Chapter 13: Mermaids vs. Elementals
"Where have you two been?" Rikki asked Cleo and Emma as they made her way towards her. Rikki closed the magazine she was reading and shoved it into her backpack. Her question was directed more towards Cleo than Emma.
"We ran into a little problem," Cleo responded before jumping into the story of the janitor's closet and almost getting caught by Charlotte and the janitor.
"Now who's the one who has to be careful?" Rikki asked with a smug smile. Cleo was about to respond when Emma's head whipped around.
"Hey, what's that?" She asked as she pointed. The three girls looked over the railing of the school to see the Jacksons and their cousin fighting some guys.
"Come on, we need to help them," Rikki said, throwing down her backpack and rushing down the stairs. Cleo and Emma exchanged looks before running after Rikki. "Oy, muffin head!" Koto turned around, temporarily letting his guard down, allowing Rikki to kick him in the chest. He skidded back a few feet, rubbing the spot as if he had been tickled with a feather.
"What're you doing here?" Riley demanded.
"We came to help," Cleo responded.
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into," she warned, keeping an eye on Koto incase he used the opportunity to attack her. "You really don't."
"When do we ever?" Emma questioned, before ducking when a punch was thrown her way. In instinct, she slammed her palm against the guy's chest. She and Riley watched in amazement as his movement started to slow down.
"What are you doing to him?" Riley asked, looking at Emma.
"She's freezing the fluids in him," Cleo guessed.
Emma moved her hand and backed away, the fighter seemed to be frozen in place as he moved really slowly. Emma smiled a little only for it to go away when Koto charged at her. Riley stepped in the way, bringing back her fist that was wrapped in flames. She shot it forward and slammed it against Koto's chest.
"You'd think the guy would learn not to mess with me," she muttered t herself as she shook her hand and flexed her fingers, causing the flames to disappear.
Emma glanced around to see Patrick and Noah double-team fighting against a guy who, on normal circumstances, would easily overpower them. Sydney was fighting someone practically triple his size and body weight but he was doing great by himself.
Emma watched them fighting in awe. Their movements were so graceful in a way that it seemed like they spent years perfecting their moves and their abilities. She felt bad for them. By what they told her they never had a normal life ever since they were born. They've been constantly followed and attacked, she was surprised that they hadn't lost their minds. Sydney's cry of pain brought her back to reality. She looked to see him pinned to the ground, clawing at the hand that was holding onto his throat.
"Emma!" Cleo said as she and Rikki joined her side. "We have to help them."
Emma nodded and lifted her hand, as did Cleo and Rikki. The wind started to kick up, which made Koto and his gang pause momentarily, which gave the Jacksons enough time to land a forceful kick on their chests, knocking them back. Cleo, Rikki, and Emma concentrated harder and the wind got stronger. It pushed Koto and his gang into the center of the clearing before lifting them up into the air as the Jackson's watched in awe.
"What the hell is going on?" Koto yelled over the roar of the wind. His eyes darted around before he glared at the girls whose hands were raised. "No way, not them too," he muttered under his breath before he was thrown through the air. The girls dropped their hands and let out the breath that they've been holding.
"Wow, how'd you do that?" Sydney asked with wide eyes. "Are you Elementals too?'
"Uh, no Syd, they're mermaids," Riley replied.
"Mermaids!?" Julius, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney repeated.
"It's kind of hard to explain," Cleo muttered.
"Are you crazy!?" Everyone turned to see Lewis storming out of the building. Cleo sighed and placed her hand on her forehead while Emma raised her eyebrows and Rikki had an amused look on her face. "You just used your powers in front of them like that?" He hissed.
"Relax, Lewis, don't get your knickers in a knot," Rikki said with an eye roll. "We were helping them."
"You…you just…" Lewis spluttered as he tried to form a sentence.
"Maybe you should explain it to him," Cleo said as she gave them an apologetic look.
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"Wow," Lewis muttered as he looked around the basement of Crystal's father's home. When he showed up with Crystal's cousins he changed the basement into his science lab. A large computer sat in the corner and a bookshelf was against the back wall filled with books, random pictures, and weird gadgets. Around the basement was a counter that you would see in official science labs. Above them were cabinets filled with who knows what. Beakers and test tubes sat scattered on one area of the counter top. A treadmill was folded up in the space between a closet and a counter. "This is impressive," he said as the group trooped down the stairs followed by Christian. "What is it exactly that you study?" he asked.
"What I tell everyone is that I'm studying marine life behavior. Really what I'm doing is studying their Elemental behavior," he responded as he nodded towards his daughter and her cousins. "Keeping tabs on their power levels, making sure they're not over working themselves, stuff like that."
"So…it's safe to say you've seen about everything?" Lewis asked him.
"Yup," Christian agreed.
"Just wait." Lewis walked over to the vase of flowers that was sitting on the desk. He pulled the flowers out and turned around. Before the girls could react, he threw the water at them.
"Lewis!" They all screeched.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10." Right as Lewis finished saying ten the girls seemed to be covered in bubbles before they fell to the floor with a wet smack. Their hair was wet and their clothes were replaced with a bikini top and a long orange tail that reflected the light of the basement. The boys, minus Lewis, all had shocked looks on their faces. "Have you seen that before?" Lewis asked Christian with raised eyebrows.
"No," he replied as he stared at them. "Turing into…fish from touching water?" he whispered to himself. "Dr. Denman said something about that…"
"You're working with Dr. Denman?" Emma asked in shock.
"No," Christian replied, instantly calming her nerves. "We're working against each other, really. She wants to know what I'm doing and she tries to find out my secret experiments. We had to move a lot because of her. Do you mind?" Emma shook her head as he reached down and picked up the fin part of her tail. He lightly ran his fingers over it, a look of astonishment on his face. "How is this possible?"
"Lewis has been trying to figure that out on his own," Cleo supplied. "You see, we became mermaids when we fell into the moon pool at Mako Island when a full moon passed by."
"A moon did this?" Julius spoke up. "I don't get it. There's no possible way that the moon can do this to you with you sitting in a pool."
"I have to agree with Julius. It doesn't make any sense," Noah agreed as Sydney nodded.
"Look. We're mermaids when we touch water. What other proof do you want?" Rikki asked irritably.
"Is that all that happens when you touch water?" Christian asked, putting Emma's tail down.
"Yes. But we have powers too," Cleo responded. "Emma can freeze liquids and freeze anything that has water in it, like the air or dew on grass. I can shape and control water and I can also control wind. Rikki can boil any liquid and start a fire from it and she can create lightning. All together we can create a storm."
"That sounds like Elemental stuff, but they don't have the mark," Noah muttered as he studied them.
"Are you sure you're not Elementals?" Christian asked.
"I don't even fully understand what that means," Emma admitted. "All I know is that we were normal girls before we were in the moon pool…and now we're fish." She slapped her tail against the ground in frustration. "Can you dry us off now?" She asked Rikki. Rikki nodded and lifted her hand, slowly closing it into a fist. Steam filled the room as the three dried off. Once they got their legs back they got to their feet.
"About you," Lewis said as he turned to the family standing before him.
"Uh-oh," Cleo whispered.
"He has the mad scientist look in his eye," Rikki said with an amused smile. "Finally, someone else will have to deal with it."
"What is an Elemental exactly?" Lewis asked, ignoring them.
"It's practically self-explanatory but it's when a person is born with AENP that allows them to awaken their powers and then harness them to use them for the greater good of mankind," Sydney recited, as if he heard it all the time.
"AENP?" Lewis repeated.
"Anigma Energy Nano Particles. It's what allows us to use our abilities. Not everyone is an Elemental, but we're more common now. Usually only a few people per family, depending on how many kids there are, have AENP but we're lucky so all of us have it," Sydney said as he smiled at his family.
"What powers do you have?" Cleo asked.
"I control spirits, so I can call up animal spirits or spirits of the elements at will to help me," Sydney replied. "Noah controls silver wind, which is a stronger variation of controlling wind. Patrick controls thunder or lightning, whichever you want to call it. Rhu controls darkness, Ri controls fire, Crystie controls ice, and Julius has every element. At least, every element that we know of. There are tons more that we don't know anything about."
"Amazing," Lewis whispered as he fell into a chair. "The powers that they have…is it possible that they're Elementals too?"
"You can only be born with Elemental power, it can't be given to you," Crystal spoke up. "Their powers, it has something to do with the moon as you said, but that's the strangest occurrence I have ever heard."
"If the Moon Pool…gave them their powers…what would it do to you?" He asked as he rubbed his chin in thought.
"Hard to say. The moon is unpredictable. It could alter our DNA or something," Patrick said as he glanced at Emma, Rikki, and Cleo who stayed silent and took the information in.
"So…you're basically the definition of a super human?" Rikki asked slowly.
"You could say that," Sydney agreed.
"Stay away from Zane, then. He's been going on and on about super humans," Rikki warned them.
"Zane? Zane Benet, that Zane?" Julius questioned, a dark look suddenly appearing on his face. Rikki nodded. "I can't believe it. He always sticks his nose where it doesn't belong. I'm going to teach him a thing or two this time," he muttered more to himself than anyone else.
"I'd like to do some research on you, if you don't mind," Lewis said, tapping his chin as he looked over the family. "Something like this is phenomenal. I want to run some tests, to check out your skills. Also…I want to know that the full moon at Mako Island would do to you."
"Lewis, I don't think that's a good idea," Cleo jumped in. "You don't know what could happen."
"We'll never know unless we try."