Chapter 116

Over the next few days, Ryan continued to gather intel with his drone. He tracked the patterns their movements – paying attention to when they came and went. The longer he watched, the more certain he was that the mermaids did not actually live there.

The thought that what he was doing was creepy and stalker-ish crossed his mind a few times, but he chose to ignore the damning thought; he told himself that the end justified the means for this scenario.

From his recon, Ryan determined that the house would likely be empty in the mid-morning – when they had all gone to work or school, but before lunchtime. Ryan pushed the damning thought aside, telling himself: Don't think about the fact that there are children involved here. This is the best way for me to move forward. So, at around 10.30am, Ryan attached tiny cameras to the dock, and larger rocks along the sea floor. He made sure a few were facing where he had seen the mermaids diving in, and some a little further away, toward Mako Island. Ryan had the cameras programmed to record for certain times of the day – between 6.30 and 9am, and 3 to 7pm.

As he suspected, the last mer-people had left the house by 6pm.

OoOoO

Ryan's heart was beating quickly as he paced back and forth in his living room. He might have video evidence of the existence of mermaids on his laptop right now. Holy cow.

He took a deep breath and opened the files from the cameras. For the first part of the recordings, he was watching the ocean. The blue nothing was peaceful.

Until it was disturbed.

At 7am, Ryan watched the first major water disturbance – it was clear a boat had arrived. Any minute now. Ryan moved the cursor forward on the video from the main camera looking out towards Mako.

Wait, was that…?

Ryan's heart started beating even faster – if that was possible. He moved the cursor back a little and let it play.

Into the peaceful blue came a group of shapes.

It looked like ten torpedoes of different sizes were hurtling towards the shore. Ryan could not see much at first – there were too many bubbles in the way. They sped past that camera. Noting the time stamp on it, Ryan paused each of the videos just before that time. He took a deep breath and exhaled as he let them all play.

It was beautiful. Slightly out of sync, but no less clear, the cameras captured the mermaids in all their glory arriving and heading to the shallows. A few shots clearly showed the faces of the mermaids – there he recognised Rikki, Cleo and the other girl from the boat. He noted how much Bella had grown up since he had met her teen self. It also showed the faces of the children. Again, he pushed aside the icky feeling in his stomach.

'It may not be necessary to share their faces or identities at all,' Ryan thought.

Yes. There it was. One of the cameras had captured the perfect shot. A group of mers with orange and red tails swimming towards the shore. This one watched from behind. No identities. This might work.

OoOoO

Ryan let it record for two more days, to make sure he had enough video evidence. Then, Ryan returned to the water to retrieve his cameras. He had what he needed, and he knew where to place them if he ever needed to again.

When Ryan retrieved the last camera (the one closest to the shore), he noticed something shimmering in the sand. Bending down, he went to investigate. Something shiny was wedged between the sea floor and a rock. Ryan reached and plucked it out. Holding it firmly between his fingers so it didn't float away, he looked at it closer.

Ryan gasped. He had a large orange scale in his hands. He quickly secured the scale in the box with the cameras and swam away. On the shore, he examined it more closely. Ryan realised that if this was what he thought it was, it would prove the existence of mermaids more solidly than videos alone. These days everyone believed that videos were faked.

Ryan felt tears welling up in his eyes. He was actually going to do it. He was going to prove it.

OoOoO

It was a sunny Saturday on Mako Island. And, in true mer style, there was an intense battle going on.

It had all been building up to this moment. To this day.

At least it had been for the people who were old enough to be involved.

Capture the flag: Mer edition.

Four teams: Team Shark, Team Bubbles, Team Sea, and… Team Cracker. (The toddlers (Maddie, Stefani, Natalie, Amy) had taken great pleasure in naming a team each). Teams were decided on based on a draw from pots, divided by powers (each team needed at least one water mover), and the humans were shuffled up as well. The children under 5 were to be watched by Alan, and Ash was happy to be the ref. Non-mers were allowed to be armed with shields and water guns to help defend against the inevitable water attacks.

Team Shark:

Cleo (water moulding)

Leila (heat/fire)

Ariana (ice)

Bella (jelly)

Zane

Team Bubbles:

Anna (water moulding/heat/fire)

Charlie (heat/fire)

Andy (water moulding)

Eric (ice)

Will

Team Sea:

Jessie (water moulding/ jelly)

Daniel (water moulding/ ice/heat)

Jake (jelly)

Emma (ice)

Alex (heat/fire)

Team Cracker:

Jenny (water moulding)

Ben (water moulding/ ice)

Rikki (Heat/fire. While she laughed at the team name when Amy proudly announced it, everyone else laughed at the face Rikki made when she was allocated to the awesome Team Cracker).

Jay (heat/fire)

Lewis

OoOoO

The capture the flag was set up in an area of forest near to the base village. Ben, Jessie, Cleo and Bella had spent some time setting up the game. They built water forts, made permanent by Bella's gel. There were four flags – one guarded by each playing team. The flags were made in the same way, using coloured water. Team Bubbles' flag was blue, Cracker was yellow, Shark was red, and Sea was green. These were placed at the middle of a gel tower each. The aim was to destroy the gel tower and get the flag out and back to your own fort. Your team has to be in possession of the original flag to win. If you still have your flag but your fort is destroyed, you need to construct a new one out of ice or gel. For this match, it was Team Bubbles vs Team Cracker, and Team Shark vs Team Sea. Once one team in each pair had won the other team's flag, Alan and Ash would take the pre-schoolers to a hidden location in the forest and get them to build the final fort. The final flag would be orange. The first team to gain the flag in this fort was the overall winner.

"Alright everyone, get to your forts! Ten minutes until we start," Ash said.

OoOoO

Each team discussed their plan of attack.

Team Shark

"So we're against the Sea team," Bella said, "They've got Jessie and Daniel – both with moulding water and and at least one other power. This'll be a tough one,"

"Yeah," Cleo responded, "They also have Jake, Emma and Alex – jelly, ice and fire. I think they'll have Jessie defending with Alex, and will send the other three to attack. Daniel has been so excited to quote "take everyone out," she chuckled, "And having someone able to melt the ice or water is useful in defence,"

"That makes sense," Zane said.

"Shall I help defend then?" Leila asked.

"To start with," Bella replied. "We can always swap later if needed,"

"Ice is the best against jelly," Ariana said proudly.

"You're right," Cleo said. "If we're assuming Jessie is defending, we'll need you in attack,"

"Okay," Zane said, "So, Leila and I are defending, and Cleo and Ariana are attacking. Do you want to go offence or defence, Bella?"

"I'll start defending," Bella said. "I can help reinforce our fort if needed,"

Team Sea

"Let's do this, kids," Jessie said with a grin.

Jessie and Emma decided to defend to give the boys the fun job of infiltration. Daniel, Jake and Alex were going to do the attacking.

Team Bubbles

"I can't wait to get that flag off Mum's team," Charlie practically cackled. "We will destroy Team Cracker!"

"Slow down, Charlie," Anna laughed, "We have to figure out who is going where first,"

"Please can I attack, please?" Charlie said, jumping up and down.

"Okay," Anna said with a smile. "Will and I can stay and defend, and you three can attack,"

"Yay," Andy exclaimed. Eric did an excited fist pump, and Charlie continued jumping excitedly with a grin on her face.

"Sounds good," Will said.

Team Cracker

"We need to think about this tactically" Lewis said.

"You said that already," Rikki said, rolling her eyes. "We already know Charlie is going to be attacking – she loves using her powers to destroy things too much. And if she is coming, then Anna will stay so that there is still a heat user at their base. So, that means Andy will be the water mover coming at us. I'd assume Eric won't want to be left out, and they won't send Will with his water gun to attack. So, their attackers will be Andy, Eric and Charlie,"

"Alright then," Ben said with a smirk. "Since you've got it all figured out, who should we have where?"

"I would've figured that out too," Lewis muttered under his breath.

"Does anyone have any strong preferences? We have a few options," Rikki said.

"I'd like to attack," Jenny said with a smile.

"I'll defend," Jay said. Rikki looked at him in surprise. "What?" he said. "I want to fight against Charlie," he grinned.

"Okay," Rikki said. "Jenny and I will attack, and Jay, Ben and Lewis can defend,"

"Sorted," Lewis said. "Let's bring the heat!"

"Lewis!" Rikki groaned.

OoOoO

"Amy, can you help me with something?" Ash asked his daughter.

She nodded.

"Can you repeat what I say over mindspeak to everyone?"

"Sure, daddy," she smiled.

The mers smiled when they heard the four year old's voice enter their minds.

"Daddy says to listen up everyone! Time to capture some flags...Starting in 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!"

A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter - I thought a mix of dramatic and fun would be great :) (also lots of fun for me to write XD ) We'll definitely see the game play out next chapter - it just felt like a natural break point here.

Please let me know what you thought!

Thank you for reading and reviewing. I really love reading your comments about the story and ideas. Sometimes it makes me see things differently and helps me develop additional plots. It also lets me know that people are still reading this story haha.

Thanks especially to the following people for reviewing the last chapter:

Sammiloveschocolate, YaleAceBella12, Rock Mint Swirl 22, Jewel moonstone, CrazyHayniac, killerose82, Walker, donovandelaney26101.

Time keeps flying too quick - I can't believe its almost the end of July...I really don't mean to keep everyone waiting so long between chapters but time gets away from me. I upload them as soon as they are written :)

See you all next time!