Okay, here we go, let the fruit throwing begin. or you could just stare in awe at the fact that something like this could be written, enjoy the blasphemy.

Once a Mermaid:

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The water in the cave lapped gently against the stones separating the ocean and the hidden beach. Charlotte was struck with a mild sense of déjà vu, a hole in the roof of the cave let light in directly above the shallows of the inlet, a large hole in the wall led off some where deeper in the cave and the sand formed a sort of crescent around the water, saved from further erosion by a lining of large, smooth rocks.

There were differences of course, this cave was a cave, not the hollowed out form of a dead volcano, the opening to the ocean was much larger then the Mako island moon pool, you could quite comfortably fit a boat full of four and their over night gear through the tunnelling entrance, in fact they had.

Mindy had convinced her twin brother Chris, who looked nothing like her, to lend them his small boat for the night. Of course her brother had a condition: he either stayed with them, and his boat, or he dropped them off and came back for them the following morning. The girls had opted for the second option.

Once Chris had left, after cautioning his 'little' sister and her friends, the trio of girls had stripped down to their bikini's and jumped into the water. The splash fight had the water over the rocks and dampening the sand. Luckily the food and drinks were untouched. At one point Mindy had jumped out of the water to grab a portable C.D. player. Soon the girls were listening to music and eating timtams as they lazed in the shallowest waters of the cave.

Charlotte hummed in pleasure, letting her head rest on the rock behind her.

"You sound happy," Mindy reached over and poked her gently in the side. Charlotte swatted at her hand half-heartedly.

"I am happy, for the first time in a long time." Charlotte lifted a leg out of the water and wriggled her toes. "I can live with legs." Charlotte let her leg drop and the resulting splash stared another water fight which stopped Becky from asking about Charlotte's odd leg comment.

The girls lay on their sleeping bags talking quietly. The sound of the waves was soothing and the three were drowsy. They had changed out of their bikinis earlier and now Charlotte and Becky were in their night gowns while Mindy wore only her panties and a t-shirt. According to Becky, Mindy had stared to wear the attire to bed three years ago, since then she hadn't once had to worry about her brother coming into her room to wake her up early.

The three girls lay in a circle around a campfire that warmed them and dried their swim wear.

"Moon should be up soon," Becky suddenly mentioned. Mindy sat up with a jolt clapping her hands together loudly.

"Hey I know what we should do!" Charlotte and Becky shared a very worried look. "Moonlight skinny dipping! Come on it'll be fun." Before the other two could protest Mindy was already topless and half way to the water. Becky and Charlotte shared another look, they were alone, it wasn't like any one else would know. Throwing caution and embarrassment to the wind they stripped off and joined Mindy in the water. Their giggles echoed through the cave as the moon moved closer to the opening in the ceiling. The girls swum around a bit before congregating in the water below the hole.

In days to come Charlotte would tell herself she should have known better, she would tell herself that she should have known this would happen when in truth she couldn't have known.

Moonlight spilled through the hole and lit the water around them, slowly at first bubbles began to rise. Shock was plastered all across Charlotte's face as the bubbles sped up and glimmers began to rise. In the back of her head she noticed the difference in colour, in The Mako island moon pool the glimmering lights were golden; in this moon pool the lights were a purple-copper colour.

The other two girls looked around in awe as a tear slipped down Charlotte's cheek. Mindy and Becky were going to gain what she had lost, but Charlotte some how wasn't jealous. Soon the bubbling died down and the girls got out of the water. With a sigh Charlotte spoke as they dried themselves off.

"They're something you two should be aware of. In a little while," Charlotte took another breath to steady herself. "What just happened has changed something, changed you both, you will never be the same again. The only way to reverse what just happened won't occur for another fifty years." While she spoke Charlotte didn't look at the others. Carefully she got dressed again and began to towel her hair dry.

"Charlotte?" Charlotte looked up, both Mindy and Becky we dressed again and were also towelling their hair. Charlotte sat and the others followed her lead. Mindy produced another bag of chocolate and Charlotte related to them her story, with some editing to leave out the trio from the gold coast.

"Wow, you were a psycho-super-mermaid… You're all better now right?" Mindy was leaning in close to Charlotte, disbelief in her eyes.

"Yeah, I got pretty crazy, but I am not crazy anymore and I'm working on my faults. I don't think it was meant to be, I mean what kind of mermaid is scared of dolphins?" Charlotte blushed as she revealed her fear to the girls, it still embarrassed her. Becky hugged Charlotte around the shoulders.

"It's okay, your Dolphin-phobia is just a fault that needs work, and we'll help; It might not even be as bad as you think, you did say you were already coming of the rails when your confrontation with the dolphin happened." Mindy nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, we'll help, it's just a pity you're not a mermaid again; it would make meetings with dolphins easier. Are you sure there's no way to get your old powers back?" This time it was Charlotte who was nodding.

"Positive, those powers are gone for good, which is probably a good thing since I used them for evil." Mindy put her arm around Charlotte as well turning the hug into a group affair. "Well mermaid or not I'd still be happy to help you two figure out your powers, and we'll need to come up with a contingency plan for the night of the full moon."

"What for, what's wrong with full moons?" Becky asked.

"Well, now that you're mermaids you can't look at the full moon or it will send you a little, well what it sends you depends on the alignment of planets, the affects of the full moon only lasts from the time you see it til the time it sets. The moon can make you turn into a siren for the night, or it could make you totally carefree, like flash your tail to everyone carefree, or it could send you into a really deep depression and make your powers go haywire and nearly kill anyone who gets close to you." Mindy and Becky gaped at Charlotte, they were still trying to process all the things she'd already told them now this…

"This is too much; I mean just too much, there's no way…" Becky stood up and began to pace. She rubbed her hands over her face as she walked back and forth. "Okay so, hypothetically the reaction in the water turned us into mermaids with special powers, but at the moment, past experience excluded, it's just a theory, that means-"

"We have to test it!" Mindy cut Becky off mid sentence, her enthusiasm bubbling over. The two girls grabbed Charlotte and hauled her to her feet pulling her towards the water. "You're coming in too, you've been through this and we need your support in this matter." Neither of them payed any attention to Charlotte's meek protests finally all three of them were in the water.

"So," Becky began, "Ten seconds." Charlotte nodded and a moment later she felt a familiar tingle as the three of them turned first to water then into mermaids. With a flop the fell backwards and landed in the shallows with a splash. All three gaped at the tails were their legs had been.

"Cute top," Mindy's comment broke the stunned silence and the trio began to babble at the same time. After a few minutes they calmed down.

"I thought you said you couldn't become a mermaid again." Becky peered curiously at Charlotte.

"I can't, I mean I couldn't, I shouldn't… I don't understand." Charlotte took a deep calming breath. "There are some differences, I guess, the style of the tail and the top are the same, but the colour is different, my old tail was gold, not this coppery purple colour. The sparkles!" in the back of her mind something seemed to snap into place, the glimmering lights that had floated into the sky. "they were a different colour, and this is a different moon pool, we didn't know there was another neither did my grandmother and her friends, maybe the alignment only take away the powers you have, I mean it's possible that I can never become a gold tailed mermaid again but this is… I mean, maybe you can't re-have powers but you can get different ones from another moon pool."

Mindy poked Charlotte in the side. "So it's like driving a car, they took away your old car and you can never drive that one again but you can get a new car?" Charlotte shrugged.

"I have a new, different tail so yeah I guess so; I think that's what I was trying to say. I wonder if this means different powers as well. I think I'm going to faint or something."

"Then I suggest breathing," Becky said, "And we really need to get our legs back before Chris the evil twin returns." The three mermaids dragged themselves from the water and over to the fire.

"Hey, if the powers from this moon pool are different from the other moon pool what do you think they'll be?" Mindy asked as she opened yet another bag of food. Charlotte shook her head.

"I have no idea, but I think that what ever they are we'll have to be careful." Charlotte looked from Mindy to Becky. Becky nodded in agreement.

"Have to be careful about what we eat too, Mindy you eat any more and you'll be a whale sized mermaid." Mindy and Charlotte gapped at Becky who stuck her tongue out. "Seriously you shouldn't eat so much, as your best friend it's my duty to stop you from stuffing your face til your sick."

"You want my snacks." Mindy glared at Becky.

"Heck yes, now give." The three girls burst into laughter and the snacks were shared around.

well that was... chapter three

feel free to reveiw and tell me what you think of this evil work of blasphemy and mermaids...

oh come on some one had to do it eventually.