Captivity

Captivity… Such a thought had never been left to stew within his mind before now; lying along the bottom of a deep salt water tank. To find himself at the mercy of its unyielding confines as it all but consumed him.

Trapped…. A long swish of his tailfin stirred the waters as his luminescent green eyes glowered at the sandy floor. He'd lost track of the nights he'd spent here. It couldn't have been more than a week, but he was uncertain. He'd not had any visitors since the third day. After attacking the diver, they seemed a bit more wary to approach him, and he was perfectly fine with that. He didn't need these humans poking their heads in at him, attempting to prod at him through the glass. He hated it…. Felt exposed, and just wanted to be left alone again…

For as long as he could remember he'd been alone…. Even amongst his kind he'd been shunned and alone. From the time he was a guppy; the others would not share with him, nor join him in sport. As the years passed by he had been pushed to the outskirts of the shoal until he was all but out of their sight; away from the safety of the deep and into the shallow reefs that banked the warm coastal waters. Never in his dreams did he realize how much danger he'd put himself in.

The shallows were home to an assortment of creatures, both large and small; it was a colorful and curious attraction. He had little trouble in acquiring food with such abundance; his only competition, a few complaining reef sharks. But despite the plenty and variety, it did not ease the ache of loneliness that hung heavy within his chest. Now as an adolescent male, he would carry himself to the edge of the reef and call out into the depths. Yet his voice was unheard; his song falling on deaf ears. Either the clan had moved on to other waters, or no female dared wander near. In the end he'd all but become mute at the lack of contact.

He'd taken to patrolling the reefs, claiming it as his official territory, and guarded it with great ferocity. A number of small boats soon found themselves victims of his wrath; the tattered remains shoved along the shoreline to be dragged off to whence they came. The colorful buoyant bodies were invading his home and taking his prey, and he was not about to put up with it. It was his territory, and the surrounding wildlife knew it well. Even the reef sharks had come to fear the jet black mer.

After some time, he was certain they had finally heeded his warnings, as the number of craft began to dwindle within the area. That is, until a large white behemoth lay within his path…

"Thank you for coming all the way out here for this Dr. Manson"

"It was nothing Mr. Masters"

The two men shook hands before turning down one of the docks of the crowded harbor. The old wood creaked under their shoes as they approached a large fishing boat. The biology team they had gathered had already begun preparations to get underway. Masters simply waved a hand at a few of them as they wandered past, up the ramp, and into the main quarters of the vessel. He let his form meander towards the back counter, setting about preparing a cup of coffee for him and his guest.

"Sugar?"

"Black is fine thanks."

Nathaniel Manson accepted the cup gratefully from the older man as he took a seat near the window. He gave the cup a soft swirl before sipping at its hot, bitter contents. He only looked up from the drink briefly as Masters addressed him once more.

"So how has the family been?"

"Things have been good lately; my brother is bringing his wife and daughter down for the summer. So it should liven things up a bit."

"You're niece is majoring in marine biology, is she not?" He stirred a bit of cream into his own cup before taking a seat across from his coworker.

"Why yes. I believe she's starting her second term this fall."

Vladimir Masters just held a look of mild amusement towards Dr. Manson before setting his drink down upon the table, "Then we should hope that this mission goes by smoothly."

"Indeed. I did get some of the details from the email. Something to do with repeated shark attacks?"

"From the number of reports and sightings, it's believed to be, yes."

"Believed to be?"

Manson's eyes followed the older male as he picked himself up from his seat and meandered over to the drawer. Pulling out a number of documents and sorted through them, laying them out upon the table in an orderly manner.

"The reports vary in a number of ways. At first we thought we were dealing with a few of the local reef sharks. But after compiling a number of the reports, I feel we are dealing with something else." Vlad crossed his arms, a scowl evident on his face as he watched the younger scientist run over the papers in his hands.

"A tiger shark, possibly?" He thumbed over a particular page that claimed witness to a number of stripes visible upon the body of the animal.

"The coloring is a tad dark, don't you agree?" Vlad pulled another paper out of the drawer and placed it upon the table. A map of the local reefs; a number of areas were either crossed out or marked in bright red.

"True, but we don't have much to go off of as far as color and a few stripes go," Manson sighed, taking another sip of his coffee before bringing himself around to examine the map, "Seems you've been busy."

"Indeed. My team has already set out a few times in attempts to locate the beast."

Masters brought himself around to point out specific locations upon the paper. Manson did his best to follow the gestures as he took in the information provided for him.

"With all of this, we garner that the territory encircles the primary reef and its surrounding waters. Thus we've begun setting up humane traps in hopes of capturing and further preventing more attacks. We can set about tagging any others we find as to keep an eye on the local populations. They've been shifting greatly in the last few years, and I'm certain it has to do with our mystery fish."

"That's an awful big appetite" Manson just mused, setting the map back down upon the table.

Master's simply rolled his eyes at this as he walked back around the table and towards the door. His heels clacked upon the deck as he came to a stop upon in the entryway, a hand resting upon the handle as his grey eyes turned back towards the younger scientist.

"Either way, we'll be departing shortly to make a routine check on the traps. I'm going to ensure that things are ready to get underway." He gave a curt nod before exiting the compartment, leaving Manson at the table to further examine the reports.

He hadn't been sure what to think about the great white beast as he moved through his waters. It was far too large for him to challenge like the other vessels, and thus he was forced to accept its presence within his territory. For over a week, the ship had lingered off and on along the reef, only stopping for an hour or so at a time, but it would always leave a number of strange contraptions wherever it had stayed.

He eyed them warily at first. Uncertain as to what they were other than the strange scent of food that lingered around them. He'd scowl and shun them, refusing what he figured were peace offerings to share his hunting ground. He didn't feel like sharing, but the creature's size made fighting it a lost cause.

As time drifted on by, the large white boat seemed to have moved on, and thus he continued on with his usual routine. He still found himself frustrated at the sight of the foreign contraptions along the reef, and had taken to knocking the ones near the edge into the depths. It was a satisfying feeling, getting rid of the eyesore. That was, until he found new ones taking their place, the presence of the white metal beast having returned again.

It made him angry. His tailfin swished in the water violently as he trailed after it. His luminescent gaze lay witness to the offering of another one of the strange contraptions; watching it settle in the soft sand below. A snarl curled on his lips as he lashed out it, deciding he'd had enough of the 'peace offerings' and that the only way to settle the matter was to prove his absolute hatred towards them. He'd not expected what had happened next however…

With a snap, the contraption had shifted in one single go, and he found himself ensnared within any number of wires. Wide eyed, he hissed in defiant anger, and writhed within its binds. Only realizing too late that the more he twisted round, the tighter and more tangled the mess became. He wanted to scream, but his voice remained ever absent. His struggles in vain as he desperately tried to swim away. His mind coming to the realization that this contraption was no offering at all, but had been the creatures way of hunting within his territory from the start; and at that moment, he'd become the prey.

"Odd…" Vlad tapped the screen in front of him, his gaze set upon the blinking dot upon the screen.

"Something the matter, Mr. Masters?" Manson shifted his attention from the crew over towards the older scientist.

"Indeed… Either the trap we just placed has malfunctioned… Or we've gotten unusually lucky," he frowned, giving the screen anther tap, bringing up the coordinates of their most recent drop off. It hadn't been fifteen minutes since they had deposited the trap at the specified location. Thus it left the heavy belief that he was going to have a long chat with his team about properly setting them later. That or yell at the company that he purchased them from for lack of proper production. Either way it just put another dent in their time to be out along the reefs before dark.

After the long wait for the ship to make its turn around, he stood there upon the deck, tapping his foot in frustration as crew set about retrieving the trap. He was intent on thoroughly examining the contraption himself to ensure whether the error was that of his crew or if he needed to make a rather unpleasant phone call. What he'd not expected was the sound of the team's excited hollers and the thrashing waters of a trapped animal.

"Mr. Masters! You're not going to believe this!" Dr. Manson called over excitedly, having joined the team in attempting to pull the trap up out of the waters.

Blazing white fins stood out against the ebony black scales and dark stripes. From the tailfin alone they could tell this was no shark on their line, and was far bigger in that regard. It continued to thrash in the binds, desperately attempting to plunge itself back into the safety of the waters below. It forced the crew to hook up the pulley in order to properly reign in the beast, even with the trap restraining it. Either scientist would agree that this was one powerful animal, as the pulley groaned from the strain, and the crew ached in the struggle before finally tumbling backwards onto the deck. Only then could they finally get a decent look at what they were dealing with.

"I was at least expecting a whale… But this is ridiculous." Manson blinked, rubbing his eyes as if the sight was trying to fool him. Masters on the other hand just stared wide eyed at the sight, he'd expected something like this, but he'd not expected it to be true, let alone finding any evidence of such fantasies so soon.

Staring back at them, wide eyed and fearful, was the strangest creature they'd ever laid eyes on. The long black tailfin twisted up into the body of an adolescent male, the slender figure riddled with scales; silver hair hanging down in bright green eyes that stared back at them, seeming horrified with its predicament.

"What in the world?" One of the crew members edged around the beast warily. The creature in turn, despite the restrictions on its movement, whirled round at him with a deep almost reptile like hiss. The male barely had time to yelp as he was yanked backwards by his boss.

"You'll likely lose a limb if you try that again." Vlad narrowed his gaze, the creature in turn barred its fangs in a threatening manner.

"It's a mer…. I.. I didn't think they even existed… and yet… here… It's right here in front of us…" Manson stuttered, seeming to have all but lost his tongue as he ogled the said mer with fascination.

Vlad could only sigh as he placed a hand upon his coworkers shoulder, startling the man out of his mindset, "So it would seem, but if legends tell what they do, that would mean that this creature is responsible for the attacks upon the local populous."

"We can't simply relocate something like this… Can we…?"

"Afraid not, not only will the world want to know of this little discovery, if this is the culprit, then we've freed up this area to resume normal water traffic."

"And if it's not….?" Manson inquired, his gaze fixed upon the older man's as if this was all some sort of hoax.

"Then we'll have to continue our search. If need be, I'll leave a few of the traps around and see if your tiger shark theory is correct, hmm?"

Vlad mused at this, only receiving a further frown from the scientist. But in the end the man reluctantly agreed, leaving him to order to crew the usher their catch into the holding tank. He'd long since turned the fishing boat into a travelling tank in hopes of collecting unusual specimens for the facilities aquatic research. It seemed he'd just mined gold.

And here he was, lying upon the bottom of the tank; stirring at the sand beneath his fins as he scowled at the world and everything in it. He'd allowed himself to be fooled by humans, the white beast having been one of their boats that road across the waters, disguised in some new form other than the old wood of stories old.

He let his tailfin curl round his form, shielding his face from the sight of the glass that imprisoned him. He let a sigh leave his lips. At the very least it had been quiet today, no rapping sound upon the glass, no humans peering in on him. It was a familiar, but sad sort of quiet, and he took that moment to rest within the stillness, trying to claim some sort of sanity back within it all.

However he found himself torn from his reprieve at the faint sound of clacking upon tile. He tore his gaze away from the floor to glower at the glass. But what caught his eyes was unlike anything he'd ever seen before; as bright purple eyes stared back at him through the glass. He could have sworn the waters themselves shuddered under such an intense gaze; and yet, it wasn't an unpleasant feeling.

It was then that he'd come face to face with the strangest girl he'd ever met…