Authors Note:

Glad to see so many of you are enjoying this so far. Some of you have guessed that I'm planning something big. Well your all part right. I've got several major things in the works for this one and it's time for one of them to be moved forwards. So please enjoy.

Chapter 4:

Hurricane

"Last chance to turn back from this crazy, insane, suicidal idea and avoid this whole mess." I said looking up at the leading edge of the clouds just starting to circle over the cone of the volcano crater leading down to the moon pool.

"We can't back out now. We have to at least try." Cleo answered me.

"Just checking." I said.

The last four days had been hectic. The park had been closed to the public and it had been all hands on deck to get the animals secure or ready for safe transport inland. Cleo and I had worked as hard as anyone else even on tasks that risked exposure. We'd felt in light of the storm bearing down on us keeping our secret was the least of our worries. The others had agreed.

We'd done all we could to secure the park, and then turned our attention to others. We'd helped Will completely pack up everything from the boat house. Being right on the water there would be no way it would survive the storm. He'd even helped out by packing up some of mine and Bella's belongings that we wanted to save. Our apartment building was too large to shore up against the coming storm.

We'd been given extra time when the storm got caught up on adverse wind currents that locked it in place for a day. The down side was that kept it out over open water for longer and increased it's force. It had also given Cleo an idea. She wanted to use her wind control powers to accomplish something similar while the storm was over Mako. The fact that we were here spoke to how convincing she had been.

So to give us the best chance at this we'd all dug in on as much research as we could in the last few days. Most of it done in place of sleep. Now we were ready to try. I still harbored the opinion that playing baseball with a comet was one thing, but messing with the raw forces of nature was something else entirely. I was here simple because I refused to let my sisters to do this alone. No matter how insane I held this plan to be.

"OK. It's time to start I said. Cleo. Rikki. You're up first." I ordered as I started to draw in my power and send it out to them, amplifying their ability's. I noticed something was a bit off this time. There was extra power coming in from outside me that normally wasn't there. I chocked it up to tonight being a full moon and the one night when our powers would be at a peak.

In truth I wasn't gonna complain about the extra boost. We'd need all the extra we could get. I sent out the power to Cleo and Rikki and they got started. Rikki was going to attempt to heat as much air as possible to create a pillar of high pressure air that would hopefully act like a bouncer in a pinball machine. Cleo was going to try and move the air in such a way as to keep it bouncing around over Mako as long as possible.

If that failed Emma would attempt to cool as much of the air in the storm as possible forcing it to rain faster and use up it's store of water quicker. Bella would attempt to assist by turning as much of the water in the storm to gel and making it too heavy to stay in the upper atmosphere. My job was to give them as much extra power as I could.

I know what you're thinking. We had to be completely insane to even try this. As you saw I agree with you, but I don't abandon my friends either. So I did my job, and I didn't let my doubts interfere.

Rikki let out a sharp hiss. "It's not working. It's too strong. I can't get enough air heated before the storm rips it apart."

"I can't hold the wind either. It's just moving to fast up there to get a grip on." Cleo said.

"Emma. Bella. Your up. See if you can't slow it down a bit." I said and drew in even more power. I still didn't fully understand where it came from but we needed all I could find.

They went to work. I could see them grimace every now and again. Then finally they let out a growl that would do a jungle cat proud and seemed to focus even harder.

"It's not working." Emma said. "The water's moved on before I can get it cold enough to fall."

"I'm not having any better luck," Bella said. "I can't get enough of it gelled before it get's ripped away."

I didn't realize how long we'd been at it already until the rain started to let up.

"Hey it's starting to work." Rikki called out.

"No. It's not that." I corrected her. "It's the calm at the eye of the storm. We haven't managed to slow it in the slightest."

They all groaned. They'd made a good effort of it, but we just weren't up to countering a storm of this magnitude. Or so I thought as Rikki pulled a plan B out of thin air.

"Let's try and tether it." She called out.

"How?" Emma asked.

"A water tentacle. Like what we used on the comet. Right up into the eye of this thing anchoring it in place." She answered.

Before I could protest that that idea was even more insane then what we'd already tried they got started. I cursed silently in my head and drew in all the power I could find, and hung on for the ride. I had a feeling we'd all live to regret this. That is if we lived at all.

With the added powers from Emma and myself they got the water tentacle formed just as the eye passed directly overhead. They launched it up right into the heart of the storm and latched it to the dead center. I could feel it when they made contact, could feel it when the storm shuddered in place, and feel it when something we'd never expected happened. The storm came barreling back down right on top of us.

It hit us hard. I could hear the others scream as the sheer force of it tried to rip them apart. I could feel it when they started to waiver and began to loose their grip on the water. I did the only thing I could think of to save them. I pulled all the power of the storm to me and sent it out into the rocks in the moon pool. At the same time I found I could grab power from here in the cave itself.

As I did I could swear I felt the power of the storm mixing with the power of the moon pool's cave and get stronger. I sent that back to the others and they got a firm grip on the water and then started to increase the power in it. That in turn drew even more of the storm down on us, which I fed into the pool, which fed on it and got stronger, and I sent all that back to them and they increased the power in the water. It was a deadly spiral worsened by the rising moon increasing the power in the pool as well. I wanted to warn them to just hold it stable but it was taking all my concentration to just control both the power of the storm and the power in the pool. I couldn't spare anything to let them know they were only making things worse.

Eventually the balance broke as I'd known it would have to. It happened just at the moon came to a peak directly overhead. The power from the moon and the storm mixed and passed through me and into the cave walls. I felt a massive surge from in the pool, more then ten times what I was already handling, and I had no choice but to send it on to the others or be ripped apart by it myself. They slammed it into the tentacle and I felt it when the storm shuddered again, and then came roaring down the tentacle, ripping it to shreds as it came, and slammed right into us.

It centered on me, I'd been focusing the power, and slammed me straight down into the pool. In the few seconds before I hit the bottom I felt it backlash out from me and sent a thank you to anyone that might be listening that the others had been behind me. If they were lucky they'd be shot down the underwater cave entrance and out into open water. I wouldn't be so lucky. I felt myself hit the bottom of the pool with so much force that I blacked out instantly.

I drifted. For how long I don't know. Time seamed a meaningless concept in this sea of darkness. I heard soundless echos and felt ghostly ripples. And I drifted.

Eventually the echos gained sound and the ripples seemed to have direction. I followed them. As I got closer I could make out words and voices. They caused the ripples. They were the echoes. Please...leave... Laura! It made no sense. So I moved closer.

As I did I could determine that there was more then one voice. They still sounded far away, always echoing in the stillness. Laura! Please don't... Can't loose...Open... eyes. Laura. I came to a stop. I knew if I continued on to where the voices came from I'd know pain and agony. And so I drifted more.

Breath... have to... Laura...please! I finally placed the voices. They belonged to my sisters. My second family. As much as I wanted to drift, to forget the pain and just drift, I knew I couldn't leave them. I steeled myself and pushed forward into the pain and the agony that came with it.

I groaned as I started to come too. It felt like my body was one huge bruise. The moment the sound escaped me I felt arms wrap around me, from several people, and hold me tight.

"Oh thank God!" One of them said. I couldn't place who, I was still a bit out of it, but regardless I'd never know any of them to be very religious.

"Can't. Breath." I gasped out and they quickly loosened their grip on me.

"We were so scared. Don't ever do that to us again." I was told.

I peeled open my eyes slowly. "Did any of you get the number of that bus that hit me?"

I got punched in the shoulder and grunted. I barely noticed it amongst all the other pain I was currently in.

"Don't joke. We thought you were dead." Rikki, I could now place her voice. Seeing her helped too. I noticed she was crying. Though it was hard to tell as we were outside in the rain. I could feel the sand under my tail, which explained why I couldn't feel my toes, so I assumed we were on the beach.

"Sorry." I mumbled. "What are we doing out here?"

"After whatever happened to rip apart the water tentacle we got shot out of the moon pool." Cleo explained. "You weren't with us at first and we panicked. Then you came out of the cave, limp and unresponsive. We dragged you to shore and we've been here since."

I shifted my eyes to the sky. It was far to bright to still be night. "How long was I out?"

"It's about mid-day now." Emma said.

"And the storm?" I asked.

"Gone. Or rather it's no worse now then an ordinary summer storm." Bella said.

"Well at least the risk paid off. I'd be quite upset otherwise." I said.

"I want to know what exactly did happen though. I though everything was going well and then everything fell apart in an instant." Cleo said.

I explained to them, pausing now and then to rest, about the storm, the pool, the moon, how I channeled the power away from them, and how it all looped back into itself and eventually hit a tipping point. "And if I hadn't we'd all be dead now for sure."

"We're so sorry. We didn't know that we were just making it worse. We though it was working and you didn't answer us." Cleo said.

"I wasn't even aware you were asking me anything. I had to stay focused on what I was doing or it would have ripped into all of you." I sighed. "I held on even there at the end. I knew it would all come for me, but it was the only thing I could think of to do to save you guys. I figured since my power works by drawing in, concentrating, and sending back out I'd stand the best chance of surviving that kind of power surge."

"You almost didn't." Rikki yelled at me. A sure sign she was either mad or scared. I'd bet both this time.

"Better then all of us now floating dead underwater with no one to save us." I said.

Rikki didn't seem to be all that mollified by my answer. But before she could say anything else we heard the sound of a boat motor. I was too tired and in to much pain to turn my head and look, but I figured it didn't matter. There was nowhere for us to hide anyways.

Thankfully we didn't need to. With overlapping calls of Bella and Emma, Will and Ash ran over to where we were. Lewis wasn't far behind in his own boat calling out for Cleo and finally even Zane came running up. He held back from calling out to Rikki, but as he came into my field of view I could tell he wanted to.

"Care to tell us what kind of insanity you guys were up to that caused the sky to light up and a class 4 storm to just suddenly disappear?" He demanded of us.

"All yours guys." I said.

"What's wrong with you?" Zane asked me.

"Zane! Don't be rude." Rikki yelled at him.

"Sorry. Sorry." Zane backed off holding his hands up. "I didn't mean it like that."

They proceeded to explain. They guys interrupting them several times to ask questions. Eventually they were able to finish. Once they did Will came over to me and gently lifted me.

"Mermaid or not you need to get to a hospital now." He said as he carried me to his boat.

"Will you can't." Bella said.

"OK. Make you a deal." He offered. "If she can swim out to my boat and bring it back to shore I won't take her in."

He had us. I was in no condition to do even half that. I couldn't even lift my arms.

"At least let us get her to somewhere we can keep her dry before bringing her in." Cleo tried.

"It's OK." I called. "This is why I went through all that trouble with Denman's research. In case something like this ever happened." I could feel my strength slowly returning. "Besides remember how when we run somewhere and can barely stand after wards but we feel fine once we get into the water?"

"Yeah." They all said.

"I think we are more resilient as mermaids. Might be the only reason I did survive." I said.

They couldn't counter that. Will got me situated in his boat, and started heading back to the main land. The others all took off ahead of us. Emma, Rikki, and Cleo were going to check in at home and let their parents know they were OK. Bella would meet us at Lewis' fishing cove.

Will had Ash keep checking for cell reception the whole way back. As soon as he got a clear signal he called the emergency crew. I knew things were about to change, but I was in no condition to prevent it. I would just have to deal with it after and hope for the best. On the bright side it was just me. The others were still anonymous for the time being. It was the one bright spot this whole mess. I just hoped it would be enough.