I still own nothing,
And to this story's first reviewer,
These are definitely uncharted waters indeed.
The few minutes it took for her to speed out of the reef were a few minutes too many in Raven's opinion.
As she neared the Drop Off, she saw shapes emerging out of the darkness, one of which was very large, that was still far away to properly identify in the bad lighting, and a smaller one which her gut identified as her missing child. Relief momentarily restored her breath until the sight of a third figure caught her attention and her heart very nearly went cold as a flash of pink sparked briefly in the murky waters.
The only mer near the reef with pink sparks was Jinx, the leader of a pod rivaling them for control over the reef. She was quick and disorientating, dangerous and reckless. Wild and unpredictable. Their pods had clashed many times for their poaching of the reef, and Raven had fought personally against the Cheshire mer enough times to know that if Melvin got caught in her flares, she'd likely be stunned to death.
And what was worse, was that the large shape was circling around in a very unnerving manner, and something in her got told her that she wasn't lucky enough for it to be one of Jinx's teammates.
Rage filled Raven to her core and she felt her skin ignite red with the irritation, changing the color of her luminescence.
"Good," she thought, as the strange red patterns lit up all the way to her arms, "Let me be terrifying."
And with that she swam faster, with the burning intent and grim dedication common of a Titan heading into battle.
Another flicker of pink lit up the sea and this time the flash lasted long enough for Raven catch a glimpse of what was going on.
The large shape was a great white shark.
Jinx had positioned herself between the shark twice her size and Melvin, and she looked determined. They were both at the edge of the drop off and the shark was just farther in the Deep. Jinx sparked whenever the shark drew too close, and her stripes were constantly dancing along her skin. Despite the display, the shark seemed to be gaining confidence.
When she reached them Melvin charged into her at full force and Raven felt her rage dissolve. Her red phosphorous faded and the ends of her main tentacles lit up in their normal blue.
She gathered the girl into her arms for a hug and Melvin, knowing that she was treading thin waters, began to blubber her apologies but Raven hushed them by hugging her tighter.
When Raven released her, Melvin exclaimed excitedly, "I was trying to find Bobby and then I got lost and I thought I was a goner but then she came out of nowhere and she was showing me the way home and then he came out of nowhere and then you showed up!"
"Jinx was leading you back to the Reef?" she asked, not quite sure what to make of the statement, "are you alright?"
"Yeah, she said that the Deep was too dangerous for a kid like me and I tried to tell her that I was doing just fine but then… you know… a shark appeared and I still haven't seen Bobby, but I would have found him if it hadn't have been for that mean ol' fishface."
Raven sighed and pushed down the rant about swimming off on her own for later when everyone was home and safe again.
Instead she turned her attention back to the immediate threat after Jinx drummed a warning. The barbells dotting her abdomen were twitching and when Raven found what had caught the girl's attention Raven felt her blue lights dim.
There was another dark shape approaching from the distance.
Which meant that if things turned bad, they were going to gain a lot more attention very shortly; if they got themselves injured their bloodtrails would lead other deep sea predators right to their pods, and anything could happen in a blood frenzy such as that.
"Would you be up for a little truce Jinx?" Raven asked as she lit her body up red again.
Though Jinx's attention was still focused on the sharks, she replied "this bastard's been following us for awhile now and I didn't want to lead him into the reef. He's more of a pain in the tailfin than Robin is. And now there's two of them."
"So is that a yes?"
"It's a fuck yes," Jinx replied wholeheartedly, "And the guppy?"
Raven cast a glance at her rival and pushed Melvin behind her with a tentacle before turning to her.
"Melvin, can you make it back to the reef?"
"I think so?" she offered, her face laced with uncertainty. She had already been swimming for several hours in deep water and was quite worn out.
Raven shook her head and cast her glance to the bottom, there were enough that the girl could hide there until it was safe.
"Melvin, when Jinx and I make our moves, I want you swim to the bottom as fast as you can and hide under the rocks and in the sand until I tell you to come out again, do you understand?"
She nodded, but frowned as she caught notes of Raven's extra serious voice. She was scared, but she had absolute faith in her mentor.
Satisfied, Raven turned back to the sharks, who were circling them now.
"Jinx?"
"I heard you gillbreath, you take Dumb and I'll take Dumber."
With that as her warning, Jinx rocketed forward at the first shark and rammed into its side with her shoulder at full force. A cloud of blood puffed from the fish's gills and Jinx shook her body to keep from losing consciousness herself.
Seeing the combat start Melvin dove to the sea bed as fast as her tail could carry her.
The second shark charged towards the girl and Raven raced forward to intercept him.
Jinx popped her shoulder back into place as her shark brought itself back to face her and she rippled her stripes to keep the shark's attention from straying to the other pair.
She narrowly dodged the shark's lunge and took the opportunity to grab its dorsal fin and shocked it before it managed to throw her off.
Raven hit her shark in the middle of its descent after Melvin; she latched on, her suckers catching first, spines second, and by using every tentacle at her disposal, she forced the mouth closed.
Melvin made it to the bottom and the resulting cloud of sand told Raven that she was well hidden.
The shark she was riding however, was livid, and thrashed around wildly. The suckers along her tentacles kept her from losing her grip and a viscous snarl emanated from her throat. She began to weave her tentacles inside the shark's gills for added leverage.
The water was starting to get brighter now, and Raven could now easily make out the shark fight that Jinx was having in the early morning light.
Jinx was winning, as the shark now understood that her pink flashes were painful and threw off its equilibrium when they hit directly. She had rammed him enough that he had finally lost interest.
She let her shark swim off, hoping that the scent of blood would cause the oncoming investigators to follow it instead of harassing them.
Feeling satisfied with herself, Jinx turned to see how her rival was faring, and although she was fairly impressed with the girl's tenacity and willingness to fight a shark face first, she swam over to them and watched as Raven ripped through the shark's gills.
"The more blood you spill the more of 'em will come round in a few minutes," Jinx called after the thrashing pair.
Raven was too engrossed in her battle to reply and so Jinx switched tactics, "I know it's spawning season an all, but surely you could find someone more interested in eating you out than eating you up?"
Raven startled at that and nearly lost her grip on the giant fish as Jinx circled to the shark's tail and took hold.
"I'll pull back and you hop off?" Jinx offered with a cheeky smile.
Raven grimaced, not really wanting to let go, but nodded.
Jinx lit up and shocked the shark with several volts of pink electricity and Raven released a cloud of ink as she propelled herself backwards. The swirling colors dazed the fish greatly which allowed Raven to slip away unnoticed.
Raven swam to Jinx's side and they quickly descended to the sea floor.
"You ok?" Jinx asked, "Not missing any limbs or anything?"
"Nothing that won't grow back," Raven replied with mild amusement.
Raven turned her gaze upwards to the shark leading Jinx to follow suit. The shark made it out of the ink cloud, and was looking quite worse for wear. It circled once, and they watched it swim towards the Deep, with small rivers of red leaking from its gills.
Raven settled herself in the sand and let the tension melt off of her body and coil into the seabed. Her luminescence extinguished itself and the amount of her tentacles retreated to a more manageable number, at least by outward appearance.
Jinx rolled on the seabed, the action tickling out the stress.
"So, that was something," Jinx offered.
"Certainly something," Raven agreed.
Jinx rolled in the sand again, contorting her back as only those of the Cheshire breed could, and then flipped over on her back and looked at Raven inquisitively.
"Are you gonna be able to get that smallfry home ok?"
"We'll be fine," she replied alongside a nod before pausing, and then she cocked her head to one side and asked, "Will you get home alright?"
Jinx laughed, a loud and almost hissing sound, and then she smiled, a smile filled with sharp and pointy teeth which was common enough for carnivorous mers.
"Don't you worry your pretty little skirt about me Titan, I'm a big girl."
She winked and then closed her eyes as she nestled her tail deeper into the sand and sprawled out her arms.
Raven glanced upwards again, the sunlight filtering the sea in shades of blue now, and when she caught no signs of sharks, decided that it was time to call her little girl out of hiding.
"Melvin! It's alright now, you can come out," Raven called out across the ocean floor.
Some tail lengths away, there was a stir in the sand as Melvin pulled herself out from a small crevice she had wedged herself in. It took a little bit of wiggling, as she had wedged herself tightly, but she popped out no worse for wear.
Melvin darted forward happily and circled the two older mers before settling herself in Raven's lap with abandon.
"I can't wait to tell Timmy that I watched you fight a shark today!" she exclaimed excitedly, eagerness littered across her face, and her fins flared for emphasis.
"And I can't wait to tell you why swimming off on your own is a bad idea," Raven warned, which put a hesitant look across the girls face.
"I'm grounded aren't I?"
"Very."
The little girl sighed and Jinx flipped over.
"Well," she drawled, "Not that this hasn't been quite an adventure but I think it's time I get going. Later squirt," she offered while giving the girl's hair a friendly ruffle, "Let me know next time you're out in the Deep so that I can kick your ass before the sharks do."
Melvin giggled and Jinx looked turned her gaze from the little girl to the older one holding her, which prompted the Titan to speak.
"Thank you for the assistance."
"Yeah whatever, the HIVE Shoal will have their day yadda yadda yadda."
"I mean it," she insisted, "Melvin is alive because of you."
Jinx blushed a bit and played it off with puff of her chest and a swish of her dorsal fins.
"Just you wait, my rebelness will wear off on her, then you'll be cursing me again," she jested.
Raven offered her a crooked smile, and then scooped herself off of the sea floor. Melvin grabbed on to her shoulders and Jinx watched them ascend for a bit and then turned tail to get back to her friends.
author's note:
vampire squids dont actually have ink. just flash bomb mucus.
i'm too attached to raven having ink to change it.
no one can stop me on this matter.