Nexus: My word, from 2 reviews to 11 in just 1 chapter, I am impressed... A big thank you out there to everyone who's reviewed this story thus far!

And so as promised, Chapter 5!

Also, this is going to be the last chapter you get for a week since I'm going on Holiday and won't have my laptop with me. So I promise I'll upload Chapter 6 for you all next Saturday, that'll be the 2nd November.

Chapter 5: The Research at EC42 begins

It was getting late back at Rita's and Lyla still hadn't returned yet.

"I thought you said she was just going out for a walk?" Rita asked worriedly.

"We thought she was just doing that too," Sirena lied. She couldn't let Rita know where Lyla had really been. But she was really worried that Lyla hadn't returned yet.

Rita decided she needed some fresh air and went out to her balcony.

"Nixie, you know I don't like keeping secrets from Rita," Sirena told her.

"I don't like it either but we've got to cover for Lyla," Nixie replied. "She would never be out this long though."

"She could just be resting out at Mako," Sirena suggested.

"Yeah, or she could have been captured by that Marine Biologist instead of Zac!" Nixie retaliated.

"We can't even risk going out to Mako. We don't know what could have been set up out there," Sirena said.

"So what? We just sit here like lazy starfish and wait?" Nixie asked.

"We have no choice," Sirena replied.

Rita walked back inside and felt a little better. "Since you girls can't go out at Mako, you'll have to sleep here."

"In the Grotto?" Nixie asked incredulously. No way was she sleeping there.

"I've got a spare room upstairs with two beds you can sleep in," Rita explained.

"Beds?" Nixie and Sirena asked, not knowing what they were.

"Big fluffy things you sleep on, they'll be comfier than the ledge in the Moon Pool trust me. I only have 2 though, that's one of the reasons I ask you all to stay at Mako."

Rita lead the two girls upstairs and got them settled down.

"Well, I'll leave you girls be then. If you need anything, you know where everything is. Goodnight," Rita told them, turning off the light switch, leaving a lamp in between the two beds lit.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Sirena asked her friend.

"Please, Lyla isn't even afraid of sharks. No way is a Marine Biologist going to get to her, if she has got her of course," Nixie reassured.

Both girls were feeling rather sleepy and turned of the lamp, falling asleep not long after.

- Back out on the boat -

"Dr. Fischer, EC42 is in sight!" The man steering the boat called to her.

She looked away from the unconscious Zac and saw that EC42 was indeed in sight. "Pull up around the back. We'll go through the doc's secret passage. No way is anyone seeing my new project just yet." She took of her lanyard and tossed it over to another man near the boat's driver. "Use it to get access into the passage. Code EC42DJF417."

"Yes ma'am!"

Whilst the two at the front of the ship concentrated on driving and opening the doc's passage, Joanna and the other seven men began setting up the crane's hook. With that, once they were inside EC42, they could easily transport him into another tank.

Once the passage was open, Joanna took control of the boat and steered it through the doc's passage into the experiment room where she wanted Zac to be. It had a nice tank for him to stay in and then plenty of open space for experimenting.

Now that they were there, the men hoisted up the crane's hook to the lifting machine and carried Zac's body out of the small tank and into the larger one, his body sinking straight to the bottom.

"Just how much of that knock out liquid did you let enter his body?" One of the men asked, seeing as how Zac was still unconscious.

"Enough so that he sleeps until tomorrow morning. Also, I'll be doing the first lot of simple experiments by myself," she told him.

"Huh? By yourself? Are you sure that's a good idea Joanna?" The man asked.

"John, I'll be fine. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything to me. For now, get the boat out of here and have the small tank ready to be taken back to EC1, my main lab," Joanna commanded.

"If you say so," John mumbled. "Also, why have him here at EC42 and not EC1?"

"Everyone knowns from the media that I've been hunting a mermaid. The press would be all over EC1 and I wouldn't get a break. Hardly anyone knows of EC42 since it's so remote and not even on the official EC list," Joanna explained. "Also, make sure to tell Harry I'm here."

John took in her words and got ready to get the boat out of the lab. Once the crane's hook was detached and the smaller tank emptied, they were almost ready to go. John tossed Joanna's lanyard back to her. "And the pass code to get out?"

"Use your key, Code EC42DJG829."

John took the boat back out of the passage along with the crew and used the code to get outside. He locked it behind him and drove the boat off to a nearby docking area. The boat was to be left there for the night whilst the men stayed in a nearby hotel that Joanna owned. They had to all sleep somewhere and it was only a small one anyway.

Back with Joanna, she still couldn't stop staring at Zac.

"I may seem like I'm a mean woman, but it's only an act," she told him even though he wouldn't hear her. She stood up from where she was on the floor and exited the building through the front entrance using her Key Code. She too went to her hotel for the night. *I hope he'll be alright in there.*

- The next morning -

Zac could feel something stirring around him as his eyes flickered open. Once they were open, he realised that he was still surrounded by water. He floated up from off of wherever he was and looked around. "Where on earth am I?" He asked himself.

"You're in a tank inside Room 347 in EC42," a voice called out.

Zac immediately shot around 180 degrees to see the woman who'd captured him. She swam over in her direction as far as he could, before being stopped by the glass wall of the tank. "You..." he growled.

Joanna stopped what she was doing and turned her attention to Zac. "It took you long enough to wake up. Maybe I did give you a little bit too much of that knock out liquid. Oh well, that aside, you're awake now," Joanna rambled. "Where do we even begin?"

"How about really explaining what you want with me?" Zac demanded. "It can't just be for the science can it?"

Joanna sighed. "It is, mainly for the science. But there are a few other reasons why I have you here. This is for myself to begin with, I've always been interested in mermaids outside of science. Another reason being that Dr. Blakely had said to me that his son had been acting weird and avoiding water like the plague as of recent. Only issue was back then I had no idea who were until John confirmed it was you for me. This reason only sprung up once your identity was revealed," Joanna explained.

Zac then sank down and sat on the tank floor, burying his head in his arms.

"But why me?" He asked himself.

Joanna sat on the floor to get level with him. "Listen to me Zac. I may seem like a ruthless cold-hearted woman in front of my team and colleagues but I have to be that way. In science, we can't afford to be light hearted. This is why I prefer doing research on my own. I feel that getting to know something better and experimenting alone tends to have better results. Because, there is no pressure."

Zac looked up at her, and he could see her face wasn't lying. She wasn't a bad person, just forced to be because of her love for science. "So, you'll be doing these experiments alone then?"

Joanna looked rather surprised. "You'll agree to do them?"

"I don't have much of a choice. And I'll tell you now, I never wanted any of this to happen to me in the first place," Zac told her. "Me, like this, was an accident."

"How, could it have been an accident," Joanna asked curiously.

"It was about 3 weeks ago, on the night of a full moon. Me and my friend were camping on Mako before school started again. I went off to explore and found a strange cave, the entrance only ever appeared that night though. Inside, there was this, dial on the wall, and when I touched it, the floor beneath me sank and I fell directly down into the Volcano's pool. The next day, I woke up on the beach. And once I got back home, lots of weird things started happening. I found out I could move water with my hand, and when I fell in the dock area outside the Ocean Cafe, it happened. I was, suddenly a merman," Zac explained.

Joanna couldn't help being curious about what the accident was, but she'd never imagined that Zac would have given her a big an explanation as what he just did. She just sat there staring.

"I know it's hard to take in," Zac said.

"It is a little, a human, who when he touches water, turns into a merman. Anyone would find that information hard to take in," Joanna replied eventually.

"I did at first. I'm still not fully used to the concept of being able to breathe underwater yet. It's just... amazing," Zac thought out loud.

"One can only imagine," Joanna said, standing up. "If you don't mind, there's something I would like to test first before I begin my extensive research."

"What is it?" Zac asked.

"You said it yourself, when you touch water, you're like this. So when you're dry, you're human. I want to see this transformation for myself," Joanna asked nicely.

"Only on one small condition," Zac said.

"The condition being?" Joanna asked.

"I will let you be free to research any findings about me and release them to the press, as long as any clear images of me that might reveal me aren't shown and that you hide my identity. My only other side condition, is that after all your research is done, you'll let me go and be free," Zac offered.

Joanna knew that this wasn't going to be easy. The way she thought about it, she would be able to get her research, get her fortune and fame, and be settled for life! It didn't hurt to let Zac go afterwards and she never had any intentions of releasing his name or face into the wild.

"Alright, I promise I'll let you go once my research is done, it might be a while though. And I won't reveal your face or name to the public," Joanna replied in a soft tone.

Zac was reassured by this. The one woman who wanted to do research on him was being the most reasonable one possible and also the kindest. He felt very lucky, and he knew that the sooner the research was through with, the quicker he would get out. By now, any resentment towards Joanna was gone.

"Dr. Fischer?" He asked.

"Zac, just call me Joanna, no need for formalities now," she told him.

"Right, Joanna then. You're not as bad as I first perceived you to be," Zac said with a smile.

He swam up to the top of the tank, waiting for Joanna to open the latch. When she was up there and opened it, Zac dragged himself out fully onto the glass panel and began using his powers to dry himself off.

"What are you-?" Joanna began to asked.

"It's a power, heating water to steam dry myself," Zac explained.

After about another minute, Zac dried off and reverted to human form. He stood up and began stretching. "Man, it feels good to have legs back once in a while."

Joanna was still in shock. One minute fish tail, the next, drying all the water from his body and reverting back to normal Zac. "Woah," was all she could say.

"That's only a triffid of what I can do," Zac told her quickly, climbing down the ladder to get away from the tank.

Once he and Joanna were on the ground again, Joanna was ready to begin.

"Oh, when you say touching water makes you transform, how much water?" Joanna asked.

"Just a little drop will work," Zac replied.

"Really? Only one little drop will cause the transformation? Doesn't that make this a very deep burden in life?" Joanna asked.

"It does yes. But it's not all too hard to avoid. There are one or two times where you just can't evade it," Zac explained briefly before taking a seat in the nearby chair. "Now, you going to test this or not?"

Joanna nodded and walked over to her table, picking up a syringe with some water in it. She placed it over Zac's arms and very carefully let one drop of water fall onto it. All but a few seconds later, the tail was back.

"Okay, it really doesn't take much," Joanna eventually said, as Zac steam dried himself back to normal.

"Told you," he replied as he stood up and began walking back over to the tank.

During that time, Joanna got a call. "Yes, who is it?" Her personality completely changed from soft to harsh.

She listened to the voice down the other end. "Oh hey John."

"WHAT!?" She screamed after listening to what he said.

"Please Joanna try to understand. I know you like more time to work on your test subjects but, we need to get the scans done soon," John told her.

"Ugh! Guess I don't have a choice do I?" she asked.

"And one more thing," John began. "Reporters began bombarding EC1 early hours of the morning. They want to speak to you so you'll have to come back and dispel them for a while."

"If it keeps them quiet then I really don't have a choice," she replied sadly.

"Haha, knew you couldn't keep that harsh tone up forever! Later Joanna," John teased, cutting her off there and then.

"Why Jon you little!" She shouted as he cut her off. She threw the phone back into the receiver.

"What was that all about?" Zac asked.

"Bad news. The centre wants scans done soon, of your inner matrix. They'll need one of you as a human, and one of you as a merman, so that we have a comparison to work off of. Part two of the bad news, I need to go back to EC1 and get these damn reporters off my back for now. Means dispelling them off of the case of you and setting up security forces to stop them from trying to do this again," Joanna explained.

Zac looked down at the floor sadly. "I see."

Joanna looked back at him. "You just have to be strong. And believe that you'll get through this. I know it means giving in, but the sooner you get in and out of this the better."

"Weren't you then one who wanted to capture me?" Zac asked confused.

"That was until I learnt two things. That I'd gotten something rarer, and that you weren't born a merman, you were only transformed into one. The boys at the lab want you keep you longer than I plan on letting you stay for. Once all the research I want to do is out of the way, you'll be free to go."

Zac's face eventually broke out into a smile. "I guess it's not as bad as it seems after all."

Joanna smiled too and walked towards the exit door to the lab, swiping her key and inputting her code. "I suggest getting back in the tank for now. You can tell the boys during the scanning about the whole transformation part. Don't give out the details you gave me though. Keep those a secret from them. And, just co-operate with them. They may seem a little more ruthless than me, but deep down, they have a soft side. Especially John."

Zac climbed up the ladder and dived back into the tank, swimming down in time to see Joanna leave. She turned around and waved good bye as the doors closed, Zac waving back to her.

He swam down right to the bottom and got comfy. He finally had just a little bit of time to think about Nixie and Lyla. And Sirena too presumably. How could they just forget to tell him that they were mermaids after they 'found out' about him at the pool party. They knew right from the start what had happened to Zac, they wouldn't have acted so strangely before. They completely changed once the secret 'was out.' Nothing made sense to him right now, why would they lie to him. What was such a big deal about all of it?

- Out on a boat headed to EC1 -

"Hope he's gonna be alright in there," Joanna thought to herself as she drove towards her main lab. There was a lot to go over. Once she got back, she would need to study the scans of his matrix and compare results. When she found them, she would take a scale sample and see the transformation between scale and skin. She would record the transformation and study each little part of it in details under a microscope.

She pulled her boat up in the dock and began pushing her way through the crowds to the locked doors of EC1.

"All you reporters out there listen up!" Joanna ordered. The whole crowd went from being rowdy to dead silent. "Very good."

Everyone was anxiously waiting to see if she had any new news yet. She had to lie here. "I... don't have any new news so far on the mermaid hunt. But the second we find something, we'll be sure to tell you."

The crowd went a little bit more rowdy. "Please try to understand that science can't be rushed. I know most people are dead excited about this but you will all just have to wait. Until that time, I ask that you leave EC1 and don't come back. Don't think I won't set up top level security to stop you from coming here again!" Joanna explained.

By this time, most of the crowd disparced, leaving just one man behind, the one man Joanna didn't want to see right now.

"Long time no see, Joanna Fischer," the man said.

"Same to you, Rob Blakely," she replied with a sour taste in her mouth. This was not what she wanted.

"Say, you've been around the reefs a lot recently, you haven't seen my son anywhere have you?" He asked worriedly.

Joanna knew she had to lie again. "I'm sorry Rob, I haven't. Why would you ask that anyway?"

"My son's gone missing. He went out after lunch yesterday and hasn't returned home since," Rob began. "If you do see him at all, I'd be most grateful if you told me."

"I'll keep my eye out for him," she promised. Rob then left to go home, dead worried for Zac's safety.

"So, Zac hasn't told his parents about his transformation. With Rob being a doctor, I can see why he wouldn't. This is going to be a pain if I keep Zac at EC42 for too long," Joanna said to herself as she got back on her boat and began driving back to EC42.

- All the while, back out at Mako -

Lyla hadn't left the vicinity of Mako or the Moon Pool ever since Zac was captured. She couldn't face the news about Zac and couldn't go back to Rita and her friends. They would be able to read her too easily and she'd been gone for too long as it was before anyway. She told herself that she would stay out at Mako and not go back to Rita. She would never be able to face her after betraying Zac and not stopping him from being captured. If she hadn't of said anything, there would have been a chance that he might of gotten away.

"No way am I going back, not now," Lyla told herself as she began falling asleep. "Zac, I'm sorry..."

Something snapped within side of her and she re-awoke seconds later, her mind set on one goal as she swam out of the entrance and into the open waters.

- Back with Joanna -

EC42 was back in sight. And all would have been fine, had Joanna's boat not have suddenly caved in on her.

"No, no not now!" She shouted as she bashed the motor, desperately trying to get it working again. "Damn it!"

She could hear something rumbling beneath the boat. She didn't have time to react before something came flying out of the water and took Joanna down into the Ocean waters below.

Nexus: That's all you're gonna get for now. Like I said at the start, no new chapter until the 2nd of November...

Lyla: Hang on, what happened at the end there?

Joanna: What the hell did you do to me?

Nexus: I'll leave it up to you guys to guess things. Did Lyla decide to try and take down Joanna or was it something else entirely. Are the two even connected right now, are there goals different, do they ever cross paths.

You'll find out when the next chapter comes out in a week xxx