Hey guys :) Sorry for the slow update, I'll do better in the future! Thanks so much for everyone who reads and reviews, I really appreciate it. I'd love to suggest that you guys check out my friend Jack Cross's fanfic 'H2O: The Battle of Mako.' It's a great story! :) I hope everyone is doing well! Cheers!
"What did I miss?" Will asked as he burst into the shed. Everyone looked up at him silently
The whole gang, Lewis, Zane, Will, Rikki, Bella, and Cleo, all stood around the table looking at the tiny silver ring. The stone had returned to a beautiful blue color, but no one wanted to touch it just yet.
"Ok." Lewis was the one who spoke up. "This is what we're doing."
Lewis swiftly filled the same glass cup up with water and dropped the ring into it.
"The first rule of being a scientist is to make sure your results can be replicated." He said in a monotone voice. "So we do the same thing again and see if the same thing happens."
"Whoa." Zane took a step back. "You are NOT putting any of that ring water on me." He crossed his arms over his chest.
"Fine. Will?" Lewis looked to the tall blonde expectantly.
"Ah, I guess I'll do it." Will said hesitantly. He looked to the three mermaids. "But if I change I'll expect you girls to dry me off immediately."
"Of course." Cleo nodded.
"Alright, we have the human, which mermaid wants to be splashed?" Lewis asked as he observed the ring. The stone had begun to turn to black.
"Me." Bella said confidently. "Splash me again. I want to support Will." She wound her fingers in his and smiled up at him.
"Support away." Lewis said distractedly. The stone in the ring was now a jet black color and tiny bubbles had appeared on the surface, just like before. "Ready?"
"Yes." Will said nervously. "How should we do this, exactly?"
"Stand here." Bella took him by the arm and led him to the center of the room, away from anything he might hurt himself on if he fell to the floor. "Remember," She whispered. "We don't even know that anything will happen."
Will nodded, unconvinced. "I'm seriously nervous." He whispered to Bella as Lewis walked over with the water.
"No worries." Bella murmured back. She gave Will a quick kiss on the cheek before looking up. "We're ready." She said firmly. "Let's figure this out."
"Alright." Lewis carefully fished the ring out of the cup and dried it off on a hand towel. He held it out to Bella.
Bella took the ring and shoved it onto her finger as Will closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Lewis used his tongs to flick water over the both of them. Barely ten seconds later they both fell to the floor.
"Holy crap!" Will's eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked at the fin that had replaced his legs. He looked to his girlfriend in a panic. "Bella! Fix it!"
"It's ok, it's ok." Rikki said as she hurried over to where Will laid on the floor. She held one hand over the blue fin and quickly dried it off. "All fixed."
"Thank goodness." Will said breathlessly as he hugged his knees to his chest. "That was way too weird."
"I'll say." Rikki said in an amazed voice as she picked examined Bella's hand. She slid the ring off of her friend's hand and held it up to her face. "So this ring does what exactly?" She looked to Lewis expectantly. "Turns boys into mermaids?"
"And mermaids into humans?" Cleo added.
"That doesn't make any sense." Bella said, puzzled. "I was wearing the ring and I turned into a mermaid."
"Hey Rikki," Lewis called. "What color is the stone? In the middle of the ring?"
"It's... changing back to blue, why?" Rikki turned the ring over in her hand.
"Because it was black when Bella put it on." Lewis grabbed a bottle of water off the counter and walked briskly over to Rikki. "Is it back to it's normal color?
Rikki nodded. "I think so."
Put the ring on." Lewis said anxiously.
"Ok..." Rikki put it on and held her hand out. "It's a little bit bulky for my taste-"
Lewis dumped the water over Rikki's head without pause and then stepped back to watch.
"Lewis!" Rikki brushed water off of her skin. "What are you thinking?" She sat down quickly on the floor so that she wouldn't hurt herself when she fell. She waited for several seconds but nothing happened. "Wait..." Rikki spoke slowly. She hadn't changed.
"Ha! Just what I thought!" Lewis practically skipped over to her. "Now take the ring off."
Rikki obeyed. The second the ring left her finger her legs transformed into a long golden fin.
"Ok." Lewis grabbed the ring from Rikki. He was completely lost in scientist-land as he rambled. He paced back and forth, speaking mostly to himself. "So we've found that when a mermaid puts the ring on it keeps her a human even when she gets wet. As long as the stone is blue at the time." Lewis continued pacing. "We soaked the ring in a container of water for a period of time and the stone in the center of the ring turned black. Then the water the ring had been soaking in managed to turn Zane into a mermaid- uh, merman and Bella turned into a mermaid. Because the stone was BLACK." Lewis spoke faster and faster. "And the same thing happened to Will and Bella. But after we waited a bit the ring turned blue again and THEN it kept Rikki human when I splashed her with water! And then she took the ring off and transformed! This ring is seriously cool, I mean-"
"LEWIS." Cleo placed her hands firmly on his shoulders, stopping him. "Slow down. At least take a breath. We didn't follow any of that."
Lewis looked around the room. Everyone was staring at him with blank expressions on their faces. "Ah, sorry guys." He said sheepishly.
"Let's just slow all of that down." Cleo guided Lewis gently to the table and sat him in a chair. She placed a notebook and pencil in front of him. "Now start again. Slowly."
Lewis did just that. He laid out what they had learned about the ring. "So we know that somehow the water the ring had soaked in had been, I don't know, contaminated by the powers of the ring, and it affected Zane inversely."
"Meaning..." Zane raised his eyebrows.
"Watch." Lewis picked up the ring and held it out to the group. "What color is the stone now?"
"Blue..." Rikki said slowly.
"Ok." Lewis took a long, deep breath and slid the ring onto his finger.
"Nothing's happened." Cleo furrowed her brow."
"Poor that cup of water on my arm." Lewis pointed to a blue glass on the end of the counter.
Cleo obeyed, gently pouring the cool water over her boyfriend's arm. Barely ten seconds later Lewis fell to the floor. The rest of the group huddled around him, looking down at where he had fallen. Sure enough, a long blue tail had replaced his legs. Will and Zane took an instinctive step away from the fin.
Lewis quickly removed the ring, his hands shaking. His legs immediately returned. He jumped up, holding the ring over his head. "We have a magic ring!"
The words echoed through the room as everyone stared at Lewis with gaping open mouths.
"Thanks for stating the obvious." Rikki rolled her eyes slightly as she took the ring from him. "But where did it come from?"
"And more importantly, just what can it do?" Bella said nervously.
"I'll need to run some tests on it." Lewis said as he scribbled furiously onto the paper in front of him.
"Tests?" Rikki said with a laugh. "Let us run the tests, Lewis. We're the ones it was intended for." She paced slowly. "Do you know how long it's been since I've been able to walk along the beach with my feet in the surf?"
"And I could help Will train at the pool without having to hide from Sophie." Bella said excitedly.
"My Dad's been begging me to go out with him on his fishing boat. I could actually go!" Cleo said happily.
The girls each began babbling with giddiness as they started planning out all of the things they could do with the help of the silver ring. Suddenly all of the activities they'd had to avoid over the years seemed like they might be possible again, and the girls were more than a little hopeful.
"Listen, guys." Lewis held his hands up to get everyone's attention. "I- ok, we really do need to do some tests before you guys go out in public with the ring. We don't know how it works. Yes, it keeps you human, but for how long? You don't need to go changing into a mermaid in the middle of the beach."
"Lewis is right." Cleo said loyally. "We need to make sure we know exactly what the ring does before we try to wear it in public."
"I guess so." Rikki said reluctantly. "But I really want to wear it sunbathing. On the beach. And in the cafe! It will be so much easier at work if I don't have to stress getting wet!"
"And you can." Lewis said calmly. "After I run a few more tests."
Rikki backed up reluctantly and walked over to Zane, who put one arm around her shoulders. "We should head back to the cafe." She said as she checked the time.
"Yes we should." Zane said, a little too eagerly. He had had a fin today, and he hadn't liked it one bit. He was definitely ready to get out of there and get back to his office where everything made sense. He guided Rikki towards the door.
"Let me know what you come up with, Lewis!" Rikki called over her shoulder as the couple walked out of the shed.
"You got it." Lewis said absently and he continued writing.
"Oh shoot." Will looked at his watch. "Sophie expected me at the training pool twenty minutes ago. I've got to get going."
"Didn't you already train today?" Bella caught Will by the hand before he ran out the door.
"For two hours." Will spoke quickly. "But Sophie is starting me on training at three different intervals during the day. She says it will build my stamina more effectively. So I've got to get going!" Will pecked Bella on the cheek before running out the door.
"Sophie is such a training dragon." Bella muttered.
"Maybe you can go with him soon." Cleo said with a grin. "Once we figure out just what this ring is about."
Lewis, Cleo and Bella worked for hours testing the ring. Lewis used the girls and himself as guinea pigs for his experiments. He wrote down everything he observed.
1. When the stone is blue, the ring keeps the girls from turning into mermaids. If a human puts on the ring when the stone is blue nothing happens, but if that human gets wet he immediately turns into a merman.
2. Once the stone turns black, it no longer keeps the mermaid from growing her tail. The black stone seems to have no effect on humans.
3. If the rings soaks for a long enough period of time in (Lewis found) less than one gallon of water, that water takes on the properties of the ring. Thus, Lewis was changed when he touched the water the ring had soaked in.
4. Once the stone in the middle of the ring turned black, it's power over the mermaids wore off. They became mermaids once again, even if they were wearing the gem.
The most important thing the group found out was that the amount of time it took for the stone to turn from blue to black was not consistent. Sometimes the stone changed after a few minutes, sometimes it took the better part of an hour. If there was a way to predict the amount of time it would take for the stone to change, Lewis couldn't figure out what it was.
Eventually the three became exhausted. Lewis set the ring in a small box and tucked it into his bag to head home.
It was late that night when a familiar blonde crept into Lewis's room. Lewis lay flat on his back, snoring loudly. He never heard a sound as the blonde pulled the box from his bag and ran off into the night.