Nexus: It's funny. Just before I was about to put this chapter out 2 minutes ago, I checked the reviews and it got bumped up to 5. Thank you ever so much to CopperFlash for his keep up the good work review and a REALLY MASSIVE THANK YOU to ObsessedwReading and your 3 reviews. Just for you, I dedicate this chapter to ya! ;)

You know the drill, I don't own Mako Mermaids...

Chapter 4: The Capture

Well, it had been two weeks since the incident with Nixie, David and Joe. Between that time, Zac's pool party had Lyla and Sirena discovering his secret, Nixie playing along to cover up her 'own secret' according to Zac. As for Dr. Joanna Fischer, her search for her mermaid was about to kick off once again. She'd had trouble getting nets out at first and after two weeks, she'd finally done it. The only thing to do now was to report the images her scanners had captured to the news. That was just the beginning to her fame.

Zac was laying down on his bed at home, thinking over everything that had gone on.

"Zac?" A voice called followed by a knock on his door.

"Come in," Zac replied.

His dad opened the door, which made Zac shift to the edge of his bed. "Everything okay?"

"There's something on the news you might be interested in," his dad began. "It's pretty amazing if you ask me?"

"What is it?" Zac asked, wondering what could be 'so amazing' that his dad was asking him to come inside the main house to see it.

"You'll come to the main house if you want to see it," his dad teased, leaving to rush back to see the news himself.

Zac's mind was still rather muddled. Nonetheless, he went over to the main house and entered the lounge, his mum and dad sitting down with eyes glued to the TV screen.

"And if you didn't catch it already we'll say it again. Dr. Joanna Fischer of Gold Coast Marine Biology has reported images proving what everyone thought was once a myth," a reporter on the news announced.

Zac quickly took a seat on a nearby couch and prepared himself for the news to come. What next came on the screen, shook him to the core. It was the two images from the scanners out at Mako, the two images of Zac as a merman swimming out of the Moon Pool entrance, one of them with his arms in front, and one with them to the side, showing his hands, clear proof that this was indeed what everyone thought it was.

"We still can't believe ourselves but we have photo proof of a real life mermaid. Dr. Fischer is doing more research into this phenomenon as we speak and she hopes to have more news by next week at the latest."

Zac couldn't move from the Sofa. He knew by looking at those two images that it was him. He wasn't safe any more. There were Marine Biologists hunting him down and it also put Nixie in danger. Let alone any other mermaids that were out there.

Rob turned around to see Zac in his shocked but frightened looking state. "It comes as a shock to everyone. Something like mermaids really exist out there."

"Yeah," was all Zac could squeak out. He eventually got his body to move and made his way back to his room. He took a seat on his Sofa and buried his head in his hands. What was he going to do about this?

His phone rang. He answered it to hear Cam's shocked voice down the other end. "Zac, we need to talk. Ocean Cafe?"

"Coming now," Zac replied quickly, shutting Cam off and began heading off the Ocean Cafe. If it was about him being on the news, he was not in the mood for Cam's word over it.

- At the Ocean Cafe -

Zac walked in to see Cam sitting down at a table, automatically taking residence on the seat opposite him.

"Explain," Cam said plainly.

"You mean the news?" Zac asked.

"What else would I want to talk about right now," Cam mentioned.

"Good point," Zac said turning his head to look around away from Cam.

"Zac, why were there 2 images of you swimming out at Mako? Cam asked.

"I don't know myself how this Dr. Fischer got images of me. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do right now..." Zac replied.

He'd already told Cam about the day that he found Nixie and that David and Joe knew his secret.

"Wait, when you were out at Mako with David and Joe..." Cam began.

"You think that's when the scanners got me?" Zac asked, slowly realising that Cam might be right.

"You haven't been out to Mako since that time," Cam realised. "But if so, why did it take Dr. Fischer two whole weeks to get the photo's of you out on the news?"

"That's what I don't get," Zac replied, burying his head in his body on the table. When he looked up, David came over to their table with their drinks.

"Thanks David," Cam replied.

David instantly looked at Zac. "I saw the news."

"Yeah, I'm in trouble right now," Zac said.

"You're telling me. Luckily, Joe's business has links with Dr. Fischer's Marine Biology business. Maybe he can convince her or at least take her off the trail of you," David explained.

"It's a nice though, but if you knew there was a merman out there, wouldn't you go to no limits or length's to get more proof of it's existence?" Zac replied.

"I guess so," David thought. "Sorry, I don't know what else to do."

"I think I have a plan in mind. It's risky but it's a start," Zac replied. "I just go out and destroy all the scanners. That will slow them down at least."

"Are you nuts!?" Both David and Cam shouted, gaining a quick look from everyone around the Cafe.

"Nothing to worry about," David called, everyone going back to normal.

"Zac, you can't be serious about this," Cam said, still not seeing how this could ever be a good plan.

"Oh I can be," Zac said, standing up and finishing his drink off quickly. "As a matter of fact, I think I'll begin now." He then walked out of the Cafe doors and walked down to a deserted part of the beach, diving off into the waters and speeding off towards Mako.

- At Rita's -

The girl's themselves had just seen the news on the TV along with Rita.

"Oh this is not good," all three girls said at the same time.

"No, it's not," Rita replied, switching off the TV.

"What do we do Rita?" Nixie asked worriedly.

"We wait, and hope Zac doesn't go back out to Mako. If need be, convince him not to go swimming for a while," Rita explained.

"What about getting him into the Moon Pool on a full moon? You said it might strip his powers," Lyla questions.

"That's a long shot. And even so, we can risk him going anywhere near Mako. Even you'll have to refrain from going to Mako, maybe even the whole Ocean. After all, this is a Marine Biologist we're talking about, she'll have the whole ocean covered for research and now mermaid hunting." Rita stood up from her seat and walked over to the fridge to get a drink.

"Maybe one of us should go out to Mako and check it out quickly," Nixie whispered.

"I'll go, I can stay invisible the longest," Lyla spoke up, still in a whisper mode so that Rita didn't hear them.

Nixie was about to rebel against it before Sirena stopped her. "She's right Nixie. From experience Lyla can stay invisible the longest, she's had more practice than us over it."

Nixie didn't like it one bit but she knew she'd have to go along with it. "Okay fine. Lyla, go, now."

Lyla stood up and began walking out the house, calling to Rita on her way out. "I'm just going for a walk."

Rita turned around, about to say something to Lyla, but she was already gone. "Um, is it best that she goes out by herself.

"She's wanted some alone time recently," Sirena lied. "And even so, she can take care of herself."

"I guess you're right," Rita replied, taking another sip of her drink.

- Out at Mako -

Zac wasn't dead close to the Mako shore, he made sure he wasn't too close just in case. After a while of swimming around, scanner hunting, he'd found one. He picked up the scanner and looked at it in detail. He noticed a switch at the back and flipped it off, shutting the scanner and it's wi-fi down.

- At Dr. Fischer's Lab -

"Joanna! One of our scanners just went dead!" Harry called to Joanna. "You might wanna look at the final shot it got."

Joanna walked over to the monitor which had the final shot on it. It showed Zac's head and body, his arms out in front of him, right when he was shutting the scanner down.

"Damn thing's found the scanners," she said to herself. Now was the time to put her plan into action. She knew that the mermaid would find the other scanners and would most likely find all four if they found that one so easily. "Harry, get the boat set. I'll need a team of 9 men and myself. I need you to stay here and look at which scanners that thing is shutting down so we can work out when they'll stop at the one with the nets around it." Joanna had planned on the mermaid finding the one with the nets near it, not the other ones. But it still worked out for her, the mermaid would hunt down the other ones and Joanna would bag herself a ticket to fame and ever lasting glory in the science world.

- Back to Mako -

Zac had found and shut down two other scanners. He hadn't headed out towards the area of the Moon Pool but figured that surely, there would have been a scanner out there if there were three other ones out on the East, North and West sides of Mako, leaving the Moon Pool for the South back end of the Island.

Meanwhile, Lyla had been following him, flicking on and off with her invisibility. Right now, she was following Zac around the South Side to the Moon Pool. She didn't expect him to check there. After all, she thought he didn't knew where the Moon Pool's entrance was.

- On a boat, just above the Moon Pool Entrance -

"Joanna, scanner's got him in sight, he's coming over the nets soon," Harry reported from a feed in the Lab.

"Thanks Harry," Joanna replied, shutting off the link feed, getting focused for the capture.

- Below -

Zac had just come into range of the net and had spotted the scanner. He hadn't spotted the net that had masked itself on the floor.

Lyla, who was swimming behind him though, just noticed the net as soon as he grabbed the scanner. She could see that it was slowly rising. She had to do something, she couldn't afford Zac getting stuck in that net right now. She did the only thing she could do, call his name and hope for the best.

The nets began rising even faster.

"Zac!" Lyla screamed.

Zac immediately zipped around, dropping the scanner in his hand, words unable to say what he saw before him. He didn't have time to think about that though, as the net that was rising, suddenly shot and clasped itself around Zac. It was pretty tight as well, the gaps in between being much smaller than a normal net. That Marine Biologist had planned for this to happen. And Zac fell for it. He knew he wasn't going to get out of the net and focused his attention back to Lyla who was now swimming towards her.

"You," he said with a low growly voice.

"Listen, I'm sorry for lying to you," she began before being interrupted by Zac.

"Sorry doesn't cover it. I levelled about me, and you were lying to me the whole time! I know Nixie's like you and I wouldn't be wrong if I hazarded a guess that Sirena's one too!" Zac shouted at her.

"Zac I can explain," Lyla pleaded.

Zac didn't know what to do. He was about to be discovered by a Marine Biologist and there was no way out right now, no powers that could help him. But at the same time, he was dead furious with Lyla.

"Lyla, just go," he said plainly.

"But Zac you-"

"Better just me being discovered than you as well! Now just go would you. After all, you've done enough recently," Zac interrupted. He was still furious beyond belief with her but in this situation, there wasn't time for all this right now.

All Lyla could do was float and watch in guilt as Zac was raised out of the water.

When Zac was lifted out of the water, he could feel the net really digging into his skin with the tight netting and small gaps. Man did it hurt.

"Bring it in," Joanna ordered. The man controlling the net pulled it over towards the boat and hovered it over a tank that Joanna had brought with her. The net collapsed and Zac fell straight into the tank, rather pleased to be back in water for a minute. It would help with the pain of those rope marks he now had.

Everyone on the boat gathered around the tank to see the creature that all of their hard work had got them.

Most people just stood there in shock, staring wide eyed at Zac in the tank.

"Well well," Joanna began. "Turns out it wasn't a mermaid I'd found. It's something much rarer... a merman."

Zac just look up at Joanna and glared at her. "Great," he said to himself quietly.

Little did he know that Joanna had a speaker in the tank that amplified sound and everyone on the boat heard him say it.

Even Joanna was taken back by it. "And it speaks... This is so much more than I had first anticipated."

The longer she looked at the creatures face, the more she couldn't help but think that she recognised this person's face.

She had a small flash back of being at Dr. Rob's house and seeing a boy sitting over in the corner of the room. The same boy with a face like the one that was now in the tank.

"I know you," Joanna said slowly. "Dr. Rob Blakely's son."

"Zac Blakely!?" One of the men on board blurted out.

Joanna just looked back to him, his face full of worry when his name had been called out like that. "So you are Zac Blakely. A normal human boy who I now see before me as a merman. A creature that everyone thought was a myth."

"What do you want with me?" Zac asked.

"Everything. I wanna know how you became like this, your inner matrix, the ability to speak. And, if there are others out there. Research from you should give us some sort of clues as to if there are others out there.

All of a sudden, Joanna reached to the side for a syringe of something and plunged her hand into the tank, jabbing into the back of Zac's neck and releasing the fluid that was inside of it.

Within seconds, Zac could see black spots everywhere. And a few seconds later, he was completely out.

"Boy, get ready to drive to the Lab. And not our usual one, I mean the one just off the Gold Coast, Experiment Centre Forty Two," Joanna commanded.

As the ship was driving towards their location, Joanna looked back to see her prize passed out in the tank.

"Zac Blakely, my new test subject. Things are going to get rather interesting around the Gold Coast now.

Nexus: Well, that's chapter 4

Lyla: Did you just give me, Nixie, Sirena and Rita screen time?

Nexus: Yeah, after all, I needed you to be Zac's initiator. And besides, you're the only ones besides those on the boat who knows where Zac is/ what's happened to him.

Lyla: Do we get a bigger role next chapter?

Nexus: Maybe, I'm not saying anything right now.

I'll be thankful to people who leave reviews again!