over towards Butch, who pressed his forehead against hers, humming contently in the back of his throat.

"See what I mean? He keeps doing stuff like this. I have no idea what he wants!" Buttercup protested as she tried to keep some space in-between them, only to see her poor father looking mildly horrified. "Dad, what does he want?"

"He… ah well, he appears… to have taken an interest in you." John managed to spit out weakly as he gazed at the situation unfolding in front of him.

The raven-haired woman blinked up at him, stunned and at a loss for words as the shark man continued to try and cuddle with her. Finally, once his words had sunk in enough, she let out a barking laugh.

"Pardon me?"

"He… from what I gather, has mistaken you for a female of his species… a very small female that doesn't speak his tongue… but he thinks you are the same species as him none the less. I can only imagine that it's partly due to him being concussed, and your wetsuit probably doesn't help things." He pointed at her full-body black wetsuit that had long since dried out in the warm evening air.

She tore her eyes off of her father and looked at the grinning man still holding her wrist captive. Well, that would certainly explain his earlier, more touchy actions-

Realization about what her father was implying washed over her, much like the wave that had knocked her into this mess in the first place, and she looked down at the clawed hand holding onto her gently, but firmly, before looking back up at its owner, and she felt herself break out into a cold sweat.

This… man, thought she was like him. It was his breeding season and the only reason why he was so close to shore in the first place was to look for a female. That meant he wanted to fu-

"Oh no." she panicked lightly, as she gently peeled his clawed fingers off of her wrist, watching as his grin fell at her actions. "You have the wrong idea, I'm not a Merperson- here look-"

She quickly stood up on both legs in front of him and unzipped her wetsuit, peeling it off of her to expose her bathing suit and her tanned skin and toned legs underneath.

She shot the stunned man an apologetic look as she tossed her wetsuit behind her with her surfboard. "Sorry mate, better luck next time."

The sultry grin slid off of Butch's face at her reveal, and he narrowed his eyes at her legs before letting out a long-winded sigh as he slapped his powerful tail against the sand. He eyed her thoughtfully for another minute before rolling his eyes. Before anyone could move, Butch's whole body clenched, every muscle in his body contracting violently like he had been shocked with a thousand volts of electricity.

Buttercup stared in shock as a painful groan hissed out of the dark-haired man's mouth, and his tail twitched and jerked sporadically, before suddenly splitting down the middle, forming two sections, much to Buttercup's horror and John's amazement.

"Dad?! What the fuck is he doing?" Buttercup croaked as she backed up, too terrified by the sudden change to think. "I don't know! I've never seen anything like this!" John admitted. "I knew I should have brought my notes and my camera, I guarantee that no other researcher has ever seen this before-"

"Not a good time dad."

"Right."

Both watched flabbergasted, as Butch's ragged breathing evened out and slowed. The two halves of his tail stopped wriggling and solidified as they began to morph into different shapes. The black skin of his tail began to lighten until the matched the tanned skin on his torso, and the ends of the tail began to slowly turn into feet as the bones in his lower half shifted themselves into position.

It was almost like watching a B-rated horror movie with very impressive special effects. The transformation was happening slowly, but also moving fast enough that she couldn't begin to describe it if she was asked.

The large dorsal fin on his back folded down and became a black stripe running down the length of his spine and the gills on either side of his body closed themselves but didn't fade, giving him odd ridges on his neck and ribs. His body continued to twist and shift until there was no Merperson before them.

Butch slowly looked up at them and shot them the widest shit-eating grin that she had ever seen as he slowly pushed himself up onto both of his powerful arms and-

"Holy shit."

Had it been under normal circumstances, Buttercup would have choked at hearing her father curse, considering it was probably the first time in her twenty-four years of existence that she had ever heard the older man utter a swear – but she couldn't bring herself to care.

Standing (abet shakily) in front of her, was a very large, very naked, seemly human man.

"What the fuck." Buttercup breathed, hardly believing what she was seeing. Looking at him, she could tell that he still wasn't completely human. He still had far too many teeth in his mouth to be considered normal, not to mention that he hadn't lost the sharp black claws from before. The scars that had adorned his tail had situated themselves in the same spots on his legs as they had been on his tail, and his eyes were still a few shades too dark to be a regular human's.

But there was no denying that he could pass for human… despite the fact that he seemed to be closer to eight feet, and was completely covered in rippling muscle from head to his newly formed feet-

Buttercup's eyes shot right back up to meet Butch's amused ones, cursing herself inwardly as she felt heat dance across her cheeks, as he shot her a knowing grin.

Oh dear god she couldn't look any lower.

"They've evolved as a species… again." Her dad breathed, clearly delighted and not bothered by the man's nudity at all, as Buttercup struggled to maintain eye contact with the massive man in front of her and not let her gaze drop below his chest.

"You've never seen this before?" Buttercup muttered as her dad mutely shook his head. "This is a first… I wonder if they can all do that, or if it's only certain species… my god, what if they're living among us?"

Butch let out a snicker as he took in their baffled expressions before turning his attention solely on Buttercup. A wicked glint entered his eyes and suddenly, she knew exactly what he had in mind.

"Vore tore mana, Buttercup."

Had it been under different circumstances, the raven-haired woman would have been impressed that the Merperson had picked up on her name so quickly, since she couldn't remember her giving it to him, but she didn't need to speak Merish to understand what he was saying. The look he was giving her said it all.

She felt her dad nudge her shoulder urgently, but she didn't dare take her eyes off of the massive man looming over her. "I would run if I were you." He whispered urgently. "He said he wants to-"

"I got it. How fast do you think he can move." She whispered harshly, taking a step back as Butch slowly began to lower himself into a crouch – dark green never leaving her lime ones.

"I don't know, but you shouldn't stick around to find out. He'll probably kill me if I try and stop him-"

Buttercup took off running without another word.

With a bellow of delight, the newly morphed Merperson flung himself past the older man and gave chase to the fleeing surfer, half hobbling, half sprinting after her. As she bolted down the beach towards where she had parked her car, Buttercup thanked whatever god was watching this train wreck unfold, that the normally packed beach was empty for once. There was no way she could explain to onlookers why a naked giant yelling gibberish was chasing after her.

"Tov vorous mage damana puor gerus Buttercup!"

"Whatever you said, no! This is not how you attract a woman here! This is called harassment- God, get that thing away from me!"

John stared after the pair in bewildered amazement, as they ran down the beach; quickly becoming black shapes in the distance against the sand. It was incredible really, just how fast the shark hybrid was running, despite only having just formed actual legs not five minutes earlier. He had known for years that they were a highly adaptive species, but he never could have dreamed of just how evolved they truly were…

The older scientist knew that realistically he should be running after them and getting his daughter as far away from this newly evolved predator as he could, but all he could do was stare after the pair; still in shock from what he had just witnessed – that and he knew that his middle daughter could take care of herself – even if it was against this strange, naked, not-quite-human… man.

Still in shock, he managed to pull his phone out from his pocket and hit the call button for the lab, where he knew that several of his colleges were still working.

The phone rang a few times before one of his lab assistants picked up the phone. "Hey Professor, what can I do for you?"

"I'm going to be coming back to the lab and working late for the next couple of weeks or so." John rubbed his temples, still in disbelieve. "Get the rest of the team together and tell them to scrap any of the current Merish evolutionary projections we have. You would not believe what I just saw."

FIN


Authors note: Does our newly evolved shark Butch get the girl in the end? I'll let you decide what kind of hijinks they get into.

*I'm not translating a single word our shark man is saying because it is filthy. He's not thirsty. He's hungry.