So I have jumped onto the Mermaid/Merman AU bandwagon. This story popped into my head randomly and I can't get it out. So here it is! Hope everyone can enjoy it as much as it is enjoying my mind.

Seriously, my mind is in shambles because of this thing. So here we go!

Disclaimer: No, I do not own any part of Danny Phantom.

Here the Story Starts

A loud splash followed by a sprinkle of chlorinated water. A usual sound and touch at the Gray residence.

The young Valerie Gray loved the water. The weightless sensation of simply floating with no worries beyond breaching the surface for another gulp of air just to submerge once more. Ever since she was small, water has been her safe haven.

Some speculate her father, as well known marine biologist, encouraged her natural swimming ability and her love of water. Often, Damon Gray would take her with him on trips out to sea, making sure she stayed within the shark cage for her protection when underwater. She loves the various creatures that call the ocean 'home'; even reaching past the protective confines of her cage to pet sharks that swam by.

She was also one of the youngest people around that rallied others to help clean up the beaches and as much ocean as possible. Though once part of the popular crowd, her antics resulted in being booted from the table. Why? She never understood. Perhaps because she was expected to be as shallow and uncaring as them, but she couldn't be.

Not when she sees young sea turtles with plastic wrapped around their necks. Fish struggling to free themselves of trash that was simply thrown into the water. Dolphins, whales, and sharks getting tangled in fishermen nets that were abandoned. She couldn't see something like that and not care.

Her sweet sixteen was spent at the beach with a new group of friends, a trio usually considered the 'losers'. One being Sam Mason, a Goth, vegan girl that believed in everyone being unique. Often contradicting herself with actions or words, she is steadfast loyal to her friends, even confronting the popular kids in defense of the two boys.

Another is Tucker Foley, a fellow African-American technological geek with bad flirtations at the tip of his tongue. He is easily the brains of the trio but can't seem to function properly without his PDA. He's a nice enough guy, just tries to hard and thinks he is God's gift to the opposite gender.

The third is Danny Fenton, a shy boy that tries not to draw attention to himself more than what is already directed at him. He is a sweet boy, just in unfortunate circumstances. Not abused by his parents, but nearing neglect if he didn't have his older sister watching over him because his parents are hardcore cryptozoologists.

It started with just Valerie, then the three helped her clean the beach. Soon a group of people arrived. Without really trying or realizing it, Valerie had started her own organization to clean the beaches and oceans before she was seventeen.

Graduating from high school with one of the highest GPA scores earned her a spot in one of the best colleges around. Before she knew it, she was done with college, had a bachelor's degree (for now), and is interning at the facility her father is working for. It gives her a foot in the door of marine biology, allowing her to follow in her father's footsteps in order to carve her own path.

She plans on leaving one hell of a path for others to follow.

Her phone ringing drew her attention, even under the water in her twelve-feet-deep pool. The chime told her who is calling, bringing a smile to her lips as she pulled herself from the water, quickly wiping her hands on the towel nearby then her face before picking up the phone.

"Hi, Daddy!" she chimed happily, rubbing her soaked hair with the towel.

"Hey, honey," her father returned. "I know you aren't supposed to come in for another couple hours, but would you mind getting her as soon as you can? We have a bit of an odd case here."

"What is it?" Valerie inquired curiously, her dripping brows furrowing in confusion. It isn't often they get odd cases at the facility. Most of the time, it's something that ate what it wasn't supposed to, got badly tangled, or it's a new species they never encountered before.

"Just… it's some kind of shark, but not like any we've seen. It's hurt pretty badly, too. Just get here if you can. We could use an extra pair of hands."

"Let me take a quick shower then I'll be there," she promised with a sharp nod that her father couldn't see.

Here is a line!

The facility was one of the biggest building along the beach. Six large pools outside for larger creatures healing from their unfortunate encounters with humans. Two dozen smaller tanks inside for isolation. In the middle of the facility was a massive aquarium filled with fish and other sea creatures captured for study, some of them endangered species, often unable to handle life out in the open sea with a multitude of predators.

There was one massive pool outside that was separated from the ocean by a serious of gates, usually used to release large sea creatures without risking something else coming in. Each gate was spaced out enough for a great white to have some extra feet of space in order for one gate to close and the next to open.

Valerie expected to find the newly acquired shark to be in one of the outside pools. They don't often bring such a predator inside if only for containment problems being averted. Some sharks, given enough force, can break out of some of the smaller pools inside. Which was why Kwan, one of the nicer kids from the popular group who went into the same field of study as herself, directing her to one of the inside pools was a surprise.

Finding her father was easy. He was the only one without a lab coat yet still dressed as a professional. "I'm here," she announced as she came to his side, staring into the pool in front of them. "What do we have?"

"I've never seen anything like it," he confessed.

Her eyes darted to a bit of movement inside the water. The pool is one of the smaller ones, but it is also a wide one, only ten feet deep but roughly thirty feet wide. For some reason, she suspected the water this one was move in being added to the pool, the usually clear water was difficult to see through.

"What breed of shark?"

"Tiger, by the looks of it," he answered with a sigh. "But it's difficult to really tell. It's…"

Valerie's eyes widened when the shark suddenly surged towards them but stopped inches from the glass, seemingly glaring at them with dark red eyes that almost glowed in the water.

"Albino," she whispered, the hairs on her body standing on end as the creature continued its staring. Without moving. Like a shark should definitely not be. The shark snapped around, turning from them but also revealing the long gash from the bottom of its dorsal fin to the dip on its caudal, as well as the stripes labeling it as a tiger shark, only they were an odd turquoise color.

"And intelligent," her father added. "We had to move it from the transport into a pool before it ended up suffocating in limited space. Then we tried to net it to slow it down enough for a tranquilizer. It keeps dodging, both the nets and the darts."

"Have you tried hiding drugs in some food?" she asked as she started up the steps nearby, trying to get an overview of the shark pacing the pool. That was exactly what it was doing, too. It was going back and forth in the pool, not once bumping the glass like most do. Anyone it stared at, though, scrambled away. From her vantage point, she could see lumps of meat simply floating on top of the water, bobbing with each small wave the shark's fins made.

"Twice," Kwan answered this time. "We even chummed the water to try and coax it to eat."

"Then we threw in one without the drugs to see if it could tell the difference," Damon continued. "Ate that one right away."

"Very intelligent for a shark," Valerie muttered, crouching down as the shark drew closer to her. "Has a clasper, so male. About three meters long. Handsome fellow."

The shark stopped feet in front of her, eyes staring back up at her curiously as she looked him over.

"I wonder," she whispered, laying on her belly then slowly dipping a hand in the water.

"Valerie!" Damon cried out in shock, knowing that his daughter knew better than to do something like that. Especially with wounded predators!

"Easy," she said, keeping her voice low as the shark approached. "You're smart, I'll give you that. Bet you can understand me. We just want to help. Okay?" He stopped again, inches from her hand. "We just want to stitch you up and help you get better. We'll let you go when you're healed."

Strange as it was, she felt like the shark was staring her down from his angle, trying to judge if she was lying or not. The shark shook himself, bumping her hand before turning away. She could see that the injury that ended at the tail cut through the caudal fin. It will take a while for that to heal properly. The beast circled around one of the presumably drugged chunks of meat, his eyes seeming staring at it with distaste. Then it grabbed the meat and swallowed it, like a child would a bad pill.

"That's… different," Damon commented as Valerie came down from the stand over the pool. "I swear that thing understood you."

"He's a smart one, which may make him more dangerous than most," Valerie agreed with a nod. Her eyes stayed on the shark as it swam over to them, amazingly managing to roll its eyes as though to say 'There, happy now?'. Mouth agape, the young woman pointed to the shark. "Did you just see that?"

"See what?" Kwan asked looking to the shark curiously.

Huffing irritably, Valerie shook her head. "Never mind. Maybe I'm just seeing things." Though she swears the shark was smirking smugly. At least, it was before the drugs kicked in.

"Alright, everyone!" her father called out. "Let's get to work!"

Here is a line!

Treating sharks is difficult under normal circumstances. They have to be in water shallow enough for someone to stand in and harnessed down with water jets aimed towards the head to help bringing oxygen through the gills. This should have been a normal operation, but it wasn't.

Halfway through the cleansing of bad tissue, the shark woke and tried to snap its jaws at anyone near it. Too much tranquilizer could kill it, so they didn't want to risk drugging the beast again. Valerie jumped into the water beside it, earning a strong thrash of the body that almost made the shark curve enough for his head to grab her. So long as she stayed right by the dorsal, he couldn't touch her no matter how much he bent himself.

She injected a numbing agent into the injury that she knew burned, if the struggling was anything to go by. The shark only calmed down once the shot took effect, nixing any pain he was feeling, thus calming him down enough for the doctors to get back to work.

Only the shark wouldn't let them near.

When one was brave enough to get back in the water, the shark swatted them away with its tail. Valerie scolded the beast for the hit, earning another eye roll that no one else seemed to see. Stepping over the left pectoral fin, she hovered near the gills without putting pressure against them. Her father almost yanked her out, but the shark snapped towards him. Valerie hit the creature on the nose in retaliation, earning a twisting shake that reminded her of a dog shaking water from its fur.

Kwan was the one to jump in this time, mindful of the tail that almost hit him. Once sure he wasn't going to get hit, and once Valerie gave a nod of confirmation that she was in a relatively safe spot, he continued cleaning the wound. The whole time, Valerie spoke to the shark in a soothing voice.

Subjects were random. Just making noise as a distraction, mostly. The rest of the operation went smoothly, several stitches in place but not tight enough to restrict the beast's movements too much. As though testing how they felt, the shark swung his tail back and forth, flinching when the stitches did pull if he bent too much. Then, once again surprising the young woman beside him, the shark huffed in annoyance. She was sure it was annoyance.

"Let's get him back to the tank!" Damon ordered loudly, waving over the machine that would lift the shark from the treatment pool back to containment. If Valerie didn't know any better, she would swear the shark was pouting as it was lifted from the water and carried away, not struggling in the slightest.

When the beast was back in its own freshly cleaned pool, shaking itself once more, Valerie stood by her father to observe how well the shark could swim with the stitches. "He seems mindful about them," Valerie noted as the shark swam around carefully.

"What were you thinking?" her father demanded. "That thing could have bitten your arm off!"

"I bet I would taste disgusting," Valerie chuckled. "Sharks don't like the taste of human. Besides, did you have a better idea? We couldn't drug him even more. Overdose would have killed him!"

"Valerie, this shark is intelligent," Damon explained. "Anyone that has seen this thing for this long can tell. I don't want you getting reckless and getting hurt."

"Daddy, you don't need to… is he watching us?" she asked incredulously, staring at the shark that was staring right back at her.

"I think so," Damon answered, earning the shark's attention momentarily.

"I think he's too smart for his own good," Valerie commented, the shark snapping his attention back to her. Huffing, if the flex of gills was any indication, the shark then smirked and winked. Not with a third eyelid, either. A full, closed-eye wink. "He just winked!"

"Sharks can't wink," Damon told her.

"Daddy, I don't know what we have here, but I doubt he's a normal shark," the young woman firmly stated, crossing her arms.

They watched the creature as he circled his tank, almost disappearing when he was at the other side despite the clean and clear water.

"Phantom," Valerie suddenly announced.

"What?" Damon asked, looking down to his daughter.

"His name," she clarified. "Phantom."

Here is a line!

Due to the shark dubbed as 'Phantom', Valerie's hours had to change. The shark refused food from anyone but her. Tried to attack anyone on the decks above the pool except for her. All in all, it seemed like the shark hated everyone except for Valerie. So her hours, instead of taking the entire afternoon until ten at night, shifted from eight in the morning to eight at night, a full twelve hours.

To be honest, she was excited. Because of Phantom's behavior, she is the one left in charge of him. Medications, feeding, and observation. As an intern, she should not have this much power over a specimen, but they were left with no choice. So long as the head of the facility doesn't know, they should be relatively safe.

The first thing she did in the morning was stuff antibiotics and painkillers into a lump of meat and feed the impatient shark. As usual, he was twisting and splashing restlessly under the deck she always went to in order to feed him. First she threw in the chunk of medicated meat and sat on the deck, waiting for Phantom to eat. As usual, the shark regarded the meat with distaste, but eventually ate it anyway in order to get the meat without the drugs.

Once feeding was done, she circled the tank to try and see his surgical site. Always seeming to know what she was doing, he circled with her with his injured side facing the windows. Any signs of irritation after surgery have disappeared within a couple days. The injury looked to be healing nicely. No stitches have been pulled. And the shark wasn't displaying any signs of sickness or lethargy.

Observation lasted between meals for the beast. Most of the time, it was the two watching each other. The shark did many strange things that were unlike the rest of the species. She had seen him roll lazily in the water with a blank look in his red eyes, like he was bored and just doing something for the sake of doing it. Occasionally, he poked his fin out of the water with an arched back, keeping his caudal fin just under the surface.

When she wasn't around during the night hours, videos on the tank showed the shark simply swimming in circles before settling in the middle and not moving until she returned the next morning. The first night it happened, night shift thought the shark had died. But he didn't go belly-up like most dead fish do. Still, they had to check on him, and received a terrible fright when the shark surged in their direction. After that, he was left alone at night.

Out of curiosity mostly, Valerie took five large hula-hoops and replaced the beads inside with enough lead balls to keep one side anchored, allowing the hoop to float vertical. She then threw them into the water, watching the shark circle them and through them without any effort. Of course his movements caused the hoops to move around in the water as well, so he had a new pathway to pace through every time.

How he went through them was what amazed her. The caudal fin is longer than the opening of the hoops, and his pectorals should have caught on them several times. Yet Phantom manages to somehow tuck the fins in just enough for his body to squeeze through. Repeatedly. Unfortunately, the hoops only kept him entertained for an hour. Then he pushed them off to the side and ignored them. Anyone watching was baffled by that, Valerie being the only one to jot down the notes as he moved the hoops over to the edge of the pool for easier extraction. By letting his pectoral catch the hoops in order to move them.

Definitely not stupid and way above average shark intelligence. If anything, Phantom was easily as smart as a dolphin, if not smarter. Which was a scary thought, considering this shark was out in open water. The injury, though, was still a mystery to her. Several of the biologist theorized it was from a propeller getting him when he was too close to a boat. But the injury didn't match others that were caused by such an event. No, this was more of a slice, clean and deliberate.

Either someone was hunting this shark, or there is something else out there more dangerous than him.

After seeing how Phantom was with the hoops, Valerie tried different toys. All of which he only played with for an hour before dismissing them. Then he would watch her to see what she would do next, or what she would do to get the toys if they were floating. Jumping in was out of the question, no matter the animal. Often, she used a long pole with a hook at the end. He grabbed hold of that once, only returning it when she pointed out that his tank will fill up with toys or he just won't get new ones until she removes the old ones.

His odd habits and expressions happened frequently enough that Valerie started carrying a camera around to try and capture the moments. She has several videos of his lazy spinning, pictures and videos of him playing with the toys she brought, and other moments that his intelligence was expressed.

Sometimes, Kwan would watch the shark with her, the two theorizing why this one is so smart. Genetic mutation being a possibility, somehow linked to his unusual coloration. An experiment from some secret lab that grew smart enough to escape. Kwan told Valerie she was watching 'Deep Blue Sea' too much when she suggested that one. Radiation that was spilled into the water and he was nearby, which could also result in other specimens having the same level intelligence as Phantom. A scary thought, more sharks like Phantom are out there.

Phantom also seemed to show hostility towards anyone that spoke with Valerie when she was with the shark. After one incident when the shark tried jumping onto the deck to scare away one of the biologists asking about Phantom's medication for the morning, Valerie took the speaking with others on the ground by the tank. The shark mostly watched as closely as possible, glaring at anyone she was with.

After a few days developed enough paranoid workers, metal panels were put in places around the tank to block some of the shark's view of the outside. Still, Phantom manages to find a spot where he could see Valerie and watch her.

Everyone came to an agreement about Phantom. He is highly intelligent for his species and he scares the hell out of everyone but Valerie. And he also seems to have a weird crush on the young woman.

Here the Chapter Ends

Let me know what you guys think. I know I said it is a merman/mermaid fic, and it is. You'll see later on. Trust me. Working up to it